July 10, 2026 • 20 mins
Bret Boone joins the show to talk Mariners after getting swept in Miami.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of
Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R FM. It's
time for our weekly conversation with former Mariners all star
Brett Boone, brought to you by Venue Kings. Visit venue
Kings dot com for all your ticket needs. Now with Booney,
here's Softian Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You gotta be the best open we've got for a
guess right into his name, So good, So good, Andres
isn't old enough to remember. This was his walk up song,
So good, Booney? How you doing man?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
What's happening? Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Man? Well, we're actually talking a lot more soccer on
the air than we normally do. That's for damn sure.
Did you I just saw the new numbers at fifty million?
Watch that game between the US and Belgium. Were you
one of them?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
You know what?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I tuned in the second half. It's it's that's a
tough watch for me, soccer. I'm not a soccer guy,
you know, it's I did learn, man. They like to
flop out there on the soccer field. They liked to
go down like they got hit by a cannon and
then five secondary They're fine, They're fine. I'll tell you
(01:13):
grow I grow grew up on the East Coast, and
when I was a kid, I played soccer. You know,
that's back when we played basketball. If you played basketball
one season baseball, then you played football or soccer. Well,
I was a soccer All my buddies played football and
I played soccer, and I loved it. It was it
was probably it might have been my favorite sport over baseball.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
And I kind of got pushed around about buddies in
the at school, my buddies that I hung with, and
they're like, oh, you're a wools you're playing soccer. And
they kind of kind of guilted me into playing football.
And then I started paying playing pee wee football and
I always thought, man, I wish I would have kept
playing soccer.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I loved it. That big said, I have a tough
time watching it. I guts.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Yeah. Well, we were actually talking about that, the kind
of culture of of soccer, and and I distinguished Booney
for this purposes of this discussion. The difference between flopping,
because we see that in basketball that's trying to simulate
that you you got hit when you didn't. I'm distinguishing
that from the actual laying on the ground and writhing
(02:18):
in pain that you alluded to. And I'm curious from
the from a baseball perspective, how does that get policed?
Maybe early on when you're a kid, you know, you
you take a ball off the you know, the tape
of the bat out coach, my my handsting, or or
or you know, you get hitting the in the knee
or the elbow with an inside pitcher or something like like.
(02:39):
Just talk about how baseball because I don't see that
writhing from baseball very often. Obviously, if you take one
hundred mile an hour at the wrist and you break
your hand, you know, we've seen some guys that, but
as a general rule these there seems to be a
toughness culture that baseball is not going to allow you
to roll around like a baby. Just maybe talk about that,
(03:02):
how that that comes into being in the culture in
the sport of baseball.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah, it's kind of a thing, you know, rub some
dirt on it, let's go. I don't want to say
it didn't hurt that much, you know, it's that type
of attitude I think that the baseball community has. That
being said, we're not even close to as tough as
the hockey guys. These hockey guys are at a different level,
and they're my favorite athletes, you know, and all the
years and activities off the field and events that we attend,
(03:29):
I always was drawn to the hockey guys because they
just don't.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Give a rip.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
They go out, you know, they get they get cut open,
they'll sew themselves together on it in the in the
on the side of the rink and be playing by
the end of the game. And that doesn't even go
back in the day where.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You just get your teeth knocked out. That's all right.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I could play, I could play the third period. So
a level of toughness in hockey I don't think we
can match. But yeah, in baseball it is. I I'll
tell you I used to and this is before replay.
It's a different ballgame now because of all the replace
so you can't kind of fake anything. But if I
had an O two count and that ball appeared to
(04:09):
graze my uniform, oh, I'd sell it. I'd sell it
and I'd go down. And even if it didn't hit me,
because I'm like, I get out of this two count,
I'd get the first base and do something because I'm
probably not going to get hit. Also another thing I
used to do with my teammates used to look at
me because it wasn't my character to really when I
got hurt to behave like that. But if I could
(04:30):
get hit by a pitch inside, I would sell. I'd
go down like a ton of bricks and just pretend
like I just it hit me in the worst spot
you could get hit, and I'd always be kind of
looking up under my helmet rim to see if that
pitcher was feeling sorry for me.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
That was my goal.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
If I can get him to feel bad that he
hit me and he hurt me, I got him set
up for the next bat. What did I just do?
I just eliminated fastball in. Now I can hang out
over that plate. I know, you pull the soccer saw
or something.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
He's not coming in. He's not coming in. He's not
coming in.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
So, uh yeah, I don't know how we I know
that story was a little long for the question, but
it's uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I just think it's kind of a known thing from.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
When you're a little when you're a little league, and
it's like when you get hit, Yeah, come on, come on, Johnny,
it didn't hurt that much.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Rubs and dirt on it. Let's go.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
So I think that's just kind of the culture in
baseball as all.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, Brett, you use the term tough watch to describe
the soccer game. I will use the same term to
describe what the hell we just watched the last three
days in Miami from the Seattle Mariners, and in particular
just the attention to detail stuff. And you put it
really succinctly in the last hour. I mean, you had
you had three bonehead situations in three successive games. You've
(05:52):
got West and Wilson running behind a ground ball that's
going between second and third and he gets thrown out
a third, you get cold in extra innings, you get
Cole Young on the last pitch of the game not
challenging and having two challenges. And then yesterday you got
Colt Emerson not stepping on second base so he doesn't
turn a double play that would get you out of
the inning and end up giving up runs. So what
(06:14):
what's going on here? What's the common denominator for all
this slop?
Speaker 4 (06:19):
You know what, if I knew, I'd probably called Danny
and tell them, hey, I know what's wrong with you. No,
that being said, it seems like when you're going, when
you're going, you're not going. Well, things like that happen.
Now it's different, you know. For me, it's it's like,
let's let's take them individually. Let's take the called third strike.
(06:39):
We're living in a new era. This is the first
year for these challenges. And these guys, these current players, yeah,
they were almost halfway, so they've got some experience. They
know when to challenge when not to. But I wonder
unless you can actually, you know, you go and get
in the box and you are an actual player who
(06:59):
knows it goes through your mind, years and years of
doing it one way. Then oh, all of a sudden,
I have a challenge. Oh yeah, I forgot the challenge.
And by the way, you got to challenge it in
like two seconds. The pitch too young, just because I
wasn't watching intensely. I was kind of in the room
doing one thing in and out of the room. I
saw the pitch. I glanced at it. I said, that's
a nasty pitch right there, because in my generation, before
(07:21):
the white box, before the challenges, that was a great pitch,
great located pitch. Now you put the box in there
and all of a sudden we get really, we're all experts.
We know exactly what the ball is, exactly what a strike,
sais strike is that being said, the current players, they
know what a ball is, they know what a strike is.
I don't know if he went into that inning thinking, Okay,
(07:43):
we've got two challenges. I don't know what they're doing
because I'm not in the dugout this year, so I
don't know what the overall strategy is. When to challenge,
when not to Is it an emotional challenge? Is it
not an emotional challenge? But I do think at the
midway point of this new system, even though it's new
for everybody, people are still learning. At going into that inning,
you know, hey, guys, as a group, I would think
(08:05):
this is what we would do. Get together as an offensive,
you to go, hey, it's the ninth we got two challenges.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Let's make them count.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
But just remember we have too, so everybody's kind of
on the same page. If you're you know, one through
five that inning, we all know. So if there is
a close one, you can do that. And I just
think it's one of those things you get caught up
in the emotion you're grinding out the bat what it
appeared to the naked eye for me just watching the game.
If the box isn't up there, it was a money pitch.
It's just a it's a bullet strike on the outside corner.
(08:35):
Now after further review, it's not. But I just don't know.
If you get caught up in the motions, you're grinding
so hard in the bat, you forget. I don't know
what that was. But yes, if you're if you're prepared
for that, yeah, that's that's a challenge situation to step
in on the base. Another thing I never had to
deal with. I needed to fake like I stepped on
the base because the guys are trying to knock me
(08:55):
in a left field.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Now they have to slide in.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Now that you have to be on the base, Now
that you have to physically tag the runner, it's a
different world. So when I used to train to turn
double plays, I used to train around the back and
as long as I gave you the illusion and I
was very close to the bag, they were out every
time with that umpire because I had to get up
in the air and get out of the way. Nowadays
(09:18):
it is like you said, you have to be attached
to that base when you have the So the double
play is different for me, and I grew up in
an era where I've never played where I had to
physically be anchored to that bag when I made the transition.
So that's a unique one to me being a modern
day player. Those are the rules. Things like that can't happen,
(09:39):
And it just seems like when things are going bad,
things go bad, and things like that happen every day.
And as people watching, as people in the media, were
going to be extra critical when let's be honest, this
team is just not living up to the expectations and
what we thought they were going to be to start
the season.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Red Boon with this and Brett, I want to just
kind of drill down one more question on that the
mechanisms of of the of the A B s because
you said, okay, uh, you know, Wilson, Danny should have said, hey,
remember now we got two challenges left.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
But well, not necessarily Danny, the players as a whole
job as hitters.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, you think it's a player's job.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Okay, what about is there something that the the on
the guy on deck can Can there be some code?
I was kind of extrapolating certain codes we had in football,
and I said, you know, just an animal that begins
with C for challenge, you know, cheetah, cheetah. You know,
like like and the players you know over the course
of the season that there's a certain trigger where it's
(10:40):
like boom and you just, you know, reflexively just tap
your hat, you know, like like like there's a there's
a a mechanism in case we forget that this is
the backup because we can't. I mean, hell, there's two
damn challenges there, and got Naylor on third base. You know,
he just worked, you know, you know if he challenge
that is clearly a ball, it's a three to two count.
(11:02):
He got a chance to run into something and tie
the game in the ninth inning. So I just feel like, man,
there's got to be something more than just what you described,
or am I being unrealistic about.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Well, well, I don't think as far as as first
of all, they give you. I mean I've seen guys
tap their helmet within three seconds and they don't honor
it because he's got to do it right now. He
doesn't want to be able to get any signs from
anybody else that might be seeing what maybe he didn't see.
Now as a hitter, you're by far at all times.
(11:34):
If you're on second base, it doesn't matter. You're always
going to have the best idea of what is a
ball and what is a strike. I think you just
have to because of the new rule. I think that's
one more checkpoint you have to go through and just
be mindful, be mindful where we're at in the game.
I always say, play to the scoreboard, play to what
score it is. And I think now with these challenges,
(11:58):
if you know, going in in a tight game in
the ninth inning, you know you got two challenges, and
you're watching, you know, if one of your teammates uses
another challenge or not, you know you got two. So
when push comes to shove and the game's on the line,
you've got to be aware of that. Even though it's
a new rule, it's a rule that's in there, and
you've had half a season now to kind of get
used to it, so you've got to be more aware.
I went back and I re loooked at that at
(12:20):
that pitch as well. Still, I thought it was a
great pitch just from the naked eye for me sitting
on the couch. But I'm used to do, you know,
checking that out my whole life. We used to we
do it by sight until this new ABS system comes out.
But the look on Young's face as he's walking back
to the dugout was like a I don't know if
that was strike, but we don't have any challenges left.
(12:41):
It's almost like he didn't know he had two challenges.
That's what I read from the look on his face.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
No question about it, and you just you just can't
have that. And he's he's a young player, as is Cold,
as is Colt Emerson who made the mistake on the
on the bag there. And let's let's talk a little
bit about Colt Emerson because we were going over his
month by month splits, and I mean, he's on from
eight fifties ops to high six hundreds ops. Now he's
in the three hundreds in the month of July. Smallest
(13:07):
sample size, just seven games. But at what point should
we be concerned that, Okay, Colt made the adjustment to
big league pitching really quickly. But now big league pitchers
have made the adjustment to that adjustment.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Absolutely, because I went through it. We all go through it,
you know, unless unless you're you're a freak of nature.
Unless you're a Mike Trout, you're a Ken Griffy junior.
It seems like those guys just come to the big
leagues and never break stride. But the rest of us,
normal people, we do have to adjust it. And I
remember early on in my career, you know, I came
up and I struggled, and I made an adjustment. And now,
(13:41):
like you said, they started making the adjustment back to me.
Now I've got to counter their adjustment. This kid is
twenty years old. I see us set up. I see
his makeup from what I you know, from what I
vision on the outside.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I don't know Colt at all.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
He's got seven home runs as at twenty year old
in the big leagues with limited at bats. Now, yes,
he's hitting. I think he's back to two oh six.
And I remember when he came up and everybody was, well,
Crawford's got to move to third and this and that.
I think this guy's the future. I think he's gonna
have a great career to be twenty and playing at
(14:17):
the big league level. I was a junior in college, right,
So the fact that he's playing at the big league level,
I'm always in awe of the guys that can get
to the big leagues and handle it at such an
early age. But you've got to know it doesn't matter
how talented you are if you're gonna make that switch.
And they did make the switch. They inserted him at shortstop.
He's probably to be there for the next ten years,
and put in Crawford to third. You have to be
(14:39):
pretty much knowing that he's twenty, he's gonna struggle, and
by us making this switch right now, we're saying we're
gonna live with whatever happens now biggests to a point
where he struggles too much, Crawford could just slide back.
Donovan will be back, maybe before August.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
We'll see.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
It seems like he's been out a long time now.
But I think right now, now they've made that commitment,
they're going to stick with it for a while.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And I think this kid's.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Talent enough, he's going to figure it out and he's
gonna have a he's gonna have a rally in the
second half. But being twenty doing what he's doing, it's
it's for a guy like me that got there when
I was twenty two to twenty three and it was
hard enough Dan to be twenty. I tip my cap
because not too many people can do that.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Brett Boone with us a final a couple of minutes here,
and Brett, I'm not going to ask you about Dan Wilson,
your team. Everybody loves Dan Wilson, right, So I'm going
to ask you more of a hypothetical team that was
projected to be, you know, at her near the top
of the league, whatever it's American or National League, and
then coming into the All Star Game likely to be
(15:43):
maybe a game over or a game under five hundred,
so clearly underachieving by any reasonable standards. At what point,
and there's nobody who's understanding third generation baseball guy like
Brett Boone, there's nobody better to ask this question, at
what point is it reasonable to say, you know what,
(16:04):
we should make a change it? Man, I'm not talking
about Dan Wilson. I'm talking about this hypothetical team that
the manager something's got to be shaken up. We got
to go in another direction. Is it coming out of
the is it is it by uh by trading deadline?
If things aren't turned around, like like, how much of
a hot sheet, hot seat should this this hypothetical manager.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Be on, Well, I think now you've got you know,
three years ago you could you could use the excuse of, hey,
that's a young team. There's not much experience on the team.
There's growing pains. You don't expect them to behave like
mature veteran guys. You don't have that anymore. You've got
you've got cal Rawley, who's coming off sixty homers. You've
(16:49):
got to You've got a Julio that's been in the
big leagues now for four or five years. You've got it,
a ros Aine, a ton of postseason You've got these
young pitchers and a very talented pitching star. They've all
got three and four years under their belt. So we're
not at a point where we can make excuses for
being youthful and inexperienced.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
No, we're pretty experienced now.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
As far as the manager and Danny, you know, certain
guys you know kind of pop on your radar and
you think, man, you know, are they going to make
a change of this particular situation. From what I've seen
through all my travels through the years and all the
teams I've played for, all the Skippers I played for,
there was one time that I thought a manager change
is necessary in this situation.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
The rest of the.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Time, these players we come to the ballpark and we play,
and the last thing we ever think about is, oh,
that's the manager's fault. No, it's our fault. The onus
is always on us.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Now.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
If it continues to go the wrong way, somebody's got
to take the fall for it. Example, Thompson in Philadelphia,
he got fire from all accounts, and I've never met Thompson.
From all accounts, players really were fond of him. People
in the organization, guys played with him, Guys that were
on a staff, they were very fond of Thompson, and
all of a sudden they just thought a change needed
(18:06):
to be made because they thought this Philly team is
too talented to continue to go the way they were.
So they breakmatically takes over it. All of a sudden,
they start to play a little bit better. Sometimes something
like that rallies the players to say, it wakes them up,
say we got to start playing up to our capabilities.
I rarely think it's the manager, and I don't think
(18:27):
in Seattle right now, Danny's would per se be on
the hot seat. Yes, underachieving a lot, especially by the
way I had it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
At the beginning of the year.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I thought, Wow, Seattle's gonna just dominate this division. And
they're back and forth and they're five hundred, just like
the rest of the American League. The American League, to me,
this year is unbelievable. I still can't get over it.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
But I think I don't think Danny's on the hot seat.
I think it's going to second half.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
I still think I said this a few weeks ago, Dicky,
remember this team. I've never seen this talent of a
team struggle for an entire year. I've seen them struggle,
but on paper, especially with the pitching. I've been going
through the American League, which is so mediocre this year.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
National League far superior.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
But I look at the teams that could really challenge
the Seattle Mariners, and it's Tampa Bay seems to be
a really good team this year. The Yankees in and out.
They were good early, but it's like they got some injuries.
Texas I don't really see that yet. De gram Nivaldi
at the top, but the rest has kind of hit
or miss.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Houston. Houston's just in the division.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
They're in the hunt just because the rest of the
league has played so mediocre. I've never usually through the
course of the season you say, okay, we got a
rough trip. All we've got to go to X, Y
and Z. Boy, those teams are good. I don't know
what teams those are. It's like, you're not going to
play any great teams, and you're not going to play
any terrible teams. You're just going to play teams that
(19:51):
are just like you, right in the middle, fighting to
be around five hundred. So, I don't know, it's been
a weird year. I can't see Seattle. I think year ago,
if I'm not mistaken, I think Seattle had forty nine
wins at this point at the ninety four four game one,
and they ended up they win. They ended up winning
ninety plus going to the postseason, you know, one game
away from going to the World Series. I think this
(20:14):
group of people, this this this roster that's put together,
is more than capable of doing that in the second half,
especially with with the American League being as mediocre as
it is this year.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Great stuff.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Hope you're right.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Thanks Boonie, you got it. Thank you you bet Brett
Boone
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Back after this on ninety three point three KJRFM,
Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of
Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R FM. It's
time for our weekly conversation with former Mariners all star
Brett Boone, brought to you by Venue Kings. Visit venue
Kings dot com for all your ticket needs. Now with Booney,
here's Softian Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You gotta be the best open we've got for a
guess right into his name, So good, So good, Andres
isn't old enough to remember. This was his walk up song,
So good, Booney? How you doing man?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
What's happening? Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Man? Well, we're actually talking a lot more soccer on
the air than we normally do. That's for damn sure.
Did you I just saw the new numbers at fifty million?
Watch that game between the US and Belgium. Were you
one of them?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
You know what?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I tuned in the second half. It's it's that's a
tough watch for me, soccer. I'm not a soccer guy,
you know, it's I did learn, man. They like to
flop out there on the soccer field. They liked to
go down like they got hit by a cannon and
then five secondary They're fine, They're fine. I'll tell you
(01:13):
grow I grow grew up on the East Coast, and
when I was a kid, I played soccer. You know,
that's back when we played basketball. If you played basketball
one season baseball, then you played football or soccer. Well,
I was a soccer All my buddies played football and
I played soccer, and I loved it. It was it
was probably it might have been my favorite sport over baseball.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
And I kind of got pushed around about buddies in
the at school, my buddies that I hung with, and
they're like, oh, you're a wools you're playing soccer. And
they kind of kind of guilted me into playing football.
And then I started paying playing pee wee football and
I always thought, man, I wish I would have kept
playing soccer.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I loved it. That big said, I have a tough
time watching it. I guts.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Yeah. Well, we were actually talking about that, the kind
of culture of of soccer, and and I distinguished Booney
for this purposes of this discussion. The difference between flopping,
because we see that in basketball that's trying to simulate
that you you got hit when you didn't. I'm distinguishing
that from the actual laying on the ground and writhing
(02:18):
in pain that you alluded to. And I'm curious from
the from a baseball perspective, how does that get policed?
Maybe early on when you're a kid, you know, you
you take a ball off the you know, the tape
of the bat out coach, my my handsting, or or
or you know, you get hitting the in the knee
or the elbow with an inside pitcher or something like like.
(02:39):
Just talk about how baseball because I don't see that
writhing from baseball very often. Obviously, if you take one
hundred mile an hour at the wrist and you break
your hand, you know, we've seen some guys that, but
as a general rule these there seems to be a
toughness culture that baseball is not going to allow you
to roll around like a baby. Just maybe talk about that,
(03:02):
how that that comes into being in the culture in
the sport of baseball.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah, it's kind of a thing, you know, rub some
dirt on it, let's go. I don't want to say
it didn't hurt that much, you know, it's that type
of attitude I think that the baseball community has. That
being said, we're not even close to as tough as
the hockey guys. These hockey guys are at a different level,
and they're my favorite athletes, you know, and all the
years and activities off the field and events that we attend,
(03:29):
I always was drawn to the hockey guys because they
just don't.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Give a rip.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
They go out, you know, they get they get cut open,
they'll sew themselves together on it in the in the
on the side of the rink and be playing by
the end of the game. And that doesn't even go
back in the day where.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You just get your teeth knocked out. That's all right.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I could play, I could play the third period. So
a level of toughness in hockey I don't think we
can match. But yeah, in baseball it is. I I'll
tell you I used to and this is before replay.
It's a different ballgame now because of all the replace
so you can't kind of fake anything. But if I
had an O two count and that ball appeared to
(04:09):
graze my uniform, oh, I'd sell it. I'd sell it
and I'd go down. And even if it didn't hit me,
because I'm like, I get out of this two count,
I'd get the first base and do something because I'm
probably not going to get hit. Also another thing I
used to do with my teammates used to look at
me because it wasn't my character to really when I
got hurt to behave like that. But if I could
(04:30):
get hit by a pitch inside, I would sell. I'd
go down like a ton of bricks and just pretend
like I just it hit me in the worst spot
you could get hit, and I'd always be kind of
looking up under my helmet rim to see if that
pitcher was feeling sorry for me.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
That was my goal.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
If I can get him to feel bad that he
hit me and he hurt me, I got him set
up for the next bat. What did I just do?
I just eliminated fastball in. Now I can hang out
over that plate. I know, you pull the soccer saw
or something.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
He's not coming in. He's not coming in. He's not
coming in.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
So, uh yeah, I don't know how we I know
that story was a little long for the question, but
it's uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I just think it's kind of a known thing from.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
When you're a little when you're a little league, and
it's like when you get hit, Yeah, come on, come on, Johnny,
it didn't hurt that much.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Rubs and dirt on it. Let's go.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
So I think that's just kind of the culture in
baseball as all.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, Brett, you use the term tough watch to describe
the soccer game. I will use the same term to
describe what the hell we just watched the last three
days in Miami from the Seattle Mariners, and in particular
just the attention to detail stuff. And you put it
really succinctly in the last hour. I mean, you had
you had three bonehead situations in three successive games. You've
(05:52):
got West and Wilson running behind a ground ball that's
going between second and third and he gets thrown out
a third, you get cold in extra innings, you get
Cole Young on the last pitch of the game not
challenging and having two challenges. And then yesterday you got
Colt Emerson not stepping on second base so he doesn't
turn a double play that would get you out of
the inning and end up giving up runs. So what
(06:14):
what's going on here? What's the common denominator for all
this slop?
Speaker 4 (06:19):
You know what, if I knew, I'd probably called Danny
and tell them, hey, I know what's wrong with you. No,
that being said, it seems like when you're going, when
you're going, you're not going. Well, things like that happen.
Now it's different, you know. For me, it's it's like,
let's let's take them individually. Let's take the called third strike.
(06:39):
We're living in a new era. This is the first
year for these challenges. And these guys, these current players, yeah,
they were almost halfway, so they've got some experience. They
know when to challenge when not to. But I wonder
unless you can actually, you know, you go and get
in the box and you are an actual player who
(06:59):
knows it goes through your mind, years and years of
doing it one way. Then oh, all of a sudden,
I have a challenge. Oh yeah, I forgot the challenge.
And by the way, you got to challenge it in
like two seconds. The pitch too young, just because I
wasn't watching intensely. I was kind of in the room
doing one thing in and out of the room. I
saw the pitch. I glanced at it. I said, that's
a nasty pitch right there, because in my generation, before
(07:21):
the white box, before the challenges, that was a great pitch,
great located pitch. Now you put the box in there
and all of a sudden we get really, we're all experts.
We know exactly what the ball is, exactly what a strike,
sais strike is that being said, the current players, they
know what a ball is, they know what a strike is.
I don't know if he went into that inning thinking, Okay,
(07:43):
we've got two challenges. I don't know what they're doing
because I'm not in the dugout this year, so I
don't know what the overall strategy is. When to challenge,
when not to Is it an emotional challenge? Is it
not an emotional challenge? But I do think at the
midway point of this new system, even though it's new
for everybody, people are still learning. At going into that inning,
you know, hey, guys, as a group, I would think
(08:05):
this is what we would do. Get together as an offensive,
you to go, hey, it's the ninth we got two challenges.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Let's make them count.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
But just remember we have too, so everybody's kind of
on the same page. If you're you know, one through
five that inning, we all know. So if there is
a close one, you can do that. And I just
think it's one of those things you get caught up
in the emotion you're grinding out the bat what it
appeared to the naked eye for me just watching the game.
If the box isn't up there, it was a money pitch.
It's just a it's a bullet strike on the outside corner.
(08:35):
Now after further review, it's not. But I just don't know.
If you get caught up in the motions, you're grinding
so hard in the bat, you forget. I don't know
what that was. But yes, if you're if you're prepared
for that, yeah, that's that's a challenge situation to step
in on the base. Another thing I never had to
deal with. I needed to fake like I stepped on
the base because the guys are trying to knock me
(08:55):
in a left field.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Now they have to slide in.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Now that you have to be on the base, Now
that you have to physically tag the runner, it's a
different world. So when I used to train to turn
double plays, I used to train around the back and
as long as I gave you the illusion and I
was very close to the bag, they were out every
time with that umpire because I had to get up
in the air and get out of the way. Nowadays
(09:18):
it is like you said, you have to be attached
to that base when you have the So the double
play is different for me, and I grew up in
an era where I've never played where I had to
physically be anchored to that bag when I made the transition.
So that's a unique one to me being a modern
day player. Those are the rules. Things like that can't happen,
(09:39):
And it just seems like when things are going bad,
things go bad, and things like that happen every day.
And as people watching, as people in the media, were
going to be extra critical when let's be honest, this
team is just not living up to the expectations and
what we thought they were going to be to start
the season.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Red Boon with this and Brett, I want to just
kind of drill down one more question on that the
mechanisms of of the of the A B s because
you said, okay, uh, you know, Wilson, Danny should have said, hey,
remember now we got two challenges left.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
But well, not necessarily Danny, the players as a whole
job as hitters.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, you think it's a player's job.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Okay, what about is there something that the the on
the guy on deck can Can there be some code?
I was kind of extrapolating certain codes we had in football,
and I said, you know, just an animal that begins
with C for challenge, you know, cheetah, cheetah. You know,
like like and the players you know over the course
of the season that there's a certain trigger where it's
(10:40):
like boom and you just, you know, reflexively just tap
your hat, you know, like like like there's a there's
a a mechanism in case we forget that this is
the backup because we can't. I mean, hell, there's two
damn challenges there, and got Naylor on third base. You know,
he just worked, you know, you know if he challenge
that is clearly a ball, it's a three to two count.
(11:02):
He got a chance to run into something and tie
the game in the ninth inning. So I just feel like, man,
there's got to be something more than just what you described,
or am I being unrealistic about.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Well, well, I don't think as far as as first
of all, they give you. I mean I've seen guys
tap their helmet within three seconds and they don't honor
it because he's got to do it right now. He
doesn't want to be able to get any signs from
anybody else that might be seeing what maybe he didn't see.
Now as a hitter, you're by far at all times.
(11:34):
If you're on second base, it doesn't matter. You're always
going to have the best idea of what is a
ball and what is a strike. I think you just
have to because of the new rule. I think that's
one more checkpoint you have to go through and just
be mindful, be mindful where we're at in the game.
I always say, play to the scoreboard, play to what
score it is. And I think now with these challenges,
(11:58):
if you know, going in in a tight game in
the ninth inning, you know you got two challenges, and
you're watching, you know, if one of your teammates uses
another challenge or not, you know you got two. So
when push comes to shove and the game's on the line,
you've got to be aware of that. Even though it's
a new rule, it's a rule that's in there, and
you've had half a season now to kind of get
used to it, so you've got to be more aware.
I went back and I re loooked at that at
(12:20):
that pitch as well. Still, I thought it was a
great pitch just from the naked eye for me sitting
on the couch. But I'm used to do, you know,
checking that out my whole life. We used to we
do it by sight until this new ABS system comes out.
But the look on Young's face as he's walking back
to the dugout was like a I don't know if
that was strike, but we don't have any challenges left.
(12:41):
It's almost like he didn't know he had two challenges.
That's what I read from the look on his face.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
No question about it, and you just you just can't
have that. And he's he's a young player, as is Cold,
as is Colt Emerson who made the mistake on the
on the bag there. And let's let's talk a little
bit about Colt Emerson because we were going over his
month by month splits, and I mean, he's on from
eight fifties ops to high six hundreds ops. Now he's
in the three hundreds in the month of July. Smallest
(13:07):
sample size, just seven games. But at what point should
we be concerned that, Okay, Colt made the adjustment to
big league pitching really quickly. But now big league pitchers
have made the adjustment to that adjustment.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Absolutely, because I went through it. We all go through it,
you know, unless unless you're you're a freak of nature.
Unless you're a Mike Trout, you're a Ken Griffy junior.
It seems like those guys just come to the big
leagues and never break stride. But the rest of us,
normal people, we do have to adjust it. And I
remember early on in my career, you know, I came
up and I struggled, and I made an adjustment. And now,
(13:41):
like you said, they started making the adjustment back to me.
Now I've got to counter their adjustment. This kid is
twenty years old. I see us set up. I see
his makeup from what I you know, from what I
vision on the outside.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I don't know Colt at all.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
He's got seven home runs as at twenty year old
in the big leagues with limited at bats. Now, yes,
he's hitting. I think he's back to two oh six.
And I remember when he came up and everybody was, well,
Crawford's got to move to third and this and that.
I think this guy's the future. I think he's gonna
have a great career to be twenty and playing at
(14:17):
the big league level. I was a junior in college, right,
So the fact that he's playing at the big league level,
I'm always in awe of the guys that can get
to the big leagues and handle it at such an
early age. But you've got to know it doesn't matter
how talented you are if you're gonna make that switch.
And they did make the switch. They inserted him at shortstop.
He's probably to be there for the next ten years,
and put in Crawford to third. You have to be
(14:39):
pretty much knowing that he's twenty, he's gonna struggle, and
by us making this switch right now, we're saying we're
gonna live with whatever happens now biggests to a point
where he struggles too much, Crawford could just slide back.
Donovan will be back, maybe before August.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
We'll see.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
It seems like he's been out a long time now.
But I think right now, now they've made that commitment,
they're going to stick with it for a while.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And I think this kid's.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Talent enough, he's going to figure it out and he's
gonna have a he's gonna have a rally in the
second half. But being twenty doing what he's doing, it's
it's for a guy like me that got there when
I was twenty two to twenty three and it was
hard enough Dan to be twenty. I tip my cap
because not too many people can do that.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Brett Boone with us a final a couple of minutes here,
and Brett, I'm not going to ask you about Dan Wilson,
your team. Everybody loves Dan Wilson, right, So I'm going
to ask you more of a hypothetical team that was
projected to be, you know, at her near the top
of the league, whatever it's American or National League, and
then coming into the All Star Game likely to be
(15:43):
maybe a game over or a game under five hundred,
so clearly underachieving by any reasonable standards. At what point,
and there's nobody who's understanding third generation baseball guy like
Brett Boone, there's nobody better to ask this question, at
what point is it reasonable to say, you know what,
(16:04):
we should make a change it? Man, I'm not talking
about Dan Wilson. I'm talking about this hypothetical team that
the manager something's got to be shaken up. We got
to go in another direction. Is it coming out of
the is it is it by uh by trading deadline?
If things aren't turned around, like like, how much of
a hot sheet, hot seat should this this hypothetical manager.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Be on, Well, I think now you've got you know,
three years ago you could you could use the excuse of, hey,
that's a young team. There's not much experience on the team.
There's growing pains. You don't expect them to behave like
mature veteran guys. You don't have that anymore. You've got
you've got cal Rawley, who's coming off sixty homers. You've
(16:49):
got to You've got a Julio that's been in the
big leagues now for four or five years. You've got it,
a ros Aine, a ton of postseason You've got these
young pitchers and a very talented pitching star. They've all
got three and four years under their belt. So we're
not at a point where we can make excuses for
being youthful and inexperienced.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
No, we're pretty experienced now.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
As far as the manager and Danny, you know, certain
guys you know kind of pop on your radar and
you think, man, you know, are they going to make
a change of this particular situation. From what I've seen
through all my travels through the years and all the
teams I've played for, all the Skippers I played for,
there was one time that I thought a manager change
is necessary in this situation.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
The rest of the.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Time, these players we come to the ballpark and we play,
and the last thing we ever think about is, oh,
that's the manager's fault. No, it's our fault. The onus
is always on us.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Now.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
If it continues to go the wrong way, somebody's got
to take the fall for it. Example, Thompson in Philadelphia,
he got fire from all accounts, and I've never met Thompson.
From all accounts, players really were fond of him. People
in the organization, guys played with him, Guys that were
on a staff, they were very fond of Thompson, and
all of a sudden they just thought a change needed
(18:06):
to be made because they thought this Philly team is
too talented to continue to go the way they were.
So they breakmatically takes over it. All of a sudden,
they start to play a little bit better. Sometimes something
like that rallies the players to say, it wakes them up,
say we got to start playing up to our capabilities.
I rarely think it's the manager, and I don't think
(18:27):
in Seattle right now, Danny's would per se be on
the hot seat. Yes, underachieving a lot, especially by the
way I had it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
At the beginning of the year.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I thought, Wow, Seattle's gonna just dominate this division. And
they're back and forth and they're five hundred, just like
the rest of the American League. The American League, to me,
this year is unbelievable. I still can't get over it.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
But I think I don't think Danny's on the hot seat.
I think it's going to second half.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
I still think I said this a few weeks ago, Dicky,
remember this team. I've never seen this talent of a
team struggle for an entire year. I've seen them struggle,
but on paper, especially with the pitching. I've been going
through the American League, which is so mediocre this year.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
National League far superior.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
But I look at the teams that could really challenge
the Seattle Mariners, and it's Tampa Bay seems to be
a really good team this year. The Yankees in and out.
They were good early, but it's like they got some injuries.
Texas I don't really see that yet. De gram Nivaldi
at the top, but the rest has kind of hit
or miss.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Houston. Houston's just in the division.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
They're in the hunt just because the rest of the
league has played so mediocre. I've never usually through the
course of the season you say, okay, we got a
rough trip. All we've got to go to X, Y
and Z. Boy, those teams are good. I don't know
what teams those are. It's like, you're not going to
play any great teams, and you're not going to play
any terrible teams. You're just going to play teams that
(19:51):
are just like you, right in the middle, fighting to
be around five hundred. So, I don't know, it's been
a weird year. I can't see Seattle. I think year ago,
if I'm not mistaken, I think Seattle had forty nine
wins at this point at the ninety four four game one,
and they ended up they win. They ended up winning
ninety plus going to the postseason, you know, one game
away from going to the World Series. I think this
(20:14):
group of people, this this this roster that's put together,
is more than capable of doing that in the second half,
especially with with the American League being as mediocre as
it is this year.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Great stuff.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Hope you're right.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Thanks Boonie, you got it. Thank you you bet Brett
Boone
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Back after this on ninety three point three KJRFM,
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