Episode 242: The Mariners Biggest Need At The Trade Deadline + Are We Concerned About Bryce Miller's Longevity? (Mailbag)

[00:00:29] Welcome to episode number two. 242 of the Marine Layer Podcast. It's our mailbag episode. We'll answer your guys's best listener questions. The Mariners have all of a sudden turned cold. They've lost five of six. And Bryce Miller hits the injured list in what seems like a wave of bad news for the Mariners. We'll dive into all the storylines. Your guys reminder, stay on top of all of our stuff. And if you want to do so, it's all over at one spot. You can head over to MarineLayerPod.com.

[00:00:56] That's our official website where you can find everything between our episodes, between our Patreon, which we'd love to have you guys sign up for, our merch. We love seeing it around the park and around town. So if you guys are interested in getting some of your merch, we highly, highly recommend you go do that. Again, you can find it all over at our website. Along with our live show schedule. Our next live show is a week from the time this podcast comes out and one day. So a little over a week. It is Saturday, May the 24th.

[00:01:26] It's over at Queen Anne Beer Hall in Seattle. Live show starts at 12 PM. Watch party at 1 PM. We're going to do a bunch of giveaways and a bunch of trivia again. We would love, love, love to have you guys there. So mark your calendars, May 24th, 12 PM over at Queen Anne Beer Hall. And if you want to check us out across social media, you can do so everywhere on socials at MarineLayerPod. Let's get it rolling.

[00:02:02] And we welcome you to this episode of the MarineLayer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network. Recording on Thursday evening, May 15th, following the Mariners losing the series at home to the Yankees. We thought they could make it through the entire series without listening to us, Lyle, but it came back to bite them on Wednesday. Do you want me to just start zero to 100 here? Or should we lead into it a little bit? Do you want to explain to the people?

[00:02:30] We said on Monday's episode that the Mariners should not throw a single strike to Aaron Judge, that they should intentionally walk him every single time he stepped to the plate. Aaron Judge, before Wednesday's game or before specifically the eighth inning of Wednesday's game, had a good series, but he didn't really hurt the Mariners by hitting the ball over the fence, which is what he does better than anybody in baseball. But then the eighth inning happened, Lyle, on Wednesday.

[00:02:59] That caused the Mariners to lose the game. The game was tied at two at that point, and well... And then Carlos Vargas throws him a cement mixing slider, middle, middle, and this dude pulverizes it 118 miles an hour into the bullpen. This right here is exactly what we said to a T not to do. This right here, we said let anybody else on the New York Yankees go ahead and beat you.

[00:03:28] Whether it's Grisham, Ben Rice, Paul Goldschmidt, anybody. I don't care who it is. Let somebody else do it, and don't let it be Aaron Judge. Literally anybody else. And then the Mariners get themselves into a scenario where it's not Andres Munoz, it's not Matt Brash, it's not Gabe Spire, it's Carlos Vargas, which all due respect to him. Look, he is a middle reliever on this team. He is a mid-leverage reliever.

[00:03:53] And you are facing not just the best hitter in baseball, but the best hitter in a decade plus. Maybe the best right-handed hitter to ever play the game. And you decide, you know what? Base is empty. Nobody out. I don't care. I'm just gonna throw to him. It's a tie game in the rubber match, and we're just gonna let him see cement mixing sliders. I mean, look, I'm sure Vargas didn't mean to throw it middle, middle. Regardless, he never should have seen a pitch in the first place.

[00:04:21] We specifically said, do not throw him pitches. And I don't care that the bases were empty in that game. I don't. You should have put him on first base and did exactly what we said and let somebody else try to do the damage. And if they do, you live with it. What did I say in game one, right? I said, look, I'm not happy they lost, but I lived with it because Grisham hit a couple homers and Volpe hit a homer. And it was other guys across the lineup that beat you. Dude, like after Aaron Judge in that lineup, you had Gretchen.

[00:04:50] You had Cody Bellinger struggling. You had Volpe. Yeah, you had Volpe struggling. And then Jason Dominguez. Okay, so here we go. You had Bellinger struggling. Volpe struggling. Sorry, let me do this third time as a charm because Bellinger's been fine. I won't say struggling, but Bellinger's been fine. Volpe's been struggling. Dominguez has been struggling. You had JC Escara in there, the backup catcher. You had Yorbit Vivas in the lineup. These are all the guys that come after Aaron Judge. All of them.

[00:05:19] And you have a dude who I am not kidding you when I say has a 252 WRC plus. For the casual fans at home, Aaron Judge has been 152% better than the league average bat this year. Why do you think we said don't throw him a pitch? His OPS is 1279. When we say he should get the Barry Bonds treatment, this is not an exaggeration. Listen to these numbers.

[00:05:47] What do people think about when they hear Barry Bonds, right? His two best seasons were 2001 and 2004. They're historic. In 2001, Barry Bonds put up a 235 WRC plus. Insane, right? Insane. In 2004, where he got walked all the time, he put up a 232, or sorry, he put up a 233 WRC plus.

[00:06:13] Aaron Judge's WRC plus this season is 17 points higher than 2001 Barry Bonds. He is currently hitting 17% better than the greatest hitting season we've ever seen. And the Mariners still decide in a tie game to just let him swing away, to let him see strikes, and not let Yorbit Bebos and Anthony Volpe and all these other guys try and beat you instead. Why do you think we got so mad about this?

[00:06:43] This is exactly what we said not to do. They did it anyway, and you lose the series. Like, unreal, dude. I told you I was going to be mad about this. It really has been a little bit now since I've done a true full-fledged podcast rant. I needed it today. It was stewing, and it was time. The losing streak's getting to you. Dude. Okay. Yes. I mean, it's not even the losing streak because you're going to have... I'm joking. I know. I know it's not.

[00:07:13] Like, you're going to have bad stretches over the course of a... You're going to have bad stretches over the course of a season. But, again, it's the process behind it. And some of you are going to say, well, you don't walk somebody with the bases empty, and you know, you don't give in, and you don't like... You know, you don't have such a beta mentality against a team's best hitter no matter who it is.

[00:07:36] Because, look, most star hitters across the game, I am not going to sit here and say, put up four fingers and have them take first base. Aaron Judge is not most star hitters across the game. He is on such a level above everybody else where it's warranted. Again, he is literally hitting better than all of Barry Bonds' best seasons. Jose Ramirez, for example, right? I make my last point here.

[00:08:01] Jose Ramirez this season has an 870 OPS and a 142 WRC+. In most seasons, Jose Ramirez is playing like an MVP right now. Those are MVP-level numbers. I am not sitting here and saying you have to intentionally walk Jose Ramirez every at bat. You have to intentionally walk Jose Ramirez with nobody on in a tie game late in a series. I'm not saying that. But, again, I mentioned how Jose Ramirez has a 142 WRC+.

[00:08:28] Aaron Judge's WRC+, is 110% higher than Jose Ramirez, who in most years could win an MVP with this level of success. Like, I just don't understand at what point you say we're not giving this guy pitches to hit and you lose the series. If there's a different arm in there, the discussion changes a little bit. Because we saw Brash go right after him the night before and he struck him out.

[00:08:58] If Andres Munoz was in there, I think you trust Andres Munoz to pitch to Aaron Judge. But for most guys, no. No. Not in that scenario. Not with the bases empty. It is, I will say, it is very easy in hindsight to go look back and say, duh. Duh. Duh, you had to make that decision. But I even felt like, you know, as we lay out before that and you look at the lineup, you look at the matches before that,

[00:09:26] I don't care that Cody Bellinger is a lefty facing a righty in Carlos Vargas. Doesn't matter. If Cody Bellinger beats you, he whacks a double into the corner. Fine. Fine. Yeah. Like, that's okay. That's not the end of the world. It just does kind of feel frustrating where it's like, okay, you just, you look at the Yankees lineup, you can't let Judge beat you. You can't let him do it. Like, this is the guy you cannot let beat you.

[00:09:51] And the fact you lose the series because you hung a slider with the bases empty and you didn't have to pitch to him. Yeah, it just doesn't sit very well. Let me say this again, right? If it were Munoz or Brash in the game, my vote is still to put Aaron Judge on first base. Just put up four fingers, let him have the base, and you pitch to everybody else. And you certainly trust Brash and Munoz against the rest of that lineup. Would I trust them more in that scenario? Sure.

[00:10:20] Like, I wouldn't be as mad if it had been one of those guys going best on best and Judge just happened to get the best of them. I still would have voted to put him on first base, but at least you're going best on best with elite relievers. The fact it is not one of your best arms and you're in that scenario and it's tied. This goes back to the just make someone else beat you, man. What about like I think about it from Munoz perspective? I think it's a little bit different from Brash though.

[00:10:48] I will note having watched a couple of Brash's outings. Matt Brash is going to give up a lot less home runs now based on what his repertoire is. He's throwing it. His sinker man is fucking nasty. He's starting throwing it a lot more and it really moves down, which is yeah. I hope it doesn't cause him to throw less strikes. But man, I mean, it's nasty. Definitely a better pitch I'd say than his four seam fastball in terms of what he's trying to accomplish.

[00:11:13] But also, come back to the Munoz thing where Andres Munoz, I still think has like a 70% ground ball rate. It's fucking ridiculous. At that point, you're like, okay, Munoz has a near 40% strikeout rate. He has a top three slider in baseball and nobody hits his sinker for any sort of damage. They just pound it right into the ground. Would you not trust that?

[00:11:37] Again, my vote would still be to just put him on first base and have Munoz and his 70% ground ball rate sort of Bellinger and Volpi and Vivas and Escara and all of them. That's fine. But yeah, you just laying out sort of more of the parameters. It's definitely a better matchup. That's for sure. Of course. Again, I would be less up in arms if Judge just happened to get the best of Munoz. Because we saw Munoz get the best of Judge last year in the Bronx with that awesome at bat where he punched him out.

[00:12:08] But like Aaron Judge wasn't doing what he was doing last year this year. He's on another level and then some. Again, it's not even Barry Bonds. It's better than Barry Bonds, at least by WRC+. Bonds had the higher OPSs in those seasons than Judge, but Bonds also played those years in a more hitter friendly environment. It was in the steroid era.

[00:12:30] So everyone else is hitting as well as Barry Bonds is, which you could say kind of, you know, kind of degrades his numbers a little bit on the advanced scale. But yeah, still pretty ridiculous. You know, it's a really fun fact about all those numbers. So judges ahead of all of them, you mentioned Bonds' 01 and 04 seasons. You know, that wasn't actually his highest seasons of those four by WRC+. It was 02. Yeah, where it was 242, I believe. 244, I think. Okay, yeah.

[00:12:59] Just absolutely ridiculous. But Aaron Judge is... And you told me this pre-recording, Lyle. What is Aaron Judge's war right now here on May 15th? I'm so glad you teamed me up because I meant to add this earlier. Let me say it right here. Aaron Judge on May the 15th has a 4-F war. 4! This dude is on pace for a 16-war season. What is that?

[00:13:28] Again, this is not Jose Ramirez. It's not even Juan Soto. It's not Fernando Tatis. It's not Freddie Freeman. Man, this is another ridiculous level where he is such on an island and a category on his own that he gets different treatment. Don't pitch to him. Yeah. I was so fucking livid when that happened on Wednesday. I really was.

[00:13:55] I know Aaron Judge does this to everybody, but this is exactly why we said what we said at the start of the series, which is avoid this. And it was not avoided. At least the Mariners are still in first place somehow. Mm-hmm. Yes, they are. And that's a good thing. They've lost five of six. They're still in first place. Now we'll talk about one of these guys in a second. I was putting it kind of in perspective if so people just got that wave of negativity warranted totally warranted at this point.

[00:14:26] But to think that the Mariners have lost five of six. They have at this moment, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller all on the injured list. During this streak where they lost five of six, they've averaged a grand total of 2.6 runs per game where the offense has progressed a little bit and they're still in first place. That is glass half full. No doubt. And it's a good glass half full because you wouldn't expect that they're going to hit like this for the rest of time.

[00:14:56] And something had to come back to earth a little bit because they were hitting at a pretty ridiculous level there for a couple weeks. But you also assume it's not going to be to this level of lows for an extended period of time either. So, yeah, it's a good sign that they're in first place. And if you want to add in the fact that you don't have Kirby, you don't have Logan, for right now you don't have Bryce, certainly at his best that there is a lot of margin for improvement from this team. And if things go right, you can see things really swing in their favor for a majority of the year.

[00:15:24] But they're going to have to find a way to weather this storm too. Let's talk about Bryce. I can't say we're too shocked. Something had to happen with Bryce. And he talked about it a little bit when he goes on the injured list. He said, I've continually not been able to bounce back. Something's felt off this entire time. And now they're saying, all right, it is elbow inflammation. And Bryce said they looked at it and saw that there was some elbow inflammation. He got a cortisone shot. Sounds like he'll be back as soon as his 15-day IL stint expires.

[00:15:54] This had to happen though. Bryce said it himself. He said, we can't keep doing this. We're trying the same thing over and over and over again. And clearly it's not working. So they had to try something else. And I'm all for this. I think he needed this more than anything. Give him a couple weeks down. Let him get right physically. Let him reset a little bit. And then you hope he just comes back and gets back to being Bryce Miller. Which he should. If he's healthy and he feels right, he should be Bryce Miller.

[00:16:22] But I think everybody's in agreement on this. Including Bryce, like you just mentioned. That there needed to be some altercation in the way this was going this season. There had to be some stop in the road. There had to be some change of progression where they did something to change the course of all this. And now it's to get him off his feet for a couple weeks. Let him rest and hopefully get back to normal. Because it does sound like it's going to be a minimum IL stint.

[00:16:52] That's the good news. Is it doesn't sound long term. So you hope that in two weeks he's ready to go again. No, it raised my eyebrow. He said this affected him last year too. Second half of last year when he was pitching as well as any pitcher in the American League. He said it popped up then. Went away in the off season. Felt good in spring training. And now once the season started, now it's back. I'm like, okay. Good thing we're focusing on it now. He didn't pitch like it at that point.

[00:17:21] But I do think the couple other things that Bryce was dealing with alongside the mental part of it was all I would say cooked up into what we saw from Bryce the last few starts. And now I'm glad they're being a little proactive with it. Are we going to, what's the timeline of this? Is it going to be one Jonathan Diaz start or none? Are they just going to be able to line it up for Kirby? There's a chance because for this weekend against the Padres, it is going to be Logan Evans on Friday.

[00:17:51] It's going to be Emerson Hancock on Saturday. And then it's going to be Brian Wu on Sunday because with the Thursday built in off day, Wu can just pitch on four days rest. Okay. So maybe we don't have to watch Jonathan Diaz. That's good. Yeah. So that would mean what? That would mean again. Well, but the other thing here is they said they want Kirby to return in Houston. So you know what? There, there may be one Jonathan Diaz start because then they go to Chicago. Okay. That, that would be the place for Jonathan Diaz to start. Correct.

[00:18:22] Okay. Correct. So a little bit more his speed, right? So he'd make one start and then you would assume Kirby would come back and take his spot either on Saturday or Sunday in the Houston series. If he's ready to go now, to be fair, we expect, I don't even know if expects the right word. We, we, we think there's a good shot that he will come back against the Astros.

[00:18:45] But to be fair, Justin Hollander was on 710 on Wednesday and he said, look, we are trying to build George up like it's a spring training for him. He's had a few starts. He's looked really good, but we want to make sure he is fully ready to go because you don't get the same buildup doing what they're doing right now with him that you get making six or seven starts in a spring training and George essentially had no spring training.

[00:19:07] So yeah, there's a chance he'll be back against Houston, but they said they're just playing it cautiously and making sure he checks every single box before he's off the IL because guess what? When George Kirby comes off the IL, the Mariners cannot afford to have him go back on it at any point again this year. They need him the rest of the way. Assuming he goes five innings in his next start with Tacoma, I would have a hard time thinking he's not ready for Houston because he went for his last start.

[00:19:34] So you go four to five and then he's about ready and then you'll ballpark him at 85 pitches in his first start and you're, you're ready to roll. Yeah, and that's probably about right. He threw 50 pitches in his last rehab outing in this upcoming one. I would guess he'll throw about 70 80 to 85 is about the right range in his first start back. You slow play him in his first few starts back off the IL, but yeah, he's obviously getting close and having George Kirby back is massive.

[00:20:03] The best thing about even though I read off the IL stat were, you know, having these if you looked at any point of the season preseason and you looked and you saw that you had Bryce Logan and George. All on the IL at the exact same time. There would be a lot of people freaking out. I think it's incredible. They make it through and there's almost no structural damage with the three of them at all. They're not all in the clear yet. I'm mostly referencing Logan, but not all of them are, you know, like fixed once they get off the IL. But according to all the MRIs.

[00:20:33] They are, you know, functionally fine. They just need to, you know, figure some stuff out. That doesn't mean the injury regression isn't here because the injury regression is here. Wow. Straight up. Just going on the injured list in any form, not performing the way you did last year. The injury regression is 100% there for this team. And like it's going to pop up again at some point. Someone's going to be sore or someone's going to get hurt at some point this season. I'm like it's just going to happen. I tweeted the stat out.

[00:21:03] We put it on our Instagram that they already at this point in May have had more guys start when Jonathan Diaz steps on the mound and starts. They'll have more guys start this year already in the middle of May than they did last year. That's a lot. Mm-hmm. But it's pretty normal. It's like normal for a team. That's to just show how abnormal last year was. Right. And that's those seven starters last year.

[00:21:30] Jonathan Diaz made one start to count as that seventh starter. It was essentially six. Mm-hmm. Doesn't happen very often. Yeah, it was the main five. And it was Emerson Hancock early in the year when Brian Wu was on the IL and late in the year when you had Luis Castillo on the IL. And then Emerson made a couple starts in the middle of the year also. So, yeah, it was really six guys, which is pretty remarkable. And you also look back to 2022 when they literally didn't miss a start.

[00:21:58] So two of the last three years, their health in the rotation has been pretty unprecedented. And it's just it's really hard to keep that up year over year. I have something I want to ask you before we get to that question. It's a burning question. But before we get there, let's hear from our friends, Lyle, at game time. Now, the two of us won't be back at the park for another couple of weeks because this Mariners road trip is going to drag out a little bit. Two weekends in a row we won't be at the park. But that doesn't mean you guys can't go look out for tickets to join us at the park when the Mariners get back.

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[00:23:27] My question to you, Lyle. I'm sitting here, I'm looking at the Mariners roster. And we've seen some adjustment from the opposition, from the pitching staffs on the other side, that have really shown some of the holes on this Mariners roster. So here's what I have for you. Let's play a game. I look at the Mariners roster and I see glaring holes that they're going to need to address at the trade deadline. First base, specifically right-handed hitting first base.

[00:23:53] Third base, relief pitching, and starting pitching. Let's say, Lyle, you get to the deadline and you can only upgrade two of those positions right now. Which two are you upgrading?

[00:24:06] I almost want to go two sets of bats, but we have seen the damage that high-end leverage bullpen arms can do against opposing lineups in the playoffs when you have just a lethal bullpen. I think it's so crucial. And the Mariners have a lot of good bullpen arms right now. I still think they need even more.

[00:24:34] So I would say first base and I would say the bullpen. I'm with you there. I think that's the easiest bunch to acquire. I feel like first baseman, it doesn't even need to be a first baseman. It's just someone you can put at first base to hit. Because you look at all the other options at first base, which we talked about within the organization. I don't feel totally confident with their ability to just find someone who's going to, in the organization, who's going to hit at first base.

[00:25:04] The options I think of at this point, and I'm mostly referencing Donovan Solano's spot right now. Rowdy Tellez is replaceable, but it's not on the top of your mind in terms of stuff you need to do. But Donovan Solano right now is a negative 16 WRC plus in the middle of May. It's not great. So you would say, okay, TJ, what about Tyler Locklear? Tyler Locklear right now has regressed in AAA down to a 108 WRC plus.

[00:25:33] It's solid for playing for the Tacoma Rainiers, but it's not good enough to feel confident that you can go and you can hit at the big league level. And Tyler Locklear struggled in his small sample size of the big leagues last year. So you're going to need to go outside the organization to do that. At least at third base, you can just get someone who you already have who plays good defense on the infield. Like a Leo Rivas or you do Rivas and Masturboni or something.

[00:25:59] Like there's some combination of defense you can piece together at third and Ben Williamson as well. Yeah. Or play over there at third. Or when Cole Young's ready here, because by the way, he has been on a tear over the last couple weeks down in Tacoma. I'm not saying he's ready this second. I don't think you should yank him up this second. I would give him more time to make sure he's fully right before you call him up. But at some point, once he's ready, he'd play second. You can have Dylan Moore play some third. You can have Ben Williamson play some third.

[00:26:28] If Leo Rivas needs to mix in between second and third, you have options. You have options of guys who can go and play third base. So there is a way to solve that. I mean, Jorge Polanco could still go out and play the field if you really need him to. I'm not saying he's a gold glover out there, but it is a place he can play position-wise. Why we mentioned third base at this point? For those wondering, well, Ben Williamson's at third base. Ben Williamson has really struggled since May started.

[00:26:58] This is over his last 52 plate appearances. He has a 33% strikeout rate. He has not walked. He has a 7 WRC+. Yeah, it's tough, man. And it's tough because this amount of weight never was supposed to be on Ben Williamson's shoulders in the first place. And this isn't saying Ben Williamson can't be a solid player and play a nice role for the Mariners. He can. We know he's supposed to be a really good defender.

[00:27:28] We know he can put the ball in play. His actual overall offensive profile isn't actually awful. Now, again, the results have not been there the last two weeks and the league's figured him out a bit. But what really gets Williamson is the fact he just doesn't walk at all. He's walking 3% of the time and he does chase a bit. But there's a lot of his profile that's fine in terms of putting the ball in play and in terms of bat to ball, all that stuff.

[00:27:56] But when you don't walk and you're chasing a lot, it can lead to you getting exposed. And that's happened here over the last couple of weeks. I say bullpen, Lyle, because we've spent a lot of time talking about the Mariners bullpen hasn't struck enough people out this year. And we are kind of raising our eyebrows at the middle of this Mariners bullpen.

[00:28:19] The front end to middle part of the Mariners bullpen. The guys that will pitch in front of Matt Brash and Andres Munoz, who have been used more traditionally by Dan Wilson this year. Therefore, you're going to need the guys in front of him or front of them to be good. The three guys who have 1000% stamped themselves totally safe in the Mariners bullpen this year. Gabe Spire, Matt Brash and Andres Munoz.

[00:28:49] Right now, that is it. Otherwise, you should always keep your eyes out for other options to go potentially add to the bullpen. I mean, it can be Ryan Helsley with the Cardinals, though the Cardinals have been playing pretty well, right? So, you never know. The trade deadline is a long way away, but that one's been floated for a while. And there's some other options out there that you could go trade for once the deadline rolls around. Maybe some of the more underrated names. The difference between...

[00:29:18] I mentioned Kyle Finnegan from the Nationals, a team that is losing games. That would work out right there. The Mariners just haven't been able to get those diamond-in-the-rough relievers to pop up in the middle of their bullpen and give you elite 6th and 7th inning production. We were talking about this before we were recording. Go through year by year of what they have produced. 2021, Paul Seewald, Drew Steckenreiter.

[00:29:48] 2022, Matt Brash, Andres Munoz, Eric Swanson. 2023, Gabe Spire, Justin Topa. We're not talking about guys who are, like, good. We're talking about borderline elite relievers that the Mariners produce out of almost nothing at that point. But then you get to 2024 and 2025. They haven't. What would you say they produced? First, Colin Senter was good last year.

[00:30:15] He was not at the level of the aforementioned guys that you just listed. But he was good. This year, Vargas has been that guy in some stretches. Now, again, we spent plenty of time at the start of this podcast highlighting what happened when he faced Aaron Judge. But to be fair to Carlos Vargas, he has been like he has shown some real, real flashes here in 25, even if he's not going to be a back end reliever.

[00:30:42] And by the way, like, let me let me make that first part of the podcast clear. It's not really about Carlos Vargas. Again, he was put into a situation and asked to do a certain job and did the best that he could do. It was more about, like, the Mariners deciding to even let Judge hit in the first place. It's not a Vargas thing. Vargas just followed orders and did his best. He missed with a pitch. But anyway, back to the positives of Vargas. Yeah, you've seen that. But Colin Senter and Carlos Vargas have not been Paul Seawald.

[00:31:11] They have not been 2022 Andres Munoz and Matt Brash. They were not 2023 Justin Topa. It just hasn't been that. And that's where you run into the problems. And that's the big reason why the bullpen failed last year and why they have not. They've been solid at times, but not. It's not a world beating unit right now. Not when you're asked to cover the amount of innings they cover, I'd say, outside of the ninth inning for the most part. But Brash does help that part. That part does help.

[00:31:38] Starting pitching, I wrote down because they're always going to need starting pitching. Because it's not last year. We've already seen it. They are, but I think that's last by a wide margin in terms of what I'd be targeting. Because, again, like they've shown, they absolutely have depth down in the minor leagues. And by the way, even if you get to a point later in the year where you get past Logan Evans and you get past Emerson Hancock in terms of you need even more depth,

[00:32:07] there are other guys that you're probably going to be able to call on that are not named Jonathan Diaz as the year goes on. He's going to need to build up his workload here because he got started late in terms of his season and has only made a couple starts down in AA. But at the time of recording this, Michael Morales just threw four awesome shutout innings down in AA in his second start back where he didn't give up a hit. He didn't give up a walk. He threw 38 pitches in those four innings and 30 of them were strikes. He was really, really good.

[00:32:37] Now he's going to have to build it up more over time. But, again, we're talking about the co-minor league pitcher of the year last year for the Mariners who probably is short on a list of guys given another month or two in terms of who'd be called up to the show. I mean this with the most respect possible to friend of the podcast, Michael Morales. But if you're in a playoff hunt, do you want those innings with him?

[00:33:05] Okay, but this goes back to the point of if you're the Mariners, you have to rely on your starting pitching and your main five to be out there. It was like we said on the last episode. There's not that much they can do about starting pitcher injuries. The Mariners aren't going to go trade for Paul Skeens. Like let's shut down that narrative right now. So if – Do you want a hot take? Sure. They should. Oh, they should.

[00:33:32] But the Pirates are not going to give him up. And the package that it would cost for four and a half years of Paul Skeens, which by the way, he has one less year of control because he won rookie of the year. Oh, you're right. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. That's right. So I don't even know what a four and a half year trade package of club control for Paul Skeens would look like.

[00:33:57] But I'm going to essentially assume it costs an entire farm system. Okay. Or let's put it like this. Like all of your top six prospects and maybe Brian Wu. It wouldn't – no. It would not cost that much. No. I don't know. How much more is Paul Skeens worth than Brian Wu right now? Point being, it's going to cost a lot, a lot.

[00:34:25] So anyway, let's not get turned down a side path here. Okay. We could spend the rest of the episode talking about Paul Skeens trade packages. A completely useless conversation about trading for Paul Skeens, which will never happen. So if you're the Mariners, you have the best rotation in baseball when everybody's healthy.

[00:34:46] So you've got to bank on the idea that those guys, along with Logan Evans, Emerson Hancock, maybe Michael Morales if you really need them, can fill in in those roles. Even if a starter is hurt for a significant amount of time down the stretch, if the Mariners get into the playoffs, you don't need all five of those starters. You need three or four. So if you're pinpointing of the four positions which to target, starting pitching has to be last. That's right.

[00:35:15] I would say with my suggestion there and my hypothetical was if your decision at the trade deadline – and somehow, by the way, in this point, you're still in playoff contention, which if they get to the amount of injuries where they need to think about calling Mikey up, it's probably an issue. Most likely I would say in that point you're not in a playoff race. But if you were somehow in a playoff race and you had a rotation spot open and you had to trade for someone, I think they're trading for somebody. All right.

[00:35:45] So maybe then you go target Andrew Heaney. Not the first pirate we were talking about, Pirates pitcher, but another Pirates pitcher. Exactly. If it's Emerson Hancock or trading for Andrew Heaney, they're going to roll with Emerson. If it's Logan Evans or Andrew Heaney, they're going to go with Logan Evans. That I think is pretty clear. Right. Which – oh, shout out our guy, by the way, Logan Evans. Talk about the Marine Layer pod being on an absolute ball-knowing tear on this episode.

[00:36:09] We talked about the Aaron Judge thing and absolutely highlighting that into existence and seeing that three days ahead of time before it happened in real life. But we talked about after Logan Evans' second start. Guys, he got incredibly unlucky. The official scorer essentially didn't know what he was doing by marking that ground ball to Ben Williamson a hit. Randy Orozarena should have caught that ball in left field. And then give it a little bit of time.

[00:36:37] And here on Thursday, Major League Baseball officially updates that, yeah, that was an error on Ben Williamson. So guess what? Logan Evans' ERA now goes all the way down to 3-6. And I got to tell you, that's pretty good. It went down six runs. You remember when I brought up to you that ERA is a fake stat? Uh-huh. Hmm. It's kind of a dumb stat. But guess what?

[00:37:01] Since people love to use it, we are absolutely going to highlight that Logan Evans has a 3-6 ERA in the show for a rookie. That's only made three starts. That's really good. That's pretty good. Yeah. Definitely, it makes the Texas start look a lot better. I'll say that. Definitely. Which, again, we kind of knew when it happened that there's a lot of really tough luck that went against them. Last thing I want to say, because we have certainly delayed this mailbag, but to be fair, there's been a lot to talk about.

[00:37:28] With this corner infield conversation wrapping up, we haven't brought it up in the first six weeks of the season. It's been totally unnecessary. They've also been very hot. But I think it's relevant now. The Mariners corner infield, you mentioned Donovan Solano. He has a negative 16 WRC+. Ben Williamson has a 72 WRC+. And like you said, over the last two weeks, it's at 7. Rowdy Tellez has a 93 WRC+.

[00:37:56] If you want to include Miles Mastroboni, his WRC+, is at 70. Those are your corner infield spots, man. Corner infielders are supposed to be premier offensive positions where they are driving your lineup. That's not happening at all right now. And I'm sorry, but we're now seeing, for the first time this year, the results of what was a very, very lackluster offseason play out on the field. You knew they needed a first baseman.

[00:38:26] You knew they probably needed an additional infielder in some spot or another. And it is on full display right now that this roster is not fully fundamentally sound offensively. And it's not fair to Ben Williamson. Look, this is not meant to highlight Ben Williamson in a bad light. Ben Williamson, first off, was probably called up extremely early when he hadn't had a lot of at-bats. And you're asking him to play a huge role for the team.

[00:38:55] Ben Williamson, in a perfect world, would have been eased into things a lot more and wouldn't have been playing every single day and could maybe move around to second base a little bit and come off the bench and play a couple times a week. But you really threw him into the fire because you didn't have another option. And you don't have another option right now until Cole Young's potentially ready. In which case, look, Ben Williamson should still be on the roster even when Cole Young's ready

[00:39:21] because he provides plenty of value with his glove and what his glove can be and even on the base pads a little bit. But in terms of cornerstones in this lineup, you're seeing the results of what was an extremely slow and really disappointing offseason come into play here because these corner infielders aren't hitting. We talked about time after time after time how much they needed corner infielders.

[00:39:51] Now, for the Marist third base situation, I do think they believed that Jorge Polanco could at least salvage himself at third base. Okay. And stay at third base. He played five games and has negative two outs above average. Okay, correct. Again, but they did sign a third baseman who, by the way, has hit incredibly well. But Jorge Polanco has been amazing. But he never should have been penciled in there as the third baseman every day. He shouldn't, but they did sign a third baseman who happens to be hitting well. All right, fine.

[00:40:19] The first base argument is, I mean, it just rings true because it was the position with the most players available. It had the easiest fits. The market broke your way. Just think of the Yankees series and you looked across the other way at what the Yankees decided to do at first base when they let Anthony Rizzo go. What did they do? They signed Paul Goldschmidt to a $12.5 million contract. Paul Goldschmidt's been really good. $12.5 million has been a pretty worthwhile investment for them.

[00:40:49] Yeah. He's been good. He's been good. We can go through the list. Josh Naylor, Nathaniel Lowe, Christian Walker. I know he's not hot right now. I still think he's going to turn it around. Pete Alonzo. Yeah. And you can always judge, hey, we feel like there will be players available at the deadline that we can go to address this. And we've talked about there are definitely some players available at the deadline if the Nationals keep losing. Nathaniel Lowe could almost certainly be an option there at first base and be better than what you currently have.

[00:41:15] But you want someone for these first four months of the season, especially when we didn't think they really thought that Tyler Locklear was ready to go out and be a big league first baseman, which is why they said they showed interest in some first basemen this offseason. They just kind of got priced out for what they were willing to pay for these things, which at some point you're going to have to want to pay more to get the good players here.

[00:41:40] And it ends up that you choose a three and a half million dollar option who happens to then have, you know, his over over his skis moment and in seemingly on his way out of the league in Donovan Solano. Saying priced out still sounds ridiculous, but OK. Priced out for the budget they set themselves. Correct. Yes. Anyway, I gave my rant at the start of this podcast. I'm not going to go on another.

[00:42:06] You see how much I've even keeled myself out since the Aaron Judge stuff? I've done a great job. Even keeled. Well, you did go over like eight minutes straight. So. Like you said, you can't throw your fastball the entire time. You have to have different speeds. Well. It's another day. I don't think as many people would listen to this podcast if you just like were a hundred at all the time the entire time. Oh, probably not.

[00:42:31] And if every starting pitcher threw his fastball a hundred percent of the time, it wouldn't work, would it? So. No, no, it definitely would not. Eight minutes is just another day at the office when I need to go on a rant. Anyway, what I was going to say was now, TJ, for the next two and a half months, which is a long time, we're talking ten weeks.

[00:42:51] The Mariners are going to have to find some combo of Rowdy Tellez, Donovan Solano for however long they keep them, and Tyler Locklear, who now is under an 800 OPS in AAA in what we know is maybe the most hitter friendly environment in the minor leagues. To fill this void until the trade deadline or unless somebody becomes available earlier.

[00:43:13] That's a really long time that you're going to have to try and fill a gap at a premier offensive position instead of having decided to go out and get a first baseman this winter. It's a long time to tread water. This is where you sit here and wish that you had a good problem where Dom Canzone could be a league average hitter or Mitch Garver could be a league average hitter, and you could try one of them at first base.

[00:43:38] Because Dom Canzone, they send him down because he can't hit, but when the Mariners have been completely healthy, there's no room for him in the outfield. Why don't you try him? Why wouldn't at that point you try him at first base or Mitch Garver plays behind Cal Raleigh but continues to really hit? It's like, oh, we really need a first baseman. We can fill DH with Jorge Polanco. So Mitch wanted to go try and play first base. But they don't have that option, unfortunately, because those guys aren't hitting. Right.

[00:44:04] Dom Canzone is in center field on Thursday today for the Rainiers, by the way. That is not first base. No, that's not first base. It's not. All right. Let's get to some mailbag questions. I know we're way delayed, but there was a lot to talk about after that Yankee series. A lot, clearly. So let's get to them after we talk to you guys about our friends over at Pogaccia's Pub 85. You guys know it's an awesome spot. You want to go watch the games. You want to go have some great food. You want to have some great happy hour deals, which are three and four bucks.

[00:44:34] Three and four dollar happy hour drinks. You guys, those are awesome, awesome specials. And they run from 2 to 6 p.m. every Monday through Friday. So if you want to get involved with any of that, you want to go watch some games with your friends. There's 20 TVs in that place. Awesome spot all around. That's Pogaccia's Pub 85 over in Kirkland. Let's get to the mailbag. The first question comes from Corey on Patreon. Shout out to Corey. Corey is subbed to our superstar level on our Patreon, which means he has access to not only priority mailbag questions,

[00:45:04] but he also gets the pleasure of being on a monthly video call with the Marine Layer podcast. So Corey is taking well advantage of his perks as a Patreon member. So shout out to Corey. Corey's question is, Lyle, what is the worst contract in Mariners history, in your opinion? I came up with two. The one I always reference is Sean Figgins, and I think that one will be a popular vote.

[00:45:33] Four years, $36 million. So for $9 million a year, the Mariners signed Sean Figgins. Along with Carlos Silva, who signed for four years and $48 million for the Mariners. There are others that you can throw out there. It's those two for me. The Figgins one, he was worth negative war. Carlos Silva didn't end up being a negative war player, but the Carlos Silva one was bad for a number of reasons.

[00:45:59] First of all, he sucked, which is not great for a four-year contract, which in the time he pitched was for a large amount of money. Only was worth a little over one win above replacement. Mariners don't end up keeping him on the roster the entire time. They instead then send Carlos Silva and $9 million to the White Sox for Milton Bradley. It's like the worst case scenario on everything.

[00:46:26] You sign him to a terrible contract, he sucks, and then you trade him for another just terrible player and bad human. Not good. That's not good. The Figgins one, though, it's really hard to beat. $36 million for negative almost one win above replacement for the duration of the contract. Again, he never played a full season. Never played the entire contract with the Mariners. I have a couple of other ones, though, that I want to throw out there. I want to get people's opinion on if they think these contracts are up there.

[00:46:55] Are we thinking about putting this Robbie Ray contract in there? Elaborate on it. So Robbie Ray signs for five years $115 million. The Mariners paid $42 million of that salary. They got 1.6 Fangraphs wins above replacement for it. Then they traded him to the Giants for Mitch Hanegar.

[00:47:18] And Mitch Hanegar was a negative war player in his time back with the Mariners while he collected a little over $30 million. Okay, so there's an argument to it. And while Robbie Ray's one full season with the Mariners in a whole was fine, he also now has one of the franchise's most infamous moments. That doesn't help him in this moment very much. There's another current name that I actually want to mention here.

[00:47:49] It's not the length, not as much the total money, but Mitch Garver? I can't buy that one. You say that, the Mariners at the end of this year will have paid him $24 million and he will have negative F war. Is it guaranteed to be negative? It's not guaranteed. He only needs to get half a win to be in the positive.

[00:48:16] But right now he's at negative .4 for the duration of the contract. Yeah, see, I can't put this one above ones like Figgins and Silva because, number one, I understand you're not getting what you thought you were going to get at the start of this contract. But, one, inflation's a thing, so Garver is getting paid, you know. The Garver contract compared to Figgins and Silva isn't really fair because Garver back in their time wouldn't have made that.

[00:48:46] So $5 million player back then. Sure. So, yeah, I can't put that one up toward the top. I'm not saying it's worked perfectly, but I can't put that one toward the top. The last one I have to throw out there is Jeff Weaver. 2008, I think, signed a one-year deal with the Mariners and ended up with a 6 ERA. Oh, dude. For a full season. Oh, he was really bad when he was a Mariner. He threw 150 innings that year. They let him throw 150 innings.

[00:49:17] Not great. That's incredible. He's essentially the current version of the Colorado Rockies rotation, which is bad. Yeah. It's really bad. All right. Yeah. Last note here. I don't want to see anyone put Felix's contract on here. Don't want to hear it. It's not one of the worst contracts. The back half sucked. He should have won a Cy Young on that contract, so that counts as a good contract. Same goes for Robbie Cano. Correct. Correct. All right.

[00:49:47] Let's go to our next Patreon question. This is from Eric. He says, would love to hear a story of when a fan ruined a good game for you. It could be an obnoxious fan of another team. It could be a Mariner fan. He just wants to hear some stories. This is not going to shock a lot of people. I once went to a Padres Dodgers game in elementary school. We took a vacation down to San Diego. We went to Legoland. We went to SeaWorld. We went to a couple of baseball games, too.

[00:50:15] One of them happened to be a Padres Dodgers game. Lyle, could you guess which fan base pissed us off? Man, it's just hard to put my finger on it. Oh, could it have been the Dodgers who have fights at their stadium like every other day? At a disproportionately higher level than every other stadium. In all of sports, somehow, the Dodger Blue just brings it out of everyone.

[00:50:42] So you'll be shocked that four people not wearing any Padres gear, harmlessly sitting and watching a Padres game, sitting in the cold. It's the seventh inning. Like, all right, we're done. We're going to decide to leave now. Only to just get our ear just, like, essentially ripped off by the Dodger fans sitting two rows in front of us. Like, give me a break. Are you kidding? You don't know us. We're not Padres fans. Just ridiculous.

[00:51:12] Yeah. That is on point. I know we have some friends that are Dodgers fans. I know we have friends that are Dodger fans, but that is on point. They would agree. Yeah, they would agree. What's yours? I was trying to think. Like, so I haven't had any crazy over-the-top, a fan-ruin-my-experience type of moment. There were some crazy 49ers fans at the NFC title game.

[00:51:41] So I guess there was some stuff like that. But I'm trying to think of baseball-specific. And I, like, I try to think of what fan base is really insufferable to be around at a game. You think Astros fans, but they're mostly just insufferable on Twitter. I haven't really come across an Astros fan at a game that's been over-the-top awful. Yeah, it's hard.

[00:52:08] Like, there's not that one fan base for the Mariners that just drives you nuts. I guess, if any, I would say when the Blue Jays come to town most years. And when you're surrounded by Blue Jays fans at those games that pack the house and make it extremely loud and make it sound like a road game for the Mariners, that's what drives me crazy. It's not really one specific fan that does anything wrong. And truthfully, Blue Jays fans are pretty nice. So I can't really blame a specific person or group of people for something they did.

[00:52:38] It just would drive me nuts when they come to town and make it sound like a road game. Lyle's answer to that question then is, In another life, Lyle sat next to Johnny Junta in the bleachers and had his ear yelled out the entire game. Oh, if any of our listeners sat anywhere near Johnny Junta or our friends over at the Gate 14 podcast, please let us know in the comments and what they were like at the game. Because as two people who stay very much on top of their content,

[00:53:06] we saw how they were at those games. And well, I can only imagine there were some Mariners fans around them that maybe weren't thrilled. Wow, really? No way. Well, Johnny did say Mariners fans send him quite the messages and replies and DMs on social media. So maybe he found some of those fans in person. Oh, that would be quite the scene, I'll say. Next question comes from Xander, and it's a question for you, Lyle.

[00:53:33] The question is, and he frames this as sort of an ultimatum for you. Would you be okay with the Mariners signing Kyle Tucker or trading for Kyle Tucker, but you are never allowed to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever again? Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I'm really in disarray here, man.

[00:54:02] Like, how do I answer this? How in the actual hell do I answer this question? Like, You're just gonna have to let go to something. Something is just gonna have to float away into the abyss for you never to see again. That's a real, real problem. On both ends. Good God, man. Like... You're not allowed to non-answer this. You have to pick one.

[00:54:33] See, Xander originally phrased the question as, Lyle, if the Mariners signed Kyle Tucker... Sorry. Xander originally phrased the question as, Lyle, would you be okay having free PB&Js for the rest of your life, or the Mariners signing Kyle Tucker this offseason? And I gotta be honest. I would say Kyle Tucker, because I am perfectly fine paying for my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the rest of the time. I've done it my whole life. That's an easy question. You still get both. But this right here...

[00:55:04] Don't you put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby! Uh... Can I... You can flip a coin. Dude, I can't do that. I can't do that. You are not allowed to not answer this question. You have to answer it. Could I transition to eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches the rest of my life? Nope. You are not allowed to eat peanut butter or jelly for the rest of your life. But that's not a peanut butter and jelly.

[00:55:34] I'm modifying it where you are not... You can't... You're not gonna game the system. Answer the question. I'm gonna crash out. I'm gonna crash out. All right. I'm for the people. Kyle Tucker's a fucking mariner. Hey! I'm giving it up. I will find some other guilty... I will find some other guilty pleasure for the rest of time. Love to hear it. You're thinking of the community, Lyle. I love it.

[00:56:05] That's what the Marine Layer Podcast is for. Don't ever tell me I'm not a man of the people. And I'm not for the people. I just sat here and stamped that I would give up eating a single peanut butter and jelly for the rest of time to get Kyle Tucker on this roster and in this city. Can you remind our listeners? Maybe we have some new listeners since the last time you explained your obsession. Could you rehash it? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:56:32] About at the age of four or five years old, I started eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day. And I have not broken that streak in about 22 plus years. It's pretty good. It is my single favorite food on planet Earth. I do not miss a day of eating peanut butter and jellies. They are the greatest food on planet Earth. I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever get sick of eating them. And I will continue to eat them for the rest of time. Unless, of course, the Mariners signed Kyle Tucker.

[00:57:01] In which case, I now cannot. I will hold you to that. But, lucky for us, this is a hypothetical. All we have to do if we sign Kyle Tucker, if the Mariners signed Kyle Tucker, is hike up a mountain. That is true, Lyle. Also something, well, that, uh, yeah, we'll see. That you hiking up a mountain is almost as unlikely as you giving up peanut butter. So, yeah. Oh, no.

[00:57:29] Me hiking up a mountain is much more likely than giving up peanut butter. Because if I had to hike up a mountain to eat peanut butter and jelly the rest of my life, it would suck, but I'd do it because I don't want to give it up for 60 plus years. Doing a hike would be one morning of one day. One morning. How long is it? Dude, it's, it's pretty tall. I'm going to just reiterate something I mentioned a couple months ago. I was, I was scrolling on TikTok one night, dog.

[00:57:59] And I came across, uh, someone summiting mailbox peak. You want to guess where they were? Sure. Love the clouds. Clouds are low in Seattle. Who cares? Um, no, they're pretty high, pretty high up there. All right. I got good news. When the Mariners sign Kyle Tucker and I have to do this hike up mailbox peak, I'll pack about eight PB&Js to have across the hike. Okay. Sure thing.

[00:58:30] All right. Let's get to the next mailbag question. We could do this all night. Uh, yeah, we could. And I won't, and I won't stop bickering either. So yeah, we should probably move on because if you want to get me going, if you see us at the ballpark, bring up this topic to me. PB&Js or Kyle Tucker. It's, it's going to put me in a pretzel. Let me tell you. Next question comes from Nick on Patreon.

[00:58:55] And Nick asked the question of, I'm going to summarize it for him because it was very, very detailed. And I thank Nick for leaving it for us, but I will summarize it for you, Lyle. Ken Griffey Jr. joined the Mariners ownership group in 2021. Does he get a pass for their lack of action in the group? Does too much of the blame and frustration go towards the chairman and some of the other more notable names? Yeah, he gets a pass.

[00:59:25] Guys, I think in a lot of ways, Ken Griffey Jr. being on this ownership group is a formality. I'm not saying he's not a part of it, but he's not sitting up there making final decisions. Ken Griffey Jr.'s net worth is the exact same amount as the Mariners offseason budget. Ken Griffey Jr.'s net worth is $15 million. And as we very notably highlighted all winter, $15 million in baseball is not a lot of money.

[00:59:53] So look, I don't really know what you want Ken Griffey Jr. to do here. If you're mad that Griffey didn't help pony up some of the money to sign Donovan Solano, okay. I don't know what to tell you otherwise, though, because he is not worth enough and does not have a big enough stake in the team to seriously be getting blame

[01:00:19] for what has been a lack of activity over the last few winters. The policy for the Mariners ownership group is that every other year, members of the ownership group, of the majority ownership group, First Avenue Entertainment, can sell or buy shares if other people are making them available. And Griffey took advantage of that. He owns one portion of someone else's stuff that they sold.

[01:00:48] One of the other 17 members, it's now more than that. I think it's like 20-ish members of the group because Brad Smith joined last year. They just had two more owners join that group this year. But these people can be buying in for super small amounts. So like Lyle said, it can be a total formality. And Griffey, you know, like he's a franchise icon, but he doesn't get to sit on the board of directors and make a decision on budgets or on players or on roster decisions.

[01:01:17] That's not his thing. How many weekends a year is Griffey even at the park? One. Right. He lives in Orlando. Like, cool. He'll be there when the Mariners have special occasions, when Ichiro gets inducted into the Hall of Fame. But is he on the phone with Jerry DiPoto every week talking about baseball operations? As far as my knowledge goes, no. So, is he talking with John Stanton about what the budget is? I don't think so. And Chris Larson.

[01:01:47] And Chris Larson. Throw them together. It's not one man alone. It's both of them. Like, if there's one thing we've tried to highlight for people, because I know John Stanton is the face of the ownership group and the chairman. Like, him and Larson kind of, not kind of, need to be in the same sentence when you're talking about these owners. Similar to how Jerry and Justin should always be in the same sentence these days when you talk about baseball operations. It's not just Jerry making the decisions. It's Jerry and Justin. Whether you're positive or negative in terms of what your feelings are about him.

[01:02:17] Same thing with the owners. It's not just Stanton the way it's not just Jerry. It is Stanton and Chris Larson. Let's make that very clear. If you want to blame Ken Griffey Jr. for something, more power to you. But I don't see any reason to. Yeah. It's, you're wasting your energy if that's what you're mad about. You know what that sounds like? That sounds like a sports radio caller on WFAN in New York who's got something to blow off steam-wise. And that's what he targets. Oh, wow.

[01:02:45] Do you mean the same station that tried calling out Dave Sims for taking time off to spend with his family in Seattle? And how perfect is it that the person calling Dave Sims out for that is named Boomer? Because that is a fucking Boomer take beyond belief. Yes, I know who Boomer Esiason is, obviously. But I think it's just hilarious that his name is Boomer. I got a kick out of that. All right. We got two mailbag questions to go.

[01:03:13] Next one comes from Bo Pick Pacific Northwest. This is on YouTube. And he asks, are you concerned about Bryce Miller's longevity? I'm not concerned about his health long-term, and I'm not concerned about his stuff long-term. So to answer your question, no. He's dealing with something a lot of pitchers deal with, a little arm flare-up. And once he's healthy, we know how good his stuff is. I wouldn't be concerned at all. They're taking the right measures right now.

[01:03:40] And I think Bryce is going to come back, and given that he's healthy and feeling good and confident again, he's going to be just fine. I understand why people are concerned about the start of Bryce's season and now hitting the IL. But you know what, you guys? Bryce Miller just threw 180 innings last year in his second big league season. I think Bryce Miller, when healthy, is going to be a really damn good starting pitcher long-term and for a long time for this organization. So I'm not too worried about his longevity.

[01:04:06] Brian Wu had elbow inflammation last year, which kept him out the first five, six weeks. And then, what did Brian Wu do in the second half? He was dominant. I wouldn't worry too much about Bryce Miller. Just listen to Bryce talk. He doesn't sound worried, really, at all. I was more worried when they were keeping this all shrouded, and now that they've diagnosed the issue, and he's on the IL, and he's confident that he's going to come back healthy and ready to go. Sounds good to me. Yeah, I'm with that.

[01:04:34] This is a fun hypothetical one to wrap up our mailbag. The question comes from Donkey Cards on Instagram, and the question is, Is this year's Andres Munoz better than 2018 Edwin Diaz? This is a fun question, and it's funny. I threw this question out on Brock and Salk about a week ago just to debate. Andres Munoz has been unbelievable this year,

[01:05:02] and he is well on his way if things keep going like this to his second consecutive All-Star game. But no, he is not better at the current moment than 2018 Edwin Diaz. To replicate what Eddie did in 2018 is going to be borderline impossible for any Mariners reliever. I mean, you're talking about nearly 60 saves. You're talking about a strikeout rate that was absolutely through the roof. Absolute dominance from start to finish.

[01:05:30] And when you actually compare the numbers, while Munoz has him in ERA, Munoz is FIP right now compared to Eddie's in 2018. Diaz has the lower one, and Diaz has him beat in a lot of categories. So this is not to pin one against the other. Both are awesome. But I would pick 2018 Edwin Diaz. I would too. I think you made the argument for me. The volume of what Eddie threw as well. He threw in 73 games that year.

[01:05:58] Andres Munoz is not throwing in 73 games this year. No, they were worried that he got overworked last year, and he didn't throw in that many games. Dan Wilson is using him in a very rigid role. He's not throwing four-out saves. He's not throwing in the eighth inning against leverage. He is very strictly the ninth-inning reliever. Meanwhile, the Mariners in 2018 needed five outs, or Medwin Diaz, he would be out there for five outs. Yeah. And full disclosure, I'm still all for Andres Munoz

[01:06:26] going in the eighth inning against the best hitters in a lineup. I would deploy him more in that role and let somebody else pitch the ninth. That being said, we are not the manager. And they are very clearly using him in a way to try and keep him healthy all year. Because I think Munoz, toward the second half last year, while he still had an unreal year, got a little tired. He got a little fatigued. And there were points where you could see it a little bit. That was a good mailbag, guys.

[01:06:54] As a reminder, if you want priority on our mailbag, you have to go subscribe. Go sign up for our Patreon. That will give you access to... We'll put out the mailbag posts on there. You can leave us a question. And you get priority. So we get to answer your questions whenever you want them answered. So that's a good place to go do it. Appreciate all the support on that mailbag and all the good questions that you guys sent in this week. Yeah. And before we get to our last couple segments, let me just plug this again. If you weren't listening at the start of the podcast, our next live show,

[01:07:24] a week from Saturday, May 24th, Moss... Sorry. Queen Anne Beer Hall. Queen Anne Beer Hall. 12 p.m. That'll be the live show. Watch Party at 1 p.m. We would love, love, love to have you there. So mark your calendars. Again, May 24th, 12 p.m. at Queen Anne Beer Hall. Let's go down on the farm. All right, Lyle, which Mariners minor leaguer are you going to highlight this week? It's been a hell of a week for Mariners minor leaguers.

[01:07:53] There's a lot of guys you could pick. I went with a little bit of a unique one because there's going to be so many times throughout the year we talk about the blue chip guys. And honestly, this could have gone to Ty Pete this week because he's, again, still red hot, which has been pretty cool. He just hit a home run the other day, again. But I actually wanted to pick a reliever. Not everybody will know the name Tyler Cleveland, but talk about a hell of a start to 2025. Tyler Cleveland, as we said,

[01:08:21] had a little bit of a rocky start in his last outing, or I should say a rocky appearance because he's a reliever. His ERA down in Everett is 142. He's thrown 19 innings, and for the majority of those, his ERA was at zero. It's only been in his last couple outings he's given up a run or two. He's a little bit on the older side, 25 years old, but I don't think it's going to be very long before they put him in Arkansas. He's got some decent stuff. He's obviously had results over the last couple seasons, and he's somebody that

[01:08:51] I would keep an eye on for a guy that could pitch in the Mariners' bullpen at some point over the next year or two because he's been really good. At 25, they're going to be a little more aggressive with him too given he pitches well in Arkansas that he'll go, I think, if they have a need, he'd go straight to the big leagues. Right. Because again, once you're 25 and you're a reliever, Mariners is like, all right, it's time to, like, you show us something or you get rule fived, essentially, and someone else will claim you. Right.

[01:09:20] Shout out Tyler Cleveland. No, that's, I mean, that's somebody we've gotten to know a little bit. Really good dude. And yeah, throw for him because he's been dominant. Super exciting. My guy, a little bit more towards the blue chip circle. I think he's fallen out of that a little bit, but not how he's hit recently. Harry Ford has been just on fire in the month of May. He's got a 222 WRC plus. He has a 1200 OPS. The slugging numbers, the most important thing I want to see from Harry Ford is slugging numbers. It's 706

[01:09:50] in the month of May. And what do you know? I remember at the beginning of May, I went and I looked at Harry Ford's slugging numbers and I was like, oh, that's not very good. That's concerning. It's now up to 416 in AAA this year. Which for AAA, I think is still slightly below average, but it's bumped his WRC plus up to 132 because he's got a 433 on base as well down in Tacoma. So he's adjusting to the AAA level and he's hitting extremely well. And say,

[01:10:19] if Harry Ford just keeps this up in Tacoma and just stays right where he's at right now, he is going to see the big leagues this year at some point in some role. He's going to have to. Now what that role will be will be interesting. It might be a little tricky, but if he's producing, you can't keep him down forever. That's for sure. And to see him doing what he's doing right now. Awesome. Because yeah, he has been a little bit forgotten about in the Mariners wave of prospects, but he's making people

[01:10:49] turn heads toward him right now, which is awesome. All right, Lyle, our favorite segment of every week will close us out. Let's get to our Russell Wilson umpire of the week. Do we have a doozy for you this week? Thank you to Torrey Lavelle for helping us out on this one. This happened on Wednesday on the 14th. Torrey Lavelle didn't like something in the game where the Diamondbacks were playing the Giants. So he goes out to argue and ends up getting thrown out of the game. Well,

[01:11:18] Torrey Lavelle then decides after the umpires throw him out of the game that he's going to throw all four umpires out of the game. So he points at one, points at two, points at three, points at four, and goes, you're out of here. And he threw them all out of the game. Now the umpires didn't actually leave the game because the manager can't do that, but it's really funny and it goes to the rule. I think PMT, did PMT make this rule? Where every, like every manager should get like one ejection,

[01:11:48] you can eject someone a year. Didn't they do that? I can't remember. It wouldn't shock me. PMT, for those who don't know the references, pardon my take, which is the biggest sports podcast on planet Earth. That sounds like a pardon my take type of rule. I was going to say right here, I think players and managers should be allowed to eject umpires. If you're dog shit at your job, you should be allowed to get out there and throw an umpire out of the game. Yeah,

[01:12:17] I like the one a year rule. You get one every year. Oh, I feel like you should get more than that. Now the umpires have the union backing, right? They're never going to lose their power to throw everyone out of the game. But, in the next CBA, between the umpires and the league, I think that should be written in there. Oh, I think in the next CBA, one of the things that should be argued is disband the umpires union. It's a joke. Good luck with that. Well, it should happen. I'm sure the owners will be like, oh,

[01:12:47] let's disband the players union. No. But it should still happen. Well, yeah. Oh, fucking umpires. Yeah. It's great. They make, they make this segment go every single week. So I didn't have one name to highlight. I had to highlight all four because they got thrown out of the game. And probably all deservingly so. Yeah. I must say. All right. That was a really fun episode. That wraps up this edition of the Marine Liar podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to stay on top of all of our stuff, you can go right over

[01:13:16] to our website where you can find everything you guys between our episodes. And if you're listening, listening, watching, we really, really would appreciate if you hit subscribe on YouTube, if you drop a like, or if you go download these episodes on the audio side, just take a second and do it. It really does do us a huge, huge favor. If you do go check out our live show schedule, which again, mark your calendars for Saturday, May 24th at 12 PM, where our next live show is going to be over at Queen and beer hall in Seattle.

[01:13:46] It's going to be a blast. We're going to do trivia giveaways. And then we're going to watch the Mariners and Astros game with all of you guys, which starts at one 10 right after that. Hey, that could be George Kirby's first start. Why not? Just another reason to mark your calendars and plan an afternoon over with us at Queen Anne. So go check that out. Live show schedules on our website. You can go find our Patreon over at our website, which we'd love to have you get involved with. Go get your merch over at our website. Again, we're loving seeing people wearing it. You can find that all across the website as well. And then you can check

[01:14:16] us all on social medias and follow us everywhere across socials at MarineLayerPod. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.

[01:14:25] Let's keep going up

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