Episode 26: Dave “Softy” Mahler (93.3 KJR), The Debut Of The Trident, And Solidifying Chris Flexen's Spot In The Rotation.

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Episode number twenty six of the Marine Layer Podcast with TJ. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein. On today's pod, we're joined by Dave Softy Mallor of Sports Radio KJR and Seattle. He is hilarious. He had both Lyle and I laughing our asses off during this interview. It's only thirty minutes, but it might be the most entertaining thirty minutes of your week, so you should stick around and listen to that. We'll have our three Mariners storylines of the week. We'll take a look down on the pharm and see which Mariner's farm hand has stood out over the past seven days. As well, we'll pick out our three favorite storylines around Major League Baseball and our MLB wrap around. We have a Russell Wilson umpire of the Week yet again, and we'll close out the show which speak your mind. 00:00:42 Speaker 2: Let's get it. 00:00:43 Speaker 1: Rolling, and we welcome you onto this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast here on Tuesday, April twenty fifth. I hope you're watching on YouTube because lu Goldstein, we have made some upgrades. 00:01:06 Speaker 3: It looks phenomenal. And shout out to our friend Victor Wren, who's awesome at this stuff. He took some time to make a background for us on YouTube, to make some upgrades for us. I mean, you're looking at it right now if you're watching, looks awesome. And this is something we've wanted to do for a while. Not that our background before was terrible, it was just there was really nothing there. We thought, well, maybe we can make a few changes to just make everybody else's viewing of this podcast that much better. And Victor, i can't say it enough, is phenomenal with this stuff and he did a great job for us. 00:01:40 Speaker 1: Hey, if you're listening on Spotify, on Apple, on Amazon, talking to you dad, and whatever else you might be listening to listening to this podcast on please take thirty seconds go check out the YouTube. If you haven't subscribed yet, please go hit subscribe. Just take a look at the background. I mean, like all of the three of us to put some hard work into making that presentable and to make the YouTube look more professional. And Victor does a great job. He's worked in the NBA, he's worked in college football. He does really great work all around. If you need some graphic work design, you can always contact him. You can go to his website Victorren dot com. He's a really good friend of ours. We highly recommend him. He's about as reliable as they get. 00:02:25 Speaker 3: Yeah, and let's plug his social channels too. His Instagram is underscore Victor Wren, last name R E N and his Twitter handle is at mister Victor Wren. So go check out his work. Like TJ said, you need graphic design work, that's who you should go to because he's awesome at it. 00:02:45 Speaker 1: Couldn't recommend anyone more. One more thing we want to get to before we get to our three Mariner storylines of the week. A Lyle, you, as a member of the media, spent Friday and Saturday at t Mobile Park. 00:02:58 Speaker 2: How was it? 00:03:00 Speaker 3: Oh? It was great. I mean I thought I'd tell a little bit about it, and I thought, you know, anytime either of us are at the ballpark, maybe we can give fans a little peak behind the curtain. Which, speaking of that, we made a whole TikTok about this and it's on our Instagram and YouTube shorts page as well, about day in the life as a Mariners media member. So if you want the condensed version of that and with some visuals as well, you should go check that out on all those channels. But yeah, it was really cool. I won't lie to people. It is very very nerve wracking your first time in there. Like we're in the trust tree here, I can say that, Yeah, it's nerve wracking because you feel out of place. You've never been there before. This is the big leagues, like, it's not college sports, it's not spring training, like this is major League Baseball. And there's a bunch of people in there that have been there for years and years and years, and you're just some random dude in there for the first time, so you're trying to just fit in. I tried to be a fly on the wall for the most part throughout the weekend. But I've got a couple cool stories if if you want to hear them, if anybody's interested in hearing them, I can share a little insight. 00:04:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, give us one story, give us the best. 00:04:06 Speaker 3: One, Okay, So I'll do two quick ones and then one a little bit longer. First off, au Henny O Suarez. He is as advertised from the five seconds of interaction I had with him. Because I'm just standing there during the clubhouse hours, he walks right by me. I've never met him, He's never met me. He grabs my shoulder. I look over. It's him and he's got this big smile on his face. He's like, how we doing? And I was like, I'm pretty good. What about you? And he's like, oh, I'm great, and I mean he kept walking by, which is totally understandable, but I was like, I mean, that was kind of cool. Again, I didn't have any in depth conversations with any players this first weekend, at least, I should say current players. That's a teaser for a story here in a minute, but yeah, just to see that is was pretty cool. It's like, yeah, Gino is as advertised. Number two. We talked about Carson Batali, the Mariner's field coordinator last week. How we said, oh, we think this might be him. That followed us on TikTok So Brad Adam, who is certainly a friend of ours. He's a very good friend of this podcast. Him and I spent some time catching up talking in person this weekend, and I was telling Brad this story about you know, somebody named Carson vitally followed us on TikTok So. He called Carson over. He's like, we got to get to the bottom of some information here. And he kind of handed him off to me and I go, you know, just a random question here. You don't have a TikTok do you? And he's like, well, I do, but I don't really use it much. He's like, I think you might follow us. He's like, we do a Mariner's podcast. He goes, oh, yeah, now I recognize you. It's like, yeah, your guys' stuff is really good. I've seen your fan interviews. So he's like, I like all your guys content, even if I don't agree with all of it. And I go, oh, that's that's okay, and he goes, no, I'm just kidding. I like it all. So that was cool. So that was cool that we confirm that a coach on the Mariner's major league staff actually follows our TikTok page. Also, I got to meet Ichiro, which was probably the wildest part because Brad was having a conversation with eachier Row too, and Brad Adams kind of friends with everybody, which is really cool, or at least he's connected with everybody. He was kind of asking each Row about, yeah, so are you gonna do anything during All Star Week when it's in Seattle this week? And Eachiro is a little bit cagy about it. He was like, yeah, I don't know. He's like, Brad's like, they probably want you to do stuff though, right Andeiro's like, yeah, we'll see. So Brad Adam goes, oh, I know why you're not talking about it. You're gonna do the home run derby this dear, aren't you? And eachier Ro starts laughing and again like so Brad introduced me to eachier Ro. I shook his hand. For the most part. Again, I was just kind of standing back in this conversation. I didn't want to interrupt this one moment. I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna throw this one liner in here. I'm gonna build up some guts. I'm gonna throw in this one liner to future Hall of Famer Eachiero Suzuki and I go, hey, if you did it, it could be you and Julio in the final round. And he kind of laughed at it, and let me tell you what. In the back of my head, I'm like, boom, let's go, dude. I mean, I didn't say that out loud, you better believe that, But in the back of my head, I'm like, I just made eachier row laugh. Oh, chalk that up as the win of the weekend right there. So yeah, it was. You know, hopefully that gave people a little bit of insight, But for the most part, we were just trying to get acclimated this first weekend and get the feel of things. But hopefully over time we can start really connecting with some players and do some content with them, hopefully get them on the show. I don't know, so hopefully you guys kind of enjoyed that hearing about that. You know what, We'll take you on a little journey with us. If we start to build some connections with players and we start to consistently have some conversations with players when we're at the game, Hey, we'll let you guys know and we'll kind of take you on the journey be like, oh, is there a chance we could get this guy on the podcast. Maybe at some point, maybe not, we'll have to see. But yeah, all in all, it was it was a pretty cool weekend to be there, and we can't wait to do it some more. 00:07:45 Speaker 1: Pretty cool peak behind the scenes. I will say I've never been to a park as media. 00:07:49 Speaker 2: Both and I've been. Both you and I have been to. 00:07:51 Speaker 1: Spring training is media, which is is a little different. But as you mentioned, I think we've mentioned it on this podcast for it's a it's a little nerve wracking me. And you way more used to dealing with college kids than dealing with actual grown professional men who make millions and millions of dollars surrounded, like you said, with a bunch of guys who have covered this league for decades, and you're standing there for the first time, like, uh, first time you first time you addressed the address, the you address Scott Service. You never don't ever, ever ever you cause you know this to all of our listeners. You don't call managers coach. You don't do it in Major League Baseball. You'll be scorned. And I made that mistake with Craig Counsel of the Brewers. I said coach to start a question. It's like, oh, just call them Craig. I'm like, oh, I didn't know. I didn't know that. It's just one of those moments that you learn as. 00:08:43 Speaker 2: You go along. 00:08:46 Speaker 3: Yeah, And then that's another reason I kind of just stood back and took a little bit of video during services media sessions because again, like here's the people that were in those media sessions aside for me, Dave Simms, Rick Riz, Ryan Devish, Shannon Dreyer, Daniel Kramer who writes for MLB dot com, oh, and Jen Mueller and Angie Mintink and then me. So yeah, you better believe I was gonna stand back and just kind of listen because first time there, like the worst thing you could do is say something dumb or you know, not knowing the rules, and like to your point, if you said something like coach and it's your first time there, people are gonna look at you like, well, yeah, that's that's a little bit of a no, no, You're not supposed to do that. So yeah, really, more than anything, I was trying very very hard to just soak everything in and kind of get acclimated and everything. But the nice thing for us is we certainly have some friends in the media that were there with us, and it was nice to catch up with some people between, certainly Brad Adam between, Ryan Divish talked to Ryan Roland Smith, a couple others too. Corey Brock wasn't there this weekend, but he should be at the next home series, So yeah, that made it a little easier, but you know, it's We're very, very fortunate that we're getting to do this, and we hope with it we're going to bring you guys some cool content throughout the year too, because we've got some ideas planned here as time goes on. 00:10:05 Speaker 1: That is a potential future guest, Ryan Roland Smith. He was pretty interested when you talk to him. 00:10:11 Speaker 3: I would agree, So hopefully here in the next few weeks he may be on this show. And he is really really smart, baseball smart, just everything. So when we get him on and I'm going to speak it into existence and say when that will be a really good guest. 00:10:28 Speaker 1: All right, let's get into our three Mariners storylines out of the week. First up, Lyle, the Mariners officially have the best home run celebration of any team in Major League Baseball. The Trident made its debut when we the day we released our episode last week on Wednesday against the Brewers, and it is continued to game steam throughout the weekend. That thing is awesome. 00:10:54 Speaker 3: Best celebration in baseball. You just said it. I mean, the Mariners had their swell me at last year. They had all the bomb stickers on it, and they remade that swellmant this year too. It's like shinier. Now they've got the one percent thing written on there. But this trident, it is six feet tall. It is not plastic. That thing is metal and it is heavy, and they're out here sticking it into the ground making Aquaman poses. Now they're dumping water on guys to make it even more like Aquaman. When they get back to the dugout, it is. It's awesome. Like baseball is supposed to be fun. We talk about this all the time. It's fun. Things like this are fun, and it just makes everything more entertaining. This is an entertainment business, and things like this draw fans. I love it. It's awesome. 00:11:43 Speaker 2: That thing. 00:11:44 Speaker 1: You're right, it's heavy. I was reading the article Ryan Davis wrote about it. Not only it's heavy, so it sense. It's straight out of Aquaman. The bottom of it was like razor sharp. They had to dull it down, like they actually had to. I think sand it down so no one sticks it through their foot in the dugout, which I thought was actually hilarious. But I'm dead serious. If someone's strong enough, you could pick that up and impale somebody if you actually wanted to with that thing. It's it's a real trident. I think the instigators of this trident were Sam Haggerty and JP Crawford, Unfortunately, two of the guys who were two of the least likely to wield the tri and after a home run. But we glad they put their imprints on it and planted this idea. 00:12:28 Speaker 3: So Davis wrote a pretty good detail this story in the Seattle Times article that you're referencing, So go check that out if you want to see more about it. But Service was talking about this during the two games that I was there during some of his media sessions, and he said when the guys showed him their new prop, he was kind of like, what in the world is going on? Like what is this thing? Because he goes over and he looks at it. He's like, yeah, this thing isn't plastic. This is heavy. And they're like, I don't want one of you guys getting hurt using this, and they're like, no, no, we got it. We're good. Well, you know we're not going to hurt our it's all in good fun. But you're right. It was Haggarty and Crawford that started it. I think they got asked, well, where did you find this thing? And they're like, oh, well, I can't tell you that. I think Haggarty said something like we got it straight out of the deep sea or something along those lines. Divish has the exact quote in his article. But yeah, and they're like, well, yeah, I think JP said I'd have to kill you if I told you where I found it, so I'm not spoiling any information here. So they found it, they put it together, and now, by the way, it's going on the road too. Like they took it apart, packed it up, put it on the plane, and it's in Philadelphia right now. So they're all in on this thing. 00:13:42 Speaker 2: Good thing. 00:13:42 Speaker 1: I don't think when you charter a plane you have to go through to TSA, so that's a plus. I don't think if you flew commercial you could actually get that thing through TSA. I think they would have to confiscate it if you took that on a commercial jet, But since the mariners charter their own flights, I don't necessarily think that's an issue. You low, However, they have to go across the border later this week. How are you gonna get that thing across the boarder? How does that get through customs? Is my question? Are they the country of Canada. Okay, with you bringing a six foot fully metal trident across the border to play a baseball game. 00:14:21 Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, whether they get it across or not, it's gonna be content. If they don't get that thing across, we're gonna hear stories about, well, where are they placing this thing? Where's it going? Are they shipping it back to Seattle? Is somebody holding it for them until they get back to the United States. But if it gets through, that'll be a story too. So you know, usually we're talking about real on the field baseball storylines to watch. If you want a storyline to watch this week, is their new celebration prop getting across the US Canada border or not. Chalk that up on your to do list of stories to read because it's it'll be one to watch. And by the way, last thing before we wrap this up, well i'll cut it. I'll throw it back to you in just one second. But this thing has a place in the Mariners dugout Like we took a picture of it this weekend too. It's just sitting there, pressed up right next to where all the batting helmets are, Like it's got its own spot. Now it's it's always in the same place until somebody hits a home run, and so they've they've gone all out with this. 00:15:16 Speaker 1: And it got to make its road debut today. Here we are recording on Tuesday after Game one of Mariners Phillies. It got used twice on the road, and I'd say it works just as great on the road as it does a team obile park. 00:15:31 Speaker 3: There are some great celebrations around baseball right now. I mean between the Orioles with their with their home run hose, which is basically a water The Orioles did a great job with it. They did, and there's a couple other ones, like the Angels have a good one. But I love this Trident. It's so perfect and I can't wait to see it the rest of the year. Okay, storyline number two on the field now, maybe not as fun of a tone here as the Trident, but Chris Flexen TJ he has really struggled since taken over for Robbie Ray. Robbie still on the il. He's working his way to get back. Flexen's gotten knocked around pretty hard in his last couple outings. It's funny though maybe the peripherals say he's not as bad as he's actually been. You did some real digging on this, didn't you. 00:16:20 Speaker 1: There's some stats here, so we look at Chris Flexen. If you take a look at his Baseball Savant page, he's been pretty terrible across the board. He's not striking guys out very much. He's getting hit decently hard. He's hit the XBA against, which translates pretty well to quality of contact has not been good against Chris Flexen in terms of limiting base runners. He's gotten hit around to a three sixty one babbit this year. That is in the unlucky ish territory, not not like a four hundred babbit, but it's you know, sustainable is from three point fifty to two fifty, so it's slight bit unlucky there. But here's some things I found that or objective facts about what Chris Flexen has done this year. Currently has a twenty one percent home run to fly ball rate, which means more than one out of every five fly balls he allows leaves the ballpark. That is twice the league average of ten percent. That's going to go down, So that means he's allowing more runs more often on just any sort of fly ball he allows. Because he's allowing a higher home run to fly ball rate. Well, you might think, well, if that number is that high, he's probably getting knocked around a little bit. He's he's allowing massive eggs of elos. 00:17:36 Speaker 2: His eggs of. 00:17:37 Speaker 1: Velos are right in line with his career average. He's got an eighty nine point seven average eggs of velocity against him this year, which you wouldn't think, but that's actually like that is his career average is right around eighty nine. So he's like within the margin of error when it comes to allowing allowing hard contact. What are some other numbers here? He's that fly ball rate I mentioned home run to fly ball rate. He also happens to have the lowest flyball rate of his career. So you think, so, how are all these home runs leaving the park? Is the lowest flyball rate of his career too? Do you also know that he is the lowest barrel rate of his career? You know, barrels are the perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle that a hitter strives to achieve for maximum damage on a swing. Lowest of his career it's five percent, it's nearly half of what it was last year. He also is getting strikes at the highest rate of his career. The stat called called strikes plus fifth percentage, which means either a swing in the miss or called strike highest of his career over thirty percent. Sorry, not thirty twenty six point seven percent. I'm just looking with those numbers, Lyle. Those are all good numbers, and yet the results say something completely different. 00:18:57 Speaker 3: So look, TJ threw a lot of information out there, and what he's basically trying to say, like if I'm just gonna break this down in a little bit more of a I guess English terms to put it lightly, For maybe people that don't look at all the advanced metrics like we do, Chris Flexen should get a lot better than he's going than he has been so far. Now, he's not going to stay in the rotation when Robbie Ray comes back. But for everybody out there who's yelling, well, he stinks his era is nearly nine, his whips nearly two. He's getting shelled every time out. Well, that's not really how big league clubs look at this stuff. They don't look at a guy's era and just say yep, through a few starts to tie it. Test says he hasn't been good. See you, that's why teams look at all this stuff, and they have way more data than we do to how good or how not so good their guys have been. So what TJ's reading out to you is how to some extent they're evaluating Chris Flexen and all their guys. So he's probably not getting yanked out of the rotation before Ray comes back, at least not yet, because numbers say, yeah, he should get better than this. It hasn't been great so far. He has really struggled, but going forward there is reason to believe he can get better. 00:20:10 Speaker 1: I summarized it in without the numbers in the next in the next bullet point here on my notes, just to like, just to like quantify those stats. In summary, he's getting hit just as hard as he did last year. He is getting more guys to chase out of the strike zone, he is throwing more strikes. He has the lowest barrel rate of his career. He has again a near average exit average exitve LOSSI as he has in his whole career, and his home run to flyball rate is going to go down. All those things suggest he's not as bad as his stats say, Like as much as you're gonna you want a trash mean look at his e RA in his last three starts, I've stunk. They've been pretty bad. But the peripherals if you're looking on a on a rate base of pitches and how he's attacking the strike zone, like he could get better. 00:20:55 Speaker 2: He could. 00:20:57 Speaker 3: Here's the other side of this too, For people on the side of yeah, I don't care about all those numbers. Take them out of the rotation, like their their mind is sole, their mind is set, they're done with flexen. They want to see somebody else. Well, who's that gonna be? If your solution is Bryce Miller, Emerson Hancock, Brian wu or pre Lander Burea one of the Double A guys, those guys probably aren't ready yet. Like, I don't think the Mariners are itching right now to yank one of those guys up to the big leagues. Miller would probably be the closest one. But you know what, for a couple of his first starts have been a little up and down. I think they want to get them a handful of more starts, at least down in Double A before they even consider that, and the rest of the guys are significantly behind Miller. So if you were really going to replace Flexing with somebody, it's probably Tommy Malone, maybe it's Darren mcackin. I don't know if those guys are really better than Flexen or not. Flexen over the last couple of years as much more of a track record. 00:21:54 Speaker 1: And I think we're going to see his pitches get a little better too. His fastball has been just a trocy It couldn't get any worse. His fastball is already a think a plus six run value, which is bad. Plus is bad, and his cutter has been awful as well. We're anticipating his stuff might get a little bit better as it goes along, and he makes some adjustments throughout the season. So in summary, I don't personally think they should gain him out of the rotation. I'm not totally sold that Bryce Miller is a better starting option in the rotation right now than Chris Flexen. I don't think Tommy Malone is, I don't think Darren mccachin is. I don't think really anyone else is. 00:22:32 Speaker 2: Because I think. 00:22:33 Speaker 1: Chris Flexen will get a little bit better as it goes along, I'll throw it to you for one more common on this before we move on. 00:22:41 Speaker 3: The hope is you have Robbie Ray back by let's say June first. The way he's trending, I mean they said it all goes well in the next couple of days, he's going to go back to Arizona and start throwing, start rehabbing. Well. If he can get back by June first, that's another five to six starts flex and needs to make Again, it's only like five games, so you just have to go, say two and three or three and two in the next five games that flex and starts. If you can do that, that's perfectly good enough to tread water and hold your ground until Robbie Ray does get back. 00:23:15 Speaker 1: Our third storyline this week is it seems like the Mariners have found another We already did this on Trevor Cott, so it might seem like we're just repeating ourselves again, but they found another reliable, high leverage reliever. 00:23:29 Speaker 2: At the back end of their bullpen. 00:23:30 Speaker 1: We saw it again today for Tuesday's game where they are really starting to trust justin Topa and the results and the stuff are backing it up. For what this Mariner's pitching development has done bringing another guy off the street to really succeed. 00:23:46 Speaker 3: Topa's thrown nine appearances now he is not allowed an earn run. He's been awesome. He gets a ton of groundball contact, he's being used in high leverage situations, and he's executing. We talk about this all the time. If this Mariner's ball pen wants to stay elite or even very good for a third consecutive year, which is nearly impossible to do, they're going to have to be surprises. They are going to have to be guys that come out of nowhere and really just hit the ground running. Justin Topis, seems like he's got a real chance to do that. This guy didn't start the year on the big league roster. He gets called up a few days into the season. He hasn't looked back. I don't think the Mariners are looking back either. 00:24:27 Speaker 1: And it's important that he has been this good because Matt Brash has like kind of struggled for a couple of weeks with control. I mean even today in Tuesday's game, he was not consistently throwing strikes again out of the bullpen, and Topa came in the game after him, I mean he was he was pitching in a later inning out of the bullpen for Scott Service today, So that all that is important as well. There's Lao mentioned it. He's not allowed. 00:24:55 Speaker 2: To earn run. 00:24:56 Speaker 1: But also his two plus pitches have already been you know, plus his his what was here first, His sinker has already been worth minus three run value, and a slider has already been worth minus two run value. The biggest tweak and a small sample. He only threw seven and a third innings with Milwaukee last year, but he went from throwing his sinker sixty eight percent of the time last year in the big league level to forty five percent this year, and his slider bumped up ten percent from twenty seven percent to thirty seven percent. A little bit of the Paul seawalled mold. Hey, just throw your slider more, throw it more. And the slider has been a good pitch and it's been working getting ground balls and getting guys out. 00:25:39 Speaker 3: That's the Mariner's bullpen and a nutshell right there. Throw your slider, throw your slider, throw it more, throw it often. All these right handers do it, and it works. It continues to work. We talked about when Topa got traded over here. He's bigger than guys like Seawall, than Murphy, but he's a right hander with that same arm slot. He has a good slider, we're seeing it right now. He also gets again. He gets a lot of ground balls and soft contact and this sea. He's not going to put up a zero e r A for the year, but being an effective reliever for the m seems pretty sustainable for Topa, it does. 00:26:12 Speaker 1: What's going to be the most interesting to see, He's never had that large of a sample at the big league level. How is he going to stand up when guys might see him for a third or a fourth time in the bullpen, especially those guys within the division. It'll be interesting to see has his innings go up as well. But he's been a very nice surprise and a guy that didn't even make the opening day big league roster but can be relied upon in the latter innings, which is nice. You can never have too many of those guys, especially when it seems like Diego Castillo has really lost the favor of Scott Service in holding a lead in a close game, and Topa really a slid in that spot and and done marvelously. So I think that'll wrap it up for our three Mariners storylines of the week. It was another entertaining week of Mariner's base. All they went five and four, a winning homestand despite you know, you throw a sweep in there in the middle. Overall though, a winning homestand for the MS and they're on a three city road trip right now. 00:27:11 Speaker 2: Wow. 00:27:11 Speaker 1: We had a great interview with Dave Softy Mahler. He I'm sure if you live in the Seattle area and you listen to this podcast, you probably know who he is. He the best way to describe him. He is authentic as it gets. He grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He lives and he breathes Seattle sports most probably the most Huskies, but I mean Pacific Northwest. He is that guy. He showed it in this interview. It was on the shorter end. I think we're going to try and have him on again to have a bit of a longer interview with him. But he had us laughing our asses off. He was funny, he was purely himself, and he gave us fantastic answers for a little bit over thirty minutes it was really good stuff. 00:28:04 Speaker 3: I continue to describe him this way, and he was just this on our podcast. The dude is a live wire. I don't think there's any better word to describe him. I mean, how you hear him on the radio is exactly how he is. He is loud, he's energetic, he's passionate, and he's not afraid to put you in your place if you want a little bit of a teaser. As you know from probably listening to this podcast, I've said, look, did I want guys like Turner, Trey Turner or Carlos kreat this winner. Yeah, for twelve to thirteen years, not so much. Well, we talked to Softy about that. He feels passionately on this topic and we'll leave it at that. You're gonna have to go listen to this interview to see what he had to say, and trust me, it's worth your time. 00:28:47 Speaker 2: It is. 00:28:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, and again next we're gonna try and have him on again. We're gonna try and get a little bit more background. I felt like in this interview we jumped around a little bit, so it is a little fast. We had a lot of things we want to get in with Softy in a limited amount of time, so when we have some more time, there are plenty of stories, as you can tell at the beginning that we'll need to spend a little bit more time on with Softy to really get all those stories. But he also he loves baseball, and he loves talking about baseball, and he likes talking about baseball loudly, and you'll hear that on this interview. Let's not waste any more time. Let's get to our interview with Dave Softy Maler. All right, we welcome on Dave mallor you know him as Softy, the afternoon drive host on sports radio KJAR in Seattle. He's been there for a little bit over twenty five years. Dave, we appreciate you taking some time to join us today because you know, it's funny it worked out this way. Wanted to make sure you had an outlet to talk some mariners. I know this week is going to be absolutely insane with the NFL Draft, so we're glad to give you that opportunity, to opportunity to come on here today. 00:29:49 Speaker 4: Yeah, I appreciate that, fellas. Yeah. 00:29:52 Speaker 5: Next November will actually be thirty years at KJR for me. I was hired in March of ninety four as an intern, got hired officially in November of ninety four. So we're almost looking at thirty years, man, at that freaking god forsaken place. So it's been a long time. What's the celebration going to be like, hopefully quitting, retiring, finding a golf course somewhere, cracking open a couple of beers or maybe a couple of Margarita's or. 00:30:18 Speaker 4: Something like that. No, I have no idea, man. 00:30:19 Speaker 5: I mean, my my fiftieth birthday is in August, so we'll do a little something something then, obviously, But I don't know if you celebrate thirty years in the radio industry or not. 00:30:28 Speaker 4: But we'll see what happens when we did that. 00:30:32 Speaker 3: Maybe with a rounded Chambers Bay. You're talking about golf courses thirty years. 00:30:36 Speaker 4: I don't know, Yeah, there you go. 00:30:37 Speaker 5: You know, I'm a I'm not a big huge fan of Chambers Bay, to be honest with the I'm not sure if you guys are golf fans or not, but you know, I've played it a couple of times, and the walk is a bitch. I mean, the walk is a pain in the ass, man, for sure, especially for guys like me. 00:30:49 Speaker 4: Who you know. 00:30:50 Speaker 5: I don't know if you guys know, but I lost about seventy pounds in the last eight years. And the first time I played that course, I was about to sixty and that is really a bitch when you're two sixty walking that course as Bay. But even if you're not in shape, it's a really hard walk. So I'm not a gigantic band in Chambers Bay. But yeah, maybe we'll see. 00:31:08 Speaker 1: So there is there a place of golf courses that you really do like, are you like, are you big to like to go down and see some Mariner spring training and go around those golf courses? 00:31:17 Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, no. 00:31:18 Speaker 5: So we were down there about three weeks ago, four weeks ago for spring training. I played a couple of courses down there. I played a week a couple of times down there. I got some friends that are members of the Phoenix Country Club down there in Arizona. 00:31:30 Speaker 4: So lots of great places in Scottsdale TVC. 00:31:32 Speaker 5: Scottsdale obviously is a great course where they have the waste management tournament every year that you guys know, the famous Stadium Hall. Obviously, Scottsdale National is like the most exclusive club in America. They're more exclusive than Augusta Print. The guy that owns PXG, Bob Parsons, runs that place. So lots of awesome courses down there, but I'm just a big fan of Links courses, you know, never have been, never will be, so trying to stay away from Lynks courses. If I can't, I got a freaking golf ball floating around my Caros Hockey guys's talk kinds of noise, so apologize. 00:32:04 Speaker 1: We have some history at TPC Scott Still, we're both asu Alum Softy, so you know we we we've we've been there. We have never swung a golf club there, but it is it is a phenomenal course for walking. 00:32:16 Speaker 5: I will say, yeah, it's about four hundred bucks around for minions like me. 00:32:20 Speaker 4: I think I think the local yokos. 00:32:22 Speaker 5: Like you guys get some kind of a discount, but they ship in the out of towners and they make us pay for everything. I've never seen a city, by the way that makes the tourists pay for everything the way Phoenix does. All your freaking stadiums, all your freaking golf courses, all your transportation projects. If you ever go to rent a car, at the Phoenix Airport. The base fee for the car for five days is like one hundred bucks. You end up playing like seven hundred dollars because you're playing six hundred bucks in taxis by the time it's all said and done. So hey, good on you guys man for figuring out make the freaking tourists pay for it all. 00:32:56 Speaker 3: We yeah, we usually just kind of figured out just bite the bullet, pay for some overs because running a car, like you said, I don't know. 00:33:03 Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I'm with you, man, it gets pricey, especially down there. But yeah, A big fan of Arizona golf and love going down there. Was kind of bummed out that you guys know, the great restaurant Don and Charlie has closed down a couple of years ago in Scottchdale. That was an awesome, awesome baseball hangout man, and I'm really bummed at those guys shut down big time. 00:33:24 Speaker 1: I think we wanted to touch a little bit on your background, Softy. As we mentioned before we started about this interview, we have a couple of Mariner things we want to touch on as well. But I mean, you are a Pacific Northwest like Seattle guy, and as you mentioned, been at KGr for over thirty years, so you've you've really seen a lot, right, You've seen a lot when it comes to baseball and the Mariners. So I'm gonna start this offt on sort of a halfway between commenting about the current team and going back to you know, your days growing up here in the Northwest, like Law and I had in the Seattle area. But say, like cal hits his walk up home run last year to break the drought, and you have all your memories there as well, and watch it watching the Mariners throughout the years of being in the Pacific Northwest. I mean, really, what did that mean to you? And what sort of memories sort of came out of that as well? For someone who else got to sell those mid nineties teams as well. 00:34:15 Speaker 4: Well. 00:34:15 Speaker 5: My memory of that game is I was on the damn air doing a halftime show for the UCLA game when Cal Raley hit the home run, and we're doing the show from a bar and called Dino's, which is right across the street from the Seahawks facility at the. 00:34:27 Speaker 4: VMACK, And I'm on the air. 00:34:28 Speaker 5: Literally, guys at that exact moment talking to Cam Cleveland, the former husky tight end who played about eight or nine years in the NFL. And as him and I are breaking down the first half, this gigantic cheer erupts from the bar when Cal hit the home run, and I'm thinking to myself, there is nobody listening right now to this. There's not one person listening right now to this halftime show. I can say whatever I wanted to and nobody's going to give a damn because everybody is hearing the Mariner game. So, the Cal Rolly home run and the Astro eighteen inning game. I was on the air at halftime for that when Mitch Handinger's up, nobody out in the bottom of the ninth high game, no score, first and second, nobody out. And I'm on the air at halftime of the Arizona game thinking the same thing. 00:35:07 Speaker 4: Nobody's freaking listening. 00:35:09 Speaker 5: So and actually gave me anxiety, guys, that run because I had some Husky duties I had to I had to do, and I was not able to watch the live the excuse me go to the Astro game or watch that Cal Riley. 00:35:21 Speaker 4: Game because I was working. 00:35:22 Speaker 5: So you'll ask me what my memories were of those two particular games. 00:35:27 Speaker 4: It's freaking working, is what it is. 00:35:29 Speaker 5: And I remember going up on you know, going up big on the Astros, and I was just kind of hanging out at God, where was I. I was at some bar on Queen and forget where I was. And I'm thinking to myself, this is too good to be true when they went up big on them in Game one, and of course it turned out to be true. But you know, favorite memories of the Mariners, obviously, you know the ninety five run, the two thousand and one run. I go all the way back to the All Star Game in seventy nine. You guys weren't even born then, for crying out loud. So yeah, a long suffering Mariner fan, forty five plus years of misery, baby, and the only team in baseball to have not yet made a World Series. 00:36:02 Speaker 4: So I think we've been patient enough already. 00:36:06 Speaker 3: Okay. I got to ask when you were on the air for those halftime shows while those Mariners games were going on, are you sticking to Husky's talk or do you start doing the whole? The whole Kevin? Why am I blanket on his name right now? Kevin Harlan play by play of another game while you're supposed to be covering that game. 00:36:24 Speaker 5: So we started talking a little bit about the Mariners. I mean, just quick thoughts on what happened to the baseball game. The problem is when you're on the air, like Kevin, who does the show with me every Wednesday on KJAR has been with like he's been. 00:36:35 Speaker 4: With me for like twenty years. 00:36:36 Speaker 5: By the way, fantastic guy, great guy, one of the most humble people in the broadcasting business. 00:36:41 Speaker 4: He is a sweetheart. He's unbelievable. 00:36:43 Speaker 5: But Kevin can just kind of break away because they have whatever time they have left in the game right to talk about. 00:36:49 Speaker 4: Whatever they want to talk about. We're on the air at halftime. 00:36:52 Speaker 5: Events for the second half is going to start, and we got to get off the air and let the play by play. 00:36:56 Speaker 4: Guy Tony casher Cone take over. 00:36:58 Speaker 5: So I think we mentioned just a little bit about what happened in the baseball game, shared a couple of thoughts, and then moved on because we had to get to a commercial break and. 00:37:05 Speaker 4: Get back on the air for the second half. How do you how do you. 00:37:09 Speaker 1: Handle your emotions in that moment, Like, like how it's it's so hard as you know, someone who does some radio down here. If you're you're talking about something while also focusing on something else. I know you are an absolute veteran of this industry, but I can say, keeping your mind on two different things at once while trying to make one coherent strain of thought is it's difficult. 00:37:28 Speaker 4: Well, you just. 00:37:29 Speaker 5: Ignore it when you're on the air. I mean, obviously, you just got a job to do and you focus on it. But my emotions where I was pissed. I was pissed that I was on the air at halftime. 00:37:38 Speaker 6: I was pissed that, excuse me, that exact second is when cainally decides to hit this damn home run, Like they go to wait until the second half started for crying out loud. 00:37:50 Speaker 4: So yeah, I was. 00:37:50 Speaker 5: I was a little bit irritated that the freaking window could not have lined up worse with the exact minute the guy hits the home run. 00:37:58 Speaker 4: I'm on the air. 00:37:59 Speaker 5: It would have been even better if you would have waited till a freaking commercial break, and that way we could have pumped our fists and celebrated screaming out whatever. 00:38:05 Speaker 4: But yeah, you just gotta do your job and focused on. 00:38:12 Speaker 3: You know, navigating through your career a little bit more. I mean, you've had a bunch of time in this industry. Like TJ was talking about, you've had some really unique moments. I think we've got to ask a little bit about this Jeff Nelson interview, I mean bone chips, Like he comes on the show and talks about he wants to sell bone chips on eBay. I mean, what do you remember about that? Going all the way back to that interview. 00:38:33 Speaker 5: Yeah, so first of all, the signals kind of bat I might lose you guys. 00:38:36 Speaker 4: If we do, we can reconnect. That was not That was not really well. I guess it was my idea technically. But Nelly came in. We're doing a show together in two thousand and one. 00:38:45 Speaker 5: He's a reliever for the Mariners and he just had bone chips removed from his elbow. 00:38:50 Speaker 4: And I don't know if it. 00:38:52 Speaker 5: Was my idea or his idea to bring the bone chips into the studio. But I don't know if you guys have ever seen what bone ships look like. They're basically like little like little balls of phlegm. They're very small and they're just in a little bit of a cup with like from out to hide or whatever the hell you know liquid there is in there. I'm not sure what they use. And he brings them in and he says, look, this is what I had taken out of my arm. I was like, hey, let's put those on eBay and make some money, because that was when Luis Gonzales had spit out a piece of gum in Arizona and somebody picked it up and they were actually auctioning off Luis Gonzalez's gum and they raised a bunch of money. So we put the bone ships on eBay and the biding got up to like twenty thousand bucks before eBay actually pulled it and they said, listen, you can't sell body parts on our website and bone ships are technically body parts. So we had to pull it off, but we had a bunch of money raised for charity and eBay screwed the whole thing up. 00:39:47 Speaker 1: That's really funny and that memory that you brought up, and it was really funny reading about that because obviously, while I were a little bit too young to experience any of that back and I think it was two thousand and two, but it really made me think of the question, softy, if you're gonna like, look at some of the funniest moments you've you've had on the air surrounding sports with things like that, what else? What else really stacks up in that moment like that? 00:40:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a ton of them. 00:40:16 Speaker 5: For one year, we had a bet where the loser had to get their ears pierced on the air, and I got my ears pierced. 00:40:21 Speaker 4: On the radio show. 00:40:23 Speaker 5: There's all kinds of, you know, food related bets where we've had, for one guy, for me a bet that could not eat an entire sheet cake on the air, like a gigantic cake on the air. They got about half way through and started throwing up on the radio show. Bucking and I that bets on the Apple Cup before one of the bets that we had. If you guys ever heard the Cars for Kids commercial, by the. 00:40:44 Speaker 1: Way, yeah, only one hundred thousand times. 00:40:48 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's completely freaking annoying. It's the worst commercial in the history of radio. 00:40:51 Speaker 4: Obviously. Well it's seven seven come blah blah right at so sorry. 00:40:56 Speaker 5: So we had a bet Pucking and I did on the Apple Cup one year where the loser of the Apple Cup had to lock themselves in a studio and based on how many points they lost the game by. That's how many times they had to hear that commercial over and over and over again. And so the Cougar's lost. I think it was one year where Wazoo got beaten by like twenty five or whatever, so he locked himself in a studio and had to listen to cars for kids twenty five consecutive times in a studio. So all kinds of weird, stupid, sophomoric stuff like that, that's what That's kind of what we're all about here. 00:41:28 Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned all of those, and I don't I think you might have left out the best one that you had when you I think this is when you just started as a host with Mike Gastineau, where you had to bike to Pullman, which I thought was fantastic. Again, something that was happened the year before I was born, so I didn't know about something like this, and you managed to bike to Pullman in a week, which I'd see is honestly pretty impressive. 00:41:53 Speaker 5: Yeah, So the belt was the ninety seven Apple Cup, and the Cougars were good and the Huskies were good, and Cougar fans were talking all kinds of mess boblah blah running their mouth, and so Mike Gastino says, you know what, you ought to ride a bike de Pulman if you lose the game. I was like, what do you mean? I ought to ride like you ride a bike de Pullman. For crying, he's suggesting I ride. It was like two hundred and forty pounds who died riding a bike to Pullman. So anyway, we lost the game and I agreed to do it. And my first thought was that I was going to put an exercise bike flatbed truck and just bolted to the truck and ride the exercise bike all the way to Pullman. Would have taken like five hours. You would have been done, right. 00:42:29 Speaker 4: But I thought to myself, you know what if I do that, people are gonna murder me. They're gonna kill me if I do that. So we rode the bike. It took us five days. 00:42:36 Speaker 5: We stopped at a bunch of different places along the way North Bend, Roslyn Othello. We got the Colfax, which is right outside Pullman, as you guys know, and we go to check into our hotel and this dude walks out of the back to check us in and he's got a wife beater on with a swap sticker on his on his shoulder, and I said, yeah, we're not staying here, and we took off and went and stayed somewhere else. I think we went and got to place some Pullman that night. But yeah, that was about twenty five, twenty four years ago. That's one of those things where you can say you did it and I'll never do it again. Like I rode a bike to Pullman. It's off the list. I'll never do it again. I flew in a blue Angel, I threw them all over the cockpit. I'll never do it again ever ever ever. 00:43:18 Speaker 3: Oh man, I can't. I can't even doing. 00:43:20 Speaker 4: This, just like doing this podcast. 00:43:21 Speaker 5: I'll never do it again after this ever ever ever. 00:43:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, man, Like I can't even imagine biking like five miles to do from Seattle to Pullman. That is wild. 00:43:34 Speaker 5: Yeah, well, dude, nuts, My nuts are the size of olives after that trip. I can't have kids to that trip. That trip ruined me forever. No, I'm kidding it was. It was fun to do it one time, but again, you'll and you know the worst part about it was that we did it. 00:43:48 Speaker 4: In the middle of freaking August. Man, it was one hundred and five degrees. 00:43:51 Speaker 5: We're going from Vantage where the Columbia River is up to Royal City. And if you've ever made that drive, you know that that slope is a lot deeper and still call me past, will call me pass. Is a freaking cake walk compared to that thing. Dude, it was unbelievably awful going through that weather and through that heat, and it smelt like cowshit the entire time. 00:44:10 Speaker 3: It was terrible. 00:44:12 Speaker 1: So are you biking on the side of I five? 00:44:14 Speaker 4: Are you are sorry? On I ninety, are you Yeah? There were a couple of spots on. 00:44:20 Speaker 5: I ninety where I think it may have been illegal to have a bicycle on the freeway, but we did it anyway. 00:44:27 Speaker 3: That's amazing. I mean, of all the stories that you've had and you've gotten to experience and your time on radio, I think reading that one was my favorite because you just don't see anything like that. 00:44:36 Speaker 4: Like most of the stuff we've done. By the way, I can't tell you about it. 00:44:40 Speaker 5: I'll be honest with you. Most of the stories I've got we can't share. Most of the stories I got I can't share with it but they'll be in the book when I'm done there we go, hopefully not soon after I retire. 00:44:52 Speaker 4: Got to pay those golf club bills. Baby. 00:44:57 Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you started to draft yet. 00:45:00 Speaker 4: So we have. 00:45:02 Speaker 5: We have our mock draft on Wednesday. Me and Hugh Millen have been doing a mock draft for twenty five years and we're doing it again this Wednesday, and then we're gonna be at the vMac, the Seahawks facility on both Thursday and Friday for all the draft coverage from the Seahawks. But yeah, we have a lot of coverage today and tomorrow. I'm actually driving in right now to the Kraken Arena to Climate Pledge Arena. We're doing our show here from the game today, hanging around for Game four, and then tomorrow we're gonna be at the Emerald Queen with a lot more draft coverage. So yeah, there's a big week for us man. 00:45:32 Speaker 4: No question. 00:45:36 Speaker 3: If we wanted to get into a little bit of Mariners talk here, because I know you're on a little bit of a time French You've got I know you're on your way to do your shoe, but you know there's some storylines here to talk about through the first few weeks, and the last podcast TJ and I did was shortly after they swept the Rockies and there was some more positive storylines to talk about. This week was a little bit more bumpy as I mean, especially in that you know, I mean the sun they lost to the Cardinals, and and kind of the midweek games in general with the sweep against the Brewers. But just to look at some storylines here as we sit here toward the end of April, I mean, the big one to circle I think is what are they going to do about this designated hitter spot going forward? 00:46:15 Speaker 5: Well, they got to sign somebody. They got to get somebody. I mean, you can talk all you want. And by the way, I just got here to the arena. There it is right there, climing Pledgers. Oh, there we go, Home of Home of your cel Craken. You know, we've been talking about this all off season long. This is no surprise to anybody that their DH spot stinks. I mean, between timy Li Stella, Cooper Hummel, who's already been demoted by the way to Triple A Tacoma. They sent him down when they brought Haggarty up. I think either yesterday or on Saturday. There's just nothing there. There's nothing there that intimidates pitchers. And here we are talking about Taylor Trommel and Sam Haggerty being the freaking messiahs for this DH spot. 00:46:53 Speaker 4: I'm like, are you kidd me? 00:46:54 Speaker 5: I mean, these guys aren't look I mean, obviously they have a beating heart and they're better than nothing for crying out loud. 00:47:00 Speaker 4: But there's no aircraft carrier there. 00:47:02 Speaker 5: There's nothing there that is of significance of the DH spot. You should have signed somebody over the offseason. The fact that they didn't do it is now you're finding out why because their DH spot is a freaking disaster. So is their second base spot, and honestly is there, so is their shortstop spot. I mean to me, Colton Wong, JP Crawford and then whatever mess they have at DH, they're all just guys. All of them are just guys. You want to win a World Series title, you had to get better than you were last year, not just bring back the status quo. And I felt like that's what they did over the offseason. 00:47:34 Speaker 1: Okay, so I'm glad you brought up JP because Lyle Night thought about asking this question. But we thought if the conversation got here, then we'd ask them, because this is the question that was asked all off season. So it sounds like you were a guy this off season that you were pointing out one of those big four shortstops and said, that's the guy right there, right of course. 00:47:54 Speaker 5: I mean, who wouldn't want Correa, Trey Turner, Xander Bogarts on their baseball team. I think it's ridiculou to not want one of those guys on your team. And some people, like my partner Dick Fane, you know, get concerned about the contracts and the length and all that, and I'm sitting there saying, wait a minute, we're sitting here complaining and freaking out about what this guy's salary is going to look like in six or seven years from now. 00:48:17 Speaker 4: Are you freaking kid me? What are we doing? Really? 00:48:21 Speaker 5: I mean, guys, you have a window to win a World Series with this pitching staff right now. This might be the best pitching staff you've ever had in franchise history. If there's ever a time to go out and get a guy like that, it's right now. And don't be worrying about what's gonna happen in seven or eight years down the road. 00:48:38 Speaker 4: To me, that's just nonsense. 00:48:39 Speaker 5: I cannot believe that people are actually sitting around saying no to guys like that because they're concerned about what their payroll situation is going to look like in twenty thirty two. 00:48:48 Speaker 4: It's just insane to me. I just don't get it, man, I don't get it. 00:48:53 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're more on TJ side with this one. Like I'm not saying I didn't want Trey Turner, I didn't want Carlos Korea. I guess I was just I was a little bit concerned about the thirteen years because if you, I guess my thought is, if you want to stay competitive throughout as pro long period of time, something this team has not had success doing in the history of their franchise, that a lot of contracts might start to build up long term. But TJ is very much on the side of it. It shouldn't matter. Just go ahead and sign them. 00:49:20 Speaker 5: Well, first of all, you're talking like you're talking about an NFL team, not a baseball team. All your concerns about contracts and staying competitive long term and not getting locked in, that's what NFL teams say, not baseball teams. There's no freaking cap in baseball. You can do whatever the hell you want. And oh, by the way, the twenty five thirty million dollars that you would have paid one of those guys, go back and look at where that kind of money would have ranked in salary. Fifteen twenty years ago. It would have been number one or number two in baseball, right behind Alex Rodriguez. Now it's like number ten. In five years from now, it'll be number twenty, and then in twenty years from now it'll be number thirty. That that money is going to be worth less and less and less as the years go by. So I just think worrying about something like that for eight or nine years down the road is just foolish. There's just no need to even consider that when the only thing you should be doing is making your baseball team better right freaking now. And if you're not making moves because you're nervous about what a salary is going to look like, and eight or nine years from now or ten years from now, and that's just kakamamie that that's nonsense to me. 00:50:28 Speaker 4: I hate that. 00:50:31 Speaker 1: So, Sophie, I have to ask you about this since we didn't get to this in the first part of this interview. So you're you are very aminated. It's part of your show. It's just it's who you are. When did like when did you realize, like, hey, like when talking about sports, this is how we're attacking it. This is how we're going to be like this passionate, how this is how this is going to be my voice because you can hear it. Just answering that question about all the shortstops. I mean, that's the that is the most passionate response we've gotten from any guest that we've on this podcast. 00:51:01 Speaker 5: Well, it just makes my blood boil to think about that, to think that we're actually sitting around and we're saying, nah, we don't want one of the best players in baseball because in twenty thirty it might mess up our payroll. I mean that, It's just it just drives me nuts. Guys, Okay, I just cannot stand it. Look, you have done a great job in the farm system, a great job in the minor leagues. This team deserves that kind of financial commitment. Okay, there's other teams that have not deserved that financial commitment. This is one of them. But as far as you know, speaking my mind, I don't know. 00:51:31 Speaker 3: Man. 00:51:31 Speaker 5: My dad's from New York. You know, it's been in my family for a long time. My dad was a smart ass. I'm a smart ass. My mom's a smart ass. My cousins are all smart asses. So I guess it's just kind of the environment that you brought up in. 00:51:42 Speaker 6: Right. 00:51:44 Speaker 3: We've got a bunch of New York roots too, So I guess. So I mean, I mean all all our parents are from. 00:51:49 Speaker 5: If there's stupid ass opinion, then on short stops and payroll. If you have the New York background, and then grow some fricking balls for crying out, I'm not with you. You got New York in your blood, then freaking show it to me. 00:52:03 Speaker 4: Lyle. My god, we're If we show this guy, we may have a pay read problem. When Lyle's fifty five years old. Who gives a shit? Games? 00:52:20 Speaker 3: All right, well, how about this on the next show. I'm gonna come on and say, next off season, give show Heyo Tani a seventeen year contract. How about that. 00:52:29 Speaker 4: Seven hundred and fifty million dollars for show Heyo Tani. 00:52:32 Speaker 5: And by the way, if you don't think you're that you can pay that much money, you may as well go home, because that's what it's gonna cost, at least a half a billion, if not more, six hundred million for show. Heyo Tani, I just get good to get concerned that the Mariners won't be able to be a part of that kind of a bidding war. But yeah, for sure anytime, guys. 00:52:51 Speaker 1: I'd say one one very important subject that I saw you comment on this week that I we're probably gonna talk a little bit more in depth next week when it comes out officially. But as someone who's seen all iterations of Mariners Jersey softy, I know you saw those leaks of the City connect jerseys. They're supposed to be you next week. They look awesome. 00:53:10 Speaker 4: They do look pretty cool. 00:53:11 Speaker 3: You know. 00:53:12 Speaker 5: It's amazing how nobody like Major League Sports, the NFL, the NBA, especially the NBA by the way, and baseball. It's like the twenty twenty three version of the VHS videotape or the DVD or the laser disc, and that you're paying for the same thing, but you're buying eight different versions of it, right Like I have every Star Wars movie ever made on VHS Beta Max video disc, DVD, Blu Ray DVD, and now I have the digital copies right, every single freaking one. So we're just a bunch of suckers, man, because we're buying the same thing over and over again, and no one does that better than the NBA. But I know, for the for the next generation, the jerseys and the alternate jerseys is really cool. 00:53:57 Speaker 4: I like them. 00:53:59 Speaker 5: They're a little bit to Seattle pilot ish for me. And you guys have no idea what I'm talking about because they were here for one year in nineteen sixty nine. But it's been long enough, it's been over fifty years. Obviously, nobody has any any idea what the hell I'm talking about. I love their Sunday prem jerseys that they wore yesterday. By the way, for the those were pretty cool. But yeah, no, I think it's great. I think the Mayo my pitch, it looks like is gonna be on it. We're gonna find out officially on Friday, and you're a Dave Neehouse. 00:54:29 Speaker 4: But yeah, they're pretty sweet. 00:54:30 Speaker 5: And the Seahawks this year are doing a throwback day as well as you guys know, you know, for their game. So here we go again. Just showing out more money, baby, more and more money for the same stuff, over and over again. And the suckers like us. 00:54:42 Speaker 1: We got in for it, got pay for O twy somehow. 00:54:46 Speaker 4: That's right. 00:54:47 Speaker 5: Absolutely, Hey, if they could guarantee we'd get them, I'd buy a thousand of those things. 00:54:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, sign me up for the same thing. I would too. I'll get a jersey of every single guy, no doubt. 00:54:58 Speaker 1: Well, looking forward for the rest of the season season for the Mariners that we're thinking about this uh, this big picture and what we're what you're really looking forward to be like really the true X fact. I mean we talked about dh we talked about second base, we talked about shortstop. But we're looking you know, farther out down the line this season of what makes the Mariner successful this season? Like what really is it? Like, what is what is going to be the difference to them actually becoming great? 00:55:23 Speaker 5: Well, I think obviously Kelenick has to keep it up and Julio has to find out what kind of player he is, right, is he a real superstar or is he just an all star? 00:55:31 Speaker 4: Is he an aircraft carrier or is he a streaky hitter? 00:55:34 Speaker 5: He hasn't had the greatest start obviously, but you need you need difference makers, guys, I mean, go back to Arizona. 00:55:39 Speaker 4: Excuse me, Houston. 00:55:40 Speaker 5: A year ago, Jordan Alvarez, Jose L Tuvey, guys like that, freaking difference makers. Who are the difference makers offensively right now? 00:55:50 Speaker 4: For this baseball team? Right now? 00:55:52 Speaker 5: It's Jared Celnick right. I mean, is is Suarez playing like a difference maker? Is ty Frantz playing like a difference maker? Is Julio really playing like that kind of difference maker in your mind? So they got to find out who those two or three guys are, and then number two the bullpen just got to get healthy. It's clear as day that Andres Munoz is really valuable to these guys. I mean, Matt Brash is a freaking mess right now. He is all over the place. He couldn't find home play with a map for crying out loud. 00:56:18 Speaker 4: He kind of. 00:56:18 Speaker 5: Reminds me of Nuclear Loos back in Bull Durham, which is a movie that you guys may or may not have seen before you were born. By the way, if you haven't seen it, I would recommend seeing it. But their bullpen everything has to be almost elite, right, Like their pitching staff has to be elite, their bullpen has to be elite, and they have to have elite bats in their lineup. And I just don't know if they can go three for three in those regards, Got it by guys. 00:56:40 Speaker 1: That'll be something we'll have to out. Well, if you have one more thing, go ahead. 00:56:44 Speaker 3: Well, I guess the one nice thing about the bullpen here is even though Brash has been up and down here in April, like, they have had other reinforcements that you didn't really expect, which is kind of the key to keeping up elite bullpen's year after years. You have to have some surprises. And the fact guys like Topa Inspire have been really good so far are that's going to take in some of the pressure off Brash so at least that when he's had some trouble here in April. It's not the whole bullpen. 00:57:06 Speaker 5: Yeah, a little bit, But their bullpen hasn't been great, right, and they were great last year. 00:57:09 Speaker 4: Their bullpen was awesome last season. 00:57:11 Speaker 5: Their bullpen was maybe the biggest reason why they got to where they got was because of their bullpen. 00:57:16 Speaker 4: To me, the bullpen was the best part of the baseball team. Eater ago. It's not the best part of the baseball team right now. It's not. 00:57:22 Speaker 5: So they need to be better, you know, and then going out and getting somebody. I don't want them waiting until July thirty first to get a back. It's clear as day. I mean, you knuckleheads can see it. I can see it that they needed that a a DH right. We just started the conversation talking about that. They got to go ahead and get somebody. The problem is we're getting somebody? Is that with the new wildcard format, every team in baseball thinks they're in the race, every single one. This is why I did not want to wait until during the season to get better. I wanted somebody brought in over the offseason. And it just boggles my mind why they did not do that. 00:57:57 Speaker 4: He is Dave Softy Mell. 00:57:59 Speaker 1: You can hear him on Sports Radio ninety three to three KJR FM every weekday from three to seven. Dave, we really appreciate you taking some time to join us today. Wish we had some more time. We'll have to do this again. We can really get into some more stories because they really were fantastic and we really enjoined them. It was really great content, so we appreciate you taking some. 00:58:19 Speaker 5: You guys are awesome man. Whenever you need me, let me know. And hopeful next time we do this and won't be driving, I'll make sure I'm at home for trying out good stuff. We'll talk soon, all right. 00:58:29 Speaker 1: All right, that was a great interview with Dave Softy Malord. He was really, really, really funny. Okay, let's switch to our minor league segment. Let's take a look down on the farm. All right lyle, who do you have your eye on this week? 00:58:49 Speaker 3: Jonathan Class is tearing it up man. His last week in Everett, he didn't mess around. Ten for twenty seven, three bombs, seven RBIs, six walks, and seven stolen bases. Look, they signed this guy when he was pretty young as an international free agent. They thought he had some promise, and he is really showing it all of a sudden here in April. I mean, he's hitting three oh nine with a ten to forty nine ozhps for the year. He's walked fourteen times, struck out nineteen times, and he's got twelve stolen bases. So the strikeouts are low, the approach is good. He's got a combination of speed and power. He looks great so far. I mean, it's it's awesome to see. 00:59:32 Speaker 1: There are a lot of things to be excited about with him. I mean, he's he's again more of a project. But we talked to our friend Jeremy who works in the organization. He's a he's a big fan of class and I see it and a lot of people are in the prospect circles. He's not going to be a true blue chip prospect, but at least not at this point. But he's got a lot of tools that you could be super super excited about. Lyle, I have a guy with a ton of tools to highlight this week who I think five tool player across the board that I'm gonn highlight for the Mariners. Which it's funny because he could very much appear in a major league game for the Mariners at a critical position of need. Mike Ford is who I'm gonna highlight this week. This dude is laying wasteed Tacoma. His slash line through eighteen games this year three twenty eight, three ninety five six eighty seven six home runs. Three of them came in the Friday game last week against El Paso. He's driven in already thirty runs in eighteen games. The dude just crushes pitching. He's a journeyman. He's had a good chunk of time in the major leagues with a bunch of different teams, and he very well might see some at bats at DH this year for the Mariners because well, there's one thing he does. He hits, and he sits in the DH spot, which is something the Mariners could really use. 01:00:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, he's not exactly Julio in terms of his athleticism, but look, he's crushing it in Trila right now. Three home runs in one game. I mean, we saw it this past week. It doesn't matter what level you're at. That's that's nuts. Now. Separating what you do in the PCL, which is a total bambox and hitter friendly league in TRIPAA compared to the majors. That's where the separation begins and where it's a really big jump, and that you have to decide, Okay, can he sustain this? But the good news is in a pinch, yeah, they're they're gonna call him up because he's got big league experience, he's had big league success, he's got power. 01:01:30 Speaker 1: This dude, let me just give you a little example of his big league success. People forget in twenty nineteen with the Yankees, that team that set the all time or sorry second in the all time home run record to the Twins, he had a nine oh nine ops and fifty games nine hundred ops at the big league level across about a third of a season. Like he's done it before, so he could do it again for the Mariners this year. Probably not for fifty games, but there's a pretty good chance he could. And from everything we hear, he's also one of the funniest guys in the organization, so he's got that going for him too. 01:02:04 Speaker 3: Keep crushing at Mike Ford, because again, this team may need you at some point, and if you can provide any pop out of that DH spot, you know Scott's service and the entire Mariner's crew is going to take it. Okay, let's transition here, get to our MLB wrap around. I'd have to say the biggest story of the week TJ Fernando Tatis Junior's back missed all of twenty twenty two between getting in a couple of motorcycle accidents that caused some wrist injuries. And then getting suspended for peds. Didn't play in twenty twenty two. Well now here he's back after the first few weeks in twenty twenty three, and you know, the Padres and baseball as a whole is loving it. 01:02:48 Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see him back. This dude is so much fun to watch. The only thing you hope is that he can stop getting out of his own way. I mean, even his teammates at the end of last year were like kind of just throwing their hands up. It's like, well, this stuff is like on Fernando if he wants to come back here and support us and help us get to back to the National League Championship Series like they did last year, like we need him. It's on him to be a little bit more responsible with himself. And you'd think with the fact he still has I think eleven seasons is it eleven seasons or twelve seasons left, but he has about two hundred and eighty million dollars left on his contract that was a at the beginning fourteen years three hundred and forty million dollars that he signed. Back in the twenty twenty one season, he finished third in NL MVP that year. This dude has tools that not many other guys in baseball have, and now he's a right fielder instead of a shortstop. 01:03:44 Speaker 3: WRC plus of one fifty one, one fifty one, and one fifty seven, respectively from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one, I mean he is one of the five to seven best players in baseball when he is healthy on the field and thriving. Also, I realize we haven't done this in a while, just for anybody that might be a new listener and hasn't heard WRC plus. It just takes things into account like ballpark factor and weights hits differently, like it measures home runs heavier than it does singles and one hundreds league average, So anything above that is how many percentage points above league average? You are, Just realize, we haven't done that in a while, So in case anybody isn't familiar with WRC plus. But anyway, Tatis has crushed it every year he's been in the big leagues and has been healthy. Now they have him back. Okay, through his first handful of games, he's been not great, but it's such a small sample size that that's not gonna last. And above everything, when he's right. He is so fantastic for the game of baseball. He's fun, he's young, he's exciting, he has swag. I mean, there's a reason people called him the face of baseball back in twenty twenty one. 01:04:46 Speaker 1: One last thing on WRC plus also era adjusted too, which is very important. You can you can compare someone today and compare someone back in nineteen twenty as well on an equal playing field. I'm curious to see how this right field experiment can work out. He's got the tools, he's got the arm to be a pretty decent right fielder. He's a little big for a right fielder road per se, but you know he's again, he's fast, he's got he's got the arm. It's just if he can learn the tricks in the trade of right field. Now, the fact that the Padres have a pretty good infield down there and not none none of those guys are really really going anywhere down on that infield. So he's going to have to make it work out there if the Padres are really gonna believe in him. 01:05:24 Speaker 3: Again, the Padres have so many guys out of position in the field, to be honest, like, there's no reason has Hassan Kim should not be playing shortstop. I mean, the guy was one of the best defenders in baseball last year. They're letting boguards play short he was not as good a defender, But I guess that's neither. That's neither here nor there. When talking about Tatis, Yeah, they were gonna have to find a different position for him, so you stick them in one of the corner outfield spots. He's athletic enough to where over time he's going to figure it out. I mean, it's kind of like the Jazz Chisholm thing, right. He's an infielder by trade. They stuck him in the outfield. They said, you're an athlete, you'll figure this out, and over time you'll get good at it. I think it'll be the same thing with Tatis. Even if he's not an elite defender out there, I think he can be perfectly serviceable. 01:06:08 Speaker 1: Now that he's back. Is there a better four player combo in baseball than Manny Xander, Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Junior. Is there a better four player set on any team? 01:06:22 Speaker 3: No? Absolutely not. Yeah, and and Soto hasn't even gotten going yet. Like when he gets going. Yeah, no chance. I would not want to be anywhere near the top four of that lineup if I was an opposing pitcher. 01:06:34 Speaker 1: Quick note on Sodo before we go to our next storyline. I mean, we don't talk about bating average that much, but Juan Soto right now is hitting a buck ninety eight after hitting about two thirty last year. It's so bizarre, so bizarre. 01:06:48 Speaker 3: I don't really get what's going on with him either, because again, the guy thrives on having an elite played approach. He's his batchball scales are off the charts. But yeah, for whatever reason, he's just been in a little bit of a tailspin here the last couple months, dating back to last year. But again, I don't really think this is gonna last. I mean, they call this guy the modern day Ted Williams for a reason. I think, get come May, he's just gonna click and he's gonna have two insane weeks to get all his numbers back to average. 01:07:14 Speaker 1: Let's get to our next storyline here in the MLB wrap around, Lyle, I never thought this sentence would come out of my mouth really in the last fifty the next fifty years, based on how they spend, but the Pirates might be good. 01:07:30 Speaker 3: This is crazy. I mean, I know we're still only in April, but everything they're doing feels sustainable. So here check out a couple of these numbers. Their run differential before their game started on Tuesday. Before their game started Tuesday, their run differential was plus twenty five. That was tied for the third best mark in the NL. They are eighth in the league in team ops, their second in stolen bases, they're seventh in team walks, and then their top ten in team ERA. From both sides of the ball. They're doing everything. This is not a fluke right now. We don't know if it's gonna last, but every single one of those numbers says what they're doing is very real. 01:08:11 Speaker 1: And they're doing it without O'Neil Cruz too, which is the one of the toolsiest guys in baseball who we were we talked about here on the wrap Around a couple of weeks ago when he broke his leg. Really disappointed that he's out with the Pirates. Really haven't missed beaten. 01:08:25 Speaker 2: Listen to some of these. 01:08:26 Speaker 1: Names that are really really carrying them through there. Lyle I will give you I'll give you a dollar if you can guess who leads the Pirates in war right now? 01:08:38 Speaker 3: Well, this isn't fair because we both did our prep on this, and I think we both know now. Had I not looked this up this week in preparation for this show, no, I would not have guessed Connor Joe, who's who was like a small trade from the Rockies and has has nearly a two hundred WRC plus. Yeah. No, not in a million years would you guess that. 01:08:59 Speaker 1: Connor Joe, followed by Jack Sewinsky, Brian Reynolds, who will talk about here in a second. And Andrew McCutchen. What what year is this? What year is this? Andrew McCutchen has gotten off to a really hot start this year. I think he hit a home run today. I'm not totally certain the Pirates did lose to the Dodgers today, but I mean Andrew mccutcheen as of before yesterday's show two seventy five, three eighty one, five oh seven here through the early parts of the season, been. 01:09:30 Speaker 2: A big part. 01:09:32 Speaker 3: He's been a really big part again at age thirty six. It feels like we're back in twenty thirteen again. 01:09:38 Speaker 4: Now. 01:09:38 Speaker 3: I will say. Sewinsky they thought had a little bit of promise when he was a prospect, so I didn't think he'd be playing like this. But I guess it's not totally shocking what he's doing. But it's more the fact that guys like Connor Joe and Andrew McCutchen are playing the way they're playing like. I'm not saying they're gonna win one hundred plus games, but at least in April they almost have that twenty twenty one giant field where it just doesn't make much sense. It's a bunch of Now. The Pirates have some younger players on this team, but there's a lot of guys who you wouldn't expect to be thriving right now, and they just continue to click. I mean, it's going to be a really interesting story to see how long this can keep up. 01:10:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see. I mean, usually if a house of cards isn't very stable, it topples over pretty quickly. So I think we'll we'll know pretty quick based on that if anything regresses, if they'll they'll be any good. But wow, one guy that we know is actually pretty good. Who will be the third topic here of a wrap around is one of the more sturdy cards in that house. 01:10:41 Speaker 3: I'd say the sturdiest card in the house. Brian Reynolds signs an extension here on Tuesday with the Pittsburgh Pirates, so he gets eight years just under one hundred and seven million dollars to stay as a Pittsburgh Pirate. Now, this extension, for the longest time, did not look like it was getting done. Reynolds had publicly publicly requested a trade, which you rarely ever see. He seemed discontent with the organization. The organization did not seem to want to give him his money. But you know what, it seems like it's water under the bridge now. 01:11:15 Speaker 1: And they started the negotiation for this around eighty million dollars, I believe, which is actually laughable for a guy Brian Reynolds's talents has started about eighty million dollars, and now he's going to make a little bit over thirteen million dollars a year, which is still pretty much a steal. But if you look at it in the realm of Brian Reynolds, he gets one hundred and how many one hundred and one hundred and seven million dollars essentially fully guaranteed for the next eight seasons, which will set him and his children up forever. So you know, it's just a question of well, I was going to chase that that two hundred million dollars, But you know, I think Brian Reynolds was okay with with settling. He enjoys probably living in Pittsburgh. He enjoys being a part of the Pirates organization. Even if they're you know, pretty cheap and aren't willing to spend a whole bunch of money, they do sign up. Believe now their first one hundred million dollar contract in franchise. 01:12:05 Speaker 3: History, first one, and you know what, you picked a good guy to do it with. Yeah, for Reynolds, look, he was still three years away from free agency. He might not have wanted to wait around. I do think he could have gotten way more than this, But you know what, he got his money up front, and now he was in Pittsburgh for basically the rest of his career. Okay, to your point, yes, first one hundred million dollar contract that the Pirates have given out. Because of that, there are now three teams in baseball that have never given out a one hundred million dollar contract. That would be the Chicago White Sox, the Kansas City Royals, and of course the Oakland A's Now TJ. We didn't talk about this off the air, but I'll throw you a trivia question on here. The highest paid contract ever by the White Sox was Andrew benin Tendi this offseason. That was that seventy five million dollar contract we talked about that. Salvador Perez's contract is the biggest one the Royals have ever given out. That was just above eighty million dollars. What is the largest contract in Oakland A's history? 01:13:08 Speaker 2: Can I get a decade? 01:13:12 Speaker 3: It's we were born, but not that old? 01:13:17 Speaker 2: Oh is it? Jason Giambi? 01:13:21 Speaker 3: No, And I don't think Jiombie ever got a contract there. I don't think, because again I think you know he came up with the A's, then when he hit free agency, he left for the Yankees. I'll give it to you. Biggest contract the A's have ever signed, Eric Chavez on a six year, sixty six million dollar contract. 01:13:41 Speaker 2: Okay, that sound that sounds right? Yeah, that sounds right. 01:13:46 Speaker 3: John Fisher's worth billions of dollars. What are you doing, dude? I mean, this is why they're going to Vegas. 01:13:51 Speaker 1: But throwing the sixty six million dollars from Eric Chavez on on double zero. 01:13:57 Speaker 2: Yee, if he can make his money. 01:13:59 Speaker 3: Back exactly, Maybe that'll get more fans at the ballpark. Maybe they can promote a promotional night to put like a million dollars of John Fisher's money on on yeah double zero. Write at O dot co and see if people show up to watch it in person. 01:14:16 Speaker 1: Since it's in Vegas. They absolutely I don't know how the triple A setup is, but do they put like gam do they put like a roulette wheel in there? Do they put slots at this in the stadium? Because you see it in the airport, you see it in gas stations, you see it in I think grocery stores and other places as well out side of casino. So would you put something like that in a ballpark? And that's a free way for John Fisher to make some money, Not that he's going to spend it on anything, but he sure can line his pockets a little bit more. 01:14:45 Speaker 4: Oh. 01:14:45 Speaker 3: I bet you they do something like that once they get to Vegas again. It's it's just too opportune not to if you ask me. But these have not given out of one hundred million dollar contract the Pirates finally do credit to them. Their future looks bright, and now they have the centerpiece of it locked up for the foreseeable future in Brian Reynolds. All Right, TJ, maybe our favorite segment of the show a Russell Wilson umpire of the week. This one actually hits close to home this week because it is Mariners related, isn't it. 01:15:17 Speaker 1: Congratulations to Gabe Morales, who is behind the plate in a five to four Mariners victory on Saturday. Yes, the Mariners one, But man, oh man, watching this game on TV, you could you were just you could tell this was a really, really, really solid candidate of Gabe Morales. This man had an eighty one percent correct strike rate. Two of the ten strike two out of ten Colt strikes were inherently not correct. And the only fat I need to highlight in this entire game. You know what I'm about to talk about? That taoscar Hernandez at bat right before he hit a two run home run to center field, he goes up three on the count and then just gets absolutely jobbed on two straight pitches in a row that were remotely close to the strike zone, and they were the number one and number three most impactful missed calls of the game that umpire Scorecards dishes out. It just just incredible efficiency on that from Gabe Morales, and congratulations to him for bestowing this prestigious honor. 01:16:23 Speaker 3: So just to give people a picture here, league average on called strike accuracy eighty eight percent, Morales was at eighty one percent. That's really bad. Seven percent below league average on called strikes. And if you need more information than that, Morales had the lowest overall accuracy in the league entering that game. Again, this Twitter account umpire Scorecards keeps track of a lot of this stuff. It is a ten out of ten follow if you're on Twitter. Lowest in the league. Look, it has to be somebody, right, somebody, by a technicality, has to be the worst umpire in baseball. But it's by a decent margin that he has it. Like his balls and strikes have been terrible, like worse than C. B. Buckner. So yeah, as a reminder as always, to win this Russell Wilson Up for the Week award, you either have to not see over the middle, not let plays develop, or just be insufferable. I think it's pretty clear he wasn't seeing over the middle this week because two out of ten pitches he was getting wrong, or two out of ten strikes he was getting wrong. 01:17:27 Speaker 1: If you go on the umpire scorecards website, they have their own little savant feature where they feature those little dials for how good for how good an umpire is done. He is in the first percentile, and accuracy the first percentile, and accuracy above expected. He is in the first percentile of favor, which is meaning favoring one team over the other. How much favor do you get give to a team? He is as bad as it gets with that as well, and then with leverage he's also in the bottom I think eleven percent as well. He's he's been pretty bad across the board. So gave Morales. This is your opportunity for us to we hold you accountable here and then you step it up on the field. 01:18:10 Speaker 3: Last thing here, I'll never get it with umpires. I mean in sales, right, you have quarterly reports where you like you check in and see what your numbers are. Does anybody in Rob Manfred's office have like seasonal reports with these umpires. That's like, hey, we're gonna sit you down and show you you are missing things left and right, maybe clean this up. I mean, I don't even know why I'm asking this question. I know the answers no, which is ridiculous, but I'm basically more wishing there was and trying to speak it into existence here on this podcast. 01:18:43 Speaker 2: It's just it's unfortunate. 01:18:44 Speaker 1: And again we had to sit there and watch it on Saturday, and then thankfully the Mariners won and despite all of it, but man, especially that first breaking ball to Tioskar on a three to zero pitch which was not a strike and decided that it was called a strike. This, this system, right here, this reason, right here is why we need a challenge system with the robot umpire, which I think will be super interesting. 01:19:07 Speaker 2: Okay, let's get. 01:19:08 Speaker 1: To our final segment of the podcast. Let's speak our minds. 01:19:12 Speaker 2: Speak your mind spot. That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. All right Lyle, what's up first for you? 01:19:27 Speaker 3: Well, I'm gonna throw it back to you. I do have something, but should we do a Mandalorian recap first or do you want me to give you my topic first? 01:19:36 Speaker 1: Let's do a Mandalorian recap first. If you have not watched the finale of season season three of The Mandalorian. Yeah, so I'm gonna give you a chance. Yeah, Season three of The Mandalorian finale. If you have not watched it, we're about to spoil it. Three two one, okay, cool. If you're still listening, sorry, we're gonna spoil it. I was It was an okay finale. I would say I liked the ending. I liked the fight at the end, the fight with with mof Gideon as well, and and ding Jarn and Bocatan with the Dark Sea were getting broken. 01:20:10 Speaker 2: I thought it was I. 01:20:10 Speaker 1: Thought it was cool, and I thought it was cool watching Grogu slice up those uh whatever red Guards they're called. 01:20:16 Speaker 2: I forget the exact name. It was nice. It was a nice mix of action. 01:20:20 Speaker 1: I was expecting a little bit more of a cliffhanger, but overall those it was pleased. 01:20:27 Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought it was good. I mean, at some point you knew that there was gonna be a scene like that with Grogu, right where I know, he's a kid and he's just trying to learn the force and all, but at some point you knew that there was gonna be that point in the show where it all clicked for him and he stepped in and saved the day in some dramatic fashion the way he did in that scene, So that was really cool. I think that was a good way to end the season. They couldn't keep dragging maf Gideon on forever because I think we know the show is going to have more seasons. I mean, it's too good not to. But I think they're gonna start to incorporate some new villains here, because look, Gideon had his reasons and he was a good He was a good villain for the first handful of seasons here, like three seasons, but you couldn't drag him on on and on and on for season seven to eight, however long. It goes like they're gonna need some refreshing villains here. So I think that was a good way to end it killed them off. Dark Saber gets broken, and now they can kind of move on to a new chapter. 01:21:23 Speaker 1: So they got Yeah, they recaptured Mandalor, and they lit up the Great Forge, which is you know, all the stories of the Armor. Finally back in the place where she really feels like she needs to be. It would be interesting to see how the next seasons would be now that Mando's essentially not a bounty hunter, but like a like a freelance Republic Ranger new Republic Ranger, which I think is super interesting. I was expecting a teaser for Grant Admiral Thron and the Ahsoka series at the end, which we did not get. We instead just got Mando with his new little cabin on that planet which I cannot remember the name of, with him and with him and Grogu, which I thought was was super cool. And then the one last note here we did get a true Mandalorian fight scene of jetpack versus jetpack. We had not gotten that yet. 01:22:09 Speaker 2: It was awesome. 01:22:10 Speaker 1: We see a little bit of that in the Clone Wars, we see a little bit of that in Rebels, I think too, a little bit. It was fantastic to see in live action. 01:22:20 Speaker 3: Yeah. They did a really good job with the finale, especially that battle also Navarro that's the planet you're thinking of, right, Okay, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, it was good. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Good. It was a good finale. I think, you know, it wasn't the greatest one ever, but it was good. 01:22:41 Speaker 1: And that's, you know, all we can really all we can really ask for. Its hope that it's not like a bad Game of Thrones, bad finale, really bad bad finale and final season. But that's not the final season, Amanda. It's gonna be interesting to see how they tied into future seasons of future shows. Okay, so now it can throw it back to you, Lyle, what's up first for you on Speak Your Mind? 01:23:02 Speaker 3: Okay, So, I don't know what made me think of this this week. I guess somehow it just popped into my head, But I mean it kind of ties back to us and how a way that we've grown this podcast is through all the work we've done through social media, especially on TikTok, on Instagram reels, certainly some on Twitter too. I was kind of just thinking back to, like, we didn't really get taught a lot of this stuff in journalism school. They taught us to use Twitter, but not a whole lot of the other apps. And to be fair, TikTok wasn't really around that and YouTube shorts wasn't as much of a thing. But if you're just talking about being progressive with new media, like I don't know, for whatever reason I was thinking about this, I think journalism schools have to start teaching this in some of their classes, teaching kids how to use TikTok, how to use Instagram reels, how to use them to promote your brand, how to promote yourself your work, because you're seeing it all the time these days, and you're seeing how well it does. I mean, we just talked to arm last week from Just Baseball, and you see how much they thrive from Twitter. I guess I just it's two people who graduated from journalism school and got a lot out of it. But I think we feel like there's stuff that we maybe wish they had taught us as well. I hope they start to do that across the country going forward, like teaching stuff like how to use TikTok, because it's only going to get bigger and bigger, and I truly think if places aren't teaching that, they might fall behind a little bit. 01:24:20 Speaker 1: Now I agree, so TikTok, I don't. I think it might have just been renamed TikTok when we got to school. I think I don't remember the exact timeline of how it came in, but it definitely wasn't taught. I would I would imagine at the Kronkite School at ASU. Now there is if it is in our you know, intro to multi media. I think it's multimedia journalism, which is which would be the would probably be the class that you would learn it in that it's probably worked its way onto the curriculum somehow, especially in a videography class. Like if you're not teaching your videography kids how to how to make something like that out of a out of a story you've done, I mean, I think you're really missing missing out and missing a whole medium which really helps promote your stuff. And again, just look at us, like a lot big portion of our growth is through those short form platforms, Like we're not just promoting this on Twitter. This is through the sites that just kind of push our stuff out. And we're very thankful that we have that option to uh to produce content like that, and we're trying to find ways to be you know, more efficient and make make better stuff. So we you know, we hope you keep listening and watching, and like all the kids in school, we're trying to learn along the way as well and make our content better. 01:25:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, And I just wish we had gotten a little bit of a step ahead on that, cause, like, like with that right they taught you, yeah, use these platforms promote your stuff. They didn't really teach you the best ways to use it, like, I mean, they didn't. They didn't teach us about Okay, here's things the algorithm likes, or here's how you engage people at the start of a video. Like a lot of that you and I have been figuring out on our own through doing this podcast, and we test run some things. Some things work, some things don't. We stick with the things that work. I just wish, Yeah, we just learned a little bit more about that side of it when we were in Well, it's not just hey, use these platforms, it's here's what often works if you want to draw people's attention. So, you know, just hopefully going forward, schools start to teach that and kids have a little bit of a step up on it. That's all. 01:26:12 Speaker 1: But I think this also shows that the internet is a pretty decent teacher by itself, and TikTok, to be honest, very good teacher as well. There's a lot of new things that learn on there. 01:26:21 Speaker 2: Especially. 01:26:21 Speaker 1: I don't know if we'll ever you know, actually, you know what, we probably will say we however, we upgrade this podcast in the future. I mean the use of AI and stuff as well. I mean that is also something that should be taught in schools of how you're using it if you haven't used chat GPT yet. Very interesting stuff on what the future of the Internet and working on browsers and with AI is going to be. So it's interesting. I mean I literally saw something on today over the last week of Adobe Edit your podcast for You cuts everything for you, which is absolutely insane. And hey, maybe we'll eventually use that if we get the right setup and it works out that well. So I don't know, we'll have to see that. That'll be something interesting to look at. My first thing on Speak Your Mind this week, I've not been as this let's restart this sentence. I've not been more nervous for an NFL draft. It'll be tomorrow when this episode drops on Wednesday, in probably my entire life. As we're going to see on Thursday, the Seahawks have the fifth pick and the twentieth pick, and there are so many rumors and so many questions flying around on sports talk radio and podcasts and such like. While and I both agree we can't get a clear mind on what's going to happen on Thursday, which makes this experience so unique to us because the Seahawks never pick this high. They never get this opportunity to pick this high, which kind of makes you like, God, they can't screw this up. 01:27:52 Speaker 3: They really can't screw this up. Which but by the way, the fact they're even fortunate enough to be in this position, thank you, Russell Wilson. But being it does seem like they're gonna take a blue chip player with this pick. I mean, it's not gonna be one of these Seahawks drafts where they're late in the first round, they trade back a couple of times, they get some extra picks, and then they try to get cute. The one thing that seems like is gonna happen is they're gonna stay at that fifth pick and they're gonna take somebody that has true superstar potential. The problem is, not only is there a ton of lack of clarity about what the Seahawks are gonna do, there's a bunch of lack of clarity about this entire draft. In the first five to ten picks, I've seen multiple people say people feel very strongly that Jalen car Carter's going to the Seahawks. I've seen a handful of people. Again, these are all credible. People say Jalen Carter's not the pick. They're out on him, which means maybe they're looking at a quarterback. Maybe they're looking at Anthony Richardson, like we've talked about. I truly have no idea what's gonna happen, which is why I'm just sitting here thinking, let's just get to Thursday night already. Let's just see who they pick and get on with it, because I'm tired of sitting and waiting and speculating. 01:28:57 Speaker 1: And then there's a sprinkle this week that CJ. Stroud could be there at five and that the Seahawks should pick them, and I'm like, oh goodness. So now, like the potential that the Seahawks pick four separate guys at five really screws everything up, and it does not help. There's not a slam dunk number one pick in this draft. 01:29:14 Speaker 4: We don't know. 01:29:14 Speaker 2: Who's going one. 01:29:15 Speaker 1: I mean, we really have absolutely no clue. We'll probably know from Madam Schefter on Thursday morning who's going one, but otherwise, I mean, I don't know, I don't know, so I'm gonna ask you we'll put this on the record here on this podcast. Who do you want the Seahawks to pick on Thursday? 01:29:33 Speaker 3: I don't know, and I've thought about this a lot. I don't know if I have a clear answer on this yet. I like, for where the team's going to be in the next two years, I would say Jalen Carter because I think Gino is good enough to at least hold his ground and repeat what he did last season. I think there's a small chance he could get better too, So for the sake of the next couple of years, Jalen Carter could really really boost an interior defensive line that struggled last year and put this roster in a place that could contend, potentially contend for an NFC title because the NFC just keeps getting weaker. The other side of that is they are never going to pick this high again in terms of the next five to seven years. You don't get a chance to take quarterbacks as high if you're the Seahawks very often, and Gino is probably not gonna last another seven years. Advise a guest. I love Geno. I love rooting for him. It's an awesome story. I don't know if he lasts another seven years. So if you have a chance to get Anthony Richardson, whose steiling is Josh Allen, like, I'm intrigued there too. I think hopefully that provides some clarity, like what do they say laser pointing at the earth, I will say, Carter. 01:30:43 Speaker 2: I'm with you. 01:30:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I am in the Carter boat. I would also be okay with Anthony Richardson. I'd probably be those two would be okay with. I don't like Tyree Wilson now might go above five, which okay, so he's not even an option there because I would have been like, probably okay with that. But if none of those three guys and say will Anderson's off the board too, like they could trade back, like we don't like like, let's the board is shaking out where it's like, let's say it's Levis and Stroud left on the board, right, and uh, let's say they actually hate Jalen Carter and it's Levis and Stroud. 01:31:19 Speaker 2: Left on the board. 01:31:20 Speaker 1: Well, maybe just don't want to pick right. 01:31:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm not super intrigued with either of those guys, especially Levis. The other part of this is there's rumors people think Anthony Richardson could start to slide. I part wonder if they take Jalen Carter at five, and if they start to see Richardson falling down the draft board it gets to pick eight or nine, they parlay that twentieth pick with another draft pick in the future, trade back up and go get them. I think that's possible too, Like there's a million different things that could happen, Like they're just such, they're in such a unique position. 01:31:55 Speaker 2: M it's gonna it's gonna be thrilling. 01:31:57 Speaker 1: I don't think I'm gonna have more fun watching it enough draft than I am on Thursday. It's gonna be just so, so so totally awesome. 01:32:06 Speaker 3: I'm with you. I can't wait. Let's just get there already. I can't say it enough. Let's get to Thursday. 01:32:12 Speaker 1: I do have one more speak your mind. Just gonna be brief. We touched on this, I think a couple of weeks ago when the NBA playoffs started, But I just want to give Adam Silver a round of applause. The script this week was phenomenal. I gotta say the Dylan Brooks bit was fantastic. It was very entertaining. Dylan Brooks telling Lebron James he doesn't care about Lebron. 01:32:36 Speaker 2: He's old. 01:32:37 Speaker 1: I don't respect someone until he gives me forty to which case the laders Lakers smack around the Grizzlies in Game three and then beat him in overtime in Game four and go up three to one as a seven seed by the way against the Memphis Grizzlies, and Dylan Brooks got ejected in Game three and overall for the series is shooting five nineteen five fifty one, five of twenty two from deep. So congratulations to clown Dylan Brooks. 01:33:06 Speaker 3: You're leaving out a key piece here. You said he was trash talking Lebron all this time, and he was. But what did he do to the media when they wanted to talk to him afterwards? 01:33:15 Speaker 1: Oh right, he decided to be a little bitch and said I'm out. 01:33:21 Speaker 2: Like literally the fakest tough guy on planet Earth. 01:33:24 Speaker 1: I mean, really, the definition of talking your talk and then not in any semblance, walking your walk and just walked away. 01:33:34 Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, I bet the people in your neck of the woods are pretty happy watching this down in Corvallis, because for those who might not know Dylan Brooks was an Oregon guy. 01:33:42 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, a hundred a ye, yes, yes, uh. And on our radio show, I don't think it's got brought up. But if they gets slow this week, I'm sure someone will chime in and say, man, Dylan Brooks, is you know, fucking stupid without saying that on the on the radio, because you know, we abide to FCC violation FCC rules, but we don't of course on this podcast, which is really nice. Last thing I want to throw in shout out to my internet for making it through this podcast because we're having some issues early, but we've made it through recording. 01:34:12 Speaker 3: We pushed through. Hey, it's not always perfect, like there's sometimes some hills and valleys when we're trying to record, when we're trying to edit. That's just how podcasting goes, especially when you're not in person. But we make it work and and TJ made it through with his WiFi and that's what we love to see. All Right. That'll just about wrap up this edition of the Marine Layer podcast. You guys know by now if you want to follow us podcast wise, you can listen on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon. If you want to watch the full video, podcast. You can do so on YouTube, and we cannot stress it enough again. Go check out our YouTube channel. The graphics are awesome. Victor did a phenomenal job with it. We're really excited to have it going forward. We think it makes the viewing that much better for you guys. If you want to follow us on social media, you can do so on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. Another feature of the YouTube channel. We're telling you guys what our socials are here because if you're listening, you might want to know. If you're watching on YouTube, it's right on there now, so it'll be an easy follow if you're watching this podcast for TJ. Matthews and this is Lyle Goldstein. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you next week.