Episode 88: Projecting The Mariners' Current 2024 Lineup, And Reviewing The First Year Of The Podcast

[00:00:00] Welcome to Episode number 88 of the Marine Layer Podcast. We'll project the current Mariners lineup as it sits in 2024. Take a look at the latest transactions in baseball and our MLB wrap around and close out the show with a special Speak Your Mind.

[00:00:14] It is our year one in review for the podcast. This show is brought to you by our friends over at Pagotches Pub 85. That's Pagotches Pub 85 in Kirkland, our favorite place to go hang out with our friends, go have some great food, drink some great drinks and watch

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[00:01:02] with your friends over at Pagotches Pub 85 in Kirkland. And here's your reminder before we start the show. Go download our episodes, leave us that five star review, follow the show wherever you get your audio podcast, like comment, subscribe on YouTube with

[00:01:16] the full video podcast over there and follow us on social media on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. Well, let's get it rolling. And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer

[00:01:39] Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network recording here on Thursday night, December 28th. We have made it, Lyle, the final show of 2023. It is flown by. It doesn't feel all that long ago that we were sitting around on FaceTime making our logo,

[00:02:01] deciding what we wanted to do for the namesake of the podcast. It really doesn't feel that long ago. And the truth is it was about 13 months prior now, maybe 13 and a half months prior when we were thinking of ideas for the name and logo. So yes, technically this

[00:02:14] is a baker's dozen year that we're calling year one because we started in November of 2022, but we're really calling this year one now that 2023 is about to come to an end. So yeah, it's been a blast.

[00:02:25] If we're not cheating, we're not trying. So I'm just going to put that out there. But man, what a year it has been. I like, I think I had high expectations for us in this

[00:02:35] year. We're going to get a little more into this in our speaker mind. But I just want to say like, I think we both easily exceeded expectations. Like this has been everything I could have imagined this has turned into of course, like we got to thank the

[00:02:48] people who tune in and listen to this podcast of why it is what it is. But even like when we would dream, like we're confident in our abilities. But just to see the results is so cool. It's so cool now that we're a full year into this.

[00:03:03] It really sort of hits home how real this all is very real. And I'm going to try to save all my thoughts for the end of the show. This is going to be our

[00:03:12] special speaker mind this week. So I'm going to try not to get too far into it. I do want to say on both ends of this podcast, both bookends the beginning and the end, everything TJ and I have done is not possible without everybody

[00:03:23] that listens to the show, watches the show on YouTube, watches any bit of our social media content, everything like it is only possible because all of you guys take the time out of your day to listen to two people just talk about

[00:03:35] the Mariners and we really, really appreciate it. So off that, because everybody has been so great and so loyal, there are two things that I want to throw out there at the start of this podcast that I'd love to get listeners,

[00:03:47] viewers thoughts on and you can just ponder it over. If you have thoughts on it, please leave in the comments because we are trying to gauge some feedback on this. There's two potential ideas we have for year two. And again, we're going to

[00:03:58] we're going to go more in depth on all this toward the end of the show. But number one, if we were to do a live show somewhere in year two, would you be interested in showing up? Number two,

[00:04:08] if we were going to potentially try and make merch in year two, would you be interested? So just ponder those two thoughts. If your answers, no, I'm not interested. That's okay. That's exactly what we're trying to gauge.

[00:04:17] But those are two potential ideas we have along with a whole lot more. So just give us some feedback on that if you have any. By live show, Lyle means in person live show, not us live streaming on YouTube.

[00:04:28] And it like, like he said, you can leave a comment. You can shoot us an email, marine layer pod at gmail.com. Please go ahead and send us an email or you can leave us a voicemail as

[00:04:38] well. Again, if you want to get more in depth and not leave it in the YouTube comments. Yeah. DM on social media is perfectly fine too, wherever you want it. So yeah, we are open to anything and everything.

[00:04:48] So please ponder those ideas as you listen to this show and we'll get into it a little bit more in our final segment here on Speak Your Mind. The main subject of this episode, I wanted to cook this up for our final episode of the year.

[00:05:03] So the Mariners have made a transaction about a week ago now they sign Mitch Garver to officially a two-year $24 million deal with the Mutual Option for a third season. So because they've made a move, we can now, we can shuffle around what

[00:05:18] we think the current lineup is for 2024. So I thought this would be a fun exercise for today. What is the current Mariners lineup going to look like for this upcoming season as we sit right now? Is there somewhere you want to start with this, Lyle?

[00:05:32] There is 30 seconds I want to add on to the Mitch Garver contract before we get into the lineup because we found out today that there is a Mutual Option for a third year in that deal, which we didn't previously know. That's pretty awesome.

[00:05:44] I mean, along with the contract already being pretty club-friendly to begin with, that's a plus for the Mariners. Mutual Option, again, they're not tied into it. That means it could go either way after the two years. They have to mutually decide if Garver will stick around.

[00:05:56] So I certainly like that. So if it works out great, then he will stay a Mariners. Now, however, he could turn into Barry Bonds for two seasons and then realize, well, I'm kind of playing on a discount here. I think I could earn more money.

[00:06:12] So maybe there's a bit of a measured output needed for that Mutual Option. But you're right. It is as team-friendly as it gets. And this is a chance like bang for your buck offense to be very valuable to the Mariners and they really are pinching pennies.

[00:06:30] That works out and it's an A plus signing for Jerry DePoto given he stays healthy. Okay, wow, the lineup. He's going to sit right in the middle of that lineup. But where are you looking at with this lineup?

[00:06:41] What why don't you give me, let's start off with the right-handed lineup. I want you to give me your right-handed version of this projected lineup for the Mariners. So as it sits right now, the first three you can pretty easily pencil in. It's JP leading off playing shortstop.

[00:06:57] Julio hits second in center field. Cal hits third doing the catching. I have Mitch Garver fourth at DH. Typhorans hitting fifth playing first. And then six through nine is where it gets interesting. So we have Dom Kanzon playing left in the sixth spot.

[00:07:10] Cade Marlowe hitting seventh and right field. Luis Urias hitting eighth at third base. Josh Rojas hitting ninth playing second. Is there anything different in your lineup compared to mine with the righties? I had Dylan Moore in there.

[00:07:23] I don't know if there's that much difference with Dimo and Cade in there. Unless you really think Cade's going to crush righties here in 2024, which he could. But knowing Scott's service it very realistically could be Dimo getting an

[00:07:38] outfield spot, whether it's a lefty or a righty and batting in that seven hole. So that was the only difference there. I think the top three or even top four are going to stay the exact same.

[00:07:48] Or actually top five will stay the same no matter who's on the bump for home to project this, especially with the righty, right? Because you have three of your big boppers here at the top of the lineup against righties.

[00:08:00] Julio, Mitch Garver and Ty France who like against righties will bat there. So against lefties they almost certainly will bat there as well. I like this lineup is fine. Like it's fine. You can shuffle around the bottom four. I think Rojas is staying put at the nine hole.

[00:08:17] I think we figured out they really like Rojas at the nine hole. So maybe just six through eight is what you decide to flip flop around. If you have a different six through eight in the Mariners lineup, like that's fine.

[00:08:29] I don't know if there's that much difference in shuffling Dom Kanzon, Dylan Moore slash Kate Marlowe and then Louis Urius at third. There's not much there. No, there's not. And not just do the not only do the Mariners like Josh Rojas in the nine spot.

[00:08:43] I actually like Josh Rojas in the nine spot. I think you do too, especially when he was really swinging it well in August early September. You can see why they acquired him. You can see why he has some value.

[00:08:53] Now that being said, he is a good nine hitter. If you go and acquire more bats, we have said two things regarding the two guys that they acquired for Paul Seawall. If Josh Rojas is the nine hitter on a good offensive team, that's totally fine.

[00:09:10] And then if Dom Kanzon is the one guy that you have, if Dom Kanzon is the one guy in the lineup where you don't know exactly what you're getting yet, because again, he hasn't played that many big league games yet, right? He's still got some developing to do.

[00:09:23] But if he's the one guy that you let learn on the fly, I am OK with that because I think he truly has a chance to break out. I'm not just saying that because we just had him on the podcast.

[00:09:31] We said that before we had him on the podcast that he has a chance to be Mitch Hanniger, where he got a taste of the big leagues. Then in his first full season, he breaks out at 26, just like Mitch did. I believe that.

[00:09:42] That being said, that is OK with both Rojas and Kanzon. If you upgrade right field and third base. But as we currently sit, they have not. And as a result of that, the bottom half of this lineup has some question marks. It certainly does.

[00:09:57] But like, let's look at some like real positives with this lineup. First of all, the top three absolute dogs expecting improvements from all three still here in 2024, I think leaves a lot for people to get excited about.

[00:10:09] And like, let's go down to Rojas back to the nine spot. If you can get that 349 on base percentage that Rojas put up in 2022 in that nine spot, think of an 11 percent walk rate in your nine hole of 14 percent walk rate, give or take whatever.

[00:10:26] However, JP Crawford's output is in 2024 at that one spot and then mash your mash your right after that in Callan Julio. I mean, those are your two 30 home run guys right there. And then Garver, if he stays healthy, will also hit 30 home runs in that cleanup spot.

[00:10:41] So you have two great on base guys in the nine and one hole. And then you have three guys who can absolutely crush the baseball. That's a run per two. That's a run producing five guys right there. If everything works out.

[00:10:54] I did not include Ty France in there. I think a lot of people, myself included are having a little bit of PTSD from Ty Francis 2023 season and would like to see some driveline results before we say,

[00:11:06] okay, that's now actually six spots in the lineup that if they're all clicking and hitting well, I really think the Mariners are going to score some runs with those six. The problem is the other three. I'll even add another.

[00:11:19] Again, this is a hypothetical just like Ty France bouncing back after going to driveline as a hypothetical. But if Dom truly figures it out this year and he puts up a 110 115 WRC plus, add another. That's seven guys that could really hit.

[00:11:33] And then what do we come back to again? Right field third base. But there is a world where again, this is best case scenario we're playing out here. But if all those guys click, it's a good lineup.

[00:11:45] It's a good lineup on the expectation that that will not be your right field or in third baseman when the year starts. Now, yeah, that was that's the big question. If we go look at the lefty lineup, it's not too much different.

[00:11:56] At this point, there's a little bit more shuffling. The top five is the exact same. At least I have the top five is the exact same demo bumps up to the six spot. Luis Arias bumps up one spot to the seven spot same Hagerty bats eight.

[00:12:09] And then either Caby or Ryan Bliss bats in the nine hole. That is not quite as not quite as productive. Nip picking with my own lineup, but it's close enough. My first five are the exact same, just like you demo. I have it six, just like you.

[00:12:25] I put Hagerty at seven, kept your reass at eight and Caby's at nine. Look, Jose Caballero, Sam Hagerty and Dylan Moore all have roles. I like what all three of them do as utility players. Those guys are phenomenal bench bats and utility role guys.

[00:12:40] What have I said about demo? Everybody who knows me and listens to this podcast knows I love Dylan Moore, but I love Dylan Moore in the role he plays. Dylan Moore is an everyday guy. You're probably not using him to the best of his abilities.

[00:12:52] And I think that was Sam Hagerty. I think that with Jose Caballero, those guys are at their best when they are playing a certain role and that's okay. Teams need role players and role players can be very effective and very productive. We know Sam Hagerty steals bases.

[00:13:05] He can play some solid defense. He can get on base a little bit when he's when he's right. But those guys are not meant to be starting 140 plus games a year. That's just not who they really are to this point in their careers.

[00:13:18] So to see that as the six through nine, I would say again, let's find some reinforcements. Now this lineup could change a little bit against lefties if they decide that Cal needs a day off and they've decided to give him a day off against

[00:13:33] a lefty when he hits righty. And then the question is, is it Sebi Zavala behind the plate? Garver still at the aging. Is it Garver behind the plate? And one of the role players DHing as a day off. Like those are some options to do.

[00:13:48] Then that lineup gets a little bit weaker and you're talking about, I don't know, if Ryan Bliss and Cab here on the roster at the same time, one of them could DH.

[00:13:56] They could, I mean, they could DH Cal, but that's not really a day off or they could. They could DH can zone as like put like something against a lefty. But still like we're reaching here. Like we are absolutely reaching.

[00:14:14] I think people have to get the idea out of their head that Mitch Garver could be catching. I think he is almost permanently going to be the DH, maybe once in a blue moon in an absolute worst case scenario where you burn through some of your bench.

[00:14:26] Maybe somebody goes down mid game with an injury and you have to use Garver behind the plate. That's the only scenario. I think you really see it because again, he's had injuries and his defense back there behind the plate is not great.

[00:14:38] So I think it is going to be sebbies of all if you give Call of Day off. So then in that scenario, you have JP Julio and Mitch Garver. But then it gets very, very interesting after that.

[00:14:48] What we are kind of getting to the bottom of here is no groundbreaking information. It's something that every single person listening to us currently knows. And that is they need to add more offense. That's good analysis, Lyle. Where'd you come up with that? Groundbreaking like I'm the first.

[00:15:04] The first I'm the first one to kind of I'm the first one to discover that. I'm the pioneer of Mariners need more offense. Pin it down. OK, so you look at this lineup. What's the one spot that like needs to be next?

[00:15:17] What is it? Like is it third base? Like if I'm looking at this lineup and looking at the offense that's in this lineup, I mean, I probably say third base is next. You have to pick between two.

[00:15:32] I think I'm actually going to say right field before the base. And I say that because. Louise, you really said a bad year last year. There is no if ands or buts about it. He has had successful years in the past.

[00:15:43] If you want to look at Glass half full, he's been a two win player in the past. Right field right now is currently a lot of unknown, a lot of unknown, like more than your reas.

[00:15:53] So if I had to pick right now, what's the next spot you go? Phil, I think it has to be the other outfield spot. Maybe you play Cam's own and right and whoever you acquire plays left.

[00:16:01] A point being one other outfielder needs to be acquired via Trader Free Agency next. That is my two cents. OK, well, that's a pretty good you're pitching pretty pitching me pretty well on that. All right. Well, look, third base after that, like they need to fill both.

[00:16:15] I'm not I'm not saying stop. Start your Louise. You're is the third base on opening day, but I think they need to fill the outfield spot first. And if Jerry's up in the suite coin flipping on which one he's going

[00:16:25] to acquire next, like whatever side of coin it lands on, I probably won't be that that disappointed either way. So that's the projected lineup. Please don't direct negative comments at us for reciting what the lineup will currently be. That is my one request because

[00:16:46] it's not going to be received very well. So that's that's my one request, please. TJ, that is called shooting the messenger. Yeah, don't shoot the messenger, please. And thank you. We are we are sitting here reciting facts on paper, not not.

[00:17:01] This is what we want to pencil it in for an opening day. If it's up to us, this is as we currently sit. This is what the lineup is. Listen, if you want to get more angry, the Mariners 26 man active roster is online.

[00:17:14] Please MLB dot com slash Mariners. Click the roster tab. Sit there. Take a deep breath. I think you can do meditation. Yeah, that's a good that's a good option. Before we get to our MLB wrap around a word from our friends over at Simply Seattle.

[00:17:34] I know Christmas is past, but we still can't recommend Simply Seattle enough for the all the gear that we have gotten from them over the course of this podcast. I have a great sonics crew neck that I love wearing also a Seahawks throwback cap.

[00:17:50] Laugh has a Julio sweatshirt. The gear is top notch. And if you want to get some of that gear or some gear of your own husky gear, kraken gear, Mariners gear, Seahawks gear, Sonic gear, Pacific Northwest

[00:18:02] thing gear you can go to our friends at Simply Seattle dot com and use our code Marine 15 for 15% off your order. Again, that's 15% off your order at Simply Seattle dot com. Use our code Marine 15 at checkout. OK, well, let's get to our MLB wrap around.

[00:18:26] Up first, this came in right after we had published last week or on our Wednesday. No, on our last week before Christmas on our Friday episode, Yoshinobu Yememoto 12 years, three hundred and twenty five million dollars with the Los Angeles Dodgers they have now spent one point one

[00:18:47] billion dollars this offseason. Well, let me let me rephrase that. They've spent one point one billion dollars this offseason. That's not a million folks. That is a billion with a B, the big bucks. And they are that are they the monsters from Space Jam?

[00:19:10] They are the monsters from Space Jam. Absolutely. Also, if you want to factor in the Tyler Glass now extension, I think it's even more. So we round up to one point two. Yeah. What am I? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Seven hundred three twenty five one thirty five.

[00:19:26] That's about one point two. Yeah. So one point two billion dollars on three players. And you know what? I knew this was going to happen with Yamamoto and the Dodgers. The second they announced almost all of Otani's money was getting deferred.

[00:19:39] As soon as they saw that, as soon as I saw that, I said they're getting Yamamoto or anything. And they did. I know there was rumors saying the Yankees were very much in on them. Mets were very much in on them. There was a couple.

[00:19:49] There was a couple other teams in the sweepstakes. I thought it was going to be the Dodgers until it wasn't by the time I saw the Otani news and it is, in fact, the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's really unbelievable, isn't it?

[00:20:02] That as a team we've harped on at a time best front office in baseball, one of the best ownership groups in baseball. They're they are the model franchise. I know they only have one World Series in a shortened season to show for it.

[00:20:15] But I don't care what they have done over the last decade is the model of Major League Baseball. And one of the best RSN deals in baseball, too. Might I add, there is a there is a big reason why the Dodgers have been out

[00:20:27] in front of this offseason and acquiring players and spending money. And while I think you and I would agree, the rest of Major League Baseball has kind of sat back and sat on their hands a little bit. So there's it's it's not it's not really a mystery.

[00:20:43] They seem unaffected by what the future of the finances of Major League Baseball and its distribution model is, which is incredible. Here's the most bonkers stat from this. The Los Angeles Dodgers will have Shohei Otani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto

[00:20:59] under contract for the next two seasons combined at twenty nine million dollars. Each of the next two seasons, twenty nine million dollars. And for some context on that, the Dodgers don't owe any deferral money. If you remember for this Otani contract for two seasons. That's pretty crazy.

[00:21:21] You know what else the Dodgers just did? They just bought about a hundred million more fans. You know what all of Japan is going to do now be Dodgers fans? You know what I could almost guarantee?

[00:21:31] Japan is going to be showing and broadcasting a ton of Dodgers games this year, because when you have two of the country's greatest superstars on one team and the greatest player in the world, being one of those two superstars on that team, who's everybody going to

[00:21:45] root for? Of course, it's the Dodgers. They're going to be showing a ton of Dodgers game. So you know what the Dodgers are doing with these two contracts? They're just making more money. This is a total cash cow.

[00:21:55] I know they've spent over a billion dollars on these two guys, but they're going to absolutely make it all back and then some because they're superstars, the TV contracts are going to pay for itself, the Jersey sales, the ticket sales, everything. Spend money to make money, people.

[00:22:08] That's exactly what they're doing. That rotation now is insane. Yeah, it's insane. Glass now, Yamamoto, Walker Bueller and Bobby Miller. And I'm missing one, aren't I? Well, Emmett Sheehan would be the fifth right now. But you know what?

[00:22:26] Midseason when I am positive, Clayton Kershaw is signing back with this team and he gets back. That's your five starter. A surefire first ballad Hall of Famer who is still not totally falling off and Clayton Kershaw would be your five.

[00:22:39] Oh, and then Otani will get healthy for next season and then he's your five. Well, it's going to become a six man rotation with Otani. But OK, so well, he will be your five and someone else will be your six.

[00:22:51] So is it well, is Otani not the one when he comes back? They'll have to pitch. Yes, they all have to pitch. That's true. They do. So yeah, and just to think in 2025, remember, he probably won't be totally back.

[00:23:06] See, he won't be able to rehab this year, his Tommy John. So next year, he's going to have to ease back in a little bit easier than he would if he had August and September to rehab. Instead of rehabbing, he's going to be DHing

[00:23:17] and probably leading the Dodgers to a World Series title. So just to keep that in mind. So he might honestly, Otani might not be the number one in LA until 2026. OK, fair. Yeah, that is quite the rotation. Yeah. And you brought him up.

[00:23:32] Our co-worker Walker Bueller, who obviously has no clue who we are, but by a technicality, our co-worker because he has started just baseball. So he's getting back this year, which is good for him. Is it not like can we zoom out here for a second?

[00:23:45] Can we acknowledge that a player who has never thrown a pitch in Major League Baseball earned the most guaranteed money ever for a pitcher? Oh, it's crazy. It's absolutely insane. And look, Yamamoto is probably going to be an ace.

[00:23:57] You're talking about a guy with a career sub two ERA in Japan, deadly splitter, really good fastball, like three true plus pitches. Guy through four no hitters in Japan. He won three Japanese triple crowns. He won two MVPs. I mean, resume is through the roof at age 25.

[00:24:12] But still, that's the that's the NPB compared to Major League Baseball. And the fact he has not thrown one pitch, they said, yeah, take all our money. Top every pitcher's contract ever, including Garrett Coles. Three while. Yeah. Earning more money than Garrett Coles is bizarre. It is bizarre.

[00:24:31] I think it has to do with the fact that he is 25. Like when Garrett Coles got his contract, he was about five, six years ahead of where Yamamoto is. Right. You don't see free agents hit the market at 25 years old. He yeah, he was.

[00:24:46] It and again, the AV isn't as absurd because of 12 years. Again, he's only netting about twenty seven million dollars a year, which is far behind Garrett Cole in AAV, but he's got him in total guaranteed money as well. There's one other point I was trying to make it.

[00:25:03] It just totally slipped my mind. I'm going to make a couple more while you potentially think about it. Number one, Yamamoto is so interesting and Jeff Passon's written some stories about this and talked about this. He doesn't lift any weights.

[00:25:15] Like it's so funny to see that picture of Otani and Yamamoto next to each other with both of them just wearing the white T-shirts where Yamamoto is kind of a scrawny dude. They talk about how the reason he throws hard and the reason he has

[00:25:26] so much success as he does yoga, he does stretching, he does like plio. Every like he doesn't lift weights. He does he all of his success is off that, which is crazy. And then you see Shohei stand next to him who's like six, three,

[00:25:39] six, four, absolutely jacked, obviously lifts weights. It is very funny to see the difference. But yeah, two very different picture that go about their business in very different ways. But Yamamoto is probably going to be a true ace.

[00:25:52] I know he's I know it's not it's not a perfect science. Like in theory, you work out more, you have more muscle to get injured. That that is correct. That's why you can't be too bulky. Otherwise, you're going to end up getting hurt.

[00:26:08] But that's just bizarre because how does the like we got to think of the durability factor of Yamamoto to he's not the biggest guy in the world. Do I have to bring up Tim Linsicum? Like do I have to? He had a wonky delivery. Sure.

[00:26:23] But we're talking a guy who is 510, 170 pounds soaking wet and his arm blew out at 28. How old was Tim Linsicum when he was 28? Won two Salli Young awards blew everyone away and then boom, he was done. He went from a potential Salli Young winner in 2010, the Giants first

[00:26:43] World Series run to pitching out of the bullpen two years later in the World Series. It happens fast. It is crazy. And we'll see if Yamamoto's routine changes at all over here with the Dodgers. But that is how he's found success so far again for anybody that's

[00:26:59] interested in it. Jeff Passon's written about it and I found it pretty interesting. So yeah, a little bit of an unorthodox unique routine because you don't see most guys just opt out of lifting weights. But that's what worked for him.

[00:27:11] Here's the second point I wanted to make speaking of aces from Japan. Did you see the report today that now Roki Sasaki might get posted next winter? Next winter. Yeah. I know the rumors got kind of pushed out the door of him doing it

[00:27:25] this off season because the team he pitches for was like, no, I don't think so. But if he was next off season, I know where you're going with this because if there's any chance in hell the Mariners can sign him, it would be if

[00:27:40] he gets posted before he's 25. Because if he gets if he waits until he's 25 to get posted, he might add $100 million to Yamamoto's number at least. But if he gets posted before 25, he's going to get. Seven million dollars. International signing money. That's it.

[00:28:00] Yeah, that's what I was going to say is I've given this lukewarm take quote unquote before on the show and I'm going to do it again here with Roki Sasaki just as a pure pitcher. I think he's better than both Otani and Yamamoto.

[00:28:12] And obviously Otani is the best player in the world because Sasaki does not hit. But as a pure pitcher, I think he is better than both of those guys. He is 22 years old right now or maybe actually he still might be 21.

[00:28:24] Point being when he comes over to the big leagues, if he really does it next year, he will be 22 or 23 years old. And if he were going to wait, oh, he could get 400 plus million dollars from a team at this point, but he's 101 miles an hour ridiculous stuff.

[00:28:38] He's even like his numbers have been better at points than Yamamoto's has. That guy, man, if he comes over here and it can only be signed with international slot money, it is going to be a bidding war beyond bidding wars of all teams for him.

[00:28:51] See, like I feel like am I crazy for thinking it's that he should just wait? Why not just wait? Because he could sign as soon as he hits 25. If he's that good, he could sign a 13 year contract. 13 years instead.

[00:29:04] Remember if he comes over next season, he's locked into a six year deal where he's going to be making MLB minimum wage for three seasons. And then by the time he hits 25 because that's when he would hit arbitration, then he would finally start earning more than that.

[00:29:18] So then he would earn what? Six, seven million dollars potentially in his first in his first arbitration. Then in his next one, he'd earn $12 million, let's say. And then his last one is the one he would really earn what he's actually worth.

[00:29:32] If he lives up to all this hype, he would earn $30 million, $35 million. It could be higher by then. And then he could sign a 10 year contract for however much money. But why not? Like, I feel like it's a better financial decision to get an extra few years

[00:29:49] and just come over when you're 25. You just, like you know, barring absolute disaster in Japan. You are going to get that $400 million, $450 million if you come over at age 25. So why risk coming over the big leagues and having to wait out three

[00:30:03] more just strenuous seasons of pitching in America? Or three more, sorry, six more seasons of pitching in America without the potential of signing an extension. Oh, I would wait if I was him.

[00:30:16] He may not care about the money, but if I was him, I'd wait till I was 25 and just stay healthy and dominate for a couple more seasons in Japan and then get all your money when you come over to the US. That's what I would do.

[00:30:27] But it sounds like he may just want to pitch in the majors as soon as he possibly can, which credit to him. That's what Otani did. Maybe that's what he cares about more. Maybe it's not all about the money for him.

[00:30:36] And if he comes over here, man, it's going to be wild. You know what the Mariners should do in that scenario? Say, hey Dodgers, I see your Otani and Yamamoto hand and I. I can't quite call it a call. I can't.

[00:30:50] I'm not going to say this is calling the hand, but I will say I will respond with Munitaka Murakami and Roki Sasaki. Wow. Can we teach Murakami to pitch? Oh, how hard do we think he could throw? He could probably throw decently hard.

[00:31:06] I mean, he could probably hit 90. We can work from there. If you throw 90, that's a good start. Man, now now I'm just speaking just total ridiculous hypotheticals into existence, although that is the only scenario where the Mariners would sign Roki Sasaki.

[00:31:20] They're not giving him $400 million in a few years if he waits, but if he comes over next year, there's a shot. Although I hate to say it, especially if he's going to cost no money. He's going to go to the Dodgers.

[00:31:34] Yeah, he's going to go to the Dodgers. That would be a dream for them because he just want to go play with the other two. Dude, like I can see it. I can see it clear as day, literally clear as day for three million dollars.

[00:31:47] He's going to go spend six years with the Dodgers. And you know why money wouldn't matter to him? He's not going to get the endorsement deals that Shohei would get, but say he's making like $700,000 from the Dodgers, get some endorsement money and he'd be just fine.

[00:32:04] Just, you know, an extra couple million dollars, you'd be perfect. Yeah, you think the Dodgers are the monstars now. I don't even know what they'd be if you added Rokie Sasaki, the monstars on, I would say on steroids, but whatever they whatever fuel they took

[00:32:19] from all the NBA players in space jam that basically was steroid. So just notch it up another another level, I guess, if they got Sasaki. And the thing is, it also wouldn't just be the Dodgers. The Mariners would have more competition if everyone else could sign them.

[00:32:34] The unfortunate thing is, well, everyone else could potentially sign him with their international signing money. So that would be quite a bidding process. Just Jerry, want to record an episode of the wheelhouse to talk about it? You think I'm down?

[00:32:47] Should he I want to start projecting it right now? I'm down to listen to him talk about Rokie Sasaki. I doubt maybe just leave out the part of his the presentation they're going to give to him. Yeah, that's fine.

[00:33:01] You can like I'm sure he learned his lesson the first time with show. Yeah. So OK, we did spend a little bit of time on that segment, but Yamamoto was a huge story. So that's why we did second storyline here. Certainly not the headliner of Yamamoto,

[00:33:16] but the Blue Jays make two signings. They get Kevin Kearmeyer and Isaiah Kiner, Falefa. They have gone from being the runner up in the Otani sweepstakes and being in on Cody Bellinger to now Kevin Kearmeyer and IKF.

[00:33:31] Can can we get like a line graph of happiness for Blue Jays fans? It's like the win probability chart, except for Blue Jays fans. Happiness over the course of so how many weeks has been three weeks? So Tony signed. Yeah, about three weeks.

[00:33:47] Actually, three weeks exactly, because it's Friday. So three weeks since the flight. I was just saying he signed on a Saturday. Three weeks since the flight when this episode comes out, which is the top of this chart. And it goes down.

[00:34:03] And then we had this like enormous drop, of course, after he signed with the Dodgers and the entire country of Canada was like, we had him, he was coming. And then it continues to go down and down. And the fact that.

[00:34:17] I mean, they're now going to have two full time lineup spots pretty much to Isaiah Kiner, Falefa and Kevin Kearmeyer. They are paying those two. You know how I said the Dodgers are going to pay a combined

[00:34:29] a combined only twenty nine million dollars for Yamamoto and Ohtani next season. Well, the Blue Jays are going to combine to pay 18.25 million dollars to IKF and Kevin Kearmeyer. Man, that is a step down for for eleven million less. Holy crap.

[00:34:47] You know what I would say to that? I'm happy the Mariners got Mitch Garver. And I will tell you why, because paying 12 million bucks a year for Mitch Garver, give me him over these two. No offense to them.

[00:34:58] They have value in certain ways, both of them are good defenders. But if you're talking about needing offense, I just don't get it. Kearmeyer was a little bit above league average as a bat. And we know he's an impeccable defender. But I say a kinder Falefa.

[00:35:12] I don't get it. Two years for 15 million and it's not that much. But I know he's a Swiss army knife and can play a lot of places. This dude's career high WRC plus is 91. And that was in a short in 2020.

[00:35:25] Other than that, he's never cracked 90 90 in a full season. You put up a 90 WRC plus, your 10 percent below league average as a hitter. He hasn't even gotten there. I don't know, man, that it has been quite the whirlwind of an offseason

[00:35:39] for Toronto again, going from Otani and Belanger to these two. At the start of the offseason, they had about one splash acquisition in their bucket and while being able to stand at the tax, they're only seven million dollars away from the bottom tax tier right now.

[00:35:54] They're at two hundred and thirty million dollars on their payroll after these two additions. I mean, wouldn't you rather take this 18 million dollars off your payroll for next season and then add Cody Belanger and instead for 20 for twenty five million dollars and then you'd still be under.

[00:36:11] And by the way, Cody's a pretty good defender out there in the outfield just like Kevin Kearmeyer is and he can hit wild offseason. I'm guessing Cody just told him no or Scott Borra said you guys aren't offering the money we want.

[00:36:26] Re-signed to ask her how the hell do you go from Cody Belanger and and Shohei Otani to this? Aren't you supposed to contend? You know who's happy about this, the Mariners, because the Blue Jays are a team that's neck and neck with them every year,

[00:36:40] especially for those wildcard spots. And as we sit right now, they're getting worse. Yeah, they are worse. They are worse and they're probably going to lose Matt Chapman. Man, I this is just mind boggling that like this is very, very puzzling.

[00:36:56] And it's like it is essentially like so they lose wet Merrifield to free agency and then sign him back with a different name. Basically, and honestly, you're arguing that you have a worse bat now than Maryfield again, IKF has never really hit.

[00:37:14] So this is yeah, this is a head scratcher. Also, where is all this Blue Jays payroll stemming from right now to begin with, especially after losing Chapman? I mean, you have Gosmin under contract, you have Berrios under contract. Kukuchi under contract.

[00:37:27] But they don't have a ton of massive deals on the books, right? I mean, some guys are going to start to hit arbitration. I don't know. I can look it up if you if you can give me 30 seconds. Yeah, I can.

[00:37:41] I was just trying to think off the rip about the Blue Jays really have that much money on the books when you said they're. I was thinking that too. I mean, remember Boba Shet and and Vlad are getting into arbitration. Yeah. Yeah. So our guys, which makes sense.

[00:37:55] But still, that feels like a lot of money. Springer, twenty four million dollars. Chris Bassett, twenty two million dollars. Boba Shet's making twelve this year. Vlad is projected for nineteen. Let's see. So so this is a lot of money on the books. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:17] OK, it seems like so this is pre I believe this is pre arbitration numbers. So I think once the arbitration numbers calculate in, they're going to be at about two hundred thirty million. They are actually Spotrack. I might have overshot this little bit here.

[00:38:33] The article I read might have miscalculated. I see two hundred million dollars here on Spotrack. However, regardless, I believe there still needs to be some money added in there because of 40 man guys and arbitration numbers.

[00:38:50] However, that is still a lot of money for a roster that is not getting much better. I was going to say that's still 200 million on the books and they have a lot of pictures signed, but they have Springer signed guys in arbitration. But yeah, that's that's pretty wild.

[00:39:08] I don't know. Like like as the Blue Jays sit right now, are they a playoff team? TPD play probably with the with the format, probably. But like barely. Yeah, they're they're on the brink. The fact that you're not definitively saying yes

[00:39:26] tells you a lot about what you need to know about them right now. And I know they just got in last year too, but they just got in last year with a roster that was definitively better. It doesn't make much sense.

[00:39:37] That does not make much sense to me. I it's I did see I was scrolling on I don't know if it was TikTok or something, but people are people are not loving Ross Atkins recently. I can't blame them.

[00:39:51] It I mean, people are probably saying what happened all the money? You reportedly offered Shohei just about 700 million bucks. And now you've resorted to. Some money for Kevin Kiermeyer, a little bit of money for IKF. That isn't exactly inspiring. And think about this, right?

[00:40:08] So they're going to have George Springer in their outfield this year and they're going to put Kiermeyer out there again with him. And they have Varshio as well. So you're going to have a off injured George Springer off a down here.

[00:40:21] You're going to have Kevin Kiermeyer, light hitting defense first outfielder. And then you're going to have Dalton Varshio, who they traded a haul for last season, a defense first light hitting outfielder. That's not very intimidating in a hitters division. And you better hope Vlad, he bounces back

[00:40:42] because he didn't have a great year last year. No, no. So that's why it just doesn't make sense. I mean, I saw it put it this way. Like, why isn't Varshio in centerfield after you gave all that up for him? Wouldn't that make more sense?

[00:40:58] I would think I would say I mean, Varshio plates in centerfield last year. Like, what's the difference between Kiermeyer and Varshio? One's younger. Why stick him out there? I mean, you just traded Gabriel Moreno for him.

[00:41:11] And Varshio's upside with the bad is probably a little bit greater than Kiermeyer's is, but again, it's not by a lot. It's just puzzling. You know who's happy right now? Yankee fans. Oh, them too.

[00:41:24] And again, a lot of teams that are in the wildcard contention like the Mariners. No, that was not the reason. I think I've seen enough tweets about IKF to fill up a dumpster. Yeah, well, that part is true. You know what?

[00:41:39] Yankee fans can never be content despite being the most successful franchise in the history of baseball. There is always somebody that deserves a successful franchise in the history of American sports. Oh, good call. But they always have to have somebody to rip and to rip to absolute shreds

[00:41:56] because we know nobody does it like New York fans in terms of just slandering your own players. Good job, Blue Jays. Good job, Blue Jays. The Mariners, thank you for your services. Yeah, man, what a mess they have. What an what a mess.

[00:42:12] OK, well, let's get to Speak Your Mind. Speak Your Mind, Spock. That would be unwise. What is necessary is never unwise. We have a special Speak Your Mind this week. Since it is the last episode of the year, we wanted to give our first year

[00:42:34] in review and, well, what a year it has been. We started this podcast. Again, we're saying it's going to be about a Baker's year, Baker's dozen year of months, about 13 and a half months. This podcast has been going on. And here we are all this time later.

[00:42:51] Where we can finally review it all. I. I don't even know where to start. I mean, I can I can picture us recording the first episode right here and we were giving our review of the Mariners season in two thousand and twenty two.

[00:43:04] I don't know how many downloads we got on that episode. I don't know how many people watched it. But to see where we are at right now, reviewing this here on December twenty eight two thousand and twenty three. Is pretty mind blowing. It's really mind blowing.

[00:43:22] Before I even get in even deeper into that, wasn't there one other thing you wanted to bring up for more of the lighthearted part of part of Speak Your Mind today? Oh. I think there's one thing we have to bring up.

[00:43:35] There is one thing I jumped the gun. How could we? How could we not? It was almost one year ago today, Lyle, that we did another special Speak Your Mind on this very subject. And yes, we're going to do another one.

[00:43:50] Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to hold off very briefly, briefly for about two minutes on the year one review, because there's one thing we just have to get to go ahead. Ladies and gentlemen, drum roll please. Russell Wilson has been benched.

[00:44:07] And expected to now be cut after a oh my. massive two hundred and fifty million dollar extension from the Denver Broncos after they traded to first two seconds. Shelby Harris drew lock and no a fan for him. Wow, Broncos country. Let's ride. Yeah.

[00:44:30] What what's the craziest thing about this? Like what's our tier list of craziest things? I think number one for me, the extension he signed when he got to Denver. He's still not playing on it and he won't ever play a snap for the Broncos on that contract.

[00:44:47] Yeah, it's still the Seahawks money he's playing with. That works crazy. I think the fact he crashed and burned as badly as he did is still pretty shocking. We could see his play starting to deteriorate that final year in Seattle and even some of the second half of 2020.

[00:45:03] But to have it just absolutely light on fire the way it has the last two years in Denver. I don't think anybody could have predicted that. I don't even think Pete Carroll and John Schneider predicted that when they traded them. So to see that happen is nuts.

[00:45:17] But also the fact that he's done most of this to himself. Like this is a lot of this is very self inflicted on Russell Wilson. Yeah, like he tried to get Pete fired and John Schneider fired to stay in Seattle. Didn't that did not work.

[00:45:33] So instead he got a trade what he wanted. It was in his contract. He had a full no trade clause. They ran some ideas by him and he went to Denver. He got to hand pick his head coach. He got an office. He got the offense he wanted.

[00:45:48] He got to sit in the pocket and pass. And as Lyle said, what a failure it was. So they bring in a coach and Sean Payton, a Hall of Famer himself, who is under no obligation or loyalty to Russell Wilson in an attempt to fix it.

[00:46:04] And it turned out Sean Payton could not stand having Russell Wilson run his offense. It's not very surprising. While I like, I really don't think Sean Payton ever wanted Russ. I don't think it took Sean Payton very long to realize

[00:46:15] Russell Wilson was not the quarterback he needed to operate efficiently efficiently. And people are going to point to Russ's stats from this season. Well, Sean Payton is going to throw some tape on and say, hey, listen, this is not a $49 million quarterback that's playing the position.

[00:46:29] He's made some good place here and there. His numbers look pretty good, but this is not worth $49 million a year. This contract is crushing our team and it cannot continue any further. So the total number I think for next season is going to be what?

[00:46:45] Thirty four and a half, thirty five and a half dead cap for the Broncos. And then they're going to owe another enormous chunk of change in twenty twenty and twenty twenty five as well on top of it to finish out the guarantees. Incredible, incredible stuff.

[00:47:05] You know, you know who does think he's worth 49 million a year? Russell Wilson himself, considering as soon as the news broke, he jumped onto Twitter and started liking tweets that he was actually playing Patrick Mahomes out playing Patrick Mahomes, but he got benched.

[00:47:18] Yeah, I don't think so, dog. I really don't think so, pal. I really don't think we've ever seen that from Ross, like do it like do like a petty like storm on social media. Well, it's not the first time we've seen him be petty,

[00:47:31] but it's the first time on social media specifically where I'm thinking to myself, buddy, do you know your likes or public? Or yes, yes, he does. And, dog, we know who liked those tweets. Oh, that Mark Rogers written all over it.

[00:47:44] Yeah, he's like, give me your phone, buddy. Yeah, whatever team Russell goes to next, whether it's the commanders, whether it's the Balkans, whether it's Patriots, whoever. If you're a fan of that team, just just get ready for the Mark Rogers experience.

[00:47:58] Learn the name Mark Rogers and get ready for the experience because you you will feel it like you just kind of think like, where is Russ's ego at right now? Like it's got like it is not what it was.

[00:48:09] It cannot be that like there's no humanly possible way that Russ is now going to get cut less than two years after being traded for and still have that ego. Like I think it's going to be different. People are human, they learn from their mistakes.

[00:48:25] And obviously this has been a monumental mistake. Like Russell also was a Hall of Fame quarterback when he got traded. Hall of Fame. I like I will die on that hill. He was a Hall of Famer when he left Seattle. Can't really say that now.

[00:48:39] Is like not only is his play taken ahead, but his reputation is is shattered. That play in his final game starting where he just sat in the pocket forever, took a sack and held the ball way too long. And his offensive lineman just looked at him.

[00:48:56] I was like, oh, well, whatever. You know, usually when a quarterback gets sacked, your old lineman help you up. They just looked at Russ and they said, yeah, no thanks, you can get up on your own.

[00:49:04] And that was a big signal that yeah, he kind of lost the locker room. And we know he's he's done this throughout his career. He's made a lot of enemies out of teammates. By the way, he's carried himself. So kind of happening Denver now too.

[00:49:18] And I think the week before was pretty telling too, when you saw Sean Payton just rip into him, I mean, I don't know if Pete would never do such a thing. I mean, Sean Payton just lit Russ up on the sideline and most quarterbacks

[00:49:32] like would shout right back at Sean Payton and have something to say. Russell Wilson, did he open his mouth? No, no, he didn't. Tom Brady wouldn't have taken that. Aaron Rodgers wouldn't have taken that. Peyton Manning wouldn't have taken that. Nope. No. What a wild two years.

[00:49:50] We'll see what happens next, but yeah, we figured with that news, we had to spend at least a couple minutes on it here. So is this the worst trade in NFL history? I think it has to be. Can you think of one worse? Close.

[00:50:02] Uh, what was the trade with the Vikings? Well, the first shot was that Emmett Smith. What would trade was that? Oh yeah. Herschel Walker. Yeah, that was a bad one too. Now that one might have been worse because that was how many picks?

[00:50:17] I think that's like, is that fuel that that that trade like fueled the dynasty? Literally. So maybe this one comes in at second. It's up there though, which is pretty wild. And now what other Seahawks have?

[00:50:28] They have the chance to make the second they have the chance to get in the playoffs for the second year in a row without Russ. I know the NFC is pretty weak, but still they do. And they have their star corner of the future and Devon Witherspoon.

[00:50:39] And they have a really good left tackle in Charles Cross. So they got a lot out of that track. Oh, and boy, I'm off a who's been a stud on the D line. So they got a lot out of that trade.

[00:50:49] Last thing on this before we move on, would you take Russ back? Nope. Absolutely not. I know people are at already stirring that up on Twitter. No, thanks. One, I just stick with Gino and two, the way the way I like, I think Gino

[00:51:03] despite his limitations this year, I think I would still take over Russ and two, he can't bring Russ back the way he left. It wasn't like he left on good terms. He got booed in his first game back.

[00:51:14] Like he tried to get Pete Carroll and John Schneider fired. The only way he's coming back here is if Pete and John aren't here anymore. And even then I still have my doubts. No, I don't think that would be the case because Jody Allen still owns the team.

[00:51:27] Jody made a decision. He went straight to her with that request and she sent him to Denver. Yeah. So, so yeah, I do not think he's going to be back in Seattle. And also like it also just doesn't make roster sense.

[00:51:41] Well, like why would the Seahawks on a 36 year old quarterback next season? Like no, they need to draft a quarterback. Yeah. And until then stick with Gino. Yeah. Like what like let like this dude was going to get a statue. Mm hmm.

[00:51:58] He was going to get a statue. Mm hmm. Not anymore. Nope. Yeah. Hey, listen at some point in time when it's all said and done and they bring him back to Seattle, he's not going to get a statue anymore.

[00:52:09] But when they sing his praises, when his career is over, I'm sure people will appreciate what he did. But right now. It's not again, he'll still be in the ring of honor. He'll still be in there with most of those guys. But that's it.

[00:52:21] He's he slandered his own name in a lot of ways. Again, he did a lot of this to himself. So we'll see what's next for us. All right, let's get to the positive thing here. I know we wanted to spend a few minutes on that.

[00:52:33] But year one, you're one of the Marine layer pod. This is our last episode and it's kind of it's pretty cool to kind of reflect back and see where it started versus where it finished.

[00:52:44] I know we spent a couple of minutes on this at the start of the show. But I never would have imagined that in year one, we would have been so lucky and fortunate enough to do everything that we did. And because we've done all that we've done.

[00:53:00] It's like I'm just blown away. I'm blown away by all the support first and foremost, all the people that take time out of their day to listen. But by all the things too that we've been so lucky that we've gotten to do so

[00:53:09] far and to do it all in year one, it really has been a blast. It's like it's just crazy to think about just some of the numbers we look at of people that actually listen like I can't believe there are

[00:53:23] like the amount of people that do that sit down and listen to us. Yeah. Like we're just like two regular people. That's it. Like we both have college degrees. You're 26, I'm 25, but like that's it. Like we played high school baseball.

[00:53:40] There's nothing like no draft status, no former players, but still despite all that. Like some of the numbers we see of people tuning in to listen and the response we get and the interaction we get is incredible. Like it's mind boggling.

[00:53:59] And the thing is like some of the things we're going to note here in this segment of the things we've gotten to do this year, like if we, if no one was listening to us, we wouldn't be doing anything. Like what's the point? Yeah.

[00:54:08] Like not worth some of the time that we would put into it. Like certainly. Like, well, like we wouldn't be doing as much if we do, if we weren't getting the feedback back because it's just hard to do.

[00:54:22] Psychic wise for, for people that are trying to make content and trying to talk about things they're passionate about. If people don't reciprocate that back to you, it is really hard to keep going. I mean, it is really hard.

[00:54:34] But the fact that we can get that back to us and that positive and negative love you guys too. Feedback right back to us. It is the ultimate motivator to keep going. I mean, it really is. And that's why we're so excited with what's next for year two.

[00:54:50] I can't wait. I think we'd still be doing it, even if the numbers weren't what they were right now. I think about everything. We just had a passion to talk about the Mariners. We wanted to start this.

[00:54:59] We wanted to start it for a while and we had some ideas. Yeah. Maybe we still would have gotten some cool interviews throughout the year. And maybe we still would have had some unique ideas.

[00:55:07] I think we're both pretty creative with some of the stuff we had in mind when we started this thing. But the fact that it's been as fun as it's been and we've gotten as much great feedback as we've gotten in year one of this thing.

[00:55:20] Yeah, I think it only motivates us that much more like to do all the stuff that we went out and did and the fact that people seem to thoroughly enjoy it like truly like. I hope it's coming through through our mics and you listening and watching right now.

[00:55:33] But really like we do not. We cannot appreciate it enough from the bottom of our hearts. The fact that you either take time out of your day to watch on YouTube or to listen or even if you're just checking out a

[00:55:42] few social media clips, it means the world to us to people that came up to us at the ballpark this year and said, love the show or love all the social media content you guys do. All that stuff.

[00:55:53] Like really like it makes our day and then that's the stuff that makes us want to keep going because I think look, we love the Mariners. We love talking about the Mariners and I think we'd still be doing this no matter what.

[00:56:04] But the fact people have been so nice about it and have been so like welcoming to us and interested, I guess. And what we have to say is that's what's really pushing us is all of you.

[00:56:17] So the fact all you guys have taken all this time to listen, it's awesome man. We appreciate it beyond belief. Yeah. I'm just thinking back to the first day where you got to go to the ballpark that was super cool.

[00:56:30] I thinking to the weekend we got to go to the ballpark before all Star Weeks. The only weekend I actually got to go to the ballpark since I obviously don't live there unfortunately. But like just getting to speak to guys like Tyadcock who

[00:56:45] eventually we turn that relationship into a fantastic podcast interview months later. But getting to introduce ourselves to him and talk to him on the field in person as just normal human beings is so cool. And then the all Star Week experience where we get to

[00:57:02] meet all these people in person and see all these cool events and network with the Just Baseball guys and eventually now join their network as one of their podcasts on the network and just have all this experience that we've been able to pack into a year.

[00:57:20] And now to think what we can do in year two is very exciting. I mean Lyle's already listed some of the things that we're going to do. We are planning to go to spring training for a chunk of time, I think in March but we will eventually lock

[00:57:34] that down and some more just real cool stuff that goes on throughout the area. He mentioned at the beginning potential for merch potential for a live show if we can get a venue locked down and have people that actually want to come

[00:57:47] out and see us and a whole bunch of other things especially and it all boils down to this too. We want to keep bringing you guys this right here which will only continue to grow throughout this year. Let me give you an example Lyle like me and

[00:58:04] you joke all the time like you go back and look at the one year ago today on TikTok right? You go back and look at those. Yeah. Like they like look at one of those then and then look at something we posted today like our clip with

[00:58:15] Dom Kanzon that came out on Thursday. I mean wow. Yeah, we had no clue what we were doing on TikTok back then we were trying to learn on the fly and that was a that's a huge part of this too. We've learned as we've gone through the first

[00:58:29] year. Yes, we have journals and backgrounds. We had a little bit of experience with video editing, audio editing. Obviously both of us have experience being on air but doing a podcast and the new wave of social media with all the emphasis on short form content.

[00:58:42] We had to learn a lot of stuff on the fly and I'm sure if we listen back to the stuff we did a year ago right when we started we probably cringe but that's anybody anybody that starts out doing this stuff. Nobody is good on your first episode.

[00:58:54] Nobody like the first time you get behind a mic and start a podcast unless you have 20 years in radio or broadcasting under your belt. Nobody's knocking it out of the park on their first podcast. It's just everybody even the biggest

[00:59:07] podcast in the world would say the same thing and we are certainly not that no more close but the fact we have learned as we've gone has been fun to watch too and figure out what's worked for us what hasn't we've learned on the fly we've adjusted our

[00:59:20] strategies etc so and people have stuck along for the ride with that and I'm really glad to see that people have one continue to enjoy it. Okay I have a question for you if you're going to pick your favorite podcast interview we've done in year one what is

[00:59:37] it? I have the same thing on my notes to ask you we did not plan for that in advance so it just shows you the wavelength thinking here. I think it has to be Tai Pete. I mean it's so close we've had so

[00:59:48] many great ones and I genuinely mean it every single person we've had on to interview has been awesome. Tai Pete man at least for me it's going to take something pretty ridiculous to top that one on my list. For being 18 years old just drafted

[01:00:02] the fact he is so outgoing huge smile on his face like you can tell he's going to be a fan favorite the fact he loves doing media stuff in his own right like it felt like a very natural conversation and again like most high

[01:00:13] school draft picks don't have a bunch of media experience but Tai you would have thought he'd done a hundred interviews before we talked to him and he was he was unbelievable I hope he is on not just again but somewhat regularly I certainly hope we get to

[01:00:28] catch up with them and do some content with him in spring training because of all the guests we've had if I had to pick it's him. How about you. This is so difficult so I'm just going to pick the one that made me

[01:00:40] laugh the most to be honest. Tai Pete was amazing by the way he I echo everything you said. The first time we interviewed Softee that's a good one that that I have not laughed as much in interviews we did in that episode.

[01:00:56] So the one where he was driving in the car back in April right. Yeah he was driving in the car telling you to what was the exact quote I have it's on my phone. He said stop with your stupid ass opinions on short stops and payroll

[01:01:08] because I said look I'm not heart broken that we didn't give Xander Bogart 300 million bucks. So Softee again is he he is 100 percent himself and that one that one was awesome again like Softee is as big time as big time gets and he made time for us unknown

[01:01:30] unknown podcast talking about some m's and he's fantastic. He's been on twice this year but that first one was awesome. I have a sense. Tell me if I'm wrong. You mentioned Ty Adcock and I know you like the type Peter Peter actually no no I know.

[01:01:47] Yeah OK but I but you talked about Ty Adcock a couple of minutes ago and I was going to say it feels like maybe your favorite player interview was him which is another great answer because he was different in a sense than type Pete.

[01:01:58] But the fact he goes so in depth and loves to talk and gave us so much behind the scenes was pretty cool. Yeah it was he was like the detail we can follow up with with with Ty Adcock on like just like the little intricate details of questioning

[01:02:16] and answering that that he gave us and like this just the story of like you know one year ago today I was a catcher and now I'm standing up on the mound next to George Kirby and there are 30 scouts in front of us.

[01:02:27] Like I was not planning on playing Major League Baseball and all of a sudden again like six months seven eight months later I'm ready to throw 95 in front of scouts and go in the top 10 rounds and that's exactly what he did. And like I'm just thinking like

[01:02:41] like let's put Ty and Ty Adcock into context like that wasn't just good for player period that was good for person period person by the way who is the exact same age as you and I and I like to think of myself as a pretty thorough person.

[01:02:56] I'm not answering questions like he did just the amount of thought and structuring that goes into some of those answers. I think make just it just makes fascinating interview content and you're right. Yeah that was a good guess that that I think was

[01:03:09] my favorite player interview of the year but I mean they're all so good man they're they're also good like I still can't get over the fact that Taylor Sausito got lost in Queen Anne somehow. By the way I when I was home for

[01:03:20] this past week I probably walked some of the same streets that Mr. Sausito did after he left the Kraken game at around the same time in the morning and well no offense Taylor I knew where I was going as the local but as the

[01:03:32] sorry as the local that area I know Taylor Taylor's not he's from the Northwest but not that area so that thought that'd be nice to throw in there but like I mean it's also great the fact like the fact that big league baseball

[01:03:44] players have taken the time to talk to us is super cool. Super cool so we've had what three of them now this offseason because we've had Sausito we've had Adcock and we've had Dom Kanzon will give you a little spoiler for 2024 we're not done with player

[01:04:00] interviews yet for the offseason we've got a couple more lined up they met they do happen to be big leaguers so stay tuned for that that's just one thing but yeah it's really cool and and certainly like above everything else you know what I really

[01:04:15] never imagined when we started this again I thought in a perfect world we could build up someone of a social media following in enough time I thought we could do some cool content with fans around the ballpark doing the man on the street interviews with

[01:04:27] enough time that was one of the things I talked about when we started as I thought doing interactive content like that on social media during the year would be cool. Never in a million years did I think just a few months into starting this we

[01:04:40] would be able to go talk to players and kind of shoot the shit with them and ask them fun questions and get some laughs out of them that part blew me away and you said well I remember the first time you were at the ballpark

[01:04:51] truly I wish you'd made the trip up that weekend to be there with me because if you want transparency I'm sure I talked about it back when I did it. It was a nervous wreck the first time I was at the I was at the ballpark because

[01:05:02] who the hell am I we started some podcast we've got a tiktok mic with us like this little mini mic everybody else in the media has been there for years and years and like the first couple of times I was there it's like head down

[01:05:16] just mind your own business you can stand at the back of the media scrum with Scott service like just don't bother anybody. And like the first couple of times we were there we hadn't started to do those player interviews yet that was something we started to think of

[01:05:28] over time we're like how can we best utilize this right how can we best utilize our time they're like well here's an idea and it turned into something that was that was pretty cool and to do that even when even when we started this thing

[01:05:42] that I never had in mind the fact that that worked out and we were able to do that. That really blows me away and I can't wait to keep doing it. Yeah being credentialed for a major league baseball team is is awesome. Can I think can I

[01:05:55] see the most important thing I think we did this year. Sure. Is the Jeff Baker interview. Most important. I had like I had some feedback come my way that thought that was the best thing best work we've done this year. And if I think back on that in

[01:06:11] terms of truly like getting definitive real life things real life not game not like games not like a like a baseball game not fun things from someone's past. I mean no real life stuff that affect the fans that affect the team that affect the television that affect

[01:06:30] future revenues that affect jobs that was it. It's true. It's it's harsh in a lot of ways like again Jeff did not sugar code anything but in the sense that we did a very much journalistic interview with him that part for sure. That one we really used our

[01:06:50] journalism degrees on and really asked them some hard hitting questions and questions that people wanted to know the answers to and things that maybe hadn't been talked about in the public yet. Yeah that was again that was not my single favorite interview we did this year and it

[01:07:03] has nothing to do with Jeff. I think it was because that one just put me in a bad mood after the end of it not because Jeff didn't give us good answers because hearing what the Mariners potential plans were going forward

[01:07:13] was kind of a tough pill to swallow but no I think you're you're on to something there with the fact that yeah we we gave a lot of information to people that wasn't just oh the fun mini mic stuff it was you guys do that stuff.

[01:07:27] But here's also some of the true hard hitting stuff that you guys are breaking news on but you are digging up more of a story on. Right. So yeah that was that was good. I'm trying to think of anything else off the top of my head that

[01:07:43] go ahead. Yeah you know what's funny. We did that Jeff Baker interview about mid December and two weeks prior we were diving in on a Reddit report for why Shohei could potentially be an M like that just shows you the different ends of the spectrum

[01:07:57] we've been on with this podcast one week we're sitting up here saying Reddit said Shohei is a Mariner therefore he's going to be a Mariner. And then two weeks later we're sitting down with our thinking hats on and we're asking Jeff Baker how much longer is

[01:08:11] Rootsport going to be around. So we've tried to do a bit of everything on this podcast which was our goal. And Jeff Baker essentially laughed at one for sixty five sixty four where would the sixty five million dollars come from. Yeah again like

[01:08:27] we tried to have fun with the Shohei thing do we ever really think they were going to be favored over the Dodgers. No of course not. We didn't really think a Reddit report meant he was going to be a Mariner but we tried to have

[01:08:35] fun with it right. What we tried to do with this podcast as a whole we wanted to have fun. We wanted to bring a sense of fun. We didn't want to be the negative Nancy's that some people in the Mariners world and on Twitter can often be.

[01:08:46] We had 13 months of manifesting Shohei to the Mariners 13. It was a pretty good run. I will say the next 13 there will be none of that unfortunately we're going to need a new ultimate because conspiracy. I know you might know you thrown Miracami out there.

[01:09:03] I don't know if he qualifies as the ultimate tier. Like it's good. He's pretty good ultimate tier. We dig it up. One soda. Except he will not sign here. No no Scott Boris will laugh. Right. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that we want

[01:09:26] to wrap up where we kind of talked about first year expectations some of the stuff we were fortunate enough to do. I guess we talked a little bit about ideas for your two like the spring training thing we are absolutely planning to do and go get some what

[01:09:39] we think could be really cool content that week between the ideas for a potential live show merge. Is there anything else we potentially talked about yet for doing here too? Here's another question for you. What is the biggest thing you learned content wise?

[01:09:52] Not the physical act of doing the content but in how the modern content world is online. Well, what was the biggest thing I think you learned? Hook people in within the first three to five seconds. That's how short people's attention spans are on social

[01:10:09] media. If you do not have a line that hooks people in right away they will scroll past and the algorithm will reflect that you could have great content within a minute's worth of a social media clip. But if your best stuff is toward the end if it's 40 45

[01:10:23] seconds in likelihood is most of the people that ever scrolled onto that post didn't get there. You have to hook people in fast within three to five seconds and draw their attention. And then they'll probably stick around and watch more of it. But people's

[01:10:38] attention spans these days are very, very short. So some of your best stuff that you say put it at the start. The other thing I'll say I just like being consistent. Like it's so important. It's so underrated. Like you just don't realize a

[01:10:54] lot of these places like post however many times every single day and how important that is to being to being successful. And I mean you and I realized we had to do it every day. And at first it was like, holy shit. We're a little overwhelmed with

[01:11:08] this stuff because we like we know how to edit now. So it's we don't have to think we just do. But when you have to think and do every single day for the first two months, three months strategizing what works here hashtags there. Yadda, yadda, yadda, man

[01:11:24] like your cram in your brain and it is it's a lot. It's a little overwhelming. But once we finally broke through that barrier, I mean it is literally just like it's just kind of like a wheel now. Second note thumbnails, thumbnails, thumbnails, thumbnails, thumbnails, thumbnails, thumbnails,

[01:11:41] they help and titles on YouTube. Use YouTube. If you want to be a content creator, you want to do something like this? You say I want to do a podcast. Go the extra mile and make it a YouTube podcast. Please like do it. Like take the extra 30 minutes

[01:11:54] it takes to edit. Like it's totally worth it. Yeah. And there's something I had to learn a lot about is video editing, which I done a little bit of in school, but I've learned way more about it doing this podcast than I ever did in school.

[01:12:07] Shout out our friend Victor who's a savant with this stuff and has been very, very helpful to both of us and is a friend of ours. But he helped us early on show how to best edit video podcasts, especially efficiently. And when you have guests

[01:12:21] on how to make sure everybody's fit onto the screen and all that stuff. So that part takes time. Also, here's a transition we made or at least I made in the first few months. I had this old computer through the first few months of the podcast.

[01:12:31] And when I was editing on Premiere Pro, some of these video podcasts would take almost two hours to export. And I was like, this cannot be normal. And I remember talking to Victor about it's like, that's not normal. You might want to get a different computer.

[01:12:44] So I was like, well, we're starting to get pretty serious about this podcast. It feels like it's probably worth it. I need to save some time. I can't stay up till three in the morning editing these all the time. So I did. And now it takes

[01:12:56] a more normal amount of time to export. It's probably to upload all the stuff to YouTube, period. It probably takes 10 or 15 to 20 minutes, I'll say to export out of Premiere and then another 15 minutes to upload to YouTube and everything and do all the descriptions and all that.

[01:13:09] But that's something we've learned again, like just doing all the editing and how to best edit and how to, you know, how to best make it a quality product. Like all things we've had to learn in the first year and trying to build our platform up. Wow.

[01:13:23] Don't tempt me, Doug. I kind of want a new computer too. Even though mine's not that old tempting. A lot of things I want to buy. And a lot of things we want to buy too for this podcast. So but that's a good thing

[01:13:33] that we I mean, we're making a little money now so we can buy some things for the podcast, which is very which is just amazing. We have bought a couple of things. So we we bought a new mic to do player and fan content with, which is cool.

[01:13:47] It will be like we'll still have the TikTok mics if we need them for something we can we can still definitely use them. But we did buy like what are they called? They're those Rode mics. It has an actual like it's Mike's stick to it now.

[01:14:00] The same concept. It's the same concept. They're just nicer, just nicer better quality. And look, it's it's an actual mic rather than the small tiny mic. I'm sure we're going to get a mic flag for it with our logo on it at some point.

[01:14:12] But yeah, so we bought that stuff and we bought some vlog sticks too. That's an oh, that's another thing we want to do in year two is if we have chances to vlog some cool stuff, we want to do more of that.

[01:14:20] We did it for All Star Week, but we just had to do it on our iPhones and it was OK. Like like I enjoyed doing it. But we were like, you know, this would be fun to do if we could actually get the quality

[01:14:29] content we want out of this. So there's another idea we have for year two is more video content, more vlogging, more taking you through stuff that we're doing. So yeah, just all ideas that we have going forward. I think I think as time continues to go on, we're

[01:14:45] going to think of more and more cool things we could possibly do. And above everything, again, this is what we all keep coming back to. It's going to be you guys that are along for the ride for it. And because of all of you

[01:14:54] guys, it allows us to do this stuff. And and we cannot appreciate enough. I know I've said that about a million times in the segment, but I really do mean it. And like I've said throughout the year, I continue to double down on this.

[01:15:06] If you ever see us at the ballpark, not saying we're some celebrities, we're not. We're just two random dudes who have a podcast. But if you happen to listen or watch the show and you ever see us at the ballpark or spring training wherever,

[01:15:17] please come up and say hi. We truly love talking to people. We love chopping it up with fans. We love just meeting new people. So if you see us at the ballpark, do not hesitate to come and stop us and say what's up. You're not bothering us.

[01:15:30] We promise we're probably not doing anything that important. So open, open invitation on that end. Or if you want to come visit me in Corvouse or that. So so yeah, we would appreciate it. And I like this year is full of unknowns for both of us. It is.

[01:15:49] We want to do big things with this podcast. Certainly. But this is big steps for both of us too in this next year. If you want to go listen to two weeks ago, two weeks ago now when this episode comes out, we talked about what's

[01:16:03] upcoming for our careers this next year. And next week, you'll be in New York next time you record. Well, actually, no, next week you'll be fine. No, yeah, next week you'll be fine two weeks from now. By the time we're recording, you'll be in New York

[01:16:16] looking for your next job. And I made it very transparent on my next one. Like life is moving along for me. So that's like just another exciting wrinkle in all of this of all this we're trying to do here with this podcast and see like where are we

[01:16:31] at the end of this year? Like we have an idea where the podcast is going to be. Where are we going to be? And how is that going to like impact how we do this? I mean, it's it's like that's so fun to think about.

[01:16:40] I think there's a lesson like we learned today a little bit about how important intertwining our lives into this is we can give analysis. We do. I think we do a pretty good job of doing that. We talk about numbers. Everyone has access to fan graphs.

[01:16:58] We talk about it. That's fine. But how do our lives make it more interesting? And I think this year is a real chance to do that as well. Not only with stuff we do directly for this podcast, but things that have nothing to do with it at all

[01:17:11] that make it more interesting. Just stuff about us. What we're up to. That's why we talked about where our career is headed and people want updates on what are you up to in New York, Lyle? Or what's new in Corvallis, T.J.

[01:17:22] Or what are you looking to do next? Stuff we can all talk about here in your year or two. We do love all the funny stuff will bring up on Speak Your Mind. And we do love having some laughs, which is just one of many reasons

[01:17:33] that two of us enjoy doing this. But I think that is another step we can take in your too is just share a little bit more about. Oh yeah, what are we really up to when we're not sitting here recording our podcast

[01:17:44] when we're not out at the ballpark doing stuff for social media? The numbers reflected that people were interested in that. So I think we're going to try and do that a little bit more. Yeah, definitely. And above all else, this is the last point I'll make.

[01:17:58] The reason we started this and what it all ties back to like forget all the stuff on YouTube, the social content, the interacting with fans and players like all that stuff, what it boils down to. The reason we wanted to start this

[01:18:10] is it is two very good friends who love the Seattle Mariners and frankly just want to talk to each other about it. If you check the text between the two of us. I mean, a lot of it now over the last year

[01:18:20] has been planning stuff with the podcast, but not just that, but that is part of it. But it's just two people who like to talk about the Mariners and we've done it for so long over the years since two of us met our freshman year at Arizona State,

[01:18:31] both majoring in sports journalism. We've talked so much Mariners over the years. I think we finally got to the point where we said we both have on air experience. We both have wanted to start a podcast. We talk about the team so much over text.

[01:18:45] Shouldn't we just start getting some mics and talking about it? And through a year, that's exactly what it's been and through years two and three and four and five and however long this keeps going. I think it's the exact same idea. It's just two good friends

[01:18:57] who genuinely love to talk about their favorite baseball team. So I really hope if nothing else that you've heard from us throughout the year that has resonated through you guys. Cheers to that. TJ signs off. So one final time. That'll just about wrap up

[01:19:15] this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast You guys know the drill. You want to listen to the full form podcast you can do so wherever you get your audio pods make sure to follow download our episodes leave us the five star review

[01:19:26] truly those downloads and reviews help a ton. Go like comment subscribe on YouTube where full video podcast is and before I even plug our social media channels I will say in a wrap of all this we are posting an end of the year

[01:19:38] social clip on New Year's Eve so go check that out it compiles everything we've done in the first year together. So we will post that on New Year's Eve make sure to be on the lookout for that where we had a bunch of fun putting it together

[01:19:49] where can you find that and all of our social media content we're on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod that's TJ I'm Lyle as always from the bottom of our hearts we truly cannot thank you guys enough for tuning in through all this time

[01:20:05] and all the time that you will continue to do moving forward thank you from both of us and we'll talk to you in year two.