Hour 1 - Late Night Mariners Texts, Jeff Passan

Get in the freaking auto! From the Quantum Fiber Studio, this is Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports. Brock Heward and Mark, Matt, Mark, sorry about just my mic. Heward, not exactly Joe Katz there in the pocket. Now here are your hosts, Brock Heward and Mike Salk. Alright, good morning everybody. It is the Brock and Salk show Seattle Sports on 710seattleSports.com. The Seattle Sports have podcast platforms 97, 3 HD, 2 and YouTube. Not YouTube, YouTube. Maybe both. I don't know. Good to have you guys this morning. Good to be with you. We've now kind of in about a 27 hour span gotten sort of the full gamut of the emotions that baseball can bring you, right? You know, you can just go to the fun walk off the night before and then you see what happens when your team just unfortunately gets overpowered by one of the best pitchers in baseball and just didn't really have it. Max Freed's a terrible, terrible match up for this team. You really hope that you don't have to see somebody like him a couple of times in the postseason because they have the lefty challenges this team is going to have. I mean, I think it's just a good fit for the dominant stuff. Another night and you know, this time of year here in Seattle, it's just not a good fit for this matter team or really any team. But specifically this one. So you kind of get to see it last night. But maybe the good news here because there wasn't a lot of good news in the game. They get shut out, whatever. The good news, I think, is that I want to start something new on the show. Now I'm going to need to get a little production drawn up more. I think we'll have to make some production. We'll talk to our guy, maybe even big voice guy. I don't know. We'll see. But I think I'd like to start something called late night Mariners texts because they are pretty hilarious. They really are. And I hope they don't stop. I hope this is something we can keep doing throughout the season because they're wonderful. Please, if you are a, if you would, if you like to text the show about the Mariners either while the game is going or late at night or whatever, please keep going because these are good. Three, six, oh, Lyle, you ready? Ta-da-da-da. Late night Mariners texts. That was one of the most lifeless M's games I've watched in a while. Well, you've only watched six of them. Like how far back are we going? Yes, it was the most lifeless game of, wait a minute, the six they've played so far this year. But this is the best part. The weight of expectations and hard competition seemed to make them uninterested. So I just want to be clear for the first five games, including the night before where they had a walkoff win, the weight of expectations and hard competition weren't a problem. But last night it just overwhelmed them. Or maybe it was just that Max Frieds, one of the best pitchers in baseball. I don't know. Hard to tell. Let's see what else we got. There's a bunch of these. Salk, I'm of the opinion that Logan Gilbert's throwing mechanics are too awkward. Arms and legs flailing everywhere to maintain health and longevity and would rather the Mariners not extend him. I think that there's actually a real question about whether to extend Logan Gilbert. I don't know if it has anything to do with the length of his arms and his legs. And I don't know whether I would look at last night and immediately afterwards say forget this. I think you probably need a little bit more perspective. But all right, there's like a little bit of something there. Joseph in the 360 at 915 last night. It's early, but this offense looks like it's not going to struggle against lefties, but get completely shut down. And out often against any lefties. Now again, I'm with you on there going to struggle against lefties. I really do. I've been saying this since the offseason. That is one of the challenges of this lineup. They're going to need Rob Reffsnider to start hitting against lefties. Something he's always done and something he has not yet done in the couple of opportunities he's had this year. That's pretty important. And they're going to need probably Victor Robles to do the same. But you telling me you're going to watch the Mariners against Max Fried. And the takeaway is they're going to get completely shut down every time they face a lefty. He might be kind of unique. And I know they had some issues the day before. It's not like they overpowered weathers like again, I'm with you. I think they're going to struggle against lefties, but completely shut down and out every time. Three six. Oh, how many more of these Logan Gilbert starts do we need to see until extending him becomes a bad idea? Lyle, how many more? This is how I know I spend way too much time online because I'm immune to all these at this point. It's just total second nature. It's like I see this on the daily. I like them. Oh, I think they're hilarious, but I'm also kind of immune to it. It's easy to get worked up about this stuff and like send it in group chats and send it to other people. It's like, look at all these dumb people setting in these messages for me. It's like, yeah, it's not saying they're dumb. I just think it's hilarious. Like there's just some real, I love the up and down emotional nature. And I think it's, you know, generally wrong, but it is fun. Oh, who would get up and down emotional on the daily? I can't imagine. I don't know. Salk says the 509. I know the Mariners lost. It wasn't a good game for the hitters yesterday. And of course the Kraken lost too. Yeah, they were both shut out, but I'm going to Culver's for the first time today. What's my order? See now we're talking 509. Now we're talking. Here's what I don't know whether we're still in. Oh yeah, you still got a couple more days before Lent end right ends, right? Doesn't Lent end with Easter? I believe so. More, more. You're a resident Catholic. I know, but I'm not practicing. This is something you should know. You went to Catholic school. This is the one thing we need from you. Uh, anyway, Lent, it ends at Easter, right? Well, it says it technically ends on Holy Thursday, April 2nd. Oh, okay. So go today because my understanding is that the walleye fish sandwich, which is the best thing to get at Culver's ends with Lent. Sometimes it goes a little bit longer because I think they have to sell the rest of the fish sandwiches that they have, but you got to go like today, brother, and get the walleye fish sandwich. I recommend the cheese curds with it. The cheese curds are really good. And then get one of the concrete mixers or cement mixers, whatever they're called afterwards. Yeah. I, when I saw that they had a mini option that really sold me because usually I think that's too much, but they have a little mini concrete mixer and I got the chocolate chip cookie dough when we were out there. It was amazing. 509. I love this idea for a new segment. I will definitely be contributing. Please, please jump aboard. I think this is fun. I'm enjoying it. You don't even have to really mean it. I just think it's pretty entertaining watching and listening and now reading some of the late night reaction. All that being said, that was not a good game last night. It really wasn't. I mean, like, as I said, you kind of get to see the full spectrum of what you get over a baseball season in really just the first week, right? You get the excitement of the walkoff. You get the blowout wins where your offense all clicks and you get the games where you just don't have it. And last night was clearly one of those games and also showing you the importance of starting pitching when a guy like Max Freed is the way he was last night. Good luck. I don't know how many lineups in baseball are generating a whole lot more than the Mariners did last night. Again, this is in on paper one of the better lineups in baseball and they do have multiple ways to win and they do have power and they do have on base percentage ability and they do have back to ball skills. I mean, they've got all of those things, but I, I, there are days where a great picture going to shut you down. That's why starting pitching is still the number one most important thing on any team. And Logan didn't quite have it last night and the other guy did and the other guy's one of the best in the game. He hasn't allowed to run yet this year, right? No. Yeah. It's funny. He's kind of an ode to old school pitching because he doesn't overpower people with pitchmix, he just locates like crazy and has all these different pitch mixes. Yeah. He's really good. He really is good. He's really tough to hit. And you know what? If you're looking for one other positive to take from last night's game, because I'm a positive guy right while. I think you would say that about me. Are you the resident positive person of the show? I don't know. I'm just kind of a pause, a naturally uplifting human. And I like to bring positivity wherever I go. Don't laugh, Mora. Don't laugh. We talked about at spring training about this. It's not your brand unless it's spring training. I may naturally positive human being and I like to bring joy wherever I go. I spread it. You know who the comp is for Kate Anderson? Max Freed. Like that's the comp. It's some combination of Cliff Lee. And I think a lot of that has to do with the personality and Max Freed. That's the comp. So if you liked what you saw last night and saw devastation, as Lyle just said, or without overwhelming speed, you know, raw power and Velo lefty long arm, throwing off speed a whole bunch of different things. That's Kate Anderson. Not that he's throwing 85 miles an hour. We're not talking about Jamie Moyer, but you're talking about a new age version of that where you can still throw what? Mid nineties, 94 somewhere in that range. But so you're not lighting up the radar gun by today's standards, but you are keeping people off balance and you can drop in the hammer and he did all those things last night. And that is exactly what we expect from Kate Anderson when he gets to the big leagues. Not that he's going to be a fully formed Max Freed, you know, day one, but that's who he compares to. That's the upside potential of one of the two top pitching prospects in this organization. So frustrating to see last night understand all of the angry texts, especially the one about how the overwhelming expectations got him last night, which is hilarious. But maybe that's the positive you could take out of it. All right, quick break. Everything you need to know, including some of the details on the new contract for Colt Emerson that frankly make it look even better than when we left the show yesterday at 10 o'clock. Pretty cool. It's next on Brock and Salk. Highlights don't win games. The full box score does. I'm Brock Hewitt and most business leaders aren't short on data. They're short on clarity. Businesses are scattered across ERP, CRM and spreadsheets, making decisions reactive instead of confident. And that's not how great businesses are built. Marquis IQ brings all your data together into one clear view, even if it lives in disconnected systems or offline so you can see what's really happening and act faster. Stop running your business on highlights. Get the full picture. Visit data.wins.com to see what Marquis IQ can do. Stream every Seattle sports show with the Seattle Sports app brought to you by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Get new videos, podcasts and articles on the Seahawks and Mariners from your favorite Seattle sports personalities daily. Old Windows cast you money and security. Lake Washington Windows and Doors installs energy efficient high security windows that lower your bills and increase protection. With leak armor installation and lifetime warranties, you're protected for life. Choose LakeWashingtonWindows.com today. Need to know. 15 minutes past every hour with Brock and Salk. Presented by Marquis Data, here's what you need to know up first. Well, the weather was warmer yesterday, but the bats stayed cold. Mariners struggled against their second straight lefty starter. No shame in not getting to Max Freedy really is one of the best in the game and he had it going last night. But yeah, there's a clear difference between this lineup against righties and what it looks like against Southpaws. And that is pretty significant. Again, I think we're going to see that over the course of the season. They were shut out. They generated just four hits, just one walk. Freed needed just 90 pitches to cruise through seven innings. It was not too impressive. Do you even want to highlight for, I mean, I can hear, here was the end of the game. Roof continues to close. Here's the pitch. Swing and a ground ball is short. Cabo euros there. The throat of first and it is all over the Yankees. Like the Mariners tonight, a final score of five to nothing. The series is all tied at one win apiece. It is Logan Gilbert had some good moments. He did, but ultimately gave up five runs and five and a third. That's not going to get it done. Here's Dan Wilson. Yeah. I mean, I, I thought, uh, you know, he did a couple of base runners that got on, but I thought he did a nice job of getting, you know, a double player to here, um, you know, to kind of erase that. And, and, uh, you know, he stayed in control. I thought and gave us a chance to get into that game later. Um, and, uh, we just weren't able to jump in it offensively. Um, you know, he, uh, you know, um, I think, uh, uh, he had some good splits. We saw that, um, you know, and I think his fastballs, uh, I thought he had some good Vilo, um, you know, the cutter. Yeah. Dan's looking for some positives there last night and Logan did have some decent innings, but at the end of the day, five, five runs and five and a third. And you know, he needed a little more than that. And, uh, he didn't have that last night. George Kirby and camp Schlittler will go in the rubber match today at one PM. So best of luck to Rick Riz who's going to have to say that name over and over again. And that was a challenge at some points that last year, JP started his rehab assignment into coma last night. He could have been on the Mariners. He went over four with a walk and a strikeout. So he would have fit right in. Here's the second thing you need to know. I love a lot of what we got yesterday on the Colt Emerson contract. Daniel Kramer coming up with the details here. So here's what it looks like. Uh, $8 million signing bonus, $1 million this year, $2 million next year, $9 million in 2028. So that's a total of 20 million in the first three years. Uh, oh, between 29 and 2033, it's between 12 and 18 million a year. And then the club option for 34 is for $25 million. I mean, it is a great contract for the Mariners. If this kid is anywhere close to what they think he's going to do, $20 million, as we just said in those first three years, which would be his window during which he would normally be paid next to nothing, according to major league baseball rules. But then he gets 15 million, uh, as an average annual value in the final five years of the deal, again, win for both sides. He gets nine million today this year. He's getting $9 million that he did not have. He gets $20 million in three years instead of what would be less than three million. The Mariners get a potential star player during his prime for $15 million a year, which could be less than a third of what the market value for that position is at the time, maybe a quarter. I mean, if things continue to go up, you could be paying $60 million for a top free agent shortstop a year. Instead they'll have them for 15. So really excellent job, Jerry DePoto. Um, I love this too about why they decided to pay Colts when he came to camp this year, you know, it was, I guess his performance was good, uh, and, and really trended as the spring went along. But the way he integrated with the other players and how easily he, it's listening to him talk in the batting cages with Rob Reps, Snyder and Brendan Donovan. And, you know, it's just the ease with which he was operating with guys who've been in the legal long time. Actually really liked that. My daughter's got tryouts tonight and we're reading a whole bunch of stuff about tryout prep. And I, and I like that coaches are always watching. General managers in this case are always watching presidents are always watching. And it's not just what you do on the field, on the court, on the ice, whatever. It's how you handle yourself. It's how you get along with your teammates. It's the confidence that you show and the questions that you ask all of those things factor into why you might make a team or in this case get paid nearly $100 million. Pretty cool for Colt Emerson. Here's the third day you need to know. Well, shutouts were the theme of the night. The Kraken generated next to nothing. They gave up two goals early, never mounted much of a response up in Edmonton. I thought there were some good things. We know that they, you know, they're a bit of a handful in the offensive zone. I thought we, for the most part, kept our opportunities to a minimum. I think we had some, you know, not a lot, but we had some good enough chances to score. It was a low scoring game and we did not convert on our opportunities. They didn't have a lot of opportunities either. I didn't watch the whole game, but what I saw was pretty uninspiring. That's for sure. More turnovers, not enough grit, not enough speed. Kind of is what it is. They'll host Utah tomorrow night. Was nice to see Jaden Schwartz back out there. That was good news after he'd gotten caught with a skate a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately came at the expense of Shane Wright, who got hurt in Buffalo and was unable to go yesterday. All right. That is everything you need to know. Quarter past every hour here on the Brock and Salk show. Just to add to that stuff from Jerry DePoto, I like this cut too. He was asked about whether or not the deal makes it harder to get other deals done. Oh, no, no, no. First of all, the distribution of the salaries again, because we loaded more money in the front end of this contract than would be normal for this type of deal. Usually they're a little bit more back loaded. And while this one does increase as time goes along, it's more subtle than others of its kind. And that was intentional. We're trying to make sure that we can continue to manage these types of agreements with our players as we move forward. Yeah, I like that. I mean, you know, again, if you're going to talk about draft develop trade and I'm going to keep adding retain, this is how you do that, right? You manage what those contracts look like so that you can continue to add to it so Brian Wu can get done. So cold, cold young king. I don't know who the next person is going to be. Obviously, we've got a texture. Doesn't want any part of Logan Gilbert anymore because he had a bad night last night. So yeah, I, I think they've done a really good thing here. Now look, obviously, if, if Colt Emerson isn't good, and he gets hurt or whatever and he never amounts to anything. Yeah, this will be a bummer. There's some risk factor in there. But if he is the guy that he is projected to be, oh my gosh, this is a really incredible deal for the Mariners and really gives them the opportunity to do a lot of other things over the course of that contract. All right. Jeff Passon joined us right after we got this news yesterday. Perfect timing for Jeff. Hear his thoughts on Colt, why they did this deal, why Colt did this deal and ultimately what the Mariners are looking like moving forward. It's next on Brock and Salk. Highlights don't win games. The full box score does. I'm Brock Huird. Most business leaders aren't short on data. They're short on clarity. Numbers are scattered across ERP, CRMs and spreadsheets, making decisions reactive instead of confident. And that's not how great businesses are built. Marquis IQ brings all your data together into one clear view. Even if it lives in disconnected systems or offline, so you can see what's really happening and act faster. Stop running your business on highlights. Get the full picture. Visit datathewins.com to see what Marquis IQ can do. We are Seattle Sports. 7 10 a.m. on your radio streaming through the Seattle Sports app. Get new videos, podcasts and articles on the Seahawks and Mariners from your favorite Seattle Sports personalities daily. Old windows cost you money and security. Lake Washington Windows and doors installs energy efficient high security windows that lower your bills and increase protection. With leak armor installation and lifetime warranties, you're protected for life. Choose LakeWashingtonWindows.com today. For decades, Seattle has lived and breathed baseball. The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the memories made at the ballpark. At Levitt Group Northwest Insurance, they get it because they call Seattle home just like you. They know this community and they know what it takes to protect it. That's why they listen, shop around and tailor coverage for your home, car or business. Call 877-4-LEVITT. Levitt Group Northwest. Insurance you can count on season after season. 877-4-LEVITT. Get up, sock. It's Block and Socks, weekly chat with ESPN senior baseball writer Jeff Passett. Ma'am, when you have a talent like him. Brought to you by your Western Washington Toyota dealers. I see this being the beginning of the best run in the history of this franchise. On Seattle Sports and Seattle Sports on YouTube. Well, this is the start of what will be the greatest run in the history of this franchise. It sure seems like Colt Emerson will have a lot to do with it. Brodyke signs a brand new eight year extension reported this morning by Robert Murray and about $95 million guaranteed. It could go up by another year. It could go up over $130 million. Jeff Passen, what do we think of our breaking news this morning? Good for the Seattle Mariners. They did is what the Detroit Tigers were trying to do with Kevin McGonagall and were not successful. What the Pittsburgh Pirates were trying to do with Conor Griffin and were not successful, which is all of this sort of standard contract that Jackson Shurio started a couple years ago when he signed for eight years and $82 million with the Milwaukee Brewers before he played a single game there. The idea is very simple, guys. Three-agent years are incredibly valuable, especially when those free agent years are in the prime of a player's career. If you can get those locked up, if you can get those at a discount to what the price is going to be for top end players and you believe that this guy, in this case, Colt Emerson, is going to be a frontline player, then you're willing to guarantee him the sort of money up front that teams in the past just simply weren't willing to. I think that's exactly what the Mariners did here, and I think it's a really good day for the Seattle Mariners franchise. Does this make any statement to the finances in the big picture of baseball? That is a totally fair question, Brock, and I'm sorry that I'm copying out on this answer, but I don't know yet. I don't know if there are some people who I heard from this morning who said, Mariners getting ready for the cap. And there are others who said this has nothing to do with the potential salary cap, because regardless of what form baseball's economics take shape in, this is going to be either a really, really good deal because Colt Emerson's a star and you have him locked up for essentially nine years, or a deal along the lines of like a Scott Kingery, which if you recall the filly signed him before his debut for six years and $24 million. I know the money's a lot less, but it didn't work out particularly well, and a number of these deals haven't worked out well. But for the most part, when it's this type of contract that buys out multiple free agent years at the end before a guy's debut, they've tended to be pretty successful. And whether it's Jackson Turrio or San Bessio, there's still a lot of hope. The Brewers think the Turrio deal is a huge win and Bessio has a chance to be really, really good. And the Orioles bet on that in the same way that the Mariners are betting on Colt Emerson. It's funny to keep talking about buying out free agent years when we don't know whether we'll still be in a system then where you get six years of club control. Like we just don't know. Like I agree, Lyle and I were kind of going through the same thing. Like, all right, well, this is great. You get two or three free agent years. These years could be worth 40, $50 million on the open market, maybe more by then. And yet I don't know whether they're going to have a six year plan then. Who knows? Well, that's the thing. If there's a salary cap in place, then the, and again, I don't think there's going to be a salary cap in place, but let's just, like, let's try and work through what it would take for players to theoretically accept something like that. The first thing that they would say is, okay, we're going to be free agents after five years. So potentially the Mariners could be getting an extra year free agency on top of what they're getting right now already. Yeah. That's a great point. And I disagree. I think there is going to end up with some sort of a salary cap when it's all said and done, but this, this, this time around, Mike, or in the future, I think it's going to be this time, but we'll see. I mean, I'm not like, I'm not like betting money on that. I just, I, my gut tells me that that's what the owners are going to, you know, die for at this point, but regardless, love it for the Mariners. Hold on. Can we, can we, can we talk about that for a second? Yeah, we're going to, because I'm the guest and I want to, and you're going to allow me to do that. All right. This is a, this is a really important point that's worth making, and it's going to be the conversation for the entirety of the season, whether we like it or not. Major League Baseball guys, Major League Baseball always wanted one thing, and that was for fans to be engaged and for new fans to be coming into the sport. And among the World Series last year, the World Baseball Classic this year and this season and, and everything that it's potentially bringing, all the new fans are here. Everyone likes the pitch clock. Most people you included Mike shockingly, like ABS. Like right now, baseball is riding a wave and once the, or once the San Diego Padres rather sell for three and a half plus billion dollars, any argument about baseball's franchise values lagging behind others is going to be inert. And so I just have a really, really hard time being the owners dying for something that they don't need for their businesses to thrive. Why did this get done now with Colt? I think because he wanted to do it. That it was with situations like this, Brock, you always have to look at the player as being the driving force behind it, because every club will do a deal like that. Like every club will line up to get free agent years on the young player years in their twenties that they need to pay a little extra for early on. And you know, the way that this contract is structured, it's a little bit front loaded. So the Mariners, they clearly have cash over the next few years to spend and believe that having Colt Emerson is even more discounted rate as time goes on is going to give them the kind of flexibility that they need to continue this. But when you, when you have Julio Rodriguez and Cal Rollins, you know, you're going to have Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh and Colt Emerson, three of your four up the middle players locked up for the better part of half a decade. You're, you're in a really good spot. And when Colt Emerson showed a willingness to do this, this deal came together pretty quickly. Like there was not a whole lot of teeth pulling in this process. There was not, you know, there's back and forth in any deal making scenario, of course, but this one, it was much more pleasant than most. So let me ask you the question that we've gotten most commonly this morning on our text line, and it's from nervous Mariner fans. Why is this different than Jared? And why? Then Jared Kelnick, who they tried to sign to a similar deal to Evan White, who they signed to a deal or even to Dustin Ackley going way back, who they probably would have liked to have signed to a deal like this. If such a thing existed then, why is Colt Emerson a better bet? I think Colt Emerson is a better bet because if you look at what his skills are, there's a lot less variance in those than a guy like Jared Kelnick, for example. Like let's, let's look at Colt Emerson's numbers in the minor leagues. And I'm, listen, I understand minor league numbers do not always translate to the big leagues, but I'm looking especially this past season, when at 19 years old, he went from IA essentially up to AAA. And, and he had shown these types of skills beforehand, but man, bat to ball really matters in swing decisions really matter. And I think they're the reason that the Milwaukee Brewer signed a guy like Cooper Pratt for eight years and $50 million yesterday, somebody who's a top 100 prospect, but certainly not in the echelon that Colt Emerson is. But I think the Brewer's looked at the approach that he takes at the plate and liked it. And if you, if you look at what Colt Emerson did, you know, over those three levels last year, the numbers to me that stand out the most, not the batting average, not the, even the on base percentage, which is really good. It's not the slug. It's not the defensive positions he plays. It's not the home runs, the RBI is the sole basis of any of that. The walks in the strikeouts and in 600 plate appearances, he struck out 105 times, which would make him in the top 20th percentile. If he can carry that over in the big leagues right now, and he walked 71 times, which would probably be the top 10 percentile. So if you have a guy who plays a premium position, which yes, Jerry Kelley ostensibly did when he was coming up playing center field, but he was probably slated more for the corners anyway, Dustin Ackley, second baseman. I know it's up the middle. It's a different story and Evan White, first baseman and much cheaper deal. So that's completely different. But if you can lock in a franchise shortstop who makes good swing decisions as good bats ball skills have some power, you do that eight days a week. And I understand the price was happy, but there is so much money to be made in terms of marginal value on this contract that the Mariners front office, they're smart people. And they get the math and the math in this case was given up for them to lay out essentially a hundred million dollars for a guy who's never had a single day of big league service. Jeffrey, it was some years ago that Salk and I, and like maybe a decade ago where we were at our little picnic table outside the Mariners clubhouse at spring training and the guys like Cliff Lee, and he just got a sense like, I don't want to be here. Like I'm not going to resign here. And now you flip it around and this year with the Brendan Donovan and the number of times we heard from him, how much he loves it. The Cal Raleigh, the Hooli, like, holy cow, Josh, nail every signing. Now you do this deal. What message does that send to other clubs in most importantly, what message that send to the fans here in Seattle? Well, how about this one, Brock? What message does that send to players that this was a place where because of the travel and because of the lack of proximity to other cities that Seattle was not necessarily seen as a destination. And now it is. This is an organization that has a lot of momentum going in. And this is an organization that when you look beyond what it's got right now with Woo and Kirby and Gilbert and Bryce Miller, Wolfram or some Hancock in there. I mean, well, how about him on Sunday night? Just absolutely tremendous. And, and, oh, by the way, like Kate Anderson and especially Ryan Sloan, who I've been talking about on this program for well over a year now, being like the next guy. Yeah, he's the next guy. So if you want to win, Seattle's a place you can do it. And when you have a guy like Cal Raleigh, essentially running the club, a guy who he makes absolutely adore and who just gets it. That right there is a pretty darn good foundation to start with. And then you add in Julio and now Colt Emerson. That with all the pitching is a destination at this point. And a while to think about where the Mariners were, you know, less than a decade ago, but how quickly things change when you run things well. What do you think in today if you're JP Crawford? I'm thinking my time in Seattle has been really nice. Do you think that that's something that ends at the end of this year? That was four seconds. You told me he gave a four and a half minute answer last week. And you gave him grief over that. That was look at that four seconds. Look at that adjustment now that the regular season begins on pass. That's what we get from Jeff. You know what? I contain multitudes, boys. Appreciate you. All right. So you mentioned ABS. I do like it. You're right. I do mostly like it. I would love to propose a change. Like I would love for there to be a gray area around the very edge of the strike zone where we just say, yeah, the call stands. It wasn't blatant enough to overturn it. I don't need to see, you know, this little 0.01 inch that overturns a call, but whatever. I like, I overall. Oh, so wait, wait, wait. So wait, now you're going to have the 0.01 inch butting up against the gray area and that's that there's dude, when you have a border of any variety, there's always going to be that. I know, but I'm okay with a gray area there. Like I just, I'm fine with it. I don't need it to be exact, but okay, fine. That's where it is. I get it. Here's the question Brock and I both had this morning as we were watching Mike Esther Brooke struggle yesterday, uh, trying to call Luis Castillo sinkers at the bottom of the zone. He got like four of them wrong. He was so patient with them. Boonie was so patient with them. Yeah. Are umpires reacting in real time to get a better understanding of the zone? And if there's something they're getting wrong that night, I think we're about to find out. Um, and, and I don't know if the human brain has the capacity to, to react and change that quickly. I imagine with some umpires, we're going to see that. And it's going to be super interesting. You know, this is the sort of thing that my P brain can't do either, but there are analysts who are going to be able to, to look through the data and, and see if there are real time changes. I hope the answer is yes. I'd like to, I'd like to think there's enough malleability, uh, to, to make that happen, but at the same time guys, we are talking about minuscule fractions of inches here on objects moving through time and space at great velocities with the sort of movement that we, we can't process unless we look at things through like a physics based perspective. It's, it to me, what ABS is showing, I understand others look at it like, Oh my God, these umpires are missing things all the time. To me, this is like the greatest sign that umpires are awesome at what they do because if it's really coming down to a matter of fractions of an inch, it's pretty, pretty impressive that they're able to do that. Now CB Buckner. Yeah. I mean, is that not the most hilarious video? I mean, just it was, and it's not cause he's wrong. It's cause he's just so freaking arrogant about it. Hey, I enjoyed all of it. It's great to hear. It's great. Is he going to quit? Is he going to retire along with some of these other guys who are just going to say, like, if it's going to keep embarrassing them publicly, will this finally mean the end of CB? I do not know the answer to that, but I'll say this. When have you ever known stubborn people to let incompetence get in the way of their stubbornness? Who are you referring to there? How dare you? Yeah, I would, I would never, never just slide one by the goalie like that. Speaking of, speaking of data. You're putting that. Well, yeah, speaking of data, I am kind of curious and we're about five games in we're like 20 at bats in. So we are way, way, way on the small, small, small sample size, but at what sample size does the data get large enough to start to draw some conclusions or some opinions on the effect or the non-effect of the WBC on players? I don't think there is a sample large enough Brock to draw a widespread conclusion. I just think that every player is going to react differently to it. And, and it's a, it's a fair question because, you know, you see a rally with a 500 OPS, you see Josh Naylor hit list through five games. You see Leo with one hit. Um, and on the other hand, you know, Don Hamzone has looked really good out there and Randy Rosarana has looked pretty good out there. So I just think it's an individual thing, man. I, I, I wish, I wish I had a, a clear and better answer for you, but I just think ultimately it's player dependent. Okay. Take the WBC out. When does it become from just, just to watch in a small sample size to a little bit of a concern meter? Is it 50 of bats? Is it a hundred of bats in WBC aside? Just looking at, you know, the, the heart of the lineup right now that's as cold as the weather is here in Seattle. Is there any kind of sample size that you start to evaluate? Um, I, I start looking on May 1st and I start being concerned on June 1st. So I, I give it a lot of time and, and even June 1st in terms of both individual evaluation and team evaluation is, is in exact on June 1st. Last year, the Mets were the best team in baseball. Couple weeks later, they were 45 and 24 and had the best record in MLB and they didn't even make the playoffs. So I just did, you know, when, when we asked about like the value of the regular season or what makes the regular season interesting, it's that you can be halfway through and still not have a clear idea of how good a team is in the NBA. When you look at the midway point of the regular season and you look at the standings at the end of season, they are pretty darn similar. Football is a little different, you know, football, football is quite a scheduled dependent sport. Um, but with, with hockey, with the NBA, you tend to get a decent idea of what a team is midway through the season. I think for the most part that's true with baseball, but still I like drawing extreme conclusions. Uh, it's going to be a long time before I do that. But, uh, let's put it this way. If there are struggles from an individual player on May 1st, I'm going to keep an eye on him and see how he's doing through the next month and maybe try and figure out why, like what is it that's causing these? Well, the intriguing one here is, is obviously Julio because, you know, it's just the, been the narrative, listening to my buddy, Benetti and crew Sunday night, like even the national like, Hey, got it. You know, start fast. He's a guy that, that heats up when the weather warms up and it's been a trend for four years. And I know he insights in Edgar and everybody would like to kind of put that to bed and start a season fast. So I do think maybe for a Julio, a may, a may 1st kind of designation is maybe a little bit more fair number as you're trying to rid that narrative. I think that's reasonable. And if Julio Rodriguez plays well, five out of six months, the Mariners are going to be really good. Nope. It's funny to ask this question. 22 minutes into a 25 minute interview, but what did you make of the Mariners first week? Solid. You know, they, they, uh, like, especially considering the fact that, you know, Cal Raleigh did not, and to last night at least had not had a significant hit. Josh Naylor hadn't had a hit. And who your Rodriguez had one hit, the fact that they're three and two. It's, it's a good sign. And I think, you know, this series against the Yankees, I really like watching these two teams play each other. I think, I think it's, I think it's fun. And I said this on the threads last night, I was like, boy, this feels like a series I could be seeing in October. Uh, and like the web, like the weather watching the breath last night or just watching the personnel. Uh, no, the personnel of the weather. I, I, I grew up in Cleveland, bro. A little bit of cold ain't chasing me. Like, I might be the first time I've ever heard anybody say I grew up in Cleveland, bro. Is if it was a flex, wasn't trying to flex. I grew up in Cleveland, bro. So I know, okay. Like I grew up in Cleveland, dude. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. You know, now, now like looking back on that. Yeah. Yeah. You can't win. So you're going to regret that. No, but no, but here's Brock. Here's the thing. He's right. Jeffrey, we got to go. We'll do it again next Tuesday. Already looking forward to it. Thanks buddy. See you, bro. I hope that one lives for quite some time here on the show. I grew up in Cleveland, bro. Yes. Thank you, Jeff. Uh, that one will be remembered. In fact, we might even have a cause to play that one a little bit later in the show. More and I have finagled some, uh, some stories around in order to find a way to sneak that into the show a little bit later. All right. Uh, well, with all these mariner games, including today, uh, I know it's been a little confusing for some folks. You can download the Seattle sports app every game, one app completely free. How about that? You can take the game with you wherever you go, wherever you are, whatever you're doing over the course of a day or an afternoon or an evening, uh, wherever you are, Seattle sports app travels with you. You can enjoy every pitch with Rick Riz and his final season all in one place. And again, at no cost, easiest way to enjoy Seattle Mariners baseball. And yes, it is free. Download the Seattle sports app. All right. So I played golf yesterday with the guy who bid on, um, who bid on, uh, playing golf with me during the holiday magic auction. Great guy, Ray and his buddies, George and Matt, which is a lot of fun, but he asked me a question that led me down a rabbit hole last night. And, uh, I want to ask you guys the same question next. I'm rocking silk.