Hour 3 - Why Do The Rams Whine So Much, Jeff Passan

Get in the freaking auto! From the Quantum Fiber Studio, this is Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports. Brock Eward is my hero. James Ewer just punched me in the kidney. I was gonna use you to a man. That'll work that way, Sherm. This is a show that has my name on it. It's gonna turn, though. Now, here are your hosts, Brock Ewerd and Mike Salk. Hello! Hello! So why are the Rams so whiny now, Brock? I've got a theory. And it's not just their complaining about the two-point conversion play that, you know, there's some whiny, there's so whiny that Les Need and Sean McVeigh couldn't even join in the GM and had coaching pictures. Oh, really? Neither of them were there? And I know Kyle Brown and I spent an exorbitant amount of time studying and digging into as did, as did Lyle's guy, Big Cat, and as did our buddy, Chris Long. So many people studying that coaching picture, which was fascinating, just fascinating. But no McVeigh, no Snead. I think they were still in the competition committee trying to figure out how can we rewrite, you know, this rule so it's not a Rubik's Cube. And then I saw this other quote from McVeigh. This is pro football talk where he's talking about some, what he's dwelling on. He says, I try not to dwell on that stuff that really doesn't move me forward. Now, what I do dwell on is that NSC championship game. One thing you don't do in a two minute situation is don't put the defense back out on the field. And he goes through some of the mistakes he made at the end of the first half and says, what I would do is handle it differently. Handle some things differently game management wise. Anyway, so why, why is Sean McVeigh, who I've never one time thought of as a whiner before, become whiny? Yeah, I don't know. But here's my theory that maybe Mike McDonald really is in his head. And I'm not gonna say kids. I thought for sure you're gonna say kids. He's got young kids. No, I'm trying to think about this realistically and not just being like, our coach has your coach. And like, not that, but like McVeigh's been the top dog in this division for a long time. He's been considered to be the brightest head coach in the game for what is now kind of a long time. He's had Shanahan in his division, but that's his buddy. And they're kind of from the same tree and they're from the same ilk. And I think he just believes he's smarter than Shanahan anyway. So I don't think that's ever really been much of a threat to him. Nothing in Arizona would ever be a threat. So he's certainly not worried about any of that. He gets compared to the great geniuses in NFL history to Andy Reed and Bill Belichick. And like, you know, Bill Walsh and these real innovators who helped move things forward. And he was the boy wonder and all of it. A lot of his personality and a lot of I'm sure his confidence is based on that. Well, when everybody keeps saying Mike McDonald is the defense of Sean McVeigh and then he beats him twice, including in the playoffs. They never really, he's never felt this before. Mike is younger and was hired at right around the same age as McVeigh was. So he's got that same boy wonder, boy genius quality to him. And now he's an actual like true. You like to use the phrase disruptor? Maybe that's part of it. I just wrote that down. I know I've been a little negative on disruption recently. So I don't know whether disruptor is the word I want to use, but certainly his match, his equal, if not his better in terms of just raw brainpower, a guy that can out scheme him, that can out coach him and doesn't make too many mistakes on the field in terms of the in-game management stuff. So could that be the reason he's whining? Yeah, it could be. He's never felt this before. Well, and it's different when it's a defensive guy. To your point, it's one thing like, hey, man, if I'm in my business and I'm in my offensive silo, I feel pretty good. No matter what Liam Cohen and he's being innovative and Kyle Shanahan and he's innovative and LaFleur and all of us that you mentioned all grew up in DC together and cutting our teeth and all of this together. Like that's all fine. I know that world. It's why McVeigh and Shanahan certainly did not want to see Mike McDonald hired, right? When they got John's ear and, you know, folks ear in Seattle at these owners meetings and different times like, yeah, man, oh gosh, yeah. This young whippersnapper. Oh, this guy in Minnesota. Oh, this guy in Jacksonville. Oh, yeah. This guy's brilliant. Now, we're not going to go down that road. Now, we need to find the brilliant in the other silo that will disrupt, that will bother, that will irritate you and that will have answers on that side of the ball and then game manage and then be young and then be innovative and then, you know, to hold the other stuff. He's uniquely frustrating to someone like McVeigh because he doesn't really know what to do. He's just not really sure what to do. The Mike is a maverick in his own way. He is difficult to predict. Here he was yesterday talking to, was this with Kay Adams where she was talking to him about how he just recently watched the Super Bowl for the first time. I'm weird and like, I love the idea of how we played from like first person watching the game, but when I watch it from the coach's perspective, I can never really put my coach's hat on. I'm like, I critique it probably too hard. So I'm actually thinking of the plays that maybe we could have played better, you know, and what we want to get better at. I'd like to hear that. That was it. Yeah. What are the plays that, what are the, what's going through your head right now? Well, we could take in the back of the flat a couple times and then, you know, the two touchdown passes were kind of a bummer. Oh, coach, you're kind of a sick pup, I think, a little bit. Yeah, a little bit, unfortunately. What made you finally turn it on five days ago? Honestly, I was tired of watching college players and I was like, maybe I'll just watch that. Maybe it's time to watch the Super Bowl. That was so good. That was so off the cuff right there because you know what else he is so unbelievably reasoned and thoughtful and just life experience. Okay. A huge generalization, which you've always got to be very, very careful of, but just life experience. Most of the decoordinators that I knew in my life, Salk pretty impulsive guys. You heard Randy Hart, right? You heard that guy at the Hall of Fame years ago. I met dude is just impulsive. Like, let's go. Let's be aggressive. Let's get after it. You know, now, Belichick is kind of much more measured, right? And obviously went to 10 Super Bowls, but a lot of them are C-ball, hit-ball, right? It is aggressive. It is reaction. And here you've got, man, this guy is so thoughtful and even his answer yesterday about, you know, repeat and it's like, no, we're not in that mode. That's not the way we're going to go about it. Don't talk about it that way. No, that's not the way we process. No, we were oriented and, you know, you, we talk about McVay and, and, and his whininess and his reaction to it. It's not just him. You said less need wasn't there, right? For the, for the pictures and all. Is it because he's busy saying nice things about Puka Nakuwa? Cause that seems like a mistake. Well, definitely I know this. Puka's a young man, McComin. Yeah. So, you know, it's our job to help him develop not only on the field, the off that's going to be on us and he's, he's getting there and it, Hey, what he's done on the field speaks for itself. He's definitely somebody that we want to be a part of. Yeah. Right. This, this our ecosystem, our team for a long time. Yeah, but then off the field, he's a mess, mess, total mess. And there's a way you want in your ecosystem and what can that do, especially when you reset the market and you pay him all that money. Yeah. I don't think you want to go down that road. No, I don't think you do it all and I'll give you one last little mess. Especially when you comp that to what the Seahawks just did with JSN. Who's the polar opposite of that? So, see, I'm sign this guy and then they're like, oh, we just want Puka to go and be a part of our ecosystem. Okay. Can I give you one more mess? Tell you go extinct. Like releasing an invasive species into your ecosystem. John Harbaugh. What about him? Sitting next to McDonald. McDonald looking good. Yeah. No collar necessary. Just looking good, feeling good, front and center, super bold champ. Next is buddy John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh is wearing black dress loafers with white athletic ankle socks. That doesn't work. I don't understand. That's a no. I mean, that can't happen. Yeah. On top of that, he's wearing a gray giant zip up and khakis like just go sneakers. But black loafers and white athletic. It was it was disturbing. It's bad. The Harbaugh's don't care. It's like McCarthy's shirt also like. I feel like the Harbaugh's do that stuff on purpose. Like they're they're they're they're actively trying to bring bandaid on his forearm. Oh, I didn't know that John did. I feel like just as a family, they go out of their way just to be like, yeah, I don't care about that. And Lyle sort of the same way. Lyle would do this. Lyle doesn't even own a coat. He told us earlier today. No reason he wouldn't go white shoe white socks with black loafers. Would you do that? You think I own loafers? You know what? As I was saying it in the back of my mind, I was thinking there's no way Lyle. Do you have a suit? Lyle. Probably not one that fits me anymore. I don't know the last time I've had to wear a suit. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on that one to be honest. I haven't really needed one since basically COVID started the other than yeah, other than the other than Haley's wedding. All right, let's give you guys everything you need to know, including some more details on Cole Damerson's big new deal. And then we'll talk about that and the Mariners with Jeff Passon. It's gonna be fun. Fun hour for sure. Brock and talk sales boards on 710. picture. Visit data that wins.com to see what Markey IQ can do when you're running the hurry up and don't have time for your favorite Seattle sports shows. Listen to the podcast on demand. How about that? Unbelievable. What a thought. Every hour, every interview, every look behind the scenes. He is your new Seahawks head coach, Mike McDonald. We want to play a certain way and you're just gonna chisel away at it every day. Find us on Seattle sports.com, the Seattle Sports app, or wherever you get podcasts. All signs continue to point to it being the right hire. Never miss a minute of Seattle sports, the home of the Seahawks. No. First, well, big breaking news early this morning, Robert Murray reporting first that the Mariners have agreed to a long-term extension with Colt Emerson. Guys never played a big league game. He's in triple A to start this year, but he's going to be a Mariner for a long time to come. It is an eight year extension with the Mariners holding a ninth year as a club option. No trade clause throughout and it's worth about 95. Million dollars for those eight years, but it could go up over 130 million regardless. A great deal. I think for the Mariners again, if he is the player that they expect him to be, this is an absolute steal. And for Colt Emerson's sake, he gets paid and he's guys going to be, you know, have generational wealth that he probably never dreamed of before he's even stepped on a major league baseball field. You know, as I've talked to you guys a lot through the years draft develop trade and what's on what would be retained. Oh, that would be retained. You got to retain. And that's exactly what they continue to do in their model. And this kid is something. I mean, we've been around him for a couple of years now. He saw him in spring training. We saw the growth from his first spring training to his second spring training is right on the cusp of this major league roster. I think if there was a significant injury to JP Crawford, he may even be on this roster right now. But Jake P by all accounts will come back. I think Mr. Bliss will go down and he will be on the burner. Getting ready to go. Well, we got a lot of info about him when we were down in spring training. Asked Julio what he's seen. I mean, I really love Cole. Honestly, like I got to watch him a little bit. Obviously, I don't like follow like every full step that he does, but I got to watch him play last year in spring training a little bit. I was talking with me like this one at bad that we had like in Colorado or against Colorado at their place. It just like the relentless kind of mentality that he brought, you know, and like having a whole pool homer for foul ball and like then pull homer for foul ball and then working out a walk. I think that was really impressive for for you and kill like that. And you know what I've seen like every time he swings and square up the ball, it's always like a hard hit. You can see the ball jumping out of the bat and you know, he's aggressive. He goes out there to play baseball and I feel like that's something that you know, I'm always a big fan of people I play like that. All right. Well, he's going to be here for a long time to come. We can ask Jeff Passan more about this in about 10 minutes. Here's the second thing you need to know. You have something else you want to there, bro? Well, I was just going to say just we're not I'm not great breaking news sometimes. So these thoughts just continue to build and add the more that we talk about it. But I think you look at Cal and you look at Julio and just playing that Julio clip and why you do this because those three guys I'm going to put him in that bucket now all have tremendous traits. Like unique Pete Carroll traits, right? The size of speed that they're just uniquely I thought they could gift it for their position and then they got the makeup and you had those two things together. I think it made it a pretty easy deal on the Mariners end to get down and for Colt as you've said numerous times gives you a tremendous tremendous long term security. Great to see Cal Raleigh with the walkoff hit last night as the Mariners who had been up one nothing. They gave it back for rare a little iffy. But then Brash was great and in the bottom of the nine that was Cal Raleigh walking them off since we've talked a lot about Cal. Let me go to the other big part of the story yesterday and that was Luis Castillo six dominant innings into the motion the one to the judge. Have got to go. Yes he did strike free judge goes down for Luis Castillo strikeout 1500 and he does it against Aaron judge congratulations to Luis Castillo 1500 strikeouts. Yeah it's pretty good and he was great last night as good as you'll see I'm just using those two fastballs keeping the Yankees off balance. He generated I think it was 18 swings and misses and I want to say 15 of them came on the fastball if I heard Gary right fastball was up spin rate was up all the next level numbers really good for the first early year. There's so many things to talk about so many positives the rock really that's where you got to start and end with it. He was tremendous tonight. 1500 strikeouts is is is outstanding congratulations to him on that milestone but just you know being able to hold this this lineup scoreless for six innings. I thought he made just a ton of great pitches. By the way little snippet of culture you know I like snippets of culture the AJ Barnard the Super Bowl saying we're not taking the pads off and I knew right then and there like New England's in some trouble. Did you see last night after that inning did you see who in Logan and all those guys watching that strikeout with Luis and then Angie doing her tremendous work as she's in that dugout and added some context to to the pitch and why they were chuckling so much but that that's a picture of culture right there. Yeah those guys really like each other. They really know each other. Yeah and I think Luis a big part of that he is you know he's a character man. I really like Luis Castillo. I think I've maybe mentioned that before you love him. I do. Here's the third day you need to know. Shout out to our buddy Brock got promoted. How psyched are we about coach K. K. J. Rice. Let's go K. J. Wright is now the linebackers coach in San Francisco. He gets promoted. My name is coach K. And then coach K. J. and coach Wright call me coach K. That's that's that's that's what I'm rocking with. Oh come on K. J. that one's taken but congrats to him. He's obviously doing a great job and he gets promoted after just a couple of years down there. The one sort of newsy piece to come out of the owners meetings yesterday for the Seahawks story Horton's going to be limited in the spring but good to go and training camp and they'll be on Hard Knocks. Yeah I guess they change the rules so you don't you don't have the ability to just play your way off of that show. Now anybody can do it and Seahawks are going to do it this summer. Mike McDonald will tolerate that better than Pete. What if yes he was a hard pass. It was a no which is always a little weird to me because Pete loves stuff like that. Yeah I mean I think Mike will be a small character. I think there'll be other characters that emerge a little bit more than Mike. I don't know. I think his Q rating grew an awful lot through the Super Bowl. We talked about that. I think when he opens his mouth it's incredibly thoughtful which will be nice for that show. Yeah because that's not always been the case with with with head coaches. And the other little piece of news Clark Hunt the owner of the Chiefs saying yeah we're not going to be in the opener. Patrick's probably not going to be ready so that leaves cowboys the Bears. Chargers. Yeah. And the Patriots. What do you think about a rematch. That's weird. That's weird. I think it's the Bears. I think that's where it's going. That's everything you need to know. Quarter past every hour. We also mentioned Brock. Thank you for reminding me that the two stud pitchers Kate Anderson and Ryan Sloan are starting in double A so they're just a call away. That's cool. Backs up with Shannon said to us the other day that her gut is one of those two. We'll have a great shot at some point this summer of being a Las Montez is there again. Where's Johnny Farmello. Lyle is he going to be a single like to start to eat ever. Yeah I mean I guess the ever the ever roster hasn't officially come out yet because he's not on the double A roster. So he's probably going to be in the other so that's a royal double A triple A was a little surprise. Yeah I might have thought that there but maybe when maybe he needs to get some different some time in the field in some different places. I don't know. Yeah that was a little bit surprising to me as well. Texture earlier says doesn't draft develop trade and retain encompass everything a front office can do with a player. No sign from the outside is the one big thing that is missing from there. You know it's the one thing that this text line and these phone lines have lit up over over and over and over and over again about lamenting the Mariners lack of signing free agents from the outside. Well when you draft develop trade and retain you're spending your money in a different way and yeah I think that's what it essentially encompasses is everything other than this one other way to build a team. All right Jeff Passen next Brock and Salksale Sports on 710 Highlights don't win games the full box score does I'm Brock cured and most business leaders aren't short on data. They're short on clarity. Numbers are scattered across ERP CRM's and spreadsheets making decisions reactive instead of confident. And that's not how great businesses are built. Marquis IQ brings all your data together in a 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 that wins dot 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 costume money and security Lake Washington Windows and doors installs energy efficient high security Windows that lower bills and increase protection with leak armor installation and lifetime warranties you're protected for life choose Lake Washington Windows dot com today. Get up Salk it's blocking Salks weekly chat with ESPN senior baseball writer Jeff Passett man 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 Brock he 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 dollars Jeff Passen. What do we think of our breaking news this morning. Good for the Seattle Mariners and you know what they did is what the Detroit Tigers were trying to do with Kevin McGonagall and we're not successful with the Pittsburgh Pirates we're trying to do with Connor Griffin and we're 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 and 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 and 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 and 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 and 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 baseball? That is a totally fair question Brock and I'm sorry that I'm like copying out on this answer but I don't know yet. I don't know if you know 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 economics take shape in this is going to be either a really really good deal because Colt Emerson the 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 silly signed him before his debut for six years and $24 million. I know the money is 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 guys they do they've tended to be pretty successful and whether it's Jackson Trinio or San Baccio there's still a lot of hope you know the the Brewers think the Churio deal is a huge win and the SIO 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. I 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 those years could be worth 40 50 million dollars on the open market maybe more by then 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. Yeah. So potentially the Mariners could be getting an extra year of 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 like 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 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. Why 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 like shockingly like a BS like right now baseball is riding a wave and once the sea 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 this like every club will line up to get free agent years on the young player years in their 20s 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 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 Julia 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 that 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 then Jared Kellnick 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 Kellnick 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 high A essentially up to triple A and and he had shown these types of skills beforehand but man that to ball really matters in swing decisions really matter and I think they're the reason that the Milwaukee Brewers 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 Brewers 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 not the home runs the RBI is still in base is 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 corners anyway Dustin Ackley second baseman I know it's up the middle of the 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 it there is so much money to be made in terms of marginal value on this contract that the Mariners front office third they're smart people and they get the math and 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 a big league service. Jeffery it was some years ago that Salk and I am like maybe a decade ago where we were at our little picnic table outside the Mariners clubhouse and spring training in 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 be 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 Hulu like holy cow Josh Naylor resigning 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 that 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 Lou and Kirby and Gilbert and Bryce Miller for ever some hand pocket in there. I mean well how about him on Sunday night just absolutely tremendous and and oh by the way 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 the adults a place you can do it and when you have a guy like Cal Raleigh essentially running the club that a guy who he makes absolutely adore and 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. Yeah do you think that that's something that ends at the end of the year. That was four seconds. You told me he gave a four and a half minute answer last week. He did and you gave him grief over that. That was look at that four seconds. Look at that adjustment now that the regular season begins. I'm passing. That's what we get from Jeff. Hey 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 they have 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 so wait wait so wait now you're going to have the 0.01 inch butting up against the gray area and said there's dude when you have a border of any variety there's always going to be that I know but I'm OK with a gray area there like I just I'm I'm fine with it. I don't need it to be exact but OK 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 trying to call Luis Castillo sinkers at the bottom of the zone. He got like for him. He was so patient with him. Booney was so patient with him. Our 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 and I don't know if the human brain has the capacity 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 brain can't do either but there are analysts who are going to be able to look through the data and and see if there are real time changes. I hope the answer is yes. I'd like to think there's enough malleability to make that happen but at the same time guys we are talking about miniscule fractions of inches here on objects moving through time and space at great velocities with the sort of movement that we can't process unless we look at things through like a physics based perspective. 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 because he's wrong it's because he's just so freaking arrogant about it. I enjoyed all of it. It's great theater. 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 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? I would never just slide one by the goalie like that. Speaking of data. You're playing data. Well yeah speaking of data I am kind of curious and we're what 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 it's a it's a fair question because you know you see how rally with the 500 OPS you see Josh Naylor hit list through five games you see Leo with one hit and on the other hand you know Don Hamzone is 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 wish I wish I had 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 a watch and a small sample size to a little bit of a concern meter is it 50 of bats is it 100 of bats in WBC aside just looking at you know 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? I start looking on May 1st and I start being concerned on June 1st so I give it a lot of time and and even June 1st in terms of both individual evaluation and team evaluation 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 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 schedule dependent sport but 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 it's going to be a long time before I do that but 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 to is obviously Julio because you know it's just the been the narrative listening my buddy Benetti and crew Sunday night like even the national like hey got it you know start fast he's got it that heats up when the weather warms up and it's been a trend for four years and I know he and sites and Edgar and everybody would like to kind of put that to bed and start a season fast so I do think maybe for Julio a may a May 1st kind of designation is maybe a little bit more fair number as you're trying to read that narrative. I think that's reasonable and if Julio Rodriguez plays well five out of six months Mariners are going to be really good. 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 like especially considering the fact that you know Cal Raleigh did not and to last night at least and had not had a significant hit Josh Naylor had had a hit and who your Rodriguez had one hit the fact that they're three and it's a good sign and I think you know this series against the AQ's 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 and like the web like the weather watching the breath last night or just watching the personnel. No the personnel of the weather I grew up in Cleveland bro a little bit of cold ain't saving 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 the Cleveland bro so I know okay like I grew up in Cleveland dude okay cool you know now now like looking back on that. Yeah you can't win. You're gonna regret it. No but no but here's Brock here's the thing he's right. Jeffrey we're gonna go we'll do it again next Tuesday already looking forward to it. Thanks buddy. Yeah bro here you go the pride of Cleveland Jeff pass and I grew up in Cleveland bro. Oh okay thanks Jeffrey. All right we got to go we'll come right back here Brock we've got more to do we got a whole another hour it's Brock and soft sale sports on 7 10 sales sports.com.