Episode 239: The Mariners Are Setting Records + We Throw Out A First Pitch + Will The Mariners Have The Budget To Add At The Deadline? (Mailbag)

[00:00:00] Welcome to Episode Number 239 of the Marine Layer Podcast. It's our mailbag episode. We'll open up the mailbag and answer your guys' best listener questions. We have a lot to talk about with Lyle and I throwing out the first pitch in Everett on Wednesday, and the Mariners continue to win series. They have now won their last nine in a row.

[00:00:20] If you guys want to stay on top of all of our stuff, it's all over at one spot. You can go over to MarinLayerPod.com where you can find everything, whether it's our episodes, our merch, if you want to get involved with our Patreon, which we'd love to have you get involved. All that's over at our website. Our live schedule's over at our website, which by the way, guys, we do have a date for our next live show. It's Saturday, February, or February to Saturday, May 24th. Again, May 24th.

[00:00:48] It's back over at Queen Anne Beer Hall. We'll do a live show at 12 p.m., watch party at 1 p.m. Looking forward to that. As always, would love to have you there. Again, all that stuff's over on our website, MarinLayerPod.com. And you can check us out everywhere on social media at MarinLayerPod. Let's get it rolling.

[00:01:20] And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network, recording on Thursday evening, May 8th. And Lyle, I have a statement to make. Yeah? I wrote it out, actually. Do you want to hear it? Yes. Okay, let me grab it. Okay. This is A-level podcasting right here as you search through your stuff. I got it. I got it. I'm reading it. All right.

[00:01:49] I, Theodore John Matthewson, when asked to throw out a first pitch the next time, will be throwing from the mound. End statement? That's it. End statement right there? End statement. End statement. So it sounds like all the ridicule after people saw the video of it's gotten to your head. I've gotten roasted. I don't think, I don't know what was worse.

[00:02:18] First off, I mean, the jacket that I was wearing was looking sus to start. Someone said it looked like I was wearing a bulletproof vest underneath it. Not a good start. And then I actually had to walk and go to the first pitch. And I think the only supportive comment I really saw for my first pitch. Okay, so there was a couple ones. One when it, like, related to the first pitch was our friend Nick. Who said, teach. Way to use the turf.

[00:02:48] I was like, yeah! Otherwise, it was not a friendly crowd out there. I mean, I took a screenshot. And I said it to a few people. I'm like, man, there's all sorts of people just taking shots at whether or not I just lob it in there. Whether the fact it didn't make it there. Man. So few people in my corner after that first pitch. I don't get it, though. What was wrong with the jacket? I didn't see a problem with it.

[00:03:17] That's more of a personal thing. But I did chuckle at the person who said it looked like I was wearing a vest under there. Isn't that jacket from someplace like Zara? Like an actual stylish shop? It was, it's from, it's from Old Navy. I do like it better when it's unzipped. But it was cold. So I zipped it up. And it makes me look, you know, it makes me look like a mob boss, kind of. It looked like I was wearing a tracksuit. Okay. All right. That's not really the vibe I was going for. I see. All right. Fair enough.

[00:03:46] So maybe we should build people in in case people are totally lost. Maybe there's people listening that aren't on social media. Could you imagine that? And it's like, I mean, I think people. What the fuck are they talking about? I mean, I think that's what was going on on Brock and Salk here on Thursday morning. We're half the people. We're listening to that. Talk about people in my corner. Shout out to Brock Eward and Mike Salk. Well, I more meant G Scott because he was just off the rails on Thursday morning. But anyway, we can get to that.

[00:04:16] Let's fill people in. So TJ and I went out to Everett on Wednesday afternoon. The reason we were out there was not actually to throw out a first pitch. We'll preview this here a little bit and tease it for you guys. We did two pretty awesome sit-down interviews. If you remember back in spring training, we started to do a couple actual in-person sit-down full podcast interviews, which we think are way more fun. It's just way better to be in person and do these interviews while sitting next to the guest.

[00:04:45] Not that we can't do it over the computer. Like, it's still good, but it's just another level. It takes it another step forward when you're in person. So anyway, we did a couple of those in spring training with Logan Evans and Ty Pete, who both were just unreal guests on the show. So we said, let's do more of that this year. It was really fun. Let's aim to do more of it. So we went to Everett to go sit down with Colt Emerson and Durangelo Sanja.

[00:05:11] So for anybody that's going to perk up when you hear those names, yeah, we've got interviews with them coming out over the next couple of weeks. We cannot wait for you guys to hear them. They were awesome. We had a blast doing them. I think you're absolutely going to love hearing from these guys. But as we get there, now turning this back to us as the meme goes, get it. Let me break in. Let me break in here really quick because we were going to pull the people who they wanted to see first. Right. So reply to us. Leave us a comment on something. DM us.

[00:05:41] Which interview you want to hear first? Yeah. And we'll make that next week's guest. Yeah. So we'll schedule it like this. One of those guys is going to be the episode on Wednesday. Wednesday is usually when we put out our episode with guests, unless it's an extenuating circumstance. We'll do that one. We'll probably break the two up with a different guest in between a week from this upcoming Wednesday. But then after that, we'll play the second one. So you'll hear one in about five days from now and one in about two and a half weeks from now.

[00:06:10] So you guys let us know. There's no wrong answer. Would you rather hear from Colt Emerson first or from Durangelo Sange at first? It is up to you. Whatever you guys prefer to hear first, we will put out for you guys. This is about you guys. So let us know. Anyway, we get to the stadium middle of the afternoon. No, not middle. Like early afternoon on Wednesday. And Mike, who works for the Aqua Sox, who is awesome, by the way, he's been awesome to us. He's been super helpful. We absolutely love going out to Everett.

[00:06:39] But he asks us when we get there, hey, would you guys have any interest in throwing out the first pitch? And as soon as we hear that, I think both of us are like, well, yeah, that'd be sick. So then all of a sudden, with a few hours notice, we're set to throw out the first pitch in an Aqua Sox game. It's pretty cool. You got anything? I mean, I can keep telling the story. I just figured you might want to add some stuff here. It was pretty good. And then I sit there and realize, when's the last time I threw a baseball?

[00:07:10] That might be a problem. So I'm sitting there. I'm like stretching out a little bit. I'm like, do I still have the motion down? Do I got this? This is going to be a common theme throughout this story. It was in my head. Got to me. What was it that started to take over the mental side? It was the first time I was throwing up against the fence and I spiked the ball.

[00:07:37] Because my hand was all clammy and it stuck to the ball and it just rips down. Listen, I don't play baseball all the time anymore. I don't have the feel down. Unfortunately, backstory for everyone here. I wasn't that good of a baseball player. Even if you hear me sometime going off on a podcast how great I was. It's all a lie. I wasn't very good.

[00:08:01] And especially when it comes down to, and I said this on Brock and Salk today, when thankful you guys had me on to talk about this. But I made sure to tell the point, guys. You know what the worst thing I did? What I was worst at in baseball? It was playing catch. I sucked at playing catch. And that got in my head. Think about the first pitch. I get one pitch. I'm on the mound. Everyone's looking at me. The announcer's yelling my name. Everything gets to you.

[00:08:30] There is something I have to interject with here. You're not telling the full truth here because you were not on the mound. I was in front of the mound. I was doing damage control is what I was doing. So now as we progress on to this, interviews wrap up with both Colt and with Durangelo. Had a blast doing them. Then we're hanging out during batting practice for a while. And once guys get off the field, we don't have gloves, but we do start to toss the baseball back and forth.

[00:08:59] And I'm getting flashbacks of the times that I have seen TJ throw a baseball. We have played catch. And I'm like, oh, this may or may not have a chance to go south. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Well, I wasn't totally sure, but you did not have a vote of confidence in yourself. No, I didn't. And then that takes my own level of confidence in you down. It would have been nice if we had brought gloves. I could have let a few rip in the outfield so I get the feeling back.

[00:09:27] But we're just lobbing it to each other. You, when you went out and throw out your first pitch, I mean, you just let it rip. No problem. But if I let it rip, I mean, there's a 50% chance it makes it like just off the mound and spikes in the turf. You would have had a 50 cent moment. I would have had a 50 cent moment. And unfortunately, unlike a lot of people who threw out the first pitch, the camera was right on us because we were like, oh, we're documenting this whole thing. We're posting it. If you're listening to this, by the way, and you want to see the first pitch,

[00:09:57] we have it posted on our Instagram or TikTok. We tweeted it out. It's on our blue sky. So you can go check it out there. It's a great video. Shout out to Landon at the Aqua Sox. He did a phenomenal job shooting for us. It looks phenomenal. Probably the best looking piece of content on our channel. Yeah. Let me say a quick shout out about Landon too. The dude's 20 years old and he's like an absolute worker.

[00:10:20] Like he's got like this vision on what he wants to do in creative content with video editing and being a videographer. And he's really good at it. And he's made some cool connections. We tagged him in the video, but his name's Landon Welter. You guys should check him out on social media. Absolutely. Like he's on Instagram. He's on a few other spots. Go check him out. Could you imagine the reaction, Lyle, if I stepped up onto the mound and I threw the ball as hard as I thought I could and I spiked it on video? Do you think it would have been worse than what I currently got?

[00:10:51] Yeah. Okay. That's what we call damage control. Right? So anyway, once all this time goes by and we actually throw out the first pitch, they roll out this little red carpet in front of the mound. And that's where they said they wanted us to throw. I opted not to do that. And there is a bit of a story there that I can tell very quickly here in a minute. But TJ opts to throw from the bottom of the mound and from the red carpet, like from the turf.

[00:11:22] And unfortunately, he puts it basically in the right-handed batter's box. Well, back foot of the right-handed batter. Okay. Let's not misconstrue words here. It was back foot of a right-handed hitter. They swing over the top of it. All right. Yeah. You threw him an airbender like Devin Williams. That's fine. It works all the time in the big leagues. Yeah. It hasn't worked great for Devin Williams this year. But that's a different story. I didn't 50-sent it. I didn't Michael Jordan it. Who are some other ones?

[00:11:50] My friend Caleb sent me a list of the worst celebrity first pitches today. There were a lot worse ones than mine. Carly Rae Jepsen threw an awful one, I think. Yeah. Exactly. Right? I did not end up on that, I think. No. You did not. But then I threw my first pitch. I went from the top of the mound. And I always said, always, that if I ever in my life got a chance to throw out a first pitch, I was going from the mound. And I was not lobbing it.

[00:12:18] Like Salk, when he threw out his first pitch, look, he got it there. And credit to him. He made it. But he lobbed it. Like, it was a lollipop. I kind of chucked it. And I always said that's what I was going to do. Because, listen, I have a reputation to hold up. And I had to hold it up. If I had spiked my first pitch, I really never would have heard the end of it. What would have been you think would have been worse? So the back story for you is, in case people were unfamiliar with this story.

[00:12:45] So when Salk threw out his first pitch two weeks ago, you and Brock were laying into him saying, if you don't throw it from the top of the mound, you're never going to hear the end of it from us. Uh-huh. That can't happen. So as soon as I hear that, I'm thinking, oh, Lyle has to throw a perfect first pitch. Mm-hmm. It needs to be on the mound. It needs to be straight. It needs to not be a strike. But you need to throw it to the catcher. I think it was a strike, to be fair. It was.

[00:13:15] I think you dotted the inside corner to a lefty. Uh-huh. So you knocked it out of the park. I thought, at least, you did enough to not get roasted on Brock and Salk. And then I got roasted anyway. Which, just another day on that show, I do anything ever, and I'm just going to get ripped to shreds, like, welcome to the party. So where this now gets a little fuzzy, at least in their world, is we spent some time

[00:13:42] on Thursday morning on Brock and Salk talking about it, talking about this whole first pitch. And there's a few things that go behind it. One, they were wondering if I basically rained on Salk's parade too fast. And my response to that was, eh. Yeah, you guys can deal with it. Now, Salk, to be fair, said at the end of all this, I'm actually on Lyle's side here. I actually don't have any problem with him going and doing it. It was more Brock and G. Scott that were like, man, that's a quick turnaround for you to be thrown a first pitch.

[00:14:11] So there was that part of it. But then there's the part that actually ties back to the two of us, where they've now claimed that I'm a terrible friend and basically, like, alpha'd you during this whole ceremony. Because in their world, for those who haven't seen the social network, they almost called it a Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin thing, where the two of them start Facebook together, build it up together, have all these, like, great moments together, getting it off the ground and getting it to be really popular. And then Mark Zuckerberg just screws them over in the end.

[00:14:42] And they said, that's what I did. They say, you see your friend throw from the bottom of the mound, and he makes a choice of his own. And you're like, yeah, I don't care about that. I'm doing my own thing. And I'm putting you in the dust. Well, Lyle, did you think you Mark Zuckerberg'd me? Are you planning to take the podcast from me anytime soon? Well, now that you mention it, I probably should unveil a thing or two here. No, I'm not planning to take the podcast from you. That's refreshing to hear. I did put an exit hatch, though.

[00:15:11] So just to let you know. Oh, good. It's what I spent all afternoon doing. Good. After I got off the show. By the way, the part Lyle did not mention. They then insisted I come on the show at the end of the show. What do we do? Well, they essentially just needed to explain to me what they thought of you. It's essentially what it was. Yeah, exactly.

[00:15:34] They wanted to know if you were mad that I went to the mound and I essentially left you in the dust and you were like, eh. But like, if you guys know anything about the dynamic of this podcast, like TJ's a little bit more of the level-headed one. I'm the one who gets a little bit off the rails. And that's exactly what happened on the radio this morning where I was kind of letting those guys have it. I said, look, I was not going to do anything else other than exactly what I envisioned to do. And then when they asked you about it, you're like, eh, it's fine.

[00:16:05] And I explained myself. It's like why I was at the bottom of the mound and you were at the top. And I was like, look, I understand if Lyle does not throw from the top of the mound, the next three months are going to be unbearable for you. It's going to be a bad summer for Lyle Goldstein. Yeah. Every morning from six to 10, it would be like, here we go again. Again, I told them, I don't care if the reason was a category five hurricane. If I found any excuse to not throw from the mound, I was going to hear about it. Even if the grounds crew said no.

[00:16:35] Like Steve from Everett, Steve Willits, again, another awesome dude, was saying that, yeah, like usually we have people throw from the red carpet. I was like, well, Mike, who we talked to in Everett said, well, go ahead and throw from the mound. I was like, I was trying to tell him very quickly, you don't understand what's about to happen if I don't throw from the mound. It's going to be real disastrous. Like I will, I will give all, like I will ask the grounds crew for all forgiveness in the world if it's really a problem, but I cannot throw from the bottom of the mound here. So, so I didn't.

[00:17:05] Yeah. But what an unreal Wednesday. It was, that is not your average Wednesday in the best of ways. I do again, before we wrap this part up, I do want to say shout out to everybody in Everett, not just Colton Gerangelo, who we got to sit down with and, and again, we're awesome. But like the people that work at Everett really are great between Mike, between Evan, Landon, Steve, a bunch of others. Awesome. And Everett, you guys is such a cool place to see a game. Now it's fun regardless.

[00:17:34] And it's a, it's a good, like family fun outing and like, you know, fairly cost controlled and like minor league baseball is just a different vibe. It's much more laid back. It's a really cool environment. So we would encourage you to go see the Aqua Sox in general, but if you need more incentive guys, this is the best team in minor league baseball right now. This team, this roster is loaded. Yeah. Seriously. Go see these guys. Cause they're right in your backyard. Yeah.

[00:18:04] Shout out to the other guys. We got to say hi to, we said hi to a front of the podcast, Ty P we said hi to Laz said hi to Tyler Cleveland. Who am I missing? Johnny. We sat and talked to Johnny. Johnny. Yep. It's good to see Johnny. He's in, he's, he's excited to be back out there and playing. Yeah. He's in, well, one, he's, he's off to a really nice start. And two, like, it seems like he's in pretty good spirits. He like, we talked to him for a bit. It seemed like he had a pretty good plan kind of carved out for himself.

[00:18:31] One, and he was pretty laser focused on basically following through with and executing that. But two, like you could just tell he's pretty happy to be out of Arizona, back around all his friends, back around all the guys he was drafted with. And you know, like he said the same thing we said, like, yeah, this team's sick. So like, how could you not want to be around him? Two more. Michael Royal. I think that's the first time I've talked to him. Super nice. And Zach, I'm going to mess up his last name. I'll do it. Vincige.

[00:19:01] Vincige, the manager. We had a nice long conversation with him. That was, that was awesome. That was super cool. Legendary Mariner. He played exactly, exactly one game as a Seattle Mariner. One. Wow. Now he's back in the org as a manager. So that's, that's pretty cool. And he was, uh, yeah, he was awesome. He was really cool. Again, like you said, we got to have a real, like kind of elongated conversation with them. Really good, really good dude.

[00:19:27] And seems like he's really got, uh, like a pretty awesome plan and a pretty good head on for like a head on straight for what he wants to be as a manager. And he's doing it right now, which is sick. He like, he's moved up with these guys so far, like this core group that everybody's looking at in the Mariners farm system. Vince, he's been the manager for a big chunk of it. He was in Modesto for a couple of years with these guys. Now he's in Everett with these guys. Pretty cool. Yeah. Pretty cool. Let's talk about the actual Mariners. How about the actual Mariners?

[00:19:57] Lyle, we made it this long to the episode without talking about a team that has won nine series in a row for the first time since two, since 2001. Yeah. 2001. You could imagine the shock on Lyle and I's faces when we pull, we pull up to Everett. It's five, one. Yeah. It was five to one at this point. And the Mariners, of course, on Wednesday, end up coming back down five, nothing to win six to five.

[00:20:23] Can I just read you these names that drove in all the runs on Wednesday? Let me read you these names. Ben Williamson, Rowdy Tellez, Laoti Tavares, Dylan Moore, six, five Mariners. Did you hear Julio in there? No. No. Did you hear Callen there? No. JP Crawford. No. Did you hear Randy? No. No, I did not. Jorge Blanco? No.

[00:20:54] One of the MVP candidates. No. Yeah. How about this team, dude? Crazy. It is a different guy every day. That is one of the coolest parts about this whole stretch. For all the production that Cal's put up and Polo's put up and a bunch of other guys have put up offensively, JP. The reason you see these guys win games, especially when it's late, it's somebody different all the time.

[00:21:20] Cal comes through in the clutch the other night, then it's the bottom of the order in the finale. Other days, it's been other guys throughout the lineup. You know, we've seen Polo win these guys' games on his own this year. It's every day, it's somebody different. And we've seen even Julio, the biggest star of them all, sans Cal. I mean, his strikeout rate, by the way, right now, Lyle's below 20%. Julio Rodriguez's strikeout rate is below 20% right now.

[00:21:47] I mean, it is all coming together for this team at the exact same time. I know a lot's been made about this bottom of the lineup. I had not seen the stats yet, officially, on this bottom of the lineup. In all of baseball, their first in walk rate, their second in on-base percentage, their fifth in WRC+. Those first two numbers I read off for a bottom of the lineup, the most important thing that you could write up for a bottom of the lineup. Because what are those bottom of the lineup guys doing?

[00:22:13] They're getting on base, so your best hitters in J.P. Crawford and Julio and Randy and Cal come up and the bases are chocked full of batters. And yeah, okay, so far this season, if you look at the raw number, they haven't hit a ton with runners in scoring position. But man, when it mattered in this series, I mean, we're talking about a ball bouncing the right way on Monday away from a sweep against the A's. And this was a team that could have been the A's could have been in first place in this division if they had won this series. But they didn't.

[00:22:43] They just keep finding ways to win. And we, it's not going to be today. Hopefully it's on Monday. We really do need to carve out some time to talk about Andres Munoz in length here because he just continues to look unbelievably good. This is, I mean, it kind of goes without saying, considering it's approaching the middle of May and he hasn't given up a run, but we're approaching some 2018 Edwin Diaz territory with Mooney. Just hope the workload could get there.

[00:23:11] And we're, I hope the rest of the 2018 season just doesn't like disperses. Just Edwin, we'll just take the Edwin season of that. So Munoz probably will not get there in terms of amount of saves, maybe the workload. That would be really hard, but the dominance of that season. And even if you want to look at the value of that season in terms of wins above replacement, you're looking at potentially similar things here. Think of how you got the series win.

[00:23:39] We just talked about the offense. Think on Monday when Bryce threw. Bryce throws on Monday and doesn't look great. Got lit up a little bit. We talked about it for Wednesday's episode. We're sitting here still trying to figure out, okay, where's Bryce at right now? But regardless, the Mariners are down 1-0 in this series. The next two games, you look at the, look at the two pitching matchups. You have our guy Emerson Hancock, who I'll just be transparent here.

[00:24:08] Did not love the matchup in that ballpark. He's a contact guy. The A's are a contact lineup. The ballpark is heavy offense. Don't like that combination. What did Emerson do? 6-2 on 71 pitches. Gives you a chance to win the game. He was better than Bryce was. And then what happens on Wednesday? Brian Wu has his worst career start against the A's. He had dominated the A's for his entire career, but not on Wednesday. They jumped all over him. But it didn't matter.

[00:24:34] Like your best starter so far this season goes out there and gets shelled. And the bottom of the lineup consisting of Ben, Rowdy, Laoti, and Dylan Moore. Bail him out. Yeah. Actually, to be fair to Wu, there were a lot of batted balls in that game that went against them. And he got pretty unlucky in a lot of spots. Now, he did give up the home run. And that was a middle-middle pitch.

[00:25:01] And in the box score, yeah, he got kind of knocked around a little bit because he gave up five runs. But I actually don't think it was Wu pitching like brutally badly. I think there was some just tough luck that went against them. But you know what? It didn't end up making a difference because the Mariners won anyway. And if you pitch against a team that much in, what was his ERA against the A's? Under one? Then you probably got some good Babbitt luck prior to that. So you could just say, okay, it evened out a little bit. You can't control that too much.

[00:25:30] But the rest of it, man. I mean, it's the lineup making the right, doing the right things in the right moments. Hitting the clutch home runs when you get it. Cal Rowley on Tuesday. I mean, they're trying so hard to give him a day off. They had Brad Adam like spying on him, waiting to see if he would come into the game and pinch hit. And what does Cal do? He gets one opportunity and he knocks in the go-ahead run. And in a moment where he didn't have to, he wasn't supposed to play, but he played anyway.

[00:25:59] And they just, man, they just get it done. It's a little hard to digest a good offensive Mariner baseball team right now. Through six-ish weeks of the season, the Mariners are a good offensive team. They're good in their clutch. And if I'm at a loss for words of how to describe it, then I feel like I speak for a lot of Mariner fans out there who have watched the variations of this team the last handful of years or their entire lives.

[00:26:29] And said, yeah, like, I don't know what to say. We don't always have the words for it either. And we've highlighted why we think the offense has been good. Again, walk a lot, hitting home runs, finding ways to put more balls in play. Their strikeout rate keeps dropping too, by the way, which is great. And I think they're, like, you can highlight the reasons and the factual statements behind why the offense is playing the way they're playing.

[00:26:57] But just to see it actually happen in real time on a nightly basis, because people have so much PTSD of what the offense has looked like in previous years, sometimes it is just amazing to watch it all unfold in real time and say, yeah, this is really happening here. And this offense looks good. Not slightly above average, not passable, but good. Quickly, before we get to our mailbag, I have two more things. Number one, I do want to just give a massive shout-out to Emerson Hancock.

[00:27:26] Massive shout-out. What this dude has done in this rotation since being called back up and what he's asked to do based on the injuries and some of the ineffectiveness around the rest of the rotation, this dude in his last four starts has gone 5-2, 6-2, 6-3, and 6-2. That's a 3-5-7 ERA. His FIP right now over his last four starts, by the way, second most innings in the Mariners rotation over that stretch, only two and a third behind Brian Wu. His FIP in that stretch is 3-5-3.

[00:27:55] His FIP last year was 5-7. 5-7 to 3-5-3 if you throw out that first start. It's pretty good. People need to start apologizing, man. I'll tell you. People have got to start sending Emerson Hancock apologies. I mean, we don't have to. We've had his back ever since day one. That's our guy.

[00:28:19] But, you know, there's a lot of people out there that get on him a little bit and for what really feel like unnecessary reasons a little bit at times. But where would they be right now without him? They would look a lot different. I'll tell you what. Because he has really saved them every fifth day when he's had the chance to make starts. Can I not make a Luis F. Castillo pun since he's gone now? No, you probably still can.

[00:28:46] I don't think our friend Joe Doyle is going to be that thrilled when you do it because he was telling us the other day that he's getting tired of hearing these jokes. But by all means, this is our platform. Say what you want to say. Okay, this isn't actually a joke. Do we think the Orioles thought they were trading for the other Castillo? Do you think there might have been a second where Jerry says, hey, do you want Luis Castillo to Mike Elias? I'm dead serious.

[00:29:12] I'm going to guess that they figured out what was going on when it was cash considerations being discussed in return. That's, you know, that's a fair point. But the Orioles, like, really need pitching. So they're like, wait, could you say that name again? Just need to make sure. What's the middle initial? F. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. If the Orioles had a Kobe W. Mayo to trade to the Mariners, I'd say, great, let's do that.

[00:29:39] So it's Kobe W. Mayo for Luis F. Castillo. Yes. Then we could say you got your wish, Lyle. And that the Orioles got their wish of getting Castillo. The dominant Castillo. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Sure. Well, not Luis F. Castillo. I can't imagine that's exactly what was on Orioles fans' minds.

[00:30:04] In fact, I know it wasn't because when they saw the original tweet, there were actually Orioles fans falling for this, thinking they got the rock for cash considerations. I need to go look at those tweets after we're done recording. Because I didn't see any of those tweets, and I think that would be funny. Oh, God. Yeah, it was something else. But this has been a really fun stretch of baseball, I must say.

[00:30:30] I hope it keeps up, because it's a good, good on-field product to watch. And it's been really fun. Before we get to our mailbag, guys, let's hear a word from GameTime. Well, I don't know who wouldn't want to go watch this team right now with the nine series wins in a row. I know there are some people who still hold a grudge for this offseason, but, I mean, this team is so, so, so entertaining, which gives you every reason in the world to go out to the ballpark.

[00:30:56] Um, my brother, by the way, Lyle, because I keep people in the loop, that we're planning to go on Sunday for Mother's Day. He ended up getting the tickets, and when he asked me where we should go buy the tickets, I told him, go to the GameTime app to get those tickets for Mother's Day. The tickets, it's such a seamless process, because it gets sent right to his phone. And that's why GameTime is the official ticketing partner of the Marine Layer Podcast. They make getting tickets faster and easier.

[00:31:23] Prices on the GameTime app actually go down the closer you get to first pitch. Let's check out tickets for this weekend. You can snag seats tonight on Friday for $13, $18 on Saturday, and $29 on Sunday, right on the GameTime app. Save even more money on zone deals, where you choose the section, and GameTime chooses the seats. Toggle the all-in pricing feature so there are no surprise fees at checkout. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime.

[00:31:49] Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code JUSTBASEBALL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, and redeem code J-U-S-T-B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. All right, let's get into the mailbag. Up first on the mailbag, we have Corey. Okay, quickly before that. Sure.

[00:32:14] Can I just one more time tell the people what I said at the beginning of the show, that we do have a date for our next live show if people are interested, which is May 24th. That's Saturday over at Queen Anne Beer Hall. We're going to do a live show at 12. Watch Party at 1 because it's a 1 o'clock game that day. So if you want to come out to a live show of ours, if you haven't been yet, if you want to come again, love to have you. Again, May 24th, Queen Anne Beer Hall, 12 o'clock. You can consider that a mailbag in person because you'll have a microphone to walk up to and ask us a question. Yeah. Perfect.

[00:32:44] Don't have to throw your hat in the ring and hope it gets on the podcast. It's like, it's direct. We ask and you come up and do it. But if you sign up for our Patreon, which we'd love to have you guys get involved, then you don't have to hope. Your question will get answered. Correct. Corey has signed up for our Patreon and he sends us in a question and asks, I want to know what's going to happen with Harry Ford after the Cal contract. He seems to be in limbo.

[00:33:10] And then Corey explains what he thinks about how the Mariners are going to facilitate Harry Ford. But let me turn the question. Thank you for the question, Corey. On to you, Lyle. Now that Cal is extended, what should the Mariners do with Harry Ford? I don't think they have to make a decision this second. I don't think it's imperative that they would hypothetically trade Harry Ford right now or at the trade deadline. Because his value is not what it used to be.

[00:33:38] I'm not saying that there's not going to be any value. But it has come down a little bit over the last year, year and a half. So let me say this. If the Mariners get blown away with a trade package that involves Harry Ford and it brings them back something that they feel like they absolutely need, I have no doubt they're going to be open-minded to it. Because, again, they have their catcher for the next six years. So will they listen on trade packages for Harry Ford? Yeah, I'm sure they will.

[00:34:05] Well, the other side to that is Mitch Garver is going to be a free agent at the end of this season. Well, there is a mutual option for 26. I can't imagine, if things don't change a little bit with Garver, that the Mariners are going to be that interested on their side to pick it up. So in that scenario, you still need a second catcher. And then Harry Ford's a pretty good second catcher to have in the big leagues along with Cal, who can do a lot for you in terms of, look, we know he's athletic.

[00:34:31] We know he's more than a backup catcher in terms of his bat, at least his profile says he's supposed to be. So I think the Mariners kind of have their pick of the litter here, where if they decide they want to trade Harry Ford and get the right package, they can. But they're not forced to. You and I both talked to some people who currently, just for some context, don't have Harry Ford as a top 100 prospect.

[00:34:56] So just for some context there, and then Harry right now in AAA, if you're curious about his stats, right now he has a 706 OPS in the PCO. He's got an on-base percentage over 400, which is good, but he's currently slugging 306 with a 102 WRC+. Those aren't great numbers. The on-base skills are great, but the one knock that Harry has had his entire pro career is, is he going to hit for enough power? And right now, I think a lot of people, or I would say a lot of people think he does not hit for enough power right now.

[00:35:26] The good thing is, Harry Ford's 22 years old. The Mariners, like, don't have to do anything. Just leave him in AAA at this point. 22, you let him hit the entire season in AAA, and he'll get better, and he'll develop. And especially since now, he's not going to be the centerpiece of any trade. So, if you're going to throw him into a trade as, like, a throwaway, okay, or maybe not a throwaway, a secondary piece in a trade, sure, okay. Then that's the decision you end up making.

[00:35:55] But since his value right now, like, think about where his value lies. His value continues to lie in the fact he's a catcher. If you move him off of catcher, then you take someone who's slugging 306 in the PCL, and you put him in a position he's never really played before. There's no value there. So, leave him at the spot, I would say right now, Corey, of where he currently is playing, and let him develop into the player you want him to be, or that he can achieve with his talent and his work ethic.

[00:36:23] And then you make the decision from there on out. It's not like he's busting the door down on the major leagues right now, and you have to make a decision on this. It's not even close. I'd say that's right. And again, if he's your second catcher, that's a pretty good second catcher to have. Yeah. It would give Cal Raleigh some potential more days off or more DH days, which I'm sure throughout the course of his career he's going to need, as durable and tough as hell as Cal is. It's a lot of games to catch back there.

[00:36:53] And it's a really good thing when teams have multiple good catchers. It helps the workload so much, especially if you are eventually going to phase Cal Raleigh into a DH role as he gets older into this contract, as the games rack up on him behind the plate. To put it, then stick, like, say, in two years. For example, you start weaning Cal off of catcher a little bit, just a little bit, not a ton, and you give those days to Harry and say Harry's bat is developed to be at least an average big leaguer at that point.

[00:37:23] Then that works out, as opposed to, you know, sticking him in a position he doesn't play. I feel like it's going to be a while before we see Cal move anywhere off of catcher, but just to mix in some more DH days is all. Correct, yeah. What I say is, like, you know, he spends 80% of the games he plays at catcher and 20% at DH. I think the Mariners will be totally okay with that. Again, until this year, the Mariners didn't really have a DH. So it works out if Cal is going to be your DH.

[00:37:52] Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Okay, second question. This comes from Xander on Patreon. This one's pretty fun. He says, if you could develop your own roundtable of Mariners past, present, and future to have a discussion about baseball, who would it be? This was tough. Did you think this was tough? It was, and he said roughly pick about four to six people. So I picked all six, and shout out to my brother Jason.

[00:38:21] He helped me with this list. I went, Ichiro. Because I think Ichiro, number one, like, he knows a ton about baseball. Two, he'd be the jokester of the entire conversation, which is great. You need to lighten people up. I put Cal in there. He's the mellow-headed one. Put Felix in there. Tom Wilhelmsen. Dude knows how to talk to people. He was a bartender, for crying out loud. Fernando Rodney. Because, obviously, we have to have Fernando in there.

[00:38:49] And then I put Harold Reynolds, because he's on TV and he talks baseball all day. That's a pretty good list. Yeah. What do you think about this for a list? Four people total. Just four. The two of us, Jerry DiPoto and Kyle Seeger. Do we have to say anything? No, we get to sit there and listen.

[00:39:18] Or it might be five hours of silence. I would lean five hours of silence. So it's just gonna be... Unless you or I would be like, so... Anyone do today's Immaculate Grid? Anyone? Well, I bet you Jerry plays the Immaculate Grid. He's talked about it. He does. Which is why I kind of make that joke to break the ice. I'm gonna go on a limb and say Kyle Seeger does not play the Immaculate Grid.

[00:39:51] That would be a heck of a round table. Would there be eye contact, do you think, between any of us? If there were, again, it would be the Michael Scott-Toby scene from The Office where they're just death staring each other for 30 plus seconds on end, I think. I don't have a problem making awkward, silent eye contact. Especially with people like... Because I don't know Jerry or Kyle Seeger that well. So I could just be like... Watch on YouTube, by the way, if you want to see what I'm doing. It's just like kind of wide eyes. So?

[00:40:22] You guys know each other? Alright, fine. I'll pick some actual people here besides the two of us. I would say Logan Gilbert of this group, to be honest, just because he's such a... Like, he's such a pitching nerd, the way we're kind of baseball nerds, that I feel like there is some like-mindedness there. And just to, like, further hear him, like, go in and talk about modern pitching and how he approaches things, I think would be fascinating. So I'll say Logan.

[00:40:49] I'm gonna say Junior, just because there's too many stories that I'm sure he has that nobody gets to hear publicly that I would be so interested to hear at a roundtable and hear, you know, over drinks or dinner or whatever it may be. So I would say the two of them. Ichiro is probably a good one. That's the one I'll take from your list. Especially because Ichiro and Griffey apparently had such a funny relationship, was the story back when they played. That seeing the two of them together would be pretty cool.

[00:41:17] And then, yeah, if I had to pick one or two more, I'm trying to think who the characters would be. I don't want to keep picking guys from your list, but... You don't have to. I have one that I left off that I wanted to put on there, but he's too similar to one of the other guys I put on there. Our guy, Charlie Furbush. That would be pretty funny. That would be pretty funny, wouldn't it? That would be awesome. But, like, Charlie and Tom are, like, two peas in a pod, so I can't do two of them.

[00:41:45] Right, and I think those two are still good friends, so... Yeah. Yeah, that would be a good one. I'm trying to think of somebody from the 0-1 team that would be really interesting. I feel like... Cammie. Yeah, to hear Cammie at that table with Junior and Ichiro would be pretty cool. But now I've got to think of one more person. At least balance out Logan Gilbert a little bit here. Because in this current dynamic, I feel like Logan's a little bit on an island on his own. Where, like, you've got these guys that played in similar times.

[00:42:13] And Cammie and Junior are probably somewhat similar personalities in some ways. In terms of, like, they're very outgoing. They're very charismatic. They've got stories. Both centerfielders. I'm trying to think of one more person that could be more in, like, the Logan Gilbert bucket. To at least balance it out a bit. Jared Kelnick. I'm going to go and say he is not in the Logan Gilbert bucket. And it's funny. Those two were roommates. Their first year in the big leagues.

[00:42:39] And I think Jared was at Logan's wedding, if I remember from seeing the Instagram photos. So I think they are friends. I'm just trying to think of somebody that's a little more up Logan's alley. But maybe from a different time period. Define up Logan's alley. That's just very, like, pitching savvy. So we need a pitcher. That's a mariner. I mean, if we're talking about guys up Logan's alley, it's literally his teammate, Bryce Miller. Probably, yeah.

[00:43:08] That's about, I'm going to be honest, that's about as close to Logan without knowing, like, personalities a little bit better, like, personally. Like, talking to them as you could get. Alright. Okay, I could buy into that. However, Jerry and Kyle Seeger would be quite the day. Can we add Jerry and Kyle Seeger to that group and, like, mix it in? That would be crazy. That would be wild. That would be pretty funny. Thank you for the question, Xander. That's not something I've thought of. I'm glad you asked it.

[00:43:38] Next question is from Robert. It's more of a suggestion, but we'll read the question part first. He first says, Ben Williamson desperately needs a batting helmet that fits better. Discuss. Well? I actually haven't given this much thought. I didn't think it was a problem for Ben Williamson. Maybe I'm not noticing enough. I don't know. Maybe he's got a slick scalp. Oh, that could be. Maybe it just falls off. Like, I feel like if you're bald, it's easier for the helmet to fall off.

[00:44:08] Sure. Or is it backwards where the hair is more slick? What do you think? No, I'll go the first one. Okay. Good. Second part of his question, or second part of Robert's response. Also, please, please, please do another podcast with Johnny Juta. Preferably after a Mariner's sweep of the Blue Jays featuring at least one soul crushing defeat. Wait.

[00:45:05] This week for Blue Jays Mariners at T-Mobile Park to get his thoughts and to get all his insight. But what ended up happening. So, for those who don't know, Johnny hosts basically, or not basically, Johnny co-hosts the most popular Blue Jays podcast out there. It's called Gate 14. They're very personable. They're diehard fans. They do some really, really hilarious content. They live and die by the team every day.

[00:45:34] So, they've really resonated with the people of Canada and a lot of Blue Jays fans. And they've only done it a few years, too. We asked Johnny about coming on this week. And he said, look, I would love to, but my schedule's actually crazy busy this week. I don't think I'm going to have the time to sit down for a podcast because it's just going to be too hectic.

[00:45:52] The reason is the Gate 14 podcast is coming to Seattle this weekend in person for the Mariners Blue Jays series in Seattle when almost every year you see a Toronto invasion. So, we won't have Johnny on the physical podcast this week. We will, however, absolutely be having him and his buddy Avery on the channel and are going to do some short form content with them. And are going to do some fan type content with them that we are planning throughout the weekend of these games.

[00:46:22] So, you will see them on our channels. So, go follow us on social. It's just not the pod. Right. So, thank you for that, Robert. Literally speaking our language. Literally. We are big Johnny Junta fans. Yeah. Big. Which, by the way, as we speak and as we're recording here, they have landed in Seattle. The Blue Jays against the Angels here on Thursday got off to a really awful start. Johnny's tweeting through it. He sounds miserable.

[00:46:48] He's like, we've been in Seattle for 15 minutes and this Blue Jays team looks like a just absolute disaster. Well, they're now leading 7-4 as we currently speak. And if you go look at Johnny's Twitter over the last, at least as we're recording this, handful of minutes, it is a lot of all caps tweets. Just insane positive ranting where he's like calling the Blue Jays the greatest team ever after 20 minutes ago he said the season was over. Speaking of which, Blue Jays playing a night game the day before traveling?

[00:47:18] Well, shout out to MLB. Really sensible stuff. No, this is not MLB, dog. This is Mr. Artie Moreno in the Los Angeles Angels. Oh, right. Yeah. Well, local TV, baby. Sad. Yeah, it's pretty sad. Good thing for the Mariners, though. But yeah, we're looking forward to seeing Johnny at the ballpark on Friday. So that'll be awesome. Yeah. If you guys are at the games this weekend, you might see him. You might see him and Avery, who are the two guys that host Gate 14, because they'll be around.

[00:47:46] If you see us, you might see them with them. So, yeah. All right. Let's take a quick pause before our next mailbag question. We're going to talk to you guys about our friends over at Pogatch's Pub 85. It's an awesome spot in Kirkland, you guys. If you want to go get some great food, if you just want to plan a time with your friends and kind of sit back and watch some sporting events for an hour, two, five, however long you want to hang out there, it's a great spot to do that. You can play some pool while you're there. You can play some darts while you're there.

[00:48:13] And if you want to go get some happy hour drinks, go there. Three to four dollar happy hour drinks. And from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday are when those happy hour specials are intact. So all of that and a great time with your friends is over at Pogatch's Pub 85 in Kirkland. Go check it out. Let's get to our next mailbag question. This comes from Steve. And Steve asks, what's the latest on how the Mariners' bullpen depth is progressing? And Steve lists off a few guys.

[00:48:43] Gregory Santos, Jackson Kowar, Trevor Gott, and Taylor Saucedo, not for health reasons, but progressing back towards being a big leaguer. Lyle, what do you think? Santos, I'm not sure if he's going to come back this year, unfortunately. That's not known for sure. Hollander said they think he will be back this season. But we're going to have to see. He is on the 60-day IL and it doesn't seem like it's a short-term thing.

[00:49:10] When you say that, are you basing that off the injury or just in general? More just in general. And just trying to guess and predict the future, given how much Santos has been off the field since he's been a Mariner. Because even if he gets back healthy, he was optioned to AAA even before the injury. So when he gets back healthy, he's probably going to be pitching some games in AAA for a while to try to get himself right before the Mariners would potentially even feel ready to call him back up.

[00:49:40] So I'm not sure if we see him in the big leagues this year again or not. And I think the Mariners at some point would look at Gregory Santos and like, all right, we want to see the good Gregory Santos before we put you back in the big leagues. Because what they've seen at the big league level is hurt Gregory Santos goes on the IL, right? We have yet to see the 2023 version of Gregory Santos to help it out. So the injury itself, remember, it's only a two-month injury. So he gets that surgery in April.

[00:50:07] By the end of June, technically he should be healthy, maybe back to full go pitching by the end of July. But even so, then for those two months, would he get up in those final two months of the season? Like the Mariners would say, like, we need to see something from you, I would guess, before we put you back in our bullpen. And we would imagine at that point, right, the deadlines there, the Mariners, we anticipate going out and trading for someone to add to that bullpen. And before then as well, some other guys can put themselves in more solid footing in that pen as well.

[00:50:37] Mm-hmm. And that's still on the early side of things, I feel like, right? For when Santos would get back? You're talking about the 60 days. Yeah, it's 60 days, but the knee surgery itself is two months recovery. Okay. So that's the 60-day IL. But then, again, he's going to have to ramp up before he actually gets activated. But even still, right, so the Mariners, there's no pressure here for the Mariners to put him on the big league roster. Like you said, he is option two Tacoma. When he comes back, he'll be in Tacoma, and they don't have to make any roster moves. It's just there. Right.

[00:51:07] Yeah. Now, Jackson. Yeah, I was going to say, let's get to a couple of the others. So Jackson Coar, I think it's middle of the summer still speaking of bullpen arms that the Mariners are anticipating having back. Jackson Coar will be back sometime this summer. He had full Tommy John, so he has not thrown a pitch in the Mariners organization. And he's got a bit of a long ramp up to go. I do think, though, when he is full go, he will see some time in the Mariners' bullpen.

[00:51:34] It's not going to be the Santos prove it to us. I think they will let him try right away. Technically, now he's thrown some pitches in the Mariners organization because now he's throwing innings down in the complex league. Right. Very low level, though, because he's just starting his journey back. In games and stuff, too, yeah. But to be fair, he faced Jackson Merrill the other day. Right. Yeah, because he's rehabbing, too, down in the complex. Trevor Gott's a similar timeline.

[00:52:04] Gott, I think, will start in the minor leagues before they think if he's going to come up or not. Sauce? Yeah, I don't think Sauce. I don't know. I really don't think Sauce has to prove anything. There just needs to be room for him. They just need to have, they need to need a lefty at the big league level. That's how Sauce gets up. Pitching in the PCL as a reliever, it's a crapshoot. He pitches a handful of innings. He gives up one three-run home run pitching at 7,000 feet of elevation.

[00:52:33] And his season ERA is ruined. Right. Yeah. I think that's right. I'm sure there's things the Mariners want to see from him. Maybe a little bit more strike throwing. Get back to getting more ground balls. His ERA is about four in the PCL right now, which does not tell all by any means. And he hasn't thrown that many innings down there either. But I think you're right. I think it's about availability there. So. Yeah, no, it's a good question. Because the Mariners may address their bullpen at the deadline.

[00:53:02] That may be an area that they go out and add to. Because they, like we've talked about, need some more leverage arms. It could be an area that could really bolster the roster down the stretch. And potentially into the postseason. So you could see some of those guys. You could see them trade for somebody. The other thing that would be tough for Sauce here is, like we have highlighted plenty. I think we're going to see Brandon Garcia at some point this season. And probably at some point in the summer.

[00:53:29] So that's a potential high-end left-handed arm with big stuff that would be in the Mariners' bullpen. So that would make it tougher for Sauce too. Yeah, it'd be hard to see a spot for him on the big league roster if Garcia holds down. If our guy Brandon holds down a spot. I was going to say. The way Gabe's pitching right now, I mean, you're putting him in Atlanta. Right. Right, right. So. So.

[00:53:55] And like I said, when Brandon gets up this year, that's another one of our guys. So we'd be fired up. It'd be super exciting. Yeah. Let's get to the next question. This is from Lad on YouTube. And he asks, what's the deal with Brandon Williamson's defense? And he goes on to point out that Ben Williamson, so far this season, despite the good reputation he has on defense, defensive runs saved and outs above average have him as a negative. Lyle, why is that?

[00:54:25] I think because it's early. Wait, you said Ben Williamson, right? Or not Brandon? I hope I didn't say Brandon. I meant Ben. Ben. Okay. If Brandon, I would say Brandon Williamson's DRS at third is probably terrible. So is his OAA. Yeah. So with Ben Williamson, part of this could be getting adjusted to the big leagues as a rookie when he hasn't had that much time.

[00:54:50] But where this also plays into account, too, is something we were talking about with Gary Hill this week, which if you haven't listened to that Wednesday episode, you absolutely should. Defensive metrics, they aren't perfect. They haven't perfected the perfect way to evaluate a defensive player's overall value. And it especially can get a little bit skewed when the sample size is small. Right now, Ben Williamson's sample size is very small for what he's done in the big leagues as a defender.

[00:55:19] So I feel like there's been a couple plays that he's botched, sure. But there's been a lot of plays that Ben Williamson's made that have saved outs, have saved runs, and have gotten this team out of jams. So I think with Ben Williamson, to check around the all-star break, what he's doing on defense would be a little bit more indicative. For now, I would just take that OAA DRS stuff with a little bit of a grain of salt and let some more sample size play over a bit more time.

[00:55:50] First thing I'll say about Ben Williamson, I recommend to every fan, if you like the vibes you're seeing with Ben Williamson right now, and I am, by the way, because I wish I didn't do this, don't check his savant page. It might honestly paint a really bad picture in your head of his savant page. So yeah, he's got negative right now. I think of it this way. First of all, we can tell he's better at third than Jorge Polanco. And I think OAA would tell you that too.

[00:56:19] It's like, oh, if you gave these guys each 500 chances, Ben clears in by a mile. Yeah, if you want the numbers on that. Ben Williamson technically has negative two outs above average right now, and he's played roughly close to a month in the big leagues at this point. And Jorge Polanco also has negative two outs above average right now, and I think he's played about five games at third base. It's not good. It's not good, is it?

[00:56:46] And this is not meant to be slanted negatively toward Jorge Polanco. He has been one of the best players on the team this year. But there is a role that he, I think, fits a lot better in, which is just let him hit. Yeah. So that's where the eye test comes in. You and I aren't huge on the eye test. We're not scouts. We're not front office people. If we just go, like, look at someone, we're not noticing those little details. That's not, I wouldn't say, our strength.

[00:57:13] I think our strength better is looking at the numbers of what baseball provides, which is why so often we go to defensive or unsafe, and we go to outs above average as well. But when I look at Ben Williamson, like, I watch him over at third. I'm watching on TV or we're at the game. It's like, like, that's what I want at third. Like, the numbers don't bear out overly positive. If I looked at only outs above average, it would tell you he stinks at third. But I look at him, I don't think he stinks at third. Not yet. Maybe we'll reconsider at the end of the season.

[00:57:41] His reputation is that he doesn't stink at third. His reputation is quite the opposite. I think of the same way, and it can maybe in the future reframe our conversation around another Mariners infielder and J.P. Crawford. There have been times in J.P. Crawford's career where I've watched him on defense and I'm like, what is he doing? Where I've legitimately been frustrated watching him defensively. This year, I don't think that's been the case.

[00:58:05] And yet, the metrics tell you, outs above average specifically, that J.P. Crawford has not been very good on defense. I think J.P. Crawford's been fine on defense this year. Watching him. There's not like one thing I can point out and say, man, he's really missing out on it. And that's where I think Gary really brings up a good point. Like, we're not sitting here watching every single step these guys are taking on defense. We just see the result. We see, are they there when the ball gets there? And do they make an accurate throw? That's it. It's not how good of a jump did they get.

[00:58:33] Because if the ball gets past them, you could just assume, oh, he hit it too hard. Or, well, maybe J.P. took a wrong step. Or maybe Ben took a wrong step. Like, that's the, I guess, the kind of point I'm trying to make. Yeah. No, and that's absolutely right. And by the way, guys can have some tough rookie years defensively and still go on to have some really nice careers as a defensive player. If you want a perfect example of this, Bobby Witt Jr.'s rookie year.

[00:58:58] I mean, you want to talk about a disaster class on defense for a guy that was supposed to be a plus-plus glove. That was Bobby Witt. Bobby Witt's rookie year. He put up negative 18 defensive runs saved. He just could not. Two thumbs down. Yeah. Like, it was really a struggle for him that year. But then you look since then, what Bobby Witt Jr. does on defense. He's one of the game's best shortstops.

[00:59:25] In 2023, the first season where he really took off and looks like the player he's now become, he put up 14 outs above average. The year after putting up negative 18 defensive runs saved as a rookie, he then put up 14 outs above average, which ranked in the 98th percentile of the league. If Ben Williamson is not a gold glove level defender in year one, that doesn't mean he's not going to be long-term. And truthfully, I still think he's looked pretty good over there so far. So it's just, it's all context.

[00:59:55] Yep. All right. The last question of the mailbag. This one also from YouTube. This comes from William. And William's question is, if the Mariners spent all of their budget for the season, how are they even going to be active at the trade deadline? And William references the $15 million budget, which if you add in Laoti Tavares, pushes the, sorry, Laoti Tavares and Rowdy Tellez into the offseason bucket, that pushes the Mariners up over that $15 million budget. So, Lyle, is that real?

[01:00:24] Are they going to not be able to add at the trade deadline? That is a good question. Because now this gets into territory that we're not going to have information on is what do their finances look like through three-ish, three and a half months of the season or really four and a half months. What do, like, do, like, had they already carved out a budget for the deadline back this winter that they were saving for the deadline?

[01:00:51] Do they need to see themselves make more money as an organization to be able to have resources to go out at the deadline? That's the stuff we don't know. If you want our opinion on it, yeah, I sure as hell hope so, man. Because as good as this team's been, as fun as they've been so far, there are pieces of this roster that need to be upgraded. I think it's pretty clear. And when you're this good, if this keeps up for the Mariners, you have a chance to go from good to great.

[01:01:20] With a good trade deadline, you can put yourself over the top with a move or two. And it would just be so awesome to see that happen this year. To see them playing way above 500 ball. They're in first place by a good margin going into the trade deadline. But they say, look, we're now approaching territory where this isn't just about getting into the dance and winning the AL West. This becomes about, we've got a chance to do something special this year.

[01:01:46] And even though the roster's been good, they can absolutely use another bat or two. They can absolutely use some leverage bullpen arms. Go do that at the deadline. Because if they do, things get real different in the best of ways very fast. I don't think this will have any effect, really, on the trade deadline. I don't think the off-season budget has anything to do with the in-season budget. Anything. I think it's completely different.

[01:02:14] So again, they may have already carved out a budget long ago for what they could do with the deadline. Sure. Or you could think about it this way. When you were adding off-season players to start, you're paying full seasons of salaries. How much salary are you paying if you had someone at the deadline? A third of the season. A third of the season. Very, very different. Well, but the Mariners don't usually trade for rentals. So you're probably going to take somebody on who would be on your roster moving forward. Okay.

[01:02:39] But you'll get to the off-season at some point, and then you can figure out the rest of your salary concerns. As it turns out, like this season, so you take on a third of a season worth of salary. You get to the off-season, and then if you say, hey, if we need to clear space, we'll clear space. Yeah. All right. So that's an off-season problem, not an in-season problem. So you take care of that then. But in terms of going out and adding in-season, a third of a season of salary is, in baseball terms, not that much.

[01:03:08] So I don't feel like that stops you from that. This all just kind of comes back to the point where I believe that the in-season budget is completely separate from the out-of-season budget. Therefore, that won't stop Jerry DiPoto. And by the way, it hasn't really stopped them. You know what stopped them from making deadline deals? The past two deadlines, which by the way, they added significant money, probably more money than any team, really, at each of the two deadlines in 22 and 24, in which they went out and made big splashes. The only thing that stopped them was being mediocre.

[01:03:38] Right. That's it. They traded Paul Seawald away because they were mediocre. And had they won two more games late in July, they may have added rather than done what they did with Seawald. Right. It just hasn't stopped them before, even with all the financial uncertainty. I just wouldn't believe that that's going to be a problem now. It doesn't feel like the MO in-season to do that. Right. That's not what you have time to think about in-season because you know what?

[01:04:06] A good sell to ownership in-season, look at this team's results right now. We'll play tomorrow that we're doing. That should be a good enough. That's a good enough selling point, I would think. Yeah. You tell them, look, this team's already really good. But do you want to take it even a step further? And you would hope the answer is yes, because then you can go out and make some real splashes. And who those splashes could be, we could get into as time goes on here.

[01:04:32] This is not the single biggest splash in the world they could make, but the name I keep circling back to is Nathaniel Lowe. That one just makes almost too much sense to me if they were to go and get him at this deadline. So Nathaniel Lowe, what's his contract? He's got another year after this year, so he's got a little bit of team control. So he's making 10 this year, meaning you would take on about three at the deadline and he'll make 12 next year? 13? Seems pretty reasonable. Right.

[01:05:01] That's pretty reasonable for a first baseman. And then Ryan Helsley, how much is he making? He's a rental, so you really would not have to pay him much. Yeah, you would not, and he is making this year $8.2 million, meaning you take on $2.3? Sure. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. Like, look, the Mariners signed Donovan Solano, who's far and away their worst player right now, for $3.5 million this offseason.

[01:05:27] I think adding a legit impact piece for the same price, less than that actually, is totally worth it. And I would think that the ownership group thinks the same thing. I would have a hard time thinking otherwise. Yeah, I hope so. It's a good mailbag. Really, really creative bunch of questions, which we say every week, but we say it for good reason. You guys are awesome with kind of putting your thinking caps on and sending this stuff in. So keep doing it. We got mailbags every Friday to do. With that, Lyle, let's wrap it up with our final two segments.

[01:05:56] And starting off, let's go down on the forum. Which guy are you highlighting this week? If there was a player in the minor leagues hitting .360 so far in the month of May, would you be interested? Yes. Well, there is one. His name's Cole Young. He's gotten off to, again, what was a slow April. But, man, he has been real hot the last couple of weeks.

[01:06:23] And for a team that is expecting him to get up to the big leagues this year, for a fan base that hopes to see him in a Mariners uniform this year, this is a pretty good sign. And it resembles a lot of what happened last year early on in AA when he was also one of the youngest players in the league. Started a bit slow. Again, took him a little while to get his footing under him. Then took off from there. May and on, he was really good down in Arkansas. And we may be starting to see a similar trend with the Rainiers. Remember what we've said about Cole Young.

[01:06:52] That we would prefer Cole Young forces the Mariners' hand of putting him in the big leagues as opposed to the Mariners desperately needing him in the big leagues because they have a need. Because we've seen how the two situations work themselves out. I'd rather Cole Young be 100% ready to be in the big leagues by the time he gets called up. And doing this in Tacoma? That's going to do it. But hitting 360 in the PCL will 100% get you in. League average power. Hit for a high average. Get on base.

[01:07:22] That is going to solve so many problems. Yeah, it would. Now, there's still things for him to continue to work on as he spends more time in Tacoma. The on base hasn't been crazy for him yet. For a guy that does draw walks, he can still walk a little bit more these days. Where, again, like that part just isn't quite all the way there yet. The power's not quite all the way there yet. Although, like we've talked about with his power, it may not be overwhelming.

[01:07:48] But it can be, you know, 12-ish home runs a year type of power where he can put one out of the yard when you make a mistake. So, he's hit a couple home runs this month. That's been a good sign. Would love to see him again. Draw a few more walks. Continue to put bats a ball. Continue to rack up hits. But first week or so of May, this is a really nice sign. The guy I'm choosing to highlight this week, we just saw on Wednesday, Lyle, Ty Pete. How about Ty Pete? 19-year-olds and 19-years-old in high A.

[01:08:17] He got off to a slower start. But, I mean, recently he has been tearing the absolute cover off the ball. The last week of games, Ty Pete has played. He's hitting .380. He's got an OPS over 1,000. Three doubles, a home run. He's driven in four. Stolen a pair of bags. Playing center field. Again, I would imagine still acclimating a little bit to playing center field. Especially playing that center field where you have so much less room to operate in center. It's pretty cool to watch him.

[01:08:46] He's got a .755 OPS now for the season. That's higher than his mark in low A last year. And I'm sure there were a decent amount of people, Lyle, that thought Ty Pete would stay in low A for a little bit longer this year until he proved, hey, I'm going to be outstanding against these pitchers rather than above league average. But then the Mariners looked and said, hey, I think it's more important that all these prospects stay together. And they keep the entire group together. A lot of that 23 draft class. And they keep Ty with those guys. And what do you know?

[01:09:15] Ty's hitting right now. High A pitching better than he did low A. That's awesome. That's great. Again, when we say slow start, it was really his first week. Since then, dude's been on a tear. Which is pretty awesome to see. As two people who are noted Ty Pete fans, I hope he keeps doing it. I hope it keeps up. I hope he keeps absolutely crushing the baseball. I hope he keeps playing a really nice center field, which he has so far.

[01:09:41] And it all just keeps going up and up for Ty Pete because he's a pretty easy guy to root for. Let's wrap up the show, Lyle, with our Russell Wilson Umpire of the Week. I have an honorable mention this week. Had to work in this Mariners A-Series because there was some just terrible umping in this series. So shout out to Nestor Seha. Is it Seha? Who was behind the plate for game one of the A's Mariners series. He was not good at all.

[01:10:09] But our actual Russell Wilson Umpire of the Week, Lyle, is a recurring winner. Mr. C.B. Buckner. Now, he had a bad game last week. Or earlier this week, actually. Against, it was in a Blue Jays-Guardians game. He had a tough start to the game. He missed 11 calls in the first four innings of the game. Nine of them came against the Blue Jays. But what happened after is what caused him to win this award.

[01:10:36] Mr. Max Scherzer, who was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, was not too happy that C.B. was missing calls against his own team. So, Max decided on his day off, on the top rail of the dugout, that he was going to essentially make fun of C.B. Buckner. He was going to mimic flipping a coin onto his hand and saying, is it a ball or a strike? Because that's how the Blue Jays felt the strike zone was. That it was a coin flip throughout that game. I thought that was funny. I thought that was one of the best things I've seen.

[01:11:08] C.B. didn't throw him out, right? No, I don't think so. Yeah. I don't know if he saw it. Good. Let Max cook. Not in the game, at least. He probably saw it after. You know what I say to C.B. if you saw it after the game? Cry, buddy. Deal with it. The umpire auditor account, because they'll usually highlight a few of just the absolute worst moments of the week from umpires. Do you know what their banner is?

[01:11:37] What? The banner for the umpire auditor Twitter account is that the Major League Baseball Umpires Association blocked them. I got a kick out of that. How on brand. Just some of the softest group of people. It's unreal. Hate to see it. Oh, you hate to see it. If you guys are going to be at the Blue Jays games this week, let us know. We'd love to see you guys.

[01:12:05] Again, if you guys want a taste of the Gate 14 podcast, it's probably worth your time. It is worth your time. Those guys are a riot. And you might see them this week if you're at the games. So, if you're at the games, let us know. Love to meet up. As always, some of you might just see us walking around, period.

[01:12:50] But, um, but yeah. All over at the website, marinelayerpod.com. Again, our first live show, which is over on the same place, website as well. May 24th. That's Saturday, May 24th. Queen Anne Beer Hall. 12 p.m. Start time. 1 p.m. Watch party. We'd love to have you. Oh, and you can follow us all across socials at marinelayerpod. That too. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.