Episode 82: Ty Adcock, And Should The Mariners Swing A Trade For Josh Naylor?

[00:00:00] Welcome to Episode number 82 of the Marine Layer Podcast. We welcome on Mariners Reliever Ty Adcock an awesome conversation about his career, switching from a catcher to a pitcher in college and his longtime friendship with Mariners arm George Kirby. We'll also discuss

[00:00:17] some Josh Naylor Mariners rumors that surfaced at winter meetings that are very interesting and something that Lau and I need to discuss. Before we start the show, here's your reminder to download our episodes, leave us a five

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[00:00:55] 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 Tuesday evening December 12th. The winter meetings are over. The Mariners have left empty handed and Jeff

[00:01:21] Passon dragged the Mariners again today. I mean, it sounds like the trifecta. Who else needs to hear it at this point if your ownership or I should say who else do you need to hear it from? I'm sure Jeff Passon is not the person that puts it

[00:01:36] over the top in terms of them saying, oh, we should hold a press conference and be held accountable. And we should actually go spend in free agency. But I'm just saying you've heard it from players. You've heard it from fans.

[00:01:46] You heard it from local media. Ryan Divas just wrote another awesome article a couple of days ago. You've heard it from national media. I don't know who else you have to hear it from to actually wake up and say, okay, maybe

[00:01:57] we should actually act on this and start getting aggressive this winter in free agency. Lyle and I are going to do our best to be the shining light through this darkness because what Jeff Passon said today was quite depressing. You can go listen to it.

[00:02:14] Friend of the pod, two friends of the pod, Brock Heward and Mike Salk. He was on with them today on Seattle Sports. It's a really good conversation that we can't really do diligence talking about it here on this podcast, but it he didn't exactly paint a rosy

[00:02:27] picture. So now it's it is our job now to bring everyone's hopes back up like come back up with us. It's gonna it's gonna be okay because you have us. We do like being the positive side of the Mariners world because man,

[00:02:42] there is a lot of negativity out there and not that we're not that we've done none of it, but we do in general try to be the positive side. Here's my last thing before we actually jump into the show today

[00:02:51] regarding all the negative Mariners talk from Passon and everybody else. I've tried to think about what it would take for ownership to really be rattle of the wake and say, okay, let's change our thinking here. If Julio were to come out on social media with a statement saying,

[00:03:07] this is unacceptable, figure it out. This is not the team I signed up to play for. Would that finally wake ownership up? Maybe Cal didn't maybe JP didn't maybe national media didn't. If Julio came out and said that, would it change anything? I don't think so.

[00:03:22] No, that would if that would require ownership thinking Julio is above them, which I just don't think that's how most owners think. Like, is there a situation in any league besides the NBA where that works? Any single league? I like, I don't think so.

[00:03:43] I feel like if Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes at some point in their career were to speak out and say something like that, I feel like that would kind of ring some bells up at the top.

[00:03:51] Now they were never on teams where that was an issue or have been an issue from a home's case, but I do think it would. I think it would flip a light switch on. I'm not saying it would do with the Mariners ownership group.

[00:04:03] They may just not care. And that's been very true over the course of since they took over these reins, but I'm just saying that's the closest thing I can think of to having them really being rattled awake and saying, okay, let's let's do something about this.

[00:04:17] I'm just going to go back to what Mike Salkson, I thought he just said it so perfectly a week ago last Tuesday. He said who else needs to say it? Right? Like everyone possible has said what is needed to be said. Not the face of the franchise.

[00:04:33] Yeah, right. Okay. Well, not the face of the Franca, not the face of the franchise, but pretty much everyone else has said what's needed to be said. So if all these people have already said it, then, you know, eventually either you listen or you don't.

[00:04:48] And it seems like at this point, they're not going to listen. I do have speaking of not spending, this would probably be a not spending what will lead this podcast episode off with. But Josh Naylor, some rumors came out about Josh Naylor out of the

[00:05:04] winter meetings and it was reported by Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain dealer that the Cubs Mariners and Pirates drew were interested in Josh Naylor and there are some rumors floating around about the Guardians first baseman. He's only projected to make $7 million this year.

[00:05:22] He's got two years before he's a free agent. The Guardians almost never signed their guys to long term extensions even if they're young, controllable and have a high amount of upside outside of Jose Ramirez who they have signed. So, Lyle, I'm going to bring this around to you.

[00:05:40] Is Josh Naylor a good fit with the Mariners? He is. I like the player. I like the profile. I think the last two years he's been really good. The problem is tying this all back into spending.

[00:05:51] Are there not guys on the market who could put up similar production to Josh Naylor and you wouldn't have to give up something valuable because he would cost something valuable in a trade? I'm sure there are and we could make that case for most guys.

[00:06:04] It's like trading for the raised guys. I think Naylor is a step below the raised guys. If you were to trade for a Rosarana or Paradeys, I think that's a step up and I think those guys are probably

[00:06:14] a little better than Naylor in terms of making true impact. But it is the same idea that you'd have to give up something valuable and you would have to part with either a high end prospect or a young starting pitcher, maybe both for those raised guys.

[00:06:26] For Naylor it would probably be a little bit less. I bet you would be some prospect or two within your top 10. I don't think it would cost one of the young arms to get them, but it would cost a prospect that people value

[00:06:39] and that is more to give up than it would be if you were going to just go and spend money on somebody. I'm sure there would and you are speaking very logically. You are really. I'm going to give you a round of applause.

[00:06:50] The logic coming out of your mouth right now, it is music to my ears. Why don't you just spend money? The problem is, Lyle, why won't they spend money? They're cheap. There we go. There we go. So the option is Josh Naylor.

[00:07:07] If there's interest there, which again, this makes sense. It's not like he costs nothing. He would cost $7 million on top of what they would give up. If it's a prospect, you're trading essentially no salary for $7.2 million,

[00:07:22] which is about the number and he'd get a little bit more expensive, a little bit over $10 million next season in his final year before free agency, I would imagine. But this isn't something Mitch Garver couldn't already repeat.

[00:07:35] I would say especially if the Mariners feel like they want to buy into Ty France at Drive Line. It's like, OK, we sell these videos of Ty France at Drive Line. He looks great. We're confident Ty is going to have a good 2024 season.

[00:07:47] In fact, given our financial resources, Ty France has to have a really good 2024 season. So we're going to need him at first base. However, Josh Naylor could still occupy the DH spot and be good. The problem is you could sign Mitch Garver for a very fair amount

[00:08:04] and he could, if he's healthy, put up the same production in that DH roll. So that's where I see where you're coming from with that, that there are definitely options there for Josh Naylor for you not to give up the prospect and instead fill that DH roll

[00:08:17] with somebody else that is maybe a little bit more pricey but works out just the same. OK, now I'm going to play devil's advocate to you. The flip side of signing Mitch Garver versus trading for Josh Naylor

[00:08:31] is Naylor is on the field a bit more than Garver is. And Naylor actually plays some pretty good first base defense. So with this idea, you could flip Naylor and Ty between first base and DH. Neither of them have to work their tails off playing the field 162 games.

[00:08:44] They could split it. Naylor was in the 88th percentile and out above average this past year. So he can play some good first base defense and both those guys if Ty gets back to the guy he once was can hit and can hit for some authority.

[00:08:57] So if it is really going to come through trades, what have we said? If they left Dom Kanzon alone in left field but filled the other three spots, third base, outfield DH, we'd be OK with it.

[00:09:07] I would kind of hate to see it have to be three trades because that means you're giving some valuable pieces out. You're getting some valuable pieces out of your organization. But just in terms of on field big league production in 24, if you were going to get Josh Naylor,

[00:09:21] if you were going to get ESOC parades and you were going to get Randy Rosarana, that is a massive upgrade. And Josh Naylor is a really good hitter. The last two years he's been a very good hitter. So it would be nice if they just signed some guys.

[00:09:32] But with the cards they've been dealt, maybe you would have to look something like that, which by the way, they trade for those three guys. That's $18 million under the under the payroll budget. Hmm. And I like you slip the cards you've been dealt there and there.

[00:09:45] That was that was nice. Yeah, I'll give you credit for that. I'll give you props for that. I'll say one other option who's on the field that you could sign. We've we've definitely talked about him, but a certain someone was spotted working out in the very same shirt

[00:09:57] I do own with Ken Griffey Jr. blowing a gum bubble, working out getting ready for the season. Just, you know, coincidence. His old his hitting coach is now a Mariners hitting coach, you know, just just just coincidence is just just similar things.

[00:10:13] For those that are not as active on social media as we are, would you like to fill everybody in on who this is? Yes. So Jorge Soler had a Ken Griffey Jr. shirt working out yesterday. As a time of recording. Yes. When this comes out Monday.

[00:10:26] So it was nice to see you. I did like that. It's a good choice of shirt. I will say one of my favorite shirts. I'm surprised I don't own one to be honest. They're like the sickest shirts.

[00:10:35] I know type France owns wanted a bunch of guys own one because why they're super cool. You own one. Yeah, exactly. What would puzzle me about a trade like this is that this doesn't really make sense from the Guardian side. Like they can't hit first of all,

[00:10:50] they are a crummy hitting team. Second of all, Josh Neyler was their best bat last year. I think TJ Jose Ramirez. No, like Josh Neyler was the best hitter on the on the Guardians last year was not Jose Ramirez. And the way it usually works out in Cleveland.

[00:11:07] Again, outside of Jose Ramirez, once these guys, once these guys get to one year before their free agency, they will get traded. For example, Shane Bieber is one year away from free agency right now. He'll probably get traded this off season because they just

[00:11:22] couldn't afford the rates that these starting pitchers are going to go for, or these everyday players are going to go for. Josh Neyler might not be all that expensive since he's only a first baseman. But this gives if he does get traded,

[00:11:36] I mean, that would be the reason why. I couldn't think of any other reason why the Guardians would want to trade their best hitter off a roster that already struggles a ton. So that might lead, that leads me to think that the Mariners would have to

[00:11:50] overpay to actually make this happen. And if they did have to overpay, I would probably lean away from this. I'm with you on that. I like the player. He would certainly help. Again, I just hate the idea of having to make your team

[00:12:07] better strictly through trades all off season. That's where our gripe is. Although if you want to just dive in on Josh Neyler, the player a little bit, you're talking about a guy who's hit 37 bombs in the last two years. He had a 128 WRC plus and 23.

[00:12:21] He had a 119 WRC plus and 22. So he's been well above league average at the plate the last two seasons. His OPS has been well over 800 the last two seasons and he doesn't strike out much. He doesn't walk a whole ton,

[00:12:33] but he's striking out less than 14% of the time. And what do the Mariners want? They want guys that are not going to strike out. Josh Neyler will not strike out. He's a big chase guy. He's going to swing at a lot of pitches

[00:12:46] and he's going to make contact with a lot of them as well. He's not the biggest power profile guy. He has decent exit velocities. He's had decent expected slugging numbers, expected batting average quality of contact, et cetera. But it's not really the volume of power you want

[00:13:02] from a first baseman. He's honestly kind of similar to Ty France at first base with maybe a slightly better power profile and maybe a little bit better of an athlete profile as well. But they're actually shockingly similar if I'm going to lie,

[00:13:15] if you were to have them both on this roster is a very, I would say, interesting philosophical fit. But Ty France is a contact overpower first baseman and Josh Neyler is a contact overpower first baseman and then all of a sudden you think,

[00:13:29] okay, well we're trying to frame our roster as contact overpower. So this actually might work out a little bit better than you would think. And like you said, Josh Neyler will chase some pitches out of the zone, but it doesn't result in strikeouts.

[00:13:43] It may result in some weak popouts. It may result in some weak groundouts, but he doesn't strike out and above all that, he is a very good hitter. He's not going to blow you out of the water with his war.

[00:13:54] He's about a two to two and a half win player on a yearly basis, but he would help this team. And again, if you switch him and Ty France off every night between DH and first base, it's not the worst solution in the world

[00:14:05] because Neyler has a track record of being a good hitter. So you have to at least like that. Yeah, you do have to at least like that. So this probably means you send Locklear back. I would guess. Like you're not,

[00:14:17] you're not going to carry Locklear in the minor leagues and then two, these two guys in the big leagues with Ty France and Josh Neyler, that would probably be who goes back and then maybe the prospect on top of that

[00:14:30] if I'm going to take a swing at what this would cost. So really it's up to the person, whether or not they'd be willing to part with some of those pieces to get better for two seasons. I mean, it's not promised.

[00:14:41] I mean, if you'd want to sign him longterm, I'd imagine if you want to do this trade, you would sort of have an idea already if you'd want to sign Josh Neyler longterm. But according to some of our comments today,

[00:14:52] they should avoid it because Josh Neyler is quote a brat. So we got to take that into consideration. We'll take this into consideration too. One upside to Paul Seawall no longer being on the team. Josh Neyler is not going to walk into spring training

[00:15:06] in the middle of February. First day position players have to report to the clubhouse to get into a fight in the clubhouse because Paul Seawall rocked the baby Adam last year at the end of the game. Remember that? Yeah, I do remember that.

[00:15:19] So maybe we'll have to save it when they play the dimebacks. Man, that would be something. I wonder whose side people would take in that scenario because even though Paul Seawall would be on the other team hypothetically, he's still super close friends

[00:15:33] with a bunch of guys on the Mariners. So that would be something. I don't know if they liked the trade or not. If they thought it was a cheap out, then I think they might side with Seawall. Players just start fighting their own guy

[00:15:46] and defend the Paul Seawall. Yeah. Oh man, that would be something. I mean, I thought it was hilarious when he rocked the baby in the post season a couple of years ago. But yeah, I mean, I don't realize his reputation was so low.

[00:16:02] I mean, we posted our show. We posted our reaction video to this rumor today on our social media channels. And I was kind of shocked the amount of responses I got were like, no, he's toxic. Nope, he's an ass. No, please don't trade for him.

[00:16:17] He's bad. He's bad to have in your clubhouse. I'm like, really? Like he rocked the baby once? He did it a few times. It's kind of his thing now. And in fact, I'm sure if he was in Seattle, you'd probably see it a few times here.

[00:16:30] But no, I don't think he is a clubhouse problem by any stretch. Are you shocked that a bunch of people on social media who just spew negativity say, no, I don't want him always toxic? Like what do you expect sunshine and roses in our comment sections?

[00:16:45] That's true. I will give us credit, Lyle. We're a little bit over a full year. We're over a full year into this thing. And at first we really didn't have many comments at all. We were starting to grow. We were doing our best to churn out content

[00:17:00] and get some reaction. And now that we have all the reaction, I mean, man, you do see as much as you feel like we've thought out a concise, well thought out take using logic, using numbers, using whatever else you want to consider with that. We put it out.

[00:17:20] And people still manage to come out of the woodwork. I will give you people credit that you exist. I mean, man, credit to you guys for finding your own path in this life where you are free to think what you want and you sure do.

[00:17:33] And we really appreciate all the people from all the different paths who come along with us. It is great. Okay, we've got an awesome conversation with Ty Adcock coming up. But before that, quick words from our friends over at Pagotches Pub 85. Pagotches Pub 85 in Kirkland.

[00:17:51] It's our favorite spot to go hang out, watch some games, eat some great food, have some drinks, hang out with our friends. It's in Kirkland. So if you're enjoying a great time during happy hour, get some great deals. What are they? Happy hours are Monday through Friday,

[00:18:07] two to six p.m. It features $3 domestic beers, $4 Manning's Blue Moons, $4 Mackinjacks, $4 Wells and $4 House Wines. Also, this is not a happy hour special, but like we always talk about, some great pizza as well. So if you want to eat some great food, hang out with your friends,

[00:18:24] watch some games, go over to Pagotches Pub 85 and get some great deals. And then, I'm going to talk about the conversation. He was awesome. Yeah, he really was awesome. I got to say, I mentioned this to you after the conversation with Ty, that it's not...

[00:18:43] like when you talk to professional athletes, like you've realized this, you're at the field way more often than I do, but even college athletes too, the more experience you get, the more you get into your stuff.

[00:18:56] And a lot of these guys just want to be able to live their lives and play the game and not really worry too much else, and you realize that opening your mouth too much sometimes will get you in trouble. I mean, it will. But the side,

[00:19:09] what we get to see from Ty Adcock in this interview, it is just fantastic. It is so rare that a professional athlete will be this open about a lot of things with us. And I mean, we greatly appreciate everything Ty brought to it,

[00:19:23] just as that extra layer of getting to see the side of an athlete that you don't normally get to see because usually in a general media setting, they're so guarded and Ty was anything but in this interview and it made it that much better.

[00:19:37] If you don't like listening to TJ and I's voices, well then you're in luck for this interview because Ty, he loved to talk, which is awesome because the more you can get out of an athlete like TJ was talking about, the better the conversation is.

[00:19:48] And Ty did not hold back to tell his story, to really go into detail about it. And I think you guys are just going to learn that much more about him. And much like us, after concluding the interview,

[00:19:57] I think it's going to be pretty hard not to root for the guy to get back into the bullpen in 2024 and absolutely thrive. We're certainly rooting for it. And hopefully after listening to this, you guys will too.

[00:20:06] I think there are going to be a lot of people who are happy to not hear us talk. I'll say that while. Okay, let's get to our interview now with Mariners reliever Ty Adcock. All right, we've got Mariners reliever Ty Adcock on with us.

[00:20:21] I was scrolling through your Twitter a little bit before we hopped on with you. And I never noticed this during the year, but I noticed it well today. When you guys were in San Francisco, you're sitting out in the bullpen and somebody got you on camera

[00:20:34] like twirling up your Raleigh fingers type of mustache. My first question is, were you mirroring the Raleigh fingers thing? Like was that the idea? A little bit. I have a tendency to let my beard just kind of go crazy and I don't shave it for a while.

[00:20:51] Like, especially with my hair too. Like I'll grow my hair out super long and then just out of nowhere, I'll give it a really clean cut. Same thing with my beard. You got to a point. I think I hadn't shaved at all season.

[00:21:05] I was just letting it go. And then I started twirling it up once I got called up. And yeah, that day I was like, I'm really going to try and curl these up. And they worked out.

[00:21:16] I got a little bit of TV time and they put it on me. But yeah, like a little Raleigh fingers inspiration. Is there any sort of clubhouse competition with facial hair? I know a lot of people had had a good,

[00:21:26] let us a hair on the top of their head. What about facial hair wise? I wouldn't say within the clubhouse, but I think in the game of baseball you're trying to, you know, if you got good hair, you got to let it show.

[00:21:40] And especially since you're not working a normal day job or anything where you got to be super presentable, you can do a bunch of different designs and yeah, wild cuts that you've never done before. Like the year before last year I had done like a,

[00:21:55] my hair was really long. I did like a mullet almost like a tapered mullet. And then with the beard and everything I've done the mustache a couple of times, like just strictly mustache. But yeah, I think you're just always trying to keep people

[00:22:09] on their toes and like if you got good beard, you can do a lot of hair, clean it up or just let it grow like crazy like I do sometimes. Like I'm literally contemplating right now, do I grow my hair out for the season

[00:22:23] or do I leave it right now? So kind of back and forth on what I should do. Okay, two things off of that. First thing, you don't have to look totally presentable at least facial hair wise and hair wise unless you're a Yankee.

[00:22:37] So Ty, just keep that in mind. They value that very seriously. Second, is there a current inspiration for facial hair in Major League Baseball that you want to aspire to? I don't think it's one particular person, but all of the, I guess you could say relievers

[00:22:55] that have great beards. I've always wanted to beard my whole life and I never started growing one until I was literally 22 or three. Like it came on so late, but I just, I trusted it and I would just let it grow in the weird stages.

[00:23:13] I would shave it down, restart the process. It'd be like months and then eventually I got to this point and then when I get a good thick beard, I just want to let it keep going and thicken out. But like, I mean, the Brian Wilson,

[00:23:26] I mean that's a good inspiration. Archie Bradley's got a good one. Like that's a clean cut. Trying to think of some other good beards Maybe like an Ike Davis, you remember him? He had a long one. See, I don't like it super long.

[00:23:46] I like it thick through here at the bottom and then like a nice tapered up towards the sideburns. But yeah, like real thick and clean cut and with like a good fade, it kind of compliments the beard a lot better if you have the fade.

[00:24:06] My first thought was Brandon March of the Phillies, but now that you say you don't like the really long beard, I mean give it a little more time with you and maybe you've got a little bit of Brian Wilson in you because at length right now

[00:24:17] that's kind of what it's looking like. Yeah, I don't know if I could ever get to... Who'd you just say for the Phillies? Brandon March, the outfielder. Yeah, his is like extreme. And his hair, like he does the... He wets his hair before the game.

[00:24:32] It just looks gritty. That's what he is. When he gets on the field. But now I wouldn't get to that point. I would probably do Brian Wilson be the most. I'd let this get real thick about down here and then shave up the top.

[00:24:46] Is it a norm to like show up to spring training clean cut or does it not matter? Like you said, unless you're with the Yankees I don't think it matters. Okay, so just feel like you start the season fresh and then you let it go from there

[00:25:02] and like so you show up percentable. It's like showing up to the first day of school, right? You want to look your best. You want to wear your best clothes on the first day of school. You have a nice haircut. You got the weekend before

[00:25:11] and you know whatever happens happens over the course of the school year and I would imagine the same thing in some courses happen for a major league baseball. But it sounds like it's only probably for some people. Yeah, I think this year

[00:25:24] like I'll show up with a pretty good cut whatever it may be. I want to maybe be cleaned up a little bit but last year or the year before I showed up like an absolute caveman. I had hair down to my shoulders

[00:25:37] and the beard hadn't been shaved in probably months. What's better to pitch in? It was a bad look, but... Better to pitch in? See that's the dilemma. If I'm pitching and I want to go for best look I'm thinking like hair out the hat because as ball players

[00:25:55] hair out the hat is like the thing. That's what you want to have but when I had the... Last year when I had the hair out the hat and then this was cleaned up this was nice because when this gets in the awkward stage

[00:26:08] it just kind of sticks out. You have to get it long enough to push it behind the ears and when I cut that I didn't have to worry about it. So it was like the best of both worlds. You have short on the side

[00:26:18] and you have the flared out hair. So I might try to go back to that. I kind of like that. You and George Kirby I was going to say you and George Kirby are good friends and have been good friends for a while

[00:26:32] which I'm sure we'll get into with you a little bit but would he ever grow facial hair like you? I don't think he's got it. Like I've been around him and I don't think he can grow it that well.

[00:26:42] I think it's just one of those types of people that the hair just doesn't grow and some people are like that and this is how it is. Even if like he did like just I think truly tried to let it grow it would be thick

[00:26:56] it would be like whiskery and it just it'd be better off for him to just shave it. I think that's the situation. Well if we're going to get into you and George Kirby's friendship a little bit I guess we can take you all the way back

[00:27:10] to your guys time at Elon where you guys played your college ball together. When did that friendship kind of start between the two of you? I'll be honest it started later than you might think it was it was the year my senior year his junior year

[00:27:24] his first draft year my second draft year when I actually started to have a chance of getting drafted we started chatting it up a little bit more but you know we were always sharing the field together you know sharing get-togethers together and all that

[00:27:42] but he had a little bit of a different friend group than me in college but then like I said that year that that draft year for us we started chit-chatting a little bit a little bit more talking about the draft coming up and

[00:27:56] we joked around a little bit like how funny would it be if we both went to the same team just you know didn't think anything of it and then I remember draft day we knew he was going first round sometime and it happened to be with the Mariners

[00:28:10] and we were you know super happy form and then second day came that's when I was expected to go and it so wrapped up in just the stress of draft day and wanting the best for yourself and you want to go on this round

[00:28:28] this number whatever it may be so I was so wrapped up into that I get drafted after all the chaos and I get all the calls from scouting director and whoever it was that day and we're starting to think we settle down a little bit

[00:28:44] and we're like wait a minute like George Kirby he's with the Mariners too so it was like the conversation we had previously about having already having one guy within the world that you know that helps you out a ton just because you're not that lone wolf going into

[00:29:04] spring training the first time and you're kind of just roaming the halls and not knowing where you're supposed to be it was really nice having him like a former teammate going into our first spring training together so it was really nice so you were a

[00:29:20] two-way player at Elon you came into there as a catcher and then you played a little bit of outfield as you got older as you got into pitching as well all things we want to touch on but I mean just off the rip

[00:29:32] did you ever catch George Kirby? yes so what was that experience like it was great to be able to see him come into Elon as the slightly immature you know 18 year old where he was good but everybody needs a little bit of

[00:29:56] polishing up when they get to college and when catching him he was good he was already above most other recruits that came in but it was fun catching him because he just like he is now he had pretty good command and as a catcher you always want

[00:30:12] someone that throws pretty hard and has good command and it's a lot of fun just receiving guys that can do that when they can spot up that way you can be a little bit more relaxed as a catcher and you're framing the pitches without any effort

[00:30:24] but I'll tell everybody that asked me about George at Elon how far he's come mentally with maturing his composure on the mound it's night and day like he freshman and sophomore year when he would and this is everybody in college but it's funny to see

[00:30:48] someone grow so much from college to big league Kirby now who he is he would get so worked up over like the little small things on the mound that didn't go his way say a strike on the outside corner was called a ball

[00:31:04] he would show his emotions immediately um maybe a guy boots a ground ball and you know I wanted that out he might show his emotions a little too much or whatever it may be he would just he would wear everything on his shoulder or just right there

[00:31:22] and compared to now he's a cold blooded assassin on the mound and like he shows emotion here and there when he does really well or he's in a tight spot he needs to get out of it and push him but other than that he's cold blooded

[00:31:40] he knows what he's doing up there and it's not like it's some special strike out that he's going to get all worked up about it's just another day for him now in the big leagues I'm born to do this

[00:31:54] and I'm going to go out there and get out but at Elon it was a big shift because towards his junior year his draft year on the mental side and the physical side he went from like low 90s touching mid 90s to first round George Kirby mid 90s

[00:32:16] touching like 98-99 it was like this guy is about to go first round no doubt and as a mid major school Elon we would always be chatting it up the players would be like how did we get George Kirby to go to the University

[00:32:34] in North Carolina mid major school and it just happened to be one of those I wouldn't say Diamond in the rough but like he kind of progressed and developed into this power pitcher doesn't walk anybody he has four plus pitches and you know he goes first round

[00:32:54] just like that so it was a lot of fun to see him evolve as a pitcher and he was like he was the ball what I'm getting at here because you said when you would catch him that he always had a lot of command

[00:33:08] and then he developed over time what I'm getting at here is his freshman year in a bullpen session he'd throw about three balls a session and then junior year he'd throw one ball a session that's about right but yeah it was a lot of fun and catching him

[00:33:26] freshman year, sophomore year the recruits that came in were strictly catchers and they weren't as versatile as I was I was living more athletic I could balance around, I could play outfield wherever they needed me but for the time being when I did catch him

[00:33:44] it was a lot of fun How did you end up starting to pitch by the way because again like you came into college as a catcher as a position player played some outfield but then clearly one day somebody said

[00:33:56] hey Ty you want to get up on the mound so how did that happen? Yep, so that story starts with Sean McGrath who was if you don't know when we got drafted he was our pitching coach at Elon and when we

[00:34:14] both got drafted he picked up a job with the Mariners so he was a minor league pitching coach two years I'm pretty sure he started out with Haye Everett the first year and then the second year he was with the Arkansas Travelers

[00:34:32] I think he was only there for two years now he's at Iowa right now he picked up a job at Iowa but one day in practice this is when I'm playing majority outfield I'm throwing down the home plate from or to third base from the outfield and like

[00:34:50] this is the time where you can really get on the ball and let it show what you got he asked me I think it was in the fall because some of the freshmen that came in didn't pan out and they weren't throwing a ton of strikes

[00:35:04] like and they weren't going to be super reliable going into the season so he looked around to find a couple position players that could try and eat up some inning force and I was one of those guys and we had I think two other guys that did that

[00:35:18] and that was junior year he started pitching first bullpen it was like 90-91 and he was like yep you're going to throw some man's force and I'm like alright that'll work but I wasn't super excited about pitching like that position players you ask any position player

[00:35:36] they're like yeah I'd love to pitch it'd be so fun but then once you actually become a pitcher you're like oh crap this is serious I gotta actually take on the role of being a pitcher be responsible for any kind of arm care or throwing program you gotta

[00:35:54] take care of it's a lot of work especially if you're a two-way player and so I did that I threw in 13 innings 13 innings by junior year the last four innings or so the last four games that I threw my Velo just started to go way up

[00:36:18] because I went from first bullpen I was a slide step like I think I was like a 0.9 to home plate like super quick and I wasn't using a ton of my lower half or anything and by the end of the season I was slowly

[00:36:34] becoming this new pitcher that was utilized in my lower half and learning how to rotate really well and generate some arm speed I went up to 94-95 there was one game I hit 97 and then I come into the dugout and Sean the pitching coach is like

[00:36:54] he's like you know what you just did and I was like what's up he's like yeah you just hit 97 pretty good it's kind of bizarre to think about but I just went out there every time I was like how hard can I try and throw this ball

[00:37:10] and it wasn't I didn't have any nasty secondary pitches it was just try to throw strikes and try to throw it hard and then the next so that happened crazy story that was like less than a month from the draft on that year junior year I'm getting letters

[00:37:30] from I think the A's were there the Braves were there and the Rangers were at it was playing against UNCG I remember it was like it was yesterday they're handing me letters draft letters right after the game and I'm like what is going on like this is happening

[00:37:46] way too fast like I went from being some mediocre hitter or outfielder that was like kind of struggling to get in the lineup here and there and then I'm possibly could get drafted this year like it was a complete 180 of what I expected

[00:38:06] and now I'm like okay like this is happening too fast I just got draft letters there's like the drafts in three weeks I don't have an agent I don't have anything like I'm not prepared whatsoever so leaned on my coaches a lot

[00:38:18] and my head coach was like alright guys slow down like he's not getting drafted this year like he's got another year he's going to take this hole next year in summer to prepare and really you know hone in on being a true pitcher and thankfully for that advice

[00:38:34] and that guidance from one Sean and coach Kennedy that was the head coach there he still is the head coach but they were just like settle down to the scouts he's going to take another year and he'll be ready

[00:38:48] to go next year and he'll be a way better version of what you've just seen so that's junior year I take the whole summer I go play in the NECBL league New England collegiate baseball league and strictly pitcher McGrath the head pitching coach who's like

[00:39:06] listen if you want to be a pitcher you got to understand what it's like to be a pitcher you have to go through sitting in the bullpen it's boring you got to sit down there you got to prepare on the fly when someone calls down

[00:39:20] because that's a big jump when you become a new pitcher especially a reliever you got to get hot really quick you have to know what you need to warm up prior to throwing in the bullpen what checkpoints do we need to hit before I get on that mound

[00:39:36] and start throwing not running in the risk of injury or something like that so I did the whole summer up there I don't remember how many inns I threw but that helped a lot because summer ball is the closest thing you can get

[00:39:50] to minor league baseball I think because of the bus travels the long travels, the housing situations and just the whole nine everything about it is the league baseball so I do that have a good time really buying into the whole pitch and roll I come into the fall

[00:40:10] of my senior year I'm ready to go I'm still a two way I'm two way all the way to senior year like never stop being a two way and pro day I don't know if you guys are familiar with pro day at all the scouts come out

[00:40:28] we had George Kirby projected first round another guy that gets slid under the radar which is Cal Bronovic he was probably higher touted than Kirby the year before Kirby got drafted because he had struck out like 146 I think he was close to or beat Verlander's record in college

[00:40:54] I remember him I spent a little bit of time on the cape and I remember he was a name that people were like watch this dude when he pitches I know George was there too but I remember a little bit more as the name people were talking about

[00:41:10] so yes I do remember him they both went to Harwich I was in the NECBL they were both in Harwich I think that's correct and then he played for team USA he peaced out and was like USA and then Kirby I think

[00:41:26] stayed with Harwich he pitched up there but yeah we had Kirby, Bronovic me who was what they called the unicorn no one really knew who they've heard of me but they didn't know who I was or what I was about and what I brought to the table

[00:41:42] and then we had a couple of other um hitters that were really good so we had like I think 45 to 50 scouts there like cross checkers national cross checkers it was the whole the whole deal like when I got up on pro day it was

[00:41:58] if you knew what Elon stands like it's smaller mid major and they filled up the whole middle section it was just scouts so like I get up on the mound it's my time to throw every upperclassman gets their chance to throw as a pitcher

[00:42:10] and I get up there and I'm like holy crap like this is it's a lot of scouts up there and so it was just like throw as hard as you can over the plate and I think I had some rinky dink slider at that time it was not

[00:42:28] great at all because I didn't develop a harder slider until later in that year but that pro day I was so amped up I was literally 96 to 99 97, 99 I was like where is this coming from it was just like

[00:42:46] it came out of nowhere because in the summer ball league one the mounds aren't great so you can't generate a lot of momentum and great mechanics with the divots you have but I never got above 95 in summer ball league and then I come

[00:43:02] into the fall I don't know if I was just rejuvenated had some time to you know some downtime I come in and yeah just lighten up the radar gun and people are like who the hell is this guy and like had some people speak to me

[00:43:16] after I pitched and like never had that before it was kind of like the previous instance my junior year scouts coming up to me it was just it was happening so fast but I mean I was enjoying every minute of it because like

[00:43:32] since I was a kid all I wanted to do was get drafted go play pro baseball and I thought it was going to be catching as a switch hitter because that was my me and my dad's whole like plan like because I was a little bit chubbier

[00:43:46] and slower it was like switch hitting catcher right that would be easy ticket and then it was pitching pitching is what got me there but on the other end I had the best year hitting like my whole four years there because I completely stopped worrying so much about

[00:44:08] like hitting and getting worked up about striking out or trying to do too much when I'm in the box had the best year hitting ever and like was on the verge of like I got a couple of looks for hitting and uh

[00:44:24] to go to the pros but I was I just knew that one I struck out too much and hitting in the pros is way more difficult than college way more and I was like I don't want to do that so the results wouldn't suggest it

[00:44:40] but were you a little overwhelmed by all the all the attention because I would imagine if I'm going to place myself in your mind tell me if I'm wrong but you know you're going through college and until you get to your junior year it's not like you're not

[00:44:56] for sure pro I don't think you're not at that point but all of a sudden in the span of what four months you go from unheard of to scouts are like oh Ty nice to meet you we'd love to have you and you're like

[00:45:12] this is a bit much it's awesome because that's what you want but yeah like I said within a span of yeah four months from the time I threw in that UNCG game that was literally the end of the season in my junior year two to three months

[00:45:38] it might have been five or six months but because pro day is in November and when that happened you know you're on the radar now it's like Ty Icox another guy we need to look at at Elon along with Bronovitch and Kirby and then you have what's the

[00:45:56] you have the winter meet not the winter meetings it's similar to that they're there meeting the what GM meetings I I messed that up it's the meetings that you have with the scouts during the down period in college so if you're like a prospect or

[00:46:18] someone that they kind of know is going to have a chance of getting drafted you'll meet with a bunch of the different regional scouts and if they're legit like they'll have some cross checkers in there along in the meeting so like where I was I had like 20 25 to 26

[00:46:34] meetings with a bunch of different teams while that's happening and then like you said you go from not even thinking about getting drafted at all so you're like okay where's my focus after baseball like you know what route am I going to take where do I want to

[00:46:56] where I want to work what I want to do I want to go grad school whatever it may be and then this happens I'm like all right let's not slack off a little bit but I can kind of scale it back a little bit on the

[00:47:10] on the schoolwork because I need to really focus in on pitching and baseball so that I can get drafted as high as possible so yeah I did it shifted it completely shifted that into my junior year going into senior year as well um yeah you shifted

[00:47:28] your mind from oh I'm going to get drafted to before that it was am I going to grad school or not what were you going to do did you know um when I came into college I didn't know what the heck I wanted to do and I knew

[00:47:46] I'm the kind of person that wants to stay around sports somehow and I don't know what area it would have been in so I was like I was contemplating uh like maybe PT school but that's three years and you got to take you know certain

[00:48:04] classes to get into that I didn't I hadn't taken all the required prerequisites to get into that so like that would have been more classes I had to take I was thinking maybe like personal trainer coach I mean like coaching is a passion of mine but some

[00:48:22] somewhere along the lines of just remaining within sports and I do like to train an aspect of uh the sports as well like uh my degree was in exercise science but that was purely because I didn't want to take any other classes to deal with like business

[00:48:42] or finance or whatever I I'm a big fan of psychology though like sports psychology I do love that when I when I took some of those elective classes within my major I did enjoy that a lot because it did it helps everything I took in college

[00:48:58] helps me be the athlete I am today because it was within like physiology or anatomy sports psychology but I wish I would have sprinkled in now a little bit of finance classes and some business classes now that I'm getting

[00:49:12] into that point in my life I wish I had a little bit of that that side of education you mentioned the physical therapy thing do you know more about it now than you probably ever would have originally imagined because I know for you like unfortunately

[00:49:26] you've had to go through a few injuries in your career and having to do a lot of PT as a result of that like do you feel like you know a whole lot more about like sports injuries and going through recovery than you ever did?

[00:49:38] Yes absolutely especially at the long the longer stint I had with my TJ surgery one just knowing all like the terminology that's around the medical field and health field I know that stuff I know all the structures like within the body the muscles bones whatever it may be

[00:49:56] I understand how the muscles work how they contract and all that but yeah as far as the protocol goes of recovering from an injury me personally I've kind of dialed it in like I know exactly what I need to do if I have some kind of setback

[00:50:14] and that's what was what was awesome my two times getting hurt my the main physical therapist with the Mariners we had such a good relationship and he understood that we could speak on you know a more complex level about whatever

[00:50:32] injury I was going through because he knew that I understood it on a deeper level instead of just like trying to simplify or like elementary terms like hey this is what happened we need to do this and then like some people would be like not understanding but like

[00:50:48] I understood every single thing that he was talking about and why why it was the way it is or whatever it was but it's helped out a lot like every everything I took in school the classes they have helped me honestly be a big leader for sure

[00:51:06] what about the sports psychology aspect of it I did read that during that long layoff you had from when you were drafted to when you actually first pitched professionally in 2022 you had a lot of down time and you said you spent a lot of that time

[00:51:20] reading about sports psychology what's something you took away from that that you feel like is valuable for people to know so when I was down when I had all that down time and you're hurt you can't make any strides or any quick strides on the outside of your

[00:51:42] design program with your therapist for like on the physical side so mentally I could gain all this ground within that year and a half that I was in rehab I could gain all this ground mentally and try to build the most resilient mind or mindset through reading

[00:52:06] working with the mental skills team it was just like what can I do to prepare myself for the big leagues or not even the big leagues for just playing in the affiliate ball and when I step on the mound for the first time I won't be

[00:52:22] I won't be overwhelmed or I won't be stressed out I don't have this anxiety about how am I going to do on the mound like do I trust myself it was all about building up all the confidence and just just trusting your stuff and then if

[00:52:40] things don't go your way you don't fall and crumble under pressure or anything like that I was like I know right now it's cliche and everyone's talking about it but there are numerous benefits to ice baths and things like that and that's one thing we pride ourselves on

[00:52:58] in the Mariners, we started doing that every single day we do it in spring training every single day out there and like controlling your breath like breath work because the only way you can control down the physiological system is through your breath

[00:53:16] so if you're in a stressful situation your breathing is probably going to speed up and be like shallow shallow breaths really quick alright, you're stressed out step off the mound we can control our breathing and lower our heightened our heightened state that we're in

[00:53:34] so it's like little things like that that you could you can control yourself if you're in a particular situation where you're getting a little stressed or overwhelming and that's one side of the mental skills and then the other side is

[00:53:52] you can't actually get on the mound and throw hard yet if you're hurt so mental visualization that goes a long way, that's a real thing like research is backed at many many times you can do thousands of mental reps and that will be better than doing just

[00:54:12] how many ever actual physical reps because when you practice yourself you put yourself on that mound I personally put myself before I got there I put myself on T-Mobile's mound, I never been there but I kind of visualized myself based off watching the games and just

[00:54:30] visualize yourself being successful like you're not trying to visualize yourself throwing balls or anything like that, you're visualizing just like lighting up the strikes on just attacking guys going right after them that way when you do get to that point it's just another day

[00:54:48] it's another pitch on the mound so mental visualization is one of the key things that I use and also doing difficult things and being uncomfortable so like the ice bath you don't want to do it but if you do it

[00:55:06] and then you overcome it, you feel better about yourself everything you just described about all the visualization stuff is actually a good segue because I was going to ask the day you made your debut you get the call on the bullpen

[00:55:20] they call your name, you get done warming up and then you trot in one, can you take us through what that feeling is even like and two, how do you even control your emotions in that time because I know every big leaguer talks about

[00:55:34] look, every outing is the same as the other you have to lock in no matter if it's the fifth inning and we're down 10 or the ninth inning and we're up 1 and all that stuff but I would have to imagine for your big league debut, there is some adrenaline

[00:55:46] pumping so how did you kind of control all that and what were all those emotions like when you had that debut yeah the emotions were definitely different from high A all the way up double A to big leagues very different because you got

[00:56:02] 30,000-some people in the stands now but it's different but at the same time you're doing the same thing that's what they tell you when you get called up and I've heard it from a couple of different guys they do a great job of just boosting you up

[00:56:28] a little bit and they tell you go do the same exact thing you've been doing, have fun with it and that helps a lot especially when the skipper says that to you he's like go have fun be yourself and when you can do that

[00:56:42] it makes it so much easier instead of hey man we need three outs right here the difference in those two statements is like a ton of stress on your shoulders and then this one over here is like oh I can just go play baseball

[00:56:56] be myself do exactly what I've been doing for the two months building up to this but just on a slightly different stage so the funny you asked about the emotions I was more anticipating how was I going to react when the time came

[00:57:14] so it was like the anxiety part instead of just letting the moment happen I was thinking like how am I going to react when I walk out of that bullpen door you know am I going to try and make some false emotions you know you try to work

[00:57:28] yourself out too much because you're in this big moment I think I just I handle it really well I think so and when I knew I might get the call that night when I was in the bullpen and you know I was doing a couple of breathing

[00:57:42] things just to you know calm myself down but when you get the call to go into the game you got to get heightened up a little bit you got to get stimulated so at the same time you want to stay on this level

[00:57:56] but at the same time you do got it we got to get the heart rate up you got to get warmed up ready to throw so I did that did my warm-up pitches the ending ended and then I started walking down the little walkway pathway and

[00:58:12] opened the door I took one big look I wanted to I did know I wanted to do this I was like I'm gonna take one big look at everything and kind of look at the magnitude of this you know the crowd and everything but

[00:58:26] once I hit the grass my eyes went down and then it was like I'm only I got stopped by the umpire because of the Derm Glow checking stuff but other than that it was like grass I'm looking at the grass I

[00:58:40] I'm looking at the rubber I grab the ball get a feel for the ball and then it's right to uh not sure if it was Cal or I think it might have been Tom that night but it was just like me and Tom

[00:58:52] attack right to the glove that's all I'm worried about because as soon as you lose that tunnel vision right towards your catcher and you for some reason you might look out and get this day's look and you're not locked in that's when things start to you know

[00:59:08] go bad for you or you know spiral control when you start you know you lose that focus start thinking about other things but as long as you can stay locked in and what needs to happen you know 15 seconds in between each pitch you got a

[00:59:22] attack with whatever pitch he calls know where you gotta throw it get the ball back I look down you know kick the rubber or kick the dirt a little bit and then right back into right back into the mid or where his fingers are at or

[00:59:36] we're doing the pitch calm but I would just listen for the time that's it's just very repetitive like get the ball get the sign where am I throwing this pitch and then go attack it and then same thing back to back to back and you keep

[00:59:50] stacking those on top of each other for you know the innings over and then you can like decompress a little bit you get to the dog you're like that kind of went quicker than I thought and then that night people were hugging me

[01:00:04] you know dapping me up high fives whatever and then coach comes over he's like hey like you're gonna go out for another inning and I'm like okay reel it back in we gotta stay focused not get uh not get wrapped up in all the congratulations or whatever

[01:00:22] so like you know sitting by myself just trying to control my emotions you know get my breathing under control while staying I want to stay amped up just because I'm a reliever that's how I like to be I know some starters like to really relax on the bench

[01:00:36] I want to relax to a certain point but I still want to stay amped up so that I'm ready to go when I'm out there but that was kind of how I manage my emotions that day and I think I said in the interview after the game

[01:00:50] like it really did feel like another day just on the mound once I threw the first couple pitches because once you throw the first couple pitches and I got that ground out and then maybe another out it was somewhat of a smooth sailing from there

[01:01:06] Ty can I also say it helped you a little bit when you got a lot of your anxiety out earlier in the day worrying if you were actually going to make it there on time is that a first statement you said I got my anxiety out

[01:01:18] yeah did you get your a lot more of your anxiety out earlier in the day worrying if you were actually going to make it on time I don't know am I to heightened it a little bit because I was like am I going to get there in time

[01:01:32] if how much time am I going to have to prepare because I was thinking to myself when I was in the airport in Dallas it was on the delay for like two hours I'm thinking okay now every minute that goes by I need to think about

[01:01:46] what is the absolute essential things I need to do when I get to the field so that I'm ready to throw that night and it was like one I got to get my jersey and like get my sizes and everything I got to meet

[01:02:02] the skipper got to say hey to him and talk to him for a little bit then I got to I think I went to the tubs immediately sent the tubs for a little bit warmed up and then did some movement prep

[01:02:16] some other movement prep that I do before I throw went out and through I think this is around it's getting around like 515 ish the game starts like 6,630 so I'm out there by myself just solo dolo throwing on the field fans are kind of piling into the sands

[01:02:34] and then I go throw in the bullpen because I want to get a touch for the slope before I go into the game and I went well like did my normal stuff but when I was in the airport

[01:02:46] I was just like what do I need to do when I get there like I had to have it already like mapped out make sure I got those things done so that I didn't have any there's no excuses to not be ready

[01:02:56] but I needed to know what I had to do to be confident in myself that night okay so it wasn't quite the level that Jared Kalman had to deal with a year prior because I don't know if you ever heard this story but when they were in Houston

[01:03:08] in the summer of 2022 they had to make a few call ups there might have been a few injuries and he got recalled from Tacoma and he showed up in Houston in like the middle of the fourth inning of a game

[01:03:18] and they put him right in so he didn't quite have to do that no I think I do remember that because they uh yeah they were in Houston right and there was so far away that I think they had to pull a guy from Arkansas

[01:03:28] to fill his spot for like 10 or two yeah and then he came right in and just right into the lineup no not that was that Jack Larson was that right yeah Jack Larson cause we were like like Jack's going off from double A

[01:03:46] this is before like it really started happening often from from Arkansas and you're like this doesn't make any sense and I think it was just because like they needed someone there because they couldn't get Kellinick on a flight in time um yeah and then

[01:04:00] I think I ended up watching that game later and yeah he was in the fourth inning yeah but that was what you have though and pro ball in general and then the big leagues like people you're flying on a plane

[01:04:12] you got to be here at this time and just be ready to go no matter the circumstances I've got a little bit of a question for you like I guess it's a little bit of a trivia question for you although you don't have to think back that far

[01:04:24] but your first big league strikeout was against do you remember Roberts, Luis Roberts yeah there's no S in the last name but that's close enough yeah so um Luis Robert is yeah you got him and

[01:04:38] I was going to ask you I was also to get out of a jam so my follow up to that was I remember watching that highlight and you were fired up after that strikeout and you had every right

[01:04:46] to be so I was going to say like were you more I'm sure you were fired up because you got out of a jam but was there a little part of you in the back of your head as you're walking off

[01:04:54] the mound that was also like oh that was my first big league punch out and that was against a really good hitter right and I knew going in I think it was just him I faced him I think if I'm not mistaken it was just

[01:05:06] one guy and I think we were down one so we were still in it I think it was the 11th inning and yeah I started them off I knew the plan was like slider heavy through the first one and just swung right over it I'm like okay

[01:05:22] so I tried it again through another one and I think it was I mean all of them were like below the zone and he was just swinging out of his shoes at him so like I just stuck with it three in a row and then on

[01:05:34] the third when I knew it was my first strikeout you know you're trying to get the first one under your belt and you never know what person it's going to be but for it to be against him that was that was special because like

[01:05:44] a lot of these guys you grow up watching and he was I mean he's arguably one of the the stronger power hitters in the league right now and for like to do that it was it was awesome but yeah like I was fired up I don't

[01:05:58] I don't usually get too fired up unless it's a big situation that you got to get out of and the emotions kind of take over but yeah I was one fired up for the first strikeout and so that we could stay in the game

[01:06:10] and hopefully drive some runs across to help us win it Ty since you've been in the Mariners organization what part of your pitching repertoire has taken the biggest leap so what like what's resonated with you the most to make you better? I think I think the consistency of

[01:06:32] my pitches and when I say that I mean the consistent and the command like the consistency and command of my secondary pitch my slider because I've I've known that that is going to be one I mean not exactly my ticket to the big leagues but I know

[01:06:54] I'm a high velocity thrower but you can't just be a high velocity thrower you have to have one good secondary or two good secondaries and it was my secondary pitch went from being a pretty good cuttery slider to I mean this past year

[01:07:16] in spring training it went from like a pretty like average cutter slider to like a big league slider and it had had a lot more depth on it and I was able to command it way better than I ever have been so this whole

[01:07:34] year it was it was just having the confidence to throw that pitch right over the plate no matter who I was facing I knew that if I just you know let the outcome be the outcome if I threw it over the plate

[01:07:48] don't worry about it you know I've done what I need to do and the rest will take care of it itself but yeah my consistency with just filling up the zone with my slider is what's kind of made me who I am today okay with all

[01:08:04] that I know we've jumped around a little bit but I feel like this is such a big part of your story that like I don't want to go without mentioning this because the thing with you between learning the pitch late at Elon not pitching that much after

[01:08:18] getting drafted between COVID between the injury and then this year as a whole like as a whole you just you haven't pitched that much so when you got the call after throwing what was I think just over 20 innings between or 20 innings above like a ball to go

[01:08:34] to the show like was there any part of you that was like a little bit shocked or were you just ready for the moment I've always believed in myself from the beginning but I knew what was holding me back was innings it was and you've you talked to

[01:08:52] anyone that was on the pitching side within the Mariners it was it was all about innings like we need to see this guy do what he's capable of doing throughout or across how many ever innings 20 30 40 innings whatever it may be and so I knew that's what the goal

[01:09:12] was and that's what the Mariners wanted to see for me and that's what they wanted they expected out of me so I remember I broke from spring training this past year I spoke with the pitching coordinator and you know they were very pleased with what they had

[01:09:30] saw in the big league games because I I did a bunch of backup pitching or the just in case field and pitching in the big league spring training because I didn't get an invite last year and my first inning there I surprised a lot of

[01:09:46] people like my slider was shark and it was hard and you know fastball Vila was way up and it's and it was consistently up it wasn't fluctuating as much as the year before and so I sat down the pitching coordinator

[01:10:00] and they told me they were sending me a hi-a and I'm like you know I'm not too happy about that because I'm 26 like I was 26 at the time I'm still 26 I'll turn 27 in February and as a 26 year old I feel like I'm

[01:10:16] prepared for double A or in I'm prepared for the big leagues that's you know that's what I believe and I got what every every bit of what it takes to be on the big league stage getting guys out but what they wanted to see was we want to

[01:10:30] see you consistently maintain that fastball Vila you're at and we want to see you be in the zone a little bit more with the fastball slider command was great like commands always there I can usually fill it up no problem but it was maintain your Vila and

[01:10:48] get the fastball strike percentage a little bit higher and then go from there so I knew those what I had to do and you talk about the short span of innings I pitched I mean every inning that I pitched that year I knew what the goal was

[01:11:04] I'm thinking to myself alright fill it was on early with a slider because that's usually what I throw and then if I'm going to throw this fastball throw it hard and just throw it right over the plate or throw it slightly elevated and that was the game plan

[01:11:18] for me and then then home it was like I started stacking on top of each other good outing on top of good outing good outing another good outing maybe about like I had at the start I had a couple like if he not so great outings and then

[01:11:36] after that I got on a roll where it was just like lights out lights out lights out and it and then the funny thing I didn't have as many strikeouts as you would think that I should have had for my stuff but the people

[01:11:50] the hitters were not hitting my stuff like the X of a lost view was not great against me so like I think that's one thing that the Mariners saw that it was going to they can project really well

[01:12:02] if your stuff is going to play at the big league level and whether you can get out up there right now so they already knew with my stuff I could get out at that point it just like I said

[01:12:14] they wanted to see me do it over a certain amount of innings and it ended up being 20 22 innings and like people that doubt you know doubt the decision to to pull me up as early as they did I mean you stack me up against anybody and

[01:12:30] like arguably I got some of the better stuff out there and I think that's ultimately why they made that decision so last thing from me tie the saying is like in any walk of life that you need 10,000 hours to master something

[01:12:46] and I don't know what that number is for innings pitched on the mound for you to truly master something but with you pitching you having pitched so few innings or do you still feel like you're in the the learning stage of pitching like still like

[01:13:00] picking up on some things that you felt like if you had been pitching since you were I don't know 15 you would have gotten by now for sure I think I'm still I'm still learning every day and I think we're all still learning if we're in any sport

[01:13:14] or whatever job we may be and we're always trying to continue our our education and whatever field it may be in and like there's things you're not going to learn about pitching that I won't learn about pitching for maybe like three years down the road

[01:13:28] some pitcher that I meet that's been a veteran he might say one little particular advice to me that I never thought of it that way and it's gonna make sense and resonate with me and then I'm gonna use that and be a better pitcher because of it

[01:13:42] but I will say the past four or five years ever since I've taken on the role of being a pro pitcher I've I've learned so much more about pitching than I ever have just because you're surrounded by so many high-level thinkers when around pitching and

[01:14:04] we've had so many intellectual conversations about mechanics you know pitch design like different pitches you're throwing whatever it may be about pitching we've talked about it and that's I'm talking about with players within the organization like what do you think we do in the bullpen we just talk

[01:14:28] we talk about other stuff but we'll talk about pitches and like hey what are you doing when you throw this pitch right here like someone that has a similar repertoire as you like I was talking with a buddy of mine and Haye

[01:14:44] this year because he had the similar profile as me he was a hard throwing righty and he had a hard slider but he was struggling to really get the depth on his slider so like it was a couple of small little cues with the fingertips of just like

[01:14:58] throw it as a fastball and then when you get when the hand gets out in front that's kind of when the slider happens the harder sliders that's when that happens as opposed to like a sweeper or like a big moving pitch you usually start that

[01:15:14] you know as the arm cycles up it's gonna start back here and you're gonna try and try and make that pitch move back here it's like little things like that that you can't you know you can't read that in the book and and it's pitching is not like

[01:15:30] another topic or subject in school that you're taking there's not there's not books out there on pitching so everything you learn is usually by being around the sport being around players that are doing it or coaches that have done it in the past and I think

[01:15:50] especially this year being around great coaches you know big leaguers people from different organizations that are coming in as well and giving you you know different insight that you've never thought about before that's what helps you compile all that information around pitching and then taking what's useful

[01:16:10] and applying it within your repertoire or whatever profile picture you are because there's some things that let's say for instance Penn Murphy was trying to talk to me about pitching a particular way like we're not the same pitcher but there may be some little

[01:16:32] thing that he can teach me that will help me but at the same time you have to realize that everyone's unique in their own individual pitcher and you just have to know that that's all really cool I mean it sounds like you've learned a whole lot just throughout

[01:16:49] your journey as a whole about pitching and you clearly have a very good vision about how to attack it all I will end with this by the way because you mentioned oh we'll have

[01:16:57] some things in the bullpen we've been trying to get to the bottom of this a little bit we had Taylor Saucato on a couple weeks ago and he talked about it did you ever get on in did you ever get in on

[01:17:05] was Babe Ruth real and that conversation that didn't come up when I was up there it came up one time and I don't know how it came up but I feel like sauce is like can throw some conspiracy theories out there and he just kind of gets the

[01:17:25] get the juices flowing for some conversations and I don't have an opinion on that I don't know I mean I guess he's real that's all I would all I would think but I would love to hear Saucato explain

[01:17:41] to me why he's not because I'm always down for a good conversation with Saucato that makes it one versus one here on this pod because Saucato there's no chance he's real basically his argument was which maybe there's some validity to this that he said

[01:17:55] well there's only one highlight ever of him that you see and it's of him like swiftly circling the bases and otherwise there's nothing else nobody ever saw him play in this time period so he's like are they just making this up or did he actually play

[01:18:09] so his little two sentences well I could he was like yeah I don't think he was real yeah I mean if that's the case then we could contemplate everything that happened like a lot of things that happened in history because we don't have any

[01:18:23] we don't have any documentation of it but I guess you just trust the people from the past and he gets passed down and you're like he's just too great of a you know the story is too great to not accept it it's like this guy was just

[01:18:37] some industrial worker like nine to five job and just holds the record like held the record for home runs like it just sounds so bizarre that it's just like it's a fairy tale yeah just like a drunk and his health was terrible and all these

[01:18:57] things and just so happened even the fact he was like really fat was an amazing defender and all he did was like predict his own home runs it's like yep when you put it that way it does sound a little fishy that

[01:19:13] this guy is in the worst physical shape of his life he's smoking cigarettes he's drinking and he's working a job and then he's somehow holding the record for most home runs hit and he pitched right and he was a really good pitcher too yeah

[01:19:31] maybe I'm maybe on sauce's side on that one he could be just some mythical creature that people just made up because it just doesn't make sense to me well if anything here we've given the two of you something to talk about the next time you see each other

[01:19:47] so at least there's that but seriously Ty this no I was going to say I definitely have to bring that back out to him when I see him yeah oh 100% well seriously Ty this has been a blast we've had a bunch of fun talking with you

[01:20:01] we've really enjoyed getting to hear a little bit more about your story and we hope we can do it again soon because we've really enjoyed getting to hear about it all yes sir I appreciate you guys having me on it was good to see you again

[01:20:13] hopefully to see you soon you're just a human who lives in this world is going through a hard time therapy can give you the tools to approach your life in a very different way and that's why I'm excited to tell you about today's sponsor BetterHelp

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[01:21:45] the link in the description or visit betterhelp.com slash marine layer pod yeah tieadcocklyle officially our guy oh he's our guy everybody named tie in the Mariners organization seems to be our guy we're big tie Pete fans now we're big tieadcock fans maybe it's something about the namesake

[01:22:03] but you want to talk about guys we're going to be rooting for you can chalk those two up as two of them because not only was tie an awesome storyteller but I mean people forget because he got injured and

[01:22:15] you know it was about mid season that he got injured but he had some really good innings out of the Mariners bullpen last year and there's no reason he can't make some adjustments in 24 come back better than ever and play a real role in the bullpen right?

[01:22:27] yeah his stuff is pretty good 96 does not grow on trees I'll tell you that much and A1 guy to go on top of 96 makes it all that much better we can't wait to see what tie's got in store next year we're looking forward to it

[01:22:41] alright that'll just about wrap up this edition of the marine layer podcast you guys know the drill if you want to listen to the full form podcast you can do so wherever you get your audio side of the pod make sure to follow the show download our episodes

[01:22:53] leave us a five star review we can't stress it enough but those reviews and downloads help us out a ton also going over to youtube to like comment and subscribe helps us out as well you want to watch the video side of the podcast

[01:23:05] you can do it over there and follow us on social media we're on instagram tiktok twitter and youtube shorts at marine layer pod that's TJ I'm Lyle as always we thank you guys for tuning in talk to you soon