April 12, 2024 • 16 mins
Seattle Mariners former All Star Bret Boone joins Dick Fain and Hugh Millen to talk about golf with The Masters ongoing, the M’s 5-8 start and coming off a big win in Toronto yesterday, concerns with the pitching staff and top guys, plus Julio’s struggles.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Coming to you live from our ElliotAvenue studios of Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ R FM. It's timefor our weekly conversation with former Mariners all
star Bret Boone, brought to youby Venue Kings. Visit venue Kings dot
com for all your ticket needs.Now with Boonie, here's Softian Dick.
(00:22):
Something tells me that Boonie's got atleast a master's pool, if not some
outright wagers on the masters. WouldI be correct about that? Booneye,
No English, no Englades. It'snot illegal. You know you can gamble
(00:43):
these days, buddy of mine.You know, I've got a little group
of buddies of mine that we youknow, we love the game, and
yeah, we have some friendly wagers. But you can't just pick who you
want. Okay, we play itstraight up, so you get to pick
players that are evenly matched for itthat you can't take a one hundred and
(01:06):
fiftieth ranked player against Scheffler. Okay, So who determines who's matched up with
who? Like? Is there somebodyin your in your group that will say,
Okay, we're gonna rap match Schefflerup with Rory. We're gonna match
yrroll Hatten up. We go straightto the We go straight to the betting
sheet in Vegas, and then youat any time can back out say I
(01:29):
don't like that matchup, but mostof the time just go ahead, go
ahead, So you go ahead,no Fisher thought, I apologize fish your
thought. I put it this way. I need Shoffley to do well.
Yeah, yeah, me too,And he's not doing well so far he's
doing right. I think he's soBrett. When you play with your baseball
(01:53):
buddies, I mean all of us, when we go out, we RaSE
each other about how far we canhit it off the te right. I
would imagine you small guys good becauseI mean, you know how to hit
a swing and hit a ball,right, is it? Do you think
there's extra sauce in your ball?Busting with all that? And I mean,
does everybody just crush it and itbecomes a long drive contest? That
doesn't like take us into a windowof what it's like when four major leaguers
(02:15):
get a tea time and go outand play a team. Now, I
think when we were younger, youknow, it'd always be like, you
know, how's how's the shot goingto be? From there, you know
when you drive way by him,but I think it'll be older. It's
just kind of you know, weall hit it. We all hit it
a decent decent ways, and it'snot a matter of, oh, I
(02:36):
out drove you. It's almost embarrassingif you were to point that out,
unless it's you know, obvious thatsomebody's dropping off. So it's more around
the greens now. And to behonest, I'm at the I'm at the
other end of the spectrum. I'musually the worst player in the force.
You know, I've I've always beenaround a four or five handicap. Right
now, I'm like an eight.So I'm kind of the worst guy,
(02:57):
but I'm getting the most shots there. You go, Yeah, you're probably
winning the most money too because yougot there. You got the highest highest
antycap. Well, Brett, youknow, we haven't reached the point yet
where we don't talk about the Marinersin April with you. Remember, was
it was that last year or theyear before that we went the entire before
it was really bad last year.We kind of joked about it, but
I looked, I looked back atmy notes and a year ago, uh,
(03:21):
after eleven games they were four,four and seven a year or this
year, after eleven games they werefour and seven. Now they're five and
eight, right, So, uh, I look at this division and I'm
just not worry. I mean,the Astros got off to a dreadful start,
Texas is missing some some guys downfor Texas. So you know,
it's just kind of one of thoseyears where I think, if any any
(03:44):
year, you still go across theboard. Mariners are still very challenged offensively.
They went out and they tried toput more contact in the lineup.
Well, they're leading the league instrikeouts. Again, it's a two week
sample, it's not a big deal. Look across division and I don't I
think the Angles are off to apretty good start. I don't think we
have to worry about them in thein the marathon, the A's, I
(04:06):
don't think you have to worry aboutit. It's gonna be the same three
culprits. It's gonna be Texas,it's gonna be Houston, and it's gonna
be the Mariners. I look atthose three. Houston's very challenged with their
starting rotation with now starting off theyear with Berlander out of the mix,
and now Valdez going down, that'sbig for them. So that's gonna be
(04:27):
a challenge for them. Uh deGram and Schurzer if they come back,
if they come back one hundred percent, they're on the sidelines with Texas,
so their challenge. They didn't gettheir their their big guy Montgomery, who
pitched pitched phenomenally in the playoffs inthe World Series last year. He's moved
on to Arizona. So I thinkif there's any any year this is this
is a chance with this pitching staff, and I know early Castillo's outings,
(04:51):
he has not been pitching like anumber one, close to a seven.
Arnie Kirby uncharacteristically, I was watchinghim when he gave up those eight runs.
I think it was his worst outingever and that was two outings ago.
Then he follows it up with theone recently. Little concerning, but
it's two rough outings in a row. Kirby's not used to that. We're
not used to seeing that. Gilbertrighted the ship on Wednesday, pitch to
(05:14):
Jim, gave up the solo shotto Bladdie. Miller's been really good and
you're listening WU when's wu coming back? Hopefully sooner than later. Hancocks have
a bit of a problem and inthe bullpen, it'll be nice to know
when Brash is going to be back. But I think in the meantime Stannic
was a really good pickup for themto add some stability to that bullpen and
(05:34):
a guy that's been with Houston andknows what that winning culture, like Brett.
They got that win yesterday, andyou know it's so early to say
it's a big win, but tellus from a psychological standpoint in the clubhouse
and on a flight back, particularlyon a getaway day, when you've got
a day off next, how muchdoes getting a win like that to at
(05:56):
least salvage the last game of aroad trip do for you? Guys?
No, it's huge. And eventhough it's only two weeks in, you
just lost three in a row,that would have been four in a row
and going in to an off day, so that gives you an extra day
to think about it. To getthat win just kind of right at the
ship a little bit, everybody cankind of take a deep breath, say,
all right, at least we gotout of there where the win.
We'll start fresh on Friday after ourday off on Thursday, So I think
(06:19):
I think that was big, andit was big Gilbert coming up with that
performance, you know, went intothe eighth inning. We don't see that
too often in today's game. SoI think that was a big sigh of
relief for them. The thing aboutthe Mariners that I look at is that
starting rotation. Most teams have thatone guy, you know, as a
(06:39):
position player. I come to theballpark and I'd say, so and so's
pitching a day. Oh, today'sa win day. Okay. The Mariners
potentially have at least four of thoseguys if they get it rolling Castillo at
any time, when he gets ona roll and he's pitching his game,
he's a stopper. He can stopa losing streak. Kirby same thing,
Gilbert saying thing Miller at times,wu at times. So I think that
(07:03):
marriage just have more depth in thatstarting rotation than all the other teams,
especially in this division. Well,you mentioned how Gilbert obviously he put a
stop to the losing streak. Butyou know, we do a radio show
here in KGr with Mike Holmgren.He's on a lot of the shows and
he uses a term called affect todescribing the demeanor and the outward projection of
(07:27):
quarterbacks, and he thinks it's important. Right, it seems like Kirby was,
you know, of late. He'skind of he hadn't had, in
Mike Holmgren's terms, the right affect. So I'm curious, a do you
do you notice that? Do yousee that? And does it have any
effect on the rest of the ballclub when you see a picture of his
caliber and he's got that affect whenthings aren't going well, you're talking like
(07:54):
having a little bit of in amodern day term would be called a swag
or a demeanor that give me theball out of my way type type.
Well, that would be an impositive sense, Boody, I said,
I think what he says is thatas a negative effect would be right,
right? Was me you know oryou know, I'm not things aren't going
as well. My defense isn't asgood that type of an affect, right,
(08:18):
So what you're saying is the completeopposite of that. Robbie Dahas give
me the ball. And I don'tthink Kirby Kirby, he strikes me just
in the small sample size. Andwhen I say small, I mean the
last couple of years watching him,he doesn't seem to me to be that
guy like like a Gilbert Is.Gilbert's kind of has that look on his
(08:39):
face, like give me the ball, he's pissed when he's getting taken out
of the game. Kirby never hasgiven me that impression. And I don't
think it's I don't think it's what'sreally going on in his mind. I
just think it's the way he's built. I think it's his personality. Some
guys, you know, go outand they do their job and they don't
have that give me the ball mentalitylook in their face. I've never seen
Kirby to have that. It's alwaysbeen kind of a more somber demeanor.
(09:03):
And I just think it's something he'sjust going through two rough starts, you
know, because we're so used tocure Kirby being so good at such a
young age. Well, I usedto seeing back to back starts like that.
For a young player that's had aton of success early in his career,
that could be something where, wow, what do I do. I've
never I've never gotten roughed up twogames in a row. You know what
(09:26):
do I do? Well, that'sa learning. That's that's called learning time.
We all go through it. Weall go through long stretches where we
have a lot of success, thenall of a sudden we're hit with some
humble pie and it's the great onesalways find a way to learn from those
opportunities, come back and then geton that horse and do it again.
So the next time you go throughthis, it's not a I'm worried about
(09:48):
it. It's now I remember whenthis happened last time. This is what
I did. I just I gotthrough it and I moved on. I
think this is a learning chance forKirby because he's just not used to it.
I mean, it's pretty cool beingthis deep in his in his big
league career, and this is thefirst time he's really got smoked two games
in a row. Most of us, most of us have been humbled long
before this. Yeah, and Idon't worry about George Kirby. I do.
(10:11):
I do, absolutely take to heartwhat he was saying, though he
doesn't seem like he's got that bulldog. But but I don't think he's I
don't think he's ever had that tome. And that's just my personal feeling
watching him putting my eyes on him, I've never seen him as that guy.
Think that, Yeah, No,I think that hurts the other players.
Is if you're a player and youdon't have that fire on the mound,
(10:35):
does that Does that somehow in anyway adversely affect the other eight players
on the on the field. Idon't think so, because they played with
him long enough they know, Okay, he's not that guy. He doesn't
have that demeanor. But he's areally good big league pitcher and we've seen
him shove time and time again.So you really don't look at it.
I think you look at him morefrom a professional sense. With Kirby's on
(10:58):
the mound today. No, he'snot that guy that's going to be loud
and give you that big, biggerthan life show. He's going to be
that guy that knows he's a professional. He goes about his business, he
has a way about him. That'sjust how he's built. That's his personality.
The bottom line is is he pitchinggood? That's all we care about.
Well, and then you got theguy that's supposed to be the ace
(11:18):
of your staff who failed miserably inhis last two starts of last season,
which kept the Mariners out of theplayoffs, and then he rolls over into
this year and gives you three basicallyidentical performances of five innings and giving up
four runs. So how concerns shouldwe be of a now thirty one year
(11:39):
old pitcher who didn't come through inthe clutch for you last year and is
zero and three this year. Idon't know if concerns the word, but
definitely I'm starting to think in mymind, is this that top of top
of the rotation go to guy whentimes are tough and we really need a
(12:03):
win. Is that the guy thatyou have the ultimate confidence in that we
know, even if he doesn't havehis best stuff, he's gonna put us
in position to win. That mightbe the question. As far as pitching
at this level and being successful.I'm not worried about Castillo in that sense,
but being that top, top ofthe line Verlander type in his heyday,
(12:24):
I've got some question marks about thatwith Castillo at this point. Well,
let's go to the other star onthe team, Julio under two hundred
at one ninety six. Worse yet, he's slugging two sixteen no home runs.
I know you're gonna say, look, he's gonna get hot as a
young kid. He's a superstar.We get that, But it had had
Julio said to you in the offseason. Look, I'm tired of these slow
(12:46):
aprils. I'm gonna listen to you. You're the Bible. Give me something
that I should do different so thatmy April is better. You would say
what, I think, it justcomes with experience. You know, no
guys and great players that I've playedwith that kind of in spring training.
Well, I know my aprils aren'tthat great. Well, you're already self
(13:07):
defeating right there. Just because inthe past they haven't been great doesn't mean
that has to be your moniker.Every year I've had April's where I've had
some pretty good aprils. I've hadsome mediocre aprils, very rarely to to
have a terrible I just figured,if I can get to the end of
April hitting two fifty, few homers, a decent amount of RBIs, which
is what we were judged on backthen average home runs and RBIs, if
(13:31):
I can just get out of April, get out of the cold weather,
and move into May, then I'mgood to go. Just survive in April.
The one thing I think and it'stough because he's so young, and
you forget he's been around so longnow you forget how young he really is
still. I think last year,after that slow start, ended up having
(13:52):
a really great year. I thinkhe put a lot of pressure on himself
his off season. Well, nextyear, if I can get off to
that great start and do what Idid for the rest of the season,
now I'm gonna have an MVP typecaliber year. When you start setting the
expectations instead of just letting it happen, you tend to do this. You
put more pressure, more pressure,more pressure. Now the team's not winning.
(14:15):
Now he feels that if it's hisfault, he's the star and the
team Instead, you just got tolet the game come to you. You
learn that with more experiences as youget deeper into your career. But it's
something that that's very easy to fallin fall into, even for great players,
but especially when you're that young.Well, you make a good point
here about his about his aprils.I didn't realize it was this bad.
(14:35):
But for a guy whose career OPSis way over eight hundred, he's got
a six twenty three ops in Aprilthe last three years. Yeah, and
you. But when you when youhave those aprils and you and you put
too much emphasis, it becomes amental thing like can I really not play
in April? You know? Andand that's something you got to you gotta
(14:56):
find a way. We all haveto fight our way to get over those
hurdles because the game baseball, whyit's so different than every other sport.
It's just there's nowhere to hide.It's it's the game comes to you,
and it comes to you every day, and once in a while you get
this off day, which the Marinershave right now. But for the most
part, it's I got a gametomorrow in the next day and the next
(15:20):
day, and by the way,I'm not feeling good, and guess what,
I got a game the next dayand the next tick. So there's
really nowhere to hide. On theflip side of it, when things are
going good, you're winning ball gamesor swings working man, you're skipping rope
going to the ballpark. So it'sa catch twenty two right now on this
side of the ledger, it's notmuch fun. Brett. Always great to
(15:41):
talk to you. We'll chat withyou next week and let's hope we have
a positive week, you know,and maybe five and two something like that
over the next seven days to talkabout before we chat with you next Thursday.
You got it, guys, Thanksman, appreciate it. Thanks Brett
Moone joining us on ninety three pointthree KJRFM. All right, here's what
we got. I'm up for therest of five o'clock hour. We have
not touched on the Seahawks yet,and they actually yesterday had some press conferences.
(16:06):
We heard from Gino Smith, weheard from Tyler Lockett, we heard
from Jordan Love, we heard fromYuchena Nuosu. So we'll play some of
those cuts for you. We'll gethuge thoughts on those as well. We
still got some masters talk to getto al Kaniski to get to as well
in the six o'clock hour before crackinghockey at six thirty. But speaking of
the Masters, we head to Augustafor a master's update. All right now,
Coming to you live from our ElliotAvenue studios of Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ R FM. It's timefor our weekly conversation with former Mariners all
star Bret Boone, brought to youby Venue Kings. Visit venue Kings dot
com for all your ticket needs.Now with Boonie, here's Softian Dick.
(00:22):
Something tells me that Boonie's got atleast a master's pool, if not some
outright wagers on the masters. WouldI be correct about that? Booneye,
No English, no Englades. It'snot illegal. You know you can gamble
(00:43):
these days, buddy of mine.You know, I've got a little group
of buddies of mine that we youknow, we love the game, and
yeah, we have some friendly wagers. But you can't just pick who you
want. Okay, we play itstraight up, so you get to pick
players that are evenly matched for itthat you can't take a one hundred and
(01:06):
fiftieth ranked player against Scheffler. Okay, So who determines who's matched up with
who? Like? Is there somebodyin your in your group that will say,
Okay, we're gonna rap match Schefflerup with Rory. We're gonna match
yrroll Hatten up. We go straightto the We go straight to the betting
sheet in Vegas, and then youat any time can back out say I
(01:29):
don't like that matchup, but mostof the time just go ahead, go
ahead, So you go ahead,no Fisher thought, I apologize fish your
thought. I put it this way. I need Shoffley to do well.
Yeah, yeah, me too,And he's not doing well so far he's
doing right. I think he's soBrett. When you play with your baseball
(01:53):
buddies, I mean all of us, when we go out, we RaSE
each other about how far we canhit it off the te right. I
would imagine you small guys good becauseI mean, you know how to hit
a swing and hit a ball,right, is it? Do you think
there's extra sauce in your ball?Busting with all that? And I mean,
does everybody just crush it and itbecomes a long drive contest? That
doesn't like take us into a windowof what it's like when four major leaguers
(02:15):
get a tea time and go outand play a team. Now, I
think when we were younger, youknow, it'd always be like, you
know, how's how's the shot goingto be? From there, you know
when you drive way by him,but I think it'll be older. It's
just kind of you know, weall hit it. We all hit it
a decent decent ways, and it'snot a matter of, oh, I
(02:36):
out drove you. It's almost embarrassingif you were to point that out,
unless it's you know, obvious thatsomebody's dropping off. So it's more around
the greens now. And to behonest, I'm at the I'm at the
other end of the spectrum. I'musually the worst player in the force.
You know, I've I've always beenaround a four or five handicap. Right
now, I'm like an eight.So I'm kind of the worst guy,
(02:57):
but I'm getting the most shots there. You go, Yeah, you're probably
winning the most money too because yougot there. You got the highest highest
antycap. Well, Brett, youknow, we haven't reached the point yet
where we don't talk about the Marinersin April with you. Remember, was
it was that last year or theyear before that we went the entire before
it was really bad last year.We kind of joked about it, but
I looked, I looked back atmy notes and a year ago, uh,
(03:21):
after eleven games they were four,four and seven a year or this
year, after eleven games they werefour and seven. Now they're five and
eight, right, So, uh, I look at this division and I'm
just not worry. I mean,the Astros got off to a dreadful start,
Texas is missing some some guys downfor Texas. So you know,
it's just kind of one of thoseyears where I think, if any any
(03:44):
year, you still go across theboard. Mariners are still very challenged offensively.
They went out and they tried toput more contact in the lineup.
Well, they're leading the league instrikeouts. Again, it's a two week
sample, it's not a big deal. Look across division and I don't I
think the Angles are off to apretty good start. I don't think we
have to worry about them in thein the marathon, the A's, I
(04:06):
don't think you have to worry aboutit. It's gonna be the same three
culprits. It's gonna be Texas,it's gonna be Houston, and it's gonna
be the Mariners. I look atthose three. Houston's very challenged with their
starting rotation with now starting off theyear with Berlander out of the mix,
and now Valdez going down, that'sbig for them. So that's gonna be
(04:27):
a challenge for them. Uh deGram and Schurzer if they come back,
if they come back one hundred percent, they're on the sidelines with Texas,
so their challenge. They didn't gettheir their their big guy Montgomery, who
pitched pitched phenomenally in the playoffs inthe World Series last year. He's moved
on to Arizona. So I thinkif there's any any year this is this
is a chance with this pitching staff, and I know early Castillo's outings,
(04:51):
he has not been pitching like anumber one, close to a seven.
Arnie Kirby uncharacteristically, I was watchinghim when he gave up those eight runs.
I think it was his worst outingever and that was two outings ago.
Then he follows it up with theone recently. Little concerning, but
it's two rough outings in a row. Kirby's not used to that. We're
not used to seeing that. Gilbertrighted the ship on Wednesday, pitch to
(05:14):
Jim, gave up the solo shotto Bladdie. Miller's been really good and
you're listening WU when's wu coming back? Hopefully sooner than later. Hancocks have
a bit of a problem and inthe bullpen, it'll be nice to know
when Brash is going to be back. But I think in the meantime Stannic
was a really good pickup for themto add some stability to that bullpen and
(05:34):
a guy that's been with Houston andknows what that winning culture, like Brett.
They got that win yesterday, andyou know it's so early to say
it's a big win, but tellus from a psychological standpoint in the clubhouse
and on a flight back, particularlyon a getaway day, when you've got
a day off next, how muchdoes getting a win like that to at
(05:56):
least salvage the last game of aroad trip do for you? Guys?
No, it's huge. And eventhough it's only two weeks in, you
just lost three in a row,that would have been four in a row
and going in to an off day, so that gives you an extra day
to think about it. To getthat win just kind of right at the
ship a little bit, everybody cankind of take a deep breath, say,
all right, at least we gotout of there where the win.
We'll start fresh on Friday after ourday off on Thursday, So I think
(06:19):
I think that was big, andit was big Gilbert coming up with that
performance, you know, went intothe eighth inning. We don't see that
too often in today's game. SoI think that was a big sigh of
relief for them. The thing aboutthe Mariners that I look at is that
starting rotation. Most teams have thatone guy, you know, as a
(06:39):
position player. I come to theballpark and I'd say, so and so's
pitching a day. Oh, today'sa win day. Okay. The Mariners
potentially have at least four of thoseguys if they get it rolling Castillo at
any time, when he gets ona roll and he's pitching his game,
he's a stopper. He can stopa losing streak. Kirby same thing,
Gilbert saying thing Miller at times,wu at times. So I think that
(07:03):
marriage just have more depth in thatstarting rotation than all the other teams,
especially in this division. Well,you mentioned how Gilbert obviously he put a
stop to the losing streak. Butyou know, we do a radio show
here in KGr with Mike Holmgren.He's on a lot of the shows and
he uses a term called affect todescribing the demeanor and the outward projection of
(07:27):
quarterbacks, and he thinks it's important. Right, it seems like Kirby was,
you know, of late. He'skind of he hadn't had, in
Mike Holmgren's terms, the right affect. So I'm curious, a do you
do you notice that? Do yousee that? And does it have any
effect on the rest of the ballclub when you see a picture of his
caliber and he's got that affect whenthings aren't going well, you're talking like
(07:54):
having a little bit of in amodern day term would be called a swag
or a demeanor that give me theball out of my way type type.
Well, that would be an impositive sense, Boody, I said,
I think what he says is thatas a negative effect would be right,
right? Was me you know oryou know, I'm not things aren't going
as well. My defense isn't asgood that type of an affect, right,
(08:18):
So what you're saying is the completeopposite of that. Robbie Dahas give
me the ball. And I don'tthink Kirby Kirby, he strikes me just
in the small sample size. Andwhen I say small, I mean the
last couple of years watching him,he doesn't seem to me to be that
guy like like a Gilbert Is.Gilbert's kind of has that look on his
(08:39):
face, like give me the ball, he's pissed when he's getting taken out
of the game. Kirby never hasgiven me that impression. And I don't
think it's I don't think it's what'sreally going on in his mind. I
just think it's the way he's built. I think it's his personality. Some
guys, you know, go outand they do their job and they don't
have that give me the ball mentalitylook in their face. I've never seen
Kirby to have that. It's alwaysbeen kind of a more somber demeanor.
(09:03):
And I just think it's something he'sjust going through two rough starts, you
know, because we're so used tocure Kirby being so good at such a
young age. Well, I usedto seeing back to back starts like that.
For a young player that's had aton of success early in his career,
that could be something where, wow, what do I do. I've
never I've never gotten roughed up twogames in a row. You know what
(09:26):
do I do? Well, that'sa learning. That's that's called learning time.
We all go through it. Weall go through long stretches where we
have a lot of success, thenall of a sudden we're hit with some
humble pie and it's the great onesalways find a way to learn from those
opportunities, come back and then geton that horse and do it again.
So the next time you go throughthis, it's not a I'm worried about
(09:48):
it. It's now I remember whenthis happened last time. This is what
I did. I just I gotthrough it and I moved on. I
think this is a learning chance forKirby because he's just not used to it.
I mean, it's pretty cool beingthis deep in his in his big
league career, and this is thefirst time he's really got smoked two games
in a row. Most of us, most of us have been humbled long
before this. Yeah, and Idon't worry about George Kirby. I do.
(10:11):
I do, absolutely take to heartwhat he was saying, though he
doesn't seem like he's got that bulldog. But but I don't think he's I
don't think he's ever had that tome. And that's just my personal feeling
watching him putting my eyes on him, I've never seen him as that guy.
Think that, Yeah, No,I think that hurts the other players.
Is if you're a player and youdon't have that fire on the mound,
(10:35):
does that Does that somehow in anyway adversely affect the other eight players
on the on the field. Idon't think so, because they played with
him long enough they know, Okay, he's not that guy. He doesn't
have that demeanor. But he's areally good big league pitcher and we've seen
him shove time and time again.So you really don't look at it.
I think you look at him morefrom a professional sense. With Kirby's on
(10:58):
the mound today. No, he'snot that guy that's going to be loud
and give you that big, biggerthan life show. He's going to be
that guy that knows he's a professional. He goes about his business, he
has a way about him. That'sjust how he's built. That's his personality.
The bottom line is is he pitchinggood? That's all we care about.
Well, and then you got theguy that's supposed to be the ace
(11:18):
of your staff who failed miserably inhis last two starts of last season,
which kept the Mariners out of theplayoffs, and then he rolls over into
this year and gives you three basicallyidentical performances of five innings and giving up
four runs. So how concerns shouldwe be of a now thirty one year
(11:39):
old pitcher who didn't come through inthe clutch for you last year and is
zero and three this year. Idon't know if concerns the word, but
definitely I'm starting to think in mymind, is this that top of top
of the rotation go to guy whentimes are tough and we really need a
(12:03):
win. Is that the guy thatyou have the ultimate confidence in that we
know, even if he doesn't havehis best stuff, he's gonna put us
in position to win. That mightbe the question. As far as pitching
at this level and being successful.I'm not worried about Castillo in that sense,
but being that top, top ofthe line Verlander type in his heyday,
(12:24):
I've got some question marks about thatwith Castillo at this point. Well,
let's go to the other star onthe team, Julio under two hundred
at one ninety six. Worse yet, he's slugging two sixteen no home runs.
I know you're gonna say, look, he's gonna get hot as a
young kid. He's a superstar.We get that, But it had had
Julio said to you in the offseason. Look, I'm tired of these slow
(12:46):
aprils. I'm gonna listen to you. You're the Bible. Give me something
that I should do different so thatmy April is better. You would say
what, I think, it justcomes with experience. You know, no
guys and great players that I've playedwith that kind of in spring training.
Well, I know my aprils aren'tthat great. Well, you're already self
(13:07):
defeating right there. Just because inthe past they haven't been great doesn't mean
that has to be your moniker.Every year I've had April's where I've had
some pretty good aprils. I've hadsome mediocre aprils, very rarely to to
have a terrible I just figured,if I can get to the end of
April hitting two fifty, few homers, a decent amount of RBIs, which
is what we were judged on backthen average home runs and RBIs, if
(13:31):
I can just get out of April, get out of the cold weather,
and move into May, then I'mgood to go. Just survive in April.
The one thing I think and it'stough because he's so young, and
you forget he's been around so longnow you forget how young he really is
still. I think last year,after that slow start, ended up having
(13:52):
a really great year. I thinkhe put a lot of pressure on himself
his off season. Well, nextyear, if I can get off to
that great start and do what Idid for the rest of the season,
now I'm gonna have an MVP typecaliber year. When you start setting the
expectations instead of just letting it happen, you tend to do this. You
put more pressure, more pressure,more pressure. Now the team's not winning.
(14:15):
Now he feels that if it's hisfault, he's the star and the
team Instead, you just got tolet the game come to you. You
learn that with more experiences as youget deeper into your career. But it's
something that that's very easy to fallin fall into, even for great players,
but especially when you're that young.Well, you make a good point
here about his about his aprils.I didn't realize it was this bad.
(14:35):
But for a guy whose career OPSis way over eight hundred, he's got
a six twenty three ops in Aprilthe last three years. Yeah, and
you. But when you when youhave those aprils and you and you put
too much emphasis, it becomes amental thing like can I really not play
in April? You know? Andand that's something you got to you gotta
(14:56):
find a way. We all haveto fight our way to get over those
hurdles because the game baseball, whyit's so different than every other sport.
It's just there's nowhere to hide.It's it's the game comes to you,
and it comes to you every day, and once in a while you get
this off day, which the Marinershave right now. But for the most
part, it's I got a gametomorrow in the next day and the next
(15:20):
day, and by the way,I'm not feeling good, and guess what,
I got a game the next dayand the next tick. So there's
really nowhere to hide. On theflip side of it, when things are
going good, you're winning ball gamesor swings working man, you're skipping rope
going to the ballpark. So it'sa catch twenty two right now on this
side of the ledger, it's notmuch fun. Brett. Always great to
(15:41):
talk to you. We'll chat withyou next week and let's hope we have
a positive week, you know,and maybe five and two something like that
over the next seven days to talkabout before we chat with you next Thursday.
You got it, guys, Thanksman, appreciate it. Thanks Brett
Moone joining us on ninety three pointthree KJRFM. All right, here's what
we got. I'm up for therest of five o'clock hour. We have
not touched on the Seahawks yet,and they actually yesterday had some press conferences.
(16:06):
We heard from Gino Smith, weheard from Tyler Lockett, we heard
from Jordan Love, we heard fromYuchena Nuosu. So we'll play some of
those cuts for you. We'll gethuge thoughts on those as well. We
still got some masters talk to getto al Kaniski to get to as well
in the six o'clock hour before crackinghockey at six thirty. But speaking of
the Masters, we head to Augustafor a master's update. All right now,
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