Episode 85: Where Does Julio Rank Among MLB's Best?

[00:00:00] Welcome to Episode 85 of the Marine Layer Podcast. We thought we'd do a bit of a pick-me-up episode today with the dark cloud hanging over the Mariners offseason, so we will rank where Julio is amongst Major League Baseball stars in 2024. Really fun discussion. Also some new rule changes coming

[00:00:19] to Major League Baseball in 2024. We'll look at that in a wrap around and we'll close out the show with ruthless replies for the second time. Here's your reminder before we start the show

[00:00:29] that if you're listening to the show, make sure to download our episodes, leave us a five-star review and follow us wherever you get your audio side of your podcast. Go like, comment,

[00:00:38] subscribe on YouTube where our full video pod is, and then you can follow us on social media where we're on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. Let's get it rolling. And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast,

[00:01:04] part of the JustFaceball Podcast Network, recording here on Thursday evening, December 21st, final episode we will do before the holidays roll around. Lyle, it is good to be back up here in the Pacific Northwest, back in the great Emerald City. And we have gotten to the point

[00:01:23] of this offseason where it has been so slow for content that we have been subjected to, Lyle. Now in this offseason, a day full of private plane tracking and now a day full of which American football game is this Japanese superstar going to next? And apparently, Lyle,

[00:01:46] Yoshinobu Yamamoto is going to the Rams Saints game tonight. Now how about that for a scoop? No, he's not going to the Rams Saints game. That's what was confirmed. They said he was going. Now he's not going. Well, he had a lot of conflicting reports. Who initially reported

[00:02:02] that he was going? Somebody had the report and then a bunch of the national guys said, oh, correction here. He will not be attending the Rams game tonight. They said, Otani tried to invite him, but Yamamoto had planned all while he has informed the giants

[00:02:19] they are out. So it's going to be New York or LA. But what's the bigger story? Oh, he's not at the Rams game. Well, hopefully get hopefully he'll be sitting and watching on TV

[00:02:28] as the Rams taken out. So does does Shohei ask for a Puka Nakua autograph on his 17 jersey? That's a good question. How much football do we think Shohei watches? That's a good question. They should at least do a jersey swap. Each of them is holding 17

[00:02:48] with the other person's last name on it. Well, oh, never mind. I was going to say if I were Puka Nakua, I'd go up to Shohei and say, hey, dude, you should have gone to Seattle. But then I realized Puka much like Shohei also did

[00:03:00] not choose Seattle. Puka originally chose Seattle and then he left. Yeah, exactly. I just think it's so funny we've gotten to this part of the offseason. I mean, we really did think going into this offseason that this offseason had a chance of being very special and very different

[00:03:16] and very interesting for people paying attention to baseball. Well, not only has it been extremely slow, but like literally we're doing what like the Deandre Jordan NBA free agency sweepstakes were in. I forget what year that was where the where the Clippers essentially locked Deandre

[00:03:32] Jordan in his house until he signed a new contract. Like that's what the that's the level of offseason. I feel like we've reached with Major League Baseball. I mean, I mean, come on, guys just sign. This is taking forever. I don't know if it has to do with

[00:03:47] the regional sports network stuff. I don't know if everybody's waiting for Otani and Yamamoto to both sign before the rest of the market gets going, but this is boring. Like we're talking about it's December 21st while we're recording this there has been one Marquis free agent sign. Well,

[00:04:02] do you want to count Eduardo Rodriguez? I guess that'd be two. I guess if you count it or no, we're going back. Yeah, I mean that I'm grasping for straws. I'll say no,

[00:04:11] is Marquis. No, is Marquis. Okay, so him going back to Iran is not okay. So no, but it's not even like Aaron Nola left and went to a new team. He just signed with his old team, which good for him,

[00:04:22] but that's not moving the needle much in terms of the hot stuff getting hot. It's just, okay, Aaron Nola stand with the Phillies basically the rest of his career and nothing is going on yet

[00:04:31] and we're just waiting and waiting not just for the Mariners. And we are still waiting for that, but for everybody. I mean seriously, you and I are the most hope you and I are hanging on to this

[00:04:41] off season is the fact that Jorge Soler wore a Griffey shirt in a workout. Seriously, that and there was one report like we talked about in Wednesday's podcast saying the Mariners have been the most active in his sweepstakes than anybody. So I guess there's

[00:04:58] that. But yeah, when we're talking about again, planes and NFL tickets and wearing certain players shirts like, can't we just get pen to paper here guys? Can we get some passing bombs please?

[00:05:10] Come on. Can we get a Christmas Day miracle? There's no way anybody signs on Christmas, right? You never know. Jerry once made a trade on Thanksgiving. It was Thanksgiving Eve, wasn't it? Or was it Thanksgiving? No, it was on Thanksgiving. He made that

[00:05:27] Mitch Hannah. Okay, cigarette trade. Yeah. Well, I know Jerry's phone is on during Christmas. So I'm sure it's on. Speaking of on or the lights on in your room. I mean, they kind of are but it's you're darker than usual if you're watching on YouTube.

[00:05:44] No, so we've recorded two things today. You'll know what we recorded earlier when we release our Wednesday episode next week, but I'm actually in a different spot. I'm glad you asked. I'm actually in a different recording location because the one I was using

[00:05:57] before earlier today was occupied. It's really interesting being home, right? I had my old bedroom which obviously would be great. It was very spacious and that's where I was recording earlier today. But as soon as you move out dog, I mean your stuff, it gets yeeted out.

[00:06:12] It gets yeeted out and you no longer have any territory that you call yours in your own house. So I got to make do with what I got. See, look at me. I'm holding my mic right here.

[00:06:21] Normally this is nice and propped up and I don't have to worry about it. But I got a hold and I got to stand for this whole episode. It's all part of being home for the holidays,

[00:06:30] dog. We got to make some sacrifices. I feel like our household has different philosophies. My brother doesn't live at the house anymore. He's out in Ohio but his stuff hasn't moved. They haven't turned his room into some home theater or extra office or anything like that.

[00:06:45] So I don't know. Different philosophies are two households, I guess. Yeah, well we just didn't have as much room really downstairs for another office until the two twins moved out and then there was room for one. And mine got a lot of sunlight and

[00:07:00] some good views of the backyard. So I won the lottery. So it is what it is. I do wish I still had my space. It would be a lot better but we do what we can do.

[00:07:11] Yeah, again you're not quite sitting in the dark or anything like that. But usually there is just a bright light shining on you when you're sitting in your apartment in Corvallis and it looks a little bit different here. Not that it's bad but anybody watching on YouTube,

[00:07:26] that's what's going on. Yeah, well that's a key. If you want to see how dark I am, please go subscribe to our YouTube. Yes. Okay, before we get into the show, let's take a quick pause to hear about our friends over at Pagotius Pub 85. Guess what? I

[00:07:40] was just over there the other day. I go over honestly pretty regularly. You know why? Because it's an awesome place to hang out. Whether you want to watch some games, hang out with

[00:07:50] some friends, drink some great drinks, get some good food. You name it. Play some pool, play darts, head over there. Pagotius Pub 85 is our favorite place to hang out, especially on the weekends. And what can you do over there? Well, like we mentioned,

[00:08:04] aside from all the great food and drink options, there's also some happy hour specials during the weekdays if you show up at the key times. It's Monday through Friday from 2 to 6 pm. And those specials include $3 domestic beers, $4 Manny's Blue Moons, $4 Mack and Jack's, $4 Wells,

[00:08:20] and $4 Housewine. You'll have a good time with your friends, hang out, eat, drink, and watch some games over at Pagotius Pub 85 in Kirkland. Okay. I think it's safe to say after everything we've endured this off season, after the Wednesday show we did with Jeff Baker,

[00:08:37] which was a great episode and a great interview, but it was not the most upbeat interview for anybody that listened. I think you'd agree. I think you and I would sit here and agree.

[00:08:47] So what do we say today? Well, there's not a lot of Mariners news right now. People are kind of down in the dumps on this Mariners off season. What can we do? Let's have a fun episode, man. Like let's do something fun. Let's talk about something engaging.

[00:09:00] Let's get people upbeat along with personally like I just need it at this point. I can't do any more talk about the RSNs. I can't do any more talk about root sports. I can't do

[00:09:10] any more talk about payroll. It's driving me nuts. So we said, let's put together an actual fun episode for this show and have a blast doing it. So that's what we did. I think. And I'll say there's nothing really more engaging than ranking. I literally us putting

[00:09:27] together these rankings got like us engaged in it, which is really good. So the premise of this is we're taking Julio Rodriguez and Lyle and I are each giving our take of why he would rank where he

[00:09:40] does amongst the stars in Major League Baseball. It is a very real possibility that sometime in his career, Julio Rodriguez is number two in Major League Baseball right behind Joe Hayotani. However,

[00:09:52] I think you and I will very clearly agree here early. He is not number two in Major League Baseball, which makes it actually quite more fun to pick out where is Julio among his peers in Major League Baseball after year two.

[00:10:05] And TJ and I are going to differ on this, I'm sure. So we each made some tiers with some lists and then we're going to get into it. So we're going to talk about the tiers. We made three

[00:10:14] different tiers. And then at the end of the segment, we're each going to rank where we put him among all of baseball. So here are the three tiers we kind of assessed. Our first one

[00:10:23] is guys that are definitively ahead of Julio. The second tier will be players that you can argue to put Julio over, but certainly would not be unanimous. And then the third tier is

[00:10:34] players in his range that you would rank him over. So I think we agreed on the first five in the tier of guys definitively ahead of them because here's where I, as far as I know,

[00:10:46] you and I have the same list. And those five are in some order or another. Shohei Otani, I think we both agree he's at one. Ronald Lacunia, Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge, Freddie Freeman. Those are the five. Those are the five guys in baseball that say,

[00:10:59] you know what? As amazing as Julio is, I do not think there's an argument for him to be above any of those five players. I agree. I have one more player in that tier. And I put after his

[00:11:09] season in 2023, Corey Seeger earns a spot in there. I think he is, I think he clearly made a point that when he is healthy, he is clearly better than what Julio Rodriguez is right now.

[00:11:23] Okay. So we're like splitting hairs on this because I had Seeger as the first guy in the next category. I said, look, if you really wanted to present an argument for why Julio is a better

[00:11:34] player than Corey Seeger, and I know what Corey did this past year was unbelievable, which would have resulted in an MVP had it not been for maybe the greatest player to ever live,

[00:11:43] taking it instead of them. So I had Seeger at six. I put him in the category of if you really work for it, if you really string together numbers off, survive, fan graphs, referenced, eye tests, leadership, whatever you want to use. Maybe there is something

[00:11:59] there to say Julio could be put above Corey Seeger. I would not rank Julio above Seeger at this point. So I put Seeger at six. So pretty much I'd say we're in the same,

[00:12:09] we're in the same tier on that range. Now, is there much more to dive in on with those guys? I think that's pretty set in stone, right? I think the argument's pretty much

[00:12:16] right yourself. Hey, if you want to make an argument that Julio is better than any one of those guys credit to you, like, like there's just I don't see much point. I don't know what data points

[00:12:27] you're going to be pointing to for as great as Julio is. I think it's pretty clear cut those guys are better. It's honestly not very close. But the next tier, as you said,

[00:12:38] close but not close enough, I'll put it that way. That's a better way to frame it. Right. And I will say before we get to our next tier, our listeners are awesome

[00:12:46] and people are engaged. So if you have an argument for why Julio is better than any of those guys, please tell us in the YouTube comments, please tell us on Instagram or on Twitter,

[00:12:54] whether it's in our replies, whether you DMS, send us the arguments. If you've got an argument for one of those guys being behind Julio, tell us now the second tier here. Again, I'll reread it

[00:13:05] players that you can argue to put Julio over, but certainly won't be unanimous. That's the second tier. I think the two of us are going to differ a little bit on who's in this

[00:13:14] tier of players. I'll let you go first. So at the top, I mean guys that again, it really depends on the person. Mike Trout, Yordon Alvarez, Jose Altuve, I have Juan Soto in this tier. I have

[00:13:27] Trey Turner in this tier. I have Matt Olson in this tier. I have Marcus Simeon, Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor and Fernando Tates Jr. Are any of those really jump out to you?

[00:13:38] So here's my tier. Again, I said I had Corey Seger in this tier, which I do. I have Juan Soto, Yordon Alvarez, Matt Olson, Mike Trout, Francisco Lindor, Jose Altuve. After Seger, at least for now, not in any real particular order. I guess maybe Trout's seven. After that,

[00:13:58] I guess you can argue however you want. There are a couple that you named in there that stand out to me and I guess that being one Trey Turner because I think you and I are going

[00:14:07] to measure this ranking a little bit differently, which you're taking clearly. Trey's track record much more into account because Trey Turner did not have a very good year for the most part of 2023,

[00:14:17] even though he turned it around toward the end. He really struggled for at least half the year and his result didn't have as big of a season. Jose Ramirez was close. I guess I put him

[00:14:26] slightly in the third tier. Again, he had a good year this past year, a very good year, but it just wasn't quite Jose Ramirez asked I guess. The one that stands out to me is

[00:14:35] Tattis. I think we got to dive in on this one. Tattis is definitively not in the second tier for me. I was going to say, I have a couple more rebuttals for the previous two you mentioned,

[00:14:45] but yeah, let's go to Fernando Tattis first. I think of this as sort of a wait and see with Fernando Tattis. If you are convinced that his 2023 season is what he is without whatever measure of cheating he did and what he was suspended for, then he's clearly not

[00:15:01] better than Julio Rodriguez. Clearly, I mean, a 113 WRC plus is not good enough really to overcome not good enough on top of elite defense to top Julio because Julio plays an elite offensive

[00:15:13] position. But the thing is, I mean, I just look at three straight years when he debuts in any sort of length of a 150 WRC plus or higher at a premium position and looking like he has some

[00:15:27] of the most historical power stats in the world and thinking when he's only 24 years old that even if he stops doing whatever he's doing, I can't imagine that power just goes away. And it's very

[00:15:38] possible that Fernando Tattis' 2023 season was just the result of him missing over a year's worth of time before returning to Major League Baseball. Like that's entirely possible, right? That his timing wasn't there and it would have been much better for him to roll

[00:15:55] season after season instead of taking an entire year plus off. So I'm thinking he returns to what he was pre-suspension and that player in right field is better than Julio Rodriguez. Fair points, argument valid. I respectfully am going to disagree. Point number one and this

[00:16:15] is what I'm going to drive home. The fact we are in wait and see mode with Tattis is why I can't put him in tier two. The fact we're in wait and see with Tattis

[00:16:26] has dropped him a category below along with the year he had. If he had gone back to being Prime Fernando Tattis, what he was doing before the PDs and the injuries, he'd be in tier two.

[00:16:35] He'd be a top 10 guy for sure. He wasn't that this year. The fact Fernando Tattis Jr. has not been a better player than Julio Rodriguez since Julio stepped into the big leagues says all you need to say. Like the last time Fernando was better than Julio.

[00:16:49] Julio was not a big leager yet because Tattis missed all of 2022 and in 2023 he comes back and puts up a 770 OPS and a 113 WRC plus. Like that's just, that's not a top 10 baseball player

[00:17:01] to me. It's just not. I know he was maybe the best outfielder in baseball this year when you look at OAA and his defense was phenomenal. I know that when he is at his best, he is a top 10

[00:17:11] player but again what is his best at this point? Does it involve PEDs? Does it not involve PEDs? Since he has come back from allegedly using no more PEDs and cheating,

[00:17:21] he was 13% above league average as a hitter. Like I can't put that guy next to a UR non-alvarez who put up a 180 whatever WRC plus in 22 and a 170 in 23. I just can't do it.

[00:17:34] That's a fair point. You do make some solid arguments and I think we will have a clear picture of this direct argument next season after next season. Like I think it'll be pretty clear because either some of this also hinges on like Julio truly breaking out offensively.

[00:17:50] And I mean not just being a really good offensive player, I mean becoming a great offensive player which many think he is but he hasn't quite reached that yet. It's a little unfair to expect

[00:18:00] someone to reach their peak offensively in the first two seasons but Fernando Tautiz again is a guy who did that. Like I don't know how any shortstop really caliber player could be any better offensively than Fernando Tautiz was at his peak. When he's at his peak, he is

[00:18:20] the face of baseball as people call it. For sure. It's been two years since we've seen that. So yes, I think 2020, 2024 is going to be very telling for who Tautiz is. If he goes back

[00:18:33] to being prime Tautiz, great. We can come back to this podcast in a few months and say old takes exposed at you, Lyle. That's fine but right now I'd say we don't know.

[00:18:43] Lyle Lund, Are there any other guys in this list that you would like? Which other one is like your firm that not firm but like leaning Julio over? Lyle Lund, Do we want to give that away yet or should we save it till the end?

[00:18:56] Lyle Lund, Oh well yeah, I get yeah, we do. I was going to say like I was going to sort of back up for Jram. Like Jram, I did have a down season but like you go back and

[00:19:05] you look at his fangrass page and you're like, hmm yeah, he's actually pretty damn good. Lyle Lund, Oh he's amazing. I was going to say if you want to present cases for Jram

[00:19:14] and Trey Turner here because they're in your tier two, go ahead. I just didn't have them there. Lyle Lund, Well my Trey Turner thing, I mean Julio has never been worth six wins and Trey Turner's previous two seasons were over six wins both. I mean that's just

[00:19:26] like a flat war argument. Trey is also getting a little older too. Lyle Lund, Yeah. Okay so you're very, very nitpicking here with that because okay Julio put up 5.9 in 23 so he barely missed six if you want to call it that.

[00:19:41] Lyle Lund, Well I, Trey was like half a win better at minimum. So like I mean that's just like just what it is and again war is very subjective. It's also cumulative as well

[00:19:52] so Julio missing time with injury doesn't help him especially back in 22 in his rookie year when he missed some time with that hand injury. So again it's all subjective right. These rankings are interesting that's why I'm very excited for us to get to the

[00:20:05] final part of this where we actually have our ranking where I know you and I are a little bit different on where we put it. Lyle Lund, Okay. Julio Lund, Read us your tier three. I think I or actually I'm going to read the tier

[00:20:18] three on my own list because I wanted to make sure I tried at least to include everybody who is labeled a star. If we somehow missed somebody we're sorry we think we included just about everybody who deserves to be on this list. Here is tier three if

[00:20:31] TJ wants to add anybody else he can in tier three and again we're not including Julio in any of these tiers yet we're going to rank him at the end. These are players the knit what we name this tier is players in Julio's range

[00:20:42] that we would probably rank him over Corbin Carroll, Luis Robert, Kyle Tucker, Austin Riley, I had Fernando Tautis in this tier, Manny Machado, Grace Harper, Marcus Simeon who I also had in this tier, Bobby Whit, Paul Gulchman, Trey Turner again

[00:20:57] different tiers on that one, Rafael Devers, Nolan Aronado, Jose Ramirez, Alex Thragman we tried to include everybody that is that is the lump of guys that right is right around Julio's

[00:21:09] range or at least close to it. I had Adley in there too. Oh good call we left out Adley okay so Adley Rushman last guy that's about 28 guys yeah there's a lot of stars in this

[00:21:19] game and should we add two we're not putting pitchers in here like it's just too hard to say what's Julio's value to Garrett Coles or Zach Wheeler's or whoever because it's like okay you

[00:21:30] can compare wars but then what it's impossible so yeah I mean unless you want Julio to get on a mound which would be fun to watch could he hit how fast do we think he'd hit I mean probably over 90 right

[00:21:43] yeah I mean he could probably go low 90s but like promise his mechanics are aren't fine too enough for him to really like really unlock I mean if he really had let's say he had

[00:21:52] like a maculant mechanics so it'd be shocked if he could touch over 95 but you know you got to do that you got to really put work in to do that yeah you do I don't know if there's anybody in here

[00:22:03] that we really should highlight I guess there's a couple one maybe people are going to ask about Bryce Harper why he's so low look from where he stands right now he's not really playing any

[00:22:11] defense he can barely throw the ball so it's kind of deal breaker right there yeah so maybe TJ and I are going to differ on this a little bit but at least I know how in my

[00:22:20] rankings I'm factoring Julio into all this is look defense is going to matter for me I know I know it might not to everybody but the fact Julio is a true five tool guy

[00:22:32] matters there are guys on this list they're phenomenal at one or two things but they are not all around players so we're going to get to that in a bit but Bryce Harper as we said

[00:22:41] is not currently an all-around player because again he hits and he hits phenomenally but it's not really playing defense yeah that's fair I don't think you're really missing anyone

[00:22:50] that I didn't have in my third tier I mean I didn't write down Devers but Devers is definitely in that third tier for sure like Devers but Devers is another guy whose defense is just shaky to try and

[00:23:01] compliment it with the bat is an interesting task for Rafi and he's yeah not he's consistent hitting but I'm he's definitely in that third tier yeah I spoiler Julio is going to rank ahead of

[00:23:13] Rafael Devers on my nose same with same in mine I'm trying to think anybody else on here that's that's worth it I mean court like somebody like Corbin Carroll and Julio are close and maybe

[00:23:22] that'll reflect in the rankings I think somebody like we talked about Tate's Austin Riley's a pretty interesting guy I mean I mean I think I've said this for a while now this guy might be the most

[00:23:31] slept on player in baseball still like I know everybody knows Austin Riley now but I still feel like he's less appreciated than he should be yeah he's he's in my third tier and I like

[00:23:42] not a secret he's Julio is going to be over him but he like consistency is there I mean he's not the world's best defender at third base which does not help him and which separates him from say a prime

[00:23:54] Nolan Aronato or Jose Ramirez at his best but in terms of swinging the bat I mean he's he's pretty darn good might not he might he's not in the top tier of hitters major league baseball

[00:24:04] and I think if he was in the top top tier of major league baseball and hitters he would be a little higher on this list because average defense with unbelievable offensive production lands you in the second tier but really good offensive production and middling defense probably puts

[00:24:19] you in the third tier yeah and he's in my third tier two which I agree with I guess the one other guy you had in tier two that I had in tier three was Marcus Semihan and he just he hasn't out hit

[00:24:31] Julio either season and I mean I guess both guys play defensive positions that are important and play very good defense but I guess I just wouldn't say Semihan is a better ball player than Julio

[00:24:44] I know we finished higher on the MVP voting this year and maybe that's a fair thing to say that's not even something I really honestly considered here's my Marcus Semihan thing first of all he

[00:24:54] missed has missed one game in three seasons that's pretty valuable first off like you get every cent of your contract that's uh that's worth that and I also took into a slight context of second baseman like second base isn't a great hitting position outside of Altuve and Semihan

[00:25:12] so the fact that he's able to do that while playing the best defense in the league at at second base I mean it's a pretty good player so I mean that's it's it's he ranks

[00:25:24] higher than I think some people would I know some people might think is 104 WRC plus and 22 is legitimately not concerning but would knock him down a tier and I totally wouldn't blame anyone for doing that but I think I think Semihan's really proven himself over time to

[00:25:41] to earn his way into that second tier all right I mean look again he was he was an MVP finalist this year but he was an MVP finalist and also still didn't put up a higher WRC plus than

[00:25:52] Julio this year like people tabbed this year as a down year for Julio and look first half the year he had his issues he wasn't hitting as well as people expected him to but when it was

[00:26:01] all said and done Julio still put up a higher WRC plus than Semihan did and back in 22 Julio was about 40 percent better if not higher than Semihan was so I'm probably gonna have Julio over Semihan

[00:26:13] again what do we keep saying this is all subjective if you have an argument otherwise that's totally fair but these are different so I'm trying to think if there's anything else we need to cover before we get to it here like where are we gonna rank Julio Rodriguez

[00:26:26] on each of our lists yeah I'm doing some second second hand on the on the job evaluation here dog so it might be it might be a last minute switch okay so doing some deep thinking are you putting

[00:26:38] the pressure on me to go first yeah you can go first okay he's still not going to be ranked where you ranked him I have Julio Rodriguez at number eight among all players in baseball

[00:26:53] I have the first five ahead of him Shohei Akunya Betts judge Freeman I have Corey Seeger ahead of him Mike Trout ahead of him and Trout is interesting right because you have to measure Trout of okay

[00:27:05] he's the best player in baseball outside of Shohei when he's healthy hasn't been healthy in a long time for a full season I get it if Julio has one more big year and Trout still hurt

[00:27:16] I'll catapult Julio over Trout for now I'm still gonna leave Trout there but yeah he's at eight and what did I say defense plays a factor into this for me and truthfully it

[00:27:25] plays an important one and I guess base running to some extent does too people are gonna say Juan Soto you're on Alvarez like Matt Olson look those guys are phenomenal players and and it's again

[00:27:35] we're it's we're splitting hairs here like we said earlier Juan Soto does not play a lick of defense look Juan Soto occupies left field or right field he does not play a lick of defense

[00:27:48] he's one of the best hitters in the world but his overall value often ranks below where Julio is because he doesn't play any defense Jordans pretty much the same thing it's funny Jordan plays

[00:27:59] he's actually measured okay out in left field but he also plays in like the smallest left field in baseball having a roam around those Crawford boxes at Minute Maid Park it's the

[00:28:09] same deal Jordan is not valuable defensively and Julio is so I have him over guys like that and I know Matt Olson just had this historic season but again position that is not all that

[00:28:22] valued at defensively at first base outside of that huge 2023 he has not had another year like that anytime recently and there's a lot of ways in which Julio ranks out better than Olson does

[00:28:34] so again subjective other people may feel differently this is where I have Julio it's eight yeah so I was pretty conflicted in my rankings I've been like I'm honestly doing some it's like Mike I'm tinkering my fantasy football lineup right here so I'm doing with these rankings

[00:28:50] I had him 13 man like this is going to be such a such a odd ranking I think if I were to get another shot at this I might switch some things up here but I'm just going to stick with my guns

[00:29:01] because this is what I did so Shohei's obviously number one I'm Mookie Ronald Aaron Judge Corey Seager Freddie Freeman the top six I think it's kind of hard to argue those I think those

[00:29:10] players this past season have established themselves as the best six players at baseball Mike Trout at seven Jose Ramirez keeps his top top 10 spot at eight Matt Olson's at nine I mean he was the

[00:29:23] fourth best offensive player in baseball this season and and as a first baseman as a first baseman it was worth more wins above replacement than Julio this year like let's take that into account like that's pretty significant that tells you the level of player he is over there

[00:29:38] so after Matt Olson I have Al Tuve who continues to just be incredible then I have Fernando Tates and Marcus Simeon the big one is probably Marcus Simeon here and if I again if I were to go

[00:29:51] back on my word and reevaluate Marcus Simeon's position might change but I'm going to stick consistent on this podcast I'm going to put Marcus Simeon at 12 and Julio at 13 then right after that is Juan Soto and Jordon Alvarez who are getting are probably if we're talking

[00:30:05] hitters in baseball they're both in the top three but for the sake of these rankings they would be ranked right after Julio so that's that's where I have Julio in this list and I do think I did a

[00:30:17] good job of evaluating defense in this list as well with including Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson who are two pretty good gloves at first base and taking into account that like their defense

[00:30:28] is pretty good and their offense is otherworldly as two of the four best hitters in baseball this past season so I think I think that's pretty good list I'm sure someone in the comment section

[00:30:40] is going to call me an idiot which hey you're allowed to do that. You're going to get called a hater I'm going to get called a homer like that's just how it's going to go so that's fine and I

[00:30:51] also want to put into context like you said like Julio had a down offense of these and well yeah I mean yeah he did Julio was a good hitter for or a great hitter sorry for one month

[00:31:01] he was like a good hitter for another month and the rest of the months used probably not good enough like for a top 10 player in baseball top 10 players don't do that

[00:31:13] not really. Not usually but again the defense plays a big help and I mean when it was all said and done that was his yearly production it would have been nice if it was spread out more but

[00:31:23] production production and so wherever it came from it did stem from somewhere I will say you have Yordon and Soto much lower than I would have figured like I do not have those guys currently

[00:31:36] behind players like Tatees and Simeon. Well if you're taking defense into account then yeah that's it I mean we're talking about like Marcus Simeon like again one of the best defenders on the infield in baseball and Fernando Tatees maybe the best defender of the outfield

[00:31:54] in baseball on top of good offensive production. Yeah it's hard to measure again it's so subjective all these guys are so good I guess it's the fact that while they might not be the best overall players

[00:32:06] there is an argument here to be made one Soto and Yordon Alvarez are the two best pure hitters on Planet Earth so and show yeah okay and show hey but there is an argument there

[00:32:18] there is an argument that you could put somebody like Yordon or like Soto ahead of show hey I'm not saying everybody would but some people might and we're also not saying they're not

[00:32:27] worth the money they're they will they will eventually get one one Soto sides a contract for over 40 million dollars a year yeah he deserves it and if the Mariners could afford that I would

[00:32:36] pay him every single cent that he wants. Yeah I'm with you well I do look I do look forward to seeing what the replies are going to be to these I'm sure there'll be a jolly old time with a lot of

[00:32:46] calm heads. Okay let's run through a list one more time so just in case people missed it so I'm gonna go through mine if Julio at 13 the rating goes show hey Mookie Acunha Judge Seeger Freeman

[00:33:00] trout Ramirez Olson Altuve Tati Simeon Julio and then Soto and Yordon Alvarez after him. Okay so I put I had sho hey Acunha that's Judge Freeman Corey Seeger Mike trout Julio at eight

[00:33:16] one Soto at nine Alvarez at 10. Okay there we go fire away boys fire wait like I said well well cool heads prevail will we have some calm people in the replies well you don't usually

[00:33:29] go that way does it no no I don't think so I wish but that would be nice to be a little bit easier to sift through the comments let's get to our MLB wrap around so in the wrap around today

[00:33:45] while a little bit shorter because as we mentioned there's not really much going on in baseball however MLB did change some rules today which I think are very interesting the biggest one that stands out to me they're tweaking the pitch clock with runners on base from 20 seconds to 18

[00:34:02] seconds I don't really think this is going to be that big a deal to be honest I'm not really sure we're even going to notice it I think it may just be second nature I'm not sure 20

[00:34:13] seconds versus 18 seconds is really going to register in anybody's heads it's fine if major league baseball decided we want to try to speed up the games even just a little bit more and most

[00:34:22] of these pitchers do not need 20 seconds with a guy on base between pitches and okay shorten it two seconds I don't think anybody's getting hurt too much by it there's this stat here that there was an average of 7.3 seconds remaining on the 20 second timer when pitchers

[00:34:37] threw a pitch with runners on base so on average they would get 20 seconds and the pitchers would only use 13 event when there was a runner on base so seems like a little more efficient use of time

[00:34:50] to have it go down to 18 seconds like 18 is probably the sweet spot I think I mean there was some talk of this before it even started this season that the pitch clock could be a

[00:34:59] little bit long on with runners on base so I'm glad they did this and at least they're using some data behind that as well here's another one to help with sort of sleazy managing barring

[00:35:13] an injury a pitcher who begins to warm up at the start of an inning will now be required to face at least one batter so the rule was before as soon as you step on the mound and throw a pitch to a

[00:35:24] live batter you had to face through if you were starting an inning you had to face three batters coming in cold out of the bullpen but if you take the mound period at the start

[00:35:33] of an inning you have to face a batter I wonder how that's going to be enforced are they gonna like is across the foul line is it step on the mound dirt like what would that be maybe once you enter

[00:35:46] out of the bullpen once you get onto the infield dirt something like that yeah because a lot of the times you'd see okay bullpen guy comes back out right after finishing an inning he'd oh yeah

[00:35:58] so this would be this would be coming back out after an inning so yeah maybe a guy comes back out in past seasons he'd warm up a little bit offense puts in a pinch hitter to try to favor the match

[00:36:09] up whether it's right on left left left on right etc and then as soon as the new hitter gets announced manager walks out goes to his bullpen and then that's it that's what they're preventing now

[00:36:19] so now I would guess it's once you're beyond the foul line or once you're up on the mound something like that is where the rule is but yeah this this will help this will help kind of cut

[00:36:29] out some of the fat of the game still and they're also now going to reduce the amount of mound visits you get to this is not entirely groundbreaking most teams don't even use all their mound visits in a

[00:36:39] given game so major league baseball is going to take one away and a couple more important ones they did so the pitch clock will now be uh the pitch timer will reset and start after a dead ball as

[00:36:52] soon as the pitcher is given the ball not after he gets to the mound so we can't walk up to the catcher get the ball and then walk all the way back to the mound slowly and take his time

[00:37:02] and then once he gets on the mound dirt it starts no it's going to start as soon as he gets the ball we so we might get some funny videos of guys getting the ball back from their catcher and

[00:37:11] sprinting back to the mound that'll be a good time man I guess the last one here is the runners laying to first base when running from home to first is widened a little bit now now

[00:37:23] you have the infill grass to run on well what have we always seen lyle we've seen managers and players get ejected for running to like running to first base on a tapper in front of the plate

[00:37:34] and after the batter is usually running on outside of that lane which is usually from the foul line to the the foul territory dirt on whatever side that is that the runners laying to first base

[00:37:46] and the catcher would throw it into his back and he'd get called out and they're like well there's not enough room to run and also doesn't make sense because that original lane is not in

[00:37:53] line with the base the base is in fair tour territory the lane is in foul territory but now that lane extends into fair territory so as long as you're in the dirt of uh of the baseline

[00:38:07] you're good and if they throw it into your back you're safe and you don't have to complain to being like well if i'm running out of the right handed batters box and i'm running

[00:38:14] towards first base like i'm obviously like the angle i'm taking is running on the grass i'm not running in foul territory so like it kind of works out we'll probably see less ejections because of this and significantly happier players and managers yeah i didn't really know what to

[00:38:31] think of this when i saw this new rule but it's probably only going to help it helps the hitters a little bit more and like you said it provides less controversy on controversy

[00:38:39] on those plays on those throws down to first base from the catcher so hopefully it all helps hopefully it speeds the game up a little bit more i think they did a really good job with

[00:38:46] the pitch clock this year we saw it work obviously games got significantly shortened which was very helpful and it may continue to go that way without really ruining the integrity of the game which

[00:38:56] i think is important before we get to our ruthless replies let's hear a word from simply seattle there still might be time for you to finish up christmas shopping if you haven't if

[00:39:07] you still need to do some elastic and shopping we recommend you go to our friends at simply seattle you can use our code marine 15 for 15% off your order if you're a sports fan of anyone in the pacific northwest we're talking mariners seahawks kraken huskies sonics they have all

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[00:39:36] at simply seattle dot com we recommend it we've gotten some gear from them it is fantastic i mean i just love my throwback seahawks cap i love it you can get the same one and get 15% off

[00:39:46] at simply seattle dot com okay well let's get to our ruthless replies whoo so once a month if you miss us the first time around we did it about a month ago we said

[00:39:58] once a month now we're going to find some of our favorite replies whether it's in our social media comments or youtube comments wherever we're going to read them here on the show

[00:40:07] because a lot of them are a lot of fun now i'll give it i'll give some people a warning again if you're watching on youtube there's not going to be an audio bed because again copyright stuff

[00:40:17] if you're listening there will be an audio bed but we're going to put the the actual screenshots of the tweet up on the youtube side so there's an incentive to both listen

[00:40:25] and watch this part of the show if you don't do so already so let's start i'm going to start with my favorite one here that is now our twitter header x header whatever you want to

[00:40:36] call it so we posted a highlight of muna takama or kami a few weeks ago we kind of just made a joke about it oh it was after the jamer cantalario signing and i was like oh the mariners aren't

[00:40:46] signing cantalario well it's chest not checkers i put a highlight of murakami on there instead we got a couple replies a couple replies saying like what are you talking about dude there's absolutely no chance and somebody replied to a reply saying nothing but and i quote

[00:41:03] average tick tocker baseball fan well my friends that is our new motto here on the marine lair pod we are average tick tocker baseball fans pretty spot on if i had to be honest with

[00:41:16] you that's why we made it our header yeah many of our comments actually seem to agree and the big reason for why we made this segment now i think that's funny i think it's good

[00:41:26] we have another another one on youtube that i mean i i think this is directed at us liles us talking about the mariners still being in on shohei otani so this person suggested since we we've got our

[00:41:43] tinfoil hats on i heard that shohei is actually an alien from the planet show me the money bullshit doublespeak like uh like that is kryptonite to him so that is why he won't sign here makes sense when you think about it lile conspiracy theories are the reason

[00:42:02] shohei otani will never sign in seattle yeah during some of shohei otani's most important days of his life where he has to decide where he's going to spend the next 10 plus years of

[00:42:12] his career what's he doing oh he's not talking with his agent he's not training he's not talking with teams on the phone no he's scrolling through reddit saying well the mariners actually

[00:42:22] reportedly offered me a one-year 65 million dollar deal which may or may not be true in any sense whatsoever therefore right of there look what did we say when we talked about that reddit report on that episode we were like did we go to journalism school absolutely does that

[00:42:43] matter for this episode absolutely no we are going to dive in on this reddit report no matter what we did for a profession and a major in college better yet shohei found our tick talk account

[00:42:53] and that that was the final decision actually well speaking of shohei and our tick talk account if we're getting to our next reply man people got fired up when we were talking about

[00:43:03] shohei a lot of the time because it was during one of our tick talks and and instagram reels our social media posts talking about are we sure the mariners are out on otani or again

[00:43:13] could this reddit report have any validity we get a reply to a tick talk that i did or a social media post that i did saying words can't describe how much i hate this guy well i didn't i don't know

[00:43:26] what i did to be so offensive i i'm sorry i apologize i'm i'm just the worst haven't you heard you are the worst and this other tick talk comment will help agrees with you

[00:43:39] so this was a video of you talking about torre solar and our good friend here says so a guy with a career 24 and a half percent k rate is too high but a guy with a career 26

[00:43:52] percent k rate is manageable you guys suck at this shit that make you feel any better lile may my whole day are you kidding me man like those are words of encouragement right there i mean

[00:44:06] man fired i'm fired up right now lile let's go you're doing the don legreca i'm jumping up and down should should we get our own giveable clip right here all right commenter are you ready

[00:44:19] ready with me loud clown show clown show clown show clown show clown show if you don't know that don't go look at the clip on youtube you it's really easy to find don legreca clown show on

[00:44:34] youtube one of my favorite internet videos of all time amazing it just shows you new york sports is another level again what i talked about in this tick tock i said or i get i keep saying tick tock

[00:44:46] the social media post or hey so lair does have a manageable k right now why because he's brought it down since the early times in his career when you're striking out left and right like

[00:44:56] the marines would not have issues with for hey so they're striking a problem at least based off what he's done the last few years if he was here he'd be perfectly fine so just

[00:45:04] i'm sure most of you listening know that but we'll just reiterate it again okay fake news lile fake news whoo well i've got some news for you tj i don't think fake news we've got some news that

[00:45:19] we're about to make some money according to this commenter because we had another tick tock where we talked about keep doing that social media posts where we keep where we were talking about

[00:45:28] a would you rather for this it for this edition we did cal raleigh we said who would you take cal raleigh over in terms of other catchers so it was a would you rather segment we talked about john

[00:45:39] murphy we talked about wil smith we talked about john hyme wilson contraris a few others and we got a reply saying sell your podcast equipment holy shit so how much are we making

[00:45:52] off our stuff we're we're going to be a few hundred bucks richer i would like to think does my computer is my computer count i'd be a lot richer if that was the case oh yeah you're

[00:46:01] talking about an extra like thousand to fifteen hundred bucks at least if you're going to complete so let's pay me a thousand dollars i'll sell it yeah but then when you have to use that thousand

[00:46:11] dollars to actually get a new computer hopefully it'd be a newer one i see a benefit to this slyle i am seeing a benefit to this all right mind games all right you've been a little it's

[00:46:22] been a bit of a negative uh ruthless reply so far so i want to give you a bit of a pick me up make you feel a little bit better in this segment so we had a lovely comment on our youtube page

[00:46:33] that really is just gassing lile up and to make you feel a lot better lile i wish to hear lile speaking more than tj there you go lile that i have just made this episode for you you should

[00:46:47] clip this and find a way to post it on your digital wall it'll sorry on your digital mantle forever i'm gonna take it a step further that comment has inspired me to make an executive decision here

[00:46:59] and say tj you're off the show uh oh well that's a reply that will remain nameless inspired life into me and inspired and inspired something to say you know what i need to take a stand i won't let tj talk anymore i'm sick of listening to him

[00:47:21] oh thank you and as always to all these kind comments i just i just like to say thanks for watching thanks for watching indeed we could not appreciate it enough we're gonna cap it off with one more

[00:47:35] when we were talking about would hulio speaking out against ownership change anything would have changed our minds at all and we get a reply to cap this all off people who watch baseball do not ask

[00:47:47] these questions so to recap all of this tj not only are we dumb not only should we sell our podcast up we also should i stop talking we also actually do not sit down and watch baseball games at ever

[00:48:01] i don't think so actually i have one more for you one more banger that is right up your alley okay i saved this one just for you you guys are too analytically driven lil we are too analytically

[00:48:16] driven i doubt darik jeter this was a conversation about darik jeter defense cares that he has called a bad defensive player in today's metrics uh let me skip all the hubbub in this one and say clearly

[00:48:29] a bad defender didn't cost the yankees when they were stacking world series appearances you can't measure his high baseball iq and his most my favorite one his will to win in leadership

[00:48:43] with analytics boom we have owned the nerds i don't even know how this is still being argued like spend five seconds looking at anything about his defense and it shows you exactly what

[00:48:59] you need to see look i know i'm getting worked up over somebody's random reply now but still a ruthless reply i should say even still you know why darik jeter made all those jump throws over the

[00:49:08] years because while he had to jump and throw across his body in midair to get a throw to first base harlow's korea would have simply backhanded it and threw a dart across the diamond with no issues

[00:49:19] whatsoever it's tough reality lil it is a tough tough reality some of the people can't grasp hey like i said at the end of this last segment the last time we didn't i'll say it now

[00:49:32] don't let this discourage you from sending us your best please do not let it do that because you make it good enough you'll make an appearance yeah if it's if it's really out there it's probably

[00:49:44] getting read on this segment so you've got one month people you get pissed off about something tj and i say leave us a comment it might be getting read that's your that's your key here

[00:49:56] i like this segment now i mean actually i liked it the first time we did it but i think it's fun that once a month now we're gathering all these replies to say hey you think

[00:50:05] social media is a negative place well you're absolutely right it is right here oh man okay this has been a fun episode certainly for us hopefully it was for you guys too i think we

[00:50:18] all needed it i am telling you from first hand experience i needed this episode very very badly i did not want to talk about any more negative stuff revolving around the mariners so i'm very

[00:50:27] glad we did this episode it could have some fun debates and have some laughs so with that that'll just about wrap up this edition of the marine layer podcast you guys know the drill

[00:50:37] you want to listen to the full form podcast you can do so wherever you get your audio pods you do that make sure to download leave us a five star review and follow the show those

[00:50:46] reviews and downloads help us out big time and you know what else helps us out a lot if you like comment subscribe on youtube the full video podcast is over there go do that where

[00:50:55] we post our video sides of the pod and then you can follow us on social media on instagram tiktok twitter and youtube shorts at marine layer pod that's tj i'm lial as always we thank you guys for tuning in talk to you soon