Episode 54: Evaluating The Mariners' First Base Position 2024 & And Beyond, Where The SP Strikeouts Went, And A Texas-Sized Collapse

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number fifty four of the Marine Layer Podcast. We'll take a look at the Mariners first piece position going forward in who's going to occupy that spot in twenty twenty four. We'll also take a look at the lack of starters strikeouts for the Mariners over the last couple of weeks, picking out a standout minor leaguer, and are on the farm segment taking a look around baseball with our MOLB wrap around. We have another Russell Wilson umpire the week, and we'll close out the show with Speak your Mind. 00:00:26 Speaker 2: Before we start the show, you're a reminder that if you're listening on our audio platforms, we've got a video side to this podcast too. It's on YouTube, so go check us out over there, hit subscribe, like comment, and turn those notification bells on when you do. And if you're watching on YouTube, check us out on the audio side too. We're on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon. Go follow us, download our episodes and leave us a five star review. The reviews and the downloads really help us out big time. And then on social media, we're on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. 00:01:00 Speaker 1: Let's get it rolling, and we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer podcast, recording here on Wednesday, September sixth, part of the Just Baseball podcast network. And I have a question for you, Lyle. Now let me lay this out. What sounds better me or the sound of a Mariner's salvage victory in Cincinnati? 00:01:34 Speaker 2: Go, it's gotta be you, because I want the Mariners out of Cincinnati like great, they salvage the series. I don't want anything to do with the Reds moving forward. But this new mic you got sign me right up? 00:01:48 Speaker 1: Does We're making money moves right here? I'm so happy? I mean, is this what it's like getting old? Instead of getting Legos or getting an Xbox or getting the latest Call of Duty game, which I remember. I'd be over the moon, Aban. I got a new microphone today, and I couldn't tell you how excited I was that it finally arrived. I mean, I was like a kid at Christmas, ripping it out of the box, attempting to set it up and get it ready for us to record tonight. And I'm very pleased. I couldn't be happier, way happier with this than I am with the Mariner's performance in Cincinnati, so cheers. 00:02:22 Speaker 2: I think this is the same mic that Brock uses during Brock and Salt Brock Heward friend of the pod. 00:02:27 Speaker 1: It is a lot of people use it. I think it's like it's a very good, professional quality mic that you can have at home, which I like. Which is the goal, right, we want to sound as professional as possible. And I thought, you know, with the podcast past ten months now, wow, ten months, I think it was time for a bit of a bit of a bump in production and you know, one baby step at a time. 00:02:49 Speaker 2: Well it's a pretty good step. It is crazy that it's been ten months. We'll have to reminisce on Speak your Mind at the one year mark or something like that, or maybe at the end of the year period. But yeah, it's crazy how much time is just kind of gone because it doesn't feel like it's in that long. But oh yeah, were. 00:03:04 Speaker 1: We getting some Royals vibes these weeks? This week? I think we were. I was, I was getting some Royal Royal series vibes a little bit. 00:03:13 Speaker 2: Now, I'll give the Mariners more of a pass against the Reds and the Royals. The Royals, the Royals at one point this past week actually had a worse winning percentage than the Oakland A's. I don't even know how that's possible, but then either that was somehow a real thing this week that the Royals had a worse record than the A's, which makes absolutely no sense, by the way, because despite the Royals having the worst bullpen in baseball, that is a really talented lineup offensively with some young stars, nobody bigger than Bobby Witt. But I will give the Reds credit here. The Reds are a fringe playoff team. They might get into the playoffs, and we'll talk about that an AL wildcard race later, so I will give the Mariners more of a pass against the Reds on the road, on a long road trip with no off days, against the team that is good. They're not great, but they are good, and they are pesky. 00:04:02 Speaker 1: Pesky is right, and the bases were filled with Reds throughout the series. The most frustrating part of the series for the Mariners is they faced a bullpen day for Cincinnati on Monday, they faced Connor Phillips revenge game on Tuesday, and then today, I forget the dude's name, had about A, six ERA and triple A. So like the Reds rolled out probably the worst trio of starters they probably could against the Mariners, and the m still ended up only with getting one of three games in Cincinnati and then again no off day, go to the second best record in the American League and they'll face the Rays tomorrow. 00:04:41 Speaker 2: So it was Lion Richardson that they faced today. 00:04:43 Speaker 1: Who likes notable name, very notable name y. 00:04:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember that well as somebody who was broadcasting games in the Reds organization last year. I feel like I know that entire farm system like the back of my hand at this point, so I feel like I see all these names. We've talked about this on the podcast before. We talked about it with Wagner back on that episode. If you want to check this out, the Reds are my second favorite team. We've talked about that, and just from all the time I've spent around some of those players, and I think they're a fun young team. Now. I wasn't much of a fan of them in this series because it wasn't fun watching them win games against the Mariners. But I do feel like I know a lot of these names and obviously saw a lot of these guys kind of roll through the system. But yeah, that's a pesky team and they needed those wins pretty badly, But then they took two to three credit to them. 00:05:30 Speaker 1: Noelvie Marte first career home run against the against the team that brought him up. 00:05:36 Speaker 2: That'll be a trivia question going forward, not just who did Knowelvi Marte hit it? Hit his first home run against team wise, but which pitcher was it? Do you remember. 00:05:47 Speaker 1: Exactly? Oh? Boy, yeah I should probably know this, shouldn't I? 00:05:53 Speaker 2: Eh, it was dominic Leone. 00:05:56 Speaker 1: No, yeah, your favorite? Yeah, you want him on the roster? 00:05:59 Speaker 2: Still, I wouldn't. I said this to you the other day. Casey Sadler's last few appearances in Tacoma have looked pretty good, and I can tell you Mariners fans would be fired up to see him back in the majors. Now, I'm not saying that's how the front office makes their decisions. They obviously do not do it based off fan vibes. But I do kind of wonder what it is they saw with dominic Leone this year where they said there's something there, because he hasn't shown a lot either with the Mets or with the Angels this year, and he's so far hasn't shown much with the M's. 00:06:34 Speaker 1: His slider numbers are supposed to be pretty good. My biggest question is, if we're just talking about bullpen before we dive into our Mariner's storylines, what was it that was so what turned the Mariners off so much about Perlander Burrow as one appearance in a Mariner uniform that they decided to send him down. And now he's been down in Triple A, in Double A for months now while other guys have gotten opportunities in that bullpen and he's just kind of there. The Travelers aren't having a great season, they're at the bottom of their division in Double A, and you know he's Barrow is kind of just pitching. But the Mariners, as we've seen here down the stretch, could use one more really good bullpen arm, or at least really good stuff wise bullpen arm in that bullpen, and we saw it with Barrow. He does have that stuff if he's throwing strikes, so why not why leone over him? 00:07:26 Speaker 2: The whole thing with barrowa all this time has been he's got to command his pitches. His command numbers have been pretty good. He's not walking a bunch of guys since he got sent back to Double A, especially over his last handful or two of appearances. I don't know. I'm I'm out of ideas on that one. I'm with you. I can't figure out why he's not up. I always assume they're planning with him. Is to the Mariners, he is so valuable as a reliever that by the time they call him up, they do not want to send him back, which is what I figured was happening the first time they called him up. I figured they would call him up, call him up and say, Okay, this is permanent, this is for good, And that was not the case. 00:08:02 Speaker 1: And didn't even give him a chance to work some stuff out. If you remember, the Mariners weren't exactly in contention at that point. That was the that was the five hundred part of the season, so it would have been a perfectly okay time to let him throw some low leverage innings and get his command. But nope, one three walk outing in the big leagues and you're into You're banished back to Arkansas. So I guess I think he would be valuable on this roster. In September I think so. I think that extra dog, as I put it to you, in the bullpen would provide a lot more value, even if he's not your number one guy. He's not. He's probably your fifth or sixth guy in the bullpen. But if your fifth and sixth guy has that kind of stuff, I think it provides some value. And I think it would help out a depleted Mariner's bullpen, as they just went through an entire turn through the rotation and not a single starter got through the sixth inning. 00:08:54 Speaker 2: I would love to see Barow up here, and if it's not going to be Barrow up again, i'd love to see Casey Sadler get his chance. But I guess time will tell. I am just happy again the Mariners are done playing the Reds for the season, because that was enough. 00:09:09 Speaker 1: If you listen to our episode on Wednesday. By the way, go listen to our Wednesday episode. Typete was on Mariner's first round pick in the twenty twenty three draft. Awesome conversation. If you somehow have not listened to that yet, go listen to it before you finish this episode. Go listen to that episode. Okay, go listen to Tye Pete he was fantastic, But a couple things we addressed early in that episode that we'd like to reiterate here. Today. We're doing a giveaway, a charity raffle with Chasing Aces Golf. We're giving away three Mariners tickets to the September sixteenth Mariners Dodgers game that's Saturday night. It's section one, seventeen row forty twenty dollars to enter the raffle. It's a really good deal. All the proceeds of the charity raffle go to pause dot org helps unsheltered animals find homes throughout America. It's a great cause. So go donate some money, win some great Mariners tickets, and go have a blast watching two of the best teams in baseball on Saturday. It's totally worth it. We really recommend you go do it. We've already raised a few hundred dollars with it, and we look to raise some more. It will close a week from Thursday, so it'll have been a week from yesterday when this releases, So go get onto it. Chasing Ace's Golf on Instagram has the link. Go click on the link in their bio. You can go find it it's fantastic. Go donate, Go donate to a good cause and potentially you'll be rewarded with some great Mariners tickets. 00:10:33 Speaker 2: And again, if you're a podcast listener that enters the raffle and wins, or if you just follow us on social media, tell us tell us you're going to be there, and like we said, we'd love to meet up with you before the game, so just let us know. Selfishly, I'm kind of hoping it's the podcast listener that wins this thing. Now, all the money goes to a good cause, which is the most important thing. But if somebody's at the game this week or sorry not this week but next weekend, definitely tell us. I'm not gonna go through this whole speech again. Just like TJ said, you can go back to Wednesday's episode, which is I really feel like a must listen. Like you said, TYPEE was awesome. Could not have been a better interview. But I also gave a speech on why Mariners fans need to get out to the ballpark during Angels week this week and chant your tails off for show Hao Tani to come to Seattle. And I'll say it again for making those index cards that the draft is made. We just have to physically go print them out now and have them all set and ready. So we're ninety percent of the way there with the index cards. We're gonna have them, we're gonna be at the games. We're gonna be walking around the stadium giving them out. So seriously, get out to those games if you even remotely slightly want show Hayo Toni in Seattle, pay fifteen bucks go to the games this week and let him hear it. So this is your reminder again, by the way, if you're gonna go to those games and you're listening to this podcast hearing us talk about this, tell us on Twitter too. You can dm us, you can send us a message on Twitter, on Instagram, you can add us on Twitter. We'll reply to you. Tell us you're going to the game and be like, hey, I can't wait for this, and we will reply and hopefully we'll get a chance to meet up during those games too, because again, the more people that get into this thing, the better. 00:12:19 Speaker 1: And we're crossing our fingers and everyone listening to this podcast cross your fingers that he plays. He's day to day right now. 00:12:27 Speaker 2: He was back in the lineup today being Wednesday. 00:12:29 Speaker 1: Okay, good, He does have a few days to go to get there and stay healthy and feel good. So let's cross our fingers to knock on what that happens. Feels good this week and he's rearing to go for his favorite place in America. 00:12:46 Speaker 2: Soon to be his future home. Well, I can't say that yet definitively, but if you fans get out there and let him hear it, chances only go up. So get to the ballpark. I don't know what you're doing. I don't know what's on your schedule this week, Mariners fans, but clear it and go to the games. 00:13:02 Speaker 1: Hey, six forty, first pitch, even if you have school the next day. The game's over at nine, nine o'clock, sometimes before that. You live in the Seattle area, your home before nine to forty five in bed, boom, perfect, in bed before ten thirty. Isn't that the goal? I think that's the goal. 00:13:20 Speaker 2: I'm going to quote a good friend of ours who he's not a Marinus fan, but he is in our ASU friend group. Let me say this to all the fans out there who might be saying, eh, it's a weak night, or I don't know if I'm gonna have time. What are you gonna remember in ten years? Are you gonna remember the homework that you tried to stay up to do during the first week of school in September of twenty twenty three, or are you gonna remember that you helped the cause to get Shoho Tani to Seattle and brought multiple world series titles to the Pacific Northwest. I would think it's the latter. 00:13:53 Speaker 1: Oh boy, I am fired up? Now, yeah, I'm fired up. 00:13:59 Speaker 2: Get to the ball park, people. 00:14:01 Speaker 1: That is one of the few quotes that in our friend group is going to get hung on the wall and remembered forever. And it is timeless. It is timeless. So listen to Lyle. Think of what you're actually gonna remember and tell your grandkids in fifty years did you see show Hey o Tani? Or did you finish your math homework? I'll leave the rest to that. Let's get to our maritors storylines. 00:14:26 Speaker 3: This fall. Stream your favorites and discover more with Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus together watch the highly anticipated new season of Loki and see the ghost materialize in Haunted Mansion. On Disney Plus. 00:14:40 Speaker 1: Catch more frights with. 00:14:41 Speaker 3: The Boogeyman, an American horror story delegate on Hulu and on ESPN Plus. Get into the action with college football and NFL. All of these and more streaming now get the Disney Bundle with plans starting at nine to ninety nine a month plans with ESPN Plus starting at fourteen ninety nine. Terms apply. See Disney Bundle dot com for details. 00:15:07 Speaker 1: Up first, we have this conversation about the Mariner's first base position going forward here in twenty twenty three and what it will look like in twenty twenty four. There's currently some options, Lyle, So right now, how do you look at this Mariner's first base position in a twenty twenty four season. 00:15:28 Speaker 2: There's three options, so let's lay him out. You can either stick with ty France for the long term. He has two more years of club control before he hits free agency, so he'll be a free agent after the twenty twenty five season. You could go out and acquire somebody from outside the organization, whether that be a free agent or a trade, and you could potentially move on from ty France. Or you can put your belief in Tyler Locklear, which a lot of people have wait for him to be big League ready, get up to the show and a set. Actually have France just be the bridge guy until Locklear gets here. Those are the three options we're looking at, And where do I think they're leaning. Well, they could go either three ways. I feel like they're leaning closer to option three if I had to pick any of them. 00:16:18 Speaker 1: Really like you're you think the team is leaning that way. 00:16:24 Speaker 2: I think so because I just I think they have a lot of loyalty toward ty France. And I know there was trade rumors this year about what they ship them away, but something just tells me they they might want to stick with them, and they're not immediately itching to go get somebody else. And I think it more than anything, might speak volumes to what they think about Tyler Locklear. And I think a lot of people genuinely believe that guy is the first basement of the future and has tools to be a very productive major league first basement between his bat to ball skills, his big time power, and his ability to potentially hit in the middle of the lineup one day. So I think that might be the direction they're leaning, along with the fact that there's not a whole lot out there in terms of the market. 00:17:11 Speaker 1: So here's what I think if I'm thinking of what the team thinks for twenty twenty four. Right now, I think the team thinks Ty France is their twenty twenty four first baseman. I could be wrong, and they could go swing a trade for Pete Alonzo in the offseason and blow all that out of the water. But as of right now, it seems their confidence looks like it's in ty France. When I look at ty France, the season he's having right now is replaceable. It's absolutely replaceable. If you look at it across the board. He's got a one oh five WRC plus, which is seventeenth among first basemen. He is twentieth among first basemen in f war. The only real outlier stat, or not even outlier, I would say, good stat he's had in this season is he's got thirty one doubles this season. That's one off his career high that he's set in twenty twenty one. He's also been hit by thirty pitches, which is Mariners club record. So those are the only real notables of ty France's offensive season in twenty twenty three. He's not really He's getting on base a little bit more than he did last year, even though overall he was a better hitter last year, but his slugging numbers are so far down ten home runs for a first baseman who's only hitting two fifty. Yes, I just used average, but his ops is also very low, and as WRC plus is near average, so I think that it checks out that his average is also near league average as well. So when you combine all those together together, along with what Fangrafts grades as a subpar defender at first base, he's made some nice plays. I've seen people call for gold gloves for ty France. At first, I think he's fine over there, but Fangrafts rates him the outs above average in arm arm strength. As a net negative defender, that's replaceable. So what do I think they sho if so, if the Mariners go into next season and saying we're going all out to win a championship next year, like all out, full send, and they don't don't get show heo Tani in the off season, I think the option is acquiring a first baseman on the trade market, and I think that's bet Alonzo. I think that's it. I think that's a logical thing. Hey, we don't have all the seven hundred six hundred million dollars committed to show Heyo Tani in the off season, he decided to go to the LA Dodgers. Let's trade for first baseman who does something that the ty France doesn't do, and it's for a shit ton of power. He's got one year left and we can extend him for You could probably get Pete Alonzo to sign a five year extension. I assume that sounds about right, and then then you have your first base of the future doing what typical first baseman do for the next handful of seasons while your young core around him stays intact. 00:20:01 Speaker 2: I just don't know if the Mariners are willing to fork up the package for Pete Alonzo. I think the Mets are going to ask for a lot. We've seen what they got back for Verlander. We've seen what they gotten back for Max Scherzer. Those guys are way older than Alonzo. I think they're going to ask for a lot if they even move on from that guy. And I don't know if the Mariners would be willing to do that, truthfully, if they were to go acquire Pete Alonzo. Part of that package would probably be Tyler Locklear and I don't know if the Mariners would be willing to ship them away or not with the idea that you might only keep Alonzo for one year because he might just walk in free agency. Now, if you feel like you can lock him up to an extension, great, and that's a different story. They didn't do it with tey Oscar Hernandez this year with a year leapt I don't know if there's any guarantee you could do it with Alonzo that's fair. 00:20:44 Speaker 1: I don't You're right. I don't think the Mariners are trade for Pete if he wasn't going to sign an extension, because I don't know if they would give up that kind of capital. But if Pete Alonzo was here willing to sign an extension, I wouldn't have any problem giving away Tyler Locklear and probably one of your Blue Chippers, potentially your first round picks from this year. You have three of them, You're not all of them are going to make the big league roster with the Mariners that we know, So if you're trying to go win a championship, I'd say Pee Alonzo's a pretty good guy to do that. I mean, overall, this dude just mashes. He does everything you want at first base slugs five twenty nine. This year he has forty two home runs, seventh among first basemen WRC plus at one thirty one, and seventh in F four as well. He would make them better. He would absolutely make them better. If you worry about park factors two, the Mets are a bottom five park factor team for hitters. The Mariners are last. So I mean, there's not really too much difference there. And Pete continues to slug anyways, as. 00:21:41 Speaker 2: Long as they're not trading Typete, I'm good. 00:21:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. They can trade someone else, yeah, type pizza guy. He's got to stay. He's under contract with the Marine layer podcast to not leave the Mariners organization. 00:21:52 Speaker 2: Correct, Like we're we're indebted to him now, so yeah, you can't trade him away. No, you can't trade him. 00:21:57 Speaker 1: Nope. 00:21:58 Speaker 2: Now let's put Pete alons a side here for a second, because if that is not your solution, here's what's on the market next year in terms of free agents. Reese Hoskins, who, in case you need a reminder, has missed all of twenty twenty three with an injury, so he's probably signing a one year proved deal and trying to get himself back on track to then go sign a bigger contract after twenty twenty four. Maybe that's an option if you bought into Reese Hoskins being healthy enough to bounce back. The other options are Josh Bell has an opt out. I don't know if he takes it or not. That was essentially the second best option. The free agent market at first base is thin, and then outside of Alonso for the Mets, I don't know how many teams are interested in dealing off of first basement, which is why I kind of signed to this idea of if it's not going to be Pete, the free agent market is not intriguing, and they're really in love with Tyler Locklear. There's no saying by the All Star break of twenty twenty four that Locklear couldn't be ready to go and take on more playing time, especially since I'll start next year in Double A and if you bridge France till then and then he becomes a bench bat, I think that's possible. 00:23:07 Speaker 1: Who's a better hitter next year in the big leagues, ty France or Tyler Locklear. 00:23:13 Speaker 2: That's so tough because obviously some rookies are gonna take some time to its Obviously my guest here would be France because that would put a lot on Locklear. And that's where I'm That's what I'm getting at. 00:23:24 Speaker 1: Here are the Mariners trying to win a championship next year? 00:23:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, of course they are. 00:23:30 Speaker 1: It's but so but I I feel like we just answered the question right there. 00:23:37 Speaker 2: But it's ty Francer championship first basement. 00:23:39 Speaker 1: Do you believe that, well, Tyler Locklear? If that they answer to that question is correct, Tyler Locklear is not not next year. He could be in the future, but not next year because we're this segment I think is talking about next year. 00:23:53 Speaker 2: Let's he just totally lights the world on fire, which isn't impossible, but it's not likely. 00:23:58 Speaker 1: Right, Like it is possible. There's lots of things possible. I don't I don't mind the idea of Rehees Hoskins at his peak, he's what eighty percent of pee Alonzo's power output, potentially walks a decent amount. He's not going to hit for high average, but like he would give you, he would be a productive first baseman. That's for sure, and there's always the option that ty France could bounce back. I mean he's still creeping. How old's ty France exactly? 00:24:23 Speaker 2: Twenty eight, yeah, twenty eight, twenty nine. 00:24:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, So he's still like in his quote unquote peak years. He could always turn it around. There's just a few tweaks here and there that ty France could do, and he could end up going back to having a one twenty to one thirty WRC plus last year. I don't think that hitter's gone. He's just had some frustrating tendencies this year. If you look at it, his quality of contact this year is a little bit better than it was last year, and his average launch angle is higher on his average batted ball launch angles a little bit higher, his his eggs and veloscity is a little bit higher than it was last Year's expected slugging's a little bit higher than it was last year. Meanwhile, last year we said this is an acceptable ty France offensive season, and this year is unacceptable. But some of his expected numbers are better than they were last year that he's having this year, he's just so happens to a ground into a frustrating amount of double plays and be not have the power output that's expected to him by the expected stats. 00:25:26 Speaker 2: So tis twenty nine. He turned twenty nine about two months ago, so he's newly twenty nine years old. He's got the two years of club control after this year, and you just outlined it. Twenty twenty he was really good. Twenty twenty one, he was really good. Both those years he sat right around a one twenty five to one thirty WRC plus. He was the perfect number two hitter. And then in twenty twenty two for that injury in Oakland, he's lighting the world on fire. Who was top ten in the league in WRC plus. But if you want to look at twenty twenty one Ty France, because I feel like if Ty France puts up that type of year every year, but he's happy when he did. That year he was the perfect number two hitter where he hit a lot of doubles, made a ton of batball contact, hit seventeen to twenty homers a year, and played solid enough defense at first base. It's a really good number two hitter. But since that injury he's been pretty league average. So it's just about do the Mariners believe he can get back to what he once was or is this trend going to continue? 00:26:27 Speaker 1: And I love the new stats they have on baseball savant of they have banning run value, base running run value, and fielding run value value. He provides average banning run value, average fielding run value, and bad base running run value, which is not surprising if you ever watched Ty France run. He's not exactly a burner, which is I think one of the main reasons people want have gone, honestly, is they hate watching him ground into double plays. But the thing is, when you compare that twenty one season to this version of Ty Frans, the on base percentage is a little bit of a gap there, but doubles wise, he's in the same ballpark. Home run wise, he's a few homers off, which leads to the difference in slugging percentage. I mean, that's kind of it right there. Not less over the wallpower and a slightly less on base percentage, but you know, overall, it's not a huge, massive gap of difference. 00:27:24 Speaker 2: Can we talk about that one four six put out against the Reds. I know Ellie da la Cruz has the best arm maybe on planet Earth, but how does a ball ricochet off multiple players and he still get the thrown out. 00:27:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I know you've asked question, You've asked questions on the on the field interviews with the guys. Who's the fastest guy on the team. Well, I think we know what the next question is. Do you have the stones to ask that question? 00:27:59 Speaker 2: Okay, So when I asked Logan Gilbert, if you could take a teammate's trend or a trade of a teammate and steal it for your own game, who would it be. Logan said, I'm taking Julio's speed because he'd want to be fast, And I said, what are you gonna pinch run? At some point He's like, well, they said for something like that, I was basically dead last on the list. So what Logan's saying is he is actually slower than ty France. 00:28:23 Speaker 1: The problem the thing Logan is going for him though he's got long strides, he's got that reach. Tid doesn't have long strides. 00:28:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, not exactly. I've got an idea here for if the Mariners are going to stick with ty Frans both next year and moving forward, can they send him to drive line this winter like they did with JP. 00:28:45 Speaker 1: I'm down that sounds good. I think they should send the entire team to drive Line. 00:28:51 Speaker 2: Sure, but I'm talking but if you're just gonna pinpoint one player tie specifically, I think could seriously benefit from it. I think it's fair to say right that when they're both that their best. Ty France is a better pure hitter than JP Crawford, Right, JP's having the better year. TI is a better pure hitter. Yes, So if you just send JP to drive Line all winner and he just made these massive steps forward at the plate where he's having a phenomenal season by the way, here we are in September sixth, then his OPS is sitting right around eight thirty. I don't think anybody had that on their Bengo cards. So all credit in the world to JP. If JP can fix some things, I don't see why Ty Franz can't fix some things. 00:29:30 Speaker 1: And if we're thinking about it, they're struggling kind of with the same thing and not hitting the ball hard enough and not hitting for enough power. Really, like that was JP's main thing. You needed to hit the ball harder, and you need to hit it more consistently to really compliment his good eye at the plate. Well, it's worked out pretty well. So ty France, a guy who's in the bottom what twenty percent of the league in terms of hard hit rate, That sounds good to me. Elevate and celebrate, baby, That's that's how we win. 00:30:00 Speaker 2: That's what we stand for on this podcast. Always not Julio dropping down bunts. 00:30:06 Speaker 1: Nope. So yeah, don't do that anymore, Julio. 00:30:10 Speaker 2: Before we get to our second storyline, here quick word from our friends over at Pagatcha's Pub eighty five. That's Pigotcha's Pub eighty five in Kirkland. It is on eighty fifth Street in rose Hill in Kirkland. And by the way, guys, it's got really good parking. It's east of I four oh five, and it's got some of the best pizza in town. I mean, they just went through this whole renovation where they're making some changes to it, all in a positive way. It's still gonna be your local neighborhood watering hole, but it's now Pigotcha's Pub eighty five and it's got good quality food. They like to say, it's not trendy, it's not fancy, it's just good. Along with the fact that they've got all the beers and hard liquor you could possibly ask for. They've got twenty two TVs in there, so if you want to go watch sports, whether it's the Mariners, whether it's football season coming out of college, NFL, they'll have it all on and it's a really fun place to hang out. I can tell you that I've been there more than a handful of times. I really like going there. I think when TJ comes back, we're gonna head over there. We want you guys to head over there too, because they're really really good place to go. Check out. So that's Pub eighty five, Pagatcha's Pub eighty five in Kirkland. Go check it out. You won't regret it. Okay, second storyline here, Why is nobody recording strikeouts in the Mariners rotation all of a sudden? 00:31:29 Speaker 1: That's the million dollar question. It's I think there's a couple of things. I think it's partially matchup. I think it is partially fatigue from your two youngest arms. And I think it is partially pitching style for certain pictures, as we've highlighted. So what's the like Let's look at the easiest one to look at of why there's not many strikeouts. Brian Wu, come on down, your contestant, number one. Brian Wu crosses last six starts has had two separate outings where he's not struck out a single batter. About a month ago, he faced the Arizona Diamondbacks had no strikeouts, and his latest start against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, no strikeouts across five innings. He had in between those starts, he had five strikeouts versus the Oakland A's, three versus the Chicago White Sox, and six versus the Angels. Brian Who's not like, he's not Spencer Strider. Let's just get that out. He's not going to strike out two hundred and forty five batters and Strider's what one hundred and forty innings he's got this year. That's not going to be the case. But if you take a look at Brian Wu's velocity chart, if you take a look at some of his command models, if you look at just anything that looks at consistency, you'll see that Brian Wu's got a downtrend go in this direction. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it. If you're listening, I would go check us out on YouTube. And see me pointing down. He's getting a little tired, and I think that comes with the territory. The matchups again don't help him all that much because some of those teams are pretty good contact teams as well. But it's also a deterioration of stuff a little bit as well. It's getting late in the season. These guys are getting a little tired. 00:33:19 Speaker 2: So if you stretch out the four starts that Luis, Kirby, Wu and Miller made in both the Mets Series and the Red Series combined, in those four games, they struck out seven hitters. Like four separate starters combined to strike out seven hitters. That's not good. That's not enough strikeouts. And I can already hear some of the baseball boomers out there kind of shaking their fists and say, well, what's wrong with some ground balls? What's wrong with letting the guys put the ball in play and relying on your defense. I'm also thinking of that Kevin Costner quote, the Crash Davis quote from Bull Durham, where what does he say? He says, get some ground balls. It's more democratic. Have you seen Bolderham, by. 00:34:01 Speaker 1: The way I have, It's been forever. 00:34:04 Speaker 2: Okay, great baseball movie. There is a reason that teams value strikeouts so highly these days. It is and it's not because they look cool and here fancy. No, it's because they are much more self dependent than relying on anybody else and having bad luck factors play into things. Strikeouts are the most efficient way to get guys out and you don't have to worry about anything else. It is all on you. And when you have guys that can strike batters out, it kind of keep I mean, when you have guys that can strike batters out, it is much easier for the flow of the game to swing in your direction for the most part. 00:34:40 Speaker 1: Here, let me let me help you win this argument. In one stat oka, if you look at the top ten teams in strikeout percentage of nine of the top ten or in playoff position. There you go. That's it, It's all you need. You're welcome. 00:34:53 Speaker 2: Like strikeouts correlate to success. You want to be mad about that, go ask the baseball gods. If you're a baseball boom, well, what's wrong with putting the ball in play? No strikeouts translate to success. And there is a reason that over these four games that were started by Luis and Kirby and Queens, and then Wu and Miller in Cincinnati. The team did not farewell and they weren't striking guys out. When these guys are striking out hitters, things usually go a lot differently. 00:35:22 Speaker 1: Now, if I think for a guy like Kirby, the best attribute about him is that he can go distance right, and he's as we've noted, he's not the biggest strikeout guy in the world. He is a guy that if he's not striking guys out, he's for the most part doing okay. Sometimes that's not always the case, but a lot of the times, you know, he only strikes out seven Orioles, but he goes nine shutout and is that's probably the most dominant outing we've seen all season by a Mariners starter. Again, while only striking out seven batters, you can absolutely function without strikeouts. You watch those four games, lyles, were the Mariners pitchers functioning in those four starts, last two against them, first two against the Reds? No, not really. 00:36:04 Speaker 2: I mean they were functioning. It's not like they got injured. They were out there pitching, but it wasn't translating to much success. I'll tell you their win percentage was not going up in those games. 00:36:13 Speaker 1: No, if we look at Bryce Miller on Tuesday versus the Reds, you'd say, oh, wow, he went five and one. Who cares if he only struck out two, It's like, okay, did you watch did you watch any of that? Like, he probably should have given up more than one run, that's for sure. Oh. 00:36:31 Speaker 2: I think Bryce Miller's expected batting average at the end of those five innings was close to four hundred. 00:36:36 Speaker 1: I think it was over four hundred. 00:36:39 Speaker 2: Oh so it was over Yeah, look, you'll take five and one, but that was one of the most stressful five inning, one run starts I feel like I've watched in some time. 00:36:48 Speaker 1: I think it's most concerning out of any of the pitchers that it is for Bryce because the way he pitches more contact is not a good thing. So, like, he's a guy who throws high in the strike zone, he throws hard, he throws a high spin fastball, and he's gunning for swings and misses, especially with this fastball, which is his put away pitch. But when that pitch doesn't you don't swing a miss at it. It gets hit pretty hard, it comes in hard. It's you know it's a rising fastball, but it gets hit hard. It's not a ground ball pitch, so it gets hit in the air, and hard hits in the air, for the most part, will do damage. Right, Like, that's how baseball is played. Hit the ball in the air, hit it hard, and you're most likely going to do damage. And that's why Bryce Miller's tried introducing a sinker. It's had a varying level of success. Helps him balance out when he doesn't get a bunch of punch outs. But Bryce Miller like overall, like so not only is his contact profile and that not situated to not strike guys out, but he's also just not striking guys out. It has been over a month since he's struck out more than seven guys in a start. 00:37:56 Speaker 2: He really needs a third pitch and that's going to have to happen this winner, where he'll have more time to work on it. But is very evident he could benefit from another pitch in that arsenal. We've talked about the idea of him adding a splitter before. I think this offseason he's got to commit to it. 00:38:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, and if we think about the rest of the starters, I mean guys like Luis, guys like George Kirby, they have sinkers that they use a lot. And that's not a strikeout pitch. That's a that's a get contact pitch. That's a that's a like trying to be more efficient with your pitch account, which, to be honest, over the last five turns in the rotation of five starts in the rotation, we've been begging for some more efficiency, but we haven't really gotten it. So it is a balance. Right when you pitch the contact, sometimes you also just get unlucky. So that's that's kind of what's happened. Uh. But I am slightly concerned with the with the lack of strikeouts because that is a signal for guys who are very much capable of getting strikeouts that the stuff is deteriorating down a little bit, which is not a good thing as you're in a division race. 00:38:57 Speaker 2: Brian wuz Vilo has been trended down for a while now, which is not unexpected considering he is way past the inning total that we all thought he would throw this year. But if they're really going to rely on him and Bryce Miller down the stretch, they have got to find a way to catch a second win here, and if you're the Mariners, you basically have to look at their starts. Is as we need to split the Bryce Wu, Brian Bryce Wu, Brian Wu, Bryce Miller starts going forward because you have to find you cannot just drop two in a row every fourth and fifth day out moving forward when you're independent race and when you're in a division race, and when you're trying to get into the playoffs, Brian Wu and Bryce Miller need to find a way to catch a little bit of a win again and get their swagger back. And the team is gonna have to find a way to squeak out wins when those guys are on the mount. 00:39:44 Speaker 1: How are they going to break those up? Like they got to move one of them away from the other one in the rotation like it has to happen. 00:39:52 Speaker 2: Are they gonna do that this late in the season? 00:39:55 Speaker 1: Well, would you want them starting back to back games? So they're gonna have to start back to back games in this race series against a very good offense. 00:40:06 Speaker 2: You don't have that many more off days to jumble your rotation around, is the only thing. Now, Maybe they use that Thursday off day before the Dodger Series as a chance to reset a little bit. Maybe that's a way they can get Wu a few extra days rest and then you do break those guys up. But times running out, and if you decide to roll with the rotation that you have right now in the order that it's in, you're gonna have to find a way to at least go one and one every fourth and fifth day, because you can't keep dropping two in a row if you want to get into the playoffs. 00:40:35 Speaker 1: I know I'm thinking about in a bullpen sense too, with the lack of off days, having those two back to back where you don't know if you're even getting four plus, right, I think that's where our confidence level is at, Like four plus with those guys on each of their starts. That's a lot to ask back to back days. 00:40:54 Speaker 2: And let's clarify, long term, we think both Bryce Miller and Bryan Wu are gonna be vital pieces of this rotation. We just outlined on one of our previous shows how good Brian Wu could be going forward and how just ridiculous this stuff is and how he's the perfect profile for the modern pitcher. This is not about their career trajectories. This is just about these guys have both exceeded what their innings totals were supposed to be in twenty twenty three, or at least what we thought it was gonna be. Maybe Bryce had a longer lease than Wu because he was more built up. But this is the most they've ever thrown. They are starting to wear down a little bit, and this team has to win games to get into the playoffs. So it's just for this season alone. Yeah, it just gets a little bit nerve wracking. This is not an indictment in any way on what they could be going forward. 00:41:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, the Mariners need to win games right now, and tired rookie starting pitchers are unfortunately not a help to that. So we're gonna see how they manage it there. I think they're gonna do something. I don't know what that's something is there are still guys they can call up to pitch if they absolutely need to. There still are So we'll we'll see what cut what they'll dip into. 00:42:06 Speaker 2: Who would that even be. I guess it would be like Tommy Malone or somebody at this point, but. 00:42:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, Stephen Kohlik maybe, yeah, potent someone in Tacoma it's too bad. 00:42:20 Speaker 2: They had that six man rotation idea just a few weeks ago, and now injuries have started to kind of build up a little bit. But you're right, we'll see where it goes. And hopefully the perfect solution would be Woo and Miller just find some life and then you don't have to worry about this. But it'll be something to watch. You're going forward. Before we get to the rest of our show, wanted to talk to you about another sponsor of ours, Columbia Athletic Clubs. The Columbia Athletic Club in Juanita Bay in Kirkland is a full service, family owned athletic club that's been inspiring healthier lives since nineteen eighty one. Amenities include all new strength and cardio equipment, free weights, basketball and squash courts, saltwater pools and hot tubs, along with so much more. Included with your membership our group exercise classes with the likes of yoga, zoomba, bar, group power and cycling. The best promotions of the year start now through the fall season. Get started with a free five day trial today at Columbiaathletic dot com. That's Columbiaathletic dot Com. 00:43:18 Speaker 1: Let's go down on the farm, KAYLAO, who do you have. 00:43:26 Speaker 2: A little bit of a unique one this week? Because it is not a minor leaguer, but it is somebody who is currently playing in the minor leagues. We haven't talked about it a whole time. I figured now would be a pretty good time to kind of look in on Jared Kelmick's rehab assignment. And it's looked pretty good so far. You know, if I get a chance to talk about Jared Keellnick, I'm gonna take it. So in Tacoma, he is currently nine for twenty one. He's hitting four to twenty nine, he's got three doubles, a home run, his ops is twelve thirty four, and he's also got a stolen base. I think that's pretty good. 00:44:02 Speaker 1: I think you miss him. 00:44:04 Speaker 2: I think I do miss him very much. I can't wait for him to be back. You know. 00:44:09 Speaker 1: That's my guy, I know, and I'm looking forward to having him back. If we're gonna put on our ten foil hats and predict by the time we sit down and record our next episode of this podcast, episode number fifty five, he's gonna be back. That's what I'm guessing, so they're in Salt Lake right now. Mariners would be home on Monday against the Angels. I would imagine he's going to be in that Monday lineup. 00:44:31 Speaker 2: I guess there's a chance that could send him to Tampa beforehand, but I'm with you, if I had to guess, you will see him reactivated on Monday and be in the lineup against the Angels. Now, there's only so much preparation you can do to get ready for big league pitching, because the only way you can truly get ready for big league pitching is to see big league pitching. But if you watches at bats in Tacoma, he looks comfortable. He seems like he has his timing back, and for what they've asked him to do on this rehab assignment, he's done it. So there's not much more you could ask of what Jared doing in Tacoma right now. I think he's just about all but ready. 00:45:06 Speaker 1: I know you felt bad in this segment for not picking a true minor leaguer. Well, to make up for that, I'm essentially going to pick three quarters of the Mariners farm system to highlight today. In on the farm, how about some of these results team wise in the Mariners farm system. First of all, the Modestos. Whats the Modesto Nuts today won their fifteenth game in a row. Fifteen games in a row. Just a reminder. In the minor leagues they play six game series, so they play from usually Tuesday through Sunday. They have Monday off to travel or just chill at home, so they've essentially gone three entire weeks without losing. That's kind of impressive. But not just the Nuts. The evert Aqua Sox clinch just spot in the Northwest League playoffs earlier this week. Congrats to them. Also Tacoma, the Rainiers are only a game at a first place in the PCL. Win loss wise, it's been a pretty good season for the Mariners minor league. The only team that's been scuffling is Arkansas. They are fourth in their division right now, So hats off to the system for winning games. 00:46:26 Speaker 2: The Mariners minor leaguers in terms of just success in the win loss column, the last few years have been really good, and you figured, oh, once this core gets up to the big leagues. The Julios, the Kelnicks, the Kirby's, the Gilbert's, the raleighs et cetera. Maybe they'd start to take a dip. That has not happened. Look at the system this year. They've been really good. It's filled with talent. They're winning games fifteen in a row for the Nuts. That's two and a half series. That's two and a half whole series where they haven't lost. That's crazy. 00:46:58 Speaker 1: Would the roster primarily filled of twenty two to eighteen year olds. It's pretty good. 00:47:05 Speaker 2: It's really good. I know we're talking about teams as a whole. I guess this always could be somebody we highlight down the road too. But while we're talking about Everett and how they clinched their spot in the playoffs, Sam Carlson last few months out of the bullpen, he's been awesome, Like he's been genuinely good. 00:47:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, he has been really good. Yeah, And that's just so happy to see because some of you might forget Sam Carlson was a first round pick, supposed to be a starter in two thousand and seventeen. 00:47:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, second rounder, but closing out. 00:47:36 Speaker 1: Or second rounder. I think he was projected as a first rounder, but he was okay. Regardless, he got paid quite a lot of money by the Mariners to be a starter and missed four years. 00:47:52 Speaker 2: Most of twenty seventeen. Yeah, twenty eight I mean he was drafted in twenty seventeen, so there wasn't gonna be that much time. But yeah, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. Obviously COVID didn't give minor leaguers any chance to play any games in twenty twenty. This's a lot of time. 00:48:06 Speaker 1: And now finally he's back out on the field and he's found his niche in the organization, and hopefully as a reliever he can accelerate quickly. 00:48:15 Speaker 2: That'd be great. And I think it's pretty easy to see that a lot of people root for Zam because not only is he I mean obviously he's popular on social media, which is great, but genuinely he's like a great dude. He takes pictures with all these fans and talks to people after the games. You see it all the time. So I think he's got a lot of people in his corner, us certainly being two of them. 00:48:35 Speaker 1: Absolutely. Let's get to our MLB wrap around. Okay, Well, first, kind of a shaky situation in LA. All of a sudden, the second best team in the National League is and a bit of a flux. 00:48:56 Speaker 2: They have lost a lot in their rotation this year. So Julio Urius is not going to be pitching again this season. He may not pitch in professional baseball ever. Again, we will leave it at that, obviously. If you want more details, you can go look up why that is obviously social media, Google, you can do whatever you want. But Julio Urias is not going to be pitching again. So here's what the Dodgers have lost in their rotation this year. They have now lost Julio Urius, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Michael Grove, Clayton Kershaw's healthy now, but he was on the il for a significant amount of time this year. And oh, by the way, they have not had Walker Bueler all season. He's still recovering from Tommy John. He's getting close to returning. That's a lot to lose in a rotation, and it's getting harder and harder for these guys to find pitchers to throw out their every fifth day. 00:49:52 Speaker 1: And Walker just had his first rehab outing where he threw two innings. Excuse me, earlier, I think earlier this week he threw two and he's supposed to pitch again here soon. But that's it, and I was looking at this Lyle. So the Dodgers played the Braves this last weekend. The Braves took three of four in that series and looked like the better team for the most part, even though those two teams have the best record, the two best records in the National League. So here are the Dodgers starting four in that series, Bobby Miller, Emmett, Shean, she Han, she Hannah. However, you say that, uh, Julio Urias and Lance Lynn set a playoff four. By the way, only three of those guys now are currently probably gonna pitch the Dodgers again this season. Is that a trio you're thrown out there to trust in a playoff series? 00:50:43 Speaker 2: Now, I was gonna say right now, after Kershaw and Bobby Miller, for the time being, it's lance Lynn, It's them, It Chan what they do with that fitth spot, we'll see it could be somebody like Ryan Peppio. But options are getting more and more limited now now you look at what they might do in October barring injury, and if these guys stay healthy, you will have Kershaw and Bobby Miller essentially slotted into your playoff rotation for sure. Bobby Miller, by the way, it's been pretty sensational rookie. He's been really good. In fact, he looks pretty similar to Walker Buehler, which is probably part of the reason the Dodgers really liked him when they drafted him. But you're gonna have to find somebody else. You got to have a third starter. Could it be Walker Buehler? Could he get on the field in time for the playoffs? Yes, it's not a lot to ask of a guy coming off his second Tommy John surgery to jump right back into the fire and start pitching playoff games and try to go six innings. I think that's a lot to ask. 00:51:41 Speaker 1: Would he start? 00:51:44 Speaker 2: What are your other options behind Kirkshawn Miller? 00:51:47 Speaker 1: Could you get him? So again, if he just threw two innings in his first rehab start this week, is he going to be stretched out to six full fire innings in three weeks when the season ends. 00:52:03 Speaker 2: I don't know. Now, maybe he could start and go four to five innings. Maybe on the safer side you'd say four, and then you have to piggyback someone or go with your bullpen the rest of the way. But again the Dodgers has The Dodgers have not fared well in their rotation this year, especially as of late, which makes sense they've had all these injuries. But you're gonna have to find some solution here in the playoffs because you need a third starter behind Kershaw and Bobby Miller. And I feel like if you're the Dodgers, you're probably gonna end up going with Walker Buehler, even if it's on a shorter leash, then trying to rely on somebody like Emmit Shean. 00:52:37 Speaker 1: And Kurshow just came off a start in Miami where he was shakey. He was shaky as Bilo is, down two miles an hour, he averaged eighty eight on his fastball. There's a couple of Dodgers people we follow on Twitter and they were a little nervous watching old Kershaw pitch, wondering how he's feeling at this point. So I don't know, it's it's all shaky and overall like the usually have a great pitching staff, but this year, I mean, there's sixteenth in era, they're eleventh in f WOAR, they're sixteenth in strikeout rate, they're fourteenth and fifth. Just isn't a Dodgers' rotation, I see that can win a World Series. I don't know how they're gonna how. I don't know how they beat the Braves in a seven game series. I don't see how they match up offensively. I don't see how they match up in the rotation, and I don't see how they match up in the bullpen. I feel like the Braves have the advantage in all three facets. 00:53:30 Speaker 2: I just don't know how the Braves lose period. I'd be pretty shocked if they don't win the World Series. 00:53:36 Speaker 1: Right. Well, then again, the Dodgers won one hundred and eleven games last year and one one playoff game losing to the Dodgers, So you never know. 00:53:45 Speaker 2: No, it's true, you don't know, but you just said it. On paper, the matchups significantly favor the Braves. Like, don't get us wrong, the Dodgers were really good last year. But that Padres team from a season ago was really good. I mean, electric offense, they had enough pitching, crowd was electric in San Diego. Yeah, I wasn't Like, did I think the Padres were gonna win that series? 00:54:07 Speaker 1: No? 00:54:08 Speaker 2: Was I absolutely shocked that they did? Also, No, I would be pretty shocked if this Braves team can't get out of the National League. 00:54:15 Speaker 1: Also, were you surprised that Ronald Acunya had one oh one twenty one and a half in his back pocket on that swing? 00:54:25 Speaker 2: That was crazy? I'm not sure. I mean again, I'm like, I try not to be shocked by anything players like Ronald Acunya do these days, but I wouldn't get the way of that baseball. 00:54:36 Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest. I was kind of shocked. I did, like one twenty one that like, that's Judge and Stanton and period. 00:54:44 Speaker 2: Okay, maybe I was a little shocked. 00:54:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, one twenty one to straightaway center field. Usually those are pull shots. That's uh, that's pretty good. What what an electric guy Ronald is and what a sneaky good MVP race this is in the National League as well. 00:55:00 Speaker 3: Well. 00:55:00 Speaker 1: Mooki and Ronald are two of the best players in baseball. Mookie's really made up a bunch of ground on them. So if there's one like positive the Dodgers have, I mean they have a due at the top of their lineup, Mooky and Freddy. Many teams in baseball, I don't even think the If there's one advantage I would say the Dodgers have I mean it might be one to two in the lineup. I would say, that's that's pretty hard to match. Before we get to our next MLB wrap around topic, a word from our friends at Simply Seattle. Make sure guys go check out Simply Seattle. You can use our code Marine fifteen to get all your Mariner's gear you want. They have some of the best Mariners gear out there, not just Mariners though they have Seahawks, they have Huskies, they have Sonics as well. Please like go out to go out to simply Seattle. They have a deal for a come to Seattle shirt for show. Heo Tani. It's got a Mariner's colors at a seventeen on the back of that shirt. I believe it's only twenty dollars online at simply Sattle dot com. Use our code Marine fifteen and yeah, it's great. They make fantastic, fantastic gear and we think you should go buy some stuff out there. So go to Simply Seattle. Use our code Marine fifteen for your favorite Mariners, Seahawks, Huskies, Sonics, and all other Pacific Northwest gear at simply Sattle dot com. 00:56:23 Speaker 2: Here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna go buy a come to Seattle shirt for Shoho Tani and then the money you were gonna go use it Starbucks. You're gonna boycott, not spend your money at Starbucks, and go buy Sonics gear from simply Seattle instead and use code Marine fifteen. 00:56:38 Speaker 1: I like that idea, Lyle. 00:56:41 Speaker 2: Wow, you wouldn't have to tell me twice. Second storyline here on a MLB wrap around. So the Rangers are just collapsing. 00:56:50 Speaker 1: Wow, this is gonna be like one of the happiest three week stretches for us this season, not just if the Mariner's playing, but if the Mariners, like play slightly worse in the was still happening to the Rangers, we would be still just as happy. I mean, man, watching this collapse and then watching some of the factions of Mariners twitter tweet through it, trying to justify what they were trying to claim at the beginning of the season and the correct way to win and the correct way to construct a roster. Well, I guess so it's time for some people to admit they were wrong. 00:57:25 Speaker 2: Uh. 00:57:25 Speaker 1: I don't know how the Rangers turn this around, though. To be honest, they are in a tailspin. I have not seen a what I qualify as a good team do in what twenty eleven? Right, wasn't it the Red Sox who really collapsed that year? I think that's really the only thing else I can think of. You think of another team like that. 00:57:46 Speaker 2: There was a race in the Al West around that time. It was a couple of years after, I want to say, twenty twelve or twenty thirteen, and I'm gonna I'm gonna get this wrong. It was between the Rangers and the A's that part. I know, one of those teams collapse at the very end and the other stole the division. And I'm going to look it up here on the spot, but I. 00:58:05 Speaker 1: Think it might have been the Rangers. 00:58:07 Speaker 2: So the Rangers were the ones that came back and won. 00:58:09 Speaker 1: You mean no, I think they might have been the way you look it up. So we don't get our backs mixed up. 00:58:15 Speaker 2: I will, But before that, I just want to say that these twenty twenty three Rangers fell out of a playoff spot on Tuesday night for the first time since April eighth. Yeah, that's a long time. They have lost fifteen of their last nineteen games and their bullpen is beyond disastrous. Disastrous might be a friendly term at this point. 00:58:37 Speaker 1: Yeah, what kind of terminology would would we use for a bullpen that in their last twelve save opportunities have converted two? 00:58:47 Speaker 2: Is there a stronger word than disastrous? Embarrassment? 00:58:51 Speaker 1: I don't know. That's insane the Texas Rangers. Could you imagine a playoff team that has blown more saved chances on the entire season than they have, then they've converted for a whole season? Like, think about that? A playoff team that doesn't seem right. It seems like something the A's can do. The A's have won more games in the last three weeks then the Rangers have. I think about this? 00:59:25 Speaker 2: Is this absurd? 00:59:26 Speaker 1: I have a stat for you. This comes from the wonderful Bob Nightingale. Uh yeah, the the Astros, in their three games sweep this week of the Rangers, began the first team in MLB history to score at least twelve runs and hit at least five home runs in three consecutive games. Now, I could very well end up being wrong with that stat because of the source, but just because it sounds good, I'm gonna run with it right now. So there's been some historic run scoring against the Rangers. During this nineteen game streak, the Astros scored hit sixteen home runs and had fifty hits in three games. 01:00:10 Speaker 2: I was gonna say, how much do you trust your citations on that one on the nightingalestat pretty low. 01:00:16 Speaker 1: It's like a lot of my citations in college. 01:00:21 Speaker 2: Man. That series could not have been more one sided the Astros unfortunately, and this is the other end of the coin for the Mariners is the Astros are starting to get really, really hot at the perfect time and look like kind of the Astros of olds. So we'll see how that unfolds is the next few weeks play out. The Rangers, on the other hand, even if they find a way to sneak into the playoffs, at this point, they can't possibly win around, right. You have to have good relief pitching to win in the playoffs. How is this team gonna save a single game against quality opponents? 01:00:53 Speaker 1: It's not even just their bullpendo. I mean, you want to take your victory lap on Schurezer today, three innings, six hits, seven earned. 01:01:02 Speaker 2: So I will give Max suers or this. Up until this start, he'd been pretty solid this was a disaster. And they got Nathan and Nevaldi back off the IL this week, and he pitched a terrible start in his first doubting back. I mean, we can't say enough things about how awful this Tollpen's been. Like even guys like jose Leclerk's probably been their best guy at this point, and he's been fine. But guys like brock Burke, who were so good for the Rangers last year, he's come back to earth Moore and obviously Chapman's been not what they traded for. Oh, by the way, can you believe what the Royals got back in that trade. Cole Reagan's has been one of the best pitchers in baseball? Yeah? 01:01:40 Speaker 1: Did did he not win Pitcher of the Month? 01:01:43 Speaker 2: He did, didn't he? 01:01:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I thought. I remember. I was kind of glad the Murritors didn't face him, Like, who the hell is this throw? A lefty throw in ninety nine? Ooh, yeah, he's been pretty good. 01:01:54 Speaker 2: Yeah, I did look it up. So it was the Rangers that blew it in twenty twelve to the a sho on the last day of the season, won the division, And it seems what. 01:02:04 Speaker 1: The Rangers did to finish the twenty eleven season. Again, was it a seven to five lead in the tenth inning? 01:02:12 Speaker 2: Right? Nine to if you're talking about the David Freeze triple? 01:02:17 Speaker 1: Oh, it was seven five and the ninth inning and then nine to seven and the tenth inning. 01:02:22 Speaker 2: Here we go. 01:02:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry Rangers fans, If there any Rangers fans listening, We're not sorry. 01:02:30 Speaker 2: I am a little bit sorry about twenty eleven because do you remember who kind of lost on that World Series? 01:02:36 Speaker 1: I remember who pitched in that series out of the bullpen for the Rangers. One of my favorite Mariners relievers of all time is Mark Low No different Mark? 01:02:47 Speaker 2: Oh? Was it Scrabvel? 01:02:48 Speaker 1: Yes? 01:02:51 Speaker 2: Oh boy? Okay, not who I'm getting at here, though. Do you remember who missed the play and right field for the Freeze triple? Yeah? 01:02:58 Speaker 1: It was Nelly? 01:02:59 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. 01:03:00 Speaker 1: I don't know why the hell he was out there. 01:03:02 Speaker 2: Which that's on the Rangers. He should not have been out in the outfield in that ninth inn anyway, And if I remember right, he was also pretty banged up in that series, So why they didn't find the defensive replacement for him, I don't know. But yeah, the Rangers have kind of coughed up some pretty bad leads over time. And even what was it in twenty sixteen when they won the West and they won all those one run games, everybody knew they were kind of fluky, and then they got swept and lost and got bounced out of the playoffs. It seems like they get into the playoffs this year again, it's kind of going to be the same thing because they just do not have the bullpen to hold up. 01:03:38 Speaker 1: Just think about this. Three weeks ago, the Rangers were on pace for their best record in franchise history, and now they might miss the playoffs. It's pretty incredibly, pretty crazy how fast a season can turn. 01:03:54 Speaker 2: It's gonna be sad times on Mariners Twitter. All these people that all these self proclaimed Rangers fans that for whatever reason tweet about the Mariners, Well they're gonna be. There're gonna be a bunch of sad people. 01:04:06 Speaker 1: Lyle. I thought, if you tried to win the division in the off season and did everything possible to win the division of the off season, you automatically went into first place. Like, why aren't the Rangers in first I don't get it. 01:04:17 Speaker 2: Oh they did, don't you remember in mid May, when the Rangers were well beyond the Mariners in terms of record and talent, and oh season was over in mid May. Just call it right, then, Rangers are the better team, are they? 01:04:29 Speaker 1: Almost like there's more ways to build a roster than just one. 01:04:35 Speaker 2: We should clarify, by the way, there's so many great Mariners fans out there, so many of them who we've interacted with, whether it be this podcast or just through the years, people we've met who are just awesome. There are so many great Mariners fans out there, and some of them are on Twitter. But there is this small sliver of Mariners fans on Twitter who, for whatever reason, have a following. They should not have a following, but for whatever reason they do, and all they do is tweet out negative tweet after negative tweet after negative tweet after negative tweet, and they've got these cults of followers now who for whatever reason, latch onto it and think what they're saying is gospel. Oh shocker, Look at that. Maybe the Rangers aren't as good as you were proclaiming them to be, just because for whatever reason, you're so obsessed with spending money. Yeah, not to be for the Rangers. Possibly this year. It's still a ways to go, but yeah, I just had to get that in there. 01:05:29 Speaker 1: Let's get to our final wrap round subject and a wild card race low it is shapen up to be a good one. 01:05:37 Speaker 2: Yeah, we've talked about how close the AO West races this and a wildcard race might be even closer. So you've got four teams that are within two and a half games of each other. The Reds, the Marlins, the Diamondbacks, and the Giants are all within two and a half games. But turn the lens in even a little bit more and zoom in. The Reds, Marlins, and Diamondbacks are all within a half game of each other for that last wildcard spot. This is a nuts race, it is. 01:06:05 Speaker 1: And you know, it's not even like there's a one great wildcard team pulling away because the best quote unquote team here record wise is the Phillies. But they're only like they're five games up of the of the last wildcard spot. That's not like a not like an enormous amount by any stretch. And there's not like a clear cut best team roster wise of that group either. They're all flawed teams. But that's kind of what it makes this fun and what makes it way different from the American League. The American League, you have four teams fighting for three spots, or sorry, you have three teams fighting for three teams fighting for two spots. In the American League, wild card makes it a little less interesting, right, and if the Rangers keep stinking, it's gonna be two teams for two spots. But in the EnL, I mean, there's not too much difference between all these teams. 01:06:55 Speaker 2: There's not. And when you look at it, they all have pretty middling rotations, they have pretty middling bullpens. No offense really sticks out. I mean, the Cubs have been red hot offensively since July, but they're kind of ahead of the pack. The Phillies and the Cubs, barring something crazy, seem like they should be all but secure to lock up playoff spots. It's these other four teams that are really in the thick of it, the Reds, Marlins, Diamondbacks and Giants. And really the Reds, Marlins and Diamondbacks that are so close together. But the Giants are eleventh in bullpenny ra for the year, but as of late, they haven't been that great. You look at the Marlins, rotation where you could say, oh, if they can sneak in, you have Sandy al Contra and Uri Perez for the first two games, and then you never know what happens. Well, Sandy al Contra just went on the IL. Eury Perez is a rookie. Obviously he's had an innings limit this year. None of these teams stand out and say, yeah, this team could be deadly if they get in. 01:07:56 Speaker 1: And none of them are playoff regulars too, which is very exciting. If Diamondbacks, Reds, Marlins not playoff regulars, not like not at all. So I think it would be very fun to see them in. I think it would be good for their fan bases to get a taste of playoff baseball and all kind of rebuilds for the most part, depending on which stage Diamondbacks real, yeah that's a rebuild. Marlins are seemingly in a perpetual rebuild, but it's nice to see them actually start winning some games. And the Reds are have maybe the most fun collection of young skilled players in baseball. Mean, I know you'd want to see Ellie in the playoffs. I think that would be pretty fun. 01:08:33 Speaker 2: That would be great. There'd be a bunch of Mariners we get to see in the playoffs too, or I should say former Mariners. I mean Ellie above all would be so fun. But you see no elvie Get in the playoffs. You can see Jake Frayley in the playoffs. You see Connor Phillips and Brandon Williamson in the playoffs. It's probably another reason I like the Reds. There's all these former Mariners on the team and it's kind of easy to root for them. But yeah, for sure, all these teams are rebuilding teams that are trying to figure it out now, are trying to take that next step. Well except maybe the Giants. I don't know what in the world Giants are doing, but they're in the race. 01:09:03 Speaker 1: They tried to tried to spend money and flopped. Yeah, that's what they big time. They got a fun young catcher though, Patrick Bailey. That dude's a stud. 01:09:13 Speaker 2: Yeah he is good. But yeah, I don't know who i'd pick to get into these three teams. I think it's gonna come right down to the wire. And none of these teams are all that far above five hundred. They're all kind of hovering just over the mark, and it's been neck and neck for a while. It's probably gonna continue that way. Yeah, I can't wait to see how this kind of unfolds, I guess just because I don't know if any of them really have a chance if they get into a series, but it'd be fun to see him in there. 01:09:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, it could again, because I don't really think any of these like could you even stamp these teams as like these are definitively good teams? 01:09:53 Speaker 2: Yeah? Maybe not? Maybe not honestly, Like, I'd be happy to see the Diamondbacks in there too, just for Paul Sewalt say, also taking the Diamondbacks, we can add this into this storyline. They just called up Jordan Lawler today, so they're getting serious about trying to make this push for the playoffs. Jordan Lawler is one of the best prospects in baseball, so we'll see how quickly he could possibly help. 01:10:13 Speaker 1: And we got to pump up Seattle too, go for Corbyn? 01:10:17 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, Corbyn, you got Paul sea Wall, do you got? Yeah? Any of those teams would be fun to watch in the playoffs, So it'll it'll be fun to see how this whole thing shakes out. 01:10:26 Speaker 1: Okay, actually, before we get to the umpire, we missed an honorable mention. We have a new Anthony Rendon quote. Yeah, we couldn't forget this. We couldn't do this. We have documented the stories, the tales of an injured Anthony Rendon throughout this twenty twenty three season, and I think he set a new bar. He set the bar even higher with this one. Reporters are in the Angels clubhouse. They're trying to seek out Rendon. They're trying to get an injury update from a star third baseman who has not played since earlier in the season for the Angels. When asked about his injury, Anthony Rendon said to the media on Monday, quote, no obla inglace today. He then put on a hoodie and left the clubhouse. I don't even know how to react to that one besides laugh, because this this is turning into a sitcom, you know what. 01:11:29 Speaker 2: I'm reacting to the fact that you called Anthony Rendon a star, you said their star third baseman. I don't know what in the world he's done to prove he's a star over the last three years. 01:11:38 Speaker 1: Well, he's his paycheck. 01:11:40 Speaker 2: That's fair, that's fair. I didn't even know how to react either other than I started just laughing when I saw this and I sent it to you, and I was like, there is no chance this is real. And then I realized, oh wait, after everything Anthony Rendon's done this year, it's one. 01:11:58 Speaker 1: I'm starting to think he acts she doesn't like baseball. 01:12:03 Speaker 2: I mean, that wouldn't be the craziest take, because why in the world else would he would he be doing this? Like I don't want to I don't want to throw any like crazy accusations out there, but he feels like he's kind of lose in his mind. Either that or he seriously wants to just quit the game. 01:12:21 Speaker 1: Because like he can't even bother to to tell the people who just like literally want anything from him, tell him something. But instead he breaks out Spanish and says, I don't speak English today. Kind of stupid, kind of stupid, but I don't I don't think anything. Epitomizes the twenty twenty three Angels story, like the timeline of Anthony Rendon's return from injury. 01:12:47 Speaker 2: Somebody documented it the other day where what did they There was a point where they said, ask the Anthony Rendon for an injury update today He gave some I forget what it was. He gave some snarky reply, and he said he did a similar thing yesterday. I guess there's always tomorrow. And obviously they got nothing the next day either. Yeah, this is crazy. This is insane. This is absolutely insane behavior. Which it feels like he's a totally different guy with the Angels than he was with the Nationals, because again, people in DC really liked him. I don't know what happened to this, dude. I'm gonna go with your take in that he doesn't like baseball and he just kind of wants to be done. 01:13:24 Speaker 1: While collecting his paycheck, because obviously he's not gonna let that go away. No, Okay, now let's get to it. Now, let's get to our Russell Wilson umpire of the week. Okay, as Lyle said, we have a banger of one. Congratulations to Larry Vanover who missed drum roll please twenty nine calls in Tuesday's Red Sox raise game, while instant reaction. 01:13:53 Speaker 2: Twenty nine calls, How did it even happen? How are you a big league umpired dude? 01:14:02 Speaker 1: Twenty His strike percentage was seventy nine percent cold strike accuracy, which is like tough. 01:14:13 Speaker 2: Which is like nine ish percent below league average. 01:14:19 Speaker 1: That's that's pretty absurd, to be honest. Twenty nine twenty nine, that's nine calls fewer correct than the average umpire. Nine that's like two at bats. 01:14:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, and you said it was a season high, which is crazy. But you see that number, and I don't know how it couldn't be. Can they just get the challenge system already? Come on? This is crazy. 01:14:44 Speaker 1: The problem is with this, they would have ran out, they would have broke the machine. 01:14:51 Speaker 2: I don't know how these managers don't lose their minds. I really don't. I don't for the most part, when managers got ejected for arguing ball and strikes, I usually one hundred percent understand it, and I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. 01:15:07 Speaker 1: Congratulations, mister Vanover, you have made history this season twenty nine. Frame it. We have the great numbers in baseball history seven fifty five, four h six and now twenty nine. Incredible gratulations, Larry. 01:15:28 Speaker 2: I gotta give a quick shout out to Cebee Buckner here, who maybe had the worst strike three call I've ever seen in my life to end a game shocker. He is not the winner, but he is an honorable mention this week. 01:15:41 Speaker 1: He's an honorable mention every week. 01:15:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a terrible game a few days ago, and I saw Ryan Divish quote tweet the umpire scorecard, which, by the way, Ryan Davish loves to rip on Cebe Buckner, just another reason we love Divish. And he quote tweeted Cebe Buckner's on fire scorecard and he said, this is not bad, it's sad. 01:16:04 Speaker 1: That seems like a quote out of this podcast too. That's something we would. 01:16:07 Speaker 2: Say, Yeah, that is something we would say. Okay, let's get to speak your mind here. 01:16:13 Speaker 1: Speak your mind. 01:16:14 Speaker 2: Spot. That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. What are you thinking about? 01:16:27 Speaker 1: So I'm first gonna put you on the hot seat for the now third week in a row. I said we were going to do in a SOAKA review, but you still haven't watched it, so we're gonna push that again to next week. So we'll just let you sit on that and and sit in your embarrassment and think about that as you watch it this week and get ready for next week. Now, my actual speak your mind is something you mentioned before we started recording that I agree with one hundred percent, and is that the NFL season starts as we're recording tomorrow. And despite the fact we feel like we're still probably more knowledgeable about the NFL than ninety nine percent of casual football fans, just don't feel like we know as much as we did, say in high school or college. 01:17:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's weird just from how busy we've gotten with stuff this podcast included. Obviously you're following college football in the Pac twelve, you know, up to your shoulders or whatever, just because that's your day job. It gives us less time for other things. And again, let's put this in perspective, I'd say we're still in the ninety ninth percentile of NFL fans out there. It's not like we don't know what's going on, and we don't have real Super Bowl predictions and we couldn't off and we couldn't rattle off a ton of players from every team. But it just feels like maybe there's things we've missed a little bit. I feel like usually I'm a tiny bit more tuned in on all the Seahawks training camp stuff than i've been this year. I feel like usually I'm too in on every free agent and signed everywhere. As opposed to this year, I feel like I've missed some and couldn't name you, Like a bunch of the guys. I didn't know Miles Sanders was on the Panthers by the way, until like a week ago. I just that's what it is. Just yeah, see that that's one of those that I just that's one of those that I just didn't realize, for example, just because we've had all this other step sports wise going on, including all this narrator stuff. 01:18:25 Speaker 1: I'm in, like the time management part where we had a fantasy football that like this is like my least important fantasy football league money wise, or at least that I care about, because we do Dynasty league, College League, and then I have a regular league as well, like standard fantasy football. We had the standard league draft on Sunday, And do you know how many seconds I spent reading reading a fantasy draft guide before I drafted zero. I can't remember the last time I did that where I did no prep to justin Jefferson number one. Overall, I think that's the right decision, But overall, I'm sitting there in you know, the fourth fifth sixth, seventh, eighth round. It's like I haven't read like field Yates or Matt Berry's sleepers to pick in the tenth round or later. I haven't done that. I'm still riding my coattails from picking Patrick Mahomes in the fifteenth round of the twenty eighteen draft and then writing that to a championship. I'm gonna rest my laurels, and I'm gonna solidly say, Lyle, I'm never going to top that sleeper in my fantasy football life. So I just don't even bother to read in anything anymore. 01:19:30 Speaker 2: You're channeling your inner Johnny Manzel there from the documentary. How many hours of film did I watch? Zero? 01:19:37 Speaker 1: Yep, that's me. 01:19:40 Speaker 2: I had my fantasy draft this week too, which I'm in a two quarterback league. I really don't know how more people in this league don't figure out that in a two quarterback league that quarterbacks can win you these leagues. But people don't like the draft quarterbacks in this league. I do, and I don't mess around with it. 01:19:54 Speaker 1: I first heard your running backs, who how are your running backs? 01:20:00 Speaker 2: Oh? Well, so other positions sometimes will suffer a little bit where other teams in the league will have better running backs and receivers, but they don't have as good quarterbacks. Like my first two picks were Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, which Lamar, by the way, I feel like is gonna be much better this year considering he has a new offensive coordinator finally more offensive weapons. I think he's gonna have a pretty good year. But as a result, my running backs aren't as good. Who do I have? I've Alexander Madison and Damian Pierce. 01:20:29 Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, you're relying on your quarterbacks. 01:20:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's how it goes, honestly, Like Damian Pierce had a pretty good year last year, so that's fair. 01:20:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll see if Madison makes a past week. Whatever is the starter. 01:20:45 Speaker 2: He was always pretty good when Dalvin Cook was out. I don't know. 01:20:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, common theme with backups until their backups look at the same thing. 01:20:52 Speaker 2: Wow. 01:20:52 Speaker 1: Wow, it's almost like, huh, running back position is replaceable. Oh I shouldn't say that out loud. I have the NFL PA at my front door. 01:21:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, oh man, but I don't know. I was pretty happy with the draft though. The one thing I guess I was kind of bummed out about is so I'm not mad. I got Damian Pierce again. He was pretty good last year, but I missed traves Etn by one pick and I would have loved to have him. So that was the one where I was like, how. 01:21:20 Speaker 1: Do we feel about our college fantasy league? 01:21:23 Speaker 2: Well, not good after week one considering my top two picks just laid an egg and didn't do anything. Well, not top two picks. I guess it was my second and third round pick something like that, because the two guys I have from Ohio State and a Mecca Buca and Treveon Henderson did nothing and that went over Indiana. So I did not have a good first week. 01:21:42 Speaker 1: And so what week do we play each other? Let's look here, not week three, not week four. So we're in a very interesting league of how it structured. Were playing a bestball league, which is every single player on your roster plays in the league. Will automatically select the two highest scores from two quarterbacks, two running backs, two wide receivers, and then a tight end. I believe is there flex? I can't remember. 01:22:10 Speaker 2: No, there's no flex. And I think the reason we started doing that this year is there was just too many injury problems over the last few years in college fantasy football, and the the reports in college fantasy football are never as in your face as the NFL is, where it's harder to find sometimes in college football, which is why we changed it to Best Ball. Yeah, fun story. TJ lost the league one time. 01:22:32 Speaker 1: On that high twenty nineteen. It was the highest scoring team in the entire league. Were lying on the number one seed lined up to play our number four team in the league. I have a wide receiver who's supposed to play Mercer that week in a playoff matchup. I'm like, oh, yes, Das Newsome overslept practice during the week and UH had to sit out on Saturday, and there was no update, no notification, no nothing. Ended up losing by like, oh, I don't know, thirty points. Oh in UNC, by the way, scored about sixty points on Mercer, and I think Daz would have caught some touchdowns in that game. So I'm kind of pissed by the way. Dog. We UH don't play until week nine, October twenty fourth. That's the week. We don't play until the week after we back from New York, so you get some time, yeah to brew. 01:23:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll have to update people on that week when we eventually play. But yeah, college fancy is really fun. But yeah there can be there can be. 01:23:30 Speaker 1: Some fun of situation like that too. 01:23:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, I've had two of them. The same year you had. The dads knew something. I got screwed because Lincoln Riley told everybody Ceede Lamb was playing because I was in the semifinals just like you were. I lost by no joke, one point that week to miss out on the championship one point and Ceedee Lamb, who was my second pick that year, actually it might have been my first pick first or that point being. I took him high and he was somebody I relied heavily on all season and said he was gonna play. He played, but he played about fifteen percent of the snaps and he didn't do anything. And that's how I lost. If CD played the whole game, I would have won, and then oh sorry, And then the next year after that, this one might be worse. I had DeVante Smith in twenty twenty, the year he won the Heisman, and I lost my league because or our league, because it's not that DeVante had COVID. Nobody on Alabama had COVID. They were playing LSU when LSU players had COVID, so that game got canceled and as a result, DeVante didn't get to play. And again I lost by like five points on top of the fact that our friend I was playing had a running back no joke, go for sixty six points in college fantasy football and I lost. 01:24:45 Speaker 1: And who won the league that year? 01:24:46 Speaker 2: I forget, Well, it would have been me if Devantae hadn't gotten hurt. 01:24:51 Speaker 1: Hmmm, lucky you. The podcast did take home the championship that year. 01:24:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true, it did. 01:25:00 Speaker 1: Got two college Fantasy rings on my fingers. Hmm, it's nice. It's nice. You guys are still recovering from the l I handed everyone last year. I mean, I'm dead serious. I'm gonna miss last year's team so much. I was seventy points better than every team on any given day. It was great. 01:25:17 Speaker 2: Did we play in the finals or the semifinals? I forget it might. 01:25:22 Speaker 1: Have been the finals. Like again, by the end of the season, I was two hundred and seventy points a game like it was. It was stupid. I was steamrolling I was steam rolling fools. 01:25:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you were. That took out a decent chunk of speak your mind. The only thing I had this week is the reason we're actually recording a day early today here on Wednesday at time of recording, is cuz I'm going to the fifty seven concert in Seattle on Thursday. Funny enough, I didn't even remember I was going until earlier in the day here on Wednesday. So I'm going with two of my friends here from the area. We bought tickets like five six months ago, and one of them reminded us today it's like, oh, we think it's to the fifty cent concert tomorrow. And I was like, I'm glad you said something about that, because I would not have remembered. Now. Tickets weren't crazy expensive. They were about sixty bucks, so I didn't want to throw sixty bucks down the drain, and obviously I do want to go to the concert. I'm just glad somebody said something about it, so now I'm going tomorrow. 01:26:18 Speaker 1: You should ask him to throw you a shirt and see if you can hitch in the chest. 01:26:23 Speaker 2: I doubt it if we if I was gonna say, just don't put a baseball in his hands and everybody will be safe, but fifty cent picks up a baseball and somebody's gonna get hurt. 01:26:33 Speaker 1: He's gonna throw it in the section over. 01:26:36 Speaker 2: He might just throw it out of Climate Pledge Arena. You might just throw it directionally sideways like he did at City Field. 01:26:41 Speaker 1: He'll probably end up throwing it through the window. 01:26:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, of that brand new arena. They worked so hard on it just for fifty cent to smash it with the baseball. 01:26:51 Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be sold out. 01:26:54 Speaker 2: I don't know if it'll be sold out or not. It's not gonna be like the Drake concert, which was obviously sold out, but it'll be fun. I mean, is fifty sent my favorite artist? No, but I did like a lot of his old music, which I'm sure he's gonna play most of during this concert. So yeah, it should be fun. It's not gonna be anything crazier anything like that, but yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I don't think it'll live up to you going too the Travis Scott concert in Vegas a few years ago. 01:27:17 Speaker 1: That was pretty cool. And yeah, at least fifty cent will perform, unlike Drake and Vancouver and Denver, which he decided to just cancel. 01:27:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not fun. That's not fun. At all. So yeah, I'll update you guys next week, but for now, that'll just about wrap up this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill. You want to listen to the full form podcast, you can do so on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon on our audio side. If you do that, make sure to follow us, download our episodes and give us the five star review. The reviews and the downloads really help us out and it only takes a couple extra seconds, so make sure to go do that. Then head over to YouTube. Our video side of the podcast is there, subscribe, like comment, turn the notification bells on that way, you know when we're posting stuff. And on social media, you can follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. One final time, get out to the ballpark for the Angel series. The next time we're recording that series will be just about over. Get to the ballpark. It's the last chance you have to make an impression on show. Heyo tani, So let's do it, guys. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in to talk to you soon.