Episode 70: Mailbag Time!

[00:00:00] Welcome to episode number 70 of the Marine Layer Podcast. It's our mailbag episode. We'll answer some listener submitted questions. The Rangers win the World Series. We'll wrap up our World Series talk and the hot stove is already cooking for Jerry DePoto. Shocker, first day of the offseason. He's already made a trade. We'll discuss that.

[00:00:20] This show is brought to you by Pogac's Pub 85. Pogac's Pub 85 over in Kirkland. It's just east of 405. If you head over there, there's a few things you'll find. You'll find some great food. They've got some awesome pizza and a whole variety of food options. They've got a full drink menu and they've got 22 TVs in the place. So if you want to go watch, well, baseball's over now, but you know what? There still is plenty of college football, NFL football, basketball starting up, hockey's going on. There's plenty.

[00:00:47] So if you want to go watch some sports with your friends or family, head over there, head over to Pogac's Pub 85. And if you get there during a weekday, during some of those key hours in the afternoon and early evening, you can catch the happy hour specials, which are Monday through Friday, 2 to 6 p.m., which feature $3 domestic beers, $4 Manny's Blue Moons, $4 Mac and Jacks, $4 Wells, and $4 Housewine. All that. Some great food, great drinks, great sports, good time with your friends and family over at Pogac's Pub 85.

[00:01:17] In Kirkland. And your reminder before we start the show, if you're listening, make sure to go watch us on YouTube. We've got a full video side of the podcast over there. Like, comment, subscribe, turn the notification bells on on YouTube. And if you're watching us, go listen to us too. If you're in the car, at the gym, at work, wherever you might be. We're on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon. Follow us there, download our episodes, leave us a five-star review. Those reviews and downloads help us out a bunch.

[00:01:43] You can also find us on social media on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube shorts at MarineLayerPod. Let's get it rolling. And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network, recording here on Thursday afternoon, November 2nd.

[00:02:13] And the Texas Rangers are World Series champions. Big sigh, major, major sigh. This team really went from 68 wins to world champions in one year. So what the Mariners have spent years trying to do, Rangers did it in one season. Well, two seasons. Yeah. In building, I think, two seasons. But you're right. They did win 68 games last season.

[00:02:41] The Mariners thoroughly dominated the Rangers in 2022. And in 2023, it's a different story. Their free agent signings hit all the boxes. They knocked it out of the park. Their young players played as well as young players have played across the league. Evan Carter is a future star in this league at just 21 years of age. He was one of the best players on their roster, one of the youngest cleanup hitters ever on a World Series team. That was him.

[00:03:10] And in the end, the Rangers' weaknesses didn't rear their heads. They got hot. Everyone played well at the same time. And then on the other side, the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series looked like an 84-win team. That's my conclusion from that. I just don't even want to be sitting here talking about the Rangers. I just want to ignore it and move on. Which is why, hey, the second that final out was recorded last night, what did I tweet out? Well, it's off-season time with a picture of Julio and Shohei both in Mariners gear. People took well to it, too.

[00:03:41] Well, I would hope so. He got arguably the greatest player of all time hitting free agency. Arguably the best free agent ever. I'd hope people would take kindly to it. Except for the few people that somehow exist out there that say, I don't want him. Like, wake up, people. Oh, we've just been sitting here and complaining about a lack of talent on the roster and a lack of outside addition. And when the best possible option comes available, it's like, eh. No, I'm good. No, that's... I'm good. That's false.

[00:04:08] That, like, takes are objectively opinionated. No, that is an incorrect take. My biggest takeaway from this World Series overall, Lyle, though, while the Rangers celebrated a real championship yesterday, winning the World Series in five games, I'd say the real champion of this week are the teams that have their 2026 payroll in order. And that bottom line looks really good. I did laugh at the tweet that was put out last night after the World Series that said,

[00:04:38] World Series... Winning a World Series and those memories are probably just a step below of acquiring club-controllable players that are all mediocre to put on your roster for the next decade. Yeah. Yep. Pretty much. And another highlight from yesterday is after Corey Seager wins the World Series MVP, some reporter decides that he's just going to ask him why the Dodgers didn't resign him, and to which Corey Seager is like, I don't know.

[00:05:08] And in the end, I got $325 million and now have a ring on my finger. What did that reporter expect him to say? Do you think he was going to leak details about his free agency a couple years ago? Of course not. The context of the question was worse. It's like, people keep texting me this all the time, so I just have to ask it. It's like, no, you don't. Yeah, let me just make this all about me. You could see Corey Seager turned to the PR person and gave him the eyes. It's like, can we move on to the next question? Which I don't blame him.

[00:05:38] Hey, did you hear, by the way, with the Rangers winning the World Series, there's now only five teams to never make it? I say that as if we didn't just talk about that on the last show before they actually won the World Series. But those graphics were everywhere on Wednesday night after they won. And it's like, well, there's only five teams now that have never won the World Series. And you know who one of them is. It's the same team that's the only franchise to never make a World Series. There's only one franchise left in the American League West who's never won one either. The list shrinks.

[00:06:08] That was the first reaction I said. I think I texted it to you and I texted it to my family in our family group chat. That was the first thing I sent after the Rangers clinched. It wasn't a let's get it rolling in the offseason. It's not a come here, Shohei. It's not a congrats to the Rangers. It's nope. The list shrinks. That's my only takeaway. I was not a happy camper when the Nationals made the World Series back in 2019

[00:06:34] because it was just such a level of embarrassment to be an M's fan. And that was the point where they were right in the early stages of that rebuild too. They had the awful season in 2019. It was a boring roster. There were again, it was like the bare bone stages of that rebuild. And then, oh, by the way, the Nationals not only make the World Series, but win it. And I'm like, wow, this is this is insufferable. What would what would be the worst case scenario for the next team to win? I think we said it already is the Rockies, right?

[00:07:04] I think if the Rockies won a World Series, that would probably be. That would. But so that would that would make you the only team who's never won a World Series game in your franchise history like that. That would probably be the next worst. It would absolutely be the Rockies in terms of worst case scenario, because the other three teams, the Padres, Rays and Brewers, they're all mostly in contention. So it's not like it'd be some utter shock if one of those teams won.

[00:07:31] Or if the Rockies won, considering the stage they're at right now. Oh, that'd be really bad. Overall, congrats to the Rangers. But with the Rangers winning yesterday on Wednesday, that means the offseason started as of today. And did we think Jerry DiPoto was going to sit out for an entire day of the offseason? Absolutely not. Jerry's already swung a trade. Everyone's going to be just thrilled for this over the moon excited. He swapped.

[00:08:00] He acquired Cody Bolton, a reliever from the Pirates for cash considerations. Congratulations. Did you did you jump out of jump out of your seat when you saw this? What did I tweet last night after the Rangers won the World Series or Wednesday night when you're listening to this? I tweeted, you know, we're going to wake up on Thursday and Jerry will have made a trade. Well, we didn't quite wake up. But on Thursday afternoon, he made a trade, which I just pictured Jerry DiPoto watching that World

[00:08:26] Series and seeing the Rangers win immediately turning to the clock as if he's waiting to watch the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve. It's like 10, 9, 8, 7. And then the like and then the clock hits zero, except instead of celebrating with everybody around him. Then the scene immediately changes to the Wolf of Wall Street. And you see the scene with everybody on the phone, cold calling, just losing their minds. You see Jerry is like the head man, the Jordan Belford. He's he's he's ordering all his minions like you call this team. You call this team.

[00:08:56] You call this team. It's like we're making a trade today. And they made a trade today. Just just this man can't help himself. He really can. It's like day one that he can possibly make trades again. He makes a trade. And Bolton fits the he fits the reliever mold because you see his stats. What's he's got a career seven ERA and what, 25 innings? That's what it is. He has a 633 ERA and 21 and a third career innings pitched. Uh-huh.

[00:09:25] So Jerry sees that. And when Jerry acquires a player like that, it's not that dissimilar to Justin Topa or Gabe Spire of last season. And you see that and it's like, OK, so I can already picture Cody Bolton, 50 innings, about a 2-6 ERA, a 27% strikeout rate, a walk rate of about 7% and a nasty slider, which

[00:09:50] by the way, if we're talking about actual plus things about Cody Bolton, we've talked about the stuff plus metric from fan graphs. His stuff plus on his sweeper is 128. That's a very good pitch with good whiff rates and good hard hit rates against that pitch as well. I think Jerry had had that one circled. He knew what he wanted. Yeah. So 128, that's for those who don't know, the stuff plus is measured the same way as the stats like WRC plus are ERA plus where it's on a 100 scale.

[00:10:19] So by his sweeper metrics, the stuff of it is 28% above league average. So I'm sure that's what stands out to him. They say, oh, right-handed reliever with a good sweeper. We can work with that. We've only had one, two, 10, 15, 20 guys in the last three years have good sweepers and work out in our bullpen. So he's like, yeah, why not add another? So Cody Bolton could be a nothing burger. He could just hang out in AAA all year, or he could be the next Justin Topa for all we know.

[00:10:48] Yeah, I think he's going to get some major league time. He's going to be on the 40-man roster and they've cycled through some relievers and they're going to have a couple of open bullpen spots next year, at least spots that will be competed for. We imagine Perlander Burrow is going to grab a spot for next season. Still don't know why he wasn't there at the end of the season, but regardless. And I would imagine Cody Bolton, when spring training rolls around with his stuff, will get

[00:11:13] a chance to showcase his short-term availability in the bullpen and see how much that stuff really ticks up in that bullpen. Overall, though, this trade is filling out the 40-man roster. The Mariners did shed some 40-man guys earlier this week as they were getting ready for this offseason. For all those 60-day IL guys, once this offseason starts, you've got to put them back on the 40-man roster because the season's over officially.

[00:11:40] So you're going to have to clear some spots for that and clear up some spots for guys that you're going to go out and acquire like Bolton did right now. I will say, I did think this is a Seahawks deep cut. I thought they traded for Cody Barton for a second. I was really, really confused. But I think Cody Bolton might be actually, might be a little bit better than Cody Barton. Yeah. When did Cody Barton learn to throw 95 miles an hour? Well, maybe you would have played linebacker a little bit better if he could throw that hard.

[00:12:09] More natural athleticism. There we go. So if you want to already play it out, if you're a fan trying to think about the bullpen for 2024 in your head, a lot can change between now and opening day, of course. But as it sits right now, there's six guys that are all but guaranteed to have a spot. Munoz, Brash, Topa, Spire, Saucedo, Isaiah Campbell. We assume Prelander Barrow would get one of the spots. So that's seven. And as we now sit, again, as of today, a lot can change.

[00:12:35] But it would probably be Cody Bolton, Kayla Bort, who they also picked up a couple weeks ago, and Edward Bizzardo, who would probably fight for that last spot. So that's where it stands right now. And a lot will change as the season goes along. And a lot will change as we get to spring training. And guys are in varying levels of health. But very on-brand for Jerry DiPoto to make a move like this so quickly. So good for Jerry. Gives us something a little bit to talk about.

[00:13:05] Before we get to our mailbag, just a quick word from Simply Seattle. I think you and I are both acquiring some gear from Simply Seattle over these next few weeks and really excited to see some of the gear that we get. And we really recommend it, guys. Any sort of Seattle sports team that you're a fan of, go check out Simply Seattle. I mean, we're talking Sonics, Kraken, Seahawks, Mariners, Huskies. They have you covered with all of that. They have non-sports themed gear as well.

[00:13:33] You can use our code MARINE15 at simplyseattle.com. Get 15% off your order for all your favorite gear. We got the holidays coming up. They're perfect for gifts. People love the Simply Seattle gear. They got some really nice stuff there. So go to simplyseattle.com and use our code MARINE15 for 15% off your order. Mailbag time, Lyle. This is the first, I think, official mailbag episode we have done.

[00:14:00] And we definitely got some very interesting questions. So let's kick it off with our first question in our mailbag. Up first from Sean. Who would you want to trade for that's not Juan Soto? And he adds after this question, I'd be willing to part with Bryce Miller and Emerson Hancock over Brian Wu. I think the latter half of that statement is probably everybody.

[00:14:25] I think everybody probably realizes of those three guys, the guy with the highest ceiling is no doubt Brian Wu. But he also may be what it costs to get true impact back. A true impact back. There we go. In terms of guys they could trade for, if we're talking about real impact guys, well, you know who I'm going to say, right? Say it. Luis Robert? Yeah. Just Brian Wu and Gabby Gonzalez. We're all the White Sox fans. You going to come at me?

[00:14:55] You going to try to throw some punches? You going to call us morons for our takes again? We're sitting right here. Let us know. No, but in all seriousness, the reason we threw out the Luis Robert trade and I still stand by it 100% is there's not that many star bats out there that would probably even be floated out there this winter. He's one of the few that might even have a chance. So if that's the type of player you're talking about, there's not that many. If you're talking about a step below that, well, then we could get into that here a little bit.

[00:15:25] There's some guys on the next level down. Yep. Brendan Donovan, Lars Newbar, a couple of the Cardinals guys. And we constantly have conversation about the Mariners trading for one of the Orioles younger bats. But in terms of proven guys out there, you're right. It's that's why everyone starts at Juan Soto because true impact is him. Like that's that is it. And Luis Robert would be it, too, if those guys end up being available. And you know what? I wasn't totally sold. Juan Soto would be available.

[00:15:53] But the news that came out about the Padres this week, they actually had to take out a $50 million loan in September to help finance things like payroll at the end of the season. Because even with all their sellouts and their TV deal, they weren't making enough money to pay all their players, which I thought was very, very, very fascinating. So like they do need some salary relief. And Juan Soto off the books would would definitely be that. But non-Soto, I think those were the three tiers I would think of.

[00:16:22] It's like Luis Robert, Cardinals guys where that dialogue's already existed. And then the Orioles because they have such a surplus. Unless someone has a better idea for us, those seem like the most obvious options. Brendan Donovan would make a lot of sense. He can play a couple of infield spots. He is more proven than some of the other guys that have been floated out there in trades where he's had a couple of seasons where he has proven that he can hit above average or well above average at the big league level. I guess I wouldn't say well above average, but he is a good big league hitter already. And he's young.

[00:16:52] He's club controllable. Can I throw one more crazy idea out there? Go ahead. This is much more in the Luis Robert category. And I can't take credit for this. So I was listening to Extra Innings, which is Ryan Divish's podcast. He has it with Larry Stone and Adam Jude. They had our friend Jordan Schusterman on from Cespedes Family Barbecue. And Jordan was not saying this is going to happen, but he was saying more along the lines of what we're saying is throwing some crazy ideas out there. Like just what if? Just what if in this crazy universe?

[00:17:21] The Blue Jays ever think about moving on? Let me try that again. Would the Blue Jays ever think about moving on from Vladdy Jr.? I don't think so. Like what inclination? Had they given any signs that they would? Not externally, but he's about to hit arbitration. He doesn't play much defense. He didn't have a great year this year. I don't know. Like probably not, right? So again, we're throwing crazy ideas out here. That's what some of the. I would say that is a crazy idea.

[00:17:51] Absolutely. I don't know if that would be the most surprising thing in the world, though. I'll say that. I'll say that. At least seeing some like response from the fans that aren't too happy with how Vladdy has turned out, especially as a hitter. Now, if you're actually trying to think of this in a baseball sense, would it, Lyle, as you as a Mariner fan, would it make sense that Vladdy is his offense has regressed significantly since that amazing 2021 season he'd have?

[00:18:20] Would it make sense that he'd have? Would it make sense that he all of a sudden finds it in the least hitter friendly ballpark in baseball? I would be banking on that 2023 was a down year for him. And his normal offensive production would be somewhere between 2021 and 2023. So like about what he did in 2022 is what I assume Vladdy would be for the most part. His WRC plus was above 130 in 2022.

[00:18:46] He doesn't have to put up a 160 like he did in 21, but 130. And as we know, OPS plus WRC plus, those are park adjusted numbers. So if he came to Seattle, I would, I would more than take 125, 130 WRC plus out of Vladdy and they need first base help. There's no doubt about that. Obviously I like, we all like Tyler Locklear and we can dream on what he would be, but we're talking about what is objectively an unproven commodity versus a guy that is a three-time all-star.

[00:19:17] What would that cost? That was, so that would cost Locklear. That would cost Wu at least. That would cost Harry Ford. And I'm probably gonna have to add one more blue chip for three years of Vladdy. I was going to say, well, I was going to say those three, because you get six years of Wu, you get a rookie Harry Ford whenever he debuts, and then you get Locklear as a first baseman. But you're right. Maybe you have to have. I still think it probably takes one more. Would you have to throw Kalnick in that package? Maybe. Yeah. Big leaguer.

[00:19:47] Yeah. I don't know if there are any Blue Jays fans or people know any Blue Jays fans. Please send this trade proposal and see if it would make sense. So that would be Wu, Ford, Kelnick, and who else did I throw in there? Locklear. And Locklear. Yeah. So they have their first baseman of the future as well. In theory, yeah. It could cost more than that because, as you mentioned, three-time all-star. He's not even... Is he 24 yet? Yeah.

[00:20:14] He's closer to 25 than he is 24, but he is still 24 years of age. Right. He's still young. He's still got probably the best years of his career ahead of him. And, man, that makes a lot of sense. That would make a lot of sense if he was available. Now, the question is, if the Blue Jays believe he's going to turn it around, he's not available because that's a pretty valuable commodity to have on your team. Yeah. Again, and we're not saying this is happening, but we're throwing out crazy ideas.

[00:20:43] Again, credit to our friend Jordan Schusterman who threw this out there. So we're just banking off what he talked about and kind of diving in a little bit further. And if you want to hear him talk about it, it's on the Extra Innings podcast with Ryan Divish, another friend of the program. But, yeah, like this is like a 1% chance of happening, if that. So we're just throwing crazy ideas out there. If you're talking about what impact bats could be out there that you can trade for, talked about Robert. Now we're talking about Vladdy. Players like that.

[00:21:10] You would have to get very, very creative and you would have to give up a lot in a trade package. Obviously, like what would make the most sense in a trade if this question from Sean is like, who's a realistic trade package that's not Juan Soto? Yeah, I think somebody like Brendan Donovan would make a lot of sense. But if you're like the fact that Sean threw the name Juan Soto in this package says to me that he's looking for guys like Juan Soto, like who could be a crazy guy they trade for. So while it would be very, very unlikely, somebody like Vladdy.

[00:21:41] And there's just, there's not that many people else, like those players are not available. There's a, like, it's so rare that a Juan Soto is available and why it was so shocking he was traded the first time, let alone the second time. So if you have any good ideas, please hit our comment section, send us an email, leave us a voicemail, whatever. You can find that all in the description of what you think a good idea for a trade is. Even if it's crazy, we'll talk about it. And again, we got a lot of offseason to talk about. We have a lot of time to flesh out these trades.

[00:22:10] If you want us to talk about a trade, please let us know and we'll do it. Yeah, we may do more of these mailbag episodes throughout the winter if you guys enjoy them. Like if you guys have questions you want to send us and you have topics you want us to dive in on, we're more than happy to take your recommendations. Like TJ said, you got crazy trade ideas? Send them to us because we're probably interested in them. We will take the flack from the opposing fan base for you. We'll do it. Well, we already made our rounds with White Sox Twitter. I never thought I'd get on some White Sox podcast for throwing a trade out there.

[00:22:39] But shortly after we put out that TikTok, there I was sitting on Pinwheels and Ivy with our friends over there, which ended up being a lot of fun. But hey, if we post this as a show clip, let's see how many Blue Jays fans come for us. Is our good buddy Troy going to see this? He might. Not only would you be pissed. I mean, you wouldn't only be pissing off the like the south side of Chicago. You would be pissing off an entire country. Think about that. You would never be able to go to Canada again.

[00:23:09] For those who don't know the name Troy for what we're talking about, go to our Instagram or TikTok page. It was back in whenever the Blue Jays series was in July. And we interviewed some Blue Jays fans about invading the ballpark. He's the first guy in the video who just loses his mind. It was the best fan interview we had all year. So that's who Troy is if you want the reference. Okay. Question number two. This is from Alex. A little bit more of a tame one, but still a very good question. He said, who will be the starting second baseman for the Mariners on opening day? Josh Rojas.

[00:23:39] Yeah, it'll be Josh Rojas. And I'm sure that there's some fans out there that want to see the Mariners go make a splash at second base and go either sign for somebody or trade for somebody big. Like one, second base isn't that loaded of a position. And two, we talked about it, especially during the Mariners run in August when they were just ripping off wins. Josh Rojas out of that nine spot when he's playing at his best, he's really good. Let's put it like this.

[00:24:06] Josh Rojas being the nine hitter should in no way, shape or form kill the Mariners season next year. It should only help. If they don't go get significant bats in the middle of the lineup, it's not on Josh Rojas to put up a 135 WRC plus. But if they go get the right bats in the heart of the order to really provide some power and thump in the lineup, Josh Rojas, when he's at his best out of the nine spots, a really good hitter. So I'm more than happy with Josh Rojas playing second base out of the nine spot.

[00:24:34] And we could sit here and dream about Marcus Simeon. Just look off into the distance and think about what could have been because there's only Altuve and Simeon and then the Grand Canyon and then pretty much every other second baseman in Major League Baseball. So, yeah, it'll be Josh Rojas and Josh Rojas hits has a 110 WRC plus and plays good defense at second base.

[00:25:01] So that's usually an above average season for a second baseman. You cannot compare him to Marcus Simeon. You can't do it. You can't compare him to Jose Altuve. That's not fair on him. The second base position just usually isn't quite that talented. Once they get into the meat of this season, I would bet some money that this would turn into a platoon with Ryan Bliss and Josh Rojas. And people would come on and complain again that the Mariners are rolling out another platoon.

[00:25:30] And while I've gotten kind of tired of platoons, that's probably what's going to happen because the Mariners not only identified Josh Rojas as a guy they wanted from the Diamondbacks, but they also identified Ryan Bliss as well, and I think they want both those guys playing second base at the big league level next season. What did we say about platoons a couple weeks ago? We are okay with one. We are okay with one. One.

[00:25:55] If Ryan Bliss keeps hitting in the minor leagues, which he's shown no reason for why he wouldn't, and then he gets called up to the big leagues, great. There's your platoon. Second base. It's Josh Rojas against righties. It's Ryan Bliss against lefties. That's it. I'm okay with that one platoon. No more. No others. But if it's just one, I think that could be a productive position in terms of the platoon.

[00:26:18] There's not – like unless you're trading for – again, unless you're trading for Brennan Donovan, who are you trading for to go play second base if that's not the case? Like I legitimately don't know. And there's nobody on the free agent market that's going to play second base, so it wouldn't make any sense. Again, I think people should appreciate what Josh Rojas did once he got to Seattle a lot more than they currently are doing. And I know it's the offseason. You want to see every position be filled with an all-star. So do we.

[00:26:47] So does every fan base. But that's not how teams are built. That's not how any team's built. So if Josh Rojas hits ninth, like you said, puts up a 110 WRC+, plays solid defense, and puts up two and a half wins, that's a really good season. And Mariners fans should be more than happy with that if that's what he does. So long answer to the question. I think it's Josh Rojas.

[00:27:07] Let's get to our third question from John, mentioning that the Orioles have the top-ranked farm system with several prospects blocked at many positions, especially in the middle infield. Thoughts on a Miller trade to the Orioles for Heston Kerstad and Connor Norby? And I like the and thrown in there. If the Orioles want to do that, yeah. Yeah. So you're all in on this idea? For two of them? Yes.

[00:27:37] Okay. So I will actually, I'm going to put an asterisk there. Mariners sign Blake Snell and pull off that trade. Okay. That, sure. I guess the only reason I sigh a little bit is, like, it's just time for them to get proven bats, right? If that's all that's out there in terms of a trade, sure. Because Heston Kerstad and Connor Norby are not proven. So if they're going to go trade Bryce Miller somewhere, I'd rather see it be for somebody like Brendan Donovan,

[00:28:06] somebody that has proven they can hit as a big leaguer. That's just me. So that's why I'm a little bit like, eh. Like, I like the idea and it would make sense. But it is yet another club controllable couple of players with some good upside, very good upside. But it's not proven talent. That makes sense. I don't think this is first on my list of trades, of course.

[00:28:30] But in this specific scenario, if you were asking me that the Orioles would do that for Bryce Miller. By the way, let's remember Bryce Miller. He's proven, but not proven. Do you catch my drift? Does that make sense? Sure. But people trade a lot for young starting pitching with club control. Right. You're right. But in a vacuum, would I do this trade? Yes, I would. If we're just presenting it in a vacuum, yes. Is that number one on my list? No. No, it's not.

[00:29:01] I'm going to contradict what I said a little bit here because I was talking about how I want to see the Mariners trade for proven bats, which I do. But if we're still talking within the realm of this trade, could we upgrade it from Connor Norby to Kobe Mayo? Then my interest would be peaked a little bit. Or is that too much? I'm not sure. I'm not totally flush on the Orioles farm system. But sure. Mayo is definitely higher. Yeah. So that might be a stretch and that might be asking for too much.

[00:29:30] I just I like Mayo, I guess, a little bit better than I do Norby just in terms of that. But I'll stay trading for Heston Kerstad. So you would want to play him and that would really create an interesting scenario in your outfield. I mean, you would have two unproven outfielders already in the corners in Jared Kelnick or not totally unproven, but you get what I'm saying with that. Two guys who are not sold that are everyday starters yet in Jared Kelnick and Dominic Canzone.

[00:29:59] And then you have Julio in center. So now you add Kerstad to that group. You have three somewhat unproven to totally unproven and Julio, which for a contending team is athletic, controllable, a lot of upside, but a lot of a lot of a lot of risk as well. If they sign Shohei and Blake Snell first and then make this trade, sure. Great.

[00:30:27] But like you said, like we talked about with Jung-Hoo Lee, like we talked about with Lourdes Gurriel, I like the idea of this trade. And it's certainly a good idea that John threw out there. And it certainly might be one that gets discussed between the two clubs. But it cannot be the headline move of your offseason. I think that's going to be a theme we put out there a lot for a lot of the trades and free agent guys that we talk about this winter. That, oh, it'd be a nice move. Yeah. Cannot be the headliner. I agree.

[00:30:58] Okay. Fourth question here. Now we're getting juicy. Fourth question's from James. He says, what are the odds at the Mariners landing, Otani, Soto, or Snell? Again, obviously they're not getting all three, but the odds of each individual player being a Seattle Mariner. Am I doing percentages? Yeah, let's do that. Okay. Blake Snell, I'm going to say 50%. I believe he wants to come home.

[00:31:27] And I think Divich said that he heard that Blake Snell wants to come home. It would make sense. It would make sense. Mariners would pay a pitcher. I don't think they'd have a problem with that. They've done it twice already in the last two years. And I don't think they'd have a problem doing it again for another proven guy, especially with the strategy that I'm sure Jerry is very much aware of. You supplement your starting pitching, and then you trade off of that supplement with younger, more controllable options. So Blake Snell, I'm going to put at 50%.

[00:31:58] Shohei Otani, I'm going to put at 10%. And Juan Soto, I'm going to put at 5%. I think Soto's the least likely. One year, you know he's hitting free agency. Who's his agent? Scott Boris. There's also now reports that Soto wants to go back to the East Coast once he hits free agency. You would have to give up a ton to get him. He feels like the least likely to me. So what would I put Juan Soto at? Yeah, 3% to 5%.

[00:32:27] Now, Blake Snell, before I even get into the Otani stuff, because I'm sure that can be a whole discussion in itself, to double up on what you said, when we talked about Blake Snell a couple weeks ago, I was just starting to kind of kick the tires on the idea and think, yeah, could this make sense? Would the Mariners buy into this? I've done not just a full 180, but I've had this epiphany in the sense of, I think the Mariners absolutely have to sign Blake Snell. Here's why.

[00:32:56] How often do free agents say, oh, the Seattle Mariners? I want to play there. Never, ever, ever. In fact, most free agents say, I don't want to go within a thousand miles of that place. Now, you've got a guy who's about to be a two-time Cy Young winner saying, not only would I be open to playing in Seattle, I want to play in Seattle. I will take a hometown discount to play in Seattle. He said that despite being a Scott Boris guy. At least that's what's being reported by Divish.

[00:33:25] He thinks Snell would take a small hometown discount to go to the Mariners. So you better go get that guy because you don't have people knocking on your door very often that are stars and saying, I want to play for you. So I have done a, I've had a full epiphany and said, the Mariners absolutely need to go sign Blake Snell. Go do it. What are the percent chances? I'll even go a little higher than you. I'll say 55 because if the Mariners fork up the money, it's 100%.

[00:33:54] At least that's what it sounds like. If they give him what he's asking for, it's 100%. If the Mariners don't fork up the money, yeah, it gets more complicated. So then you and I are going to have a fucking problem. That's what we're going to have. Yes. So essentially the 45% of hesitancy I'm putting out there is all in John Stanton's court. It's, are you going to pay Blake Snell or not? If you don't, there's where the hesitancy is. If you say we'll give Blake Snell what he's looking for, this goes from 55% to just about 100%.

[00:34:23] Okay. Now what's your show hate percentage? So we've talked about this a little bit before. I think it's higher than what most people think. Am I banking on it? No way. Well, absolutely not. But like we've said, I think most, most Mariners fans sit there and say, there's no chance. He's going to the Dodgers or they're not getting them. Don't waste your time. It's less than 5%. I don't think so. I really don't.

[00:34:49] I'm putting it somewhere between 25 and 30%, which is again, it's not high odds, but it's higher than what most people think. I don't think the list of teams he's going to consider is that long. I think the Dodgers and the Mariners are very high up on that list. I think the Dodgers are probably one and the Mariners honestly might be two. So that's why I'm saying 25 to 30%. I'm much more optimistic than most people are. I understand that. But I think Mariners fans like to be pessimistic. A lot of the time.

[00:35:16] I just look across the league and say, what teams make sense for Shohei? Well, I guess all of them, because every team would benefit from having them. But what teams make sense for Shohei to go play for? Like, what does he want? I think there's a lot of boxes. The Mariners check. I really do. So 10% is on the pessimistic side. It's not letting yourself be disappointed, which I think a lot of people are going to be, even if Shohei has made up his mind that he's actually not coming to the Mariners and

[00:35:45] that he doesn't want to play in Seattle. And he doesn't think the organization is a good fit for him. Like, we don't know that. So people are going to be disappointed. The question is how you handle that disappointment. How does the Mariners handle that disappointment? Are they going to be able to pivot quickly? That's going to be the most important point of this offseason, and which leads to the percentage chance of our final person on this question. Which would be Blake Snell, which again, like I said, I'm putting it at 50 to 55%.

[00:36:14] I'll say 55, even a little bit higher than you. Sorry. No, I meant the first one, actually, then. Juan Soto, I think. Oh, yeah. That's the one you didn't go into. Oh, no. I said Soto's like three to 5%. I was sorry. This has been a long question because obviously it's packed with three very, very headline names. So again, I just don't think the Soto thing's going to happen. It would cost a ton. He's not re-signing. It just, I don't think it makes a lot of sense. As good as he is. As incredible as he is, I should say.

[00:36:43] I don't think for Seattle, it would make a lot of sense. So I think more so they'll be invested in both Shohei and Blake Snell. And I'll say this, let's just get it out there with the offseason now officially starting. I really hope Shohei signs early. One, because I cannot take him dragging this out till January. I'm going to be stressed and refreshing Twitter every five seconds every day for weeks if he takes a long time. And because I think he's going to hold up the market if he doesn't sign quickly, because I think a lot of teams are going to be trying to sign him.

[00:37:13] And I think that may hold up a lot of the rest of the free agent market. So I hope Shohei makes his decision relatively quickly. I actually think he may. And then that can just say, that can let everybody be like, okay, let's move on. Let's pivot. What can we do next? Yeah, he can sign as early as next Tuesday. Yeah. That's as early as he can sign. And it could be within a couple of weeks. And I think you and I would really appreciate him signing within a couple of weeks. So we have enough time to get into everything else.

[00:37:40] And we don't have to do all these what if episodes throughout the course of the holiday season. Yeah. Let's get to our final question on. Did you have something else to finish up? Well, I was just going to say the positive of if Shohei takes a long time is it makes for some good social media content. You know what people love? Us talking about Shohei Otani. And by us, I just mean like media people. There's Shohei stuff out there. Oh, people listen. No, 100%. Absolutely. Let's get to the final question in our mailbag.

[00:38:08] Not Mariners related from Mason is a Diamondbacks question or the Diamondbacks going to make a huge splash in free agency this offseason. What do you think, Lyle? I think they have to. And I think it has to be for a starting pitcher. And it sounds like they may be inclined to if you listen to Arizona Sports Radio here on Thursday. Yeah. So Ken Kendrick went on 98.7 down there in Phoenix and used some very complicated words.

[00:38:36] Let me know if you've heard these in the business world, Lyle. The World Series run for the Diamondbacks created a unplanned, quote, economic windfall, unquote, that puts the organization in position to make a, quote, non-insubstantial investment in the team, a.k.a. we made enough money from the World Series that we might consider spending money. Correct. He's trying to use big boy words.

[00:39:04] But I would hope the Diamondbacks are going to spend some money because they were right there this year. They were in the fall classic. They were going toe-to-toe with the Rangers in a bunch of those games. Again, game one went right down to the wire. Game five until that ninth inning was neck and neck. They weren't that far out of it. You know what would make a big difference? Starting pitching. Because they've got three and three guys that could be really good. Gallen, Kelly, Fott. They need more after that. And there's a lot of starters on this market.

[00:39:34] There's Blake Snell. There's Aaron Nola. There's Sonny Gray. There's going to be Yamamoto if they really wanted to try and go make a splash. So there's guys out there that they could go sign. I think they need one more true impact arm. So if they're going to go spend some money, I think it would make a lot of sense for them to spend it in that area. And I think they should spend more money, period, this winter. Because 21st in payroll for a team that made the World Series, why wouldn't you go spend

[00:39:59] resources into your ball club and try to get back there next year if not win it? And they have a really good sales pitch. I mean, they have a young core. And the Phoenix area is where a lot of these guys train in the offseason. How convenient would it be to live there year-round? You don't have to move anywhere. You can live in your same house. And you train at your same place throughout the season and throughout the offseason. It's a pretty easy pitch. That's the big reason why the Mariners struggle to keep players and attract players.

[00:40:26] Not only is it cold, but guys leave and go thousands of miles away once the season is over. And I'm sure most of these guys would rather stay in one place if they could. It just makes life easier. So if the Diamondbacks are willing to actually spend money and spend market rate on one of these pitchers, I don't think they'd have that hard of a time convincing someone to come and play in their organization. Not at all, especially now that they're good. And if this is something the players even consider too, there's a lot of fun stuff to do in Phoenix,

[00:40:54] especially in the offseason, especially if you're a golfer. You've got plenty to do in the offseason. So I think Phoenix is a destination location for a lot of these teams. So like you said, you could have one house, live there all year for spring training, for the offseason, for the regular season, and play for a good team. I think it makes a lot of sense. Okay, our final question. And this should be a fun one. So this was not submitted to us, but it was on social media here on Thursday. And we thought, you know what?

[00:41:26] We're going to ask it here anyway. It was a few accounts tweeted it out. The one I saw it from was Talking Baseball, the John Boy account. And they said, the favorite moment from your team in 2023 was what? And I'll kick this to you, TJ. But first, I've got to say, I had a hard time trying to think of these. I have one, and I think it works perfectly with what the Mariners are as a franchise. I think I enjoyed this night the most.

[00:41:53] It was Felix's number retirement night where George Kirby threw nine shutout. I had a lot of fun watching that baseball game. I think I had more fun watching that game against the Orioles than I had all season long. And I think that is the best I saw a Mariners pitcher throw all season. I thought the energy in the ballpark was unbelievable. And in the end, I think that tops my list of moments from this season. There's so many others you could have chosen. You could have chose the 21st win in August. I mean, that was amazing.

[00:42:23] And Julio's ridiculous streak and kicking the shit out of the Astros throughout the regular season. All awesome. But I don't think anything quite reaches that night that George Kirby had in August. I guess the reason I had such a hard time with these is despite an 88-win season and being right in the thick of the playoff race, just didn't feel like there were a lot of nights where everybody was really fired up, aside from the month of August. But it's funny.

[00:42:51] None of those wins in August really stood out more than the others. Like, there wasn't that one win where it's like, wow. Like, okay, here we go. They had a great month, but it wasn't some game of the year type of contest. So then you throw that month aside and there was a lot of 500 baseball. There was buying and selling at the deadline. There was trying to play from behind the final week of the season and not playing well in Texas and then not playing well against the Astros. Like, it was a hard year.

[00:43:21] Despite winning 88 games and a lot of teams around the league saying, I would have taken that year. It was a hard 2023 to be a Mariner fan. I guess the couple I came up with was the 482-foot blast from Jared Kelnick at Wrigley. That one was pretty sick. The other one I thought of, which is just so fitting, was the Dom Canzone home run, also in the Orioles series, to tie it up where he hit it off the Hit It Here Cafe. It was an absolute blast.

[00:43:47] They rebounded just a couple pitches after Ty France had a home run robbed by Cedric Mullins to try and tie the game. Canzone actually tied the game. And then, oh, by the way, they lost. Yeah. So that felt very on brand for the Mariners' season. Like, they kept people engaged just long enough, and then they lost. And that Jared home run came in Game 3 of a three-game series with the Cubs where in Game 1, they blew how many runs? Seven-run lead? It was what?

[00:44:16] They got shut out one night. They scored one run one night and then I think blew a seven-run lead the other. No, because it was Game 2 they blew that big lead. In Game 1, you know what Kelnick did in that game? He hit a game-time home run in the ninth inning. He hit it off the scoreboard and right field at Wrigley. But then I'm pretty sure they lost in extra innings. Oh, wait. They lost in extra innings? Who could have ever guessed? Again, this was not as easy as 2022 would have been to think of moments.

[00:44:45] And even throwing the Cal Raleigh playoff-clinching homer out the window last year, there was a lot of really fun moments. There was a 14-game win streak. There was the finale against the Braves. There was a bunch of games last year. It was so much fun. Mid-June and on last year was such a fun ball club to watch, but there was just a lot of stress in 2023. I don't know. Maybe it's clouding some of the memories, especially earlier on in the year, that might have been good. But I saw some Mariner fans saying the same thing here on Thursday.

[00:45:15] I think there was a lot of hard moments this year. It was not easy to pick out the fun ones. Well, they played 500 baseball outside of like a month and a half. Which is probably why it wasn't so easy to find those moments. Like Gino hit the one walk-off home run back in May, I believe. That was one. But yeah, like that was cool. But like season defining great moment. I don't know if I would call it that. There just wasn't that many. The J.P.

[00:45:45] Crawford Grand Slam, that final weekend against Texas, like that one was cool. But there's just, yeah, like I'm just rattling some off here. There just wasn't a lot. I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be Kelnick's homer. If I had to pick one above all of them for me, it'd be the Kelnick homer. If they would have made the playoffs, I think J.P.'s homer might have stuck up on the list a little bit more. But they didn't. No, they did not. No. Pretty sad. Okay, so George Kirby and then George Kirby's game against the Orioles.

[00:46:14] And then Jared Kelnick's homerun. Very, that would be it. I guess that just about wraps up the mailbag. Oh, sorry. Let me just throw one final one in there. Maybe our greatest question yet. This is from somebody named Spencer. I don't know who this is. I've never seen or heard from this person in my entire life. He sends in a question that says, If Otani goes elsewhere, what are the odds of a video dropping of John Heyman having his head spin and doing the gritty?

[00:46:43] I'd say 100%. Pretty high. I'd like to see John Heyman gritty. Do you think he could pull it off? I feel like he's too old. I was going to say absolutely not. No, this man, John Heyman, despises the Mariners. And for those of you that are on Twitter, you know that. For some of our folks that maybe aren't. Yeah, he John Heyman despises the Mariners. Seems like a pretty miserable person. I will. We'll just put that out there. Doesn't seem like he has a whole lot of fun.

[00:47:13] Well, maybe when East Coast teams win. That's true. That is true. Okay. Well, let's close out the show with speak your mind. Speak your mind. That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. All right. What's on your mind? How in the world do any teams keep trading for James Harden? Like how?

[00:47:39] This guy has been traded now a handful of times in his career. And what happens every single time? He's there for about a season, maybe a little bit longer. Decides he's fed up and then demands a trade. And teams keep trading for him. And now he's a member of the Clippers with what could end up being the most toxic team in the history of basketball. I don't know how teams do it. My question is how the NBA continues to exist. Like just looking at this roster of the Clippers.

[00:48:07] I mean, I'm going to set the over under of DNPs this season for that. Those four like 70. The four combined. Oh, at least 70. Those guys are going to miss so many games for load management. Throughout the year. They're going to roll into the playoffs as the six or seven seed. They'll get just enough wins to get into the postseason. None of them will have like ever played together outside of 10 games throughout the season.

[00:48:34] And then they're probably going to get bounced in the first round because there's no chemistry. They're all selfish and it's going to be toxic. And we're going to hear a story coming out by the end of the season that like Russ and Harden are clashing heads or Kawhi can't stand James Harden's beard or something like that. It's that is how this is going to end up. And the Clippers are going to do all of this to finish probably what six in the West and lose in the first round. Like, like, like this isn't even how basketball teams are built anymore. Like the teams like this don't win.

[00:49:04] They don't. It's been proven year after year after year. This is not how it works. I'm pretty sure Russ and James Harden already don't like each other. Didn't they have problems when they played on the Rockets together? I think so. But it was funny because the first person to dap James Harden up once he got into the Clipper locker room was Russ. This league is all we can say. What what a league it is.

[00:49:33] I'm sure there's going to be story after story coming out from this team throughout the year. And we're just going to sit back and watch because what is the NBA? It's a soap opera, as we like to say. One final thing before we throw it back to you. I did just want to give a little shout out to Nelson Cruz, who officially retired today here on Thursday. I think he's somebody that despite only being here four years is absolutely loved here in Seattle and will be for a long time. So I just wanted to give a hat tip to him. He is a Hall of very good player.

[00:50:01] He won't be a Hall of Famer, but he really did have quite the career. And he had a lot of his best years here in Seattle. Got his career started a little bit too late, was scuffling a little bit too long before he really turned it on. If he started if he started playing the way he did in his 30s a little bit earlier in his career, I think he would be a Hall of Famer. But unfortunately for Nelson, he won't. All time Mariner, though, despite only playing four seasons, really, really just a good player. What's up?

[00:50:27] Well, I hate to now put negative light on him, but he also did juice. So even if he had started getting hot earlier in his career, he probably wouldn't have gotten in. But he is a Hall of very good player. Yeah, perennially, no matter when he started now then, a Hall of very good player. Okay, my speak your mind. I can't keep up with all this Connor Stallions Michigan stuff. It just keeps getting funnier and funnier by the day of these cheating allegations.

[00:50:53] There was a video that came out today on Thursday, which you can. It was a video of the Michigan Ohio State game in 2022. By the way, before I continue, the background is Connor Stallions is a Michigan staffer on the Michigan football team that has allegedly been stealing signs from opposition. He's been going out ahead and recording all of their signs and delivering it back to Michigan for them to steal play calls when they play them.

[00:51:22] And coincidentally, the three seasons when Connor Stallions has stolen signs for Jim Harbaugh have been the three best seasons by far Jim Harbaugh has had at Michigan. Huh, shocker. So there's a video that came out today where you can clearly see Connor Stallions standing behind the defensive coordinator for Ohio State yelling, Run right! Run right! Run right! And what do you know? Ohio State lines up and runs to the right. And there's just like so much incriminating evidence by the day.

[00:51:51] And shocker in college football, the NCAA sits back and is like, I don't know what to do. We don't actually have any power here. And there was a call today with all, I think, other 13 Big Ten head coaches who are like, there needs to be some fucking punishment. And the Big Ten is a first year commissioner too. Like, it's just so crazy. I just said a lot right there. So I'm going to let you respond to something. This is such a college football story too. It just keeps dragging on and on and on.

[00:52:21] And you would think it's the biggest story in the world right now for how much it's being talked about So when you really get down to the bare bones of it, it is somebody taking some signs from the sideline. Yes, there should be punishment, of course. Like, Michigan is not playing by the rules. But they're really making this out to be quite the story when there's been many, many bigger scandals in college football that have arisen than this.

[00:52:49] But they're really dragging this one out. I almost think the NCAA likes the attention of it. No, I just think they're incompetent. That's what they are. It might be both. You know what this is a result of? This is a result of a sport that is run by individual entities and not one governing body. Shocker. I know. That's what this is a result of. If this happened in the NFL, Jim Harbaugh would have already been suspended for a year. He'd be done. You'd be sitting on the sidelines. Speaking of the NFL,

[00:53:19] well, is Jim Harbaugh actually going to scapegoat his way out of Michigan and go to the NFL? Because there's been reports that seem to think the NFL is not going to serve as some landing bed or safe haven for him if he gets in trouble for this. Now, all it takes is one team to jump in and say, who cares? We'll sign him anyway. But I don't know if it's going to be a slam dunk for Jim Harbaugh to go to the NFL. All I'll say is Mark Davis hasn't shied away from making splashes at head coach. That's for sure.

[00:53:50] The Raiders would be such a perfect fit. What a disaster they already are already. Which that would just add fuel to the fire with Jim Harbaugh. What a shocker, by the way. We've never really given this take on the podcast because we've been circling the wagons with this take, I guess, well before we started. But TJ and I have been on the train forever of Jimmy Garoppolo's atrocious, even when he was in San Francisco, that he was aided by the best play caller in the league and just an abundance of weapons at every position with the 49ers. Well, look at him when he goes to a team where he actually has to do way more

[00:54:19] and he actually gets benched for Aiden O'Connor. Yeah. One last thing on this Connor Stallions thing. Like the fact that there's so much denial out there and we've mentioned there's been no punishment yet. But the fact is that there were some photos going around earlier last week that Stallions was on the sideline of Central Michigan, a different university. He was on the sidelines when they were playing Michigan State to open this season.

[00:54:48] And there's a video of him like there's a player that ran out of bounds on the sideline right in front of him and he did this. He put his hat down and looked down away from the television cameras and walked away from the play. And there's another one where the TV camera catches his sunglasses, by the way, playing a night game. A night game. He's wearing sunglasses and you can see a little recorder in the corner of his sunglasses blink on and record something. It's like, oh.

[00:55:14] And then the fact that they asked Jim McElwain, the Central Michigan head coach, last week they asked him about it. He's like, oh, we're aware of these allegations. We're looking into it. And you know what that tells me, Lyle? That was absolutely Connor Stallions. Because if it wasn't, Jim McElwain would be like, oh, yeah, that was Jimmy Smith. Yeah, we know who that is. Here's Jimmy Smith. This is what Jimmy Smith looks like. No, that was Connor Stallions.

[00:55:42] And those definitely looked like recorder Ray-Ban sunglasses, by the way, which I think you can buy online for like 300 bucks. It's not looking good for Mr. Jim Harbaugh in his attempt to return Michigan to glory. In that sense, his best seasons have all resulted of cheating. And he's still, in classic Jim Harbaugh fashion, managed to lose the biggest games no matter what. He always manages to do it.

[00:56:11] Every stop he goes to. He gets to the playoff. He gets a chance to play for a national championship. He gets smoked by a Big 12 team. Who's he going to lose to this year? Is he going to get to lose to anybody? Here's my thing with this. What if the Big Ten just doesn't let Michigan play in the title game? That would be kind of crazy. Because this is the last year that the Big Ten has divisions. Ohio State is a bigger TV draw than Michigan is.

[00:56:40] So even if Ohio State loses to Michigan and goes 11-1, the Big Ten would not suffer a TV ratings dip if they put Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game to face whatever crummy Big Ten West opponent they face. By the way, thank God divisions are gone. Talk about the biggest joke of a division in college football. It would be that one.

[00:57:00] Anyways, they would not suffer a ratings dip if they put Ohio State in the Big Ten championship and therefore let them also into the college football playoff over a suspended Michigan team, presumably without their head coach. Yeah, but Ohio State's also not very good. I think that might hurt the Big Ten. Are we sure Ohio State would get into that Big Ten title game and win? I don't think Ohio State's very good.

[00:57:25] I think as bad as it's looked off the field for Michigan over the last few weeks, they're a better team than Ohio State. Who in the Big Ten West is beating Ohio State? I don't know, but Ohio State just looks way more vulnerable than they've been in past years. Are you telling me Iowa is going to beat Ohio State? Because they're not. I mean, no. Iowa's a whole different story in itself. What a disgrace of an offense every single year. But anyway, I'm sure the ratings would be fine.

[00:57:54] And that's really what it boils down to, right? Because that's what college football has become. It's a television product. That's why all this shit is happening. So if they realize that the ratings wouldn't actually suffer, they can levy a real punishment against Michigan. Of course, if we want to tie this back to the Raiders, the head coach that oversaw all these things that would bring the punishment upon them wouldn't be there to see any of it through. He'd just go.

[00:58:23] Although we know a little bit about that. The head coach of our football team kind of jumped ship before things got bad at his college school. Yeah. So Herm Edwards is now pulling two paychecks, one from ASU and another from ESPN, while not having to deal with any of the consequences of the disaster he caused at ASU. And by the way, Antonio Pierce, the quote unquote ringleader of all those alleged allegations and now subsequent punishment. Actually, I don't even think they've been punished by the NCAA yet.

[00:58:53] If we're talking about incompetence, still haven't been punished. But Antonio Pierce jumps ship, goes to the Raiders. And now he's an NFL head coach while Kenny Dillingham is working his ass off in Tempe, trying to get around the just devoid roster that that he was left. And probably the scholarship reduction he's going to have to face in the future from the NCAA. Oh, that's not what I was talking about. But sure, that's that's another that's another thing we can bring up to tie that in. Then I was I was referencing Pete Carroll.

[00:59:23] I was like, oh, that works, too. I was like, we've seen this happen. A coach that was under hot water at his collegiate university and then jumped ship to the NFL before he had to take any punishment for it. This doesn't tell you the NCAA is the biggest scam in the world. I don't know what is it like. It's just so easy to just dodge around it. It's so easy. What a time. What a time. And I'm sure this thing's going to get only funnier and and more in depth in the next few weeks.

[00:59:53] So I guess we'll get to see how it all plays out, won't we? I think so. All right. I think that just about wraps it up for this edition of the Marine Layer podcast. If you guys like these mailbag episodes, by the way, let us know. Either in the YouTube comments or on social media, wherever, because we're happy to do more of them and we enjoy doing them. If you guys want us to answer your questions this winter, let us know. So we're open to more mailbag episodes if you guys like them. Anyway, you want to listen to the full form podcast.

[01:00:21] You can do so on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon. If you do that, make sure to follow us, download our episodes, leave us a five star review. The reviews, the downloads, they really do help us out a bunch. So if you have a few extra seconds to do it, please do it. And then go watch us on YouTube. Like, comment, subscribe, turn the notification bells on over there to our full video side of the podcast. And on social media, you can find us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube shorts at MarineLayerPod. That's TJ. I'm Lyle.

[01:00:51] As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. Talk to you soon.