Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Coming to you live from the Elliott Avenue studios of
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. This is our
weekly visit with former Mariners outfielders steven Susa Junior, powered
by Taco Time. For all your favorites and to order
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(00:22):
Google Play Store. Taco Time a Pacific Northwest favorite since
nineteen sixty two. Now with steven Susa Junior, here's SOFTI
and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
All right, boys and girls, back here on a Monday
night from the Emerald a Queen Casinos stop by for
Hawks and Lions. But what do you say we put
a bow on this turt sandwich known as the twenty
twenty four Mariner baseball season. I cannot think of a
better person to talk about that turn of a sandwich
than our buddy steven Susa Junior. Courtesy of our pals
(00:52):
at Taco Time.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
How are you, man, I'm doing great. Sad to not
sim in, but doing great. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, I mean this is obviously what a lot of
us have been fearing for a long time, is that
they were going to simply put waste the greatest rotation
ever in franchise history, and they've done that eighty five
and seventy seven, finishing technically two games behind Kansas City
with a tiebreaker, but one game in the standings. You
think about that eight to nothing lead they blew at
(01:19):
Kaufman Stadium. Over the summer, they protect that lead, and
the Mariners are in the playoffs starting this week. Man,
what are your emotions as we sit here for the
forty third time in forty eight years with a team
that's home for the holidays.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Pal, Yeah, I mean you hit it on the head right.
There's so many moments where you could have, should have
would that it's really disappointing to see them fall just
one game short. You know again, I mean this is
saw big state earlier today that you know, it's been
eight games basically over the last five years that you
(01:52):
know they've missed the playoffs, and it's heartbreaking to get
that close constantly, and especially you know, these guys had
a ten game lead early on in the year where
we you know, you're starting to talking about World Series
bound with the how big it was, and then you know,
to see the collapse happen and the firing. There's a
(02:12):
lot of emotions for these guys. But you know, I
think you can have some hope with Dan at the
helm and Edgar going forward that you know, they're definitely
in a better position than when they started this year.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
I'm wondering what John Stanton is seeing because we always
hear from the negative, vocal, negative fan base right texting us,
social media, and yet John Stanton sees forty one thousand,
thirty three thousand, and forty two thousand fans in his
ballpark having fun in the last three games of the season.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
What do you think the vibe is of the entire
fan base?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Is it more positive than maybe what we think it
is because we only hear from the people that are
ticked off?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
No, I think, you know, I think overall the fan
base is pretty frustrated with the lack of spending, the
lack of commitment. I think that's pretty evident, right, and
it comes from a place of, well, we're on the
on the doorstep of doing something really special in the city, right,
just like the Seahawks were several years ago, you know,
and really turned the city into a football town. And
(03:15):
I think that the fans just want a good honest
effort to try and go for it. You know, I
don't think they're asking to spend two hundred and fifty million,
but you know, this is a payroll at anything. When
they know that there's been you know, articles that have
come out about the profitability of this of this organization,
and you know, if those things are true, then why
aren't you going out and getting players? Like what is
(03:37):
your motive here? And when the Fantasy Seattle know that
your motive isn't to win, they're going to be on you.
I think that's probably the more common feeling.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, I was thinking about that attendance Dick and Steven
over the weekend, and I wonder how many of those
seats were bought months ago by people thinking this was
going to be a big series. He also game, right, Well,
but if you've got tickets, right, I mean, what the
hell I mean? I I gave my seats to a
buddy of mine and still went on Sunday. If baseball
had a rule where you can only buy tickets for
a game a week before it was played, how many
people would have stepped up to buy tickets for this weekend?
(04:08):
So I really hope they don't look at the attendance
this week and say we're good with our fan base.
But you know what the other point is, guys, even
if they are good with the fan base, they should
not be good with themselves. I mean, what does John
Stanton want his legacy to be? What does Chris Lawson
want his legacy to be in this town? Because if
they simply put r just about making money, then yes
(04:28):
they'll walk away. But who can sleep at night with
that mentality? Mike got I'm getting just irritated even thinking
about this. So let's just think about what they have
to do, guys, moving forward, Steven Susan's with us. Jerry
Depoto met with the media Saturday, very impromptu conversation. Media
was given thirty minutes notice before Jerry Depoto met with
the press, and apparently that's gonna be it with the media.
(04:50):
I think it's a weasel move by them, but some
people would disagree. He did say that play Z, which
I guess his code for last option would be to
trade any of their young pitching Brian wu Castillo, Kirby Gilbert,
those guys, Bryce Miller. Whatever, are you convinced one thousand percent,
(05:10):
Steven that this rotation will be back in tac next year.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
No, I'm not, you know. And then the reason I
say that is because they don't really have a lot
else to trade from. Like, you know, if you're going
to trade a Luke Raley, like that's a good player,
but it's not like you're going to get you know,
a huge return back now unless you know his pivot
is I'm going to trade some of these prospects for
some bigger names, then yeah I can. I can for
(05:35):
sure buy it, you know. And that's what I think.
I think he should deal with that right, deal from that,
because you're not going to have this rotation much longer.
And like I said, prospects are always prospects, So trying
to keep this rotation intact and deliver from a great
farm system that he's created should be a project A.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
There was a lot of talk a couple of months
ago that this whole swing for the Fence's crap was
a Jerry Depoto analytics created thing, and yet we hear
Jerry on Saturday lauding the approach by Edgar Martinez and
Dan Wilson saying I love the way we're approaching hitting
now blah blah blah. So is this Jerry just throwing
(06:16):
Scott under the bus, or do you think this was
Scott's thing all along because the hitting looks completely different
with Edgar Martinez and Dan Wilson.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah, I'll answer that in two parts. So with Jerry,
like his perspective on hitting and the way he looks
at it in the organization is he looks at it like,
you know, the pitching side, where it's just strictly analytics,
Like he goes with the model of don't the guys
that don't chase, guys that have a high walk rate
and slug and that's kind of what's inside of their
(06:48):
model of collecting players. We've seen that from whoever's come
up right, And so the interesting part of that is
what the Mariners don't do is they miss in the
zone a lot throughout the minor league, and in the
big leagues they would miss in the zone. And so
you can walk or not walk, or not chase and walk,
and if you still can't hit the ball when you
need to, like, it doesn't really matter what you do.
(07:08):
So I think some of that responsibilities falls on Jerry
as far as like what Edgar and Dan have done
and what I've heard from the guys is like, you
know what these two what's made them really good is
like they don't need these jobs. You know, they're able
to have these conversations without a fear of losing their job.
Like Dan doesn't need this job, Edgar doesn't need this job,
(07:28):
and yet they're willing to step in and just kind
of share their wisdom. And when you get you know,
it doesn't have to be guys like that were former Mariners.
But when you get players that really want to be
a manager and they've made enough in their career and
they're not trying to build the legacy, I just think
you get the most out of your players and you
don't live and die and make these horrible decisions like
(07:49):
putting your closer in the sixth inning. Right. So all
that to say, yeah, I don't I don't think it's
as much on Scott, but I think it's a lot
on Jerry's.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, I mean the third option in regards to what
Jerry's tone was, here be my mind on our approach.
I like the way we're doing things now. I've been
convinced things differently. I mean, I just refuse to believe
that Scott's service did the certain way for eight and
three quarters years without Jerry to Poto's blessing, right, Because
if Jerry to Poto let Scott's Service go out there
(08:19):
and do things his own way for eight and a
half years and didn't like the way it was being done,
then he's an idiot for allowing Service to continue to
do it.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
Right, But four or five years ago the offense didn't
look like this, right.
Speaker 6 (08:29):
But okay, then let's just say four or five years.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
That's a significant amount of time, right, I mean, what
general manager would allow their manager to go out and
do things a certain way if they were convinced it
wasn't working.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
So I don't buy any of that.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I'm hoping that Dan Wilson Steven was able to get
through to Jerry Topoto along with Edgar Martinez to get
him to change his ways, and that starting the next April,
we'll see a different offensive approach.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, And I think that's his whole I think this
is kind of his last resort, right, Like he wanted
to come everything, And you know, although I think Dan's
a very respectful they'll have a respectful relationship with Jerry
again at the end of the day. Like if you're
gonna keep doing the same thing expecting the different results.
It's it's kind of insanity. So it's hopefully Jerry's let
(09:15):
go of something. I just said, like, hey, you know,
I I don't have it all figured out. And if
he has, kudos to Jerry for doing that. But you know, they,
like I said, they're gonna have to roll with something
like this next year, else they're gonna be back in
another angry fan base.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I mean JP Crawford.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah, he went two for three in his last game,
but I mean, you saw the numbers that I threw
out there as like his ops was like in the
five forties, and in the last two three months of
the season, he looks done to me? Or do you
see something different? You see a guy that maybe was
injured and trying to play through it. Can Can we
afford to put him out as a starter next year?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Man, that's a good question. It's funny. I've been thinking
about this a lot, but you know, he had the
great year last year, and you definitely he's got to
get another chance next year because just you know what
injuries do to you in the middle of the year,
it's really hard to judge the player. And he's not
the most physically fit player to be able to battle
through those so you know, you can kind of cut
on some slack in there. But I will say, like
(10:15):
if you take the twenty twenty three year out, like
he's been a very average shortstop. And I kind of
have said this before he signed that deal. So you know,
you need explosive players, and they've got some in the
minor leagues that are ready to step in and play
that position. So you just better be sure he's the
offensive player, the defensive player, and the leader that you
(10:36):
want on that team. Otherwise, you know, I would give
him a short leash.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, JP Crawford two more years at eleven million dollars
per year twenty five and twenty six, twenty two million
dollars total. You know, also has a big player option
for next years Mitch Handiger. You know who else is
under contract for next year is Mitch Garver? I mean,
are we rolling out those guys again? I assume that
a Rose Arena ends up being your starting right field
or what kind of role does Mitch Handiger plays, especially
(11:00):
if he picks up that player option next season.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
You know, I mean, that's it's tough to have two
guys that struggle that bad with the player option, and
like you're just forced to kind of, you know, take
them on, and you have to give them a chance
or you can't just let that money just go to waste.
So I think, you know the same thing as this year, right, like,
hopefully Garvin and Handy can come in and they're ready
(11:25):
to go, and they're in a great spot and they've
made the adjustments. But you know, ultimately, like if this
team has the aspirations to win, they've got to figure out,
you know, how to make them productive off the bench,
you know, So you give them a chance to start
early sprom training and see if if it looks different
early on in the year, and then you know, because
you can't really control them to take that player option
and there's nothing else you can do.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I was trying to read the tea leaves of what
Jerry was talking about about payroll next year, and it
sounds like, Okay, it won't go down. It's naturally going
to go up because we've got guys going to arbitration
and having to make more money.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
But what I didn't get the vibe was that he
was actually.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Going to spend more money beyond what he's going to
pay his own players in raises.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Is that kind of the vibe you got from what
you heard?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, that's that's exactly what I heard. You know, Logan,
Gilbert's going to go up. Cal Rawley's going to arbitration,
like Whererozarany gets paid a little more, Julio gets paid
a lot more. Like it's so you're you're basically going
to spend an arbitration. What an adding of a really
good player would be is what he alluded to. And
that's you know, I think that's what everybody's been kind
of getting really frustrated about. Is there's only so long
(12:37):
that you have these really good players on minimum, and
then you have to start paying them. So then in
the times that you could have added when it wasn't
going to hurt you, and you didn't, and now you're
in this position where it's only going to get more
and more, you know, throughout the years.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Yeah, well, I mean it's essentially over.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I mean, cal Rawley's going to arbitration, Gilbert's going to arbitration,
I believe. Is George Kirby going to arbitration? I think
I think he is. I gonna double check that. But
the window that you're talking about, I think is done.
I mean they've got a couple of guys, you know,
Miller and wu still, but for the most part, the
idea that they've got you know, five six young guys
that are killing it on you know, minor league or
(13:14):
excuse me, you know early you know, pre arbitration contracts.
Those days are done, so at some point they will
have to go out and spend some money. What do
you do with cal Raley? I mean, you just go
to arbitration three years in a row. Or do you
put a new deal in front of him right now
and hope that Scott Boris.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Agrees to and Kirby is going to arbitration?
Speaker 6 (13:30):
Yeah, there you go, right.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, Kirby is a super too, so he's tecondally got
four years of arbitration. But you know, in regards to
cal yeah, I mean you try and find something right
where Okay, they offered him something in the in spring
training and it was apparently it was nowhere near you know,
of the value, which is what you do in those
(13:52):
types of moments. There's nothing wrong with that. But now
that he's had, you know, a thirty one hundred season
and he's gonna be nominated for Old Glove, no doubt
led the league or close to the top of the league.
And you know, runners cops stealing, and I mean, you
got to offer him something close to that. You have
to keep this guy here, right, like what he means
to the city, what he means to this clubhouse, what
he means as an offensive and defense. Like, there's no
(14:15):
way you can't let this guy go. And even if
you have to match the deal or whatever, it's like,
he means just too much to this organization to let
him go. So they have to figure out a way
to get it done. He deserves every bit of it.
And on his side, you know, maybe it's not as
long because he's getting older, but you know, if he
gets paid his you know what, he's worked for a year.
I think nobody in this city would disagree with that,
(14:36):
and I think everybody at organization would agree the same.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Soft You may have another Mariner question for you, but
I got to ask you where forty or fifty four,
fifty nine ranks in all the great things you've ever
seen a baseball player do in your lifetime?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, can you imagine if he would have just been
healthy to like throw a season like throw this year
and like where he would have landed it. I mean,
no doubt, it's one of, if not the greatest offensive
season that we've ever seen from a player. But I
just keep thinking, like what if he would have thrown
this year and won the cy Young? Like he's just
making the game look so easy. You know, it's just crazy.
(15:13):
The game is not that easy, guys. Like it's a
really tough game to hit and to pitch in the
big leagues, But to do it at the level that
this guy is doing, running the bases, hitting homers, striking
out big leaguers is insane to me. Like, we may
never and we probably won't ever see another player like
Showy a Tony so in his prime. If you ever
(15:33):
get the chance, go watch and play wherever you're at,
because there will be nothing like him.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Well, I'll just ask you one more before we let
you go. I saw where Buster Posey is the new
Giants president of Baseball Operations. They just fired their pres
of baseball ops, which is the same job Jerry's got,
and they gave it to Buster Posey down there. Would
you want to see the Mariners ever do something like that?
Give that job to a.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
I don't know. I mean, who would be a candidate
for that job of Dan Wolves.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
So Dan Wilson's our Buster Puzzy. They gave him the
manager your Martinez.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I mean just putting a putting a ex player that's batted,
that was a position player that had success with this
franchise in charge of everything. Would you like to see
the Mariners make a move like that one day? And
who would that guy be for you?
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I would absolutely, I think. And you know what's interesting
about Busters. He had a small percentage of ownership and
the Tigers or sorry in the Giants, right, and then
they moved him over here, so he was very involved
in like the signings and kind of getting acclimated on
the front office side of things. I'm the same guy
as Ken Grippy Jr. Ken Grimy Junior's got a small
(16:35):
ownership percentage right for the Mariners, very respecting the community.
Like I think he's learned in the business side of
things more and more. And you know that that job
definitely comes with an aptitude of learning how to navigate,
you know, staff leadership and stuff. So you know, I
don't know Grippy's person that well, but I know Buster's
good like that. Dan is definitely like that. But having
(16:57):
someone like that that can really relate to players, I
think we're seeing the benefit from Philly with Sam fold
in Texas with Chris Young, and it's it's something that
I think is going to start to really turn former
players that are understanding the grand scope of the game
coming back into the game more and more.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Yeah, all right, man, listen, great stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I appreciate you doing this all week our all year long,
every week courtesy of Taco Time. I can't think of
a better guy to have on the year to let
us vent Monday afternoon. So keep it up and we'll
catch we'll touch base over the offseason, all right.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
Pal, Thanks man.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Al Right, guys, talk to you later.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
All right, steven SUSA, courtesy of Taco Time. We're gonna
break little