Episode 1: Season Recap, Best Moments of 2022, And Where the Mariners Can Improve In 2023

00:00:00 Speaker 1: And Welcome to the Marine Layer Podcast, episode number one with TJ. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein. On today's pod, a season recap of the twenty twenty two Mariners season, a second consecutive ninety win season, and Lyle and I finally get to see the first playoffs series. It seems like in our living memory, we're gonna look back at our favorite moments from the twenty twenty two season. Lolon, I chose three apiece, and I think they're all pretty good, So it'll be good to look at three of our favorite moments from the twenty twenty two Mariners season. We'll take a brief look into where the team can improve around. We'll have later episodes dedicated more specifically to certain positions in certain players, but we'll give it a general look at where the team needs to improve, then a look around baseball, and we'll speak our minds where well it doesn't have to be baseball related, but Low and I'll pick something to either complain, praise, or really, I don't know. I have no idea what Lyle chose. I don't think he knows what I chose. So we're just gonna have to see how that goes a lot, so that'll be the schedule for today's prod And here we go, Lyle, buddy, it is good to see you. Is good to be back here on this podcast originally named with myself and my brother freshman year of college for both of us, all of us the same age. That was now about five years ago. Crazy now, but we have sparked it back up and here we are. It's good to see you, buddy. How are you. 00:01:51 Speaker 2: Oh, I'm great. I'm so hyped to be doing this. I mean, it feels a little long overdue to be doing this, doesn't it. 00:01:57 Speaker 1: It does. Yeah, we just have like we have so much much like this podcast could honestly be if like we took our text and like had Siri read out our text messages and such. I think would be pretty entertaining, to be honest of that. You know, maybe not the cleanest thing in the world, but I think it would be pretty entertaining if you just took something like that and you and and we put it in podcast form. But I think this is the best way to put it in podcast form. So it'd be good to get some thoughts out on a on a real platform about the Mariners. And we're glad to sort of bring this podcast back to life a little bit in sort of a different form. When when Jason and I started this, you know, we were both nineteen right so, and we had you on a couple of times, but we you know, it was just audio stuff, no video stuff. No you know, whatever other plans we have for this podcast, which we will you know, try and release as it goes along. This of course just being episode number one, but we you know, just sat there and so to talk and you know, very scratch, very recappy, but you know, we have we we're envisioning a little bit more of a of a mature and sort of playful podcast with with this edition. And I'm you know, really looking forward to it and really looking forward to, uh to to talking about some ms because you know, I have plenty to say and I don't always have the outlet to to to say so on on a real platform. 00:03:23 Speaker 2: Yeah you don't say, I mean you look at our text like you were talking about we talk mariners so much. I'm talking like the slightest piece of news we'll be talking about, and half the time we'll just be sitting there playing armchair GM with a million different hypotheticals trying to put on our best Jerry Depoto hat or I guess now justin Hollander hat. So we were like, we should really just turn this into a podcast. 00:03:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, and it works out pretty well. We both have schedules that that that sort of work out for it. And I have a little bit of outlet with my current job working here in Oregon on the radio where I can talk a little bit of Mariners, but I can't really I don't know, I can't really go to in depth and get to sort of the level I would like to get to here on this podcast. So I think that will be Uh, that's why this is vital. It really can just be sort of you know what we want because I feel like, you know, sometimes we do talk about baseball at a different level of some others. I mean, so there's some people that understand, but right like, but we we'll start diving into some numbers and and such, and and you know, your casual fan probably wouldn't wouldn't recognize it. So it'll be good to be good to do it here on this show. I'm really looking forward it and we have a lot planned we do. We got a whole off season ahead Free Agency. As we were recording here on Wednesday, November ninth. Free Agency supposed to start tomorrow. I don't know what time I would adventure the po The podcast will be out by tomorrow by the time Free Agency starts, I don't know if it starts at nine am. I don't know if it starts at one o'clock I have I don't know. I didn't write. That was one of the few things I did not write down for the show, because I pretty much felt like I wrote down everything else. But it'll be good to have. So what we have, I guess playing first, just we'll bring it in as we're sort of bringing this podcast back, well, we'll sort of lay a little bit of foundation of you know, what we're going to talk about with this podcast, and again, future episodes might be a little bit more specific than what this episode is, which will be a little more generic. I think Lao would agree on the more generic side, the more just sort of a just a think back episode and just sort of a general look at what the twenty twenty two Mariners season was. And it meant a lot to both Lyle and I. If we started this podcast, say a year ago, I would say it would have been a little bit more tense, to say the least with lockout. A year ago, Mariners were sitting on a nineteen year playoff drought, and you know, me and you were not very happy with how how things were going, just not really sure what the strategy was, if they were gonna spend et cetera, and wondering if you know what the future was. Right. But here we sit a year later, and I don't know if it could have gone better, really, I mean it really couldn't. Ninety more wins a first playoff berth that we have seen. We were I think you were four. I was three when the Mariners made the playoffs last before this past season. So it was a breath of fresh air to see them succeed. Get over that hump. No, it didn't even take expanded playoffs either. With the second playoff spot, they finished ninety and seventy two and grabbed that second wild card in the American League. But it was nice to finally have that. It was really nice to finally be there, and then me and you finally got to go see a playoff game. It was it was really awesome. 00:07:04 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, most fan bases dream about winning a World Series and we do too, but for us, we were like, we've got to get to the playoffs first, Like in our lifetime, we have to see a game, we have to see them clinch a playoff spot. You know, from the time we were in kindergarten till the time we graduated from Arizona State, they didn't play in a single postseason game. And in fact, it expanded before we started kindergarten and expanded to after we graduated. So that's a long time and a long time coming. So it was you know, obviously they didn't win the World Series this year, but the season as a whole, it was it was a success. 00:07:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, an absolute success, and I think there's a lot of like specific pieces that were successful. I mean, it wasn't just you know, the overall team success. Finally having a young player that a young player that you can grasp onto that you know we've seen with with other sports in Seattle. I mean, Russell Wilson really sort of grabbed a hold of the city and was just you know, he grabbed it. And I think that's exactly what Julio did this season. It was really good to see the breakout of of you know, one Julio Rodriguez, George Kirby, cal Rawley, others. I mean, it was just unbelievable. And you know, here in the coming weeks, we're gonna get to see Julio most likely take home the American League Rookie of the Year award, which will be just so deserving. I just a magical rookie season, like something like we had expectations at the beginning of this year, Like we're looking at these preseason projections and I think fan Grafts had him for a five win rookie season, and we're like, that's unbelievable for a rookie for some of these past rookie classes that have really stunk. But Julio comes out and just I mean he sees everything. He's likable, he's great at baseball, he's amazing, he's really great. He does everything. That smile captures it, like it captures everything, and it was just it was unbelievable to see that. And it's really like the obvious takeaway of the season. I don't really think there's there's you know, a clear uh there's anything else near to being number one for Julio. But it was just it's just magical to see and probably my favorite thing looking back on this this twenty twenty two season. 00:09:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot to look back on. And obviously, if you want a quick recap, they go ninety and seventy two. They beat the Blue Jays in two games in the Wildcard series with the epic comeback in Game two. They lose three to nothing series wise to the Astros and the Alds. But yeah, like you're talking about bigger picture as a whole, I mean, if you want to put it into numbers, Julio Rodriguez and shout out to Alex Meyer on Twitter for the stat fifth al center fielder to reach a five plus war season wins above replacement at age twe twenty one or younger. He joins trist Speaker, Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffy Junior, Mike Trout. That is this ridiculous company. That's a good company. That that's ridiculous company. 00:10:13 Speaker 1: That's Inner Circle Hall of Fame, not Hall of Fame, Inner Circle Hall of Fame. It's just unbelievable. And there's just so many of these stats that that just back up like how good Julio is and you look at you know, his offensive production in terms of weighted runs created plus. Again you think about that stat just think of it as offense, right. I don't have the formula for you, but it it bases it off of you know, weighted on base average, which in I'm going down a rant here, but you know goes. You know, a single is weighed differently than a double, weighted differently than a triple, weaited differently than home run, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right, so bases it off of that adjust for the park in the era and puts it on a one hundred scale. So where one hundred is league average. If it's one ten, that means you're ten percent better than league average. If it's ninety, it means you're ninety percent. Uh, you're ten percent below league average. And his number I don't have any anything specific written down, but up there in terms of you know, rookie center fielders all time, right, it just that doesn't happen, right for rookies to hit, to be that successful at the plate as as a rookie, just just an unbelievable season for for Julio. His he finished the He's sorry, he finished the year. With one forty six in that in that respect, which is it's just a mind boggling number for a twenty one year old and something they like it literally is like that's Griffy, right, that that is what Griffy did when he was twenty one essentially, And I'd like, there's you can't even just like you don't want to make the comp but then it's like it's just sitting right in front of you, and I mean, here we are to make it. 00:11:48 Speaker 2: We saw so many tweets this year with people older than us talking about like we grew up idolizing Griffy, watching Griffy, and now the next generation that's Julio for them, which is a crazy comp in year one, But that's true. And you know, we just gave you a bunch of numbers on what he did in his rookie season to measure how productive he was. But when you just look at it from the general perspective as a fan, like he made Seattle love baseball again. This team as a whole captured the city, but spearheaded and led by a twenty one year old rookie whose ceiling absolute ceiling is the best player in all of baseball. 00:12:26 Speaker 3: One day. 00:12:27 Speaker 2: I mean, as a Seattle Mariners fan, I don't think we could have ever sat here and imagined something like that would transpire. 00:12:33 Speaker 1: And it was amazing, right, and you think about it a little bit, it's kind of the same trajectory of how Griffy came to this franchise. The Mariners were really just an embarra like not. I mean, they were an embarrassment with their first however many years. I think it was their first fourteen years of existence before they drafted Griffy number one overall in eighty nine. I think that was thirteen years. They were just awful. They I don't even think I don't think they had a winning record at all during that time. Again, I'm probably going off on a tangent here because I didn't write any of this stuff down, But I mean, then they draft him and then they go on this run, right starting in ninety five. We could dedicate a whole episode in ninety five if you want, Lyle, we can. We could dedicate one, but no, we won't do that. 00:13:19 Speaker 2: You're not ready to make some new You're not ready to make some new memories. 00:13:23 Speaker 1: No, I like spending a whole weekend back back in ninety five. I love hearing all about it, but regardless, right, and then you go on the run ninety five, ninety seven, two thousand and two thousand and one, and then you know Julio is probably on track for that and more with you know, expanded playoffs and you know, some of the best development here in baseball. But overall, I guess lyle for the season recap to put a bow on it, I mean, just absolutely unbelievable seeing these starters really break out as well in the rotation, like George Kirby, Logan Gilbert signing your ace and Luis Castillo to an extension and training for them. I know that'll come up here in a little bit. And then also you know, signing Robbie Ray and just seeing that sort of just mold around itself and sort of really complete this team was just awesome to see and something we had never seen before really because our are growing up of of fandom. Again, we are fans. We are Mariners fans to to put it, to put it pretty clear, we do try and look at it through a new more neutral eye. I guess we're we're we're you know, I feel like knowledgeable enough where we can look at things objectively and then see them for how they are, but you know, just to just to see the whole team, uh, you know, rounded to form like we haven't seen before. And we you know, suffered through a lot of those Jacks forensic teams which are really incomplete and old and and just poorly thought out. When it seems like this team right in our you know, twenty fourth year, around the around the Sun finally seems like, you know that it's it's complete and it and it feels like like we spent all most of our lives sort of building this brick by brick by brick and it's finally come to kind of finally come to fruition, and it's really really nice to see. 00:15:11 Speaker 2: It's been great And yeah, this is not a Jacks forensic team where he comes in gets the job because he lied about being pro analytics and then put together a team that was an absolute shambles. Year after year, Jerry Depoto has built a nucleus of a roster that is shaping out to be one of the most competitive ones in baseball and going forward. 00:15:29 Speaker 3: That's really really exciting. 00:15:32 Speaker 1: But the thing is Lyle that pitch to an owner, I think it still does work nowadays. Mike McCarthy's still employed, so yeah, he's doing okay. True, So it is a timeless action. I wonder when people might stop buying stuff like that. Let's move on, Lyle, we got our favorite moments again. We're in this episode sort of just you know, recapping and sort of and closing the book almost on what was the twenty twenty two season. You know, it'll be talked about, I guess for us for quite a while because we can always just talk about when the when the drought ended, right, so that'll be forever. But on this podcast, we're gonna want to, you know, look a little bit forward, right, there's another season coming up, and there's a lot to look forward to, and this team is most definitely not done. We each decided on our three favorite moments of this twenty twenty two season. I think we both have some very good selections. But well, we'll make one disclaimer. We did not choose the ultra obvious selections. These are a little more not under the radar, but not the ultra obvious ones. The ones we we took out that we're not going to talk about, uh one anything in the playoffs. B cal raally hitting the walkoff home or Underquinchi the playoff spot because that's obviously number one in the regular season like, and then Adam Frasier's you know hit to at Adam Fraser and JP Crawfords hit in the Toronto series would probably be one to one if we're talking about overall for the comeback against the Jay's, So we're just throwing that out. And then the last one is Luis Castillo and the Mariners pitching staff shutting out the Yankees for twelve innings and what I think was arguably the game of the year at T Mobile Park back in July July. Yeah it was July, July August, I can't remember. 00:17:17 Speaker 2: Yeah, it was it was July or late August. And the one other we're gonna throw out too is that Braves game where they copped up the lead, Julio hits the har to tie it, Gino walks it off, just because that one's up there with being an obvious Mount Rushmore moment of the season, right, I was. 00:17:32 Speaker 1: Sitting right here in this chair when when that when that when he hit that ball and I fell right down there on that floor, right, So that was you can still see the imprint down there on the floor of of my reaction, and the sound might still be ringing around here somewhere, but we noise canceled enough in here, so we're doing that. 00:17:51 Speaker 2: We're doing gravity, Gravity took you down. Meanwhile, I'm jumping up and down during that game that bravery. 00:17:59 Speaker 1: Should make that a lyric. Make that up, make that a lyric. You drop your mixing? Sure, all right lyle, what's your first one? 00:18:07 Speaker 3: Okay? 00:18:07 Speaker 2: So I think we each limited it, limited our moments to having just one with Julio in it, because again, we could do a whole episode on Julio moments, and there's so many we're gonna leave out. Okay, well, I tried to limit it to one. But my one Julio moment from twenty twenty two, and this is my first moment, was when he made the roster before the regular season even started, when it got announced he made the roster, with that video of him sitting in Scott's Service's office when Scott tells him, like, you made the team, you know, are you going to be comfortable playing center field in the major leagues? Julio's like one hundred percent and he says, well, it's time, Julio. That to me was the final piece that really kind of shot me over the edge in terms of excitement for this season, because once the lockout ended, they made some good moves. I mean, they signed Robbie Ray before the lockout, who was the Ragning Cy Young winner. They traded for Jesse Winker, who at the time we thought was gonna be an elite bat. They got au Henniosuarez, they traded for Adam Fraser before the lockout. Like there were pieces they were adding to the core that felt like they were gonna be competitive and put together a winning season, and they did. But the final piece of that was when Scott told Julio he made the roster. Julio said, it's on quote unquote, and that for me really signaled Okay, no more being the laughing stock of baseball, no more losing, no more rebuilding. It's time to win. Like I was so fired up to just find out he made the roster. No service time manipulation. It was awesome. That's my first moment. 00:19:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, we were worried he wasn't even making the roster. I mean we were there there is you know that three week stretch in spring training. We were a little paranoid when he's tearing it up in spring training and you know, he hits that inside the park home run, It's like there's no way right there there, There's like there is actually no way you can leave them off this roster. And thankfully the delay was actually them just setting up a camera and scops Scott's office and getting him in there to record that video. So I guess that worked out okay for him. My number one moment, and actually I don't know if it's the number one moment for me, just the first one on my list per se also a Julio moment. So when I meant what the Julio thing, I think we could do, like, you know, a whole month or two months worth of episodes just on Julio. But anyways, I'm gonna reduce this to a few minutes on Julio. So again, I was sitting in this chair for this moment. I spent a lot of my times down here in Corballis, Oregon listening to the Mariners. It's a little hard to get Root sports on my computer, so I listened to it on the radio where the station I work at is a Mariner's affiliate, so most of the time listen through the station for Mariner games. Regardless, I'm listening to this game June sixth of this year, twenty twenty two, down in Houston, game one of a three game series against the Houston Astros. This is before the team turned it around it all right, I think they're still struggling at this point. They would bottom out two weeks later to ten games under. On June twenty first, but top of the ninth inning, Mariners lead five to four, and Hector and Harris after getting the first two outs for some reason that I don't think we could figure out at the time, through behind Ty France and hit him the back, like okay, why Ty was not happy? I remember hearing on the radio. I could hear the chirping from both sides of the tugout, which I thought was hilarious and instantly made me throw at my computer so I could try and find the find the game on because I'm like, oh, well, I'm not I'm not missing a fight. Because one of the many beefs that meet you and I have with at least watching this team throughout the years, is they never really gotten fights, not that we would remember. They would always just kind of be just be there. 00:22:09 Speaker 2: You remember the you remember the Richie Sexon fight back in the late two thousands where he like charged the mound and chucked a helmet at the pitcher. 00:22:18 Speaker 3: That was the only fight I remember. 00:22:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, I see YouTube clips all the time. I don't think I was watching that one live though. Unfortunately, so like it just didn't like waking memory. It's like, okay, like like no one has actually thrown a punch and connect, which didn't happen here, but it seemed like it might have. It was going to right, So Scott, Scott comes out, he gets tossed from the game. I think the Astros third base coach also got tossed from this game. Bench is cleared, YadA, YadA, YadA. After all the dust settles, you know, Hector Naris did not did not get tossed from the game. So bench is clear. You know, Scott's gets tossed from the game. Julio comes up to the plate against Hector Naris and then he hits a home run over the right field fence and I couldn't stop laughing. I couldn't do it. It was it was the funniest thing that happened. It was it was awesome to see. I'm glad Julio got some revenge for tie and really sort of cemented his status in sort of big game moments. As you know, we've already mentioned the the the home run you remember, as Lyle mentioned he made him making the roster hitting the game tying home run against the Braves, one that we didn't select, another one we didn't select. I don't think Lyle is the Grand Slam versus the Rangers. 00:23:30 Speaker 3: We didn't. 00:23:31 Speaker 1: We didn't did not choose that one. So again, just sort of cementing him as a big game hunter. It's awesome, awesome to see, and that's my my first moment. What's your second one? 00:23:43 Speaker 2: Just to quickly add to that, that felt like his first big moment chronologically, because the Grand Slam against the Rangers was later, The game tying home runs against the Braves was later season wise, that home run against the Astros was his first real signature, lateening moment, and it was awesome. The fact that came against the Astros and Astros fans on Twitter were happy go lucky that night. 00:24:06 Speaker 3: Let's put it that way. 00:24:08 Speaker 1: If they were free Astros rants I miss him. 00:24:11 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:24:12 Speaker 2: So speaking of fights, he talked about the Mariners have not gotten in a lot of fights over the years. They gotten what we'd call probably a scuffle in that Astros game. Well, fast forward to June twenty sixth against the Angels. My second moment from this season. That was a full on brawl, and to quickly recap it, I'm gonna give a quick recap and you can tell me if I missed anything. The night before, Eric Swanson throws a fastball high and tight to Mike Trout. Didn't feel intentional. I think the Angels thought differently because the next day it got announced very very close to game time that Jose Suarez, who was supposed to start that game, while all of a sudden, he's not starting. They're gonna use an opener and Andrew Wance and Suarez will probably come in later. In the first inning, h warnings were issued because wams through behind Julio near his head, didn't hit him, but warnings were issued. Then Jesse Winker comes up in the second inning, he gets hit, He starts chirping at the Angels dugout. He starts walking toward third base and the next thing. You know, it's a full on bral I mean Winkers throwing haymakers. JP Crawford's throwing haymakers. You've got Rice el Iglesias chucking a bucket of sunflower seeds and gum onto the field benches, clear, bullpens clear. And there were eight ejections. Did I miss anything with that including both managers that got ejected. 00:25:37 Speaker 1: No, I think you covered it all. And Jesse Winker's highlight moment of the twenty twenty two season one he would probably agree was one of the more forgettable seasons of his career going out there and really just I mean, he lit a fire underneath this team with that, and just not no one stood, no one bowed down to to the Angels. Angels, aren't you know mighty. We know Angels have been a pile of mediocrity for a whole decade. But they, you know, they decided that Eric Swanson in a in a tight game, decided decided to throw out Mike Trout on purpose purpose, So they decide to just put a hit man out there to try and to try and instigate something in well, they did instigate something, and I'm glad, and I'm glad Wink stood up for everyone and you know his his double bird salute to the to the Angels faithful was also just it was fabulous. I loved it. It was one of my favorite moments of the season too. 00:26:38 Speaker 2: Well, I'm guessing you worked up an appetite from the fight, which is good because shout out to the Mariners fan that ordered him a free pizza to where they were staying afterwards, saying thank you, Jesse. 00:26:47 Speaker 1: But right that for me, that was pretty good. 00:26:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, look for me. 00:26:51 Speaker 2: I know we're gonna try to quantify most things on the show and talk about you know, sabermetrics, analytics, and we're gonna try to do a lot of that on this podcast. Is try to incorporate more of those stats to you the listeners, so we can all become more educated and progress the game. That being said, i know this is more of a momentum thing and kind of a feel thing, but that fight just felt like the turning point in the season. And yes, they'd won five in a row leading up to that fight, and it's never good when you have suspensions after a fight, which they did, but that was part of that twenty two and three stretch before the all star break that totally not just saved the season, but really ignited the season because they were way under five hundred before that fight, and all of a sudden, they never looked back after it because they were sitting at the end of the year with ninety wins. 00:27:42 Speaker 1: Right, And if you think about it, Lyle, they we I think outside of that stretch, they're game under five hundred for the whole season, right, that's it. Yeah, twenty two and three is nineteen above and they finished ninety and seventy two. So like it. In a one hundred and sixty two game season, it's easy to just continue to say, oh, it's a marathon, it's it's a marathon, it's this, it's that. Well, in a four week stretch, the Mariners, you know, made their season, and that was a big part of it. I mean, the fact they they did not lose after No, they did lose. I think they did lose one time after after this brawl. I think it was later that week though they were playing. They played the Orioles next and they lost. They lost a game in that series. But then after that they didn't really right while the suspensions were going on, and it was one of the more impressive things we had to see, and it was It was for sure memorable. I was sitting in Yankee Stadium when that happened. I was sitting next to Jason and my brother Jason, my identical twin brother Jason, and he he's scrolling on his phone. He's like, I think there's a brawl. I was like, what brawl. It's like, yeah, check your phone. I looked. I was like, oh wow. And Rick Rizz's call was amazing. He nailed it. He nailed it full on. I think his words were like, full on melee on the field. It was great. 00:29:05 Speaker 3: You were probably in disbelieve. I mean I was too. 00:29:08 Speaker 2: But again, this team never got in fights, and they got in a fight and we waited years for it, and again it was a fight that kind of ignited their season. So yeah, I loved it. That was my second moment for sure. But I'll throw it back to you. 00:29:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, my second moment a Swars walk off, but not the one we threw out July eighth against the Blue Jays on Apple TV. That was the swing that got them above five hundred. I believe that was their fifth win in a row, fifth or sixth. No, I think it was six wins in a row at that point to get back above five hundred again, just about two weeks earlier, there were ten games under five hundred on June twenty first, but July eighth walk off home run for Suarez off of Sergio Romo, who, funny enough, I didn't realize this until last night, and I told Lyle when I was like looking at this. So, Sergio Romo obviously started this season with the Mariners, and they cut him on June twenty first, on the low point of the season. They cut him. After that game, he got released and he the Blue Jays ended up picking him up. He comes him to pitch against his former team and he gives up a walk off home run to Sworez to get the team back above five hundred. That was a Blue Jays team that still had Charlie Montoyo. He was fired literally like the week, like I think Monday or Tuesday after that happened. So, and then they hired John Schneider and he obviously took them to the playoffs. So and this was also the emphatic good ViBe's Only call, which I think was one of the better ones for Apple TV this season, and Steven Nelson. You know, the Apple TV broadcasts were fine, I thought, but they really nailed that one and it was good. And it also came right after they caught footage of a I believe it was a Blue Jays fan down in the Diamond Club walking back to the concourse flipping off the camera, which I thought was hilarious. 00:30:57 Speaker 3: Is that right? I don't even remember that part. 00:31:00 Speaker 1: She was slipping off somebody. I don't remember if it was the camera or another fan, but she was, so that was pretty funny. 00:31:07 Speaker 2: I mean, Blue Jays fans invade t Mobile Park every year and usually in those series they do pretty well. So the fact that the Mariners swept the Blue Jays in that series, Gino had the walk off home run and then as a result Montoya gets fired, I mean it was it was nice to have the momentum swing to the other side for once, because again, Seattle usually does not farewell in that series. 00:31:31 Speaker 1: Not at all. And it was a pretty it was a pretty good crowd turnout, right. I would have been curious to see if the Mariners hosted the Blue Jays in a playoff series. What would you do, like just have Jay Insley close the borders all all road borders at the top, and cancel all flights for that weekend. But yeah, that would have been that would have been interesting to see if that case. But it was good to see that. I loved that was really sort of right before they really took off in that win streak. It was, you know, the sixth the fourteen wins in a row. Really just an amazing middle of the win streak and one of the more fun stretches of the season. Wow, what's your third one? 00:32:09 Speaker 2: Okay, last moment and third one here on my list. You briefly touched on it earlier in the show trading for and then extending Luis Castillo. Look, when it got to the point of the trade deadline, the Mariners were in good shape. They had Logan Gilbert, Robbie Ray, and George Kirby. If you have to use those three in a playoff series, that's fine, it's not your worst case scenario. But even after they signed Robbie Ray, Jerry Depoto had talked about for months and months, even back in spring training, we want to get one more top of the line starter, and for a lot of the season that hadn't happened. I mean they couldn't do it. Before the season started, we wondered, is the Potos still kind of keyed in on this during the season, And the answer was yes. And the Mariners again, over the course of our lifetimes, this is not a team that has landed a lot of marquee players, whether it be trade or free agency. I mean there's been some, There's been a few here and there, but it didn't happen often. And that was Jerry Depoto saying, look, this team has a chance to break a twenty one year drought. We need one more top of the line starter. And he didn't go out bargain shopping for a guy like Jose Kintana, who was good but not great. He went out and bought the most expensive thing in the store and it panned out. I was so happy to see it. I was so happy that he became a Mariner. I don't think the Mariners do what they do this year without Castillo, and then the fact they extend them. Man that one through four for the next few years is lethal. 00:33:35 Speaker 1: It is really lethal. And I think were sitting there in this moment and you're like, and I just hate this reaction when your team is trying to win. It's like, oh, what do we give up? How many prospects do we give up? Oh? No, like our future is gone. But it's really not right. The package included Edwin Royo and noel Vie Marte too, with the top five prospers in the system, both infielders, but both you know, at least two years away. So it's like, yeah, that's worth it, that's worth it. Yeah. You watch him in the playoffs and he just absolutely shredded a Blue Jay's lineup that was among the best in the American League, get hitting righty's and just overall hitting and run scoring and slugging in general. Just absolutely diced through them with seven seven and a third shutout innings for Luise, just really really really good stuff. And then you know, the astro start in the in the DS, he was also very good. He just ended up throwing a pitch out of the strike zone too jord On Alvarez, which he hit into the cheapest seats in the in the entire world. So I mean, yeah, I mean, he really just proved his worth. And the contracts really, you know, really good for both sides. I don't think it's too expensive for the Mariners. And it's also pays Luise what he is worth. So I think I thought that was fabulous and I'm looking forward to looking forward to him in the future. 00:34:59 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's he's getting less than what Robbie Ray's goat and it's well well worth it. And like we said, to get a premium talent, you have to give up a premium talent. Edwin Royo and a Alvi Marte, look their ceilings could be cornerstone players, but you just said it. The Mariners couldn't wait around for those guys. They went out and got win now talent and it worked out. They haven't done that in a long time. It was pretty cool. 00:35:20 Speaker 3: I'll throw it back to you. 00:35:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, you're good. My third moment there, big while is George Kirby's debut. So we thought at the beginning of the season George Kirby was going to be in the rotation at some point this year. But we're watching spring training, me and you, and we're like, man, this kid, Matt Brash, I mean he looks better than Kirby, does. I mean that The stuff really just makes your eyeballs sort of pop out of their socket. So the Mariners agreed and they put Brash in the rotation to start the year, and they sent Kirby down. I didn't think it was the wrong decision. It looked like Kirby's stuff might have been a little flat in spring training. I'm not sure if that was just my eyes seeing that or just trying to unfairly compare it to Matt Brash's stuff. I mean, it's probably a little unfair. So we get to May eighth, and Matt Brash had made his final start in the rotation May eighth, by the way, on a Sunday. Brash had made his final turn through the rotation on Wednesday and then got sent down because well, he just wasn't very good as a starter in Era up over six. We went three innings allowing four runs against the Astros and a seven to two loss and the Mariners. But Kirby up from Triple A. He had already twenty six innings in the miners in twenty twenty two before coming up. But he just went out against the Tampa Bay Rays, which I guess we learned as the season went on, not a really great hitting team at all. But he came up and he threw six shutout and struck out seven, and I mean he just blew all of our expectations out of the water. He struck out the side in the first inning, and me and you are texting each other at this point going like, oh wow, like this is great. Holy moly. I did not see this coming because he's not, like, you know, George Kirby's not really labeled as a strikeout pitcher. He really sort of grew in that as it went along. But he you know, he's a control guy, not a matter of strikeout guy. But he comes out and strikes out the side and we're just sitting there eyeballs wide, like whoa. And he ended up parlaying that into one of the best rookie seasons in Mariners history, with a in here age just over three. And I really thought that was the launching point for George Kirby's excellent rookie season here in twenty twenty two. 00:37:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, and he had an entire fan club there to back him up. 00:37:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, fifteen to twenty people all the way from Ryan, New York on a really on a whim. I mean, they only had about forty eight hours notice that he was getting called up, and they all managed to hop on a direct flight and fly all the way out to the other side of the country to go see him. And then they saw him in his next start when the MS one on the road face the Mets beat the Mets two out of three, and they saw Kirby Darren Queen's as well for his next start. So yeah, that's loyal family love. We love good family and no doubt. 00:38:10 Speaker 2: I mean, like George Kirby again, we had started to hear about it just from rumblings in the minor leagues and videos that were put out on Twitter of how hard he started to throw after being drafted as a control guy. But that first big league start man to see it all put together like that, we were like, this is a guy and he was. I mean, you saw what he did against the Astros, you saw what he did all year. 00:38:31 Speaker 3: It's pretty good stuff. 00:38:32 Speaker 2: I mean yeah, and that with that, it kind of wraps up all our moments. I think we touched on a lot of good stuff. I think we touched on a lot of the key points of the season to what made it such a fun year. 00:38:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, it really was such a fun year. I mean I think we could go on and on and on and on and on about this stuff, but it really was. It's refreshing to have a season where we can look back on so many positive things that aren't like moral victories. 00:38:56 Speaker 3: It's like, yeah, fual. 00:38:57 Speaker 1: Tangible success and exactly what we wanted. So it was it was good to see, uh that, And I thought we picked six very good moments and we left some other ones out because we thought they were much much, much much too obvious to put on here because you know, everyone would be like, oh, no, way, that was that's your favorite moment of the season. Like everyone chose that. It's like, yeah, I know, I get it. So we're you know, yeah, trying to go go a little bit more outside the box. Yeah, So now a long lit unless you had something else, Dad there. 00:39:33 Speaker 3: I was just gonna say that. Being said, where does this team go from here? 00:39:37 Speaker 1: Right? Uh? There is a lot to look at with that, and I am looking forward to spending this offseason looking at where they should go from here. So just a quick note, h, So everyone has officially become a free agent this week. That is going to be a free agent. Mitch Haniger, Matthew Boyd, Kurt Casally, Adam Frazier, Carlos Santana, all officially free agents now, so they are no longer part of the twenty six or forty man roster. So I thought we should throw that in there before we, you know, sort of give a brief look at where this team can improve this season. I think there's some pretty obvious things to look at. We'll highlight them, and we'll obviously go a little bit more in depth as the weeks go along. So I don't know if there's anywhere specifically, Lyle, you want to start with this, but there's positions that we looked at, you know, throughout the season, and we knew this is where they would need to up the upgrade during the season. Second base, whoever is in the d H spot, and then the corner outfield spots as well, especially without Mitch Haniger there, So that was pretty much an overview of that. We say shortstop. We argue shortstop as well because it's a premier shortstop class. But again something we will flesh out sort of as the things go along. Anywhere you want to start with that, Lile from what we're looking. 00:40:59 Speaker 2: At, Yeah, we can start with second base, just because that's gonna be I think the premier topic of this offseason and more so, is it gonna be a second basement that the Mariners go sign or is it gonna be one of the shortstops and you have JP Crawford move over to second base. 00:41:17 Speaker 1: Right, something to think about. I was looking at this. I did tell you this yesterday, but I'm gonna just reiterate it. It's something I didn't know. So we're saying, like, you know, we think, if if possible, Jerry Depoto and company should be targeting one of these four short stops on the market. Dance by Swanson, Trey Turner, Sander Bogarts and Carlos Correa. But did you know Mariners shortstops this year had the highest on base percentage of any position on the team. I did not think I would see that, but that is a true fact. Three p forty one. That was the top mark them on any Mariner's position this year in terms of getting on base, just getting on base, not slugging, not hitting for average, getting base. And I thought that was, you know, a reflection of JP. Dylan Moore a little bit too. Dylan Moore a good eye, one of your guys, one of your favorites, and should be a key piece here in this upcoming season. But I thought that was a pretty good indictment on the Mariners shortstop. However, we still do see room there for an upgrade. 00:42:21 Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no doubt. 00:42:22 Speaker 2: I mean, if you want to dive into some of the numbers, they lose Adam Fraser, who ranked seventeenth of nineteen qualified second basement last year in WRC plus, which again a refresher measures offensive production one hundreds league average. Fraser's was eighty one. That's nineteen percent below league average for a guy that was brought in here to essentially be a table setter either at the top or the bottom of the lineup. That didn't happen. Now Fraser's a free agent and there's room to kind of grow here. But it's pretty clear as good of a season as the Mariners had, they still need some significant offensive reinforcements, and the middle dfield is one of those spots, if not the premier spot, that they need that upgrade. 00:43:06 Speaker 1: Right lyle and I think it, honestly, like it gets a little worse when you like look at the overall position numbers. What I like about this what we did with our prep. You went to Fangrafts. I went to Baseball Reference, so Fangrafts doesn't break it down the same way that Baseball Reference does. So I looked at the position as a whole. You looked at the specific players of look of what you're looking to replace. So I looked at the Mariners second base position in general. And just for a note, Baseball Reference does have different measures of how they measure offense opposed to Fangraphs. Fangrafts uses WRC plus. Fangraphs uses OPS plus in concept, park adjusted park and era adjusted offense on a one hundred scale, where one hundred is league average, and again it essentially measures offense, they're they're measured different ways again ops plus, as you could get measures based on on base plus slugging percentage, which I feel like a lot of baseball fans do know. It's part of your slash line, something they feature on almost every Major League Baseball broadcast. But in case you need a refresher, on base plus slugging percentage that's what they used to measure it. So Mariner's second baseman lyle overall seventy four OPS plus, which would make them twenty six percent below league average. And that's not just Adam Frasier that you know Abraham Toro out there as well. You know Dylan Moore when he started out there, though again I think Dylan Moore is a very valuable member of this team. And whoever else they started at second base, I don't think I missed anyone there, for whoever got a majority of the second base reps. And then the other position Lyle that I was looking at, I mentioned DH. I mean, Maraor's dhs were awful this year. They were bad. And you look at the World Series and you see the Phillies and the Astros, two teams with players that sort of fit the perfect DH mold. It was a little bit more interesting because it seemed like too much of their roster was made of dhs. When they're you know, they have Reese Hoskins at first and they're starting Nick Costianos and Kyle Schwarber in the corner outfield spots in a World Series. So that's like three dhs right there. And oh and they Dh Bryce, who how could I forget? He can't even play the field because he was hurt. Right, So it's like the Phillies there have sort of three guys who are like the prototypical DH. Mold and the Mariners I thought had none really unless you want to count Carlos Santana as your DH. But he ended up playing a lot of first when Ty was hurt or slumping or just whatever, and you ended up rotating a bunch of guys through DH you really didn't produce. So it is an area I think worth looking at this year. You don't have to get like a permanent DH, but you know, I think me and you both agree. I think Mitch in that spot re signed for a deal to DH sixty to seventy percent of the time would be would make a world of difference. 00:46:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, if you were to pencil in this lineup today between two corner outfield spots DH and second base, here's where it currently sits. Abraham Toro is probably playing second base, and then you have some combination of Jared Kalnick, Sam Haggerty and Dylan Moore playing left field, right field and dhing So in other words, this team needs offensive upgrades. Dylan Moore and Sam Haggerty are good players, but they're role players. They probably should not play every day. They'll play based on certain matchups and situations. They have to go out and get thumpers in this lineup to help put them over the top, because they're gonna have to get past Houston and they're gonna need some more bats to do it. 00:46:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think we saw it. The gap is closing, but I don't think it's still I don't know how close it is yet. I think we'll obviously get a better idea once next season starts, but I'm just not so sure the gap is that close yet because we especially those last those last seven games this year, Lyle, the Astros won six of them, uh, and six pretty comfortable wins. And it would just look at the This isn't an Astro podcast, so I'm not gonna break down the whole Astros roster, but you just kind of look at their roster and you don't really see a weakness anywhere. Really. Their rotation goes seven guys deep. Uh. Their bullpen is good in every single spot. Their defense is very good at almost every at pretty much every position. If you you know, I'll probably say Jordan ALVAREZM left is not very good, but otherwise they are a very good defensive team. Their lineup in terms of really good hitters, the top six are are are very productive to you know, elite players up and down that lineup. So I mean, that's what the Mariners are going for, right And that's something the Astros have built since they arded rebuilding all the way back in what twenty twelve, So that was that was a process, and the Mariners are still a process. But that is the goal right there, to you know, to win the World Series, and the Astros showed you the type of roster that you will need to do such a thing. 00:48:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no doubt. 00:48:19 Speaker 2: I was more thinking along the lines of the playoff series, how they were a strike away from winning Game one, Game two was incredibly close, and then Game three goes eighteen innings. But to be fair, do I think the Astros are still right now a significantly better roster than the Mariners. I do so this offseason, the hope and the goal is to upgrade that offense. And while they do that, that's to be determined. And as some shows go on here in the coming weeks, we're gonna break down a lot more of the specific players that could fit this team. 00:48:50 Speaker 1: Right, and a couple of quick hitters here on other things to improve. I think that we were pretty pretty universal and you know, the offense, and I think most Mariner fans understand that the offense is the thing that needs to be addressed. But there's a couple other spots too, Lole, I don't think we can really overlook. I don't think they're really worried about starting pitching depth. I mean, you got your you pretty much already have your starting five for next year in the rotation. That's why Chris Flexen as of today again Wednesday, November ninth, is being floated. I mean John Morosi was saying, oh, pay attention to Chris Flexen too, the Rockies and stuff like that, you know, being just sort of floated out there on Twitter today. So that's not really a worry. And then you have guys like Dollard and Hancock down in Double A that are probably ready for a taste of the big leagues, right, so starting is not something you have to worry about. However, high leverage bullpen depth, that's a pretty complex thing. But as we saw towards the end of the year, right, I mean, Scott still liked to go to all of his guys, but we looked in the playoffs and it's still a really small sample but just sort of an over reliance on Andres Munos playoff series was just it was a little telling, I guess of the trust level Scott had of other guys besides munnosin Seawald who wasn't great in September. So just you know, something to keep an eye on. And the Rays let Nick Anderson go today. So that's you know, a guy that's just sort of floating out there, but just you know, something to to sort of think about for a unit that was really good. But again it's the season of war on. It's like, how many of these guys are earned the trust of high leverage spots. We saw the Astros, they had a lot of guys that have earned the high level trust and that's part of what made them so good. Right, we keep reverencing back, but they are the model, right, They're the model to look at. 00:50:43 Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no doubt. 00:50:44 Speaker 2: And whether they choose the route of spending on relievers or just trying to find more pieces that fit their mold and fit what the Mariners are trying to do philosophically, that's to be seen. It's certainly worked out pretty well the last couple of years, and it seems like spending money on relievers isn't always the greatest practice these days. But we'll see what route they take. Speaking of paying a lot of money for relievers, is that a good segue to transition into the MLB wrap around? 00:51:16 Speaker 1: Let's do it. Let's let's wrap up. So I guess in this segment, just to sort of preview, we'll just take a look around the big leagues. Earlier this week, Edwin Diaz, as Lyle mentioned, signs a five year, one hundred and two million dollars deal, the largest contract for a reliever in baseball history. He passed the previous mark set by God. I have the list. I'm just gonna click on it here. I'll see if I figure it out a bit. Oh, as a worldist Chapman, that's what he passed. It's crazy, those those New York teams wile love spending their money. I'm not so sure it's going to be worth it. I think Edwin was unbelievable last year. But that number is a that's a large number. 00:52:09 Speaker 2: Yeah, So for Edwin Diaz to live up to that contract, if you want to try to quantify it, they say that one war, so one win in a season is worth about eight million dollars Edwin Diaz to live up to that contract as a reliever would have to put up a two and a half war every single year in that deal to live up to it, and to do that as a reliever is ridiculously hard. His war was a little bit higher than that this season, but this was a career year for him. And also, I'll just ask you one simple question here, TJ. How often do those high priced reliever contracts work out? 00:52:48 Speaker 1: Not very often if you go down the list, I mean Chapman, I just closed the tab on my computer, so I'm not gonna bother to reopen it. But you look, Chapman, I mean Yankees fans would probably say, mmmm no, I mean earlest Chapman still making all that money probably wasn't very worth it. You think back to Wade Davis in Colorado. I think he was worth a net negative war in Colorado over that time. The problem is, like relievers are just so fickle year to year that it's really hard to sort of get that consistent production when you're constantly pitching in such a small sample size. So there's just there's too much variance there to to really nail down with the true value of a player who pitches probably maybe three innings a week is actually worth. I'm happy for Edwin. This is a contract the Mets can afford because they have the richest owner in sports. This is this is a luxury for the Mets. This is like when you have a Lamborghini and you decide you still need a you know, a twenty four carrot gold credit card because why not? Right, It's like, you know, I'm just throwing stuff out there, but that's about uh, that's about how I see this contract stacking up for for Edwin Diaz. I'm happy for former m gets the biggest pay day of any reliever in baseball history. If you said that that was gonna happen when he got called up, I think we would have been over the moon for him. And that's a success of the scouting and development of the Mariners and the further development of him once he got traded with Robinson Cano for Jared Kelnick. So I'm really really happy for him, especially after bouncing back from last year when he's just getting his name dragged through the mud after he you know, puts up a really bad season, allows a few too many home runs, his control is in all the way there, and you know, he's there's no media market that's less forgiving than New York, and he's just getting dragged. And then he just sort of shuts everyone up by by going out there and putting the season he did. 00:54:46 Speaker 2: Just remember the trumpets started in Seattle. That wasn't a New York thing. 00:54:50 Speaker 1: It did. 00:54:50 Speaker 2: It started in Seattle. It just got glorified in Queens. 00:54:55 Speaker 1: It did. Yeah, And that that one I will give s NY credit. The Mets TV, the station that carries the Mets on New York in New York, it was their burrowin idea to put a camera behind him and walk him out with all the music, and it was it was great. It was very cinematic. It reminded me of the Joe Burrow on Senior Night when he had like Burrow and sort of French on the back of his jersey and they sort of followed him out the tunnel there at LSU in twenty nineteen. Reminded me a little bit of that, but really sort of highlighted Edwin. And this is sort of the sort of thing, you know, kind of baseball needs a little bit more of markability. And now, while a lot of places you go. I mean you hear you hear trumpets? You do? I heard trumpets at Husky Stadium when Oregon State and Washington played, when I was watching it on Friday, right, I heard I heard that song. Right, it's all over the place because it, you know, it blew up and all part of Edwin Diaz. And if he wasn't having as good of a season, I don't think the song would have blown up. And it really just really, I don't know, highlights him. It's great. I'm happy for uh, for for Eddie. 00:56:04 Speaker 3: They did a really good job. 00:56:05 Speaker 1: With that, Yes they did, and we're happy for Edwin Diaz. And maybe hey, he can buy his dinner sometime because he's a very rich man. I wasn't sure if we took this off yet. I honestly forget because I had this in my notes. Uh So, James Paxson picked up a four million dollar player option to return to the Red Sox today, so I'm happy for him. For so they declined the way you broke this contract down a little bit better. But James Paxton had his his his, Yeah, but he had an option to either go to free agency or take a four million dollar player option and smartly took four million dollars, so that's good for him. Hopefully he throws a pitch this year because he did not throw a pitch last year, so that would be uh, that would be good to see. And the last thing here on the MLBP whip around was about the Japanese pitcher code I Senga. I think I said his name correctly. Jerry Depoto said the Mariners would be interested. Mariners and other teams interested in him this year over in Japan. I think he's twenty eight or twenty nine, but the next guy to come over from Japan and Mariners are taking a beak at him, So that would be interesting to see. Lyle, I haven't gotten to watch him at all really, and that would be something. If the Mariners sort of got more interested in him, I would probably do a little bit more research on him. But an interesting tidbit there. 00:57:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, he put up really good numbers in Japan. He put up a one eighty nine ERA this past year. I just look at him and say, that is a need that needs to be very far down on Seattle's priority listless offseason. 00:57:45 Speaker 3: If you go get. 00:57:46 Speaker 2: Two bats and you have more room to spend, and you really think you can upgrade at that number five spot. Sure, but I think that it's more likely than not we'll see code I Sanga a different uniform because he'll be saw it after. 00:58:02 Speaker 3: I'm just not I'm just not so sure it in a Mariner's uniform. 00:58:05 Speaker 1: I just don't know what price you would ask for. I remember you say Kakuchi's contract and that the Mariners would not probably spend that again on a Japanese pitcher. I don't think it, because that's probably just a massive flop. It was a massive flop. And I don't know. And again, as we mentioned, starting pitching is not a need in any sense of anything, so that would probably be pretty low on the priority. But Jerry said they're interested, but you know, Jerry says a lot of things, so we don't know. Again, we'll we'll cover more national stuff, but really there hasn't been much national stuff going on. Lyle. Actually, do you have any of the Scott Boris quotes from today? I want to just I kind of want to read a couple of them because I really thought they were they were fabulous, fabulous quotes. I think I might have sent you one on the here we go, here's my favorite one today. This is going to be the final point here on the the Look Around Baseball. I loved what Scott Moore said about Carlos Korea today. I really he really sort of did the thing. Is it? Oh, like Adrian wolfh Narowski like on the during the NBA Draft, Well, he used like a different verb for every player, and it seems like that's what he was doing Scott Boris today was doing today when he was talking about all this, all of the players he has under him. How he describes Carlos Korea, You're the Dior of defense. You're the Hermes of hitting, the Louis v of leadership, the Prada of the postseason. It's a one stop shop for a championship designer. I thought that was fabulous. 00:59:37 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not just the MLB off season. This is Scott Boris season. Like oh it quotes trying to manipulate the market. He's got a million marquee players that are free agents. I mean, you're gonna hear his. 00:59:50 Speaker 3: Name a lot. 00:59:51 Speaker 2: And look, Scott Boris is the best in the world at his job. But he does not make life so fun on fans. 00:59:58 Speaker 1: No, he does not know, and we always like sit here and conspire. It's like, well, how much of the free agent marketing is he controlling? Like is it so slow because Boris is like purposely like clogging everything up and forcing guys not to sign, Like I don't know. That's a uh, that's a good question. But that's all we got for the MLB wrap around again, a pretty light uh, to be honest, light week. Besides the uh, the Astros winning the world series. Free agency will start tomorrow as we're recording this on Wednesday. Free agency starts on Thursday. We'll have a lot more news to talk about uh in our next episode a week from now now segment I've been actually really been looking forward to. We kind of thought about this a little bit. It's time to speak your mind, speak your mind. 01:00:44 Speaker 3: Spoke that would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. 01:00:54 Speaker 1: Lowne, I thought, you know, we're doing this podcast we need again we want to focus on the Mariners, of course, but there's more to our personalities than just Mariner's stuff. There's way more. And this is a segment where I think it's gonna allow us to really bridge out a little bit and speak our mind about something that we've seen in the past week or day, or something that's funny or you know, complaining or you know, I have beef with this or something like that, and I think it'll be really funny. So I'm gonna give Lyle the floor first to speak his mind about. Well, I don't know. We purposely did not say what we were gonna speak our minds about. So I'll let Lyle go speak his mind. 01:01:40 Speaker 2: There was a lot of ways I could have gone with this, but I went with weather and time. 01:01:46 Speaker 3: This week. 01:01:47 Speaker 2: That's what I've been thinking about because you mentioned just a few weeks ago, the two of us went to the first Mariner's playoff game that we've ever been doing our lifetime. It was the middle of October. During that game, it was eighty degrees. It is usually not eighty degrees in October in the Pacific Northwest. Ever, summer went long this year. It also started late, but it ended late. But all of a sudden, we didn't have some nice fall air, mid fifties days with the sun out. Three weeks go by and all of a sudden, you snap your fingers, it's wintertime. I mean, I wake up this morning it is twenty seven degrees out again. 01:02:26 Speaker 3: Just a couple weeks ago. 01:02:27 Speaker 2: It was in the eighties and it's twenty seven degrees so one what happened to fall season? I guess we just decided to skip it this year and then the time change. I mean, I complained about this every year. I think I've complained about it just about every year for the last five six years really, since I started to have an opinion on it once we got to school in Arizona and I realized, why do we change our clocks back? Like, why in the world do we have to see darkness at four o'clock in the afternoon in the winter time. 01:03:01 Speaker 3: I mean, Arizona doesn't change. 01:03:03 Speaker 1: Its clocks, right, That's what I was about to say. State of Arizona does not does not follow those rules, which makes for some interesting you know, if you're to draw the time zones on a map, it makes it makes it pretty interesting. Yeah, I mean, not one of my complaints today, low, but it is a good I'm not looking forward to four thirty sunsets. I'm not not a big fan of it. And you know, Congress did now I do always think it was probably a year ago at this point they did. They did pass something that says after the clocks spring forward this year, they will not change again. They will not They will stay right where they are, which is gonna make for some interesting conditions during the winter. I think the sun in some places will not rise until about nine am, which will be interesting, but at least there won't be four o'clock sunsets for those. Probably just depends on what kind of person you are, if you're a late sleeper or early riser or whatever. 01:04:01 Speaker 2: So that's the trade off, is going to work or going to school it might be dark out. I just can't take these four o'clock sunsets anymore. I think the reason they started changing clocks back way back when is for the sake of the farmers, but I think we're past that time. 01:04:17 Speaker 3: At this point. 01:04:18 Speaker 2: I feel like we're at the point where we can just stay on one time setting all year, because if it's up to me, we just stay on daylight time. So that's the speak my mind for this week. I'll throw it to you. 01:04:31 Speaker 1: Well, I have a couple things. Number One, I haven't been able to taste anything for a week. It's just like it's not really a feeling you're used to until like it happens, and then I'm like, well, I can't taste anything. Now I don't have COVID. I think I had a COVID test last week. I didn't test positive, so like I'm fine, but I'm dead serious, like I cannot taste anything. And I didn't realize like how how bad it would be and how just just dulling it makes eating. Like I opened a bottle of like hot sauce earlier and I was trying to sniff it and I can't smell anything, like I should be like, oh, I can't even smell it. Like I put a little bit on my tongue, I don't taste anything. It just burns. And I'm like, well that doesn't help. And I'm like I can't taste my breath. Like in the in the morning, usually a person is not really as hungry until maybe like an hour and a half after they wake up, depending on how much you know their their their sleep schedule and how much date for dinner, et cetera, et cetera. But you know, I, you know, I have a day job, so I gotta like eat breakfast in the morning, and I'm like eating, you know, avocado toast and eggs and sausage, and I can't taste anything, and it's really hard to get down because there's no reinforcement of flavor. So and I remember, you know, over the past, you know, two plus years, and you see the symptoms of COVID is you know, not being able to taste. I'm like, wow, well that must suck. And here I am eating crow because I can't taste. I don't know when it's coming back, but I mean I could probably lick the carpet down there. I wouldn't be able to taste anything. It really is. Don't. I don't recommend this at all. Don't. Don't lose your sense of taste. It is. It makes things a lot more miserable. My second one, I had to change a headlight today before I went to work. I woke up and I ate my breakfast, and hey, I had to go change a headlight. And two thousand and nine Nissan versa and I used to work at Jiffy loub so I changed plenty of headlights. Now I forgot how difficult Nissan makes it to change a headlight. I mean, for some cars it is easy access. You can literally stick your hand down there, no problem twist, pull it out, pull the light bulb out, put the new one on, boom twist. All right, you're done. But Nissan doesn't make it that easy. I mean I could barely get my hand down there. First off, you have to unplug it, and then there's this little the most annoying thing. There's this little wire thing, well little wire clasp that keeps the headlight locked in there, and you have to like pinch it and get it off. But like again, it's like forty degrees out in the morning. I'm freezing cold trying to like grab it, and I'm just like really struggling. It took me thirty minutes to change one headlight, which is a record by far from me. I need to change the other one now, so I'm gonna need to set aside some time to change that. But I don't recommend I don't recommend trying that. I mean, Nissan, your goals to get people to go into dealerships to change their headlights. Honestly, I respect it because it took me a lot of my will to change my headlight this morning. I have one honorable mention. No more political ads, Thank goodness. I can watch I can watch television without you know, envisioning that we live in the purge. So that's a refreshing, refreshing take here. 01:08:01 Speaker 3: So help me figure this out. 01:08:03 Speaker 2: You eat a tasteless breakfast and then risk like cutting your hand off trying to change this light. 01:08:12 Speaker 1: Pretty much. Yeah, I mean, I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm a doer. I do things. I could do it on my own. 01:08:21 Speaker 2: I can't even picture what it's like to eat a tasteless breakfast. I mean, this hasn't happened to me, so to legitimately taste nothing while you're eating, like like. 01:08:32 Speaker 3: You're just like I. 01:08:34 Speaker 1: Guess you feel the texture. The texture feels the same, but like like you don't realize it so much. You just like go up. You try and smell it, like just try and like smell something strong. Like I try and smell my coffee in the morning. I try and like I've like I've I cooked chicken sausage, so I'm trying to smell it, and sausage is a pretty strong flavor and I can't. I can't smell it. I open up like garlic powder and smell it. You can't smell anything. It's it's it's not great. I'm I'm not I'm not a huge fan of not being able to smell. But hopefully it goes away here within the next week and I can have something else to complain about on on Speak Your Mind next week. So I think that'll do it for us here on The Marine Layer Podcast Episode one. It's really great to be back. A little bit of technical issues in the UH in the middle of it, but otherwise it has gone about as good as we can. We will be back to record next week with episode two topic to be determined, UH. We'll flesh it out here over the coming week, but it should be exciting to talk about some Mariners baseball. Hopefully, if not Mariners, there will be some more national action UH to discuss in next week's episode. So it's good to chat. We will talk to you next week on The Marine Layer Podcast. 01:10:00 Speaker 2: STI