Episode 143: Johnny Giunta (Gate 14 Podcast), And The Mariner Have Hit Rock Bottom

[00:00:00] Welcome to Episode number 143 of the Marine Layer Podcast. We welcome on Johnny Giunta, the host of the Gate 14 podcast, a Blue Jays podcast. We chat about the upcoming series. We discuss some memories from him and a couple of former Blue Jays who are now mariners,

[00:00:16] Taylor Sausato, and building the Gate 14 brand. We also have our two Mariners storylines discussing the current vibes of the Mariners and the M's moving Logan Evans back in back into the rotation in AA.

[00:00:29] Here's your guys reminder. Stay on top of all of our stuff. Make sure to download our episodes. Leave us at 5 Star Review, leave a written review, all that stuff on the audio side of the platform, on the audio side of the podcast.

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[00:00:53] And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network. Recording post game on Wednesday July 3rd. Laoh, you are at the ballpark tonight for Game 2 against the Orioles. How are the fireworks?

[00:01:20] Oh, you think I stayed for the fireworks? No, I left. I don't hate fireworks as much as you do. TJ hates fireworks. However, I got out of there before there was real traffic like a smart person.

[00:01:31] Well, I know you went there to watch fireworks and not baseball, right? Hmm. Yeah, of course. A better performer. Of course I did. Let me say this, the Mariners have hit rock bottom. This is rock bottom right now.

[00:01:44] Mm-hmm. Well, when you lose 10 of 13, the entire offense can't hit. Brian Woo's hurt. Louise Castillo hasn't pitched like an ace in a long time. Yeah, this is rock bottom. Now, it feels funny to say rock bottom because they're still in first place.

[00:02:00] And I think if you ask most people on July 3rd, if the Mariners had a two game lead in the AOS, people would say great. But considering where it was two weeks ago, they had a 10 game lead and now it sits at two and all these things are

[00:02:15] starting to unfold. Yeah, low point. I'm starting to get annoyed at that argument. I mean, they would be five and a half games back in every other division in baseball.

[00:02:25] Is that something to be excited about? If the Mariners were five and a half games back playing like this, it would be even worse. People would still be staying rock bottom. Then everybody would be staying rock bottom.

[00:02:35] So you take the Mariners out of the American League West where they're in first place because of nothing they control pretty much. They've won the games they've won, but they're in first place because the rest of the teams have played absurdly bad until recently

[00:02:47] when the Astros have played well. Like if that wasn't the case, the Mariners would would not be in first place. And then people would be a lot more pissed off because there could have been a chance based on how the Mariners were playing before.

[00:03:00] They could be actually in first place in another division, not now. Yeah. Did you know the Mariners in the last week and a half ranked 29th in baseball and WRC Plus as a team? What? No! Yeah. This offense? Well, the one that got a standing ovation this week?

[00:03:23] Yeah, they're 29th. 29th in WRC Plus as a team there at 65. That was entering today's game when they then put up one run on a Cal Rally solo homer today being Wednesday. So you're telling me those are real booze not fake booze at the ballpark?

[00:03:40] Oh, people were pissed. People were pissed. People were not having it. People are not having it in this Orioles series because I'll tell you what it wasn't just in Wednesday's game. Oh, it happened in Tuesday's game too. A lot. And Seattle fans don't boo for the most part.

[00:03:56] It's not New York, it's not Boston, it's not LA. Seattle's pretty laid back for the most part. Well, I was trying to say is we're used to it. Yeah, but people are now booing like a lot.

[00:04:12] And again, I know they're in first place, but is it wrong to say every like when you say the Mariners have hit rock bottom? Isn't everything we've just mentioned here in the first couple minutes all fair? Like how much more can we even say about the offense?

[00:04:28] I'm sure we'll get into it more, but we all know at this point. Twenty ninth and WRC plus as a team over the last week and a half. But everything else too. Again, the fact Brian Lewis hurt and

[00:04:38] yes, they chose to skip a start in the rotation because they had the built-in off day. But guys aren't getting as much rest as a result. And obviously not having who doesn't help. The fact that like Luis Castillo has been a fine pitcher this year.

[00:04:52] He's been he's been perfectly fine, but he puts up a lot of six and twos where he has to fight through it pretty hard. He has not had he's not really had a start this year

[00:05:03] where he is look like the ace that he was acquired as in 2022 or even last year in 2023 when he finished top five in Cy Young voting, top seven in Cy Young voting. He has had to really, really work to get through a lot of these starts.

[00:05:19] And that all paired with the fact that again, an offense that it's hard to trust anybody in the lineup right now. You still got injuries in the bullpen. Gabe's not back yet. Santos isn't back yet. We'll get to Logan Evans here in a bit.

[00:05:32] And there's a there's a lot of there's a lot of headaches right now. You think this is the last time they try the sage in the clubhouse? No, because it's only been one game and they seem to do it a lot.

[00:05:45] So I know I don't think it's the last time. Interesting. Do you? Well, does it really have an impact? I know baseball is superstition, but sage was burned today and they scored one run on one swing of the bat. And that's it.

[00:06:04] Against against a very OK pitcher and Craig Kimbrel, by the way, watching him each of the last two nights and he's closed out the game well for the Orioles, not what he used to be. Not not even close.

[00:06:16] The stuff is not quite as good as it used to be. But it doesn't matter. Sage didn't help, apparently in that case. You know what? You know what annoys me, Lyle? Do you know what annoys me?

[00:06:27] So Mariners and a couple of weeks ago, 10 game lead in first place. And then in the five series since then, they've played three playoff teams into one bad team and one mediocre team. So it really hasn't mattered how good the team is,

[00:06:45] where they're playing or like, yeah, how good the team is and where they're playing. You know, still managed to lose all those series. They played three playoff teams in that stretch. Guardians. Yeah, Guardians, Twins and now the Orioles lost all three of those series.

[00:07:04] Play a terrible team in the Miami Marlins lost that series and an average team in the Tampa Bay race lost that series as well. So like it hasn't even mattered really in that case. I have a couple of stats I want to throw at you regarding the Mariners

[00:07:18] actually playing good teams this year, but just kind of. Erks me. That the 10 game lead is reached. And teams do play bad over that sense, but the location and the quality of team. Has mattered. It's just an all around suck. It's not great. Now, it hasn't been everywhere.

[00:07:44] Logan Gilbert and George Kirby have continued to pitch very well outside of Logan Gilbert's start here on Wednesday, which OK, wasn't his best start of the year. It's hard to knock the guy when he came into that start

[00:07:53] with a one five ERA for the month of June, and he's still going to be an All-Star. So Logan has pitched very well in the month of June outside of this one star. George Kirby pitch very well. Munoz has an All-Star case in his own right.

[00:08:06] It's not there. There are some positive spots, but it doesn't quite outshine everything else that has gone on, especially again, like we can talk about some of the other pieces all we want, whether again, it's the injuries or some of the other guys in the

[00:08:21] rotation, the home run splits comes down to the offense. This is this is a team that was built to be a very, very talented offensive group, and they're not even showing a fraction of it right now. It's really bad.

[00:08:34] While the Mariners were on the road in Florida and playing terribly, I was clinging to when they come back home because we knew the Mariners played well at home and they played up to or above their competition at home seemingly no matter who they're playing.

[00:08:49] But they come back home this time and as mattered, they've looked like the home field advantage we are trying to tab of how incredible the staff looks and how the offense manages to do just enough at home like it hasn't been.

[00:09:02] But it also kind of makes sense, Lyle, because the Mariners' record at home looked pretty nice entering that last road trip before they came back home and now they've lost four or five at home since returning to Seattle.

[00:09:18] But this is something we probably should have looked into more. I mean, their home record was really ballooned by some bad teams. Series wins against the Rangers, the A's, the Angels, the Reds, the Diamondbacks, the White Sox, not Murderer's Row.

[00:09:34] All series, the Mariners won or swept and they made the record look pretty good. But if you saw the Mariners and you saw that they were that good at home, you'd expect them to beat some playoff teams that have visited Team Over Park.

[00:09:50] While the Mariners have faced a playoff team in 10 series this season, they won two of them. They've beaten the Braves. It's a good series win at home. Braves are the top wildcard in the National League right now. They beat the Royals 2 of 3 at Team Over Park as well.

[00:10:06] The Royals, by the way, are a terrible road team, terrible away from their home park. So it counts technically, but them losing series on the road is not a mystery, not a surprise. I think it's the right word to use with that.

[00:10:25] So 10 series against playoff teams, they've won two series against that. Not exactly a intriguing and encouraging statistic. And should we add the series win against the Braves happened to be thanks to one Mitch Garver swing in a game where they

[00:10:42] had not scored before the bottom of the ninth in that game? Yeah, a very relevant stat in that game. So we can nitpick to almost say they have no series wins against playoff teams because the rest of them, they've looked uncompetitive in two series against the

[00:10:56] Royals, uncompetitive in two series against the Guardians. They split with the Yankees in New York and I think if the Yankees played the Mariners today, they beat them in a series. Uncompetitive in two series against the Twins, splitting

[00:11:07] the two series with the Royals and losing a competitive but bad tasting series early in the season till the Milwaukee Brewers. And they haven't faced all the playoff teams yet. They haven't played the Phillies yet who are probably the best team in baseball right now.

[00:11:22] Haven't played the Dodgers yet. They might be the second best team in baseball right now and a whole other score of National League playoff teams that they haven't. But the American League field has looked a lot better than the Mariners have. Where do they go from here?

[00:11:38] Where does this team go moving forward? We have to add you got it. First of all, you need to make it to the trade deadline. You have to make it there because guys aren't really available. I know Aaron Savali got traded today, but that doesn't

[00:11:52] really mean the trade deadline is open for business right now. The Mariners need to make it at least three weeks without collapsing on themselves. Somehow make it three weeks without collapsing on themselves and falling out of a playoff spot and giving

[00:12:06] the front office any inclination that they won't go out and buy. Like the worst case scenario is they suck for three more weeks. They fall out of first place. They fall out of a playoff spot. If they were to fall out of first place this week,

[00:12:21] most likely they would not be in a playoff spot because Kansas City now has a better record than they do. And then you sit there at the trade deadline and you're in the same situation you were at last year. And that was the worst.

[00:12:32] You're stuck right in the middle and you couldn't do any. You couldn't go any which way in one direction and they didn't. They chose not to. And I will bet all my marbles. That's exactly what they do again because the Mariners

[00:12:46] have been so risk averse as an organization to try and be sustainable year after year that why would they go shell out for Luis Robert if they're sitting three games above 500 at the deadline? Why would they do that? Especially if they want to keep all these prospects around

[00:13:05] all these all these hitting prospects around and say our best path forward is to let all these guys come up together. And that's how we build an offense and hope on and bank on that Julio eventually turns this thing around

[00:13:17] which probably isn't going to please a lot of people hearing that idea and that statement, but it may be what they're thinking. Because you sit there and you rationalize like even if we add this player, we're still not good enough.

[00:13:29] We're still not and we hamper ourselves next year and the year after that depth wise and what what we need organizationally. So I don't know man. What a pickle. What would an absolute pickle that this franchise could potentially put themselves in if they don't turn this

[00:13:48] thing around in the next couple of weeks? I don't want to have to sit here and be like, man, if we just beat the Diamondbacks two of three the day before the trade deadline then we'll buy which is what the Mariners did last year.

[00:14:01] It legitimately came down to a series before the trade deadline to make a decision on what to do. That cannot happen again. I keep like we keep harping like they're in the window right now. The window was open. So you need to you treat the window as open.

[00:14:20] And you could only keep the window open so long even if you get to a deadline and you're trying to do that and you're trying to do that by making a neutral trade. Doesn't make the fans happy. It wouldn't make us happy.

[00:14:34] Wouldn't make the Mariners a whole lot better really. And like unless they somehow believe that the only way this team is playoff worthy is if the guys on the current roster just turn it around and play better offensively. Like if this lineup turns it around that's the only

[00:14:50] way we make the playoffs. Not if we add somebody in the lineup doesn't turn around then we don't make the playoffs. Well a mess dude. Two notes with that. Number one when you talk about the Mariners deciding to buy or sell or stay neutral all having it

[00:15:07] boiled down to that Diamondback series last year. Here's a narrative people can run with. You ever thought you ever thought about how Dom Kanzon actually lost the Mariners their playoff spot last year because Dom had that game winning hit in Arizona for the Diamondbacks.

[00:15:20] It was a go ahead single in the eighth inning only for the Mariners to trade for Dom Kanzon a couple days later. So yeah. If you want to run with that narrative there's a narrative to run with Dom lost the Mariners

[00:15:30] their playoff spot last year but also another funny side note that I somehow just realized recently do you know that Dom home run last year in the Orioles series the crazy you know the crazy tie game tying home run

[00:15:42] in the ninth where he did the bat flip and it was a towering shot you know it was off Mike Bowman. Yeah yeah I knew that I somehow didn't I didn't realize when I first pulled up Mike Bowman highlights that it was that series.

[00:15:58] OK here's here's the second thing I was going to say now getting back to the Orioles series this series like game wise final score wise the scores have not been blowouts all the more reason this boils back to the offense we're not sitting here talking about how

[00:16:13] Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rushman jumped all over this team and absolutely carried the Orioles to a series win. No these have been low scoring games and the Mariners have not hit one bit George Kirby kept a minute on Tuesday. Marra's in hit Logan didn't have his best

[00:16:30] start on Wednesday but the Mariners couldn't score four runs like there has been no offense in any way shape or form. Not like not at all it all boils down to the offense again Gunnar's been held in check in this series Ali's been held in

[00:16:44] check in this series most of this Orioles offense has been held in check but outside of a Cal Raleigh home run here on Wednesday there's been nothing to show for it for the Mariners. And he'll have already started by the time

[00:16:57] this episode comes out but Corbin Burn starts tomorrow so the best the best card has not even been played on the Orioles side. He had kids earlier this week he had twins right and now he's going to get a pitch against this offense. Yeah.

[00:17:12] Oh we should say to I guess we didn't say it at the start. The reason we're recording Wednesday night after the game rather than waiting till Thursday after the afternoon game in case you haven't heard or didn't remember TJ and I are hosting Brock and Salk on Friday

[00:17:24] which we're extremely excited about on Seattle Sports. So normally yeah you'd hear us recap the entire series and post and posted out on Friday but as you can imagine we're altering our recording time a little bit here this week because we've

[00:17:38] got a pretty hectic week coming up with the show in the best of ways so that's why you're sitting here listening to us record after a Wednesday game but I just thought I mentioned that. And if you happen to be listening to

[00:17:48] this between 7 and 10 a.m. on Friday you can turn on the radio and listen to us and then you come back to this because this this doesn't go away listen to both of them. There you go. Yeah when when when we go to

[00:18:00] commercial on live radio you can spend a few minutes listening to this podcast and put it on pause then go back to listen to us on Brock and Salk and you know just a whole spinning clock. Yeah I'm I'm looking again like I'm

[00:18:12] looking forward to it a lot. I think we're going to mix especially a lot of what we're talking about this week on these two podcasts that we put out and put it on the radio as well. I think it's good conversation. You know like I know we're

[00:18:23] generally talking about the disappointing performance against the Orioles this past couple of days but the the engagement on the Julio conversation was you know I was expecting some but it it exceeded my expectations on the sort of conversations we're having and that all ties in with the sort

[00:18:44] of conversations we're going to be having about this team down the stretch run of the season because there are a lot of people have I feel like stronger opinions when the team is losing and that's exactly what's happening right now and so we're going to have to deal

[00:18:57] with as we go forward. Let's pause here for a second and 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 want to get out to the pen grab a drink and watch the

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[00:20:13] All right our other storyline as we get into storyline number two here sadly for us our guy Logan Evans with double a Arkansas travelers has been turned back from a reliever into a starter which means more likely than not we will not get to see

[00:20:33] Logan Evans in the big leagues in twenty twenty four there's still a chance you know circumstances play out in certain ways maybe we do but it seems like for now he's gonna go back to being a starter go back to developing and

[00:20:44] then at some point in twenty twenty five he could see some time in the big leagues but the bullpen transition wasn't perfect obviously he had to do it pretty quickly he hadn't really pitched out of the bullpen much he is a starter and after the experiment they ultimately

[00:21:00] decided that it was best for him to go back to being a starter and there's a couple different reasons for that I'll tee up the the couple of reasons so he would he moved to the bullpen and the Mariners were expecting to see

[00:21:14] a full step up in stuff when he went into the bullpen they didn't see that and then on top of that not only did the stuff not take up but his command wasn't really there in the bullpen either now I don't know if it was the

[00:21:26] perception of him trying to throw harder or it was him needing to ramp up quicker or him pitching on back to back days or something like that but the command also wasn't there too and when you combine all that together in an area just

[00:21:39] over six and ten games out of the bullpen and a whip of one and a half which at the double A level was kind of tough and kind of harder to justify calling someone up to the big leagues just to know I mean Logan Evans before he

[00:21:52] went to the bullpen as a starter at a one two three era if we hadn't harpened that point enough a one two three era and ten starts before heading to the bullpen so success was not a problem at double A but success out

[00:22:04] of the bullpen while small sample size he pitched just like 10 innings in the bullpen so 10ings is a miniscule sample but the small sample they did see was probably not enough and there's some good things coming for the Mariners which gave them reason to not force

[00:22:24] Logan Evans into a role there weren't sure he wasn't sure he's going to be productive in Gregory Santos yesterday on Tuesday had his first rehab outing looked super good down in Tacoma Gabe Spire supposed to be coming back right around or right after the All-Star break I believe

[00:22:39] we'll talk about Chris Tawensky for a second here after we're done talking about Logan but they signed him to a major league contract this week he's in Tacoma too he's had an interesting career in of itself and the Mariners could still go trade for an arm too if

[00:22:54] they're trying to look to upgrade their bullpen so there's a couple of options out there when it comes to steadying the bullpen and I think Jared Apoto Justin Hollander didn't really think that the transition was going to benefit the Mariners as much as they thought.

[00:23:10] Yeah maybe they didn't think it was going to benefit Logan Evans enough they just thought okay he's best suited as a starter he's not transitioning as seamlessly as Matt Brash did when they did this with him a couple years ago so they said just

[00:23:23] move him back to what he's best at move him back to the rotation which again I think for the two of us were a little bum we would have loved to see Logan up in the big leagues this year we would have loved to see

[00:23:31] him be a real piece of this bullpen and then just go back to being a starter in 25 but if he's going to benefit more from being a starter then he'll be a starter and all your points about the Velo and the command so Shannon

[00:23:42] Dreyer broke this story on Wednesday here and this is everything that she outlined in her story was the Mariners felt like he wasn't seeing the uptick in velocity and was also losing some command as a result so they said let's also you know let's

[00:23:57] take all that into consideration let's take into consideration the fact that Santos inspire getting back here soon and do what's best for everybody so he's gonna go back to being a starter for now hopefully we see him in the big leagues in 2025 because we know he has a

[00:24:12] chance to be a really good starter and he's shown it this year so yeah you just and you just hope this is the move that works out best for everybody I will ask this one question I think the main reason they did this is

[00:24:25] because of everything we just outlined that he is probably just better suited as a starter and the transition didn't go as seamlessly as they probably hoped but is there also anything to the idea that look I really hope Logan Evans stays in the

[00:24:41] organization I know we both really hope that but I wonder if they're from the Mariner side of things there's anything to the thought of starters are valued much more than relievers we're gonna transition back to being a starter is a couple more good

[00:24:53] starts and there is the possibility that he could be packaged somewhere I think all can be true he has ten times more value if he stretched out as a starter because some organizations could talk themselves into him being big league ready I don't know if he's big league

[00:25:11] ready his stats in Arkansas as a starter are very good I don't quite know if he's at the point of big league readiness I do think and Shin and outline this in our article don't be totally surprised if he gets a start in a Mariners uniform

[00:25:25] this season stuff can always happen someone can get hurt in the rotation Emerson Hancock could be out of turn he could be having back issues as well as he's had back issues this year if he's not available or Jonathan Diaz is not available Logan Evans making the

[00:25:39] jump from double A even if he's not totally ready wouldn't be the most unsurprising thing in the world so if a team looks and sees that he's a near big league ready starter his value is pretty high at that point with the combination of the

[00:25:53] stuff the command he showed while he was a starter the strikeout stuff the pitch repertoire it's you know it's hard to replicate especially as a lower round draft pick so I'm you know that probably had a part of it it probably would have been he probably wouldn't

[00:26:09] have been on the table period if he would have been relieving because he would have been up in the big leagues already the Mariners would have needed him in the bullpen anyways so you can take him to both sides not available as a reliever

[00:26:19] period available and more valuable as a starter of course we don't want him getting traded but trade deadline stuff does happen unfortunately yeah Lizard of Logan Evans makes a start for the Mariners this year I will be fired up for him we both

[00:26:34] well if him if him or read band scooter make a start for the Mariners this year I think we I mean we would both be fired up and Logan probably has a better shot to do it this year than read read said

[00:26:42] a nice year in double A and and it's thrown the ball well but when you just look at the stuff of what Logan's done and the results he's gotten he is probably in line ahead of him scooter to get the start so

[00:26:55] yeah one of those guys were gonna start this year that be awesome if Logan gets up this year will be fired up for him so we'll see how it all shakes out hopefully him going back to being a starter he doesn't skip beat and he just goes

[00:27:05] back to throwing five six shutout every week that he throws and it's just smooth sailing from here yeah and a guy who's gonna probably get a couple of those innings in the bullpen instead of Logan Evans at least want to touch on this for a

[00:27:19] second they the Mariners signed Chris Tevensky this week he's been bad for a while as a as a big leader I remember him on the 2016 and 2017 Astros he was unbelievable his change up was supreme but ever since that moment he has struggled he struggled command-wise

[00:27:37] he walked 11 and a half percent of the batters he faced this year in Tampa Bay before he got released his era was just under seven there's some I guess positive things here Lyle his straight stuff is not really good at all stuff plus hates

[00:27:51] it but it also likes his slider and change up so I don't like the Mariners see the fact he's got like a 134 stuff plus slider and a 143 change up and notices that he's comfortable throwing his change up about half the time you

[00:28:06] know I could be a pitch you can work with and you find a way to mix in the other pitches and feel like you're a little bit more confident as well I don't know how much time he's going to get but he did sign a

[00:28:16] major league deal earlier this week to be in Tacoma now eventually at the big league level so he will probably pitch an Mariners uniform this year is just interesting what they see in them probably it's probably like you said probably the slider and change

[00:28:33] up his baseball savong page when you just look at some of the results are not pretty this year I mean if you want to dive in not at all I mean it's a lot of blue on there he's first percentile and ground ball

[00:28:44] rate he's fourth percentile and XER you could go down the list hopefully the Mariners see something here because this is usually what happens with the Mariners right if they sign a reliever they see something and DaVentski once upon a time was unreal in 2017 when he

[00:28:59] was an all-star I legitimately thought he was the best reliever in baseball I thought he was that good for that World Series Astros team almost unhittable but it's been a long time since 2017 he's had his bumps in the road he certainly has bumps in the

[00:29:11] road in Tampa this year what will he look like with the Mariners well hopefully throws a lot of sliders and changeups which obviously the Mariners do a lot with these guys I say hey you throw these things really well do it a lot do it more and hopefully

[00:29:25] he can play some effective role in the Mariners bullpen if he is called upon from Tacoma my question is for somebody throws 48 percent changeups how you have a first percentile ground ball rate how's that possible changeups move down maybe it's a lot of hanging

[00:29:43] changeups right now I mean right yes so I was trying to look at his spray charts the only thing I think of he needs to throw his fastball somewhere else if you look at his spray charts on savant his fastballs middle middle and his fastball is

[00:29:56] not a good fastball it's bad it gets crushed so it might be that it might be something as simple as that where he again stops throwing his straight stuff and maybe throws his junk a little bit more I don't know if that helps his high walk rate is

[00:30:11] not throwing a whole lot of strikes and certainly doesn't help when your stuff's also not good and when you're worth almost negative one war is a reliever that's not a not a good sign but Mariners see something and Chris Tevensky will it sounds

[00:30:27] like occupy some sort of role for the Mariners here down the stretch whether it be for a couple weeks whether it be for month whether it be for the rest of the year when he gets his feet back under him when he's in Tacoma is tweaking something

[00:30:38] before he comes back up I don't know it'll be interesting because Marin we haven't talked as much about the bullpen recently they've again it's been it's been up and down and the Mariners are getting reinforcements back but they still do need to like

[00:30:53] get back into more solid footing more like what they were last year then what they've been in the last month or so yeah there's no doubt about it and hopefully Santos and Gapesbyer do that hopefully they provide a real boost to this pen and they should don't let

[00:31:09] the fact that Santos has been hurt the entire first half let you forget he is a dominant reliever he really is and that's why the Mariners traded for him I think you're going to see that when he gets back on the field and healthy because that's what he

[00:31:24] was brought here to do and that's what he has done alright let's take a quick pause here we're gonna talk to you guys about our friends over Pagaches pub 85 that's over in Kirkland Mariners playing the Blue Jays this weekend it's gonna be a great series if you're

[00:31:36] not going to the games and you want somewhere just hang out and watch them head over there play pool you can play darts have some great food have some great drinks we're gonna keep harping on it because it is one of the best deals you will find

[00:31:48] happy hours from two to six money through Friday it is three and four dollar drinks so get there early hang out have some drinks watch the game there's 20 TVs in the place like you're gonna get every angle of those Mariners games or whatever other sporting events you

[00:32:01] want so all of that is over at Pagaches pub 85 in Kirkland I know you and I were really excited to have Johnny Junta on we've watched him from afar you always see his tiktoks always see his his Twitter video he said he's married to the

[00:32:16] Twitter game he's always pumping out content for his podcast the gate 14 podcast I need to give credit to him and and his co-host Avery that is what a fan podcast is right there with Johnny Junta's when he talks about the Toronto Blue Jays that

[00:32:31] is what a fan podcast as if you're not aware of that a you'll hear that in this interview be if you want to pause for a second pull up the gate 14 tiktok pull up Johnny's Twitter page and just go watch some of his videos

[00:32:44] and watch and watch him talk this dude is an ultimate entertainer he knows Blues Jays baseball but he's also yeah he does not hold back he is 100% authentic it's really funny I would be lying if we say we didn't draw a little bit of inspiration

[00:33:01] from Johnny Junta he's he was awesome glad that he took some time to join us he is the voice of the Blue Jays fan base he is he is the most popular guy on Blue Jays Twitter people flock to him gate 14 is wildly popular like

[00:33:15] that's the go-to Blue Jays fan podcast and they're that popular for a reason they're really fun they're outgoing they're not afraid to speak their minds a lot of players like them for that reason so that's why we wanted to have them on

[00:33:31] were big fans of his because we watch his stuff from afar all the time and we're hyped to get him on and we do want to preface something here we spend the first five minutes or so this interview talking about John Morosie the reason for that if you

[00:33:45] happen to recall Blue Jays fans went through the ringer this offseason they thought Shohei Otani was locked in to be a Blue Jays John Morosie reported that he was going to be a Blue Jays Shohei was on the flight to Toronto he was going to

[00:33:59] sign his contract everything seemed like he was going to Toronto until it wasn't so John Morosie got the report wrong there's a couple other people that got the report wrong Blue Jays fans were not happy about it and I'll tell you what Johnny led the charge

[00:34:15] of that this is one of the most viral clips he's ever put out so to preface this for people that haven't heard this or haven't seen the clip or want to know why we spend five minutes talking about John Morosie to start here's why

[00:34:28] let me say something and let me make this as abundantly fucking clear as possible John Morosie should be fired from the MLB network sent to the fucking the most maximum security fucking prison on the planet and should not be allowed to have a fucking cell phone for 10 to 15

[00:34:52] mother fucking years how do you tweet shit like that with no fucking confirmation on bull unbelievable dude unbelievable he's fucking click baiting send John Morosie to the fucking son and that is what you're getting into with this interview with Johnny Junta he is an

[00:35:17] electric factory he really is that's what we call Canadian nice style yes it is you think blue J's fans took that show hay thing lightly no they didn't know they did not no they did not to hear more of that let's get to our interview now

[00:35:35] with Johnny Junta alright we've got Johnny Junta on with us gate 14 podcast I'll say it based on the blue J's fan base and I wanted to start with this I thought we'd start with a fun game and it ties back to you a little bit Johnny I'm

[00:35:52] going to say a word and whatever I say I want you to think of and tell us the first thing that pops into your head so all right John Morosie dead dead alright give us give us some explanation on that one no I

[00:36:06] listen I I at one point wanted him dead do I want him dead now no it's fine I do not want him dead now but when he falls reported the Othani thing it was one of the worst days of my life so at one point I might

[00:36:20] have to I didn't actually know I said I want him in prison so maybe the first one that comes to mind is prison but yeah I wanted him I wanted him locked away forever that must have been the best day ever though until it

[00:36:31] was announced at all it was the coolest hour of my life was like holy shit we have Shohei Otani on the Toronto blue J's and then obviously that just not what happened but like I said I wish I'd go back to that hour and

[00:36:44] relive that hour when he was so it's so he was a Toronto blue J unbelievable stuff is it true he's actually DMing blue J's fans this year saying hey my bad I'm trying to make up for this I can't help that's

[00:36:56] real or no he actually is he is he hasn't DM me I don't think he knows I tweet it but he is he's DMed like a lot of I've gotten a lot of DMs from blue J's fans being like look at this

[00:37:06] DM John Marosi sending me so he is he is going out of his way to specifically try to make his like wrong or right but it just you fucked up just just embrace it you're done has he come back to has he come

[00:37:20] to Toronto this year I'm not sure he's been I think he watched the J's play in Detroit I don't have a track around but I do I do know that I do people are tweeting on him but I don't know if he has been in Toronto

[00:37:33] because that would be I mean to be a funny video if we try to track down and find John Marosi so that's a that'd be a good idea but I'm not sure if he has actually physically been inside the Roger Center this season it's funny because we'll go

[00:37:46] ahead loud oh I was just gonna say like I am curious about not just you but what blue J's fans went through that day I know you just talked about it a little bit but for what you have a pulse on of the rest of the blue J's

[00:37:57] fan base of like I'm sure it was ultimately a lot of you know heart break and anger but going through the ringer the way you did that day with the flight and you think he's on his way to Toronto and you think he's

[00:38:09] gonna sign the contract and there's a thing with you say kukuchi sushi reservation like so Mariners fans went through like a tiny little bit of this with Otani back in 17 because night and Gale reported they were like far and away the front runners and that

[00:38:22] turned out shocker to be wrong but you guys had it way worse so I'm just curious like what you could feel from blue J's fans in that 24 hours I guess it just yeah it's like I mean some things are too good to be true I mean

[00:38:34] it in retrospect didn't make sense why would you ever leave LA to move to Toronto I mean I Toronto's beautiful obviously but I just don't see a world where it makes sense to leave beautiful LA and have a chance to join a legit super team with Mookie

[00:38:49] bats Hall of Famer Freddie Freeman Hall of Famer clean kershaw obviously will be back soon so I it never made sense but just in our mind just the idea that holy shit it's gonna be Vladdy Boba Shet and Shohei Otani on the same baseball team was just

[00:39:05] unbelievable and it was obviously as we know now too good to be true so it was a it was a sad day in terms of emotions because we have the highest of highs where MLB transactions were transactions daily was tweeting like yeah Tommy signed with the Blue Jays

[00:39:20] Dodgers Nation tweeted it and then you have the John Marosi three right I have a Marosi proposal for you ready OK so Mariners fans have had their own bit or beef for however you want to label it with John Marosi because he loves tweeting about the Mariners

[00:39:40] he tweets about them a lot however for the most part it's just a lot of words and not a whole lot of real reporting so they label him as the yapper what do you think of that nickname and do you have an alternate suggestion for the rest of

[00:39:55] us I do like the yapper I do like the app that's actually a good one because he actually reported that Otani news with no confirmation I believe like he just tweeted it because they the reps weren't answering his messages or whatever like that so he's like oh they

[00:40:10] must be hiding something the app is the perfect one actually respect that I do it's I mean he's Canadian which sucks but yeah the appers are really good one I like that that's a really good nickname for John Marosi that started in our little Twitter circle in Mariners

[00:40:26] Twitter circle because what TJ means by he was tweeting a lot of words is I think he linked the Mariners to every headline free agent this this off season he had him linked to Yamamoto we had him linked to Cody Belanger he had

[00:40:38] him linked to like a handful of guys and he was tweeting it out like Mariners are among teams interested and obviously none of that ever came close to come in the wish and so that's how we earned that nickname and it's kind

[00:40:47] of stayed true over the last six months or so yeah there's nothing wrong with going on John Marosi knows what comes with the job and if you're gonna false report that's what's gonna come with it so well yeah it's whatever now I mean I don't

[00:40:59] care I mean the J sucks so it's it's it's Otani would have been cool on this team but it's a sad day when you realize you could out Otani and then now you went from having Otani to being last place in the alley so it's been a tough

[00:41:12] one it's been a tough one for us so if the Blue Jays truly suck I'll ask you this what should Mariners fans expect from Vladdie Jr when he's inevitably a Mariner in about a month what he's going nowhere I will say what Vlad he's going

[00:41:24] nowhere like that's the only guy to see them keeping because the price for him keeps going up for you guys like if he he has over a thousand OPS last 30 games since he cut his hair is like a 1300 OPS he had six home runs in his

[00:41:39] last nine games he's showing signs of 2021 Vladdie and he is the only guy in this offense that I would pay money to like Boba Shad has been terrible go probably figure it out soon and later obviously it's Boba Shad Springer slowly starting

[00:41:54] to figure it out Turner is too but Vladdie is the is the backbone of this of the Toronto Blue Jays I do not see a world where they trade him and I just like everyone hates our Superstars you guys would hate Vladdie in like a week just like

[00:42:06] you guys hate Julio Rodriguez I'm assuming right yeah I mean hates a strong word I don't I would I think it's safe to say people aren't exactly thrilled by the way he's played this year when your OPS and what 620 at this point at time of

[00:42:19] recording like yeah people are going to have their gripes so yeah Julio Rodriguez I've always like I thought he was good but like this is insane how bad he is like I can't believe it Mariners fans hate him legit hate him I believe this is

[00:42:34] after he got wiped up to the Canadian soccer player right Jordan I don't know what to say her name but yeah that's why you don't find love it will affect your career well it's like what you say it's it's your pin tweet

[00:42:45] your only like Twitter is the only wife you have you're married to the content yeah he's not married though he's not married to the baseball he is some of his app bats and I mean I go I guess like a lot of your offense

[00:42:56] kind of is like that same with ours but he is his app ass fucking suck like he is just bad right now he'll figure it out will probably go on like a little linsanity run for like a month or two and all of his numbers will look

[00:43:08] good but man who do Rodriguez is I did that's one guy did not expect to be really really bad like a 620 OPS it's not just him though it is like people are hating everybody right now especially after this weekend with Minnesota like

[00:43:24] Julio's the star he gets paid the most money he's got the longest contract he's the most marketable everyone wants his autograph but everyone sucks right now so that's fair that's yeah obviously he's gonna be the poster boy for it because he's expected to drive the

[00:43:42] offense and he's not driving the offense right now it's funny speaking of being married to the game that was his walk-up song forever was future it was married to the game so oh my god tough luck yeah well he recently changed it to be fair now he's using

[00:43:59] juice world but yeah the tough one I listen I mean Cal Raleigh is a Toronto blue jays killer so every single memory I have of the Seattle Mariners just Cal Raleigh just hitting balls in the fucking orbit and Julio Rodriguez who you Rodriguez I don't know if there's

[00:44:15] numbers to back this up he has been in nothing factor ever when the Jays play the Mariners he's never really done anything it's always Cal Raleigh or Ty France I believe that is just always raking off the Toronto Blue Jays those two guys and Carlos

[00:44:28] Santana but he's gone now but Cal Raleigh and Ty France are blue Jays killers and they will be when they play this way it's going to be there gonna go for like though your offensive figure it out this week and I promise so how many

[00:44:39] homers is Cal hitting this weekend three I get dude he is insane when he faces the blue Jays I've never seen anything like it's like him and Ryan Mount Castle they're the two greatest hitters I've ever seen against Toronto Blue Jays and Cal Raleigh

[00:44:52] I mean Mariners fans hate him too I think I think there he's another guy that just absolutely hated by maybe I'm just on like shit poster Twitter for Mariners fans but they hate Cal Raleigh I think you're seeing the one percenters of like Mariners Twitter

[00:45:06] like I think Cal Raleigh's I think Cal Raleigh's pretty loved I would say like he's he's like I think Cal Raleigh is absolutely one of the fan favorites I think I I have an idea of the people's tweets that you're saying

[00:45:16] or seeing and while I won't name drop them I think you're seeing the one percenters in Mariners world yeah you will and that's fair funny enough so Cal has had like a tough month as along with the rest of the Mariners offense think he's banged up

[00:45:27] and a little hurt right now but yeah funny you see all these negative tweets because funny enough the Mariners were ranked by Bleach Report Mariners Twitter was ranked as the friendliest online fan base and look at that else no that's not insane yeah yeah

[00:45:47] I don't know who is but it's certainly not us probably like A's Twitter I guess maybe they're I mean normally cares for them but you got me at the end of the day like I'm seeing you guys come not you specifically complain

[00:45:58] but I'm seeing these Mariners fans play you guys are in first place like trouble blue jays are in last place third last I believe in the American League like you guys can I mean obviously bad month you guys are still in first like the Astros are slowly

[00:46:12] starting to figure it out they'll probably sweep the Jays this week but it's just crazy seeing fan bases like Orioles fans complain Yankees fans complain like you guys are you guys have it so good you do not understand how good you guys have it

[00:46:26] because I'm telling you the grass is not greener where we're at right now so what do you think happened with the blue jays in this whole regime because this this rebuild of your guys was hyped up for so long with this core

[00:46:38] with Vladdy with the shed with all these guys and there's been a few playoff appearances but like there hasn't been any deep postseason runs you have a take on where it kind of didn't all come to fruition I think what ruined it was the 2022 8-1 lead

[00:46:55] against the Mariners I think the defense and the bullpen fucking that up for the blue jays put Ross Atkins on alert like alright we got to address the defense we got to address the bullpen last year they had the best one of

[00:47:09] the best bullpen to baseball top three in the RA they won the team gold glove that really good defense but the offense they sacrificed the offense for all that there are more run prevention instead of run scoring and he over compensated with

[00:47:23] how good the defense in the bullpen was supposed to be and did not address what the offense is supposed to how good the offense is supposed to be and you see it their bottom in every single offensive category pretty much they can hit going into this season they

[00:47:38] did not have any power bats coming in like obviously there were some free agent guys like JD Martinez Jorge Solaire all those guys they didn't pick those guys up they picked up Justin Turner who had a really good year last year albeit but he's

[00:47:49] not a home run hitter and they just kind of ran it back with the same boring ass offense they had the year before and this is what happens it obviously pitching is going to regress you're not going to have the healthy pitching staff you had all of

[00:48:02] last year you're not gonna have the healthy bullpen you had all of last year and this is what happens I mean the top three arms in the bullpen right last year Tim Mesa just got DFA Eric Swanson who's a good friend of ours is in triple A with

[00:48:15] a 16 ERI that's just what it is and Jordan Romano is injured those are your top three arms in the bullpen and they're not even giving you anything right now so banking on not not regressing with pitching but you're pitching you're hitting figuring it out was very was very

[00:48:32] dumb in reality and that's what the Jays did and now it's all it's all showing what happened here they stay they're really bad I'm guessing the Blue Jays offense is similar in a sense to where the Mariners are at offensively where the best

[00:48:45] player plays his best then a lot of other problems are solved we can't figure out who those issues but have you tried to get down to why Vlad took until now to sort of look like his twenty twenty one self again well the full flat he is

[00:49:01] he's I mean he's always gonna have he's always gonna light up the scoreboard with exavilo and all that type of stuff his launch angle is what's been the problem he's been just been a ground ball Luis Arias type hitter he's hitting 297 or 298 right now so he has

[00:49:16] been good the entire season just the past two or three weeks he's really really the power is starting to show he's starting to launch the baseball elevate balls so that's the biggest thing there but what sucks is is you would think like with Vlad

[00:49:30] figuring it out that this offense figured out like you mentioned it really just hasn't been that like Vlad is the only got springers also I guess been good the past week but Vlad he's figuring it out and he literally has no help there's no

[00:49:43] one helping him besides IKF and IKF has been unbelievable for this team man it's it's if I would have told you IKF and Vladimir Guerrero Jr would be carrying this offense you would say holy shit this team is a wagon because they're just like they just have a

[00:49:57] really good guys in the lineup if you those two hitters are being their best and they're just not they suck the J suck they can't hit you'll see this lineup is bought on the lineups really bad man Kevin Kirmar isn't like 180 and he's in

[00:50:10] the nine hole he's he's really bad it's a tough one tough one to watch it's funny you mentioned the lawn changles of Vlad that's that's been a big piece of Julio's issues too is like he'll hit the ball hard but everything's on the ground

[00:50:22] everything's beat into the dirt like isn't elevating so for Vlad he figured it out I guess we'll see if Julio figures it out I want to ask you about Blue Jays fans here specifically and Blue Jays fans in Seattle because I've never seen anything

[00:50:36] like this like I don't see it with other fan bases around baseball except like maybe when the Dodgers go to San Francisco or San Diego or something like that for the most part you don't see road fan bases just flock into a ballpark the way

[00:50:48] the Blue Jays do in Seattle and I feel like you don't see Blue Jays fans really do that anywhere else like do you know why it's Seattle of all places that they go to rather than Detroit I think uh with how close British Columbia is to Seattle right

[00:51:03] like I mean BC is massive and like a lot of our listeners are from there and a lot of uh a lot of Jays fans obviously live there as well so I think when they get that opportunity to not have to fly to Toronto to go watch their

[00:51:16] favorite team they just flock and it's it all the players said there's they've never seen anything like it they've never seen anything like it where they're in opposing stadium and it is just all just a sea of blue I'm assuming Mariners fans hate it

[00:51:29] like they just it's the worst thing ever I listen I hated it today like I was at the Jays game today against the Yankees and there was tons of Yankee fans like when Judge of the Home Run there was insanely loud

[00:51:40] cheering so I get where you guys are out it's probably way worse than what I experienced today but yeah you guys are so close to the Canadian border that's gonna happen like that's just unfortunately that's what's gonna be probably forever I say like it's just

[00:51:54] it's weird watching games and just seeing a crowd of blue Jays uniform or jerseys everywhere in t-shirts everywhere it's crazy it's not just that there's a lot of fans I mean it is legitimately 30 to 35,000 Canadians where they'll also jack the prices up so all the

[00:52:10] locals don't want to go and it gets even worse yeah yeah tough like yeah like I was gonna say it'll be the bottom of the ninth inning the blue Jays will be up in a game and you'll hear screaming and cheering like it was the Mariners that are

[00:52:25] trying to close out a game but no it's the blue Jays you've got fans standing on their feet it's a sea of bright blue like it's like the Mariners are getting rattled and having a like fighting against crowd noise in their own ballpark it's crazy

[00:52:35] yeah I don't know how I'd be able to deal with that like that is I'm the Yankee fans there's probably like 10,000 20,000 Yankee fans there today I could not imagine just overtaking an entire stadium like that and being a local there and obviously the the traveling like the hotels

[00:52:51] are probably filled with blue Jays fans uh it's it's bananas but the Jays have it doesn't matter though because the Jays have never had success there so it doesn't really resonate or result in the Jays actually being good so I find you guys

[00:53:07] I don't care to be honest like whatever is there a difference between Vancouver blue Jays fans and Toronto blue Jays fans I think they're more I think they're very diehard I think like to root for a team on the other side of

[00:53:23] the country that is a three hour time difference so like the games for them start off 4 4 p.m during the week the games for them start on the weekend at like one and then on today obviously when a clock even starts at 10 like they are diehard diehard fans

[00:53:39] because these game times are insane like they're leaving work when the Jays are playing and they're still locked in so I would say be British Columbia and Vancouver uh Toronto blue Jays fans are just insane diehard like love love this

[00:53:52] team so uh that's why and you see it when when they play the Mariners like we're talking about it's crazy how much they love this team I've got one more specific blue Jays question for you before we transition a little bit into your guys'

[00:54:03] high cast as a whole but if you're putting your GM hat on if you're GM Johnny here you talked about what you think's gone wrong with the rebuild they tried to put together now what do you do like like how how do they

[00:54:14] best succeed going forward well it's the tough situation I mean the Jays suck and they have the 24th ranked like prospect list and farm system in baseball so guys like Kevin Gossman probably will have to get traded I mean that he's not getting younger he's all

[00:54:34] also he's not he's like kind of struggling here pretty bad the past couple of uh couple weeks but Kevin Gossman probably gone uh Yusei Kukuchi probably gone who's been pretty good Yusei Kukuchi besides that's already had on Friday but uh all the

[00:54:48] veteran guys that are on like two year deals like they're gone alright the only guys I could I'm probably 100 positive that are staying are Vladdy David Schneider probably staying he's a lot tons of years left in the contract Spencer Horowitz

[00:55:01] uh the rest of it is kind of a fire sale I don't see where where this is where it makes sense to keep this run it back keep running it back keeping this team together your last place in the AL East the AL East is

[00:55:14] only getting better and you have literally one of you have the worst prospect system in the American league east so like where where are you gonna get this talent from and the only way you could do it is by trading it pitching is a very hot

[00:55:25] commodity right now everyone needs pitchers Kevin Gossman will get you a pretty good return one of you see the jersey behind me Chris Bassett one of our best friends on the podcast I don't want them to trade him but he has a sub 2er as last 10 starts

[00:55:39] I mean a team is going to overpay for that right uh especially with two years left in the contract so it sucks we're in a weird spot man we're pretty much the Colorado Rockies now where teams are just trying to pick our

[00:55:51] pieces and try to take stuff from us so I've never the with the gate 14 we've never been in this position we're rooting for a fucking team that's rebuilding but the harsh reality of it man that they made their bed and that's seven game win streak

[00:56:04] did not help it two weeks ago would it doesn't really make as much sense though to pay Vlad if you're just going to tear it down because he would net you the largest return at that the farm system stinks trading him would probably jump

[00:56:17] the blue jays up at least 10 spots in the in the farm system rankings in terms of what you can get you just the jays just spent 600 million to renovate the stadium they got to pay that back the only way they could pay that back

[00:56:30] is by keeping a guy like Vlad who the common fan the common man will know who that is they will overpay for Vlad to ensure that people still show up to the stadium no one will show up to the stadium if they trade Vlad and if they trade

[00:56:43] bow that's just what it is there is it is going to be five 10,000 people at these games if they do that and Rogers knows that and Vlad he puts acid in seats Vlad he has made it clear he wants to stay here

[00:56:56] you have a good young group of guys I'm like Spencer Horowitz is very good Davis Schneider we know he's been good Ernie Clement has also been a pretty good piece IKF so there is pieces around there where you can the offense can't get worse

[00:57:12] that's where I'm at with this like like you trade away these guys it's not going to get worse so I think Vlad he's the only guy you keep and he's still so young where you could still build around him and I think Boba Schett's probably the

[00:57:25] guy that's going to be gone and Boba Schett gets you a pretty good return the guy led the league and hit three out of his last four seasons so it just sucks but yeah they they they got to figure something out sooner or later here

[00:57:36] and they just got to start start trading some guys and it's going to suck to see like some of the fan favorites go like Kuchy Gossman Yemi Garcia it's going to suck if we're going to transition a little bit into your podcast you

[00:57:48] brought up Chris Bassett a couple minutes ago I wanted to ask or follow up about that with you here which was what's your guys story with him were you at his wedding was that the story no no no I make the joke

[00:58:00] that he is going to be in my wedding party yeah so essentially he just like followed gate 14 randomly like just because his dad always followed us and so did his brother Moose and I guess Chris Bassett like he has a pretty good hand and

[00:58:15] he keeps deer on the streets online he knows the pulse of the fan base and all that so he essentially was just throwing like I saw through Twitter we DM'd him he said he'll come on the pod he came on the pod and then in the

[00:58:28] offseason we used to just played Fortnite with him every day so uh he's just yeah he's one of the best so we got close with him and then he got us Gossman on the podcast and uh we're obviously really close with like Ernie Clement and Davis Schneider

[00:58:41] and uh we've just been we've been lucky to form relationships with a lot of guys on the team Johnny you're so brutally honest at times though about all of these players what was the balance to resonate to build these relationships while also being your authentic self

[00:59:00] I think the biggest thing is is uh they understand like that's why they like us because they know we're not gonna sugarcoat or or do that and then they know that they're on we're on their side like if someone comes at them we will go like

[00:59:17] bring our cult like following to attack the individual that's kind of coming at them so they know we're the we're the eye or the ears and we're like the pulse of the fans and they like they respect it like I Chris Bassett would say to us

[00:59:31] you guys are you guys are fucking idiots if you feel like if i'm pitching about you're not gonna say anything about it like that's you can't you gotta do like they understand we're doing what we gotta do I think we're not as hard like

[00:59:42] we we make jokes about being hard on players like we're not really really hard on guys like I'm pretty hard probably on Kevin Keirmar that's about it because he's making 10 and a half million but majority of the time it's just jokes like the George Springer like we were

[00:59:56] hard on George Springer but we just we did like a George Springer versus Johnny Junta my college stats picture like we're not like we're not like calling for him to be like DFA or dead like we're just we just we try to make light out

[01:00:10] of the situation that the Toronto Blue Jays are in and we try to have fun with stuff and the players respect that and they know that we got their back so it is it is it's hard to balance it but we're really rarely critical of

[01:00:22] those guys that have given us their time and that are really nice to us it's hard for me to do that I'm a little biased in terms of that yeah we're the same way like like we defend the guys that are friends

[01:00:32] of this Todd and the guys we've had on so like it's natural right like you're gonna root for the guys that you're you're friendly with or friends with it's just yeah exactly have you guys had Trent Thornton on no but he's he's really cool I will say

[01:00:45] he is he's like a maniac when he's on the mound but he is super cool when he's off the mound yeah I I uh I met Trent like three or four years ago he's a great dude he's uh I had all my old podcast he's a great guy

[01:00:58] he's very uh he's a gel locker room guy like very uh not a southern accent but he kind of talks like it's a southern accent he is uh he he rocks and he's a massive part of your guys bullpen as well right yeah

[01:01:11] yeah which speaking of the bullpen I can't even believe we got this far into it without let me ask you this were your thoughts on Taylor Sausado because that is the staple of this podcast he is well he's been unbelievable I can he was so shit

[01:01:25] with the Toronto Blue Jays like truly utterly terrible I mean it's crazy like uh you guys will probably pick up Tim Mesa at some point he'll just be good like I mean it is bananas you guys got Trent Thornton and Taylor Sausado

[01:01:38] in the year 2024 in your bullpen as staples uh it's bananas so I got to my cow and that's the thing about bullpen like that's the thing about bullpen it's just like if you just have a bunch of janitors back there that no one knows who just carve

[01:01:53] they'll do it like you'll it's such a random frequency of things where you can't really forecast how good a bullpen is going to be you have no fucking idea there's no way of telling I want to put my finger on the

[01:02:06] pulse of this and see if this news made it across fan bases and more importantly across the border did you see what Taylor Sausado was stirring up this offseason news wise on our podcast no so he claimed so he claimed that

[01:02:21] Babe Ruth wasn't real and it seemed to make I heard oh yeah okay yeah so he jumped back jumped out into the forefront of the of the news and wonder if it made it back to his old team that's why he looks like it's

[01:02:34] not afraid he is not afraid to speak his mind on subjects he thinks are important yeah that's what you do is a bullpen guy like bullpen guys have to be psychopaths like like have to be so that is a lecture it's good for you guys

[01:02:48] too it's good for clips and uh Taylor Sausado man I've never talked to him or even met him but I just remember like bad memories of him on the Toronto Blue Jays that's all I have out of Taylor Sausado that's funny so it sounds like maybe his personality

[01:03:02] never came out much there but he's become such a fan favorite here not just because he's been really good but because I think he's very relatable to a lot of fans and he basically always says I'm just a fan that gets to

[01:03:12] put a jersey on and he's you know he's on twitch streams losing his mind and he rips off all these crazy takes and he's a huge Seattle sports fan because this is where he grew up it's like yeah so it sounds like maybe his

[01:03:22] personality never got out as much in in Toronto but yeah that's what we've seen here it's uh yeah I it's tough when you're a bullpen guy to really have your personality shine here in Toronto when you have like Vladdy and Bo and Springer and Gosman all

[01:03:36] like it's tough I mean they're not going to really care about you if you're not the hundred million dollar guys so that is crazy though I didn't know he was that I didn't know he was like that that's insane it's crazy

[01:03:47] for you guys like how did you see your podcast start to really build over time like when did you really start to see a pickup traction well so I started because I realized there was no like Blue Jays fan pod like there

[01:03:58] was no like lunatic fan podcast of just like funny shit like when I was trying to listen to Jays shows I was like I don't want to listen to these suits like I want to listen like actual people so I said oh whatever me and

[01:04:10] Avery all like a start one together started out pretty slow obviously but like within a year and a bit probably it started getting like crazier where like people are like people are coming up to us at games for pictures a ton now it's it's truly bananas like I

[01:04:24] I can't really fathom it like every time I'll say to my buddies when we're at games someone will come up to me for a picture I'd be like I can't like what the fuck like why someone want a picture with me but

[01:04:35] when you're grind like this you don't really understand the power of social media and it started really growing when we did the Margot Robbie tweet about Mitch White like we lied that Mitch White was dating Margot Robbie and that really blew up our socials

[01:04:50] and then last year at the start of the season we went to St. Louis slowly started to grab some traction and then midway to three quarters of the way last season is when it really really blew up where like we're getting a lot of downloads and

[01:05:04] like the players following us and knowing what we are and stuff so it's been a crazy ride it's been it's been insane like the past year probably have you seen the rest of the blue jays community pick it up around you

[01:05:15] and sort of a content space we certainly weren't first in the Mariners world but I feel like now especially for us a year and a half plus in we now see more more people around us then when we started is it the

[01:05:30] same way around blue jays the blue jays community yeah there's like there's other blue jays like shows that try to mimic and do the stuff that we do and fans will be like our listener basers like they're just cult like like they will die for us like they'll

[01:05:46] just go at anyone for us so they will they'll just be like want to be gate 14 want to be 14 after like say to the guys like relax like it's fine like this we can all create content but uh yeah you start seeing

[01:05:58] more of it like I people will do the post game tick talks I do now and they'll do the live reactions and them watching the games like we started last year um yeah it's crazy like I said when you mimic it that means you're

[01:06:11] doing some people are mimicking and copying what you're doing them it means you're doing something right so I don't get mad about it I don't say like you're copying us or any of that like if they're copying our sayings maybe I'll get a little bit mad where

[01:06:22] it's like we started this like you saw young or other nicknames we've created but uh yeah I mean if they're if they're doing we're doing it's fine there's tons of room for it and I mean I'm not I don't want to have enemies

[01:06:35] that were the same fan base as us did you always think you were gonna do content or like when did you decide this is what you wanted to do like five years ago I started a podcast fish and official and like I had some

[01:06:49] pretty big guests I got like Tyler Glaz now uh like pretty big guys I got through a mirror Garrett because I'm close to the mirror Garrett and uh he would just help me get like just churn out these insane guests like if

[01:07:01] you look at the guest list I can't remember like Joe must grow all these guys so um with that that didn't really do as well like a year two years into that didn't really do as well so I did the gate 14 thing and the

[01:07:13] once gate 14 blew up I kind of just pushed that one to the side but in my mind I always wanted to do content like I was just I look I look at old tweets of mine I was just tweeting into the abyss like it would get

[01:07:23] like one like no likes and I was doing it for the love of the game and now it's like it just crazy like that the change that that has occurred but um yeah I've always wanted to do content man I'm too dumb to work behind

[01:07:36] like a desk or working like a business setting uh I've always wanted to do content luckily we have that privilege now so yeah we've been extremely lucky kind of being the first guys to get into this podcast space for like the fans for a blue

[01:07:50] jays podcast how does it feel how do you feel that the the rest of the blue jays media has received you guys since you're you're more majority of them like us like majority of them like us uh I they know that they have

[01:08:08] to be on our they don't have to be but they know if they're on our good side it helps them right like uh keegan mason who was from me.com he's a gate 14 guy he tells us people always come up to and say they love

[01:08:20] when he's on the podcast so they know that there's probably a couple of them like the old heads like we'll get dms from uh beat writers for the blue jays I'll be like I don't want like I'm not gonna want to tweet

[01:08:30] this or anything like that but I love you guys I love what you guys are doing uh it's great for the fans there's probably like one or two that genuinely hate me which is like fine I don't care I mean I've probably been the

[01:08:42] main cause for them to hate me but uh yeah like I I go out a couple I go out like Mike Wilner who hates me um but I think majority of them like us I really do we're like we're on their side the word is that we're just

[01:08:54] covering them the team a different way than they're doing it we don't have like a boss to answer to but yeah it's a little bit different what's it the newer you are people are more hesitant but they know that we're we have a goal of covering the team

[01:09:08] as fans so they get that and my last question johnny if you were to have a dream guest to have on who is it for the blue jays it probably be man it's hard to knock out jose batista man uh he is he's the epitome of what

[01:09:28] it is to be a blue jay I mean they picked him up after he got dfa'd then just started the light kick at 54 home runs silver slugger all-star game it's him or joss donaldson man I don't know where I'd go with it but probably jose batista because

[01:09:45] those are like the my best memories of my lifetime as a tronald blue jays fan was the jose batista years the two or three I mean he was probably in four or five years he was just the best hitter in baseball so it's got to be

[01:09:57] joey batsman I love joey bats I like that answer that's a good answer johnny this has been a blast thank you like we appreciate you hopping on we've been following you for a long time we love your content so we've had a blast talking with you and we're

[01:10:11] looking forward to seeing how the series goes down this week thank you guys yeah listen I mean you guys will probably take two or three um it'll probably be a shit kicking if you guys do lose to the tronald blue jays in

[01:10:21] the big 2024 in a series like it's tough I'll be honest with you guys it's not it's not a good look so you gotta you gotta get the boys going you gotta get the boys firing I'm not quite sure who the provables are I'm assuming it'll be

[01:10:34] Kevin Gossman going Friday uh Saturday would be yari al rodriguez and sunday jose barrio so credit to me by the way for just raw I just knew that right off the fucking rep I knew that I knew the three guys going for that series but uh yeah

[01:10:47] enjoy god listen you guys are in a great job obviously tons of followers on Instagram you guys are buzzing so it's cool to see fan actual fans of the team starting to get like recognition for covering their team instead of the traditional mainstream media so it's

[01:11:01] cool to see what you guys are doing man keep uh keep clicking away it's electric and if they lose two or three we'll be hearing from you on twitter this weekend yeah I can't say shit I mean my team sucks so I really can't

[01:11:13] say shit there now thanks johnny easy boys we had a blast with that combo I hope it becomes a regular annual occurrence that we have johnny on to talk blue jays on this podcast because he's so much fun and like we said before the

[01:11:28] interview started there's a reason those guys are really popular the gate 14 podcast because they are very very authentically themselves and people latch onto that for good reasons so shout out to johnny we love talking to him and hopefully we do it again

[01:11:41] with that 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 form podcast make sure to download the episodes leave us a five star review leave a written review all that good

[01:11:52] stuff if you're listening on the audio side make sure to like comment subscribe on youtube and check us out on social media we're on instagram tiktok twitter and youtube shorts at marine layer pod one final little shout out if you're listening to

[01:12:05] this in the morning go check us out on brocken salk if you're listening to this after the show's over go check out those brocken salk podcast we were on we're looking forward to it we're gonna bring a ton of energy to it we're gonna make it fun so

[01:12:16] hopefully you guys enjoy it that's tj i'm lial as always we thank you guys for tuning in we'll talk to you soon