Hour 2 - Will The Seahawks Make One More Big Move, Robert Murray, Blue 88

From the quantum fiber studio this is Brock and sock on Seattle sports rock you were just my hero just punch me in the kidney. That way sure this is a show that has my name on it. Now here are your hosts Brock Eward and Mike Solk. Hello. Good morning Brock. Good April 1st. Yeah, we'll be careful today. Yes, we'll be we'll have our head in a swivel all morning long. Maybe you're April foolsing me. You said we were having Phillip Rivers on at 830. I hope that's true and not a big lie. Sounds like we have a couple guests today. Both new to our show, Robert Murray from fanside who broke the extension yesterday. For Colt Emerson will join us in a half hour and then yeah, Phillip Rivers at 830. And I love your your idea here, Brock. To talk to a few different picture a few different quarterbacks rather who played against the Seahawks last year. I think it's a great idea. Yeah, I think her cousins I'm working towards next guys that aren't currently on roster. It's a little bit easier because sometimes you got to go through the team and everything else for the Brock birdies and others. But yeah, if we can do kind of one a week or one every other week or what have you leading up to the season or you know, I think it'd be kind of kind of fun to hear their perspective. And I ran into Chata with Phillip last week because his son and Titus are his sons a year older. Gunner and man, big kid, good looking kid, NC State commit big time four star recruit. They were to camp together. So kind of was driving through Alabama thinking, you know what, I think Phillip would be a pretty pretty cool guest. Yeah, I love the idea. So we'll start that later today. That's a fun one. That'll be at 830. So yesterday I golfed with Ray. He was the guy who had purchased the winning bid on golf with Salk during the holiday magic. Yes. So I had my first of two rounds with Ray over at Newcastle yesterday. We golf balls. Did we lose? I lost a few. Actually played pretty well. One I'm saying you gave him. Then we wasn't that part of the deal too. Oh, yes. He got the he got the seven boxes of Pro V ones. He was nice enough to give me one. And he gave me some port that he had bottled himself. Yeah, super nice guy. Oh, yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, he gave me two small bottles of port that he that was bottled in 1999. So it looks pretty exclusive and I'm pretty not going to lie. I'm pretty excited to try that. He also brought gave me a 62 degree wedge. This guy is just a gift. He's unbelievable. But what I didn't realize until later, Brock, hold on, is that etched into it in the bottom, it says best in the world. You know, to G Scott. So every time I hit the 62 degree wedge, I can think about G and how he's the best in the world. What did you what did you bring this guy? Well, seven bottles, seven boxes of Pro V ones and an opportunity to call with me. Yeah, I felt like I wasn't bringing enough to the table. I really kind of felt maybe at the turn you should have got him a hat or something. A hat. A little something. I donated my time. Brock, what I gave him was my time. I gave him an and one tip that seemed to really help him. Oh, good. Anyway, Ray was out there and he asked me a question that led me to another question that I wanted to ask you. Because some point and we talked a lot of sports. He's a big Seahawks fan, lives in Portland. And he was like, hey, what do you think of the sea? What do you think it's going to look like next year? I mean, simple question, right? And I'm like, well, look, obviously, I think they're going to be good. They just won the Super Bowl. It's not like I'm expecting them to go back to zero. Like, I think they're going to be a pretty good team. And but my answer was, look, I think it's a little early to tell because the, you know, you haven't gone through the draft. The offseason is not over yet. I think it's just a little too early to have a fully formed opinion on that. But as I was kind of talking through it, as you know, a bit of verbal processor, Brock. Oh, yes, I did end up saying it just feels like there's one move left to be made. Like that there's just one more thing coming. And I don't know what that something is. So I guess my question for you is what is it? If there's one move left to be made, what is it? Yeah, I don't want to give up my full blue 88 question and answer, but I had a very similar thought last night. I thought and yeah, watching the Mariners kind of get shut down. Unfortunately, that Max Fried guy is pretty good. And if Kate Anderson is anything close to him, which is the name that I think Justin Hollander and others were whispering around and visioning and dreaming one day that maybe Kate could be. That would be pretty awesome because that guy was borderline unhittable last night. And I was going through some notes and reading things and prepping a little for Phillip and other stuff. And I had the same thought and you'll hear it in blue 88, but it was. There's going to be a rookie that's going to impact. There's going to be based on the history of the last couple of years, but Mike McDonald's very clear picture of what he is looking for and his staff and the continuity of the majority of it. I know you lose Kubiak, but just about what? 97% of the staff remains. They got a pretty clear vision of the kind of pieces they want. And if these last two rookie classes, Salk had people come in and not just make impact, but be game changers as even worry and Zable and others. And maybe this draft doesn't have them, you know, blue chips at the very top, but it's got other starting chips. So I think that there's going to be a rookie or two. Hector Horton was a what round pick last year. Riley Mills was a what round pick last year. Both guys were fifth rounders, right? Yeah. And they both made and Tori would have made. I mean, he's on his way to double digit touchdowns as a rookie before, obviously the season ending injury. So yeah, before the thing that kept him from being a high round pick, he just popped up and kept him from being. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, I've got no reason to believe based on the history of the last two years with Mike McDonald and John Schneider in the scouting department and everybody together that they're very clear picture, very clear language, very clear. This is what I'm looking for. Can't be found in this draft with a guy or two and they don't need five or six. Like they've needed the last couple of years. They need a guy or two and they find that. Sulk. I mean, what was what was Jared versus his rookie year? What was their second round young? Their late first round pick the D tag. Like you find one of those guys, two of those guys and add them to this mix of everybody else. That's going to be pretty fun. Are you asking me, Brock? Are you asking me to go back on a long held belief of mine? Is that what you're asking me to do? Well, the world's turned around many ways. Sulk, the bank has made it to a Super Bowl. That's true. Sam Darnold won a Super Bowl. So are you asking me? Teddy fell on Sam. Are you asking me to go back on a long held belief that while I think it's great when rookies contribute and it's awesome and it certainly happens, can't count on it. Is that what you're asking me to do to count on rookies next year? Did I say plural? I don't know. Count on a rookie. Yeah. OK, you're asking me to count on a rookie. I sure am. That's going to be hard for me. So you're saying that if there's one move left to be made, one more significant piece left to be added. Yeah, I should expect it and be happy with it being one of the rookies in this year's class, a draft class that you have consistently, along with everybody else, told me is horrendous. I should be looking and where the Seahawks only have four picks. I should be looking at that and saying, yep, one of these rookies in this year's class is going to make a major contribution next year. And that I shouldn't be thinking about Max Crosby and I shouldn't be thinking about, you know, a veteran defensive end. I shouldn't be like I shouldn't be thinking about a running back. You're telling me that with all that being said, if there's one move left to be made, I should be thinking about a rookie. So I'm never going to tell you to stop dreaming. OK, you're a visionary. You're a dreamer. OK. And when you turn that 26 year olds, 27 year old, you're really going to be dreaming. And if you want to keep dreaming on Max Crosby, you keep dreaming. Is a veteran free agent and possible? Absolutely. A clowny of on Miller. Some of those guys remain absolutely. But I'm not going to based on. Remember, AJ Barnard was a fourth round pick and came in as a rookie and played a big role and was a really good player. Like says a good player. Yeah, and I just I think the continuity and most importantly, the communication of one Mike McDonald and his staff. I'm not going to be surprised if a rookie makes a difference. A rookie makes a difference on this club in 26. Interesting. So where I thought you were going to go. Lyle More, do you have a better answer than Brock's? If there is one move like I'll move the answer is going to make me happier, not like more accurate, just one that's going to make me feel better. If there's one move left to be made for the Seahawks, what do you think it is? I mean, you want to circle back to Miles Garrett? Yeah, absolutely. Yes, let's do that. Give me some answer that was going to make you happy. Yeah, you made me. Thank you, Lyle. Way to go. Was it really that hard? Way to go, Lyle. Was it really that hard Brock to just say Miles Garrett? What are you looking? Oh, you know what the next move is going to be? Some guy you've never heard of who's a fourth round pick from Murray State. Like, oh, awesome. Could it be please? That sounds great, dude. Yeah, Miles Garrett. Thanks, Lyle. Thank you for understanding what I was looking for at 10 best seven here this morning. No need for anybody else to answer. Lyle's got it right. It's Miles Garrett. We'll be back with everything you need to know. 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 and spreadsheets, making decisions reactive instead of confident. And that's not how great businesses are built. Marky 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 that wins.com to see what Marky 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 going to chisel away at it every day. Find us on Seattle Sports dot 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. 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. 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, I don't have a lot to say about last night. Max Fried maybe was like especially designed in a lab to beat this Mariner lineup and he showed exactly why last night. He really is one of the best lefties in the game. One of the best period in the game and he was very, very sharp last night. They really couldn't do anything about him. He went seven shutout innings. He only needed 90 pitches. They had just four hits and one walk. There really was no threat over the course of those nine innings mounted by the Mariners. So they hit a ball hard off of him. No, not really. Randy Stung won. Stung went to right center early. Yeah, of course it was a made a nice catch. But it really, I mean, they barely between them and the Kraken, they barely mounted threats at all last night to even come close to scoring. But, you know, look on the on the optimistic side, not everybody's Max Fried on the pessimistic side. I do think that they have a little bit of a lefty problem. We've been saying it since before the season started, their lineup is very left handed dominant. There aren't a lot of lefty starters in their division. But when you go up against the Yankees and you face a Max Fried and a Weathers back to back, yeah, there's going to be some challenges in there. I think in some ways they'll almost look forward to seeing a guy like Cam Schlittler today, who's a really good pitcher, but at least he's right handed and allows you to bring Luke Rayleigh and bring Dominic Kanzon and some of those bigger bats on the name pronounced. Oh, I mean, you know, that with great confidence. I'm going to be listening for Rick later. Poor Rick's going to have to say it a lot. So we'll see where that goes. Rick got some cool love last night. I don't know if you were still watching mid mid anines or so and the TBS crew was giving him all sorts. I know it's on TVS and love. And yeah, it was on TVS soccer on a different channel every single I just watched on the Mariner app that I purchased. Why was that like they're just on the Mariner app last night? Yep. Oh, that's cool. Well, that was pretty nice. No, I was really I was like, I was like, I was the whole game. I didn't see anything like that. What are you talking about? Oh, I was watching Aaron Goldsmith. That's probably why Logan Gilbert. Not great. Five runs over five and a third. Just kind of what Cal called just felt good. I like any pitch, any count. So I only probably should a couple of times. I think we can kind of go with anything and think he did a good job back there. So yeah, just trying to have a good mix. Yeah, don't shake off Cal. Well, I don't even know if there were any shake off issues. It just yeah, not as best or in the first two games of the season. So hopefully there is more to come from. Well, right to too much volume, many pitches, enough efficiency, too many pitches. JP started baseball, by the way. Did you see the news about Russell Wilson knows he playing baseball next year? He's going to restart his baseball. Oh, yeah, that sounds like an April Fool's conversation right there. JP started his rehab assignment in Tacoma. He went over for with a walk and a strikeout so he would have fit right in last night. Here's the second thing you need to know. I thought I could get that. No, you didn't. But the way you pronounced Schlittler. Cam Schlittler. I know if Rick, Rick, isn't if Rick isn't fully on it tonight, it's going to be a total Schlitt show. Like a fecal blizzard. Let me great. We have the details of the Colt Emerson contract yesterday. Brock, thanks to Daniel Kramer. Nice work by him. Eight million dollar signing bonus. And then just one and two million dollar salaries in the first two years. Then it goes to nine. Then a few years between 12 and 18. The club option is for 25 million. So just to kind of break it down, it's 20 million dollars during the three years where he could have made like three. So he gets a lot of money up front, which is great for him, including eight million dollars today. And then it's 15 million dollars as an average annual value in the final five years of the deal, which is, I mean, what do you think? What do you think? I'm sure stops will make in that at that time. Honestly, it reminds me of a Kounia. Well, when we look at a Kounia's deal now and you're like, oh, my gosh, right, it's never going to trade them. Right. Why would they ever trade him for the amount of value that they're getting out of him in 2031? What do you think a top shortstop will make in five years on an average annual value basis? Forty million more, right? Don't they already make close to 40? 50 million, so 60 million. I don't know. Let's go 60. If it's 60, he'll be making a quarter of that. Yeah. So pretty good deal for the Mariners, if he is the player that he's supposed to be. And I like that he wanted to be here, as Jerry DePoto said yesterday. I think Colt always envisioned himself as a merit. And we have quite a few players, I think that think that way. And none more so than Colt from the day he entered the organization. I think he has he has a vision for what it's going to look like here. And as as he finishes every conversation, we're going to win a lot of games. We're going to win a lot of games. And he is a championship type of player with a championship mentality. And when we talk about our team, he always sees himself in it. Three quick little things on this. Number one, I love that he just didn't come up and do the press conference. He just had a statement. Nope, I'm going to get my work in its coma. That's awesome. You guys celebrate it, whatever. I'm not going to do that. Number two, did you see his plays at third base last night? Yeah, he's pretty good. Unbelievable. And number three, it's come to my understanding that this did happen quickly, like in the matter of weeks. Yeah, some of these trades have taken years. This took just a couple of weeks to get pinned to paper. Here's the third thing you need to know. Well, if you didn't like the Mariner offense last night, I hope you didn't also watch the Kraken. I did not because they mounted next to nothing. Gave up two goals early. There was no real response. Turnovers, not enough grit, not enough speed. Lane Lambert, not impressed. What did he apparently see? I thought there were some good things. You know, 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 their opportunities to a minimum. I think we had some, you know, not a lot, but we had some good enough chances. Did you hear the popping at the beginning there, Brock? That's actually the puppy under the table that he's kicking repeatedly over and over again, trying to remain somewhat positive. I thought there were some good things. You know, we know that they, you know, they're a bit of a handful in the offensive zone. I thought we. That's rough. I'm just kidding. Lane wouldn't do that. That's everything you need to know. Jen Schwartz came back the last night, Brock. I thought you'd like that. That's your guy. He came back after taking that skate to the face a couple of weeks ago. So Jaden returned, Shane Wright was out. He got hurt in Buffalo. So yeah, that's a, it's been a rough ending to this. And our guy, Mike McDonald, was he day drinking yesterday with 28 other NFL hit coaches? He was not. He says no to day drinking. No, no. Which is smart, by the way. Day drinking is the worst. It's so fun at the beginning and it always ends up awful. I love, and you know, I love drinking, but I am not a fan of day drinking. It gets you every time. What did you just say? I just, I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of the day drinking, Brock. It is, it's generally a mistake. Even with Ray and the boys from Portland yesterday on the course. Yeah. No, it just makes me so tired. Right. At the end of it, I just so, see, Morris yawning right now, just thinking about it. What? Morris just yawned in the other room. That never happens. But the idea of even thinking about day drinking, Morris, like, oh my gosh, I mean, on like a beach vacation, even then, like I'll do it, but I almost always regret it. Even like I'll do it because, you know, that's what you're doing on vacation. But I don't hate it. No, I love it, but then I'll end up regretting it. OK, coming up next, Robert Murray broke this news yesterday on the big extension. Just how good is it? How quickly did it come together, Brock? And why did it come together so quickly? Those are questions we'll get answered next. Highlights don't win games. The full box score does. I'm Brock Huard and most business leaders aren't short on data. They're short on clarity. Numbers 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. The 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 cast you money and security. 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That makes it even more rare. But hey, that's what we got yesterday. Robert Murray of Fancited breaking the news of the Colt Emerson contract extension. And he's kind enough to join us now. If you're watching on the YouTube feed or on Seattle Sports app, you can see him because he joins us via video. Good morning, Robert. How are you? Hey, good morning. I appreciate you guys have me. How's it going? Well, good. And thanks for kind of throwing a little monkey wrench in the show yesterday as we got an opportunity to talk about a fun extension. How how did it come together? How how did you find out about the story and or how did this deal get done? Kind of out of nowhere. Yeah, so the two sides have been talking for roughly about a month, give or take. And it was a lot of back and forth. But I always sensed that there was optimism that it was going to happen. It was just like, what exactly would this deal end up looking like? Because it's pretty unprecedented. It's the biggest extension ever for a player who is not debuted at the major league level. And all of a sudden, yesterday, I I finally had gotten done with my writing and I'm like, you know what, I'm going to go disconnect and go to the dog park with my dog. As soon as I walk in those gates, I get a call saying, like, check on this, like this, this could be a thing. And or it ended up happening. Actually, I found out like the day before that it was like, it was pretty, pretty darn close. And then I had to like wait overnight and then 6 30 in the morning. It was finally got it across the finish line and sent it out. And now here we are talking about and sorry for throwing a wrench in your guys. Oh, it was a good wrench. That's a good wrench. That's kind of we like. There we go. For sure. No, it's fun. Like those those kind of stories are fun. It's also it's cool here in the Mariners spending that kind of money. Like I love it from their perspective. Like this deal to me makes so much sense for them. Like not to just get into this myself here. But I love it. Like you have a team where you're still ascending here. You have a team that absolutely can go out and win a World Series. And then you have Colt Emerson, who is just an awesome prospect on their end. And you believe in him as a player, as a person and everything. And for Emerson, you can guarantee him 95 million bucks before he debuts. It just makes so much sense. And to me, it really it made sense for both sides. And to me, it ends up extending their World Series window because I love it from from every perspective here. One simple question, Robert, one a little bit deeper, simple question. When you say biggest, biggest extension ever for somebody that's never played in the big leagues, is that in length of deal or is that in total dollars guaranteed? It's a total, a total dollars guaranteed because I mean, shoot it like, yeah, Mimoto is in a different category. Obviously got 300 plus million, but he was in professional baseball overseas. But like we're talking the previous one from a minor league player was Jackson Churria with the Brewers. You got 82 million bucks. And now I mean, with Colt, he ended up getting 95 million guaranteed with a chance to get above 130. OK, in the deeper one, who does this resonate the most with? Is it the Mariners fan? Is it the players in the Mariners organization? Is it players around the league? Is it the league in general? Who do you think when they see this deal come down and finalized? Who do you think it hits the hardest? Can I go with two of them here? I'll go with the I'll go with the Mariners fan base, but also the players as well. Because from the players perspective, you see the organization investing into this roster and also investing into the future as well. And that's going to add nothing about excitement to the team, especially considering the season they had last season. I mean, you have Cal Raleigh just absolutely break out and have one of the actually the best season ever for a catcher. And you have other players who really stepped up last season. And you want to build off of that as much as you can. You end up adding Brendan Donovan, you resign Josh Naylor. Those those were the two priority guys. And then the other priority was was extending Colt Emerson. You do all three of those. You invest significant dollars into this roster. That to me, like if you're a player, that's going to make you work even harder. It's going to make you more excited to show up to the ballpark each and every day. And from the fan base's perspective, you you actually you have hope. You have you can root for a team. You can go to the ballpark and actually think, yeah, my team has a chance to win a World Series and they do like that team is is awesome. They have a really good team, a really exciting young talent on that roster as well. Colt Emerson is not going to be on the big league roster quite yet, but he will debut at some point this season. And when he does that stadium is going to be buzzing, considering his overall talent and also just the extension they just gave him. Yeah, so I'm excited to talk about that here in a couple of minutes. But as you're talking, we just thinking broadly about the Mariners philosophy. And for a long time, Jerry would say it's draft, develop and trade, draft, develop and trade. And I finally realized this offseason that that's not enough. That's not really what they're doing. They're drafting, developing, trading and then retaining their own players. And Cal Raleigh and Luis Castillo and Julio Rodriguez and now throw Emerson Hancock and Colt Emerson, excuse me, Emerson thing is just too much for me. And then you could even put Josh Naylor on there as well. I know he technically got to free agency, but put him in the same category. It really how many other teams are doing that? Not necessarily spending big money in free agency. The Mariners spend very little in that regard, but spending a fair amount like middle of the pack on their own guys that they deem worthy of being part of the nucleus longterm. Yeah, I mean, if you automatically think of teams that invest into their rosters, specifically into retaining their young talent, I automatically go to the Atlanta Braves. It's their team was built differently, of course, but the Braves have been uber aggressive in extending some of these young guys, Ronald Acunha. They ended up doing Austin Riley, Michael Harris. I mean, they've the list goes on and on and on. And they got some extreme values here, especially when it comes to Ronald Acunha, Jr. I mean, his contract is one of the most team friendly in baseball history. And from the Mariners perspective, if you can end up like in their case with with Colt Emerson, and now I'm going to be all screwed up here with Emerson Hancock. It's just awful. I mean, what are the odds? What are the odds they have two guys named Emerson on their roster? I'm just waiting for Sterling Hitchcock to show up and be the pitching coach. It's horrible. And only a matter of time. But no, it's great. It's brutal. Dude, I'm telling you, it's awful. It's just awful. Oh, I'll tell you, I feel I feel bad for the writers and I'll see you guys as well. I mean, that's just I would. Rick Riz is retiring for God's sake. I mean, it's smart. I mean, I don't buy one bit. I would do the exact same thing. Yeah, it's crazy. But no, it's like in the Mariners too, like when you can go out and extend these young guys, obviously there's risk in doing these kind of deals for sure. Like they can blow up in your face. Like we saw what ended up happening with Evan White. And ever since, um, ever since I like a reporter that yesterday morning, it was like, I've seen some people be like, Oh, this is Evan White. Once again, this is a totally different case here. Um, you have a player that the organization firmly believes in, uh, as a, as a person, first and foremost, like he is like, we even saw Jerry DePoto. I believe it was with Yahoo Sports in spring. So that he was as sure of a young prospect as you can have with not debuting in the, in the major leagues. Um, but also from a talent perspective too, like his offense, very smooth swing. Um, gets puts the ball in play, gets on base. Uh, defensively, there were questions entering last season about what position he could end up playing. If you could end up being a shortstop and he answered those. And from an everything perspective, like you have a just a really enticing prospect and if it works out, you're going to end up having a deal that's going to look incredibly team friendly here. And I mean, it's, I can also go back to from the, how the Milwaukee brewers ended up extending Jackson, Churio, they got ahead of it. It was a huge risk. It was like, it was something that I don't really think there was too much precedent going into it, but it looks incredibly smart and it ended up saving them, um, significant dollars and also the probably ended up keeping Churio and Milwaukee longterm rather than having to trade them like they've done with some of these other guys. I'm not saying that marriage would have had to trade Colt Emerson by any means. Um, but you locked in a player that you firmly believe in. And if it all goes according to plan, um, they, they, they save quite a bit of money by doing it. And so I don't fault them at all for doing it. How much does the upcoming labor situation play a role in this? It's on everyone's mind right now. Um, you talk to people around the league and I mean, sure, they're, they're bracing for it as of this point, like team, team executives. I mean, shoot, they'll, they'll admit it like that. It's common, uh, agents are also bracing for it. We've seen how the, uh, the players union now has like a huge war chest of over 500 million bucks. Like it's on everyone's mind and players are going to want that certainty going into, uh, the labor discussions where they don't have to worry about their contracts. And that's why we're seeing more of these extensions happen. It's why we're also seeing, um, I mean, going to extensions as well. We saw Chris say, I'll do a short term extension with the Braves where he doesn't have to worry about that anymore. And I firmly expect there to be more extensions here, here as well. So I think it absolutely has a factor in this as well. But at the end of the day, what do players want the most? They want financial certainty. And when you can get 95 million bucks, even if there wasn't a labor situation going on or like a lockout that was looming, I absolutely think this deal would have gotten down between Emerson and the Mariners. We're talking to Robert Murray, fancided. He broke this deal, uh, story yesterday on the Colt to Emerson signing. Could you give us the 32nd bio? Where are you? Where did, where, uh, what is your story? How did you get to where you were? Yeah, this is our maiden voyage. Yeah. We never chatted with you before. So for those who don't know Robert, where are you located? How did you get to do some of this national stuff? Where is it? Where's it come from? No, I appreciate it. Yeah. It's, so I'm, I live in Scottsdale, Arizona. I'm 30. I have done baseball reporting since I was 16. I basically, um, broke my first story when I was 18 with Billy Butler going to the A's three years for 30 million bucks. And I got to go on MLB network the next morning. Awesome. And, um, yeah, I got to talk to Ken Rosenthal, Matt Fascars and Harold Reynolds. And in that moment, I, I wanted to turn this thing into a career. Got a job with the athletic cover and the brewers worked alongside Ken Rosenthal. And now I've turned this into a national gig where we can report national news. It's legitimately, I could have never in my wildest dreams imagined anything quite like this, but I love it each and every day. Like it's legit. It's never felt like work because, um, I just love it so much. You continue to break stories on Billy Butler. Like, isn't he playing like adult men's softball or something somewhere? Like, oh, he's hitting absolute tanks. The guy's an absolute beast. Like, yeah, I mean, he's unbelievable. Like shoot. I mean, he was like watching him hit nukes in the majors, but also, like, can you imagine if you're a pitcher and you're like, you go into a men's rec league for softball and the first guy you got to face is Billy Butler. I would walk off the mountain. I just quit. I mean, hilarious. The idea of Billy Butler hitting tanks and men's softball is just, it's a plus. So Scottsdale 30. I'm looking at five, 10, 170 fit. Looks like you got a little, what kind of dog are we looking at here? Oh, a golden trevor actually. So yeah, actually I got to put this out. I can't hang in an old town. Oh, I'm six foot. I, we got to put that out there. Hopefully all the aggregators hit that one. Yeah. But no, it's all time zone says you're five, 10, five, 10. I mean, the old, the older I'm six foot. I mean, hey, if I can, yeah, I'm telling you, I'll be five, 10. If I got to, if I got to deal with the last thing on the uncult, how does this change if at all the way he's developed this year when he comes to the big leagues? Does it give them more time? Does it, you know, expedite the process? What does this do? Yeah, they're going to continue to be patient with him. They, they really want to not rush him through throughout the minors here. He is an incredibly talented young player who they want to be mindful of and bring him to the major leagues when he's ready. And this allows them to be patient with him because you're not going to have to worry about people worrying about like service time manipulation because we always hear about that being a thing when it comes to prospect call ups. But I don't think it changes anything from, from the Mariners perspective and also from his perspective. And also too, like one thing we've heard even Corbin Carroll say that when he ended up doing his deal, it gave him peace of mind where he could go out on the field and play free where you didn't have to worry about like future earnings or whatever. And I think that's going to allow him to play free. I mean, it also might result in him buying a few more meals on the road for his minor league teammates, but still like it's, it's, it's a good situation for him. And they can be very patient here. Last thing for me here, Robert, you said earlier, you would expect maybe some other deals, extensions around the league. Is there any expectation or would there be any other possible mariner that you could see this done with? Yeah, they've had numerous different discussions with prospects who are not named Colt Emerson. I could absolutely see something coming. I don't know exactly who it might be by any means. Like that's not even me trying to, trying to hide something. I, I don't have specifics on the players who they've spoken with, but I do know that they have had other conversations with some of their, with some of their young players. So I would not be surprised, but I think everyone around the league at this point is watching Conor Griffin with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is, they've had a lot of conversations in Pittsburgh and when, or if that deal gets done, I would expect that to be. Why would you do that? It would, it would. Why would you, why would you do that? Like, I mean, if you're, I get it. If you're, if you're Colt Emerson and you look around, you're like, all right, look at this team, look at what it's going to be looking like for the next eight years. Okay. Yeah. I want to sign. Why would Conor Griffin do that? Like, dude, I can't wait to get out of here. No, I'll tell you, it's you haven't, like, when you talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates, you often are thinking like bottom of that division in the national league central, but they're, they're actually like, they're budding. They got a decent team here. They got, they got some dudes and like there's actually a future here. There's some hope. And if you can end up from Griffin's perspective, he's 19 years old, which talking about a hundred plus million dollars for a guy that young. I mean, I would, I would have signed up for that. I would, I would take that over breaking Billy Bob. Think about, yeah, I mean, think about what you could buy in Scottsdale for a hundred million dollars. Shot, shot, shot, shot. Yeah, there's a couple houses on camelback. There we go. I'll tell you. This guy, we got a texture here that says, this dude looks like an absolute stick. Brock, why are you asking about his dog? Ask about his handicap. That's fricking funny. Yeah. I'm not much of a golfer. Yeah. I'm actually not much of a golfer, believe it or not. Yeah. I'm like, I've gotten on the, although I will say I went to a top golf. That's your problem. You're too young. Yeah. We'll come for you for another five years in about five years. I'll get the addiction will come for you. Oh, I'll be, I'll be one of those Scottsdale dads is always wearing the Travis Matthews stuff on the links. I'm telling you, that's exactly how it's going to be going here. Hey, this is fun, man. Robert, thank you very much. Robert Murray fan side had broke the story yesterday and broke the Billy Butler signing all those years ago, which I just love. What a great way to get into the business. That's so awesome. Congrats, man. This is cool. We'll hopefully do it again. No, I appreciate it. You boys have a good one. I'll talk to you soon. There you go. There's Robert Murray. That was great. More of him. It was fun. Lyle, that's a guy that seems like he's up your alley, right? Oh, I didn't get into it before we got on the show, but we know each other. Oh, you do. Why didn't you? Lyle. Why would you say that? Flip my mind. No, it didn't flip my mind. I don't want to interrupt the interview. Well, why didn't you tell us before we talked to him? Oh, my God. You didn't want to say I have any bias. He didn't want us to think he was one of yours. One of yours. Good dude. Really? I mean, he seemed like it. He seemed like a great guy. I mean, and he's close to our age breaking the news he's breaking. And you think about a lot of the newsbreakers in the industry. I mean, it feels like give it a little time and he's going to be like one of the premier guys. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, for other than Jeff, most of those guys who break stories and Morose is not that old. Exactly. Like it's kind of just the two of them. Like there is no next generation coming up under them. And yeah, it seems like maybe he's got an opportunity to be that guy. So, oh, cool. Thanks for telling us, Lyle. Oh, yeah. No, I got a pretty good relationship with our next guest. The best part is you heard it was kind of like awkward back here before the segment. Yes. When he said hello to him and I was like, why didn't you tell him who you were? He's like, well, we were we were hurrying to get to the segment. We were like an awkward two minutes. Yes. Where like no one was saying anything. Lyle. I mean, do you want me to have my own like side conversation while we're just trying to get a little yes. Do you do not see a boy? Hold like, well, do you not know how boy? Howdy carved his career? Lyle, just say, Hey, man, it's Lyle. Good to talk to you. You live in the Lurren, don't you? Yes, you do. Oh my God. Make adjustments. Let's do some blue idiots. This is Brockensocks blue 88. We're going to go red, right, tight, close, sprint left, G, U corner, half back, flat on one, on one ready. Brock Heward tackles three football questions as only he can. Now here's your host, Brock Heward and Mike Song. I love you, man. Don't change. I do too. There's a big part of me that really respects that humility, Lyle. Like you're, you know, you're you're not that you're you're not the ace, you're the third or fourth in the rotation. You know your role. Just let us know ahead of time. Oh yeah. This guy's right. It's not about me. You guys are having a good one. But like we've been talking about him since yesterday. We talked about getting him on. More is like, Oh yeah, like all his DMs are open. I'll DM him. Like you want to say like, Oh yeah, I know that guy. Well, more was already on it. She's on it. She's on it. That's right. I didn't want to like step on anybody's. Oh my gosh. Authority where he fits in. Boy, how do you never knew his authority? Watch for sure. It was limitless in his mind. Brought question number one. John Schneider was called the one of one as NFL GM. Oh, did you listen to the old Pat McPhee? It sounds like it has a lot to do with day drinking. Here's Peter Schrager. I'm going to say the MVP every year. And it's not because of the drinking consumption, just the friendliness and the charismatic John Schneider, the GM of the Seahawks is, is the winner always because he was I would agree. He's the most secure. I would agree. He's the most secure in his job. He's the most successful at his job. And he's also the nicest guy and has stories galore and he can hang. It does. He can hang. It does kind of sound like Peter Schrager saying it's a little about that. Well, one of Pat's buddies was, I think, hanging with Schneider, which at one point he shared later in that clip, he had a beer in pocket while bringing the rest of the boys, you know, taking care of the rest. John did or his friend. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Beer in pocket. Beer in pocket. Okay. You ever gone beer in pocket? I mean, not since college. Oh, Tracy was there and they are man. Everything they just said, everything Peter said right there. Genuine check. Nice dude. Check. Really good at his job because he really empowers everybody around him. Check. Ego less check. Like he checks all those boxes and, you know, why he's one of one and he likes to have a little fun in those settings are a great place for, I think, his giftings to come to life and they certainly did down in Arizona. Oh my God. What? I just got some, I just got some information about Billy Butler. No, it's Billy Butler related. Okay. I was invited to go to Bandung with some people this past year. I couldn't make it, which is, and I don't know them very well. I was. Yeah, I couldn't make it. It was in January and it was not, it was, I was out of town, but I really wanted to go and I was thinking maybe I would try to go next year and I just found out Billy Butler goes on that trip every year. Well, talk about a guy who's got to hit the ball 400 yards. I think I might have to go forget about banding just to see Billy Butler golf. Yeah. My gosh. All right. Question number two. Mike McDonald talked through some of the challenges Brock of having a shortened off season. What are they? Yeah. Well, it's April 1st, Salk. So everything has been expedited big time. They've had to play a bunch of hurry up here was McDonald yesterday at the owners meetings talking through it. It's real. I mean, here we are at league meetings and our players are showing up in a couple weeks. So everything's expedited, you know, like getting the staff back together. You're also trying to get the guys a break to figure out to kind of get the mind, body and spirit fresh to turn it around. And but the there's no no rest for the weary. So off we go. And but it's exciting. You know, I think once you get back in the cadence of the players being back in the building and start to back to come around, you get refreshed, rejuvenated and gets exciting again. I think the two things I'll keep my eye on. I hit on one of these earlier in the week is just that balance between the young players developing and taking care of the veteran guys, yet keeping that total edge that Leonard and the rest of them all had last year chasing that championship. So that's one and the other is obviously flurry. The new OC, how does that look? How does he assimilate with everybody else on staff that's largely the same? Those will be two places. I'll keep an eye through the OTA season. All right. Question number three yesterday. We talked a little bit about hard knocks coming to Seattle this summer, which should be very entertaining. I know you spent some time thinking about it last night. Who are your breakout stars? What do you got? Yep, I did. We hit on this quickly yesterday. Here's a little bit of thought and we can verbally process this together. Some honorable mentions. Spoon will be an honorable mention because he talks so fast. His spirit is so force multiplying that the cameras will just be captivated. Julian loves an honorable mention because, well, he's on the other side of that. Like just coach, right? Cerebral. He's going to have a new partner. He's going to have a younger, you know, it's just, and he's off the field, super mature, anti-golfs. And like he's just a kind of a Renaissance man, I guess I would say. I like that. Jay LaMille Rowe could be. Where does he fit in this? What does he look like? Right? Where does his career go? So those are some of my honorable mentions, but as far as three biggest stars, I'm going to go three the barnyard. AJ is not afraid. He put on a show with the parade, you know, I think he will. He will be very gregarious. A number two is to be determined rookie. I think that there is going to be a rookie involved in this because whether it's a running back, whether it's the right guard, whether it's a defensive edge, whether who knows what it is. I think that there will be like, how does this rookie assimilate to the Super Bowl winning team? Okay. So one of the stars will be a rookie. Yes, it will. Okay. Yes, it will. And then the biggest star is going to be a Adam Durney. That accent, he's going to be the biggest star. So you don't have Grace Abel on the list now. He was the first guy you thought of. Now he's not even on your list. Too easy. Wow. He's not drinking Bush lights during training camp show. He's positive. Yeah. Does he want to be the, does he want to be the MVP of the owners meetings or not? Could he put Bush light in both pockets? Yeah. Are we going, are we going pocket beers or no? Can you imagine his hands gripping the Bush light? I can. Yes. That is, uh, that is today's blue 88. That's not, he's not as big as Andre the giant. No, I don't, I don't think so. Andre. So I, Brock, you and I have a lot of conversations hardly ever awkward. I wonder if there was a very awkward conversation last night. It's next on Brock and song.