Episode 141: Do The Mariners Have Buyers Remorse On Mitch Haniger?

[00:00:00] Welcome to Episode 141 of the Marine Layer Podcast. We have our two Mariners storylines. We'll answer the question, do the Mariners have buyers remorse on the Mitch Haniger trade? We'll also take a look at the under-the-radar Mariners in field defense.

[00:00:13] We'll go down on the farm and pick out a standout Mariners minor leaguer. We have our Russell Wilson umpire of the week and we'll close out the show with Speak Your Mind. This show is brought to you by our friends over at Pagotas Puppetty 5 over in Kirkland.

[00:00:27] You want to go watch the games, you want to hang out with your friends, you want to play some pools, some darts, get some great drinks, everything you could ask for. It's over there.

[00:00:34] So get out, get over to Pagotas Puppetty 5, go spend some time with your friends, go watch the Mariners games and if you go during happy hour, drink specials are $3 and $4. You're not going to find better deals than that.

[00:00:46] Money through Friday, 2-6pm, happy hour, 3-4 dollar drinks, get out, get some happy hour specials and then go watch the Mariners games. That's all over at Pagotas Puppetty 5 in Kirkland. Your reminder, stay on top of all of our stuff.

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[00:01:14] And we welcome you to this episode of the MarineLayer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network recording here on Thursday evening June 27th and I have to ask you, Lyle. By the time this podcast comes out, how will you have felt that you have gone 48 hours

[00:01:44] without having to watch the Seattle Mariners baseball team play a game on the road? Relaxed, refreshed, recharged, geared up again. I'll tell you what, these off days aren't just for players. Fans need off days too and I got to say it was much needed.

[00:02:04] On the episode earlier this week on Wednesday, we did our segment on the home road splits and trying to figure out an answer. Today, here on Thursday as of recording this episode will be out on Friday, we posted the clip of that.

[00:02:20] And the early returns, Lyle, on fan theory. So we tried to go into the numbers. We tried to find a reason for why the Mariners are so good at home and not quite as good on the road.

[00:02:34] Now, I don't want, I'm not going to name anything specific, but I have seen Lyle. Do you want to hear a theory from the fans on what the Mariners are doing? Sure. Well, some people think they might be cheating at home.

[00:02:51] Well, maybe it runs in the A.L. West. If that's what fans are thinking. Did Kyle Tucker send those plans over? No, Kyle Tucker's not a cheater people. He wasn't, he wasn't on the cheating Astros. He's Kyle Tucker's free of trash can banging.

[00:03:08] Therefore when he's in Seattle, there's no ill will, which by the way, the other thing we proposed on Wednesday show, I was talking about what I do if the Mariners somehow trade for him. I said, I would hike Mount Everest.

[00:03:23] And then we realized, all right, maybe that's a little farfetched. And I said, Mount Rainier. So we learned about Mount Rainier that you have to get trained and certified to climb it and you have to do it in a group. You can't just show up.

[00:03:35] So that might not work either. Did you look up how much cost to go up Everest? I actually don't know. I know it's expensive. I don't know exactly how much it is. Did you look it up?

[00:03:45] No, but I can try and look it up right here as we're speaking. Can we get an over under? So before you hit enter, I'm going to guess that it will cost you. Over $15,000. To get up them out. You would be right. It's significantly higher, significantly higher.

[00:04:05] So it's a wide range. It says climbers can expect to spend anywhere between $33,000 and $200,000 depending on the type of expedition. So I know I know for a fact you can spend a lot of money and at every base camp, I forget the guy's names.

[00:04:23] You always have like a helper getting you up the mountain that'll carry your stuff for you. But they'll set you up these for the right price. They'll set you up these insane tents that have like heating that you could probably like bathe as well.

[00:04:39] And it's like, it's crazy what obviously what money will buy you going up Mount Everest. There's nothing like climbing up a mountain just for you to like sit in the most well formed tent of all time because you spend a bunch of money.

[00:04:52] So that's what you could do. You think about it, think of it as an investment. So I've got to say, KTuck may have to lend me some of his contract money to now do that. If he buys it on this idea, then we're talking again all

[00:05:03] of a sudden. But if we're going to rephrase and kind of tinker with the idea of what it could be instead, because we did open it up to some fans, we got a really good idea about again, what could I do as a payback if the Mariners trade

[00:05:20] for Kyle Tucker? Somebody suggested, while you have to ride either the Monorail or the light rail in Seattle for eight hours straight and do part of a podcast on the light rail. And they said, TJ could join you for part of it.

[00:05:31] I said, if the Mariners traded for Kyle Tucker, I do that in a heartbeat. Somebody also suggested that I run a marathon. They suggest they suggested a lot of things, but I would like to shout out all a bunch of our fans and a bunch of our

[00:05:43] listeners who either listened to the podcast, saw the clip of it on social media or both started to respond and said, Hey, if you go through with this, Lyle, I'll join you. And you know what? That sounds awesome.

[00:05:57] This podcast is actually about to turn into Rocky too, where Rocky runs the steps with all those people before his second fight with Apollo Creed will blog the whole thing of me doing whatever grueling activity I do with a bunch of

[00:06:07] our fans coming with us and it'll turn into an awesome blog and basically say we recreated Rocky too for Kyle Tucker. Is there a favorite in the clubhouse of what you're going to do? That light rail thing sounds like an interesting challenge.

[00:06:23] That is the type of challenge I feel like people might watch. You see some good thumbnail on a YouTube video. I spend an entire day riding the light rail or something like that. You know, I still like the idea of you climbing a mountain

[00:06:37] and I think there's a better option for you. If we're going to if we're going to test you but also have a realistic option that people could join you at. My dad suggested Mount Si. It's close. It's a north bend. It's not that far away.

[00:06:54] A big chunk of our listenership is in the Seattle area and the Seattle surrounding area. So anyone who wants to join Lyle on a four mile, four thousand foot elevation hike to the top of Mount Si, that I think we could get a bigger group for.

[00:07:11] And if you think, oh, four miles piece of cake. Mr. Doesn't hike. Trust me, you'll be gasping for air for that. I think that would be a good one. I think I think if we're going along the lines of physical challenge,

[00:07:26] I think that would be a good one and it stays in line with what we originally proposed. I actually do like that idea because again, it could get other people involved. You don't have to sign up for it or train for it in advance.

[00:07:37] You can just show up and do it. I can buy into that idea. I'll hike Mount Si and anybody who wants to join. Welcome to join. So there's our there's our thumbnail for the vlog. Kyle MLB superstar forces us to do four mile hike up a mountain.

[00:07:52] Yeah, I like that. There we go. So this is what the off day does. We throw around ideas of hiking mountains, riding the light rail in an effort to make a trade happen that has a

[00:08:05] that has a, you know, half a percent chance of happening if that or other people come out of the woodwork and say the Mariners cheated home. So there's it's like all over the place. I'm the optimist on this podcast. I'm going higher than that.

[00:08:21] I'll say four percent chance they trade for Kyle Tucker. Four percent. Wow. That's actually high. Well, I'm put. Listen, the Astros still aren't over 500. So they are only four and a half games back. Correct.

[00:08:37] But if they do not keep up this pace of winning, which I don't think they will in all seriousness, I just don't think they have the pitching that they're going to start to lose some games again, and then they'll fall

[00:08:45] back again, and then all of a sudden they'll have to be thinking about selling again. And if Kyle and if Kyle Tucker is not going to get a contract like listen, listen people in like a slightly, slightly more serious note,

[00:08:58] Kyle Tucker could actually get traded if the Astros don't start winning. Now, is it to the Mariners? Well, we're trying to will that into existence here. But the idea of him getting traded if the Astros don't keep winning like could actually happen.

[00:09:09] It's just we are trying to will it to happen in our own division. So the Mariners acquire the great, the great Kyle Tucker. I just think I get a chuckle at thinking about it's like, OK, so the probability it happens is four percent yet.

[00:09:22] The Astros are only four and a half games back right now. The numbers are almost equal. No, well, they're going to fall further back. It's fine. Well, yeah, I hope so. All the Mariners are back at home. So yes, obviously they're going to fall further back.

[00:09:35] So we'll see. Here we go. We'll see. This is yeah. This is this is what this podcast does, people. When we have off days, we got to find things to do. And what do we do? We cook up hypotheticals like this and it's fun.

[00:09:48] Yes, it is really fun. Let's get into our Mariners storylines and let's get into a discussion that we had earlier this offseason that we can revisit right now. Let's fast forward from when the trade happened on January 5th, the Mitch Hannigar for Robbie Ray trade

[00:10:06] where Anthony Desclifani and Mitch Hannigar come to Seattle and Robbie Ray gets sent back to San Francisco. Are the Mariners having buyers remorse on this trade? There's going to be a lot to break down about this. Let's at least start with Mitch Hannigar's numbers

[00:10:23] just to give people the baseline. We are currently almost at the end of June. Mitch Hannigar is hitting two thirteen with a six oh eight OPS, a seventy nine WRC plus and a negative 0.9 F war. He has by war been one of the worst qualified players in baseball.

[00:10:43] This is like it's unfortunate because I want to say I think each of us love Mitch Hannigar. The city loves Mitch Hannigar. People were fired up when he was traded back here because people he's been a fan favorite for a long time.

[00:10:55] But if you're just looking at the numbers, it has been a really, really tough go of it for Mitch Hannigar this year. I went back and I listened to the conversation we had about this trade on January 5th when this trade happened.

[00:11:08] Luke Rayleigh was acquired on the same day. There's the double trade day where Robbie Ray goes away. And we see in I say that as for anyone who who's a new listener and didn't listen to that episode and wants to say that we're talking in hindsight with this.

[00:11:26] It because it's very easy for us halfway through the season after a trade happens to say failure. Obviously, why did they why did they even bother doing that? Like why did the Mariners bother trading for Jorge Blanco? It's really easy to say that.

[00:11:40] But you and I were kind of right in the middle of this trade. I think we got it pretty right on what would have like what required this trade to be successful and what we had the feeling of when that trade happened.

[00:11:54] Ultimately, remember, while the Mariners made that day about acquiring two major league corner outfield bats while shedding some future salary, it was essentially a salary dump of what that Mitch Hannigar trade was. The money is about equal in that trade.

[00:12:11] For overall, remember, the Mariners save $9.5 million next year and then $25 million off of Robbie Ray's contract in 2026 by acquiring Mitch Hannigar. The problem is over those next two seasons, all of a sudden the idea of Robbie Ray sounds pretty good right now with where the Mariners are at

[00:12:32] and where they're at health-wise in the rotation. On top of the fact that the return package in that trade for Robbie Ray might neither will be on... odds are neither will be on your roster at the end of this season. Anthony Desclifani was traded for Jorge Blanco.

[00:12:48] He had flexor tendon surgery. He would have been out anyway. So that would have already been a scratch whether he got traded or not. And the Mitch Hannigar right now, you said one of the worst among qualified players by F4, he is the worst. The single worst one.

[00:13:06] And it's unfortunate. Again, we don't say this happily. Everybody roots for Mitch Hannigar to be great because he loved here for a reason. But objectively, he has provided no value at the plate in the field or on the base pads.

[00:13:19] Now there's three parts of this I want to dissect. So let's remember that before we officially wrap this segment up whenever we do. There's the rotation piece of this and what Robbie could do. There was the reasons behind the trade happened

[00:13:32] and there's what the Mariners could have done instead. But since you're mentioning Robbie Ray being in the rotation, let's start with that. Brian Wu just went on the IL again. He's really had the injury bug for a lot of the first half of the year.

[00:13:44] Having Robbie Ray still in this organization, I know he hasn't officially returned yet. He's making another rehab start here on Friday. He's getting really close. To have Robbie Ray on the brink of returning with the possibility to fill Brian Wu's spot

[00:13:58] while he's out would do a lot for this roster. And if all six guys were healthy at once, you could put Bryce Miller in the bullpen. If that's the guy you decide you want in the bullpen, you put one of them in the bullpen.

[00:14:11] And then you've got a surplus of pitching that would do you wonders and you'd have what is still on paper. I mean, they have the best rotation in baseball without Robbie Ray. With Robbie Ray, it only makes it that much better. And I gotta say this,

[00:14:28] because I think a lot of people have a very misconstrued idea of what Robbie Ray was and who he was. I wanna give people a reminder here because I think a lot of people remember Robbie Ray for one mistake pitch that he made

[00:14:42] in what was the highest leverage situation possible. And it went by the wayside. It did not go the Mariners way. I mean, we all know that. And if you need us to say it, we're talking about Jordan Alvarez. Robbie Ray in his 2022 season as a whole

[00:14:57] because he essentially didn't pitch in 23. He made like three innings of one start and then he was done. He had the Tommy John. In 2022, Robbie Ray at a bad April. That's facts. His first start in May, he was bad.

[00:15:09] After that from May 6th until the end of the year, Robbie Ray at a 355 ERA in 2022. He had a 338X FIP. If you wanna narrow the lens even just a little bit more through the end of August, Robbie Ray had a 334 ERA from the time of May 6th

[00:15:29] till the end of August and a 310X FIP. Don't get it twisted people. I know he had one tough moment in a moment that was not comfortable or regular for the guy anyway and pitching out of the bullpen on a whim. This was a very dependable starting pitcher

[00:15:45] the Mariners had. He might not have been a Cy Young winner. He was a very reliable starting pitcher and a good starting pitcher. So don't get misconstrued about what Robbie Ray was when he was here. We can take the Mitch Hannigar part out of this trade

[00:15:58] for a second. I want people listening. I want people to ask themselves this question when thinking about this trade. For the rest of the season right now, at this point knowing Brian Woo's health, would you rather have Robbie Ray in your rotation or Brian Woo in the rotation?

[00:16:17] I mean, the health factor plays it. Well, the health factor is going to play into it with both of them. Because Robbie Ray is still recovering from Tommy John. It will. But I mean this is a tough question for me to answer

[00:16:29] because again I just I love watching Brian Woo pitch and I know when he's at his best as we've all seen this year. He's awesome. But if you're factoring in the fact that, you know it's been hard for him to get stretched out this year.

[00:16:41] If that's your answer, then sure maybe you lean a little bit more toward Robbie Ray just because he can go what you expect would be deeper into games once he is fully back from this Tommy John surgery. So I don't know if I necessarily say

[00:16:57] I'd absolutely rather have Ray over Woo but if you're answering the question of the health piece of it and the working into games piece of it, like that's a fair take to have. I don't know if I'm on one side or the other with this necessarily

[00:17:14] but I'm not confident even after Brian Woo comes back that he makes every single start and that makes people nervous. We're at this point right now where people are saying that the Mariners need to go out at the trade deadline and trade for a starter.

[00:17:30] Well, it would have been great if that starter was already in your organization. If Logan Evans had thrown 170 innings in college last year, then maybe you were having a different discussion right now and you have another option but people are like it, the fact that people are asking

[00:17:47] for a quality major league starter as a potential option at the trade deadline that will cost a lot. These things aren't cheap. If you're acquiring a non-rental starting pitcher at the deadline who's any semblance of good, that's it's gonna cost you a lot and that could those resources

[00:18:07] could have gone to your offense as well but that's where you said, okay, well we put those resources into the offense in the off season and those resources hadn't paid off. So who's a better pitcher between when Brian Wu gets back and Robbie Ray this season?

[00:18:26] I would actually lean Brian Wu. Who's gonna make more starts? Wouldn't be surprised if it's Robbie Ray. Robbie Ray until he had Tommy John was the cleanest bill of health in Major League Baseball. The cleanest, he didn't miss starts period.

[00:18:39] This was the first injury blip of his career and you could be pretty confident that now that guys come back from Tommy John more consistently and better than ever that he would be fine. He'd be capt innings wise but so is Wu. He's the most capt innings guy

[00:18:56] arguably in Major League Baseball. Maybe not the most, but one of them for sure. So that entire discussion and I think that's right about upside-wise you might rather have Wu if you're thinking about the dependability ray. So let us know what you think in the YouTube comments

[00:19:13] about that because I'm sure everybody has a different take on it but that's kind of phase one of this conversation about what it would have done for the rotation. Now there's phase two and three about I wanna kinda turn back the clock

[00:19:25] and get back to January here when this trade happened because here's what I remember, us included like we're not, I mean we were definitely in this boat too. People were fired up for Mitch Hanegger to be back in town. Absolutely fired up

[00:19:40] and people weren't exactly sad to see Robbie Rago and again, I think a lot of fans out there have a misconstrued perception of him in terms of who he was because he missed all of 2023 essentially had a really bad moment to end 2022 but easily forget he was actually

[00:19:57] a very dependable starter for about five months of the year in 22. Was this, I know part of this is gonna be in hindsight but was Mitch Hanegger the most ideal fit for this roster? I mean even within their payroll constraints, was this the most ideal fit?

[00:20:18] There's part of me that wonders that look, like fans went through the ringer this off season. In December people were put through hell with the RSN news, they weren't spending money, they were cutting payroll, they traded Jared Kalnick. You know we found out they essentially

[00:20:33] made no run at Shohei Otani even if most of you thought he wasn't gonna get signed I think people expected the Mariners were gonna at least try and do their best and it doesn't really seem like they did. So all of that, like people were really mad.

[00:20:46] Like it was as toxic and as angry as I've seen this fan base maybe ever but then that Mitch Hanegger trade happens in January and it's this feel good story and he comes back to Seattle and people are upbeat. I almost wonder, by no means am I saying

[00:21:06] they made this trade to please fans but I'm more wondering from the fan's perspective if the fact of the nostalgia of bringing Mitch Hanegger back maybe clouded the judgment of what he could possibly be because everybody remembers Mitch Hanegger as one of the thumpers and anchors

[00:21:28] in the Mariners offense. Mitch Hanegger barely played 60 games a season ago and he put up a 73 WRC plus. Was there not some writing on the wall there? I know part of this is hindsight but some. There could have been 33 is a decent age to drop off it.

[00:21:45] It's usually sometime from 31 to 34, 35 where if a player is gonna drop off and not have like a David Ortiz level ride off into age 40 then that's gonna happen then and usually it's pretty sharp and the Mariners have seen it. The first two months of this year

[00:22:02] it looked like Mitch Garver was dealing with the lack of bat speed along with his other adjustments and another guy who's also 33 years old. Both Mitch's are 33 years old. Mitch Garver however has adjusted and done very well in June. Colton Long last year, Lyle was 32.

[00:22:18] The Mariners required him and he looked every bit of a player who just didn't have it anymore and hasn't played this year. He's cut, he's gone. He's at a baseball right now. AJ Pollock, how old was AJ Pollock last year? 34, 35? Right. He was in the mid 30s.

[00:22:35] He had already been declining and then the Mariners got the worst event. So this age is not surprising that it dropped off. I think the Mariners might have thought they know the work ethic of Mitch Hanniger. They know how dedicated he is to his craft

[00:22:49] and Ryan Divas talks about it all the time. No one takes better care of themself than Mitch Hanniger so they thought that and we mentioned this by the way when we talked about it back when they made this trade that his injuries last year were more flukey

[00:23:03] than they were of a deteriorating body because one of his injuries last year that kept him on a long time was a fractured forearm on a hit by pitch. Well, again, you can't control something like that from happening. So you imagine, okay, even though Mitch Hanniger

[00:23:16] played part of the time in 2022, he was still an above average hitter and at the time that's all the Mariners needed. They wanted somebody to pair with Domkan Zone in the outfield that swings a right-handed bat would you take the 2022-113 WRC Plus of Mitch Hanniger

[00:23:32] in the outfield against left-handed pitchers with solid defense? I think that's what the Mariners thought they were getting and it was now a misrepresentation. The PR is nice, it's good because the Mariners really needed good PR in the offseason and they got it by acquiring Mitch Hanniger.

[00:23:48] But baseball wise, if you're able to convince yourself and you check the boxes to make it make sense for yourself that this was the right move, then I understand it. But it hasn't worked out. Now, if we're gonna talk about the other part of this

[00:24:04] which I mentioned at the beginning, part of the reason why it is a PR is because they essentially had to salary dump Robbie Ray in an effort to save more money and free themselves up in the future. The Mariners, I think at least a tiny inkling

[00:24:18] made this trade because they didn't know what their finances would look like in 2025 and 2026 when Robbie Ray was gonna be doing $25 million, saving the $9.5 million next year and then the 25 million two years from now knowing that your starting rotation is gonna get more expensive,

[00:24:35] your catcher Cal Raleigh's gonna get more expensive and that doesn't include adding anyone else outside of the organization while not knowing what your income source will be. So they have an eye on that too and we rightfully said it at the time that's what that is.

[00:24:51] So there's a lot of factors when it goes into analyzing this trade in both in a baseball sense and outside the baseball sense. There is a lot of factors but that also brings me into phase three and the last part of this that I wanna talk about

[00:25:07] and it's right online with what you just explained and why the move was made and the Mariners not being sure of their budgets. This ties back to what I said a few minutes ago was this the ideal fit of a bat for them to acquire in Mitch Hannigan.

[00:25:24] I'm not talking about them and going and getting Shohei. Like obviously like within their constraints. I still wonder, and here's why I wonder this. If you really wanted to get Robby Ray's contract off the books, if that's what it was about

[00:25:38] and you wanted to shed even more payroll and you just didn't think Ray was gonna be a fit here long term, fine. If you had just shedded Robby Ray's contract where you would essentially traded him to the Giants, not gotten a lot back.

[00:25:52] I mean, that probably wouldn't have been a great look. You might've had to send a prospect too, but yeah. Sure. So say you just wanted to get his contract off the books but it freed you up to go make a move for an impact bat.

[00:26:07] Somebody that is of a higher caliber would have cost it a little bit more whether it was in a trader free agency but would have significantly added to the lineup of this ball club. Like really been an impact outfield bat. It's possible, like they could have done that

[00:26:23] and there could have been guys that they went out and acquired that would have really made the difference. And if that was the case, we'd be having a different conversation right now. It's they got rid of Ray's contract to bring in player X and he's significantly healthy often

[00:26:35] but had you kept Robby Ray and held on to that contract but still felt like you needed a bat. I still think they could have gone out and done something else. And here's what I mean. I'm gonna give a couple examples here.

[00:26:50] Tommy Pham would have cost you one million US American dollars. Tommy Pham was not signed into the regular season when he took a minor league deal with the Chicago White Sox. If you really wanted to go get a bat for cheap you could have gotten Tommy Pham.

[00:27:10] I'll give you a couple more examples. Now this one is extreme but the point still stands. For one year and $1 million, Jurex and Prophar is playing for the San Diego Padres. Younger, a little bit more athletic, can play a few more positions. And now that's the extreme.

[00:27:30] That's the extreme one because nobody expected him to do. He was bad last year. Nobody expected him to do what he's doing right now but I'm just giving you another example or the final one if you had kept Ray but found 10 million or so in the budget

[00:27:47] to go make one more move. I'll use this example. Harrison Bader signed a one year, 10 and a half million dollar contract with the Mets this off season. Harrison Bader has a 113 WRC plus striking out less than 20% of the time

[00:28:00] and is also racked up 1.5 F war here on June 27th. He has five outs above average in the outfield. So he is playing great defense. He's not striking out. He's hitting and he didn't cost a lot. There were other options out there

[00:28:16] where if you felt like you needed a right-handed bat in the outfield that wasn't gonna be that expensive. Okay, Pro Fars mostly lefty. Is he a switch hitter? I think he's a switch hitter. He is. Yeah, so point being, if you wanted a right-handed bat in the outfield

[00:28:32] like there were other guys you could have gone out and got and I know a lot of this is in hindsight but it just makes me again think back were there more baseball sound moves that could have been made here? I don't know.

[00:28:47] And I just feel like the injuries and the low WRC plus for Hannagher last year, maybe it was riding on the wall and we know he's been injured a lot of his career. So had you kept Robbie Ray, there were still options out there.

[00:29:00] Again, what the Mariners needed out of Mitch Hannagher this year was for him to play defense and for him to hit lefties. That's what the Mariners needed. Now there were some injuries at the start of the season. The offense was underperforming. Mitch got off to a hot start.

[00:29:14] He probably played more than he should. Mitch Hannagher is one of the worst this year, has been one of the worst outfield defenders in baseball and he has 20 WRC plus against lefties. When you ask him to do two things

[00:29:27] and he does those things worse than just about anybody, it's a little bit hard to predict judging that he had never been that bad against those qualifiers in his life. But you're right, it could have been you could have been seeing the riding

[00:29:45] on the wall, maybe we should not be acquiring 33 year old off injured players, even if they're fan favorites. So is Harrison Bader not currently doing exactly what the Mariners wanted Mitch Hannagher to do? He's playing great defense. He's been about a 110 to 115 WRC plus guy.

[00:30:02] He's already surpassed his war to money ratio, because $8 million is worth one war in baseball these days. And Harrison Bader's already at one and a half wins above replacement, basically halfway through the season. That's exactly what you were hoping to get.

[00:30:17] So yes, I'm just looking at other options and saying well there were other things out there that could have done. Okay so Harrison Bader's $10 million. If you sign Harrison Bader, is Robbie Ray still on the roster or are you dumping Robbie Ray in this still?

[00:30:33] Because then they might not be able to acquire Jorge Polanco. Which to some people would say, okay. Well but what if you still get Descalfani's contract off the books? Cause that helped a lot. It did but. Ray for Hannagher, again Ray for Hannagher was net neutral.

[00:30:53] That didn't change the payroll that much. I think getting Descalfani's contract off the books helped them get Polanco. Yeah. No yeah, you're right. So yeah, they technically could have. But still in that sense then there would have been no Jorge Polanco. If Ray stays on the roster

[00:31:13] and they sign Harrison Bader, there'd be no Polanco. Now I think you and I still think Polanco is gonna turn it around. But there are people out there that would think that and say well the Mariners would actually be better today. If they did that.

[00:31:26] Cause they would have more starting pitching stability down the stretch and they would have a productive outfielder right now. So that to each their own on that but that's one way to go around it. You could still make a trade with somebody else

[00:31:39] to try and cash neutral Robbie Ray's deal. I would imagine there was more than one team interested in Robbie Ray being available. I mean his no trade clause was only over for five days before they traded him. Where all 29 other teams

[00:31:52] could have traded for Robbie Ray if they wanted to. Cause he only had a, he had a no trade clause the first two years of that deal. And then once January 1st of 2024 hit he could go anywhere. Therefore any team willing to take on that money

[00:32:05] could have traded for him. And I will also say I still think there is a world where the Mariners could have signed Harrison Bader and still traded for Jorge Polanco. Cause if I had to guess Anthony Descalfani was not the premier reason

[00:32:20] the twins were trading away Jorge Polanco. Now I think the twins wanted Justin Topo and Gabby Gonzalez. I bet you there still would have been some way to work that out. And they wanted to get money off the books. Yeah. Yeah they did.

[00:32:32] But I don't think keeping Ray signing Harrison Bader would have totally canceled the idea of trading for Jorge Polanco. But again this is all in hindsight. It's just our perspective. But I think every Mariners fan is feeling right now

[00:32:48] that they wish there was a little bit more production out there in that outfield from that spot. So then how do you avoid making this mistake again? Maybe it's like what you said if guys have this long of an injury history maybe you can't trade for them.

[00:33:06] If they're, it's maybe the mid 30s things unfair cause not everybody falls off in their mid 30s. Like you said Mitch Garver's now turned it around but they have had more misses than hits with mid 30s trades or signings with guys

[00:33:20] between Colton Long, AJ Pollock, now Mitch Hanegger. There's no perfect science to avoid it but maybe they've had enough of a data sample build up now with these type of players where they say we can't, it's gonna be risky to acquire guys like this

[00:33:37] moving forward and maybe they do less of it. Yeah, they might. Well we'll see cause especially with the payroll constraints that will go forward into the future with the uncertainty of their TV deal they can't afford to screw up as much

[00:33:49] because it's not like the Mariners at some point this year are probably gonna cut Mitch Hanegger because it's just not working. There's not enough, there is not enough production to make Mitch Hanegger on this roster worth it right now.

[00:34:03] There's nowhere you can play him that you feel comfortable with. Can't bat him anywhere in the lineup and feel comfortable he's gonna consistently produce and he's not running on the base paths. However, so they're gonna have to probably cut him

[00:34:14] and they will be on the hook for $16 million this year in 17 and a half next season. Now if you wanna turn it over to the Robbie Ray thing if Robbie Ray was still a Mariners you would still be paying that money

[00:34:25] and you'd still be paying a little bit more but Robbie Ray would most likely still be pitching in the Mariners rotation next year and Mitch Hanegger will probably most likely if they do what I predict Mitch Hanegger will be playing somewhere else and the Mariners will be paying 17

[00:34:38] and a half million dollars. And let's say this too about Robbie Ray's contract because I'm pretty sure you mentioned it he has that opt out after this year I don't think Robbie Ray's opting out considering the fact he's missed nearly a year and a half

[00:34:51] and has guaranteed money on that five year $150 million deal still in his back pocket for the next two seasons. I think he's keeping it. Yeah, I think so too. So there are lessons to be learned here. Baseball is very random you can't always predict these things

[00:35:09] some guys boom in their 30s some guys don't and it's up to the Mariners in the future to make decisions that will lead them less vulnerable to the AJ Pollux to the Colton Wongs to the Mitch Hanegger's to whatever

[00:35:24] because the reason you and I spend so much time talking about how the Mariners could acquire Brent Rooker at the deadline is solely because Mitch Hanegger is not producing because they don't have any right handed hitting outfield production and Julio by the way didn't even mention that

[00:35:38] but there's no right handed hitting outfield production right now partially because of that partially because of Julio and it's up to the Mariners now to try and make sure that doesn't happen. Well, our next storyline is a bit more of a positive note

[00:35:52] but before we get to that storyline let's hear a word from Game Time. Summer is here guys and that means it's time to get out to T-Mobile Park and watch the Ems wanna get out to the pen, grab a drink and watch the game with your friends.

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[00:37:04] last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. Okay, our next storyline on a positive note the Mariners at the beginning of the season we tabbed them as a bad defensive team they've taken quite a rebound and I got to give a lot of credit to that rebound Lyle

[00:37:24] to the left side of this infield which has been remarkably good defensively this year. Remarkably good. Shout out Perry Hill, shout out Josh Rojas and JP Crawford everybody involved it's made a big difference. I'll start with Rojas because I don't know

[00:37:42] if people realize just how good Rojas's defense has been let's quantify it here. Josh Rojas sitting here on June the 27th when we're recording this has eight outs above average that ranks in the 98th percentile of baseball who saw that coming this year?

[00:37:59] Nobody, I don't think anybody saw that coming he ranks tied for 10th in baseball and outs above average all of baseball sixth in the American League and among all third basemen he is first, remarkable stuff. And if you're wondering where Gino is

[00:38:16] he is only has two outs above average right now. So I think it's worked out maybe this Perry Hill guy knows what he's doing. Yeah maybe a little bit. Now I will say Rojas has been a very good defender

[00:38:30] at second base and was last year when he was in Seattle but for his career he never finished a season with positive outs above average at third base. Now he is. Now he's been awesome at third base. He literally looks like Kyle Seager

[00:38:43] when he makes those bare hand plays charging in now. I'm not gonna say it's an exact carbon copy but it's Seager-esque the way he makes those bare handed plays look effortless and makes those plays the first to make some of those tough outs

[00:38:56] he's been awesome over there man. Like truly, truly a savior on that infield defense. It's so important the developments of Josh Rojas and JP Crawford defensively on the left side because if you counter and you look at the right side

[00:39:11] of the Mariners infield it's nowhere near as good. Ryan Bliss has been good at second base but Jorge Polanco is not been good at second base. Ty France has not been good defensively at first base either. So to have a consistent left side of the infield

[00:39:27] to make these plays some of these routine plays that if we wanna get to JP Crawford here because you and I spent some time on this last year talking about his puzzling, puzzling defensive numbers to where now this year JP Crawford has turned back

[00:39:43] into a plus defender, not an elite defender but a plus defender at shortstop. He's 81st percentile in outs above average and he's coming off two seasons where he combined for negative 19 outs above average the worst defensive shortstop in baseball.

[00:40:01] To turn that and go back into the 81st percentile is pretty good for JP Crawford. And the best thing that JP has done this year is he has eliminated his ultimate weakness from last year. JP Crawford was actually a good defender last year

[00:40:17] in every direction except going towards third base going towards third base. He was minus 10 outs above average. Notepile that last year overall for the season he was minus eight, meaning he was positive plus two outs above average going every direction except a third base going to his right

[00:40:37] cost him any sense of a positive defensive value. This year it's zero. So even though JP Crawford has gone from elite defender earlier in his career to struggling in the middle-ish the last two years while going back in the positive this year

[00:40:55] you can attribute it to a couple of things. You can attribute it to the up and down nature of defense defense in a sense is random because the sample size is usually smaller. It's hard to quantify. There's a reason we have all these metrics.

[00:41:09] Everyone's trying to properly grasp defense but no one can actually figure out the best way to grade defense. We just do what we think is best. But, so then we have this randomness going in a positive direction too with JP Crawford.

[00:41:27] And it's so refreshing to see this year. It's not just last year he had problems going to his right on those backhand plays toward third. This has hampered him for three seasons entering this year. So it was negative 10 or negative 11 right around that range in 2023.

[00:41:45] It was negative three outs above average going to his right in 2022. It was negative four outs above average going to his right in 2021. This is kind of held them down for a while now. And the fact that he has turned it around to just be league average

[00:42:01] when making those backhand plays this year has turned everything around from him. Because like you said, the difference in production defensively in each different direction that JP Crawford moves looking at 2023 to 2024 is not that different in any facet except when he'd moved to his right

[00:42:18] going toward third base on those backhand plays. The fact he has put himself as a league average defender when going to his right has changed everything for him. It's taken him from being in the bottom 5% out of the league and outs above average to being in the 81st.

[00:42:33] And he has gone from being a well below average defensive shortstop to now being a well above average defensive shortstop. And you've seen, even if you wanna just use the eye test it's looked so much cleaner for JP this year.

[00:42:45] Everything is look much cleaner for him this year. Playing the field rather than it has in the last couple years. And it is, it's done wonders for the Mariners who were not expected to be a good defensive team especially on the infield.

[00:42:58] And now you have a left side of the infield that's been locked down, truly locked down. And again, like we've talked about the Geno thing Geno is not hitting and he's been a worse defender than Rojas. So the fact that they had Rojas step in

[00:43:11] and be a step forward in just about every way I'm pretty cool. I think of it for how JP's career plays out as well cause we had the conversation last year when he's having one of the best offensive seasons the Mariners have seen from a shortstop this century.

[00:43:29] And we said, okay, well he's got four and a half wins with his defense being so poor. Like how high is his war if he played good defense? Like if he played his early career defense like JP Crawford after this season

[00:43:45] has two more years before he hits free agency he'll probably get one more chance at a big payday two years from now after the 2026 season. If he keeps his bat up, which is bat could age very well he's got a pretty mature approach at the plate

[00:43:59] which doesn't rely on a whole number of factors that I think actually ages pretty well for him. But if he can also combine that with being able to play above average defense at shortstop, I mean it benefits him greatly opposed to him if he reaches free agency

[00:44:14] and he goes back to being a bad defensive shortstop well then free agency would dictate JP we're gonna need you to move to a less valuable position therefore we pay you less money. And that could be important for him.

[00:44:26] It could be important for JP to hang on defensively at short for two more seasons and then really cash in with a nine figure deal if he keeps up his bat and he keeps up his defense as well. Dude if he was playing his 2024 defense last year

[00:44:43] he finishes top five in MVP voting he would have been a seven win player last year had he played this defense and higher if you go his early defense. That yeah for sure. But again he was top 15 in baseball and WRC plus last year

[00:44:58] JP Crawford again if you put up like a seven win season there's no way you're finishing anything lower than five in MVP voting had he played this defense last year he's finished in top five in MVP voting and I mean that

[00:45:10] I don't know if people outside of the Pacific Northwest realize that but we mean that and I think I don't even think we're being that I don't even think we're being that subjective here I think that's just back again you have a seven war season

[00:45:20] you're gonna finish really high in the MVP voting so the fact that he has turned this thing around this year defensively wonders for this team now hopefully his back gets going in the second half again and you get the full best version of JP Crawford.

[00:45:31] Think of this for JP Crawford it'll be 31 in his walk here like if JP were able to replicate what he did last season with the bat go like a 130 WRC plus with a 14% walk rate and then add his defense from this year is that 150 million is that 200?

[00:45:47] What's that worth? I don't know if he get paid 200 just cause the lack of power might take his market down a little bit and the lack of exit VELOS and hard hit rates and all that stuff might drop his price a little bit

[00:46:01] but like you said nine figures yeah for sure and only being 31 that's not that old. No, no it's not. So it's important for him but it's also an important development for the Mariners because it does hurt them when they have poor defense at shortstop

[00:46:17] and it benefits them when they do especially with the amount of sinkers they throw they need a sure hand at shortstop and he's been that and I wanna give a shout out to the whole team as well we're highlighting to the left side of the infield

[00:46:28] but we proclaimed man this is gonna be a tough defensive team to watch I need to call myself out for saying I said that the odds of the Mariners correcting themselves defensively is low that what you see is what you get

[00:46:46] and what we saw earlier in the season was a pretty bad defensive team. They're essentially league average now minus one outs above average as a team nowhere near the worst defensive team in baseball and I gotta hat tip to them

[00:46:58] because I said they weren't gonna be good defensively and they've been fine they've been good enough to be a playoff team they've been good enough to not essentially mess things up because their defense is so bad and it plays a part

[00:47:13] in the reason why they're in first place so shout out the Mariners defense shout out the left side of the infield Josh Rojas, JP Crawford those two have been awesome so from the major leagues to the minor leagues let's head down on the farm here

[00:47:28] and TJ I think there's only one guy we can start with because he was all over the news this week for the performance he had. Yeah Hogan Windish had not been having a great stint in Arkansas here in 2024 as of right now this is after

[00:47:44] he clobbered four home runs on Tuesday at 227-347 396 slash line he entered Tuesday's game Lyle with just three home runs in Arkansas he hit four that day is it safe to say he just figured it out? 30 home run season incoming

[00:48:03] or I'm sorry 30 home run second half incoming I should say yeah people are saying but that's awesome I mean you think about it at the major league level there's been less for home run games than perfect games it's a rare achievement and really really cool

[00:48:18] he sprayed the ball out to all around the yard it was a pretty awesome day at the park for Hogan Windish so shout out to him that will probably be the best performance of any Mariners minor leaguer this season so hat tip to him that was pretty awesome.

[00:48:34] I'll go a step further than that that's gonna be the best performance of any minor league hitter this season who else is topping a four home run game? Unless someone else hits a four home run game but that's unlikely so you're right so shout out Hogan Windish

[00:48:51] but shout out to some other Mariners guys in the farm system too cause there were some promotions this week it felt like there hadn't been a ton of them so far this year we got some and there's some exciting ones I'll start with the guys that went up

[00:49:01] from high A to double A Victor Lobrada goes up to double A Arkansas from Everett he spent a long time in Everett but man he had himself a great year or a great first half with the aqua stocks this year had a 945 OPS 169 WRC plus

[00:49:15] he heads to Arkansas Brock Rodden heads to Arkansas who was a shortstop from Wichita State the Mariners took him in last year's draft he was hitting 302, 897 OPS, nine homers 158 WRC plus in Everett he goes up to Arkansas too so shout out to the two of them

[00:49:33] and then the big guns who go from Edesto to Everett this is what everybody's now this is mostly what everybody's talking about which is Michael Arroyo goes from Edesto to Everett another guy who's had an awesome year has flown under the radar just from how good

[00:49:46] that Modesto roster is 11 homers 904 OPS 144 WRC plus and 60 games with the nuts this year he moves up to the aqua stocks and the biggest of them all we saved the best one for last Luzaro Montez is now in Everett aqua stock

[00:50:01] after a season where he had a 938 OPS with the nuts 13 bombs 151 WRC plus striking out less than 20% of the time and walking 14% of the time I remember everybody was worried about his strikeout rate not anymore so there is a synopsis of the four promotions

[00:50:20] that have happened over the last week Rodin, LaBrada, Arroyo, Luzaro Montez and I think it's fair to say Luzaro Montez is the headliner there and shout out to those guys and also imagining Colt Emerson gets back to Modesto this week or next I think he's not back yet

[00:50:36] he's in Arizona right now on a rehab assignment on a real he's actually playing right so he's back playing but he'll be back officially playing in Modesto let's say next week he'll be back there and then it won't be too long

[00:50:50] until I think he is also in Everett as well and there that clears the way for Felene Celestin to get to Modesto because he's almost certainly earned a promotion but they're not gonna give his spot they're not gonna put Colt in his spot

[00:51:05] they're gonna just let Colt move up first and then bring Felene up and I think when Colt moves up a lot of people are gonna be flocking out to Everett it's really a shame obviously that the Johnny Farmello season's done

[00:51:19] which is I mean terrible not just for him but just for Mariners fans too and he was I mean mostly for him he was having such a great year and you hate to see an injury like that like an ACL

[00:51:28] but to see Colt Emerson, Luzaro Montez, Michael Arroyo all those guys on the same roster in Everett I think that's gonna draw some people out to the ballpark and I think Everett's gonna be pretty hot attraction this summer so that'll be pretty cool

[00:51:40] assuming Emerson gets to Everett this year I agree let's get to our Russell Wilson umpire of the week speaking of people of people that draw people to the ballpark Lyle every single week umpires themselves bring people out to the park they fill the stands 45,000 plus

[00:52:00] just to see the man calling balls and strikes behind the plate we have a first of its kind this season Lyle do you know that? I do I do so because as we like to say we both prepare for this show

[00:52:16] so I know what you're about to say but tell the listeners so this week the A's and Angels had a game with John Bacon behind the plate now what did John Bacon do? Well he had the lowest correct call rate of the season at 83.6%

[00:52:36] in fact that is the lowest correct call percentage in two years so I wanna give it up for John Bacon this week's Russell Wilson umpire of the week with a historic all decade performance behind the plate as Jo Sheehan told us on a recent episode

[00:52:58] when we talked to him about MLB umpires what he said rains true right here MLB umpires are guessing when they're calling balls and strikes they're at the point where they're guessing they're not actually seeing these balls and strikes they're guessing and as evident from this scorecard

[00:53:12] when you get less than 84% of the calls right you are guessing what's a ball and strike yeah not a great day for Mr. Bacon I also give a shout out for his name I didn't realize there was an umpire with the bacon last name so that's kinda cool

[00:53:26] but his correct call percentage is not very cool no and I would also assume he's actually not had a ton of atrocious games historically because the fact he's not a household name umpire probably means he doesn't get in the news that much with atrocious performances

[00:53:43] so maybe this was a one off regardless it's still just embarrassing to look at there's plenty of time to leave legacy oh there's plenty of time plenty of time with that let's close out the show here let's get to speak your mind speak your mind Spock

[00:54:06] that would be unwise what is necessary is never unwise you missed last week speak your mind you were in Nashville you were traveling hotel wifi is not always perfect so now that you're back from Nashville what are you thinking about well I can give my review now

[00:54:26] that'd be good it is very on brand I will say never been in the state of Tennessee before and when you hear things about Nashville it usually circles around chicken music and Broadway which I copious amounts of all three Broadway by the way

[00:54:43] is the street that runs right through the middle of downtown and when I tell you you thought Mill Avenue was crazy Broadway is absolute insanity absolute insanity I'm talking about three levels of every place it is actually bizarre and there is the thing that stunned me more

[00:55:05] was the fact of how many people were live performing in these places at all hours of the day it didn't even matter if it was like the middle of the week we're rolling on a Wednesday or walking down the street like four o'clock walk past some place

[00:55:19] the place is empty and there's still someone live performing in there it's crazy but it's no mystery that's where most musicians go to make it especially if you're a country artist that's where you'll go you'll go in some sports bar or something and sing someone else's music

[00:55:36] that's how you make your money that's how you get exposure and sometimes it work and sometimes it doesn't I was a big fan of hot chicken I was not a fan of the heat it was muggy and hot there but overall is a great celebration

[00:55:50] my dad celebrated his 60th birthday he wanted to go and I came to the conclusion that you only need three days in Nashville that's it you can see everything you need in Nashville in three days and by the end of that third day

[00:56:04] you'll probably be pretty worn out and you're ready to go home so that's my review shout out Rob shout out the Matthewsons shout out his 60th birthday but I was gonna say I was wondering if you were gonna get to that point because you said

[00:56:18] five days is too much a weekend is perfect I guess if you fly in what Thursday night you leave Sunday afternoon Sunday night something like that perfect yeah that is perfect right there that's probably all you need especially during the summer just walking around but the combination of

[00:56:35] like going from bar to bar and then walking through the heat is a bit much so where's you down and I didn't realize you get tired of hot chicken but I did get tired of hot chicken I ate too much of it

[00:56:49] well now I have to play the role of you about scolding you about having a variety of food you didn't have a variety of food well they have a specialty I have to try all the best places well New York specialty is pizza

[00:57:04] but they have a million things you try a variety of things in New York yeah I tried a bunch of different pizza places though it's like it's different kind of cuisine too and mind you when you buy pizza slice it's one slice of pizza

[00:57:17] but when you're getting hot chicken you're getting a plate of hot chicken and once you eat it you sit there you feel over full and you're sitting there it's 95 degrees outside and you're like oh and it's spicy so you're just like I'm in hell right now well

[00:57:34] now you know for the next time you go three days instead of five but three days sounds like a fun city mm-hmm yes it is yeah so what's on my mind I thought about going the brawny route here but I honestly think that's too obvious

[00:57:48] and go ahead that read down to that LeBron now has his podcast co-host coaching his team his son playing on the team and I joke to you today what's next Rich Paul owning the team the only concession in Staple Center being blaze pizza and LeBron becomes the GM

[00:58:04] because Rich Paul hires him to be yeah and Savannah becomes part of the ownership group yeah yeah so his wife could have gone that route yeah his wife could have gone that route I decided that was too easy so did you see this Michael K rant yesterday

[00:58:21] oh yes oh man I love New York sports talk I love it like I mean so I want to I want to highlight this for people Michael K spend time on his radio show yesterday which is also broadcasted on TV they do both SNY pays for some advertisement

[00:58:43] on Michael K show now for those not aware Michael K show is is on ESPN radio in New York but what TV station is on obviously it's on yes where Michael K is also the TV voice of the New York Yankees SNY is the TV station

[00:58:57] that carries the New York Mets SNY pays advertisement to have their brand on yes network so what do they do it's their money it's their advertisement they put the advertisement together and say come join us and listen to the best broadcast booth in baseball Keith Hernandez Ron Darling

[00:59:17] Gary Cohen and listen to the New York Mets now for those not as in tune with broadcasting and broadcast teams as we are I mean two people who went to school for sports journalism done a lot of broadcasting we've listened to a lot of broadcasters in our lives

[00:59:33] I don't want to call it objective but there is almost a universal opinion out there that the Mets have the best broadcast booth in baseball that's a very widespread opinion a lot of people believe that well apparently not Michael K because he spent five minutes

[00:59:50] on his radio show yesterday saying listen I might get in trouble with some advertisers here but why are they advertising on my show and talking about the and he's going on about talking about how they're the best broadcast booth in baseball

[01:00:03] I say I'm the best broadcast booth in baseball we're the best me and and David Cohen and like were the best broadcast booth it's like and and Don LaGreco of all people who for those of you don't know he is a nut job he is hilarious

[01:00:20] he's the best part of that show he actually was the voice of reason here he's like yes what did you say he's the best part of that show yes he was actually the voice of reason here he says to Michael K it's like

[01:00:30] but don't you think they should believe they're the best he's like yes they should we shouldn't believe we're the best but for that reason why are they playing their advertisements on our show saying they're the best like dude how how big is your ego that you cannot listen

[01:00:45] to another person's run their own advertisement how they want it to be advertised like it's already almost universally known like the Mets probably have the best broadcast booth in baseball and yet you are wasting time complaining about it and probably losing ad dollars for your show

[01:01:03] spending five minutes about it on your show so I have a comparison to this actually so thinking about it two similar people so Colin Cowherd I believe owns some bars right he owns some like barn grills I think he owns a couple of them

[01:01:15] I know he has his own beer I don't know if he actually owns a restaurant I think he owns a restaurant I'm pretty sure he does he's pretty spread out with that but Colin hosts on Fox Sports Radio aka iHeartMedia and he's on Fox Sports One

[01:01:29] so if McDonald's advertises on his program and says yeah we have the best burger in the country does Colin Cowherd say listen guys I might get in trouble for this but I have a problem with McDonald's saying they have the best burger in America I think

[01:01:45] I have the best burger in America it's a similar thing right yes it is and I will say shout out to Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez because they took a subtle jab back at the yes guys later that day on on air

[01:02:02] so shout out to them what did they say and this just goes to show I'll have to go back and listen to the clip it was a very subtle jab of people picked up on what they were doing I will we've said this before I'll say it again

[01:02:15] New York Sports Radio and New York Sports Media is just nothing like anything else you would never ever ever see anybody in the Mariners broadcast booth do anything remotely close to this and guess what the Mariners broadcast booth is also one of the best broadcast booths in baseball

[01:02:34] they're phenomenal they're all great at what they do and guess what internally I'm sure they all know that Rick, Gary, Dave, Goldie, Blowers, Shannon all of them I'm sure they all know that could you picture the voice of the Mariners, Rick Riz hopping on a radio show

[01:02:53] and saying I have a problem with another broadcast team saying they're better than us never in a million years would Rick Riz who's one of the nicest people ever say something like that nobody on the Mariners broadcast team would ever do something like that only in New York

[01:03:09] do you see things that are this petty and this ego driven do you think they pre-plan that to talk about that I don't think so so a lot of what Sports Radio is is you pre-plan engaging topics and something like that is very engaging

[01:03:25] and a ton of people to chime in on which boot they think is better it's an easy discussion easy discussion to have but if it like, and if it's something that's planned you can literally go to SNY and say listen to me

[01:03:38] I want to, you guys can do what you want and like I like thank you for all this I like whisper like I don't actually have a problem with what you guys do but I want to do it for the sake of radio

[01:03:50] can I do it? SNY says yes and yes Network says yes and the SPN New York says yes and they decide to do it and they actually all made it up made up this drama because if he went off the cuff

[01:04:04] well then yeah he might actually get in trouble for it maybe he might not because these things fly all the time I mean Michael K could sit on a show and say Aaron Boone should be fired and the Yankees wouldn't care

[01:04:16] even though he's the voice of the Yankees hosting a show on the Yankees own network that wouldn't matter like that is the level of the voice you have on those stations it's insane meanwhile if someone in Seattle did the same thing wouldn't be good

[01:04:33] no, no it wouldn't be good at all now that you paint that picture I will lean toward the idea that there is a chance that that that happened I'm not going to say it's for sure but I'll say there's a chance the reason I originally said no

[01:04:49] and still think I more lean toward the side of the story because I was kind of surprised and kind of thrown off when Michael K went on this rant and he kind of sounded like you know he wasn't in his usual Don LaGreca like fired up

[01:05:05] like take mode he was very soft spoken and kind of trying to defuse the situation he's saying but Michael don't you guys think don't you think that those Mets guys but that's what has me believing that Michael K just went off the rip and said

[01:05:23] you know what I've got something on my mind I have a speak your mind segment here for the Michael K show and I need to get it off my chest how did it take this long to come up how did this take so if SNY is advertising

[01:05:37] on Michael K's show this had to have been happening for months because this hadn't been the first time SNY aired a commercial like that and I know again I have no other answer for this other than welcome to New York sports media

[01:05:55] there is no other place in the country like it honestly even though Boston's pretty crazy nothing compares to New York it's like you said the Yankees own the Yes Network Michael K shows on the Yes Network he's the voice of the Yankees

[01:06:09] and that show will rip the Yankees apart all the time and nothing happens there were Yankees post game shows on Yes after playoff games in the past where they've lost and the desk will just rip the Yankees apart and that's just how it goes

[01:06:25] yeah it's crazy it doesn't happen up here it is a different culture it doesn't happen most places but yes it is a different culture so that was my speak your mind if you didn't hear about that story you haven't seen the video it's all over

[01:06:39] Twitter I'm sure it's on YouTube you can go find it so if you're interested go check it out but that'll just about wrap up this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast you guys know the drill you want to listen to the full

[01:06:49] form podcast you can do so wherever you get your audio pods make sure to download leave a 5 star review leave a written review it all really does help us out if you're watching on YouTube make sure to hit that subscribe button leave a like

[01:07:01] leave a comment turn the notification bells on and then on social media you can follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer pod that's TJ I'm Lyle always we thank you guys for tuning in talk to you soon