Episode 32: Buy/Sell Trade Candidates, Bryan Woo Makes His Debut, And Addressing A Disastrous Weekend In Texas

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number thirty two of the Marine Layer Podcast with TJ. Matthewson and Lyyle Goldstein. On today's pod, we're buying and selling trade candidates. The Mariners need to get this roster better, so we're going to pick out some trade candidates and are we buying or are we selling? You'll have to stay tuned to find out whoever. Three Mariners. Storylines of the week a lot regarding this past weekend, a lot to dive into there. We have some voicemails, we'll go down on the form and pick out our standout minor leaguer of the week, and as always, we will close out the show with Speak Your Mind. 00:00:37 Speaker 2: Just a reminder, we've partnered up within the Clutch Clothing Company. In the Clutch Clothing is an official partner of the Marine Layer Podcast. In the Clutch is the ultimate fan site for Seattle Baseball merchandise, including the Celebration trid in official MLBPA shirts for j Rod, Jared Kalmick, Cal Riley, Los Bombarrows, and more. TJ and I now both have our shirts in the mail. We can both confirm that they are awesome. We love wearing them. You'll see us wearing them at the ballpark this year. We promise you that if you guys are interested in getting some shirts, use our code marine Layer Pod at indthclutch dot com for ten percent off and currently every shirt on their website ships within the US for free. 00:01:16 Speaker 1: Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. And for all of you listening on either Apple, Spotify, Amazon or Google podcasts, go check out our YouTube page, Go subscribe, go turn on the notification bells, and you know when we post and you can watch it in video form. If you're sitting down at your computer and working and you want to have another chab open and listen to it on YouTube, you can support us that way. And if you're watching on YouTube, go find us on Apple and Spotify, Amazon and Google. Go leave us a review, Go make it five stars. Go make sure you're downloading our episodes. Make sure your click and play, and stay tuned for every week when we drop our episodes. And of course you can find us on social media on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok at marine Layer Pod. Let's get it rolling, and we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, recording here on Monday, June fifth, and high point of the season. 00:02:24 Speaker 2: I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't watch any Mariners baseball this weekend. I went out, enjoyed the sunshine, took a few walks. What Mariners baseball? 00:02:34 Speaker 1: What was the last what was the last spring to fall weekend day? You didn't watch any Mariners baseball? 00:02:42 Speaker 2: Well, I'm half lying. I watched until what the fourth inning of Saturday and Sunday? 00:02:47 Speaker 1: You meet it to the fourth Yeah, I made it a. 00:02:50 Speaker 2: Good while and then I turned it on, and then I turned it back on on Saturday and the ninth inning when I saw Mike Ford was gonna pitch, So I was. 00:02:58 Speaker 1: Like, well, now, how did he look? How? I, you know, for good reason, decided at that point of the baseball game not to watch. Can we get in an evaluation of Mike Ford on the bump? 00:03:11 Speaker 2: You know, as much as I would love to sit here and say he is right up there with all the rest of the Mariner's bullpen arms in terms of velocity, stuff, movement, and efficiency, I think he has some work to do. Considering what he lolly popped one into Mitch Garber, who took one into the cheap seats. 00:03:31 Speaker 1: Did he throw any breaking balls. 00:03:34 Speaker 2: I don't think so, from what I remember. I mean, maybe he did, and I just didn't pay close enough attention. From what I remember, it was just basically a bunch of Ethis pitches. 00:03:43 Speaker 1: Hey, I respect it. I respect it, trying to keep him off balanced because the hard stuff wasn't working. 00:03:48 Speaker 2: No, it was not. In fact, it was not working at all. 00:03:52 Speaker 1: No, it wasn't. So let's just dive right into our Mariners storylines because it is just all going to relate directly to this week storyline number one. We will start with the brief slight minuscule amount of positivity and optimism from this weekend. The Mariner's number six prospect Brian wu got called up from Arkansas to make his debut on Saturday. It was tough. He gave up six runs in two innings on seven hits, four strikeouts in his debut. Not the debut he's wanted, but at least we've seen him at the big league level now, something that I don't think we envisioned at the start of his season. 00:04:32 Speaker 2: After those first two of bats, you just started to get a little worried. I mean, Marcus Semien on the first pitch rocket of a line drive, and course Seeger hits a rocket of a line drive and you're kind of like, uh oh, and it's not a shot on Brian Wu. He was given an impossible task, but the bright upside if such a thing exists. And obviously what was a two inning outing that he gave up a lot of runs. He did get four strikeouts. I mean, you saw that fastball working at points in those two innings where he got some swing in this. It was just catching too much of the plate. 00:05:03 Speaker 1: Let's remind the folks of those who are not as familiar with Brian Wu. He has thrown career one hundred and one pro innings. Period. That's not in one season. That's total. In his minor league career, he has thrown one hundred and one innings. He didn't throw a lot of innings in college. He was coming off Tommy John when they drafted him out of college. He was coming back last year. Didn't even throw a hundred innings in the miners last year and is at four. I think he was at forty four innings in Arkansas this year before he came up with a two ZHO five ERA and fifty nine strikeouts. There's just not a whole lot there to in terms of development to work on with Brian wou see like, there's not you can't hold this like against anybody, and even in terms of his prospect status, and we're very excited to eventually see him be a successful big leaguer, But as I told you this weekend, with a guy with only one hundred innings and not necessarily a lot of college innings, you just can't expect too much from him to just jump up from Arkansas and be successful. It just can't be a case of Bryce Miller. 00:06:09 Speaker 2: Brian Wu's future is very bright. But to even add on to what you were just talking about, not only has he barely thrown a hundred minor league innings, even take it further than that since high school. If you just combined his college and pro innings, he's thrown just shy of one hundred and seventy pro innings. That's college and the pros. If you want to add in his summer ball innings, it's a little bit over two hundred and thirty. So you're talking about two hundred and thirty innings since twenty nineteen. That's not a lot of work. And despite all that, there's a reason this guy's highly regarded as a prospect. That fastball is great, but yeah, there's more development to do. And again, this is no shot at Brian Wu. This is just us talking about how there is going to be some progression with. 00:06:55 Speaker 1: Him, and he's I think he's going to make another start because Marco is not healthy at least as far as we know right now. He is going to make another start that we will see at the big league level. He might get sent down after that, which is totally understandable, but they might give him another start to see if he can work out some kinks. Not against the league's best scoring offense, which is good expectations wise. Let's remember now that Brian Wu is starter number. I would say he's probably ninth in line because I kind of put Flexen and Marco around the same area as five. So I think Brian Wu is essentially your ninth starter this year. And again, you can't rely on your ninth starter for much, so you kind of take it with a grain of salt. 00:07:42 Speaker 2: Let's just count it out. So if you're counting nine, so obviously Luis, George Kirby, Logan, Gilbert Robbie Ray, when he was healthy, Marco and flex and is six. Bryce Miller is seven. Are you calling Tommy Malone? 00:07:55 Speaker 1: Eight? 00:07:55 Speaker 2: Is Easton McGee eight? 00:07:58 Speaker 1: Yes? 00:07:58 Speaker 2: Okay, I mean they he caught called up first. Okay, yeah, so Brian we could say ten, yeah we could. He could be the ten starter. And again, this is no shot of Brian Wu. The dude has a really, really high ceiling, but he just needs more development. So don't be surprised by the way, whether it's in the miners or the majors. If you're listening to this or watching us. Another reminder to watch on YouTube, don't be shocked if Brian Wu has his season end in July or August. And this is not because he gets injured. It's because he's thrown so few innings. He is almost undoubtedly on an innings limit. So if he gets to one hundred, one hundred and ten innings this year, the Mariners may just tell him, Hey, that's good for this season. You've done your job. We don't want you injured. We want you to build up. That's it. 00:08:45 Speaker 1: A question I want to ask you, Lyle before we flip around to the other side of the ball. What are the Mariners going to do with this roster spot. Now, what are they going to do with this rotation spot? Marco's on the IL. He has a forearm strain right now. His his certainty for the rest of the season. His I guess his. I'd say, I don't know what to expect from him for the rest of the season. I don't know how healthy that forearm is. I don't know how precautionary it was that he got put on the IL and how much that damage could linger if it was if it's an actually bad stream. So that leaves the fifth spot in this rotation of programs? What do they do? 00:09:28 Speaker 2: That's a good question. Do we think this is short term with Marco? Because the only thing about forearm strains is this is what they said about Robbie Ray at the start too, is it was a forearm strain, and then it turned into he's gonna miss a lot of time, and then it turned into Tommy Johns. So I am really hoping it is not the same with Marco, but we don't know. So let me flip it back around you. How long are we projecting he's out? 00:09:53 Speaker 1: He's gonna be out longer than fifteen days. These these things never go minimum, especially with forearms. It's not like Marco o a rock on his toe and he just needs to work his foot back into help me. No, they're gonna be pretty cautious with that arm. The forearm reads runs right back to the elbow. This has happened before. Marco did have a flexer strain in twenty one and was able to come back and pitch the rest of the season perfectly healthy, unlike Robbie Ray who got a flex or strain and went out with Tommy John surgery and to repair his flexer as well. The easy answer is Chris Flexen goes in that spot. He is still on the roster He's not been moved off the roster yet. He has kept that bullpen spot for the whole season. Now once he got moved out of the rotation. Is that the best option? No, it's not emphatically not. I don't think there's another arm ready in the Mariners system to start in that system. Wait, like Brian Brian Wu would have probably been next in line. I don't know where they're at on Emerson Hancock if they're trying to still trying to keep build him up as well. Him and Wu also just haven't thrown enough innings down there in the minor leagues to really be ready. I don't know if they'd be comfortable letting Emerson Hancock start baseball games. If you look after that, it's Tommy Malone. 00:11:16 Speaker 2: So I think it's gonna be Brian Wu for at least a few starts while Marco is out. If Brian Wu would reaches his innings limit and he gets shut down, I would all of a sudden bet it is Flexen as a placeholder, and all of a sudden at the trade deadline, they might have to go out and get a back end starter. That would be my guest, because you're right, if they're serious about contending and even getting into the playoffs, you can't be rolling with Chris Flexen and Tommy Malone is your five starter that can't happen as good as the other four are. I think Brian Wu is perfectly capable of pitching at the level or even a little bit better this year what Marco was doing. But I don't think he's gonna pitch all year. I feel he's on an innings limit. Yeah, Brian Wu, I do. 00:11:59 Speaker 1: I just don't think he's pitched enough. I don't I think there's a gap. There's still a gap. 00:12:06 Speaker 2: So it was like I said to you this weekend, let's give him two to three more starts, and then let's judge. Let's not remember I mean. And this was very late too. He got to Texas on Friday. They told him he was starting Saturday. This was a quick turnaround. He got the best offense in baseball, who cannot do anything wrong. Right now, Let's see how he does in his next doubting here when he faces the Angels, and the Angels are a good lineup, but they're not quite the Rangers. I'd like to see what he does in his next couple starts and then reevaluate, because yeah, I think he can be a five starter this year. 00:12:36 Speaker 1: You also said it with the innings, though, I don't know if he gives you quite enough length to be to benefit your pitching staff, because your bullpen will probably get worke tomorrow days that he pitches. If he's only going to be allowed to go out there and throw four to five innings, that that's a pretty significant strain on your bullpen. 00:12:55 Speaker 2: So I think in a perfect world, he goes a handful of starts. If the owners can get five out of them, they take it. And again, if he's done by mid July early August, then he's done for the year because he's reached his limit and they have to find another option. Now, that's what I'm getting at. What happens after Brian Wu. If they keep him in this rotation and Marco Gonzalez is still not back at that point, I think by that point they would have to go trade for somebody that's a back end starter. I don't think they rely on Emerson Hancock. I don't think they rely on Tommy Malone. I think they'd probably have to go trade for somebody. And that's worst case scenario because I think they're hoping Marco can be back by then. 00:13:32 Speaker 1: Your prediction is then he is on this roster still in July. 00:13:37 Speaker 2: I don't know what else they're gonna do if Marco's not healthy. I mean, sure, if you want to go out and trade for somebody, now that might happen. I would rather have Brian Wu starting than Chris Flexen personally, and it's no knock against Flexen, but you know he didn't have many great starts early in the year. I think Brian Wu again, if you give him another few starts, he can turn this thing around. 00:13:57 Speaker 1: He could. I'm very interested to see how he handles these next few starts and prove me wrong again. I just don't think he's pitched enough in the minor leagues. I think he needs some more seasoning down there. But time will tell as we go along. And again, they could swing a trade right now, I wrote down lance Lin. We've already talked about this before. Who they would fill in in that fifth spot, you know, a lance Lynn Lucas Julett, Like, pick your crummy team and a starter on there, Zach Grank eat some salary, put Zach trade for Zach Ranky from a terrible Royals team. I mean, sure, that's fine, But at this point, I just don't know if those got if Jerry's gonna swing that or they actually want to want to see Brian Booz. That's gonna be something off to see. 00:14:40 Speaker 2: Yeah, that five starter is now up in the air. So, along with everything else going wrong for the Mariners right now, that's not another spot they're gonna have to fix going forward. There is no spot going worse for this team right now than the offense. As we saw this past week. They drop two of three to the Yankees. They get swept by the Rangers in Tech. The one game they win is a one nothing victory in ten innings where they had the benefit of a runner starting on second base. Boy was that a brutal week of baseball and a lot of it while the starting pitching was not very good. Kind of points to the offense. 00:15:17 Speaker 1: I don't even know where we start. Where do we start with this? Because we've already talked about this this season. We've already talked about all of these points and we're probably going to go back over them again later on this season. As of now, the Mariners are still label themselves as contenders. But this offense has shown you absolutely has shown you nothing to show there to label themselves as a contender. It has gotten to the point where as soon as the Rangers would go up three runs in a game, you'd kind of be shaking your head and be like it's over. That's what it feels like from some of the at bats you saw. I don't know where do you want to start with this, Lyle, because we can go a number of directions. 00:16:02 Speaker 2: I'll let you be my guest. You pick what are you feeling like talking about first. 00:16:10 Speaker 1: I just don't even we could start. I mean, they're twenty and thirty against teams not named the A's and the Rockies'. That's bad. That's a bad start. The record without them, without them facing the A's and feasting on the apes. A's by far worst in the league. Pitching staff is pretty horrible. Did you know? I didn't know this leading into this week, low that Tioscar Hernandez currently is the worst on base percentage of any outfielder in baseball, any outfielder. 00:16:40 Speaker 2: Doesn't shock me when you lead the league in strikeouts and you don't walk at all. This is what happens. 00:16:45 Speaker 1: Your premieer offensive acquisition gets on base less than any other player at his position qualified in baseball. You want to know why the offense is struggling because the guy you're relying on to drive in runs doesn't get on basin, doesn't put the bat on the ball enough. 00:17:02 Speaker 2: And I'm just not understanding how this happened with him. You can talk about the ballpark factor going from Toronto to Seattle, but again, WRC plus is supposed to cut right through all of that. Ballpark factor is not supposed to matter look at each of his last three years. Twenty twenty, WRC plus was one forty two forty two percent above league average, one thirty two in twenty twenty one, one nine, and twenty twenty two. Now it sits at ninety two. He is eight percent below league average. And like you just mentioned, he is not getting on base at all. He's actually kind of still hitting left handed pitching, but that's just kind of picking one bright spot. He's not getting on base and he's not providing any thump in the middle of the order. For the most part, is. 00:17:46 Speaker 1: The lowest walk rate in baseball. He has the third highest strikeout rate in baseball if you want to go by outside of just Tioskar, if you want to go by volume, the the run producers and the Mariners lineup. Ta Oscar Hernande is a Uhenios Horez, Julio Rodriguez, and Jared Kelnick are ranked number one, two, four, and five in the league in total strikeouts. They rank fifth, seventh, twenty third, and twenty ninth in strikeout rate as well. Well. Not while not hitting for enough power, they've the power is creeped up a little bit. I will say it was not as bad as when we talked about this a matter of weeks ago. They're up to Mariners are up to now eleventh in isolated power, their fourth in walk rate in the league, eleventh and hard hit rate, thirteenth in average eggs at Velosi, fifteenth in expected slugging, tenth in home runs. And it's good power, but for the amount of times they're continuing to strike out, and the strikeouts seem to be getting worse, the power is not jumped up to the level that they need to be at. 00:18:52 Speaker 2: There's just not enough pop in the lineup right now. Last year by WRC plus, they were a top ten offense. I think the three guys you have to kind of point to here more than anybody else, Gino Ty France and Taioscar Hernandez, because those three guys are basically showing no pop. Now. Ty's WRC plus to be fair is one sixteen, so he's still been above a league average hitter, but he's still fifteen points off his normal clip. He's usually around one point thirty. You've usually seen a few more balls leave the yard by now he's hitting for a few more doubles. That's not happening right now. Ay U Henne Osuarez, Like we talked about on the last show, while some of his expected numbers are expected to go up in the second half, it's not happening right now. You've seen very little pop out of his bat aside from that walk off home run against the Pirates in Taoscar Hernandez. Again, this guy was essentially supposed to be the second best bat in the lineup, and it's just not happening. 00:19:47 Speaker 1: It's just so puzzling. Why is this the case? Why is this happening these guys don't You can say, well, maybe the Mariners organizational philosophy doesn't align with their style of hitting. But these guys all have their own personal coaches that for the most part, they keep when they move organizations like what changed, I. 00:20:09 Speaker 2: Couldn't tell you what changed. And again, it really doesn't make any sense with Taoscar Hernandez because his profile has been so rock steady forever. Sherry struck out a lot in Toronto. That didn't change the fact that he was a great hitter. He can strike out a ton for all I care. Here, if he's putting up at WRC plus of one thirty and he's gonna hit thirty homers. He's not on pace to do that right now. I don't I just don't get it. I don't get why the production is not there. Again, it's funny. He's put up in ops just over eight to sixty against lefties. So what he does best of hitting lefties, he's still doing it now. It's not to the level that he usually does it, but he's still doing it. But as a whole, it's just not there. 00:20:53 Speaker 1: Another big key to his downturn for this current month out again outside of last week against the Pirates in the A's where they did look pretty good, but against the Pirates in the A's, Jared Keelnik's kind of fallen off this last month too. It wasn't expected that he was going to stay as hot as he did in that first month. He wasn't going to put up a one to ninety WRC plus the entire season, that's correct, But his strikeouts have started to pile up. He's still occasionally putting the barrel on a baseball, but that strikeout rate is climbing and climbing. He's at thirty one percent now, which is not good. What we said going into the season, Jared cannot continue striking out at this rate, and it was looking good at the beginning of the year, but now that strikeout rate is really piling up, and the Mariners needed him like they did at the beginning of the season. Where he's making more contact, he's working more counts, and he's spraying the ball around the field, which he's still doing, but now he's getting a lot more automatic outs. 00:21:50 Speaker 2: Strikeouts may always be a part of his game. I think people need to accept that he may strike out a decent amount in his major league career, and that's okay if he's still putting up big, authentic of numbers. And like you just said, he was not gonna go off the way he did in April again in May, or at least it's very unlikely. His month to May as a whole was nothing terrible. He by weighted runs created plus again, he was slightly below average for the month, and that's fine because that's pretty much expected to happen. Now we'll see what happens in June. But the strikeout rate has to come down. If he can be between twenty five and twenty seven percent, I think everybody'll take that. But like you said, now that it's climbing up to thirty one thirty two percent. He's gotta reel that back in a little bit because it's too many strikeouts and there's already too many guys in this lineup striking out to begin with. When he was actually controlling the zone really well and April that was a fantastic sign. He just needs to reel that back in a little bit. 00:22:47 Speaker 1: If you take away from this conversation that Lunarre having, it's like, well, just don't strike out, because striking out kills every offense. It's not it's not a perfect science. I think you want to be as a team somewhat in the middle. The Cleveland Guardians, I'm confirming it right now. They have the lowest strikeout rate in baseball, but I think their fan base, from what I've seen on Twitter, has arguably been more frustrated with their offense, which is a pretty high bar to set than Mariners fans have been frustrated over their offense. There are the two extremes, and then I think there's a happy middle point, which those two teams are desperately needing right now. 00:23:28 Speaker 2: For sure, you don't want to lead the league in strikeous, of course, you don't that means you're not putting the ball in play. But again, the Mariners struck out plenty last year. They were top ten in the league in strikeouts last year, but it didn't matter because they were hitting the ball over the fence. And we're still a really productive offense. So if they're gonna strike out a lot, that's fine. The biggest story here is the power has to go up. And I'm not worried about Julio, I'm not worried about Kelnick. I'm not really worried about cal Raley. The three I'm gonna keep circling, Ty, Gino, Taoskar. Those are the three where you need more pop out of their bats. Gino and Taoscar, especially like Ty probably takes a back seat of those three, but those two who are built on power, Gino and Taioscar, they have to start hitting the ball with more authority. They have to. 00:24:15 Speaker 1: And this is a pretty universal sentiment across whatever we're going to get into these factions here in a second of people who you know, watch the Mariners quite a lot and have lots of opinions on this team, regardless of which side of the aisle you take on this If the Mariners don't start hitting, they're not going to make the playoffs. They're not because they've gotten too many now, too many injuries in the rotation. We're already mentioning. We didn't even talk about Bryce miller struggles this weekend. His last two outings, he has gotten absolutely sheld. You now have an open fifth spot in your rotation. You're getting Andre's Munnos back in the bullpen by the time this episode comes out, I believe. But the offense right now is not currently good enough for this team to make the playoffs. That's pretty set in stone, right, Am I wrong? 00:24:58 Speaker 3: There? 00:24:59 Speaker 2: No, you're not wrong. They keep this up, they're not going to the playoffs. You can't hit like this in the a playoff team. 00:25:04 Speaker 1: No, so those two you mentioned those two guys especially, but the group as a whole, which we're gonna know here in a second, needs to as a group hit better. Otherwise there will be no return trip to the postseason this year. In Baseball Up, before we move on to our next segment, Low, you know, I feel very bad for Guardians fans. I did mention that strikeout right their second to last. Have you checked on their team? WRC plus recently. 00:25:30 Speaker 2: No, but I know it's low. I mean they don't have a lot of power in that lineup to begin with. I know Josh Bell's not hitting. I know a couple other guys in that lineup have been struggling. Yeah, I'm gonna guess it's low. 00:25:42 Speaker 1: The Mariners have a ninety six WRC plus that we bitch about, and I think for good reason, there have not been good enough. The Guardians are at seventy nine. Ooh, yeah, that's right now. They don't strike out a bunch. They strike out nineteen percent of the time as a team. There's a balance, and I think and the team that strikes out the least, the Nationals has a team WRC plus of ninety seven. So just to say, strikeouts with power good, strikeouts without power awful. And that's where we sit right now. 00:26:13 Speaker 2: Correct, Speaking of power, We're going to transition a little bit here, same idea. We're still talking about this week of games and what went wrong for the Mariners, to transition a little bit. If we're going to stay on this power topic. The Rangers, I mean, oh my god, nothing can go wrong for these guys, every single like nothing at all. Every single guy in that lineup is legitimately going off. So let's transition here to the Rangers, because listen, I think they're for real. I think it's hard for anybody to dispute that at this point. I certainly did for a while. I now believe that they are very very much a force to be reckoned with. I also know that this level of the Rangers offense is not going to sustain all year. However, the Mariners could not have caught them at a worse time because every single thing went right for him. 00:26:57 Speaker 1: Well, they're scoring runs up there with about the night nineteen thirty Yankees. It's a pretty high bar to keep throughout the season, and I think they're run differential. They passed the twenty sixteen Cubs for highest through this many games so far, which it's pretty crazy. But they have been really, really good, and they're kind of I feel like they're almost, I guess underratedly good, but I've seen enough stats out there that have that have replicated that. Did you know that of their starting lineup eight Rangers, nine hitters on their team, they've had ten guys who have been to the played one hundred times. Nine of them have a higher WRC plus than they did last season. 00:27:39 Speaker 2: Wait, say out one more time, you went eight than nine and ten? 00:27:41 Speaker 1: Sorry, Okay, Marin. The Rangers currently have ten players who have been to the played one hundred times this season. Nine of them have a higher WRC plus this season than they did last season. 00:27:55 Speaker 2: Okay, we talked about this over the weekend. Why don't you just read this through because when you talk about the Rangers and why they've improved so much, let's remember and we're gonna get more into this budget payroll topic here in a few minutes. But the Rangers won sixty eight games last year with just Marcus Semi and Corey Seeger and Adolas Garcia. I'll flip this to you here because I know you've got it out in front of you. The improvement and offensive production between every single guy in this Rangers lineup is a joke. And you can elaborate further on that. And it wasn't just. 00:28:28 Speaker 1: Those three last year. Allow most of these guys were Rangers last year. They just weren't very good. Let's just started the top. Marcus Semion has been unbelievable this year. He's up to a one forty two WRC plus. He was at one oh seven last year. Jonah him he was breaking out a little bit last year, but he went from a ninety nine WRC plus last year to one twenty one this year. A Dooley Scarcia was good. Last year. He was at a one twelve WRC plus. He's up to one twenty one this season. Josh Young, former first round pick, went from being pretty bad last year in his initial rookie season to now. He's up to one thirty two and he's probably going to be an All Star. Pretty bonkers. The only guy who regressed from last year's team to this one is Nathaniel Low. That's because he had a one forty three WRC plus last year. He's only down to one twenty one. Eye Roll Leoti Taveres was at a ninety three WRC plus last year. He's up to one twenty six this year. Ezekiel Duran went from an eighty two WRC plus last year to one forty this year. Corey Seeger a one seventeen WRC plus last year to one sixty six this year. Josh Smith went from a sixty eight WRC plus last year to a one sixteen this year. Robbie Grossman went who has signed this offseason, so he wasn't a Ranger last year. Went from eighty two to ninety three. Eight of these guys who I just we're all Rangers last season and got better. Robbie Grossman was the only addition there of that group. That's bonkers. Look like, let's put this in context. They every single player with one hundred or more player outside of Robbie Grossman, every player with one hundred or more play appearances on their roster has a WRC plus of one sixteen and more or more every single one. It is insane. We talk about teams playing to their potential, the Texas Rangers might be the poster child of that. 00:30:36 Speaker 2: They're not just the poster child they're on a rocket ship to the moon right now. In terms of playing above their potential, that's ridiculous. Like every single one of those jumps you just talked about from player to player and from year to year, none of that is normal. No player is supposed to jump that high in production from year to year. And not only are one or two guys doing it for the Rangers. Everybody is doing it. So back to what I just said before you listed out all those guys about the Rangers having a sixty eight win total last year when they're real productive offensive pieces were semi and seeger Adolas Garcia with the other guy's not doing much. This is the whole difference. This is why the Mariners are currently behind the Rangers by this many games, because the Mariners offense is not playing up to their potential. Again, we just talked about Tie, We talked about Gino, we talked about Taoscar a few others. If they were all playing to their level of capability and what they were doing in twenty twenty two, we'd be having a way different conversation about the Mariners right now. They might not have the Rangers record, but they'd certainly be right either a game or two out of that wildcard contention, or they might just hold one of those spots right now for all we know. That's the whole difference. The Mariners are not hitting with a lineup last year that was really good and is not carried over. The Rangers did not have a good lineup last year and everybody's hitting. 00:31:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, and you want to hear it on the other side, Well, nine players on the Rangers, this current Rangers roster got better last year than this got better this year opposed to last year. Now, let's look at the same thing for the Maritgers you mentioned they're just not hitting. Let's just like put some numbers to it. JP Crawford same WRC plus this year and last year. Ty France won twenty six last year one fourteen this year. Julia one forty six last year one on nine. This year Jared Kelnick set the bar pretty low fifty five to one thirty five currently this year. Gino Suarez one thirty one last year eighty seven this year. Cal Rawley won twenty one last year to one to eleven. 00:32:36 Speaker 2: This year. 00:32:37 Speaker 1: Taoscar won twenty nine to eighty six. Colton Wong down, AJ Pollock down, Sam Haggerty down, Tom Murphy down, Taylor Tremmel down, Dylan Moore has not played. It's the opposite, the complete opposite, that is. 00:32:56 Speaker 2: The complete opposite, and actually tie in Taoskar's WRC plus numbers or even lower after yesterday, because again Ty entering Sunday was at one sixteen and ta Oscar entering Sunday was at one was it ninety two? Then it dipped after their games again, so it's even lower and Again, for those maybe not super familiar with WRC plus, just remember one hundred's league average. So you've got a bunch of guys way below that league average mark right now, and a lot of them shouldn't be. That's the whole issue here. And I bring this up because as we continue to transition with talking about this Ranger series is so there was a contingent of Mariners fans all over social media. By the way, if you're off Twitter, credit to you, it is. I like it a lot of the time. I mean, I like Twitter for a lot of reasons a lot of the time. But it is maddening to see some of these Mariners people tweeting, especially when they're losing. And for those who are on Twitter and see these Mariners people, you know exactly who I'm talking about. And there's all these people this weekend that are acting like they're Rangers fans in disguise. I swear they were happy to see the Mariners lose. Almost I'm not gonna say one hundred percent, I am almost gonna say they were happy to see what happened because their point gets proven quote unquote, I'm putting air quotes around that about spending equals wins, and now they're taking a victory lap here in early June because they wish the Mariners were the Rangers. No, the Rangers are not winning because they have a high payroll. It might play a factor. Yes, of course, Semeon and Seeger are helping this team win, but again, they won sixty eight games last year with those guys. The difference is Duran ta Varis young Time, Josh Smith. All these guys, their homegrown guys. Him was a small trade but close enough, are playing way above their level of expectations and have made massive improvements. That is the difference. It's not because they spend and spend all money, money, money, money, money, No, it's both. 00:34:56 Speaker 1: And for the fact do you you saw this too, The Rangers happened to sign the two best middle infield free agents, just so happened by chance. The two middle infield guys they chose are far and away the two best that have performed so far on their big contracts. And it's not even really close. 00:35:17 Speaker 2: In the last two OP seasons. You mean, yeah, you're right. I mean, look at all the infielders over the last two OP season. I mean, Chris Bryant not going great Trevor story, that one's not going great. You look at this year Trey Turner. I mean that's what I have, the numbers you want him? Oh yeah, go ahead, all right, Well, Trey Turner. 00:35:32 Speaker 1: Has two home runs as we're recording today, But as I wrote this down last night, he's at a seventy four WRC plus. Xander's at a one oh six. Correa is at an eighty seven. Dansby's had a pretty good season, but I know pretty much everybody did not want Dansby. So don't try and lie and say that you wanted Dansby Swanson this year. I really think you're just full of shit. Chris Bryant eighty seven WRC plus constantly hurt Trevor's story. One hundred WRC plus last year, hasn't played this Hobby Bias might be one of the worst contracts ever. He's at sixty three WRC plus. And those are just all the big middle infield, shortstop guy free agents who people were clamoring over this last offseason. The Rangers credit to them signed the two best. They chose the two best, They made the pitch to the two best, and it just so happens they signed the two best. What happens if the Rangers decided to instead sign Trevor Story Trevor let's say Trevor's Story and Hobby Bias instead to be their middle endfield, people would be would be trashing them, right, It's it. It is a bad faith argument, That's what it is. Correct like credit to the Rangers. They have built their roster correctly. And the thing that flies under the raidar with the Rangers is they made excellent signings in the rotation outside of Jacob de Gram. Nobody was gonna think that Andrew Heeney and Nate Evaldi are gonna have great breakout seasons. But whatever the Rangers saw the correctly identified put them in the rotation and they succeeded. But don't act like the Mariners were gonna sign that they weren't going to sign anyone in the rotation they had. They have the Luis Castillo who you traded for three uh, Louis Castillo who you traded for. You signed a cy young winner and Robbie Ray and you have your two young guns. Don't act like you were going to sign a mid level free agent starter Like, no, you weren't. Nobody was asking for that. That's even crazier if they if you want to point it, like, look that they're signing in the rotation and say that's it right there, that's what the Mariners didn't do, Like, you're just. 00:37:34 Speaker 2: Full of shit. The Semian thing is driving me crazy again with these people on Twitter. And if you're not on Twitter and really want to find it, believe me, it's not that hard to find all these Mariners fans out there the last few days that are acting like they're Rangers fans in disguise because they're so happy that they're spending money and oh, money always equates to wins no matter what. There's these Mariners fans out there right now saying, well, the Mariners should have just signed Marcus Semon. Okay, that's great. I think we can both sit here and say we would have loved Marcus Semon on the roster. He didn't give Seattle a chance. Scott Boris is his agent, and in case you haven't paid attention, Scott Boris manipulates free agent markets around his clients. He didn't let Semeon talk to Seattle. He pigeonholed him into a couple of different teams. He was very very zoned in on who he had Marcus sign with and who was even basically allowed to talk to him. And now there's gonna be people that say, oh, well, you just should have offered him fifty percent more than what the Rangers offered him. Okay, sure, if you offered Marcus Semian four hundred million dollars he probably would have signed. That's not a good contract. It's not a good contract at all, and then you can't do anything else later. So again I'm not buying that argument either, Like, be mad that Semon's not a Mariner, sure, but don't act like it was ever really a chance. 00:38:50 Speaker 1: And you could say the same thing with Corey Seger. You say, oh, they should have just signed Corey Seger. Do you think Corey Seger was gonna come here after how Kyle Seger's Mariner's career ended. No, no, no, that would never is gonna happen. 00:39:04 Speaker 2: Here's the other part of this too, is these fans, well and fans in general, right, they think very in the now, and that's just part of being a fan. Everything is in the now. When now get better? Now, sign free agents now? Sure, but what happens, Say to your point, if they had signed a couple of these bad free agents to contracts. They'd done what everybody asked, spent big in free agency. These guys flopped Like if they had signed Trevor Story last year, which they were very close to doing. Well, what off, all of a sudden they sign a couple of those guys. They're not good players, payroll builds up, and then oh, a few years down the road, Yeah, that George Kirby guy who's going to demand a lot of money when he gets either close to free agency or if he wants an extension, Then what if you can't sign him all of a sudden, Then these same fans are going to turn right around and say, why did the marriage just signed George Kirby? They should have just gave George Kirby whatever money he wanted. How could they do this letting him walk out of the building. Well, because based off what you insisted, and that they had to sign one of those bats over the last two winners, they did hypothetically, And now you can't sign a bunch of the guys that are supposed to keep this cour together long term, and everything is in the now. In two thousand and five, and a lot of those two thousands years Mariners had a high payroll, it did not equate to wins. I'm not sitting here telling you what the right or wrong way to operate a baseball team is, but I can tell you that these people on Twitter that think they know and want to go out and make baseball decisions do not know. 00:40:30 Speaker 1: If you want to be pissed about free agents, I think it's the mid level free agent you should actually be pissed about, Not about the top tier three hundred million over ten year guys. How about some of these mid level free agents that the Mirrors passed on, did not sign, did not get a chance to sign. I mean, I was just thinking of a few Brandon Nemo's having a pretty good season, as me and you were sitting here on this podcast saying, yeah, let's sign Brandonimo. I think it'd be a pretty good fit on this roster. He'd be a great meadoff itories. Out of one twenty eight WRC plus this year, it's been worth nearly two wins. I think we were big on Mark Canna last season. Obviously before the podcast started, but me and you were both saying, yeah, I think Mark Canna would be a good bat to sign in the off season of last offseason. He's at a one h nine WRC plus this year. He was at one twenty eight last year. That would have been great in the outfield. Michael CONFORDA who he said, well maybe maybe he would DH He's at a one twenty three right now after a horrendous start. Brandon Belt same case, he's at a one twenty five. Just mid level guys who would actually make a good impact on this roster without having to worry how they're going to perform at age forty, which you also did not sign. So that's I think where you could actually have some beef with in terms of what's actually realistic. Who's actually going to listen to you. Trey Turner was not going to listen to you. Trey Turner was not going to sign on the West Coast. It was so objective, it was so objectively clear with his intentions that he was not going to sign with the West Coast team. You can't just you can't just say that the Mariners are going to offer him a you get what thirty percent above market value to come to Seattle A. No, they weren't gonna do that. I don't think Trey Turner's good enough to offer that kind of money to uh and be as you already you'd already mentioned on Twitter, like they offered, the Padres offered, and was it the Padres and Dodgers each offered more money to Trey Turner? 00:42:27 Speaker 2: Was the we we know the Padres did. When we had our friend Jason Churchill on a few months ago, he said, both those teams did. 00:42:34 Speaker 1: And yeah, so if if. 00:42:35 Speaker 2: Turner wasn't gonna if Turner was gonna stay on the West Coast, it was gonna be with one of those teams. He wasn't going to Seattle. 00:42:41 Speaker 1: No, well, yeah, he wasn't gonna come to Seattle. He wanted to be on on the on the East coast. And it's pretty apparent with the contract he signed. Well yeah, if guys don't want to come play in Seattle, like you said, like just keep throwing money at him. Well you got like there there comes to a point where you physically cannot spend more money. Even the Yankees and we'll throw the Mets away. All the other big market teams put a limit on how much they spend. They spend a lot, but they still eventually put a limited on it, and there's a limit for the Mariners too. It's it is a business as frustrating it is as you watch them invest in the in the Diamond Club and invest in the Press club instead of you know, the fun thing about investing in those things and not investing in the roster. There always is a limit, and you're just not going to make a bad decision over a free agent who just play it flat out doesn't want to come play here. You want to get mad at something, get mad about mid level free agents because I kind of am after looking up these numbers, I'm I'm kind of peeved, and I think you know a point I can make here in a little bit that they missed out on an opportunity with some of these more mid level players who who would actually fit and make the roster better. 00:43:52 Speaker 2: I'm all with that. Look if you if people were on Twitter saying the Mariners really could have used Michael Conforto right now, They could have used Brandon Belt, they could have used Mark Hanna. Sure I will listen to that, but I am so tired of hearing about these top level free agents and why they should have been Mariners. No, they were not gonna be Mariners like, be mad about it all you want it like, but accept it and zone in on what they can do moving forward and here in the now to improve this team. Which oh, actually I was gonna say, maybe that's a good transition, But we do have a few voicemails to get to here in a second, right. 00:44:30 Speaker 1: And I do have one more thing to get to relating to those mid level free agents. I think I forgot to mention this in our first segment, So I'm just gonna do it now. Can we just say this DH philosophy is done? Can we just throw it out now? Whatever they're trying to do with the with the DH, I think we have enough of a sample size to say that. 00:44:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, whatever the plan was for twenty twenty three, it didn't work. If they had brought Carlos Santana back this year, that probably would have been perfectly fine. But that wasn't the plan, and it has not worked so far. 00:45:02 Speaker 1: The platoon situation has been an abject disaster. I think their WRC plus right now as a group is forty six. It's it's bad. 00:45:11 Speaker 3: It is bad. 00:45:12 Speaker 1: And again, those those guys, those mid level guys I mentioned would fit perfectly in that DH spot, But in the it seems like the versatility has not mattered in that position. The vert it it didn't seem like it has mattered, So let's just uh, let's let's throw away with it. They said they're looking for bats, so good, but it could be too late for that. It could be because there were there were options there to fill that dhroll that the team made a decision not to sign out of the notion of versatility, which now we have noticed has fallen on its face. I did not physically think it was possible for that DH spot to be better than worse than it was last year, and I was expecting in the month of May that it would get a. 00:45:55 Speaker 2: Little bit better. 00:45:56 Speaker 1: It did not not even close. And that's with Abe Toro taking up some mat pets in the in the DH spot last year. 00:46:04 Speaker 2: I mean, when Jared Epoto comes out and says they're actively shopping for a bat, that means he's acknowledging they need to augment the roster too. So that's kind of him saying, yeah, what our plan was originally to start the year. We've got to justin Pivott here a little bit, because the DH spot is everybody's seen. It's not good enough. It's not even close to good enough right now. 00:46:24 Speaker 1: I think they have racked up negative since Nelson Cruz left. It's like negative five. It's just bad. It just it's just bizarre how bad one roster spot designated to just hitting could possibly be. But Mariters have entered a new low of that, and they're gonna have to make a move, and probably make a move pretty quickly if they're gonna look to salvage something from this season. I don't even know if they're, like, we don't even know if they're gonna be buyers at this point. We would think they would with some of the talent on this roster, but the way they keep playing, we can't say that for certain. 00:46:58 Speaker 2: So I would think they would, but again, I think that's more of a conversation. We might have to wait the next couple of weeks before we have see how everything shakes out. 00:47:08 Speaker 1: Probably, Okay, Yeah, let's get to our voicemails as as you were about to bring up, because they go right along with this subject there. I'd say they compliment what we just talked about. So if we're ready for our first one, let's get to our first voicemail of the week. 00:47:28 Speaker 4: This is Jude from Tri City. I mean, this offense is just ridiculous. You know, clearly after last season the offense. 00:47:35 Speaker 3: Needed an upgrade. And Jerry Depoto goes out. 00:47:38 Speaker 4: And gets Colton Long has been the worst second basement in all of baseball. 00:47:42 Speaker 3: He gets Tommy Lastella, AJ Pollock and tay oscar man As who's been awful. 00:47:49 Speaker 5: But granted, in foresight, that was a good pickup, but the rests are just a. 00:47:55 Speaker 3: Lot of question marks around that and looking at this offense, not just today, throughout the entire season. I mean, when we get to playoff baseball, this team's fucked. I don't know if I can cuss on the show, you might have to bleep that out, but this team's fucked, all right, We're fucked. 00:48:15 Speaker 1: Jude put it very simply. 00:48:18 Speaker 2: I like it. 00:48:18 Speaker 1: You can cuss as much as you want. 00:48:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we do it, so feel free to send what you want to send. I don't know how much we can further cover based off his talking points. I think we did a lot of it here so far already in the show. But yeah, he's right. I mean, if they don't hit, you talk about being in big trouble when you get to the playoffs. I don't even know if they get there if they don't hit it. In fact, I don't think they get there if they don't hit. 00:48:45 Speaker 1: They got to pass up six teams just to get to the third wild card. At this moment, I believe it's it's tricky, all right. Let's get to our next voicemail. 00:48:55 Speaker 3: This is a. 00:48:55 Speaker 6: Noah Firstman calling from a Bellevue, Washington. 00:49:00 Speaker 5: And I got a question that it's a pretty deep question, I think for manners baseball. But that was on the golf course and we were talking about it, and why is it that hitters do well with other teams and they come to the Mariners in Seattle and it's not a minor it's like a drastic stop off, and they're hitting when they come here. I mean guys like long Jesse Winker, last year, AJ Pollock, and these are just current guys. 00:49:25 Speaker 3: Off the heead of mile like that. 00:49:26 Speaker 6: We have our team right now, but I mean he this goes way back like ten years ago, guys like even like Sean Figgins. It mind blows me how there are so many times hitters do well with other teams and then then they come to our club and it's a drastic difference in hitting. 00:49:42 Speaker 3: So pretty generic, broad but kind of a deep question. 00:49:45 Speaker 6: But yeah, I figured pretty pissed after that shit lost today, so figure it. 00:49:50 Speaker 5: I reach out to y'all, see what your sounds. Anyways, hope against answered. 00:49:55 Speaker 1: I how do we want to answer this question? I think it's I think along the lines, there's not one answer to this. It's a mix of It's probably a mix of evaluation on the Mariners part, expectations set on the player, something along those lines. It's not like one hundred percent certain because we've seen Robinson Canoe and Nelson Cruz have some of the best years of their career hitting in the same ballpark, in the same organization without issue with the same front office and same manager as well, So it's not one hundred percent. But yeah, the Jesse Winker one from last year still just absolutely blows my mind. I just I can't fathom how that's possible. So I'll let you go ahead. 00:50:47 Speaker 2: I think this has been the million dollar question since we've been alive, talking about why all these stars from other places do not thrive in Seattle, And you can't tell me it's the ballpark factor, or the marine layer as we like to call it, because, like you just said, there are guys that come here and hit, like Robbie and Nelly. Obviously Julio's hitting. They've have plenty of guys over the years that have hit. But I don't understand why all these guys either when they get to town they can't figure it out again, like Sean Figgins, great example, guy was a star with the Angels, he was terrible here. There have been a million examples like that over the years. Yeah, it's the million dollar question. The Jesse Winker one, for sure, is forever a head scratcher. Maybe part of its expectations. 00:51:32 Speaker 1: I don't like the messaging is do they're hitting coaches not want to live here and help them out? 00:51:39 Speaker 2: That's what I mean. Like, it's why has this happened basically throughout the existence of our time as baseball fans, Because you're right, like, there have been guys under this ownership group and GM Group front office group I should say, that have had success. But over the years, whether it's with the Poto and service or without them, there have been a lot of guys they've just fallen right on their face and it'll never makes any sense. 00:52:04 Speaker 1: And Chaoscar this season too. I take back personally saying yeah, his hitting profile, it'll play right through all that. It doesn't matter. 00:52:14 Speaker 2: I said that. 00:52:14 Speaker 1: I take it back, I do. I was I was wrong. I did not see to Oscar an end of striking out thirty four percent of the time. That one's a little bit more obvious, because what we can just point to it's, oh, he has no control of the strike zone. Boom that It's pretty simple. I think most baseball coaches could watch Tasker hit and say, yeah, he has no control of the strike zone. Why is that? I don't know. But then Jesse Winker comes in last year and you're like, wow, man, this dude walks, he doesn't chase out of the strike zone, he hits right handers extremely well. Don't even need to play him in the field if you don't want to all these things. And he comes here and you're just like, man, is he's swinging a hollowed out bat up there? What's going on here? 00:53:00 Speaker 2: I'll never understand it? I again, but that might be one of those questions that nobody has the answer to. I mean, we don't have it. I don't know if anybody has it. 00:53:09 Speaker 1: I think Colton Wong is puzzling too. He's had the biggest drop off of all of these guys. They talk about a guy who's had a ten year career of being a solid hitter and just everything. I think I highlighted it two weeks ago. He's been noticeably worse across the board at everything, and it's not I don't think it's easy enough to just say, well, the hitting coach sucks, because, as I mentioned, all these guys have their own hitting coaches that they keep year to year, that they trust, that they work with in the op season. It's not just the Mariners guys that Jerry Depoto went on the radio the other day and was saying, yeah, we work with these guys hitting coaches all the time. I think it's a more efficient way of communication, and I agree. So how is it that a guy with such a sturdy level career would come to a place and forget everything. If someone knows the answer and has insight, please leave us a voicemail. We'd love to know. Give us your conspiracies, Call in and tell us what actually it is. 00:54:14 Speaker 2: Call dm US, email us the question. Email us your thoughts whatever you want, really, I mean, the voicemails are the best way. But if you have a thought to this, let us know. In the meantime, where these twenty twenty three Mariners sit. There's no sugarcoating it anymore, and there's really no other way around it. They need help offensively, so they cannot sign any free agents. Obviously at this point it is gonna have to come through the trade route. So we're gonna sit here today. We are gonna buy or sell a couple of trade candidates, actually a couple of couples. I should say we've picked out four. There's a couple of honorable mentions we threw in here, and I'll just briefly mention them with Ramon Loreano of the A's Jerks, and Profar of the Rockies, and Michael CONFORDO now the Giants. Those would be some us or moves. Those are guys who do not have long term contracts attached to them. Outside of Confordo, Profar and Loreano have not had great, great seasons offensively, so those would be smaller moves. But as we can tell, the Mariners need some real thumb and a significant upgrade. So we have highlighted four guys that could potentially do that. So I'll throw it back to you, TJ. Of these four, is there somebody you want to start with, Well, it's. 00:55:26 Speaker 1: Just we can start at the beginning, and I will ask you buy or sell for candidate number one, someone you might not expect. As Jerry said, they are looking at trade candidates who you might not necessarily think is available interesting Christian Yelich, buy or sell. 00:55:48 Speaker 2: I'm buying this one, I am, and here's why. So with Christian Yelich, the Mariners would have to get a little bit creative with this one, and this would be more of a long term solution, back to the Poto's point of looking for rentals, looking with somebody with looking for somebody with team control. Just a couple of years ago, Christian Yelich signed that massive nine year, two hundred and fifteen million dollar extension. He is signed through twenty twenty eight. Now, the other side of the Mariners not signing any free agents this winner is they do have some payroll flexibility. Now they're not going to have to take on that whole contract if they were to trade for Yelich, but they would take on a portion of it, and they'd probably give up less of a prospect tall in return. So we can dive into the numbers here on a second, but I'm buying this one. 00:56:38 Speaker 1: I'm buying this too. Across the board. If you look at his savant page, his numbers up are up across the board, average EGSA, velocity, quality of contact expected, batting and slugging all up across the board. There's a big worry from the twenty twenty one, the twenty twenty season through last year wondering well, where's Christian Yelich's power gone. We's gotten a little bit of bit back this year. He's up to a one oh eight w RC plus. He controls the zone well, he walks at a decent clip, hits for a decent average as well. He's been pretty good playing defensively in the outfield as well. I think the main goal, as you said, of this contract is to give the Brewers a little bit of salary relief. We know they are not big spenders at all. They've been quabbling with Corbyn Burns over if they're even gonna sign him to an extension, and you would think maybe Jerry's sell to them is we'll take some We'll take some money off your hands. If you guys actually want to sign Corbyn Burns to a long term extension, We'll take some Yelloich money away from you and you can instead give that to Corbyn Burns, who you know, the rumors have been that they're gonna trade him, So why don't you trade Christian Yelich instead. Let the Mariners take on some payroll, they get a bat, the Brewers get some some payroll flexibility back, and then they can sign Corbyn Burns to the extension they've wanted to. 00:58:00 Speaker 2: This solves your outfield problem long term. There is no more musical chairs for the Mariners with their third outfielder and messing around with those corner outfielder spots anymore. If you go get Yelich, your outfield moving forward will be Julio, Christian Yelich, Jared Keelnick. It's those three Yelich again. He signed through twenty twenty eight and I think that's a perfectly fine solution going forward. Let's be clear. I think we can all agree that the MVP version of Christian Yelich from twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen is probably a player of the past. Can Christian Yelich still be a valuable player, Yeah he can. Can he still be a three to four win guy for sure, especially with that power starting to come back a little bit, and not to mention the fact he plays phenomenal outfield defense. There's a lot of reasons to like this Christian Yelich idea, even though the contract is long and they'd have to take him on for a while. It's the same idea behind au Heniosuarez. They took some of the contract and they got a productive player at least last year. They did the same idea here with Yelich. 00:59:00 Speaker 1: And at this point I have the thought pop into my mind, do you worry about him hitting in T Mobile Park opposed to Sorry, I forgot the name of their stadium, American Family Fields, which is an absolute bandbox, one of the best hitters parks in all of baseball to the least friendly hitters park in baseball. But that's a bridge you cross when you're actually deciding whether or not you want to trade for him. But based on the profile, I'm doing it because good control, good eggs and velocities, plays good outfield. You have plenty of money to lend the Brewers to pay for some of that contract as well. I don't see why not. I don't see why you would not buy this contract. So the only I'd say downside is that he's on the other side of thirty. But at this point you can't be picky because you need bats. 00:59:50 Speaker 2: You do, and if you want to worry about the T Mobile Park factor, you're gonna worry about it with everybody at this point. You'll worry about it with Shoeo Tani at this point because if ta Oscar can't get through it with him batted ball profile, who is Because so Christian Yelich is a good player, you have to bet on that profile and trade for him if that's somebody that you are seriously targeting. By the way, if he gets traded here, I have to get a selfie with him at some point, or like a picture next to him, I have to. I absolutely have. 01:00:19 Speaker 1: Is it taller than you? 01:00:20 Speaker 2: I want to say we're about the same height. I think he's six one or six to two. So for those who don't know, I have been told way too many times over the last i'd say four or so years that I look like either Christian Yelich or Pete Davidson. Well, Christian Yelich also gets told he looks like Pete Davidson. Then I get told sometimes I look like Christian Yelich. Well I get both comps. So yeah, if he gets traded to Seattle, we got to get that picture. So that's another that's another plus to get in Yelich. Here, okay. Trade candidate number two jorgees so Lair of the Miami Marlins. TJ are you buying or selling this one? 01:00:59 Speaker 1: I'm buying. I'm not sure he's available though, Again Jerry said, these guys might not all be available, which is fair. But in terms of what the Mariners need, bye bye, bye bye and bye again. 01:01:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm buying. One hundred percent. I'm buying. And you know what, a lot of people will look at Jorge Solaire and say, well, he's an all or nothing guy. He's a two outcome guy, swing and miss or hits a home run. No, that's not really true. Look, so Lair might strike out, but it's not at the rate you think. He actually walks a decent amount, and his strikeout rate is below thirty percent. In fact, it's usually below thirty percent. The Mariners will take that especially considering he is a DH and they would plug him right in at DH every day. 01:01:43 Speaker 1: Oh and he's got seventeen home runs. You that if you strike out under thirty percent of the time and you have seventeen home runs at this point of the season. Yeah, yeah, please. 01:01:55 Speaker 2: So he is a year and a half left on his contract. Jorge Solaiir would be a free agent after twenty twenty four season. So another guy that's not a rental, you get him for a little bit of time here to your point, is he available? So we're both buying here. The question is the Marlins are having a good year and they're in the wildcard hunt right now too in the National League. That National League wildcard, by the way, is much less competitive than the ALE is right now. The Marlins are right in it, though, So the question becomes would they really ship them away? 01:02:26 Speaker 1: And they're an organization starved for bats. That's why they traded for Luisa Rice, who's having an unbelievable season this offseason with the Minnesota Twins, and why they signed Jorge Solaire. They needed bats, and for those two this season, they've been a pretty good duo. That's just that. That is the question though, he is going to be. He would be such a perfect fit as a DH you know that. That's I think the biggest reason I'm buying. And he would fit right in, especially for what the philosophy of what they do. They want to hit for power like the strikeouts. As we've seen for acquiring players, strikeouts have not been an issue, so I don't see why that would be an issue in terms of them acquiring Solair as well. And if you need him, you can stick him in the outfield as well. So I'm buying him. I'm buying Jorge Celaire and he's only thirty one too, so why not? 01:03:13 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it'd be great. 01:03:16 Speaker 1: Let's get to our third option here on a buy or sell. This might be the least likely of them all in terms of availability. Are you buying or selling? 01:03:29 Speaker 2: Jonathan India Jonathan India of the Cincinnati Reds. Yeah, I'm selling just for people that might not know what team he plays for, just in case. Yeah, I'm selling this one. I'm not sold on it. I'm gonna be honest. 01:03:43 Speaker 1: Wow, is it a little bit? Does it have to do with his bad ball profile not being great? 01:03:49 Speaker 5: Oh? 01:03:49 Speaker 2: It has to do with that and the great American Ballpark factor. If you looked at it splits this year, I have not no Well, let me and you, Oh boy, he has a one fifty WRC plus at Great American Ballpark this year at home, Wow, sixty eight on the road to put you want to put that guy in T Mobile Park after all the problems that are going on with this offense right now, I'm good, I'm selling. 01:04:18 Speaker 1: I'll sell to that's wow. That's that's really awful. The reason why he's available, why I would think he's available. I saw his name floated on Twitter, which I thought was interesting. It didn't seem like there was much consensus on whether or not he would actually be available. I know the Reds have a ton of middle infield prospects coming up through their system, and of course you don't trade guys off your big league roster because you have prospects, especially not young ones like Jonathan India, who's I think only into his He's gonna be arbitration eligible next year, so he's still very much under team control. But they have guys like Ellie de la Cruz who've talked about Noelvie's coming up to he should be in the big league this year, Edwin Arroyo, Matt McLain who's already on the big league roster and has hit really well this year. Those are all infield prospects that are on the Reds roster that could be eventually be on the Reds roster. And Jonathan India, if they're not really buying him, could feel like he's on his way out. So in summary, Jonathan India could be under control. He's got I guess okay power, but his splits are awful, so i'm self. 01:05:23 Speaker 2: He's also viewed as the leader of that team, and I think the Reds really like having him. But to your point, the reason he's been floated out there is because there are so many infielders in the Reds organization right now. There's a couple guys that you didn't even touch on on that list, And obviously the big ones are Ellie who's probably going to be the face of the team here pretty soon. He's weeks away from a call up. He's close now. Althie Marte has been going off in double A, like you said, but even guys like Spencer Steers had an awesome rookie year for the Reds. Matt mcclan's gotten up this year, had an awesome rookie year so far. You mentioned him, even a guy like Nick Senzel, who I'm sure they'd be happy to play India over instead. Senzel. I'm still getting playing time. And while he hasn't been a star like the way he was drafted to be, he's still been productive enough like he's still getting playing time. The point being, there's a ton of infielders on this Reds roster, and a lot of people are sitting there saying, well, does somebody have to go here? How is everybody gonna fit? That's why India is being floated out there as a potential trade candidate. I think, however, it would cost a lot to get them. 01:06:22 Speaker 3: It would. 01:06:23 Speaker 2: I hate those splits. I absolutely hate those splits between home and road. Now, to be fair, his career splits are actually pretty even. But the fact it's looked the way it has this year, yeah, I'm gonna pass. I can't look at a sixty eight WRC plus away from maybe the biggest hitters park in baseball and say, yeah, we want that guy. 01:06:45 Speaker 1: You would wonder if giving up Bryce Miller or Brian who would be worth Jonathan India. That's probably what it would take At this point, I would guess for a quality big league infielder who's fast, he's a good base runner, he walks in good amount, doesn't strike out a whole bunch, as decent pop, and has good intangibles. Like you said, that's going to cost to one of your prized arms, I would bet. And that's the question that the Mariners would actually be comfortable giving one of those guys up. Sounds like we're selling so at this point, No. 01:07:19 Speaker 2: That's where I stand on it. You think India is the least likely we saved maybe the most intriguing guy for last. I think this one's the least likely. But let's dive into him buying or selling. I mean, I'm excited to talk about this one, So let's go here buying or selling Luis Robert of the Chicago White Sox. I'm selling, selling, Okay, yes, lay it on, I'm telling me why. 01:07:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I'm looking at a younger version of taoscar Hernandez. This might be recency biased, This might just be PTSD from watching this current iteration of Mariners baseball. Well, Luise Robert, this year is striking out twenty nine percent of the time and walking five percent. Now, where have I seen that before? Where have I seen that? 01:08:11 Speaker 5: So? 01:08:11 Speaker 2: I was looking at a similar thing. 01:08:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, he is an amazing defender in the out in center field, He's a great defender. He has very good power. He has thirteen home runs this year. I'm just not I don't know, like, what is the long term profile of that bat for a guy who is going to be expensive as he is, as much as you would have to give up to acquire Luis Robert? Do you believe in that offensive profile? 01:08:41 Speaker 5: Do you? So? 01:08:44 Speaker 2: This is where I'm teetering back and forth. I think I am more on the side of bye, because it's so if we're just talking about the player, Luise Robert, the player bye. Now if you factor in the trade package, is gonna be again. I'm really torn on this one, And honestly, part of it is like I don't think there's any chance he's available. But let's get to that in a second. So I do not like the fact he strikes out as much as he does. I hate the fact that he does not walk at all. I also look at the rest of his profile and say, well, he's on pace for about a five and a half to six one season. He's an elite glove, he's got big power, and he's also got two club options on his contract after the initial part of it ends. So Luise Roberts got four and a half years of team control right now. He would not be a free agent until after twenty twenty seven. So if the Mariners acquired him, that is again another guy where similar to Christian Yelich, you have your outfield lockdown for a long time. But I'm not sure I can buy in what it would cost to get him. 01:10:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you, not not only just the cost. I think the cost combined with the profile you're getting back, just not not certain. I'm not sold that the that the that the the price, that price would be worth it. Oh and by the way, he's never played more than one hundred games in his career, not once. 01:10:19 Speaker 2: That's yeah, So let's play a little game here. Well, actually let's start with this first. I don't think he's available because again, even if the White Sox are going to sell and they're going to trade some guys like Gilito, Lance Lynn, maybe Tim Anderson, are they really going to trade a guy with four and a half years of club control. Who's arguably the face of that team. Who is the best player on that team? That part's for sure. Are they really going to trade that guy? I mean, I know so you said off air when we were talking about this, there might be a chance. I have a hard time believing there's a chance. 01:10:57 Speaker 1: White Sox are not the not on the pillar of good organizations. So I don't know if I would put anything past them. They just don't really have a history of making sound baseball decisions. 01:11:09 Speaker 2: Fair So let's play this game. Here's what I was gonna get to if the Mariners were to actually acquire Luis Robert, what goes back to Chicago? Who goes back to Chicago? 01:11:20 Speaker 1: My Brice? Oh okay, that's just start Bryce. Harry got to have one more guy to throw in there. What Gabby Gonzalez to two blue chips in a in a lottery ticket? 01:11:38 Speaker 2: So my package was going to be Harry Ford, call young Brian wu. But maybe that's not enough. 01:11:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot It's pretty significant. Those aren't guys who would help you, probably help you this year, but that's your you know, two three years down the line, organizational death that we're we're talking about here, and that's probably your future catcher. You're trading away for Luis Robert. If you're fully bought in on Luis Robert and you think he has a sustainable future in the Mariners' outfield, that package is absolutely worth it. But I don't think you and I are completely sold on it. 01:12:16 Speaker 2: I think you might have pushed me over the line here to the selling phase of this. I think now I'm going to sell, and again I was buying the idea of how valuable he could be in this lineup, But it's just between the price you'd have to pay, his profile, where he would fit right in with this current Mariners team in terms of guys that are supposed to have a lot of power but are just striking out all the time, and along with the fact that well, it's really those two things. It's the battle ball profile and what you'd have to give up for the most part. It's so yeah, I think you pushed me over the line here. So okay, the two guys were buying. Then to conclude this, if we're out on Robert in India, the two guys we'd be buying would be Yelich and Jorge Solaire, And it seems like, again because the Marlins are in real competition right now, it seems like maybe Yelich makes the most sense. Is that what we're concluding. 01:13:07 Speaker 1: Here Brewers are currently in first place, so well that would they would they would they would need to start losing and really like start worrying about money. That would be the realistic option to this. 01:13:22 Speaker 2: Well, that's true too, I guess I guess I should have clarified that, yes, of course they are in first place. I guess it's more back to what we talked about start of this, where we were like, they don't spend a lot of money. If they're serious about corporn burns, maybe they have to shed some payroll, so maybe they give Yellich away. Yeah. So the point being, all four of these guys would be very hard to acquire because none of these four teams probably want to give up on any of these guys, and it's gonna cost a decent amount. So this, this is the whole of the Mariners that dug themselves into, right, It's gonna take this type of guy along with the rest of the guys you're expecting to hit well, to hit for this season to turn around, and it's gonna be hard to get one of these guys. So we'll see what Jerry kind of has coocked up here. 01:14:07 Speaker 1: And for two of those guys, it would cost a lot. You would be mortgaging a good chunk of your future of an already decently thin farm system to go get a guy like the ones we mentioned, like India, like Luis Robert. That that's gonna cost a lot. And it's just the question to you of is that worth it from again an already thin farm system. And that's something that Jerry and company are gonna have to evaluate as a trade deadline approaches. But me and both you and I agree they can't wait until the trade deadline. It might be too late. By then, we know this current roster is not good enough, so a move might be on the horizon. And usually when you're trading at this point, you're overpaying. 01:14:50 Speaker 2: And here's the other thing about Mariners trades. You don't usually hear leaks, and then another leak, and then another leak, and then we start to get an idea of what's going on. No trade happens, it's just gonna happen. We're gonna get an alert on our phone. It's gonna be a Jeff Passing tweet, and it's just gonna be a bomb. It's gonna be somebody we weren't even thinking of. It's gonna be none of the guys we talked about today, and then we're gonna be like, Oh, oho is that guy? I mean, that's how it's gonna go. That's how all these Mariners' moves go. So you're right, I think they're gonna I think they're already in the works to acquire a bat. Right now, we just have no idea who it's gonna be. We're just taking our best guests here to try to outline some guys that could potentially help. 01:15:31 Speaker 1: I think it's gonna throw all of us off when they do do it. That's the way Jerry made it sound. So I guess we'll have to see. But speaking of those guys, they might have to give up to go acquire a bat. Uh, let's transition and let's go down on the farm. Okay, Lyle, who do you have this week? 01:15:52 Speaker 2: Oh? You're gonna roll your eyes sort of, but no, I'm not. It's Jake Schiner again. So we've we've talked about how I mean, at some point we're gonna circle back to some of these guys, because a lot of the guys that are playing well obviously are gonna be worth highlighting again, like PCL or not, Triple A or not. I know it's a hitters league. Jake Shiner's going off. This guy played two games this week because he missed a couple of games with an injury, and he hit home runs in both of those games. He went three for eight against Las Vegas this weekend, a double and two home runs. He's now at seventeen home runs on the year. That's third and minor league baseball behind Luke and Baker and Joe Adell Luken. Baker just got the call up for the Cardinals, by the way, so he's about to pass Baker, and he just continues to mash WRC plus is just shy of one forty ops is at ten ninety two. I mean, again, I don't care if it's the PCL guy's hitting and he I think he deserves this credit. 01:16:49 Speaker 1: Tell me if I'm wrong. I don't think you've been higher on a minor leaguer since Jared. 01:16:56 Speaker 2: I again, I so here's where we're at, right and it's it's all all connecting back to the theme of this podcast. The Mariners offense. They've got to improve. So it shouldn't be this way, right, I should not sit here and be all worked up in a positive way about how unbelievable Jake Shiner's been. I'm rooting for the guy. I mean, in general, even if the Mariners were playing great right now, you want more bats. You always want more talented players. So it's awesome what he's doing. I think the reason I'm really itching to watch his stat lines every night and watch his highlights every night is because I'm just looking anywhere, shape, any way, shape or possible to say, where could they get one little spark of offensive production. I'm looking at what Jake Shiner is doing in the minors. I'm just wondering, is he gonna get a shot here at some point, because I don't know how much more he has to prove down in TRIPLEA before they say, all right, let's see what he's got. 01:17:49 Speaker 1: It's possible, but I think you and I would agree we'd rather them acquire a major league bat instead. Right to occupy say it the DH spot that Mike Ford is. 01:17:58 Speaker 2: In correct, but I'm talking about if you need some bench bats, which I mean it's not like the bench has been amazing this year. He has some pop off the bench, could play the corners, could play second base. I mean, that's a guy that has some value. Again, I don't know if he's gonna be any good or not when he gets to the majors. I'm just intrigued enough now by for how long he's been doing this in TRIPLEA to say, yeah, he might be worthy of getting a shot. One little stat here before I wrap this up. Since May second, he struck out thirteen times. That's it. That's not a lot. So he's not swinging to missing a whole lot. 01:18:37 Speaker 1: Well, I'm gonna hold myself back from saying that I think you and I could also hit well in the PCL, And I'm just gonna instead take the high road and go to my go to my pick A Prospect of the week Gabby Gonzalez, highlighting him for the second time this season the Mariners number seven prospect. He is writing a current eighteen game hit street queer. He's sitting a kid, you not. Four twenty nine with eight doubles, three home runs, fourteen RBIs He's walked six times and struck out twelve and his first season of affiliated ball. Right now in June, he is carrying an on base percentage of four oh seven at nineteen years old. In terms of that young group of prospects, he is certainly turning it on in his first season at again affiliated ball level, and he's he's doing a great job. 01:19:31 Speaker 2: This is the guy. When the Mariners signed him, people were really excited about. People were high on his bat. We're seeing it. He got a little bit of time in Modesto last year as an eighteen year old. Here we sit in early June, nineteen year old Gaby Gonzalez is lighting the world on fire. Now he probably stays down there most of the year. At that bat, it's easy to dream on. We're seeing it. You just outlined it. That is a guy that absolutely circle and keep tabs on. 01:19:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, he is crushing it. Speaking of young guys, I mean outside the Mariners organization. Have you seen what Ethan Salas is doing for the Padres The sixteen year old. 01:20:08 Speaker 2: So this was the one guy ranked ahead of felnine Celestine when the Mariners signed Celestine, he was so Sallas was the number one international prospect in this class at sixteen years old. Yeah, he's already been called up to affiliated ball and he's just absolutely mashing. 01:20:23 Speaker 1: It's so bizarre. Sixteen, that's crazy. That's crazy. 01:20:29 Speaker 2: I just to already be an affiliated ball, it is ridiculous. Which, by the way, shout out to felnin this week. He's gonna get his Dominican Summer League career started here this week, and I am very excited to watch what he's got. 01:20:42 Speaker 1: How many weeks still he makes an appearance on here. 01:20:45 Speaker 2: Probably not many. Okay, let's get to a little bit of a lighter segment here. Let's get to our Russell Wilson Umpire of the Week. You have been talking about this one. You sent this to me a few days ago and you were like, yep, here it is. This is the guy. So tell everybody who wins the award this week. 01:21:05 Speaker 1: I think my quote was, I'm just so grateful. They make it really easy on us. So for this week, it was during regional play. It was Clemson and Tennessee. They were in a fantastic extra inning game that Tennessee ended up winning in fourteen innings, but in the top of the thirteenth inning, Tennessee had the bases loaded. They had bases loaded. Clemson gets out of a bases loaded jam. The center fielder makes a catch as he's jogging past the second base. The Tennessee runner leaving second base to go back to his dugout and go to go get his glove and go back out in the field. He must have said something. It didn't like trigger anything, because the teams were still like they might have said something, but they were walking back to each other's dugouts. Well, the second base umpire, Angel Campos, decided that he was going to toss Clemson's freshman center fielder out of the game for whatever he said out of his mouth again, which did not trigger a reaction from Tennessee, but the umpire decided that in the thirteenth inning of a classic game, that he should eject Clemson center fielder from the game. So thank you Angel Campos for realizing that people turned in to watch fourteen innings of you. 01:22:16 Speaker 2: This one would qualify as not letting a play develop, wouldn't it. 01:22:21 Speaker 1: Yes, So let the kids play. 01:22:25 Speaker 2: That's too much to ask of umpires. Just let the game be fun. Give people their money's worth. No, it's not a baseball game without somebody getting injected. You kidding me? 01:22:35 Speaker 1: No, especially an eighteen year old kid. I mean, what better power trip than getting to throw some kid who you know, just just finished up his freshman year of school is now playing in the postseason. 01:22:46 Speaker 2: Like I told you, Yeah, is this your lifelong dream to go to Omaha? Not anymore? You know where you're going next? The showers, Buddy, get out of here. What a joke. 01:22:59 Speaker 1: It's going to go to the That's gonna go with the theme of my speaker minds. So let's go. Let's get into our final segment and let's speak our minds. 01:23:08 Speaker 5: Speak your mind spot. 01:23:13 Speaker 2: That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. 01:23:20 Speaker 1: All right, Low first, we'll go with you. What's on your mind this week? 01:23:25 Speaker 2: Honestly getting away from baseball this week. I was kind of sad to finish ted Lasso, or not kind of. I was very sad to finish it because I always love to having the show around. And maybe I'm kind of speaking in just writing a brick wall here because you don't watch the show, but yeah, it was sad to have it in Now. I think they ended it on the right spot, because look, you don't want to drag shows out too long, and I think they ended it well, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm gonna miss having new episodes to watch every week. So yeah, the last three years it's been fun to have and well now it's over. 01:23:59 Speaker 1: Didn't last two seasons suck? No? 01:24:02 Speaker 2: I mean, look, listen, it's it's it's the same way as people who like to nitpick Star Wars, people who like to nitpick all the great TV shows or movies and say, oh, it sucked. Okay, was season one the best season? I think that's a fair argument. No, the last two seasons didn't suck. They were still good, and I'm gonna miss having the show. 01:24:21 Speaker 1: Interesting because if, as somebody has not watched a single second of the show, who's only knew only knew about the episodes of this show through people tweeting about it, I would have assumed seasons two and three were some of the worst television ever. 01:24:36 Speaker 2: No, No, it was still good. It was still really good. Again, maybe season one was the best season, but it was it was still good. Also. Actually, one more thing, a little music note here. It wasn't his best album ever, but metro Boomin did release some new music this week, and I've kind of been lacking on some new music to listen to, so I was kind of happy to see that get dropped earlier this week, so I and again it wasn't like his best work of all time, but there were a few songs on there I liked. 01:25:03 Speaker 1: It was his Into the Spider Verse album that's gonna that goes along with the Into the Spider Verse movie that I believe is now out, so not like not, I'll have to I listened to a little bit of it, didn't get all the way through it, so I think I'll have to take your word and listen to the rest of it when I get the chance. My first speak your mind, Lyle, it relates directly to you, and I think you'll get a chuck out of this. College Baseball is my next one. But this first one, Skip Bayless is now single again. He doesn't have a partner. What is he gonna do? 01:25:40 Speaker 2: Are we ever going to get to the point on this show where somebody has to go solo over a breakup because of too many personal shots getting taken at your co host? Yeah? 01:25:50 Speaker 1: Are you gonna leave the podcast? When I say you're a Hall of you, despite you being a Hall of Famer, you're washed, you suck, You're jealous of Tom Brady. 01:26:00 Speaker 2: While I can't I mean what am I saying? I was about to say, I can't believe that. No, I can very well believe it that Skip Bayless has yet another person that does not want to work with him anymore. 01:26:13 Speaker 1: I mean, he's gonna take that job. Who's gonna do that? 01:26:15 Speaker 2: I mean, somebody will sell out for the paycheck because it's gonna pay a lot of money, So somebody will do it. But have you've seen the reports about it already? Skip? Apparently? I mean, not only is he basically the just ultra overlord of this show and that entire production where what he says goes. He says he wants somebody that's basically just gonna go with anything he says, and be like, Oh, you're right, Skip, You're so right. Everything you're saying is spot on. Chanton would actually push back on him. Listen, I'm not saying I sat down to watch this show. I didn't. But you know the clips you see on Twitter, you see enough of it to pick up on it right where I guess Skip decided that I don't like that I don't like being told I'm wrong and somebody trying to, you know, go against me. I need somebody to actually just be on my side and piggyback off everything I say. So this show is about to get even worse than it already was. 01:27:15 Speaker 1: Wouldn't be funny if Shannon Sharp went to ESPN and took over First Take with stephen A. 01:27:20 Speaker 2: Stephen A said, I saw him on his podcast this week or again, I didn't like listen to the whole thing, but I saw a clip of it tweeted out where steven A said, Look, if Shannon wants to come to ESPN and be on First Take, I'm all ears that. 01:27:33 Speaker 1: Would actually be entertaining. 01:27:36 Speaker 2: Oh that would be unreal if it was basically just the anti Skip Bayless. 01:27:40 Speaker 1: Crew pretty much. 01:27:41 Speaker 2: I mean again, you're you're right, who's gonna work with that guy? Like from everything you hear and everything you see, it's just impossible to be around. 01:27:49 Speaker 1: He's just a troll. Yeah, but I heard the idea is like, when Lebron retires, they should hire Lebron to debate Skip. 01:28:01 Speaker 2: That would lead doing straight up brawl on Undisputed that Yeah, Skip would probably get killed, But you know, he'd probably till Lebron's face say I'm. 01:28:10 Speaker 1: Sorry, you suck. 01:28:12 Speaker 2: It's like, does that does that guy think anybody is good? Not named Michael Jordan. Last night he was tweeting about Jokic and last night being what Sunday night he was tweeting about how like he thinks Jokic sucks and every shot he put in of his forty one point outing was luck. 01:28:28 Speaker 1: Was lucky because he's like what because he's he's greasing up the ball with like Crisco. 01:28:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's making a joke about Jokic's weight. It's like, buddy, how are you possibly trying to demean the best player in the NBA. 01:28:44 Speaker 1: My favorite account on Twitter is not Skip Bayless's Twitter account. It's the guy who will always respond underneath Skip Bayless's. 01:28:53 Speaker 2: Tweets and read them out in his boy the Impersonator, which, funny enough, I think I think that guy's name is Josh Rosen, which not the former quarterback Josh Rosen. It's just the guy with the same name, and his impersonations are spot on. 01:29:09 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, oh man, man, Yeah, I don't know. I don't know who's gonna take that job. It's just it's so funny. I remember the start of Undisputed. Do you remember what led off Undisputed? He went to Tim Tebow's open workout to go back to baseball. That was the first thing go Skip interviewing Tim Tebow on the field is like, do you feel like you're ready for this journey? You know, I still believe in you as an NFL quarterback, But regardless, I think you're gonna be an All Star in two years. 01:29:45 Speaker 2: That he's unreal. I mean, like again, like you said, he's a troll, and there's people out there that are trolls, but you just hear too many things that. Okay, he's not putting on a facade on air. I mean he is, but it's not like off air he's like the nicest guy and like treats everybody well. He's just like miserable to be around. 01:30:06 Speaker 1: This man wakes up at two in the morning to run on his treadmill and record a video to Lebron James asking him if he's working hard enough. 01:30:17 Speaker 2: People think we're making that up. No, that's real. If you go on Skip Bayless's Instagram, and I mean you'd have to scroll back a little bit of a ways, but there is a video legit of him at two am running on the treadmill on a Saturday morning, no Less talking to Lebron as if he's possibly watching this video, like god he is. 01:30:37 Speaker 1: I think my favorite Skip Bayless moment is when he recorded an entire podcast because he missed a day of exercise. Do you remember that? 01:30:48 Speaker 5: Yeah? 01:30:48 Speaker 1: I know? Or I think. The other fun fact is that he doesn't sleep in the same bit as his wife on weekdays because he needs to be prepared. 01:30:57 Speaker 2: Yeah. He says he has to be in like full work mode to debate Shannon Sharp. He claims that's why he works out so hard. It's like I have to be in peak shape to keep up with the Hall of Famer Shannon Sharp and be in my best form for Undisputed. It's like, why don't you just like wake up, eat some breakfast, and like get to the studio. 01:31:18 Speaker 1: That's just so funny. I'm very curious to see who's gonna step into that spot. I do miss old first take with Steven A. I think that was its peak. I think that was peak Skip Bayless because I think he's just running off all the talent that's across him and I think that matters, Like, like, Skip is sick if you, like you don't agree with his takes at all and you think he's a fucking idiot. But it's fucking entertaining because you know, you just listen to the shit that comes out of his mouth. But now if you only have like a yes man sitting across from him, that you know, kind of kills the product. 01:31:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, man, We have spent a lot of time on that. We spent. We spent a good chunk of time. They were talking about Skip Bayless and I'm sitting here mentioning metro booming, which I know there's a lot of people that are like a generation older than us listening to this and they're probably like, who in the world is that? 01:32:05 Speaker 1: Well, I just I do have one more that I was gonna mention. Since it's college basal baseball regional weekend, it is also now the time of year that college coaches will ignore every safety protocol for pitchers and throw guys as much as humanly possible for this weekend. There's a couple of examples we've seen in the pros that managers barely ever now let their pitchers throw more than maybe one hundred and ten pitches like maximum, even like ACE level. Guys who've been in the league forever throw about one hundred and ten pitches max. Just this weekend alone in regional play, the projected number two pick Paul Skeins threw one hundred and twenty four pitches against nineteen win two LAN, a team that became the first team ever to make regionals with forty losses, and they left him in with a five run lead to throw one hundred and twenty four pitch complete game. Blew my mind. George Mason had a guy throw one hundred and twenty eight pitches with a nine run lead in a complete game, a nine run lead, and they had him throw one hundred and twenty eight pitches. Texas threw a guy one hundred and twenty nine pitches, and now Southern miss who advanced to the Super Regionals today. They threw a guy for one hundred and twenty three pitch complete game on Friday, and then they started him again today on Monday. 01:33:34 Speaker 2: It's so funny. 01:33:35 Speaker 1: Because you realize, like, if these programs had, say five hundred thousand dollars invested in the future of this player, they wouldn't be doing this, they would not it. Just the I would say a hypocrisy of coaching at the collegiate level is it's not great. The players probably don't help themselves too. I'm sure they're all rearing to go and re rear in to play, but in terms of looking towards the future, it's like, it's not good for your elbow at all to pitching that much. Nobody would recommend that, and yet they do it. 01:34:06 Speaker 2: Anyways. Yeah, for Paul Skeen's sake, I mean, at least he got out of it clean, at least as far as we know, and by clean being he wasn't hurt. Seems to be totally fine. I mean, obviously that's an LSU team that's got real title aspirations, right, I mean, so, I mean I don't agree with it. I don't think coaches should be doing that, and I think that's just another reason athletes should be getting paid, because it's not fair to them to potentially jeopardize their big league career over this. But again, we're just sitting here with a Mike talking about it. Obviously we can't do anything about it. And Paul Skeen's by the way, for those who don't know. Jim Kallis, who we've had on this show, was just talking about it today. He called Paul Skeen's the best pitching prospect since Steven Strasburg, who then callous said might be the best pitching prospect ever. So that's how good this guy can be. And LSU's like, well, who cares about that? 01:35:00 Speaker 1: Well they do. They're gonna use him as much as they possibly can before he gets drafted in leaves, and it's not as much of an issue like schemes might be the least worry of them all. He threw a lot this season. He averaged over one hundred pitches of game, so him pitching one hundred and twenty four might not be as extreme as if he For example, LSU beat Oregon State today to advance to the Super Regional. I would have been curious to see had LSU beat Oregon State beaten LSU earlier today and they would have had to play again. Are they going to turn to Paul Skins on a Monday after letting him throw one hundred and twenty four pitches? Would that be a good idea for you know, Paul Skeins who has an agent, and I think has a dad that is there in watching after his future and his health. Say, hey, Jay Johnson, this isn't really a good idea. He's set to make about eight million dollars here in about a month, and you're gonna go run him ragged and potentially set him up for long term injury for the sake of the team. I guess it's just not very smart and it's very I don't like it. I don't like it, especially it has shown that it guys get hurt from over usage like this. 01:36:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true, and you just hope for all these guys' sake they get out of the tournament healthy because a lot of these guys not just schemes, but there's other guys too that have real major league futures. So it wouldn't be fair to it all to see them get have their draft stock take a hit over this. And it's kind of out of their control too, So let's just keep our fingers crossed they can all stay healthy. How about that. 01:36:34 Speaker 1: Let's do that. 01:36:36 Speaker 3: Well. 01:36:37 Speaker 2: I think with that, it'll just about wrap up this edition of the Marine Layer podcast. You guys know, if you want to listen to the full podcast, you can do so on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon. Full video form is on YouTube. Go subscribe on YouTube, give the video a thumbs up if you're listening on the audio platforms like subscribe, download, help us beat that algorithm. And then on social media, you can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pot For t J. Matthewson, this is Lyle Volkstein. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you next week.