Furness Show 7-1: Kraken Offseason, Mariner Struggles, Molly Whop Monday, Ron Francis Audio.

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Depressing Mariners. How are you godthat? Oh my gosh, it wasn't
that long ago, ladies and gentlemen, It wasn't that long ago that we
were sitting at Yeah, I gotthat, Okay, Yeah, yeah.

(00:21):
Clay Thompson is going to Dallas.Yees hey, that's got Clay. He's
gonna win himself another ring. Let'sgo big three over in Dallas. I
bet he'll win a ring before Draymonddoes. You won't get rid of Clay.
It's fine, you get rid ofClay. We go win a ring.
That's a good little little prop.Bet who wins a drink ring before?
Yeah? Well, I don't know. One team was in the finals
last year. One team didn't makethe playoffs when they got better, you

(00:41):
decide? All right, yep,the uh. We'll get to the Mariners
in a second. We've got abig show coming up today. Will Molly
wop at one with the boys.We've got Chris and Nate standing by to
check in. After they lost theirfirst home series in a long time,
they still finished fifteen and eleven inthe month of June. Did the Mariners,

(01:02):
but just kind of They've lost fourstraight series. It wasn't too long
ago that they had a ten gamelead in the American League West, and
now that lead is obviously shrunk downto three and a half games. Have
you looked at a score for meat all? Anders, what's going on?
Because Houston is playing in Toronto timelooking right now, it's a Canada

(01:23):
Day special north of the border.It is delayed currently. How would it
be delayed? They played with aroof, no idea. Look, so
she's head run on the field andget out of control there in Toronto.
Or oh that's weird, that's verystrange. Okay, anyway, they play
there today. They have pulled itwithin three and a half. If they
win, there'll be three games out. If they lose, it'll be four

(01:46):
games out. And with the Seattlehosting Baltimore. More on that in a
heartbeat. We mentioned with the Kraken, and we'll get a lot of that
coming up today. It is freeagency day. It's a huge day for
the Kracking. It was a hugeweekend for the Kraken. Love their draft
picks, especially top two. Afterthat, you're just kind of you're rolling
the dice a wee bit and I'dbe lying to you if i'd seen the

(02:06):
other guys play. I really haven't, but I have seen the two guys,
the kid from Everett, the finishcenterment and obviously Berkeley Captain's. I
love that draft pick out. Ilove that. I think I came back
and told you I did Tea Birdsand Spokane on Fox Plus this year for
Mike. Benton could not make itthat day, so I did the Spokane

(02:28):
game and it was, I mean, kid, just when I was prepping
for it, watching I watch twoor three taped games of Spokane and the
kid just jumped off the screen likehe just and then watching him in person,
I'm like, whoa, And thenI look, Okay. That night
when I did the game here earlyMarch, I believe it was. I
mean, there were a ton ofscouts in the tenants, I mean,

(02:49):
and he had a couple of highlightsand you're just like, Okay, this
dude's this guy's special. So he'snot big, that's fine. He plays
in the league though, where he'snot going to be afraid. He gets
hit and smacked in the face everynight and run in the wall and listen,
man, you're you're on a busthrough the prairies and playing Prince Albert
and Prince George and yeah, Princethis and Prince that, and swift this
and speedy Creek there, whatever you'replaying like he he will not be afraid

(03:12):
at all. And and that's whyI kind of like getting guys like that.
Sometimes you get kids from the USnational team development team that get drafted
that are highly skilled, more skilledthan guys in the dub what have you,
but they're just not used to thestyle of play. You just look
back at the Stanley Cup playoffs,man like, it's a grown man's game
and you got to be you gotto have some kahonas to go out there

(03:34):
and play. And I think thiskid's going to be just fine. And
by the way, can flat outfinish. He can absolutely finish and score.
And you know what, what werethey missing last year? Anders?
I think scoring? Yeah, itwas kind kind of like our baseball team.
We have a lot of those issuesin this town, right, Scoring
runs, scoring goals, both areneeded to win games. Yes, weirdas

(03:57):
you are a lot here listening toshow people learning a lot wait for entertaining,
entertaining, Yeah, it's good.It's entertaining. Is scoring? Yeah,
one of the absolute gong show thatbaseball game was yesterday, by the
way, like, there's no thereis no reason the ems first ball.
They should have lost that game fivenothing like they had no business being in

(04:20):
that game. But one of thebest center fielders in the game forgot how
to you know, shield the sunand a fly ball. And then was
it Ryan? I think it wastheir starting pitcher. I think he's the
one that flubbed up the comebacker tothe mound. I mean it was then
he Then they had a relief picture. They didn't didn't cover first on a
play wide a first base, itwould have been an out. I mean

(04:40):
they were trying to give it tous. They If I didn't know better,
I would have said that. Man, the Minnesota Twins had spent the
night the night before early that morningup is still calm me because you know,
using the app dot com and theyhad flat out juice on that game,
because they try when you can't wina game, when the other team
tries to give it to you,like hands it to you, that's a

(05:00):
problem. Okay. I was atthat game yesterday and I was sitting in
the press box next to Steve Kelly, and I didn't know this about the
Twins, that they're the fifth bestfielding team in baseball. Yeah, that's
that's insane. And they had andthey had that day and Seattle still and
the Seattle still couldn't take advantage,which is which it probably underscores and highlights

(05:23):
the issue, and that is justthe lack of offense. Okay, so
the issue isn't bunting. Well doyou want to talk about you want to
hit Castill? We'll talk about thatlater. With the Castile thing, I
see both sides. I honestly,I listen. I have no problem take
you know, criticizing and going afterthose guys. It is funny though that

(05:46):
Mike Blowers on the Root broadcast saysbefore the inning, So at the end
of the when was that it wasthe fifth inning or fourth, fourth inning
or whatever it was, fork Garvergot hit. Yeah, no, it's
because it was when he knew Castilecoming up. Oh yeah, And he
said the best case scenario is rarelygets a double and Castillo is able to
lay a bunt down to move himover. That would be the best case

(06:09):
scenario. What happened, double doubleand stand there like a statue and look
at three balls right down the pipeand Ryan through the first one, it's
like, Okay, well you're notswinging now, and so he just like
through, you know, two moreeasy eat balls and so. But I
do understand it's hard to argue withScott Servis from this standpoint. And this

(06:30):
is I think this is an importantpart that we forget sometimes in sports media.
None of us know what Castillo's shortcomingsare physically. For example, he
lays a bunt down, he hasto make at least a little bit of
an effort to get to first base, you know, run it out,
jog it out, whatever it mightbe. Now you can make the argument

(06:53):
he has to cover first on thepitching mound sometimes as well. There has
to be some athleticism. But Idon't know. I don't know what the
fear your factor would be. Ithink Bucky talked about it this morning on
the Morning Show and said he shouldhave tried to lay a bunt down.
If I'm not mistaken. I don'twant to put words in his mouth,
but I say that earlier. Ididn't hear Bucky, but agree, Yeah,
like you should just give it atleast on the first pitch, or
the first two, yeah, oryou know what, all three, for

(07:14):
goodness sakes, it doesn't matter ifyou're going to stand there anyway. Yeah,
if it's two strikes, try tolay one down and move ralely over.
But I don't know what the shortcomingsare. I don't know what the
concern is. It can't be assimple as, oh, gosh, we
don't want him to get a ballon his fingers, because that could happen
anytime, right, So I justI just didn't It's just whatever. It's

(07:38):
one out, It's right. Theweird thing was is the next two guys
didn't move more either, exactly.So it's not just Castillo not you know,
the Marrior's not deciding to bump withCastillo again. They gave you opportunities
to win. Stanna comes in afterhe tied it up and gives up a
two run bomb. You know,Julio hit the ball hard again. Do
you want to go ahead and riphim now or do you want to wait?
Because I know you want to riphim. I don't want to rip

(07:59):
him. I want to see results. It's I'm as yeah, go ahead.
It was a funny exchange. Itwas a good exchange. So we're
I'm sitting there yesterday watching the game. I had to take and We've talked
about these before because I Art,I heeart has the same things these learning
modules to do with. Anybody thatworks for a big company knows this.

(08:20):
Uh you know that you like anybodylistening right now, driving around, you
probably have the dumb ass modules thatyou got to take that you know,
like Captain obvious. Hey, youcan't you know, reference a female's appearance
and you know, make her uncomfortable. Is that okay? No, right,
you can't. You can't discriminate againstsomeone based on their gender, sexual

(08:43):
orientation, et cetera. All thosethings. Oh can I take payment for
like a good news story on TV? No? I just all these So
I had to do the Captain Obviousmodule yesterday for a Fox Yeah. Yeah.
Two hours later, so I'm watchingthe Mariners game doing that kind of
like skimming through Do I have totake it to okay? Yes? True
false? Going through this and myphone is just blowing up, and it

(09:07):
was just it was Nathan, Chrisand Anders and it was really mostly Chris
and and Andrews. Nathan was actuallyworking for people to know he's a real
estate agent. It's a Sunday,so he was doing work. I was
doing the module learning that I'm notallowed to comment on a female and you
know, fellow with female employee's appearance, which you haven't. You've been good.

(09:31):
You're not allowed to harass. Thankyou. Year and a half.
Yeah, yeah, well I sawyou. I go down the hall,
I found the jubile show girls,and you know, I really just creep
him out all day. No,I mean, it's like, but that's
but so so, you know,I'm doing this and my phone's blowing up
and it turned into a anders pissedat Julio and tells Chris you just won't

(09:54):
ever criticize him, and then Chrisgets mad and it's back and forth.
I'm a fair man like it.I'm like, oh, this is good,
this is good stuff. At onepoint I looked down and I had
twenty five text messages that I hadnot read long doing the module, and
out of those twenty five, twentythree were Julio related. Twenty three were

(10:16):
Julio related. And I was thinking, listen, man, we all want
him to be better, we allwant him to be a superstar. You
know, we'll ask Chris later ahard hit rate, all that stuff expected,
you know, ops versus expected sluggingpercentage, you know, all the
like his numbers say he should bebetter. Right, his numbers say,
like his expected numbers say he shouldbe better. Your eyes say, maybe

(10:39):
not as good as he was inthe past two years. We're through April,
May and June. We're three monthsinto this season. There's two things
with him. One and was itCalkins or Verarel one of the two dudes
they wrote they wrote the column thismorning on Julio in Seattle Times, and

(11:00):
he was Matt And it was likehe had all the number like he ranks,
I mean so far down in everystatistical category, whether it's traditional or
analytical, it doesn't matter. He'shaving a bad season offensively, Like you
can here's one thing we can say, Julio Rodriguez is having a really bad
season offensively. That's a fact that'snot subjective. That's not just the numbers.

(11:24):
He's on pace for thirteen home runsand fifty five RBIs. Like,
that's a bad season for Julio Rodriguez. That's a bad season for Ty Franz,
who also is having a bad season. Yes, so you've got all
those things going on, but yeah, you guys are killing me. Man.
It was it was like back andforth, and Chris like, and
you won't even criticize him? Yeah, And Chris goes, no, I

(11:46):
won't. I don't know. Wellthe thing is like, well, okay,
you know what, then that's goodbecause what that's also that's that's one
of the great things in sports argumentslike just no, I won't and there's
a period and there's nothing you cansay after that. It's like, okay,
Chris wins and vanished Chris. Butbut I think, you know,
like the last play by Whulia,the last you know, his last at

(12:07):
bat just smokes the ball and Santana'sfifteen feet off the bag because the shift
still exists in baseball ladies and gentlemen, but maybe more importantly, and I
think Matt pointed this out in thestory today, and I think he service
talked about it, Jess when youwere there yesterday. He's not pulling the
ball, and when he does,he's When he does pull the ball,
it's an out, and it's justthere's there's something wrong. The other part

(12:31):
is it shouldn't just be on himand cal Rawly right, and JP Crawford's
good point. It should be onnine guys in the lineup, not three
to carry the lineup. You know, Rayley at times has shown a glimpse
or two. Garver had like aweek or two where he was okay,
But it's it can't just be threeguys and this great starting pitching staff because
oh, by the way, yourbullpen isn't as good as it was yep

(12:54):
last year. Until you know,maybe Santos will help. But that's guy
that's one arm, right, Sotheir margin of error is really small.
Like I think that's the one thingthat all these teams are flawed. I
don't know. Everyone has their ownopinion. I don't have a strong one.
I wish I did. Sorry,bad talk show host you in today,

(13:15):
But I don't know. If youwant to look the run differential I
think is telling. They're forty sevenand thirty nine, but their run differential
is only plus six. Meanwhile,Houston is one game above five hundred with
a run differential of plus thirty three. The team they just saw is ten
games up and they're plus forty one. That'd be the Minnesota Twins. And
oh the team that's coming to townfifty three and thirty one. They're run

(13:37):
differential, they're plus one. Twelveis Baltimore in run differential, And on
top of that, they're ten gamesabove five hundred on the road are the
Baltimore Orios. So it's a bigtough week coming up. But they have
to get offense for more people thanjust the three guys are trying to rely
on. And cal has turned intohome run derby guy. That's that's kind

(14:01):
of what he is. Swing hard, swing hard, swing hard man.
When he connects. First of all, he's easily the most clutch player on
that team. Like he's a terriblehitter until he's a terrible hitter until until
until until something's on the line,he is he as a good way to
put it, he's not a verygood hitter until something's on the line,

(14:22):
until it's late innings, and he'sthe best hitter in baseball. But he's
home run derby guy. Like justswing hard baby, Like it's like you
know, softball, home run derbydude. And they've got to find a
way because you're putting so much pressureon that staff. And you know,
Castillo yesterday was okay, we don'tI mean, he should have had a
quality start, but he wasn't goingto have a quality start because they burn

(14:46):
the d H because you can't getbecause here's the thing. You can't give
cal a day off. That's thething that's crazy. You can't give him
a day off. Give him aday off behind. I'm just curious.
Yeah, well, I mean,we'll see what they said. It's the
xers are negative for GARB. ButI can't imagine he's going to be in
the lineup tomorrow. I can't imagine. You know, contusions are rough,

(15:07):
right, I mean, just youknow what's not actually actually, you know
what would be a good telltale signfor how he is. They've got their
charity golf tournament today, you see, interesting to see if he's like when
we see video because all the TVstations do this thing, everyone does the
same story. Let's go out here, we are they're swinging the golf club's
great chair. And then as wedo that and let's see is a swing
of a golf club today, myguess is he's not right? And yeah,

(15:28):
I don't know, it's that justputs a lot on them. So
it's listen, three and a half. We all would have taken three and
a half on July first. Yeah, like if we were to ask this
question February March, Hey, they'regoing to be up three and a half
games over Houston to eight over Texasin the Al West on July first,
would you take it? Yeah?One hundred percent, because I couldn't fathom

(15:50):
them being up more than that,and frankly, I was hoping they were
just going to be hanging around andmake a push when they make a couple
of trades in July. So thefact that they're up three and a half
is a big time positive. Evengets to the point though, where that's
not enough, where it's like,right, we have one of the best
pitching staff. Yeah we are.We're at that point. Yeah, we're
we are at that point because ofwhat I just said. Yeah, the

(16:11):
pitching staff one through depending on who'shealth one through four, Miller's good enough.
Five maybe, I mean he wasfine. I mean the bullpen kind
of screwed him on Saturday, right, So yeah, I mean it's we're
at that point. I think everyfans at that point. You can you
can go glass half fall all youwant, but there's no doubt that they're
just they're kind of it feels likethey're doing this thing with duct tape and

(16:32):
chicken wire right now. Anemic towatch it's like even when they get wins,
it's like the squeaking by and havingto force mistakes from everyone. Well,
and mate, listen, they're twentyeight and fourteen at home, but
there's six games under five hundred onthe road. Yeah, so you know,
part of that's the pitching staff's ableto have better success at home than
they are on the road, andthat comes into play. We'll talk about

(16:52):
that. Will Molly Wop coming uptoday at one o'clock with the boys,
and we'll see Chris yell about Andrewsfor a while during that second Yeah,
I can't wait. Okay, youhad no rebuttal either. Twenty five text
messages from those guys and that wasn'tthere. I mean, we have more
than that, but that. Atone point I just had to do my
little module. It was two hours. That's ridiculous. That thing was this

(17:12):
will take seventy five minutes. Ohreally? Okay, in what world?
One of those things that doesn't letyou like fast forward to have to watch
have to watch it. When wefirst started doing him here with iHeart we
could do that, yeah, andthen then then they caught on and then
we did someth for a while thatwe could still fast forward, but you
had to take every test, andif you didn't watch it, it wasn't

(17:34):
as obvious as this thing I didyesterday was listening does he ever? Great
Kevin Shockey would take it for allof us and then write down the answers.
Then we could just do that.We can't do that anymore. That
now we can't do that. ButI never did. Yeah, but I
never did. All right, we'lltell you break to come back. I

(17:55):
want to thanks to people. Wehad a great damn Friday will tell you
about that. Next Live from theR and R Foundation Specialists broadcast studio back
to Ian Furnance, powered by Seattle'sclosest sports book, Snow Call Me Casino
on Sports Radio ninety three point threekJ R FM. All right, lot

(18:17):
going on today, manners are offand there has a stat is it's something?
Yes, we'll get to that ina second. Yeah, I maybe
twelve forty five. So also thefirst day of NHL Free agency and NBA
Free agency. Lay Thompson by theway, going to the Dallas Mavericks.
I think it's a sign and tradewriter or as some sort of there's a

(18:37):
mall there. There's something there's somethinggoing on, but he's going to He's
going to the map. So outsideof that, let me know when we
get our own team back, andI'll pay attention to the NBA free agency.
Almost a billion dollars in NHL freeagency money already out there to nine
hundred and one million dollars already spenton NHL free agency. As far as

(18:59):
Seattle is concerned. For krackn fans, they have signed Chandler Stevenson, center
iceman who was with the Vegas GoldenKnights, one a Stanley Cup with them,
one of Stanley Cup with the WashingtonCapitals, thirty years old, seven
year deal. Also a seven yeardeal for a right shot defenseman, Brendan
Montour, who just won a StanleyCup with the Florida Panthers. I don't
even think it's a coincidence that thosetwo guys and Stanley Cup pedigrees are coming

(19:21):
here. I think that does meansomething. Dan Bilesmith, Stanley Cup winning
coach, automatically, Stevens's your secondline center, probably right off the get
go. There are more moves tobe made and more moves coming. I
believe. I believe that among thosemoves that we could see guys that could
be traded or moved, Adam Larson, Brandon, tannev Please, Yeah,

(19:49):
let's who else. I think Yannigord is a candidate to get moved.
If Shane Wright's going to play herenext year, is here fourth line center?
Because right now that's what he wouldbe. Yeah, are you okay
with him being a fourth line center? So you know, I think Yanny
Gord is a is a candidate tobe moved. I'm trying to think Larson,

(20:10):
Gore, Taneff, whom I mean, there's some rumblings about Vince Dunn.
I just I can't see that.You're you're, You're worse like you
You're Montour is not as good aplayer as Vince Dunn, not even close,
not right now, not this pointhis career. So that makes you
worse Larson one year left? Yeah, So the Ron Francis is doing stuff.

(20:33):
We just I mean, there's otherthings. There's other shoes to drop
today, So we'll keep an eyeon that as the day goes on as
well. Do you think this isit for the main additions for them?
Yeah? Maybe. Corey Perry justresigned with Edmonton. Connor Brown signed for
a million I wish I'm not surewhere he ended up going. I would
have loved to have seen him go. So I love Brendan Dillon. I

(20:55):
would have liked to see him comehere if you're gonna get a defenseman,
but just kind of but I wouldhave, you know, then I would
if I get Dylan, I'd wantto move Alexiak. Yeah there's old but
yeah, there's I mean the topout of the top sixty five guys,
top seventy five guys in the NHL. I mean I'm just kind of looking
through here. I mean, JustinSchultz's ranked sixty third suitor. No,

(21:18):
yeah, most guys are already signed. Your defense been are in good shape
right now though great decor yeah,if I mean, just as it stands
right now, if you have eight, because right now they'd have eight right
seven, he's no. Six,they have seven. Schultz gone on tour
in Ryker Evans seven. Good Dgood D, really good D, really
really good D. I mean BrendonMontour is ranked number six among players available

(21:40):
by most services out there. Soand I think the general seasons is ranked
number twelve. Yeah, I meanit's not a great year. It's not
a great year for free agency inthe NHL. But I mean, those
guys are out there, and yeah, I think I think so far they're
they're a little bitter hockey team thanthey were twenty four hours ago, which
is good. Yeah, that's I'mhappy for them. I think that they've
I think they've got a big you'reahead of them. We want to move,

(22:02):
we saw moves. We want well, we want improvement to and I
think with with the NBA inevitably cominghere within probably two years twenty it's twenty
six, twenty seven of the latestfor the NBA is going to be here.
It's just it's it could be hereas early as twenty twenty six,
could be here as late as twentytwenty seven. But I bet the house

(22:22):
that it's going to be here oneof those two years. And you need
to really get your your footing backand the fan base back and some excitement
back when the organization and anders arejoking. You're joking last segment, But
you're right. Winning is what getspeople in the stands for any sport.
Winning gets you in. Doesn't matterhow you win, you get in.

(22:42):
But if you're just kind of anaverage so so team and you're playing boring
whatever it is, baseball, hockey, basketball, football, what it's entertainment.
Yes, you've got in the Krakenif you look. We talked about
it last week. First time everthey're selling tickets. Like when I say

(23:03):
selling tickets, like multiple ticket packages. We had Alais and Luken on last
week. There's like all these newticket packages makes it easier for you as
a fan to go like buy aweekend pack or a six whatever the different
They had like eight or nine differentoptions for you know, partial season tickets
or like group tickets or ten tickets. They need to get people back in
the seats and get people excited.They just they pulled the twenty twenty three

(23:27):
Marriners. Mariners in twenty twenty twogo to the playoffs, had all that
excitement, all that momentum, andthen twenty twenty three they come out slow,
start, never get their footing,never come back and don't make and
they played boring base and they playedboring baseball. Well. The twenty twenty
three Kraken go to the postseason,come out, they were what two seven

(23:51):
and one to start the season somethinglike that, Yep, we're behind me
eight ball early and didn't score goals, and all the momentum we had from
that playoff run in twenty twenty threein this town was gone. Matt E
Vanniers takes a step back from hisRookie of Year campaign. Riguez very Julio,
like, that's right, you gotbecause we have the dual. We
have the duel, the dual rookies. Give me the stat, Give me

(24:12):
the stat. I said that Isent this to Ian in the break just
now. But uh so there wasa stat that came out where which ranked
all of the thirty MLB teams playerwith the most played appearances, and they
ranked him by ops. Okay,so one player from each team, obviously,
who has the most played appearances?First, Ian, I I ask

(24:33):
you, who do you think hasthe most played appearances? For this?
I know who it is. He'sonly this one game, Okay, Yeah,
Julio's played almost every game, sohe is the one that represents the
Mariners. Where do you think heranks on this? I guess, I
guess twenty eight. I think heranks thirtieth out of thirty of all the
players in the entire league. Heis the lowest ops from each team that

(24:56):
has the most played appearances. SoI don't know it, and it's a
lot of these are really good players. Because right about fifteenth is Brian Reynolds
for Pittsburgh and that's like an eighthundred oh ps, which is well above
average. So like all of theseguys are good hitters. And then there's
like the bottom, like third islike not good at there's guys in this

(25:18):
town, there's athletes in this townthat you that are kind of above criticism
or have been over the years,and and because they've accomplished so much and
they've done so much, or thepotential is there. Julio's kind of always
been around that category. But thereality up yeah, but the I mean
his but the reality is it's justit's not there this year, and it's
it's hard because he has to bebetter. They they won't they if his

(25:42):
numbers continue to stay in the samedirection, like if this if if what
he's doing now lasts the rest ofthe season. Is it a stretch to
say they're not a playoff team?No? No, right, they can't
make the playoffs with that. Teamsdon't make the playoffs without their best players
being good. Well, that wasmy whole point about the bunting thing and
making a joke about it. Right, A lot of Mariner fans are like,
why don't they bunt more? That'snot the reason they're not winning.

(26:03):
The reason they're not winning, Ithink mainly is because their best player is
playing like one of their worst hittersright now. Yeah, yep, okay,
good times. Mollywap Monday, comingup at one o'clock. I want
to hear this one. You're gonnawant to hear this one. It's the
boys are coming up at one o'clock. Nate and Chris stand by for that.
Brought to you by Simply So.We come back some thank you for

(26:25):
at what was a great day onFriday. We'll do that next live from
the R and R Foundation Specialists broadcaststudio. Back to Ian Fernett's Power Advice,
Seattle's Closest sports book, Snow CallMe Casino on Sports Radio ninety three
point three kJ R FM. Allright, we're back on it Monday afternoon.

(26:48):
We're gonna Mollywap coming up at oneo'clock today, brought to you by
Simply Seattle, Simply Seattle dot com. Mollywap fifteen at checkout for your discount.
NHL Day one of free agency,Cracking have been busy. Right handed
shot thirty year old defenseman Brandon Montour. Just want to Stanley Cup with the

(27:10):
Florida Panthers is here or will behere. Also center iceman Chandler Stevenson from
the Vegas Golden Knights also a sevenyear contract coming to Seattle. Kracking just
tell them we're talking with Purple Sheeta litt while ago. They don't have
a ton in terms of their ownfree agents unrestricted. Justin Schultz has gone,
Kyler Yamamoto has gone tender duck qualifyingoffers to Benier's and Tolvenen. They

(27:37):
also signed some other guys. Ilove the fact they signed John haydenh a
contract. It's a one way deal, which means, and you'll see this
the term one way two way contracts. One way means Hayden gets paid NHL
money even if he's in the minersnext year, which is good for him.
That probably made an easy signing forhim. So but I think there's
a spot for him on that fourthline. I really do. I think
there's a definite great. I thinkthere's a definite spot for him in the

(28:00):
fourth line. To this team iscalled the Cup playoffs really proved it to
be. He has he's got enoughskill and wait for it, has a
little bit of grit, a littlebit of jam, a little bit of
something. I think that I thinkthat's a little bit of month game as
well. You could probably see afourth line car Chier Wright Hayden. Yeah,
a little former Coachelli action, Coachellaactions. Guys will give you.

(28:22):
I mean I because right now Shanwrites your fourth line center as it stands
right now. Yeah, with Stevensoncoming in, it's having pretty much let's
get unless they get rid of Yannie. Let's they get rid of you say,
yeah, pretty much the same thirdline yeah as last year. Yeah,
you still love that? Well,I mean I say that, who
knows, I mean Dan Bosma mightmight shake things up, yep, new
team. Okay, so keep aneye on that, whatever else going on.

(28:42):
I think Ron Francis is speaking later, so we'll hear hopefully from him
if we can. Working on thelogistics of that in the year of twenty
twenty four. Okay, let methanks some folks real quick. We had
a great damn Friday. Will dothis as week goes on, a lot
more to get to as well,ah, look at this the man masters
music. Yeah, it was funny. We found out that it was the

(29:06):
I told the story on Friday.We had to figure out what year it
was. It was the twelfth mayorof Maple Valley that it's been in existence.
It was the eleventh golf tournament,the tenth at Druids. One year
we were at Lakeland Over in MasonCounty, Lakeland Village. Shout out to
those guys. Appreciate them hosting usin twenty twenty one when it was still

(29:27):
hard to do stuff in King County. So we've had But it was our
tenth at Druids, our eleventh overall, but the twelfth year of the Mayor,
the one year of course no golf. We just did the beer.
But it was awesome. Just abig thanks to the one hundred and forty
four of you who were out thereplaying golf. Handful of others kind of

(29:48):
stopped by to say hi, Butone hundred and forty four of you guys
that paid to play in the golftournament, that bought raffle tickets, that
donated to the three great foundations AveryHuffman, DIPG Jordan Morris Foundation in Helensky's
hope. I think if you wereout there Friday, you would echo these
sentiments. It was inspiring, itwas emotional, and it was fun.

(30:11):
First and foremost, two groups Iwant to thank that stepped up my guy
Derek. That's my guy, Derekde Ambrosio. He is the guy that
runs Lone River Ranchwater here. AlsoGuinness's part of their portfolio as well.
But Derek went to his corporate guyslast year and said, I think we

(30:33):
need to be a part of thisevent and helped sponsor it and they did.
This is the second year that they'vedone that. I help underwrite some
of the hard costs and there's alot of hard cuts. You don't make
money on golf term this. Tobe honest with you, you hope you
can do some you know, dosome good and some other parts of it.
Raffle Mulligan's all that fun stuff.But Derek and Owane River Ranchwater.
I like the product. I wouldn'tsay I like it if I didn't.

(30:56):
You guys know. I mean,I'm a derelk and you know it's it's
I think it's a fantastic product.Low En Calories, great great summer beverage.
I went, it's I think it'sfantastic. If you're a Yellowstone fan,
you hear you probably hear about ita locks. I can do some
stuff with Yellowstone, but it's it'sgreat product. And just more importantly,
they sponsor and they and they supportus. The other one is Prime Electric,

(31:18):
and you know, I can't askyou to go out and support them
because unless you're building a stadium orsomething, then probably not going to be
there. They they are the onesif you've seen them, well everyone has
if you're a Husky fan. Thenew lights you know at Husky Stadium for
night games and the flashing and theability to do all that right, and
they did that last year and theysaid did the lights Atluminfield among other among

(31:40):
all the other projects. They're partof the Snow Quality Casino renovation. Huge
company is Prime Electric. They areI just just my friend Ken McKenzie and
the Prime Electric people. Man ohman, you guys were awesome and I
hope you come back and join usagain next season. You guys were just
I mean, what you have doneand what you did on Friday was awesome.

(32:00):
Both those great sponsors, Chambers BayDistillerady down there in up University place.
Alan came up there, hung outwith us, made some charity cocktails.
Our friend Jeff also they had theco owner had to sign off on
it. So a big thanks toAlan and Jeff, and especially Alan driving
the whiskey wagon up. Did youlike the whiskey wagon? I visited the
whiskey wagons. How about that thing? That's pretty cool with that? It

(32:21):
is awesome. Yeah, it's awesome. It's there. Just a great a
local company that does right, GeorgetownBrewing phenomenal. Just what else can I
say besides the fact that if youask, anytime I've asked for anything in
terms of a charitable endeavor, theydon't even they hesitate. It's just like,
yes, that's not even. Andof course they're going to brew the

(32:42):
beer. August twenty third. Thereyou go, there's your date. Is
a Friday, August twenty third Friday. We'll do the show down there at
Georgetown. The Mayor is tapped forthe first time. We'll hopefully get rid
of that, get rid of it, hopefully gets rank in a very time.
The first year when no one couldgo to a restaurant and it was
growlers only, we sold it outin six days. Wow, now it's

(33:06):
a little different, but yeah,people were just pouring in there to grab
growlers to go and take off.It was awesome. Didn't have a pint
now yeah, now they can sitand have a pint, or you can
buy growlers to go. So bigthanks to Georgetown Brewing. August twenty third,
the Mayor comes out a couple otherssimply Seattle, thank you, True
links Ware, thank you, theHall, both Queen Anne and Moss b

(33:27):
thank you. Twin Peaks who thankyou, thank you, thank you.
They donated some really cool things fromMulligan Prizes. There's many more thanks coming
over the next few weeks. Cutterand Buck, I mean, just when
I mentioned these companies, know thatalmost all of them have some sort of
local tie. They all have alocal tie, and they all do great
good in our community. And themoney that we are able to raise goes

(33:51):
directly to the charities and the foundations. And I can tell you for a
fact that those three foundations benefit mightilyfrom every single dollar that we raise.
It goes right to them. Andso again more importantly than all the great
companies, all of you guys thatplayed in it, I hope you had
fun. And I hope to seeyou guys next year. More thanks later.

(34:13):
We'll talk to Jess later. Shehad a chance to ride around with
Mark Kleinsky, very inspiring afternoon.Was a phenomenal day for me. So
we'll get to that a little bitlater in the show as well. All
right, when we come back fromthat to Chris and Nate, I don't
even know how you transition with you. That's just the next thing we're doing.
Even that's the next thing we're doing. We're mollywopping. Mariners get lose

(34:35):
another series. They've lost four straight. They have a day off before Baltimore
comes to town tomorrow, and we'llcheck in with the boys, Chris and
Nate. Brought to you by SimplySeattle, Simply Seattle dot com. Mollywap
fifteen at check out. We're mollywoppingon a Monday. Coming up next,
no from the Star Rentals Sports tous your ninety three the RFM Sports Headlines

(35:01):
Headlines brought to you by Venu KingsvineKings dot Com. All right, let's
get to it quickly at NHL FreeAgency Today, Day Today, Day one,
Brendan mont tour defenseman from Florida.Now remember the Crack in seven years
seven point one per year. AlsoChandler Stevenson a center seven year, seven
year deal with about six point twoto five million per year as well.

(35:21):
Schedule release today. Cracking are openingup at home. Rumor has it on
a Tuesday in the afternoon against SaintLouis. Some sort of national TV thing
they're doing. Sounds like a kindof like a Baseball opening day day for
us. What what's up? Isaid, day off for us? Cool?
Yeah, yeah, man Manners areoff today. Three game series with

(35:42):
the Twins didn't go so well,lost two of three. Next up Baltimore's
in town. They're kind of good. France a winner today in the euro
US men's national team Tonight in theCOPA must win, must win, gets
Eric Guay must win. We areready to molly wop Monday. Then that
means one thing. It's time tomollywop uncensored, unscripted, and filled with

(36:07):
the passion that all Mariners fans canrelate to, and brought to you by
the company that's all about Seattle Sports, Simply Seattle. Visit simply Seattle dot
com for the best Mariners gear.Now with the Mollywop Boys, Nathan Bishop
from Doman Bedlam and Chris Crawford withmy, oh why here's Ian Fernettes.

(36:30):
All right, here we go,it is time to mollywop on a Monday.
Oh man, a mollywop would havebeen nice yesterday for the Mariners as
they drop a series again. Thestruggles continue three and eight in the last
eleven Oh what was a comfortable tengame lead in the American League West?

(36:51):
Two days after that, By theway, Jason Stark comes on our show
on a Friday afternoon and says thefollowing. In the wild card era,
has never been a team that hada ten game lead at any point in
the season that did not make theplayoffs. Yes, it was certainly the
kiss of death. No, wegot a long way to go. It's
not that bad yet. Boy wouldhe uttered those words and I played them

(37:14):
for Softy at two forty five thatday. The look on his face was
sheer terror. And now I understandwhy is that lead is now down to
three and a half games. Bigthanks to Simply Seattle, Simply Seattle dot
com mollywop fifteen at checkout. Bigshout out to Jake and the crew.
We had our golf tournament on Friday, and they had a bunch of cool
stuff that people were getting. HisRaffle prizes and really awesome. I see

(37:37):
Nathan Bishop's got a hat on today, Simply Sattle. I know Chris is
as well. You guys are alldecked out head to toe simply Seattle,
Simply Seattle dot com. All right, let's go around the horn. We
got a lot of things to jumpinto today. As ems have a day
off, they're back at it withthe Baltimore Orioles, who are just three
and seven in their last ten stillthough leading the American League East, still

(37:57):
a team that is ten games abovefive hundred, even on the road coming
to town starting tomorrow. Nathan BishopDolman bedlam. I'll let you start things
off as always. Here we go, man, finally something in my wheelhouse.
Huh. It's been a couple ofweeks where I've kind of had to
like smile and say nice things aboutthe Seattle Mariners. But here we are.
They They've left me a nice littlecement mixer right over the heart of

(38:20):
the plate, and I'm, likeany of their hitters, I'm gonna do
my best to make good contact here, guys. Let me just ask you
a question and we don't have tospend a lot of time discussing. We
can do whatever we want. Thisisn't my radio show. Happy belated birthday
to the host of this radio show, by the way, Ian, We
appreciate you. Let me ask youa question. Are the twenty twenty four
Mariners better than the twenty twenty threeMariners? I know they're in first,

(38:43):
Are there any better because I waslooking at some numbers and I'm just gonna
just rattle them off really quick andthen we can go from there. You
guys can do whatever you want.But here's a WRC plus. In twenty
twenty three, the Marriners were eighth. In twenty twenty four, they're twenty
first in K percentage, they weretwenty nine ninth last year. They're thirtieth
this year. They should have reallymade that a priority in the offseason.

(39:05):
Their walk percentage last year was thirteenthin the league, this year at seventh.
That's the one that they're better at. Let's skip over that. Let's
go to starting pitching since that's thebig thing. Just going by f War
here, last year they were fifthin starting pitching f War this year with
a historic run of run prevention earlierin this season, they are fifth.
They have the exact same K percentagerank twelfth in the league. They are
once again a top two at limitingwalks. The one thing that they are

(39:29):
significantly worse and is their relief pitchingtheir bullpen is words. I don't think
that's a secret. So I'm justgonna kind of posit a theory here that
if the Seattle Mariners weren't being handedhistorically weak American League West thus far this
year, our entire narrative around wherethis team is would be completely different.
They are not noticeably better. They'renot noticeably different than last year. They're

(39:49):
struggling with the exact same thing thatthey did, which is trying to bolster
a poor offensive players, which,by the way, having to depend on
offense from your center fielder, shortstop, and catcher. Great roster construction there,
And they have to do that becausethey cannot fill in a major league
lineup to save their lives. Sohere we are. They're in first place
by three and a half games.They should be okay until they all start

(40:14):
break at least. But man,I don't see a lot about this team
that makes me think there's some othergear and I'm just saying that so that
they can have a fourteen game winningstreak. I just want to get the
audio banked now so that they canimmediately start winning fourteen games in a row.
But it has been a very discouragingcouple of weeks, you guys,
and the schedule this week, it'snot good. It's really not good.

(40:36):
Audio is clipped by Jessman. Itwill be ready for use in two weeks
time when that fourteen game on justwhere did it come from? Fourteen game
winning streak happens. And by theway, I just got a text Sergeant
Doom. Dick Fane is thrilled withthat opening statement from you along the way
he has never had. That's mytarget. Yes, yes, all right,

(40:58):
Chris Craft fire away. So I'mgonna do things a little different here,
and I promise I'll talk about thegloom and doom of the Seattle Mariners
in a little bit. But soWednesday night I was talking to Ian and
I'm talking to him about his golftournament and how much it meant to me,
and he sent me a text andsaid, well, why don't you
come out. You're not gonna beplaying but why don't you come out?

(41:19):
And so I did, and Iwas very excited to do it, and
I'll be honest with you, though, you know, I started getting a
little jealous, and I started wonderingwhy I was there because I saw all
these guys getting to play in thisgreat golf tournament. I thought it would
be so fun to get to play, and I was thinking, shoot the
stinks. And then I got totalk to Mark Kolinski, and I talked
to Mark for about a half anhour. And I'm doing my best not

(41:45):
to go to crazy here, butsome people know that in two thousand and
eight I tried to take my ownlife and getting a chance to talk to
Mark and seeing the positive thing thathe has made such a horrible thing,
and seeing how positive he made thatsituation, and getting a chance to talk

(42:07):
to him, and realizing there's somuch to live for in life, folks.
There's so much good that can happen. I've gotten to do so many
amazing things in those sixteen years sinceI tried to take my life, and
I just appreciate Ian and Mark andpeople like this who put so much time,

(42:29):
and yeah, thank you so much, Ian for having me out there.
Yeah, just on a side note, it was it was a it
was a remarkable day. Always isthe fact that Mark comes out from South
Carolina is really cool. Great guytells the story, is able to speak
about it. You know, Tyler'sstory is one that has to be told.

(42:52):
Yeah. Fortunately because and I thinkwhat he said is true. There's
too many Tylers still out there.We don't know who they are. We
have no idea. Yeah, they'vetalked, they've spoken over three hundred schools.
It's it's just remarkable what they do. And yeah, I'm glad you
were able to come out there.And it's it's always an inspirational day and
it does put things in perspective forsure. And and it was, it

(43:14):
was great. And Jess was hisJess was his driver around the golf cart,
cruise around and talk to a lotof people. And yeah, we
had a very we had a verygood day. We've got more coming up.
We've got the beer coming out onAugust twenty third. We announced that
on Friday, and the mayor Ip a and we're going to raise more
money and and make sure if nothingelse, at least on that world and
that side of things, that theHunskis can continue to go out there and

(43:35):
visit schools all across the country andtalk to young people. They're actually doing
the I think he probably told youthey're doing the wooded Bat the wood Bat
League out on the East coast rightnow, talking to like groups like twenty
kids that are you know, collegekids that are playing those wood bat leagues
as well. So which is areally good deal. So yeah, I
appreciate the con words, and itwas. It was an inspirational, inspirational
night for sure. Exhausting. Ineed I could use a nap. Can

(44:00):
I just say to like, ifwe're if Chris, thank you for sharing
that. That's so great. Also, now I feel awful for just spending
five minutes complaining about the Seattle Mariners. You're gonna lead with that, but
let me I just want to refirmreally quick for Chris and anyone listening out
there. Chris, I am soglad you're here, buddy. Thank you
so. And that's the stuff thatyou guys do with that golf tournament.
I didn't get to make it thisyear. I got to make it the

(44:21):
last two years. It's always sucha great event. But I just want
everything that Chris said is so important. If you've ever been in a situation
like Chris, you are loved,We are glad you're here. The world
is better for you being here.I just wanted to add my voice to
what he was glad you did.I'm glad you. I don't know what
I would do, honestly without thissegment, Like I just I mean,
I'm not even joking, guys,like this is this is a for me.

(44:43):
I look forward to it every week. I know that our and Chris,
you got to know this, Ourlisteners do too. You know,
we get more feedback on this segmentthan anything we do, good or bad
in the radio world. That's agood thing, yeah, because the worst
thing is is not hearing anything.Sure, so if you know at some
point, you know, in Nathan'syou know, first first segment rant here,

(45:06):
I haven't looked at the text lineyet, but there will be things
in there, and it'll be likepeople going Bravo, and there's gonna be
people going what the hell you know? And and and that's and that's a
fun thing. And you guys area huge, huge part of what we
do. It's amazing what this thinghas coming has turned into. It really
is, it's it's it's from avery organic Kevin Mathers an idiot segment too.

(45:27):
And by the way, we'll getto his guy Julio in a minute.
Yea, all that, I'll reintroduceChris in this way and we'll reset
because I see Chris as a screenname today on Zoom Brandon Montour for designated
hitter. Okay, y, yeah, so maybe listen, man right shot,
probably hitch right hand. It'd probablybe you know, good right handed
side of the plate guy, Idon't know, more ready to take a

(45:47):
swing than Luis Castillo is apparently.I mean, let's let's just be honest
here, how insane was that towatch? By the way, he just
told not to swing? I getit. Yeah, played in the National
League for a long time, Idon't know, laid down a bunch maybe,
yeah, I want to break afinger, I can see. I
understand, Yeah, I totally understand. You're put in a bad situation,
horrible situation, horrible And you knowwhat that comes down to the roster construction

(46:12):
here, and that's the issue withhaving your backup catcher be your normal DH
and having to have cal Rally inthe lineup. You can't afford right now
to not have cal Rally and MitchGarver in the lineup, which is really
sad. That's more sad than LuisCastillo having to take three pitches down the
middle of the plate. Now,this weekend was bad, like the Mariners
one in the most fluky of flukeyways on Friday. Otherwise we are talking

(46:36):
about the sweep and we are talkingabout only being two and a half games
up on the Houston Astros, andit's still not good. Like the baseball
that you saw on Saturday and Sunday. Even on Sunday when you tied the
game up at three to three,you got the feeling that, boy,
Minnesota is just a better baseball teamright now than the Seattle Mariners. And
that's not good. It's understandable thatthe Yankees are better. It's understandable that
the Orioles, after tanking for sixtythree years, that they're a better team

(46:59):
too. They have a ton ofreally good players. It's not necessarily acceptable.
It's understandable. You should be betterthan Minnesota, you should be better
than Kansas City, you should bebetter than these teams that they're playing,
and they're not. And as niceas it is, to have a division
lead. You see how the cracksin the armor. You see absolutely what
can go wrong, and right nowa whole hell of a lot is going

(47:20):
wrong for somebody. Stay with thatfor said Chris Craft. Nathan Bishop mollyot
money brought to my simply Seattle,simply settle dot com at Malo WAFA fifteen
at checkout for your discount on allthe great gear. Because you answered it
a little bit. But I wantyou to go a little deeper than nature
jump in because you know the rosterconstruction now is such like you have two
catchers and here the bonus is thisGarver can catch. Like we went into

(47:44):
this season wondering if if he wouldever be behind the plate again. Right,
it was like, okay, he'sjust as strictly a DH nothing else,
that's it. But now we knowhe can catch and effectively like throws
out runners. I don't know whathis percentages, but it feels like he's
more than competent playing the position defensivelyand receiving everything else. But what you

(48:05):
said is interesting. You've got togive big Dumper a day. I mean
he's hitting basically two hundred, yeah, two twenty to thirty four No.
Two hundred to clutch clutch clutch guy. Yeah, every hit. The only
hits it seems like he gets areclutch hits, which I guess good and
bad right back and forth. ButI asked myself yesterday, I'm like,

(48:28):
Garver's catching oh Raley's and why don'twe just give him a day off?
And then you have a day offtoday in two straight days. But I
think you referenced it. They can'tafford to. No, they can't,
and that's the problem here, andthey you know, it's another thing that
where I get frustrated when I heartaught them talk about their depth, and
look, I do think their depthis better than it's been, but that's
damning with faint praise, right,that is not the compliment that they think

(48:51):
that it is. There's still significantroster issues here and the fact that you
can't give your starting catcher a dayoff even though you talk about how important
it is and how you saw himwear down last year too, And I
think you're seeing him not wearing downright now, but I think you're seeing
an exhausted baseball player who kind ofhas to grip and rip right now.
You know, he still takes somequality at bats, but you see him

(49:14):
swinging for the fences a whole heckof a lot, which is one of
the reasons why I think you're seeinghim hit. I think it's two o
two the last time I check withan even more concerning two ninety on base
percentage. Now that on base percentagebeing that much higher than the average tells
you that the approach hasn't been abhorrent, but it's not good enough to get
on at a two ninety clip.This is supposed to be your second best
offensive player, This is supposed tobe your second best overall player, and

(49:37):
right now he might be your bestoverall player. But that again is darning
with fint praise. I like howI went from damning to darning. I'll
go even lower. I guess TVwhy next time that we do this?
But like, there's just so manyroster issues here, And this is the
thing I want to caution. Everybodyis like, what are they gonna do
with the deadline? What are theygoing to do with the deadline? Unless

(49:58):
they revamp the roster, there aregoing to be issues for twenty twenty four.
They cannot just acquire a whole newbaseball team that's not going to happen.
So you have a chance to bea decent baseball team. You have
a chance to win the division.You have a chance to do some damage
in the postseason because your rotation isthat good. But the issues that we
see here, they're here for twentytwenty four. Twenty twenty five is going

(50:19):
to be a massive offseason. Idon't want to talk about twenty twenty five.
I don't want to talk about twentytwenty five, but there is no
denying that no matter what they doat the deadline or close to it,
still gonna have a lot of issues. You know what's funny is I don't
have the direct quote in front ofme because that would be being a journalist
and I'm not that at all.But I know for a fact that one
of the things that Mitch Garver saidwhen he was in d because he said,

(50:46):
I can catch, but you knowwhen I catch, I get hurt.
And what happened yesterday? Did MitchGarver get hurt? Has Mitch Garver
had some injury troubles and staying onthe field since he was catching, Yeah,
that's probably because we went the cheapestpossible on our backup catcher, and
he ended up being one of theworst baseball players in the major leagues in
sebb'savalas, so he had to godown to Triple A. And it just

(51:07):
speaks to Chris's point. I mean, the roster construction here is so top
heavy. I already said it inmy first segment, having to ask your
everyday catcher who by the way,I agree, he's basically hitting like last
year Kyle Seeger, like just sellingout for power every single time. But
asking your catcher to be your secondbest offensive player is ludicrous. Lineup construction

(51:31):
and asking your best one to beyour center fielder, and good lord,
he is not their best hitter atall, but asking your best leader to
be your center fielder absolutely ridiculous.This team cannot just swallow their pride and
get real major league hitters at DH, first base and corner outfield. They
just cannot do it. And Idon't know why. I mean, I

(51:53):
guess they've kind of tried, sortof. They sent Ty France to drive
line. I don't know if thatcosts them any more money out of pocket
or anything, but what if.I just don't understand any of the way
that this lineup and this roster isconstructed on the positional side. It's upside
down. It's upside down, it'sthin, it's full of holes. It
was built on guys replicating career years, staying healthy when they've never stayed healthy,

(52:17):
being better than they'd ever been before. I just it's a predictable disaster,
the same way that it was lastyear and the same way it was
the year before. Let me goback to Nathan's first opening comments and toss
it back to you, Chris.Are they better than last year or even
twenty twenty two. I don't thinkthey're not. I don't think so.

(52:37):
Like I think that they're pretty similarto what they were in twenty twenty two
and twenty twenty three. And that'snot horrible. It's just not good enough.
Like being an eighty seven to eightyfive to eighty eight win talent isn't
a terrible thing. It's just notgood enough. It's not what we were
sold. It's not what we weretold to be patient for. We were
told to be patient for a WorldSeries contending team. This is not a

(52:59):
World Series content. There's just noway that you can watch how they've played
against good teams or how they playedon the road against terrible teams like the
Marlins and tell me that this isa World Series contender. So they're just
right around the same, which isn'tthe worst thing in the world, but
it's certainly not good enough. Yeah, I guess that's the concern, is
that, you know, as welook ahead, you know, because the

(53:21):
divisions has been bad, they're goodenough to win the division? Or are
they? Like, how concerned,Nathan, How concerned are we now about
this? This the little engine thatcould, the poor little Houston Astros.
Man, They've just been scuffled alongfor the last couple of decades. I
mean, are we concerned about themat all? Or are they just kind
of a you know, are theylike Oakland earlier this season? They're just

(53:43):
a blip on the radar screen.As soon there'll be a mosquito on the
on the windshields. I'm pretty surethat the Houston Astros are better than the
Oakland Athletics, but you can comeget me. I find up being wrong
on that one. I think youshould be very concerned. I think,
first of all, let me letme caution that by saying the Marriers are
not as bad as they have playedthe last two weeks and the Astros are
not as good as they have playedthe last two weeks. You're catching both

(54:04):
of these teams at opposite extremes.So right now, it's very easy to
say, oh, the Mariners aredoomed and the Astrods are going to lap
them. Not unlike what happened intwenty eighteen when the Mariners got just totally
lapped by the Oakland Athletics, whowe just talked about. But I don't
think this is that kind of scenario. I think Houston's pitching issues are extremely
real and they are going to struggleto prevent runs for the rest of the
year the exact inverses of Seattle Mariners. They can hit the living crap out

(54:27):
of the baseball. They have reallygood baseball players in their lineup every single
day, which is awesome and somethingthat I've been told can be really fun.
I hope to experience it one day. Then you have the Mariners on
the opposite end, who just havethe best rotation in baseball probably, but
can I hit their way out ofa wet paper bag? So I think
what is going to end up being, if I had to predict, is
July first, Now we're more thanhalfway through the season. I think this

(54:49):
is going to be an absolutely excruciatingsecond half of the season. I think
it is going to come down tothe very last week of the regular season.
I think these teams are going togo back and forth, and I
think we're either going to be extremelyrelieved or extremely upset. If you thought
last year people were upset missing theplayoffs by a game, if they do
something like that this year and blowa ten game lead, it is going

(55:10):
to be apocalyptic around here. Soit's going to be crazy. I find
the veiled sarcas is my favorite partof the show. By the way I
do. It's pretty thin. It'syeah, not being subtle. Oh you're
not at all, You're subtle.Before we wrap up this segment, Chris,
how concerned are we about Houston rightnow? Concerned? Yeah, just
because again I talked about it lastweek. You're talking about a roster that

(55:35):
has been to it's either six orseven straight alcsss like that. Most of
the guys who have been there havebeen there. Sure, Houston has flaws.
Their rotation is in absolute shambles rightnow, but Nathan talked about it.
They've got guys who can really hit. And oh, by the way,
they're doing this without Kyle Tucker rightnow, who is a really,
really, really really good baseball player. Jordan Alvarez is one of the best

(55:58):
offensive hitters that I have seen thelast five or six years or so.
They're a very competent baseball team,and they are also a team that I
think will be aggressive at the deadline. They don't have a ton of prospects
that they can move, but theones that they have, I think they're
willing to move and go get better. There's been some talk about them going
out and getting somebody like a GarrettCrochet to improve their rotation. I can't
imagine that they're not going to getsomebody to help that pitching staff out,

(56:22):
So yeah, you have to beconcerned about it. They have a really
good offense, they have a reallygood back end of the bullpen, and
Ryan Presley and Josh Hater. Evenif Ryan Presley hasn't been quite the same,
Josh Hater is one of the betterclosers in baseball. They're just as
good, if not better, thanthe Seattle Mariners, and there's still a
lot of baseball left to be played. Three and a half games is nothing.
All right, we'll tell you aquick break. Come back. I'll

(56:44):
share yesterday a highly entertaining back andforth. It was the Julio Rodriguez debate.
Nathan luckily was working doing what hedoes, selling house, is doing
his real estate thing. Mobile outthere and gets sev County. But meanwhile
Anders Anders Oh, Anders Uh andChris back and forth on the Julio train.
We'll get to Julio coming up next. Molliwap Monday, brought to you

(57:06):
by Simply Seattle, Simply Seattle dotcom. Molliwap fifteen at checkout, morticcap
nine three point three KJFM. Myfrom the R and R Foundation, Specialist
broadcast studio back to Ian Fernetz,powered by Seattle's closest sportsbook, Snow call
me Casino on Sports Radio ninety threepoint three kJ r FM. All right,

(57:30):
we continue on mullywap Monday, broughtto you by Simply Seattle, Simply
Seattle dot com. Molliwap fifteen atcheckout for your discount. So, Julio
Rodrigues, before I go to Chris, Nathan, I'll just throw it to
you. I say the name JulioRodriguez. What comes to mind here on
the first of July twenty twenty fourof the year of Barboard. Frustrating and

(57:52):
concerning, but not panicked. Itis probably the best way that I would
summarize it. I mean, andwe kind of talked about it in the
previous segment. The twenty twenty fourMariners need Julio Rodriguez to be a whole
lot better than he's currently playing.I don't think that's a shocking revelation.
I don't know where to go.It's very hard to talk about Julio rationally,

(58:14):
and it's very hard to talk abouthim in a way that doesn't make
it sound like I'm either saying allcriticism of him is invalid or he's a
total bust and they've wasted this hugecontract on him. Because neither of those
things are true. I think thebiggest thing that you can say is that
this has gone on long enough nowoffensively with him. This is not a
slump. This is not something wherewe're just waiting on. Yes, he's

(58:36):
had some bad luck. He hitthe ball, he had a good day
yesterday. He hit the ball hardplenty of times yesterday, didn't get a
lot to show for it. Butwe're not just talking about yesterday. We're
talking about now all of twenty twentyfour, which is three hundred and fifty
plus played appearances of this guy havinga WRC plus of below ninety. I
think is that where we're at withhim now? Is he below I think
he's in the mid eighties at thispoint in his WRC plus. That is

(59:00):
as strophically bad for a guy thathas as much talent. So the question
is, now, this isn't aslump. This is a major issue.
What is the issue? Can hebounce back and adjust? And he has
to because while he's still a verygood and useful major league player with his
defense in center field, he isnot the superstar player that the Mayors need
him to be, and that theyhad every reason to believe he would be

(59:21):
after his rookie season. So I'mconcerned because it's not a force. He's
incredibly athletic, he's incredibly talented.We hear over and over again how hard
he works, and I believe allof that. But this isn't as simple
as just going out there and continuingto do what he's been doing. Something
has to change with him offensively,and he has to show that he can
do that, Chris. So,yeah, there's nothing that I can really

(59:45):
disagree with that for there, especiallybecause look, sports are results based and
we can talk about process results allthat crap. Sometimes I think we get
in trouble when we talk about thatstuff because it's just in incentivizing when you
talk about process over a result forjust not trying and talk about that.
However, I'm going to give yousome expected stats for Julio Rodriguez and then
what the actual stats are and whyI am supremely confident in this guy being

(01:00:08):
a still really really really good player, and he's still a good player because
of what he's giving you with baserunning and with what he's doing defensively against
fastballs. His expected slugging percentage isfour ninety seven, his actual slugging percentage
is three ninety six. That's onehundred points difference. His expected slugging percentage

(01:00:28):
against sliders is four point fifty two. His actual slugging percentage is three thirty
three. Against sinkers, his expectedslugging percentages five to sixty three. It's
still a really good four to seventyone. Those are elite expected slugging percentage
numbers, and he's not slugging thebaseball at all. Now, some of
this has to do with the factthat he's just not pulling the baseball right

(01:00:52):
now, and it's frustrating. Andwhen he did pull the baseball a couple
of times yesterday and ended up beingout, and that's frustrating, there's no
question about it. But I stilllook at this guy. I see the
bat speed, I see the stats. I see the expected batting average being
an elite seventy ninth percent. Notelite, but pretty darn good. I
see a four to thirty five expectedslugging percentage, which is a one hundred

(01:01:13):
and eight points higher than his actualslugging percentage. The bat speed's still there,
the hard hit percentage is still there. I still absolutely believe that Julio
Rodriguez is a superstar. I'm goingto need a lot more than two bad
months, and this is two badmonths, There's no question about it.
A six twenty four ops is batand again, results matter more than process.
But the process has to matter alittle bit. And the eye test

(01:01:36):
tells me that Julio Rodriguez is justa little bit off, and there's every
reason to believe that he's going tobe the superstar that he was in twenty
twenty three for the most part andtwenty twenty two. I just believe in
Julio Rodriguez a heck of a lot. Give give our listeners a little context
in terms of what the expected thoseexpected numbers are and why they aren't becoming

(01:01:58):
reality, because I think it peoplelike, Okay, it's expected, but
what does that mean? Does thatmean advanced scouting has, as we talked
about before, has gotten to aplace now where they just know that they
know where he's going to hit theball. So that's fine, it just
isn't working anymore, and he's gotto adjust. What do those numbers mean?
So the expected lugging percentage is baseda lot on the hard contact that

(01:02:19):
you're making and also a little bitbased on the launch angle of your swing.
And look, Julio's lunch angle's gotto get a little bit better.
He has to start pulling the baseballmore, like I said. But they
suggest also that there's just been somebad luck. There's been some fly balls
that have been into gaps that havebeen caught by guys on nice plays.
You saw Carlos Santana perfectly positioned onthat line drive. That's not a great
job of defensive positioning. That's badluck. The auto Lopez played the game

(01:02:44):
that should have the hit that shouldhave tied that game against the Marlins.
That wasn't great defensive positioning. Thatwas Spudweb jumping up and making that play.
Like there are have been some reallyunfortunate things that happen for Julio.
It's just people don't want to hearit because this isn't a two week sample.
This isn't even a too much it'sthree months of results that are below
average. But everything that I haveseen from Julio Rodriguez, everything that he

(01:03:07):
has done in the past, tellsme that you can't be this unlucky,
for lack of a better term,for the whole season. I just believe
in Julio Rodriguez. Man, Ithink he's a superstar. Well, I
think it just goes back, Nathan, goes back to what we've discovered,
what you discussed earlier. I mean, it's you can't expect your center fielder
who is a Gold Glove caliber centerfielder and an elite base runner and he's

(01:03:29):
doing other things to then Oh,by the way, you also have to
carry every bit of this offense onyour shoulders. You need some help elsewhere
along the way. Let's look ahead, fellas to the week ahead, Nathan.
I'll come back to you. Youbrought it up earlier. So Baltimore's
tomorrow and then a neutral site seriesagainst the Toronto Blue Jays after that,

(01:03:52):
Right, I love that series?Yeah? I mean, what do we
got this week? Man? Thisis a this is a this is a
beast coming up, isn't it.Well, here's what I can say.
So the easier series is against Torontotheoretically, and Vladimir Guerrero Junior had nineteen
RBIs last week and the Seattle Marinershad twenty two, so that's cool.

(01:04:12):
And then you have three games againstBaltimore, who I think might just be
the best team in baseball. Ifthey're not, they're real close. They
are the best offensive team in baseballby a fair bit. They absolutely hit
the live and you know what,out of the baseball I think they have
something like fifteen more home runs thanany other team in baseball. And that's
not the bandbox that it used tobe out there in Camden Yards or whatever

(01:04:33):
they call it. Now they've madethose fences back further. So it's harder
to hit home runs there, soincredible team. I think if you go
three and three this week, itis a massive success. I think anything
better is just gravy. And thething with both with Baltimore, especially Minnesota
is not a bad team. Youplay like you did against Minnesota, you
are going to get waxed against Baltimore. They're not going to be I think

(01:04:56):
the Mariners scored seven runs over theweekend, and six of those or defensive
gifts from the Minnesota Twins. Youare not going to get that level of
mercy from the Baltimore Orioles. Sothey're going to have to play a lot
better, which I think is probablyjust what Chris was saying at the beginning
of his segment. They just needto play a lot better. They can,
they have, but it's just aquestion of whether they will. They

(01:05:17):
really need to show up. Chris, who needs to step up? Well,
we just we talked about Julio everyweek, but I think and I
brought it up today. I mean, they wrote call him in the newspaper
today about it. It's you know, he's he's the focal point. He
should be. He's your franchise player. He's paid like your franchise player,
he's going to be that guy.But but who are the other guys We
talked about him, We talked aboutRaleigh. You know, your son JP
is doing fine, whatever, Butwe're the guys that really have to be

(01:05:40):
better, not guys like Dylan Moorethat we shouldn't be expecting to be an
everyday player, or Ryan Bliss orsomebody like that. Who are the guys,
Chris that have to step up?You know you mentioned my son.
I think my son's got to startplaying a lot better too. Like a
two fifteen, three thirteen, threesixty one slash ain't gonna cut it from
your leadoff hitter, but type tranceman, Like I get it that Ty

(01:06:01):
Frantz came back from an injury andshowed some flashes, but like, this
is your starting first basement and heis slugging three seventy two, two thirty
three, three twenty three, threeseventy two from your starting first basement from
what's supposed to be a World Seriescontending team. Just ain't good enough right
now. Mitch Hanneger hasn't been goodenough. Mitch Garver obviously, like hopefully

(01:06:23):
he's okay, but like the numbersyou've gotten from Mitch Garver as your designated
hitter and now your backup catcher justaren't good enough. It's everybody like I
went over this on the MAYAI onSaturday, just going through the numbers,
and none of this is good enough. The only guy who has been close
to expectations for me too, actuallyare Josh Rojas and Luke Rayley. And

(01:06:43):
Luke Rayley's had his up and downs, and Josh Rojas's numbers are really carried
by what he did at the startof the season. So there's another guy
who's got to start stepping up andplaying a whole heck of a lot better
as well. It's a collective effort. Baseball's a team game, and you're
one through nine just not good enough. I think you still have the lowest
batting average in baseball right now andcertainly the most strikeouts of any team in

(01:07:04):
baseball. With another fifteen. Iwant to say last night, it's just
not good enough. It's just notgood enough across and as bad as Julio
has been result wise, no questionabout it, there's other guys who could
step up and help bake this teama whole tech of a lot better as
well. All right, Chris work, can we find you in? What
should you expectations be this week?NATESA three and three? What do you

(01:07:25):
expect this week? Three and three? If you go three and three,
I'm feeling pretty darn good. Hopefullythe Blue Jays can take out some frustrations
against Houston and beat up on thatseries, and maybe you can come out
of this thing with a four anda half five and a half game lead.
I'd be more than happy with that. You can follow my work at
myoi YouTube dot com slash at ChrisB. Crawford recapping every single game.

(01:07:46):
Please hit join if you join oursubscription. We're doing live chats on Tuesday
home games now, so that's gonnabe fun. We're just watching the whole
game, talking through it. It'sbeen a blast of the few that we've
done so far. Really appreciate thesupport, and I will ask everybody what
does everybody think about a one o'clockFourth of July game? Because I think
that's weird. Well, they don'tdo They do fireworks elsewhere in Seattle,

(01:08:08):
so that's that's why they had todo it. Okay, Yeah, it's
the you don't want to you're okaywith Lake Union. I'm okay with it.
Yeah. Most people want to gethome, get barbecues, do their
own thing, you know. Yeah, it's kind of like, you know,
those of us to play golf onthe fourth of July. That out
of the way, so we're okaywith it. We'll criticize when needed.
That's not one we'll go to.I understand what from a business standpoint,

(01:08:29):
Nathan three and three? Where canwe find you? Yep, you canna
engage with me in Mariners Thought andall sorts of other topics at the future
of unlimited Engagement, which is xdot com at Nathan Underscore h underscore B.
I love it, fellas great stuff, Enjoy the holiday, enjoy the
week. Go watch Chris and Mileyfollow along tomorrow. It's a ton of
fun on his YouTube channel. Wekeep wanting to support that all the great

(01:08:54):
work he does there as well.Has Sergeant Doom joined that yet, because
I just want to know with misterFine, I gotta think he's got to
be close to joining me. He'sprobably got like a hidden name type of
thing where he's he's just trolling mewith somebody else. But I guarantee that
Dick Fane has definitely left comment somewhereon that YouTube page. I love it,
I love it. I'm a greatweek, guys. Big thanks to

(01:09:15):
Simply Seattle simply Sattle dot com.MOI want fifteen to check out for more
information. We'll come back well.Daily power Play next. On this first
day of free agency in the NationalHockey League nine three point three kjr FM,
Malkin shoots one it on GOLDI plucksand I stop. It's Crosby stop.
This is the Daily power Play DeepSlot one. Tim McKennon now Ian

(01:09:44):
ferns Son Sports Radio ninety three pointthree. Wait for kJ r FM Daily
power Player. Home for the krackof nine three point three k jr FM.
Ron Francis is going to speak inthe two o'clock hour. Your efforting
audio to hear from him. Radioterm efforting this code for if Benton can

(01:10:08):
make it work technically, we'll hearfrom Ron Francis to the two o'clock hour.
It's gonna happen. It's all onthe captain's shoulders. Anyone can do
it. He can. Cracking fans. If you don't hear Around Francis the
two o'clock hour, send your complaints, to Mike Benton at iHeartMedia Dot Call,
just raise his DMS on Twitter.Oh, he's already getting pammered on
DMS. There's arguing with people.He's arguing about Yamamoto and I don't know.

(01:10:33):
It's just it's great. He's all. And the thing with Mikey,
I love him to death, likehe actually worries about that stuff, like
when people, Oh my god,did they think I'm actually Mikey. Don't
worry about it, all right,captain, just relax. But yeah,
we should hear from Ron Francis inthe two o'clock hour as a sign through
the Kraken two free agents just goingoff one list the Athletic and I like

(01:10:56):
the Athletic. I think got greatwriters, great hockey writers. All the
way through. They did their topseventy five Chris Johnson, who's a really
good writer, really good hockey journalist, did their top twenty five seventy five
NHL free agents the crack of Today, signing two of the top fifteen,
number six Brandon Montour seven years,seven point one million per and they also
signed Chandler Stevenson. He was rankednumber twelve seven years, six point two

(01:11:21):
five million dollars. Out of thetop thirty free agents available on this the
first day of NHL free agency,twenty eight of the thirty have already signed.
Jeez, they start going down thelist, there's not many more.
Yes, Vancouver's taking a wee bitof a hit. By the way,
apologies Canucks fans. It's a dooroff a Linholm. I can't believe they

(01:11:45):
let the door off Lok. Yeahhe was. He was that team.
I mean he ended up going Didhe go to Boston too? Oh?
He did? You're both of themwent to Boston. Yeah, that's weird.
That really is a kick in.They about the Boston too. Y
oh, cheese. Okay, jessevil, my god, that's offside there.

(01:12:11):
By the way, I'm not watchingunfortunately. Okay, let's be working
the show. You know, westunned to know there, like everything,
Yes, channel, that's why I'mworking. Let's let's hear from one of
the newest members of the Seattle Kraken. He's a Stanley Cup champion as of
about what seven days ago? Yeah, it's just over a week. Yeah.

(01:12:33):
Yeah, hopefully if he's I don'tI want to say sobered up,
but I wonder if he's calmed downand the party was going on all weekend.
Did you see the part of thepulling down rain in the parade in
Florida? Yeah, and then hegets a giant seven year deal, so
he's happy. Here is new krackingcourtesy is sports Net Brandon Montour. And
why he came to Seattle. Yeah, I mean I was looking everywhere.

(01:12:55):
You know, It's again, itwas, you know a big thing for
me and my family to you know, set up shop for a while and
you know, continue building you knowwhat we have. And the main thing
for me was to go to ateam that wanted me, you know,
loved my game, and a teamthat wanted wants to win and you know,
are going to do anything. Obviouslyyou see, you know two years

(01:13:18):
ago how close they were to theconference finals. Last year obviously you know,
taking a step back, but tryingto find the right pieces and and
to get back in that winning youknow, that winning form, and obviously,
you know, looking at Seattle asa sports town and or sports city,
winning there and you know, Ithink just the buzz would be insane.

(01:13:43):
He they're a better hockey team rightnow than they were twenty four hours
ago. Yeah, so that's agood thing. I would assume we're here
from Francis and that there's more movesto be made, that they they got
a little bit of a roster logjamin a couple of places, so we'll
see what comes up with the nextfew days. We're going to do our
show, by the way, tomorrowat the thirty two Bar and Grail Camp.
Wait will be out there this firstday of rookie and developmental camp for

(01:14:03):
the Kraken. We'll hopefully get RonFrancis on face to face and whatever other
the guests we can wrangle up afterthey get through their workouts in the morning,
so they'll be up out there tomorrowenjoying that. They got scrimmages later
this week that are open for thepublic. I think Friday and Saturday,
I believe is what it is.So yeah, lots going on here during

(01:14:25):
the season, kracking and free agency. A couple other notes around the league.
Your friend Alex Winberg's going to SanJose. Sam Ryan hart Re signed
with Florida. He was the numberone guy in the list. Jake Gunsale's
going to gun Sales going to TampaBay. They actually done quite well.
Stamcos Nashville they've been very active Boston, very active lind Holm and zador Off.

(01:14:49):
I like the Kracking signings to behonest. Yeah, I think that
coupled with the draft. It's beena good weekend. They've had a good
weekend. Yes, they've had avery good They've they've had a very good
start to the offseason. Well,I mean compared to the Mariners. All.
That's like we talked about earlier abouthow they kind of missed a boat
on the momentum, and you know, Julio and Matty Benier's kind of trajectories

(01:15:11):
are similar. They've three years in, they're already spending money and kind of
taking risks and doing so. Sothis is something that I like to see.
Yeah. The only thing, youknow, the only thing I would
say is that the downside of freeagency so far for them is the term
of the contracts. Right. Ijust but that's the world the NHL.
Yep. So there's no seven years, right, yeah, And there's and

(01:15:32):
they're remember it's NHL is like Baseball, except for the NHL. As a
salary count, you sign a contractis guaranteed. Now you can get buyouts
and things like that. There's alots I mean I think you will see
buyouts at some point. Can youbuy out without a cap hit? Can
you cash by Okay, that's whatI was wondering. Okay, I mean
you can just basically, but youcan save something rid of them. Yeah,

(01:15:54):
it's it would be a combination ofNFL. That's kind of NFL like
in a sense. Know, NFLdoesn't NFL doesn't buy you out. They
cut you, but they cut youon certain days when the when the cap
it is different, lower and thingslike that. So yeah, there's ways
to do buyouts. And that's math. They told me there's no math here.

(01:16:15):
Might radio math on a We needsome sort of like contract guru.
Yeah for all this I cannot.Yeah, well there's but they're all different.
I know every rules, every leagueis different with the rules. Can
what's the score in that game?Baseball one zero, Astros bottom six?
Why was it delayed again? Idon't even know. I like, oh,

(01:16:36):
Canada take longer today? It's notrain had anything to do wrong with
issues? I don't know. Yeah, they just longer rendition of old Canada
find out last doing it again?She like, you know, stumbling through
eight minutes, eight minutes, that'sSae he lost the umpire, lost track

(01:17:00):
of the count and the oh thatwas the Mets aster Astros game my bed.
Never mind, that's not today's game. We'll move on. We'll find
out. Yeah, that's like meto find out. It's like media and
radio math live. It's very similar. Actually, you googling is the same
as media and radio math. Okay, he's got an answer. Rob Francis

(01:17:21):
coming up to the two o'clock hour. We'll hear from him probably around two
twenty today. We'll recap what agreat weekend it was for us at the
Mayor and Maple Valley. Just I'lltell you a story about hanging out with
Markolensky. All that's coming up next. No from the Star Rentals Sports Tests.
Your ninety three point three kJ rFM Sports Headlines two o'clock headlines brought

(01:17:44):
to you by Buddy's Good using glassalways for twenty eight buddies. Can you
update me on the EuroSCORE because Ican't see it. No score, they're
in the first overtime, all rightONLs I flipped it over to the NHL
network. Okay, but just tosee and I'm flipping it back hang on,
kind of don't care. It's justgood. What was it? I
was on Fox thirteen, wasn't it. Yeah? It was big Fox.

(01:18:05):
You don't get that in there.No, No, what's the score with
that game? One's there? Houstonbottoms top seven, top of seven.
One. Okay, that makes that'sa that's one that we care about here.
Why is that? Well, becauseladies and gentlemen, the Mariners were
off today. I have just athree and a half game lead over the
Houston Astros in the American League WestMS losing two of three over the weekend
of the Minnesota Twins five to three. Lost yesterday twelve men's trended on base.

(01:18:29):
That's not good. Mitch Garver hitwith a pitch that wasn't good because
then Luis Castile had to hit,and then they had to pinch hit later
and that was turned into a gong. Yeah, it was a shuffle.
I was at that one and wewere like, wait, what, Oh,
that's what NHL Free agency Day numberone Kracking have been busy. Thirty
year old defenseman Brandon Montour signed withseven years, seven point one million dollar

(01:18:51):
contract per season. Also the Krackand signing center iceman Chandler Stevenson from the
Vegas Golden Knights also a seven yearsthat will be six point two five average
per season, and the NFL revealedtheir schedule least the openers today, first
time in the history the Cracking aregoing to open up at home. That's
the good news. Now, dependingon your worstive perspective, the bad news

(01:19:17):
is, by all reports, it'sgoing to be a national TV game at
one thirty in the afternoon on Tuesday, October Eighth's great for us, absolutely,
yeah, take it games. I'mactually off that Dame games were around
four for thirty half hour. Yeah, sounds like softy and fat. I'll
be doing a show from about fivethirty until seven o'clock that night. Let's

(01:19:41):
go and we will be kicking backwatching the Crack and start the season one
and zero against Saint Louis. Yesthey will. Brandon Montero, Popleagel,
hold look at you all right,let's get in the next hour live from
the R and R Foundation specialists broadcaststudio back to Ian Fernance Power Advice,
Ye Closest sports book Snop Call meCasino on Sports Radio ninety three point three

(01:20:04):
kJ R FM. It's got afew minutes here. We gotta check we'll
check text on on the hour.By the way, four nine four or
five one. That's the tullelewordho textlemen, it's game time time. Wow,
it's just right on the money.Guys, must be him Monday.
I hit a different note on thatone, apparently, so we I like

(01:20:26):
to have a little staggered like whenyou say Tony time really quick, like
it's it's all time. There wego. It absolutely is. Yeah,
we will be with you until threeo'clock. Soft, you'll join us at
two forty five this afternoon. Weshould be hearing from Ron Francis around two
twenty today for a few minutes.His news conference taking place right now out
at the Crack End Community Ice FlexKC. I, so stand by for

(01:20:50):
that. We'll get his thoughts onwhat they have done on this day.
The Maritors are off. They havea day off today before they start a
series against Baltimore tomorrow. And againAndrews will keep to keep an eye on
up for us. But that gameis of great interest to us in Seattle
because Seattle will start that series withBaltimore after Houston's game in Toronto today either
up three games in the Al Westor up four games in the Al West.

(01:21:14):
Currently it's three and a half,but with Houston playing Seattle IDOL,
there will be a half game gamechange in those standings one way, yes
or another. Can wait? Whatday do we play Baltimore Tuesday? Which
is that would be the second ofJuly twenty twenty four? Okay, very
good, try by you, verygood, try by you, very very

(01:21:38):
good, try by you anders tryOkay. I was out all last week,
so I had to get it in. I know, how was the
mornings? Oh lovely? Being hereat five am? Just so much fun.
This is more fun show, isn'tit. Yeah? Like, isn't
it Like it's a little more easy. It's just kind of a little more
it's a little more laid back.Yeah. And I love hanging with Bucky
and Ashley when Chuck was out.It was a good time. We talked

(01:21:58):
a little bit. I like gettingBuck's perspective on, you know, hitters
approach, which I think he's reallygood at articulating. I'm big into approach.
Yeah, yeah, no, I'mnot buyeah results. You know,
it's a very simple thing that peopoplesay, it's pro sports. Yeah,
it's pro sports. Just that's whatit is. Like there's unfortunate with pro

(01:22:24):
sports. It's about results, butapproach does matter. I know that's why
again, Yeah, that's right,that's why we have Bucky. He played,
he understands the approach. I justwant to see results. Results have
not been good lately. We'll getback to them in a second. I
just spent a little bit time earlierto do it again right now, just
while we have a second before weget to a break and check in and
hear from Ron Francis around two twentytoday. Big thanks everybody who came out

(01:22:44):
and played the golf tournament on Friday. Ah. Yes at Cot Now,
the golf course is in terrific shape. I've said that before and probably was
lying a little bit. It reallyis. It's in great shape. Don
and Don Firesoon's the soup out there, and Luke Olsen and Isaac and Max
and the whole. True, they'vedone a hell of a job of courses
in great shop. That's where thesimilarities to Augusta and the Master's at Masters

(01:23:10):
doesn't have the Chambers Bay a whiskeywagon there hanging out. Really they don't
know. They also don't have Georgetownbeer. Plus I have my phone or
Lone River Ranch water Maple Valley isbetter than the Masters flowing an alarming rate.
It was so yeah, big,thanks those guys. It's always a

(01:23:30):
On a serious note, it's alwaysa I considered an honor that since twenty
eighteen, So eighteen nineteen and thentwenty one, twenty two, twenty three
and twenty four, so what fiveyears now we have been supporting Helensky's hope.
Six years have been supporting but fiveyears of golf. And each of
those years Mark and or Kim HalenskyTyler Helensky's parents won or both have come

(01:23:54):
out. This year Mark came out, and I really appreciate him coming out
and telling some stories and discussing whatLensky's Hope is all about. And you
got a chance to ride around withhim. I appreciate that, and I
know he did as well. Jess, what did you get out of that?
That that three hours of watching badgolf? But being with Mark,
Well, we pulled over at everysingle foursome, you know, we drove

(01:24:15):
the back nine first and then thefront and just made sure that, you
know, we could recognize people.I liked that all the foursomes got into
the spirit a lot of them madematching shirts and we're teams out there.
His ability to connect with people soeasily while he is raw and emotional and
allowing himself to be vulnerable. Youknow, while we were driving around to

(01:24:38):
we got a chance to just talkone on one a lot, and he
was open and sometimes you'd never knowand someone's you know, he's going to
be grieving forever, right, Yeah, and so he still is. And
you know, he didn't have himthere, and I know they're each other's
rocks too, so he was kindof solo. So he and I just
immediately connected. And I think that'swhat makes Tyler's talk so special. And

(01:24:59):
I know that last week he andKim talked about that when they joined you
on the show, how they're genuineand so this isn't some you know,
Ted talk or anything. It's actuallytalking to people and being emotional. And
we had a couple of tears together, we had a couple of beers together,
And what I got out of itwas knowing that there are is an

(01:25:21):
amazing family doing great things for people. Yeah, And he spoke to the
golfers, and some of the golfershad some of their family come by later
in the pavilion, and I meanit's always powerful when he does that.
And usually we had Brannon with usas well. Brannan wasn't there, but
Brandon's going to be with us forthe beer release coming up at the end
of August. But it was,Yeah, that was a powerful you know,

(01:25:44):
that place was silent. They listened. It's I think what you said
is true, Like they're still grieving. They always will grieve. I asked,
you know, Kim that last weekand Mark last week in the interview,
I just said, hey, youknow, do you ever does this
ever get easier? It does?I mean I saw him three months after
that's when I first met her,when we did the story out in that

(01:26:05):
park in Bellevue, and I justto this day, I still can't fathom
going through what they went through.One of the hardest things with Tyler is
that he didn't leave a note.Mark and I talked about that. Yeah,
you don't get the why. That'swhat everybody wants, is the why.
Yeah, And it's you know,and Chris had some powerful statements earlier
on Molliwap if you missed it,I mean, he tried to take his

(01:26:27):
own life. He talks about thatoften back in two thousand and eight,
and you know, as a parent, I can't I just can't fathom losing
a child in any way, shapeor form, but especially that way.
And so it's it was you know, I think as we went through it
and went through the day and hiscrazy, wild, fun, emotional,

(01:26:48):
exhausting and all that is, it'salso fulfilling because I know that if you
played in that tournament, or ifyou're Prime Electric or Lone River Ranchwater or
Georgetown Cutter and buck Et, cetera. My guy Mike Gustus and Gus at
Columbia Distributing man, those guys,the Miller Cores people. I mean,
if you're all those folks, theHall Queen Anne Moss Bay Halls, all

(01:27:11):
those people that donate true links thatthe money goes to an incredible cause and
it makes a difference. And hesaid something He's never said this before.
This is the first time he saidthis him or Kim, and I thought
this was It was one of thosemoments I kind of took a step back
because I'll be honest with you,by the time I get there, I'm
just kind of like, I hopeit's worth it. I hope we're doing
something good. I hope you knowthat the effort that my wife and I

(01:27:33):
put into it, and especially youknow her as much as me, and
maybe more so because she's got todeal with me, is you know how
I know it's worth it. Buthe said, you know, somewhere raising
money and then having the ability togo out and speak, and they've spoken
to over three hundred schools already.He started doing the math. That's probably

(01:27:55):
somewhere around two hundred and fifty tothree hundred thousand kids they've already spoken to.
But as he said, somewhat we'resaving a life. And you hear
that sometimes like ah, that thatsaved a life tonight. No, they
did because somewhere in the money thatwe raised an extra golf shot with a
mulligan, whatever it might be.They went to a school and I told
the story that when they spoke atWhitworth and they did the whole Whitworth Whitworth

(01:28:24):
Gonzaga Eastern Tour a couple of yearsago, three kids went and talked to
the football coach afterwards. So itwas they did, Okay, we'll take
a break, thank you for comingout there, thank you for having me.
We'll take a break, we'll comeback. Do we have Ron Francis,
Michael Benton. There you go,the captain coming through. We'll hear

(01:28:45):
from Ron Francis next live from theR and R Foundation Specialists broadcast studio back
to Ian Furnance, powered by Seattle'sclosest sports book, Snow call me Casino
on Sports Radio ninety three point threekJ R FA. Well check tax at

(01:29:13):
about ten minutes time four nine fourfive one on the tollmore new text line
when it's game time, totally time. How about this? Ron Francis,
the gentle manager of your Seattle Krakenmoments ago, met with the media on
day one of NHL free agency postNHL Draft. A couple of players signed
today. Here's Ron Francis. Wellgot Montory Gus Stevenson today. How does

(01:29:33):
that match up with the goals thatyou set out to make this team better
heading into the off season. Well, I mean it's exciting day for the
cracking organization, our fans, right. It just it goes to show that
players want to come to Seeattle,they want to play in this organization,
they want to play in front ofour great fans. And you know,
we think with the addition of Montorthat's an offensive piece in the back end.

(01:29:54):
If he's playing twenty three twenty fourminutes for a cup winning team,
brings us Downley cup into the lockerroom with him, and you know,
and Stevenson just a really good twoway guy, plays with pace as you
know, sneaky skill set, soyou know, brings two cups into the
locker room as well. So theychecked a lot of boxes and we're excited
at him to our roster. Whenyou did that kind of looking at last

(01:30:16):
season, that was the lack ofoffense from the blue line, something you
guys thought was an area you guyswere looking to upgrade. Well, you
know, there's there's always a tradeoff. Right, two years ago,
we were one of the best teamsin the league offensively, last year we're
one of the worst. Truss we'reprobably somewhere in between, but we got
we gotta find out where that is. You know, defensively last year were

(01:30:36):
ninth best in the league goals again, so you know, there's things you're
looking to try and do and tryand tweak. You know, I think
he'll help with our power play.You know, we had done earn him.
Now in the power plays and rikersof possibility as well, So I
think that helps. And then he'sa guy that can skate and join the

(01:30:57):
rush, which is what we're lookingfor the way we want play. And
same thing with Stevenson. He's gota lot of pace to his game and
that's the way we like to play. If you include Riker, you have
seven defensemen on and how do youkind of see that all working together here?
Well, that's what training casts for. But you know that's uh,
we have seven. We carry sevennormally all season long. So we felt

(01:31:19):
comfortable with our six before today andnow we feel really good about our seven.
Well. Obviously, offense always somethingyou're looking for. But both guys
your feelings about the defensive game,yeah, I mean they're both solid.
Like you know, Montour has beento the Stanley Cup finals now back to
back years and you look at hisminutes play during the regular season and in

(01:31:40):
the playoffs and he plays a lotof minutes and plays a lot of different
situations. So not not concerned aboutthat. And then same thing with Stevenson.
He's a he can play both endsof the rink extremely well. And
you know, we couldn't get somethingdone with Weinberg at the deadline. It
left a big hole for us.So getting Chandeler to add to our lineup
is is a huge ndition. Ishe somebody who would play special teams for

(01:32:02):
you as well? You think I'veseen them playing in all situations? Yeah?
Where does the sleepy in terms ofsalary cap flexibility? Do you do
you envision having him make a leadertoo? Yeah? Not at this point.
It will depend on you know,we're still at cocks scoring with Maddie
and with tolven In, and dependingon kind of where those come in,
will to be sort of where ourcap is at. But we've looked at

(01:32:23):
a lot of different scenarios and wefeel comfortable we will be under the cap
and ready to go when the seasonstarts seven years old. For both guys
at thirty years old, what wasit about them that made you comfortable with
that kind of term. Well,this time of year, you're not getting
them if you don't go seven yearsa lot of times. But the thing
for us is they both skate sowell, so you know, if you're
betting on a seven year deal,you know, I think it's better to

(01:32:45):
better than somebody that skates extremely well, even that's coming from a guy who
never skated well and played a longtime, But I think it's easier for
guys that skate well as a age. Would you say you guys are still
looking to add scoring at this pointas the off season continues on. No,
I think those are probably are twobig moves. Other than that,
we're just looking to kind of fillup the depth positions and Coachella Valley that

(01:33:05):
kind of stuff, So we're workingon that, and but other than that,
I think we're pretty well set atthis point. This was one of
the busier free agency openings that they'vehad in recent memory. They given what
was going on with salary cap thresholdbeing lifted. Do you anticipate that you
would see a flood like this rightoff the back? Yeah, you always

(01:33:29):
do. I mean, I thinkthe cap was kind of flat for a
few years. Now it's starting tomove, and I think everybody's looking at
where it may go in years twoand three and four, and so I
think as a result, you feela little bit more comfortable in some of
the contracts are doing at this point, assuming that the CAP's going to go
up. So I think that certainlyplayed a role into all the activity today,
when's less time You've seen so muchactivity in the first couple of hours

(01:33:50):
here as far as money being shovedaround across the entire league. Yeah,
you know what, I really wasn'twatching it early with want we actually have
permission from Florida, So what withStevenson and get on the phone with them
right at nine o'clock this morning andtried to convince them that this is the
place he should be. So Iwas busy doing that. Well, everything

(01:34:12):
else was going on those first fewminutes. But it's an exciting day and
there's a lot of money being spent. You said in the past that two
days scary you more than any otherdays on the calendar, July first being
one of them. So this iskind of uncharacteristic for you. What was
it about, I guess where theteam is at right now that kind of
made you do something so uncharacteristic Andwas there any maybe pressure from ownership to
contend right away? No, ownershiphas always been from day one, I

(01:34:36):
have the green light to spend tothe cap, and they want to compete,
they want to win, and youknow that's always been the plan here.
We tried to manage our cap youknow, as well as we can.
We got to the point this yearwhere we felt these were two players
that we needed in our lineup tohelp us be successful. You know,
it's the first time I've ever doneseven year contracts. It's the first time

(01:34:56):
we've ever put signing bonus in myeight years as a GM. So there's
certain things that we did that wedon't normally do. But I think coming
out of COVID things are going tochange a little bit. And you know,
this is kind of the start ofa couple of draft questions. One
is what do your scouts know aboutFinnish goaltenders that the rest of the league
does, because it seems like corneredthe market. Yeah, so you know,

(01:35:20):
we have an amstra scouts based inFinland who is a former goaltender.
That's one. You know, wehave Andrew Allen that does goaltending scouting for
us on the amateur side. That'stoo. You know, I think sometimes
it's just you have your list andit depends how the list falls. And
this year we were sitting there andwe said, okay, there's a six
foot four plus finished goaltender. Wethink that's the guy to take to this

(01:35:42):
point and that's why we did it. So certainly, you know, the
previous couple guys have taken look likethey're solid goaltenders, and we think this
guy's a good prospect as well.And the follow up, how much pause,
if any, did Villanov's suspension andthe races behind the suspension give you
before you decided to draft. No, we do our due diligence on every

(01:36:06):
player. There's players that if wedon't feel comfortable with, we take them
off our list. We we'd ratherdo that than draft the player. In
this case, you know, Ithink it was maybe a little bit bigger
than what was behind the scenes,but our intel and stuff. I mean,
he's still friends with the kid thatyou know the accusations were get.
He's still friends with the kid thatyou know leisurely reported it. So I

(01:36:29):
think it was blown a little bitmore out of proportion. But I will
tell you, when he's on theice, people are gonna know he's on
the ice because he's that kind ofplayer. I mentioned Finish goaltenders, but
the team hasn't only ever drafted Finnishgoal tenders. Do you have a status
of day kind of on Semyon asa boy Yeah, he's still in Russia
playing. Had some conversations Van Milstein. He said he's open for business,
So we'll reach out to him andhave a conversation and see if there's a

(01:36:53):
way to get him out of Russianover here. At some point, you
gave John Ayden a one way contract. I mean, what does that say
about you know, the plans forhim this coming season and where he has
achieves did? Yeah? John,you know, he had a real good
season down there, had a realgood playoffs and you know he's got of
to mention that that we don't havein our lineup a little bit of toughness.
So I think for for us thatwas an easy decision to make to

(01:37:16):
give him the one way contract.And certainly he has a relationship with Dan.
Dan has a relationship with him,and you know, I think from
John standpoint, it makes perfect senseto go with a guy that's now coaching
the NHL team, and especially ona one way contract, so respect him
to community camp and push hard fora job with the big club. Any
updates you can give at this pointon assistant coaching situation and even like the

(01:37:39):
contracts, but Mattie and hell,he had to pay those coming along.
Yeah, So still working through coachingdecisions up here to add to Dan's staff
and then hopefully have some of thoseby the end of the week. And
then still talking on some people onthe head coaching job in Coachella there and
with Tovia and Mattie, we arehaving conversations. Have more schedule with Maddie's

(01:38:00):
camp tomorrow. So we're we're movingforward, but we're not there yet.
Do you expect that Dave Lowry's remainingas a part of the staff. Davis
Davis part of the staff for sure. With speaking of goaltending, he brought
Steeska back for Coachella Valley kind ofhow do you deal with that position for
you guys now with with Joey andPhil up here and Coco maybe coming over
from from the Moses. Yeah,so Joey, Joey and UH and Gruby

(01:38:24):
will be here, uh Stascall we'llslide in as our number three, UH
as a starter in Coachella, andthen Coco will come over next year.
And we also signed h Victor Hassmanthe free agent goaltender this past year and
Uh, I'm looking to resign Jacklafon team. So those will be the
six guys in our system. Thekey with with both Coco and Osman as

(01:38:45):
we want them playing. So youknow, if Elis is getting the starts
and they're sitting there, we'll probablyflip them out back and forth with Casey
and Coachella Valley just to make surethey're playing hockey, because that's the most
important thing for those two guys atthis point. Is there any trade protection
on the on tour Stevensondels, Yes, they both have no trade protection in
the contract. It's full early inthe contract and then it drops to lesser

(01:39:09):
amount as a contract moves along.M there you go. That's Ron France's
good information there. I forgot aboutthe kid they drafted. That is it
villainevu right that That's how I wasreading it. That is a they put
a bounty on a guy's head inthe Ontario League. God, I'll just

(01:39:30):
tell you this. I think Ithink the statue limitations is over. I've
seen that before, the doubt,so let's not get too carried away.
Well, it sounded like they werestill cordial with each other. They were
friends. You know, what's themove The Blane from Slap Shot Joe McGrath
is the owner, Like, youcan't put a bounty. I just did

(01:39:54):
a phone call. It's like allhungover having that conversation two owners ago with
the Thunderbirds. They did that.So when I might as my first year
doing a game, I'm like,what the hell is going on here?
Like this is out of control.Now, you know what, kids sucker
punched the guy at end of theyear and they tried to jump them.
Whatever it happens. No, II saw that story. I'm glad Ron
kind of talked about it because theirstuff sending locker rooms and especially now on

(01:40:14):
social media, that you got tokind of take with a grain of salt.
But the kid's a tough dude,Like he's a he plays hard,
plays hard and tough, So Ilove that

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