March 25, 2024 • 38 mins
MLB.com reporter for the Seattle Mariners, Daniel Kramer joins the show for a chat regarding the Mariners as we're three days from opening day. We pivot to the news regarding Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter as ish has hit the fan. We close the show w/ Ian Furness on Cross Talk.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Lis is Kyle Smith to Stanford,former PAC twelve member, new member of
the ACC and we don't necessarily havethe details of that contract quite yet,
but Kyle Smith is out, andthis following the Koog's exit. I know
that Coach Smith did a really goodjob of not talking about it while they
were still in whatever run they weregoing to go on. He was asked
(00:23):
during the PAC twelve tournament, afterthe PAC twelve tournament, during this NCAA
dance, and nope, he wouldn'ttalk about it, and I think that's
what helped the team be as cohesiveas they could and even play Iowa State
hard. It seemed like the distractiondidn't really get to them, where As
you could talk about the Washington Statefootball team last year starting so hot and
(00:48):
coach Dickert's name rumored in every singlething out there because they were playing so
well, going in you know,number into right after their bye week and
number thirteen in the country, andthen absolutely pooh Monday ing throughout the rest
of that season. So it's justthe distractions can be a thing, and
coach Smith did a really good job. I wish him the best, but
(01:11):
I'm really disappointed that he's gone crackand also fall five one of the Montreal
Canadians last night at Climb and PledgeArena. They have dropped eight games in
a row and tomorrow night taken onthe Anaheim Ducks in game two the four
game homestand seven o'clock puck drop again. Everett fits you al Kiniski on the
call right here in ninety three tothree KJRFM. I'll also be a part
of that with you, of course, scoreslight pregame show opening up at six
(01:34):
thirty. So we're now four daysout from Mariners, four days out and
after all the well tem minus whatfour months rather after this season, previous
season ended, you're at all theshouting we vented, We had anger,
We asked what's going on, what'sgoing to happen, what's next? Well,
(01:56):
this can finally all get put tobed here if the Mariners can get
off to the hot start that theywant finally to open this regular season,
and they're going to jump right intoit with the Boston Red Sox right back
at home, because Cactus League playis all done and now the real stuff
happens. Daniel Kramer, who coversthe Mariners for MLB dot Com joining us
now on the Beacon Plumbing hotline.Daniel, Hello, how are you.
(02:20):
I'm well back from six long butsunny weeks in Arizona. It's nice to
be back, and I need toget this thing going. I think there's
a lot of anticipation for Thursday,not just you know, among the fan
base here in Seattle, but Ithink within that clubhouse too. You could
really really feel it, really seeit, and especially started to progress just
(02:45):
more and more as spring training gotgoing. They were getting the results that
they wanted, and you know,with the recognition that it's not really gonna
matter until the lights turn on onMarch twenty eighth, and it's pretty much
they've just got two more exhibitions toclear in San Diego tonight and tomorrow,
and then, like you said,the results will finally matter. Now.
(03:07):
I know that there's a burning question, of course, and we could say
maybe it begins with the pitching staff, it begins with maybe the bullpen,
it begins maybe with the new editions. Can they have Garber hold up?
Can they have Hanneger hold up?But the real burning question, how do
(03:28):
you pack for six months and comeback and do all this laundry and short
order A week's weeks. Weeks weeks? Right, six six weeks? I
should say, I felt like sixmonths. I told you I'm tired.
I just think think that Daniel wasworking, So six weeks okay, Oh
well, the laundry wasn't too muchof an issue. It's more like the
grocery shopping. When you get backand you realize that your plate is completely
(03:50):
barren and you're like, the lastthing you want to do is go run
errands because you've been gone and youjust want to relax, and it's just
not the case like yesterday. Thiswas kind of a free for all from
Costco, Trader Joe's all that funstuff. But we're all squared away.
We're ready to go catching up onsome Opening Day previous stuff today and then
you know, we'll have the gameon Thursday and then the long home stance.
(04:14):
Typhran is still expecting the birth ofhis child any day now from what
we're learning here, I mean,when we when he can get back into
the lineup, and we've heard aboutthe change in his game, his physique
as well. I mean, howimportant is this Typrance turned around going to
be here for this team. Yeah, I think it's a big one.
And you know the fact that thefact that he's still here kind of speaks
(04:36):
to I think what the Mariners believein are banking on him bounce back.
I don't think it was a guaranteethat they were gonna non tender him,
but just the way the way thatyou know, his season had ended,
the way like both he and theteam had kind of talked about it,
Uh, it wasn't necessarily a surefirething that they were going to bring him
(04:58):
back, you know, especially sinceyou know he's going to be doing a
pay raase through arbitration. So Ithink, you know, the way Jerry
and Justin and everybody have talked aboutit, it's just like they very much
view last year as an outlier.But with the recognition you know that's some
adjustments and some tweaks and deliberation aboutmaking those changes, you know that they
(05:25):
were going to be pretty vital tohim having a successful bounce back, if
you will. He started to seeit in spring. You know, it's
the fact that he does look leaner, Uh, he looks more athletic,
and I think that that'll be youknow, really important for him over the
course of a six month season foranybody really, just if you're more athletic
(05:46):
and you're in better shape, you'rejust gonna be able to handle the rigors
of things a lot better. Youknow, when you're playing every day.
It's a really long year. ButI also think like some of the swing
adjustments, like he's pretty excited aboutit. You know, not sure how
much you guys have read into this, but like, you know, one
thing that I found pretty fascinating waslike, uh, he'd never really put
(06:09):
the trust of his swing into outsidecamp council ever before, because he's just
always been able to hit, likeever since he was in high school and
then you know in college and downin San Diego playing for Tony Glenn,
and you know even in his earlyyears with the padres, like he's just
like always had this very you know, keen knack for putting the bat on
(06:31):
the ball and just like a contactspecialist. But would also get him in
trouble at times too, because youcould always get the pitches, so instead
of like you know, foullan offor laying stuff off and finding yourself in
an O one or an O twocount, you're like, you know,
you're the first second out of theinning because you've like rolled over and and
you know, not really had likea productive at bath, so to speak.
(06:54):
So he's he's cognitant of that too. It's just like being more selective
with what he's trying to do andput the out on the ball. But
I also think there's not going tobe as much pressure on him this year
given the way they've constructed this lineup, because you know, if you look
at in years past, especially whenhe was really rolling, he was hitting
second or third. This year,you're probably going to see him hitting seventh
(07:15):
or eighth. So if you getany semblance of ty France from twenty twenty
one and twenty twenty two back thisyear, and he's hitting at the bottom
of your lineup and can be likea really good bridge to you know,
the nine hole hitter and then backto the JP Crawford up top. Yeah,
it's just going to make it alot deeper. But to answer your
question, I think Yees, bothhe and the team are very much banking
(07:39):
on bounce back Yere, and hestarted to see some promising returns of that
in spring. Daniel Kramer, whocovers the Mariners for Major League Baseball,
joining us here, Daniel, Ihaven't got a lot of time to converse
with you in the past, soI want to one thank you for joining
us today. And two, youmentioned you were down there for six weeks.
You have your finger on the pulseof this team. There was so
(08:01):
much noise, so much backlash ofthe moves that were made, or more
so the lack thereof by the frontoffice, and I'm wondering if this team
was able to tune that out.If you get any sort of temperature gauge
on what the energy is in theclubhouse, Yeah, it's it's definitely a
(08:22):
good question. And you know,I was kind of right there with you
on a lot of that stuff asI was getting ready to go down there
in mid February. You know,these were a lot of the questions I
was going to ask, and kindof like the lead up to it,
I was just really curious to especiallyfrom the leadership guys like Julio and JP
(08:45):
and Pal, you know, justlike what their response would be. And
you know, like now that we'vekind of cleared that first week of camp
where we did ask all those guysjust like about where things stand. I
mean, at least from my perspective. I haven't really thought about it much
more, and I don't and Ithink that's kind of like, you know,
(09:05):
you could also say that about them. It's just because you kind of
have seen the group that they've assembled. They've come in, they've really meshed
well together. The guys that theyadded are uh, you know, pretty
pretty diligent about how they go abouttheir preparation and their work ethic and things
(09:26):
like that, which you know,meshes really well with the guys that I
had just listed, who you know, are all very not intense about it,
but you know, they're all grinders, and so like the guys that
they brought in kind of fit thatmold. But to go back to your
question about you know, if thatwas lingering or simmering, I think that's
(09:48):
the way. You know, Scott'sservice head was like very pointed in going
to see a lot of these guysin person, uh in the off season
and kind of you know, explainwhy they had to make the moves that
they did, uh, and wasbeing like pretty transparent about it. You
know. I had a question withJP Crawford a couple of weeks ago.
(10:11):
It's just like, what did youtell them and his you know, his
response is like, you know,this is our window. We need to
you know, we need to treatthis as like an opportunity to win the
World Series. Like you know,these these opportunities don't come around so often,
and so you know, whatever,whatever we're going to do here is
just like, you know, thereneeds to be like an understanding of that.
(10:33):
And again that's kind of like aparaphrase of what JP was saying.
But uh, you know here inhere, in the way that the players
had talked about it, I thinkthere was a lot of confusion and uncertainty
similar to what the fan base hadfelt. But you know, the the
commentary and the responses that at leastI've gathered, you know, especially in
(10:56):
the early weeks of spring and howthings are going, they're pretty receptive to
the roster that's been assembled. Theylike the work ethic of the new guys
that they brought in, and theyalso understand that it's on them to kind
of like continue to take a stepforward with the established talent that's already here
and continue to develop, you know, and try to capitalize on this window
(11:20):
that they have. Kind of along winded answers to say that I think
most everybody in that clubhouse was alsocurious to what was going to play out,
but also excited once the dust finallysettled. Well, Daniel, I
would say, as far as establishedtalent, it doesn't get any better here
than this rotation. One of thebest in Major League Baseball period, flat
out, end of discussion, endof story. But how much more clear
(11:43):
are we with a bullpen with rolesand expectations now at this point? Yeah,
it's a little murky right now,just because they're going to start the
year with two of their highest leveragerelievers on the injured list in Matt brad
ggerby Santos Brash. By the timewhen I was leaving Arizona, he had
(12:05):
began throwing very light bullpen sessions inSantos and yeah, throwing at all.
He was still plated to undergo anotherMRI. So you know, ask Goot
Service about this recently and he's like, am I concerned about it? Yeah?
Who wouldn't be? But all,you know, like he wanted to
point out that all teams deal withinjuries and uncertainties, and you know,
(12:28):
there's some validity to that as well, But nonetheless, it's like bullpen has
been a catalyst for them for eachof the past three seasons and kind of
blueprint for the success that they've hadoverall as a team because they play in
these really tight, post one rungames pretty fairly often, So how the
(12:48):
trickle down effect works, you're probablygoing to see Munos throwing into even more
of a closer type role, youknow, where he's going to be pitching
in the most highest leverage pockets,you know, where the games on the
line. They had kind of likeindicated that the ninth inning is something that
(13:09):
they wanted to use him more deliberatelyat this season in order to kind of
like better manage his workload, predicthis workload, you know, protect him,
so to speak, so they're notrolling him out there every night.
You could see some of that changea little bit in April, where he's
you know, maybe going in inthe seventh or eighth of a tie game
(13:31):
or a one run deficit, becauseyou know, navigating this first month is
going to be pretty crucial with thoseother two guys, Hurt Ryan Stanek,
who they signed veteran you know,picture for the Astros for the past three
years. You know, he didn'tcome into camp until March tenth, So
there was like a little bit ofa little bit of a workload concern in
(13:52):
terms of like building him up,but they're pretty confident he's going to be
ready by opening day. Speaking ofhim a couple of days ago, he
feels the same. You know,the guys throws really hard. He throws
like ninety miles an hour, ninetynine with a nasty splitter. H he
got he got hit up a littlebit last year. He pointed out to
some of those being like runaway outings, you know, where he gets tagged
(14:13):
with two or three runs. Butoverall this stuff, he's like pretty overpowering.
It just kind of fits into whatthey're trying to do with that bullpen
too. So you're probably gonna seehim in type of like a setup role
to un especially early in the season. And then you got like the returning
guys, the lefties, Tiresseado,you know, Austin Vote is going to
(14:37):
be in there, as you knowthey don't call it a long nand kind
of a bridge guy. And thenyou know two guys who are probably gonna
make the team. They haven't announced, ye, but Cody Bolton and Collin
Snyder, who are new additions andhe'll probably be inserted into like lower leverage
pockets to start the year. Soyou know, there there is some promise
(14:58):
within the group, and the bullpenhas always been able to figure it out
despite you know, some seemingly uncertainmoments over the past few years. But
nonetheless, when when you're starting theyear without those two guys, yeah,
a little bit of a concern forsure, Daniel, presuming there's no injury
here, Emerson Hancock option to tripleA. What's the realistic timeline for him
(15:20):
to get back up. It's agood question, presuming no injury. Not
totally sure, I think. Ithink the situation with Brian Wum is one
that I'm really curious as to howthey're going to operate it. Yeah,
they're gonna be very diligent about howthey monitor his workload because he you know,
(15:43):
more than doubled it last year,and you know before that, he
was, you know, making hispro debut in twenty twenty two. So
like his situation is just like alittle bit more unique than like George Kirby
and Logan who went through a similarsituation in the past few years of life,
just building their arms up to whereOkay, these guys can be two
(16:07):
hundred war horses as starting pitchers inthe majors. Brian's situation is just different
because he's got more of an injuryhistory and not nearly as much tread on
his tires, so to speak.So curious to see how they kind of
like manipulate the four off days inApril. Do they use that to reslot
the rotation. I'm certain they willat least once, it's not multiple times,
(16:30):
but do they do it every timethat they can? You know,
with a with a five man rotationand the off days early in the year,
you can kind of you can kindof like manipulate it in that regard
with like one starter, but youcan't really do it with two. And
I think they are more confident aboutBryce Miller being able to handle like the
(16:51):
rigors of you know, coming offa career high innings, you know,
just because he was built out alittle bit more. But how how Hancock
fits in that is It's curious becausehe will be the first reinforcement of Scott
Service made that clear when they optionedhim the other day, and you know,
he did have some promise this spring, despite you know a few hiccups
(17:14):
in the middle there where he losta little bit of velocity and lost some
of the strike zone. You know, overall, they're really excited about like
his potential of like you know,finally being healthy and you know, not
having any injury hiccups, so tospeak. And he looked really good in
camp. But you know, toanswer your question, I don't exactly know
(17:36):
what the plan would be for howhe gets up unless there's an injury.
But I would bank on, youknow, if they need to give Wu
a blow or you know, evenBryce, if if that's the case,
that they'll they'll be pretty proactive aboutEmerson would be the first guy up.
Daniel Craig were joining us here,and I'm going to ask the most impossible
(17:56):
question in sports talk radio, specificallywhen it comes to baseball, just to
take a look at one hundred andsixty two game season and give us an
overall thought of how you think theMaritors will do. I'll narrow down a
little bit. Do they win moregames than last year in your opinion from
what you've seen so far. Youknow, I'm really curious about this team.
(18:18):
This is my fourth year on thebeat, and it's the first one
where I felt like, yeah,looking at the roster and how it's assembled,
and if they can fully live upto their potential and their rotation more
than any group stays healthy and Juliocan put together a six months stretch,
(18:40):
you know, above average all starcaliber play instead of like spurts of four
and five weeks. Yeah, Imean, this team, more than any
that I've been around, looks likeone that's capable of making a long October
run, if you know, notpotentially winning at all. But I also
see like some question marks too,Whereas like, you know, you've brought
(19:00):
in I think you touched on itsome veteran guys who have a lot of
promise in a track record, butthey also, like have had some injury
concerns in recent years. And youknow, bringing guys over from other divisions
who you know, come to TMobile Park, which isn't the most hit
or friendly, Like, how isthat going to correlate to you know,
(19:22):
their confidence and mental game in theearly parts of the year if they're not
getting the results that they want.You know, some of those questions that
we hit on in the bullpen,will they carry over for the course of
a you know, beyond just thefirst month of the season, you know,
and it's how things are going inJune and early July, Like,
how will that impact their deadline strategybecause it's you know, they've always been
(19:44):
a very reactionary front office to theirteam standing when they go out and a
talent you know at the very endof July when there's all that flurry of
deadline movement. So if they're init, yeah, I think they would
be the aggressive buyers. And Ithink they've built their roster and their payroll
to be able to do that.So I'm really curious. I think,
like the I think the floor ismuch higher, but I also think the
ceiling can be really high too.How they how they match up with the
(20:08):
rest of the division. Curious tosee how Texas kind of holds up and
they'll be like a hangover so tospeak for lack of a better term for
winning the World Series. The questionmarks within their rotation Corey Seegers Herney issue
like like just a lot of likeuncertainty with how they kind of rebound and
(20:30):
comes back from you know, winningthe title last year. Houston's not going
anywhere. They've been the class ofthe field in the division for you know,
the better part of the decade now. So but I do think like
the way that the Mariners are builtright now and again only March twenty fifth,
like they're they're they're built to go. I would think, you know,
(20:52):
deeper in October than those other twoteams, even if they don't win
the division. Again, a lotof things have to go right. But
I I really liked what I sawin spring. I liked the focus,
not so much like intensity, justlike it's like a hunger level bridge with
that focus that I was talking about, and you know, really feeling the
thing of coming up short last yearand then you're bringing back a young core
(21:18):
guys that they're anticipating will continue toget better, supplementing it with you know,
more veteran presence who can you know, potentially help make this line up
a little bit longer, and youknow, like you touched on a rotation
that it should be really really good. The key will just be like keeping
it healthy. So there's a lotof promise to this season. A few
(21:40):
question marks, but I would sayout outpaced by the promise. Hey,
Daniel, welcome back home. I'mglad you got to get a chance to
go grocery shopping. So what's yourgo to by a Costco? My go
to is to go anytime within anhour of closing a smart man over here,
smart man, Wait, what aboutTrader Joe's, because that's my number
one? I would agree with thesame, like the West Seattle and there's
(22:06):
like no parking over there whatsoever.Oh yeah, I haven't done that.
Yeah, yeah, I haven't donethe Perogi thing if Trader Joe's recently,
but I if I'm coming to Costco, the first thing I'd do is make
a bee line right for the stakesand try to find something that's USDA Prime
Well made some salmon bites in theair friar with some honey. There you
(22:27):
go, smart man. Yeah,it's one hundred and sixty two games.
Get your meal prepping ready, Daniel, thanks so much, appreciate you man.
All right, take care guys.All right, Daniel Kramer who covers
the Mariners for MLB dot Com,and he knows he's talking about when you
get into a season, you gota meal prep every week. Oh yeah,
every week, and you have tobe very very careful with it because
(22:49):
you have to do it kind ofevery every day. So stuff it doesn't
go bad. Too, at leastfor me. But I'm on a football
schedule when I'm kind of doing themost work, So I can. I
can make it through four days.You're reminding me when I get back home,
I got to fire the crock potup here because there's still three more
games this week for the Kraken.Oh yeah, you do every other day.
(23:10):
Well, I'm eating this with itnext week, got it. So
I've got some more observations and somequestions as well here on the show Heyo
Atani thing as we had a littlebit of a chat about this earlier Aaron
Levigne in a conversation with us,And looks like that show Heyo Tani will
be addressed in the media here today, but only through a statement. More
of that coming up next, moreand more information coming up. There still
(23:30):
plenty of questions here to be leftanswered. Again Mike Jessman and for Puck
and Jim today and show Heyo Tanireportedly will address the media today about the
illegal gambling and theft allegations against IbeMisahura, his former interpreter, of course,
fired last Wednesday. And I thinkfor me, I want to caution
(23:51):
against speculation and because this is avery very very serious legal matter. But
again I think also it's fair toreact to what we know, and this
story is anything but a nothing burger. Oh, we can just be speculative
nothing, but it is not anothing burger. So what we know is
this his former interpreter had four pointfive million in wired transfers from Otani's bank
(24:12):
account, and he's already on recordfor walking back his original story on the
matter. Plus there's now more holesin his original background about ever attending UC
riverside. And I'll share this funnything with you as well. I actually
was doing women's basketball on radio playby play at the same time he was
allegedly attending U SEE riverside as well. That doesn't make a diffen No,
(24:38):
no, it's just a nice mirrorfootnote. Hey betting name dropping again,
Hey yeah, that was what areyou doing? What are you doing?
But we also know he and othersources, and I should say other sources
originally told the ESPN he never beton baseball and Otani never bet on baseball
(24:59):
as well. Well, So well, that can be interpreted different ways,
and I will I also go backto when Otani was originally ushered out of
the clubhouse after this whole thing brokeback in that series at South Korea,
and I don't put too much stockinto that, and I think in the
same way, this is where Iline up with his decision to release a
statement here today and not go infront of the public full blow with everything,
(25:26):
because it's essentially damage control here fromthe point of do you want to
say something off the cuff and haveit be used against you in the court
of where it's something mistakenly taken outof context and already here to me,
the big red flag is that thereare people who were who were who didn't,
who basically were talking too much offthe cuff and put them in jeopardy
more than so in what they werewhat they were originally bargaining for. Yeah,
(25:51):
well, I was gonna say.It doesn't surprise me that he's not
going to address the media in person, specifically because the person he addresses the
media through is the person under investigationfor him. That's so I get it.
And I think that from the outsidelooking in, you're you know,
just no surprise whatsoever that he willrelease a statement that that just okay.
(26:11):
And one thing's for sure. Imean, I think MLB getting into this
as far as the investigation. Theyhad to. They had to absolutely have
to. You can't have this hangingout there. Yeah, And I mean
from the outside looking in, youlook at this from a surface level and
you're like, oh, man toshow he has been betting, but he
wasn't quote unquote betting. He's justfunneling this guy. And this guy's going
(26:33):
to be his fall guy because he'sbasically his personal everything. And I think
we also we all go back tothat whole Chris Carter thing. Remember that
about a couple of years, youhave a fall guy. So that's where
our first line of thinking originally goeshere. Yeah, absolutely, and I
think that's fair to speculate that thatmight be the deal. But it's also
completely possible that Shoh had no ideathat this guy kind of has an unlimited
(26:57):
access to his funds because he's theone yetting things and buying things for show.
Hey, I assume because a lotof these guys, it's not just
your interpreter, it's your best friend, it's your kind of personal assistant.
It's the guy that can make surethat you're only focused on baseball and can
do all of the other things foryou. So it could he could be
completely, absolutely unaware and fifty milliongoes missing from his seven hundred million dollar
(27:22):
new deal. I think, well, okay, maybe he doesn't notice that
because he probably doesn't do his ownbanking either. And this is not to
be naive on this situation, butit's entirely plausible. And there's a great
story on this in the Los AngelesTimes from Dylan Hernandez. And the more
we learn, the more I'm beingconvinced that this is a situation where someone
took advantage of a friendship, thisbeing Misahura and Otani is a guy who
(27:47):
has a lot of things and alot of things on his to do list
taking care of by others. Andif there's one lesson to be learned here
for Otani, it's not having theforesight to see that that this is going
on and to take control of thingsright. But all the people around him
don't want him focused on anything butbaseball, right because that in terms like
(28:08):
if you look at it, it'sa win for them as well. So
it does not I know, andI you know, I blame, not
blame, But when you see thesetype of things happen with athletes in the
circles around them. You start tojudge them by the people they surround themselves
with. Yeah, when I don'tknow if that's always fair, and I
am no means just sitting here asan apologetic for people who do wrong things.
(28:33):
And I'm not saying I know anythingor think anything in particular about show
Hey right now without more details.However, I do I do think that
public perception at the very least,and you know, we're part of the
public. We put ourselves in thatcategory. We're not experts. Even though
we're sitting here behind a microphone.It's going to be that something shady is
(28:56):
happening, and that's fair that atleast something isn't right here, whether it
be he surrounded himself with the wrongperson or he's actually involved with what went
on. Here's also a question Ihave too. And the one thing that's
interesting is that MLB reportedly quietly toldthe Dodgers and the Cubs they're going to
be in Japan next season to openthe season. And so my reaction is
(29:18):
this, if your MLB and you'reafraid Otani is going to fall into a
Pete Rose situation, why would yoube putting the Dodgers in Japan to market
your potential biggest star in that situationhim Also Yamamoto, Now he got roughed
up his first outing, but he'sstill technically a rookie who's pitching, who's
(29:40):
pitching in Major League Baseball here forthe first time. But again the reads
are that he's he's going to bea star for a long long time.
But if your MLB and had theforth sight of this, if there's something
more serious to be said about thissituation, would you be putting the Dodgers
in Japan next season? Well,it would depend to me on what if
(30:03):
any sanctions are handed down, ifhe's not even going to play, If
let's say the worst case scenario,if all this is, then no,
that I wouldn't be This is goingto be really interesting here to see what
kind of details come back here.But we'll be learning more maybe about this
later on today as Shoheyo Tani willrelease a statement here as the Dodgers are
(30:23):
getting closer to opening day. Ontheir side, they're taking on the Angels.
I believe Ian up next Crosstalk,he's got thoughts Kyle Smith, maybe
the Huskies, and we'll find outcoming up next. Ian, that's Ian
Furness on this Pooh Monday, Thankyou Chris Kid, anything but boring here.
(30:44):
Ian just walked in, has aconfused look on his face. Though
it's been a long long time.I don't think he knew our term for
Monday. Just working on show stuff. So anyway, what's going on?
You and I are going here,there, everywhere? Had the Thunderbirds finale
on Fox last night. Portland andPortland c W my friend yes, and
(31:06):
Portland. We cannot forget about ourfriends in Portland. Portland W. God.
I felt weird doing that because wespent our show while he was talking
about setting to have people to sendtext in say Portland sucks, and here
you go. I think I killedthe whole vibe for you because Portland.
I had the game on Saturday.I know, I watched part of it.
And we had a good game lastnight. Yeah, we had a
good game last night, A lotbetter game than you had to cover.
(31:30):
You know why, because nobody wantto talk about that. Nobody quit in
that game last night, even thoughit meant nothing in the standings for either
team, and nobody quit. Theyplayed hard, both all sixty minutes,
all right, so let's talk aboutit. Was sitting there with Darren Brown
and I was like, Derek wasout of hockey. He was doing color
for me last night and he's like, he shows me the score to nothing
(31:51):
early, My god, that's good. And then two goals on two shots,
my friend, And then is thatis that really four nothing? Is
that really happening? Dude? Thatwas a That was a criokeet for you.
Saw that we saw four two withoutall they're coming back, and then
it went back to four to one. Realized later the goal is taking off
the board. Yeah, and thenyeah, so hey, you know what
that we had fun last year inthe Stanley Cup playoffs. We'll hopefully get
(32:13):
back in twenty twenty five. Whatdo you make out of the whole call
up thing? Winterton Morrison statements howmuch statement scale of one to ten.
Well, he's got to play him. Yeah, it's only a statement if
he plays him. He doesn't playguys. I didn't winter didn't come up
earlier and play like one game.He's here for two weeks? Was that
it was three games? I wantto say it just it, but there
(32:36):
wasn't much time though. Yeah,gotta play him, You got to play
him, that's or play those guys. I I don't. It's too late
to make a statement now, likewhat are you doing? Like it's it's
it's kind of ceremonial because they're done. And I saw Matti Banier's got a
maintenance day today, Like what areyou doing? Is going in for a
(32:58):
whole change? What's amazing. He'sour very first human car. I mean,
you know he's a human and carUh, I know he's a grizzled
veteran. He's all of twenty twoyears old. I mean, I'm sure,
I just I don't know. It'suh frustrating. It's frustrating to watch
(33:19):
him, but you know what,here's the good news. Opening day on
Thursday, we have bad minus fourdays and counting Bettey. So I'm gonna
have this conversation with the Mulliwop guyslater and Chris chime in, here is
it? Are we four days awayor three days away? Okay? Here
we go. This is stuff Iknow he loves. Well, I don't
love it, but it gets interesting. Okay, so what do you got?
Because the game is win It's Thursday, so Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
(33:45):
we don't count. We don't counttoday. We're fully into today.
So how technically what I'm asking Idon't know. I don't know the answer.
I don't know the answer either.I think I think the Mantors tweeted
out a picture of JP Crawford numberthree three, Yes, and yesterday was
number four? Was the was?I don't even know who it was?
Was it Harold Reynolds? I believeyou? So, for example, you
have a show Friday. How manydays is that from today? And too
(34:07):
many? I'm just saying, Ijust end on this. There is way
too many. Is it Friday?I asked myself, I think a dozen
times today? Is it Friday?Yet? So my answer is it's way
too I woke up today not knowingwhat day it was. Yeah, but
and I know this, I gottago work with this guy tomorrow night.
(34:28):
I agreed to go. I agreedto go do the damn cracking game tomorrow,
and I'm asking myself why I thinkcocktails will be a much better option
tomorrow. Tomorrow is Tuesday? Right? Yeah? Okay? You did you
say you want to me Tuesday?Yes? Please? I okay. I
I don't know why it was alwaysbetter than one. I don't know why
I agreed to that. I reallydon't John Forbesland. Last night I heard
(34:50):
that we're gonna play little sound fromhim later. John has the ability I
think that nobody else has for varietyof reasons, but he has kind of
that ability. If he says somethingcritical, no one's going to question him
for being critical. Other people saythings critical, and there's a lot of
feathers get ruffled and emotions get uptight and things like that. So I'm
(35:12):
gonna play a little bit of himon your post game. Also, you
know the reason why he's been doingthis series in the NHL since nineteen ninety
three, Well, and he's he'sYeah, he's got the equity and the
Jews to say what he wants.And I'm glad he you know he did
with you last night. We'll playsome of that at one forty five because
I just I there's other people thatyou know, if you know I've been
critical, You've been critical. Otherpeople have been critical, and then we
get criticized for being critical. ButJohn can do it because he's John Fororzlan,
(35:37):
which I love that he should heshould be critical. But yeah,
so Chris, I think we're threedays away from Opening Day. We're in
agreement. We're four days away fromFriday, although it feels like twenty four
days away, and and I'm doingthe mathematical technical countdown by the second.
Yeah, four days whatever. I'llask the two knuckleheads what they think if
we're three or four days away fromopening Day. But we're close, we're
(35:57):
and thank god we get the openingday and we it can distract us from
some of the other stuff going on. And it's always fun when opening Day
rolls around because everyone's excited, everyone'sexcited, everyone's enthusiastic. And Hope springs
eternal, no losses, no losses. And I was given the over under
here for maybe I would say twoinadminance for Hope springs eternal in every time
Hope springs Eternal. Well, wealways are happy this time of year for
(36:21):
baseball, and unless I mean,there's some teams that just aren't. But
yeah, I think there's a lotof reason. We'll talk about that with
Chris and Nate at two o'clock todaybecause I think that you know, there's
a The fangrass War stat was huge, I mean, fourteen point one wins,
which is massive just with the startingrotation so if they're any kind of
(36:42):
healthy at all offensively, they shouldbe fine. Just play play well early.
God, I just I'm so sickof our teams in this area going
I mean Seattle, the Seahawks dothe opposite that they kind of faltered late.
But like the cracking this year,the Mariners every year starting out slow,
come out of the shoot, man, come out of the shoot hard
and fast, and get on agood role and take advantage of teams that
you should beat early on. Soin ten seconds, can you answer me
(37:05):
this? Are you over Kyle Smithyet? Who? Okay? Kyle Smith
coming up on the Showay, comingup on the show today. It's a
mollywat Monday, brought to you bySimply Say. I'm talking all things manners
getting you ready for opening Day onThursday. We'll check in with the boys
at two o'clock. Big thanks tosimply So. You got to go to
simply Sattle dot com molliwat fifteen atthe checkout you can get a cool hat
like Benton's wearing right now if youlike. Also, Donald Watts is going
(37:29):
to join us, father of IsaiahWatts from Washington State University basketball. Speaking
of Kyle Smith, we'll talk toDonald, who is kind of mister basketball
in our area in Seattle, andhis son was a big, big part
of the reason they got to thetournament this year. We'll talk to him
about what's next and his thoughts.He had an interesting tweet this morning.
He said, what do you allthink about college athletics? I can't wait,
(37:52):
Mine, I don't feel good aboutit right now, but it's also
it was inevitable. So we'll getto all that with Donald coming up at
one twenty. Alright, made it. I ends up next. Thanks Jessmine,
Chris Kidd, big thank you,Everett, Aaron Levine, Daniel Creamer
as well. I Mike, seeyou, no shirt, no shoes,
no dies, anybody'd like to smokesome pint? I went both. I
(38:14):
was think your face. I wasboth born to rob you, but you
were born to Rubby first. Whatdo you mean my best friend like mother?
U Mercy. I don't think thatThe money
Lis is Kyle Smith to Stanford,former PAC twelve member, new member of
the ACC and we don't necessarily havethe details of that contract quite yet,
but Kyle Smith is out, andthis following the Koog's exit. I know
that Coach Smith did a really goodjob of not talking about it while they
were still in whatever run they weregoing to go on. He was asked
(00:23):
during the PAC twelve tournament, afterthe PAC twelve tournament, during this NCAA
dance, and nope, he wouldn'ttalk about it, and I think that's
what helped the team be as cohesiveas they could and even play Iowa State
hard. It seemed like the distractiondidn't really get to them, where As
you could talk about the Washington Statefootball team last year starting so hot and
(00:48):
coach Dickert's name rumored in every singlething out there because they were playing so
well, going in you know,number into right after their bye week and
number thirteen in the country, andthen absolutely pooh Monday ing throughout the rest
of that season. So it's justthe distractions can be a thing, and
coach Smith did a really good job. I wish him the best, but
(01:11):
I'm really disappointed that he's gone crackand also fall five one of the Montreal
Canadians last night at Climb and PledgeArena. They have dropped eight games in
a row and tomorrow night taken onthe Anaheim Ducks in game two the four
game homestand seven o'clock puck drop again. Everett fits you al Kiniski on the
call right here in ninety three tothree KJRFM. I'll also be a part
of that with you, of course, scoreslight pregame show opening up at six
(01:34):
thirty. So we're now four daysout from Mariners, four days out and
after all the well tem minus whatfour months rather after this season, previous
season ended, you're at all theshouting we vented, We had anger,
We asked what's going on, what'sgoing to happen, what's next? Well,
(01:56):
this can finally all get put tobed here if the Mariners can get
off to the hot start that theywant finally to open this regular season,
and they're going to jump right intoit with the Boston Red Sox right back
at home, because Cactus League playis all done and now the real stuff
happens. Daniel Kramer, who coversthe Mariners for MLB dot Com joining us
now on the Beacon Plumbing hotline.Daniel, Hello, how are you.
(02:20):
I'm well back from six long butsunny weeks in Arizona. It's nice to
be back, and I need toget this thing going. I think there's
a lot of anticipation for Thursday,not just you know, among the fan
base here in Seattle, but Ithink within that clubhouse too. You could
really really feel it, really seeit, and especially started to progress just
(02:45):
more and more as spring training gotgoing. They were getting the results that
they wanted, and you know,with the recognition that it's not really gonna
matter until the lights turn on onMarch twenty eighth, and it's pretty much
they've just got two more exhibitions toclear in San Diego tonight and tomorrow,
and then, like you said,the results will finally matter. Now.
(03:07):
I know that there's a burning question, of course, and we could say
maybe it begins with the pitching staff, it begins with maybe the bullpen,
it begins maybe with the new editions. Can they have Garber hold up?
Can they have Hanneger hold up?But the real burning question, how do
(03:28):
you pack for six months and comeback and do all this laundry and short
order A week's weeks. Weeks weeks? Right, six six weeks? I
should say, I felt like sixmonths. I told you I'm tired.
I just think think that Daniel wasworking, So six weeks okay, Oh
well, the laundry wasn't too muchof an issue. It's more like the
grocery shopping. When you get backand you realize that your plate is completely
(03:50):
barren and you're like, the lastthing you want to do is go run
errands because you've been gone and youjust want to relax, and it's just
not the case like yesterday. Thiswas kind of a free for all from
Costco, Trader Joe's all that funstuff. But we're all squared away.
We're ready to go catching up onsome Opening Day previous stuff today and then
you know, we'll have the gameon Thursday and then the long home stance.
(04:14):
Typhran is still expecting the birth ofhis child any day now from what
we're learning here, I mean,when we when he can get back into
the lineup, and we've heard aboutthe change in his game, his physique
as well. I mean, howimportant is this Typrance turned around going to
be here for this team. Yeah, I think it's a big one.
And you know the fact that thefact that he's still here kind of speaks
(04:36):
to I think what the Mariners believein are banking on him bounce back.
I don't think it was a guaranteethat they were gonna non tender him,
but just the way the way thatyou know, his season had ended,
the way like both he and theteam had kind of talked about it,
Uh, it wasn't necessarily a surefirething that they were going to bring him
(04:58):
back, you know, especially sinceyou know he's going to be doing a
pay raase through arbitration. So Ithink, you know, the way Jerry
and Justin and everybody have talked aboutit, it's just like they very much
view last year as an outlier.But with the recognition you know that's some
adjustments and some tweaks and deliberation aboutmaking those changes, you know that they
(05:25):
were going to be pretty vital tohim having a successful bounce back, if
you will. He started to seeit in spring. You know, it's
the fact that he does look leaner, Uh, he looks more athletic,
and I think that that'll be youknow, really important for him over the
course of a six month season foranybody really, just if you're more athletic
(05:46):
and you're in better shape, you'rejust gonna be able to handle the rigors
of things a lot better. Youknow, when you're playing every day.
It's a really long year. ButI also think like some of the swing
adjustments, like he's pretty excited aboutit. You know, not sure how
much you guys have read into this, but like, you know, one
thing that I found pretty fascinating waslike, uh, he'd never really put
(06:09):
the trust of his swing into outsidecamp council ever before, because he's just
always been able to hit, likeever since he was in high school and
then you know in college and downin San Diego playing for Tony Glenn,
and you know even in his earlyyears with the padres, like he's just
like always had this very you know, keen knack for putting the bat on
(06:31):
the ball and just like a contactspecialist. But would also get him in
trouble at times too, because youcould always get the pitches, so instead
of like you know, foullan offor laying stuff off and finding yourself in
an O one or an O twocount, you're like, you know,
you're the first second out of theinning because you've like rolled over and and
you know, not really had likea productive at bath, so to speak.
(06:54):
So he's he's cognitant of that too. It's just like being more selective
with what he's trying to do andput the out on the ball. But
I also think there's not going tobe as much pressure on him this year
given the way they've constructed this lineup, because you know, if you look
at in years past, especially whenhe was really rolling, he was hitting
second or third. This year,you're probably going to see him hitting seventh
(07:15):
or eighth. So if you getany semblance of ty France from twenty twenty
one and twenty twenty two back thisyear, and he's hitting at the bottom
of your lineup and can be likea really good bridge to you know,
the nine hole hitter and then backto the JP Crawford up top. Yeah,
it's just going to make it alot deeper. But to answer your
question, I think Yees, bothhe and the team are very much banking
(07:39):
on bounce back Yere, and hestarted to see some promising returns of that
in spring. Daniel Kramer, whocovers the Mariners for Major League Baseball,
joining us here, Daniel, Ihaven't got a lot of time to converse
with you in the past, soI want to one thank you for joining
us today. And two, youmentioned you were down there for six weeks.
You have your finger on the pulseof this team. There was so
(08:01):
much noise, so much backlash ofthe moves that were made, or more
so the lack thereof by the frontoffice, and I'm wondering if this team
was able to tune that out.If you get any sort of temperature gauge
on what the energy is in theclubhouse, Yeah, it's it's definitely a
(08:22):
good question. And you know,I was kind of right there with you
on a lot of that stuff asI was getting ready to go down there
in mid February. You know,these were a lot of the questions I
was going to ask, and kindof like the lead up to it,
I was just really curious to especiallyfrom the leadership guys like Julio and JP
(08:45):
and Pal, you know, justlike what their response would be. And
you know, like now that we'vekind of cleared that first week of camp
where we did ask all those guysjust like about where things stand. I
mean, at least from my perspective. I haven't really thought about it much
more, and I don't and Ithink that's kind of like, you know,
(09:05):
you could also say that about them. It's just because you kind of
have seen the group that they've assembled. They've come in, they've really meshed
well together. The guys that theyadded are uh, you know, pretty
pretty diligent about how they go abouttheir preparation and their work ethic and things
(09:26):
like that, which you know,meshes really well with the guys that I
had just listed, who you know, are all very not intense about it,
but you know, they're all grinders, and so like the guys that
they brought in kind of fit thatmold. But to go back to your
question about you know, if thatwas lingering or simmering, I think that's
(09:48):
the way. You know, Scott'sservice head was like very pointed in going
to see a lot of these guysin person, uh in the off season
and kind of you know, explainwhy they had to make the moves that
they did, uh, and wasbeing like pretty transparent about it. You
know. I had a question withJP Crawford a couple of weeks ago.
(10:11):
It's just like, what did youtell them and his you know, his
response is like, you know,this is our window. We need to
you know, we need to treatthis as like an opportunity to win the
World Series. Like you know,these these opportunities don't come around so often,
and so you know, whatever,whatever we're going to do here is
just like, you know, thereneeds to be like an understanding of that.
(10:33):
And again that's kind of like aparaphrase of what JP was saying.
But uh, you know here inhere, in the way that the players
had talked about it, I thinkthere was a lot of confusion and uncertainty
similar to what the fan base hadfelt. But you know, the the
commentary and the responses that at leastI've gathered, you know, especially in
(10:56):
the early weeks of spring and howthings are going, they're pretty receptive to
the roster that's been assembled. Theylike the work ethic of the new guys
that they brought in, and theyalso understand that it's on them to kind
of like continue to take a stepforward with the established talent that's already here
and continue to develop, you know, and try to capitalize on this window
(11:20):
that they have. Kind of along winded answers to say that I think
most everybody in that clubhouse was alsocurious to what was going to play out,
but also excited once the dust finallysettled. Well, Daniel, I
would say, as far as establishedtalent, it doesn't get any better here
than this rotation. One of thebest in Major League Baseball period, flat
out, end of discussion, endof story. But how much more clear
(11:43):
are we with a bullpen with rolesand expectations now at this point? Yeah,
it's a little murky right now,just because they're going to start the
year with two of their highest leveragerelievers on the injured list in Matt brad
ggerby Santos Brash. By the timewhen I was leaving Arizona, he had
(12:05):
began throwing very light bullpen sessions inSantos and yeah, throwing at all.
He was still plated to undergo anotherMRI. So you know, ask Goot
Service about this recently and he's like, am I concerned about it? Yeah?
Who wouldn't be? But all,you know, like he wanted to
point out that all teams deal withinjuries and uncertainties, and you know,
(12:28):
there's some validity to that as well, But nonetheless, it's like bullpen has
been a catalyst for them for eachof the past three seasons and kind of
blueprint for the success that they've hadoverall as a team because they play in
these really tight, post one rungames pretty fairly often, So how the
(12:48):
trickle down effect works, you're probablygoing to see Munos throwing into even more
of a closer type role, youknow, where he's going to be pitching
in the most highest leverage pockets,you know, where the games on the
line. They had kind of likeindicated that the ninth inning is something that
(13:09):
they wanted to use him more deliberatelyat this season in order to kind of
like better manage his workload, predicthis workload, you know, protect him,
so to speak, so they're notrolling him out there every night.
You could see some of that changea little bit in April, where he's
you know, maybe going in inthe seventh or eighth of a tie game
(13:31):
or a one run deficit, becauseyou know, navigating this first month is
going to be pretty crucial with thoseother two guys, Hurt Ryan Stanek,
who they signed veteran you know,picture for the Astros for the past three
years. You know, he didn'tcome into camp until March tenth, So
there was like a little bit ofa little bit of a workload concern in
(13:52):
terms of like building him up,but they're pretty confident he's going to be
ready by opening day. Speaking ofhim a couple of days ago, he
feels the same. You know,the guys throws really hard. He throws
like ninety miles an hour, ninetynine with a nasty splitter. H he
got he got hit up a littlebit last year. He pointed out to
some of those being like runaway outings, you know, where he gets tagged
(14:13):
with two or three runs. Butoverall this stuff, he's like pretty overpowering.
It just kind of fits into whatthey're trying to do with that bullpen
too. So you're probably gonna seehim in type of like a setup role
to un especially early in the season. And then you got like the returning
guys, the lefties, Tiresseado,you know, Austin Vote is going to
(14:37):
be in there, as you knowthey don't call it a long nand kind
of a bridge guy. And thenyou know two guys who are probably gonna
make the team. They haven't announced, ye, but Cody Bolton and Collin
Snyder, who are new additions andhe'll probably be inserted into like lower leverage
pockets to start the year. Soyou know, there there is some promise
(14:58):
within the group, and the bullpenhas always been able to figure it out
despite you know, some seemingly uncertainmoments over the past few years. But
nonetheless, when when you're starting theyear without those two guys, yeah,
a little bit of a concern forsure, Daniel, presuming there's no injury
here, Emerson Hancock option to tripleA. What's the realistic timeline for him
(15:20):
to get back up. It's agood question, presuming no injury. Not
totally sure, I think. Ithink the situation with Brian Wum is one
that I'm really curious as to howthey're going to operate it. Yeah,
they're gonna be very diligent about howthey monitor his workload because he you know,
(15:43):
more than doubled it last year,and you know before that, he
was, you know, making hispro debut in twenty twenty two. So
like his situation is just like alittle bit more unique than like George Kirby
and Logan who went through a similarsituation in the past few years of life,
just building their arms up to whereOkay, these guys can be two
(16:07):
hundred war horses as starting pitchers inthe majors. Brian's situation is just different
because he's got more of an injuryhistory and not nearly as much tread on
his tires, so to speak.So curious to see how they kind of
like manipulate the four off days inApril. Do they use that to reslot
the rotation. I'm certain they willat least once, it's not multiple times,
(16:30):
but do they do it every timethat they can? You know,
with a with a five man rotationand the off days early in the year,
you can kind of you can kindof like manipulate it in that regard
with like one starter, but youcan't really do it with two. And
I think they are more confident aboutBryce Miller being able to handle like the
(16:51):
rigors of you know, coming offa career high innings, you know,
just because he was built out alittle bit more. But how how Hancock
fits in that is It's curious becausehe will be the first reinforcement of Scott
Service made that clear when they optionedhim the other day, and you know,
he did have some promise this spring, despite you know a few hiccups
(17:14):
in the middle there where he losta little bit of velocity and lost some
of the strike zone. You know, overall, they're really excited about like
his potential of like you know,finally being healthy and you know, not
having any injury hiccups, so tospeak. And he looked really good in
camp. But you know, toanswer your question, I don't exactly know
(17:36):
what the plan would be for howhe gets up unless there's an injury.
But I would bank on, youknow, if they need to give Wu
a blow or you know, evenBryce, if if that's the case,
that they'll they'll be pretty proactive aboutEmerson would be the first guy up.
Daniel Craig were joining us here,and I'm going to ask the most impossible
(17:56):
question in sports talk radio, specificallywhen it comes to baseball, just to
take a look at one hundred andsixty two game season and give us an
overall thought of how you think theMaritors will do. I'll narrow down a
little bit. Do they win moregames than last year in your opinion from
what you've seen so far. Youknow, I'm really curious about this team.
(18:18):
This is my fourth year on thebeat, and it's the first one
where I felt like, yeah,looking at the roster and how it's assembled,
and if they can fully live upto their potential and their rotation more
than any group stays healthy and Juliocan put together a six months stretch,
(18:40):
you know, above average all starcaliber play instead of like spurts of four
and five weeks. Yeah, Imean, this team, more than any
that I've been around, looks likeone that's capable of making a long October
run, if you know, notpotentially winning at all. But I also
see like some question marks too,Whereas like, you know, you've brought
(19:00):
in I think you touched on itsome veteran guys who have a lot of
promise in a track record, butthey also, like have had some injury
concerns in recent years. And youknow, bringing guys over from other divisions
who you know, come to TMobile Park, which isn't the most hit
or friendly, Like, how isthat going to correlate to you know,
(19:22):
their confidence and mental game in theearly parts of the year if they're not
getting the results that they want.You know, some of those questions that
we hit on in the bullpen,will they carry over for the course of
a you know, beyond just thefirst month of the season, you know,
and it's how things are going inJune and early July, Like,
how will that impact their deadline strategybecause it's you know, they've always been
(19:44):
a very reactionary front office to theirteam standing when they go out and a
talent you know at the very endof July when there's all that flurry of
deadline movement. So if they're init, yeah, I think they would
be the aggressive buyers. And Ithink they've built their roster and their payroll
to be able to do that.So I'm really curious. I think,
like the I think the floor ismuch higher, but I also think the
ceiling can be really high too.How they how they match up with the
(20:08):
rest of the division. Curious tosee how Texas kind of holds up and
they'll be like a hangover so tospeak for lack of a better term for
winning the World Series. The questionmarks within their rotation Corey Seegers Herney issue
like like just a lot of likeuncertainty with how they kind of rebound and
(20:30):
comes back from you know, winningthe title last year. Houston's not going
anywhere. They've been the class ofthe field in the division for you know,
the better part of the decade now. So but I do think like
the way that the Mariners are builtright now and again only March twenty fifth,
like they're they're they're built to go. I would think, you know,
(20:52):
deeper in October than those other twoteams, even if they don't win
the division. Again, a lotof things have to go right. But
I I really liked what I sawin spring. I liked the focus,
not so much like intensity, justlike it's like a hunger level bridge with
that focus that I was talking about, and you know, really feeling the
thing of coming up short last yearand then you're bringing back a young core
(21:18):
guys that they're anticipating will continue toget better, supplementing it with you know,
more veteran presence who can you know, potentially help make this line up
a little bit longer, and youknow, like you touched on a rotation
that it should be really really good. The key will just be like keeping
it healthy. So there's a lotof promise to this season. A few
(21:40):
question marks, but I would sayout outpaced by the promise. Hey,
Daniel, welcome back home. I'mglad you got to get a chance to
go grocery shopping. So what's yourgo to by a Costco? My go
to is to go anytime within anhour of closing a smart man over here,
smart man, Wait, what aboutTrader Joe's, because that's my number
one? I would agree with thesame, like the West Seattle and there's
(22:06):
like no parking over there whatsoever.Oh yeah, I haven't done that.
Yeah, yeah, I haven't donethe Perogi thing if Trader Joe's recently,
but I if I'm coming to Costco, the first thing I'd do is make
a bee line right for the stakesand try to find something that's USDA Prime
Well made some salmon bites in theair friar with some honey. There you
(22:27):
go, smart man. Yeah,it's one hundred and sixty two games.
Get your meal prepping ready, Daniel, thanks so much, appreciate you man.
All right, take care guys.All right, Daniel Kramer who covers
the Mariners for MLB dot Com,and he knows he's talking about when you
get into a season, you gota meal prep every week. Oh yeah,
every week, and you have tobe very very careful with it because
(22:49):
you have to do it kind ofevery every day. So stuff it doesn't
go bad. Too, at leastfor me. But I'm on a football
schedule when I'm kind of doing themost work, So I can. I
can make it through four days.You're reminding me when I get back home,
I got to fire the crock potup here because there's still three more
games this week for the Kraken.Oh yeah, you do every other day.
(23:10):
Well, I'm eating this with itnext week, got it. So
I've got some more observations and somequestions as well here on the show Heyo
Atani thing as we had a littlebit of a chat about this earlier Aaron
Levigne in a conversation with us,And looks like that show Heyo Tani will
be addressed in the media here today, but only through a statement. More
of that coming up next, moreand more information coming up. There still
(23:30):
plenty of questions here to be leftanswered. Again Mike Jessman and for Puck
and Jim today and show Heyo Tanireportedly will address the media today about the
illegal gambling and theft allegations against IbeMisahura, his former interpreter, of course,
fired last Wednesday. And I thinkfor me, I want to caution
(23:51):
against speculation and because this is avery very very serious legal matter. But
again I think also it's fair toreact to what we know, and this
story is anything but a nothing burger. Oh, we can just be speculative
nothing, but it is not anothing burger. So what we know is
this his former interpreter had four pointfive million in wired transfers from Otani's bank
(24:12):
account, and he's already on recordfor walking back his original story on the
matter. Plus there's now more holesin his original background about ever attending UC
riverside. And I'll share this funnything with you as well. I actually
was doing women's basketball on radio playby play at the same time he was
allegedly attending U SEE riverside as well. That doesn't make a diffen No,
(24:38):
no, it's just a nice mirrorfootnote. Hey betting name dropping again,
Hey yeah, that was what areyou doing? What are you doing?
But we also know he and othersources, and I should say other sources
originally told the ESPN he never beton baseball and Otani never bet on baseball
(24:59):
as well. Well, So well, that can be interpreted different ways,
and I will I also go backto when Otani was originally ushered out of
the clubhouse after this whole thing brokeback in that series at South Korea,
and I don't put too much stockinto that, and I think in the
same way, this is where Iline up with his decision to release a
statement here today and not go infront of the public full blow with everything,
(25:26):
because it's essentially damage control here fromthe point of do you want to
say something off the cuff and haveit be used against you in the court
of where it's something mistakenly taken outof context and already here to me,
the big red flag is that thereare people who were who were who didn't,
who basically were talking too much offthe cuff and put them in jeopardy
more than so in what they werewhat they were originally bargaining for. Yeah,
(25:51):
well, I was gonna say.It doesn't surprise me that he's not
going to address the media in person, specifically because the person he addresses the
media through is the person under investigationfor him. That's so I get it.
And I think that from the outsidelooking in, you're you know,
just no surprise whatsoever that he willrelease a statement that that just okay.
(26:11):
And one thing's for sure. Imean, I think MLB getting into this
as far as the investigation. Theyhad to. They had to absolutely have
to. You can't have this hangingout there. Yeah, And I mean
from the outside looking in, youlook at this from a surface level and
you're like, oh, man toshow he has been betting, but he
wasn't quote unquote betting. He's justfunneling this guy. And this guy's going
(26:33):
to be his fall guy because he'sbasically his personal everything. And I think
we also we all go back tothat whole Chris Carter thing. Remember that
about a couple of years, youhave a fall guy. So that's where
our first line of thinking originally goeshere. Yeah, absolutely, and I
think that's fair to speculate that thatmight be the deal. But it's also
completely possible that Shoh had no ideathat this guy kind of has an unlimited
(26:57):
access to his funds because he's theone yetting things and buying things for show.
Hey, I assume because a lotof these guys, it's not just
your interpreter, it's your best friend, it's your kind of personal assistant.
It's the guy that can make surethat you're only focused on baseball and can
do all of the other things foryou. So it could he could be
completely, absolutely unaware and fifty milliongoes missing from his seven hundred million dollar
(27:22):
new deal. I think, well, okay, maybe he doesn't notice that
because he probably doesn't do his ownbanking either. And this is not to
be naive on this situation, butit's entirely plausible. And there's a great
story on this in the Los AngelesTimes from Dylan Hernandez. And the more
we learn, the more I'm beingconvinced that this is a situation where someone
took advantage of a friendship, thisbeing Misahura and Otani is a guy who
(27:47):
has a lot of things and alot of things on his to do list
taking care of by others. Andif there's one lesson to be learned here
for Otani, it's not having theforesight to see that that this is going
on and to take control of thingsright. But all the people around him
don't want him focused on anything butbaseball, right because that in terms like
(28:08):
if you look at it, it'sa win for them as well. So
it does not I know, andI you know, I blame, not
blame, But when you see thesetype of things happen with athletes in the
circles around them. You start tojudge them by the people they surround themselves
with. Yeah, when I don'tknow if that's always fair, and I
am no means just sitting here asan apologetic for people who do wrong things.
(28:33):
And I'm not saying I know anythingor think anything in particular about show
Hey right now without more details.However, I do I do think that
public perception at the very least,and you know, we're part of the
public. We put ourselves in thatcategory. We're not experts. Even though
we're sitting here behind a microphone.It's going to be that something shady is
(28:56):
happening, and that's fair that atleast something isn't right here, whether it
be he surrounded himself with the wrongperson or he's actually involved with what went
on. Here's also a question Ihave too. And the one thing that's
interesting is that MLB reportedly quietly toldthe Dodgers and the Cubs they're going to
be in Japan next season to openthe season. And so my reaction is
(29:18):
this, if your MLB and you'reafraid Otani is going to fall into a
Pete Rose situation, why would yoube putting the Dodgers in Japan to market
your potential biggest star in that situationhim Also Yamamoto, Now he got roughed
up his first outing, but he'sstill technically a rookie who's pitching, who's
(29:40):
pitching in Major League Baseball here forthe first time. But again the reads
are that he's he's going to bea star for a long long time.
But if your MLB and had theforth sight of this, if there's something
more serious to be said about thissituation, would you be putting the Dodgers
in Japan next season? Well,it would depend to me on what if
(30:03):
any sanctions are handed down, ifhe's not even going to play, If
let's say the worst case scenario,if all this is, then no,
that I wouldn't be This is goingto be really interesting here to see what
kind of details come back here.But we'll be learning more maybe about this
later on today as Shoheyo Tani willrelease a statement here as the Dodgers are
(30:23):
getting closer to opening day. Ontheir side, they're taking on the Angels.
I believe Ian up next Crosstalk,he's got thoughts Kyle Smith, maybe
the Huskies, and we'll find outcoming up next. Ian, that's Ian
Furness on this Pooh Monday, Thankyou Chris Kid, anything but boring here.
(30:44):
Ian just walked in, has aconfused look on his face. Though
it's been a long long time.I don't think he knew our term for
Monday. Just working on show stuff. So anyway, what's going on?
You and I are going here,there, everywhere? Had the Thunderbirds finale
on Fox last night. Portland andPortland c W my friend yes, and
(31:06):
Portland. We cannot forget about ourfriends in Portland. Portland W. God.
I felt weird doing that because wespent our show while he was talking
about setting to have people to sendtext in say Portland sucks, and here
you go. I think I killedthe whole vibe for you because Portland.
I had the game on Saturday.I know, I watched part of it.
And we had a good game lastnight. Yeah, we had a
good game last night, A lotbetter game than you had to cover.
(31:30):
You know why, because nobody wantto talk about that. Nobody quit in
that game last night, even thoughit meant nothing in the standings for either
team, and nobody quit. Theyplayed hard, both all sixty minutes,
all right, so let's talk aboutit. Was sitting there with Darren Brown
and I was like, Derek wasout of hockey. He was doing color
for me last night and he's like, he shows me the score to nothing
(31:51):
early, My god, that's good. And then two goals on two shots,
my friend, And then is thatis that really four nothing? Is
that really happening? Dude? Thatwas a That was a criokeet for you.
Saw that we saw four two withoutall they're coming back, and then
it went back to four to one. Realized later the goal is taking off
the board. Yeah, and thenyeah, so hey, you know what
that we had fun last year inthe Stanley Cup playoffs. We'll hopefully get
(32:13):
back in twenty twenty five. Whatdo you make out of the whole call
up thing? Winterton Morrison statements howmuch statement scale of one to ten.
Well, he's got to play him. Yeah, it's only a statement if
he plays him. He doesn't playguys. I didn't winter didn't come up
earlier and play like one game.He's here for two weeks? Was that
it was three games? I wantto say it just it, but there
(32:36):
wasn't much time though. Yeah,gotta play him, You got to play
him, that's or play those guys. I I don't. It's too late
to make a statement now, likewhat are you doing? Like it's it's
it's kind of ceremonial because they're done. And I saw Matti Banier's got a
maintenance day today, Like what areyou doing? Is going in for a
(32:58):
whole change? What's amazing. He'sour very first human car. I mean,
you know he's a human and carUh, I know he's a grizzled
veteran. He's all of twenty twoyears old. I mean, I'm sure,
I just I don't know. It'suh frustrating. It's frustrating to watch
(33:19):
him, but you know what,here's the good news. Opening day on
Thursday, we have bad minus fourdays and counting Bettey. So I'm gonna
have this conversation with the Mulliwop guyslater and Chris chime in, here is
it? Are we four days awayor three days away? Okay? Here
we go. This is stuff Iknow he loves. Well, I don't
love it, but it gets interesting. Okay, so what do you got?
Because the game is win It's Thursday, so Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
(33:45):
we don't count. We don't counttoday. We're fully into today.
So how technically what I'm asking Idon't know. I don't know the answer.
I don't know the answer either.I think I think the Mantors tweeted
out a picture of JP Crawford numberthree three, Yes, and yesterday was
number four? Was the was?I don't even know who it was?
Was it Harold Reynolds? I believeyou? So, for example, you
have a show Friday. How manydays is that from today? And too
(34:07):
many? I'm just saying, Ijust end on this. There is way
too many. Is it Friday?I asked myself, I think a dozen
times today? Is it Friday?Yet? So my answer is it's way
too I woke up today not knowingwhat day it was. Yeah, but
and I know this, I gottago work with this guy tomorrow night.
(34:28):
I agreed to go. I agreedto go do the damn cracking game tomorrow,
and I'm asking myself why I thinkcocktails will be a much better option
tomorrow. Tomorrow is Tuesday? Right? Yeah? Okay? You did you
say you want to me Tuesday?Yes? Please? I okay. I
I don't know why it was alwaysbetter than one. I don't know why
I agreed to that. I reallydon't John Forbesland. Last night I heard
(34:50):
that we're gonna play little sound fromhim later. John has the ability I
think that nobody else has for varietyof reasons, but he has kind of
that ability. If he says somethingcritical, no one's going to question him
for being critical. Other people saythings critical, and there's a lot of
feathers get ruffled and emotions get uptight and things like that. So I'm
(35:12):
gonna play a little bit of himon your post game. Also, you
know the reason why he's been doingthis series in the NHL since nineteen ninety
three, Well, and he's he'sYeah, he's got the equity and the
Jews to say what he wants.And I'm glad he you know he did
with you last night. We'll playsome of that at one forty five because
I just I there's other people thatyou know, if you know I've been
critical, You've been critical. Otherpeople have been critical, and then we
get criticized for being critical. ButJohn can do it because he's John Fororzlan,
(35:37):
which I love that he should heshould be critical. But yeah,
so Chris, I think we're threedays away from Opening Day. We're in
agreement. We're four days away fromFriday, although it feels like twenty four
days away, and and I'm doingthe mathematical technical countdown by the second.
Yeah, four days whatever. I'llask the two knuckleheads what they think if
we're three or four days away fromopening Day. But we're close, we're
(35:57):
and thank god we get the openingday and we it can distract us from
some of the other stuff going on. And it's always fun when opening Day
rolls around because everyone's excited, everyone'sexcited, everyone's enthusiastic. And Hope springs
eternal, no losses, no losses. And I was given the over under
here for maybe I would say twoinadminance for Hope springs eternal in every time
Hope springs Eternal. Well, wealways are happy this time of year for
(36:21):
baseball, and unless I mean,there's some teams that just aren't. But
yeah, I think there's a lotof reason. We'll talk about that with
Chris and Nate at two o'clock todaybecause I think that you know, there's
a The fangrass War stat was huge, I mean, fourteen point one wins,
which is massive just with the startingrotation so if they're any kind of
(36:42):
healthy at all offensively, they shouldbe fine. Just play play well early.
God, I just I'm so sickof our teams in this area going
I mean Seattle, the Seahawks dothe opposite that they kind of faltered late.
But like the cracking this year,the Mariners every year starting out slow,
come out of the shoot, man, come out of the shoot hard
and fast, and get on agood role and take advantage of teams that
you should beat early on. Soin ten seconds, can you answer me
(37:05):
this? Are you over Kyle Smithyet? Who? Okay? Kyle Smith
coming up on the Showay, comingup on the show today. It's a
mollywat Monday, brought to you bySimply Say. I'm talking all things manners
getting you ready for opening Day onThursday. We'll check in with the boys
at two o'clock. Big thanks tosimply So. You got to go to
simply Sattle dot com molliwat fifteen atthe checkout you can get a cool hat
like Benton's wearing right now if youlike. Also, Donald Watts is going
(37:29):
to join us, father of IsaiahWatts from Washington State University basketball. Speaking
of Kyle Smith, we'll talk toDonald, who is kind of mister basketball
in our area in Seattle, andhis son was a big, big part
of the reason they got to thetournament this year. We'll talk to him
about what's next and his thoughts.He had an interesting tweet this morning.
He said, what do you allthink about college athletics? I can't wait,
(37:52):
Mine, I don't feel good aboutit right now, but it's also
it was inevitable. So we'll getto all that with Donald coming up at
one twenty. Alright, made it. I ends up next. Thanks Jessmine,
Chris Kidd, big thank you,Everett, Aaron Levine, Daniel Creamer
as well. I Mike, seeyou, no shirt, no shoes,
no dies, anybody'd like to smokesome pint? I went both. I
(38:14):
was think your face. I wasboth born to rob you, but you
were born to Rubby first. Whatdo you mean my best friend like mother?
U Mercy. I don't think thatThe money
Puck & Jim Show News
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