Episode 260: Should The Mariners Buy Low On Luis Robert At The Deadline? + Mailbag

[00:00:00] Egal ob Sie gerade erst beginnen oder Ihr Sicherheitsprogramm erweitern, herausragende Sicherheitspraktiken zu demonstrieren und Vertrauen aufzubauen ist wichtiger denn je. Vanta automatisiert die Einhaltung von ISO 27001, SOC 2 und mehr, spart Ihnen Zeit und Geld und hilft Ihnen das Vertrauen Ihrer Kunden zu stärken. Darüber hinaus können Sie Sicherheitsüberprüfungen vereinfachen, indem Sie Fragebögen automatisieren und die Sicherheit Ihrer IT-Infrastruktur

[00:00:28] mit einem kundenorientierten Trust Center demonstrieren. Über 9000 globale Unternehmen wie Atlassian, Flow Health und Quora nutzen Vanta bereits, um Risiken zu managen und Sicherheit in Echtzeit nachzuweisen. Erhalten Sie ein spezielles Angebot von 1000 Dollar Rabatt unter venta.com.horen. Willkommen zu Episode 260 des Marien Layer Podcasts. Es ist eine Mailbag-Episode. Wir öffnen es und antworten Sie Ihre besten Fragen.

[00:00:57] Wir haben ein paar, nicht die meisten popularen, aber die meisten, aber die meisten, die wir über die Mariener-Marsen und die meisten, die wir sprechen über die Mariener-Marsen, die wir sprechen über die Veränderung. Wir haben ein paar, um wir haben uns über die Nummer 7, MLB Draft Spotlight. Hier ist Ihr guys' reminder, make sure Sie stehen auf dem Topf, all of unsere Sachen. Und wenn Sie wollen, Sie können Sie auf den Mariener-Layer-Pod.com, wo alles ist, over there between our merch, our Patreon signups, which we'd love to have you guys get

[00:01:23] involved with both. We'd love to see you wearing some merch and our live show schedule, which is a reminder, we're having our live show this Saturday when you're listening to this. It's a day away Saturday, June 28th, 12 p.m. at Occidental Hall. That's the time of the start of the live show. And then we'll do a watch party at 1 p.m. for Mariners Rangers. We can't wait. There's going to be drink specials, which includes buy three Coronas, get one free on Corona buckets. That's the drink special of the afternoon. So again, we'll tell you more about it throughout

[00:01:50] the show, but we'd love to have you guys out. We can't wait for you guys to all see the new spot on Occidental. It's going to be a blast. We'll take all your questions. All the information about that again is over at our website, marinelayerpod.com. All our episodes are there too, audio, video. So go check it all out. And then you can find us all across social media at Marinelayerpod.

[00:02:09] Let's get it rolling. And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network recording on Thursday afternoon, June 26th. This should be a post-game show, Lyle, but the twins decided not to build a roof on their somewhat new stadium. Huh.

[00:02:38] And now the Mariners are starting right now. Absolutely pathetic, putrid, no roof. Just like I said on social media, it really is an embarrassment, dude. It really is. And I'm sure people are going to hop in the comments saying it's more complicated than you guys make it. Your crash out sounds ridiculous. I don't care. If you listen to this podcast long enough, you know, TJ and I stance on this and the two of us will be in unison about this and say the same thing over and over and over until the end of

[00:03:08] time. Build a roof on your stadium. It's like, dude, it's a joke. It is kind of wild to me. Some people will make the try and make a logical argument out of it and and say, oh, well, you know how much money it costs and they're not going to spend this money anyways. And I'm like, well, anyway, is anyone opposed to people with who are worth billions of dollars spending their money? Is this like a wild take

[00:03:35] of mine? Hey, you have a lot of money. You should spend it. And again, we've even been nice enough to give some ballparks some passes like a grace period. Actually, not even a grace period. It'd just be a full on pass for not having a roof. For example, Wrigley Fenway. If they don't have a roof, fine. Those are historic stadiums. It'd be really hard to build. It would kind of mess up the aesthetic of it. I get it. If you're one of the Southern California ballparks, Anaheim Dodgers Padres,

[00:04:04] you don't have a roof because it never rains there. Fine. Look at all these stadiums we're giving passes to. That's five right there. Minnesota not only is the fourth newest ballpark in all of baseball at a time period where stadiums should not be getting green lighted without a roof at that point to begin with. But the weather there sucks. Snows in April. It gets you 100 degrees in the summer. You don't think that your fans might benefit from having a roof over their head along

[00:04:29] with the players? Unreal, dude. Oh, by the way, their last stadium had a roof. Their last stadium had a roof. And they had to build this one because the roof collapsed. So maybe build a better one this time. But no. Hey, have you seen they play baseball games inside of U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis? Maybe the twins could play there. That roof probably won't collapse. So instead of sitting around for the four and a half hours they did today before starting the game,

[00:04:59] why didn't everyone just hop on a bus and go over there and play on the wonkiest dimensions possible? Well, I don't know if you've seen the dimensions when they play like college baseball in there. It's crazy. But I think it would be a blast to play for a major league game. Yeah, center field's like 500 feet, right? Great. Let Julio and Cal give it a shot. And look, they don't hit it over the fence. Then they'll get an inside the park home run.

[00:05:26] Sure, I'm down. Are we saying this is a bad thing? No. We need more uniqueness. I think the ratings would be sky high because of that. How about this? If you were a stadium in the last 15 years that has not built a roof on its ballpark, and this will be the case moving forward. If you build a stadium moving forward, this rule is going to apply to you too. If you have a stadium that's been built within the last 15 years starting now or anytime in the future, and you do not have a roof

[00:05:54] on your ballpark and the game gets canceled, you should just have to forfeit it. I have a bad feeling. You know why? Why? In exactly, is it two weeks? Only two weeks until the all-star game? Or all-star week till we leave, right? When this episode comes out? Yeah, it'll be two weeks. We're going to a ballpark, a new ballpark without a roof in the south. What if it rains?

[00:06:22] Oh, I'd be pissed. I feel like karma's going to come and smack us in the face. That would be awful. It really would. That would be the baseball gods laughing at us. But I don't think they do that till all-star week. I just don't. I don't know. Or how about this? If my rule's too ridiculous that you forfeit a game for having a stadium without a roof and it gets rained out, how about this? This one actually seems more

[00:06:48] reasonable. And I think I saw a couple people leave us this comment. So now the Mariners and the Twins are going to start at 2.30 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday. I hope they get the full game in. Let's hypothetically say they don't or hypothetically use the example of they had not been able to start this game. Why should the Mariners have to now travel back to Minnesota? This is their problem.

[00:07:13] This is a roof that they did not build. You know what Timo Park has? A roof. So if you're going to reschedule this game, the Twins should have to fly out to Seattle and play it there. The Mariners should not have to fly back to Minnesota because you were too boneheaded and foolish to put a roof on your ballpark. Good thing the Twins have an ownership group that is so flushed to spend extra cash.

[00:07:37] Oh wait. They don't. I know they gave Correa their contract, hit that contract, which the Mariners should have done 15 times over, but their ownership group is arguably worse. Yeah, it's a bad ownership. In fact, you can even say it's a really bad ownership. It's bad enough. They put the team up for sale in my expert financial analysis for $1.7 billion about a year ago. I don't think anyone's lining up to buy the Twins because they have so much debt.

[00:08:06] So you, you look at ownerships across baseball in terms of atrocious ownership groups. The A's and the Pirates are obviously at the top. I don't know if anybody tops those two teams or sorry. I mean, the top of bad ownership groups is what I mean, but sure. To your, to your point, that's an easier analysis. Let's say they're at the very, very bottom. The Twins are maybe a slight step above

[00:08:31] them, I guess, but I wouldn't say it's by a ton. Are the Mariners closer, are the Mariners closer to the middle or the bottom? I would probably, I would say a little closer to the bottom just because look, I'm not saying they don't spend any money, but when you're in a window and you, and you continue to sit back like this, it's not good. So it's relative to the current situation as a pro as

[00:08:59] opposed to compared to the rest of the week. Yeah. If the Mariners were seriously a 75 win team on paper and they weren't going out and spending to go get a bunch of players or acquire a bunch of guys through trade to make the roster better, that wouldn't be good. But at least you'd have the argument of, okay, our core is not good enough to begin with. There is fundamental work that needs to be done before we invest all these resources into the team. Not that you shouldn't to begin

[00:09:27] with. Again, if your team's not good enough, you should pour in the resources to make it better. But at least there's more of an argument to why you wouldn't go out and invest a bunch of money into your roster at that point in time. You have this rotation, you have Cal, you have Julio. There's no excuse, man. So yeah, it's, it's, it is relative to the situation. I'd say closer to the middle, but it's fine to have a difference of opinion. Yeah. Totally. Okay. I mean, I think an argument can be made either way.

[00:09:53] Summary of the conversation, Lyle, build a damn roof. So we can actually, we could have a game to talk about here on Thursday, instead of us having to record right in the middle of what, well, the Mariners do get credit for that. They put a roof on their ballpark and that does up their, up their value and up their brownie points a little bit. Well, it does help the public pitched in. So a lot of the money for it. So, Oh, you're right. I forgot. We do own the ballpark. We, well, public paid for the ballpark. A lot of it. All right. So how about this? Shout out the fans.

[00:10:21] Let's say that the fans as always, they pay, you know, what's up. See fans, fans knew what we hear at the Marine layer pod have been thinking forever and they put action to it. We said, no, we're not going to have 40 games a year delayed for rain. Good. Good idea. I do want to plug one thing that you mentioned on Wednesday's episode before we get to these trade targets. Cause I'm fascinated to talk about these two trade targets that we have to talk about here.

[00:10:49] Trade deadlines a month away, dog. Are you, we're, we're about to buckle up for another intense month of trade talk and I'm very much looking forward to it. But as Lau mentioned, the live show, of course, come to the live show, the new Occidental hall on Occidental Avenue across the, across the street on Occidental Avenue from the North end of Lumen field. It's in the brick triangle building signage everywhere. Very hard to miss. We'll be there

[00:11:13] Saturday, 12 o'clock live show, one o'clock watch long party for Mariners Rangers. We'll have Corona special giveaways by three, get one free for a Corona bucket. Very exciting stuff. But I'll also mention we have new merchant or merch store at Marine layer pod.com. You can also go to the just baseball shop website to find it. See these hats, see what I'm wearing right now. You should be watching on YouTube because this is, this is where you can physically

[00:11:38] see some of the new stuff we have. This hat here that I'm wearing is now on sale on our merch store. So if you want one, a nice white dad hat with the Marine layer podcast logo right on top of it, it's, it's a fantastic hat. Those are now on sale on our merch site. So go, go check them out. I'd love to see people wearing these around. I can't be the only one who really loves hats this much. Uh, and I'm, I'm someone who doesn't even need hat any more hats, but this one is a great addition.

[00:12:06] And I know people have wanted some hats for a while now. So Marine layer pod.com. We got hats available now. Great thing to wear around the park during the summer. I will say keeps the sun out of your face or rain when they don't close the roof at whatever opposing ballpark you're going to visit to it's, it's like a two for ones. Go recommend it. Marine layer pod.com. Yeah. And we're going to unveil more hats here in the coming days and weeks. Like this is the first one. But we're going to try to get some more colors out. I think we're going to get a, try to get

[00:12:35] a couple different hat types out. So not just the dad hat, but one or two other designs as well. So this is just the first. But if you've been waiting for hats, go get your hats. Along with again, T-shirts, sweatshirts, long sleeve shirts. It's all over at our website. And again, love to see you wearing it. Egal, ob Sie gerade erst beginnen oder Ihr Sicherheitsprogramm erweitern, herausragende Sicherheitspraktiken zu demonstrieren und Vertrauen aufzubauen ist wichtiger denn je.

[00:13:00] Vanta automatisiert die Einhaltung von ISO 27001, SOC 2 und mehr, spart Ihnen Zeit und Geld und hilft Ihnen das Vertrauen Ihrer Kunden zu stärken. Darüber hinaus können Sie Sicherheitsüberprüfungen vereinfachen, indem Sie Fragebögen automatisieren und die Sicherheit Ihrer IT-Infrastruktur mit einem kundenorientierten Trust Center demonstrieren. Über 9000 globale Unternehmen wie Atlassian,

[00:13:25] Flow Health und Quora nutzen Vanta bereits, um Risiken zu managen und Sicherheit in Echtzeit nachzuweisen. Erhalten Sie ein spezielles Angebot von 1000 Dollar Rabatt unter venta.com slash hoeren. Let's get to these trade targets. And what sparked this idea for me is that Jeff Paston and Kylie McDaniel of ESPN put out a list on ESPN.com earlier this week of their top 50 trade

[00:13:52] targets in Major League Baseball. And for each player, I think, or at least for 30 of the players, they put out a percentage chance of these guys getting moved. I picked two of these guys out there. Not, they weren't necessarily linked to the Mariners. There were some other ones that were linked to the Mariners. But I thought these two would be a good idea to talk about because I thought a lot of the Mariners ones are pretty obvious and have been talked about a fair bit. So let's talk about someone that hasn't been talked about a whole lot. So I picked two out of two needs for the Mariners

[00:14:21] right now. Yeah, I was just going to quickly say, I don't know. So we're going to do a bunch of these now leading up to the deadline, a bunch of different targets. We're going to do a couple of show, I think that, well, when we do trade talk, I don't know if we're going to do Josh Naylor and Gino, because like you just said, those are such obvious Mariners fits. And everybody's talked about it already that we may try to highlight some other guys that could be interesting fits in Seattle, rather than just harp on the couple of guys that everybody's talking about. So we're going to

[00:14:50] broaden out a little bit, expand and try to highlight some more players. There's just not much else to say besides, yes, he should be a Mariner. It makes so much sense. So let's talk about some guys that people might have pushed back on. There might be questions about whether he's available or not. And some other factors. That's a good way to start with these two guys. Naylor and Gino, you mean by you saying it's so obvious. Naylor and Gino, right. That's the conversation. Yes, they should be Mariners. Yes, they should get traded at the deadline. Yes, I don't know if the Diamondbacks are paying either

[00:15:17] of those guys in free agency. So trade for them. Go take advantage of it. Okay. Trade target number one. This guy, according to Passon, has a 60% chance of getting traded. That would be raised reliever Pete Fairbanks. How does Pete Fairbanks sound to you? Awesome. Tell you what, he fits the idea of a Mariners bullpen reliever that gets all fired up at the end of innings. And we know a lot of those guys are like that already between

[00:15:47] Munoz, between Brash can get a little fired up. Dude, Pete Fairbanks, he gets up on that mound and he looks like he's ready to tear somebody's head off. So if you're just talking about imposing physicality and pure stuff for a guy that can reach triple digits, yeah. There are some things to kind of layer here as we get further into this conversation, but off face value, yes, I would be interested in Pete Fairbanks. The first thing that comes to mind when talking

[00:16:14] about Pete Fairbanks is the fact the Rays are actually good this year. They're right in the mix of things. They have the top wildcard. They have a multiple game lead on that spot. They're a game out of their division. They've been awesome. But Passan still put the percentage of Fairbanks getting traded extremely high. And there's a reason for that because Pete Fairbanks could make up to $10 million next year with a club option. And the Rays aren't

[00:16:40] going to want to trade him for essentially free. The Rays could hold on to him in the offseason, pick up his club option and then trade him. Or they could trade him at the deadline if they get blown away by a team that is willing to pay more than anyone else and pay more than market value to come get him. If I'm the Mariners and he's available for a measly $10 million next year, and I don't even think he's getting paid. He would get paid a million dollars for two months on the Seattle Mariners this year. I would absolutely go out there

[00:17:09] and get it. He's a different guy than some of the way he's pitched in the past. He used to be a lot higher strikeout guy than he is now. He's a little bit more pitch to contact, but the contact he gives up is about as bad as it can possibly get. Bad in a good way, meaning guys don't hit him all that hard. He doesn't give up barrels. That stuff's all plus. And he would, if you stacked him up with the rest of the Mariners bullpen, be somebody that would be one of the best relievers in that pen. And those are the kinds of guys you're

[00:17:37] looking for. Do the walks concern you at all? Yes. And it didn't concern me as much when he had, say, for example, with the higher strikeout rate two years ago, he had a 38% strikeout rate. It's now down to 21%. That's kind of shocking, right? 38% to 21%. You say, well, what happened? He's not throwing much softer. His pitch mix has stayed roughly the same. He's changed his release

[00:18:05] point a little bit, but do you just trust yourself to try and get the best out of him and worry about that later? I think you have to, you know, again, this is a guy that has extremely loud stuff with a fastball that can hit a hundred miles an hour. You know, that slider can be deadly. I would trust the Mariners pitching lab with a guy like this, where he's already been so good that you could tweak a couple of things and get an even better

[00:18:34] version of Pete Fairbanks. Now, to be fair, the Rays just churn out arms as well, and they're not getting peak Pete Fairbanks as we currently speak. But we're also talking about a guy who's currently not quote unquote peak Pete Fairbanks. He's running out of 208 ERA. So he's still been really good. The concerns are, again, the walk numbers and just the fact he's not striking as many guys out as before. But ultimately, this is still a really good reliever and the Mariners need good relievers.

[00:19:04] And you can mix the fact that this trade solves two things. He's kind of like a rental. You only get him for a year and a half, but you don't only just get him for two months. Like, for example, you acquire Jimmy Garcia last year, makes a handful of appearances, hurts himself, and then never pitches in a Mariner uniform ever again. This isn't the situation you have to deal with with that. Um, I guess the Mariners would look at paying $10 million ish to a reliever next year as

[00:19:32] somewhat of a steep price to pay. But to that, I say, so what? And he's entering his age. He's entering his age 32 season. So I don't know if they'd look at something like that for a $10 million contract, but I would still do it. It's one year of commitment and the stuff is still good. I think the concern right now in the Mariners' bullpen, right, is the back couple of spots because obviously Munoz, Brash, Gabe Spire, like those guys are set in stone. They seem

[00:20:01] to like using Vargas and Bazzardo for the most part. And now maybe those guys will be pushed down to lower leverage where they should be to begin with if you get a couple more arms at the deadline. But those are kind of the main five, right? Like I'm not, am I missing somebody when talking about the bullpen? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. Because right now the other guys in that bullpen are what it's, it's Thornton. It's who am I missing? Well, pop and I'm missing one.

[00:20:33] You said Bazzardo? Yeah, I did. Again, Thornton pop and there's one arm I'm missing. I'm going to look it up just so I don't mess it up. Oh, and Legamina, right. That's the last one. So point being like there are some areas in that bullpen that will give you leeway and room to add if you want to add to it. So for example, if you go and trade for Pete Fairbanks and then call Brandon Garcia up after the all-star break, which shout out our guy first outing in Tacoma, he hits

[00:20:58] a hundred miles an hour. Let's go. Think he was fired up? Yeah. So you do those two things in July and then all of a sudden your bullpen looks a little better because if you've got Munoz, Brash, Spire at the back end, you add Fairbanks to that back end, you mix in BG and Brandon Garcia who like where you think he fits best and whatever role you think he's going to thrive most in as a rookie.

[00:21:24] That's pretty good. If Vargas and Bazzardo are your sixth and seventh arms, you live with that. But if you get Fairbanks, that changes your bullpen. And also I think they should add Jackson Kohar back to the bullpen. He's a big league reliever. Yeah. I don't know why he's in Tacoma. If that's your eighth reliever, great. If your back three relievers are Kohar, Vargas, and Bazzardo, you live with that. If Bazzardo is going to be your eighth reliever for a guy that has grown better as of late despite the solo homer he gave up, but ultimately

[00:21:53] is not a guy that's ever going to pitch and leverage, he's kind of just a keep the score at bay guy, especially if you're losing, yeah, that's a fine eighth reliever. But Pete Fairbanks, yeah, that's a guy you're going to throw in situations where you need to get a win or keep a score tied or a close lead at hand. The last question I have here regarding Pete Fairbanks, and this probably affects his chances of getting actually traded to the Mariners. Why would the Rays trade one of their best

[00:22:23] relievers to a team they're competing for the same spots with? Has that ever stopped the Rays in the past from trading with the Mariners? Oh, they just trade him to the National League. But this isn't Rafi Devers. This isn't, oh my god, we cannot let this guy be in our division or even our own league. This is a reliever. And it's not even Emmanuel Klasse at his peak. Like Pete Fairbanks is good, but I wouldn't put him on a level of peak Klasse, peak Munoz,

[00:22:52] peak Felix Batista, those level of guys. But here's what else you would think about. Pete Fairbanks is arguably would be the best guy available if he is available. So it's not like you're trading Emmanuel Klasse, but you are trading the best reliever on the market. And he just happens to be in the same playoff race you're in. I might want to get to some of these other relievers later on down the road when we keep talking trade guys.

[00:23:19] It's not impossible, but again, I mean, it's not likely, but is there a world Emmanuel Klasse gets moved? Is there a world that... Probably not, but I just, I still wonder. Is there, again, is there a world a couple of these twins relievers get moved? We can talk about them at a later date, but I don't know. I would put Fairbanks at like more likely over those guys, which is why then he would assume the title is arguably best. It'll be between him and Chapman in terms of likely guys.

[00:23:49] He just doesn't feel like he's quite enough on a high pedestal where the Rays would say, we cannot trade this dude anywhere in the American League. If they don't want to trade him to the Yankees, okay. The Mariners? Eh. Durant and Jax both have multiple years, right? Oh, they've got two and a half years. They'd be expensive. They would be... And that's exactly the point why I would think Fairbanks is just more likely than those guys. But I also think it's more likely because the Mariners and Rays have a report.

[00:24:17] Here's another factor into this too, which I don't know how often everybody's going to talk about it, but we'll sit here and talk about it. I don't know if every team in the league exactly is jumping at the bit to trade with Jerry DiPoto. Because we know, like, you know, how do people feel about him around baseball? I think it's a mixed bag. The Rays seem to have no issues making trades with the Mariners. So are you sure they wouldn't trade him to Seattle? No.

[00:24:44] I'd be totally okay with it and I would not be surprised if it happened. They're due for one trade a year, essentially. Right. Or more, depending on how they're feeling. Right. Let's get to our next guy, Lyle. This one's going to generate some discussion. And we've talked about him a lot. If I'm going to say the name Luis Robert to you in the year 2025, are you saying yes or no? No. I'm saying no. What? What?

[00:25:13] Hey, White Sox fans. Remember two years ago when we offered up Brian Wu, Cole Young, and I think it was Jonathan Classe as the last one for Robert? And everybody said, oh, it's the worst trade I've ever heard of. Well, guess what? You call now with that package, I'd hang up the phone as soon as you even started talking. You had your chance and you blew it, didn't you? And by the way, I didn't even really want to do that back then at all.

[00:25:42] I just tried to put together a package that I deemed at that point would be fair, quote unquote. I had no interest even back then in trading Brian Wu, even when he had a four ERA as a rookie, because it was, at least to me, very apparent that he had a real chance to be this, what he is right now. And you denied it. But now here we are in 2025 when Luis Robert may cost, I don't know. Just Jonathan Classe? Right. If you want to use that type of example, if the Mariners still had Classe,

[00:26:12] just Classe alone, I'm still skeptical. You're telling me you wouldn't, if they still had Classe, you wouldn't trade Classe for Luis Robert? I mean, I would, because you have to take the flyer and take the swing. The reason I'm sitting here saying no is because Luis Robert looks cooked to me. Luis Robert this year is the sixth worst qualified hitter in Major League Baseball. That just doesn't sound right. Sixth worst in all of baseball.

[00:26:42] I mean, he is up there with April Donovan Solano in terms of production. Like, that's how bad of a hitter he is. But Passan still puts Robert at a 90% chance to get moved. You believe that? 90%. And yet, you're not sitting here saying no. I would do it. Are you kidding me for the price? I don't think it would cost more than, than Jonathan, a Jonathan Classe level prospect to get him. Here's what you're getting

[00:27:11] if you trade for Luis Robert right now. Sure, his bat looks bad. Here are some facts about his offensive statistics though. His batting average on balls in play right now, 245. It's getting pretty unlucky. His strikeout and walk rates are about the same as they have been his entire career. Striking out about 30% of the time. He's walking actually at a near career high rate. Those are both pluses. His defense, still plus 86th percentile in fielding run value. His base running,

[00:27:38] plus 76th percentile in base running run value. He's bringing value in two facets of the game. And you're not telling me when he leaves arguably the worst organization in baseball, one that probably just degrades like any confidence you have in playing baseball games successfully. And he goes somewhere where he's surrounded by good players who can help motivate him and an actual chance of winning. That won't like spark something. And by the way, he's 27. He's 27 years old.

[00:28:08] There's no reason he should be cooked. No, but he looks it right now. And you trade for him, right? His contract goes like this. He has a club option for $20 million in 2026. And he's a club option for $20 million in 2027. You have the full power after you trade for him to decide what you want to do with him. You could just keep him for two months, decline his club option, let him be a free agent. If you don't like what you see, you could like him, give him one full year of runway. If you don't like it,

[00:28:37] you can flip him at the deadline next year or just let him run out his contract, then go be a free agent. Or you could keep him all the way through for if he hits at like a 105 WRC plus, the contract pays for itself. And he'll still be less than 30 at this point. I don't see how you wouldn't want to take a flyer on this if you're the Mariners. In my opinion. If it is actually going to cost a class A level prospect, okay, you could get me to buy in on that. Because the idea of having a Randy, Julio,

[00:29:06] Luis Robert outfield from left to right, especially if Robert figures it out once he gets a change of scenery, of course you can dream on that. But if the White Sox pick up that phone and they even start talking levels of prospects like Laz, they start talking Arroyo, they start talking any of those guys that are in the middle to the bottom end of the top 100 of the 7, 8, 9 Mariners prospects that sit in the top 100, I'm hanging up.

[00:29:35] I'm not giving up Laz Montez for Luis Robert. I'm not like, I understand that Laz is a prospect that we talked about it on Wednesday, is a guy that has to hit to keep his pedigree as a prospect up. But I'm not trading a guy who could be a 40 home run guy for the 6th worst hitter in all of baseball who's striking out nearly 31% of the time. I'm just not doing it. I would give up, yes, a class A level type prospect for him. But I'm not giving up anything serious.

[00:30:05] You answered the first of four questions I wrote down when evaluating whether or not you would want Luis Robert. I asked, the first question was, do you think his offense bounces back? You don't sound very confident in it. Fine. Second question. Do you think Luis Robert in August and September is more or less valuable than Dom Canzone? Oh my God. Can you believe we're sitting here in 2025

[00:30:34] having this debate? Considering where he was at a year and a half ago, two years ago? Or he's a five win, nearly six win player. We are legitimately sitting here having this debate. Ultimately, overall value, I would say Robert because he runs, because he plays good defense and you take the chance on that. But it's not a slam dunk and that speaks to just how awful he's been at the plate. Third question.

[00:31:04] Where do you play him? It would have to be in right field. And that's fine because the Mariners have gotten shit defense from their right fielders. Bad. Bad defense. Leoti was terrible out there and Dom is not graded as a plus defender. You could argue to put him in left if you're going to leave Raley in right, but I don't know if that makes a ton of sense because Robert, again, it's a tougher position to play right field than left field and Robert is obviously a good defender. And his arm, it's not great. I would call it good.

[00:31:34] So I would still probably put him in right. But if you put him in left, you put your, so I assume you're then putting Randy at DH and then you said Raley or Dom in right? Or are we putting Dom back in AAA if you trade for Luis? Yeah, Canzone would probably have to end up moving back to AAA, right? Right. Yep. Unless, well, unless you don't trade for a first baseman, you could have Raley basically play first. Dom stays on the roster

[00:32:04] as the fourth outfielder. I don't like you're trading for Luis Robert and a first baseman. Well, that's a problem because your move at the deadline cannot be selling your fan base on 66 WRC plus Luis Robert. That, that can't, like that can't happen. Yes. You can't sit here and tell me they're only trading for Luis Robert at this deadline. I don't know what to tell you. That has to be, again, you talk about it being a flyer. It has to be that,

[00:32:34] a flyer. You're not trading for Luis Robert. I'm not listening to Jerry DePoto get up on the stage and tell this fan base that we view Luis Robert as a guy who's been unlucky is going to bounce back and he just needed to change the scenery. I'm sorry, I'm not listening to that considering in 24 and 25 he has not even been a league average hitter. If you're trading for Robert, it needs to be your second or third move at this deadline after you go get somebody like a Ryan O'Hearn or somebody even better than that.

[00:33:04] Listen to what you're saying. Are you seriously saying that? No, I'm just laughing because I know that's exactly what they say they're going to say if they trade for him. Yes, and I'm going to sit here on this podcast and get extremely pissed about it if that's what we hear because I'm not going to hear it. I think there's a great chance Luis Robert goes legitimately anywhere else besides Chicago and flourishes because he's actually motivated. I think my opinion I have one last question I need to ask off my list dog and this one's going to set you off.

[00:33:34] Are you okay potentially spending next year's budget right now at the deadline? No. Oh, wait a minute. You baited me into this whole thing and I've totally let go by the wayside what I should have been thinking about from the start. No, I'm not trading for Luis Robert in any sense because that blocks Kyle Tucker next winter so goodbye Luis Robert when he ain't doing it. It's over. How did you bait how did you bait me this long into this? I actually didn't

[00:34:04] intentionally bait you but I'll go with it. Yeah, I did bait you. No. This is me offering you an out to not hike up the mountain because I know you're not making it up there. I am if K-Tuck's wearing teal. You're not making it up there. I am. No, you're not. No, I am. No. Yes. I've watched you walk. You're not making it up that mountain. You mean watch me walk. It's not like you don't get breaks. Yeah, you get breaks but then you keep climbing. I'd be fine. Again, it's all for good.

[00:34:34] It's all for not a good cause, a phenomenal cause. Okay. So, no, no Luis Robert. So your final serious answer on Luis Robert is no. Yeah, no. Kyle Tucker it is. Okay. I do think it's hilarious. The ultimate question with Luis Robert is whether or not you think him or Dom Kenzo is going to be better the rest of the way. So, I mean, there was a lot of people who could not give you a definitive answer on that. Which, that speaks to

[00:35:03] who Luis Robert's been. It hasn't been great. He should be better than Dom Kenzoan but, he has not been. I mean, if you even want to push the numbers aside for a minute and you just want to talk about turning on the baseball game, there are going to be fans who rip their hair out watching Luis Robert at bats even if he turns it around. And if he doesn't turn it around, it's going to make it even worse because this guy, you thought Teoscar Hernandez at bats could get bad with the sliders he'd chase or that Julio

[00:35:33] at bats can get bad with the sliders he'd chase. Luis Robert has chased some breaking balls off the plate that legitimately make you wonder if he should be back in high school baseball. It's unfathomable some of the pitches Robert chases. It's like 2023 all over again. And that can't happen. Like, his chase rate as a whole already isn't good. He swings and misses a ton. But chasing those breaking balls away, oh my god, it can be so ugly watching him do it sometimes.

[00:36:03] 20th percentile chase, 7th percentile width, 4th percentile strikeout rate. Yeah. Yeah. Not great. No. And you're sitting here actually suggesting that that could be their headline move at the deadline. He might be the best player available at the deadline. What if the Diamondbacks are closed for business? Okay. Pivot. Go to O'Hearn. To, what if the Orioles are closed for business? What other teams are going to sell? There will be other teams

[00:36:33] that trade guys away. Like, the Twins are probably going to trade some guys away. That are better than Luis Robert? Everybody's better than Luis Robert except for five players. All right. Well, this is going to be something we're going to keep an eye on as the next month goes along. That's for sure. Because here's what I'll tell you who will sell. The Chicago White Sox are selling. Well, yeah. And you know what? If we're split on it, and it's polarizing between the two of us, it's probably somewhat

[00:37:02] polarizing within the Mariners fan base too, the subject of Luis Robert. So guess what? If you have a take on this, tell us in the YouTube comments, send us a DM, send us an email. Luis Robert's been a polarizing topic and figure for two years now. So hey, we want to hear from you guys. What do you think? Yeah. That'd be interesting. Looking forward to hearing some of the responses. Are you ready for the mailbag? I am, but let's take a pause before we do that because we want to talk to you about our friends. As always, over at Pogaccia's Pub 85, you guys know, it's over in Kirkland.

[00:37:32] Really fun spot to go hang out. There's everything from great food, drinks, games like pool and darts to 20 TVs in the place where you can watch all the sporting events that you may desire. So if you want a spot to go hang out with your friends, go check that out. And if you go during happy hour, you can find three and four dollar drinks from two to six p.m. on Monday through Friday because those are the happy hours. Again, two to six p.m. Monday through Friday, three and four dollar drinks. It's an awesome deal. It's an awesome spot to hang out. That's Pogaccia's Pub 85 over in Kirkland. First mailbag question

[00:38:01] comes from Xander on Patreon. A reminder, if you want priority like Xander for these mailbag questions, go on over to our Patreon, go sign up. A lot of awesome benefits over there on the Patreon. Really fun community and you get to be pushed right to the front of these episodes. If you have a question every week, like Xander, we'll answer it every single week. So Xander's question is, if you're Jerry and Justin for a day, what's the bold move you're making before the trade deadline?

[00:38:30] It sounds like we have free reign on this. So, if I'm Jerry and Justin and you get told by your owners that they will not fork over the money for Kyle Tucker this winter, I'm going out and basically paying whatever the price is to go get Ronald Acuna. How much control does Ronald have left? A lot. You want me to tell you his contract here in a second? His contract, I know, and the total money is a joke. The Braves are such an interesting case.

[00:39:00] So you're telling me you're willing to give up literally whatever, I assume. Well, yeah, because it's Ronald Acuna, who, by the way, just checking. Because despite coming off a second ACL injury, has played 30 games so far, and by baseball reference, has over two more in 30 games. His OPS plus is 228. He has been legitimately on fire back to peak Ronald Acuna, if not the best 30 games he's ever put together.

[00:39:29] And he is under contract for, check this out, you have him for the rest of 2025, $17 million. All of 2026, $17 million. A club option in 2027 for $17 million, and a club option in 2028 for $17 million. So, you owe Ronald Acuna in total, in the three seasons ending after this one, $51 million over three years.

[00:39:57] You have three and a half years of control for Ronald Acuna, and you'd essentially have to pay him about $57 million in three and a half years. I'm giving up every single thing it takes to get him. There's going to be a lot of Braves available. They keep stinking. Well, if they keep playing the Mets, they'll be right back in it. But, if they play anybody else, they will, shout out to Frank the Tank, by the way, just an awesome week for Frank. He had a great, he had an A plus week. He was having a great time. Was he? There could be,

[00:40:28] sarcastically having a great week. Yeah, I think his heart rate was up, to say the least. Yeah, and then he made his, he did his Frank Cooks video and he nearly sliced his hand open trying to slice a chicken breast in half. I don't know if any, for people watching on the YouTube, like, I'm just going to reenact what Frank did. He was holding, he was holding his, uh, chicken breast in his hand like this, takes his knife and starts slicing it down the middle like this. I'm like,

[00:40:57] are you fucking insane? Yeah, he could have lost his fingers. He could have cut his hand off or at the very least just sliced his hand open. Anyways, this is like a niche Lyle Knight discussion. I don't know if anyone else actually watch, walks, uh, watches Frank Cooks, but, uh, people watch. And by the way, last thing, and then we'll actually get back to Acuna. Frank did say this week that Buster Olney and Blooper the mascot are going to run a car over the Mets. So, shout out to Blooper, dude.

[00:41:27] Blooper's account has been so good this week. Blooper is the Braves mascot and he loves Frank the Tank. He loves Frank. He has, he has, whoever runs that account, every time Frank does a rant, Blooper quote tweets it with a video of Blooper doing the gritty next or Buster only. Every time. The mascot got Buster when they were in town. It's like, can you stand next to me for like three seconds and smile?

[00:41:57] And it's like, well, this video is going viral for the rest of the time. So, like Frank, I don't know, Frank thinks Buster only basically has it as lifelong dream and goal to make the Mets disband as a franchise. So, anyway, um, back to Acuna, speaking of the, uh, the Braves and Blooper, a guy who Acuna would not get to see anymore if the Mariners traded for him, which would be Blooper the mascot. Yeah, I would give up whatever it takes to get this guy. Three and a half years for about $57 million. Like, come on.

[00:42:29] If I'm making a bold move, mine was a little more realistic. I'm going to just do the obvious one. It's, I'm going to, I'm going to give up whatever it takes to make the Diamondbacks say yes. Whatever it takes. And by the way, you know who else Passon had in that article? Would you say no to throwing Zach Gallin in there too? I know you don't need a starter, but like, is Zach Gallin's on the block? Well, two things. One, what would his role be? Start.

[00:43:00] Number two is he's been just about the worst starter in baseball this year. What if you thought he wasn't going to be the worst starter in baseball? I'm sure the Mariners could tap into some things with him because the Mariners obviously churn out pitchers like no other, but it has been, it has been tough sledding each of the last two years for Gallin. He didn't have his best year last year. It's gotten even worse than 25. I wonder if he's just trending the wrong direction. Sure, if Gallin's going to be some throw-in as a flyer, like, I won't say no,

[00:43:30] but there's not exactly a spot in the rotation for him to be pitching right now unless you're going to put him in there over Emerson Hancock, which, let's go back to the Luis Robert debate here about Luis Robert versus Dom Camzone. I think this is even an elevated discussion. Emerson Hancock, who's been legitimately very good outside of two starts, or Zach Gallin, who's seriously struggled, for two years. Just a thought. Just a thought. Passing through it in his article, and I thought that was very interesting. But I would say the two corner infielders,

[00:44:00] whatever everyone else is offering, double it. Make it happen. That's a boring answer. It is pretty boring. Well, you took the exciting one. What am I going to say? They'll go trade for, like, like the Orioles suck right now. Mariners need an infielder. Let's give up the farm or gunner. I mean, I would do that. I would do that too. You know what I was actually thinking about before I went back to my boring answer? They would never do this because it's in division. But Jeremy Pena essentially told the Astros

[00:44:29] to F off by switching to Scott Boris. Go trade for him right now. Because he's not signing with Houston. Why don't you go pay for a premier player in the middle of the diamond, stick him on your infield, and then, okay, fine. He's, he's gone in free agency. So what? I want to win the next two years when you have him under contract. Is Jeremy Pena actually good or is he having a one-off year? Because he's never had a WRC plus above, I think, 101 before this year. Luckily,

[00:44:59] I don't care about anything besides this year. How does the park change him? I guess we'll find out. You said be bold, right? All right. I mean, that is bold. That's, that's a lot more exciting than just the Diamondbacks answer because that's been beaten into the ground. But yeah, for sure. Fine. Go trade for Jeremy Pena. Make the Astros tell you no. The trade package is going to hurt. But I want to win a World Series. It's time. Well, I'm going to be honest. If the Mariners

[00:45:28] somehow pulled off a trade with Houston and it wasn't Kyle Tucker, that wouldn't sit well. Not even for a all-star top 15 hitter season, top 10 hitter season from a shortstop? Who's been the more valuable player of the two? Who's the better player of the two? K-Tuck, obviously, but K-Tuck's not an Astro, so you can't control that anymore. Well, what you can control is Jeremy Pena

[00:45:57] discussing an extension with the Astros, switching his agent to Scott Boris, and then Boris throws up the stop sign. Therefore, he's not signing an extension in Houston. Yeah, I guess. I don't love the idea of what you'd have to give back to Houston for Jeremy Pena and some of those guys coming back to burn you. I know you have to win now, you have to win now, and I'm not saying you wouldn't trade guys, period, but to trade them to Houston? Ugh. All right, fine. Gunner for, we'll put Gunner higher on the

[00:46:27] priority list, and we'll put Pena second. Well, I would hope so. Again, I know Gunner got off to a slow start this year, but I would obviously take Gunner over Jeremy Pena. So yes, I would do that. Smart man. All right, next question on the mailbag comes from YouTube. Thompson S W T O R on YouTube asks, what is the best ballpark food you've ever had? I should probably be a little more bold about trying ballpark food when I go to

[00:46:57] certain stadiums, but I would say most of the ballpark food I've had comes from T-Mobile Park, and down at Edgar's, there's those barbecue brisket quesadillas, and those were really good. I had it, I don't know, I want to say I had it a little over a year ago. Those were really, really good. So best ballpark food I've had at T-Mobile Park, probably that. And other stadiums, yeah, for whatever reason, when I go to other ballparks, I haven't gone out of my

[00:47:26] way to try all this different food. We got the Primanti Bros sandwich when we were at PNC Park all those years ago, but yeah, it wasn't very good. It was terrible. Yeah. You don't have to sugarcoat it. It sucked. It wasn't very good. It tastes like a cafeteria food sandwich. We probably should have gone to the brick and mortar shop, but oh well. Yeah. Yes. That's a good answer. Edgar's Cantina slaps. The food there is good. And it's been good for a while through all the evolutions that it's gone through. I have kind of a selfish answer. It's almost cheating.

[00:47:57] It's a dessert. They used to have, I don't think they still have it anymore because they have different ice cream options a little bit higher on the scale like salt and straw. They have the nachos too now, but they used to have the ice cream sandwich shop in the little cluster of outlets behind home plate essentially. And you used to be able to go customize your own ice cream sandwich for like eight bucks. And you could get two fat brownies and a massive scoop of ice cream between the two of them.

[00:48:26] And it would cost literally eight dollars. And it was an entire meal in and of itself. And it's literally anything a 19 year old me could have ever wanted at the ballpark. It was heavenly, full of sugar and calories. And it was legitimately the best thing on earth. Well, that's pretty cool. I don't know if I ever had that. I did used to get ice cream on the third bay side or kind of behind home plate, but it wasn't the ice cream sandwiches. I think it was just normal ice cream. We usually always used to go to the Dippin' Dots,

[00:48:56] but then once they start smashing brownies around it, I'm like, yeah, of course I'm going. Yeah, that's pretty good. I have no interest to ever go back to guaranteed rate field ever again, but if I do ever find myself back there, I would try the campfire shake because that looks really good. Campfire shake does look pretty good, doesn't it? Well, they have a new one this year now. Right, but what's sad is that is the only thing that even intrigues me to go back to that ballpark because everything else between the on-field play and the stadium itself was atrocious.

[00:49:26] I will second that. Stadium sucks. Yeah. Okay, let's go to Instagram. This one comes from Cap and he says, is Edward Bizzardo being underappreciated compared to the rest of the bullpen? No, he's not. Not being he to answer your question. He's being properly appreciated. He's been fine. But have I read to you the peripheral numbers of someone whose FIP is a his fielding independent pitching is a run above where his

[00:49:56] ERA is. Someone whose strikeout rate is 21% his walk rate is 9.5%. His ground ball rate is only 35%. Yeah, he doesn't get hit hard. That's one of the things he's great at and why some of his peripherals on Baseball Savant look really good. But you combine some of those rate stats, you look at him with the eye test, and you're just like, yeah, he's fine. But not someone who deserves like, oh, he's greatly underappreciated,

[00:50:26] undervalued. Like last year, for example, he had a low strand rate, right? Strand rate means the amount of base runners that you allow on that come around and score. He's a little bit under 10% above the league average this year. Last year, it was like 20% below. So that's why his ERA was pretty high. But his peripherals last year were actually way better than they are this year. High strikeout rate, lower walk rate, higher ground ball rate. Everything is in the opposite direction this year. And he just doesn't sort of blow me away when I watch him throw.

[00:50:56] He just looks like another guy. He's the guy that when you're down by two runs, kind of like the situation he was in the other night, that's who you put in when you don't want to use a leverage reliever and you say, okay, just keep the score where it is. Give us a chance. Because I guess in fairness to Bizzardo, his last 15 games before he gave up the solo bomb the other night, he had a 115 ERA over his last 15 appearances, which yeah, like what are you going to say? That's a good stretch of 15 games. But then he gives up something like

[00:51:26] a solo shot and you see the peripherals like TJ was talking about and you see the fact that his stuff doesn't just absolutely wow you and that he's gotten a little bit lucky. He's just not going to be a guy that ever throws in high leverage. That's not who he is. Like I talked about with the idea of trading for Pete Fairbanks earlier, that would do something like push Bizzardo further back on the pecking order in the bullpen. That's where he should be. Bizzardo's a good seventh or eighth guy in the bullpen, but he shouldn't be much higher than that. So look,

[00:51:55] he has a certain role he can play but I don't think he's being personally underappreciated. Fifth percent chase rate, fourth percent whiff rate, and a terrible ground ball rate. Those just don't feel like things that will eventually lead to success. No, they don't. Especially with the walks. Right. You want your relievers to be elite. The best relievers are always elite at one of two things. Getting ground balls or striking guys out. Bizzardo's a lead at neither of those.

[00:52:25] Yeah, I'm with you. Next question comes from Peter on Instagram and the question is, if Dom Canzone is still hitting by the trade deadline, do you still try and acquire a corner outfielder? Yes. Well, actually, so yes, but it's more about positions that you deem a priority because if you only get the opportunity to trade for one to two bats, is right field the number one spot you have to upgrade? Probably not because you

[00:52:55] have Rayleigh out there. In this situation, Canzone would still be hitting and maybe you get Victor Robles back in September. It's not a guarantee, but maybe. I think we know first base and third base are the two spots where it is circled very brightly for spots that need to be upgraded. So, yeah, I would, if Canzone's hitting, I'm not saying you don't address it. I'm not saying you block it off. Well, you do because Kyle Tucker's coming next year. So unless it's a rental, you do nothing. But anyway,

[00:53:25] yes, you look at the position, although I would say especially if Canzone's hitting, to Peter's point in the question, first base and third base probably come first. It doesn't push, him hitting does not push the priority up very much. I agree. It would be like third. Third would be a good answer for where the priority rests. And the Mariners don't usually go and get three starters, three offensive starters at the deadline. So Dom is

[00:53:54] probably safe. I think it's more, it doesn't actually depend really at all whether or not Dom Canzone hits. I think it might just depend on who's available. He might like a player more than a corner infielder who's a corner outfielder. That player has to be available. So if they're in love with Luis Robert, they need to love Luis Robert more than they love the corner infield people they have available. Like Naylor or Eugenio Suarez. I don't see any reason why they would love him more than that.

[00:54:24] But I think that's the process behind it. Would have to do more with the players you're targeting rather than Dom. And I think that kind of speaks for itself then. You mentioned Gino and I can't stop thinking about it. How hilarious is it going to be if the Mariners decided they didn't want to pay his money. They traded him away to get Sebi Zavala and Carlos Vargas. Only to a year and a half later basically have to admit they were wrong, try to trade back for him, and then they have to give up Harry Ford for it. And then Gino comes

[00:54:54] back into the clubhouse and does a gritty around the warning track. I'm just saying that I was right. That is I mean, that's going to be the narrative behind that. Oh, Mariners Twitter is going to be cooking that day. Mike Hazen is going to win GM of the year just for that trade. And his team's not even going to be that good. Yeah. Or let me amend that statement. It's not going to be Harry Ford because with Gabby Moreno there, the Diamondbacks don't really need a catcher. So maybe it would be like Michael Arroyo. Anyway,

[00:55:24] still that might be worse. Yeah. Yeah, it might. Okay, let's go to C underscore Wolf. Also a question coming from Instagram. He asks what current Mariner starter is going to throw the next no hitter? Logan Gilbert because he's the only one with a complete game. Interesting. I actually got the swing and miss and he's got the durability. So I actually went a different route here. I specifically didn't pick Logan because due to the fact he strikes so

[00:55:54] many guys out, his pitch count can get high faster and due to that and pitchers not having as long of a leash anymore, especially with Logan's injury. I'm not sure he would get stretched out all the way to nine innings and throw a no hitter. So I was going to go with two guys that when they're on they're super efficient with their pitch count and I was either going to say George Kirby or Brian Wu. I'm not going to disagree with you on those. I will say though, Logan, by the way, who's not like old and his arms not really worn down, he's completely healthy. So there's no

[00:56:24] reason why he would get held back from eight or nine innings as the season goes along. Also, him and Kirby are the only two to complete nine innings in this rotation. And Logan Gilbert has the stuff to hold up better over nine innings when you're aiming for a no hitter. Kirby, unless it is a rare day for him, is going to have to rely on a little bit of batted ball luck to get through nine innings without giving up a hit. Logan Gilbert

[00:56:53] could strike out 15 in nine innings because guys just can't hit his stuff. But it doesn't have to be the norm. It can be a one-off and we've seen what Kirby's best of best starts look like. Like when he went nine innings of shutout ball against the Orioles, that could essentially be the day for him. And on that day, he was totally on, gets a little bit of luck and throws a no hitter. And most no hitters are one offs because no hitters don't happen every day. And again, I put this category too because at some point he's going to throw a complete game. The guy's thrown six innings every

[00:57:22] single outing of his season this year and he's been incredibly efficient with most of them. At some point, I think you're going to see him throw a complete game. And if he throws a complete game, he may have a shout out of no hitter. Last question of the mailbag comes from Hires, H-Y-R-E-S 376 on Instagram. And the question is, what do you now know about podcasting that you wish you had known when you started? I like this question. Again, as much as we love all the baseball questions,

[00:57:52] questions like these are fun. So, yeah, I was excited to answer this one. I would say a lot of it has to do with the presence and the amount of time you have to spend putting into the work you put out there on social media and the content you put out there on social media. and specifically the first five seconds. I think if we have learned anything in our now close to two and a half years doing this podcast is that you

[00:58:22] have to be very active on social media. You have to find unique ways to put out your content for people. And when you do that, you have to hook people in the first three to five seconds of a social media post. because if you don't, you might have awesome content that's extremely interesting 35 seconds into the clip, but 95% of your audience is never going to get to that part because if they're not interested in the first three to five seconds, they're going to scroll away. So I would say creating a lot of

[00:58:51] content on social media that is interesting and that people will want to watch while also finding good hooks for every single one because if you don't, that's how you can lose interest. People's attention spans these days are very short, so you got to be creative. My answer to this question is that good equipment is necessary for success, I think. Not for everybody, but for most people, good equipment matters. I wish we knew

[00:59:21] sooner how important investing in the equipment we have would help how we look and how we sell ourselves, really. I think people look at us a little bit more professional now than when we started. You'll go back and look at some stuff we posted two years ago and you're like, ugh. It's like, look at the lighting. We look kind of grainy in this one. It doesn't look right. But now I look at all of our stuff, I'm like, we look pretty good. I like it. And it's important, I think.

[00:59:52] If you invest in good equipment early, you can essentially just fake it until you make it. Yeah, you might have a little less experience than Lau and I, but your equipment looks just as good. So you can sell yourself to somebody, hey, look at this. I'm a professional. I know what I'm doing. Look how great this looks. I think that's important. For sure. No doubt about it. Yeah, it's funny going back and looking at some of those old clips. I mean, not only is the lighting way off, but the text is like the captions are all

[01:00:21] over the place. We use like the Instagram captions for the titles on the video to hook people in and those were, you know, we'd put them in like white and blue and they weren't squared up and it's like, yeah, I don't think we'd ever post something like this now, which is just didn't sound as good. No, the whole thing. And that's all just a part of learning and that's all just a part of kind of adapting over time and figuring out what you need to change and what you need to improve on and you go from there. But to anyone

[01:00:51] starting the earlier you can invest in good equipment, the better. I promise you will not regret it one bit. But I will say if you're going to invest in the good equipment, make sure you have the vision that you want to do this long term and don't invest in all the equipment just to do three episodes and let it go by the wayside because some people do make that mistake. You've got this vision. You're so excited about it. You think of a name. You think of a logo. You think of a title. You get the equipment and then a few episodes in maybe you miss an episode because you had a schedule conflict and then maybe it becomes

[01:01:21] you missed two episodes and then it's been a couple weeks since you've done it and then it becomes four weeks since you've done it and then it just kind of goes by the and it doesn't last. So yes, definitely invest in the equipment but make sure you've got the dedication to keep up with it if you do. I agree. Good mailbag dog and a reminder to everyone listening if you want to contribute on the mailbag the place to go would be our Patreon if you want priority patreon.com slash Marine Layer Pod. You just sign up and then you get priority for mailbag questions. We have room in the mailbag for priority questions.

[01:01:51] We only had one this week but if you want priority that's the place to go do it. It's a great community. If you sign up for the top tier you can get a weekly zoom call with Lyle and all the other top tier members it's a really fun time. I recommend it. That's all over on patreon.com slash Marine Layer Pod. Yeah, it's a monthly zoom call but yeah. Monthly. Yeah, yeah. Not every day. Sorry. Yeah, that's okay. We don't have that much time unfortunately. Maybe soon. Enough people sign up. Never know. Yeah, you could talk our ears off about it.

[01:02:20] You could sell us. Patreon pays us each a full-time wage. I'll make this promise right now. We will hop on a call every day. Full-time. If Patreon alone. Patreon alone. Yes, pays us a full-time wage. Every single day Lyle and I will be here for you guys to talk to. Every single day. Awesome. Let's close out the show Lyle and get to our number seven MLB draft spotlight. Joe Joe Parker. High school shortstop. Yeah, how about this dude? We talked to Joe Doyle

[01:02:49] about him back when we had him on a few weeks ago and this was the first guy he had mocked to the Mariners in the first mock draft he put out. And you know what? I don't know if Jojo Parker is a household name to everybody yet. I would circle the guy because he is one interesting cat. High school shortstop comes out of Oklahoma. Switch hitter. 6'1", 175. So he's not the biggest dude in the world, but you don't always have to be. And certainly in Jojo Parker's case, you don't

[01:03:17] have to be because his hit tool may be the best among all the high school hitters in this draft, including a couple of the guys that are even higher on this list. The pure hit tool of Jojo Parker and the power he possesses due to his good bat speed and his ability to get the bat through the zone is really impressive, which is why he's as high as number seven on our list. Fascinating dude. And he's a twin, so he's a special place in my heart. His brother is also in this draft. He's ranked also in the top 100.

[01:03:46] He's a bit more of a corner guy, but with some more power. But the plus for Jojo, as you said, the hit tool is really good. Listen to some of these numbers that Joe Doyle brought up in his breakdown of Jojo Parker. Last summer, when he was playing in showcases, he only had a 3% in zone whiff, which is pitches in the strike zone that you swing at, only missed 3% of them, which is really good. And he didn't chase that many pitches at all.

[01:04:15] It is a very advanced approach. He's got some power that he can play into. Unfortunately, as he grows, it does not sound like he's going to stick it short the whole time. By the time he gets to the big leagues, it sounds more likely than not he will end up at second base or third base rather than shortstop. That can always change, but that's kind of how it projects right now as he builds into a 6'2 frame. But that's fine, because if the hit tool is what it is, you will take the amount of offense that he can bring at that position.

[01:04:44] It's one of the better bats in this class. It's arguably the best bat in this class, and it comes from a kid. He'll be a little bit older once you get to draft time. He'll turn 19 just after the draft, but it is very interesting. This is where we're getting up near the full slot value of a player. If the Mariners were going to pick this guy at 3. Do you think he cost the full slot? Would you be able to get creative at all with JoJo if you decided to take him at 3? It would be a little bit less, but I would say it would be

[01:05:13] you'd save like a million, maybe. Maybe less than that. So it wouldn't be enough to do something really substantial like getting a Ryan Sloan in the second round? No, not enough. Right. I mean, he's got a commitment to Mississippi State, so he, I mean, he could go into Mississippi State, play there for two years, and come out and be a young draft eligible sophomore, I believe. So sure, but he's not going to Mississippi State. You've got a chance to get picked in the top 10. You're, you're, you're going to pro ball. Unless you don't get the number

[01:05:43] you want. Yeah. It's happened before. Oh, it's happened. Just doesn't happen that often. But yeah, you're right. JoJo Parker, this level of players where we start to get to the category where if the Mariners take one of the seven guys that we're going to highlight now for the next few episodes leading up to the draft, this is probably them signaling we're not just signing a guy for a little bit less money to get creative later in the rounds and try to sign a couple other guys and decommit them from school and

[01:06:12] pull them away and get them into pro ball. If the Mariners take one of these seven ish guys with their third pick, probably including JoJo Parker to some extent, that's the Mariners saying this is the player we feel the best about in this draft class. This is the guy we love. This is the guy at the number three pick we want to commit to. We are dedicating our assets to. And if they take JoJo Parker at three, even if they save slight money, they're basically saying that. They would say we love the hit tool and we think he's going to be a 25 to 30 home run guy in the future.

[01:06:44] And the athlete wise, he's about an average athlete, but like right in the middle, it seems like not, not going to be a negative, not going to be a plus. It's going to be the bat that does a lot of that lifting for him. I would be intrigued with JoJo Parker. He is one of those top tier guys. It's not, this is not as much of a reach if you're picking him at three. This is a arguably top five talent sitting right here in JoJo Parker. And that's something you'd be intrigued in. And I think if the Mariners had him in your system, I

[01:07:13] mean, we could be in a couple of years talking about one of the best hitters in the minor leagues while also being one of the youngest. And that is very intriguing. And you know what? For the Mariners who have a lot of short stops, having a guy who might move to third or second base, not the biggest issue in the world. No, not at all. Especially if you think that bat's going to be special because that would be what you're drafting. Yeah. Man, JoJo Parker. That's number seven. I got to tell you what Parker is where you start to get into the category of getting

[01:07:42] really, really exciting with these spotlights. We said once we got to the top 10 or so that, you know, all of these guys become very interesting. But now let's even take it a step above that. And now that we've gotten through JoJo Parker, man, the next six, you could fire me up about every single one of these guys that we're going to highlight the rest of the way. So to to translate Lyle's words, they could realistically take any of the next six guys. Right. And seven, if you want to

[01:08:11] include JoJo Parker. Yeah. A little bit less likely than I'd say than these next six. Yeah. The next six is where, yeah, stuff gets exciting because every single one of these guys has a chance to be right in the Mariners lap. And every single one of the next six guys is is exciting for a lot of different reasons. So, yeah, stay tuned. We're going to keep we're going to keep counting them down. Can't wait. So. So, yeah, that's JoJo Parker. All right. I think that does it for this episode of the Marine Layer podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to stay on top of all of our stuff, you can go

[01:08:41] over to our website, MarineLayerPod.com. Everything is over there. You guys go get your merch like TJ said earlier in the show. We've got hats now. A bunch of you have been asking for hats. We've got them. It's our first hat that we've got out. We're going to do more as time goes on. But you see the white hat TJ's wearing if you're watching on YouTube. Go get your hats for summertime. We love to see you wearing it around the park. Again, we've already seen people wearing a bunch of merch around the park. It's been so cool. We'd love to see more of it. You can get your merch over on our website. You can sign up for our Patreon over at our website

[01:09:10] and we'll give you one final reminder about our live show, which again, details are at MarineLayerPod.com. Friday or sorry, not Friday, Saturday, June the 28th, 12 p.m. Occidental Hall right on the north end of Lumen Field on Occidental Avenue. It's our next live show. Starts at 12 p.m. Watch parties at 1 p.m. for Mariners Rangers. We'd love to see you all there. We'd love to have you there. We'd love to hang out with you guys. So come on out, especially if you haven't been yet. If you're somebody who hasn't been to a live show yet, we'd love to see you.

[01:09:40] We'd love to get as many new faces out to some as we possibly can. So come check it out. All that's over at our website along with all of our episodes, YouTube and audio. It's MarineLayerPod.com. And then you can find us all across socials at MarineLayerPod. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.

[01:10:42] Egal, ob Sie gerade erst beginnen oder Ihr Sicherheitsprogramm erweitern, herausragende Sicherheitspraktiken zu demonstrieren und Vertrauen aufzubauen, ist wichtiger denn je. Venta automatisiert die Einhaltung von ISO 27001, SOC 2 und mehr, spart Ihnen Zeit und Geld und hilft Ihnen, das Vertrauen Ihrer Kunden zu stärken. Darüber hinaus können Sie Sicherheitsüberprüfungen vereinfachen, indem Sie Fragebögen automatisieren und die Sicherheit Ihrer IT-Infrastruktur mit einem

[01:11:11] kundenorientierten Trust Center demonstrieren. Über 9000 globale Unternehmen wie Atlassian, Flow Health und Quora nutzen Venta bereits, um Risiken zu managen und Sicherheit in Echtzeit nachzuweisen. Erhalten Sie ein spezielles Angebot von 1000 Dollar Rabatt unter www.venta.com. Slash Horen