Episode 14: Mike Lefko (Mariners Radio Network/Seattle Sports 710 AM), Mariners Media Day, And Previewing Seattle's Shortstops.

00:00:00 Speaker 1: We welcome you to episode number fourteen of the Marine Layer Podcast with TJ. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein. On today's pod, Mike Lefgo of Seattlesports and seattlesports dot com joins the podcast. Mike is the afternoon drive producer for Wyman and Bob. Also hear him on the Mariners Radio Network and see his written work cover the Mariners and Seahawks at seattlesports dot com. He was at Mariners Media Day earlier this week. We'll talk to him about all the happenings at the Mariners media gathering before they head down to spring training. We have our shortstop preview for the twenty twenty three season. It's essentially just JP Crawford, so a lot of JP Crawford talk looking at the shortstop spot for the Mariners this upcoming season. We'll close out the show with Speak Your Mind. Let's get it rolling, Hey, and we welcome you into this episode of The Layer Podcast here on recording for the first time on a Sunday, Sunday, February fifth. Wole, how are we doing? 00:01:10 Speaker 2: Doing pretty good? You know why because the biggest news in baseball this week is the Mariners get an extra year of Dylan Moore? 00:01:18 Speaker 1: Break down how your evening went when you saw that saw that extension. 00:01:24 Speaker 2: There was a fifth pump involved. When I get the Jeff pass In tweet a learning us about Dylan Moore, first off, world made and second of all, when you find out he's going to be in Seattle for multiple seasons because the extension bottom one extra year? Yeah, hype. You know I'm a huge Dylan Moore fan. 00:01:44 Speaker 1: Does that make your mount rushmore? Of pass and notifications over the last three years. 00:01:50 Speaker 2: The last time we talked about Dylan Moore on an intro, you asked if him being the most searched player in the state of Hawaii made my mount rushmore. Can Jeff pass In tweeting about him either d thrown that or put it aside the Hawaii Dylan Moore search. I'm gonna say yes. 00:02:09 Speaker 1: Wow, Wow, it is a trap, and it's a It's a good contract for the Mariners, about a little bit under a three million dollars a year for a guy who's worth a little over two wins above replacement as a backup utility man. He's extremely valuable to the Mariners. Corner outfielder infielder as well. I'm happy to see they've wrapped up Dylan Moore. We didn't talk about Dylan Moore at all with Mike Leftco, who we were talking to just before recording this intro, but we did talk about a whole bunch of other things regarding Mariners Media Day, all the guys participating in the WBC, the left field conundrum, Evan White. Yeah, we managed to talk more about Evan White with Mike Leftco even through in Casey Sadler as well. Was good to have some perspective from a guy who gets to actually talk to these players on a on a weekly basis seven to ten. Being the flagship station of the Mariners, they get access to Mariners players a little bit more frequently than other outlets do. So it was good, really good to get his perspective on all these things that have sort of come out over this last week. 00:03:14 Speaker 2: Absolutely, and he's shared some stories about some interviews that he's done so far in his time in Seattle, and I think he gave us some good perspective on where the Mariners are kind of looking toward for twenty twenty three. Just between again, there's gonna be a lot of storylines heading into spring training, and I think Mike, Mike helped us a lot cover a good basis of them. 00:03:36 Speaker 1: There there it is. There's gonna be a lot of levels especially well, we'll hear it in the interview, But the thing that really stuck out to me when he's saying, Hey, how many of these guys are we going to see step up once a lot of these regulars go off and play in the WBC. Like in Evan White, Cad Marlowe, could Cave Marlow make a huge impression. We didn't. That Cave Marlow's name never came up. So that's why I'm gonna bring it up now. Of guys who could really step in and play well during the spring while those other guys are gone, it'll be interesting to see. Let's not waste any more time. Let's get to our interview with Mike Lefco. We welcome Mike Lefko onto the Marine Layer podcast. Mike is the afternoon drive producer of Wyman and Bob at Seattle Sports seven to ten in Seattle. You can occasionally hear him on the Mariners Radio network in the pregame and the post game, and you can also find Mike's work. He writes occasionally on seattlesports dot Com, covering the Mariners, Seahawks, and whatever else you guys decided to talk about that day. Mike, we appreciate you coming on. You are able to be at Mariners media day earlier this week, so it's good to get some inside perspective and have you on here today. We appreciate it. 00:04:44 Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate you guys having me on. I'll put aside of the fact that you made a radio guy come on video. 00:04:49 Speaker 1: So see, it's the same thing for both of us, Mike Aus Me and you both work in radio. But here we are on a video podcast, putting our faces in front of it. It's strange like you at least put a collared shirt on. I'm sitting here wearing a hoodie, a hoodie, and I think I'm still in my pajamas. From what we're what you no one could ever tell on radio. But you know we can't hide anything here. 00:05:15 Speaker 3: Well, Le's got a better background than I do. I was not the best at dressing up the background behind me. Just wanted something a little plain, not too much light flooding. And see, all these things have to go into mind, but I think we'll work our way through it. 00:05:27 Speaker 4: Get to some good knowledge outside of that. 00:05:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so too, So go ahead. 00:05:32 Speaker 2: Last Sorry, I was just gonna say, yeah, you got to try to build your own little studio with posters and old fat heads and stuff like that. Try to make it nice the best you can. 00:05:40 Speaker 4: Right, it's a sharp look. Yeah, that's good. 00:05:43 Speaker 2: Thanks. 00:05:45 Speaker 1: Before we get into a lot of the Mariners stuff, Mike, I don't know how many of our listeners are familiar with you. You are the producer of the afternoon drive show Winman and Bob, but you've had a couple other stops along the way. You've been in the San Antonio, Austin area where you spent time as a TV reporter as well. You did some play by play at the University of South Florida, a graduate of Syracuse University. So before we get into the Mariners and up here in the current day in Seattle, maybe you shut a little background for our listeners on how you got to where you are and maybe your love of baseball as well, and how you've gotten here. 00:06:19 Speaker 3: Well, so right here, I think it's just a broadcasting grind. You guys, I think can understand that, and I know you guys are going through it right now a little bit older. So I made some more stops along the way. But you're just kind of working, carving out a path and trying to find a football in this crazy sports broadcasting and play by play industry that we all like to do. 00:06:39 Speaker 4: And so many others do. 00:06:40 Speaker 3: So out of college, it was right down to IMG and Winston Salem to work with some college athletic partment departments and the summer minor league baseball there. So I got to work with the Winston Salem Dash, got some good draft picks for the White Sox that came through there. And then yeah, women's basketball and college baseball at USF where you I've played against cal Raleigh a couple of times when they were playing Florida State in some midweek games. So we saw a lot of great players who are now MLB players, most notably some Florida Gators teams who they churn them out there in the early twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen years. 00:07:16 Speaker 4: Those are some loaded Gators teams. 00:07:17 Speaker 3: It's cool to see some of those guys from college baseball make their way through the miners and now into the majors. 00:07:23 Speaker 4: So I think maybe you guys have dealt with this, maybe not yet. 00:07:27 Speaker 3: But you know, when you work in this industry, it's a little strange to tell people, but you are a fan still. But first and foremost, you know you're a fan of players who have come across your path, or you root for storylines to succeed rather than just a die hard for a team. So what's cool for me now working around Baseball and the Mariners is to see guys like this who I might have seen in broadcasts in college or in the low levels of the miners now have success here. 00:07:53 Speaker 4: At the major league level. 00:07:55 Speaker 1: What was your favorite storyline then, opposed to seeing Cal Rawley early. 00:08:00 Speaker 4: At USF or this year for the Mariners. 00:08:04 Speaker 1: I'll say USF because following we'll do the following storyline aspect. 00:08:08 Speaker 3: Okay, so this might not be popular for Mariners fans to hear, because this guy is a picture for the Angels now. But a burgeoning pitcher when I was there, went by the name of Jimmy Hrget, and he was a terrific starter, and he really had a grind and work his way through the miners and then found a role in a bullpen. So getting to see him lock on with the Angels and be a solid guy in. 00:08:29 Speaker 4: Their bullpen, that's so cool. 00:08:31 Speaker 3: Because USF they're a good baseball program, but they are not churning out major league players every year like a Florida state or a Florida in that state Miami as well. 00:08:41 Speaker 4: I mean that state is loaded with baseball talent. 00:08:43 Speaker 3: But to see a guy like Jimmy Hrget, who really helped boost USF through twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen, now make it and be a solid MLB pro that's a really cool thing to see, even if he is in the Mariner's Division. 00:08:55 Speaker 1: I'm thinking, off the top of my head, you were before McClanahan was there right. 00:09:00 Speaker 3: Well, actually got him when he was a freshman. He sat right behind me on the bus so freshman and his sophomore year, and I think he has progressed much further than that now. But yeah, he I didn't get to know him as much because as a freshman, you know, those guys are kind of in their shell or they keep to themselves a little bit. So got to know herget a little bit more because he was there for three years and I was and Shane was just two years but yeah, he was there and he was fantastic. Certainly had a sign or an indication that he could be become something special. But don't know if anyone would have predicted the you know, one hundred plus dominant ale pitcher that he's become. 00:09:38 Speaker 1: For the rais what was he throwing when you were there? 00:09:42 Speaker 3: He was, I mean he was thrown close to that, like mid to high nineties. But again, it's such a it's such a precarious balance because these guys who know they have a professional future, they want to build their arms up, so there's a lot of development that goes to it as well. I mean, this is a freshman in college who is getting used to a collegiate strength training and conditioning program, and there's so much emphasis and off season training now, and I know that baseball players have found all sorts of ways to build up their bodies, build up their pitching arms, and do all these things. I think as a freshman and sophomore you're still kind of learning that. So you get the benefit of a college program, and then now in the pros like he has, I'm sure he has only grown leaps and bounds from what I was seeing as a first year college. 00:10:26 Speaker 2: Pitcher, so as somebody who grew up pretty far away from the Pacific Northwest from Afar, how much did you really know about the Mariners before you got here. 00:10:37 Speaker 3: Oh, honestly, outside of the rain in the nineties and then that terrific year in two thousand and one, Like after the early two thousands, not much. I mean, they were just a team that kind of fell off the radar, but they were the team of everyone's childhood. And I think a big reason why all of us at a certain age our baseball fans is because of Ken Griffy, and everyone tells that story, and then you get latched on with the player, the personality, and the team, and then you follow the Mariners a little bit because they are in the spotlight and they're such a prominent presence. But then I should do a double take and think, Okay, well that was you know, close to thirty years ago now, and Ken Griffy was in his heyday and then towards the end of it and the end of this torrid run for the Mariners in the late nineties and early two thousands, So after that, yeah, there wasn't much And I really had to dive back into the history and understanding, you know, the frustration behind the droughts, all the good, the bad, and really the down down years that this franchise went through. So certainly a new appreciation after being here. Now this will be my third season covering the Mariners. 00:11:46 Speaker 2: So with that, you said, it's your third season covering the Marrinors, You've done a bunch of different stuff. Do you have a favorite either interview or moment that you've done that you've had so far? 00:11:56 Speaker 3: This is in hindsight. It didn't end up being the you know, he wasn't the best personality on the team and it didn't work out with Jesse Winker, But I got to fill in for Shannon Dreyer on the on the home opener on the broadcast when the Mariners crushed the Astros in their first game of the this past season, and they didn't get a start at home because the lockout pushed back the original start, so they had come back and there was all that excitement a little bit of apprehension though after the opening series against the Twins and the White Sox. 00:12:27 Speaker 4: But when they go out there on. 00:12:29 Speaker 3: That Friday night and just crushed the Astros, and Jesse winkerd had a decent game and he's coming off the field and you need to grab an interview, and this is live on the radio broadcast, and you know, I asked him what the atmosphere is like, what he was taking it all in, and he drops an expletive right on a live radio broadcast. So at the moment, you won't forget it. Kind of just it showed at the time, I think his appreciation for the scene in the atmosphere, And yeah, I look back on it now and the memory itself is a little soured because Winker, the play and the person didn't work out here. But in that moment at the very start of the season, it was such a wow, this could really be something special because the crowd was nuts. I mean that place, the home opener, and then the night they clinched those two games, and of course the playoff game, but that didn't end as well as the home opener and then the clincher did. But those three moments, I think those three games really summed up the excitement and the potential of what this team and this core can be. And so to be able to be on the field and get that interview in the moment that really was a highlight for me of this season. 00:13:35 Speaker 1: I want to ask you about the clincher, but I want to go back to Jesse Winker first, because you talked a little bit about his personality there, and his personality was such a big story when he came here early and he's in all these interviews and people are like, wow, I mean, he's very light, he's funny, he seems like a guy who's easy to get along with, and he seems like a guy that would really make a clubhouse a lot better. But I'm curious as we go through the s it seemed like that had almost the opposite effect. Was it was just it was really strange. And I would say more when we're talking about storylines here a storyline of something just not working out and something you think is a good thing off the bat, and you're like, well, this dude, he's happy, he's over the world to be here, and it didn't work at all, and it was really strange. 00:14:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. And maybe it's a reason why fans and a lot of people have some apprehension about the offseason acquisitions this year, because if you go into last year and the key needs the address, well, you get an all star left fielder, you get an all Star second baseman, and that was going to be great. 00:14:41 Speaker 4: Those were going to be. 00:14:42 Speaker 3: The two guys that really helped push this team to where they were and where they ended up being. We didn't know Cal Rowley would be such a key part of this. We had no idea what Julio would be, and we certainly didn't know that others would would make that leap. So when Jesse Winker and Adam Frazier don't work out, I understand from one perspective the fans who then look at Ti Oscar Hernandez and look at Colton Long and say, well, look, they just tried to upgrade at these positions last time it didn't work. But with Winker it just seemed to be a personality thing that is different in what I've observed from how players and how fans and how teammates now talk about Colton Wong, Anti Oscar Hernandez. With Winker, those struggles were not something he was used to, so it sounded like he kind of retreated and turned a little bit inward. And from what I've heard and from what well, okay, so one thing kind of jumped out and Bob Selton actually, who hosts our show, talks about this a lot that when we were down there after the clincher, after everyone's just jubilant and celebrating in that clubhouse, is just a chaotic scene of everyone just celebrating one of the biggest moments in Mariner's history, and Jesse Winker is removed from it. He was standing kind of outside of the main scrum. He wasn't really interacting with any of the players, with anyone else around, and actually Bob went up there to him. We went over to Jesse and asked him. He's like, hey, you know, everything all right, Like I see your back here, and Winker said like, yeah, I'm taking it all in. But that, in hindsight seemed to be a big key about him just not meshing personality wise with the rest of this Mariners team. And you know, baseball, it's so important to have a good clubhouse dynamic. I mean, that's what carried the Mariners through that slump in the end of Dog Days, in the early stretch the June and before they really made their run before the All Star break when they were ten games inner five hundred. I think it was the personality of those guys who became core clubhouse men in. 00:16:32 Speaker 4: That locker room. 00:16:33 Speaker 3: Jesse Winker wasn't really a part of that, and so that kind of didn't mesh with the dynamic of the Mariners. Then his production obviously wasn't what anyone expected when he came over here. Maybe his teammates, certainly the front office, I assume Scott's service was perhaps a little disappointed. He's never going to say that, neither with Jerry Depoto or Justin Hollander. But when the production doesn't match up, and then when a guy who maybe he's just wired a little bit differently also isn't fitting in, well, it just kind of led to a series of events that now he's not on the team anymore. 00:17:06 Speaker 2: Well, I was gonna say that all makes a lot of sense when you kind of spell it out like that, And it's obviously disappointing for the team, for the fans to see a guy that had so much expectation come into Seattle and then not work out. But if it's clubhouse chemistry people are worried about with the new acquisitions, the good news is they Oscar Hernandez has been seen all over social media over the last couple of weeks working out with Julio Rodriguez. So it seems like he hasn't taken much time to get acclimated to some of his new teammates. 00:17:35 Speaker 3: And that's why I think, and I would tell these fans that are saying, well and okay. So I'd also caution this by saying, we interact with maybe the angrier of the bunch, being on talk radio, you're going to get a certain subsection of fan that gets a little more frustrated and a little bit vocal. And they're frustrations, which is okay. I mean, never going to tell anyone how to be a fan. Fans are passionate, they can express their opinions however they want. But yeah, this is not the same as a winker, even an Adam Fraser. Colton Loong, for by all accounts, great guy. He's been on a radio station a couple of times now. Other teammates now have talked about his work ethic and his personality and every stop he's been he has fit in well. So Colton Wong certainly seems like he'll be a good fit. And yeah, Lyle you mentioned. 00:18:18 Speaker 4: It to asker. 00:18:18 Speaker 3: Hernandez has been working out with Julio. I mean, he was at Mariner's media day. He was one of the nicest interviews around, did a number of interviews there, spoke to the assembled media. So in terms of clubhouse fit, these guys are different, and we obviously don't know what their production is going to be. 00:18:34 Speaker 4: Could to asker. 00:18:35 Speaker 3: Hernandez regress a little bit in an unfriendly hitter's park, Sure, but you don't have to worry about the personality side at least from these two. 00:18:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty much how we think about it too. And I heard I was listening to to Socks podcast on his Friday show and he was really impressed of You know, Ti, Oscar's the kind of guy. He's not the biggest guy in the room, but he is. 00:19:03 Speaker 4: He's like a unit. 00:19:04 Speaker 1: He looks like just a baseball player. I mean, that's just like the old person talk coming out of me. But he just like he has that look of a baseball player. But I'm glad he was. I'm glad We've heard all these raving reports of him so far and all the positives, and it sounds like he is. He's going to contribute a lot in spring training and for what I wrote down he will be indeed playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. But was there anything he said they're up there at the podium that was that was notable from media day when he was there. 00:19:37 Speaker 3: I don't think he was going to come in and make any revelatory or or shattering marks. I mean, he's a new guy, he's kind of feeling it out. But he just kind of expressed how excited he was to be here. I mean, he said, dating back to his days with Houston, how many times he's actually liked playing in this park. So he has, I guess admired the Mariners from afar. And one thing that was kind of funny that stuck out, I guess the Blue Jays when they drew the Mariners in the first round of the playoffs. Guys were excited. They wanted to play them. There was some maybe desire to avenge the sweep that they had had here in Seattle. But ta Oscar was one who specifically said, He's like, nah, I didn't I didn't want to play those guys, Like I knew how good they were. 00:20:15 Speaker 4: So he certainly knew how good the Mariners could be. 00:20:18 Speaker 3: And we saw that in the playoffs, with that sweep of the Blue Jays and with the close series against the Astros. So I think Kim just kind of fitting in and settling into a team that from the outside looks very appealing to a lot of players right now. 00:20:31 Speaker 2: Diving a little further into Mariners Media Day this past week, what the biggest story to me was Jerry Depoto informing everybody that Luis Castillo is not going to pitch in the World Baseball Classic, because we had previously all heard that he was. Were you guys surprised at all to hear the news? 00:20:50 Speaker 3: No, I don't think you truly know what happens behind the scenes. Maybe how much not pressure, but how much the Mariners maybe express their concerns, how much Luis Castillo then had to go think it over. But it sounds like both are in aligned and realizing, Look, the goal here and the plan is the Mariners made a significant long term investment with Luis Castillo, and Luis Castillo was brought here to win games, to take this team to World Series. I'm sure if it's laid out like that, even with all the pride for country and what this means to baseball in the world stage. The goal for every baseball player is to win a World Series. So Luis Castillo, who had a languish in Cincinnati, now coming here as the centerpiece, as the focal point of what this really good rotation wants to do, and it's gonna be a Mariner's team. They'll be led by their rotation. Again. I think after you sit down and you break it down like that, he probably understood that, yeah, this is more important. And one thing I don't think, I don't think Jerry said it there immediate day. He did say it the next day on with Brock and Salt. He talked about kind of the specific of the specifics of Castillo's offseason regiment and that he ramps up at a certain stage and it's a little bit later than a lot of guys. So to go through his throwing program to then be ready to pitch in early March, that was going to require a lot earlier ramp up time. And I think when they broke it down like that Castillo's camp and then the Mariners realize, all right, the most prudent thing to do is not pitch there. We can build you up back at your pace in spring training in low leverage situations at a stage where I don't know what it involves, you know, inning's limits or how much you start out with. But it's a more natural ramp up than he would have had to go through had he been pitching in a World Baseball Classic. 00:22:32 Speaker 1: There's a couple other storylines to come out of the World Baseball Classic that we'll touch on here in a second. But Mike, are you big fan of the of the World Baseball Classic. I personally love it. I think it should get a much bigger stage than it does. I think it doesn't really do it a great service that it's just thrown in the middle of spring training and it's almost an afterthought of a lot of a lot of Major League Baseball fans. But the concept of it is phenomenal and I think should be, you know, put up a little bit more, even though it's not. 00:23:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's because of what you said at the timing of it. There's no good time to have it, right. You can't have it in the middle of the season or else you have to go through what the NHL was doing when they did that massive break when they let their players go play in the Olympics and that's not practical for baseball because you are on a clock here. You can't have the season go into December, so there's really no good way to schedule it. And then it's also it's been a while since they've had one. Then everyone kind of forgets about, all right, well, we got to remember this thing that is so infrequent now because the pandemics timy the natural progression of it. 00:23:34 Speaker 4: And I think it. 00:23:35 Speaker 3: Also hurts that the Dominican Republic's way too good, so comparatively, speaking from this perspective here the US. When the US is not going to field the best team or maybe even the second or third best team, it's tough to really lock on like other countries do. But it is a very cool concept and it makes you realize how special this game is, how well represented baseball is on the world stage, and how many countries make significant contributions to meld the Mariners into all of baseball. 00:24:04 Speaker 1: The full rundown for Mariners in the World Baseball Classic, Julio Taoscar and Diego Castill will be playing for the Dominican Republic. I'm waiting for Julio to hit a ball about five hundred feet while playing for that team and he's probably just gonna lose it. Iohenio Suarez is gonna play for Venezuela. Matt Brash with an agreement with the club. Part of the agreement for him pitching for Team Canada is to be a reliever, so he's planning on coming into camp as a reliever. Matt Festa, I believe, is pitching for Italy, and then Harry Ford is gonna play for Great Britain as well. I'm very excited for that to see how Harry handles some higher level pitching than he faces that he'll probably face in High A this year. I'm not any of those really stick out to you, Mike as something you're really gonna watch. 00:24:50 Speaker 3: Honestly, probly depends on the timing when the games are, you know, around our schedules. But Harry Ford is a guy because he's such a recent high draft pick and because right now, at least position wise, at least in the lineup, the Mariners don't have a lot of young bats that are coming up quickly. They have a lot of pitching depth. They have a ton of young players that they have since moved up. You know, Jerry Kelnich has come up recently. Julio obviously has come up, so position wise, their young movement is already in the majors or their ways away. So harry Ford might be the closest thing to a name that people can latch onto to say, all right, well here's the second wave, because you know the unfortunate downside of the Luis Castillo trade, and it's not a downside, it's just the reality is you got rid of your best position player prospects. So now there's no one that Mariners fans can latch onto and say, oh, yeah, that's a guy who isn't a pitcher that I think could be an impact bat soon. Harry Ford might be the closest thing because he was that early round pick a couple of years ago. 00:25:50 Speaker 2: Do you feel like Matt Brash has had some realization that I'm borderline elite at the back end of the bullpen? And I ask that because there was reports last year when they first moved him that he didn't really love the idea. He wanted to be a starter. There were reports this offseason they were going to stretch him out as a starter. But between agreeing to pitch for Team Canada as a reliever and forgo his opportunity to be a starter. Do you think a part of that has to do with Yeah, I realized my role with this team was so invaluable at the back end of the bullpen. 00:26:23 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:26:24 Speaker 3: And Jerry Depoto actually told us that when he was interviewed by Dave and Bob and then we played that on our show kind of after media day, that Matt Brash in looking through the crowded rotation and he was going to have to face something similar that he did before the start of twenty twenty two, or it came down to George Kirby and him for that spot, and Matt Brash won that spot and made the start, made a couple of starts and then it just didn't work out. Goes down to the bullpen, where all of a sudden, you don't necessarily need the same tools as a starting pitcher. I mean, you can work on that elite slider in that fastball and that's all you need. Maybe develop a secondary pitch here there. So with what Matt Brad developed into, especially late in the season when the Mariners absolutely needed him to be a clutch reliever, once that kind of got laid out there, certainly I think Ley, he understood, all right, I can play a valuable role. 00:27:12 Speaker 4: And while it's not I don't want to say glory, but while. 00:27:15 Speaker 3: It's not the you know, the prestige and the ultimately maybe more money you can command as a starting pitcher, there's something to be said. We all know this, right for just a lockdown reliever that can just span a career and be that guy for years and years and years. So if Matt Brash can do that for the Mariners for a long time, that's going to be so valuable to what this team could do as a contender. And it seems like, again going back to the clubhouse chemistry thing, these are all good guys. There's not any obstinate resistance being put up by into these players. It seems like when they get told something by Scott or by Justin or Jerry. So after that sit down with Matt Brash, who is still very young, and you know, they tell them, look look at all the starry pitchers we have right now. The Mariners still don't know what they're going to do with all their starting pitchers. You have six of them, without including Matt Brash as a possible option. You lay it out there like that, hey, you can be a solid, guaranteed reliever for us, or you might not make it in the rotation. I think the answer became pretty obvious for him. 00:28:15 Speaker 1: And just because Matt Brash is in the bullpen doesn't mean he has to stop starting. If they ever need him in an absolute emergency, they could still put him in the rotation, no problem. It would be less likely because they have all those other options you mentioned. I mean Dollard Hancock, two guys that in a thinner rotation could see the majors this year, Bryce Miller as well. But none of those guys I don't even think are gonna see the rotation this year because you already, as you mentioned health forbidding, already have the guys that line up in that rotation as well. So I'm happy Matt Brash chose that. I think it's a better role for him. I think it's more important to the Mariners too, because if you look at it right now, he's their second best reliever, returning reliever, at least in that bullpen. You have Munjos, but Munnos isn't even completely healthy, just got of a walking good a couple of weeks ago. So you look at the health aspect of that bullpen, it is Brash, who is eight, has the best stuff right now and is the healthiest going into spring training, so that I think that's maybe the most important aspect of that. 00:29:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think people kind of forget that the Mariners really did value Eric Swanson and that was a tough piece to give up. So you lose a stable option there, and you have a couple of guys who, as you mentioned, Andres Munio sounds like he'll be fine. But outside of Andres Munjos, you had maybe a little bit more of an up and down year. For Paul Sewald. You don't have You might have Casey Salvler, you don't know because he missed all of twenty twenty two. He's now back on a non roster invite to spring training, so he could be an option. But when you get past Munos and what you expect to be a very stable Paul Seawald, yeah, Matt Brash is probably a key guy there. 00:29:54 Speaker 4: And we know how. 00:29:55 Speaker 3: Much depth matters when it comes to the course of a long season to a bullpen, to an eighteen inning playoff game where you have to trot some relievers out there. So Matt Brash is gonna be a key role on this team. But yeah, as you guys are saying, I mean, you hope he doesn't have to become a starting pitcher because that means something's gone wrong injury wise, and the Mariners did so well at keeping those arms healthy and that's a big reason why they got to where they did in twenty twenty two. 00:30:20 Speaker 1: I'm actually looking forward to seeing Casey Sadler again this year. 00:30:23 Speaker 2: I think he was. 00:30:25 Speaker 4: Still good in twenty twenty one. People forget how he was. 00:30:28 Speaker 1: He was amazing, and I think we could probably tell pretty quickly into spring training if he's, you know, he's still got it. He missed all last year with I think it was a shoulder surgery. So he comes back, I mean he comes into spring training and he you know, he's gotten up a few ninety threes in nineties fours, and he's still got the nice breaking balls as well. I don't see why not, because him and Swanson were very similar pitchers than the way they pitched. I mean it was it was it was a lot of ground balls, it was it was soft contact, and it was just a right mix of pitches, not over an overly overpowering, but the right mix and it could help really sort of seamlessly phase Swanson out and put Casey back in. 00:31:08 Speaker 3: Yeah, there's just there's so much depth in this bullpen, and I think now the Mariners pitching coaches and this front office and Scott have built up hopefully a level of trust and respect by what they can do with these bullpens, even though they are fickle from year to year. You go across baseball and you can't rely on a good bullpen one year carrying over to the next. But it was kind of a rotating door from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two. And with the bullpen being so good in twenty twenty one, new names did the same thing in twenty twenty two. There was no Andrius Munos or Matt Brash in twenty twenty one, yet here they were becoming the key factors in twenty twenty two. So that gives you the trust that whoever comes up and develops and maintains that bullpen spot, whether it's Casey Sadler again or someone else to help out Seawall, Munos and Brash, is going to be someone who acclimates quickly to how the Mariners like to pitch. 00:32:01 Speaker 2: I think there were a couple other interesting storylines from media Day, one of them being Jerry Depoto said, Evan White is as healthy as he's ever been. This is the guy who hasn't been on the field in nearly two years, at least the big league field, and we know the struggles he's had offensively early in his career. But is there a shot that he could make the opening day roster out of spring training if he's healthy and he's really sprang the ball during games opening day? 00:32:27 Speaker 3: I don't think so. It just feels like where's the position for him? And that's the issue because, as he said, Lyle, I mean, the bat has always been behind the defense, was truly elite when he was up here before, but unintentionally his absence led to ty Franz turning into a very capable first baseman, and now with the Mariners wanting to platoon in a number of positions, it just doesn't feel like there's room to carry Evan White. You know, maybe you could rotate him in a couple of days to give ty Frantz a break, but you know, you already have Dylan Moore on the roster. 00:32:57 Speaker 4: Hanging around. 00:32:58 Speaker 3: You already have a couple of other guys who are going to be a big impact that don't have everyday positions. So with that positional flexibility and the fact that we know the Mariners don't like to have that day in and day out dh, I don't want to say never, because yeah, he could come in and the bat looks great, and if he is as healthy as Jerry is talking about, which would be incredible. This is a guy that they committed long term to a few years ago, so he is important. But you look at just the uncertainty still about how he would fit in onto this roster, and I think they probably want to see a couple more live game reps before you could say, yeah, Evan White's going to be here. Doesn't feel like there's an urgency to get him on the opening day roster because of what ty France can do. Now, that's not to say that after a couple of weeks or a couple of months, if you need someone to help spell ty France or you know, I don't even want to bring it up, but what happened last year where ty France got injured and he had to miss time at first base, You don't have that Carlos Santana anymore. So Evan White could still play a pretty big role on this Mariners team, either this year or maybe next year. But opening day, at least to me, it feels like they're pretty settled at this point position wise. Doesn't feel like there's a lot of position battles. You have your platoons in left field and at second base and wherever else they well, it seems to be about it. But because Tom Murphy is also back and should be a key part of this team, I think he's more of a guy that he could be in that day in day out DH spot along with Dylan Moore or some of these other guys if they need to get bats in there. 00:34:28 Speaker 1: I think there's a pretty good chance it doesn't even have to be at first base from what I'm thinking. I'm thinking if Aj Pollock gets hurt, you have Sam Haggerty on the bench, a very good defensive outfielder and a very good right handed hitter, so that platoon still works with Jared out and left. But then you could you have the potential to add another guy like Evan White to your bench who could play the corner outfield spots. If you have to move Sam Haggerty to the infield at some point and spell either an injury or a day off for a Dylan Moore or Colton Wong, Aoheny Suarez or any of those guys. So I think we'll get more of what they projected from Evan when they drafted him, and they said he's a supreme athlete. We could stick him in the outfield if we want. As good as his defense at first base is, I think we wouldn't lose too much putting him in the outfield. Now, I'm not necessarily sure that's the right thing for him, because if his the only value you get out of Evan White is his defense at first base, then sticking him in the outfield kind of is a wash. But I would say, Mike, cause you guys are going to get to go down to spring training here sometime in the next month, Am I right? 00:35:33 Speaker 4: We're going at the. 00:35:34 Speaker 3: Very end, so I think we'll have a pretty good picture of what the roster is and those guys that go to the World Baseball Classically backman as well. I think we're going to be there the very last week. Literally they'll leave and break camp and come back to Seattle, I think the weekend after we leave, so we're there the week of the twentieth through the twenty fourth, so by then I can check back in and tell you a pretty good impression what the opening day roster will look like. 00:35:59 Speaker 1: I'm guessing when you're down there, though, a Evan White will still be with that group, because I believe they keep all the forty man guys and the Triple A guys there till right at the very end, and then they'll come back up to Seattle together. 00:36:10 Speaker 4: Usually. 00:36:10 Speaker 1: I'm guessing Evan White's gonna be there. He's going to be playing, and I think he's going to be playing in the outfield. 00:36:15 Speaker 3: And what could help is he's gonna get a lot of time while these guys are gone. That is the big impact of the World Baseball Classic. None of the guys that think that are leaving to go play with their teams. On guys like that that need reps. On a guy like Jared Kelnick, who Jery did mention because he we do have the benefit he's on our station every week. A couple of weeks ago, he did say Jared's gonna benefit from getting a ton of reps with other guys gone, and he will be in the lineup pretty much every day. It sounds like getting a look at the plate, getting all these at bats to try to see if the offseason work has helped. So something like that for kell Nick, for Evan White, where the bat is still the biggest question mark, Yeah, could play a big impact in determining what happens with these guys. And there's a lot banking on Jared Kelnick. But to get something out of Evan White could only be considered a bonus. That could certainly help take that step where everyone's wondering, how do you accomplish that? What's the step to the popular word thrown out there as well, how do you catch the astros? And that's a very loaded question, but a combination of factors, maybe Evan White providing a massive contribution That could be one way. 00:37:21 Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about Jared on this podcast. L I'll let you get in here in a second, but I wanted to just work this in, Jerry said. Jerry and Justin Holland are at Media Day. Quote. I wonder if they explain this to you, Mike. They quote they were particularly excited by recent biometric evaluations of Kellenick's mechanicism. Did they explain what that means? 00:37:41 Speaker 3: I think that's just a good baseball way of dressing up saying his you know, off season work, what he has studied, what he is probably and they didn't get in detail abot what it was, but what he has evaluated, maybe in his swing, in his bats and his approach to the plate. I also don't think, and they have said this a lot as well, it isn't anything physical with Jered Kelnick. It's mostly mental. It's in his head. It's how tough he takes perceive failure because baseball is a game of failure. So if he does go through a slump and that lingers in the frustration and the mindset, that kind of stays with him that and maybe that can get lumped into biometrics and all this. That's the key for Jered Kelnick because he has all the tools. You know, we've seen it. There's a reason why he has been such a high prospect from the time he was drafted and why the Mariners made the centerpiece of that trade Jared Kelnick when he came over from the Mets. But mentally, that's such a struggle because baseball is a frustrating game, so maybe it's something there. Because Jerry has also mentioned a lot that Kelnick is twenty three. You know, he's so young. He's a guy that if he was coming out of college, he might have just been drafted, right, he would have been maybe drafted at age twenty one or twenty two. And this is perhaps his first full season in baseball. But because he has been doing it since high school, there's intense scrutiny and focus on him, and the timeline has been sped up so much further than perhaps a prospect like Kelnick is ready. You know, it's not linear. I keep saying this is what you know, di Poto and Hollander have said. But because they do, they say it a lot, and they say it on our air waves a lot that it's not always linear for guys. Kelnick showed great signs of progress at times throughout the season. This past season, the final month, I mean, the playoffs weren't great, but the final month he was a pretty valuable contributor. So if that can get pushed together in a continual string of it bats and then maybe a month or a quick start, that leads to that confidence that's the key for Kelnick. 00:39:37 Speaker 4: And yeah, we can go back to. 00:39:38 Speaker 3: The age thing, even though people don't want to hear it because it feels like he's been part of this team for a long time, but he's young and he still has time to figure it out. 00:39:47 Speaker 2: People forget he really only had one minor league season because he tore it up in Low A High A Double A in twenty nineteen twenty twenty with lost. He had six games in affiliated minor league ball in twenty twenty one before he was called up and that was kind of it. So he got some time back in TRIPAA the last two years and maybe that started to make up for some lost time for him. And if it has, that'd be great because we saw some of those adjustments that he made in September last year, which where like you said, he was a contributing piece of the offense along with I think he improved his defense a lot last year as well. I mean twenty twenty one, he wasn't a great defender last year. He really was when he was up in the majors, So I think there have been marginal improvements over time. But twenty twenty three it feels like could be the make or break year for him. 00:40:33 Speaker 4: And that's wow. That's a great point too. 00:40:35 Speaker 3: I think I have kind of harped on at times with young prospects, with Kelmen, specifically that the impact of twenty twenty and that lost season was so critical in lost development for these young players. And when you have a timeline and you're projecting something years in advance, and when the Mariners bring Jerry Kellnick in, hey, in their mind, we have a great player development staff. We have this process for him that this year he'll do this, and then in his first key full season here he'll get to do this well. 00:41:04 Speaker 4: And that's lost. 00:41:06 Speaker 3: And in twenty twenty, all of a sudden, you don't get any work, you don't get any live reps. And Kelnick expressed that frustration. I think in twenty twenty one he told Shannon Dreyer, who's part of our station and a key member of that written Mariners broadcast crew here every night on the pre and post game, he said, it's so frustrating to just be down there going through repetitive drill work. You don't get game experience. And for a young developing prospect, it's tough to overstate how detrimental that can be for lost development, So Kelnick had to deal with that. Maybe it stalled something key that hadn't been clicked yet or hadn't been uncovered that he was struggling with, and it has taken this long to build up to it. But that lost season it pushes everything back on the developmental scale for some guys. And for a guy like Julio so pre naturally gifted, might not have affected him. But for Jared Kelnick, who had a high school and travel baseball experience where the quality competition might not it might not have been what then he was used to or jumping into here at the majors and at the pro level, he needed that development, it seems like, and with that loss, it certainly is taking more time than people wanted. But I don't think we can just step by that and say, yeah, well twenty twenty happened. Ever, it happened for everyone, so it shouldn't be an excuse because it can be a big factor depending on where a player is in his timeline to develop. 00:42:24 Speaker 1: Last thing, Mike, before we get to our shortstop preview and talk essentially only about JB. Crawford because he's the only shortstop on the roster. They mentioned Taylor Tremmell alongside Jared Kelnick. Are you giving him any real shot of being the left handed part of that platoon? 00:42:40 Speaker 3: Ugh? Yeah, I don't know, And I think it comes down to how much he truly did develop. Jerry was very specific and saying left handed batters when he was talking about left field. He didn't say kell Neck. I mean he said Aj Pollock and then our young lefties. And at that media day they also mentioned how much work Tremill has put in at Drive Line, where JP Crawford worked out and where a lot of guys go. And I think the Mariners really trust what they can get out of that facility there and the development and the improvement they see from their guys. So if Taylor Tremille comes in, and remember he was a pretty highly talented prospect himself, if he did find something that just clicked, yeah, he can certainly be part of that. I mean, he's older than Kelnick, He's not this young bat anymore. 00:43:23 Speaker 4: That is gonna still have. 00:43:25 Speaker 3: So much untapped growth and potential. But if there's something that all of a sudden they were able to unlock, I think certainly at this point of the season where we're sitting here before spring trainings even began, before you see how a season plays out. It's not a fallacy to say that Taylor Tremill could be that left handed hitting piece of the left field platoon. 00:43:45 Speaker 1: This has been a really fun conversation, Mike. We really appreciate it. You can hear all of Mike's work. You can hear him in the afternoons producing Wyman and Bob on Seattle Sports seven to ten, on the seven to ten app or if you still have a radio for I know those things being phased out nowadays, but if you still have a radio, you can turn to your dial the seven ten. You can hear Mike on in the afternoons. You can find his work at Seattlesports dot com, and you also hear him on the Mariners Radio network upcoming in this twenty twenty three season. Mike, we really appreciate you coming on the podcast today. It was a very insightful conversation. 00:44:17 Speaker 3: You mean you guys don't still tune a radio in your cars. 00:44:20 Speaker 4: Oh, I'm doing that. 00:44:22 Speaker 3: I do. 00:44:22 Speaker 2: It's my job. 00:44:23 Speaker 3: No, I know they don't. Yeah, No, thanks, guys, A lot of fun. Had a great time, and it's fun that you know we're here. We're in February, so baseball starts soon. I mean the first spring training games at the end of the month, and then all of a sudden, at the end of March, the season here. 00:44:35 Speaker 4: The season's here. 00:44:36 Speaker 3: So when I'm looking at this dreary, wintery day here, it's a lot to look forward to. 00:44:42 Speaker 4: It's gonna be an exciting time. 00:44:44 Speaker 1: Thank goodness for the roof. Yeah, thanks right, that was good to hear from. Mike lefco of Seattle Sports and Seattlesports dot Calm. Hear him on the radio on seven ten am. You still have the old fashioned am radio in your car, turn dial to seven ten am. You hear him on seattlesports dot Com, the afternoon producer for Wyman and Bobby. You also hear him on the Mariners Radio network. Let's hear our shortstop preview now for the twenty twenty three season for the Mariners. Lyle a common theme here in twenty twenty three. I mentioned when we're previewing the other two positions, the depth that these positions is not great. So we get to this point where we're previewing shortstops and we have one name to talk about, one name, and that's it. It's JP Crawford at short for the Mariners in twenty twenty three, and I think it's a mixed bag of what we're expecting from JP in this upcoming season. 00:45:43 Speaker 2: It was just such an interesting tale for him last year because he lit the world on fire in the first month of the season. There were people through the first month of twenty twenty two putting out those shortstop rankings that you'll see on Twitter with the pretty graphics and all that, and there were multiple outlets that said JP was the best shortstop in baseball through a month. He was playing that well. His OPS through the first month of the season last year was at ten twenty three, and then the next highest in any month after that was six seventy six. He really did not swing a great bat after the month of April after such a promising start. Do the Mariners need him to put up a ten twenty three OPS all the time, No, of course not, but they do need him to at least be a replacement level hitter or slightly above that. 00:46:31 Speaker 1: He was a replacement level hitter by definition if you look at it this year, a one oh four WRC plus two forty three, average, three thirty nine on base three thirty six slugging. Wile believe it or not, he actually had a higher WRC plus in twenty twenty two than he did in twenty twenty one by one full point. We touched on it, or actually no, we didn't touch on it. So there's a couple good things that I like from JP Crawford. Let's start with this offensive profile. There are some likes what I like from what JP Crawford's approach has become in the big league level. He walks at a very near elite amount, and he doesn't strike out at a pretty elite level. We look at it. He's got an eleven percent point three percent walk rate in twenty twenty two and a thirteen point three percent k rate. That's good. The rest of his offensive profile is not good, no, I mean, and we're talking about exsit velocity, we're talking about his swing mechanics. We're talking about just the results on the field. These prolonged slumps that he would go into throughout the course of the season, all negative across the board. 00:47:38 Speaker 2: He's been doing a lot of work at drive line this winter. We've seen some videos of it. Do we think this could help transform them at least a little bit? 00:47:48 Speaker 4: Yeah? 00:47:48 Speaker 1: I think so. They love diving into mechanics. A funny thing I said, mechanics, I want to dive onto Twitter. When I was doing my research on this yesterday of JP and what necessarily wrong, it couldn't pinpoint one single thing. But Joe Doyle, who he had on a couple of weeks ago now, and Jason Churchill of Prospects Insider would always just say his offensive ceiling is just so limited by how his swing mechanics are. And I'm wondering how much JP at this point of his career would tweak them. If you watch JP in the plate lole, you can see it when he's got as bad above his head and he's ready to swing. His barrel is pointed like towards the pitcher and you know, point it up as well. It's got a long way to go to get into the strike zone and it doesn't help to hit the ball harder. It doesn't. And I think a lot of that comes. A lot of that is mechanics, and I hope that's what he was aiming for a drive line this year, Maybe something a little bit shorter, something a little bit sweeter. Something he said in his own words, was to eliminate those prolonged slumps throughout the course of the season. 00:48:51 Speaker 2: You have to wonder if that long swing has something to do with why he struggles with fastballs. Listen to these stats. When you go on Baseball Savant and you define a player and their offensive profile by their run value per year, as such dat does exist. It does so. Pitch by pitch. JP Crawford doesn't seem to have much of an issue with breaking balls. He hits change ups fairly well. He's had hills and valides with that in his career where he's succeeded against change ups and points where he doesn't, which is pretty normal. But you look at four seam fastballs that JP Crawford is seen in his career. His run value was negative five against four steamers in twenty nineteen, negative one in twenty twenty, negative seven in twenty twenty one, and negative four this past year. It's great that he hits off speed, but you've got to take advantage of fastballs. 00:49:43 Speaker 1: And it's not that he's not making contact against these pitches. As we mentioned his contact rate, his chase rate, his wifth rate all elite, all very elite. When it comes to actually getting the bat to the baseball. Now, it's not the right part of the bat because he doesn't barrel baseball at all, and a lot of that run value comes is putting a barrel on a fastball. What is the best way to produce runs, It is to barrel fastballs a because the eggs of velocity is cooked right into that pitch. The harder it's thrown, the harder it's coming out. So when you can get a barrel on a baseball like that, it makes your offensive profile that much more valuable. But JP doesn't do that, and I think that really hinders his offensive upside. 00:50:27 Speaker 2: And hopefully that's part of what he's been working on at drive Line, that they're compacting that swing a little bit to get them quicker to the baseball. Because again, he does not have to hit twenty five home runs. I don't think he's ever going to do that in his career personally, But if he could just turn some more singles into doubles and hit say, ten to twelve home runs a year, the Mariners would take that every day of the week. 00:50:52 Speaker 1: And the worst thing about the mechanics. As you said, it's not something you fixed during the season. Once you're in season, you're not tinkering with the guy's mechanics because that makes things worse. And the worst thing that could happen as you turn JP from a guy with a one oh four WRC plus into a guy like Abe Toro with a sixty two WRC plus and all of a sudden, his value bottoms out and you have a black hole at shortstop. JP managed to keep himself above replacement level player at shortstop with his offensive profile. The thing, the question I have low when I'm looking at this is JP Crawford is a valuable baseball player if he keeps his current offensive profile and plays the defense like he did last season. Last season, he was an above average defender at shortstop and collected three point three wins above replacement despite the same offensive profile. But his defense slipped this year, so his wins above replacement came down by a full one point three wins above replacement to just two wins above replacement. And you wonder, since defense is not something that ages well, especially shortstop position, can that value go back up? 00:52:05 Speaker 2: You hope so, And there were reports throughout a lot of the year that JP Crawford did battle injuries. So you hope he can get fully healthy for twenty twenty three and get back to the defense he used to play, because you look at when he won the goal Glove in twenty twenty he was one of the best defenders in baseball. Fast forward to twenty twenty two, he was one of the worst. And that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to drop off that far for a guy that's as good of a defender as JP is. 00:52:35 Speaker 1: Statcast doesn't really excuse me. Stat Cast does a really great job of breaking down defense. Wow, if you haven't, you get the chance go into Baseball Savant and really click around some of the defensive measurings they have and how they measure it. It's really phenomenal and something I managed to dig up here. When looking at JP Crawford's defense, you look at outs above Average JP Crawford, I'm qualifying him as the worst. He was by stackcast, the worst defensive shortstop in baseball this season. Okay, let me say that again. JP Crawford was the worst defensive shortstop in baseball. Outs above Average tabbed him at minus eleven for JP in five hundred and forty five attempts. There was one player worse than him at the position. But I'm gonna give this person a break because I don't believe he's a shortstop. Luis Garcia of the Nationals had minus thirteen outs above average in just two hundred and thirty eight attempts. So if you're keeping track at home, in less than half of JP's attempts, he was. He had two. He was two outs above average, worse than JP Crawford. What that tells me is that he's not a shortstop at all and should not be playing the position. So I'm gonna give him break. And JP Crawford's won a Gold Glove at the position. As much as we trast on gold gloves, JP has won a Gold Glove, and he deservedly so won a Gold Glove, so we hold him to a higher standard. So that brings me back to my point lyle of him being the worst full time defensive shortstop in baseball? Does that Like that doesn't shock you from what we've watched. 00:54:15 Speaker 2: So I knew his defense took a dip this past year. I didn't realize until we dove into the numbers how bad it had gotten because it didn't off the eye test. It didn't feel like he was the worst defender in baseball. But you look at the stackast, you look at the numbers he was in the second percentile and outs above average. He did not grade well at all as a shortstop defensively. 00:54:42 Speaker 1: There's some areas to look at two lyle when we look at this. I went so far to look at his outs above average by direction, and it was some interesting numbers. To say the least, JP Crawford was either minus two or minus three outs above average in every direct a shortstop. Every direction. He was minus going back, he was minus going to his right, he was minus going to his left, and he was minus going in. What that tells me is that's just bad defense. That's not you're bad at one direction. You're just bad at You have been subpar doing everything, and it accumulates to an overall bad defensive season. When we look at this, some guys are bad just going in one direction, which stuck out to me a lot and why some guys are graded poorly. But it's a little bit unfair because maybe they're just not suited for that position because they are so poor in one direction. An example, Boba Schet had negative seven outs above average this year the shortstop for the Blue Jays. He was negative tens outs above average going to his right aka into the hole at short, but he was either neutral or positive in all the three other directions forward to his left and back. Ahmed Rosario had negative ten outs above average this season for the Cleveland Guardians, but he was negative eleven going to his left total so positive everywhere else. Isaiah Kiner Fileffa was minus three going to or sorry, minus three overall, was minus ten going to his right, but was at least plus two or three in every other direction. So you can see these guys are affected by going one direction. They are bad going in one way that they are not comfortable doing, or they do not have the physical capability to do. JP was bad in all four directions and that is troubling to me. 00:56:38 Speaker 2: I think him and Perry Hill are going to have a lot to work on in the spring. 00:56:42 Speaker 3: One. 00:56:42 Speaker 2: We hope JP is healthy and fully ready to go in twenty twenty three. And we know Perry Hill is a phenomenal infield coach. I'm sure he knows that JP did not have his best defensive season. They know the Mariners are relying on JP heavily in twenty twenty three, so you can just hope when they get down to Arizona they can really work through some things to get him back to at least close to what he used to be, because if he can even be a slightly above league average defender, that boosts his value so much. 00:57:14 Speaker 1: Here's what I wonder about JP with his defense. We said, this is not something that ages, especially at shortstop. It does not. Statcash measured speed and arm strength for JP Crawford over the last three seasons, all three of those things has trended down. His arm strength from when he won a Gold Glove in twenty twenty was in the fifty fifth percentile, it has gone down to the forty third percentile and now the thirty six percentile. His speed has gone down from the sixty first percentile last season to the thirty eighth percentile this season. Two things that are pretty key at shortstop being quick, being fast into the hole, and firing off a good throat. At first, those numbers say he's trending in the wrong direction. 00:57:59 Speaker 2: Twenty three is going to be the real indicator you can hope for fans sake, for the team's sake that last year was due to some injuries that he battled through and that he can get healthy this year and improve some of that. But if he continues to trend downward or plateau from where his twenty twenty two was, that's not a good sign. Because the Mariners have not only invested a lot in JP with giving him an extension at the start of twenty twenty two, but they have passed on some blue chip shortstops, both in trade and free agency in each of the last two years because they believe in JP and if it works out, they'll be proven right. But twenty twenty three is a very very critical year for JP Crawford to prove his worth. 00:58:45 Speaker 1: To piggyback off of Lyle's point, MLB Network has been doing their top ten lists at every single position. If you want to see some of our beefs with those top ten lists, we've highlighted a couple of them on our TikTok page, our YouTube page, or Instagram reels page if you want to go check that out. At Marine Layer, they released their shortstop list. I don't have really have a problem with the shortstop list. It's a very good group, but seven of the top eight shortstops ranked by Major League by MLB Network were available at some point in the last three seasons. At some point they were available, whether it's free agency or trade, they were available, and the Mariners decided that none of them were going to be on this team and JP Crawford was going to be their shortstop instead. Just something I want to point out. 00:59:32 Speaker 2: They gave him the extension. So again, this is a very very critical year for JP Crawford, especially because if he gets injured and has to miss some time, there's not a lot behind him. Dylan Moore probably slides over to shortstop if that's the case, and has to fill some time there. But you look at the Mariners system, there's nobody knocking on the door. The Mariners have some very very good shortstops in their system, but none of them are anywhere close. Ian Selston, We've talked about him a bunch of the last couple weeks. He is seventeen years old. Cole Young, their first round pick from twenty twenty two, He's nineteen. Michael Arroyo, who's a highly touted prospect, is age eighteen and Axel Sanchez, who's starting to work his way up through the pipeline, is twenty years old. None of those guys are anywhere close. It is JP Crawford's job, so the Mariners are banking on him to have a good year. 01:00:24 Speaker 1: A thing to note with Dylan Moore too, I don't think Dylan Moore could handle being a full time shortstop. He is a career negative defender at shortstop. He's much better at second, He's much better in the corner outfield spots. I wouldn't be comfortable relying on Dylan Moore for an extended period time at shortstop. After Dylan Moore, it's Mason McCoy or Sam Haggerty. If you think Sam Haggerty could handle short but it's it's slim. It's slim pickens. 01:00:55 Speaker 2: If JP Crawford has to miss extended time this year, they would probably go out and trade for somebody, kind of like how they went and got Carlos Santana this past year. When ty Franz had to miss some time, they would probably have to go out and trade for somebody like that. Because you're right, you know, I'm a big Dylan Moore fan. I don't think shortstop is his best place to succeed, and I doubt unless he really lights the world on fire and triple A that Mason McCoy is gonna get a real chance at the big league level to play every day. 01:01:24 Speaker 1: Can Evan White play shortstop? 01:01:28 Speaker 2: A lefty shortstop? Could you imagine? I've always said that, I feel like a lefty low key could play second base. I don't think a lefty could play shortstop, but maybe second base. 01:01:40 Speaker 1: What about if you think of the concept of like going to your left I think that would be That would be fine. The biggest problem would be going into the hole at short that that would be the biggest issue. 01:01:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to spin around. It'd be too tough. 01:01:57 Speaker 1: Something to think about. Cause in conclusion, there is a lot riding on JP Crawford this year. He's going to be getting some more time off this year. Jerry Depoto and Scott Servis said they're going to try and get him off his feet more, keep him healthier, and hopefully boost his production as well. But if the Mariners are getting a net negative offensive performance out of JP while his defense continues to regress, there's gonna be some questions over the course of the season. Whether JP is the guy at shortstop, it is not set in stone in any sense of the matter. 01:02:33 Speaker 2: Long term, that's definitely the case. JP Crawford is certainly going to be a storyline entering twenty twenty three. He'll be an interesting guy to watch in spring training when the team gets there. Okay, TJ, let's wrap up the show. Let's speak your mind. 01:02:47 Speaker 3: Speak your mind. 01:02:48 Speaker 2: Spot. 01:02:52 Speaker 4: That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. 01:03:00 Speaker 1: Thinking about this week, I have a big one that came out the day I think it was the day our show published last week. On Wednesday, Netflix came out and said they are introducing anti password sharing concepts or rules. So now your device, you're going to set a home Wi Fi network for whenever you log onto Netflix, and your device needs to connect to your home Wi Fi network once a month, and if it doesn't, your your account gets blocked. Your login gets blocked from accessing Netflix. So you can know no longer watch Netflix if you were not in your home Wi Fi address. So someone like me who still watches Netflix on his parents' Netflix account doesn't won't be able to watch any of his favorite Netflix shows because of this technology introduced by Netflix I would like to announce I'm taking my talents to h Bomax. 01:04:02 Speaker 2: I think a lot of people are gonna be off the Netflix train because of this. I mean exactly, if you're somebody like you or me, or a college kid who uses their parents' Netflix account and you're in a different state, but they won't let you watch Netflix, how is that attractive to the consumer. It's not. People are gonna start using other outlets. 01:04:28 Speaker 1: The way I heard it, put is the only thing stopping people from just going on the internet and pirrating these shows is password sharing where Netflix still gets a still gets their revenue from their accounts, but their accounts are more shared. So now that they're going to be putting in all these stops, what's gonna stop people from just going online like they do with the NFL, like they do with the NBA, like they do with baseball, and just work around it and find these shows on some website that's not entirely legal, but you can still find the shows you want to watch. There's nothing stopping that now, yeah. 01:05:04 Speaker 2: Or people are just gonna start watching Hulu or start watching a HBO Max like you said. I wonder if the ratings on some of these shows go down on Netflix if the shows themselves try to opt out and take their programming to a different outlet. 01:05:20 Speaker 1: I'm just most bummed because I'm I'm a big fan of Netflix original series, and I won't be able to watch it if well, I'm blocked out of Netflix because I'm not not a home Eventually, I'll have my own Netflix account. I will make enough money to pay for my own Netflix account, but I don't have to worry about that right now. So I'm a little disappointed that this is what Netflix decided. I honestly don't think this is gonna make Netflix that much more money in the long run. So yeah, I don't know. Hot seat Netflix. 01:05:51 Speaker 2: Okay, I have two this week, I'll read I'll say one because I think you have another as well. I cannot stand this Burger King commercial for another day. I like it's driving me insane. It's to the point where it's on TV all the time. I can't get it out of my head. I know they probably love it because this jingle of theirs has made their business absolutely skyrocket. You're seeing people on social media saying, yeah, I finally caved and went and got Burger King. Not only have I not done that? But again, this commercial is driving me insane. I can't go a day without hearing the jingle, like, I'm sorry if to if I'm offending the people that are very pro burger king commercial. I can't do it anymore. 01:06:37 Speaker 1: Can you wait for the super Bowl? I mean, the whopper commercial for the super Bowl is going to be unbelievable. 01:06:44 Speaker 2: Do you think they're gonna have a new one out? 01:06:46 Speaker 1: Yes, it'll have the jingle in it, but I think it'll look a little different. 01:06:53 Speaker 2: If there's a skit involved and it's entertaining, maybe, But just hearing the song over and over and over like it's making me lose some sanity here. I can't do it. 01:07:08 Speaker 1: You know what, It's called good marketing. I think they've done a good job with that. 01:07:12 Speaker 2: I think they have. I mean, they've absolutely done a good job with it. Because what was the last time that a jingle in a commercial really resonated like this with everybody? The only ones that the only ones that popped into my head was remember the old sleep Country jingle? Like that one? 01:07:28 Speaker 1: Yeah? I remember that one. Yeah. I'm trying to think of some other ones, but I can't. There's some car ones too. 01:07:34 Speaker 2: Remember, yeah, like there's the one eight seven seven cars per kids won. Or I remember when Jack in the Box did their jump BACKO. You remember that they kind of had a jingle for that. Mm not really okay, so that one not as much. But yeah, this Burger King one, it's been good marketing because it's absolutely off the charts. 01:07:55 Speaker 1: Whopper Whopper, Whopper Whopper Junior double Chicken. I think I got that. I got most of that down. 01:08:01 Speaker 2: Now you're gonna drive me crazy too. I don't even have to have my TV on anymore. 01:08:06 Speaker 1: Should we put it as the autro music for this podcast? Will we get copyrighted? 01:08:12 Speaker 2: Probably? 01:08:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, we probably would, And we don't do marketing for free. Sorry, Burger King. Even though we've spent the last five minutes talking about the Burger King Whaffer jingle, my second speak your mind to this week, we're gonna go right back to the NBA. This league it I cannot believe like how easy it is for them on Super Bowl Week to manufacture drama and make themselves the spotlight during a regular season, which is as boring as it's ever been. Kyrie Irving decides just in the middle of the week after a random blowout to Boston. He decides to just you know, you know what, I'm done playing here. 01:08:51 Speaker 4: I'm out. 01:08:52 Speaker 1: And earlier today he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. I have to salute the NBA. No other league like them can make a story line out of absolutely nothing and dominate the headlines for a week. 01:09:08 Speaker 2: I didn't think, of all places he was going to the Mavericks. That was out of nowhere. When the news broke. 01:09:14 Speaker 1: It was mostly due to the return they got. 01:09:17 Speaker 2: That is true. 01:09:19 Speaker 1: We assumed it was gonna be the Lakers, but the Lake what are what are the Lakers gonna offer? They don't they don't have anything to offer. They weren't gonna offer what Dallas offered. So it is just funny that the whole Kyrie Irving thing. I don't know why any organization in the NBA wouldever trade for Kyrie Irving with any serious aspiration to win anything. The dude drags down every franchise he goes to. Just look at his trail, look at it. It tells the whole story, and I think it. I think it's just absolutely insane that this happens. But Kyrie Irving is he manages to make storylines like the NBA out of absolutely nothing. 01:10:02 Speaker 2: I guess if you're the Mavericks and you're trying to go all in for half a season with him, maybe it makes sense and just put up with him for a short amount of time. But the reports that are being dropped saying Kyrie Irving wants four years for two hundred million next year, I don't know what team in the right mind could give him that after he consistently just causes turmoil at every stop of his career. 01:10:25 Speaker 1: So let's list off the guys you couldn't make it work with lebron kd James Harden, Am I missing anyone? Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown? Am I missing anybody? 01:10:39 Speaker 2: Kevin Love? I guess when he was good? 01:10:41 Speaker 1: Kevin Love? Yeah, I mean I dah Man, I don't know Kyrie Irving credit I mean many. Every time you think Kyrie's quieted down and he's gotten the drama out of his life, he's like, Nope, back in front. 01:10:57 Speaker 2: He knows how to draw headlines. Okay, my final speak your mind for this week a little bit of a different tone, but I thought i'd give him a nice shout out. So my brother's leaving this week because he is starting active service in the Air Force. By the time this podcast is out, he'll be out of Seattle. He'll be on the drive down to Del Rio, Texas, where he's going to be stationed at. It's called Laughlin Air Force Base. So Del Rio, Texas is pretty much down right by the border. It's three hours from Austin and it's like two and a half hours from San Antonio. It's really in the middle of nowhere. So I guess to put in perspective the time you've spent in Corvallis, TJ. Or the time I've spent in Dayton, it probably wasn't like those two cities are probably like living in Chicago compared to this. But for my brother's sake, he's really excited about it because he's always loved flying planes. He's doing what he's passionate about. So I'm excited for him. And he's an avid listener of this podcast. He's a big Mariners fan, so I wanted to give him a nice shout out. 01:11:56 Speaker 1: I think he's going to be significantly busier than I am here in Corvallis, flying planes, much much more important, much more important things to do. Than spewing nonsense into the microphone. 01:12:07 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:12:08 Speaker 2: Same here. I'll just say he's going to be out save in the world or you know, things of that sort. So yeah, I'm happy for him. He's been flying planes for a long time. He's been doing it since he was about sixteen years old, and now he's going to go do it for a career, so that's pretty cool. 01:12:22 Speaker 1: Most of those air Force bases too, have have pretty good setups for people of it. It's you know, it's like a it's a standard town for the most part. He'll he'll have lots of open country to fly over, that's for sure. 01:12:34 Speaker 2: Exactly Now, how many pictures he'll be able to take of scenic you know, scenic land below that I can't promise, but you're right, he will definitely have room to fly. So of course, best of luck to him, and you know, obviously here we wish him all the best because aside from being my brother, more importantly, of course, he's a listener of the pod, so we always appreciate it. 01:12:57 Speaker 4: Well. 01:12:57 Speaker 2: With that, that just about wraps up this edition of the Marine Layer podcast. As always, if you want to listen to our full form podcast, you can do so on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, and you can find the video form on YouTube. If you want to follow us on social media, you'll find us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod for TJ Matthewson. This has been Lyle Goldstein. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you next week. 01:14:00 Speaker 3: Si