Steven Souza on Bryce Miller, Julio Rodriguez, AL West, Coaches

Steven Souza Jr, former Mariners and MLB outfielder, joins Dave Softy Mahler and Hugh Millen to talk about the M’s picking up a win over Houston yesterday with Bryce Miller on the mound, Julio Rodriguez finally heating up, the AL West race and coaching.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Coming to you live from the EllietAvenue studios of Sports Radio ninety three point
three KJRFM. This is our weeklyvisit with former Mariners outfielder Steven Susa Junior,
powered by Taco Time. For allyour favorites and to order ahead from
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since nineteen sixty two. Now withStephen Susa Junior, here's Softie and Dick.
All right, a big thanks toour friends over at Taco Time normally
on Mondays at five, but wehad yesterday off and we cannot go a
week without talking to Stephen Susan.No, no, no, so we
instead take advantage of his generosity asflexibility and have him on the are today
talking some baseball. How are you, pal? What's going on? I'm

(00:48):
doing great? You know. Iwas ready for you to put that thunder
then out again. But I guessthat's a one time deal. Huh No,
we did that last week. Youknow what. I'm a jerk,
but not that big of a jerk, all right, pal, So that's
a it's a one time shot andwe move on from that. But Steven
Hugh is here as well, andfor Dick and I mean, look,
man, this this series with theAstro seems like just another kind of measuring

(01:10):
stick to see what this baseball teamis all about. And last night's win
felt kind of big. Man.What was your take on what you saw
yesterday from Bryce Miller in company?Yeah, I mean, first of all,
they did a good job jumping outearly and providing in some some runs,
which I think you need against Frambergright once Framberg kind of gets in

(01:30):
cruise control, he's pretty tough tobeat. And so they did a good
job cashing in on some some bigknocks from Ty France and Hanneger and the
crew there and getting some runs.But listen, Bryce Miller, you know,
I know he hasn't had a winsince April, but man, this
guy has done done really good withhis fastball sinker splitter combination and just filled

(01:51):
up the zone and he was upto ninety seven last night and blowing it
by some of the guys that offensejust without al Tuve and your and I
know Tucker's having a good year too, but it just don't it doesn't feel
the same playing these guys like ithad in the past. I don't know
if you guys see that as well, but it just feels like a different
team, and it's up to themright now to kind of set the tone

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for the rest of the year inthe series. Yeah, well, it's
obviously a much needed win against Ifthey're not a rival now, they certainly
feel like a rival right still theAstros, But but let's also go back
to I know we talked about theOrioles in those matchups, but since we
last talk talked, you know,they played the Yankees, they played the

(02:34):
Nationals. What was kind of youryour takeaway of what you saw towards the
end of that road trip. Yeah. Look, I think I said this
before, but anytime you go tothe East Coast, you're looking to break
five hundred, to be honest withyou, especially coming from the West Coast,
and you get your whole routine disruptedand you can't go to bed on
time, and traveling and planet isjust really tough. And those are some

(02:59):
really good teams on top of it, with the Nationals up and coming,
but you know, I just feltlike they fell behind at times, and
the offense is kind of spluttered.You know, it's tough to see at
times when they face good pitching andthey have good pitching, you're just kind
of seeing what gives. And rightnow against good pitching, the Mariners are

(03:21):
struggling at times. With all thatbeing said, they could have easily been
sick and four on that road trip. So I know we talked a month
ago in softy set against good teams, they want to play five hundred baseball,
and so they did almost that.So I think it would best road
trip, no, no question aboutthat. I mean, you feel like
you got maybe a couple of gamesof better pitching where you should have been
better than you were. And themagic number seems to be three. I

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mean, their record is ridiculous whenthey score three runs or more. I
think maybe a lot of teams inbaseball with good pitching can say that.
But Luis Castillo is on the moundtonight. We'll see what happens with him.
The biggest thing I think people wantto know is who the old Rodriguez
back. They experimented a couple ofgames in the sixth hole. He's back
in the three hole obviously today againstthe Astros. Six for his last thirteen

(04:05):
couple of home runs five Ribby's.Are you seeing a different version of Julio
than maybe what you saw a coupleof weeks ago. Yeah, I think
the home runs in Washington were differentswings. And if you go back and
look at him, Julio was gettinga little bit rotational, right, We
talked about that where he was gettinga little poll happy. But I think

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also he wasn't connecting everything. Andnow I saw you. If you watch
his shoulders tonight, watch how theywork more north to south, and so
his back shoulder is going to comethrough the middle of the field. Well,
that's what it does, is ithelps him stay inside the ball,
but it allows him to clear hiships at the same time, which is
what Julio has done so well.So if he stays on this course,

(04:46):
Julio to me, is back andhe'll keep it running. Dave, I
want to stay on Julio. Imean, that's some good stuff there.
But let's let's pick up on thatmechanic because that's obviously a detailed deal.
You're an expert, you see that. You know me as a guy who
studied the golf swing, I'm fascinatedby what you're saying. But how does

(05:06):
a player of his caliber kind oflose that? I mean, is that
something he had last year when hehad that hot was a July and then
he lost it and now he's gettingit back, Like like like, why
would a guy if he if heknows that it identifies, how would that
slip from him? Yeah? Well, because you get pitched so differently from

(05:26):
season to season. You know theswings. I used to John Jason used
to say this all the time whenwe were playing together. He used to
say, all you do with theswing is you go to sleep and you
wake up and come to the fieldand it feels like you've never swung a
bat before. And it's up toyou every day to recreate your swing through
your routine that you create. AndI know that Julio has done a decent
job at creating a routine, butstill things just get off kilter. You

(05:50):
get one fastball inside and all ofa sudden your mind tells you I need
to speed up and get to thispitch. Well, if that happens,
your shoulders start to work around thebaseball. You have to be able to
swallow your pride in and out andsay I'm committed to this process. And
not trying to get out of yourselfand being twenty three years old. That's
so easy to do. I didit when I was twenty seven until the

(06:13):
day I retired. It's a difficultthing to do. So for him to
break down the mechanics, it's notas easy as oh, I need to
make sure my shoulder gets in.It's a feeling, right, like you
know when you're stepping up to thetea on the golf course. I can't
check the boxes in my swing.He's still got to be an athlete.
He's still got to try and hitninety seven with a slider that comes in
or a chains up right. He'sgot to be able to do those things

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and be sown mechanically. And that'swhy hitting is such a difficult thing to
do. So he's so good,he works so hard. It's always going
to come back around. But thisis just what happens in hitting. We're
getting great stuff from Stephen Susa andStephen Dave mentioned the move down from Julio

(06:54):
down down to six. A coupleof thoughts on that from you. Do
you think did you like them movingto him down at all? If so,
did you like the sixth spot andif you were let's say Scott servis
right hand man, and you're ina just a meeting, a staff meeting
with him, just the two ofyou, and he says, he let's
discuss the pro and cons. Whatwould have you related to Service? Obviously

(07:16):
he would know many of them.But as you're giving your input, just
kind of your reaction to all ofthat with the move down from Julio in
the lineup, Yeah, absolutely,great question. You know, I think
there's totally two sides to it,right, and it depends on the player.
So the player's got to be okaywith it. And I think Julio's
is a staple in the top ofthe lineup. I think everybody would agree

(07:36):
with that inside the organization and fansincluded, that this team doesn't go on
that Julio's at the top of thelineup doing what he does. With that
being said, this guy again,I'm going to say this until he's not
young anymore. But and this iswith anybody, to be honest, if
you're struggling for a long enough timeand you're bearing the burden of the offense
like Julio has to do in thisoffense, it's nice to give them a

(08:00):
breather and take a step back intosix sole and say, okay, take
your quality at bats, but we'renot depending on you in these couple games
to carry us. We're going tohand that over to somebody else for a
while while you just worry about qualityat bats and take all the pressure off
yourself. Now, when he getsolder, like, that's just what comes
with it, right, Freddie Freeman'sgot to learn how to work through those

(08:20):
mookie bets Akunya all those guys haveto learn to work through that. But
there's nothing wrong with taking a breather, taking the pressure off so we can
regroup and then put them back inthe right away. Steven Suza Junior is
with us. Outside of the reactionhe got the other day, we haven't
yet seen a ton at a RyanBliss. You know what this guy's all
about, obviously, you know hisskill set. He's back in the lineup

(08:41):
again tonight's second base for the injuredJorge Polanco hitting ninth. What do you
think we'll see out of this kid? And what do you make of him
so far? Yeah? You know, I think he had a great spring,
right, Like I mean, Ithink he blew everybody away kind of
put his name on the map.He's second round pick out of Auburn.
He's got tools, he can reallyrun. He had a twenty twenty year

(09:03):
last years. The thing that makesme nervous a little bit is he was
only hitting two forty five in TripleA this year, and that's an offensive
league, and so I think whathe'll lack right now in offensive production,
he'll make up on the field andon the base, pass and walking like
this guy has a good approach fora young kid. But yeah, it's

(09:26):
gonna take a little bit for himto get a speed wet. But I
think they like the kid, theylike the talent, they like the tools,
and if he can get a rolland and get hot, he's got
some tools in there to shine.We understand baseball is kind of a different
animal than football, but I'm thinkingof division rivals and getting back to the

(09:48):
Astros Steven. I know we're noteven at the halfway pole for the season.
It's just one series. But howmuch in the clubhouse, whether it's
directed and coming from Scott Service orwhether it's the leadership in the clubhouse,
how much when guys get to theballpark, is there kind of a for
lack of a better expression, Heylet's show them there's a new sheriff in

(10:11):
town. Type of a mentality isthat discussed? Is that something that everybody
just kind of knows that you makea little bit more eye contact with everybody,
like, hey, hey this meanssomething or or is baseball and its
nature just it. We're too earlyfor that type of focus. No,
there's definitely a rivalry here, rightLike I think when the Mariners got bounced
by the Astros of the Jordan hittingthat walk off home or I think they're

(10:35):
instantly becomes like this is the teamwe have to overcome, and Texas had
to do it last year, rightLike, it goes to the Astros at
this point until somebody proves that theycan knock them up, and the Rangers
did that last year. I thinkwhen the Mariners that they don't just sit
around that we necessarily talk about it. They will in the hitters meeting,
right like, we need to takecare of business to an indivision opponent.

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But I think it's all between theguys that saying like, hey, we
need to we're the ones on topnow, we need to keep it that
way. Also on top of that, like they need to keep building these
this lead because as soon as alot of these the rangers in the Astros
get a little bit more healthy,it's gonna be a lot tougher team,
and it's gonna be a lot tougherrace at the end. And so I

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think they're doing a good job notonly setting the tone, but they've always
played the Astros well the last coupleof years, and so they're just kind
of going forward and letting them knowwhere they're at. Yeah, I'm glad
you tossed in the last couple ofyears because before that it was a nightmare.
They are starting to turn things around, no doubt. Steven Susa is
with us on the ear. Curtesyat Zacho time, And why don't you

(11:39):
answer the poll question I tossed outthere this morning. I know you're sitting
around waiting for my tweets all daylong, so I'm sure you've already seen
this, But in case you haven't, the Maritors are twenty nine and twenty
six, steven and three and ahalf games up last year at the same
point, they were a game worseat twenty eight and twenty seven and seven

(12:01):
and a half games out. Sois this team better, the same or
worse than the team that we sawa year ago at this time. That's
a tough question, you know.I think you look around the league right
now, twenty nine and twenty sixdoesn't really get it done in any other
division. That makes me nervous,right like you're looking at the Minnesota Twins.

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But I still believe in this offense, I really do. I know
that they're still struggling to be consistentout there, but I think they've got
a good enough hitters that they'll turnit around. Jorgevlock hasn't been healthy,
Garber hasn't been healthy. You know, I think they're better when they're healthy.

(12:45):
But right now, it looks tome that unless they can get healthy
and turn it around, it looksto me like they're they're about the same
team. With that being said,like they were one game away from going
to the playoffs. So it's nota bad thing to be the same same
team as last year. It's justthat I don't know they've taken a giant
step forward. Yeah, well,again, they might be in a better
position than they were a year ago, but the team might be the same

(13:07):
or worse than they were last season. And Look, I mean we're talking
about, you know, two monthsin Man, and I know he's banged
up right now, but Steven HoriPolanco has done nothing of significance with this
baseball team in two months. Soare you concerned at all about that acquisition?
Yeah, I mean it's you know, you want to see a guy

(13:28):
come into a new team and hitthe ground running, and then on top
of it, when you don't hitthe ground running, hopefully the reset from
the il stint can kind of gethim back and get him rejuvenated, because
he's he's not this bad now.He's not going to come back and be
the poor hole hitter that they werehitting him in. But he is a
good player. He hasn't enough ofa track record. And I just don't

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understand why these guys miss Garger andhannegerre coming back in and Polonco, why
there's a track record of these freeagents coming in and struggling. There should
be no specific reason why these guysare doing it. And so I believe
in Joy Polonko in the second halfand when he comes back, that he
will regress to the mean of hisnumbers. And if he does, that's

(14:11):
a good enough hitter in the middleof the lineup to really make this offense
a little bit more consistent. There'sa line of arguments Steven in that regard,
and I'm not saying I make it. I'm not saying I reject it.
I don't know. That's why I'masking you. But there's a line
that says, hey, there's somethinginstitutionally wrong with how the Mariners are coaching

(14:31):
and teaching and demanding an approach atthe plate, because there's just too many
signs where guys are coming in they'renot hitting to their baseball card, and
there must be something about the harping. Hey, you know, you know,
work the counts early. Let's tryand knock the starters out of the
game and get to the bullpen,and then all of a sudden you get

(14:52):
to counts that are unfavorable and nowyou can't hit it. But there's just
too many examples of guys who arenot hitting well as Marin. What do
you say about that specific argument thatI just outlined, or do you have
another one, or is it justblind chance and coincidence what we're seeing.
You know, I think the lastcouple of years, before this year,

(15:13):
I would have told you that theywere understaff massively with Jared Tohart trying to
get these guys to do what theythey need to do with the dish.
But with the addition of Brent Brownand Tommy Joseph, I think that they
have good enough guys in there toget the message across. That being said,
I can tell you a story aboutmy time there, which was fascinating
to me and I came. Icame from a team in LA the year

(15:35):
before where we just shared stories onthe benches about what we're seeing at the
plate, and it was constant communicationwith Mookie and Justin Turner and Munsey and
Seeger, and it was just alwayscommunication and learning what this guy's doing and
how he's executing it so that youwent up to the plate with a better
idea. When I came up tothe big league and Andy McKay had told

(15:56):
me not to share that information withany of the guys because it was too
far on what they could do.And so I disagreed with them completely on
this aspect and said that this ishow young hitters learn how to play in
the big things, is that theolder the older players that have been there
a while, they share that wisdomand there when they're young enough to be
impressionable, and they in turn takethat and learn from experience in their own
at back and continue that conversation.And I don't think that that's going on

(16:19):
anymore because Brent Brown's really good atthat and really good at driving it.
But it always has to be playerdriven, you it's just a matter of
when the guys that are actually doingthe hitting on the on the field are
relating to the rest of the players. There's a little bit a little more
weight that it carries with and whenyou close out that line, whether it

(16:41):
be in the past, it's hardto break that habit for some of these
guys. And I think that ifthey can and really learn to get around
the Mitch garverge, which I heardis doing a good job in Mitch Hanniger's
and believe in what they're trying toarticulate, I think they'll be better off.
But I think there's something there wassomething at least in the half of
like, don't over complicate things,just go out their steaball hit ball.

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Well, the big League is waytoo hard today to do that. I
can tell you that. Yeah,steven SUSA, great stuff. Man,
appreciate this. We'll talk in aweek buddy on Monday. Thanks Pal.
All right, sounds good. Good. Hey, Hugh, I'm doing my
studying on the Fanzio defense. Sonext time we talk I can get it.
I'll give you what I got.No, okay, you want the
cliff notes so that you know whatdo you want? All right? Yeah?

(17:27):
Either way. Can carve out abouta half an hour for that one.
Pal, Steven, you're the man. Great stuff, Buddy, I'll
see you, Man Steven. Sue'sa junior courtesy a Taco time with us
on the air. UH Major LeagueBaseball today, Hugh just announced a major
change to how they are counting statisticsand who is included. We'll discuss that
coming up next on ninety three tothree kJ A r F M