Collins It Like It Is

37. This Is Exhausting

Larry (@lcollinsrb) and Sean (@archdukecollins) give thoughts on the exhausting state of the Seattle Mariners following the series loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. We also congratulate Logan Gilbert on his first All-Star Game nod, while also addressing the ridiculousness of Andres Munoz getting snubbed. Why is Harry Ford playing the outfield in Arkansas? We discuss all that + more in this episode!

Duration:: 43m
Broadcast on:: 07 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(upbeat music) - Welcome back in to the Collins It Like It Is podcast. My name is Sean Collins, and I got my dad here. Larry Collins, Larry, say hey. - Hello, everybody. - Yeah, everybody. - All of you, hello. - There you go. - And if you're new here, thanks for checking us out. We are a podcast, you know, it's my dad and I doing this podcast this episode, but a lot of the times we have my brother, Stephen Collins on, and that's really where the name came from, Collins It Like It Is. It's a plan, words with the title and we're Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks fans. We created this podcast 'cause we wanted to have conversations around these teams that we love. We know that sports are bigger than just the games and they bring communities together. And so we wanna create a platform or wanted to create a platform to have thoughtful conversations, but also be respectful and have fun. Like that's really what we're about. So if you're new here, checking us out. That's kind of our vibe. We are a family though, and we will definitely tease each other, give each other a hard time, poke each other in the ribs, but it's all in good fun. We don't take ourselves too seriously. So that's kind of what we're all about. - So let's just dive right into this last series with the Toronto Blue Jays. Dad, do you even wanna record this one? We could probably just cut the first half of our last podcast and then we could just, you know, just substitute all that stuff in. Or do you wanna record this one because it's all the same stuff? - It's basically a rinse and repeat. Like we've been talking about, it's the same problems. We see the same problems game after game after game. And, you know, you can probably turn on something from the twin series and it's the same old thing. Twins, Orioles, Blue Jays, it's pretty much the same. - Yeah. - Just problem that we've had. And, you know, I wrote down some things about how we didn't perform in Blue Jays, but I went all the way back to the twins and we haven't been, we've been doing the exact same thing. We're not doing the exact same thing, you know, for six series, we've lost six series in a row and it's pretty obvious what needs to happen. - Yeah. Like you mentioned, six straight series losses. I'm honestly exhausted from this team. I'm so fatigued watching this team strike out after strike out, after strike out with runners in scoring position. You said you had numbers. I know in this series, we were four for 28 with runners in scoring position. You're the math teacher. I don't know what the average of that is, but I can tell you it's really bad. - That's not good. - That's not good. - Yeah, four for 28. And today was, you know, two for 12 and that's just not acceptable. I mean, we had runners all over the place. Opportunity to win. - Yeah. - 15 player, 15 runners left on base today. Just frustrating. We had every opportunity to win and we just didn't do it. I clutch it, which, you know, I applaud Rayleigh for stepping up and stepping out saying that we got to do better. And I hope that the whole team is saying that same words that you got to do better. You got to see it. - So not only were we four for 28 with runners in scoring position this series, we strike out 38 times. - Whoa. - Whoa, holy, holy Toledo. We left 11 runners on base in the last three innings of this game. Like what in the world? - That's crazy. - JP Crawford alone left five runners on base and his last two at bats. - Oof. - Can you have that? - Nope, can't have that. So I'm at, I mean, if you listened to our last episode, I said, hey, Jorge Polanco, I'm out. Need to move on, cut your losses. It's better for everyone if that happens. For Polanco's sake, this is not working. I don't know if it's the water. I don't know if it's, you know, the. - Who knows? - Exactly. Is it the marine layer? Is it the batter's eye? I don't know, but it ain't working. And enough's enough. And I said that the last episode, this series definitely didn't do anything to change my mind on Polanco. - Definitely not. - You know, Jay's tried it in his post game. He said, well, maybe we just need to get Polanco some bigger shoelaces. 'Cause that's the only way he can get on base is if he gets drilled by a pitch. Maybe we get him bag of your pants. Maybe that'll get him on base more. I don't know, but I'm done. And not only am I done with Polanco, I'm honestly done with Ty France. Like, I don't need to see this anymore. Ty France is, or he has an OPS of 464 in his last 15 games. And maybe that's his heel. I don't know, he's got a broken heel. I don't know, but you know what? It's a performance-based industry. And you're not performing. And we got Tyler Locklear sitting there in AAA hitting Dingers. - Get him up. - Get him up. - I'd agree. I mean, France isn't getting it done. 'Cause just some quick stats on France is just this week alone, he's batting 200. He's on bases, 333, that's pretty good. But his slugging is 200 also. I mean, slugging in his average is the same thing. - It's OPS, OPS is 533. You just can't have that from your first baseman. - No, it's been way too up and down. The May was Fools Gold. We've seen way too, just way too much of a roller coaster from France. And it doesn't matter what he does from this point on to the deadline. He could have a 400 on base percentage. And I'd still be like, "Nah, we gotta move on." Because who knows? You know, August could roll around and we're gonna see the 500 OPS with a 464 OPS-type France. I'm not willing to make that bet on your first baseman. First base needs to be your impact. It's an impactful position. It'd be one thing if Polanco was slugging and being Polanco, but you can't have a tie France. If someone else isn't going to pick up his weight, if no one else is going to carry the torch that tie France should be carrying, then you need your first baseman to be a first baseman. - You need to change. - Yeah, I'm done. I'm full stop, I'm done. That's not a prediction. I don't wanna confuse that with being a prediction. What I think's gonna happen is we're gonna roll into the San Diego Padres Series and we'll probably see Polanco play a game. We'll probably see tie France play both games and Tyler Locklear is gonna sit in AAA. That's what I think is going to happen. And I can tell you, I think it's ridiculous. Full stop, that's ridiculous. That we're continuing to go down this road. We're seeing the same movie over and over and over again. The definition of insanity, we all know it. It's the cliche is to do the same thing and expect different results. How many times are we going to roll out this version of this lineup? How many times are we gonna watch 30 plus strikeouts in the series? How many times are we gonna do this? We can sit here and, oh, well, let's move Julio Rodriguez down to seven and we'll have Garver hit second. You can shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic. All you want, that ship's sinking. - It's sinking. We saw Robles say, give people a chance. Got to give people a chance. - Why was he pinched hit for? - He hit a home run into the freaking upper deck, had the best outbacks of the day. Yeah, let's pinch it for him. I don't care about analytics. They go by the analytics and they are analytic drunk. That's what they go by and that's what they're gonna make their decisions by and that's what they do. - That's what numbers are they looking at? - What numbers are they looking at? I don't understand. Like, cool, Polanco was good last year. Look at the analytics right now, he's terrible. He's terrible. Look at the analytics of this game. Oh, Robles is locked in. He just hit a home run into the freaking upper deck. How about look at those analytics? - Yeah, look at the last at bat, that's a good one. - Yeah, I don't know. There's a thing that, you know, momentum is a thing. Having confidence is a thing. They don't seem to weigh that at all. And it's like, what are we doing? I don't get it. - They kind of do weigh it because the whole reason they moved up Garver to number two is because he looked good against the right-hander the day before. So never, I mean, they were moving Garver down the lineup and all of a sudden he gets a base hit off a right-hander. Now he's in the number two spot. So they do look at your last at bat because they made that decision based on Garver's last at bat the previous day to move him up to number two. So there's just has to be consistency and the consistency's not there. - Yeah. I think there's the reality of this team, you know, if we were to look back, you know, and we were, before we went on the run with the White Sox and the Rangers, we were on this podcast going like, "Oh, maybe we get Alonzo. "Maybe we get Luis Robert, maybe we get Paredes." And we're sitting here like, you know, talking about little tinkers. We're not a tinker away from this lineup just gelling and all of a sudden being a serviceable lineup that's going to even go into, you know, Minnesota in one of series. We're talking about now a situation where one way or another, if you wanna make the playoffs, we're going to have to face the fact that we are going to have to get a little bit radical. We talked about, or we saw, we shouldn't even say talk about, we saw the willingness to get a little bit radical with Logan Evans. And, you know, last year he was drafted in the 12th round. I think he had like three starts in the minor leagues last year. Immediately this year gets sent straight to AA, bypasses high A Everett and has a handful of starts. They immediately move him to the bullpen after maybe 10 starts. And now we're fast tracking Logan Evans, a 12th round pick from last year to be a back end bullpen piece. Now that was the idea, that was the idea. That plan ended up not being something that they followed through with, but that's a radical idea. And I wonder, or I shouldn't even say wonder, what is necessary are other radical ideas. And I think we're seeing that with Harry Ford. I think that we are seeing, okay, we got Harry Ford now, our number one catching prospect. He's probably somewhere in our top five of overall prospects. Saw him moved out to left field in a minor league game. What do you think of that, dad? Is that a radical, hey, we need help? Or is that a, let's showcase his versatility and get his trade stock up? - No, I think that's kind of what the plan was when they were drafting him back. However many years ago they didn't have it in front of me. 22 maybe, 21. So whenever you get up. - Oh, look it up. - All right, so we drafted Ford. And it's the same idea with Type E. Where does he actually play? So in high school, Ford played a catcher, athletic catcher, quick feet, quick release. And so his catching skills were being developed, but he had all the tools. But he was an athlete. So is he gonna be a second baseman? Is he gonna be a third baseman? Is he gonna be a center fielder? So since we drafted him, the idea has always been there to move him around. It was kind of a surprise when they kind of stuck with him as a catcher. So he stuck with him as a catcher at Modesto two years ago or whatever it was. We kept him at the catcher, which was a surprise 'cause he wasn't getting the versatility 'cause we wanted to fast track his bat. 'Cause his bat is really, 'cause he's got a good bat, he's got a quick bat and he's got a good eye. He, with his bat, he can probably fast track. So if he moved him out of catcher, he probably would be pretty close to being called up. - Yep. So this idea of just now his third year after being drafted, is it? - 2021, he was drafted. - Yeah. So he, this just now getting to change positions is kind of, to me, it's a good idea, but it's always been the idea. It's just a little late getting to that. Let's see what else he can do. He can definitely play catcher. Can he play left field? Can he play the infield? Third base, second base, center field. And when I saw him on I-L, M-I-L-B, you can tell he was out there, he was a newbie. He was a newbie out there. - Oh yeah. - If you guys, you didn't even have to watch it on M-I-L-B. There's all over X seeing some highlights, but you know, he didn't look extremely natural, but he's an athlete, he'll pick it up. He'll pick up probably left field, left field, but he has an arm so he can probably maybe right field, but he's kind of short, he's six foot, 200. But you know, all those rebounds you need to get out and right field. So he needs to play. - Yeah, why is that better? - What is that better? - Why is that better? - Just 'cause you don't have to-- - Yeah, I guess. - Tojectory, to get it to all the way to third base. - Sure, right. - So now I think the idea was to get him out of the catcher, see what else he can do. So I think it's just a little, I mean, it's not late, he's still young, he's a young prospect still, but it's late in coming. - Yep. - I think it just showcases, I don't know what's happening with Harry Ford, but something's happening with Harry Ford. I don't know if it's Fast Track, hey, we're gonna plan on having him up after the break, or did some team say, hey, we're interested in Ford, but we wanna see what this looks like in left field. Give us a couple reps out there and then we'll talk. They're, I would say both of those are equally likely, but I will say that what Harry Ford offers, the Mariners desperately need, on base, when we talk, exactly, high contact puts it together, great at bats, his slug isn't there yet, but we should just talk about the ability to put the bat on the ball and get on base. I mean, we walk through the numbers, we desperately need that. And if he can offer it to us, we gotta do that radical thing, which is bringing up our catching prospect to play right field. - That would be, yeah, I don't see that happening, honestly. I can see him being more of trade bait. - Yeah. - Rather than bringing him up this year. Now, if we can't make a trade with him, not that I want him, want us to, although if we need to get a right fielder for this year and looking for future years, I think there are trade possibilities, and I think Ford is on people's radar to not just be a catcher, but be either Craig Bizio, who's, we know Craig Bizio Astros isn't a Hall of Fame, right, I see him in Hall of Fame. - Yeah, yeah, he for sure is 3,000 hits. - Yeah, and it's a recollection, but anyway. Yeah, could he be a Craig Bizio type? Never predict someone's gonna be a Hall of Famer, but he can definitely go from catcher to second base to center field. - Yeah. - And he can be an athlete, so teams look at that. He's shoppable, if that's a word. - Yeah. - So I think getting him out there is late and coming, but I think it's time. - Yeah. - At the end of the day, if we're ranking prospects or talking about prospects, a huge weight with anyone's rankings is going to be, how many ways can you get to the big leagues? Because right now, Harry Ford's path to the big leagues is, well, you could be an outfielder that just gets on base. And it's like a lead off hitter type. He also has the ability to get to the big leagues by being a second catcher. He has the ability to get to the big leagues by being some form of a slugger. He's had huge seasons in the minor leagues where he's hit home runs. He's got middle of the order, you know, corner infield, you know, projections in him as well. So it's like, you give me as many opportunities to get to the big leagues as possible. That is going to significantly weigh on how valuable you are as a prospect. So yeah, I don't know, I don't know what, I don't know what the plan is for him, but I will say this isn't random. You know, it's not like they were just woke up. Hey, let's just see what Harry Ford looks like in right field today halfway through the season. - Yeah. - That's not how that goes. - He was on purpose and, you know, he can go a lot of different directions. Like we've already said, he can either be that utility from catcher to center field. He can be an infield utility player. He can be that prospect for us for another team, the trade piece. But you mentioned earlier, what can we do to replace France? I mean, I still am kicking around the idea of what Alonzo be a good fit. Now it's one bat. I don't, I think we may need more than one bat, but would that one bat be a, would that make a big difference? I think it's still an idea. People have been kicking around it. I mean, it's been, we've been connected with Alonzo for over a month now, way before the trade deadline. We still got three weeks of the trade deadline. - Yeah. - But I think we can, I think we can shop some prospects and replace France, which I think could be a big help. - Yeah, it's so hard to project the minor or the national league for trades because no one's out of it. - Yep, he can't. - I don't know. I think that if I was to-- - I think we should go for a Freddie Freeman. - Yeah. - Are they a daughter still in it? - Exactly. I think that the Mets, if I'm their ownership, I'm saying, let it ride, let's get the revenue and see if we can-- - I don't think Alonzo's. - Yeah, I agree. - I would expect that Alonzo doesn't get traded. - Yep. - The team that I think, as far as like rumors that if I was to place a bet on like, okay, what's the most likely? And I'm not even saying this is one of our impact bat moves 'cause it can't be, but I would say the Niko Horner, for me right now is probably the most likely trade. I'm not saying that it is likely, but as far as like, what's the most likely trade? It's probably having Niko Horner slot in as probably our number two hitter and play second base. That can not, let me be perfectly clear. I don't wanna go on the weeds on Niko Horner this episode, but that cannot count as one of our impact bats. We would need Niko Horner and like two other dudes. - Oh, yeah, that would just be replacing second baseman, just maybe fill in the hole, fill in the huge hole in the bottom of our tank that's leaking water horribly. We just need a stop gap and that would be a stop gap. We just need an MLB player at. Now, some people will scream for bliss, give bliss a opportunity. Well, probably true, not give him an opportunity, but I would rather go for that Horner sure thing, which, so what is a sure thing when you come to Seattle? (laughing) I mean, so there's that dynamic. When you come to Seattle, you kind of forget how to hit, I guess, when did he... - Unless you're, unless you're Victor of freaking Robles, baby. - That's right, that's right. I'm sure it didn't bury bonds over here. - I like the idea of Horner. I know that's been kicked around with some national reporters, and I do like the idea of the stop gap. - Yeah, I will say you mentioned bliss. One of the things, I got pretty fired up in the beginning of this episode, but one of the things that I don't understand, and it's one of the most head scratching things, honestly, that's happening right now, as far as like, why aren't we just doing anything? We're just, like I said, deck chairs on the Titanic. Why in the world is Ryan Bliss sitting on the bench in the major leagues? That makes no sense. - It's irresponsible. Like he's a, it's not like he's a Taylor modder, like just some, you know, quad A guy that, you know, just, oh yeah, put him on the bench, he's fine. He's not Victor Robles, he's a top prospect. - Yep. - And, or he, in our system, he is, he's probably somewhere in the-- - In our top system, he's a top player in a top system. So why are you not playing him? - You cannot have a top prospect sitting on the bench. It's the whole reason why Class A isn't here, because you can't have a guy with Class A, you know, skill set with his tools, not getting reps. - Yep. - Either play Bliss or send him down. No, I would play Bliss. You said that you'd have more play at second base. Regardless, Philonco, we're done. I would, I would straight up DFA 'em if you can't get rid of his contract. You know, basically, by the all-star break. I mean, we're done, it's over. - 'Cause he's a free agent at the end of this year. - Yeah. - I would think we would be able to do a salary swap to get rid of Philonco for somebody with a multi-year high contract, so at least-- - Mm-hmm, so you're saying-- - We're getting Bellinger, huh? - No. - No, not for, not for Philonco, that's for sure. I think we can kick around the idea. We'll kick around some ideas another time, right? - Yeah, that's a big thing we wanna do with Ty in our next episode. Teaser for that, we were gonna get a little, I don't wanna say radical, but to fix this team, we are going to have to get aggressive. And really, what we're gonna be looking at with Ty is what are some lanes to get aggressive and what lane makes the most sense? That's really gonna be the focus. We're talking about Ryan Bliss, that's where we were at. - Yep, Ryan-- - Yeah, yeah. - Play 'em, and I think Planck was done. I get the idea, we heard interviews from many actors, we heard interviews from other personnel, Scott Service, and they trust that the veterans are gonna start playing to their ability. We've given them enough leash to play to their ability. We've given Garver enough time, he has turned it around. In some sense. - Yeah. - Palanco, we've given him plenty of leash. He hasn't turned it around, he's looking the exact same for the last two weeks. - Ah, it's gotten way worse. - Well, yeah, his K-rate is outrageous. - Unreal. - He's not turning it around. - No. - So we're at a point now, we gotta make some decisions, and yeah, still fit three weeks of the trade deadline, but are we gonna wait three weeks to give Ty France and Palanco time to turn around? - I hope not, and here's the thing too, a lot of people will clump Palanco and Garver together, like their package, they are not the same. - No. - You know, Garver, by all definitions of Garver, he's had a really bad season, but Garver's on pace for 20, 25 home runs, but you know-- - He's turned it around actually, that's a, he's turned it around. - It's a whole different world with that Palanco and Garver are living in right now, yeah, and they look totally different, you know, Garver's up there putting together productive at bats, he's at least putting up competitive at bats, Palanco's lost, he's not even in the stratosphere of where you need Palanco to be, if he's not getting hit in the shoelaces or drilled in the shins, he's not getting on base. - Right, so-- - So like it's over, it's over. - I got Palanco's stats here for last week, this week-- - Give it to us. - So two for 12, which, you know, people go two for 12, but I think that is, he's always two for 12, no matter how many weeks you look at. So 167 average, 231 on base, 167 again, with the slug for a 3.98 OPS. - Well, that's not gonna work. - That's not gonna work, that's enough. If it's 2018, and that's your OPS for your pitcher, that'll work, but for your second base win, nope, that's not gonna work. Anything else you wanna talk about before we dive into the all-star stuff? - No, Mariner's gotta come up with that clutch base hit. I appreciate Rayleigh acknowledging it, and I hope that passes along to other teams, our teammates. But, yeah, four for 28 in the series. What did I have? - Yeah. - I had us, I had it. So I texted-- - What stat are you looking for? I wrote some stuff down. - Well, it's the one I said for the home series. The home series for twins, we were four for 34, and runners in scoring position. Two for 15 against Baltimore in the series, then four for 28 versus Toronto. So, I mean, if I can do math real quick. - Do it, I mean, yeah, take your time, do it. - We know the four plus two plus four is 10. So 28, 15, that's nine, 17, carry the one. We got 10 for 77. - Holy hell. - 10 for 77. - Runners in scoring position, this home series against twins, Baltimore, Toronto. - 10 for 70. - 10 for 70. - 70. - So, on the positive side, we're getting players and runners in scoring position. We, like Rayleigh said, we're not getting the key base hit. We need that extra bat, we need the longer lineup. So we're not having to go through Polanco and France to get that key base hit. - Yep. - And Ken's own. Ken's own is, believe it or not, Ken's doing worse than Polanco. He's one for 13, 77.077 average, 200 on base, 0.077 slugging. So all three of those guys had the same slug as they had average with a 2.77 OPS or Ken's own. - That is crazy. Okay, so to put this all into a bow, 'cause I do want to move on to Logan Gilbert here and give him his flowers. But like here's the thing, you have to put Robles in right field. I know it's a small sample size, but if he's gonna have his 850 OPS or whatever it is, just put him out in right field until he's not good anymore. Like you just have to do something. You have to DFA Polanco. You gotta either play Bliss or more at second base. You have to bring up Locklear. If you're gonna DFA Polanco, there's your spot for Locklear and you have to get Locklear in the lineup. Do I think that it's a magic potion and that's just gonna fix everything? Heck, no. But at least it's doing something. At least it's something. You can't just keep rolling this out there and let's have Haniger at DH in the seventh spot. Let's have Haniger play right field. Oh, well, he wasn't good. So now we'll have Ken's own play right field. Oh, he wasn't good either. Let's have Haniger play right field. It's like you can keep shuffling this thing around. Get different players. At least there's a chance that they're good. At least there's a chance Locklear is good. We know France isn't good. At least there's a chance Locklear is good. Yep. No, I agree. Let's get him up here. France has shown what he is for the last three years, well, two years. And Polanco's is not happening. No, not happening. All these wishing a prayer is, no, it's exhausted. Yep, and here's the thing. Polanco, another team, they may pick him up and we saw Colton Wong. He had a little resurgence last year with the Dodgers. There's a chance that same thing happens with Polanco. I think that's kind of what they're afraid of. It's like, oh, no, he's still in there. Polanco's still in there. Maybe, but it's not with you. And you got to be willing to steal losses. Yeah, it's a sunk cost and that's okay. That happens in business. And it's not like we gave up a hall that's going to come back and bite us. We're not talking about the Adam Jones trade here for Badard. We gave up Gabriel Gonzalez. You know, what Gabriel Gonzalez is doing this year. And Diskofani. Yeah, none of those guys are good. Gabriel Gonzalez fell out of the top 100 in every list. He's not good, he's having a really bad year that's been injury riddled all year in in high A and he's got like a 700 OPS in high A. That's not good, Justin Topa. Yeah, Justin Topa, he's got neat problems. He hasn't pictured it all. Diskofani, the same thing and he's injured. They're like, we're talking about a hall that it doesn't matter. Like it didn't work, but also what you gave up. The twins are saying the same thing. So it doesn't matter, just cut your losses, call it a day. You didn't give up anything for them. You paid them, it didn't work, cut your losses. It's a sunk cost, it happens in business. Get over it. We talked last time, it was the right process. Bad result, that's nothing to beat yourself up for. It's, we tried it. I like to move, love to move actually, and it just hasn't worked. So let's make the next move. Exactly. All right, let's move on, something more fun. Let's end on a positive note here. So Logan Gilbert, All Star, we all saw that coming. I would, that's not a shock to anybody. And he deserves it. Out of all the pitchers that we've had, Kirby was an All Star last year, along with Castillo. And it really felt like, oh man, but it'd be sweet if Logan was there. It's kind of 1A, 1B, 1C. They're all, Kirby was excellent last year. Gilbert wasn't as good. Now this year, Gilbert's excellent. Kirby isn't quite as good. But all three of them, I'd say, are the same tier of pitcher. And so it's really nice that Logan Gilbert is able to put that on his resume. He deserves it. He is an All Star caliber pitcher. And to finally make it official, I feel really excited for Gilbert. He's one of the premium starters in this league. I don't know if I'd quite call him an ace yet. But he's getting there. I agree. He has another year like this. If he can finish out this year strong, then we're flirting with calling him an ace. But right now, he is a number one. And he has a chance not only to, well, he is an All Star. It's official. But he has a chance to start the All Star game. I mean, if it all lines up that way, he may get first crack at it. He's been phenomenal. He's a Si Young candidate. And Logan Gilbert, we're lucky to have him. He's a phenomenal pitcher. And if there was one guy that I would say, hey, we should extend him, it's probably Logan Gilbert. I'm really excited for him. Well-deserving. We he'd dive into all the stats. But he's the top of everything. I mean, top 10 of everything. So yeah. Yep. Yeah, he's top two of quality starts. Because Seth Lugo of Kansas City is number one in quality starts. And Enning's spitched is Seth Lugo and Logan's number two. So Logan's probably in top five of several of these. I just haven't gone through them all. Oh, yeah. And in every category that makes-- or that's significant, Logan Gilbert is top 10. And most-- usually in the top five. Like I said, we could go down every stat, but-- Yep, he's deserving. Yeah, exactly. He deserves it. So good for him. Yeah, yeah. One thing I wanted to talk about, though, was Munio's. He's not an All-Star, at least not yet. And that really upsets me. I don't know how else to phrase it. I wanted to look at two players, Munio's and Clay Holmes, and compare the two. Because I think it's ridiculous that Munio's isn't an All-Star. And I think it's because he pitches in Seattle and he's not a New York gankie. And it's not fair. It's not right. It's ridiculous. And I have ridiculous stats that prove it. All right, let's look at this, because this is me off. Munio's. OK, Munio's has a 1.54 ERA with a 1.29 whip. He's got 11 K through 9 rate and 35 innings. OK, let's look at Clay Holmes. Clay Holmes has a 3 ERA. So twice what Munio's has. He's got a 1.306 whip. So basically 0.3 higher than Munio's. He's got a 9.3 K through 9 rate. Munio strikes out two K through 9 higher than Holmes. And if we're looking at ERA+, which, if you're not familiar with ERA+, it's a stat that basically grades you're pitching on a scale of-- it's on a scale of basically 100, where 100 is average. And then it's percent after that. So just for example, Clay Holmes has a 1.38 ERA+. So that means Clay Holmes is 38% better than the average pitcher. That's phenomenal. That's amazing. That's great. That's great. I don't want to take anything away from Clay Holmes. That is a excellent ERA+. OK, let me ask you this. I want to give it away. What do you think that Andre's Munio's ERA+ is? If Clay Holmes, after all the stats I told you, if Clay Holmes is 138, what do you think Andre's Munio's ERA+ is? What do you think, Dad? Well, I'd say whip is an important factor for a reliever. So with Munio's being better than in whip, I think you'd have to be better in the ERA+. What do you think? 1.45. OK, 1.45. You were off by 100%. Andre's Munio has a 245 ERA+. That is 107% better than Clay Holmes. Oh, but Clay Holmes pitches in pinstripes, so he's the All-Star. Yeah. Well, does New York have any other All-Stars though? Come on. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe this guy named Juan Soto, you ever heard of him? Yeah, Judge and-- Yeah. It's ridiculous. I mean, that is absolutely ridiculous. He has 107% better than Clay Holmes. Yeah, that's-- Tilting is the scales the wrong way there. That is not fair. That's not right. Yeah. That pisses me off. That's not OK. Yep. And if we have-- No, I'm just looking at Munio's. He's got 14 saves and 6 holds. So he's got combined for leverage reliever 20 successful leverages. Clay Holmes has 19, and they're all in saves. So he gets the saves, which could be anyone in your batting order, could be your number 678891, where Munio's-- he has the holds, because he's going up against the best bads. Exactly. So Munio's doesn't have the saves, because the best bads may be coming up in the eighth inning. So he has to face the 3, 4, 5 in the eighth, rather than skipping the-- so, yeah. I mean, you look at saves and the holds together. Exactly. And that's why his ERA+ is 245, because the plus factors in who you're pitching against. That's why it's so much drastically higher. It's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. And I feel for Munio's not only because he doesn't have the honors of being an All-Star out the gate. Now, I think Munio's should get it. He probably will as it all. Sometimes pitchers, for example, they'll get hurt, or they'll opt out, or their coach will say, no, he's not available for the All-Star game, which opens up spots. So I bet you, Munio's will eventually be on the All-Star team. But the fact that he's not like one of the three guys that are taken, or one of the first three guys that are taken, is ridiculous. It's him, it's Mason Miller, it's Duran, and that's about it. Well, Kirby 8's, he got picked from the Texas Rangers. Maybe he's their only All-Star. I mean, I really don't know is-- I think Simian got picked. Well, yeah, Simian's a starter. So, yeah. What are we doing? So why is he 8's? His whip is pretty low, though. I'm just looking at ESPN, actually, right here, which they're pretty basic stats. So it's nothing special. What ESPN gives, what I'm looking at anyway. Yeah, that's not right. Yeah, that Munio's didn't get picked. Yeah, and here's the thing, too. Not only do I feel bad for Munio's, but also I wanted to finish my point of, unfortunately, stuff like this matters when you're talking about negotiations for your contract with your agent. Having accolades next to your name, matter, having the Relief Man of the Year award, having your All-Star, having Cy Young award, top 10 finishes, that stuff matters. You think about Julio Rodriguez's contract. The amount of his MVP voting actually is factored into how much money he makes in the future. Exactly, yeah. See, you think that it doesn't-- Exactly, you don't think that it matters for Munio's. And when he's negotiating his next contract to have that All-Star next to his name, it matters. It's not fair. It's not right. So I just wanted to-- Yes, there you go. We're at love. Now, have you looked at Munio's? Not that this has nothing to do with him being All-Star. But we have Munio's locked up for, basically, until 2028. There's three club options after next year. He's going to get expensive. Yeah, and right now he's worth it. Yep, yep, so-- But anyway, that's-- yeah, I agree with you and the accolades and taking home some hardware. You want to take away hardware to jack up your payroll. But we already have him up to-- we already have him locked up for the next five years. Yeah, well, that's true. Well, five years. 2028s, is that five years away? Well, 252627. So this year plus four more. OK, yeah. Well, that's good. So all right, dad, anything else you want to say before we get the heck out of here? Now, just imagine if we would just get with one extra base hit with runners in scoring position. Where would we be? We could be five games ahead of Houston. We could have still did our tank and still be five games up. Yup. Easy, easy, because the one thing kind of not concerning, but interesting is we had so many-- the third game of the series to go for the win. And we know that when come playoff time, you got to win a series. If you don't win a series, so so many third game of a series came down to, are we going to win, or are we going to lose a series? And six series in a row, even though Baltimore, we lost the first two, so the rover game wasn't a rover game. Got a chance to win the series, and we haven't done it. So is that concerning that we're having a chance to win the series, and we're just not doing it? So I hope that's not a projection for how we do in the playoffs. We have a chance to win a series, the last game. We've got to do better. We have the opportunities. I say, go get a bet. And I think everyone is, too. Oh, yeah. And I want to-- last thing, especially if you're new to our podcast, we are definitely on the team, quote, unquote, that we need to go get bats, because a lot of people are saying, oh, this team's not worth getting bats for it. Yes, it is. You have three number one starters. Are they ACEs? That's up for debate. How do they are? No, that's not the point. The point is we got a top pitching rotation. We have the QB on a rookie deal, so to speak, when we're talking about those pitchers, the way they're locked up, club control, it's not something you punt on. You have to go and get aggressive. You have to assume JP Crawford and Julio are going to turn it around. I think that you probably need four or five impact bats, and JP Crawford and Julio and Garver have to be three of them. So that's basically it. So I think you have to proceed like those things are going to happen, because the opportunity you have is rare, the starting pitching we have is rare. And I think we need to get aggressive. I think we need to get some bats, not just the Nico Horner's, but we need to take some swings. And maybe take some swing on some rentals. That's something that the Depoto era-- No, the Depoto era hasn't done that. That may be something that we need to take a serious look at this year. So we're in a unique position to have that quarterback and Ricky deal with our three number ones. Plus, we have the farm system that has the most players, most prospects in the top 100. We have eight prospects in the top 100. That's the most of any major league club. So we have our starting young controllable pitchers, and we have prospects to supplement our major league roster if Jerry wants to do it. It's all right there. Yep. So that's going to do it for this episode. Our next episode's going to be a fun one. We're going to record with Ty Dane Gonzalez from Locked on Maras. Excuse me, Locked on Mariners. And we're going to be talking about some big swings. If you want big aggressive moves, big aggressive mindsets, that's what we're going to be looking at. And it's not to be weird. It's not to be radical and look at things that are unrealistic or things that are just fun. We want to analyze what does taking big swings look like and look at the fallout of what that would be in terms of what would be left in our prospect system if we were to take a huge swing at the deadline. Not just one, not just two, but like three impact bats. What would that do to our system? We talked about fast tracking Harry Ford. What about other players? That's the stuff that we want to talk about and break down with Ty. So if that sounds like fun to you, it sounds like fun to us. We're going to do that in our next episode. And be on look out for that. Should be dropping on Thursday of, I guess, it'd be this week. So be on look out for that. Follow us on X, call us like it is, and go in. Take care. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] (upbeat rock music)