Episode 177: Michael Morales (Mariners Prospect) + Reacting To Teoscar Hernandez's Latest Mariners Comments

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number one seventy seven of the Marine Layer Podcast. We welcome on mariners Co Minor League Picture of the Year Michael Morales. We chat with him about winning the award, having a resurgence seasoned down on the minors, and he tells us some stories about some of the trash talk that goes on between him and his teammates. Taioscar Hernandez also had some more comments about his time in Seattle. 00:00:21 Speaker 2: We'll discuss. 00:00:23 Speaker 3: Here's your guys reminder before we start this show. If you're listening, do us a big favor, download the episodes, leave us a five star review. It all really does help us out if you rate and review and download. If you're watch on YouTube, make sure to hit that subscribe button. You see it just takes a second to do, like leave a comment, and follow us on social media. We're on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. 00:00:44 Speaker 2: Let's get it rolling. 00:00:58 Speaker 1: And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast network, recording here on Monday evening, October twenty eighth. We've got some world series to talk about. Taoscar Hernandez made some headlines in the Mariners community again. But first, before we get into any baseball, I need to make an ask to all of our listeners, to all of our watchers on YouTube, who will probably notice this as these words are coming out of my mouth. If you are listening to this episode on any of our podcast platforms, I recommend you go watch this episode on YouTube. You'll probably see something different. Low and I look a little bit crispier, a little bit more in focused. You can see some of our imperfections as well, but that's fine. We've invested in some better equipment so it makes the YouTube experience a little bit more appealing to you guys. So I recommend to all the listeners go take a look at our YouTube page. Please, if if you're not subscribed, go look at our YouTube page. We look we look pretty awesome. 00:02:01 Speaker 3: Yeah, this is cool. We look difference. No, we don't look different. We just look well, you say imperfections, but we look better. We're like, we're like write and four toy to everybody watching. 00:02:12 Speaker 2: Now, well, if you have like a ZiT, oh. 00:02:15 Speaker 3: Okay, well that yeah, I wasn't. 00:02:17 Speaker 2: I wasn't really thinking that would be like a little bit more in focus. 00:02:21 Speaker 3: That makes sense. Yeah, No, we've wanted to do this for a while and now we have. Now we've got this stuff, so everything on YouTube looks a little better. And with this, I think we're gonna start to get creative with some of the content we now do on social media, because look, we love all the stuff we do, but there are certain things we kind of circle through often and the types of content we've done over the first year and a half two years of doing this podcast so far. Now with these cameras, we feel like the doors kind of open to do some really really fun creative stuff, like even more so than we we've been doing before. Now that we what we've been doing hasn't been creative, but I think I think this offseason we're gonna we're gonna dip into the pool of new ideas a little bit. So stick around for that because we've got some ideas. 00:03:06 Speaker 2: Now, let's get to some baseball. Have we have we already told well, we've already. 00:03:11 Speaker 1: Talked about Tasker Hernandez talking about his former team in the Seattle Mariners earlier this year. Didn't think we'd be making a return trip to this, but Taoskar Hernandez was profiled on ESPN prior to the World Series Game three. Dodgers are up three to ih. We'll touch on that after we talk about these comments. 00:03:30 Speaker 2: But Tao had. 00:03:32 Speaker 1: Tale had some more to say about the Mariners in referencing his twenty twenty three teammates. Man, Yeah, it was sort of describing the whole story about how he ended up as a Dodger, what kind of offers were out there for him, and why he had such a disappointing season. Well, he was talking about the twenty twenty three team and saying, oh, yeah, we were so talented, this was great, but there was something missing. Tioscar Hernandez said, this was a team that was playing as a bunch of int a bit let me let me try that again. Ta Oscar said, this was a team that was playing as a bunch of individuals, not as a team, not as a collective group. So, while how do you take those comments. 00:04:15 Speaker 3: That he didn't think the clubhouse was exactly a collective unit, Clearly he thinks the what's the right word, The camaraderie between the Dodgers team that he's on right now is a step above where Seattle was. That could be a knock at Scott's service. That could be a knock at some of the other guys in the clubhouse. It could mean a whole lot of things. But clearly Taoskcar's played a year in la Now he just came off playing a year in Seattle. It's easy to compare where he's played the last two seasons. Maybe he's compared it to Toronto two if you want to add the last three seasons, And clearly he feels like in the last two there's more togetherness in his mind with the Dodgers. That's how I take it. 00:04:57 Speaker 1: I could take this a couple of different ways. He could be talking about the pure baseball aspect of how they play baseball, which I actually think is a legitimate argument, or he could be talking about the clubhouse. Let's start about the baseball argument. When he says not playing as a group, as a collective unit, I take that down to a couple of things. It could be something lile as simple as there's a guy on first, you're down a run, and we're not talking about sacrifice mounting here. We're legitimately just talking about is the guy at the plate trying to line a single the other way, because isn't that isn't that what most people have been complaining about for years now, for especially the last two years, and the Mariners have struck out a bunch. Well, you know, part of the reason they've struck out a bunch is they've been angling for more power, which if you're successful, is fine. But in the Mariner's case, it has led to good but not quite good enough to make the playoffs results. So that actually kind of lines up right. Mariners do hit a lot of home runs, they do swing. They are focused on like the success of the individual plate appearance. And it could even like it could even go so far as to say, if you draw walk at the plate, is it like at this crazy? Like guy on first, you're down a run, you draw walk instead of liigning a single the other way? Like it's successful technically, let. 00:06:18 Speaker 3: Me cut you off. Oh boy, for Taoscar Hernandez to say that, yes, did ta Oscar Hernandez draw walks or poke singles the other way? No, he didn't do any of that. He would hit some home runs from time to time and strike out thirty one percent of the time. 00:06:33 Speaker 1: I have a really hard time pointing the I have a really hard time pointing the finger at Taoscar Hernandez after more of the outside players. 00:06:43 Speaker 2: Struggled this year. 00:06:44 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, like you did rip him a little bit in our social post today on Monday when these comments came out. Yeah, he wasn't great. But just to remember, Lyle, he would be considered great if you played on this year's team, right, I think. 00:06:58 Speaker 3: He'd be considered productive. I wouldn't say great. 00:07:03 Speaker 1: How many players on the team this year out of seven forty one ops, but. 00:07:08 Speaker 3: Remember how streaky that was. He was hot in June. He was hot, I want to say in August, the first couple months of the season, it was dreadful. 00:07:15 Speaker 2: Is that better than just not being good at all? 00:07:20 Speaker 3: I'm just saying he was not brought here to be a one oh six WRC plus hitter. He was brought here to be the second best bat in the lineup. It wasn't close. He was not. 00:07:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, but now we're saying, like bring we expect the Seattle Mariners to bring someone in and not disappoint. 00:07:34 Speaker 3: Okay, I will say in general about Taoscar's take. If you're if you're talking about from a baseball standpoint, look Baseball is a team sport, but a lot of it's very individual. Hitting is individual? Are you really depending on other people for how you're at bats and the outcomes go? Not really? 00:07:53 Speaker 1: Yeah, But when we look at Taoscar, he's not the only one who had the kind of approach he did when he's swinging like the last two seasons, the approach has been very Tioscar like from everybody in terms of swinging pretty hard and striking out a bunch like that doesn't lead to a very team like approach. But what I really think, Lyle Teoscar means and something. There are a lot of media members thinking this. They just lacked leadership of that group. There was not a not a Carlos Santana. That's an easy name because he was a twenty twenty two Mariner and everyone talked about how great he was. The fact that Taoscar Hernandez can't get these names right. The fact that Carlos Santana was not a Mariner in twenty twenty three I think had massive repercussions. And this alone, Lyle like these words from Taoskar Hernanda's if this is what he means, is the best sales pitch in the world for bringing Justin Turner back, not as you're starting first baseman, but just getting him on the roster to hit. 00:08:56 Speaker 2: Everyone talked. 00:08:57 Speaker 1: A lot of guys talked about the kind of leadership that Justin turned or brought, and he'll be forty next year. 00:09:01 Speaker 2: He's almost gonna be a coach. That really feels. 00:09:05 Speaker 1: Like like a slam duck at this point, because I think the best way to get guys unified as a team is to have consistent leadership. 00:09:15 Speaker 2: Just kind of hard to say the Mariners have had that. 00:09:19 Speaker 3: Yeah, Justin Turner cannot be the starting first baseman, but he should probably be on the roster next year because we have seen the difference between what it looked like in twenty twenty two and the final five weeks of twenty twenty four compared to twenty twenty three. In the first five months of twenty twenty four, sometimes you just need an adult in the room. Not to say that these guys aren't adults, obviously they're of age and all that stuff, but a real veteran with postseason experience with big league success that have wisdom to share with the rest of the group. Because there's not really a guy like that on this team, and there wasn't in twenty twenty four aside from Justin Turner. So maybe that's what ta Oscar means. Although ta Oscar wasn't such a rookie himself when he was with the Mariners. He was thirty thirty one. He wasn't that young. He could have been the veteran. 00:10:08 Speaker 1: But some guys just don't have it, So it shouldn't it shouldn't. I don't think it should be on the guys who just aren't natural born leaders to lead. 00:10:19 Speaker 3: And you're right, tay Oscar probably is not that. I still have a little bit of a hard time with the quotes that came out, and look, he didn't like he didn't rip them. He just wasn't exactly favoring them. Not that he should, obviously, we've talked about he should. 00:10:34 Speaker 1: He I mean again, we Sayle and TJ, you guys should stop. 00:10:40 Speaker 2: Ripping the Mariners. 00:10:42 Speaker 3: Look, he was asked the question, he answered it. I just have a little bit of a hard time swallowing that pill when he just didn't have a good year. And also, people, in case you haven't forgotten, he did not play good defense. So that was another piece of the puzzle here. He didn't play good defense. He had the worst season he'd had in five years. He struck out therety one percent of the time. If he had a better year, I would have been okay with him, Like I would have been able to digest easier him saying what he said. But when he disappointed as greatly as he did, still a tough pill of his swallow. Again, the Mariners could have picked up that qualifying option for him this year in twenty four if they had thought he was worth it, they would have. And you can argue whether he was or not. And having some hindsight now there are people out there that'll say, yeah, tay Oscar should have been back in twenty four. Was anybody really sclamoring, clamoring for him to be back after twenty three when they declined that option, No, because he just wasn't that good. 00:11:38 Speaker 2: He wasn't. 00:11:40 Speaker 1: But after seeing like everything that's happened the past two years, it is really difficult to point the blame finger at Taoscar Hernandez like, yeah, he did he did he live up to expectations? 00:11:50 Speaker 4: No? 00:11:51 Speaker 1: But is he the biggest issue? Like he's probably what twenty fifth on twenty fifth in line. 00:12:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, he's not the biggest issue. He's not close to the biggest issue. Maybe part of this is just me still being salty that they missed the playoffs that year and then they miss the playoffs again this year, and they continue to have failures with bringing in big league talent that's supposed to be proven talent. But he was the biggest name they've acquired offensively in the last three four seasons. That is part of it. He didn't live up to that. 00:12:25 Speaker 2: It's part of it. 00:12:27 Speaker 1: Here's the other question I had about this, Like, now we need to get to like culturally about the Mariners. They see stuff like this, Does this like weigh at all for Jerry to Poto because he's what's left when it comes to first of all, just being the guy in charge, but second of all, in terms of like the leadership totem poll within the organization. Some of the players are still on the roster, of course cal Julio, but something like this Lyle like the job of this is on the manager, which Scott Service is no longer the manager of the Mariners, and the guy who puts the roster together, who when you see quotes like this, this is something you need to seriously look at, like you need to consider this, is this like how big of an issue is this? And how do we fix this? Does Jared Poto put much weight in these comments? I hope he does, because I'm gonna guess whatever problems were with the twenty twenty three Mariners, they had the same problems in twenty twenty four, if not worse, because the approach, like if we're talking baseball or non baseball aisle, it's hard to argue that it was much different in terms of the consistency, the style of play, and just the results. 00:13:48 Speaker 3: Yeah, this should be taken seriously. How do we fix it? I don't know. I'll say the same thing I said on social media today when we did this reaction. We're not in that clubhouse every day, so we can spec how they could fix it, but we just be guessing that's on them to figure it out. Why on earth are there I don't want to say cultural problems, but why on earth is it not the collective group it once was in twenty twenty one, in twenty twenty two, because those two years, that's all you heard, how close that team was. Well, that doesn't seem to be as much the case the last couple of years. So I think a lot of people, players, coaches, front office need to look in the mirror and figure this thing out, because, yes, quotes like this are not good. That's not a ringing endorsement of the franchise. 00:14:32 Speaker 1: And I definitely think as much as we've defended Scott's service, that's a bit on him too, because he's the guy managing the clubhouse and it's his responsibility to get these guys to play as a group, and if he couldn't do that, that is an indictment on him. So Dan Wilson could be better at that. We couldn't tell in the month he was manager of that's real impact. I think we'll know a little bit better once the twenty twenty five season is concluded and we see, oh do they do they play back? 00:15:00 Speaker 2: Do they play more as a group? That would be one. 00:15:04 Speaker 1: And then you look to you to your two stalwarts, and we can, I guess, start with JP Crawford because he's pretty, he's pretty veteran. He's a laid back guy, so he's not like he's not your your raw raw leader. Cal is you know, the more of a lead by example guy. Julio, of course is the star of the team, but he's also still pretty young. I was reading some comments under the original posts of this this blurb on Twitter, and a lot of people were like, oh, like this, this shows that Julio's not not the star he's meant to be and and not the leader. And you know, we can argue the the the. 00:15:41 Speaker 2: The bigness and star for jo. 00:15:44 Speaker 3: What's up the semantics of it? 00:15:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, like the semantics of it, or like the basis of Julio Rodriguez being a star. 00:15:50 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. 00:15:51 Speaker 1: I mean we've talked about this on here in baseball terms, but off the baseball field, like we can only speculate really for the most part. But he was twenty two and twenty twenty three. He's not supposed to lead the team. He could be the best player, but Carlos Santana's still supposed to be the one there going. Yeah, but I don't think you're supposed to do that, Like, let's let's chill out here a little bit, Let's let's be a little bit more as a collective unit. I hope they fix this because this is something that could absolutely bleed into twenty twenty five and yield similar results to an eighty six win frustrating team that missed the playoffs. 00:16:28 Speaker 2: We can't do that again. 00:16:30 Speaker 3: No, you need good players. You also need players that are going to get along and enjoy being at the ballpark together. That's simple. And you need a coaching staff who helps build that culture. You need all of it. I don't want more quotes like this. We saw a lot of stuff come out in the second half of twenty twenty three, obviously that nobody was happy to see. We don't want to see more of that in twenty five. We saw a little bit of it in twenty four. Let's not see that again. 00:16:58 Speaker 1: Do you have any more comments on this? So or should we chat about the World Series? 00:17:03 Speaker 3: I don't even know how much there is to chat about the World Series before we get to Michael Morales. Honestly, I feel like on Friday's podcast there'll be more to recap, because could very well be over by that. As we're sitting here recording, the Dodgers are up three to zero and have absolutely manhandled the Yankees so far. 00:17:17 Speaker 2: Now is Aaron Judge acting like a group or an individual? Aisle man' hmm. People are saying. 00:17:25 Speaker 3: Yankee fans are saying, can you fully. 00:17:28 Speaker 1: I you know, I really like we're being sarcastic here. I can't wrap my mind around the fact there are some Yankee fans who want to boo Aaron Judge, who's you know, probably at this rate gonna go down as one of the what twenty best hitters of all time? Aile like his peak at least will go down as one of the twenty best peaks ever. And the people we're talking about booing this, man, Oh. 00:17:52 Speaker 3: I saw tweets today. You know, sometimes it's easy to forget how awful some of this Yankee fan base is. And I don't want to say all because we've met some people, especially some people in the baseball content world, that are Yankee fans, that are awesome and that we've become friends with. If you just want one example, somebody like Peter obviously just baseball, who's great. But man, there's a lot of Yankee fans out there there that make you really just roll your eyes and remember, wow, this this fan base is toxic. I saw a couple of tweets after the game today saying there is no fan base that's had it worse than Yankee fans. And it's not closed. That was a real tweet that got eight hundred likes. 00:18:34 Speaker 1: Surrey, you would not last one day in Seattle, not one. 00:18:40 Speaker 3: People say you're built different if you're on the East Coast, if you're a New Yorker. I don't believe that for a second. People say the West Coast is laid back, that it's socked. 00:18:49 Speaker 4: No. 00:18:49 Speaker 3: I challenge any Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers fan whoever one day is not enough. I dare you to spend a season watching every Mariner game and then see how you feel grass the grass they know he's greener. People. I got a news flash for you. 00:19:06 Speaker 1: Now think about this Yankee fans, if you want to present it in very realistic turns, imagine losing Alex Rodriguez instead of signing him. That's what life is like as America fan. You guys wouldn't know that because a Rod never left. 00:19:20 Speaker 2: Hm. Well, that's what the people are saying. 00:19:23 Speaker 3: Do we dare say signing a Rod was not a smart strategy? 00:19:28 Speaker 1: M did the Yankees win a World Series where they rob oh oh oh yeah oops? And they signed more guys too, And they signed a bunch of guys on their current roster in the World Series, though, are down three to zero. Uh yeah, So Yankee's lineup has been a massive disappointment, obviously because they spent way too much money on it, just like the rotation that they also spent a ton of money on, which they like. In a somewhat serious note, I'm a little surprised how on paper, I feel like the Yankees have a better rotation when when you stack it up, and they probably should have won Game one and not given up a walk off Grand Slam to Freddie Freeman. But for the most part, like I was really like this this series looked like a six to seven game series. 00:20:15 Speaker 3: It did, it did, But I actually don't buy this Yankees rotation all that much. Past Garrett Cole. What happens when you get past Garrett Cole, Carlos Rodan, Clark Schmidt, Luis Heal. 00:20:24 Speaker 2: Eh, I just kind of like saying the same thing about the Dodgers. 00:20:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, I would still feel a little bit better when you throw Yamamoto out there and Walker bule I mean, I know, Walker Bueler didn't have a good year, but he's pitched in the postseason. He's got postseason experience, and you know, he can be really good. Oh and Jack Flaherty, Yeah, I kind of like that a little bit better than what you have past Garrett Cole. There's just not much. 00:20:49 Speaker 1: And it is gonna be a big deflator if the Yankees get swept. 00:20:54 Speaker 2: But you can't, like you can't control these outcomes. 00:20:58 Speaker 1: And the Dodgers will now finally win a full season World Series, and for good reason, because they spend a lot of money and they're gonna be definitely gonna be rewarded because of it. I'm glad even though there's a sweep, though, I'm glad we got a signature moment. I will say that Freddie Freeman homer one of the coolest things I've ever seen, like the fact that it was hit at the same minute as the Kirk Gibson home run. Joe Davis tied it in with his call, which I thought was fantastic. If you if you forget the Vince Scully call, I mean when he when he called the Kirk Gibson home run, his call was She's gone, and Joe Davis did the same thing almost. I feel like he definitely did that on purpose, where he's like adapting on the fly walk off home run to right field in Game one of the World Series. Both hit at eight thirty seven PM, and like that's like it's a super cool moment. Unfortunately, that's gonna be the climax of this World series. 00:21:53 Speaker 3: Did you already? Did you just stamp a sweep before it's even happened? 00:21:57 Speaker 2: Sure? Do you want me to guarantee it? Okay, just guarante it? Okay, Fine, I guarantee a Dodger sweep. 00:22:03 Speaker 3: Well, I can't wait for this podcast to come out on Wednesday, because great, then we'll know. 00:22:07 Speaker 2: Roast Meling comments. I'm never wrong. 00:22:10 Speaker 3: No, we're never ever wrong on this podcast. That's just how it goes. Kyle Bucker's going to be a Mariner. People. We're days away from bringing it back. You think do you think we forgot? Oh, we didn't forget KYLEI. 00:22:19 Speaker 2: You didn't think. You didn't think you could hide from us, did you? 00:22:22 Speaker 4: No? 00:22:23 Speaker 3: You can't. Sorry, you can run, but you can't hide. Okay. I think we're just about ready to get to Michael Morales. Before that, let's talk to you guys about our friends over at Pigotcha's Pub eight five. There was a sports equinox here on Monday people. You don't get many of those on the calendar. And when you have days like that, and you have times of the year when there's all these sporting events going on, you need a place to watch everything. So head over there Pub eight five. There's twenty TVs if you want to play some games with your friends. There's darts, and there's pool, and there's awesome food and there's three and four dollars drink specials if you go during happy hour. Those are Monday through Friday from two to six pm. Again, that's happy hour two to six pm on Monday through Friday. So all of that a great time with your friends is over at Pagatcha's Pub eighty five in Kirkland. 00:23:08 Speaker 1: You got to meet Mike Morales before I did, so you got to kind of tell me a little bit more about him before we had him on. I'm gonna be honest and I want to portray this as clearly as possible to our listeners and all of you wonderful people who are watching. 00:23:23 Speaker 2: Are nice. 00:23:24 Speaker 1: Crispy HD feed now on YouTube. Go subscribe to YouTube, Go check out the new setup loud I have. But the way you describe Michael Morales like it almost feels like you'd want to hang out with him, like just sit in a room and just chat about something. He's not afraid to rip off a hot take, He's not afraid to roast somebody. He's not afraid to also just break down baseball like he's been now a Mariner for three full seasons. He has been through the wringer, and he has come out the other side as a co Mariner's Minor League Picture of the Year, And it's cool to hear him come full circle and acknowledge like where he started where he is now and managed to make fun of the whole situation. And it's it's also very blatantly clear all those Double A guys such good friends together and it's cool to hear about their chemistry. 00:24:18 Speaker 2: You'll hear it in the interview if. 00:24:20 Speaker 3: We've really ripped through this Double A rotation. I mean, we had read on last year Revan Scooter, obviously, we've had Logan on, we've had Brandon on, we've had now Morales on. All of them are awesome And hopefully you guys all know this from listening to these interviews and once you listen to this. In an interview with Michael Morales, but all super easy guys to root for. Again, I hope, I hope these guys all get a chance to absolutely thrive in the big leagues for the Mariners, because they're all really easy to root for. And like you said, this was a this is a fun conversation. You kind of already said it. But it's got a little bit of everything, from some serious stuff and breaking down how he's improved as a picture over the last few years too. Yeah, a lot of funny stuff in there too. So hopefully enjoyed the interview. We certainly did. And yeah, we're Michael Morales fans, that's for sure. We're rooting for that guy to absolutely kill it in twenty twenty five and moving forward to so hopefully you enjoy. 00:25:09 Speaker 1: Let's get you that interview now with Michael Morales. All right, we got Mariner's co Minor League Picture of the Year, Michael Morales on with us. We talked to Brandon Garcia a couple of weeks ago, and now we here we are talking with Michael. Thanks for taking some time to join us here today. I wanted to start with some hair comparisons. So first of all, first off, is it safe to say do you think that you have top five hair in the ORG? 00:25:37 Speaker 4: In the ORG? See, now, I gotta think on that. I think there's some pretty good hair in the ORG. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll take myself. Yeah, I think I got top five in the ORG. I'll take it. 00:25:52 Speaker 1: Do you have? So we're trying to we're trying to figure figure it out before we started recording. Like, my hair comparison for you is Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars. You're not a huge Star Wars guy, so I'm gonna throw it to you. Like you said, you feel pretty unique. But if you were to try and draw like a close comparison to what you resemble, like, who. 00:26:14 Speaker 3: Is it. 00:26:16 Speaker 4: On my good days? I would say, like with the waviness in the hair, oh shooting, I'm blanking on his name? Uh, the guy who passed away from Fast and Furious. I'm gonna get crucified for forget his name, blonde haired guy Fast and Furious. He passed away in the car accident, like an actual real life he passed away. 00:26:38 Speaker 3: I think we're all gonna get cruified because'm blanket on it too. Huh oh god, we can we can look it up, but okay, fast and furious, is it? 00:26:46 Speaker 4: Paul Walker? There? 00:26:48 Speaker 3: There you go, there you go. 00:26:49 Speaker 4: Okay, okay, okay, okay, Yeah, I would say, like just with the uh kind of the shape of the hair. Maybe on good days, maybe maybe I'll go with him, Okay. 00:26:58 Speaker 1: Okay, because you have a long version and a short version too. 00:27:04 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I'll take I I like the medium version. Kind of what I got going on now is more more ideal. Everett, I just kind of got lazy and just letting it go. Why Cholic stone cutting it and cut it at the right time? 00:27:17 Speaker 3: All right? So aside from you, who else in the r do you look at and saying, oh, he has pretty good locks? 00:27:23 Speaker 4: Uh? Jeter Martinez, I was I was walking. I was walking back from the stadium today. We were doing conditioning over there, and I was following him, and he's got some wavy hair, and I it's funny that you mentioned it, because I literally remember walking behind him having the thought like, dang, that's some dude's got some pretty good hair. So I'd probably say that's the last guy that I just thought of. 00:27:45 Speaker 3: I love it, Okay, if I wanted to ask you this too, by the way, because you grew up in Pennsylvania, but I was reading you were a Red Sox fan growing up, So how does that work? 00:27:54 Speaker 4: Yeah, my grandma, my grandma was a Red Sox fan, so is my mom. So whenever I was growing up during the summer, that was if there was a game on the TV, it was, it was the Red Sox. So I kind of just fell right into it. And then when I was young, obviously my my dad's from New York, so he was He's not really a baseball guy, but just like whenever they play each other, he'd be a Yankees fan. So obviously, like I learned about the obviously the rivalry really quick and then uh like three oh four in the two runs that they had, and then obviously coming back from the three zero deficit, and then like once I was a little kid and found that out and saw that I was hooked. So were you? 00:28:32 Speaker 1: Were you a Pedroia Poppy guy? Were you like a Jacoby Ellsbury guy? 00:28:36 Speaker 4: Like? 00:28:36 Speaker 1: Who was it? 00:28:37 Speaker 4: All of them? All of it? I mean all of them? Yeah, I would say, yeah, I mean I remember like just being so excited, especially as a kid, like just watching like when Jacoby would come up and when just like I thought he was the fastest dude on like planet Earth, Like I just always thought he was. That was always like so fun to watch, just steal bags. He was always always like it always seemed like he was doing something crazy on the bass pass. And then PADROI just because he was a small guy grinder, and then obviously Poppy's Poppy. But yeah, I mean, I love like everything. I love the whole dynamic of the team. 00:29:10 Speaker 3: So I don't know if you ever talked to Brandon about this. And I will preface this by saying, Brandon said he didn't grow up the biggest sports fan in the world, but he said, growing up in Connecticut, he goes, I was a fan of the Yankees and the Red Sox, and every year I would kind of fluctuate with my fan. Yeah, so let me ask you, as a Red Sox fan, how do we feel about that. 00:29:27 Speaker 4: That's that's not even a real take, Like I don't even think like you can put any like weight behind that. That's like, dude, you just didn't watch sports, Like if that's if that's your take, like you just didn't watch sports. But I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to him about that. Tomorrow, because that's that's the craziest thing you could ever say. In my opinion, Like I don't feel like you're just a baseball fan. You can't say that if you just watch baseball. It's like it just doesn't work. 00:29:53 Speaker 1: So because you look up to a lot of baseball players. Now, I'm not gonna use the word hate, but when you watch the Yankees growing up, which player rubbed you the wrong way the most? 00:30:08 Speaker 4: A rod to share a swisher, which is honestly crazy. Now, like, especially like with social media being such a big thing and like everybody being on social media, it's so cool to like actually realize like, oh, I mean I don't really know him personally, so I can't put too much weight into it, but like they all seem like great people, so like, I think that's so funny. But like, dude, when I watch him in pin stripes, I was like, these guys are jerks. But yeah, I would say, like those three probably that came to mind so quick. 00:30:38 Speaker 3: You know, it's funny you say that because I guess we're gonna give you a little Mariner's history lesson here. But when a Mariners could go to Texas, even to this day, a lot of Mariners fans don't love a Rod just in terms of how they ended. How Yeah, it's weird now if you were to ask me, or you could ask TJ too. I like the guy. I wasn't old enough to remember like the animosity that went on when he left town, But just to your point, seeing him on social media and seeing how he is and seeing how involved he is with the game, I was like, yeah, he seems really cool. But if you are a generation ahead of where I guess we are about a Rod and the Mariners people, people are not happy with the guys. So it's funny you say that as a Yankee fan too, because there's like there's some similarities or sorry, J, he's a Red tex fan. Yeah, it's wild. 00:31:23 Speaker 1: So that's that's what we also realize, lyle that he's the best shortstop the franchise ever had, clearly, so like that helps a lot. So where our saucepot comes. 00:31:34 Speaker 3: From, right right? Right? I mean, yeah, the guy was amazing. We just I wonder if we would have felt differently if we had watched him growing up and then saw him leave. Obviously, he's the best shorts stop the franchise has had. But I am curious, like, what do you think do you think we feel different? Did? 00:31:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe a little bit, but I'd say we're in a different state now than how we viewed people leaving for more money. 00:31:55 Speaker 3: Like that's fair. 00:31:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, the game's a little while ago. 00:31:59 Speaker 3: I was gonna say, I think the more of an understanding about it. Okay, Michael, I want to ask you to speaking of being being a Red Sox fan, you got to pitch at Fenway in high school, Like, what's the story behind that? Was it a showcase? 00:32:09 Speaker 1: Uh? 00:32:10 Speaker 4: It was what they call it. They called the Rivalry Classic, And to be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure how it came about, but I just I know, like, remember you've heard of like East Coast Pro and Area Code and stuff like that. Sure, yeah, okay, So for the Northeast region, guys that would make the East Coast Pro Area Code team would also kind of get invited to play like a part of the Rivalry Classic. And then the first time I did it was it was the Rivalry Classic, just playing against like other prospects. And then I got a chance to do it a second time and it was against Cape teams. So it was like when the when the Cape League was going on, and then they the Cape does I guess like a pro day at Fenway and then at n they like play the high school kids, which I felt was strange but fended great for ourselves. 00:33:08 Speaker 1: Hey you remember that, Lyle, because so we Michael, we did a couple of summers in the Cape League, and we went to Fenway a couple of times, but our teams were never in that night game. You could have played a future big leaguer. I assume like there were future big leaguers who would play in those showcases at Do you remember? 00:33:26 Speaker 3: No? 00:33:29 Speaker 4: They were I just I they were kind of all college guys. So I didn't really like think about, like even really paying that much attention. And I was just so kind of I was just so caught up in the moment. But yeah, I don't really remember who I faced. I remember one guy and that he was like right handed. Okay, that's it. I like barely remember. I like kind of, I guess I kind of just blacked out for I. 00:33:51 Speaker 3: Hate to bring it up, but was the guy that was right handed? Is is that who took you deep at Fenway? 00:33:55 Speaker 4: Oh? No, Okay, So that one I did not black out for that one I have full memory of. Unfortunately, that was the first time I went there. I think the kid was committed to n C. I think I forget his name. I think he was going to U n C. He took me deep that one. Uh, that one was weird. So I came in. I think we played like twelve innings that day or something like that, and then since I was the youngest, I threw last, so I came in for like the twelfth inning. Volpi actually was playing second shortstop that day. Yeah, so I remember I get on the mound. First guy I think his name was like col Tucker or something could be completely wrong on that, but some Tucker dude like flew out left handed hit or flew out the center and then I get on the mound and like I hear coming from like shortstop like step off, step off. I'm like, oh, like that's weird, Like what could be possibly going on? He's like pointing Bulpy's point in the first base and there's a runner getting on and Jack Bulger was catching. I think he's still at Bandy right now. Jack Bulger was catching. So just me being young and overthinking, I was like, oh, like late in the game, there's putting this guy in to run and they just want to see like Jack throw or something like something weird. So I was like, also, a first pitch fastball and this kid clears it out of the stadium like the signs that I remember watching like seeing all the time, just right over at the end of the parking lot. And I was, yeah, so play. The stadium plays pretty small when the ball goes up, unfortunately. 00:35:23 Speaker 3: Smaller than Everett. 00:35:25 Speaker 4: Felt like at that day. 00:35:28 Speaker 1: I gotta ask, how do you pitch it? 00:35:30 Speaker 3: Ever it because you thrived. 00:35:35 Speaker 4: Honestly, I think one thing that made it so easy is like how well run our minor league system is, like you the way, how well how good of a job they do, breaking down like what actually matters in the in the Mariners, like when it comes in terms of pitching the short porch really just it didn't matter, like you know, it's there, uh, And the more that you try to like kind of steer away from it is probably when you're gonna get beat for it. So I knew kind of like what mattered, like what we valued, and I knew like if I gave up a solo shot to center on a bleeder like it wouldn't be that big of a deal outside of the game, and then when it came when it comes down to the game, really the only chance that I would have is just being fully committed over the plate, like I was pitching in a in a normal stadium, and I hopefully can just look back at the end of the day and they don't hit that many out And I kind of got lucky in that sense. 00:36:26 Speaker 1: See, you wouldn't have to change up that much on the road. 00:36:29 Speaker 4: Then, No, not really, no, it was I mean it was the same mindset, to be honest with you, Like I just treated it like it was a normal place. It's still sixty feet six inches and once the ball kind of leaves my hand, I can't really control it all that much. So I just I kept that in the forefront of my focus. And then you know, the stadium, especially like pitching and ever, it shouldn't really have that big of an effect. Then it helped a lot, especially with runners and scoring positions. It really like that mindset kind of helped me not do too much there. 00:36:59 Speaker 1: You mentioned how much the Maritor's plan resonated with you. What was the what were those early conversations like when you're talking about your arsenal with the organ coming up with a plan of how to attack hitters. 00:37:12 Speaker 4: Yeah. So one thing that we did, you know, those fresh and spring training was we added the gyro slider and then that one like when they when we brought that up in conversation, Uh, it was more just hopefully that we I can throw it for a high strike percentage and a high quality pitch percentage. Uh, and then it can be useful to both sides of the plate in early and behind counts. So one thing that they did really really well was when we were and I mean still obviously in terms of like building the arsenal, but like especially when we were still like trying to plant kind of playing like plug and play with different pitches. They were always very informative of like what this pitch's purpose would be, if that makes sense. So then once they kind of explained the purpose and how to achieve what you were trying to do, it kind of just came like up to you to figure out how to piece it in, if that makes sense. 00:38:04 Speaker 3: I want to ask a little bit about your pitching mentality because I saw you talk about in an article this year something that I don't think you hear from a lot of people, but I thought it was super interesting. You said when you get out of starts, the last thing you do once you exit the game is think about the pitches you just threw. Throughout the course of your outing. You were saying, Yeah, if there's a sunset, I'll try to look at the sunset, I'll try to look at if there's birds flying around, you basically drown it out, which I feel like a lot of people have a really really hard time doing that, especially right after they come out of a game. So especially for being as young as you are, How of how have you channeled that? 00:38:37 Speaker 4: Uh? Well, I mean so actually the that's like in between innings, That's what I'm doing, like just coming off the mound. And for me, it just part of it is like I'm playing professional baseball and I've wanted to do that since I was a kid, when I was when I was in class looking out the windows, like dreaming of like the days like this, just like grinding through the minor leagues potentially you know, working to become a big leaguer, just all of it. I just take it in, like just when I'm going out and I'm looking at the birds I'm taking in the sunset, like just trying to remember and take in as much as possible, like where I am, where I'm playing, and just being grateful for it. And I feel like that's one thing that kind of takes the anxiety away because then you just you remember what you're doing, if that makes sense. 00:39:21 Speaker 1: And You've also talked a little bit about when you come off the mountain when you're done. You have in the past been pretty negative about how you feel like you pitched out there. Yeah, are you at the point now at the end of your third full season of the Mariners organization winning co Minor League Pitcher of the Year where you're to the point where you're a little more positive for your outings when you're done. 00:39:43 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I would say I would say that honestly, that like that started before I'm winning the award. I would say that that's probably one thing that really helped achieve something like that. But yeah, I mean, just being extremely hard on myself was definitely a downfall, especially like early on, like the first two years, Like it wasn't just last year, but uh, yeah, I mean that was kind of like one thing that we had We had a conversation about it in spring training. I think like when we were when I was just talking with the pitching coordinator and things like that, like we all kind of realized like how hard I was being on myself, and I was just I was being unrealistic with like what I was being hard on myself about. And I think like that was one thing, like we just kind of, you know, got some clarity, and then I was able to kind of realize how to slow things down and almost how to how to perceive things in like the not maybe not the correct lens, but a better lens, if that, if that even makes sense at all, Like. 00:40:42 Speaker 1: I would imagine as as a third round prick you picked, you were feeling a little bit of pressure, Am I wrong? 00:40:47 Speaker 4: Yeah? I mean I think you know everybody. I think anybody, no matter where you're drafted, that you just want to get in and perform. You know, when you're zooming out, you want to perform a the course of a season, and when you zoom in, you want to perform over the course of night tonight. And I think, you know, being extremely hard on myself was kind of adding to the fuel. 00:41:11 Speaker 3: Let me just prev it or like, let me just contextualize it with this, just for everybody listening and to be fair, because you're certainly not the only person that does that and as hard on yourself and wants the best out of yourself as you should. But looking at where you're at now, especially with the year you had, had you hypothetically gone to college, you would have been draft eligible this year. So you're talking about for yourself. You just won minor league Pitcher of the Year twenty one years old, when a lot of guys your age are just getting drafted. So to see where you've started and now are at this point in your minor league career, there's got to be some like, I don't know, full circle moments the right word, but just some realization of like, oh, this is this is pretty cool. I'm really doing this thing. 00:41:51 Speaker 4: Yeah. No, definitely, very grateful, very grateful for it all, especially and you know, I guess it's fair to say like just you know, in the in the sense of the corner, I was kind of able to turn and begin to piece different things together. 00:42:09 Speaker 1: So this is gonna be this is gonna be a bit of a two part question. But the first part I just want to I just want you to try and describe, like, what was that twenty twenty two season like for you, your first full season in the Mariners organization. You really did struggle for a full season down in Modesto. What was that like for you? 00:42:30 Speaker 4: I think lost. I was lost. I think, you know, the biggest thing was I was trying to figure out one. I was trying to figure out myself. So I think there was a there was a sense of feeling lost identity wise. I didn't understand what made me me, especially when I was still trying to improve. So I think, you know, to a sense of kind I was kind of just aimlessly searching for something, like I didn't even have a true sense of direction of like where I was trying to go within myself. I think the lack of a routine, which kind of fits into that, because that was one of the things that I was I was really searching for, like just what helped, what gets me prepared for a night, trying to understand, like I think in the beginning, I had nothing at all. You know, early on in the twenty twenty two season, I was just kind of rolling out and I was just trying to hope that I was warm enough then starting to piece in different things that I knew, like throughout the day or throughout a specific outing that I felt like I was getting tight in. Then I would start attacking that before my next doubting. So there was there was just not much method behind my madness, which is you know, obviously like it was something that was very different for me, especially because I was always very specific in everything that I was doing, and then it just felt like I had so much time and I didn't know what to fill that time with. But yeah, so I mean that was the that was the number one That was the number one thing, which is extremely lost. Didn't have much of an idea where I needed to go to achieve what I was trying to achieve? 00:44:04 Speaker 1: Was that just youthful an experience? Was that you feeling like overwhelmed by being a professional at eighteen? 00:44:12 Speaker 4: What? 00:44:12 Speaker 1: What do you think that was? 00:44:14 Speaker 4: I think it was. I think it was it was more just not having the experience, not quite understanding what I need and what it looks like, if that if that makes sense. 00:44:25 Speaker 3: So you said you started to fill a lot of time or like you you didn't know how to fill all that time? How did you start to fill it? 00:44:31 Speaker 4: Like? 00:44:31 Speaker 3: What did you start to figure out like, oh this works or this isn't for me, or like and then you started to find a routine. So what were some of those things so random? 00:44:41 Speaker 4: I mean when I started trying to when I first started trying to fu fill the holes, like I started trying to go to like arm Care Extra Movement Prep, I would try to throw in like random foam rolling or extra medballs, or I would start trying to like add stuff to my lifts. So I think that was probably like the biggest thing was in some areas I wasn't doing enough in prep, and then in other areas like lifts, I would kind of venture off and do more because I was trying to fill the gaps in that I was lacking that I didn't quite understand, if that makes sense. 00:45:19 Speaker 1: Sure, and that twenty twenty two offs, the twenty two to twenty three off season, your first off season after a full year. That was the start of your progression to where you are right now because you had to do Modesta again, but you did significantly better and it earned you to start in Everet this past season. So how crucial is that off season to get you to where you are right now? 00:45:43 Speaker 4: Extremely important it. It helped kind of it helped me lay myself a foundation of just being on time with what I need to do, when I need to do it, and beginning to add the things that I need to do. I think that's where kind of my routine started to fold or started to kind of mold together. I think that's when I started to have a better idea how to fill that time. Because you know, how much more time do you have when you're at home in the off season, So there's you know, I was, I was facing kind of the same conflict with a lot of time on my hands, and then it really kind of got me to be able to start at least figuring out like time management of what I need to do and when I need to do it. 00:46:30 Speaker 1: How important was it for you to add some non baseball things into to just take your mind off of it. 00:46:36 Speaker 4: Extremely important? Yeah, I mean, especially because the only thing that was really on my mind in twenty two was baseball. I think like that was, you know, part of the identity piece, Like I was, I was a baseball player in twenty twenty two, Like that was my identity because I was struggling. I when I started struggling I felt like I just had to go deeper into it, which was, you know, kind of I wish I would have just kind of taken a step back and went fishing or just went and relaxed, and like felt like a just you know, treated myself like a human, not just like a baseball player. But yeah, that was one of the biggest things. 00:47:16 Speaker 3: I'm glad we're breaking up the baseball talk a little bit here because I am curious, when you're away from the field, when you're in the off season, what do you like to do, Because like we heard Brandon Logan boats say they like to play video games, they like to golf, things like that, when you had downtime away from the park or when you're in the off season, Like, what do you fail your time with. 00:47:35 Speaker 4: That off season, especially like I was going golfing a lot, just being away from family. I would just pack my mom into a golf cart and go golf and freezing cold December Pennsylvania when the ground's frozen. So I mean that was one thing. A lot of golf fish. If I can hunt whenever, I can spend a lot of time though at the gun range. As weird as that might sound, I just I try to shoot a lot. I like the focus, like you have to be turned on, you have to be focused, you have to be locked in especial I mean, there's just a lot of safety. I mean I go to a public gun range too, so it's not like I'm just on my land kind of just shooting around and doing whatever I want. So you have to be very dialed. And I like that because it's not just like a video game where I'm just like, oh, I want to be dowed because I want to do good. It almost kind of feels like baseball, like the focus. I'm trying to get better at something, but I also have to be fully focused to do as well. 00:48:30 Speaker 1: Said something you grew up to it. 00:48:32 Speaker 4: Yeah, my dad was in the military, so I grew up whenever I could with him. We'd go shoot, we'd go hunt. He'd take me to work with him up There's a military base called Indian Town Gap, like thirty forty minutes away from my house, so he'd take me up there and we would do some really cool stuff. 00:48:51 Speaker 3: When it freezes in Pennsylvania and you're trying to get out on the links, what are you even paying to golf? It cannot be more than what twenty bucks? Right? 00:48:59 Speaker 4: Yeah? No, I think I want to say like sixteen if I remember correctly. Yeah, I think I think it's like sixteen twenty bucks for a full eighteen. Yeah. 00:49:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, Well it's probably not fun to play out in twenty degrees. But when you look at your bank and say and say, well, we only paid sixteen dollars, like that's fun. 00:49:18 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's miserable. The nice pick me ups when they have hot chocolate, I live for. That's that's what I live for. 00:49:24 Speaker 1: Does the frozen ground help or does it deter your golf game? 00:49:32 Speaker 4: To be honest with you, I that's a good question. I would like to say it helps because whenever I start to spray the ball, like all I want to do is just hit it low and just let it run. And when it's frozen, I mean that thing will run forever. So I would say it probably helps a little bit because whenever the winner comes around, like I just I just start hitting everything low and just let it run and I'll get up there when I get up there, So yeah, probably helps. 00:49:58 Speaker 3: Who was the best golf for the double A guys you played with this year? 00:50:11 Speaker 4: Deep Shrek was pretty good. Before. Yeah, Shrek was pretty good. Before he got traded. He was doing well action. I'm pretty sure the day I was golfing, we were all golfing with him. The day got traded, I'm pretty sure he was lights out that day. Logan's pretty good. Like when you stand behind Logan hit a golf ball, it's seriously like the happy Gilmore scene, like when he just hits the ball, or just like the cameras just following it like it. It seriously looks like every drive he hits goes like five hundred and he swings as hard as humanly possible. But yeah, I would probably say I'd probably say Shrek. Shrek was Shrek was good. When it came down to feel, Logan has a good feel. But Logan also just wants to kind of really step on it, So I'd probably Shrek. I'm gonna get I'm I'm gonna get some heat for that. Hopefully not many people watch this podcast, because I'm gonna hear about that tomorrow. 00:51:04 Speaker 3: Well, that actually sounds pretty on brandf Logan. I'm gonna be honest. 00:51:08 Speaker 4: Oh it's yeah, he can't deny that. He's just gonna wish that I gave him more credit. Don't get me wrong, he's good. He's really really good. If I had to go up against them one on one, he's probably gonna take me majority of the time, unless I get in his head and he starts going neighborhood and neighborhood? 00:51:24 Speaker 1: Are you guys a big trash talking group when you guys go play? Or yeah? Is you dis respect. 00:51:30 Speaker 4: No, it's a lot of trash talk. Yeah, I mean we're kind of we're always trying. Like I see Logan. Logan picks me up at like seven thirty every morning, and it's four out of the seven days, it's probably starting with trash talk. That's seven thirty, Just right? 00:51:48 Speaker 1: Do you get it because you're like the youngest as. 00:51:51 Speaker 4: Soon as the door opens? What's that? 00:51:53 Speaker 3: Do you get? 00:51:54 Speaker 1: Do you get the brunt of it because you're the youngest. 00:51:56 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah definitely. 00:51:59 Speaker 3: Oh so I mean you just yeah? 00:52:01 Speaker 4: Was that? 00:52:02 Speaker 3: So it comes from him? It's not like you get in the car at seven thirty and start chirpings. As soon as you get in the car With Logan, he starts it sounds like. 00:52:09 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean there's like, if if it's gonna start, it's when the door opens. If I'm gonna start it, I'll usually close the door and then I'll like start saying something smart. But and then and then it gets rolling like most times, were probably walking into the facility arguing. There was actually a there was a funny video Logan and I, I don't know what we were debating about. We were I think a certain pitch or something like that we were talking about. And shoot, his mom recorded it and like somebody hit a single and the camera panned like up the first baseline and you just see Logan like with a ball in his hand, just like pointing yelling at me because I was disagreeing with whatever point he was trying to make, which I'm pretty sure I was correct about. 00:52:51 Speaker 3: Sounds about right. Well, a bunch of guys said you were the hot takes, one of the of the group. But doesn't mean hot takes are always wrong. 00:52:58 Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, I agree. Oh yeah, I mean if somebody is like in a conversation, I just like to stir the pots, Like if I like walk past the conversation that like somebody's like debating, I'm one hundred percent going to drop something in that's just completely sideways. Should not need to be in the point, but I'm gonna send it, start another argument, and then I'll leave. 00:53:16 Speaker 3: That's cool. You know, it's funny to hear what like people talk about it in the dugout or in the bullpen and the minors and like, and by the way, it sounds like that group's pretty close net. Like not only were all you guys really good, but it sounds like, especially that group of you guys in that rotation, we're all friends and all love to pick each other's brains. 00:53:32 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, the Marriagers doing an amazing job. Like I haven't been here forever, but like I've I've seen a couple of draft classes come in obviously, and like especially the guys like from my draft class, Like it doesn't seem like they get bad eggs. And like I'm not even just saying that because like I'm employed by them, like they genuinely they however many people are in the farm system, Like is how many good people there are in that system? It's just everybody you meet, Like even the new draft guys, like they just they just filled it. They just fit in and it just it just flows. It's it's honestly crazy, Like I don't know how they do it. I don't know what they look for, because they find talent too. They find a ton of talent. But it's crazy, like to see the talent that they bring in and then like the human being that comes with that talent. 00:54:16 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we were you about to ask about speaking of this draft class, TJ. Yeah, go ahead. 00:54:23 Speaker 1: Well I was gonna say. We asked Brandon this question to ask you it too. Did you watch Durangelo throw both arms? 00:54:31 Speaker 4: I went out, I went, I got there to watch, and then I got I was in the middle of I was having a conversation, and I didn't really get to see like that much of it. But I did recently because we started throwing again, have had the chance to watch them like doing playos and throwing from both sides. Dude, it's crazy. It really is, Like you would not want to see me throw a baseball left handed, and then to think that like he he's professional, like first round pick at both sides, Like I'm I got nothing. That's the craziest thing I've ever seen, to be honest with you. 00:55:11 Speaker 3: That's what I said Brandon was talking about when we talked to him. If I throw right handed, I can at least wretch the ball out. Was he lying about this? He can't get it sixty five? 00:55:20 Speaker 4: I saw it. No, I saw the thing. We Logan and I. Logan and I were watching the pod. I'm being extremely honest. Logan and I were watching the podcast and we saw that. We both like looked at each other, like, dude, what are you talking about? But yeah, I don't know if he could, I don't know. What did he say, like eighty something eighty four. 00:55:39 Speaker 3: That's what he said. Well, he said he said he could stretch it out to at least like sixty ninety feet and long toss or whatever, where I'm like, you, I pick up a baseball left handed, there's no chance I'm getting it ten feet. 00:55:49 Speaker 4: Like I'll take I'll take the long toss because like they're you know, you can change the angle and like add some distance. But I don't know. Eighty eighty four is pretty firm. 00:56:00 Speaker 3: That is very firm. 00:56:01 Speaker 4: That's that's that's that's firm. 00:56:03 Speaker 3: I mean you're getting close to a Durandela throw on the side, if that's the case, because they say he's more developed from the right side, but from the left side, you're still talking load to mid nineties. 00:56:13 Speaker 4: Yeah, I was gonna what's see, it's like ninety eight from the ninety eight from the right, ninety what from the left? 00:56:19 Speaker 1: I think ninety two. 00:56:21 Speaker 3: Well, I think that's where he's I think he can top a little higher than that. 00:56:24 Speaker 4: But yeah, exactly, I do that and I only have one working arm to throw with butt like Edwin Royo. I don't know if you guys remember him from my draft class, of course. 00:56:36 Speaker 3: Uh. 00:56:37 Speaker 4: Edwin threw right and left handed, and Edwin could actually sling it to like He's like maybe the closest guy that I've ever seen that I would like really like to see like him and Durangelo like throw together and do it. Because he threw to me a couple of times in midesto from the left side, and I was like, dang, dude, Like if you warmed up, like, I bet that actually be pretty hard. Sure, So yeah, he could really sling a throw from the left side. 00:57:05 Speaker 3: How did you get the nickname Moose? 00:57:06 Speaker 4: By the way, I wanted to ask you this, Yeah, that was It's actually extremely random. We were I was like seven years old or something like that. We were doing this like round robin like little league tournament, and I I think we made it to the championship, and they were like going to announce names and then like a part of the like little announcements, they wanted to have a nickname with your like with your announcements. So we were like sitting in this pizza shop or something like that, and I needed a nickname. Like most of the guys like on the team like kind of already have like nicknames, and I just did not at all. And my parents called me Michael, and so we're like they're like going around the they're going around the table. I think like they were coming with like Michael, Michael Motorcycle, like just horrendous nicknames. And then all of a sudden it was actually it was the coach's kid was like, how about like Moose and that. Everyone was just like I think that's absolutely perfect, so let's just go with that. And I was like, ah, like whatever, it's one game, it won't stick. And it stuck. I mean, like my parents, my family calls me Moose, like most like close people kind of call me Moose back home, which is really weird. 00:58:18 Speaker 3: It's still in the miners too, they call you that. 00:58:21 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it was kind of like one thing, like especially like with the mascot and everything, like like when I when I signed and I got to Seattle, like I saw the Mariner Moose and I was like, we're not bringing like this in Like this is no one's gonna you guys can say this like at home because like it's been there, but like we're not, like don't yell at a baseball games like keep that hush hush. And I think it was last year in Modesto, somebody from my hometown like emailed the Modesto Nuts and was like, hey, by the way, like his nickname back here is Moose. You should announce him as Moose. And I hear nothing like whenever I'm starting and stuff like that, as in tune as I am with like what's going on around me? Like I don't really hear that much, and I hear like over the loudspeakers in Midesta like Moose and I was like, no, shot, it's here. Yeah, so yeah, but like long winded just got it in a pizza shot for a seven U baseball game. 00:59:18 Speaker 1: Did you ever find out you're just like standing up there on the bump like locked in, like let's like let's do this. 00:59:26 Speaker 4: And you're like I was I was warming up in the outfield. I was I was like long tossing, and I just hear like Michael Moose Morales and I was like, what in the world was that? And then like it's panned on me, and I was like, oh my gosh, like they're talking about me. That was They just announced me as Moose and so yeah, that's what started it. 00:59:48 Speaker 3: Did you ever get like figure out who sent the email? Did you trace it back anywhere? Did people try to hide it? 00:59:56 Speaker 4: I forget. I originally I thought it was my parents and and then they swore they didn't do it. So then I asked, I'm pretty sure. I asked, like one of the media guys at at Modesto, and I forget who. They said, I'm pretty sure it was one of my neighbors. To be honest with you, I think it was. I think it was one of my neighbors, probably lives like right down the street. 01:00:14 Speaker 1: That's funny you mentioned when you went to Seattle. I want to pick your brain a little bit when you were up there. How was that experience. Did you get to have any converse memorable conversations with anyone on the big league team or anything like that? 01:00:28 Speaker 4: Uh, it was. I mean it was amazing. It was. It was a lot of fun. Obviously, like never really been to the West Coast that much, just besides UH area codes when I was in high school, like I was like a freshman or something like that, we went out. That was the only time I'd been to the West Coast. It was really cool just being out there seeing something new. Uh, the day at the stadium was fun. I had a I had a heart procedure when I was out there, so like my trip was kind of haywire like it wasn't it wasn't that smooth. It was kind of hag thick medical side. But yeah, I mean got to enjoy the game from the box Like that was sick. I'd never really seen I'd never really been in like a big league sweep before. I didn't get to really meet like players or anything like that, so I didn't see. My first time actually seeing the clubhouse and everything like that was when I when I was when I just came up. But I mean just just meeting everybody, like it you notice right away kind of like what I just said about people like it started right away. Everybody in Seattle were amazing people. They made it a They made it a great time. I signed with Edwin, So that was a lot of fun and I mean, you know, just the experience of it all, especially like at that age, like I was, I was blown away. 01:01:43 Speaker 1: Mm hmm, we need to follow up. You're okay, I. 01:01:45 Speaker 4: Assume, Yeah, yeah, it was I forget what it is. It was something when my heart beat. Something happened and they had to fix it. I forget exactly like what the medical terminology is. But yeah, they got the yeah you Dub, actually shout out to you, Dub. Yeah they got me right on that. Wow. 01:02:04 Speaker 3: So when you were here this time, I remember were just talking about when you came to town when you signed with Edwin, what your whole experience was like. But when you were in town this time around, when you got the award just a couple of weeks ago, was that any different? Like did you get to meet any people that time? Any playing? 01:02:19 Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that time we spent actually we probably spent We spent a decent amount more time than I expected in the clubhouse. I think it was probably like thirty a little over thirty ish minutes. I I you know, got to see Troy. That was obviously super exciting because I was I was just with him. So yeah, I got to see Troy, got to pick Troy's brain just what the big leagues was like. Obviously he's had a super cool experience just facing you know, the names in in the big league. So it was cool hearing his takes on on how things went and just and seeing his success, like just seeing him kind of go right back into it. So yeah, that was just kind of hung out talk to some players, got to see Wu, Bryce, but yeah, a lot of it we were kind of just off to ourselves because we didn't want to be like in the way. Like that was kind of like my fear, like I didn't want to like go in too far and like be out of place. I was like, I'm just gonna kind of hang out on the back. 01:03:17 Speaker 1: Looks cool. 01:03:18 Speaker 4: Hopefully, hopefully I get a chance to see it soon. 01:03:21 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you were teammates with those guys, weren't you with Bryce Miller and Brian Wu. 01:03:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, not for long, but yeah, yeah, I got to spend a little bit of time with them. 01:03:31 Speaker 3: Oh cool, that's right. I did have one more baseball question I wanted to ask you because obviously the year you had was awesome. And part of that was your jump from Hia to double A. And they always talk about that jump, they say is the hardest jump in the minor league. Now, you ended up throwing the ball really well when you got to Arkansas, which was awesome. But I always do wonder when you jump from hiya to double A, is there a noticeable difference when you're taking the mound every week, every fifth day and you're seeing the hitters and you're like, oh, this is this is different? 01:04:02 Speaker 4: I think so, you know, I think the first thing that I noticed was they seemed a little bit more physical, a little bit more mature, especially just like from the eye test. And then their approaches generally were a lot better. You could tell like they weren't chasing as much, especially early in the count, Like you weren't getting that many swings out of the zone early in the count, and they were just they were kind of working with you, which it seemed like when I got up there was a little bit more of a chess match, not just kind of throw something at him and and hopefully get a swing. They'd spin on really really good pitches. That was probably the one thing that I really noticed when I got up there finished count discipline like they were. They were very disciplined in finished counts. You couldn't really just kind of go out there with the same template and just run through them, if that makes sense. You kind of had to pitch a little bit, which made it obviously ton of fun. But yeah, I would just say that THO was the kind of the first things that I noticed approach was approach was much better and they were mature, more mature looking. 01:05:09 Speaker 1: You mentioned your rat gyro slider, and this is my last baseball question too before we wrap up with five really fun ones. So you mentioned the gyro slider that you added this year. How else had your your repertoire evolved this year? As you said, did a game plan a little bit more? How did that work its way into what you did in day to day? 01:05:28 Speaker 4: I would say, I mean, for the most part, like, biggest thing that we were working on was a little bit of slider shape. A lot of it was command focused though kind of going into this year, there was a you know, a big reason why we added the gyro just hopefully just be over the plate at a higher clip. So that was to be honest with like, that was a lot of what the game plans were, especially like the Mariners gave me such a big arsenal, in a diverse arsenal. As long as I was over the plate, we could make a lot of things happen. So in a lot of sense, that was that was a lot of what it was when we were going through game planning. Maybe like from my standpoint, I might be over complicating something a little too much, where maybe I'm giving hitters a little bit too much credit in early counts and I'm thinking opening up a couple more guys with breaking balls, whereas you know, the team and Harry or Chi is just kind of like, dude, relax, like sick with the fastball cutter in this count, go with you know, changeup sweep or maybe curveball on the finish counts if you fall behind, we can do this. And that was a lot of what the game planning was. But yeah, I mean, you know, once we out of the gyro helped kind of, in my opinion, helped bring the arsenal together a little bit more because I had offerings to both sides of the plate to get to two strikes, and then with the pitches that I didn't locate quite as well, we could kind of save those for the finish counts and a lot of the times the puzzle piece together pretty well. 01:06:52 Speaker 1: That's cool and yeah, and the results definitely definitely did show that you had an awesome year. It's been it's been awesome to see the ration of what you've done in the system in the last three years. So we had these five five fun questions we like to finish up with none not totally baseball related, but just to see a little bit more of your personality. So the first question your go to pregame and postgame meal is what. 01:07:23 Speaker 4: Post game I would say this might sound like bougie, but we got crab legs and steak a couple of times. That was that was obviously exciting, So I find I'd probably put that as my favorite post game pregame. I'd like to keep it simple. I can honestly go with the sandwich, maybe a wrap, chicken and rice. Like, if I see chicken and rice, especially on like a start day, I'm all in. Yeah, so especially if I'm pitching it. Now, is that what you meant? 01:07:55 Speaker 1: Though? 01:07:55 Speaker 4: Like on pregame posts on the days on I pitch yeah, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, chicken rice on the pregame and then uh, you know, if they want to splurge a little bit on the on the steak and raft legs, I'm not going to complain. 01:08:07 Speaker 1: Who's putting their card down to that? 01:08:10 Speaker 4: Yeah the Mariners actually, yeah, thank you to them. 01:08:14 Speaker 3: Okay, shout out them. 01:08:17 Speaker 4: Yeah? 01:08:17 Speaker 3: Your three favorite TV shows ever, Michael or what? 01:08:23 Speaker 4: SpongeBob is number one? That's one one for me? Suits is up there? Thank you? Thank you? Yeah, I love I love Suits, and three I like Yellowstone. I was really hooked on Yellowstone. I think Outer Banks could have made it, could have made it a run in there, but in my opinion, the last couple of seasons kind of fell off. But yeah, Yellowstone, SpongeBob, and I completely forget what I just said for the third Yeah those three? 01:09:01 Speaker 3: Yeah in suits? Okay, I got it. 01:09:03 Speaker 4: Yeah, my bad. 01:09:05 Speaker 3: You might be the first person we've asked that said SpongeBob. So now I gotta follow up, what is your favorite SpongeBob episode? 01:09:13 Speaker 4: Oh jeez, there's so many. I think like when SpongeBob and Sandy go to Texas, that one's pretty good. What else? What I think probably my actual maybe favorite episode I don't know if it's considered an episode. Was it was like the SpongeBob movie that came out in like the quarterly two thousands. Yeah, yeah, I think that was. I don't know if that was considered a movie or an episode, because I thought it was an episode, but then it was like the length of a movie. So I'm not one hundredercent sure it's classified. But if I can go with that answer, that one I could watch forever. 01:09:53 Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh yeah, that was a full movie. I would go see that in the theaters when it came out. Oh really, yeah, I'm a goofy gooper. Okay, yeah, that's great movie. 01:10:04 Speaker 4: I love it. 01:10:06 Speaker 1: The next question is what would you be doing if you weren't playing baseball. 01:10:14 Speaker 4: I mean, I would love to get into coaching, but I would say, like if I had to go with something outside of baseball, PI police, I think like law something in law enforcement. I really like it, just like the baseball Like, I don't think I could ever go to like an ordinary type of day, Like I just think I would need like every day to be different and just you know, just be out in the community and actually feel like I'm like making an impact. So yeah, probably law enforcement. 01:10:41 Speaker 1: So if it was baseball, you almost need to be like an executive. You need to like feel like be in charge. 01:10:48 Speaker 4: No, I mean, honestly, just any type of coaching, I do anything I would. I I always make jokes to like everybody like one day I'm gonna be a GM. I don't know if I'd actually ever want to go down that route because that's a pretty busy job, but yeah, I think any Honestly, No, I don't really need to be like be in charge that way, like anything. Just pitching coach, assistant, something, any anything around the game, all right, I like that. 01:11:18 Speaker 1: So threatening to trade anyone on the on the roster, It's like, I'm gonna be GM one day, don't go cost me. 01:11:25 Speaker 4: I tell Logan that all the time. 01:11:30 Speaker 3: Okay, So so stuff that keeps your adrenaline up. Those type of jobs are like what you then that, Yeah, we're in the same boat. We could never work a desk job or something like that. It's just boring. What who Michael is your favorite all time baseball player? 01:11:53 Speaker 4: David Ortiz or Padro. I'd probably say David Ortiz just because I actually got to really watch them, So probably David Ortiz. Yeah, that's a great one. 01:12:04 Speaker 1: Where was Manny on that list? 01:12:09 Speaker 4: He's up there, He's I I'm not gonna lie, though, it felt like like I couldn't imagine reactually being a fan. Like at that time, it felt like Manny stressed me out and I was like six years old. But he he was always coming through. So he's up there. He's probably Many's probably I don't know, I got it. I love like all the Red Sox player He's top ten, top five. I mean, like Padroi's in my top five, Jacoby's in my top five. Julio Lugo. I don't know if you guys remember Julio. Dude. I loved him Mortis for the name. 01:12:40 Speaker 3: But you're like, so, okay, you're you're a real ball no, or you're dropping names like Julio Lugo, Like you watch a lot of baseball growing up. I'm picking up on that. 01:12:48 Speaker 4: Oh my gosh. Yeah, if they played what one hundred and sixty four or something like that in the big leagues, I was probably watching at least over one fifty five. Like I was not missing that many games, it was it'd be rare if I was missing a Red Sox game. 01:13:03 Speaker 3: Yeah, we're we're all on the same boat in that way. That's that's exactly how we were. 01:13:06 Speaker 1: So the last question is the best and worst baseball road trip you've been on is what? 01:13:17 Speaker 3: Hmmm, Yeah, you got any minor league horror stories? Leo Rivas told us too bad? Not too bad. Leo Rivas told us a story that he got, like they got to a hotel once when he was in the minors and they were in the lobby for four hours in the middle of the night because the rooms weren't ready, and then they got to the rooms there was no ac in a place that was really hot. So, okay, if you ever had a story like that, that's good. 01:13:42 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean no, I haven't had anything like that. It did feel like though everywhere we went in the Texas, like the A C was not working. That was that was one thing we stayed. I think like there's rumor like the hotel in Spokane was was haunted, which there was some weird stuff that went down in that hotel, like middle of the night that I woke up to like there was like there was it seemed like every time that I was there was always something going on. So I don't know if that was like mine playing games, but actual horror stories. Not really. I mean they were all pretty smooth. Nothing like I remember I think like one trip we were on like I think like one of the buses like got in a car accident or something like that, but like somebody clipped like the back of their back of the bus. Something weird. But I've honestly been really fortunate to have have smooth trips. Anything though that's like long obviously is kind of brutal. Like I had a trip from I think Springfield to Midland in the in the playoffs that there was one sleeper bus and then there was one regular bus and I don't know what I was doing, but I was on like the regular seated bus. That was the worst trip of my life. Like it felt like the seats are like this wide. You're trying to like lay down. It's a twelve hour bus ride. That one was. That one was miserable just in terms of comfort, not sleeping. 01:15:12 Speaker 1: What about your best road trip best? 01:15:18 Speaker 4: You can also probably put that one in the best category. At the same time, there is we had a lot of fun on that road trip, especially coming after from beating Springfield. In Springfield, everybody was just having a good time at playing games on the bus. So yeah, I would say, like in the same in the same question that that fits both categories. 01:15:37 Speaker 1: What do you guys playing on the bus? 01:15:40 Speaker 4: A lot of cards? I think, Oh man, what was the card that was big in the clubhouse this year? Who had? Have you ever heard of that? Who? 01:15:48 Speaker 3: Hell? 01:15:50 Speaker 4: Neither of I So I don't really even know how to explain it. I think it looked like a more complicated go fish in a way like that. It's kind of would have looked like but they would play that all the time. That game was always being played, and then uh poker poker would be playing a lot. 01:16:10 Speaker 3: We lied. I'm gonna throw one more at you. If you were to make your big league debut today, what would your walkout song be? Oh? 01:16:19 Speaker 4: I was just thinking this. I think right now I'm going with like follow God by Kanye. I think that one's gotta I think that one's got a good beat to like open Up, Open Up too. I like that one, So yeah, i'd probably go follow God Kanye. 01:16:35 Speaker 3: Okay, so you're a hip hop guy then ye yeah, yeah, Okay, good dal. 01:16:41 Speaker 1: Well, Michael, this has been awesome. We appreciate you. Taking some time to join us here to day. Can't wait to catch up in spring training and get ready for another good season for you coming up here in twenty twenty four. Thanks so much for dagtous some time for us. 01:16:53 Speaker 4: Thank you guys for having me. I really appreciate it. 01:16:57 Speaker 3: Well, I said it before that interview started, and I'll say it. Michael Morales is the man. I can't wait to see what he does in twenty twenty five, and hopefully now all you guys are more invested too, because he was awesome. We really really enjoyed that conversation, and hopefully we have a chance to get him back on again at some point too, maybe after he makes his big league debut, because I think it's I think it's right on the horizon here. I think him, Brandon Logan, they're all right on the doorstep of the big leagues, and we're excited to see how they progress because all three of those arms are pretty exciting. Anyway, 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, you can do so wherever you get your audio pods, make sure to download make sure to rate and review. Leave it five stars. It really does help us out if you do. If you're watch on YouTube, like comments, subscribe, and then follow us on social media. We're on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.