Episode 98: Sam Haggerty, And Reacting To The Jorge Polanco Trade

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number ninety eight of the Marine Layer Podcast. We welcome on Mariner's utility man Sam Haggerty to chat about his clothing brand epics Soul hitting a ball onto Utah Street, the thrill that was, and then reminiscing about ending the drought with after Cal's walkoff he was on deck. A really fun story there with Sam, the Mariners also acquire Jorge Polonko. 00:00:22 Speaker 2: We'll react before we start the show. Here's your reminder that if you're listening to the podcast, make sure to download, make sure to leave us a five star review, follow the show. That's all over on our audio podcast. It helps us out a bunch. You know what else helps us out a lot. If you like comment, subscribe over on YouTube. That's where our video podcast is. You can check out our social media over on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube shorts at marine Layer pot. 00:00:47 Speaker 3: Let's get it rolling. 00:01:00 Speaker 1: And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball podcast network, recording here on Monday evening, January twenty ninth. And the obvious trade fit actually happened. 00:01:15 Speaker 2: That's so unlike Jerry Depoda, we said this trade makes the most sense. Jorge Polanco position of need fits their mold, like isn't going to cost one of the big starters. It just makes too much sense. But all this time passed and we said, well, maybe they're going to go a different route, only to circle back and say, well, it was always Jorge Polanco. As the kids say. 00:01:38 Speaker 3: Let's lay out the trade. 00:01:39 Speaker 1: Apparently this trade has been in the works for quite a while, and that Jerry has I would assume it on the phone a lot of this offseason trying to make this work, and the Twins and Mariners finally made this happen. So the Mariners will get Jorge Polanco, the Twins will get Anthony DeSclafani and his entire salary, Darren Bowen, Gabby Gonzalez five hundred thousan dollars and. 00:02:02 Speaker 3: Cue the sad music. 00:02:03 Speaker 1: Lyle, our friend Justin Topa is heading to Minnesota. 00:02:10 Speaker 2: I know that part just from a personal standpoint, non baseball perspective, that really hurts and that sucks because we just had him on a couple of weeks ago. It was awesome. You never even got to meet him. I know you were looking forward to meeting him. When we go to spring training. 00:02:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a little disappointed. I mean it's not even just for the person, and the impact on the Mariners bullpen will definitely be felt. We'll get into that as well, but I was I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to meet Justin in person. That's stunk baseball sense. Good trade, good trade. 00:02:41 Speaker 3: You do this. 00:02:43 Speaker 1: Well the way I look at this trade right now, right off the bat. So what the Mariners did was, first off, they acquired the player Jorge Polanco, and I think the talent of that was used for to acquire Jorge Plonka was justin topa Darren Bowen, who was kind of he's kind of a throw in there, but I mean his value was used to use to usher the usher the town of Jorge Polanco in and then a little bit of what Gabby Gonzalez was thrown in there for. What Gabby Gonzalez was thrown in there for is so the Mariners could find a way to dump the twelve million dollars on Anthony desk Laffani's contract and send him in this deal as well. So you trade a prospect to get rid of a bunch of a bunch of money off your books and then take on the money with Polonko and give up the appropriate value for what is essentially two years of control. If Jorge Polonco everything goes as as well as his upcoming season. I like it because value wise, you do this trade every single time. 00:03:45 Speaker 2: Those are similar words to the ones you uttered all the way back when Man, it's crazy, we're getting close to one hundred episodes, but one of our first episodes, it was after the Taioscar Hernandez trade. They traded Eric Swanson to get him. They traded out of Maco too, But you were adamant on that episode and you said, when you a chance to trade big league relievers for every day starters with impact, every single time, you do it. As much as we're gonna miss Justin Topa again, from a personal standpoint, we're really sad to see him go. Baseball wise, it makes too much sense. There has been way too much shuffling and plugging and playing and trying to duct tape issues over at second base over the last few years. Honestly, since Robinson Cano left, since Robbie left, they've been trying to duct tape issues at second base. Now they have got their solution they have a true solution at second base in Jorge Polonco, who over the last three years has been one of the best offensive second basemen in baseball. 00:04:38 Speaker 1: We've complained too about the Mariner's lack of production on the infield. How nice is it for them to go out and get a proven guy like Jorge Plonco. Technically, Cult Wong was proven last season, but with the season he had, it didn't didn't seem like it at all. But the rest of these guys on this infield lile. If you just think about how they came to the Mariners and how they were trying to get that production. Ty France was blocked in the Padres organization. He was stuck in Triple A, unproven at the big league level. The Mariners trade for him, been the starting first basement ever since. Not proven in any sense. JP Crawford was at a low point of his career in Philadelphia when he was traded over here to the Mariners. Has resurrected his career there. And then you look over at third, I mean two guys that were sort of cast off by organizations, and Josh Rojas traded to the Mariners, and then Luis Arius with both the Brewers and the Red Sox was about to get DFAD this offseason and ends up on the Mariners roster. So now, instead of trying to go after something like that to fix the second base hole, as you said, they have gone out and they have acquired an All star and someone who hits at the top of the lineup in good lineups. The Twins had a good lineup last season and Jorge Polanco spent most of the time in that lineup, in the two hole or in the five hole, and I think that's where he could fit in with the Mariners lineup as well. I have some projected lineups I'd like to get to you, but those are two spots you could see Polanco fitting in. He's gonna hit for power, he's gonna walk, Yeah, he might strike out a little bit, but he's gonna have about a one to twenty WRC plus if he's healthy, and four wins above replacement. That's a that's as good of a second base option you can have in Major League Baseball. 00:06:12 Speaker 2: It's great, it's it's truly truly a big time impact trade for the Mariners. It is he has to stay healthy and this is now, this gets to the root of the problem. If you want to look at the glass half empty, sense is basically every guy the Mariners have traded for this winner, aside from Luke Rayley, has injury problems. Actually, even Rayley was injured part of last year. Most of the guys they've traded for have injury problems. Garver, Hanneger, Polanco. Yeah, those are the big three bats that've gotten this winner. And if you want to throw Rayley in there too, it's the same thing. They have to stay healthy. Now that being said, before we start shuffling or before we start reading out these hypothetical lineups. You mentioned being a premier second baseman I talked about he's one of the best second basemen in baseball. Let's look at this over the last three years. Leaders in WRC plus among second basement from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty three. Here's your list. Jose Al twoves at one, Luisa Rises at two, Brandon Laws at three, could tell Martez at four, or Hey Polanco's at five fifth fifth best second basement in all of baseball over the last three years. Did you notice what name wasn't on their. 00:07:20 Speaker 1: Teach I was about to ask you law. Where's Marcus Simeon. 00:07:23 Speaker 2: Hmmm, let me scroll down. He is below Hogey Polanco. Yeah, you heard that right, Marcus Semeon, despite a phenomenal twenty twenty one, a phenomenal twenty twenty three, below Horgey Polanco. This is an impact second basement the Mariners are getting. They gave up an oka amount to get him. This is a very good trade. 00:07:45 Speaker 1: This is me puffing my chest out at Scott Boris. See you couldn't keep him from us. We upgraded. 00:07:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, who dare I say? I don't know if I want to drop an F bomb at Scott Boris or not. Whatever. Everybody knows how if you about them? We know we're not Scott Boris fans on this podcast, but yes, for hey Bolono. Good trade. 00:08:05 Speaker 1: Here's another thing about this trade. The mayors essentially again come out cast neutral in this trade. And that's a benefit because they still have money to go fix some holes if they're willing to go spend it. 00:08:16 Speaker 3: Now. 00:08:17 Speaker 1: They have given no indication this offseason outside of mitchgar Or they intend on spending any money period on things outside the organization, so that has yet to be seen. But in theory, if they could go spend some more money they can now go. They want to go overpay a bullpen armor to someone who's more stable to go pitch in that bullpen. That'll be great. There's an issue right now at the Mariner's bullpen lile after this trade, because there are only four proven members of that bullpen left after this season. And the more I'm thinking about it, there is two proven leverage arms, period and Munios and Matt Brash. 00:08:53 Speaker 3: That's it. 00:08:54 Speaker 1: Those are the only two guys there that you every single night would go like, Okay, I trust that guy in the eighth of the night saw say to inspire on any given night you think are pitching in the sixth or seven. The Mariners need more options at the back end of that bullpen with Topa gon Topa I trusted in both those spots because he didn't allow hard hit ball. He didn't allow high hard hit rate, a lot of ground balls. Perfect solution in the bullpen. That's gone now and now you have a whole mish mash of cast offs in low shine, sparkly not not very well known guys that are coming to bring training to fight for those bullpen spots. I'd rather not try and fill four bullpen spots with four of those guys. That that's risky. 00:09:41 Speaker 2: I'm sure people are going to bring up pre lander Barrowa, but he's totally unproven. He could be that, and I'm guessing if the Mariners are trading justin Topa, they believe that this is the year Barrella can become that. But that doesn't change the fact that he has only thrown a couple of big leaguinnings. So I'm sure he's not going to start the year as a back end leverage guy. I mean, we'll see how he looks in spring training, but I'm guessing one. I'm guessing he will make the team out of camp now, but I bet you they don't start him by throwing him in the ninth inning when you've got the meat of the opposing lineup up that's gonna be Muno's and brash And then as Baroa, that we think continues to prove himself, he might get more chances. Look, and we should say about Sasato Inspire. Both those guys are really good. They're very valuable left handed arms. They're just they play a specific role, and what their role is is they're not really eighth ninth inning guys where they come in and slam the door all the time, saying, no matter who's up, the ball's years like you're going in against the meat of the lineup. And Sasato closed the game or two last year, and he did his job. He did a good job of it. No, nonetheless, but they are more suited for around that sixth seventh inning role. When you need guys later in the game, you probably want guys that throw a little bit harder than them, and some guys that just have more swing and miss stuff than they do. I mean, look at Inspire gets guys to chase a ton. Those guys have good stuff, but it's just not quite what you think when you think of a back end arm. 00:11:02 Speaker 1: Can I inquire about a Ryan Stanek, who's sitting out there on the free agent market, just just kind of sitting there. 00:11:08 Speaker 2: You were talking about this pre recording, You're like, I just realized he is not signed anywhere yet. 00:11:14 Speaker 1: If you're talking about leverage, if you're talking about throws gas, if you're talking about a top end reliever that's not gonna cost a Josh Hater amount of money that would be Ryan's stannic please somewhat one more proven arm, please, because let me just throw this question out to our listeners into you, lyle, do you trust what the Mariners have in their bullpen right now? 00:11:38 Speaker 2: I do like four of the guys. Again, I think leverage wise there is two proven ones. But you do need more if you want that bullpen to be as good as it's been in the last few years, which has been one of their major strength. No, you need more. And here's the other side of this. The Mariners essentially come out cash neutral with this trade between Deskofani's money between Polanco's money. It's pretty close. And whether Jerry Depoto holds to his word or not. And by Depoto we should say ownership. When they say payroll is going to go up in twenty twenty four, we still haven't seen it yet. In fact, they are way lower than where they ended at the end of twenty twenty three, so they have money left to spend. Where could it go. Well, they could still sign Blake Snow, they could still trade an arm for eastac Parades. That's probably not happening at this point. I'll still float it out there because it's possible. It's very unlikely, So more likely. Yeah, go spend on some bullpen arms. Usually the Mariners don't do that. They're very very keen on finding guys with value that don't cost a lot and they turn them into stud arms. But they're in a situation right now where they do need at least one more high leverage arm. If Baroa becomes a high leverage guy and you sign Stanic, then you have four. But you've got to start the year with at least three guys like that that you really rely on at the back end of games, and Stanic would make a lot of sense. 00:12:57 Speaker 1: You got about twenty five million dollars to work with, give or take on what's remaining of the budget. If it's if it's going to be one hundred and forty five million dollars, So why not. The the position players, as we think right now, are set. You floated the PREADERUS idea out there, but they again just traded for an infielder. So probably, I mean it's probably not happening as cool as it would be. 00:13:18 Speaker 3: The hype dreams out. The window also floaded it. 00:13:23 Speaker 2: There's a reason I floated it out. Yet it's like a well, it could still happen again. Likelihood. No, it'd be cool. Probably not. 00:13:32 Speaker 3: They could use more starters. 00:13:33 Speaker 1: The problem is there's no one they would you can. This isn't a situation where you're trading for established or signing established big league starters because they would have to be in your rotation and. 00:13:46 Speaker 3: That's not going to happen right now. 00:13:47 Speaker 1: They have five guys in their rotation plus Emerson Hancock. If they need more depth, it would be it would come in the minor leagues. 00:13:54 Speaker 3: I think. 00:13:55 Speaker 1: So if you're not gonna you wouldn't spend on your lineup, and you're not currently going to spend on your starting rotation outside of the organization and free agency, then what's left is the bullpen. It's the only thing that makes sense. And if you have money left to spend, like if it's the last thing you were going to spend on, okay, great, but we're at the last step, so go go spend that. 00:14:16 Speaker 2: Now, there's still the scenario we threw out there where if the Mariners signed Blake Snell and just keep off six starters, because if who's going to be on an innings limit, you start them in the bullpen. Then you figure it out from there. I guess that's still possible, but more likely they're sticking with the five starters they have right now and they'll use the money elsewhere if they continue to spend. Yeah, Ryan's Stanek. I mean, this guy's so good year after year and he doesn't slow down either. He would make That would be quite the signing. Although even signing Stanick still room still leaves a lot of room for this team to spend, and maybe they do more of that toward the trade deadline. When they say payroll is gonna go up, Maybe it happens there, but they still have a lot of room to grow. I think this lineup right now is a very lineup. It's better than one than it was in twenty twenty three. This is the lineup that can truly compete, but there is still room to add if they choose to. It's just a matter of, well do they. 00:15:10 Speaker 3: Here's the lineup. 00:15:11 Speaker 2: You want to hear it, Yeah, let's do it. 00:15:13 Speaker 1: I have two different drafts of a lineup because Jorge Polanco spent most of last season hitting out of the two hole or the five hole in the Twins lineup, so I created a lineup on both of those aspects. On both those spots for Jorge Polanco. First one, he's batting out of the five hole. You have JP in the one spot, Julio two, Cal three, Garver four, Polonco five, Rayley six, Ty, France seven, Mitch slash domin the eighth hole, and then Rojas or Luis Urias in the ninth spot. Now Polanco or to hit second. I bump Julio up to the leadoff spot. So it goes Julio, Polonko, Cal, Garver, JP hits fifth, Rayley hits sixth, Ty, France hits seventh, Mitch slash Dom hits eighth, and Rojas or Luis Urias hits ninth. Do you like any either the better? 00:16:01 Speaker 2: I think I like the first one a little bit better. Neither are bad. I think I like the first one a little better. 00:16:06 Speaker 3: Okay, what do you like? 00:16:08 Speaker 1: So here's the thing I think about. If Polanco's a better hitter this upcoming season, then JP Crawford is. 00:16:16 Speaker 3: Hit him too. 00:16:18 Speaker 1: You would have to right. There are people who think JP Crawford's gonna regress. It's gonna be hard for JP to put up a one thirty four WRC plus this upcoming season. In twenty twenty four, Polonco is good for about a one to twenty in a good season that he's healthy. So is JP gonna cross the one twenty mark. 00:16:40 Speaker 2: We'll have to see. I would bet you they start the year with JP hitting leadoff. I think JP will still be around that one twenty range. I do. I don't think he's going to totally regrets. I think those drive line results are here to stay for the most part. But if Polanco proves to be a better bat than JP, you know what they can do. A few weeks into the year, they can shuffle it up. But I think to start the year, you'll see JP in the leadoff spot two and yeah, you'll see Polanco more at the five or six range. 00:17:03 Speaker 1: Would you consider swapping Polanco and Cal if Cal has some strikeout issues or gets off to a slow start, I mean, I think the three holes not the not the end of the world. So you go the first four spots of Julio or JP, Julio, Polonco, Garver, then Col in the five spot. Because I know there are people in our comments who think Cal should hit lower. Well, okay, if you want Cal to hit lower, just hitting Polanco third instead of Cal make you more intrigued, especially with a ten percent walk right there. 00:17:36 Speaker 2: Does Polanco feel like a three hitter to you? Or maybe I'm overthinking this. He just doesn't feel like a three hitter. 00:17:41 Speaker 3: H not really. 00:17:43 Speaker 1: Cal Rowley's not really a three hitter either. Garver is a three hitter, but we're not sure how much Mitch Garver is gonna stay on the field. Yeah, so yeah, that's why you put him in the four spots. Maybe, Okay, So you go JP one, Julio two, Garver three, Cal four, Polonco five because Polanko's not a four hitter. 00:18:06 Speaker 2: No, so you hit him five. That makes sense, okay? Or you could even you could even hit them six. If you like Rayley's power a little bit better out of the five spot, you could do that too. 00:18:15 Speaker 1: So this is good this lineup though you're right, it's better and it's less strikeout prone. The problem is it's not as reliable health wise, and that's the risk you run from. How that for how this lineup is constructed, you're gonna have to rely on a lot of guys to have remarkably healthy seasons for this to all work out. If it does work out, this is a chance to be a top to an easily top ten lineup and very productive through the I mean you could go be productive through the nine hole. I'm mapping it out and looking at the numbers from last season of where these guys are hitting. JP one thirty four WRC plus Julio won twenty six, Cal one twelve, Garber one thirty eight, Polanco one eighteen, Ralely one thirty. That's the six in your lineup. That's a pretty elite first six hitters, and then after that you expect ty France to go a little bit higher than his one oh four. We're optimistic with Mitch, either Mitch staying healthy in the eighth spot and hitting well or dom can Zone turning his expected numbers into actual results in hitting out of that eighth spot. And Rojas and Arias We've already talked about how much we like Josh Rojas in the nine hole. And then you add on top of that potential bounce back for Luis Aurrias's that's really looking up. 00:19:33 Speaker 2: It's a really good lineup. Look. Polanka played eighty games in twenty twenty three, put one hundred and four and twenty twenty two. He has to stay on the field if he does. This team is absolutely better than it was in twenty twenty three, and all this lineup shuffling we're doing in the hypotheticals, it's a good problem to have because what we're saying here is there's a lot of really good bats to get hit in a lot of different spots. That's exciting. This is a good lineup, and be excited about this lineup. If you're some listening and you're a little skeptical, it's a good lineup. 00:20:04 Speaker 3: I can't complain. 00:20:05 Speaker 1: Jerry did a good job, but like I still think there are some finishing touches out there with the bullpen and with spending. They can't get away with not spending. They cannot do it. We cannot get fed. The payroll is going to be higher, and then it's like we are still sitting here and it's not yet they are better, but now that like the money will have to be spent between now and August second of this year, it will need to get spent like that is on the record. I think that is a unison agreement amongst all factions of Mariner's fandom that payroll by August second should be at one hundred and forty five million dollars period. 00:20:44 Speaker 2: The only thing is can they really spend twenty million dollars on bullpen arms? If not more, it seems like a lot. 00:20:52 Speaker 1: They can sign Stanic and then trade for whatever they need to at the deadline if they have to acquire ten to fifteen million dollars where the players at the dead line, okay, because that would make them better because players who get paid that much money are usually that good. So yeah, and if it works out, it works out, and then they can actually add at the deadline and not be like, well, we need to get better, but I don't have any money left to spend, and then they throw out an opportunity to actually go get better. So if that's what they're planning on doing, okay, But there's money to spend now, and there could be money to spend at the deadline as well, so go do it. 00:21:30 Speaker 2: Agreed. One last thing we should probably mention about Polanco before we get into what the Mariners gave up a little bit. Not a great defender. We do have to address the one elephant in the room. Really not a great defender, but he does just play second base, so maybe it'll work out. Okay, Maybe Perryhill will work with him. And similar to how we talked about the Arise hypothetical, they are obviously not trading for Polanco for his glove. That being said, it probably still needs to be addressed. 00:21:59 Speaker 1: Sure, and I'm gonna give the same response I gave to a Rise. 00:22:03 Speaker 3: Okay, well, we're gonna have that hitting fifth now, a guy hitting fifth now? 00:22:09 Speaker 2: So yes, correct, But. 00:22:13 Speaker 1: Will I bitch when he boots a ball? Absolutely? But you know what, right now, the smiles on my face, the vibes are good. 00:22:21 Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough. I will just remind you that we kind of kick the can down the road when we saw the Colton Long trade and he's like, he doesn't really play defense, but whatever they're trading for him for that he did, he used to correct, but then not only did he not hit, but we saw him try to make relay throws to the plate as the cutoff man, and they were getting two bounds to the plate. 00:22:44 Speaker 1: So as long as Jorge Polanco does not throw a ball like Colton Wong, I think we'll we'll do better than that. 00:22:50 Speaker 2: Yeah. So, Jorge Polanco's arm strength by Baseball Savants in the twenty second percentile, which is not great by any standards. It's very blow average. But Colt Wong was in the first So if you look at it like that upgrade. 00:23:02 Speaker 1: And when you're at second base, you don't need to have one in the ninety ninth percentile. You you just need to be able to get it over the first base. US all agreed, So, okay, it's fine. With Jorge Polonko, it's like really such a non issue. We like, we understand what it's going to take to upgrade this lineup, and they've done it, and you sacrifice some defense on the other end. 00:23:26 Speaker 2: Right, we talked about Topa a little bit. Obviously we should highlight that the Twins are getting a phenomenal reliever. That's a pretty good one two punch between him and Johan Duran at the back end of that rotation or sorry, the back end of that bullpen, because Topo doesn't give up hard hit balls, gets a lot of weak contact. It was really really effective last year. His profile suggests that you carry over from year to year, so that is the main piece back for the Twins at least for the time being. Look, Anthony Desko Fani's a back end starter, okay. Darren Bowen has a little bit of upside. Like we said, Okay, the one other guy we should talk about is obviously Gabby Gonzalez, who is a top one hundred prospect, has been in the Marinerths prospect ranks and talks for a while now. But I will say two things, if you're that upset about giving up Gabby Gonzalez, I do scratch my head a little bit. And I also would read you his slash line, which is he hit I won't reach you his full slash, but he hit two fifteen in Everett last year, so hia, he's hitting two fifteen with a WRC plus below one hundred, and he's not really putting up high exit d los either, So I would rather have Jorge Polanco. 00:24:32 Speaker 1: There's a lot of really young, exciting prospects in the system, Like I just don't understand how you would get wrapped up around someone who's not even the top one hundred. I think people think Gabby's going to get into the top one hundred this year, and that's great for Gabby. 00:24:46 Speaker 3: He's going to get some awesome recognition and such. 00:24:48 Speaker 1: But losing getting wrapped up over losing Gabby Gonzalez for someone that you could have in the middle of your infield for two seasons, hitting out a well above average rate. 00:25:01 Speaker 3: Seems seems right. 00:25:03 Speaker 1: So if you want, like, if you're trying to be upset about this, like you're probably finding a reason to be mad at either Jerry or the Mariners or something else. I just like, I can't. I cannot get worked up over trading gabbygins All. How many how many times this offseason have we proposed a trade that had Gabby Gonzalez in it? 00:25:21 Speaker 3: A lot of them? 00:25:22 Speaker 2: A lot? 00:25:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, he actually gets traded, Like we we can't. We can't be upset about it, right. 00:25:30 Speaker 2: And if you're somebody that says, well, the Mariners don't have a lot of outfield prospects, now, let's pump the brakes on that. Well, first off, Johnny Farmelo is an outfielder. They just took him in the first round. And not all these infielders are going to be in the infield. There's just too much of a log jam Typeete may play the outfield long term, Dewell Joseph may play the outfield long term, Like, there's gonna be more outfielders in this system long term, and then it's not an issue. 00:25:54 Speaker 3: So Harry Ford. 00:25:56 Speaker 2: I'm with you. I can't lose sleep over Gabby Gonzalez. Whould you just say, Harry Ford? Yeah, another guy that completely outfield. 00:26:03 Speaker 1: So and it's taking away from the fact, Oh, your star centerfielder's twenty three and the guy next to him in the outfield, who you envision when you traded for him, is a part of your future. Dom can Zone's only twenty six and has a boatload of control, and Jerry, at least right now, envisions Tom Canzone being a part of the Mariner's future for a long time. 00:26:25 Speaker 3: So let's two spots right there. 00:26:27 Speaker 2: And Luke Rayley's very club controllable. 00:26:29 Speaker 3: There's another he is not as young, but club controllable. 00:26:32 Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, So I think they're doing it worrying. 00:26:36 Speaker 1: About outfield prospects three years from now, like that's such a twenty twenty one thing, Like we got to get past this. The time is right frickin' now. Yeah, right now. I don't care what happens in three years, right, And. 00:26:52 Speaker 2: Look, if if they had given up Cole Young, if they had given up Colt Emerson, if they had given up Felmy, we're having a different conversation. But to give up Gaby Gonzalez again, who may be very good in the long term, but you can't wait around for a guy that, despite him high upside, put up less than one hundred WRC plus in High A and be worried about it. Because what you need right now is impact on the infield. That's what Jorge Polanco is gonna do. If he's healthy, he can be a four win player and a top five second baseman in the spurt. I'll take that. 00:27:25 Speaker 1: Guy, I agree, And even if they traded one of those other guys like it might sting a tiny bit more, but I can't again, can't get I can't get wrapped up over prospects anymore. I can't do it like it's time. It's time to move on from that from that mindset. 00:27:42 Speaker 2: In this sense, yeah, prospects are good to have, and some of these guys may end up being very impactful, but again, you need impact guys at the big league level now, and that's what Polanco is. Okay, let's take a quick pause. Talk to you guys about our friends over at Pagatcha's Pub eighty five over in Kirkland. You've heard us talk about it before. You're going to continue to hear us talk about it. We love hanging out there, going with our friends, playing some pool, watching some games, and also getting the benefits of a really good food and drink menu, full food and drink menu, and if you head over there during happy hour you get some great deals. It's Monday through Friday happy hour two to six pm. It features three dollars domestic beers, four dollar Mannis, blue Moons, four dollars Mac and Jacks, four dollar Wells, four dollar house wines. There's also twenty two TVs in the place. So you want to go watch some games, head over there and do that a great time with your friends over at Pigatcha's Pub eighty five in Kirkland. So three big leaguers in a row. Sam Haggerty's on the show this week. That's pretty cool. 00:28:42 Speaker 1: And Sam has his own unique stamp on things. I feel like whenever we talk to athletes, people want us to ask about all their baseball stuff. The coolest thing I think about Sam from what we learned, and this was right at the beginning of our discussion, is his clothing brand. People professional athletes usually have some pretty good style, but not all of them. Staled himselves or run a clothing line. Well, Sam does, and he puts a lot of really good thought and a lot of really good detail that I didn't even think was in there when he was explaining it to us, and I thought that was super interesting and super cool. 00:29:13 Speaker 3: So his brand, Epic. 00:29:14 Speaker 1: Soul, has been quite successful and he's quite passionate about it, so that was really really interesting to learn about. 00:29:21 Speaker 3: And that on top of all his baseball things. 00:29:23 Speaker 1: I mean, it's it was him and Ken Griffey Junior Lyle the first two Mariners ever to hit one out onto Utah Street. 00:29:29 Speaker 3: That's quite a duo. 00:29:32 Speaker 2: Sam also had the royalty of being in the hangover lineup after the playoff clinch, so you better believe we talked to him about that. Yeah. Another awesome guy. We've been so lucky with the players we've had on the show. Really fun to talk to. We're going to link all of the Epic Soul stuff, which is Sam's clothing brand, in the description, so if you want to check that out, whether it's on social media or the clothing brand website itself, we certainly recommend you do that. We know Sam would appreciate it if you did that. It's epic sool, but of you as a whole, just another awesome guy. You can see why he's yet another fan favorite. 00:30:06 Speaker 1: With that, let's get to our conversation with Sam Haggarty. 00:30:11 Speaker 2: All right, We've got Sam Haggerty on with US Mariners infielder and outfielder. Also started the clothing brand Epic Soul, and we're really hyped to have him on. So what does an off season look like for Sam Haggerty? 00:30:24 Speaker 4: Uh? You know, I I try to spend a lot of time with friends and family. You know, I really don't travel that much in the off season due to how much I travel in season. So you know, I really like to be home and try to live like a relatively simple life. You know, workout, work on a company, you know, early nights, cook dinners, just just try to live a little simpler in the off. 00:30:48 Speaker 1: Season, simple life in warm weather exactly. Yeah, good idea. 00:30:55 Speaker 2: How long have you made Arizona your off season home? 00:30:58 Speaker 4: You know, I got drafted in two thousand five fifteen, and I moved here immediately. It felt like the right place for me to become a better baseball player. I had gone to high school in Denver, and that's where my parents still had lived. 00:31:11 Speaker 3: But I just felt. 00:31:12 Speaker 4: Facilities, resources that I could do more here in a warm weather state as well. As I was drafted by the Cleveland Guardians and I used their spring training facility for my off season workout. And again, you know, just trying to maximize my resources and give me the best chance to make it to the big leagues. 00:31:33 Speaker 1: So you're down there in Arizona, and there's we were going to ask you a couple of questions. I know about your clothing brand and you know, talking to some ASU kids, but speaking of it, I'm more in the sun nevill hoodie. If you had your eyes on Arizona for a while, I know you're a new Mexico guy. Were you like, were you looking to try and play college baseball there too? 00:31:51 Speaker 3: Was that? Was that? Was that something you thought about? 00:31:55 Speaker 4: I mean absolutely, Unfortunately TJ, I was just not good enough. They wanted nothing to do with me, coming from you know, Denver, Colorado, cold weather state. So I really didn't have many offers coming out of high school. And I tried then to go to Arizona for junior college baseball. They have a very good junior college you know league here in Arizona and a lot of those kids end up going to u of A into ASU. Fortunately for me, New Mexico kind of swooped in late my senior year and put an offer on the table I couldn't really turn down, and the rest is history. 00:32:32 Speaker 1: Sam, I want to make you feel a little bit better. As two people who watched four seasons of baseball at Arizona State in its current state, then you were definitely good enough. 00:32:42 Speaker 4: I appreciate that. I appreciate that. 00:32:46 Speaker 2: Definitely good enough. Well, speaking of as we'd love to get into all the epicsoul stuff here in a minute, but you were on campus just recently doing some promotional stuff with the clothing brand. You were talking to as few kids as two people who know that there are a lot of Pacific Northwest natives that go to school there, like the two of us did. Was there any Mariners fans that's aw you standing on campus came up to you. It's like, like, aren't you Sam Haggerty? Do you have that at all? 00:33:11 Speaker 4: You know, guys, I just don't think I'm a big enough name. I don't think I'm a tall enough or big enough stature. I mean, nobody probably even thinks anything more of me than a student there. To be honest with you, I think I blend in quite well. 00:33:25 Speaker 1: So so people when people you tell people you play Major League Baseball, they're like, You're. 00:33:31 Speaker 4: Just like, yeah, I feel like I can walk around pretty much anywhere and never be mistaken for a professional athlete. 00:33:39 Speaker 2: Well, so that's what I was going to say, is if it was a Mariners fan specifically, it wouldn't be shocked. I wouldn't be shocked if somebody recognized you. But if they weren't from Seattle, I was going to say, most people probably thought you just blend right in. 00:33:49 Speaker 4: Yeah, they'd have to be probably die hard Mariners fans, you know, to recognize me. 00:33:57 Speaker 1: Sam, I gotta say your clothing brand is is super cool. It the message it brings, as I'll sie, we'll dive into this here. The message you try and get across with your clothing brand, I think is pretty unique because a lot of clothes at bigger company, at bigger companies, really I don't know, they kind of bland it down a little bit. But you seem to like try and be super specific with your brand and the message it sends like what is what are you trying to do with that. How is like, what part of your creative side comes out of this brand? 00:34:35 Speaker 4: I mean, I think it's it's rooted in in baseball, in people that I've met throughout my career, you know, from from all over the globe, really, you know, and we're just all so unique, and we have so much to offer in the experiences and the stories that we bring are beautiful and what make us a unique and individual And I'm really trying to, you know, reveal and portray that uniqueness by using a single word. So we always at epic Soul, you take a single word and you ask everybody their perspectives, their opinions, what it makes them think of. And by using something that I think is relatively you're not able to debate. You can look up in a dictionary and I can tell you exactly what it means. But then we bring in our experiences, our personal biases, where we're at in our lives, and then I think you start to find something beautiful in the revelation of how unique we all are and how important it is that we understand each other's perspectives in how we view the world and how we view ourselves in life. 00:35:49 Speaker 3: So it's really just. 00:35:50 Speaker 4: About acknowledging the fact that we're all different and we're all unique, and there's nothing wrong with that. And I'm trying to use a word to convey that message. 00:36:01 Speaker 1: So I'm going to turn the question back on you now, and this word is posted on your website. 00:36:06 Speaker 3: What's the one word you use to describe yourself? 00:36:10 Speaker 4: You know, I this was a question I asked myself when I started it, and the word that kept coming back to me was consistent. You know, it's ever since I was a little kid. It was you know, I never missed a practice, never miss an assignment, don't miss a day of school, like it was. And not saying that I was good at all those practices or got good grades all the time. It was just, you know, I held myself to a high standard of just being able to show up and answer the door every single day, good or bad, sick or healthy, you know. And I think that's probably been really my greatest asset to you know, becoming a professional baseball player. Like I said, I didn't get recruited at seventeen and eighteen, and it was a smaller school in New Mexico, and then I was a late round pick. And you know, I've just tried to be very consistent with war, working on myself, working on my craft, and hopefully that that breeds good results. 00:37:07 Speaker 3: So I'm still curious about the process of all this. 00:37:11 Speaker 1: So if you guys want to go our listeners want to go check out Sam's brand, Epic Soul, and go check out their website and just how you guys so like the creative ideas around the clothes you bring. So I think the latest word you guys are using is endures. That correct, Yes, that's correct. So what's when you have that word? How do you then take that word and then go off and go design something. 00:37:37 Speaker 4: So it starts with me, and I'll just spend my nights. You know, I'll start with the definition, and you know, some of these words got four or five definitions, and then I'll maybe pivot to the etymology of the word and look to how it developed over time. And then you know, I'll try to like develop a list of movies and shows that kind of embody the word and music and fictional references. And I mean really nothing is out of the realm. Anything that I can potentially tie to that word, I will put in a big old like database file, and I'll begin then writing about that word, you know, my perspectives, what I hear, what I think of, you know, and so at that point then it goes over to my creative director. He begins to kind of go through my research and my writings, and his job is to bring visual elements to some of those abstract concepts, abstract ideas, and from there, you know, we go through a process of creating some mockups, designs, and then ultimately we pick a garment, you know, a black hoodie like the one I'm currently wearing, and we populate that garment with words and pictures and at the end, you know, we're just trying to get a garment that you know, can be a point of a conversation between people at a coffee shop, at a school, at a car, and at the ends, that's sort of what we're trying to produce. 00:39:06 Speaker 2: We'll link everything in our bio for anybody listening or watching that's interested. Also, if you want to see Sam sweatcherp be sure to watch on YouTube. But how did you take all these ideas that you had and decide Okay, I want to express this through clothing because some people tweet out inspirational quotes or post on their social media accounts. Some people go out and talk about it, But like, how did you decide through clothing apparel you wanted to express your message? 00:39:29 Speaker 4: I thought it was I thought it was a medium that really could move through society with relative ease, and really, like, I didn't want my face to be all over it in the stigma that comes with being a baseball player, or you know, I just wanted to I wanted a piece that could move through society and anybody who saw it could then have a conversation about it, whether it be with that person or with their own thoughts. And I thought it was maybe the the easiest, most digestible form to kind of have these conversations, as opposed to like public speaking or doing a blog or something like that. We have some of these elements, but ultimately I thought clothes was the easiest to move through a community. 00:40:18 Speaker 3: Have you always been a fashion person? No? 00:40:21 Speaker 4: Not not particularly, Like That's what was kind of unique in what a lot of my friends and family would say, is like, you're you are not yourself inherently fashion or driven by clothes, you know. So I think that's probably why I landed on hoodies and T shirts because we all need those, and you know I'm wearing those all the time. But again, it was just a medium chosen, I think for what I thought was the most convenient way to get through a community. 00:40:48 Speaker 3: Have you gotten any clubhouse feedback? 00:40:50 Speaker 4: Yeah, the boys, the boys really like it. The boys wear it all the time, and you know, I'm always trying to surprise them with different clothes, different colors. 00:41:00 Speaker 2: So with all of that, you've started to do some content through epicsoul too and through your guys's social media pages. So I have a couple of follow ups with it. But the first one I've got is do you have any background in media? 00:41:10 Speaker 3: Zero? Okay, so you're just learning on the fly. 00:41:15 Speaker 2: Like you seem like a natural, like from the stuff that you've done at least the times you've been on camera with it. 00:41:20 Speaker 4: Well, I definitely will take that. That makes me very happy, because my social media team sometimes tells me I need to loosen up a little bit. Uh maybe a little too rigid, a little too stiff, you. 00:41:31 Speaker 2: Know what, we work on the exact same stuff. Like the two of us we've been you know, we have a background in sports media and we've been doing the podcast a little over a year, but even still, like like we say all the time, like be loose, be out there, don't be rigid, like especially when we do the stuff out at the field or with fans, Which is what I wanted to segue to, because there was you did a little mini mic thing. It looked like in an outdoor shopping mall somewhere where you stood out and you you know, you talk to strangers just walking by and said, hey, answer a question. Was it nerve wracking at all to just walk up to random strangers and say, hey, will you do this? 00:42:08 Speaker 3: Uh? No, I don't. I don't have much of an issue with that. 00:42:11 Speaker 4: I mean I try to forget the cameras there, I try to forget anything. I really am just trying to have a conversation with you, pick your brain, you know, kind of expand my own horizons about you know, what this person may think and where I'm currently at and where they're currently at. And I just find that stuff so unique, the little nuances and subtleties between all of us. 00:42:34 Speaker 1: Well, I'm gonna give Sam some credit here because what he's doing in a true public setting and a place where I don't know people go shop and just spending time with family and focused on a certain thing is definitely different than us walking out to the pen and being like, so, who's intoxicated enough to talk? 00:42:51 Speaker 3: Yeah? 00:42:53 Speaker 2: Okay, So that's what I was gonna say, is since we do some of this mini mic step too, not just with the players, but we'll do some man on the street stuff with fans once we kind of got into the flow of it. At least my perspective on it is, Look, players know media people might come up to them sometimes and they might want to talk, so they're expecting it. To walk up to random fans at Mariners games who are probably just standing around in a circle with their friends and say, hey, you guys want to hop on camera and answer a question, that honestly became more nerve wracking than talking to the players, because again, they're totally not expecting it, and it's way out of left field, which is why I was curious if you had that that same feeling at all. 00:43:28 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I've always kind of going, hey, I'll give you a free T shirt too if you talk to me, So there's a there's a bit of an incentive for it as well. 00:43:37 Speaker 2: Okay, I like that. And then along with that, now you're starting a mini podcast series too, like, what are you hoping to, like message wise, to display and express through that? 00:43:47 Speaker 3: That is? 00:43:48 Speaker 4: That is our attempt to kind of reveal some of my own process about the research and the writings and kind of those those conversations we have behind the scenes that epic soul. As opposed to just giving him the garment and kind of trying to let that stand on its own, we figured it would probably be be better to to kind of show our audience a little bit of these conversations. We have the thought process that went behind a garment and you know, the inspiration behind one and my creative directors on it, and you know, he's he's a brilliant, brilliant artist. He did a mural in downtown Phoenix. We're getting ready to reveal that to the world. Wait till you see that. 00:44:31 Speaker 3: It's it's unbelievable. 00:44:32 Speaker 4: And then you know he talks about his inspirations and you know where where he drew this from, and you know, and it all of it we try to circle back to it was rooted in a single word, and that's just how you know, diverse, we all are are. 00:44:48 Speaker 3: You allowed to say where the mural is? 00:44:50 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's at uh Grand Grand Avenue in Van Buren in downtown Phoenix. 00:44:56 Speaker 3: Check it out. I think close to closer wins. 00:45:00 Speaker 4: I think, yeah, it's definitely downtown Phoenix. 00:45:04 Speaker 2: Well, so I was gonna say that the journalism school at ASU is in downtown Phoenix. We would drive down there and take a lot of our classes. So van Buren that does sound right right by where we were. 00:45:12 Speaker 3: Then you guys were close. 00:45:14 Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, So Sam, I have one last epic sole question for you. We talked about the word you guys are currently focused on. What's the favorite word you have found that has really really expanded itself and let you guys be the most creative. 00:45:31 Speaker 4: You know, I'd probably say it's the new word coming out in April of next year. All right, this year, excuse me, you know, I'll tell you it's the word trust, you know, and that that word is just so powerful, it means so much. And as a baseball player, it really resonated with me, you know, doe to like you need to trust yourself on that field, you need to trust yourself in that box, like you don't have any time for doubt. So you know it's uh, you know that that probably word allowed the most creativity and just all sorts of aspects of life. 00:46:06 Speaker 2: Again, for any Marinis fans that want to go check it out, it's called epicsols or Lincoln Bios and everything like that. It is really really cool. If we're going to move on to baseball a little bit, man, there's so many different places I guess we could start. I'll start by going all the way back to twenty twenty one. I'll take you back to Baltimore. I think you know where I'm going with that. When you hit that ball out onto Utah Street, Like, is that the farthest ball you've ever hit? 00:46:31 Speaker 4: Probably I don't hit many long home runs like that, And you know, I think when I hit it, it was just kind of a surreal moment because I when I hit home runs, like I sprint the vases, they are only doubles in my head until all of a sudden I realize I don't have to run as hard. But yeah, getting a plaqueut there in Utah Street was pretty special. 00:46:51 Speaker 1: When did you know once the ball landed and you you had an idea like where it landed, did you know that Griffy was the only other guy at that point that had done it for the Mariners, So it's like, yeah, we're talking about Mariners who have only achieved this one thing in the one hundred and forty year history of Major League Baseball. It's Ken Grivey Junior and Sam Aggerty. Let's go Sam. 00:47:13 Speaker 4: Yeah, not too often. What I thought my name would be in the same sentence as. 00:47:17 Speaker 1: His, Hey, you'll take that, you can. You should put that everywhere. But I think there's another name on it now. I think Cal's on that list. But is a good run? 00:47:26 Speaker 4: Still a good list? 00:47:27 Speaker 3: Yeah, still good list. 00:47:28 Speaker 1: Did you make sure when you were out there to go go see Griffy's as well? 00:47:32 Speaker 4: His was way further in mind you guys like his is on the building and mine like just got far enough to land on the street. 00:47:41 Speaker 2: Did you when did you find out that you were only the second guy to do it? 00:47:45 Speaker 3: Yeah? 00:47:46 Speaker 4: I think I think it was like the following day or maybe like right as this series ended, somebody had mentioned it, like there's only two people to ever have a plaque on Utah Street. I'm like, how's that possible? We play the Orioles every single year. 00:48:00 Speaker 1: Decades But so what was cooler then that? Or hitting a home run over the Monster? 00:48:11 Speaker 4: I mean, I'd probably say the plaque, because there's there's evidence that it actually occurred. 00:48:18 Speaker 3: I'd probably say the plaque. That's cool. Hey, there's a video of your your friend way home run. 00:48:22 Speaker 4: Yeah, that one. That was a fun one. My father and my brother were actually in attendance for that one. 00:48:27 Speaker 3: Oh, that's pretty cool. 00:48:29 Speaker 2: Were they sitting up on the Monster or somewhere else? 00:48:31 Speaker 3: I don't think so. Okay, I'm not sure where they were at. 00:48:34 Speaker 2: I've got another pick one or the other for you. Do you enjoy hitting a tape measure home run better or hitting an inside the park home run better? Like the one in Texas? 00:48:43 Speaker 4: Uh? 00:48:43 Speaker 3: Probably inside the park? That was a blast. I'm not sure. 00:48:48 Speaker 4: There's many more more exhilarating plays on a baseball field than an inside the park home run. 00:48:53 Speaker 3: So at what point of that do you realize you have a chance. 00:48:58 Speaker 4: Once once it got past them, I was like, all right, we got to give it a chance. And then the plays behind you, you know, after you hit second base, so you're kind of just looking at. 00:49:07 Speaker 3: Nanniac to like, what do we got here? Dude? I'm kind of running out of gas. 00:49:10 Speaker 4: But let me know, and he says keep coming, and you're just like, Okay, this is it now. 00:49:16 Speaker 1: I could understand the hesitance in that moment because obviously you don't want to cost your team a run. And I'm going to ask you, have you gotten thrown out attempting one before? 00:49:25 Speaker 4: No, you got I think that might have been my first true inside the park home run in my career. 00:49:30 Speaker 1: Oh there, we got it. Yeah, yeah, let's keep it at one hundred percent. You don't need to attempt another one. 00:49:38 Speaker 4: I like it. 00:49:40 Speaker 2: You know what, I'm gonna differ on that opinion. Sam wants to go for another inside the park home run. I'm not telling him no. So when you see the ball get pasted to Barison center field, like i'd have to imagine your eyes just start to light up because off the bat you probably think it's a single. Just back up the box. Is it a similar reaction when you see that ball get passed to, say, when a hitter sees a cement mixing breaking ball, where it's like, oh, like, eyes light up, you get really excited. 00:50:08 Speaker 4: I mean it's probably it's probably a little bit more because the cement mixer like you can still miss it, you can still pop it up, and like you still got to hit that thing. But once it got past them, it was I mean, it's all green. 00:50:21 Speaker 3: It was a green light. 00:50:22 Speaker 1: Gough Sam Later in that twenty twenty two season, all Mariners fans remember the clinch, and funny enough, you're the first person from that team who we've had on here, so we got to get the inside scoop when Cal hits that ball. A where were you be? 00:50:40 Speaker 4: What? 00:50:40 Speaker 1: Like, what do you just remember about that moment? 00:50:43 Speaker 4: I was actually on deck, you guys, and in my head Cal was gonna walk and I was gonna hit the home run. But that's neither here nor there. And after he hit that home run, I'll be honest with you, I kind of blacked out. I don't really remember much, but I have seen this picture around where I'm like standing just off home plate looking up at the sky and just sort of astonishment. And then, you know, I couldn't even tell you the next thirty forty minutes. It was just you know, a culmination of a whole year of twenty one years, and you could feel it in that stadium. 00:51:22 Speaker 1: Did you have an idea of exactly what you were going to do. For whatever you were going to do at the plate, it. 00:51:28 Speaker 3: Was gonna look just like Keff. 00:51:33 Speaker 4: That. 00:51:33 Speaker 2: That's what I was going to ask, is do you have like even a like much memory from how you reacted when that thing happened? Because I heard Ty Franz tell a similar story where it's like, I guess I grabbed the gun bucket, but I just remember blacking out and running out there. So it sounds like for you and probably for a lot of guys, it was kind of the same thing that you can't even remember. 00:51:51 Speaker 4: No, I mean, if I didn't have that picture to show me exactly what I was doing in that moment, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. 00:51:58 Speaker 3: Do you think you were able to grasp the emotion of the moment? 00:52:02 Speaker 4: No, I mean just because I hadn't been a Mariners fan for twenty one years and I haven't gone through what that city's gone through, and then to to finally break that that sort of drought. 00:52:16 Speaker 3: So you know, I'm gonna say no, but you try. 00:52:21 Speaker 1: Did would talk into a guy like Matt Boyd help I mean, his interview in the clubhouse after that was one of the best things I've ever seen from a professional baseball player. I like a lot of you guys, you're very you're very professional. It's like, hey, this is cool. We clinched jobs not done. But like Matt knew what the moment was because he lived it, he'd lived through all of it, and now I got to be a part of that team, and I like, it's just the coolest thing to this day. 00:52:50 Speaker 4: You know, you see emotion like that out of anybody, you know, let alone a player to give you that sort of emotion and passion, and you'd see that out of fans as well, and that's that's the beauty of sports. 00:53:02 Speaker 2: So you said, for about thirty or forty minutes, like you feel like you can't even remember what happened. Next, when does the memory start? Like when do you start to kind of come to your senses of like what's going on? Isn't is it during the clubhouse party. 00:53:15 Speaker 4: I don't even know how quickly this situation occurred, but I remember like running around the field with my teammates in kind of the entire warning track, and that in that moment, at times you were just like, wow, I'm doing this, Like we did this. Nobody has left the stadium. We're running around, you know, talking and giving high fives, and you're just kind of like, this is incredible. 00:53:43 Speaker 1: So almost as important as the clinch itself is the feeling in the lineup next day. What's it like being part of a hangover lineup? 00:53:54 Speaker 4: I mean, I knew I was going to be in there. That's definitely my role in what I what I needed to do. Uh So I I tried to keep it under control that night. I tried to get some sleep that night, because, like you said, the job's not done. There's still another game tomorrow, and even more importantly, we got playoffs coming up. And stay sharp, stay competitive, stay hungry. 00:54:17 Speaker 3: Light bench too, light bench. 00:54:19 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what you did your job that day, because I don't even know if you remember you drove in three runs the next day? 00:54:26 Speaker 3: Perfect? 00:54:26 Speaker 2: Yeah? 00:54:27 Speaker 3: Perfect? 00:54:29 Speaker 2: How long did that clubhouse party go on that night? 00:54:33 Speaker 4: I mean, it probably depends on who you talk to, but I'm sure some of the staff and the clubhouse staff and the you know, the employees, they probably ran it up a little bit longer, knowing they didn't have to suit it up the next day, you know. But it's just it's euphoria in that clubhouse and you're you're thinking and you're so happy for you know, six hard months of work. 00:54:58 Speaker 1: It really stunk for you, Sam though, because the next series you get hurt and you don't get to participate. 00:55:03 Speaker 3: I mean, have you have you ever been more disappointed that? 00:55:08 Speaker 4: That was a tough one? You know, because one of my goals is to make a playoff roster, and I can't say that I've done that yet. 00:55:16 Speaker 3: So I still want to accomplish that. 00:55:18 Speaker 4: I still want to be one of thirteen position players when we play a wild card game or a divisional series game. So you know, that was hard, but it's part of the game, and you know your teammates got to pick you up, and that's that's just baseball. 00:55:36 Speaker 2: Did you know right away after sliding into second base or were you kind of hoping maybe it's a day to day thing. 00:55:41 Speaker 3: No, I knew right away. 00:55:42 Speaker 4: It it felt like somebody shot me from the third deck. And I was on crutches for probably four or five days afterwards, and I even kind of struggled to come back in twenty twenty three. I was slow to spring training, kind of slow getting out of the gates, and you know, it's just it's a sensitive area and somewhere that doesn't doesn't rehab very easily. 00:56:08 Speaker 2: Yeah that makes sense, because so how long was that recovery process then? 00:56:13 Speaker 4: I mean I would say like I wasn't one hundred percent myself until probably late April. You know, I could still do my job at the level I needed to do it, but that that confidence that you know, that no doubt that I can jump into a net or make a crazy slide or do some of those you know, acrobatic things might have not been quite there until, you know, maybe a month into the season. 00:56:40 Speaker 1: Sam, I want to dial it back to when you were probably learning baseball and more specifically learning how to switch hit. When does when did you learn and really start dedicating yourself to hitting both sides of the plate. 00:56:54 Speaker 4: It's probably gonna surprise you, but I didn't start until I was sixteen. 00:56:58 Speaker 3: I feel like that's a good good time to start. Yeah. 00:57:02 Speaker 4: Again, Like I was a small middle infielder, right handed hitter from Denver, Colorado, with very little interest from any schools, and I had a coach tell me, he goes, hey, man, you're you're kind of fast. It might help if you hit left handed. And from that day forward, I started brushing my teeth left handed, hitting left handed, trying to do as much stuff as I could left handed to just make myself more valuable. 00:57:30 Speaker 1: You're actually serious with all the like left handed stuff outside of the box. 00:57:34 Speaker 3: Yes, wow, So does that help? 00:57:37 Speaker 4: Yeah? I mean I like, right now, I throw a baseball left handed a lot, like probably three four times a week, just to teach myself body coordination, hand eyed coordination, transferring of weight, you know, all those little fine motor skills that you get when you truly are left handed. 00:57:56 Speaker 1: I think you should play a trick on everybody if they get If the Mariners again make the playoffs this season and you get down to the end of the season and the games don't really matter as much, and they throw you out there at shortstop, like pull pull a quick one on them, put the glove on the on the other. 00:58:11 Speaker 3: Hand, and do at least one throw left handed. Maybe in warm ups. Maybe I'll do that for you in word ups. I think that would be funny. 00:58:19 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:58:20 Speaker 2: Even I was gonna say, even if it's like a spring training game and you know, or even spring training practice and you know, there's cameras on you and stuff. Yeah, just all of a sudden start throwing the ball left handed, and you borrow somebody's left handed glove and make everybody go like, what the world is going on? What is he doing? 00:58:34 Speaker 4: Like I had a few people ask me that, like, what are you doing? You know, maybe I'll pitch left handed this year. 00:58:40 Speaker 2: You never know, guys, that that would be sick if you if you get in in one of these blowout games, especially if the teams win by a lot and you get up there and again, maybe you don't want to actually pitch in a live game left handed, but if you were warming up left handed on the mount, oh that would that would stir things up? 00:58:55 Speaker 3: Absolutely? What's your left handed arsenal? Look like? 00:58:59 Speaker 4: It's very subpart you, guys, lower those expectations. Just because I practiced throw on left hand, it does not mean it's very pretty. 00:59:05 Speaker 1: You're telling me you can't break out a Berry's yetto curveball. 00:59:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, That's what I'm telling you. 00:59:10 Speaker 2: Oh, how okay, in all seriousness, how many swings a day did you have to start taking left handed when you really dedicated yourself to switch handing? Because I think I remember Chipper Jones talking about when he started at a really young age. It was two hundred from each side or something like that every day, Like what did you have to do? 00:59:28 Speaker 3: It was a lot. 00:59:29 Speaker 4: I did a lot of like one handed, left handed swinging, a bunch of it. 00:59:35 Speaker 3: You know. 00:59:36 Speaker 4: It definitely like a two to one ratio from left handed swinging the right handed swinging. You know, I think probably the biggest if anybody was to ask me, you know, advice on switch hitting as a young kid, I would say, like, if you want to be a switch hitter, you have to commit to it. And what I mean by that is I went to a travel ball tournament when I was sixteen, and I told this team, I go, I switch hit, and like I had just started hitting left handed. And the first game we played there was a right handed pitcher and I said, dude, you better walk up there left handed else everybody's going to call you a liar. And so it's really just like it's total commitment to. 01:00:13 Speaker 3: Being a switch hitter. You know, ride the highs and ride the lows. 01:00:17 Speaker 1: Speaking of riding the lows, like there is an adjustment period. So like, how'd you do in that tournament? 01:00:24 Speaker 4: You know I battled, you know, I definitely battle it wouldn't hit any home runs, but I was putting the bat on the ball. I got a few hits, I took a walk or two, you know. I you know, I think I think they thought I was a switch hitter. 01:00:36 Speaker 1: I think because I think you'd step up there left handed and you're you're still working through it, and eventually you're going to have your struggles. I mean, you struggle on your good side, but what about you struggle on the side that you're working through and were I would imagine there were some people coming to and being like, what, like, what are you doing? 01:00:54 Speaker 3: Like cut this out? 01:00:56 Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know my high school coach he we were we were playing in like I don't know when we were playing, might even fall or something like that, or and he goes, hey, man, if you want to switch hit, I'm gonna hit you in the nine hole, And if you'd like to hit lead off, you can just hit right handed. And I go, man, you just put me in the ninth hole because I just I had to do it. I had to do it in order to get where I wanted to go. 01:01:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a sacrifice right there, for especially for a teenager, to make you I mean, you want you want all the attention, Like, uh, I will do the general high school player what I would imagine, what I would have wanted when I played. I mean yeah, bat leadoff or bat ninth. It's not a not a hard discussion. 01:01:38 Speaker 4: Mm hmm. Got I try to try to see the future, try to see the long game. 01:01:43 Speaker 3: And it worked out for you. 01:01:45 Speaker 2: Yeah, it did. How old were you when you hit your first home run from the left side. 01:01:49 Speaker 4: I was probably sixteen. I probably got one that that season. 01:01:53 Speaker 2: Oh, okay, so the adjustment period wasn't that long, like you started to get into the flow there. 01:01:57 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I had a I used to play, like with a ball left handed, so I had a little bit of a gnat to swing a bat left handed. You know, it wasn't completely foreign because I just always mess around in the backyard as a kid, like doing stuff, all sorts of stuff. 01:02:13 Speaker 3: So I had a bit of a foundation to start with. 01:02:17 Speaker 2: Okay, I've got to ask about the walk up song I read on your college bio. You love The Godfather, It's one of your favorite movies. Is that the inspiration behind the song? U, isn't it? 01:02:28 Speaker 3: Yeah? 01:02:28 Speaker 4: I mean a lot of it's for my mother and my family back in Detroit, you know, very one hundred percent Italian family. I can remember going back there every summer as a kid, and you know, there's seven houses on the block, all belong to somebody in the family. And you have dinner at one, you play cards at another, you got dessert at another, you go play cards at another house, and you know, it just it reminds. 01:02:51 Speaker 3: Me of home. 01:02:52 Speaker 4: It reminds me of my mother, and you know, it's a little bit different, you know, and I enjoy that that. 01:02:59 Speaker 3: Vibe in what's the most Italian thing you do? I mean, probably since I was. 01:03:07 Speaker 4: One a year old, my mom has cooked sauce on Sunday every Sunday. 01:03:13 Speaker 3: So you hold yourself to that. 01:03:16 Speaker 4: I hold my mother to that. Oh okay, but yeah, I mean every Sunday that we're at home, she's got a huge pot of sauce. 01:03:23 Speaker 1: Okaying, what about you by yourself on Sundays? 01:03:27 Speaker 4: Well, a lot of times I'm on the baseball field traveling, so I unfortunately I don't get that that great homemade cooking. 01:03:34 Speaker 2: I'll ask you the same thing we ask don canzone. So you call it sauce over gravy. 01:03:38 Speaker 4: It sounds like, yes, it's sauce in our house. 01:03:40 Speaker 2: Okay, does the does the walk Up song fire you up? Like it sounds like you have a very good reason for picking me up. But like when you hear it when you walk to the plate, like it is a little bit on the slower side, right, Like do you still get the juices flowing when. 01:03:53 Speaker 3: You hear that? Absolutely? 01:03:55 Speaker 4: And I'll be honest with you, guys, I might hear it like fifty percent of the time. Okay, sometimes you're just so in the zone you're you can't hear anything around you. 01:04:04 Speaker 3: But yeah, it does get. 01:04:05 Speaker 4: Me fired up because it's it's unique. You know. Sometimes I'll sense like pictures look at me like what is this h I'm like, yeah, listen to it? 01:04:16 Speaker 3: Throwing you off your game? Exactly? 01:04:18 Speaker 1: Is there any other like good Italian music you would consider? Or is like it's Godfather written in stone and that's it. 01:04:25 Speaker 4: I mean, there's some other songs that I got in the works, but you know it wouldn't have the probably the same result as The Godfather just due to the iconic movie, you know, Martin Brando. 01:04:37 Speaker 3: So we'll see were. 01:04:40 Speaker 2: You using it in the minor leagues too? 01:04:42 Speaker 4: No, I've always like kind of switched my walk up song around. And you know, I like, I like a lot of different music, and so I've I've played with a bunch of different different versions, but I don't know. Something about The Godfather struck me in twenty twenty two and I've just kind of rolled with it. 01:04:57 Speaker 3: What other kind of music has been your w song? 01:05:01 Speaker 4: Man, I've had Queen, I've had Billy Squire, I've had two Chains, I've had the game like it's it's a long variety. 01:05:11 Speaker 3: That's a diverse set right there. Yeah. 01:05:13 Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say that's stretching the timeline, like that's going from generation to generation. Yeah, okay, Sam, We've got five kind of wrap up questions for you that we try to do with a lot of the players, just to try to let fans get to know you guys a little bit better. First one we've got for you is your go to pregame and postgame meal. Is what. 01:05:35 Speaker 4: Go to pre game meal? I eat pretty light before the games, Like I'm a big like bowl of fruit with maybe some like rice and chicken, like not heavy. I don't like to be feel heavy when I go play the game. 01:05:50 Speaker 3: Post game. 01:05:51 Speaker 4: Give me, give me all the food, all the carbs, all the protein, try to refuel. 01:05:56 Speaker 3: Like, what's one thing you always want to have though after the game? 01:06:00 Speaker 4: MH, to be honest with you, guys's probably ice cream. Really, probably like one staple that like, I will go out of my way to get. 01:06:08 Speaker 3: It's good. 01:06:10 Speaker 2: Any Oh do you do they have ice cream in the clubhouse for you guys? 01:06:15 Speaker 4: Yeah, we got a little soft serve machine. Okay, just a little tiny vanilla cone, a sweet treat and I'm good. 01:06:22 Speaker 2: Okay, I like, I mean, they have one in the press box, one of those soft serve machines. But I figured maybe they keep that stuff out of the clubhouse. 01:06:30 Speaker 4: We got it in there. 01:06:32 Speaker 2: We got it in there. 01:06:33 Speaker 3: Well, there you go. Okay. 01:06:34 Speaker 1: Second question, Sam, is your top three favorite TV shows ever? 01:06:40 Speaker 5: Oh, top three TV shows? I'd probably say Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones in suits. 01:06:54 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, that's that's right up TJ's alley. That's like two of or maybe all at least two of the three are his favorite. 01:07:02 Speaker 3: Big Harvey Spector guy. I love Harvey. He's great, he's awesome. 01:07:09 Speaker 2: I can say I watch Game of Thrones. I haven't like fully watched the other two through I think It's got to be on my bucket list. I've heard too many of those answers, both suits and breaking bad to not watch it all the way through. 01:07:19 Speaker 4: Well, i went to school in Albuquerque, and so like, I've been to Walter White's house. I've seen some of the restaurants and like the the locations in the show. So that kind of drew it to me. 01:07:32 Speaker 3: Did you get yelled at by the homeowner? 01:07:35 Speaker 4: No, but you imagine like people just driving up to that. 01:07:38 Speaker 3: House, people are like, can you go away? Please? Get serious? 01:07:45 Speaker 2: Okay. Third one, we got best and worst baseball road trip you've ever made. That's gonna include the minor. 01:07:50 Speaker 4: Leagues best and worst baseball road trip. I mean the best has definitely got to be like a swing through New York and Boston. 01:08:03 Speaker 3: Their food there's unbelievable. 01:08:08 Speaker 4: The worst road trip that you're going to, like the minor leagues maybe the New York Penn League. I played at Mahoning Valley Scrappers and we were the most western team in the league, and I think it was like a sixteen hour bus trip to like New Hampshire or Vermont or something, and then a bus trip to summer. I mean, it just felt like I lived my whole life on a bus. 01:08:31 Speaker 3: But it was I think it felt like forever. 01:08:35 Speaker 2: God. 01:08:36 Speaker 1: Okay, next up, what would you be doing if you weren't playing baseball? 01:08:43 Speaker 4: You know, I probably would be a day trader. I think I would want to learn and study the candlestick charts. 01:08:53 Speaker 2: All right, anything specifically or like or just in general. 01:08:58 Speaker 4: Probably like trade currrencies for the most part. But you know, I think it would be exhilarating. Read the news in the mornings, pick a position, set a limit, and try to have a good day. 01:09:12 Speaker 1: So does that mean we're putting you on Wall Street or are you like more of a a like a self employed self employed? 01:09:20 Speaker 3: Okay, all right, I can't. 01:09:22 Speaker 2: Even imagine doing that, Like it feels almost too much like sports betting to me in some sort of way. But maybe maybe you've got a different take on it. 01:09:29 Speaker 4: Gotta study the charts, study the candles. 01:09:31 Speaker 2: Gotta study them. Okay. And the last one we've got for you, Sam your favorite all time baseball player. 01:09:38 Speaker 4: Ah Man. People have asked me this before. You know, somebody who I really liked as a kid was Eric Chavis, and I really don't know why, but when I was in the backyard. I wanted to be Eric Chovis. I thought the A's were really cool with Miguelta, Hato Berries, you know, Mark Moulder, that whole crew. And you know, I think I played third base. I was like nine years old playing third base on a twelve year old team, and so I was their jobs. So that's my answer. 01:10:08 Speaker 2: So you probably feel like Moneyball left out a lot of stuff, don't you, because I mean, look, it's a great movie, I love it, but you got to think to yourself, like to how to win the MVP that year and I think Tim Hudson won to say young that year they had Java. It's like they just kind of leave all that out. 01:10:21 Speaker 4: Yeah, they focused on, you know, definitely the storyline that they were trying to, you know, reveal on that whole thing, the Bill James stuff. 01:10:30 Speaker 3: But yeah, the team was loaded. 01:10:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Sam, this has been awesome. We have had a blast talking with you. Hopefully Mariners fans got to not just know a little bit more about you, but the clothing brand as well, and we certainly hope we get to do it against sim all. 01:10:44 Speaker 4: Right, thank you for having me on you guys. 01:10:48 Speaker 1: Great conversation with Sam Haggerty before we wrap up the show. Award from Betterhelp is something interfering with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals. Regardless if you have a clinical mental health issue like depression or anxiety, or if you're just a human who lives in this world is going through a hard time. Therapy can give you the tools to approach your life in a very different way. And that's why I'm excited to tell you about today's sponsor, Betterhelp. Better Heelp's mission is to make therapy more affordable and more accessible, and this is an important mission because finding a therapist can be really hard, especially when you're limited to the options. 01:11:21 Speaker 3: In your area. 01:11:22 Speaker 1: Betterhelp is a platform that makes finding a therapist easier because it's online, it's remote, and by filling out a few questions, Better Help can match you with a professional therapist, and as little as a few days, it's easy to sign up and get matched with a therapist. There's a link in our description it's betterhelp dot com slash Marine layer Pod. That's better hglp dot com slash Marine layer Pod. Clicking that link help support this podcast, but also gets you ten percent off your first month of Better Help so you can connect with a therapist and see if it helps you. So if you're struggling, consider online therapy with Better Help. Click the link in the description or visit betterhelp dot com slash Marine Layer Pod. 01:12:02 Speaker 2: Well, we hope you guys enjoyed the interview with Sam Haggerty. He is the man. We love talking to him and we are looking forward to catching up with him more, both in spring training and when the season rolls around, because he is a really fun guy. 01:12:14 Speaker 1: And cheers two more home runs onto Utah Street for Sam, he's got to put himself back out there again. 01:12:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, if he's from the left side next time the Mariners are in Camden Yards. All he needs is the opportunities right like like the situation has to play because not only do the Mariners have to be in Baltimore, but Sam also has to be hitting from the left side, So got to be the right scenario. But let's hope he can do it again. That'd be pretty cool. Maybe he can, Maybe he can hit one farther than any did the first time. 01:12:40 Speaker 1: Quite a list of the first two out there in Mariner's history, Ken Griffy Junior and Sam Haggerty. 01:12:46 Speaker 2: What a guy. What a guy? I mean pretty cool. It is quite the list and like Sam said, quite the list to be on. So yeah, he was great. We love talking to him. And one more time, for those of you who haven't checked out Epic Soul yet, go check it out. It's really cool. We encourage you to go check it out again. All the links will be in the description, so I'm sure Sam would really appreciate it, and he's working really hard at it, so or if you want to just check him out on social media too, you can find him there. So yeah, Epic Sooul. One more time, all right, I think that'll just about wrap up this edition of the Marine Layer podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to listen to the full form podcast, you can do so wherever you find your audio pods. Make sure to download. Make sure to leave us at five star review. It helps us out of time. If you like comment, subscribe on YouTube that does as well. That's where our full video podcast is. You can also check us out on social media. We're on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube shorts at marine Layer pot that's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. Talk to you soon.