Episode 49: Ian Furness (93.3 KJR), Julio Rodriguez Makes History, And Can The Mariners Win The AL West?

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number forty nine of the Marine Layer Podcast. We have on Ian Furness of KGr for some Mariners talk. Julio's hot streak continues throughout the weekend, and we dive into the topic can the Mariners win the American League West, Well, we'll try and find out. 00:00:15 Speaker 2: Before we start this episode, a reminder to you guys, as always, if you're listening on our audio platforms, make sure to head over to YouTube, subscribe, check us out on the video side, like comment, and turn those notification bells on, because we do both audio and video with this podcast. And at the same time, if you're watching on YouTube, go over to Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, wherever you listen to your podcast, hit download, follow us, and give us that five star review the download and the five star review helps us big time, So make sure to go do that, and then head to social media Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube shorts, go follow us there at Marine Layer Pod. 00:00:51 Speaker 1: Let's get it rolling and we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast network. Recording here postgame on Monday, August twenty first, and after another emphatic win today Lyle, I'm sitting here before the episode thinking, Man, three weeks ago tonight, I sat down in this chair, came on this podcast and let the words leave my mouth that I was worried the Mariners did not sell enough in a seller's market. Well, don't you think I feel stupid? 00:01:36 Speaker 3: Now? 00:01:37 Speaker 2: So you're sitting here and say, you're sitting here and saying you're actually okay with Taoscar, Hernandez still on the team, with Tye Rance still on the team. You're saying that you're you're okay watching those guys hit these days. 00:01:48 Speaker 1: I am. Taoscar's over nine hundred ops in August, I would say definitely is better than whatever they would have gotten in return. That's for certain. Man, What a stretch up to now, thirty two and thirteen since July first, we're sitting here thinking, like, as the Mariners are bouncing around five hundred, that like winning twenty two of twenty five like they did in twenty twenty two is just it's not realistic. You can't expect to win twenty two of twenty five games in a given season to essentially single handedly propel yourself into playoff position With a stretch like that. Well, now it's thirty two of forty five, not quite twenty two of twenty five, but I'd say that's still pretty good. 00:02:33 Speaker 2: It's always nice to step back and remind yourself of that, especially after the two Oreos losses that were so excruciating a couple weeks ago, and we sat there feeling like there was such a missed opportunity. Then you look at the broader picture and you say, oh, yeah, this is the best team in baseball over the last nearly two months. 00:02:49 Speaker 1: Now, oh yeah, two extra inning losses and a blow ninth blown ninth inning, a lead away from eighteen consecutive wins, which dwarfs what they did last year. Just kind of kind of funny to think about, what. 00:03:03 Speaker 2: Would we be sitting here saying right now if that was the case, if they had straight up, if they had straight up ripped off eighteen consecutive wins. I mean, look, we're still sitting here saying singing nothing but praises about this team. But if they had had eighteen wins in a row right now, I mean just changes drastically what we're talking about, which is funny because it's not that different, but it kind of is. At the same time, because you look at that all time win streak, the Mariners wouldn't be that far off if they just hold on. 00:03:32 Speaker 1: They should have a book written about them by Michael Lewis and then a movie made about them. I forget who directed Moneyball. I should know this as one of as a Moneyball truther and title it the Chase for Show. 00:03:45 Speaker 2: Hey, hey, can they include us being at the park during the Angel series in a couple weeks? Can that be part of the part of the movie. 00:03:53 Speaker 1: I'm down, you can count me in with that. 00:03:57 Speaker 2: Yeah, how can we flag the crew down to get out to center field or really wherever we're roaming around in the middle of September during those games, which is, by the way, another promo. I say, we I guess TJ won't be here for it, but I will be at the ballpark. We're gonna be passing out index cards with signs on it, with notes on it that say you better be screaming come to Seattle for every single at that he's up, and we're gonna don't worry, Like those note cards and index cards are gonna find their ways around the stadium. We're making this happen. So just another little quick promos that starts to get closer and closer. 00:04:30 Speaker 1: You saw that paltry effort the Rangers put in last week when they were trying to court show Hey. No, this one's gonna gonna blow it out of the water. 00:04:38 Speaker 2: I promise you at a section in right field, channing come to Texas for one at bat for Otani like cool dude. That didn't even register on the same level of what happened at the All Star Game. And I guarantee you that series in the middle of September is gonna blow that Texas chan out of the water. 00:04:55 Speaker 1: And lol, I know a lot of people don't really know show Hey all that much, but is SHOWHEO Tani going to Texas so he can live in the state of Texas. 00:05:05 Speaker 2: Well, they do say no income taxes, but I doubt it. 00:05:10 Speaker 1: No, I doubt it too. 00:05:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, it just feels like not that were some insiders, but it just feels like he's staying on the West Coast. So whether that be Dodgers, whether that be maybe the Mariners, maybe the Giants, it just feels like he's staying there. It doesn't feel like he's going anywhere near New York. It doesn't feel like he's going to Texas. Maybe think about somewhere like the Cubs, but I think it's going to be the West Coast. 00:05:32 Speaker 1: Another thing that really just kind of goes beyond reality with this Mariner streak and the fact that we said this wasn't going to happen again, and yet here they are doing it right again, doing exactly what they did last year, reeling off a ton of wins in a row. If I told you at the beginning of this season Lyle that the Mariners were going to force Houston into a player's only meeting in their own ballpark, those can I say those words again? The Mariners, who are seven and three already at Minute Made Park since twenty nineteen, forced the Houston Astros into a player's only meeting after a series. Wrap your head around. 00:06:11 Speaker 2: That, and just judging by Twitter, Astros fans were pissed to see that going on, seeing their players only meeting occurring. Hey, don't forget this was the Mariners World Series. If you ask Astros fans if they had won that series, that series means everything. If the Mariners win it, oh, it doesn't matter because that's their World Series. Well, I got news for you, Houston. Are you getting to the World Series at this rate? Not if you keep playing like this. 00:06:38 Speaker 1: Houston's one slip up from looking up at a nice teal in teal and blue team above them in the standings. 00:06:46 Speaker 2: They are and they won to night here on Mondays, so it might have to wait another day, but they're right there. They're half a game behind the Astros right now, and we'll get to that in a little bit. But man, what a great weekend. I thought it was fitting i'd wear this Believe shirt here on today's podcast, which is from two years ago, but I have the shirt and it just felt fitting because here we sit after a season of what was primarily five hundred ball. Now the Mariners are doing everything people had hopes and dreams of them doing at the start of the year. So I'm sitting here believing all of a sudden. Watch us on YouTube, by the way, if you want to see the shirt. 00:07:19 Speaker 1: And we made an entire segment about them being five hundred and it's funny and then been five hundred tenths. 00:07:26 Speaker 2: We've had some late comments on our social media posts about that. It was that social clip that we did of you saying Lyle what's your favorite Mariners record this year? Is it forty and forty? Is it thirty five and thirty five? I go, I think it was one and one, because back then Robbie Ray was still healthy, we still had hopes. And I think I ended that clip by saying, I am absolutely exhausted. And now we've got comments flowing in from people saying, are you guys feeling now? And I've responded to a couple of them saying well better. 00:07:53 Speaker 1: Well since that point when they were fifty and fifty, they have now won twenty times and lost five, So yeah, I would say the vibes are significant. Can leave better. 00:08:02 Speaker 2: Just a little bit. It's it's been incredible. Baseball is such a long season, and this is what it does to you. It makes you feel like, in the middle of May June, even stretching into July this year, that your season is not going to go the way you wanted it to, and all of a sudden, a couple of weeks can make an entire differences happen. That's what's happened here. 00:08:23 Speaker 1: Let's get to our Mariner's storylines and we'll start off with the star of the week, the catalyst behind it. All you did mention team sport, team sport. Everyone's got to be playing well, pitching's well. Lineup one through nine, which has been happening, has all been hitting, but it's not happening with without number forty four Julio Rodriguez making baseball history over this weekend. 00:08:47 Speaker 2: Eh, the Mariner's one fourteen to two today without him? Spin zone? Is he actually making the offense worse when he's in the lineup? 00:08:54 Speaker 1: Spin Zone? Is Julio Rodriguez in a slump after only one hit on Sunday? 00:09:00 Speaker 2: People are asking it might be why he got a day off today. They were just they were tired of him not putting up multi hit games and said, you know what, you need a break. I'm kidding, I'm totally kidding. 00:09:09 Speaker 1: I gotta say his replacements in the outfield today did just fine without him. You know, if no one was telling me else, I'd believe Julio is as a detriment to the outfield group as a whole. 00:09:21 Speaker 2: We asked the hard hitting questions on here, don't we is Julio? Is he bringing down the offense? 00:09:27 Speaker 1: No? 00:09:27 Speaker 2: Obviously, this has been the story of baseball this week seventeen. For twenty one stretch, which is an MLB record. Nobody's ever recorded seventeen hits in a series, and that comes after he had all those hits in Kansas City as well. I mean, it's just been incredible what he's been doing, especially against an Astros team where again the Mariners have had just nightmares playing in that park. Minute Made Park has been a house of horrors for Seattle forever now. And Julio, oh, he didn't care about that this weekend. 00:09:57 Speaker 1: Remember when Julio said a record mentioned it on Friday's episode where we had twelve hits in the Kansas City series and no Manner had ever done that. Do we have to remind people that the Mariners also employed someone by the name of each Hero's Auzuki who was well known for getting a shit ton of hits, and Julio did something that he never did, and each he Row of all people, had never had seventeen hits in a four game span. Can you just think about that, nobody ever in the history of baseball, not Ted Williams, not Babe Ruth, not Willie Mays, not Lou Garrick, not Mickey mantle Man. I'm naming a lot of Yankees. Fuck God, fuck them, Joe DiMaggio. 00:10:35 Speaker 2: You're still naming Yankees? 00:10:37 Speaker 1: Should I just run through Monument Park? Yogi Berra? 00:10:41 Speaker 2: Well, how about Barry Bond? How about Hank Aaron? 00:10:43 Speaker 1: How about well, we know Barry Bonds walked too much. 00:10:47 Speaker 2: That's true, he did after our Heart. Yes, we love locks walks as good as a hit Listen, we talk about eachier Ro. If Eachiro ever strung together a series like this, he wasn't doing it with the authority that Julio was doing it with, Like the thump, the raw power, just everything, the slug. It was ridiculous. He took the Astros I mean, he took advantage of the Astros all series and it didn't matter to him. He just he went out and did it. Can we I mean? And we said, right, we said during that Astro series, well, is there any doubt who's gonna win Ale Player of the Week? We were like no, And unsurprisingly here on Monday it was about as easy of an award as you can give out because he was the Ale Player of the Week this week, because nobody's gone on a stretch like this ever, like you just said. 00:11:41 Speaker 1: And we blink, and he's right back in the top ten of the American League of wins above replacement, just like that, a down season. 00:11:47 Speaker 2: Right, Let's just go through some of his numbers. Here, what he's done in a four game stretch. Shout out to Addison for this that Yankees World Twitter account. I have it written down here what he did in a four game stretch. This was from Wednesday through Saturday. His batting average went from two fifty six to two seventy eight. His ops went from seven to fifty one to eight hundred. His WRC plus went from one to eleven to one twenty five, so a fourteen percent increase, and his f war fangrafts war went from three point seven to four point eight. That's the one that's most ridiculous of them all. His wins above replacement went over one in four games. Aka, he won this team more than an entire game on his own in a four day stretch. 00:12:35 Speaker 1: Yeah. That's uh, pretty fucking bonkers. I don't think Milt Stock was doing that back in nineteen twenty five. Oh no, no, no, not you Milt Stock. Who did Milt Stock play for again? I honestly don't even remember. Alwas the brook Brooklyn Robbins a team you know that doesn't exist anymore, right, Is that right? 00:12:55 Speaker 2: I'll take your word for it. I can't say I've ever heard of this guy, and I think I know my baseball history pretty well for the most part. I've never heard of this dude. 00:13:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't either, but Julio's out there breaking records. It's just it's just amazing. And we set it on Friday. So I'm just going to reiterate it because it remains true. The biggest acquisition, as they kept saying throughout the entire season, of what this roster needed to happen, was not only that the whole team start playing well. Is that? How much better is this roster if Julio is just who Julio is. Well, we look at it now and Julio's stats are pretty fricking close to what they were last year at this point, with better defense and a better roster around him top to bottom, And would you look at that. Look at where the Mariners are currently two and a half games back. I don't think the Rangers are going to lose tonight to the Diamondbacks, so they'll probably still remain three games back in the division. But just look at what that's done. Man like it. Sometimes it is more simple than we make it out to be. 00:13:57 Speaker 2: Similar to how they went on that fourteen game win streak last year, That was when Julio got really hot and the team just wrote him. They're doing the same thing right now. We say it all the time. This team goes as Julio goes. And when he's playing like this, not that he's gonna get seventeen hits every series, but when he is playing at the level that everybody knows he's capable of playing, this team just motors. I mean, it takes so much pressure off of everybody else and as a result, guys are more relaxed, they're looser, they hit. Everybody's just rallied around Julio. 00:14:29 Speaker 1: Did Milt Stock also break up a fight during his streak like Julio did. 00:14:35 Speaker 2: There's another thing Astros fans were mad about. There were Astros fans somehow mad that Julio restrained Framber Valdez from trying to swing at other Mariners guys. 00:14:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, it was probably Kabiiro's fault for standing in the batter's box, right, He was in the way of the pitch. That's what was really at fault there. 00:14:54 Speaker 2: I love these Astros people that say Mariners have a reputation for this, as if the Astros haven't thrown at the Mariners like five seven times in three seasons. 00:15:02 Speaker 1: Not like Framber hasn't already thrown at somebody this season for the exact same scenario of getting shelled and then taking his frustration out by buzzing someone. Sad well, at least they didn't throw out Julio, because I mean I would have been fucking pissed if they threw at Julio, But Framber, you know, decided to just take his anger out on the next person instead of like aiming for Julio's wrists like something else that happened in Houston last year. 00:15:29 Speaker 2: Dude, what a great franchise. Honestly, what a great franchise. 00:15:33 Speaker 1: I feel zero remorse for the pain and suffering they're going through, absolutely none. 00:15:39 Speaker 2: Like sorry, pain and suffering is if they're not still holding a playoff spot. 00:15:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, the freshest World World Series trophy there is now. I hope them in Texas spend it for the rest of the year just butting heads and pissing each other off so Mariners don't have to worry about it and they can just clean up business at the end of the year. Before we get to our second storyline, that was great stuff on Julio. A word from Betterhelp a new partner is something interfering with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals, regardless if you have a clinical mental health issue like depression or anxiety, or if you're just a human who lives in this world who has gone through a hard time. Therapy gives you tools to approach your life in a very different way. 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Terms apply. See Disney Bundle dot com for details. 00:18:18 Speaker 2: Second storyline here, TJ. Can the Mariners actually win the Al West? 00:18:25 Speaker 1: And you suggested this, I mean, it just seems bonkers. I'm just I'm getting PTSPD flashbacks of that last series with the Rangers, watching those two teams on the field and thinking there's no way the Mariners will ever overtake this team. But we sit here tonight, in the best case scenario is the Mariners are three games back with a little bit over a month to play. Crazier things have happened. Fangrafts does not love the Mariners at this moment to win the division. They're sitting at just twenty percent to win the division. The Astros are at thirty nine percent or sorry, the Astros are actually forty one percent, excuse me, And the Rangers are at thirty nine percent, so they're at about dead even splits to win the division right there, and the Mariners they're hanging around right now in that division race, and it's not really impossible at this moment. 00:19:14 Speaker 2: It doesn't shock me that the Mariners odds said at twenty percent when they're still three games back. If they start to make up ground, those odds will go up. That's just how the fangrafts projections work. A few weeks ago, the odds of the Mariners making the playoffs on Fangrafts were way under ten percent. They had virtually no chance. And then they've started to rip off all these wins and it's gone up. Now Here we sit three games out on August the twenty first, the Mariners are knocking on the door of the Rangers. Where you talked about it that series down in Texas when Brian Wu made his debut. The things we were saying were along the lines of these two teams are not even in the same stratosphere. All of a sudden, that's not the case anymore. They are, And the Mariners have the schedule ahead of them to control their own destiny. Now, the final three weeks of their season is really tough in terms of the teams are gonna play a handful of two of those games being the Rangers. But they're right their works cut out for them. They're right in front of them. If they go out and beat the Rangers the final few weeks of the season, there's no reason they can't win the al Wes because there they are. It's there for the taking if they want it and if they can do it. 00:20:19 Speaker 1: The way the final ten games are set up where you have three at the Rangers, three at home versus the Astros, and four at home versus the Rangers. That stretch right there is what will win you or lose you the division. The Mariners need to get to that point and not collapse, right that's step one. But the way they're playing right now, we're gonna go ahead and almost assume that they make it to that point of the season and not fall flat on their face and out of reach, say four games, because that will probably be pretty hard to make up in a ten game stretch. So those two teams are battling within one to two games, those three teams are battling within one to two games over that final ten game stretch of the season. For the Mariners, it's sitting there for the taking because the Mariners are not going to win the division if they can't win those games seven games against the Rangers at the end of this season, because realistically that's who they're chasing right now now. The Astros could also turn it around and they still get the Mariners three more times, and they have a chance to jump back over them if the Mariners overtake him at that point. So a lot hinges on that. You would need to win all three of those series at least, if not more, to win that division emphatically, because that's what this schedule is setting up to be. There's going to be too much dependent on just taking care of your own business against the teams in your division. 00:21:39 Speaker 2: But here's what favors the Mariners. The Astros are not sitting on Mount Olympus compared to where the Mariners are the way that they used to. I always used to say it felt like climbing Mount Everest to try and beat the Astros every singular time they played them. It's not like that this year. Seattle's eight and two against the Astros. They have not had issues with Houston this year. And then you look at the Rangers. They're kind of vulnerable right now. You're talking about a team that does not have a Valdi, does not have Josh Young, and they're twenty three and nineteen over their last forty two games. They're not blowing the doors off people the way they were at the start of the season. The bullpen also hasn't been great for the Rangers either. We know that that's the strength for the Mariners. The Rangers have been a bottom five bullpen group over the last month. This team is very vulnerable right now. I'm not saying they're still not a good team. They are, but it's not quite the night and day difference between Seattle and Texas the way it was at the start of the year. 00:22:40 Speaker 1: And another thing the Mariners have going for them is the Rangers have the thirteenth hardest remaining strength of schedule on the docket. For the Rangers, they still got to play the Astros three more times, of course, the Mariners seven more times. They have a four game set with Toronto in the Wildcard, Chase Boston three games of Boston in the wild Card Chase Houston took care of him tonight, the Twins seven games, and of course they're right in the middle of the set with the Diamondbacks right now. They also have some cupcakes as well, but that's much different than what the Astros and Mariners get. The Mariners have now the twenty sixth remaining strength of schedule and the Astros have the twenty eighth remaining strength of schedule, so it favors a little bit more Houston and the Mariners, not so much favor in the Rangers. We're gonna see how that depth is tested. For the Rangers, their offense can really bail them out of a lot of sticky spots for missing a lot of guys. But you know, as the season wears on, we're we're gonna have to see how well those bats continue to really carry it, and specifically how Corey Seer could do. Who's having, by the way, one of the more low key MVP campaigns we've ever seen. Think he's just over eighty games this season and he's the number two most valuable player in the American League, which kind of bonkers. So they're gonna need him a lot. 00:23:54 Speaker 2: Oh his WRC plus is close to two hundred. 00:23:57 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:23:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, Like if didn't exist, Corey Seger might be the front runner for the MVP. 00:24:04 Speaker 1: With thirty less games played than everyone. 00:24:08 Speaker 2: It's ridiculous, I will say for the Rangers too. To their credit and to be fair, I think they've gotten a little bit unlucky as of late two. Their bullpen has been an issue, but they're expected win lost total right now one hundred and three wins. They're not on pace for that right now. So that says there's been some bad luck sprinkled in. But look, the Mariners have capitalized on that bad luck because when the Rangers have been losing games, the Mariners have been making up ground. How long this lasts, we'll see. There's no guaranteeing that the Rangers turn this thing around and all the luck starts to swing their way again. Luck is a fluky thing. So they're right there. If they keep this up, there's no reason they can't take advantage of the Rangers, who, again this part is also true, are vulnerable right now. They are not at full strength with that roster. 00:24:53 Speaker 1: And let me give you some context if you want to want to be a little bit more optimistic as a Mariner fan, if they keep playing the way they're playing, I mean, this is the kind of ground you can make up on your opponents. Since July first, here's the ground the Maritors have made up on these teams. They made seven games up on Texas, five and a half games on Houston, six games on Toronto, four and a half on Boston. And now, for fun, I'm gonna let you guess how many games they've gained on the Angels in this same span ten twelve and a half. 00:25:24 Speaker 3: Oh my god. 00:25:28 Speaker 2: Hey, the good news is you know who's gonna save the Angels. Nolan Shanawell. 00:25:34 Speaker 1: That's dood. Did he play again today? Were they? 00:25:36 Speaker 4: No? 00:25:36 Speaker 1: They didn't play today, did they? 00:25:37 Speaker 2: It was a hurricane for the Yeah. Did you see those pictures at Dodger Stadium by the way, were those real? 00:25:43 Speaker 3: Yeah? 00:25:44 Speaker 2: I think they were real. 00:25:45 Speaker 1: Wow, that's a big parking lot, I will say. 00:25:49 Speaker 2: For those who don't know the name Nolan Shanawal, just for context, Dylan Shanawall was a first round pick of the Los Angeles Angels. A month ago. He was a first base been out of Florida Atlantic playing in Conference USA. It's not like he was playing at Vanderbilt in the SEC. He gets drafted in the first round a month ago. They move him to double A to start a little bit aggressive, but it's not uncommon these days. He gets ninety seven big league played appearances, He played in twenty one minor league games, and then they decided to call him. 00:26:22 Speaker 1: Up and bat him lead off. 00:26:24 Speaker 2: And bat him lead off in front of the best player on planet Earth. Incredible stuff. While they're already totally out of the race. By the way, the Angels. 00:26:32 Speaker 1: Desperation at its finest. I think the Mariners are sorry the Angels have debuted their first round pick first four straight years, I think because Zach Netto did the same thing last year. 00:26:44 Speaker 2: But Netto had more time in the miners than this. At least Neto had some of last year in the miners aka the second half of twenty twenty two, and then a little bit of twenty twenty three here this year before his call up. Shana Well, twenty one games. That is nuts. I mean, I think I think that was borderline ridiculous what they did. And maybe it's not even borderline, and it's just flat out ridiculous what they did. 00:27:05 Speaker 1: And if you think of big leaguers in the draft and guys who you think, yeah, the guys who are going to be fastest to the big leagues, like Dylan Cruz and Paul Skins, not them are in Double A yet, even like the two guys you would say are probably big leaguers, is Cruse double. 00:27:19 Speaker 2: Well, both of them just got called up. I don't think they've played a game in Double A yet at the time of this recording, but both of them have now been promoted to double Okay, point it makes sense, point being two of the most high profile prospects in a decade are only in Double A. Where the Angels are telling Nolan shaannawell, yeah, you're you're ready to make your debut and go to the big leagues after twenty one games in the minors, Yeah, go ahead. 00:27:42 Speaker 1: Did Perrymanation walk down into the clubhouse and put his arm around him and walk over to show his locker and say, show, hey, this could be your future right here, buddy, and Shana Well is like twenty one years old, just like, Oh, I'm nervous, show Tony. 00:27:57 Speaker 3: That's their savior. 00:27:59 Speaker 2: Now you probably don't have this in front of you. Maybe after this show, we'll have to look how many games they've gained on the A's and this time too, the Mariners. 00:28:08 Speaker 1: A lot. Maybe thirty two. 00:28:11 Speaker 2: Dude, the A's are still not at forty wins. 00:28:14 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty absurd that it might actually be pretty close to that. Yeah, how many games? I honestly, I'm gonna look right now. 00:28:21 Speaker 2: Oh look, what's ridiculous is this team might actually get worse as years go on, because again, nobody's signing there now. I mean, we've talked about all this that, but that's the point. Worse than a thirty seven to forty win season is crazy. I don't know if we're ever going to see them put up like a twenty eight to twenty nine one season, but that would be ridiculous if that ever happened. 00:28:42 Speaker 1: Okay, so the Mariners right now are what's the math here, thirty five and a half games ahead of the A's. Now, how many of the gained since July first? I cannot do that math on the on the MLB app but wow, I mean, just look at the a ls man seventy two wins, seventy one wins, seventy wins, the Angels even with the respectable sixty one wins, and then the A's are at you said, not even at forty wins. They're not even at thirty five wins, thirty four and ninety and they could hit they probably won't hit one hundred losses before September, but man, they still could lose what one hundred and thirty games, so they couldn't win much more. 00:29:29 Speaker 2: But know that so they could set the record still, Well. 00:29:34 Speaker 1: Nough, No, they could lose one hundred and twenty eight games at this moment. If they lost every game from here on out, I think it would be one hundred and twenty eight, right, Okay, so they won't break the record. That's quick. 00:29:42 Speaker 3: Math. 00:29:43 Speaker 1: I went to ASU, as you can see watch on YouTube. Not math was not my specialty. 00:29:48 Speaker 2: It wasn't mine either. Now I don't have an ASU shirt on. I do have a Mariner shirt on. But speaking of apparel, let's tell you a little bit here that our friends at Simply Seattle make sure, guys you go over and check out Simply Seattle goes shop there as well. They have awesome Seattle sports merchandise. And if you do that, head over there and use code Marine fifteen, you'll get fifteen percent off of your purchase. Again, that's Marine fifteen to get fifteen percent off. If you go over on YouTube and watch our latest podcast, the one before this episode that you're listening to and watching right now. I had that Ballard FC shirt on to play to our bit. I had to get a ballad shirt and support a TJ. I was wearing it on the last show and it was from Simply Seattle. So if you guys thought that shirt was cool. Then you should go to their site and check out even more of their stuff. They've got a bunch of Mariners stuff and it's awesome, So go do that simply Seattle use code Marine fifteen. 00:30:42 Speaker 3: Pretty cool. 00:30:43 Speaker 1: Looking forward to Ian Furness, it was a fun conversation we'd had with Ian, heard him on the radio a few times, have never gotten to meet him until now. You were able to connect all of us together. And I'm really glad we're able to get Ian Furness onto the podcast again. We really are making our rounds with the radio stations here in Seattle. I think it is our goal to get everybody on, but one by one we're I think we're making good progress. 00:31:05 Speaker 2: And everybody's been awesome, which is why we've kept circling back to it. All Ian was great. We talked Mariners, We talked a little bit about his career at the end, which was cool, and he's a Seattle guy through and through, so I think we can all relate in that way. But it was fun. Now this episode, this interview, I should say, with him, was recorded about a week ago. You'll hear him in the interview. He was watching that day's Mariners game while he was doing the interview with us, and in fact, I think at one point he was less than thrilled about that Bobby went inside the park. Homer. I think in the interview, you'll have to listen to yourself. He says, Okay, Marlow just made a bad error. It was canzone, but Tomato tomato point being interview was awesome with Ian. We had a bunch of Mariners talk. We talked about Julio, we talked about the big turnaround. 00:31:49 Speaker 3: It was awesome. I mean, he is. 00:31:50 Speaker 2: He was a great interview, really nice guy, insightful, and there's a reason we keep getting all these radio people on. They're great personalities. 00:31:57 Speaker 1: And the Mariners hadn't lost since we did the interview. So how about that. Ian's Ian's the good luck charm. So if you want to hear more of that good luck charm, let's get to our interview with Ian Furness. 00:32:09 Speaker 2: All right, we welcome on Ian Furness. He's the host of the Ian Furness Show on ninety three to three KJR. I'm guessing it's been some happier shows the last couple of weeks, and with the way the Mariners are rolling right. 00:32:19 Speaker 3: Now, it's been a little bit better lately. Yeah, it's kind of fun. I do a weekly show with a couple of guys that have a tendency to kind of go down the negative road. I've been a Mariner fan since nineteen seventy seven. I have the same feelings sometimes because when you watch what we've watched for all those years, it's hard to always be positive. But yeah, all of a sudden, despite losing their first series in about a month or whatever it was to Baltimore, it's you know, what do they say, all good vibes right, all good vibes, good vibes only, good vibes only right now? 00:32:49 Speaker 2: It is good vibes only, especially with the way they've been rolling. But so, you've been a Mariners fan since the moment they basically started. I mean, is it pretty wild to just see how far the team's even come from then to now despite all the bad that's been mixed in between. Has it been pretty wild to just watch the kind of formation of this team since the moment they became a franchise. 00:33:10 Speaker 3: Well, I think the interesting thing, honestly, lyle is that they you know, they've given us a lot more heartache than than fun times. You know, in they almost fifty years they've been in existence. It's for me as a fan, you know, and I'll separate myself from you know, talk show host or TV guy to just fan. For me as a fan, you know, you love them and then you love to hate them because they give you so much frustration at times. And they've been that way since day one. I mean remember it was like this minor miracle and they finally got to five hundred and then they immediately, you know, for the first time ever, not the playoffs, they got to five hundred, and what do they do. They fired their manager, Jim Lafever that like he gets the first guy ever to get to five hundred, they fire him. I mean that would that sums up who the Mariners are. Heartbeat Now, I know, a different ownership, all that stuff, different GM, but think and then they went the next season and they lost one hundred games with Bill plumbers or as our manager. So those are the Mariners, Like, that's who and what they are. It's in their DNA to frustrate us to have a weekend with Felix in which you just go ahead and pretend like Felix is still pitching for you, and instead you do it to George Kirby. You don't get a run in nine innings. I mean, my god, that's just who they are. But you know, we still love them. It's having a baseball team. I've worked in a couple of markets without a baseball team. I know TJ's anam Oregon. It's it sucks if you don't have a major league team. I worked in Portland, I worked in Salt Lake. I'll take our bad baseball team, or our frustrating baseball team, or right now our pretty good baseball team over not having won any day of the week. 00:34:34 Speaker 1: So how do you turn yourself into more of an optimist after seeing them from the beginning And as you just mentioned, I mean, there couldn't have been a worse franchise until ninety five. Then they have the run of success, and then you have where Lyle and I come into the picture, starting in nineteen ninety eight. You know, don't really remember much until they started being really atrocious in the mid two thousands and then into the twenty tens as well, until we finally gotten to this point. Now to turn that page. 00:35:02 Speaker 3: I don't know if I can. I'm not sure if I can because it's it's you know, I know who they are, I know what their DNA says, and it's like, we're still gonna disappoint you in the end. I mean even last year, you get to the playoffs and really you can't scratch a run across in eighteen innings. I mean, come on, It's but I think that because the thing with baseball, that's fine, the major weak Baseball's great. There's still always hope. Like there's always hope. It's a long enough season where you know, now, listen, the Mariners are playing the Kansas City Royals this week and they're eighty plus what losses when they start the week against Seattle before the four games. So there are times or Oakland right, teams like that that just there is no hope. And we've been there way too many times in the last three years. We've had hope, you know they I think what you just want to do is you want to see them take us into August and September. And this year, for sure they're going to go into September for the third year in a row and give us an opper. And we saw what it was like, we saw what this city in this community was like when they got to the playoffs and you know, the twenty one long years are over and all those things, and when they finally got there, it was phenomenal. It was great. We got to the playoffs and you know, we got a taste of it. It's it's unfortunate what Major League Baseball did not to dwell on this. But my god, really, you're going to give us our first three playoff games? Four playoff games. I guess it was one, two, three, four five whatever they ended up. Everyone was a day game, Like every single one was a day game. People will work here. Man, this is the West Coast, Like you couldn't squeeze out a night game for us, but they give us a whole. This is a team that was exceedingly frustrating this year. They just screamed five hundred all year and then all of a sudden, you know, some of the offense caught up with the great pitching, and here we are with a playoff race yet again, which is a lot of fun. 00:36:39 Speaker 2: Are we really shocked that Major League Baseball opted to put the Yankees in primetime? 00:36:43 Speaker 3: Now? 00:36:43 Speaker 1: Are we shocked? No? 00:36:44 Speaker 3: No, no, But but there were West Coast games needed and when they find Now, here's the problem is they didn't get to you know, to the West coast until uh that Saturday afternoon, you know, on the middle of college football season, going ahead to head with college football. But that's that's on them. You know, I'm hopeful this year that they get the playoffs and right now looks very much like a wild card team. But if they do and they get past that first round, which you know you want to finish third and take on Minnesota and smack them in the face, and then you know, move on to the next playoff series and hopefully you'll get something that at least at four or five o'clock at night, let us all watch it instead of instead of people having a skip school or or work or what have you. 00:37:21 Speaker 2: If we're going to dive into what the last few weeks of the Mariners have looked like, which is really turn their season around to this point, even if you want to look at that series against the Orioles during Felix Weekend where they ended up losing two of three. When you break that series down, am I crazy to say that the Orioles, despite having the best record in the American League at this point, don't look all that much better than the Mariners. I mean, the two teams were pretty neck and neck. 00:37:44 Speaker 3: They were, But I think that's the difference between you know, what we see around baseball right now. He's in the American League. I'll be honest with you, I don't watch much National League baseball at all. I mean, I focus in on our team and what's going on around them. But I think that's I think you see, you know, fatal flaws with every team. I think, you know, as good as Baltimore is and is the season they're having. Same with thing with Texas. You know, great season, but you can find with Texas it's health, depth of pitching. I mean, there's some things you look at there, certainly with Baltimore. You know, Seattle's got better starting pitching. There's no doubt Sales got better. The top three guys for Seattle better than anybody in Leak. I mean, that's just peer, that's just that's a that's a fact. Seattle has holes in this lineup, though, Like let's not forget that there are holes in a lot. Even if Crawford is healthy and back, which he's not right now, obviously, even if, uh, you know, our our favorite place kicker Jared Kelnick is coming back, and he's back there. There's still some holes in the lineup. Mike Ford is not a he's not a designateator. Uh. Tascar Hernandez has been a massive disappointment. 00:38:41 Speaker 4: Uh. 00:38:41 Speaker 3: The great thing now is though you know, JP's having a career offensive year. Sworez is starting to heat up and leads a team still with RBIs and Julio's looking like the guy they paid a zillion dollars to all of a sudden, and so they do have some guys. France's heating up, they have some guys are getting going. I'm not sure, you know, I mean, I know they accounted for most of the run this weekend, did Rojas and and Ken's own, but you know those guys aren't gonna give you too much. There's still too many holes in this lineup, too many Haggarty, Dylan Moore. You know, I like Kate Marlow maybe you know, maybe he'll be something. But they still have holes. But so does every other team. That's why when you get that's what you just want to get there, like, just get there, because with those three starters, whichever order you want to pick, probably Kirby Castillo, Gilbert Man, You're you're gonna be a hard out man. You're gonna be a hard team to beat. 00:39:29 Speaker 1: Is there someone in this lineup besides Julio you're really looking. 00:39:32 Speaker 3: At to to kind of carry the mail? 00:39:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, Eric, pick it up, buddy, you got this. 00:39:40 Speaker 3: Well? I think I mean ta Oscar Hernandez. I guess would have to be that guy. Somebody listen, JP Crawfords having a terrific season and the the Inner Child and watching for years Mariner or a fan in me says, well, I'll come to an end at some point. It's not he's having a great year. And so like let's let's say you can count on Julio, you can count on JP. France is okay, and but better lately obviously, I mean Taskar Hernandez is the guy that you have to think is at some point it's going to give you something. He don't give you anything, I mean, not consistently. You know. I think what was the stat I just saw the other day and strikeouts for walks? I think there's a Mariner pitcher and it might be might have been Miller, but anyway, there's a Mariner pitcher. Like in the last couple of weeks has forty two strikeouts and four walks, and and that's basically what Taoskars had at the same time. It said four walks and fifty strikeouts. I mean, so he's got to be better. He just has to be if this team's going to take a run in the playoffs. And so let's hope that happens. 00:40:40 Speaker 2: You know, if we continue to look at what the Mariners bring to the table. You just mentioned the starting pitching, right, then they can just get there. If they can just get into the playoffs, they've got a shot. Every team has flaws in the American League, like you just outlined. But in terms of the starting pitching, is there anybody that's set up better for the Mariners in terms of the postseason? 00:40:59 Speaker 3: No, that's but that's that's the key, honestly, Low that's the key. Like the holes that the Mariners have are in the lineup, you can overcome those in a short series. If you're pitching's lights out, you can scratch across a couple of runs. You're fine. If you say, like, what's your choice would you rather have? You know, a lineup? Nobody has a nine man lineup that you feel great about right list, But would you rather have like seven guys you feel really good about offensively and a socio pitching staff or the other way around. I'll take the pitching staff because they go out there and shut you down, win every night. And then you add the best bullpen in baseball, probably even if they're getting tax and even the seawall has changed, everyone's moved up a little bit in terms of how much leverage they've got. I mean, look at Scio, what a great story like a year like at the start of the year, the first three month, first of all, wasn't here. They set him down, then they bring him back up. I don't even think he's on a forty man at the start of the season. I think he was down down. They bring him up, put him on the forty man, bring him. He's never in a high leverage situation. I mean, he is the ultimate just mop up. Okay, you know, games out of hand one way or the other. Let's go go eat in an in or two for us guy. Now, all of a sudden, this is a high leverage left hander. It's remarkable what they get out of their bullpen. It really is, you know, I mean Toulpa Spire. You know, Thornton had his problems on Sunday, but they got dudes, man, And you know, I love Sasito coming out. He's got he's got a little little inner, you know, something in him that's I like, you know, And obviously Munno is when he's on, there's no better slider in the game. So I'll take the pitching over what other teams don't have any day of the week. You can, you can. You can give me a team that's got one or two more bats to Seattle, But I'll take their pitching all day. 00:42:31 Speaker 1: We're talking about how they shape up against other teams and Lala I have talked about this over the last couple of weeks about where they need to be at a certain point of the schedule. Can be kind of unfair to set points. Yeah, two months in advance. You know, we got a month and a half left of the season. But they're about to enter a really easy stretch of their schedule before they go in the final two and a half three weeks of just brutal baseball, including the final ten against the Rangers and the Astros. I would say, at what point do they need to be in a playof spot after. 00:43:01 Speaker 3: The next I think it's the next sixteen games I believe are mostly against Kansas City, Chicago, White Sox, Oakland, Right, I think that's that there might be three mixed in with Houston, if I'm not mistaken, I'd be honest with you. I'm keeping track of, you know, like what my football looks like these days too, and where I got to be Seahawks wise. But I think that I think it's the next sixteen or the key. And so let's say you're eleven and five, ten and four over those next sixteen and then you hit that stretch that TJ you mentioned, then I think you want to be in at least Wildcard three by and maybe at least clear by a couple of games. Just you got to be there at some point. I mean, then you just you still have to win games. You know, you can't that's you know, we can't assume they're going to lose all the way out. But I mean, I think I think you want to be Wildcard three sometime the next week to ten days. 00:43:56 Speaker 2: I think what we said about it is entering that final two and a half three week stretch with that just nightmare of a schedule. Yeah, they can have some sort of two to three game cushion if it's possible over Toronto going into that stretch. I think that's about the target range where fans can feel somewhat comfortable about it. I just think if it's going to be within a game or two going into that stretch, if there're a game out or a game and a half out, there's gonna be challenges. 00:44:23 Speaker 3: Well, but look at Toronto's schedule, it's craptastic when it's kind of the opposite of Seattle's. You know, I think right now Seattle's got the easy schedule, then Toronto they flip flop, like in the next couple two three weeks so and a half weeks, I think they flip flop and Toronto gets a really easy schedule. So hopefully two or three would be good enough, you know, assumeing I mean the only game in a half out as we're taping this right now, so I mean that can change in two days. That can change quickly. But yeah, I don't know if you'll ever feel comfortable until you get some almost like you're playing match playing golf, until you're finally, like you know, up three with two to go, like you got a three two whatever it is, right, like, like three up, three holes or two left to play, you win three to two. I think if you're up three games and two games left to go, then we'll feel comfortable. But I think Meritor fans know all too well that comfort's not in our that's not in our repertoire man. 00:45:10 Speaker 2: And if it's gonna be anything like the last two seasons where it's probably gonna come right down to the wire, I mean even think about last year. They did it with a few days to go, but that Royal Series at the end of the year where they blew that huge lead and everybody's starting to sweat and get nervous that they might let the lead go toward the end of the season just seems to be in their dna. I mean, not only do they play all these close games over the last three years, but it just seems like, especially the way the season's going and the way they've kind of fared over the last couple of seasons, they're going to be having fans on the edge of their seat come that last weekend. 00:45:40 Speaker 3: Well, and you remightest of the Kansas City Series. Yeah, we're all kind of making this assumption that they're going to win the next few weeks or the next couple of weeks right against those teams, and that's that's probably a leap of faith in a sense too. You know, I mean they start the season out, they started four game series out in Kansas City by falling behind three enough, and now i mean they got three plus games four games left, and they can certainly, but that's like they're very capable of also coming out and looking like the team that was that we saw in was it June? They were nine at seventeen, right, I mean, it's just it's like they had losing month, winning months, losing month, now winning month and on the way to another winning month. They they're very capable of coming out and you know, over the next sixteen also going six and ten. That could easily happen as well if you don't get your elite pitching. 00:46:25 Speaker 1: And I'm sure that's going to go over perfectly well with the fan base perfectly. Your show would get some very rational takes to that. 00:46:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, especially my Monday show with our Mulliwop guys, who are the most irrational people in the world. We love the death and as we're saying this, I'm watching Mike Ford just you know, miss a pitch, like completely miss it and pop it up, and it's like, dude, great story early, but you're just not good enough right now. And you know, and I mean again, I know we're taping this thing and people listen later. We're five innings in there getting no hits. Yes, I said that we can. We can jinx it right. No, they're getting no hit by Kansas City. For God's sakes, that just it. It's whatever happens to this game doesn't even matter. It's that's who they are. Like they can. And we saw the last couple of games they went, you know, tendings without scoring. On Saturday, they went they scored two runs and ten innings yesterday. So now we're five fourteen, fifteen, what are we like, twenty five innings and they've scored two runs and counting. Oh, making me feel uneasy again. 00:47:32 Speaker 2: They seem to have a tendency to do that, don't they. 00:47:34 Speaker 3: They do, they do. It's just it's it's and what they are. But then they could go like what we saw the other night, you know when they scored what was it five and the eighth, you know that rally hits a home run that might may still be in orbit somewhere, and then they just tack on. They just add on, add on, add on. I mean, they're that's baseball, but that's also kind of who they are. They feel like it feels like, don't I don't know what you guys think. It just always kind of feels like they score in bunches, like like, and you think the offense is cured, it's ill, and then you realize, no, they just had a big inning, you know, and then you look at the you look at the line, it's like zero zero zero zero zero eight zero zeros zero zero one, you know, and hey, scored nine runs. Well, yeah, they score eight one run when you know, that's kind of how they operate. 00:48:13 Speaker 2: It's funny you say that, because that first game in the Orioles series where they won nine to two, there's like a little part of you in the back of your head that maybe is thinking, save some runs for the rest of the series, guys, even though that's probably not sound logic. But then in reality you turn around and they're not scoring runs the rest of the series. So like they said, they do score them in bunches. 00:48:32 Speaker 3: Because then they went they won the series in cubultive numbers right. 00:48:37 Speaker 1: Outscored the Orioles by by thirteen runs the entire season and only won two of the games. 00:48:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, if it was if it was uh, you know soccer, you know, European soccer, and we'd be like, hey, you know what the aggregates score, they're really good. We're good shape here. 00:48:53 Speaker 2: You know, are there many teams in baseball that go as their superstar goes the way Julio does because every team has their star. I mean you look at a Kunya with the Braves, look at Aaron Judge with the Yankees. There's so many examples of it across the league. 00:49:06 Speaker 3: Well you hit the last one. It's Judge. I mean, look, look what the Yankees were without Judge. I mean they were, they were just a shell and it just trickled down, right. They were just because stanton Is is just a rotting carcass of it for herself. I mean, I don't know what who he is. I mean, he's just But when they took when Judges out of the line up. And then remember the Yankees came to Seattle, they were and they had a couple other guys out that that series too, But without him. That's a true aircraft carrier, man. You you that guy carries the whole boat. And you know, I think he's won. I think certainly, there's no doubt that Otani is. I mean, they're barely hanging on to playoff life. And that's because this guy's got forty one bombs and oh, by the way, he goes every five every five days he throws, and it gives you a chance to win there too. But yeah, I'd say Julio's probably right there. I mean, and that's why they're paying him, right, That's why they're paying him the money starting you know, next year or whatever it is with that contract, because they know he has to carry them for the freight. You know, did his best earlier of the year. He doesn't wasn't hitting for power, hasn't hit for power like he did last year at all. But he is driving in runs. I know some baseball people don't think RBI is a stat that should matter, but I mean Suarez is kind of helping the cause. But yeah, it's it's Julio and you could probably look across and find a lot of teams. I think, well, you know, Rushman didn't have a great series, right I know, you're DJ's down in Corvallis, Like, he didn't have a great series right against Seattle, and you can kind of see that I thought, I thought without him being really good, Uh, he left some guys in scoring position a couple of times, and you can kind of see the trickle down effect that he has too. I think that's another guy. 00:50:39 Speaker 1: You've seen a lot of baseball, and you've seen a lot of the Mariners stars. For how few they've had in their franchise history, you have seen the very best one and we've now seen a year of half and a half of Julio. So where do you think his standing is or will be when we look out in the future of a franchise like Mariners, say Mariner's Greats, and then how he how he's looked looked upon it the league as well. 00:51:03 Speaker 3: Well. I think I think he definitely has the ability. It's it's so early in the career, but I mean he's got a Hall of Fame trajectory, there's no doubt. I mean, he's got that in him. He's he's as gifted as they come, you know, I mean the obviously the obvious comparison is junior. You know, because there's some similarities to him, the speed, the power. You know, it's interesting when Junior came from Mohler High School in Cincinnati and and rolled in and you know, played his season in Bellingham and then half the season elsewhere before he got hurt. And then he comes up to Seattle as a nineteen year old or whatever it was. He he was already considered to be an elite defender and an elite center fielder. We'll remember last year, all the talk was, Julio can't play center field. Well, I don't know about you, guys. I sure see a Gold Glove caliber center fielder there. He may not have as strong an arm as Junior. I think people forget that Junior had an absolute hose man. He could he could, he can let a rip from from deep. But but he's this and he's still he's not as refined yet as Junior in the outfield. But I think there's I mean, if you just kind of put him side by side, I mean, he's got an ability, he's got he's got the he's got the talent, uh to be at that level. Can he mentally handle it? You know, Junior was so cocky and so arrogant that if he did hit a slump, it didn't matter because he knew how good he was. I guess we don't really, you know, we saw Julio struggle at the start of the season this year. Obviously the last when he was a rookie was different. But I think, yeah, with with what and who Julio is, you know, mentally, that's probably the only challenge for him because he's got every other tool. 00:52:43 Speaker 2: That's almost what I look at in terms of I guess when I pose the question of does this team go as Julio goes or how much of an aircraft carrier he is, because you just look at how the Mariners have played the last month, does it just doesn't feel like a coincidence that when he's gotten going the way he has since the start of July, this team looks totally different than they did in April, May and June. 00:53:07 Speaker 3: Yeah. By the way, again, I know we're taping this, but I just saw they'll call it an inside I don't know, I'll call it inside the park home run. But wow, I thought to the Oscar Hernandez was bad in the outfield, but Kate Marvel just had Hernanda's like play and uh oh, yeah that's something anyway. 00:53:26 Speaker 2: Play by play Wow, I mean you're play by play guy. 00:53:31 Speaker 3: In I'm just shaking my head right now. I mean, Logan Gilbert's gotta be going, what are you doing? Man? Like that's a I think got caught in the lights. Anyway, what was the question. I'm sorry, I'm just still amazed by what I just saw at a major league level. 00:53:44 Speaker 2: Like, God, I'm looking forward to seeing this, I like when we get off this. I mean, I was just talking about how again it just doesn't feel like a coincidence that as Julio's gotten going since the start of July, I know, as a whole, how they've just taken off since. 00:53:59 Speaker 3: Then go back for our conversation with Aaron Judge. Like that one hammer in the lineup, what can that one guy do for you? Like he can carry he carries everybody else and protects everybody else. I mean that was you know, for for you know, for Julio. You know, is there you know, is there protection around him? You know? I think that's why they need to hit the oscar to be better. I mean obviously they're bating to you know, lead off sometimes, so it's a little bit different with JP out. When JP's back and he's hitting lead off again, is you know Julio's number two? You know, is your number three guy more than likely France, is he gonna give you protection? But Julio, I just I when you have a guy that can hit for power, when he can drop one into the gap and you know he's going to get an extra base on it. He's a really good base runner. I think that's underrated sometimes in baseball too. He reads the ball well, all those things. He's Yeah, he carries you. He absolutely flat out carries you. And that's that's pretty awesome to see because he's just he's just a baby man. He's just a kid. And and I'll just the one thing I'll point out with him. And I'm not around those guys every day. I was around Junior quite a bit. I was working at Como TV and working as a sports producer when Junior was here, so as around. We did a lot of stuff down at the Kingdome, and we were around Junior a lot. I'm not around Julio on a day to day basis, but from what I can see from Afar, there's a massive difference. Junior I don't know if he liked being Ken Griffy Junior in terms of the spotlight, and I don't know if he embraced everything. I don't think he ever embraced being the franchise. He knew how good he was. I think he just was happy just to go out and you know, play grab ass with guys and you know, go go do his thing and then move on. Julio understands his role, and maybe he maybe he saw that from Felix all those years, from Afar, you know, whoever it's been. Maybe maybe that's where he's seen it. But Julio seems to embrace the role. He embraces the face of the franchise. And I just love that. I mean, I just absolutely love that. You know, this this year with giving the ball to the kid in Baltimore, Junior would never do that. And I know sometimes people think I disparaged Junior a little bit. I just he just was different. Man. This the kid played Julio plays with a sense of real joy, not fake joy, not I'm showing off from my dad's buddies joy. No, this this dude plays because he's having fun. There's a lot of there's a lot more Felix in terms of personality in Julio than there is Junior. In fact, if you want to put him side by side, Julio is is Felix Like he just enjoys it and he embraces the crowd. You watch, you guys, watch how he how he basically interacts with the fans in center field every game. It's awesome, Like, that's fantastic. You know, so many guys just ignore the fans. They just they don't they don't interact, they don't acknowledge. He's the opposite and just think about the King's Court back in the day. That's what That's what made Felix great is he had a connection, a true connection with the fans. Not a hey, i'm far away from you and I'm better than you connection. No, he had a true connection with the fans. I think you've seen that with Julio too, and I think that could carry you mentally. Ian. 00:57:06 Speaker 2: You were talking about your time at Como and your time that you spent around Junior, which I feel like is a decent transition here as we wanted to ask a little bit about you, especially as two people who were in the early stages of being in sports. Media themselves. How did you decide you wanted to get into it all those years ago? 00:57:23 Speaker 3: Oh? 00:57:23 Speaker 1: Wow? 00:57:24 Speaker 3: All was the podcast. So my dad was a news anchor at Komo TV back in the seventies and the eighties, and so I grew up around broadcast journalism. My mom was a journalist as well print which is a great writer, and so I was around it. I hung out with my dad at the TV station a lot, just as a young kid, just kind of just hungry and thirsty. I just love TV news, and so I started getting you know, when I went to college. After my first year, I got a job at COMO and I was basically I came in. I was what they called a production assistant at the time. Basically you drive, you pull cables. I mean it was the most grunt of grunt work you could ever have, bottom of the floor, bottom of the barrel, stuff that guys these days couldn't even fathom doing, you know, following a cameraman around and picking up cables and rolling cables and coacs and everything else. But I was in, you know, and I did that every summer, at every Christmas break, Thanksgiving break, Easter break, all through college, and you know, there's enough downtime in TV news. I kind of taught myself how to edit, and although I couldn't do it as well these days because the machinery is different. It's all computer, you know, like in the OLDBB eight hundreds, and I was loving it, and so I kind of I thought I was always going to be a news person and majored in polysci of all things, not even journalism because I kind of had the practical experience at Como. But when I drove a live truck for two years out of college and again a lot of downtime, I just started hanging out in the sports office, the sports with the TV Sports office with a legendary sportscaster from Seattle named Bruce King, and he had an opening for a producer at night to produce for Bruce the nightly sportscasts. And I grobbled and begged and pleaded, and you know, had had done enough, and they said we'll give you a shot, and basically just kind of writing scripts. And it evolved from that, and so I did that for a few years and at some point decided I want to get in front of the camera, in front of the mike myself and I started doing volunteering with the Thunderbirds Hockey, doing some stuff with them, studio work, intermission and stuff like that, and that evolved into hockey play by play, and that moved me around to different places and try cities and Salt Lake City and that's Salt Lake City. I got into sports radio as well. That was just kind of an instant infancy. And still dabbled in TV with Fox Sports Rocky Mountain with the play by play, and went from there to Portland and then Portland to Seattle. And when I got back to Seattle, I didn't do any TV in Portland, but I got to Seattle and to do to work at KJR, and then I started working at Fox thirteen because I'd had the experience in TV. And so here we are today. 01:00:01 Speaker 1: How did you decide on like what like which niches of which I would say for them you were going to do? 01:00:09 Speaker 3: They decide for you. When I say they the man, uh you know they decide. I mean I I I was. I grew up in TV, like I really grew up. I grew up in television and I grew up you know, like I said, I I did everything. I've done everything in TV. Man back before we had these things called live views and de gerros and all the equipment we have now for to do you know, TV live shots, which basically looked like a small backpack. Back then, we had these big trucks with microwave dishes, and you know, it was a it was a big deal to go live for the news at night. But I did all that. I was able to, you know, technically my Actually it's funny. The guy who's my sports photographer at Fox thirteen now by the name of Steve Shramik. He was and my wedding one of my best friends. We worked together at Como pulling cables and setting up live shots, and now he's one of the best sports photographs on the West Coast and and I work with him, you know, covering the Seahawks and other sports. So, you know, I love television. I love writing stories. I loved producing TV. I love you know, you know, turning and burning, you know one minute and thirty second, you know, package with four sound bites that you had to figure out, find cut and track and ride around and writing around sound writing around video. I love that. And then I got away from it from a long time because you know, I started doing the hockey play by play, and like I said, that took me elsewhere. And then, you know, sports radio started evolving and becoming a thing where you could make a good living at it and make a career out of it. I kind of evolved into that, but I always still wanted to do TV. So I was lucky when I got back to Seattle there were some opportunities at Fox thirteen about fifteen years ago, and you know, I jumped into that, and I do just enough TV news and TV sports. I do just enough where I can, you know, walk away from it and you know, a couple three times a week more during the football season, and you know, radios full time. So I was talking to somebody about that the other day. I think I'd be I think I'd be bored if I just did one thing, you know, to be honest with you, you know, some people are radio guys or gals and some people are TV people. I like to think of myself as doing both because I enjoy both for different reasons. But yeah, I'm really lucky. I honestly, I think of that all the time. I'm really lucky because I'm one of the few in this market that does do you know, multiple things, and I'm thankful for that. 01:02:26 Speaker 2: How tough to navigate is it doing a show every day on your own? I mean, what I like about TJ and I is we can bounce things off each other, but you do a show on your own every day, which is a totally different thing. 01:02:38 Speaker 3: Yeah, I do, But I have people with me like I've always had. You know, I have a producer, Jessmin McIntyre, who's just incredible and phenomenal producer and all bank stuff off of her. She kind of acts as a sidekick, although she's also our assistant program director. So I'll find my she'll just sit in the studio and she'll be I think she's engaged, and then she's putting out a fire because she's kind of do the management side and h. But then I have another producer named Anders Herst who's just phenomenal too. And so actually, when my favorite show is when the three of us are there and we just you know, we kind of go around the horn like you guys just said. But yeah, there's times when I'm solo for two hours and I've done solo shows for three hours, and you just have to find, you know, content and figure out a way to to make it compelling, you know, mixing a good guest here or there and in a way you go. It just comes with time. It's you know, you guys, I can tell do a great job. I can just tell you know, just by doing this in the last thirty minutes with you guys. You guys, you guys have it. You got the chops to do it. You understand what it is. I I we were in Portland. You'll love this man. One of the cherries we used to do in Portland. They would have people bid on, Hey, you can host an hour of radio on back then we were Tenny the Fan. I guess it was. They're still in the business's still there's still a sports station there, but Tenny the Fan. So you build out. Yeah, you you bid on an hours of doing sports radio, and we always we let them do it. So like I think we had two or three winners a year and you know, one or two guys, two guys that come in and they do we let them do like six to seven, like slow time of the year, like December when you're kind of out of the book and you know, every now and then they say you want to stick around with you nope, nope, guys, while I say no. And it was the best thing ever because you know, our poor producer would have to sit there and with them, and guys would fire off like five minutes of content and look at the clock and they say, do we break now? You got twenty more minutes? Man. Like. It's just because people would script stuff out. You know, it has to be conversational. And that's why podcasts are great because they're conversational. And you know, I think if you can do a podcast, you can probably do radio as well as you know, in terms of the talk format because of the conversation mode. It's just the difference is you got to know how long you can go when you break and all those things. But yeah, it's doing the show by myself. No one really truly does a show by themselves. I mean, Colin Coward likes to think he does. I work with him in Portland, you know, but he has to always have somebody at Joy Taylor for all those years and now he's got his little minion next to him that doesn't know anything. But it's it's they they they uh, you know, that's what you do, Like, you got you always have somebody who can kick something off of because if one person is speaking for for two straight hours, it'll be really hard to listen to, no matter how good compelling they are. 01:05:13 Speaker 1: Here's a fun fact. Allow usually when you're when you are hosting radio, you and you just start talking, it's really hard to stop because you just you just keep going, and it just it seems like the idea is just just don't stop until you look up at the clock and you're like, oops, I'm on the mind. 01:05:28 Speaker 3: If you if you have those, if you have that, that's a good thing to have. I mean, it's it's uh. I mean part of it too, is like my I think one of our interns, I think in Brenda Sprague, I think intern for US for a while and he's hosting down to Portland now. But yeah, like, if you have enough content, I there's guys that do, like I don't want to say script it out, but they have like their show plan to the second and like detailed notes. And I just think if you're prepped and you have a few things you jot down, then you should be able to riff away and just do your thing. You know. It's different that the format sports radio has evolved when I first got into it in Salt Lake back in the ninety nine ninety nine. When I was doing it there, it was like we were call or dependent. Like it was like, boy, if people weren't calling the radio station, we were dead. Everything was like, you know, gives call right now, gives a call, Please give it, Please give us a call. Now. Nobody uses phone calls like it's rare, Like it's very rare to use phone calls. You know, we do things called they call it a voice text or a talkback or you know, using the app where people can leave a message thirty seconds. And that's good because you can kind of filter through because I think part of it is people don't want to listen to, you know, Joe Blow call in. They want to hear what the hosts of the guests have to say, or if they do it, they want it to be really quick feedback. So that part of it's evolved too, because everyone used to be really dependent on phones, and every day you'd wake up and say, what topic do I have? And I know we'll drive a phone call, like what will I you know, what will I do? Can I find a topic that will and it can't be what our competition here does all the time, and what's the mount rushmore sports, even though they do it like once a week. It's no, You've got to actually have a topic that people sink their teeth into. And if you can do that, you know, that was back in the day. Now it's different. You find a good topic and then maybe I'll send text feedbacks and you kind of read in real time and things like that. But so it's really evolved really that the format itself has really evolved quite a bit. 01:07:24 Speaker 1: The way you just described it right there confirms my notion, which it's pretty much confirmed all that way elsewhere, but that my station in our live programming is very very much in the past in terms of what our programming is because the only live show we do operates around around phone calls and stuff. I mean, there are guests, but when there when there aren't phone calls, I mean it is sorry, when there are guests, it's very very phone call dependent. So yeah, I get a little bit of structure to to to sort through. 01:07:55 Speaker 3: I would if you have a text line, that's the best thing to do, because people will text. I mean, you guys, you know, I mean one was the last thing he called somebody. You don't call anybody, you just text them, right and then that's and that's how people will have no problem sending your feedback via text line. That's that happens all the time. So yeah, I think you just got to use that. 01:08:11 Speaker 2: To be honest with you, If I had one last question for you, and we've asked a couple of radio hosts this, but I wanted to pick your brain about it. Is there an interview you've done in your career, and it could be TV or radio, that is your favorite you've ever done. Whether it was on the funny side, whether it was on the in depth side, you can take it however you want. Do you have a favorite interview? 01:08:32 Speaker 1: Wow? 01:08:32 Speaker 3: H I've been asked us a few times, and I I really should do myself and whoever i'm with a favor and actually think about this better and come up with something I can tell you who I like to interview. To be honest with you, when I was you know, when the Seahawks were in their heyday and we were you know, we were their TV partner and we're doing post game every day, I loved interview doing Doug Baldwin. I loved interviewing Michael Bennett, and I loved interviewing kJ Wright and for very for all for different reasons but different nuances. But the main reason was this, Like when I did a postgame interview with those guys, I had to bring my a game. I couldn't just ask them, Hey, big win, how do you feel? Or I couldn't give today's favorite sideline report question Hey talk about because if I did do that with those guys, if I didn't give them something tangible, they'd let me know about it. And like Bennett would just look at me and you know, like you're better than that, Like do better than that? You know, Doug would just shake his head and go no, next, Like they were really challenging guys to talk to. Kj's really thoughtful, but the same thing, he'd be like, man, you know better than that. Like they all would challenge you as a broadcaster, and I love that, to be honest with you, because it brought out the best, or at least should bring out the best and who I was. So those guys were all guys that I I love to interview. So like, you know, one single favorite interview, Yeah, I have to think about that and text you back loud because I can't think of one right now, but like in terms of guys, I like to interview those dudes always, you know, and really any any guests that I have on, I want to have somebody that that makes me think as well that I can't just you know, throw them a softball and let them riff for like twenty five minutes. I want somebody to give me something good. And that's that's on me as doing as the person doing the interview. And part of it is, you know, and as you guys, you know, get deeper into the business and learn this is you know, you'll learn who you can you know, who you have to really kind of bring it with and you know who's going to give you good stuff if you dig into it and you know, be conversational. Don't just you know, ask a question. But you know, and a lot of us do have a poor habit of leaving things that open ended. And there's some guys you can do that with. You know, we've an open end to question, but have it be even if it's open in and make sure there's something there that they can comment on. Doesn't have to be a question, but that they can comment on. And you know, every guy you talk to's different. You guys are doing different radio hosts or journalists and stuff on the podcast. Everybody you guys talk to is different. Every player you talk to when you go to tea mobile is different. You know, you got to learn who and how they are. But I just I like talking to guys that kind of make me think a little bit. 01:11:28 Speaker 2: That's a good answer, Ian, this has been so awesome. We appreciate you taking some time to hang out with us, talk some Mariners with us, let us hear a little bit about your career, and we certainly hope to do it all again soon. 01:11:38 Speaker 3: You know what, I'll do it again, man. I good luck to you guys at the podcast. This is awesome. It sounds like a heck of an undertaking and sounds like you're doing it the right way. Man, So best of luck to you, and yeah, let me know if I can help you out down the road. Man. 01:11:48 Speaker 2: Awesome love that conversation with Ian for Natz was awesome to have them on. We hope you guys enjoyed it. TJ. We have one little note here in our epilogue before we log off. The Mariners are two games back. The first part of this podcast we recorded, we talked about, Oh, the Rangers are probably gonna win tonight, so the race will stay at three games between the Rangers and M's no shout out. Former Mariner could tell Marte the Mariners are two games back of first place in the Al West. And oh, by the way, this is the closest they've been to first place this late in the season since two thousand and seven. 01:12:29 Speaker 1: Now, long, if I flipped this question back on you, how are you supposed to feel when you hear that fact, Well. 01:12:35 Speaker 2: Half of me would say that's incredibly sad and disappointing. The other side of it is, let's not dwell in the past. They're two games out right now. 01:12:43 Speaker 1: Well, I like your optimism because I was more in the one hundred percent. Yeah, that's that's pretty sad. But I gotta say, shout out the diamondback. Shout out to tell Marte that trade continues to reap benefits for the Mariners, even years and years and years later. Ny could have been a better guy that blew the sea either for the Rangers, So shout out to them. 01:13:04 Speaker 2: Never forget folks, not only that that could tell Trade get the Mariners. Mitch Haniger and for the time Jean Sigura turn into JP Crawford too. If you like watching JP Crawford, you can thank you tell Marte because they flip Gen Sigara for him, so shout out you could tell Let's go. I think that just about wraps up this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill. 01:13:24 Speaker 3: If you want to. 01:13:24 Speaker 2: Listen to the full form podcast, you can listen on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon on the audio side. Make sure, guys, if you do that, go follow download and leave that five star review. The downloads on the five star reviews really help us out, so make sure to go and do that. Head over to our video side, watch us on YouTube, like comments, subscribe, turn those notification bells on when you check us out on the video side of this podcast too, and on social media, you guys know too. We are always active on there, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. That's TJ. I'm Lyle as always with thank you guys for tuning in. Talk to you soon.