May 2, 2024 • 42 mins
We're back for season 2 but under a new name! Mariners Weekly with Anderson Hirst kicks off with a familiar face as Rory Brown joins once again to talk about the 1st place Mariners and their good start to the season. Ptching has been absolutely fantastic, offense has been concerning, what will change first?
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
And welcome back into another year ofMariners podcasting. My name's Anderson Hurst.
I'm with my boy, My my, my guy who talks and writes about
the Mariners just for fun as agreat part of his gig here at iHeart
mister Rory Brown. I'm excellent,man. It's it's it's good to be
(00:24):
back for another year of Mariners baseball. We kind of we're a little late
to the party in terms of gettinga podcast out there, but it's been
a pretty good start to the yearfor the Mariners. Yeah, we'll take
you guys behind the curtain a littlebit. We have we're pretty busy at
the beginning of the year. Wehave a big, huge draft coverage,
(00:45):
you know, obligation, I shouldsay, on ninety three three kJ R
FM. But now that that's finishedup, it's it's all Mariners baseball from
now until the end of the summer. So, well, here's here's the
thing. Yeah, they're first inthe Al West. Yeah, we start
doing this obviously, we know howpoor the offense is performing, right,
but how not poor the pitching isperforming exactly. It's well, we start
(01:08):
doing this podcast, we start droppingthe standings. Is the blame on us.
Yeah, I mean, we knowhow superstitious baseball players or does the
podcast fuel the offense. That's theother thing I'm hoping for here, because
one of those two things is boundto change, maybe both of them.
But and that's kind of where Iwant to start. But before we do
(01:30):
that, we had a long discussionbefore we started recording the day about how
we would go about the name ofthe podcast for this next year. It's
a very shall I say, polarizingname. As most of you know who
(01:51):
have been loyal listeners, all amillion of them, yes, oh yeah,
one of the top top Mariager's pottmaybe one and a half million,
all right, just countless listeners.But I we we didn't talk in ners
Royanders last year. Now we gota lot of pushback. I'll just keep
it, keep it light on thatjust just we got a lot of pushback.
(02:15):
I don't mind that name. Butwe're gonna have a kind of rotating
guest this year, so I wantto kind of keep it more general and
I want to make it a themeto be We're gonna be giving you guys
an episode on the off day thatthe Mariners have in a specific week,
(02:35):
and and so far they've had oneevery week, so it'll sometimes it'll be
on a Wednesday. Sometimes it'll beon a Thursday, usually Thursdays because that's
their travel day. Uh So itjust really simple. We're gonna call it
Mariner's Weekly. How does that soundlike it? Yeah? I like it?
Yeah all right. And we're notchanging the name because we got so
much fuel from the on air guysI e. Bucky Jacobson, Dave Softy.
(03:01):
But we're doing this because we're forthe people exactly, and you know,
we want to make sure we're deliveringthe best product to you. And
while the name doesn't really change thecontent, I think I want to better
represent what we're doing here. Andwe're doing a weekly Mariners podcast. What
about weely ooh ooh. Okay,then it's gonna cause even more issues.
(03:24):
We'll have to sauce that in thepan for a little bit, see how
it comes out. But yeah,I just want to get general thoughts from
mister Rory Brown writes about every serieshere on ninety three three KGr dot com.
If you haven't missed his or ifyou haven't caught his series recaps,
highly recommend it. If you missedany games of the series. He gives
you a great in depth breakdown aboutwhat happened and kind of the big talking
(03:46):
points of it. So that's whyI want someone who's kind of in touch
with every series that's going on herewith the Mariners. And you know,
so far, last five pretty good, five straight series wins for the Mariners
after not winning one for the firstwhat four or five so they've come back
around. I think they've won thirteenof the last seventeen games. I'm pretty
(04:09):
hype for this team, especially theirpitching staff. But I want to get
your general thoughts about twenty twenty fourMariners. So far. It's been an
interesting start. It's an expected record, I would think based off of the
last two years and the roster andall the good stuff, right, But
the offense is yes, they've hadsome clutch hits, and which is the
(04:32):
reason why other than the how amazingthe pitching has been, is the reason
that their first in the American LeagueWest yep. But there's obviously some huge
holes and the strikeouts, which Ithought we were trying to get better on
in the offseason, but turns outthat wasn't the case. Yes, I
see Tae Oscar Hernandez is top ofthe league again, which is expected,
(04:54):
but he's hit what eight nine orseven eight home runs and above three hundred
bad average. He's slugging way morethan anyone on our team, maybe other
than Josh Rojas. Yeah, randomly, yeah, randomly. But he's turned
out to be a great leadoff hitter, which is great. With JP getting
hurt, which we can touch onas well, which is too bad.
(05:15):
But he started slow. I'm notsaying the injury would be helpful in any
sense, but maybe a little breakget to work his strength back. He
might have lost. He definitely losthis leadoff spot. Yeah, but to
get him back in the lineup,that's something to look forward to. But
yeah, I mean your team offensivelyto start the year. Yeah, seventeen
(05:36):
and fourteen, first in the AmericanLeague West is amazing. Cannot complain one
bit. You can't complain about beingranked dead last in strikeouts, twenty seventh,
in batting average twenty seventh, inon base twenty fifth, and slugging.
So you're slashing is not good.Your strikeouts are terrible. You couldn't
get worse, actually, So oncethe offense starts clicking, you gotta assume
(06:00):
the pitching. Maybe we saw alittle bit of it on Wednesday with Emerson
Hancock giving up five runs and walkinga few guys and a few airs in
the outfield, and maybe that regressesa little bit. But the pitching is
the reason why they're first in theWest. Yeah, and we can touch
on the pitching and how historically goodthey have been. For me, if
(06:21):
there's one game that you can kindof uh, you know, I don't
want to endorse kind of letting offthe gas and and you know, so
called punt days where you've already wonthe series in the third game and you
kind of but you're against Atlanta,you kind of you you don't expect to
sweep Atlanta. I mean, itwould be great, but that that offense
is just too good to hold downfor threes full games against your fifth starter.
(06:47):
Like, if there's one game whereyou can kind of swallow giving up
a little bit and and and notyou know, having your full on pitching
prowess that we've seen for the pastthree weeks, then yeah, I think
that's the one. And I'm soI'm not really worried about this last game.
It's interesting because I came into thisyear a lot more optimistic than I
(07:11):
came into last year, which isweird because last year we were coming off
of the playoff appearance, right,so, but we didn't really make any
major differences. Yes, we hada tai Oscar instead of Mitch, which
I think was a marginal upgrade,but ta Oscar ended up being pretty okay,
probably worse than expected, but stillfine. But as you mentioned,
(07:33):
the strikeouts for an issue, andI'm not even someone from last year that
was that worried about a team strikingout very much, as long as you're
getting on base at a high clip. If you're striking out a lot,
but you're also walking a lot,and then you're also hitting for slugging,
then I think you can live withthe strikeouts, right I strikeout in a
(07:56):
lot of cases is just as goodas a ground out, and sometimes better
when with runners on base. It'snot a double play, right, So
I just think the strikeouts like focusingin on that. Yes, they were
not good at situational hitting with runnerson third base with less than two outs,
(08:18):
they need to put the ball inplay in that situation obviously, So
I wasn't as fixated on that asa lot of people were obviously the front
office was, so they went outand tried to make a change for this
offense this past year, and ithasn't worked out so far. It's it
seems like it's sort of coming arounda little bit, but it's not great
still. And if it weren't forthis historically good pitching staff, best in
(08:43):
the MLB by a pretty significant margin, then you you can't really say the
Marriors would be in this position rightnow. So, like you said,
first place in the Al West,they're ahead of the Texas Rangers by a
full game seventeen and fourteen. Rangersare sixteen and fifteen. The A's are
(09:05):
the next team at fifteen and seventeen, who have been a pleasant surprise as
in their not the bottom of thebarrel Angels have been pretty bad, and
so of the Houston Astros, whoare in last place in the AL West.
But you got to expect they're goingto turn it around eventually. They
have too good of a lineup toreally not be good, So we'll see
(09:26):
what ends up happening there. Theyface Mariners, face the Astros here,
not this next series, but theseries after. Yeah, that's year.
Oh it is the next series.They're in Houston right now. Okay,
Yeah, actually that's a that's abig series, little three gamer over the
weekend, so we'll see. Ithink there's a big test for both teams
to kind of see. Okay,are the Astros really as bad as their
record shows? And are the Marinersreally a first place team at this point?
(09:48):
What do you think? What areyou looking forward to? I'm optimistic
going into Houston, going into MinuteMade because of how struggling the Astros have
been, shockingly struggling. Yes,that said, it's hard to beat Houston.
We the Mariners are always have troublebeating Houston, no matter whether it's
(10:09):
at T Mobile or at Minute Madepart or in the Alds in twenty twenty
two. But they take care ofbusiness. Pitching stays hot, find a
little bit of offense, hit itinto the Crawford boxes, hit into the
short portion and right field. Imean, obviously you saw what happened with
(10:30):
Jose Brady, which was shocking.Yeah, twenty twenty MVP, what is
he's got to be almost forty he'sthirty seven. Yeah, he's up there,
but gets not not demoted to TripleA, but to their complex in
West Palm Beach, Florida. Wow, guy was hitting below a one batting
a point one batting average, whichis pretty impressive to do. But that
(10:56):
said, they still have Josel Twov, They Alex Bragman, Jordan Alvarez,
their pitching staff is getting healthy Erlandersback. They're not gonna roll over.
No, they're the Houston Astros.But I mean, how about the Oakland
A's. Yeah, they like they'realmost fine. Sacramento yeah, right at
this they're still Oakland at this point. Ye, but uh yeah, I
(11:20):
mean Abraham Toros, Yeah, whathappened Mariner's legend right there? No,
I mean he's legend for twenty Howmany games do they played? Therefore the
fifteen and seventeen they're two games underfive hundred? Abraham Toro? Is that?
I've just seen highlights every day ofthem, like this guy found his
calling card? Ye, little oldOakland. Yeah, well, you know
(11:41):
who else is actually hitting well thisyear? That is gonna make Mariner fans
really happy? Jesse Winker of course. Yeah, he's batting second or third.
And the Nationals another's kind of surprisinglynot awful team and they're five hundred.
Yeah exactly. That's my point.So Jesse Winkers got flow to now
he does. Maybe that's the thingyou should have grown his hair out with
(12:05):
or who knows. Anyways, wedon't want to get to pass Mariner's situations.
I want to talk a little bitabout this last Brave series because the
first two games were electric, andwe can get into a little bit of
the Rangers series as well, andmaybe the Diamondbacks the most recent kind of
run the Mariners are on. Butuh, the Mariners pitching staff, you
(12:26):
could you could kind of say,like, Okay, you know, you
played the Rockies when it was fortydegrees and snowing. You played the Reds
who have a decent offense, butthey're not off to as hot of a
start I think as many people thoughtthey would be. Played the Rangers,
who again kind of similar to theAstros, not as bad, but are
(12:48):
kind of stumbling out of the gatea little bit. That's still in Texas.
To win that series, that's athat's a good, good result for
the Mariners, including won the WorldSeries. Yeah, the Diamondbacks lost in
the World Series last year. TheBraves have won six n least titles in
a row and won the World Seriesjust three years ago. So these last
three series, Yeah, offense,bad, pitching, amazing. Yeah,
(13:11):
you win the series two out ofthe three for the three of them,
you can't. I mean, thingsare clicking right, So sorry to interrupt,
but that's what that's what it was. I mean, these teams that
we've been playing, despite the Rockies, who are not very good, no
they're not. Reds are young teamwith power. They've got Da La Cruz,
they've got Jake Frayley. They they'vegot a good squad. Take two
(13:33):
out of three there or sorry,we swept them at home, but taking
two out of three from the WorldSeries winners last year, the World Series
runners up last year and then andthen the Braves what a lot of people
think of the World Series favorite.Yeah, the Braves are the Braves.
Yeah, and you win, youwin six out of ten out of those
three teams or out of the sorry, six out of nine out of those
(13:54):
three series. Yep, it's impressive. Absolutely, I completely agree. You
could look at it both. Butyeah, I just I'm more impressed with
the pitching staff than I am disappointedwith the offense. I still think the
offense is gonna come around a littlebit. Well, we'll see what ends
up happening kind of with the orderAnd you mentioned JP's injury. I want
(14:15):
to get into that a little bit. Obviously a big part of the team.
What kind of impact do you thinkthat will have, like depending on
how long he's out for. Obviouslyapparently he's going to be longer than just
the ten day IL stint than thathe is designated for. Uh So we'll
see and how long that you know, injury ends up being. But like
(14:37):
you said, Rojas is stept inwell in the leadoff spot demo playing some
short looking good made a big playin the second Braves game. What are
your thoughts on the JP injury andkind of the ripple effect around the around
the around the team. I mean, like I said earlier, he's lost
his lead off spot. Yeah,I think Josh Rohas needs to play in
every game, no matter what armthe pitcher throws with. Okay, I'll
(14:58):
take here again. I don't getI mean urious. He's had a few
clutch hits, Don't get me wrong, He's still batting below one to sixty.
Rojas is better defensively. He goton base all four times Tuesday night
versus the Braves broke up the nohitter on Monday night and then got on
base again later in the game.I mean, I'm excited to have JP
(15:24):
back because he's he's our he's notnamed it, but he's the Mariners captain.
And to have that presence just inthe clubhouse, let alone on the
field, it'll be exciting to havehim back. And yeah, like going
into his injury, I mean hewas hidden below two hundred. Yeah,
he had a few clutch like solohome runs that led to a few wins.
(15:48):
But his defense is on his defenseunbelievable for the most part. And
I don't know. I think whenhe comes back, you put him in
the lower part of the lineup becausehe's great on he's great at getting on
base. Like you said, whatyou think is important, what I do
too, which Billy Bean thinks isimportant get on base. Yeah, but
(16:10):
no, get him fully healthy,don't rush him back. But once he
gets back, I say, youput him lower in the lineup if Joshuajas
continues to be doing what he's doing, which is great, but yeah,
just on once he comes back.It's just having the presence of JP Crawford
just makes the team better. Yeah, And not saying that they're underperforming right
(16:32):
now, they're first in the ALWest. But you get him back,
you get some of his vibes back, and then you get his defense back,
especially he gets on base a ton. I just think, yeah,
you put him maybe in like theseven or eight hole, and then give
him a few days off every otherevery other series. Put Demo back in
there. Like you said, madean awesome play on Tuesday Night to pretty
(16:53):
much save the game. But yeah, that's kind of what I think.
I'm excited for him to come back. It's too bad that this happened.
Yeah, but don't rush him back. Get him back to full strength.
Then he'll become JP Crawford from lastyear, in the year prior. It's
true. I just don't think thatwhen he comes back that Scott is going
(17:15):
to drop him down. Maybe hewill just to kind of ease him back
in, but I think he's goingto basically be able to step right back
into the leadoff spot. I actuallyhave liked Julio leading off as well.
Personally. I think his approach looksa lot different when he's in leadoff versus
batting in the two hole. Theother thing I want to talk about is,
you know, I just I don'tknow, man, What is it
(17:40):
with the additions of his team andalways continuing on the offensive editions I should
I should mention, and just continuingto struggle out of the gate Polanco and
Garver specifically or the case in thisone, and it was ta Oscar last
year, and it was Jesse Winkerthe year before. Why can't prove an
offensive players that have been good whereverthey've been come in and perform well in
(18:06):
the Seattle Mariners uniform? What isit about that? I wish I knew
the answer. I was so excitedfor the Garver deal, Yeah, and
the Polanco deal, getting Luke Rayleyfor Rosy Cabiro. Don't get me wrong,
miss the guy. He's been doingreally good and he but like getting
those guys after the season they hadlast year, like this is exciting and
(18:30):
yeah, of course they're all Imean, don't get me wrong. Polonco
set up Garver on the two runwalk off on Monday. Luke Rayley's getting
on base a little bit more oftenthan not. But the swing and miss
with Garver's bad, Polonko swing andmiss is pretty bad as well. Yeah,
but you could see. I meanPolanco's made some great plays on defense.
(18:53):
Mitch Garver doesn't play defense, soall his job is to hit,
and when he doesn't hint outside ofhis walk off off home run, right,
there's not much to look forward towith the guy. Yeah, I
mean, maybe it's just me.I don't know. I'm not as like,
oh my god, this guy isfalling with the offense as a lot
of people are. I mean,the statistics don't look great, but maybe
(19:15):
it's I don't know. Last yearit was so frustrating to watch with how
often they would just have non competitiveat bats, right, whether it was
from Taoskar just feebly swinging at alow and a wayte slider, which it
seems Julio has picked up that habit, by the way, and I don't
know whether that's like something that istied together. But but this year it
(19:41):
seems like they're walking a little bitmore, get just at least trying to
have competitive at bats, to takesome pitches, get starting pitchers out of
the game early. I want toknow what your thoughts on that. Maybe
it's me, but it just seemslike they're at bats are more competitive.
It's more fun to watch, Honestly, just entertainment wise. But is that
just me or do you get thissame vibe as well. I get that
(20:06):
we're looking I feel like we're lookingat more pitches that are out of the
zone. But then I just lookat some of the swings and misses from
Julio, from Mitch Garver, DylanMoore on occasion, they just looked.
I mean, it's the sweepers theissue, and it's the pitch that it
starts over the plate and then endsoutside of the zone. And but like
(20:26):
you said, I mean, Polanco'swalk numbers are pretty good. Yeah.
I was watching the game on Wednesdayor not Wednesday, Tuesday, it was
like he was eighth in the leagueand walks was like, it's pretty impressive
for a guy that's hitting yeah,one fifty. Yeah, but yeah,
no, I mean, obviously theoffense has struggled so far at an alarming
rate, like I said earlier,just with strikeouts, and then they're slashing
(20:51):
twenty seventh, twenty seventh, twentyfifth and average on base and slugging.
That's not going to win you gamesif you're pitching isn't as elite as are
starting and our relief pitching are.But I don't know. I mean,
something's got to change with the offense. Not sure it is. Maybe it's
the overall approach. Maybe, Imean, I don't know. That's why
(21:12):
I'm not a coach. Yeah,we just were just two guys that talk
about our favorite team exactly. ButI don't know it's I think that.
I mean, the power hasn't beenthere all year. I mean, Col's
leading the team with six bombs.Julio's got one, yep, and which
is Unjulio Like, he has threeextra base hits this year? Yeah?
Five? Sorry five. I waslooking at just just the doubles, but
(21:34):
yeah, three, three doubles inone home run. Actually, his swinging
miss has been bad this year.Yeah, And I've looked at his numbers
in comparison to year's past. They'renot like astronomically worse this year than they
were last year or in twenty twentytwo. He's he seems like he's a
notoriously slow starter. Yeah, Aprilaprils haven't been good. No, I
(21:56):
think it's so funny when people saythat, and I'm one. I'm just
like, just get him out ofApril once May starts. I know,
he went on his huge run lastyear in August, yep. But it's
like get him out of April,get him out of the cold. But
then again, it's like the colddoesn't affect you swinging and missing at sweepers
that are three feet off the outsideedge. So yeah, and in years
(22:18):
past, the difference from me isthat he was still slugging, like he
would hit a few home runs hereand there, he can get a double
triple, but he's he's been asingles machine. So even the hits that
he is getting, it's it's relyingon a lot of bapep block just to
kind of get on base. Andyou're not walking either. So I just
I wish, I really really wish. And you know, my buddy always
(22:41):
kind of tells me about this.You know, maybe he learned too much
from Tai Oscar last year. Hejust kind of tried to have the same
approach. And I know their buddies, and I love toa Oscar. He's
a great hitter, but he's he'skind of a guest hitter, as they
say, where he kind of islooking for one thing and if he gets
it, he destroys it, andif he doesn't, he swiped strikes out
and that's kind of how a lotof MLB batters are nowadays. I mean,
(23:02):
it's just but I don't know.I just watched someone like Juan Soto
and it's so fun to watch becauselike, if he doesn't get his pitch,
he takes a walk, you know, but if he does, he
destroys it and he gets on base. He doesn't strike out a lot.
I don't know, he plays gooddefense. I know Julio's defense has been
outstanding. That's the one thing thatkind of is helping him avoid the what's
(23:27):
going on with him conversation because hisdefense has been so good in a really
important position too. But the restof the team defensively has not been great.
I want to touch on that alittle bit. Team defense for a
team that thrives on run prevention,as we talked about, with the pitching
staff not great. I'm trying tothink of positions overall in the field where
(23:48):
you feel like you have an aboveaverage defender, and it's catcher, it's
center field. Yeah, that's aboutit right now, especially with JP out.
Yeah, JP, when he's in, there's a lot of metrics that
say he's not a great shortstop.I still don't see it with the eye
test. I believe him that he'sa good he's a good player there.
But just I think that I thinkthat Rojas Urius Platoons has he looked a
(24:12):
lot better at least since what wesaw in spring training. Same with hore
Polanco at second. He made afew great plays when Castillo was pitching on
Tuesday night. That's true. He'sbeen better, also better than expected,
but not great. Yeah. Yeah, but the airs, their airs have
stacked up. They had to yesterday. One wasn't throwing air by Hancock,
(24:36):
and then Mitch had a real badgame in right field, but he took
accountability for a pretty much said Ift up. And then they scored four
runs in the fifth inning or fourthinning whatever anything that was where they scored
the four runs, and he tookaccountability. So that's true leadership right there.
It's true, But that doesn't hidethe fact that his air and his
approach at the plate, which wasalmost a golden sombrero, was the main
(25:00):
reason why they lost yesterday because andI'm kind of bouncing off of your question
about the defense, we had likefour opportunities from like inning six, seven,
eight to nine where there was twoon at least one in scoring position
and failed to execute. But yeah, like you said, defense, you
(25:21):
can't. I mean what scares methe most are comebackers the pitcher. Yeah,
it seems as if they're so goodat doing what they're supposed to do.
But the little part where you're supposedto like work on your pfps in
spring training, and when that occasionoccurs like it did with Munos late in
(25:41):
the game or Hancock with the throwingair yesterday, I can't. Obviously,
the pitching far out weighs what's neededwith the ability based on the defensive side
of the pitcher. But every timethere's a ground ball, I'm like,
oh god, I know what's gonnahappen. I'm not going to say it.
And then it does happen. Iwas like I should Yeah, well,
and and we we also forget thatit's part of the pictures responsibility to
(26:06):
hold runners on, like hold runnersat a base like when they're in threat
to steal is kind of what I'mreferring to, because cal can throw people
out, but people are still runningon the Mariners pretty pretty heavily here.
Maybe it's just that we're playing againstsome aggressive base running teams. I know
the Reds are notorious for that.They run a lot last year, Yeah,
(26:30):
exactly, And so the Braves arewill do what they do and try
and generate runs however they can becausetheir offense is just that good. But
it still seems like the pitchers,just like you said, they're they're elite
at their Yeah, but the theslight other things that are still part of
(26:51):
being a pitcher in the major leaguesis something they're not great at. And
you know, we talk so muchabout you know, oh, you know,
the defense didn't really help out thepitcher there. Sometimes it's you're helping
out yourself, right, making agood play. I know a lot of
the times they tell pictures just tokind of get out of the way so
you're not in the way of someoneelse making a play. And it almost
(27:11):
came back to bite but for Demo'sawesome throw in the end of the eighth
inning on Tuesday, Yeah, itwas like it looked like Munos could have
easily just picked it up and thrownit, but he kind of got out
of the way, so Demo tocome all the way into the grass and
made a fantastic play there. Soyeah, and that I mean that's the
thing too. It's Munos. Itwas a swinging bunt by Austin Radley sailed
(27:34):
it over Ty France's head. Theywere like, oh gosh, the soft
contact here we go, right,But then Munos strikes out Ozuna yep.
Then he gets Acuna to fly out, and then he strikes out Harris,
and then he strikes out calnect Ended. It's like, yes, the pitching
definitely far outweighs. Yeah, whata pitcher's supposed to do. It's more
(27:56):
control. Sometimes that might come backand bite you. Yeah, So like,
I don't know, no, Imean, we can't complain at all
about how well not only the startersbut the relievers have been, especially without
Brian Woo to start the year,without Gregory Santos, without Matt Brash.
So let's do a quick grounds keepinghere just to kind of update people on
(28:18):
what's going on. If you haven'theard, Jonathan class A was sent down
before the Braves series and he willbe in Triple A for the foreseeable future.
What do you think of what hebrought to the teams of the two
weeks that he was here. Hebrought some speed, Yeah, that's for
sure. Yeah, No, thosefirst couple of games that he had Colorado
series and the series prior to that. I mean, he was fun to
(28:41):
watch. Yeah, but I getI get the move, get him as
many at bats as he wants ornot as he wants, as he needs
in triple A, and then bringhim back up because he is the he's
the speed factor. Yeah, andhoping that Sam Haggerty can do what twenty
twenty two, Sam Haggerty did bethe utility guy outside of Dylan Moore,
(29:06):
who's now the everyday shortstop. Butyeah, I think cost A is good.
It was good to see Leo Reevusget that triple in his first game,
but Scott doesn't play him at all, so it's a little confusing.
Don't get me wrong. Demo's madesome great plays and decent hard contact and
a few of them, but Imean, I'd like to see the young
(29:26):
guys. Yeah, I mean,yeah, Revus and what his story's cool?
Where you have like ten years inthe minors. First game triples,
Gino gives him big hug at third, Yeah, that is pretty cool,
but yeah, I know you wantto continue your groundskeeping. Yeah, And
then the update on Matt Brash wasnot encouraging as he was throwing a bullpen
(29:48):
session for the first time since beingshut down, and apparently every pitch Teddy
threw hurt, so he's again goingto be shut down. And definitely they
didn't say it was season ending atthis point, but not a good update
if you're a Mariners fan and lookingto add to that bullpen which has been
good but still could use an extraarm. Yeah, it's too bad about
(30:08):
Matt, but then you think aboutwho's stepped in. I mean, Gabe
Spire has been awesome, and thenthey're good. And yeah, Spiers have
been great. They're lefties, whichis different from the right handed side,
which Matt Brash is awesome, butMunos has been great so far. Stanic
has been uh, only throws fastballsand then when he throws a slider it's
(30:32):
spiked. And don't get me wrong, it's fastballs triple digits every time.
But if you just consistently throw that, that's where you miss Matt Brash's nastiness
of his slider facts. But no, Gabe Spire has been awesome and then
like Zach Bolton's been good, awesome, vote has been good. Everyone has
contributed in some way somehow with theinjuries to WU where Hancock has stepped in
(30:57):
and done nicely so far. Andthen you have Spire and you have all
the all the relief pitching that havestepped in for Matt Brash where it was
supposed to be what you go fromMatt Brash to set up Munos, to
set up Gregory Santos or some companysome combination of the three. Well,
two of the three haven't played apitch this year, one probably won't the
(31:18):
entirety of the year, right,and then Santos we hope to have back
at what maybe the end of Yeah, I know he was transferred to the
sixty day but people were freaking outthat was that was retroactive. That was
from like back in early March.So he's scheduled to come back I think
at the end of May, whichis pretty coming up pretty soon here.
And that was a much better updatefrom Hollander when we had it I think
(31:40):
a week and a half ago onthe last home stand. So uh,
he he's he's progressing like they expectedhim to, not a not a brash
like update there, So hopefully hegets back in the full here soon.
And you kind of mentioned it thereone one other quick thing. Ryan Wu
already pitching in Triple A, Ibelieve to Kemae, and he's been good
(32:00):
looking, like the regular Brian Wuthat we've expected, So that's more of
a I think he didn't really havea major issue. He just because he
was feeling a little tightness. Theywant to be extra careful with him,
especially after the workload he had lastyear compared to what he's had before h
So he basically just had a extendedramp up period, kind of an extended
(32:22):
spring training here for the for thefirst month of the season. So hopefully
we see him here pretty soon,and that'll be an interesting discussion because I
don't think Hancock's been bad, uh, but Wu probably has a little bit
more upside there. So maybe youdo a little six man action, or
I think Scott said no to thesix man, so maybe Hancock moves to
(32:42):
your like long reliever role the yeah, or or you swap every time through
the rotation, you swap Hancock andWu. Yeah. Yeah, He's not
a bad problem to have. Definitelynot. Okay, Well, how about
this we have off day today,We're in Houston. They got three in
Houston, three in Minnesota. Whoby the way, have won ten in
a row. Yep. Then you'vegot three at home against the looks like
(33:07):
four in Minnesota by the way forsorry for in Minnesota. And then you
then you host A's, who arethe upstart A's apparently they're fifteen and seventeen.
What out of those ten games,what do you project the record to
be projector want it to be both? I honestly, I'm gonna be basic
here. Just win every series,and I think they can do that,
(33:30):
to be honest, the Twins serieswill be an interesting one. I think
they might split that one. Iswear we're the exact same team, are
well. And it's funny because Ithink we're the same team as the Twins,
And then we're also the same teamas the Milwaukee Brewers. The Milwaukee
Brewers are the NL Mariners. Anyways, random moving on, and then I
think, as great as the A'sstory has been, you're at home and
(33:53):
they have they have they have somebattle to them. You just gotta you
gotta get some offense going because theydon't really have the offense. They have
the pitching kind of randomly, uh, and they have like an electric world.
Even one of the best relievers inbaseball right now, Mason Miller.
Oh yeah, he's discussed. He'stouching one three with crazy movement. Yes,
(34:15):
So don't be in a close gamelate against the A's. We will,
yeah, inevitably, and the Asand then the US and the Twins.
We're just going to both strike outfourteen times each a game. Elite
pitching both sides. Yeah, yeah, I know I could see that for
sure. I still think I don'tknow. The big thing for me will
be how Julio progresses, if hestarts to wake up a little bit.
(34:37):
I still think Polanco has been betterthe last series or so a couple series
better at bats. Hopefully he startsto slug a little bit more garb with
the big hit in the Game oneof the Brave series, So hopefully he
starts to wake up a little bittoo. I have confidence in this offense
that will turn around, and Ihonestly think I also have confidence that this
(34:57):
pitching staff can continue to do whatthey're doing. Most people are saying like,
oh, you can't. You can'texpect this historic run of incredible starts
to keep going. That's kind ofwhat I expect, honestly, this this
pitching is that good? Like you'retelling me you don't expect Luis Castillo to
go six innings one earned, andas he's shown to do it against with
(35:20):
some of the best offenses, theseoffenses that were playing the next three series
aren't as good. So your plustwo thousand American League scity young is looking
a lot better. Yeah for LuisCastillo after these last four or five starts.
And then you you look at theschedule and you're like, oh,
who's pitching tomorrow? Oh is GeorgeHerby? Yeah, we got a good
(35:40):
shot. Oh, here's looking Gilbert'sLike, Okay, he's been he's been
our best so far. Oh,here's Bryce Miller, he's been even better.
Here's Emerson Hancock. You're getting ashot. Yeah, I mean,
that's what I mean. It's justlike, that's that's kind of what I
think. And you got to giveDepoto and Hollander credit for for having this
vision, but that this is whatthey envisioned when they built this pitching staff.
(36:01):
Is like, Okay, the offensewill probably not be anything to write
home about, right, but ifyou give yourself a chance every single time
with this elite pitching staff and thenbe able to trust your bullpen in close
games, which at the first partof the season maybe not, but they've
come around really really strong lately,so yeah, I just think that you
(36:22):
can definitely count on that continuing forthe Mariners, and if it does,
then that'll be something just as excitingas watching a good offense. I know
it's not like the Oh Chicks diga long ball sort of thing, but
no, it's they do dig along ball, but I am a sucker
for good pitching as well. Andif you just start to manufacture a little
(36:43):
bit of offense, like whether it'sand they've been better this year, had
taken walks than they were last year. I hope that that continues and just
keeping competitive at bats. And oneunderrated thing that they have done offensively is
they've gotten the starting picture out ofthe game early in most cases in the
past couple series that they have won. So I want to see that continue
(37:06):
and then get to their bullpen andthen they have less arms available for later
in the series, so it's kindof a ripple effect. That's what taking
pitches and going for your walks andyou know, seeing a lot of pitches
from the starter does. So youget Houston tomorrow Saturday and Sunday. You
got George going tomorrow versus Ronel Blanco, who has a no hitter this year.
Yeah, almost has two no hittersthis year. Yeah, But then
(37:29):
like a couple other weird starts,and then you got Logan and Franber Valdez
on Saturday, which will be agreat pitching matchup and pitching matchup, and
then Miller going on Sunday. Soyou got Kirby Miller or Kirby Gilbert and
Miller, like, as long aswe scored, you know, three runs.
I take Mariners sweep the Astros thisseries. I agree, I agree,
(37:51):
I agree with what I want tohappen. Yeah, I think,
I know I'm saying I think theydo. I honestly think they sweep the
Astros this series looking ahead, becausebecause the whole thing that made the Astros
what the Astros were for so longwas their pitching. And it's not the
same this year. Frambers not thesame pitcher as he was last year.
Blanco, like you said, hashad two incredible starts, but then a
couple like stinkers, so you neverknow you're gonna get from him. He's
(38:14):
kind of a younger guy anyway.I don't know. Man, They've they
have a lot of injuries. ToVerlanders since he's been up has been good,
but not like strikeout good. Hehad like only went I think six
innings both times, which is fine, that's what you expect from your starter,
but like only two or three k'seach time, so and a lot
of walks. So he's getting upthere in age. If you're expecting a
thirty nine year old Justin Verlander comeand save your rotation. I know he's
(38:36):
great, he's awesome, but that'sthat's kind of hoping on a lot of
things to go right there. Sothat offense is good, But I again,
we just saw probably the best offensein baseball come into Seattle this past
weekend or put this past series andget absolutely shut down at least for two
games by the Mariners. So Ibelieve they can do the same thing here
(38:58):
at the Astros and just keep themin the ball part. Absolutely. It's
a short, short porch, right, short distance and left yep. But
I mean then you think of Joseal Twove's top five yeah, ao hitter
so far this year, you're donAlvarez is You're done. Alvarez said,
offense is good, that's that's nottheir issue. It's the pitching. So
take care of business. We justwe just shut down one of the best
(39:20):
offenses in baseball, if not thebest. So I'm I'm going out on
a limb saying the Mariners sweep theAstros. It is the official passing of
the torch. Astros are done.If they get swept by the Mariners in
Houston, especially at this point theseason, when they're ten and twenty or
whatever they are, that would besuch a gut punch to them, like
someone in their division who they havefelt like the big brother too for so
(39:42):
long. I just knocked on wood. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm
I'm not even saying that I'm confidentto happen. I'm saying it will happen.
That's my that's my hot take too. Yeah, all right, let's
let's go sweep the Astros. That'sput put them out of their misery.
Just just stick a fork in them. They're dead, they're done. There's
They're dynasty's over. I'm so tiredof hearing about them and having them be
(40:02):
a big part of everything. SoI'm saying the marriage go down and get
the job done in Houston. Youthink you think that's gonna happen. I
think it's doable for sure, especiallywith their three guys that are going.
Yeah, and like you said,Blancos had a few really good starts for
the Astros, but so had Lopezfor the Braves. And then we took
care of business firs him exactly,and then Farmer Valdez fraud of ber Valdez.
(40:30):
Let's take care of business versus halflike it, and then yeah,
and then Sunday there's still TVD ontheir starter, but let's yeah, let's
do it. That's a good signwhen they're TVD on a starter TVD.
But yeah's winning, confident, winthree or well, let's go win our
sixth right series, solidify your spotas the top dog in the al Wes,
keep it going offense, find something, do something cool. Well,
(40:53):
uh, Episode number one wrapped uphere for Mariners Weekly. Appreciate you coming
in, Rory or We'll be chattingwith you throughout the season. And just
a reminder, you guys can catchus anywhere you find podcasts. Be sure
to tune into Mariner's coverage throughout thewhole season. On ninety three point three
(41:13):
Kjar, we'll have breakdowns, we'llhave player interviews, we'll talk to,
you know, some of the expertsin the business about what's going on with
the baseball team as they continue thisimpressive start to the season. I gotta
tell you, it's so great toactually have a decent start and get off
to like not starting under five hundredgames out of first place. We looked
(41:36):
lame out of the jump, butthey've obviously they've turned it around. So
let's just keep riding that wave whilewe can. Absolutely I completely agree.
All right, Rory, thanks somuch for joining me. We'll talk to
you guys next week. I believethe next Mariners off day is not until
the sixteen, Yeah, so theymaybe we squeeze in something after the day
game on on Thursday because it's aten ten am. So yeah, I
(42:00):
think we'll talk to you guys nextThursday. That's kind of my plan in
place. But thank you guys againfor listening to Mariners Weekly. We'll catch
you later.
And welcome back into another year ofMariners podcasting. My name's Anderson Hurst.
I'm with my boy, My my, my guy who talks and writes about
the Mariners just for fun as agreat part of his gig here at iHeart
mister Rory Brown. I'm excellent,man. It's it's it's good to be
(00:24):
back for another year of Mariners baseball. We kind of we're a little late
to the party in terms of gettinga podcast out there, but it's been
a pretty good start to the yearfor the Mariners. Yeah, we'll take
you guys behind the curtain a littlebit. We have we're pretty busy at
the beginning of the year. Wehave a big, huge draft coverage,
(00:45):
you know, obligation, I shouldsay, on ninety three three kJ R
FM. But now that that's finishedup, it's it's all Mariners baseball from
now until the end of the summer. So, well, here's here's the
thing. Yeah, they're first inthe Al West. Yeah, we start
doing this obviously, we know howpoor the offense is performing, right,
but how not poor the pitching isperforming exactly. It's well, we start
(01:08):
doing this podcast, we start droppingthe standings. Is the blame on us.
Yeah, I mean, we knowhow superstitious baseball players or does the
podcast fuel the offense. That's theother thing I'm hoping for here, because
one of those two things is boundto change, maybe both of them.
But and that's kind of where Iwant to start. But before we do
(01:30):
that, we had a long discussionbefore we started recording the day about how
we would go about the name ofthe podcast for this next year. It's
a very shall I say, polarizingname. As most of you know who
(01:51):
have been loyal listeners, all amillion of them, yes, oh yeah,
one of the top top Mariager's pottmaybe one and a half million,
all right, just countless listeners.But I we we didn't talk in ners
Royanders last year. Now we gota lot of pushback. I'll just keep
it, keep it light on thatjust just we got a lot of pushback.
(02:15):
I don't mind that name. Butwe're gonna have a kind of rotating
guest this year, so I wantto kind of keep it more general and
I want to make it a themeto be We're gonna be giving you guys
an episode on the off day thatthe Mariners have in a specific week,
(02:35):
and and so far they've had oneevery week, so it'll sometimes it'll be
on a Wednesday. Sometimes it'll beon a Thursday, usually Thursdays because that's
their travel day. Uh So itjust really simple. We're gonna call it
Mariner's Weekly. How does that soundlike it? Yeah? I like it?
Yeah all right. And we're notchanging the name because we got so
much fuel from the on air guysI e. Bucky Jacobson, Dave Softy.
(03:01):
But we're doing this because we're forthe people exactly, and you know,
we want to make sure we're deliveringthe best product to you. And
while the name doesn't really change thecontent, I think I want to better
represent what we're doing here. Andwe're doing a weekly Mariners podcast. What
about weely ooh ooh. Okay,then it's gonna cause even more issues.
(03:24):
We'll have to sauce that in thepan for a little bit, see how
it comes out. But yeah,I just want to get general thoughts from
mister Rory Brown writes about every serieshere on ninety three three KGr dot com.
If you haven't missed his or ifyou haven't caught his series recaps,
highly recommend it. If you missedany games of the series. He gives
you a great in depth breakdown aboutwhat happened and kind of the big talking
(03:46):
points of it. So that's whyI want someone who's kind of in touch
with every series that's going on herewith the Mariners. And you know,
so far, last five pretty good, five straight series wins for the Mariners
after not winning one for the firstwhat four or five so they've come back
around. I think they've won thirteenof the last seventeen games. I'm pretty
(04:09):
hype for this team, especially theirpitching staff. But I want to get
your general thoughts about twenty twenty fourMariners. So far. It's been an
interesting start. It's an expected record, I would think based off of the
last two years and the roster andall the good stuff, right, But
the offense is yes, they've hadsome clutch hits, and which is the
(04:32):
reason why other than the how amazingthe pitching has been, is the reason
that their first in the American LeagueWest yep. But there's obviously some huge
holes and the strikeouts, which Ithought we were trying to get better on
in the offseason, but turns outthat wasn't the case. Yes, I
see Tae Oscar Hernandez is top ofthe league again, which is expected,
(04:54):
but he's hit what eight nine orseven eight home runs and above three hundred
bad average. He's slugging way morethan anyone on our team, maybe other
than Josh Rojas. Yeah, randomly, yeah, randomly. But he's turned
out to be a great leadoff hitter, which is great. With JP getting
hurt, which we can touch onas well, which is too bad.
(05:15):
But he started slow. I'm notsaying the injury would be helpful in any
sense, but maybe a little breakget to work his strength back. He
might have lost. He definitely losthis leadoff spot. Yeah, but to
get him back in the lineup,that's something to look forward to. But
yeah, I mean your team offensivelyto start the year. Yeah, seventeen
(05:36):
and fourteen, first in the AmericanLeague West is amazing. Cannot complain one
bit. You can't complain about beingranked dead last in strikeouts, twenty seventh,
in batting average twenty seventh, inon base twenty fifth, and slugging.
So you're slashing is not good.Your strikeouts are terrible. You couldn't
get worse, actually, So oncethe offense starts clicking, you gotta assume
(06:00):
the pitching. Maybe we saw alittle bit of it on Wednesday with Emerson
Hancock giving up five runs and walkinga few guys and a few airs in
the outfield, and maybe that regressesa little bit. But the pitching is
the reason why they're first in theWest. Yeah, and we can touch
on the pitching and how historically goodthey have been. For me, if
(06:21):
there's one game that you can kindof uh, you know, I don't
want to endorse kind of letting offthe gas and and you know, so
called punt days where you've already wonthe series in the third game and you
kind of but you're against Atlanta,you kind of you you don't expect to
sweep Atlanta. I mean, itwould be great, but that that offense
is just too good to hold downfor threes full games against your fifth starter.
(06:47):
Like, if there's one game whereyou can kind of swallow giving up
a little bit and and and notyou know, having your full on pitching
prowess that we've seen for the pastthree weeks, then yeah, I think
that's the one. And I'm soI'm not really worried about this last game.
It's interesting because I came into thisyear a lot more optimistic than I
(07:11):
came into last year, which isweird because last year we were coming off
of the playoff appearance, right,so, but we didn't really make any
major differences. Yes, we hada tai Oscar instead of Mitch, which
I think was a marginal upgrade,but ta Oscar ended up being pretty okay,
probably worse than expected, but stillfine. But as you mentioned,
(07:33):
the strikeouts for an issue, andI'm not even someone from last year that
was that worried about a team strikingout very much, as long as you're
getting on base at a high clip. If you're striking out a lot,
but you're also walking a lot,and then you're also hitting for slugging,
then I think you can live withthe strikeouts, right I strikeout in a
(07:56):
lot of cases is just as goodas a ground out, and sometimes better
when with runners on base. It'snot a double play, right, So
I just think the strikeouts like focusingin on that. Yes, they were
not good at situational hitting with runnerson third base with less than two outs,
(08:18):
they need to put the ball inplay in that situation obviously, So
I wasn't as fixated on that asa lot of people were obviously the front
office was, so they went outand tried to make a change for this
offense this past year, and ithasn't worked out so far. It's it
seems like it's sort of coming arounda little bit, but it's not great
still. And if it weren't forthis historically good pitching staff, best in
(08:43):
the MLB by a pretty significant margin, then you you can't really say the
Marriors would be in this position rightnow. So, like you said,
first place in the Al West,they're ahead of the Texas Rangers by a
full game seventeen and fourteen. Rangersare sixteen and fifteen. The A's are
(09:05):
the next team at fifteen and seventeen, who have been a pleasant surprise as
in their not the bottom of thebarrel Angels have been pretty bad, and
so of the Houston Astros, whoare in last place in the AL West.
But you got to expect they're goingto turn it around eventually. They
have too good of a lineup toreally not be good, So we'll see
(09:26):
what ends up happening there. Theyface Mariners, face the Astros here,
not this next series, but theseries after. Yeah, that's year.
Oh it is the next series.They're in Houston right now. Okay,
Yeah, actually that's a that's abig series, little three gamer over the
weekend, so we'll see. Ithink there's a big test for both teams
to kind of see. Okay,are the Astros really as bad as their
record shows? And are the Marinersreally a first place team at this point?
(09:48):
What do you think? What areyou looking forward to? I'm optimistic
going into Houston, going into MinuteMade because of how struggling the Astros have
been, shockingly struggling. Yes,that said, it's hard to beat Houston.
We the Mariners are always have troublebeating Houston, no matter whether it's
(10:09):
at T Mobile or at Minute Madepart or in the Alds in twenty twenty
two. But they take care ofbusiness. Pitching stays hot, find a
little bit of offense, hit itinto the Crawford boxes, hit into the
short portion and right field. Imean, obviously you saw what happened with
(10:30):
Jose Brady, which was shocking.Yeah, twenty twenty MVP, what is
he's got to be almost forty he'sthirty seven. Yeah, he's up there,
but gets not not demoted to TripleA, but to their complex in
West Palm Beach, Florida. Wow, guy was hitting below a one batting
a point one batting average, whichis pretty impressive to do. But that
(10:56):
said, they still have Josel Twov, They Alex Bragman, Jordan Alvarez,
their pitching staff is getting healthy Erlandersback. They're not gonna roll over.
No, they're the Houston Astros.But I mean, how about the Oakland
A's. Yeah, they like they'realmost fine. Sacramento yeah, right at
this they're still Oakland at this point. Ye, but uh yeah, I
(11:20):
mean Abraham Toros, Yeah, whathappened Mariner's legend right there? No,
I mean he's legend for twenty Howmany games do they played? Therefore the
fifteen and seventeen they're two games underfive hundred? Abraham Toro? Is that?
I've just seen highlights every day ofthem, like this guy found his
calling card? Ye, little oldOakland. Yeah, well, you know
(11:41):
who else is actually hitting well thisyear? That is gonna make Mariner fans
really happy? Jesse Winker of course. Yeah, he's batting second or third.
And the Nationals another's kind of surprisinglynot awful team and they're five hundred.
Yeah exactly. That's my point.So Jesse Winkers got flow to now
he does. Maybe that's the thingyou should have grown his hair out with
(12:05):
or who knows. Anyways, wedon't want to get to pass Mariner's situations.
I want to talk a little bitabout this last Brave series because the
first two games were electric, andwe can get into a little bit of
the Rangers series as well, andmaybe the Diamondbacks the most recent kind of
run the Mariners are on. Butuh, the Mariners pitching staff, you
(12:26):
could you could kind of say,like, Okay, you know, you
played the Rockies when it was fortydegrees and snowing. You played the Reds
who have a decent offense, butthey're not off to as hot of a
start I think as many people thoughtthey would be. Played the Rangers,
who again kind of similar to theAstros, not as bad, but are
(12:48):
kind of stumbling out of the gatea little bit. That's still in Texas.
To win that series, that's athat's a good, good result for
the Mariners, including won the WorldSeries. Yeah, the Diamondbacks lost in
the World Series last year. TheBraves have won six n least titles in
a row and won the World Seriesjust three years ago. So these last
three series, Yeah, offense,bad, pitching, amazing. Yeah,
(13:11):
you win the series two out ofthe three for the three of them,
you can't. I mean, thingsare clicking right, So sorry to interrupt,
but that's what that's what it was. I mean, these teams that
we've been playing, despite the Rockies, who are not very good, no
they're not. Reds are young teamwith power. They've got Da La Cruz,
they've got Jake Frayley. They they'vegot a good squad. Take two
(13:33):
out of three there or sorry,we swept them at home, but taking
two out of three from the WorldSeries winners last year, the World Series
runners up last year and then andthen the Braves what a lot of people
think of the World Series favorite.Yeah, the Braves are the Braves.
Yeah, and you win, youwin six out of ten out of those
three teams or out of the sorry, six out of nine out of those
(13:54):
three series. Yep, it's impressive. Absolutely, I completely agree. You
could look at it both. Butyeah, I just I'm more impressed with
the pitching staff than I am disappointedwith the offense. I still think the
offense is gonna come around a littlebit. Well, we'll see what ends
up happening kind of with the orderAnd you mentioned JP's injury. I want
(14:15):
to get into that a little bit. Obviously a big part of the team.
What kind of impact do you thinkthat will have, like depending on
how long he's out for. Obviouslyapparently he's going to be longer than just
the ten day IL stint than thathe is designated for. Uh So we'll
see and how long that you know, injury ends up being. But like
(14:37):
you said, Rojas is stept inwell in the leadoff spot demo playing some
short looking good made a big playin the second Braves game. What are
your thoughts on the JP injury andkind of the ripple effect around the around
the around the team. I mean, like I said earlier, he's lost
his lead off spot. Yeah,I think Josh Rohas needs to play in
every game, no matter what armthe pitcher throws with. Okay, I'll
(14:58):
take here again. I don't getI mean urious. He's had a few
clutch hits, Don't get me wrong, He's still batting below one to sixty.
Rojas is better defensively. He goton base all four times Tuesday night
versus the Braves broke up the nohitter on Monday night and then got on
base again later in the game.I mean, I'm excited to have JP
(15:24):
back because he's he's our he's notnamed it, but he's the Mariners captain.
And to have that presence just inthe clubhouse, let alone on the
field, it'll be exciting to havehim back. And yeah, like going
into his injury, I mean hewas hidden below two hundred. Yeah,
he had a few clutch like solohome runs that led to a few wins.
(15:48):
But his defense is on his defenseunbelievable for the most part. And
I don't know. I think whenhe comes back, you put him in
the lower part of the lineup becausehe's great on he's great at getting on
base. Like you said, whatyou think is important, what I do
too, which Billy Bean thinks isimportant get on base. Yeah, but
(16:10):
no, get him fully healthy,don't rush him back. But once he
gets back, I say, youput him lower in the lineup if Joshuajas
continues to be doing what he's doing, which is great, but yeah,
just on once he comes back.It's just having the presence of JP Crawford
just makes the team better. Yeah, And not saying that they're underperforming right
(16:32):
now, they're first in the ALWest. But you get him back,
you get some of his vibes back, and then you get his defense back,
especially he gets on base a ton. I just think, yeah,
you put him maybe in like theseven or eight hole, and then give
him a few days off every otherevery other series. Put Demo back in
there. Like you said, madean awesome play on Tuesday Night to pretty
(16:53):
much save the game. But yeah, that's kind of what I think.
I'm excited for him to come back. It's too bad that this happened.
Yeah, but don't rush him back. Get him back to full strength.
Then he'll become JP Crawford from lastyear, in the year prior. It's
true. I just don't think thatwhen he comes back that Scott is going
(17:15):
to drop him down. Maybe hewill just to kind of ease him back
in, but I think he's goingto basically be able to step right back
into the leadoff spot. I actuallyhave liked Julio leading off as well.
Personally. I think his approach looksa lot different when he's in leadoff versus
batting in the two hole. Theother thing I want to talk about is,
you know, I just I don'tknow, man, What is it
(17:40):
with the additions of his team andalways continuing on the offensive editions I should
I should mention, and just continuingto struggle out of the gate Polanco and
Garver specifically or the case in thisone, and it was ta Oscar last
year, and it was Jesse Winkerthe year before. Why can't prove an
offensive players that have been good whereverthey've been come in and perform well in
(18:06):
the Seattle Mariners uniform? What isit about that? I wish I knew
the answer. I was so excitedfor the Garver deal, Yeah, and
the Polanco deal, getting Luke Rayleyfor Rosy Cabiro. Don't get me wrong,
miss the guy. He's been doingreally good and he but like getting
those guys after the season they hadlast year, like this is exciting and
(18:30):
yeah, of course they're all Imean, don't get me wrong. Polonco
set up Garver on the two runwalk off on Monday. Luke Rayley's getting
on base a little bit more oftenthan not. But the swing and miss
with Garver's bad, Polonko swing andmiss is pretty bad as well. Yeah,
but you could see. I meanPolanco's made some great plays on defense.
(18:53):
Mitch Garver doesn't play defense, soall his job is to hit,
and when he doesn't hint outside ofhis walk off off home run, right,
there's not much to look forward towith the guy. Yeah, I
mean, maybe it's just me.I don't know. I'm not as like,
oh my god, this guy isfalling with the offense as a lot
of people are. I mean,the statistics don't look great, but maybe
(19:15):
it's I don't know. Last yearit was so frustrating to watch with how
often they would just have non competitiveat bats, right, whether it was
from Taoskar just feebly swinging at alow and a wayte slider, which it
seems Julio has picked up that habit, by the way, and I don't
know whether that's like something that istied together. But but this year it
(19:41):
seems like they're walking a little bitmore, get just at least trying to
have competitive at bats, to takesome pitches, get starting pitchers out of
the game early. I want toknow what your thoughts on that. Maybe
it's me, but it just seemslike they're at bats are more competitive.
It's more fun to watch, Honestly, just entertainment wise. But is that
just me or do you get thissame vibe as well. I get that
(20:06):
we're looking I feel like we're lookingat more pitches that are out of the
zone. But then I just lookat some of the swings and misses from
Julio, from Mitch Garver, DylanMoore on occasion, they just looked.
I mean, it's the sweepers theissue, and it's the pitch that it
starts over the plate and then endsoutside of the zone. And but like
(20:26):
you said, I mean, Polanco'swalk numbers are pretty good. Yeah.
I was watching the game on Wednesdayor not Wednesday, Tuesday, it was
like he was eighth in the leagueand walks was like, it's pretty impressive
for a guy that's hitting yeah,one fifty. Yeah, but yeah,
no, I mean, obviously theoffense has struggled so far at an alarming
rate, like I said earlier,just with strikeouts, and then they're slashing
(20:51):
twenty seventh, twenty seventh, twentyfifth and average on base and slugging.
That's not going to win you gamesif you're pitching isn't as elite as are
starting and our relief pitching are.But I don't know. I mean,
something's got to change with the offense. Not sure it is. Maybe it's
the overall approach. Maybe, Imean, I don't know. That's why
(21:12):
I'm not a coach. Yeah,we just were just two guys that talk
about our favorite team exactly. ButI don't know it's I think that.
I mean, the power hasn't beenthere all year. I mean, Col's
leading the team with six bombs.Julio's got one, yep, and which
is Unjulio Like, he has threeextra base hits this year? Yeah?
Five? Sorry five. I waslooking at just just the doubles, but
(21:34):
yeah, three, three doubles inone home run. Actually, his swinging
miss has been bad this year.Yeah, And I've looked at his numbers
in comparison to year's past. They'renot like astronomically worse this year than they
were last year or in twenty twentytwo. He's he seems like he's a
notoriously slow starter. Yeah, Aprilaprils haven't been good. No, I
(21:56):
think it's so funny when people saythat, and I'm one. I'm just
like, just get him out ofApril once May starts. I know,
he went on his huge run lastyear in August, yep. But it's
like get him out of April,get him out of the cold. But
then again, it's like the colddoesn't affect you swinging and missing at sweepers
that are three feet off the outsideedge. So yeah, and in years
(22:18):
past, the difference from me isthat he was still slugging, like he
would hit a few home runs hereand there, he can get a double
triple, but he's he's been asingles machine. So even the hits that
he is getting, it's it's relyingon a lot of bapep block just to
kind of get on base. Andyou're not walking either. So I just
I wish, I really really wish. And you know, my buddy always
(22:41):
kind of tells me about this.You know, maybe he learned too much
from Tai Oscar last year. Hejust kind of tried to have the same
approach. And I know their buddies, and I love toa Oscar. He's
a great hitter, but he's he'skind of a guest hitter, as they
say, where he kind of islooking for one thing and if he gets
it, he destroys it, andif he doesn't, he swiped strikes out
and that's kind of how a lotof MLB batters are nowadays. I mean,
(23:02):
it's just but I don't know.I just watched someone like Juan Soto
and it's so fun to watch becauselike, if he doesn't get his pitch,
he takes a walk, you know, but if he does, he
destroys it and he gets on base. He doesn't strike out a lot.
I don't know, he plays gooddefense. I know Julio's defense has been
outstanding. That's the one thing thatkind of is helping him avoid the what's
(23:27):
going on with him conversation because hisdefense has been so good in a really
important position too. But the restof the team defensively has not been great.
I want to touch on that alittle bit. Team defense for a
team that thrives on run prevention,as we talked about, with the pitching
staff not great. I'm trying tothink of positions overall in the field where
(23:48):
you feel like you have an aboveaverage defender, and it's catcher, it's
center field. Yeah, that's aboutit right now, especially with JP out.
Yeah, JP, when he's in, there's a lot of metrics that
say he's not a great shortstop.I still don't see it with the eye
test. I believe him that he'sa good he's a good player there.
But just I think that I thinkthat Rojas Urius Platoons has he looked a
(24:12):
lot better at least since what wesaw in spring training. Same with hore
Polanco at second. He made afew great plays when Castillo was pitching on
Tuesday night. That's true. He'sbeen better, also better than expected,
but not great. Yeah. Yeah, but the airs, their airs have
stacked up. They had to yesterday. One wasn't throwing air by Hancock,
(24:36):
and then Mitch had a real badgame in right field, but he took
accountability for a pretty much said Ift up. And then they scored four
runs in the fifth inning or fourthinning whatever anything that was where they scored
the four runs, and he tookaccountability. So that's true leadership right there.
It's true, But that doesn't hidethe fact that his air and his
approach at the plate, which wasalmost a golden sombrero, was the main
(25:00):
reason why they lost yesterday because andI'm kind of bouncing off of your question
about the defense, we had likefour opportunities from like inning six, seven,
eight to nine where there was twoon at least one in scoring position
and failed to execute. But yeah, like you said, defense, you
(25:21):
can't. I mean what scares methe most are comebackers the pitcher. Yeah,
it seems as if they're so goodat doing what they're supposed to do.
But the little part where you're supposedto like work on your pfps in
spring training, and when that occasionoccurs like it did with Munos late in
(25:41):
the game or Hancock with the throwingair yesterday, I can't. Obviously,
the pitching far out weighs what's neededwith the ability based on the defensive side
of the pitcher. But every timethere's a ground ball, I'm like,
oh god, I know what's gonnahappen. I'm not going to say it.
And then it does happen. Iwas like I should Yeah, well,
and and we we also forget thatit's part of the pictures responsibility to
(26:06):
hold runners on, like hold runnersat a base like when they're in threat
to steal is kind of what I'mreferring to, because cal can throw people
out, but people are still runningon the Mariners pretty pretty heavily here.
Maybe it's just that we're playing againstsome aggressive base running teams. I know
the Reds are notorious for that.They run a lot last year, Yeah,
(26:30):
exactly, And so the Braves arewill do what they do and try
and generate runs however they can becausetheir offense is just that good. But
it still seems like the pitchers,just like you said, they're they're elite
at their Yeah, but the theslight other things that are still part of
(26:51):
being a pitcher in the major leaguesis something they're not great at. And
you know, we talk so muchabout you know, oh, you know,
the defense didn't really help out thepitcher there. Sometimes it's you're helping
out yourself, right, making agood play. I know a lot of
the times they tell pictures just tokind of get out of the way so
you're not in the way of someoneelse making a play. And it almost
(27:11):
came back to bite but for Demo'sawesome throw in the end of the eighth
inning on Tuesday, Yeah, itwas like it looked like Munos could have
easily just picked it up and thrownit, but he kind of got out
of the way, so Demo tocome all the way into the grass and
made a fantastic play there. Soyeah, and that I mean that's the
thing too. It's Munos. Itwas a swinging bunt by Austin Radley sailed
(27:34):
it over Ty France's head. Theywere like, oh gosh, the soft
contact here we go, right,But then Munos strikes out Ozuna yep.
Then he gets Acuna to fly out, and then he strikes out Harris,
and then he strikes out calnect Ended. It's like, yes, the pitching
definitely far outweighs. Yeah, whata pitcher's supposed to do. It's more
(27:56):
control. Sometimes that might come backand bite you. Yeah, So like,
I don't know, no, Imean, we can't complain at all
about how well not only the startersbut the relievers have been, especially without
Brian Woo to start the year,without Gregory Santos, without Matt Brash.
So let's do a quick grounds keepinghere just to kind of update people on
(28:18):
what's going on. If you haven'theard, Jonathan class A was sent down
before the Braves series and he willbe in Triple A for the foreseeable future.
What do you think of what hebrought to the teams of the two
weeks that he was here. Hebrought some speed, Yeah, that's for
sure. Yeah, No, thosefirst couple of games that he had Colorado
series and the series prior to that. I mean, he was fun to
(28:41):
watch. Yeah, but I getI get the move, get him as
many at bats as he wants ornot as he wants, as he needs
in triple A, and then bringhim back up because he is the he's
the speed factor. Yeah, andhoping that Sam Haggerty can do what twenty
twenty two, Sam Haggerty did bethe utility guy outside of Dylan Moore,
(29:06):
who's now the everyday shortstop. Butyeah, I think cost A is good.
It was good to see Leo Reevusget that triple in his first game,
but Scott doesn't play him at all, so it's a little confusing.
Don't get me wrong. Demo's madesome great plays and decent hard contact and
a few of them, but Imean, I'd like to see the young
(29:26):
guys. Yeah, I mean,yeah, Revus and what his story's cool?
Where you have like ten years inthe minors. First game triples,
Gino gives him big hug at third, Yeah, that is pretty cool,
but yeah, I know you wantto continue your groundskeeping. Yeah, And
then the update on Matt Brash wasnot encouraging as he was throwing a bullpen
(29:48):
session for the first time since beingshut down, and apparently every pitch Teddy
threw hurt, so he's again goingto be shut down. And definitely they
didn't say it was season ending atthis point, but not a good update
if you're a Mariners fan and lookingto add to that bullpen which has been
good but still could use an extraarm. Yeah, it's too bad about
(30:08):
Matt, but then you think aboutwho's stepped in. I mean, Gabe
Spire has been awesome, and thenthey're good. And yeah, Spiers have
been great. They're lefties, whichis different from the right handed side,
which Matt Brash is awesome, butMunos has been great so far. Stanic
has been uh, only throws fastballsand then when he throws a slider it's
(30:32):
spiked. And don't get me wrong, it's fastballs triple digits every time.
But if you just consistently throw that, that's where you miss Matt Brash's nastiness
of his slider facts. But no, Gabe Spire has been awesome and then
like Zach Bolton's been good, awesome, vote has been good. Everyone has
contributed in some way somehow with theinjuries to WU where Hancock has stepped in
(30:57):
and done nicely so far. Andthen you have Spire and you have all
the all the relief pitching that havestepped in for Matt Brash where it was
supposed to be what you go fromMatt Brash to set up Munos, to
set up Gregory Santos or some companysome combination of the three. Well,
two of the three haven't played apitch this year, one probably won't the
(31:18):
entirety of the year, right,and then Santos we hope to have back
at what maybe the end of Yeah, I know he was transferred to the
sixty day but people were freaking outthat was that was retroactive. That was
from like back in early March.So he's scheduled to come back I think
at the end of May, whichis pretty coming up pretty soon here.
And that was a much better updatefrom Hollander when we had it I think
(31:40):
a week and a half ago onthe last home stand. So uh,
he he's he's progressing like they expectedhim to, not a not a brash
like update there, So hopefully hegets back in the full here soon.
And you kind of mentioned it thereone one other quick thing. Ryan Wu
already pitching in Triple A, Ibelieve to Kemae, and he's been good
(32:00):
looking, like the regular Brian Wuthat we've expected, So that's more of
a I think he didn't really havea major issue. He just because he
was feeling a little tightness. Theywant to be extra careful with him,
especially after the workload he had lastyear compared to what he's had before h
So he basically just had a extendedramp up period, kind of an extended
(32:22):
spring training here for the for thefirst month of the season. So hopefully
we see him here pretty soon,and that'll be an interesting discussion because I
don't think Hancock's been bad, uh, but Wu probably has a little bit
more upside there. So maybe youdo a little six man action, or
I think Scott said no to thesix man, so maybe Hancock moves to
(32:42):
your like long reliever role the yeah, or or you swap every time through
the rotation, you swap Hancock andWu. Yeah. Yeah, He's not
a bad problem to have. Definitelynot. Okay, Well, how about
this we have off day today,We're in Houston. They got three in
Houston, three in Minnesota. Whoby the way, have won ten in
a row. Yep. Then you'vegot three at home against the looks like
(33:07):
four in Minnesota by the way forsorry for in Minnesota. And then you
then you host A's, who arethe upstart A's apparently they're fifteen and seventeen.
What out of those ten games,what do you project the record to
be projector want it to be both? I honestly, I'm gonna be basic
here. Just win every series,and I think they can do that,
(33:30):
to be honest, the Twins serieswill be an interesting one. I think
they might split that one. Iswear we're the exact same team, are
well. And it's funny because Ithink we're the same team as the Twins,
And then we're also the same teamas the Milwaukee Brewers. The Milwaukee
Brewers are the NL Mariners. Anyways, random moving on, and then I
think, as great as the A'sstory has been, you're at home and
(33:53):
they have they have they have somebattle to them. You just gotta you
gotta get some offense going because theydon't really have the offense. They have
the pitching kind of randomly, uh, and they have like an electric world.
Even one of the best relievers inbaseball right now, Mason Miller.
Oh yeah, he's discussed. He'stouching one three with crazy movement. Yes,
(34:15):
So don't be in a close gamelate against the A's. We will,
yeah, inevitably, and the Asand then the US and the Twins.
We're just going to both strike outfourteen times each a game. Elite
pitching both sides. Yeah, yeah, I know I could see that for
sure. I still think I don'tknow. The big thing for me will
be how Julio progresses, if hestarts to wake up a little bit.
(34:37):
I still think Polanco has been betterthe last series or so a couple series
better at bats. Hopefully he startsto slug a little bit more garb with
the big hit in the Game oneof the Brave series, So hopefully he
starts to wake up a little bittoo. I have confidence in this offense
that will turn around, and Ihonestly think I also have confidence that this
(34:57):
pitching staff can continue to do whatthey're doing. Most people are saying like,
oh, you can't. You can'texpect this historic run of incredible starts
to keep going. That's kind ofwhat I expect, honestly, this this
pitching is that good? Like you'retelling me you don't expect Luis Castillo to
go six innings one earned, andas he's shown to do it against with
(35:20):
some of the best offenses, theseoffenses that were playing the next three series
aren't as good. So your plustwo thousand American League scity young is looking
a lot better. Yeah for LuisCastillo after these last four or five starts.
And then you you look at theschedule and you're like, oh,
who's pitching tomorrow? Oh is GeorgeHerby? Yeah, we got a good
(35:40):
shot. Oh, here's looking Gilbert'sLike, Okay, he's been he's been
our best so far. Oh,here's Bryce Miller, he's been even better.
Here's Emerson Hancock. You're getting ashot. Yeah, I mean,
that's what I mean. It's justlike, that's that's kind of what I
think. And you got to giveDepoto and Hollander credit for for having this
vision, but that this is whatthey envisioned when they built this pitching staff.
(36:01):
Is like, Okay, the offensewill probably not be anything to write
home about, right, but ifyou give yourself a chance every single time
with this elite pitching staff and thenbe able to trust your bullpen in close
games, which at the first partof the season maybe not, but they've
come around really really strong lately,so yeah, I just think that you
(36:22):
can definitely count on that continuing forthe Mariners, and if it does,
then that'll be something just as excitingas watching a good offense. I know
it's not like the Oh Chicks diga long ball sort of thing, but
no, it's they do dig along ball, but I am a sucker
for good pitching as well. Andif you just start to manufacture a little
(36:43):
bit of offense, like whether it'sand they've been better this year, had
taken walks than they were last year. I hope that that continues and just
keeping competitive at bats. And oneunderrated thing that they have done offensively is
they've gotten the starting picture out ofthe game early in most cases in the
past couple series that they have won. So I want to see that continue
(37:06):
and then get to their bullpen andthen they have less arms available for later
in the series, so it's kindof a ripple effect. That's what taking
pitches and going for your walks andyou know, seeing a lot of pitches
from the starter does. So youget Houston tomorrow Saturday and Sunday. You
got George going tomorrow versus Ronel Blanco, who has a no hitter this year.
Yeah, almost has two no hittersthis year. Yeah, But then
(37:29):
like a couple other weird starts,and then you got Logan and Franber Valdez
on Saturday, which will be agreat pitching matchup and pitching matchup, and
then Miller going on Sunday. Soyou got Kirby Miller or Kirby Gilbert and
Miller, like, as long aswe scored, you know, three runs.
I take Mariners sweep the Astros thisseries. I agree, I agree,
(37:51):
I agree with what I want tohappen. Yeah, I think,
I know I'm saying I think theydo. I honestly think they sweep the
Astros this series looking ahead, becausebecause the whole thing that made the Astros
what the Astros were for so longwas their pitching. And it's not the
same this year. Frambers not thesame pitcher as he was last year.
Blanco, like you said, hashad two incredible starts, but then a
couple like stinkers, so you neverknow you're gonna get from him. He's
(38:14):
kind of a younger guy anyway.I don't know. Man, They've they
have a lot of injuries. ToVerlanders since he's been up has been good,
but not like strikeout good. Hehad like only went I think six
innings both times, which is fine, that's what you expect from your starter,
but like only two or three k'seach time, so and a lot
of walks. So he's getting upthere in age. If you're expecting a
thirty nine year old Justin Verlander comeand save your rotation. I know he's
(38:36):
great, he's awesome, but that'sthat's kind of hoping on a lot of
things to go right there. Sothat offense is good, But I again,
we just saw probably the best offensein baseball come into Seattle this past
weekend or put this past series andget absolutely shut down at least for two
games by the Mariners. So Ibelieve they can do the same thing here
(38:58):
at the Astros and just keep themin the ball part. Absolutely. It's
a short, short porch, right, short distance and left yep. But
I mean then you think of Joseal Twove's top five yeah, ao hitter
so far this year, you're donAlvarez is You're done. Alvarez said,
offense is good, that's that's nottheir issue. It's the pitching. So
take care of business. We justwe just shut down one of the best
(39:20):
offenses in baseball, if not thebest. So I'm I'm going out on
a limb saying the Mariners sweep theAstros. It is the official passing of
the torch. Astros are done.If they get swept by the Mariners in
Houston, especially at this point theseason, when they're ten and twenty or
whatever they are, that would besuch a gut punch to them, like
someone in their division who they havefelt like the big brother too for so
(39:42):
long. I just knocked on wood. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm
I'm not even saying that I'm confidentto happen. I'm saying it will happen.
That's my that's my hot take too. Yeah, all right, let's
let's go sweep the Astros. That'sput put them out of their misery.
Just just stick a fork in them. They're dead, they're done. There's
They're dynasty's over. I'm so tiredof hearing about them and having them be
(40:02):
a big part of everything. SoI'm saying the marriage go down and get
the job done in Houston. Youthink you think that's gonna happen. I
think it's doable for sure, especiallywith their three guys that are going.
Yeah, and like you said,Blancos had a few really good starts for
the Astros, but so had Lopezfor the Braves. And then we took
care of business firs him exactly,and then Farmer Valdez fraud of ber Valdez.
(40:30):
Let's take care of business versus halflike it, and then yeah,
and then Sunday there's still TVD ontheir starter, but let's yeah, let's
do it. That's a good signwhen they're TVD on a starter TVD.
But yeah's winning, confident, winthree or well, let's go win our
sixth right series, solidify your spotas the top dog in the al Wes,
keep it going offense, find something, do something cool. Well,
(40:53):
uh, Episode number one wrapped uphere for Mariners Weekly. Appreciate you coming
in, Rory or We'll be chattingwith you throughout the season. And just
a reminder, you guys can catchus anywhere you find podcasts. Be sure
to tune into Mariner's coverage throughout thewhole season. On ninety three point three
(41:13):
Kjar, we'll have breakdowns, we'llhave player interviews, we'll talk to,
you know, some of the expertsin the business about what's going on with
the baseball team as they continue thisimpressive start to the season. I gotta
tell you, it's so great toactually have a decent start and get off
to like not starting under five hundredgames out of first place. We looked
(41:36):
lame out of the jump, butthey've obviously they've turned it around. So
let's just keep riding that wave whilewe can. Absolutely I completely agree.
All right, Rory, thanks somuch for joining me. We'll talk to
you guys next week. I believethe next Mariners off day is not until
the sixteen, Yeah, so theymaybe we squeeze in something after the day
game on on Thursday because it's aten ten am. So yeah, I
(42:00):
think we'll talk to you guys nextThursday. That's kind of my plan in
place. But thank you guys againfor listening to Mariners Weekly. We'll catch
you later.
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