Larry and Sean give thoughts on the state of the Seattle Mariners following a huge series win vs the Philadelphia Phillies. The Collins' talk about mammoth home runs + Bryan Woo's dominance as well as Mitch Hanigers monster series. They also discuss why the Mariners need to extend Victor Robles and more!
Collins It Like It Is
45. Mariners Are Back In First Place!
Larry and Sean give thoughts on the state of the Seattle Mariners following a huge series win vs the Philadelphia Phillies. The Collins' talk about mammoth home runs + Bryan Woo's dominance as well as Mitch Hanigers monster series. They also discuss why the Mariners need to extend Victor Robles and more!
- Duration:
- 49m
- Broadcast on:
- 04 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
[music] Welcome back in to the Collins It Like It Is podcast. My name is Sean Collins, and I've got my dad on this episode. Dad, thanks for joining me. I'm glad to be here. Excited about this weekend and what it brought and just exciting times. Yeah, absolutely. If you're new here, this is a podcast we usually do with my brother, you, my dad, and myself. And I tell you what, the more that we do this podcast, the more I'm realizing, this should be my podcast. You guys are my guests. I'm the only constant here. It's got to give me more than 10-minute notice that you need some important information from Poppy. There you go. No, I'm just giving Stephen a hard time. He's busy with work, and he's got some stuff on his plate tonight. So no worries there. My dad and I will hold down the fort and excited to have Stephen on the next one. Yeah, this was a really exciting series, no other way to put it. Like I said, if you're new here, we break down Mariners series, typically we'll do a breakdown after every series. And yeah, we're going to do that with the Phillies here. Pretty exciting stuff. I mean, the Mariners now are solely in first place in the division. The Rays took two out of three from the Astros, Mariners took two out of three from the Phillies. So now we are a game up in the Wild Wild West, and that's exciting. I don't know how many games there are exactly left to play, but this is turning into a sprint here. And to have a game up is a big deal, especially considering we just faced maybe the best team in baseball. At least they're a tier one team up. I don't know if I'd say they're the best team in baseball, but they're in the conversation. They're a World Series contender. Even if we didn't face their A squad, they've got three aces. We saw Wheeler in game three, but they're still a tough team and to take two out of three from them is no small feat. So dad, just kind of overarching theme before we do a deep dive into the series, we're just kind of your overall thoughts from this series just as a whole. Hey, this series, I'm excited about where we're headed and our trajectory and bats are coming alive, our arms are not taking any downturns, so I'm excited about the outcome of this series. We missed the sweep, and that's okay. We won the series against what I think is the best team of the major leagues. So I'm excited. I'm excited about our pickups that we have. We got at the trade deadline, and probably our best pickup wasn't even a trade. It was robust off of the waiver wire. So between Robles, Rosarina, and Turner, we have to be excited about where we're headed and what we have to do to compete in the West and maybe even compete in the division round. Who knows? Maybe the LCS is insights. Yeah. First, let's do the West. Yeah. Right. Let's get a banner out there. We are a long overdue. You know, one overarching theme for me is that I kind of had a realization that our core is different, and it kind of just dawned on me. Obviously, when we made the Rosarina deal, we knew that was an impact bat, but the more that this season has gone on, and especially seeing it play out over the Red Sox and the Philly series, I'm realizing, you know, going into this year, we said, okay, we need JP, we need Cal, we need Julio, they're the core, everything else just kind of is going to fall into place if those three guys can perform the way that they, just to the back of their baseball card. Like Jay's tried and always says, the more I'm realizing is we've got a new core of the team. The core of our team right now is Julio, when he's healthy, you know, hopefully he can be back in the next week or so. But you know, the core of the team is Julio, the Rosarina. It's honestly Robles because, you know, the way even when JP is healthy, even when Julio is healthy, the top, you know, five of our order is going to include Robles. It's going to include Julio, obviously, and it's going to include Rosarina. And you know, to have the core of your outfield be those three guys with the flair that they have and the personality they have, it's just a different, it's just a different change of pace. It's a lot different vibe. It's a lot different culture than what we've had in the past. And it's exciting. I think that those three players are electric, they've got a lot of similarities. Robles has a lot of Soto in him, and you know, as he's really cooking here, you're really starting to see that play out. So that's been a lot of fun. Overall, this series was fun. And that's something that the Mariners have just been missing. It's just fun. Yep. Just having a good time as a Mariners fan, the free fall, it was a drag, it was a chore to watch, you know, we do watch every game, we're die-hards. And right now it's, I can't wait for the next game, and that's a good place to be as a fan. Definitely. Yeah. And any thoughts on that before we do a dive into game one here? Yeah, definitely a big change in our culture with Rosarina and with Robles. They add personality, they add the flair, the entertainment factor. And, you know, do you think about who we have on our team still, you know, Hannegger, Garver, Cal, they're more business-like. They're kind of, they're more serious, and let's just play baseball and let's just do what we're supposed to do. And so there are more business-like where Rosarina and Robles, they're just a different, just a different culture to our ball club. They're fun. They're just fun. They're flashy. Different element. Yeah. Yeah, they're flashy. Which is good. I'm not complaining about it at all. It's something that's sparked our team, and you can see that we're feeding off each other, the crowd's feeding off the entertainment factor, and we've got to like what we're going to do here. I think we have less than 50 games to go, so yeah, we're almost to the sprint. Yep. But, yeah, beginning of August, so we still have August, September, so eight weeks, seven weeks to go, and brought not quite to the sprint yet, but we are doing a little bit of over-the-shoulder scoreboard and standings watching. That is the truth right there. Yeah, absolutely. And these new additions have been awesome. We've seen pretty much a 180 since those trades have happened, especially since the Rosarina trade happened, really provided a spark, and I don't think that's a coincidence at all. So let's dive into game one. Game one was pretty incredible. I've got four home runs for you, Dad. Let's jump through. Let's just start with all four, and you tell me which one was your favorite. So let's go roblace first, first pitch of the game, boom, right into the upper deck. It sets the tone. Second, we had the three run home run from Rayleigh, which we'll do a deep dive into each one of these, but you had the Rayleigh upper tank hitting the fan in the chest, you know, to the left of the hitter here, Cafe. Second longest home run in stat cast era history in T-Mobile Park. The third home run, you had the salami from Turner that hit the fan in the face, and then you had Hanagar off of a lefty hitting a hit one into the pin. So out of those four home runs, Dad, which one stuck out to you? Which one was your favorite? Which one got you the most fired up? Yeah, they all, they all have a reason to be the number one most memorable and most exciting home run. Obviously, roblace leading off the game is that's exciting. The left hander with Hanagar, that's exciting. Grand Slam is how can you top a Grand Slam on your first plate appearance at home, being a mariner. But to me, it's Luke Rayleigh's nuke all the way out to upper deck, left of, of hit it here, Cafe, and yeah, you can't top that. To me, that's the, of those four, that's my favorite, my most memorable. Yeah. When you got to look alive in the upper deck, I mean, that fan had no reason to be looking down on the, I mean, you buy that seat, honestly, you buy that seat so you don't have to look alive. That ball to have come up into the third deck is incredible, and that ball was coming down a line too. It was not coming down onto that fan. That hit him square in the chest. It was a smoke. He lucky he didn't get hurt, honestly. Like, I'm really glad that did not hit him in the face because he was, I think he was looking down at maybe his hot dog. I don't know. He was probably putting relish on that thing. He was just chilling. I just, I'm here, I'm off work maybe and, you know, just going to enjoy this Friday night game and just veg out. Yeah. Don't worry about a thing. Well, what little did he know that Rayleigh is waking him up? Yeah. You could tell his buddy, you know, he didn't know what was coming, you know, he didn't know what was happening, and that would, that would also kind of freak me out. Like, like, there's no re, there's no way a ball is coming up there. So if something on a line hits you in the chest and you don't know what's coming, that would have freaked me out. There's one of the last things I would expect is for that to be a baseball of a Luke Rayleigh's bat. Like, I don't even know that Luke Rayleigh had that much power. Like, yeah. None. I don't think it was surprising. Although, I don't think that's his farthest one, but it was, it was amazing. It was truly, I don't, I don't want to, I mean, this word gets thrown around casually. That was amazing. Truly. Yeah. One of the highlights of the year is going to be that Luke Rayleigh home run. I've only seen a lefty off the top of my head. I've only seen Otani go up there, and that was every bit as impressive as the Otani home run. Sure. Let's do a little rabbit trail here. What's your, just off the top of your head, don't, don't think about this too hard. It's the most impressive home run you've seen a Mariners player hit in T-Mobile or Safeco, however you want to call it. Well, when it comes to my mind, immediately is Zunino's when he hit it, well, that's the farthest home run hit in T-Mobile is Zunino's to left field back of the upper deck in left field. So that, to me, is the most impressive. Yeah. Um, I did want to dive into the, um, into the Turner Grand Slam. Now that, the game was already kind of broken open, but you mentioned that, oh, it was the first played appearance. I think that would have been a second because they would have batted through the lineup for him. Oh, yeah. Definitely. Yep. But I mean, it was still, that's his first game. No, that was game one. Yeah. That would have been the first time Turner played in front of T-Mobile, right? Yeah. In front of Seattle fans. Yeah. So that's what I was thinking about. Yeah. It's where too many runs, right? I knew what you meant. Um, but yeah, that was, that was really awesome. I mean, it's funny, you know, a lot of people were saying, you know, oh, Turner, he's just going to be an on base guy. He's going to be a guy that puts the ball in play. No, he's still got some slug in him. Yeah. He's 39, but he's still got some slug in him. Uh, I'm not expecting him to hit 10 home runs down the stretch or something, but, you know, he'll, he'll probably hit five. He'll probably hit six. Um, he should probably be hitting fifth for us, you know, and I think Turner can hit fifth on a good team, you know, so yeah, I thought that one was exciting. And then in our previous episode we had mentioned about Hanagar struggles against lefties and kudos to Scott. We don't give him enough credit on this show, you know, especially recently, we've been really dogging on Scott. Maybe too much. Maybe we've been too harsh on him, but, um, he's basically been telling us that the underlying numbers for Hanagar against lefties, I don't know what they're looking at. He's not going to give away all of the secrets, but basically the underlying data that they're looking at shows now, Hanagar's actually been pretty good against lefties. He's just getting the ball caught in his babbop. You know, I guess that probably a stat they're looking at, but, um, if you're not familiar with babbot, that's batting average and balls in play. Um, and, you know, I guess they've been pleased by what they've been seeing against Hanagar against lefties. Um, they're, they're not looking at results, but for him to smoke that ball out there and then in game two, hit another home run, I mean, yeah, Hanagar, uh, basically told him that Turner helped him make an adjustment. He's standing up more a little bit, a little bit more upright in the batter's box. I'm not a scout. I can't tell you, you know, whether or not that, I didn't notice anything, but other than him hitting the ball, you know, out of the ballpark. So either way, uh, we're going to need somebody to step up. Um, I don't, it doesn't have to be Garver and Hanagar. It doesn't have to be can zone and, uh, you know, really, it doesn't have to be all of the guys hitting. We just need a couple of them. And if, and if Polanco can, you know, just be a, we don't need them to have a thousand OPS like he's had over the last week, but we are going to need a couple of these guys to step up and it looks like it's going to be Hanagar and, and Polanco here. So that's encouraging. Um, that's exactly it. You know, we have two people turned it around right now. Like you said, Polanco and Hanagar and let's see what happens when Julio gets back and when JP gets back, because JP is another one that we could use to turn around and get his, um, this is stats here in the last 49 games or so, uh, just to be more like himself. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I think that JP, when he's back, I think it's inevitable. He's going to have to go down to the eight or nine spot roblace. You're not moving him and you're not, no, there's no way. There's no way. There's no, there's no way they move a role, unless he free falls, you know, unless he goes, you know, and we look at his stats over a 15 game sample size and it, you know, plummets than maybe, but I know right now, you know, uh, he's one of the best players in the world right now. Like, definitely. I mean, so yeah, you, you got to give him as many at bats as you possibly can. So that was pretty exciting. In game two, Oh, you know, with game one, we also need to talk about Brian Wu, um, Brian Wu. Yeah. That was the best we've ever seen him. I don't know. Best he's ever done. Yep. That's the most shannings he's pitched and no runs, no earned runs and yeah, can't do better. Let me, I'm going to pull up his stats real quick. It's loading. But, um, okay, so Brian Wu, he went seven full innings. He had six strikeouts, no walks, um, gave up five. Well, he only had five base runners and I know a few of those were some bloops. So yeah, he dominated, yep, maybe the second or third best lineup in all of baseball. No small feet. That's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And then we had a couple of mop up guys, Jonathan Diaz, he, you know, kudos to Diaz. He, uh, he made sure that the, the park was dark so they could do the, they could do the drone show. Yeah. This guy had to get a little darker so the drum show would show a little better. So Diaz did his, did his part. Yep. Stand to the game as best he could without getting us all too worried. 28 pitches, 28 pitches and yeah, ninth there. Yeah. If it was bizarre, bizarre though, then I would have been real, real nervous there. But you know, Diaz, you know, you can handle it. Now we did end up sending Diaz down for Jonathan Hernandez. Dad, do you, do you know much about Jonathan Hernandez off the top of your head? This is way. No. Okay. I've got his dad sprues. Yeah. Just off top of my head. He's obviously got him DFA from Texas, but yep, no, I'd yeah, he's just a tight thing. Yeah. He's going to fit right into that Cody Bolton, you know, just kind of that, that just kind of rotating carousel of when we need a fresh arm, he'll be in that rotation. And we needed a fresh arm because Diaz pitched and you know, we've got Jonathan Hernandez right there. So we reached down and got him, but he's not a, he's not brought in to be anything other than just a mop up guy. So right. Just wanted to make note of that was a roster move. So there you go. Okay. Let's jump over to game two game two. That was a pretty epic comeback. We won six to five in that game in the 10th inning. We had a Rosarina hit two doubles, another home run from a Hanagar. It was a literal walk off. So we won. We won in the 10th inning without getting a base hit, which is unique. I don't know how else to phrase that. So that was, that was pretty fun. What were your big takeaway takeaway dad from game two, maybe we'll start with Miller. What do you think of Miller? Miller, yeah, he gave up four runs and four and a third, but you know, Miller is only a second year. I thought Miller was fine. He, his control was, he's still throwing strikes and they just got to him and you know, Philadelphia is a good team. So then Salcedo came in and Salcedo, you know, gave up another run. So it wasn't looking very, very promising. Yeah. But Miller, I would, I don't have anything negative to say about Miller. Yeah. The, the, the dog takeaway for me on game two was that we, we're in a little bit of trouble when it comes to lefty relievers. We don't have, we don't have a lockdown like, Hey, Bryce Harper is coming up. Yeah. I know he got Bryce Harper out, but we didn't end game three, but you know, we don't have a guy that like, Hey, we got a, we got a lefty up, you know, devers. We've got or, or a, or a Bryce Harper or somebody that's just a stud left handed hitter. And, and we need a lefty to come in and shut that down. We really are missing that in our system. Yeah. There's nobody down there. There's not a Troy Taylor that's lefty, you know, down there. Nope. It's probably the most established pitcher that's left handed is probably Reed Vance Goder. Yeah. He's not coming up. No. He's not ready yet. Not to be a lockdown lefty relievers. So, um, that's the one you can aspire, hopefully you can get back on track down in the film. Yeah. Um, it doesn't sound like Scott is ready to move. Saseto anywhere that he even mentioned and, and talked up Saseto in, in the press conference of game three, but Saseto, it's, it's concerning. He has not been very good. He hasn't been very sharp. That sweeper is hanging middle middle and he's getting hit pretty hard right now. So we don't have any other lefty relievers on the roster. The only other guy that even factors in aspire and he's been an absolute disaster since April. So lefty reliever and we don't have a guy in our bullpen that, um, that, that is like reverse. Yeah. Like you think of Swanson back in the day. We don't have that guy. So it's a little bit of, it could be a really big problem when, when, uh, you know, playoffs roll around. Now when you've got a, a back three of Santos, Jimmy Garcia and Munoz and now Snyder, I mean, Snyder's looking like a guy. So I mean, that kind of, you know, is a pretty good little band aid there, but it would be nice to have a lefty that can really lock down right another teams, uh, you know, that part of their lineup. So anyways, that was kind of a big takeaway for me in game two, obviously getting the, the walk off win was huge, but, um, if we're just looking for underlying themes, that to me was one that, that jumped out at me. And well, like I said, the, the bullpen after a socedo, you know, shark wag, Garcia, both Munoz and Snyder shut them out. No earned runs, no runs at all, um, then the game. So after four and two thirds, we pitched five and a third of no runs. So bullpen gave us, gave us a chance to win and we pulled it out and we actually pulled it out. Four runs against their number one, uh, bullpen arm Huffman. So that's encouraging also. Yep. Um, Snyder, I was looking at his stats. Wow. He's better than I even realized I knew he was good. He's got a one three one ERA with a 1.11 whip with 25 strikeouts and 20 innings. Yeah. Like that's a, that's a dude that that is that's impressive. That is really impressive. It's a big four right now. Now Snyder's got a ways to go before, you know, we, you know, before he jumps anybody, but he's got better numbers than anybody in our bullpen right now besides Munoz. So yeah, he's hot. Yeah. And it's funny. I mean, he got brought up. He was in that Cody Bolton, you know, kind of, we mentioned bouncing back and forth. Oh yeah. And goes down. One comes up and so he's bouncing. Yeah. He's, I thought out of it. Oh, it's sure. I thought Cody Bolton was the better pitcher out of camp. So we're, he was the guy that we traded for and, you know, gave up a little bit to get him. I don't know how we acquired Snyder, but yeah, we just signed him to a minor league deal, I think I couldn't tell you. Let's jump over to game three. That's probably enough of game two, got the win, secured the series. So we're going into game three, kind of playing with house money a little bit. Excuse me. Game three, we lost six to nothing, but we had a great game from Gilbert. I thought he pitched really well, gave up the lead off home run to Swarber and then was just locked down after that gives us six complete innings and I thought he pitched really well. And it was a big, yeah, it was a big time matchup. You know, Zach Wheeler, he's going to get Si Young votes if he's not going to win it. So you know, we faced one of the better, better pitchers in baseball and he was on his game. There's no other way around it. Yeah. What do you think of just game three? Yeah, just as a whole. As a whole, like we just said, Gilbert pitched great for six innings and then again, pull out those two relievers and gave up the five runs. But yeah, Wheeler, he was just nails and you're not going to face much better pitching than what Wheeler gave us today. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that happens with Garcia Garcia gave up a home run, two earned runs and he's going to give up. He's going to give up a home run. It's good time to give up a home run when we score zero because it didn't hurt us. Yeah. So, it kind of just steamrolled from game two. He came in, never even recorded an out, gives up three earned run. His ERA has now ballooned, you know, high threes coming into yesterday's game. He was, you know, sub three. So, yeah, he's been a disaster. So there's really no other way to put it. But yeah, I mean, Wheeler just looked phenomenal. I thought that Wheeler, it's funny that Scott mentioned it too. I thought he looked like what we hope Brian Wu to be. Did you feel like that at all? It was, you know, pretty fast ball heavy, you know, he had a rising four-seamer, two-seamer that sank through some, you know, junk more than Wu does. But I thought it was pretty like deceptive. I thought that Wheeler, not that I watch him very often, but I thought that Wheeler looked kind of like what we, like kind of like game one, Wu, you know, just very dominant but very fast ball heavy. Yeah, definitely and, you know, Wheeler throw strikes and that's what Wu does also. But it's deceptive enough that you don't make contact or you make very little contact. And that's one thing that I think Kirby and Gilbert need to, need to develop, continue to develop is that because he got through eight innings, Wheeler did eight innings throwing fewer pitches than Gilbert through in six innings. So I think that's the next step for Gilbert. And Kirby is to managing their pitch count so they could go farther into the games. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, game three was a pretty easy game to throw away. Playing with house money a little bit, Gilbert versus Wheeler, it would honestly, you know, especially because we had the lead and the division and then as the game went on, you realized that the Astros lost and so you really were just kind of able to hang back and just watch great pitching, which was fun. It was pretty stress free. I wasn't getting frustrated even when we gave up the lead and you realize, you know, once Garcia gave up the home run, it's like, all right, well, we're not realously not winning us. We're not coming back. And that's okay. You know, those games happen. Easy game to throw away. Any other thoughts from this series as a whole before we jump over to talk about maybe extending Victor Robles, any other thoughts? I think we should be excited and be encouraged by the series against the Phillies. We won the series, but we also our bats are alive except for game three. And so we should have a positive outlook going forward. Yeah. All right. Let's jump over to a new topic. And that is Victor Robles. So we talked about him, you know, in the beginning of this episode, he's been phenomenal. He's been great. He's been to all the stats you want. He's been in the top of baseball since he's been a Seattle Mariner. He's been phenomenal. And he's really been, I mean, he's better than obviously we hope Mitch Hanniger to be, but clearly Mitch Hanniger is not going to work out in the right field. And I think he was planned to be not only for this year, but for next year, when this season started, we do not have a Victor Robles replacement in our system, you know, not any time soon. Our outfield projects, our outfield prospects, our Montes. We've got Farmello, who's probably not going to be playing baseball for the next year. Right. You know, we've seen Ty Pete jump out to the outfield in the minor leagues. We've seen, you know, maybe Harry Ford could factor in there, but we're talking about guys that are realistically years away or going to be our backup catcher or, you know, and also, Ken's own hasn't reached out and grabbed the opportunity because he would be, you know, the most, you know, closest one who could take that right field position, you know, but he's just not taking it. Yeah. And obviously we traded class A. He would have been probably the next man up. And it's just leaving me with this feeling of like, all right, Robles is awesome. He's expressed after game three that he really wants to be here. And I'm just wondering if we just extend him right now, and that was a crazy idea, you know, two or three weeks ago, but as this is progressing, you're realizing this guy is not just a luxury. This is a guy that we need to be the core of the lineup. He is the core of the lineup right now, right? And you know, we're seeing him play great defense. He's gritty. He's playing through hip injuries. He's the guy. He's a guy you want on your team. He's a guy you need on your team. And he's not a luxury right now. And your thoughts about extending Victor Robles, and what do you think we could get signed? Well, what do you think a deal would look like? And do you think that that's a realistic or do you think this is all going to happen in the off season? Or do you think that Robles is going to be too expensive? What are your just overall thoughts on that? Well, I don't think he's going to be too expensive. I mean, he's getting what two and a half million this year. He's out of arbitration. So he is going to be a free agent to sign with whoever he wants. But being that Seattle turned him around to heart and him have made a connection. And the heart has pulled something out of Robles's game to make him what he's doing now. So I think Robles probably wants to stick with CA at all. And if that's what you heard, I actually didn't hear that, but that's good to know. Two and a half million. So even if he was still in arbitration, he'd be up to four million. So I think even if it's just a one year deal, four or five million, Robles could bet on himself saying, I'll sign a one year deal for four or five million. We'll say, just go five million because I'm looking at split track here. And five million this year is Michael Taylor playing center field for Pittsburgh. We had Adam Duvall, he's three million, but that's not a comp to him. So just looking at, you know, Kyner Folefid, we're not going to go that high, but that was seven million, seven and a half million. But Robles isn't coming off the kind of year that Kyner Folefid had so he can get that contract. So I'd say five million is doable and realistic. He just depends on if he wants to bet on himself for one year or is he going to try to get a three year or longer deal? Yeah. I just don't know. I think there's a couple of factors here. I think that if I'm Robles, I would want to do everything in my power to stay in Seattle. You were a top prospect in Washington and you weren't able to make it work. And for whatever reason, you're able to put together a pretty dang great season here in Seattle and I would be very reluctant to mess with that. But at the same time, this is going to be one of the few times he has in his career to make some money. And I'm looking at the free agent class that he is going to be competing with. It's, you know, guys like Jerkson Profar. It's guys like Taosker Hernandez, Santander, Tyler O'Neill, Max Kepler, you know, he fits well within that mix. Now, obviously, Juan Soto is going to get a bajillion dollars for me, the Dodgers or the Yankees or the Mets or somebody. But that next, I wouldn't even call it tier, but the guys that, you know, maybe these mid-market teams could go after, they're going to be looking pretty hard at a guy like Victor Robles. And I do think that the Mariners are going to have to, they're going to play a ball a little bit. I don't think that they're going to be able to get four, get them for four million or five million. And I think that Jerry and Justin have been very creative. Look at the Julio deal. And I wonder now, obviously, we're not giving him a Julio deal. But I'm just wondering if you kind of put the ball in his court and say, hey, you've got a deal that can be worth, you know, for the next three years, anywhere from like literally three million on the low end, on the high end, it can get all the way up to, you know, with all these different, you know, if you, if you do X, Y, Z, it can get all the way up to 15 million, something like that. I wonder if that's the way that they play it, because if you get, you know, a 25 home run season out of Victor Robles, he's an all-star, gets an MVP vote and go finish his top, you know, 15 and MVP voting, you know, all of a sudden you start to incentivize this thing. And I just wonder if that's the way that they play it, because Jerry and Justin are very creative and, and, and we need them. We need just to work out. We can't just roll with can zone in, in right field next year. So we need to get this locked in, need to get this locked up. And we need, we need Victor Robles in the future for at least another couple of years. So yeah. Yeah. And just going off of his current contract of two and a half million, even if you double that to five, I obviously, I have no idea what they're thinking, what Robles wants. And, you know, is he going to give the hometown discount? I mean, we pulled them off the scrappy, he was, he was almost out of baseball, so can he be asking for that 15 million? I just don't see that. Right. I mean, even 7 million. That's to me, that's on the high end that might be unrealistic, in my opinion, it's just in my opinion, I mean, Tyler O'Neill, he got a 5.8 million. So I think that 5 million is kind of a good ballpark and I would do a 5 million. Yeah. Especially, especially if I don't know if I do that today, if he wants to sign a 4 million. But 5 million, I think that's, you might think 1 million, if we're going to lock him as well, we'll just do 5 million too, higher than that, I'd be skeptical and wait, see what the end of the season is. Yeah. I wonder if something is going to get done though. I don't think it's crazy to sit here and say, hey, it's possible because Jerry and Justin were pretty outspoken that they had resources to play with at the deadline. And they were, I think they said there was iron in the fire when it came to making a bigger trade than a Justin Turner. And that would have resulted in salary being added to that. To me, that means that there is salary to give. And none of those deals happened. We didn't go out and get a Vladimir Griro Jr., it seems like, reading between the lines, they tried. And Justin Turner was the consolation prize. But if they were open to acquiring Vladimir Griro Jr. and taking on his salary, that means there is at least 5 million dollars available to Jerry and Justin to spin. So I would, I would see if I can get Victor Robles locked in and see if we can get him as our starting right fielder in 2025. So you're telling me, we roll into 2025 with our outfield of Julio, Erosarena and Victor Robles. I mean, that can be exciting for the crowd. Yeah. Yeah, that's going to sell a lot of tickets there. So, you know, could they go, you know, let's just say, Robles doesn't want to just take a one year deal. We don't want to give him a, you know, a long extension. Could we go three years, 15 million? That's five, an average obviously of 5 million a year. Yeah. Would he be interested in that? Maybe with some player options or mutual options? Yeah. Because that's not just a one year deal, because say he flames out, so, or would he take that three year deal where he can have a little runway to maybe he stumbles out of the gate and still has two more years on his contract to show that he can earn that contract. So I just don't know what they're thinking. Yeah. But you're all right, there was a salary to be paid and take on salary at this deadline. Just didn't happen. Yep. We took on a lot of salary. Yeah, we did. But there was more to take on is what you're saying. Yeah. And that's straight from Jerry Justin and Stanton's mouth. That's not my ideas. That's just what they have said and their actions reflected that that was true. So I do believe that there is salary, future salary available to them. So let's jump over. There's a couple more topics I want to discuss. Let's talk about Mitch Handiger. We talked about him a little bit. Now full transparency, if you're new to this podcast, Mitch Handiger was a guy that we said probably shouldn't even be on the roster. This is a guy that you should probably DFA. He's a sunk cost. Just eat the 17 million or whatever you got to give next year. And you know, it's a wasted roster spot. He was so bad and you know, the reverse splits didn't make sense for our lineup. Now you look at him and okay, if he's able to make these adjustments, he looks like a completely different player. He looks healthy. He does. He looks strong. He looks comfortable. Looks like he's giving every at bat is a competitive at bat, which is what you want. And that you contrast that, or I should say maybe compare that to what Polanco's doing. Very similar. He said, many times on this podcast, they're like, hey, when's enough enough with Polanco? Like how many times we need to see this guy strike out? He had his strikeout rate up to like what 35 percent? Oh, yeah. And it wasn't even come at the end there as we got, you know, into the all start break. It was so pathetic that you just sat there and go give bliss, give Dylan more before JP got hurt. Anybody else give him give these guys that bats because this is ridiculous. And to see the turnaround, you know, this is the Polanco that we saw in, in, in Minnesota. I mean, he looks, he's always Polanco before he was even a mariner, always reminded me of Robinson, cano. And just the swag that he's got the little open stance. He's got a little like, you know, thing with his, you know, just kind of the way he loads. Very Robinson, cano to me and you're starting to see that. And I guess where I'm all, this is a very long winded question, but where between those two guys, what do you think is more real? Where do you sit there going like, all right, set it and forget it. We're back. Let's go, baby. And which one are you like, I need to see it more? Or maybe it's with both either or just what are your thoughts on that? Well, I think they're both playing a little bit above their head right now. So I don't think they're going to keep playing the way they're playing right this moment because Hannegger has over it, a 900 OPS, that's not going to continue. And what's, Polanco, he has a one point something OPS. So yeah, that's talking. Yeah, over their last seven games, Hannegger's got a 971 OPS and Polanco's got a 1.037, well, 1,037 OPS. Yeah. Obviously, that's not going to continue. But I do think that they can both contribute, they can both be in our lineups or showing that they can be in every day and Hannegger gets a little bit of time in right field and then not when who goes back, of course, but he can be a DH, he can be in every day, DH. And Polanco can be in every day and he is in every day, second baseman. So I think they're both showing they can be everyday guys instead of the DFA guys because that's exactly what that's what we were calling for because they both had no reason to be put into a line up. They turned it around, they've turned around in 30 games. It's been, it's not just a week, they've turned it around in a 30 game sample size and that's significant. Obviously, Polanco, not quite 30 games, but he's definitely done it more than just a week. Yeah. Yeah. Polanco is the guy for me right now where I'm like, hey, this, this is different and I'm so happy to be wrong because at the, if they handed me the keys, not that you ever would, you don't want me in charge of the Mariners. I'd be a terrible GM. You go back into my tweets, I'd be a horrible manager, I just, oh, we can do it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, you can't. But Polanco, he just looks the way that we knew, like when we were baseball fans, you know, Jorge Polanco is not somebody that we just heard about when they made the trade. You know, Polanco is a, he's been a baseball, I wouldn't call him star, but he's been a great major league baseball player for years. Yeah. And this is what he looks like, like this is Jorge Polanco. We haven't seen him and I'm sad for Mariners fans that this is kind of your first glimpse of it. But this is what Jorge Polanco looks like, always to me reminded me of Cano. And when we got him, I was like, okay, this kind of, you know, it's a little bit like getting Robinson Cano. Sure. Robinson Cano in the middle of the order, I feel a lot more encouraged about what Polanco is doing versus Hanigar, one because one plays a premium position and if Hanigar can't, you know, be a good DH, there are other options. And yeah, having your second baseman perform the way that Polanco has is a lot more important than having your DH perform for a week, but they're both encouraging. I think both should be given a pretty long leash here. And I'm pleasantly surprised and never been happier to be more wrong. I can sit here and bash scott service all day long won't be the last time I do it. I never were emotional people were fans. We are fanatics. But at the end of the day, he knows more than we do that case in point. We would have taken Polanco out and told him hit the road and then great baseball still to be played and we would have missed out on that. So, well, I was trying to attach a prospect to their salary and just salary dump them with a prospect and, you know, we would have lost a prospect and some. And we would have missed two hot hitters. Yep. Yep. So had Garver back at DH, oh boy, Garver is an expensive backup catcher in the last 50 games. Yep. Well, I compared Garver to Tom Murphy, that's basically what he is right now. So yeah, I think we're on similar wavelengths here. It's all coming together. Mariners are playing good baseball right now. The lineup is long. We have a section of our lineup that scares the other team. We've got a lineup that right now we're kind of watching. And what I mean by that is like, you know, say we're down by a run or two runs. I'm sitting here going like, all right, well, so and so is coming up. Okay. Well, there's only three more spots till a rose and rain it gets up. Like that's, that's a unique thing for Mariners fan this season because for the longest time it's been like, I don't care what part of the lineup ends in. It's all sucks. Like straight out anyway, whoever's up is going to strike out. So who cares? That's not the vibe right now. That's not what's going on in our lineup right now. We've got sections of our lineup that are devastating. And that's the, that's a very unique thing to be, you know, when, when that, when that turn of Robles, a Rosarina, Cal, Turner comes up and that's not even including Julio. I mean, that's, I mean, that's not something you want to face. That's what we need. Yep. And I don't have a pullup right now, but Shannon and Dray are put up a stat of where we're at the last seven years or something and I actually have that. I did. I took a screenshot of that because I, I thought that, do you want me to listen out? I mean, if we can have this, these stats for the rest of the year, we were right where we wanted to be at the beginning of the year. Yep. So we've got a, this is going into today's game. So this does not include the shut out. So this is going to be a little bit lower, but coming into today, Sunday night, if you're listening to this. So coming into Sunday's game, we had a 126 WRC plus over the last two weeks. And that's sixth in baseball over the last two weeks, a 204 ISO. That's fourth in baseball, 20 home runs, that's fifth in baseball, a basically 11% walk rate, which is fourth in baseball. And we only had a 23% K rate, which is 17th in baseball. And that's like, that's just a, that's a complete 180 from where we've been at. Yeah. So if we can do that, that's going to be great. Yep. 100%. All right. Last thing I want to get to just real briefly, we've got the Detroit Tigers coming into town on Tuesday. We are going to face Scooble. I mean, if you're not familiar with that name, one of the premier pitchers in baseball, a little bit of a similar vibe. Tell me if I'm crazy with this one. Reminds me a lot in pitches a lot like Garrett Crochet. I think they've got a sure put that together. Yeah. I don't know. When I see them both pitch, I don't even know if that, if that is accurate, haven't looked at their stuff and all that underlying stuff, but regardless, one of the best pitchers in baseball. So that's going to be a tough match up there. And I think that is going to be the second game of the series. It's going to be Scooble versus Kirby. So another, you know, it's going to be like Wheeler versus Gilbert. That's going to be two side on candidates. Yep. Pitch best on best. Let's go. The Tigers are missing Carrie Carpenter. They're missing Riley Green. So this is a series, he's the ones he got to win. The Astros are playing the, who are the Astros playing? Do you know? They're playing Texas. They're playing Texas. Yeah. I like that. So yeah, they've got a three game series against Texas. We've got a three game series against the Tigers, hopefully we can gain some more ground, at least one game. Do we play them six out of the next nine, I think? Is that right? Yeah, correct. So we play, so we go Detroit, New York Mets, and then we go on the road and play the Tigers, and then we play the Pirates, and then we play the Dodgers. So yeah, let's get through the Pirates and see where we stand. Yeah, that's a series I'm looking forward to. I don't want to get too far down the road, but the Pirates series, you talk about some arms. If we face schemes, Jones, those are going to be some fire ballers, man. So anyways, we fun baseball though, and a little fun fact about scuba with Detroit Tiger pitcher. You know where he went to college? You went to college at Seattle University. Oh, well, you know, it's funny. Was scuba from Hayward? I'll look this up. I think he's from Arizona. Okay. I was looking at somebody that was from that was from Hayward. I wonder, well, it was from the Bay Area, and then of course he went to San Luis, or to Cal Poly. And then of course, you know, he's with Mariners, but scuba, he was a Redhawk Seattle University. Tariq scuba, he is from Hayward, which is about 20 minutes away from where I lived in Livermore, California. So the same thing about Arizona, I thought already was from Arizona. Nope. It was high school that he went to. It doesn't say, it doesn't say, let me see if it says if fascinating stuff you're getting into his room. Yeah. Where's Derek School will go to high school? No, I thought it was, I thought it read somewhere that he went to Arizona, but it doesn't matter. He, I brought it up because he went to Seattle University. Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to do it for this episode. Dad, any closing thoughts before we in this episode got to get two out of three from the Tigers this next series, starting on Tuesday, take us home. Well, we've, we've come off of our slide. We are now on a upper trajectory of, of just a new batting order and some new lives and new personality that is positive. And we're our bats are starting to, to be what we thought we were going to get with some of the supplementary pieces. We still got some people coming back with Julio JP. So we have a bright next couple of weeks and hopefully JP heals up Julio heals up quickly hopefully soon. And so we should be excited about our next few, well, seven weeks. Yeah. I cannot wait to see that outfield and talk about a no fly zone. I mean, I know we're talking mostly about offense here, but I tell you what, they're not going to be very many balls dropping in that outfield with those three guys. So that's going to end it for this episode. Give us a like. Give us a subscribe. Follow us on X, call us like it is is the tag over there and go M's. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]