Furness Show 6-17: Chris Crawford in for Ian Furness, Joe Sheehan, Mike Benton.

Why does it feel like there's much less interest in football at this time of the year than in years past?   Joe Sheehan joins the show to talk about Julio Rodriguez at this point of the season, is his recent hot streak sustainable?   Daily Power Play with Mike Benton.   How much interest is there for football at this point in the year?  What are expectations for the Seahawks this year?   Checking the Textline.   Softy joins for cross talk.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This was such a comforting yet disappointing Seattle Mariner.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Game last night.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Comforting because I know that the Seattle Mariners are always
going to give me what the Seattle Mariners are going
to give me. I know that Logan Gilbert's gonna shove
and it's gonna get wasted, and Logan Gilbert has the
right to attack every single member of the Seattle Mariners
in an uncouth way because to come back like that,
to throw five innings of two run baseball, and it

(00:27):
shouldn't have been five innings of two run baseball, it
should have been five innings of one run baseball. Don
canzone getting absolutely lost in the outfield corner. Twenty one
of eighty four pitches swings and missus anders. That's a
twenty five percent rate, so one out of four times
that he threw a pitch they swung and missed. At
To call that an elite rate is the understatement of understatements,

(00:51):
and yet it means something for the long term, but
it meant nothing last night because this offense was absolutely pathetic.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, it's it's almost like a little throwback match because
we've seen it so often with Logan Gilbert and even
before that with Felix Hernandez where he just throws a
gem and he gets absolutely no run support. We go
back to the fifteen strikeout mariners that we know and love.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
I don't know about love, but we.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Know, we know and in the ability to do anything
with runners in scoring position. It's just like, oh, okay,
things are back to normal now, at least in the
baseball world.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
I don't know about the real world.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
The real world is a really scary place, so I
just choose to stick in the baseball world. But you
know what's funny is, speaking of the real world, I
am a guy who is best known I'm not going
to say famous because that's ridiculous, but who's best known
for his baseball coverage. Like I have covered baseball for ESPN,
Baseball Perspectives, VICE, ESPN, a whole bunch of different places.

(01:50):
I think I said ESPN twice. Yep, maybe I just
wanted to throw it in there. Currently at NBC Sports
take four letters, but yeah, absolutely, I have covered college
football for NBC Sports for close to a decade, and
I just have noticed the last couple of days that
no one seems to give a hoot about football right now,

(02:11):
and That is not something I'm used to.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Anders.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
I am so used to this city being absolutely football
gaga at this point. Now, sure, there's two months to go,
but I am telling you, as someone who has lived
in this city or state, excuse me, for forty and
forty two years, I am used to seeing fans just
going crazy about football at this point, crazy looking at

(02:34):
the schedule, determining whether the Huskies can go nine in
three or ten and two, talking about after the Seahawks
NFL schedule got released, there was all that talk. I
listened to Kjar all day, listening to everybody making their
predictions about what their record were going to be somewhere
really bad tick fame, what are you doing? But like
I love you, Dick, but boy oh boy, are you optimistic?

(02:56):
I don't hear any of that talk right now? And
I don't think it's just well because the season's two
and a half months away, and I would like to
hear from you guys on the free agent tex line
four nine four five one.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Number one, are you excited about the football season?

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Number two? Are you feeling the same way I am?
That there is a lack of enthusiasm for these teams?
And number three. Why either way, Like, if you are
excited for the season, I'd love to know why. If
you're not excited for the season, tell me why, Like,
because it's such an interesting time to me. The Seahawks
have a new quarterback, the Huskies have a new quarterback.
That other football team in the East has a new

(03:31):
quarterback as well, And I'm not hearing enthusiasm for any anders.
Am I just living in a bubble?

Speaker 3 (03:35):
No? And I've actually been feeling this the last couple
of years. To be honest, there's a sense of I
don't want to say apathy, because people still care about
the Seahawks and it's the absolute offseason right now where
there's nothing going on. It's that there's no oca's, there's
no training camp, it's not their draft. It's not like
nothing is going on with the football team. But I'm
used to it being twenty four to seven, three sixty
five sure with NFL, with college football, I think that

(03:58):
the combination of a you know, meant to below meh
Husky football season last year with a pretty mess Seahawks season,
and you did make some changes in the offseason, but
all those are like, all right, we gotta wait and
see if they were. It's not one of those like
Aaron Rodgers signing where you could talk about it twenty
four to seven. It's like, you know, people like Sam Donald,
but you know, is he gonna be able to do

(04:18):
what he did last year? You know, it seems like
a one year sample size. It's it's things that like
we have to basically wait until the start of the
season before we really are able to have any sort
of commentary around it, right, But I feel the same way,
I think, and that's a kind of a bad thing
in terms of like the interest of football. But I
think it also goes to show how much good or

(04:40):
bad people are bought in on the baseball team right now.
And I say bought in not like, oh, you mean
you think they're gonna win a championship. It's more just
like how interested they are watching every single Mariners game
and like, you know, ripping them when they're striking out
a bunch and not able to come through and losing
some games you should win, or being happy when they
do come through. So I just think both of those

(05:00):
two things can be true at the same time.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, I think that's fair, And I also like think
about the fact that the quarterback change, and we can
talk about this more in the two o'clock hour, But
when the Seahawks made the switch from Russell Wilson to
Gino Smith, I think there was an excitement in a
completely different way that oh, the Seahawks are going to
be really bad, and this is where we get to
start scouting for some quarterbacks, We get to start taking

(05:23):
a look. Whereas I don't think fans feel like the
difference between Geno Smith and Sam Donald is all that different,
you know, like, and I certainly think there's a difference
not only in play style but in ceiling and floor.
I would go with my personal opinion Donald higher ceiling,
Smith with a higher floor because of all of the
football I've watched with Sam Donald and with Gino Smith

(05:44):
over the last few years. But I do think that's
really interesting. So four nine, four or five one. Let
us know your thoughts if you're excited. The husky thing's
a great point too. Coming up today, we're gonna talk
to Joshian, who is a guy who I have followed
for a very long time. He wrote a really fascinating
article about Julio Rodriguez and his I cannot recommend his

(06:04):
work enough, and I understand that paywall stuff. It's important,
you know, and pay the money. Pay the man the
money because he does excellent work, and you will feel
better about supporting a really good person and a really
good journalist. But Andrews and I talked a lot about
this article. It's going to be really interesting to hear
him kind of give you the broad strokes of what

(06:24):
he wrote about about Julio Rodriguez maybe the most volatile
athlete in Seattle sports right now. Yeah, it's it's got
to be him. I was trying to think of, especially
with Smith anymore, right, Yeah, that's exactly it. So we're
going to talk to him. I'm gonna have my good
buddy Andrew's enemy, if we're just being completely honest, Mike Benton,
come on and we're going to talk some Stanley Cup

(06:45):
as well. This is a really fun time for hockey fans.
We're going to probably see a new champion. I think
crossed they am making the switch. I also want to
ask him about how far away the krack and are
from these teams. Anders and I certainly have our opinion,
but maybe Mike feels a little bit different.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
And maybe what team between these.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Two clubs, the Oilers and the Panthers, reminds him more
of this club, like which one is the easier path
for the crack and to take. You might argue the
Oilers it's pretty easy because hey, or excuse me, the Panthers,
because you know what, getting at conor McDavid's really really hard.
It's a really difficult thing to do. But I'm curious
your thoughts about that as well. Four nine four or
five to one. On the free agent text line, is

(07:29):
it unrestricted or restricted? Like do you have the rights
to your choice my choice? Okay, I'm gonna go unrestricted.
That this text line should be able to sign with
whoever they want exactly get their nil. We'll don't have
to tector and offer, can't withdraw or rescind, you know,
after we've hit the roster limit. But real quick back
to the Mariners and we'll talk a lot of Mariners.
Of course, that loss was just so frustrating to me,

(07:53):
not just because of how poorly lou played offensively, not
just about how bad they were, but like just how
frustrating it is to see that effort after the sweep.
So I'm curious about your thoughts as well. Once again
four nine, four or five one. Stake a quick commercial
break josh In coming up next Sports Radio ninety three
point three KJRFM.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
It's now time for Ian's weekly visit with Joshian of
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(08:36):
five hundred. Now here's Ian with our weekly baseball fix
from Joshian.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Chris Crawford in for Ian for Nest today and like
that beautiful advertisement said, I am joined today by someone
I have followed for a long time, but I believe
this is the first time we are ever speaking, and
I appreciate When I sent him a DM and said, hey,
I'm posting for Ian, he said, I don't work with subs,
but he changed his mind joining us now. My friend

(09:06):
Joshi and Joe, how's it going today, good Man.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
I'm getting a lot of mileage out of that joke.
This year he's got to come back to this year.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
He is a pretty lazy guy, and the work ethic
has often been questioned.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Joe, I got to ask you.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
We're going to talk a lot about the Mariners, We're
going to talk a lot about Julio Rodriguez in the
excellent piece that you just wrote. But I have to
ask you that Raffie Dever's trade just shook me to
my core. Did you feel the same way, my friend.

Speaker 5 (09:35):
We don't see an entity worth four billion dollars store
a tantrum very often, but I suppose outside of the
executive branch, sure, it was really stunning. I got it.
I was on an airplane and I actually thought it
was a prank email, like some kind of joke site
or whatever. And because it just came out of the blue,
we're not looking for trades at this time of the year.

(09:57):
Nobody was looking for a Raffie Devons trade, even though yeah,
they've been the controversy. You please move to dh now
moved to first base, Now sell hot dogs, now pitch
the seventh inning. They really jerked him around of it.
But I don't think that anybody saw this coming, and
we focused a lot on the Red Sox side. I
think that's the news story of it right. But I've
tried to also look at this on the Giant side,

(10:17):
So you know this is as somebody who hasn't been
that thrill at Buster Posey's moves, right, this is just
an absolute win.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
I don't think there's any way you can look at
it any other way. And I had numerous people tell
me that Buster Posey basically called the Red Sox and said,
we are getting this done.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
This is going to happen, and good for him for
getting it done.

Speaker 5 (10:36):
That.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
I have not been a huge fan of what the
Giants have done prior to this, but can't question the
commitment to winning there. Cannot question another ownership group that
maybe has some issues off the field and a little
bit on the field as well, but definitely cannot question
that commitment. Is this a move that you think other
teams look at and say, what the heck man, we

(10:58):
would have done this? Or is this something where because
of the contract it's a little bit of a different situation.

Speaker 5 (11:04):
Well, I mean, I don't know. If you played fan
I should say take that back. I know you've played
fantasy and never given one of those trades where it's like,
well I would have given you more than that where
the team didn't actually ask. Everybody just made the first
deal available. This feels like that, but I think there
are a bunch of James. The contract is part of it,
and I think I've seen some really bad analysis of
the contract. Somebody was caught I think an execs quarter

(11:26):
to say it was underwater. I don't think this contract
is underwater at all. I think he's paid. He's actually
underpaid for the next few years, and yes, down the
road that'll balance out. A thirty six year old Raphael
Devers is probably not going to be earning for twenty
seven to five a year whatever it is at that point,
but it is to the overall value two hundred and
eighty eight million left audit. I don't actually think it's

(11:47):
underwater at all. I think it starts with that. If
you've got gms who are thinking, well, this is an
underwater contract, it's really not. And that's just a fundamental
error for some of these people. And you are there
gms who were looking for this kind of deal. No,
nobody's looking to take on clean two hundred and eighty
eight million. Then that's as much of shock as the
trade itself that a team is taking on all of

(12:07):
the money. And I think, whatever you might think of
Charles Johnson, you got to give him some credit for
actually doing that, for being willing to back up Posey's
move with his wallet. So yeah, I don't think this
is a trade a lot of teams would made, even
though trading the package. If you take this equivalent package,
you know, create the package that the Mets could get traded.

(12:28):
Oh praise or whoever, Sure all of them should have made
this deal. The baseball part of it is really inexplicable.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Chris Crawford in Free and Forness talking to Joe Shean,
brought to you by Northwest Handling Systems. Logan Gilbert returned
to the mound for the Seattle Mariners and was really
really good. Unfortunately the offense was really really bad. Joe,
where would you rank Logan Gilbert's among the upper echelon
starters in baseball.

Speaker 5 (12:56):
On the top of the second tier, okay, and in
that range where coming into this year, you've said, if
he has another year, you've got to call him a
true number one. I would probably call him a number two.
And then, of course, now we're dealing with the first
serious injury that he've had he's been some time, so
that always I'm always going to knock a guy down
for that, and hopefully he makes his next eighteen starts.

(13:16):
We don't ever have to talk about that again, but
I think, yeah, I could sit down and look at
where I've ranked at the start of the year, but
ten to eleven something like that, probably.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
I think that's fair, and that's pretty nice to have,
especially when you've got some guys who probably wouldn't be
far off that list. Also on the Seattle Mariner rotation,
Luis Castillo, Brian Woo, George Kirby. Really impressive start. Unfortunately,
the offense was just an absolute disaster that reminded me
far too much of other Seattle Mariner games I've watched
for not the last forty seven years or so, even

(13:47):
though I'm only forty two.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
That's how that works.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
It's I really want to talk to you about the
piece he wrote about Julio Rodrigue is because I, first
of all, fantastic work, and I want people to read it,
so I don't I'm not asking you to give the
entire story. Also, you know, we don't want to make
this Russian novel either, but just kind of the broad
Strokes on what you are seeing from Julio Rodriguezez of Lake.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yeah, regular listeners. In a segment though that I've always
pumped up Rodrigaz even when he hasn't been hitting well,
I'd be like, you know, I still think he's gonna
be fine. Obviously he does everything else well, So even
a disappointing Rodriguez at the plate is still going to
be a four to five win player. But in watching
this was something that I came at subjectively first and
then went to look at what the numbers said. He

(14:33):
just seemed to be jumping, he seemed to be impatient,
and he seem to have a really hard time getting
the ball in the air. So I wanted to look
and see, you know, did the numbers back up those
subjective opinions, And yeah, you kind of go in here
and he's chasing, and he's getting nothing out of it,
and these numbers are a couple of days. Oh, it's
a piece I wrote last week. He hit a buck
fifty two with no extra base hits when he chases,
getting no value out of that, He's actually getting beat

(14:56):
in the zone. He's the lowest in zone contract contact
rate of the year. His overall swinging this sixteen percent.
That's a career high. All of these numbers I'm giving
you are career highs for Adriguez. He's just not getting
the bats of the ball as well as he's done.
He's not pulling fly balls. This is a total stat
head thing, you know. You know this, Chris, That's the
most valuable thing a hitter can do is pull a

(15:16):
fly ball. And he's pulling fewer fly balls than he
ever has before. It's just a bad hitting profile right now.
And what strange is that if I just tell you, oh,
he's going to cut a strike out rate by twenty percent,
you would think that would be a really good thing,
right But it's not. He's getting to the lower strikeout
rate with weak contact. He's getting to the lower strikeout
rate with short pas. And that's one of the things

(15:39):
to kind of I know, running a lot of numbers
at you, but if you look at how aggressively is
early in the count I went in the Great Baseball
sabon site and what I was looking at is how
often does he swing at the first two pitches of
an that bat or within the first two pitches of
an that bat? And you go back to basically every
year he's swinging a little bit more. This year he's

(16:00):
swinging fifty six percent of the time at those first
two pitches. That's feeding the lower strikeout rate. It's not
a being disciplined. I'm always swinging a good stuff. He's
just up there swinging. Like my favorite player as a
kid was Don Mattingly, and Don Mattingly wasn't. He didn't
walk a ton in the strike out of him, but
a lot of it was the back to ball in
the zone was just so good. He was never running

(16:20):
the accounts. Kirby Puckett was another player from that era
who has like that. They've still set. So it's just
Rodriguez's process is not very good right now. And you
kind of look at even the recent hot streak. It
comes with just no power, comes with a barrel rate
that's down around guys like Mason Wynn and Danny Janssen.

(16:40):
So he was hitting three seventy five, but it was
all bedep. He had sixteen to one strikeouts to walk
ratio during the stretch that I was looking at. So again,
the numbers look better, but the fundamental process just isn't there.
So we've seen him, have good second hands before, get
it together, start hitting for more power. But I do
think right now he's definitely chased too much, swinging too much,

(17:01):
and hitting way too many balls on the ground.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Chris Crawford and for Ian forness talking to Joe. She
and so my question for you, then, Joe is how
hard is it to change that process? How easy will
it be for Julio Rodriguez to get back to that
because you know, obviously we're not in Julio Rodriguez head.
And by the way, give us all the numbers you want.
The Washington State guy isn't here today we can actually
understand him.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Shots fired.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Uh ah, sorry, Ian, Sorry, sorry, sorry, I hope you're
having a wonderful day.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
But how hard is it to change that process?

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Like how And look, they're gonna get value from Julio
Rodriguez because he's an unreal defensive player and because when
he does get on base, he can provide spectacular fireworks
with his feet as a stolen base or just a
guy who's moving. So they're not going to not have
a valuable player. But how hard will it be for
Julio Rodriguez over this summer to become the version of

(17:52):
Julio Rodriguez that Seattle Mariner fans desperately want to see.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
I have moved on this a lot over the last
ten years. We've seen guys, certainly in the offseason Justin Turner,
j D. Martinez, kind of just reshaped their career, change
who they are as hitters and go on to have
substantial careers. I think it is harder in season. You
don't have as much time to work on your game,
you're traveling all the time, you're tired. But I also
think guys can do this now because the tools are

(18:17):
there in terms of the video and the the things
that they can access to say what am I doing wrong?
What do I need to do right? I think that
he asked, you know, will Collier Rodrigez get back to
the hitter that he was maybe not in twenty twenty
two to twenty three, but to hit or he was
last year especially. I really think it's in that. I
think the power is still in there. I think the
ability to not change this is one of the great

(18:38):
things about the rookie Julio Rodriguez. He had this incredibly
advanced approach. Sure like he arrived fully formed. So I
know that's in there, and I'm I've given you a
lot of negative numbers today. Yeah, I got, oh that's
what the performance is. But you know, let's do We'll
do a second half Fantasy League. I'm still taking him
probably seventh or eighth in a draft. I still believe

(19:00):
he's going to be at that superstar lump.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, and I do too. It's just such a frustrating thing.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
And I think one of the reasons people that were
frustrated is with Julio Rodriguez. There was a lot of
flack because of strikeouts, and strikeouts were a major talking
point for the Seattle Mariners. The whole talk about how
ti Oscar Hernandez not coming back because the team wanted
to cut down.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
On strikeouts, Ao Henio.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Suarez, like the whole reason that these roster changes were made.
How big a dealer strikeouts?

Speaker 5 (19:29):
Like?

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Are they just an out?

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Or And this is one that I think the analytic
community has kind of gone back and forth on a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
How big of a deal actually is a strikeout?

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Joe? They're just not And I think the context of
what you have to think about this is, got strikeouts
aren't double plays, right, So strikeouts do hurt you more
in certain situations. In most at bats, they're meaningless relative
to a pop up or a flyout. And yet we
remember the time that it's second to third and one
out and the guy strikes out. We don't think as

(19:59):
much about the time that's first and second. Nobody out right,
and a strikeout would have been a heck of a
lot better than the double play. Double plays are absolute death.
Ground balls are absolute death. The skill of infields collectively
now in baseball don't hit the ball on the ground,
so strikeouts aren't ground balls. That's really the simplest way
I've kind of tried to approach putting. I give you
a status answer, which is, you know, over time, a

(20:20):
strikeout is one one hundredth of an out of a
run worse than a regular album.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
But I also understand the frustration of fans. I just
think that we when Garrett Anderson was a thing twenty
years ago. I remember, like Garrett Anderson's, Like Garrett Anderson
could hit one twenty for a week, but you wouldn't
feel it as much because it was on grounders the
second base. It didn't feel as bad. But a guy
who was striking out all that time. Oh my god.
You know, Adam Done is killing the team just the

(20:48):
way we look at baseball, because you remember, going up,
you put the ball in play, you might get on
basis because everybody was bad. That's the difference. In the
major leagues, ground balls and fly balls get turned into
outs in a way that point nine to nine percent
of us have never experienced, and we never played past
a certain.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Level, right yeah, I mean that's the thing too, is
like strikeouts. As a kid, you know, that's the one
thing we didn't want to do. I remember crying go
into the bench many a time after a strikeout, and
unfortunately didn't get to experience the good.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
That came with those of that.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Joe, I wanted to ask you about Sho Hao Toni
because we got to watch sho Hao Tani return to
the mound and already throwing one hundred miles per hour.
Number one question I have for you is how special
is so Hao Toni? I think it's an obvious point.
Is obvious, but at the same time, I can wax
poetically about this guy forever. And number two, how worried
are you about sho Heo Tani because of the Dodger injury?

(21:43):
Situation and so many starting pitchers for them going down.
How worried someme is sho Hao Tani for the short
term and the long term? And also just how good
is this?

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Dude?

Speaker 5 (21:54):
I think the Dodger angle here has been overstated because
nobody's really pointed out to me the team that is
doing a good job of keeping pictures healthing. I think
there's a lot. I think there's it's baked into all.
Let's find things that are wrong with the Dodgers kind
of undercut you know what they do. But remember they
take on so much risk. They go out and sign
ye and try and in and smell and so they're
baking this into their system. And yes they did have

(22:15):
a run of starter young starter injuries in their own system,
but the Rockies had that too. Last year there was
a day the Rockies announced three of their top pitching
prospects were going under the knight like other organizations go
through this. So this is not a Dodger problem. This
is a baseball problem. Sif it to our Tani, I mean,
we just there's never been anybody like Otani, even if Ruth,
Dave Ruth wasn't a true good two way player, it

(22:37):
was about a one year period. I want to say,
June eighteen to July nineteen. I did the math once
and Otani had that two year stretch, two a half
year stretch where he was doing both at an epically
high level. And will never We'll probably never see anything
like that again because I don't even think Otani's going
to necessarily get back to that kind of volume. He's
just something we've never seen in baseball. And you know

(22:57):
he retires tomorrow, he's a Hall of Famer even with
out the ten years, that's how important he's been. I
do think this year is a test because the value
of his bad I mean, he's gone to another level offensively, right,
And you wonder at some point if he wants to pitch,
and let's not forget he deferred what was a six
hundred and eighty million of a seven million dollar contract.

(23:19):
The Dodgers do owe him a little bit, so if
he wants to pitch, they're going to give him a chance.
But I do think at some point you say, hey, look,
you've been over here eight years and you've had two
and a half healthy pitching seasons. At some point, yes,
you can't really do the both anymore. So I think
they'll let this ride. We'll see how this goes this year,
We'll see what goes to start next year. But I
don't know how much longer a two way player Otani

(23:40):
is actually going to exist. I really do think at
some point say, look, the physical toll is just too
much real quick.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Obviously the Dodgers are not going to go bankrupt anytime soon.
But how much can if shohey Atani is a designated here,
how great does he have to be to justify that
much deferred money?

Speaker 5 (23:59):
I mean, it's done. What's done is done. And if
you take the deferral, the annual annual average value is
forty seven forty eight million. That's hard to get to
as a DH that you really want to give to
be like a five win player, five six win player
based on the value of a win. And we saw
him do that last year as a DH, and he's
on pace to do that again this year. Realistically, I

(24:20):
don't think he ever gets there. Here's the thing, though,
if you do, you have the conversation where you say,
we don't want you to be a pitcher anymore. I
think even a showy of Tony in his early thirties
can go to the outfield and be a plus defensive outfielder.
He I think he would have been a Gold Glove
outfielder if you'd let him continue to You know, he's
been an outfielder's last pitcher the last few years. But
the speed, the arm, the baseball instincts are all gonna

(24:43):
play well. And maybe you don't take a thirty two
year old O Tony and put him in center, but
I think you could put him in right field, and
now you've got a right fielder as one of the
best hitters in the league and likely is not, at
least for a few years, a plus defensive player. So
I don't think pitcher. I don't think two way player
or DH is the actual comp versation. I think it's
two way player versus right fielder. If you take pitching

(25:04):
off the table, it frees them up to be an outfielder.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Joe, you are the man, my friend. Tell everyone how
they can read your fantastic work.

Speaker 5 (25:11):
Go to Joshian dot com. You can read excerpts. A
piece from last week I think it was the NL
West Notes is actually up there for free. You get
a sense of what I do. Subscription information is there
as well. Subscribe today you get access to the Slack
channel where we talk ball all day. I've got a
separate gaming newsletter for subscribers where I send out pics
and talk about gambling. A lot of people want that
contact these days. It's opt in. You don't want it,

(25:31):
you don't have to take it, but like a couple
hundred people actually get it. So happy about that. These
letters just turned fifteen thousands of people subscribe. I think
if you enjoy these segments with Ian and Chris, Jess Andrews,
everybody chips in the great people of KJR, I think
you'll enjoy the newsletter. So Joshian dot.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Com, Joe, I'll be hitting your dms to talk trash
about Keith low soon.

Speaker 5 (25:53):
Hey we're both GM heights, so you know works out well.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Thank you so much, my friend. Take a quick commercial break.
Daily power Play with Mike ben and coming up next.
Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R FM, Balkins
Street twenty on GOLDI Flexiday.

Speaker 6 (26:08):
Stop it's Crosby if I could drop stop.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
This is the daily power Play Deep Slot one timer
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Speaker 4 (26:22):
Now Ian furnas Son Sports Radio ninety three point three mister,
we've been wait for kJ R FM.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Chris Crawford in for Ian Fernas.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Today's Daily power Play is sponsored by Ishaquah Honda Caboda.
This Saturday, June twenty first, from ten to three, they
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(26:54):
You know, I don't get to grace myself in this
studio as often as I was like, but when I do,
I make dang sure that I get a chance to
talk to Mike Benton. So he's going to be joining us.
Oh right now, mister Benton, how the heck are you?

Speaker 5 (27:08):
Sir?

Speaker 2 (27:10):
I'm good.

Speaker 7 (27:11):
I'm just good. I'm I'm going to be better because
I got the annual Benton Boys haying out coming up
tonight here at the Mariners game that we're going to
be doing here in about a few hours. So I
mean I kind of view today in like a gradual process.
Get good, so far, and so far so good.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
That is wonderful. Now we got game six.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Tonight, Mike, and I have to ask you about the
decision to go with Stuart Skinner.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
How surprised are you that they're making this switch? Non surprised.

Speaker 7 (27:43):
And I just think from this standpoint, what the Florida
Panthers have done, guys is successfully create a goaltending controversy.
And I mean there's there's one goaltender and one goaltender
only who is going to carry Florida here for the
Stanley Cup the Stanley Cup again and Sergey Vebrovski. On

(28:03):
the Oilers side, you've got Stewart Skinner, whereas we see,
you know, with Stewart Skinner, the highs or highs and
the lows are lows. When they have to go to
Calvin Pickard. He's been good to kind of stop the bleeding,
but how good is he going to be long term?
While the answer is really not very long I mean,

(28:23):
I go back and think of how the Oilers are built.
They're they're a skating team, they're on offensively a ligne team.
They have learned to play defense in the last couple
of years under Chris Knobloch. But I mean it just
goes back to you know, when you get into a
matchup like this, how trustworthy can your goaltending be? And
now getting to the Stanley Cup final, your margin for

(28:44):
air becomes even more slim. So I mean, really, at
this point, it just kind of feels like they're just
you know, you know, just you know, flipping a coin
at this point and going back to Skinner or Pickard,
and you know, the ultimate hope is that Skinner can
be the guy that he was when he was really
on a tear. But I mean, it really is coming
down to the old coin flip here for Edmonton as

(29:04):
far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
Chris Crawford and Free Infnest talking to my good buddy
Mike Benton, how have you viewed these playoffs? I think
the Stanley Cup has been phenomenal. I would be honest
and say maybe not the most dramatic postseason prior to that.
If you were gonna twenty eighty baseball scale these playoffs,
what do you think you would.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Go with here?

Speaker 7 (29:27):
Well, if I can put it like this, it really
has been devoid. I think of a lot of high
stakes OT drama and Game seven drama like we've seen previously.
I think whenever you can get a big market team
and some folks you may gag at this narrative, but
I mean again, I mean facts or facts. When you
get a team by the New York Rangers going deep,

(29:47):
or Chicago going deep, or Toronto or Montreal, depending upon
what country you live on, that's where the viewership grows,
and that's where the eyeballs grow. Now that being said,
I really think, you know, based on how short many
of these series have gone, I think that certainly have
affected things. I like where Florida is going with the

(30:09):
team that they're becoming, in the identity that they're growing
right now, and you know, the Oilers at this point,
whenever you put McDavid in a high stakes game, that's
going to be juicy enough. And I think the longer
that Edmonton's hanging around, you know, a playoff run like this,
the more and more that their brand grows. If I
can use that phrase here in this league. Now, how

(30:30):
long that window is going to be open, that's for
a different kind of discussion here, but I mean, stars
generate eyeballs, and so I think where you know, McDavid
and the Oilers are pushing this with Florida and the
way that they play, I think that there is a
chance here for this Stanley Cup Final to really salvage
what has been maybe kind of like a milk toast

(30:52):
field of the playoffs previously, if that makes sense, because
the way that these games have gone, I mean, I
said it myself, it really is already up there with
one of the three greatest series that I've ever seen.
I don't think anything could have taught. Maybe I think
Rangers Canucks back in nineteen ninety four with the star power,
the swings that they had, and then it seemed as

(31:12):
if the Rangers had it in the bagg in Game five,
and the Canucks made one last big run, and you
have Game seven and anything can happen, and the Rangers
just hung on for dear life and won that thing
where I just kind of feel like, if you're a
Ranger fan, if you're a Canucks fan, or even an
innocent bystander, you just felt exhausted by the end of
watching that series. And I think if some way, somehow

(31:34):
Edmonton pulls out Game six, we might be headed for
the same path as well in Game seven.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Mike, you're the man. I'll be bothering you over text
message very shortly, sir.

Speaker 7 (31:45):
I can't wait if the group chats alive and well
right fellas.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
You know it might you know it absolutely? Thanks so much, buddy.
We'll talk soon, you bet, yeah, thank you, you bet.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
We'll talk Husky Seahawks and Cougar's up next. Sports Radio
ninety three point three Kid out.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
Now from the Star Rentals Sports to us RD ninety
three point three KJRFM Sports Headlines.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Headlines are brought to you by Frost Brewer COR's Light Mariners.
Get Logan Gilbert back on the mound for the first
time in a long time.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
He was great.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
No one else was a two nothing lost to the
Boston Red Sox. Astro still hold a four point five league,
four point five game lead in the Al West. Back
at it this evening with Brian Wu on the mound
at six point forty Stanley Cup. The Panthers are up
three to two in the Stanley Cup Final and have
a chance to close things out at home tonight in
Game six. Oilers going back to Stuart Skinner to save

(32:39):
their jobs.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Oh boy, we shall see fine with that. How that works.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Game six takes place at five and you can hear
that right here on your home for the Stanley Cup.
Ninety three point three kjr FM. Oklahoma City takes a
three two lead in the NBA Championship, and it looks
like they may be facing a team with at their
best player Tyrese Haliburton dealing with a calf injury.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
MRI.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Very good chance he will not be playing. Let's get
the asterisks ready and let's get into the two o'clock.

Speaker 8 (33:09):
Hour podcasting live from the R and R Foundation Specialist
broadcast studio. Now back to Ian Forness, powered by Seattle's
closest sports book, Snow Call Me Casino on Sports Radio
ninety three point three kJ r FM.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Chris Crawford in for Ian Forness.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
I want to appreciate, take my time to appreciate both
Benton and Mike Betton. That is, I guess we could
be formal with him and Joshian awesome stuff. Really appreciate them,
Really appreciate the opportunity to come on and do this
as well.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
I want to talk about some Seahawks and some.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Huskies and some football because normally when I'm doing and
I'm just talking to my grandma, and my grandma says, Chris,
shut up and go home, and you know, nobody can
actually say shut up. And go home to me. I
guess Anders could he could send me a text, but
you know he's usually pretty polite.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
It wouldn't be taken very seriously. So that is true.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Football still reign supreme in Washington in my humble estimation,
but I feel less enthusiasm for this football season. And
if you want to point out and say, hey, Chris Crawford,
it's because it's.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
The middle of June.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Go back and think about what you were thinking about
Seahawk football and Husky basketball the last couple of years
and how much it was on your mind. And it
isn't just me. I know that for a fact. There
are lots of people who have had those two teams
on their mind, and all include Washington State and there
as well. I just don't sense much enthusiasm. And I've
noticed on the text line as well, four nine four

(34:43):
five to one a free agent probably going to be
signing a big contract soon. I'm looking forward to Joshian
saying that it is underwater in seven years. It's it's
just kind of people kind of have the same feeling.
And we'll get into those techs, of course, but I
just take a look and see apathy towards Seattle football

(35:04):
right now, and that's not something that I've felt in
a really long time.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
I'm just looking specifically at the Huskies. If you look
the last couple of years, you know, it seems like
this year there's the least amount of big storylines going
into the season because last year was the whole first
year in the Big Ten, new coach, just completely new roster.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
What's this going to look like? Who knows?

Speaker 3 (35:30):
Coming off of the National championship berth, everything, all that
stuff was last year at this time a year before that,
obviously you're gearing up for a national championship run, like
it kind of was building up to that point, and
it's kind of seemed like it's come back down a
little bit. As someone who's a Husky fan but not
a diehard, I would consider myself with regards to the Seahawks,

(35:51):
it's weird because you have made changes, but like you've
incrementally made the change.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Right like two years ago.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
You got rid of Pete Carroll, brought in Mike McDonald
ahead of last year, so okay, that's that's that whole change.
And then you got rid of Gino Smith and DK
Metcalf to your bigger players, and you bring in Cooper
Cup and Sam Donald. Okay, so more changes, incrementally changing
things as we go along. So I don't know, like

(36:21):
if it's just you know, the Seahawks have had basically
the same record the last three years. It's been nine
or nine and eight, nine and eight and ten and seven.
Weirdly enough, last year, but it felt like a nine
and eight season because the last game of the season,
the Seahawks are already out of the playoffs. So it's just like,
are we gonna see the same thing again? Who knows?
I just I feel like there's more questions than answers

(36:43):
at this point for the Seahawks.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah, I think that's fair.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
It's one of those things too, where like you take
a look at the Huskies and I'm glad you brought
them up first, because I'm actually really excited for this
Husky season for one reason only the flashes of brilliance
I saw from Demond Williams have me really excited, and
all due credit to the guy who was playing quarterback before,

(37:06):
Will Rogers, who I think will make a nice living
in the CFL or just you know, be a football
analyst was not a great quarterback was nowhere close to
a great quarterback. I think people saw the SEC numbers
and kind of forgot why he put up those SEC numbers.
He played in a Mike Leach offense, and he played
again for a defense where they had to play catch
up and awful lot. And whenever I saw Demond Williams

(37:30):
on the field instead of Will Rogers, I got flashes
of Oh, this could be special. This could be a
guy who's going to be the quarterback for the next
three years. It sure would have been nice to be
able to red shirt demon Williams. In hindsight, you know,
get him those games, but still have another year. Except
if he's as good as we think he's going to be,
he ain't gonna be here for another four years, no

(37:51):
matter how great the NIL money is. And I know
he's getting quite a bit, and that's great to see him.
It was great to see that they had no issues
holding on to him. I'm really excited to watch him play.
I'm really excited to see Jonah Coleman. One of the
most underrated running backs in the entire country. Denzel Boston,
who is almost called him Denzel Washington because he's Denzel
and he plays for Washington. Denzel Boston is getting first

(38:12):
round talk in mock drafts, so they have some really
interesting weapons. The offensive line looks better to me, But
I just don't sense that excitement, and I think you
just kind of hit the nail on the head coming
off of the two seasons that the Huskies had where
they were basically national title contender. Ish, you know, two
really bad losses, but you go eleven and two, get

(38:35):
the win against Texas to end the year, and then
you have one of the greatest Seattle sports seasons ever
that features wins against your most hated rival in massive
games twice twice. Oregon, we sure do hate you, and
it is fun to get to say that on national radio.

(38:55):
It's just kind of you know, you go six and
six or six and seven, excuse me because you lose
the Bowl game. Like I get that from that perspective.
But I hope people take a close look at this
Husky's roster because it's really talented. Can they compete with
the Ohio States and penn States of the world. I
don't think so, not this year anyway, But I think
they're building something that can compete with those guys. Whereas

(39:19):
compare that to the Seahawks. I don't hate the Sam
dartled move. I don't hate the Cooper cup move. I
really liked their draft, getting Gray's Abel, who was the
second best interior offensive line on my board.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
And by the way, I.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Do cover college football for NBC Sports, so it's not
just me being well, I'm an idiot, but there's other
ways that I'm an idiot. It's not necessarily about the
draft stuff. Again, getting an absolute steal with Nick Emma worry.
I get that that's maybe not the most exciting draft
because you're talking offensive linemen and safety and maybe people
were hoping for another wide receiver to replace DK Metcalf.

(39:54):
Maybe they were hoping for that first round quarterback, you know,
that guy who could be the air apparent. If Sam
Darnald isn't the truth, it just kind of feels like
treading water to me with the Seahawks. So I kind
of understand it from that point. But I'm excited to
see what Sam Donald's gonna do. I'm super excited to
see how this new offense is gonna work, if Clint

(40:15):
Kubiak is going to be able to implement something that
looks a heck of a lot better. I was a
huge Ryan Grubb fan. It didn't work. It flat out
didn't work. And I do not blame the Seattle Seahawks
for making the change that they needed to make, but
it just feels kind of like a roster that's more
treading water because you had an offensive lineman in a
safety that's just not exciting.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Is it going to help the Seahawks? Unquestionably?

Speaker 1 (40:39):
I will be shocked if both of those guys aren't
massive impact players from the beginning. And plus you take
Jellen Milroe a chance to be your quarterback of the
future as well. But I do get people who have
that attitude where the Seahawks just kind of feel like
they're treading water. That's a little disappointing. I can understand
it from that perspective.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
I'm kind of with you on that, but I also
think those unsexy moves are exactly what the Seahawks needed. Agree, Right,
And those kind of small margins that people don't necessarily notice,
not big names and all that stuff, is what's gonna
make this team better. It's where I think the team
was missing the last couple of years.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
Right.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
I know, you make the quarterback change, right, But I
agree if you I think in terms of just overall production,
you're not gonna see a huge difference whether it's better
or worse for Sam Donald than Gino Smith. I think
it's gonna be relatively similar. The big thing that you
did was, I think you a got someone who's better
for the type of football you want to play, a
defensive minded head coach who's gonna want to kind of

(41:40):
have less volatility on the offensive side of the ball,
and b you got someone that's making less money at
this point and is younger. So I think overall, like
in terms of just the biggest picture, you got an
upgrade in that sense of the word. But everything else
I think is gonna be the biggest question for the Seahawks.
Can't and I like everyone's just assuming that this defense

(42:01):
is elite and is a top ten, borderline top five
defense in the National Football League. That's gonna be the
biggest thing for me, because the second half of last
season they were one of the best, if not the
best defense in the league for the second half of
the season. I want to know if that's going to
be something that we can continue to see improvements on
or even just be one of those teams for the

(42:23):
entire year. And if that's the case, I think that
put takes so much pressure off of the offense, takes
so much pressure off of Sam Darnold in a different
way than he had last year. He had a lot
of pressure off of him because he had such a
good quarterback whispering head coach, because he had such a
good receiving corps. He had a good defense I wouldn't
say elite defense with the Brian Flores led Minnesota Vikings.

(42:45):
So it's he's not gonna be the guy to go
out and win you every single game. And I think
because we're starting to see the shift in mentality, maybe
it's like, Okay, I'm looking at the roster. I mean,
there's good players everywhere. You don't really have a superstar,
whereas we're just so used to having like big name
players that are just going to go out and dominate
the headlines and the Russell Wilson's of the world, the

(43:07):
Legion of Booms of the world. So you don't really
have that right now. And I think a little goes
into just a type of team that Mike McDonald's trying
to build here.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
I think that's totally fair. And my question that just
kind of came in my head because you were talking
about Sam Donald, and we have seen brilliance from Sam Donald,
and we have seen absolute words we're not allowed to
say on the radio from Sam Donald as well, especially
his you know, everybody remembers the same ghost quote and
those last two games, that's our most recent sample of

(43:39):
Sam Donald, and he looked bad, overwhelmed. He looked overwhelmed
in a massive moment. But I will ask you this.
Let's say things go bad. Let's say the Seahawks get
off to a two and five start and Sam Donald
has like a ten to eight touchdown to interception ratio.

(43:59):
How quickly do the whispers for Jalen Milroe coming? Like
how much do you And let's take a look at
John Schneider real quick John's.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Question from the fans or from like the media slash
actual coaching, like thinking in their head with.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Let's say both, let's say both.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
I think it's gonna come quickly for the fans because
of how much excitement there is for Jalen Milroe and
how much upside I think rightly, So there's there's a
viewpoint on that, But I think I think he at
least gets all of this year no matter what happens
in terms of at least unless there's an injury.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
I think that's fair.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
And I will also say this now, John Schneider has
not always been my favorite general manager. His track record,
you know, is pretty darn good, you know, all things considered.
My buddy Pat Doherty, I believe, ranked him as the
sixth or seventh best general manager in football, which pretty
darn good, especially for a guy who's been around for
as long.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
And I think that's a totally fair ranking.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Yeah, I think you have to give him some credit
for getting quarterback right for a very long time.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Now.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
You know, they do sign Matt Flynn, but Matt Flynn
was not promised anything, and Russell Wilson comes in and
he usurped very quickly. That worked out pretty well. Maybe
the ending a little disappointing then Geno Smith to say
he was right about Geno Smith is the understatement of understandings.
Pete Carroll deserves a ton of credit there as well. Yes,
but just Snyder's got to sign off on that, and

(45:22):
he gets that right. I think that people might be
sleeping on Sam Darnald and in look, this is an
appeal to authority ad hominem, all that stuff, logistical or
logical nightmare. Because of the fact that John Schneider has
gotten the quarterback position as right as he has, that
gives me a little bit more excitement, right because I

(45:44):
don't think this is just moving on from Geno Smith.
There's a portion of that for sure. That relationship obviously soared.
But I think one of the reasons that relationship soard
was I think John Schneider may have fallen in love
with Sam Darnold. And let's remember the version of Sam
Donald we saw against the Seattle Seahawks.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
That wasn't just a good quarterback.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
That was upper echealon top ten play, maybe even top eight.
Put him in that top quarter It was a phenomenal
performance with some absolutely massive throws. I can't blame him
for falling in love with that type of stuff, and
I trust him to do his due diligence.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
I am not in Schneider. We trust one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
There have been some massive failures in particular and protecting
said players. There have been some failures in process and result.
But there is a part of me that looks at
this and says, if Sam Donald's at Mike McDonald's believe
that this is the guy, more so Schneider than McDonald
because McDonald has so little experience coaching offense at all

(46:46):
and coaching in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
It does give me a little bit more enthusiasm. Am
I on crazy pills for that?

Speaker 5 (46:52):
No?

Speaker 3 (46:52):
I think you're right, because it's you know, it's we're
in sports radio. It's either oh my god, John Snyder
does everything right or oh my god.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
He needs to be fired right.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
And I do think they're because of how much success
he had early in his career here in Seattle. And
we all can talk about the amazing drafts. There was
a stretch of time where the drafts were not good.
I want to say, like twenty fifteen through like twenty
twenty one. There was like a lot of bad bust
picks where you look at teams that picked behind you,

(47:21):
that got like franchise changing players that could have really
really helped our team. But I think since twenty twenty
twos draft or twenty twenty three's draft, excuse me, it's
been like, Okay, we're back to the John Steiner that
we need and kind of saw early in his career
where you know you're getting the right types of players

(47:41):
in the right spots. There's a lot of like, hey,
we expected to get this player a little bit later.
So that's kind of the biggest thing for me. And
I like what you said about getting quarterback right, because
everyone was like, oh, he's never drafted a quarterback. He's
only drafted two in his entire tenure, Russell Wilson and
Alex McGoo, which is really funny actually, but I do
think there's a reason for that, Like you felt like

(48:03):
that part of your roster was good, and you can
upgrade other parts of your roster with those draft picks, right,
So those two things can be taken out of context
a lot. So I think him a drafting at a quarterback
for the third time in his entire career and going
and having the balls to change, you know, something that
you felt like was at least average quarterback in Geno Smith.

(48:26):
You knew that he wasn't gonna be below average. He's
around that mid tier, which like, you can easily get worse,
but you could probably if you want, get better, and
he felt like he could get better with Sam Donald.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Yeah, I think that's totally fair and I will say
this too, just because I won't get a chance to
talk about it DoD kJ R.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
I loved their draft.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
I thought it was one of the best drafts that
anybody had, and in particular, the selection of Tory Horton
is one of my favorite selections of anybody. This is
the guy I've followed for a long time now. I
had to write a lot of blurbs about Mountain West
Conference football for NBC Sports and Rode World, and Tory
Harten was consistently going eight for one twenty. The other
pick was Ricky White, who was another guy that I

(49:07):
was absolutely enamored with, huge special teams. I thought they
nailed the draft, but I could also see that if
you are just the average football fan looking at that
draft and saying, this is not exciting, I really wish
they would have packaged these picks for I had a
buddy wondering why they're not trading for Trey Hendrickson, and
you know that's not exactly the most sexy football name either,

(49:29):
but obviously a guy who would help this defense a
heck of a lot, or why they aren't looking to
move up to draft the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
While the answer that question is.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Nobody did, but it is interesting to me to see
just kinda and we're seen in the text, and please
text in four nine, four or five one. Let us
know your thoughts on the upcoming year and whether you're
excited for Husky football and for uh Seahawk football. Wow,
that's pretty weird to forget that, D real quick. I
wanted to get your thoughts on what Joe had to

(49:56):
say about Julio.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Ooh yeah. I think it kind of matches the eye
test for me. I'm not someone who when I see something,
I know exactly where to look to see if what
I'm seeing is correct. So I refer to smarter people
than I And a lot of times that's Chris Crawford.
Sometimes that's Joshian. Sometimes that's Ino Saras when we have
him on on the Infernest Show as well, a lot

(50:18):
of smart baseball people in our circles here in Seattle.
So and I think what he said and I read
his article. I think it's fantastic work. If you missed it,
please go check it out Joshian dot com.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
It really kind of describes.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
What I've been thinking about Julio recently, and the biggest
question I've had, and I've talked about about this with
you on the postcast every night. Is I'm concerned that
he offensively, I'm going to take defense and base running
out of the question as of now. I'm just focusing
on him with the bat Right now. I'm concerned that
he is the player we saw last year and not

(50:55):
the player we saw in twenty twenty two and twenty
twenty three. And I think what Joe is saying in
terms of his approach and the batted ball quality, UH
is kind of backing that up a little bit. And
I know he's been hot recently, but it's it's okay
to expect more from your guy.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
No question about it. I'm totally fine with that.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
I am not going to allow and I'm putting up
the quotation works people who just bashed the dude and
claim that he's like an albatross contract and that he
is the rock.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Not a detriment to the team, not in no way.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Not even close. But is he the savior for this
baseball team based on what we've seen think twenty twenty
three and twenty twenty four, I'm not so sure. Well,
look at that and your text Sports Radio ninety three
point three Kids aripim.

Speaker 8 (51:44):
Pod casting live from the R and R Foundation Specialist
Broadcast Studio. Now back to Ian Fornez, powered by Seattle's
Closest sports book, Snow Call Me Casino on Sports Radio
ninety three point three KJR have.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Chris Crawford and for Ian for Nas. I want to
thank everybody who's been listening today. I want to thank
Ian for the chance to fill in for him, for
having such a mediocre work ethic that I have a
chance to come help out. Appreciate my buddy Andrews, who
I talk to way too much. It's starting to become
a problem. Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah, Like, let's let's take a break. Let's just take
a little cool Well you're tonight, Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
I'm going to go to my first Mariner game all year.
And Andrews is going to go solo DOLLO on the
locked on postcast, and I appreciate him doing that.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
I think it's time to look at some texts and.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
I think it's been Oh yeah, I should let that smooth,
sexy baseline come in.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Before I do that, I apologize Anders and you can
talk over it.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
A lot of techs that are kind of having similar opinions.
People are excited for Husky football are good, Buddy Keith.
I hope the Seahawk offense installs install includes some wish
in full house.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
Deformation with Milroe. HomeGrid would love that. Home Grid would
love that.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
That would be fun to see the good old tom
Water High School for those of you who are old
enough to remember sit out and running that offense.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
I think it would be fun to see.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
You know, it's not gonna happen, but I do think
you're gonna see Milroe play. I do think you're gonna
see some packages for him, Seneca Wallace adjacent, probably not
seeing him line up at wide receiver because he doesn't
have that same kind of lengthy build.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
But I'm excited to see Jamen le Miller.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
I think that's the most exciting thing about the preseason
for sure, seeing jale Milroe play.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Yeah, not just Jalen Milroe. I think Drew Lock's showing
a lot of good stuff here in Ota. So so I'm curious,
like I think they have a really for having three
quarterbacks who are like you know and have a defined role.
It's about as like you know what exactly what they are.
You know Sam Donald's a starter. You know Drew Locke
is the backup if something happens to Sam Donald. But

(53:56):
you also know that Jalen Milroe is a both. I
know the future, I would say, but also like, hey,
we're going to mix them into these different packages. So yes,
that's why I think preseason you're always going to have
a quarterback in there that you actually care about in
the development.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Really good text here from the two six longtime Seahawks
and Husky fan chicking in. Still super fired up for
the Hawks, curious how the new players will fit in.
I'm just two into baseball and depressed about basketball right now.
Totally get that, and I'm not in pro football mode.
Still love the Huskies, but I'm pretty much done with
all of college sports. They've lost me the last few years,
to the point I don't even get fired up for

(54:32):
March Madness anymore, and that used to be my favorite month.
I feel bad for the Kobs, and we'll watch the
Huskies if it's convenient, but that's it. I will tell
you this. I see a lot of that for college
sports right now, and there are some people on the
other side of the spectrum, the youths as we like
to call them. I wish I was still a youth,
but I'm not that are more excited for college sports

(54:52):
because of the NIL and because of all the movement
that happens. It's going to be a process for folks.
It's going to take a while to get used to
this that free agency exists in college sports. And my
personal opinion is it's great. I love seeing players going
to play where do they want to play and being

(55:12):
compensated for it. But I also understand that if you've
been so used to the system that you have had
for so long, I understand that it's an adjustment period.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Yeah, I go back and forth because I think.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
Something is different about college sports than the professional sports.
And I've always leaned more towards professional sports. And I've
talked about this multiple times because I didn't go to
a college that has like very famous sports programs. I
went to Seattle University, Like, I played soccer there, so
I played college sports. But it's not like I was
a huge fan of going to like you know, pep
rallies and football games and in basketball games and all

(55:51):
that stuff. And I realize that people who did go
to those colleges, it's a big deal and it's so
much fun. It's something I wish I could have experienced
in my college time. I was just focused on my
own playing for so long, so that's kind of what
substituted that for me. But what makes college sports special
is the the you know, you get to see players grow,

(56:12):
you get to see programs be grown from the ground,
from the ground up, you get to kind of that
camaraderie you get from people that went to the same
place as you, even if it was at a completely
different time. And to me, a lot of that's going
away with what's happening because it's basically just turning into
amateur professional sports and not even amateur semi pro professional sports.

(56:35):
And it's just a lot now because even though you
could say that, yeah, college sports are lower quality of
play of each of those sports than professional just because
professionals are you know, higher developed and you're paid for it,
but that was substituted with how special the atmosphere was

(56:55):
and kind of the different vibe that you got from
watching college sports, and now that that's gone, it's basically
just a worst quality version of professional sports.

Speaker 4 (57:02):
To me.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Yeah, I mean I ultimately disagree, but ultimately understand too,
and I think as someone who played the sport in college,
you know, you have a little bit different perspective, not
a wrong perspective by any stretch of the imagination, just
maybe different. H lost the text here, but somebody was
asking why haven't the Mariners called up Harry Ford. It's
a great question, and it's especially interesting watching Mitch Garver

(57:24):
literally not get a chance to play yesterday and having
Dom can zone it in one of the worst managerial
decisions I've seen for a while. I think the Mariners
are just committed to if Harry Ford isn't playing every
day for us, he's gonna play every day in Tacoma.
That could change, you know, if they need a full
time DH. If they felt like Jorge Polonko was ready

(57:45):
to play third base, maybe you do.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Bring up Harry Ford.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
And he's catching a couple of days a week and
more in the lineup, more often than Mitch Garver. But
I think they're pretty committed to saying he needs to
play every single day, and I kind of get it.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Yeah, And we've seen we talked about this on the
postcast as well. We've seen Cole Young come up and
while It's like we always think about what the upside
is for a lot of these guys, but we don't
really think about, Hey, what if they come up and,
you know, are negatively impacting the team. And I'm not
saying that's what Cole Jung's doing, but for the first
like two three weeks that he was here, he was
not hitting. He was not hitting whatsoever. I know he

(58:22):
had the walk off in his first game, but he
wasn't contributing offensively, and he was contributing defensively. But I
think everyone gets caught up and like, all these guys
are the future of the franchise and you know they're
gonna come up and instantly be better. How are they
not better than Mitch Garver. Well, there's a chance that
Harry Floy comes up and he's not better than Mitch
Garver honestly in terms of his offensive output. I know
that's hard to think about, it's hard to do, but

(58:45):
there's a chance that that's the case. So it's and
you don't want to just basically just have something different
than what you have, especially if you're trying to grow
a career. The guys are still only twenty three years old, so.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Uh, text from the two US six.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
I think that people that believe Julio's contract is an
Albatros or the vocal minority.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
For me, it's pretty simple.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Julio's doing some things very well, but we're all waiting
for him to pop and he hasn't it, so we're frustrated.
If his career ends up being one that is pretty good,
he'll have nothing to be ashamed of. But based on expectations,
it would be underwhelming. I don't think you could say
it any better than that. And I am the biggest
Julio apologist in the world and will.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
Still I can confirm that I will.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
Still admit that Julio Rodriguez is not the offensive player
that I want him to be. He's twenty four. I
think there's plenty of time for him to develop into it.
But and this is not an indictment on Julio. This
is an indictment on the Seattle Mayre in he front
office for relying on Julio Rodriguez to have to be
that type of offensive player.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
They got lucky with cal Raley being what he is.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
There's no way anybody outside of maybe Big Dumper himself,
who thought that cal Raley could do this. They didn't
do the job to support Julio. And when Julio is
in these bunks, for lack of a better term, their
offense just.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Isn't good enough. It's just not good enough.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
And like.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
I almost like always think about him in other lineups
across the MLB, right, and you always look to like
everyone the Dodgers have, and you see ti Oscar Hernandez
as a Mariner versus Taskar Hernandez as a Dodger. There's
a reason why he's performing so much better with the
Dodgers than with the Marriagers. It's not because he completely
changed what type of player he was when he went

(01:00:31):
to LA. It's because he's being asked to be the
type of player that he should be asked to be,
and that's a middle of the order bat, not someone
that's gonna carry an offense. But we just need you
to be a good five six hitter that we already
have our guys one, two, three, and four the Mookie
bets to Showhetani is the Freddie Freeman's of the world,
and we just need you to be a middle of

(01:00:51):
the order guy who's gonna drive runs in and come
through when we need you too.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
You're not gonna be asked to be an MVP candidate.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
And I think if you put Julio in that sort
of situation where he has other superstars around him, A
to learn from and B to take the pressure off
of him, I think he becomes that type of player.
So I that's another aspect that we think about here.
It shouldn't be just Julio and Callan and what nothing else,
which it kind of is right now. You could say

(01:01:18):
Jorge Polonko's coming through a little bit this year. You know,
you get the the JP's having a good month or so,
but he's not going to be a guy to carry
an offense at all.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
So real quick, Keith asks how Skeeter is doing. Number one,
I don't know what you're talking about, But number two,
Skeeter's doing really well. Skeeter is enjoying Shelton, He's loving
his Miller High Lives. He's having a blast in Podunk, Washington.
Thank you for asking about Skeeter. Speaking of Skeeters, I'll
talk to Notorious Skeeter. Dave Softy Malerneck Sports Radio ninety

(01:01:50):
three point three kids here of him. I am currently
watching Dave Maler. Remind me that golf is a very
difficult sports. It's a very tough one.

Speaker 6 (01:02:07):
Golf is very difficult, especially if you suck at it,
by the way, which makes it even more difficult, which
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Softy, my friend, how are you. I'm good. What's going
on with you?

Speaker 8 (01:02:16):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Good to see you. It's good to clashing up the
joint a little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:02:19):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:02:19):
I good to have a real blue blooded American here
instead of a Canadian. So I appreciate you bringing the
stars and stripes to the studio.

Speaker 8 (01:02:26):
Baby.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
We talked, Thank you for that. We talked a lot
about the Huskies. Ye're good and I only made one
shot at Washington State. It was a pretty good one.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
Well, it's it's kind of a bad time for them.

Speaker 6 (01:02:35):
You know, they're losing their track and field program or
part of it, all that stuff. So you're kind of
kind of kicking them while they're down. But you know what,
I don't know, man, there's a big part of me
that just says, the hell with them? So but so
I do feel bad. So I honestly feel bad.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
So at the two o'clock hour, and I know you
want to ask me about Mariner stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:02:51):
Really Okay, to give it damn what you think. To
be honest with you, I's gonna get your thoughts on
the NBA Finals in Florida and Edmonton to I mean, why,
just because you're wearing a baseball hat and King Dome hoodie,
I should care what your stupid opinion is about baseball.
Just because you cover baseball, you do that dumb show
on Monday with Ian and Nathan, I should give a
damn No.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
You're actually right. I am very curious.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
So, but we talked a lot about how this feels
like in the middle of the summer. Admittedly the least
excited people are for football in a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Oh yeah, if you get that, it is kind of weird.

Speaker 6 (01:03:22):
I mean, you know, look, you got rid of some
of the biggest personalities on the team, obviously in Pete
Carroll and DK Metcalf the last two off seasons, right
and Gino was obviously a big one too, but not
like those two guys. So, I mean, it just kind
of feels like a team that is about to mold themselves,
almost like the two thousand Baltimore Ravens, and they're gonna
win games thirteen to seven every single Sunday, which I'm

(01:03:44):
fine with, right, I'm totally fine with that. I mean,
you went out and you got a defensive minded coach.
You spent a bunch of money to make the defense better.
In free agency, you brought in DeMarcus Lawrence. You gave
Ernie Jones a new contract, whatever, blah blah blah. You
got a top five draft pick playing corner four of
you and Devin Witherspoon. Their defense was good a year ago.
They should be good again this year.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
So I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:04:05):
I mean, it really does feel like they're just trying
to duplicate what Mike McDonald was around in Baltimore. I
know he wasn't there in two thousand. I'm not even
sure if he was bored in two thousand. Seriously, he
may have been like nine years old, what is he
thirty four to thirty five years old? He was like ten, Yeah,
when the Ravens won the title. So that's what it
feels like to me. But it does feel like there's
not a lot of real chatter around the Seahawks right now.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
That's just the bubble that I live in. I'm so
glad you brought up Devin Witherspoon. Because I meant I'm
almost slid into your dems about this move.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
When I saw the top fifty Seahawks list, yeah right,
and I saw Devin Witherspoon and two punters.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
Should Devin Witherspoon be one of the top fifty seahawks
A man?

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
Probably not?

Speaker 6 (01:04:47):
You know, I gotta be honest with you, and I
understand why they're doing it. I think it's a smart
move by them, because people like you talk about it.
I haven't really paid much attention to it. I don't
know if I'm the only guy in Seattle that doesn't
really care. You know, I haven't been following it much.
I don't even know what number they're on, what number
they are. It's all fifty out, All fifty are already out.
Two punters, two fullbacks. So have they told you, like

(01:05:07):
the ranking of the fifty guys? Just just the names, okay?
And it's not position base. There's four quarterbacks, right, two punters.
Are they going to rank him at some point? I
don't think so.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
So they're done. They're done. They just gave us the
top fifty and said here and do with it what
you want. The only name that I really saw. That
really ticked me off. Russell A. Kuh's not on that list,
and that to me is kind of a over a punch.

Speaker 6 (01:05:28):
He's probably Russell Kung would probably be honestly maybe the
second best left tackle in franchise history. And that's not
saying a lot obviously, but he might be second or
third on that list, you know, having him. I mean
John Ryan and Michael Dixon are the two guys you're
talking about. I mean, it was John Ryan a better
punter than Russell o'kung was a left tackle. Probably not

(01:05:52):
I would say Dixon. I would say, yeah, you know,
Dixon compared to his peers, is a better punter than
ol Kung is a left tackle because it might be
the best punter in football right now. He's the highest
paid for sure. That doesn't mean much though when it
comes to football. So I don't know, dude. Listen, Chris,
I got so much angst over my baseball team. I
got angst over the thunder and the freaking finals. I

(01:06:15):
don't have enough room in my freaking black heart to
be concerned about the top fifty Seahawks of all time
in the middle of June.

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
Well, you're as smart they're doing it now for sure.
Will you watch any of that game tomorrow night? Probably not.

Speaker 4 (01:06:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
I didn't watch last night.

Speaker 8 (01:06:30):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:06:30):
I got kind of flipped on my phone and saw
they were getting crushed and said the hell with it,
and then saw the Pacers make a run and said
the hell with it. I mean either A, I'm gonna
flip it on and they're gonna get their ass kicked
and I'm gonna be pissed I watched it, or B
I'm not gonna watch it. Yeah, and they got a
shot at coming back, so I stuck with not watching it,
and that didn't work. So which got coming up today?
Today's a short show. It said, we call this pulling

(01:06:52):
up for an s. By the way, we're off at
five for hockey. Go Oilers. Everyone wants to see a
game seven on Friday, by the way, at five o'clock. Yeah,
so we're all rooting for the Oilers tonight, except for Anders,
Who's stupid.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Go Edmonton tonight. Let's get it done.

Speaker 6 (01:07:08):
Jerry Brewer's on, Paul Sylvie is gonna be on Jackson
Felt You ever see the movie Goodwill Hunting? Of course,
remember when they went to pick up Matt Damon at
the end of the movie and he wasn't there, and
Casey Afflat got to slide into the co pilot seat
in the car.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
That's Jackson today. Dick ain't here. We don't know where
he is. He's gone.

Speaker 6 (01:07:26):
We went to pick up Deck. He's not there. We
looked inside his house. We don't know where he is.
So Dick Jackson's Casey Affleck. He gets to step into
wink wink the co pilot's chair for today's show. And
I'm very excited about that, by the way, So Paul Sylvie,
Jerry Brewer fun with audio text hockey.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
That's it coming up next. Thanks so much for everybody
listened

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
By, for the mild mannered and marginally objectionable the Inverness
This is paddle Day saying so long everyone,