August 16, 2024 • 10 mins
Steven Souza Jr, former Mariners and MLB outfielder, joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the continued Mariners woes and Scott Servais’ decisions regarding his starters, Servais’ job security, and whether or not to pick up Jorge Polanco’s option.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming to you live from the Elliet 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
ahead from any Taco Time restaurant, download the Taco Time
Northwest app today from the Apple App Store or the
(00:21):
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 (00:31):
Hello, Bonus time with our friend Steven Susa courtesy at
Taco Time. And by the way, there's a Taco Time
right down the street here from Cheney Stadium. By the way,
if you ever get the hanker before a game, nice
well Chris by Burrito and your belly's.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hit it up on the way home.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We might we might.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well he's here. As you said yesterday, it's def Con one.
We cannot wait until Monday to hear this guy's take.
Stephen Susa Junior with us. What the hell is going on?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Dude? Man? It's you know, you go from at Ultimate
High to a New York Mets leap to an ultimate
low and the Detroit Tiger's being swept. So it's a
tough place to be right now for a Mariners fan.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Well, kudos you said it wasn't Brent Brown's fault when
Brent Brown got fired, and we found out it wasn't
Brent Brown's fault because they're hitting even worse in August
than they did any other any other month. But I
got to ask you, Steven about some of Scott's decisions
over the last week. I mean, he pulls Bryce Miller,
he pulls Brian wu he pulls Munjos in the tenth
(01:27):
thinning in a tie game. He's not button guys over
in extra innings. I mean, am I just being hypercritical
or are you seeing things firsthand, like not hindsight being
twenty twenty, but foresight being twenty twenty on some of
his decisions.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
No. I heard Bernie talk about it yesterday, And you know,
they got these these two contradicting points where it's like
every game is supposed to matter, but then they're protecting
certain guys like they're able to give up these games.
And I think when you have a stat doing what
they done where they're getting late into the game with
(02:03):
a very low pitch count. We're not even talking about like, hey,
they're at one hundred, he can go a little more.
These guys are like eighty ninety pitches. This staff is
so good. How many complete games has have these guys
thrown all year long?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Like two?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
The answer is yeah, not very many. And the opportunity
that they've had to throw complete games is crazy, the
ability to let them go out and finish the game,
especially Bryce Miller, Brian who. When you know that these
guys are cruising, you have to let them do it.
This is your strength, this is what's better than the
(02:37):
rest of the league. And if you depend on you know,
obviously Munnos has been lights out, but if you depend
on somebody else outside those guys, you're putting the ball
hanging in something that you can't really predict. And so
you know, these are the five most dominant guys in
the league right now. You gotta let them go as
long as they can until it risks their health. And
eighty to ninety pitches is not risking their health.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Yeah, I thought it was zero. He might be right.
I was just I was just throwing out of gas there. Yeah,
you might be right.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I didn't think it was an.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
It's either one or at zero.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
We know that, I mean, I know that the complete
game stat by the way, like isn't even really anything
people track anymore because there's too few, there's so few
and far between. But your point about the inconsistency with
the approach, and I just want to expand on that,
because what you're talking about is the conversation Steve and
we had yesterday. We're on one breath. They'll said, we
got to get Julio back. These games matter even if
(03:27):
he has to d H. So we got to bring
him back early. But then you don't handle your pitching
staff with that same type of urgency when you're yanking
guys like Bryce Miller and Brian Wu a little bit early.
So look, I said yesterday on the air, and Jerry
Depoto is at a seminal point in his career. He's
fifty six years old, he's been doing this for fourteen years.
He's been waiting for a rotation like this to get
(03:48):
them into the playoffs and see what they can do
come October.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Does he really trust that Scott's Service can deliver that
for him?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
And if he doesn't, does he fire him?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Know? It's interesting that they both still have their jobs,
that Scott Servis is the longest tenured manager, are the
second longest in baseball right now with one playoff win.
I think Dick said that yesterday. And the reality of
that situation is they came in here together from Anaheim,
and so if they're gonna leave, they're gonna have to
(04:20):
leave together, right And they've had this plan together to
try and win and create this culture. And you know,
Boody said again yesterday, they just have not created a
culture where there's some dogs on the field. There are
some dogs on that team, but the reality of the
belief of how those guys feel walking in the building.
Steve Kerr used to say that, right, it's not about
(04:42):
so much what you can teach, It's about how do
you make people feel when they step on the field
every single day. And what happens is I don't think
that those guys feel like every game matters, like there's
a real push to win a World Series. It seems
like a mediocrity from Jerry's decision. The only thing as
well as trade and draft, and it's from Stanton. It's
(05:03):
like a hat been like Tampa Bay mentality where it's
like we're operating in a very low budget, but we're
making a lot of money, and so the players know that.
They understand that you're not giving the full effort, you're
not doing your job, and you're asking me to pick
up the slack for you, and it's just not fair
to them.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Well, do you think it's just been kind of an arrogance,
a hyper arrogance that this system is smarter than anybody
else's system. Look at our one run games. Remember they
were nineteen and nine this year in one run games.
They are two to nine in the last eleven. So
I guess they might have had a reason back in
June to feel a little bit arrogant about how they
(05:41):
handle their bullpen at the end of the games and
why they don't bunt, because like, hey, we know how
to win run one run games, but the thing is
it's not working anymore, and it doesn't like it look
like they're doing anything to change their philosophy.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, you know, I think in these situations and the
processes that you take, you want to see the longevity
of them play out. So if I believe in this system,
I got to see it play out. To your point, Dick,
it's like it hasn't worked. At times, you have to
make an adjustment and use your eyes, move away from
the script. It's okay to have a script for a game.
This is how we believe it's gonna go. If these
(06:18):
things happen, we're gonna put this guy in. But then
you have to pivot at times and say, hey, forget that.
The way this guy's dominating, we got to leave him
in the game. We got to make an adjustment this
way and go. And it just seems that there's never
any of that. It's always like we're just gonna stick
to it and if we lose, we lose. But what's
happening is they're always ending up a couple of games
(06:39):
short because there's no adjustability in that. Right. We saw
that with Jordan Alvarez and Robbie Ray in the playoffs.
When you bring out Robbie Ray and Jordon Titting six
eighty up Robbie Ray, like you have to be able
to pivot to a point where it's like I have
to use my feel in my eyes in order to
get somebody out.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, by the way, it is zero complete games, but
to be fair, there's twenty three teams in baseball that
don't have a complete game either, including the guardians are
pretty good.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah, but let me interstaff.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, but they don't have the staff that the Mariner staff.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
These guys are are getting getting to the eighth inning
with like seventy eight eighty two pitches. The opportunity has
to be higher than anybody else in the league by far. Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Last week I asked you if you had to pick
up the option on Jorge Polanco for next year today,
would you do it?
Speaker 5 (07:26):
And you said yes, What about a week later?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I would still do it. And this is strictly on
the basis that there's not anybody else on the market
right softly, it's like it's fourteen million, but they don't.
They're not paying really anybody other than Mitch Hanniger, Mitch Garberg,
Polanco and Julio. But if you look at the second
base market, there's just not a lot of guys out
there that are going to really impact the baseball and
have the top end potential that Jude a blot to them.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
I think most Mariner fans have heard of Paul Skins.
I think many might have watched him in the All
Star Game, but that might have been the only time
anybody's ever seen him. So tell us about the guy
that the Mariners are facing today.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
You know what's tough is you know, Detroit's got a
really good staff and you're obviously coming off of the
series where you got swept, and they're not going to
catch a break here. Like this guy's electric. No, he's
coming to the league and he has just hit the
ground running. He's ninety eight two, one hundred. You can
touch one hundred and one with a calls it a splinker, right,
It's like a sinker splitter where he throws it ninety
(08:26):
three and it just dives away. And he's got a
sweeper and not only that, like he throws a ton
of strikes that they're going to have their work come
out cut up for them. I think the best case
here is that they got Logan Gilbert, who's neck and
neck with him, if not better than him, to hang
on as long as they can, and that Pittsburgh offense
is anemic two, so it's not like they have to
(08:49):
shut down a historic offense.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Well, I mean, you've been a part of teams I'm
sure that had you know, losing streaks and bad vibes.
What do you think is happening behind the scenes right
now in Pittsburgh and the clubhouse players only meeting, You know,
does many act walk in there and just dump a
bunch of bats in the shower right like in Bull Durham?
How do you handle this behind closed doors?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Man?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
No, I think it's got to come from someone like
JT right where he's been in the grind and understands
what it comes, what it's going to take to get
through this and get to the postseason. Someone who when
he speaks, you know, everybody in the room knows there's
a genuineness to his words and knowing that, Hey, I
got I got nothing nothing to lose here, right Like,
I want to win another World Series, but my job's
(09:34):
not on the line. I just want to win with
you guys. When when JT speaks like that, guys can listen.
If Service or Manny or anybody comes in, yeah, they
might say the right words, but it's just not gonna
land the same. There might be in an emotional you know,
two game, you feel it, but after that it's not.
It's gotta be somebody that's been around, Ben's done it
that everybody respects that they say, all right, we got
(09:56):
to follow this guy.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, it's sad that it's got to be a guy
that's been here for two weeks, by the way, and
Justin Turner and not somebody else. But that's what you've
created here. So we'll see all right.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Buddy, enjoy the weekend and we'll talk Monday at five.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Man, Yeah, absolutely good talking to you guys.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
All right, man, Steven Sue is a little bonus time.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That's extra burritos for him, courtesy of our friends over
at Taco time. We're gonna break a little fun with
audio slash hated you hear that.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Next ninety three three KJRFM
Coming to you live from the Elliet 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
ahead from any Taco Time restaurant, download the Taco Time
Northwest app today from the Apple App Store or the
(00:21):
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 (00:31):
Hello, Bonus time with our friend Steven Susa courtesy at
Taco Time. And by the way, there's a Taco Time
right down the street here from Cheney Stadium. By the way,
if you ever get the hanker before a game, nice
well Chris by Burrito and your belly's.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hit it up on the way home.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We might we might.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well he's here. As you said yesterday, it's def Con one.
We cannot wait until Monday to hear this guy's take.
Stephen Susa Junior with us. What the hell is going on?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Dude? Man? It's you know, you go from at Ultimate
High to a New York Mets leap to an ultimate
low and the Detroit Tiger's being swept. So it's a
tough place to be right now for a Mariners fan.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Well, kudos you said it wasn't Brent Brown's fault when
Brent Brown got fired, and we found out it wasn't
Brent Brown's fault because they're hitting even worse in August
than they did any other any other month. But I
got to ask you, Steven about some of Scott's decisions
over the last week. I mean, he pulls Bryce Miller,
he pulls Brian wu he pulls Munjos in the tenth
(01:27):
thinning in a tie game. He's not button guys over
in extra innings. I mean, am I just being hypercritical
or are you seeing things firsthand, like not hindsight being
twenty twenty, but foresight being twenty twenty on some of
his decisions.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
No. I heard Bernie talk about it yesterday, And you know,
they got these these two contradicting points where it's like
every game is supposed to matter, but then they're protecting
certain guys like they're able to give up these games.
And I think when you have a stat doing what
they done where they're getting late into the game with
(02:03):
a very low pitch count. We're not even talking about like, hey,
they're at one hundred, he can go a little more.
These guys are like eighty ninety pitches. This staff is
so good. How many complete games has have these guys
thrown all year long?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Like two?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
The answer is yeah, not very many. And the opportunity
that they've had to throw complete games is crazy, the
ability to let them go out and finish the game,
especially Bryce Miller, Brian who. When you know that these
guys are cruising, you have to let them do it.
This is your strength, this is what's better than the
(02:37):
rest of the league. And if you depend on you know,
obviously Munnos has been lights out, but if you depend
on somebody else outside those guys, you're putting the ball
hanging in something that you can't really predict. And so
you know, these are the five most dominant guys in
the league right now. You gotta let them go as
long as they can until it risks their health. And
eighty to ninety pitches is not risking their health.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Yeah, I thought it was zero. He might be right.
I was just I was just throwing out of gas there. Yeah,
you might be right.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I didn't think it was an.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
It's either one or at zero.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
We know that, I mean, I know that the complete
game stat by the way, like isn't even really anything
people track anymore because there's too few, there's so few
and far between. But your point about the inconsistency with
the approach, and I just want to expand on that,
because what you're talking about is the conversation Steve and
we had yesterday. We're on one breath. They'll said, we
got to get Julio back. These games matter even if
(03:27):
he has to d H. So we got to bring
him back early. But then you don't handle your pitching
staff with that same type of urgency when you're yanking
guys like Bryce Miller and Brian Wu a little bit early.
So look, I said yesterday on the air, and Jerry
Depoto is at a seminal point in his career. He's
fifty six years old, he's been doing this for fourteen years.
He's been waiting for a rotation like this to get
(03:48):
them into the playoffs and see what they can do
come October.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Does he really trust that Scott's Service can deliver that
for him?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
And if he doesn't, does he fire him?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Know? It's interesting that they both still have their jobs,
that Scott Servis is the longest tenured manager, are the
second longest in baseball right now with one playoff win.
I think Dick said that yesterday. And the reality of
that situation is they came in here together from Anaheim,
and so if they're gonna leave, they're gonna have to
(04:20):
leave together, right And they've had this plan together to
try and win and create this culture. And you know,
Boody said again yesterday, they just have not created a
culture where there's some dogs on the field. There are
some dogs on that team, but the reality of the
belief of how those guys feel walking in the building.
Steve Kerr used to say that, right, it's not about
(04:42):
so much what you can teach, It's about how do
you make people feel when they step on the field
every single day. And what happens is I don't think
that those guys feel like every game matters, like there's
a real push to win a World Series. It seems
like a mediocrity from Jerry's decision. The only thing as
well as trade and draft, and it's from Stanton. It's
(05:03):
like a hat been like Tampa Bay mentality where it's
like we're operating in a very low budget, but we're
making a lot of money, and so the players know that.
They understand that you're not giving the full effort, you're
not doing your job, and you're asking me to pick
up the slack for you, and it's just not fair
to them.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Well, do you think it's just been kind of an arrogance,
a hyper arrogance that this system is smarter than anybody
else's system. Look at our one run games. Remember they
were nineteen and nine this year in one run games.
They are two to nine in the last eleven. So
I guess they might have had a reason back in
June to feel a little bit arrogant about how they
(05:41):
handle their bullpen at the end of the games and
why they don't bunt, because like, hey, we know how
to win run one run games, but the thing is
it's not working anymore, and it doesn't like it look
like they're doing anything to change their philosophy.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, you know, I think in these situations and the
processes that you take, you want to see the longevity
of them play out. So if I believe in this system,
I got to see it play out. To your point, Dick,
it's like it hasn't worked. At times, you have to
make an adjustment and use your eyes, move away from
the script. It's okay to have a script for a game.
This is how we believe it's gonna go. If these
(06:18):
things happen, we're gonna put this guy in. But then
you have to pivot at times and say, hey, forget that.
The way this guy's dominating, we got to leave him
in the game. We got to make an adjustment this
way and go. And it just seems that there's never
any of that. It's always like we're just gonna stick
to it and if we lose, we lose. But what's
happening is they're always ending up a couple of games
(06:39):
short because there's no adjustability in that. Right. We saw
that with Jordan Alvarez and Robbie Ray in the playoffs.
When you bring out Robbie Ray and Jordon Titting six
eighty up Robbie Ray, like you have to be able
to pivot to a point where it's like I have
to use my feel in my eyes in order to
get somebody out.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, by the way, it is zero complete games, but
to be fair, there's twenty three teams in baseball that
don't have a complete game either, including the guardians are
pretty good.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah, but let me interstaff.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, but they don't have the staff that the Mariner staff.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
These guys are are getting getting to the eighth inning
with like seventy eight eighty two pitches. The opportunity has
to be higher than anybody else in the league by far. Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Last week I asked you if you had to pick
up the option on Jorge Polanco for next year today,
would you do it?
Speaker 5 (07:26):
And you said yes, What about a week later?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I would still do it. And this is strictly on
the basis that there's not anybody else on the market
right softly, it's like it's fourteen million, but they don't.
They're not paying really anybody other than Mitch Hanniger, Mitch Garberg,
Polanco and Julio. But if you look at the second
base market, there's just not a lot of guys out
there that are going to really impact the baseball and
have the top end potential that Jude a blot to them.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
I think most Mariner fans have heard of Paul Skins.
I think many might have watched him in the All
Star Game, but that might have been the only time
anybody's ever seen him. So tell us about the guy
that the Mariners are facing today.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
You know what's tough is you know, Detroit's got a
really good staff and you're obviously coming off of the
series where you got swept, and they're not going to
catch a break here. Like this guy's electric. No, he's
coming to the league and he has just hit the
ground running. He's ninety eight two, one hundred. You can
touch one hundred and one with a calls it a splinker, right,
It's like a sinker splitter where he throws it ninety
(08:26):
three and it just dives away. And he's got a
sweeper and not only that, like he throws a ton
of strikes that they're going to have their work come
out cut up for them. I think the best case
here is that they got Logan Gilbert, who's neck and
neck with him, if not better than him, to hang
on as long as they can, and that Pittsburgh offense
is anemic two, so it's not like they have to
(08:49):
shut down a historic offense.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Well, I mean, you've been a part of teams I'm
sure that had you know, losing streaks and bad vibes.
What do you think is happening behind the scenes right
now in Pittsburgh and the clubhouse players only meeting, You know,
does many act walk in there and just dump a
bunch of bats in the shower right like in Bull Durham?
How do you handle this behind closed doors?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Man?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
No, I think it's got to come from someone like
JT right where he's been in the grind and understands
what it comes, what it's going to take to get
through this and get to the postseason. Someone who when
he speaks, you know, everybody in the room knows there's
a genuineness to his words and knowing that, Hey, I
got I got nothing nothing to lose here, right Like,
I want to win another World Series, but my job's
(09:34):
not on the line. I just want to win with
you guys. When when JT speaks like that, guys can listen.
If Service or Manny or anybody comes in, yeah, they
might say the right words, but it's just not gonna
land the same. There might be in an emotional you know,
two game, you feel it, but after that it's not.
It's gotta be somebody that's been around, Ben's done it
that everybody respects that they say, all right, we got
(09:56):
to follow this guy.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, it's sad that it's got to be a guy
that's been here for two weeks, by the way, and
Justin Turner and not somebody else. But that's what you've
created here. So we'll see all right.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Buddy, enjoy the weekend and we'll talk Monday at five.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Man, Yeah, absolutely good talking to you guys.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
All right, man, Steven Sue is a little bonus time.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That's extra burritos for him, courtesy of our friends over
at Taco time. We're gonna break a little fun with
audio slash hated you hear that.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Next ninety three three KJRFM
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