Softy & Dick 5-7 Hour 2: Mariners Bunting, Hawks Position Grades

In the second hour, Dick Fain and Hugh Millen discuss the Seattle Mariners apparent inability to bunt and move runners over, then talk about how we would grade the Seattle Seahawks position groups heading into the 2024 season and after the recent NFL Draft.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, rolling into a fouro'clock hour. I haven't talked to any
Mariner baseball yet. They played lateron today against Minnesota after a very typical
Mariner performance yesterday. I mean whenthey lose, Hugh, they lose exactly
how they lost yesterday, and thatis solid pitching, quality start by Luis

(00:21):
Castillo, no runs allowed by thebullpen, opportunities at least one golden opportunity
for the offense to break through,and that was in the seventh inning.
Bases loaded, no outs, andyou go K sackfly k and the strikeouts
continue to mount. We talked yesterdayabout them being worst in the in Major

(00:45):
League Baseball and strikeout rate as anoffense. Seven of the first nine outs
in the baseball game were strikeouts.They had ten strikeouts. Swinging, he
had a couple pivotal ones. Imean he's swing and he's watching. You
know, that's seventh inn You knowthere's also the ty France. You know,

(01:06):
he's way off the bag at firstbase. There should have been plenty
of opportunity for him to field thatball down the line. I understand the
base was a little bit of adistraction, and that'd be more forgivable had
he been closer to the bag.But he's down near and right field,
right and and so there was enoughtime. And then of course he you

(01:26):
know, the next battery hits adouble off the wall. And so so
when you're struggling offensively, you justcan't you can't allow any any leaks on
the defense. And the swinging strikesare what's getting me. The over aggression
at the plate, even though wehave heard the mantra control of the zone.

(01:48):
We have heard the mantra. Wewant to cut down strikeouts. We're
getting rid of Gino Suarez because hestrikes out too much. We're getting rid
of Taoscar because he strikes out toomuch. We're trading Jared Kellennick because he
strikes out too much. And thenthese guys strike out even more than that
team did last year. And onceagain that seventh inning yesterday, I was
during a break, I was watchingtalking to the guys at the emeral Quin

(02:09):
Casina. I was like, watchthis. You know we're gonna strand these
guys because we don't know how toget them in. We don't want to
sacrifice. And I looked up thenumbers today sacrifice bunts on the season Seattle
zero last in baseball obviously because theyhave zero sacrifice flies on the season.

(02:30):
Five last in baseball. So thisis the testerday including yesterday and now yesterday
was the fifth and they are stilllast in baseball in both of those categories.
They refuse to run to move runnersover. And Ian was actually asking
third base coach Maniacta when he hadhim on today about that situation. Are

(02:53):
we going to start seeing that moreand more? And how capable are guys
in Major League Baseball laying down abunt? Well, not everybody is capable
of doing. Obviously, the gamehas changed, and this is something that
guys don't work as much on inthe minor league, and it's not easy.
In the middle of a major leaguegame where velocity is being up over

(03:14):
the last few years, the guysjust square up or laid down a good
bunt when a guy's throwing a ninetysix miles for hour sinker roll or a
ninety two cutter right into their hands. It's not an easy thing to do,
but there are guys who have thatability and it's something that we encourage
guys to do. I mentioned earlier. Hitting has become very hard nowadays,

(03:35):
So they're giving you, you know, a hit, be a bunt.
I don't see white guys once ina while I want to do it.
I don't see why not either,Jackson. Would you like to take a
guess at what the major league averageis for players that try to bunt?
What's their batting average? Was theirbattle in the season when they try to

(03:57):
bunt? Hold on when they tryattempt a bunt attempt? Yes, okay,
so whenever that whenever when when theywhen they bunt you, when they
bunt a ball. Yes, it'sjust it's like it's like in a bat
you know, it's just but it'sa but they squared a BN. What
is their batting average when they squareda BN and actually make contact with the
ball? Imagine ridiculously low because it'sthe sacrifice guys over So, I mean,

(04:18):
it's like what fifty one out ofevery twenty times the guy turns a
bunch into a base hit. Someonetells me it's more because you wouldn't have
asked that, now, are you? Are you including guys that take two
strikes on a bunt and then haveto swing. Yeah, that's a good
question. The bunt, the definitionis that the bunt is laid down in

(04:41):
fair territory, in fair well,in fair territory. Right, But that's
a lot less than the uh,that's a lot less than the people that
try to bunch. I triaging whereyou're going with this, So just give
us the actual number. Over halfthe league is hitting over five hundred when
they sweared a bunch. So holdon, let's just let's just read this
carefully. Yes, that semantics ofthat statement. So does this mean that

(05:04):
when you try to bunt more oftenthan not, players who are bunting are
getting a hit out of the bunch. Yes, my god, my god.
Seattle have actually is four for fourwhen they try to bunt this year.
I'm sorry, I don't I don'twant to pull fly crap out of
pepper. But if you there's abig difference between saying on what your average

(05:28):
is when you square to bunt,which is one of the things you said
word for word, and the timesthat you actually lay the bunt down in
fair territory. There's a big setof at bats that you're ignoring, that
of guys that that attempted a buntat some point during the act. Yeah,
but a sacrifice bunt. A successfulsacrifice bunt is not in a bat.

(05:51):
Oh it doesn't. It doesn't countagainst shoot. I mean that changes
the whole dynamic here. I didn'tknow. I had to explain that.
I asked that the first question Iasked. A sacrifice bunt, just like
a sacrifly is not in a bat. Okay, So of that sense,
then it's okay. What would youguess if noempting to get a hit out
of a bunch? Would you stillthink it was over five hundred? Though?

(06:14):
I Mean, here's the deal.Players aren't going to try to bunt
for a basin unless they see somethingin the infield that says, oh,
I have a big opportunity, andthen b I know, I'm pretty darn
good at this, so I thinkI can actually get a hit out of
the bunch. That's actually the fivehundred average makes a bit of sense considering,
well, there's a little bit youknow, a left handed hitter as
a drag bunt, you know,maybe slumping, uh, you know,

(06:36):
maybe maybe the picture it's the fifthinning, you know, and there's a
no hitter and he just wants toshake things up, you know, maybe
he doesn't want to violate protocol anddo it in the eighth inning, but
they'll do it in the fifth inning, and you know there there, I
think there's a lot of reasons.Why why I would like to know is
is the times that you go upthere to try to have a sacrifice bunt

(06:58):
and what happens to the app Iwould I would describe the at that if
at any time he tries to havea bunt, that would constitute a bunting
at bat for me, because sometimesguys, you know, they start start
to want to butt, they can'texecute it, maybe to get a foul
ball or something, a couple ofstars and then they're forced to swing away
or you know what, what haveyou. But I'm just at the point

(07:20):
now, guys, I'm gonna usea golf analogy, and many many times
I'll go out on the course andI'll get through four or five holes and
I'll just be like, I don'thave the driver today. I mean,
it is in the woods every singletime. So I te it low,
I put it more in the middleof my stance, and I swing seventy

(07:43):
percent and I'm just like, I'mgonna hit it two hundred yards, but
I'm gonna put it in the fairway, and I do that for the rest
of the rest of the round.And I just want to see the Mariners
do that a few times. Meaningbases loaded, no outs, one out,
I'm just gonna chop something to secondbase just to get the run in

(08:09):
from third base. I'm gonna chokeup on the bat. I'm gonna because
anything is better than what these guysare doing right now with the bases loaded,
which is striking out. My god, just put the bat on the
ball. We don't need the GrandSlam home run because guess what, You're
not gonna get one. And itjust infuriates me, Hugh, that we

(08:33):
have this elite pitching staff where allyou need to do is score four runs
to win, like eighty percent ofthe time, and we leave bases loaded
all the stinking time because we're playingfor the four or five run inning and
try to score eight runs in agame and we end up scoring one or
two and it just drives me nuts. Well, by the way, if

(08:56):
you read Jack Nicholas's biography, hedid that a lot in major tournaments.
Just leave the driver in the inthe trunk of the car, like they
just said. You know, I'mgonna let these other guys step on there,
you know what, and I'll justyou know, I'll just keep you
know, Iron Byron right down themiddle three woulds. So so there's there's
some wisdom to all that. ButI would think that it's hard when these

(09:20):
contracts, these these monstrous contracts thatthey're tied to RBIs and doubles and home
runs and and you know, youcome up with the bases loaded and you're
saying you're you're sending them. Youknow, now you can say it's always
been that way. I I don'treally have an answer to that. But

(09:41):
you know, to tell a guy, Okay, we're gonna pay you really
really well for driving in runs.But then when you get up there with
the boat bases loaded, we're goingto ask you to just chop a ball,
you know, uh, to theyou know, to the wherever ever,
you know, you know, buttit. On Saturday night against the
Mariners, you're on Alvarez, You'reon Alvarez, laid down a butt.

(10:03):
If you're on Alvarez can lay downa bunt, then any one of the
Seattle Marriors can lay down. Idon't I don't think anybody was on as
I recall of have to go backand look, was he bunning because he
saw something he must have an opportunitywith the defense or was he bunning to
sacrifice with the No, No,he was not bunning. Yeah, but

(10:26):
no, he was not bunning sacrifice. I just remember hearing it on like
they were. Riz was just floored, you know, but they they did
it decision. Uh, you neverknow if it's his or if that's the
third base coach, but probably his. I would imagine he saw something.
Yeah, and you know, andjust I just wish we had a little
more creativity at the plate. That'sthat's all I'm saying. Hey, you

(10:46):
were you were mentioning something was reallyinteresting, and go back to it about
Mike McDonald and how the Seahawks needto win now because that Mike McDonald's advantage
over the rest of the league rightnow is his defensive mind, and at
some point bar during an adjustment byMike McDonald, offensive coordinators are going to
start to figure out Mike McDonald's defense. Over the course of the next three

(11:07):
to five years. The Athletic askedthe panel of seven NFL executive to rank
the new coaching hires and what theydid is they gave three points to your
favorite, two points to your nextfavorite, one point for your third favor,
and they asked the seven NFL execsto rank Jim Harbaugh, Dan Quinn,
Mike McDonald, Brian Callahan, orhe's Raheem Morris, Gerd Mayo,

(11:28):
Dave Canalis, Antonio Pierce. Ijust put that in a random order there.
Do you have a do you havea favorite couple? Right off the
bat of the of the hirings.Well, here's the problem with me asking
that, answering that guys are hiredbecause they've displayed one set of attributes that

(11:50):
that are are our elite, andthen they are promoted into a chair where
it's an entirely different set of attributesthat make you successful. Yeah, interest
and and so. But but howelse are you gonna how else are you
gonna hire head coaches? I mean, if you if it's your job to
hire a head coaches, you couldhire a retrade trade. Yeah, you

(12:15):
have to be a prognosticator, Right, how is this guy going to fit
in position B when he's been thebest in position A. I had a
conversation with Mike McDonald out at thevMac just happened to run into him,
and I could not have been moreimpressed with the person. I mean,
he comes up, I mean there'szero big time in him. Just a

(12:37):
freaking great guy. Now that's onlya ten minute observation, you know.
So I don't I don't profess toknow, but I know people who know
him, who rave about him.So I have an extremely high opinion of
Mike McDonald, an extremely high opinionof who he is as a person and
what the tape shows and what thethat show about his defense again, the

(13:01):
Triple Crown, fewest points, theraven defense, most turnovers, and most
sacks with by the way, Journeymandefensive ends, you haven't been doing anything
right between van Neyt and Jadavian Clowneyon either side. So just a remarkable
piece of I mean, there wasa blitz I was watching earlier today.

(13:26):
You know in basketball when you dothe weave the three man. It looked
like a three man weave, likelike like my wife braiding her hair.
It was like there was so muchgoing on on. This linebacker comes slam
into this guy, and then andthen and then so it goes right left,
right, and this twist and Ithink it was it was I think

(13:46):
it was. It was either JustinHerbert or or maybe it was with the
Jaggar. Whoever it was, itwas just all of a sudden, the
roof caved in right away on thequarterback. Yes, yes, And it
was just this beauty, like reallycomplex blitz and he has complex coverages and

(14:07):
he has complex disguises and he coacheszone defense. It's like a symphony because
everybody. There's a certain match qualityto the defenders where they match the the
routes based on certain releases. Butthere's a lot of eye reading, there's
a lot of movement from a playerpost snap to a different responsibility from where

(14:33):
he lined up pre snap. Theygot smart guys who know where their help
is. And it's just it's it'sexquisitely well coached and and so like like
he's the dude. Yeah, heis the preeminent as he Like right now,
if you said to me, Ihaven't studied intricately everybody. If you

(14:56):
just said to me, who who? Who? Do I think, where's
the evidence the pre eminent defensive mindon planet Earth right now? It's Mike
McDonald, the head coach of theSeahawks. How long he'll have that advantage.
If you look at history, noscheme goes unsolved, and you just
hope he has the acumen to adjustas the others adjust to him. Right

(15:22):
indeed, but you know, Imean I cited Buddy Ryan. Buddy Ryan
with the Bears and the eighty fiveBears. Nobody had an answer for that
in nineteen eighty five, by eightyseven, who yet? Eighty six the
Giants went to the Super Bowl,eighty seven the Redskins like they weren't even
going to the Super Bowl within thenext and they were the most dominant.

(15:46):
And if you look at Buddy Ryanwhen he was the head coach of the
Cardinals, they were doing a lotof crazy stuff. It was hard to
prepare for him. But they wereout of position and they weren't a good
defense. So you have said,well, why why couldn't he designed the
greatest defense of the last fifty years? Why couldn't he adjust? I don't

(16:07):
know. Maybe Mike McDonald's smarter,but I would just say, we are
in a window. There's no likelet's know, you know, it's not
time to buy green bananas. Itis now the next three four years based
on on the makeup of the team. How you've acquired him second and fifth

(16:27):
round, you know for Leonard,you know Williams and all. I mean,
it's it's now, well, tryingto get a super Bowl in the
next three to four years. Andthat's what Pete was able to do in
year number four of the of thatwindow. And he stayed dominant through year
number five and then it started totail off. But the executives just to

(16:48):
kind of wrap things up. JimHarbaugh was was by far and away the
most popular hiring with the Chargers.Raheem Morris was actually second with the Falcons,
followed by Mike McDonald donald. SoMike McDonald was the third most popular
higher in the NFL and the offseason Harbor. Harbor was the one that
I wanted. I mean, thatwas the one that that was the no

(17:10):
brainer. Well, Harbor it isproven, yes, absolutely, one hundred
percent. Of course, of course, the University of San Diego, Stanford,
it's forty nine ers, Michigan.I mean, the guy it's like
Urban Meyer. Uh, say whatyou want about him. Before he went
to the NFL, Urban Bowling,Green, Utah, Florida State everywhere,
he was just a shining star everywherehe went at least with respects to winning

(17:32):
and winning championship. We'll talk toour friend Donald Watts coming up next on
ninety three point three KJRFM. Nowback to Sothian Dick on s What's Radio
ninety three point three kJ RFF WashingtonHuskies. I see you. We're home
for the Huskies and the prend hopingto get ahold of our man Donald Watts

(17:55):
here momentarily Softian Dick without the softone from our brain new R and our
Foundation studios. The studios are notbrand new anymore. They're still relatively new,
but our sponsor's brand new are inour Foundation specialists providing expert foundation and
waterproofing solutions throughout Western Washington. Ourthanks to Corey and Tammy and Jordan,
the entire team at R and ourFoundation specialist. Welcome to our team.

(18:21):
We've been talking Seahawks. We've beentalking a little Byron Murphy, little Mike
McDonald as well, Hugh. II just took it upon myself because I
was bored the other day. Iwas sifting through some articles on the interweb
and I came across Bob Candota's roster. He does a usually right after the

(18:45):
draft, he does a projected roster, and then he kind of updates it.
Once we get into July and Augustwith training camp, he updates the
projected roster. And so I justkind of wanted to said, hey,
you know, let me spend fifteentwenty minutes going over the roster and see
how I would grade each position forthe Seahawks, and just to kind of

(19:07):
find out what our overall thoughts areabout this this football team. And I
graded it based upon, you know, kind of comparing what I thought an
average what an average NFL team wouldhave at a at a certain position.
If I thought the Seahawks were deadaverage at a certain position, I would
give them a C. So that'show I kind of grat If I thought
they were one of the worst inthe NFL at the position, I'd give

(19:30):
them an F. If I thoughtthey were one of the best, I'd
give them an A. So that'skind of how I delineated start with the
quarterback position, which I know youhave. You have thrown the word out
dead average, the words out deadaverage before Gino Smith, Sam Howell.
I kind of bumped it up justbecause the acquisition of Sam Howl. I
bumped it up from dead average Cto slightly above average C plus just because

(19:53):
of the depth that is that fairto rate the Seahawks quarterbacks is C plus
in the the the NFL. Ithink Geno's about that. I think Geno's
maybe you know, just E Scosabove the dead median if you just say
incrementally, I mean, I thinkhe's right there in the middle. Sam
Hell, I think it's somewhat ofan intriguing acquisition if you ask me to

(20:17):
lay down money. Do I everthink Sam Howel's going to be the seahawks
number one quarterback going into a season. I don't think so, and I
agree, and certainly not after aseason. So if he has a season,
I think it would be one that'sprobably unlikely. And I just think
that, you know, it's justhe'll be kind of a caretaker. I

(20:40):
hope I'm wrong, but I don'thave a huge level of optimism for him
running back. I'm a huge Kninefan. I'm probably higher than a majority
of Seahawk fans on on Knine.Not that Seayawk fans are down on him.
I just I just think he's hasword of potential. Zach sharmanna I

(21:02):
thought was fair to Midland last year. But I gave the running back Corra
a B plus because of the onetwo punch there and that I really think
that talent wise, I think Knine might be a top five back in
the NFL just on raw talent.Well, I've said that many times.
I think he is a top fivetalent. I said that when he was

(21:22):
at the summer of his first trainingcamp here that I thought he had an
eighteen hundred yard season in him.Maybe that's a little bit of a stretch
because there's more of a load distributionnow in the NFL. Now there's seventeen
games, not sixteen. But youknow, maybe he'll get eighteen hundred someday.
But I do think he has thattalent. I would go a minus.

(21:45):
Okay, all right, he's gonnagive him as third. Speaking of
a minus, the wide receiver corpDK Locke at JSN Bobo Estridge Schnault,
I gave that. I gave itan A minus. I would have gone
straight A if one of those guyswas an elite, top five receiver in
the league. Now. DK certainlyhas the potential to be a top five

(22:07):
receiver in the league. We justhave not seen it yet. Yeah,
well, i'd probably say it's ana I think there. I think it's
a hell of a receiving core.I think Jackson Smith and Jagba is going
to have a big bump. Ithink Bobo will be a good fourth receiver
and give you a unique skill set. I'm not sure about Chinalt so so

(22:27):
I think the depth has been reallylacking over the last few years. But
at the top I think Locket's probablystill got another year or two in him.
And and if just god willing,can Ryan Grubb see you know,
there's some similarities here from Grub's perspectivewith what he had. I mean,
DK Metcalf is the Roma Dunes,then, so let's see if Grub can

(22:53):
have a little bit more of aTroikman mentality, which I've cited where Troy
said drop bombs. Understand these Seahawks. It was me, I'd be throwing
a bomb every quarter to this guy, you know, and throwing more to
him. So I'm gonna I willthere's some topics I agree, I feel

(23:14):
I'll express it, but I won'tdie on a beach. I will die
on a beach for DK Metcalf.Fair enough, if I'm the last eye
off of that of the DK metcalfBars tight end. Looks like we got
fans, we got Pharaoh Brown,and we got the new kid, A
J. Barner, potentially Jack Westover, if he's a tight end or just

(23:36):
a special team right. Gave itbecause of fan and he's still intriguing to
me. I gave it slightly aboveaverage. I gave it a C plus.
Is that is it? Is itdead average or is it slightly above
or slightly below? I think ifyou really went through the receiving cord.
Now I'm a full disclosure. I'min the bag for Jack Westover. Sure

(23:56):
you know I only coached him oneyear. Move didn't them outside, so
I but I coached him and hebroke his collarbone in practice after two games.
So I only had him for twogames. But I've known him a
long time. I've known his family'sincredible. I know his dad for forty
years. So I'm very biased towardsJack west Over. So if you set
that aside, because I need toset it aside otherwise I can't give you

(24:18):
an objective analysis about the tight ends. I think that if you went truly
went through and you said Okay,the best tighting tight end corps and you
said one through thirty two, noties. I think Seattle is below the
median Okay, I think see himhave fifteen to twenty range. Yeah,
I think I would be inclined tosay C minus offensive line cross and Lucas.

(24:45):
You've got Tomlinson and a guard.You got Bradford and Haynes at a
guard, you got Nick Harrison,big olew at center. You've got you
got some veterans in the you know, backups, you got fans, you
got Forsyth, you got this newkid Lemeya. I said B minus with
potential. I think I definitely wouldn'thave said B minus before draft day.

(25:06):
I would have said C minus Dplus before draft day. But I think
now you know, but with that, everybody seems to like the new kid,
Christian Haynes. I'm gonna go I'mgonna go B minus on the offensive
line. Well, I uh,I'm a little bit bullish. I thought
Olua Timmy was my favorite draft pickfrom the twenty three draft. Very biased

(25:33):
again toward Christian Hayes. He's myoldest son's roommate and teammate for two years.
So I think I just know whata great person he is. And
and you know, a four yearstarter, well really, if if you
count the COVID in everything and thered shirt, more like five six year
starter, so immensely experienced. Anduh, I think he's gonna be your

(25:53):
starter, right guard. I'm reallyconcerned about the right tackle in Abraham Lucas
and where we are health wise.Yeah. Yeah, it's fair because you
know, if you get the bestAbraham Lucas, I think that changes the
grade by at least a half agrade. Absolutely, And I guess I
am just assuming when I said Bminus. I guess I'm assuming health and

(26:14):
that he plays, you know,a good seventy five eighty percent of the
season. At least that's kind ofwhat I was assuming there. Yeah,
I don't know how I can objectivelysay it's any more than kind of right
in the middle. See See,So when you look at the offense,
you and I agreed on quarterback.You were slightly more bullish on running back

(26:37):
A minus to B plus. Youwere slightly more bullish on wide receiver A
to A minus that I had.You were slightly more pessimistic on tight end
C plus to a C minus.And you were slightly more pessimistic on the
offensive line. So really you andI are almost identical. I mean we
were this offense we are saying isbetween a B and a B my offense.

(27:00):
So that is, you know,tenth to fifteenth in the NFL,
which is probably right around where they'regoing to be scoring wise, I would
imagine. Well, I think RyanGrubb has a very high ceiling. I
don't know if he'll show it inyear one, but I think he has
the potential. And I played fora lot of offensive coordinators in the NFL

(27:22):
that were top five, multiple topfive in either passing or total offense.
Obviously with me holding a pencil,but I just was there to see it
up close. And I think he'sgot top five in the league potential with
He's just that bright as a tactician, and so I'm very interested in him.
So he could he could lift anoffense a full grade or more.

(27:47):
Interesting, Well, that can besaid about the defense, and we'll go
over the defense. After we talkedto John Wilner at five o'clock. We
got testimonials coming up next on ninetythree point three k JRFM.