[Music] ah here we are again we're back every week my wife was like are you still doing that and I was like I don't know I guess still doing that show yeah yeah come go man this could spell the end of uh of at least this version of the poor sports podcast if the wife is not happy with it she used to be a listener and now she's a detractor well I think part of the listening drop off she always listens to the podcast on Spotify and there can sometimes be a delay that's true when we record and when it gets posted I think that might be a that might be hurting her hurting her a hurdle for her personally I don't know about everybody else but Mrs aita this episode going up into Spotify on Friday that's my pledge to you so everyone has it for the weekend exactly what they want this that is right uh there are podcasts that come out on Friday and I don't necessarily I don't know if we've uh I think we've reached the point with podcasts where people just listen to them all the time and I don't think there's like a big difference between the date used to be like you got to release it on a Monday because then everyone has their whole week to commute listening to that podcast now it's like people just replaced are replacing radio left and right so yeah when I used to write a lot uh there's definitely better days to release written articles uh better days and better times podcast most of them are the 1990s I think for written stuff at this point yeah it's I mean there's a reason I don't write anymore it's not uh it's not as worth it as it used to be but uh yeah I mean with podcasts it's like people just have an honest background noise so sure difference does it make you know anytime you I personally I only listen when I'm in the car though to any podcast that's it yeah I'm not the if I'm if I'm listening to my headphones it's strictly music yeah see I'm like an all podcast guy so I think like I think this why you don't respect the power of the podcast and I especially by the way I suspect you don't watch a single podcast on YouTube to you the I remember I certainly don't watch I don't pay that much here's the thing about me I don't care what most people think yeah no I know I I'm aware of this for me yeah so for me it's like um yeah it's just not entertainment to me I get it it is entertainment to a lot of people sure for me personally in fact our entertainment to a moderate amount of people uh speaking of which by the way we've had a lot happen in the is it has it been two episode no do we skip a week I did one with Mike Duke that your wife probably would not have listened to yeah you did one last week I was not it's been two weeks since you and I have talked okay because it was in between those periods of time your daughter turned one my kid is today at her last day of daycare which is alarming um so she will be in kindergarten next week wow yeah and uh the other one is you know whatever she's doing she's floating around and then uh uh I had like the biggest week of comedy in my life and I feel like we just every time a big thing happens in one of our Lives that's like really podcast worthy you don't do the episode that week I I go personally I go away yes I uh yeah we obviously had a lot going on it's been a crazy for me just sure having a child here I'm going to give people unsolicited advice on kids which all advice is unsolicited when it comes to Parenting but uh prior to having a child I didn't think I'd care that much about having kids if that makes sense you know what I'm saying like sure I was in my mid-30s I was like if I never have a child I'll be okay you know I'll be because there's a lot of people that are like that you know you get to a certain point and you're like man I don't if I don't have kids it's cool it's cool like I'll be fine and I totally understand that and respect it but uh having a child for the past year has been like the best thing that's ever happened to me so so you're the the take here is Parenthood is good it's good for me but but here's the thing JD Vance [ __ ] podcast are we running here Jesus need to have you need to pump these things out 10 at a time Philip Rivers numbers uh no I mean like obviously I have one child uh so you know the people out there that have three toddlers running around probably like [ __ ] you man you don't know anything which is true but uh but the thing is I even like uh through the whole period where my wife was pregnant and we were building up to this birth people would always ask me how I felt how I felt things were changing or different nothing nothing felt different even now I still feel like I'm the same person like and nothing has changed uh but but prior to having a child when I saw friends have kids I'm like as soon as that kid came out I was like they're a whole different person I don't even know this person anymore and that's just not the reality so um yeah it surprised me how much I enjoyed having a kid I guess is is the moral of my story after one year yeah yeah I could see that I mean I remember before you had a kid and I and I really hate also two things that I you hate Are unsolicited advice which you just gave which I think was just have a kid I think I don't think it I don't think it was advice it just more I think that was the extent of what you call unsolicited advice but also as advice it's not advice yeah I think the other by the way he I will say this I I actually got a a nice compliment on I posted a joke of mine on maybe Reddit I posted a bunch of places I think the comment came from Reddit it was uh someone it was about uh not shaking your child you've seen this joke go go see my special it's literally the the like the what would be the title track of my special is this joke about not shaking your kid and uh somebody said I felt really guilty the whole time you were talking until the reveal at the end and I was like to me that's what my comedy is anytime I'm talking about being a parent is it's like it is very rewarding but I'm also going to tell you like the real raw side of being a parent because it's not always fun right like it's always rewarding you never trade it back whatever cliche we have to say to not have CPS called on me in the process of this podcast but there are downsides and yeah when you were when you were uh I would say have a kid if you want to have a kid because you will love it and you will love the child and you will love the process of Parenthood and if you do not want a kid very much do not have a kid like because it is such a [ __ ] commitment and you meet these people who are just like absentee parents and uh yeah absolutely I'm on board with you uh with that I don't understand why we're even talking about it frankly it's like uh you know well here's the thing about shitty people they don't often realize they're shitty people so it's like that's true that is true I can see how they might find themselves as a parent and uh I do remember you saying before you're like I'm gonna want a couple hours away from my family every week we will definitely keep doing this podcast in person and I was I will say I was not fooled by this lie that you were trying to perpetrate but I I do get those hours away I just at the I should have clarify I didn't want them with you you said we are going to be drinking whiskey every week nothing will change and then [ __ ] this kid comes around and ruins it all um okay we have a big week we have a lot to talk about uh one thing that we missed and we'll get to it uh I think there's big like not really breaking news but like somewhat recent news about the Mariners and that's I what we should start with I want to talk about the huskys because I've been holding off huskys talk in fact I've uh I've come across a mutual acquaintance of ours a couple times and intentionally didn't talk at all about the huskys despite me wanting to because I think I have a pessimistic take on this game and uh if you're into pessimistic takes baby stick around because that's but the so the the Mariners have decided they are going to keep Jerry depoto through the 2025 season uh you and I have speculated about this a lot this year so it's a so they fire Scott service and and conspicuously did not fire Jerry depoto at the same time and I guess like I want to know what your initial reaction is because I I don't know if this is just like if I'm doing revisionist [ __ ] in my mind or what but I'm not as pessimistic about this as I expected to be oh yeah I mean I joke about this a lot with the Mariners I mean this is just if you think it's bad just wait because they'll make it worse I mean there is seemingly no bottom for the Mariners and for all the people that were lamenting how this season is gone how things went uh you know at the time Scott service was fired as manager and how they've continued to go since he's been replaced by Dan Wilson I mean it gets worse because the guy in charge of this team this organization is uh sticking around at least for another year according to uh to the sources revealed to Ryan divish and Adam Jude of the Seattle to so good reporting by them but um yeah I mean the Mariners they don't make a lot of sense you know like a GM is not or I guess in Jerry's case president of baseball Ops you know that's not something that's a cost savings or anything keeping him you know people joke that oh they're probably saving money by keeping Jerry depoto I mean you could go out and hire somebody who's much cheaper than Jerry depoto guaranteed he's got there's probably a buyout on his contract though well that's the thing we don't know because the Mariners don't believe in revealing contractual details on any of their uh Personnel they obviously they have to do it with players things like that but for uh front office Personnel they're one of the few teams that really don't reveal any information there so we don't know if this guy has a one-year contract a 10-year contract uh a constantly optioned contract we have no idea but you know when it comes to a pres of baseball Ops you have to figure if you were to fire a guy with over a decade's worth of experience and bring in somebody who's younger they're probably going to be cheaper right I mean that's just the reality of the business so they're not saving any money keeping a guy like Jerry depoto they must really truly believe in what he's doing or it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense so you know it's one of those frustrating things as a fan it seems like we often see depoto for what he is you know the the narrative on him over the course of 10 years has certainly changed quite a bit there was a lot of optimism and positivity around him in the the early part of his ten year and then really the latter half it's kind of all faded and certainly hit ahead now I mean I I would say right now in the wake of the news yesterday that depoto would be coming back next year and possibly longer than that people were very very upset and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon yeah I mean and I guess what I'll say the reason that I'm not as upset about it as I thought I would be is because it's not really anything to do with Jerry depoto or my opinion changed on Jerry depoto I do still think he's uh a little bit of a fraudulent analytics guy um I don't think that Scott service was the problem we talked about that quite a bit and I think that if anything I think that Scott service was probably influenced by Jerry depoto in a way that like I If if Dean Wilson is not I hope I'm like I have the only people in this organization that I have less faith in than Jerry depoto are the people who might push Dan Wilson a Direction baseballwise because I I yeah I guess that's what I I think Jerry depoto was I I guess this is where do who do you think is the best GM in Mariners history or put a different way is there any GM in the history of the Mariners who has been better than Jerry depoto when you put it all together I mean obviously like the Woody Woodward Pat gillick years there were some successful Seasons yeah I mean also know for sure gillick is the best and gillick left I mean gillick left the way Pete Carol left USC the cupboard was Bare and [ __ ] was about to fall apart like this it was yeah he well he believed in you know veterans yes so I mean like prospects were not as big of a thing for him they didn't really churn out the prospects the way that they have in the recent years but um yeah I guess after that probably the next best is what he would wear just because he you know got them to the playoffs for the first time and really I mean he built a historic roster they they they weren't a championship roster but you know you you draft griffy you draft A-Rod you oversee the development of Edgar Martinez you acquire Randy Johnson I mean these are Hall of Fame moves I mean I I get Woody Woodward wasn't a Hall of Fame GM but the moves themselves those Acquisitions were huge um yeah I mean the poto is like I guess if you were ranking all the Mariners GMS in history he's probably like right in the middle right you know and that's not inspiring by any means uh but he's not the worst and he's not the best the problem is I think you there's two problems one I mean he's had a decade now to figure it out and they've had one playoff appearance to show for it so you know you could argue that in the last 10 years they've been if not the worst franchise in Major League Baseball one of yes I mean this I think this is where the the it's tough for for marer fans or anyone around here to kind of look in the mirror but I mean who's worse you know the the Rays make the playoffs perennially even though they're small Market the A's even though they seemingly never have any money they make the postseason as well um the Pirates have struggled the Pirates are probably there down there with the Mariners the white socks have been to the postseason a bunch even though they're historically bad this year so I mean who's worse than the Mariners I I understand that you're going to use the playoff thing as the As the metric and I understand why that's important I'm I do think part of the deal with the Mariners is they've been somewhat unlucky to be in a division with like a like a Powerhouse uh Houston Astros team that not only do they win every year but they uh they also beat the Mariners a lot typically I get I get what you're saying like I I they've made the playoffs less often the situation the A's are in right now and the situation they've been in for most of the last decade I I think like if you're starting it all over would you rather a team that wins 54% of their games or a team that wins 40% of their games over that same stretch I mean I think you'd pretty obviously assume that the team that's gonna win 54% of their games is gonna have a better chance at being a contender and making the playoffs uh and they didn't win 40% it's probably close to 50% I can't I don't I can't do the math off the top of my head but it's it's uh yeah I I get what you're saying uh I also think and by the way to in the rankings of Seattle Mariners GMS he is not alone in this but obviously we agree that the ownership hamstrung his spending whether you think he needed that spending or not the ownership has not made this not he has not but if if you believe like that it matters uh acquiring free agents matters then he has not been given the tools to do that he has not been given the same uh tools or at least resources relative to the rest of the league the pulad uh yeah I mean I think yeah we we talked about this a lot I I don't know how hamstr we we don't know how hamstrung he is because but you think what but you don't think that he's just in choosing not to spend money out of the like you don't think he's leaving $30 million in the budget every year do you I think uh Jerry I think part of the reason the Mariners front or the ownership group likes Jerry is because he's showing them that his plan involves living on the margins right and finding guys that maybe don't cost as much or um you know our Diamonds in the Rough he likes to look for that guy the problem is he doesn't often find that guy he thinks he finds that guy but it doesn't ultimately work out yeah that that guy is exactly like Mitch hanar is a good example of a guy he found that really truly was what I think he's looking for and almost all these guys he goes out and acquires I think the the ownership likes that because Jerry does a pretty good job of convincing a segment of the fan base that anybody he goes out and gets is going to be better than they've proven to be and he doesn't cost the a lot I but I think part of what Jerry likes to do when he runs an organization is in some ways even if he gets that blank check to go out and sign you know Wan SoDo or whoever in some ways he'd almost prefer to find the next Wan stto you know like going out and getting The Proven commodity to him is like it's not a challenge it's not even something that's on the table like how do we even know that well that's the thing I mean I think there's a lot working against them that's not the ownership you know I get we the easy copout is always ownership but I think it's important that fans look at this subjectively too because I think you know the the Jerry depoto apologists always say oh he he's he's much better than he you know if he was if he was with a bigger Market team or a team more willing to spend money he'd be one of the best GMS in baseball and I don't think that's true I think there's a lot working against him here that he cannot seem to overcome the geog I think I agree with you that he is not I don't think he would go to another place and be the best GM in baseball I do think some of his flaws would be paved over in a way so Andrew fredman was the rais GM longtime rais GM and a guy that's like pretty beloved in analytic circles right a guy that like really made something out of nothing the Rays had a Sho string budget they made the Mariners look like the Yankees and they were peren perennially successful and that culture Still Remains in that front office in Tampa Bay and uh Andrew fredman went to Los Angeles the biggest payroll in the league and he's not out there finding he's not searching out Jorge palanos and you know Mitch gar he's he's taking what's available to him which is all of a sudden you know an empty or a blank check but he gets he also gets the he also gets the luxury that that uh uh Jerry depoto does not get to go let's take a risk on teoscar Hernandez and that move doesn't Define their off season do you know what I mean like the teoscar acquisition last year yeah much like the Randy or Rosara trade this this trade deadline it defines the season essentially for people and and it's that is not the case in Los Angeles so I guess what I would say the reason I'm not pessimistic about him staying is because it's not really that I think he's good but I do think there are worse candidates out there and I don't trust this front office to not go out and fall in love with some old school [ __ ] Pat gillick type that is just a dinosaur and extinct for a reason in modern major league baseball I think you know another problem that the that depoto has the ownership has I think what you're kind of talking about with the Dodgers and moves that define an entire offseason for the Mariners they get really sensitive it seems like about failed Investments um they don't do well with failed Investments when when an investment fails most teams in sports not just Major League Baseball but in sports across the board they just just cut their losses you know they eat the cost they they release a player and they move on the Mariners seem to have a lot of trouble with that you know if they sign somebody they're going to let them take up a roster spot and kind of pollute the clubhouse for as long as it takes uh to get what they feel is return on their investment even if it's you know Mitch Garver this year is a good example although it's kind of unfair because it's his first season who knows if he'll turn it around next year sure but that's a guy that I think most orgs would have shipped out and just been like hey we owe this guy 12 million next year but you know we can afford to lose 12 million if it means our baseball team is better now and in the future Mariners don't do that man I mean when they sign a guy I mean you're gonna like they'll have you scrubbing the floor as if it means getting money on what they've invested in you and it's just silly in some ways that they cannot you know that they cannot cope with failing and it's it's funny to me because like the the primary owners the guys that we see and granted it's a whole big group that owns the manners but you know John Stanton and Chris Larson they're guys that you know I guess their telecommunications is where they made their fortune and and in a way that kind of Rivals Tech in a way you know I guess it is Tech to some degree kind of the early stages of yeah but tech companies usually always believe in like failing fast if you fail just cut bait and move on and that's kind of the the mentality with private companies like that but the Mariners being run by guys like that they don't do that at all they never fast they I would say that's actually the thing that makes the those companies the communications companies different is I think they're almost like a public utility versus a tech company and I don't think they're accustomed to failing fast well yeah it's interesting you bring that up because that that's actually a really good segue to my next issue with the Mariners as a whole is that hold on let's I want to take a couple of these chats cuz so our pal Bob Springer said will they spend any money and that's yeah I mean this is like why I don't necessarily feel good or bad or optimistic or pessimistic I don't feel pessimistic because I don't know that it matters and I do think that if you're going to if you're going to punt the next couple off seasons and not spend money which it's not clear the Mariners aren't going to do that obviously they cut payroll uh this offseason and if they continue to go down that road I think like I do think Jerry depoto is doing a pretty good job of building the farm system and if that's if you if you're just going to have if you're just going to focus on that I guess he's fine for that I don't think the answer is obvious whether they will or will not spend any money and I think that a lot has to change to make it so that they certainly will which would be like something figured out with the RSN and I I you know I think they're willing to spend money but I I don't think anyone wants their money you know that that's what it comes down to like why in the world if you're a player of any repute would you would you want to come to Seattle and I think that's that's the problem with retaining and continuing this depoto regime is is that it's now at this point it's more of a cultural issue right so you think do you do you think to depoto let me I'm going to put one more up here before we this is our uh Boer says don't forget about the Robbie Ray signing which I can't remember what the exact context was where he said that I will say that's a situation where the Mariners allow Jerry depoto to spend some money and obviously the the Robbie Ray signing doesn't go as well as you want but overall like pitching staff is still good and a good example of like you can move on from that guy I they didn't they traded him for yeah they moved on to an almost worse contract certainly certainly but but uh yeah do do you think that the there are players that are specifically not because I I understand there's like a a thing with the Mariners where you come here as a hitter especially and it's like career death like you're just going into a place where you're not going to hit well almost no matter what you do and so you probably if you're going to sign with the Mariners it's probably going to be because they're giving you the most money and it's like the last contract you're ever going to have because I mean one thing I will say that should make the the Mariners appealing to professional athletes or to Seattle appealing to professional athletes that I don't think we get enough credit for there's no state tax in Washington they always bring that up about Texas they bring it up about Florida there's no state income tax in in Washington so we actually have a fiscal advantage and I agree with you that for whatever reason players don't want to come here but my my impression has always been that it's the death of their career not because Jerry depoto is offputting I think it's a it's a lot of things I mean you have the geography of where Seattle is you're going to travel a ton most ball players don't live anywhere near here right they live close to the spring training facilities so they live close to Arizona they live close to Florida that's where a lot of them are from um frankly you have the political landscape I mean regardless of where you and I or anybody listening to this Falls a lot of players tend to lean conservative a lot of baseball players tend to leave conservative and we know that the perception of Seattle is not that you have that working against you you have like you said the performance issues hitters can't come here and seem to hit the ball in our ballpark for whatever reason and then on top of that like what about coming here right now I'm not saying in the past but like right now what about coming here would be appealing if you're a fan ask yourself that question like what would be appealing as a hitter about signing with the Seattle Mariners unless they are grossly overpaying you you're coming to a franchise that's been a perennial Los who the their ownership group has a bad reputation around baseball their front office has a bad reputation around baseball their hitters have a bad reputation around there's nothing about like this is if you were if you personally were looking for a job and the company you were interviewing with had all the black marks against it that the Mariners have right now you wouldn't want to work for them unless they made it worth your while financially that's the only way you'd want to do it and so there's no reason to want to come here if you're a h hit and that's where it's like we always say oh they don't want to the the ownership doesn't want to spend money I think they're willing to spend the money I think finding guys who actually want to come here that's where you need a GM that can go identify the talent that you can bring in that will pop here because the guys who are established the established stars are not coming here they have the right to refuse an offer here but you know I guess what Jerry has done right in some sense is he's realized hey to Pete we have to make trades for a lot of these guys that we think could pop his issue is that all the guys he's identified that could pop never do right so he's bad at identifying talent for the major league level I agree with you he's great at finding prospects drafting um he's certainly great at developing pitching we don't really know the jury's still out on whether this regime can develop hitters um but every time they've tried to identify Major League talent and go out and get it that's where they've really struggled and that's where it's like you need to find a GM like this is where Pat a guy like Pat Gill going back to him for a second he was really good at this he was really good at identifying Major League caliber Talent not taking the risk on a lottery ticket some 18-year-old who might develop five years down the road into a everyday player but going out and looking at another team's roster and saying okay these are guys that we can actually win with you know we can win with Brett Boone we can win with Aaron cely guys like that that they brought in that NE weren't necessarily the biggest names on the market when they aced guys that we've talked about a fair amount at the beginning of this podcast like Mark McLemore Stan Javier Mike Cameron's another one like Mike Cameron's a great example yeah yeah like that's where Jerry doesn't find those guys Jerry can't seem to find you know Abraham Toro he was a major league he was a guy who's in the majors at the time of his acquisition from Houston or at least had Major League service he can't prove to be a player it's funny that the manor just got done with the ser with the a cuz going into the series with the a you know they dro the first two and then they end up splitting the series they Salvage a split the perception of the a is that they're God awful that they're one of the worst teams in baseball but if you followed their team at all the last like basically since the All-Star break they've really been hitting the [ __ ] out of the ball like in some ways if you took what the A's have from an offensive side and the maners have from a pitching side and put it together you'd have like a dominant team right now sure and the A's are kind of built around a lot of the guys that like are too types like guy players he would go out and identify except their guys actually pop you know they went out and acquired JJ blet who was a first round draft pick of the Marlins a few years back and he had a slow start it took him a couple years in the majors to get going but now he's really starting to hit they went out and acquired Brent Rooker who'd been basically cut by a couple teams and was kind of like a mitch hanar type like a fringe player now he's going to be a guy that's he's probably GNA have close to 40 home runs this year and he's had two good seasons in a row and seemingly you know could continue this for years to come Lawrence Phil or Lawrence Butler Lawrence Phillips Lawrence Butler is another guy that you know again kind of had a slow start but was one of those guys that they've kind of developed and popped at the the big league level Shay langers their catcher they acquired from Atlanta I mean these are all guys that like like what the A's have done with their hitters is like Depot's wet dream they've gone out and brought all these guys in that were maybe a little bit undervalued by their ORS and I get it like guys like langers and bl were still really big prospects with their original teams but Rooker certainly is a great example of a guy that was undervalued by multiple clubs and would be like The Perennial Jerry depoto acquisition so why can't depoto identify and find those guys he's had 10 years to do it he hasn't been able to do it and that's where it's like that's the cycle that's going to continue to repeat itself in the next few years barring a miracle yeah I I I I guess it's kind of like do you you value that when it works and you don't value it when it doesn't work I'm not like as turned off by that strategy um but I do think I do think that something has to be done and it's out of his control to a degree to make this a less imposing offensive environment right like the the T-Mobile Park is the hardest ballpark to hit in by Park factors like there's no doubt about it it's the hardest Park to hit in uh and it's not home runs by the way like home runs moving the fences in would do something home runs they still hit they're like 5% below League average home runs in T-Mobile Park but it's strikeouts are way higher and and all these things are way all these other things doubles and triples it's way harder to hit in T-Mobile Park and a lot of that is probably attributable to the hit the batter's eye whatever the the teoscar Hernandez complaint is about the mound which is I've never even heard of anyone saying that a mound was crooked by the way like that's crazy the batter box yeah they say the Batters box is CR batter I think it's it's the uh the is crooked because the because the batter box is something that gets drawn on every day it's it's the optical illusion of that batter's eye being I think that's what it is you know a lot of places Houston's a good example of this they have that batter's eye behind center field that's just straight lined up with home plate just kind of a rectangular wall green wall and um the Mariners have that angled batter's eye and I think that angled batter's eye I think is maybe what what gives them this belief that uh everything's crooked it also doesn't even matter it doesn't even matter if it is or is not true or if it's rational or not rational people feel it people are feeling it players are feeling it it's perception more than anything yeah and even even if it's even if it's true or not true every player every offensive player that comes to Seattle plays worse in Seattle than he did elsewhere I mean hanar being the exception but like it's there are many examples over the last couple decades of players just absolutely losing everything they had somewhere else when they come to seatt I mean the the for the Mariners that it's an easy cop out but like this team this iteration of the Mariners doesn't hit on the road either so it's like uh I don't think that's I mean they don't they're not they don't really hit on the road they might be a little better but it's not they were about a pretty close to a League average team on the road when I uh when we did the calcul I mean there's a there's a lot of things like that at play I think Beyond just the perception of you know being a hitter's demise here in Seattle I mean they have a the Mariners have a perception problem when it comes to their front office when it comes to you know like we said the culture of their team things like that you know depoto if he never had said a word to fans he probably wouldn't be as loathed as he is you like every time he he talks and this is where like you know he says a lot of the wrong things he puts his foot in his mouth a lot obviously the 54% thing will always be his legacy at this point but beyond that it's like they they do this thing where when things are going well depoto the owners they do a lot of talking in in the media and when things are going bad they just disappear like there's not a lot of accountability and that's not that's not an image that you want to portray like you don't want to be the the the guys that are out there when it's good and disappear when it's bad that you know that seems cowardly you know away and and on top of that when things are going well or even when they're just kind of going average and these guys are out there talking they often do it in a patronizing manner you know we know that they they don't they they seem to think they're the smartest guys in the room in some ways they talk down to fans and they're just frankly not honest with the fan base and I think that rubs people the wrong way a lot like you know the the money situation we always have questions about I firmly still believe that like they are willing to spend money and I think they're just not great at getting people to take their money um but I also agree that they they could do better I mean they they certainly could especially now lately last couple years with the RSN issue I mean I think that really has handicapped them a little bit so I want to go back to the money thing real quick and I don't want to belabor this too much but I do think it's I think your opinion on this is different from most people so I want to dig into it a little bit which is do you think that depoto has a budget but the budget is contingent on like you could spend the money but it has to be on this class of player that we've predefined or do so so if he cuz I don't think if he gets a I don't think any GM in baseball who's not part of the ownership Group which is all of them at this point I think I think maybe Billy Bean uh has some stake in the in the A's but I don't even know what the status of that situation is actually they they got a lot of turmoil going on in in the ownership situation follow the a yeah but uh but uh I don't think think any GM in the league is incentivized to just save money for the sake of it or or like getting guys to take it fine there's like there are guys that are still out like literally Brandon Belt is available right now like I've I've talked about him on and maybe he's not he doesn't want to play baseball like there are guys who are signing oneyear contracts that you could sign to probably two or threee contracts if you're the Mariners yeah I mean I guess if people are that averse to coming to Seattle then I mean just burn the whole thing down and start like send them away because it's like I don't I I don't that is like not really I don't think it's real I don't think there's enough Major League Baseball jobs and if you're a GM and you're on a budget that's $150 million say or whatever they whatever it is and you have $30 million to spend and it's not like I I do know some teams run like multi-year budgets which they should like that that's a smart way to do things and to carry some of that budget into the next year when you really want to push makes sense to me but if that's the case that doesn't seem like What's Happening Here it seems like every year they have about the same budget and every year they they struggle or choose not to bring in talent and to and like the budget stays the same I don't I don't think I think there's plenty of guys who are taking low salaries that the Mariners could maybe get a one or two win guy that I I I think that what you're saying is interesting when it comes to stars and I I suspect you're probably right well I think I think you know there's been the quotes about it and you know divish was writing before from some of the players and and some of the front office Personnel about how Jerry likes the fantasy baseball aspect of it and I think that's accurate I mean I think I think there's a reality to that where like Jerry want is more concerned about finding a guy that he can say I discovered that guy than he is about just taking what's given to him taking the and and and like we've all been in like we've probably all been in fantasy Leagues with the guy who is infatuated with the hyped prospects and won't draft The Proven veteran who you know is going to win your games because he gets so enamored with the high prospects we all know those guys if you've been in any fantasy league whether it's football baseball whatever there's always one guy there's always one guy like that and so I guess that's like the the example I would give sorry I I interrupted you very rudely this with uh Blake Snell wanted to come here and I understand he's a pitcher they think they don't need pitching yeah I don't think they yeah I think that one just didn't make a lot of sense I I think it's like you know you just dumped Robbie Ray who is effectively contractually going to be like what Blake Snell is it just the payroll thing you could trade one of your young pitchers for good hitting Talent yeah I I agree with you it's like if you wanted to do the work to bring in a free agent like blak Snell who you know presumably want it Billy recently oh I hate to laugh at somebody's death but that's the other there's two Billy beans it's the other one um yeah I mean yeah you're right I mean you could bring in a free agent pi pitcher like that and then you could trade one of your young pitchers for a really good hitter but and this is where I think it gets back to the fantasy baseball aspect with Jerry Jerry I think Jerry truly believed that Jorge palano and Mitch Garver were going to be like the things that galvanized this lineup you know that they were truly missing I think he believed I think he truly believed that getting rid of Gino Suarez was going to help this lineup I mean people are like oh they got salary dump salary salary dump and it is yes getting rid of Suarez to some degree was a salary dump but I I also think that there was some belief I think that's why I think you have you cannot look past the alignment of depoto and the owners at this point it's not like they're keeping him around because they don't like him or don't believe in the job he's doing sure at this point he might as well be part of the ownership group I know he's not but like there's so do you know he's not though do you know he's not it's possible I mean it's a group yeah he could he could have potentially bought in and I think I was going to make this point earlier something you said triggered me to it but you know the way the Mariners run their business because they have a group of individuals that own this team together that makes it tough I think and I'm not trying to like give them an excuse I just think it makes their business difficult to run because you have so many cooks in the kitchen sure with other teams you have like you know even if you look at a smaller Market team like the Royals that's family-owned they're still familyowned so making decisions is usually gonna like it's there's going to be alignment on the decisions that are made with a family-owned organization or if you look at organizations like um you know where where you have one owner who really kind of runs the show right you know look at football Jerry Jones you look at basketball Mark cubin when you have One Singular owner you know Paul Allen with the SE Mark cubin is no longer really an example of that right like he's just sold off a whole bunch of yeah the yeah the Mark Cuban type owner the the type of owner that we all know is like the face of the franchise and is the sole person making decisions whether they're good or bad at their job again it makes it easier to make decisions because it's just one voice it's a thing that we we underrated about Paul Allen when he was here is like how much he was devoted to the Seahawks being right a a marquee franchise in the NFL yeah and with the Mariners it's so many people I mean people forget that Ken Griffey Jr is an owner of the Mariners you know he's part of that ownership group I have I have a poster coming with his face on I'm taking it down I can't have one of it's like the if you think about the type of person that John Stanton is and the type of person that Kang griffy Jr is they're probably going to be far apart on a lot of baseball decisions and so it's like this is what the Mariners are working with and I think that's what makes it tough and that's why it's like you know on top of everything else whether you just think like John Stanton and Chris Larsson who are you know the primary figures in the ownership group are just terrible human beings and that's why you want them to sell you could just make the argument strictly that if they had a singular voice running the team it would be much easier to operate I mean even when you go back to when they were owned by Nintendo they were owned by this conglomerate which was Nintendo but Nintendo basically deputized Howard Lincoln to be the singular voice that weighed in from an ownership perspective on decisions the Mariners at this point I would say that person might be Jerry depoto I know he's not part of the ownership group but it's like I think he has more autonomy than we are led to believe well that's certainly true because he kept his job because I think a lot of people assumed he would lose his job and he did not keep his job is the reason do you think the reason that uh Dan Wilson became the manager is because he also has a small ownership stake and uh they're running it like a food co-op like he has to do his some amount of hours that year to to keep his ownership stake I mean I know Dan has like really close ties with a lot of people that are high up with the Mariners in the ownership group I mean Dan's like the nicest guy in the world so of course every gets along with him and he's worked as an instructor for the organization for years you know basically since he got done playing so I think I hope it was obvious that I was joking yeah no I know but it's like it's one of those things where it's like you know I do think hiring him was pretty embarrassing but I don't I also don't know what you do mid-season if you're going to get rid of someone and I also like I said I don't think it's obvious that he's better than Scott Service uh I don't think it's obvious that he's worse he could be and I don't think we're going to know by the end of this year and so next year you go in with almost more questions cuz I think probably will be the manager in 2025 is what it seems like based on all their signaling and the fact that Jerry depoto is sticking around oh for sure yeah he's for sure coming back unless he chose to step away I mean they they never gave him an interim tag and uh you know his boss is still here so I mean there's no reason to think he wouldn't be right can we move on from the Mariners for a a brief period of time sure yeah we can do that if you want cuz I'd like to talk about a thing that uh we don't spend a lot of time on the huskys on this podcast obviously around the Championship run we did it's become pretty Mariners focused especially during baseball season uh I wanted to talk to you about the huskys game against Weber State which I caught the last the second half I literally like not even the second half I caught I didn't see a single Will Rogers throw live that's when I I we had a birthday party to go neither did anybody with Comcast um I I will say like these kinds of games these FCS opponents and these these like much weaker obviously much weaker opponents are uh you almost it's almost impossible to learn anything good about your team because they're going to beat they're they were going to beat Weber State no matter what like if they beat him 35 to 28 you'd feel a lot worse right but it's like they were going to beat Weber State most likely uh what is it do they have Eastern Michigan next week Eastern Michigan yeah Eastern Michigan I don't think you're going to learn a ton from that game either you learn a little more than Weber State and then you know I'll be curious the Apple Cup's always interesting obviously a lot of animosity coming from uh the Washington State side at least the fan base I don't know if the players are as as tuned into that I'm sure they will be asked a bunch of questions about it I'm sure it sucks for them that they some some of them probably thought it was pretty awesome to be one of the power conference to be playing one of the power conferences and now they're playing in a conference of two and it's it's a worse situation for them and that game is going to be a coin flip I have a feeling and it's not really going to teach you a lot about the Huskies either I will say if you can only learn bad things about this team it was pretty concerning to me to be scoreless after a quarter to be only up 14 nothing and half uh and at different points like they were getting run on pretty pretty uh consistently by Weaver State and I I understand it's like you know it's week one entirely new coaching staff entirely you know what they keep saying like 21 new starters or something like that and I don't know I think that like there's still guys that are starting that like maybe weren't nominally starters last year but they were playing the majority or the plurality of snaps so it's not like there's no continuity from last year to this year but it's a big undertaking what's happening watching that game or at least consuming that game in whatever form you did do you feel I I feel like I feel less good about this team than I did before and I I probably had him at like an eight or nine win team optimistically and now I'm like maybe the concerns that other people have are a little more founded than I thought I think they're probably like an eight- win team and I think that's pretty good considering all the turnover that they had I mean I don't think they're not going to you know what last year was the championship run I mean that's once in a generation for this program feels like so it's like you know you're probably not going to repeat that with all the turnover you've had the interesting thing about uh Will Rogers you know when we saw Michael pennock's first game the bar was really low the bar was they're coming off the whole Jimmy Lake debacle they've had a run of pretty like average to below average quarterbacks leading into penic and you just you knew penx was kind of a retrat right I mean penx had been around college football for a while he'd had some injuries he Depo would love him yes exactly it was like the type of baseball player Jerry depoto would want to go get but you just didn't know what you were G to get with this guy and then the first time you saw him play I mean I remember again it's one of those games where you're not going to learn a whole lot it's against you know those early season games against a bunch of cupcakes but you watch pennic throw the ball and you're like this guy is a special quarterback like just the way he throws some of these passes he's doing to a bad opponent what you should do to a bad opponent just absolutely carving them up Will Rogers did not do that Will Rogers did not he did not send the same messages that uh Michael penck sent when we first saw him play Will Rogers looked like your classic game manager quarterback um which by all accounts you know coming out of Mississippi State that's kind of what he is you know he kind he was coached by Mike Lee so obviously in the air ra when leech was there he's putting up some real numbers because that offense is designed to do that um you know he takes a little bit of a step back last year now he comes here with you know some really good Career College numbers but what does that even mean anymore you know when when a college player has been around for a full four plus years I mean it's just not those numbers don't mean a whole lot so watching and play I mean arm strength was okay accuracy of passes was okay but they weren't even like really and maybe this was game plan you know maybe this is just like Hey we're going to go real vanilla this game we don't want to expose anything to the opponents we care more about let's just win this game and get out we don't care if we run it up we're not trying to make a statement against some school that doesn't really matter right and that might be the exact same game plan for Eastern Michigan coming up this week but um yeah it's it's interesting because it watching the second half of that game or the fourth quarter specifically they bring in freshman deman Williams at quarterback to to get some PT and my initial thought watching him play was this guy is going to overtake Will Rogers at some point this season because he looks special to me he looked like a guy that's like he brings the added element of being able to move around and run where Rogers is more or less a statue back there and he actually threw a pretty good ball too I mean that's the thing you worry about with all freshman quarterbacks is like you watch a freshman quarterback come in typically in like a fourth quarter of a game they're amped you know they're jacked to be in there it's their first college experience and they're sailing passes right like they're usually just they don't have any touch that's even when Jay clocker was was a quarterback here in his younger days that man had no touch at all he was throwing balls 10 20 yards over receivers Deon Williams looked pretty polished for a Young quarterback and it's one of those things we you know we know Jed fish has done this he did this last year with Arizona where he had no problem replacing an incumbent with a younger quarterback so that's you said I had the the absolute inverse I think Rogers look like a world beater don't get me wrong I I did I do think like based on what I knew about him I saw him make some throws to the sideline that I thought were like pretty difficult throws that were impressive and maybe a little bit stronger arm than I expected but that's coming from you know that's me not expecting a guy with a great arm this is me expecting a guy who's like in the and and this guy's a college Legend but like a Chase Daniel or a that was that the Texas Tech there's a couple Case Keenum I think was one of these guys that were like you know accurate in the system but but uh weak armed he was better than I thought he was going to be and Deon Williams I thought like I mean you obviously you see him get on the field and you see him move around behind the line of scrimmage and you're like this guy has a special level of athleticism to go along with being uh a good quarterback but I did I actually thought I saw like a guy who looked like he was not ready to be the starter and and and so that might not be different from what you're saying cuz I don't know that you're saying he's like better today but I was like he's going to have to get my thought was he's going to have to get a lot better between now and whenever he does take over that starting job if he's going to be consistently productive he threw a ball that I I thought looked like uh I it just made me go like this is a guy that just has not seen this level of competition yet and that's like that is true and and so yeah I'm I'm interested to to see that storyline progress I guess because I my the initial returns to me I know he throws the touchdown pass to Denzel Boston and that was very exciting uh the initial returns to me were like oh this is exactly why this dude is not the starter as a true freshman or is he true he's a true freshman yeah he's a true freshman so it's like I mean yeah I mean you bring in a fifth year senior out of the SEC to be your quarterback he's going to be your quarter I mean why wouldn't you give him the job at least to start it's really his job to lose what I think it's going to be tough when they get into Big 10 play I mean the the line the offensive line is probably going to struggle for this team because their five you know all five guys have basically turned over they got some guys they've got some you know quote unquote veteran guys on that line that they brought in through the portal but they're like Mitch Garver and H Banco you know it's like these are guys because they fill out a roster spot but it's not like the guys you'd rather count on somebody else you know no offense to them but it's like there are probably better offensive linemen out there um and I think you know for a guy like Rogers who's used to just kind of standing in the pocket when they face some real competition in the trenches that could be tough that could and maybe maybe I'm wrong maybe that line will gel and uh or or Rogers will prove to be very uh squirly back there and that won't be an issue at all but I think you know the interesting thing to me I guess the real positive that I saw is that Jonah Coleman the tailback looked amazing I mean he was incredible he was everything as advertised coming out of Arizona and more and uh he did so behind a line that's kind of like questionable so I mean that obviously makes them look good too which is nice um and you just hope that guy it's like at this point I think the the hopes and dreams of this Washington Huskies season relies like they they lie on the shoulders of Jonah Coleman a running back of all things but that's kind of where they're at you know that's that's the guy that teams are going to game plan around that's the guy that they're going to try to stop um and maybe that's good maybe that's a good thing because maybe that'll open things up for the passing game a little bit more than you'd otherwise expect I thought it was kind of interesting to see for the first time in a couple years I mean maybe maybe I'm trying to think of like maybe since Sark was here like a huge chunk of the offense was under under Center which is like that's even going away in the NFL that used to be a big deal in college that you'd have quarterbacks playing under Center and now it's almost like why because they're going to go play 60 60% or more of their snaps in the NFL potentially out of the shotgun anyway um and that's I think like that that kind of kind of stuff it'll be interesting to see if that sticks when they get into big ton play overall like where did you feel do you have any feelings on like the beginning of the Jed fish era the obviously new I mean it's a whole new coaching staff that do you have any feelings on the coordinators do you have any Ste uh Steve bich still looks insane well the defense was a lot better than I thought I mean I get it it's we you know those those types of games you're like man if they can shut this team out that's more important to me than them scoring 70 you know like sure if they I I feel like when you have those like those buy games where you know these D2 or FCS teams come in and you know you know you're going to Stomp Them yeah putting up 70 on a team like that doesn't do a whole lot for me because you can just choose to not take your foot off the gas if you want to on offense yeah and granted I don't know that that game last week could have gone that way if they wanted to but they didn't have to replace their quarterback in the fourth quarter right things like that their defense was a lot better their defense was a lot better than I expected them to be um you know they were working on a shut out until the very end they go get you know kind of a garbage time score so you know I can live with that I think anyone can live with that it was a field goal attempt in the first half too right there was like a makeable field goal yeah but even I mean like if you're giving up field goals to those teams fine whatever like you know you can live with that in your first game with a new regime if they can do it again like that's another thing like coming up against Eastern Michigan um if you just repeat that process maybe score a few more points great you know that's exactly what you want to see and then you're right getting back to what you what you brought up at the outset here about the apple cup the cougs offense looked amazing and I think the thing is with Oregon State and Washington State this year they're they cannot take their foot off the gas in any game they play you know unfortunately for some of the the weaker opponents that they might face along the way not just early season because you know they're playing in the Mountain West there's some teams in there that they're probably going to manhandle um they can't afford to take their foot off the gas they kind of have to run it up on all these teams because they don't have the benefit of being in a conference that will that will keep them propped up you know they have to be relevant and part of being relevant unfortunately means putting up as many points as you possibly can yeah putting up 50s each week and getting noticed on scoreboards and that's it probably feels a little bad if you're on that team or on those coach coaching staffs but you have to do it I mean you have no other alternative and so when they come in and they face the huskys in the apple cup I mean they're going to be trying to obviously they don't need any added motivation but they certainly have it and that's going to be a real test for the Huskies I mean whether you like poo poo the fact that this is no longer a a power Conference Team you know quote unquote that doesn't matter I mean it never matters in a rivalry game like that and this year they have the added motivation of all these other factors the Huskies are really going to have to play hard in that game and prove that they they belong yeah that that the uh putting up I I kind of hope with the expanded playoff and I know that it doesn't apply to Washington state but I hope we see less of that like having to just demolish opponents with the the hope that that's like the thing that will be the Difference Maker to get you into the playoff I was thinking about that quite a bit like if the huskys in a in a in a previous year and especially a year before the before the four team playoff if the Huskies wanted to be in the National Championship starting the year off unranked is like a death sense you can't you almost can't do it right yeah and now it's like we'll just get in the tournament like the the and and the like the pressure is off I'm like less I do think they probably just should have been given the nod to be ranked frankly like and I understand that's like some old school [ __ ] but like I think they should have gotten the nod they should have got got in a a high 20s or like a like a low 20s spot I mean uh in the in the top 25 I'm a little surprised that they they didn't get the I mean obviously nobody expected them to lose to Weber State and I like I said I didn't think they were particularly impressive so uh it is I'm a little annoyed with that but I'm also less annoyed because there's the path to the playoff that uh that didn't exist before and I do hope we see less of the the like just absolutely pounding the [ __ ] out of your opponents there's one more topic I want to talk about before we get to the Home Run game if you're if you're okay with that y uh you're 3:00 out again today yes okay I also need to find fake out or a real out uh today fake out I hav't I haven't decided yet no I really have okay so CD lamb Brandon iuk both signed big contracts uh I think CD lamb became the high the second highest paid non-quarterback I think is the how they keep they they keep adding qualifiers to it to make it impressive every NFL contract now has so many qualifiers to it it's like yeah if he even sees the end of that contract you know oh certainly I mean I mean it is a four-year deal so the chances are a little bit better Brandon iuk signs I want to say it was like a four-year uh $120 million deal and as a Seahawks fan you this obviously points to DK metf is uh going to be in a situation in what I mean not like two seasons from now uh but potentially the the storyline extends through or in or is going to be in this offseason right this upcoming offseason where him receiving an extension he's probably actually going to have in some ways more leverage than lamb and iuk had because he already got this big deal he can hold out he can wait he can he can be an [ __ ] where maybe auk can't afford to do that he's got to get the money right now uh he's I I would say like are we reaching a point DK macha's going to make more than these guys when he gets his extension that's like I think the reality I think he is considered an elite receiver you don't have to be the best receiver to become the highest paid receiver you just have to be has to be good timing in your career to become the highest paid receiver and barring a terrible 2024 or a horrific injury he's probably going to become the highest paid receiver in the history of football when he gets his next contract have we reached the point where like receivers are like getting paid way too much and they should the the Seahawks should consider and I will say this like Brandon auk did not draw a first round pick offer is the understanding that I have of the situation there was a deal that included I think a second round pick and Amari Cooper so it's like a salary offset but he it wasn't like the the 49ers were turning down multiple first round picks for Brandon auk receivers are not only are they more expensive but they seem to be easier to to acquire like there's good receivers every year should the Seahawks be going into next offseason with the idea that DK maaf is going to be a trade option in the offseason or should they be extending him and I I and I want you to presume that this comes after a DK met cafes productive season something like what he has done earlier in his career yeah it's going to be tough with DK because he hasn't really proven to be like Elite the way like a CD lamb I guess I don't know if iuk would be considered Elite but he's had some good seasons in there I think is actually a pretty good comp to metf in terms of like being in that second tier or third tier of receivers right yeah and I think like man with DK it's tough I think for the Seahawks it'll be tough because you know presumably Tyler lockett's at the end of the line here too so it's not like you know if you choose to let DK walk you're probably losing your top two receivers from the past few seasons right I mean you're losing lock you're losing DK um I think Jackson Smith and jigo is going to take a step forward this year and I think he'll prove to be a valuable commodity it's gonna be very difficult to give you know DK is 26 right now so he's really entering his prime but it's kind of it's probably his last deal at that point and you just never know with DK I mean the thing about DK you don't have to really worry about is that guy takes care of his body we know that he's not one of those guys that you have to worry about you see like guys like uh like Michael Thomas is a good example in New Orleans you know he got older towards the end of his contract and his body just like died on him all of it he just could not keep himself on the field keep himself healthy DK is pretty good about keeping his body in shape so I think you can get some more productive years out of him but obviously with DK you got a lot of other stuff too I mean you see the emotional outbursts I'm curious to see how I think we've talked about this before when the Seahawks first hired Mike McDonald but I'm curious to see how he Vibes with this coaching staff because Pete Carol obviously gives everybody A Very Long Leash you know you have the freedom to be yourself and be as expressive as you want to be in a Pete Caroll coached offense or coached team we don't know what that looks like under Mike McDonald and it might just be one of those things where regardless of how productive he is there might just be a Vibe shift that these guys don't don't see eye to eye which I think could be a real possibility but you know I think every football coach every coaching staff understands that especially with receivers you're often going to get a lot of attitude so that's not it shouldn't be unexpected by any means it's just a matter of how does this guy get along with the rest of his team how does he get along with his coaches and is he productive enough to Warrant the distractions that you're going to have the fact that we've debated in previous Seasons whether or not DK has been productive enough to Warrant the distractions does not bode well for How He he'll fit in with a presumably stricter regime right it doesn't bode well because we were debating this with a coaching staff that couldn't care less what he does and uh it means he's either gonna have to be extra extra productive this year or he's gonna have to be on his best behavior and the same productivity he's had in years past uh so I guess that's what this for him it really is make or break someone's going to pay him you know there's no doubt about that someone's going to pay him because there's always a need for a guy like DK metf especially for how much of a physical freak he is compared to most receivers out there so yeah but I I I think it's if it's more of the same as from what we've seen in the past couple Seasons from DK like you know what you're getting productivity wise you know what you're getting extracurricular wise I wouldn't want to make him one of the highest paid receivers in football with all of that but you know we'll have to see I'm going to tell you about how DK MF takes care of his body this is in an interview with uh Kevin Garnett I think on his podcast or his Showtime show I don't know if you remember this yeah uh he so he said talk about how uh how important nutrition is nutrition's huge this is what Kevin Garnett said and metf said I'm probably the worst person to ask that I'm a candy type person I eat one meal a day drink one coffee and eat three eat like three full bags of candy and in that way I am so much like DK meaf in the way that I take care of my body thank you DK meaf for setting an example of nutrition of course they don't burn 6,000 calories at a football practice every day but thank you DK meaf for really holding it down for us candy eaters out there I appreciate he's got to be I remember back in the day when Lamar WR him said he just ate Candy all the time too and I'm like yeah because you guys are like running like a 10,000 calorie deficit just from the moment you wake up so you can do you can eat all the candy you want and it's not going to come back to bite you it's one of those things that have you ever heard that saying like uh abs are made in the kitchen not the gym have you ever heard that that saying that's like the the only people that's not true for are like Elite athletes at at like not just endurance but like running positions right like basketball like you said and wide receiver you're running just like 40 yard Sprints several times like you run like 60 40 yard Sprints or whatever not all that but you know what I'm saying like it's a lot of running in a lot of high heart rate and uh and high cardio stuff so yeah I I'm kind of I think I'm with you I'm I I think I feel like it's going to take a big change from DK's demeanor to to get back to the the or to to stay in the good graces of this coaching staff um I also think like it's possible Ryan grub maybe is less frustrating of a guy for DK metf to play with because he'll probably be a more of a focal point than he was in past Seahawks offenses and that might offset some of the like the attitude issues I wonder if the if the Seahawks with Pete Carroll had a less restrictive offense if you would have seen a different DK metf not only from a stats perspective I mean he put up great stat this is like the argument I always made when people got people hate Jimmy Graham and they hate the Jimmy Graham era in Seattle this is back when I wrote and it was like this dudee is just going to face a usage rate problem his usage rate in uh in New Orleans he got like 20% of the targets and in Seattle he got like more than 20% of the targets when he and like when he was a Seahawk but the Seahawks threw the ball like 60% as often as New Orleans did the issue wasn't that Jimmy Graham played worse than he did New Orleans it was the Seahawks passed the ball way less they and they and they did throughout the Pete caroler and so I think I think it's possible we see a step forward from DK just because he's not constantly you know operating in in uh or in What In conflict with his uh entire offensive coaching staff all right I well yeah I agree with you to that point with the offense I think the bigger thing for DK is teams around the league know if you want to get it a free 15 yards or get under the Seahawks skin all you got to do is pick on DK because he seemingly SN snaps at opponents every single game and that's the reputation now so they're always teams are always going to be targeting DK you know trying to get him to commit that penalty because you can and if you and you know if you take him out of the game mentally at times it can be tough for him to get back in and that's that's the that's the way that you beat DK metat physically he's going to beat you there's no doubt about that there's nobody on your team that physically is going to be able to keep Pace with DK it's just not going to happen so you have to beat him mentally and that's where he's needed to do some work and that's the frustrating thing about DK because it's like you look at him and you watch him play and you're like man you should be the best receiver in football just based on your physical Acumen and because of the the mental stuff that's where you you're not able to quite get to that potential I think a lot of people seeing you so hopefully he gets there and that contract one thing I will say about DK maaf that I just like he's never become a great route Runner he's never he's still catches most balls like on a it's either like it's like at the it's like a 45 or a right angle of from where he starts it's either directly in front of him the route is directly in front of him and he runs and stops basically or it's something that's Crossing directly in front of the line of scrimmage it's rare that he's running intricate routes and that's fine he's very productive with without that I'm not I'm not trying to say that as a thing in fact this is this is going to end with a compliment which is when he came out and when the the Seahawks drafted him I was worried he would have a David Boston like collapse to his career because David Boston got too big he was like 260 lbs at 62260 roed out of his mind we're talking like no body fat like a like a a DK manaf body that's built by like uh whatever D ball or whatever instead of uh instead of Skittles apparently but uh uh and he I I will say like DK has been on the field he's been healthy and he had he especially has not had like a bunch of joint issues he's had like like uh contact related injuries but not like he's gotten too big for his knees to make Cuts you know what I mean and if he's going to get injured I would rather him obviously not run these like in breing routes that are going to put a lot of strain on his body keep being the guy that's like we don't know basically the the DK metf and this is like a very rudimentary understanding of football but it's like is he going to cut his route off at five yards 15 yards or never and that's what we're guessing every play because he's going to physically dominate every corner in the NFL especially in single coverage and that's you can't teach that right so that yeah I'll be interested to see what he's like the way Mike Evans dominates corners but also he runs 43 or whatever like he's yeah well I mean I think Mike Evans is probably like a decent comp for him you know Mike Evans has aged pretty well yeah in the NFL you know for a guy who you know if you play Fantasy Football he's the guy that everyone's always trying to trade because he keeps getting older but he still produces every year because he's so big he also goes over the middle which DK metf does not really go over the middle in the same way but I I think that's a good like late career maturation that we could see out of DK mchf he could be Mike Evans for sure all right you ready to play the home run game I'm ready you want me to go you want me to say my guy first okay I'll go ahead and give you my guy and we got to get the scores compiled before you quit this podcast and we can Crown a champion once and for all okay I got a guy for you today uh I was surprised to find this guy as of right now is only 42 years old he is retired though we know the rules your rules stipulate they must be retired uh but my guy without saying too much more is Adrien Gonzalez that is interesting that Adrian Gonzalo is only 42 years old that's surprising um it feels like he's been removed from the game for a while right like that's for me I want to say oh man Adrien Gonzalez I know he spends significant time in Los Angeles and Boston I want to say he came up in Los in the Los Angeles system but I feel like that's wrong um God it seems like a guy who must have had a long career but he was like a no I think he came up with Texas did he can you give me that did he come up with Texas he was uh hold on he was drafted I Believe by Texas okay uh no sorry no he was drafted first overall by the Marlins that's all I'll say okay then I think he ends up I don't know that he ever plays a game for the Marlins but he at least not but I think he plays in Texas for a significant amount of time also but a guy that I think has less career home runs than you would expect for a super Prospect first baseman that played in three pretty friendly hitters environments that uh like had a long career too this is not a guy who you think of as like a flame out he's certainly I don't think he's like a Hall of Famer but this is this one is a good one that's like prone for a big Miss because he's forgettable he's for he's forgettable and you're like did was he a like 25 home run a year guy with a somewhat extended but not super long career or was he a 20 guy you know it's like there's a lot yeah this is a great one you're pretty good at picking the guys to to [ __ ] confound me I'll say I'll say this though every time I give you a guy that I think is prone for a big Miss and you do like a shot in the dark that's when you're at your best I don't know yeah I just I got a black out and throw a throw a dart at the wall um I'm gonna say Adrien Gonzalez played like 15 Seasons that seems right he uh came up pretty pretty young never I would I don't think he ever hit 40 home runs in a season and all bet he's got multiple years where he hits less than 20 home runs I'm going to say 20 or 162 game average is probably like 25ish I'd probably go on the underside of 25 like 20 n 25 feels right 16 Seasons at 25 would put him in 400 home runs obviously you're like he's probably not playing full seasons every year but I don't think he had a ton of injuries either maybe he played a little longer than that how long is Adrien Gonzalez did he make it to the pandemic man I'm gonna say Adrien Gonzalez ends his career with 326 home runs you did it again again you were right on a lot of things uh you said 15 years he played 15 years exactly uh I mean the the beginning you know first couple Seasons he does come up with t I didn't want to tell you that because I felt like maybe it would take you down a path where you'd get too much info that's why I gave you who he was draft but he's drafted first overall in 200000 by the Marlins huge Prospect I mean anytime you're number one overall but he doesn't yeah they trade him so he ends up in Texas that's where who is that trade uh hold on I'll pull it up here give me just a second yeah so he ends up in Texas and makes his debut four years after being drafted in 2004 and that was a big trade if I remember correctly so let's see uh yeah so he gets traded by that's not as big of a Trad as I thought it's traded um with Will Smith the pitcher A Min a pitcher I believe not the relever not the catcher yeah h no actually it was a different Will Smith there's been too many will smiths in Major League Baseball none of that William Smith pretty common name in the United States none of them being the Fresh Prince so he gets traded with two other minor Leaguers who never really make it to the Rangers for ugina you remember ugina had a had a period of time where he was thought he was something yeah he that he was traded in 2003 and I do remember like he was kind of Gonzalez was kind of stalling in the Marlin system a little bit trading him even straight across fora seems crazy I get it I mean that's the that's the trade deadline arm the Marlins needed to go win there that was the year that they won the World Series so I mean I guess it paid off but but a closer this is back when team just had no they were like well he's a very good closer so yeah and then I mean he plays his first couple Seasons with the Rangers then gets traded again this time to the Padres I can't believe you forgot the Padres those were his best years that was another big trade so he gets traded with uh Chris Young the pitcher Chris Young marinor Legend and another minor league player uh for a bunch of guys who didn't really do a whole lot in Texas uh a minor league guy that never made it Adam Eaton the pitcher who I believe is from SN homish he's from around here and ainor OTA who was a closer as well or relief pitcher so yeah that again he's involved in some of these bad tra when you look back back on him now you're like God how did they ever give up on this guy for this garbage but people just didn't believe in this man know he's just a dude that looked the part and had all the prospect pedigree and was left-handed like he was everything you want yeah and also was pretty good everywhere he was never like I don't think he ever challenged for an MVP but like was pretty good everywhere he was a slow starter so he gets to San Diego in 2006 and as soon as he gets there his career takes off I mean he his first season there he hits 24 home runs in know six um from 2008 to 2011 he makes four straight All-Star games and then he goes back a fifth time later on as a Dodger in 2015 um you said you thought he never hit 40 home runs he did hit 40 home runs once exactly 40 in 2009 damn with the Padres uh he actually spent a single year the Padres even damn yes yes uh he spends actually that fourth year that fourth consecutive year he makes the All-Star team it's actually with the Red Sox he plays 2011 and 2012 with the Red Sox then he gets sent over to the Dodgers where his his run of good play continues uh for a few more years and then his very last season an abbreviated one 2018 with the Mets and at 36 he's done he's done with baseball so yeah he's he ended up having a he got started so young that you know he ends up playing quite a few years um but yeah it's Phils like almost an abbreviated end but his numbers really faded 2017 2018 he only hits a combined n home runs this is another reason why this one becomes so tough is that he's got these two seasons at the start of his career he hits one home run his first season six home runs his second season and then the two at the end where he hits three and six but in the middle he's so productive it didn't matter you said his 162 game average was around 25 it was 27 I believe your number was 326 he hits 37 home runs damn I'm on a run I'm on a heer this single digit differen that's impressive nine only off by nine good work yeah I'm on quite a heater okay so my guy uh less well known than than Adrien Gonzalez uh I was he's a guy that feels like he should have been a mariner common refrain for this game is that these guys feel like they should have been Mariners and in looking him up I discovered a fun fact about this fella went to grew up in Moses Lake went to Moses Lake High School drafted out of uh Moses Lake High School and the second round uh won Ryan doit that is a really deep cut I was like who what hitters are from Moses Lake I mean I know I now that you say Ryan doen I know that he's from over there but God that is like most people listening probably don't even know who that is or you be Steve Finley a couple while back I st Steve Finley was like a borderline Hall of Famer Ryan dummit is like a borderline major leager Okay so also we had uh we had uh I just was doing the things the what do we have it was Mark mmore versus somebody I put the video Stan I think it was Stan Javier no it wasn't Stan no we talked about Stan Javier on the that home run game I believe I'm obsessed with Mark mclamore and Stan Javier if you can't tell by the way but uh I'll figure out who it was and let you know Ryan do might be a double digit uh but I do remember Ryan doit uh he his last years were with the Pirates he came up as a catcher and then he shifted to the Outfield I don't know if he shifted to the Outfield because vro that's what you gave me [ __ ] Jose vro again vedro was at least an All-Star at some point in his career uh yeah see bober is not on my side Ryan do well Ryan doit is like 10 to 15 years ago so he's kind of in this weird era I feel like the most forgettable players are like a decade they played a decade ago right like you remember the guys that stand out from like 20 30 years ago you always remember those guys and you remember the recent like the very recent guys like an Adrien Gonzalez but the guys from like who retired a decade ago you're like ah I completely forgot they ever existed um do his best years were with the the Pirates and he gets moved to the outfield for whatever reason maybe he was a terrible catcher or maybe he was such a good hitter that he had to go out there I think he might have even made like one All-Star team he might have I don't know for sure but you know the Pirates they always had a weird allar because they they had to have one the Randy win Allstar for the Tampa Bay Rays yeah it's the token Allstar he could have been that guy um but he did not have a very long career and that's why this is like this is going to be a tough um because he had catching experience he probably stuck around a little longer than he should have he's also a left-handed bat so that that helps um man that's probably more than like 99.9% of people know about Ryan DOL ju just right there alone without even putting a guess out there that's probably more than what most people know about Ryan Dolen um I think he ends up playing for like the twins or somebody like that at the end he didn't always stick with the Pirates and he probably bounced around to like another team or two that I don't remember but he wasn't I mean I've play played a lot of fantasy baseball and he was like one of those guys that was barely fantasy relevant too so that makes it even tougher uh he probably only plays like eight or nine Seasons eight let's say eight seasons if that it might not even be that and he probably averages like 15 to 20 home runs a year for eight years with and that's not even including like the first and last seasons where he probably didn't produce so if he had six seasons of 20 home runs a season that would be 120 and that could be that's probably a little on the high end um I'm going to say I don't even think he may I'm gonna say he's double digits I might be wrong about that but I'm gonna say it I'm GNA say he hit 93 home runs okay oh boy I don't like the look of your face uh couple you got I mean you're pretty like pretty pretty uh impressive once again your uh Spectrum Disorder on full display uh the amount of knowledge you had of Ryan doet having not thought about him in I'm sure a decade uh he does start his career with the Pirates the reason he was on my mind is because he is uh I was I've been thinking about Cal Raleigh a lot lately and Ryan doit is was like one of the worst defensive catchers in baseball uh pretty much the whole time he played catcher he was like a first baseman who they would stick behind the plate and you can kind of do that with the modern framing stuff that guys are good at he was a guy that couldn't frame the ball couldn't throw batters out it was just terrible and still played 500 career games as a catcher um you got a couple things I think pretty good is 162 game average on home runs was uh 17 so that's like kind of you know pretty close to your 20 and he played 10 years which is where I think you uh probably the thing you missed on the most and also he played 10 years and in his 10th year he played a 100 games but 166 played appearances so primarily as a pinch hitter um never really played a lot like those he played two years in Minnesota which were the years that I was the most aware of him and he had like pretty good offensive Seasons uh for a catcher he was about a little better than a League average hitter and a switch hitter but like I I think you you were right he was probably a significantly better left-handed hitter like most Switch Hitters are you said 93 home runs yes 104 home runs not bad you lost two to me it was a tough day I gave you a I will say the low the low home run total guys it's hard to throw a big Miss on them you know cuz you're like it is if you missed by 20% what' you miss by 21 home runs or something like that so it's a little it's a little bit easier I think but that's uh that's it uh yeah I think that's the end of the podcast thank you guys everyone everyone's going to go look up Ryan doet now yeah do it I have a by the way I have a clip coming out if you're listening to this Live on YouTube it's scheduled to come out at 3 o'clock right when we end the podcast leading right into this clip of me uh dealing with a British scientist uh Heckler is probably not the right way to put it but 12 minutes of me just basically [ __ ] on the country of England uh that's a Casey mlan ComEd you can find me at that across most social media platforms except Twitter where I am the KC mlan Alex I'm there's my name right there on the screen Alex SSN now it's Bob Springer saying thanks guys thank you Bob we love you we love you all uh and let's play that [ __ ] music I got to get to it hold on hold on hold on [Music] n