June 6, 2023 • 42 mins
Jim Duquette, formal general manager of the New York Mets stops by to chat about the Mariners, thoughts on their off-season, who can they land to improve their offense, and much more. Where, and who can the Mariners bring in to revitalize the Mariners' offense? Puck and Jim share some guys that the Mariners could potentially trade for as we’re about two months from the trade deadline. We catch up w/ Ian Furness as he shares what’s on his program this afternoon!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
All right, final out for us. We'll check in with Jim ducat MLB
Network MLB Network Radio here in aquick second, former general manager in Major
League Baseball, and we'll get thevery least what's going on in baseball and
how can he help fix the Mariners, because that's all we want. Headlines
(00:36):
are brought to you by Buddy Goodiesin Glass. It's always four twenty buddies.
Jim Hega Tour, the Live andthe European Tour are merging and they
made that announcements today and they weremerged commercial operations under common ownership. So
(01:00):
a lot of big words. Whatdoes it mean for the future of golf?
I mean, just know this thatthe mayn that is in charge of
the Public Investment Fund, which isthe arm of the Saudi government, now
runs basically Golf Global runs all ofit. What does it mean for the
tournaments and what the schedule looks like. None of those details have come out.
(01:23):
What we do know is is theplayers were not aware. The players
found out the same time the publicfound out on Twitter when they went to
CNBC and they had the press comband now did Tiger Rory No, that's
up for debate. There is aplayers only meeting with Jay Monahan today one
o'clock our time in Torontos, soless than an hour he will be meeting
(01:45):
with them in Toronto, will findout more players are angry upset, especially
the ones on the PGA tour.And then we at some point today or
tomorrow we'll hear from Rory. Heis playing at the RBC Canadian Army.
He's gonna be peppered with questions,all right, right, you know how
they do the White House press conference, That's what it's gonna be like.
Have you ever noticed like those newsand White House press conference very different like
(02:07):
sports. In sports, everyone's kindof let's let's pass the mic over there
to Jim. Yeah, Jim,where you from? You a Jim Morris,
Seattle Post in tellis all right,think you got your question? Let's
go over here. Yeah, BobCanota, Seattle Times. I mean at
those White House lings, yeah,Larry, yes, you and then they
get done with the question by okay, okay, last leg Yeah, I
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mean it's just insane at those things. You've got to be like a barin,
like a dog. Yeah, Iwant to get your question in.
But yeah, it's it's a littlemore orderly. It's orderly or press conference,
the news ones. It's uh,that's I envision hungry for the news
vision that being today a lot ofBBC. I'm thinking a lot of BBC
(02:53):
news people there, all right.So we got that the Mariners to to
hey them, Los Marin Narrows areback at it. How do we feel
about the mari and Narrows today againstthe Padres in one of a two games
set. We feel pretty good abouthim? No, well do you?
Gilbert versus Musgro San Diego minus onethirty five over under seven and a half.
(03:19):
Yay, I'm hoping good things.Praig gonna take the under in that
seven and a half. Two teamscan't hit. All right, let's get
a little more baseball joining us tohelp us from MLB Network Radio, former
GM and Major League Baseball all aroundgood guy. And you know what he's
you know what he's gonna do rightnow. He's gonna spend the next ten
minutes with us, and he isgonna he's gonna tell us to relax.
(03:42):
Hey, you people in Seattle,you're all hopped up on that caffeine.
Huh, and you see the sunfor the first time here in months and
you think the world's your oyster,Well, let me tell you something.
Okay, calm down about the baseballteam. They're gonna be okay, at
least that's what I'm hoping he's gonnatell us. Jim Dukett Joys right now
in the beacon plumbing hot, Jim, welcome back to the show. How
are you? What's up? Guys? How are you? I am going
(04:03):
to hopefully calm the masses a littlebit, although I am concert about a
few cakes with that Mariers right nowfor sure. Man, you can't even
calm your own dog down. Howare you gonna calm down a fan base
treat? Ah, there we go, Thank you. We we love dogs
(04:26):
and we're just giving you a hardtime. Loves. We are dog people.
We've got multiple Labradors. That doesn'tsound like a lab That sounds like
one of those those one of thoselab dogs. It's the small lap dog,
Yes it is, it is sure. My son is just coming home
at the same time. So yeah, the time was It's all good.
(04:46):
Well, we welcome you to theshow. All right, you calm us
down, because people out here inMariners Land, we we are we are
anxious of the start of this season. They find themselves a game under five
hundred there, nine and a halfback of the Rain, the sixth back
of a wild card, and itjust feels like they did not capitalize on
the momentum they had at the endof the season. How would you kind
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of summarize the start of this seasonfor the Mariners. I think that's that's
a fair assessment, definitely on youknow, not capitalizing you know, so
far after the mate that they had. I would agree with you there.
I think I think that the issue, well, first off, we know
that the bar is a little bitlower. Whether that's good or not,
(05:30):
it's um you know, to bedetermined, but the bar in terms of
just obviously the extra wild card,right, so, I think you start
there. They're they're a team forme that is dangerous different when you get
to the postseason because of their pitching. I think the starting pitching is going
to be better and it's been awall. I think it's for the most
part carry them to this point,but there's been a little hiccup here recently
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and because of the offense or thelack thereof um. Yeah, that's where
my concerns because it's on a littletoo long for me overall, and I
think that that's something that was abit of a concern because some people I
thought it was going to be improvedthis year. We're seeing a lot of
strikeouts recently overall. Was it giascerKlenic, Torres Gjuglio. They're in the
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top five and strikeouts in the league. So that's never you never want to
see your offensive players in the leadin that category because it's really there's a
lack of production that usually is associatedwith that. I think that's what you've
seen on that front. But I'moptimistic because of their pitching and the fact
that I know they'll be aggressive atthe deadline finding some other offensive peace.
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Well, Jim, you've been andJerry Depoto's shoes before. You're a former
GM at the MLB level, Canyou give us some insight into what it's
like talking to ownership when it comesto going after free agents and looking at
the bottom line. Yeah, you'reright. I haven't enjoyed that part of
the job, talking to owners aboutmask for more money when when you're especially
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if your team is underperforming. Um. I think the thing with Jerry,
you know, because of all thingswent last year, and I kind of
try to compare them. The firstThe first thing for me was getting that
postseason hurdle out of the way inwhich they did last year, right,
And if you guys remember the studentabout this time last year, they were
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far worse in terms of the record, and so I think that the fact
that they've overcome it that helps.When you've got up the owner, you
have so them on a couple ofthings. Hey, these guys are under
performing. Here's why, and here'swhy. I think it's going to get
better. And here's what we thinkin terms of adding to the team,
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where you know, and you've kindof break down the financial part of it,
which usually about two months two monthwindow there in the cost of that
of giving up prospects, if youfeel like you have enough to do that,
I think that to me it's goingto be after The big trade of
test is do they have enough intheir system, you know, keeping guys
away from obviously like personal you're nottrading, right, some of these guys
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that you're gonna that you've seen,you want to be able to use,
uh, you know, to helpyou at the major league level, not
not be used in a trade.So you know, the Harry Ford's handcocks
those guys you don't want to haveto give up. But I think Terry
is one of those guys where he'sso aggressive that you know the direct right
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deals in place, then I wouldput anybody, uh you know, on
the table in that sense, orhe will put them on the table if
need be. So I think ownershipwith everything going on there, with the
All Star Game coming in the waythat they've played last year, and the
overall optimism with the team, Idon't think there's any other direction but to
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add to this team, you know, at the right moment. The issue
for me, I talked about thedozen GMS over the last month and a
half or so, is when isthat trade market gonna be open? Because
so many teams are within, youknow, within five or six games of
a potseason spot, teams aren't reallyaggressively shopping their own players. It's it's
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kind of like, take the temperature, we're out of it. This guy
would be available, and you startthat type of conversation. But that's it's
gonna be a while before I thinkyou're gonna see a significant trade. Okay,
so based on what they did herein the off season. I'm curious
to get your opinion. And again, Jim Duquette is with us MLB Network
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Radio, joining as former general managerin baseball in the Beacon Plumbing hotline.
When you saw them coming off theplayoff victory over Toronto and they you know,
they three great games against Houston.They get to the off season and
the moves they make are a tradefor Colton A Wong, a trade for
Taosca Hernandez. They had Tommy laStella, AJ Pollock and Cooper Hummel.
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Those are their additions to the offseas. What did you make of that
at the time. At the time, I thought it was short and the
impact, the impactful back that theythat they needed UM And I remember talking
to Jerry at the time. Youknow, there was a lot of good
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shortstops on the marketplace. You know, they have always loved JP Crawford and
obviously talked about his defense, UMand how good it's spanning. You know,
he was good there last year thatgot up signed to a contract extension.
But for me, that was theone area that even if they didn't
bring in shortstop to plant Crawford,one of those guys might have been willing
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if you've spent the money to movepositions right, and you know, Turner
ended up being a shortstop and stayedthere untilling, but there was a lot
of talk about him playing other positions. In the end, I think they
needed another impactful back, you know, to help out with Julio. Um,
because here's the thing, you youknow, it's good as Julio is,
(11:00):
it is going to be. Thereare a lot of guys out there
that have had rough second seasons,uh, you know, and when the
league gets a sense of how theycan pitch to you with their weaknesses,
um, you know, there's anadjustment period that comes with that. And
that's just that's just one of theguys. You know, Suarez has not
really performed yet that There's a lotof guys that I felt last year had
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above average years by their comparison tothe back of the Baseball Card averages,
and so you had to kind ofplan for that. And that's my only
kind of I'd say criticism of theway that the winter was is I thought
they would have done a little bitmore on the offensive side. And you
said that, I thought, youknow, three or four of the guys
that they brought in, I thoughtWe're a good addition. I just needed
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to be a little more impactful.Jim, do you get the sense that
it's hard to get position players asfree agents to come to Seattle because it's
so far away up in the northwestcorner of the United States and the fact
that it's a pitchers ballpark now tohitters one. I think that is an
absolute challenge for sure, you know, I think it gets it does get
talked about a lot. You know, I don't know, you know,
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every every free agent you know talksabout you know, what their priorities are,
and so you know, the travelaspect of it, I think plays
a little bit. You know,I'll say there's a change in the schedule
where you know, it's not it'san unbalanced schedule now, kind of even
that out a little bit, notnot entirely, but a little bit in
terms of, you know, there'sa lot of travel now for teams and
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for players. Um. But Ido think that's a factor, you know,
I think, um, yeah,that is a challenge that Jerry and
you know, Scott Service. Ithink they have to overcome that. Um
A lot of times you can overcomethat with money, you know. The
next that it tends to eliminate it, but yeah, it is. It
is a challenge there. I knowwhen it gets warmer, the ball travels
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a little bit, but especially theearly months and the cooler weather. Yeah,
it's tough for offensive players to goout there. What is that because
we we you know, to alongthose lines of the question from Jim is
that we can't figure out why theycan't attract people here. It's a it's
a great city to live in.We understand the travel. They travel more
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than anyone. But they've got ayoung, exciting team. They have an
uber it appears at times, especiallywith trades, uber aggressive with their general
manager. There have always been thesewhispers though that agents and players don't necessarily
like dealing with Jerry depotoum. Doesownership truly want to write the big checks
for free agents. I mean they'llthey'll write one for a twenty two year
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old, you know, superstar inJulia Rodriguez. But I mean, are
there whispers or rumors just around thatthat maybe the front office is difficult to
work with? Does that play apart into this at all? I know
here listen, I think there's alwaysspeculation if if they don't sign the big
guys, you know you want topoint to you know, whether it's and
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by the way, I think Jerryis fantastic when it comes to doing his
job at all levels. But yeah, in that area, they haven't had
the success. Like you said,you have to kind of look at it
um a little deeper or or isit it's hard to determine not being in
there if it's ownership not long togo there. I will say though,
when you kind of look around,there are a few teams and I know
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I was talking about how they shouldhave signed impact. It's also not the
greatest business model at the end ofat the end of the contract. So
you know, you're you're kind ofplaying the percentages in the sense that all
right, well those last three orfour years aren't going to go well,
and are you willing to kind ofgive those away in the sense to be
competitive here during this window? AndI think that's where every organization has to
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come to that determination. Seattle.You know, those are conversations. I
don't know what they're I think itmakes more sense long term and short term
if you have a Julio Rode justyou know, those are beatles are obvious.
It's a little more difficult to bitethe bullet because if you look at
Turner, you look at what Bogart'sgot this testament even judge those contexts are
going to age well, you know, And so I think that that's the
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difficulty in this environment is you know, after the CBA was tied and a
couple of jams told me this offthe record, they were like, I
can't believe at how expensive they gotto sign even border line and marginal task.
So I think it's a combination thatthings always But I do think that
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the price texts got so crazy thiswinter that it's possible they went to you
know, they tried to hold theline and got up bid. Hey Jim,
you mentioned about the Mariners being adangerous playoff team if they make it
in because of their pitching. Ithink we all agree with you on that.
But how far away are they fromthe World Series. This is a
franchise that I mean, I've beenwatching this team since seventy seven. They're
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the only one left that has iteven played in the in the World Series,
So I mean one bat away fromperhaps make a wild card playoff birth,
But what more needs to be donefor them to finally make it to
the final round. Well, youknow, I think with these you know,
I've covered the postseason out there thelast dozen years for serious and there's
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usually usually a recipe that you seewith the two teams that are remaining at
the end, and it starts witha good starting rotation. The Mariners had
that. The next aspect of thatis usually a dominating bullpen. They've been
pretty tough on that front over thelast couple of years. Where they have
it. Where they where they fallshort is on the offense. It really
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look at that and say, youknow, they're bat an impactful bat and
possibly a second bat that's maybe notas impactful to add as as death um
to from being a kind of balancedoffense that can handle good pitching in the
postseason, Like you better have umgood offensive pieces when you're when you're picking
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facing out against every team's best pitchingin the postseason. That that's it's a
simplified U response to you is obviouslya little more tough kit. Usually it's
a team that doesn't have a tonof strikeouts in their in their offense too.
And that's where you look at thisgroup right now and you're seeing a
lot of that. A lot ofuh, you know, non contact,
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non competitive at that that's going tohave to change here in the second half.
Jim Dukett is our guest MLB Networkradio phone on Twitter at Jim Underscore.
Do can't, of course form ageneral manager in a Major League Baseball
to address the offense. Everyone isgoing to want to go out and get
the same thing. I mean there'sthe markets say, where everyone wants hitters,
and then this year feels like everyonewants starting pitchers there as well.
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Who would make sense for for Seattle? And let me just give you a
list of names, and I don'tknow if anyone listen. The number one
guy on the list is going tobe Showho. He's gonna be He's gonna
interest anyone. Now would the Angelsthink about moving on for him or do
they think they can resign? Wecan get to him in a second,
Uh, Tim Anderson or Jack Petersonor Randall Gritchick of of the Rockies,
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or maybe even Brian Reynolds if thePirates want to. I know they just
signed him, but there's always beensome thoughts to maybe the Pie sister would
move on from him if they couldget a lot of younger players in the
future for him, that seems likea long shot. But does anyone out
there like that makes sense or doyou have another name that could possibly help
this offense here in Seattle. Well, I don't know. I think you
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know, guy like Ierson. Youknow, he's a winner, he's he
can be impactful to top of thelineup. Um, you know, you'd
have to move Proford. I thinkhe you know, he he um wants
to play short stuff. I'm notsure it's a perfect fit, but he
would be one guy. Peterson's alwaysbeen a guy that that, um,
you know you want to have onyour on your team. Yeah, he's
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a winner, he's he's been inthe postseason last about three four years.
I think it is at least maybemore than that. So I do like
to take try to take those typeof guys. There's there's not a lot
available one The one team that Ilook at, well, two teams,
the White Sox and the Gardens aretwo teams that and in particular the White
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Sex. You know, they havegone and gun into this with the idea
that there is win or bust andtheir team hasn't been hasn't been real competitive
outside of Okay, they had aone one the postseason appearance, and then
they were they were bounced, uh, and it's kind of gone in in
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the wrong direction for them. Forme, they're at a point I think
that they have to consider flipping theroster row and obviously on the penial front,
they had Giolito. You mentioned Anderson. Uh. I don't know if
they would make Amenas or lease Robertavailable. Um, but those were the
interesting names that you try to,uh to trade for it because you can
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sign them up long term, soyou know they're you know there comes would
be interesting to some degree, butI don't see a fit there. The
hardest part I think right now istrying to find the match. Um.
You know, if the Cardinals wereavailable, they have an outfield depth you
could you could you could potentially priorway you now, he's not having a
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great year yet he's he's also beeninjured to a guy like Tyler O'Neill,
So so I think it's to bedetermined who's available. I don't think Oh,
Connie's going to be a build evenif they were five hundred. Let's
say they're below five hundred. Idon't think. I just look at their
owner and his track record is unwillingnessto trade impactful players at all um and
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I see them riding this out intothe sunset and basically going to their fan
base and saying, you know,we tried to sign this guy. Because
it's going to be a number.It gonna be over four hundred million,
probably closer to five hundred mill andthey'll make an effort to try to start
them in the wintertime, probably newsout and say that the fan they said
were trying to keep them, that'swhy we didn't trade that. That would
be the story if I were inthe use that, if I were the
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owner, if by the GM,I'd be proud of the table asking to
trade because he'd get a huge hulllike one Soto did. Lessons. What
do you think he's gonna earn onthe free agent market? What do you
think per year in total of hisdeal is going to be? Well Trouk's
number, I think it's like fourhundred and thirty two millions. That was
an extension ever the Angels. That'sthe highest ever. It's going to be
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north of that. Some people thinkit's going to be over five hundred.
I don't think so. I thinkI mean there's gonna be a lot of
suitors, a lot of bidders hemay get. I think the negotiations going
to go very similar to the wayJudges went right. The Angels haven't been
up the price tag. You're gonnasee a bunch of teams like the Dodgers
and the Mets, maybe the Yankees, maybe the Giants, maybe the Padres.
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It's gonna be like five or sixteams. We're all going to be
bidding for services. And you mighteven get a team that jumps in late
like the Padres did late with Judgeand give him more money than he ends
up accepting. But I think it'sgoing to be a record a record breaking
deal. I don't see any otherway around it if you want the player,
and because of the way the numberof teams and the type of teams
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that have interested ya. Hey,Jim, is a pleasure. We appreciate
it. Uh, you can letthe dog back in. Dog, it's
not gonna get fit. Yeah,we appreciate the time today. Hopefully we'll
check in later this summer. Thankyou so much today. All right,
guys, alright, Jim docd MLBNetwork former GM. They're in a Major
(22:41):
League Baseball. We can react towhat he said. Also look at some
of the trade targets that possibly couldbe out there for Seattle's they look to
get into that department here and thenext month and after two months here of
the baseball season, we'll do thatnext Now, back to the Fucking Jim
Show on Sports Radio ninety three pointthree KJR. At them probably presented by
(23:02):
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Jim Duke Kat joining us there inthat last segment talking about the Mariners,
where they're at right now, whatdo they do in the off season and
looking ahead to the trade deadline andwhat they can and cannot add there to
this squad. I mean, they'reright there. They're just aren't a lot
of guys out there. I mean, I don't Randall Gritchick does it for
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you. He's the Rockies. He'sgot nine million dollars left on a deal
that pays him five years fifty twomillion dollars he's a free agent at the
end of the year. He's justbeen mentioned on all these you know lists
that you look at of guys thatcould be trade targets. He's only played
twenty seven games this year. He'sbeen dealing. He started the season dealing
with a sports hernia surgery. SoI don't know if we want a guy
with a sports hernia because we don'tdo well with the sports Turney four guys
(24:08):
this year or this I should saythat the previous four years that he's had
in baseball. Now he's not anon base guy but two forty seven to
eighty nine, but he slugs fourforty two and ops of seven thirty one.
He's averaged twenty one home runs insixty seven RBIs. So it's an
upgrade and he can play DH andthen he can play the outfield positions.
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I don't know if the Mariners haveever closed the books maybe on Brian Reynolds
and pursuing Brian Reynalds. And there'sstill people that feel that despite where the
Pirates are, that they may bein a position which kind of like the
Orioles did last year. Remember theOrioles were trading guys that the Pirates may
be in a position where they willmove guys just despite being five games over
(24:51):
five hundred. Now I think it'sprobably far fetched, But well, do
you think things should change from thePirates perspectives? Friends to be at the
beginning of the year, Remember theydidn't want on the trade request that he
had. They didn't. They endedup signing him an eight year, one
hundred and six million dollars deal.I think no doubt that Jerry Depoto will
knock on the door again and callthem and say say, hey, what
are you guys thinking? But Ithink that's highly unlikely. He does have
(25:12):
a trade clause. He can pickup to six teams annually. But he's
phenomenal, just phenomenal. And youput him in left field, then you
can put kelenic and right field,and you got Julio and you're good to
go. Yeah. Saw him herein Seattle. He had that triple I
think the last at Bad he hadhere and Tim and Tim Anderson. I
don't know. I just bring upTim Anderson just because the White Sox are
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terrible and they may want to movehim. Is he going to upgrade your
offensive bunch? I don't know.I mean this year, he's slash line
two seventy three, three thirteen,three, twenty six, thirty three.
He doesn't have a home run,he's driven in ten. He's been dealing
with a knee injury. It's previousfive year, you know, previous you
know seasons before this year, similarslash line. But he's averaged fourteen home
(25:56):
runs at forty five runs. Sooffensively, is he an upgrade? Well,
he's an upgrade. What you haveit second? Well, you have
a second the idea. I knowhe's a shortstop. You just moved him
to second. You want out ofChicago and play for a contender, you
gotta have to play second base.Now he may say I'm staying at shortstop
and you just say, well,no, you can come here, but
you can play second. He'd probablybe okay with that. I saw where
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he's got a club option for nextyear, so it might be just another
rental player. Uh, well,yeah, that's fine. You like the
idea of Carlos Santana bringing him back. There has been some talk about Carlos
Santana. Yeah, but again,the similar thing they find themselves where they
may just want to go for it, and if he's a part of their
team. Maybe they no, they'refive games over. They lead the five
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over now. They were right atfive hundred when they're in Seattle. So
yeah, that's the thing. It'sjust so hard to figure out. The
trading deadline isn't for another month anda half. The Jock Peterson one would
be intriguing to me because we're talkingabout just that. He's a DH,
that's it. And Jock Peterson hashad a hand injury that's kept him out
for several weeks. He's back,I think this week. In fact,
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he might be back tonight. Butso far as a DH only two thirty
five, three fifty one, fourninety four, eight forty four ops,
five home runs in eighteen RBIs liketo me, Jock Peterson would be the
guy. He's got a one year, nineteen million dollars deal. You want
to get a guy postseason experience,left handed bat, that's gonna be a
DH, and that's it. JackPeterson's your guy now with the Giants.
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I mean, the Giants right noware same record as the Mariners. They're
five and a half back in theWest. Yeah, you just I mean,
all all these names you're thrown outthere, they all sound great,
or upgrades anyway, even if minimal, but you got to find out.
I mean, all these teams probablystill feel like they're in it. Oh
sure, I mean absolutely, butespecially with the extra wildcard added and just
the Peter in then again he's youknow, he's a rental player. But
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oh man, you'd take a rentalplayer. You take two or three rental
players at this point if it wouldupgrade the offense. You don't know who
what they have in terms of likeyou want to get a big swing.
I mean, they've got two playersthat are ranked through the Mariners top one
hundred prospects. It's uh, it'sHarry Ford number thirty seven, and then
Cole Young, the young shortstop atsixty seven. That's about it. Their
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top prospects again or Ford, Young'sthe third prospect because they still have Miller.
Young would basically be the number twoprospect because they have Miller there at
Hancock's the third overall prospect. ThatCelestin kid who's in rookie ball, who
is the seventeen yeah, seventeen.He's the fourth rated prospect. They still
have Brian Wu ranked up. There'sthe fifth. There's a Gabrielle Gonzalez,
(28:30):
who is in what is he in? Uh? In Double A? He's
in Double A and he's an outfielder, so he's nineteen. Taylor Dollard's always
been mentioned. He's with Tacoma.Pre Lander Borowa is with Tacoma or is
(28:51):
he what Tacoma or with Arkansas?I can't remember. But so it doesn't
seem like they've got that. Theydon't have the same plethor as they once
had in terms of prospect to giveup and to require somebody big, and
it doesn't really seem like there's bigmarket out there. It's curious, like
the number one thing out there onthe trade market, you know when you
just google, Hey, who arethe top trade targets? That we all
(29:11):
do the same thing. That's howwe come up with all these names.
A lot of it's pitchers, justpitchers. Pitchers. Pitchers are everywhere starters,
I mean, but guys that aremajor League Baseball pitchers, you're not
really in the market for that.So yeah, I just when when people
bring up Carlos Santana, I thinkabout not just what he can bring you,
but on a backup first basement oryou can have tie B R DH
(29:32):
and then the intangibles that come withhim, and I know it's you know,
you can't expect the same thing tohappen this year that happened last year.
But it seemed like he was agood influence on Julio two and so
I like that intangible thing in theclubhouse too, the veteran leadership. And
but again, like you're saying,and the Pirates are probably feeling like they
can get after it this year stilltoo. Yeah, well it will be
uh see what time how much timethey have to pull something like this off.
(29:56):
I mean they've gotta you would feelthey do something, and you have
an idea that Depoto will do something, but you know, what can he
do? You know, what canyou do to actually embrace this team and
make this team better other than whatwe just discussed yesterday That that ultimately,
it's just going to come down tothe guys we named yesterday. It's it's
just Julio, Hernandez, Tay France, Suirez, Kellni Con Crawford and Rolling.
(30:18):
That's it. Those guys have Theyhave to play better because there is
no other hope. I mean,Pollock has done and Lostella's not here anymore,
and Humble's not here anymore, andyou've gotten a zip out of Colton
A Wong. I mean you spentthirty one million dollars on three players that
have given you absolutely nothing nothing,Yeah, absolute wasted sunk costs. Yeah.
(30:40):
And then Jim Duketto we just hadon mentioning the strikeouts and we've seen
that. I mean it's there's justtwo damn many just extrapolated even further.
Let's just take task or out ofit. But you've given seventeen million dollars
to two guys who have a combine. Let's see four and it's Wong four
home runs and exactly twenty two RBIsuh yeah, Well I'm looking at Adam
(31:11):
Frasier's numbers. He's sitting so Imean it's if you'd kept Adam Frasier,
he's sitting two thirty five this year. So it's but Culton Long is what
eighty points under that? Yeah?But that I mean I really liked what
they were doing. I mean,at least in your mind, you know,
you look at it on paper.The platoon with Dylan Moore was going
to work out Culton Long getting upthere a little bit in age Perry Hill.
(31:34):
Hopefully he was going to work hismagic, and after he had eighteen
errors last year, he's going tobe better defensively. But it's just been
a lose, lose, lose withhim so far. But yeah, I
just I mean, you're you're rightabout needing those players to play better,
but do you think they will well? But that's but that's the only hope.
(31:56):
Yeah, that's your only hope rightnow for this thing to turn around.
Is they've got to play better,because there's nothing on the horizon.
There's no I mean, I'd bestunned if there's some big splash of a
bat here that's gonna turn this wholething around. So it's it's those guys.
That's it. You said it best. They have to play better.
(32:19):
I mean, they don't know whatelse to say. I mean that that's
it. But again, I meanthat will just be another comp I mean,
that's just a conversation later for justnot doing enough. But hey,
we'll look in July and this teamwill be ten games over five hundred and
we'll be like, damn, webelie didn't believe. No, it's it's
not it's not about I don't know, it's not about believing. It's just
(32:42):
about this was not okay, let'ssay, let's say that's it, but
this wasn't the plan. Yeah,the plan wasn't to be on June ninth
or six, a game under fivehundred and nine and a half games back
of the division. They said itthemselves in a pre season video that they
rolled out, or last season whenthey did it. I can't remember when
(33:04):
that video came out. The lastthing you saw was Scott's service riding on
the whiteboard. Win it all intwenty twenty three. That was their goal.
Does anybody really think that they areanywhere close to winning the entire thing
right now? There's no way thanthey were last year. Who wants to
be as positive as you ever wantto be about this baseball team? One
(33:24):
last positive nugget. They gotta gothrough the storm first. This is their
storm. Okay, this gotta go. I thought you were talking about the
Seattle storm, but I was like, that'd be odd. I mean,
I think they could beat the storm. I don't know at this point.
No, even with improvement, andagain we talked to Dukett about it.
You and I have talked about it. This team. You don't want to
(33:45):
face them in the playoffs. Imean, nobody's afraid of they're lining up.
But you don't want to face Castio, Kirby and Gilbert all these guys,
you know. I mean, youjust don't want to face them in
the playoffs because you can get eliminatedby Seattle. But I mean they're probably
not gonna make it. And thenyou look at all the teams that are
ahead of them. I mean,come on and difficulated out today. I
mean, even if Texas went fiftyone and fifty two in their next one
hundred and three games, the Marinersshould have to go sixty two and forty
(34:07):
one to beat them out. Soand they're not going to go sixty two
and forty one the rest of theschedule. One hundred and three games left
for the Mariners, sixty two ofthose games against winning teams, and they're
ten and twenty against winning teams.Ooh uh is the mayor coming to next?
My board doesn't work, so Ican't play anything off of it.
I don't know why happened, SoIan for Nest next. I believe at
(34:29):
Sehawk's minicamp. Yes, you know, we know we have I about that,
okay. I think Ian's next yn'tplay the button bar, Sorry you,
(34:49):
hey, coach, I'll put iton a lot a lot of days
to go play out there. Whomade you the coach? No one?
We haven't technical issues as I don'tknow my button the little mouse isn't working,
So that's okay. I really thoroughlyenjoy the new team's chat thing that
we get like eighty five things ateight. Thank you. How do I
get off that? I don't knowhow know I remove myself from the team's
(35:13):
chat that's in my email and Idon't know. Mike Hey, shout out
Mike Oaks. Get me off ofit. I don't want that. I
don't want that coming in my emailanymore. I really don't care that Ashley's
computer doesn't work. Yeah, I'msorry as love you. Ash don't care.
Love you don't care, softies,button bar isn't working. I don't
care. Hey, I'd be real. I don't mean to bring it down
(35:34):
and be real remiss not to notto acknowledge. June six, today,
nineteen forty four. I'm just watchinganother video. They do this every year.
I don't know if you guys areaware of this in the American Cemetery
in Normandy. Do you know whatthe caretakers do every day. They go
every every day on this year,in June sixth, they walk down to
Omaha Beach. They collect sand fromthe beach and they bring it up and
(35:54):
all nine thousand, three hundred eightyeight soldiers on their stones there on the
crosses. They take that dirt inthe sand and they wipe it into the
names. Wow Evan. They doit every single year and again for those
brave men on that day. Canyou imagine being eight I just think about
this every year. We probably shouldthink about more. Being eighteen years old
(36:16):
and you're in one of those amphibianboat things there and you're going in there
and you see what's going on onthat beach and they open up that door
and it's just it's Mayhem. Yeah, and you're eighteen ye. I mean,
it's just remarkable. So, Imean, for those brave men,
we wouldn't we wouldn't be sitting heretoday and doing what we're doing, and
(36:39):
and complaining, complaining about teams,and complaining about a new golf tour and
why can't the mariners add, youknow, another bat and just it's remarkable
what they they just did. Theythey they put everything aside and said,
you know, everything was bigger,and it's not only just them, but
it's the men and women back herethat that that left jobs to build,
(37:00):
build tanks and build parts and andjust said enough to be thankful and grateful
for. You know, the remarkablepart about that fellas to bring it to
sports for a second, is anumber of athletes that served and uh,
you know we're in the yogi barone and one and two, right,
Ted Williams. Ted Williams, Imean, can you imagine today's athlete or
(37:22):
any of us in today's world thatare like in our early professional lives and
that our early twenties making money andsaying having a nice career, saying you
know what now and now I knowlisten, I know there was a draft.
I understand that. Please don't taxI. We're all aware of the
history and how it worked. ButI it's it's just kind of a remarkable
thing to think about and how theworld has changed. And I know we've
got a lot of listeners you knowdown in uh JBLM who always listen and
(37:45):
from and people that are stationed overseas. So thank you for everything that that
you brave men and women do forus. Absolutely, are you at You're
at mini camp right, minims andpuck mandatory. Thank you. As long
as you get that straight, we'reall five things you've seen so far.
Go, I said, my manJamie, one of the strength coaches,
(38:07):
just went to the room next tome and he got a red bull that
was both sugar and sugar free.I said, Jamie, what are you
doing? You need a little energytoday goes gonna have unlet it unletted,
let it unletted. Okay, good, So I saw that. Um let's
see. I see one, two, three, four blocking sleds in front
of me in an empty field.Uh and Sunshine Eagle one coming my way,
(38:36):
peeling back towards the lake. Eagletwo was in the tree. God,
they're gorgeous, aren't they? Massivegorgeous birds? Oh lord, yeah,
two of them. There's three ofthem? Right. Where's Rye?
We haven't a Rye update. Ijust saw ry just cruise by a second
ago, just cruise by, andthe truck a second ago getting bigger.
Yeah. It couldn't be happier,couldn't be more pleased with himself. Uh
(38:58):
yeah, yeah, that's about it. That's what we've seen him so far
right. Yeah, they're inside rightnow going through their walkthroughs. Guys,
okay, which would be you knowor you know what walkthroughs are walking through?
Yeah. Yeah, it's a practicethat we don't really call a practice.
We call it a walkthrough. Hey, all right, what do we
what do we have on today?We're getting somebody on. I'm gonna check
(39:19):
in with Chad Morton. Oh yeah, running backs coach, running backs coach.
Uh I liked, I like therunning back room. Ask him if
he agrees with me and at Kimesthat they shouldn't have drafted Zach Sharbonet.
Did she really say that? So? Ask him? But he stopped stop
right there, just for a second. She said they should not have drafted
just the second room? Is itis Zach Charbonne or just a running back
(39:43):
running? Just running back? She'ssmart. I mean, I know she's
smart, um smarter than I am. Most people are. But yeah,
that's not saying a lot. No, the bars not very high. But
has she looked at the number ofrunning backs that actually averaged more than fifteen
carries a game in the NFL overthe last decade. I actually did that
research a few months ago. It'snot many. You need multiple running backs.
Did we enjoy watching Tony Jones juniorlast year? Not? I didn't
(40:07):
either. I really didn't either.Travis Homer on a draw yeah, no,
uh no? And and when youwhen you want to run the ball?
Just Tony Jones parents probably enjoyed watchinghim. Yeah. I think the
hardest thing would be to be doingNational, try to be the expert in
all things national for thirty two teams. I don't know how you could.
And like, I don't even knowthis team, and I'm around him every
(40:28):
day, And you're gonna have somenews about seven minutes from now. We're
watching the golf shown. They getall the cameras out there, players only
meeting seven minutes from now. HasBrandle made an appearance? Yeah? Has
he said it's the most it's thesaddest day in the history of the sport.
At least he didn't disappoint they weregoing to put him on. He
(40:49):
wasn't on forever. If there wasone guy that wasn't gonna sell out,
it's that cat. I wonder howRory's doing right now. Has he taken
has he taken knives out of hisback from Jay Monahan right now? Or
did he know. I don't knowMax Holmeat Scherzel did Dellow. But Max
Holm is not Rory. No,I know that. But I have a
hard time believing that Tiger and Rorydidn't know. Okay, But if that's
(41:10):
the case, and they didn't leakit to anybody, Yeah, I just
got a text from Joel Damy.He says, not a single player knew
about this. Well, there yougo. Then wow, sad day.
Uh, Chad Morton's going to joinus. And then, much like me
yesterday, Chris Crawford unable to jointhe mallywops. So h he's got some
things to say as by. Iguess we're building for the long term.
(41:34):
That's what I heard on the morningshow today this morning. It's about sustainability,
not not about the near term.So so let's work worry about where
he listen, we're looking ahead twentytwenty four of you. All right,
there we go, Yep, that'sall coming up. All right, we'll
see I have fun out there,We'll see you tomorrow. Is always we
promised to be better. No shirt, no shoes. I went to lick
(42:00):
your face. I was both bornto rub you when you were born to
rub me. First, what doyou need my best for. We like
to some album and they're like allthe A Mercy, I don't think delay
All right, final out for us. We'll check in with Jim ducat MLB
Network MLB Network Radio here in aquick second, former general manager in Major
League Baseball, and we'll get thevery least what's going on in baseball and
how can he help fix the Mariners, because that's all we want. Headlines
(00:36):
are brought to you by Buddy Goodiesin Glass. It's always four twenty buddies.
Jim Hega Tour, the Live andthe European Tour are merging and they
made that announcements today and they weremerged commercial operations under common ownership. So
(01:00):
a lot of big words. Whatdoes it mean for the future of golf?
I mean, just know this thatthe mayn that is in charge of
the Public Investment Fund, which isthe arm of the Saudi government, now
runs basically Golf Global runs all ofit. What does it mean for the
tournaments and what the schedule looks like. None of those details have come out.
(01:23):
What we do know is is theplayers were not aware. The players
found out the same time the publicfound out on Twitter when they went to
CNBC and they had the press comband now did Tiger Rory No, that's
up for debate. There is aplayers only meeting with Jay Monahan today one
o'clock our time in Torontos, soless than an hour he will be meeting
(01:45):
with them in Toronto, will findout more players are angry upset, especially
the ones on the PGA tour.And then we at some point today or
tomorrow we'll hear from Rory. Heis playing at the RBC Canadian Army.
He's gonna be peppered with questions,all right, right, you know how
they do the White House press conference, That's what it's gonna be like.
Have you ever noticed like those newsand White House press conference very different like
(02:07):
sports. In sports, everyone's kindof let's let's pass the mic over there
to Jim. Yeah, Jim,where you from? You a Jim Morris,
Seattle Post in tellis all right,think you got your question? Let's
go over here. Yeah, BobCanota, Seattle Times. I mean at
those White House lings, yeah,Larry, yes, you and then they
get done with the question by okay, okay, last leg Yeah, I
(02:32):
mean it's just insane at those things. You've got to be like a barin,
like a dog. Yeah, Iwant to get your question in.
But yeah, it's it's a littlemore orderly. It's orderly or press conference,
the news ones. It's uh,that's I envision hungry for the news
vision that being today a lot ofBBC. I'm thinking a lot of BBC
(02:53):
news people there, all right.So we got that the Mariners to to
hey them, Los Marin Narrows areback at it. How do we feel
about the mari and Narrows today againstthe Padres in one of a two games
set. We feel pretty good abouthim? No, well do you?
Gilbert versus Musgro San Diego minus onethirty five over under seven and a half.
(03:19):
Yay, I'm hoping good things.Praig gonna take the under in that
seven and a half. Two teamscan't hit. All right, let's get
a little more baseball joining us tohelp us from MLB Network Radio, former
GM and Major League Baseball all aroundgood guy. And you know what he's
you know what he's gonna do rightnow. He's gonna spend the next ten
minutes with us, and he isgonna he's gonna tell us to relax.
(03:42):
Hey, you people in Seattle,you're all hopped up on that caffeine.
Huh, and you see the sunfor the first time here in months and
you think the world's your oyster,Well, let me tell you something.
Okay, calm down about the baseballteam. They're gonna be okay, at
least that's what I'm hoping he's gonnatell us. Jim Dukett Joys right now
in the beacon plumbing hot, Jim, welcome back to the show. How
are you? What's up? Guys? How are you? I am going
(04:03):
to hopefully calm the masses a littlebit, although I am concert about a
few cakes with that Mariers right nowfor sure. Man, you can't even
calm your own dog down. Howare you gonna calm down a fan base
treat? Ah, there we go, Thank you. We we love dogs
(04:26):
and we're just giving you a hardtime. Loves. We are dog people.
We've got multiple Labradors. That doesn'tsound like a lab That sounds like
one of those those one of thoselab dogs. It's the small lap dog,
Yes it is, it is sure. My son is just coming home
at the same time. So yeah, the time was It's all good.
(04:46):
Well, we welcome you to theshow. All right, you calm us
down, because people out here inMariners Land, we we are we are
anxious of the start of this season. They find themselves a game under five
hundred there, nine and a halfback of the Rain, the sixth back
of a wild card, and itjust feels like they did not capitalize on
the momentum they had at the endof the season. How would you kind
(05:08):
of summarize the start of this seasonfor the Mariners. I think that's that's
a fair assessment, definitely on youknow, not capitalizing you know, so
far after the mate that they had. I would agree with you there.
I think I think that the issue, well, first off, we know
that the bar is a little bitlower. Whether that's good or not,
(05:30):
it's um you know, to bedetermined, but the bar in terms of
just obviously the extra wild card,right, so, I think you start
there. They're they're a team forme that is dangerous different when you get
to the postseason because of their pitching. I think the starting pitching is going
to be better and it's been awall. I think it's for the most
part carry them to this point,but there's been a little hiccup here recently
(05:54):
and because of the offense or thelack thereof um. Yeah, that's where
my concerns because it's on a littletoo long for me overall, and I
think that that's something that was abit of a concern because some people I
thought it was going to be improvedthis year. We're seeing a lot of
strikeouts recently overall. Was it giascerKlenic, Torres Gjuglio. They're in the
(06:16):
top five and strikeouts in the league. So that's never you never want to
see your offensive players in the leadin that category because it's really there's a
lack of production that usually is associatedwith that. I think that's what you've
seen on that front. But I'moptimistic because of their pitching and the fact
that I know they'll be aggressive atthe deadline finding some other offensive peace.
(06:39):
Well, Jim, you've been andJerry Depoto's shoes before. You're a former
GM at the MLB level, Canyou give us some insight into what it's
like talking to ownership when it comesto going after free agents and looking at
the bottom line. Yeah, you'reright. I haven't enjoyed that part of
the job, talking to owners aboutmask for more money when when you're especially
(07:01):
if your team is underperforming. Um. I think the thing with Jerry,
you know, because of all thingswent last year, and I kind of
try to compare them. The firstThe first thing for me was getting that
postseason hurdle out of the way inwhich they did last year, right,
And if you guys remember the studentabout this time last year, they were
(07:23):
far worse in terms of the record, and so I think that the fact
that they've overcome it that helps.When you've got up the owner, you
have so them on a couple ofthings. Hey, these guys are under
performing. Here's why, and here'swhy. I think it's going to get
better. And here's what we thinkin terms of adding to the team,
(07:44):
where you know, and you've kindof break down the financial part of it,
which usually about two months two monthwindow there in the cost of that
of giving up prospects, if youfeel like you have enough to do that,
I think that to me it's goingto be after The big trade of
test is do they have enough intheir system, you know, keeping guys
away from obviously like personal you're nottrading, right, some of these guys
(08:05):
that you're gonna that you've seen,you want to be able to use,
uh, you know, to helpyou at the major league level, not
not be used in a trade.So you know, the Harry Ford's handcocks
those guys you don't want to haveto give up. But I think Terry
is one of those guys where he'sso aggressive that you know the direct right
(08:26):
deals in place, then I wouldput anybody, uh you know, on
the table in that sense, orhe will put them on the table if
need be. So I think ownershipwith everything going on there, with the
All Star Game coming in the waythat they've played last year, and the
overall optimism with the team, Idon't think there's any other direction but to
(08:48):
add to this team, you know, at the right moment. The issue
for me, I talked about thedozen GMS over the last month and a
half or so, is when isthat trade market gonna be open? Because
so many teams are within, youknow, within five or six games of
a potseason spot, teams aren't reallyaggressively shopping their own players. It's it's
(09:09):
kind of like, take the temperature, we're out of it. This guy
would be available, and you startthat type of conversation. But that's it's
gonna be a while before I thinkyou're gonna see a significant trade. Okay,
so based on what they did herein the off season. I'm curious
to get your opinion. And again, Jim Duquette is with us MLB Network
(09:30):
Radio, joining as former general managerin baseball in the Beacon Plumbing hotline.
When you saw them coming off theplayoff victory over Toronto and they you know,
they three great games against Houston.They get to the off season and
the moves they make are a tradefor Colton A Wong, a trade for
Taosca Hernandez. They had Tommy laStella, AJ Pollock and Cooper Hummel.
(09:52):
Those are their additions to the offseas. What did you make of that
at the time. At the time, I thought it was short and the
impact, the impactful back that theythat they needed UM And I remember talking
to Jerry at the time. Youknow, there was a lot of good
(10:13):
shortstops on the marketplace. You know, they have always loved JP Crawford and
obviously talked about his defense, UMand how good it's spanning. You know,
he was good there last year thatgot up signed to a contract extension.
But for me, that was theone area that even if they didn't
bring in shortstop to plant Crawford,one of those guys might have been willing
(10:37):
if you've spent the money to movepositions right, and you know, Turner
ended up being a shortstop and stayedthere untilling, but there was a lot
of talk about him playing other positions. In the end, I think they
needed another impactful back, you know, to help out with Julio. Um,
because here's the thing, you youknow, it's good as Julio is,
(11:00):
it is going to be. Thereare a lot of guys out there
that have had rough second seasons,uh, you know, and when the
league gets a sense of how theycan pitch to you with their weaknesses,
um, you know, there's anadjustment period that comes with that. And
that's just that's just one of theguys. You know, Suarez has not
really performed yet that There's a lotof guys that I felt last year had
(11:24):
above average years by their comparison tothe back of the Baseball Card averages,
and so you had to kind ofplan for that. And that's my only
kind of I'd say criticism of theway that the winter was is I thought
they would have done a little bitmore on the offensive side. And you
said that, I thought, youknow, three or four of the guys
that they brought in, I thoughtWe're a good addition. I just needed
(11:48):
to be a little more impactful.Jim, do you get the sense that
it's hard to get position players asfree agents to come to Seattle because it's
so far away up in the northwestcorner of the United States and the fact
that it's a pitchers ballpark now tohitters one. I think that is an
absolute challenge for sure, you know, I think it gets it does get
talked about a lot. You know, I don't know, you know,
(12:09):
every every free agent you know talksabout you know, what their priorities are,
and so you know, the travelaspect of it, I think plays
a little bit. You know,I'll say there's a change in the schedule
where you know, it's not it'san unbalanced schedule now, kind of even
that out a little bit, notnot entirely, but a little bit in
terms of, you know, there'sa lot of travel now for teams and
(12:31):
for players. Um. But Ido think that's a factor, you know,
I think, um, yeah,that is a challenge that Jerry and
you know, Scott Service. Ithink they have to overcome that. Um
A lot of times you can overcomethat with money, you know. The
next that it tends to eliminate it, but yeah, it is. It
is a challenge there. I knowwhen it gets warmer, the ball travels
(12:52):
a little bit, but especially theearly months and the cooler weather. Yeah,
it's tough for offensive players to goout there. What is that because
we we you know, to alongthose lines of the question from Jim is
that we can't figure out why theycan't attract people here. It's a it's
a great city to live in.We understand the travel. They travel more
(13:15):
than anyone. But they've got ayoung, exciting team. They have an
uber it appears at times, especiallywith trades, uber aggressive with their general
manager. There have always been thesewhispers though that agents and players don't necessarily
like dealing with Jerry depotoum. Doesownership truly want to write the big checks
for free agents. I mean they'llthey'll write one for a twenty two year
(13:35):
old, you know, superstar inJulia Rodriguez. But I mean, are
there whispers or rumors just around thatthat maybe the front office is difficult to
work with? Does that play apart into this at all? I know
here listen, I think there's alwaysspeculation if if they don't sign the big
guys, you know you want topoint to you know, whether it's and
(13:58):
by the way, I think Jerryis fantastic when it comes to doing his
job at all levels. But yeah, in that area, they haven't had
the success. Like you said,you have to kind of look at it
um a little deeper or or isit it's hard to determine not being in
there if it's ownership not long togo there. I will say though,
when you kind of look around,there are a few teams and I know
(14:22):
I was talking about how they shouldhave signed impact. It's also not the
greatest business model at the end ofat the end of the contract. So
you know, you're you're kind ofplaying the percentages in the sense that all
right, well those last three orfour years aren't going to go well,
and are you willing to kind ofgive those away in the sense to be
competitive here during this window? AndI think that's where every organization has to
(14:46):
come to that determination. Seattle.You know, those are conversations. I
don't know what they're I think itmakes more sense long term and short term
if you have a Julio Rode justyou know, those are beatles are obvious.
It's a little more difficult to bitethe bullet because if you look at
Turner, you look at what Bogart'sgot this testament even judge those contexts are
going to age well, you know, And so I think that that's the
(15:09):
difficulty in this environment is you know, after the CBA was tied and a
couple of jams told me this offthe record, they were like, I
can't believe at how expensive they gotto sign even border line and marginal task.
So I think it's a combination thatthings always But I do think that
(15:30):
the price texts got so crazy thiswinter that it's possible they went to you
know, they tried to hold theline and got up bid. Hey Jim,
you mentioned about the Mariners being adangerous playoff team if they make it
in because of their pitching. Ithink we all agree with you on that.
But how far away are they fromthe World Series. This is a
franchise that I mean, I've beenwatching this team since seventy seven. They're
(15:52):
the only one left that has iteven played in the in the World Series,
So I mean one bat away fromperhaps make a wild card playoff birth,
But what more needs to be donefor them to finally make it to
the final round. Well, youknow, I think with these you know,
I've covered the postseason out there thelast dozen years for serious and there's
(16:15):
usually usually a recipe that you seewith the two teams that are remaining at
the end, and it starts witha good starting rotation. The Mariners had
that. The next aspect of thatis usually a dominating bullpen. They've been
pretty tough on that front over thelast couple of years. Where they have
it. Where they where they fallshort is on the offense. It really
(16:38):
look at that and say, youknow, they're bat an impactful bat and
possibly a second bat that's maybe notas impactful to add as as death um
to from being a kind of balancedoffense that can handle good pitching in the
postseason, Like you better have umgood offensive pieces when you're when you're picking
(17:03):
facing out against every team's best pitchingin the postseason. That that's it's a
simplified U response to you is obviouslya little more tough kit. Usually it's
a team that doesn't have a tonof strikeouts in their in their offense too.
And that's where you look at thisgroup right now and you're seeing a
lot of that. A lot ofuh, you know, non contact,
(17:25):
non competitive at that that's going tohave to change here in the second half.
Jim Dukett is our guest MLB Networkradio phone on Twitter at Jim Underscore.
Do can't, of course form ageneral manager in a Major League Baseball
to address the offense. Everyone isgoing to want to go out and get
the same thing. I mean there'sthe markets say, where everyone wants hitters,
and then this year feels like everyonewants starting pitchers there as well.
(17:48):
Who would make sense for for Seattle? And let me just give you a
list of names, and I don'tknow if anyone listen. The number one
guy on the list is going tobe Showho. He's gonna be He's gonna
interest anyone. Now would the Angelsthink about moving on for him or do
they think they can resign? Wecan get to him in a second,
Uh, Tim Anderson or Jack Petersonor Randall Gritchick of of the Rockies,
(18:14):
or maybe even Brian Reynolds if thePirates want to. I know they just
signed him, but there's always beensome thoughts to maybe the Pie sister would
move on from him if they couldget a lot of younger players in the
future for him, that seems likea long shot. But does anyone out
there like that makes sense or doyou have another name that could possibly help
this offense here in Seattle. Well, I don't know. I think you
(18:34):
know, guy like Ierson. Youknow, he's a winner, he's he
can be impactful to top of thelineup. Um, you know, you'd
have to move Proford. I thinkhe you know, he he um wants
to play short stuff. I'm notsure it's a perfect fit, but he
would be one guy. Peterson's alwaysbeen a guy that that, um,
you know you want to have onyour on your team. Yeah, he's
(18:56):
a winner, he's he's been inthe postseason last about three four years.
I think it is at least maybemore than that. So I do like
to take try to take those typeof guys. There's there's not a lot
available one The one team that Ilook at, well, two teams,
the White Sox and the Gardens aretwo teams that and in particular the White
(19:17):
Sex. You know, they havegone and gun into this with the idea
that there is win or bust andtheir team hasn't been hasn't been real competitive
outside of Okay, they had aone one the postseason appearance, and then
they were they were bounced, uh, and it's kind of gone in in
(19:38):
the wrong direction for them. Forme, they're at a point I think
that they have to consider flipping theroster row and obviously on the penial front,
they had Giolito. You mentioned Anderson. Uh. I don't know if
they would make Amenas or lease Robertavailable. Um, but those were the
interesting names that you try to,uh to trade for it because you can
(20:00):
sign them up long term, soyou know they're you know there comes would
be interesting to some degree, butI don't see a fit there. The
hardest part I think right now istrying to find the match. Um.
You know, if the Cardinals wereavailable, they have an outfield depth you
could you could you could potentially priorway you now, he's not having a
(20:22):
great year yet he's he's also beeninjured to a guy like Tyler O'Neill,
So so I think it's to bedetermined who's available. I don't think Oh,
Connie's going to be a build evenif they were five hundred. Let's
say they're below five hundred. Idon't think. I just look at their
owner and his track record is unwillingnessto trade impactful players at all um and
(20:48):
I see them riding this out intothe sunset and basically going to their fan
base and saying, you know,we tried to sign this guy. Because
it's going to be a number.It gonna be over four hundred million,
probably closer to five hundred mill andthey'll make an effort to try to start
them in the wintertime, probably newsout and say that the fan they said
were trying to keep them, that'swhy we didn't trade that. That would
be the story if I were inthe use that, if I were the
(21:11):
owner, if by the GM,I'd be proud of the table asking to
trade because he'd get a huge hulllike one Soto did. Lessons. What
do you think he's gonna earn onthe free agent market? What do you
think per year in total of hisdeal is going to be? Well Trouk's
number, I think it's like fourhundred and thirty two millions. That was
an extension ever the Angels. That'sthe highest ever. It's going to be
(21:33):
north of that. Some people thinkit's going to be over five hundred.
I don't think so. I thinkI mean there's gonna be a lot of
suitors, a lot of bidders hemay get. I think the negotiations going
to go very similar to the wayJudges went right. The Angels haven't been
up the price tag. You're gonnasee a bunch of teams like the Dodgers
and the Mets, maybe the Yankees, maybe the Giants, maybe the Padres.
(21:57):
It's gonna be like five or sixteams. We're all going to be
bidding for services. And you mighteven get a team that jumps in late
like the Padres did late with Judgeand give him more money than he ends
up accepting. But I think it'sgoing to be a record a record breaking
deal. I don't see any otherway around it if you want the player,
and because of the way the numberof teams and the type of teams
(22:19):
that have interested ya. Hey,Jim, is a pleasure. We appreciate
it. Uh, you can letthe dog back in. Dog, it's
not gonna get fit. Yeah,we appreciate the time today. Hopefully we'll
check in later this summer. Thankyou so much today. All right,
guys, alright, Jim docd MLBNetwork former GM. They're in a Major
(22:41):
League Baseball. We can react towhat he said. Also look at some
of the trade targets that possibly couldbe out there for Seattle's they look to
get into that department here and thenext month and after two months here of
the baseball season, we'll do thatnext Now, back to the Fucking Jim
Show on Sports Radio ninety three pointthree KJR. At them probably presented by
(23:02):
the Lela p Resort Casino sports Book, but the betty began when all you
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(23:25):
Jim Duke Kat joining us there inthat last segment talking about the Mariners,
where they're at right now, whatdo they do in the off season and
looking ahead to the trade deadline andwhat they can and cannot add there to
this squad. I mean, they'reright there. They're just aren't a lot
of guys out there. I mean, I don't Randall Gritchick does it for
(23:45):
you. He's the Rockies. He'sgot nine million dollars left on a deal
that pays him five years fifty twomillion dollars he's a free agent at the
end of the year. He's justbeen mentioned on all these you know lists
that you look at of guys thatcould be trade targets. He's only played
twenty seven games this year. He'sbeen dealing. He started the season dealing
with a sports hernia surgery. SoI don't know if we want a guy
with a sports hernia because we don'tdo well with the sports Turney four guys
(24:08):
this year or this I should saythat the previous four years that he's had
in baseball. Now he's not anon base guy but two forty seven to
eighty nine, but he slugs fourforty two and ops of seven thirty one.
He's averaged twenty one home runs insixty seven RBIs. So it's an
upgrade and he can play DH andthen he can play the outfield positions.
(24:30):
I don't know if the Mariners haveever closed the books maybe on Brian Reynolds
and pursuing Brian Reynalds. And there'sstill people that feel that despite where the
Pirates are, that they may bein a position which kind of like the
Orioles did last year. Remember theOrioles were trading guys that the Pirates may
be in a position where they willmove guys just despite being five games over
(24:51):
five hundred. Now I think it'sprobably far fetched, But well, do
you think things should change from thePirates perspectives? Friends to be at the
beginning of the year, Remember theydidn't want on the trade request that he
had. They didn't. They endedup signing him an eight year, one
hundred and six million dollars deal.I think no doubt that Jerry Depoto will
knock on the door again and callthem and say say, hey, what
are you guys thinking? But Ithink that's highly unlikely. He does have
(25:12):
a trade clause. He can pickup to six teams annually. But he's
phenomenal, just phenomenal. And youput him in left field, then you
can put kelenic and right field,and you got Julio and you're good to
go. Yeah. Saw him herein Seattle. He had that triple I
think the last at Bad he hadhere and Tim and Tim Anderson. I
don't know. I just bring upTim Anderson just because the White Sox are
(25:36):
terrible and they may want to movehim. Is he going to upgrade your
offensive bunch? I don't know.I mean this year, he's slash line
two seventy three, three thirteen,three, twenty six, thirty three.
He doesn't have a home run,he's driven in ten. He's been dealing
with a knee injury. It's previousfive year, you know, previous you
know seasons before this year, similarslash line. But he's averaged fourteen home
(25:56):
runs at forty five runs. Sooffensively, is he an upgrade? Well,
he's an upgrade. What you haveit second? Well, you have
a second the idea. I knowhe's a shortstop. You just moved him
to second. You want out ofChicago and play for a contender, you
gotta have to play second base.Now he may say I'm staying at shortstop
and you just say, well,no, you can come here, but
you can play second. He'd probablybe okay with that. I saw where
(26:18):
he's got a club option for nextyear, so it might be just another
rental player. Uh, well,yeah, that's fine. You like the
idea of Carlos Santana bringing him back. There has been some talk about Carlos
Santana. Yeah, but again,the similar thing they find themselves where they
may just want to go for it, and if he's a part of their
team. Maybe they no, they'refive games over. They lead the five
(26:40):
over now. They were right atfive hundred when they're in Seattle. So
yeah, that's the thing. It'sjust so hard to figure out. The
trading deadline isn't for another month anda half. The Jock Peterson one would
be intriguing to me because we're talkingabout just that. He's a DH,
that's it. And Jock Peterson hashad a hand injury that's kept him out
for several weeks. He's back,I think this week. In fact,
(27:00):
he might be back tonight. Butso far as a DH only two thirty
five, three fifty one, fourninety four, eight forty four ops,
five home runs in eighteen RBIs liketo me, Jock Peterson would be the
guy. He's got a one year, nineteen million dollars deal. You want
to get a guy postseason experience,left handed bat, that's gonna be a
DH, and that's it. JackPeterson's your guy now with the Giants.
(27:23):
I mean, the Giants right noware same record as the Mariners. They're
five and a half back in theWest. Yeah, you just I mean,
all all these names you're thrown outthere, they all sound great,
or upgrades anyway, even if minimal, but you got to find out.
I mean, all these teams probablystill feel like they're in it. Oh
sure, I mean absolutely, butespecially with the extra wildcard added and just
the Peter in then again he's youknow, he's a rental player. But
(27:47):
oh man, you'd take a rentalplayer. You take two or three rental
players at this point if it wouldupgrade the offense. You don't know who
what they have in terms of likeyou want to get a big swing.
I mean, they've got two playersthat are ranked through the Mariners top one
hundred prospects. It's uh, it'sHarry Ford number thirty seven, and then
Cole Young, the young shortstop atsixty seven. That's about it. Their
(28:08):
top prospects again or Ford, Young'sthe third prospect because they still have Miller.
Young would basically be the number twoprospect because they have Miller there at
Hancock's the third overall prospect. ThatCelestin kid who's in rookie ball, who
is the seventeen yeah, seventeen.He's the fourth rated prospect. They still
have Brian Wu ranked up. There'sthe fifth. There's a Gabrielle Gonzalez,
(28:30):
who is in what is he in? Uh? In Double A? He's
in Double A and he's an outfielder, so he's nineteen. Taylor Dollard's always
been mentioned. He's with Tacoma.Pre Lander Borowa is with Tacoma or is
(28:51):
he what Tacoma or with Arkansas?I can't remember. But so it doesn't
seem like they've got that. Theydon't have the same plethor as they once
had in terms of prospect to giveup and to require somebody big, and
it doesn't really seem like there's bigmarket out there. It's curious, like
the number one thing out there onthe trade market, you know when you
just google, Hey, who arethe top trade targets? That we all
(29:11):
do the same thing. That's howwe come up with all these names.
A lot of it's pitchers, justpitchers. Pitchers. Pitchers are everywhere starters,
I mean, but guys that aremajor League Baseball pitchers, you're not
really in the market for that.So yeah, I just when when people
bring up Carlos Santana, I thinkabout not just what he can bring you,
but on a backup first basement oryou can have tie B R DH
(29:32):
and then the intangibles that come withhim, and I know it's you know,
you can't expect the same thing tohappen this year that happened last year.
But it seemed like he was agood influence on Julio two and so
I like that intangible thing in theclubhouse too, the veteran leadership. And
but again, like you're saying,and the Pirates are probably feeling like they
can get after it this year stilltoo. Yeah, well it will be
uh see what time how much timethey have to pull something like this off.
(29:56):
I mean they've gotta you would feelthey do something, and you have
an idea that Depoto will do something, but you know, what can he
do? You know, what canyou do to actually embrace this team and
make this team better other than whatwe just discussed yesterday That that ultimately,
it's just going to come down tothe guys we named yesterday. It's it's
just Julio, Hernandez, Tay France, Suirez, Kellni Con Crawford and Rolling.
(30:18):
That's it. Those guys have Theyhave to play better because there is
no other hope. I mean,Pollock has done and Lostella's not here anymore,
and Humble's not here anymore, andyou've gotten a zip out of Colton
A Wong. I mean you spentthirty one million dollars on three players that
have given you absolutely nothing nothing,Yeah, absolute wasted sunk costs. Yeah.
(30:40):
And then Jim Duketto we just hadon mentioning the strikeouts and we've seen
that. I mean it's there's justtwo damn many just extrapolated even further.
Let's just take task or out ofit. But you've given seventeen million dollars
to two guys who have a combine. Let's see four and it's Wong four
home runs and exactly twenty two RBIsuh yeah, Well I'm looking at Adam
(31:11):
Frasier's numbers. He's sitting so Imean it's if you'd kept Adam Frasier,
he's sitting two thirty five this year. So it's but Culton Long is what
eighty points under that? Yeah?But that I mean I really liked what
they were doing. I mean,at least in your mind, you know,
you look at it on paper.The platoon with Dylan Moore was going
to work out Culton Long getting upthere a little bit in age Perry Hill.
(31:34):
Hopefully he was going to work hismagic, and after he had eighteen
errors last year, he's going tobe better defensively. But it's just been
a lose, lose, lose withhim so far. But yeah, I
just I mean, you're you're rightabout needing those players to play better,
but do you think they will well? But that's but that's the only hope.
(31:56):
Yeah, that's your only hope rightnow for this thing to turn around.
Is they've got to play better,because there's nothing on the horizon.
There's no I mean, I'd bestunned if there's some big splash of a
bat here that's gonna turn this wholething around. So it's it's those guys.
That's it. You said it best. They have to play better.
(32:19):
I mean, they don't know whatelse to say. I mean that that's
it. But again, I meanthat will just be another comp I mean,
that's just a conversation later for justnot doing enough. But hey,
we'll look in July and this teamwill be ten games over five hundred and
we'll be like, damn, webelie didn't believe. No, it's it's
not it's not about I don't know, it's not about believing. It's just
(32:42):
about this was not okay, let'ssay, let's say that's it, but
this wasn't the plan. Yeah,the plan wasn't to be on June ninth
or six, a game under fivehundred and nine and a half games back
of the division. They said itthemselves in a pre season video that they
rolled out, or last season whenthey did it. I can't remember when
(33:04):
that video came out. The lastthing you saw was Scott's service riding on
the whiteboard. Win it all intwenty twenty three. That was their goal.
Does anybody really think that they areanywhere close to winning the entire thing
right now? There's no way thanthey were last year. Who wants to
be as positive as you ever wantto be about this baseball team? One
(33:24):
last positive nugget. They gotta gothrough the storm first. This is their
storm. Okay, this gotta go. I thought you were talking about the
Seattle storm, but I was like, that'd be odd. I mean,
I think they could beat the storm. I don't know at this point.
No, even with improvement, andagain we talked to Dukett about it.
You and I have talked about it. This team. You don't want to
(33:45):
face them in the playoffs. Imean, nobody's afraid of they're lining up.
But you don't want to face Castio, Kirby and Gilbert all these guys,
you know. I mean, youjust don't want to face them in
the playoffs because you can get eliminatedby Seattle. But I mean they're probably
not gonna make it. And thenyou look at all the teams that are
ahead of them. I mean,come on and difficulated out today. I
mean, even if Texas went fiftyone and fifty two in their next one
hundred and three games, the Marinersshould have to go sixty two and forty
(34:07):
one to beat them out. Soand they're not going to go sixty two
and forty one the rest of theschedule. One hundred and three games left
for the Mariners, sixty two ofthose games against winning teams, and they're
ten and twenty against winning teams.Ooh uh is the mayor coming to next?
My board doesn't work, so Ican't play anything off of it.
I don't know why happened, SoIan for Nest next. I believe at
(34:29):
Sehawk's minicamp. Yes, you know, we know we have I about that,
okay. I think Ian's next yn'tplay the button bar, Sorry you,
(34:49):
hey, coach, I'll put iton a lot a lot of days
to go play out there. Whomade you the coach? No one?
We haven't technical issues as I don'tknow my button the little mouse isn't working,
So that's okay. I really thoroughlyenjoy the new team's chat thing that
we get like eighty five things ateight. Thank you. How do I
get off that? I don't knowhow know I remove myself from the team's
(35:13):
chat that's in my email and Idon't know. Mike Hey, shout out
Mike Oaks. Get me off ofit. I don't want that. I
don't want that coming in my emailanymore. I really don't care that Ashley's
computer doesn't work. Yeah, I'msorry as love you. Ash don't care.
Love you don't care, softies,button bar isn't working. I don't
care. Hey, I'd be real. I don't mean to bring it down
(35:34):
and be real remiss not to notto acknowledge. June six, today,
nineteen forty four. I'm just watchinganother video. They do this every year.
I don't know if you guys areaware of this in the American Cemetery
in Normandy. Do you know whatthe caretakers do every day. They go
every every day on this year,in June sixth, they walk down to
Omaha Beach. They collect sand fromthe beach and they bring it up and
(35:54):
all nine thousand, three hundred eightyeight soldiers on their stones there on the
crosses. They take that dirt inthe sand and they wipe it into the
names. Wow Evan. They doit every single year and again for those
brave men on that day. Canyou imagine being eight I just think about
this every year. We probably shouldthink about more. Being eighteen years old
(36:16):
and you're in one of those amphibianboat things there and you're going in there
and you see what's going on onthat beach and they open up that door
and it's just it's Mayhem. Yeah, and you're eighteen ye. I mean,
it's just remarkable. So, Imean, for those brave men,
we wouldn't we wouldn't be sitting heretoday and doing what we're doing, and
(36:39):
and complaining, complaining about teams,and complaining about a new golf tour and
why can't the mariners add, youknow, another bat and just it's remarkable
what they they just did. Theythey they put everything aside and said,
you know, everything was bigger,and it's not only just them, but
it's the men and women back herethat that that left jobs to build,
(37:00):
build tanks and build parts and andjust said enough to be thankful and grateful
for. You know, the remarkablepart about that fellas to bring it to
sports for a second, is anumber of athletes that served and uh,
you know we're in the yogi barone and one and two, right,
Ted Williams. Ted Williams, Imean, can you imagine today's athlete or
(37:22):
any of us in today's world thatare like in our early professional lives and
that our early twenties making money andsaying having a nice career, saying you
know what now and now I knowlisten, I know there was a draft.
I understand that. Please don't taxI. We're all aware of the
history and how it worked. ButI it's it's just kind of a remarkable
thing to think about and how theworld has changed. And I know we've
got a lot of listeners you knowdown in uh JBLM who always listen and
(37:45):
from and people that are stationed overseas. So thank you for everything that that
you brave men and women do forus. Absolutely, are you at You're
at mini camp right, minims andpuck mandatory. Thank you. As long
as you get that straight, we'reall five things you've seen so far.
Go, I said, my manJamie, one of the strength coaches,
(38:07):
just went to the room next tome and he got a red bull that
was both sugar and sugar free.I said, Jamie, what are you
doing? You need a little energytoday goes gonna have unlet it unletted,
let it unletted. Okay, good, So I saw that. Um let's
see. I see one, two, three, four blocking sleds in front
of me in an empty field.Uh and Sunshine Eagle one coming my way,
(38:36):
peeling back towards the lake. Eagletwo was in the tree. God,
they're gorgeous, aren't they? Massivegorgeous birds? Oh lord, yeah,
two of them. There's three ofthem? Right. Where's Rye?
We haven't a Rye update. Ijust saw ry just cruise by a second
ago, just cruise by, andthe truck a second ago getting bigger.
Yeah. It couldn't be happier,couldn't be more pleased with himself. Uh
(38:58):
yeah, yeah, that's about it. That's what we've seen him so far
right. Yeah, they're inside rightnow going through their walkthroughs. Guys,
okay, which would be you knowor you know what walkthroughs are walking through?
Yeah. Yeah, it's a practicethat we don't really call a practice.
We call it a walkthrough. Hey, all right, what do we
what do we have on today?We're getting somebody on. I'm gonna check
(39:19):
in with Chad Morton. Oh yeah, running backs coach, running backs coach.
Uh I liked, I like therunning back room. Ask him if
he agrees with me and at Kimesthat they shouldn't have drafted Zach Sharbonet.
Did she really say that? So? Ask him? But he stopped stop
right there, just for a second. She said they should not have drafted
just the second room? Is itis Zach Charbonne or just a running back
(39:43):
running? Just running back? She'ssmart. I mean, I know she's
smart, um smarter than I am. Most people are. But yeah,
that's not saying a lot. No, the bars not very high. But
has she looked at the number ofrunning backs that actually averaged more than fifteen
carries a game in the NFL overthe last decade. I actually did that
research a few months ago. It'snot many. You need multiple running backs.
Did we enjoy watching Tony Jones juniorlast year? Not? I didn't
(40:07):
either. I really didn't either.Travis Homer on a draw yeah, no,
uh no? And and when youwhen you want to run the ball?
Just Tony Jones parents probably enjoyed watchinghim. Yeah. I think the
hardest thing would be to be doingNational, try to be the expert in
all things national for thirty two teams. I don't know how you could.
And like, I don't even knowthis team, and I'm around him every
(40:28):
day, And you're gonna have somenews about seven minutes from now. We're
watching the golf shown. They getall the cameras out there, players only
meeting seven minutes from now. HasBrandle made an appearance? Yeah? Has
he said it's the most it's thesaddest day in the history of the sport.
At least he didn't disappoint they weregoing to put him on. He
(40:49):
wasn't on forever. If there wasone guy that wasn't gonna sell out,
it's that cat. I wonder howRory's doing right now. Has he taken
has he taken knives out of hisback from Jay Monahan right now? Or
did he know. I don't knowMax Holmeat Scherzel did Dellow. But Max
Holm is not Rory. No,I know that. But I have a
hard time believing that Tiger and Rorydidn't know. Okay, But if that's
(41:10):
the case, and they didn't leakit to anybody, Yeah, I just
got a text from Joel Damy.He says, not a single player knew
about this. Well, there yougo. Then wow, sad day.
Uh, Chad Morton's going to joinus. And then, much like me
yesterday, Chris Crawford unable to jointhe mallywops. So h he's got some
things to say as by. Iguess we're building for the long term.
(41:34):
That's what I heard on the morningshow today this morning. It's about sustainability,
not not about the near term.So so let's work worry about where
he listen, we're looking ahead twentytwenty four of you. All right,
there we go, Yep, that'sall coming up. All right, we'll
see I have fun out there,We'll see you tomorrow. Is always we
promised to be better. No shirt, no shoes. I went to lick
(42:00):
your face. I was both bornto rub you when you were born to
rub me. First, what doyou need my best for. We like
to some album and they're like allthe A Mercy, I don't think delay
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