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Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of Sports Radio ninety three point

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three kJ R FM. It's time for our weekly conversation with former Mariners all

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star Bret Boone, brought to you by Venue Kings. Visit venue Kings dot

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com for all your ticket needs. Now with Boonie, here's Softian Dick.

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Something tells me that Boonie's got at least a master's pool, if not some

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outright wagers on the masters. Would I be correct about that? Booneye,

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No English, no Englades. It's not illegal. You know you can gamble

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these days, buddy of mine. You know, I've got a little group

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of buddies of mine that we you know, we love the game, and

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yeah, we have some friendly wagers. But you can't just pick who you

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want. Okay, we play it straight up, so you get to pick

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players that are evenly matched for it that you can't take a one hundred and

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fiftieth ranked player against Scheffler. Okay, So who determines who's matched up with

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who? Like? Is there somebody in your in your group that will say,

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Okay, we're gonna rap match Scheffler up with Rory. We're gonna match

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yrroll Hatten up. We go straight to the We go straight to the betting

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sheet in Vegas, and then you at any time can back out say I

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don't like that matchup, but most of the time just go ahead, go

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ahead, So you go ahead, no Fisher thought, I apologize fish your

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thought. I put it this way. I need Shoffley to do well.

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Yeah, yeah, me too, And he's not doing well so far he's

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doing right. I think he's so Brett. When you play with your baseball

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buddies, I mean all of us, when we go out, we RaSE

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each other about how far we can hit it off the te right. I

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would imagine you small guys good because I mean, you know how to hit

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a swing and hit a ball, right, is it? Do you think

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there's extra sauce in your ball? Busting with all that? And I mean,

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does everybody just crush it and it becomes a long drive contest? That

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doesn't like take us into a window of what it's like when four major leaguers

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get a tea time and go out and play a team. Now, I

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think when we were younger, you know, it'd always be like, you

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know, how's how's the shot going to be? From there, you know

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when you drive way by him, but I think it'll be older. It's

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just kind of you know, we all hit it. We all hit it a decent decent ways, and it's not a matter of, oh, I

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out drove you. It's almost embarrassing if you were to point that out, unless it's you know, obvious that somebody's dropping off. So it's more around

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the greens now. And to be honest, I'm at the I'm at the

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other end of the spectrum. I'm usually the worst player in the force.

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You know, I've I've always been around a four or five handicap. Right now, I'm like an eight. So I'm kind of the worst guy,

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but I'm getting the most shots there. You go, Yeah, you're probably

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winning the most money too because you got there. You got the highest highest antycap. Well, Brett, you know, we haven't reached the point yet

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where we don't talk about the Mariners in April with you. Remember, was

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it was that last year or the year before that we went the entire before

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it was really bad last year. We kind of joked about it, but

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I looked, I looked back at my notes and a year ago, uh,

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after eleven games they were four, four and seven a year or this

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year, after eleven games they were four and seven. Now they're five and

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eight, right, So, uh, I look at this division and I'm

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just not worry. I mean, the Astros got off to a dreadful start,

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Texas is missing some some guys down for Texas. So you know,

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it's just kind of one of those years where I think, if any any

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year, you still go across the board. Mariners are still very challenged offensively.

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They went out and they tried to put more contact in the lineup.

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Well, they're leading the league in strikeouts. Again, it's a two week

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sample, it's not a big deal. Look across division and I don't I

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think the Angles are off to a pretty good start. I don't think we

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have to worry about them in the in the marathon, the A's, I

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don't think you have to worry about it. It's gonna be the same three

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culprits. It's gonna be Texas, it's gonna be Houston, and it's gonna

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be the Mariners. I look at those three. Houston's very challenged with their

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starting rotation with now starting off the year with Berlander out of the mix,

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and now Valdez going down, that's big for them. So that's gonna be

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a challenge for them. Uh de Gram and Schurzer if they come back,

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if they come back one hundred percent, they're on the sidelines with Texas,

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so their challenge. They didn't get their their their big guy Montgomery, who

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pitched pitched phenomenally in the playoffs in the World Series last year. He's moved

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on to Arizona. So I think if there's any any year this is this

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is a chance with this pitching staff, and I know early Castillo's outings,

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he has not been pitching like a number one, close to a seven.

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Arnie Kirby uncharacteristically, I was watching him when he gave up those eight runs.

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I think it was his worst outing ever and that was two outings ago. Then he follows it up with the one recently. Little concerning, but

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it's two rough outings in a row. Kirby's not used to that. We're

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not used to seeing that. Gilbert righted the ship on Wednesday, pitch to

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Jim, gave up the solo shot to Bladdie. Miller's been really good and

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you're listening WU when's wu coming back? Hopefully sooner than later. Hancocks have

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a bit of a problem and in the bullpen, it'll be nice to know

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when Brash is going to be back. But I think in the meantime Stannic

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was a really good pickup for them to add some stability to that bullpen and

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a guy that's been with Houston and knows what that winning culture, like Brett.

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They got that win yesterday, and you know it's so early to say

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it's a big win, but tell us from a psychological standpoint in the clubhouse

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and on a flight back, particularly on a getaway day, when you've got

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a day off next, how much does getting a win like that to at

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least salvage the last game of a road trip do for you? Guys?

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No, it's huge. And even though it's only two weeks in, you

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just lost three in a row, that would have been four in a row

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and going in to an off day, so that gives you an extra day

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to think about it. To get that win just kind of right at the

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ship a little bit, everybody can kind of take a deep breath, say,

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all right, at least we got out of there where the win. We'll start fresh on Friday after our day off on Thursday, So I think

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I think that was big, and it was big Gilbert coming up with that

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performance, you know, went into the eighth inning. We don't see that

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too often in today's game. So I think that was a big sigh of

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relief for them. The thing about the Mariners that I look at is that

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starting rotation. Most teams have that one guy, you know, as a

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position player. I come to the ballpark and I'd say, so and so's

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pitching a day. Oh, today's a win day. Okay. The Mariners

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potentially have at least four of those guys if they get it rolling Castillo at

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any time, when he gets on a roll and he's pitching his game,

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he's a stopper. He can stop a losing streak. Kirby same thing,

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Gilbert saying thing Miller at times, wu at times. So I think that

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marriage just have more depth in that starting rotation than all the other teams,

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especially in this division. Well, you mentioned how Gilbert obviously he put a

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stop to the losing streak. But you know, we do a radio show

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here in KGr with Mike Holmgren. He's on a lot of the shows and

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he uses a term called affect to describing the demeanor and the outward projection of

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quarterbacks, and he thinks it's important. Right, it seems like Kirby was,

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you know, of late. He's kind of he hadn't had, in

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Mike Holmgren's terms, the right affect. So I'm curious, a do you

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do you notice that? Do you see that? And does it have any

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effect on the rest of the ball club when you see a picture of his

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caliber and he's got that affect when things aren't going well, you're talking like

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having a little bit of in a modern day term would be called a swag

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or a demeanor that give me the ball out of my way type type.

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Well, that would be an im positive sense, Boody, I said, I think what he says is that as a negative effect would be right,

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right? Was me you know or you know, I'm not things aren't going

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as well. My defense isn't as good that type of an affect, right,

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So what you're saying is the complete opposite of that. Robbie Dahas give

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me the ball. And I don't think Kirby Kirby, he strikes me just

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in the small sample size. And when I say small, I mean the

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last couple of years watching him, he doesn't seem to me to be that

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guy like like a Gilbert Is. Gilbert's kind of has that look on his

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face, like give me the ball, he's pissed when he's getting taken out

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of the game. Kirby never has given me that impression. And I don't

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think it's I don't think it's what's really going on in his mind. I

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just think it's the way he's built. I think it's his personality. Some guys, you know, go out and they do their job and they don't

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have that give me the ball mentality look in their face. I've never seen

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Kirby to have that. It's always been kind of a more somber demeanor.

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And I just think it's something he's just going through two rough starts, you

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know, because we're so used to cure Kirby being so good at such a

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young age. Well, I used to seeing back to back starts like that.

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For a young player that's had a ton of success early in his career,

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that could be something where, wow, what do I do. I've

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never I've never gotten roughed up two games in a row. You know what

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do I do? Well, that's a learning. That's that's called learning time.

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We all go through it. We all go through long stretches where we

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have a lot of success, then all of a sudden we're hit with some

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humble pie and it's the great ones always find a way to learn from those

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opportunities, come back and then get on that horse and do it again.

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So the next time you go through this, it's not a I'm worried about

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it. It's now I remember when this happened last time. This is what

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I did. I just I got through it and I moved on. I

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think this is a learning chance for Kirby because he's just not used to it.

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I mean, it's pretty cool being this deep in his in his big

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league career, and this is the first time he's really got smoked two games

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in a row. Most of us, most of us have been humbled long before this. Yeah, and I don't worry about George Kirby. I do.

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I do, absolutely take to heart what he was saying, though he

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doesn't seem like he's got that bulldog. But but I don't think he's I

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don't think he's ever had that to me. And that's just my personal feeling

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watching him putting my eyes on him, I've never seen him as that guy.

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Think that, Yeah, No, I think that hurts the other players.

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Is if you're a player and you don't have that fire on the mound,

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does that Does that somehow in any way adversely affect the other eight players

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on the on the field. I don't think so, because they played with

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him long enough they know, Okay, he's not that guy. He doesn't

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have that demeanor. But he's a really good big league pitcher and we've seen

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him shove time and time again. So you really don't look at it.

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I think you look at him more from a professional sense. With Kirby's on

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the mound today. No, he's not that guy that's going to be loud

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and give you that big, bigger than life show. He's going to be

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that guy that knows he's a professional. He goes about his business, he

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has a way about him. That's just how he's built. That's his personality.

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The bottom line is is he pitching good? That's all we care about.

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Well, and then you got the guy that's supposed to be the ace

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of your staff who failed miserably in his last two starts of last season,

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which kept the Mariners out of the playoffs, and then he rolls over into

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this year and gives you three basically identical performances of five innings and giving up

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four runs. So how concerns should we be of a now thirty one year

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old pitcher who didn't come through in the clutch for you last year and is

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zero and three this year. I don't know if concerns the word, but

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definitely I'm starting to think in my mind, is this that top of top

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of the rotation go to guy when times are tough and we really need a

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win. Is that the guy that you have the ultimate confidence in that we

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know, even if he doesn't have his best stuff, he's gonna put us in position to win. That might be the question. As far as pitching

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at this level and being successful. I'm not worried about Castillo in that sense,

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but being that top, top of the line Verlander type in his heyday,

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I've got some question marks about that with Castillo at this point. Well,

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let's go to the other star on the team, Julio under two hundred

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at one ninety six. Worse yet, he's slugging two sixteen no home runs.

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I know you're gonna say, look, he's gonna get hot as a

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young kid. He's a superstar. We get that, But it had had

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Julio said to you in the offseason. Look, I'm tired of these slow

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aprils. I'm gonna listen to you. You're the Bible. Give me something

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that I should do different so that my April is better. You would say

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what, I think, it just comes with experience. You know, no

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guys and great players that I've played with that kind of in spring training.

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Well, I know my aprils aren't that great. Well, you're already self

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defeating right there. Just because in the past they haven't been great doesn't mean

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that has to be your moniker. Every year I've had April's where I've had

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some pretty good aprils. I've had some mediocre aprils, very rarely to to

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have a terrible I just figured, if I can get to the end of

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April hitting two fifty, few homers, a decent amount of RBIs, which

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is what we were judged on back then average home runs and RBIs, if

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I can just get out of April, get out of the cold weather, and move into May, then I'm good to go. Just survive in April.

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The one thing I think and it's tough because he's so young, and

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you forget he's been around so long now you forget how young he really is

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still. I think last year, after that slow start, ended up having

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a really great year. I think he put a lot of pressure on himself

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his off season. Well, next year, if I can get off to

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that great start and do what I did for the rest of the season, now I'm gonna have an MVP type caliber year. When you start setting the

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expectations instead of just letting it happen, you tend to do this. You

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put more pressure, more pressure, more pressure. Now the team's not winning.

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Now he feels that if it's his fault, he's the star and the

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team Instead, you just got to let the game come to you. You learn that with more experiences as you get deeper into your career. But it's

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something that that's very easy to fall in fall into, even for great players,

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but especially when you're that young. Well, you make a good point

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here about his about his aprils. I didn't realize it was this bad.

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But for a guy whose career OPS is way over eight hundred, he's got

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a six twenty three ops in April the last three years. Yeah, and

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you. But when you when you have those aprils and you and you put

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too much emphasis, it becomes a mental thing like can I really not play

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in April? You know? And and that's something you got to you gotta

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find a way. We all have to fight our way to get over those

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hurdles because the game baseball, why it's so different than every other sport.

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It's just there's nowhere to hide. It's it's the game comes to you,

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and it comes to you every day, and once in a while you get

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this off day, which the Mariners have right now. But for the most

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part, it's I got a game tomorrow in the next day and the next

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day, and by the way, I'm not feeling good, and guess what,

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I got a game the next day and the next tick. So there's really nowhere to hide. On the flip side of it, when things are

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going good, you're winning ball games or swings working man, you're skipping rope

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going to the ballpark. So it's a catch twenty two right now on this

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side of the ledger, it's not much fun. Brett. Always great to

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talk to you. We'll chat with you next week and let's hope we have

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a positive week, you know, and maybe five and two something like that

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over the next seven days to talk about before we chat with you next Thursday.

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You got it, guys, Thanks man, appreciate it. Thanks Brett

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Moone joining us on ninety three point three KJRFM. All right, here's what

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we got. I'm up for the rest of five o'clock hour. We have not touched on the Seahawks yet, and they actually yesterday had some press conferences.

16:06

We heard from Gino Smith, we heard from Tyler Lockett, we heard

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from Jordan Love, we heard from Yuchena Nuosu. So we'll play some of

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those cuts for you. We'll get huge thoughts on those as well. We still got some masters talk to get to al Kaniski to get to as well

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in the six o'clock hour before cracking hockey at six thirty. But speaking of

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the Masters, we head to Augusta for a master's update. All right now,