Episode 18: Brad Adam (ROOT Sports) And Previewing Mariners' Starting Pitchers

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number eighteen of the Marine Layer Podcast with TJ. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein. On today's pod, we have Brad Adam joined the podcast. Brad is a host an anchor for Root Sports, gost the Mariners pregame and postgame shows, does a little bit of sideline reporting amongst other duties for Root Sports. Really great conversation with Brad Adam. It's also our pitching preview episode. We'll go into detail with the five starters for the Mariners projected for this twenty twenty three season. We'll close out the show with's speak your mind, Let's get it rolling, and we welcome you into the Marine Layer Podcast. Here on Tuesday, March seventh, Spring training is rolling along. Bryce Miller looks great. The Mariners were off today, but yesterday we saw a great performance from Bryce Miller and Jared Kelnick too much to Lyle's pleasure, continues to look absolutely phenomenal. 00:01:06 Speaker 2: Man. I mean, it's probably not gonna happen. Bryce Miller, the way he's pitching in spring training has a case to crack the big league roster out of camp. At least in my opinion. He probably won't. But the way he's pitching, he has looked phenomenal. And then Jared Callen like, again, yes, it's spring training, but he is absolutely crushing the baseball and doing everything that is being asked of him to do right now. 00:01:30 Speaker 1: That ball he hit on Sunday in Milwaukee, I think I might have landed in my room somewhere. I mean that thing. I would have been shocked that thing ended up in the state of Oregon. That thing was absolutely spat on by Jared. That was a really good swing for him. I'm just a little bit of a rebuttal for your Bryce Miller point before we get to Brad Adam, is that I just like I have too much PTSD for Matt Brash last year. I mean, you can look really good in spring with good stuff and still struggle once the games start meaning something in you're forced to go out there and pitch six innings against a major league lineup. That's all I'm saying. And as good as Bryce Miller is, he doesn't even have as good as stuff as as Matt Brash does, so that could that could just be spell a problem. And I don't want to dissuade you too much. 00:02:15 Speaker 2: And that's probably why he'll be back in either Double A or Triple A for a couple starts, and then maybe by May the team moves them up either into a bullpen roll or into that starter role or in everybody telth. 00:02:26 Speaker 1: Everybody's really it's really not the end of the world for him to start as big league career as a reliever. There's a lot of regular regular starters nowadays who start their big league career as relievers. So that's where the innings are and that's a bit a bit of an easier way to to ease yourself into, uh, into a major league role. Man that in the interview we just recorded with Brad Adam was was phenomenal. We didn't even talk about as much baseball as I wanted to, but the content, uh that we got from this Brad Adam interview was was was really fantastic. And I keep saying this with every guest we have, but it's it is now a great interview and one of my favorite. 00:03:09 Speaker 2: Yeah, And honestly, I think it's okay that we didn't talk that much baseball because so many of the guests we've had on we've talked a ton of baseball and they have all been great. This one had a little bit of a different tone to it. I mean, we talked a lot of sports broadcasting. We talked about a lot of golf. Yeah, there's some Mariner sprinkled in there, but there's just some really good stories in there. It felt like a very easy, free flowing conversation, which is why it was a really really cool interview. I'm just gonna give you guys a heads up. Anybody listening here early in the show, Yeah, this episode's a little bit long. It's the longest episode we've ever we've ever done, but there's a reason for it. Number One, our interview with Brad Adam was about fifty minutes long. It was really good, Like really, we encourage you guys to stick around and listen to the whole thing because it's a blast and he shares some fun stories. Also, since we're going to do our starting pitcher preview this week, that's a little longer too, because usually with these previews we've got one or two guys to break down. There's five guys in the starting rotation, so it takes a little longer. So I promise it's not two hours of just dead content and things that are gonna bore you guys like it's it's close to two hours of really good stuff, so you'll want to stick around for it. 00:04:16 Speaker 1: In the Speak your Mind we did on yesterday because there's a couple of mentions of it being Monday, so that the open is being recorded on Tuesday. The preview and Speak your Mind we're recorded on Monday. If you guys are trying to line up the times and they're wondering why we're getting dates wrong, we're not. 00:04:33 Speaker 2: We promise, yes, that's correct. So intro Tuesday interview with Brad Adam Tuesday, the Pitching Preview and Speak your Mind was Monday. But you know what, TJ, let's not delay it any longer. Let's kick it over to our interview with Brad Adam. We welcome Brad Adam onto the Marine Layer Podcast. You can catch Brad on Root Sports as the Mariners pregame and postgame host on TV. You can catch them doing sideline reporting from time to time as well. Brad, thanks so much for taking the time with us today. I wanted to start with this. You hear about players off seasons all the time, what they're up to, where they're at. What about you? What does a brad Adam off season look like. 00:05:15 Speaker 3: Well, that's a good question, a good start. I will be honest and tell you guys that I am not in the best shape of my life. You hear that a lot in spring training, but I am not in the best shape. It's difficult because I like to golf, guys, and it's hard with this weather up here. I coach my daughters in basketball. I'm basically their chauffeur slash uber driver for all their activities. I got three teenage girls and they don't play sports, and so I'm driving a lot and. 00:05:48 Speaker 1: Watching a lot, which is very cool. 00:05:49 Speaker 3: It's nice to have a little break after a long seven month grind with the Mariners, which luckily thankfully ended up in the playoffs. I'm sure we'll talk about that. So it's kind of decompressing. And this year was a little different for us at ROOT because we got the Seattle Kracking, so we got to do some cracking broadcasts last year and this year. So off seats are a little more busy than usual because I had to try to learn hockey. So it don't sound like a complete idiot when I'm talking about cracking games. A lot of fun to go to. I know if you guys have seen them, but Hockey Live is really cool and it's good to see them doing well. This year, we hope to make the playoffs because Root Sports will have the first round of the NHL Playoff, which would be super cool. So looking forward to that and little spring training coming up for me and then boom we hit the ground running on the twenty ninth. 00:06:35 Speaker 1: How much how much are you try? Having to learn hockey like I tried. I see they have a team, they debut and I'm really doing my best. It's kind of hard. I'm, you know, a state and a half away from from home. I don't get the everyday viewing experience. It's not like my job to know the crack and so it's it's kind of hard for me to fully absorb the sport of hockey and absorb the cracking. But for you, yeah, I mean, you're supposed to work on a sport that is not really it's not played in the state, it's not played at the high school level. It's you know, rarely seen at a sports bar before twenty twenty one. I mean, there's just there's not much. There's no embrace of hockey in the Northwest really at any major level until the crack can arrive. So all of a sudden, you're supposed to know a lot about that. Like where where do you even start? 00:07:22 Speaker 3: Well, well, that's we start by hiring guys who know hockey, and that's helped a ton you know, good start. Yeah, with Nick Olchak, who's one of our analysts, Aaron Allison, lukenn and Piper Shaw, so the team, and John forest On and jaj Brown, so the broadcast team. The hockey people are a resource for all of us and they know that too. They want to, you know, have people learn the game and grow the game in the state. So as they're doing the broadcast, they'll explain things. You know, when I see him at morning skate on the day of a game, and I can ask a bunch of questions. When I'm in studio and they're on the road and I've got Nick or Allison with me, I'll watch the game and say, all right, now, four checking is what and then a back check is when you hit him in the back. He's like, no, that's not right, blue line past this offside. It's great to be able to say, you know, ask them questions because I'll sorry about a goalie save, you know, and say like, what's a good save percentage? And what does this mean? Expected goals against? What is this? So you learn all of this and then you can apply it a little bit. I don't apply it as much like I don't feel ass comfortable obviously as mariners and stats and stuff that I could just kind of throw in during a broadcast hockey. I'm pretty pretty low key and I don't go above my comfort zone. But you learn a little bit here and there. And I think to TJ just by watching and listening to Forestland and J. T. Brown, you just kind of and it also Eddie old Check, you just kind of you just learn osmosis, right, You learn a little bit and see a little bit, read about it and just watch more and just kind of get immersed in it. And it's a fun game. It's fast paced, it's quick. I like that a lot, and the arena is great and it's fun to do that. And I can't wait for a couple of years when we got the Sonics to. 00:09:07 Speaker 1: Do what was the hardest thing for you to learn about it? 00:09:12 Speaker 3: You know, hockey, the lines, I think, and the substitutions and kind of the the positioning and how power plays work and how hotly kills work, and that just kind of the shuffle and flow on the ice for me. You know, you see guys and you're like, you played a minute, Why is it coming off? They're like, a minute is about what they do. You look at a minute of ice time and then they're coming off. So trying to figure all that out and just just it was surprising to me that that it it moves so quickly and the lines, you know, four lines, this that and this, and how people move up and how that's kind of all situated and how how it kind of just all works there on the ice. 00:09:56 Speaker 2: Okay, you said something just a minute ago. I have to double up on it. Said and in a couple of years, hopefully the Sonics give us a prediction. What year do you think they're coming back? And is that going to include. 00:10:08 Speaker 3: I don't know if it'll include Kevin Durant. I think he's gonna be pretty happy in Phoenix. But I do think it'll include Kevin Collaboro, which will be cool. 00:10:16 Speaker 1: It's true. 00:10:17 Speaker 3: I would think. Okay, two things, the media rights. You guys will look this up because don't quote me the media rights for the NBA, I believe up in. 00:10:30 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:10:30 Speaker 3: Think it's twenty four, Okay, in four season, all right, in the twenty four season, and they're starting ground on a new arena in Vegas. So I think we can kind of do the math and figure out that Vegas is going to be the other expansion city. So I think in twenty four hopefully they'll announce and then maybe they play that year, maybe they played twenty five. I'm not sure exactly how it's all going to work out, but I think the TV deal will include two new teams. That's a whole lot of more more money for the owners and to teams. As you guys know, Climate Pledge here in Seattle is ready to go. The locker rooms you know, have already labeled Sonics locker rooms. It's it's built for hockey slash basketball. It's a great arena for basketball. And if you guys have seen a game there yet Seattle, you'se played there a lot and had kind of the Globetrotters there which was fun. So I would think by end of twenty four will have an announcement hope that. 00:11:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, the arena amazing. I can't I can't. I haven't been anywhere better. I haven't. I know it's the newest, but just because something's the newest doesn't mean it's the best. But true, I mean it's not. It is knocked out of the park. I could not believe some of the amenities. I mean, it's it's crazy. 00:11:42 Speaker 3: And to keep the roof of old ky Arena and it was really cool, and they keep a few things in there from KI Arena. But everything else is just state of the art. You know, how green it is and how you know, I've got all the Amazon go so it's all you know, touchless stuff, payless stuff. It's just up to date, awesome, everything first class. So looking forward to spending a lot of time down there after a Marrin the season. 00:12:06 Speaker 2: Well, I know you're about to kind of kick off your Mariner season. I know in about a week or so, you're heading down to Arizona. Aside from playing golf, which it sounds like you're kind of. 00:12:15 Speaker 1: Itching to do. 00:12:16 Speaker 3: I already got the two times with Flowers. I'm good to go. 00:12:19 Speaker 1: It does it say in your contract like how many hours you're allowed to play golf and how many hours you have to work? 00:12:24 Speaker 3: It's no, it's one round for every game I cover training. I can go in two games those two rounds of golf during the season like a road trip. If there's ten games, I probably will get ten games, but i'll bank ten or ten rounds of golf. So I try to do try to do a one for one. Yeah, and the bosses know that, which is good. Luckily, my boss plays, so I take him a lot, and that's good. So to get out of here. It's really a great opportunity to play on the road. So road trips I don't go on as many as I used to, just because kids getting older, they don't like to be away, which as I used to. But I do try to be strategic about it and pick warm weather cities and cities that I know that we can play golf in. So I take a look at that, and I look at some off days on the road, and I figure out where to go, figure out who plays on the team, which is going to be good, and yeah, it's important, you know. And it's it's fun too to play with the players because it's it's almost like you get kind of their i don't know, like more respect for them, Like if you can play with them or beat them them being professional athletes. You know, it's just it gives you a little more. I don't know credibill, it'll street cred, right. So I like taking the guys out. I don't take their money necessarily. Guys sometimes maybe Taiwan Walker maybe maybe, but it just fun. It opened up a lot of doors. I recommend it to anybody who's getting into this business. Learn golf, play golf, enjoy it. 00:14:03 Speaker 1: Who was the most fun out on the golf course or or who's the best golfer? If it was a combination, that. 00:14:10 Speaker 3: Is a good one. I would say. I've been pretty fortunate to play with Junior a few times, and he's always great to play with because you know you're playing at really good courses. Junior doesn't mess around on the public sector. Trust me, he's fun. Getting etro into golf was a lot of fun. He hits it right hand and hits it pretty good too. But from it's funny a hundred in as you guys, you guys play, I played mini golf, Okay, I mean that's that's the hardest thing, right to learn how to hungards and that's it. So, I mean, these guys just butcher it each truck and hit it pretty well, but then he'll just fall apart one hundred in. I would say Felix Fernandez was fun to play with and I can share this. I'm sure he won't mind. Plus it's gonna be great to see him right in August. Yea Hall of Fame, he would. I mean, we would joke and say, would you would we have more corps lights or lost balls when he plays, and it was like pretty close, you know what I mean? And he would lose about a dozen. So that w'll help you out a little bit there. Those guys were a lot of fun to play with. Taiwan Walker got into it, he got good. He can really hit the ball far. He was always fun to play with. And Wade Miley was good the old picture he was good too. I'd like to play in Taiwan and I played on the road. Who is better? Mike Blowers is probably the best golfer all of the group, though he's around one now because he moved Arizona. He got smart. He moved so he doesn't deal with this in the off season. He just go plays golf every day. Smart guy. So he's probably our best this year. I know the young guys are getting into it. I don't know. I haven't played with any of them yet. I'm looking forward to I'm gonna go down and play with I think Festa and cal Rawley and Penn Murphy and see what they're all about. I think that's about it. Off the top of my head. Who's who's Who's decent. A lot of guys you like to go out and just play and banging around, like Marco's getting into it. So it's fun again. It's just another chance guys, and another opportunity to kind of spend some time with these guys and get to know them away from the field, away from the microphone, because, as you know, guys are going to be a little guarded. They're not going to tell you the one hundred percent truth. They're not going to, you know, really open up when there's cameras and mics around, and I get that, But when you're on the course, you can kind of decompress a little bit and chat about things that you know they know. Maybe you know, not going to go any further, but you learn some stuff and learn some inside background from them, and so Inflection is pretty good too. I played with him last year too. He's pretty good too, So I again highly recommend golfing, learning to golf, use it as a tool in this industry. 00:17:00 Speaker 2: That was gonna be my next follow up question is who on this team is supposed to be a really good golfer. Is it one of the guys you mentioned, like Flexen or cal Raley or one of those guys, or is somebody on this team known for being the best golfer. 00:17:11 Speaker 3: Oh, you know, I forgot. I think Kirby is pretty good. I think George Kirby. I haven't played with him yet, but I think he's in the seventies. I think mid to high seventies. I think these guys get better than spring training because they go and they play a lot before the game start, you know, a lot of so they play a lot in February for sure. But I do remember him, I didn't. I haven't played with him, but he and Emerson Hancock too, I think supposed to be a good one, but I haven't played with him yet. Cal I think just hits the ball really far. Some guys just you know, see how far they can hit it. But for years, you know, the Mariners didn't play a lot there wasn't a lot of guys who played golf, and they really bummed me out. Usually it's the pitchers position. Guys kind of shy away. Sometimes they don't want to mess with their swing, or they get they think it will so maybe on an off day you'll get them. But pitchers, you know, can can it out there on the road, So I would Yeah, that's a I'm trying to think. That's a good question. Got some new guys that hopefully play. I don't know if Colton Wong plays or Hernandez Julio dudn't play, to my knowledge, but we got to get him going. Kelnick kills the ball, but I don't know how much he plays. You can imagine him hitting the ball. Yeah, so yeah, you know what, though, I'm gonna find out. That's be one of my missions when I go down to spring traying, and next time we do this, I'll have a full report. 00:18:28 Speaker 1: You'll have to let us know how golfing with Jared would be. It just seems like he's so intense that maybe you wouldn't even talk to you while you guys get to eighteen holes. 00:18:37 Speaker 3: It would be interesting to have him have a bad shot and see what happens, right, because we know that when he struck out, now he's gotten better, but when he came up and would strike out, and he would do some damage to some bats and some walls. So I wonder if he would have a club, Probably not, but he would definitely be intense. And you know, it's good to see him having such a nice start so far the spring. I think he leads the team with four home runs, hitting the ball hard. From what I hear, he's changed some things in the offseason. So you just hope that that he can just relax a little bit because he's got so much talent and just play the game and just let the the ability take over. You know. I think I think having aj Pollock and Left will really help him. Sit him against some tough lefties, sit him against, you know, when he's struggling a little bit. And I think this is you know, they don't need him to be a superstar, but if he could be like a solid bat that they are probably a bat short. So if he could really kind of be in that role along with Pollock and Left, I think that would help obviously the team a lot, maybe put him over the top a little bit too, because their pitching is that good. 00:19:47 Speaker 2: That's actually a decent segue here, because I know the spring training as it's been going on, well, that is what you do. Your career is to help segue and be a trapping cop as an on air host. So you're helping us do right here. But there's been some really interesting storylines so far in Marina spring training. Jared Kalmick maybe the top storyline, certainly one of the top storylines with how smooth he's look the way's crushing the ball. He looks more calm. But just in general, what are some of the storylines that have stood out to you so far in Maritor spring training. 00:20:21 Speaker 3: I like, Jared. I like the pitching staff, which we knew was going to be so good going into the season. And I like that these guys get off and they go home in the offseason and they get with performance coaches, they get with their own pitching guys, their own whoever they use, and they figure out something new, a new pitch to be even better. Like I think the split finger is kind of the pitching days you were this spring. I know Gilbert's trying it, Kirby's trying it, Robbie Ray is trying it. Marco added a slider. Castillo was so good he didn't need to add anything because they're all they're all plus pitches. So I think that's cool that the starters as good as they were added and and want to be, you know, even better. And I think if they stay healthy like they did last year, you know, knock on wood, probably one through five. 00:21:13 Speaker 1: I would put them up against anybody rotation wise. 00:21:16 Speaker 3: I think it's going to be interesting to see what they do with Chris Flexen. You'd like to have depth, but but here's a guy making eight million dollars and I don't know how long that. I don't think they'd put him into coma. I think he'd be the long guy out of the pen, and he'd be kind of the insurance guy for a starter, which is great. But on the other hand, it's a lot of money to spend on a bullpen arm that isn't going to pitch, maybe a whole lot, right, So he's great trade bait team that needs a starter. He's a guy who certainly can start. We've seen that the last two years with the marin Or, so curious to see kind of how they deal with flexing and then another one that I like, we mentioned you know left field, how's Kelnick and Paulock, how they're gonna mesh together and hit? I like Hernande is and right and Wong and second, I mean, can he bounce back? You know there's everybody's kind of got a question, right Julio is how good is he going to be? Right? You get him for a whole year being Julio and cal Rawley being a whole year and being healthy. I mean that film last year, guys, was just nasty to look at. I don't know how we caught anything, let alone you know, a ninety eight mile an hour fastball. So I think it's just it's a fun team, and I think there's lots of positives about them, and the bullpen solid too. So I think it's you know, being the hometown, you know, broadcasters and guys. You know, we always pump pump a team out. But I'm pretty I think we're pretty fair and realistic. You know, some years when you didn't have a chance, we weren't going to blow smoke and say, hey there's a playoff team. This is obviously a playoff team. They made it last year. They got I think a little bit better a year older. I think they're primed to make a nice run here. I don't know if they as good as Houston yet, but I don't know if they have to be until, you know, hopefully next year. It won't be till the a lc US or something, you know. So I think it's just it's just a real cool time, this three four year window that they have with these young guys they can sign them. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun for Mariners fans. 00:23:09 Speaker 1: Which new guy are you gonna go try and talk to? First? 00:23:15 Speaker 3: Probably Colton Wong, and I'll tell you why. He's lifted listed as five to seven and I'm like five ten. Maybe I give myself five to ten guys. So anybody that's shorter than me I like, I like, and I like to go talk to because that makes me a look good on camera. So I really miss Deed Long. I'm bummed that sheds no longer with us because I like to tower over him. Madam Frazier, a guy that Wong replaced. He was another guy that I was taller than. So I'll probably talk to him, flex my height a little bit on him, and then I want to get to know Hernandez ta Oscar Hernandez too. You always like to talk to the new guys and introduce myself and kind of get a feel for kind of what they like and and kind of ask him questions about you know, do you like to talk pregame? Do you like to talk after games? Doesn't matter when we go to you, is it? You know, what's your routine like pregame? So I don't bother him, and I know when I can go to him, so that that kind of set things up easy. Stuff like that. I'm also looking forward to talking to our new Stephen Vote, our new bullpen catcher Analytics. I don't know what his title actually is, but he's an awesome dude, longtime catcher for the age you guys know him at all, but he is fantastic dude. He's a big golfer too, So I'm excited to talk to him and get to know him. I don't think anybody else, it just you know, it's it's fun as you guys know. You know, you go to school and you go home for the summers, you come back and you see everybody and it's kind of nice just to catch up and say, hey, what's up you know, say hi to Ty France, right, and say hi to Cal and say hi to the pictures and be like hey Marco, what's up dude, you know, and see how the family's doing. I always enjoy that part of it. I think. I think that I've learned throughout the years, and you guys hopefully have learned quicker than I have. Is building relationships is really important in this business, especially if you're around them as much as I am on the team, you know, so getting to know again, getting to know these guys outside of baseball is huge because it helps you in everything that you do. So I strongly recommend guys out there starting whatever team you're covering, get to know them a lot as much as you can and talk to them as much as you can without actually interviewing them on camera, an actual interview, because sometimes guys go to, say a certain player only when they need an interview, and the guy will be like, man, there comes this guy again, or they'll avoid that guy, you know what I mean. So if they see you coming and they know that you're not gonna want anything from them and just want to chat, and you know, find out really went to college, talk about different rivalries talking maybe high school, or maybe have something in common with the guy you play goh or this, or that you have young kids or something. So it's one of my big things to tell people when you start. Get to know coaching staff too, because the coaches will tell you a lot more than the manager will, you know what I mean, They'll tell you more. So again, get to know everybody and just build relationships and enjoy it. 00:26:26 Speaker 1: I think it's super interesting that you say that, because I think Lowan I shared the same I'd say the same takeaways from when we were in school senior year before our senior year got wiped out. In twenty both of us were covering spring training, and I thought the dynamic in a Major League baseball clubhouse was just so much different than anything you covered college, Like, not even close. The environment felt tense. It felt very intimidating for you know, a couple of twenty two, twenty one, twenty two. 00:27:00 Speaker 3: Even in spring training. 00:27:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, even in spring training when everyone's supposed to be light and loose and all that kind of stuff, because you could feel right away when we step into that clubhouse that there's no trust between us and the players. They don't know who we are why we're there, why we're asking them these questions, opposed to you where you say, you know, I'm gonna walk right in there and I'm gonna I'm gonna build up a relationship with a player that hey, maybe I haven't met yet, but they're gonna see me all season, so that's what I have to do. And it was just it was it's so nice to hear you say that that. You know, these guys do actually open up, and it makes it that much easier to cover because it feels like I felt like I got a bad first impression on that. 00:27:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think you feel that more too, even in my role in visiting clubhouses. You know, guys you see two series a year, you know, like say Toronto comes in, we go to Toronto, right, and then if I'm like, hey, I want to go talk to you know, George Springer, who I actually knew from Houston, which was good, but then like a Laddie junior, you know, he doesn't know me, like he sees me coming in. He could easily say, oh, I don't have any time or this or that, and you know, it's it's harder with the visiting players, but the guys you see a lot like the Al West. Another thing, too, is is when you get to know the visiting media or media from another team, you can say, hey, what's this guy like or what you know? And you can kind of say is there anything you know about him to talk about? And then you can get in on that way, like this guy says, you know you're NFL team, You like they're terrible, but you know, and just kind of get something going, you know, Like I know, for years I talked to Mike Trout with the Angels without ever interviewing him, just trying to talk to him and get to know him a little bit. And now when I see him, it's like, hey, you know, and I always Another good thing too is say hey, like hey, it needs you in five minutes or can you do it right now? Just say hey, you hear like you know, four days, three games or four games that it is? Do you have any time all in this series? Just name you you know, I'll make it work. Whatever works for you. Just tomorrow work because the first day is tough because everybody has meetings, right They've got pictures meetings, they got hitters meetings. At the first game of a series, then go scattering report over everything. So the first day is really tough to get any interviews. So I always like to say, hey, second day, third day, whatever works for you, we can come to you blocker, room field, dugout whatever, and you know, and they're much more accessible to that, you know. But building relationships, it just takes time, you know, and you've guys like you going for spring a couple of times. That's that's gonna be hard to do, you know. So you find something, you know, look at his bio, find something you know high school or he played another sport, or you know he played with somebody or something that you guys can can use to try to get in and get on a personal level, you know, before you maybe ask him for a question or something. 00:29:54 Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned Stephen Vote a couple of minutes ago, and and everything you just mentioned out. You know, building relationship relationships off air obviously makes total sense. And that's how you build trust and rapport with a lot of people as you make your way through this business. But I just gotta I gotta ask. I mean, do you guys with through sports this year have any plans to do some on camera segments with Steven Vote? I know he's not a player anymore, but that guy, that guy's a character. I mean to do some of his MLB network interviews. Yes, he was like the best one. 00:30:25 Speaker 3: Yeah, And I talked to him, I met him, but I kind of reintroduced myself at the spring training, uh the spring luncheon at T Mobile Park and he was there and I said, what do you do. I know he lives in gosh, I think Olympia, Yes, so he's gonna like kind of commute. And I said, watch on MLB Network. I said, I figured you'd be doing some some uh you know, broadcasting it. But but apparently he really wants to manage. So he's kind of getting his foot in the door and then he's hoping in a year or two to manage. And Oakland didn't even other trying to get him on staff. I mean, Oakland's just whole other problem. But' right, And I said, dude, I'm gonna be going to you a lot for quite just anything, right if you like need to fill two minutes and you're looking around sometimes you know with pregamn no one's out there. You see vote You're like, oh yeah, Stephen Volge, what do you want to talk about I don't even know. I don't even care. Let's just talk, right, He's gonna be used a lot, And you're right, we're gonna have a lot of Stephen vote segments because he is such a character and so good on air. And I think he's gonna help out Cal a lot. He's gonna help out Tom Murphy a lot, just catching and just kind of just keeping everything light and keeping everybody kind of, you know, focused and having fun at their job. But yeah, you're gonna see him. Yeah, I like that a weekly segment. Right, We'll have to come up with something, something clever, something with vote like Steve, something like we uh, we'll have to come up with something. But yeah, absolutely. 00:31:55 Speaker 1: Speaking of dealing with these players, I was curious. I thought of this question a little bit before you. You jumped on which player gave you the biggest dry cleaning bill while your sideline reporting because they dumped Gatorade on you. 00:32:09 Speaker 3: You know, the times I did. I feel bad for Jen and Angie because they actually get the Gatorade. I've only got the Gatorade jug of water, so I've been pretty fortunate there. Yeah, I'm trying to think pure gatorade able to dodge that I got water. Now the last game when they when they clinched the playoffs, when Cal hits the walk off against the A's, that was just that was just pandemonium in there, and I think everybody was spraying everybody with beer and champagne. That was a lot of fun. And then Toronto was same thing. I was a little smarter in Toronto and had some rain gear, but I would say, let's see, so in that celebration, JP probably got me the best, but everybody was killing JP was gonna oh, and no one had more fun than Tom Murphy. I'm telling you what. That guy. I mean, the goggles were on and he was enjoying it. So, I mean everybody did, but he was. He was special that that celebration. So yeah, you just you kind of just wear it right and you just kind of kind of move on and and you try to get the smell out. You know, you got to go home and shower right away because you're here. Everything smells like the wet beer, champagne, like carpet nasty. But I tell you what, the amazing thing, guys, the next day you go in the clubhouse and it's spotless. You can't see there's it's dry carpet, no smell. I don't know how they do it or how long those clubbies stay up cleaning that thing, but it is spotless the next day. Amazing. 00:33:49 Speaker 2: That is amazing. I mean because even working for a minor league team, you see how long it can take to kind of get stuff right in your game. But the major league clubhouses, I mean, that's a whole different boggame, and especially after you end a twenty one year drought. 00:34:02 Speaker 1: I can only. 00:34:03 Speaker 3: Imagine they've put the tarp up for the lockers in their clothes, which I get, but then everything out is just a free for all, you know. It's just it's it's a lot of fun, and I think that they should be, you know, we think should be celebrating again after this season. Again. It's just setting up well for him. I think the West is, you know, not great outside of Houston. I don't know if the AL is great, and the East is pretty strong, but Central doesn't worry me at all. I think it's Yeah, it's gonna be fun. I'm excited for it, you know. 00:34:38 Speaker 2: I think this interview has been really interesting because we've done a lot of Mariners heavy stuff with some of our guests, which has been great, but I think this has been a very different spin for maybe some people that aren't like the three of us and aren't in the sports broadcasting world. I kind of get a peek behind the scenes to how some of this stuff works, and you've been great with that, and I actually wanted to take it a step further for maybe people who don't understand all the world that goes into a telecast, especially a pregame and postgame show. For you guys, what does it look like behind the scenes getting ready for a pregame or postgame show every night? 00:35:10 Speaker 3: Well, thank you for telling people that we actually work hard. Thank you. We talked a lot about golf and a lot about celebrating and drinking beer, but yes, we do work hard. But it does get easier as you go along. But it's fun to kind of kind of delvi into some storylines. For let's take a home game at normal seven o'clock home game, right seven to ten. We'll go down and meet around three o'clock and they're trailer next to the truck at T Mobile Park. A producer myself and either Bill Krueger or Valley or Ryan Roland Smith whoever's with me and Angie Jen, and we'll have an idea of what we're you know, the team's coming in or say the Angels are coming in, we'll talk. Hey, let's talk with Tani, Let's talk Trout. Let's see if we can get this guy on Otani. Is he going to resign? You're gonna be the biggest free agent ever, which I think he will be. I think he'll be the first five hundred million dollar man. I mean, it's just ridiculous how good he is. So we hash that out and we figure out who's going to talk to. We always get the manager every day and then we'll talk. We'll figure out, like, who do you want to talk to today? Like who does well? It's maybe this picture, or who's having who's hot, or something's coming up or an injury, someone's coming back. So, you know, we'll figure out who we need to talk to, get sound wise and figure out storylines, you know, from the Mariners, figure out some Angels as well, just just to be balanced, figure out what else we need to show up. There's anything around the league that's interesting. I think this year, the first couple of weeks of the show is going to be talking about you know, the rule changes and the shift and the pitch clock, which I think it's fantastic. So I think those will be incorporated in our shows, and then we'll go and get those interviews and then go hang out. And it's it's if you see me, guys, it's I'm like, just I'm hanging out with just everybody on the field. I'm in the batting cage, you know, I'm hanging out there and the dugout people come out and relievers throw first and they come in. I'm just hanging out chatting, you know, just water cooler stuff. So it's but it's also getting information, you know, and if I don't need a guy, but I'm like, hey, what makes this guy's curveball so good? You know, you talk to a hitter and they'll say something whatever. You're like, okay, something to look for, and you tell the viewers, say, hey, this guy throws curveball. It's kind of a twelve six. You don't see it very often, you know, something to look for. He likes to bounce it when he's ahead in the count or whatever, you know, whatever that little tip could be, and you kind of say that, claim it as your own you say you're talking to a guy said this, look for this. It's just another little insight, little nugget for the viewers, you know. And then then we'll go out and we'll figure things out and get the rundown and go through things and go out to rehearsal about six o'clock and we'll do like a run through maybe the first couple of segments, just to make sure graphics is up and we know kind of where we're going and who's doing what. And then six point thirty is the show and we have a lot of fun doing it. You know, it's it's it's not scripted. There's no teleprompter, there's no scripts or anything. And we'll have a rundown so we'll know kind of what we're doing. Kind of you guys doing radio, but you don't you don't script it. It's all kind of off the cuff. And we've worked together for so long now that it's it's you know, you kind of know how to lead guys, or how to talk to guys or what their strengths, waitness comfortable and just have fun and just get people ready and excited for baseball. So and then during the game we're kind of doing the same, just kind of scoring it. I like to score the games and kind of thinking about storylines, what are we doing post talk to producers, figure things out, then say hey, but ends like this, let's do this, this this right off the top. We've got to walk off interview, We'll show this, We'll show another home run. My gosh, awesome, go to break, come back, you know, stuff like that as you're doing during the game, and then so the postgame just kind of clows and kind of you just kind of incorporate whatever sound you get this we have. Let's just run it now. They'll kind of tell you, Okay, brad Jen's got you know, Typhrance toss to that, so hey, toss to that. So that stuff you're done, you know after post So it's it's not like it's a you know, I'm not going to lie and say it's a fifteen hour day, but it's something that where when you go at three o'clock, you've already done some prep so you know what's going to be coming up on the show. You know, you don't come in and be like, hey, who's playing, Oh the oh the almost said the Indians. The Guardians. Guardians are here, right, like, oh, what's going on? 00:39:22 Speaker 1: You know all that stuff. 00:39:23 Speaker 3: So it's a little prep before at home and just get ready and have fun and be interesting and and get people excited. 00:39:30 Speaker 1: Did you always want to do baseball when you were looking for your for your next job when you were you were here in Portland working with some people I work with right now, Yeah, callen Rod Parker as well. Uh what did you think, hey, baseball? Baseball? 00:39:43 Speaker 2: Is it? 00:39:44 Speaker 3: No? I really didn't because I was in Portland and Fox did this whole regional regional this is what they call it. Yeah, I mean I was thinking, man, I want to go up to like the Bay Area. That'd be kind of fun, right, But since I was they wanted to keep me here. So I knew Pack twelve teams and stuff, and I said, that's fine, come to Seattle. Never been to Seattle. Took the job so cool. And and then at the time, we had Sonics, we had Pac twelve, we had Mariners, we had we still did the high school stuff. I mean we were doing we were doing all over stuff. We're still doing football basketball pretty heavy PAC twelve. So we were traveling doing stuff. Then I got into doing some play by play for some college sports, which I thought was really fun, basketball, a little bit of football as well. So I didn't really know, I like everything, you know, kind of like you guys just kind of well rounded and had I guess enough knowledge on every sports you can kind of you know, figure your way around. But then we lost Sonics let's not get into that. Then we lost the PAC twelve let's not get into that, and the PAC twelve network, so we were pretty much down to our main partner before the cracking game was a Mariners, and so it just made sense to then say, hey, I want to be the Mariners guy. And so, you know, I think, you know one I kind of started, and I think I became kind of the main travel guy next couple of years, and then it just kind of kind of happened. Teams went away and then we got the Mariners, and it just kind of you know, when your first year is O one, when they never lost and Loup Panela's your interview every day, like that doesn't get much better than that, you know. So I was pretty fortunate my first full year was O one and then just kind of was doing it ever since. But it's nice now to do a little cracking you know, we talked about Sonics coming back. We'll do a little basketball, and then it's kind of like you've got sports throughout the whole season. The off season isn't isn't as long, but don't worry that there'll still be time for golf in the off season and during the season. So that, you know, I'm growing to really appreciate baseball. I wouldn't say it's my favorite. I still think I like football basketball better, but just being around professional athletes, as you guys know, just being watching what the best in the world does every night gives you a great appreciation. And so it's it's been. It's been a lot of fun covering Amriners, for sure. 00:42:10 Speaker 1: It sounds to me like you're gonna end up on the Golf channel. I think, I think maybe that's where that I think that's the end game here. 00:42:17 Speaker 3: You know, years and years ago I did had a chat with them, but it just wasn't right then. And I don't know. I don't know. Maybe my wife's from here, never lived anywhere else, so it'd be hard to get her to move, but Orlando is pretty warm, you know, I don't know that it'd be kind of fun, so it's. 00:42:37 Speaker 1: A good retirement place, exactly free, right, Gosh, retire, wouldn't it be great? 00:42:43 Speaker 3: Retire? I keep thinking about, like, gosh, getting older, it's like what can I retire? Then I look at the kids and I'm like, God, I got one, two, three colleges to pay for. So it's like, man, it's gonna be like another I don't know twenty forty years that I can retire. 00:42:59 Speaker 1: But if you knock out all the if you knock out all the golf course, like, if you knock got a bunch of golf courses that you want to golf on now, then there's more less you have to cover when you get older. 00:43:08 Speaker 3: Good point. Yeah, I like that. So, yeah, we're going my oldest as a senior and she's going through the whole college process. So she's been fortunate to get to get into some colleges that she likes and she's getting some some uh some merit, which is good. I told them that either scholarship or academic or something, and you're gonna apply for everything. I don't care what it is you're applying for anything. I don't care if you're not even in that major or involved you're applying for it, so, yeah, it'll be uh, it'll be it'll be a while. That's okay, though we like our job. That's good. 00:43:46 Speaker 2: Okay. So when Julio's contract ends, are you still there? 00:43:51 Speaker 3: Reports that's awesome. You know. It's funny. We had who was a jen I think it was Jenniel and years ago said, man, you know June's gonna be in the Hall of Fame. I'll be cool. We'll be working here to go to Cooperstown and see Junior and we're like, well, Edgar's probably getting the Edgar got in and then we're thinking, you know, it's gonna be like Eatro was still playing at the time, so he said, whenever he retires, you know, another five years. We're like, man, we're not gonna be here when each bro goes in a way, I'm like, damn, it's gonna be what two years, So we're gonna be here. That's just good. When that contract is up. 00:44:28 Speaker 1: When in twenty like it's thirty ninety thirty nine years, I think it's it's seventeen. If if it goes all crazy through safe he retires at the end of that, that puts him on the in twenty forty four, forty four. 00:44:46 Speaker 3: That's another twenty one years. Am I still doing it? I'm gonna say no, I'm gonna say no. I'm gonna say but probably working in some capacities. So maybe a starter on the golf course. I mean I start that probably worked for free, but golf for free. 00:45:03 Speaker 1: You could here. I have a perfect job for you, a job on the Golden A thankless yeah, a thankless job that nobody listens to but is always appreciated. You can be the guy on the sixteenth pole at TPC Scottsdale that holds up the quiet sign at the waste management that nobody listens to. 00:45:21 Speaker 3: And nobody does. Oh, that's one tournament I want to get to. You know, I've been close with some spring training, but I haven't haven't been there, and I haven't seen the sixteenth and my gosh, what So yeah we have. 00:45:33 Speaker 1: We've been there twice. We were there three weeks ago. Also, so what we're in school too? 00:45:39 Speaker 3: Okay, Now, did you go as fans enjoyed it or did you kind of work it out? Okay? 00:45:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, we went twice. We went twice, got up early and went to sixteen And. 00:45:47 Speaker 2: It's funny, it's funny. Because this last time that we went a few weeks ago. I either said it to TJ or one of our friends. I said, it's funny. You know, most of these golf courses there's these people holding the quiet signs up on the course. It's funny. The sixteenth hole at TPC Scottsdale, they just don't even bother. They don't have one. And these guys were like, no, loud, they do have one, they just nobody listens. 00:46:10 Speaker 3: Were there when the guys picked the shirts off? Was that Joe Damon and with Harry Higgs last year their. 00:46:15 Speaker 1: Shirt no no, no no, we went it was it was this season we missed all the fun because last season was the one where I forget what's his name, got the hole in one and then everybody chucked their beer onto the course. And then this year they had they banned cans of the at the sixteenth point. 00:46:32 Speaker 3: Is that right? They did just throw the cuffs out. Cans could be kind of a weapon, I guess right. 00:46:38 Speaker 1: So instead everyone just made a giant beer snake like they love to make it Wrigley until the security came and took away the beer snake. 00:46:45 Speaker 3: It was really unfortunate, man, I wish I was back in college again with you guys. We would have had a good time. Guys. You know, yeah, I would have had a damn good time. But yeah, I agree. 00:46:55 Speaker 1: I wouldn't say you're too old to get to the sixteen. You need to wake up a little bit early. Do you think the big thing is though, Brad, do you think you could make the three quarter mile sprint at seven in the morning, like like sprint or just kind of it's like a fast paced jog from the entrance to the sixteenth. 00:47:12 Speaker 3: Oh? Is that what it is? And then it's just kind of first come, first over, you just go, uh seven am. If I'd warmed up, I'd say a pretty good pace, maybe not a sprint. Maybe I'd be smart and go with you guys, and you would sprint and save me that seat. 00:47:31 Speaker 1: You can lag behind a little bit. It wouldn't be as good of a seat, but you could make it. 00:47:35 Speaker 3: Okay, So that is that like the premost spot people at seven am just run there is full the rest of the day. 00:47:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, so no, it opens at seven am, but on Saturday at the at the waste manager when there's two hundred and fifty thousand people there to get a good seat. You got to get there at like four thirty. 00:47:53 Speaker 3: Jesus the sixteen yeh oh gosh, they're waiting in line that as it to open up. 00:48:01 Speaker 2: So so funny story on that. We made the mistake the first time we went. We went on our senior year of college. We went and got there probably at like six fifteen, and we figured, yeah, it'll be fine, and it is absolutely packed. The line like it's filed back close to a mile. 00:48:20 Speaker 1: I think there was three thousand people in front of us. 00:48:24 Speaker 2: So and yeah, at six fifteen in the morning, and we've got one friend who kind of knows his way how to work around things, and he goes, it's fine, guys, just just follow me. And he takes us through this like underpass of all these rocks, and we're like kind of cut the line of all these people and we get basically up to the front and he's like leading the charge and some people see him. Our friend like basically just kind of sneak his way into the front and people start booing them or whatever. At like six point thirty in the morning, and everybody's like pissed off at him. He's like, right, what are are they bowing us or whatever. So so long story short, yeah, you if you want to really get in line on those Saturdays, it's it's like a four forty five five am type of arrival. 00:49:09 Speaker 3: I don't want, you know, unless you choose our press pass and go there. 00:49:12 Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, there we go exactly. Okay, Rod, I've got one final Mariners question to kind of wrap this up with you, as we're gonna preview some pictures a little later on this show this week TJ and I. So, I just thought i'd ask you this. With the way the rotation is shaping up for twenty twenty three, is this, on paper the best rotation you've seen in your time working with the Mariners? Or if not, where does a rank? 00:49:40 Speaker 3: Oh? I would have to say it is one through five the best I think in a one. You know, that's that's gonna be tough to beat. Record wise, all those guys just because of the magical season, you know, yeah, everybody, Gosh, it was Seeley Moyer, Abbot, Freddie Garcia. They all won at least seventeen games. I mean a couple of twenty game winners. That was crazy. Alamo won like eleven, that was crazy. I think but I think these guys are talent wise, Yes, it is the best. Well, they have the best result. You know, we'll wait to be seen. But a full year at a Castillo, another year at AB, a full year at to Kirby Gilbert, when Robbie raised like your fourth best pitcher, when the cy young a couple of years ago, and then Marco, who is your number one for three years is now you're five. It's like, man, they're all a little different, and I like the righty's and lefties split. You know, it's not all righty's, not all lefties like the Angels. Yeah, I think, yeah, I absolutely. I'm glad you thought about this because I don't. We'll bring this up as well too in our unroot sports. Yeah, one through five for sure. And then Flexen, who's a really good major league starter. He's your sixth guy who's in the pen for your mop up guy right now. Guy. So I think that they've they've done a great job of drafting and developing a couple of guys and getting guys in free agency and identifying that, you know what pitchers ballpark al Wes has got picture ballparks as well. Outside of Houston and Texas is fair now, but play your strengths, and their strength is pitching, and that's why they're in seemingly every game. They're in every series. We know that it's not like you're gonna roll in and say, oh, you face the four and the five and you're gonna win this series against the Mariners. No chance with ray and Azalas or Rayan Kirby. However, they split it up. So I think every series they're going to be very competitive, and I think it's because of pitching and the bullpen as well. So long winded saying, yes, one through five, this is the best rotation that we've ever seen in Seattle. 00:51:50 Speaker 2: There we have, Well, it's gonna be pretty exciting to watch these guys, I mean the position players for sure, but to see this rotation in full force in twenty twenty three, it's got the chance to be a special season and you're gonna have a front row seat to it because if you guys want to listen to Brad, you guys can hear them on the pregame show, on the postgame show on Root Sports on TV, and you'll see him doing doing some sideline reporting too. 00:52:10 Speaker 3: Absolutely and maybe some play by play if somebody gets COVID. 00:52:14 Speaker 2: Oh there we go. 00:52:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember that. 00:52:16 Speaker 3: Remember that? 00:52:17 Speaker 1: Wow? 00:52:17 Speaker 3: Yeah that was fun. But yeah, so yeah, it'll it's it's fun to to do a lot of different things, as you guys know. So I think a spring training game, I'm gonna pomp in and they do a couple of innings and just kind of yeah, be versatile and and well rounded guys, as you know. 00:52:35 Speaker 1: Right before before Lyle wraps it up, I just wanted to sneak this in because I don't I didn't think this could wait because it's very relevant. I just want to say, you have a great birthday. By the way, you share it with me and one other who looks just like me. 00:52:47 Speaker 3: No way, solid, dude, you have a good Friday. It was a good birthday. 00:52:51 Speaker 1: It's a good one. Yeah, it's a great day of the week. It's perfect. It's far enough after Christmas that yeah, there's no it's not gonna mix with any hollow days. It's not close to Easter. Uh. The only grounds it's not during the summer. That's the only great. 00:53:05 Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. But for me, I had a great Friday. We won our girls basketball game. I coached my younger two and Boys and Girls Club, the blood Sharks is the team name, and now we moved to five and zero and we have the championship game on the seventeenth, Saint Patty's Day. So I don't know if that's broadcasting rights out of the times have been announced yet, but I imagine that game is going to be, you know, in high demand, a sell out here in Bellevue at the Boys and Girls Club pay per view. Maybe I'm not sure what they're gonna do with it, but it's gonna be sponsor you you would think so, right on Saint Patty's. So I'm looking forward to that game. So we're practicing hard play our rival. We already beat him twice this year to tell the girls hard to beat the team three times. So that's kind of going to be the focus for me the next week, guys, until the seventeenth, and then it's spring training and Mariners. But right now, Blood Sharks. 00:54:04 Speaker 2: Right March, third March, third March. Write it down on your calendars. 00:54:08 Speaker 3: That's great, that's awesome. I like that. 00:54:12 Speaker 2: Well, seriously, Brad, this has really been an awesome interview. Thanks for giving us nearly an hour of your time to kind of talk. 00:54:20 Speaker 3: To make dinner. Now, I'm surprised nobody's been yelling at me. This is great. 00:54:24 Speaker 1: Maybe they may without me, that's the rest case scenario. Tell them it's. 00:54:30 Speaker 3: Work, like doesn't sound like work, dad, this is it's yeah, it's work what we're doing here. Yeah, so good golf. 00:54:37 Speaker 2: Waste management open, you know, it's all right. 00:54:42 Speaker 3: And I've learned a lot about that waste manager. So that's very cool. See, I like that, So I appreciate it. Guys. Anytime it's been kind of fun, we'll do maybe, uh, you know, some updates during the season, you know, whenever you guys want to be fun enjoy it. 00:54:56 Speaker 2: That's great, that would be awesome. Really, we're going to take you up on that at some pointless for sure. 00:55:00 Speaker 3: And whenever you guys come up, we can play some golf. 00:55:04 Speaker 2: That sounds great. You just you just might have to put up with our game. 00:55:09 Speaker 3: Hey, I've put up with Felix. It's it's fine. It's gonna be just fine, trust me. 00:55:14 Speaker 2: Well that's that's my goal, and that's and that's TJ and I's I guess line to beat is try to golf better than one of the greatest pitchers in Marinder history. 00:55:23 Speaker 3: So there you go. Yeah, there we lose more than twelve golf balls a dozen. That's your limit. 00:55:29 Speaker 2: There we go, twelve golf balls, all right, noted Brad Adam, thanks so much for the time. This has been such a blast. 00:55:36 Speaker 3: You bet. Thanks, guys, Well, that was. 00:55:38 Speaker 2: A great interview with Brad Adam. We certainly appreciate the time he gave us and hopping on with us. Just another great interview we've had over the last few weeks. And as we know, we're just getting closer and closer to the start of the season, and there's been plenty of headlines in spring training that have been fun to watch and we're pretty excited about a lot of them. Okay, TJ, let's get on here to our start pitcher preview. This is gonna be one of those segments where or one of those positions where it's all kind of set in stone, but there's still a lot to dig into with each guy, and let's start at the top. Polis Castillo traded over from the Reds to the Mariners last season. He was the ace of the staff all of August and September. He was an ace in the playoffs, and he's expected to be at the top of the rotation here in twenty twenty three to say, I think it's safe to say he's worth every penny they've paid for. And we've talked about that. 00:56:33 Speaker 1: One hundred percent. You said is set in stone, which made me chuckle. You probably listened to Ryan Davish's podcast this this past week Extra Innings, which he said, oh, man, I gotta get around to record when you see on us, but he mentioned I think on there He's like, Man, you know, this camp is kind of boring because everything is pretty much set in stone, and I don't think anything encapsulates that more than the rotation. Like the starting five to finished last year. We're all like to about a ninety five percent assurance that they were gonna be the five to start in the rotation this year, and Castillo is one of those guys. Man Lole, We've just seen how this offseason in spring training is unfolded, especially with Frankie montass every dollar, every prospect, every ounce of effort you put into getting Louis Castile was worth it one hundred percent. It's like it's not even an inkling, it's not even a question. Do you remember Lyle some some some of our friends thought, you know, they might have given up a little bit too much for Louis Castile. I want to I don't want to toot my own horn, but I was like, well, that's the price you got to pay to get elite stuff. And they got elite fucking stuff from Louis Castillo, and it. 00:57:48 Speaker 2: Makes it all that much more worth it. The fact they didn't waste any time to extend him. He pitched for him for about a month and a half, a little less than two months. They said, yeah, this guy's our ace. We're not letting him go anywhere, and they did exactly that. They extended him for a contract that, by the way, is less than what Robbie Ray's making. I know Robbie won the cy young, but when you look at it from that perspective, and when you look at the fact that what some of these pitchers were getting in free agency, like Carlos Rodin and what he got with the Yankees, which was six for over one sixty, Louis Castillo has been worth every penny from the trade and the extension. 00:58:25 Speaker 1: You could maybe argue Rodn is probably just a little bit better than Luis Castile at this point, which is fair. But if you look at like inflation adjusted, I think Louis Castile in the open market of the five year deal probably gets thirty million dollars more. And this isn't saying, well, this is not me saying the Mariners do a good job of budgeting this. I guess they do do a good job of budgeting. But now again the preferences, you would spend that budgeted money somewhere else, but less that's not the point of this episode. So you know that contract for Luis, he's got, it's five years starting this year. 00:59:00 Speaker 3: Right. 00:59:00 Speaker 1: They essentially just bought out as last year of the contract and they extended on top of it, right. I think that's it. 00:59:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe so. And there is like a sixth year I think a vesting option. There is some six year option in that contract, so it could go as long as six. 00:59:17 Speaker 1: Years, Okay. And I don't think anything showcased really how valuable Luise is until the playoffs? Who like, who's starting those games? If it wasn't Luise, was it was a Robbie Who's start in game one? Right? If you don't, you don't shelt Those prospects for Luise I mean it's is it Robbie raised at Logan Gilbert, Is that what what you're comfortable with for your guy going out there? 00:59:41 Speaker 3: Game one? 00:59:44 Speaker 2: That probably is the rotation, and then if there had been a Game three, it's probably Kirby. But that's nowhere near the same strength that it was having Luis Castillo. And I mean, look at look at what he did against Toronto. I mean, well, first off, even against Houston, he was still good. I mean, in that Astro start, he went seven innings, three earned at Minute May Park, which is no easy thing to go through that Astros lineup, as we know, but good god, that's start in Toronto. That was as dominant an outing as I've watched in nearly my entire lifetime outside of Felix's perfect game. 01:00:18 Speaker 1: And he did it with five strikeouts too. He manages to mix velocity with just not allowing any hard contact at all. Just kind of shows you the versatility he has as a pitcher, and which is why I'm really excited that we are going to get a full healthy season for a guy outside of the beginning of last year, has been so durable throughout his career, which gives you every inkling that he will continue to be durable and why the Mariners are comfortable giving him that long contract. And there's another thing Lyle that I was looking at this year that makes it so exciting is that he's continuing to evolve as a pitcher, which is very important his this offseat, I would say this spring training, Lyle has been the spring training of the new pitch. Right. I believe all the other four Mariners starters we'll touch on all have a new pitch. Right, So if we go like Robbie Ray is throwing a splitter, Logan Gilbert's throwing a splitter, George Kirby's throwing a splitter now, and Marco Gonzalez is now throwing a slider. Four guys with four new pitches. Luis Castile is the only one of that group without a new pitch, right. I think, unless I'm missing something, I don't think he added a new pitch. 01:01:32 Speaker 2: And I'm not sure he needs one. 01:01:36 Speaker 1: I pointed this out to you yesterday. Hey, this is gonna be a bit of a longer tangent, but just just hear me out, which is when I mentioned evolving. This stat right here was so incredibly mind boggling that I had to send it to Laos like this looks really weird, right, He's like, yeah, yeah, yes it does. When looking at how Luis Castillo has evolved as a pitcher. When he was in his heyday with the Reds, his go to pitch was his change up. Not saying his change up isn't still a good pitch by you know, movement and velocity and look it is, But when we look at results for the twenty twenty two season, his change up was his worst pitch by run value in Baseball Savant. It was his worst pitch. I mean, he allowed a whob of three thirty three, which is, you know, fine, but a little bit I guess above average for what a good changeup is supposed to be kind of similar to his sinker, and he didn't really have a high strikeout rate on that pitch was just twenty two percent. If you go back to twenty nineteen for his change up, his changeup had a run value of minus twenty eight. Is one of the best pitches in baseball with a forty seven percent with rate and a forty seven percent strikeout rate. That's the difference of three seasons right there with this change which makes you raise an eyebrows, like, so is Luis Castile getting worse because his best pitch is going away? No he's not. Now let's go look at his fastball. This blew my mind. Louis Castile Lyle, did you know he's never had an above average fastball in his career until this year. 01:03:18 Speaker 2: Not before we looked it up. No, I mean he's just off the eye test, He's always looked like he's had a really good fastball. But to your point, just off run value, he hasn't. 01:03:30 Speaker 1: There's a difference between throwing hard and having a good fastball, and that's what I'm trying to get into that. So like, you can always throw hard and not have a good fastball, but Louis castillle this year, I'm not sure. We'll have to We'll have to get some pitching expert on here to talk about what makes it that good and how he was able to make it that good. Let's listen, all some run values for Louis Castile in his career. The only time he's at an average fastball was his rookie season. He was zero. And then after that run value wise plus fifteen plus two plus two plus four, that's all the blue, that's all like bad, that's on the wrong side of average for Luis Castile. But then we go to this season. In twenty twenty two, his fastball was minus eighteen run value, which is an elite pitch. It was the sixth best fastball in baseball, tied with George Kirby. I want to just give you some perspective on how some of his numbers improved, like I couldn't believe it. Like, let's look at his batting average, one fifty two batting average against one hundred points better than his next best year in fastball. The expected batting average was still twenty five points better than the other previous but not as extreme. Listen to these slugging numbers. His previous best slugging on a fastball in twenty twenty one was four to seventy eight, which is an above average mark for a fastball that means the hitter is usually doing pretty well hitting against your fastball. Hitters slugged one ninety four against Louis Castillo's fastball this year. One ninety four against a pitch that comes in ninety eight miles an hour and is the easiest pitch to hit A home runoff of in baseball, the fastball is because it gives you all that extra added velocity when you swing at it. But Luis Castillo allowed a one to ninety four slugging percentage in twenty twenty two. That's a guy who evolves on the mound. 01:05:29 Speaker 2: He's ridiculous. And just to clarify what you were saying, in case there was any confusion for people listening, what TJ means by fastball is the easiest pitch to hit in baseball. He doesn't mean Louis Castillo's fastball. He just means fastballs in general are the easiest pitch to hit in baseball, which is true. Now let's bring to light here what you and I were talking about a little bit off the air this past week. Are those numbers of product of the d juice baseball because Louis Castillo is great, but it feels like that might have something to do with it. 01:05:59 Speaker 1: The ball did juice last year, was it not? 01:06:05 Speaker 2: I thought it got worse in twenty twenty two, because I mean, offensive numbers continued to go down, and part of that's because of the shift which is now going to go away. But I think the baseballs were part of it. 01:06:18 Speaker 1: But we're talking about a three hundred point swing and slugging percentage three hundred. That's really bad. It's really extreme. 01:06:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, how he repeats it this year or what he does with his fastball this year will be the storyline to watch there, just because I mean, if that's repeatable, I mean, he has a chance to be in the Cy Young race. He probably does already. But yeah, I mean, I guess to your point, that's a picture who's evolving. He's doing more with his fastball, even if he's doing less with his changeup. Because he's still one of the twenty best pitchers in baseball, maybe even a little bit better than that. A lot of that has to do with how he's evolved. 01:07:01 Speaker 1: It. Yeah, it really just blows my mind of how big of a jump he made like that. That's like, that's my one big takeaway about prepping for Louis Castile. Man, if he repeats that fastball and he keeps that slugging percentage down, man, I mean, that plays in a pitcher friendly T Mobile park and really will just reinforce the fact that he is the ace of this team without a doubt coming into this regular season, he is the ace of the team. Cause if I if I told you Lyle, when we're previewing Louis Castile man his change up has been regressing his sinker that he throws, it's been it hasn't been above average since the twenty twenty season. His slider is a good a good not great pitch. Would you feel very comfortable? 01:07:58 Speaker 2: There would be some signs of concern for sure, especially if his fastball went back to where it was in twenty nineteen or twenty twenty. But guys are gonna slug less than two hundred against his fastball. No, there's no concern at all because that's your ace. I mean, he's the ace, plain and simple. We thought it had a chance to be Robbie Ray entering twenty twenty two, and Robbie Ray was still good, he was not the ace that Luis Castillo is. 01:08:26 Speaker 1: I think that's a good transition into Robbie Ray. And I think that's I think maybe what separates you know, Castillo from Ray right now, because Ray has a good slider as we now take a look at Robbie Ray here for the twenty twenty three season. So Luis is able even with the drop off in his other pitches to still have that one really elite strikeout pitch for Robbie Ray. He still struck out a ton of batters. He led the Mariners and strikeouts last year, and overall, if you look at value for that contract, I have absolutely no issue with the Maritors giving Robbie do contract. I'm very excited to watch Robbie Ray in this twenty twenty two season, and I'm really excited to see his evolution as a pitcher, because it seems like there have been some signs in spring training that he has evolved a little bit. He has picked up a splitter, it sounds like his slider has a little bit more depth to it, and he's gonna get a full ramp up in spring training. There's gonna be no rushed spring training like it was last year, and we're not gonna have him us wondering where his veilo is until July. 01:09:34 Speaker 2: For sure. Also, I think you mean twenty twenty three. I think he said, oh, I'm hyped to watch him in twenty twenty. 01:09:40 Speaker 1: Two, But again I get the years mixed up. 01:09:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, well, twenty twenty two. I think it's easy to forget. And this is actually a decent transition here. I think it's easy to forget he had a better season than people want to remember because the last thing image that he left in everybody's head was Jordan Alvarez, one of the hardest hit baseballs often that anybody's ever seen. But Robbie Ray, his season as a whole last year actually was totally fine. Now, to wrap up what you were saying about what he's done so far in spring training, Jerry Depoto has raved about him. I know he's only a couple starts in, but the Poto's talked about he's looked awesome. I mean, he's looked good. He's thrown a good fastball, his other secondary pitches have been quality so far. I mean with a full season to ramp up, or a full off season in spring training to ramp up, he he looks really solid and I think there's reason to believe he can build off of what he did in twenty twenty two. Now, all I mean by he had a better season than people want to remember, I'm not saying he repeated his cy young year, but from June on, Robbie Ray last year put up an era of what was two nine to seven, So once he added that splitter. Last year he had a sub three era. Who's not going to take that? 01:11:02 Speaker 1: Do you mean his sinker's two seamer? 01:11:06 Speaker 2: Sinker? Sorry, not sinker. Yeah, you're right. 01:11:08 Speaker 1: Right, So it sounds like this year he's gonna ditch the sinker. He said he wasn't ever really comfortable throwing that sinker too much, and I don't blame him. The pitch was very eh, it was okay. George Kirby did his sinker a little bit better than Robbie Ray did, which Robbie joked about to her camp. He's like, well, I tried throwing a two seamer. It was okay, and then George picks it up and starts throwing it, and it's one of his best pitches period, And I just throw out my hands, like, oh whatever. We look at Robbie Ray, though, again, there's still there's still good, really good things about the pitching profile of Robbie Ray. His fastball is still a good pitch. If you can look at the run value of it, you can look at the parameters of it, you can ask Robbie how he feels about his fastball. He's still a big fan of his fastball. When he made his start last week, he you know, he mixed up his strikeouts pretty well. He got a strikeout on his fast he got a strikeout on his new splitter, and he got three strikeouts on his slider. That's the diversity I want to see. That's what I wanted. That is part of Robbie's evolution as a pitcher. When he won the cy young he was primarily a two pitch pitcher. But now he's like, hey, as I'm getting older, my velocity ticks down. I want to find ways to evolve as a pitcher. And this this is kind of it when you already you have two plus pitches. But again, neither of those pitches low are really elite, elite pitches now, at least not yet. They could be elite this year. They could be a Luis Castillo fastball this year, but they're not. They weren't last year. And that's probably why Robbie would struggle, you know, sometimes getting through the third time in the order or whenever he faced the Astros. 01:12:42 Speaker 2: For the most part, Yeah, I mean, most starting pitchers will not just have a two pitch mix. There's very rare cases where it happens, like Tyler Glass now, but to be fair, of both those pitchers are really good that he throws well. Robbie Ray, it felt like he probably needed to add a third pitch, and he's done that. So it's pretty exciting to see what he might come into twenty twenty three with if he can really throw three quality pitches. And I think the key for Robbie this year will want to get off to a better start, because he had a couple of really elite months, which is why he was so much better June and on. He was phenomenal in June, he was phenomenal in August. In fact, in August he had a one to nine to four ERA across five starts. But I think the big key for him it's not so much walks for him, it's just sometimes he catches too much of the plate, which is when he starts to get hit around fairly hard. Like he's not a guy that you worry is gonna lose command, Like he's a decent strike thrower. He's just got to give up less soft or he's got to give up less hard contact. 01:13:47 Speaker 1: He is, he's the guy who used to really struggle with this command, but then he simplified things a lot in Toronto, and I think that really helped him out, and he he did bring it over in to Seattle. I'm interested to see how the pitch clock effect him. He mentioned he felt a little rushed the first time he was out there. I'd imagine he's not the only pitcher who feels rushed when they have to when they're again they are using the pitch clock for the first time. It looks like he did change up a little bit of his wind up. I wonder how that will be for for this upcoming season. And I'm also you know, like, what do we think is a reasonable expectation for a splitter, Like what is he gonna do? We think he's gonna actually need to use it a decent amount? Is it gonna be his actual go to third pitch? 01:14:38 Speaker 2: What percentage do we think he throws it? Maybe that's a good way to quantify this, ten to twelve percent of the time. If he does it, it's gonna about that amount and throws it well, I mean that that feels about right. 01:14:50 Speaker 1: It's gonna say fifteen percent, Like, I think that's good for a third pitch. It just didn't feel like when he threw his two seamer last year that really just seemed like a like a get me over pitch. It wasn't too whether it was intentional or that didn't really feel like he was throwing it to get out, mean maybe hope for some soft contact, but again it wasn't really just wasn't really that effective at doing that, which if he's going to learn a new pitch, I would I would rather it be like a hey, I'm confident this is going to get a strikeout, which he has shown in spring training so far that pitch has the depth to do it. 01:15:28 Speaker 2: Let's just hope it carries over to the regular season. And look, Robbie Ray's changed a lot. But as we wrap up talk on him here, I will conclude it with this. Here's two things about Robbie Ray that have not changed and you will plenty see in twenty twenty three. He's still wearing tight pants, and he's still grunning loud enough to hear him across the stadium. So if you're in the line, if you're in line getting a beer or a hot dog at T Mobile Park with Robbie Ray on the mound, you're still gonna hear him this year, believe me. 01:15:56 Speaker 1: But the fact that he is one hundred percent. Let me get one last thing before we transition here. I'm I'm really pleased to see the fact that Robbie Ray is mature, enough of a guy and enough of a veteran that he did not spend all off season lamenting Jordan Alvarez's home runs. He was according to Corey Brock's article, he shrugged it off, had some support from the guys in the bullpen who have given up quite a few game changing home runs, and has said, hey, this is how you flush it. And he's been able to flush it. And I'm looking forward what he's going to do with that into this twenty twenty three season. 01:16:33 Speaker 2: And credit to him too for willing for being willing to adapt a little bit because he's won a cy young, he's had success in the past, and he didn't kind of just put that contract in his back pocket and coast. He said, no, like I need to improve on what I did in twenty twenty two. He adds the third pitch, he's working at it like I would give Robbie Ray that contract ten times out of ten. It's been very team friendly and he seems to be a very very good fit in that clubhouse. This is the last thing I'm gonna say, and then I'm gonna transition it. If you remember when the Mariners clinched their playoff spot when Cal hit the walkoff homer against the Eights, if you watch that video of Scott Service talking to the team before they started celebrating and popping champagne, of all people, he went to Robbie Ray, Like he didn't have all these players come up and talk. He did turn to Robbie Ray and have him talk to the team. And I thought that was a little bit of an interesting note back when it happened, just because he'd been there less than a year. But clearly guys really like him and take him pretty seriously. So even more than what he does on the mound, he seems to be a very seamless fit in that clubhouse. So we've talked about the two veterans, Let's get to the young guys. Logan Gilbert said to enter his third full season. Are close to third full season. He came up in mid May of twenty twenty one. Last year three twenty ERA for the year three P forty six FIP through one hundred and eighty five innings, which was certainly a career high in a season for him. We know all the potential he has. However, are we in the trust tree here at TJ. 01:18:07 Speaker 1: Of Logan Gilbert? 01:18:08 Speaker 2: Are we in the trust tree? Yeah? And when I ask if we're in the trust tree, I say that because I'm gonna say something here. I am a little nervous about Logan Gilbert in twenty twenty three because his savant page. His savant page is not friendly. He gets he has gotten hit very, very hard his first two years. 01:18:33 Speaker 1: It's it is interesting for Logan his peripherals. How would I say that his when we talk about you know, what his his pitches and what you know, his pitch pitch ability, the shape of his pitches, the effectiveness of them really isn't bad. I mean, if you look at his savant page, his fastball is actually rated very well each of his first two seasons. You're saying, Okay, well, that's a good start for Logan. It's not like he has bad stuff. 01:19:05 Speaker 2: But you're right. 01:19:06 Speaker 1: The dude is in the bottom five percent of average eggs at velocity, hard hit rate. He is not very prone to limiting hard contact. So there's there's really every reason in the world to be a little bit nervous about Logan Gilbert. But if you can do all if he is as bad as he was, giving up all that hard contact and still producing like he has, like without really like that much luck, it wasn't it wasn't like he was very overly lucky. I don't think he was overly lucky. He might have been a little bit lucky er wise in twenty twenty two, but it wasn't like it wasn't overly So there's like, there's still things to look at Lyle to be a little bit optimistic. 01:19:55 Speaker 2: There are and the fact he has four pitches that the Mariners really believe in. They've always liked his change up, which he actually doesn't throw a whole ton, but he throws it very well when he throws it. Look, and he still put up good numbers last year. I mean, you're still talking about a guy that again put up a three twenty ERA was yeah, one sixteen ERA plus, which is sixteen percent above league average. He still put up about a three win season. I am just the reason I'm a little worried is because it just feels like there could be some regression due at that point with the way that his underlying numbers were trending. But I don't want to make this all negative, because there is a positive here and this is the other side to this coin. So Ino Sarahs tweeted this out toward the end of last year. Logan Gilbert, toward the end of the year, he started to throw a different curveball. In fact, it was a little bit slower in velocity, it had more drop. And when you look at stuff plus, which is a very advanced metric, but in English terms, it just means basically, how elite your stuff is, how effective is it. Five of his last six starts when he was throwing that curveball, his stuff plus was the highest that had been all year. So that's a reason to believe maybe there's another door to unlock with Logan Gilbert, and maybe he started to turn a corner toward the end of last year and unlock something. 01:21:21 Speaker 1: We mentioned when Castile we were talking about Castile, It's like, hey, Castile is the only guy without a new pitch. So Logan is one of those guys with the new pitches. He's throwing a splitter, which can compliment that new curveball. And you also mentioned his change a blow. He said, he actually he's not going to throw that change up anymore. The reason he wanted to adapt the splitter is because he did not like throwing the change up. He wasn't very comfortable throwing the change up, so he decided to he decided to break out the ghost fork. Apparently he's modeling it after the Code I Sanga, the guy that's now going to be on the Mets, the pitcher coming over from Japan. His splitter that he's, you know, try and model it after. And he was able to throw five to six of them in his spring training debut a week a little bit under a week ago on Thursday, and he actually got a strike out of Fernando Tatis on that pitch. So it's like it's going to have the same action as the change up. But if Logan's more comfortable throwing a splitter, then we want him to throw it more. 01:22:20 Speaker 2: Obviously, definitely. And again he's still so young too. This is a guy that has not even thrown three full big league seasons yet, he's thrown less than two full big league seasons. And it just shows that young pitchers, you give him a little time, they can adapt to things. Too, because Logan Gilbert had this unbelievable four pitch mix throughout the minor leagues, and now he's ready to adapt on it a little bit. He's ready to throw a different curveball. He's ready to turn the change up to a splitter. We know the fastball is good. And the thing about Logan Gilbert that makes him so different from so many pitchers. I mean, if you're standing in that batter's box against him, between his side, in his length, it feels like he is right on top of you. I mean like when you talk about his extension, he gets some of the best extension in baseball, and when you combine it with his size, that can be pretty imposing. I remember after his first career start, Terry Francona said that he's like, yeah, it feels like he's right on top of you, And through his first two seasons that's been the case. 01:23:20 Speaker 1: His extension, by Savant is ninety ninth percentile. When you have great extension, your pitches don't have as far to go to travel to the plate, so it could make your ninety five mile an hour fastball look like it's ninety eight. That's why guys with great extension can play up their stuff because their stuff doesn't have as far as far to travel, which gives me optimism for what gives me optimism for Logan Gilbert as well. Lyle, I don't think I might have mentioned this already, but I don't think I have. He doesn't really have a bad pitch. I just don't think he's quote he's The pitch ability is not quite there with him yet, which you would expect from a guy who's own in his second full season, but in his now his third full year, that pitchability could be a little bit better. His worst pitch by run value is a sinker that has plus one. That's it. That's his worst pitch according to run value last year. So and again, that worst pitch he only threw forty one times. The other over nearly two thousand pitches he threw were all either in the negative run value, which is good, or zero, So that's good. 01:24:34 Speaker 2: I would say that's pretty good. And look, while I might be a little concerned with Logan Gilbert entering the season, we also know that if he continues to build on what he's built on, he's a top of the rotation starter too at his best. So maybe he turns the corner for good here in year three. Not again. Not that he's been bad by any stretch his first two seasons. He's actually been very good. I just wonder if he can turn the corner to be more of a front line starter as opposed to maybe the mid rotation starter that he's been his first couple of years. 01:25:05 Speaker 1: I can tell you exactly what he needs. He needs a wipeout, strikeout pitch because he does not have one. His best strikeout pitch last year was, you know, his slider, which got a K percentage of twenty seven percent. I guess the best wifth percentage he had was his change up. But he's not even gonna again. He's not even really gonna throw his change up. As a picture goes tumbling off my desk as. 01:25:27 Speaker 3: I hit it. 01:25:29 Speaker 1: He does not like a true wipeout strikeout pitch has like a whiff rate of like forty five percent or higher. He's about twenty percent off in that in that category. That's what he really needs, because that bils you out of any situation, any count. You throw the pitch and you're pretty confident you're getting a swing and miss. 01:25:47 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. And again he's got big stuff. It just needs to translate to more strikeouts, which again yeah, then come with time. 01:25:56 Speaker 1: That's a big key. Good pitchers strike out a lot of batters or limit hard con which Logan didn't do a lot of either. Last year's strikeout late rate was below average and he got absolutely lit up by some guys. Produced good results, but that's not something you really want to live by. Let's go to the other young arm in this Mariner's rotation, a guy who's it's tough to describe what our expectations for George Kirby should be this year. They're not going to just let him go throw as many innings as possible this upcoming season because he had such a jump in innings last year, But the upside of the innings he can produce in the twenty five games he started last year a three to three nine era. His fastball was elite, his two seamer that he brought along was great for pitching ninja. The upside of what George Kirby brings to a rotation I don't think can be understated. And he is I think officially the fourth guy in this rotation who I would not be shocked if they were the best arm in the rotation this year. 01:27:05 Speaker 2: I think his upside's the highest of any of these four guys. I mean, when you look at George Kirby, when you talk about what he could be and for a rookie year last year he was great three point thirty ninety RA. His fielding independent pitching was even lower than that at two ninety nine, which just measures home runs, walks, and strikeouts aka what you did on your own as a pitcher, and it's measured like Era three War season as a rookie. But you just want to talk about what he could be going forward. He has four pitches and is now adding more, so he's going to have an arsenal of five or six pitches going forward. He doesn't walk anybody. He throws nearly one hundred miles an hour. I mean, if that all adds up to the potential of its fullest, who is that? Who is that going to be? Is that comparable to the guy now in Texas? Is it comparable to Max Scherzer. I mean, I'm not saying he's going to be that, but if it all clicks, isn't that basically what de Gravin schuers are do. 01:28:08 Speaker 1: Yeah, it would help if he also, like Logan, got a plus secondary, which he does not have right now. Think of it. He got a three win season off of having a truly elite fastball, and then, according to Savant, five other below average pitches. Yes, five, so you can count. So the splitter lot would be his seventh pitch if he threw all these last year. I think a note here, hold on, hold on, I wrote a note on that. Here we go Kirby. As I say that, I remember Kirby threw six different pitches last year two and four seen fastball, curveball, cutter, slider, and change at per stackast among one hundred and forty eight arms throw at least fifteen hundred pitches last year, only Kirby, Chris Bassett, and Tye On through six different pitches at least eight percent of the time, and only show Hay through seven. So you're telling me that if Kirby adds a seventh pitch, it'll be him in show Hay. That's a pretty good Uh, that's pretty good company. 01:29:13 Speaker 2: I mean, this guy went twentieth overall, and to be fair, I don't think people thought back in the draft he was gonna be some guy that would ever touch one hundred miles an hour man. When he came back in twenty twenty one after all the COVID downtime, I could not believe what my eyes were seeing from those videos on the backfields of him when he was just pumping one hundred to one hundred and one, because all of a sudden, he went from a guy that was going to be a command guy and could be a good mid rotation starter to again, if everything lives up to the fullest, his arsenal and his repertoire is like de gram Max Scherzer level. If it all pans out. 01:29:53 Speaker 1: It does again, and I mentioned he needs to make his secondary stuff better because I mentioned, Wow, it's really cool. He has five other pitches besides his elite fastball. None of them were necessarily elite, though when it comes to results there is a positive though. His change up has above average movement horizontally and vertically. His curveball has above average movement both horizontally and vertically, and so does his slider. His slider horizontally is actually in the elite category in terms of horizontal movement above average, so there's positivity there that leads to a little bit more upside over a larger sample size, according to the results opposed to the results we just saw last year. 01:30:39 Speaker 2: Now, what he does better than almost anybody in baseball is his ability to throw strikes. He was in the ninety sixth percentile in terms of walk right this past year, and honestly, I would say that's about his floor. I would expect George Kirby moving forward to every year be in the somewhere between the ninety eighth and one hundred percent isle in baseball in terms of walk rate. This guy doesn't walk anybody. I mean, the year he was drafted, he gave up six walks at Elon six and he threw was what was a total of third Yeah, okay, it was eighty eight. And the third is last year at Elon he gave up six walks, and through the miners he didn't give up walks his first year in the majors. Okay, for George Kirby's standard, he gave up a few more walks as a rookie. I think that's gonna come down going forward. And it's what he does best. That's why the Americans lobbed them in the draft. 01:31:39 Speaker 1: Do you know what else he doesn't give up pulled fly balls. Pulled fly balls to pitchers are the one of the most dangerous outcomes you can have, because that's where you give up a good majority of your home runs. Do you know how many fly pulled fly balls George Kirby allowed post All Star break? 01:31:57 Speaker 2: Why don't you enlighten me? 01:31:59 Speaker 1: Two? Two entire ones? Oh sorry, I got that stat mixed up. Let's let's let's let's restart here. He gave up four total pulled fly balls. Two of them were on his fastball. I think that's the stat that was that was really bugging. But overall it was four polled fly balls, and he gave up one hit which should have been caught. I went back and I watched the replay, and you watch the ball go into the wall and Jesse Winker, instead of going to the move towards the ball to catch it, just kind of turns his back to the wall and jumps into the padding instead of trying to catch the ball. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give Georgia pass on that base hit, which probably should have been caught at the wall. It's just incredible to look at a stat for a guy whose best pitch is fastball, he throws at fifty percent of the time, and yet nobody could turn around on that pitch and get it up in the air to the pole side. Not a single player could do that that. It's it's incredible. 01:32:58 Speaker 2: Again. I'm saying this with my chest puffed out with authority. Going forward, George Kirby is the highest ceiling of anybody in this rotation, and he has the chance to be really, really special going forward for the Mariners. The last thing I'll say on Kirby is, if you want any further proof of that, look at the note that he left off on to end his season last year. Seven shutout innings against the Astros. It's the Mariners' first home playoff game in twenty one years. The guys asked to potentially save their season, and he shuts out the best lineup in baseball for seven innings. I mean, he was unreal in that start. I think it gave everybody kind of a full perspective on what he could be going forward. 01:33:41 Speaker 1: One hundred percent, and we were there to see it in person. 01:33:45 Speaker 2: Nervous as hell, but man was it exciting when when he struck Jose altwov out. I just felt like a tidal wave of emotions just leave my body out of excitement. 01:33:56 Speaker 1: I felt the emotions, but my voice was gone for about four inning earlier, so I couldn't I couldn't really scream that much. What one last thing on Kirby for me? I think it's very interesting to see how the development of Logan and Kirby's splitters go, because they're supposed to be thrown with much different properties. I can't remember where I got this note from, but I might have been a Shan Andreer notebook on seattlesports dot com. I think, but Logan is throwing his splitter with change up properties, while George Kirby is going to try and throw his splitter with fastball properties. I want to see how George spin spins this. He's spun a two seamer better than almost anyone I've seen in baseball last year, just picking it up. I'm curious to what he'll see after he's gotten an off season trying to throw a splitter. 01:34:45 Speaker 2: I can't wait to watch George Kirby this year. I really can't, because he has a chance to build on what he did last year tenfold. It's going to be really exciting. Okay, well, I know we've gone a little along with this segment. We've got one more, just a little bit yet it talk about here. I mean, look, there's so much to talk about with each of these pitchers, and it's funny. We barely talked about Kirby all offseason, which is funny because he might have the highest upside of anybody on the pitching staff, starter or reliever. But let's briefly touch on Marco Gonzalez here. Well, save Chris Flexen for the relievers next week, because he's going to be a reliever. Marco Gonzalez four to thirteen era, or rather, yeah, four thirteen era last year. He is a guy that is a replacement level, bit starter. The Mariners are relying on him to be the number five guy entering twenty twenty three, and he's a guy that gets hit around a little bit too. So what he brings is going to be interesting. Because he had a couple good years in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty. Last two seasons have been rockier. 01:35:46 Speaker 1: It has, but they don't need him to be elite. They just need innings out of Marco Gonzalz. At this point, for all the pitching they've traded for signed who developed, they don't need Marco to be elite. We mentioned at the top of the set episode that we Lyle's like, well, Bryce Miller should be in there. Well, he probably has better stuff than Marco. I think a good majority of the guys on the roster of the forty man and in the organization have better stuff than Marco Gonzalez. But I don't really want to short change Marco too much because I think last year was probably about as bad as it could get for Marco blow average across the board in many numerical categories besides limiting walks, it just wasn't good. But he has thrown the third most innings in the American League since twenty eighteen. That's not nothing right there, and that's really what you want from your fifth starter, you learn, not asking him to be an ace. 01:36:36 Speaker 2: And look at what he did in that three year stretch of twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty. I mean, as Vra was always right around four. I'm gonna be honest, I don't really care where his ra is at. If he's putting up wins, and in that stretch he put up a three and a half four season After I hear you say wins, I did, oh sorry, no no, no, not picture wins. I mean wins like war No, no, no, no picture wins. That's talked about on this show, about as little as bunting is going to be talked about on. 01:37:05 Speaker 1: This Yeah, you were about to go spend it. You were about to get a show suspension for that. 01:37:10 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:37:10 Speaker 2: No, we're not talking about pitcher wins. I mean f four In twenty eighteen, he put up in four three and a half, twenty nineteen and four three point six and in twenty twenty, which was a shortened season two. So there's been years where he's been very effective. It just hasn't happened the last two seasons. If he got back to being a four eer guy and was putting up three wins, yeah we'll take that every day of the week and twice on Sunday. 01:37:35 Speaker 1: What's a little bit weird with Marco is that when it was like peak, when it was peak juice Ball, he was not giving up home runs really at all. Like he was very good when it came to limiting home runs, but over the last couple of seasons, he's given up, you know, a homer and a half a game, which has been it's pretty bad for a guy like Marco. Again when they when they have truly, I'm trying to click over today total numbers on spot and is just being a pain in the ass. But if we look at if we look at the peak home run years in baseball seventeen eighteen nineteen, I don't know, Marco did not pitch a full season in seventeen, so we'll throw that out. But in eighteen and nineteen eighteen, he gave up seventeen home runs in uh oh, they don't have innings on here, thank you. Oh, there it is in one hundred and sixty six innings two hundred and then twenty three home runs in two hundred and three innings in twenty nineteen. That is peak juice ball. That is peak home run in Major League baseball history. And he was fine at limiting home runs in that era. That's like, that's fine, that's that, you'll take that. But in the last two years, when they've kind of sucked the wind own of the baseballs, he has given up twenty nine and thirty home runs in a season. Can't that like can't like can't happen. Really, he can't be given up that many home runs. 01:38:55 Speaker 2: No, that has to come down in twenty twenty three if he wants to be successful. I guess the last thing I have to say on Marco before I toss it to you for any final thoughts you have, is, Look, he did cut some weight this past year. He came into camp looking much slimmer. The Beat reporters have talked about that, and he added a new pitch. So this is a guy that knows he's fighting for something to this year and we know he's worked at it. We'll just see how it translates to the field this year. 01:39:22 Speaker 1: It's not a question really if Marco cares. Marko loves the Mariners, He loves every all this time in the organization and such like that. So it's not that he's not you know, he's he's not putting his best out there, which he is. And another thing to know, I mean, Divis mentioned it when he was on with us, but he had a kid last year. It really kind of throws a wrench into everyone's life in terms of sleep, schedule, eating, et cetera. Everything. So he's had a little bit more time to focus this year and probably helped helped him get into better shape. When he's had a full off season to process all that stuff and coming to campus as well as possible. 01:39:59 Speaker 2: Marco gets is really easy to root for. Team guy, loves the city, loves the fans. Like you said, let's just hope he can get back on track a little bit this year because if he does, that could really help the team. Okay, that'll wrap up our starting pitcher preview before we get to speak your mind here, we're going to incorporate a new segment on the show and we're pretty excited about it because we're going to take some listener questions this week. We're going to answer one and before we answer it, let me just use this to say, guys, send us questions like we want to hear from you. Guys. We want to answer your question. So if you guys send us questions on Twitter, dm us, on Instagram, dm us, I mean, we're going to try to answer as many as we can. So please open book send us what you want to send us for this week. I think this topic trends well because it was well trending a little bit on social media this week. We got it from Jordan Lucero. He's a friend of mine, but he sent it a question that I think is very relevant. He said, you can only pick one. You can either have an MVP season from Julio this year or an All Star season from Jared Kelnick. I'll let you go first, DJ, What are you picking. 01:41:09 Speaker 1: In? What I forget? What are the terms of the question? Is it like, what's benefiting the club? What do I personally want to see? 01:41:18 Speaker 2: Take it? However, you want MVP season from Julio or All Star year from Jared Keelnick? 01:41:23 Speaker 1: What connor you contradict? To contradict to you? I'll just I'm just gonna say, Julio, I Julio is gonna win multiple MVPs in a Mariners uniform. And I really wouldn't put it past him to win an MVP at age twenty two. He is that special. His defense and center could get better, his improved approach at the plate, He'll he won't have a horrendous first month of the season. We're gonna get a full season of his power, which his power didn't show up for a full month last year. I'm curious to see how he controls the strike zone a full year into the major leagues, How teams are gonna respect him, How will get pitched around a little bit more more now that he's got more protection behind him with ta Oscar Hernandez and won't have to. I don't think he'll be leading off. I think kolt Wong will be leading off. But and just how that all incorporates into Julio and I don't I could not imagine a better summer day than All Star Week in Seattle with your MVP front runner starting and leading off for the American League and playing center field. 01:42:23 Speaker 2: That would be pretty cool. And I'm certainly not opposed for this question. It was pretty much a no brainer answer for me. And it's not just because I have a very, very vested rooting interest in him. It's Jared Kelnick. Here's why. If Julio does exactly to the t what he did last season six war ops plus of about one forty seven twenty eight home runs, good defense, is there a single fan that complains about it? Is there a single fan where if Julio comes away from the season doing exactly what he did in twenty two, people are like, Yeah, that's a disappointment. I think we could find one, maybe, maybe one, somebody out there will be upset somehow that he put up a six war season. Jered Kalmick puts up an All Star season. I mean, this team might win the AO West. Like, he is such an X factor in this organization to the point where I mean nobody knows what they're going to get out of them. I mean nobody. It's so tough to project a guy that has all the talent in the world and just hasn't put it together yet. But if he goes out and he makes an All Star game, puts up four to four and a half wins, hits twenty five home runs, steals twenty bags, plays great defense in left field, that's a game changer. It's a total game changer. And if you even want to go about it by wins, Let's say Julio wins the MVP. Right, he goes from six wins to about eight wins and wins the MVP. Okay, that's a two win improvement. If Kelmick gets no better than he did in twenty twenty two, Julio puts up six wins again, Kelnick puts up a four to four and a half war. That's an additional somewhere between two to four to four and a half wins. I mean, that's a big difference. 01:44:12 Speaker 1: And you would be getting that production for a guy who is younger than twenty of the top one hundred prospects in baseball, Like that's still how young this guy is. I don't know if anything would make me happier, really, because if we think about it, it would. I think that it would. Even though, as I've documented on this podcast before, disagreeing with the Mariners approaching really results of the offseason, especially when it comes to the offense, that's the bat you were missing. When we say they're one bat short. If Kelnick does that, that is the bat you were missing, and you can say, Okay, this is a playoff lineup to complement a playoff rotation in a playoff bullpen. 01:44:58 Speaker 2: Absolutely, and the way he's trending in spring training right now, again, we're gonna have to see what he does in games where accounts, but man, if it's anything like he's put together the first couple weeks in spring training, this team's ceiling just went through the roof. 01:45:13 Speaker 1: Let's check back on this June first, how about that. 01:45:17 Speaker 2: I agree, let's do that. 01:45:19 Speaker 1: That'll be a good measure. Okay, let's close out the show and transition to speak your mind. 01:45:25 Speaker 3: Speak your mind. 01:45:30 Speaker 1: That would be unwise. 01:45:32 Speaker 2: What is necessary is never unwise. 01:45:37 Speaker 1: All right lyle, what is on your mind today? 01:45:41 Speaker 2: You're not going to be shocked because I've been talking about it like all week off the air with you a lot. So this is sports related this week. And it's funny the timing that we're doing this podcast because just this afternoon it's being Monday. Gino Smith just signed his extension with the Seahawks three years, one hundred and five million dollars. That's awesome for him. This contract's very front loaded. He's getting fifty two million bucks in his first year, which probably means if toward the end of this deal the Seahawks want out of it, they can get out of it. I have fallen hard for all of the Anthony Richardson hype this past week and honestly last couple weeks before what he was doing, before he did what he did at the combine, I started to fall hard for what this guy could be in the NFL. Six' four two forty runs like a freight train going one hundred miles an, hour has an absolute cannon of an arm and The seahawks never picked this high in the. Draft, look if they take one of the stud, Defenders Carter, Anderson Tyree, wilson that's. Fine i'm gonna be totally okay with. THAT i have started to buy into the idea That richardson could sit Behind geno for a couple of, years take, over and just be a superstar if it all pans. 01:46:52 Speaker 4: Out are you Saying richardson at five Or richardson at. Twenty, oh he's not gonna be there at twenty at this. POINT i, MEAN i don't think. So at this, point he could go. One it's not for, sure but it's not impossible if he falls to. 01:47:07 Speaker 2: Five i'm. Intrigued i'm kind of with. 01:47:10 Speaker 1: You I'M i would not be at this. MOMENT i would not be angry if they Picked Anthony, richardson mostly because this could be a bunch of foe and it could be a bunch of The seahawks pushing out some of their own personal pr to make it seem like they were interested in. Quarterbacks but they love to say If Patrick mahomes made it to them in the twenty seventeen, draft they were picking. Him they love to say that even With, russ they were gonna Draft mahomes and Tell russ so long with. That they, said they Love Josh allen as. Well Josh allen is the comp For Anthony richardson and what all teams want to find when they're looking for a project quarterback in the. Draft a guy who wasn't very good in, college but, saying, hey look how good of an athlete he. Is with proper coaching and proper. Development some mechanical tweaks here and, there this guy can be a, special one of a kind. Talent And i'm with. YOU i, Mean i'm to the point now where if they Took Anthony richardson at, FIVE i don't THINK i would complain all that. Much gino just signed his. Extension as you, said most of that money is guaranteed within the first calendar. Year you Keep geno through, that maybe a little bit into the second, season and then If richardson's, ready then you put him out there and you have your generational. Talent this is not A Russell. Wilson this is not an older quarterback who is great at throwing the deep ball in a superb, athlete but also too. SHORT i, Mean Anthony richardson is everything physically that you would want in a quarterback for the, future, height, weight, speed arm, Strength the accuracy is a. Tbd but that's the same thing With Josh allen as. Well is everything is there For Anthony richardson and that's why He's is it a hot take to say he's gonna go Above Bryce? YOUNG i MEAN i feel Like bryce Young stock is falling with every picture that comes out that he's like five.'. 01:48:57 Speaker 2: Nine yeah it the Thing About bryce young and one of our friends made this point a, while back and he's kind, of, right like is There Anything bryce young does Better? Than Tua and tua, you know he had a good year this year before all, The injuries but that's a guy that was really good coming out of college and he's obviously been up and down in. The league he did most things Better Than bryce young. In college, so Yeah young stock is falling the upside IN this. Qb Class it's richardson that has the highest ceiling, by Far. 01:49:33 Speaker 1: And tua, was taller he, was thicker HE was, i mean the arm strength is always. A concern bryce probably is a better Arm. Than TUA but i mean you think, about it, It's, like okay, it's like why would You can you can't compare Him To kyler Murray Because kyler murray's an. Unreal athlete So It kyler murray's like was like two ten coming out when he was five. To nine, he's thick he's And Even kyler murray's at, trouble state, you know healthy IN. The nfl so that's a that's a. Good. Thing doug i'm glad you brought that Up Because i'm I'm also i'm also buying into. The height now we can get to my speak, your mind not. SPORTS related i want to give a shout Out To, elon musk who loved who claims when He bought twitter and cut all their Staff that twitter would never Break and twitter would keep rolling Along and twitter would would do all these things. Wonderfully great And then i'm sitting down trying to eat breakfast this Morning and twitter was. Literally broken, So, congratulations elon your master plan. Has worked. 01:50:33 Speaker 2: So it didn't really break for me at least THE things i was trying to use Today, on TWITTER and i mostly was just scrolling on my normal timeline and for. Some reason it was fine, for me but everybody else around me is, talking, about like what. 01:50:47 Speaker 1: In the world is going on? 01:50:48 Speaker 2: With twit, it's down, it's broken it's. 01:50:50 Speaker 1: Not working there's nothing digital that loaded nothing mm, hmm no, no pictures, no videos, no, gifts nothing nothing. Was Loading and, i'm, like huns this just, Me no AND then i just click on the trending and the top thing Is is. Twitter BROKEN so i, was, like, well elon you finally. Did it you you you, did. It man you proved. 01:51:10 Speaker 2: Everybody, Wrong no i'm, Just, kidding no. 01:51:12 Speaker 1: You didn't because everyone said this was gonna happen, when you, you Know cut twitter's staff by. Ninety, percent no no shit that some some things are gonna break and you're not gonna be able to. Fix them. Nice job what what. 01:51:23 Speaker 2: Happened to his poll from like a month or two back where he said that he? Should, sell yeah and then he got voted to RESIGN and i don't know IS he, i mean he's still technically, the. Head right THE reason i didn't take that, pole, SERIOUS yeah i mean THE reason i didn't take that poll seriously is because even if he had resigned, quote unquote he was just gonna hand it off to one of, his. 01:51:44 Speaker 1: Puppets sleep you, know why you know why he did That poll it's the same reason why he. Bought twitters because he. Loves attention that's why that's that's that's why he, did that because he. Loves. 01:51:55 Speaker 2: Attention, yeah well the good news is it wasn't down for, that long so, thank goodness it's back up. And, work no. 01:52:02 Speaker 1: It wasn't I'm. Glad, ELON well. I won't i wonder How much elon would even make if You sold. Twitter nowadays you, know what he's not getting forty four. Billion dollars he's not getting that Much. FOR twitter i think, he's uh he's strewn most of the value. OFF that i Don't think twitter was worth that much to. BEGIN with i have one other speak, your mind. Leg days do we have to do leg day? 01:52:20 Speaker 3: For? 01:52:20 Speaker 1: Summer doug do we? Have, TO. 01:52:24 Speaker 2: Well i mean you might look a little disproportionate if. 01:52:26 Speaker 1: You don't I'm just i'm just getting a little sick. Of it I'm just i'm just sick and tired of feeling just like dead after after every leg like, the other like upper body and like core stuff. AND cardio i, feel fine but. Like legs, I'M like i get to the Point where i'm just lifting so heavy, it's Like my i'm feeling a little. Bit lightheaded especially On a. MONDAY too i mean it just like it's just. So bad you're just sitting there in, your, car like oh, my God, it's monday and allowed to go just. 01:52:54 Speaker 2: GO suffer i have two responses. To that one was that a little subtle flax, Of oh i'm just lifting all? This, WEIGHT. 01:53:04 Speaker 1: Yeah I mean i lift the most weight, My legs so WHAT can i say that's the ONLY one i. Really, Like, push well. 01:53:09 Speaker 2: That's Fair, NUMBER two. I forget do You go Monday? 01:53:12 Speaker 3: Through? 01:53:12 Speaker 2: Friday uh. 01:53:15 Speaker 1: IT depends. I try with high, school basketball is a little hard to get there more than three times a WEEK because i don't usually go on, the WEEKENDS so i have other things to do on. The WEEKEND but i think now that high school basketball, HAS ended i can probably make it about four days. 01:53:29 Speaker 2: A week i was, gonna say you can always do the leg stuff at the end of. The week then you have the weekend when, you're resting and it's not as big. 01:53:35 Speaker 1: A deal SO when i went five days, A week i had it mapped. Out perfectly would always do Legs, on wednesdays but then once basketball came into, the schedule it kind of pushed. EVERYTHING back i, was, LIKE well i have to keep, doing something, but it, you know has. It doesn't it's not it's not proportionate to the amount OF time i go to, the gym so it kind of sometimes bleeds over To. A, monday. 01:53:59 Speaker 2: Okay well. That's FAIR well i would tell you to just try and power, through it just like everybody else tries. 01:54:05 Speaker 1: To do that's, a real. Real, Inspiration, thanks yes. REALLY helpful i mean. 01:54:11 Speaker 2: Everybody always SAID if i wasn't going to be a, SPORTS broadcaster i would have been a. Motivational speaker so there's my motivational speech for. You exactly, Oh, MAN okay i think that'll just about wrap up this week's edition Of The Marine. Layer podcast you guys know. The drill you want to listen to the full, form podcast follow us or Listen, On, Apple, spotify Amazon. And google the video podcast full video podcast is on YouTube go check that out. As well on. Social media you can find Us, On, instagram, twitter TikTok and YouTube Shorts At Marine. Layer pod subscribe to the. YouTube channel tell your friends about. The podcast it's really been a blast. So far we're enjoying, doing it so we appreciate all you. Guys LISTENING For, tj matthewson this Has Been. Lyle goldstein, as always we thank you guys for. Tuning in we'll talk to you. Next week satis