Episode 15: Previewing Mariners Third Baseman And Key Non-Roster Invitees To Spring Training.

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number fifteen of the Marine Layer Podcast with TJ. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein. On today's pod, it's our third base preview. We'll look at Aohenio Suarez and the guys behind him in the roles for the Mariners in the twenty twenty three Major League Baseball season. We have a spring training roster, so we'll each pick out a non roster invit a guy who's not on the forty man that we want you to look out for as spring training goes along for the next month and a half, we'll take a look around baseball at our MLB wrap around you Darvish with a new six year extension with the Padres, and a former top draft pick is in the American League West. We'll close out the show with Speak your Mind. Let's get it. 00:00:42 Speaker 2: Rolling, and we welcome you into this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast here on Monday, February thirteen. 00:01:00 Speaker 1: The Mariners report to spring training later this week, but before that happened, Lyle, we survived Arizona. 00:01:08 Speaker 3: We did. 00:01:09 Speaker 4: It was nice to get out of the rain and the cold Pacific Northwest, and it was nice to get together with everybody. I mean, I enjoyed the trip. I know you did. 00:01:18 Speaker 1: Yeah. Stories that might not be appropriate for this podcast, but if you venmo me money, I will tell you the story. Promise it is well worth it. Uh And I think low. I do think survived was an appropriate term, because I did think there were some points where survival was questioned. Am I wrong? Well? 00:01:42 Speaker 4: Maybe on your end, I thought I was Okay, now you're you're pretty hydrated. 00:01:47 Speaker 3: I'll say that exactly. 00:01:50 Speaker 1: I will make one note, and I don't want to foreshadow my speak your mind too much, but man, the Phoenix Open is an unbelievable sporting event, just right off the top, not based on well related in any sort of sense of the way. If you're in Arizona in the second week of February, please go to the Phoenix Open. You will not regret it. I promise. It is the best event, one of the best sporting events I've gone to. It's so unique, it's so fun, and especially if you just like having a good time. It's essentially what happens as I've heard it described. If Arizona State tailgates a golf tournament, that's what it is. 00:02:27 Speaker 4: It's blast, that's about spot on. I mean we've been a couple times. Like I said, we'll save some of it for your speak your Mind segment, but yeah, it is a blast if you happen to be in Arizona at any point, like you were saying, and hey, if you have some extra time where you could make some type of trip out of it where you're there for a weekend to see the Phoenix open and then you're there to see spring training or I guess the games don't start for a little bit of extra time, but hey, if you plan some prolonged trip to Arizona, you could knock it all out. 00:02:59 Speaker 1: So yeah, foreshadowing, we can get to that a little bit later in this podcast. Let's get to our Mariners section of this podcast. Here being a Mariner's podcast, it's our third base preview this week, Lyle, and much like last week, the position we are previewing this week, third base is a position that the Mariners have the utmost confidence that they're going to get one hundred and fifty games of the same player at in the twenty twenty three season. So for our third base preview, we are primarily looking at Ao Hennio Suarez, who's expected to have another massive role on this team in the twenty twenty three season. 00:03:37 Speaker 4: Outside of second base, it's been a pretty common trend among the infield when we've been previewing these positions in the sense of there is one guy that the Mariners are going to be heavily relying on. And I know that's the case for most teams, but just when you look at the Mariners' depth compared to who their starter is, they cannot afford to lose many guys in that infield. No, you Hennio Suarez, same story. I mean, it's pretty InCred what Suarez has been able to do since he was traded over here, especially when you consider the fact that when the trade happened, it was called the Jesse Winker trade. It wasn't called the au Henneo Suarez trade. Suarez was a throw in piece for the Mariners to get Winker and give less back to Cincinnati. Fast forward a year. He is far and away the most valuable part of that trade. 00:04:23 Speaker 1: It's not even close. You go look at the most valuable players on the twenty twenty two Mariners roster, all three of them are newcomers. Essentially, cal Rawley in his first full season in the Big League's Julio the American League Rookie of the Year, and Suarez, as you mentioned, who was almost a throw in of that trade. And if you think about it in this perspective, if Suarez isn't playing at third, I think Ave Toro is your third baseman last year for the most part, right at least throughout the first two months. 00:04:52 Speaker 3: And less Dylan Moore swings over there. 00:04:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, and like full time for perspective. We've mentioned multiple times, but Abe Toro was quite literally the worst player to play for the Mariners last year in terms of wins above replacement. So you go from negative point seven there for Toro to Suarez, who had over four wins above replacement as the third most valuable member of the twenty twenty two Mariners team. And he does a lot of things well lyle he hits the ball extremely hard. Even as he hits age thirty last year, he still hit the ball really hard. He struck out over thirty percent of the time, which is something you don't like to see. But he also played replacement level defense. After coming off a really bad defensive season in Cincinnati, they tried moving him over to shortstop a little bit. He was able to move back to his natural position of third base and really thrive a lot more for the Mariners in twenty twenty two, and you expect, maybe with another year here in Seattle, in another year working with Perry Hill, his slightly below average defensive numbers in terms of defensive run saved and outs above average can now go up into the positive sense, and he can be even better this upcoming season. 00:06:00 Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of reasons to believe Suarez can continue to improve here in Seattle. He was great this past year, you said it, But his defense can get better, and it's actually been better at points of his career earlier on than it was this past year. And by no means this past season did he have a bad defensive year. Like you said, he was right at league average in terms of OAA. I guess defensive run saved he was slightly below. But that's all the Mariners really needed. Of course, you want him to get better. But when you looked at the defense that Suarez played compared to his past season, the Mariners said, yeah, we'll take that any day of the week. Side note, what were the reds Ever thinking putting him at shortstop? This is not a knock on Auhenio Suarez. He's a perfectly fine defender at third base. In what world did the Reds look at that guy and say, that's a shortstop? 00:06:50 Speaker 1: Uh, you got me. They weren't exactly trying to win though in twenty twenty one, So you have that explanation. 00:07:00 Speaker 4: It's true they weren't. But with Suarez, I'm with you. I think his defense can continue to get better, especially because such a key for Suarez. Outside of that broken finger toward the end of the year, which was just kind of a freak injury, the dude is always available. He played one hundred and forty two out of one hundred and forty three games before he suffered that broken index finger. That is such a huge asset to have when you have guys that are going to be on the field and healthy. So combine all that together and like you said, continuing to work with Perry Hill, his defense can get better. He's shown at times of his career that he can play even better defense than he did in twenty twenty two. 00:07:39 Speaker 1: That durability is especially valuable after realizing what you lost with Kyle Sieger, a guy who was in the lineup every single day for the Mariners for an entire decade. And you have Seger in twenty twenty one, and the Mariners choose not to pick up his option, and you have all this outcry for bringing segerback. Why not you bring him back? Well, he ended up retiring anyways, and the Mariners essentially replaced him with an as durable player who had as good an offensive Seagan. Caesar A. I'm going to restart that sentence, Lyle. Let's try that over again. They replace him with a player who've had as good an offensive season as Seger had ever had. Swarez this past season had a one to thirty one WRC plus Kyle Seeger's career high was one thirty four when he had a six win season in twenty sixteen. 00:08:30 Speaker 3: That's it. 00:08:31 Speaker 1: Besides that Suarez has him beat across the board in terms of offensive production and in the durability as well, as we mentioned, really just a fluke injury with that fractured finger, which essentially leads to the Mariners not missing a beat with Suoraz at third. There's a couple questions I have, though, Lyle, when we look at Suarez twenty twenty two. Is the first season, he struck out over thirty percent of the time in his career. Suarez was one of three players in baseball last year to strike out over thirty percent of the time. Are you worried that his strikeout rate could continue to creep up as it has? And as we know, the higher endo the thirties, your strikeout rate gets. I mean, it is really really hard to be a good offensive player when you strike out that much. Again, only three qualified players were able to get enough at that striking out thirty percent of the time, because you just don't stay in the lineup like that. 00:09:26 Speaker 3: Is there some concern? 00:09:27 Speaker 4: Sure, you're right as you continue to age, strikeouts don't usually trend downward on a player's resume. Will I accept the strikeouts? Well, Mariners fans take the strikeouts combined with everything else that Tsuarez brings if it stays around the low thirties percentile, Yeah, I will. Because he walks at such a great rate, he hits the ball extremely hard. You mentioned that a little bit ago. He brings things to the table that are still really valuable that can offset the strikeouts. And if you want to look at the line of positivity here for why Suarez a strikeout rate could either just plain out or even trend downward a little bit. He's not a chaser. This guy does not have a bad plate approach. He doesn't chase pitches out of his zone. His strikeout stem from swings and misses, and if you're Suarez, it feels like you have a better chance to clean that up when you're just swinging and missing rather than having a lack of a good plate approach and just chasing balls out of his zone. 00:10:30 Speaker 1: It's a good point you make there, Lyle, because I had the same observation. But there's also a little bit of a reason for optimism. Mike Lefko noted something last week when he was on with us, and I had to go look it up. He's saying, Hey, do you guys noticed towards the end of the season, Suarez seemed to you know, his approach seemed a little bit better. He was Who's hitting the ball the other way a little bit more. He's making a little bit more contact and not striking out as much. No, it's a small sample size, Lyle, but if you go from September first onward throughout the rest of the season, Suarez two sixty hit uh, excuse me. Swaz hit two sixty three, three, eighteen, five thirteen, a one to thirty nine WRC plus and more importantly, a twenty six percent strikeout rate while having a ninety three average eggs at velocity, which is elite. That's about what juli the strikeout rate of Julio Rodriguez. 00:11:23 Speaker 4: If Suarez strikes out twenty six percent of the time for the entirety of a season, the Mariners will take that. Again, They'll probably take his strikeouts even being at thirty to thirty one percent, when he walks as much as he does, hits for as much power as he does, plays perfectly fine defense. But if it can continue to go down, yeah, that's that only makes for better and better news for Suarez and the Mariners. It's funny you mentioned his September or his end of the year. He seems to have done that in back to back seasons now, and I think that's part of the reason the Mariners were okay with trading for him before twenty two, because if you remember Suarez in twenty one, he had a bad year as a whole, like really bad, but that last month of the season in Cincinnati, he posted a twelve to sixty eight ops with eight home runs. It's interesting that he just continues to trend upward as seasons go on. If the Mariners can get another version of that Suarez in twenty twenty three, Again, he doesn't have to ops twelve hundred, but signs only seem to point toward improvement, and especially if you're looking a trend toward the postseason, Suarez seems to peak at the right time. 00:12:28 Speaker 1: He'll only be thirty one this upcoming season. As you mentioned, with age, you mean your bat slows down, but you also get less durable too. I'm curious can Scarez keep up this durability. As the other positions on the infield we've mentioned, there is not much depth behind him. There's really not. Dylan Moore's probably your backup third basement. As we said, Dylan Moore's not probably the favorite option at short He's not a great backup shortstop. So third base is probably the best option for Dylan Moore. And it's funny, Lyle, you probably agree with this. To More and Suarez are pretty similar players at this point of their careers. Low average, high walk rate, higher eggs of velocities, and some pretty decent pop with a slightly below average defense at third So it makes it a pretty easy transition if you go to Dylan Moore there at third base. 00:13:22 Speaker 4: The difference is Dylan Moore is just a little bit more athletic. Suarez of course has more pop, but yeah, it's not a men's drop off by any standard. If Suarez were to miss some time now in terms of the durability factor, credit to the Mariners because they already seem to have some blueprint in place this year to get Suarez more off days, and they've talked about that. They said they want to get him a few more games at DH this year. They said they want to get him off his feet in general a little bit more this season with a couple added off days here and there. So I think they realize how much he played last year and how they can continue to manage his health and keep him on the fields for when they need him the most to keep him healthy. 00:14:01 Speaker 1: So that's gonna be a thing with both of the left side of the infielders JP and Swarz, They're gonna get be getting more days off this year. I'm just curious, some thinking out loud, how how do you replace that production. Where where does that production loss come from? If you're going to say, hey, we want thirty combined game set for JP Crawford and Swarz, where where does that come from? Mile Where where does that production come. 00:14:26 Speaker 3: You likely stagger them. 00:14:28 Speaker 4: I'm going to guess more often than not, you will not see those guys off on the same day because you'll need Dylan Moore Sam Haggerty to plug in, although actually Haggarty doesn't really play much of the left side of the infield, so it might be mostly more. 00:14:41 Speaker 3: Along with that. 00:14:42 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a good question. If there was a situation where both guys were injured or one player was injured and one player needed an off day, that does make things a little bit dicey. It would probably be Tommy Listella if he stays on the roster, because the Mariners did sign him to that one year deal. Lostella can play second, he can play third, he can play first, so that's probably your next option. But again, I'm not even so sure le Stella makes the opening day roster. I'm not saying he doesn't. I'm just saying I wouldn't bank on it. So it does make things interesting because there's not a whole lot of depth at the position. 00:15:17 Speaker 1: The other thing I wonder about with Suarez does he need to be the second best hitter in the lineup? Again? That's what he was last year by WRC plus, he was the second best hitter on the Mariners lineup to Julio Rodriguez. Does he need to be the second best hitter in this lineup? Again? I don't think so, because I think the second base platoon will be enough. It's not gonna be the second best hitter. But the two major things, as we have talked about, you're banking on the a let's say a one to fifteen WRC plus from your second base position, and you're also banking on foreshadowing preview in the future Taoscar Hernandez in right field, putting up a somewhere between a one twenty five and a one forty depending on how hot he is during the season. I'm going to say, no, Lyle, what do you think. 00:16:06 Speaker 4: I don't even think Suarez has to be third. I think he could be fourth or fifth on this roster. Because if you just listed out, assuming Julio is going to be one, ti Oscar Hernandez could be two ty, France could be three, cal Raley could be four, Suarez could be five and still have a really good year. If guys like Raley continue to improve, ty Franz stays healthy and continues to improve, they can have a much more loaded offense with Suarez continuing to make his impact but not be the second best hitter. 00:16:35 Speaker 1: It's a fair point. Somehow I forgot about ty Franz. But you could think about it both ways. It could be either a bad thing because the Swarz is your fifth and he could be awful. He could regress. There's always that chance. It wasn't that long ago we mentioned that Swarz had a bad season and he's coming off a very good year now, and you say, oh, well, if his bat speed really slows down, he starts chasing a little bit more, And when a guy like him starts chasing, then things really go downhill and things are bad. So it's it's something to think about when we look ahead to twenty twenty three. After the backup options currently on the major league roster, as we mentioned before, I mean it's Mason McCoy maybe backing up in an emergency at third base, or you could, you know, really dig deep down the rabbit hole. You know you could have a lefty third baseman, Lyle, you put Evan White at third? Does that sound good? 00:17:31 Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly. 00:17:32 Speaker 4: Now how would that go a lefty playing the left side of the endfield. 00:17:36 Speaker 1: Well, it'd probably end up being Ty Franz at third base, which I don't know how much better that would be. 00:17:43 Speaker 4: He's not the same third baseman he was when he got traded over to Seattle. He's put on some extra pounds and some muscle. Not bad weight, but he has put on some pounds to be a first basement since then, which has helped him in terms of being a first baseman and adding some extra pop. I just don't know that he'd move as well at third base anymore. So you're right, it probably would be tie in a pinch, But ideally you have him either just stick at first base and play DH. Now you're right, though, I mean you look at the depth and the miners. There's not much you mentioned McCoy. I guess somebody like Drew Ellis could be another option, but again, that doesn't feel like a guy you want playing forty to fifty major league games. 00:18:22 Speaker 1: One off, good buddy, Jeremy Bush could hop in hop into the infield and take some grounders there at third. I think he's ready. He's going to be into COMBA this year. So if he gets enough ground balls, I mean, get the kid up he benches, he's got he's got some muscle on him. 00:18:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, let him. 00:18:38 Speaker 4: Let him start getting some infield work before games with the rest of the guys. In all seriousness, though, if you want to continue to look down in the farm system, there's not a whole lot of guys that would be really ready. If you're looking at the impact players in the minor leagues that could one day be ready, those guys are far away. Somebody like Tyler Locklear, who was the Mariner's second round pick this past year and as a third baseman one day might be really good, but he didn't get above medesto last year. That's low a. He's got a long way to go despite being a college product. There's a couple of young infielders in this system. Milk Carperez and Starlin Aguilar are a couple, but both those guys really struggled last year. So not only are they far away, but they've got a whole lot of improvements to make if they even want to get back into the fold. The other guy's Harry Ford. I mean, we think he's going to start to play some other positions this year. Maybe third base is an option for him. If Suarez's contract is up after twenty twenty four, which it is, cal Raley is still catching, maybe one day that's an option, but he's not going to help this year. 00:19:44 Speaker 1: Can you think of any other catchers that transitions to transition to third base. 00:19:51 Speaker 4: Off the top of my head, No, but there are some catchers that have played third base just because it's a corner position. 00:19:57 Speaker 3: I mean. 00:19:57 Speaker 4: Now, usually the catchers that end up playing third base are not as athletic as Ford is. Usually you'll see those catchers go play first base. Maybe they'll play left field. I'm not gonna say it happens every day, but I could see Harry Ford playing third base if I had to put my money on another position to be second. But I wouldn't be shocked if they tried him at third. 00:20:19 Speaker 1: Another guy to think about the future of third base. We know Cole Young probably won't stay at shortstop from everything we've seen for the rest of his career. The Mariner's first round pick from this upcoming season, Joe Doyle mentioned it when he was on with us a few weeks, so I mean Cole Young. He said he's got a fantastic swing, great hitter, which is first of fall an eight plus for any third baseman. Third basemen are supposed to be among the three best hitters on your roster, but that he's just an okay shortstop, and I wonder, you know, I'd like to get Joe's opinion on if Cole Young is going to be a second baseman or if he could shift over and play third base as well. A little bit more difficult than playing second base, so I'm not sure if that would be exactly what Cole Young would fit, but just another thought for some time in the future. Cole Young, though probably about two years away. 00:21:08 Speaker 4: He probably profiles more as a third baseman where Forge is looking at him profiles more as a second basement if he wasn't gonna catch, so that would make sense. But again, those guys aren't going to be impacting the team in twenty twenty three. For this season, it is au Hennio Suarez and the Mariners need him to basically repeat what he did last year because they are banking on him. They are banking on him to have a good year. Even if he's not the second best hitter, they need him to be productive. So au Hennio Suarez will be manning the hot corner for the Mariners in twenty twenty three, barring injury. I'd say that just about wraps up our third base preview. As we continue on here, spring training is just a couple days away. We know the bulk of this roster that's going to be in action and the usual faces that we'll see on a regular basis playing games once action gets underway. But outside of the forty man roster TJ, there are a few side that the Mariners have made that may not be flashy but could impact this roster this season, and we thought here on the show this week it'd be fun to point out a couple of them, so I'll toss it to you first. Of the Mariners non roster invites to spring training, is there anybody from that list that stands out to you? 00:22:19 Speaker 1: I think the easiest thing to look at is who could potentially jump into the bullpen. Bullpen is the easiest guy. Bullpen is the easiest position relief pitcher to take a guy off the scrap heap with good intangibles and throw him in the bullpen. So that's why my eyes land on JB. Bukowskis, a former first round pick of the Houston Astros in the twenty seventeen draft. A guy who took a bit of time to reach the majors finally made it in the twenty twenty one season. He came over in the Zach Granki trade two Arizona from Houston. Had a seven to seven nine ERA in the twenty twenty one season, was just awful get missing some time in twenty twenty two with a last strain, but he bounced back when he returned to Triple A and July he had a two to six six ERA in a very hitter friendly park in Reno. If you're curious, go look at Reno's ballpark. First of all, it's in the PCL, which is the most hitter friendly league in America, more than any minor league, more than Major League Baseball, more than anything. The offensive numbers there are absurd, and JB. Bukowskis had a two to six six ERA in that ballpark. In that league, he had just a five percent walk rate. He's had some trouble with control throughout his time in the minor leagues, but had just a five percent walkout rate in the minor leagues and he struck out twenty four percent of the banners. He has faced one issue with JB. Bukowskis in his minor league career and his brief major league career is hit ability. He gave up twenty four hits in the seventeen innings he had in the big leagues in twenty twenty one. He allowed twenty one hits in the twenty innings that he pitched in Triple A last season. But there's still some stuff to like here. He's got decent spin on his fant ball. With the savant readings from him in the brief sample of twenty twenty one, his fastball is sixty six percentile spin, which is above average. When he was coming out of North Carolina drafted in the first round, he had a seventy grade fastball and a sixty grade slider. Now, when I think of reliever, I think of high profile fastball and high profile slider. And if the Mariners can dial in what works for JB. Bukowskis in spring training and give him a look, there's potential. They like the intangibles of his fastball and his slider and plug it into the bullpen this upcoming year. 00:24:35 Speaker 4: Okay, you're selling me a little bit with that tangent, because when you told me that your guy was JB. Bukowskis, I said, all right, I'm going to scratch my head a little bit at that one, because it was a guy that has not had much success in the majors. Like you said, former high profile guy, first round pick. But what'stood out about him? Because again, he just is not a guy that's had much of a track record. But two six six ERA and Triple A in the pl that might play if he gets a shot in spring training. 00:25:05 Speaker 1: You have nothing really to lose here anyways. I mean, he was claimed off waivers in the middle of December from the Diamondbacks and he was dfaid shortly after that. So if he doesn't make your roster, you shrug your shoulders. He goes to Triple A and you know it is what it is, and you can always call him up later in the season. But there's still some stuff there to work with. He's only twenty six, he's got more of the reliever build When he got drafted, his his draft report suggested that he could be a better fit in the bullpen once he reaches the big leagues just because of his size. You know, he's not that big. Most big league starters are on the bigger side, you know, six to one up usually, but JB's only six feet tall and it requires a little bit more effort to last over six innings or so. So if you can really focus on the command of two pitches in the bullpen for the Mariners, with good spin, like as fastball does and like a slider does, then I think it would work out for the Mariners. There's the bullpen's going to be a tough cookie to crack. There's already a lot of guys in that bullpen who have a spot essentially wrapped up. I mean, when we're talking about Matt Festa as the probably the last guy who's spot that could potentially be taken, and Matt Festu was pretty good when he pitched the Mariners last season, You're gonna see those odds might be pretty thin, but guys always get hurt and there's always options and innings to pitch in Triple A. So JB Bukowskis goes out there in the month of April and pitches a very good month of April and triple A and someone goes down with an injury and he's like, Hey, I'm throwing ninety six and my slider's got a nice bite on it. Why not call him up. 00:26:38 Speaker 4: There's a handful of these right handed relievers that'll be pretty interesting to watch, and with the success the Mariners have had with righty relievers the last couple of years, feels like one of those guys is bound to work out. Between Trevor Gatt, who they signed justin Topa, JB. Bukowskis, a handful of others, it feels like one of those guys will probably click, whether it's right at the start of the year or at the end of the year. Because the bullpen you throw out there on opening day is never the bullpen you end with, so more likely than not, somebody's gonna surprise us this year and make an impact. 00:27:10 Speaker 1: So who's your impact guy? 00:27:13 Speaker 4: Okay, this one was pretty easy for me. I'm gonna stick in the bullpen here and keep the theme going. My guy that I am most excited to watch when spring training starts to roll around. Casey Sadler, right handed reliever back after missing all of twenty twenty two with a shoulder injury. Let me just throw the statement out there because call it a hot take, call, lukewarm, whatever you want. Casey Sadler was the best reliever in the Mariner's bullpen in twenty twenty one. You can make an argument for Paul Swald if you want. He threw in higher leverage situations. By the numbers, Casey Sadler was the best reliever in the Mariner's bullpen in twenty twenty one. I mean, you're talking about a guy that did not allow a single run in his final twenty nine appearances in twenty twenty one. Now, because he missed all last year, that streak's still gonna be going when he gets back on the mound at some point in twenty three. 00:28:10 Speaker 3: Is his spot guaranteed. 00:28:12 Speaker 4: Absolutely not, But I am really excited to see him back up on the hill this spring. 00:28:19 Speaker 1: We're not gonna expect him to have a zero point sixty seven er again, That's impossible. However, there's a lot of reason to believe Casey Sadler could be really good again and could snag a bullpen spot for the Mariners, even if he doesn't make it initially, again one of the first guys called up, that could be it because someone's gonna get hurt. The Mariners are not going to have the sterling pitching health that they had last season. That will not happen. So when you're gonna need a guy to call on, I think Casey Sadler will be another fantastic option. So we talk about Bukowskis. But when Bukowskis I mentioned it's fastball slider for him. But those pitches can get heart hit hard occasionally, especially from a bullpen guy who's not elite at miss. Casey Sadler, on the other hand, does not get hit hard at all. I was just kind of chuckling when I'm looking at his average exit velocities for his pitches. I mean, he throws a curveball, a cutter in a sinker and the average exit velocities from those three pitches was eighty six. That is elite, elite, elite stuff. And I look at it in comparison to Eric Swanson. They're different relievers in a sense. Eric Swanson a much higher strikeout rate. Casey Sadler was almost exclusively ground balls. What about an average strikeout rate? But in terms, you know, they were both just really elite. They're both very, very elite relievers. And I think it would be a decent option to replace the production of Swanson for this upcoming season. And I'm just going to take this moment to say, regardless of who they replaced Eric Swanson with, I think they're gonna miss Eric Swanson. Because I was looking at Savant Page yesterday, I was like, man, he was good. 00:29:57 Speaker 3: How did he not pitch more in the playoffs? Did he not? 00:30:01 Speaker 1: Somebody explained. 00:30:05 Speaker 3: He's still sitting out in that bullpen. 00:30:08 Speaker 1: He might be his seat in Houston is really really warm. When you compare him in Swanson, excuse me, Swanson, I'll start that sentence over again. When you compare him in Swanson, both have a key sinking pitch. For Sadler, it's his sinker. For Swanson, it's a split. Both gave up a ton of soft contact. Swanson had a nine percent higher strikeout rate than Sadler, but Sadler had half the barrel rate of Eric Swanson. Casey Sadler gave up a barrel on just three percent of his had a barrel rate of just three percent. That's insane. Three percent, And he also had an average launch angle of three degrees. Three degrees. That's that's insane for a pitcher in today's game. So Casey Sadler was very effective in twenty one, and I'm hoping he can replicate like seventy five percent of that into this upcoming seat if he makes the roster. Mariners would love that. 00:31:04 Speaker 4: Oh he's an earthworm, that's the best way to put it. He gets so much soft groundball contact it's ridiculous, and for a guy that doesn't throw all that hard either, and he doesn't ramp it up in the high nineties. But between actually getting a decent amount of chase, he has pretty good spin rates on all of his pitches. Like you said, that really really good cutter, two seamer, whatever you want to call it. Hitters did not get pieces of that at all in twenty twenty one. Again, we can't expect him to have an O six to seven era. You're right, that's not fair. But I really hope he's back in this bullpen because he has a chance to be really effective again. Plus he genuinely loves the Mariners like getting away from Savant and all the advanced metrics for a second. You love being with this team. He loved it in twenty twenty one. I know he was devastated when he got hurt. In twenty twenty two. He was in the clubhouse celebrating when they clinched the playoff spot last year. I mean, it's a guy that wants to be there, and I always think that's cool. 00:32:00 Speaker 1: It is really cool, And to think about it from a health perspective too, we can't also guarantee he's healthy. Shoulder surgeries are nasty. They're nasty injuries. They can linger for years and years and years, and they can ruin guy's career more than Tommy John ever can now ever can whenever. Shoulder injuries are ten times worse than elbow injuries. I don't think that's an exaggeration, so we need to be careful with that. But I think we should be excited for what we can expect for Casey Sadler to get worked back in in the twenty twenty three season. Got anything else here on Casey. 00:32:36 Speaker 4: Just excited to see him get back out there again. He was boldly circled on my list when we made this topic for this week's show. 00:32:44 Speaker 1: That's just another thing to look just another thing to look forward to for spring training coming up this week. I can't wait for the videos. I can't wait. I can't wait for Ryan Divish to be standing behind the bullpen watching guys pitch. I can't wait for it. Let's transition to our MLB wrap around on the wrap around this week. We skipped it last week, didn't have that much to talk about, and to be honest, don't have much to talk about this week. But there's a couple of notes that we can touch on throughout this past couple of weeks. You Darvish Lyles has signed an extension with the San Diego Padres, six years, one hundred and eight million dollars that will go through his age forty one season with the Padres and Peter Seidler, the Padres owner, is not afraid to spend money on old guys. I will say that to kind of surprising to see a guy get a six year extension into his forties as. 00:33:42 Speaker 4: A pitcher, But you, Darvish has look, the Padres are really good for the game of baseball. They're a small market team that's proving they can spend money and doing everything in their power to win. 00:33:54 Speaker 3: I'm all for it, but. 00:33:56 Speaker 4: They are doing it a little bit irresponsibly, and the sea to be a recurring theme when we talk about the Padres. It feels like they overpaider Xander Bogarts and it feels like they're overpaying on this You Darvish extension. Look, if they wanted to give you Darvish four years through his age thirty nine season for whatever aav he was looking for somewhere between twenty million to twenty two million bucks a year, sure forty one. We talked about it when Justin Berlanders signed that deal with the Mets. That just feels like a very, very risky back end of the deal. So I am interested to see how this one pans out. 00:34:31 Speaker 1: That extension tells me I don't really think they're worried about his forty year old seasons. I think it's more getting him now and worrying about the rest later. As we talked about when Seidler through that just insane fourteen year contract at Aaron Chigne Baseball vetoed, this might be a lesser extent of that to sign you Darvish, but keep him had at a lower yearly value to stay under the luxury tax. 00:35:01 Speaker 4: It makes sense that they want to keep him around. He's the ace of that staff and the Padres are totally built to win right now in the next two to three years. But again, I will be interested to see how this contract plays out long term. Do we think that all of these extensions could possibly hamper them down from going after Otani next year, because that's another team that's reportedly going to try to be all in for him. I don't know, Like I'm sure you're shaking your head that the answers know, But between Bogarts, between Tatis, between Machado, between Darvish just adds up. Maybe they don't care about the luxury tax, but that's a lot of money. 00:35:41 Speaker 1: As we keep saying, the Otani contract will pay for itself. 00:35:46 Speaker 4: It will, it will. I just wonder they're not quite the Mets, that's the only thing. 00:35:52 Speaker 1: They are not. But again, the Otani contract will pay for itself, which means let's give him what he wants and we'll make it back in revenue by the end of the contract. 00:36:05 Speaker 4: That'll be one to watch next offseason, for sure. But the Padres do lock up the ace of their rotation and for the foreseeable future he's going to be pitching in San Diego. There was a trade this week. Minor trade, but still some something noteworthy to talk about. JJ Bludet, former first round pick formerly of the Miami Marlins, is now in Oakland A. He heads out west to Oakland in exchange for left handed reliever AJ Puck, who goes back to the Marlins. Which side do you like this trade better for? 00:36:37 Speaker 1: It's interesting current day. I think the Marlins got the better player because AJ Puck was actually pretty good in the bullpen last year. I wrote his numbers down to AJ Puck right here, three one two ERA and sixty two games out of the bullpen last year for a pretty bad as team. Sixty six innings, seventy six strikeouts, twenty three walks. A tall level, hard to hit against if you're a left handed hitter, that imposing frame coming down from that left side, and he kind of comes in at the side too, It's it's really hard to hit for a leftist. So the Marlins got a good bullpen piece out of this. However, they did just give up on JJ Bledah after one season. A former top prospect, a number four overall pick who destroyed the collegiate level, has struggled a little bit at the in the pros. He struggled in the miners. To hit for consistent power, hit for average, get on base at a consistent mark. There's one thing I guess JJ Bleday was good at last year in twenty twenty two, his first full big league season, he did walk at a twelve percent clip, but otherwise it was a one sixty seven two seventy seven three to ZHO nine line with a seventy two WRC plus. The power wasn't really there. They played him in center field, they played him all over the place and just kind of banned. That's kind of be like a the Mariners flip Jared Kelnick for a for a good after the twenty twenty one season. That's it. I don't know. I don't think I would have given up on JJ Bludey after one season, but I don't know. I don't run the Marlins. 00:38:11 Speaker 3: I don't think I would have either. Look. 00:38:14 Speaker 4: Aj Puck was a good reliever last year. His ERA plus was one twenty, meaning he was twenty percent better than league average as an arm. But to give up on a guy that you spent a top five pick on and, like you said, did not play a whole lot of big league games. JJ Bludey has played sixty five career games in the big leagues, and for a Marlins team that lacks offense, feels like a guy you might want to keep around and try to let him pan out a little bit. I know he's on the older side, he's going to enter his age twenty five season. I would have given him at least one more year before I shipped him off. Like you said, we're not the GM of the Marlins, and I get why they like AJ Puck because they need bullpen help too, and he has a chance to pitch at the back end of that bullpen. 00:38:57 Speaker 3: But I would not have given up on Blue Day. 00:39:00 Speaker 1: Just kind of strange. It is strange to think about. I never usually on the A side for most of things, but I think the A's are winners in this trade, to be honest. I mean, I think they just have more to game because AJ Puck, at this point of his career, is probably a reliever. I don't know if the Marlins. I don't think the Marlins really even need him to start their starting rotation is pretty good despite the fact they traded away Pablo Lopez, that they still got one of the better young rotations in baseball. And to be honest, it's pretty good for the A's that they salvaged AJ Puck's value because I went back love when I saw this trade and looked at the twenty nineteen prospect rankings. They had the number twelve pitching, They had the number twelve prospect at baseball, and Hazy's Lozardo also at Marlin and AJ Puck the number forty two prospect in baseball. They are now both Marlins and the A's, you know, after giving away Lozardo for a rental of Starling Marte, which we laughed at when we saw and Lozardo was actually pretty good this year for the Marlins. They actually got a you know, a good return for JJ bl for AJ Puck as reliever, and got Blade back and Blade could be a solid everyday outfielder in the big leagues. 00:40:13 Speaker 4: The A's are banking on some former big prospects to eventually hit their ceiling. Pasche who of course did not have a good year last year. JJ Blude, who did not have a good year last year, they're gonna get some time in that outfield, probably along with Ramon Loreano. So we'll see what those guys do here in twenty twenty three. I just have to say before we wrap this part. This portion of the wrap round up the A's once upon a time had Matt Chapman, Matt Olsen, Chris Bassett, Sean Manaia, Frankie Montas, along with having their future rotation in the hands of AJ Puck and Jesus Lozardo. Every single one of those players is off that team. Puck and Lozardo are both are both now Marlins. Unreal stuff. 00:41:01 Speaker 1: It's tough, Lyle, It's tough, tough, but hey, they were gonna win more games than the Mariners this season. 00:41:07 Speaker 3: So our good friend once told us and then lost. 00:41:10 Speaker 1: He did, and he's still he lost a bet and he is not paid up yet. He was bailed out. He was bailed out. I'm not forgetting that note is staying on my phone, Andrew Bell, It's it's staying on my phone. Let's conclude this wrap around, Lyle with the last thing Mariners related. Leonis Martin is packed with the Mariners, not someone we highlighted on a non roster invite. But that's cool that Leonis Martin's back. 00:41:38 Speaker 3: I don't have rhyme or reason for it. 00:41:40 Speaker 4: I always loved Leonis when he was in Seattle, back in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen, Like he didn't like the world on fire or anything like that. In fact, in twenty seventeen there was a point where he got dfaight and put back into coma. But he always had energy. He was a good athlete. He has a little bit of pop. He seemed to rile up the clubhouse and a good do. I think he's gonna make the opening day roster, of course not. But if he's in the system and he gets some time in Triple A, yeah, I'm all for it. I mean, if they need him in a pinch to come up at some point in the year, sign me right up. I was always a Leonis Martinez stan. 00:42:16 Speaker 1: That's how I think about it too. He's you know, he's probably not a big leaguer at this point of his career, but I'm not gonna complain if they have an emergency and he needs to play. I mean, I would guess he's probably better than Steven Susan junior Willsson his brief his brief appearance last year for the Mariners. That's the kind of role I would imagine Leona's feeling. And I thought it was really sweet that, you know, you see that and he signs and he says I'm home. I was like, wow, he considers this home after not even being with the Mariners for all that long, but you know, still calls it. 00:42:47 Speaker 3: That's what I mean. 00:42:48 Speaker 4: I mean, he was a big prospect when he was coming up with the Rangers. He didn't pan out the way they probably hoped that he would, but he only spent a couple of years here and he loved it. He's been in Japan the last few seasons, but he returns to Seattle, and like you said, he seems pretty excited about any opportunity he's being given at this point with the club. 00:43:08 Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it. It should be it should you know he'll be a good mentored Evan White in the outfield. I think I think that'd be good. 00:43:17 Speaker 4: I'm ready for it. Okay, let's wrap up the show here. Let's speak your mind. 00:43:23 Speaker 1: Speak your mind. 00:43:24 Speaker 3: Spoke That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. 00:43:35 Speaker 4: We'll see how similar our topics are this week, TJ. But to kick it off with you, what have you been thinking about over the past week. 00:43:43 Speaker 1: I think the state of Arizona should be the main host for every for as many sporting events as possible. I think being down there this past week for super Bowl Week. Funny, we didn't even stay long enough to go to the super Bowl. We both left on Saturday, but to see the rollout of the event, all the space for the like the super Bowl experience, the stuff done at the convention Center, Radio Row, just the the the amount of famous people and just people overall in the valley at the same time, combined with the hospitality, the hotels, the food, the nightlife, the other sports that when it's not super Bowl Week you can go see. We couldn't go see any of them. The fact that gambling is now legal in the state of Arizona. The fact that the waste management open is there on super Bowl weekend as well, which makes it an even better draw. I mean, man, it is as complete an area to host a major sporting event. Oh sorry, and it's warm, big key. It is as complete an area to host a major sporting event as we have in the country. I was just blown away, especially actually downtown. Now. Lyle and I when we went to Asu first two years, we live downtown on the downtown ASU campus. It has changed so much since we were there in twenty sixteen to twenty eighteen. It the amount of restaurants, the amount of bars, the amount of things to do around down there in the downtown area. It has just exploded. And you complement that with Tempe where the university main campus is, with Scottsdale, with you know, Glendale where the stadium is, and all the other things. I mean, you can see why spring why Major League Baseball puts their spring training there. You can see why the NFL and the Final Four always keep going back to Arizona because it is one of the best spots. 00:45:48 Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I relay all that. 00:45:50 Speaker 4: You look at some of the other venues that have hosted the Super Bowl, either in the last few years or that well hosted in the upcoming season, like Los Angeles. Yeah, great weather, there's things to do, but you can't get anywhere, especially on Super Bowl Week when traffic's even worse than it already usually is. Like Tampa Bay's good enough. Las Vegas next year, Like sure, you can go to the casinos, or you can go eat at a few restaurants. There's nowhere near as many things to do, in my opinion, in Las Vegas as there is in Arizona, with how spread out the valley is. 00:46:22 Speaker 1: Really yeah, I think that's like recently hot take. 00:46:26 Speaker 4: I feel like there's more to do in Arizona than Vegas. In Vegas, I feel like it's spend your money at the casino and then like go to some restaurants. 00:46:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and that's what people mostly do, and they'll they'll be very happy doing it, all. 00:46:40 Speaker 4: Right, So maybe maybe Vegas and Arizona are like closer on a on a more even playing field. 00:46:46 Speaker 1: But I get what you're saying though, I get what you're saying. 00:46:49 Speaker 4: Yeah, just in the idea that it's more spread out, I guess in Arizona, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe some people prefer to be in walking distance of everything, like it will be in Las Vegas next year. But point being in Arizona, there's so many things you can go do in the valley, whether it's Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, or really any of the other surrounding cities and We did a whole bunch of fun stuff this past week and. 00:47:12 Speaker 1: We didn't even get to do it all too. There were some couple there were a couple other things we were told to do that we missed. I mean we didn't hike at all. I mean the weather was perfect for hiking if you wanted to do like Camelback Mountain in the valley, or if you wanted to get get in a car and drive, you know, two hours up to Sedona and do some hiking there, which one of my favorite spots to hike in the entire country. We were told that downtown Gilbert is a bunch of fun. We never made it out to Gilbert. We'll have to go next time, but we've heard that is a really fun place to go again there. We were unable to attend any sporting events that were there because all the teams are out of town because of the super Bowl, because all the hotels are needed for all the people coming in. So we left some options on the table too. And it is just it is unbelievable. It is just awesome. 00:47:58 Speaker 4: I spent a little bit of time in downtown Gilbert Saturday. You left a little bit earlier than I did. But the handful of us that were still there on Saturday during the morning and early afternoon, we walked around downtown Gilbert for a bit. 00:48:10 Speaker 3: It was pretty cool. 00:48:11 Speaker 4: I mean, it's not at the same level as places like Scottsdale or Tempe, but it's definitely a good place to hang out. And it's definitely a little bit more mellow than Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe. You know, the main area is where people are. But I'm with you, Arizona should be hosting major sporting events as often as possible, So sign me up. My Speak your Mind this week kind of on a similar note, but a little bit different. It still relates to our trip, and it's just that vacations can absolutely drain you. They're a blast, but they will drain you by the end. And maybe part of that is because we got almost no sleep the entire trip, which included waking up before five am on Friday to go to the waste management open to get a spot at Whole sixteen. But I'll tell you what, on Sunday, all day, including when I was just sitting and watching the Super Bowl, like I could feel the lethargy. I was absolutely drained. As a result from coming home from the trip. I mean I must have stayed in bed ten eleven hours after getting home on Saturday night. 00:49:13 Speaker 1: I felt it each of the last two nights. I will personally take blame for one of the nights of people not getting enough sleep. I will. I'll just leave it at that. I will take personal accountability for some people not getting enough sleep. But when you pack six guys in a hotel room, sleep is not really a priority. It was not made a priority for us, and we are mostly running on adrenaline the whole trip. It doesn't help Lyle that we capped off the weekend with our longest day possible, where we're up at five in the morning going to the waste management open. By the way, before I finish my sentence, please go to the waste management open. It is unlike any tournament ever and it is a boatload of fun. You will you'll be happy you went. Anyways, we went to the waste management open until what we're out until four thirty five o'clock maybe longer. Then came back to our hotel room, took a nap, and then went out until two in the morning. It is about as long of a day as you could possibly have, and you're right, a catch up, but there's also nothing like your own fed lyle. I'm sure you're sure you feel that. 00:50:21 Speaker 4: Yeah, And if you're somebody that's not really a golf fan, still go to the waste management open because it might change your opinion a little bit. If you're somebody that has the perception that golf is this blue collar gentleman's spot, you know, you have to be respectful and quiet at all the time. I'm not saying don't be respectful, but it is very different in the sense of, especially if you sit at Whole sixteen, there are not people out there holding up the quiet police signs like you'll see at tournaments. It is a loud party, especially out at Whole sixteen, and a lot of the players that play in the tournament love it. They embrace it, which is what makes it really cool. Like you said at the beginning of the show, it's basically like if everybody at ASU was tailgating, they do hold up. 00:51:07 Speaker 1: The quiet signs loud, they just don't listen. 00:51:10 Speaker 4: Oh well, maybe I just haven't noticed, because yeah, it doesn't seem to have much of an effect. 00:51:14 Speaker 1: I remember the guy in the row in front of us was like screaming as like, could you imagine being the guy that's you know, he's getting paid to sit here and work and he's holding up the quiet sign and now a single person is listening to it. Uh, it was fun. What I will I will say the first Saturday we went three years three Yeah, three years ago, when we went on a Saturday, I thought it was a little bit more rowdy than when we went a couple of days ago on a Friday. Still a lot of fun, but it didn't seem like it had the same level of just batshit drunk people. 00:51:48 Speaker 4: Yeah, Saturday is definitely the most chaotic day, which was great. Friday and Saturday are both great days to go, but if you really want the chaotic experience, Saturday more so has that field Friday. Also, before we wrap this up, I just have to give a shout out to the city of Philadelphia and Eagles fans because when we were at the waste management open on Friday, we were sitting behind a few Eagles fans, and I think we foreshadowed a couple weeks ago that we were looking to seeing some Eagles fans. We were looking forward to seeing some Eagles fans in Arizona during Super Bowl Week. We're talking up these guys that are sitting in front of us, and they're saying things like, don't worry, we're the nice Eagle fans. You know, the perception that Eagle fans get. We're not like that. We're tame, we have good takes, we're respectful. So I said to him, oh, so you're not the type of people that want to go burn your city down if you win a championship, and they go, oh no, we're still going to burn the city down, but it's just our takes. They're a little lighter. So that's Eagles fans for you. 00:52:48 Speaker 1: That's so funny because I scrolled past a video on Twitter yesterday morning before the Super Bowl of Eagle fans pre gaming and they ended up flipping a car all the way over. That was just and that was before the game started. 00:53:03 Speaker 4: That fan base in that city is one of one. You won't find any other place like it, I swear. But it was cool to be around some Eagles fans and Chiefs fans before the start of Super Bowl Week. Well with that, that'll just about wrap up this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill by Now. If you guys want to listen, listen to the full form podcast. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, and find the video form on YouTube. Subscribe to the YouTube channel as well, leave us a review on the audio platforms, and if you want to follow us on social media, you can do so on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod For TJ Matthewson, this has been Lyle Goldstein. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you guys next week.