Shanties of Ice and Fire - Where Can The Mariners Upgrade? Meet at the Mitt Podcast

Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

John Trupin
With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing.

Evan James
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John Trupin
2020 baby get 2020. Bid to get 15.

Evan James
1515 just $15 a month, so give.

Ryan Reynolds
It a try at mint mobile.com switch $45 upfront for three months, plus taxes and fees. Promoting for new customers for limited time unlimited more than 40gb per month slows full terms at mint mobile.com dot.

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John Trupin
Hello and welcome.

Thank you for meeting us at the Mitt. My name is John Truepen. I am thrilled to have you joining us for the meet at the Mitt podcast, your home for Seattle Mariners baseball discussion.

I am delighted to be chatting, as usual, with managing editor of Lookout Landing.com, kate prooesser. Kate, as we swelter here, as the, as the heatwave that has been baking the rest of the country finally has crossed the cascades and has begun to cook us, what have you done to attempt to beat the heat as it ticks across 90?

Yesterday, today and tomorrow, it seems.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah, yeah. Today I built a deck box, so that wasn't beating the heat, really.

John Trupin
Yeah, yeah. Sort of fighting fire with fire, so to speak.

Interesting strategy.

Ryan Reynolds
I mean, doing it so that I could put the cushion so that the cushions for the patio furniture I got last or two seasons ago would have, like, a safe place to be. And I.

John Trupin
So that they could be cool while you swelter.

Ryan Reynolds
So I could. So I can use. Oh, no, they're gonna bake in that little plastic box. But this way, I have, like, you know, they'll be easily usable, and I can use this part of the patio that has heretofore been very lazy about dragging the stuff down. So, you know, I'm blessed. I'm blessed with outside space, and there's a nice breeze today.

And looking around the rest of the country, I feel very, very much like my mother famously says, no whining on the yacht. Like, you are not allowed to complain from a place of privilege. And we are hot here, but it is not. It's not humid. It's not thunderstorming on us. We're not trying to protect our homes from a hurricane.

John Trupin
No, not Death Valley or a number of places that are having absolute record heat. Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Reynolds
So I will. I will go ahead and just suck this one up and muscle. Muscle through, grit my teeth through, much like I've been watching the mariners lately. It's. It's not pleasant, but it is bearable. So, yeah.

John Trupin
We also have Evan James, audio engineer.

Evan, how. How are you staying cool on the east side? How. How are you? And the end. Youre a. Your various farm animals.

Your farm and domestic animals. You have a delightful looking kitty that is not light on fur, as I recall.

How does the gang. How does the whole household stay cool here?

Evan James
Well, it's funny you mentioned the birds, because the chickens do overheat when it gets this hot, and they're in the shade most of the day, fortunately for them, and we keep it cool, there's fans out there. But two of the older ones, the ones that we bought from the very first batch, that are the elders at this point, can't quite deal with it. And so we have a swimming pool inside in the living room and a blanket fort and an AC underneath the blanket for blasting cold air. So they are literally, like, in a chicken refrigerator in the living room, so to speak. So they're the chillest of all. Like, they're having a great time. They're watching Seinfeld and NCIS and just living it up.

Ryan Reynolds
How do I sign up to be one of these chickens?

John Trupin
I was gonna say you have chicken's.

Ryan Reynolds
Living better than I am.

John Trupin
Essentially, the ideal sort of millennial apartment, Palm Springs resort.

Evan James
Pete, if you ever want to come hang out with the chickens, I'm sure Liz would love to show you them.

She just adores them. So a couple of the new ones, we actually, and this is fun news, so we've had three different batches of chickens. We got the first one in 2020, second one in 2022, and we got more this year. We got the first egg from one of the four baby girls yesterday, the pullet egg, and it's very tiny, just a little baby egg, but they taste really good. So I'm excited to have an omelet or whatever with that in it, hopefully tomorrow. So cool, huh?

John Trupin
I love that. I love the image of sort of the blanket fort being the right environment.

Evan James
It really is. It literally is just a blanket straight over some chairs and then pulled down and an air conditioner blasting in it. It is a true kid fort. Blanket fort style thing, and it's fun. I'll send you pictures when we're done here.

John Trupin
Absolutely. Well, Logan Gilbert has built a blanket fort over hitters and really smothered their ability to hit all season long.

Ryan Reynolds
This is not your final work, John, but.

John Trupin
I was seeking basically.

Yeah, looks like big Bird, and I didn't want to. I didn't want to do that.

Ryan Reynolds
You know what? It's right there. It's right there.

John Trupin
Logan Gilbert has not been laying many eggs as a pitcher, and for that, he's been rewarded, we're excited to say, as the Mariners first and currently only all star for the 2024 season, this is well deserved. I think we, we would all agree if you were going to pick one person, Gilbert is the deserving option.

Would we all say there probably are two deserving options on the roster?

Evan James
You mean there may have been a snub? Is that what you're insinuating?

John Trupin
A little snub?

Evan James
A little snub.

John Trupin
Yeah.

Yes, I think.

And Gilbert said this in the video that the club released of his being informed in the clubhouse that he expected Andres Munoz to also be named an all star. He felt he was deserving, and I think that's correct. You know, he made.

He did not make it where Clay Holmes, the closer for the Yankees, who's had a good year to be sure, did. But Holmes has been worse across the board in every category except saves. Total cool. And he's thrown, I think, four more innings, something like that, which, you know what? It's not the, you know, it's not the end of the world, but I do think Munoz hopefully will be named additionally, regardless.

Ryan Reynolds
Hey, Will, the first time around that it's an undeniable snow, I think when you look at his numbers.

John Trupin
Yeah.

Ryan Reynolds
Compared to.

John Trupin
Yeah, but, Kate, I really just wanted to hear particularly about this from you.

You're obviously at the park almost every game, every, almost every home game. But your time both covering and talking with Logan Gilbert goes back almost as far back as, since he joined the organization.

Ryan Reynolds
Oh, yeah.

John Trupin
Did you think that he was a going, did you think that was, that was an all star when he was a minor leaguer?

And what has changed from, you know, the guy that you wrote about with Cal Rawley, their, their sort of dynamic and relationship, I think when they were in Modesto, when Modesto was high, a still, if I'm not mistaken.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah.

John Trupin
To now, to where he is actually a genuine all star and very rightfully so. Not a, not a Daniel Vogelbach all star.

Ryan Reynolds
No, no, no.

John Trupin
You know, no.

Ryan Reynolds
A genuinely deserving. And, you know, there's been a case for him. I think basically every year he's been in the league. This is his best year so far, for sure. And especially if you're looking at the Mariners, he is by far the most valuable mariner, I think, even from a starting pitcher position where he only pitches once every five days or whatever. But, you know, I wrote last year, two years ago about the role he plays as, like, the stopper as far as, like, when the team is on a losing streak. What Logan is able to do is he's not just effective, but he is a workhorse. And I think that somehow that's something I'm not sure. So ever since he was a prospect, I felt like Logan Gilbert has been consistently underrated. I don't think he got higher than 36 on Baseball America or like any of the top 100 prospect lists. I think 36, maybe 32 or something. Like, I feel like that was the.

John Trupin
Highest on the big three on Baseball America, MLB and baseball perspectives.

Not to, not to just devalue fan graphs, because I also value that. But there's the problem of their live updating is I'm not sure where he quite left it.

Ryan Reynolds
Right.

John Trupin
But 33rd is 33, head of 2020 ahead of 2021. Was MLB pipeline had him there?

Ryan Reynolds
Oh, yeah, he wears 36. That's where I got that number. Dumb, but yeah.

John Trupin
Right in that range.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah. I mean, and I, it's always tough when you're a pitcher and you have like a shorter arc anyway. Like, they haven't been writing about you since you were a high school product. Like he was in a class that was very pitcher, college pitcher, specifically heavy.

You and I, John, have always joked about Matt Manning, our enemy, Matt Manning, who seemed to always just come in ahead, even though both of us thought Gilbert was the superior pitcher. Like Matt Manning somehow always seemed to edge him out in all of these. So, yeah, I think it's for me, I've always thought Logan was better than the industry perception. I knew he was going to be a very solid, at least mid rotation, but probably.

I think I've always seen him as, like, a number two, really. He's been pitching like, the number one for Seattle.

I knew he had all the pitches when he was a prospect.

The change up didn't work out at all. I think what I didn't understand at the time was his ability to innovate, his ability to teach himself new pitches, to always be out thinking. I knew he was very smart and very talented, but I don't think I realized the extent to which he was going to be able to just adjust and improve every single year that he's been in the major so far. And it's what makes rooting for him so fun. It's what makes watching him so fun, especially if you're kind of a more cerebral or analytic bent person.

Logan and I have had great conversations about pitching over the years. I've always learned so much. He's so generous with his time, and honestly, if you ask him the right questions, he.

I mean, he's made a slight change to his delivery this year, too. He says, like, get a little more explosive, a little more rotational.

And he just sat there and talked to me. Like, I pulled up pictures of him at these points that Zam Zack Mason, our staffer, had sent his, his idea. And so, you know, just in getting quotes for this article, he sat there with me for, like, 15 minutes and went through each of these little minor mechanical changes. And afterwards, he thanked me for. I was like, thank you. Thank you for. He was like, no, thank you. Like, it's so exciting to talk about this stuff. It's really exciting to talk to someone who likes to, like, drill down on this. And, you know, I really appreciate. He's just, he's, he's so great. He's a favorite mariner forever, and I can't. I can't say enough good things about him. I'm so thrilled for him to be selected. It is well deserved.

Obviously, the. I wish the Mariners had more all stars. I wish they were all playing at a level where it wouldn't have been a sure slam dunk thing when they said the Mariners only had one, but when they said the Mariners only had one, I knew it was, it was going to be Gilbert, and I thought it was very cute that he was like, oh, maybe it's Munoz, and he was stressed out because Scott, like, let it, you know, played with it a little bit.

John Trupin
But, yeah, so two things, because I love that anecdote about your, your talking with him and, you know, all this way through, and I think we see that also in sort of what he said and, you know, even in the conversation that he had with his folks afterwards, which is not all of what we're going off of, but is what we've seen evidence and what you've seen evidence as well, that, oh, Bryce Miller's gonna be happy, is what I think his mom said, which, you know, obviously is partially about.

Ryan Reynolds
That was their relationship.

John Trupin
It was very sweet, and it's genuine. It is.

Gilbert's sort of focus and willingness and interest in being so cerebral and so consistently willing to tweak and improve on a repertoire has made him.

Has helped him exceed his expectations. Not that the expectations were good. Right. This is a first round pick. He's a really good pitcher in college.

Ryan Reynolds
Long levers.

John Trupin
Yeah.

Ryan Reynolds
Like, obviously looks. Yeah.

John Trupin
Right.

Throws mid nineties, has good command. Had this big breaking ball, looked like it should work out at least fine.

But the knock on him, and I was one to knock. I have been one to be more dubious, not even dubious that he be good, but dubious that there was more in him.

Has been. Can he add, can he make the off speed work for him more? Can he get more out of his stuff?

And every year he has, like you said, he, because he makes those tweaks, because he makes those incremental adjustments, we see more. We see this Logan Gilbert that is better than last year's. Logan Gilbert that was better than the year before.

No improvement is not linear.

But Logan Gilbert's improvement has kind of been linear. It has just been. He has gotten incrementally better every year, hasn't taken a step back in any real way. And now, you know, the dust, you know, as the dust settles on a new year, as we're, you know, at the halfway point and we can assess, we see he is their best pitcher right now, and that is because he tweet, kept tweaking the slider, a pitch that he did not have as a minor leaguer with much confidence.

Ryan Reynolds
It was his worst.

I mean, the change up was better than that. But then, you know, the big leagues tell you who you are kind of as a pitcher, and the big leagues told him his change up sucked and his slider was workable.

John Trupin
Right. And he, and then he had, and then he had this change up that, like, looked good, except he, you know, it would have been over Aaron Judge's head half the time when he threw right. I mean, he just could not locate it at all. So he kept working and he kept tweaking, and he figured, he's figured it out again here without losing his command, without really falling off mechanically or falling off with his, his velocity. So now we get this version of him that is just so consistent. And what I wanted to touch on here is, as well, it depends on the evaluation metrics that you look at for him.

But because fan graphs, which is using a more FIP based model, would say, actually, George Kirby is even having a better year. And I am thrilled by that because Kirby had sort of a shakier start to the year, had the weird sort of injury thing. And I do think George Kirby is maybe being underappreciated a little bit because of that shakier start and because he's got an era that is good but is ahead of his other metrics. With that said, if we're going by baseball reference, which is just pure results based essentially, that's that's how they gauge things. Logan Gilbert right now is on pace for the best by war season four starting pitcher for the Mariners since 2014. Felix since.

Ryan Reynolds
Wow, that's incredible.

John Trupin
Still a superstar. Felix.

That is, that is, that is like, like penultimate year of greatness. Felix yeah, that is not, you know, Gilbert's not quite at that level, but he is the closest that the Mariners have had, or at least his results have been the closest that the Mariners have had since 2014. Felix. Better than Castillo has been, and Castillo has been great. Better than Kirby has been, and Kirby's been great.

Better than, you know, Iwakuma and Paxton, you know, Marco Gonzalez. You know, they've had good pitchers, but this is the best season thus far that they have had. And that I'm glad for all the reasons you outlined and for what we're, what we're getting to see that that is being acknowledged by the league.

Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

John Trupin
With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing.

Evan James
Mint Mobile, unlimited premium wireless. How did you get 30 30 bid.

John Trupin
To get 30 bid to get 20 2020 to 15?

Evan James
1515 just $15 a month.

Ryan Reynolds
So give it a try@mintmobile.com. switch $45 upfront for three months, plus taxes and fees. Promoting for new customers for limited time unlimited. More than 40gb per month. Slows full terms@mintmobile.com. dot it is. And I feel like when we talk about him coming up and with Cal Rawley and the truth, meaning that they had like, yeah, he has really taken improvement to heart. He has never kind of rested on his status as a top of the line starting pitcher, which he's always kind of had this hunger to improve. And when he developed the splitter, he said it was because he was thinking not about the next year, even, but he was thinking, like, what am I going to do to stay in this league for a long time? Like, what am I going to do when my velocity starts to fade, as it probably will because I will get older, you know, he's only 26, 27 at the time. 26, I guess. And he's already looking forward to when he's in his thirties and, you know, worrying about what's gonna happen in case his fastball velocity, his fastball isn't as effective anymore. And then he was so mad that everyone else developed a splitter. At the same time, I think it's really interesting that him and Bryce are so close or that Bryce, that was. I didn't know that, that his mom would say, like, oh, Bryce looks at you and does everything that you do a year later.

I think that's very true. And there was a reason that I thought Bryce Miller when I think they're both going to be good pitchers, but everyone was in love with woo because of the stuff. The stuff is great. I've always been a big believer in Bryce Miller and Bryce because Bryce has that similar ability to improve, adapt. And again, I think it comes a little bit out of feeling like, and Logan has talked about this, too. He's talked about having, like, imposter syndrome and feeling like, you know, am I really like, just.

George Kirby has supreme confidence. He knows he belongs. He pitches like he belongs. Logan, I don't know that he has that as much. He always feels like he has to outsmart, outwit, outwork, and he does all of those things. And Bryce, I think, is very much in that same mold with Bryce, I understand it a little more because Bryce is on the shorter side. He doesn't maybe have all those physical tools that Logan Gilbert has, but he is.

And he plays it off with this Persona, like, ah, big text, and he's got the drawl and all that. Bryce is so smart, and he. He does a pretty good job at disguising how smart he is and how analytical he is and how hard he works. He's very much that, you know, duck that's floating serenely on the top, on the above the surface, and then the little legs are just like, kicking like mad underneath to keep him afloat. Like, that's Bryce Miller. He is smarter than you think he is, works harder than maybe anyone on the team outside of Gilbert and Cal.

And, you know, you see it like, he picked up the splitter. He remade his arsenal. He taught himself a cutter because Logan had it. The thing he's picking up right now is he looked at Mike Bowman, who has the spike curve, the knuckle curve.

John Trupin
Yeah.

Ryan Reynolds
And he's teaching himself that. And it was a similar thing where, like, Bowman showed him the grip and Miller was like, okay. And he threw a few in a bullpen. He was like, that's pretty good. And then he's gone out and just started throwing it in games like, that's a level of adaptability and survivability that I just don't think every pitcher has. I think it's a separator, and it's been a separator for Logan, and I think it's going to be a separator for Bryce.

John Trupin
Yeah, it's, it's a good way to be, and I think it is. It does speak to part of why the Mariners pitching group, in addition to the Mariners player development, has been so successful. Why they're pitching or what, rather why they're coaching and player development has had an influence. But specifically why their pitching staff has so outperformed is the more good eggs you have in there, the more that those ideas bounce off one another when, when you have players who are open minded and willing to take stuff from one another. And that's not an uncommon thing among pitchers. But this pitching group from, you know, Castillo to, I mean, Castillo, Gilbert, I mean, the whole group of them, there are several stories of, oh, I tried gripping the ball like this and, you know, because that's what Castillo did or that's what Gilbert did or this or that. Kirby working on his two seamer, I think because of Robbie Ray. Right. And, you know, that sort of thing. Like, say what? Say what you will about the frustrating Robbie Ray experience, but by all accounts, very much an appreciated influence in there, and especially for a number of pitchers who were very fastball heavy.

Robbie Ray, maybe it's not ideal, but also Robbie Ray was able to have one of the best pitching seasons in, certainly in recent memory of a guy who almost only throws a fastball. Like, if you're going to learn to throw fastballs, you should learn from Robbie Ray, because whatever Robbie Ray has done with his fastball people have historically not hit it very well, and he's still.

Ryan Reynolds
Beloved in that clubhouse. You know, when he came back from the TJ, he was so clearly a leader, and he was one who I really enjoyed talking to. He was extremely generous with his time, very smart. He really, he and George Kirby had a very special connection, too. He said Kirby was the fastest at picking up a new skill he'd ever met since, like, Zach Green Key, which is tremendous praise. Anytime you're being comp to grinky, I feel like that's, I would say Bryce Miller falls in that camp, too. And I'm sorry that Ray didn't get to really know or work with Miller as much. And he's.

But, yeah, it's.

And even with Castillo, I mean, we've all seen the picture, right, of all the, all the starters out watching Castillo throw a bullpen. You know, he's, he's very much like the elder statesman of that group, but he's not above making a tweak. The pitching coach went to him and said, hey, why don't we change the grip on your slider? And we, we slow it down a little when we create more velocity separation between the slider, the change up and the fastball slash, sinker.

And he did it. And all of a sudden, like, it not only made the slider better, it made the change up play out better, which Toronto, I think, is a little bit of like a swing happy team.

I'm not.

I'll be really curious to see how this continues to play out. But, like, something had to be done about his. It just felt like Castillo had stagnated a little bit. You know, he wasn't and maybe even regressed some, if you consider the change up used to be his best pitch and was backing up on him a little.

John Trupin
And the slider had a bad stretch against aggressive teams.

He faced the Royals, the Rangers, Cleveland, you know, in particular, a lot of teams that will swing early and all very, very aggressive.

Ryan Reynolds
Yep.

John Trupin
Yep. You know, that is, I think, exactly right to your point, kid is being willing to. Not being too proud as a, as a what is a 31 year old?

Ryan Reynolds
31. Yeah.

Talking to your pinching coach, who is about the same age as you are, right?

Pete Woodworth is about his same age.

John Trupin
Yeah, that is. Yeah, that is. That is among the many reasons why that trade, I think, continues to echo as one of the best moves.

Ryan Reynolds
The Mariners continues to pay dividends, for sure. Castillo was the right person to bring in and extend. He has adapted very well to being here. He likes it here.

He has a good time. He's comfortable, I think. And again, you're taking him out of the Reds organization. So I feel like in general, even though you're moving a guy who, whose roots are in the dominican, like further away from home, like, yeah, this, this is an upgrade, I think, for him in every level. Like, it's, it's a more comfortable environment. It's a more.

And he just has the right attitude to kind of roll with the punches. Always the positive mentality. Like, he buys in and sets the tone a lot of ways. But, you know, even George Kirby, like Kirby is very stubborn, very set in his ways, has a rightfully earned high opinion of himself.

But, you know, they've been working with him all season to try to get him out of the zone for those teams that are very, like, aggressive, and he's been able to make that adjustment.

John Trupin
Yeah.

Castillo likely this year is going to enter a lot of, at least for war and for numbers in terms of era or other rate stats, I think he is going to enter the top 20 in Mariners history this year. And that is for three, two and a half seasons. That is how. I mean, obviously you could say that. Well, that's about the Mariners. It is. But it's also Castillo being so freaking consistent, even, even in his bad stretches, it is usually still been keeping them in McDougal bats. McDougal Bats is a bend, Oregon based baseball and softball bats company, family owned. They are big Mariners fans, and they build baseball bats and softball bats that are fantastic to use for your own league. If you have kids that are getting into their seasons now, I think we're in at this point. You know, we are approaching summer ball. I know at least in the Seattle area where we're sort of in the midst of the high school seasons and middle school seasons. But if you have woodbat leagues, those typically get started around Memorial Day, at least for baseball, I think it is very worthwhile. One of the big perks on a McDoodle bat is that they have a longer sweet spot and they are designed to last for really as long as you keep swinging that bat. Though they are not a composite bat, they essentially are incredibly sturdy. They are not liable to break on you. I actually have now a McDougal bat that I am excited to be cracking open this coming weekend, getting into games. So I am excited to track my stats here. If you go to McDougall bats, that's macdougall bats.com and order a bat.

If you use the discount code, go m s that's goms. You will get $15 off your order, and we will be very pleased. We'll get a little extra bonus from that as well. So go check them out.

So the Mariners are in the thick of it. They are leading the division here. And now that we know Logan Gilbert is headed to the all Star game, we are eager, and the Mariners themselves are surely eager, to see some improvements, either externally, internally, some new faces coming in, or some old faces returning.

We have a few injury options here that are likely to be returning imminently or, in fact, already are returning.

We have Gregory Santos officially on Monday, activated off of the 60 day IL and brought back in to a bullpen that, by and large, has done a solid job, but has definitely shown the cracks of lost depth. They. They had, you know, 30 men left on base. That's on the Mariners offense on Sunday, but also the Mariners let them. Let. Let the Blue Jays back into the game with a three run homer from Ryan Stanik, who has done a certain. A very good job, but has been juiced, has been heavily used. So getting Santos back, does that feel, if Santos is able to be who he has looked like last year, do you feel like that addresses where the Mariners are at, or. Or are we still going to be waiting for Gabe Spire to come back and be healthy before we feel good about the bullpen?

Evan James
Well, first, has anyone had mark low vibes more than Ryan Stanek?

He just. He just is this spitting vibe image of Mark Lowe. I can't get it out of my head.

All the way down to the giant home runs he gives up, because that was Mark Lowe's whole thing. You know, he would throw a giant 98 miles per hour fastball right down the plate, and most guys couldn't hit it, but if he did, it was a monster home run. This is exactly that ride we're on. Um, and for the record, I think he's been terrific, given that we, you know, essentially pulled him off of the scrap heat for free at the last minute. Um, and expectations for him should be necessarily low. Uh, but Santos is interesting. I'm curious what Kate has to say, because, boy, they did not give him that much rehab time. And I understand, you know, just from what Shannon has said, that he rehabbed with the major league team for. For a very long time, for months, basically was traveling with them, was with their doctors. You know, they've kind of been doing a rolling rehab with him. But it is. It is kind of shocking that they're just like, okay, he's ready at some point and he's here.

John Trupin
Speaker two. They did have all those funny, like, here's Gregory Santos throwing a bullpen in Oakland for some reason, and he's in like, DC. Where in the world is Gregory Santos throwing a non competitive bullpen?

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah. So I think that a lot of that was about, and Ryan Stanick, by the way, was not free, but the Mariners, him what the Astros weren't willing to pay him. And if I'm looking at paying rhinestonic or paying a small amount of money or paying Josh Hader a giant amount of money to blow saves, I think the Mariners came out on the better end of that. Personally.

Reinstanek has been solid. You know, there are the occasional things, but also, I'm not mad about him, about giving up that homer. It was an unfortunate pitch. It was a mistake pitch. Like it happens.

Evan James
And George Springer, he does that to us. Like this is.

Ryan Reynolds
It happens. You don't let Kirby come out and put the first two on.

I don't know. I might have liked both a little bit there, but I'm not going to get into arguing about bullpen usage. Like, I can't be mad at the pitching staff at all when the offense is doing what the offense is doing. So anyway, the Santos thing is they had him in Arizona and they just wanted him to be like, with the team. So he was like just being around that level of competition, they could keep kind of a closer eye on him, keep a closer eye on his rehab, make sure that he was maximizing his time to the best of his abilities every day and getting on track. And I think, like, you know, he's coming back at about the same time when they said he was going to be, he's had a chance to be in that locker room, his club, in the clubhouse. His locker is right next to Julio's.

It's Julio Santos Polanco, kind of all making the, like the dominican row a little bit. So they've all been able to talk back and forth. Row place is there, too. So, you know, been able to be around people who, like, speak his language, people he knows, people he looks up to.

He's, he said it's been really important for him to be there and get like a lot of positive reinforcement, a lot of good energy from his teammates. So, you know, I, I can't be mad about how it sucks that it happened.

I think that the team handled his injury rehab really, really well and it was the right choice to bring him up, to have him spend time with the big league club. I think he's going to hit the ground running and I'm excited to see what he brings here. And the bullpen like badly needs it. Like bless Colin Snyder's heart. But that was such a tough, such a tough, such a tough position for him to be in in that extra innings game.

John Trupin
He, what he. Cause he pitched the previous day, did a, did a good job, kind of went long and then was in his second inning of work, almost got out of it, you know, had basically two outs, two strikes, not a great two strike pitch.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah, just, and Thornton was down that day. I think he'd pitched the two.

The whole bullpen is just running. They need this all star break more than anyone.

Evan James
Real quick, the dovetailing off of this. The other part I think that is salient to the Santos of it all is Logan Evans because they announced that he's going to back to the starting rotation in Double A. They're not going to bring him up into the bullpen at any point this year.

John Trupin
Right.

Evan James
And it was really interesting listening to I get to eat some crow. I said I never thought he was going back to the rotation on Twitter and had a long conversation about on the podcast, so I get de crow for that. But what's clear to me is that they made the change initially because what I think happened is they looked at the bullpen with spire down, with Munoz having a bulky back, with bizardo pitching meaningful innings and decided we need to have an escape valve somewhere.

John Trupin
Right.

Evan James
And so they pulled that ripcordental. But I think it's good that they're going back on that and it's a vote of confidence in Santos's health and how, but they've seen of him so far. Right.

Ryan Reynolds
And like it's also a little not vote of confidence in how Logan Evans is stuff did out of the bullpen. It just didn't and it, we've talked, we talked about this on the pot. It's not built to play up. The person I think is interesting to watch if we're looking at internal things to add to the bullpen. Is Brandon Garcia in AA right now, a very recent promotion. He was a 2023 draftee. Is that right, John?

John Trupin
I believe so, yeah.

Ryan Reynolds
So he's not had a lot of professional time. He kind of burned through those middle to low minors and is in Arkansas now and had a really good, the thing with him is command, but I think that his skillset, he's like a mid nineties but can touch upper nineties in like shorter stints. He's got a good slider. I think he could be a good fastball slider guy for the, for the bullpen and looking around at what's available on the trade market and like what it would cost. They could add. They could add a bullpen arm but, and this is really like a damning indictment of the guys in Tacoma just have not stepped up to the point where like any. There's a job for the taking and no one in Tacoma seems to want to take it. Like, it's been very frustrating.

Evan James
I heard Carlos Vargas had looked pretty good. Am I wrong about that?

Ryan Reynolds
Can't throw a strike.

John Trupin
It's not. Not enough to merit it.

Ryan Reynolds
Zachary the problem with everybody in Tacoma is they've been inconsistent. Like the most consistent one of them was Kirby Sneed and he came up for a while, got rocked, got DFA like is back there now. But you know, it's just a bunch of guys trying to figure it out and where they are in their developmental tracks. I genuinely think that guys get better the longer they spend here and the longer they're in the system. I think you've seen a big step forward for like Trent Thornton this year.

Both has been on a quicker trajectory than most. I almost feel like he's on the Paul Seawald trajectory a little bit because he has that former starter background and has just really both is the one who I feel like has really worked himself into a place where he is trusted. He's reliable, he has enough pitches. He can give them two innings. If vote has been the bullpen mvp to me over the past two weeks, especially where things have been so rough, but there aren't a lot of other guy and you know, sometimes it takes a while. Like it took a while for Snyder.

Snyder was one who got hit in the leg, right?

John Trupin
It may have been.

Ryan Reynolds
Yes.

No, I think it's nine.

Evan James
No, Cody Bolton had the kidney stones or whatever.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Snyder was the one who I think came from the royals and they just apprenticed him to spire to be like, look, this guy's had success since he came over. You'll do the same thing, like just get on the same. And I think Snyder will eventually be good. He's just kind of like the other ones. Like sometimes it takes a while.

John Trupin
I think even I would even say he has been.

Ryan Reynolds
He has been solid.

John Trupin
It's just you want him and Saseido to be your 7th and 8th people, right? And right now they are fourth and fifth.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah, that's hard, right?

John Trupin
Maybe fifth and 6th.

Ryan Reynolds
Fifth and 6th. I would say fifth and 6th.

John Trupin
Yeah, fifth and 6th.

Ryan Reynolds
But Munoz, Stanik, both.

Thornton.

Yeah, fifth and 6th.

John Trupin
And then, you know, ideally now you have santos, you know, pushing them in.

Ryan Reynolds
That'll be nice. That'll push him back.

John Trupin
But you still got, you still got Bauman and you've still got bizarre, and, you know, there's, there's something there with Bowman, but he. There, he. I can't watch it. Continue to be in, in. Yeah, I can't keep watching it here.

Evan James
Maybe the reason why was that the Mariners offense recommended him to the team. We should have taken that as a redder flag.

Ryan Reynolds
I mean, the stuff, the stuff is genuinely so nasty. That spike curve when he lands, it is ridiculous. But again, it's like a longer developmental track. And I think the Orioles are good generally, at developing arms, bullpen arms specifically, especially recently. But he's been in their system for a long time. He was a starter.

It's not been the smoothest developmental road for him. And he is now experiencing something where, you know, he's out of the organization that basically raised him for the first time. He's moved as far as he possibly can go, basically, from that organization, from the ties he had. He's going to become a father for the first time in like a matter of months. Like, he's got a lot going on. There's a lot of pressures on him.

Evan James
They've put him in some pretty high leverage spots, too.

Ryan Reynolds
Because they love the stuff.

Evan James
Yeah, because they love the stuff, but also out of necessity, because everybody is burnt. So, yeah, yeah.

John Trupin
That, that is where if you have, you've got Santos back. If you're getting spire back, I think you only need one more, but I do think you maybe still need one more. It doesn't even have to be that high leverage of a person. It can be a 7th inning type player as opposed to an 8th or 9th inning player, which to me is why it's more worthwhile for the Mariners to do so because that doesn't really cost them so much to get, you know, an expiring contract of a decent veteran reliever is, is relative, you know. Yes, you're sending some prospect, but it's not, it's not a top 20 guy.

Ryan Reynolds
Right.

John Trupin
It's maybe not even a top 30 guy.

That is, that is very comfortable to.

Evan James
Me, logistically speaking, to, you know, all the, all the trade discussion is around a bat. The Mariners need bats, and we get it. Realistically, the Mariners need like six bets. Uh, but from a practical perspective, it may be a better option to trade for pitching help, relief pitching help in particular, because the teams that theoretically might trade with us actually have some theoretically available relief pitchers and not necessarily bats. The bat market is terrible. Like, I've been looking at it every day. It is awful. So, like, you know, Shannon's been saying on the pod for the Mariners, double down on pitching, double down on a strengthen, especially if it's cheap, especially if you can get it for, like you said, some of your more, your bottom 15 top 20 guys instead of the top ten top five. Like, that's what we're talking about right now.

John Trupin
So in that vein, the Mariners should have Brian woo back neck, probably post all star break or are we gonna try division?

Evan James
They're gonna start him in the next series.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah, they optioned, they optioned, they optioned Hancock. And they don't want, want to give him more starts in the minors because he's just not able to like, build up his pitch count really effectively there. They didn't love him pitching in Everett with that short porch, like.

John Trupin
Right.

Ryan Reynolds
They. Yeah, that, and that's not with his struggles, his well documented struggles against lefties to begin with. Like, Everett is maybe the worst place for him to pitch because it's such a nice hitting haven for lefties. So.

No, they're, they're gonna bring him along on the road trip. They're gonna do everything they can if they have to. They can bring up Jonathan Diaz to start in his place. If Wu, for whatever reason, like, really can't go, the key will be they have to make sure that they have arrested bullpen because he's not gonna go long. So they really have to play baseball in a way that sets them up for some success. There it goes. San Diego and then Anaheim. Right.

John Trupin
Correct. They'll be at Anaheim and they'll have just had Luis Castillo, who will be making, you know, his final start before the all star break.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah, it, that should, that should be good.

John Trupin
Yeah. Going into then woo, Kirby Gilbert.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah.

John Trupin
And then the all star break. So, so I do think they're well set up there to, to have, I mean, all of their starting pitchers, really.

Miller maybe being the least, but even he is pretty steady or pretty decent. Set them up well to not have to cover too many innings. So that, that is, that is not too concerning. As long as Wu can get, you know, four to five, that's fine.

Ryan Reynolds
Zachary. And going behind Castillo specifically, who is maybe one of the best at getting into the 7th inning, like.

Yeah, it's not always so, but he is. Yeah.

John Trupin
And the Angels are not an offense right now.

That, at least on paper, threatens to work starting pitchers. They can run into the ball.

Ryan Reynolds
They can rack up singles. Yes.

John Trupin
Yeah, for sure. They. But they are, they are one of the, they are there a team that does not walk much at all. They are pretty aggressive. And so if nothing else, you know, whether they're scoring runs or not, the Mariners have a good opportunity to go deep in the games with them. So that's a, that's a positive there.

Ryan Reynolds
And then everyone gets really. Really.

John Trupin
Yeah, exactly.

Evan, to your, to your point, though, where do we feel the market is at right now? You were trepidatious around it for hitters, but more optimistic for pitchers. What do you think that that would look like, or is that an accurate encapsulation of your sentiment?

Evan James
It's very accurate. I've been looking at in particular, and I don't have fan grass pulled up in front of me, but I'm going to real quick.

I looked at Colorado and Arizona and Tampa Bay seemed like the obvious candidates to me.

John Trupin
And for a trade partner, for a.

Evan James
Trade partner for release pitching in particular.

Nick Mears in Colorado was the one I was looking at. Especially for somebody like class A or maybe you could. The Mariners could do like a pretty good prospect to get early pitcher and then like a throw in for that. Seems fair to me.

Arizona is complicated because everyone's going to want Paul Seawald, but he's kind of had an interesting year. His, I just don't know. He's only at 0.1 wins through 17 innings so far, so he's having a pretty basic season. I'd be more interested in Kevin Ginkle. There are some names and some options, and most of those guys, I do think would be pliable for the Mariners. And that makes way more sense to me than trading, you know, whatever is going to be asked for Luis Robert Junior, because realistically, from the Mariners, that's going to be four prospects out of our top ten. Top eight.

I think that there's a really strong argument that you can do some good augmentation to the bullpen, to the pitching side of this team for a pretty low cost. And when we talk about adding bats, I'm not kidding when I say they need six bats. So, like, what good is, what good is one guy going to do? I could realistically see them getting three players. You could get one guy like Jazz Chisholm or, you know, Luis Robert, and you could get two other guys, maybe a waiver wire claim and, you know, a Jake lamb type, but that doesn't transform the off. So from where I'm standing, I think the cards have actually been dealt in the Mariners favor in terms of getting some relief help and given the prospects they have, the trade, I think it is absolutely moved the other direction in terms of offense, and they legitimately might get nobody, and we need to be prepared for that.

John Trupin
It would astonish me.

It would genuinely astonish me. And I think that not too fireable offense, but it would be a fireable offense if they did not get at least one significant lineup upgrade, not just a Jake Lamb type. Fundamentally they have. It's not just that they have to recognize it. They have said it themselves that they are going to be aggressive in improving the lineup. There's also just no possible way of looking at this, this team, because I don't disagree around.

You could look at other things and improvements anywhere ultimately help the team. It's not, if you are giving up, if you're going from giving up two to three runs a game to giving up one to two runs a game, that is just as good as going from scoring three to four runs to scoring for five runs, it's just as good. But short of moving woo to the bullpen or moving Miller to the bullpen, which they could do if they went out and got a really, really good starting pitcher, what they're. Well, I'm saying that is, that would be the area in which they could, I think, dramatically improve pitching staff. Well, no, no.

You don't think a good starting pitcher would improve. A better starting pitcher would improve over Miller?

No, I'm not.

Evan James
I mean, Price. No, because, like, Miller is a nearly two in player right now.

Are we going to get it?

John Trupin
I know, but that's. That's what this is. That's what I'm saying is it's much harder to improve that. Yeah, that, that, that's why. That's what I'm saying is, is you could go that route.

You just would have to get an x, a much better player.

Ryan Reynolds
No.

John Trupin
Then these ideas, then, then.

Well, I don't, I don't, I don't think it's crazy.

Ryan Reynolds
I mean, I appreciate the out of the box thinking, but.

Well, that is such a circumstance of personnel that there's no way the Mariners would ever do that.

John Trupin
That is. That is sort of what I'm thinking. Right. Is the Mariners could trade for, like, Tariq Scuba. That would significantly.

Right. I mean, it would. Why? It would, it would vastly improve their team. Because he is. Because he is much better than Miller. He is much better than, you know, he's on par probably with Gilbert and Kirby and Castillo and whether, you know, woo when healthy is very solid but also struggles. But that use of your resources is.

Ryan Reynolds
Insane, especially because of the price that Detroit, who only has Tariq Skuwal to be happy about right now, would be prohibitive. That's cost prohibitive. Like, there's just.

I don't. Yeah, the thing about. So the thing about these conversations that always frustrates me. Right. Is in season trades are so expensive and that suits the Mariners because of their prospect capital, because that's the capital that they have to work with, not money.

But it's so much easier and I think overall more cost effective to upgrade your team in the off season, which they didn't do.

And.

John Trupin
Right.

Ryan Reynolds
That's why I think, like, we have to be entertaining ideas like this and getting creative, and that's probably what they're doing down at the corner of Edgar and Dave. But all of this is so wasteful. Like, it's so wasteful when you could have just at this point backed up a brinks truck to Marcus Simeon and bed. Like, we don't care what it takes. We'll make you a Seattle mayor, give him a disgusting contract. It would have looked bad.

No, no, you cannot do that. Like, you can't just trade for things. Like, you can't just take other things that teams have that they like. This is what frustrates me about trade discourse is, like, they like those things, too. And every team believes that they're one year away from coming back and doing better next year. So none of them are going to more mortgage their immediate future to help you. Like, that is what frustrates me about these things is like, it's always like, why would the other team ever do this? Why would Texas ever do this? Texas is on a better run. They just swept the rays, who the Mariners dropped a series to. If I'm in Texas, I have every belief that I can overtake the Mariners. Like, I think.

John Trupin
I agree. I don't think that the Rangers are going to sell.

Ryan Reynolds
No, I don't think they are either.

John Trupin
They're getting. They're getting Tyler Mailey back soon. They're getting other pitching back soon.

Evan James
What do they have to sell anyway? I, like, I've heard this that people are saying, you know, Texas should consider selling, but who do you sell this low on? Adults? Garcia or Evan Carter or. No.

Ryan Reynolds
I don't even understand adolescence. I think if they really, like, just bought them out for whatever reason, I think adolescence would very much be on the market. Because he's been not particularly productive for them this year.

John Trupin
They could trade Yevaldi, they could trade Nathaniel Lowe. They could trade John Gray, who's having an incredible year.

Evan James
Somebody does have to pitch for that organization.

Ryan Reynolds
Sure.

John Trupin
I'm just saying. Right. But I'm saying they could trade Max Scherzer. Right.

They have a number of pieces they.

Evan James
Need to clone Paul Blackburn. So they have somebody to pitch for that team.

John Trupin
Yeah, well, but they have, they have about. If you're selling on your 30 plus year old players, you can punt a year with.

Ryan Reynolds
Right.

John Trupin
You know, a lot of innings so much from.

Ryan Reynolds
They have so much.

John Trupin
They have a lot of filler high. And their farm is good.

Ryan Reynolds
Their farm is good, annoyingly, and continues to produce. I mean, Texas is a great example of what I want the Mariners to do. Like spend money on the team that you have, but also continue to invest that in developing and drafting and getting good players. So you just have this constant, you know, they're not so good at the pitching side. They've bought their pitching because I feel like they are not good at developing it. And that's their one big Achilles heel, I think, with the Rangers is they're.

John Trupin
Just, they're not lighter, has not come together.

Come together.

Ryan Reynolds
Rocker is, you know, apparently putting, but, you know, that's been years longer than what everyone thought it was going to look at. They have not drafted particularly well. Oh, yeah. They traded Cole Reagan's away.

Like, you know, it. That has been the only reason that I think Texas has not been able to assume dominant control of the. And this year it's been, they want a title. They want a title. Absolutely. Good for them.

I think that they have. They've put themselves into a place to be long term trouble. The Mariners have done that. As far as I really like their farm system. I like what they have done lately with developing hitters. I think it's the, the answers will start to come internally pretty soon, but right now in this, like, gap where, like, none of their good hitters in the farm system are anywhere close to, like, major league ready, other than Cole Young, who I do think we see at some point.

Evan James
Do you think them giving Harry Ford reps in the outfield is trade baiting him?

John Trupin
Yes.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah.

Yeah. I just don't, I mean, I don't know why.

Evan James
Like, I don't get it at all. Why do it? He's made it this far as a catcher. Why would you do this now that he's, like, thriving in Double A? I don't get it at all. Especially if their team's going to trade for him.

John Trupin
But anyway, I believe one of the aspects that has been talked about is, is that he is not super keen on DH ing. And because it's, you know, Midsummer in Arkansas and Texas, they don't want to have him catch six games in a row. So getting him reps in the outfield anyway, where he can get his bat.

Ryan Reynolds
In the lineup and.

John Trupin
Yeah, but I do think it's absolutely trademating him as well. It's not.

There's nothing to me that is going to look so atrocious out there that he'd fall off in terms of his, he's, he's athletic and he is continuing to hit fine.

He could be hitting better, but he's also hitting fine. He's hitting fine, hitting fine in an incredibly hard place to hit.

Ryan Reynolds
At least say the same thing about Cole Young.

John Trupin
Yeah, you know, the. I was looking at this because I was having a discussion on Twitter, but Cole Young is 20 years old and his numbers in the Texas League are solid, though not like eye popping.

But because of his home park in Texas, it's, it's a lot trickier for him to hit for significant power. Now. Cole Young, not going to hit for significant power anyway, but it is even more suppressed due to Dickie Stevens.

Ryan Bliss had the exact opposite.

Dickie Stevens. Double A Arkansas park is the hardest part to hit home runs in and one of the hardest parts to hit in, period, in baseball, in professional baseball, at least in the United States. Amarillo, which is the AA affiliate of the Diamondbacks, is the inverse. It is one of the, maybe the most offense friendly short of like Albuquerque.

That is nearly as high an elevation as, as Coors in Colorado.

It's. That is where Ryan Bliss hit. And so Ryan Bliss's numbers are unbelievable, and he did a good job as a, as a 23 year old, which is an appropriate age for Double A. Cole Young is 20 and is hitting.

If you go by, if you go by some metrics, if you go by park adjusted metrics over league metrics, he's hitting better as a 20 year old. So you're going to see some of those numbers look out of whack. But I think that even if none of those players to, to the, to the original point are directly going to help you, you have to use them to help a first place team. And that means trades.

That means, at least I think, unfortunately for Harry Ford, I, he's getting traded.

Evan James
When do you think we actually see Cole Young? Because Kate said, you think we do see him this year. The discussion on the radio this morning was Divis talking about how he thinks that they may buy out slash DFA slash, whatever, get Polanco off the roster, which I don't think they're going to do. I think they're going to bench him for a while first, at least till the all star break. But the there's a clear need at second base. Do you think he's the answer to that later this year?

John Trupin
If they are willing to make a significant upgrade or two at outfield, at corner outfield and or at first base, then I am comfortable with them calling up Cole Young and having giving him a shot to be full time at second base or even doing a like Dylan Moore platoon kind of thing. To start, though, I don't think it's quite so necessary for young.

The huge ask. A huge ask for a 20 year old who doesn't have a ton of power.

But the risk with Cole Young, I think, is because he doesn't have a ton of power. People think oftentimes when prospects don't have a ton of power, the concern is, well, pitchers will just challenge them and they won't be able to punish it. And I kind of think that'll be true because he's not going to hit for a ton of power. Right? I mean, Kate, would you agree with that? He's, he is not someone who's punish pitches over the plate, but what he is, I think, going to do if he gets a bunch of pitches over the plate, is he going to hit a bunch of singles and doubles and he's going to walk and I don't think he is going to expand the zone that much. I mean, he probably will because he's 20, but it's still, I think, I think there's a reasonable chance that he's a slightly below average big league hitter, but he is a good enough defender as a second basemanous, that he is better than Polanco, that he is certainly better than bliss. Given that, in my opinion, he is outperforming bliss in the same league at three years younger and has a skillset that to me, translates better to the majors. Right now, I don't think Bliss can't be a good big leaguer. I just don't think he can catch up to big league pitching consistently right now. And him getting more Triple A reps is not an indictment of his ability. But to me, I think it's worth them pulling the plug on Polanco at this point, which feels bad because I really believed in the talent I've believed in.

Hold on. Don't go just off of a month or two months of poor performance because oftentimes players who have such a long track record of being good performers when they're healthy, Blanco, figure it out. I don't see.

Ryan Reynolds
I don't see the bats at this point. Him and Hanover, I think you've given both of them. And Hannigar, we know, has always been a streaky player, but they're not been the good streaks, so.

John Trupin
Right, right. And God love him, he ran into that pitch the other day, but it was. You should run into that pitch.

That was a kookye. So, yeah, I think that that's just, that is unfortunately where he is at Polanco. And if you are willing to go after someone like Luis Robert, then, which I think they are.

Ryan Reynolds
They are not.

They are.

John Trupin
We continue having smoke. I mean, divish. Divish was talking today about how much, you know, the, the White Sox are scouting a bunch of the Mariners prospects.

There is continued smoke there to me.

Ryan Reynolds
Okay.

John Trupin
And I think that I just don't see another upgrade short of Vladito, which is just as.

Would be just as surprising to me. Whereas White Sox are dismal. The White Sox have every reason to throw in the towel and get three top 100 prospects from the Mariners and, you know, Marlowe or Class A or something like that.

Evan James
In addition, what do you think about Lamont Wade Junior, who is what they were talking about today with Jeff Passon?

John Trupin
I would like it, but that is another left handed hitting corner outfielder. You know, that's. That is.

We think this guy's better than Canzone, which he is.

Ryan Reynolds
I see Lamont Wade junior as a much more likely acquisition than Robert.

Anyone else really like that is what I feel like they might do if they do anything, which, who knows?

Honestly, at this point, I think you could upgrade from what you have internally even, and just bring up Kul Young to do second.

Split him between him and Dylan Moore. He can learn on the fly. Moore's been very solid.

Install Rojas full time at third base.

Damn the lefty splits. I don't care.

Give Robless more playing time.

Bring up class A, maybe get rid of Hannigar.

Have classic. Yeah. And then, I don't know, tie France. Ty. Right now, Ty is the one that I feel I have the longest leash for. Just because he is getting on base and no one else is.

If the rest of the lineup picks it up and starts. Actually just, even just getting the bar is so low that right now all we need is not striking out and getting on base, which has historically been something ty France has been good at, even if the power sock is not quite there, as it been the past. So, you know, you have internal upgrades that you can make. I would love to see Robless get some more playing time. I'm very over Dominic Canzone. I know that I've said that a bazillion times, but specifically ever since he came back from the injury, he seems to have really reverted to his old ways. Robles was saying that he's made a swing change with the pitching or with the hitting coaches here. He's like getting into his legs a little more, something I would like to look at. They've helped him with his finish some, and he says he feels really good and, you know, the, the results have been there. So I think you've got to give him some more looks. You just, you have to shake up this. This lineup is in a torpor. Like they are sleepwalking. They are frustrated. They're frustrated, too. Like, you've got to do something to electrify them a little bit.

I think largely what happened on in Sunday's game was like Josh Rojas had a rare, very bad game. He was over three, was pinch hit for. Was he pinch hit for?

Anyway, he has a golden sombrero, which like, you just don't see rojas have that much. And it just shows you how, how much it affects when just one of the player who's been one of your steadier contributors isn't producing that day. And the same thing happens with Luke Rayleigh, too, who is kind of a more up and down player. And you have to kind of expect that or build that in Raleigh. Same thing. Even though he's been a little below where he is, those swing and miss guys like, you're just not going to get them consistently. That's what Polanco was supposed to do. He's not been doing it. Put in Cole Young. If you believe that he can hold up against big league pitching, I'd love to see him go to AAA, see what he does against, you know, craftier pitchers, guys with bendy stuff. Will the plate discipline come along with him? I know he's not exactly lighting it up, but at this point, I don't think you can trade to fill that hole at second base. It is the biggest problem. Well, except you can always run more in there. Yeah, I don't know, but like, you got it. You got to do something. The lineup.

John Trupin
Do you think. Do you think that this moves the needle, though, like, it depends off Houston.

Evan James
No.

John Trupin
So what, what is, what would, why would, why would that be the, why would that be the plan?

Ryan Reynolds
You know, it doesn't move the needle, but I don't believe the noodle. The needle can't be moved. Significantly.

John Trupin
Move the noodle.

Ryan Reynolds
Move the noodle. The, the noodle is the bats and it's a pile of noodles.

John Trupin
Why, why can't the noodle be moved?

Ryan Reynolds
The noodle can't be moved because it's a pile of sick, sad, slick, overcooked noodles. Like, what's some new noodles? Putting one or two good noodles in there is not going to improve the entire dish. Yeah. Got us the whole thing.

Or just accept that this is, this is what it is and, you know, add some red pepper flakes in there and we ride.

Evan James
John. John, I'm glad you're bringing this up, because I want to, I want to tie this into your article because you said, why don't we get some new players and bring them in? Right? Why don't we get some new hitters?

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah.

Evan James
You wrote a very good article detailing why that may not be as easy as it feels like it should be.

John Trupin
Absolutely. Absolutely. I wrote about how T Mobile park is the. It's nothing. Just the worst part to hit in, in baseball this year. It is worse to hit. It has been worse to hit at T Mobile park than it has been good to hit at Coors Field, which is bonkers.

Honkers.

It is outrageous.

Evan James
So if Kors is like the, the moon as far as gravity goes, are we like a yemenite, a Saturn Jupiter type situation?

Ryan Reynolds
We are the core of the earth where, like.

John Trupin
Yeah, I I didn't, I didn't. I couldn't think of a way to make it look good in written form. But they are the Marineris trench, and which is the Mariners Marianas trench or Mariana Trench? I think.

I couldn't think of a way to make it not look like the Marinara trench, which, I was wondering, go for a tasty marinara trench with some of those noodles. Those move. Move some noodles through the marinara trench.

I do think it is likely most hitters will be worse when they bring them in.

That doesn't mean they get to stop bringing hitters in. Right? Coors.

The Rockies have basically stopped trying to bring pitchers in. They have. They've only basically been like, we're going to develop our own pitchers. And I get that their theory is we need sinker ballers and change up pitchers because those at least move in a more predictable way. Whereas breaking balls move vastly differently here. Sure, whatever.

The Mariners have to keep hitting, and just like we saw their unwillingness to make these moves in the offseason, like you were saying, Kate, they have to figure out how they're going to make those improvements in season because, yes, it costs more, but in the offseason they say, well, the costs are too expensive because only certain players are available because every team, almost every team thinks they're in it, then in season it's, well, there's only a few teams that are out of it. So it's expensive, so it costs too much. Like it's always going to cost a lot. But at least you know right now that you're in first place, that you are in better position to win the division than you have been in 20 years.

That is important. Yes. That actually influences your trade leverage. I'm sorry, but it's also, it influences your trade leverage because you're in a good position.

So no, trading for someone like Luis Robert doesn't make, doesn't make Josh Rojas able to hit left handed pitching or doesn't make tie France immediately start to actually make contact more consistently in, in the air.

But it means you have one, few, you have one time more through the order where you're more likely to score. You're more likely to do something productive towards scoring. If the Mariners had one hitter who was slightly better on Sunday, probably they win, right? They had bases loaded three innings in a row and didn't score because a bunch of their hitters perform poorly. Maybe Robert or Vladito doesn't come through. Sure. But that's the whole point of why you, why you still have to go and try and improve is you have gotten into this position where despite a completely ineffective offense, you're still two games up in first place. So are you just going to throw in the towel and give up and, you know, throw the same sogging, soggy, overcooked noodles out there and say to your rotation, go be perfect?

Or are you going to try and give them a few Al dente bites?

I think Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo, George George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Brian Wu, Emerson Hancock, this bull. But they deserve a few Al dente bites to back them up.

Ryan Reynolds
They absolutely do. I agree with you. I, I agree with you.

I just think, like, they made their best try at constructing team over the offseason that would address some of the issues that they had last season, and they failed. And I think that there's a lot to be learned from failure. Like, you need to reflect on why these moves fail. And this was something that I said last year that I wasn't mad about depot's 54% comments. I was mad about we would have done all these moves over again and we thought they would have worked out because what they did was made these moves all over again and they did not work out again. Like at some point you have to listen to what the game is telling you and you've now had two years in a row where you attempted to solve your problem at second base by plugging it with this with similar style players, both of whom are a little past their prime, and neither worked out. And I really did think Polanka. I thought there was no way that Polanco, so I was fooled, too. There was no way Polanco could fail as hard as Colton Wong did last year. He had been a more productive player more recently.

I just.

John Trupin
He hasn't done that.

Ryan Reynolds
But no, he is not. He is not. But like, considering what the acquisition cost was and what the expectations were, I think it's been pretty dreadful.

Evan James
Oh, to your point about the disappointment, based on the comments at the end of last year, what really was a red flag to me was we asked, like as a lookout, landing staff, we got questions and I think you actually pitched them. One of the ones was, okay, so you had guys who weren't exactly good fits for the ballpark. Yada, yada, yada. T Mobile park hitting is difficult. What do you think about switching it up? And to your point, why didn't the acquisitions work? Okay, so how are you going to get new acquisitions that are a better blend of where you're actually playing in the team you have in the ballpark? And they shrugged at that question. I believe his exact response was, well, everybody has to play here. You know, it was like, it was a very nonchalant, like, we're not assessing that as a risk factor to John's article. The Mariners are setting the record right now for the most strikeouts of all time on a per game basis and overall. And T Mobile park is back to back here setting low strike or high strikeout counts, not just for the Mariners but for opposing players playing here as well. So for where I'm standing, makes perfect sense. The marine layer stuff, right? I, you hit a ball, it goes 400ft, it's encountering a lot more air, a lot more density. All these other gravity factors are playing in on it. When it's in the air for five, six, 7 seconds, none of that is happening when you're just throwing a pitch to the plate and somebody's swinging at it. So when I'm seeing that the Mariners are leading in all these strikeout numbers and that T Mobile park seems to be exacerbating that, I think there's something going on they're not addressing, and then the team says as much.

They say we're not addressing that. That's not a concern that everybody hits here, everybody has to play here. It's not a big deal. And then they bring in somebody like Polanco who theoretically should be, should have some immunity or some resistance to that, and then they also don't work out. So I want to hear that they have figured this out, and I think it's very peculiar because, John, why would that be?

I read your article twice, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why T Mobile park could possibly be so cataclysmic in terms of strikeouts. What effect could that could possibly be? We hear about the batter's eye, we hear about shadows and stuff, but it's so extreme. It just feels like there's something we're missing. What was your read on that?

John Trupin
My read on that was part of it is genuinely just the players in particular this year. It is. Their pitching staff is really good, and that has an influence. Even though, you know, that's part of why you have three year.

Typically you do three years worth of data for park factors.

The Mariners hitting group, even with some of the players that they shipped away, is still more strikeout prone than many. But, you know, tie France is, I think, on pace for a record of strikeout rate. Julio. Julio actually is down on strikeouts now, at least to his rookie year.

Evan James
But Polanco and Garver are up.

John Trupin
Way up. There's, yeah, plenty of. Plenty of the folks, I mean, playing Dylan Moore. Moore, who again, having a very solid year. Thank goodness for Dylan Moore, yet again.

Ryan Reynolds
Strikes out a lot.

John Trupin
Is a more strike out.

Ryan Reynolds
Has always been a strikeout pro player.

John Trupin
Exactly.

Not. Yeah, but I think it is.

I didn't make a strong claim in the article because I didn't feel confident and because as much as I tried to claw and figure it out, I couldn't point to something specific.

The best case that I can think is one the marine layer and the temperature. I think that is the biggest component, and I think that that has a more outsized role because I think that the ball simply moves more, and that is something that I maybe could look into more, but there is simply going to be more vertical movement in terms of gravity. Gravity influence. Gravity is not stronger, but the ball is going to drop more. Right. The inverse of what you see at Coors, where the air is thinner, there's less air resistance to the ball doesn't drop as much. The ball is going to drop more at sea level with more air resistance. And with the air being colder on average, it's like six degrees colder on average right now in Seattle at game time than it is at relative to average. And it's like three or four degrees colder than anywhere else because they never have rain outs. And it's naturally all of April and May often is cold. And we had January this year, so that was also pretty chilly. So that makes a huge difference on breaking balls.

Beyond that, it's not a lot of. There's like, some areas have more foul territory, but there's a lot of foul balls don't end up getting caught, so they end up becoming strikes. And then you just end up with the outs being strikeouts instead of foul outs.

I don't fully know, but I do think there are good players who can transcend that. And I like Kate. I felt the same way as Kate. I felt very confident that a healthy Polanco would be a performer.

I felt very plausible that he could get hurt and wouldn't be that good. Same with Garver, which also Garvin. Right. And Garver, there's a little more to me that says maybe he was playing through more of, like, the early back spasms that he had in, like, the first week of the season for a while. And seeing him starting to pick it up more here has been encouraging. I think his process has been better.

The.

Kate, I'm wanting to go back to your point, because I think it's an important one, and I don't disagree around this is the bed they've made.

Right.

But I also think if you are in a car and you're not wearing your seatbelt, and you get into a crash and you shoot through the windshield, you don't say, well, I'm not gonna go to the hospital, because I cuz if I had worn my seatbelt, I wouldn't have been hurt as bad. But now this is on me, so I'm not gonna go to the hospital.

They've made this bad. They may. They made these bad half assed choices, and they're. They're receiving some of the consequences. Some of them we expected, and we called out at the time, like you said, evan, some of them we thought would work, but all of them were, well, you didn't go get the best players. You went and got decent options, or you. You shuffled. They shuffled a lot, and they're now, if they were in third place, if they were like, two games out of the wild card or three games out of the wild card, I think I would feel similarly to you, Kate. I think I would feel still like they should go out and get someone like Lamonte Wade Junior.

But I don't think I would feel like you have to go get Robert in this circumstance.

I don't think they have a choice, because ultimately, you still have to do right by a first place team. You have to do right by the fortune. That is, the rest of the Al west has also been. You know, the Mariners have peed their pants, but the rest of the Al west has been shitting down their legs. That is.

I'm. I'm apologize to our listeners.

Ryan Reynolds
I apologize to the people with children. I. Evan, you can bleep that, right?

John Trupin
Children have. Famous for never having.

Ryan Reynolds
Okay, okay.

I understand the passion. The passion. Sure. I'm sorry. You're passionate about this. I get it.

John Trupin
I am.

Ryan Reynolds
I don't know that I agree that the team has earned this, that you have to do right by a first place team. I mean, just looking at it business wise, it's a smart business investment. You've had record crowds.

You know, there have been 20 to 30,000 people at the stadium on nights when it would normally be 15.

So you're seeing an uptick in excitement. You're seeing an uptick in. This is probably like. I mean, the Mariners haven't been in first place enough that ever in my time covering them. So I don't know what this looks like, but, you know, you've got. I feel like this is the least excited anyone could be about a first place team, because they just simply haven't been. For sure they're not playing a fun brand of baseball.

John Trupin
Absolutely.

Ryan Reynolds
I. I just. I don't know if ownership's position is going to be like, well, you know, the people who we acquired have to start playing up to the back of their baseball cards, which, you know, I think Garver has really turned it around, and it's going to take longer before his numbers look really good. But I've been really happy with his plate approach.

Obviously, Cal has been kind of hit or miss.

John Trupin
Right.

Ryan Reynolds
I think that there's improvement to be had, but the improvement needs to come from within the house and specifically, really, Julio, I'm really hoping that that game on Sunday was signaling something. Last Sunday or no, the 4 July game when they won the day game against the Orioles, and he had that big game. I was like, all right, this is great. This looks like the turning point for him. And then, you know, we have the hamstring issue or the quad issue, and now it sort of feels like another false start. That's. That's just been this, see? But the team just. Is nothing flat out. End of conversation. Not going to go anywhere unless Julio gets right, and, I don't know, maybe bringing in other people so he's not feeling the need to produce. Feeling that pressure as much would be helpful.

But again, like, how many people can you bring in? Like, how much can you really reshape this at some point? Like, you just need the guys who are here to step up and start being them themselves.

John Trupin
What happens if they don't do that, though? What if they don't. If they don't all step up and be themselves? Right. If Julio and Cal and JP in.

Ryan Reynolds
Particular, I don't think that you can trade for enough people to fix those problems. Like, you can't.

You can't put in enough.

There's. There's just not. You'd have to reshape so much of the roster because it's been disappointing everywhere, the entire outfield. Sands, perhaps Luke Rayleigh has been disappointing. Josh Rojas is doing what he can, and I think playing to the top of his skillset.

JP is playing towards the top of his skillset, but not as well as he has in the past.

He's not maybe making all the hard contact that he has in past years.

Dylan Moore is playing towards the top of his skillset, but again, that skill set is a util. A super utility player. Polanco, obviously not tie France, not Garver, not Cal, not like, you cannot fix all of that with trades.

John Trupin
The upside, speaker one.

Evan James
The upside to that exact scenario is basically your entire team could be swapped out. That's bad. The advantage is they can go get bats basically anywhere on the roster. They can go get a backup catcher, they could go get a backup outfielder, they could get a starting outfielder, they could get a starting infielder, they could get a utility player. There's literally.

Ryan Reynolds
I mean, that's just rearranging.

Evan James
Honestly, that's where we're at, though, right? We're talking about bringing up Locklear and bliss playing, and, like, we are. We are officially.

Ryan Reynolds
I do not understand everyone's mania with Ryan Bliss. Like, bliss is not the answer. I don't know.

He's got a great skillset. He's not an everyday player. Like, certainly not right now, he's not an everyday player.

Evan James
Agreed.

John Trupin
Yeah. I think my perspective on this is not one of disagreeing that the, it would be devastating if they don't see improvement and they should expect regression in a positive way for a number of their offensive players.

However, thus far.

Yeah, I think for Julio, absolutely. I think for Cal, absolutely.

Ryan Reynolds
I mean, given, I would say normally, yes, but, like, given this hitting environment, and not the only one, and I would say, too, like, if it was just struggles at home, but it's been the opposite of that. Like, like, oh, it is T mobile park, but it's not, they've been better at T Mobile park. They're miserable on the road, and they.

John Trupin
Have been all so, but the, I think the heating up, just literally, the weather heating up, it improves offense. If nothing else.

It's, it also hurts them pitching wise. But who knows what I do think, is this team, this disappointing roster, this disappoint, or this disappointing offense, rather, has won 53% of its games and has gotten themselves into two games up on the AL west.

So if we don't think there's going to be improvement, can this pace outpace the Astros? Can this pace outpace the Rangers plus six games? Can, or can this outpace the Astros plus two games? And if you think trading for one or two upgrades is the difference between you being two games better than the Astros the rest of this year, then that is worth it, because even if the rest of the roster remains a disappointment, they got us. They got them here, and it's been enough to this point.

So that, that, to me, is what it's ultimately about, is does if you win the AL west, then what you do in trades this year is worth it?

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah, I don't think that, I think the Astros got off to a bad, weird start. I'm not sure about the Rangers.

They've been underperforming in enough facets of the game. The Astros, like you, knew that Alex Bregman wasn't going to be that version of himself from the beginning of the season. All year, like, you knew that Alvarez and Tucker have had some health challenges. They're all healthy now. They've jettison de Breu, which I feel like might be one of the difference makers in the way that they were willing to just cut. And, I mean, they had a year, I guess, too, like, whereas Polanco has only been struggling for this much of the year, but half a year, you know, they've, they've gotten reinforcements from their farm, they have reshaped their offense, too. In a way that has been effective while Seattle has waited to try to figure it out. And I think the Astro like looking down over the recent stretch of play, I don't think that the Mariners remain in first place much longer, and I think the Astros will lap them. And it's not just a two game difference or, you know, playing even with them. They've been outplayed by the Astros over this past month, and I think they, unless things change drastically, will continue to get outplayed by them.

John Trupin
But they have outplayed the Astros for this last half year.

Evan James
Well, to that exact point. The ominous sign in all of this is. The ominous sign is the run differential, because the Mariners are at plus four, the Texas Rangers are at plus eight, and the Houston Astros are at plus 37. So the Mariners are playing, like a standard deviation above what their run differential says they should be. But the Astros are, like three below. So if you're talking about aggression, sure, maybe the Mariners hit a little bit better, but we should expect the Astros to play not only better than the Mariners, but, like, very well over the rest of the season.

John Trupin
Absolutely. Again, which is why improving the team gets you to a point where you actually are playing even at the clip that they've been playing at.

And if that is, you know, this, this rate, then that's enough to maybe bump them up.

Ryan Reynolds
I'm not sure. I mean, I would love to see it, but I just, I don't know that they are. And if we're making a splash trade, like a robo trade, like that is one thing. And I see your point, John, that it has to be a splash trade to save this team or to save this team season. Like, it has to be something that moves the needle. I get that. I just feel like noodle.

It has to be a good noodle. And the number of noodles is very limited, the available noodles. And I feel like the chefs who have the noodles are hoarding them for themselves. So, sure.

John Trupin
They traded for the biggest pitching noodle.

Ryan Reynolds
Two deadlines ago, and it was a great move. And I. I don't know. I mean, we'll see.

John Trupin
And, and he was coming off. He was in that year where he had had an injury, he had missed time, and despite being pretty consistent, there were questions about whether he was going to be as dominant or as consistent, as effective as he had been. There are no per, there are not usually Juan Sotos at the, speaking of.

Evan James
Which, I've been thinking all week that's what they should have done. And you, you brought on the pod. You're like, guys, you trade for one freaking Soto. And here we're sitting here with our prospects who fan graphs doesn't think are very good, and no one.

Ryan Reynolds
So I'm not concerned about that. But also, I mean, Juan Soto would have never signed an extension here. He doesn't want to be here.

John Trupin
Well, he hasn't signed an extension in New York.

Ryan Reynolds
Going to. He's going to be super happy in New York.

Like, that's the other thing, is, like, it takes the right kind of player. It takes like, a Luis Castillo. Who is going to be happy in this new, you know, is Cuban Luis Rover going to be happier? Maybe he's coming out of. I would be happier in Seattle than I was in Chicago with the White Sox. But, you know, it's. It's what they're.

John Trupin
The Mariners would have made the playoffs last year, and they would be several games further up, I think, in the division this year if they had traded for Juan Soto, which is the most what if stuff. I don't mean to go into that, but it is useless. It costs a lot for very good players.

Ryan Reynolds
Yes.

John Trupin
The Mariners are not going to use all of the prospects. Not all of the prospects. Even if all of them pan out, they are not all going to have the ability to play for the Seattle Mariners if the best case works out, and if the Mariners somehow, you know, guess right on all the ones that they trade away being actually not as good wild, it's not going to happen. You're going to trade good players away most of the time.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah.

John Trupin
But especially if you can get players who are under contract for multiple years who are going to be making next year's team significantly better, or screw it. You trade for Luis Robert, and then you trade him again this winter to another team to fill a different hole more efficiently.

I don't care. Go get a player while you're in first place. That does significantly move the noodle. All right, well, stir the pasta.

Ryan Reynolds
Okay. Well, we'll see. It's gonna happen. Start. Start happening pretty soon. We've also got the draft coming up, so we'll get some noodles into the pasta pot.

Little baby noodles.

John Trupin
Yeah, we'll definitely have a lot of coverage on. On lookout landing.com on the draft stuff. Kate, maybe we can see about getting Max on ahead of that. Max Ellingson's been doing the number of preview and some write ups on some folks who he's been interested in, and you may be as well.

The last thing, just to touch on briefly here, Katie Griggs, mariners president of business operations has departed for the same role for the Baltimore Orioles. Much closer to home. In fact, I think in her home state. No, her home state maybe, I'm not sure, but close. Nearby North Carolina. Okay. But, but nearer by to her, to her family, which at least in her outlining was. She has aging parents that she wanted specifically.

Ryan Reynolds
Her husband wasn't out here with her, so I believe that that was a driving force as well.

John Trupin
Yeah.

Ryan Reynolds
And she's young children, too, so.

John Trupin
Yeah, I don't know that.

Kate. Well, I mean, do you have a sense of what, what impact, if any, that you, you would expect there to be there?

Ryan Reynolds
I mean, I think that the pressures on the Mariners, because they have to. Katie Griggs came in to replace Kevin Mather and disgraced former team president Kevin Mather, I should say, and was obviously like a huge sea change as, as far as a person was key in getting the value games. I'm not as much interested in the business side of things, but, you know, just specifically, like, it's very cool to see a woman in that role. She was at the time the only woman holding a president level title. The Marlins have since hired another, and now, of course, she'll hold the same title for the Orioles. So it's not a net loss. Exactly, which is good.

I'd love to see the mariners fill that role with someone similar to her, but maybe who has more local ties because it is hard to get people to uproot their lives. And I just caution anyone against, like, feeling, like, intuiting that this says something about the organization. I saw some of these takes flying around twitter, and I thought they were pretty irresponsible. Like, you don't know what's going on in a person's personal life and, and you don't know why people make the choices they want to make.

I would just really, I think there are many fair criticisms to make of this organization, but reading the tea leaves when you don't know the person involved specifically is.

John Trupin
Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Reynolds
Just irritated.

John Trupin
Especially.

Especially when you're not on, like, the baseball side of it, specifically when you are essentially.

I don't know if saying sports management is dismissive of her level of thing, but, like, if you are an executive at a high level of pro sports, there are just not that many jobs, much like, you know, being baseball ops. There's not that many jobs. So the opportunity to do the same job way closer to home is more than, I mean, that is, I mean.

Ryan Reynolds
The Mariners lost someone off their baseball infantry UFO team who similar, like her fiance or husband I can't remember was back in.

God, I don't know if it was DC or whatever. Like, for whatever reason, his job wouldn't allow him to be out here. And even though it is a quote unquote seasonal position, largely, as far as when the pressures are like, it just. It just kind of doesn't work. So you take the job that you're offered and then you look for something that's maybe a little more ideal location for you as far as family and your personal things go. So it's definitely a big loss.

And I will be anxiously watching to see who they replace her with because she did specifically with instituting that value menu. I know she's very beloved. She left behind a great legacy in Atlanta with their FC.

I'm hoping that they won't roll back any of the value. They might not expand them, but I'm hoping they don't roll back any of the value options that they've brought into the park. Because that was definitely in her focus on just making things accessible, inclusive.

She brought a lot of that, and I'm hoping that that will continue.

John Trupin
Yeah, I think those were big positives. The cheaper options at the park and games being by and large, a little bit cheaper, or at least having some cheap options to get in the park is a big positive. Obviously. The sort of press box fiasco I think is a pretty solid negative in that whole thing.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah. Although I think those from. Just from the majority, I think that planned before she.

John Trupin
Yeah.

Ryan Reynolds
So there were.

There were things and people were like, oh, she was in charge of selling out Edgar's and, you know, doing these group promos and stuff that had all been going on before she came. So if anything, I feel like I saw more accessibility to those areas in the park during her time, so.

John Trupin
Well, I think we're gonna call it there.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah.

Evan James
It's final business for today, though. We do want to mention we're no longer going to be posting the podcast. Podcast as a story on lookout landing.com. we've been asked not to. We're still going to tweet the pod. We might tweet it from the meet at the minute, podcast Twitter and then retweet it from the lookout landing one if they're not okay with us direct tweeting it. But be sure to follow us on whatever streaming service you're using, because if you're getting the podcast from lookout Landing.com, comma, that will no longer be the case. So be sure to hit the bell.

Ryan Reynolds
Subscribe, whatever it is you want, etcetera, that sort of thing.

Evan James
Yeah, that bell, like and subscribe.

Ryan Reynolds
And that does support us too, and help us keep making the podcast. This is obviously like Dawn, Evan, have full time jobs. I'm at the park a lot.

This is something we all carve out time to do because we know it's important. And you know that your support of that goes a long way, like when we see that we're getting listens and downloads and, and things like that. So yes, we appreciate all the support. We ask for your kind of continued support as we lose this arena of promotion, like subscribe, tell your friends, and.

Evan James
If you want to support the podcast, there's no better way to do it than getting a McDougall bat using the code goems at checkout for 20% off so you can get your offense up because you know, the man might not be up to the task.

Ryan Reynolds
So at least, you know what, there might be a way where there's lines line outside of T Mobile, of tryout. So who knows?

Evan James
Oh, they should do, what's that movie with Mark Wahlberg?

John Trupin
It's major league. Oh, invincible.

Evan James
They should do invincible for the Baroness.

John Trupin
Honestly, I do think more teams should do open tryouts like every few years just because I think it would cut down at least like ten to 20% on complaints. If you just, if you brought like, you could just bring in a, your entire like minor league, like your non roster invitees, just have them throw bp for like 2 hours. Just rotate through, you know, the Darren Mackins and like Jonathan Dia or Jonathan Diaz. Just absolutely embarrassing.

A bunch of Twitter reply folks. And, and I think that would have a very lovely impact. Pact of, here are the guys who are not, who are too trash to make the team.

Ryan Reynolds
Yeah.

You are officially barred from talking about Julio Rodriguez's swing for the next calendar year. Oh, my God, that's funny.

John Trupin
Oh, my goodness.

Ryan Reynolds
All right, well.

John Trupin
Thank you all for listening.

Thank you all for, for subscribing and supporting us. And until next time, bye.

Shanties of Ice and Fire - Where Can The Mariners Upgrade? Meet at the Mitt Podcast

Primary Topic

Episode Summary

Main Takeaways

Episode Chapters

1: Introduction and Overview

2: Player Focus - Logan Gilbert

3: Trade Market Analysis

4: Development and Farm System

5: Closing Thoughts

Actionable Advice

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