May 15, 2025 • 18 mins
Former Mariners pitcher and analyst Bill Krueger joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the M’s recent stretch including the offensive numbers of late, the injuries to the pitching staff and young arms who have come up, plus the state of the AL West.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for our weekly conversation with Bill Krueger, brought
to you by the brand new Occidental Hall next to
Lumenfield on Occidental Seattle's newest hot spot for sports fans,
with massive HD screens and a menu backed with Seattle's
best smash burger, wings and the best local craft beers
in town. Now with Bill Krueger, here's Suffian.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Nobody trust me.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Nobody does smash burgers better than the Occidental Hall and
the Queen Anne Beer Hall. And I assume by default
the lumen Field location.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The new Occidental Hall opening up soon.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
We'll have killer smash burgers as well, wings, TVs, lots
of TVs, incredible beer menu as well. Go check out
the Queen Ann Beer Hall on Queen Ann Hill, Moss
Bay Hall and Kirkland And he's soon to be opened Occidental.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hall near lumen Field.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Here he is our friend who's going to join us
now every Thursday at four excellent because Brett Boon quit
to go be the Rangers hitting coach. Our friend, Bill Krueger,
how are you pal?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's good to have a spot, even if it's by default.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, technically I will say this.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Technically your spot opened up when Steve and Susa took
a job with the Rays.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh yeah, and then when Booney.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Went to Texas, we just moved you from Susan's spot
to boone spot.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
So the question is what team is Bill Krueger going
to be the pitching coach of next year?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Marlins?
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Because they stick because all of our guests always move
on to baseball teams.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
I don't want that kind of team. I don't know
if I want Jacksonville what I did, the Jacksonville Golf Shrimp,
because that's about what they're rolling out there for the Marlins.
You know what, none of those gus listen. I have
thrilled to be hon with you guys. You build it
open for me. I feel like humble and excited. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Let me ask you this if you got that call,
because you're still fairly young, you know, forty two years old.
If a baseball team called you up and said, hey,
we want you to be our pitching coach or maybe
even like an assistant pitching coach, and you're going to
be hitting the road like you did when you played
for the next five months, traveling hotels. Do you even
have any interest at all and doing something like that
right now, at this stage of your life, you know.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
It would have to be a pretty unique set of circumstances,
I'm afraid. Yeah. You know, the thing is it's probably
not going to happen, but it's fun, I guess, fun
to talk about. There was probably a time in my
life post baseball that it would have made sense, but
you know, I've enjoyed my life in media. It's allowed
me to do a lot of things locally. It's allowed
(02:24):
me to be close to my family and you guys
know a little bit about our journey with our daughter,
and she's doing beautifully now. And that was the decision
I made at the time that I wasn't going to
chase the baseball over the country, whether it was on
the field or in the broadcast.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well, this line of questioning just delays the inevitable, which
is talking about what happened against the Blue Jays and Yankees,
where I mean, the offense kind of fell apart. Man,
let's face it, you know, disappointing because here we have
a baseball team that in general terms has been pretty
good offensively, second on the road in batting average, but
second to last at home.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So I don't know, how much did you.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Take from that Blue Jays Yankees six game stretch that
leaves you slightly concerned, if not more than slightly about
the offense.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Well, I think there's certainly we're reverting a little bit
to the mean. Where the mean is is yet to
be determined. But they proved over that stretch of what
was it twenty five games that they could really score
and a lot of that was done by putting the
ball in play and cutting down on strikeouts. It was
(03:28):
also with the home run ball, though, question, I think
this team is going to be. The aim for this
team is to be slightly above the midpoint offensively, but
they have to become an elite pitching staff and that's
the part that the club is waiting on. We saw
it the last two games. But then you have Miller
going on the disabled list and they probably need another reliever.
(03:51):
That's something we can talk about as they move forward.
But they still could get back to being an elite
pitching team. That's the answer for this team is to
take the advantage that they've run up, be a big
point offensive team and get back to being a top
six pitching team. Well, you mentioned I don't think it's
fair to measure them against what they did on the
road and through that nine game series stretch. That's not
(04:13):
I don't think that's who they are.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Well, which is more real then, because you said getting
back to the met I mean we were seeing two extremes.
We saw last year's extreme of just awful offense and elite,
elite pitchings, particularly from starting pitching, and then this year
really shaky pitching for the most part because of the injuries,
and well above average offense. So which is closer to
what you think we'll see from here on out once
(04:34):
everybody gets healthy.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Better pitching, average, hitting, hopefully a little bit more opportunistic
because we're putting the ball and they're putting the ball
in play more. They're not going to be a top
six home run team, but they can by approach put
more balls in play. And of course I could have
all the sabermetric people chasing me down telling me that
(04:58):
I'm wrong, but I'm a rope putting the bone in play.
So I think that leads to good things. And you know, look,
when you put this team together, and we could go
back in the way back machine and talk about some
of the egregious choices they made when they had elite
players they could have controlled. Even though they would had
to spend a little bit of money, it would have
beat the pants off of trying to go to the
(05:18):
market over the winner. And they got left with what
they got left, and they'd got an incredible start from
someone that looked like their career was over and hopefully
he can keep it going. And Jorgete Polanco, but that
was just found money. That's like coming down the street
and finding a you know, a thousand dollars billy, just
pick it up and put it in the pocket. I mean,
nobody could have predicted that his career was over. And
(05:41):
look what he's done. So I don't know if he
can keep expecting that. He looks like he's gonna be
much better than he was. You know last year. For certain,
they're gonna need more production from their key players, and
you know they they're gonna be a little bit on
the want. They're gonna have to hamm an egg a
little bit to be good.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, Polanco last twelve games, hitting a buck ninety four
with a six to z eight ops. He was going
to cool off eventually, obviously, but clearly a guy that
belongs in the lineup, no question, as much as he
can get in it with his injury situation. But Bill,
go back to the pictures for a minute. You know,
this was the concern that a lot of us had that, man,
they are just not going to be able to recreate
(06:19):
the injury luck they had a year ago with that rotation,
and it took a month and three fifths of your
rotation is on the injured list. So even when Gilbert
and Bryce Miller and Kirby do come back as a former,
picture yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
How concerned are.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You about those guys for the rest of this season
considering what they've already dealt with.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
You know, I'm pretty optimistic, I really am. I don't
quite understand what's going on with Bryce Miller. I think
they air hugely on the side of caution with Kirby
having a little shoulder swords and he should have come
out guns of blaze when he pitches next week against Houston.
And I think Gilbert, you have to give him some
(07:06):
amazing credit how he could step outside of himself, turn
the compete button off and realize that he was dealing
with something that he should pull the plug on himself
to get a grade one flexer strain out of that,
and he's still not out of the woods. But I
think he's going to be fine too. Miller is a
little bit of a head scratcher. It sounds like it's
been an irritant but already an injury. So I don't
(07:30):
see that as a problem. I think some of this is,
you know, he's he's struggling with that, and that has
been a hurdle for him because there's other mitigating factors
that are that he's struggling with a little bit, and
that's all part of the maturation of pitching. You know,
understanding who you are as a pitcher. Am I a
top level upstairs pitcher? I'm a downstairs pitcher? Am I
a spider pitcher? Am I a curveball pitcher?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Who?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Am I? You can't be everybody Gilbert tries to, And honestly,
I think as I look at Gilbert, and I think
he's in an an amazing young man with great tools
and a great attitude and a hard worker. But when
you got ninety seven with late release down the hill
at six foot six, you better be throwing more than
(08:12):
twenty eight percent fastball and throwing that bevy of breaking
stuff is part and part, in my opinion, why he's
having a little bit of an elbow problem. He needs
to come back and throw his fastball for a strike.
Take a page out of what Brian wu is doing.
And it's not just because Wu is tricky. He's got
the low rebef point in the upshoot and all that.
It's because he has elite command with his fastball and
(08:34):
he understands where the fastball needs to go. And if
you do that, guess what happens? You pitch deep in games. Gilbert,
even though he was pitching well, not pitching deep in games.
This pitching around the strike zone. That's part and part
what we're talking about here. Way too many pitches, not
enough fastballs, and some of this is resultant in some
(08:55):
of the little micks that they're having right now in
their arms.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Well, Bill, with these injuries are the we've seen a
lot of young arms come in now. Any of these
young relievers, you see some potential end that you think
could be high leverage guys in the very near future.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Bargas has been impressive, even though he gave up the
home run yesterday. You know, he made a big mistake
with the slider. You know, he's got great stuff and
he's gone from I don't know where it's going to
I'm I'm in the game now. But now he has
to be able to take it to another level because
when you're pitching at the end of games against elite hitters,
(09:32):
you have to understand a little bit more situation. And
you can't just like I'm letting it rip slider, I'm
letting it rip fastball. You've got to be a little
bit more intentional. And he hung a slider to Judge
and you can't be in the middle of the plate
with a slider with Judge in a game like that.
You can't. So the lesson's learned, okay, but I like it.
He's got explosion with fastball ninety seven, with movement, a
(09:55):
really good slider, got some talent, and he's found the
plate and he's pitched with confidence. And there's another kudo
to the meritors for finding him underneath the rock where
they've been able to find a guy or two every year, right,
and that's to their credit. They found underlying pitching that's
really helped this team, particularly in the bullpen, and he's
he was a great find.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I'll tell you what if Baseball had it set up,
and I don't know why they don't do this. I mean,
maybe they some team would think about doing it. Bill
Bill Krueger is with us again courtesy of the Queen
Anne Beer Hall, Moss Bay Hall, and seem to be
open occidental Hall President of Baseball Operations, and one for
each side. One guy takes pitching, one guy takes the offense.
Because the POTO would be the executive of the year
(10:38):
if he was only judged on pitching right every single
year he's been phenomenal. But going back to yesterday's game,
and somebody mentioned this, and it sounds ludicrous obviously because
it was a tie game in the eighth inning and
Aaron Judge is leading off the inning. But naturally people
come back and say, well, why even pitch to the guy? Well,
because you're putting the go ahead run on base. It's
(11:00):
a tie game and he's leading off the eighth.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
So can you.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Think of any reason in a tie game yesterday, leading
off the eighth why you would just put Aaron Judge on.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
No. Yeah, I agree, you gotta pitch him. You got
to pitch with confidence. Uh, you have a guy in Vargas.
It's got great stuff. It's right on right. And you
know he hasn't had a big series. I mean he was,
he's he's playing at the breaking ball and chasing away.
They've done a good They do a good job to
pitch it to him the whole series. So I don't
see any reason that you would pitch around him right there.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
No, well, he said, all your building. Oh, the AL
West is terrible. Als is terrible. And you look at
the AL West and there's four out of five teams
that are over five hundred. So yes, there's no great
team in the in the AL West. But handicap it
for us, at least through the first quarter of the season.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
We've gotten to the quarter pole.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Handicap what you've seen thus far and how you see
it play out at this point.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Mariners one as, two heats in, three Texas, four Angels.
Spot Wow, And I think that's I think that's about right.
I mean, how many times how many great players from
Houston lose before they eventually fall. You keep sip sipping players,
you keep these surping players out of their line up.
Eventually they're gonna fall. And the Rangers are just you know,
(12:14):
two years ago they swung the bat and everybody did.
And now they're hit and miss and they don't have
enough pitching. So I don't see them making a move.
And Astros will be okay. They have a winning culture.
But the A's are decent, I mean incredible as it
may seem. They're pretty good. And you saw that the
four to three series of Marriage hold the edge, but
(12:35):
those games all close. So yes, it's gonna be a
tidy played division. I don't think anybody's gonna run away
and hide. The Angels are terrible. I'm gonna put them
in last place and the trout doesn't come back. They're
gonna lose one hundred, okay, which is pretty shameful for
a big market team like that, But such is life.
But you know, in general, and I've never said this
(12:55):
for upteen years, I'm an American League guy, played American
League most my career. I think the American League has
been the superior league, and the numbers have played that,
played that out for a long period of time. Look
at All Star Games, look at World serieses et cetera.
The National League is better this year, They're better. Yeah,
the league is down. The League is down, The Ale
(13:17):
West is down, even the Ale East is down. The
better teams are in the National League, particularly in the
in the in the ANL West, we saw the Giants,
they're good. We know the Dodgers are good. We know
the Padres we're gonna see them next are good. And
the Diamondbacks are good. That's a great division. And you
look across there and the Mets are pretty good, the
(13:37):
Cubs are good, the Phillies of course will be good.
And right now in the American League, you've got the Yankees.
They're good. We've seen them. Detroit is good, Okay, I
mean they're winning. I don't know if they're good. And
that's it, right, I mean the Nation League is just better,
not so I think that as you handicap it. So
(13:58):
the good news what the Mariners is, even though they
kind of punted the last couple of off seasons, they're
still sitting in the CAF or Sea right right. If
they get their starters back, what do they look like?
Five yond premium starters, an elite young closer, a shortstop
of centerfielder to catcher. That's Gatzi. That's good. They're good.
All they have to do is fill in the cracks.
And they've had a little bit of injury around those
(14:18):
but they haven't really tried hard. But you know, Ben
Williamson has been a nice little replacement. I don't know
if he's gonna hit. And certainly they're am and Eggers,
the Rebosses and the and the master Bonies of the
world have done a great job for them, good contact
type players, but they don't they don't have a lot
around Raleigh and Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They just well, I would I would disagree with you
on the little injury thing. I think they've had a
lot of injuries on this baseball team and that was
gonna lead me build to my next question, your thoughts
on Dan Wilson as a game manager, because it's I mean,
it's kind of hard for me. I guess when you look, Okay,
ro Bless, Bliss, Dylan Moore, Luke, Rayley, Polanco, Limited Uh
Logan Gilbert, George Herby, Brice mother Santos Brash, Trent Thornton.
(15:02):
All of those guys except for Polonco have hit the
iel so far. That's eleven guys I just mentioned in
forty games. So he has been playing with you know,
a couple of fingers at least behind his back, if
not an entire hand, and I get that. I think
it's important to mention that. But what is yours? What
is your takeaway? What have you observed from Dan Wilson
as a game day manager, as a strategist since he
(15:26):
took over this job last year.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I think that he's still a little bit of a
work in progress as a game manager. He's going to
get better at it. His instincts have improved because you know,
he's been sitting away from that seat. He's not been
managing games right, but he certainly knows the game inside
and out. He speaks from a place of high integrity
and high success, and they have developed it. They are
(15:51):
developing a culture of winning and that hasn't been there
for a while. I like the fact that he puts
Munos in the ninth where he belongs. None of this,
you know, leverage bs and there's a little bit of
an order to the bullpen, and everybody kind of understands
that a little bit better. I think you can argue
back and forth on the mix in the match on
maybe guys have bunted, maybe they did it on their own.
(16:14):
Polanco bunning that one game that's a head scratcher. Sometimes
he pinch hit. Sometimes he doesn't. I mean there's a
method to the madness sometimes. But I think he's going
to get better as time goes on, and I'm sure
he's having that conversation with himself. I think he's done
a great job. I think he's just a godsend for
this club to have two incredibly successful players that know
(16:37):
what winning really means. They're playing at the highest level
and developing a culture winning between I and Egger to
have them there and you can feel that even though
personnel wise they've made no changes, this team is much
better and they've been much better since those two guys
got in control of the team, right, So I think
he's going to manage the X and O's is a
(16:58):
little bit better. And the one thing that's been interesting.
Your point about injuries is well taken. They've had a
real blow to their starring rotation. They're not having Brash
for a big part of the year and now he's back.
But you know, when blissed road plays went down, this
team played better because those guys were swing first, swing
and miss Blisz was a swing and miss guy. They
couldn't play second, so they got rebossed and they got
(17:18):
Dylan Moore over there and they got better, and then
they had to do some juggling and Telesbo's out and
he can really play first, and that opens up Poloco
a spot for him to play as a dah so.
And then we got an elite third baseman that they
didn't really like the game up and already played third.
So some of it worked okay, but it doesn't necessarily
mean they haven't been handicapped by injury. That's that's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Bill Krueger, great stuff. We will talk to you in
a week next Thursday at four.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Thanks Bill, I loved it, guys. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
All right, man.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Bill Krueger with us courtesy the Queen Ann Beer Hall.
Occidental Hall opening up near Lumenfield very soon. Keep an
eye on that APGA Championship update from Quail Hollow right now,
Curtis your Westwood one
It's time for our weekly conversation with Bill Krueger, brought
to you by the brand new Occidental Hall next to
Lumenfield on Occidental Seattle's newest hot spot for sports fans,
with massive HD screens and a menu backed with Seattle's
best smash burger, wings and the best local craft beers
in town. Now with Bill Krueger, here's Suffian.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Nobody trust me.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Nobody does smash burgers better than the Occidental Hall and
the Queen Anne Beer Hall. And I assume by default
the lumen Field location.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The new Occidental Hall opening up soon.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
We'll have killer smash burgers as well, wings, TVs, lots
of TVs, incredible beer menu as well. Go check out
the Queen Ann Beer Hall on Queen Ann Hill, Moss
Bay Hall and Kirkland And he's soon to be opened Occidental.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hall near lumen Field.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Here he is our friend who's going to join us
now every Thursday at four excellent because Brett Boon quit
to go be the Rangers hitting coach. Our friend, Bill Krueger,
how are you pal?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's good to have a spot, even if it's by default.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, technically I will say this.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Technically your spot opened up when Steve and Susa took
a job with the Rays.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh yeah, and then when Booney.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Went to Texas, we just moved you from Susan's spot
to boone spot.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
So the question is what team is Bill Krueger going
to be the pitching coach of next year?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Marlins?
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Because they stick because all of our guests always move
on to baseball teams.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
I don't want that kind of team. I don't know
if I want Jacksonville what I did, the Jacksonville Golf Shrimp,
because that's about what they're rolling out there for the Marlins.
You know what, none of those gus listen. I have
thrilled to be hon with you guys. You build it
open for me. I feel like humble and excited. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Let me ask you this if you got that call,
because you're still fairly young, you know, forty two years old.
If a baseball team called you up and said, hey,
we want you to be our pitching coach or maybe
even like an assistant pitching coach, and you're going to
be hitting the road like you did when you played
for the next five months, traveling hotels. Do you even
have any interest at all and doing something like that
right now, at this stage of your life, you know.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
It would have to be a pretty unique set of circumstances,
I'm afraid. Yeah. You know, the thing is it's probably
not going to happen, but it's fun, I guess, fun
to talk about. There was probably a time in my
life post baseball that it would have made sense, but
you know, I've enjoyed my life in media. It's allowed
me to do a lot of things locally. It's allowed
(02:24):
me to be close to my family and you guys
know a little bit about our journey with our daughter,
and she's doing beautifully now. And that was the decision
I made at the time that I wasn't going to
chase the baseball over the country, whether it was on
the field or in the broadcast.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well, this line of questioning just delays the inevitable, which
is talking about what happened against the Blue Jays and Yankees,
where I mean, the offense kind of fell apart. Man,
let's face it, you know, disappointing because here we have
a baseball team that in general terms has been pretty
good offensively, second on the road in batting average, but
second to last at home.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So I don't know, how much did you.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Take from that Blue Jays Yankees six game stretch that
leaves you slightly concerned, if not more than slightly about
the offense.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Well, I think there's certainly we're reverting a little bit
to the mean. Where the mean is is yet to
be determined. But they proved over that stretch of what
was it twenty five games that they could really score
and a lot of that was done by putting the
ball in play and cutting down on strikeouts. It was
(03:28):
also with the home run ball, though, question, I think
this team is going to be. The aim for this
team is to be slightly above the midpoint offensively, but
they have to become an elite pitching staff and that's
the part that the club is waiting on. We saw
it the last two games. But then you have Miller
going on the disabled list and they probably need another reliever.
(03:51):
That's something we can talk about as they move forward.
But they still could get back to being an elite
pitching team. That's the answer for this team is to
take the advantage that they've run up, be a big
point offensive team and get back to being a top
six pitching team. Well, you mentioned I don't think it's
fair to measure them against what they did on the
road and through that nine game series stretch. That's not
(04:13):
I don't think that's who they are.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Well, which is more real then, because you said getting
back to the met I mean we were seeing two extremes.
We saw last year's extreme of just awful offense and elite,
elite pitchings, particularly from starting pitching, and then this year
really shaky pitching for the most part because of the injuries,
and well above average offense. So which is closer to
what you think we'll see from here on out once
(04:34):
everybody gets healthy.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Better pitching, average, hitting, hopefully a little bit more opportunistic
because we're putting the ball and they're putting the ball
in play more. They're not going to be a top
six home run team, but they can by approach put
more balls in play. And of course I could have
all the sabermetric people chasing me down telling me that
(04:58):
I'm wrong, but I'm a rope putting the bone in play.
So I think that leads to good things. And you know, look,
when you put this team together, and we could go
back in the way back machine and talk about some
of the egregious choices they made when they had elite
players they could have controlled. Even though they would had
to spend a little bit of money, it would have
beat the pants off of trying to go to the
(05:18):
market over the winner. And they got left with what
they got left, and they'd got an incredible start from
someone that looked like their career was over and hopefully
he can keep it going. And Jorgete Polanco, but that
was just found money. That's like coming down the street
and finding a you know, a thousand dollars billy, just
pick it up and put it in the pocket. I mean,
nobody could have predicted that his career was over. And
(05:41):
look what he's done. So I don't know if he
can keep expecting that. He looks like he's gonna be
much better than he was. You know last year. For certain,
they're gonna need more production from their key players, and
you know they they're gonna be a little bit on
the want. They're gonna have to hamm an egg a
little bit to be good.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, Polanco last twelve games, hitting a buck ninety four
with a six to z eight ops. He was going
to cool off eventually, obviously, but clearly a guy that
belongs in the lineup, no question, as much as he
can get in it with his injury situation. But Bill,
go back to the pictures for a minute. You know,
this was the concern that a lot of us had that, man,
they are just not going to be able to recreate
(06:19):
the injury luck they had a year ago with that rotation,
and it took a month and three fifths of your
rotation is on the injured list. So even when Gilbert
and Bryce Miller and Kirby do come back as a former,
picture yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
How concerned are.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You about those guys for the rest of this season
considering what they've already dealt with.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
You know, I'm pretty optimistic, I really am. I don't
quite understand what's going on with Bryce Miller. I think
they air hugely on the side of caution with Kirby
having a little shoulder swords and he should have come
out guns of blaze when he pitches next week against Houston.
And I think Gilbert, you have to give him some
(07:06):
amazing credit how he could step outside of himself, turn
the compete button off and realize that he was dealing
with something that he should pull the plug on himself
to get a grade one flexer strain out of that,
and he's still not out of the woods. But I
think he's going to be fine too. Miller is a
little bit of a head scratcher. It sounds like it's
been an irritant but already an injury. So I don't
(07:30):
see that as a problem. I think some of this is,
you know, he's he's struggling with that, and that has
been a hurdle for him because there's other mitigating factors
that are that he's struggling with a little bit, and
that's all part of the maturation of pitching. You know,
understanding who you are as a pitcher. Am I a
top level upstairs pitcher? I'm a downstairs pitcher? Am I
a spider pitcher? Am I a curveball pitcher?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Who?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Am I? You can't be everybody Gilbert tries to, And honestly,
I think as I look at Gilbert, and I think
he's in an an amazing young man with great tools
and a great attitude and a hard worker. But when
you got ninety seven with late release down the hill
at six foot six, you better be throwing more than
(08:12):
twenty eight percent fastball and throwing that bevy of breaking
stuff is part and part, in my opinion, why he's
having a little bit of an elbow problem. He needs
to come back and throw his fastball for a strike.
Take a page out of what Brian wu is doing.
And it's not just because Wu is tricky. He's got
the low rebef point in the upshoot and all that.
It's because he has elite command with his fastball and
(08:34):
he understands where the fastball needs to go. And if
you do that, guess what happens? You pitch deep in games. Gilbert,
even though he was pitching well, not pitching deep in games.
This pitching around the strike zone. That's part and part
what we're talking about here. Way too many pitches, not
enough fastballs, and some of this is resultant in some
(08:55):
of the little micks that they're having right now in
their arms.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Well, Bill, with these injuries are the we've seen a
lot of young arms come in now. Any of these
young relievers, you see some potential end that you think
could be high leverage guys in the very near future.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Bargas has been impressive, even though he gave up the
home run yesterday. You know, he made a big mistake
with the slider. You know, he's got great stuff and
he's gone from I don't know where it's going to
I'm I'm in the game now. But now he has
to be able to take it to another level because
when you're pitching at the end of games against elite hitters,
(09:32):
you have to understand a little bit more situation. And
you can't just like I'm letting it rip slider, I'm
letting it rip fastball. You've got to be a little
bit more intentional. And he hung a slider to Judge
and you can't be in the middle of the plate
with a slider with Judge in a game like that.
You can't. So the lesson's learned, okay, but I like it.
He's got explosion with fastball ninety seven, with movement, a
(09:55):
really good slider, got some talent, and he's found the
plate and he's pitched with confidence. And there's another kudo
to the meritors for finding him underneath the rock where
they've been able to find a guy or two every year, right,
and that's to their credit. They found underlying pitching that's
really helped this team, particularly in the bullpen, and he's
he was a great find.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I'll tell you what if Baseball had it set up,
and I don't know why they don't do this. I mean,
maybe they some team would think about doing it. Bill
Bill Krueger is with us again courtesy of the Queen
Anne Beer Hall, Moss Bay Hall, and seem to be
open occidental Hall President of Baseball Operations, and one for
each side. One guy takes pitching, one guy takes the offense.
Because the POTO would be the executive of the year
(10:38):
if he was only judged on pitching right every single
year he's been phenomenal. But going back to yesterday's game,
and somebody mentioned this, and it sounds ludicrous obviously because
it was a tie game in the eighth inning and
Aaron Judge is leading off the inning. But naturally people
come back and say, well, why even pitch to the guy? Well,
because you're putting the go ahead run on base. It's
(11:00):
a tie game and he's leading off the eighth.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
So can you.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Think of any reason in a tie game yesterday, leading
off the eighth why you would just put Aaron Judge on.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
No. Yeah, I agree, you gotta pitch him. You got
to pitch with confidence. Uh, you have a guy in Vargas.
It's got great stuff. It's right on right. And you
know he hasn't had a big series. I mean he was,
he's he's playing at the breaking ball and chasing away.
They've done a good They do a good job to
pitch it to him the whole series. So I don't
see any reason that you would pitch around him right there.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
No, well, he said, all your building. Oh, the AL
West is terrible. Als is terrible. And you look at
the AL West and there's four out of five teams
that are over five hundred. So yes, there's no great
team in the in the AL West. But handicap it
for us, at least through the first quarter of the season.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
We've gotten to the quarter pole.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Handicap what you've seen thus far and how you see
it play out at this point.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Mariners one as, two heats in, three Texas, four Angels.
Spot Wow, And I think that's I think that's about right.
I mean, how many times how many great players from
Houston lose before they eventually fall. You keep sip sipping players,
you keep these surping players out of their line up.
Eventually they're gonna fall. And the Rangers are just you know,
(12:14):
two years ago they swung the bat and everybody did.
And now they're hit and miss and they don't have
enough pitching. So I don't see them making a move.
And Astros will be okay. They have a winning culture.
But the A's are decent, I mean incredible as it
may seem. They're pretty good. And you saw that the
four to three series of Marriage hold the edge, but
(12:35):
those games all close. So yes, it's gonna be a
tidy played division. I don't think anybody's gonna run away
and hide. The Angels are terrible. I'm gonna put them
in last place and the trout doesn't come back. They're
gonna lose one hundred, okay, which is pretty shameful for
a big market team like that, But such is life.
But you know, in general, and I've never said this
(12:55):
for upteen years, I'm an American League guy, played American
League most my career. I think the American League has
been the superior league, and the numbers have played that,
played that out for a long period of time. Look
at All Star Games, look at World serieses et cetera.
The National League is better this year, They're better. Yeah,
the league is down. The League is down, The Ale
(13:17):
West is down, even the Ale East is down. The
better teams are in the National League, particularly in the
in the in the ANL West, we saw the Giants,
they're good. We know the Dodgers are good. We know
the Padres we're gonna see them next are good. And
the Diamondbacks are good. That's a great division. And you
look across there and the Mets are pretty good, the
(13:37):
Cubs are good, the Phillies of course will be good.
And right now in the American League, you've got the Yankees.
They're good. We've seen them. Detroit is good, Okay, I
mean they're winning. I don't know if they're good. And
that's it, right, I mean the Nation League is just better,
not so I think that as you handicap it. So
(13:58):
the good news what the Mariners is, even though they
kind of punted the last couple of off seasons, they're
still sitting in the CAF or Sea right right. If
they get their starters back, what do they look like?
Five yond premium starters, an elite young closer, a shortstop
of centerfielder to catcher. That's Gatzi. That's good. They're good.
All they have to do is fill in the cracks.
And they've had a little bit of injury around those
(14:18):
but they haven't really tried hard. But you know, Ben
Williamson has been a nice little replacement. I don't know
if he's gonna hit. And certainly they're am and Eggers,
the Rebosses and the and the master Bonies of the
world have done a great job for them, good contact
type players, but they don't they don't have a lot
around Raleigh and Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They just well, I would I would disagree with you
on the little injury thing. I think they've had a
lot of injuries on this baseball team and that was
gonna lead me build to my next question, your thoughts
on Dan Wilson as a game manager, because it's I mean,
it's kind of hard for me. I guess when you look, Okay,
ro Bless, Bliss, Dylan Moore, Luke, Rayley, Polanco, Limited Uh
Logan Gilbert, George Herby, Brice mother Santos Brash, Trent Thornton.
(15:02):
All of those guys except for Polonco have hit the
iel so far. That's eleven guys I just mentioned in
forty games. So he has been playing with you know,
a couple of fingers at least behind his back, if
not an entire hand, and I get that. I think
it's important to mention that. But what is yours? What
is your takeaway? What have you observed from Dan Wilson
as a game day manager, as a strategist since he
(15:26):
took over this job last year.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I think that he's still a little bit of a
work in progress as a game manager. He's going to
get better at it. His instincts have improved because you know,
he's been sitting away from that seat. He's not been
managing games right, but he certainly knows the game inside
and out. He speaks from a place of high integrity
and high success, and they have developed it. They are
(15:51):
developing a culture of winning and that hasn't been there
for a while. I like the fact that he puts
Munos in the ninth where he belongs. None of this,
you know, leverage bs and there's a little bit of
an order to the bullpen, and everybody kind of understands
that a little bit better. I think you can argue
back and forth on the mix in the match on
maybe guys have bunted, maybe they did it on their own.
(16:14):
Polanco bunning that one game that's a head scratcher. Sometimes
he pinch hit. Sometimes he doesn't. I mean there's a
method to the madness sometimes. But I think he's going
to get better as time goes on, and I'm sure
he's having that conversation with himself. I think he's done
a great job. I think he's just a godsend for
this club to have two incredibly successful players that know
(16:37):
what winning really means. They're playing at the highest level
and developing a culture winning between I and Egger to
have them there and you can feel that even though
personnel wise they've made no changes, this team is much
better and they've been much better since those two guys
got in control of the team, right, So I think
he's going to manage the X and O's is a
(16:58):
little bit better. And the one thing that's been interesting.
Your point about injuries is well taken. They've had a
real blow to their starring rotation. They're not having Brash
for a big part of the year and now he's back.
But you know, when blissed road plays went down, this
team played better because those guys were swing first, swing
and miss Blisz was a swing and miss guy. They
couldn't play second, so they got rebossed and they got
(17:18):
Dylan Moore over there and they got better, and then
they had to do some juggling and Telesbo's out and
he can really play first, and that opens up Poloco
a spot for him to play as a dah so.
And then we got an elite third baseman that they
didn't really like the game up and already played third.
So some of it worked okay, but it doesn't necessarily
mean they haven't been handicapped by injury. That's that's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Bill Krueger, great stuff. We will talk to you in
a week next Thursday at four.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Thanks Bill, I loved it, guys. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
All right, man.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Bill Krueger with us courtesy the Queen Ann Beer Hall.
Occidental Hall opening up near Lumenfield very soon. Keep an
eye on that APGA Championship update from Quail Hollow right now,
Curtis your Westwood one
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