Episode 35: Danny Vietti (CBS Sports) and Mariners' Midseason Report Cards

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number thirty five of the Marine Layer Podcast with TJ. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein. On today's pod, we welcome Danny Vietti, a social media manager at CBS Sports and the host of the Week and Rake podcast with Will Middlebrooks. It's great catching up with Danny. We talk some Mariners baseball, and we also talked a little bit about the Oakland Athletics reverse boycott that he got to attend. Some really good stories from that and a really good conversation with Danny. We have our mid season report cards. We'll go around position by position for the Mariners and give each position a great, really interesting exercise that Lal and I go through with this. We go down on the farm and pick out our standout Mariners minor leaguer. Another MLB wrap around, we take a look around baseball at some of the most exciting stories around the game. Another Russell Wilson Umpire of the Week, and we close out the show with Speak Your Mind. 00:00:56 Speaker 2: Before we get to the show, just a reminder, we've partnered within the Clutch close company. They're 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 j Rod, Jared Kellnick cal Riley, and Los Bombarrows. If you're interested to get one, use the code marine Layer Pod at indthclutch dot com for ten percent off and currently every shirt on their website ships within the US for free. 00:01:25 Speaker 1: And make sure, guys, please go check out our YouTube channel. That's one of the best ways to support our channel. We put in a lot of work on that channel. So if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, or however you digest your podcast, go over to our YouTube channel, Go subscribe, Go turn on the notification bill so you know when we post vice versa. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to check out our podcasts on Apple and Spotify. Leave us a review, download our podcasts all that good stuff, and if you want to find us on social media, you can find us at marine Layer Pod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Let's get it rolling, and we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, recording here on Monday, June twenty sixth. Did that weekend not go exactly how we predicted? 00:02:22 Speaker 3: To an absolute tea. 00:02:24 Speaker 2: It did because here's what happens, right, They wallop the Yankees and the Bronx in the final game, they parlay that by absolutely curb stopping the Orioles, and everybody naturally sits there in things to themselves, well, could this be the turn? Is this finally the point in the season where they turn it around? And then they lose the next two? It was just this is just what happens. This is kind of what they do. 00:02:47 Speaker 1: I think you and I after Thursday's game in New York sat there and thought, this is gonna happen. This has the potential to happen again in Baltimore on Friday, and then they're gonna end the road two and four with two excruciating losses over the weekend. And yeah, it went exactly like that, with the exact sort of excruciating things you didn't want to see but still ended up happening. Two I guess one score losses with a walk off home run and extra innings. You can count that as close to a one run loss as you can without it actually being one. And then Sundays as well, exactly how you thought. Exactly, So the Mariners end up with the road trip with a positive run differential and a two and four record, and you wouldn't say, well, that was a good road trip based on run differential. And we're sitting here like, not really. 00:03:42 Speaker 2: This is the complete opposite of twenty twenty one, because I feel like in twenty twenty one, what would happen is the first game they would be the ones that would get absolutely blown out, and then they'd somehow come back and win the next two games in a series by one run each game, and their run differential would be terrible, but their record would be okay. And now, all of a sudden, it's the reverse of that. 00:04:01 Speaker 1: What's really funny is we recorded last week's episode before the first game of the Yankee series, and one of our great thought out storylines was, man, is the Mariner's offensive improve approach really improved? And then you and I are sitting there watching the first two game of the Yankee series like, what a bunch of fucking idiots you two are? 00:04:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, And then against the Orioles too, and they go out and they can't score any runs, especially in that Sunday game. 00:04:33 Speaker 1: I had a good chuckle though. I thought it was funny, it was on brand I will say give us credit for predicting. We've watched this story too many times. Now, this is what five hundred teams do. They'll tantalize you and then they'll come back down to earth with the same things that have plagued them throughout the season. Now we have a pretty big sample throughout the season already, Lyle, that I thought this was appropriate for this week's episode. Instead of storylines, this week, we're gonna go through the Mariner's roster position by position and give out report cards. Will this report card past the class is the big question. 00:05:14 Speaker 2: I guess we're gonna find out at the end. For anybody listening to let us know what your report cards would be. If you're listening and you want to follow along with us and you want to give a letter grade to each position, go right ahead and our next show we'll get back to doing normal storylines. But we figured here at the midpoint of the season, this is probably a good time to do some assessments. 00:05:32 Speaker 1: So let's get into our report cards. First up, let's start at first base, Lyle, what is your report What is your grade for first base? 00:05:42 Speaker 2: I gave it a bus so TIS picked it up. As of late right, which is great. His defense has been pretty good. He rarely strikes out, which we know is a piece of his game. But he's right at about the league average for first baseman and war he's bottom third in WRC plus. The Mariners just need more from him, and it's good that he's starting to heat up up. But if we're looking at first half as a whole, I went about B minus. 00:06:04 Speaker 1: I had the same grade as you did B minus. He's well below his career norms that he's established with the Mariners. We've noted this. He had a one thirty WRC plus and twenty one one twenty six last year probably should have been higher if he didn't get hurt. He's sitting at one twenty this year, and that's with him picking it up over this recent stretch. His defense has been fine. Outside of Ty Frans, there has been zero production at first base because he started nearly every single game at first base, and he's been good again. But for a guy who's supposed to be I would say a top three hitter on this roster maybe not quite enough for that first base position. So when we're in the B range, that's usually what I thought of for this that's good, but not exceeding expectations, not wowing anybody. If you're going to take a guess, there's the we don't throw around eight grades lightly for this report, guard, I wouldn't say so. And that starts out with a bang with one of your better positions, first base receiving barely above a C grade, but B minus is passing barely second base, lyle, what's your grade second base? 00:07:07 Speaker 2: I went C minus. And this is actually being totally held up by Jose Cabierro because he's been great and since he's come up, he's been a really nice shot in the arm for this team. But Colton Wong's disastrous first half when you're looking at the group as a whole, it's brought it down. And Sam Haggerty's struggles don't help either. So it's great that Kabierro's running a WRC plus close to one twenty. It's nice that he's played good defense and run the base as well. Group as a whole. Second base has been an issue for a long time and they're still trying to work through it right now. 00:07:37 Speaker 1: The only reason this is not an F is from Jose Cabierro. I gave them a D plus. 00:07:43 Speaker 3: I did. 00:07:43 Speaker 1: My first note was this is an F without Kybyerro defense, speed, great getting in the mind of the opponent, great outside of him, it's stunk. And Dylan Moore when he's come back, hasn't played all that much. He has been healthy for nearly He's been healthy since June eighth, Dylan Moore has and he's gotten eighteen plate appearances as of recording here on Monday afternoon. That's not the impact you really wanted out of Dylan Moore. I think you and I both want to see more of Dylan Moore, but right now it's been mostly still the mix of cave Ero and Colton Wong as well with Dylan Moore coming off the bench. Not sure why that is, but that's a big reason why this second base earns a deep plus. And it's I it's just Colton Wong. You're looking at You know it's an F. But I don't really think we need to explain that. 00:08:30 Speaker 2: I wonder if they might have brought Dylan Moore back a little too soon. I'm not a doctor. I don't have the medical reports, but you just look at him. It doesn't look like his timing is quite down yet at the plate. They might have just wanted to get him back with the idea to get him playing some defense, steal some bases because he can provide some value there, and then over time start to just work his bat into the lineup. If I had to guess, that's what it is. But yeah, the production hasn't been there with the plate yet. 00:08:56 Speaker 1: I don't really want to say desperation is the reason, but when you're desperate to get some production at second base, sometimes you could be lent to do that, and that very well might have very mall well could have happened with Dylan Moore. We'll see how he adjusts as the season goes along and we get a few more weeks here into the summer and a better hitting environment as well. Shortstop, what's your great? 00:09:20 Speaker 2: I went C plus at shortstop, and honestly, JP's year at the plate has been great. I mean a lot of his swing looks fixed. He's hitting fastballs now, which is great. He's top five at the position in WRC plus. Keep that in mind for all the payroll Twitter people out there that were so furious about not getting one of those shortstops. Offensively, JP's as good as you could be asking for at the position. The issue is his defense has kind of dropped down in production again, and I say kinda. He's in the six percentile and now it's above average, where last year he was in the second percentile. He was off to a great start in April, but it's come down a little bit since. So if he was playing league average defense, his great would probably be closer to a B or B plus. But for me, because of the lack of defense now, I gave it a C plus in a league get. 00:10:04 Speaker 1: If you put his league average defense with that bat, you could argue he's working himself closer to the top five of the shortstops in terms of production this year because that mix would have led to the results that way. I'm really a big fan of what JP has done at the plate this year. It's not just the results he's gotten. The expected numbers on his Baseball Savant pager are good. He's hitting the ball harder than most shortstops have this year, and for a guy who's never hit the ball hard in his career, it's really nice to see him do that. And he continues to be a valuable part of this lineup. Walking fourteen percent of the time as well. Just that defense, we expected it to take a step forward again and it's been right where it was last year. I kept it at a B minus, so in the same area, but that's what it is for JP overall, though, a net positive to the lineup and defense. Nah third base. 00:10:59 Speaker 2: Went C minus third base, and this is being saved by au Henny Asuarez his defense. The fact he is one of the best third basemen in baseball and one of the best defenders in baseball right now by outs above average is saving this great and I'm happy to see that some of his peripherals offensively are trending up. But if you're just looking at productions so far in the first half for a guy that you are relying on to be a thumper in the middle of your lineup, WRC plus around ninety is not cutting it. And we've seen the struggles he's had with the strikeouts, just the lack of hard contact, kind of everything at the plate, lack of power, So yes, C minus that they need much more from his bat. 00:11:37 Speaker 1: His peripherals are closer to last year than you would think. But in the end, this report card is based on results, and there have been no results outside of defense for au Hennio. I didn't note that. I thought this was interesting. The league average WRC plus for big league third basemen this year is only ninety five. That kind of floored me. 00:11:56 Speaker 2: Which is crazy because third base is one of the premier offensive positions in baseball these days, with Manny, with Aeronada, with Jose Ramirez and some others. But a lot of those guys are struggling this year, which is totally uncharacteristic for guys that honestly probably have Hall of Fame cases when their career is set and done as long as they keep their production up. But all these superstars at third base are not hitting right now. It's the oddest thing. 00:12:18 Speaker 1: I gave Gino a D. I skipped to my grade, but he gets a D. And I summed it up in one sentence. He went from the Mariners' second best hitter last season to the second worst every day hitter this season, and that just has too much of a detrimental impact on this lineup's ability to function. When he can't produce even close to the levels he was at last year, it's taking a step in the wrong direction, and we just hate seeing that from Gino. We hope he picks it up in the second half. Left field. 00:12:51 Speaker 2: Left field I gave a B minus and I want to clarify on this, Jared Kalmech himself, I would give a B plus. Yeah, his bat and his production have come to a little bit as of late. Now we'll see where that starts to level out as the second half goes on. He may get hot again and bring his WRC plus back up. Not to say it's been bad. It's still sitting right at about one twenty, which is good. It's well above league average, which is not where it was in April. But U factor in Jared's bat, the improvements he's made at the plate, his defense, he's had a really good year for the Mariners, and he's on pace for about a three to three and a half win season. We haven't talked a ton about aj Pollock as of late. He's bringing the group down. I mean, for a guy that was expected to come in here and hit left handed pitching exclusively, he's running out of thirteen WRC plus against left handed pitching thirteen, So he's eighty seven percent above or below league average doing what he's supposed to be doing that's the. 00:13:46 Speaker 1: Second it's the second worst mark in baseball, only behind someone whose name I forget. I think it's Gabriel Arius but not totally confirmed, who has a zero WRC plus against lefties. 00:13:57 Speaker 2: That's the only one worse who has a zero, which just doesn't make any sense. He is crushed left handed pitching his whole career. This is what AJ Pollock does, but for whatever reason, he has had a rough go of it in the first half, and as a result, the left field group as a whole, their grade is getting brought down to a B minus. 00:14:16 Speaker 1: I separated this out too. Jared gets a B plus individually and AJ Pollock gets an F in this spot. Overall, the left field grade is a B. I think Jared has been probably best case scenario at the plate this year minus the strikeout. So I'd say the strikeouts are not the best case scenario because his k rates up near thirty three percent for the season now. But overall, when he does make contact, he's still hitting the ball pretty hard, and he's playing a really solid left field defensively, and still just twenty three. Still, just twenty three isn't that great? AJ Pollock though, as we talk about guys. We're not totally sure why he's on the roster. Aj Pollock is creeping into that or creeping he is in that he's in that group right now of whys on the roster and why he's getting big at bats like you got yesterday on Sundays, swings at the first pitch and hits a ball about thirteen miles an hour on the ground, which was which made us chuckle and like throw our hands in the air. Aja is bringing this grade down. It's bad. Negative half wins of overplacement for a part time player is impressive, to say the least center field. 00:15:25 Speaker 2: This is the one I struggled with the most, and I had to sit and think about. Am I going to grade Julio on a curve? I decided not to. I teetered back and forth with this. I decided not to. I gave the group a B. Now, when you look at Julio as a whole amongst center fielders, he's top five among the position in war He's still on pace for a four plus win season, but obviously his bat has not been there and it's nowhere close to what Julio's supposed to be doing. So here's how I separated this. This team is built on the idea that Julio should be getting eight to eight plus grades every half season, every season, however you want to measure it. 00:16:02 Speaker 3: He's not. He's a few. 00:16:03 Speaker 2: Grades below that. He hasn't been terrible by any stretch. A four war season. If that's his worst career season, that's pretty good. 00:16:10 Speaker 3: But for where the. 00:16:11 Speaker 2: Team needs him to be right now, it's not where. It's not cutting it. So he's been fine, but not good enough. 00:16:20 Speaker 3: So I give him a B. 00:16:21 Speaker 1: This is where you and I are going to differ the most. You might be shocked. I give him a C minus. 00:16:26 Speaker 3: Ooh, so that's tough. 00:16:29 Speaker 2: If I was grading Julio on a curve, it probably would have been closer to that. I decided to grade him just among other centerfielders in baseball. 00:16:36 Speaker 1: I did great him on a curve. He's worth two point one wins of replacement this year for fran Grafts. That's pretty good. Right now, you know he might end up with five wins pretty easily. A lot of this is carried by the fact he's playing elite defense in centerfield. He's taken a clear step forward in centerfield and that's really helping him in that category. His offense is just it's just flabbergasting. What watching some of his plate appearances when it seems like he's turning it around, we still see a couple of those things creep in, especially the series over the weekend against Baltimore that have been hampering him all year, And you know, is he pressing? Maybe, But We're not here to break down his approach. I'm just here to break down the results of the Mariners needed way more than a one oh six WRC plus from Julio Rodriguez this season. I just get such a headache seeing people online saying. 00:17:29 Speaker 3: The Mariners. 00:17:31 Speaker 1: Needing who It's indicative of the Mariners that they set up this roster that Julio had to be great for them to be great. And I'm sitting there thinking, so we just not supposed to expect our great players to be great? Is it just gonna be like, Okay, we need to prepare for a worst case scenario. Houston needs to prepare that jord On Alparez is only gonna have a one oh one WRC plus through the first half of the season because we can't lob that all onto a twenty five year old should just think about think of how absurd that sounds. Do you think the Angels every year are are preparing for Mike Trout to not perform like Mike Trout? No, so why should we expect say that, Oh, like it's unfair that we're expecting too much out of Julio. 00:18:20 Speaker 2: It's not unfair, and those takes are absurd. Look at the Yankees. Look at what the Yankees are with and without Aaron Judge. Their roster is built on one of the best players in baseball being one of the best players in baseball, and they paid him accordingly, just like the Mariners did with Julio. You're seeing the Yankees right now without Judge. They're kind of a mediocre baseball team. They're hovering around that last wildcard spot, but they're not playing inspiring baseball. I think the Mariners are right in that same category. This roster, yes, is built on the guy that is supposed to be an e leap ball player and the cornerstone of this team doing exactly that, and right now it's just not happening. 00:18:55 Speaker 1: And that's why he gets a C minus because Julio is not playing like Julio should That's it. That's all it is. Right. Even if he's good compared to your average ballplayer, he's not compared to your average ballplayer. He's compared to Julio right Field right Field. 00:19:11 Speaker 2: I gave a C and ta Oscar's really uped his grade over the last month or so because he's been on such a tear that it's a full swing from where he was just a few weeks prior. Now. This is still first half as a whole, which is why he's not getting like a B plus, but his WRC plus is sitting right around one ten. He's put up a full win. What he's done in the last month looks like the ta Oscar that we traded for from Toronto. So I've upped his grade. But you can't forget about April and May either, where he really struggled. 00:19:41 Speaker 3: So I gave him a C. 00:19:42 Speaker 1: He gets a B minus because he's kept to this offensive float most of this month. One seventy nine this month. Two pretty bad months in April in May. But this month I think is salvage his great a lot is dragged it up to pretty much a B minus. And I would say, you know, I think that's fair I think anywhere between C and B minus is fair for Taoscar, Hernandez. But this version of Taoscar here in June has been what the Mariners have traded for, and that's where it. You know, it gets slightly below the good category DH. 00:20:15 Speaker 3: I don't think we need to spend much time on this one. They get an F. 00:20:20 Speaker 1: Easily F yep, anything you want to say. 00:20:25 Speaker 2: The last ten days for Mike Ford have been fun. But other than that, uugh, that has been a gaping black hole. 00:20:35 Speaker 1: The Jerry Depoto versatility DH idea did not work. It did not and that's the and the grade reflects that. Unfortunately. I didn't even write anything down. I don't. I don't even think this needs any explanation. It's an F. Whoever they put there, it's stunk. Has it worked, and it's been really refreshing to watch Mike Ford take the new King Felix deep as Baltimore dubbed Yesterday. 00:21:00 Speaker 2: Starters. You're missing one. We're missing one position group here did we didn't do catchers yet? 00:21:10 Speaker 1: Go ahead catch you that, Okay, go ahead. 00:21:14 Speaker 2: I give the catcher group a B plus. And the reason I did is because, look, Kal could be doing more with the bat too, but he's top ten for catchers in WAR, he's tied for fifth and home runs or he's in the he's within the top five in home runs. 00:21:28 Speaker 3: Still needs to. 00:21:28 Speaker 2: Hit for a little more power as a whole and go for some more extra base hits, but ultimately he's been pretty good. And then Tom Murphy has been a league average backup. His WAR is exactly at zero, his WRC plus sits right around one hundred. That's a backup catcher. So you could have gone anywhere from B minus to B plus with this group. But the fact Cow sits top ten in WAR and top five and home runs, I give him a B plus. 00:21:50 Speaker 1: I have it as a B plus two Tom Murphy as of late, he had a tough start to the season, but he's actually been playing pretty decent ball over the you know, the last handful of weeks has just been really nice to see. Was expecting a little bit more out of Cal the season, Like you said, with the bat, and his defense has also not been I think it's has been great, but catcher has not been really the spot that's been dragging down Cal. Still technically an above average bat by WRC plus, which as a catcher is really all you can ask for, So that earns a B plus. And they have been a huge key in making these next two groups very successful. Let's get to starting pitchers. What's your grade? 00:22:29 Speaker 3: I gave him an a minus. 00:22:30 Speaker 2: And obviously they'd had to kind of go through some rough waters at points of the year between losing Robbie Ray, you lose Marco Gonzalez. The two rookies have been awesome, which has totally saved this rotation. But when you sit top ten in ERA, they're third, in WAR, they're fourth, and fifth, they're fifth and x FIP. That's a pretty good group of starting pitchers, and they've hovered right around that number one spot in WAR for a lot of this season. So I went a minus. 00:22:54 Speaker 1: I actually gave them an eight plus. I think mostly for the fact of the depth of this rotation earn them that plus the fact that they can dig in and grab their ninth and tenth starters out of their farm system and not looking at any restrictions, have stepped right in and looked like big leaders right away twenty five and under. That's incredible. How many other teams in baseball have that kind of depth? In the pitching. I don't think any of them do, and I think that especially earns this rotation and an A plus for me, Kirpy taking a step forward, Castillo being what you paid for, Gilbert taking a noticeable step forward, and all of his off speed stuff, which we really harped on him for doing last season, getting away from the fastball and introducing some more breaking stuff. He's done that. And I think all of them have exceeded expectations and have been the best part of this baseball team. 00:23:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you, and all five of these guys right now do have top of the rotation upside. Now all five will probably not get there, but they all have that ceiling. And when you can dream on what these five guys can be, that's an exciting time, especially when they're all under club control for a long time. 00:24:09 Speaker 1: How about the bullpen final group, bullpen, I gave. 00:24:13 Speaker 3: A flat A. 00:24:13 Speaker 2: I actually thought they've been a little bit better than the rotation, just when you look at the numbers. I mean, they're second in war right now, their second in FIP, their first and x FIP. This group's been great to do what the Mariners bullpen has done three years in a row. We've talked about it a million times, so I'm just gonna say it for the million in first time. It's incredible. Bullpens don't do this. Paul Seawall has been great for three years in a row. Andre's Munos now that these healthy, awesome again. Really, the entire bullpen has just been nails. So how many more good things can you say about him? 00:24:39 Speaker 3: I gave them an A. 00:24:41 Speaker 1: I give them a B plus a little bit down. I think they would have gotten an A if Munos has been had been healthy most of this time. Now, if you do that relative to expectation, maybe they could have earned an A. But I thought it was more along the lines of a B plus. I just don't know if I've felt as comfortable with them sans Munos as with Munos. Reason for bringing that grade down, but it's really been great that the Mariners and their pitching development have managed to find guys like Justin Topa, like Trevor Gott, like Gabe Spier, like Taylor Sasato, and even seeing thy Adcock come in here and look good in a couple of outings too. It's really a testament to their scouting and to their development. And the pitching staff and all these guys that they just bring up for the miners or scout on other rosters that they can just plug in and their stuff really plays. And I'm hoping that this grade goes to an A plus if we get a full second half of great andres munos, which we've seen here so far. So that's why they earn a B plus. 00:25:34 Speaker 4: For me. 00:25:35 Speaker 1: Overall, I would say an underwhelming report card. I think there are GPAs hovering probably right around three in this case, which is fine, you'll pass, but you're not winning a valedictorian, you're not finishing top of your class, and you're definitely not getting into Harvard, Yale, etc. 00:25:55 Speaker 2: You're probably getting into Arizona State. 00:25:58 Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Yeah, the owner of a three point four GPA in high school? 00:26:05 Speaker 2: Oh did you have a three point four? 00:26:08 Speaker 1: Did you get a higher one than me? 00:26:11 Speaker 2: No, I'm saying did you have a three point four because I was gonna say three point oh. That's like the story of my life both high school and college. I was right around at three point oh or three point one. 00:26:19 Speaker 1: I don't really remember. I think it was three four, either my ASU GPA or my high school GPA is about three four. I think one of them was three six. I can't totally remember I was. I wasn't a terrible student. 00:26:30 Speaker 3: All right, Well I did. 00:26:32 Speaker 1: I performed better than the marriage. My report cards look better than the Mariners did this year. 00:26:36 Speaker 3: All right. 00:26:37 Speaker 2: Well, look, if you're gonna look at this Mariner's report card, I think it's self explanatory because you see, with the offensive group, there's a lot of c's, a lot of b's, there's no a's, So you wonder, why is the offense struggling? Why is this team sitting around five hundred. There's not a good there's not enough good grades in the offensive group. So there is much room for improvement in the second half, and hopefully we see some of it. 00:27:00 Speaker 1: We're gonna have to see. There are some big series coming up here this week. It's gonna be exciting week for you and I will. I will be taking the trip home, will be at the Tampa Bay Series. I'll be there with Lyle on Saturday and Sunday. That's gonna be really exciting. I think we'll get to talk about that a little bit more next week. It'll be It'll be nice to see them in person. But you know, these are games that the Mariners are gonna have to start looking better and improve their report card across across the way. Pitching has done their job, offense has not, and that'll be big as we go down the stretch here of this season. While I really enjoyed our conversation with Danny Vietti, I'm gonna give credit to you for tracking him down and coming up with the idea to get him on And it just so happened that he also attended the Oakland Athletics reverse boycott night. Fascinating stories to come out of that, so it's really good to have his insight on that and talk about it with us. 00:27:53 Speaker 2: I thought it would be good to get some national perspective for where the Mariners are at at this point in the air. Danny certainly gave us that, and he's another media guy who has some great perspective. We enjoyed the conversation a bunch, and with the Oakland a stuff, I thought it was really interesting and relatable, right for people and fans of a city who lost their basketball team can relate to the city of Oakland who's lost multiple sports teams and now are likely going to lose their baseball team. Danny talked about how a lot of their fans got to express their voices to him because he gave him a mic and a platform to do so, and a lot of it was really really interesting. So that's more of a national storyline, but I think a really unique one, so be sure to check that out. 00:28:35 Speaker 1: It relates to us Mariner's knees seach play each other tens of times throughout the years. It used to be nineteen notes down to thirteen or fourteen. But regardless that this directly relates to the Mariners, so it's really fascinating. So let's not delay any longer. Let's get to our conversation with Danny Vietti. 00:28:56 Speaker 2: All right, we welcome on Danny Vietti, social media manager at Sports and he's also the host of the Wake and Rake podcast with Will Middlebrooks. Danny, we're excited to have you on. We appreciate the time. How many times on your podcast have you mentioned the obstruction play to Middlebrooks. 00:29:14 Speaker 4: It's funny you mentioned so. We actually had one episode. It was when times were slow. It sometime like last summer, and we had an episode that was just his career and I had to make a thumbnail. It was, you know, best moments and happenings from the career of Will Middlebrooks, And of course I had to make the thumbnail for YouTube the obstruction play because that is the most iconic moment of his career and it's okay to him, it isn't mine too much because they ended up winning the World Series. If they lost the World Series, and like, that's how people remembered him the most. I think he might take exception to it. 00:29:54 Speaker 2: It's kind of like what TJ was talking about just before he hopped on here. It was like, well, Colton Long who was a former Mariner, Now, I mean he got off in that series. It might be a little different for him telling the tales of that series than Middlebrooks, where, like you said, the Red Sox. 00:30:05 Speaker 3: Went on to win it. 00:30:06 Speaker 2: It was a play that wasn't really all his fault, right, He was kind of on the ground and they happened to get tripped out. 00:30:11 Speaker 3: It was just kind of one of those weird fluky things. 00:30:14 Speaker 4: Well, his story too is Jim Joyce was the umpire and for people that don't know, Jim Joyce is the same guy that made the out call at first base Armanda Gala Raga the non perfect perfect game. He's talking with Jim Joyce as it's going on, and he asked Jim Joyce what am I supposed to do? And unpart Jim Joyce, he said, You're just supposed to disappear, And so middle Brooks just throws up his hands, like, what the heck does that supposed to be? What do you mean to disappear? This is the World Series. That was the best explanation that Will got from it from Jim Joyce was just disappear. That was the quote. 00:30:48 Speaker 1: What did your connection with Will start? 00:30:51 Speaker 4: So he works as an analyst over here at CBS Sports HQ. It was as simple as we both work under the same umbrellas. I pitch in on the MLB department, he obviously does as an analyst. 00:31:03 Speaker 1: I hit him up. 00:31:03 Speaker 4: It was during during COVID when no sports were going on whatsoever. We had followed each other on Twitter for you know, some time, and I sent him a DM and was like, dude, you know it'd be great is if CBS Sports did a baseball podcast? And he was like, I love the idea. That would be fantastic, And so we started chipping into the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast, part of the CBS Sports podcast network. We tried to get our own show through that same network through CBS Sports only baseball, non fantasy related. They didn't really want to invest in that type of thing because CBS Sports does not broadcast Major League Baseball and we don't own the broadcast rights to a lot of things. So we decided to kind of go on our own venture and start the Wake and Raak podcasts and have been doing excuse me doing it now for I think two years, maybe two and a half years now, So yeah, been going strong. It's been fun. 00:31:58 Speaker 1: Seems like the way a lot a lot of these things start, how it started with with Lalenai is like you just end up. You have one conversation about baseball and you're like, huh man, I think we get we could do a little we could do a little bit more with that. 00:32:09 Speaker 4: I don't know. 00:32:09 Speaker 1: It didn't sound like though you and Will had too much prior I don't know, like prior rapport then too. Then you know, just starting which I guess can be good and can be bad. It depends how it mixes. 00:32:22 Speaker 4: None at all, Like we had never spoken before that one Twitter conversation, like I said, like we followed each other, but we might have had an interaction or two. But I I I mean to this day, I've known Willie now for uh three four years at this point, like via social media and stuff. I've only met him in person one time. I got to go to Fenway Park last year, uh and spent some time with he and his wife Jenny as she was in town as well. But that's like when young kids asked me about like my career and like advice for making it into sports industry, the first thing I tell him is, like, just reach out to people, because the worst thing that could happen as you get ghosted or like you get told no. So just like reach out to people, like introduce yourself, like tell them what you're about, tell them what you want to do. Like I got my start at Max Preps, which is owned by CBS Sports. The only reason I got into the editorial department. I was really low on the totem pole as a it was like sports data input or or something. It was terrible. It was a desk job, like terrible. I wanted to be in the editorial and social media department. I walked over to the editorial department, introduced myself to Steve Montoya, who was in charge of everything. I was over on the editorial department within a month, so like, all it takes is just like either shaking a hand, sending a message via Twitter, and like great things can happen and the worst thing that could happen is nothing at all. So that's that's some of the vites that I normally tell younger guys trying to get into the business. 00:33:56 Speaker 2: So how long do you feel like it took you guys to develop your on air chemistry? Because I guess with TJ and I mean, we've known each other forever now, and we've been friends for so long and know how we are both together and on air, so we had a little bit of experience before, not to say that we didn't need to figure out our own podcast voices with this platform, but for you, with only meeting Will once in person, how long do you feel like it took you guys to really kind of establish the relationship you guys wanted to have on your podcast. 00:34:24 Speaker 4: It's a great question. I'd say we're still establishing it. You know, we're not one hundred percent sure, like what we are, who we are, what we want to be, because I mean, you guys know this, There's thousands of baseball podcasts out there, so like, why would anybody click on the Wake and Break podcast? Like what makes us special? What makes us unique? What Jimmy O'Brien and John Boy are doing, like what he started with the breakdowns, the detailed breakdowns, or what Rob Friedman pitching Ninja does with his pitching breakdowns, that makes them unique. We've been trying to find our niche, our our one component that makes us different from everybody else, and I think we're still searching, you know, years later, and maybe we never actually reach you know, that level. I hope we do at some point. But I think what we bring to the table different than others is he brings kind of the player side of things. Obviously his World Series Champion, he's numbers of He's got loads of stories, players, coaches, playing stories, minor league baseball, et cetera. And he's got a good rollodex of contacts too that sometimes will have on the pod. What I think I bring to the table is like more statistical base the nerdy side of baseball, and we kind of combine those things, and I think it makes a good a good mixture. So I would say it starts with respect, like I respect everything that he did with his career, and I respect his baseball knowledge, and most importantly, I respect him just as a guy like I see. You know, we FaceTime pretty regularly and I get to interact with his family, his wife's kids, and I get to know him more as a person. It definitely helps to have a foundation like maybe you Lyle and TJ have that you have. You know, it's grown over the years. You have a friendship and a bond. But I think there is something too to I'm getting to know Will more and more over time, which kind of make things. It makes things new. Every time we jump on a zoom and record a podcast or FaceTime or whatever, we get to learn how each other are developing too, because he's trying to make his mark in the media industry too. We both are, so we're kind of on a similar trajectory. He's got a little bit of a head start as he's doing pre and post game with the Red Sox on the broadcast team. But it's fun because we get to see how our careers continue to evolve. 00:36:53 Speaker 1: How long have you nagged him to get you on there? 00:36:57 Speaker 4: Oh man, Well, when I went to fen Way last year I got to meet it was a he was in the booth with Tim Wakefield Tom Karen, who does basically all of their hosting for pre and Post. I've never once ever asked it's you know, that's that's it. I mean, he's worked his ass off to be where he is, so that's not really in my place. If they wanted to ask me on I would say yes and the heartbeat, and I'd probably you know, give up, give up my marriage and house to be on there. But no, that hasn't happened yet. I think my age is still kind of fighting against me too, being so young. I think I think that kind of trips people up a little bit. 00:37:41 Speaker 1: Man. I think that mic flag looks mighty good, just right right right here. Yeah, I think so. 00:37:46 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. 00:37:49 Speaker 2: If we were going to transition a little bit to some Mariner stuff here, Danny, from a national perspective, we were hoping to get what your two cents are because we sit here and watch every game and we break a lot of stuff down and obviously it's been a frustrating year for them up to this point, but from more of a national, maybe broader perspective, what have you seen from the Mariners here as we start to wind down the month of June. 00:38:11 Speaker 4: Well, I'll say this first, we were talking a little bit about before. It might have been before we jumped on jumped on here, before we went live, or maybe it was it was during. You guys said that San Diego kind of holds a special plate in my place in my heart, which it does, but Seattle does too. I have a lot of family up in Washington, Graham, Washington, my sister in law, my niece, my nephew is out in Manasino, Montisano, something like that, out in near Olympia, and in my brother he was based in Fort Lewis. So Seattle always holds a special place in my heart. I always find myself rooting for the Mariners as well, just you know, West Coast bias when it comes to this season with Seattle. Obviously, losing rob Ray hurts when you have a young rotation like the Mariners do. Luis Castillo is more of a veteran guy. Marco Gonzal is more of a veteran guy. But overall, you just have a young roster. When you have a your most experienced arm, your ace, when you lose him for an entire season, that's tough to bounce back from. But I say that, but it's really been the offense that has been hurt in Seattle more than anything. Right, Like pitching wise, they've actually been fine with Kirby and like I mentioned Castillo, but offensively designated hitter second basement, those are the two spots that jump out of me when you look at slugging percentage among second basement and Major League Baseball, Seattle Manners are last any American league designated hitter. Wise, aj Pollock has not worked out. When you look at the ops among designated hitters, the designated hitter position in Major League Baseball, yes, Seattle Mariners are last, and the designated hitter position for the Mariners also, they're back in like one sixty five. Combined, those are two massive holes in the lineup. And when you have guys like Julio Rodriguez not quite having the same year as he had a year ago, it's you need you need the you need your supporting cast to be there, and so far just really hasn't been there. Gino Suarez this isn't hitting the ball with as much bop this year as he did last. So overall one through nine, just the lineups just not producing enough, particularly that second base position and the designated hitter position. 00:40:33 Speaker 1: A lot of the discourse has been they really just didn't dump enough money into those positions. And we know you, if there's any team you watch closer than the others, would be the Padres, who did quite the opposite and dumped a ton of money into that. And I think it's very interesting that you could, I don't know if you could, you know, bring some perspective for watching both of these teams and like, well maybe maybe that's not you know, all it at it. And I guess saying it that way. 00:41:02 Speaker 4: It's funny you mentioned money and like is it resulting into success? So I just this morning I took a look at the top seven payrolls in Major League Baseball. There's not a team right now of the top seven biggest payrolls this year. We pulled up, actually, there's not a team in baseball right now that is in first place with a top seven payroll. So number one, the Mets. They're in fourth place in National LEAGUEESE. They had the highest pay roll in baseball. After that, Yankees they're in third place in the division. Padres had the third highest payroll. They're in fourth place, Phillies third place, Dodgers third place, Angels third place, Blue Jays fourth place. Now, all those teams they're either above five hundred or flirting with five hundred, as they should be when you spend that much money. But with that said, you expect teams with high payrolls to be at least one of them to be in first place position. Right now, that's not the case. And I get it. Only June twenty second, and there's sole time to kind of turn things around. But I would say, you know, it's teams like Tampa Bay. It's teams like the Giants, even that maybe didn't completely fork over the paycheck, but they're doing it analytically and they're finding guys to produce one through nine. Like look what the Giants are doing this year. They lose out on Carlos Korea, they lose out on Aaron Judge. In years prior, they lost out on Bryce Harper, Garrett Cole. They've been in these conversations for these so called big time for agents, but they've been the bridesmaid. Every single time they have not landed a big time name, even though they've been in the conversations. Yet they bring in guys like Luis Matos, who's been phenomenal ever since they promoted him. Jock Peterson on another one year deal is producing at a high level, Confordos showing the long ball, Mitch Hanneger before he went back on the injured list. Those are really just underrated signings. I think that's what Jerry Depoto is s needs to do more of, is finding player supporting role cast players that can produce above expectations. And I think that's what San Francisco does really well, That's what Tampa does, That's what Boston is doing really well with guys like Keith Hernandez and Adam Duval. That's what teams like Seattle to get to that next level needs to do a better job of. 00:43:25 Speaker 1: And those marginal signings the Mariners have had have not just flopped, but flopped in the most spectacular way possible. With Pollock with you know Colton Wong, who today as we're recording here on a Thursday, the twenty second of June, finally hit his first home run of the season. Today as a guy who is supposed to be your starting second basement throughout the season has been relegated to the last guy on the bench. When when the guys you do sign to feel those holes don't play. It doesn't really matter how much you're paying them. You could have what you could have. You know, Trey Turners, I think I saw his number today, twenty percent below league average shortstop production for three hundred million dollars. You could have Colton Wong's paycheck of a little over ten million dollars this year while also being a prummy baseball player and well below league average offensively. Regardless with both those both those players, it's both costing your team no matter how much the paycheck is. 00:44:20 Speaker 4: The second base position has been an issue in Seattle for a long time though, right like even go back to the Robinson Cano contract, which wasn't fantastic for either side, and in the last three years, you try to bring on Adam Fraser that was mostly disappointing, You trade for Abraham Toro at the deadline because you had avoid at second base, mostly disappointing overall, and then now you're bring in Coult Wong. So this is going on nearly a decade now where you I understand that Robinson Cano was your answer at second base, but again it just didn't work out perfectly. So you're going on ten years now where the production at the second base position just hasn't been there. 00:45:00 Speaker 2: Frankly, Yeah, it's funny because and kind of tying this all in with the mid level signings that you were mentioning. We've been doing this podcast six months, but that's been the talk for much longer than that, not just the second base spot, but just spending money and finding production all that stuff. And so many people in Seattle, especially on Twitter, we'll talk about the whole payroll thing and talk about the money thing. I think you've just got to find production, and when you look at second base, yeah, it just hasn't been there. And like, I don't think the Colton Wong trade was a terrible option. I think at the time it made a lot of sense, but it just hasn't worked out. So to your point, I think more of an argument can kind of stem from the idea that, yeah, they should have been looking at more mid level guys. I think where you lose people like TJ and I is when people keep harping on the idea of they should have gotten somebody like Trey Turner or Bogart's they were never really in those sweepstakes. But the mid level guys, I think that's the difference maker. 00:46:00 Speaker 4: I just think that's what puts people over the top, because somebody's gonna go down, somebody's gonna get injured. That's just how baseball and sports work. You gotta like look at the I know this is an extreme case because they have a high payroll too, But the Dodgers, like their entire starting rotation is on the shelf. Bueller's gone, Krishaw's healthy now, but Dustin May gone, Juli Arias was on the injured list for a month. I think, like near the their entire rotation injured. Oh bring up Bobby Miller. Oh we're gonna we have We're gonna completely re bolster a bullpen after losing Kimberl and Trina has been injured. Like that's what scouting does, and that's what the Houston asturos do. Like justin Erlander Sea, that's okay, we still got uh We're gonna bring in a new cy young candidate in uh In Framburg Like it's just like a factory. And I think that's what's so important and has often overlooked in Major League Baseball is in national scouting, in the draft, because not as much value goes into the MLB draft because there's so many rounds and it's long, it's so hit and miss. But that's where it starts, really, and so I understand the MLB draft as a whole is mostly boring to an ordinary fan, but from an organizational standpoint, it's one of the most It's funny we're talking about this because the draft, I think is in either a week, two weeks, three weeks, something like that. It's one of the most important days for a Major League Baseball team to kind of set the tone and set the standard for the for the years you know coming up. 00:47:34 Speaker 1: Let's transition now to a story that Lyle and I have talked about a little bit on this podcast, but you got to go see in person. It's just fascinating. It's something you don't get to see that often. You went to the reverse boycott on the day that the Nevada legislator announced that the funding was approved for the A's stadium, and there were a little under twenty eight thousand fans at the Oakland Coliseum after they averaged under nine thousand fans up to that point in the season. And they're on this wind streak and the energy is unique because of the aspect of well, they're gonna leave but not leaving yet, and it's just it's so fascinating. What so let's just start off, what was your your biggest takeaway when you arrived there at the ballpark and you see what's going on, Like, what are you what are you taking away from this? 00:48:24 Speaker 4: It was really disappointing that the news came out five hours before first pitch that the approval for the new ballpark, because this was all put on by the fans. Seven thousand plus shirts were handed out, completely funded, set up, planned everything, just by Oakland fans. And this has been planned for weeks too, and so have the conversations with the legislature and the funding, and it just so happened that five hours before first pitch the news came out that they're getting approved for a ballpark. That was pretty tasteful for me. It just seemed way too coincidental for it not to be intentional. It took the wind out of the sales of the fans too, because the writing's been on the wall for a while. ACE fans know that their team's likely going to move on, but there's still like a sliver of hope that they can still prove to people that they're still here. They're still gonna make noise, and it's not the fans fault, it's the owner's fault. And when that news dropped, like being there, being with the fans, it was like the mood completely changed, like snap of the fingers, flip of the switch. It went from sliver of hope of support for the team and uh, support for the city of Oakland too. Oh we're pissed, Oh we're angry, Like that's that's not cool. What just happened. We don't like that the news dropped on the day of our reverse boycott. You could have waited twenty four hours to do this, you chose to do it on this Tuesday afternoon. The mood change from supportive to anger and just flat disappointment. So it was it was an experience to be with the fans because you got to kind of see what it was like from their perspective, and you got to kind of witness what they're truly fighting for, which is in my opinion, it's not to keep the team. I don't believe that's what they're fighting for. I believe they are out there, they are at war with owner John Fisher, and they are out to prove that it is not their fault that this team is relocating. It is John Fisher's fault that there are not more fans in the stands if the team leaves. The team leaves. Like I said, the writing is mostly on the wall there. They're fighting to prove to people that is not their fault. In my opinion. You know, on at five twenty five pm on June twenty second, I think they're winning that war. 00:50:50 Speaker 2: Well, it's funny you put it like that, because I think most people feel like it's all on Fisher in the ownership group, right, I mean, do you feel like there's people out there that think this is on the fans, because my take on it is when a team's good fans are going to show up. If you look at the Red last year, nobody's showing up at those games. You look what they're doing now, these these games are packed. Where at the A's they have an awful stadium that has not been funded you have a team that has not been funded, So what do you expect fans to do. Of course, they're not going to show up to games to watch an awful product. Like people have to know, it's on the ownership group and not the fans, right you would think. 00:51:25 Speaker 4: I'll say this, baseball fans as a whole, for the most part, they understand what's going on in Oakland. But sports fans as a whole, I would say a little bit different. Like sports fans, if you're not watching baseball on a regular basis, sports fans are clicking on to Baseball Reference every once in a while to look at stats. And if you do that, if you're just looking at the numbers, you're seeing a team that has by far the lowest attendance in baseball for I think the fourth consecutive season. Now, what they're not looking at is John Fisher bought the team after the two four season. The two thousand and four season, the Oakland a has had the nineteenth best attendance in baseball, which, by the way, not fantastic. You know, it's below average nineteenth in baseball, but it's formidable. So he took a team that was averaging it was like eighteen thousand fans per game, twenty thousand something near there, and now it's down to blow nine thousand. That's years of taking advantage of fan base, is raising ticket prices, not signing players. The largest contract that John Fisher has ever handed out since he to control the team after the two thousand and four season Chris Davis two years, thirty four million dollars. I think it was the biggest contract he's ever handed out was two years. And so when I talked to like Mariner fans or Cleveland fans, Tampa Bay fans, a lot of them complained because they feel they're also being mistreated, and I tell them the same thing, it's your blessings because trust me, Oakland is having it far worse than any fan base in the country. I know it's not a competition, but Oakland's winning right now in regards to mistreatment. 00:53:12 Speaker 1: And I'm wondering, where are these these bigger contracts going to magically appear in Las Vegas. There's nothing that suggests that that's gonna happen. You're going to the forty fourth largest television market with a non not really a baseball fan base, probably a lot of transplant baseball fans there if there are any, and they said, yeah, we're gonna average twenty seven thousand fans a night. No like, no, no, you're not. Maybe the first two months of the season you'll average twenty seven thousand fans a game. But what happens after year three and the team's still not very good and you realize, oh, we're actually not making that much money. We're actually making more money in Oakland because well we were. Also we're not saddled with debt for paying first date. 00:54:02 Speaker 4: Under the current ownership of John Fisher Dave Cavill presidents, Las Vegas is a more viable option than the city of Oakland. And I say that because you get more foot traffic in Las Vegas. Now, if you bring in an owner who is actually going to invest in the team, I believe the city of Oakland is a more viable option than Las Vegas. I think Oakland absolutely has shown and proven that they will support a team when they invest into a roster. But again, John Fisher will not spend money. It doesn't matter what city he is in, it doesn't matter what country. He's not going to invest in the team. So as long as John Fisher is at the Helm. He's not going to invest in a roster, and so for that reason, you get more tourists. Again, I said, more foot traffic. A new ballpark is certainly going to help too. Vegas is a better option, John Fisher. John Fisher decides he wants to flip the team, you just hope that an owner that is next in line is wanting to invest in the team, because that's the only way it's gonna grow. 00:55:12 Speaker 3: In Vegas, We've been through something like this too. 00:55:16 Speaker 2: We were pretty young when it happened, but when we lost the Sonics, I mean, we know how it feels. So you can only kind of feel for these Oakland fans, and I think we have a little bit more understanding for what it's like, just because we've seen it happen in our own city and it was terrible, so we understand what they're going through. You tried to give some Oakland fans a voice when you were out at that reverse boycott, and you went around doing fan interviews, asking them questions, You let them talk, You put it on social media. What was the most interesting answer you got, whether it was the most out there, whether it's the most insightful, what was the number one answer you took away from a fan. 00:55:53 Speaker 4: It's a great question. There was one video that really like I immediately, it immediately caught my attention as soon as he took the mic. You have a lot of people come up to you and they want to talk, and that's what I was there for. I was essentially just a platform to voice their frustrations. I had one fan I want to say, his Twitter handle is like sheep hat or something like that. He's been wearing. His son put a sheep hat on him at some Oakland A's game at some point and they went on a seven run rally and he's been wearing it ever since. Anyways, point being is that he was telling me that his dad was every other weekend dad, so divorce mom and dad, and his dad didn't really know what to do with them when he was a kid. Just didn't know what to do with a child yet maybe he wasn't ready, I don't know. So what his dad does every weekend or every other weekend that he had him, he would take him to an A's game, and dad became what what brought them together and what they bonded over. Similarly, he and his brother or excuse me. He and his future son. He didn't know what to do with him either, so he brought them to Oakland these games. And so he was explaining to me, like this is generational, Like this is what has brought families together. It's something that they can bond over. It's something It's nostalgic for a lot of these fans. That's what it comes down to. They want something to take their kids to because they have great memories of going to that same ballpark. When you walk into Oakland Coliseum, as smelly as it is, as dirty as it is, as sewer filled as it is, it takes you back to previous times. You know, It's like walking into your elementary school. So it's nostalgic for these for these fans. And so when you take that away, all of a sudden, the reality of not being able to take your own kids to the same places that you went to when you were a kid starts to settle in. And so I think that's really hard for people to swallow. And so again I forget his name. I want to say she pat or something, but he really brought to light the fact that fandom is generational and it has brought families together and it's it's so much bigger than just the game. 00:58:16 Speaker 1: I saw you tweet this and I have to ask, did you see any tourists who looked ultra confused at what was going on? 00:58:23 Speaker 4: That was my That was my first question too. I didn't see any. There was one person who responded to me on Twitter and they did say it was their first baseball game ever, but they weren't like a foreign too. I was more so looking for like foreign tourists visiting the Bay Area. Uh, never been to a don't even really know what baseball is all about. And I did see somewhere else on Twitter there were I want to say, it was either a family or a couple descending from either Japan or some more in Asia, and sure enough, it was their first game ever. But the coolest thing about it was they were actually out at in the parking lot at the tailgate during the rally and they were getting into it with the fans. They had no idea what it was all about, they had no context, they had no idea what they were even rooting for. But there's literally a photo of them in the tailgate like arms up saying sell the team. They were just enjoying themselves. But it was pretty cool image. 00:59:26 Speaker 1: You could probably not go to another baseball game again and realize, well, that's probably as fun as it's going to be at a baseball game, unless it's a playoff game. 00:59:34 Speaker 4: Yeah, set the standard way too high. Like the next baseball game that they go to. If they go to another one, like it's going to be so disappointing that there's not protests and people yelling at the owner and saying f John Fisher. 00:59:46 Speaker 2: The last question I have on this before we move on here is wasn't it kind of crazy that the broadcast wasn't allowed to talk about what was going on? And I understand why, right, I mean, team owns the broadcast rights. There's certain things you can and can't say, but it just so happened that on a random Tuesday night, you've got your biggest attendance of the year and they're kind of saying, well, it's a pack Tallas at Oakland tonight and a lot of fans decided to show out, but they couldn't say exactly why. I mean, I understand there's rules and stuff, but I just thought, yeah, they can't they can't say the words, can they can't say reverse boycott. 01:00:19 Speaker 4: I'm plugging in my charger here, give me one second. 01:00:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, right now, we're good. 01:00:29 Speaker 4: My big prediction for the night, and sure enough it became somewhat true, was Dallas Braiden, the color commentator for the Oakland A's broadcast. He was going to go down to the tailgate and he was gonna join in on the chance, and he was going to be with the fans for the city of Oakland to try and keep the team in Oakland. And I predicted he was going to essentially risk his job to be with the fans in the city of Oakland. Dallas Braden did go to the tailgate, he did take lots and lots of photos with fans, and he was there in support of the movement. Fortunately for him, fortunately for baseball fans and baseball watchers, he was not fired, but he did voices his support for everything. 01:01:10 Speaker 1: Just to answer your. 01:01:12 Speaker 4: Question, just be careful where you get your news. And that's not just sports either. And I don't want to get too political here, That's not what I'm here for. But understand that there's always ulterior motives for every single company, even myself being with CBS Sports. We have partnerships with certain conferences leagues. Maybe we have certain freedoms with some leagues, but we don't with others. You know, I can leave it kind of vague like that. Similarly, Major League Baseball, if you looked at either of their pages MLB dot com or the official Oakland Athletics dot com website, neither of them had a single headline that said Oakland was hosting a reverse boycott. This is a national story. CBS Sports had an article on it, ESPN had an article on it. Bleacher Report had an artic Like every large sports media company had an article on the reverse boycott except for Major League Baseball. So hypothetically, if there's a fan out there getting only their news, like every morning they go on MLB dot com for their news, they're not getting everything. There are stories that are not being told on that website. And to me, that gets really dicey and shady. Because Major League Baseball has MLB reporters for all thirty teams. If you're producing headlines, if you have beat reporters, if you have articles, if you're considered a news site, shouldn't you be held to the same standard that the rest of the news world is held to Clearly they are not Clearly they have ulterior motives. Clearly they are keeping certain audiences blind to reality, and that was disappointing to see. 01:02:56 Speaker 2: Well, we certainly appreciate all the coverage you did when you were out there because it was super interesting. I don't think it would have told the full story if you hadn't given the fans all those voices and you hadn't talked about it. So we found it really interesting, which we really appreciated. So to go off that and oh, yeah, no problem. So to go off that and kind of talk about a little bit about your career in media. I know you're a former pitcher, you pitched in college and then you decided to get into the sports media world. Was there a point in time where you started to think to yourself, this is what I want to do. 01:03:25 Speaker 4: Oh, I don't know, that's a good question, Uh I was. I mean, I'm a I'm a youngest of four who all played sports, you know, so like sports is pretty much all I know. My wife's a nurse and we joke all the time that I've never really had a real job before. Like my first job was umpiring little league. I did a really shitty part of my French part time produce job when I was in college, like four am every day, just delivering produce in a delivery truck. That sucked. That was a real job. And so I tell my wife that too. I said, don't you dare put that on me because I delivered produce. But then in college I started part time at Max Preps, and then I've been with CBA Sports under that umbrella for six seven years now, so it's kind of all I've known, really, like I've never thought about doing anything else. There's a little bit of a part of me my dad's a teacher. When we start to have kids, my wife and I, there's a little bit of a part of me that wants to be more available when they're available. So I've thought about maybe going back and getting a teaching credential. You know, we'll see a lot can happen between then and now. But I get I guess to answer your question, I've never like, I've always wanted to be in sports, Like that's all I know. That's what my passions are, so I've never really thought much else. 01:04:50 Speaker 2: It sounds like the two of us, I mean, there's we both got sports. Sports broadcast degrees at ASU, and we kind of said, don't. I don't know what else we could really do. I mean I kind of look at the other jobs that are out there in the world, and I sit there to myself and say, yeah, I don't know if any of that other stuff kind of really interests me at all. I think it's kind it's sports or nothing for me, which is why we're doing what we're doing. So we can certainly understand where you're coming from from that regard. Like you said, you talk about not working a real job. It's fun, right, Like what we're doing is supposed to be fun. 01:05:20 Speaker 4: Well, dude, like our worst day on the job, you guys know this, Our worst day on the job is like our WiFi goes down, you know, like oh my god, Like I can't do my work because my wife I went down, or like there's a protest at a baseball game, you know, like at the end of the world, like my wife Bless your heart. She is a pediatric ice U nurse. She was dealing with families who have children in serious, serious care. Her worst day on the job, trust me, is a million times worse than my my worst day on the job or our worst down the job. So yeah, it puts things in a perspective. And I have people that ask me, should I go into the sports industry or I go into the news industry. Just know, if you go into the news industry, you're gonna be dealing with some really serious stuff and by the way, you're probably gonna get paid similarly depending on where you go. 01:06:11 Speaker 1: I always say about news the way I thought about it, it's like, well, news is usually the bad things that happen, which is why people are like, Okay, that's when I'm gonna flip on Sports Center and boom. That's how we're get That's how we cheer ourselves up. So why don't we just be on the cheery side for once. 01:06:26 Speaker 4: Yeah, just ignorance is bliss, man. Just stay away from reality and everything's good. 01:06:31 Speaker 2: If we had one final question for you, Danny as we start to wrap this up, is there's one thing on your bucket list that you hope to do in sports media before your career wraps up long down the road. 01:06:42 Speaker 4: Ooh, that's a good one, lyle man. It used to be like interviews certain players, but I've gotten the opportunity to do that with a lot of really cool guys recently, which is awesome. So I kind of got to cross that off nothing specifically, to be honest, I know that's kind of a boring, bland answer, but I used to want to do broadcasting. Then I realized how slim pickens that industry can be. That would be great if somebody asked me, okay, I'll answer your question like this. If somebody asked me to do color analysts or color analyzing for an MLB broadcast, that would probably be the dream. 01:07:24 Speaker 3: That would be great. 01:07:25 Speaker 2: Hey, maybe you can have a three man booth with Middlebrooks and somebody else at some point. 01:07:29 Speaker 3: Just got to find a play by play person. 01:07:30 Speaker 4: They don't listen to me, man, I've been trying vouching. They don't listen to me. Now I keep my mouth shut. 01:07:36 Speaker 3: That's no. That's really cool. 01:07:38 Speaker 2: And you know what, you preach it long enough and you you never know what can happen. 01:07:42 Speaker 3: That's what we try to tell ourselves too. 01:07:43 Speaker 4: Hey, by the way, you guys need a basketball team up there. I've been preaching that for years. Get a team back to Seattle because I'm a Sacramento Kings fan too, and so I did not want my squad to leave. So I feel for you guys that your team left. 01:07:56 Speaker 3: And talks got close too about ten years ago with the Kings, didn't It. 01:08:00 Speaker 4: Sure did, and Seattle was not. Seattle was on our shit list there for a while. But we're in good graces now. Don't worry. We're good. We're rooting for you guys well. 01:08:11 Speaker 2: And you guys just broke a drought, just like we did last year. The Kings just broke their playoff drought. So there we go. Who's got the longest drought in sports? 01:08:18 Speaker 1: Now? 01:08:18 Speaker 3: Is it the Angels? 01:08:20 Speaker 4: Major League Baseball? It's the Tigers and Angels twenty thirteen or fourteen? One of the two. 01:08:26 Speaker 1: Uh, don't forget the Jets. Let's not forget the Jets. 01:08:29 Speaker 3: There you go. 01:08:30 Speaker 4: You know what I saw the other day which completely floored me, is the Jets in their entire history, Like that's a pretty long that's a franchise with a pretty long history. They have two division titles ever, and they're in the Super Bowl era. They have won two division titles in New York Jets. That floored me. I'm like, Dad, is a true? That's bad? That's really dead. 01:08:53 Speaker 1: That's what Broadway Joe would be proud of. 01:08:57 Speaker 2: And if you talk to their fans, you'd think they're the Patriots. Daddy, this has been awesome. We appreciate all the time you've given us. We enjoyed talking to you a bunch, and we certainly hope to do it again soon. 01:09:09 Speaker 4: I enjoyed it, guys. You guys are doing so just keep it going, man. I appreciate you having me on. 01:09:16 Speaker 2: Awesome conversation with Danny Vietti. We certainly hope you guys enjoyed the conversation because we can sit here and tell you that we certainly did. In the meantime, TJ, let's go on the farm here. Anybody you're looking at as among the group of minor leaguers over the last week. 01:09:34 Speaker 1: I had to do a double take of this name. He does share a name with a famous for some calls he has made and not made in his career umpire at the major league level. I believe we're tired now, but Jimmy Joyce, former nineteenth round pick out of Hofstra in twenty twenty one, has gone off to a really good start in Everett this season. He was on the injured list for much of April, and May, but in five games he started all five, seventeen in a third innings been really eased back in. But he's got a one oh four ERA and twenty strikeouts across three walks. A guy who struggled in Everett last season a five seven to five ERA in about one hundred and twelve innings in Everett last season. Again, just not very many innings so far this year, but the run prevention has been significantly better and he strikes a lot of guys out. He's struck a lot of guys out last year and ever it as well, so he's got the stuff coming out of Hofstra. It didn't even start until really his final season at Hofstra, but the Mariners saw that and have pushed him into the rotation every game he's pitched in. He started at the professional level, and he's seen some of the best success he's had in his professional career this year and Everett. 01:10:43 Speaker 2: I wonder if they'll start to move him quickly or not, just because he's a little bit on the older side. He's off to a good start. We've seen some arms graduate from Double A. Maybe maybe they'll find a spot for Joyce here in the near future. 01:10:54 Speaker 1: He's a little he again still is working back a little bit, so I would say maybe they're going to stretch him out a little bit before before they think about that. 01:11:02 Speaker 3: Well, I guess we'll see where he's at by the end of the year. That'll be a good assessment. 01:11:06 Speaker 2: Speaking of Double A, I'm looking at a guy that kind of flies under the radar. Two but you stare at his numbers and it's impossible not to recognize them. So Isaiah Gilliam, who's new to the system this year, by the way, he's quietly had an awesome year in Arkansas. So he's been with the Yankees organization during his career, he's been with the Reds organization during his career. He actually had a solid year last year in the Reds organization, but the Mariners signed him in late March. They put him in Double A, and oh, he's just sitting here toward the end of June with a one forty nine WRC plus in one of the hardest parks in the minor leagues to hit at, along with a nine to sixty ops and thirteen bombs. He's been awesome. Now he's a little on the older side. He's twenty six years old, But he's not that old. You know, the average, the average age for a call up in the major leagues is right around twenty six years old. So I'm not saying he's gonna get called up or anything like that, but hypothetically, if he ever were and it was around twenty seven to twenty eight years old, he's not that far behind. And I just can't help but notice the year he's having down there. 01:12:12 Speaker 1: Thanks for pointing him out. Honestly, he's a guy who I know my eyes wouldn't catch on to until you pointed out how good of a season you said, and I was like, oh, well that's pretty good. So great, that's great for him. 01:12:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, It's kind of like what Gary Hill said right when we were talking about Mike Ford, as he said, you just never know when a guy might figure it out or somebody who pops out of nowhere. I'm going to keep my eyes on Gilliam because, like I said, it's just impossible not to. At this point after highlighting him, I. 01:12:41 Speaker 1: Think we got to give an honorable mention shout out to Jonathan Class, who, as of leave today was announced that he's going to be participating in the mob Futures game on Saturday. Saturday's a futures game, and we'll be there to see him. 01:12:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, that totally threw us. That totally threw us off. 01:13:00 Speaker 2: We thought the Futures game was on Sunday, and then we looked it's, oh, it's it's Saturday. That in the Celebrity Softball Game is Saturday, and then the Draft is Sunday, right, and then the Homer in Derby Monday, All Star Game Tuesday, if I have that right, Yes, yeah, yeah, So we will be there to see Jonathan class We would assume we will be there to see Harry Ford as well. I'd have to imagine he's going to get an invite. So hopefully there's a couple Mariners in there that we'll get to watch right there in person. And class A. We've talked about him a bunch. Dude has been unbelievable and I can't wait to see him in person. 01:13:30 Speaker 1: We'll get a speed assessment live from Lyle as he says he'll be on the there's a good chance he'll be on the roster late in the season, So we're gonna we're gonna get to see le Lyle give us a self assessment on that when he sees closs A in person. 01:13:41 Speaker 2: I'm gonna say it again, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. I am not booking it. I am not guaranteeing it. All I'm saying is if the m's figured out and turn it around and they're in the race with two weeks ago, all I'm saying is, do not rule it out. I'm not guaranteeing it. I'm just saying, don't. 01:13:56 Speaker 3: Rule it out. Okay, Yeah, that's all. Okay. 01:14:01 Speaker 2: In the meantime, let's go over to our MLB wrap around here. So our first story, it has to be the Cincinnati Reds. They're the story in baseball right now. They just lost two of three to the Braves this weekend. 01:14:24 Speaker 3: That is not the story. 01:14:25 Speaker 2: They ripped off twelve wins in a row, sit at the top of the NL Central when nobody expected him to. They've been the most exciting team in baseball for a few for a couple of weeks now, and they just they're red hot. 01:14:38 Speaker 1: How about their core, all under twenty seven years old and all hitting extremely well. Ellie's a one to seventy seven ops plus TJ Friedel, who's actually been their first ball shoutout all TJ's out there been their most valuable player. He's at a one to twenty four ops plus Matt McClain, Jonathan India, Spencer Steer, Will Benson all go having above average offensive season. And that's not even naming who probably their best player has been this season. It's been Edwin Diez' brother, Alexis Diaz, who's been the most valuable reliever in baseball. He's been worth two Baseball Reference wins above replacement, and we'll see him in Seattle for the All Star Game, almost certainly as the guy who's been the best closer in the National League. So while Eddie out this year, the Diaz name lives on. 01:15:28 Speaker 2: Reds are so fun, And we didn't even talk about guys like Jonathan India or Tyler Stevenson's had a little bit of a down year, but that is a really good core, and Stevenson, when he's at his best, is one of the better offensive catchers in the game. 01:15:42 Speaker 3: That core is for real. 01:15:43 Speaker 2: They're young, they're under team control, they're not going anywhere. Their pitching still has some work to do, but with the emergence of Hunter Green, despite right now being injured and Nick Lodolo taking some steps too. That is a team with some real excitement and some real pieces. I think I'm gonna come out on this pod and say this is no shocker to anybody. And I know I spent a season in the organization last year. I think the Reds are my second favorite team in baseball. 01:16:08 Speaker 1: How about Jake Freeley. 01:16:11 Speaker 2: So that's part of the reason, right. Not only did I spend a year in the organization and get to know some of the guys. Obviously, like I said, I got to talk to and get to know Ellie a little bit last year in Dayton. But this team is essentially another version of the Mariners because it's a bunch of former Mariners. Jake Frayley's on the team. I know Justin Dunn's battled a lot of injuries there. But there's guys in the Miners coming up. Noel Vie Marte just got moved up to Triple A. Like, there's so many ties all of a sudden between the Mariners and Reds that it's just easy to root for a lot of these guys. And Frayley, to your point, he's doing a lot of what he did in twenty twenty one. He's walking a lot, he's hitting with some pop. He's been good for them. 01:16:48 Speaker 1: Jake Freeley would easily have the highest OPS on this year's Mariners team. He's sitting in an eight fifty three right now. You can say, Okay, their ballpark is a bambox, probably the easiest park to hit it in a baseball outside of cores. But he is crushing it at the plate. This is what the best case scenario people probably thought of Jake Friley when they saw the potential what he had in twenty twenty one and what the Reds traded for. And they're being rewarded gratefully for it. 01:17:15 Speaker 2: Oh, by the way, the NL Central sucks. So, like I said a couple weeks ago, the Reds could legitimately win this division. And I said that before they ripped off twelve in a row. They are right in the thick of that division, even back when they were a little below five hundred a couple weeks prior. They can win that division. And when most people thought they were probably still a year away, they could be. They could make some noise here in the n L and get themselves into the postseason. 01:17:44 Speaker 1: We don't. I think you and I would agree. I don't know if their pitching stat would actually hold up when a playoff series, but man, everyone would be tuning in to watch them because they make it so much more fun. Just look at Friday's game against the Braves. They Bill fell behind five nothing in the first inning, right, it was the first inning. They're behind five to nothing, a sellout crowd on a Friday night, and the energy never left the building, and the Red storm back and won their twelve in a row, ended up putting what twelve runs up on the board. It was just just insanity. Ellie hit for the cycle. All these insane things that have baseball fans around America just gluing in on the Reds. 01:18:24 Speaker 2: And Elle's just so fun to watch everybody seeing why. I mean, by the way, that was the first cycle at Red's player's hit since nineteen eighty nine when Eric Davis did it, and Ellie did it two weeks into the into his major league career, which is nuts. 01:18:37 Speaker 1: Let's move to our second MLB wrap around storyline. Let's go out to the Bronx. Aaron Judge gave a bit of an injury update for his toe. He has a torn ligament in his toe and his timetable to return is uncertain. 01:18:52 Speaker 2: How about that, Yeah, they set a return isn't guaranteed. They think he should be back at some point this year, but they're not putting any expectations on anything right now. 01:19:02 Speaker 3: Now. 01:19:03 Speaker 2: It sounded like, especially when you look at the timelines for these type of injuries, that he should be back at some point in August. But again, it's far from a guarantee. And the Yankees all of a sudden are in trouble because we've harped on this. When Judge is not in their lineup, they are not the same team. They're not even close. And the numbers back that up offensively. 01:19:23 Speaker 1: And their division is by far the best in baseball. It is a juggernaut division. You think that team sands Carlos Rodon and Aaron Judge. They're two most recent, highly prized acquisitions to the roster. Judge went to free agency and came back. So I do count that, and they're gonna get potentially zero of that for the rest of the season. I don't see a path forward into the playoffs for them. I don't see where that production is coming from. I just had to chuckle at this slightly related but not totally related where the Yankees are, like if they had judged, obviously that's a roster spot and that's a bat in the lineup, But without judge, they're having to play guys they don't want to, like Josh Donaldson, who Aaron Boom this week came out and said, quote, He's gonna play a lot for us, and I'm sure everyone in New York is thrilled to hear that. But that's just kind of the state the Yankees are in right now where they got to fill lineup spots. 01:20:26 Speaker 2: Josh Donaldson's become their new Joey Vado. You remember those Joey Vado stories that were just insane when he was on the team, where he couldn't leave his apartment because Yankee fans were too threatening toward him or whatever it was. I mean again, it was just these crazy stories. I don't know if it's gotten to that level with Donaldson, but he's their new target where you know, everything he does that's bad is glorified or maybe glorified the right not the right word, but it is very very much emphasized and blown up by Yankee fans whenever he's struggling. 01:20:56 Speaker 3: Now. 01:20:57 Speaker 2: They are supposed to get Rodin back here pretty soon. He's thrown a few rehab starts, so he's getting closed. That doesn't change the fact that he hasn't pitched all year. And Judge, we'll see how long he's out. Yeah, the Yankees a lot of injuries building up. 01:21:11 Speaker 1: What was the one thing that people were saying about the long term health of athletes baseball athletes Aaron Judge's size once they passed thirty that despite even if it's a freak injury and Aaron Judge running through a fence, just it's hard to stay healthy. 01:21:29 Speaker 2: It is, and we'll see how well the Yankees can tread water without him. I'll say it again. We said it when this injury occurred, and I'm going to reemphasize it. That third wildcard spot in the American League is wide open. Like if the Mariners could just get out of their own way, there is no reason they can't get that third wildcard spot. If the Bats could just wake up a little and start cruising, because they felt like they're in neutral all year. But if they could just pick up some momentum along with this injury, the door is open for him. 01:21:59 Speaker 1: And just to Cleary earlier, you meant Joey Gallo. 01:22:02 Speaker 3: Oh what did I say? 01:22:03 Speaker 1: I think you said Joey Vado, who also relates to our first storyline. He came back and he hit two home runs on Friday, which still works because we didn't even mention Joey. So you're good. We're covering all of our bases. 01:22:14 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, maybe I said Joey Vado. Wells, no, Joey Vado. Joey Vado better not be getting threats from people. I'll tell you what that guy is for everything he's done in his career and is one of the greatest reds to ever put on the Jersey. I hope he's not getting threats. Yeah, Joey Gallo when he was a Yankee. Oh, it was brutal for that guy amongst Yankee fans. I mean just how they're kind of blowing everything up with Donaldson now when he struggles Gallo. It was terrible when he was there, and you know what affected him too, because he heard all of it. You can't leave your apartment like of course it's gonna affect you. 01:22:50 Speaker 1: I'm just trying to picture that Joey Gallo walking down the street and some dude in a Yankee camp comes up on says, fuck you just just out of nowhere. You're just walking down the street. But and you stand out because you're six foot five and you look like a baseball player, and you're just shopping for groceries, and just anybody out out of the abney ordinary walks out of the crowd, and it's not like, oh my god, you're Joey Yallo, They go fuck you, dude. 01:23:18 Speaker 2: New York is just such a different place sometimes it feels like a completely different continent. And I know you and I are both big fans of New York City. 01:23:26 Speaker 3: We like being there. 01:23:27 Speaker 2: We have a bunch of family from New York. But man, you would never see something like that happen in Seattle, even if it was the worst player on the team. You would never ever see somebody in Seattle go up to somebody in person if one of these athletes was walking along the street, and give them the bird. 01:23:44 Speaker 1: But it sounds like that happened very often with Joey Gallo. 01:23:47 Speaker 3: Yeah, welcome to New York. 01:23:50 Speaker 2: I guess is it what you signed up for? No, because you got traded there. But yeah, I felt for the guy. Let's put it like that, man, Okay, our last storyline here, Let's stay out on the East coast and actually look toward the southeast. Down in Miami. They've got a twenty year old starter who the Mariner saw just a couple of weeks ago, and the name of Yuri Perez. This guy is unbelievable. At twenty years old, he looks like baseball's next young absolutely electric young ace. 01:24:22 Speaker 1: Do you know he is a more than a full year younger than the projected top three in this upcoming draft Dylan Cruz, Paul skeins wyat Langford. He is more than a year younger than all three. 01:24:33 Speaker 3: Of them, which is crazy. 01:24:36 Speaker 2: And the guy's ERA is now down to one thirty four. That's in nine starts. He's doing that, and he just threw six shutout innings the other night. 01:24:47 Speaker 3: He is so good. 01:24:48 Speaker 2: His fastball is awesome, He's got a couple of good secondaries. And again, he's twenty years old. He looks like he's been in the big leagues for five years. 01:24:55 Speaker 1: Listen to a couple of these notes. His last six starts thirty three inning, an two seven ERA, thirty eight strikeouts to nine watchs just twenty hits allowed in those thirty three innings. He is the youngest pitcher since at least nineteen oh one to record three consecutive outings of six innings and zero runs. He has allowed the fewest runs of any pitcher since nineteen oh one in his first nine career starts. 01:25:23 Speaker 2: God, he's so good that Marlin's rotation sky's the limit for him. I mean, if standi al contract could ever just figure it out here, or if he just figures it out next year and gets back to his all star level, if not cy young level form, that Marlin's rotation is so good between Sandy between Uri Perez, between Edward Cabrera, between Rogers, between Max Meyer is supposed to come back next year. 01:25:47 Speaker 1: Max and Garrett has been pitching really well. 01:25:50 Speaker 3: There's so many there. 01:25:51 Speaker 2: They're kind of like the Mariners in that way, right where they're so good at developing arms and they just struggle to develop bats. The Marlins pitching is ridiculous. And Uri Perez, I mean, I think he's gonna be one of the best pitchers in baseball going forward for a long time. 01:26:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got all the tools. It's it's just so so impressive to watch it. And he did it against the Mariners too, so if you watch that game, you know how good he is. 01:26:16 Speaker 2: I was gonna say, we'd read a ton about Uri Perez coming up, because he was such a highly regarded prospect, and obviously we'd seen some highlights of him on Twitter and we'd read about him. I hadn't gotten to sit down and watch a full game or start of Yury Perez until he faced the Mariners, and I was like, oh. 01:26:32 Speaker 3: Yeah, I get it. I get it because he looked the Mariner. 01:26:36 Speaker 2: He made the Mariners look ridiculous, and at twenty years old, he was just overpowering him. 01:26:43 Speaker 1: Okay, I think that's it for Ury Perez. This is going to be an interesting Russell Wilson umpire of the week. Let's transition to that, Lyle, would you like to bring in our contestant. 01:26:54 Speaker 2: Ties into the Mariners this week? So congratulations to Jacob Metz. He is our winner for the week. He was behind the plate on Saturday during the Mariners Orioles game au Henio Suarez. I think people know where I'm going with this is at the plate three two count, sixth inning. There's people on base, so there's a chance to really add on in this inning when the game's still tight three to two. Pitch had to be multiple inches off the plate. Gino obviously watches it go by. Nope, strike three, ring them up. Gino sits down. Pitch was not even close, And oh, you guessed it. The Mariners did not score that inning. They didn't score. Further, I should. 01:27:35 Speaker 1: Say, and not only that, not only was the pitch I think it was about six inches outside the pitch. Was Bradish on the MOUNTA who was on the mound? 01:27:45 Speaker 2: No, Bradish was on. Bradish was Sunday? What was Dean Kramer? 01:27:49 Speaker 3: I think? 01:27:50 Speaker 1: Yeah? Am I getting the So there was an Orioles pitcher on the mound, which we know that we know for certain. But not only did the pitch miss outside by six inches, the pitcher missed the target by two feet. Adlei Ruschman was set on the inside corner of Auhenio Scorz and Adley has to move his glove two feet to his right to catch this pitch off the outside corner, and Jacob Metz still rings him up. Somehow, it was such a pivotal play in a game that it just cannot happen and the Mariners tie the game in that inning with a Julia home run. They have Jared on second base in scoring position, ready to score the go ahead run of Gino can reach and he literally walked, but the umpire decides uh uh somehow someway. 01:28:43 Speaker 2: So it was Dean Kramer. I just looked which I thought was right. I just wanted to confirm because Kramer went seven innings on Saturday, it was so far off the plate. So we know that both of us are big fans of the robo umps here on this podcast. I'm all open to the challenge system too. In fact, the more and more that I see the Challenge system, the more I like it. Why is it not already in the big leagues. I understand they want to work out and test the kinks and make sure it's set to go for a big league season. I don't care. Calls like that are ruining games. People are not paying money to watch umpires dictate the outcome of games. Players are not working their tails off to watch umpires dictate the outcome of games. If the Challenge system is working in the minors, get it up to the majors, because calls like that are ruining baseball games. 01:29:30 Speaker 1: I think the challenge system is going to eventually be the system. I don't think where we're going to get fully automated, because I think umpires still need jobs. But I think the challenge system works, and the challenge system is exactly for things like that. Everyone in the ballpark knows that call is wrong, all everybody does. So why can't we just say, hey, I know that's wrong, you met you fucked up. Let's change it, and you can say, okay, fine, I got it wrong, and we can switch it to what should be correct. But unfortunately we still by rules that were invented in the eighteen eighties. I actually know, I'm going to say nineteen hundreds because eighteen eighties you could actually request I think what were there eight balls or six balls whatever? The rules were different, And yeah, I just thought, any words to this man, why is this still happening? 01:30:21 Speaker 2: I mean, there were nine games in a World Series series back then, too, Yeah, and they changed that. They've changed a lot of things since then, but they have not changed the fact that umpires are still dictating games to this level when they shouldn't be. Remember when I said this to you a couple of years ago. I actually I was way out in front of this because the technology they're using it's similar to when you watch tennis when they challenge a call and you can see if the ball is in or out perfectly, you can see if it even touched grained a portion of the line in tennis. This is what it's doing with baseball. I think I told you about this a couple of years ago, and you're like, all right, we can see if it ever happened. And here we are. The technology is great, but we're still living in the stone age here in the major leagues. 01:31:06 Speaker 1: It's and the reasons are similar. You're because in tennis you're asking people to stare at these lines and see a tiny, similarly sized ball hit hundreds of miles an hour at that line to see if it's in or not. So why why is it one hundred percent the responsibility of someone's own two eyes in one sport and then the other sport they're like, well, maybe it's a little too difficult to see a ball hurling at you at hundreds of miles an hour, breaking x amount of feet away from this certain area. Why can't we get an assistance? Why can't we Yeah. 01:31:37 Speaker 2: And then there's no hard feelings. Gino gets the walk. He says, all right, mistakes happened, didn't affect me. Call still ended up being right. 01:31:44 Speaker 3: You move on. 01:31:45 Speaker 2: You don't move on right now in Major League Baseball. Clearly we can't move on either because we're sitting here just going on about it. 01:31:51 Speaker 3: And it did I didn't no one get ejected? 01:31:54 Speaker 1: How did no one get ejected? 01:31:56 Speaker 2: Oh? I figured Scott was gonna come out of the dugout after that one because that was I mean, that was impossibly bad that call. So yeah, and clearly we're not over it because we're sitting here talking about it at length. 01:32:06 Speaker 3: So here we are. 01:32:08 Speaker 1: Flip the game. They flipped the game. The Mariners ended up losing an extras anyway, but they might have not had to go to extras if that was the case. If they if the call is correct, maybe they don't. Well, but we'll never know, obviously, because that call was made. Let's close out the show now and get to speak your mind. 01:32:26 Speaker 3: Speak your mind, spot. That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. 01:32:38 Speaker 1: I have been looking forward to this Speak your Mind since we recorded the last episode, because we missed a lot over the last week, I don't even know where to start. I'm gonna let you and start here and just ask you what's on your mind this week. 01:32:55 Speaker 3: I've got a good one. 01:32:57 Speaker 2: So if I were a professional athlete, especially one of in the one percent of the one percent of professional athletes and making that level of money, I've always daydreamed about what my life could be right, making millions and millions and millions of dollars, having more money than you know what to do with. You could be having dinners on yachts every night, and you figure, oh, when you look at some of these guys in their off seasons, like for example, in the NBA, that's probably what they're doing, right, They're enjoying their summer dinners on yachts, living their dream life. Well, if you're Kevin Durant, the answer to that would be no. Because on a Friday night, on a sunny day in the summer, this man is sitting on Twitter hops into a Twitter spaces, just sitting at home by himself. He hops into a Twitter spaces that was titled Kevin Durant is not top five. So this means this man searched himself on Twitter said I want to see who's talking and shit about me, finds a group hops in requests to speak. They grant him the opportunity to speak in this Twitter spaces and he starts going on about the way you guys consume basketball. It's a bunch of trash. You don't know what you're talking about, you don't understand the game. And it's not with a bunch of reporters. It's not with a bunch of people he interacts with on a daily basis. It's not with other players. No, it's with a bunch of Twitter trolls. The headline that space is entitled that Kevin Durant is not a top five player player in the game of basketball. Now, if you're Kevin Durant and you have the level of confidence that he does, all that should matter is internally you know that you are. Most players know that you are. But he takes time out of his Friday night to go argue and scream at a bunch of Twitter trolls, and I can't get over it. 01:34:52 Speaker 1: Does any athlete spend more time online than Kevin Durant? 01:34:56 Speaker 2: No, nobody, in fact, so most athletes, I would guess, do have some type of burner account where they go and just search things so people can't tell that it's them, where they can search their name and see what people are saying about them, but kind of stay behind the scenes. Now, that's what Kevin Durant used to do because he had a burner account. The issue is people figured out it was him, and then he just threw away the burner account and said, well, now I'm just gonna start using my actual account and just ripping random fans apart, which is what he does now. So to answer your question, No, I do not think there's an athlete that spends more time on social media than Kevin Durant. 01:35:36 Speaker 1: Think of how silly this is. This is a tweet. Why, like, just to put this in perspective, why is Kevin Durant arguing with Legend of Winning in Swipe a Cam right now? Dog not? Why is Kevin Durant arguing with Skip Bayless? No? Why is not? Why is Kevin Durant arguing with Steven A. Smith? No? Why is Kevin Durant arguing arguing with Swipe a Cam? 01:36:03 Speaker 2: I sent this in our group chat amongst some of our friends, and I said my exact words were, what on earth is this? 01:36:12 Speaker 3: Dude? 01:36:12 Speaker 2: Doing seeing that it's some Friday night in the middle of the summer and he's busy, not hanging out with his friends, not living his lavish life. No, he's arguing with Twitter trolls in a Twitter spaces of all places. It wasn't like he sent some reply and got back to his night. No, he actually sat in that group and spoke and trashed on all those fans with his own voice. 01:36:36 Speaker 1: It is the WWE on Hardwood the night after the NBA drafts, where all the focuses on all these great new players coming into the NBA and the future stars and Victor Wimbiniana and San Antonio and Kevin Durant's like, I'm making headlines tonight. Oh. 01:36:56 Speaker 2: I love watching Kevin Durant just end all this time on social media because he always gives people so much content to crave it's insane. 01:37:05 Speaker 1: Here's another fascinating story from this week that I didn't realize you had no idea about. Did you know that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg reportedly agreed to fight in a cage match. 01:37:18 Speaker 3: We're just we're off the rails with these stories. This week. 01:37:21 Speaker 2: There have been some ridiculous storylines this week. No, I did not realize this was a thing until you told me. 01:37:26 Speaker 1: I don't know why Elon would agree to this. I know his ego is astronomically high, as high as space rockets, as SpaceX rockets go when they don't explode, which is how this feud started in the first place, where Elon's rocket exploded and blew up a Facebook satellite. Just billionaire problems, you know. But Elon agreeing to fight in a cage match with Mark Zuckerberg while Zuckerberg won some medals in a jiu jitsu tournament earlier this year, which I think is fascinating. I hope Zuckerberg kicks his ass. Zuckerberg is also, you know, a slimee bag, But I think Elon needs it, needs a bit of a reality check in terms of maybe a foot to the jar or something. 01:38:12 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:38:12 Speaker 2: I mean, hey, I'll root for Zuckerberg just because I'm tired of Twitter being ruined. I know, I know Zuckerberg winning isn't gonna change anything about Twitter, but that doesn't change the fact that I hate the new versions of Twitter that he's created. 01:38:23 Speaker 1: So yeah, how many views do you think a pa I think Dana White came on and said, the UFC would put on this event. How many pay per views do you think they could sell with this? This would do more than any Mayweather fight Connor McGregor fight. I'm struggling to put a number on this. 01:38:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, because you're not You're now not just appealing to sports fans. There are going to be general just people out there that because these guys are so famous, not just in the sports world but in the world in general, that you are gonna just peau people's interests enough that they are actually going to tune into this fight. There's gonna be normal people that aren't sports fans, that just kind of live there everyday live, that wouldn't usually watch something like this that may actually pay the money to tune in to watch Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk fight. 01:39:12 Speaker 1: I know I would. This is gonna be fascinating. Yeah, I want appointment viewing. I don't know how Elon Musk fights still. You've seen that photo of him on the boat without a shirt on. I just don't I just don't see how that fights anybody. 01:39:27 Speaker 2: I mean, he's probably not gonna win, especially if Mark Zuckerberg's done jiu jitsu. 01:39:32 Speaker 1: No, he's not. I think sports books have Mark Zuckerberg at about an eighty three percent to win that one. 01:39:38 Speaker 3: That sounds about right. Oh. 01:39:42 Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about this one briefly last week, but we didn't get to because I don't think the story had concluded. How about this submarine story, Yeah, just just it just kind of like you see some of these things in some of these quotes coming out. It's like, how would anyone ever agree to get on that submarine the titan that went down to go view the Titanic and it imploded on its way down and now it lays at the bottom of the ocean right next to the Titanic, ironically, But just just a crazy story. 01:40:14 Speaker 2: Yeah, you feel off of the people that were in that submarine. 01:40:18 Speaker 3: But I don't know. 01:40:19 Speaker 2: I'll tell you what if somebody who doesn't even like to go in the ocean, I'm not getting in a submarine to go below the water for two miles. 01:40:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not getting in that either. I don't. I wouldn't get on a military submarine either, even those are fitted to withstand whatever pressures they're going to It was really kind of interesting, I would say, to learn a little bit more about deep sea diving for all of this and submersibles and stuff that there's a reason they don't have five person trips down to the Titanic usually because crafting one of those things and something in that shape with the metals they usually use to build those deep sea divers doesn't normally doesn't work as well. I guess because they built this completely differently. I don't know if I should feel bad for these people or not that they were on there, like it sucks that people do lose their life. To be honest, I don't know if this is a hot take or not. But they had did you see? They had to sign a waiver before they got on right, noting specifically that this submarine has not passed any sort of any sort of non ocean gate safety checks, none, none at all, and that they had to sign that saying I acknowledge that this vessel is purely experimental and it's not passed any of these checks, in which I would say, man two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to go down that deep on a vessel that is not ruled safe by any board in a company that faced lawsuits over safety concerns for getting on that vessel. I think it's just it's just a fascinating scenario of some people feel like they're invincible, to be honest, in that case, that's what I feel like, right, you don't think anything wrong is gonna happen to you on a experimental vehicle until it does. 01:42:11 Speaker 3: That is interesting. 01:42:12 Speaker 2: If I didn't understand, I didn't realize the part that they sign, I guess I didn't read that far into the story that I didn't realize they signed a waiver saying that basically the submarine was not safe and very much go at your own risk. Obviously, I still just feel firm that they lost their lives. But yeah, like that's kind of an irresponsible decision and kind of is probably putting it lightly. That is a very irresponsible decision. 01:42:37 Speaker 1: It is, and all to go see a boat sunk at the bottom of the ocean for X amount of time, and yeah, it was crazy. Last thing for me, it's fireworks season. I fucking hate fireworks. If you buy fireworks like piss off, I don't know. I don't know what there is to enjoy about them. Their las they disturbed, they disturb everything. They catched things on fire. People you know, hurt themselves with fireworks. And yeah, probably one of the stupidest things about America's Birthday is that everyone and their mother feelix they need needs to buy fireworks. So for people like me who despise fireworks in every sense of the way, yeah, well, I hope you have fun, but no, it sucks. 01:43:26 Speaker 3: I forgot you don't like fireworks. 01:43:28 Speaker 2: I didn't realize that you didn't like fireworks until about two years ago. We went to a Rainier's game, and we went up because it was a game Jared Keelnick was playing in before he got called up for the first time to the big leagues. Logan Gilbert was starting and Mackenzie Gore was starting for El Paso on the other side, back when Mackenzie Gore was the top ten prospect. So it's a good game to go to. We went, and then we didn't leave early enough to the point where we could just get in the car and go back before fireworks started, because it was a fireworks night at the ballpark that night, so we had to stand there and wait for the fireworks to end. And I remember looking over at you and you've got both hands over your ears. Nearly the entire show and I'm like, oh, you you must really hate fireworks. 01:44:08 Speaker 3: Like I'm not saying they're not loud. 01:44:09 Speaker 2: I'm indifferent about them, but yeah, you're not a fan, are you. 01:44:12 Speaker 1: No? No, I don't see the benefit to society. I don't. They're just loud, that's it. 01:44:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, well that is one way to look at it. Well, I guess people like them because of the scenery. 01:44:25 Speaker 1: I guess great, great scenery. You can go to an art gallery and see scenery too. It's quiet. True. 01:44:31 Speaker 2: Well, TJ will not be lighting off fireworks on the fourth of July, breaking news here on the pod. 01:44:37 Speaker 1: Nope. 01:44:38 Speaker 3: Yeah, all right. 01:44:40 Speaker 2: I think that just about wraps up this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill. You want to listen to the full podcast, you can do so on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon. Full video forms on YouTube. Please go check us out on YouTube hit subscribe. You'll get notifications when we put out a show. Help us beat the algorith them there, and then if you want to follow us on social media, you can do so on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. Shorts are apps for those are all at Marine Layer Pod. For TJ Matthewson. This is Lyle gold Steine. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you next week.