Episode 24: Marc Luino (Baseball YouTuber "GiraffeNeckMarc"), Jarred Kelenic's Process, And Bullpen Struggles

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number twenty four of the Marine Layer Podcast with TJ. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein. On today's pod, we're joined by Mark Luino and Mob content creator on YouTube. Really fun conversation with him. We have our three Mariners storylines of the last seven days. We have our minor league check in segment, we have another umpire of the week, our Mob wrap around, and as always, to close out the show, we have speak your Mind, Let's get it rolling. We welcome you into this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast on Tuesday, April eleventh. While I did not miss watching stressful extra inning games, I'll say that much. Man, I'm already done with it. I'm already done watching ghost runners on second base again. 00:00:59 Speaker 2: Mariners play a lot of extra inning games, and it's easy to forget over the course of an offseason, and especially now that they're playing them this early and the two high pressure games they've lost. Yeah, it's been a little bit of a roller coaster of emotions this week, not just for the Mariners, but i'd say for fans too, when you sit through those games and you don't come away with a win. 00:01:19 Speaker 1: We were recording this here on Tuesday the last two full games we have seen have both been extra inning games. We'll touch a little bit on the game in Cleveland on Sunday in one of our segments. It relates directly to it. But yeah, twelve innings. The reason you put those runners on second base, those so these games can end after ten. So if you have to go three of those innings where you have to stress about a runner on second base, it's it's not fun. It really is not fun at all. Let's get to our three Mariners storylines of the week. Okay, at first, our first storyline of the week. While the process finally looks different for Jared Kelnick. We talked about it all spring, but we watch him up there at the plate. We tell again, notice the word I said there, process, the process for what Jared Kelnick is looking for and computing for up there at the plate looks different than it does in seasons past. 00:02:16 Speaker 2: The biggest thing is he's not chasing pitches. I mean, I don't want to say he looks like a completely new player, but that's almost how you have to phrase it. Because the old Jared Kelnick some of these breaking balls that he's seen earlier in the year he's swinging at those because he's seen a lot of breaking balls low and out of the zone. He used to chase those and come up empty. Now all of a sudden, he's laying off those. He's nearly in the seventieth percentile in all of baseball in chase rate, meaning he's well above league average in not chasing pitches and swinging at the right balls in the zone, which is awesome because it's translated to a really, really good first couple of weeks for him. 00:02:51 Speaker 1: What did you think looking at waking up and looking at his Baseball Savant page today. 00:02:57 Speaker 2: Oh, it's awesome to see a bunch of bright red on his page. And in terms of x slug and hard hit rate, it's amazing. It's amazing some of. 00:03:05 Speaker 1: The things that stand out here. I mean in terms of average eggs of velocity, is hitting the ball hard. His quality of contact, which is measured by expected weighted on base average. Again, weighted on base average differentiates a home run from a single and a walk, et cetera. And the expected one is what you expect you based on your quality of contact. So that's how that's measured. His expected batting average, his slugging is expected. Slugging his way up there. All the peripherals for what Jared Kolnick is doing well is still there. Now, there's still a slight caveat in a small sample size. Like all of these small sample size numbers, he's still striking out a bit. He's still swinging and missing a little bit. But you think over the course of the season, most of these numbers will stabilize while some of the other ones might come down a little bit. We would expect to strikeout rate lyle as well to come up. 00:03:57 Speaker 2: It shouldn't stay at above thirty percent for most of the year now to set some expectations. Strikeouts may very well always be a part of Jared Kalnick's game. There's a lot of players who have that in their game. Doesn't mean they can't be good players. Look at au Hennio Suarez. He struck out over thirty percent of the time last year. He had a great year. For Kelnick. If he can be around I'll call it twenty five to twenty seven percent in terms of his strikeout rate, but it's all from swinging at the right pitches, which he's been doing so far. Then that's okay. Because that's gonna come with a lot more quality of contact and a lot of hard hit baseballs, which we've seen early on in the year. So if he's just limiting some of those strikeouts, the Mariners and just about everybody, including Kalmick will live with a twenty five to twenty six percent strikeout rate. 00:04:45 Speaker 1: I want to highlight a couple at bats that really showcase it, and both of them came from Sunday's game in Cleveland while both you and I watched this at bat with him against the Manuel classe A. I mean he is fighting off he like classe first of all, top five Orliever in all of baseball. So that's just the start. And he throws a cutter that ranges from ninety six to one hundred and two miles an hour, gutting in on his hands. So what does he do? I mean he doesn't. He manages to spoil all of the cutters in the strike zone. I'm taking a look at it. He threw four separate cutters on the inner quadrant of the plate that Jared could have swung in misstap or he could have rolled over easily, but no, he spoiled those pitches. Well, then class threw him in an eight pitch at bat, the seventh and eight pitches of the bat, while the count was two and two. He threw him two sliders down and in on his back foot, and Jared did not swing at either of them, which is so impressive it because it has the same shape as a cut fastball, but it has a little bit more depth to it. And Jared still did not swing at that pitch, which might out of the hand at first look like a cutter on the inner half of the plate that he should swing at, when instead it drops out of the strike sound towards his back foot. Uh. There In the ninth inning, both both the seventh and eighth pitch of that at bat both sliders missed, and he ended up walking in that ninth inning. The other one lyle came an extra innings against en yelled Dillo Santos A, the one where he mashed a double there in extra innings, he worked the count to three two fouled out here. So I did try and sequence these at bats and and sort of wrote them, wrote them, wrote them out a little bit. He did fall behind early in this at bat. He swung and missed at a change up and watched a fastball, so he gets another change up on pitch number three, he spoils it back, works the count all the way full on three to two. He has a really good take on the sixth pitch of that bat, which just missed off the inside corner, one of his better takes he's had this year, not chasing that pitch in on his wrists and breaking his bat. He fouls off a pretty good pitch of pitch number seven of the at which I thought he should have crossed, he did not. And then pitch number eight to Dy at bat he nuked out to right center field. Was this close to hitting a home run. So then he turns it around and the next day smacks a game tying home run in the ninth inning against the Cubs and Michael Fulmer on a similar pitch. The process of everything I just described for Jared Kelnick, we love it. It is so nice to see that this is the kind of hitter we thought we were getting when Jared Klnick was coming up. It's a small sample size, but we do like where he's at here in terms of working counts and picking the right pitches to hit. 00:07:38 Speaker 2: I'd love to hear what he was doing in the off season because his ability to read pitch shape and read spends night and day from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three to go to go and do what he did against Emmanuel Class who you called him a top five reliever. You can argue he's the best reliever in baseball. To spit on those sliders with two strikes beyond impressive, and he's swinging at those. Last year, the old Jared Kalmick probably whiffs at one of those pitches. It's night and day what he's done. It really is. And we talked about it time after time. If he's gonna be this X factor, the Mariner's ceiling all of a sudden gets that much higher. Now the bottom of the lineup's gonna have to hit. That's a whole other topic. But he's doing everything they could ask of him. Right now. You know what, I'm gonna go out and make this statement, there is no chance Jared Kalmick repeats what he did the last two years. I'm saying that bold and brash, will he be an All Star? I can't guarantee that. I don't know what his twenty twenty three he's going to hold as a whole. He will not repeat what he did in his first two years in the big leagues. Not with this process. 00:08:42 Speaker 1: Okay, everyone listening, clip that clip it pull it over his head. I know a couple of people who might do that, but I'm honestly, I'm in the boat with you there. The process looks too good. And again, this isn't even guaranteeing that he's going to be a good player. It just means he's not going to be what he was the last two seasons. 00:09:02 Speaker 2: And the Mariners could really use it again. Even if he's a one toh five WRC plus guys, he's five percent above league average. Still night and day what they got from twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two especially, he's gonna end up playing that quality defense that everybody knows he can play in the corners as well. Okay, let's get to our second storyline here. So a little bit on the downside here, TJ. The bullpen, as we know, has had its issues this week. They have blown a couple of games between Sunday and Cleveland. Last Wednesday against the Angels, that game wasn't blown, but the lead was extended by La and then on Monday against the Cubs and extra innings, they let the lead go again or they let the tie go. So it's been a shaky ride the last week for this Mariners bullpen, which is a little concerning. 00:09:55 Speaker 1: I come down when I'm trying to think of the right word to use for this. I mean execution, right that, like that's what it is, and not just throwing pitches over the zone. I mean, you can think to Sunday with Penn Murphy and extra innings, chucks the ball into centerfield trying to pick off the runner behind him and ends up just throwing it away right into centerfield to throw again. In Arizona they work on fifty to one hundred times, and then as soon as it matters in a game, he just throws it into center field, just inexcusably on a mistake that you cannot be making once the regular season starts, but it happens anyway. And I kind of want to focus on Matt Brash a little bit because he's the guy they really need to rely on now to be that true, just filthy, shutdown guy with Munno's out. I mean, he is the guy right in that bullpen with that sweeping slider that has gotten all of this hype, but when they needed him in the ninth inning on Sunday, his slider flattened out. He lost all command, and he lost all feel for where the ball was going, to the point where he's just spinning slider after slider that gets flatter and flatter and the break is shorter and shorter, to the point where he left one, you know, middle middle to Will Brennan and cracks it for a game tying double that yeah, probably should have been caught. But the execution from Matt Brash and the bullpen throughout extra innings was also terrible. Right, Like, this team and the lineup is not built like they're still kind of built to win close games theoretically right for what they want. They want to execute like they have the last two years in these close games and do everything right. But your bullpen's not executing like that. You can't do that. So it's just kind of disappointed to see here to the first week and a half. 00:11:41 Speaker 2: You called Brash's struggles. I think your quote was that is straight out of the Chris Langen interview that we did, isn't it, Because exactly what Chris talked about a few weeks ago with us. That's what happened. 00:11:53 Speaker 1: It did, and the thing I was like, I was curious enough, right, so we talk about an elite Mash Matt Brash slider. The thing moves like twelve to fifteen inches. That like elite. Do you know how much his sliders were breaking to Will Brennan and then at bat in between seven Yeah, it was between seven inches and three inches, which brings Matt Brash's best pitch of all time back into the mundane circles and that makes him not as good. Right, Your pitches don't break and they don't move like they should. It doesn't work, and that's all part of Brash. You know, this is his first time with munios out. It's like you're tabbing them. Hey, you are the high leverage guy, and it just all falls apart for him, which is it was really disappointing because you think of a guy like that to come in and shut down the game. That's the kind of stuff he had, and that's like he started the inning by making Jose Ramirez look silly again and then it all falls falls apart, which is again disappointing for Matt Brash. You just expect more of it. And Brash isn't the only one who's struggling with execution. We can name a couple of guys here who have really struggled, but you know, Brash probably most importantly, because he's the guy you rely on the most. 00:13:06 Speaker 2: If anybody needs a breather with Matt Brash, let me just read you this because his era and his whip have not been good so far. As era is four to seventy six a time of recording, his whip is one seven six, his XCRA two oh four, BIP seventy five x FIT two fifteen, So his underlying numbers say, you know what, this is probably not gonna last. He's gonna revert to being the Matt Brash of twenty twenty two, and he is going to find his rhythm. It's just not happening yet. And it's unfortunate because these two extra inning games this week the Mariners could have really used to get themselves on track. But Matt Brash himself should not be too off the rails for most of this year, right. 00:13:48 Speaker 1: But you watched both those games like there was no underlying numbers there to suggest he was successful in those outings. You Like, we watched him attempt to execute pitches and put pitches in good spots and he was not doing that, just flat out. 00:14:06 Speaker 2: No, not at all. And again I'm not defending his outings from the last couple of days. I just mean that long term, this is probably gonna get cleaned up. Yeah, it's unfortunate that he couldn't get those outs when he needed them. I just don't think this is going to linger all year. But they're gonna need Matt Brash because while we're on the subject of the bullpen, let's talk about Andres Munios a little bit, because this week he hit the IL, Mariner's best reliever diagnosed with what they called a deltoid strain. Remember, he didn't have a full spring to get work in, like a full load of work in, so he's been feeling a little sore between outings and the Mariners notice, so they put him on the IL. They seem to think it's precautionary. They seem to be doing it as a way to try and get Munya some extra rest and get them locked and loaded for the rest of the year because they're going to need him. And they were saying he just wasn't responding well to the point where he felt like he might need two to three days of in between all his start or all his outings, and they just couldn't give him that in the big leagues. So they thought maybe two weeks to give him rests could help them. But the other guys are gonna need to step up all he's out. 00:15:10 Speaker 1: Let's hope that's all it takes is the minimum amount of time on the on the aisle. They can't they cannot afford to have him out that much longer. From again, what we've seen like this, Mariti's bullpen could still be good, right, It could be. They're coming off back to back years of being a top five bullpen in baseball. It is hard to sustain that. It's even harder to sustain it when your top five reliever of baseball is out right, If they're gonna win these close schemes, they need the best guys in the bullpen, and Andre's Munhoz currently is not in that bullpen. 00:15:47 Speaker 2: Last thing, before we move on really quick, You're right, sustaining an elite bullpen back to back years is incredibly hard to sustain it. Three consecutive seasons is near impossible. So I'll ask you what's a six sucessful year for the Mariner's bullpen? Top ten, top twelve, probably. 00:16:05 Speaker 1: Top ten, I would say, based on the guys you have in there and the stuff they throw, I would say top ten. Yeah, But it are they a top ten bullpen without Andres Munos? 00:16:18 Speaker 2: No shot? 00:16:19 Speaker 1: Probably not no? Right, Like he brings the bell curve, drags the bell curve into the top ten range easily, right, because you look after that right, the depth is not quite there, and the guys that are truly elite and truly difference makers in that bullpen, it just kind of limits it a little bit. One guy, Lyle As we move on to our third storyline, who could be a big difference in this bullpen that we've been very pleased about so far this year. Trevor Gott, his fastball cutter combination has been a really welcome surprise in this bullpen, and or the early returns are I think Jerry knew what he was looking for, and as of now, Trevor Gott's stuff looks like it can play and keep up in a major league bullpen. 00:17:08 Speaker 2: I think I texted that to you this week when Gott had one of his really sharp outings. I think my exact words were, Okay, I see exactly why Jerry Depoto likes this guy. Was that about what I said? 00:17:21 Speaker 1: I think it was. It was pretty much. It was pretty much that what's so bizarre. Already he started getting whiffs on thirty eight percent of his fastballs. That's pretty good for the only pitches he is really getting whiffs on his cutter and his fastball. But the pitches have been remarkably effective. The profile of the pitch, you pick it out, and the Jerry you know, opens up his spreadsheet of what they look for and a release point and a spin rate and a velocity and in a movement and he's like, boom, we got it. He's just sitting there waiting to be taken, and he got him. And he's been again. He's been good. We obviously always love larger sample sizes of these kinds of things. But the stuff looks good. 00:18:07 Speaker 2: And the cutter's already got a run value of negative two just through six appearances, which that's really good. And the fastball, and you talk about the swings and misses, the movement on that fastball is absurd. I didn't realize that it moved the way it did before seeing him in big league action during the regular season. 00:18:26 Speaker 1: And the quality of contact he's allowing two lyle top seven percent in baseball, which is what we want from believers. That's what Paul Seawall does so well is limits hard contact, and that's kind of the comp with him and Topa. The reason that Jerry acquired him is like, hey, look at that armslot. We already have a guy like that in the bullpen who does pretty well. Why don't we try and mold these guys maybe a little bit after him, but with a little bit more velocity as well. 00:18:52 Speaker 2: The Mariners had elite bullpens back to back years in twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty two, Here's the catch it it wasn't the same guys outside of Seawall. Twenty twenty one, it was Casey Sadler, Drew Steckenrider, Paul Seawald. Seawald was another big factor in twenty two, but the two main bulldogs in that bullpen were Andres Munnos and Matt Brash. You're gonna need somebody to surprise you in twenty twenty three if you want to continue to have a really good bullpen looks like it has a chance to beat Trevor Gott. Through just a few outings, he has looked razor sharp. 00:19:30 Speaker 1: So there's a lot of optimism for that while for what it is, and it might not just be Trevor Got. There might be someone sitting in the minor leagues that is waiting to come up and really stamp a piece on this bullpen. And there could be a guy in this bullpen currently that was good last year that might not be Like Drew Steckenrider in twenty twenty one was awesome, and then he comes back in twenty two and he's stunk. And it didn't take the Mariners really that long to move on because they knew that they knew what they were looking for in the bullpen, they found it, and the bullpen just kind of continued on without without skip right, without without any sort of blip in the radar. So that's what I think they're thinking at this year. And you know, Got could be that guy or one of those guys. It could probably be multiple as well. 00:20:18 Speaker 2: Bullpens are fickle, and we're going to find out here pretty quickly in the next few weeks who's really got it. In terms of sustainability and who may start to fall off. It'll be something to watch. 00:20:29 Speaker 1: Was that a pun? 00:20:32 Speaker 2: Fickle? 00:20:32 Speaker 1: Who's really got it? Come on? 00:20:35 Speaker 2: Oh no, I got to get that past. Honestly, that was unintentional, but good catch on that. That's a good catch. 00:20:43 Speaker 1: Well, I've got I've got good ears you know. 00:20:48 Speaker 2: Now ever you don't I'm now ever using that word on this podcast is going to throw me for a loop because it's such a normal word to use in a sentence, but here is now on a Mariner's podcast. I'm going to think about it now every time from here on out. Okay, we had a great interview this week with Giraffeckmark. It was a really really cool interview. Mark Luino his full name. If you guys watch any baseball YouTube videos, you've probably seen him. He's wildly popular. He has over two hundred and fifty thousand subscribers on YouTube. He does a bunch of stuff on social media as well, and he's a Mets fan. He follows the Mariners, he follows all baseball teams, but he is at his core a Mets fan. It was pretty cool to get to have a conversation with him because We've talked to a lot of Mariners people so far. All the interviews have been great, but it was cool to one get an outsider's perspective and to branch out a little bit in this interview to not just talk about the Mariners but cover some broader topics as well. 00:21:44 Speaker 1: It's good to get a, like you said, a different outside perspective as well. And if you sit back and think about it, low, like you said, we didn't talk about all the Mariners, correct, but there's a lot of there's the two franchises, despite being in different league over the last five or so years, have a lot of interlocked storylines that we're able to touch on early in the interview. That's actually, you know, I thought was pretty entertaining, and it's also good just to get someone's perspective from a new media perspective, like a true like our age content creator whose full time job is to create content and cover Major League Baseball on his platform, which is YouTube videos. He does a podcast for the Mets as well, directly for the Mets, by the way, which I think is pretty cool that he's the host of Mets Up. I believe it's on their website. If you go look at it on their YouTube channel anyways. So it's really good to get like a perspective from somebody who is at like he is, the new digital media of covering, of covering baseball, and it's good. It's really good to get her perspective. We talked a little bit of WBC as well. You got to spend a lot of time down there in Miami watching a bunch of WBC baseball something. We talked a little bit about this on this podcast, and it's good to get his perspective on how that all rolled out. It was awesome. 00:23:07 Speaker 2: And he does a bunch of really cool YouTube videos. I'll throw this as a little bit of a teaser. He did something for one of his YouTube videos that involved three separate Major League baseball stadiums, and I'll leave it at that. It's one of his better videos. And we'll let you listen to what we talk about in the interview about it, because it's a really really cool thing that he did involving three major League baseball stadiums that, by the way, aren't all that close to each other. So with that, let's get to our interview with Giraffeckmark. All Right, we welcome on Mark Luino. You guys probably know him better as Giraffeckmark, popular baseball YouTuber. He's also the host of the Mets Up podcast. Mark. We appreciate you taking some time to join us. We thought we'd just start with the hard hitting stuff first. On a scale of one to ten, how much do you despise Paul Saweald? 00:24:00 Speaker 3: Oh that is a ten. That is a big, fat ten. Just the fact that he was so god forsakingly horrible with the Mets and then he goes to Seattle and he figures it out. I hate him. And then he gets last year when you guys came to Queens, gets a couple of big outs, starts gesturing to the crowd. I mean, that guy gets under my skin. I never thought Paul Seawald would be that guy, but yeah, I hate him. 00:24:24 Speaker 1: Do you reflect all of Mets fans when you say, are there Mets fans who are like, well, it is what it is? Or do you think that's a majority stands there? 00:24:34 Speaker 3: I think a majority of Met fans probably hate him. Like I know my podcast co host James, He's a big pitching guy, so he like respects what Paul Seawald has been able to do. He's like, listen, he completely changed. He turned around his career with like one pitch. I blame it on the Mets. I don't blame it on him. I'm like, no, I blame it on him, like I hate him. He didn't have the dog when he was here. Now all of a sudden, he's this nasty pitcher. But all jokes aside. I mean happy for him, but obviously whenever the Mets play, you guys, I really hope he blows it. 00:25:01 Speaker 1: I forget the celebration he did when they were in Queen's last year, but I did love the fact he broke out the rock and the oh yeah it was this right, so yeah. Earlier this week in the Cleveland series, I mean, did he's broke out a new one? He looked at Josh Naylor and rocked the baby a little bit, which I which I really liked. I'm glad he's branching out a little bit. 00:25:21 Speaker 3: Listen. I mean, if he's starting to talk some trash, I think that's a good thing. As a Mariners fan, like Paul Sewald was a dude who won the Mets might have had like less than zero confidence. So the fact that now he's able to talk some trash. I think that's really good. I think that's you should be excited. 00:25:36 Speaker 2: It's funny. I think that confidence just kind of grew for him over time as he started to pitch in a high relief role with the Mariners. Because when he was called up funny story, it was the same day both Jared Keelnick and Logan Gilbert were called up, and he fired off a tweet that day. He was like, the Mariners are calling up all their young spry prospects today and he's like thirty one, thirty two years old, so he's probably thinking, oh, I'm just gonna get a cup of coffee, and then you know, he turns into a high leverage guy in the bullpen, and so yeah, I think it just kind of grew over time for him. 00:26:03 Speaker 3: Yeah, he's just really I mean, he has turned his career around completely, Like he's become a very solid reliever at worst. You know, take away how much I dislike him, but you still got to respect that he gets big outs now. 00:26:17 Speaker 2: Mariners fans, Mets fans both AFTA. I would say a slow ish sluggish start to the year. But if you go on and read both the Twitter. Versus of both those fan bases, would it be safe to say season's over sides? 00:26:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean from the Mets fans side, I can speak on a little bit more. It's definitely a little dark, little overreactive, I think, to say the least, like, yeah, five and five isn't the start that we wanted. But also like we came out to such a hot start last year and we ended the year so poorly, Like what does it really matter as long as you get to the playoffs? I think that gets lost, like in the shuffle a lot, especially with like a relatively new format last year we had more teams and just the way that baseball's normally play, you think, like, oh, the best team, you gotta be the best team all year long. But like in all honestly, you just got to make the playoffs and then hope you get hot, like the Phillies did, because we know they weren't one of the better teams, but they got hot at the right time. I mean even like a little bit of the Mariner's credit last year too, Like they got hot towards the end they had that like good little run and like it eventually cooled off. But yeah, I think both sides probably maybe take a little gas off the pedal of the overreaction just because like it's so early. They're both very good teams. I don't think either of these teams should be missing the playoffs. 00:27:32 Speaker 1: How like, how much time do you have to carve out to watch teams besides me? It's like your channel, your YouTube channel, Draftneckmark on YouTube. You know you cover you try and cover everybody. I mean you're talking about about all thirty teams in baseball. How much time are you able to carve out for teams besides the Mets to you know, really focus on and really pay attention to, like the Mariners three time zones away. They're playing at ten o'clock when you're probably trying to churn on a video for the next day and thinking of other things or maybe smartly where you know, how do how do we you know? How where does that time go? Like where does it? Where does it come from? Where do you have time to like look into all this stuff? 00:28:08 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it comes down to the fact that, like this is my full time job, so like relatively speaking, not that I like I have to make time for it. Right, So, like when the Mets are on, I'm all focused on the Mets, like that's that's pretty much it. So like actually a team like the Mariners, like I keep a lot of tabs on the Padres too, like even before they knock us out of the playoffs, I was like very much like the fact though, like Padre fan, so I like it works out where West Coast games start just as the Mets game ends, so I have the ability to actually watch both of those. I have a harder time honestly watching like Central team games, like if there's ever like a blank in my knowledge or if you like seeing a quiz like the teams I normally miss, I don't miss the Coasts. I always miss the Central cause that that those are the games I just don't get to watch because they overlap with the Mets. But yeah, with the Mariners and stuff. I mean, for those of you who didn't know before we start this podcast, start start like an hour earlier, and I fell asleep because my schedule has been all over the place. So yeah, like my sleeping is very sporadic, especially because I try and make sure that I watch like those West Coast games, and ends up making me go to bed pretty late. Most nights. 00:29:14 Speaker 1: So from a Mets perspective, now, if we want to tie this to the Mariners, because this is the question that happens, especially with you know, Jared Kelnick's season right now, he's getting his essentially third stint in the big leagues to prove himself. And now we have a high profile Mets person on the podcast here with us. So if we turn the dial back to twenty and eighteen and we look at it from both sides, where we're gonna put you on the Mets side, Jared Kelnick Edward Diaz trade again, are you doing that trade? 00:29:45 Speaker 2: Oh? 00:29:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, A million percent? A million percent, Which is crazy because I think I had that take when it happened. I think I like the trade when it happened. But I was worried about Kalenick, Like I was a huge fan of his, I still am. I thought he was gonna be like a I don't want to say generation type town I didn't have him there, but I thought he was gonna be like a Christian Yelich esque type player, where like gonna be really good, there's gonna be some like super super high years. Maybe I don't know about MVP, but like Alsar cal brautfielder for his career, so that part was scary to me. I also thought Robinson Cano was probably gonna be a little more effective than he had been for the Mets, and the steroids obviously kind of changed things. But looking back on it now, I mean Edwin Diaz outside of that twenty nineteen in a little bit of twenty twenty year has been that same closure. He was in Seattle for that brief period of time that he was there, He's absolutely money. Like, yeah, the injury sucks now, but going back, that's one of the few things that I can say Brody van Wagenen did right, was actually going and make that move. Kell Nick just hasn't performed. It's like a weird thing of he's probably still too talented. Like the trade probably still doesn't make any sense, but with the results that we've now seen, makes a lot easier to be on the Mets side. 00:30:54 Speaker 1: It's interesting because I think a lot of people on the Mariners side probably would still do that trade too. I think, I mean it is, but like Kellenick still has four years of control left. Right, That's the reason you say yes like it is it's a slam dunky yes on both sides still, even though over the course of the last three years the trade has been you know, thrown in a blender of how it's viewed and all the takes viewing going from every side. Yeah, the way that it works is like the Mets got rid of a guy obviously with massive upside, and you guys know, like Kellennick has that potential. Maybe it's staggered a little bit or come back down to earth, but the massive potential upside there was for sure worth it for a closer that you. 00:31:37 Speaker 3: Guys probably weren't going to retain for that long. Like I mean, we saw the contract he got. Mariners tend to not give that those contracts out especially relievers don't really get those contracts from the Mariners. And then like a Robinson Cano, you got to get that money off the books too, which was huge. So it feels like a no brainer from both sides. It may have not worked out maybe as well for the Marriagers, especially because like some of the other pieces in that trade really didn't do much, but you had the opportunity to maybe get that outfielder that could have been like the you know, all star of the future in the corner for you guys, and he still could be. I'm just maybe maybe not as guaranteed now. 00:32:13 Speaker 2: I will say, I mean, this is just something to keep an eye on out in New York and out on the East Coast for your sake. I'm not saying he's gonna come out and light the world on fire this year. But his approach looks like significantly better all of a sudden, Like he's not swinging and missing it all these change ups down in a way or breaking balls out of the zone. Like he looks much more refined in these first ten games or so, and he had the good spring, so that's a positive sign. But I will say it's funny how far the pendulum swung on takes with this trade between both fan bases, because for a while, when it happened and Kelnick asserted himself into being a top five prospect and Diez was struggling in twenty nineteen, all these Mariner fans were like, oh my god, I can't believe we got away with this trade. We at least this trade. Then all of a sudden, the last couple of years, these Mets, all the Mets fans are like, thank god, we got rid of Kelnick. Ed when Diez is the best reliever and we don't need them for us. Like you know, it gets lost sometimes, right, Like trades are supposed to help both sides. It's not supposed to be a fleecing. So for our sake, from our side, we're just like, can it be the Francisco Lindor to Menez Rosario trade where like a Menas and Rosario are both great players, but you guys got exactly what you wanted out of Lindor, Like that's what we're open for. 00:33:20 Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up because I was actually gonna bring up like in a perfect world, do you don't want every trade to be like the Lindor trade where both sides get what they want and both sides get players that are gonna help them, and like that's I think the thing that also gets frustrated, like in fandom just in general, or maybe like from the perspective of me, who just like covers a lot of baseball, is like people always want like someone got fleeced, someone got fleet s like no could just it could work out sometimes for both teams. It's not that one team doesn't have to get fleece the other team didn't get you know, ripped off whatever it is, and like you said, tell me there there have been improvements that may not show the numbers yet, but he does look different right now at least. 00:33:56 Speaker 1: I think the funniest part of that trade, maybe the most memorable part of both sides come out of it and say yes, like we got what we wanted out of this trade is how the trade started, where it's essentially Jerry Depoto walking up to Brody and offering up Robinson Canoe say hey, you want a future Hall of Fame second Baseman, and Brodie's like, huh, that's awesome, and he turns out to me. He turns out to last what he didn't even last two years on the Mets. 00:34:21 Speaker 3: Uh he got. I think he technically had three years because of the you know, suspended year or whatnot. But yeah, his his tenure was really short. I think this is the last year he's on the books for the Mets. I'm pretty sure we just give him his twenty million and then we never have to talk about Robinson cano again. Honestly, I hadn't really thought about him until coming up on this podcast this year. 00:34:42 Speaker 2: I mean, I will say, when you have like a top five to seven second basement in the game, and that actually might be under selling it in McNeil, like why would you right? Which is kind of another thing I was hoping to ask you about. Is so in the Mariners world, what a lot of people like to complain about, whether it be warrant it or not, is they don't feel like ownership spends and they feel like they should be spending a lot more on their ball club than they do. How unreal is it to have Steve Cohen as your owner? Like this is just like nothing we've ever seen before in baseball, And I think Mariners fans envy Mets fans a lot in that way. 00:35:13 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's unbelievable, like all I've ever really wanted as a Mets fan. And this is like I hate saying this out loud, but it's also true. It's like, I want to be the Yankees. I want to be the Yankees. I want to win, I want to spend money. I want to I want to be obnoxious, I want to be intolerable. I want to brag about how much we win, Like that's all I want. When you when you are the best, you get to do that. So the fact that Steve Cohen's come in and we haven't won anything yet, but he's going out and getting Max Schurz or Justin Verlander Hall of Fame players. He's going out and giving Francisco Lindora three hundred million dollars. Like it's like, you get a contract, and you get a contract, and you get a contract, the dude pays me to do a podcast. Like that's he's he's spending money on everything. So it's pretty unbelievable. Like I I would highly recommend it to anybody if you could, if you can have your owner spend a lot of money for your team, I would say, yeah, you should do it. It's a great feeling. 00:36:04 Speaker 1: If we're gonna talk about spending money. We want to circle back to the Mariners here eventually, but this needs to be asked. What about the guy who didn't end up getting signed. He agrees to a contract of what about two thirty Eastern sometime during December, Carlos Korea agrees to this enormous deal with the Mets. I'm literally about to fall asleep here on the West Coast when they agree to the deal and it never it never ends up happening so how does it feel to be like you are what the second wheel? Essentially, like we go for like your second wheel a third one? No, okay, so you were the maybe the third wheel. And then he goes back to his original, his his original X that. 00:36:41 Speaker 3: Was like an unreal timeline, especially because like I had made a Carlos Krea Giants video and the Mets like came in late, like if you remember too, like they came in late as like oh maybe it's the Mets, and then the Giants got I'm like, hey, congrats, like this is a great deal. I come home because I was like I was out in Texas, I was away. I come home, I go to sleep, like I wake up the next day to phone calls if my dad's like, you haven't tweeted anything this morning? What's going on? Have you not seen him? Like seen? What? What are you talking about? Is it Carlos Korea sign with the Mets, like John Hayman saying it. I couldn't believe it. And then like a little fun inside scoop like when we on the podcast, we like record an episode for Korea, we just couldn't put out till anything was official. That never ended up happening. So there was like an entire episode recorded about our reactions to Carlos Korea that's like just completely exists like in the nether world of like we'll never never see the light to day. So my podcast goes host kind of said the best when we recorded that fake episode was it still doesn't feel real to me, and until it's like officially announced, it won't feel real, and we now know it's not. It never felt like we were like necessarily like the second second team. It was just like, Okay, you know what, he ended up coming to the right team. He made the right decision, and then the medicals came back and they were like, hmm, can't take this guy right now. This wouldn't be smart for the long term, which also sucks because I'm a fan of Carlos Korea, like I want him on the team. 00:38:01 Speaker 2: We'll just never see an off season like that ever again, where a player again has stops at three separate teams, the signs contracts reportedly with three separate teams, only to have two fall through, Like like, we're never gonna see a saga like that again. 00:38:16 Speaker 3: No, I honestly can't even compare it. The only thing that feels comparable, but it's it's not. Was when like DeAndre Jordan in the NBA, Like remember they like kept them hostage from the other team, like you're not leaving until you sign this contract, Like that was pretty crazy. But that wasn't even close to this. 00:38:32 Speaker 2: No, not at all, which is again, like I feel for you as a Matt fan. I mean, I know there are a lot of money. Yeah, I was gonna say to begin with, but I know if that had been us going through the Ringer that way, I would have just been crushed to be a part of that saga. So I get it, believe me. 00:38:47 Speaker 3: Yeah, Carlos Kray would look good at shortstop for the Mariners. 00:38:51 Speaker 2: He so we said. 00:38:52 Speaker 1: The thing is, we've that that subject has come up like multiple times over the offseason. We've gotten to talk to talk to I think we did talk to Ryan Davish about this, who covers the Mariners for the Seattle Times, about like he agreed, like once it got down to six years with the Twins, I'm like, how or not? How Like how are the other twenty eight teams in baseball not jumping on this when a premier shortstop gets down to six years because Jerry Depoto's thing is not signing guys to ten year contracts into their forties. Well, if you sign a twenty eight year old to a six year contract, those chech parks don't hit. So you think like that, you don't lose anything. But they must have just hated as medicals. I'm gonna guess they you know, they've probably got enough enough bad juice juju from that. 00:39:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, a couple teams pass on a guy and they're like, maybe there's something wrong. 00:39:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, just maybe just maybe, you know, getting into your channel a little bit, Mark and now tying this back to the Mariners a little bit. A guy you like to talk about and basically most of the baseball world likes to talk about a lot these days, is Julio Julio Rodriguez. I know you're a big fan of them, You've followed him since he was in the minors. It's kind of crazy to us being Mariners fans and growing up in an age where we lived through twenty one years without a postseason appearance and not a whole lot of stars that came through, where now there's this young, twenty two year old universal star that not just the Mariner fans love, but baseball fans seem to love and you seem to really be a fan of him. I mean, what makes him from a more national perspective so easy to like and root for. 00:40:26 Speaker 3: I think he just got kind of like that it factor. I got to meet him when he was eighteen years old at spring training. I think that was like twenty nineteen. I think he'd be eighteen. Maybe I don't know how the timeline works necessarily, but got to meet him talk to him, and that was like when he was just kind of starting to get some attention as like a prospect, and I was like this to this, dude's gonna be something like And I was like I want to talk to him, and they're like sure, and he wants to talk to you, like he wants to practice his English like he wants. He was like preparing himself, and the conversation we had was incredible. I remember like, wow, you speak like really good English. It's like, oh yeah, from like a young age. My parents like sent me to school and like you're speaking English. Stop speaking Spanish at school, Speak English at school, Like that's what we want. It's almost like they knew, like you're gonna be a star. I think he's just like he's really cool. He seems to really understand like what his role is and what he's trying to do. He has fun on the field, and he's really really good, which helps a lot with all that other stuff on top of it, Like we're in a really good spot just in baseball in general, where a lot of like the great young stars are also like great off the field or like really care about like building their brand off the field. I think Jay Rod's one of those guys too, where he's not just like playing the game and like all right, you'll see me tomorrow. Like he's like on social media. He has a YouTube channel, he's partnering up with companies, Like he's really marketable, and I think that's something that's gonna, i think, attract a lot of people to be a fan of his as well. 00:41:47 Speaker 1: So you've gotten to talk to some prospects then, so like where does that stack up for like for a guy who's that young. That is that you said it's more common now, but like on a scale, is that what like twenty percent meaning more common? Is that you know thirty percent of the guys could could handle handle that when they're eighteen. 00:42:06 Speaker 3: He was the youngest player, Uh, I think, actually, yeah, I think he's I talked to him when he was eighteen. I think I talked to Francisco Alvarez when he was eighteen, and Ronnie Maurusio when they were eighteen. I haven't really talked to many like eighteen year olds, just because, like weirdly, with COVID and my schedule, it just hasn't worked. But those guys have all kind of been different. Like Julio was extremely well spoken, extremely confident, only one who did know English as well. Like not that that's a slight on any of the other guys, but he was like very very much like I'm gonna know English. Don't help me in this interview. I'm gonna figure it out myself. Francisco Alvarez had like all the confidence in the world, like even more than Julia Rodriguez, but didn't know English and like was a little hesitant necessarily to say some things. And Ryan Maurusio was really shy. But Julio was like, I have strong answers, I know what I'm gonna say. I'm doing it in English, which is like very big for you know, building your brand of course, the English speaks players tend to get a lot more contracts, money and brand deals. It just seems like he was a little more ready to be like a star. Like it's like he knew based off that. 00:43:12 Speaker 1: Then what other guys really stood out to you? And you've gotten to talk to him because you again you get to go to, you know, try and cover all of these guys, so you get to broaden your lens a little bit more than we do. Who has really stood out? 00:43:26 Speaker 3: I would say like I've probably had in terms of like my best interviews is a lot of them happened with the Mets. I got to talk to Scherzer and Verlander, which was pretty unbelievable. Like Schurzer thinks about the game of baseball differently than most guys I've ever spoken to. He's just like his brain works different. This was last year before the pitch clock was introduced, and he already had his plan for what he was gonna do. He's like, I'm gonna weaponize this. To hear Max Sherzer says, gonna weaponize anything, let alone be something that's supposed to be a disadvantage for him was pretty crazy, and it seemed like he could talk with us for another hour. He just had the game to start. And then justin Erlin, you have like incredibly focused, like very polished, very refined, but like not bad answers, Like still a great interview like those two to me will probably go up there as like some of my favorites, especially because we're talking about Hall of Fame pitchers as well. 00:44:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, which is I mean, that's got to be unbelievable to be able to talk to two guys like that, and especially with the way you were talking about how schures are started to figure out how to use the pitchclock in advance. And obviously he's a super intense guy. But the fact, you know, in fact he gave you a super cool interview, I mean, that's got to be It's gotta be awesome for you, but also for your listeners and people listening. I mean, it's got to be such a little foot in the door to get to hear that stuff, right. 00:44:40 Speaker 3: Literally, Never like the way that it happened was so like last minute. We just like went up to him, Hey, can we get an interview. He's like, sure, give me like five minutes. I gotta do my running, which we thought was like no, like I'll not today. And then all of a sudden, he like comes over, He's like, okay, let's do it. We're like, oh my god, okay, like let's scramble. And I think the funniest thing that happened was before the cameras even started rolling, he was like, all right, let's do this. Really great and he introduced himself. He's like, hey, Max, well we know who you are, Like, you introduce yourself. I'm Mark. You don't know me. 00:45:08 Speaker 2: I know you, uh huh exactly? Which yeah, which is? Which is just so awesome, you know, getting into your channel a little bit here too, because you talked about this is your full time job now, I mean making videos, creating content watching these games. So first off, I guess I'm just curious how long did it take for it to become a full time job, because I know you've been at it for a while now. 00:45:29 Speaker 3: Yeah. So I went full time in twenty nineteen, right after I graduated. Just ended up that my channel started doing really well right as I was graduating college, so that worked out perfectly. But I have been making just YouTube videos in general since like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. Started off in the FIFA community of all places, which is very strange and not like baseball at all. But I was making baseball videos probably since like twenty fifteen. I think it was like MB the show fourteen to fifteen range was when I really started making videos, but I had never really taken it seriously. Like I always wanted to do well, but I had classes, I had friends, I was doing other things. That twenty nineteen year was like I'm going to go for this. I don't want to get a real job. I want to do this. Let's see how well I can do it. And luckily enough it took off, and you know, for this is my fifth season now of being full time doing baseball content solely, which is pretty awesome and I wouldn't trade or trade it for anything. 00:46:24 Speaker 1: Well, gets what's the biggest thing to or let's say, the biggest marker for success then when you're when you're attempting to create content and find new ways to engage people, not to. 00:46:35 Speaker 3: Be like like lame, but it's it really does depend on the person. Like some people don't care about like making money, right like they're like I just I want people to watch my content. I want to be heard, or I want to build a Twitter following, like I want people to care about what I say. For me, it was really like I figured out, like success, the number that I was always chasing was one hundred thousand subscribers you get the plaque, which was really cool to me. That was something I had always wanted, was one hundred k subscriber plaque. I went when I knew that I reached that point and like the way that I did it, I was like, Okay, I think I know what I'm doing now, which means I can do this now, like this can be my job. So I wouldn't say like I was chasing the money. I was more chasing like that that milestone, knowing that everything else would come along with it and I'd be able to continue to do it. 00:47:20 Speaker 1: Did you go to school thinking you were going to be a traditional media sense? For example, Low and I both went to ASU. We both want there. I guess we went to school wanting to be broadcasters. I would say, there's still we still decently do we do a podcast? So that's probably half the work right there of doing that. But when when you went to school, was this like an idea, Hey, I might want to go cover sports not like even though I make YouTube videos, Hey I want to go be a writer. Hey maybe I'm going to go be a broadcaster somewhere something like that. 00:47:49 Speaker 3: I know, I wouldn't say it was I originally, like when I went to college, I was doing like my own like business for a while that was doing really well. So that was like something that I was doing. But it was originally a business major. My grades were got awful. I wasn't going to class. I wasn't I wasn't doing anything. I was preoccupied with some other stuff with my business that I was running. And I got kicked out of the business school. So here I am as like twenty one year old. I have no major. I'm like, I have no I don't know what class is to take. I just wasted like an entire year. What am I going to go into? I went to the advertising major, which was in like the journalism school of all places, which is bizarre, and I was like, all right, I'm just good. I'm gonna make like advertising like I like photoshop. I liked the idea of like advertising is a little bit of game. You're chasing impressions and stuff like that. I thought that was cool and I was like interviewing for jobs like before I graduated, Like I was interviewing in Charlotte and interviewing with companies in Atlanta because I went to the University of South Carolina and I was like very much like okay, I got to figure out what I'm doing. Then the channel took off. I'm like, oh, this is great, Like it kind of all came from a spot of like the baseball channel started because I wasn't playing baseball and I desperately needed some outlet because I still was crazy obsessed with it. But none of my friends were like me with baseball, like they they like their teams, but they're not watching every single game, they're not talking about every other team. Like this was my way to kind of find like a community of people, which was originally how it kind of started. And then I was like, oh, okay, like we got something here, Let's try and make this real thing. Like I said, kind of my my twenty nineteen last year of college. 00:49:22 Speaker 2: So how long did it take you to learn all the video editing, because it doesn't sound like that's really what you focused on in college in terms of your major with anything sports media related. It sounds like you probably learned a lot of that on your own. So how much practice and consistency did that take? 00:49:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, I if I look at my first videos I was making, they were pretty horrible, and I think anybody who does YouTube would agree. Like you look back at your old stuff, you're like, Wow, I can't believe I put this on the internet. This is terrible. But it's something that like you just kind of get better with as you go, and you learn your little tricks. You learn like your shortcuts that make things fast, or you know a certain way that you're edding style works. I don't really know a time of when I felt like I became good at editing, because I think I always thought I was, But it was one of those things where I was like, I need to learn how to do this in order to make YouTube videos. So I kind of just threw myself into the fire and I was like, I'll watch a YouTube tutorial if there's a question on something I don't know how to do. Like I knew the basics, and the basics carre me far enough until I needed to learn something new. 00:50:25 Speaker 1: How big of a part do you think this content creation game is in the future of how baseball and sports are covered, because this is very different from how sports have been covered the last twenty years. Right, It's it's you know, it's traditional written and broadcast stuff. But this, you know, this is a kind of last you know, YouTube's decently old, but I would say in the last seven eight years, there's been significantly more of this. So like, where do you see, Like how how big of a chunk is this opposed to what has always been? 00:50:58 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think it's I think, at least in baseball, it's still relatively small. I mean you can look at like the top creators, let's say in the baseball world, and there's a lot there's a lot of guys who make baseball videos, but there's like a clear separation in like the subcount, which is like kind of lame to say, because like everyone still gets great views and that's all that really matters. So I think like it's still a very much a growing community. It's like almost like in like the baby steps still. So I love that. I'm I feel like I'm in early at least, but I think like the future is this is what people are gonna want. Like I'm sure we all grew up watching Sports Center, right, and I'm sure we can probably count on our two hands how many times we've watched Sports Center in the last year. Like it's just it's not good content, especially if you're a baseball fan. They don't talk about baseball at all. So it's almost like you're getting like that Netflix huluish feel of I want to watch this, I can go to this guy's channel and find this where that doesn't really exist in sports. So I think that's kind of like the future of when I want to watch Mets content, or if I want to watch baseball content, I can just go search it up on YouTube or whatever platform it's gonna be, and I'll be able to find it. You know. 00:52:02 Speaker 2: It's it's funny you say that about how sports content has grown and your example about watching Sports Center, because you're right, like, I don't watch Sports Center anymore. I grew up with it. In fact, you know those morning shows specifically, Like the example I always think of is if you told the guys on first take you we need you to break down Corbyn Burns' start last night for the Brewers, Like, would they look at their producers like did you just speak another language? 00:52:26 Speaker 3: They would be like, I mean we've even seen like when they talk about Sho Heo Tani, who's like a mega superstar they have, or Mike Trout, like they still have like the worst takes in the world ever, Like Chris Russo was talking about how like Mike Trout thinks this is the best player in baseball he struck out. It's like, dude, like, I know you're probably doing this to get a rise out of everybody and for clicks. But this is why no baseball fans watch this stuff, because nobody wants to hear stupid takes. 00:52:51 Speaker 1: Like that, Right, It's just it's just so funny because like they have, they have the baseball guy and still mess it up still and it's so funny. Well, speaking of Mark, where the where the what that subject you talked about, of what they talked about on first tape, I wanted to ask you a little bit about the WBC. We've talked about it a little bit uh during the off season on this podcast, because there's only so much Mariners content to fail. The WBC was really awesome and you got to spend some time there so you could give us a first hand account of really just how that environment was and how much the people really really care about this sport outside of the United States, it really is it. It's a spectacular event, isn't it. 00:53:32 Speaker 3: Oh, it makes you feel like we don't actually care about the sport at all. Like watching like every other country's fan bases compared to ours, I'm like, oh, we got a lot of cashing up to do, Like it does not mean the same to us as it does to them, Like we almost take it for granted. I think in a way, like Team USA fans, I'm one of them, because you know, Italy and Greece don't really have great teams, but they're definitely like lacking a little bit. Like the all the Latin fans are unbelievable. I think it towed on best best in the world, Like the Latin American fans are unbelievable. Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. That's what I got to see. All of them brought the heat, like Mexico fans, Like I wasn't sure what Mexico's crowd would be like because like realistically, like soccer is their sport. They were like super loud and super excited about like Mexican baseball, which is awesome. The Japanese fans were amazing. And what was really cool too that I loved about the World Baseball Classic and like all the fans. I feel like you go to like sporting events in American normally, and you like you see some fights, right, like a drunk fan says something and about your favorite team and someone takes a swing and then a fight breaks out. I this is a little anecdotal, but I didn't see a single fight in the two weeks that I went to all the World Baseball Classic games. Like every single fan base was unbelievably friendly. You were rooting for another team, they didn't care. Like I had a friend who was rooting for Venezuela. He was Venezuela. After every game, after Venezuela would beat the teams, he'd go up to someone like, hey, can I take a picture with you? And they're like, oh, this is great, Like I'm meeting a Venezuelan fan, You're taking a picture with Dominican. It just it made baseball feel like a really, really large but tight community, which I think is something that we miss out on sometimes with like the way that Major League Baseball works. 00:55:08 Speaker 2: Okay, I'm actually really glad you say that, because I feel like there's a lot of Mets fans out there that after the Edwin Diaz injury, they were like, cancel this entire tournament. Where it sounds like you, like I'm not saying you should be happy about that injury. Yeah, it seems like you have a pretty cool perspective of like this event is awesome. 00:55:24 Speaker 3: It's so much bigger, Like it's such a cliche, but like it's bigger than baseball, Like the the these players care so much, Like Edwin Diaz, I'm sure is gonna play in the next one too, like even with this freak injury that happened, because like this means so much. This is to a lot of them, like more important than the World Series. Is like playing for your country winning the World Baseball Classic out in Japan, Like for Samurai Japan, this is the most important thing. Like everything that you do in your baseball career is to hopefully one day play for Samurai Japan and win the World Baseball Classic or win an Olympic gold medal. So seeing that pride that they have for that, like it really does bring a different field of the game. And the Edwin da injury was such a freak accident like that would have happened on the mountain spring training. Like to me, to blame the World Baseball Class for that, you probably have to be a little stupid, Like you have to just be a little angry or a little overreactive. And that's that's something that's that's the nature of the beast with you know, fandom and sports. But this, this tournament specifically, I think is gonna do more for baseball than anything that's been done in the last few years. 00:56:27 Speaker 1: What if you're gonna pick a place that you would want to go watch a game in future World Baseball Classic host sites, where are you going? 00:56:34 Speaker 3: I'm going to Japan. My one of my friends erpan for for all the group games. Uh he's Japanese, so he was able to go out there and he sent us videos and pictures. And I've now done like the Miami the Latin American, I would want to do it again, Like I definitely will be back, but I'm trying to find any way possible to get to Japan for the next World Baseball Class. Can see it there because it's it is different. As weird as it sounds, it doesn't make any sense but it is a different vibe and it looks like just an absolute blast. 00:57:03 Speaker 2: The image of the World Baseball Classic that probably stood out to me the most was in Japan after Otani hit that home run, and there's the video of fans legit passing that baseball around one by one so everybody can see it, and then it goes back to the usher to I assume give back to Otani. I mean that happened in the US. First person that touches that ball, they're out of there and they're selling it on eBay for as much as they can get. 00:57:24 Speaker 3: It's like Masataki Yoshida hit his first home run over the Green Monster. I think a little kid called it, but like he's not giving them the ball still. I think I don't think he's given them the ball yet, Like the way like that other countries watch baseball react to baseball, Like even the World Baseball Classic. I think it's really eye opening, and I hope that a lot of American fans like see how important it is to everyone else, because I think we sometimes take for advantage that, like we get to watch the best players in the world play in our country for our teams every single day during the year, but like a team like Cuba got to come to America and Cubans got to see their national team play on American soil for the first time in a very long time, and it meant a lot to a lot of these people Like this, this is a huge, huge deal and the World Baseball Classic is so awesome. 00:58:09 Speaker 1: The thing I thought about during this World Baseball Classic is I didn't realize how like just how different the environment of baseball is in these different countries opposed to the US until this tournament. For some reason, the last time the WBC was played back in seventeen, like, I didn't pick up on it. Like it just didn't. It didn't click for me. But I'm watching this tournament. I'm I can picture clearly in my mind the United States is playing at Chase Field against Team Mexico and it's a road game essentially. Yeah, I mean it is probably seventy thirty Mexico fans in there, and you know, like they're rally, they're having a great town. I'm just seeing them, like wow, I'm like, you know, like you know, everyone here in America, most baseball fans, you know, they probably say whatever, Like I I'd rather go watch a movie or something like that, and it just it was so eye opening. It's like like what, like I feel like our priorities aren't aren't necessarily straight, especially if we want to view this the way the World Cup is viewed, like the need there needs to be steps changed. 00:59:08 Speaker 3: Here, I think, And maybe this isn't fair, but I don't know. This would be my little call, Like I think USA baseball, like in general, I think, just has to maybe do a little bit of a better job, Like I'm glad they got some big name players finally, like Mike Trout playing is huge, so big, and I think it then attracts other players. We need to get some pitchers in there too next time. And maybe it's just like the style that we play too, Like Americans. Seemed that the guys on that team at least were like all sorts of veterans who have accomplished like great things in their career already, and it felt like this was like another thing that they wanted, like there's no doubt in my mind, but there wasn't like that emotion that you see from these other countries or like where they live and die, like I want to win this game when I hit a home run. I'm going crazy because I can't believe I'm doing this for my country, where Team USA was more like pumped. I don't know. It's like you said, you don't realize it until you can compare it, and so hard thing to explain. But I I hope for the next one at least team USA and our fans step it up a little bit because I'd love I'd love to have like more atmosphere for the USA Games too. 01:00:12 Speaker 1: You know what they need to do, they need to there should not be a first round game on US soil. Go make USA go travel somewhere else, so they like you want to carry like go care, like go actually care, go force yourself out there. 01:00:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, they'll definitely not do that, but I don't disagree. 01:00:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say, we're talking about the WBC here, some international travel. You want to get out to Japan eventually. Yeah. I did want to ask you about one of your videos that was involving domestic travel. I think it was one of the cooler baseball videos I've seen. It's last September, you did a video where you went to three baseball stadiums in twenty four hours. Now on the East coast. Maybe that seems a little more possible because there's so many stadiums close together, but that's not what you did. You went from New York to LA You saw Albert Poolhole said it's seven seven hundred home run in person. You fly back to New York, go to a Yankee game, and then take the train to go see the Orioles at Camden Yards. I mean, how much planning? Does that take? 01:01:08 Speaker 3: A lot? A lot of planning? Uh, And I honestly probably didn't plan it as much as I needed to. There was a lot of stuff where I was like, oh, man, like I like I in that video, I mentioned how we like missed the subway, and I was like genuinely concerned, like missing the train, and that was like a real thing that wasn't even like put in there for YouTube like dramatic purposes. We got to the train station with like a minute before it took off, And if I missed that, video's dead, video's over and I just wasted like all this time, all this money on it. But yeah, I got the idea from a guy named Jesser. He's a big like basketball YouTuber and I saw him do it for basketball games, like Oh, I'm totally doing this for baseball, like I wish. I wish I came up with this idea originally, but he came up with it I did for baseball, And I was like, all right, so I need to hire like a film guy, Like someone's got to film me because I I've tried vlogging. I'm horrible at it. When I go to the games, I end up just watching and I forget to pull out my camera and record my reactions and all that stuff. And then I was like, all right, then I have to buy him playing tickets. I have to get his hotels, I have to book to travel. I have to make sure I have like a time schedule. I had to plan out shots that I wanted in the stadium, food I wanted, Like it doesn't sound like I don't want to make it sound like I'm complaining, because I this is awesome. If this is my job, figuring out how to go to three games in twenty four hours, incredibly excited, But yeah, a ton of planning went into this, and I still think I was probably underprepared. 01:02:30 Speaker 1: Did you always plan on going to a West Coast stadium? Like yes, because it could just be very easy to say, Hey, I'm gonna go Fenway train, New York Train, DC or Baltimore. Done boom easy, one hundred percent right. 01:02:43 Speaker 3: I didn't want I didn't want anybody to have any sort of comment to me of like, no, you went you went easy. Like like you said, there was a weekend where the Mets and the Yankees both played in New York. I could have literally stayed in this stayed in my apartment like for an entire day, not spent on anything. But I wanted to make sure that, like this trip was memorable. Like when you're making the YouTube video, you need people to be like, wow, that's crazy, so that they continue to watch, how do I do that? Go to La Hop on the Red Eye, get to New York, and then we can maybe take a shorter trip down to Baltimore like that. 01:03:15 Speaker 2: I mean that video is cool on itself, but the fact you saw Albertpoohole's hit seven hundred, I mean icing on the cake, right, dude? 01:03:22 Speaker 3: Crazy? Like that date we had I had circled like for a month plus. I was like, this is I think the best time it's gonna work out. The schedule works with everything, travel flights, like all this makes sense, and then all of a sudden, alberpool start hitting more home runs. I'm like, wow, hold on a second, like we might have this seven hundred home run game. I think he like cooled off a little bit, came into the game with six ninety eight because he needed to hit two. And like when we're filming and everything, we're recording with my friend that also came with me, We're like, oh, he's gonna do it today, like just for the purpose of the video get people excited. Hit the first one. We looked at each other like, oh my god, like he he really might mess around and hit seven hundred to night. Next that bat bang, and I was like, this is I saw baseball history. That's like one of the coolest moments I've ever experienced. I haven't really been at many big events as a Mets fan. There hasn't been many, and that's most of the games I go to. So to be able to see Albert Pools, one of the best players of all time, hit seven hundred home runs and so he been done to like four or five other guys made the video that much better. And if only Aaron Judge could have hit sixty two or sixty one that day because that he literally was one behind tying the record. So I was like, man, if I could see seven hundred and him tie the record in the span of like twelve hours, I'm gonna beyond the national news. Nobody else in the world is going to be able to say I was at both of those games. 01:04:40 Speaker 1: You should have just gone and bought a lottery ticket if that was the case. 01:04:43 Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, if we had a part like in the video that if he did hit it, I said, I was gonna go buy a lottery ticket. It's just he didn't. So I got cut out. 01:04:53 Speaker 2: Man, it's sixty one and seven hundred. I mean that would have been the baseball guys just throwing all the luck in the world, right, like pointing everything your direction. 01:05:03 Speaker 3: He came so close to he hit one, like right to the warning track. I remember he got in the air. I'm like, no way, it's happening, and then it got caught. I'm like, they couldn't have given him one of those bouncy balls that they gave him all all August and September. I would have really appreciated that for the video. 01:05:19 Speaker 2: Okay, as we start to kind of wrap this up a little bit, maybe we can tie this back to our two fan bases a little bit with the Mariners and the Mets. I mean, you do a lot of Mets videos. I mean you do a lot of videos on baseball in general, on all thirty teams. But since we're still early enough in the year here, I'll ask you for both sides. What do you see the outlook being for both teams, the Mariners and the Mets. 01:05:40 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they're both gonna be fine. I think they both make the playoffs. I think the Mariners, like the Mets, I think have a legitimate shot of being like a World Series contender. I don't think the Mariners necessarily there right now the way that I see this roster being like, I I know Marinders fans love JP Crawford. I don't know where you guys stand, but I just I don't think you can really have a World Series team with JP Crawford at shortstop. I think they've given him enough time. He's kind of shown that he's just fine. And you know what, if you have an elite DH and an elite like fill the holes of left field DH, maybe like maybe it works, but to me, you need to probably find a shortstop. The problem is, I don't know who that is. I don't know who they can legitimately get because the shortstop market, everybody locks up their guys long term now, so it's gonna be tough. But there's definitely improvements that could be made to this team that will make them very scary, and I think like Jay Rod can carry them to the postseason without a doubt. Tayoscar Hernan is starting to heat up a little bit. I don't think he's nearly as bad as his numbers have shown to start the season. And I'm a huge Auhaneo Suarez fan. I like Colton Wong. Ty Franz obviously, you guys know is a studden big dumper, keeps doing his cow rally stuff. So like, the offense is good, the pitching Luis Castillo is amazing, He's awesome. George Kirby, I'm a big fan. He pitched better today, right mm hmm, yeah, Like I think he's good. They probably you just need that, like one impact player, I think away and then all of a sudden you can start to be like, oh, Mariners can make some noise here, no doubt. 01:07:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that guy might just be sitting down in Anaheim right now. It's funny, Mark, you did just name the three positions you named shortstop, left field, and d H would just so happen to be the three most contentious positions if you ask any Mariner fan. Yeah, I mean it's it sets off some dynamite, which which I just got a I got a big chuckle out of Yeah. I don't know where we sit on JP. He'll he'll be a subject here eventually on the on this podcast a little more in depth as the season goes along. We're just, uh, we're just waiting to see something which might might not ever happen. 01:07:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's I think the awkward scenario some teams get in is how long do we wait? Right? Like? What how much? How much leeway do we give this guy before we decide we need to improve? And I think when you look at teams that have been successful, one of the reasons why is there's no waiting. We're going for it now. Like we have a time period we have, we have this little window. And I think the Mariners window is a little bit bigger because they have some of their younger players locked up for a decent amount of time. But you gotta jump in that window. Like the Cubs were lucky enough to get it in twenty sixteen after they saw how well they did in twenty fifteen, But then you can see how quickly it can go away. Like who would have thought that that core would have only made one World Series? Right? Like you talk about Hobby by As, Anthony Rizzo, Chris Bryant, all those guys together and to only win one or make it to one like that sounded crazy if you said that back in twenty sixteen, but when you got the opportunity to out jump on it. I think the Mariners should do their best to jump on it. I mean, maybe a guy like Willia damez I. But that depends how good the Brewers are too, because they're also in a weird scenario of we could go out and get somebody and be a lot better as well. 01:08:50 Speaker 2: It's funny we've talked about him, We've talked about could they go out and trade for Willia Domas. I guess the problem is they extended JP Crawford last year. Now it's not like the world's worst contract to get it out of. And if they had to move them to second base, they could do it, but yeah, Domis is absolutely a guy where like the Mariners wanted to pull the trigger on that and give up some prospects for him sign me up. 01:09:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, And the Marritors have some good prospects too, like coming up the pipeline as well, So they're they're definitely in a good spot. Are Mariners fans feeling down? Like I know we talked about earlier about like the overreactions, but like realistically, are you guys, like has has your opinion changed or waivered at all? 01:09:26 Speaker 2: Not an hours? Not depends on good Yeah, yeah, some people on Twitter, as I'm sure you know in the Mets world, Oh yeah, it gets real ugly, real fast. So some people are already freaking out. But through ten games, I think we're okay. 01:09:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I mean the team is built to be successful, and I still think they've got like good enough guts and good enough bones to be like a playoff team. And like I said at the beginning, like you make the playoffs, you get hot. Who knows like they have the pieces to make a run. 01:09:54 Speaker 2: Both these teams, Mariners and the Mets, They're gonna be a blast to watch all season going forward. There's certainly two playoff contenders in their respective leagues. And Mark, We've really enjoyed getting to sit down and kind of chop it up, chop it up with you about it a little bit. We loved hearing about your channel. We love just talking baseball with people. So really we appreciate all the time and hopefully we can do it again soon. 01:10:13 Speaker 3: Yeah, no, guys, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Sorry about the about hour late start here on my side, but I'm glad we can get on here, you know, do the podcast, and thanks for having me on. I appreciate it's been a blast. 01:10:27 Speaker 2: Really enjoyed that conversation with Giraffneckmark. It was awesome to get a national perspective on the Mariners talk some broader baseball topics as well. We really appreciate them taking the time. All right, TJ, let's unveil a new segment here. Let's take everybody down on the farm. So each week we're each gonna highlight one Mariner's minor league player that's really been shining over that week of their games. We're gonna talk about it here on the show because we think it's important to follow the minor league guys. As well, because eventually they're gonna play a factor what the big league club does. So I'll kick it to you first, through the first week of minor league games, who's been standing out to you? 01:11:08 Speaker 1: Gonna look right at the top, and Harry Ford. He's you know, he's only played a couple of games so far, but dog, he's got an eleven eleven ops, so we can't complain about that. He's four for nine early, so already showing off his wheels, his athleticism. He's got a triple, he's driven in three runs. The most shocking thing, lyle, I don't know if this is gonna cause a demotion in his prospect status. He hasn't walked yet. I'm a little concerned. 01:11:32 Speaker 2: For those who don't know, Harry Ford has an elite walk rate. I mean last year he put up over a four hundred on base percentage. The guy gets on baits. So yeah, maybe we should start sweating a little bit here that through two games he hasn't recorded a base on balls. But no, in all seriousness, we think Harry Ford has a chance to have a really big year, and he's off to a hot start through just a couple of games. 01:11:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I'm really looking forward to it. He's again not in a great environment up there in Everett, which you worry about in here in Hya, but I think he's he's good enough to continue going on there and facing higher level pitching. We do have the utmost confidence in Harry that he will continue to ascend up the prospect rankings this year. And hey, he's also you know, great flying the Millennium Falcon and you know, recovering ancient relics as well. 01:12:26 Speaker 2: If anybody's following our Twitter account, which you should be, by the way at Marine Layer Pod, whenever we talk about Harry Ford, we're making Hans Solo references. We're making Indiana Jones references like all the time. It's too easy not to. And for those who don't know, his full name is Harrison, so Harrison Ford. I might have to try to get up to Everett this year at some point to catch a game, just to go see him, because I would put some money if I was a bettingman on him spending part of this year in Arkansas, if everything goes right, maybe toward the tail end of the year. So while he's here in the state and just up the road in Everett. I feel like it would be cool to go see maybe I can get some content out of it too for the show. So it's pretty cool to see him off to a good start. We think he's gonna have a big year, all right. On my end, we're kind of hitting all the Mariners blue chip guys here in the first week, which they perform well, so they deserve it. We'll touch on other guys, not just the blue chip guys by the way through the year if they're playing well. But through the first week it's the headliners. Emerson Hancock. He makes his first start of the year in Double A Arkansas. He was dealing in that first outing five innings, three hits, no runs, one walk, seven strikeouts. Fastball was sitting in the mid nineties, which is not the ninety eight to ninety nine miles an hour he was hitting in his peak, in his prime, before he had the I should say before he had the injuries, I guess. Regardless the fact that it's only his first start, he's healthy and he looked this sharp. You gotta be excited about it. 01:13:57 Speaker 1: Yeah, and his fastball movement was really good. He got six of his seven strikeouts in his outing on his fastball and he got twelve swings of missus, which is good. I mean, this was the guy who's supposed to come out of Georgia with premiere nearly MLB ready stuff that, through injuries and deterioration, has not really showed as much in the minor leagues, but is off to a really good start, and we're hoping to see Emerson have a full healthy season. I think that's really all we can ask for. It's not for Emerson to make the big leagues this year, It's for him to pitch a whole season, because I really think that's the most important thing in his development. 01:14:35 Speaker 2: Bryce Miller's almost definitely ahead of Emerson on the depth chart at this point, just from the way Miller's performed as prospect status, everything, but Emerson Hancock when he was drafted had the ceiling that was maybe highest of all the big three arms between him between George Kirby, between Logan Gilbert, which is a pretty hefty statement looking at what Gilbert and Kirby have done so far. We'll see what Emerson's ceiling now his long term, but man, if he can stay healthy and he can have a full season in the minors, where he's really really got his a game, all of a sudden, people might jump back on the Emerson Hancock train. And I wouldn't worry about his fastball too much in his first start, especially because again it's his first start, Like, give him time. As he gets into June, there's a chance that could ramp up a few ticks. So through a start, gotta love what you see out of Emerson Hancock, and we can only hope it continues. 01:15:27 Speaker 1: You only draft a guy sixth overall if he has that kind of upside. So I don't know me remember Callus mentioned it a little bit even in his junior season in twenty twenty, didn't really see that same stuff that made him so special as a sophomore, and he was projected to almost go number one overall and then fell a little bit to the Mariners and the sixth pick. So this could be like a thing that is dragged on for now a couple of years now with Emerson Hancock. But yeah, we're still we're looking for him to have a really good season and hey, maybe you get up to ninety six, ninety seven as the summer months go along. Here, All right lyle let's now take a look around baseball with our mob Wrap around. 01:16:13 Speaker 2: All right. 01:16:14 Speaker 1: First up on our Mob Wrap Around, Lyle, O'Neil Cruz will miss four months with a broken fibula. He slid into home plate this weekend and broke it while the Pirates are playing the White Sox. Just heartbreaking. I was really excited to get a full season of stat cast readings on O'Neil Cruiz. The dude is the extreme everywhere he plays on the diamond, and now he's gonna miss four months. 01:16:41 Speaker 2: You hate to see it happen to just kind of clear the air. I'm not really putting the blame on Sevi's avala either. It wasn't a dirty play. He did block a good portion of the plate, but there was no ill intention behind it. Although a fight did break out between the White Sox and the Pirates after the result. You just feel for O'Neil Cruz. The guy has such a high ceiling. He's so much fun, A six to seven shortstop who's got big pop, a huge arm. It felt like he had a chance to break out this year and now he's gonna lose almost a full season a time. 01:17:16 Speaker 1: Here are some records that O'Neil Cruz already owns his big league career, not even two full seasons complete. He has the hardest hit baseball in stat Caast history at one hundred and twenty two point eight miles an hour. He has the hardest thrown assist in Pirates' history at ninety six and a half miles an hour across the diamond at shortstop. He also while has a sprints beat of thirty one and has peaked at thirty one and a half feet per second, which is beyond deleite. Elite is thirty feet per second. He's above that, and that's standing at six seven playing shortstop. He is again an extreme in every asset of the game, and I'm really gonna miss seeing some highlights pop off of him. As the season goes along. 01:18:00 Speaker 2: And the Pirates have gotten off to an okay start too, we don't really expect it to sustain, but without O'Neil Cruz, it may be tough to kind of tread water here. It's too bad. He's just so different. I mean, we talk about things we're not used to seeing in baseball these days. We talk about shoe Hey Otani all the time, and I'm not quite putting O'Neil Cruz in that category or anything, but just a shortstop that's six' seven and can do all the things that he does and is as good of an athlete as he. Is it's so much fun to. Watch so you'll hope he gets back in Maybe august Or september and can still salvage his season a little. Bit but, yeah just all, around you hate to see an injury like. That, okay second storyline, here and it's probably the headline of baseball right. Now Tampa Bay. Rays they're. Undefeated they enter this week nine to oh at the time of. Recording they're the first team to start eight to oh since the two thousand and Three. ROYALS i, mean they are motoring right. 01:19:01 Speaker 1: Now, yeah they have been really really impressive to. WATCH i have trivia for, You. Lyle you ready warm yourself? 01:19:11 Speaker 2: Up all? 01:19:12 Speaker 1: Right so The tampa Bay, RAYS i believe now as of recording this, podcast are now eleven in oh to start this. Season they won their first nine games by four or more. Runs can you name the team that holds that holds the record to start a season of most games in a row winning by four or more? 01:19:34 Speaker 2: Runs is it the? 01:19:38 Speaker 3: One? 01:19:38 Speaker 2: Mariners? 01:19:40 Speaker 1: No you're not gonna guess. THIS i PROMISE i could give you one hundred guesses and you will not guess. 01:19:46 Speaker 2: It all, right final guess the nineteen Fourteen. 01:19:54 Speaker 1: Yankees, no, no, no we're gonna have to go back to eight teen eighty. Four The Saint Louis maroons of The Union association did it thirteen games in a. Row the very. 01:20:09 Speaker 2: RIDICULOUS i, mean they're doing everything right. Now like you look up and down their, roster the entire team is tearing the cover off the. Ball outside of the catcher position With Christian bettencourt And Francisco. Mahea every starting position player's opsing over eight. HUNDRED i, mean eleven of the fourteen players that have recorded a played appearance so far have an ops over eight. Hundred and, meanwhile you could argue that, rotation especially with the way they've come out of the, gate is the best in. BASEBALL i, mean you look at, it, McClanahan, Springs, RAFs. Muscin they're gonna Get Tyler glass now. Back that is a deadly. Team. 01:20:48 Speaker 1: Yeah their top four starters first two times through as the NUMBERS i, have SO i got it through through yesterday for their tenth win in a. Row you, know their top four starters when it had a combine one to, one ZERO, era fifty eight, strikeouts ten walks in forty nine. Innings and then On monday, yesterday they're bullpen combines for three hit. Shutout five different guys combined for a three hit shut. OUT i, mean the depth is showing. There it's really. Impressive they have played a bit of a cupcake schedule to. Start they got The, Tigers, Nationals, athletics and now The Red. Sox Four you could argue last place teams all of, them so you could put that little tiny asterisk next, it but next to. It but it is hard to win every day In Major League, baseball and they have now done it eleven times in a. 01:21:37 Speaker 2: Row how long can it keep? Going are they going for? Twenty? 01:21:44 Speaker 1: Yeah should they break the moneyball streak right off the, bat that would be pretty. 01:21:47 Speaker 2: FUNNY i mean they're kind of a moneyball team, THEMSELVES i mean a little bit less so than The. A's they Extended, wander they've extended some, players but you, know it's not like they're breaking the bank or. Anything they're doing a lot. 01:22:01 Speaker 1: Well and we'll see how long this ride continues for the race and that really Loaded American League East. Division every game they win now here at the beginning could really help them out when we're battling The yankees and The Blue jays and The orioles over the course of the. Season our final storyline of the week here in THE mlb Wrap, around how about twenty year Old Jordan, walker the number one prospect in The cardinals. System he's off to a really white hot start as of. Yesterday through the games, yesterday he started his major league career on a ten game hitting, streak joining the likes Of Eddie murphy And Ted williams in that he, actually, no he's. Sorry he Passed Ted. Williams When Ted williams in the nineteen thirty Nine Boston Red sox for guys age twenty or younger hit streak to start the, season that's a pretty good list of, guys so he is two away from the. Record as of this. 01:22:56 Speaker 2: Recording when he reached nine, games it was the longest streak by a player twenty years old or younger Since Ted. Williams like you just, mentioned he's in the categories of guys Like Ted. Williams it's the longest streak since nineteen thirty nine by a player twenty years old or. Younger guy is tearing the cover off the, ball and it's. Funny he's not a great. Defender he wasn't ever really projected to. Be he's also playing a lot more outfield. Now originally he was more of a corner infield. Prospect but there's not exactly room at either of those positions In Saint, louis considering there's two guys playing those spots who may end up in The Baseball hall Of fame one day and are still in their primes and REIGNING mvp And Paul goldschmidt and then Defensive savant AND i should really say Offensive savann as well And Nolan. Aeronado so they have to move him somewhere else if they wanted to get him playing. Time but the bat is doing all the talking right, now and he looks every bit the part to help to help A cardinals team that is really really. 01:23:56 Speaker 1: Lethal the longest streak overall were regardless of age to start a season Is David. Dall he had a seventeen game hit streak back in two thy and. SIXTEEN i just wanted to throw this at you ouxa LIKE i. DIDN'T i haven't watched a whole bunch Of Jordan walker and The. Miners is it? Mirrored does his swing not look exactly Like Ian? Desmond like exactly like? 01:24:16 Speaker 2: IT i GUESS i hadn't thought about. IT i feel like he's GOT i, mean he's got way more pop Than Ian. Desmond but the swing, itself, yeah there's a little bit of. 01:24:26 Speaker 1: Resemblance the stance in the swing look very. Similar after we're done, recording your homework is to go watch. That EXCEPT i mean that's instantly WHAT i thought of WHEN i saw. Him i'm, like, wow it looks looks exactly like, regardless a twenty year old doing this in TODAY'S mlb with all these just fireballers on the mound is mighty mighty, impressive much more than WHAT i was doing WHEN i was. Twenty so shout out to, You Jordan. 01:24:48 Speaker 2: Walker last thing, Here This rookie of The year race in The National league might be as tight as it was in THE al last. YEAR i, MEAN i Know julio ended up running away with, it but just in terms of the rookie talent that we're fighting for the award twenty twenty, three it looks like THE nl might have that. Class you've Got Jordan, Walker Corbyn, Carroll James, outman who's lighting the world on fire for The dodgers right. NOW codei, sanga that's a really good rookie class in The National. League hey. 01:25:17 Speaker 1: Don't let's not discount the race in The National league last year with the two Teammates streider And. HARRIS i mean that was probably closer than The American league, race was it. 01:25:25 Speaker 2: Not, YEAH i guess the race was, closer BUT i just think of like the depth of players in The ale Between JULIO, Adlei Bobby, Witt Jeremy, PANA i might At. Kirby i'm forgetting somebody, Too but, yeah it. Was it was a really really good class of rookies last. Year SO i think the NL's taking its turn. Here, okay wrap it, up OUR mlb wrap round and now moving forward to our second edition of Our Russell Wilson umpire of The week one more time if you missed it last. Week to qualify for this prestigious award here on The, popodcast you have to do one of three. Things you have to either miserably fail to see over the, middle refuse to let a play develop or just be downright and. Sufferable and we have a new winner this, WEEK dj you, want you want to throw it on us here who's taking home the? 01:26:15 Speaker 1: Award congratulations To John libka behind the plate for yesterday So Monday's Philly's marlins game where he threw Out Nick costianos in the seventh inning When costianos struck out on a pitch on the inside, corner didn't like the call and proceeded to like draw a tiny little line in the, dirt maybe suggesting where the pitch. WAS i couldn't tell because he barely moved his bat at. All And John libka, proceeds by the, way in a double digit run game to Toss Nick costianos out of the baseball game just. Because so congratulations to, You John libka for taking home our Second Russell wilson umpire the. 01:26:57 Speaker 2: Week Did Nick siano's even draw a line with the knob of his? BAT i honestly thought he just kind of slammed the knob of his bat ever so gently into the dirt and that was, it and then he got. Tossed and maybe that's What lipka, thought is that he drew a line with his BAT i thought it was less than. That, REGARDLESS i don't say this about a lot of people just BECAUSE i try to let people live their lives in. General But i'm gonna say it here about. Umpires they need to grow thicker. Skin like you're getting offended about a guy pushing the knob of his bat into the. Dirt come, on so this qualifies as what They they're downright and sufferable and they didn't let a play. Develop is that what qualifies for this award this? 01:27:41 Speaker 1: WEEK i didn't let a play. DEVELOP i, mean Did costeanos even say? ANYTHING i don't think. SO i WAS i was staring at the video last night trying to see if he open his. MOUTH i could not see anything to. Say he opened his mouth and it was quick, too like it it took five seconds for him to get thrown. 01:28:02 Speaker 2: Out something like. THAT i, MEAN i, mean it's not like he walked back to the. Dugout there was more chirping going back and forth and then he got. Tossed so it was just a quick. Hook you know, why Because John, libka the home plate, umpire knows all These philly fans that paid money to drive over to the game park their car get to the stadium take time out of their day to go watch. Baseball wasn't to go watch a power threat Like Nick castiano's for the Reigning National league. Champions it was to see a guy behind home plate ringing up one of their good. Players that's what they're there to. See it was to see a guy get ejected from the. 01:28:39 Speaker 1: Game you know, what it's the funniest part of. That that is the only missed strike call or, sorry the only missed the only strike he called outside of the strike zone the entire, game the only. 01:28:51 Speaker 2: One oh so he actually had a good. 01:28:54 Speaker 1: SCORECARD i wouldn't say it was. Good he was ninety three percent overall, accuracy which is. Fine he did miss he was his. Worst his problem was that he was only eighty nine percent and called ball. Accuracy so that's where there might be a little more be from the opposing, pictures but not, hitters because that's the first one that directly affected a. Hitter all game. 01:29:23 Speaker 2: Umpires are just. Unbelievable like these guys really think they're a part of the. Show they really, do. 01:29:29 Speaker 1: Right you, know there was someone in the stands who bought a jersey With John libke's name on the back because that's who they wanted to. 01:29:36 Speaker 2: See they never failed to, amaze don't. 01:29:39 Speaker 1: They they really. Don't, okay let's close out the show with speak Your, Mind speak your mind. 01:29:48 Speaker 2: Spot that would be. Unwise what is necessary is never. 01:29:57 Speaker 1: Unwise all right lyle what is on your mind To? 01:30:01 Speaker 2: OKAY i have one quick one and then one longer. ONE i wanted to give a little bit of a shout out to The kraken because in their second, season they just clinched the postseason, spot which is. AWESOME i was there this past week to go see the clinch against The, coyotes which was. Cool so that makes The, seahawks The, mariners and The kraken all having clinch playoff spots within the same, year which is pretty. Awesome so that was my little quick. One the second, one, okay it does relate to baseball this week sort, of but it's more On. Twitter what the fuck is going on With Evan Gattis this guy just added, nowhere just out of nowhere over the last couple of, days just started going on a tirade On, twitter, tweeting responding to, people and so here were the two big things he was talking. About Number, one he's just openly talking about the cheating, scandal which everybody knows The astros did at this, point but the fact he's going into details about things, like, oh, well we knew the trash can was getting banged more times when there were sliders or cutters coming versus you, know we knew exactly WHAT cc was gonna. Throw we knew exactly What kershaw was gonna. Throw like he is literally pinpointing the details of just how in depth this cheating scandal. Got and the one that put it over the line for me was the fact that he told some random commenter after, saying, Hey, EVAN i got to see you play left field in one of the ten games you were out there in twenty, fifteen he, goes, THANKS i was probably nervous and also on a performance enhancing. Drug like just right out To, twitter right To, twitter just tell him the whole, World, YEAH i was taking. Peds, now he's not gonna be in The hall Of, fames so he probably doesn't really care at this. Point but you don't see that every. 01:31:54 Speaker 1: Day do we think there's a slight chance he was just? 01:31:59 Speaker 2: HACKED i don't. Know you would like to believe that's the, case, right but we haven't seen anything so, far, saying, yeah somebody got into My twitter, account So i'm kind of thinking that it was actually, him. 01:32:15 Speaker 1: And we're not gonna mention what else he said on this, podcast but. 01:32:18 Speaker 2: That probably wasn't the. 01:32:20 Speaker 1: Word those things That lyle, mentioned probably wasn't even the worst thing that was tweeted out by him in that. Tirade just to put that in, perspective it's just. Bizarre you never you never see players that brutally open and honest on a social media, platform which which is why it makes you think he was, Hacked but we haven't seen. 01:32:42 Speaker 2: ANYTHING i probably would have gone the rest of my life never thinking About Evan gaddis again until he popped up On twitter the other, day like he was just one of those guys where like you won A World, series he had an okay, career he had some, power but you aren't gonna sit around, remnant saying on his glory days as a, ballplayer but, man he drilled The he drilled his presence right into fans heads real quick over the last couple of, days. 01:33:11 Speaker 1: Coming right out of the. Woodwork, okay my speak your. Mind it's that time of. Year lyle where this is WHERE, i, honestly instead of this is just being me, talking this is gonna be flipping it over to you and asking you what's In Adam silver's playbook over this next month while these playoffs ARE nba playoffs start up this, week the play in games take place this. Week THE Nba playoffs will take place over the next month or. So what is In Adam silver's? Book what's in? There could you? Pet could? You could you open the curtain for? Us BECAUSE i know you always think ahead of these, things and really you're really good at reading his. 01:33:51 Speaker 2: Mind there's been a couple of good ones. ALREADY i, mean you talk about THE nfl script, writing and there was that whole couple weeks where everybody was talking about, how, oh THE nfl has a script that players have to. Follow i've low key believe but also not. Believe but, YEAH i kind of believe that THE nba has a script of its own. Too for, things for, example that have already, happened like The mavericks trading for a superstar And Kyrie irving just destroying the locker room and missing the, playoffs like we talked about in one of our recent, Shows Rudy gobert getting into a fight with a teammate and now he's gonna miss the play in game just so happening to Play lebron and The. Lakers, yes, COINCIDENCE i mean. 01:34:37 Speaker 1: Yes someone anyone want to check on like a Go bear bank account somewhere in europe an offshore bank account where there was a deposit from ONE A silver to, say, hey, Listen lebron and The lakers are playing too good to get knocked out by The. Timberwolves you know What i'm. Saying, so, yeah we're gonna we're gonna have let's cook something up and, oh let's shout Out jade McDaniels. Too it's. EXCELLENT i, mean there might have been someone who came up behind him on the bench and, hey, Listen jade, McDaniels before we're gonna need you to go punch concrete and break your hand and be out and be out for the play in. Game you. Too we need we need to we need to siphon off The. 01:35:20 Speaker 2: Timberwolves he pulled The Devin williams with. That, meanwhile, yeah they had to Enact Go bear's clause in his contract of, hey we'll give you a two to three million dollar incentive to start a fight with your, teammate get, suspended and then you'll just pick up a little extra few million dollars on the side for complying with our. Script, YEAH i don't know what they've got for the rest of the playoffs, HERE i, mean like what fits the. Narrative they'd probably want to Get lebron another, title which in all seriousness is To lebron fans on this, podcast we would love to, see although that's not gonna, happen BUT i feel like for the NBA's, sake they love. It, MEANWHILE i don't, know like maybe like a do we feel like there's a crash course for Six Ers celtics somewhere in this playoffs in The Eastern conference just because those two teams don't really love each. 01:36:10 Speaker 1: OTHER i think. So i'm Just i'm fascinated by The west because literally The lakers will have to beat if they win their The lakers would have to beat if they move. On so what The lakers get would get The kings in the first. ROUND i THINK i, Believe, YEAH i believe The lakers if they Beat minneapolis in the they beat the the T wolves in the playing. Game they would play The, kings who have a great history in the playoffs against The. Lakers think it back to twenty three years, ago that, nothing nothing ever fishy about how many foul calls were there or free throws did The lakers get in that? Game and that in That Western Conference final, GAME i, mean people lose. Count it's it's an enormous. Number it's shaping, up you know What i'm. Saying and then after that you get either the you get The warriors or the it's The worriers or The. Suns, NO i don't have to bracket, up but it just smells a little fishy that it's looking almost too easy for The lakers to coast into The Western Conference. 01:37:16 Speaker 2: Finals we'll have to see and then who knows if they, again like if they had to face what The suns in The Western Conference finals are at some point in the postseason for that, matter do they play The Chris paul storyline if he can't win a, title do they force The suns to? LOSE i don't. KNOW i don't. 01:37:35 Speaker 1: Know that ring that ring cloud will hang Over Chris paul's head forever and he can't if he, can't if they match up with The lakers and can't beat The. Lakers there's an issue you, HAVE. KD i, mean what are we doing, Here. 01:37:52 Speaker 2: Katie, Booker ayton And Chris. Paul, yeah that that team should not be losing to The. LAKERS i don't know right. 01:37:59 Speaker 1: Now right, now WHILE i do believe we have a second Round Celtic sixers. Matchup The celtics are two and The sixers are. Three so that's WHERE i think if we're actually like, tangible real life, storylines NOT wwe behind the Scenes adam silver script, storylines that's probably the one you look at the. 01:38:18 Speaker 2: MOST i would. Agree, yeah it's hard to really get into THE nba regular season just BECAUSE i feel like it can be predictable a lot of the. Time But i'll certainly be watching this postseason and you know, something theatrics are going to, occur So i'll be ready for. It i'm gonna be ready for. It. OKAY i think that just about wraps up this edition of The Marine layer. Podcast you guys know what to do by. Now if you want to listen to the full, podcast you can find it On, Apple, Spotify, amazon Or. Google full video form of the podcast will be on YouTube and on social. Media we're On, Instagram, twitter, TikTok and YouTube shorts At Marine Layer pod me to mention it at the start of the, show but also tomorrow, night or rather tonight with this Being, wednesday that the show is gonna come. Out So wednesday night we're gonna be on YouTube with The COUCH gm live on his YouTube channel doing a LIVE q AND. A so if you guys have Any mariners questions so far through the start of the, year hop on with us and ask us some questions because we're gonna be. Live we've gotten to know him a little bit over the last few weeks and we wanted to do some content, together so we'll be doing that Again wednesday, night seven pm over on the YouTube channel Of The COUCH. Gm so go check that. Out we're looking forward to it FOR Tj. Matthewson this has Been Lyle. Goldstein as, always we thank you guys for tuning. In we'll talk to you next. Week