July 16, 2026 • 30 mins
In the second hour, Dick Fain and Jacson Bevens chat with Bret Boone about the All Star Break in MLB plus feelings around the Mariners right now with multiple continued issues including fixing Cal Raleigh, then they discuss Dan Wilson’s current job security.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of
Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R FM. It's
time for our weekly conversation with former Mariners All Star
Bread Boone, brought to you by Venue Kings. Visit venue
kings dot com for all your ticket needs. Now with Booney,
here's SOFTI and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
What's Bob?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Booney?
Speaker 4 (00:22):
How you doing?
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Man? What's happening?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Nothing? What do you do this week?
Speaker 5 (00:27):
The dream?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Living the dream? What's the what's the handicap at so far?
Speaker 6 (00:30):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
This year?
Speaker 5 (00:31):
I steak? I think him a. I have been playing
much golf five eight five.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Eight in good still solid, still solid, no question about it.
So do you play golf this week? And do you
spend time watching baseball? How much of the the futures,
the Derby, the All Star Game, how much of that
do you actually dip your toe into or do you
just kind of use this week to kind of cleanse
yourself from baseball.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
A little bit?
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Exactly? I caught the tail end, tail end of the
home run derby. I glanced at the game. I was
actually traveling this week. I was actually up in Seattle.
I had a charity event and up in the Coma area.
So I was there for a few days to catch
up with a few buddies and really very casually watching.
(01:16):
I watched a little bit here and there, but not much.
I couldn't I couldn't do the commentary on the derby,
but I did catch the end.
Speaker 6 (01:23):
Hey, Bret Jackson, Bevans here. You know, I'm curious you
had seasons as an All Star, seasons where you weren't.
As you're going through a season, what is the difference
in feeling that you have about your performance when you're
having a season good enough to make an All Star
team versus those where you're not.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Well. It usually comes down at first and second halfs,
you know, And in some years you make the team.
Some years you think, ah, how did I not make
the team? You feel like you got snubbed. You hear
that at the break all the time. I'll hear the
snubs of the of the Alster break, at the Ulster break.
Everybody can't make it. I don't know, because you know,
one magical season, oh two. First half was dismal for
(02:07):
me personally. The team was five. Second half was as
good as I could have played. So it all comes
down to halfs. Really so All Star can be. Uh
you know those start to finish seasons where you just
you're locked in and you just have a great year
start to finish, they're very rare, at least very rare
for me. But the years that you start off, it's
it's it's cool to make an All Star team. I
(02:28):
remember I made my first I was a kid in
a candy shop. Going to Colorado was my first one
in ninety eight, and then everyone since then. It's it's
an honor every time you you get selected. And uh,
you know, I've all I've always been puzzled. I grew
up in the game. This is all I've ever done.
I've been to All Star games as a kid with
my dad. I got to play in a few of
(02:49):
my own. And every year, you know, you hear the stories,
well he was selected, but he's not going to play.
He's not gonn And I just think, Wow, what was
I missing? Because I always thought, but I get selected,
I'm going I want to get hits. Maybe I do,
maybe I don't. But you know, this this game we play,
it's it's so fleeting. It's I played for fourteen years
(03:11):
and when I when I ended up retiring it seemed
like I just got that call to make my debut.
So it goes by in the in the pretty darn quick,
and I just want to cherish every opportunity you get
when you're playing this game, take advantage of it and
enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Well, Boone, you're referencing Zach Wheeler of the Phillies, who
certainly had an all star first half of the season.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
There's no question about that at all.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
But he was passed over, and then he was passed
over again, and he was finally asked and he was like, no,
I'm gonna take my ball and go home.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I'm not And that to me, rubbed me the wrong way.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
I was like, it doesn't matter when you get honored,
It matters that you got honored.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
And so it was.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I thought that was a bit of a poor sport,
you know, whining from Zach Wheeler.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What did you think?
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Well, I look at look at his numbers to date,
he's ten and one, I mean, and obvious he should
have been there. He was kind of loud about not
being there, which I've never done that. You know, there's
been some years Rob thinking. You know, ninety four comes
ninety four and ninety five for me. I was kind
of at the break on what how am I not
on the team? That's nothing that I go public with
(04:21):
and talk to the media about. But you just think
to yourself, wow, he went public with it. That's something
I would never do. So, you know, he went public
with it, and then they came back and he probably
almost felt like why because I made such a stink
and then everybody kind of backed me up because the
numbers say I'm an All Star. Now you're just gonna
give me this token invite. No, I'm not. I wasn't
(04:44):
really offended by it. It's nothing I would have done.
I wouldn't have done it that way. But no, it's
not something over the top of today's game. With everything
the ongoings, the comings and goings, everything we see on
a daily basis, nothing really surprises me. So that really
it didn't catch me too off guard. I just thought, oh,
he probably felt that the only reason he was being
(05:06):
invited is because he made a stink about it, and
then the media made a stink about it, and then
it was kind of he felt like a token. But
I wouldn't have said anything to begin with, and I
wouldn't have denied it if I was a vasked, so
I'll never know. But now I wasn't put off that much.
It was just kind of some entertainment for a couple
of days watching the back and forth.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Well, booney, thank god for the Al West of twenty
twenty six, because if this was last, if this was
last year, the Mariners would be eight and a half
games back of the Astros right now. If it was
two years ago, they'd be four games back of the
first place Mariners. If it was three years ago, they'd
be eight back of the Rangers. And if it was
four years ago, they would be fourteen games back of
(05:47):
the Houston Astros. Instead, they find themselves right there with
the Rangers at the at the top of the division.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So there's two schools of thought.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
The glass half full school of thought is, hey, we
always start slow, We're always around five hundred in the
beginning of July, and then we always catch fire and
the division sucks. The glass half empty folks would be like, okay,
but this team looks nothing like those teams. Randy Rose
Rain is walking to balls on a weekly basis. Sloppiness
(06:17):
all around the yard. Our superstar can't hit his way
out of paper bag. So which which boat should we
have one at one foot in the optimist boat or
the pessimist boat.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
I think the optimist boat. And that's because that's starting
pitching staff. You know, I was just going over the
numbers here in the American League, and you're right thankful
that it's such a mediocre year in the American League.
They're right there in it. I mean they're in the
they're in the playoffs if it starts today, well, Devan
Minnesota are tied. But I circled on my sheet here
there's really only seven teams right now that I would
(06:53):
say at the trading deadline are going to be sellers.
And that's that's the A's, Kansas City, LA Cincinnati, San Francisco,
the Mets, and Colorado over in the nationally seven out
of thirty teams at this late stage of the season.
So that's remarkable to me. I think the next two
weeks is going to play out how it plays out,
(07:15):
and there might you might add some teams to that.
As far as guys that would be sellers versus buyers, well,
I guess not necessarily do you sell, but it's going
to be confirmed here in two weeks. Who isn't buying
because there's gonna be some some interesting guys out on
that trade platform, and it's going to be interesting. So
who gets it? San Diego comes to mind if they
(07:35):
feel like they're out of it with the ownership change.
A lot going on here in San Diego, so that's
going to be interesting to me. But uh, I think
from Seattle standpoint, they should just kind of thank their
lucky stars right now and look around that room. This
was a good time for them. I mean, they lose
five out of six going into the All Star break.
This is a good the perfect break for this Seattle
ball club who's still on paper, especially starting pitching. They
(07:59):
got to get who through that protocol. I don't know
if it's gonna be early next week. Donovan is about
to go on a rehab assignment get to two more
of a full roster, But this was the perfect time
for them. They lose five to six going into the break,
and this is kind of a time to look around
the room and kind of man up and go listen,
we got the guys in this room that were pretty
(08:21):
much essentially the same guys in this room a year ago.
We were a one game from going to the World Series.
What has changed, and it's up to them and we'll
see how that does. Lucky for them, they're in the
West and it has been a mediocre run as you
could possibly have. I think the Houston Nationals are sitting
there getting brown back at the top of that rotation.
They're sitting there going the end of April. They're going, well,
(08:43):
our run are locked kind of on this division that
we've had for the last six seven years. Well, this
run's probably coming to an end all of a sudden,
they're right back in and going. These teams are playing
so average that they let us back in and don't
let a team like that who's used to be in there.
It used to be in at the top the division.
Don't give him a chance at this stage of the game,
(09:04):
and they have Houston's right there with him. So I
think the West is going to be a fight. I
still think at the end of the day, this team's
gonna pull it out and this team's gonna win that division.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Well, I do think they're going to get a right
handed bat, But I think Jerry is right when he
came out and said yesterday, we're not going to get
a right handed bat as good as some of the
right handed bats we have right now that just aren't performing.
And he's looking squarely at his catchers. So you were
the you were the heading coach for the Rangers, what.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Would you be doing? What would you be saying to
cal right now?
Speaker 5 (09:35):
We got to simplify this thing as much as as
much as possible. A year ago, you couldn't have been
more locked in. You know, there was probably you're a
handful of guys on the planet a year ago that
just came to the yard whistling and skipping. You know,
I've been through years like that, and it's fun. They're
they're very far in few between. But we got to
get back to basics. We got to simplify this thing.
I remember an interview with Cali year ago, which is
(09:58):
I still preached a hit her today and he said,
you know, and he was talking about Edgar a little bit,
and he said, Edgar just always says to me, when
I get a little offer, I get a little confused.
Stay through the middle of the field. He said. As
long as I stay through the middle of the field,
it allows my barrel to hit every type of pitch.
And you know, sometimes we do it and when we're
(10:20):
locked in and we're going good. We don't think about much.
It's just there. We get to the ball. We don't
have to do much. We don't have to go down
there and hit a thousand balls. We might hit ten
or twelve ago. I'm good. I'm good. Let's play the game.
When you're going bad, it seems sometimes you overthink, you're
analyzing everything and you're missing the simple fact, simple things
(10:43):
you do right, simple ways to simplify the It bad.
So I think he's got to get back to it.
I think at this stage, you know, for a while
you were thinking, well, he can't go like this all.
See it's gone pretty long and the strikeouts are way
up too. But at this stage of the game, it's
not about Okay, you can kind of put in the
books it's not going to be one of my better years.
(11:03):
But what can I do in the next two and
a half months to be help this team win games,
help this team get to the postseason because the great
years out of the question, but you can still salvage.
And salvage is helping these guys turn around because Cal
is a guy that this team looks to. This team,
he's the captain, he runs the pitching staff. When you're
(11:23):
not playing very well, it's really tough to be that
staunch leader, you know what I'm saying. Usually the leader
comes with the numbers and the production when you're not producing.
Not that people don't look at Cal and have a
lot of respect for him in the room. They do.
But it's much different when you're carrying, when you're showing
up every night and carrying the mail and winning games
(11:44):
for your team than when you're really struggling. It's really
tough to lead a ball club, Brett.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
When you're in a one of those funks. How quickly
do you realize that you're coming out of it? Is
it as simple as a great at bat gonna.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Be a found that I could follow ball off, I
could foul ball off during it at bat and the
light goes off and I go, that's it? And why
didn't I know that a week ago? The only thing
I learned is with with experience in the game, and
experience is a lot. When I was a young kid,
I came into the league hair on fire, swinging hard,
no approach, just in this game as hard as I can,
(12:21):
trying to make a name for myself. As I moved on,
and I as I watched the great watch the great
hitters in the game, and especially the right handed hitters,
and picked the brains of some players that I really
respected and learned how to come up with a formula
for me, not for a right hander, but for me personally,
my skill set, what I what I like to do,
(12:42):
and I simplified it. You know, it wasn't that I
went into every game with that a swing where I'm
standing up high and back legging people. Some days I
need to get to the ballpark and realize what I
have in the tank. It's not always that a swing,
like I said, Sometimes I got to go with my
B swing. Sometimes there's a guy in the mount I
don't pick up his pitches very well, and I gotta
know that. And tonight is not I'm not gonna go
(13:06):
three for four with a homer. I need to survive
and maybe find a way to help my team win tonight,
get in the cage tomorrow, work on it, survive to
play another day. And I don't see enough of that.
I see what we're going with the same thing every night,
and this is gonna work because it used to work. No,
I gotta know what I have in the tank, who
I'm facing, how I'm feeling, how I'm seeing the ball,
(13:27):
and I'm gonna go with that. It's like going to
the driving range. Those big boy pros that the top
PGA guys, they don't go there. They go and hit
a couple cuts and a couple of draws. What's working
for me today, It's gonna keep this ball in the
fairway and they go with that. They don't just say, well,
I'm gonna work it out on the course and I'm
gonna go with his drawl day when it's not working. No,
that's how you shoot seventy seven. They have the ability today.
(13:48):
I'm gonna survive. I'm gonna shoot seventy two, might not shoot,
sixty five, might not shoot, but I'm definitely not gonna
shoot seventy five. I'm gonna find a way to scrape
it around the course and shoot even park. I think
as hitters we need to do this same thing. We
hit every day. It's one hundred and sixty two. Some days,
pr is really good.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I don't know about you, Jackson.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I'm fine with a seventy seven when I walk off
the course after seventy.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Well, but I think you're gonna find your way in
the back of the pack.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Exactly exactly right.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Brett Boone joining us, say, you know, Boonie, I hope
two months from now we're talking and the job status
of Dan Wilson is no longer an issue. I hope
that's the case. I really want to see this team
turning around. And we're not talking about potentially firing Dan Wilson.
But our morning show host, who is usually not a
slings and arrows guy. He's not a fire in brimstone,
(14:40):
you know, get rid of everybody type guy. He's not
an ajer guy, and he called on Monday for the
firing of Dan Wilson.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
He says he's seen enough.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
We've seen situations in the past two with the Phillies
right a few years ago, and then recently when Rob
Thompson was fired. They were nine to nineteen. Don Mattingly's
gone forty five and twenty four with the same dudes.
So maybe talk about that scenario in Philadelphia and what
you've seen there and could something potentially happen like that here.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Well, it's if you sign on the dotted line to
be a major league manager, it's always it's always an option,
especially the teams that come with big expectations, the expectations
and players and a roster and a track record, there's
more pressure on you as the skipper. And if you
(15:32):
don't win as a player. I know this for a fact.
Managers never lose games for us. It's not the manager
is never the reason. But the manager's the one that
takes the fall when we don't play up to our capability,
and that that would be the case of Danny. You know,
I'm not saying Danny's getting fired, but if that were
to happen, I watched Carlos Mendoza get fired this year.
(15:55):
I'm very fine to Carlos. I think it does a
great job. I talked to guys on that team. He
had nothing to do with the way they're playing. The
Thompson you mentioned. As far as I know, and I
don't know Thompson personally, the players were very fond of him.
They liked him. He was very beloved in that city
of Philadelphia. If they just thought this team has two
big expectations, we've got to do something to mix it up.
(16:18):
Don Mannley comes in. He looks pretty good right now.
Did Don come in and just change how they go
about the game. No, but sometimes when a big shake
up like that happens, players in that clubhouse feel bad
first of all, because somebody lost their job today and
we need to buck up, look at each other in
the eye, and say we need to start playing better.
That's what the Phillies started doing right away. They've got
(16:40):
the personnel to do it and the skill set to
do it in Philadelphia, and they have righted that ship.
Seattle's got the skill set to do it and definitely
the horses to do it. But but we'll see. I mean,
like I said, managers that take over ball clubs with expectations,
the bar is always high and failure is really not
(17:02):
an option, so everything's on the tail table. I think
Danny's an awesome guy. He's an awesome he was an
awesome teammate of mine. I know the guys love him.
And like I said, the players will decide how long
Pan lasts as the manager, because we just we do
as players. We win games. As players, we lose games,
and when we lose games, sometimes people get fired.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So when a fans listening right now and they want
to ask the question, Booney, how long is too long?
I mean, how long can we continue to see five
hundred to sub five hundred baseball before a change is
made needs to be made.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Well, I think, like I said, this is a good
time to reflect, to look around the room and kind
of say, what are we doing? But I think let's
see how we I think right now they're going to
take many steps. And I'm not in the minds of
that organization. I'm not there. I don't I'm not privy
to any of the information what they're thinking. But I
think they're going to see how we get out of
(17:57):
the gate here in the first two weeks of the
second half, right up to the try deadline. You know,
if they have a good two weeks, man, they're gonna
be out there shopping. Then get in the right handed bet.
You know, do you go get some Do you go
get a Celaire or O'Dell from the Angels? Do you
get a Chapman who's who I know would be available
in San Francisco? Maybe a little bit more, you know,
too expensive for what the Mariners want to want to
(18:18):
pay right now for those type of players. But I
think this next two week is gonna be really crucial.
What do you do at the trade deadline? What do
those players do do they They know they're right there,
and they know if they have a good two weeks,
ownership is probably going to be active and go and
go out and get them at right handed bat, go,
get them some help in the bullpen.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
They know that, and it's on them right now. So
I think it's they're gonna take it in increments. And
I would say to the fans out there, you're probably
gonna have this next pressure point in a couple of
weeks at the trade deadline, depending on whether the Mariners
said great stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
As always, we'll talk to you next week. Thanks Boonie.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
Okay, guys, thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
That's Bret Boone.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
What do you think four nine, four or five to
one will read your text coming up in about twenty
five minutes. Do you think Booney's got the right amount
of patience? He says, give it a couple of weeks.
Let's get to the trade deadline. Let's see what the
Mariners do, and let's see what type of ball they're
playing before we make any rash decisions. Four nine, four
to five to one, shoot us a text, we'll talk.
We'll get Jackson back into the fold here and ask
(19:18):
him about the Dan Wilson situation and the frustration that
Jerry Depoto is feeling as well. He was talking to
Seattle Times over the last twenty four hours and he's
maybe as frustrated as everybody else is.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
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Speaker 1 (19:34):
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Speaker 4 (19:53):
The manager's not getting the most out of the team,
and this is too important of the season. There's too
much at stake.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
It's the fiftieth Anniverse. We've never made the World Series.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
We may have a lockout next year.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
We can't let it end by missing.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
The playoffs in a year in which the American League
is down like never before, So I endorse a managerial change.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
There's the money cut of the Week from ninety three
point three KJRFM. That happened very early in the week. Jackson, Yeah,
Monday morning. I don't know what hour it was in
Monday morning, but it was one of the first things
out of Chuck's mouth after seeing the Mariners lose five
of their last six games leading into the All Star break,
and he kind of used the Monday of All Star
Week to put his foot down.
Speaker 6 (20:35):
And Chuck's not going to come by that take lately.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
No, No, that's true. And you know, I was thinking
about how we evaluate coaches and managers and correct me
if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But it seems like.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
When you know, you know, like when you see Mike McDonald,
it doesn't take you long before you know, oh my god,
we have something special here. Like we knew after year one,
even if they didn't even though they didn't make the playoffs,
we knew, oh, this is the guy.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
This is the guy that Now we didn't think he
was gonna win the.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Super Bowl in year two, but we knew we were
on the right path.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And I was looking back at some of the and
I thought, Okay, maybe it's different for managers.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Maybe the great managers get fired all the time. So
I just went through my brain real quick, and I
spit out the five best managers that I could think
of over the last like forty years, and I went
with lesorda sparky Larusa, Cox, and Leland. Pretty good five, Yeah,
(21:41):
pretty good five. I just just out of the top
of my head. I don't want to see. Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe these guys got fired all the time, and they
just you know, they had to find the right spot
with the right talent. And no, three total firings out
of those five guys in their career in over one
hundred years, one hundred years of base they managed over
(22:01):
one hundred years of baseball, three total firings, and one
of them, Bobby Cox, was by Ted Turner in the
eighties and he said he wanted his successor to be
just like Bobby Cox, and his successor was it.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
So what do you do?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
He went hired Bobby Cox again, Uh huh, and then
won a World Series.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So technically that's a firing, but not.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
A firing because the owner knew that they did the
wrong thing by firing Bobby Cox. But to me, I
know Dan's not a great manager, and I know Dan's
never going to be a great manager. I'm still up
in the air on whether Dan can be a capable manager,
but there has been nothing that indicates.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That he can be a capable manager. Where are you there?
Speaker 6 (22:47):
Well, we have no idea, and I think that's part
of the problem. I'm I don't need the manager to
be hyper demonstrative, and I don't need the manager to
be job Madden out there Galaxy braining new ways to
play game. I need the manager to not be a liability.
I need the manager to feel like the manager has
the rains on the clubhouse. The fact that Randy Arose
(23:10):
of Raina dogged a foul ball and Luis Castill gave
up a home run on the next pitch, and there
was clear, visible televised animosity on the field, and we
haven't heard a word about it. He wasn't asked about it,
he hasn't volunteered any information about it. There is no
indication that there is anything coming from the manager's position
(23:35):
other than being a bystander who says, well, that was
a tough one out there tonight, and at some point
it's like, Okay, I look back to that ALCS and
to me, I'm saying Dan Wilson coaching a like a
home run merchant. The Mariners win when they hit home runs,
they lose when they don't. There's no in between. And
(23:57):
this isn't football where you can come up with some
scheme that is going to you know, like we've seen
you use McDonald as an example, and you were talking
if I heard you right, you were talking about the presence,
the type of enforcement, the culture that he brought in.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
But also he's a great coach because it's bo he has.
Mc donald has culture, yes, and he's got x's and o's.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
You don't really have that same opportunity in baseball. You
might have ten games a year where you can really
impact wins or losses by how you decide to handle
the game. And I think back to a couple. One
was against the Angels earlier this year where they were
down two to one, like most common score possible for
the Mariners this season. Then down two to one in
(24:45):
the ninth inning, they have six, seven, eight hitters coming
up six and seven hitters get singles, lo and behold.
Mariners have seven sacrifices this year. If there was ever
a time when you have the top of the order
two batters away you try and move the runners over,
it is with your eight to nine hitters up, down
one in the ninth inning, with nobody out, they both
(25:06):
pop up, Mariners lose the game. There's another time it's
Mariners are up by one. They got runners at second
and third with one out. It does not matter if
the batter scores or not. But instead of intentionally walking
him and again this is baseball one on one, instead
of intentionally walking him and creating force outs at every base,
(25:29):
potential game winning double play, having your infielders at regular depth,
he pitches to the cleanup hitter with the infield drawn in,
and a slow roller gets by the first baseman that
never would have had they been at regular depth. And
it's like, we have a manager actively putting them in
(25:49):
situations to lose games. And I look at the Alcs
and I watch John Schneider put his entire game in
motion for seven eight games and put an extraordinary amount
of stress on the Mariners at every turn. And it
was like, well, the Mariners hit two home runs, they're
gonna win. If they don't hit two home runs, they're
(26:10):
gonna lose, right, And that's it. So where's the value
add from our manager?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, you and you mentioned John Schneider out managing Dan Wilson.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I I shudder. Let's let's say the Mariners catch fire.
Let's say Cal hits three hundred with twenty five bombs
in the last two months of the season, and they
win the division going away, and they win the first
round of the playoffs, and they win the second round
of the playoffs. I mean, how much confidence do you
have him of Dan Wilson going upgainst Brett Boone's brother
in the ALCS.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
How much confidence do you have him going up against
Dave Roberts.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
That's right?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
In the World Series? That's right. Zero, that's right, like
absolutely zero.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Now, we may have more confidence at the time because
we'll have been playing well and winning ninety games, but
still in the game that you mentioned individual games, how
about piggyback Gate number one game? Bryce Miller to Luis Castillo, Oh,
we're up, We're up by one, Andrace Munos is gonna
come in the ninth inning, right, No, it's a piggyback game.
(27:04):
So we're gonna leave Castillo in there to put the
first guy on. Then we're gonna panic and bring Andrace
Munios on.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
And you know, one of the defenses for Dan Wilson.
Who I mean, I said this when he was hired.
I am waiting to be proven wrong or to feel
like I've been proven wrong, But I said, the Mariners
hired a mascot, not a manager, and I need to
see some way that he is actually seizing the reins,
(27:32):
because you know, when you hear people defend Dan Wilson
oftentimes as well, you know, he's kind of a mouthpiece
for Jerry, and it's it's the front office. It's making decisions,
it's his just his job to implement. And well, it's
even if that's the case, the manager is still the
one the players have to look in the eye at
some point, don't you just say, look, I'm gonna do
what I know is best to win, even though he
(27:53):
doesn't fit whatever our game plan was at one o'clock
this afternoon, it's eight forty five pm, the games on
the line. It's Muno's time, right, I'll talk to the
front office afterwards. You know what I'm gonna wear this
one if we lose it, guys.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Well, is the one thing I will say that he
has done well is he has managed September very well.
And I brought these numbers Yesterday'll bring them up again today.
September twenty twenty four, he was sixteen to ten. September
twenty twenty five, he was seventeen and eight. That's thirty
three and eighteen. That's a sixty five percent win percentage.
I'm wondering if that's when the governor is taken off
(28:30):
by Jerry Depoto because.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
We have to win. It's not we're not looking long
term now.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
We're not looking at saving pictures now, We're not looking
at at number of innings.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Our bullpen guys are going.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
We're like panicking and must win games now, and so
Dan is able to manage. I don't know, it may
just be fluky that Dan has won in September. I
mean September twenty twenty four. They were kind of out
of it anyway, so there wasn't a lot of pressure.
There was pressure in twenty twenty five. So I'm waiting
for September of twenty because I don't think he's gonna
(29:02):
be fired. It's going to be very interesting to see
what September twenty twenty six brings. Do we see another
run by the Mariners, and can we tie it.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
To governors off.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
We're obviously not seeing piggybacks anymore. We're seeing We're not
worrying about how many times Munio's pitches in a week.
We're not worried about how many times George Gabe Spier
pitches in a week. We're not worried about how many
innings Bryce Miller and George Kirby are throwing in this game.
If they're humming and it's the seventh, we're leaving their
ass in the game. Yeah, and we're not taking them
(29:34):
out after five and a third like we usually do
all season long.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Maybe that's one of the reasons why he wins in September.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Hey, I'd love next time I'm on this show looking
back at the season to say, yeah, I was wrong, right.
We've done that with the Seahawks quarterback thing. I would
love to do it with the Mariners manager thing as well.
I love being wrong if my initial assessment is negative
of the team that I'm rooting for. But I sure, Okay,
maybe they start playing free will and in September. Maybe that's
(30:03):
a real thing. Maybe that's a real trends. You're talking
about a fifty one game sample size, that's real. Then
I look at the ALCS. I mean even it was
even in the playoffs before that, but it burned us
in the ALCS where he just can't help himself when
the starting pitcher is in trouble in the fourth inning
and there's two runners on and it's like, well, we
gotta get him out of here. And it's not only
(30:25):
is it poor strategically because you are not bringing in
a better pitcher than one of the Mariners playoff starters.
You're also exhausting your bullpen earlier in a series than
you need to. But you're also messaging to your team
something when you pull the stud off the mound because
he's given out three runs in four innings. That happens
(30:47):
all season long, and so I'm a little bit reticent
to say, oh, yeah, well, once the chips are down,
that's where he manages his best, because I thought he
was outclassed incredibly in the Championship Series last year.
Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of
Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R FM. It's
time for our weekly conversation with former Mariners All Star
Bread Boone, brought to you by Venue Kings. Visit venue
kings dot com for all your ticket needs. Now with Booney,
here's SOFTI and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
What's Bob?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Booney?
Speaker 4 (00:22):
How you doing?
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Man? What's happening?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Nothing? What do you do this week?
Speaker 5 (00:27):
The dream?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Living the dream? What's the what's the handicap at so far?
Speaker 6 (00:30):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
This year?
Speaker 5 (00:31):
I steak? I think him a. I have been playing
much golf five eight five.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Eight in good still solid, still solid, no question about it.
So do you play golf this week? And do you
spend time watching baseball? How much of the the futures,
the Derby, the All Star Game, how much of that
do you actually dip your toe into or do you
just kind of use this week to kind of cleanse
yourself from baseball.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
A little bit?
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Exactly? I caught the tail end, tail end of the
home run derby. I glanced at the game. I was
actually traveling this week. I was actually up in Seattle.
I had a charity event and up in the Coma area.
So I was there for a few days to catch
up with a few buddies and really very casually watching.
(01:16):
I watched a little bit here and there, but not much.
I couldn't I couldn't do the commentary on the derby,
but I did catch the end.
Speaker 6 (01:23):
Hey, Bret Jackson, Bevans here. You know, I'm curious you
had seasons as an All Star, seasons where you weren't.
As you're going through a season, what is the difference
in feeling that you have about your performance when you're
having a season good enough to make an All Star
team versus those where you're not.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Well. It usually comes down at first and second halfs,
you know, And in some years you make the team.
Some years you think, ah, how did I not make
the team? You feel like you got snubbed. You hear
that at the break all the time. I'll hear the
snubs of the of the Alster break, at the Ulster break.
Everybody can't make it. I don't know, because you know,
one magical season, oh two. First half was dismal for
(02:07):
me personally. The team was five. Second half was as
good as I could have played. So it all comes
down to halfs. Really so All Star can be. Uh
you know those start to finish seasons where you just
you're locked in and you just have a great year
start to finish, they're very rare, at least very rare
for me. But the years that you start off, it's
it's it's cool to make an All Star team. I
(02:28):
remember I made my first I was a kid in
a candy shop. Going to Colorado was my first one
in ninety eight, and then everyone since then. It's it's
an honor every time you you get selected. And uh,
you know, I've all I've always been puzzled. I grew
up in the game. This is all I've ever done.
I've been to All Star games as a kid with
my dad. I got to play in a few of
(02:49):
my own. And every year, you know, you hear the stories,
well he was selected, but he's not going to play.
He's not gonn And I just think, Wow, what was
I missing? Because I always thought, but I get selected,
I'm going I want to get hits. Maybe I do,
maybe I don't. But you know, this this game we play,
it's it's so fleeting. It's I played for fourteen years
(03:11):
and when I when I ended up retiring it seemed
like I just got that call to make my debut.
So it goes by in the in the pretty darn quick,
and I just want to cherish every opportunity you get
when you're playing this game, take advantage of it and
enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Well, Boone, you're referencing Zach Wheeler of the Phillies, who
certainly had an all star first half of the season.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
There's no question about that at all.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
But he was passed over, and then he was passed
over again, and he was finally asked and he was like, no,
I'm gonna take my ball and go home.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I'm not And that to me, rubbed me the wrong way.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
I was like, it doesn't matter when you get honored,
It matters that you got honored.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
And so it was.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I thought that was a bit of a poor sport,
you know, whining from Zach Wheeler.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What did you think?
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Well, I look at look at his numbers to date,
he's ten and one, I mean, and obvious he should
have been there. He was kind of loud about not
being there, which I've never done that. You know, there's
been some years Rob thinking. You know, ninety four comes
ninety four and ninety five for me. I was kind
of at the break on what how am I not
on the team? That's nothing that I go public with
(04:21):
and talk to the media about. But you just think
to yourself, wow, he went public with it. That's something
I would never do. So, you know, he went public
with it, and then they came back and he probably
almost felt like why because I made such a stink
and then everybody kind of backed me up because the
numbers say I'm an All Star. Now you're just gonna
give me this token invite. No, I'm not. I wasn't
(04:44):
really offended by it. It's nothing I would have done.
I wouldn't have done it that way. But no, it's
not something over the top of today's game. With everything
the ongoings, the comings and goings, everything we see on
a daily basis, nothing really surprises me. So that really
it didn't catch me too off guard. I just thought, oh,
he probably felt that the only reason he was being
(05:06):
invited is because he made a stink about it, and
then the media made a stink about it, and then
it was kind of he felt like a token. But
I wouldn't have said anything to begin with, and I
wouldn't have denied it if I was a vasked, so
I'll never know. But now I wasn't put off that much.
It was just kind of some entertainment for a couple
of days watching the back and forth.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Well, booney, thank god for the Al West of twenty
twenty six, because if this was last, if this was
last year, the Mariners would be eight and a half
games back of the Astros right now. If it was
two years ago, they'd be four games back of the
first place Mariners. If it was three years ago, they'd
be eight back of the Rangers. And if it was
four years ago, they would be fourteen games back of
(05:47):
the Houston Astros. Instead, they find themselves right there with
the Rangers at the at the top of the division.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So there's two schools of thought.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
The glass half full school of thought is, hey, we
always start slow, We're always around five hundred in the
beginning of July, and then we always catch fire and
the division sucks. The glass half empty folks would be like, okay,
but this team looks nothing like those teams. Randy Rose
Rain is walking to balls on a weekly basis. Sloppiness
(06:17):
all around the yard. Our superstar can't hit his way
out of paper bag. So which which boat should we
have one at one foot in the optimist boat or
the pessimist boat.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
I think the optimist boat. And that's because that's starting
pitching staff. You know, I was just going over the
numbers here in the American League, and you're right thankful
that it's such a mediocre year in the American League.
They're right there in it. I mean they're in the
they're in the playoffs if it starts today, well, Devan
Minnesota are tied. But I circled on my sheet here
there's really only seven teams right now that I would
(06:53):
say at the trading deadline are going to be sellers.
And that's that's the A's, Kansas City, LA Cincinnati, San Francisco,
the Mets, and Colorado over in the nationally seven out
of thirty teams at this late stage of the season.
So that's remarkable to me. I think the next two
weeks is going to play out how it plays out,
(07:15):
and there might you might add some teams to that.
As far as guys that would be sellers versus buyers, well,
I guess not necessarily do you sell, but it's going
to be confirmed here in two weeks. Who isn't buying
because there's gonna be some some interesting guys out on
that trade platform, and it's going to be interesting. So
who gets it? San Diego comes to mind if they
(07:35):
feel like they're out of it with the ownership change.
A lot going on here in San Diego, so that's
going to be interesting to me. But uh, I think
from Seattle standpoint, they should just kind of thank their
lucky stars right now and look around that room. This
was a good time for them. I mean, they lose
five out of six going into the All Star break.
This is a good the perfect break for this Seattle
ball club who's still on paper, especially starting pitching. They
(07:59):
got to get who through that protocol. I don't know
if it's gonna be early next week. Donovan is about
to go on a rehab assignment get to two more
of a full roster, But this was the perfect time
for them. They lose five to six going into the break,
and this is kind of a time to look around
the room and kind of man up and go listen,
we got the guys in this room that were pretty
(08:21):
much essentially the same guys in this room a year ago.
We were a one game from going to the World Series.
What has changed, and it's up to them and we'll
see how that does. Lucky for them, they're in the
West and it has been a mediocre run as you
could possibly have. I think the Houston Nationals are sitting
there getting brown back at the top of that rotation.
They're sitting there going the end of April. They're going, well,
(08:43):
our run are locked kind of on this division that
we've had for the last six seven years. Well, this
run's probably coming to an end all of a sudden,
they're right back in and going. These teams are playing
so average that they let us back in and don't
let a team like that who's used to be in there.
It used to be in at the top the division.
Don't give him a chance at this stage of the game,
(09:04):
and they have Houston's right there with him. So I
think the West is going to be a fight. I
still think at the end of the day, this team's
gonna pull it out and this team's gonna win that division.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Well, I do think they're going to get a right
handed bat, But I think Jerry is right when he
came out and said yesterday, we're not going to get
a right handed bat as good as some of the
right handed bats we have right now that just aren't performing.
And he's looking squarely at his catchers. So you were
the you were the heading coach for the Rangers, what.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Would you be doing? What would you be saying to
cal right now?
Speaker 5 (09:35):
We got to simplify this thing as much as as
much as possible. A year ago, you couldn't have been
more locked in. You know, there was probably you're a
handful of guys on the planet a year ago that
just came to the yard whistling and skipping. You know,
I've been through years like that, and it's fun. They're
they're very far in few between. But we got to
get back to basics. We got to simplify this thing.
I remember an interview with Cali year ago, which is
(09:58):
I still preached a hit her today and he said,
you know, and he was talking about Edgar a little bit,
and he said, Edgar just always says to me, when
I get a little offer, I get a little confused.
Stay through the middle of the field. He said. As
long as I stay through the middle of the field,
it allows my barrel to hit every type of pitch.
And you know, sometimes we do it and when we're
(10:20):
locked in and we're going good. We don't think about much.
It's just there. We get to the ball. We don't
have to do much. We don't have to go down
there and hit a thousand balls. We might hit ten
or twelve ago. I'm good. I'm good. Let's play the game.
When you're going bad, it seems sometimes you overthink, you're
analyzing everything and you're missing the simple fact, simple things
(10:43):
you do right, simple ways to simplify the It bad.
So I think he's got to get back to it.
I think at this stage, you know, for a while
you were thinking, well, he can't go like this all.
See it's gone pretty long and the strikeouts are way
up too. But at this stage of the game, it's
not about Okay, you can kind of put in the
books it's not going to be one of my better years.
(11:03):
But what can I do in the next two and
a half months to be help this team win games,
help this team get to the postseason because the great
years out of the question, but you can still salvage.
And salvage is helping these guys turn around because Cal
is a guy that this team looks to. This team,
he's the captain, he runs the pitching staff. When you're
(11:23):
not playing very well, it's really tough to be that
staunch leader, you know what I'm saying. Usually the leader
comes with the numbers and the production when you're not producing.
Not that people don't look at Cal and have a
lot of respect for him in the room. They do.
But it's much different when you're carrying, when you're showing
up every night and carrying the mail and winning games
(11:44):
for your team than when you're really struggling. It's really
tough to lead a ball club, Brett.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
When you're in a one of those funks. How quickly
do you realize that you're coming out of it? Is
it as simple as a great at bat gonna.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Be a found that I could follow ball off, I
could foul ball off during it at bat and the
light goes off and I go, that's it? And why
didn't I know that a week ago? The only thing
I learned is with with experience in the game, and
experience is a lot. When I was a young kid,
I came into the league hair on fire, swinging hard,
no approach, just in this game as hard as I can,
(12:21):
trying to make a name for myself. As I moved on,
and I as I watched the great watch the great
hitters in the game, and especially the right handed hitters,
and picked the brains of some players that I really
respected and learned how to come up with a formula
for me, not for a right hander, but for me personally,
my skill set, what I what I like to do,
(12:42):
and I simplified it. You know, it wasn't that I
went into every game with that a swing where I'm
standing up high and back legging people. Some days I
need to get to the ballpark and realize what I
have in the tank. It's not always that a swing,
like I said, Sometimes I got to go with my
B swing. Sometimes there's a guy in the mount I
don't pick up his pitches very well, and I gotta
know that. And tonight is not I'm not gonna go
(13:06):
three for four with a homer. I need to survive
and maybe find a way to help my team win tonight,
get in the cage tomorrow, work on it, survive to
play another day. And I don't see enough of that.
I see what we're going with the same thing every night,
and this is gonna work because it used to work. No,
I gotta know what I have in the tank, who
I'm facing, how I'm feeling, how I'm seeing the ball,
(13:27):
and I'm gonna go with that. It's like going to
the driving range. Those big boy pros that the top
PGA guys, they don't go there. They go and hit
a couple cuts and a couple of draws. What's working
for me today, It's gonna keep this ball in the
fairway and they go with that. They don't just say, well,
I'm gonna work it out on the course and I'm
gonna go with his drawl day when it's not working. No,
that's how you shoot seventy seven. They have the ability today.
(13:48):
I'm gonna survive. I'm gonna shoot seventy two, might not shoot,
sixty five, might not shoot, but I'm definitely not gonna
shoot seventy five. I'm gonna find a way to scrape
it around the course and shoot even park. I think
as hitters we need to do this same thing. We
hit every day. It's one hundred and sixty two. Some days,
pr is really good.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I don't know about you, Jackson.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I'm fine with a seventy seven when I walk off
the course after seventy.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Well, but I think you're gonna find your way in
the back of the pack.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Exactly exactly right.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Brett Boone joining us, say, you know, Boonie, I hope
two months from now we're talking and the job status
of Dan Wilson is no longer an issue. I hope
that's the case. I really want to see this team
turning around. And we're not talking about potentially firing Dan Wilson.
But our morning show host, who is usually not a
slings and arrows guy. He's not a fire in brimstone,
(14:40):
you know, get rid of everybody type guy. He's not
an ajer guy, and he called on Monday for the
firing of Dan Wilson.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
He says he's seen enough.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
We've seen situations in the past two with the Phillies
right a few years ago, and then recently when Rob
Thompson was fired. They were nine to nineteen. Don Mattingly's
gone forty five and twenty four with the same dudes.
So maybe talk about that scenario in Philadelphia and what
you've seen there and could something potentially happen like that here.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Well, it's if you sign on the dotted line to
be a major league manager, it's always it's always an option,
especially the teams that come with big expectations, the expectations
and players and a roster and a track record, there's
more pressure on you as the skipper. And if you
(15:32):
don't win as a player. I know this for a fact.
Managers never lose games for us. It's not the manager
is never the reason. But the manager's the one that
takes the fall when we don't play up to our capability,
and that that would be the case of Danny. You know,
I'm not saying Danny's getting fired, but if that were
to happen, I watched Carlos Mendoza get fired this year.
(15:55):
I'm very fine to Carlos. I think it does a
great job. I talked to guys on that team. He
had nothing to do with the way they're playing. The
Thompson you mentioned. As far as I know, and I
don't know Thompson personally, the players were very fond of him.
They liked him. He was very beloved in that city
of Philadelphia. If they just thought this team has two
big expectations, we've got to do something to mix it up.
(16:18):
Don Mannley comes in. He looks pretty good right now.
Did Don come in and just change how they go
about the game. No, but sometimes when a big shake
up like that happens, players in that clubhouse feel bad
first of all, because somebody lost their job today and
we need to buck up, look at each other in
the eye, and say we need to start playing better.
That's what the Phillies started doing right away. They've got
(16:40):
the personnel to do it and the skill set to
do it in Philadelphia, and they have righted that ship.
Seattle's got the skill set to do it and definitely
the horses to do it. But but we'll see. I mean,
like I said, managers that take over ball clubs with expectations,
the bar is always high and failure is really not
(17:02):
an option, so everything's on the tail table. I think
Danny's an awesome guy. He's an awesome he was an
awesome teammate of mine. I know the guys love him.
And like I said, the players will decide how long
Pan lasts as the manager, because we just we do
as players. We win games. As players, we lose games,
and when we lose games, sometimes people get fired.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So when a fans listening right now and they want
to ask the question, Booney, how long is too long?
I mean, how long can we continue to see five
hundred to sub five hundred baseball before a change is
made needs to be made.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Well, I think, like I said, this is a good
time to reflect, to look around the room and kind
of say, what are we doing? But I think let's
see how we I think right now they're going to
take many steps. And I'm not in the minds of
that organization. I'm not there. I don't I'm not privy
to any of the information what they're thinking. But I
think they're going to see how we get out of
(17:57):
the gate here in the first two weeks of the
second half, right up to the try deadline. You know,
if they have a good two weeks, man, they're gonna
be out there shopping. Then get in the right handed bet.
You know, do you go get some Do you go
get a Celaire or O'Dell from the Angels? Do you
get a Chapman who's who I know would be available
in San Francisco? Maybe a little bit more, you know,
too expensive for what the Mariners want to want to
(18:18):
pay right now for those type of players. But I
think this next two week is gonna be really crucial.
What do you do at the trade deadline? What do
those players do do they They know they're right there,
and they know if they have a good two weeks,
ownership is probably going to be active and go and
go out and get them at right handed bat, go,
get them some help in the bullpen.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
They know that, and it's on them right now. So
I think it's they're gonna take it in increments. And
I would say to the fans out there, you're probably
gonna have this next pressure point in a couple of
weeks at the trade deadline, depending on whether the Mariners
said great stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
As always, we'll talk to you next week. Thanks Boonie.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
Okay, guys, thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
That's Bret Boone.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
What do you think four nine, four or five to
one will read your text coming up in about twenty
five minutes. Do you think Booney's got the right amount
of patience? He says, give it a couple of weeks.
Let's get to the trade deadline. Let's see what the
Mariners do, and let's see what type of ball they're
playing before we make any rash decisions. Four nine, four
to five to one, shoot us a text, we'll talk.
We'll get Jackson back into the fold here and ask
(19:18):
him about the Dan Wilson situation and the frustration that
Jerry Depoto is feeling as well. He was talking to
Seattle Times over the last twenty four hours and he's
maybe as frustrated as everybody else is.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
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Speaker 4 (19:53):
The manager's not getting the most out of the team,
and this is too important of the season. There's too
much at stake.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
It's the fiftieth Anniverse. We've never made the World Series.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
We may have a lockout next year.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
We can't let it end by missing.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
The playoffs in a year in which the American League
is down like never before, So I endorse a managerial change.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
There's the money cut of the Week from ninety three
point three KJRFM. That happened very early in the week. Jackson, Yeah,
Monday morning. I don't know what hour it was in
Monday morning, but it was one of the first things
out of Chuck's mouth after seeing the Mariners lose five
of their last six games leading into the All Star break,
and he kind of used the Monday of All Star
Week to put his foot down.
Speaker 6 (20:35):
And Chuck's not going to come by that take lately.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
No, No, that's true. And you know, I was thinking
about how we evaluate coaches and managers and correct me
if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But it seems like.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
When you know, you know, like when you see Mike McDonald,
it doesn't take you long before you know, oh my god,
we have something special here. Like we knew after year one,
even if they didn't even though they didn't make the playoffs,
we knew, oh, this is the guy.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
This is the guy that Now we didn't think he
was gonna win the.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Super Bowl in year two, but we knew we were
on the right path.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And I was looking back at some of the and
I thought, Okay, maybe it's different for managers.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Maybe the great managers get fired all the time. So
I just went through my brain real quick, and I
spit out the five best managers that I could think
of over the last like forty years, and I went
with lesorda sparky Larusa, Cox, and Leland. Pretty good five, Yeah,
(21:41):
pretty good five. I just just out of the top
of my head. I don't want to see. Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe these guys got fired all the time, and they
just you know, they had to find the right spot
with the right talent. And no, three total firings out
of those five guys in their career in over one
hundred years, one hundred years of base they managed over
(22:01):
one hundred years of baseball, three total firings, and one
of them, Bobby Cox, was by Ted Turner in the
eighties and he said he wanted his successor to be
just like Bobby Cox, and his successor was it.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
So what do you do?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
He went hired Bobby Cox again, Uh huh, and then
won a World Series.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So technically that's a firing, but not.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
A firing because the owner knew that they did the
wrong thing by firing Bobby Cox. But to me, I
know Dan's not a great manager, and I know Dan's
never going to be a great manager. I'm still up
in the air on whether Dan can be a capable manager,
but there has been nothing that indicates.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That he can be a capable manager. Where are you there?
Speaker 6 (22:47):
Well, we have no idea, and I think that's part
of the problem. I'm I don't need the manager to
be hyper demonstrative, and I don't need the manager to
be job Madden out there Galaxy braining new ways to
play game. I need the manager to not be a liability.
I need the manager to feel like the manager has
the rains on the clubhouse. The fact that Randy Arose
(23:10):
of Raina dogged a foul ball and Luis Castill gave
up a home run on the next pitch, and there
was clear, visible televised animosity on the field, and we
haven't heard a word about it. He wasn't asked about it,
he hasn't volunteered any information about it. There is no
indication that there is anything coming from the manager's position
(23:35):
other than being a bystander who says, well, that was
a tough one out there tonight, and at some point
it's like, Okay, I look back to that ALCS and
to me, I'm saying Dan Wilson coaching a like a
home run merchant. The Mariners win when they hit home runs,
they lose when they don't. There's no in between. And
(23:57):
this isn't football where you can come up with some
scheme that is going to you know, like we've seen
you use McDonald as an example, and you were talking
if I heard you right, you were talking about the presence,
the type of enforcement, the culture that he brought in.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
But also he's a great coach because it's bo he has.
Mc donald has culture, yes, and he's got x's and o's.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
You don't really have that same opportunity in baseball. You
might have ten games a year where you can really
impact wins or losses by how you decide to handle
the game. And I think back to a couple. One
was against the Angels earlier this year where they were
down two to one, like most common score possible for
the Mariners this season. Then down two to one in
(24:45):
the ninth inning, they have six, seven, eight hitters coming
up six and seven hitters get singles, lo and behold.
Mariners have seven sacrifices this year. If there was ever
a time when you have the top of the order
two batters away you try and move the runners over,
it is with your eight to nine hitters up, down
one in the ninth inning, with nobody out, they both
(25:06):
pop up, Mariners lose the game. There's another time it's
Mariners are up by one. They got runners at second
and third with one out. It does not matter if
the batter scores or not. But instead of intentionally walking
him and again this is baseball one on one, instead
of intentionally walking him and creating force outs at every base,
(25:29):
potential game winning double play, having your infielders at regular depth,
he pitches to the cleanup hitter with the infield drawn in,
and a slow roller gets by the first baseman that
never would have had they been at regular depth. And
it's like, we have a manager actively putting them in
(25:49):
situations to lose games. And I look at the Alcs
and I watch John Schneider put his entire game in
motion for seven eight games and put an extraordinary amount
of stress on the Mariners at every turn. And it
was like, well, the Mariners hit two home runs, they're
gonna win. If they don't hit two home runs, they're
(26:10):
gonna lose, right, And that's it. So where's the value
add from our manager?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, you and you mentioned John Schneider out managing Dan Wilson.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I I shudder. Let's let's say the Mariners catch fire.
Let's say Cal hits three hundred with twenty five bombs
in the last two months of the season, and they
win the division going away, and they win the first
round of the playoffs, and they win the second round
of the playoffs. I mean, how much confidence do you
have him of Dan Wilson going upgainst Brett Boone's brother
in the ALCS.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
How much confidence do you have him going up against
Dave Roberts.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
That's right?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
In the World Series? That's right. Zero, that's right, like
absolutely zero.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Now, we may have more confidence at the time because
we'll have been playing well and winning ninety games, but
still in the game that you mentioned individual games, how
about piggyback Gate number one game? Bryce Miller to Luis Castillo, Oh,
we're up, We're up by one, Andrace Munos is gonna
come in the ninth inning, right, No, it's a piggyback game.
(27:04):
So we're gonna leave Castillo in there to put the
first guy on. Then we're gonna panic and bring Andrace
Munios on.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
And you know, one of the defenses for Dan Wilson.
Who I mean, I said this when he was hired.
I am waiting to be proven wrong or to feel
like I've been proven wrong, But I said, the Mariners
hired a mascot, not a manager, and I need to
see some way that he is actually seizing the reins,
(27:32):
because you know, when you hear people defend Dan Wilson
oftentimes as well, you know, he's kind of a mouthpiece
for Jerry, and it's it's the front office. It's making decisions,
it's his just his job to implement. And well, it's
even if that's the case, the manager is still the
one the players have to look in the eye at
some point, don't you just say, look, I'm gonna do
what I know is best to win, even though he
(27:53):
doesn't fit whatever our game plan was at one o'clock
this afternoon, it's eight forty five pm, the games on
the line. It's Muno's time, right, I'll talk to the
front office afterwards. You know what I'm gonna wear this
one if we lose it, guys.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Well, is the one thing I will say that he
has done well is he has managed September very well.
And I brought these numbers Yesterday'll bring them up again today.
September twenty twenty four, he was sixteen to ten. September
twenty twenty five, he was seventeen and eight. That's thirty
three and eighteen. That's a sixty five percent win percentage.
I'm wondering if that's when the governor is taken off
(28:30):
by Jerry Depoto because.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
We have to win. It's not we're not looking long
term now.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
We're not looking at saving pictures now, We're not looking
at at number of innings.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Our bullpen guys are going.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
We're like panicking and must win games now, and so
Dan is able to manage. I don't know, it may
just be fluky that Dan has won in September. I
mean September twenty twenty four. They were kind of out
of it anyway, so there wasn't a lot of pressure.
There was pressure in twenty twenty five. So I'm waiting
for September of twenty because I don't think he's gonna
(29:02):
be fired. It's going to be very interesting to see
what September twenty twenty six brings. Do we see another
run by the Mariners, and can we tie it.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
To governors off.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
We're obviously not seeing piggybacks anymore. We're seeing We're not
worrying about how many times Munio's pitches in a week.
We're not worried about how many times George Gabe Spier
pitches in a week. We're not worried about how many
innings Bryce Miller and George Kirby are throwing in this game.
If they're humming and it's the seventh, we're leaving their
ass in the game. Yeah, and we're not taking them
(29:34):
out after five and a third like we usually do
all season long.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Maybe that's one of the reasons why he wins in September.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Hey, I'd love next time I'm on this show looking
back at the season to say, yeah, I was wrong, right.
We've done that with the Seahawks quarterback thing. I would
love to do it with the Mariners manager thing as well.
I love being wrong if my initial assessment is negative
of the team that I'm rooting for. But I sure, Okay,
maybe they start playing free will and in September. Maybe that's
(30:03):
a real thing. Maybe that's a real trends. You're talking
about a fifty one game sample size, that's real. Then
I look at the ALCS. I mean even it was
even in the playoffs before that, but it burned us
in the ALCS where he just can't help himself when
the starting pitcher is in trouble in the fourth inning
and there's two runners on and it's like, well, we
gotta get him out of here. And it's not only
(30:25):
is it poor strategically because you are not bringing in
a better pitcher than one of the Mariners playoff starters.
You're also exhausting your bullpen earlier in a series than
you need to. But you're also messaging to your team
something when you pull the stud off the mound because
he's given out three runs in four innings. That happens
(30:47):
all season long, and so I'm a little bit reticent
to say, oh, yeah, well, once the chips are down,
that's where he manages his best, because I thought he
was outclassed incredibly in the Championship Series last year.
Dave 'Softy' Mahler and Dick Fain News
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