Big thanks to Brent Stecker (@BrentStecker, editor at SeattleSports.com) for coming on to share some of his journey that led him to write for these teams we love, what he'd do as GM, and we all share our all star votes!
The Collins It Like It Is Podcast is two brothers talking Seahawks and Mariners. Get ready for WAR, trying sorry receivers, and breaking up family feuds! Like, subscribe, and follow us on X @collinslikeitis
Collins It Like It Is
31. Interview With Brent Stecker from SeattleSports.com!
Big thanks to Brent Stecker (@BrentStecker, editor at SeattleSports.com) for coming on to share some of his journey that led him to write for these teams we love, what he'd do as GM, and we all share our all star votes!The Collins It Like It Is Podcast is two brothers talking Seahawks and Mariners. Get ready for WAR, trying sorry receivers, and breaking up family feuds! Like, subscribe, and follow us on X @collinslikeitis
- Duration:
- 43m
- Broadcast on:
- 20 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
[MUSIC] Welcome back into the Collins It Like It Is podcast. My name is Stephen Collins and I'm here with my brother, Sean Collins, say, hey. >> Hey, what's going on, everybody? >> Hey, it's going good, it's going good. This podcast was really started. If you're new to this thing, this was started with, we were on Twitter, on X, we were seeing the online dialogue, seeing the comments section. And man, sometimes it's encouraging. But sometimes it is a toxic stinking wasteland. And so we said, hey, let's start a podcast. Let's take the conversations we're having on text thread. Let's take the Marco Polo's that we're doing. And let's just start a podcast and have conversations about this team we love. This is supposed to be fun, man. This is, we're not doing heart surgery. The stakes are not, you know, eternal, if you will, like goodness gracious. This is, this is a baseball team, a football team. You know, one day NBA season is over, bring back the basketball team. Let's go. But this is supposed to be fun. And we just wanted to have a fun dialogue about these teams we love. And so we started this thing up. I hope this adds to your fandom as we have thoughtful conversations. But, you know, don't take ourselves too seriously. You know the vibe here if you've been listening for a while. So we want to have guests on as well that kind of embody this. People that are thoughtful, people that have good takes, people that are respectful. And so, Sean, we have a guest that we're really excited to have here that goodness gracious is far too qualified to be on our stick and little podcast. Sean, to yourself here. Yeah. We got Brent Stecker joining us. So Brent Stecker is the editor for SeattleSports.com, also creates content over there, writer. He's used to, you know, Revan Shoulders with Brock and Salk and Shannon Dreier. So him coming on to our podcast here is really like, like accepting an assignment down to like Modesto. I don't know why you would do that, but I'm really excited to have Brent. That's way, that's way too generous. This is a game in the parking lot at Modesto. So I don't know what Brent's doing on here, but welcome to the parking lot, Brent. Thanks for hopping on, dude. Yeah. Thanks so much for hopping on. This is going to be fun. Wow. Thanks so much for flattering me, you guys. I think I'm the parking lot at SeattleSports. So I embody this. I love this. This seems like a great time. That's going to be good. It's going to be a good time for sure. Really excited. So we have a first question for you here, Brent, because some of this, we just want to get to know you, part of even just online dialogue, you don't know the people behind the handle. And so we want to get to know you a little bit, man. So you work at SeattleSports.com. And so the question route, the jump is, is this like a dream come true for you job? Or are you from another fan base from another area and you're like working behind enemy lines behind enemy lines here? Is this like childhood dreams come true? You get to talk about these teams that you would want to fan up. So fill us in there. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely that. It's the dream come true. I never thought that I was going to be able to cover pro sports teams. I grew up in Eastern Washington, afraid of Washington. I spent a lot of my childhood just grabbing the Wenatchee world newspaper, looking at the box scores of the Sonic's game to see how much Sean Kemp scored, Gary Payton's assistant and everything like that. And not long after then, I came out of high school, was going into community college and Wenatchee ended up getting a job at the sports department there and things just kind of took off from there. So, you know, I always knew I was going to be a writer. That was the one thing I could do in high school. Then landing in sports made so much sense. And just getting a job writing prep sports, that seemed like a dream come true. And then, you know, I always wanted to live in Seattle and just so it happened that somebody sent me a link to a job opening with SeattleSports. And I had never even thought like, "Oh, you can write for a radio station." And it turns out like that was the way that the world was going and it's been a crazy 11 years that I still pinch myself that I get to do this. And, you know, like you said, I'm working with Brock Huert and Dave Wyman and Bob Stellton and Shannon Dreyer. And I get to hear these stories from them and, you know, I've been around the clubhouse is a little bit. It's been a while since because I'm the editor, but just the fact that I get to do this stuff. And I do it, you know, in the city that has the teams that I grew up watching is pretty amazing. That's so cool. I love that, man. I'm curious for you, just as a fan, when it comes to like Sonic's Mariner Seahawks, what like order is your fandom? Like, what, what do you, is your like, your biggest like heart, you know, love if you will for those teams? Well, that's a tough one. I'm not supposed to say the Mariner's because, you know, I write about them. Okay. Okay. Well, sorry. No, no, no, no. It's not your fault. I write about this all the time because I do work for Seattle Sports and, but it's hard to get away from the fact that I grew up in Eastern Washington. And I grew up in a town that's, you know, in my opinion, in the capital of Washington State base. Bali Frida has eight state championships. The head coach, Dave Johnson is the winningest coach in Washington State baseball history. I'm proud to call myself one of the worst players that come through his system. My best position was keeping score, which was, you know, kind of telling me what, what career I was going to go to. But, you know, I started off really a gigantic basketball fan, the 90s songs were everything to me. The 95 Mariners happened in 2001 Mariners happened. I think that's a big reason why when you see me on Twitter, it's a lot more optimism than anything is because I was, what, nine years old in 1995. I was, what, 15 in 2001. So I grew up with the Mariners being a very good baseball team. And so that's kind of the expectations I've always had and it goes in a more positive direction for me. So besides that, I also being in Eastern Washington, my whole family or gigantic, a basketball fans, that's the other thing for me that's, you know, huge that when it comes time for March, like that's when I really live and breathe basketball. That's awesome. Man, you, you, I'm sure remember the 1985, you know, VHS, my oh my that season, you know, tape that came out me and my brother, we, we didn't watch a whole lot of Disney movies necessarily growing up. You know, we had those, but the video tape that we wore out was not Beauty and the Beast. It wasn't, you know, Aladdin, it was not my oh my VHS. So we can quote that thing all day long. Let's go. To that, I had the Ken Griffey Jr. VHS that I remember specifically had him with hitting tips with Craig Griffey at the, at Sheenie Stadium, and then I also had the Rain Man highlight tape that, and I think I can still, like, I can go back to my parents house and I can grab those anytime I want. Well, literally on my dad's house right now, who's on this call, we could go down and get that teal, my oh my VHS and fire that thing up. So that's awesome. I had a question. Yeah, go for it. Yeah. I got a question for you. So when I think about, you know, you're writing, obviously us as fans, we read your writing and, you know, it adds a lot to our fandom. What's something about that that maybe most fans don't get as far as just like the prep and all of the work that goes into it? Or if you're maybe more specific question and when you write a typical article, how long does that take you to create? And like, what's that process that, you know, like if you could kind of take us under the hood, so to speak? Yeah, the length of time is an interesting thing. I try not to spend too much time on articles because we live in such a fast-paced environment. You know, if you look at the website, we have 10 spots on the front page. And every day we're trying to make sure that those 10 spots don't look the same as they did the day before. So, you know, there's times when I do put a little bit more effort into it. You know, our other writers, I think they're, we allow them some more time to put some more, you know, they're covering things they're out at Seahawks training camp. They're out at Mariners games. They might have more hours to put into it, but, you know, today, I wanted to make sure that we had something up right after the Mariners series finale against Cleveland. So, you know, about the sixth inning, I start getting going on a Mariners breakdown of just, you know, it's a tough one where they're losing the series. But it's not a, you know, a team that they're losing a series here that you're all that disappointed about. So, I just wanted to give people a sense of, you know, where the team was at this point. So, you're just letting them know, like, here's what's coming up next. Here's where they are in the standings. Here's some injury notes. Here's some guys that, you know, maybe coming up in the next series they could potentially even trade for. So, you know, really like challenging myself from the sixth inning on to write that story and make sure that within a few minutes of the game being over, it's there. So, how often do you have to go back and like, oh, well, especially with the Mariners and just the chaos they do in the style of baseball, how often are you like, are you right? Restarting this bad boy. And how is that frustrating for you? Or is it like, no, I'm glad to rewrite this one because it means, you know, it's an exciting game. Yeah, that's an interesting one that I haven't really experienced too much lately. You know, I'm not doing game recaps, but there have been times doing those game recaps. That's where it kind of happens, but yeah, it's been a long time since I've really had to throw something away. I think more the frustration that's coming for me is, luckily now we have systems where we write and it's just on the cloud and it's updating, but there's been times where you write an entire story and it is gone and you don't know where it went. So that's been more of the concern for me. But, you know, I think that's, you know, me writing in the sixth inning of that game allows me to kind of pivot if I need to and I don't spend too much time going down a path that I may have to walk back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your leadness into the next idea. Obviously, this season has been unique. We're not used to this in Seattle Mariners world that we've carved out, you know, before the series of 10 game lead, you know, as a couple of days ago. Now I think we're down to eight or something like that. And so it's the largest lead we've had since 2001 since it sounds like all of us were literally kids and teenagers. And so it's been a minute. It's not about certain kids and teenagers anymore, man. And so I'm curious for you, like, just emotionally, like, how are you feeling? Just even just, you know, this team that you grew up rooting for is as a, you know, for the first time in 20 years, this type of lead in the division, like, how are you feeling about that? And then are you more focused right now still on Texas and Houston with the division? Are you looking ahead? Obviously we lost to Cleveland, but are you looking ahead to the two seed? Like, how are you feeling? And right now, are you looking more at division or more at seating in the playoffs right now? Like, where's your head at? I feel like the Mariners are kind of where I thought they were going to be oddly enough. I mean, I'm, like I said, a very optimistic, you know, baseball outlook kind of person. So I kind of go into every season buying the most optimistic version of the Mariners. And I mean, you could go ask some people around the sports, but at Seattle Sports, I was saying before this season, like, I know the fan base isn't happy about this offseason, but if you look at this roster, that's a team that we're going to be looking at it, you know, down a few months, like they're going to do some things and clearly the offense should be better. I thought the offense was going to be a lot better than it's been right now. And I mean, anybody can, anybody can say that. So, as far as what I'm paying attention to right now, I'm really close to not worrying so much about the Rangers and the Astros. And it's more about them than it is about the Mariners. I think I was a little, I was like a year early when it comes to my impression of the Astros and the Rangers being like this. I don't know if I was necessarily expecting the Astros to be under 500, but I've been thinking for a while, like they're running out of time. And for them switching, you know, from Dusty to Joe Espada, not that I really know anything about Joe Espada, but that's kind of the thing is he's a guy who has managed before and it does kind of seem like the aura is gone for them. You know, they still have a lot of talent. They're more concerning than the Rangers, I think. The Rangers to me has been a boomer bus roster. And last year, I really did not see them coming. I was a lot like Mike Salk throughout the year, just expecting them to fall apart at any point and they got really close. And then they pulled it together, just snuck into the playoffs and made it happen in October. But their roster is so predicated on these veterans that are kind of injury prone. And then if they have these young guys who they're, you know, relying on like Josh Young, that they also are getting hurt, but they're also not that proven at the major league level. Like, you know, when those guys that are injured come back, are the other guys going to be healthy too? I just don't see that Rangers team being as good as they were last year. Oh, dude, you're preaching to the choir here with Sean, and you had this take preseason, man. I feel like I'm hearing an echo from the off season here, holy smokes. Whereas I'm the glass half full, I could talk myself into the Seahawks being a Super Bowl contender. Like, I just, I am a neurotic comes to the Seahawks. It makes, you know, I'm wearing my Super Bowl shirt on right now. Sean looks at a little more glass half full when it comes to the Mariners. So we balance each other out here and whatnot. So I'm pretty glass half empty at times. They've hurt me too many times. I've seen this movie two times and I've been wounded, I've been hurt by this team and so I'm a little gunshot at times with the Mariners. I saw it very similar to you, Brent, especially last year. I thought there's no way that this bullpen can win a world series. I mean, they led the league and blown saves and it was just like, what is going on? I think that that speaks a lot to, I know fans don't want to hear this, but it speaks a lot to just get in mentality because the Rangers, they just got in and won the World Series. Like they, as far as like on paper, I don't really think they had any business winning the World Series. It's, you know, same thing with the Diamondbacks getting there. So it's, it's a lot of it, you know, when we had Danny Beatty on you, he, he mentioned the MLB playoffs kind of being like March Madness, you know, it's just get in and see what happens there. There is a lot of that doesn't mean I don't want to see the Mariners ad doesn't mean I want to see them get better, but we're in a pretty good position right now because it would take a lot for the Mariners, not to just get in at this point and it'd be really fun to see this team finally get a chance to let that rotation show what they can do in October because we've been hearing it for a couple of years from the MLB insiders that nobody wants to face the Mariners in October, but the Mariners weren't there last year. So we didn't get to see it. And obviously you want to see the lineup have a better shot than, than it would give them right now, but that, that would be quite the thing to see, like, what does just throw in Castillo, Kirby, Gilbert, Miller, maybe, like, like, who are, who's your fourth because you can go Miller? You can go woo. It's, it's really interesting. Probably both have them piggyback each other, and it's probably really for three innings. Buckle up. Good luck. And this, I think that series versus Texas we were talking about on the podcast earlier, just showed how valuable the two seat is by getting that extra spot star with Hancock, letting our rotation fully reset to just rock and roll. The idea of getting that two seed where our rotation could totally reset, take some time to rest, and then just rock in that opening round, nobody wants to play that. Nobody wants to see Castillo on, you know, four days rest and no extra days of rest. Nobody wants to see them just totally reset, dialed in, and just moving downhill. That is, that's a dangerous proposition if you're the rest of baseball. It's why there's a tough series with the, with the Guardian's stings, you know, they're the team that we're trying to catch now, they're, they're, they're the, they're kind of the goal. Yeah. They have the tiebreaker. I think you mentioned that in your article, right? Didn't you, Brent, that the, you know, as far as like the tiebreaker, how that all shapes up like now, we really aren't, I think it's, we're four and a half games back of the Guardians now. It's really more like five because we don't just have to catch the Guardians. We got to pass the Guardians. So that's a bummer of a series that we just lost honestly. Yeah. It is, but I think also the fact that the Mariners have five guys that you could throw into a playoff rotation does help out with the fact that if they are in a wild card series, they're still going to have a pretty good shot. Yeah. I mean, they're going to have a really hard time catching, I think, the, the Guardians and whoever wins the East. So yeah, I get the, you need something to shoot for. It's kind of the Jay Booner like, you know, who cares about the wild card thing, but yeah, I think the Mariners, it really is just, they just need to get in there. The pitching reputation is going to be good enough to take them someplace. Yeah. I agree. This, this kind of leads into, obviously we have the big four pitching and we got some big names in the lineup that have been underachieving, but a couple of questions we have for you just really into like all stars and just the all star breaks, they're going to be here before we know it. And so question that we had is like, do you, do you vote every year for MLB all stars? And then what's your philosophy for voting? Like what, what are you taking into consideration, whether it's, you know, advanced, you know, super metrics or whether it's, you know, looking at just the star, the literal, like the, the all star, even if an underperforming player, kind of what's your, what's your philosophy with that? And do you, do you vote every year? Yeah, I tried to and I'm glad that you guys had mentioned that before the podcast because I hadn't gotten around to it yet. So I did that earlier tonight and it really didn't make me kind of thing. Like, what do I do? And I think in general, I just kind of take the stats that they give you, which is maybe not the greatest thing in the world, but at least they give you OPS. But that was a really interesting thing to do just for this one because what the two best players in the American League, I think are Gunnar Henderson and Bobby Witt. And I was like, I have to pick one of them for shortstop. And I just couldn't not pick Bobby Witt, even though I think Gunnar Henderson is having a better year. So I think, you know, all star games for fun too. And there's a little bit of a weirdness about, I love the all star game. I mean, the 2001 all star game is that's another one of those videotapes I had. I taped it myself. I used to watch it all the time, the Cal Ripken thing, the Vlad Guerrero's broken bat hitting Tommy Lasorda, like, all that stuff was amazing. So I love the all star game. I still watch it every year. It's the one all star game that actually is, you know, kind of means something and matters. But it is about fun. So I try not to take it too seriously, the OPS carries a lot of weight. That's the one main stat they give you there, but you still have to remember, like, some of these guys are really good, you know, defensively. Some of these guys like Bobby Witt, their speed is a big part of the game, and that's not necessarily on the stat. So make sure that you check things a little bit there. But yeah, my main philosophy is mostly waiting the OPS because they don't have WRC plus on there. And yeah, just, you know, feel the vibes. I like it. I like it. Channel the Suarez. Good vibes only. Let's go. Here's a question that we've been teasing on the podcast that we get to, but we thought it'd be actually best to do with you, Brent. And that's, who do you think is deserving of being an all star for the Seattle Mariners? Like, try to take our Homer hat off, you know, and take our fan hat off and put in, you know, this is, you're also an objective, you know, you do this for a living. And so what do you think, like, realistically is deserving to be an all star when it comes to Mariners players, Mariners roster? The obvious one is Anders Munoz. He's having a fantastic season. I think he's been good enough before. But the one guy who I've wanted to see there for a few years is Logan Gilbert. And I think he's passing due on this. Like he's the fact that he hasn't been an all star yet is kind of amazing to me. And he's the guy that I always say on any given night, he has the best chance of any Mariners pitcher of throwing a no hitter. And I know that people love Kirby and Kirby's got an amazing skill set that nobody's really ever seen before. But there's just something about Logan Gilbert when he's on, there's nobody quite like him. And it's very similar to how I felt when James Paxton was at his best. There's something about those guys. They have very similar extensions, they have a similar repertoire of, you know, just enough different kinds of pitches that it's, it makes their fastball so unfair. So I really hope that he gets a shot. I put out a column earlier this week of some bold predictions. And I said that Julio was going to get hot and make it because he, he had just enough time. Yeah. The Cleveland series did not help that. That one's not easy. He's still got, he's still having, he's going to get hot, right? He's still talking about that. And the other tough thing about the All-Star game is it is completely about the first half of a baseball season and it, it doesn't, you know, take account what happened the second half of the previous year. And that's how you have things like where Felix Hernandez didn't make an All-Star team and won the Cy Young. So I do wish there was a little bit more of like people taking account of the previous year's second half and maybe that's somewhat of how Julio got the invite last year. I also thought that maybe that was similar to how the previous year they had Pujols and Miguel Cabrera as like, you know, the commissioner could pick that and it was just like, hey, we need the, the Mariners to have their superstar there. So, I wish that Cal Raleigh's numbers showed up a little bit more. Yeah. It's so clutch, he's such a great like, you know, pitching the staff manager that that's the kind of thing that gets lost a lot. I mean, he's just there so often, but, you know, Salvador Perez is having a great year, Ali Rushman. He's just not those guys, so he's probably not going to make it again, but so the, the predictions that I had, there was Julio probably not going to happen, but Munoz Gilbert. And I think one of either Kirby or Bryce Miller is going to go and it just kind of depends on who has the better next couple of weeks. Yeah. Do you guys, I'm curious, Sean, your owner and actually our dad is too, he's in silently lurking in the corner. Do you guys, do you have any, you want to add to that? Do you have any that you'd want to say, I actually think this person's going to, going to make it all, or do you agree that that's, that's the crew? It's kind of depressing to say that at some level, like, I think, well, we've been talking about this whole time has been the Mariners have almost a 10 game lead in the division and they haven't even played well yet. Like imagine when they play well, like how good they're going to be. And so that's, that's the, I think the best case for optimism for the rest of the year is imagine when they're actually good, when their stars play like stars. Do you guys see any other additional all-stars or do you agree with Brent that that's kind of what we got? Well, what's been weird for me is, you know, the Astros, I think they had three guys that were leading all-star vote getters. And a lot of fans were like, oh, the Astros have three guys, but they're 10 games back of the Mariners. How can that be possible? And I'm sitting there looking at it objectively, like, I, I kind of agree with it. Like, like, I don't really have a problem with that. They, they have those three guys. I think it was Alvarez, Tucker, and, uh, Altuve. And I'm like, yeah, I, it sounds good to me. I mean, it's just crazy how that all works out. It reminds me a little bit of the Trout Otani, you know, situation where like, how can you have such a high high, you know, uh, I don't know how to phrase that, I guess, ceiling of your team, but the, the floor of it in the injuries that happened to Houston has just created such a floor where the bottom fell out. So, um, to answer your question, though, Steven, I, I don't, I don't, I don't disagree. I think that Brian Wu has a sneaky chance, but the last start that he had didn't help him. Um, I think that if he just kept on going with that one, Sandy run, I think he had a shot, like oddly enough. But I think that that's kind of a pipe dream at this point. Um, I know a lot of fans are getting up in arms about Cal Raleigh being 10th in the voting. I'm kind of okay with it. I know he should be higher, but if you're 5th or 10th, who cares? Like I just, that's kind of my stance with it. Either way, Cal Raleigh's not an all star and that's okay. He's still a great player, still a productive player, not very many catchers out there. I'd rather have been Cal Raleigh. That doesn't mean you're an all star. So I, I, I pretty much agree with, with, uh, what Brent had to say. Yeah. That anything you want to add? Well, I got to add that my tracker jack box earbuds aren't working very good. Okay. So this is a high production podcast. Yeah. So what are you going to get this Mickey Mouse thing out of here? We're talking about. I think just say what you're going to say, then it was going to be, yeah, Munoz Kirby. I think those are the two that I would, I would say is, is, are going to be our representatives. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you, Brent. Those are the, but again, like I said, at some level, it's kind of encouraging that we're doing this well with only that many, but also it's kind of depressing. Uh, I, I actually said last year was, I thought the most disappointing Mariners season and franchise history, just with hosting the all star game coming off the drought breaking season to have virtually like no legitimate all stars represented. There was just so depressing. And then Julio coming just short of winning, you know, the, the homerun derby and then missing the playoffs. It just such a deflating season and then the team that you missed out on wins the World Series, you know, it's just like, Oh my goodness, that was such a, so it only can feel like it can go up. That's how I feel about this all star situation and season is it can only get better is how it feels. Uh, Sean, do you want to pitch over to Brent, the, the kind of last, um, question before we may, we may get you on your tubs here a little bit, Brian. We'll see about some non plan questions, but, uh, the GM question, do you want to dial us up for that one? This might take a minute. Yeah. Also, dad, I don't know if you, maybe I misheard you, but I, I thought I heard you say, uh, it was Kirby and Munoz. I'm assuming you met Gilbert and Munoz. Yeah. That's what I meant. I did say, I did say, uh, Kirby, but I meant Gilbert, but I just, I got your back. I got your back. Oh, you know what? I heard what you said. And I was like, you know what? I think he thinks, uh, he thinks Munoz and both is especially the all's true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My earbuds got me off. Robles. And yes. Robles is great. By the way. Dude, he's been, he's made me look stupid because I, a few weeks ago, I was like, get Robles off the roster. And then he's been exactly what we needed him to be. So that's great. Um, yeah. So let this, this last question. Sorry. We're rabbit trailing, which is, which is always fun. But, um, my question for you is, so if you're the GM for the day and you got the keys to the car and you can make a move and you can make a move to help out this roster, what, what would be your strategy? Would you go and, you know, all right, Colt Emerson's the big ship. He's, he's what I can get the most for. You trading that or are you like, I guess, I mean, I'm trying to tee this up the best I can. But what would your strategy be? He thinks the best path, path forward at the trade deadline for the Mariners. What should we be looking for and what type of trades do you think the Mariners could ultimately make? It's a really tough spot that they're in. I mean, it's a good spot to be in where it seems like, you know, they're allowed to be aggressive and they have this really talented farm system full of bats, except the thing that they don't have is proven bats. So you really want to see like, which one of these guys is going to work out? I mean, everybody's high on Emerson, a fellow named Celeste and seems amazing. Obviously, you still got Cole Young there. There's Tai Pete and that's just the short stops. Yeah. So I would try as hard as possible to do anything you can without touching those three main short stops, knowing that you're probably going to have to trade one of them. I would assume that Cole Young is the one that they would prefer to trade. I don't know, but that's just he's the guy who has the least amount of hype. But then again, maybe this gigantic hype around Cole Denver said makes him the greatest Cel high candidate in the world. But you know, I think they really need everything offensive, like, I heard Jeff pass in this week's say, what the Mariners need is slugged. And I heard John Morosi say today, what the Mariners need is a contact hitter. I'm like, yeah, they're both right. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously, they still need another reliever. So in my bold predictions, that's another thing where I wrote about this. It's really tough. The National League does not have enough, like, teams that are out of it. Like literally there's two teams that are out of it. And then everybody's like it within a game or two of the wildcard. It's insane. Yeah. I really hope that Arizona is the team that falls out because there's no greater fit for the Mariners, I think, than getting Paul Seewald back. That's cool. Christian Walker Christian Walker, to me, seems like the perfect hitter, even more so than Pete Alonzo, because he's a little bit cheaper, I would assume. He's just not as well known. Yeah. So yeah, I'd start with them. The Giants may be the team that you end up having to go to. The one guy like their, I mean, their hitters are not all that talented. It seems like they're having down years. I think they also have a similar ballpark that suppresses their offense, like the Mariners. But relievers, they've got some guys. And the one guy I really like is Ryan Walker, who's a local guy who went to WSU, he's from Arlington. He would look right in the Mariners bullpen. He's got a really funky delivery, goes completely across his body. It's just like, it's tailor-made for just a perfect Jerry to Poto style acquisition. But maybe he's a guy that they just get a reliever from him and then they don't worry about the bat there. But if it's not those guys, if it's not, you know, an Ashley team, the Rays are probably the team. Obviously, they've got Jani Diaz, who's maybe a Bylo candidate. Randy Reza Rain is not having a good year. I don't know what's going on there. I don't know if people actually even want to touch him. And then obviously, Esauk Parades keeps coming up as a Mariners potential target. Yeah. I'm a little hippie on his bat's going to play in Timo Park, but you can't argue with the fact that he keeps producing and he's still young. Yeah. I've got a, I've got a question for you and this is going to be a little out there. And I think I want you to talk me off the ledge and knock some sense into me on this. But I couldn't help but think with Brian Wu coming out and saying like every, it seems like every time he starts, something goes on and you know, he's got some tightness or something where he gets pulled from a start. Is there any part of you that sits there and goes, all right, Brian Wu trade high. He's an accident waiting to happen. His value could probably pull in just a one for one, maybe a hitter like a Parades. Is there any part of you that goes, you know what, maybe our five starter is too good and we could use that value in another spot in our, in our team? Or am I crazy? Cause I think I might be crazy. You might be. I think it's an interesting idea and the reason why you might be is, you know, all these other teams are going to be noticing that same stuff about his arm too. Right. I don't know. They're necessarily going to, he couldn't be a by high candidate, but he could also be a guy where people are just like, like you're saying he's an accident waiting to happen. Yeah. An interesting idea that kind of popped into my head in the last couple of days. So I remember last year around the trade deadline, we were kind of waiting like, are they going to trade Teoska or Hernandez? And it was, it seemed like it was kind of close. I'm almost wondering, are you getting Jorge Polanco back from the IL and basically a test runner like, Hey, who wants this guy cause we got Dylan Moore and Josh Rojas and they're doing okay, playing second and third. Maybe we don't need him or we can trade him off to go get an outfield or a first baseman a DH type. Yeah. Especially if the guy you're bringing in cost some, some mula, uh, you know, we may need that money back, you know, in, in that deal. So, uh, yeah, that, I mean, I definitely think there was a possibility of that. Um, the one thing I was going to say about Brian Wu too, that, that makes me a little bit hesitant is he is so fastball heavy as the league just going to, and I think we saw that in his last start, just kind of sitting back on that fastball for seem to seem and yeah, a team like the guardians are going to, I mean, they're going to kind of take advantage of that. So I don't know. Yeah. He had kind of the Robbie Ray special yesterday, you know, Robbie Ray could go out there and dominate some teams. And then he would go up against the Astros and they just throw his pitch count and it was the third inning and it's like, please give it up no runs, but he's at 90 pitches. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I like woo a lot, but it's making me a little nervous. So I appreciate you talking off the ledge on that. If I did, I don't know, you might have talked to me on the lead. Great. We were joke. Well, it's in the preseason. We were all talking about trades. We liked. And my goodness. We should trade woo for a Rosaranna. I was, which now looks like the worst deal history, mankind. So yeah, his 176 average actually would fit in great and Seattle. They actually would fit in with all the guys we got. So he would wouldn't mess up at all here. Here's a speaking of GM. This is more outside the box question for you, Brent is, who is your all time favorite mariner? And you can't say somebody's been in the Mariners Hall of Fame. You got to like kind of B level kind of next tier. And then if you could add any player to this team, again, it's not like a Mariners Hall of Famer, just like next tier down. Who would you add to this current team to try to get them over the hump and why? So favorite player. Yeah. And you can't pick each row because he, he's a Hall of Famer. Yeah. He just looks either like, yeah, not tier one, like kind of that next tier now. Who you bring into this team? I love these questions. These ones are right at my alley. So I've had a favorite mariner for a very long time. And this is one that I've talked to Bob Stilton with a lot because I think we kind of share this. My favorite all time mariner is Andy Chavez. And I'm not even Joe. Wow. That is a deep. Any Chavez would not lose. He was like, he didn't have great stats ever, but yeah, I could never remember a time when he came up to the plate or he was on the bases and the game was on the line and he made an out. He was so clutch in that way. I mean, obviously he's playing for some of the worst mariners teams of all time, but also I was a, like, couldn't hit it all, but decent fielding right fielder in high school. That was terrible, but I could always hang my hat on the fact that, like, if the ball comes to me, I want to make that catch and if, you know, there's a guy on base, he's not getting extra extra base off of me. And so I've always loved those, like, fourth outfielder types, like Stan Javier and Andy Chavez to me was just like the ultimate of that. So hands down, there's no competition for me. I've always said that. I mean, at my desk, I have a, like a, one of those, you know, card tops cards in the whole. Yeah. Of any Chavez. I've had that for like 10 years. That's just my guy. You and Andy Chavez's mom are the only people on our head out of this baseball card on their desk. Oh, you could have given me a hundred names that I would not have said, Andy Chavez. I love this. Phenomenal. Also, check him out on YouTube. He's an excellent Timball a player. Oh, now we're talking. You don't know what Tim Bali is. It's like a kind of drum. Yes. He's really good. And there's video of it. So yes, I mean, I'm a musician too. So I love that about him. Stephen and I are musicians as well. Yeah. Sean plays the drums. So I don't play the Timball a though, we could we could learn. It's not too late. Yeah. You and Andy, you can get a, you know, sort of that out here. What about the one player that you would add to this team to try to get him over the hump? There's no better answer to this one than John Ulrich. Oh, yes. That's such a good answer. For a very long time, I've thought like the perfect player that the mayor's roster's been missing is that like just kind of left-handed doubles swing. Yeah. Actually, going back to the trade, you know, GM hat thing, let's say the Rangers, they fall out of it. They basically are falling out of it. Right. Go get Nathaniel Lowe. I've been saying that for two years. Oh, obviously they were going to get him last year, but two years ago, I remember watching that series before the last series. That was the one where JP had the walkoff, I believe it was, in the series finale. And then the next series was, I think, that was when they clinched it against the A's. But I just remember watching Nathaniel Lowe and being like, that's the guy who's missing from the Mariners lineup. And so if there's somebody like that out there, John Ulrich type, that's what the team's been missing. Yeah. If he can slug a little bit, but he's going to make contact. Yes. Anti-true outcome guys. We don't need another guy to strike out 215 times and it's 25 home runs. That is, we don't need another one of those. So I love that answer, man. That's phenomenal. Okay. Okay. Watch those AOS teams. Like those might actually be where the Mariners end up doing trades. Like we've seen they have no problem making trades with Houston. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. They've got Texas because they've got more of that like top heavy roster of like veteran guys and then the young guys who are improving. So good. Brent, we do want to honor your time, man. You've given been super generous with us, dude. Thank you for hopping on. We do have one more question for you. And it's a question that comes right out of your Twitter bio and you alluded to it. You're a musician. You said you're in a band. So tell us, what is this band? What do you play? Tell us what's going on here. So I've been kind of in a band. I probably need to update my Twitter bio. I'm still kind of in a band. I was in this band called Days that we were going pretty good for a year or two before the pandemic and the pandemic hit and everybody just kind of went to their different silos and me and the lead singer and the drummer still kick around ideas as maybe an evolution of that band. So, Days was kind of a surfy 60s influenced deal very into, we were based off of a lot of like Angel Olsen was a big influence for us and Beach House. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Great band. Yeah. Absolutely. And so the new version of the band is maybe a little bit more sunnier 70s pop, like the band Whitney's kind of been a touchstone for me. So and then I've played in all kinds of bands. Like that was another big reason I wanted to move to Seattle in the first places. If I get into a band is yeah, I could probably play the tractor tavern and I've been lucky enough to do that a few times and play a lot of kind of urban such. So I had a band called the Machi Stroll, which I named after a pro wrestling move. That was the one where I sang that was a little bit more of a just, you know, dudes play in countryish alternative rock. That's awesome. Yeah. So a true Renaissance man of many guitars. Okay. Okay. So you play guitar and you can sing is what I'm hearing from you. Yeah. Yeah. And I try and write music. That's been the toughest part for me and the greatest of that, but I can come up with a few things. All right. Brock and saw because you're absolutely listening to this. Of course. It's time to get, you know, Brent on here on the radio show showing somebody do some intro music. You're leading in with some, some days leading in. So in some of that going on, if you've ever listened to Shannon Dreyer's, she was, she'll do like the week that was sometimes during the off season and just the hot stove podcast. It's not like actually on the radio. Yeah. There is intro and outro music that let's go. Let's go. Oh, baby. I love it. I love it. I love it. Sean, you were, are you tracking with that? With that surfer, you know, all rock five, you've got a, you got a drum kit that is just screaming that. Yeah. I'll send you a picture of that one. I mean, everything that you're describing, like I'm, I'm going to go look up your band because that, I mean, everything that you were describing is so far up my alley. It's crazy. So I'm pumped. In the next episode, we're just going to talk about, about music at our, we're going to dissect the top 10 albums on Rolling Stone magazine. It's going to be great. Fantastic. Brent, dude. Thanks so much for hopping on. It's been a real fun time for us to get to talk shop, talk ball with somebody who's just, man, a real clearly humble, just positive person. So thanks for hopping on. Where can people find your work or can they find you and then we're just one project that's coming down the pipeline that you're really excited about. So SeattleSports.com, I'm the editor. I'm in charge of, you know, just the editorial budget there and obviously I'm writing all the time. You can find me on Twitter. I don't call it the new name. Yeah. That's going to exist. Millennials. Unite. I'm at Brent's decker here. You'll find me being snarky sometimes in a positive way if that's a thing. A project that I'm working on, I don't know, tomorrow, I guess I'm going to be writing about what John Marosi said this afternoon. There you go. So put forward to that. There we go. Thanks for coming on to us, coming on with us and if you're not following them, I genuinely it's a great follow on on X if you're or Twitter, Twitter, and yeah, he's one of my favorite followers. So this was a lot of fun. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. If you're if you're not following them, make that happen now. Also, you know, we're a new podcast. We're still figuring this thing out. I would say we have a disproportionate amount of quality guests to how long we've been doing this thing. So give us a follow, find us on Twitter, find us on X at Collins like it is and we'll catch you on the next one. Brent, thanks again. Last and shoot Mariners first place even with losing a series. No problem there. Let's keep her rolling. Catch you on the next one. [music] [music] [BLANK_AUDIO]