00:00:00:12 - 00:00:15:19

Speaker 1

How's it going mates? Welcome back to a Mariners Monday edition of The Top Step. This is for all my Mariners fans. We have a lot of them. This is something that was asked to me about a month ago to do like a, you know, Mariners edition of The Top Step. So what I like to do, I do a weekly recap.

 

00:00:15:20 - 00:00:36:12

Speaker 1

I'll talk about some of the top performers who's doing well, who's struggling. You know, look ahead to this road trip that's coming up. Also, tell a little story, too. I've been thinking about Chris Flexen since yesterday, and it kind of prompted this story in my head. It's something that happened to me back in the day. So we're going to get into all that before we do with your Mariners fan or not.

 

00:00:36:22 - 00:00:54:18

Speaker 1

Grant Balfour is going to be with me later on in the week where we just go through a bunch of gibberish. We talk baseball. We have a lot of fun. We have some good laughs too. Aussies too. Former MLB players breaking guys down. Tell them funny story, Aussie word of the day. That's later on in the week. But for now we're doing the Mariners addition to the top step.

 

00:00:54:18 - 00:01:15:26

Speaker 1

So make sure you subscribe to your mates or you Mariners fans out there. I know they're in a little bit of limbo right now as to what we can expect from this team. Are they good? Are they playing below expectations? Are they just going to be mediocre? Are they going to figure this out? We're going to get to all that in these sessions, The Mariner Monday.

 

00:01:15:26 - 00:01:23:28

Speaker 1

So go subscribe to them. It's another episode. All right. Let's get into this Mariners Edition Mariner Monday edition of The Top Step.

 

00:01:25:03 - 00:01:29:21

Speaker 2

No matter what happens, Ryan Rhodes Smith has something to tell his grandkids right here at a breaking ball.

 

00:01:29:21 - 00:01:34:28

Speaker 3

He struck him out. Yeah, that will be a story for the rest of his life.

 

00:01:35:09 - 00:01:57:08

Speaker 2

As he strikes out. Ken Griffey Jr. This is Grant Balfour being Grant Balfour. He he is, as you mentioned, Jim, he's amped up. He talks a lot. In fact, he has the demeanor of a guy that wants to fight. You'll never say that. I'm not chilling. No, I'm just chilling. Chilling. I'm just chilling him all right.

 

00:01:57:08 - 00:02:12:22

Speaker 1

So first of all, I want to talk about is the home stand. Obviously, last time we talked, it was during the Rockies series. We had Jeff Levering on the last edition, who's the play by Play Voice for the Milwaukee Brewers. So we had the Brewers and we had the Saint Louis Cardinals in town, two really tough match ups.

 

00:02:12:22 - 00:02:28:29

Speaker 1

They really were. And the reason I say that, I know you look at the Cardinals record and you're like, you know, they're struggling, too, but that's a good team and they can absolutely thump. And we saw that throughout these last couple days. And the biggest difference was with these last two teams, comparing them against the Rockies is that bullpen, too.

 

00:02:28:29 - 00:02:43:28

Speaker 1

You get to that bullpen, it's going to be tough going. I was in the booth on Saturday night and I was watching Myles Michaelis. The Mariners got a chance to knock him out of the game, but then I'm thinking to myself, Man, close game. But that bullpen is going to hold it down. Way different to what we saw in that Rockies series.

 

00:02:43:28 - 00:03:05:19

Speaker 1

And one thing that's evident too, when you are going to play all these one run games like the Mariners, like they have we saw it last year, I don't think is going to be the trend. I could be wrong. I said this last year. Well, that's going to stick around with that plan. All these tight games, the your bullpen is crucial and what you do late in games, all those big innings, how can you generate some pressure?

 

00:03:05:19 - 00:03:24:29

Speaker 1

All right. So I want to go back to a couple moments, especially Friday and Saturday night. So Friday night you got Stephen Mariota. He's struggling against the Cardinals. Pitching staff had been struggling. Staff had been struggling. And it was time for Mariners two two to go for the throat. Right. But he looked way better, man. I was watching some videos of him, you know, leading into that game.

 

00:03:25:09 - 00:03:53:05

Speaker 1

He and Matt, he just could not get it done with two strikes. The Cardinals pitching with two strikes has been brutal. They've been vocal about it. And, you know, Willson Contreras was vocal about the new catcher with the Cardinals. But what they did and this is what you do and this is what good teams do when you have a starting pitcher who start, who's trying to get through that last little batch of pitches to finish a nine off strong, all of a sudden you put that pressure on and that's exactly what they did.

 

00:03:53:05 - 00:04:19:05

Speaker 1

The two walks you saw with Julio and Eugenio Suarez, that Suarez walk was massive. AJ Pollock comes up, gets up, gets that big blow. But before that, they knocked Steve Myers out of the game. That was huge. Then guess what? Saturday night again, they did it. Miles Michaelis, Teoscar Hernandez comes up and he's another dirty struggle and he's the opening day starter for the Cardinals and just saw that extension and he's up there and you could see it.

 

00:04:19:05 - 00:04:39:07

Speaker 1

Man, he was good up until that last inning. You could see him. He's just like, come on, man. Like, I'm finally starting to find my footing in the season. I'm coming off an outing his last time out that he he battled through, it was like five and two thirds, whatever it may be. And now he's got the Mariners and he's like, man, I'm feeling good again.

 

00:04:39:07 - 00:04:57:16

Speaker 1

All of a sudden I'm getting some punch outs. I'm getting that fastball away from the middle of the plate and get ground balls, etc. And you could see it, man. And I'm telling you, and I'm not saying this just because the a lot of people think because of the pitch clock, a lot of ex-players I'm talking to, they're talking about guys mentality and stuff because the pitch clock in the game speeds up on him.

 

00:04:57:16 - 00:05:20:05

Speaker 1

Yeah, sure, that might be true, but man, you could see it unraveling. I was in I was doing color with Aaron Goldman. They kept saying, I'm like, they got him, they've got him. And that whack Teoscar Hernandez comes out through to can't get to fastball and you could just see Miles Michaels reaction. That's massive, man. When you have a team that can knock out starting pitching, I get like I said, I know the Cardinals are struggling.

 

00:05:20:05 - 00:05:40:14

Speaker 1

The man it's huge when you can do that to a team in that sixth inning, seventh inning, massive. All right. So with that being said yesterday, Chris Flexen. All right. Now, who have to dove into this now he's struggling. There is no doubt whatsoever. I was talking to Pete Woodworth before the game. Before the game, I shot him in Texas.

 

00:05:40:14 - 00:05:55:16

Speaker 1

Hey, what do you got on Flex, man? What does he need to do? And yeah, he gave the which which got service talked about. He has to use all these pitches. It's like he's got that one or two that it's one secondary pitch you can just lean on to get that big swinging. Miss, he's a dude. He needs four pitches and they all need to be working.

 

00:05:56:00 - 00:06:15:02

Speaker 1

I get it. Absolutely. But couple of other things to think about here as well. And let's go a little bit of a chronological order here. You got a dude who and I'm going way back here because I want I want to talk about what leads to this place, because there's nothing physical with him. And as I'm looking more and more at it, you know, someone said all the villa is down.

 

00:06:15:02 - 00:06:30:15

Speaker 1

The villa is not that down at all. Like when you really go through the some of the numbers, maybe it was down from last start, maybe a, you know, half a mile. But when you look at what he did from 21, 20 to 23, Villa is right there. The villa is the same. Some of the break on the pitches is not quite is a little different.

 

00:06:30:21 - 00:06:52:13

Speaker 1

One thing that stands out in all those metrics, which I'll get to in a second, but I want to go back through with Chris Flexen chronologically with where he's at now. And this is what happens, man. And I've been there, I've had some good outings, I've had some really bad ones, and I've had some times where you go out and you just feel like you have no shot in certain counts, like you like.

 

00:06:52:16 - 00:07:07:20

Speaker 1

I mean, here we go. You've just put me in this corner. This pitch is not working. This pitch not working. Now, I have to serve it up because I need to be in the strike zone. I can't afford to walk anyone and walk in there. It is that big two run double whatever it may be. So let's let's figure this out right.

 

00:07:07:20 - 00:07:23:05

Speaker 1

Last year, he's in the starting rotation. He's not moving from that starting rotation all year long and he's dealing he's doing really well. And Chris Flexen to do when you watch and you get back to some of his game logs, he can have a clunker, they all do. And then he comes right back and he deals. He seems to deal right away.

 

00:07:23:13 - 00:07:39:18

Speaker 1

And I'll watch that because a lot of guys, man, when they have that really, really bad outing, they come back and they try and find their footing again. Coming up, Myles Michaelis early in this year, they try and find their footing, but they're not as dominant as he has been right after. So it's one of those things where he's like, Yeah, no, I'm good, I'm okay.

 

00:07:39:27 - 00:07:58:02

Speaker 1

And a lot of that comes with the fact that you are very secure in the fact that you ain't leaving the rotation. And when you're in a situation with Chris Flexen this year completely different. Right. And this goes back to pre Korea time for him so he was in Korea as we all know, because he washed out of the big leagues.

 

00:07:58:02 - 00:08:14:02

Speaker 1

He was a guy that came up and you constantly looking over your shoulder, you the 26th, 27th man on the team and you're just trying to stay up in the big leagues. You can't see looking over your shoulder goes to Korea, comes back. He signs a two year deal. It's crazy. Like all of a sudden now he's got some security.

 

00:08:14:11 - 00:08:32:16

Speaker 1

He comes in and some guys really respond to that because they're like, You know what? I'm part of this rotation and I don't have to look over my shoulder so much and you can ease into certain situations. You have a clunker if you want. You have a bad inning, but you know that. You know what if I just he's so confident and secure the fact that I know when I throw these pitches in these counts.

 

00:08:32:24 - 00:08:50:29

Speaker 1

Now, fast forward. Well, excuse me, at the end of last year, you're dealing you get taken out of the rotation, as we all know, comes into this year all offseason he's sitting back whether he wants to admit it to the Mariners want to admit he's sitting there going am I going to get traded because I need to start in the big leagues?

 

00:08:50:29 - 00:09:04:26

Speaker 1

He's not a bullpen guy at all. Right. And so and this happens with a bunch of dudes, you just don't see it that much. And especially when they say, hey, I'm just trying to give my team a chance to win, etc., etc., because I'm getting something to he's post-games I know he throws the cliches a lot. I want to get to that.

 

00:09:04:26 - 00:09:24:22

Speaker 1

This is where I'm leading to. So stay with me here. So basically here he is. He goes into spring training and he's pitching his ass off in spring because he wants to not shove it up everyone's ass. But he wants to basically say, look, I'm a starting pitcher and he's on an audition for another team if they decide to pull the trigger on his trade or something with Chris Flexen, off he goes and he's in the starting rotation.

 

00:09:25:19 - 00:09:46:00

Speaker 1

Then he starts the season, he's in the bullpen, as we all know. Robbie Ray goes down. Now he gets into the rotation, right? He's had a little bit of a like as far as prepping for that. It's been a bumpy road, but he's in the rotation. He's like, yes, now all of a sudden I have to stick my neck out here and be like, you know, I have to prove to you all over even I did this last year.

 

00:09:46:10 - 00:10:03:10

Speaker 1

I have to prove to everyone all over that I belong here in this rotation. And guess what? He knows Robbie Ryan in about a month. So he knows his leash is short, where when Robbie comes back, he's going to shoot right back to the bullpen? Maybe. Right. Unless someone gets injured or whatever. Yeah, but he's looking at like, oh, man, I have to deal here.

 

00:10:03:10 - 00:10:19:17

Speaker 1

And this next month I have to absolutely deal. And then you get off to a rough start. Then you have that game in Chicago right where you give it up and it is on display. Places going crazy. Big comeback. He had that bad inning in Chicago. Not one thing people would say. He just had that one bad inning.

 

00:10:20:06 - 00:10:55:24

Speaker 1

And all of a sudden you're starting to second guess. Couple of things happen. Number one, I'm going straight back to the bullpen. I feel like, shit, I'm not giving my team anything right now. So you roll that on Sunday like yesterday and whack first pitch of the game last night. But see, you're gone. You know that your usual repertoire of pitches you curveball hasn't been good so you kind of you shelving it a little bit you cut fastball hasn't got that same finish and by the way when you go back into some of the numbers he's cut fastball wasn't the same at this time last year either that the fastball and cut fastball have two

 

00:10:55:24 - 00:11:17:15

Speaker 1

tunneled the same those pitches work with each other in other words that you know you get in fastball counts all of a sudden you get that light movement gets off the barrel. We contact when you get that as a Chris Flexen type pitches oh man. Here we go. That's my safety net where I'm in a tough count like I talked about earlier, and I can just go whack that light little cut, get off the barrel to radio.

 

00:11:17:15 - 00:11:34:20

Speaker 1

Lefty, wait. Contact. Okay, I have a safety net now when I get those two strikes, count two strikeouts, I get here that he hasn't got that right now at all. So he's feeling it now. He mentioned something in the postgame interview. I don't know if you call it on the route sports postgame show or anything like that, but I was listening.

 

00:11:35:06 - 00:11:55:29

Speaker 1

Chris Flexen, it throws every cliche out there. He's not a guy that where he's Highland Sleep, which is kind of rare in 2023, guys will just admit all this, all this stuff. Always a dude, man who is like his therapy for me. Sometimes I talk to reporters and I because I understood the relationship with media and the reporters, hence the fact now I'm actually working in that industry.

 

00:11:55:29 - 00:12:13:25

Speaker 1

Now, some guys don't. Some guys just don't want to, some guys don't want to even, you know, and these are dudes, man. Like, our dudes are guys. That's how we are. Like, sometimes you want to keep things to ourselves. I'm like that a ton. But with Chris flexing, he said one thing Chris Flex and said one thing to the reporters.

 

00:12:14:03 - 00:12:46:13

Speaker 1

He said, You know what? I'm trying to get my team a chance to win. I'm not executing all those things. But Danny drops a I think this is rock bottom. Now when you hear a Chris flex and say, I think this is rock bottom, you know that what he's going through right now, getting on that plane to fly to Philadelphia 5 hours, sitting there contemplating, decompressing, whatever you want to call it, you are in a situation with like man, this is the worst a it can get and be this is the worst version of me.

 

00:12:46:23 - 00:13:05:10

Speaker 1

You have literally weeks to figure this out because Robby Ray's coming back. You also have been in a situation like, you know what if I hang out in the bullpen and I do well or whatever, there's a chance I might get traded as well. My trade stock goes up. The other part of this is to he just he just signed off an extension.

 

00:13:05:10 - 00:13:26:16

Speaker 1

So he's essentially a free agent at the end of the year. All this is in his head right now. So I want to talk about real quick story. In 2010, I sucked, man. I if you look at my numbers, it was so hard and I'm going through that that feeling of in the years past, it was I'm just gonna throw this pitch down the way it's going to be weak contact are you going to miss it?

 

00:13:26:17 - 00:13:42:04

Speaker 1

You know fell back I'm going to drop a breaking ball it was the best feeling ever to oh man I have to be perfect with this pitch. And I don't really want to throw this pitch right now, but it's the only option I really have. He's going to crush it. If it is not on the block, that is not a good place to be.

 

00:13:42:05 - 00:14:00:16

Speaker 1

I've been there. Chris Flex is dealing with that right now. I'll never forget we had I had a teammate, J.J. Putz. If you're a mariners fan, you're my age, which you probably are. You remember JJ Potts? Closure for the Mariners. Just big dude. I played with him with the D-backs as well. He got traded to the Mets after the 28 season.

 

00:14:00:29 - 00:14:16:27

Speaker 1

But, you know, it was interesting, man, 27, he was kind of like my big brother. I came up to the big leagues and he was really helped me. In 2008, he was he was pissed off at a lot of things. Everyone was that team was terrible. We had such bad chemistry and he's just like, you know, screw this, everyone felt that way.

 

00:14:16:27 - 00:14:34:20

Speaker 1

2000. It was such a bad year, right? And so he was dealing with injuries like everything. So our relationship kind of got like, you know, a little bit sort of dispersed. I wasn't hanging out with in March because he wasn't super good due to be around and stuff because he was feeling like we all were right. And I said that to him last year, the MLB draft, he was down at the draft, so it was on.

 

00:14:34:20 - 00:14:51:05

Speaker 1

We had a great chat about all that. Well, he ends up getting traded off to the Mets 2000. We have a fun year. Boom. And so all of a sudden you like I, everyone in 2008 sucked and everyone in 2009 is awesome, right? You got to have that mindset. And you know, I was watching him from afar and then 2010 rolls around.

 

00:14:51:05 - 00:15:09:11

Speaker 1

He's with the White Sox. I pitched against the White Sox. And you can look at I can't remember. I think it's August or July or something. It was brutal, man. I gave it up. Those fireworks were just pounding in my head every time I gave up a hit or a home run. It was brutal. The fireworks I'm talking about, the White Sox place, tough place for me to pitch.

 

00:15:09:11 - 00:15:25:15

Speaker 1

For some reason, I get done with the game and I'm just shattered. You want to talk about rock bottom? I was a friggin mess at this point. I was already talking to like a not a mental skills coach. I was trying to get hypnotized. I was talking to this other person. I was dealing with depression. I was really struggling.

 

00:15:25:15 - 00:15:41:14

Speaker 1

We've all been there right now at some point when you just cannot figure it out. And when you look from afar or from the outside looking in, you like I'm in the I'm in the friggin big leagues. What? Why am I so why does every day suck for me? I'm in the big leagues now. Looking back in hindsight, it's easy to say that, but when you're in it, it sucks.

 

00:15:41:14 - 00:16:11:17

Speaker 1

Man. That's what Chris Flexen has gone through right now. Anyway, I suck it. I give it up. I'm talking to the media. Well, he somehow caught me talking to the media. I think it is on CCTV or something. Or maybe a White Sox reporter had a camera. I can't remember. He looked at me, he's like, Man, that dude needs to like basically he need some support right now because I was a mess and I always, you know, is Shannon Dreyer and all the all the regulars who are there back in 2010, they all said, Man, you don't have to talk to us right now.

 

00:16:11:17 - 00:16:34:16

Speaker 1

I was like, No, no, I got it. I can talk to you guys. And I just I was always on my Harlem sleeve. I was always very emotional when I talked to everyone, good or bad, I get down with the game, I get a text message. I spoke to JJ in ages, man. I got a text from him saying, Hey, man, you know, I need to talk to you as I got here and you called me and it was great, he said to me and I brought this up to him last year because I was very emotional about last year.

 

00:16:34:28 - 00:16:54:29

Speaker 1

He said, Listen, man, you're in the big leagues. I respect and appreciate every single day you have in the big leagues. It's going to be okay, dude, you are fine from there. And he gave me kind of the outside looking in perspective and I needed that man. I really did need that. And you know, I end up going on the fandom deal or I'll next said calf injury.

 

00:16:55:07 - 00:17:13:16

Speaker 1

It wasn't a calf injury or back injury or I can't remember I had to fake an injury just to go on the oil too, because I was an absolute shattered mess. So anyway, Chris Flexen is not that extreme. He's way closer to figuring out than I was in 2010. He's not that bad. But man, he is in. He's having a time right now.

 

00:17:13:16 - 00:17:33:28

Speaker 1

And it is it's difficult, man. It is tough. All right. Let's get on with I don't want to upset you too much. Just talk, Jared Celtic man. Listen, I feel like I'm going to talk about him every week and hopefully if I'm talking about him every week, that dude, he's going to have dead set an MVP season. The guy is absolutely on fire and it is sustainable and he is.

 

00:17:33:28 - 00:17:54:16

Speaker 1

Why? Number one, he's going to play every day now. He's going to play every day because he is hitting lefties. He's hitting 333, slugging 600 against lefties. Therefore, you remember, let's get back to spring training. By the way. Remember when we're talking about coming in there, was that if he's going to make the team, he's up against Cade Marleau, he's up against maybe someone trading in trading to get someone in left field.

 

00:17:54:27 - 00:18:08:15

Speaker 1

And by the way, they said, are you Jared Celtics going to play? And everyone's like, well, has you at that spot and this is in spring training. I get it. But he's going to Platoon, I guarantee you, at that moment when Jarred Kelenic heard that, is that. No, no, no, I'm not platooning. Right? I'm playing every friggin day.

 

00:18:08:15 - 00:18:24:29

Speaker 1

I'm sure he did. And yeah, look, he's had some self-doubt I get over the years, but two things. Number one, crushing lefties and he's going to play every day. And look, AJ Pollock's doing just fine lately too, is hitting righties as well, which is great. He usually crushes lefties, but he's doing great. The other thing, too, crushing fastballs, man.

 

00:18:25:07 - 00:18:47:19

Speaker 1

He's at 444. A fastball. I don't even know some of the power numbers against him. I just pulled it up real quick. I was like, man, he is murdering fastballs. You cannot be one dimensional against Jarred Kelenic. You can't just feed him breaking balls. He's going to get them. Sure, he's doing way better against breaking balls. I think last year in like oh 50 against breaking balls and now this year like in the two fifties to forties, which is awesome, by the way.

 

00:18:47:27 - 00:19:09:13

Speaker 1

So he's he's recognizing breaking balls and guess what doesn't swing or he takes him he doesn't chase his chase rate is way down. And guess what? You have to come back with a fastball unless you can dial up three sliders in a row and even big League is struggling to do that and he's getting those fastballs. The other thing, too, I get sick of hearing people say, oh, you have to hit the ball left field, right?

 

00:19:09:13 - 00:19:25:17

Speaker 1

So something like, oh, if you hit the ball left field, you're going to be great. Not everyone is Edgar Martinez or Inside Out. But Jared Clinic, I will say this coming into this year and even last year too, they wanted to hit up the middle more. They want him to stay up the middle. And everyone's like, Well, he's just trying to pull the ball all the time.

 

00:19:25:17 - 00:19:44:16

Speaker 1

He's not trying to pull the ball. What happens is when you are struggling and you are just dying to when you just trying to make something happen, you press what you do, you get urgent and you you recognize a pitch early, your eyes light up, you salivate and jump out, jump out, jump out to get that pitch and your timing's off.

 

00:19:44:22 - 00:19:58:10

Speaker 1

It's one of those things when you have never swung and missed this much. I'm talking about last year for Jarred Kelenic because he's always been a stud since he was about two years old. When when you haven't swung a miss this much and you see a piece on Omega, oh, man, there's a possible whack. You jump out on that pitch.

 

00:19:58:10 - 00:20:17:04

Speaker 1

Remember, there's a couple of homeruns. He hit off the right field, foul pole, even those swings, he crushed those balls, don't get me wrong. But you're like, oh, man. Exposed to up to secondary pitches, exposed the fastball movement. Now, all of a sudden, timing is good, understands that he's so athletic that he can stay up the middle with power.

 

00:20:17:04 - 00:20:31:14

Speaker 1

So like, if you ever been to a batting cage or whatever it may be and you whack the ball off that right side screen, like off the netting, off the right side, you like crush that ball because you're yanking it, you're pulling it. And that's where you most power is going to come. It's not that's not let's get real here.

 

00:20:31:21 - 00:20:48:05

Speaker 1

Most power is going to go to right field and most smaller dudes who don't have the same civil vila, if they are going to hit a bunch of bombs, they're going to go to right field. Like remember, like, Dan, I got you. I don't know if you remember him, but some of the little dudes, even Jose Altuve, most of the homeruns are going to go to the pull side.

 

00:20:48:05 - 00:21:05:12

Speaker 1

But when you are a dude like a mike trout and and I'm using in the same sentence, Jared Kalanick and you have that kind of power and that athleticism and you stay up the middle. I'm telling you, good things happen, man. I think it's what, five? I think only one ball has gone to right field for a home run in Chicago.

 

00:21:05:12 - 00:21:24:00

Speaker 1

The rest centerfield too, right. So it doesn't mean that he's trying to go the other way. No, no, no. It just means his timing is rock solid and he's letting that ball get a little closer taken, recognize if it's going to break or spin. And then he's absolutely murder, murder in the ball. So these are the reasons why it's sustainable.

 

00:21:24:00 - 00:21:40:18

Speaker 1

Yeah, he might cool off a little bit. Don't get me wrong. He's going to cool off a little bit. But man, Jared Kelenic is been so fun to watch those couple of balls. And by the way, did you see where those those pitches were in the game Saturday night? The ball was down and then he hit the ball, left field and gold.

 

00:21:40:20 - 00:21:54:12

Speaker 1

He gave his big home run call. And I'm in my head as he's around the in the bag. Okay. Where do I go with this? Because I'm all excited. I want to give that big breakdown of. But I just I was in shock. I'm not going to lie. He pitches down and in whack and you hit the ball left field.

 

00:21:54:12 - 00:22:23:01

Speaker 1

And then guess what? He backed it up. Did it again. Little hanging slaughter from, you know, from Florida. Whoo hoo again. Filthy throw 97 and inside out of it was ridiculous. So again really good to see, you know from Jarred Kelenic even like even the at bat Zach Thompson right I know he struck out but just even the difference on that are batting and Zach Thompson with the Cardinals on Saturday night Zach Thompson is like you know 95 with a massive high spin breaking ball.

 

00:22:23:14 - 00:22:43:07

Speaker 1

And he looked good. He looked comfortable, like I said. Now he punched on I punched him out. But he did look good even on that about which which was which was good to say. All right. So again, it's if he stays up the middle and it's not that he's trying to hit the ball the other way, all that means is his timing is on point and he's recognizing pitches.

 

00:22:43:07 - 00:23:00:00

Speaker 1

He's laying off breaking balls and he's trusting the fact, you know what, I can backspin this ball right back to that pitcher's head or right to the top line and that center field line. And if he catches out in front, if if his little bit like if it's dropped a little bit of speed on a secondary pitch, I'm going to catch it out in front.

 

00:23:00:00 - 00:23:20:23

Speaker 1

Fine. If I'm a little late, I'm still going to be able to drive that that ball to left field. So super, super important. All right. Let's look ahead. They've got the Phillies coming up and the Blue Jays couple offensive, really good offensive teams pitching has got to be on point. So the bullpen, yeah, the starting pitching has been growing and you get into some of top performers here in the second.

 

00:23:21:05 - 00:23:43:10

Speaker 1

But I do have to have to give a shout out to my man Matt Brash pitched on sell out look good and if you notice the velo was back to 98 to 100 not because of because he's just trying to throw hard and then not because he was comfortable with his rhythm and timing mechanically. That's what happens. We saw him on that road trip even early days of this homestand.

 

00:23:43:10 - 00:23:59:02

Speaker 1

Couldn't get that slaughter over at all. Breaking ball all over the place. Command go. So what happens is, just like I said this all the time to kids, not that they ever drive that if you're let's say you driving along on the freeway overall, we've all been there and you check Google Maps. So you check in, you try to get on Spotify to listen to the Top Step podcast.

 

00:23:59:02 - 00:24:17:28

Speaker 1

Whatever you're doing, you go on 60, you look down doing whatever, thinking that you're still driving at 60 miles per hour. You look at, now I'm going 45 or up. Someone's friggin blasting the horn behind me or coming around me. Give me the stink eye because I'm going 45. Because what happens is as a pitcher, when you are trying to process or do two things at once, multitask.

 

00:24:17:28 - 00:24:33:10

Speaker 1

We can't do it. When you're trying to multitask, you just simply move slower, not brush through a filthy slaughter early in the game on Saturday. And he was like, Hey, here, there's. I got that. What? Yeah, I can move full speed. That's when you see the 97 to 100 and that's that's a really good sign they are going to need that bullpen.

 

00:24:33:10 - 00:24:52:09

Speaker 1

Diego Castillo looked a little bit better yesterday. That's going to be massive coming up in this series. Plus, they get to go back to Toronto as well. Nuts. Remember, Toronto was where they had that most epic comeback. That was insane. One of the games of the year last year, all over Major League Baseball. We all remember, right, the break, the drought.

 

00:24:52:11 - 00:25:11:11

Speaker 1

They win, they get the first game Luis Castillo just dominated and the second half was just insane. It was a blast. They get to go back to Toronto. Teoscar Hernandez goes back to Toronto as well. All right. I am getting through this. I'm going to get to a couple questions here in a minute. I just want to gets to some of my top performers where they at?

 

00:25:11:11 - 00:25:35:16

Speaker 1

All right. So a couple of guys are already talked about Jarred Kelenic big performance, obviously doing doing big things. Joshua Hernandez, he's starting to get scary. I love it. Right. He is not that big smile on his face. He is starting to look friggin good. I said this I think his last week or maybe the first week he was just getting slider after slider breaking ball after breaking ball and just not recognizing it straight up chasing like crazy.

 

00:25:35:16 - 00:26:11:03

Speaker 1

He was swinging it. I think it was like he's getting 70. Besides swinging at 70% sliders, which is insane and missing 60% of him. That right. Has gone way down. Haven't looked recently after yesterday. But he's got it's gone way down. The numbers on that and he when you get does that and he doesn't chase just like jarred Kelenic what happens gets fastball middle one of the best mistake hitters in the game not just because he hits mistakes because he punishes mistakes last year he like 500 pitches middle middle middle and the XIV lowers through the roof.

 

00:26:11:22 - 00:26:27:16

Speaker 1

So that's good to see. They need him in the middle of the line. I still think he has to hit for 100%. So when he starts to really level out in a good way, I think he's going to be back in that four hall, which is massive as well. So you have suarez coming up the big hit on saturday night.

 

00:26:27:16 - 00:26:53:17

Speaker 1

So teoscar is one of my big top performers, obviously Jarred Kelenic. What about my man, Marco Gonzalez? Now listen time. Don't roll your eyes. Right. I love Marco Gonzalez. You all know that. The reason why I like Marco right is because, first of all, our expectations shift very fast and some some people like Marco. There's Marco. That selection sure said in the rotation last year, etc., etc..

 

00:26:53:18 - 00:27:12:23

Speaker 1

And listen, you when you go through the rankings of starting like let's say you go in the top ten rotations in the game, right? You've got the top two, maybe top three, just not just filth. No one has a fire fifth starter like the Mariners do. Look around and the Phillies, you're going to say it as well, right?

 

00:27:13:04 - 00:27:36:26

Speaker 1

Yeah, we saw that with the in with the Cardinals Rockies, the Brewers. Right. You don't have the fifth dude who gives you 20 plus quality starts and gets deep into a game the way Marco Gonzales does. I'm telling you, when you get through, you know, some of these high leverage games is close games. When you got your studs, all of a sudden you get to that fifth spot and you got Marco getting into the sixth, seventh, giving you a couple runs.

 

00:27:36:26 - 00:27:57:06

Speaker 1

I'm sorry. So top performer because nine punch outs plus he his daughter, Siena. Congratulations, Marco, you second kid you're two girls. I did, girl. I did boy, girl and boy. Excuse me. So I got lucky. So you got to keep going. And you get that boy, you you go yeah. Boys and girls did nine strikeouts after sit and after hanging out in the hospital for a few days.

 

00:27:57:06 - 00:28:17:03

Speaker 1

No, Slater, that's insane. I thought he's going to come back and just maybe have a pitch count or something or struggle. But he he had that. This game is not as important as bringing a kid into the world or looking after my wife mentality. Apparently because he friggin dominated six innings on that, I lost that game. But nine punch outs, good to say.

 

00:28:17:03 - 00:28:36:24

Speaker 1

All right. Let me get to some questions. How long we being let me get some questions here real quick. I'm going to get to two and I appreciate all the questions. If you got a question or a comment about anything with the Mariners or whatever it may be, hit me up at hyphen 18 or oh, did you guys see Grant Balfour go viral all over the week?

 

00:28:37:15 - 00:29:01:15

Speaker 1

I put it up at Top Step podcast on Twitter and Instagram. Oakland, obviously the news about Oakland, we're going to talk to Grant about that in a couple of weeks. But Oakland are moving to Vegas, apparently so. With that being said, he had a clip of him coming out and I'll put it up on I think I shared it on social but the insight I'm going to share some more Grant Balfour footage.

 

00:29:01:23 - 00:29:16:13

Speaker 1

He was just an absolute weapon when he came into the game. So good to say. All right. So real quick. Oh, and by the way, to not a pat on the back to me or toot my own horn here but massive thanks to everyone I know. I said this on Twitter, but I love it. Like obviously I love doing color.

 

00:29:16:13 - 00:29:47:12

Speaker 1

Got in there on Saturday and I got some really good comments, good feedback and everything. So thank you all. I hope to do more games in the booth. I love it. It's fun working with Dave Sims and Goldsmith. I love working both those guys. All right. So here we go. Said So I've got I'm shredding through this. Let's do this one and RJ here's one Jason Reavis Trident Hawk says he basically you're not going to read this word for word he's basically wanted the man to strike out so much.

 

00:29:47:12 - 00:30:14:02

Speaker 1

And I always seem to do it in big moments. So at Trident Hawk for 20, Jason Reavis. All right. So I was looking at this the other day. I'm going to pull up some numbers here because I want to have a have a real quick look. Now, listen, when you're watching your team and we all know if you're sitting in Kansas City right now, you're like, oh, what does this team do that it feels like they always strike out or don't come up with that big hit when it really matters?

 

00:30:14:07 - 00:30:40:15

Speaker 1

That's across baseball. Now, look at some of these numbers, right? First of all, mariners with in high leverage situations. Okay, I'm looking at this right now. They hit two nine in basically with high leverage situations as you could imagine, mean that it's close game runners on really counts. They hit 290 in those high leverage situations. All right. When it counts Arby's, they've got 68 RBIs.

 

00:30:40:15 - 00:31:06:18

Speaker 1

That's right about middle of the pack. They've got 45 strikeouts with runners in scoring position and they hit hitting 254. Okay. That's they hit to 54, which is 13th in the big leagues, pretty good. And they've struck out 45 times. That's 22nd in the big leagues. So again, they're doing pretty good. All right. The reason gets magnified sometimes is, one, because your team hovering around 500, they're playing a little bit below expectations.

 

00:31:07:03 - 00:31:33:09

Speaker 1

And number two, you just face two really, really good bullpens. Man, we had Jeff Levering talk about the bullpen with the Brewers. You went from the Rockies. Bullpen is a struggle. You could see that to the to the Brewers and then the Cardinals to really, really good bullpens. Plus guys you haven't seen before. You haven't it's not like they're playing the Angels or the A's or like they used to and seem a bunch.

 

00:31:33:12 - 00:31:50:12

Speaker 1

They haven't seen these bullpens before. So that's kind of why it feels that way. But they're actually doing way better than what they did last year. They they I agree. They do need to get back to that production, especially in close games as they did the last couple of months of the season last year. But it has been a bit of a pickup from April of last year.

 

00:31:50:14 - 00:32:15:22

Speaker 1

Okay, next one, he's an onerous. Munoz question. I was going to talk about him earlier. Andres Munoz So Ryan Turner At Turns, it turns 44. What's up, Ryan? Nice name. Munoz Coming back this week, who comes up? Who goes down? Diego Castillo Well, first of all, Munoz is not coming back this week. Munoz is actually doing live batting practice next week.

 

00:32:16:10 - 00:32:47:02

Speaker 1

So he's going to do a couple of beeps. You probably get out in the game. They're not going to rush him on just Munoz I hate to say it, guys, he's still a good three or four weeks at best away from from being in games. The reason why hard thrower he's come off that major major injury with the elbow a couple of years ago they don't want to push it that's not a it's not a rubberized a little different rubberized will dictate the terms the Mariners are not going to push on just Munoz and even if they feel like they're desperate you have that feeling like they going to really protect him.

 

00:32:47:02 - 00:33:17:24

Speaker 1

So at best I'm going to say he's three weeks away. And who comes up? Who goes, I don't think you're going to tap into and we've seen this already. You're not going to tap into your prospect source down in triple-A or Double-A yet that that's going to happen more June July you're going to start rolling out these guys like the Topas, who's been awesome, by the way, and some of these other guys, because sources say as I say, though, last night, I should know his name as I'm talking to you guys, but you're going to roll at these kind of guys.

 

00:33:17:24 - 00:33:34:20

Speaker 1

And Tope has been brilliant, which is awesome before you start tapping into like some of these young prospects. And also, look, Diego Castillo, man, that's not I could be wrong, but they're going to they're going to stick with Diego Castillo as long as they can. He's good. He looked better on. Then he gave up a bomb the other night.

 

00:33:34:20 - 00:33:52:20

Speaker 1

But he does look better. And that's against this. That can mean his walk rate is through the roof. I think it's like seven, eight or nine or something like that. Insane. He's going to figure that out. You had that feeling look better. They have not I'm glad he did multiple innings to to get some work in. So with that being said guys I've run out of time on the questions.

 

00:33:52:20 - 00:34:05:01

Speaker 1

I'll get to more of them next week. If you do have a question, hit me up on social media. Grant Balfour is going to be back with us next week. We got a lot of good things coming up. I'm going to have some players join me as well, either via Zoom. I like to do some more when they're in person.

 

00:34:05:01 - 00:34:20:01

Speaker 1

I really do. Matter of fact, is going to try and get Tyler Marder on. But he got sent down, man. I texted him I was going to get the ex mariner who clawed his way back to the big leagues on just to hear his story. I love those stories. They're the best. But with all that being said, guys, thanks for tuning in.

 

00:34:20:10 - 00:34:40:27

Speaker 1

Let's go, mariners. A big road trip coming up. I think they're getting over the hump here. They just have to solidify a few things. We'll have Grant Balfour later on in the week go subscribe might help out the show and tell your mates Click the share button, share it on text, message it to you know your buddies who would enjoy some good banter, some good laughs.

 

00:34:40:27 - 00:34:59:03

Speaker 1

I'm going to make sure, Grant I'm going to have some good laughs this week, some good, good old laughs about dumb baseball stories, funny baseball stories, interesting baseball stories, insight, bah bah bah bah bah. All the good stuff. All right, guys, I appreciate it. Have a good week. Happy Monday, Monday, happy Mariners Monday. And we'll see you later on.

 

00:34:59:12 - 00:35:04:10

Speaker 1

All right. See you, mates.

 

00:35:04:10 - 00:35:24:02

Speaker 3

At the end. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

 

00:35:24:24 - 00:35:36:15

Speaker 2

You'll never say that. I'm not chilling. No, I'm just chilling. Chilling. No, I'm just chilling. No chilling. No, just chilling. Don't find her chilling. No, just chilling.

 

00:35:36:15 - 00:35:45:29

Speaker 3

Don't I? Chilling. No, I'm just killing her.

 

00:35:45:29 - 00:35:46:11

Speaker 2

Chilling.

 

00:35:47:01 - 00:35:54:10

Speaker 3

Just chilling. You just feel tired. Weak when you feel weak.