Episode 34: Gary Hill Jr. (Mariners Broadcaster), ASG Cases For Julio/Paul Sewald, And Has The Mariners Offensive Approach Actually Improved?

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number thirty four of the Marine Layer Podcast with TJ. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein. On today's pod, we welcome on on Mariners broadcaster and engineer Gary Hill. Great conversation with Gary. We touched on analytics, we touched on his journey to the big leagues, and a little bit on the Mariners offense. Improving. Really good conversation with Gary. One of the nicer guys you'll meet, so we appreciate him taking some time to join us. We have our three Mariners storylines, another voicemail segment as well. After taking last week off, we'll go down on the farm and pick out our standout Mariners minor leaguer, another Russell Wilson Umpire of the Week, and as always Lyle, we close out the show with Speak your Mind. 00:00:44 Speaker 2: Before all that little word from our partners that in the Clutch Clothing. In the Clutch Clothing Company is an official partner of the Marine Layer Podcast. In the Clutch is the ultimate fan site for Seattle Baseball merchandise, including the Celebration Trident, official MLBPA shirts for Jay, Jared Kalmick, Cal Riley, and Los Bombaros. If you want to use the code. You can use code marine Layer Pod at indclutch dot com for ten percent off and currently every shirt on their website ships within the US for free. 00:01:14 Speaker 1: And this is a reminder to you wherever you might be listening or watching the podcast from to go to our other platforms and make out. Make sure you check out the podcast there. If you're watching it on YouTube, make sure you subscribe, make sure you turn on the notification bell, and then also go find us at Apple or Spotify, leave us a five star review, make sure you're following us, make sure you're there and ready for when we drop a podcast every week. You can also find us on social media on Twitter, on Instagram, and on 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 nineteenth, And for the first time ever on this podcast, we're gonna lead off an episode praising a bunt? 00:02:15 Speaker 2: Are we not banning the bun? I still want to ban the bun? 00:02:18 Speaker 1: I know you want to, But there was a pretty pivotal bunt in yesterday's baseball game on Sunday. 00:02:25 Speaker 2: There was there was a pivotal bun and it knocked lanceln out of the game. Who for a guy with an era that was approaching seven man, did he look like he was the cy young front runner against the M's on Sunday afternoon. 00:02:38 Speaker 1: Here's what I'll say to this. We like guys swinging the bat, but it was the guy not totally swinging the bat who seemed to do the most damage. Outside of that one Julio swing against Lancelnn earlier in the game, it was the guy much maligned, who has had a lot of trouble swinging the bat this year, who instead decided to shorten up a little bit, t his bat out over the plate and put a perfectly placed bunt down and knock the guy out of the game. And then Jared Kelnick eventually comes up and Ice is the game after that, which is everything we wanted to see. 00:03:13 Speaker 2: You're speaking facts. That being said, Bunning in general disavow now on Sunday, sure it helped him win. Hellever, Bunning in general still disavow. 00:03:25 Speaker 1: That's fair. That's fair. But in terms of series, Lyle, that White Sox series good, good one for you to be at the ballpark, good to be back at the park. It was it had been a little bit since you were there at the park. Anything stand out to you eat? Anything fun? 00:03:40 Speaker 2: I did, and we have a food review coming this week. I went to Holy Smoke Barbecue, which is out in center field. What I tried was pretty good. I'm gonna put it at that. So if you want to check out our food review later this week, you definitely should. And yeah, it met expectations, if not exceeded expectations. So yeah, you'll want to check it out and maybe check it out at the ballpark if you get there. 00:04:02 Speaker 1: This year, Mariner's Ballpark Food continues to be s tire and also be sure to keep an eye to our social media channels for small player content. You might have already seen a little bit once this episode comes out, but there will be more as the week comes along. We got a lot a lot loaded up. We have a lot more planned for you as well, with All Star Week coming up in how long from now? Two and a half three and a half weeks? A little under three weeks. 00:04:25 Speaker 2: It's about three weeks, like you said, somewhere between two and a half three weeks at the time of recording this. Let me also add two with these player questions, just to all of our listeners. If you guys have questions that you guys want us to ask the players, let us know, Like, leave us a comment in our Instagram DMS and our Twitter dms. You can email us, hey, you can leave it in a voicemail if you want. Any way you want to let us know, let us know, because our goal with those is we're trying to bridge the gap obviously between players and fans and show some of their personality. So obviously we want to hear from you guys. I think TJ and I have some cool ideas a question to ask, but if there's things you want to ask and want to be heard, tell us, and we are more than open to ideas. 00:05:07 Speaker 1: How did II Lyle not realize that Ty francis Josh Allen? How did I not realize that? 00:05:13 Speaker 2: So? I never thought about it? And as soon as he said it, I mean you can kind of see it in my reaction when he says that, I was like, oh is as soon as he said it, I was like, I totally see the resemblance. Now, Tie's probably at least six inches shorter than Josh Allen, but like the two faces when you line them up together. Yeah, there's a lot of resemblance. 00:05:34 Speaker 1: You can go check out that video on all of our social media channels. It's great an opportunity again to see some personality from these players. Another one that I didn't think about that much, and he might have a better sense of humor than John Cena does, with Paul Seawall looking like John Cena as well, which I thought was good. 00:05:53 Speaker 2: And he had that one right away too, and I was like, oh, have you gotten that before, because it took him about half a second to give the answer, and uh, and he said, oh, yeah, I've gotten that. You know, Brian Wu didn't have one, so he said. We got some comments though, saying Brian Wu looks like Jimmy Tatrow. You know, I maybe see it a little bit. I can see it a little bit. 00:06:14 Speaker 1: No, I'm not familiar with Jimmy Jimmy Taatero's face. Let me let me look it up here. 00:06:19 Speaker 2: Okay, Jimmy Tatero's he's on Real Bros. Of Seami Valley. Obviously, he's been in some movies. He has a couple of TV shows. It's not it's not a perfect resemblance. I can just see a little bit of it. So when a couple of people left those comments, I said, all right, like I could see it maybe five to ten percent. 00:06:39 Speaker 1: Here's the question on this podcast. Uh yeah, I don't know. 00:06:44 Speaker 2: I feel a little. 00:06:47 Speaker 1: Maybe a tiny bit a tony. Yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna put that at about five percent. The problem is, you have a celebrity doppelganger Ty France does, Paul Sewald, Brian Wu, I guess doesn't what's mine? I don't even know. So I have a real life doppelganger. Correct, but he's not a celebrity. So where's the celebrity one, because then we can knock out two birds with one stone. We can have mine and my brothers. 00:07:18 Speaker 2: For those who don't know that reference, TJ has an identical twin, so yes, he has a real life doppelganger. Honestly, you guys could probably pull off the whole parent trap thing if you guys both just dressed up in a white T shirt and jeans and presented yourself to two people who never met you guys, or maybe met you guys less than three times, and people wouldn't be able to spot Yeah, I would. I think our friends would like general people probably not, but actual doppelganger. I'm gonna have to think on that. I told Justin Topa the same thing, because he's like, I don't think I've gotten one. I was like, okay, we'll think of one at some point throughout the season for you, because I couldn't think of one on the spot. But for you, how about I just. 00:07:55 Speaker 1: Make Jason's job easier. I become famous and I'm his celebrity dopplegan here. 00:08:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. Maybe one day Jason can walk around the streets in New York's telling people, yeah, I don't I look like that guy from the Marine Layer podcast. 00:08:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah, it's like, yeah, man, little little did you know? You know I hosted the first iteration of. 00:08:17 Speaker 2: That exactly exactly way back when, back. 00:08:22 Speaker 1: When we were sitting if you dig, if you go down into the internet and dig a little bit, I think you should still be able to find some of it. 00:08:31 Speaker 2: It was quality back when TJ would sit in in the little edit base at our journalism school at ASU and record with his brother, like over the phone or over FaceTime, and every now and then I'd pop in and help out. Yeah, it was it was like, it was like the first couple of times we've ever really been on a mic trying to do podcasting. 00:08:50 Speaker 1: And look where it's lead. Look at us now. 00:08:53 Speaker 2: Right here, right here talking to Julio this past weekend. That's where it's talking to. 00:08:57 Speaker 1: That was great, That was really good. You didn't ask him the Doppelgayer question. 00:09:02 Speaker 2: Though, I did. He got Michael B. 00:09:03 Speaker 1: Jordan did. Yeah, oh duh, yeah. 00:09:08 Speaker 2: He got that one. So yeah, we forgot that. 00:09:11 Speaker 1: That let off the video. 00:09:12 Speaker 2: Duh. Yeah, So we're spoiling what this first round of player content wise, which you should still go check it out anyway, because there's there's more that we haven't touched on that's in that video, and there will be a bunch more this week, so you need more reason to go check out our socials. 00:09:25 Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I see Michael B. 00:09:27 Speaker 2: Jordan and him, I think I see it. I see I mean he said he so, not exactly, but he said he has some features like the smile I think is kind of similar. 00:09:36 Speaker 1: That's true, that's true, and we'll give it to Julio. He can be his own doppelgamer because he'll hopefully be more famous than Michael B. Jordan yeah, but we'll see. We'll check on that one in twenty years. How about that. Let's get to our three Mariners storylines. A first lyle, how are we evaluating Brian Wu after his first three starts? 00:09:59 Speaker 2: So I'm gonna flip this back to you, because after his first start, we sat here and we talked about him, and I said, I think Brian Wu can pitch like a five starter in this rotation going forward. I think he can be just as productive as Marco was while Marco's out. And you said, I'm not so sure, and I said, well, I'm not really ready to give up on Brian Wu after one start. You look at his last two outings. I think what I said is pretty much true. 00:10:25 Speaker 1: I was wrong. I was wrong in the sense that he could not pitch like a five starter. The length he's giving you and what he I would say, the innings he has available left in his arm is about what you would get out of a five starter right now. Five starters. On the other hand, you know Marco wise, he strikes out more batters than Marco, he walks less batters than Marco. He's got better stuff than Marco. He throws harder than Marco. The peripherals are good, the run prevention is okay, gave up, has given up a few home runs. But overall, for a guy who again had barely over one hundred innings in the minor leagues, he's been good. Man, he has been good. His expected ERA in three starts small sample is two six that's low. 00:11:09 Speaker 2: That's really good. And I mean even his fifth sits at three six eight. Again, these are all ra predictors, So forget what his actual era said, because look, I'm basically throwing that first start out he based the best offensive baseball he had short notice for his debut. I mean it was not an ideal situation. I'm looking at what he's done in his last two starts. His last two starts four and two thirds innings, two earned runs, seven strikeouts against the Angels, five and two thirds innings, two earned runs, nine strikeouts against the White Sox. That's your five starter with a guy who three starts into his career, you can see the upside as much higher than that, and like you said, has been not dominant, but maybe a step below that in his last two outings. And you've seen that fastball and how good it is. 00:11:55 Speaker 1: Let's see where his innings are at, because we check in in his innings his workload last season. He threw fifty seven innings total for this season already, which is why I hesitate. It's at fifty six and a third, so he's right up near his inning total from last season. How many more innings he gets to throw? How many more starts he gets to make a that's a good question. You're right lyle when you said he might just pitch till July and be done. That's at this point looking very very realistic. If he stays in this rotation, he's got seven more starts until the end of July. Minimum. Got to watch out for that. Gonna watch out for that, Brian Wu. And they're also going to limit how much he gets to throw in these starts. But in that those short spurts, it has been good. 00:12:42 Speaker 2: Tell me if this seems feasible. Brian Wu stays in the rotation until around the time Marco Gonzalez comes back, which Marco Gonzalez all three days this weekend when I was out of the ballpark, was throw in and was stretching out a little bit. So he's clearly progressing that Brian Wu is stayed. He stays in the rotation until Marco gets back, and then essentially he's done for the year. Marco just takes the spot back. Is that feasible? 00:13:06 Speaker 1: That's that's feasible, And I think that would be about as good of a placeholder as you can possibly get. How about you know, I'm gonna just eat my words again, but how about this Mariner's pitching development. This is your tenth starter essentially that you called upon this season, and he's got really good stuff, really good a guy you plucked out in the forget what round was he drafted in fourth sixth Okay und same ballpark. His fastball is awesome. He throws two of them. He throws his he's been throwing his sinker, his two singer down at the bottom of the zone, and his four singer has been attacking the top of the zone. Well, not extending too far out of the zone. He's really just been attacking that top rail and it's been a really, really effective pitch. Now, I don't have Apple TV, could not watch his start on Friday. Unfortunately, now we sit here after three starts, and despite him getting blown to hell in his first start, we look at his first three career starts. How it stacks up across others in Mariner's history. Felix is number one. He struck out twenty one batters in his first three starts. Brian wo is second, with twenty strikeouts in his first three starts. Who's he ahead of? Well, he's ahead of Bryce Miller, ahead of Eric Hansen, and ahead of Freddie Garcia as well. 00:14:30 Speaker 2: That's pretty good for a guy that you're claiming to be the tenth starter, and that is about right. And for the guy in this rotation that currently sits as the five starter, he's racking up numbers and accolades like that. I mean, how much more can you say about the way the Mariners have developed arms, starters, relievers, you name it. I mean, it's ridiculous what they've done. 00:14:54 Speaker 1: How many other five starters have a strikeout rate of thirty eight percent. 00:15:00 Speaker 2: If they're out there, I'm gonna say that list is short. I'm talking really short. 00:15:07 Speaker 1: Hat tip to you, Brian will good thing of wore a hat today. By the way, I'm getting a haircut tomorrow, but I can hat tip because my hair is a mess today. So good job, Brian. Wuu oh, shout out All Star Game two and a half weeks, we'll be there. Come say hi, there you go see self promotion right there? 00:15:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So how often do you get your haircut? Because my new thing is I get it about every three weeks. Now I was getting it once in three weeks. Well, I was getting it once a month, but I don't like it growing out long. So now I get it about every three weeks. And I'm due for my next one a few days before All Star weeks. So yes, I will be getting an All Star Game haircut. 00:15:40 Speaker 1: I always say that when I start making more money, which I probably should have chose a different industry if I really cared about making more money. But I said that when I start making more money, I could go, Oh, I could go get my haircut once every two weeks if I wanted to. I really just wanted to be sharp and clean the whole time, every two weeks, but not that. I I could probably afford to go every month. That's fine. Will I remember to go every month? No? I kind of like my hair long. I think it like it works to that point, but it's like once the rattail starts growing in, then then you know it's probably time to probably time to get a haircut, so it's about one once every two months, once every three months, depending on how I'm feeling. But I'll be looking I'll be looking fresh up there for the All Star Game, so that'll be good. But I can't. I cannot match Robbie Ray's hair though. Unfortunately, if I could grow my hair out like that for the pictures I was seeing this weekend, maybe I would let my hair grow out a little bit more, but I would legit have a mullet if I just let my hair keep growing, which I'm which is not gonna ride with me. 00:16:45 Speaker 2: Maybe Robbie Ray's sitting there saying, look, if I've got to recover from Tommy John for the next twelve to sixteen months, why not at less at least let the flow keep going. I mean, if he's like, well, I'm not gonna be pitching on TV, I'm not gonna. I mean, I mean not that it matters. I mean, he could have long hair all he wants, but it just seems like he always kept it fairly short. And he's like, well, I'll live a little bit while I'm rehabing. 00:17:07 Speaker 1: It's good for him. It gives him something to think about when he wakes up in the morning of how he's gonna if he can't move his arms. It's like, all right, I need to be able to work on something else. And oh hey, look at that. 00:17:19 Speaker 2: Okay, second storyline here. All Star Game voting is nearing its end with each passing day. With that, we figured we'd sit up here and we could make some cases for a couple guys. So we're gonna highlight two, Julio and Paul Seawald. Is there somebody you want to start with? 00:17:35 Speaker 1: Of those two, Let's start with Seawald because I think if there's anyone on this Mariners team who deserves to make the All Star Game, it is Paul Seawald. In terms of excellence throughout the league this year. Here his ranks we compare to the rest of the American League. Quality of contact, he ranked second, expected ERA second, expected batting average, fourth, expected slugging percentage, fourth, strike out mice walk percentage. He's tenth. Wins Bob Replacement amongst relievers, he's tied for fifth, and then in the American League, he's tied for fourth, coincidantly behind Brash. Now, your standard voter, your standard fifty plus year old manager isn't going to say, Okay, man, who am I choosing from my bullpen? Okay, I'm gonna go on a baseball savant and I'm gonna click the leader boards and I'm gonna scroll down and look here, and Paul Seewalt's ex wOBA is second on the team. Unfortunately, that's not how it works, but it is reflective of how good Paul Seawald has been this year. As you like to say, his savant page is bright red kool aid, and he's been consistent. He has been the guy the Mariners have had to rely on over the course of the season, and he's passed the bill for the most part. And this is the best version of Paul seawall the manors have had. 00:19:00 Speaker 2: I agree with all that. I also can't stop laughing because after what you said about managers not going on Baseball Savant and pulling up the leaderboards, I'm now just picturing I know he's not a manager anymore, but I'm just picturing Tony Larusa doing exactly that. And what pops into my head is that meme of that grandpa who's sitting at his desktop and he drags something into the trash file and then the entire computer disappears. That's what I imagine if Tony Larusa We're sitting on Baseball Savant trying to figure out reliever leaderboards with XCRA. 00:19:33 Speaker 1: Tony Larusa probably still pays his credit card bill over the phone. You want, you want my credit card number? It's ready? Are you do you have me? Okay? 00:19:45 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we don't really get much of a chance to do it anymore, and it was before we started this podcast, but we used to rip on that guy a lot, especially when he was with the White Sox, and we're not alone in that matter. Yeah, yeah, I mean sleeping the dugout exactly. Like, just picturing that guy trying to use Baseball Savant is the funniest image to me. Again, and I also just love that meme of the grandpa has the computer disappear on him. So combining those two things together. 00:20:14 Speaker 1: Now, hear me out. We can't picture Tony LaRussa doing it. Can we picture Dusty Baker, the American League manager, doing it? No? 00:20:22 Speaker 2: I can't picture him doing it either. 00:20:24 Speaker 1: He's not much younger. 00:20:25 Speaker 2: And he's not an analytics guy at all. 00:20:28 Speaker 1: No, judging how the Astros this offseason decided, Yeah, we have this great analytical front office. Let's gut it. 00:20:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Okay, back to Seawald here, I agree all of his peripherals, all of his numbers in general, suggests that he should be an All Star, and I'm with you. I think he deserves the nod having it be in Seattle. You know the stories had where he rejuvenates his career here, he's become a great reliever here. Here's the only problem. There are not a lot of relievers that get in for either side. There's usually a couple. And if you look around the American League, as good as Paul Sewald's been, there's a lot of guys that have cases. Right now, I mean, I feel like right now the two guys from the Orioles are gonna be locks. You near Cano and Felix Fatista. Is that right? 00:21:16 Speaker 1: Yes, one hundred percent. They're one and two in war. Even if you don't look at War, you watch them pitch and you think, yeah, they're in Felix Batista. By the way, I'm excited to say, if you're a Mariner fan and you were hoping they win all the games, you hope he doesn't appear in a game, but when that dude comes in, he is. He's about as good as they come. 00:21:37 Speaker 2: So there's those two, and then there's a lot of other guys that are still with cases. Paul Sewald has a case, but he'll go up against guys like the two Astros relievers, Hector Nerris and philm Maton. He's gonna go up against Joan Durant of the Twins, Rock Stewart of the Twins might have a case. Tim Mesa probably has a case with the Blue Jays. I mean this happens every year where there's a lot of relievers that argue their case, but only a couple get picked. I hope it's Paul Seawald, and I think he's very deserving. But the reliever voting can just be. 00:22:08 Speaker 1: So hit or miss classe in that group two. 00:22:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got to be. That's another that's just. 00:22:15 Speaker 1: A tough group to crack. And what it'll probably be about five relievers that get in three might see action three or four that that's gonna be pretty tough for Paul to get I will give Paul his props when the Maritors have needed him most in the ninth inning this year, he is allowing a one fifty eight to two seventeen two sixty seven slash line with a thirty eight percent strikeout right when they have needed him the most. That's what your big dogs do. That's what the big dogs have done. And maybe it would help if the Mariners were, say, in second place, instead of of floundering in fourth place and sitting at five hundred as we record this. 00:22:53 Speaker 2: That's what makes it tough. Sometimes team success factors into voting, whether it's fair or not. And like you said, everything Seawald has done this year has been great. Essentially, he gives up no hard contact, he gets a bunch of strikeouts, is used in high leverage against the posing teams, and goes against the best hitters all the time and thrives. But it just comes down to how many relievers can get in. I hope they find a way for him to get in. I just wouldn't hold my breath. And again, it's it's no discredit to Seawald at all. It's just about how this reliever voting goes. 00:23:23 Speaker 1: His best hope is if a bunch of guys get used right before the All Star Game and he takes the last two days off. That would be great. Then Paul would get in and I think he would love it. In terms of places he would want to appear in an All Star Game, well, I think we would agree. T Mobile Park would be one and City Field would be two. He's got to be able to rock the baby again, Rock the baby, Rock the baby, rock the baby, and listen. 00:23:47 Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, cup is ear hand hand to the ear, hand of the right ear, letting tell him Mets fans, yeah, let me have it. Oh, if he appeared at City Field in an All Star Game, there would be so many Mets fans there that would just which which I mean I would just laugh at because you know, Mets fans can be pretty salty a lot of the time. And that's no disrespect to a friend of this show, Jiraff Neckmark. But we have seen enough Mets fans on Twitter to know how they are. 00:24:13 Speaker 1: It's such a funny dynamic. Now, how about a more likable I would say, universally, we love Paul Swell, but university likable across baseball? Does Julio have a case? I personally, I'm getting kind of skeptical about Julio's case. I think you see differently though, if we were. 00:24:33 Speaker 2: Just basing it off, Okay, put a blindfold on and we're gonna read you out these players' numbers. Is he an All Star? I'm with you, he probably has not done enough. To his credit, he's put up about an eight thirty ops over the last month or so, so it's not like he's heating up. But that's not what they're judging on. They're gonna judge off a full first half of the season. The reason I am not sold on the fact that people are gonna sit there and say, oh, yeah, he just hasn't put up the numbers. Well, put somebody else in the game. It's just the fact of who he is, the fact that he's now one of the faces of baseball where this All Star Game is being played. Like if this was anybody else, if we were trying to make a case for one of the other Mariners and this was their slash line and these were their numbers for the year, there wouldn't be much of an argument. The fact that is Julio, I think changes things. And this is totally off brand for what the two of us talk about, right, because we're usually always very analytical we break things down with numbers. We try to use those things to make cases. This is just one of those things where I have the feeling that Major League Baseball does not want to put All Star Week in Seattle and exclude Julio. So I feel like, one way or another, even if it's as the last reserve, they would give him a spot. 00:25:47 Speaker 1: That's the only way I see him getting in is he's not trending in the right direction to catch enough eyeballs. Currently, he's ninth in voting. He's just a head of Dalton var Show for the Blue Jays this year, who's been terrible in terms of in terms of you know where he's ranking a Dalton Maarshow has been terrible, and he's just ahead of him. That's that's where he ranks in All Star voting. Amongst outfielders. He's not cracking the starting lineup. The starting lineup is Jordan is one of them, Judge is one of them, and Trout is one of them. You're not breaking those top three in terms of All Star voting. There's no way Mike Trout is not playing starting in the All Star Game, even if he's having a down season. Good luck out Out. Voting Mike Trout, So you'd say, okay. So maybe Julio goes into the break scorching hot. You mentioned over the last month, he's been okay. In June alone, he has a seventy eight WRC plus, he's hitting the ball in the ground sixty two percent of the time, and he's slashing overall two thirty two, two seventy one, three fifty seven. There's not enough flash in there. If he goes on this three week stretch between now and the All Star Game and he hits twelve home runs, he just goes berserk. That would be great, and that would probablyment him into the All Start solidly into the All Star Game. But what he's doing right now, there's not enough eyeballs on Julio to. 00:27:11 Speaker 2: Warrant that. I would say it's too bad, because a couple of weeks ago, we felt like he'd finally turned that corner when he got hot, and we said, oh, he's back, He's fully back. It looks like he's finally put that bad stretch behind him and he got back to hitting a lot of balls on the ground, which is what he was trying to get away from. I still think there's enough time for him to make up a little bit of ground. Even if it's look, if Julio puts up a one twenty WRC plus, if that's what his number stands out by the All Star break, I think people would sit there and make enough of a case for him and again not to start, but be in the game. But it will take him getting hot to draw some more eyeballs here in these last few weeks to really help his case. 00:27:52 Speaker 1: Can we get him to pull a wand Soda? Was it last year one Soda put himself in the Home Run Derby and said, yeah, I'm hitting way too many balls on the ground. That's why I'm here in the derby. I just need to elevate and celebrate a little bit more. Can can Julio do that? 00:28:06 Speaker 2: It honestly wouldn't shock me if he went out and had a good second half after he assuming we assume participates in this derby, because while it mess with a lot of guys with up with their swing, it does help some guys like Sodo. And if Julio needs to lift the ball, we saw what he did last year at the Home Run Derby. Maybe that's the spark he needs. And if it is I mean all for it. 00:28:28 Speaker 1: I did forget to mention one name up there at the top, Randy or Rose Arena is gonna be probably the first reserve of the All Star Game. If yord On this healthy, Yordon starting, If he's not, then Randy's probably gonna start in that spot, I would say. So that group up there at the top, it's gonna be hard to crack. And there's probably two more spots after that. 00:28:47 Speaker 2: So or yord On just dhs. 00:28:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, well show hey. 00:28:52 Speaker 2: Oh well yeah that guy yeah, okay, he probably. 00:28:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's that's tough because you're not gonna leave yord On out. Jordon's not sitting on the bench either. 00:29:02 Speaker 2: So the only thing about Jordon is I think this injury could last two months, so he might not play in the All Star. 00:29:07 Speaker 1: Game, which would benefit Julio and give Julio an opportunity to play. So that's gonna be something to keep an eye on. I think we covered everything there. I wasn't gonna. I'm just gonna, you know, mention that Julio if there's one other thing he needs to improve on the second half, he's been terrible in high leverage and they've needed him. I mean, he's terrible. You sent me this stat yesterday and I thought this is too glaring to not mention. I don't think people put this quite in perspective. He's slugging one point fifty four in high leverage situations. 00:29:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not great when you need him in the late innings, you need him to be better than that. And look, we love Julio. The whole city loves Julio, Baseball loves Julio. But I think it is also fair to say, look, this is the superstar of the team. He got paid superstar money. It's fair to expect a little bit more of them, right, And I think that that's all that we're saying is by kind of highlighting these numbers, we're saying, look, we think he should be playing a little better than he is right now, if not much better. And I bet you Julio would say the same thing. 00:30:11 Speaker 1: I think this segues pretty nicely into our next segment and our final storyline of this week. Lyyle has the Mariner's offensive approach at the plate actually improved. 00:30:25 Speaker 2: It depends on how you look at it. I know the two of us went about this in a little bit of different ways getting ready for this segment. So where do you want to start with this first? I mean, do we want to start with maybe looking at the month of June. 00:30:38 Speaker 1: So here's here's how I think we should do this. I feel like the approach changed in that San Diego series after the Mariners went to Texas got clobbered, and Scott's Service came out and said, we need to message the offense differently. We need to deliver our offensive message to this offense differently in how the approach should be at the play. And we feel like and the numbers reflect that that there has been a move in the right direction of where this offense needs to be. I just want to contextualize some numbers a little bit, give give you some context of what it was like before that date and what it was like after that date. Before that date, the team had a WRC plus of ninety six. They were walking just under nine percent of the time, striking out a little under twenty six percent of the time, isolated slugging of one forty eight, not hitting for a whole lot of power. They were below league average and weighted on base average, hitting on a slash line of two twenty eight three zho seven three seventy six. Since June sixth, they have up to that slash line to two thirty seven three twenty nine four thirty. That equates out to a one to sixteen WRC plus. They are walking nearly two percent of the time more, they're up to about ten and a half percent on a walk rate. They're striking out significantly less twenty three point six percent of the time, and they've overall slugged significantly more. With the one to ninety three ISO, that's just the bare bones, that's just the overall results based numbers, But it does show that since that Padre series, despite what we watched this last weekend and the frustrations with the White Sox series, that overall, in the totality of it, in that sample size, the offense has been better and we've seen things that we've wanted to see. 00:32:35 Speaker 2: It's definitely been better. I mean, the numbers quantified. All you have to do is take a look. You highlighted that pretty well. The way I looked at it was month of June in total compared to the last ten days. The month in June in total hasn't been great. I mean there's still second in the league in strikeout rate for the month of June, so there's still a lot of swing and mass. There's still bottom third of the league in most power categories for the month. But then if you kind of narrow the lens a little bit and look at the last ten days, things have really started to get better. Now they're top ten in the league and a lot of those power categories, they're walking more. They're second in the league and walks in that time. Strikeouts are still a little high. But then it becomes the same narrative as last season, where they're striking out a lot, but they're a top ten team in WRC plus and most offensive categories. You live with the strikeouts. So I think all that data combined together says between what you talked about and what I'm highlighting here says the offense is improving. They are taking steps from where they were just a few weeks ago. 00:33:37 Speaker 1: And if we say we take a look at we've heard, I guess some of the messaging we've heard is that the team likes to is trying to emphasize going up the middle a little bit more. Heard Scott talk about that a little bit, which I was curious about is that actually true? Not necessarily. They've let's see before before you in fifth they were hitting the ball up the middle thirty four percent of the time. Since June sixth, they've been hitting the ball up the middle thirty percent of the time. Not that wasn't too noticeable of a difference, which I thought was curious. 00:34:15 Speaker 2: It's not, and I don't know, I don't know if that can get skewed or if it's just I don't know how you really kind of quantify that. I mean, look, obviously you want to stay up the middle. Every hitter wants to stay up the middle for the most part. But they're pulling the ball and they're still hitting the ball hard. That's okay too. I think there. 00:34:34 Speaker 1: Was an interesting I would say a couple other interesting things from this. The thing that stood out the most, which was reflected in this weekend series against the White Sox, is they're runners in scoring position. Numbers are pretty stark when those two in those two time frames, but they're actually polar opposite. The Mariners were actually really good with runners in scoring position before for June sixth, they had a one to twenty one WRC plus didn't slug quite as much, but they walked twelve and a half percent of the time, didn't strike out a whole lot. Since then, it's only been a one oh one WRC plus with runners in scoring positions, slugging a tiny bit more but only walking five point eight percent of the time, striking out twenty eight percent of the time. I thought that was fascinating, but it really it really backed up what we saw this weekend. We were sitting there, like, getting all these fucking guys on base and nobody is scoring well. It's not just an issue of this White Sox series. Since June six, that has been the case. They just haven't been as good with runners on. 00:35:37 Speaker 2: It is funny to quantify this stuff because it shows that this last week or this last series, they certainly left a lot of guys on base. But it's felt like they've been leaving guys on base all season and really the better part of the last two seasons, both twenty two and twenty three. But then when you look at the numbers, sometimes the fandom and you can get real back a little bit where you sit there and watch and say, they don't drive anybody in, they leave everybody on base, they don't score runs and then you look at the numbers and say, oh, well, they're actually a better than league average team with runners on base or runners in scoring positions. So yeah, you'd like to see it get a little bit closer to where they were the first part of the season when runners are in scoring position. But yeah, maybe not as bad as a lot of people like to perceive them to be. 00:36:19 Speaker 1: I would say, we give this another month and see if the numbers normalize a little bit. They cannot keep striking out twenty eight percent of the time with the runners on Obviously, as we keep saying, the strikeouts are killer at times. So that's something we'll keep track of. But I thought this was a really interesting exercise to see what we could dig up here if you want some individual numbers. But in these in those two timeframes, we had some big jumpers. I mean, to Oskar Hernandez has a two to oh five WRC plus since that Padre series. Mike Ford smaller sample, but he's up. He's a two to oh one in that stretch. Ty France improved by fifty points nearly went from one to sixteen to one sixty four, JP from one oh four to one thirty three Caballero, who was good before but better now, won sixteen to one thirty one Gino from eighty eight to one oh six. That's great to see for a guy who struggled this year and only a couple droppers, I mean two pretty important ones, Julio and Jared. Jared pretty significantly, unfortunately Cal pretty significantly as well, but more good than bad, which is the whole point. I guess the point of this exercise. 00:37:31 Speaker 2: Most of the offense is improving. That's what you can ask for. And we've talked about Taoscar, Tye, Gino. They need those three guys to improve their game at the plate and show some more power and tay Oscar and tired doing it. Ta Oscar has been awesome. Last two weeks, Taoscar Hernandez looked like the exact guy that the Mariners thought they were getting when they traded for him. So the team is trending upward. A lot of the players specifically are trending upward. There's a lot of good signs. In conclusion, I would say yes, played approach has improved. 00:38:03 Speaker 1: It has improved. Is it all the way there where they want to be? Maybe not? Maybe we want to see it a little bit longer, but that's why they've got over half a season left to play. Should we get to our voicemail. 00:38:15 Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do it. We picked out our best one this week. 00:38:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, it should be interesting our voicemail this week we have Mike from Tacoma. He had some thoughts after the Marlins series finale, so we can hear that. Hear that voicemail, and let's hear it. 00:38:34 Speaker 3: Mike from Tacoma. All I have to say is Van Davis and Ban Sanchez from t Mobile Park. Those sobs robbed us of two home runs, including a Grand Blami to tie it. The Mariners had the game tying home run, and that is the most brutal way to lose a game. I've got some faith, though, right now in the Mariners because even though that we just went below five hundred, we have the White Sox coming up. So that's a good sign. It's a good sign that we have the White Sox coming into town because we have a chance at a possible another another sweep. So I'm not worried about this. I am, however, worried about that six game trip to Bolt New York and Baltimore. But we'll get into that later. Keep doing what you're doing, guys. 00:39:30 Speaker 2: Great podcast. 00:39:32 Speaker 1: Now, he was pretty right about the White Sox series to not be worried by results. Maybe after watching a little bit had been like hit with runners on. That is how That's pretty much how I felt after that Marlins game. That was you know, you tied it. You said you tied the game. You did, and it got taken away from you. 00:39:51 Speaker 2: You know those Skip Bayless tweets where he just tweets no with a bunch of o's and all capital letters. I wouldgit scream that when that run got taken back, sitting here in the night watching that ninth inning, just because they felt like they had some momentum all of a sudden, it looked like with one swing in the bat, everything was gonna change. Maybe that could be the win that really started to propel him to get past that five hundred mark for good and get way over it. And then it just got taken back and just like life flashing before your eyes. I'm half kidding with that, but just like oh I was, I screamed that Skip Bayles sweet, I was like, no, when when that ball got taken back? Because I thought it was gone. I thought he'd hit it well enough to get out, and I didn't think that they were going to time it up well enough to take it back. Oh yeah, I was pissed after that. 00:40:39 Speaker 1: Gino set a record that was also matched by Dylan Moore. He had three outs of three hundred and seventy six feet or more. That's impressive. 00:40:49 Speaker 2: Gino had a really unlucky day in that game. Again, he should have had multiple extra base hits in that contest, and the Marlins defense was just unreal in that game. 00:41:00 Speaker 1: Just shows you that baseball sucks. Sometimes it sucks. You can do everything right and it does not matter. 00:41:07 Speaker 2: Just ask Matt Brash. 00:41:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, ask Matt Brash. That seems like something that would happen, but on the opposite end to mac Brash and the opposite end of the luck spectrum. I don't think we talked. We didn't talk about luck. What is luck? How do we quantify luck? I don't know. But it was a great conversation that we had with Gary Hill this week. I'm glad. I think we've each talked to Gary Hill before in some sort of space. You've seen him more recently at the ballpark. He is awesome. I just got to say he's awesome. 00:41:41 Speaker 2: He could be a guest on this podcast every week. He could be the third person of this podcast if we wanted. He's very tuned in on analytics, like the two of us are. I think he does a good job explaining a lot of it. He explains how he got into it. There's a bunch of stories. I mean, talked about his career journey. I mean that might have been the most interesting part to has two people who like to do a lot of play by play broadcasting. He gets to share his story and we got to share some of our stories with him. But it was really just a fun, easy, lighthearted conversation but informative at the same time. I thought it was an awesome, awesome interview. 00:42:14 Speaker 1: I especially enjoyed the first part of the interview because well, that's where I think he sold us on effect, Like Gary, Yeah, you could step in and co host if you needed to. I mean, we're talking the same language. 00:42:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, they get into some we get into some food talk with Gary early on, and we'll leave it at that because it's it's some engaging talk. So we'll let you hear it for yourself. 00:42:35 Speaker 1: That should be good. So let's get to that conversation and hear from Gary Hill. 00:42:43 Speaker 2: All right, we welcome on Gary Hill, who's really a jack of all trades for the Mariners, radio broadcaster, pregame postgame show host, producer, engineer, and co host of the Wheelhouse podcast with Jerry Depoto. Gary, thanks for coming on. We're really excited to have you. Did I hear through a grape vine ak on one of those Wheelhouse episodes that you're a big PEB and J guy. 00:43:06 Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, Aaron makes fun of me a lot. He's the foodie. He drags me around to all the good places. So if it's up to me, yeah, that's all I would eat. So it's actually we're a great team together because he feeds me really well, which is great. 00:43:20 Speaker 5: So, yeah, you're right. 00:43:23 Speaker 2: That sounds a tiny bit like this podcast. TJ is a total foodie. He loves to explore new food options and new restaurants where I kid you not. I think I've had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for the last fifteen years. 00:43:36 Speaker 5: So good. It's why I think Aaron and I are such a good team. We're on the road. 00:43:40 Speaker 4: I'm a big I love history and I love to see things on the road. I'm so grateful when we travel, we get to go to some of the greatest cities in the world, and I try and take advantage of that. So I drag Aaron along to all those places and he feeds me really well, so together we've got a really good thing going. 00:43:58 Speaker 1: So Gary, let me know, if you've heardst story like this before, you're you're in it. You're in a massive city and you go to this great local market with a ton of really good food, and mister Goldstein here decides that he, after seeing all the options around him, would rather just you know, go to subway across the street and get a regular sandwich instead of buy that. Uh has that is? Does that sound familiar of to to one of your guys's occurrences on the road. 00:44:28 Speaker 4: Now, I've never taken it to that level before. That that's that's not great. Yeah, you gotta you gotta take advantage of where you're at. But uh yeah, we've had that before. And well, generally what happens is I come back with whatever I'm eating and Aaron just kind of looks at me, kind of like with a fatherly disappointed look. Is how how it looks, And then he trashes me for the next you know, fifteen minutes or so. But so I try not to I try not to go to that level. 00:45:00 Speaker 1: I mean that to Gary. I have to ask you then, because I had this question written down, wasn't sure if I was going to get an opportunity to ask it. But since we're on the topic, what is the best MLB road food city? 00:45:15 Speaker 4: Ooh, that's that is a tough question. I mean, there's some obvious ones in there. New York is great. I really enjoy Boston partly because of where we're at. Our location is phenomenal. We're really close to the ballpark and really close to Newberry Street. There's just a ton of really good places to go, a ton of good options, no matter what food you're into, no matter if you want ice cream late at night, no matter what you want to do, Newberry Street has it all. So if that's one of my favorites, I you know, generally every city we go to you'll find something you'll enjoy near but Boston I think is top of the list and just about everything for me. 00:46:04 Speaker 5: Travel wise. 00:46:05 Speaker 2: Would you take Boston pizza over New York pizza? I've actually heard that debate before. 00:46:09 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's New York pizza. Yeah, there's that's an easy call for me, not even. 00:46:15 Speaker 2: Okay, well that's fair, okay. And then with the stories between you and Aaron and your differences in food, what's the most drastic difference you've ever seen where Aaron gives you that disappointing look that you're talking about, like, what is he eating that makes him so superior? 00:46:29 Speaker 4: Quote unquote, Oh, well, I'll give him credit for this. He he scouts out where we're going. It's great for me because I never have to do anything. He goes in depth scouting. He scouts like he is scouting starting pitchers for Game seven of the World Series. That is the level of detail he is going with in terms of restaurants and where we're going to. So, uh, I'm not gonna give him too much flak because he puts in all the work and I just tag along. But it's pretty impressive the amount of work that goes into it, and I don't have to do a thing, So it works out great for me. 00:47:08 Speaker 2: Aaron walking around all these cities with his five tablets out like he's got one food option on one tablet and another food option on the other tablets similar to how he is in the booth. 00:47:18 Speaker 5: Is that that extreme? 00:47:19 Speaker 4: He's got all his phone he says, places we go to and places he wants to try, and yeah, the research is heavy. I'm not sure how much time. He probably doesn't want to admit how much time he spends on this, but it's significant. 00:47:32 Speaker 2: Okay, Well, you know what anything worthwhile is, So I'll give Aeron the credit for it. 00:47:37 Speaker 5: That's right. 00:47:39 Speaker 2: If we were going to move into some Mariners talk a little bit the last couple of days here is we sit here and record before the third game of the series against the Marlins. The offense is all of a sudden, really starting to spark a little bit. So we were hoping to dive into a few of these guys. But before we do, I know you're big on advanced stats and saber metrics, and here on this podcast we certainly are too, and we try to talk a lot about it. So we tried to ask this question to a few of the guests that we have that are maybe a baseball generation ahead of us. Where when was it for you that you started to see some of these numbers consistently and realized, oh, this makes a lot of sense, and I think people should learn more about this stuff. 00:48:20 Speaker 4: It's a that's a really great question, you know. Part of it, part of my journey in kind of advanced metrics, started when I was playing in high school and I didn't quite realize it at the time, but I was. I was a huge fan of Edgar Martinez growing up and the way he went about it, and I felt like, you know, he walked a ton, and I felt like at the time that wasn't really appreciated. And then part of it was as a player, like I walked a lot and everyone want to talk about batting average, and I'm like, I'm getting on base really fifty percent of the time, just because I was walking a ton, and for me, it sparked like, I wonder why this isn't talked about more. So that was always kind of in the back of my mind, as I didn't think much more about it at the time, but as I got older and watch baseball more, and that was kind of my framing for when new metrics and new things would come about, because I always felt like, you know, maybe we're not talking about things in the exact right way all the time. And so my overall philosophy at this point is stat's it's really a vehicle to talk about the game and explain what's going on, right, that's the whole point. And I don't feel like there's any one thing that tells the story, which I kind of think is great. I selfishly hope we never get to a point where there's a number that tells the story for what's going on. I think it is oftentimes a combination of things, and just the more I watch baseball, there's some really smart writing that would pop up online that would capture my attention and really change the way I looked at things. Dave Cameron was one of those people for me when he first popped up and started writing, and it's really cool now that he's a full time Mariners employee and just kind of changed the way I look at things. I feel like I've always been open minded to things, and I've never resisted new ways of looking at things, and I just feel like it takes a big combo. I've kind of always felt that way, and the more I learn, and the more I read, and the more I talk to smart people, I still feel that way that it takes a few things to explain what's going on, and sometimes you can't explain what's going on. But that's kind of my overall philosophy on it and my journey through it. 00:50:49 Speaker 1: Gary, it must have been you then who called up Billy Bean is like, Man, I have this idea right where you get a bunch of players on your team and they just walk a lot and then we'll win a bunch of games. 00:51:00 Speaker 5: I wish that was me. I wish it was smart enough. 00:51:03 Speaker 4: It's funny because I look back on that, I wish it was smart enough to realize anything that was going on. 00:51:08 Speaker 5: It was all like self. 00:51:10 Speaker 4: Centered thinking, like I'm walking a lot, this seems like a really good thing to do. I never thought about that in the bigger picture or in that kind of context, like I watch Edgar do it. I was like, Wow, that's really cool. Look at he's getting on base all the time. But I never thought about that in the bigger picture, which is kind of funny. I wish I was smart enough to apply it to something bigger than me or Edgar, But it's just I don't know, And I guess part of it was at the time, like it was only you talk batting average and you talked home runs and you talked Darby eyes that was kind of it, And I am so I am so thrilled to be what I'm doing right now and a fan of the game at this moment in time, because I find it fascinating, I find it entertaining, and I find it so fun that I feel like we know more about what's going on in the field than we've ever known before. 00:52:06 Speaker 5: And it's fun for me because I feel like I. 00:52:08 Speaker 4: Get a chance to talk about that on the radio every day and try and help people understand what's going on a little bit more. And you know, there's some people that resist some of that, which I think is fine. I think it's fine that we all don't agree on everything. Actually, I think it's great because it leads to conversation and debate. But I am just so thankful word at a time where we know so much. 00:52:33 Speaker 1: You said this, and I agree, it's hard to quantify anything with one stat But is there something that has come along that you thought that is that this is more this? I'm so glad this is a stat this has been missing for a while. I'm glad we now have something to quantify this. If there was something like that, what would it be. 00:52:53 Speaker 5: I love WRC plus. 00:52:56 Speaker 4: That's my absolute favorite offensive stat and because I am a fan of war in a general sense, because I think it's a great starting point when you're trying to compare different players. I do have I use defensive metrics, and I like defensive metrics. I'm still a little squeamish on that part of war in the comparison. So I really like WRC plus. I think it's the best offensive stat and I think it's a great direct comparison offensively to what's going on. So right now, if you ask me my favorite one, it's WRC plus. 00:53:35 Speaker 2: That's probably ours too, and it's probably what we use the most on this podcast. And it's funny going back to why I asked you this question to begin with, is I guess I kind of like to show people that are generations ahead of us in baseball that you know, other people do learn this stuff that are that are a little bit older than people like TJ and I are. Because we have a wide age range of people that listen to this, and I know some people that are on the older side and they'll talk to me about, like, what are these things you guys are talking about? Like I can't understand it, like what's wrong with batting average? And I usually try to, you know, in a lighthearted, nice way, try to convince them at least a little bit even one percent. I'll say to them, like, singles are not as valuable as home runs, but if you look at batting average, it's going to tell you that they are. Where you can wait this stuff, like with WRC plus and get a better idea of who a hit or truly is. 00:54:23 Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's something I think about a lot, because, like on the radio, we're trying to talk to the broad and broadest audience possible, and we have all kinds of people we're talking to. We're talking to people like both of you, who are well versed in everything, all advanced numbers, everything like that, and then we're talking to people that don't know much of anything beyond what a good batting average is. So I think about how we communicated a lot and what I like to do because it's hard doing a broadcast to define WRC plus and then and to tell people all the aspect aspects of it. So I like to use it as a comparison tool because I think that really lends itself in people's minds to understanding what's going on. Like if tonight, for example, if I'm talking about Jose Calbierro and I'm talking about is WRC plus when if I just gave the number out, I don't think that lands for people unless I mean it lands for YouTube, But the majority of our audience, I don't think it lands. But if I can say he's got the second best WRC plus behind a rise in Major League Baseball for players with over one hundred PA, Like, even if you don't understand what WRC plus means, you get that like, oh, he's the second best at that's that's a good thing. So I think about how to use it, and slowly, I think for us as broadcasts, as we talk about this, we're trying to get people used to the idea of w RC plus and advanced metrics. I just think it takes time and patience and explanation. And it's funny because I've always thought that there always seems to be two sides pitted against one another. It's old school a new school, But I always feel like they're really a lot closer than they think. Once you really start talking to people that are old school and it's been fun for me to, like Dan Dickerson, Tiger's broadcaster, going around and talking to some of the broadcasters who didn't grow up in this generation. They grew up RBIs batting average, but have really dove in and using that kind of stuff in the air, and I just really appreciate how their world's open to this and they're communicating it so because I think at the end of the day, it's great for the listener because it explains things really well. Like if think about trying to explain the impact that Kyberral has had, for example, and it's hard to do, but just batting average and RBIs, in fact, I would argue it's impossible, but WRC plus captures it much better because he's had a big impact. 00:57:14 Speaker 1: What I think is fascinating, Gary, is if we look at the ROOT Sports broadcast on which you guys put out on the radio, it's two. It's I would say, a decently stark difference between how we're generalizing things versus how we're not. Because if you look at a ROOT broadcast, almost all of those bracket, all those graphics that measure offense all say WRC plus on them. There's no explanation on there. They'll they might throw it up there once a game, but for the most part, it's gonna say, hey, here's this hitter's WRC plus you know, right versus left, or season versus last season. They'll just throw it out there. They're very rarely is now a triple slash thrown it thrown out which is very interesting. But I listened to you and Riz on the radio, and you know, Rick is a very old school guy. He's not gonna he's not gonna be one to bring that up. It's just I think it's very fast that the television audience has the visual sort of the visual easing in of it. Meanwhile, if you just throw it out there on the radio, it's like, oh what did what did Gary just say? 00:58:09 Speaker 3: Again? 00:58:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. 00:58:11 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:58:11 Speaker 1: No. 00:58:12 Speaker 4: It's a really interesting comparison that you bring up. And part of the reason, like on TV, you can put up a graphic and as you point out, you can visually take it. In radio, it's much more difficult to express, Like just think about a standard graphic that you see that it's harder to express because if you just rattle off a bunch of names and numbers in a row, you're gonna lose people along the way. So I always feel like you have to be impactful in what you say and dial it down to just its pure essence. So instead of putting a list together, you highlight the list. You highlight where because I assume there's a Mariner somewhere on the list, and how that compares to the person at the top. I think in this regard with advanced deats, it's harder to do on radio because and I do do sometimes just use WRC plus without throwing out an explanation. But sometimes I feel like I have to give just a quick definition of what it is, just in terms of measuring offense that sort of thing. Uh, but it's it's trickier I think for us, and now it's it makes it even more difficult. 00:59:26 Speaker 5: I love the new rules. 00:59:28 Speaker 4: I'm a big fan, but our time is more compressed with what we're talking about too. And I'm one that I don't miss pitches. I think it's really important in what we do to not miss pitches. Like I think when you have a highlight, you want to hear the crack of the bat, You want to hear the roar of the crowd and I think it's a failure if I talk over that. So I'm trying to communicate this whion't call the game, not miss any pitches because I don't want to miss Julio hitting the upper deck, right, So there's all these other things going on while I'm and trying to communicate that info that I think makes it a little trickier on radio. 01:00:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, this is all really interesting and stuff we always love to talk about. So we always love having people on that like to engage with us because I mean, there's so much we can always kind of learn in this day and age of baseball, and you know, the more people you talk to, the more we can learn. So yeah, it's it's I always get a kick out of it. So it's awesome if we were going to transition a little bit here, but maybe stay on the topic of WRC plus and waiting home runs and you can even throw aps out there. We were going to get into some of the offense here, because the last few days they've really really been getting going. Let's start with just the hard hitting stuff first, and honestly, probably the most pressing topic. Are we buying the mic Ford hype here? 01:00:47 Speaker 5: Well, you know, it's funny. 01:00:49 Speaker 4: I was actually talking about this with Aaron recently, and you know, baseball is a funny game in that you never know the timing right. Guys get called up, and Mike Ford's been around for a long time, and Jake Bowers is a great example in New York and what he's been able to do recently when guys come around, there are times when you call him up and they're just they get into a groove right away. And that's what we've see him from Mike Ford, and I think this is what the Mariners were hoping for, is just hey, he's in a groove, he knocks a few out of the yard, he helps the cause. 01:01:25 Speaker 5: That's great. How long will this last? I have no idea. 01:01:29 Speaker 4: I don't think anyone knows, but I think this is one of those times where they're desperate production in that spot. Ford's been hitting in the minors, he's been up a few times. Let's just see what happens, and so far, so good. 01:01:42 Speaker 5: So I don't know. 01:01:45 Speaker 4: I don't know how much beyond the immediate that we talk about what this could be or turn into, but I think for now it's phenomenal and it's good for him too. You know, it's the human side that I'm always so fascinated with and sometimes and I think we're all guilty of this too. You know, we look at the numbers and them as baseball players, but like Ford last year, played for four different Major League teams and all four of their affiliates and part of thirty two transactions during the course of the year, and sometimes going home to Florida back and forth. I mean, you know, you always want to get that call to go to the majors, but that really took a toll last year. There was a really hard season, and I always feel for I feel great that, however long this lasts, that he's enjoying this stretch because he deserves it and the Mariners have needed it frankly, so it's been great on both sides. 01:02:38 Speaker 1: What I think is the best part is despite all of that, he's a funny guy. He's lighthearted, He cracks jokes. We have a buddy who worked down in Tacoma with him, and it just would tell us stories about you know how Mike Ford just lightens up a clubhouse, and I could only imagine him walking into a Mariners clubhouse that had come off their worst week of the season, the low point of the season, and you know, keeping the spirits high despite you know, everyone else looking up at the scoreboard in Texas being like, whoa crap. 01:03:08 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a thing too, because this is a grind, it really is. When you play every day and when you're going through a bad stretch, you can't wallow in it. And that's the thing that I admire so much about major league players because I wouldn't have that ability, Like if I went, oh, for four or three ks, I don't think I could put that away and go into the next day with a clean slate. 01:03:32 Speaker 5: And you have to. 01:03:33 Speaker 4: You have to at this level because if you let yesterday affect you, you are gonna go downhill fast and it's gonna get ugly. So it's the thing I admire the most, how they can put it away and just always hope or always not hope isn't the right word. Always assume that next day is going to be great and that's going to be the start of something. 01:03:56 Speaker 5: I mean right now. 01:03:56 Speaker 4: That's that's how the Marinis feel as a team. There's still really confident in what this year is going to be, which is great because as Mariner fans, and Mariner's observers. You want them to feel that way, and that's the only way things are going to turn around, because if you stop believing, it's over. 01:04:15 Speaker 2: I think a guy who's kept his belief high evidently as we transition to another player here, it's Ty Frans. You look at that guy's last twenty games, he's really clicking all of a sudden. Have you noticed anything different with his approach or maybe just his swing path, anything along those lines over the last twenty games or is it just things starting to kind of fall in his favor. 01:04:35 Speaker 5: I feel like it's that. 01:04:37 Speaker 4: Speaking of WRC, plus, he just passed Vlad, which was pretty impressive. I mean, anytime you're in that category. No, Vlad's not having a massive home run year, but still, I mean he's still Vlad. So yeah, I think it's just ty France being Ty France, if that makes sense. Like this is kind of this is kind of who he is. Like he's hitting a ton of doubles, which is great. You know, he's not going to be a big homer guy, but to mix in a few homers and hit a ton of doubles is great. You know he's gonna get hit by a ton of pitches because that's who he is. But this is like the best version of ty Frantz. This is the version that I hope we get to see for a long stretch because you know, he's had tough stretches, and I feel like every time it's directly due to some kind of injury that he's you know, he's a gamer, he's always playing. He's and he plays through it to his credit, but it's hard to perform at your best when you're hurt. And I feel like he's healthy right now and it's showing and they needed it. This is coming a great time, do you think. 01:05:43 Speaker 1: Then We've had plenty of conversations about like lineup structure. Do you think Ties is the best option in the two hole? Do you think do you think that's his his ideal spot? 01:05:56 Speaker 4: So I'll give you my over arching lineup for lot. I'm I am usually not concerned about specific spots. I'm more concerned about pockets, Like I want your best hitters in the top three, and we can wherever you put him whatever. Like if it were me, if I were putting the lineup together, I'd put Julio second. That's where I That's where I like him the most. But if you want to put Tye second, that's fine. I think Ty should be in the top three and probably not leadoff, so that kind of limits second or third. But I would probably go right now Julio second, Ty third, But as long as he's in the top three, that's what I'm most concerned about. 01:06:37 Speaker 1: Yeah, if we want to get to Julio now, if we're just gonna talk about line of construction, because I honestly did have that question as well with Julio, but we just kind of got it out of the way with Ty. I like him in the three spot a lot. I think, like I'm with you two eventually, as I think the peak of where he ends up, if he's firing on all cylinders, he's in that two hole. I think Low and I have disagreed a little bit exactly where he should be. But I think this current version of Julio and the two spot, you know, turning it on with a month ago before the All Star Game, it's it is so great now. And we keep saying as much as the rest of the offense has struggled, if Julio is Julio, that makes all the rest of the problems so much, less prevalent, so much, and we've seen it when he's you know, and when he's turned it on for a game, it it erases it seems like all of the other issues. 01:07:30 Speaker 4: I think you are one hundred percent right on that. Julio, to me is the engine of this offense. And we saw it last year. The difference between when Julio is Julio and when he was hurt and out of the lineup was massive. And I believe that he is the game changer for this offense. He's the engine for this offense. He makes it go, and he makes all the difference production wise, and for them to reach their potential, he has to be Julio. And we've seen a lot of good things recently from him. The road trip was really interesting because he hit the ball on the ground a ton, like a lot, over seventy percent ground ball rate a lot. The good thing is he's still hitting the ball really hard, and he's consistently hit the ball hard through the course of the season, which is good. It just feels like get in the air a little more often. And I feel like he's been sitting on a big run for a while. And I still feel like that's gonna happen and what it does, and then with tai Oscar making the improvements we've seen, hopefully sore as will follow. There you go like that's that's the difference maker for this offense, because you know, it's been wild to watch play out this At this point of the season, I was I would never expected the Mariners to be bottom five and slug during the course of the season. Offensively, I never would have seen that coming because I always feel like this is a team that was going to strike out. Not their percentages higher than I think we all would like, but I thought there'd be a lot of production coming with the strikeouts to make up for it, because that's kind of what we saw last year and with tai Oscar and Cal and kel Nick and Julio. I mean, there's a lot of strikeout there, but there's a lot of big bash there too, and we just haven't seen it until recent days. We've seen the three run home runs and the two run home runs, and that's everything for this team. So if they can get the slug going, I think they'll get gone. 01:09:38 Speaker 2: Okay, you talk about lineup pockets long term in a perfect world, do you think the Mariners would love to have Jared Julio one two with kel Nick leading off or the strikeout is the strikeout rate for kel Nick going to hold it back a little bit? 01:09:52 Speaker 5: That's a good question. 01:09:54 Speaker 4: And I always think players are never static, so I think Jared as time goes, can improve on on that. I think you're right, it does seem high for a leadoff man. I don't think they'd mind them back to back with Jared's profile. That's a that's a clean up guy, I mean theoretically, so, uh. 01:10:15 Speaker 5: He's not a finished product. I guess it's why I'm wavering a little bit. So I don't know. 01:10:19 Speaker 4: I don't know where heland up. But it's funny the Julio debate, because you can make a great case for him to be one, two or three, and I'd be like, yeah, I mean, I'm like two as my preferred, but you can make the case for one. You can make the case for three, and I wouldn't fight you on it. He's he's that good of a hitter. There's not many guys when you really start to think about it, that you can make a great case for being one through three and be right there. 01:10:49 Speaker 5: That's a unique skill set. 01:10:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think I've said one and TJ said two, So we've been back and forth on that a little bit before. But but you're right. I mean, anywhere in that top third of the lineup, he's gonna do damage. So that's that's the key. 01:11:06 Speaker 1: And I think the big debate Lyle and I eventually need to have whether he hits in front of or behind show heyo, TONI, but I think we can save that. We could save that for the off season. 01:11:16 Speaker 5: Yeah, that's gonna be a fun off season debate. We'll all enjoy that. Yeah. 01:11:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Gary, if we wanted to get into your career a little bit here, you've had a really interesting one and you've basically been in one market your entire career. And you're somebody that grew up a Mariners fan, You grew up in the area, and now you're working for the hometown team calling games. I mean, did you dream about a job like this growing up? 01:11:42 Speaker 5: It was the dream growing up. 01:11:44 Speaker 4: So when I was a little kid, actually, I can't remember a time when people didn't when people asked what do you want to do? 01:11:52 Speaker 5: Growing up? 01:11:52 Speaker 4: I don't remember a time where I didn't say, I want to be a Seattle Mariners broadcaster, And it wasn't a major league broadcaster. It was I wanted to be a Seattle Mariners broadcaster. It's what I remember. And it was Dave Kneehouse that ignited that passion. I mean, I was always a huge baseball fan and a Mariners fan growing up, and I grew up in Tacoma, so I went to a ton of Rainiers games as a kid too, which I love. 01:12:16 Speaker 5: But man, Dave just captured. 01:12:19 Speaker 4: My imagination on radio and between my love of the game, and he helped develop a passion for radio and broadcast for me, and so that was always it for me. I actually quit my dream before it actually started, going into college. After I graduated. I graduated from Stadium in tacomam and I was off to college, and I was like, well, yeah, I want to be a Mariner's broadcaster. But that's a child's dream. There's been literally two in my whole life. There's been Rick and Dave like this, this isn't a realistic thing that can happen. And so I went to college planning to be a psychologist. That was the plan, and I was going to school back east in Boston in my sophomore year. I remember it so vividly. It was a snowy night, just terrible Boston winter night, and I was in the library and it was like a thunderbolt, and it's like, you know, that's a being practical is a really dumb reason not to go after the dream. And so I transferred to Washington State after that and got into the broadcast program and just started to get my feet wet there and got my first paying job as the Pullman High School broadcaster. And it's fortunate Washington State because they allowed us to broadcast everything from football to basketball, to baseball to volleyball and everything. And so I went after college back home and it was really just a slow grind, kind of climbing the ladder. I think at some point I've been on the air for everyone, whether it's the Seahawks or Storm. I was the PrePost for the Sonics before they left, and just going on the list, I'd said yes to everything. During a lot of times, I had a day job two and I was doing games at night and just grinding away. And it's it's funny how it worked, because there were a lot of times as I started to establish myself that I've been offered jobs other places, other parts of the country, and good jobs that I had to think long and hard about. But at the end of the day, I've always stayed here and stayed true to the dream because it's what I's It's where my heart is being here doing Mariners games. It's my passion, it's what I love the most, and it's what I want to keep doing. So I've always stayed home. 01:14:52 Speaker 1: So then, what was that day like in twenty eighteen when you're finally you know, you get the title of of engineer an executive producer, and then you know you get to be you're all your on air responsibilities as well, it's like, well, like I made it, so, like, what what was that day? Like? 01:15:09 Speaker 5: It was pretty wild. 01:15:10 Speaker 4: I still think about it all the time, that that this is a thing I get. There's little moments where, you know, you get used to kind of the every day, you get used to being in the clubhouse and talking to guys, and you get used to the job and traveling around. But there are still moments where it's like, man, this is unbelievable that this is actually happening, and it's funny when it pops up, like when Ken Griffy Junior comes in the booth and calls me my name, and it's just like, what, what is what is going on? How is this happening? Or just having a conversation with Edgar Martinez, the guy who is my hero growing up. It's moments like that that it's just so hard to believe, Like I uh and on the air, one of my favorite moments was when the Mariners were in Toronto a few years ago and packed it through the no hitter and I was on the call with Rick, and I just couldn't after the fact because I remember all the big moments in all the big. 01:16:15 Speaker 5: Games in Mariner's history. 01:16:17 Speaker 4: And the fact that I was just this very small part of such a great day. I still can't wrap my mind around that. And I'm so thankful for it. And I just I love and appreciate every day. And I think even more so given growing up here, appreciating being here, and I went through a lot to get to get here too, So I'm just really appreciative more than anything now. 01:16:45 Speaker 1: Off of that you did mention, Hey, like I worked a lot of odd jobs working my way up this ladder. We like, we know the business full well it is. It's difficult. So the question is, what is the oddest job you had to work while while doing this? 01:16:58 Speaker 5: Oh, that's a great quest. Question. 01:17:01 Speaker 4: My oddest job this is kind of before it all started, but I'll mention it because it's great. 01:17:05 Speaker 3: Uh. 01:17:06 Speaker 4: There was a summer I worked in the pickle plant at in Nally Valley, so I was a quality assurance guy, testing like all the brine and the pickles and the quality and all that stuff. I have not been able to eat a pickle since. This is years and years ago now, So don't don't do that if you like pickles, because I did and now I don't. That was the weirdest, But I've done a lot of stuff. 01:17:38 Speaker 5: Huh. Yeah. 01:17:39 Speaker 4: I worked at the King County Sheriff's Office for a while, worked in the records unit, and it's I'm thankful too. I worked at a place called Beacon Development Group, who Seattle company that does low income housing. And the thing I've always been thankful for is my bosses have always understood this other side of me and allowed me. And a lot of it is I had to take my days off to do games and travel because I was doing basketball and football and baseball kind of this whole time too, And my boss has always been supportive of that, which has been key. My family has always been supportive, because there were there were times where, like when I was doing sonics before, which was right before the Mariners, and had a day job at the same time, I would go full year without a day off, and you know, day job, you go right into the night job and then wake up in the morning, try and get a workout and just to stay sane, and then you're right back to it, like after four hours of sleep. So there there were some tough years in there, some really weird jobs, but eventually it paid off. I survived. 01:19:01 Speaker 2: We get it. I mean, we're we're navigating our way through it right now as two people who certainly have done a lot of play by play and are kind of early on in our time through the industry, and you know, we've worked some odd jobs from time to time, and you know, yeah we so we feel for you, believe me. So I can only imagine, yeah, what that day was like when you were a full time part of the Mariners broadcast team. 01:19:21 Speaker 5: Yeah, wah. 01:19:22 Speaker 1: Would you like to explain your favorite part of us working at a summer camp together. 01:19:27 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that was one of the odd jobs we worked. We worked at a when TJ and I were calling games in the Cape Cod League. We did it for two summers, but that second summer, yeah, in the mornings, we worked at a summer camp just to try to make some extra money and make up for some of the rent we had to pay to you know, find housing out there and stuff. Which that's something they don't tell you obviously when you when you have the fantasy of getting into this business, as you want to just go and call games. But you know, while minor league teams or Cape Cod League teams, summer league teams will house the players, the interns, and the broadcasters and the other media people. Yet you're on your own. So we learned that the hard way. 01:20:05 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's hard, and as I always say, the the work is. 01:20:10 Speaker 5: Phenomenal, there's nothing better. The business is really tough. 01:20:16 Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got another question for you. 01:20:22 Speaker 1: There's nothing better than showing up. And you got to be the one that I got to be the one to drive a golf cart every morning, no one else. It was just me, just me. That was my one flex. So the peak of that go ahead, Sorry. 01:20:33 Speaker 2: What is the oddest place you've called a game from? Gary Like oddest broadcast vantage? And to give you a little perspective now, tying back to TJ and I's time again in the Cape League, there was one team out there. They were actually off the Cape. They technically weren't even on Cape Cod where their field was set up, where the road broadcasters called games from what they called the Raptor Cage, where it literally looked like exactly that. It was about an eight by eight wooden plank square box that you were on top of the third base, dugout with some net around you to just protect you from valve balls. You're right on top of the players. They can hear every word you're saying calling this game, and and you feel like you're the thing's just going to collapse under you the entire game. So I'll flip it back to you, what's what's the oddest place you've called the game from? 01:21:22 Speaker 4: That's pretty uncomfortable and you'd almost want to just go into a golf call just so they can't hear you. 01:21:27 Speaker 5: Yeah, there was a time. 01:21:31 Speaker 4: This is back, as I mentioned, I did Pullman High School after when I was in college and their league was enormous because it was two A schools, so I was traveling all over eastern Washington. I don't even remember what school this was, but I remember that they had set me up kind of behind one of the baskets. There was another level, so you're kind of above the basket, and they had put me behind the basket on this other level. So I'm calling this basketball game with the action going this way behind this glass. You know, it's the it's got a glass backboard, but all the stuff behind it. So I'm trying to call this game without you know, I can't see the majority of the middle of the court, so you're just you can see the action on the ends, and you're calling that, and then you're just kind of making up anything that would happen in the middle that you had missed. Like there were times I could see the ball going the basket, but I had no idea that it went in. 01:22:40 Speaker 5: That kind of thing. 01:22:40 Speaker 4: I will say my most challenging broadcast, which I'm looking back now, I'm glad this happened. At the time, I wasn't, but I've always been fascinated by recreations, and so I don't know if Bob Robertson, the longtime Washington State broadcaster, and he was great, great broadcaster and broadcast Tacoma baseball forever, and he was the last professional baseball broadcaster to recreate games like into the nineties. He wasn't traveling, he was just getting the infro from Western Union and calling the game in a studio, and so I had a chance to talk to him a long conversation about his days doing that. I've always been fascinated by it. So in the pandemic year, I do University Washington women's basketball, and we weren't traveling. We were at spring training in person but doing the games remotely. So the plan was I was calling the Mariners game that was going to finish, and I had set up my basketball setup in a booth a couple booths down, so I was just games over. It's going to slide time. He worked out great, it was going to slide over and call Washington at Washington State, and so I'm done. I'd pre recorded the pregame show so it wouldn't bump up. So I'm all set, I slide over and ready to start, and there's no game on the camera, Like I'm not getting a feed and we're getting closer, and I'm texting people there and we're getting closer, and I'm just talking, and I've got kind of the live stats up, and it's essentially just a box score of what's going on. And I'm looking at this thing and looking at my black screen, and i can see the game has now started, and I'm through all my brakes like it's game time, and so I start calling Washington and Washington State off of the box score. 01:24:42 Speaker 1: Wow. And that podcast is amazing, though. 01:24:46 Speaker 5: It is amazing the. 01:24:47 Speaker 4: Problem that I found because they do have a running line to go with it, but I did the entire first half like this. The problem with the running line because I had to not get too far out in front, but I couldn't get too far behind. And the running line had so much information in it, I found it difficult to use. So I really was just using the box score, and whenever I see an extra shot go up or an extra rebound, I would use that as my cue as like, oh, so and So missed a shot, so and So grabbed a rebound. So I made up an entire half of basketball without seeing it. They did at halftime, they got it to work, which I was thankful for. But I was able to fulfill a. 01:25:32 Speaker 5: Dream by recreating a game. I'm not saying it was good. I'm not saying I did a good job. I'm just saying I did it. 01:25:43 Speaker 2: That credit to you. I mean, like I said, I don't think I could call a game with a black screen and you have no idea what's going on. That probably takes like years of experience to even one percent know what you're doing. 01:25:54 Speaker 4: Well, there was a moment at the beginning of pure terror and panic, what am I going to do? And then I just accepted there's nothing I can do about it. It is what it is, and I'm just gonna make it up. And it's funny too, because I listened back to some of it and you know, like I'm literally making this whole thing up, and like so the at one point, I had the ball going out of bounds into a timeout and went off Washington and I came back from break and Washington had the ball, and it's like, well, because. 01:26:29 Speaker 5: You know I went to I didn't. 01:26:30 Speaker 4: I didn't know I was making it up, and listening back is like, well, I gave the ball to Washington after it went off Washington. Oh whatever, I did what I could. 01:26:39 Speaker 1: Did you have crowd noise? Could you hear the game in your ears? 01:26:44 Speaker 4: So no, okay, I didn't. I didn't get I didn't have anything going. 01:26:51 Speaker 5: What I had done that season. 01:26:53 Speaker 4: Is because unlike Major League Baseball, the year that we all stayed home and broadcasts in our boots with everyone got together on the same page and it was really good about getting the feeds and the crowd and everything. So it was difficult to do, but everything was there. PAC twelve never had that, so it was kind of different from venue to venue on what you'd get and the sound you'd get. So I always had just a fake crowd background on my computer that I could hit just in case something went wrong or they didn't supply them anything. So yeah, I had the fake background going the whole time too. It just sounded like just a random gym recording. 01:27:36 Speaker 2: Gary, if we can get one more question in for you before we wrap this interview up, and this might be the most important thing. We ask you going back to your time with Aaron and now talking Mariners again the year before you went full time, where exactly were the two of you that you were able to sneak off and avoid that infamous media basketball game. 01:27:57 Speaker 4: We were in the basketball game. Oh yeah, so this was actually my first full time year. The year okay, so it I can't I still can't believe this happened. So it was an off day in Minnesota and it was early in the season. We think it was our first trip. And so it's it's April, Minnesota, right, it is zero degrees out, so no one's doing anything outside. But we have an off day and there's this great gym right across from our hotel, like the Timberwolves practice there sometimes. It's phenomenal. And so Jack Massaman, who's in the front office and he does everything. He's amazing traveling secretary among everything else. He texts everyone on the trip like, hey, we're getting a basketball game together. And so it was a very random collection of people. It's like all the broadcasters was me and Aaron and Dave and Rick was there, and Brad Adam from Root and Scott's Service showed up, and Edgar Martinez showed up, and Cliffy the you know, this very random collection of guys and we went this giant court, right, So we went up and down once and said, well, this full court idea is terrible. So then we switched to half court because we went half court, and then it was so weird how it happened. Like Simsy goes down and he's like, who hit me? 01:29:25 Speaker 5: Who hit me? 01:29:25 Speaker 4: And service was like five feet away from him, or like Dave, Noah hit you, And honestly, we all thought he just twists an ankle. We didn't think much of it at the time. So he sits out. We continue. Rick tries to steal ball from Jack and got his arm caught in Jack and he's like, ah, I hurt my arm, and we're like, ah, you know, he hurt his arm, but you know he'll be fine. The scariest part at the time is on the last play of the game, Edgar a layup and to win the game, goes down and he's holding his knee on the ground, just rolling around holding knee, and that's when I'm like, oh, no, the Hall of Famer just tore his acl. We are all gonna get fired. This is this is awful. Like he's on the coaching staff at this time. It's like he can't what are we gonna do? 01:30:14 Speaker 5: This is so bad. 01:30:16 Speaker 4: And the next day we realized, oh, with Edgar, he kind of his knee was sore. He didn't work through his ridiculous workouts for a couple of days, but he was fine. But then we learned like Simsey tore his achilles and we didn't know it at the time, but Rick he didn't go to the doctor for like a week and a half. But he goes to the doctor right before our next road trip and the doctor's like, you know, you tore the bicep off the bone of your arm. And Rick's like, oh, well, we'll get it taken care of when we get back from the next trip. And the doctor's like, no, you gotta do it now or else you're not gonna be able to use your bicep till all of a sudden, my first year on the YAH second road trip and I am calling nine innings, I'm engineering, I'm like doing this whole thing like Ryan Roland Smith is with me on the trip like a weekend. I'm literally doing everything. 01:31:13 Speaker 5: It was wild. 01:31:15 Speaker 4: And then Simpson was out for a couple of months, so I had this long run of I mean, not the way that I would want it to happen. Like I love play by play, I love doing it every day, but I don't like seeing people get hurt. But I had this huge long run which was really wild. But yeah, that was That was the famous basketball game. Corey Brock wrote it, had a great write up on it with some quotes that were just phenomenal. It was the And then everywhere we went that year, everyone was asking us, like, what in the world happened. Dave's got his crutches and his cast and Rick's got his slang. 01:31:53 Speaker 5: I mean, I mean it's like it was just you know, fighting each other. But and I was fine. I ended up. 01:32:01 Speaker 2: Maybe you just had to go through one or two cough drops that year. That was all. 01:32:04 Speaker 5: That was it. 01:32:05 Speaker 4: That was the only problem I had. And for the record, I did not cause any of those injuries. I did not go after anyone else on the broadcast team. 01:32:14 Speaker 2: I promise that's the real story here, Like, let's get that out. Gary had nothing to do with anybody getting injured and going on the broadcaster Il yes, not me. No, Well, Gary, this has been awesome. We've enjoyed talking with you a bunch, covering a whole bunch of different topics. You're phenomenal to talk to, whether it be baseball, broadcasting, everything. So we really appreciate all the time, and we certainly hope to do it again soon. 01:32:41 Speaker 5: Absolutely, this is super fun, guys. We'll do it again, all right. 01:32:46 Speaker 1: Great conversation with Gary Hill. We appreciate him taking some time to join us. Lyle, let's go down on the farm. Who do you have for your Mariners minor league this week? 01:33:02 Speaker 2: We're gonna highlight a new guy here, Reed Van Scooter, left handed down with the evert Aqua Sox. It's quietly been really good so so far on the year, he's got a three h four ERA. He's got a three thirty eight fifth in twelve starts that he's made this year, so over sixty eight innings, striking out about nine per nine, it's given up about point two home runs per nine. So in other words, he's really been carving up the Northwest League in a short time there. So Redban Scooter a guy. He's not a top thirty prospect, but keep an eye out for him again. This could be another Mariner's pitcher that just quietly works his way up the system. 01:33:37 Speaker 1: See a high school or a college. 01:33:39 Speaker 2: Arm College, the fifth round pick out of Coastal Carolina. Believe he was a senior when he got drafted, so a little bit on the older side, but productive years so far. 01:33:50 Speaker 1: Well, that's good to hear. On the other side, a name that has been very intriguing to many on Mariners social media, Michael Arroyo finally got to make his debut this month, A guy who is a part of the twenty twenty two international class highlighted if you Forget by lazarro Montes and everyone was like, we got jured one, but Michael Arroyo's been the better of the two guys so far as a pro. He made his state side debut this month after spending last year in the Dominican Summer League. Get this, he played four games in the Complex League Lyle and they decided after he hit six thirty six in four Complex League games. Yeah, he's too good for that. And then as an eighteen year old is now in Modesto or in four games he's slugging seven oh six. 01:34:44 Speaker 2: You've got Gabby Gonzalez and Michael Arroyo and Cole Young on that Modesto team. If there's Mariners fans out in Modesto, California, go to those games, because I'll tell you what, if I was anywhere near in the area. I don't want to go see those three guys and Michael Arroyo, so through only a handful of games has been awesome. 01:35:03 Speaker 1: It's funny you mentioned Cole Young. I was reading up some pipeline reports on him and there's some of the Mariners organization, which I thought this was kind of interesting, and I can see it a little bit from the numbers they reflect. They feel like he's a right handed hitting version of Cole Young. 01:35:19 Speaker 2: I won't complain about that. I mean, two guys that make a lot of contact can spray the ball in the gap. Get athletes, sign me right up. 01:35:28 Speaker 1: He was the number forty one international rated international prospect in the class of twenty twenty two, signed for one point three million, and he might be a bit of an undervalued guy because he grew up in Colombia, where there's significantly less exposure than there is the Dominican Public Republic or in Venezuela as well. But he's also played against more and better competition internationally before he signed, which is another plus. 01:35:59 Speaker 2: He's been great, and look, four games is a very small sample size. We'll see what he does here looking at his numbers in about a month from now, but ACL pitching certainly didn't FaZe him. That's the complex league. So far, neither is a low A pitching, So I can't wait to see what he keeps doing moving forward. Because for being eighteen and looking this girl looking this good early on a lot of promise. The Mariners and Mariners fans have to be pretty excited about it. So with that, I think that just about wraps up or on the farm segment. Let's transition into our Russell Wilson Umpire of the week and TJ one of our favorite umpires in Major League Baseball and maybe of all time, has crowned himself the winner this week. 01:36:48 Speaker 1: Has he been our umpire yet? 01:36:50 Speaker 2: No, he has, don't think so. C B. 01:36:54 Speaker 1: Buckner congratulations. On June seventeenth, which was Saturdy Cubs Orioles game, and then at bat with Austin Hayes at the plate, he managed to forget the count and had to call New York to get the count correct and give Austin Hayes a walk. They had to take a delay in the games because the home plate umpire whose job it is to keep track of the count, along with the other three umpires around the field, did not know what the count was. 01:37:25 Speaker 2: Didn't they ever bother just looking up at the scoreboard or something. 01:37:31 Speaker 1: I don't know, that's a good question. Maybe he assumes that the scoreboard could be wrong. 01:37:38 Speaker 2: Well, funny that because C. B. Buckner is wrong a lot of the time. I'm not gonna say a majority of the time, but a lot of the time. I mean we so again, we've only been doing this podcast six maybe seven months now, so maybe not everybody knows all of our bits. I will die on a hill and say, Cebe Buckner, in terms of balls and strikes called is the worst umpire in all of baseball. I know everybody calls Angel Hernandez the poster boy for bad umpires. I don't think there's anybody worse at balls and strikes than Cebe Buckner. And here it wasn't even about a specific location of a pitch. He just could not figure out what the count is. The thing you're getting paid six figures for to just call balls and strikes, call guys out or safe, or memorize counts you did not do and you actually had to get on the phone, pause the game, make fans wait, and get on the phone with New York and say Hey, what's the count here? I kind of forgot. 01:38:39 Speaker 1: This is an endearment on the entire group of Major League Baseball umpires. You said, you just clearly stated how bad you think Cebe Buckner is. Did you know by umpire scorecards, who rates every umpire across baseball, that he's a league average umpire. 01:39:00 Speaker 2: I don't even know how that's possible. This has to be a career best for him. 01:39:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, it has to be. They have these percentile rankings which I'm not going to read, but in summary, he's essentially dead in the middle in terms of accuracy as an umpire. I can't believe that. I couldn't believe that when I read it. But when Cebe Buckner is right smack in the middle of your conglomerate of tens and tens, if not hundreds of umpires, that's an issue. 01:39:32 Speaker 2: I'd call that a major issue. Cebe Buckner should never be average when rating umpires. This guy hasn't been an average umpire's entire career. 01:39:42 Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite Cebe Buckner moment? Was it when he put a vendetta on Lloyd McLendon to get him tossed out of the game. Was that it that was a good one. 01:39:52 Speaker 2: That one was pretty good. I don't even know if this is an exact moment, and I don't even know why I love this tweet so much. It wasn't one of his banger tweets that totally blew up, but our friend Ryan Divish back in, I want to say it was twenty seventeen. Who by the way, also, if you just read his Twitter, is no CB Buckner fan. I was at a Tiger's game. The Mariners won an extra innings. It was either twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen, and the game went to extra innings. The Mariners had a chance with basses with guys on base and two outs in the inning to take the lead before extra innings, and Jerrod Dyson struck out on this awful call on a full count pitch that CEB Buckner called strike three and fans were booing. Dyson was pissed. He's not happy. He like slammed his helmet down. And then in the ends, people are waiting for the next happening to start, and I go on Twitter and I see Ryan Divish tweet out Buckner gets Dyson looking for strike three rather than like certain Pitcher gets Dyson looking for strike three, he says, ce B Buckner gets Dyson looking as if he just carved up a perfect breaking ball at the bottom of the zone. And for whatever reason, I thought that was one of his funniest tweets ever, and I was dying laughing. 01:41:06 Speaker 1: I'm glad you remember that, because I think you just kick started my brain a little bit. But anytime Cebe is behind the plate, I think Divish usually notices. Yeah, well, I think the I think the whole baseball world notices. When you open Twitter and you're like, wow, that was a really shitty call. Who's behind Oh right. 01:41:24 Speaker 2: It was Ceb. 01:41:25 Speaker 1: It was Ceb. Let's close out the show, now, Lyle. That was a good segment. But let's finish it up and let's get to speak your mind. Speak your mind, spot. 01:41:39 Speaker 2: That would be unwise. 01:41:41 Speaker 1: What is necessary is never unwise. All right, Low, what's on your mind this week? 01:41:49 Speaker 2: So this past weekend was Father's Day and it just got me thinking because obviously most people get their dad's cards presents, probably both. I'm sitting there thinking, we live in a world world right where technology is so far advanced. I mean, we're getting close to the point of self driving cars, Yet we have not figured out the technology or the invention where you can find a way other than licking an envelope shut. And I think about it because I'm writing my dad a card this week for Father's Day, and I think licking envelopes is disgusting. And I'm just sitting there thinking as I get them as card. Is there no other invention for this? 01:42:28 Speaker 4: Like? 01:42:28 Speaker 2: How are we this far along in the world and we can't figure out how to do something other than lick card shut? 01:42:35 Speaker 1: It's just science? How else do you How else do you suggest that glues stay non sticky until it gets to you and then instantly makes it sticky? Like what what what laws of physics are we changing? 01:42:49 Speaker 3: What? 01:42:49 Speaker 1: What? What things are we shifting around the periodic table? 01:42:53 Speaker 2: Well, there's got to be tape or just you know, sticky tape. 01:42:57 Speaker 1: An envelope shot. 01:42:59 Speaker 2: Well, well, but you know what I'm talking about, Like on the seal where you actually seal it shut again, you're saying, how does that work? That's just laws of science. I would sit here and say, how are self driving cars becoming a thing? But you can't do something other than lick an envelope shut again. There has to be some type of substance that could shut these envelopes, or you don't have to lick it. 01:43:18 Speaker 1: I'm sure somebody thought about peeling a protective layer off that sticky stuff on an envelope, but the problem is you're dealing with an incredibly thin piece of paper that you're probably gonna tear. Like, what are you suggesting. 01:43:33 Speaker 2: I'm suggesting somebody smarter than me comes up with an invention for this, so I don't have to lick card shut anymore, because it's gross. 01:43:39 Speaker 1: I mean this is you just send your data text with the congrats and then it will and then if you have an iPhone, it will throw fireworks off and confetti will rain down, which is better than any letter that you can get your dad. 01:43:52 Speaker 2: Oh, if it was up to me, that's what I do. I'm not really a card person. I don't really understand the point of cards anymore, to be honest, I know they're supposed to be like a thoughtful sentiment and you know, you handwrite something, but I'm perfectly fine with just a text. Cards seem like kind of a thing of the past. But my parents are still people that like cards. So I get them cards. So I'm sitting there thinking, can can somebody create an invention for this? Again, this is like a total first world problem, but I'm just sitting here complaining about it. 01:44:20 Speaker 1: I have, actually I have that answer to your question because groundbreaking technology. 01:44:25 Speaker 2: Oh boy, an email. 01:44:29 Speaker 1: That's great too, but wow, you don't have to lick anything. 01:44:33 Speaker 2: Again. I'm all for the technology for sending holiday or birthday or event notes. But as parents who are a generation ahead of me or if not more again, they kind of like to go old school and have cards written for them. So that's what I do again if it's for me, Like again, I don't care about cards, like like, people can send me text that's perfectly fine. In fact, like the thing about cards is you kind of read it and throw it away. It just it just feels like you kind of open it and then a day or two later you put it in the recycling bin where text you can you can see a text like, you can look back at it if you want. I'm all for that. 01:45:15 Speaker 1: Those are very thoughtful answer. Low good. Good that you actually do make the effort though, to get cars to people who like cards. It's good. It's always good to keep the fabric of our society together. 01:45:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, I try. Now. On the other hand, what are you thinking about? 01:45:31 Speaker 1: Not something quite as pure? It does have some pure notes to it. Have you seen this Rocos Jello shot challenge in Omaha? 01:45:39 Speaker 2: Yes? I haven't dug into it as deeply as you have, but yes I have been seeing it. 01:45:45 Speaker 1: Let's start with the good stuff first. It's actually a great cause because at first I saw it, I'm like, they're charging five dollars for a jello shot? What a rip off? But they donate two dollars and fifty cents of every shot they sell to charity, which great. They used to when they did it last year they would send it to the charity of the winning team that they choose, and usually for hunger insecurities. This year they're gonna send it to charities of all eight teams, all eight teams in the College World Series, which is great. How about the LSU Tigers. Ole Miss set the record last year? Ole Miss fans set the record of a little over eighteen thousand jello shots last year in four days. Fans of Louisiana State University purchased too twenty one thousand, four hundred and thirty five Jello shots or one hundred and seven thousand dollars one hundred and seven thousand, one hundred and seventy five dollars worth of sales. About half of that going to charity, which is impressive in an absurd amount of money for a mix of alcohol and jell o. 01:46:54 Speaker 2: Those LSE fans had to have been absurd in Omaha and have to be absord this week. I can't even imagine. 01:47:02 Speaker 1: It's just the first weekend. Right now, they're playing their second game, right and they've have twenty one thousand Jello shots. I will give credit a big part of this due to the record breaking Todd Graves, who is the founder of one of our favorite establishments ever, Raising Canes, founded on the LSU campus and LSU alum, broke the record by purchasing six thousand Jello shots in one transaction, which, if you do some math, that's thirty thousand dollars in Jello shots in one swipe of a credit card. But what's great is that he believes that it broke the record for most shots bought in one round, breaking the record of Merril Haggard set in nineteen eighty three when he bought five thousand and ninety five shots for the entire bar. 01:47:54 Speaker 2: See Alcohol Saves Lives. That's the moral of the story here, Yeah, something like that. 01:48:01 Speaker 1: It's really it is really a great cause though. It really it's really fantastic that they are going to generate, especially if LSU advances to the championship game. They are gonna they could raise close over two hundred thousand dollars, which is not more, and all for good causes too, and you know about one hundred thousand of that I'll go to charity, which is fantastic. 01:48:23 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great. I mean, I all jokes aside about talking about alcohol stated lives. It is nice that the money is going to a good cause. Quick little side note before we wrap this up to the College World Series. This year might be the most loaded in terms of just pure talent that I can remember, because if you look at mock drafts, so many guys that are projected to go on the top ten to fifteen picks are playing in Omaha right now in the College World Serias between the two LSU guys, the Florida guys, Wake Forest, I mean, it's it doesn't end. I mean, the talent is ridiculous in Omaha this year it is you. 01:48:57 Speaker 1: Have Tommy Troy from Stanford. Stanford was eliminated today. You had Kyle Teel from Virginia as well. He's gonna be I think a top ten pick. Ratt Louder as you already mentioned from Wake Forest, all those guys are gonna be in the top fifteen. It's it's cool to see. I think Braden Montgomery's gonna be up there next year when he's draft el Goal also a Stanford So it's cool. It's a very talented feel that's gonna be very intriguing to see who who's gonna was gonna pull away with this one thought we might have a Cinderella story this year, but I'm gonna be guessing it's gonna be one of Wake Forest, LSU or Florida this year. If I if I were to guess, that just seems how it's gonna be gone. I mean, and we didn't even mention the fact that earlier today Tennessee pulls a guy out of the bullpen who's thrown one hundred and two miles an hour in college in Chase Burns. That was just crazy, and he was replacing a guy who's supposed to be a top ten pick this year, who had not a great year, Chase Dolander, And they bring in this other guy to the bullpen. He's throwing one hundred. 01:49:53 Speaker 2: And two and last year they had a guy throwing one hundred and five and Ben Joyce, Yeah, he's already big leagues exactly. So when we're not watching the Mariners here over the next week or two, we will probably have our TVs turned to the College World Series because it is a bunch of fun. It's two people who covered college baseball, broadcast at college baseball when we were in college. It's a lot of fun and I can't wait to keep watching. 01:50:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, it should be good. It's it's really good to see these teams that they're they're complete, they're talented, they have all the arms they need. It's yeah, it's it's it's it's awesome to see. It's just such a great collection of talent, and the guys have a lot of fun. They're all really fired up to be there, and I think it's a bucket list eventually trip for us and you know, maybe go see the almal the water if they make it here eventually in the next five so five or so years or ten years or whatever, the next time a Isue makes it dom High. I think that'll be a pretty fun trip and maybe the only reason that you and I would ever want to go to the Midwest. 01:50:54 Speaker 2: Correct. Also correct in that statement that it is a bucket list item, and correct that if Fatas is there, we would love to go. But as great some great people have said they are just one armor way. 01:51:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it seems like every year. 01:51:07 Speaker 2: Yes, Okay, I think that'll just about wrap up this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to listen to the full podcast, you can do so on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, or you can watch the video form on YouTube. We certainly recommend that you do that. Go give us a subscribe a subscription on YouTube, Go follow us, Go give us a five star review on all of our platforms, and go follow us on social media at Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. Help us beat that algorithm for TJ. Matthewson. This is Lyle Goldstein. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you next week.