Furness Show 7-17: Justin Hollander, NBA Expansion, Radio GM: Relievers, MLB All Star Game.

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Today's show is jam packed. I'mgonna end with the Big Thing because it
is a big thing and I'm veryexcited about it. But we're gonna talk
about the All Star Game. Anders, did you watch a second? I
did not watch a single second ofthe year. Now. Was that by
choice or was that bye, I'vegot other things to do. Not by
choice? I was I wasn't likebusy busy. I'm sure if it was

(00:22):
something that I felt was a littlemore important to me than I would have,
you know, pushed some things outof the way and turned it on.
But it if I had been doingabsolutely nothing, I would have turned
it on. But no, Idid not end up watching a single second,
which is weird. So I actuallyended up kind of singing it's praises
a little bit yesterday. But yeah, apparently it was pretty fun. It
was okay, okay, it wasokay. I wish it would have been

(00:44):
a little more offense heavy. Ikind of like my All Star games to
see the offense. But you know, I appreciate good pitching too. I
appreciate that. I will say Iwas a little surprised Paul Skins didn't strike
anybody out. Yeah, that's alot of betters. We're not so happy
about that. I don't voters feltabout it. They may have just been
kind of in between voters came out. Maybe it's because I was thinking about

(01:04):
the Huskies and our conversation yesterday.But voters, have you ever done the
boat gating before? I have noton like a boat that like my parents
or anyone owns. But we've joineda couple of families that have done it
before. It's pretty fun. Ilike it a lot. Phenomenal. Yeah,
it's absolutely phenomenal. We're going totalk some Seahawks stuff. Training camp
for rookies opening today, and we'regoing to go over the rookie class and

(01:29):
kind of talk about how important wethink each member of this draft class is
going to be, Like how ona scale of one to five, how
important Byron Murphy's going to be,How important Christian Haynes is going to be.
I think those two obviously are goingto be the highest numbers, But
I think for some other guys whoactually have a chance to play a role,
and if they're going to be successfulthis year, need to play a

(01:49):
role. Yea. You know,we talked a lot when we hosted a
while ago about how our love foraj Barner and how that guy could be
a contributor the linebacker from UTEP whosename I cannot pronounce, and I'll make
sure I have it to be beforewe start that segment, but yeah,
I will go over that. We'regoing to talk about the Mariners, of
course, and at one oh fiveI am going to be joined by Seattle

(02:10):
Mariner general manager Justin Hollander. Ah, super exciting. I'm you know,
excited to talk to him. It'sbeen a little bit since he's been on
the station, so I'm glad hegot to hop on with you. Yeah.
Absolutely, I reached out when Ifound out I was going to be
hosting for this what feels like amonth, but it's actually only a week.
It's actually technically six days because Ifilled in for that lazy, lazy,

(02:32):
lazy Canadian on Friday as well.You're allowed to be lazy for one
week during the year. You're allowedone lazy week, and if you're gonna
be lazy, you might as welldo it in the week where there's no
Big four games going on, orhowever, like Friday, Friday's gonna be
a big game. Oh yeah,But to be fair, that happens after
Ian gets off of vacation. So, but going back to that All Star

(02:53):
game, Andres Munnos and we talkedabout it before the show, or excuse
me, we talked about it duringthe show yesterday, if we wanted to
see Andres Munio's pitch. I thinkwe both agreed that yes, we wanted
him to pitch. Yes, therewere some injury concerns that we had,
but we also came to the conclusionthat if there were actual injury concerns,

(03:13):
Andres Munos would not be at thisgame. Well, it didn't matter because
Andres Munos was not used whatsoever.I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed because, especially
after we talked, I talked alittle bit about it with Greg Duran Cross
talk that he had a bunch offamily there, some people who apparently drove
a long long way to go checkthat out and then to go away or

(03:37):
to go away to go to seesuch a big event his first time going.
If this was the second or thirdtime, I wouldn't feel so bad.
And it's very likely, in myhumble estimation, that we're going to
see Andres Munios make multiple All Starteams. That guy's stuff is so good
but it's not guaranteed, so tonot see him perform at all, I
came away pretty disappointed. I didtoo. It's just the way it goes.

(03:59):
Not everyone's to be able to playin the All Star Game. I
wish they're I don't know, theyalready have a rule that everyone, one
person from each team has to goto the All Star Game. I was
gonna say they should make a rulewhere everyone has to least make some sort
of appearance, whether it's in thefield, whether it's throwing one pitch,
whether it's you know, taking anab But that would that would be too
like, Oh, let's this guyout to get this guy in. That's
it. That would be too toomuch. So I can understand from a

(04:21):
non Mariners fan perspective why they don'thave something like that, but it still
makes leaves me feeling disappointed. Andto be honest, that would have been
the one reason why I wanted towatch last No, not one reason,
but the main reason why I wantedto watch the All Star Game last night
to see him pitch against the besthitters in the league. So I don't
know, I would have been disappointedtoo, But it's still cool just to
take it in all the whole experiencefor him. So absolutely, and you

(04:46):
know, knowing that Logan Gilbert hadno chance to play because he pitched on
Sunday and you know, wanting toset your rotation. I totally understand why
he's not participating. But Andre's Mudiascould have appeared in that game and been
totally fine for that. We withnext for two days of rest, st
would have had more rest than normal. Absolutely, it was fun to see
some of the stars show out,like to see show Heyo Tani hit the
home rune, to see the skinstill throw hard, to see Mason Miller

(05:11):
throw one hundred and three point ninemile per hour pitch. We're going to
talk about we're gonna put our GMhead on as well, and we're going
to talk about some relievers that wewant to talk about at the two o'clock
hour as potential guy related. OhI wonder you know, they might be.
They just might be and I willsay right now, not terribly realistic,
but no it's not. Oh boy, o boy o boy. We've

(05:33):
been trying super hard to get MasonMiller because that guy's stuff is just special.
And not only that you could geta guy like that and then maybe
put him in your rotation going forward. Yeah, I still have question marks
over his ability to be in therotation, There's no doubt about it.
Yeah, I think at least forthis year, you gotta stick with him
in the bullpen. That's where he'sbeen probably the best closer in the game,

(05:56):
or at least lightening guy in thegame so far this year. Uh,
and that's what you need when youneed an extra guy in the bullpen.
Imagine having him and Munyos just togo either back to back or one
night after the other. It'd beso so awesome to have as a Mariner
fan. Absolutely, We're also goingto talk about continue a little bit.
I think at some point our Kuskyconversation. Actually, maybe we can just

(06:17):
continue that now because we had abig debate and the text line absolutely blew
up about And hey, by theway, text us at four nine,
four to five one, when it'sgame time, it's totally time. It's
the total motive text line. Itis the total mode text line. Thank
you for reminding me to say thatonce again. I'm the new guy.
I'm allowed to make a smidget ofMissachy. That's what I'm here for.

(06:38):
Thank you. My friend. You'rehere for a lot of reasons, by
the way, but that is definitelyone of them. Is to catch up
my scripts. Yeah, it's tojust make me a better person and a
better radio broadcast. I love it. Yeah. But we talked a lot
about how I thought eight and fourwe should be the goal for this or
for the Washington Huskies, and alot of people disagreed with me, and

(06:59):
I just took a look at theschedule again. Eight and four should absolutely
be the goal, if only becauseif you don't win those first three games,
then something is wrong. This isnot about new coaching. This is
not about new roster. This iswell, obviously it would be about new
coaching a new roster, but itwould be much more than just you gotta
give them a chance to get reclimatedbecause are acclimated. Excuse me, because

(07:21):
you're playing Weaver State, Eastern Michiganand a Washington State team that I don't
believe is going to be very goodin twenty twenty four and it's a rivalry
game. But at the same time, that's three wins. Yeah, and
as tough as the Big Ten willbe, I don't think it's unrealistic to
say you should win five games inthe Big Ten this year. No,
I don't think so either. Butthat second half of schedule is daunting.

(07:45):
Oh, it's very daunting. Andthat's where you need to get fat in
the first five or six or fouror five games, so you can kind
of leave yourself a little buffer tomaybe you can just win one or two
of those last five and be goodto go. Yeah, that's fair.
And you know, some of thosegames are toss ups. I think like
Rutger down the road I think isa top toss up. Yeah, Rutgers
has a really good defense, right, and so that's gonna be I think

(08:05):
the toughest of those first five,no question in my mind. Anyway,
Iowa defense is still really good,but still as even with the new offensive
coordinator, famously, because talk abouta great defense with an absolute nothing,
nothing burger of an offense, andI mean nothing burger almost literally. Yes,

(08:26):
watching that team in the Big Tenchampionship game against Michigan and just praying
for first downs to make this thingcompetitive and not seeing anything happen. Yeah,
I don't know. I still thinkthat eight wins is very realistic,
But Iowa is a toss up game. Rutgers is a toss up game.
Indiana might be a toss up game. The ultimate toss up game to me

(08:46):
is Ucla. Yeah, because newquarterback and Miller Moss did look very good
in his bowl game, but thatdefense still stunk out loud last year.
And they did bring in some reinforcements, no surprise with the nil and what
USC having more money than God,they were gonna be able to do what
they wanted to do in that regard, but it's still not very good.

(09:07):
And then Ucla, yep. Andthe thing with UCLA is I think some
people might point to Washington's history withUcla and just not being very good against
them. I don't think you cantake that into consideration in college football.
No, and both of those areat home. Both USC and UCLA are
at home. So I think that'sa positive for Husky fans to look forward
to this year. So that'll leaveI think a little bit to where you

(09:30):
can feel more confident. But yeah, that that Penn State, Oregon,
Michigan, you know, Iowa,even Iowa on the road, it's gonna
be tough, man I I yeah, that's gonna be tough to score against
them. Indiana on the road's gonnabe tough, Oregon on the road,
Penn State on the road. That'sa lot of that ending is daunting.
Yeah, it reminds me a littlebit of the ending that the Huskies had

(09:52):
last year. And it's why Ithink a lot of people and look,
this team is obviously less talented thanlast year's coming into the ground, coming
into the year, and both justknowing how realistic this should be. Uh,
it does remind me that everybody waskind of going, well, okay,
they're seven and oh there eight andno, they've won a lot of
one score games, but how arethey gonna be able to handle this gauntlet?

(10:13):
And they handled it with a plumbyou know, I don't think that's
happening this year, and that's whyI think it is important to get off
to either that four and one orfive and oh start. But I do
think and there's a reason why everywhereI look in Vegas has the Huskies over
underwing total at seven and a half, seven and a half, seven and
a half. And I actually talkedto this with a few different people about

(10:33):
whether they take the over, andmost people said yes, that they would
take the over. I take theunder, but man, oh man,
I'd be tempted to take the under. If I wasn't a huge Husky fan
like I could, I would ratherjust not make the bet, you know.
But if somebody puts some sort ofweapon into my head and please don't
do that, it's not very nice. If somebody were to do that and
said you have to bet on it, maybe I would take the under just
because, hey, if they dowell, great, that's awesome. If

(10:56):
they do poor, lay well,maybe it made enough money to afford gas.
By the way, a lot ofpeople curious about the length of my
drive home. All right, alittle higher than the day before, little
higher than day before, but didhave to stop and gas to get gas
in Federal Way. It that tookthirty minutes because, uh, getting onto
the freeway from exit one forty threeis a daunting challenge that competes with the

(11:20):
Husky schedule at the end of theyear. It's absolutely ridiculous. How terrible
that is. The Other thing we'regoing to talk about is we're going to
talk some sonics. We have someinteresting news from everyone. Adam Silver will
talk about the comments and what hemade. But what I want to hear
from you guys on that total moredue text line four nine four five one.

(11:41):
When it's game time, obviously totallytime. See I made up for
what I disagree up on the firstpart. I want to hear who you
are the most excited to see comeplay against the Sonics when this thing happens,
because by player player Okay, andI have a few that pop in
my head immediately. We'll talk aboutit, but one of them I will

(12:01):
not bring up because I'm not surehe's going to be. There is Steph
Curry. Yeah. I was lookingat this, and Andrews and I were
talking about this before the show yesterdayabout his ranking among point guards. He
easily could be named the greatest pointguard of all time. It's probably Magic
Johnson, but it's really real.She is in the conversation. There is
a top two, all due respectto John Stockton and Gary Payton and Mark

(12:26):
Jackson. Just kidding, but MarkJackson, you know, underrated player,
underrated player. One of the funniestrookie carts. Have you ever heard the
story of the Mark Jackson rookie cart? And I think it's his rookie cart.
If it's not, it's like hissecond or third year. There are
two people sitting behind him that makethe card famous. Have you ever heard
of the Molenda's brothers. No,gosh, you're young and I hate you

(12:46):
just every day. The Molendis brothersare one of the most famous murdering they
killed their parents. Oh wow,And they are sitting in the front row
in Mark Jackson's I believe eighty eighteighty nine scorecard? Got it? That
Bill Ripkin card, which I'm sureyou've heard about the Bill Ripken card before.
Holy crap on a cracker. BillRipkins card is famous because the word

(13:09):
face is written on his bat andanother four letter word is written right on
top of it, and you cansee it right on the bat. Now,
that's funny. It's very funny.Jackson Holidays short printed card this year,
Yeah, says fun face on it. That's a kind of homage homage
to us. But I don't knowif we're going to see Steph Curry,
And that really disappoints me because heis a guy who changed the game of

(13:33):
basketball. He is somebody who forbetter or worse. I know a lot
of people think that this is forworse. To be honest with you,
what would make it worse? Justlike I understand the reliance on the three,
the reliance on the three point basketand less mid range jump shot,
which I think a lot of peopledon't like because if they go play themselves,

(13:54):
like on a court, that's theshot they can make. Right If
they tried to drive it in ona seven foot or this stuff would get
blocked into timbucktoo. If they trieda three pointer, it would come up
twelve feet short. But they couldmake a free throw. They can make
that little jump shot. Yeah,So they like that part of the game.
That's become such an inefficient shot thatit's not really part of basketball.

(14:16):
Steph Curry has kind of proved thatthe best shots are close to the whole
because you might get fouled, orbecause you have a better chance of making
it, or a three point shotbecause it's worth that extra point. I
get that perspective that we have becomeso reliant on the three point shot that
the NBA that we saw in twothousand and eight when we last saw it,

(14:37):
it's borderline unrecognizable. But I don'tthink that's a bad thing. I
don't think it's bad that we haveefficiency and watching Steph Curry pull up from
thirty five feet. It's why Ilove watching Katelyn Clark play too. That
ability to make those three point shots, that ability to create separation to create
those shots are some of my favoritethings. Yeah, I completely agree,

(14:58):
and he's I don't understand the disdainfor the current game in terms of the
lack of physical defense being played.Maybe I personally I put that more on
the way it's refereed than the actualplayers. It's just how it goes.
It's offensive driven league. I don'tplaying any of that on the reliance on

(15:20):
the three point shot from Steph Curry, and like, obviously he's kind of
the poster boy for putting that valueon the map and having more teams need
someone who does that. But Ithink that's just been added an exciting element
to the game where you have someonethat can do that, and it's asking
more players to do that as well. It's not just Okay, you have

(15:41):
your shooter, you have your guythat is your post guy. Now everyone
has to be able to shoot atthis point in their career in the NBA.
There's very few people that have aregular role on an NBA team that
can't shoot. It's just a differentgame. Yeah, it's just a different
game. And look, baseball's becomea different game. We've relied on the
strikeout so much for pictures, andwe have learned that in some instances,

(16:06):
a strikeout is just and out.By the way, a bunch of people
in the text line correct me,it's the Menendez brothers. I apologize for.
Yeah, I figured you didn't,but I would just like to get
that correction. Another correction. Yesterday, I did get it wrong. Whitney
Houston's rendition of the All Star Gamewas the national anthem, and it wasn't
the It was the super Bowl,super Bowl. Yeah, yeah, America
Beautiful. I thought it was Americathe Beautiful. She does have as America

(16:29):
the Beautiful full recorded, and itis beautiful because everything Whitney Houston did was
incredible. But correcting those errors,we regret them a little bit. Just
a real quick on the All StarGame. Jared Duran was somebody that the
Mariners were rumored to be interested infor a very long time when uh kind
of prior prospect a little bit whenhe was a prospect and then somebody that

(16:52):
wasn't performing very well with Boston andso there was some thoughts about him being
a reclamation project. Boy, howgood would Jaron Duran look and look in
that outfield right now? Yeah,he's kind of a different player than the
modern MLB outfielder, isn't he Likehe's you're kind of a prototypical leadoff guy
from ten years ago or fifteen yearsago. The guy that you know is
good and good defensively, has alot of speed, contact first guy.

(17:18):
Uh, he's starting to slug alittle bit this year. But yeah,
it's good to see him get someresults because I think he's a fun player
to watch. And you know,the fun thing about that is he is
a guy who when he got sentdown, it was because he was taking
two not taking enough pitches. Hewas he was hanging, Yeah, and
then the approach, and sometimes itjust takes a little bit of time.
You know. JP Crawford wasn't alwaysfamous for his patients. Right now,

(17:41):
he's one of, if not themost patient shortstopping baseball. He's certainly up
there among them. Yeah, sometimesit just takes a little bit of time.
Sure would have been nice to seeLogan Gilbert get a chance to pitch
yesterday too, and I totally understandwhy he didn't and it's more important to
set up that rotation massive series comingup. I don't think you can overstate

(18:02):
how big this series coming up is, but gosh, it would have been
nice to see a reward for thatguy too. It's ultimately the right decision,
but you can also say, dangit, it's sure would have been
nice to see Logan Gilbert pitch orAndres Muonia's pitches. Yeah, and you
know, I, like you said, I understand why they obviously did that.
I don't even think Logan Gilbert hada chance at all, even when

(18:22):
he got called into the All StarGame that he was going to pitch,
because they kind of lined up hisstart. It's like always going to start
on Sunday, so not gonna beable to pitch. So honest, Munyaz
just made too much sense to throwin there. But again, it's just
it's how the cookie crumbles sometimes withthe All Star Games. You mentioned the
series against the Astros. Is ithyperbolic to say that this series is one

(18:44):
of the biggest regular season series inthe last couple of years in Mariners Baseball.
Not at all, Not at all, because of what you can change
with this series. Now, look, we said the same thing about the
Rangers series a few weeks ago andhow big a sweep was going to be
there, and we did it andthey did it, and you can argue
how big that was. I wouldstill argue it's pretty big because where are

(19:07):
they without that sweet oh god?You know what I mean? Like,
we're talking about this team being twogames back with the Astros having two extra
games to be played too. Wantto keep that in mind. They are
a game up, but it's avirtual game up. It's just that one
game. We're going to talk abunch about that. We're going to come
back and talk some more sonic stuff. Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM

(19:29):
Live from the R and R Foundationspecialists broadcast studio back to Ian Fernetz Power
Advice, Seattle's closest sportsbook, SnowCall Me Casino on Sports Radio ninety three
point three kJ r FM. Ithink we will engage this fall in earnest
in the process of taking those determinations, you know, should we expand and

(19:52):
if we were to expand, Imean teams, should we expand in what
markets? We should we be lookingat that? Of course, NBA Commissioner
Adam Silver discussing the top of expansionand anders, I'll just say it's coming
home, it's coming. No,you just jinxed it. No I didn't.
If they don't come, now i'mblaming you. Well I felt like

(20:14):
that, to be honest. Sowhen the Kings almost came here and I
got really excited, did you sayit's coming home? No, because I
didn't. I don't think those freightwords were even in my vernacular at that
point. I'm sure I said theword. They should never be in your
vernacular. First of all, forthose who don't know, that's what all
England soccer fans say whenever they're closeto winning a trophy, and they haven't

(20:36):
won since nineteen sixty six. There'ssome very funny Facebook mems where they rank
the championships for England teams and thenit just immediately ends and says, all
right, thanks for watching. Yeah, as an England fan, it kind
of makes me upset. But look, as much as I believe that I
cannot jinx the Sonics, maybe it'spossible that I can. It really sounds

(20:56):
like that the Seattle SuperSonics are goingto be in existence by twenty twenty.
And you know, just those comments, you know, don't exactly do anything
to change my mind because it's themedia deal has been ratified, even though
Nick's owner James Dolan apparently is extremelydisappointed by that. It's a very weird
thing about how this deal doesn't helplocal markets very much, and obviously MSG

(21:22):
is one of the biggest local marketlocal markets. Yes, I'm excited.
I'm excited to see basketball back here. The Sonics were my favorite team and
it wasn't even close growing up realand part of that had to do with
the fact that they were very good. Gary Payton, Sean Kemp, that
left Shrimp, Sam Perkins, DavidWingate, who we talked about on My
Way a little bit. Yeah,I can't believe Softy couldn't get where he

(21:45):
got acquired first from that's I'm excited, and I want to ask you guys
once again on the telemore do textline four nine four five one. When
it's game time. It's totally time. Who you are the most excited to
see come play against the Super Sonics. And we've got to keep in mind
that this is a couple of yearsaway. It sounds like to me they
would get started in the twenty sixtwenty seventh season, yeah, so that's

(22:07):
the earliest. That's the earliest Ithink that would happen. So there are
some guys Lebron James. I don'tthink it's going to play another three years.
Luckily we did get the chance tosee Lebron before, but there's a
whole generation that's going to miss out. And oh boy, oh boy,
oh boy. I think the greatestbasketball player of all time. Yeah,
and a whole good of God.You didn't I agree with you, but

(22:30):
a lot of people don't. Hey, that's fine. Michael Jordan is one
bee and you could put a bunchof guys in that. It's incredibly subjective.
He's certainly the best basketball player thatI've ever watched. What he can
do passing, what he can docreating, it's incredible. We're gonna miss
out on that. It sounds likewe're probably gonna miss out on Steph Curry,
But there's some really good players thatwe're gonna see. My number one

(22:52):
on my list is Luka Dancic.I think Luska Doncic's ability to create,
the ability to shoot, the swaggerthat he has, which is an underrated
swagger. I think it kind ofdrives a lot of people crazy. It
does, but I love it.It's kind of off putting in some ways
because he's like, Oh, Idon't care, like I'm not going to
show, like I'm just this intenseguy. I think the same thing with

(23:17):
Nikola Jokic is that he has thatsign, oh, boy I disagree,
or boy I just don't want todo this, And all of a sudden,
you see this guy making ninety fourfoot passes and put it swagger and
doing a little shimmy. Sometimes Doncicloves that shimmy. Oh yeah. But
those are probably those two right thereare probably the two I'm the most excited
of of the players that we haven'tseen play in Seattle yet. And you

(23:40):
know, I was also thinking aboutthis. We're kind of lucky. I
can't think of anybody whose career startedand ended who was truly great before the
Sonics left. Can you start?What do you mean by that so started
their career the year after the Sonicsleft and ended their career before, so
that we would miss completely. StephCurry is the one that it's going to

(24:02):
happen, and it hasn't happened yet, And I wouldn't be terribly shocked if
Steph Curry was like forty years old, wants to get that sixth seventh rings
and still jacking him up from thirtythree feet six or seven. Wow,
you think he'sna win two more inthe next couple of years. I mean,
it could happen. It could happen. Yeah, No, I think
that's that's the kind of the onlyname I think of, but the player

(24:22):
I'm I think of two players thatwant to come back to Seattle. First
of all, another one that isquestionable whether he's going to still be playing,
and it's Kevin Durant. Fair andKevin Durant of course did play the
last season in Seattle, right,but nobody has seen him play of like
the younger generation right or in Seattleanyway. And he's always been an advocate
for the Sonics coming back. Healways talks very fondly about his time here,

(24:45):
even if it was just his rookieyear. Absolutely, so, I
think with this recent news coming out, he would have an incentive to continue
that career, if not to playfor the Sonics, at least to come
back and you know, be apart of the Seattle comm unity of basketball
once again. And the other oneanother local guy in a different way is
Paalo bon Carroll. I think he'sgoing to become a superstar in the next

(25:08):
couple of years. And obviously aguy from Seattle drafted first overall by the
Magic and uh, it's we're gonnawatch him kind of blossom into something greater.
And I think that'd be a perfecttime for him to kind of prove
himself to the world a little bit. So I would be really excited to
come watch him play. Yeah,I'd love to see Patrick Mahomes come to
I assume everyone's seen that thing withon F one where that guy got confused

(25:32):
and that was so great. Yeah, I like, I think Ben Cheryl
is a great call. A lotof PNW legends that haven't had the chance
to play in the in the localgames for the Sonics. It's it's disappointing
trying to think of some other ones, be honest. For sure, is
somebody I'm looking forward to seeing playAnthony Edwards. Anthony, Oh my gosh,
Anthony Edwards is definitely way up there. By the way, Anthony Edwards

(25:53):
gave one of the best acting performancesthat I've seen from a basketball player.
You are you You are so intoathletes that are into acting for really and
you know what, Deniche the telemoredetails. Because I told me that I'm
not allowed to say one hundred percentanymore, I will do my best not
to say it again. The funnything is when you say that on the

(26:14):
text line, it makes us wantto say it more. Yeah, because
that's what we hear it, andit's it's style goes when you're on radio
ninety nine percent plus one. Absolutely, that is definitely what I am thinking.
But no, I am kind offascinated by it. I'd love to
give a list of my best performancesand worst performances. Clayton Kershawn New Girl
would be by number one for worstperformance of all. Oh, it's really
bad. Phil Michelson on Entourage isatrocious best, though Anthony Edwards is way

(26:41):
up there. Have you seen themovie Hustle No So good. Adam Sandler
plays a basketball scout who and it'sactually one hundred and Gomez. It's the
basketball player that he's trying to getover. That's terrific. It's one of
the performances where Adam Sandler is actuallytrying. So it's nice to see because
we have seen the the Adam Sandlerperformances where he is mailing it in for
a vacation. Oh yeah, butAnthony Edwards is way up there. Just

(27:03):
the swag that guy has and howgood he is. I loved his comments,
by the way, about the beingthe number one option for TMOSA.
I did too. I think,like we talked about this, I can't
remember us on this show or anotherone. I actually think it's good for
them because like obviously everyone's like,oh, you know, how does Lebron
think about that? Oh, likeall the big guys that are there,
Steph Curry, Anthony Davis, allthose guys. Sure, they probably are

(27:26):
like, what you just got hereand you think you're the guy now.
Yeah, But I actually think that'ssomething that they've been looking for. They're
looking for the next guy to kindof take up the mantle, at least
for USA basketball. Totally agreeing.So someone who kind of has that macho
mentality that's like, yeah, I'mthe best kind of we got to play
through me, let's go, Ithink would be kind of refreshing. From
an older veteran superstar standpoint, Ijust want to see somebody care, Yeah,

(27:52):
you know what I mean, Andobviously these people care a little bit.
I have had some people ask meif this event was taking place anywhere,
but Harris, how many of theseguys would want to play? You
know? I think that may havehelped, you know, a nice little
vacation in the middle of summer.But at the same time, there's a
couple of places I think they wouldhave gone to. Well. Oh absolutely,
And let's keep this in mind.I think NBA players can afford to

(28:15):
go to Paris without having to gothrough the reason. Yeah, I don't
think they have to go on Expediaand do the hot take. Yeh,
God, I need breaking news forthat. I think they might be able
to afford it. But being ableto stay in that village and get to
meet some really cool people, Idon't think that is a something you completely
ignore. No, But I'm justsuper excited for the SuperSonics to come back.

(28:37):
It is. It has been sohard for me to watch these NBA
playoffs because I still love the sport. I still absolutely do, even though
and a lot of people have broughtup in the text line that they have
not enjoyed the changes that have beenmade to the sport. I get it,
totally get it. We all fearchange, right, Yeah, So
my question to you, you justsay you still love the sport. Did

(28:59):
it change at all for you whenthe Sonics left? Like, like,
from a basketball loving perspective, obviouslyyou're pissed that the Sonics are not You're
part of the you know, teamSeattle anymore, Did your love for the
NBA as a whole change dramatically whenthe Sonics left? It only changed how
I love it because it became alittle bit better having no rooting interest,

(29:22):
you know, like getting to watchlike a great series between the Celtics and
the Lakers in the NBA Finals andnot really having a rooting interest there yea,
you know, just appreciating good basketball. And it also gave me someone
to hate because I have rooted likeheck for the Oklahoma plunder awesome, And
you know there is something I'm nota huge schoden Freud person in real life.

(29:48):
With that basketball team, I'm goingto root for their demise for the
rest of my life, even whenthe Saunics get a team. Even when
the Sonics get a team, Iwill still be rooting against them. It
will be easier to digest when theydo win a championship. Beat when the
Sonics are back. But boy ohboy, if they win and one before
the Sonics come back, I willbe come on as all as my grandma

(30:11):
says. I will be madder thana wet hen if the Sonics are not
back. In the thunder Winning Shows, Chris Crawford and for thee Infanats,
We're going to talk some Seahawk footballnext on Sports Radio ninety three point three
KJRFM, Live from the R andR Foundation Specialists broadcast studio back to Ian
Furnetz, Power Advice, Seattle's Closestsportsbook Snop Call Me Casino on Sports Radio

(30:37):
ninety three point three KJR FM.Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR brings
you the Major Golf Challenge, BritishOpen Edition powered by Gamble, Sands Pro
Golf Discount and the Boeing Classic Julyfifteenth to seventeenth. Prior to the British
Open, log onto nine three threeKJR dot com and select a golfer in
each of the groups until you havepredicted the top performer of all nine grouping

(31:00):
in the tournament. All entries willbe scored as a total score to par
by adding each entrance selected golfers toderive acumuative score for the tournament. The
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one round of golf for four atGamble stands, one hundred dollars Pro Golf
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(31:22):
Classic. Anders. Do you likeyour British Open to be the high scoring
variety is in way above par ordo you like to watch guys like dominate
and shoot well under? I thinkI'm with most golf fans. I like
it when it's as close to paras possible. Sure, the like five
over winners are is that's not superfun to watch, okay, but we

(31:45):
haven't seen that really at all recently. It's more US Open style than anything.
So I think as close to parif they're like you know, two,
three, four, five, anythingabove five unders where it starts to
get a little eh, but likeas close to par as possible for the
winner is I think a really goodtournament for me. I want to see
somebody shoot four sixty eights. That'swhat I want to see the highest score

(32:07):
to be like, just a coupleunder parwer a couple under park, A
couple under park, couple under park. Like if you could get and out
of seventy to be fair, right, if it's a seventy two, I
want to see some seventies. Okay. I do kind of like watching golfer
struggle because it makes me feel goodbetter about myself. Yeah. Well,
and it's also just like it putsmore emphasis on when you do get a
birdie, right, if you getone every hole, another birdie is just

(32:28):
like, okay, he's basically partingevery hole, right, But when you
get that extra birdie, it's like, oh my god, he's making a
run now he's It puts more emphasiswhen you do have those good good holes
that it like it makes a biggerdifference. Yeah, I think that's fair.
I think that's fair. I justlove golf. It's such a fun
thing playing it. Not a hugefan of watching it, But you're wrong,

(32:49):
it's more fun to watch it thonplay you're old. Well that's a
hundred psent too. I mean that'sjust the golf demographics, so that makes
sense to use that number that nobodywas allowed being to use. I totally
agree to that assessment. You fiftyfour percent agree. I fifty four plus
forty six percent agree. Let's talkabout the Seahawks. They are opening training
camp for rookies, which this seemsextremely early to me. It's just I'm

(33:13):
so used to seeing it in thetwenties. And maybe that's just me talking
about my age having a bad memoryhere, but this does seem early.
So the rookies are reporting this week, will have the actual veterans come out
next week. But I thought it'dbe a good time to talk about the
twenty twenty four draft and what areexpectations and how important these players are to
the class. So I thought wewould take a look at the players that

(33:36):
the Seahawks selected and assign them anumber one through five on how important we
are to the success for the team. I'll just tell you right now,
pick number seven, Satoa Lomea fromUtah and in the sixth round as well,
the tackle Mike Durell from Finley.I'm putting them at one. I'm
putting them if they actually play,I think there's some stuff wrong. I
think those are developmental guys. Nowit's possible they play and if they do,

(34:00):
you give you something that's great.But in terms of actual expectation for
the year, I think it's fairto put them out a one. Yeah.
I remember when those two things happens. I did a little bit of
a draft show on that day.Of the recap show, Mike Durrell was
an interesting one to me because aD two guy like you don't know exactly
where that's gonna be and go intoOhio State to go perform for your Yeah.

(34:22):
Plus he's a tackle. We allknow the struggles along this offensive line.
We don't know the health of aLucas at this point. So if
he ends up being some sort ofyou know, rotational piece for something like
that, I think that could bepretty important. But I mean they're about
it as important as a sixth roundcould be, six round pick could be
there we go. So but overall, I generally agree it's a one or

(34:44):
two. So let's start at thetop. After we mentioned those guys.
Defensive lineman Byron Murphy, the secondout of Texas, no relation to former
Husky cornerback Byron Murphy, who's oneof my favorite Huskies of all time.
Yeah, if anybody's getting a fiveto me, it's him because I just
think if the Seahawks are going tohave a big year, it's hard for

(35:05):
me to see Byron Murphy not havinga big year as well. I think
he's so important for what that defensivescheme does, the abilities to get to
the quarterback, the ability to helpwith the run as well. You know,
we'll talk about their third round pick, who's pretty close to a five
for me as well. But ifI was just going to give one player
a five, i'd go Murphy.Maybe I'll just go four and a half
to make things a little easier.Yeah, I was gonna say four because

(35:25):
they actually have pretty good depth atthe de tackle position. Draymont Jones,
Leonard Williams, Jaron Reid are allguys that you can trust to play on
a pretty regular basis, So justhim. His importance individually is probably not
as high, although he's I thinkthe most talented player of that group,

(35:47):
and if he ends up kind ofbringing their ceiling up a little bit,
then it will be a big getfor this defense. But I still would
have one other player at a moreimportant to be good position. So I
put Bayern Murphy at four. That'stotally fair and then I think that player
for you is probably Christian Haines,the guard out of Yukon, and I

(36:08):
think I could argue see the argumentthat he's the most important player just because
of the offensive struggles with the offensiveline last year. The fact that they
chose not to go offensive line inthe first round and did address that,
I think has something to do withthe fact that they trusted the depth towards
the back. And we talked aboutthis when I hosted after the draft,
that I thought they got the bestpure interior guard. Fontano to me was

(36:31):
not a pure interior guard, soI couldn't put him with people because see
him playing guard, absolute prospect tackleprospect who a lot of people think.
I mean, I believe Humillon saidhe had a chance to be as good
as Steve Hudginson, which is prettyhigh praise. But I think Christian Haynes's
success for the Seahawks would be massivein twenty twenty four. Yes, and

(36:52):
it's gonna be one of the placeswhere it's a true fifty to fifty.
You have no idea who's going tostart camp battle going into training. Can
we always talk about, oh,who's the camp battles of the camp.
You know a lot of times,like the last couple of years, Seahawks
haven't really had that many right whereyou don't really don't know who's gonna come
out. It's gonna be between himand Anthony Bradford at right guard. Looks
like Laken Tomlinson's that left guard prettyslotted in. He's been taking the majority

(37:15):
of the first team snaps. Soyeah, I'm with you, man.
This is my five Christian Haynes.It just seems like he's the guy to
kind of get things going offensively,and if he becomes that best guard prospect,
as you just mentioned, that couldbe a huge difference for this offensive
line. I would agree with that, and that just quickly to close out
for me, Tyree Knights and AJBarner, I would go night at a

(37:37):
three, just because I have somequestions about the linebacker depth. Yeah,
Barner, I would go two andmaybe two and a half if I could,
because I think he's gonna be massiveon special teams for them, or
Unamiah Pritchett, I'd probably go toDJ James. I actually go two and
a half for two reasons. NumberOne, I think he slots best at
the nickel position. And number two, the impact that guy's made on special

(37:59):
teams as well, an so Iwould put him a little more even though
he was drafted after the other Auburnquarterback. I would say DJ James maybe
has a little bit better path tosuccess. Let's take up quick commercial break.
We are going to talk to SeattleMariner general manager Justin Hollander after a
quick commercial break. Sports Radio ninetythree point three KJRFM Now from the Star

(38:22):
Rentals Sports Tests RD ninety three pointthree KJRFM. Sports headlines headlines. Thanks
to venue Kings dot com, AmericanLeague wins the MLB All Star Game last
night five to three over the NationalLeague. Boston's Jared Durand named All Star
Game MVP with a go ahead tworun homer off of Hunter Green. American
League has dominated this thing. That'sten of eleven wins go American League only

(38:45):
that meant anything for Seattle Mariner's successwhatsoever. Unfortunately, neither Andres Munos nor
Looking Gilbert made an appearance. Weknew Gilbert wasn't going to get in,
but a little disappointing not to seethe closer take the field. Seattle Sounders
take the field versus Saint Louis FC'snight in a Western Conference matchup. Pregame
seven pm, kickoff at seven thirtywith Jackson Feltez jack Jackson Felts Jackson Jackson

(39:10):
Felts on the call. Yeah,Seattle Storm win eighty nine eighty three versus
the Los Angeles Sparks Yesterday, JewelLloyd with thirty points, neca Ogwoomackay with
twenty three points and ten rebounds.Team USA Basketball absolutely cruises past Servia in
Nikola Jokich thanks to a strong secondhalf one oh five seventy nine, Steph
Curry, who I sure hope weget to see playing Seattle someday twenty four

(39:32):
points on eight and twelve shooting.And Bill Belichick, dad of Seahawk defensive
coordinator Steve Belichick, says he isfully invested in coaching. In twenty twenty
Fivesky defensive Cordator, Husky defensive coordinator, Yes, Steve Belichick, Sorry about
that. Good Sports Radio ninety threepoint three KJFM bringing you Grand Slam Cash
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(39:57):
Listen each weekday, every hour betweensix am and seven PM for the
nationwide keyword to enter on our websitenine three to three KJR dot com.
The keyword this hour is green.Live from the R and R Foundation specialist
broadcast studio back to Ian Furness,powered by Seattle's closest sportsbook, Snow call

(40:19):
Me Casino on Sports Radio ninety threepoint three KJR FM. Chris Crawford and
for Ian Furness. Very excited tobring on a guest pretty soon. It
is someone that we haven't gotten achance to talk to in person before,
but I've been a fan of fora long time and really appreciate him taking
the time to come talk to us, and I believe we have him now.

(40:42):
Anders. Oh okay, one second, Sorry about that, guys.
This is this is me not beinga very good radio host, to be
fair, all right, joining uson the Beacon Plumbing Hotline, the general
manager of the Seattle Mariners, Pleasewelcome Justin Hollander to the show. First
of all, Justin, thanks somuch. I know this is it's a
crazy time of year, so wereally appreciate you taking the time to talk
to us. You got it.Thanks for having me on. Oh You're

(41:06):
very very welcome. It's my pleasurecompletely. So Justin, I got to
talk to you first about the MLBDraft because that's my baby, and all
twenty rounds completed, I will askyou, do you miss the forty rounds
at all? Do you miss makingforty picks? Are you pretty happy that
it's only twenty rounds? At thispoint I was actually texting some friends about
it, and when we cut backfrom fifty to forty and then to twenty,

(41:28):
I was like, oh man,I'm really going to pick here.
As we get into the third day, I think they're like, I love
giving players opportunity to play, andtwenty seems like more of the right number
than forty or fifty day. Ihave to be honest, Yeah, that
totally makes sense, especially with notas many minor league affiliates. It does
make sense for those twenty guys.But just give us our thoughts, Justin

(41:49):
on why Seattle Marina fan should beexcited by this draft class. We should
be excited because I think we gota lot of good pictures in this draft,
starting at the top with Durangelo Saint, you know, player that we
were really high on all year,and then as we got into our draft
room and started identifying the other areaswhere you can separate players. We thought,
in addition to being a really goodpresent pitcher, there were as many

(42:12):
dials or paths for him to improveas any pitcher that we talked about in
the draft room. Our PD systemwas in love with them. We thought
it was the best delivery, thebest mover down the mound of anyone in
the draft. And we're really intriguedby the potential of having someone that can
do something as unique as him ontop of what is already a good right
handed pitching skill set. So reallyexcited about Durangelo at the top. And

(42:36):
then we thought Ryan Silan was thebest high school pitcher in this draft,
and when we had a chance toget him with the fifty fifth pack in
the draft, it was kind ofa no brainer for us. Were you
surprised to see him still available atfifty five, We were. We had
been in touch. We met withRyan two different times during the spring,
once with Andy McKay in Chicago athis house and then once again at the
Combine, and just from a humanbeing perspective, we just felt so comfortable

(43:01):
with who he is and how hewould handle the journey as a high school
pitcher going through the minor leagues,never really expecting like he was in any
conversation to be the fifteenth pick inthe draft, as we were in communication
with them throughout that process, andthen as the first day went on,
a little surprised as we kept callingthat one they were still interested in us,
and two that there wasn't somebody elsewho jumped out. And when it

(43:23):
became a possibility that we could jumpout and move some money around and be
a little creative, it made aton of sense for us to do with
how we valued Ryan so I techcount fifteen pitchers taken through those twenty rounds.
Was that just how the draft boardplayed out, or was that a
significant intent to bolster the staff ormaybe a combination of both. Probably a

(43:44):
combination of both. You can't reallydo things that the draft doesn't offer.
We had pockets of position players andpitchers, and you know, sort of
went back and forth as we wentthrough our draft meetings on where those different
pockets should rely on our board,and when we came to pick, it
just happened to be for much ofthe draft we landed on the pitcher really
really excited to get Josh Karen inthe fourth round. Somebody that we had

(44:07):
evaluated is as much better than that. It's very hard to find collegiate catching,
particularly like age appropriate colleigian catching.He's not yet twenty one, and
again someone who we really believe inthe changes that he made this year and
sort of the ascension of his batalong with really solid defensive present ability and

(44:27):
tools to get better. Chris Crawfordand for Ian Forness talking to Mariners general
manager Justin Hollander on the Beacon PlumbingHotline. One other draft question for you.
I wanted to ask you specifically aboutHunter Cranton because a lot of wide
reports that this is one of themore developed players, and seeing that this
is a guy who was already hittingone hundred miles per hour with his fastball,
has one of the best swinging miswriteswith his fastball as well, do

(44:52):
you believe that this is a guywho could help your bullpen sooner than later?
Defined sooner sooner but September October thisyear. I think that's a little
a little rich. It's just it'shard to make that kind of jump.
Understand, we do think this stuffis now. It's it's now velocity with

(45:12):
now shapes and the slider is realand those types of players tend to move
very quickly, especially when they're seniors, and can allow you, from a
budgetary perspective, to do some differentthings either above them or below them.
For us, he was the numberone senior on the board and someone that
our PD system was really high on. I know it won't shock you that,
you know, the guy that throwsfrom that slot that maybe you can

(45:34):
have two fast balls with and alreadyhas a good breaking ball would intrigue Mariners
pitching development. But that's he isa player that we identified as someone that
we really wanted to take in theright spot. Justin Holland are joining us
on the Beacon Plumbing hotline. Playerthat wasn't drafted this year. But I
wanted to ask you about is ColeYoung? And I've seen you are seeing
the Mariners promote from Arkansas and promotefrom Double A and had a chance to

(45:58):
help the Seattle Mariners more quickly thanI think some anticipate. But I wanted
to ask you specifically if you thinkCole Young is a realistic helper for the
twenty twenty four campaign. I can'tanswer that right now totally I don't think
I would like to get on theradio and rule something out. You know,
players get, players get better,They change quickly over time. Cole

(46:20):
is still very young. Young playersat levels where they're you know, below
the median age by Kloite, Alot tend to improve very quickly when there
is talent that there's Cole is.I don't think it's an immediate like on
the radar force, but I wouldn'trule anything out. I don't think that
would be fair to Cole and histalent to say, oh no, we
would never consider it. If heshows us he's ready for the next level

(46:42):
or the level after that, wewould always consider those things. But I'm
not banking on it. If thatanswers your question in a really roundabout way,
it really does answer it in thatroundabout way, and I'll just ask
the same question for Harry Ford aswell in the same answer. Like again,
a player who is significantly younger thanhis competition, who's performed well at
every level, I wouldn't roll itout. I don't think it's on our
immediate radar or do something like that. In the next couple of weeks,

(47:05):
Chris Crawford joined by Mariners gentle managerJustin Hollander on the Beacon plumbing hat line.
So into the Alsto break now witha one game lead on the division,
as you're well aware, that leadwas ten games before a pretty disappointing,
unfortunately final twenty games before the firsthalf, lots of heis and lows?
What makes you confident, justin thatthe good version we saw of the
twenty twenty four Seattle Mariners is goingto show up over these next sixty four

(47:28):
games. I think when you startto talk about our team, I think
the floor of where we are becauseour pitching has performed so well is very
high. It's we don't typically havemany long stretches of losing streets because our
pitching just doesn't allow it. Thoseguys were exceptional for the first ninety eight
games of the season. I thinkthat's the right number. We couldn't have

(47:51):
asked for more from our starters.A plus for our relievers, not only
in the job that they did,but for stepping in when we lost for
big periods of time. Obviously,no Matt Brash this year. We just
got Santos back Greg it gave Spiersbeen out for quite a long time and
we're hoping to get him back shortly. For guys who have jumped up and
pitched in different roles and done whatthey have done, I couldn't be happier

(48:14):
or prouder with the way they perform, and that has really kept us afloat.
I guess my confidence that we willplay division winning type baseball stems from
the fact that I think our offensehas not performed to our capabilities, and
I believe there's more in there andwe will hopefully be able to add to
her or improve upon it as weget into the trade deadline. Ti Oscar

(48:35):
Hernandez talked after the home run derbyabout his time in Seattle and not feeling
comfortable and in particularly, he mentionedhe never felt like he was lined up
in a straight line with the pitchersmount of T. Beaumont Park, and
he said he also talked to someother hitters who felt the same way.
Number one, is that something youwere aware of? And number two,
is that something that can be lookedinto going forward for the Seattle Mariners,

(48:55):
Probably not in twenty twenty four,but in the twenty twenty five seasons and
go forward. It is something thatTao shared with our hitting coaches downstairs during
the season last year that he feltlike everything looks sideways to him. It's
not something we've heard from other playerseither before or since, but I know
he mentioned it again that the AllStar gave media availability, and it is

(49:16):
something that I think we'll look atin the off season. Just ask questions,
talk to people. Obviously, I'venever taken in a batan team mobile.
I like it's been a long timesince Scott Servis took in a bat
in the big leagues. Like noone had ever said that to that I'm
aware of to any of our otheryou know, coaches, for office people,
et cetera. But if it isa thing, it's something that we

(49:37):
will definitely look at. Chris Crawford, joined by Justin Holland are on the
Beacon plumbing hotline. Mitch Garvin JorgePolanco, both acquired in the offseason.
Both came to Seattle after joining successwith previous organizations, and I think it's
fair to say that they have notnecessarily lived up to those expectations in twenty
twenty four. How much face isthere going forward in those two bats specifically,

(50:00):
and that they can and I hatethis phrase, but I'm gonna use
it anyway, play to the backof their baseball card for the rest of
twenty twenty four. Yeah, I'mgoing to kind of zoom out and just
talk more generally, not just aboutthose two players, because I think that's
sort of unfair. I think asan offense in general, we haven't played
well, you know, or somethinglike twentyth or twenty first and wrcplus like

(50:21):
twenty seventh in run scored. Wehave played bad offense. We struck out
too much. We haven't consistently putpressure on opposing teams. We haven't consistently
hit with runs in scoring position.We haven't consistently got runners in from third
base. Like The blame for thatcertainly starts with me, Like I,
along with Jerry and the rest ofour front office, helped construct an offense

(50:43):
that has not performed well for thefirst ninety eight games of the season.
The next forty percent of the seasonneeds to be better if we want to
accomplish our first goal of the season, which is to win the rest.
If we don't play better offensively,I don't think it is likely we will
do that. I expect that wewill, mostly because not just with those
two guys, but with a wholehost of other players. I think it's
just baseball history says they will performcloser to their career norms than they have

(51:08):
for the first sixty percent. There'snothing that we can do where they can
do to unwind or unring the bellon the first sixty percent. I've joked
with some people that I've liked toscoreboard just to say zero for everybody.
Can we come back from the AllStar break? Because I don't think it
helps to tread and chase your yearlyaggregate line. How good can we play
for this last sixty four games ofthe season. If we play somewhat to

(51:30):
our capabilities offensively, I think thatwe'll be all satisfied with the resolve at
the end of the year, regardlessof whether we got to our back of
our baseball card line. Have toask you specifically about Julio too, and
how much more confident I was watchingJulio Rodriguez and how much more confident he
looked towards the end of the year, specifically pulling the baseball justin, has
there been a conceited or a concertedeffort? I would say to see justin

(51:54):
or excuse me to see Julio Rodriguezpull the baseball with more authority over these
last couple of weeks. There has, but I think that was more,
you know, sort of the resultas opposed to the process that we were
trying to get him to. Wetalked a lot. I know that Julio
talked to our people, both Scottand JD, Tommy Joseph along with with

(52:15):
Ovi, his private hitting instructor thatcame into the visit with him, about
getting out of your head less,thinking less about mechanics, just see the
ball and hit it out front likethat's you know, it's not really about
pulling the ball, it's about catchingthe ball less deep than he was catching
it. It felt like, youknow, from a visual perspective, he
was catching the ball so deep itjust left him no space to pull the

(52:37):
ball out front, which even ifyou're hitting the ball the other way,
you can hit the ball out frontinto right field if your julil And it
felt like it was it was sappinghim of a lot of his natural ability
by being so mechanical. And itlooks like we saw a freer, more
athletic, more comfortable player over thelast ten days. And he's so talented

(52:58):
that when it gets going, itjust gets going for a long time.
It's just different than not only butanybody else we have, but really almost
anybody else in baseball, And Iwas really excited to see how confident and
loose and free he played over thelast ten days the first half. Chris
Crawford joined by Justin Holland, or, general manager of the Seattle Mariners.
There's been a lot made about thistrade deadline and how many teams are still

(53:21):
in contention because of this additional wildcardspot. There are a lot of teams
that it sounds like, aren't sosure if they're going to be sellers,
are playing the waiting game. Hasthis made this a really difficult time for
you guys, because there are alot of teams that could be on that
fence, and a lot of thoseteams maybe have players that you'd be looking
to acquire at this point, Ithink the biggest thing that we've tried to

(53:44):
do is just stay in touch witheverybody you want to understand the landscape of
what the trade market will look asmuch as possible, and between Jerry and
myself and a few other people inthe office, just making sure we're consistently
in touch with teams to let themknow if we have interest, what are
where our interests would lie, andwhere they sit currently mindset wise, and
just making sure that whichever direction theygo, we're aware of it as soon

(54:07):
as possible. Are there specific positionsthat you're looking at right now on upgrading
or do you feel that because ofsome of the versatility on your roster that
you can be a little more openminded with that. I think it's the
latter. I do think we arefocused on upgrading. Our roster gives us
a lot of flexibility to make thatin different places. We have to play

(54:29):
more consistent offense. I think someof that have to come internally, and
I think some of that is likelyto come externally. But I think that
the versatility of the players on ourroster, and a lot of these guys
have played well. Some of theplayers, you know, Joshu Rohoff's carried
us for the first month or sixweeks of the season. Luke Raley has
been very, very since April.Stilling More has been awesome, particularly when

(54:51):
JT went down with his oblique injury. A lot of those guys can play
different spots on the field and that'svery helpful when you talk about out these
type of moves. And there's alot brought up about general managers having untouchable
prospects? Do you view view anyone? And I won't even make you say
a specific name. Are there specificplayers that you view in the system as

(55:13):
untouchable or are there just a caseby case situation where every trade could require
you to give up a certain prospect? But do you view untouchables in the
Seattle Mariner system? I don't thinkwe ever talk about things that way in
the office, whether it's major leagueplayers or or minor league prospect you know,
we would never talk about that,Like I'd never hung up the phone

(55:35):
on another club for making a requestor a suggestion about what they might be
looking for. Like there's things we'renot likely to do. Untouchable feels like
very closed off and closed minded.And I just don't think that you make
good decisions by walking into a deadlinethinking that way. Chris Crawford joined by
Justin Hollander on the bigod Plumbing Hotlinethe Bullpen. You did mention that the

(55:58):
offensive upgrades there. There has beensome talk about the Mariners potentially being interested
in the bullpen. How confident areyou in that group and is that somewhere
where you would look to add anadditional arm before this trade deadline. I
think both of those things are true. Really confident and really thrilled with what
those guys have done. And alsoI think that this time of year there
are generally a lot of relievers thattend to change. And if we could

(56:22):
add another bullpen piece that would allowScott to be creative and how we gets
through a game and provide guys withrest so that your leverage guys down the
stretch don't feel like it's the everyday. I think that would be a
boon to our club. It wouldbe something that you know, I'm sure
that the back end guys would reallyappreciate having a day here or there.

(56:43):
You're up three or up to ina game, and you know, obviously
we just got Gregory Santos back,which I expect in the second half you'll
see more frequent usage than every thirdday, probably like come out of the
gate every other day or even anoccasional back to back, And that's obviously
a big ad for Scott. Butanother arm would certainly be helpful. You
mentioned gave Spier as well. Isthere an ETA for him to return at

(57:05):
this point or is that still acase by case situation. Soon he threw
one minorly rehab outing and then hepitched in Arizona the other day. We'll
reevaluate him when we can come backfrom the break and see if he's ready.
I wouldn't anticipate it if it's notthe first day, being much longer
and through the weekend. That isgood to hear. Last one for you,
I want to ask you about specificplayers that have been rumored to be

(57:28):
available or connected and acknowledging there areso many teams contention for twenty twenty four.
Can Mariner fans expect Seattle to beaggressive before the trade deadline in upgrading
this offense. I think you canexpect us to be aggressive in finding out
what we can possibly do and doingeverything we can to upgrade the team.

(57:50):
You know, I can't promise youwe're going to make a big splash.
We've done it before. I thinkif the right deal we're there, we'd
do it again. I would besurprised if we didn't. Phrase is the
right way, I would be surprisedif we If we didn't search every corner
to try and find upgrades at multiplespots on the club to give us the
best chance to win the division.Justin, thank you so much for joining

(58:13):
us. We really appreciated us.I know how crazy this time is,
so really do appreciate the time.Thanks, Chris, appreciate it, you
bet. Thank you so much,Justin. We'll be back in a little
bit to react to that conversation.Chris Crawford in for Ian Fornest. Sports
Radio ninety three point three k jRFM, live from the R and R
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(58:38):
Snow call Me Casino on Sports Radioninety three point three kJ R FM.
Chris Crawford in for Ian Furness,as I will be all a week.
Was just joined by a Mariner generalmanager, Justin Hollander. And again
I want to thank Justin for takingthe time, because I don't think you
can overstate how crazy this time ofyear. Oh yeah, I said break,

(59:01):
but it's not a break for them. It's not a break for them
whatsoever. Honestly, there's no realbreak for those guys. You know what
I mean? It is now.They get paid an awful lot of money,
but there's no actual off season forthese guys, right, Sometimes it
feels like one because they don't doa whole heck of a lot, and
we get frustrated by it. ButI promise you they are. That means

(59:21):
that doesn't mean they're not doing Thatdoesn't mean they're not doing anything. I'll
just ask you anders your initial thoughtsof that conversation with Justin Hollan. Yeah,
it was great to have him on. He was pretty insightful. I
was interested, honestly. A lotof the trade deadline talk is intriguing to
a lot of Mariners fans, andyou know, I have questions whether they
will be aggressive. It does makesense that a lot of teams may not

(59:45):
be as willing to sell off thepieces that the Mariners would pob probably need
to make this offense significantly better.Yes, so they don't want to overpay,
especially considering they have a couple guysthat are within one or two years
of coming up and could help histeam just with having those additions. So

(01:00:06):
I don't want them to overpay foranything at this point. But it is
a little frustrating thinking about the possibilitythat we may waste another year of an
elite pitching staff if we don't makethe needed trades at the deadline here.
And I think that was one ofthe things I appreciated about how candid he
was, was admitting that this pitchingstaff is great and this offense has sucked.

(01:00:29):
Yeah, I mean he didn't saythe actual word sucked, but he
came pretty darn close to admitting thatthis has been a way underperforming offense.
And I also appreciate that he tookownership for that he did, and that
you know, that didn't surprise mebecause even Jerry Depoto, who I think
sometimes gets accused of passing the blame. Sometimes we'll generally say, hey,

(01:00:50):
ultimately the responsibility falls on me.But in particular, Justin Hollander has been
one of the first people to comeout and say that the onus is his.
I actually disagree with him a littlebit there. I think it's more
of the players. I think thatyou could put blame a lot of places.
I think you can put blame withthe players. I think you can
put blame with the salary restraints.I think you can put blame with the

(01:01:10):
guy who is ahead of him.On the depth chart. In terms of
that, the Pobo Depoto, bythe way, Pobo Depoto sounds like the
most delicious Italian restaurant that you couldeat that. Wouldn't you go get a
hogi from Pobo de Poto? Yeah, I mean I love hogis. So
Pobo Dipoto does sound like a place. It's just a sign of good leadership,
to be honest, because you neverwant to place the blame on people
below you. You want to takeownership for everything, even if you may

(01:01:34):
believe that a lot of it is. Like Man, I could not have
seen this happening, there's no question, yeah so, but there is a
question to be asked about that happening. Frequently when you bring in players that
you expect to be better, yes, and they don't end uh And they
end up kind of falling off acliff a little bit in terms of their
production. And if we had anotherfifteen minutes, I would have gone a
little bit deeper into Mitch Garver,Jorge Polanco, following Jesse Winker, following

(01:01:59):
some of these other offensive Wong ColtonWong, these other offensive acquisitions that have
performed well, and in particular,offensive acquisitions that have performed well in other
places, Yes, come to Seattleand stunk and then played well elsewhere.
Yeah, because that ultimately is themost concerning thing to me. Some of
it may be a little bit ofbad luck, Like, for instance,

(01:02:21):
I don't think Jesse Winker situation isbad luck. I think it is circumstances
that the Seattle Mariners maybe couldn't havecompletely foreseen. Right, how unhappy this
guy was going to be in Seattle. And you know, especially in a
sport like baseball, I think happinessmeans a lot. Yeah, you got
to be confident, you got tofeel in a good headspace when you're going
to the play, especially from ahitter's perspective. Yeah. It's weird because

(01:02:45):
we talk about those acquisitions where they'regood someplace else, they come here and
they're not very good, and thenthey go and have a really good career
after. I call it the AdrianBeltre effect. It's funny because kind of
the opposite is happening with Auhenio Suarezhad no question, he was pretty bad
the last couple of years in Cincinnati, and then we acquired him as kind
of the throw in for the JesseWinker trade, and he was the better

(01:03:07):
player of the two had two Iwould say good years here in Seattle,
and especially when you put into contextother players coming in struggling, I would
say really good years. Sure,and then he's gone to Arizona. Now
he's getting hot lately. Yes,I's just going to say the first kind
of half the year hasn't been whata lot of people expected from him.
And I still hate that trade.Just I love the guy I loved.

(01:03:30):
I think he's just a good ofdefensive players, Josh Rojass. Even though
Josh Rojas's defense at third base,he's been spectacled really good, especially after
those first couple of games. Youknow, that's way way back. Yep,
it's hard to remember, but theywere atrocious. Oh yeah. And
then since then, some of thisis credits to Josh Rojas, some credit
to Perry Hill, but he's beenphenomenal at third base, and he got
off to a red hot start withthe bat. But now I think that's

(01:03:52):
really a position you got to startlooking at it upgrading. Yeah, And
I thought that was interesting too.I did ask him about this was the
nice one. I said, Isyour team bad enough that you can upgrade
everywhere? I said, versatility?Yeah, that's a good way to put
it. And I you know,and that was interesting that he brought up
that we do have players that canplay other positions to go upgrade. I

(01:04:13):
also thought the fact that he mentionedthat there were no untradables in the system
are interesting. Now. I knewhe wasn't gonna go to me and say,
hey, no, Colt Emerson iscompletely untradable or Harry Ford is completely
untradable. But hearing that they areopen minded and maybe I am just a
guy who really wants to hear thenice thing right now and action speak louder
than words. Obviously, no questionabout it. But it is kind of

(01:04:35):
nice to know that they are opento pretty much anything right now. Yeah.
I mean, if someone offered VigeroJunior for Harry Ford, they that
they'd probably say yes to that.Yeah. I mean, to me,
that just means that they will havethe conversation. I don't necessarily think that
they are incredibly willing to trade thoseguys, and that I don't think that's

(01:04:57):
a bad thing either. Of course, not nobody has asked. Just sorry
to interrupt, but nobody is askingfor a trade just for the sake of
a trade. Right. Actually,I think there are some people who are
asking for that just because they getmore excited by roster moves than they do
about baseball games. There are definitelythose sports fans. I can't relate to
them more. And it's a lotof impatience with this team. They know
that this pitching staff's really good,this is a really good opportunity. It's

(01:05:19):
a really good year to win theWest, have some home playoff games.
I can understand the desire to beextra aggressive at this point in time because
of the way the roster is.You have a lead in the division,
but that doesn't mean you need tobe throwing away value at that point.
The comments about ti Oscar Hernandez,Yeah, and specifically saying that that is

(01:05:42):
not something that he has heard fromother players, I will just ask you
straight up, do you think that'strue. I think it is true that
other players have said that to him, because I know players talk to each
other, and I wouldn't think ifreal quick, you're talking about players saying
that TONEZ. Yes, and youknow, I don't think you would have

(01:06:03):
said that at the All Star Gameif that weren't true. You wouldn't just
say, oh, I've heard thatfrom other players too. No, it's
like, I think that's something whereif it's a conversation when they're smoke,
there's fire. Ruh. Now,I don't necessarily don't necessarily disagree with Holland
or either that, Like maybe theyhaven't brought it up to them, like

(01:06:23):
the coaching staff or the organization,but obviously ti Oscar has, and he
mentioned that that's something that he didtalk to him about. So I'm interested
to see how much of an effectthat has on hitters. I know batter's
eyes can be a kind of abig deal. It seems like such a
minuscule thing, but it can besuch a big deal, especially in a

(01:06:44):
place where you have a retractable roof. You have to have you've got to
be able to see the ball outof the pitcher's hands very very clearly,
and sometimes it's not the case.I don't think there's any doubt about that.
And look, there are creatures ofcomfort too, right, Like they
like having something that they like ona consistent basis, and if you have
something you don't like on a consistentbasis. And look at the numbers that

(01:07:05):
to Oscar put up on the roadcompared to at home. I don't think
that this is just excuses for thesake of excuses. Now, it sounded
to me like Hollander was less concernedabout the bullpen than maybe some other fans
are. Did you get that impression? Did get that impression? Yes,
he was pretty confident in how theywere going. I think a lot of
it has to do with the returnof Gregory Santos and as we just heard,

(01:07:26):
hopefully the impending return of Gabe Spire, which I do think is are
two big ads to this bullpen,two guys that you can trust in later
game situations. That way, youcan kind of move everyone down one spot,
whether that's Austin Voth, whether that'sMike Bauman, whether that's Taylor Salsato
kind of being the roles I thinkthey're more suited for. Trent Thornton could
be thrown into that conversation as well. But I do still think they need

(01:07:50):
a reliever, at least one whetherthat's a a late inning, high leverage
guy, maybe not, but atleast one more guy. Do you feel
confident in, uh to kind ofgive everyone else that one extra spot to
to feel like, because I feellike there's a couple just not guys that
you're not confident in that you wouldbe throwing in in that situation at this

(01:08:13):
point, I totally agree, andlike, look, Austin Vothe to me
was gaining that confidence and then nowhis last two appearances has made me feel
like tough. Maybe he profiles betterin that six seventh inning role. You've
seen Trent Thornton kind of in thatmulti inning, mid inning role. I
think that's where he profiles best.Agree well, I also think it sounded
like they're more confident in using Santosand back to back games coming soon,

(01:08:34):
which is good, which is great, but at the same time, it
also sounds like it's not going tobe an immediate thing, correct and not
having that guy who should be yourfireman, the guy who is the ultimate
bridge to Andreis Munos, and notbeing able to use him in closing situations
as well, definitely something If youmiss the conversation, it will be up
on our podcast on nine three threeKJR dot iHeart dot com. Did I

(01:08:59):
have that right? Yeah? Ninethree I mean anywhere you find your podcast,
it's on the iHeart app, butif you want to go to the
website, it's nine three three kJR dot com. Well, I was
kind of close. You're close.I go to nine three three KJR.
iHeart all the time. Yeah,that's what I type it, so I
know it will get me. I'msure you'll find it some point. But
if you missed that conversation, definitelydownload that great tool and it shows all
the other shows that if for somereason you missed this live. Yeah,

(01:09:23):
just can't imagine we're gonna go fromthat to talking about some hockey next.
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(01:09:50):
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(01:10:11):
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(01:10:35):
Furness Talkee time Baby and I haven'tgotten a chance to talk, at least
on the radio. I've talked tosomebuddies about it, about the crack and
off season, and I'm pretty excitedactually by what they did. They bringing
in Brandon Montour on that seven yeardeal, bringing in Chandler Stevenson on his
long term deal. And I knowa lot of people had a problem with

(01:10:57):
the latter, and I saw someanalytical websites. Let's basically say that this
deal could end in disaster. Yeah, I disagree, and let me tell
you why. Number One, wemay not be alive by the time that
deal. Is Not the big thingfor me here is I think that people
forget that, especially with hockey,the salary cap is going up and about

(01:11:18):
to go up in a big way. According to a lot of people that
I've talked to who have some prettygood intel on this stuff, the salary
cap is about to see a majorrise. Now. Some hockey teams,
for instance, to Toronto Maple Leafswere really encumbersomed, to use the nice
word for it, by the capnot going up because of the pandemic.

(01:11:40):
The cap number is about to getbig. The big number you see for
Chandler Stevenson, by the time thatcontract is near the end is not going
to be the albatross that it seemsright now. The six million dollars,
I believe that it is at theend, six six, two five is
going to look more like three orfour. And that's perfectly fine for a
third or fourth line center. Rightnow, I think you're getting him to

(01:12:00):
be a top six scorer for you, and I love adding a top six
score. And Brandon Montour, whenhe's been healthy, when he's been at
his best, has been one ofthe best defensive linemen or excuse me,
defensive lineman. That tells the Seahawktalk that was defensive. Yeah, one
of the best defensemen. And Ican't help but think having that guy lead
power play one and Vince dun leadpower play two. Just how much better

(01:12:24):
you made this hockey team? Questionfor me Anders is is it enough for
what to play to make the playoffsagain? I post season? I think
yes. I think this is aplayoff team next year. Sure. I
don't know if that puts him intothe Stanley Cup conversation. Sure, just
yet, we have to see developmentfrom Matty Benier's I think that's the number

(01:12:45):
one with these auditions. You haveto see development from Matty Beaneers. He's
a big step back in twenty twentytwo or twenty twenty three to twenty four.
He needs to be a top linecenter in twenty twenty four, twenty
five because Chandler Stevenson. I thinkhe is a very good second line center.
If he is your top line center, which he probably will start the

(01:13:06):
year. Sure he's not. He'son the lower end of the top line
centers in the National Hockey League.I would agree with that for sure.
And you know, ultimately, Ido believe Matty Beniers is going to have
a back back. He's going torebound. I couldn't don't know why it's
back bounce back. I think iswhat I'm going to say backbound season for
Mattie Vaniers. At the same time, I think you hit the nail on

(01:13:27):
the head with Stevenson being a linetwo center and he's being paid like a
line two center. To be fair, this is not a contract to me.
I think once you get in theeight million ranges when you're talking about
center ones, yeah, i'd haveto look out look to see what others.
Oh, that's stupid. Research isdumb. Yeah, yeah, let
the let the tell him more duetext line, tell us how wrong we
are. Yeah. Just my originalreaction was like, they're paying him to
be a line one center. Like, but I could be totally wrong.

(01:13:50):
I'm not. I'm not super intohockey contracts or any one point five okay,
And you know, ultimately, thatguy's speed, I think is going
to make a huge, huge differencefor that team to begin because I think
one of the things that this teamwas lacking a little bit was athleticism,
the ability to go crash and makesome plays towards the goal line. You

(01:14:10):
know, so many of the thosechances just didn't come because all due respect
to Maddie Beiniers, who was farfrom a bad athlete, you know he's
relying. I think a little bitmore on instincts, you know, a
little bit more on and I againdon't think he gets enough credit for how
good of a defensive player that heis, and the analytics really like his
defense as well. But you needto see more offense from your center one.

(01:14:30):
I totally understand that. I don'tthink those two things though, it
can be mutually inclusive or exclusive.If Maddi Beneers could be a sixty point
center and play that type of offensefor you, you've got a really special
player. Yeah, I still wantto see if your line one center be
the seventy to eighty point range.Okay, but maybe that's expecting a little

(01:14:53):
too much from him, especially fornext year. For next year, I
think it is. For the longterm, I don't think it is,
and I think it's easy to forgeget that mighty beIN Here's is still a
really young player. Yeah, he'stwenty one. I just see a lot
of other young players in the NationalHockey League that have had a lot more
offensive success in the past couple ofyears and be able to develop their game
on the offensive side. That's totallyfair, much quicker than he has,

(01:15:15):
but how much of that has todo with system and how much of that
has to do with Matti beineir Well, it's a big question because he's had
one coach his entire professional career inDave Hackstall, and there has been questions
about what that does for the offensivegame. Dan Bousma runs a totally different
offensive scheme. Is he viewed moreas an offensive oriented coach? I don't

(01:15:36):
want to say offensive oriented, butthe way he runs his offense is much
more speed, which is why Ithink another underrated part of the Chandler Stevenson
addition, it's it's moving the pucknorth and south instead of left and right
quickly, quick breakouts instead of kindof, you know, slow transitional game.
If that makes any sense. Wouldyou consider moving Vince Done for a

(01:16:00):
top six score? Depends on whoit is. I still think that'd be
tough because I still think right nowVince Done is your best player. I
agree even more than Brandon Montour,I totally, even though he's is he
making more I don't know, makesa little bit more than Vince Done,
but I also love the Montour edition. I do too. Yeah, it's
He's probably the one big question Markwith Montour is how much of last year's

(01:16:24):
injury sure is going to be afactor moving forward because he's thirty going on
thirty one doubts, But if youtake that out, he's probably It's hard
to say, but he's been atleast a top five defenseman in the NHL
the past three years. I thinkit's really cool that you could make the
argument that the kra can have twoof the five best defensive passers right now.

(01:16:47):
I think if you, I'll takeyou a step further, I think,
if you include your goaltender situation withyour full defenseman, you probably have
the best goaltender plus defenseman corps inthe NHL. That is spicy, and
that's exciting to think into the factthat I don't automatically disagree with you,

(01:17:08):
and I automatically disagree with a lotof them. So many things. We're
going to talk about some potential Marineradditions to the bullpen. Chris Crawford and
for Ian Forness ninety three to threeKJRFM now from the Star Rentals Sports Tests.
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(01:18:14):
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(01:18:39):
Well, hoofa Watson? I guessyeah, Well that's the thing. Does
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(01:19:24):
for Ian Forness, going to bein for the next two days. In
the next hour as well. Reallyappreciate the opportunity, Really appreciate so many
reaching out and saying that you don'tsuck at this. That's all I want
to hear. Yeah, they probablyblock out the ones that say you do.
Oh that's true. I accuse Jesseof doing that at one point,
and uh, you know, maybethey are. Maybe they are. That's

(01:19:44):
all right. No, I haveconfidence. It is good to have confidence.
It's much better than the ladder.Let's talk about speaking of ladder usually
bullpen arms pitching the ladder portion ofa game. And let's put on our
GM hat. Yesterday we took alook at the middle infield and some players
that we thought made sense for theSeattle Mariners to acquire, and we did
just have Justin Hollander on and itsounded like Justin Hollander kind of suggested that

(01:20:08):
the bullpen isn't as big of concernas the offense. And he's right there,
but it also kind of sounded likehe's more relying on the players that
they have number one. I'll askyou this, Anders, do you think
that's a mistake. M It dependson how much that affects their willingness to
go get an ARM. I stillthink they need one more ARM. I
don't think they need to get twoor three. It's not a huge burning

(01:20:31):
need. Now that especially at Santosis back, hopefully he's back for the
rest of the season. Munios isstarting to look like himself again. I
guess he gets an extra week ofrest and so he didn't play in the
All Star Games, so that'll behelpful for him. Sure. And then
yeah, I gave Spier coming backin the next week. That'll give another
lefty to the kind of rotation there, which I think is actually a big
deal. So I don't think it'sa huge, huge, absolute need.

(01:20:55):
But I still think they need onearm. So if that, if what
he said prohibits them from going toget one and looking other places, I
would say that's a mistake, becauseI still think they need one. Would
you rather see this team make atrade for a bullpen arm or would you
rather see this team trade for aback end starter and make Brian Wu a

(01:21:16):
part of their bullpen? Bullpen easily, bullpen arm easily. You want someone
that I know people like to justkind of think about, oh, it's
starter can move to the bullpen.It's a completely different way of preparing,
especially this late in the year,and as young of a players Brian Wu,
who hasn't really ever been a bullpenplayer or bullpen arm in his career.
So and I still think when he'sright, he's he's had the best

(01:21:41):
numbers throughout the year this year.I know Logan Gilbert's been your guy just
because he's been available so much,but Brian Woo's looked absolutely spectacular when he's
on there, so I still wanthim part of the rotation. You need
a bullpen arm who can be ahigh leverage guy that you trust in a
late game situation. So Anders andI are each going to mention three names.
We have specifically not brought up thosenames to each other, And once

(01:22:02):
again, I'm going to be thebetter person and let you go first,
number one on your list, allright, just like I did yesterday with
Jonathan India, I'm gonna go withone who may not be available, but
I think this one actually has ahigher chance of being available than Jonathan India
was. Okay, he's been someonewho's been seen as one of the best
relievers in the league the past threeor four years, and he's had a

(01:22:27):
little bit of a struggle some yearthis year, not the exact dominance that
we expected from him, which iswhy I think maybe you could get him
a little bit cheaper than you wouldhave normally. Let me just say something
real quick. I had an ideawhere you were going the first time.
I have no idea where you're goingwith Camilo Davall from the San Francisco Giants.
Very interesting. Wow. Yeah,I just don't think that's going to

(01:22:48):
be available. I don't think so. I've seen a lot of links saying
that they want to trade him.Well, and you know, there's always
and where they're smoke, there's fire. Yeah, you know, and I
think that the San Francisco Giants,especially, be one of the most open
ended organizations in sports, would certainlyconsider it. From that regard. I
love that call. Yeah, Ilove that call. And look, I

(01:23:09):
think with Camila Daval, he's someonewho would benefit from getting out of a
closer's rule. Absolutely. There aresome guys and I'm not saying Camilo Daval
can't be a closer. We've seenhim have success in the closing role,
but I think he'd be somebody whowould actually benefit from moving into that seventh
inning role. Absolutely, I completelyagree. Yeah, and I think if

(01:23:31):
he is available, I think thatwould cost less than Mason Miller. I
don't think there's any question about it. Yes, Mason Miller to me is
the would be the number one target. If it's even fathomable, but you're
talking about moving top one hundred prospectsfor a bullpinner. Yeah, there is
some talk because of the fact thathe was a starter last year that he
could be a starter long term.There's just number one, he's has already

(01:23:55):
had a significant injury, and numbertwo, with how hard he throws and
with the fact that there is someeffort to the delivery, I have real
doubts that he could ever be asstarter. So in terms of him being
of actual, available, talented relievers, and yes, I did giggle at
one hundred percent. I swear ifyou guys text it in that I'm saying,
I'm gonna keep saying it. I'mgonna keep saying if you text in

(01:24:17):
the word bum fuzzle, that's whatwe're gonna say as well. By the
way, that's what I tweet afterevery George Kirby walk. I find many
times he tweeted it twelve times thisyear, twelve times this year. It's
absolutely insane, man, absolutely insane. I think that's a really good number
one call. Okay, just theability to miss bats. He's not somebody
I thought of, but I thinkthat makes an awful lot of sense.

(01:24:40):
Yeah, he's kind of fallen outof their close a role, so I
think they'd be more willing than everto give him up. Number one.
For me, I think is noquestion available. And we talked about this
when we had our Jazz Chisholm conversationabout a dual trade. Obviously I am
talking about AJ Puck. No,I'm just kidding. A J. Puck
is interesting, But give me TannerScott. I mean, this is a

(01:25:00):
guy look reliever. ERA can besometimes one of the most misleading things,
particularly high ones, because if yougive up have one bad outing where you
give up six runs, your bullpenera as well, you know what,
and far from home it is over. But Tayner Scott is a one point
three ERA and a one point zerofive to four whip, And that's even

(01:25:23):
more impressive considering the fact that thisguy can have the walkies sometimes he does
not always have his best command.But in terms of just pure stuff,
I'm not sure that there's a betterleft handed reliever in baseball right now.
And the fact that Taylor Sossetto hasbeen good but not great and profiles better
as a mid thing mid thing,profiles bore as a mid inning arm,

(01:25:46):
and gave spire looked great to startthe year, did not look great before
the injury, and we'll see whathe becomes. I don't want to trust
him as a high leverage guy.I want Sasato inspire. You know,
it'd be nice to have three leftiesin the bullpen, because it's just it
creates more intrigue, you know,and it's something that you manage around,

(01:26:08):
you know, having those three,and all three of those guys can get
right handers out as well, really, but Tanner Scott's stuff is just sick.
And the big thing for me hereis acquiring Tanner Scott puts less pressure.
Not only can you use him ina closing role and he's been successful
in that role, it takes lesspressure on Gregory Santo's because I think Tanner
Scott in a traditional sense, becomesyour eighth inning arm in that case,

(01:26:30):
and having somebody who can give yousaves. If you've got a left right
left situation, maybe you have himpitch instead of Andre's Munials. You can
do that, or if you justwant to give Munios a break, or
if you want to use Munio's inthe eighth inning, which I think they
haven't been able to do as oftenbecause well, they've certainly used him in
the eighth a lot, but they'vehad to use him for four out sakes,

(01:26:51):
and I really think I wanted toask Collander about that as well,
if they want to avoid that somuch, because already six is a lot,
a lot of four out saves.Oh yeah, So having somebody who
can pitch in basically any situation,even keeping in mind the fact that you
are going to have to deal withsome free passes and it's going to be

(01:27:11):
an expensive ask because everybody wants TannerScott. Yeah, so if you package
him in the kind of Jazz Chisholmsituation, then I think that'd be a
really really good trade for the Mariners. Sure probably have to give up one
of your top ten guys for thatpackage. You're probably having to give up
one of your top five guys inthe package. Yeah, Okay, I
think so, just because of howmany people are going to be interested in
him, Maybe the Felm and celistonmakes a little bit of sense there because

(01:27:35):
a long term thing. Now,after talking to Keith Law, I'm a
little less it sounds like he likesfilm and Seliston is the second best prospect
in this. That's kind of whatit sounds like to me, and I
get it in terms of talent.By the way, he has a risk
injury right now, which is whyhe hasn't been playing. They said it
was a sore rist but it's beena long time now, so I wonder
if it's really really sore. Itwould still be somebody I would consider moving

(01:27:57):
in that type of deal, becauseyou are talking about light years away and
you're getting somebody who can help youfor the next two or three years in
Chisholm as well as Tanner Scott,So that would be something I would consider.
At least he was my number twoso all, but I have four
names here, I was least pairedthe second one. I have another quote,
Well, okay, I'll do myfor sure. He's available guy now

(01:28:18):
the Kyle Finnigan from the Washington Nationalslove it. He's been really successful this
year. I don't even know thatI'm that much about him. All I
know is that he has a lotof red on his Baseball Savant page,
and he has a lot of fantasypoints and the really bricked out so and
he placed to the Nationalist who areout of it. So give me Kyle
Finigan. I think Kyle Finnigan isprobably number two on my list as well

(01:28:42):
if I or excuse me, interms of realistic, guaranteed availables available.
Yeah, there's no denying that KyleFinnegan is available. Now, what I
was going to bring up is mynumber one on this list would have been
Hunter Harvey, who unfortunately got tradedto the and the City Royals. And
I think that's one thing you haveto keep an eye on here. The

(01:29:03):
Royals gave up the thirty ninth pickin the draft and their number two prospect
for Hunter Harvey. Wow, whichkind of tells you why bullpen arms are
available, but also at a premium, at a premium because and look,
Hunter Harvey. Actually he's gone throughsome scuffles a little bit. I think
he had like an eight point fourto four ERA over his last fifteen games.

(01:29:24):
But as as good as swinging missstuff as anybody for those of all
you old enough to remember, BrianHarvey Anders is certainly not old enough to
remember. Number one. He hadthe best uh what do they call these?
I'm I'm doing handlebar mustache? Isthat you'll see and absolutely lights out
stuff. It looks so funny seeinghim in the handlebar mustache and he played
for the Miami Marlins. You know, was Neon Green because you know he

(01:29:45):
just must have hated that. ButHunter Harvey would have been up there.
And now Kyle Finnegan is way upthere as well, a guy who can
pitch in a closing situation, whohas had success as well pitching in non
closing situations. And I think that'simportant too. You know, some players
do not like moving out of therole. Jose Mesa notoriously really struggled anytime
he was brought in to pitch ina non save situation. It's nice to

(01:30:08):
know that Kyle Finnegan would be availablein that situation. So yeah, that's
my number two as well. Thenmy number three, and I want to
say there were a bunch of guysthat I thought of. Chad Green of
the Toronto map or Maple Lee's TorontoBlue Jays, Carlos Estevez of the Los
Angeles Angels I think makes a lotof sense, Dylan Floro also of the

(01:30:29):
Washington Nationals. My number three,and it might be a little bit of
a controversial one, is Michael Kopek. And look, Michael Kopek has a
five point one ad RA and wejust talked about reliever era being a misleading
thing, but that's not great.A one point four two five whip also
tells you that this guy has issuedsome free passes. He's also incredibly handsome,
and we cannot ignowledge just kidding,but anybody who watches reality TV is

(01:30:53):
probably familiar with Michael Kopek. AshleyRyan brings it up all the time that
he has dated many of the uhrealive candidates that have been on that stuff.
He's also a guy who struck outfifty five batters in forty innings,
and he has some of the bestswing and miss stuff in all of baseball.
My thing for Michael Kopek is Ithink he could help the Mariners in

(01:31:13):
twenty twenty four. I also thinkthat the Seattle Mariners, and look,
he will hit free agency sooner thansome of these other arms. But the
Seattle Mariners have done such a goodjob of developing these type of guys.
For all the crap we give himabout their offensive stuff, and we should
give him crap about their offensive stuff. For all that we talk about there,
they are as good at pitching developmentright now as anybody in baseball.

(01:31:38):
You give me the Mariner's pitching staff, development staff, and you give me
Michael Kopek throwing averaging ninety eight pointseven with his fastball and his six point
nine foot extension. Six point ninenice, eighty seventh percent dile. I
think the Seattle Mariners can turn thisguy into maybe not a star, but
one of the better relievers in baseball. It can help you this year.

(01:31:58):
And that's why the other two guysahead of him, And if you wanted
to say, I'd prefer a JasonFoley because he's more successful right now.
I'd prefer a Deylan Flora. He'smore successful right now. But also the
fact that the Chicago White Sox almosthave to trade Michael Kopek. Oh yeah,
that's another reason that you may beable to get Copeck and one of
these other arms. I don't thinkthey would, yeah, because it almost
sounds like they're not going to makea move for a bullpen guy at all.

(01:32:19):
Yes, based on the conversation.Yeah, but Michael Kopek's stuff is
filthy. Yeah, that's good.The walks really really worry me. The
Mariners are seem to be better atkind of getting stuff out of people who
maybe you wouldn't expect stuff from,instead of the limiting the walks from people
who have been known to throw alot or give up a lot of walks.

(01:32:42):
So that would be a worrisome situationfor me if that was the only
arm you were getting. My thirdand I guess fourth, now that you
took Tanner Scott, this is apretty unlikely he's available, but it's you
never know with this team, that'swhat they're gonna do. And it's Tampa
Bay Rays. Oh they're five hundredexactly right now. They're not in the

(01:33:03):
contention at all for the NL Eastor East. I should say, Pete
Fairbanks, love that call. Giveme Pete Fairbanks, give me that personality.
If you have seen any of hispostgame like media availabilities, they are
the funniest thing. He might bethe best post game guy in the sport
right now, absolutely is. He'shilarious well, and you combine that with

(01:33:26):
the fact that he looks like theguy in what's the movie where they have
his eyes wide open to make surethat he watches it. It's a Stanley
Kubrick movie. Your youth just absolutelyfrustrating. But he's wide open eyes are
wide open and stuff's nasty. Oh, he has nasty stuff. And look,
he got off to a bad startthis year. And one of the

(01:33:47):
reasons I know that is because Iheard Pete Fairbanks talking about his bad stuffs
on a lot of appearances. Lookso funny wearing that hat where he does
as well. But on top ofthat, and I heard Ashley bring this
up as well, that Estoc Paradiesand Pete Fairbanks in a trade package is
an awfully appealing thing, and itsounds like both could be available, in

(01:34:09):
part because I think Tampa Bay isone of those organizations we kind of talked
about with the Giants. Yeah,incredibly open minded. Yes, if we
were Mariner fans, we would be. When we are all frustrated because we're
Seattle Mariner fans, we would befrustrated with that type of move. Yes,
you know what I mean, becausethey are guys who are still under
contract, who you know are goingto get more expensive. But in a

(01:34:30):
non cap league that shouldn't matter allthat much. You're in contention for a
wildcard spot, in contention, andyou know Randio Rose Arena has been and
I think we'll talk about Randio RoseArena in this coming in these coming days.
But you know, and maybe we'lltalk about paradies and yandy dias in
these coming days as well. Butyou know, you're still in contention.
But at the same time, Ido think they're an organization that kind of

(01:34:53):
feels like if you're not a WorldSeries contender, there's a little bit of
Ricky Bobby to them in that ifyou're not f your last kind of thing,
yep, where they would kind ofprefer not to be hovering around this
year. Yeah, And it's it'sone of those situations where they're kind they
always try and be one step ahead, right the Tampa Bay Rays like if
they even if they like maybe haveseen like they're close, they're they're almost

(01:35:15):
there there or they're kind of comingdown from Remember last year they had this
amazing start or was that two yearsago? I can't remember, but it
was too it was last year,but remember it was a lot of beating
up on Oakland exactly. Yeah.So I mean, I think there's a
pretty good chance that you could getsomeone like him and just his stuff's great,
his personality is great. You wantthat kind of macho player. I

(01:35:39):
think the Marriers need a little bitmore of that as well. They have
a lot of kind of quieter guys. Sure, someone who's kind of stepping
up and kind of take the reins. Paul Seawald is actually like the guy
would kind of get in front ofeveryone say hey, we need to put
better, let's go, especially forthe bullpen who's kind of a different animal.
And that was Kendall Graveman before that, exactly exactly. So I think
someone like Pete Fairbanks would be anexcellent not just on the field of audition,

(01:36:00):
but in the clubhouse as well.So that's my number three, and
that I think that's totally fair.Just one name that we didn't mention that
has been reported, is available andhas some success this year. One hundred
percent out on a Roldist Chapman,And I am just gonna leave it at
that. No thank you on aRoldis Chapman. Nope, no thank you.
He's old, he's you know,I mean, he still throws one

(01:36:23):
hundred and two or whatever, buthe walks away too many people not having
his best year. Yeah, nothank you. What about Carlos as Steves
real quick? I would rather havehim than Michael Kopek if we were doing
the order he would be after Pete, probably in the Kyle Finnigan range for
me in terms of like players thatlike. In terms of just players I

(01:36:43):
would want on this team, Iwould be committed of all number one Tanner
Scott, number two, Pete Fairbanks, three, and then Kyle Finnigan Ford.
The only reason I put Finnigan abovePete Fairbanks is because you could probably
get him on a lot cheaper ofa cost, so I think that's a
little bit more realistic. But Iwould still put a Stevez over someone like
Michael Kopek, just because those walks, as we just talked about the Worldest

(01:37:04):
Chapman, worry me a little toomuch. One other name I'll mention,
and I will be very much determinedby how this team plays over the next
couple of weeks. If Kirby Yatesbecomes available, I would be absolutely interested
in that. Zero think they wouldmake him available. Well, it's going
to depend on what happens over thesenext couple of weeks. If they are
eight or nine games back, Yeah, I do think that they would make

(01:37:26):
a thirty seven year old closer available, you know, good point, and
but at the same time, Ialso take a look at a player who
is due for serious regression. Yes, and that is Kirby Yates. And
I don't know trading within the division. I don't know what Texas is all
about with that kind of stuff.Maybe they sell him for more than he's
worth a situation. I think thatthey are open minded enough that they would

(01:37:47):
do an indivision. Okay there,let us know what you think on the
text line four nine, four orfive one presented by Teler Mardu. When
it's game time, it's totally time. We'll do that. Next. Sports
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