Episode 241: Colt Emerson (Mariners Prospect)

[00:00:00] Welcome to episode number 241 of the Marine Layer Podcast. We welcome on a very special guest, Mariners Top Prospect, Colt Emerson. We talked to him about playing with his draft class, hitting in Everett, and some of his passions outside of baseball. Really, really fun conversation getting into the Mariners Top Prospect. We also talk about the Mariners and the Yankees. Game one did not go the Mariners way, exactly. We got a few things to talk about.

[00:00:29] So, if you guys want to stay on top of all of our stuff, you can do so all over at one spot. That's our website, marinelayerpod.com. You can go find everything. Between our merch, it was awesome to see it around the park this weekend. You guys are the best. We'd love to see more of it, so you can go find our merch over there. If you're interested to sign up for our Patreon, that's over at our website. We'd love to have you get involved. And obviously, all our episodes are over there, too.

[00:00:51] So, all of that, along with our live show schedule, which if you haven't heard yet, our next live show is Saturday, May 24th, Queen Anne Beer Hall in Seattle. We're back in Queen Anne. It starts at 12 p.m. with a 1 p.m. watch party. So, again, 12 p.m. Saturday, May 24th over at Queen Anne Beer Hall. All that's over at our website, marinelayerpod.com. And you can find us everywhere across social media at marinelayerpod. Let's get it rolling.

[00:01:58] Unlike Emerson. Emerson, because of how he usually pitches, he's got to throw more strikes. I guess we saw kind of a different version of him. The stuff was playing up. He was getting a lot of swing and miss. But in turn, the stuff was also moving a lot more, and he wasn't able to control it a whole lot. And ended up walking a lot of Yankees, and it ended up coming back to bite him.

[00:02:20] I mean, he was pitching well while I legitimately went to take a shower and then got out of the shower and was like, it's 8-7-2 at that point. That wasn't great. I was jacked for him. I was like, it was great. I'm like, all right, five innings of this with five to six strikeouts and plus stuff is what you want to see. I mean, we talked about on Monday's episode, like if Emerson keeps throwing like this, what do you do?

[00:02:47] And Emerson threw a few innings. It was looking like that, sans the walks, and then the fifth inning happened. Look, this doesn't change that he's had a really good string of a few really good starts in a row. But you know what? Like, everybody's going to hit a bump in the road at some point. Obviously, he had that at the start of the season. He had a few really good starts. Now he hit another bit of a bump.

[00:03:14] But what's unfortunate about it is obviously Emerson's allowed a tough start or two, especially given how he's thrown the ball over his last handful of outings. The issue is it comes at a stretch of time where everybody in the rotation, really aside from Logan Evans, who spun together a pretty solid start of his own back on Saturday, had a tough turn through the rotation. Like, obviously, it's a tough task going against the Yankees. They could have really used Emerson, though, to help stop the bleeding a bit. Unfortunately, the Yankees got the best of them.

[00:03:43] I didn't even think it was a bad offensive day either. The Mariners gave themselves an opportunity late in that game to win. Right? It was 8-5 in the eighth inning. And they had set themselves up offensively to potentially go after the Yankees' bullpen a little bit more and solidify it. But again, at the end of it, the Yankees end up with 11 runs. Those bats, man, for the Yankees, they're good.

[00:04:09] Like, that's a legit group in town. So, there really is, I think, only so much you're going to do against that. The Mariners, I mean, for at least most of my adult life, have never really felt like they're on as much of the same level as the Yankees. Helps when you have Aaron Judge. By the way, the scouting report on Aaron Judge for how the Mariners are going to attack him, it was on pretty clear display in game one.

[00:04:36] I think he saw 23 pitches and four of them were fastballs. So, to that I say, great. Alternative plan, however, stop throwing to him, period. Alternative plan, they didn't listen to Monday's pod. No. We put out a social clip on Monday saying he should not see a pitch all series. I still stand by that. Because, look, what we said is make someone else beat you.

[00:05:04] Do not let it be Aaron Judge under any circumstance. Now, to be fair, on Monday, that basically happened because Grisham had a big day. A few other guys had a big day. Trent Grisham, man. Oh, he's red hot. Red hot. But anyway. There was a point, like, within the last two years, he wasn't even good. Well, talk about a turnaround. Yeah. Just to paint the picture for people, too. Like, watching him pregame on Monday.

[00:05:34] I mean, he's got, like, a baggy shirt on. I think he was wearing sweatpants. I think he was also wearing tennis shoes. He didn't look like he had shaved. His mustache was all over the place. His hair was sticking out in all these directions. I'm like, look, I'm like, who is this dude? I watched him swing. I'm like, oh, it's Trent Grisham. Yeah, he kind of looks like he just rolled out of bed. Hits two home runs.

[00:05:59] Point still being here, though, that was the game plan we carved out. We said, if it were us, make someone else beat you. And to be fair, in game one, they did. I still, however, would have just not thrown to Aaron Judge. Because guess what? You know what he did? Reach base every time except for one at bat in which he flew out to the warning track. Like, I thought for a second off the bat it had a chance to go. Hmm.

[00:06:28] Well, hopefully that doesn't happen tonight. Mm-hmm. That would significantly raise the Mariners' chances of winning. And the Mariners tonight are going to hope they get a solid performance out of Brian Wu, considering who he's facing on the other side in Max Freed. And also considering if you look at the last turn and change through the Mariners' rotation, it hasn't exactly instilled a whole bunch of confidence in that group. I will say the group last year had bad turns through the rotation.

[00:06:54] I remember us podcasting through the first two weeks of the 2024 season being like, what's up with this rotation? Aren't they supposed to be good? And then they ended up being historically great. So it was totally fine. Well, the Mariners' rotation, as we talked about on Monday's episode, has not had a great turn in the one game that split the podcasts that we did between Monday and Wednesday, didn't do much to quell that worry. Now, there are some good things, Lyle, that we learned here this afternoon.

[00:07:24] Let's roll through one of the good things. Logan Gilbert was up on the mound on Tuesday throwing a bullpen, a real-life bullpen. It was pretty light, but he did throw it, which is a very good positive. I think he got up to, what, 94 miles an hour? Considering where we were at a couple of weeks ago, I would call that a massive success. George Kirby's got one more start, and he's going to assumedly be back next week.

[00:07:51] I would imagine that's going to help your rotation a little bit, getting those two guys back. Logan, it'll take a little bit longer, but in the 48 hours between episodes, I would say there's even more positive news to come with the future of this rotation this season, which is fantastic. Yeah, it's great. I mean, a couple weeks ago with Logan Gilbert, we were talking about the idea that we may not see him again until 2028, which was a terrifying thought.

[00:08:16] Now, we still have to see how he'll bounce back on Wednesday, how he feels, how he responds. The good news is he feels good. He said after his bullpen on Tuesday that he did feel good, which is a positive. So, the key is just that he feels good on Wednesday and on Thursday and that he bounces back well, which is the opposite of what happened to Robbie Ray, and he didn't bounce back well. But, this is a good sign. In fact, I'd say it's a very, very good sign that he's throwing off a mound.

[00:08:44] He's starting to, I won't say ramp it up, but, you know, he's throwing 93, 94. That's a positive, and he feels good. So, big, big step. But, it's better than the light toss he was doing. It's a step, throwing downhill, digging into the rubber, throwing to a catcher. These are all real steps that pitchers are going to have to take to, you know, get all the way back up. How many pitches did he throw? Probably like 15? Yeah, it probably wasn't a ton, but, again, baby steps.

[00:09:15] It is baby steps. They're going to have to handle this very carefully. Hopefully, though, Brian Wulau is able to carry the load for this rotation until the time he gets back. Done throughout the course of this season. But, Mariners are going to need him in a big, big way on Tuesday night. Based on just how the matchup schedule out and what the Mariners have ahead of them coming up in the next week or so. No doubt. Also, last thing for 20 seconds here. I was not... Actually, I won't even say not happy.

[00:09:44] I was pretty pissed off watching that bunt on Monday. Oh, my God. Dude, come on. Like... Are you shocked, though, at this point? Like, it was bad. Like, it was so bad. The process of it was, I thought, really bad. In the end, it didn't really matter that much. No. But just talking through it. Like, just talk through the process of, like, watching last night's game.

[00:10:11] And the Yankees put up 11 runs by hitting the absolute shit out of the ball. And you're playing for a run? One run. One run. One run is... It's not good. I mean, we're talking through it at the ballpark a little bit today with a couple of people. And you think about it. Like, how does this make sense? How does it make sense to bunt? But it legitimately feels like it only makes sense if you need the one run to win a game.

[00:10:40] That one run is the only run you need. And even still, while there still is a flaw in that process of thinking, but at least you can justify it a little bit more by saying, we just need that guy on second base to get around a score, and we need to advance him as much as possible. Mm-hmm. But when you give up 11 runs to the Yankees, just doing it because you're doing it is... It's not great. And unfortunately, if you were to ask the Mariners why they're doing that,

[00:11:09] you're not going to get an answer. No. No. So... Look, we've talked... We don't have answers either. No. And we've talked about, again, what the real positives are of the new management with the Mariners and the somewhat new coaching staff is it does seem like players are very bought into this team, which is really important. It might be the most important thing about the job. But that right there,

[00:11:38] I don't get it. And like you said, the answers you get, it's not exactly the same, but in a lot of ways, it almost feels Belichick-like. Like, you really get nothing. Now, it's not the same tone. It's not the same grumpy, grouchy, I-hate-the-world Bill Belichick type. But, you know, it's a lot of words without a lot of purpose a lot of the time, I feel like, because there's not a lot of information in there. And even if it goes back to something that

[00:12:09] we talked with Divish about the first weekend of the season of how they go about deciding these things, so say it's the coaching staff who gives the players the green light to do it if they want. Why is Laoti doing it? Right. And you know what? If it's the players that are doing it on their own, then the coaching staff needs to, like, you know, they need to put their foot down a little bit and say, guys, like, we gotta pull back on this. Like, a lot.

[00:12:39] Like, hey, there's a situation where that thought process is right. Not when we're looking up at the scoreboard and the other team has, we're chasing, at that point, I believe, eight runs. No, no. This button was in the second inning. Sorry. But even, but that's the point, right? You're playing for a run against a team that eventually had 11 runs. Yeah. It's one of the best offenses in baseball. Yeah. So they do the same thing here tonight on Tuesday. It's just sitting here and thinking, it's like, man, like,

[00:13:08] Aaron Judge is swinging to hit the ball over the fence every time. And I know Leoti's not the biggest power hitter in the world and the world's best offensive player. There's a reason the Rangers don't have him anymore. Still, still just doesn't, doesn't really feel right. And again, not even punting for a base hit. No. It's totally different. Yeah. All right. Well, that ended up being more than 20 seconds. Well, usually it hits a, hits a certain chord. So. Bunning on this podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Play the clip, Lyle.

[00:13:39] I hate bunting, dude. I do hate bunting. It like, what is, what is people's in fact, like, and then like, when it, when teams bunt and it does quote unquote work again, we never sign up for it in a million years. God, like what is people's infatuation with going back to play baseball? Like it's the forties and the fifties. Like it's not fun. That's not a, it's not a watchable product. Like these are big league baseball players.

[00:14:08] I don't want to see them like drop their bat out in front of the plate and push one forward two feet. I think the best, the best part of the conversation we had today at the ballpark was it's like, okay, so if you're infatuated by bunting and you're talking about the small ball aspect of all this stuff, it's like, so how have the Mariners scored a majority of their runs this season? The reason they've scored so much and they've been ahead in these games and won. Walking and hitting home runs. Mm-hmm. Not the punts.

[00:14:38] Not the squibbers on the infield. Mm-mm. Like that, that's not it. Like obviously you want the, the way you score 90% of your runs to be the way you go and score runs. Yeah. And, and that was, I got it. I haven't thought about it in that perspective. And, you know, it's, it's pretty funny. It's pretty funny to think about, or it's like, you just kind of get scoffed at for what you're good at. And in that sense, or it's like, oh, he's swinging for the fences. Yeah. He's trying to score runs. That's how, that's how it works. Mm-hmm. Modern offense.

[00:15:08] Yeah. Amazing. All right. Let's move away from this. Cause we've got a pretty awesome conversation with Colt Emerson coming up that we are really, really looking forward to having you guys here. So I didn't get to ask him about bunting at all. We should ask him. No, I don't want, I don't want Colt Emerson bunting like ever again, like same thing. He was doing a little bit in spring training, which maybe he had to do it for practice, but I don't want to see it in a game. I'll tell you that like ever. So anyway, yeah. Before that, let's take a quick pause.

[00:15:37] We're going to talk to you guys about our friends over at Pagatch's pub 85. That's over in Kirkland. Awesome spot to go hang out. You guys, whether you want to play pool darts or just sit down to have some good food and drinks and watch some games. There's 20 TVs in that place with, with space to hang out with all your friends. So if you guys want to plan a time out, we recommend going during happy hour. Cause it's three and $4 drinks and happy hours are two to 6 PM on Monday through Friday. So you've definitely got time to get in there, get some great specials. It's a really fun place to hang out.

[00:16:06] So we certainly recommend it. That's Pagatch's pub 85 in Kirkland. We got to dive into more of the non-baseball stuff with Colt Emerson, more than I thought I expected. We got more personality from this dude in this interview than I, I was, I was pleasantly surprised Lyle in, in what Colt, I guess was willing to share it. He was about as laid back as I had, you know, experienced with a, I'd say a prospect of his caliber. Is that a,

[00:16:36] is that a good way to put it? Cause I feel like when you see Colt Emerson, I mean, he is so businesslike and so many of the ways he does things and the way he was scouted and the performance he's had on the field. But the conversation, it just felt like, you know, it almost felt like you were talking to a different dude. It was great. And again, like it's, it's another reason that we like to often get away from some of the baseball stuff in these interviews, because look like it's interesting.

[00:17:05] And we certainly talk about some baseball stuff, but the two of us at the very least, and we know a lot of listeners and fans out there feel the same way that like they're interested to get to know the people a bit too. And, and clearly we must've T Colt. We must've T Colt up for some things that he's passionate about because it certainly got him talking. So yes, to your point, Colt is extremely mature for his age. He's incredibly driven. He's obviously an incredible, incredible talent, hardworking, but it was cool that in addition to that,

[00:17:35] we got to see a little bit more of the, of who he is and just kind of tee him up to talk about some of his passions, which was fun. We won't keep you guys any longer. Let's get you to the interview with Colt Emerson. All right. We got Mariners top prospect Colt Emerson on with us. Colt, thanks for being here in person. This is great. How I want to start you off here because we're sitting here, it's a glorious day up here in Everett, Washington. We're looking out. I mean,

[00:18:01] personally cloudy is not a whole lot of wind and I'm staring at center field here at Funko field three 57. Is that not the greatest thing ever? You know, being a lefty, if, if I get it to the full side, it's going to be gone no matter what. So the more, the more you think about the three 57, the more you think about the three 30, I'd say for me, the worse I do, because, because you know how short it is and you know,

[00:18:31] all you got to do is get it up in the air. So it just kind of doesn't play into the way I play. So I try to think about it less as much as possible. Cause you want to hit line drives, but if you hit a line drive, it's, it's not a home run. In fact, it might be a single. It's very possible single, or you're thrown out of second base, depending on who you are. That's for sure. So, I mean, that's got to teach you a lot. I'm hustling out of the box, no matter what, because I have to make it to second base, no matter what. And especially with this turf too, you know, even like last night,

[00:18:59] I chopped one directly into the dirt and I mean, it chopped up in the second bounce, got the second base. So, so anything can really be a single here, which is, I guess the, the good and kind of a curse of Funko field. But you know, we love playing here. It's a great spot. What's been the worst bounce you've had so far? Uh, not so much me, but I, I've seen some, like I, I had a, I had a triple one day against Hillsborough. The first we were here and it,

[00:19:29] it bounced right by home plate and went over the first baseman's head. It did. And then, uh, I think it was, it was last night that there was one, the third base. Uh, I keep was playing in and bounce right in front of, home plate over his head. It's like, it's like, it's great for a hitter, but, but when you're in on defense and you need, don't need, don't want that run to score. It's like, we can't have that happening. It's kind of like a don't get used to it sort of thing. Cause it's, it's here.

[00:19:58] It's here and ever. And it's like that never, but it won't be like that in every ballpark you play it to say the least. As you either go to other places around the league or you move up, et cetera. Like, I don't even know where else does that happen? Toronto, Toronto. I saw Rowdy to let us do it. Uh, yeah, he did it right. Yeah. Yeah. It's grass, but the Sacramento ballpark looks really bouncy. Yeah. The, the PCL, which you'll, I'm sure you'll play in eventually realize like fields are fast ball. I mean, it's like a move. It's like a rock.

[00:20:26] I can't believe to hear in Tacoma is only what? 60 miles for each other. I mean, I feel like it plays totally different in the two different ballparks. That's what I've heard. So even despite the fact you get three 57 and three 30 out there, it's, it's a, it's crazy. So what, how has high a been? What's, what's the experience like for you? Uh, you know, I spent the last five weeks here last year and then coming into the season, just gave me a lot of confidence. It wasn't like, all right, new level, new, new things, trying to figure everything out.

[00:20:56] I could just come in, be comfortable and just kind of play my game, you know, you know, especially early season, get a lot of ups and downs and, really we're just out here trying to compete and we're trying to win. So, so coming into the season, that was my main focus was just be competitor more than anything, you know, at the end of the day, I mean, the guy's going to throw it over the plate and you just got to put the, little wood bat on the ball. So at the end of the day, I make it sound easy,

[00:21:25] but that's really what she's going through my head. So you're talking about focus in season. I am curious in the off season, cause I know you've talked about in a couple of interviews, one thing you wanted to focus on was your speed and getting a little bit faster. Why after the end of last season, did you kind of step back and say, this is important to me. This is something I want to really improve on. Well, I mean, speed doesn't slump, you know, you look at Chandler Simpson, which I mean, I'm not the same. I'm not, I'm not even close to the same guy, but, but you know, you know,

[00:21:55] you build your speed up and you can never be too fast, you know? I mean, I mean, you never know like when you could use that, you know, first or third, you know, like, like you want to be a threat and you want to be a well-rounded baseball player. So that just kind of was like, I was never slow, but like, I mean, you always want to get stronger. You always want to get faster. So just really just fine tuning everything. You know, I still got a lot of time and just fine tuning everything is just my goal every year. What does your peak speed profile look like?

[00:22:26] Uh, I'm going to assume somewhere between Chandler Simpson and Rowdy to let, I'd say we're right in the middle. Okay. Fair. How do you compare to peak Johnny? Oh my gosh, Johnny. It's not even a comparison of me and Johnny. Johnny's Johnny's fast. Yeah. You know, they say we got premium runners and we got regular runners and I'm a regular runner and Johnny's a premium runner. So you're trying to be like regular plus. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

[00:22:53] I'm trying to be enough to be able to get the balls at shortstop, be rangy. And at the same time, steal my bags when they're given to me, you know, where does it, where do you see that impacted more in the field or on the base paths with your speed? I, I see it more in the range side to side, you know, I mean, running, you hardly ever run in a straight line on a baseball field. So, so having that range of shortstop and being the guy where whoever's pitching knows

[00:23:23] that when a ball is hit over to shortstop or over on the left side of the infield, that they know it's going to be caught. And they know that they have a person over there that they can trust every single day. So is it things like ladders you'd work on in terms of side to side agility and stuff like that? Yeah. Ladders, you know, it comes down to the weight room too. It'd be an explosive. Um, yeah, sprints really was the big one and just really train it. Cause I never really, uh, this sounds bad, but I never really put a, um,

[00:23:52] really emphasis on like really, really training at a run, you know, even like form and stuff. And like the last two off seasons, ever since I got into pro baseball, it's like now you have time to do that. And, and now like, this is something, if you want to be a well-rounded baseball player, like this is what you have to do. Yeah. Okay. So mentioning well-rounded, I'm curious. Cause you talked about the speed and you've also talked about in the past, just strength and putting on positive weight and just getting stronger as years go on.

[00:24:21] And I heard you talk about, this was in another interview, just how much you have to pay attention to your diet and how kind of regimented you have to be with it. I'm curious as somebody who's trying to put on positive weight as a baseball player, like day through night, what does a diet look like when you're trying to put on weight? So for me, I'm a very, very plain Jane. I can really get into, I don't get sick of food easily. So probably every morning from actually I'll start with this, a gallon of water a day.

[00:24:52] It's a must. I've been doing it for the last probably eight months. You got the big gallon bottle. I do. It's always on me, right? Right here. Oh, there you go. Right there. I'll show the camera. Let's do it. Nice. Nice. This is a half a gallon. Two of those a day. Two of those a day. So I'll finish this one before the game and then I'll finish the other half before I go to sleep. Sure. And then one, I got to make sure you got to have electrolyte packet in it. It keeps it in your body. Sure. So I start off with the water and then it gets to,

[00:25:21] so every morning I have a double wrapped sausage, egg and cheese burrito. Okay. Every morning, three eggs. I don't know how much sausage, but a good bit of ground sausage and then just cheese. Keep it playing. And then I got this nice little habanero hot sauce that goes with it. It's amazing. Nice. Every morning for probably since, so I was at Modesto. Okay. Even my girlfriend would tell you in the off season, like it's literally like. It's like, don't you ever want something else? And you say no, no, no, no.

[00:25:50] And you better not touch my tortillas because if they're gone, I'm going to be mad. Why are we double wrapping more calories? That is true. But wouldn't you say what I would want to sub some more sausage in there instead of, instead of extra carbs, right? For me, the proportion has to be, it's got to be, it's got to be the perfect, most perfect looking burrito. Okay. I'm a pretty, I'm perfectionist when it comes to making food. So the double wrap burrito, you know how the tortillas get,

[00:26:18] they'll rip and then it kind of just ruins the whole thing. You can't be messy for me. So the, so the double wrap really gives it that perfect shape. And, and I was actually talking to my roommates, Karen, Josh, Karen. So he was like, man, you really perfected the burrito. I was like, yes, you have to, like, it's, it's got to be perfect. And I even put it back on the skillet and I, uh, I toast outside of it. So it's perfectly crisp. It's money. So I kind of got off on a tangent there. Keep going. So going back to the food. So lunch,

[00:26:49] uh, I guess I wouldn't even call it a superstition, but like, I'll eat the meals here that they give, but I'm a Chipotle bowl every home game. Okay. And it's the same Chipotle bowl. And, and I might get flamed for this, but I like it. I'll go, uh, I'll go carnitas, rice, and queso only. So that's just kind of the bro diet, right? There are no vegetables, nothing. No, no. I get my vegetables in at night, but before the game, I need carbs.

[00:27:19] I need a little bit of protein just to keep me rolling throughout the game. Just on a probably 75% full stomach and no bulk. Like the, the veggies is the bulk, right? Yeah. That's what you kind of want to like avoid the slog of, yeah, of running out there with a full stomach. You don't want to be too full, but you don't want to be hungry at the same time. And then nighttime, I'll kind of line up my meals where it's either like last night, like I won't really eat here. Uh, I enjoy cooking. That's one of my hobbies and I enjoy,

[00:27:48] it's not so much that I don't like the food here. It's just like, I enjoy the accomplishment. I feel when I cook food. Sure. So last night I had, I had, it was a lemon, citrus lemon, uh, marinated, uh, salmon, with, uh, some bun broth rice. And then I'll do, uh, uh, chop up some sweet potatoes with a, maybe some salt and pepper cinnamon on it. That's a good meal. It's great. You should open up a restaurant. Yeah. 15, 15 years from now.

[00:28:16] So they had the box art across the street from T-Mobile park. 15, 25 years. Let's say you're already retired at this point. It will be Colt's kitchen across the street. Or Emerson's eats. Which one do you like better? Oh my gosh. Emerson eats. That sounds, that sounds like a Seattle restaurant. Yeah. I will say, but no, uh, yeah. I mean, I mean, I really enjoy cooking. I don't know if I could serve other people in that. I mean, but you know, there's always, it's a nice feeling when you make a meal for somebody else and they're like, wow,

[00:28:46] that's good. Cause you know, I mean, I mean, food's like gold. If you make good food, I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a skill that not a lot of people have these days. So if I have your routine down in the morning and before the game, no thinking at all, not, no, like you, you try to think as little as possible about your food after, then you can like relax a little bit, be a little bit more adventurous. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Especially on the off days, I get very, very adventurous on off days. Like the other day, I think it was two weeks ago. I made, uh,

[00:29:15] I made a chicken Alfredo with the bow tie noodles and then, um, put a little Cajun seasoning in it. So, so a little cayenne pepper, some Cajun seasoning. So it's great. And then the week before I did, uh, my dad makes us, it's not even chicken noodle soup. It's kind of a hodgepodge of just, it's, it's obviously noodles, it's chicken, it's the mild sausage, it's kale. Um, onions,

[00:29:45] uh, carrots. So it's a chicken noodle soup, but it's like a hodgepodge. You put beans in there. It's, it's amazing. Sounds, sounds super healthy. It's, it's great. If somebody came up to you and wanted you to cook them a meal, and this is somebody you're trying to impress, let's say, what's the meal you're making? Like best meal you could cook for somebody to have them walk away and say, Oh, that guy can cook. You know, it would either be that soup because it's something that is unique and you wouldn't, you wouldn't think,

[00:30:14] like you wouldn't think like, Oh, he would be good at making this, but, but either that or you could do that. Uh, if it's one of the boys, you know, like, Hey, here's a filet mignon. Like I'll make this like, cause it doesn't take much. You put a probe in the middle and you cook it to about what I did. It was like, you cook about one 17. But the key to that is you get, you get the butter. So I got the seasoning. I got an Arizona, you put it with the butter, you put it with butter, you stir it around,

[00:30:43] let it harden back up. And then you wrap after the steak is done. You put the butter on top, wrap it in tinfoil, and you let it rest for the amount of time you cooked it. Maybe a little bit longer, maybe a little bit shorter, but the rest is the key to get, to get like the rarity of it, like the red in the steak, not even that, just the tenderness. Really? You got to let the tenants relax. Are you self-taught? Um, with the steak? Yeah. But my, my dad's a cook. I mean, I mean, he's not a cook, but he cooks a lot.

[00:31:13] And you know, I think I just got that gene from him. Okay. And it's just kind of one of those things where it's like, I mean, if you got a person in your life that can cook, like that's somebody you want around. Yeah. You're making yourself wanted. Yeah. Go to the Mariners and be like, look guys, the chef doesn't show up. Like, I don't know if I'm making food for the team, but. Okay. Last food thing before we move back to some baseball, we got told back, at least in high school,

[00:31:40] it sounds like you've kind of upgraded because you're telling us, you're telling us about Chipotle and how you eat Chipotle a lot. Back in high school, we got told you would eat like the plainest subway sandwich of all time, almost every day. Is that true? I told you that. Oh, we can't reveal our, our source is called subway sandwich. Plain is, I wouldn't say plain. I mean, normally, so I'll tell you before high school football games, I would get subway. Cause like in our town, it's either, there's two places. It's two pizza spots and then subway. So now,

[00:32:10] now they have sheets. But when I was in high school, it was, there was just those, it was basically those spots. There was like one other restaurant, but you can't really get a restaurant for Friday night football game. So I get a, I'd get a subway sub and it would be, it would just be a meatball sub, just meatball and then mozzarella. But then sometimes I'd switch it up and I get steak and some pepper jack, but it is plain. It would just be steak and pepper jack. Actually, that sounds way more elaborate than what we got told. We got told it was like Turkey cheddar, actually maybe cheddar and mayo. And that was it.

[00:32:40] No, I don't, I don't mess with my, that's, that's one of those things like a banana and may are the two things I will not, I will not eat. What would you rub your face with a banana? Like Ashton on social media, I'll be honest. You wouldn't catch me dead. Touching a banana. I mean, it's, it's that it's one of those things that I just won't, I won't do. Huh? I won't do. It's, it's no. So back to baseball Colt, besides the speed this year, what are those benchmarks you set for yourself?

[00:33:09] You know, really just a competitor. I know if I go out there and I play my game at the end of the year, it's going to be a good season. And I'm going to check the boxes of myself for myself, my expectations and everything. And whoever else, you know, I know if I got there and have the year that I know I'm going to have, it's good enough. And I'm going to be happy with that. And there's going to be no regrets. Cause you know, they, they, Vinny here talks a lot about be a pro.

[00:33:39] Mariners talk about being a pro, especially when you're young. Like I come every single day with the right intent, with the right work ethic. And you know, every single day they say 1% better. I come and get 1% better every single day. And I have the intent. The intent for me is, is the biggest thing. It's like coming in, like I need to have intent to get better today. And you know, such a long season, you know, after 132 games or whatever it is, you be, you get a lot better at baseball if you have that right intent.

[00:34:09] But if you don't have that, it's kind of like you're just coasting by and you're not really getting much better. I mean, I'll tell you, man, the way you talk and just seeing the way you carry yourself for being 19, like you're pretty mature. And I don't know how often you get told that, but it feels like you're almost like an old soul in a young body. Do you ever get told that? Yeah. You know, I don't know. I mean, I mean, you kind of get thrown. I kind of get thrown into, all right, you're seven. You get drafted at 17. Like, all right.

[00:34:38] You want to be a pro, right? You want to be a big leaguer as fast as possible. It's like, why spend time? Why spend time just being a 17 year old? It's like, all right, look at the pros, look at the guys in the show. What are they doing? How are they acting? And you try to mirror it as, as much as you can. And you try to put your own spin on it. But at the end of the day, you know, I want to be a big leaguer and I want to act like a big leaguer. I want to do stuff that big leaguers do. Yeah. I mean,

[00:35:07] and it's a credit to you because not everybody can do that. Everybody has their own way of going about it, but it's especially at 17 years old, not everybody can be as focused and have that same mindset and actually go out and perform with it too, just because everybody's wired a little bit different. So I think it's impressive. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I'll say, just think about what you have to give up. Like there are a lot of people who get to go out and like live college life. Yeah. And it's, it's really fun. Like we went to college. It was fun. Wasn't it? Yeah. It was all right. It was pretty fun. So you have to be one. I get,

[00:35:36] it sounds like you got to the point pretty quickly where you were totally okay with giving that up to, like you said, act like a pro instead and realize like making it to the pros would be the payoff for sacrificing all of that. Do I have that right? My gosh. Yeah. I mean, right now I'm living every little kid's dream, you know? So to spoil that is just a disrespect to my younger self, you know? So, I mean, yeah, I don't know. I just,

[00:36:06] you kind of got to choose your priorities, you know, what's more important, what's more important to you. You know what I mean? Right. And everyone's different. Yeah. So, well, speaking of living every kid's dream, I know you've talked about the most, one of the most fearful things to you, is actually having to go out and find a real job. If baseball were not to work out, which is what most people in the world have to do. But, you know, I'm sure it's one of many reasons why you're so motivated. I do want to turn the question a little bit though. Say in this hypothetical world,

[00:36:36] you had to actually find a job outside of baseball. What is, what is the worst one you could think of? Like what job could you work in where you say, I would hate every minute of this? That's a tough question. Cause you could literally say any job. And I'd be like, uh, probably like a, you know, like a coal mine or something. I would hate that too,

[00:37:06] to be fair. you know, like it's a very honorable job and like very, very tough and like very respected job. But I mean, you know, that doesn't sound fun at all. Going into a mine sounds a little claustrophobic. I don't know why this is where my mind went, but if somebody were to tell you, Hey Cole, we're going to put you on wall street in New York city and nine to five, you're going to work with a bunch of finance bros. And no chance, but I'll tell you what, Johnny, he's right there. Is he? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. You have to talk to him. He's,

[00:37:35] he's right. He's on that. You think he'd be a finance bro if he wasn't playing baseball? Oh my gosh. 110. And he would be the best one at it for sure. Interesting. Absolutely. Is he, is he just wired like that? Is that what it is? I mean, he's, he's from, he's from Northern Virginia. He's right by DC. You know, he's, he's got it in him. He's got that edge in him. That's for sure. Last thing for me, Cole, if there's one guy who you're the most competitive with on this team, who is it?

[00:38:08] You know, I'd have to say we play poker a lot and I get really competitive. You know, you don't like to lose money. So I'd say some of the guys we play poker with. So like Jordan's down there. Hecky's down there. Pags is down there. Donna Frio's down there. Ty's down there. So all those guys, you don't want, you don't want to lose those guys. Johnny too. You definitely don't want to lose to him.

[00:38:37] I was going to ask about Ty. Cause we've gotten to know him a little bit. If you lose in something to type heat, how much does he let you hear about me? Not so much because there's, it's, there's a mutual respect there, but if you catch him with, somebody else like Jones or Pags, like, Oh my gosh. Yeah. Then you're never going to hear the end of it. But yeah, you just, you don't, that's those guys, you just guys, you just don't want to lose to it. Especially in that way. Cause Ty, Ty's got a horseshoe,

[00:39:07] a lucky little horseshoe on him, especially in poker. That's for sure. Last one I got for you. I know you talked about what a cool experience, big league spring training was and how you tried to not take it too differently than any other day. But I am curious, the home run you hit at Sloan park off a real arm, by the way, and Kate Horton, was there a little part of you in spite of what your mindset usually is? That was like, all right, that was pretty sick. You know, that, that was one of the hardest balls and the farthest balls I've ever hit.

[00:39:36] And you know, like in the show where they say perfect, perfect. And like this game's so hard and to get one like that, especially they said it was the highest attendance rate of every, any spring training game ever. You know, I had people there from my hometown, they're watching being able to do that and putting a good swing in the ball. And just, I think it put us down one against them. And you know, like it was such a cool feeling because, you know, you only hit a few balls like that a year,

[00:40:06] especially for me, you know, like it was just cool to be on time and put a good swing on a ball and, you know, and to show that I got that in me, you know, you know, show everybody that, you know, if you mess up, that could potentially happen. Yeah. Oh, you got power. I think people know that, but you, you put it on full display. Absolutely. So it was just, thank you God for that. And yeah, Cole, this has been awesome, man. We can't wait to watch you keep crushing it throughout the season. And, you know,

[00:40:35] we're looking forward to seeing you jump up these rankings and, and up the system too. You're, you're a blast to watch. Thanks for taking some fun for us. Yeah. Thank you guys for having me. Well, that was a really, really fun conversation. We certainly hope you enjoyed listening to Colt Emerson. We certainly had a blast talking to him and hopefully, you got to learn a little bit more about him and some of his personality. Cause at clearly, like we talked about before the start of this interview, he's got some real passions and it was awesome to hear him,

[00:41:05] you know, dive in on it a bit because it was stuff we hadn't gotten to hear before. So it was a blast. Here's a reminder to you guys too. We sat down with Durangelo Sanja as well. So you, you guys voted on which of the two we were going to hear first and which interview we'd put out first. Cause we put out some polls on social media asking you guys. So you guys voted on Colt. He was the first one. We're going to put out the interview with Durangelo in two weeks. So stick, make sure to stay tuned and stick around for that. All right.

[00:41:32] That just about wraps up this edition of the Marine Layer podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to find all of our stuff, it's over at our website, MarineLayerPod.com. Everything's over there. You guys, all of our episodes, audio and video. If you want to like and rate and review and subscribe, you can do that all over at our website as well. We'd really, really appreciate it. If you did, if you want to go get some merch, it's over at our website. It's awesome. It's been rolled out for a few weeks now. Again, we saw it at the park a bunch. You guys have tagged us in it. So keep it rolling.

[00:42:02] You guys, it's super cool to see, and we hope you enjoy it. So go get yourself some merch, go sign up for our Patreon. If you're interested, we'd love to have you. And one final reminder, our next live show is in a little over two weeks. It is on Saturday, May the 24th. It's over at Queen Anne Beer Hall in Seattle live show at 12 o'clock. We're going to do a watch party at one o'clock. So mark your calendars, go check out our website for the date. And we'd love to have you out in a couple of weeks. So again, just make a note of it. That's TJ. Oh,

[00:42:31] and also, as you guys know, follow us all across socials at Marine Layer Pod. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.