0:00

Give me the freaking auto! This

0:02

is Brock and Salk. I don't read the

0:04

internet, guys. Take the bull by the hands.

0:07

On Seattle Sports. Power through the

0:09

Alaska Airlines Studio. And

0:11

Brookviewer. You are. And Brook, you

0:13

are. Styled by Simply Seattle. Now

0:15

here are your hosts, Brock Huard

0:17

and Mike Salk. Let's go, yeah!

0:22

All right, let's go. Hi, hello, everybody.

0:24

Brock and Salk shows Seattle

0:26

Sports 710, seattlesports.com and the

0:29

Seattle Sports app. That's right. The Seattle Sports. Why

0:31

haven't you downloaded the Seattle Sports app yet? What

0:34

are you doing? Well, there's so many houses I

0:36

can go to in a day to show people exactly how to

0:38

do this. This isn't brain surgery. You have

0:40

a million other apps. Come on, people. Download

0:43

the Seattle Sports app. It's our

0:46

app. We're here together. We're hanging

0:48

out. There's no easier way to,

0:50

you know, connect. Just download the

0:52

freaking app before I have

0:54

to send Justin or maybe, and I

0:57

don't want to get tough here, I'll

0:59

send more to your house. Like, you don't want that. You

1:02

don't want any part of more in her long finger

1:04

showing up at your house. She will

1:06

show up and she will do some damage. So

1:08

I want to be very, very clear. Download that

1:10

sucker. How did I become the enforcer? Look, are

1:12

you kidding? How did you become?

1:15

I mean, you're a violence. You've

1:19

killed animals. Like, you are heavy.

1:23

You come in and beat the heck out of people

1:25

when we need them to. So, all right. That's

1:28

ridiculous. Okay. Download the app

1:30

from the sidewalk from your house. Justin

1:33

needs to come in. That's really nice. Stand

1:35

right outside and help you out. Nice

1:38

one for the Mariners yesterday. There's

1:41

a bunch of things that contribute to that win. There

1:44

are three-ish that I think I

1:46

would kind of point to. One,

1:50

the absolute obvious. That's

1:52

six quality starts in a row.

1:54

And Logan was just phenomenal last night.

1:57

Right from inning number one starts off,

1:59

right? with three strikeouts to start off

2:01

the game and you're like, okay, here we

2:03

go. Logan's dialed in and you

2:06

start to get that sense of, okay, this is, remember what

2:08

we were saying the other day? I just

2:11

want to see what this team looks like when it does

2:13

what it was built to do. That's what

2:15

it was built to do. Relentless starting

2:17

pitching every single

2:19

night, coming at you

2:21

with relentless starting pitching,

2:24

six quality starts in a row, going

2:27

back again through the rotation. And

2:29

now you got a chance for the sweep today.

2:31

Bryce Miller coming off a two of his best

2:33

starts as a pro and let him get right

2:36

after it. You end up with another one, seven

2:38

quality starts in a row, an opportunity to take

2:40

the series, sweep the series tonight. And

2:42

you start, you know, really gathering some

2:45

of that or gaining some of that

2:47

momentum that you need to start digging

2:49

yourself out of the little hole that you built to

2:51

start the season. Well, it's going to start

2:53

with pitching. It always is. That's the way this team

2:55

was built. And that's why they win last night. If

2:57

I have to choose one reason, it's that it's Logan.

2:59

It's the starting pitching. That's what keeps you in the

3:01

game. That's what lets you do your thing. If

3:05

I had to choose two reasons why

3:08

they won last night, I guess

3:10

number two would be Julio, right?

3:13

I mean, it's amazing considering he still

3:15

looks completely lost at the plate, but

3:17

he just found other ways to win

3:19

that game for you. His

3:21

defense was nothing short of spectacular

3:24

last night. The play he

3:26

made to run down that ball was

3:28

phenomenal. And then obviously the throw ends

3:31

up essentially winning you the game. And

3:33

yes, I did love a little bit

3:35

that Jake Fraley, uh, and

3:37

some of his weirdo, weirdo believe, I was

3:39

going to say two different weird base running

3:41

things from him yesterday, Jake's like the brightest

3:43

dude, to be honest with you. I don't

3:45

think that's like his strength in life. Um,

3:48

just based on some of, uh, the things

3:50

he believes in, I, I'm, I'm, I'm kind

3:52

of under the impression that he

3:55

is quite actually

3:59

one of the, You know, not as bright

4:01

players. And you can kind of put together

4:03

the initials for those words if you want

4:05

and kind of see where that goes. But

4:07

quite actually, I have some concerns about

4:10

Jake Fraley and some of the things he believes

4:12

that are real. Anyway, seeing

4:14

Jake throttle down, make his

4:16

mistake at third base in game one,

4:18

get thrown out and get like, yeah,

4:21

I'm just fine with that. And I sort of enjoy that element.

4:23

Crocker's like a mouth? Is that what happened there? Oh,

4:25

on the point second? Well, like you pulled up a second? Might

4:27

have. Okay. So it's been

4:29

a body language thing. Like he didn't think he was going in for a slide.

4:31

No, not the brightest. Okay. Right. So,

4:34

okay, maybe he got deked at second. On

4:36

third, he just over slid the bag two

4:38

nights ago. And then he throttled

4:40

down. Would he have been safe? Maybe. I

4:42

think it would have been close. But if he's running 100% all

4:44

the way, yeah, he's probably the

4:46

run scores. And at least it's a one

4:48

run game heading into the kind of mess

4:51

that they created for themselves in

4:53

the ninth. So, yeah, all of

4:55

that stuff was incredibly important

4:57

and relevant to this game ending the

4:59

way it did. And obviously Julio's defense

5:01

is right there. It's

5:03

been awesome to watch. I know he's got a goal

5:07

of getting gold on his glove. Not

5:09

easy to do. There's some good

5:11

center fielders in this league, but I have nights like tonight.

5:13

I know that the staff, the defensive run saved. I don't

5:16

know how many runs you saved tonight, but it seemed like

5:18

four or five of them to me. So,

5:20

a heck of a game. The range he

5:22

shows out there, his closing speed, when

5:25

you're down on the field and you can see the ball in the air

5:27

and it's just hanging there. And him

5:29

closing on it, it's pretty cool to watch. And

5:31

again, the throw, it's one thing to track it down. It's

5:34

another thing. He's got all the tools

5:36

and following up with that throw tonight, a big

5:38

part in the game was just huge. Yeah, unbelievable,

5:40

enormous part of that game. Helps them win even

5:42

without his bat. That's one of the reasons Julio

5:44

was great. If

5:47

I had to pick three reasons

5:50

why the Mariners won the game last night.

5:52

I know more. I'm sorry. I

5:54

just, I feel it. I can feel this one in

5:56

my bones because this is the one I think I'm

5:59

probably most excited It's that

6:01

for the second straight night, they worked

6:03

count so effectively early in the game

6:05

that they were able to drive the

6:07

starting pitcher out early. And Montas didn't

6:09

have it. Fine. Great. You did what

6:11

you're supposed to do when the opposing

6:13

starter doesn't have it. You

6:16

take your walks when he gives them to you,

6:18

and then you pound home runs when he leaves

6:20

a mistake over the plate. That's exactly what they

6:22

did in game one of this series. They played

6:24

that role to perfection. Game

6:27

two, I thought Green's pretty

6:29

good last night. Dude's blowing 98

6:31

miles an hour pretty consistently. He's got

6:33

a couple other secondary pitches. I thought

6:36

he was very, very good last night.

6:38

Strike out eight. But

6:40

you know what they did? They got him out of

6:42

the game after what, four games? Well,

6:45

okay. Strike out your eight. Cool.

6:47

Congratulations. You had a bunch of strikeouts. As

6:49

you know, I don't feel that strongly about

6:51

them because when you weren't striking out, you

6:53

were doing great things. You were

6:56

putting the ball in play hard, hard

6:58

contact. You were finding your way on

7:00

base. You were taking your walks. You

7:02

were fouling off pitches. And

7:04

the next thing you know, it's the fifth

7:06

inning, and you're on to again for the

7:08

second straight day a bullpen that's

7:11

not up for that challenge. You know, hopefully

7:13

get on a little roll here. Just more

7:15

consistent offensively is what excites

7:17

me. They were able to get their starter out again tonight, put

7:19

a ton of pitches on him, get him out of the game

7:21

early, which is a good thing. That's what

7:23

you need to do to be a good offensive club. You got

7:25

to keep the pressure on. You got the pitch count

7:28

up on him, and it paid off for us tonight.

7:30

So you never know how a

7:32

series is going to go, but I think there

7:34

is a reason that Major League managers look at

7:36

series. They look at the season in little

7:38

chunks, and it's

7:41

because you can't deploy every

7:43

resource every night, especially

7:45

in your bullpen. It's just not possible, right?

7:47

Andres Munoz is the best reliever on this team. You

7:49

can't use him every night. And

7:52

after that, you're probably going with Stanek. You can't use

7:54

him every night. After that, you

7:56

kind of have a list in order of who your leverage guys

7:58

are, and you can't use him every night. use each

8:00

of them every night. So the

8:02

earlier you get a starter out of the

8:04

game and the more bullpen guys they need

8:07

to use, the more it should, in theory,

8:09

come back to help you later in the

8:11

series. You've seen them, you get a

8:13

sense as to who they are, that's advantage hitter more

8:15

than it is advantage pitcher, and maybe

8:17

you tire them out or use so many of

8:19

them that they've got to use a lower leverage

8:21

guy in a higher leverage situation. Those

8:24

are all advantages for the team that

8:26

has done a good job of knocking

8:28

around the opposing team starter. So

8:31

when you get Montas out early

8:33

in game one, so he pitched

8:35

what, four innings? Both guys pitched four innings? Montas didn't

8:37

even make it. Didn't even make it four. Third. Okay,

8:40

so you've asked their bullpen to

8:43

throw, you know, what, 16 innings

8:47

or so, so far? Fourteen innings so

8:49

far? Yeah, that's huge

8:52

over the course of two games. I'm sorry, I guess it's about 12. So

8:55

regardless, you're forcing their bullpen to take

8:57

on such a huge portion of the

9:00

game that

9:02

hopefully it pays dividends today. Maybe

9:05

in the seventh inning today, they've got to go to

9:07

a lower leverage guy they don't want to use. Maybe

9:09

they come back with Pagan, Emil Pagan, who you've now

9:12

seen just yesterday, and maybe you

9:14

have the opportunity to do some damage against him.

9:16

Maybe it's Nick Martinez. I don't know how it'll

9:18

end up affecting the game, and maybe it never

9:20

will. But by playing the

9:22

odds and knocking those starters out early and

9:24

doing what you need to do to take

9:27

your pitches, take your walks, get on base,

9:29

drive them crazy, hit the occasional home run –

9:31

no ball was leaving that ballpark last night, by the

9:33

way. Not the way that wind was

9:35

blowing and the air was up. No ball was leaving

9:37

the ballpark last night. So you

9:39

did exactly what you're supposed to do, and for

9:41

everybody who says, how come the T-Mobile

9:44

marine layer stuff only affects the

9:46

Mariners? Guess what? Last night, it

9:49

affected the Reds. Julio catches that

9:51

ball that hangs up because of the

9:54

marine layer. On another night in

9:56

another ballpark, that's probably a hit. But

9:58

last night, line drive. hangs up, Julio

10:00

makes two nice plays. Just

10:03

that's playing a T-Mobile. How

10:05

about the ball? He's got a couple nice plays too.

10:07

He deserves some credit. He did. That

10:09

was a really nice play. Give him some credit. Of

10:12

course you still had an error in the ninth inning,

10:14

which very nearly cost you that game, which

10:16

is just driving me nuts,

10:18

man. Watching Ty kind of not make the

10:20

play at first and Stanik not run to

10:22

first. You're like, dude, you have to have

10:25

an error every freaking night? Just play clean

10:27

baseball. You don't have

10:29

to have an error every night. Like occasionally

10:31

you could just play clean, but

10:33

we're not talking about that more palatable when

10:35

you have some like of the craziest defensive

10:37

gems from Julio. It sure does. And it

10:39

makes it more palatable when you're starting pitching

10:41

looks like that when Julio does what

10:43

he needs to do in the field and

10:46

when you work counts enough to get their starting

10:48

pitcher out of the game. So excellent two games

10:50

stretch here for the Mariners. Will it continue? We'll

10:53

see. Take a one game at a time. All I know is this as

10:56

bad as things have been. As bad

10:58

as they've played for the first two plus weeks

11:00

of this season, give me what, three weeks tomorrow.

11:04

Their one game out of first place, which is

11:06

just hysterical that everyone else in the division has

11:08

struggled the way they have. We'll come right back.

11:10

Give you guys everything else you need to know.

11:12

We'll do it next. Brock and

11:14

Salk, Seattle sports on

11:18

710. Need to know 15 minutes

11:20

past every hour with Brock and

11:22

Salk. Here's what you need to

11:24

know. A series

11:26

win, a series win. Yes,

11:29

the Mariners have finally won a series

11:32

this time against the upstart young Reds.

11:34

They did it as you might expect

11:36

with pitching. Logan Gilbert throwing their sixth

11:38

straight quality start. He went six and

11:40

two thirds allowed only one run, kept

11:43

the Reds off the bases and that's

11:45

what you need. He and Munoz got themselves out

11:47

of trouble in the seventh or into trouble

11:49

rather in the seventh. And that's when Julio stepped

11:51

in to just bail everybody out. Close to the pit.

11:54

He's going to crack the gap in left center field and touch

11:56

it down full face hit. Fraley hits third base. Julio's

11:58

throw comes to third base. Danic Cruz is headed

12:01

there, the tag by Rojas, and he's

12:03

out at third base! What

12:06

a tag by Julio! One

12:10

of the fastest men in the game is

12:12

out at third! And I think

12:14

Aaron, much like I did, and I'm sure a lot

12:16

of you at home, thought, okay, but

12:18

at least, you know, for them, the run scored well,

12:21

only to find out, ah, Jake Fraley didn't run hard

12:23

all the way to the plate, little

12:25

hustle problem for Mr. Fraley, and, ah, yeah,

12:28

that's gonna cost them a run, so great

12:30

job by Julio. What a defensive game for

12:32

him. Showed off that range twice, made the

12:34

play of the game with his arm. Not

12:37

a bad way to help the team, even as you're waiting for the bat

12:39

to come around. He did have

12:41

a couple hits in the game, but for sure,

12:43

it was the defense that was important in this

12:45

one. Ah, I mean, on the

12:47

throw, I knew that it was fast, I knew,

12:49

like, he was an aggressive runner, so, I thought,

12:51

towards that catch of all, I'm just, like, looking

12:54

up to third, because, like, he was a little bit to

12:56

the side, I knew, like, he

12:58

might try something, so I would rather be prepared

13:00

for that, than, like, be kind of sleepy, and...

13:03

And the dude is so fast, so, ah, what

13:05

a play. And how cool is it seeing these

13:07

two young guys just kind of doing their thing

13:09

in various ways? If it's not with the bat,

13:12

it's with the defense, and both Julio and De

13:14

La Cruz have had really good defensive series so

13:16

far through two games. So, ah,

13:18

yeah, everyone else in the division lost last

13:20

night, which means the Mariners are one game

13:22

out of first place. Now, they're

13:25

in third, because the, ah, angels are sandwiched in

13:27

between them and the Rangers, but with one game

13:29

left to play, and it is a little matinee

13:31

today with, ah, Bryce Miller

13:33

on the hill, an opportunity for their

13:36

first series sweep of the season. ...the

13:40

second thing you need to know... Alright,

13:42

we from tomorrow, we will at long last start to

13:44

see what the Seahawks have in store for this draft.

13:47

Look, it might not be as crucial as last year,

13:49

when they had, what, four picks in the first two

13:51

rounds, but it should provide, I would think, more of

13:53

a window into their decision-making and plans For

13:57

this new administration, Dane Bruegler, the Athletic.

14:00

Joining a bump and Stacey yesterday says

14:02

lox the obvious choice may just be

14:04

the obvious choice in this is the

14:06

As a team that wins they opted

14:08

to tackle is the number one need

14:10

by any means but a chance to

14:12

draft a guy like for you are

14:14

taught Him who brings five position versatility.

14:16

You want to plan a guard. He

14:18

can do that, even center. Even though

14:20

that's not a position he's really played,

14:22

he has the movement skilled, the body

14:24

type of the middle argument he can

14:26

do that. I had planned a high

14:28

level and so that versatility. Is T with

14:30

him? I think aesthetically he looks like a

14:32

guard but be sold on tape. I have

14:34

the T and get a length. I can

14:36

stay at tackle in the Nfl so I

14:39

think that would be an interesting bit. Aesthetically,

14:41

he looks like a guard but. Something

14:44

funny to me about just the way

14:46

all of the draft gurus look at

14:48

these guys. But he's absolutely right and

14:50

the versatility is huge. and I did

14:52

write about him and some of the

14:54

other options last my you can read

14:56

it cel sports.com He's the right choice.

14:58

Autonomy? maybe? Bar Murphy? Maybe Michael panics. I

15:01

can make your arguments for both. And

15:04

yet secretly greatly I still want them to

15:06

go six haired first and just get yourself

15:08

an absolute star. The on the edge of

15:10

that, the fan so we are are creeping

15:13

up now on the draft. Just eight days

15:15

away from Rome was. Ah

15:20

track and was again for the first

15:23

when a peg just one game left

15:25

and they are very disappointing season so

15:27

they can now finished with the eighth,

15:29

ninth or tenth worst record in the

15:31

league. That will force matter for the

15:33

draft lottery which takes place after season.

15:35

Unfortunately it may not be their biggest

15:37

loss. What about this guy? and

15:55

he i'm not talking about gourd or

15:57

car to am talking about the man

15:59

who made that call John Forslund. Uh-oh,

16:02

long time Bruins announcer Jack Edwards is gonna

16:04

retire in Boston after the first round of

16:06

the playoffs. Rumors circulating yesterday

16:09

that Forslund would return to the

16:11

Northeast to replace him. You

16:13

may know he grew up listening to Bruins

16:15

games, started his career calling the Hartford Whalers

16:17

games, so that would be

16:20

a huge bummer. He really has been one

16:22

of the brightest spots in the first three

16:24

years of this franchise and I would miss

16:26

him tremendously. Speaking of media matters, how about

16:28

the WNBA draft? Average

16:30

2.4 million viewers on

16:32

ESPN. That is the

16:35

single largest audience ever

16:38

to watch anything related to that league,

16:40

including every game and every playoff game

16:42

they've ever played. Staggering. That

16:44

is insane. The previous high was

16:47

1.4 million who watched a

16:50

Mercury Sun game on ABC in 2004.

16:54

20 years ago. And on ABC

16:56

in a completely different television universe.

16:58

This is on cable, after

17:00

cord cutting, to watch not

17:02

even a game but the draft just to see

17:05

Kayla Clark get picked number one. Remarkable,

17:07

remarkable story. Truly, truly incredible. Alright,

17:09

there you go. That is everything

17:11

you need to know. Quarter past

17:14

every hour here in the Brockham

17:16

soft show. I have a, I

17:18

have to admit something. I'm a little nervous. Another secret?

17:20

No, this isn't the secret, but I'm a little nervous.

17:22

So Avery hurt

17:24

her knee last night. She slipped, running around

17:26

and scratched her, skinned her knee pretty good

17:28

and I felt bad for her. So she's

17:30

limping around the house last night. Heather took

17:32

Cecily to the track. Cecily's been doing track.

17:35

So Heather took Cecily to the track up

17:37

at Roosevelt. Why didn't you take her? Well,

17:39

I was busy. I was picking up Avery

17:41

and driving her from one place to another

17:43

at that time. Otherwise I would have. And

17:46

I may end up taking her this weekend

17:48

more because while Heather was running with Cecily

17:50

at the track, she heard a little

17:52

pop and felt her hamstring go.

17:54

No, thanks. It doesn't appear to be off the

17:56

bone or anything like that. Like I think she's

17:59

going to survive. going to take some rest, but

18:01

she definitely liked Pop the Hammy yesterday

18:04

while running at the track.

18:06

And so now I'm

18:08

really, really, really nervous

18:11

about what's going to happen next Thursday

18:13

when we race. Good. The

18:15

fact that you have showed no nerves was starting to piss me off. I

18:17

had no nerves until now. For the record,

18:20

I still think I can- It became real. For the record, I

18:22

still think I win even with a popped hamstring. Oh,

18:24

wow. I am a little bit

18:26

more nervous about my future. And if this ends

18:28

up costing me my golf season, I'm going to

18:30

be incredibly mad at everyone who falls in this

18:32

whole thing. All right. Next Thursday is the big race.

18:34

Coming up next, we'll give you guys a little Jeff

18:37

Passen, who was on to talk some trash about that

18:39

and a whole lot more next on Brock and Salk.

18:43

This is Brock and Salk.

18:45

How is who the Alaska Airlines studio?

18:48

This is the last

18:50

time. Tuesday,

18:53

it's time for Jeff Passen. Good morning, Jeff. How

18:55

are you? I'm a queen. It's

18:58

a great song. Cool Mountain. Really

19:00

good song. Great guitar

19:03

hero song, too. Is that true? Leslie

19:08

West is the guy's name, right? He's a huge dude.

19:10

He was in Mountain and they actually have a bunch

19:12

of other good songs. Are you a gamer, Passen? Are

19:14

you a gamer? No,

19:16

I don't have time for it. I

19:18

enjoy it when I get

19:21

the rare downtime. If

19:24

I have some downtime, I'll play WWE 2K24 with my

19:27

kid. That's

19:31

my idea of a good time these days. How many

19:33

is your child? Is it a kid or

19:35

child? Yeah. Are

19:39

we really going to get to dancing about this?

19:41

No. I don't even know what that

19:43

word means. What have you said? Yes. The

19:45

other of you said no. Make up your mind. We

19:48

don't have to agree on everything. Yeah. Let's

19:51

have a bunch of stuff I want to get to today.

19:53

I want to start with Jackie Robinson Day because I was

19:55

just struck by it again last night

19:58

and I think I am every year. incredible

20:00

thing it is in baseball. As

20:04

you go around, you talk to folks, what

20:08

else can they do? Because as I was down there

20:10

yesterday, I was talking to some folks from

20:14

Baseball Beyond Borders, it was like an RBI style program

20:16

here in Seattle. And he's like, look, the number of

20:18

black players in the game right now is lower than

20:20

it was in the 1970s. Are

20:24

any of these programs working at all?

20:27

I think they're working some, but they're

20:30

not working to the level that they

20:32

should or could. And

20:34

I don't, you know, there are two different

20:37

elements of this that that

20:40

I think could be addressed. I'm not

20:42

sure that they're going to solve this.

20:46

Number one, baseball is just like not cool. Like

20:51

I hate saying that as

20:54

somebody whose career and in

20:56

many ways, livelihood is tied

20:58

to the game. But when

21:02

compared to the relative popularity

21:04

of the NFL and

21:06

the NBA, baseball just doesn't back

21:09

up. Seen as slow

21:11

and boring. And

21:13

I don't think it's just black

21:16

kids who that affects. I think it's kids

21:19

period. There's

21:21

also, though, socioeconomic

21:24

element to the sport where

21:28

it's not just black youth. It's,

21:31

you know, impoverished or

21:34

economically disadvantaged people of all races

21:37

and backgrounds that just get priced

21:39

out of the game. And

21:41

in order to be a

21:45

baseball player in 2024, you need bats that cost $500, gloves

21:52

that cost $300 or $400. You

21:56

need to join a summer team

21:58

or travel team. team that cost

22:00

thousands of dollars. Like it's just

22:03

not an easy thing to

22:05

do for a lot of people. And so

22:07

you wind up in this situation where I'm

22:09

not going to say baseball, golf or tennis,

22:11

but a lot closer to a

22:13

country club sport than it used to be. Can

22:17

I just add another number on there? Because

22:19

you like you, Jeff, with your son

22:22

playing baseball, I've got a 14 year old. And this

22:24

last weekend they played supposedly the top team in

22:26

the state that plays in all these perfect game

22:28

tournaments and everything else. Do you know what it

22:30

costs? You mentioned the bat and the glove

22:32

and all of that. Do you know what it costs to just

22:35

play on this team in, in,

22:37

in the state of Colorado, 14 or

22:39

excuse me, $10,000 just to, that doesn't

22:41

even include your travel, 10 grand, just

22:43

to be on the team, grand, to

22:45

practice with them and

22:48

have their coaches and their expertise and everything

22:50

else that doesn't count the cost of equipment

22:52

that doesn't count the cost of your travel, your

22:54

hotels, everything else over the course of a spring

22:57

and summer, playing you know, out

22:59

of state weekend after weekend after weekend.

23:01

I mean, you are, you are talking close to 40

23:03

grand. That's criminal. Yeah.

23:06

Seriously. Yes. I mean, that's the,

23:09

in, you know, these, these tournaments that you've got to

23:11

play in and this is where all the showcases are.

23:13

And then, oh, by the way, then you got to

23:15

go to all these showcases and you got to show

23:17

off all of your talents. Yeah, it is the

23:20

socio-economic side of it is real. Plug

23:22

then for a baseball beyond borders, talking to the

23:25

guys over there yesterday, because basically it's a $250

23:27

buy-in and then it's scholarship after that. And they'll

23:29

figure out a way to get you playing in

23:31

the right places with the right equipment and everything

23:34

else. So if that is a barrier to you

23:36

and you're listening right now to play in baseball,

23:38

go find those guys at baseball beyond borders,

23:41

beyond, because just, just phenomenal what they're doing.

23:43

All right. A bunch of other stuff to

23:45

get into today, Jeff, because it was nice

23:47

to see the Mariners finally turn their offense

23:49

on yesterday. And one of the things that

23:52

we've kind of tried to figure out is

23:54

how information with all of the

23:57

numbers and all of the info that

23:59

now exist. in baseball, how it

24:01

gets filtered down to players. Are

24:04

there teams that are starting to back away from

24:06

that at all and saying they've overcomplicated it and

24:08

they just want their guys to go out and

24:10

swing? No, not

24:13

yet. In

24:16

fact, I think and this is

24:19

less with hitting than

24:21

it is with pitching, but

24:24

I know the Mariners are

24:26

a very process oriented organization

24:29

and the communication that they

24:31

have between or

24:34

among, I guess, analytics, coaches

24:38

and players is

24:40

pretty sound. And I

24:42

think a big part of the

24:44

bullpen effectiveness that they've had with

24:47

guys who have struggled elsewhere comes

24:49

from that communication and comes from

24:53

the passing down of

24:55

information. But let's be

24:57

very clear about something when it comes

24:59

to information. There's not going to be

25:01

less of that in baseball, not just

25:04

because it makes sense to have the

25:06

most information you possibly can, but because

25:08

the players who are coming up these

25:11

days, they grew up in

25:14

baseball's information era. They're not

25:16

only used to it, they desire

25:18

it. It's part of

25:20

their game now. And

25:22

organizations that don't have that

25:24

information, it seems like to

25:27

players that they are at a disadvantage

25:29

on account of that. So now

25:32

I think it's only going to

25:34

get stronger, the relationship between

25:37

players and the information that they're given.

25:40

What you need to do is make sure if

25:42

you're an organization that your

25:44

process for delivery as

25:47

well as interpretation of that

25:49

data is strong enough that players

25:52

aren't looking at the wrong things.

25:55

Give me the most processed data driven

25:57

organizations and give me a couple of

25:59

questions. of the least processed data

26:02

driven organization? I

26:04

think you'd have to put the rays at

26:07

the top. They, I mean,

26:09

they have sustained success for as

26:12

long as they have, in

26:15

large part, I think, because they

26:17

are so good with data and so

26:19

good at getting buy-in from their

26:22

players. And that's the key, right? You got

26:24

to get buy-in from players. The

26:26

Minnesota Twins are high

26:29

up there. The

26:31

Milwaukee Brewers do a really good job

26:33

at that. The Dodgers, the Dodgers are

26:36

good at everything, but the Dodgers are

26:38

definitely part of that. Teams

26:41

that are on the lesser side, the

26:43

Rockies, the White

26:45

Sox, the Nationals. So

26:47

the worst teams in base? Generally. Yeah,

26:49

I was going to say, generally speaking,

26:52

teams that aren't ever doing this. Like,

26:54

the Angels. It's

26:56

so funny because you say that, Jeff, and we got

26:59

people calling the show yesterday as we say, hey, what's

27:01

wrong with the Mariners? And one

27:03

of the most common things is, oh,

27:05

it's Scott Service. They're too into analytics.

27:07

He's confusing everybody. There's no, you know,

27:09

it's too matchup driven. There's no, yeah,

27:12

there's no more gun. Yeah. That

27:15

tell me you don't know baseball

27:17

without telling me you don't know

27:19

baseball. I mean, come on. It's

27:21

like, it's so easy

27:23

to sit here and make numbers

27:26

a boogeyman when things aren't

27:28

going right. But when

27:30

things are going right, as they have for

27:32

the last couple of seasons, our numbers suddenly

27:35

just like a small part of it. I

27:37

mean, at very least, if

27:40

you're going to be intellectually

27:42

dishonest, be consistent in your

27:45

intellectual dishonesty. This

27:49

is pretty much what I wanted to say yesterday, but

27:51

I wasn't able to say all of that. So thank

27:53

you, Jeff, for coming in and saying it from the

27:56

outside. I like it. Well, what I

27:58

want to know, my pleasure. to know

28:01

is one of the Julio story coming out are you

28:03

just sitting until Julio gets home he's waiting for Hillary

28:05

to be her home run where's

28:08

the story we've been waiting on the

28:10

story for a month actually the answer

28:12

the answers that is actually yes Jeff

28:18

what is going on with the Julio

28:20

he is not Julio right now no

28:24

he's not but we've

28:27

seen these stretches from him before

28:29

right yeah like correct me

28:31

if I'm wrong but he was not Julio

28:33

at the beginning of last year either nope

28:37

nope it's April 7th 16th and he

28:39

doesn't have a home run yet though like

28:42

we haven't quite seen this

28:44

he's hitting below 200 he got picked off the other

28:47

night when he went into the game the defense

28:49

has actually been really rough he's been thrown

28:51

out once at the plate running through a

28:54

stop sign and all of that without hitting

28:56

a home run he has one extra base

28:58

hit as we said it's April 17th it

29:01

just doesn't look the Mariners are

29:03

set up to survive some different things but I

29:05

don't see how they could possibly survive Julio doing

29:07

this for too long well

29:10

last May 21st Julio was hitting 204

29:12

on base 280 slugging 376 and

29:14

they survived

29:18

that yep and that was another month

29:20

on top of what he's doing right

29:22

now so you know

29:24

me I don't panic about small sample sizes

29:26

and I'm not going to do that here

29:28

is it is it something that

29:31

is worth continuing to

29:33

follow and monitor and have those

29:35

those little fears in the back

29:38

of your mind about yes is

29:40

it worth going and

29:42

making any sort of like wholesale

29:44

changes to what he's doing right

29:47

now no you just trust

29:49

the talent is what I

29:52

always say just trust the talent

29:54

and it will play

29:56

and he will be fine I'm sorry

29:58

but Julio Rodriguez did not overnight

30:00

forget how to play baseball. You

30:02

just don't do a rough batch right now.

30:04

And, you know, as, as

30:08

you see like guys of his

30:11

generation, like Bobby

30:13

Witt Jr. getting off to, you

30:16

know, ridiculous starts and Anthony

30:18

Volpe looking like a star

30:21

and Juan Soto,

30:23

uh, doing Juan Soto

30:25

type things. Um, you

30:27

know, these young guys who he's supposed to

30:29

be up there with looking

30:31

like monsters that they're all going to go through

30:33

stretches to him, maybe not a stretch quite like

30:35

this, but they're going to go through stretches. And,

30:37

uh, it's just

30:40

going to look a little bit different because they'll have

30:42

the numbers that have been built up over the course

30:44

of a month or two or three or however long

30:46

it takes for them to go through a bad stretch.

30:49

Such that, you know, the, the diff will

30:51

be there, but it won't be nearly as

30:53

pronounced as it is when you start a

30:56

season this way. That being said, I, you

30:58

know, I can guarantee you

31:01

that going into next season, Julio

31:04

Rodriguez is entire MO is going

31:06

to be, I want to

31:09

start hot and I'm going to do things

31:11

to make it such that I do. Well,

31:13

I think that's some of the challenge because

31:15

that's what this year's mantra was, right.

31:18

And if anything, Jeffrey, he overtrained to the point

31:20

where the start of camp kind of had to

31:22

shut them down a little bit because, you know,

31:24

this was a little bit sore that he had

31:26

taken so many swings that that was really the

31:28

story of the first two years, the first one

31:30

being a rookie one where he got kind of

31:32

screwed by umpse and strike zone was all over

31:34

the place and he just, you know, survived that

31:36

and then flourished. And last year, as you mentioned,

31:38

it was all the way into May where, you

31:41

know, he continued to remain cold. So that was

31:43

supposed to be, and that's why Jeff Passen was

31:45

out to write an article with each hero and

31:47

Julio and get this whole thing going. So can

31:49

we please get him started? So we

31:51

can finally read this article for crying

31:53

out loud. I

31:55

have another story I'm working on right now. That's

31:57

my priority at the moment. actually,

32:00

if I'm going to be

32:02

completely selfish here, this can last like

32:04

a couple more days. And then

32:07

he can get going and all will be well

32:09

with the world. Are you writing about Elie de

32:11

la Cruz? Because I mean, you

32:13

know, we don't get a chance to see him

32:16

on a day-to-day basis, obviously, but just seeing him

32:18

in person last night, getting a chance

32:20

to watch him play. He

32:22

is one. Wild, isn't it? I mean,

32:24

it really is. He looks like a giraffe out there. And

32:27

then you see all the athletic plays he makes. I thought

32:29

Brock made a pretty astute point earlier comparing him

32:31

to Usain Bolt. I mean, he kind

32:33

of has that same build,

32:35

the same look, the freaking speed. Literally,

32:39

the same size, six foot five, 200 pounds.

32:42

It's crazy. That is a

32:44

great comp. How

32:46

does he exist as a shortstop?

32:48

Well, and not only that, Mike,

32:50

to add on to your first

32:52

question to him about Jackie Robinson

32:54

day and making baseball cool. What

32:57

if there were, because there are 50

32:59

other guys out there, six, five, 200, that can run like

33:02

the wind. They are. They play

33:04

basketball. They play other sports. But can

33:06

you imagine if Major League Baseball had another 20, 30

33:08

every team at an Elie de la Cruz? Oh, my

33:10

gosh. Yeah. Doesn't

33:13

it feel like that's an inevitability, though?

33:15

Let's remember, O'Neill Cruz is a six

33:17

foot seven shortstop who's got some of

33:19

the same physical tools

33:21

that that Ellie

33:24

does. Not, you know, Ellie hits from both

33:26

sides of the plate. So that's a little

33:28

bit different there. But

33:31

I look at it like this. You

33:35

know, Kevin Durant walked

33:38

so Yama to 10 to Kupo could

33:41

run. So Victor when the

33:43

Nama could sprint. And

33:46

in baseball, it feels like the same

33:48

exact thing is bound to happen that,

33:50

you know, when a new

33:52

standard of athleticism has has

33:55

Been proven and the Turing

33:57

test of the sport has.

34:00

It sucks that you know that

34:02

this doesn't being met we did

34:04

not think was real Actually, is

34:07

it? It's inevitable that someone who's

34:09

an upgraded version is going to

34:11

come along at some point. To

34:16

the feels like the Mariners rotation movement. I

34:18

mean just one after the other after the

34:20

other after the other. We talked about

34:22

Kirby for a broken out in last night's

34:25

we talk a lot about Logan Gilbert going

34:27

into the season is well on a

34:29

jet pass and I'm still curious You next

34:31

level numbers your eyes, your conversations with where

34:33

I guess those three with who laugh

34:35

at those three in particular as they

34:37

continue to evolve. Anybody. In the

34:40

league have three quite like that at this age

34:42

in the stage of the game. Who's

34:45

the thera by smelling Yes! Ah,

34:49

I'm entering the three young

34:51

pitchers like that. Now.

34:57

I mean once, you know once

34:59

Paul schemes comes up, And

35:02

bay, I guess Miss Keller's a

35:04

little bit older, but. Paul.

35:06

Skins much Keller Jerry Jones

35:08

like the stuff. Is.

35:10

Is right there with the Mariners

35:13

guys. That's three guys who can

35:15

had one hundred with their fastball

35:17

and has. Nasty. Ah

35:19

sweet stuff. So what the

35:22

Mariners have right now a

35:24

L unless they're drastic changes

35:27

in baseball that could be

35:29

cutting as as a result

35:31

of the elbow injury that

35:34

happening the sheer there there

35:36

could be add different rules

35:38

put into place to make

35:41

it such that. Velocity

35:44

is. And terms

35:46

of important downgraded and.

35:48

He I'm going deep into

35:50

games and availability is prioritized,

35:53

but as long as we're

35:55

on the trajectory that we

35:57

are right now that this

35:59

is. not just the

36:01

Mariners present, this is everyone's future. This

36:04

is what guys are going to look for when,

36:07

uh, you know, rather,

36:09

this is what guys are going

36:11

to train for because they understand

36:13

this is what organizations are going

36:15

to look for unless something

36:19

totally changes in the way that the

36:21

sport is right. Are you suggesting that's

36:24

a possibility that they could in some

36:26

way limit? Absolutely. I'm not, I'm not

36:28

just suggesting it's a possibility, Mike. I'm

36:31

suggesting it's a necessity. That

36:33

they need to limit the, you

36:35

know, the number limit, the, the

36:37

velocity essentially. I

36:40

don't think they need to limit the velocity.

36:42

I think they need to incentivize pitchers away

36:44

from it. Okay. So

36:46

in arbitration, maybe putting a higher

36:49

premium on innings pitched or something

36:51

like that. Yeah.

36:54

Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way

36:56

because arbitration is a comparison based

36:58

system and you can't walk in

37:00

and say that this is what

37:02

we want it to be. Like

37:04

you can't control the system like

37:06

that. Um, I think you

37:09

can do it in free agency.

37:11

If guys who throw a lot

37:13

of innings start getting paid more than

37:15

guys who throw really hard. But the

37:18

problem with that is that generally speaking,

37:20

guys who throw a lot of innings,

37:23

uh, may not be as effective as

37:25

guys who throw really hard. And that's

37:27

the catch 22 of, of all

37:30

of this, that velocity works,

37:32

right? Like velocity

37:35

is everything in baseball right

37:37

now because it's the

37:39

straightest line to effectiveness. And, and it

37:41

sure seems as if people are more

37:43

afraid of an injury history when someone's

37:45

throwing a lot of pitches than if

37:47

they're throwing really hard, maybe they're wrong,

37:49

maybe that's a miscalculation, but it sure

37:51

seems if we hear a lot more

37:53

about, oh, he's thrown so many pitches,

37:55

it's only a matter of time before

37:57

he gets hurt. Yeah,

38:00

I think that's changing a little bit. I

38:02

think that's shifting,

38:05

but the reality is they think all of them

38:07

are gonna get hurt. And

38:10

if you, yeah, for real, like,

38:12

and if you have someone who

38:14

doesn't, he's the outlier. He's

38:17

not somebody that you

38:20

can sit there and say, try to replicate what this

38:22

guy is doing. Even though there

38:24

may be something to it, we just haven't

38:26

been able to isolate what

38:28

it is specifically that can keep someone

38:30

healthy, or rather what kind

38:33

of witch's brew there is to

38:35

keep them healthy, because that's

38:38

what it takes. It's a combination

38:40

of things. And certainly luck is

38:44

among them. And yeah, as

38:46

much as I wish in

38:48

life, you could somehow capture luck.

38:51

It's not one of those things that we figured out

38:54

how to do yet. Let me see if I can

38:56

do a little rapid fire with you just to quickly

38:58

go around the AL West, because it looks a little

39:00

topsy-turvy, albeit just a couple of weeks into this season.

39:03

The Rangers are in first place, but have not

39:05

played particularly well. What's going on with the Rangers?

39:10

Their pitching's not very good. Yeah,

39:12

they're hitting. Like, they're near

39:14

the top of the American League and runs scored

39:16

at this point. I

39:19

think they feel good about that. But even

39:23

a guy like Cody Bradford, who is a

39:25

back-end rotation type, had been arguably

39:28

their best starting pitcher to this point, just hit

39:30

the injured list. And so they just called up

39:32

Jack Leiter, who was the number two pick in

39:34

the 2021 draft. Son

39:36

of Al Leiter, stand out

39:38

at Vanderbilt like a guy

39:40

who is supposed

39:43

to be a stud and had struggled in

39:45

the minor leagues. But this year, 14 and

39:47

a third innings, 25 strikeouts, three

39:49

walks, pretty good.

39:51

And the stuff really plays. And

39:53

the thing about the Rangers, guys,

39:55

is they've understood that their first

39:58

half might be a little bit... if

40:00

he because they have Max

40:02

Scherzer on the shelf because Tyler Mollies on

40:04

the shelf because Jacob the grounds on the

40:07

shelf. If they can

40:09

get like one and a half of those

40:11

guys back you know one who's coming back

40:13

and pitching the way that you anticipate he

40:15

would and another who comes back and is

40:18

is good like good enough they're

40:21

going to be perfectly fine because they're going to be

40:23

aggressive at the deadline too they always are if there's

40:25

a starting pitcher out there to be had it wouldn't

40:28

shock me to see the Rangers go out and get them.

40:30

How about I mean again we got about

40:32

a minute but the other teams in the

40:35

division is Oakland any better than maybe

40:37

they were supposed to be certainly their closers are

40:39

pretty nasty they look like they might be okay.

40:41

Oakland's fine

40:44

they're you know they're going to

40:46

lose 90 something games. The Angels

40:48

are playing much

40:50

better than I anticipated I do not

40:52

think they're very good and the Astros

40:54

I'm not going to say that this

40:56

is the year but

40:59

man there are a lot of bad signs there. Did

41:01

you see last night's game like Josh

41:04

Hader just absolutely imploded and

41:06

we are three weeks into

41:08

a five-year 95 million dollar contract. I

41:12

heard you on Saturday or Sunday on the national

41:14

network you were asked which team that started off

41:16

slowly was going to turn it around and I

41:19

paused and I said I wonder if Jeffrey's going

41:21

to mention the Mariners here and you didn't you

41:23

went with the Astros so I was kind of

41:25

disappointed driving in my car I thought maybe we

41:28

were going to give a Mariner reference on national

41:30

radio but I should have known better I should

41:32

have known that wasn't going to happen. Yeah

41:34

that's me big Seattle Mariners Hader go

41:37

ahead perpetuate the

41:40

narrative I'm going to perpetuate

41:42

a narrative here. What's that? You're going

41:44

to get smoked by Mora

41:47

because you're a stumpy little chump

41:49

yeah and she's going to run

41:51

right by you and I'm going

41:53

to laugh so hard. Well we'll

41:55

see. I'm going to laugh. Go

41:57

job. Laugh. You understands only a

41:59

two 200 meter race. It's not a very

42:01

long race. It's

42:04

long. I was

42:07

going to say, like, you

42:09

think you can do a half a lap

42:11

without being winded? I

42:14

didn't say that. I didn't

42:16

say it wouldn't be winded. I just said I was

42:18

going to win the race. I don't think. Yeah,

42:20

I don't think more is going to be winded.

42:23

I think she's got it true. It's because she's

42:25

not going to be running that fast. It's hard

42:27

to get winded unless you're right. I will still

42:29

win the whole race. All right. Goodbye, Jeffrey. We'll

42:32

talk to you next week. See you, boys.

42:34

Yeah, winded. I didn't say it wouldn't be gasping

42:36

for breath when it's all said and done, just

42:38

that I'll finish the race. Jeff's giving me a

42:40

little too much credit if I do an all-out

42:42

sprint for a half a lap. I would hope

42:44

you'd be pretty winded at the end of

42:46

that. I would hope any. Otherwise, you're not

42:49

running hard enough. We better be winded. Week from

42:51

tomorrow. All right, it's on. Can't wait. Hopefully, I

42:53

don't hurt myself like my wife did yesterday. Coming

42:55

up next, three things about the Mariners that are

42:57

somehow all true at the same time. It's next.