Episode 139: Which Mariners Deserve All-Star Nods?

[00:00:00] At Parker, our purpose is simple. We want to make the world a better place by working more efficiently, by using more sustainable practices, by developing better technologies. We keep moving forward. With each new idea, innovation and partnership, we're one step closer to fulfilling our purpose

[00:00:20] every single day. To find out more, visit Parker.com slash purpose. Parker, engineering your success. Welcome to episode 139 of the Marine Layer Podcast. On today's pod, we're going to make

[00:00:35] cases for Mariners to get into the all star game in Dallas. We're going to go through a few different guys and make cases for each of them. We'll go down on the farm, talk about a couple Mariners

[00:00:44] minor leaguers. We'll do our Russell Wilson Empire of the Week, close out the show with Speak Your Mind. Here's your guy's reminder too, before we start this podcast, make sure you're staying on top of all of our social content and our podcast content. So download the podcast

[00:00:58] episodes if you're listening on the audio form, leave a five star review, leave a written review. It all helps us out. Make sure to like comment and subscribe over on YouTube and check us out on social media, run Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod.

[00:01:13] All right, let's get it rolling. And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast. We're part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network, recording Thursday, June 20th, about 3 p.m. Pacific time. And you might be wondering, it's a different voice bringing in

[00:01:39] this podcast, isn't it? Yeah, I kicked TJ off the show. We're a solo brand now, boys. No, I'm kidding. So TJ is in Nashville. He's on a family trip. Not only has he been busy,

[00:01:50] but as we sat and tried to record this, and some of you probably know hotel Wi-Fi isn't always the best, especially when you try to record a podcast, which takes a lot of power out

[00:01:59] of your computers. So we were having a hard time getting the two of us on together and trying to record. So we decided the best course of action for today. I'll fly solo. So bear with

[00:02:10] me. Fly along with me for this one episode. TJ will be back to normal on next podcast episode on Wednesday. He should also be on the live stream on Sunday, which if you haven't

[00:02:21] checked those out yet, make sure to tune into these live streams Sunday at 7 p.m. We're on Instagram and on YouTube. TJ will be back on for that. At least he's going to try to be

[00:02:30] and find some better Wi-Fi to join. But for now, it's just me. Mariners come off a series loss in Cleveland against the Guardians. They won one. They won the first game, lost the next

[00:02:42] two. And I know some people are upset about this, guys, but I got to be totally honest with you. I think we all got to just take a little bit of a deep breath. I really do.

[00:02:51] I understand that once upon a time, the Mariners were 10 games under two years ago in 2022, felt like the season was dead and they came all the way back, roared back and ended up finding

[00:03:01] their way into the playoffs. In other way, another way of to say the season is not over, right? They are not going to coast to this division title likely by just winning one of three every series. That's just that just won't happen. But when you go to Cleveland,

[00:03:15] who's got the best home winning record in the American League and the fact it's a really tough matchup for the Mariners, a lot of lefties don't strike out really pesky. It happens. They swept the Rangers that that was more important than winning this

[00:03:31] series against Cleveland. Now I know the fact that they didn't win this Cleveland series is going to play a factor into some playoff seeding and the fact that now if the Mariners and Guardians tie, Cleveland's going to have the tiebreaker. But the Mariners are just

[00:03:44] going to have to take care of business in the rest of their games. And ultimately, they've still got a sizable sizable lead in the division. Let's dress that winning that Ranger series and sweeping that Ranger series this past weekend was far more important

[00:03:56] than winning the Cleveland series. You would have liked to win it, but it's really not the end of the world that they had a couple of tough games. I think we're going to dive

[00:04:03] into this pitching staff a little bit more maybe in a future episode, just about the fact that they seem to pitch a lot better at home than they do on the road. It's actually a little bit drastic, but we're going to save that for another episode. Today,

[00:04:17] we're going to dive into some Mariners that have some real cases to make the All-Star game because there are some I know there's been some people that feel like, oh, well, it's a really well rounded team. They don't have any clear cut All-Stars. I think there's

[00:04:29] some guys that have a case. So let's dive into it. This podcast will probably be a little bit shorter as a result because there's only one of us. We're going to make some cases

[00:04:37] and then we'll wrap up and get you on with your weekend. Hopefully we come out the other side with the Mariners series win in Miami, but the Mariners that have cases to make the All-Star game. We're going to highlight a couple. We're going to highlight Luis Castillo,

[00:04:50] George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Andres Munoz, and maybe we'll touch on a hitter or two at the end. But there are usually about 10 or 11 starters that get into the All-Star game for each league. So the Mariners starters are going to be going up against some competition.

[00:05:07] Now they're obviously going to get one and it will likely be a starter, but who will they get and will they get multiple? So let's dive into some of these guys. We can start with Logan

[00:05:16] Gilbert first and let's preface it by referencing some of the other guys that are either a lock to make the All-Star game or will likely get in for different scenarios. Here's the list I came up with. Guys that are likely to make the All-Star game

[00:05:32] in the American League as a starting pitcher. Tarek Schubel, Tanner Hauck, Corbin Burns, Cole Regan, Seth Lugo, Ronel Blanco, Jack Flaherty, Garrett Crochet, Tyler Anderson. That's about nine starters. Most of those guys are just going to get

[00:05:48] in because they fully deserve it. In fact, all these guys have had great years, but if you want to look at Garrett Crochet and Tyler Anderson, the White Sox and Angels have to have some representative. It is not going to be Luis Robert for the White Sox

[00:06:01] right now. He hasn't played enough. He's probably not hitting well enough yet. Maybe he just get the fan vote, but the fact Crochet has been so good probably means Garrett Crochet is going to be an All-Star for the White Sox unless of course

[00:06:12] he's traded before then. So the White Sox have to have one representative, right? Crochet will probably be their guy. Tyler Anderson, former Mariner who's had a really good year with the Angels. He's the RA sub three. The Angels also have to get somebody in.

[00:06:30] It's not going to be Mike Trout for playing less than 30 games, having about a 720 OPS. It's probably not. I guess he could still get fan voted in, but unlikely. The other guy could be Logan Ohapi. He may get in as one of the catchers,

[00:06:42] but Anderson's got a real case to get in and be the Angels loan representative. So if that's the case, if all these guys avoid injury and get the vote in, that's about nine guys.

[00:06:55] Now that's not to say some of the Mariners couldn't overtake these guys, but I would keep all those names into consideration when you start to factor in the Mariner Starter. So with that, let's kind of dive in, right? Logan Gilbert first. He's top 10 in the American

[00:07:08] League and ERA right now. He's top 10 in strikeouts. He's 11th in F war. He's also playing great here in June. He's pitched phenomenally and playing well late into the All-Star voting seems to play a factor a lot of the time. Not that not that the

[00:07:24] early games don't matter, but when you're peeking at the right time when voting is going on, that seems to matter a lot of the time. Logan Gilbert right now has a 166 earned run average in the month of June. He has not walked one batter. He has 22

[00:07:37] strikeouts. Think about that. We're recording this on June 20th. Logan Gilbert hasn't walked a batter this month. None. If you were to highlight all of these guys, I feel like he's got the best case right now. His ERA is the lowest. He's been

[00:07:54] the most dominant and also I know on this podcast, we dive into the numbers a lot. We'll dive into the stuff on savant will dive into chase rate and whip rate and all this different stuff run value. You're not really going to do that when evaluating

[00:08:06] All-Stars because that's not what people vote on. Maybe it should be, but it's not going to be so you're going to have to look at some of the basic stats and compare it

[00:08:16] to other guys in the rest of the league and Logan Gilbert in the American League right now is top 10 in a lot of categories. So that's why it feels like he probably has the best case

[00:08:29] of anybody to get in like the strikeouts are good. The ERA is good. The war is good. And when you look at this Mariners rotation, right? Maybe the best rotation in baseball,

[00:08:40] but when you look at it, who is the top dog in this rotation right now on paper and entering the season? A lot of people still view Luis Castillo as the ace. Is he still the ace? We can dive into that a little bit.

[00:08:54] Is he? I would make a case at least right now it's Logan Gilbert. I right now feel the most comfortable of any Mariners pitcher when Logan Gilbert's on the mound. He has been the most dominant of all of the Mariners are Jason Churchill talked

[00:09:08] about this with us, right? He said book this Logan Gilbert's going to be the guy that takes the biggest jump this year. He's going to finish top five in AL Cy Young voting

[00:09:19] and he's going to have a whole lot less starts where he gets blown up and has a clunker. You're going to see a lot less four inning three earned run foreign run type of starts

[00:09:29] where he has to exit early. That's been the case. Logan Gilbert might have thrown 200 innings last year, but he's going deeper into games even more this year. And he has been flat out dominant. Again, this is the best season he's had so far

[00:09:42] to this point and the fact in June he's got an ERA of one six that matters that really really matters. You can say it doesn't but I promise you when people are voting recency bias

[00:09:55] will be a thing and Logan's been great all year, but the fact he's peaking now peaking is not the right word, but the fact he's pitching so well now will matter. It will and if he keeps pitching like this, it's going to be impossible to ignore the

[00:10:11] fact he's already got a two nine three ERA. He's top 10 in all these categories in the American League. He's got a good enough of a case already. Could he start the All-Star game? Joe Sheehan

[00:10:22] mentioned it that he'd be a candidate. I don't know if he'll quite start it, but he's for my money absolutely going to get in to start the All-Star game. You're probably looking at Tarek Schubel. You're probably looking at Tanner Hauck.

[00:10:36] You're probably looking at Corbin Burns somebody like that. I don't know if Logan's quite going to start this All-Star game, but if you were to ask me stamp one guy who is the

[00:10:45] Mariners representative if they get one guy. I say it's Logan Gilbert. I think he has the most deserving case and I'm pretty confident that unless he absolutely gets blown up in a couple of his next starts, you're going to see him in Dallas for the All-Star game.

[00:11:01] So that's one. At Parker our purpose is simple. We want to make the world a better place by working more efficiently, by using more sustainable practices, by developing better technologies. We keep moving forward with each new idea,

[00:11:18] innovation and partnership. We're one step closer to fulfilling our purpose every single day. To find out more visit Parker.com slash purpose Parker engineering your success. Who should we go to next? Let's talk about George Kirby. We'll save Luis Castillo for

[00:11:38] after Kirby. So George Kirby his wars up there despite having a shaky start and having some shaky outings this year. He's top 10 in the American League and F4 right now too. He's seven. But he's also 24th in ERA that's entering Thursday. Strikeout to walk ratios off the

[00:11:56] charts of course it is shocker. It's actually second in baseball funny enough. Funny enough you wouldn't think somebody would overtake George Kirby in K to walk ratio but Zach Efflin has been really good and his K to walk ratio is higher than Kirby's right now

[00:12:10] regardless. Kirby's 24th in ERA. Now a lot of the expected categories he's in the top 10. 8th in XERA, 6th in BIP, 8th in XFIP and he much like Logan Gilbert has dominated in the month of June. He's got a 150 ERA, he's walked three guys, he struck out 19 guys.

[00:12:30] He's got a real shot. Do I think he has a better shot than Logan Gilbert? I don't because Logan sustained the success longer than Kirby has this year. He's often pitched deeper into games than Kirby has this year and he's just been a

[00:12:46] little bit more dominant. Kirby's been great but when you look at expected numbers you can't expect everybody to do that when voting guys enter the all-star game. Being top 10 in F4

[00:12:58] will help. The fact Kirby is a name will help and that's so much we have to factor into this too right? Name brand is going to matter. George Kirby has turned himself into a bit of

[00:13:09] a name brand over the last couple years. The fact he throws so many strikes, the fact he throws so hard, the fact he's been an all-star already. That'll help. That's going to help Kirby.

[00:13:19] Is it enough? I think the fact he's pitching this well in June is a big deal. I think the fact he's got a 15 ERA this month really is going to stick out to people but

[00:13:32] he's one of those guys where maybe he's on the outside looking in right now, maybe he's just a step out because again we already outlined nine guys, nine starters that barring injury probably have a real chance to make the all-star game.

[00:13:46] But if Kirby continues to have a couple more really dominant starts, he may level himself up right into the A-list category to get himself into the game. I think it's right on the fence

[00:13:57] right now for George Kirby. Honestly, I'd put him second behind Logan Gilbert, I'd put him ahead of Luis right now. I think George Kirby with a couple more good starts has a real shot.

[00:14:09] Right now this second would I say he's an all-star? No. I think we're gonna have to see what his next month looks like until it's time for these guys to fly down to Dallas.

[00:14:20] But he's trending in the right direction right now, that's for sure. The fact he started to turn this around so well and have such a dominant month, that matters. That really matters,

[00:14:29] it does. So the fact he is 24th in ERA probably has him a little lower on the totem pole right now. But the fact that that's the thing about his expected numbers here too, right?

[00:14:41] It should trend up, it should continue to trend up. That's what expected data will tell you that while his ERA might rank lower in the American League right now, he's probably due for some

[00:14:52] positive progression back to the meat. And we started to see it here in June. Hopefully for the Mariners sake and for his sake it continues because then they'd have another chance at a real all-star. Guy number three, Luis Castillo. Right now look and he didn't have a great

[00:15:08] start here on Thursday, right? Gave up five runs, didn't work deep into the game. Cleveland got to him a little bit. Luis entered today 17th in the American League and earned run average,

[00:15:21] which again puts him probably right in that next here. He's not a lock, but he's got a chance with some good starts. Although I'd say this start in Cleveland probably knocked

[00:15:31] him down a little bit. So now he sits at a 363 ERA. In the rest of the American League, he entered Thursday top 10 in K's. That helps 11th in strikeouts for nine. He's 16th in F-war

[00:15:44] and he's got entering today at a three five ERA in June. Now that's ballooned up. So while Kirby is trending in the right direction and Gilbert's all around been good while also having a great June, Luis Castillo is not having a great June.

[00:15:57] I think that's going to play a factor. I think if he has another clunker or two, he might get taken out of consideration. Now being a name brand helps. I'd say Castillo's even more of a name brand than George Kirby. He's the biggest name brand in this rotation

[00:16:14] because he's been there before. He's been an ace in Cincinnati, in Seattle. He was in the All-Star game last year. He's made three All-Star games in his career. But if he's not going to pitch well in June, that could balloon things a little bit.

[00:16:29] Again, I know Luis Castillo on paper is the biggest name brand in this rotation. But I don't think he's been the ace of the staff this year. I think what we've seen out

[00:16:37] of Luis Castillo a lot this year. He's gone six and two a lot after he got off to the rocky first couple starts. He's put together a lot of six and twos. Very competitive start,

[00:16:47] very good starts. Kept his team in the game. There's no doubt he's been good. He just hasn't quite been the elite arm that he's been at times in years past. Dominant from start to finish, working deep into the game. His change up for the third

[00:17:01] year in a row is really getting hit hard. Good pitcher. Very good pitcher even. I don't know if he's quite an All-Star this year. Unless something really turns around in the next couple starts. I think you're looking at George Kirby and Logan Gilbert sitting ahead of Luis Castillo.

[00:17:18] Because the Mariners likely are not going to get three starters into this All-Star game. They could get two. Three feels unlikely. So not only will Luis Castillo have to continue to pitch better, he's going to have to surpass one of his own teammates. Right now I would say

[00:17:34] Logan Gilbert and George Kirby are ahead of Luis Castillo, especially the way that they're pitching. So I would say in order of the starting pitchers, it probably goes Logan, Kirby, Luis. I think that makes the most sense. Again, like, and I think Gilbert's

[00:17:52] actually a step ahead of everybody else. I think Logan Gilbert of the starting rotation has the best chance to get in. I think his reputation speaks for itself. I think the numbers speak for itself. I think his dominance speaks for itself. I think that's where the

[00:18:08] Mariners are headed. And if I had to guess, I actually think they may only get one starter in. And I think it's going to be Logan Gilbert. Why do I think they're only going to get one

[00:18:18] starter? Well, I do think they'll have another All-Star. It's just not going to be another All-Star starter. So who's that other Mariners All-Star going to be? We'll tell you in just a minute. Before that, let's take a quick pause. We're going to talk to you about our friends

[00:18:30] over at Pagache's Pub 85 that's over in Kirkland. You guys know that's your one-stop shop for everything you need for a great night out with your friends. You want to go watch the games. You want to go eat some great food, have some great drinks, play pool,

[00:18:41] play darts. Head over there and go during happy hour. I cannot stress that enough guys. You want three and four dollar drink specials, which two dozen. They're available Monday through Friday, 2 to 6 p.m. It's a pretty good deal. Get there early. Get your friends out. Get some

[00:18:57] happy hour drinks. Watch the games. There's more than 20 TVs in that place so you can watch the Mariners and you can watch a couple other things too if you want. All of that is over at Pagache's Pub 85 in Kirkland. The Mariners next All-Star and a guy I feel

[00:19:11] that should I don't want to say definitively but has a real real case to get in. And I know a lot of a lot of other people feel the same way. Andres Munoz. We just talked about it

[00:19:21] on Wednesday's show. War does not accurately reflect what he has done for this ball club this year. Now he's sixth in the American League in reliever ERA. He's fourth in F-War but find me another reliever who's been as valuable to their team

[00:19:39] as Andres Munoz has been for the Mariners. You could argue Emmanuel Classe. He's probably getting in but that Cleveland bullpen has been the best in baseball this year. They've got other guys contributing a lot. Andres Munoz has carried this bullpen at times this

[00:19:54] year with a bad back might I add for a lot of the first half. 147 ERA tied for fourth and saves. We know how dominant he's been. We outlined the pitch usage that he's been putting that

[00:20:08] he's used this year and the fact that he is mixing in three pitches a lot more often rather than just being a two-pitch guy. You have just seen him dominate. When Andres Munoz comes

[00:20:19] into the game it's lights out. Hitters aren't hitting them. The question becomes not a lot of relievers get it. So who is Munoz going to stack up against to get into this All-Star game? Well we mentioned one. Emmanuel Classe is one. He's probably getting in. Mason Miller

[00:20:37] is another. He is probably getting it. Will he be the A's lone representative? Possible but unlikely because I would assume Brent Rooker is going to make his second All-Star game in as many years. But regardless I think both those guys are getting in for Oakland. So if

[00:20:51] Emmanuel Classe and Mason Miller are both getting into the All-Star game Is there enough room for a third reliever? There might be. I hope there is. Munoz deserves it. But if it's going to be Munoz, there are still guys he has to go up against.

[00:21:09] Is he going to get more votes than Griffin Jacks of the Twins? Is he going to get more votes than Kirby Yates of the Rangers? Clay Holmes and the Yankees factor is going to play

[00:21:17] into that too. Has Munoz been better than Clay Holmes? Absolutely. Does the fact he's a Yankee and wear pinstripes and have some East Coast bias, could that affect fan voting? Absolutely. All the more reason for all you guys to get out and vote for these Mariners

[00:21:32] and vote for Andres Munoz. So if you're going to assume that Classe and Miller both get in, there's got to be one more reliever spot open. And obviously some guys can't pitch in these games. It opens up more spots. Munoz will have opportunities. But it still has to

[00:21:48] be him as the third reliever in the American league ahead of guys like Jacks, like Kirby Yates, like Clay Holmes, like some others. Tim Herons had a great year for the Guardians. There are other relievers that are going to be pushing for this and have a case.

[00:22:01] But it's hard for non-closers to get into the All-Star game. The fact Munoz is top five in the AL and saves is going to help. The fact he's top five in F-Wars is going

[00:22:09] to help. The fact he's got a 1-4-7 ERA is going to help. And the fact he's absolutely carried this Mariners bullpen is going to help. And if you were to ask me, I would absolutely

[00:22:19] stamp my vote for Andres Munoz to get into the All-Star game too. So I would say, stamp my vote for Gilbert, stamp my vote for Munoz. If I had to guess, those will be the two we will see get in. Kirby's on the outside looking in.

[00:22:34] Luis is on the outside looking in. I would put Kirby ahead of Luis and if Kirby continues to pitch well, he may get into. But I would say, as we look at all these Mariners that have real

[00:22:46] cases to get into the All-Star game, I would say Logan Gilbert and Andres Munoz are not just the two most deserving guys to get in, but they're the two that I think will get in when it's all said and done. Now, will Andres Munoz pitch in this game?

[00:23:01] I wouldn't count on it. Will he be in attendance in Dallas even if he gets the nod? We'll see. That might be a Mariners decision because Andres Munoz has talked about being on

[00:23:11] planes and being on flights this year has not helped his back. In fact, it stiffens it up, which makes sense when you're sitting on a plane like that for hours on end.

[00:23:21] So when he has a chance to rest up during All-Star week, will he hop on a plane, fly four hours to Dallas and take part in all the All-Star week festivities? It's possible.

[00:23:33] He deserves to and I would assume it's a lifelong dream of his and pretty much every big leaguer that gets into the All-Star game to be in an All-Star game, if not a lot of them.

[00:23:44] So it may be something he really wants to do, but I'm going to guess there's going to be a conversation there with the Mariners about what is best for your health and this team

[00:23:53] moving forward in the second half of the year. Is it getting on a plane and flying to Dallas? I hope Andres feels good enough and the back won't affect him at all that he can just go

[00:24:04] because he really deserves it. He has not made an All-Star game yet despite how great he's been with the Mariners thus far in his career, and he deserves to go. The question is will he go?

[00:24:15] I hope we're going to find out. Will he get the vote? I hope we're also going to have to find out. Those are the four guys with the real case. If you want to look at a couple of hitters,

[00:24:27] like who's the hitter to most likely get the vote? Probably Julio. Now Julio is going to have to heat up more than he's hitting right now. I know he's had a good June, hasn't quite been

[00:24:38] an elite June. If he really lights it up over the next three or four weeks, he may find himself there and when you talk about name brand, Julio Rodriguez is a bigger name brand than

[00:24:48] anybody on the Seattle Mariners and he's a bigger name brand than what's a short list of anybody in baseball. He might be on the Mount Rushmore. So if he can have a few good weeks,

[00:24:57] he can get in but right now it doesn't feel like Julio's getting an All-Star knot. Last year having the game be in Seattle definitely helped him despite the tough first half but with it not being in Seattle this year and the fact he's been about a league

[00:25:12] average hitter by WRC+, the odds may be stacked against him. Could Cal Raleigh find a way in? Again, he's been about a league average bat right now by WRC+. Now with Cal, the catching in the American League has not been great. There are some. Salvador Perez has won,

[00:25:30] Logan O'Hoppe has won, of course Adley Rushman. It's not a long list but Cal has a chance. Again, he's going to rely on what he does in the next few weeks here. He's probably

[00:25:44] gonna have to pop a few more home runs. He's gonna have to get his OPS up a little bit. He has a chance but again with some of these catchers in the AL, it's gonna be stacked against him. The AL catching has not been great but there's still

[00:25:57] names ahead of Cal Raleigh right now. Adley Rushman, Salvi, Logan O'Hoppe even. There's guys that are playing well. So of the hitters most likely to get the vote, it would probably

[00:26:08] be one of those two and I would say Julio is the most likely of all the hitters in the lineup and a lot of that has to do with the name brand. But that being said, let me say it one more time,

[00:26:18] I think Munoz, Logan Gilbert are the Mariners two all-stars as we sit right now and if I were to vote, I would not only vote those two in but I think it will be those two

[00:26:28] that you see get the nod to the all-star game come mid-July. So that'll just about wrap up our all-star game talk and our Mariners we think are deserving of making the all-star game. If you guys have different opinions on this, you guys know. Leave us a YouTube comment,

[00:26:43] send us a DM, whatever you want. Let us know what you think. Are we leaving somebody out? Are you on the train that thinks Brian Wu could still get in even though he really

[00:26:53] hasn't thrown a lot of in it? Should Bryce Miller get more attention? Is there a hitter we're not talking about? I'm sure you guys have opinions because you guys are smart fans and you guys always have things that you're thinking through like we do. So tell us,

[00:27:05] drop us a comment, let us know. Okay, before we get to the rest of the podcast and go down on the farm, let's take a quick pause and hear a word from our friends at game time. Summer's

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[00:28:37] Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guarantee. Alright, let's head down on the farm. So who are we looking at this week? Now had TJ been on this podcast he was going to talk about Ashton Izzy so I'll give him a

[00:28:54] quick shout out. He's down in Modesto, he was a Mariners high draft pick. They took him in the fourth round a couple years ago. Young Arm just 20-21 years old. He's been really good

[00:29:04] in Modesto. He's got a 2-2-4 ERA on a roster that features a lot of high prospect bats and a lot of high upside bats. So pitching doesn't get talked about a ton and Ashton Izzy's been

[00:29:18] really good through the first half of the year for Modesto. Now his walks are high and that's going to have to come down a bit. Obviously he's still young and working through some things but

[00:29:26] it's exciting. While you go to Modesto probably if you're going out to a game to watch the hitters, to watch Luzaro Montes, to watch Colt Emerson when he's healthy, to watch Ty P, to watch Michael O'Royale, to watch everybody that's in that lineup there's some good

[00:29:40] pitching. Brody Hopkins is there, Ashton Izzy's there, TJ's highlighted Will Schomburg, he's been good. It's a fun Modesto roster and for Ashton Izzy to really kind of be bursting onto the

[00:29:51] scene all of a sudden for a young Arm that's got some really high upside and a high ceiling it's exciting. 2-2-4 ERA down in Modesto. Walks will have to get cleaned up a little bit

[00:30:01] but keep some tabs on Ashton Izzy because he's been really good. The guy I was going to highlight and am going to highlight is Michael O'Royale, another Modesto nut. We haven't highlighted him a ton yet. He's obviously in the Mariners top 10 in terms of their prospect

[00:30:15] rankings. He often can get overshadowed on the rest of that Modesto roster but look at what he's done here in the month of June and his month of June is why I wanted to highlight him. He is slashing 323, 463, 677 with an 1140 OPS, six home runs, 10 extra base hits

[00:30:34] here in the month of June. He has been crushing the baseball and we know Modesto's had their injuries. Johnny Farmele is done for the year, Colt Emerson still on the IL, Aidan Smith got hit

[00:30:46] by a pitch the other night, Tai Pete's been on the IL this year so they've had some bad luck with injuries. Michael O'Royale has been on the field and he has been crushing the baseball

[00:30:57] and his strike out to walk ratio is great. He's walked 12 times, punched out 16 times. That's really good. That's really good. So will he continue to make his way through the Mariner system? Will he get packaged in a trade? It's TBD but the point being whatever O'Royale's future

[00:31:16] holds for the Mariners, whether it's in this system or somewhere else, he's been playing really well and where he is come August 1st again we'll see but there's no doubt he is

[00:31:27] probably a slept on bat in this system and it's funny to say slept on because he's a top 10 prospect but when you look at that nuts roster it's easy to look at a lot of other guys before

[00:31:36] you turn to Michael O'Royale but he has had a red hot June and I hope he keeps it up because he's really swinging the bat well. It'll be cool to see him in Everett this year or maybe

[00:31:43] toward the end of the year he can get there. With that let's transition. We got to talk about a Russell Wilson on for the week. So shout out to John Boy because he did a breakdown

[00:31:56] that went viral this week of the Mariners, Cal Raleigh, Scott Service and umpire Chris Guccione who is this week's winner of the Russell Wilson ump of the week. Now this game occurred against the White Sox so it was a little more than a week ago but the breakdown

[00:32:12] didn't come out till this week and because of this we've got to talk about it. Guccione did not have a good night that night in Seattle when he was behind the plate. He was missing

[00:32:22] balls and strike calls left and right. It was bad. Cal Raleigh wasn't happy about it when he got rung up on that strike three either which is what caused the argument which led to Scott

[00:32:31] Service being ejected and what led to this John Boy breakdown. So a lot of people were fascinated by it because as John Boy's great at reading lips he could tell what was being said

[00:32:43] and Guccione actually seemed a little bit human. He said look sometimes I'm gonna have a bad night. That's just how it goes. Now let's give him some credit a little bit. We don't give umpire

[00:32:57] as much credit on this podcast so let's try and keep it that way. We'll give him a little bit of credit for owning up to saying yes sometimes I will not perform well. Sometimes I'll have a

[00:33:06] bad night but one Scott Service wasn't buying it because when he said that to Scott Service Scott goes oh I'm sorry as if I'm supposed to have sympathy for you which you are absolutely right Scott Service somebody having a bad night shouldn't affect somebody's ball club

[00:33:25] because if they're taking the right approach and having good at bats as we talk about a million times they should be rewarded for it. Get the challenge get the challenge system into the majors please. Anyway here's the point I want to highlight the most. Guccione in this

[00:33:39] rant while he's trying to say look sometimes I'll have a bad night this dude tries to use the excuse of I was up at 3 30 this morning that was his quote John Boy read his lips

[00:33:52] I was up at 3 30 this morning boohoo buddy oh I'm sorry that you were up at 3 30 in the morning. You know what happens when players have long travel days and long night games

[00:34:02] and they get to bed late? They've got to wake up the next day and perform. You know what happens if they don't? They get sent down to the minors when umpires have bad games. Is there any accountability? Well of course not. There are umpires. There's never any accountability.

[00:34:20] Shocker! Okay let's not harp on this umpire thing for too long because I can go down a rabbit hole about it but I do want to say I just think it's hilarious that he got caught

[00:34:32] getting lip read and saying oh I'm sorry but I was up at 3 30 this morning aka yes this is just gonna happen sometimes. Well you might be right about that. Trying to make an excuse for

[00:34:44] it looks kind of sad dude and players managers fans shouldn't have any sympathy for umpires saying oh I was up at 3 30 in the morning. Again players don't play well they get demoted.

[00:34:56] Somebody stays up till 3 30 in their regular job and has to get up the next day for work and they're tired. They don't get to just sleep the whole day or just take the day off.

[00:35:05] Doesn't work like that. Other people are depending on them but not a whole lot of accountability in Major League Baseball umpiring is there? There never is. There never is. All right let's do a quick speak your mind here and then we'll wrap up this show.

[00:35:21] Speak your mind Spock. That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. TJ was gonna talk about his early Nashville review he still got a few days left on this

[00:35:37] trip so maybe the next time we have a chance to talk about it or next Friday when we do a speak your mind he can dive into it more. I'll save that for TJ. I'm gonna do a quick

[00:35:44] speak your mind here and say we gotta do something about these uh not calendar months but seasonal time starts and time ends because they're wrong. Let's be real summer technically usually starts around June 21st and it technically ends September 21st. We gotta debunk this and

[00:36:04] we gotta change the calendar. I don't know what you guys think but on my own internal calendar summer starts Memorial Day weekend and it ends the day after Labor Day. That's summer. When you're still in school in June like that's summer. I know they try to say

[00:36:23] summer is like when school gets out again like June 21st but no especially well maybe it feels that way for people still in school but again I think it's very real. Summer should start

[00:36:34] Memorial Day weekend and it should end the day after Labor Day. That's what summer feels like. That's when the weather warms up. That's when it feels like people start to take a lot

[00:36:42] of vacation. They have more free time on their hands so I'm adamant about that. I'm also adamant that winter should start well actually no I'm open to this debate. Winter should either start the day after Thanksgiving or December 1st. The fact it starts December 21st that doesn't

[00:36:57] feel right either. Doesn't feel like wintertime December 1st. I think it does. The fact that it's technically December 18th and people are out for Christmas break and start taking vacations but oh technically by the calendar month is fall. No that doesn't add up. So those

[00:37:13] are the two months I'm kind of adamant about. Summer should start Memorial Day weekend and end the day after Labor Day and winter should either start day after Thanksgiving or December

[00:37:22] 1st. Just one little gripe in mind. One little pet peeve. I think TJ was also going to talk about the fact JJ Rettig just got a head coaching job despite being a podcaster so

[00:37:32] that one I will steal from him for 60 seconds here and say if anybody needs a interim manager in Major League Baseball oh call the Marine Layer pod guys up. We could run a tight ship if we were a big league manager podcast on the side get inside

[00:37:49] information while we're managing bring it back to the content game. Oh that'd be sick. That'd be sick. So this just goes to show you if you're a podcaster long enough you could actually become a manager or head coach in professional sports. So

[00:38:03] shout out JJ Rettig trailblazing for podcasters everywhere. If anybody's looking in baseball to hire a coach or hire a manager call us up we're open. We can negotiate. We've probably got a price. We've got a price but we'll negotiate and we're open minded people.

[00:38:20] So let us know Major League Baseball but yeah the fact JJ Rettig was doing a podcast with LeBron for weeks months now whatever and now he leads to becoming the Lakers head coach.

[00:38:29] So that feels a little odd and feels like LeBron probably had a little bit to do with that and I'm sure he did but again positive spin zone here JJ Rettig trailblazing for the rest of the podcast world shout out to you JJ.

[00:38:44] All right if you guys hopefully you guys stuck through this whole episode if you did thanks for bearing with us on this. I know TJ had some technical problems and he's on vacation

[00:38:52] it'll be back to normal on Wednesday when our next podcast comes out. Hopefully I didn't bore you guys too much just doing a one man solo show so once again thanks for sticking with me on this

[00:39:01] and with that that'll just about wrap up this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill if you want to listen to the full-form podcast you can do so wherever you get your audio pods make sure to download leave us a five star review

[00:39:13] leave a written review if you're watching on YouTube make sure to like comment and subscribe and then check us out on social media too or on Instagram TikTok Twitter and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Podcast. I'm Lyle thanks as always for tuning in we'll talk to you soon.