Episode 216: Logan Evans (Mariners Prospect)

[00:00:00] Welcome to episode number 216 of the Marine Layer Podcast. We welcome on our guy and Mariners pitching prospect Logan Evans to discuss his ever-changing sports fandom, talk to him about bouncing between being a starter and a reliever, some of the dynamics with his friends down in the Mariners minor league system, and we chirped him a little bit. So we had to keep him on his toes. We'll also discuss the George Kirby injury and a couple other tidbits around Mariners spring training.

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[00:00:55] We can't wait to get more involved with you guys. Go check out our Patreon. That's patreon.com slash Marine Layer pod. Let's get it rolling.

[00:01:16] And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network recording on Monday evening, March 10th. It's been a bit of a slow news week for the Mariners over this past weekend. So, uh, wow, let's talk some Seahawks. What was your reaction going to be if Aaron Rodgers signed?

[00:01:39] Can I put all my Seahawks things in a box and chuck them out a window or something like that? Or sorry, right after all your Mariners stuff? Yeah. Oh, no, sorry. Then I'll be gaslit by Aaron Rodgers once he comes here for all the people that are mad. I've got five simple letters. R E L A X. Relax. No, I'm not going to relax. Look, I don't even like Aaron Rodgers, but I thought it would have been objectively hilarious if they signed him.

[00:02:06] Oh, if you want it from a content perspective. Oh, off the charts. I'll tell you what. The two teams that share stadiums next to each other, if Aaron Rodgers was here, there would be no, no shortage of content. Dude, we just need a Jerry DePoto presser on a Saturday and a Aaron Rodgers presser on a Sunday.

[00:02:28] Oh, man. You can't. It doesn't even matter who's listening to this. You can't. You can't tell me with a straight face that wouldn't be entertaining. And then a player, another former player calls him out during the midweek. Yeah. And look, you'd only have to deal with it for one year because he'd probably just, the Seahawks would say, get the hell out of here.

[00:02:54] Uh-huh. Oh, I even meant Mariners because, you know, that just happened with Justin Turner. But yeah. What would the Mariners comp have been for signing Aaron Rodgers if the Seahawks signed him? I don't even know. I guess if you want to think about legendary at his position, future Hall of Famer, but pretty much washed. Nobody's got the takes and thoughts that Aaron Rodgers has in baseball, at least not that we know of publicly.

[00:03:23] I guess it would be similar to if they signed Justin Verlander, but Justin Verlander one day just went off the rails and had just unhinged thoughts every day. Something like that. I think this tells us we need more baseball players on McAfee. Then we'll find one. That will never, the day Rodgers just let it all go on McAfee's show. I mean, just the scrolling of Twitter that day was insanity.

[00:03:56] We need more. Once we get baseball players to talk more again, that's our mission here, dog, right? We want baseball players talking more. So one of the, I would say, downsides of that is that people sometimes get a little too transparent. Mm-hmm. Well, can be known to happen. Yeah, I don't think there is a Mariners comp or a baseball comp for a team signing Aaron Rodgers. Again, I think the Justin Verlander thing's the closest thing I've got, but it would have to involve Justin Verlander going off the rails.

[00:04:25] It would be like, so Gino's not Logan Gilbert. I think Logan's too good for that. But let's say, can I trade Brian Wu for Justin Verlander? Would that be a good one? Or am I stepping over a line here? That's stepping over a line. No. That's a terrible trade. Okay. I mean, how about this? What if the Mariners just asked Aubrey Huff to come out of retirement?

[00:04:55] So who are you trading off the roster? Is this trading, let's see. It's like, let's say getting rid of Randy and putting Aubrey Huff back in there. Yeah, it would be something like that. Ooh. Man. I don't think that would be received very well. I mean, is Aubrey Huff still on line or did they finally kick him off again? Because he was kicked off for a while just for being too unhinged. That's a good question. I feel like based on the current climate, he's probably back.

[00:05:26] Probably. Yeah, there's no comp for this. There's no baseball comp for the Aaron Rodgers thing. And thank goodness it's not Aaron Rodgers. But hey, there's five minutes of Seahawks talk for you. Well, Seahawks slash baseball comparisons because there's not a whole lot going on in Mariners world right now. The only real thing going on in Mariners world is who's not going to be going on for the next couple of weeks while he gets better in George Kirby. So George got shut down with shoulder inflammation last week.

[00:05:55] Doesn't sound serious. He'll miss a couple starts at the beginning of the season. He wanted to keep throwing. They had to rip the ball out of his hand. So typical George, it sounds like. Is there any level of worry with this for you? Not after Justin Hollander gave his press conference about it and you heard him and saw him on video describing it. No, it sounds like to me that this is very precautionary.

[00:06:23] Not to say that George doesn't have the injury and the inflammation. Obviously he does. That's what was diagnosed. But the fact George was so adamant that like you're not taking the ball out of my hands. I'm going to work through it. I don't want to miss any time. Paired with what Hollander said that this is not serious. There's no structural damage. No, I'm not really concerned at all to be honest. This sounds to me like especially with the time that he's now expected to miss they say.

[00:06:50] I'm going to guess this is two to three starts that Kirby misses and then I'll be right back in there before April's even over. So that's essentially only like it's not like a position player missing time, right? With a position with a starting pitcher only going once every five days. That is essentially if the timeline I'm estimating is right two to three games where you do not get George Kirby's impact. A.K.A. you have to make up for 12 to 18 innings.

[00:07:19] And I think Emerson Hancock is perfectly capable of doing that. So no, I'm not really concerned. Does catch it kind of off guard though to see a Mariners pitcher on the injured list for a non fluke reason? A lot of Brian Wu's injuries last year were fluky, especially once the season was actually underway and he was pitching. And I forget the injuries he had, but they were not. It seemed very random at that point.

[00:07:44] And then you had Castillo at the end of the year who almost just like kind of landed funny on his hamstring and caused him to miss his final two starts of the season. But in terms of just like a shoulder flaring up, not something we're quite used to seeing for the last, I'd say, two years. And I just want to, I'd say, invite our listeners back in is that unfortunately stuff like this almost certainly will be more of a reality. It's just bound to happen as the season goes on.

[00:08:10] The Mariners pitchers last year missed a combined, did they even miss a combined 20 starts? I don't think so. Right? Maybe less than that. So Wu missed about the first five to six weeks of the year last year. That was more of a real injury, what he had, because he had, looking it up here, they called it medial elbow inflammation is what the wording was. So the elbow inflammation thing last year for Wu, that was a real injury. So he missed some time with that. But you're right.

[00:08:39] Once he got back, he had, I want to say he had also a hamstring thing or maybe it was a quad thing. I remember something that took him out of a game. He got hit by a ball, didn't he? What's that? Didn't he get hit by a ball? I don't think so. Remember, he had something where he was sitting for a long time between innings and he got tight and he had to come out of that game. So I thought that was something in his legs. Yeah.

[00:09:06] So anyway, point being, you're right that a lot of Wu's injuries last year were very kind of unique and were not, you know, could be a little fluky. But yeah, the Mariners starting pitchers didn't combine to miss 20 starts last year. No way. Logan made every start. Kirby made every, no, Kirby missed one last year. Remember, he had a little something last year. Anyway, whatever. Let's, I'm going to stop trying to sit here and crunch all the numbers. But yeah, there is no way the Mariners pitching combined to miss less than 20 starts last year.

[00:09:35] They were incredibly healthy, which is pretty rare. And it's unlikely that number, they missed less than 20 starts again this year. So they're already off. They're already getting started on that number before the season even starts at this point. So just be cautious. There's a lot of workload with a lot of these guys going into this upcoming season. The Mariners need them all to be healthy, but unfortunately Kirby is not going to be healthy to start this year. I'm very happy for our guy Emerson gets opening day rotation spot. That's awesome.

[00:10:04] Gets to debut those new pitches. Second year in a row too, because he was in the rotation for a while last year until Wu got back. So again, I know so many people out there already have their opinions about Emerson. And I'm not saying he has the same stuff that got him drafted sixth overall out of Georgia. We know he's dealt with some injuries in his career, but like he's still 25 years old and he's still working on some things.

[00:10:31] He's still trying to debut a few new pitches and find his own rhythm in the big leagues. And by the way, he's made 15 career starts. It's not like he's thrown for five seasons a big league ball. Like I don't, I'm not writing them off. Let's see what he's got. It's exciting. Let's see the Vila. I hope that for him, the Vila is there on opening day. Vila was working for him, has been working for him quite a bit this spring. So we'll see if that holds up when the regular season gets there.

[00:10:58] I'd say one last note for me, dog, about this weekend. Man, oh man, Colt Emerson keeps looking better. I mean, this dude wants some perspective. So he hit his first spring training home run this past weekend. 112 off the bat at Sloan Park against the Cubs. I was curious. I was like, all right, I forget the total number of the amount of professional games he's played. Total as a Mariner. The total amount.

[00:11:27] And I'm counting the year he was drafted. I'm counting the fall league as well. You realize Colt Emerson has played 107 total professional games. 107. And I'm watching him in these at-bats against big leaguers at 19. And he looks totally comfortable. That is rare stuff. I don't remember Jared or Julio or any of these other top prospects.

[00:11:55] 107 games into their professional career in the minor leagues looking this comfortable. It's not guaranteeing big league success at all. But I got to say, here in spring, he looks good. He looks great. And by the way, that home run came off of Kate Horton, who's a top pitching prospect in baseball. Most outlets have him somewhere in the top 30 to 50. It's not like he hit it off some scrub. It's not like he hit it off some aging vet that's just trying to hang on in a big league camp. No, he hit it off a real dude.

[00:12:24] And at 112 miles an hour. I don't know where Colt's going to start the year. I would still assume Everett because he did struggle by the numbers with the Aqua Sox last year once he got up. And he hasn't spent that much time in high A yet. But regardless, if he continues to hit like this, he may not be in Everett for long. And I'm really interested to see what the end of his 2025 looks like. Because the start of it? Oh, the start of it's pretty exciting. And then around the American League. Oh, wow.

[00:12:53] It's wide open. It is. Oh, that's what I was going to say about the pitching. Which is, look, nobody's happy that George Kirby's missing time. Obviously, you want everybody healthy. But you could be in a worse spot. Not only have the Yankees already lost the reigning rookie of the year and Luis Hill for a significant amount of time. Garrett Cole just got announced he's having Tommy John surgery. So the Yankees' ace isn't going to pitch all year.

[00:13:21] And the team that just made the World Series last year looks extremely vulnerable all of a sudden. No Juan Soto. No Garrett Cole. Luis Hill's on the shelf. I'm looking past Aaron Judge on this team who has not exactly had a clean bill of health his whole career. They don't look all that imposing all of a sudden. They're not. Yeah, they're not.

[00:13:44] Unless you're a big believer in Jazz Chisholm or Carlos Rodon living up to his 2021 season. Or 22. You need Max Freed to stay healthy. You need Coach Bellinger to stay healthy. There's a ton of question marks. There's a world the Yankees could win. I don't know. 83, 84 games if things shake out. And if things don't go well. Yeah.

[00:14:08] And that should give you some optimism if you're out there and you're looking for a reason to believe in this Mariners season. Well, I'm telling you what. You look around the American League and there's not that much of a gap between all the teams at the top. It's pretty tightly packed together. I think it's just as likely the Mariners emerge towards the front of that pack as they miss the playoffs. Because the margin for error is probably 90.

[00:14:34] The margin of these teams, the ceiling feels like it's like 92. Right? Right? Let's just go through the contenders. We just talked about the Yankees. But Yankees lost Juan Soto, missing a ton of pitching, missing their ace. Orioles needed more done this offseason. Didn't really do it. They brought in Tyler O'Neal. They brought in Tomoyuki Sagano. They brought in Charlie Morton. It's not like they lit the world on fire with their offseason.

[00:15:04] Royals, probably about the same range that the Mariners will be in. Those two teams were pretty similar last year. Guardians will still be good. We know that. Rangers, people are starting to pick them as a sleeper to win the AL West. But that's a team that finished under .500 last year. You got the Astros who lost Kyle Tucker. They lost Alex Bregman. They might have added some back. But then you lost Verlander too. It's wide open. Wide open. It is a weak league this year. Now... Man, I... Oh, go ahead.

[00:15:34] I was going to say, and then the Tigers are pretty fluky. And then the rest of the AL East was not good last year. As talented as they are. Not that good. Or under-resourced if you're the Tampa Bay Rays. So you look at that. The gap is not very large. There could probably be 10 teams within 7 games of each other. 7 games talent-wise. Maybe not results-wise. Because they actually have to play the games. But talent-wise, it's really not that much difference. And that leaves the window wide open for the Mariners.

[00:16:04] And if you want to even bring it back to the offseason for 30 seconds. You can look at this in two different ways. You look at this as, wow, this was a major missed opportunity to put yourselves head and shoulders above everyone else in the league. Which, by the way, it wouldn't have taken that much to go above everyone else right now. Say, like, Christian Walker, you could argue, would have put you over the rest of the American League at this point.

[00:16:26] Or you could say, well, because now that the Yankees are worse, it doesn't matter that we didn't invest as much in the roster this offseason. Because everyone else is clumped in a group together. And we're right there with everybody else. Well, that's two different ways to look at it. I would have rather had Christian Walker. But, you know, there are two. There are ways to look at this now. What if you had just signed Christian Walker and Ha-Song Kim? Be pretty good. How are people talking about you right now? Very positively.

[00:16:57] Not going to do it. Not going to do it. You've got a smile on your face because you know it's positive time. The shaking of the fists and clenching of the teeth, I don't know. Yes, it's positive time, but I don't know. You know, I felt the red coming through there. It didn't come out, but I can feel it in me. I was thinking about this, by the way. I haven't told you this yet. I'll just bring it to everybody here on the podcast. Oh, boy.

[00:17:22] So, obviously, I've made it a little goal as of late to not just blow up about every single thing and always be going on rants and scale that stuff back a little bit. If there's ever a time where I feel like I'm really going to go on a ramp but don't want to bother the people and do them a disservice of just hearing a bunch of screaming, what if I just make a statement instead where if something really goes down that I can't stand, I just opt out of a podcast.

[00:17:49] Like, I'll still do all the editing and I'll still post all the video stuff, but for the actual recording, you just have to record 30 minutes on your own. It's like, Lyle opted out of this podcast. Hmm. If you're going to do that, I think we need a notes app post every time you do that. Or how about – that's fine. Or how about just a video? I'm opting out of this podcast. Story to come. Okay. All right. Well, yeah, sure.

[00:18:18] If you feel like that best suits you, then yeah, sure. Me and the people, so I'm not blasting people's eardrums on fire. Come on, Lyle. It's still April. Well, it's not even April. It's March 10th when we're recording this. Yeah, there you go. Just a thought. Maybe put into action in due time. We'll see. Yeah, maybe by August 1st if the M's don't trade for Kyle Tucker.

[00:18:48] I might have to opt out of that one. I can't stand it! That may actually happen, but we'll see. It might. Odds have gone up, as we were saying. Should we get people to our interview with Logan Evans here in a minute? Yeah, let's do it. Before that, let's take a quick pause. We'll talk to you guys about our friends over at Pogaccia's Pub 85. We talk to you about it all the time for very good reason. It's an awesome spot to go hang out. You want to watch these spring training games?

[00:19:17] Now a bunch of them are on TV. March Madness is right around the corner, you guys. One of the most fun sporting events of the year. You need a place with a bunch of TVs to watch all the games with your friends? Head over there. There's more than 20 in that place. You can also get some great food. And there's awesome happy hour drinks, which are Monday through Friday from 2 to 6 p.m., you guys. And drinks are $3 and $4. Those are awesome deals. You can't tell me they're not awesome deals. They are. So if you want a fun time out with your friends, place to watch sports, good place to hang out,

[00:19:46] have some good drinks, all of that is over at Pogaccia's Pub 85 in Kirkland. I think it's only fitting that, Lyle, we got to sit down with Logan Evans down at spring training because as soon as we made our connection with him for the first time last year, about this little bit later from this time last year, I'd say about 10 months ago roughly, you could tell he'd be a good guy, a good candidate to have in a setting like this. And I think this sit-down definitely shows some of Logan's personality. He's also able to talk a little bit about baseball.

[00:20:16] He had a really interesting year last year when he's bouncing between the bullpen and the starting rotation. What's next for him this year? He's able to, you know, break down and describe a lot of what makes him unique, what makes all the pitchers in this org unique, some of the dynamics he has with guys like Mikey Morales and Brandon Garcia and Danny Warchanski and all these other guys. A really good conversation. I will note, Lyle and I had some audio issues with our microphone. We might sound a little echo-er than Logan does.

[00:20:46] But what's important is you can hear Logan Evans. You can listen to Lyle and I yap all day. So that's the important part. But overall, a great conversation with Logan Evans. Logan's audio is perfect, by the way. There's no issues here in Logan. And that's the important part. Because like TJ said, you really need to sit there and listen to us say a bunch of stupid shit. We do that twice a week. And actually more times than that because we put it on social media too. So yeah, it's an awesome conversation. You can still hear us perfectly fine. You can still hear, you know, the whole conversation. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

[00:21:16] Logan is, Logan's our guy. And to what you alluded to earlier in the episode about Mariners needing more arms this year, not only did Logan have an interesting year in AA last year, he had a really, really good year. To the point where he is probably seventh in line in the organization right now to make a start. In other words, there's probably a pretty decent likelihood that we're going to see him in Seattle in 2025. And he's a guy with real upside. Big stuff.

[00:21:45] A big arsenal. And a chance to be a really good big league starting pitcher. So you want to get to learn about a guy who may play a real role on this Mariner team in 2025 and moving forward to some extent? Go listen to this one because it's a really fun one. And he's just awesome to listen to. We'll not keep you guys any longer. Let's get you to the interview with Logan Evans. All right. Another sit-down interview. We're joined by our friend Logan Evans, Mariner's pitching prospect.

[00:22:15] Had an awesome year last year. I've been waiting to say this to you, honestly, for a few months now. So I'm ready to get it off my chest. You're a sellout. Do you know where I'm going with this? No, I do not. Oh, yeah. You have no idea? It's going to be about my football team, isn't it? It's going to be about how I like the Titans because of Derrick Henry's gone now. I'm a big Lions fan, jumping on the wagon. All right. So maybe your parents spoiled it a little bit. They spoiled it a little bit. I was talking to them for a little bit the other day. Yeah.

[00:22:43] First time you're on with us, you're talking about how I'm this Detroit sports fan. I grew up loving the Tigers. I grew up loving the Pistons. But football, oh, I couldn't root for the Lions anymore. So I became a Titans fan. Yeah. Fast forward to this offseason. I'm seeing you at Lions games with hashtag go Lions jerseys on with your family. So you're a sellout. Fair or unfair? Yeah. Yeah. I guess you could say that I jumped on the wagon.

[00:23:07] I would I will say that I did support the Lions for most of my life. And then it was like the oh and 16 years is when I was like, you know, I got to get off. My favorite player is Derrick Henry. So realistically, I'm just like a fan of the players. And he happened to be on the Titans. I also loved A.J. Brown. But yeah, you could label me as that. I don't take any offense to that. Shouldn't you be a Ravens fan then? Isn't that more? Wouldn't that be more enjoyable than being a Ravens fan or than being a Lions fan?

[00:23:35] I think I think I bought myself. Well, I got gifted a Derrick Henry Ravens jersey. So I repped that. But I just have no ties to Baltimore. Obviously, being from Michigan, I can say that I grew up like liking the Lions, especially when we had like Stafford and Calvin Johnson. So I just yeah, I didn't feel any like real connection to the Ravens. So that's kind of why I hop back on the wagon. And Gibbs is just like an electric player.

[00:24:04] So I enjoy watching him. I got those tickets to the Thanksgiving game. So things were adding up. Yeah. Are you more of a Sonic or Knuckles guy? Montgomery or Gibbs? I'm a big Gibbs guy. I like the flashy. My dad is big Knuckles. He loves Montgomery, the physical stuff that he brings to the table. I don't mind Montgomery, but I want the home run hitters. I mean, it's like baseball. You love the guys who are contact guys get on base, but everybody wants to see the home run.

[00:24:32] Well, since you mentioned a Derrick Henry Ravens jersey, I had a thought popped in my mind. You might know where my train of thought is leading here. But doesn't that feel like, and let's run this idea by you too, since it almost feels like more of a rarity jersey. Would you wear that to Coachella? Would you wear that jersey to Coachella? I mean, yeah, I went to Lollapalooza back in the day and I was repping the Kevin Garnett T-Wolves jersey. So I think I would rip that at Coachella. It's a nice jersey.

[00:25:01] Have you heard our theory on Coachella jerseys? So you pick either a good player or an irrelevant player, but this is them playing on a team that they're not known for. I wouldn't say Derrick Henry is known as a Raven. He's a Raven now. But I wouldn't say he's known as a Raven. So you see a Ravens Derrick Henry jersey at Coachella, you're like, hell yeah. Yeah. No, I definitely feel like that passes the test of being a Coachella jersey, for sure.

[00:25:27] I mean, years later, obviously he's playing for them now, but years later, if I were to go to that and I was wearing that, I'm sure I would get comments on it. I think everybody would be like, damn, that's a pretty cool jersey. Do you have any other ideas for jerseys? We're spitting out some M's ideas. Do you have any that you might think of? It doesn't have to be Mariners. It could be anybody. Yeah. This is an example. Have you ever seen that video that circulates on Twitter? And it's that remix version of Viva La Vida playing Coldplay. And it's like all these just highlight reels of like Sammy Sosa with the Orioles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:25:57] Those are essentially Coachella jerseys. Yeah. That are like, why exactly do you own that one rather than Shaq on the Lakers? Yeah. I think a cool Titans one would be like the Randy Moss. He played there for a year or two, maybe just like touchdown. I feel like that would be a great Coachella jersey. Exactly. So you're looking, you probably see that in the crowd. You're like, I didn't know he played for them. It's like Jerry Rice and Seahawks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Seahawks legend Jerry Rice. Yeah. 49ers who? Yeah, exactly.

[00:26:26] I'm trying to think of a Lions player that would be like a crazy jersey pull. Yeah. Yeah. That would get a lot of reaction. That's a good one. Were you still a Lions fan when he ran out of the end zone for a safety? Oh, yeah. No, that was one of those ones you see on SportsCenter. You're like, this is my team. Like, I'm cheering for that guy. That's brutal. So, but yeah, yeah, yeah. I was definitely a fan of them then. So let me ask you this. We start off hot. We tell you you're a sellout with people.

[00:26:57] On a scale of one to ten, how close are we on the Michael Morales scale? Scale of chirping you? That's like a, that's probably a six or seven. Yeah. Mike, Mike can, he can take some shots when we're running it back and forth, but it's never personal. You know, it's always fun and games. Can you describe going to battle with Mikey Morales? You show up to the park. Actually, no. He picked, you pick him up or he picks you up. I forget the. I pick him up. Okay. Yeah. He's little bro. You pull, you pull up to little bro's house. Yeah. You unlock the door.

[00:27:25] What's going through your mind when you're getting ready to trip on? So our infamous argument that we had for weeks on end last year was he had a great performance against Tulsa. Went five or six innings, 12 Ks. I just give him a little pass. Like, dude, that was sweet. Good job. Next day I went like six perfect innings and I was like, that's how you get it done. Just hit him with it. Uh, so we had this argument, um, back and forth on what was more, what was better?

[00:27:55] What was more valuable? Um, but yeah, a lot of that derives from like on field play. We always are joking around. Obviously it's easy to do when we're having success. I don't really think we're going back and forth if we were to have like a big hiccup in the road. But yeah, that's kind of where it derives from. I got to give Mikey credit out of all the people we've talked to at Mariners camp and a lot of amazing people out of here. I don't think there's a single one who has a personality bigger than his. Yeah. It's the ability to literally say anything.

[00:28:22] Yeah, no, he, uh, he doesn't hold back. Uh, he, he, he says what's on his mind. Um, but yeah, it's what makes him awesome. He's got such an authentic personality and you feel like you can have a conversation with him any day. And, uh, yeah, he's a great kid. I love him. When Morales was on with us over the off season, he was talking about a video where somebody had a big hit down in Arkansas, but your parents couldn't focus on that. When the video was tweeted out, they noticed you and Morales were just chirping like eye

[00:28:51] to eye about something. If you can even share what it was. That I believe I could be incorrect, but it was in Wichita. Um, and that was exactly what I was telling you as well. It was like a few weeks after, um, he had the 12 punches. I went perfect. And we're talking like this and that we're asking everybody's opinion in the dog. I go, what do you think is better? This isn't that. And, uh, and I, to mention, obviously he did win pitcher of the year, but I got pitcher of the week in that, that, uh, that week in the Texas league.

[00:29:21] So I was like, they kind of know exactly what, what we're arguing about. All right. So I say this all out of love because all three of you and really your whole double A rotation who we've all had the chance to talk to it. All five of you are awesome. You read BG Morales for Chansky. Yep. BG and Morales get pitcher of the year. You had an awesome, awesome year, but it was them. Yep. Did Morales come up to you after winning that and saying, that's how it's done? Uh, sort of. He beat around the bush. Yeah. There's some times where he's like, yeah, I'm pitcher of the year.

[00:29:50] So I'm like, I can't fault you for that. You had a great season. Um, but yeah, we are always like going back and forth. We're always chirping. Hopefully we get up to the league and we're having these battles and, and doing well there. So, uh, yeah, but it's good. He definitely drops it sometimes. So you and Mike, you're going at it. What are Danny and Brandon doing? Danny's super genuine kid. Like always nice. You know, Danny. I mean, uh, he never really gets on the action.

[00:30:16] Um, BG kind of just like talks to any of the players who are around us and we're arguing and be like, these guys are just idiots. It's, uh, they don't, he doesn't really jump in on it. Um, but yeah, they're, they're usually on the, on the chill side for sure. Uh, scoot, scoot jumps in there sometimes. He's funny. He's got quick comments. He's a, he's a funny kid. Him and Alfred are like quick, uh, witty. Um, but they, uh, they don't really jump in like me and Mikey do when me and Mikey step in a room.

[00:30:45] It's always competition about anything. I mean, we could be playing pool back at our Airbnb, uh, video games, whatever it is. We're going to be super competitive. Who's a better pool player? Um, we're both trash. Uh, but it's honestly like it's back and forth, uh, every game. No one really dominates the pool table. So yeah, it's back and forth. You had a pretty wild ride last year. You start as a starter. Yep. Then you go to a reliever for a little bit and then you come back to being a starter.

[00:31:14] I want to go to the first transition when they call you to be a reliever. Like, what are you thinking about? Like what? How do you feel like it's going to go at this point? Um, at that point I was sitting there thinking like, dude, I have this figured out. You know, I had to come off a like pitcher of the month. Um, I mean, Jerry called me. So I'm just like, dude, present baseball operations called me, telling me I'm going into the bullpen and hopefully I can help out the team.

[00:31:42] I'm thinking like, everything's perfect. Um, so I get to the bullpen and honestly, I felt like I transitioned pretty well. Um, I'm such a creature of routine. So that was definitely a bump in the road. Um, learning new things as a reliever, but I felt like I took to it well. Um, obviously Santos came back earlier than they had anticipated. Uh, so that kind of factored in on why I never ended up going up. And then, uh, my last outing, I kind of just like had a hiccup in the road.

[00:32:12] That was my first one really in pro ball. Um, so I learned a lot about myself. Like, do I take to results too much? Um, was I worrying about how I was like processing or was I just focused on the results? And in that moment of time, I was like, so worried, like, oh, I let up four runs and this is nine done that. Like I said previously in pro ball. Um, so it took a little time for me to like really get down packed on what I should be evaluating myself on.

[00:32:41] Um, but towards the end of the year, I learned like, I need to focus on what I can do. I can't control the results. And sometimes, I mean, you guys have watched me and I'm sure people out here viewing have watched me like I'm a pretty chill guy on the mound, but sometimes you need to tap into like the reliever, like just go and blow it past them and go a little lunatic. Um, so I use that and then, um, kind of put what I learned and throughout the whole year into the playoffs and it succeeded. So it was good. Two part follow-up to that.

[00:33:09] So if you need to go a little bit lunatic, are you a caffeine guy before your starts? Um, no, I, uh, I've been taking Adderall my entire life. So I don't, I don't like to get like all that in me and get jittery. Um, I need that for focus. So trying to have heart health when I'm older, that's smart. Very smart. Yeah. Very smart. If you're looking ahead like that, I will say some of the relievers do try and go side. Like we're talking to our buddy Gabe Spire and he's like, like third or fourth inning pre-workout. Yep. And I'm like, yeah, yeah.

[00:33:39] I'm ready to go. Yeah. A lot of the guys will stroll in on game days with their bangs or their rain or anything of that nature. And they just, they get going. Um, but yeah, like I said, I just for, just for health reasons, I don't like to do all that. I have a healthy thing for you. Smelling salts. Oh yeah. I've done that. That'll get you going. Yeah. That will get you going for sure. Just stick some in your back pocket. You're up as the dude's walking into the batter's box. You're going like, all right. Oh yeah.

[00:34:07] The batter is going to be looking at you with wide eyes. Yeah. Like what's wrong with this guy? Challenge your inner Ricky Vaughn. Wow. Yeah. Have you guys, uh, I know this is a little off. Nobody, have you seen the, uh, prank videos of people saying like they got this new, um, fragrance and they go around with smelling salts, like in the middle of the mall. Oh, I'll make sure to show you guys, but it'll, it'll, you'll crack up. It's hilarious. I mean, it's a little messed up. You want to have to random people like, you want to smell this? They go and then they like do this huge thing. Like what the hell is that?

[00:34:36] But, uh, yeah, it's pretty funny, but yeah, I don't, I don't use any of the smelling salts or, or a pre-workout in game getting ready for that. I just kind of just flip it into mode. Sounds like you're a lot healthier person than some of our friends we went to school with. You talk about players showing up with bangs. Yeah. I'll just use our own comparison here, which is totally relatable. But we would have friends when we would go out on Fridays and Saturday nights who would legitimately make themselves vodka bangs. And I go, you want to talk about heart health?

[00:35:06] You're done, dude. That's like a four loco. Yeah. It does sound like a four loco. Okay. It might even be a little more extreme. I don't know. It might be, it might just be illegal. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's gotta be banned. Yeah, you can ban it. So yeah, that's not your thing. You're a little more chill when you get into games than possible. Yeah. Yeah. Your buddies were probably having a great night, but the next day was probably miserable for them. They probably didn't want to get out of bed. Yeah, no. Actually, the friends I'm thinking of, I don't know what they got. Yeah.

[00:35:36] That's hilarious. Yeah. So eventually you go back to a starter's role. I'm sure there's a part of you when you're in that relief outing or in that relief role thinking to yourself, this is a quick way to think. And how could you not be enamored by that? And obviously paired with doing what the team asks you to do and giving it your all. When you went back to the starter's role though, is there any part of you, especially talking about being so routine oriented that you're like, all right, I can get back to a little bit more of what I know. Yeah.

[00:36:03] I definitely relied on the foundation that I had created at the start of the year. So I was kind of just getting back into those routines. I just remember like during that buildup, cause I had to build back up in innings and I would just learn something each time. Like, like I talked about this in the last time when I was here, but like my baseball career, I look at it like a 10,000 piece puzzle. So I'm just still adding little pieces every single day and I still do it today.

[00:36:31] Um, but at that time, yeah, I was just trying to get back in the flow of everything, building back up, obviously getting my work, um, but getting back down on those routines. Um, and I just felt like every single outing, I was learning something good or bad. Um, but I was just trying to take something that I can use the rest of my career. Does it feel better going into this spring knowing you're, I'm going to guess only going to be a starter? Yeah. One, one area of your game you need to focus on. Yeah, no, it definitely feels great.

[00:37:00] And, uh, I mean, it doesn't hurt to be surrounded by the best starting staff and, and all the baseball. Um, so yeah, it's, it's great to know that I'll be in like a pretty secure role as a starter. Um, do I know like what they have in the future for me if they want me to go back to then? No. Um, but if I, if they do choose that again this year, like I'll kind of have like some knowledge obviously doing that last year. Um, so I don't feel like it will be as much of a curve ball.

[00:37:28] Um, but yeah, I think being a starter for me is where I'm most comfortable, where I have the most success. So it is a pretty relaxing feeling. What is it like being around those guys starting staff? Um, I would also imagine you're around them a lot more this year. Yeah. I didn't really get to talk to him a lot last year, obviously coming in spring training, just being on the minor league side and making my first impressions. Uh, but it is, um, it's special. It really is.

[00:37:55] You, you learn how authentic each one of them are. Um, Bryce is like a really good guy. Uh, loves to talk to everybody in the clubhouse, just kind of doing his little walk. He's got his little strut. Um, George is just super calculated. No, he is not. No, we're not like the closest, but I've definitely gotten to speak to him. Um, I just got to talk to George at lunch and I was sitting there with Emerson and both of them are just so calculated into their work. Um, they really know what makes them them.

[00:38:25] Um, and they don't try to replicate anything else. Uh, Castillo is just big dog. Like he walks in the room and you know, like he's been there, he knows his stuff. Um, he's going to do his work and get out of here. And then Wu has been a tremendous help as well. Um, another, like, you just know, like he's kind of a California kid, but in a good way, like he just buys into who he is. He's authentic. Um, he also is just super calculated in his work.

[00:38:50] Uh, everything he does is just like down to a science and I pick up on those things. Maybe it's not communication like vocally, but I communicate by just watching them and seeing what they do. Um, so yeah, I picked up a lot of things and I think it's just great to be surrounded by greatness. I hate to make you pick one, but if there's one of those guys of the five where you feel like you've watched them just a little bit more intently than the others, is there one? Um, and they're all great. Yeah.

[00:39:20] Uh, you know, I, I think that the two that stick out to me in the way that we've just like, they kind of taken me under their wing for this camp is Emerson and Brian Wu. I think out of like the six guys, um, those are the two that have kind of taken me under their wing and they've helped me a lot. Uh, I learned a lot of things from them from just a pure watching standpoint. I watched George. Um, I've gotten like comparisons to just how calculated we are in our work.

[00:39:49] And, um, I've seen him, like he even like looks at the ball every time he throws it. It's not just on the mound. It's in his pregame bullpen. It's out there on the field and the backfields playing catch every day. Like he is so specific on everything he does. And I've taken that to be like, you don't want to waste reps ever. Like if you're playing catch on a late day, like I had today, like I'm still going to get my work in. So I've learned a lot from him. Um, so those are the three guys that I've taken a lot from this. How much do you tinker? Hmm. Half seven pitches.

[00:40:19] Yeah. Uh, I don't tinker a lot. I try to be who I am. Like I'm a stuff guy. Like my, I have a lot of movement on my pitches. Um, obviously trying to get command to be where it's like George, hopefully one day. Um, there are things that I like mess with a little bit, but that's just like some off season stuff. I don't, I don't like to tinker a lot during season. So, uh, I wouldn't say much.

[00:40:46] What'd you take away from last year that you either really liked about what you did or that you feel like you want to work on and you come into this year saying that like, let's get better at that. Um, there's a few things. So one, I thought I was, I've been pretty harsh on myself. Everybody says you're your biggest critic, obviously. Um, but I looked at sometimes last year, I looked at it like I was like failing cause I didn't go up to the majors or I didn't succeed in the bullpen. And then I kind of took a step back and just realized like where I'm at.

[00:41:15] Like I'm playing professional baseball. I'm on the cusp of making the major leagues. I was a 12th rounder out of Pittsburgh, just happy to be here, get a shot because out of Pittsburgh, I really had no clue. Like my junior year out of Pittsburgh, I didn't get drafted. And I was like, this is kind of a harsh reality. Um, so I always stuck, uh, stuck onto that feeling. So last year I learned to just be grateful and, uh, realize that I am doing pretty well. Um, another thing is like, don't look into the future so much.

[00:41:44] Um, like just let things come to me. I can't live in the future. I can't live in the past. Uh, I can control what I'm doing right now. Um, and I think I'm going to take that into this year and just realize like if it's in double A, triple A, the majors, like take it one day at a time. Don't worry about stuff that I can't control. And then the third one really is just like set goals. I think are attainable.

[00:42:11] Um, and obviously shoot for the stars, but I don't have to like be a guy who comes in and into the league and be the starter, like who has a zero ERA through five starts. Like there's going to be bumps in the road. Just like take it one day at a time. Like I said, well, let me say this to follow up on what you just answered. You set the bar pretty ridiculously high for yourself to start. So one, I get it. Everybody's their own harshest critic. That's just true in life.

[00:42:38] But your first two months of the year, I mean, you could not pay yourself to have a bad start. You'd be sitting up here in Seattle. It's like, well, Logan's on the mountain. He's probably going six shutouts. I don't even remember what exactly it was at, but your ERA must've gotten down to one, one five at one point. Yeah. You were a 12th rounder out of Pittsburgh who probably had, or you've talked about it. Your word where you left a lot on the table. Yeah. And now you're out there looking like the best arm in the entire system.

[00:43:03] I think it's, I mean, your point about perspective, is it easier to look back on that now and say, yeah, like there's a lot of things I really did well last year. Yeah. Yeah. When you're in like the heat of the moment, you don't really realize like success as much as you realize failure. Like, like you said, like my first two months, like I was pitching very well.

[00:43:27] I had like a one, one ERA and I'm throwing every six days or whatever, like feel like I'm just like going out there effortlessly. I got put on like baseball America's top 100. Like these are things that I wasn't even like, I didn't know that could, you could do that as a 12th rounder. But at the, at that time, like I wasn't realizing like the things I was doing good at. And I remember, uh, Michael peoples and Matt Pierpont who are unfortunately gone now, but

[00:43:54] they kind of sat down and was like, dude, like celebrated a little, like I was down in Corpus. I threw six shutout innings and I kind of came off and it was like, Oh, I could have worked on this and that. It's like, dude, you just threw six shutout innings and double a in your first year, like smile a little, you know? So, uh, yeah, I think that's something I'll definitely work on. And, and going off that point, I think I'm going to try to be less internal and just worry about like what's going on in mind instead of just being like, they call a fastball, throw a fastball, whatever happens, happens.

[00:44:22] So you know what I'm getting a sense out of you from that answer? I know for the most part, you say I'm pretty chill, even on start days. I don't, I don't get too high or too low. And I believe that for the most part, but it sounds like somewhere deep down in there, there's a little bit of Kirby and Logan in the sense of on their start days, those guys, you better not bother them because zero to a hundred real quick. And I'm not saying you're quite that, but somewhere in there, there's a little part of you that's a little bit like that. Yeah.

[00:44:47] I, uh, I think, I think the only time that I'm like, just kind of stay out of my way. Let me do my thing is like pregame bullpen, like catch play. Like if I'm in catch play, like I don't want anybody asking me anything. If I'm going to the bullpen to go start warming up, like I don't really want people like approaching me asking something and like kind of an unwritten rule. People always understand that. Um, but, uh, yeah, I think there's a little bit of me in there for sure.

[00:45:14] Like you said, but for the most part of the start day, like I come in, I'm pretty chill talking with the guys, you know, all right. Last thing for me, Logan, not wanting to look ahead too far. I get that. Yep. When I do that, it stresses me out. What have you thought ahead to the PCL? If that's where you end up. If that's where you end up. Yeah. Yeah. Arkansas, great pitchers park. Yeah. PCL, the exact opposite. Yeah.

[00:45:39] Um, like I said, like you learn so much through success, but also failure. Um, I think I'd go into the PCL, like expecting nothing, um, and just learn from what comes to me. Obviously I'm going to go out there and try to do my best, try to throw seven shotty, um, every time. But if that doesn't happen, learn how to pitch in those, because especially when you're an MLB, like you're traveling everywhere, different climates, different elevation, all these different factors.

[00:46:05] And I think the PCL simulates that much more than the Texas league clearly. Um, so I think there would be a lot of valuable lessons in that. Um, I've definitely thought about it and I'm, I'm excited if I get the opportunity. Uh, but obviously I don't know what's going to happen. Road trips will be fun. Yeah, absolutely. A lot more fun than the Texas league. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to the plane rides. I heard you actually don't have to go on 10 hour bus rides to. Rides, Las Vegas, around rock. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Okay.

[00:46:33] With that, do you ever look at advanced metrics at all? I mean, I know you guys do internal. Do you look at things like XERA at all? Yeah, we have a system in place. Uh, and we call it FXERA. It's like ER, our expected ERA plus, whatever they use on baseball savant. Um, we definitely look at that. Um, they actually broke that down to me, uh, after the year and I was like 100s, like major league average. I think I was sitting around like one on one, one Oh two.

[00:47:02] So like, they're like, dude, you're already a major league pitcher. Like you're an average major league pitcher right now at 22 year old. Like you can build on stuff for sure. And, and be great. But like they said, just realize what you've done. Right. And the reason I asked that is because you know, we're your biggest fans. We're going to kill it no matter where you go. That being said, if there's some start when you're playing in Albuquerque or someplace with super high elevation where the ball is just flying, unlike Arkansas, just start looking at that stuff.

[00:47:30] Just start looking at XERA and say, you know what? Like here's what I'm actually doing. Yeah. ERA, everybody's ERA gets ballooned. Yeah. Well, what am I asking? Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. I, I always, I love to look at those numbers as well, because obviously as fans, like we love to look at the win loss. We love to look at the ERA, but like, what do you, what do you do? That's like actually creating success for you. Like the FIP is a great example. The expected ERA is a great example. There's so many different stats now in baseball, which is awesome.

[00:48:00] I love it. But I know some people don't, but I like to look at those things because it's like, oh, I am having success. I just was pitching in a ballpark that was 310 down the line and we're at 3000 feet of elevation and they just hit a homer at 85 off the bat. So yeah, there's, there's definitely value in that. I got a couple more quick rattle off questions. Yeah. There you go. Anything fun you did this off season? Like away from the baseball field? Dude, I was, I was big into this board game called Catan. Yes.

[00:48:30] Oh dude. I, I, yeah, I rip it on my phone still. So I played a lot of that with my, my cousin, my best friends, my brother, girlfriend, anybody who wanted to play. We were playing. And I, I obviously, you guys saw, I went to the lions Thanksgiving games. That was cool. Um, but those were, those were definitely the highlights. I like to just hang out with family a lot, my friends a lot. So those were definitely my highlights. Lions win projections for 2025. I mean, the thing is, I think they're under half a loss.

[00:49:00] I don't think they lose. I know everybody's like, Oh, I don't think exactly. Everybody's like, Oh, Ben Johnson's leaving. This isn't like the skill group that we have is just so incredible. And I really think that the NFC North is great. And we kind of dominated last year. So like, I'm ready to get in there and go. I think when our defense is healthy, like, I don't really know how, like, I feel like everybody was on train that the lions were going to win the super bowl with a healthy roster this year across the NFL.

[00:49:28] So if we can keep everybody healthy, I really don't see a loss. Sure. It's sports. I'm sure there's going to be, but I want to be optimistic and say that they're going to go perfect. I mean, when you have almost a full year without Hayden Hutchinson, that's a big difference. Yeah. Now polar opposite end, you're tight. What's their record going to be in 2025? Literal polar opposite end. Yeah. Um, we're going to do under half a win. Yeah. Seriously. Seriously. Um, maybe I'll, I, yeah, I would love that Penn state guy. I mean, I am big on him.

[00:49:58] I think he could be a Micah Parsons. I think it would be so interesting. The Titans somehow pulled off drafting Abdul Carter and then trading for Stafford and just seeing what they could play with that. Um, that would be the win-win for me. I was obviously a huge staff fan and Penn state guy. Abdul Carter was impressive. Um, so I think that their win total would be set at seven and a half. I think that they could get over. I think they could get an eight or nine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, will Levis.

[00:50:26] I mean, I'm hoping for maybe three wins. You may own coffee. Absolutely not. That's disgusting. That is, that is foul work. I don't know what that dude's doing right there, but I mean, it works for him. He's ripped. So can't really trip that. It works for him. Logan, you're the man. Logan, we always love talking to you. You know, we're rooting for you. I know Mariners fans are going to be rooting for you and we'll stamp it here for you. You don't have to say it, but we'll say it. We'll see you in the big leagues at some point in 2025. We're going to stamp it. I appreciate you guys. Always.

[00:50:55] Thank you so much for the support and thank you for having me on. We really always do have a blast talking to Logan. He's so much fun. Hope you guys enjoyed that interview and I've got a semi bold, but not really bold prediction here. Next time we have him on the podcast, he's probably going to be a big leaguer. So we're speaking that into existence for everybody here. Yeah. What's that? I said, yeah, we are. Yes. Shout out to Logan. Shout out to him for sitting down with us.

[00:51:23] Hopefully you guys have become fans of Logan Evans at this point. He certainly got our Marine Layer Pod stamp of approval and then some. So if you guys need any more reason to root for him, take it from us and take it from the interview because you heard it firsthand. All right. That just about wraps up this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to listen to the full form podcast, you can do so wherever you get your audio pods. Make sure to download. Please go rate and review. Leave it five stars.

[00:51:49] If you're watching on YouTube, like comment and go hit subscribe on YouTube. That is the best way you can support this channel. Hit subscribe on YouTube. We really appreciate it. Go follow us everywhere. We're on social media, all platforms at Marine Layer Pod, posting content every single day. And one final time, go check out our Patreon. We're about to roll out a bunch of new stuff to go along with it. It's only a few weeks old, but we can't wait to start interacting with a bunch of you guys. A lot more over there. That's TJ.

[00:52:19] I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.