Furness Show 1-14: What's next for the Seahawks at QB and Mollywhop with Chris and Nathan

After watching last night's game between the Rams and Vikings, Ian ponders how far away the Seahawks really were from the postseason. Hugh Millen had an in-depth breakdown of Geno Smith yesterday and it tells us a little more about what the Seahawks might do. Between that and what we saw from Sam Darnold last night, it shows how much of a quarterback starved league this is.The Daily Power Play takes us through the latest with the Kraken. Mollywhop Time! Chris Crawford and Nathan Bishop join us and avoid talking Mariners by begrudgingly talking Notre Dame football for a minute. We get to the nothingness that has been the Mariners' winter. They're not surprised Seattle wasn't a finalist, but it raises an eyebrow that the didn't even have a seat at the table. Chris doesn't want people to look down on Donovan Solano, despite the disappointment over the lack of a bigger move. Nathan thinks it's cool that he's here in Seattle and that the Mariners are better with him than without him. The only downside is that this likely means Justin Turner isn't coming back.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now from the Star Rentals Sports Tests, your ninety three
point three KJRFM sports headlines.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yg By Frost Brewed, Coors Light, Choose Chill. Last night's
wildcard game to the Vikings and Rams was as bad
as it gets. Very lopsided Rams twenty seven to nine,
and frankly, it wasn't even that close. They move on
to the divisional round. Sam Darnold lost some money. He
was awful. We'll get more into that in just a
couple of seconds. Matthew Staffords nineteen to twenty seven, two nine,
two touchdowns. He was good enough. Rams Eagles Philly Sunday

(00:29):
noon Pacific time. That should be a good game. Okay, Uh,
Mariners not among the finalists. A rand to land Roki Sasaki.
That was a shocker. We found that out right as
we were going off the air yesterday. The young phenom
pitcher from Japan has narrative landing spot down to three
teams Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays. Members didn't make a

(00:50):
signing yesterday, Solano Solano Bueller Buler. All right, because of
all these massive transactions, and mostly because they've been telling
me they want to rent and rave, we're gonna Molly
Wap Today at one o'clock, Christ and Nathan Ah, let's
see to do. Scott Service is gonna go with the

(01:12):
Padrey Special Assistant and our hockey team, Our hockey team.
They're gonna try to bounce back this afternoon. They've got
the Penguins in Pittsburgh, Sydney Crosby three point thirty pre
game with the Captain Mike Benton. Four o'clock, drop the
puck with Everett and al right here in your home
for the crack at nine three point three kJ FM,
and don't forget ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. It
is a cracking ticket Tuesday. And also don't forget our

(01:34):
cash conscients Right now sports right in a ninety three
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Play listen each weekday, every hour between six a seven
p the nationwide keyword enter on our website. Let me
emphasize that last line the web site. Do not text
it in yes ninety three to three KJR dot com.
We saw a whole bunch of texts yesterday. Go to
ninety three three kg yard dot com the website. This

(01:56):
hour's word is money. Let's go welcome into the oh.
By the way, Cracking Ticket Tuesday, don't forget every hour
you're gonna hear the sounder to be calling in at
two six, two eight, six ninety five, ninety five. Tenth
Collar will receive tickets January twenty eighth against the Anaheim Ducks.
The Ducks of Anaheim the team cl needs to catch
in the standings if they have any shot at all
to get to the postseason this year. The Seattle Cracking

(02:18):
So Cracking Ticket Tuesday kind of weere of the best
things we do on this station, to be honest with you,
to give away cracking tickets every Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
People, you know, still learning the game. There's a lot
of new fans. People haven't been to the rink yet.
I hear all the time people when we're doing our
pre and intermission to post game shows. People come by
the studio up there in the spacing a lounge. That
first time here is unbelievable. Yeah, man, let's get out
to the rink. Huh. And so we give you tickets,
and they are good tickets from what I hear from
our listeners, they are good seats we give away on

(02:46):
the Cracking Ticket Tuesday. So make sure you're the tenth
call today when you hear that sounder play, and away
we go. Where to start? Where to start? Well, I
we're gonna get in an hour's time to Rokie Society
and Donovan kling On. No, that's the basketball player, Donovan.
What's the guy's name? Kenzano? And that's the writer. No,

(03:07):
who is this guy? Klano, Catialano, Catalina, whatever the guy's
name is. I don't even care.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
I was gonna let you it's Solano.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Solano, sure whatever, he can't we just call him off
brand Dylan Moore. Isn't that what he is? Isn't he
just off brand Dylan Moore?

Speaker 3 (03:29):
I mean, we'll see.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
He's a veteran. He's thirty seven years old, maybe brings
a little more, so.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
He's just older that Dylan Moore super an older version,
an older version of sure whatever, justin Turner without the
power God. Anyway, we'll get into that. The boys will
join us coming up today at one o'clock. Just need need,

(03:54):
we need it. I brought up Mariners on Friday on
the radio, and I look at the text line and
people going Wind and Crew's coming on again. I think
people want, you know, somebody to rant with them with,
you know, oh sure, and they're good at that. So
why can't we have nice things? Like? Why can't we
have nice things? I just that's it's not that hard
to ask, is it. It's really not that hard, uh

(04:16):
the but you know what, nice things are hard in
sports period. Case in point, look at the Minnesota Vikings.
Justin Jefferson is a arguably the best wide receiver in
the game. Himbr Jamar Chase. Right, it's one of the two,
although puking the cool looks pretty stamp good right now.
But one of those two guys, he's only two in
the playoffs. It's been a while since the Vikings won
a playoff game. That was bad last night, and I

(04:38):
you know, we always put it in our own perspective here,
this is this is a very softy like thing to do,
because he does it anything in college sports. He puts
it in you know, how does that affect the Huskies?
I can't do that with the NFL. How does it
affect the Seahawks? The Rams are a team take the
last game out, that doesn't matter. I mean, Seattle should
have beat them in Seattle in December, right, like December,

(05:01):
in the November whenever it was the Sales should have
beat that team. They are just on a heater right now.
They look like they're playing at a different level. I mean,
if I'm Philadelphia, I'm scared to death.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah, they got hot at the right time, as they
like to say.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Right but with Seattle that and this is where I
bring in the Seattle. Were they that far away? Was
Seattle that far away? Because there were times the Buffalo game,
for sure that Seattle looked just outclassed. But you know,
Minnesota looks fraudulent. Last night, they looked fraudulent the last
two weeks. Part of it was the quarterback play in

(05:38):
Sam Darnold. And whether you like it or not, folks,
I'm just gonna give you a warning and a heads up,
whether you like it or not, the topic of the
entire offseason for the Seahawks again, or one of the
main topics is going to be Geno Smith. And I
know people say we get fatigued by that. Hell you
got fatigued by Russell Wilson. The Seahawks quarterback is a

(06:00):
big deal in this town, period, end of story. And
until they do something, and more than likely do something,
is contract wise, it makes it better for at least
the Seahawks and maybe even for Gino. That's going to
be a topic, but i'll tell you right now, and
we're gonna play some sound from Great Cosell on Friday

(06:21):
that we played yesterday for Hugh, that little part of
the humil in a Hardcore Football on the one o'clock
hour yesterday, Souse. I think it's very relevant. After watching
Sam Darnold absolutely melt down the last two weeks, I
think it's relevant. I don't know about you guys four
nine four or five one and tell them or new
text line when it's game time time. Actually, I don't
even know if we'll have time for text today, but

(06:42):
damn I I I feel better about Gino now than
I did before. Like the quarterback store that Coselle talks about,
it's it's running empty right now. It looks like when
you go try to buy eggs these days, it's.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Going to say low on stock, there's a quarterback flu.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, it's it's the quarterback store has got a quarterback
flu like the bird flu. Man. You can't find it.
You can't find eggs, you can't find a quarterback anywhere.
Sometimes you just gotta settle. Egg whites are fine Costco
the little cart and they are fantastic. Uh but yeah,
that's I came away that Sam Darnold looked so over
his skis got How about at one point Joe Buck

(07:21):
yelling to him to get rid of the ball, the
play by play guy telling him to get rid of
the ball. Then you've got to get rid of the ball. No,
he's tackled again for another sack. You know, I mean,
it was just it was chumming the water man. Those
guys are just feeding on it. Yesterday. It's crazy. I
feel better. I feel better as this young fan about Gino.

(07:42):
I didn't think i'd say that. A couple of weeks ago.
I hated how Gino played against the Chicago Bears. I
hated how Gino played against the La Rams stout team
and backups because I thought he played selfish in those games.
I thought he played to win, to get himself that
that seventy percent completion percentage. I didn't like what I saw.
You know, Hugh articulated it great during hardcore football those

(08:03):
the previous three or four weeks Receiver here open, I'm
watching them twenty two tape, the coaches tape. Here it is.
I'm telling you a third and seven here, Boom, Gino's
open Gino or DK's open or someone's jays ends open.
No check down, Charlie stuff. I hated how we played,
but you know, if Gino has an extension, if Gino

(08:24):
had the extension being something that's team friendly, then man,
God bless it. Do it right now, because that's what
you have out there. That's what you have out there,
is that kind of stuff. You know, Skyler Thompson's sunning
today with the Pittsburgh Steelers for goodness sakes.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Like, ugh, yes, it's just a Meegor year.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Does cam Warder do cam Warders? Should dour Sanders excite you? No?
And the whole shoulder Sanders sings a totally different deal
because if Dion gets the job.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
In Dallas, yeah, it's gonna be interesting.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
You can't get rid of Zach without a massive salary
cap hit, which I think probably prevents Deon from going
to Dallas, but who knows. So yeah, like I don't know,
we'll play that sound and we'll react on the other
side just a couple of seconds, because I think it's
more relevant than ever today, Greg's thoughts on the quarterbacks

(09:17):
in the NFL and in the draft, and Hugh's reaction
to it afterwards. I think it was priceless. Yesterday we
didn't get a chance to react to that, but after
watching Sam Darnold last.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Night, that was bad, especially and again.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
The last two weeks, like Detroit, just he looked over
his skis the last two.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
I mean, he's been playing to win, right, but he's
also he's in a contract year, so I mean technically, I.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Felt there's part of me that felt bad for him,
and there's part of me and said, dude, you're just
not that. That's just who you are. You've got Justin
Jefferson and Jordan Asen. Yeah, I'm I'm telling you, if
I was an offensive lineman for Minnesota, I'd want to
kill the guy. I'd want to kill the guy. He
holding on to the football. Just just get rid of it,
lived another day, right, Nope, Nope, nope, just hold on

(10:02):
to it and just it. Oh, it was horrible. It's
hard to watch. Part was hard to watch because I
hate the Rams. I'll be honest with you. I hate
the Rams just reason I just despise them. I despise
everything about them. I despise the organization as buys, the ownership.
I hate everything about La Rams period and a story.
And listen, they're not winning it for the folks that
are going through fires down they've got bigger issues to

(10:23):
worry about than if the Rams won a football game, right, Like,
the people that are really affected by the fires, they
weren't watching last night. They're they're trying to figure out
how to rebuild their lives. So no, I I know,
I'm don't make the Rams is some sort of like
emotional team that we can all latch onto during the playoffs.
Don't do that, Please, don't do that. They they've got
other issues down there right now than those guys. But

(10:45):
that was so that was part of it. I just
I just don't like the Rams. But man, that was
that was a hard watch story, all right, But a
quick break come back, Humillon, great co sel. What about
the quarterback future and what does it look like going
into the offseason. We'll do that next.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
From the R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio Back
to Ian Furnance, Power Advice, Seattle's closest sports book, Snow
Call Me Casino on Sports Radio ninety three point three
KJR FM.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Don't forget cracking ticket Tuesday. When you hear the sounder
tenth callar two six two eight six ninety five ninety
five wins tickets to a cracking game. This one will
be January twenty eighth, Tuesday. So what is that? Two
weeks for today? Yeah, two weeks for today Tuesday against
the Anaheim and Ducks, the Savannaheim Welcome back in in
for Netwi. Have I a show brought to by smokeclumba
casino back up there at the sports book on Friday,

(11:36):
getting ready for divisional playoff weekend. Hopefully we'll have some
better we will have better games, for sure, we will
have better games along the way. Texas Chiefs kick things off.
That's a one thirty kickoff on Saturday. Late game on
Saturday is a five o'clock Pacific time Commanders and Lions.
And Sunday Sunday, I can't wait for Man Rams Eagles
at noon, Ravens Bills at three point thirty. And I believe,

(12:01):
I believe we got we have hockey on Saturday. So
I'm guessing the Sunday games we're going to both be
on our station on night three three the other ones
on nine fifty depending on Husky basketball. So just well
I'll get that figured out. I should know that before
I just go winging it on the air. Jests.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
What would you like me to tell you exactly where
you can hear?

Speaker 2 (12:18):
That would be great. Yeah, that's a minus on my
part right now.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Okay, well it's not that big a deal.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
So on Saturday, on ninety three three kjr FM, we
will have both divisional games Texas Texans at the Chiefs
at one thirty, Ravens at the Bills at three fifteen,
so immediately following that, and then over on nine to
fifty am, we will have at five o'clock the Commander's
at the Lions and that's at five, So we got.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
On nine to fifty.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
So if you want to listen to all three games,
one after another after another, go kJ r FM.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
kJ r FM, then flip on over to nine fifteen.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
We only have two on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Two on Saturday on on FM, and.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Then the Saturday after the Saturday games on IT.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
Oh I'm sorry, yes, that is correct, that is correct,
and then over Sunday Sunday we have the Rams at
the Eagles and then uh Ravens bills.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
These they are both on ours on ninety three.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yes, okay, that is correct.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
We are the home for the NFL playoffs and we
are the home full of the Super Bowl. We're also
the home for Greag co Cell and Hugh Miller. I
asked Greg on Friday in our last weekly visit of
the regular season, I said, what just about the quarterbacks
and and his thoughts on Geno Smith? And then I
played that yesterday for Hugh Millan. I wanted Pew to

(13:35):
react to it as well, and I know he's got
great respect for Greg co Sell. So here is great
co Sell Friday and huge response because this is all
relevant after if you guys watched yesterday, watched Sam Dartle,
this is great co Sell Friday. Hugh Millan reacting to
it yesterday on the quarterbacks, the future, what it looks
like around the league starting with Greg stops on Gino Smith.

(13:56):
All right, let's look back at this season. I want
to start with the quarterback. If I can, to be
honest with you, if you know in this particular city,
the Seahawk quarterback is you know, whether you go back
to the days of some misdraft picks with you know,
Dan McGuire, Kelly, Staffer, Zorn and Craig who had good
success the kitten as the Moons, and obviously the good

(14:18):
ones like Matt and Russ early in his career, et cetera.
You know, the seat quarterback is one of the most
important figures in this city in terms of sports. I mean,
he just is one of the most talked about, one
of the most important figures. On Friday, Hugh, I know
a guy you have great respect for, Great Coselle Adam.
On my show is week we visit kind We were
putting a bowl on the season, so I asked him
the same thing I'll ask you. Here's Great co Selle.
On Friday, I thought.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
You know, Smith acquitted himself really well this year, given
all the issues we've spoken about. I think he's tough,
he's competitive, he throws a beautiful ball. I think he's
aggressive and willing to make tough throws, and I think
every once in a while that'll lead to a pick
that's a head scratcher. But for the most part, I
really like what Gino Smith did under really trying circumstances.

(15:02):
You know, the old line was a revolving door, so
and you know what a lot of people are now
starting to ask me about quarterbacks, okay, because you know,
even some quarterbacks like Rock Purty, I get that a lot.
You know, people must think there's a quarterback store that
you just go in and you buy a better quarterback.
You know, quarterbacks don't fall out of the sky, you know.

(15:23):
I mean it's easy to say that. Oh you know,
well Gino is not you know Josh Allen. Well no,
he's not Josh Allen. But you know what, there's not
many of those guys, and they don't fall out of
the sky, so you know, and you can't just go
buy one at the store. So you know, Geno Smith,
to me is a is a very professional NFL quarterback.
And almost every quarterback needs a team. And you know

(15:47):
that might sound cliched and people might say, you know
that that's not true, but it is true. And I
thought Gino Smith, under the circumstances, had a really solid season.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
So assuming there is no such thing as a quarterback store, Hugh,
I think he's right in that regard. I you know,
I guess my pushback to Greg would be and I'd
far be it from me to push back on Great Cosel.
But like is is ginal good enough though, to have
a team contend, not just win.

Speaker 6 (16:18):
Well.

Speaker 7 (16:19):
First of all, I think Greg Cosell is at the
level of a former player or coach.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
I think he really knows his football.

Speaker 7 (16:27):
I have high respect for him, and I agree with
most everything he said there. Now, think about it from
his perspective. He's studying thirty two teams, and he's particularly
studying the teams that are in the playoffs and more
relevant than the Seahawks are this year. So I think
it's very good to listen to his opinion. It's kind

(16:47):
of the view from thirty thousand feet, you know, just
relative that. It's just he's one of Gino Smith is
one in thirty two crossing his death at desk, and
that's not insignificant that he would have that impression. But
when he says that he's aggressive, that would be an
area I would question, because you know the next Gen
stats that the NFL has, They actually have an aggressiveness scale,

(17:12):
and Geno is ranked twenty ninth in the NFL on
the on the aggression scale and the number of attempts
where the air yards are five or more yards from
the Linescrimmage. Geno's thirty second, the number of attempts where
the air yards are ten or more yards, like throwing
ten or more yards from the lion scrimmage. Okay, twenty ninth.

(17:34):
So there are numbers there, and and and I would
just say this a couple of things because we heard
so much about Geno's completion percentage. He set the he
set the franchise record, his own franchise record. Again, he
got two million dollars for the completion percentage. He's fifth
in the NFL. And complete completion percentage. I've taken all
these stats, and I've run a correlation to winning on

(17:54):
these stats, and and correlation. I'm not going to get
into that. I think most of us understand it.

Speaker 6 (17:59):
But three oh eight. Just think of it like a
batting average.

Speaker 7 (18:02):
The higher your batting average, the closer yard to one thousand,
the closer to you are to a correlation to winning.
So threeh eight sounds like a good baseball batting average
because it is.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
But that's completion percentage. Remember that number.

Speaker 7 (18:15):
So Gina was fifth in but passer rating over the
last three years since Geno's been the starter. Uh, that's
a that's a much higher correlation to winning. Seven sixty
nine correlation. Well, Geno's nineteenth yards per attempt. Remember remember
what I said about the correlation for completion percentage, it
was a threeh eight yards per attempt seven oh five. Uh,

(18:38):
that's the correlation. Gina was thirteenth in the NFL. Here here,
this is all coming from the NFL stat portal, the
percentage completions first down or touchdown. That is a three
year correlation of seven eighty six to winning. Geno's twenty
third in that category. Third down conversions, here's a seven
to ninety correlation. Gino was nineteenth in the NFL. And

(19:01):
third down conversions. And here's the final one. This is
the granddaddy of all the things. I've got, like literally
over one hundred columns of stats. Here's a stat with
an eight thirty one correlation. It's called offensive total EPA
Expected points added. I think if you're a hardcore you've
been hearing about this statistic more has eight. This is

(19:23):
the only one I've seen over eight hundred, eight thirty
one correlation. Here's the here's the rankings in order. Number
one is Lamar Jackson, then Jared Goff, then Josh Allen,
then Baker Mayfield, then Joe Burrow, then Jane Daniels, then Jalen.

Speaker 6 (19:38):
Hurts, then Pat Mahomes.

Speaker 7 (19:40):
The average of those eight guys is one twenty four
point eight, with a high of like one seventy. Gino
is minus twenty five point eight. He ranks twenty fourth
in a category that is literally almost you know, two
and a half times the correlation to winning that completion percentage.

(20:00):
You say, well, what about what about Well, Gino's under pressured.

Speaker 6 (20:04):
Okay, yes, let's explore that.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Gino.

Speaker 7 (20:08):
If you take regular postseason the number of percentage of
times where he's pressured, this is pff. Well, he's tied
for fifth, He's tied for fifth with Lamar Jackson. He's
pressured less than justin fields and less than a point,
only a point away from Sam Darnold. The problem is

(20:33):
when he's pressured. His passer rating he is a sixty
point five. That's thirty second in the NFL. So that's
putting all quarterbacks in a situation when you're pressured, how
do you respond?

Speaker 6 (20:46):
And you know, here you've.

Speaker 7 (20:49):
Got people like Joe Burrow with one hundred and four
passer rating and when he's pressured and Gino at sixty
point five. Now there's one that's the pff. I'm gonna
go one other as we discuss the pressure for Gino,
because that's a big part of the narrative, right is
how much is he pressured? In the NFL stat portal,
they have a category called Advanced Stats. There's thirty two

(21:12):
quarterbacks at two hundred more attempts. Gino's pressure percentage according
to this twenty two point two percent. That's sixteenth, dead
in the middle. They have another thing that's pocket time,
which is quote the average time the QB had in
the pocket between the snap and throwing the football or

(21:32):
when quote pressure collapses the pocket. Well, Gino is twentieth.
There are nineteen quarterbacks who have less time than Gino,
and they include guys like Baker Mayfield, Pat Mahomes, Joe Burrow,
Josh Allen, Matt Staff, you, Jared Goff. So when you

(21:54):
start digging in and say, okay, well we know he's pressured.
How pressured is he? There signs where you say okay, yeah,
And it's a relatively tight standard deviation. If you had
a couple percentage lest what I mean by that, if
you if you took two piles of jelly beans, and
put it on the on the kitchen table, and they

(22:15):
were they were red, and they were green, okay, And
one had forty three rads and and and forty fifty
seven greens and one had forty one.

Speaker 6 (22:28):
Would you really know the difference? Like we're not talking.

Speaker 7 (22:31):
Even though the ranking in terms of pressured is is
as we said, fifth, he's not terribly pressured more than
a lot of other guys right in the middle that
are performing way better.

Speaker 6 (22:47):
You know, Jordan Love, for example.

Speaker 7 (22:48):
I mean he's he's I mean, he's barely pressured more
than Jordan Love. And and yet you see over and
over again these guys that have passer ratings that are
well above Geno sixty.

Speaker 6 (23:01):
So I don't know.

Speaker 7 (23:02):
I think that Gino, the more you slice it, I
think he's just kind of dead in the middle. And
I am eager to see how he do it with
better protection. But keep in mind, guys, we could improve
the protection, but the passer rating and his performance when

(23:22):
he is for I'll close with this, He's got thirteen
interceptions when under pressure. That's by far the most in
the NFL. The average is three point three. And Gino's
part of the If you pull Gino out of it.
It's three point zero. That's that's what quarterbacks have on

(23:46):
the average. And Gino is just like conspicuously the worst,
the most turnovers under pressure.

Speaker 6 (23:54):
So we can improve.

Speaker 7 (23:55):
The pocket for him, but he's got a improve what
how he performs the decisions he makes, what he does
with the football when he is because everybody is going
to be pressured, and you can't have a sixty point
five passer rating when you're pressured.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
So you know, I'm hearing it again too. I'm just
thinking to myself, I don't know where you go if
you're Seattle, because Gino has some obvious flaws, some massive flaws,
some warts that maybe are not curable, and you know,
one of those things would be you know, the decision
making that at this point in his career. Can he

(24:36):
change that? Maybe a new offensive coordinator can help change that.
I don't know. This will be his third offensive coordinator
just in Seattle with Shane Waldron. Was he here for
Shoddy too? I'll have to look back at least his third,
you know, Waldron, Grub and whoever the new guy is, like,
can you change that part of his game? The The

(24:56):
interesting thing is I'm watching last night, and there was
a couple times when Sam Donald was pressured, and I
guess I'm doing a lot of comparisons to Sam Darnald
with Gino.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
I mean, that makes sense right now because he's the
viable option though, right I hear stuff.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Like, you know, I heard Jorry Epstein on earlier with
with Greg and Chris from Yahoo Sports or senior NFL writer,
and she's like, well, you know, maybe he's still gonna
get you know, instead of forty million, Sam Donald's gonna
get twenty million. My god, you Sam dog gets twenty
million dollars. Like, I'm gonna question a lot about this league.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
I'm just curious who would.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Well, I think what it is. And this is what
the whole crux of the conversation even yesterday was, and
even on Friday with Greg. This is a quarterback desperate league.
You're desperate to find a quarterback that can help elevate
a team, not necessarily carry a team, but elevated team.
The Sam Donald indictment is pretty simple. You got Justin

(25:49):
Jefferson and you can't You couldn't get him the ball yesterday.
You take too many sacks. Your decision making is not
quick enough. Your arm streng Gino's got a better arm.
He throws a better ball, Like there's a couple of
balls even yesterday that Donald got rid of. He's short
armed guys had you know it? Just Gino can snap it.
I mean he can flat out rip it. So his

(26:09):
arm talent's indeniable, undeniable. The thing with Gino that is
the concern is what you just articulated, check down not
using that arm talent to the best of his ability,
and the decision making. So what do you do if
you're John Schneider, what do you do? Because I don't
think you're any better if you draft a guy You're

(26:29):
not gonna get one of the top two guys at
eighteen anyway. Gosh, I don't. I just I would make
me ill thinking about trading up in the draft for
one of those two guys, because neither guy is thought
to be really a no brainer. Like we've had the
last couple of years, and I'm talking about Shador and
cam Ward. So what do you do? What do you do?
It is? I mean, they've got they've got work to do.

(26:49):
I feel like watching Seattle at times this season, they're
not that far away. And then I think to myself. Yeah,
there's still ways away because their offensive line needs massive
hell help. The quarterback is still a little bit of
a question mark. There's still some questions on that defense.
The secondary, at least the corner position this year wasn't
as good as we thought it would be. Reeks got

(27:11):
to take a step forward. He's taking steps back. Is
job good enough? Cosell loves them. I don't know. There's
a lot of questions along the way. Take you break,
come back. It's Cracking Ticket Tuesday. We've got a daily
power play coming up next, so stand by for that
and don't forget. If you're the here of the stounder,
be the tenth caller two O six two eight six
ninety five ninety five, and you will win tickets to

(27:32):
the game on almost at August. Man, I'm losing my mind.
January twenty eighth against the Anaheim Ducks on this Cracking
Ticket Tuesday on your Home for the crack In ninety
three point three KJRFM.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Live from the R and R Foundation Specialists broadcast studio
back to Ian Fernance, Power Advice, Seattle's Closest sports book,
Snop Quality Casino on Sports Radio ninety three point three
KJR FM.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
All right, we're back, I think jeffsonon McIntyre. That's me.
I do believe Jessmon McIntyre, yes, that we were going
to wait for it, do a daily power play.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
You know what I was hoping you would say that
because I was ready.

Speaker 6 (28:24):
Golda puts in. I stop, It's Crosby Stop.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
This is the daily power play Deep Slot one, Tim
Kennon now Ian fernesz Son Sports Radio ninety three point three.

Speaker 6 (28:45):
Women wait for k j R FM.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
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the crew over there just down the street from Armont

(29:09):
where I'm at today here in Eastgate at the KRACK
and Hockey Network Studios, which are also the Group Studios,
as we get ready for the cracking tonight taking on
the Pittsburgh Penguins. Three thirty pre game show both on
TV and radio four o'clock drop of the bucks. Same
for tonight's game. Oh it's and you know what's always
the best thing to do is a Kraken ticket.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Tuesday Daily power Play, we have one winner. Name is
John Alderwood. John Calderwood. Calderwood's Calderwood Calderwood.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah, John was excited.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
He was very excited.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
He loves the show, sends his regards to you, and
was very pumped about going to that game.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
So that makes me happy.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
OD it's coming up two weeks from today, John can
go to the Anaheim Ducks Seattle Kraken at Climate Plagererina
c Bay. We can tell you we got one more tickets,
one more pair of tickets for us to give away
coming up at two o'clock hour or one o'clock hour, sorry,
and then the two o'clock hour and the three o'clock hour,
so three more chances too with Softy and Dick when

(30:07):
they hit the airwaves a little early today at two o'clock.
So as soft he would say, I can football my
makeup game tonight, first of two this season against the Penguins.
Said the kid. It's Joey to corn will get the
start tonight, by the way, I can tell you that.
So Joey Daxx goes in goal against Crosby and the Penguins,

(30:27):
who in some ways mirror Seattle. They are they're not
as bad in terms of first periods and giving up
first goals, but they're pretty close. So it's a storyline
that has gone on throughout the season. It's a storyline
that is taking place on seemingly every single night that

(30:49):
the Crack can come out slow, chase the game and
then I look, they've outscored their opposition by a pretty
healthy margin, have the Crack in this season? In the
third period they're plus thirteen and third period, that's great.
The problem is they're minus twelve in the second, and
they're minus eighteen in the first. Pittsburgh is minus five
in the first, minus fifteen in the second, and minus

(31:10):
twelve and the third. So get out of that first
period tonight on Scathe and the numbers tell you that
you got a pretty good chance to win this game.
They gave up four goals in the first seven minutes
and fifty seconds of period one on Saturday or Sunday
en route to losing six to two. They scored the
last two goals of the game. They were meaningless, they

(31:30):
were late, didn't matter, although I do like the fact
Oliver Buroi's trans got goals in two straight games. Saturday,
they also fell behind at the crackend in Buffalo two nothing,
but they've stormed back for six unanswered. But that just
is not a recipe for success. It's head scratching. It's
it's just mind boggling why they can't get going early.
I know a lot of people will look at coaches.

(31:51):
I'd look at players as much. You gotta be ready
as a player, you know. You know, yeah, you know
what time the game starts. And it's hard, man. You know,
I'm kind of feeling it. I'll be honest with you,
I'm feeling a little bit. All I do is talk
and just go on TV. Eighty two games long schedule,
and it's hard, and there's times when back to backs
are hard. Like Sunday, I'll be honest with you, it

(32:12):
was like, oh, man, really another game this early. But
you guys get paid a lot of money, get your
blank together and get going well.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
I mean, they've been playing this schedule for quite a
while now, for.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Quite a while, there's no there's no excuse, and it's
not like it's only on the backhand back end to
back to backs so that they're slow starting. So we'll
see a thing cranking up tonight. I think there's one
lineup change, which we'll get to later in our pregame
shows for the cracking tonight. But I kind of like,
who's in the lineup tonight, get a little little little jam,
little juice, a little little toughness in there. So you'll

(32:42):
hear that coming up in our pregame show three thirty
on TV. Bet I'll have it three thirty on the radio.
Captain did make it safely off of Crystal Mountain from
last weekend. I did hear, So that's good.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah. Did you see his videos that he posted? Oh yeah,
they're really fun. It looks like you know he.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Did you know that he's sponsored by Eddie Bauer? Did
you know that?

Speaker 3 (33:00):
I would believe it.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
I did not know that, though, Oh how could you
not know? You must not follow him on social media.
My Captain is the king of Eddie Bauer. He is
the king. All right. That's our daily power play nine
three point three KFM. I'm gonna do one other quick
note here has anything to do with the hockey team,
has something with hockey team. I saw my guy Bill
Wixie did a story this morning on Fox thirteen. I

(33:24):
guess Peyton and Camp had a little thing the other
day where they have a beard that beer is named
after him, after them at a local brewery. And I'll
try to I'll give you the name tomorrow or something
when I get to get it. But you know, there's
kind of like a bring back the Sonics rally again,
and it's all I like, I love that, I love

(33:45):
There's no bad things or so negative of that. I'm
just there's a reason you don't see you guys like
Brian Robinson and others out there front and center. It's
going to happen. I think Gary even mentioned the interview
with WIXI it's like twenty twenty seven. That kind of
makes sense. That will be the twenty years right since
the team left. It's coming, folks, It's definitely coming. It's
going to come to Climate Pledgerina News today from Chris Daniels.

(34:08):
I don't know if you saw this, Jess, and it
just sends people over the edge. And I understand why
that the city council today approves the use of the
former Sodo Arena sites for some some new residential housing
to be built down there.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
What about the ingress, egress?

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Im, what about it? What about the poor traffic? Jess,
everything you just said. If you go to Daniels in
his tweet or post on X, if you go down
and start reading the comments, you just nailed, nailed about
every single one of the comments.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
I figured I had it pegged.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
That's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
By the way, Fast Fashion Brewery.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, fast fat, Okay, there you go. Yeah, Kemp's got
a hazy and uh and I think Peyton's got a
Mexican liar.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
They look pretty good.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
I mean, it's just like you kind of a silhouette
of those guys making beer.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Those guys make could Yeah, so they make good beer.
So okay, But yes, I'm gonna just for your own sanity, folks,
just for your own sanity, because just reacted like everybody
else did. Yeah, and I did the same thing. Initially.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
I was in every city council meeting during that time.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
You know exactly what it's time to move on the past,
because because that site is done, it was over with.
It was frankly over with. The second Steve Bomber left
town Council aside Mariners pushing and pushing back aside. It
was probably over when Balmber left because he was the

(35:34):
money guy. When he went and bought the Clippers, that's
probably when it ended. But we've got a state of
the art, incredible building at Climate Pledge. Now, yes, that's
where the NBA is going to be. It's gonna be
awesome when it's there. Hopefully we can still continue to
see some revitalization of Lower Queen Anne, which would be
even better. Starting to see a little bit come back.

(35:55):
You know, our friends, the queen An Beer Hall, that's
still a primary destination for so many people before games.
And I can't wait till the NBA's here. That place
will be out of control. But we're going to have
an NBA team here within a couple three years at
the most. I'm very it's going to be a Climate
Plage Arena. We're going to have eighty two games a
year in the winter months between the NBA and the NHL.

(36:17):
Hopefully the Craken will be on the uptick by then.
I'm sure they will be, and we're going to be
back to where we should be. And that's a major
league city with all four major sports here, plus the
MLS plus the WNBA. All right, so just Soto hard
as hard as it is, let it go. Yes, that
was a different city council, by the way that we
have right now. Just let it go and clean, just

(36:41):
enjoyed climate places.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
It's such a great area to have that arena too.
It's bringing it back.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
Home and I think most people have, Yeah, for sure,
that's a good point. And I think the other part
of it is, I think people have figured out how
to get in and out, where to park, how to park,
you know. It's I think we've all figured all that
stuff out as well. All right, take a break, speaking
of taking a deep breath, that will be my advice
to the fellas. We are going to check in with

(37:07):
Nathan and Chris because some massive moves by the Mariners.
Tongue in cheek coming up.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Next now from the Star Rentals Sports to us your
ninety three point three KJRFM sports headlines.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Headlines are brought to you by Frostbreed Coups, Light Choose Chill.
Wild Card weekend finished yesterday rams twenty seven to nine
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either on nin point fifty AM or ninety three point

(37:41):
three KJRFM, your home for the NFL Playoffs and your
home for the Super Bowl elsewhere in sports, Cracking Tonight
taking on the Penguins of Pittsburgh road trip continues Seat up,
trying to get under the back into the win column.
They lost on Sunday six to two. They won on
Saturday six to two. They lost last Thursday six to two.
Maybe a game that's not six to two and a

(38:02):
loss would be good Pittsburgh with Sidney Crosby hosting The
Crack at three thirty pregame four o'clock drop of the
puck tonight on the Crack and Hockey Network on TV,
and right here on your home for the Crack at
nine three point three KJFM for the radio side that
Captain Mike Benton will get you going at three thirty
with the pregame show. That's good enough. You know why
we got to get Mariner's news in. But I'll do

(38:23):
that with the boys because they ladies and gentlemen are
standing by.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
It's Monday, then that means one thing. It's time to
mollywap uncensored, unscripted and filled with the passion that all
Mariners fans can relate to, and brought to you by
the company that's all about Seattle Sports, Simply Seattle. Visit
simply Seattle dot com for the best Mariners gear. Now

(38:47):
with the mollywop boys, Nathan Bishop from Doman Bedlam and
Chris Crawford with my oh why here's ian Fernettes.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
Love our guys is Simply Seattle. Although when I went
to the homepage today, fellas the first thing that popped
up on my screen. New Husky jerseys for baseball and
softball season are sitting up there. I don't need to
see that. I'll be honest with you, but you know what,
if you're a Husky fan, Simply sale dot com. They
are pretty cool if you like those kinds of jerseys.
Of course, they have the largest sonics collection in town

(39:17):
as well. Simply Seattle, Simply Seattle dot com. Well, it's time.
It was time to reconvene. It was time to get
the boys back together. On Friday, when I just brought
up a brief little topic concerning the Mariners and Roki
Sazaki on Friday and the show We're at emmal Queen
and we're still call me Casino. When I did that,

(39:40):
the immediate reaction, of course, was all positive with the
baseball team. Every fan was excited, and then of course
they said, when are we going to get our two
guys on? Huh? When are we going to get the
boys on? You know what, Nick Allen and others ask,
and you shall receive. They are here, Ean, Bishop Chris Crawford, gentlemen.

(40:03):
Great to see your faces, great to hear your voices. Chris,
how are you, sir?

Speaker 8 (40:08):
I'm hanging in there, sad that I'm not here to
talk about the sanctity of bowl games and how important
it is to preserve the integrity of the Pop Tarts Bowl.

Speaker 9 (40:19):
But I guess we can talk about some Mariner baseball.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
You want to debate that with me, we can do
that all day. Two point seven million average viewers is
a good thing. So that's that's why, that's why there
is a sanctity of that. Sir. Do not trash on
Pop Tarts, mayonnaise or Alamo, Like, are you trashing on
the Alamo. That's history, sir.

Speaker 9 (40:36):
I'll never forget it.

Speaker 8 (40:37):
I've been told that we're not allowed to forget a
lot of things, and one of them is Alamo and
apparently dumping mayonnaise on college coaches for the sanctity of
college football?

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Did you not enjoy, as a Husky fan watching your
quarterback of the future who will be at.

Speaker 9 (40:49):
Michigan in two years getting watched the game?

Speaker 2 (40:52):
All right? Now?

Speaker 10 (40:52):
I know boll games mean nothing for a prestigious program
like the University of Washington men's football team.

Speaker 9 (40:59):
Go Notre Dame, by the way, I'm just going to
get that in, because.

Speaker 11 (41:03):
That's the worst thing of all.

Speaker 10 (41:04):
Do you know what a messed up world we live
in that the righteous choice is the University of Notre Dame.
Have twenty twenty five rought upon us that I have
to root for Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
I went in and looked up something with Notre Dame today, yesterday, yesterday,
something with college football playoffs Notre Dame. And we have
a Stuart Mandel on Thursdays. I googled something with Notre
Dame and no word of A lot. Half dozen stories
popped up, and they were all the same, and they're
all like Notre Dame is now the team everyone's rooting for.
What kind of world are we living in? Is that

(41:38):
what college football has become? We're rooting for Notre Dame.

Speaker 10 (41:43):
You get behind college football as a vehicle to make
Brian Kelly look bad and sad, and I think that
has a lot.

Speaker 11 (41:50):
To do with it, and they will make sure.

Speaker 9 (41:52):
We need to call him Southern Dandy Brian Kelly.

Speaker 11 (41:55):
Brian Kelly say, I've missed a Brian.

Speaker 9 (42:02):
This is exactly what I wanted, is to talk about
another Dame football.

Speaker 11 (42:05):
So I having at don't don't.

Speaker 10 (42:07):
I thought we were here to talk about Dino's cap hit?
Is that not what we're doing today?

Speaker 2 (42:11):
We could if you want to do that. I'm sure that.
I'm sure there's a mile y episode on YouTube that's
devoted to that. Is there not? Yeah, I'm talking.

Speaker 10 (42:19):
That's why I talk about sports, another math, good stuff.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Always the light back going by the way, sir.

Speaker 10 (42:26):
Uh, you know, thanks to people like you and your
station and a lot of other very friendly people, it's
been off to just a really phenomenal start, and uh,
we're doing it every Tuesday and Friday. There was the
weekly round up of news today. I'll touch on the
same stuff that I wrote about this morning on our
on our show today.

Speaker 11 (42:43):
But thanks for asking. It's been really great.

Speaker 10 (42:45):
If you haven't already, just go to the light bat
dot substack dot com click that subscribe button.

Speaker 11 (42:49):
It's one hundred percent free.

Speaker 10 (42:51):
Uh, and I will seek to entertain you throughout the
twenty twenty five baseball season. I think I'll do as
good a job as the Mariners, but I might even
do a little bit better.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Well, it won't be hard. You have more syllables and
they have dollars in their payroll. So that's that's gonna
be right there. That's that's already a win along the way.
And of course my old y with Chris on YouTube. Okay,
I'm gonna go through. We'll get we'll get Sasaki, we'll
get out of the way, we'll get to the signing yesterday.
We'll touch in on that a little bit, and then
we'll spend some time on bigger picture and what needs

(43:23):
to happen moving ahead. Chris will start with you. I'm
assuming probably no one is overly surprised that they're not
going to get Roki Sasaki. I would say, I'm I'm
mildly surprised that it sounds like they didn't even get
a face to face Yeah, am I not? Am I wrong? Here?
Did Eachiro Suzuki not play for the Mariners and still

(43:46):
is a member of the organization? Mike, go if it?
Here's the red flag for me if you can't take
signing them away and I hate finishing second. Oh we
almost got show hey Hotan, that doesn't matter, sure, but
the bigger red flag you've got each row in your organization.
He's revered like, that's the he's the emperor man. You

(44:08):
couldn't like, he couldn't open the door for you, Chris.

Speaker 6 (44:10):
What the hell?

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (44:12):
I mean, look, there's a lot of red flags here.

Speaker 8 (44:14):
The fact that they weren't one of the finalists doesn't
surprise me. Like the Dodgers are a wagon, the Padres
have a perfect situation going The Blue Jays have, you know,
one of the biggest Japanese markets in the world, and
it makes sense that they would have interest in an
arm like that, and that he would have interest going
in a city like that. But everything that was being
said by his agent suggested that the Mariners should have

(44:35):
been major players Versuszaki, that he wanted to go somewhere
that player to velnment was important to him. Who's better
at pitching development than the Seattle Mariners right now. At
the same time, you know, he talked about maybe wanting
to go to a smaller market. Now, the fact that
the Dodgers are finalist here maybe makes that a little
less likely here. And I'll point out too that there

(44:56):
were thirty teams that had a chance at him here,
so it was going to be a really hard sell.
Like everybody had the exact same shot basically of letting
Brokie Sasaki.

Speaker 9 (45:04):
Some more realistic than others.

Speaker 8 (45:06):
But yeah, it is a red flag that the Seattle
Mariners weren't able to at least be in the conversation
for a guy like this, because everything pointed.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
To them being, you know, one of the on the on.

Speaker 8 (45:16):
That next precipice behind the Dodgers and the Padres in that.
And you know, it doesn't really matter if you finished
second or if you finished thirtieth. To quote my very
good friend Vin Diesel, doesn't mean if you or the
the if you, if you're not first, your last type
of situation. But I just don't think that it's a
very good thing that the Seattle Mariners were not mentioned here,

(45:37):
and it it's easy to be frustrated because we'll talk
about it more. They haven't been very many they haven't
been mentioned in very many things so far in twenty
twenty fours.

Speaker 9 (45:46):
Last twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
All right, Nathan streamlined this for me, just your thoughts
on did you ever have any hope, like true hope
that they were going to sign him? Okay, okay, so
this guy for you, for you, this was just like
we're going to put the period at the end of
the story. It was totally expected.

Speaker 10 (46:01):
Well, I think the thing that's disappointing isn't that they
didn't get him, because exactly like Chris said, you're you're
trying to compete with You're trying to be one of thirty,
and that's already stacking. And the thing that's key here
is that the reason that their competing form is because
of that posting process between the Japanese League and MLB.
The cost for Susaki is so low to get a

(46:22):
potential ace. That's why every single team is trying to
get him. So not getting him doesn't surprise me and
kind of just rolls off my back at this point.
But like Chris said, I think the thing that's concerning
is how easily it seems that they were dismissed here,
because if you extrapolated out, what kind of scenario is
going to lead to the Seattle Mariners signing a premier

(46:43):
free agent?

Speaker 11 (46:44):
Ever?

Speaker 10 (46:44):
Again, if they can't even get to the final table
with Rico Sasaki, a guy whose cost is so low
the ownership won't get in the way of them trying
to sign him, and a guy who potentially who reportedly
wanted to have pitching development be a priority for his
next destination. If the Maryors can't make inroads there, I
just don't see any scenario where they're ever going to

(47:05):
sign a free agent that the rest of the league
is trying to sign, And I think that's a huge bummer.
So I'm not surprised. It's a mild disappointment for me
that they weren't a little bit more highly mentioned during
the process, But it's hard to be surprised at this
point because of the way this organization continues to conduct
itself over the years, so in this offseason obviously being

(47:25):
a great example of that.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
And I think here's what I would just good points
by both of you, guys. Nathan, I hadn't thought of
it in those terms though. First of all, this is
not the ownership didn't want to spend money or screwed up.
I think it's important to point that out because, like
you just said, and you guys both, this was not
a well he's going to get eighty million dollars a

(47:48):
year and you know that's just out of their ballpark financially. No, no,
this was not a money thing. This is more of
a in my mind, this is more of an indictment
and kind of worse in some ways in finances that
the perception is what Nathan just said, Chris, and that is,
if you can't get this guy pitcher friendly ballpark, an

(48:12):
organization to throw flowers and bouquets are away, rightfully, So
like if you're a young pitcher and you've got a
choice to go to thirty teams just from the ballpark
pitching development. Look at Brian Wu two years ago. Who
now he's a I mean much less what Kirby and

(48:34):
Gilbert have done, Castillo, etc. Like Like this is like
wait a second, like how can you not get him? Well,
what does that mean for other free agents outside of
the money factors right that. Here's the thing I mean,
and I'm along with my apologies, this is your show,
but Chris, in the NBA right now, there's a huge

(48:55):
issue that and this has actually gone on for a
long time, and we're gonna see this here. I hope
Seattle won't be part of this, But there are a
handful of teams in the NBA that cannot sign free agents. Yeah,
not because of money or cap space. People won't go there.
Portland is one, Utah is another for some reason. Orlando's

(49:19):
been that team for whatever reason. Memphis falls into that category.
Charlotte probably falls into that category. Minnesota falls into that.
You get my drift. Are we those teams in the
NBA in Major League Baseball now where it's just not
gonna get guys that are good unless you develop them yourself.

Speaker 8 (49:36):
Yeah, I mean it's kind of been that way for
a while. Outside of when you have overspent what the
market suggests a player is worth. You know, you saw
the Robinson Cano contract, which nobody was predicting ten years,
two hundred and forty million dollars for that one. Outside
of that, yeah, Seattle has a tough time landing those
type of guys.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
It is.

Speaker 6 (49:55):
Now.

Speaker 8 (49:55):
It's a little weird here too, because you know, yeah,
I talked about Toronto having a big Japanese market. Obviously
Seattle has a huge Japanese market as well. Like just
you know, the international side of that thing. It made
sense there. But in terms of sighting guys who have
the absolute right to go wherever, Seattle's not going to
be a top destination. You have to travel more than

(50:17):
anybody else. It doesn't have the same type of you know,
baseball is very Latin American right now. You doesn't have
the same type of Latin American roots that other cities
have right now. It doesn't have the culture of winning.
This is the team that has never been to the
World Series. This obviously never won a World Series. So
there is that factor that it's going to be really
tough for them to sign free agents. That doesn't excuse

(50:40):
ownership not spending money, and it doesn't excuse ownership basically
not trying this offseason to spend money. The Sasaki situation
is a completely different one, but it does. It is
something that is going to be a detriment to Seattle
until they start winning a bunch, because once you start
winning a bunch. I think you will start to see
teams willing to sign at this place, but it's going

(51:02):
to be a hindrance. I don't want to make it
an excuse, but a hindrance to sign free agents because
it just doesn't have the same benefits that some other
major markets do.

Speaker 11 (51:13):
NAT well, yes, I agree with that.

Speaker 10 (51:16):
I also think that it needs to be acknowledged that
a lot of the encumbrances that they face are self
inflicted and self created. I mean, they have a rotten
reputation throughout the sport with agents and with players.

Speaker 11 (51:27):
Why is that?

Speaker 10 (51:28):
Is it because they don't like Seattle as a city.
People love Seattle as a city. It's a wonderful city.
So that's not the problem. The geographic thing is what
it is, and that's valid. And the lack of pedigree,
well that's a self perpetuating issue. So the reason that
you don't have any credibility and you don't have any
track record of winning is because you don't pony up
and pay the tax. The one time this franchise did

(51:50):
that with Robinson Cano and then Nelson Cruz. The next
year they built one of the coolest and funnest cores
they ever had, and had they just had the courage
to get one or two more guys, I think we
may not even be having this kind of a conversation.
We could be talking about the Seattle mannories in the
World Series back in that twenty fourteen to twenty eighteen window.
So this is not a scenario where guys will not

(52:12):
come here with full stop. It's that you are going
to have to show that you're a serious baseball franchise.
That leads me to my question to you, guys, does
this franchise operate like a serious baseball franchise? Do they
comport themselves in such a manner that would make you
think they're serious about competing at the highest level of
the sport. And if the answer is no, which it
very obviously is, then that's the problem. That's just they're

(52:36):
just stacked. They're creating their own issues, and then they
compound and then they get worse, and then they worse,
and then that's more of an excuse for them to
not try and not try, and then then we're here
where we're literally summoned here to talk and I am
very grateful to be here. To be clear, we're literally
summoned here to talk about signing Donovan Solano.

Speaker 11 (52:54):
So yeah, that's why we're here.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
We'll get to Canzano whatever's name is in a minute.
Get let me get let me go back to Chris
and just wrap up the Sasaki talk with this. Yeah,
the I think what I'm I'm just where I'm disappointed
is I don't want them to tray Luis Castillo first
of all, Like, let me just be very clear on that.
But if you would have got Sasaki, you would have

(53:18):
moved one of those I mean, you would have had
the ability at least to move one of those guys.
You probably would have moved Castile just from a finance standpoint,
because you would be able to bring something back in return. Right,
So from a bigger picture baseball, not a rotation standpoint,
how big a hit is this for what they could
have done with the roster building.

Speaker 8 (53:36):
Yeah, and even if you didn't, like, there's some talk
about the Seattle Mariners wanting to have a six man rotation,
and it would be something I wouldn't be completely against.

Speaker 11 (53:46):
Nathan's giving me the thumb like.

Speaker 10 (53:49):
That thought Nathan with I already tried it once and
everybody hated it.

Speaker 8 (53:53):
But yeah, than me, players don't like it, and it's
one of the main reasons why you shouldn't do it.
It throws everything off kilter, and you want your starting
baseball players or creatures have happened more than I think
any other sport, and taking that extra day is something
that I think you can't ignore. At the same time,
protecting the arms of Bryce Miller and Brian Wooh sounds

(54:13):
pretty darn good to me as well as well as
a Rokie Suzaki if you added him. Agree he's a
twenty three year old, Like, limiting those guys to one
hundred and forty one hundred and fifty innings is not
a bad thing whatsoever. However, the more likely thing would
have been a trade of Castillo, and you would have
probably been able to get I mean, there's already been
talk about that the Mariners didn't want to add Masataki

(54:34):
Yoshida on top of Tristan Cassas, But getting a guy
like Tristan Cossas to hit in the middle of your
order would be a pretty nice thing and much easier
to digest if you're adding a talent like Roki Suzaki,
one of the best pitchers in the world already as
a twenty three year old, So yeah, that would have
been something you could have made a lot more roster
moves and been able to digest those roster moves a

(54:56):
lot easier if you add a player like this. I
still think that the Luis Castillo trade is something that's possible.
It's just going to take a team that kind of
realizes that they need that stabilizing force in their rotation,
or it's going to take the Seattle Mariners lowering their
standards a little bit and not going for just the
middle of the order bat and not willing to take

(55:17):
on now. I personally would have done the Costas and
Yoshida trade. I think Masataki Yoshida's contract is not great
in terms of other contracts, but I think he's a
guy who could be a very nice player for the Mariners.

Speaker 9 (55:28):
I'm a huge fan of Christian Cassas's bat.

Speaker 8 (55:30):
But it's one of those two things that are going
to happen, and it would have been so much easier
to digest this if you add a player like ros.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
We'll come back and talk about what they did add
and I just I'm going to say this, if they
were to trade Castillo now without Sasaki and then you
take that out of the rotation and you bring back
something that is cheaper and Kenzano like or whatever. The
guy they Pisslona like you. I don't know if you

(56:00):
can have worse a worse you know, perception in the
market with your fan base, but I think that would
do it right there. Yeah, that would that would do
it right there. All right, take a break, come back
the additions including a new Italian guy and another guy
named Solano, Canzano whatever, and we'll find out if they're
any good at baseball. I don't know if they're good baseball,
good at baseball or not. But that's why Chris and
Nathan are here. We'll talk about the lineup looks like.

(56:21):
To wrap up, Amliwa brought to you by Simply Seattle.
Simply Seattle dot com. You're headquarters for all things Seattle sports,
largest sonics collection in town, period. End of story. Great stuff.
Bring them back, They're coming back. People, don't worry about that.
It's gonna happen, and it's gonna happen sooner than later.
You better have your gear on, ready to rock and roll.
All at simply Seattle dot com. Nathan and Chris continued.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
Now live from the R and R Foundation Specialists Broadcast Studio,
back to Ian Furnance, powered by Seattle's closest sports book,
SNOWP Call me Casino on Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ FM.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
All right, we're back, Molly Wap Monday on a Tuesday,
thanks to Simply Seattle, Simply Seattle dot com. I'm looking
over here at the Crack and Hockey Network slash Roots studios.
I'm in the touchdown room. Kind enough to get me
set up here. Love these guys. Just a shout out

(57:25):
to the great people that work on the Mariner broadcast
who also work on our Cracking broadcast. We have some really,
really talented people in this town that do television sports.
I don't think it's always appreciated recognized by the average fan,
but we have great people here is thanks to them
and they do a great job. I'm looking out here,
though I'm right outside my door. The the iconic picture

(57:49):
I think it was a batting practice. It's the Griffies
Junior and Senior standing there, arms folded, talking, smiling. A
great picture. Ah, those were the days, all right, Donovan Solano,
Chris Crawford, go so.

Speaker 8 (58:05):
Donovan Solano is a really cool story. This was a
guy who spent like seven years in the miners, never
got never had an OPS above seven hundred of the Miners,
gets a flyer with the Marlins, and since then he's
had a pretty darn solid career. What Donovan Solano can
do is he can hit left handed pitching. He had
an eight to sixteen OPS against them. He's capable of

(58:27):
playing third base. I think he's probably being brought in
here to be the platoon bat with Luke Raley at
first base. And if you give me a full one
to sixty two of Luke Raley and Donovan Solano at
first base, it's one of the few positions and definitely
the only position on the infield right now that I
feel pretty confident in being pretty solid. He's not a
great defensive player. He could probably fake it at third

(58:51):
base a little bit Harry met style faked style, But
at first base, I think he's going to be fine there.
It's not the sexiest signing, and I know, you know
people are going to complain that it's the only move
they made, but try not to take it as the
Seattle Mariners only move, and don't hold it against Donovan
Solano because Donna Vincelano is a really solid baseball player.

(59:14):
He's a probably a one and a half to two
War guy. When you combine that with probably a two
and a half to three War guy and Luke Rayley,
your first base position looks pretty set. He's not an
elite player. They didn't pay him elite money three and
a half million dollars with a chance to get to
four and a half million dollars.

Speaker 9 (59:30):
But I like this move. I think that it's disappointing.

Speaker 8 (59:33):
It's the first move they made another move today that
I think we can talk about. But it's a good
player that helps the Seattle Mariners, and I'm all for it.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Well, the guy that has hashtag no moves is disappointed.
It doesn't matter who they brought in because he just
wanted no moves. Is that right, Nathan?

Speaker 10 (59:49):
I mean, look, I'm just a student of history and
I've been studying the past and over the past couple
of years. When the Mariners do stuff in the offseason,
their team gets worse. So that said, look, everything Chris
said about Donovan Solano is one hundred percent accurate, and
I need the caveat everything I would say, was saying
that it's cool that he's here. Man, Like, this is

(01:00:10):
a guy that didn't even have a job going into
last year and had to sign on with the Padres
in May and carved out a guaranteed contract for himself
this year at age thirty seven. Man, that's pretty freakin' awesome.
That's a cool baseball story. And the Marions are better
now with him than they were without him. That said,

(01:00:32):
I don't see anything about the signing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Man.

Speaker 10 (01:00:34):
We've been doing this show for a while now, so
like we've had these kinds of conversations enough that I
can reference him. I don't see anything about this signing
that feels any different to me than getting Colton Wong,
than getting Aj Pollock, than getting Geez. There's so many
other ones Mitch Garver, Mitch Garver, Adam Fraser, any of
these other guys. And that's not to say that Donovan
Solano is doomed to be those guys, because that's not

(01:00:56):
fair to him. But as a Mariner Finn looking at
it just kind of objectively, the same people made the
decision to sign Donovan Solano, that made the decision to
sign him, and he's older than all of them, and
he's coming into the worst hitters ballpark in baseball. So
I think it's perfectly fine. Like every single transaction this
god forsake in front office makes, there's literally no risk.

(01:01:18):
So if he doesn't work out, I guess it's whatever,
and there is a little upside there to make the
first first base position okay. But like Chris said, I mean,
the only thing I would disagree with what Chris said
there is that maybe he's getting brought in to be
the first base platoon. But do you think that there's
not a world here where he's going to be asked
to do more than he probably should be asked to
do At some point in this season, if he's healthy,

(01:01:39):
he's gonna get stuck at third base. He's gonna get
stuck at second base at some point because they still have,
like like you said, three other infield spots that they
need to like shore up. They're not going to do that.
They have like eleven million dollars left this offseason. Eleven
million dollars that it's like a totally fictional number that
John Santon pulled out of, is you know what? So

(01:02:00):
like I don't know, man, like the idea of this
being like again, as Chris said, the thing that's so
defeating about this, this being the first move it was
January thirteenth.

Speaker 11 (01:02:10):
Man, Yeah, Like, why in.

Speaker 10 (01:02:12):
The hell did it take until January thirteenth to sign
Donovan Solano? Like this is embarrassing, dude, Let me.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Let me go back, Chris the so and Solano. You
paint a picture that's rosy and good and optimistic, and
I like it. And if he is the platoon first baseman,
my question would be because listen, everybody said the same thing,
like like that, Nathan just said, how is this different
than any of those guys we just talked about, right
outside of the fact he's older than them, if he

(01:02:43):
does make them better, right, and he sounds like he will,
like he this isn't a this isn't a guy that's
going to come in and be aj Pollock bad. I
don't think. I don't think. I don't think that will happen.
Hope not hope. Why did he not have a job
until yesterday?

Speaker 8 (01:02:58):
Because there's been this is typic when you see guys
who signed for three and a half million dollars sign
I mean, this is just kind of how the type
of market goes. I mean, sure, it would have been
nice to get a move like this done early so
that you can kind of move around, But this doesn't
prevent the Mariners from doing anything. What prevents the Mariners
from doing anything is the fact that the Seattle freaking Mariners.
That's what prevents them from doing anything if they had

(01:03:20):
nothing to do with anything that Donovan Solano does. That's
just the way these things work. But yeah, I don't
have any problem with it. The only thing that for
me that I didn't like about the Solono signing is
it almost assuredly means Justin Turner isn't coming back.

Speaker 9 (01:03:34):
And I probably would have preferred Justin Turner.

Speaker 8 (01:03:35):
Just because of the fact that you know, he can
be a first base guy who platoons with their I
think he has a little more offensive upside still even
at the more pop and also like one of the
revered clubhouse leader type of guys. Now, they could still
bring back Justin Turner, but if you're doing that, that

(01:03:56):
means Donovan Solano's your platoon third baseman, and I don't
want him playing very much third base. He's just not
a great defensive player at that position. The metrics say
one thing. My eye test and the people I've talked
to suggest that it would be a mistake to rely
on him more than ten to fifteen games at the position.
But that's the only thing I don't like about this
is that I kind of would have preferred Justin Turner.

(01:04:18):
Justin Turner probably would cost two acts this, So I'm
not going to defense yet.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Chris, Chris will real quick. The Mariners Miles master Bony.

Speaker 9 (01:04:30):
Perfect pronunciation, perfect pronunciation.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
You got that one good job you like that just
has read and just just has a look on her face.
She's read, you know what. She has the same look
as she'll have it. About nine minutes when Softy comes on, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:46):
That's exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
I was like, Okay, we haven't got over this yet.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
So master Bony gets gets added to the forty men roster.
He was defa'd by the Cubs. That's not a huge
resume piece. Who's this dude, Organizational depths.

Speaker 8 (01:05:01):
He's a guy who can play third base, second base,
short stop, you know that type of things. Night he'll
probably guy. I think he'll compete with Leo Reeves to
be that middle endfield guy. He's put up really good
numbers in the miners. It has not translated to the
majors at all, but I would imagine that those two
guys are competing for your backup middle infield spot. It's
the same thing as a way where Wire claim all

(01:05:22):
they gave up was cash considerations.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
Okay, uh, I have to ask what was so I
gotta tell people taken behind the curtains. So if we
do this on stream yards so we can see each other,
makes it easier to have a conversation with multiple people.
I haven't muted in the break. I'm doing some other
stuff and I look up and I see I see
Nathan with his great looking Seattle Seahawks old school Chuck
Chuck Knox hat courtesy is simply Seattle. I see Chris

(01:05:47):
with a cool looking Mariner's hat. Courtesy is simply a s.
But the entire the entire break, I just saw like
looks of consternation, maybe constipation, I don't know, shaking of
the head. What was the conversation going on? Well was missing?

Speaker 10 (01:06:02):
We were just talking about the Mariners farm and how
it's pretty good and how there's a lot of depth,
and how if hypothetically you were running a franchise that
didn't want to spend money, and if you were, hypothetically,
you know, in possession of a really really good starting
rotation that was like getting ready to get older and
or more expensive, it might really behoove you to, like
I don't know, trade from that farm to get better

(01:06:24):
so that you could try to win more baseball games
in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 8 (01:06:27):
Honestly, the big thing in is just you take a
look at how much middle infield depth that they have,
and I realized that one of those guys has a
chance to help you next year in Cole Young. I
wouldn't bet on it, but I think it is certainly
possible that Cole Young is playing for the Mariners in
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 9 (01:06:43):
But you just take a look.

Speaker 8 (01:06:44):
At how much in field depth they have, and how
infield prospects are such a precious thing to major league
teams that you'd think you could be able to move
some of these guys to get a middle of the
order bat like you would not even you don't even
need a middle of the order. I think the middle
of the order for the Seattle Mariners actually is pretty
darn good. It's the secondary stuff, like you should be

(01:07:06):
able to improve third base and second base with what
you have in your farm system. But they're prospect holding.
They're not just cash hoarding. Their prospect hoarding at this point,
there's no question about it, and that's frustrating because they're
ready to win right now. You have a core that
is ready to win right now. Make moves with your
farm system, trust that you are going to draft and
develop well down the stretch that it's okay to move

(01:07:29):
these guys. Don't have to trade for pre upcoming free agent.
You can trade for guys who can help you in
twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six and twenty twenty
seven to it. You've got the farm system to do it,
and you have the depth you have built this for
that particular reason to make these type of moves.

Speaker 9 (01:07:46):
It's extremely frustrating and extremely disappointing.

Speaker 10 (01:07:50):
All right, they won't do it. No, they want to
be clear, they won't do it. This is this is
what the Mariners are. This offseason is just like the
last two. We're in the seventh year of this rebuild
right now. This is the product. So everyone can decide
if they're on board with that or not. It's not
going to change with their actions.

Speaker 8 (01:08:08):
Prusturing to me too, though, Nathan is that, like, I
should be excited for this roster. There's actually not that
many holes to it, but the holes are so it's
like the sinkholes in Florida Wide that you see on
the roster and you think, oh, you have the stuff
to go fill it, go fill it because.

Speaker 11 (01:08:28):
They're so risk averse and they are so scared.

Speaker 8 (01:08:31):
Yeah, and if you did do that, you're not just
a contender for the Al West, You're a container contender
to win it all.

Speaker 10 (01:08:38):
There is a scenario right now, Chris, between now and
opening day, the marriage could build an American League favorite roster.
Right Therefore, right all they have to do is have
an ounce of courage to just go out there and
try to do it. And if they failed, if they
tried and they failed, I would love them for having
the guts to even try. That's all I'm asking. I'm
not asking them to make the World Series. I can

(01:08:59):
be a fan of a team that never makes the
World Series, obviously, Sure, please make a team that wants
to make the World Series. It's killing this entire region's
love of the of baseball, and that's killing me. It's
just so hard to watch.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
That, by the way, would be the one thing they
could probably do right now that would you know, like
if you miss, you miss, But as you said, make
those aggressive plays that would change the whole perception in
the community of who they are, because right now, the
relationship between the team and the fan base is it's
it's reflected in art on this it's it's reflected in
what we see and hear on the radio station, not

(01:09:35):
just my show, but Softy and others. It's reflected there. Okay,
we gotta go as news, as news warrants, as topics warrant,
we call them. They're on speed dial. They love hearing
from me. They love they love doing it because they
like simply Seattle. Probably not because of me, but just
because of simply Seattle. So let's shamelessly promote what we

(01:09:56):
got going on, Nathan uh go again.

Speaker 10 (01:09:59):
Please the light back at substack dot com. It's one
hundred percent free. I will only bother you two times
a week, and I'll try to make your mariner's experience
more enjoyable.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
Okay, your thesaurus next to you when you're reading it. Okay, Chris,
what do you got?

Speaker 9 (01:10:11):
Mayle Y on YouTube notre Dame forty two, Ohio State
twenty one.

Speaker 6 (01:10:15):
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
Chris also has a rosary behind him. That's why a
co Catholic guy. All right, Well, Doe, God loves you,
and he loves the Notre Dame all right, and he
doesn't like BYU. Okay, we'll take a break. That's it.
Nathan Chris Molliwap in the books Big Thanks, simply say,
I'll simply say dot com