Episode 102: Adam Jude (Seattle Times) And Spring Training Storylines

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[00:00:24] Careheating and cooling is committed to doing business right. And we welcome each of this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network recording here on Monday evening, February 12th. And I'm glad Julio spent all that money on a Super Bowl ticket and actually stayed for

[00:01:43] four quarters.

[00:01:44] He showed how much he cared. Like, see ya, I flew to Vegas for the Super Bowl for Super Bowl week, I went to the game, now I'm actually gonna leave. Now, I'm gonna say he didn't actually buy that ticket, because those tickets where he was sitting was probably, what, $140,000 if that was gonna be resale. So, I'm gonna say he's there on behalf of some brand. If I'm gonna take a big giant swing at that, that doesn't mean you should leave at halftime.

[00:03:03] I didn't even like the halftime music person until i was in college.

[00:05:27] Anyways, wherever he was sitting couldn't have been cheap, but I know I don't think Julio Rodriguez is going to the Super Bowl paying out of his own pocket He's he's too famous. I

[00:05:29] Would probably agree with that. Yeah, he's back in Arizona now though

[00:05:33] And if we want to talk for a couple minutes before we get to our Adam Jude conversation, which was awesome by the way

[00:05:39] As spring training nears because we're getting real real close to

[00:05:43] Pictures and catchers reporting in fact we're days away from it now

[00:06:45] Mitch Hanniger's got to play 130 games because that's the proven proven corner outfield bat in that spot for Dom.

[00:06:46] And we're coming off a season where Dom just destroyed the minor leagues and destroyed

[00:06:50] Triple A and he was the best hitter in the minor leagues.

[00:06:54] And you and I sat here on this podcast when that trade was made and said, Hey, look, this

[00:07:00] is the piece.

[00:07:01] This was one of the centerpieces of this Paul Seawall trade because Dom Kenzone has the

[00:07:04] upside to hit like this. out and has a good season and I think a good start of that would be him performing in spring. What I don't hope for Dom is that he has a Mike Sinino 2015 spring. Is that the spring? I remember correctly where him and Chris Bryant were dueling spring training MVPs and then Mike Sinino ended up getting demoted to the minor leagues that year because he struggled so much.

[00:08:20] So I'm hoping that's not the case for Dom.

[00:08:22] And of course we're biased to Dom because he came on here with a podcast with us and

[00:08:26] that was awesome and his interview was great. Obviously you want to see him be hit both sides of the plate long term. But if in year one, he is truly going to platoon with Mitch. Not only does that take so much pressure off Hanagar, where he only has to play half the games there against lefties. They'll probably get him some DH days every now and then where if Dom hits righties and he's well, and he, like you said, that barrels up the ball decent amount, hits for some power.

[00:09:43] That's all you can ask for from the guy.

[00:09:44] I would not be shocked at all to see it against live hitters because he's had the trackman data up for it. And he's had just the pure video off the eye test to watch looks so good. Like it just basically table tops down. So does it now get implemented against hitters? I can't wait. It kind of rivals the excitement I had of watching Robbie Ray splitter last

[00:11:02] spring. Unfortunately, Robbie got hurt. So we didn't get to see nonetheless in Bryce Miller's short spring training outings that he's gonna get I think it's I think it's exciting too because Since Bryce started to have you know typical up and downs in his rookie year. We started to say okay You can't do this mid-season, but I think come the offseason. He's probably gonna need to add a third pitch We said that we said that for months now We said I think a splitter would make a lot of sense

[00:12:21] So not only did he do to a tee what we had kind of spoke or tried to speak into existence

[00:13:25] training. We got into it without him. Jude a lot before that. Let's take a quick pause. Talk to you about our friends over at Pagachas Pub 85 over in Kirkland. You guys know it's

[00:13:29] our favorite spot to hang out. There's great food. There's great drinks. There's pool tables.

[00:13:34] There's dartboards. There's 22 TVs in that place. You want to go hang out with your friends.

[00:13:38] We cannot recommend it enough. And if you want to go and get some great drink specials,

[00:13:42] go during happy hour. It's Monday through Friday from 2 friends over at factor factors. Delicious ready to eat meals, make eating better every day easy.

[00:15:01] Wherever tomorrow takes you, be ready with pre prepared chef crafted and dietitian approved

[00:15:07] meals delivered right to your door. code, MarineLayerPod50, at factor meals. year, it was, I bought a lot of vegetables. Maybe people know this, maybe they don't. Ryan is just notorious for eating habits. I don't think he's ever eaten anything green in his life. And so, I tried to kind of force, force feed it like I would with my kids, you know, mix it up in a blender and sneak some spinach

[00:17:42] or something into one of his meals.

[00:17:44] And it didn't work, but I left a bunch of vegetables

[00:17:47] in the refrigerator behind last year. and Brian kind of chronicled some of that on social media, our random trip through Canada, wayward travels to get to Toronto for that playoff series, and then immediately back down to Houston for all that. We had a blast and we wanted to run it back, and then obviously with Larry Stone retiring, we were losing our best and most experienced baseball voice.

[00:19:01] And so it just kind of made sense,

[00:19:03] with where the Mariners are at,

[00:19:04] with the interest level and the fan base here,

[00:19:06] to kind of have two there on the perfectly cut grass and those back fields in Peoria and you're seeing these guys work out and not to get all cliche but just to hear the crack of the bats and the pop of the mitts and you know with baseball say right. It's just hey we survived the winter you know here we go we're getting after here and so just getting down there and seeing all those guys and obviously there's a ton of storylines

[00:20:24] we're going to be following and writing days into the off season. I mean, season ends October 1st, it was October 10th, that Xfinity made its announcement. They were basically doubling the price of the regional sports, route package, and then

[00:21:42] the backdrop of all that too.

[00:21:43] And this is something I think Mariners' ownership knew was coming down the bike for a while

[00:21:48] now. And I think everyone was probably pegging them as the favorite in the AOS as it is, right? They've had to kind of piecemeal that together and boy, what an off season it's been. It's been, it's been strange. It's just been a roller coaster and I know fans, a lot of fans are still frustrated here.

[00:23:04] Fans talk about I'm not coming back until ownership, this and that.

[00:24:04] from her strength to bolster weakness in the end, you still love you only end up two wins better anyway.

[00:24:06] It may be it's all a wash.

[00:24:07] So, long story short, yeah, I think that did a really good job just getting to this

[00:24:11] point.

[00:24:12] Obviously, it's a high variance, high risk approach with, you know, we can get into

[00:24:17] all this, you know, injury issues.

[00:24:19] A lot of these new guys have had and they're banking on these guys staying healthy.

[00:24:23] They do have some insurance a little bit for some of them.

[00:24:26] I don't think anyone expects Mitch Hanegoer perspective enough to know, like, you know, and sure he's had ongoing conversations with Scott Service and Jerry DiPoto and Justin Hallender too. Like, they want to keep those core guys involved and informed as much as possible. So, you know, I think he probably understands the thinking on both sides of it. You trading away Genoswars and then Jared Kellnick too. I don't think they wanted to trade away. Jared Kellnick and I think if they didn't have the financial constraints, Kellnick would still be on this roster but they felt like that was a necessary move to obviously free

[00:27:01] themselves up to make the other moves that came down the bike later. But again,

[00:27:06] it's reimagined. It's part of it, I think, is that they probably need to pump them up, right? They traded their All-Star Closer really, or a stud closer to basically get Dom Can Zone. And obviously, Rojas coming in there, Ryan Bliss, to help to that deal. But they need Dom Can Zone to be a key part of this, right?

[00:28:22] Even if it's only as a platoon guy, 400, 500, and that's,

[00:28:26] like, they need to be a viable guy.

[00:28:28] And that remains to be seen. be that middle of the order bat, consistent bat that they need, but he's had those issues too. And they just don't know, right? You can say they've done all their homework that they wanted, that they needed to do on a Jorge Polanco too. And obviously they're not going to swing that kind of deal and give up what they gave up unless they feel pretty confident that it was sort of a fluke thing, that he's worked

[00:29:40] hard to kind of play by push through that and he's fully recovered now.

[00:29:44] And at the end of the day, September that the Mariners thought they were getting when they traded form of course he's young he's got a lot of time to grow into it. So he could benefit from a really good spring training who is someone else that you think. Could really benefit from really just crushing it in puree over the next month and a half. Yeah. I was just writing about top of mind just right about kind of the third base situation right now I think that's.

[00:32:04] the team. Again, it's a trade off. You get rid of all those strikeouts in your lineup, which, and you get rid of that contract, which was the main motivation in that trade, too.

[00:32:09] But for a team that is built around run prevention, that's who they are, that's what they are,

[00:32:15] it's that pitching, it's that defense. I think it's a legitimate concern to wonder what that's

[00:32:21] going to look like in third base this year. not ideal, but or maybe they go make a trade. And maybe there's somebody available. I know people have brought up in the last couple weeks, a Matt Chapman's still out there in free agency. Again, I, in a lot of ways, yes, CBNITL, ideal fit because that's a one hole in your roster right now. Third base,

[00:33:43] why don't I go get a gold glubber? they're gonna put a lot of there's gonna be a lot of chances for that infield to try and close out games And then you still see despite all of that

[00:35:01] You know Frank fan graphs come out this week and say the Mariners are gonna be the best run prevention team in the league

[00:36:06] to a guy too. So I could see how both sides saw the deal making sense but again get a left-handed bat that can play the corner that can play some first base as a tie-france insurance he can fill

[00:36:11] in if needed in center field you know for a few games here and there not that mayor fans want that

[00:36:16] but I think he's athletic enough and has played there at least a little bit so that's a really

[00:36:20] intriguing addition as well but that outfield defense again, then he's going to rely on that defense more too. And you said that's, again, it's part of the high variance on this team. And I can see where the model is loving, because the producer said he was so good, and this lineup has a chance to be more dynamic,

[00:37:40] and just curious to see if they steal more this year.

[00:37:42] That's something I thought they would do more of last year.

[00:37:46] And certainly given the new rules,

[00:37:48] I think that was three guys that everyone would circle as three priorities would be Cal, Logan, and George, right? Cal's agent. I think everyone knows it's got Boris. I just don't see that happening. You know, a big power hitting, switch and the team were in alignment, it would be a no-brainer. I still know in those three situations that it's really realistic at this point. And it's a circle back to Jerry's. Someone, Jerry's comments. Yeah, it's interesting. I know a lot of little bit. Again, that's sort of my read on the situation. I do expect, what are they at? 135-ish right now or something. They're at finished last year, around 140. So again, Ryan and I have been basically reporting 140 to 145.

[00:41:42] Again, they don't really calculate that this offseason but over the next year. What do they can do with root sports and how can they figure out the blazers contract, cracking contract. It's all pieced together. And again, if you're a mayor fan and you're situation, your argument is why does our payroll have anything to do with the blazers of cracking?

[00:43:02] And that's a fair argument to make. But for a couple of minor league prospects who are really, really zooming up and getting a ton of attention. I think that would make a ton of sense. And I think that Jerry, in that situation, we're probably willing to turn to ownership. And this is, we have to do this. This is the move we need to take on this $12 million remaining on this contract

[00:44:24] to get us over the top.

[00:44:25] We can win more of the series with this guy.

[00:44:27] And if you're the owner, at that mean, you have 325 to 23-year-olds on the back of your rotation. It's a little nerve-racking for a lot of people who are seeing that rotation stack up. Were you also surprised that a starting pitcher was not made

[00:45:40] more of a priority this offseason? Yeah, I think probably have to get creative in that regard just pencil and and Bryce Miller Brian room for 32 starts is ridiculous No, they're not they're not even desk Lefani. Yeah. Yeah, yeah Yeah, but again never I remember thinking of that right away at the trailer. Oh, it'll try flip him

[00:47:01] Immediately we like that in but

[00:47:05] Volume innings made sense. I thought 100% that's fine. Yeah, that's a good guy that they should have had more insurance on this year. And maybe we'll come back to Biden, but again, if you're, you know, with Derek McAckin type, we'll probably, Tommy Malone, probably end up back in their system at some point and making a couple of spots starts here and there. Is that the worst thing? No, especially when your other guys are as good as they are.

[00:48:21] And again, I feel like that's what the Mariners,

[00:48:23] what they're able to find, they're so confident

[00:48:26] and they're so proven in their pitch right now. almost gave up the first half, right? He was more or less league average for the first few months of the season. There's still so much there. I mean, we all see it every day. It's the talent build. I mean, I know Scott Service, you can speak football guy obviously too, and he's close with the Seahawks.

[00:49:40] Scott Service will go out to some Seahawks practices.

[00:49:44] And he's talked about looking yet there's still so much more for him to grow as a six win player as a rookie five plus win player you know the second year when he really slumped for for so long as well like he's got a 10 win

[00:51:01] season and I'm probably at some point in his career right maybe multiple 10 win seasons maybe this a very small question for me, Adam. If you're going to, if we're going to go 365 days in the future, what is your prediction of how the Mariners are a sense situation looks then? Oh, RSN. Oh, so I do think they are exploring what it will look like to join the, you know,

[00:52:20] basically have to be sort of under the MLB branch all work And I think MLB is doing that right now, too What is that revenue model like so I do think that is a viable option for the Mariners

[00:53:42] And again, they're trying to sort of overall feel where it's

[00:55:01] just a studio host in New York, kind of sending't have to have no idea what's going on. They got last minute tickets to that game and Mark Langston, I'll never forget. Luis Soho, kind of inside the park, Rance Lamb, however many errors there were

[00:56:21] on that play. But I'm pretty sure we had, I think, better than anyone I've been around in any sport. And you know, we trust them. And it's just a different culture for comparing football and baseball to baseball. It's just every day, right? It's such a grind. And I do think players recognize the writers that

[00:57:41] are there every day that are serious about it,

[00:57:43] that know what they're talking about,

[00:57:46] and put some thought into their questions, year two and excited to get started. You spent your entire writing career here in the Pacific Northwest, nine years at the Register Guard, a year at the Oregonian, and then now 10 years at the Seattle Times. So I did not again, notice eight years at the Register Guard overlapping with Chip Kelly. So I'd imagine he's going to come up in this question.

[00:59:01] I know Chip was quite the with chip and I was like, yeah, chip was this way about some stuff too. Be careful. And, uh, and then we're just mostly injury stuff. And, you know, most football coaches are like this, right?

[01:00:20] They're so secretive and it's just the paranoia and that's just part of the job.

[01:00:24] Right?

[01:00:24] You're, it's such a grind.

[01:01:26] The guy he was and the approach he took and as in serious he was obviously did a great job coaching and get you Dub where it was and I think still deserved a ton of credit for getting the Huskies back on their feet and all that too, but

[01:01:33] Yeah, I'm not sad right before we started

[01:01:36] Recording this typically the news broke that he was going to Ohio State is the offensive coordinator

[01:01:40] It was very obvious. He was trying to get out of UCLA

[01:02:43] You just wish like it could he go back to New Hampshire perhaps?

[01:02:51] Maybe turn 75 and he finally circles back to theirs is one last job. He's the type of guy

[01:02:56] He's this is what this is who he is. That's what he does. I think I just read it just turns 60 I was like wow

[01:02:58] 60 and

[01:03:00] But he kind of feels like a lifer to me. It's it's just in his blood. Yeah, I can see that

[01:03:05] I mean he loves New Hampshire And that's obviously a credit to everyone in the organization from the drafting and developing

[01:04:20] and all the way up to Tremblank and people

[01:04:24] who are at the pitching coaches that make it happen.

[01:04:26] And they do such a good job of blending sounded like he sent me his songs and it sounded pretty good. For that era too, in the early 2000s, they were doing tours in Florida. He made it sound like they had a chance to be a real professional dad, but had to make a decision. I'm like, hey, pretty good picture too. Ultimately, I think made the right choice.

[01:05:41] He was teasing that he made the wrong choice.

[01:05:44] But, yeah, he's, again, there's hear a word from our friends over at BetterHelp. Is something interfering with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals? Regardless, if you have a clinical mental health issue like depression or anxiety,

[01:07:03] or just a human who lives in this world who Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to listen to the full form pod, you can do so wherever you get your audio podcast. Make sure to download. Make sure to rate and review five stars. It helps us out big time. Like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. And then check us out on social media.

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[01:08:25] That's TJ.

[01:08:26] I'm Lyle.

[01:08:27] As always, we thank you guys for tuning in.

[01:08:28] We'll talk to you soon.