Furness Show 8-27: Brandon Montour, Eno Sarris, Brandon Funston

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Doing well.

Speaker 3 (00:01):
It's good to be back, like you said. Good to
sleep in for a couple extra hours here and there.

Speaker 4 (00:06):
Yeah. Excited.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Excited. You're at the 32 today, huh?

Speaker 1 (00:09):
We are at the 32. We've got some news we're
going to get to coming up here in about 15 minutes' time.
So stand by for that.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Cracking news. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I will tell you there's a reason and a big
reason we're here today. Not just for giggles. I was
almost going to say, I was also going to use
softies term.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Shiggles and gets not just here for shiggles and gets
me every time i like.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
My hand hovers over the dump button when someone says
that so yes.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yes so we're here today uh big news coming up
which we'll get to here in just a couple of
moments uh lots going on out here i'll i'll fill
you in at 12 20 what's going on there i'm
chuckling at some people.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Anyway is it the captain.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
He's filling in for Greg Bell tomorrow. You need a
fix of the captain, you'll get your captain's fix tomorrow.
We've got a lot to get to today. First of all,
let's just tell you this. Brandon Funston is going to
join us today at 2 p.m. It's another in our
preview series for Fantasy Football. You love it. I love it.

(01:17):
We all love it. It's the unofficial start of the weekend.
We're going to talk quarterbacks... And wide receivers today. I'll
tell you what, everyone, this is a VIP, how do
I want to say this? This is a big shooter
world that we're walking in. Some guy named Mike Wickey
just walked in.

Speaker 5 (01:35):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
And Samantha Holloway. You might have heard of her name before.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
I wonder what's going on.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Lots going on. There's lots going on out here. Anyway,
so stand by for all that at 1220. I'm just
going to say this. I don't know how often you're
sitting in a, restaurants, which, first of all, there's only
one that's adjacent to a facility here. The Mariners don't
have that, although they've got a halfback, I guess, or
the Seahawks. The owner walks by and just says hi.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Oh, hi.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Hi, how are you?

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Hey, John Stan, what's going on? Hey, Coastal family, you're
Jody Allen. What's going on? Anyway, we've got that going on. Listen,
we're going to spend some time on everything, a little
bit more at one. We can sink our teeth into it,
Mariners and Seahawks. And Eno Saris is going to join
us at 1.30 to talk Mariners with us today. Brian
Wu struggles yesterday. Is Cal back?

Speaker 4 (02:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
0 for 4. We'll get to that and so much more. Again, Funston,
if you have a question for your fantasy football draft
or keepers or trades, 49451. We'll get to all that
coming up at 2 p.m. this afternoon. So all that
taking place. Let me start here. Leonard Williams re-signs with
the Seahawks. I haven't seen anything from them. I haven't checked.

(02:47):
But with all the different outlets reporting it, it's a
done deal. Three different, or a three-year extension is amazing.
For a guy that a lot of people thought was
probably going to retire in the next year or so,

(03:10):
maybe even after this year. And this dude's sticking around.
He is sticking around. And I think that is just
an absolute... I think there's two things with it, Anders. One,
it shows you the culture and who and where they're
at right now. Like, what's going on. It tells you
everything you need to know about the Seahawks. The guys, like,
for example, DeMarcus Lawrence. He was going to retire. He

(03:32):
said he was going to retire. Even after winning the
Super Bowl. Wants to come back and run it back,
try to go back-to-back, which just doesn't happen all that often.
So that's a big one. Number two on that list,
and I think this is really wild is I think
you have a situation with Mike McDonald. Guys want to
play for him, right?

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Guys definitely want to play for him, and I think
that's a big thing. Guys want to play for Mike McDonald.
That's huge. We're going to talk to Brandon Montour at 1245.
That was the story of this offseason for the Kraken
is the fact that guys allegedly didn't want to be here. Like,

(04:14):
and I say guys, one in particular in Jason Robertson,
but he didn't want to go anywhere besides Dallas. But
for some reason, Seattle got trashed. It comes with a
winning culture. Going places comes with a win. I think
the Mariners, we've talked about that over the years with
the Mariners, right? Like, they will get some guys, but
a lot of times they've got to overpay for guys.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Hell, even a nothing burger, yeah, even a nothing burger like,
what's his face, Rob Refsnyder. You had to overpay for him.
They had to overpay for him. But even over the years,
whether it be Cano or Cruz, guys like that, that
they've wanted to get here, they've had to overpay for
guys just to get them here. The Seahawks just have

(04:56):
guys that want to play in Seattle for that organization,
for John Schneider, for Mike McDonald, or even delay retirement
for a couple of years. I think it's a big deal,
not just from a football standpoint, but I think just Also,
the leadership he provides, all those other things. It's a
big deal seeing Leonard Williams back for three more years.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, and you're seeing kind of the effects that the
culture has on the team during hard knocks. I think
you're definitely seeing why Mike McDonald and a lot of
guys have talked about this. But it's interesting to see
it as fans. You're seeing why they all view him
as a very genuine head coach. You've seen all these hype-up,
rah-rah guys that just know what to say in the

(05:34):
right moment, but you can tell it's not very genuine.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
And players... They're smart.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
They know when that's kind of BS, and they're just
trying to say something to get them hyped up for
that moment. That's not the case with Mike McDonald. They
know that this guy is truly believing everything that he's saying,
and he's trying to build something special here, and all
the players are buying into it.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
It's another example.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
I also think it shows Leonard Williams, while he's 32,
and you could maybe think football-wise, yeah, he's kind of
on the tail end of his prime, so to speak.
First of all, that might not be the case, because
you see a lot of defensive tackles play into their
late 30s. Um, and so I think that's going to
be something that, um, is going to be just fine
in terms of the, the, the actual physical side of things,

(06:13):
but he's a big time leader on this team. You
see him a bunch, uh, and I'll reference hard knocks
again after Mike McDonald had the whole, uh, OJ, um,
talk and Leonard Williams comes up to him and was like, Hey,
thanks for sharing us. Thanks for sharing that with us.
And like, he's kind of a good liaison between the
coaching staff and uh, and the players and you could

(06:34):
tell how much of a leadership presence he is. So it's,
it's very important to have that in your, uh, team Mariners,
Gino Suarez. Um, so valuing that is very, very important.
You could see the Seahawks do that.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah. The Gino thing is weird. I, I don't know.
Is he, is he, what was it? 3 million? It
would cost them.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah. I mean, that's a lot for one month, but, Oh,
for God's sake.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
You make that in beer sales.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
In one week.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
100%.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
For these guys that are obsessed on value, though. That's
just what they are.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Here's a funny thing. I kind of like Weston Wilson.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, I know you do.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
I don't know why.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
I don't know why. I guess I like the little guy.
I like him. I like Rivas.

Speaker 5 (07:25):
Rodden.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, Rodden, a 29-year-old rookie. Listen, Rodden's up because Emerson's
got surgery.

Speaker 6 (07:33):
100%.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Okay, let's be honest. But I think if you look
around with the organization, what are they missing? If you
really like going for it, go get Geno. He's not
going to play every day. He's going to cost you
$ 3 million. My God, in baseball terms, that's nothing. You know,
and you have them play. You bought out Ref Snyder,
did you not?

Speaker 4 (07:54):
Yeah, I did.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
You can't care about money that much.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
No.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Like, really, it can't be that frugal. You bring them
in for a month. Let him get rah-rah, good vibes only.
Maybe he hits one or two out and makes a
difference in a game or two, and you're like, okay, cool.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
And there's no negative to this besides the money.

Speaker 5 (08:09):
Zero.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
He is a better player than Weston Wilson and Patrick Wisdom.
Maybe the reason you like Patrick Wisdom so much, Ian,
is he's— I don't like Wisdom.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
I like Wisdom.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Oh, sorry, sorry.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Weston Wilson is— wait for it— is a third baseman playing— wait for.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
It— third base. which the Mariners have not had in the
last couple of years. Besides when they traded for Suarez, right?

Speaker 7 (08:31):
No.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Well, that's the other thing watching him play right now.

Speaker 6 (08:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Like, yeah, JP's back, but Donovan's hurt.

Speaker 6 (08:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Again, I know we're all shocked by that.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Shocking to know.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
I mean, it was a freak accident. Stuff happens and,
and I don't want to, he didn't want to get
hurt by any means, but dude hasn't been able to
stay healthy all year.

Speaker 6 (08:51):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
So like, Are you really confident he's going to stay
healthy if you take this long run in September and
maybe even find your way into October?

Speaker 5 (08:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Like, really? Are we sure?

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, and it's just like... Taylor.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Ward you bring in, you're supposed to get on base.
He doesn't.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Has one walk as a Mariner. I'm like, what?

Speaker 1 (09:07):
And maybe checking notes here real fast, this just in,
led the league in walks before he came here. Oh,
my God.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
So wild.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Hey, they still had a 4-2 home.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
Yeah, they did.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
And we'll touch on that a little bit more coming
up at 1 o'clock today. And then Eno's going to
join us at 1.30 for some baseball conversation as well. Again,
it's the unofficial start of the weekend. Coming up today
at 2 o'clock.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
I need some help.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
I have not done my rankings for my fantasy football
leagues yet, so Funston's going to help me out today.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Well, if you subscribe to The Athletic, all you've got
to do is download the Excel sheet. I figured out
how to download and customize the Excel sheet.

Speaker 5 (09:43):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
That's what's crazy.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
That is crazy. That's the breaking news of the day.
Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
If I can figure that out, anybody can figure out
how it works. So you can do that as well
at theathletic.com. So Funston's going to join us. Just dial
in at 2 o'clock. 49451. We'll get a couple. phone
calls in if you like as well. But we'll go
through quarterback rankings and wide receiver rankings, which are always
big for him. This year, not as much. I think

(10:10):
he's more high in the running backs, judging on last week.
Quarterbacks are big, especially if it's super flex leagues. We'll
do that with Funston coming up then. All right. Brandon
Montour is going to join us coming up at 1245.
from the 32 Bar and Grill, but that's where I
am today. 32 Bar and Grill, Kraken Community Iceplex, hanging
out here today, and there's a big reason why, which
would be a big announcement, very big announcement, and we

(10:32):
are going to give that to you from the 32
Bar and Grill next.

Speaker 7 (10:40):
Now back to Ian Furness on your home for the Huskies, Kraken,
and the 12th man. Brought to you by Seattle's closest
Snoqualmie Casino and Hotel on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
We are back at the 32 Bar and Grill, Kraken
Community Ice Flex. Ian Furness with you here until 3 o'clock.
Don't forget Funston at 2. 4-9-4-5-1, your questions for the
guru of all things fantasy football. We've prepped you up,
ready to go. Unofficial start of the weekend. Eno Serra's
coming up at 1.30 today. We'll ask him what the
hell's wrong with Brian Wu and is Cal fixed? We'll

(11:20):
get to that at 1.30 today. But we're here today
at 32 Barn Grill for a really special reason. We've
been talking about some stuff for a while. Wanted to
come out here and we're waiting for everything to get
figured out and done and taken care of. And I
always like coming out here, seeing Kenny Moriarty and the
great crew at the 32 Bar and Grill. Maybe grab
a bite to eat. But my personal preferences don't matter.

(11:44):
Why we're here today is much bigger than that. Sports
Radio 93.3 KJR FM, formerly Sports Radio 950 KJR AM,
the longest, oldest, original sports station here in Seattle. Longtime
home of the Huskies, but really the home of the
fan in Seattle. And this goes back almost four decades

(12:07):
to the days when Keith Shipman and Rick Dupree were
first hosting shows. And you go through the years with
Sports Babe, the fabulous Sports Babe, and Graz and Gas
and all the other greats that have come through here
and hosted shows and have been the place where you,
the fan, has come to as well. And it's an
interesting world in radio these days. Not just sports talk radio,

(12:31):
but sports broadcasting and sports radio as a whole, but
just radio, period, is an interesting thing. I'm a big
believer in local news and local sports radio is always
going to have a place on your dial, is always
going to have a role in a community, is always
going to have a place that sports fans in their

(12:53):
locale can feel like, hey, that's mine. There's certain ways
you do that. Compelling sports talk. Hosts that you can
relate to. Hosts that you know that have equity in
the market. A guy like Softee who's been here for
65 years. And others. But you want that. You want
all those things as far as sports radio and sports
on the radio is concerned. The other thing you want

(13:15):
on sports radio and on the radio would be live sports.
We are the home for the Huskies. Football and basketball.

Speaker 8 (13:24):
Sorry.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
And, no, we are. And it's actually, it's one of the,
it's for KJR. KJR made Husky football, took it to
a different level years ago. It left briefly. It's back
where it belongs. Excited for Elise Woodward, who's the new
voice of the Huskies this year, my former partner on
the radio. She gets the opportunity to sit in the

(13:47):
booth that was occupied by the Hall of Famer Bob
Rondo at one point and then Tony Castricone as well.
but we're the home of the Huskies and real proud
to be the home of the Huskies. We have also
been the home for the last few years of the
Seattle Kraken since day one. Edward Fitzhugh is the radio
voice of the Seattle Kraken, and he's with me right now.
I'll let you do the honors.

Speaker 9 (14:08):
Yes, it is a big day, and you talked about
the changing world of sports radio and sports broadcasting and
play-by-play in general, and this is an organization since day
one that has always been committed to the radio broadcast,
to bringing every listener, every fan in our region, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho,

(14:32):
parts of Montana, comprehensive Kraken coverage.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
And today we have.

Speaker 9 (14:36):
Announced a multi-year extension with the Kraken Audio Network, KJR,
iHeart as well, to continue being the flagship home for
Seattle Kraken Hockey. So all of our Preseason games, all
of our regular season games, all of our coming postseason games,
the first run to the Stanley Cup final, hopefully in

(14:56):
the next not-too-distant future, will all be heard right here
on 93.3 and all across the 23-station Kraken Audio Network.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Fitz, it's significant for us, selfishly at the radio station
and at iHeart, to have this extension done, to continue...
being the home of the Kraken for what will be,
I guess when it's all said and done, at least
a decade and hopefully a lot longer. But how significant
is this in today's NHL? It's massive. I would say

(15:28):
not just today's, today's NHL, NBA, everywhere. Well, I mean, listen,
number one, it's huge. When you have five teams in
the NHL right now that are simulcasting their television and
their radio broadcasts, on the radio.

Speaker 9 (15:43):
It's a completely different game. When you look at the NBA,
a number of radio broadcasters don't travel with their teams.
You have a team in the Seattle Kraken that is
not only committed to the radio side, they are committed
to putting their games on the radio, they are committed
to putting as much energy and effort and time into
their radio product as they do their TV products.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
And it shows.

Speaker 9 (16:05):
And Terry Ryan, our engineer, one of the best that
we have in the city, definitely, but in the NHL
as a whole. I mean, there is no broadcast that
sounds better. There is no broadcast, I think, that is
promoted better in the NHL than the one that we
have right here with.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
iHeart and KJR.

Speaker 9 (16:23):
So this is massive because you've got teams who are
going away from radio. And now Sam Holloway and Todd
Lewicki and the rest of Kraken Management are and ownership
are showing their commitment to the radio side of things,
to making sure that everybody in this region has access
to these games.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
KJR became a station and put its name on the
map as the home of the Sonics for forever, for
a long, long time. And that was, in fact, we
all talk about it, the beginning and the end of
the Sonics was in 2006 when they moved their radio
broadcasts off of KJR and onto a conservative talk station

(17:04):
with a signal that probably couldn't be heard from here
to the end of the practice rink here. And that
was it. But it also showed the lack of commitment here.
It showed the lack of commitment to the fans. I
think that's what this is. This is for the fans. Now,
I'm very biased. I personally believe certain sports, if done right,

(17:25):
are great on the radio. Baseball, for sure. And tip
of the cap to the great Rick Riz who's going
to step down after this season. A long time, 41
years as a radio voice for the Mariners.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
Give them something.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
I mean, win one for the Rizzer, right?

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Win one for the Rizzer. You've got to get to
the playoffs for him. But, I mean, I grew up
listening to Dave Niehaus and then Rick as well. And
Gary Hill, shout out to him, does a great job.
Baseball and radio is a little different than any other sport.
But it's the sounds of summer, but it's done well.
I think if you have a really top-notch basketball team,

(18:02):
Play-by-play announcer, it can be done well. It can be
done great. Kevin was that way. Kevin did simulcast, but
he was more concerned with the radio call than the
TV call and was phenomenal at it along the way.
Brian Wheeler, the late, great Brian Wheeler down in Portland
who worked at KJR, was the Blazers broadcaster. I listened
to a ton of his games. Brian was great. Right
corner three, boom, chuck-a-luck of the whole thing. He was great.

(18:22):
You do a great job on our broadcast, and I
think hockey on the radio, if done right, with a
great play-by-play guy and the commitment to have a full-time
color analyst.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
And a studio host.

Speaker 6 (18:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Sounds awesome. And you mentioned what Terry Ryan does and
how the sounds of it, it pops. It pops. And
I think it's important. It's a great conduit because, listen,
over here on the KHN side, on the TV side,
not everybody's home at 3 or 4 o'clock.

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Not everybody's home at 7 when they're driving their kids,
going all over the place, right? And going to get, like,
we need hockey on the radio, and I think it's
done right by you guys.

Speaker 9 (18:55):
And the one word that you said multiple times was commitment, right?
It is a commitment not only from, iHeart, not only
from KJR, but also from management here with the Seattle Kraken.
Everywhere in this building, there is that commitment to excellence,
whether it be on the radio, whether it be on
the television side. Getting this product into the homes of

(19:17):
as many people as we can, into the ears of
the devices of as many people as we can is crucial.
And the one thing that I've noticed, and you mentioned
all of the greats that we've had here in Seattle.
I'm not a Seattle native. I'm from Detroit. But this
is now my home. And I've had the privilege of
living in Chicago. I've lived near Cleveland. I've lived in Cincinnati.

(19:38):
I've got friends all over the country. There are very
few markets where sports radio not only moves the needle
in those communities, but it drives the conversation.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
People like yourself.

Speaker 9 (19:50):
And Softie and Chucky in the morning literally drive a
lot of the sports conversation in this entire city. Sports radio,
sports talk radio, sports play-by-play matters here. For myself to
be able to be in the same city as a
Rondo and as a Riz and as a Niehaus and
as KC and even Castricone, a guy that I've gotten

(20:12):
to know pretty well, Elise Woodward, who I've gotten to
know throughout her time, my time here. There are some
great voices in this city, and you're right.

Speaker 5 (20:21):
You do it right.

Speaker 9 (20:22):
The fans appreciate you. I have been very fortunate that
I've gotten nothing but love and kindness from the folks
here in Seattle and all over our region since the
day that I stepped foot in the city with my
wife and And now we've got a family here, and
this is our home. My son is a Seattleite. Last summer,
for the first time, when someone said, hey, where are
you from? I said Seattle. You know, I stopped saying, oh,

(20:44):
I'm from Detroit, but I moved. No, I'm from Seattle.
This is my hometown now. So it's an honor to
be here. It's an honor to work for the Kraken,
and it's an honor to be a part of KJR
and of the iHeart family to continue doing what I
love and bringing the game that I love to life
for so many people.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
How ever fits you with me again, Kraken and, uh,
and I heart media, KJR radio sports radio, KJR, uh,
announcing an extension, a multi-year extension with the team. So, uh,
Kraken hockey will continue to be here on 93.3 KJR
FM fits. I think the thing I just keep going
back to is this. It's a weird world we're living in,
in the, in the business of broadcasting, uh, across, I mean, Vancouver,

(21:26):
British Columbia, just, lost its final sports radio station. Calgary
as well. Calgary as well.

Speaker 9 (21:31):
How do you have two Canadian NHL markets without a
functioning sports radio station?

Speaker 1 (21:38):
The only game in town that matters in Vancouver would
be the Canucks, and that team doesn't travel its radio
broadcast team, and now that radio broadcast team is no
longer on a sports station. Instead, they're on a, they
call it, well, we have a station, Jack FM. It's
a play-everything-anytime-anywhere station. odd all the way around. How important
is it for the Kraken to have this where it's

(21:59):
Mike Benton is doing 30 minutes pregame. You guys are
doing the game. We're doing an hour postgame on the radio.
How important is that, especially compared to the rest of
the league?

Speaker 9 (22:06):
I think it shows that legitimacy. It shows that hockey
isn't an afterthought. It shows that hockey does have a
place within our market, within our sports psyche. I'll go
back to the word again, commitment, right? Committing, putting the dollars,
putting the manpower behind making this product available, making it

(22:29):
a big deal. This is going into year six of
the Seattle Kraken, and we already have the second, third
largest radio affiliate network in the entire NHL. We're larger
than Detroit.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
Speak on that for people who are wondering what that means.

Speaker 9 (22:41):
So what that means is we have more affiliates now
around our region our region is larger geographically as far
as along with stations so land mass as well as
number of stations that broadcast our product there are only
two teams in the NHL that do more than we

(23:02):
do and that's Minnesota and that's Pittsburgh the Kraken have
more affiliates than Toronto they have more affiliates than the
Rangers then the Bruins then Detroit then Vegas name any
team outside of those two teams that And the Seattle Kraken,
our reach is wider and our reach is heavier than
all but two teams in the entire league. And we

(23:23):
just finished year five.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
And that's just the radio over the air terrestrial radio.
That's just the radio over the air terrestrial radio. We've
got multiple affiliates in Alaska. We've got multiple affiliates in Oregon.
We've got an affiliate closer to San Jose, the Sharks Market.
than it is to Seattle. We've got affiliates all over Idaho.
The western part of Montana, you can get Kraken hockey

(23:47):
in there as well. So again, we've taken this footprint,
this Kraken media footprint, and wherever there are people, wherever
outposts there are, wherever major metro area, Spokane, Portland, Boise,
doesn't matter. Kraken hockey, last I heard, we can be
heard in about 99% of this market. Literally every Kraken

(24:10):
fan within our footprint can hear these games. And of course,
the iHeartRadio app allows that to reach to be even broader.
I think the one thing, you know, on the TV side,
we're the same way. It's like when Todd made the commitment,
I like that word, to leave Root Sports. Saw the
writing on the wall. Root Sports no longer exists. We're
out of here. And partnered up with Tegna and King

(24:31):
TV and then all the affiliates, all those states you
just talked about. Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, And across this state,
whether it be Spokane, what have you, the Kraken Hockey
Network on TV, it's the same thing. Like what we've
done broadcast-wise for this organization, what they've done for this organization,
it's amazing because if you're in this huge geographical mass

(24:55):
that you just talked about, as most people think apparently
around the NHL is South Alaska, you can hear or
see Kraken Hockey and then obviously the Amazon deal if
you're in the footprint as well. which makes it awesome.
That's all great. Everything off ice has been fine. On
the ice, we want to see, hopefully, some big improvements
this season, and we're hoping to see all those things happen.

(25:16):
Brennan Montour is going to join us here in about
10 minutes' time. We'll talk to Monty and see what
he's got on his mind. I think the one thing
that I do see is the commitment of players.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
They're here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
They're here working out. Earlier than any.

Speaker 9 (25:27):
Year six, and we have seen players trickling in, starting,
I think, the first player got in town July 18th.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (25:35):
July 19th, and guys have slowly been trickling their way
back into town. I think the full complement of players
are going to be here right after the holiday. So
I'd say maybe the 8th, 9th-ish is when everyone will
be back. But there was a captain's informal skate this morning,
and there were probably 8, 12 guys on the.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Ice this morning. It's August.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
It's August.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
It's beautiful outside. Guys want to be at their lake
homes or wherever they want to be. That does show commitment.
What do you think of Lane Lambert?

Speaker 9 (26:06):
I think Lane Lambert brought something that was missing from
this team, and I think it was the discipline. I
think it was the ability to, even though you don't
have that blue-chip aircraft carrier, as you call it, there's
no McDavid, there's no McKinnon, this team has always been
a team that has relied on their depth. Defensively, if

(26:29):
you can play to your strength, You're going to win
hockey games. And we saw that last year. A couple
of years ago, I remember me and Al and going
back to Dave Tomlinson, we would talk about how this
team could not win a 2-1 game, a 3-2 game.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
To save their life.

Speaker 9 (26:42):
It was always a 4-1, 5-3 game, whatever the case
may be. I think Lane Lambert has tightened that ship
up a lot. And I also look at last season.
You talk about the ending of the year wasn't where
they wanted. I think the Kraken were, what, 5, 10,
and 2 in their last 17 games. But the Kraken
were in a playoff spot until game 75, 78, something

(27:03):
like that. I think they were mathematically out of it
with about five or so games left. They weren't fully
healthy until game 55. And they were in a playoff
spot within three to five points of the division lead,
within two to three points of the wild card, pretty
much all season long. And that goes a lot to
lane lambert and what he instilled here in this team

(27:25):
i i think that now you have a another year
under your belt you have a summer under your belt
guys know what they expect out of lane lambert they
can now go back home wherever they're from they can
train the way that lane lambert wants to coach and
it's been a rough couple of years because you you
lose dave hackstall you bring in dan bilesma then you
lose dan bilesma you bring in lane lambert so now

(27:47):
That coaching carousel has finally stopped, and guys can kind
of breathe a bit of a sigh of relief. It's
like college football, right? I was recruited by Ian Furness. Well,
now Ian Furness is going somewhere else. I don't know
what to expect from this next coach coming in here.
Now you have an opportunity to really figure out what
it takes to be successful. This team was a playoff team.

(28:08):
For all intents and purposes, this team was a playoff
team for two-thirds of the season last year. They were
in it game 70. They were in it game 75.
Now this year they have to win game 70, game 75,
game 82 to get back into the playoffs. But I
don't believe this team is as far away as so
many people seem to think they are. I still think

(28:30):
this is a wild card contending team. I think this
team currently as constructed is going to be challenging if
they can stay healthy, but that's everywhere else around the league.
If they can stay healthy, they can challenge for a
playoff spot. I do think there will be some excitement.
There will be a lot more to be excited about
this year from this team than folks think it will be.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
I'll let you go after this final one. Just you
want to throw a little flowers to your two buddies.
Oh my goodness. Mike, where's Mike? Is he back there?

Speaker 5 (28:56):
He's back there.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Mike and Al. He's on a 10 today.

Speaker 9 (28:58):
He is fired up. I will say this. Those two guys,
Al Kodisky, Mike Benton, make this job so much fun.
It's not even a job. I show up. I get
to talk hockey with my buddies. Mike Benton, Nobody, no offense, Ian,
nobody works harder than Mike Benton.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
I agree.

Speaker 9 (29:14):
Nobody in this industry hustles the way he does, is
as creative with his content and how he wants to
get things out. I mean, we're talking daily podcasts. We're
talking he's up at 2 o'clock in the morning to
get guests. He's up at, you know, whatever the case
may be, whatever it takes for this organization, for this network,
he'll do it. Al Kaniski comes in, didn't have a

(29:38):
ton of broadcasting experience, but his thing is he's eager
to learn. He wants to learn. He knows the game.
I've learned so much from him just about life and
about hockey and the stories that he is told. He
is so much fun to work with. Like myself, he
takes the job very seriously, doesn't take himself very seriously.
And that's what makes this such fun. a fun partnership.

(29:59):
We found the magic secret sauce, I think, that is
the three of us. And I'm excited to go into
year four of all of us together. And now year
six as an organization.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
We've got some big things in store.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
We're excited for it. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Kraken Audio Network, Mike Benton, Al Kaniski, and Everett Fitzhugh,
and a contract extension with iHeartMedia. We'll talk to Brennan
Montour coming up next.

Speaker 7 (30:27):
Snoqualmie Casino and Hotel on Sports Radio 93.3, KJR FM.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
All right, back here at the 32 Bar and Grill.
Ian Furness with you as we're sitting down. And big
news just a few minutes ago for just joining us,
Everett Fitzhugh with me. And very cool for all of
us here at iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia, and the Seattle Kraken as
our contract extension team. Announced four-year extension with iHeart, 93.3
KJR FM, and the Seattle Kraken. So four more years

(31:04):
minimum of hockey here on KJR. Everett, Al, and the captain,
Mike Benton. They do a great job on the radio side.
You like that, the captain? Brandon Mott's here with me.
You like that? Oh, I love that. He's the captain
of the Kraken Audio Network.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
Hey, I mean, the work that he does, you know.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
One of a kind, this guy.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Hey, the three of those guys are great.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
They are very good. How are you?

Speaker 2 (31:27):
I'm good.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
I'm good.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
Excited. Had a long summer, but excited to be back.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
You don't like long summers. Hockey players don't like long summers.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
No.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
You know what? You learn. Obviously, I was fortunate to, again,
before I got here, long playoff runs, short summers, no playoffs.
You tend to get home, and the weather's still so-so.
So we're on a nice lake, and... You know, for
a reason we picked it, it's beautiful in the summer.
But for the first three, four weeks, we look at

(31:56):
the water. But you can't put your boat in. You
can't hop in the water because it's cold. So, hey,
the game plan is not to show up that early anymore.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's the incentive for the playoffs. That's the incentive for
the playoffs. One of the cool things I've noticed, like,
there's a lot of guys. It is, what is this,
August 25th or something like that?

Speaker 4 (32:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Maybe later than that. There's a lot of dudes here already. Yeah,
you know what?

Speaker 4 (32:22):
So I talked to Botsy and Lane a little bit
in the summer, just about. Obviously, the year's longer, a
couple more games, the camp's shorter. I was coming in
a little earlier. I obviously have a big family, three
little ones. So we came in. We love our neighborhood.
So we wanted to get back. Obviously, like I said,

(32:42):
summer was long. We wanted to come back a couple weeks,
honestly a little bit, not even a week and a half,
two weeks earlier than we usually do. I told them
I'm going to reach out to guys that I think
would obviously consider at least coming in early. I didn't
force the envelope, but I just told them, hey, I
sent a text out and said I'm coming out at

(33:03):
this date. If you guys want to come out, I'm
not pressuring you. I know obviously you enjoy the rest
of the summer, but if we can get a good
group together, There was two or three guys before I
got here, and there was probably last week I got in,
Wednesday night, and there was probably five of us last week,
and then now guys are rolling in. I mean, there's
a couple of us younger guys, so maybe Botty pushed

(33:25):
the envelope on that aspect. But, yeah, we're middle of,
you know, I guess not even September yet. We've got
a group of, I think, 13, 14 guys are out
here today, so that's great.

Speaker 5 (33:37):
What does that say?

Speaker 1 (33:37):
What does that tell you?

Speaker 4 (33:39):
Hungry you know i mean it's uh it's exciting that
guys want to be here early obviously it the place
is incredible so i mean for weather and stuff you
know you can't complain about that um so enjoying that
um yeah guys are excited to get back i got
a couple texts saying um the rentals aren't there until
you know next week so i mean they can't push

(34:00):
that so that's tough but they would be here so
i mean that's also great we could have more guys
here um But it shows that guys want to get
back together and start this thing on the right note.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
We talked at the end of the season at that
time where nobody knew what was going to happen, what
the offseason would bring. One of the things it did
bring was the re-signing of Bobby McMahon. You and I
talked about that, too. And you talked about the importance
of bringing Bobby back. How big is that?

Speaker 10 (34:25):
For sure.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
I mean, he gelled so well with us, again, as
a new guy. I think that was his first time
getting traded, right? Going into free agency, a lot on
his mind probably, a lot on his plate, picking.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
Here, there, here, there.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
I'm sure he was probably, I would assume, a hot commodity.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
Probably pretty busy with his wife and the rest of
his family deciding what to do. But obviously fit in
right away, played well, scored a bunch of goals for us. Obviously...
We would have liked to win more when he joined
our squad. I don't know what the record was, you know,
at that time. But, again, for him to decide to

(35:04):
stay longer term, I think was great for us, obviously,
and great for him. So I'm happy for that.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
The other big addition, Mackie Samuskiewicz, you should know him, right? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
Yeah, so Mac down in Florida, he was young. He
might have, I don't even know, a handful of games
maybe with us.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
For the most part down in Charlotte. But, yeah, I mean,
heck of a player. Obviously, the opportunity, there's a lot
of bodies up in Florida that, you know, he might
not have got as much as he would have liked. Again,
he's so young still. What's his second year? Yeah. Third
year maybe full time. Right, right. um so i'm excited

(35:45):
obviously you saw the talent when i was in florida
with him um and they were excited about having him
there so um to have him on our side here
um more opportunity i hope i would believe that would
be the case um and just skating with him a
little bit the last couple days here you obviously you
know i'm excited to see what what he can bring
with with more with more time.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah i i know he's here i one of the
things we heard about, he's got some speed, right? Like he's,
he's got, he's got a little get up and go.

Speaker 4 (36:10):
He's, he can get, he can scoot. He can scoot.

Speaker 7 (36:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
And he's a little, he's got a little nastiness to him. So, um,
obviously loves to play with the puck. He's got a
ton of skill, can shoot a puck, um, but can
skate and he's got a little bite. So, um, hopefully,
hopefully we can, we can get them some more and, and,
and get involved like that.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
This, this organization went through, it felt like the ringer
for some reason this summer, like I beat up a
little bit, uh, in media and nationally and social media
and other things. And, It's funny because, as it turns out,
the guy that was there, he didn't want to go
anywhere besides Dallas. How would you characterize it? When people
ask me, and I did shows for other people across
the country, I said, A, I think it's unfair. I

(36:49):
think it's also uneducated. I don't think people understand what
players have here. I said, all you have to do
is talk to current guys like yourself and others. But
how would you as a player characterize the summer?

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah, I mean, it's one thing, and you can go on,
you can talk about this forever, but obviously it comes
with play and winning and the excitement in that. Obviously,
we haven't done a good enough job as a team,
as players, to get us, you know, to get guys
excited about coming. Obviously, I mean, again, a guy, for instance,

(37:23):
like that, there's definitely multiple teams that put offers out.

Speaker 6 (37:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
For some reason, Seattle was the only team that kind
of came out. Obviously, the Panarin deal. I'm sure there
was other teams that he said no to, too.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Well, the part where that was, just to interrupt, the
part that pissed me off about that is the story
ended up being his wife's high is way into the
fashion industry. Like, she's a big, that's her world. It
was New York or L.A. Like, she wasn't going to.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
It's a no-brainer. And I think with, again, I don't know,
you know, I feel like with Russian players at least, it's,
you also need a connection of some sort too.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Right.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
Like we don't have other Russian players, I don't think.
And like, um, so again, whatever it did, that didn't
make sense. And, but it got out there like Seattle
was this bad place, you know, like, yeah. And even
in the summer, I've told multiple people, it's like, I'm
talking to players and we got that bad rap because
of those things. And they're like, what's wrong with, and I,
and I tell them, obviously they're like, we're not winning. So,

(38:21):
I mean, that's number one, you know, um, But I mean,
I've told them since I've been there, it's, and they
don't get it because we go on like, and I
had the experience when we first got here, it's like
we'd be on the road and I'd be coming from Florida.
So we'd come into Seattle, middle of winter, it's dark
gray or rainy and we're downtown and you don't get
to experience anything else.

Speaker 8 (38:42):
Right.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
You know, me being here and experiencing the last two years,
it's like, we're here early. We love it. You know,
my wife's from the West coast, so she obviously loves
it being closer. Right. We're on the water. You can't complain.
The facilities, the ownership, everything is here. We just got
to find that way to keep pushing and getting better results.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Brennan, I'll wrap it up with this because we'll talk
plenty during this year. Lane Lambert, what Botts did, first
of all, I know you believe in Lane. I think
a lot of people do. The team on paper, You're
kind of banking on guys taking a step. You've been
through this even in Florida. Guys had to take a step, right? Now, obviously,

(39:28):
you had some big names and did some things down there.
But let's just, in general terms, young guys, whether it
be a new young guy like Mackey, maybe Berkeley taking
that next step, whatever Maddie's next step is, Capococco, they'll
go through the whole list of guys. Maybe it's Oscar
Fisker-Mulgaard comes up. You're with these guys every day. You've
watched their work ethic. You've watched them develop. Are you
confident that these young guys can take that next step?

Speaker 4 (39:50):
For sure, and just seeing them. I mean, last year
you said some names. For instance, like Berkeley, he's kind
of like a wow, wow kind of season of like,
I'm here, you know?

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
Even Oscar, he played a little bit, but you can
tell he's got it. You know, he definitely has, like
he's just young. He's going to be a great player. Berkeley,
same thing. Capo, finding his way, but still, like he's
got that experience, maybe more opportunity. You know, like he's
just going to keep, he's second overall pick for a reason. Maddie,
same thing. But yeah, I mean, I think with that

(40:24):
regarding even in comparison with Florida, it's like aggressiveness of
getting these big players. And if that doesn't happen, this is,
you know, we have some talent that's coming and talent
that's here that obviously for us to get better, they
need to take that step. So hopefully that is this year.
I mean, the guys look good so far on the

(40:44):
last couple of skates. And again, opportunity. obviously trusting with
Lane and them to get more ice time, kind of
finding that way. If it hasn't worked out in the past,
so let's keep getting these young guys in here and
playing and getting that confidence, and that's how the Seattle
Kraken are going to get better.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
That's how they got to the playoffs a few years ago,
and hopefully that's the case again this year. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (41:08):
Enjoy your rest. Hopefully that sun will come out. Look
at that.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
The sun's coming out right now. You were talking about
how the weather's great here. It was kind of cloudy
this morning, but it's getting better right now.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
Yeah, our plan was to get on a boat this weekend,
but today, Sonny, I'm going to go get my three-year-old
a full set of hockey equipment, so he's dialed in
for the year.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Dialed in. I love that. I love that. Random Montour
will take a break. Come back with more Eno Saris
in the 1 o'clock hour. Fun sit at 2 on
93.3 KJFM.

Speaker 7 (41:35):
Now, from the Star Reynolds Sports Desk, your 93.3 KKRFM
Sports Headlines. Headlines brought to you by Frostbrook Coors Light,
Shoes Chill, Seahawks, Leonard Williams. Three-year, $ 90 million contract extension,
$ 56 million guaranteed.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Great news for the Seahawks, great news for Leonard Williams
and his bank account, but good news all the way around.

Speaker 5 (41:56):
Good signs.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Big Cats sticking around for three more years after this.
Mariners lose the final game of their series to the
Phillies yesterday afternoon, 6-0, just two hits in the game.
They'll start a series against the Blue Jays in Toronto tomorrow.
Gino Suarez cleared waivers. Could have been picked up by
any team, including Los Marineros, but he's going to return
to Cincinnati. They'll decide what they want to do, keep, release, DFM,

(42:18):
what do they want to do. Away we go, we'll
figure that out. It would have cost them $ 3 million
for the rest of the season. And in the news,
just announced a short time ago here at the 32
Bar and Grill, The Seattle Kraken and iHeart Media, 93.3
KJR FM, have announced a contract extension, a multi-year agreement
extension to keep Kraken hockey on 93.3 KJR FM and
the iHeart Media Network and Kraken Audio Network for many

(42:40):
years to come.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Hour two.

Speaker 7 (42:42):

Speaker 1 (42:57):
All right, cruising along here, hour two of the radio show.
Ian Furness with you and Anderson Hurst back in the studio.
I'm at the 32 Bar and Grill. We did announce
that big contract extension a short time ago. Very cool
for all of us here at iHeart and with the
Seattle Kraken, so great news. Anders, good news for the Seahawks.
Ian Osiris will join us, by the way, at 1.30.

(43:19):
We'll talk Mariners baseball with him. Brandon Funston at 2,
the unofficial start of the weekend for you. That's coming
up a little bit later, so stand by for that.
Your fantasy football questions will be answered as you get
ready for your draft. We're going to talk wide receivers
and quarterbacks with Funston today. Let's talk a little baseball, though,
shall we, sir?

Speaker 2 (43:36):
We shall.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Should we talk a little baseball?

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Yesterday, not what you would want yesterday by any means.
Good homestand, though. So let's start with the good. A
homestand in which you go 4-2 against two really good teams,
the Phillies and the Cubs.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
That is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
I mean, we all would have taken that.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
100%.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
And it's hard to, you know, in the baseball world,
it's hard to find many blemishes when you have something
like that, right? Like, that's good. The Brian Wu thing yesterday,
four innings, six runs, all earned, five hits, two home runs.
He had a walk, struck out five. He threw 76 pitches,
55 were strikes. In that game, he just got rocked

(44:19):
in the first two innings, two in the first, four
in the second. uh, Grand Slam being the big one,
but it, it, you know, Wu had been great at
home this season. He had had one bad outing at
home until yesterday. We know his road troubles. And the
funny thing is his last two road starts have been good.

Speaker 9 (44:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Did he switch? Did road Brian Wu switch with home
Brian Wu?

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Road Brian Wu turned into home Brian Wu yesterday for
some reason. I don't know. It was just, that was,
I think you just kind of chalked that up as
a one-off.

Speaker 7 (44:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Uh, The thing with Seattle's pitchers, and Miller was ready
to go in the bullpen yesterday, by the way, but
they didn't use him. Woo, Miller, every time there's an
outing like that, you ask yourself, what's the health issue?
Is there something wrong?

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Especially because they had to push him back a couple days, right?

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Right, and that was the thing. He was supposed to
initially pitch last Saturday, and that was what Kate Anderson
got that start. So then they go to Woo on
a Wednesday, so... What is that?

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Four or five days later, however you want to count
the days, and he wasn't good. So you kind of
cross your fingers and you hope that there's no issues
there with Brian. We'll see if he saw anything yesterday
at 1.30. The Cal Raleigh part of the thing, that's
the story, right? If we're being honest, the story of
this particular homestand was Cal Raleigh and what he was

(45:41):
able to do. And I'll throw this at you and
then I'll give you my thoughts, but Cal Raleigh in
this particular homestand felt like he was getting it back.
I don't know if he's 100% back being Cal, but
he felt like he was getting back.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
Yeah, I think it's more than just the home runs, right?
Because you and I have said this before, he's going
to run into one every once in a while. it's
the fact that the eye test that you, that you
look at and you see that he's seen the ball
much better.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
His swings look so much more comfortable.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
And the fact that he was doing it from the
left side of the plate also is another big reason
why you can be excited about that. And hopefully that's
kind of the, the catalyst for this team. Cause you
saw how much almost everyone else in the entire team
felt a sigh of relief when Cal Raleigh was starting
to hit the ball because the, He's more than just

(46:36):
the emotional leader on this team. I think he's the
guy that everyone turns to when they're struggling. And like, hey,
can you carry us out of this? And when he's
been literally the worst hitter in baseball up until this point,
when that's the case, it puts so much pressure on
everyone else that aren't expected to be in that situation.
And it's tough. So when you see your guy going,

(46:57):
it takes pressure off other guys. And I think it
has a really... a big domino effect on the rest
of the team. So is he fixed?

Speaker 2 (47:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
We have to see it for a long period of time.
But at least eye test-wise, I saw a different player
than I had up until that point.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Yeah, he ends up being 7 of 20 in the homestand,
which is a. 350 average, 5 runs, 5 homers, 8 RBIs,
4 walks, 6 strikeouts because of yesterday. But the 22
total bases and the 24 plate appearances, that was the homestand.
The thing before that homestand, this is the only thing,

(47:33):
and this is where I'm a little hesitant to say, hey,
this is Cal. Cal's here, right? But the previous road trip,
he was 2 for 24 before they came home. So
2 for 24 on the road, 7 for 20 at home.

(47:54):
And we've had four months of bad Cal.

Speaker 6 (47:56):
Right.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Divish wrote the story today in the Times, the little
adjustments he's making or did make, and he actually talked
about those tangible adjustments to what he was doing at
the plate in terms of his swing and everything else.
The road trip will be big. Now, the good news
is they go to Toronto. And last I checked, that's
like he's a Toronto killer, is he not?

Speaker 2 (48:16):
He is, very much so.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
That's a place he likes to go before they go
to Boston. So that's a good thing that's there. I
think what we saw, Anders, more than anything is that
With this team, and yes, it's not just the home runs,
but the home runs do matter in a big way.

Speaker 11 (48:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Hell, we saw that yesterday, right? Yeah. With what Wu
gave up. But I think what we saw with Cal
is that that dude has the ability to single-handedly carry
a team.

Speaker 7 (48:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
On his back. And he did that on this homestand
at times. And that's awesome to see because I don't
know if... They've been messing around. We've talked about it
on this show. We'll get to the playoff situation in
a second. But I think, you know, I mean, Julio
didn't have a great homestand.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
He hasn't really had a great year. Let's be completely honest.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
Hasn't had a great year, which we'll get to him
in a heartbeat. But this team, because of most days
the pitching giving you a chance, could do some damage
if the guy behind the plate is... good. I'm not
going to say great. Last year he was great.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
If he's good, they're going to be a hard out,
and especially in this year's American League. You mentioned Julio.
I know you guys probably talked about him a lot
on the morning show the last couple weeks when you
were on with Chuck.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
I just don't get it.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Like there's too much talent there. What's missing? What is
missing there?

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
He's not taking the next step. I think he's a
victim of his own expectations, right? Where we compare him
to who he should be instead of other players around
the league, right? But the thing is, you saw it
his rookie year in 2022. You saw, and yes, you
could say that his numbers have declined, right? But He

(50:07):
just looks like the same player who hasn't gotten any
better in five years now. So that's going to be
the big thing for me. It's these things that he
can go on extremely hot stretches. And I still think
he has possibly one of those left in this season.
But why can't you put it together for a full season, man?
And I get it. You go through slumps as a hitter.

(50:28):
We're seeing it with Cal Raleigh, right? Obviously, you have
bad seasons here and there. But he still has yet
to put together a full season. season of consistent good baseball.
And we talked about Randy Rosarena, who's kind of the
opposite of that. The dude has just been consistently good
all year long. And I don't know. It's frustrating because
you see how much talent he has, and I just

(50:50):
wish he could put it all together because I think
more than anything else, yes, when Cal's going, this team
is really good. This team takes another step. when Julio
is playing to the level that he can.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
Your best players have to be good.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
They just do. The best players have to be good.
Except for maybe this year.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
This year might be the exception.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
This is the reason why they're where they're at, though.
Their stars aren't playing like stars.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
Right.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
But you lucked out because this particular season, the American
League is so damn bad.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
It's so bad.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
That you have an opportunity with a minus 57 run differential.

Speaker 6 (51:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
The worst of the three playoff contending teams in the
AL West. Now, again, it's been bloated by a couple
massive blowouts along the way, but a month or two ago,
they were plus 31. So it's not just, it's like,
that's part of it. You're four games out of a
wildcard spot. You're two and a half out of first
place behind the Astros. The Rangers are a half game out.

(51:54):
The Rangers are off today. Seattle's off today. Houston plays
at New York. Are they playing right now? might be
uh but you've said it a lot this year on
our show and i tend to believe you i i
think i think it's it's division or bust yeah i
don't know i just there's so much traffic in front

(52:17):
of you in terms of the american league in terms
of the wild card i do i i'm kind of
with you i think it's division or bust and i
still like their chances in this division yeah i and
I'm not going to dance necessarily, and if it ends
up coming to fruition, good. I'm not going to dance
so much, honestly, Anders, with the schedules incredibly easy in September.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
This team just beat the two best teams, or two
of the three best teams in the National League.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Right, but the other thing is this team, like when
we say, oh, it's such an easy schedule because you've
got the A's and the Angels and so forth. Well, yeah,
but you're also under 500. You're six games under 500.

Speaker 7 (52:53):
100%.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
It's not like you're a hammer team.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Well, that's where I almost draw the conclusion of maybe
this team, there is some aspect of they get up
for the big games when they know they're playing against
a good team. And that almost worries me more about
who they're playing in September with all these crap teams. Now, hopefully,
the moment of, hey, we're in the last month of
the season and we're in a playoff chase will kind
of even that out, so to speak. But this team

(53:19):
plays up to its competition and plays down to its
competition almost more than any other baseball team I've seen.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
Yeah, 28 games left to go. for these guys. 28
games left in the regular season. They are, let me
do the math, 28 games, so they've got 64 wins, right?

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
So, let's see. What do you think gets them in?

Speaker 6 (53:42):
82?

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Probably, yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
So, can they go 18-10? They can. Because 18-10 gets
you to 82 wins.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
This is a And we talked– I talked about it
on the show a couple times this weekend or before
you came back. Baseball is an interesting dynamic. It doesn't–
like in football, if you look at that right-hand column,
that loss column, you can't get past in the NFL

(54:09):
seven losses.

Speaker 4 (54:10):
Right.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Like you just– like that's the– and even honestly– Seattle was, what,
10-7 the first year for Mike McDonald?

Speaker 5 (54:17):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (54:17):
And they didn't get in.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
So really it's six and a half on the right-hand column.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
And you're not going to get in. And I'm just
talking wild card at that point. I'm talking about division.
But baseball, you don't have that magic number most of
the time. Now I think you do. Now I think
you do. I think you have that magic number. I
think if you look at it, if you go 18-10,
you get to 82 wins, you're probably in.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Because whether it's division or, hell, I just said you
can't get in the wild card, you might get in
with a wild card with 82 and 80. Yeah, you might.
You might get in. So I think that's kind of
what your goal is. If you're kind of counting at home,
almost look at it that way. I think I look
at it that way. I look at it like, if
you can go 18 and 10 and you finish 82
and 80, the Astros are going to have to have

(55:02):
a nice little heater going on because they're a game under.

Speaker 9 (55:04):
500.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Yeah. And Texas is two games under. 500. So both
those teams are going to have to improve dramatically as well. Otherwise,
you're going to win the division. This division could be
the damn NFC South from last year. You could have
a seven and... What is it? You know, I mean,
you could have that.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
I could see the Rangers or Astros also going 18
and 10, though. Like, that's not this crazy....

Speaker 1 (55:27):
Well, you have series against both.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Yeah, you do.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Series against both.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
And you've got to take advantage of them, right?

Speaker 1 (55:31):
Like, if... I think it's safe to say if you
win both of those series, although one series is two games, right?

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Isn't the Rangers a two-gamer? No, it's the Astros.

Speaker 5 (55:38):
Astros is a two-gamer?

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
If you take both those from the Astros and you
win two of the three from Texas, I think you're in, too.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
I think you'd have to really fall apart against the
other teams. But I'll just go back. I think the
magic number might just be 18 and 10. Yeah. I
think 18 and 10 gets you there. I think 18
and 10 and 80. Because even, like, let's just... Again,
there's a lot of traffic in the wild card. Your
best bet is still the American League. But your wild
card leader right now, the Cleveland Guardians, are just two

(56:09):
games above.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
500.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
And that's because they've won seven straight games. It's true.
They were five below. They've won seven straight, so they're
two above. That can end any time as well. So
all those things are taking place. By the way, the
Yankees are in... Four o'clock. 4 o'clock game.

Speaker 6 (56:25):
It's later.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
And the Blue Jays are right there, too. So the
team you're about to play in this weekend.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Well, we discussed this briefly yesterday. This series is fun
for a couple reasons. A, it's Toronto, so we love them.
I mean, let's just be honest.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
It's fun.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
It's fun with the Blue Jays. The other part of
it is this. This is a team that is exactly
a mirror image of their ALCS counterparts last year. Injuries
and their superstar hasn't been good. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
It's just simple.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
Like, honestly... They're very, very similar in that regard. Like,
they're a big horse in the lineup, much like the
guy here hasn't been good, and they've had a lot
of injuries. They were caught at... Now, I think Seattle
never lost hope. Part of the thing, Toronto would lose
hope because they've had no chance of the division.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
Right?

Speaker 1 (57:09):
That's where you lose hope if you're Toronto. But Toronto's
sitting there three games back. They're one ahead of Seattle.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
They are.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
What are they thinking this weekend? Actually, I'm doing a
hit with those guys tomorrow, with the guys at Sportsnet. Yeah,
I'm curious because... they're like, hey, this is a huge series.
I think that they're thinking pretty simple. We take two
or three from Seattle, or God, man, we sweep Seattle.
We're going to put them to bed. That's what they're thinking.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
This is a big series. This is kind of a pseudo,
I don't want to say elimination series or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
I think it is. I think wildcard-wise, I don't know
if it's not truly an elimination series, But I think wildcard-wise,
it's pretty damn close.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
You can put Toronto's playoff hopes to bed.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
If one team gets a sweep this weekend, if Seattle
were to sweep Toronto and Toronto is now 65-72, they're
going to buy the same token. Seattle comes out of
that series nine games under.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
500 at 64-73.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah, that's true. I think a sweep this weekend would
kill one of those two teams' hopes.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
It's just so hard with over a month left to
really have a three-game series.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
It would kill your wildcard hopes.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Yes, and then it would truly be division.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Toronto, it would kill their playoff hopes because they can't
win the division.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
Seattle would still have, hey, we're going to try to
win the division. One final thought before we get to Eno.
I was just playing golf with my buddy Murph yesterday,
the former UW baseball player, and.
We were talking, and it was just what they threw
out there yesterday as a lineup.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Oh, God, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
I don't... I'm not going to say you gave up.

Speaker 5 (58:53):
You punted.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
You punted the game.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
But you kind of punted.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
Didn't you? Yes, 100%.

Speaker 5 (58:58):
Did you kind of punt?

Speaker 2 (58:59):
How do you feel if you're Brian Wu in that situation? Like, oh,
all right, this is what.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
You're throwing out for me? I heard Softie talking about that.
I mean, I guess if I'm Wu, I'm thinking, well,
if I get a couple runs, I'm fine. I think
when he fell behind 6-0, it was over. He knew
it was over. But why was Canzone not in the lineup?

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Canzone, Naylor, Cole Young.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Naylor I can almost live with. But no, like no Canzone,
no Naylor, no Cole Young. You have a day off today.

Speaker 8 (59:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Hell, Anders, did they not burn a bunch of their
bullpen yesterday anyway, just knowing they had a day off today?

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
So, like, those guys weren't getting a rest.

Speaker 6 (59:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
It was just.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Like, I thought that was just a complete tap out. Like,
we're just, yeah, we're not going to win this.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
And participation awards. Oh, we got to give Weston.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Wilson some time. You know what it was? It was, hey,
we took, we had a, we have four wins on
this homestand, a four and two homestand is great. We
beat the Phillies in two of three. Let's just rest
everybody and go to Toronto. We did exactly what we
needed to do.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
No. Be better than what you needed to do, right?

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Be better in that regard. Be better in that regard.

Speaker 5 (01:00:05):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Don't forget, unofficial start of the weekend, 2 o'clock with
Brandon Funston. Coming up next, Eno Saris, Rates and Barrels podcast, athletic,
all things baseball. We'll get his thoughts on all of
the above next.

Speaker 7 (01:00:19):

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
Ian Osiris from The Athletic and Rates and Barrels Podcast
will join us in just a couple of moments. We'll
stand by for that. Coming up at 2 o'clock today,
our guy Brandon Funston will join us. Mr. Fantasy from
The Athletic as well. A little quick funny story. Last
year we said, we've got to add to our baseball coverage.
We've got to find, we've got to add to our

(01:00:55):
baseball coverage. Who can we get on? And it's, you know,
like I want to get somebody on that's compelling. I
want to get somebody on that has some information that's
not the obvious. I wanted to get a guy on
that I think we'd all kind of enjoy talking to
and maybe even a little different and asking around. And
Funston was the guy that recommended Eno Saris, who will
join us here in a second. So I thought that
was kind of cool. But Brandon's been on with us forever.

(01:01:17):
Our fantasy football segment, one of the most popular things
we do, and he'll join us coming up at 2.
You'll have a chance to text in your– in fact,
if you want to text in your question for him,
especially if you have a draft question, if you have
a keeper league question, if you have a trade question,
we'll get to those. We're going to talk wide receivers
and quarterbacks with Funston coming up at 2 p.m. today. And, again,
the fun thing is Brandon Funston was the guy that says,

(01:01:39):
you've got to get this dude on your show every week.
Here he is standing by, Zeno Saris.

Speaker 7 (01:01:43):
It's time for our weekly visit with Eno Saris of
The Athletic, the best baseball insight you'll get from a
nerd with big league hair. He likes picks of grips, food,
and beer, while always dreaming up the next big baseball step.
Brought to you by Georgetown Brewing, brewed with Northwest ingredients
in Seattle's historic Georgetown neighborhood. Featuring local favorites like Manny's

(01:02:05):
Pale Ale, Bodhisattva IPA, and Georgetown Tavern Beer. Available in
the taproom seven days a week and throughout the region.
Look for Georgetown Tavern Beer at T-Mobile Park and ask
for yours today.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
Now with Ian, here's Eno.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
Eno Saris from The Athletic joining us right now on
the Beacon Plumbing Hotline, brought to you by our good
friends at Georgetown. I should have a mayor IPA update
as far as what it looks like for supply coming
up in the next segment. I've got that line in
the water, so I'll let you know. We had a
great week last week. Eno joins us right now, and
we've got a lot to get to. Eno, how are you,

(01:02:40):
my friend?

Speaker 6 (01:02:42):
Doing well. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
I appreciate you popping by, as always.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
Let me start with Cal Raleigh. And I'm going to
actually get your Rates and Barrels podcast. I think the
recent one is the one that's talking about the AL
playoff picture, which we'll get your thoughts on that in
a heartbeat, too. But Cal Raleigh has this great homestand. Hits. 350,
five home runs. Is that right? Did I have that right?

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
I think it's six.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Six home runs over the six games. Three in the
one game on Monday. maybe has found it, maybe not.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
I say that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
Then yesterday, he finishes off 0-4 the previous road trip.
He was 2-4, 24, something like that. Eno, is one
three or four game sample size enough for Mariner fans
to be encouraged about Cal Raleigh?

Speaker 6 (01:03:29):
I saw a couple things that I really liked, and
we talked on this show about his plate approach and
how he's being too passive in the zone. I wrote
about that for The Athletic, but a lot of you
readers will have heard my analysis there, which is just
that you know, approaches, not swinging at balls, but also
swinging at strikes. And he'd become passive in the zone.
There'd been too many called strike threes where he's just

(01:03:52):
looking at something down the pipe. I saw, I had
a couple videos in there of three, one takes where
it was just a fastball down the middle. And he
just looked befuddled. He was expecting something else. So, you know,
what they've done is they've, they've upped the number of
cutters that they've thrown him. They're throwing them inside more,
especially the left-handed hitter. And they're just messing with his

(01:04:12):
head and he's been messed up. And the two things
that I pointed out was be more aggressive in the zone.
Since last Monday, he swung at 75% of the pitches
he's seen in the zone. That's good. The homers were
in the zone. That's good. The other thing that I
noticed was since they're trying to fill him up inside
and his natural power is once he gets his arms extended,

(01:04:34):
you know, I was like, what if, we solved two
birds with one stone by looking for pitches outer half
and really just outer third of the even up, down, whatever,
just outer third. That will make you more susceptible to
breaking balls and off-street stuff down and away, but it

(01:04:55):
will make you at least aggressive on pitches you can drive,
you've driven in the past. That three-homer game, all three
pitches were on the outer third of the zone. So
those two things, I think, are good signs. He's now
locked in on something where he's hunting instead of being hunted.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
I like that. I'm interested, too. You mentioned he's swinging
at 75% of the pitches that were in the zone.
What's a good number? You said that's a good number.
What's a really good number?

Speaker 6 (01:05:28):
Well, the difference between how often you swing at the
zone and how often you swing at balls is the
big number. But 75% in-zone swing is something he did
last year. Last year, he swung at 76.9% of the
pitches he saw on the zone. And this year, 71.5,
the worst of his career. So, you know, he's becoming

(01:05:51):
more like he was last year, which has got to
be a good thing. I mean, for every guy, it's
a little bit different. Like, for example, if you've really
got a great pencil zone, like Taylor Ward, right, he
knows exactly. Like, he never swings at balls, right? then
you don't want him to be too aggressive. You'd rather
he take those walks. But if you don't have a
great sense of where the zone is, then you should

(01:06:13):
be more aggressive and be aggressive in the zone so
that you don't just watch strike three go by. You
don't tell Luis Robert to stop swinging and stop being aggressive.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
It doesn't work.

Speaker 6 (01:06:26):
You can't tell a guy who's super aggressive to, oh,
don't swing at balls. What are you telling him to do?
Just imagine that as a hitter. If someone's like, oh,
you're a super aggressive guy, don't swing at balls, though.
Then you're up in the plate being like, don't swing
at a ball, don't swing at a ball.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
Taylor Ward used to be good at taking walks. Is
that true he only has one with Seattle?

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
I think he has two now. I just looked it up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Two now?

Speaker 4 (01:06:54):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Come here.

Speaker 6 (01:06:57):
You've heard this before, but new guy playing in Seattle,
strikeout rate is up.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Uh, never heard that before. Yeah, really?

Speaker 5 (01:07:06):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
That's a new, that's a new, that's a new, that's
a new policy here for our major league team. That's,
that's wow.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
Hitters, you know?

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
That's never happened. Uh, you know, Sarah's joining us for
the athletic rates and barrels podcast. You know, when I
look at, uh, when I look at our pitching staff
right now here in Seattle and you're watching, you know, the,
the now six guys and we'll, I'll, I'm going to
table Cade for a second. I'll let you riff on
him in a minute. Uh, I feel like I can
only really trust Logan Gilbert. I don't know if that

(01:07:38):
sounds weird. Like Brian Wu, road Brian Wu was bad,
then road Brian Wu has two great stars and he
just is awful yesterday. Bryce Miller, there's something off there.
Is there any concern with the guys not named Logan
Gilbert or Kate Anderson?

Speaker 6 (01:07:53):
Yeah, obviously. I did look at Brian Wu to see
if there was any injury concerns. The B-low was the same.
The spin was the same. Those are traditionally numbers that
teams look at as big markers for big injury. The
thing that really pops off the page was it was
his worst location plus, his worst command numbers on the

(01:08:16):
thinker of the year. And that can be fickle. There's no...
There's no trend there. I can look back 12, 15 starts,
and he has a tremendous command of his sinker. So
I would just assume that this is one of those one-offs.
He had some games that were close to this at
Houston early in the season, at San Diego early in

(01:08:38):
the season. It is a little bit worrisome in concert
with some of the things that he said about shoulder
weakness or feeling something in the shoulder. So I don't
like that aspect of it, but at least the stuff
was there. I do agree. like, you know, there is
that whole concern about home and away. Bryce Miller, again,

(01:09:02):
it's a command thing. The command on a slider is
game to game, and the fastball too. And that worries
me because last year, and he never got rid of
these bone spurs, but last year he told me, you know,
the thing that's annoying to me is that I've always
had great fastball command, and that's not there. So I'm
worried that the bone spurs are hurting him in a

(01:09:23):
way that is affecting his fastball command again. The one
thing that I can't tell you that's fun is that
I think that George Kirby's cutter might be a big deal.
I think that the cutter he used in the last
start could be something that could really help him.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
I love that. I love that. What did you think
of Kate Anderson?

Speaker 6 (01:09:46):
It's really interesting. The slider and the changeup in the
curve are really excellent, perhaps near elite pitches. That's why
he got so many strikeouts in the minor leagues. There
is a bit of a negative, which is that the
fastball doesn't have great shape nor does it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Have great velocity.

Speaker 6 (01:10:04):
So what that does is it's going to put pressure
on his command of the secondaries because he's going to
have to pitch backwards a little bit. He did in
that game. And, you know, listen, you could have taken
him out in the fifth and it would have been
a different story. Everybody would have said, oh, what a
great debut, you know?

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:10:18):
So, you know, and then when I also know that
over the course of a game, as a player gets tired,
command goes before stuff. So, you know, I put those
two together, and if I'm managing Cade, he's going to
have a quick hook for me early in his career,
and he'll have to sort of prove that he can

(01:10:40):
go deeper into games. Because if you're pitching backwards, you know,
the old adage was establish a fastball early, and then
you get to show all the secondaries later, and that's
how you turn a lineup over. And that makes sense
because they haven't seen all those shapes. But if you're
going to pitch backwards and be Kate Anderson, they're going
to see your slider, your curveball, and your change early

(01:11:01):
in the game. So you don't have as many tricks
to go to later in the game. So, you know,
that's why I would maybe have a quick hook on him.
The other thing that you can do is what a
lot of other teams have done, add the cutter, add
the sinker, have three fastballs if one fastball isn't that great.
I'm sure they've tried that on some level, and maybe

(01:11:21):
that's just not an option for him. But he can
also look to the left and the right in the
major leagues now and talk to these guys, and they
can say, hey, I'm George Kirby. I just added a cutter.

Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
I'm Brian Blue.

Speaker 6 (01:11:36):
I throw three fastballs. That's what I do for a living.
He's got guys that can kind of teach him the
intricacies of having three fastball shades. That's going to be
good for him because what we know from watching these
guys is they learn from each other.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
You've talked about that. You've talked about that, right? The
cohesion and the camaraderie amongst his starting staff. You've talked
to those guys about that.

Speaker 6 (01:12:02):
Yeah, and they learn a lot from each other. So
I'm assuming, and it's been a couple generations, Logan Gilbert
came up first and Wu came up next. So Gilbert
and Miller are maybe the tightest, but they've already taken
Wu into their mix. I think that they're going to
welcome Cade in, and I think that their inquisitiveness as

(01:12:22):
a group is really going to treat Cade well. So
Cade probably went through the minor leagues. He had some
of the best results we've seen in the minor leagues
in years and years. So, you know, maybe he didn't
feel like he had to change anything. You get to
the big leagues, you realize, okay, all right, I did
some good things. Some of my pitches are definitely major
league quality. And then, you know, maybe there's also ways

(01:12:44):
I can still improve up here.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
Before I let you go, you know, Sarah Stewart is
from the Athletic Race and Girls Podcast. I'll encourage people
to listen to the podcast about the AL American League
playoff picture and your thoughts. But give me a little teaser.
We brought up this. So the weekend series here with
Toronto is really interesting, and Anders and I were talking
about this in the last segment. So, like, right now,

(01:13:08):
for Toronto, it's wild card or bust. For Seattle, it
feels like you have a better chance to get in
winning the division than the wild card, only because of
all the traffic around you. But if one or the
other of these teams... get swept this weekend, if Seattle
sweeps Toronto and they drop to 65-72, or if the
Mariners get swept and they drop to 64-73, would that

(01:13:33):
basically eliminate one of those teams from the wild card
and then at that point you're only thinking division if
you're Seattle?

Speaker 6 (01:13:40):
I don't know, man. I think it'll get real tight
at the end. You know, there's a lot of teams
that we noticed have finished up with, like, the Royals
and the Rockies. You know, there's some teams that get
the A's at the very end. I think this will
go down to the last week, and I think there
will be many teams in on it. And, you know,

(01:14:03):
I do want people to listen. I do also want
people not to be angry with us. I think the
Mariners to win the division, so not because of that, but–
We disparaged the AL West.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
As well you should. As well you should. As well
you should. No one's going to be upset about that,
trust me. We've been doing the same thing all year,
all right?

Speaker 6 (01:14:29):
We said the Mariners could win the division because anybody
can win the division. The Astros are leading the division
and they're under.

Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
500.

Speaker 6 (01:14:37):
Come on, somebody turn it on. Somebody just turn it
on for the next three, four weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
And do it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
We'll see what happens. Rates and Barrels podcast, you can
get it wherever you get your podcasts. It's fantastic, and
the latest episode is exactly it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:49):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
If you're a Manor fan, you want to listen to it.
Just whether it makes you angry or not, take a peek,
take a listen. Eno and the guys do a great
job with that. All thanks to Georgetown Brewing. We'll talk
to you next week, my friend. Thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:15:00):
All right. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
That's Eno Saris from the Athletic and Rates and Barrels podcast.
We'll take a break. We'll give you an update. Of course,
that was brought to you by Georgetown Beer. We'll give
you an update on the Mayor IPA next. Back here
at the 32 Bar and Grill. We've got lots of
good going on. First of all, the reason we're here today,
we had Fitz on earlier, Everett Fitzhugh. We announced that

(01:15:22):
the Kraken have extended their relationship with KJR and iHeartMedia.
That means the captain himself, Mike Benton, the great Mike Benton,
is going to be back with you as the captain
of the Kraken Audio Network. Everett Fitzhugh on the call
on the radio, Al Koniski in the booth. Multi-year contract extension.
We couldn't be more happy to have our affiliation with

(01:15:44):
Samantha Hallway, Podlight Wiki, the entire Kraken organization. Of course,
the great Ken Moriarty out here at 32 Bar and Grill.
If you've been out here yet, you've got to get
out here.

Speaker 5 (01:15:53):
Food's phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
Atmosphere's great. Great spot. Love this place. Anyway, that's number one.
Here's the other something good. It's bittersweet in a sense, Anders.
We are getting close to selling out the Mayor IPA.
This will be the second fastest it's ever... It's sold out.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
Since the first year, right?

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
2020, a little thing called COVID, a little pandemic situation.
The only way you got good beer, because you couldn't
go to a restaurant, you couldn't get anything off a
tap anywhere. You'd have to go buy growlers to go
at your favorite place. That was the first year we
brewed it because the golf tournament got canceled. The great
folks at Georgetown said, hey, here's what we're going to do.

(01:16:38):
We're going to make a beer. We're going to still
raise money for Jordan Morris Foundations. Avery Huffman Foundation, and
Holinsky's Hope. So, we brewed it that year. People flocked
down there because they were selling growlers like nobody's business. Oh, yeah.
We went, hey, let's be honest. 2020 through 2021, we
went hard.

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
We needed some. We needed it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
We all went hard. It sold out in five days.
Last year, in the next few years, it was probably
in the two-week range. Last year, it sold out in,
I say, eight and a half days because it went
on sale Friday. By 1130, an hour and a half
after the open on Sunday, it was gone. So not
even eight and a half days.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
Just checked with my man Dave down at the Georgetown
Brewing Company, the tasting room. My guy Dave Forrester. Shout
out to Dave, big Kraken fan. Here's what he says.
We think it will be available till midday Saturday. Likely
selling out Saturday at the latest. There's an outside chance

(01:17:39):
it sells out by the end of the day tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (01:17:42):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
So, if you want the Mayer IPA, if you haven't
picked up your growler yet, if you haven't had your
pints yet down there at the tasting room, basically today, tomorrow,
you can take your chances with Saturday to get down there.
It is a great beer. Absolutely fantastic beer. Bright, golden,
unfiltered flavors and aromas of fresh-cut oranges, pineapple, lime, and

(01:18:06):
papaya from the Columbus Citra, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops. And again,
every cent, not a portion of the proceeds, every cent
from every pint and every growler goes to those three foundations.
Anders was down there with Jess and me last week
for the kickoff party. You had it.

Speaker 5 (01:18:23):
I did.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
You enjoyed it. You're a beer guy. Thoughts on it?

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
It's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (01:18:26):
I got two growlers, and they're already gone, and now
I'm worried that I need to go today or tomorrow
to get it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:32):
You do.

Speaker 6 (01:18:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
You do.

Speaker 4 (01:18:33):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:18:34):
And I don't have any, I have no ability to
help you here. Like, there's no inside, hey. Hey, I'll
save some for you.

Speaker 7 (01:18:41):
Nope.

Speaker 1 (01:18:42):
Yeah, like, I can't do that. This is their beer.
They do it. Right, right. And so, yeah, get down there,
get your growlers to go. Growlers, fresh-filled growlers. The way
they fill the growlers, it's not like if you go
to your local tap house, they put it on, they
spit a tap on. These usually last about 10 to
12 days. Yeah, unopened they do. Yeah, unopened. So you
don't have to drink it that night to buy it

(01:19:04):
if you go down there and get one of those.
So just head on down. Go pick it up. Enjoy yourself.
And I'm thrilled. I just want to... And I'll say
this even more over and over again. I can't thank
everybody enough who goes down every year on our kickoff day,
which was last Friday. And we got so many listeners
down there. Purple Sheet, Rich, was asking me about it

(01:19:26):
the other day because he was out of town.

Speaker 4 (01:19:28):
He goes, how was it?

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
I go, it might have been the best event we've
had yet.

Speaker 2 (01:19:32):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:19:33):
Don't you think? It was so much fun. So many...
We got there... I got there at 9.30 in the morning.
We had our ceremonial toast and then opened at 10.
From basically 11 o'clock on, Anders, that place was jammed.
I think I finally, we left there around 5.36. And
it was jammed the entire time. Not everyone there for us, obviously.
I'm not that guy. But there were a lot of

(01:19:57):
people there, a lot of listeners there, a lot of friends,
a lot of family, a lot of supporters of the foundations.
And then a lot of people just, hey, it's Georgetown.
It's a Friday. We're going to go get a beer.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Right before the Mariners game, right?

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
Before the Mariners game. And then people taste it going,
I've got to try this beer thing. Honestly, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
So it was just a great day and I can't
thank you guys enough because every dollar that we raise
means a lot for those three particular foundations. It really does.
It's very meaningful for those foundations. And I think that's
important to know because, you know, honestly, you hear a
lot of times a portion of proceeds and different things

(01:20:33):
like that. No, it's every dollar.

Speaker 4 (01:20:34):
And I'll.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Like, here's the thing. The growler is only $ 12.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
Yeah, it's a great deal.

Speaker 1 (01:20:41):
Like, and you don't have to bring your own growler.
They have growlers there. They don't sit there and go, oh, hey,
we need to take this out, blah, blah, blah. No, no.

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
Growlers are $ 12 film. So get on down there. Please
get it. We're going to sell this damn thing out very,
very soon.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
So let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
Let's go. Have some fun.

Speaker 3 (01:21:00):
If you haven't tried it, you need to. It's probably
my favorite beer. And it packs a punch, too. I'll
tell you.

Speaker 4 (01:21:10):
That.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
6.9%, baby. We got some stuff. We got some planning
to do because this is selling out too fast.

Speaker 2 (01:21:15):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
Now we got issues.

Speaker 5 (01:21:17):
It's too good.

Speaker 2 (01:21:18):
I'm sorry. It's just too good.

Speaker 4 (01:21:19):
Now we have issues.

Speaker 2 (01:21:20):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
The unofficial star of the weekend is moments away. Our guy,
Brandon Funston, is standing by. He's going to join us.
All things fantasy football. Now, here's the deal. We've got
a bunch of texts. We're going to go through quarterbacks
and wide receivers. But if you want to get a
call in, we will take some phone calls. I'll just
tell you this. We're not going to get the phone
calls until about 10 or 12 after the hour at
the earliest. But if you want to get a call in,

(01:21:43):
206-286-9595 or text 49451. The weekend begins next.

Speaker 7 (01:21:52):
Now, from the Star Reynolds Sports Desk, your 93.3 KKRFM
Sports Headlines.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
Headlines are brought to you by Frostbrood, Coors Light, Choose Chill, Seahawks.
Leonard Williams agrees with three-year, $ 90 million contract extension, 56 guaranteed.
He signed that this afternoon. They're off to Kansas City,
by the way. They have their final preseason game to
the Seahawks tomorrow in KC. No one's going to play
of significance. Unless you want to consider trying to make
the team significant, then some Some bubble guys will be

(01:22:21):
in that game. Mariners lost the final game of their
series to the Phillies yesterday, 6-0. They were two hit
in that game. Cal Raleigh 0-4 after the great first
couple games of the series. Really a great homestand. Toronto,
Blue Jays tomorrow, three-game series, massive. Geno Suarez cleared waivers
with Cincinnati. They now get him back. They'll decide what
to do with him. Seattle could have claimed him. They

(01:22:41):
decided not to. We'll see what happens there. Of course,
every other team could have as well. I think there's
probably a lot of teams that could probably use Geno Suarez. Yeah, absolutely. Finally,
news we announced earlier today. Here at the 32 Bar
and Grill, Kraken Community Iceplex, KCI, Kraken, iHeartMedia, 93.3 KJFM
will remain the home of the Kraken, a multi-year contract extension.

(01:23:05):
We don't simulcast. We value radio here. So do the Kraken.
Let's bring it on. The captain, Fitz, and Al are
back for many years to come. That's great news for
all involved. You know what else is great news? The
unofficial start of the weekend.

Speaker 7 (01:23:22):
He's the leading face of fantasy sports. Even though you
can't see him, trust us. It's time for Ian's weekly
visit with the Athletics' Brandon Funston. Brought to you by
Georgetown Brewing Company. Brewing darn tasty beer like Manny's Pale Ale, Bodhisattva,

(01:23:43):
and the new Tavern Beer for over 20 years. Look
for it in your favorite local establishment, grocery store, or
swing by the tasting room at the brewery in Georgetown.
On your home for the NFL. Sports Radio 93.3, KJR-FM.
He's got it.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
Touchdown.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
Oh, indeed. It is time to check in with our guy,
Brandon Funston from the Athletic. We actually have a couple
phone calls, 206-286-9595. People are in that mode, Brandon. It's
that time, is it not? We are in that time.
It is 100% right now time for fantasy football and

(01:24:21):
for all things that come with fantasy football. Drafts, regret
after drafts, massive regret after drafts. Oh, my God, what
did I just do? Brandon, help me out. We're in
that mode right now, my friend. Yeah, man.

Speaker 11 (01:24:34):
I'm up to my neck in it right now. I'm
actually starting to do some drafts. I always push mine
as late as possible.

Speaker 2 (01:24:42):
Yes.

Speaker 11 (01:24:42):
And so now I'm starting to actually– I'm in a
slow draft right now, and I got my two big
local leagues coming up.

Speaker 5 (01:24:48):
So that's when I start to get really excited.

Speaker 11 (01:24:50):
But, yeah, it's been a lot of talk and much
ado about all this stuff, and it's nice to finally
get into a draft room and start getting going on it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:59):
Let's get– I'm going to hit through just a couple
position groups, and then in a stunning development, we have
a ton of texts, and also in a stunning development,
we have phone calls. We'll get to all those as
Brandon gets you prepped for your draft, maybe your keepers,
maybe a trade, or maybe a regret after a trade.
We should mention, cut-down day, by the way, in the
NFL is Sunday. So by Sunday, you will know the

(01:25:22):
initial 53-man rosters. Now, there's always tweaking to those. If
we're being honest, because that's what every beat writer likes
to bring, oh, it's like me tweaking. Yes, there will be.
The guys that are tweaking, you don't care about. If
you do, then you're going to be like me, and
you're going to have to pay some sort of punishment
at the end of the year because you're not going
to do well in your fantasy league. We'll leave it
at that. My board of governors meeting, by the way, Brandon,

(01:25:42):
for that league is Sunday at my house. One of
the guys, he won the silent auction of a small
keg of Mayor IPA. I think I'm going to need
about four or five pints just to get myself through
that thing with those knuckleheads.

Speaker 5 (01:25:56):
That's a smart call on the Board of Governors, though.

Speaker 11 (01:25:58):
We always try to do stuff the day of, or
we try to meet stuff out in text, and it
never works well. I think getting people down for the
sole purpose of just like, are we doing anything different?

Speaker 5 (01:26:09):
What are the potential things we want to.

Speaker 2 (01:26:12):
Do this year?

Speaker 5 (01:26:12):
I think it's a great call.

Speaker 1 (01:26:13):
I would strongly urge, if it's possible, to have a
separate Board of Governors meeting. Now, ours is, if I'm
being fair— Most of us are all in the same, like,
walking distance neighborhood. I mean, sitting in my patio, I
make smash burgers on the old Blackstone. Like I said,
there's a small keg of mayor coming. And it's just
kind of an excuse for us to get together and
hammer some beers. But you're right. It makes draft day

(01:26:37):
so much better because you already know what's going on.
You're not arguing over, do we do this? Like, we've
got a couple guys that can't figure out injured reserve lists,
and they get fined every year. I'm talking to you,
old Fallon. and others so yeah it's it's it's a
fun thing to do all right i want to get
through a couple position groups today sure let's start with
quarterback now let's just let's differentiate if you have a

(01:26:58):
super flex league when do you draft a quarterback uh
you know good versus a non-super flex league uh non-super
flex league you're going probably third round for josh allen
if you can get him there somebody might reach for
him in late seconds um But probably third round, and
then you're probably waiting even a little bit longer.

Speaker 11 (01:27:16):
I think the problem in a one-quarterback league is Josh
Allen is cost certainty. It's okay, I think, to go
third round on Allen or even late second because he's
literally been the first or second quarterback every year he's
been the full-time starter. But last year is a good
example of why you don't go for somebody else early
at the quarterback position because you had Drake May, Matthew Stafford,

(01:27:39):
and Trevor Lawrence as the two, three, and four finishers
at quarterback.

Speaker 5 (01:27:43):
And you can get them way late. And kind of
like you're always seeing that.

Speaker 11 (01:27:47):
So you kind of, you know, you pound the other
positions if you don't get Josh Allen, if that's who
you want. And, you know, or maybe somebody in the
top five goes a little bit later and you can
go there. But a lot of people are waiting to
just kind of cherry pick somebody in that, you know,
in that later top 10 that has a chance to
run up and be in the top five this year.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
All right. If you don't have a super flex or
if you do have a super flex, you draft probably
in the first round.

Speaker 11 (01:28:13):
Yeah, I took Josh Allen 1-1 in the one super
flex that I've already done so far. You know, Gibbs
or Bijan was tough. But after that, there's probably three
or four quarterbacks that go in the first round, same
amount go in the second round. I haven't seen people
go crazy on just like have to get my two

(01:28:34):
quarterbacks right away so far. I feel like the quarterback
position in super flex is ambivalent. out a little bit
slower this year than it has in past years if.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
We're doing court like your buddy mike sando with the
athletic does the quarterback tiers if we're doing fantasy football
quarterback tiers yeah josh allen is a decided tier one
what's tier two how many guys are in that second
tier I.

Speaker 11 (01:28:57):
Would probably say Lamar Jackson, Jaden Daniels, Drake May, Jalen Hurts,
Joe Burrow. To me, it's either a combination of the
running quarterback that can throw a bit or just, in
Burrow's case, just a real high passing upside. And he
can run a little bit, but Burrow's kind of on

(01:29:18):
the edge because he just hasn't proven that he can
stay healthy year in and year out, so there's a
little bit of concern there. But that's what I'd probably
put as my second tier.

Speaker 1 (01:29:26):
What's the drop from Tier 2 to Tier 3? And
is Tier 3 just like the middle class that really
there's not a lot of difference?

Speaker 11 (01:29:34):
Yeah, I think Tier 2 and Tier 3 aren't that
far apart because, like I said, I just mentioned Trevor
Lawrence wasn't the top four quarterback last year. I mean,
a lot of that was just a lot of rushing touchdowns,
which those can tend to regress pretty easily for quarterbacks.
So that's why I'm kind of like– hesitant to really
just buy in him fully, but he's right up there still.

Speaker 5 (01:29:55):
Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Matt.

Speaker 11 (01:29:58):
Stafford, for some reason he's still going outside the top 12,
and he was an MVP last year. He had 46 touchdowns.
Even if he regressed by 10 touchdowns, 36 touchdowns could
still lead the league.

Speaker 5 (01:30:11):
Brock Purdy is there, Caleb Williams, Jackson Dart.

Speaker 11 (01:30:15):
There's a bunch of guys I just mentioned right there
in the quote-unquote third tier that who would not be
shocking if they finish in the top five at the
quarterback position, which gets to the point of most times
the prudent choice is just to wait on quarterback in
one quarterback leagues.

Speaker 1 (01:30:30):
All right, before I get to a couple phone calls
and some texts as well, let's talk wide receivers. Your
buddy Jake Seeley at the Affleck, you're his big boss,
so you tell him what to do, hopefully. But along
the way, These are subject to change. It feels like
they change as the wind changes and the weather changes.
He's got Puka 1, JSN 2, Jamar Chase 3, Amon

(01:30:51):
Ross St. Brown 4, Justin Jefferson 5.

Speaker 4 (01:30:55):
Do you agree?

Speaker 11 (01:30:55):
I actually have the same first four, but I have
Jefferson down at 7. I have CeeDee Lamb and Drake
London ahead of him. I think I talked about this
last week. Kyler Murray is an upgrade from J.J. McCarthy,
but for For me, Justin Jefferson getting back into the
top five, he needs a bigger upgrade than Kyler Murray

(01:31:17):
because Kyler Murray has not been a wide receiver's best
friend throughout his career. DeAndre Hopkins had one anomaly year
with Kyler Murray, but for the most part, wide receivers
have not eaten with Kyler Murray as the quarterback. We're
talking more of a late-stage career, Kyler Murray at that.

(01:31:38):
My My Russell Wilson vibes comment last.

Speaker 5 (01:31:41):
Week, I'll just reiterate it.

Speaker 11 (01:31:43):
I just think Kyler Murray has a problem throwing to
all parts of the field. Justin Jefferson can work all
parts of the field, but he can't if he doesn't
have a quarterback who can tie into that.

Speaker 1 (01:31:56):
Let's go to the tiers again. How much difference is
there between the top four guys you mentioned? Even how
much difference is there between one, two, three, and four?
Let's just start there. Puka, JSN, Chase, and Amal Ross St.

Speaker 2 (01:32:08):
Brown.

Speaker 5 (01:32:09):
Yeah, I've seen Amon Ross St.

Speaker 11 (01:32:11):
Brown get dropped down into the second tier. But to me,
he's a tier one. He's been the number three receiver
each of the last three years. And to me, if
you're getting the certainty that you get with Amon Ross St. Brown,
then he belongs in that upper tier with those four.
I think the question mark becomes right at that, is
it Justin Jefferson?

Speaker 5 (01:32:30):
Is it Drake London? Is it C.D. Lamb next?

Speaker 11 (01:32:33):
I'd put all three of those guys in the next tier,
and probably that's what I would call the second tier
after that.

Speaker 5 (01:32:39):
You get AJ Brown, Chris Alave, people.

Speaker 11 (01:32:44):
Like Nico Collins, Pickens, Pickens is going like a wide
receiver 10, which is kind of in this range. Like
I said, people like Nico Collins, he looks like an alpha,
but my problem with him is he's hurt every year.
He's never had more than 80 catches, never had more
than eight touchdowns. And he's like in season six. So like,
it's not like he's necessarily still on the rise.

Speaker 5 (01:33:07):
I mean, he's, He's got to prove that he can
stay healthy.

Speaker 11 (01:33:09):
He's also got to prove that he can be like the,
you know, just the go-to chain mover, volume target hog.
And he'll have a chance because they lost Jaden Higgins.
So that number two wide receiver spot in Houston is
a little suspect right now. They traded for Kayshaun Booty,
but it's not an obvious number two. So Collins should
get a chance to maybe pump up his receptions total

(01:33:33):
this year if he can stay healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:33:34):
All right. Real quick, just Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. Any
concern with those two guys taking stuff from each other?

Speaker 5 (01:33:42):
Not really.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
With a 1,200-yard rusher on their team?

Speaker 4 (01:33:45):
Right.

Speaker 11 (01:33:47):
But it's going to be a– it's predicted to be
a pretty high-scoring offense, predicted to be a team that
will be among the leaders in pass attempts. And there's
not like a bunch of guys beyond those two that
are demanding the ball in the passing game. There's Jake Ferguson,
Ryan Flournay. There's not like a– a guy that you're

(01:34:09):
worried about taking from those two. So there will be
plenty for those two to work with there.

Speaker 2 (01:34:14):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:34:15):
Here's what we're going to do. Anders, I want you
to look at the text that came in like in
the noon hour.

Speaker 5 (01:34:20):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:34:21):
And then I'll look at the latest text. But before
we go to the text line at 49451, we do
have a couple phone calls. Are they all the ones
you texted me?

Speaker 7 (01:34:29):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:34:30):
Are they still there, Anders? Well, here we go. Mike
and Edmonds, how are you?

Speaker 8 (01:34:37):
Hi Ian.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
Hi Brandon. Hey Mike. Good to hear your voice.

Speaker 1 (01:34:41):
This is really good to hear your voice, Mike. Really
good to hear your voice, buddy.

Speaker 8 (01:34:46):
Oh, I didn't want to go into, you know, you
got to do some training. So you got to have
a preseason. You know, this is like preseason training.

Speaker 6 (01:34:54):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
What do you got for Funston?

Speaker 8 (01:34:58):
Well, I had a concrete question, but I have a
theory question first. Um, Everybody knows there's tiers. There's tiers
of running backs, tiers of, you know, tiers all over.
But the main thing people focus on in the first
few rounds of a standard PPR league is running backs
versus wide receivers. And when do you switch from going

(01:35:22):
through your tier one running backs to your tier one
wide receivers? You know, that's kind of the crux of
the draft right there. And then I got an actual
concrete question for you.

Speaker 11 (01:35:33):
Yeah, I mean we do a great– Jake Seeley, who
Ian always does a great job of mentioning at The Athletic,
he does these draft chasms of doom pieces, which shows
like when you jump away from a position to another position.
There's basically these– if you're projecting out players for the year,
there's value gaps, which will show like, okay, once these

(01:35:55):
wide receivers are empty, there's a decent gap here. You
don't just– just because– the the number 12 wide receivers
available after the number 11 there might be a way
bigger gap between 11 and 12 than there is from
10 and 11 so you so i that that's how
you kind of manage your draft early is you jump
to the pockets of value and you you make sure

(01:36:15):
that you're not just drafting out a position when when
the value is if that makes some sense when the
value is better at the running back position you jump
back over there and you kind of move around but
if you If you're able to get onto the athletic
and read that, read that.

Speaker 5 (01:36:29):
Series, it does a good job of explaining that. So anyway,
what was your, what was your question?

Speaker 9 (01:36:34):
Yep.

Speaker 8 (01:36:35):
So in Chicago in particular, you have Roma doing say
Luther burden and Colston Loveland.

Speaker 7 (01:36:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:36:43):
And there's only so many, and I don't know if
I trust Caleb Williams completely yet, but how do you,
do you view those guys subtracting from each other, adding
to each other? How do you rate those three guys?

Speaker 1 (01:36:58):
Good question. Great to hear your voice, Mike. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
Go ahead.

Speaker 11 (01:37:00):
Yeah, and another part of the problem is that Ben
Johnson wants to run about 50% of the time as well.
So they're not going to be a super high-volume team.
The one thing that could push the volume is that
defense is not expected to be good, so they could
be playing in some high-scoring games.

Speaker 5 (01:37:16):
And it's another thing. I've been going after.

Speaker 11 (01:37:19):
Roma Dunzey because Luther Burden has just been steamed up
He's one of the guys that's been steamed up at
the wide receiver position the most this offseason. And I
actually like Roman Madunzi a little bit better, and you
can get him for cheaper. Loveland I like because he
does have number one tight end upside, but you're getting
him kind of after McBride and Bowers. And so like

(01:37:43):
an early tight end value, you're getting him later than
those guys sometimes by a couple rounds.

Speaker 5 (01:37:48):
So I do like that. I do think there's going
to be enough.

Speaker 11 (01:37:51):
There for all of them to do well again it's
it's not like there's a third receiver there that you're
worried about too much they throw to deandre swift a
little bit but it's not a huge amount again i
also think the defense is going to be bad and
there will be some high scoring games there so but
i would stay away from burden just because i think
you know he's better he i think rome's better in

(01:38:11):
all situations um as an all situations receiver but we
i don't like to pay the expectant price on somebody
who's never done it before that's why you The Jeremiah Loves,
the Ashton G.T.s, where they're a top-five running back pick,
and then you're like, oh, I've got to draft.

Speaker 5 (01:38:26):
Him, even though I've never seen him run in the
NFL before. I've got to draft him in an elite spot.
It's always tough.

Speaker 11 (01:38:31):
With Burton, it's like you're drafting him right at the
top 20 of wide receivers, and he just had a
very small sample size last year.

Speaker 1 (01:38:38):
All right, I'm going to bang through two quick calls,
make them quick, guys, because we've got a bunch of
texts we're going to get to. Steven Hensalton, what's going on, Steven?
Is Steven there?

Speaker 6 (01:38:50):
Can't get rid of.

Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
There we go. Hey, Steven, what's up?

Speaker 12 (01:38:54):
Andrew, I need to cut two players for the draft
on Sunday. Andrew Schultz, Pittman, Travis Hunter, or Kyle Pitts,
Hunter Henry. I have to get rid of two of
them somehow.

Speaker 5 (01:39:06):
Kyle Pitts, Hunter Henry. So probably Hunter Henry.

Speaker 11 (01:39:10):
I'm a little bit curious to see how Dalton Schultz
does with the injury there at wide receiver and Texans. Probably,
if it's not an IDP league, I'm probably cutting Travis
Hunter as well. I'm not seeing him get drafted at all.
I mean, if they play him at receiver, they don't
really need him too badly. They're not going to probably
play him a ton. I might have missed a player

(01:39:30):
or two that you ran down there. I had Schultz, Pittman, Hunter,
Hunter Henry, and I don't know if I missed somebody else.

Speaker 2 (01:39:39):
That's fine.

Speaker 12 (01:39:40):
Hunter and D.J.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
Moore.

Speaker 5 (01:39:41):
Oh, there you go. I would definitely keep D.J.

Speaker 8 (01:39:44):
Moore.

Speaker 5 (01:39:46):
If it's a Mark Andrews, I'd keep him too.

Speaker 1 (01:39:48):
Alright, let's do this. Let me get to real quick.
We'll stay in Salton. Derek in Salton. I love the
Salton two-step.

Speaker 4 (01:39:53):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:39:53):
Derek, real quick. Quick question.

Speaker 2 (01:39:55):
Fire away.

Speaker 5 (01:39:55):
What's up, guys?

Speaker 13 (01:39:57):
Thanks for taking my call. My question is, I got
the sixth pick this year, and it looks like I
might get Puka. I don't really want Puka at all.
Do you trust Puka this year to be the WR1, really?
And would you pick him over JSN?

Speaker 11 (01:40:10):
Yeah, I have him ranked over JSN. To me, Puka's
the the guy I at least want to play in fantasy.
He scares the crap out of me. He's probably, you know,
there is a little suspension concern, but from everything I'm hearing,
it could just be one game. He missed one game
last year and he was still the number one guy,
a little bit of an injury concern, but man, I
just think, I think the Rams are hell bent on

(01:40:33):
winning the, winning the super bowl this year.

Speaker 5 (01:40:35):
They have the Seahawks in their, in their mouths.

Speaker 11 (01:40:37):
Every time it seems like there's a, you know, there's
a news conference from anybody on the team.

Speaker 5 (01:40:42):
They seem very bitter and very intense.

Speaker 11 (01:40:44):
So I like their focus this year, but I think
Puka has, with such a, you know, just a rough offseason,
I think going out and just showing.

Speaker 5 (01:40:54):
Out on the field would be something that would go
a long way for him.

Speaker 1 (01:40:57):
All right, let's do this. Hit the music, Anders. Let's
get a couple texts in, 49451. We'll do these as
fast as we can so we can get a punch in.
We've got a ton, shockingly, a ton of texts. Nick
Allen takes care of me and my neighbors, and so
you know what? You get the first one. I'm going
to fire off Nick's question. Choosing my keeper, Brennan, one
of these four, Javante Williams, Zay Flowers, Emeka Ibuka, and

(01:41:20):
Sam Darnold. He gets to keep one of those guys.

Speaker 5 (01:41:23):
It's down to the receivers.

Speaker 11 (01:41:24):
I'm probably going to go Emeka Ibuka just because a
little better passing environment, a little bit younger if you're
talking keepers.

Speaker 1 (01:41:32):
There you go, Nick. It's a buka. Jim Johnson says, hey, boys,
Superflex League with two keepers. I've got Josh Allen for one. God, really?
But need to decide between Drake London and Jalen Hurts. Superflex.

Speaker 5 (01:41:48):
Superflex. Dias Keeper.

Speaker 1 (01:41:51):
Oh, man.

Speaker 11 (01:41:51):
I'm probably going to go Drake London.

Speaker 5 (01:41:55):
I love Drake London.

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
It's close.

Speaker 5 (01:41:58):
I mean, you could.

Speaker 11 (01:41:59):
It's a pretty dominant quarterback group if you go with Hurts.
They are going to be under center a lot more.
It's going to be a little different environment. Jalen Hurts
has got to prove himself a little bit more as
a passer this year. So it's a little concerning. So
I'll probably go Drake London.

Speaker 5 (01:42:13):
2-5-3.

Speaker 1 (01:42:14):
I have the ninth pick, 10-man, half-point PPR lead. Would
you double dip on running backs in rounds one and two?
So snake back, running back, running back. Half-point PPR lead.

Speaker 5 (01:42:29):
Yeah, I mean, I'm seeing running backs go out early.

Speaker 11 (01:42:33):
And I tell you what, once you get down to
like Jeremiah Love and then like Josh Jacobs where there's
suspension and injury concerns, it's like.

Speaker 5 (01:42:42):
It gets really hard.

Speaker 11 (01:42:43):
So the more and more that I've kind of been
looking at drafts, the more I feel like if I
can get two of the top 12 to 15 running backs,
I feel like that's peace of mind there.

Speaker 5 (01:42:52):
And then there's still some decent receivers you can go after.

Speaker 1 (01:42:55):
Anders, fire away. You got three or four.

Speaker 2 (01:42:57):
Yeah, early on.

Speaker 3 (01:42:58):
One second after the 12 o'clock hour.

Speaker 2 (01:43:00):
Oh, my God. Yeah, love to see that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:04):
Mr.

Speaker 3 (01:43:04):
Funston, for PPR, who are you seeing as having a
better year than the other forecasting sites are predicting?

Speaker 5 (01:43:11):
Ooh, like a little sneaky sleeper.

Speaker 2 (01:43:13):
Generic. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:43:14):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 11 (01:43:15):
And so I mentioned DJ Moore. To me, he's like
Stefan Diggs. I mean, they're very similar.

Speaker 5 (01:43:21):
I like that. Diggs had 100.

Speaker 11 (01:43:23):
Catches over a hundred catches over average, like 1300 yards
and like 10 touchdowns in his three years with Josh Allen.

Speaker 5 (01:43:30):
I think they just fit really good. So he's one
of my favorite targets and drafts this year.

Speaker 3 (01:43:34):
Two, five, three is spatial tootin worth a late fourth,
early fifth as a number two back.

Speaker 5 (01:43:40):
Uh, I'm kind of generally been passing on him.

Speaker 11 (01:43:43):
He's a little bit leaving something to be desired and
imagination in the way he runs, but it sounds like
it's going to be a straight platoon. Chris Rodriguez was
with Liam Cohen at Kentucky college last, And he's probably
going to be the early down guy. So I'm a
little bit leery on the draft price on Tootin' right now.

Speaker 3 (01:43:59):
Last question, Ian. 4-2-5, fourth pick and a PPR 12 man.
Torn between hero running back or wide receiver, wide receiver start?

Speaker 11 (01:44:11):
This probably comes down to PPR. It probably comes down
to if you can start four wide receivers. I've mentioned
this a couple times.

Speaker 5 (01:44:17):
Like if you can get.

Speaker 11 (01:44:18):
If you get four wide receivers into your lineup, you
probably need to go like Amon, Ross, St. Brown, or
JSN there if they're available. But certainly Jonathan Taylor and
Christian McCaffrey. Christian McCaffrey at that spot at number four.

Speaker 2 (01:44:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:44:29):
Probably get 100 catches.

Speaker 1 (01:44:30):
Not a bad way to go either. I'm going to
fire one more off just from Ryan at Scottsdale. He's
a huge listener, listens on the iHeartRadio app. You, by
the way, can download that for free, so we love that. Funston,
all caps, best time of the year. He's in his
first ever super flex league. Is it a no-brainer to
pick a quarterback first pick no matter what?

Speaker 5 (01:44:49):
Absolutely not. I'm seeing it all the time.

Speaker 11 (01:44:52):
It's like four quarterbacks have typically been going in the
first round. If you don't get Josh Allen right away,
I think you're going after Gibbs and Robinson or the
top of the wide receiver class, and then maybe you're
starting to look back at Lamar Jackson, Jaden Daniels.

Speaker 5 (01:45:08):
Drake May as it gets towards the end of the
first round, early second round. But I would... Hammer those
top running backs and receivers after Allen.

Speaker 1 (01:45:16):
Okay, this is brutal because this guy, I think this
is the guy that did the tequila, weed, and Georgetown
beer last week. So this is the last one. Funston,
full PPR. Need to keep one. DePoto or Dan Wilson?
Give me DePoto. Give me DePoto. How do we.

Speaker 11 (01:45:34):
How do we make the playoff but get rid of
Dan Wilson in the process?

Speaker 2 (01:45:38):
That's what I'm struggling with. There we go, Brandon. There's
my guy.

Speaker 1 (01:45:43):
Between that and the guy from the 4-2-5, just well
played all the way around. Funston, and I tell people this,
but I'll let you tell people. There's no better fantasy
football pre-coverage and in-season coverage than the Athletic.

Speaker 5 (01:45:54):
Tell people about it. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, we
have just a ton of stuff.

Speaker 11 (01:45:58):
Like I said, I've been swimming in it all last
few weeks, but– Some great new riders, rankings updated all
the time, a bunch of stuff to just help you
get ready for your final drafts of the preseason before
we get things going for real.

Speaker 1 (01:46:12):
Man, great stuff. We'll talk to you next week. Buddy,
it's here. Here we go. This is stress time. I'll
give you an update on the Board of Governors meeting, too,
that we're having this week, and I would urge people
to do the same thing. Find a patio. Find some
Georgetown beer, get everybody together, yell and scream for a
half hour, then have some food, and away you go.
So we'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 5 (01:46:27):
I'll be interested to hear what comes out of the beer.

Speaker 1 (01:46:29):
Haze of that. Yeah, exactly. It's always interesting. I'll talk
to you then. Take care. Thanks, guys. We'll check your
text next.

Speaker 7 (01:46:39):
Snoqualmie Casino and Hotel on Sports Radio 93.3, KJR FM.

Speaker 1 (01:46:55):
That last fantasy question for Funston was just fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:46:59):
It's a photo of Wilson. You only have one.

Speaker 5 (01:47:01):
You only have one.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see. Got a couple texts in here.
One of them, I got to go.

Speaker 6 (01:47:08):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:47:09):
2-5-3.

Speaker 1 (01:47:09):
Okay, I'm not a beer drinker, but is a growler
a size or a taste? Please let me know. Oh,
by the way, football is starting, so who cares about
the M's this year? They'll still lose, and next year
is a lockout anyway. Go Hawks, go Huskies from Lifetime
Fan in Ashford.

Speaker 4 (01:47:21):
That's Roger.

Speaker 1 (01:47:22):
Okay. A growler is not a taste. It's 64 fluid
ounces of liquid gold is what it is. That's true.
It's basically roughly four pints is what a growler is.

Speaker 6 (01:47:35):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:47:38):
That's what a growler is. A taste, you can get it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:41):
Now, by the way, if you go to Georgetown, you
can get like a 4-ounce or 10-ounce taste of the
mare if you want to try that. But a growler
to go, that's like a big, just think like the
big jug is what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:47:51):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:47:52):
And, yeah, it's basically just about 4.

Speaker 2 (01:47:54):
It's close to a gallon, right?

Speaker 1 (01:47:56):
Yeah, it's about 4 pints is what it is, which
would be a gallon. So, yeah, 32, 64. I think
it is 64 ounces.

Speaker 2 (01:48:02):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:48:03):
I should know that. But, yeah, it's 4. Well, here's
the thing. It's 4 pints. That's 64 ounces.

Speaker 2 (01:48:08):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:48:08):
Boom.

Speaker 2 (01:48:09):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:48:10):
Yeah, there it is. Let's see.

Speaker 1 (01:48:12):
David wants to know, do the new owners have to
agree to these contract extensions or is it still in
the Allen Trust? Allen Trust is still in there. They
don't take over. officially until they were approved. They haven't
taken over officially because the financials have to be approved.
I don't think Schneider can even call them and say, hey,
we want to sign Leonard Williams.

Speaker 2 (01:48:31):
They're not doing operations yet, right?

Speaker 1 (01:48:34):
I have seen a lot of stuff about... Wow, are
they still going to spend money on these contracts and
this and that and the owners? Guys, it's the NFL.
You spend to the salary cap. It's not like baseball
where you make up your own salary cap and your
own budget. Now, I'm not talking about how you run

(01:48:57):
the football operations side in terms of what you invest
in nutrition and how many dietitians. Like the other night
we saw the Seahawks assistant dietitian. Andrea is the lead dietitian.
She's been there for years. She's great. I think Russ
tried to get her fired, too. Anyway, they have the

(01:49:18):
two dietitians, at least. I think it's the two of me,
so they've been there forever. Stuff like that. Do we
need two or do we need one? The Kraken just
hired a new dietitian, nutritionist, what have you.

Speaker 9 (01:49:29):
Full-time.

Speaker 1 (01:49:30):
That's the stuff that you have to approve. Player salaries,
in a salary-capped league, you know what you have to spend.

Speaker 3 (01:49:37):
Even the Cardinals, who are trying to lose, have to
spend up to the cap.

Speaker 1 (01:49:41):
Yeah, they don't have to, but they'll come close. I'm
not ready to give credit or take credit away for
an NFL team that's going to spend money on player salaries.
Player salaries. Now, if we're talking coaching staff, salaries, and
all that stuff, how you travel. If you watched Hard Knocks,

(01:50:02):
did you watch it?

Speaker 2 (01:50:03):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:50:05):
See, this is always one of the things I was
amazed with, and I like this when people got a
chance to see it. So they're going on a road trip, right?
And they're jumping on the plane for what would be
about a four-and-a-half-hour flight over to Nashville. And as they're
doing so, you see them leaving, and they're getting on
before they get on the bus. The breakfast they have,
but then before they get on the bus, they're having smoothies.

(01:50:28):
They've got the liquid IV. They've got all this stuff
laid out for these guys, right, as they get on
the bus. Then they show them on the plane.

Speaker 2 (01:50:33):
They get on the plane.

Speaker 1 (01:50:34):
They're eating again. they're always constantly fueling. I've watched that
for years when on road trips, because when we do,
when we did our Fox 13 postgame show for road trips,
you guys always saw us. We were always in the hallway, right?
Right outside the locker room. And it's right next to
where the players walk by on the way to the buses.
And there's these long lines of table and the two nutritionists,
the dieticians do a great, they had everything laid out.

(01:50:55):
They had smoothies, they had fruit, they had high carbs,
all this stuff laid out. They get to the hotel, uh, Basically,
the players' floors, you get off the elevator, they got
these tons of Gatorade, all the stuff you need. The
amount of money that's invested in player nutrition and player

(01:51:15):
performance is amazing. That's what you don't want to see
ever cut back. Good teams spend money on that. We
just went through the audit out here with the Kraken, right?
They just did that. And one of the things they
brought up was player development, which includes nutrition and all
those things. Well, one of the things that the hockey
team did... Now, remember, they've got one-third of the size

(01:51:37):
of the roster of an NFL team. Because the NFL
team's 70. These guys have 22 here, 23 here at
the max. But one of the things they did is
they went out and they hired a new full-time dietician, nutritionist.
They hired a third full-time strength and conditioning coach, etc. So, like,
those are like... Like, when people say they didn't do anything,
they took a step forward and did that. They invested

(01:51:57):
in those positions, which will cost more money not just
because of the position, but also... Are we fueling these
guys upright? Are they doing all that stuff and all that?
That's where the ownership for the Seahawks, hopefully when they
come in, they're never going to cut any of those
things back. I don't think this guy is. Listening to
his press conference yesterday, this dude's not a frugal dude.

Speaker 3 (01:52:16):
Yeah, he does not seem like the cut back to
save money in this aspect sort of guy.

Speaker 1 (01:52:20):
This is not Tom Dundon, people.

Speaker 2 (01:52:22):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:52:24):
God, what an idiot.

Speaker 2 (01:52:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:52:25):
What an ass.

Speaker 3 (01:52:28):
Look, I'm not blaming fans for thinking that way, right?
There's obviously going to be worries about that kind of
stuff when you're getting a new owner coming in, but
it's just not the case.

Speaker 1 (01:52:37):
Yeah, no, that's definitely not the case. All right, we've
got a couple more questions about the beer.

Speaker 4 (01:52:42):
I have 425.

Speaker 1 (01:52:42):
Hey, Ian, I'm still doing the final keg at Imbibe
in Maple Valley. What is the date? Do you know?
The answer is yes, we are, and no, I'm not
sure yet. We're working on that with my good friend
Angie out at Imbibe, and so I'm going to try
to find that out. I was waiting for To be
honest with you, the NHL schedule and the NHL national
TV schedule to come out, which did yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:53:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:53:02):
So perhaps over a glass of Mayer tonight when I
get home, I'm going to try to get that done.
But we will have a final keg party at Imbibe
in Maple Valley sometime in the next month, month and a.

Speaker 2 (01:53:12):
Half or so.

Speaker 4 (01:53:13):
Love it.

Speaker 2 (01:53:14):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:53:14):
So stay tuned for that. How did Ian get the
nickname Mayor of Maple Valley? That's a good question, actually.
That's a nicer question than the guy last week that says,
I've been to Maple Valley. I'm always in Maple Valley,
and there isn't a soul out there who knows who
Ian Furness is.

Speaker 5 (01:53:28):
Oh, jeez.

Speaker 1 (01:53:29):
I think it's insulting that he calls himself the mayor
and da-da-da-da-da just has torched me.

Speaker 2 (01:53:34):
Jeez.

Speaker 1 (01:53:35):
First of all, you're not from Maple Valley. You're a visitor,
so we don't like you, and we're going to check you.
Next time when you try to get across the Maple
Valley border, we're going to have somebody there to make
sure you can't get in. I'll make sure Border Patrol
is there standing by.

Speaker 2 (01:53:47):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:53:48):
Second of all, I didn't give myself that.

Speaker 2 (01:53:50):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:53:51):
Like, I'm not that guy. Nobody gives a, like, please
don't think I'm that guy. Years and years ago, this was, like,
in the old building. This was at 351 Elliott. Is
that what it was? Yeah, 351 Elliott. So this was, like, 12, 13,
14 years ago. Somebody called. We were doing the show middays,
and somebody called in, and we were talking about Maple Valley,
and somebody goes, oh, you're, like, the mayor of Maple Valley.

(01:54:13):
And it stuck.

Speaker 6 (01:54:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54:14):
To the point where, like, a few months later, The
true mayor at the time of Maple Valley is a lady.
I forget what her name was. And Maple Valley's mayor
is basically just one of the city council people.

Speaker 6 (01:54:23):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (01:54:23):
And it's all part-time positions. They have a city manager.
If you know politics, that means a city manager. She's
a figurehead, what have you, leads the city council. But
she emailed me, and she was sideways. She was sideways,
kind of like this guy was.

Speaker 2 (01:54:37):
Yeah, right?

Speaker 1 (01:54:38):
She was sideways because, like, you're calling yourself the mayor.
You're not the mayor.

Speaker 4 (01:54:41):
I'm the mayor.

Speaker 1 (01:54:42):
I don't see you in any city. I haven't seen
you at any city council meetings, blah, blah, blah, all
this stuff. It just went off on me. I'm like, lady,
first of all, it's a radio bit. It's a bit
on radio, on sports radio. Second of all, it's a nickname.
Third of all, why do you care? Fourth of all,
who are you again? Because I've never heard of you either.
That's what it was. That was like my email response.

(01:55:02):
I never heard from her again. She's long gone. By
the way, the real mayor of Maple Valley on the
city council, Sean P. Kelly, is a good dude, and
he actually loves the fact that that gets– he says
sometimes that he can just divert issues to me. As
I pointed out to him, that's not a great idea
because when I have issues in my life, I do
one of two things. One, I point them to the little.

Speaker 4 (01:55:26):
General, a.k.a.

Speaker 1 (01:55:27):
My wife.

Speaker 7 (01:55:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:55:28):
You saw her last week. She runs the show. The boss. Yeah,
the boss lady.

Speaker 4 (01:55:32):
The general.

Speaker 1 (01:55:33):
We call her the little general. I send them to
the little general, or if it's something work-related or otherwise,
Jessamyn McIntyre at iHeartMedia.com. Anders, I usually spare him of
those issues. I just send them right to Jess.

Speaker 2 (01:55:48):
That's a good call.

Speaker 1 (01:55:49):
She's a problem solver.

Speaker 2 (01:55:51):
Yeah, she gets stuff done.

Speaker 1 (01:55:52):
Now, we have talked about politics over a few beers
at Imbibe and running for office. If I did so
I would have a chief of staff. I would be
purely a figurehead. But I would have a chief of staff.
And that chief of staff, you met my chief of staff.
You know who it would be?

Speaker 2 (01:56:09):
Who? Your son?

Speaker 8 (01:56:11):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:56:14):
Come on. The scoffing of that.

Speaker 1 (01:56:16):
You know what that guy's worried about right now?

Speaker 2 (01:56:18):
What?

Speaker 1 (01:56:19):
That guy's worried about getting his girlfriend through the last
two years of law school and then finally make sure
she gets a job in a nice law firm and
playing golf.

Speaker 2 (01:56:26):
That's all he cares about right now. Can I ask
a quick question, by the way? Yeah, yeah. Your wife
calls you the little general? No, I call her the
little general.

Speaker 5 (01:56:35):
Okay, good.

Speaker 1 (01:56:35):
Hey, hey, by the way, by the way, we don't
call her that to her face.

Speaker 2 (01:56:42):
I got you.

Speaker 10 (01:56:42):
I'm just imagining Tammy waiting in your bedroom for the
little general.

Speaker 1 (01:56:47):
No, no, no.

Speaker 4 (01:56:50):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:56:50):
You know what he's called? The major.

Speaker 5 (01:56:52):
The major.

Speaker 2 (01:56:53):
The whopper. The king, baby.

Speaker 1 (01:56:57):
He's a major. But yeah, no, we have issues. See,
same thing with Softie. If you have an issue, I
just send them to Jess. I just send people to Jess.

Speaker 2 (01:57:04):
I bet he sends them to Jackson. That's what he does.

Speaker 1 (01:57:05):
You know what the other thing I was going to
say running for office? You know who my chief of
staff would be? Cliff Clavin. My buddy Cliff Clavin.

Speaker 2 (01:57:11):
There you go. There you go.

Speaker 5 (01:57:12):
Darren.

Speaker 2 (01:57:12):
So there's actually somebody dumb enough to think that you
were claiming to be the mayor of Maple Valley.

Speaker 1 (01:57:17):
12 years ago, she sent me a– I don't know
if I– I tried to keep the email, but we
got them flushed out for a while. She was sideways.

Speaker 2 (01:57:22):
Yeah. Can we do this next segment, guys?

Speaker 1 (01:57:24):
We've got a break. Oh, yeah. Let's take a break.

Speaker 2 (01:57:26):
Softie joins us next. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:57:35):
All righty, he's back. He was there. He gave his
little tease.

Speaker 2 (01:57:38):
Yeah, the tease. The captain and the little general, baby.

Speaker 5 (01:57:40):
The captain and the little general.

Speaker 2 (01:57:42):
The little general. When's the little general going to come
on in here?

Speaker 1 (01:57:46):
Kiefer calls her the little general.

Speaker 2 (01:57:47):
See, that's just weird, man. There's got to be some
context here.

Speaker 1 (01:57:52):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:57:52):
You've got to explain.

Speaker 1 (01:57:54):
Everything to the audience. Most people's minds don't go directly
where they go to you.

Speaker 10 (01:58:00):
Well, look, I would think if you're on the air
and you're talking about your wife and your little general,
most people would make that leap.

Speaker 1 (01:58:07):
I can see that. Most people would make that leap. better.

Speaker 5 (01:58:11):
Anders, help me out here.

Speaker 2 (01:58:12):
Am I wrong? Tell me I'm wrong. You're not wrong.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:58:16):
But Anders was there. He was there when we called
her little general.

Speaker 4 (01:58:19):
Whoa!

Speaker 2 (01:58:20):
To her face? What is going on here?

Speaker 1 (01:58:22):
No, I think it was behind her back. Hey, I'm
telling you, the only person that can call her that
to her face is her baby. Her baby.

Speaker 2 (01:58:30):
Her baby.

Speaker 1 (01:58:30):
Her baby can do that. None of the rest of
us can. I was telling a story about you yesterday
when I was playing really bad golf, actually. I'm not
going to get into the details of where I was
on Saturday and what I was doing. You do know.

Speaker 2 (01:58:46):
I know where you were on Tuesday.

Speaker 9 (01:58:48):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:58:49):
No, but this was Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:58:50):
Are you talking something else? Gotcha. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:58:51):
Yeah, Saturday. You know my fun Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:58:53):
Yes, I do.

Speaker 1 (01:58:54):
Yes, I do. So I'm sitting there with the general.

Speaker 2 (01:58:57):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:58:58):
And I get a couple texts from you, and they're
your typical softy texts.

Speaker 4 (01:59:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:59:03):
And she's like, who's texting you? What's going on?

Speaker 4 (01:59:04):
I go, it's softy.

Speaker 2 (01:59:05):
She goes, what do you want?

Speaker 1 (01:59:06):
I go, she goes, give me your phone. I go, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (01:59:09):
So obviously she doesn't listen to the show.

Speaker 1 (01:59:13):
No, buddy. Come on.

Speaker 10 (01:59:16):
You're talking about the text that I sent you that
you did not respond to.

Speaker 1 (01:59:19):
And she's like, let me see your phone.

Speaker 2 (01:59:22):
Now I know why you didn't respond. Oh, Jesus.

Speaker 1 (01:59:25):
Don't think I didn't see it, buddy. I appreciate that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:59:29):
Good Lord, man.

Speaker 1 (01:59:30):
There's certain things that the wife, when your friends text,
they just can't see. That was near the top.

Speaker 2 (01:59:35):
Of the list.

Speaker 10 (01:59:36):
Do you get the, Anders, I don't know if you
get this a lot, Ian, on your phone. It sounds
like you might get it too, Ian. Who were you texting?
Who were you talking to?

Speaker 1 (01:59:45):
That was it. No, that was it.

Speaker 2 (01:59:46):
Do you get that a lot, though? No, my wife
doesn't care.

Speaker 7 (01:59:48):
Really?

Speaker 2 (01:59:49):
She doesn't care.

Speaker 3 (01:59:50):
She already knows that I couldn't do any better than her.
That's a good point.

Speaker 2 (01:59:54):
I think all three of us can say the same.

Speaker 1 (01:59:56):
I think that's a unanimous decision.

Speaker 10 (01:59:58):
By the way, if for whatever reason, and I'm sure
that you agree with me, Ian, if it never worked
out or something happened and, God forbid, I ended up
on my own again, that's it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:07):
I'm done. Like, I'm finished.

Speaker 4 (02:00:09):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:00:09):
Finished, finished, finished.

Speaker 1 (02:00:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:00:10):
All right? I might even go to the other side.
I got to be honest with you.

Speaker 10 (02:00:14):
And just find a buddy.

Speaker 2 (02:00:18):
I got a buddy of mine.

Speaker 5 (02:00:19):
All right? Good sample.

Speaker 1 (02:00:20):
You do your thing, man.

Speaker 10 (02:00:21):
I got a buddy of mine. And let me tell
you something, man. This guy has it all figured out.
Him and his husband, they got it all figured out.

Speaker 2 (02:00:27):
It is tremendous. Tremendous relationship. It's perfect. There's a lot
of it that is... Very, very attractive. I'll be told...
You ever see... Southie's Envious.

Speaker 10 (02:00:37):
What's the movie with Kevin James and Adam Sandler where
they got married to each other to avoid paying taxes
and whatever?

Speaker 2 (02:00:45):
The hell is that movie?

Speaker 1 (02:00:46):
I don't even want to venture to guess a name,
to be honest.

Speaker 2 (02:00:48):
Somebody knows what I'm talking about. It's not Grown Ups,
is it? No, it's not Grown Ups.

Speaker 1 (02:00:52):
No, no, no, Grown Ups.

Speaker 2 (02:00:53):
Is it Kevin James and Sandler? Is that who's in it,
or is it somebody else? I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (02:00:57):
They're in Grown Ups, though, aren't they?

Speaker 2 (02:00:59):
It's not Grown Ups. I now pronounce it Chuck and Larry. Anyway,
you're saying... I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry.

Speaker 1 (02:01:03):
Okay, so you're saying.

Speaker 2 (02:01:04):
You ever heard about that?

Speaker 1 (02:01:06):
I know that the movie rings a bell.

Speaker 10 (02:01:08):
Firefighter buddies who enter a domestic partnership and fake being
gay to get married.

Speaker 2 (02:01:13):
Hilarious movie. Right, Jackson? Hilarious.

Speaker 1 (02:01:16):
So what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (02:01:18):
If it doesn't work out for you, it doesn't work
out for me.

Speaker 1 (02:01:20):
If Gina puts you on waivers.

Speaker 2 (02:01:23):
And Tammy boots you to the curb.

Speaker 1 (02:01:24):
It could happen any second.

Speaker 2 (02:01:25):
Would you marry me?

Speaker 6 (02:01:27):
Probably.

Speaker 1 (02:01:30):
Well, I mean, listen, do I get to share the
country club membership?

Speaker 2 (02:01:32):
You can do whatever you want. That's the thing.

Speaker 1 (02:01:34):
You can do whatever you want.

Speaker 2 (02:01:35):
You can have your own room, whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (02:01:37):
I don't care.

Speaker 2 (02:01:38):
Whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (02:01:39):
I just want to go to the country club. That's
all I want to do.

Speaker 2 (02:01:41):
As far as Uncle Sam's concerned, I love you, man.

Speaker 1 (02:01:43):
I love you, too.

Speaker 2 (02:01:44):
I love you, too.

Speaker 1 (02:01:44):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (02:01:46):
I now pronounce you Dave and Ian.

Speaker 1 (02:01:50):
Problem is, that's my middle name, so what do I
do here?

Speaker 2 (02:01:51):
It's also my brother's name, too, by the way, which
would be really weird. Really weird.

Speaker 1 (02:01:55):
This has just gone down a really dark place today.

Speaker 2 (02:01:57):
Your middle name is David. My brother's name is Ian.
We got problems, man.

Speaker 1 (02:02:01):
And we got married just like that on the air.

Speaker 2 (02:02:03):
Oh, God.

Speaker 1 (02:02:04):
I could marry us. Little do you know, I'm ordained.
I got that license.

Speaker 2 (02:02:07):
Get you guys married right now. Do it.

Speaker 1 (02:02:09):
No, I got the license.

Speaker 2 (02:02:09):
I can do it. Say the word. You take him,
you take him. Boom, it's done. See you later.

Speaker 1 (02:02:14):
It's done.

Speaker 2 (02:02:14):
Meet me on number one. Mazel tov.

Speaker 1 (02:02:21):
Oh, God. Oh, geez. If my wife was listening right now,
she'd probably go, yeah, that's a good idea.

Speaker 2 (02:02:27):
Yeah. See ya. Thank God. You're out of here, man.
You are out of here.

Speaker 1 (02:02:32):
You're out of here. Yeah, who's texting you? Who are
you texting?

Speaker 2 (02:02:35):
Who are you talking to?

Speaker 1 (02:02:37):
We got other stuff to do right now. Don't worry
about it, hon.

Speaker 2 (02:02:39):
I'm good.

Speaker 1 (02:02:39):
Don't worry. Don't worry. It's just David.

Speaker 2 (02:02:42):
David who?

Speaker 10 (02:02:43):
I have figured out and I have learned it's just
best just to be honest and just answer in a
calm demeanor.

Speaker 2 (02:02:50):
Honey, I'm talking to Ian.

Speaker 10 (02:02:52):
Honey, I'm talking to my boss or Jackson or whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:02:56):
Blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 4 (02:02:57):
That's all I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (02:02:57):
Just be calm, and then the storm will pass.

Speaker 1 (02:03:00):
My go-to one is this. I go, I just got
cracking stuff. I've got to deal with some cracking stuff.
There you go. Cracking TV.

Speaker 6 (02:03:11):
Wow.

Speaker 10 (02:03:11):
Because that could happen any time. Because that does happen
any time. I want you to try something. Next time
it happens. All the guys out there listening, your wife says,
who are you texting?

Speaker 2 (02:03:19):
You know what? None of your business. Calm down. Try
that and see what happens.

Speaker 5 (02:03:22):
In that accent?

Speaker 2 (02:03:23):
Exactly. None of your business.

Speaker 5 (02:03:24):
None of your business.

Speaker 4 (02:03:25):
Calm down.

Speaker 1 (02:03:26):
I thought you were going to say to me, just
tell her the truth. Say, Softy was texting me something
that you would consider to be inappropriate.

Speaker 2 (02:03:33):
Oh, God.

Speaker 10 (02:03:34):
How about when Chuck Norris died? All the Chuck Norris
memes and all that stuff that were coming out. Chuck
Norris once told a woman to calm down, and she did.

Speaker 2 (02:03:45):
Good luck with that, man. All right.

Speaker 1 (02:03:47):
What are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (02:03:48):
What's today? Thursday, Rick Neuheisel makes his debut for 2026.

Speaker 10 (02:03:51):
Courtesy of Taco Time. In about 25 minutes from now,
we'll talk some college football with Rick Neuheisel, Jerry Brewer
at four, and Brett Boone at five. Coming up, did
the Mariners make a mistake on not grabbing Eugenio Suarez
to play third base for them? Because he cleared waivers
when he's going back to the Reds. So we'll talk
to Booney about that.

Speaker 1 (02:04:12):
Let's keep Patrick Wisdom instead. By the way, big thanks
to the folks here at 32 Bar and Grill, Kenny
Moriarty and stuff. Once training camp starts, you can watch
the practices, have lunch, look outside, go check things out.
In the meantime, hey, Softy, I love you.

Speaker 2 (02:04:23):
I love you too, man. See ya. For the mild-mannered
and marginally objectionable Ian Furness, this is Paddle Day saying
so long, everyone.

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