Latest / Chuck in the Morning / Chuck in the Morning 7-27 hour 3: Slicing up the blame pie, Camp Battles and MJ's influence.

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Chuck in the Morning 7-27 hour 3: Slicing up the blame pie, Camp Battles and MJ's influence. · Chuck in the Morning

0:06
Speaker 1: Well, great Monday morning to you all.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's football season, It's back. Do you know what we're
0:12
Speaker 2: looking at right now?
0:13
Speaker 1: And when I say we do you know who I'm
0:15
Speaker 1: sitting with. It's the QB one Hugh Mellon, who's with
0:18
Speaker 1: us for our number one, day number one of kjr's
0:22
Speaker 1: training camp coverage here from the beautiful Virginia Mason Athletics
0:26
Speaker 1: Center here in rent and Washington, And we enter our
0:30
Speaker 1: number three. Hugh Mellon, Chuck Powell, Ashley Ryan with you.
0:34
Speaker 1: And before we dive into stuff, let me let you
0:37
Speaker 1: know that bank is our keyword and our bonus bucks
0:41
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars cash giveaway. Enter that at ninety three
0:44
Speaker 1: three KJR dot com for your shot at one thousand
0:48
Speaker 1: dollars in cash bank at ninety three three KJR dot com.
0:53
Speaker 1: So so yes, Seahawks training camp coverage Abe Lucas looks terrific.
0:59
Speaker 1: You know, I asked them that question about who's changed,
1:01
Speaker 1: because you never know, you know, like you show up
1:03
Speaker 1: and Sam Donald's got a big beer gut or something,
1:05
Speaker 1: and Anthony Bradford is down to one seventy five. You know,
1:09
Speaker 1: there could be some alarming things that happened over the
1:12
Speaker 1: all sites.
1:13
Speaker 3: That could be a problem on the Bull Rushes side.
1:17
Speaker 3: Donald doesn't sign.
1:18
Speaker 1: He goes russell O' kung diet, and the next thing
1:20
Speaker 1: you know, he's one sixty five there in the weight room.
1:23
Speaker 1: Everybody's like, who's that? That's our right guard, quicker. I
1:29
Speaker 1: just can't win. That doesn't happen anymore, though, does it?
1:32
Speaker 2: In sports?
1:34
Speaker 1: I mean there was always in spring training you had
1:36
Speaker 1: to worry about the Hayes us Montero types. There was
1:39
Speaker 1: always somebody. But it doesn't really happen anymore that somebody
1:42
Speaker 1: just looks grossly different than what they did the last
1:47
Speaker 1: time you saw them.
1:48
Speaker 3: Not. I mean, it's very conspicuous. There might be one
1:52
Speaker 3: guy who shows up out of shape, but I think
1:56
Speaker 3: that you have to go back to the sixties, you know,
2:00
Speaker 3: when guys were selling insurance and smoking cigarettes all off season, and.
2:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I show up to camp to get in shape. Well,
2:08
Speaker 1: I'll go back to the eighties because the other way.
2:10
Speaker 1: When Brady Anderson shows up and he's forty pounds heavier,
2:14
Speaker 1: all muscle, You're like, wait a minute, oh yeah, yeah,
2:17
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, that ain't creating. Yeah, you're just not
2:24
Speaker 1: protein loading there, what's going on, how'd.
2:26
Speaker 2: You get chicken pox on that little spot on your ass? Oh?
2:32
Speaker 2: The pin pricks? Oh I got it.
2:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, you didn't get that, did you.
2:39
Speaker 2: I can see it just wasn't hitting, was it? That
2:41
Speaker 2: plane did not land for you?
2:46
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think those days are over where somebody's
2:49
Speaker 1: drastically looks different. But I don't think anybody's gonna shed
2:52
Speaker 1: it here if Anthony Bradford lost fifteen.
2:54
Speaker 3: Pounds in the off season, no, yeah, no, Uh might
2:58
Speaker 3: get a little rice smile. Yeah, but a look great,
3:02
Speaker 3: he's a he's a sasquatch of a man. He's you know,
3:05
Speaker 3: he's all a six seven. It looks like he could,
3:08
Speaker 3: uh palm the largest pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. Uh
3:13
Speaker 3: uh and hate that that that's a big you know,
3:15
Speaker 3: not surprisingly. You know, if your business card says NFL
3:18
Speaker 3: offensive tackle, right.
3:21
Speaker 2: Probably probably an abnormally large guy.
3:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, it looks trim looks great.
3:26
Speaker 2: So good to see him.
3:28
Speaker 1: He's always smart, very always a very good interview, and
3:31
Speaker 1: so we appreciated him.
3:33
Speaker 2: Local pride arch Chistop Murphy. Yeah, yeah, I kept the
3:37
Speaker 2: koogs out of the conversation this time. That was deliberately
3:40
Speaker 2: to bother ian. Uh so, uh yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:48
Speaker 3: Reason just just kind of let that, you know, let
3:51
Speaker 3: him put that behind him, you know, right, Yeah, everybody
3:54
Speaker 3: makes me straight. He's trying to he's trying to put
3:57
Speaker 3: that in his past, that the Bosa getting four clifted.
4:00
Speaker 2: He handled that well too, right, I did, am I
4:03
Speaker 2: gonna ask him that you did? You went there? Let
4:07
Speaker 2: me try.
4:10
Speaker 3: He was more he was closer to you. If he
4:11
Speaker 3: was going to swing at somebody, you were more likely
4:13
Speaker 3: to get right. I think it'd probably take a lot
4:16
Speaker 3: for that guy to get angry.
4:19
Speaker 2: But I don't think. I don't want to see it.
4:21
Speaker 2: I do not want to see it.
4:22
Speaker 1: We're going to do our first camp battle a little
4:24
Speaker 1: bit later on this hour. Also a lot of things
4:27
Speaker 1: to discuss here on our first day of training camp coverage.
4:30
Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, there's so much more
4:32
Speaker 1: it's going to be left on the editing room floor
4:34
Speaker 1: that we'll get to.
4:35
Speaker 2: I'm sure as the week goes on.
4:37
Speaker 1: But I got more topics than we have time to
4:40
Speaker 1: discuss it. But I do believe Hugh, it's even though
4:44
Speaker 1: it's training camp day, I mean, it was quite the
4:46
Speaker 1: Mariners weekend there's no question about it. And for dom
4:50
Speaker 1: can Zone to pull that out of the fire on
4:52
Speaker 1: Sunday and that team to win that game, I mean
4:55
Speaker 1: it felt like uh, I mean Bucky used to We
4:58
Speaker 1: always used Bucky's lossry of terms to try to figure out,
5:02
Speaker 1: you know, when you could use that was a big
5:05
Speaker 1: win because baseball players tend to no, that's just a
5:08
Speaker 1: regular win. Uh. That felt like a big win. It
5:12
Speaker 1: might have felt like a needed win at that point,
5:14
Speaker 1: a necessary win, because man, it was feeling awfully bleak
5:19
Speaker 1: Friday the loss, Saturday the loss, and there was very
5:22
Speaker 1: flatlined that Saturday performance. And then to be trailing three
5:26
Speaker 1: to one in the seven, it almost felt like you had.
5:30
Speaker 2: To have that Dom can Zone home run Sunday.
5:33
Speaker 3: Well, if you don't get it, that doesn't mean you
5:35
Speaker 3: couldn't you know, made it happen in the eighth or ninth.
5:38
Speaker 3: But there's two outs in the seventh and uh and
5:41
Speaker 3: and and let's let's say you lose that game and
5:44
Speaker 3: now you've lost three straight. Uh, well it would have
5:48
Speaker 3: been five, have been five straight, but three straight to
5:50
Speaker 3: the Rangers, and now you're going to try and just
5:55
Speaker 3: salvage something. Even if you win tonight you're limping out
5:58
Speaker 3: of there having lost three or four.
6:01
Speaker 2: On a flight to LA to play the Dodgers. Yeah.
6:05
Speaker 3: Like, and all of a sudden, that's just feels like
6:08
Speaker 3: as grim as it can be for July.
6:11
Speaker 1: No doubt, no doubt, big difference. I went into the
6:14
Speaker 1: series kind of expecting, I think anything. Either team was
6:17
Speaker 1: playing good enough to predict anything more than a split,
6:21
Speaker 1: but it was looking like down three with one game
6:24
Speaker 1: to go, and all of a sudden, we were facing
6:27
Speaker 1: on a Monday morning wondering are we really going to
6:30
Speaker 1: get swept in a four game series by the Texas Rangers,
6:33
Speaker 1: who their own beat writer told me last week they
6:35
Speaker 1: are fully expecting the Mariners to pull away from this
6:38
Speaker 1: and are probably gonna sell at the trading deadline. I mean,
6:41
Speaker 1: is that really what we're looking at at this point?
6:44
Speaker 1: And so, I mean another weekend of fire this guy,
6:48
Speaker 1: fire that guy by Mariner fans everywhere, And I just
6:53
Speaker 1: wanted to spend a little bit of time on that
6:55
Speaker 1: because obviously, with my announcement about feeling that Dan Wilson
7:00
Speaker 1: should go a couple of weeks ago, it's ended up
7:03
Speaker 1: being a big topic of conversation at the station and
7:05
Speaker 1: on our show. And I yet, I had a Texter
7:09
Speaker 1: on Friday that just pleaded with me, like, I get
7:14
Speaker 1: your points about Dan. Can we spend more time on
7:17
Speaker 1: the offense though, please, because that's the issue. And I'm like, Okay,
7:21
Speaker 1: you know what, this is a fair, fair criticism of
7:25
Speaker 1: Chuck and the Morning Show right now, because You're right,
7:30
Speaker 1: the bigger problem is not Dan. It has been our
7:35
Speaker 1: offensive production has not been there from a roster that
7:38
Speaker 1: I feel should produce. And so as I'm thinking about
7:43
Speaker 1: it over the weekend, I mean, I still I'm going
7:46
Speaker 1: to be bullish about this. I mean, I still put
7:52
Speaker 1: Jerry down the list of people to blame because I
7:55
Speaker 1: believe in the roster. Why is the roster not producing
7:59
Speaker 1: all offensively when everybody in the baseball world expected it
8:04
Speaker 1: to this year? Well, I think the primary blame does
8:08
Speaker 1: not go on Dan Wilson, even though I've said the
8:11
Speaker 1: things about Dan and I've been pretty hard on him,
8:13
Speaker 1: especially as of late. The problem with the offense, Let's
8:18
Speaker 1: face it, the three best players, it's Cal Rawley, Julio Rodriguez,
8:23
Speaker 1: and Josh Naylor. That's where the blame on this season
8:27
Speaker 1: and the lack of take anybody's three best players, and
8:31
Speaker 1: not only I mean it's one thing to be hurt
8:33
Speaker 1: and not available, it's another thing to perform below what
8:37
Speaker 1: your replacement would. If you were injured and your replacement
8:40
Speaker 1: came in, we would be in a better position of
8:42
Speaker 1: Johnny Parada was catching offensively than what we are with cal.
8:48
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the issue, Hugh, is what team can
8:53
Speaker 1: survive It's three best hitters performing as poorly as our
8:57
Speaker 1: three best hitters have this year. And I'm out smelling
9:00
Speaker 1: like a rose on the other side. And so as
9:03
Speaker 1: I carve up the blame pie, yeah, I'm gonna blame
9:06
Speaker 1: the players first. That group gonna get blamed first for
9:09
Speaker 1: this team's offensive struggles this year. But then I'm gonna
9:12
Speaker 1: go coaches, because you're clearly not getting the most out
9:15
Speaker 1: of the talent. Because we know Cole's got talent, we
9:18
Speaker 1: know Julio's got talent, we know Josh's got talent, and
9:20
Speaker 1: he had I got two guys out of the three
9:22
Speaker 1: that have negative wars on the season, for goodness sake,
9:26
Speaker 1: negative wars on the season. So I'm not I'm gonna
9:30
Speaker 1: be bullish about it. I'm not putting the front office
9:33
Speaker 1: head on the chopping block, because this team should produce,
9:38
Speaker 1: this lineup should produce, this roster should produce. But they
9:42
Speaker 1: are not producing this year. So that is my blame.
9:45
Speaker 1: That is players first, manager or coaches second, front office third.
9:52
Speaker 1: But you can't fire all your players.
9:54
Speaker 2: I mean, should Jerry.
9:56
Speaker 1: Have traded Cal Raley this offseason because he foresaw that
10:00
Speaker 1: Cal was gonna have a terrible year coming off the
10:02
Speaker 1: best individual year in Mariner's history. Could you imagine how
10:06
Speaker 1: angry people would have been if we didn't re sign
10:08
Speaker 1: Josh Naylor. I mean, they have committed to these three
10:12
Speaker 1: guys to be sort of the nucleus of this team,
10:15
Speaker 1: and they've all underperformed, and two of them have grossly underperformed.
10:19
Speaker 1: And so that's my blame. Pie breakdown for you, for
10:23
Speaker 1: better or worse. And so this isn't about like Chuck
10:29
Speaker 1: loves Jerry to Poto.
10:30
Speaker 2: I don't have any personal.
10:33
Speaker 1: Personal feelings towards Jerry Topoto, but I do think he's
10:36
Speaker 1: good at his job, not every aspect, and I think
10:40
Speaker 1: that he is lower on the things to blame this
10:44
Speaker 1: year than players coaches.
10:46
Speaker 2: Then we get to front off. I think that's a
10:48
Speaker 2: fair argument.
10:49
Speaker 3: I do think there's an argument to be made that
10:53
Speaker 3: Depoto deserves a little more criticism than perhaps you're willing
10:58
Speaker 3: to give. And and I think that argument. First of all,
11:03
Speaker 3: you mentioned the three players. Everything is the three primary
11:06
Speaker 3: players that you mentioned. Absolutely, you've got it, there's no
11:13
Speaker 3: excusing them. But let's take like ref Schneyder for example. Yeah,
11:18
Speaker 3: it's we as fans. We the idea that we would say,
11:23
Speaker 3: as even radio analysts or fans that we'd say, well,
11:27
Speaker 3: I liked the move when when it when it's signed,
11:29
Speaker 3: so I can't can't criticize if it didn't work out. No,
11:34
Speaker 3: that is not a fair take, because you and I
11:38
Speaker 3: aren't working ninety hour weeks and paid to make sure
11:42
Speaker 3: that you know how that works. When you bring a
11:44
Speaker 3: guy in, you got to know how he fits in
11:47
Speaker 3: the locker room, his personality, You got to know how
11:50
Speaker 3: he feels about hitting in the marine layer and whether
11:53
Speaker 3: that's gonna get him down and what have you. Like,
11:55
Speaker 3: it's your job to say does that part fit here?
11:59
Speaker 2: And and so some of this.
12:02
Speaker 3: You you look at the team, A couple things that
12:04
Speaker 3: I don't like about how it's constructed. You got the
12:09
Speaker 3: saber metrics that they have a turn call under the
12:12
Speaker 3: heading range runs above average, and it based on the
12:19
Speaker 3: range and the gap of all major league teams is
12:22
Speaker 3: the best is thirty five, the worst is minus twenty four,
12:26
Speaker 3: and the Mariners are the team that's minus twenty four.
12:29
Speaker 3: They are the dead last in terms of defensive range
12:32
Speaker 3: that ain't getting better. Like you can you can say
12:35
Speaker 3: I think you might say I think Col's gonna come
12:38
Speaker 3: out of it. He's not gonna hit one sixty two
12:40
Speaker 3: for the rest of the year, and he's not gonna
12:42
Speaker 3: have well, he's got ten homers now, he's on a
12:44
Speaker 3: pace for what seventeen eighteen home runs. He's you could
12:47
Speaker 3: say he's gonna have over twenty home runs and he's
12:50
Speaker 3: gonna finish at you know, two ten or to twenty.
12:52
Speaker 3: That's not an unreasonable take. But the idea that all
12:56
Speaker 3: of a sudden their range is gonna get better, their
12:58
Speaker 3: range ain't getting better. And the same of the arm.
13:02
Speaker 3: This is not my term. This is the runs above
13:05
Speaker 3: average based on the arm defensive arms. They're twenty first
13:08
Speaker 3: out of thirtieth. That their arms aren't gonna they're not
13:12
Speaker 3: gonna start making throws from deep in the hole at
13:15
Speaker 3: at shortstop or third or what have you. And the
13:18
Speaker 3: arms are gonna you know, Randy as Rose Arena, he
13:21
Speaker 3: ain't gonna freaking throw anybody out on a on a
13:24
Speaker 3: on a tag up all of a sudden because his
13:26
Speaker 3: arm is gonna be caught up.
13:28
Speaker 2: Right. So, so I.
13:29
Speaker 3: Think there's that component Jerry Depoto is is go ahead.
13:34
Speaker 2: There is a little bit.
13:35
Speaker 1: There is a little bit of you can Number one,
13:37
Speaker 1: we did get better at range because we put Emerson
13:39
Speaker 1: at shortstop and got and put.
13:41
Speaker 2: JP balls over the weekend too. He looked like he
13:44
Speaker 2: he the range is better.
13:46
Speaker 1: JP's got the worst range of any shortstop and arguably
13:50
Speaker 1: the history of baseball and does not have a good arm.
13:53
Speaker 1: So that's gotten better. And if you do make a trade,
13:55
Speaker 1: let's say they get a third basement, that's a way
13:57
Speaker 1: to improve that is that is a way to get
13:59
Speaker 1: the range better and the defense better.
14:02
Speaker 3: I I and so, and then I think the best
14:05
Speaker 3: part of Jerry Depoto, like if he were to get fired.
14:08
Speaker 2: And I'm not I'm not saying and by the way.
14:10
Speaker 3: I I agreed with your take on on Dan Wilson
14:14
Speaker 3: for what it's worth. I'm just you know, just just
14:17
Speaker 3: you know, I think there's there was I didn't feel
14:21
Speaker 3: strongly about it. I wasn't like slam dunk. Chuck is right,
14:25
Speaker 3: but Chuck is more. There's more reasons to fire him
14:30
Speaker 3: than than to retain him, in my opinion when you
14:32
Speaker 3: laid out that argument.
14:33
Speaker 2: Okay, So having having.
14:34
Speaker 3: Said that, but I look at Topoto and I say,
14:38
Speaker 3: the guy is brilliant at at identifying right hand starting pitching.
14:44
Speaker 3: If we want to get real granular, that dude is
14:46
Speaker 3: like maybe the best on planet Earth. So there's aspects
14:52
Speaker 3: of them that are phenomenal. I mean, because think think
14:53
Speaker 3: about it.
14:54
Speaker 2: We've let it.
14:55
Speaker 3: You could say we got eight starting freaking pitchers right,
15:00
Speaker 3: and what they're all eighth They're all.
15:02
Speaker 2: Right handed, right, and Anderson's left handed. That's right. I'm sorry,
15:05
Speaker 2: that's right.
15:07
Speaker 3: Ryan Sloan's right hand so so so so you. But
15:13
Speaker 3: then the bullpen compared to all but we're top rand.
15:21
Speaker 1: They're top five statistically, maybe not anymore because we had
15:24
Speaker 1: a bad weekend, but they were top five going into
15:27
Speaker 1: the week.
15:27
Speaker 2: But it seems like the really good.
15:30
Speaker 3: Sometimes it feels like we're only as strong as the
15:33
Speaker 3: weakest length, Like if we've got a seventh inning guy
15:36
Speaker 3: An eighth inning guy, leveraging.
15:38
Speaker 1: And well that gets back to my Dan Wilson argument,
15:40
Speaker 1: because that's he's not using them properly.
15:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I would say teams don't have more than four.
15:48
Speaker 3: But every everything, you could say this, every player, every manager, decision, everything, yeah,
15:54
Speaker 3: can be traced.
15:55
Speaker 2: Back up to Jerry Depoto. Sure, right, and so so I.
16:00
Speaker 3: Think ultimately the guy who's the president of baseball operations
16:05
Speaker 3: pardon me, is in charge of everything that happens on
16:08
Speaker 3: the baseball field, because everybody is it was hired by him,
16:13
Speaker 3: or retained by him, or hired by somebody.
16:16
Speaker 2: Who he hired. Right, So it all paths lead on
16:22
Speaker 2: the ORG chart to Jerry Depoto.
16:24
Speaker 1: But I would also say five straight winning seasons, two
16:27
Speaker 1: playoff appearances in the last three years, and a top
16:33
Speaker 1: ranked farm system for the second time in six seasons.
16:38
Speaker 1: I mean, all of those things also point to Jerry Depoto.
16:42
Speaker 1: I mean, it has been a successful run. It has
16:45
Speaker 1: not been a championship run, but we seem to be
16:50
Speaker 1: at the beginning of what could be ten years of
16:54
Speaker 1: tremendous success. That also traces back to him. But you're right,
16:57
Speaker 1: he's not out of the four years having made the playoffs.
16:59
Speaker 1: He's excused from blame. Right here, I'm not saying that
17:02
Speaker 1: he's excused from blame. And he's Look, he makes dumb
17:06
Speaker 1: statements in press conferences that seem tone deaf to the
17:09
Speaker 1: fan base and its interest. He has had a hard
17:13
Speaker 1: time keeping good club chemistry. He can't find anybody that
17:17
Speaker 1: hits left handed pitching. I mean, there are some weaknesses.
17:22
Speaker 1: I'm just saying in the hierarchy. It is hard for
17:24
Speaker 1: me to say Jerry Toboto should have seen that Josh.
17:27
Speaker 2: Naylor wasn't going to be good. I agree we should
17:30
Speaker 2: have let him go. Those three guys, I.
17:33
Speaker 1: Mean, we've locked those three guys up to be our foundation.
17:37
Speaker 1: It should have been the thing we were least concerned about,
17:40
Speaker 1: and yet it's the biggest reason why we can't score
17:43
Speaker 1: runs consistently.
17:44
Speaker 3: But there's there's still Okay. The team is twenty ninth
17:51
Speaker 3: in the league in a thirty team league in doubles,
17:54
Speaker 3: well they were twenty ninth last year, so they're they're
17:57
Speaker 3: slugging as a team is reliant disproportionately on the home
18:02
Speaker 3: run that can be more impacted by the marine layer
18:07
Speaker 3: in the stadium. You know, So like like they're dependent
18:11
Speaker 3: on the home runs and they.
18:12
Speaker 1: Don't manufacture runs.
18:14
Speaker 2: They never have.
18:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I'm sitting here and watch this beautiful
18:18
Speaker 3: squeeze bunt, you know, I'm like, oh wow, you know,
18:21
Speaker 3: when do we do that?
18:23
Speaker 2: You know, so.
18:25
Speaker 1: Proves something like that there's still value in the bunt.
18:28
Speaker 1: Like we knew he was going to do that. He
18:31
Speaker 1: tried to do it three times in a row, failed
18:33
Speaker 1: the first time, and then he gets it down and
18:35
Speaker 1: there was no defense against it. I mean there was
18:37
Speaker 1: no defense. Again, There's nothing you could have done about it.
18:40
Speaker 1: You had a fast runner at third he got the
18:41
Speaker 1: bunt down, Bizarreto. There's no way you could play your
18:44
Speaker 1: infield in close enough to cut that off. Bizardo got
18:47
Speaker 1: there as fast as he could. I mean, yeah, it's
18:51
Speaker 1: literally exactly.
18:53
Speaker 2: How it's drawn on the whiteboard. Right. It wasn't even
18:55
Speaker 2: a squeeze. It was a safety squeeze.
18:57
Speaker 1: It wasn't even a squeeze squeene.
18:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So I don't know.
19:01
Speaker 3: I feel like there's some holes in the roster. And
19:06
Speaker 3: everybody has some holes. No I understand, but even the
19:09
Speaker 3: Dodgers have some holes. Okay, but but you're you're sitting here.
19:13
Speaker 3: It's a disappointing season, right, how many?
19:17
Speaker 2: How much?
19:17
Speaker 3: Now, when you mentioned those three guys that, then you're
19:22
Speaker 3: probably on the list if I had to. And by
19:24
Speaker 3: the way, I'm I'm I defer to you. You you
19:28
Speaker 3: study baseball far more than me. You're the top guy
19:33
Speaker 3: in this market for baseball. So so I I want
19:37
Speaker 3: to acknowledge that you have a superior knowledge on this.
19:42
Speaker 3: I've been a baseball fan my whole life, but I
19:45
Speaker 3: don't study in the year twenty twenty six, I don't
19:47
Speaker 3: study base lightball like you. So, but I'm sitting I'm
19:51
Speaker 3: riding shotgun. You're you're driving the wheel of this show,
19:55
Speaker 3: and it's my job to push back a little on you. Okay, So,
19:58
Speaker 3: but I did want to I did. I want to
20:00
Speaker 3: acknowledge that that I I respect your knowledge in your opinion.
20:07
Speaker 2: Again, I think you're the premier guy in this freaking
20:09
Speaker 2: market for baseball.
20:10
Speaker 3: But that doesn't mean I'm gonna sit here and just
20:12
Speaker 3: go oh yeah, chuck yah, chuck yatcha. Right, particularly on
20:16
Speaker 3: some areas where I genuinely I would do it just
20:19
Speaker 3: to be you know, just to present a contrarian view.
20:23
Speaker 3: But I also do believe some of the things that
20:26
Speaker 3: I'm saying here, like like I look at the team
20:31
Speaker 3: and you know, you know, it's like, hey, if they're
20:34
Speaker 3: not performing, ultimately, dude, that's on you. You know, we
20:36
Speaker 3: were told that there was gonna be a building process.
20:40
Speaker 3: He did a rare thing on it. I think he
20:42
Speaker 3: was too candid.
20:43
Speaker 2: You know what.
20:43
Speaker 3: It was a twenty eighteen nineteen we're gonna we're gonna
20:46
Speaker 3: step back. Okay, So now when everything should be all gas,
20:50
Speaker 3: no breaks, you made the playoffs two out of four
20:53
Speaker 3: times last year, was seemingly successful. What well, thus far,
20:58
Speaker 3: it's been a not not all out dud, but none
21:02
Speaker 3: of us thought it would be this disappointing. And there
21:04
Speaker 3: are there are aspects of this team sure that he
21:08
Speaker 3: didn't construct.
21:09
Speaker 2: Well, the defense that I just mentioned, which.
21:13
Speaker 1: I pointed out the beginning of the year, that we're
21:15
Speaker 1: not talking enough about how the defense is a concern.
21:18
Speaker 2: I pointed that out the beginning of it. And and
21:20
Speaker 2: does Jerry Depoto have any of that.
21:22
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, but primarily it was JP Crawford and
21:27
Speaker 1: Randy or Rose Arena and those are the holes.
21:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, So what you know, you think, can we just
21:32
Speaker 3: d h Randy. I mean like like they're awful in
21:35
Speaker 3: left field. Yeah right, and so uh uh, let's see
21:41
Speaker 3: what he does with the trading deadline. Can't he had
21:43
Speaker 3: left handed pitching? Can't can't run in the field, can't throw?
21:48
Speaker 3: Uh have you know, have a damn good an incredible
21:52
Speaker 3: starting pitching?
21:53
Speaker 2: Uh? Bevy? You know which which seven of eight are
21:56
Speaker 2: right handers? Uh? You know?
21:58
Speaker 3: Are the bull with brass down right now? There's one
22:02
Speaker 3: or two holes that seem to like it. It's like
22:06
Speaker 3: you're only that the whole chain is can hold up
22:09
Speaker 3: a bridge, but if you have that one link that
22:11
Speaker 3: we're throwing in and you're saying that that's to be
22:13
Speaker 3: put on Dan Wilson, but we're putting in triple A.
22:17
Speaker 2: Everybody's got those here.
22:18
Speaker 1: You can't start You can't start a season with eleven
22:21
Speaker 1: quality relief major League just it's impossible.
22:25
Speaker 2: You can't.
22:26
Speaker 1: And some of them are gonna get hurt and you
22:27
Speaker 1: have to replace them with triple A guys. The Dodgers
22:30
Speaker 1: right now have four triple A guys in their rotation,
22:32
Speaker 1: and that's the premiere organization in sports right now.
22:36
Speaker 3: Well, it just seems like we have such a position
22:39
Speaker 3: of starting pitching, and maybe that's leading to the next
22:43
Speaker 3: you know what they should do. But the holes that
22:46
Speaker 3: they have, that they have such a position of strength
22:51
Speaker 3: with their starting pitching for sure, that they it seems
22:53
Speaker 3: like to make a real legit run this year.
22:56
Speaker 2: And get get out of this.
22:58
Speaker 3: They gotta find something else to help the team and
23:02
Speaker 3: trade it. I don't care if it's one of the
23:04
Speaker 3: young guys or or whomever. It is probably not gonna
23:06
Speaker 3: get much for Castile, So you might have to to,
23:10
Speaker 3: you know, bite the bullet and let a picture that you.
23:14
Speaker 2: Don't want let go.
23:15
Speaker 1: I think they're going to to fill some of the holes.
23:18
Speaker 1: All right, back with the training camp. Our first camp
23:21
Speaker 1: battle of training camp next and you know what, we
23:24
Speaker 1: got to discuss Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
23:27
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kick around those tires a little bit later
23:29
Speaker 1: on here today. The other one though, is camp Battle,
23:32
Speaker 1: and we got Hugh Millan here. That's what's making our
23:36
Speaker 1: training camp coverage special this year. Hugh Millan's been with
23:39
Speaker 1: us since six o'clock this morning and we'll be with
23:43
Speaker 1: us till ten o'clock most days this week.
23:46
Speaker 2: So we're excited about that.
23:47
Speaker 1: And Rivers really I mean, I'm sure there are a
23:50
Speaker 1: lot of little camp battles that are gonna be going on,
23:52
Speaker 1: and everybody's gonna be fighting for playing time and everything else.
23:55
Speaker 1: But let's face it, running back is the camp battle.
23:59
Speaker 1: We might have to do running back every single day
24:02
Speaker 1: when we bring up camp battle, because that is the
24:06
Speaker 1: real battle for playing time, for touches, carries, you name it.
24:11
Speaker 1: And right now it's anybody's guests, who's uh, who's gonna
24:14
Speaker 1: end up winning that sucker?
24:17
Speaker 2: I suppose that's true.
24:19
Speaker 3: I really want to believe that that this is just
24:24
Speaker 3: kind of protocol that they have George Hollane getting so
24:29
Speaker 3: much reps with the one if that's if that's truly
24:34
Speaker 3: the option, I'm very concerned. I think that uh, George,
24:40
Speaker 3: you can say, George Hallani is important to the team,
24:45
Speaker 3: but more as a kind of utility infielder.
24:49
Speaker 2: That it's a hey, why does he have value?
24:52
Speaker 3: Because he can do kickoff returns, he can play, he
24:55
Speaker 3: can cover on teams, he he can he can fill in,
25:00
Speaker 3: you know, he knows a lot, can play a lot
25:01
Speaker 3: of positions. But I think the the phrase, you know,
25:06
Speaker 3: I don't say jack of all trades, he's jack of
25:08
Speaker 3: many trades and master of none, and if he's your
25:11
Speaker 3: starting running back for a super Bowl contending team, I'm sorry,
25:17
Speaker 3: I'm not buying it. I'll follow where the evidence leads,
25:21
Speaker 3: and if I see something that I have not yet seen,
25:24
Speaker 3: then I'll change my analysis about it.
25:27
Speaker 2: But I think it's a problem.
25:29
Speaker 3: And so for me, uh, you know, I'm just I
25:33
Speaker 3: hope that you spent the money on jendarium price and
25:38
Speaker 3: the resources with the first round draft pick. To me,
25:40
Speaker 3: he's got to be the guy he's got he's got,
25:43
Speaker 3: and he's got to be the guy from from the
25:45
Speaker 3: first carry of the first game, or if not the
25:49
Speaker 3: first carry, the second carry, meaning.
25:53
Speaker 2: Might a ceremonial like uh.
25:55
Speaker 3: By the second series, by the second series if he
25:59
Speaker 3: if he's not the dude, then I think it's a
26:02
Speaker 3: problem for the Seahawks. I think Kenneth Walker was demonstrably
26:07
Speaker 3: better than anybody on the roster. The Kansas City Chiefs
26:10
Speaker 3: agree with me, look at the as evidenced by the
26:12
Speaker 3: money they gave to him, and and so yeah, it's
26:17
Speaker 3: a concern. Now, I studied all the tape you can
26:21
Speaker 3: study at Notre Dame. They got a really good offensive line, and.
26:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know.
26:28
Speaker 3: So there's there's some some metrics that say, Okay, his
26:33
Speaker 3: runs above expected what was relatively minimum, So there's a concern.
26:38
Speaker 3: But I think he's he's got to be the most
26:41
Speaker 3: talented guy. Otherwise, in my opinion, you wasted.
26:44
Speaker 2: A first round rouft.
26:45
Speaker 1: He certainly isn't skipping Jim. I'll say that, Judarian Price,
26:50
Speaker 1: he looks fantastic. I mean he has chiseled, there's no
26:54
Speaker 1: question about it. And and I am with you. I
26:57
Speaker 1: don't feel like I want this to be a camp battle.
27:01
Speaker 1: I think he needs to emerge as the number one.
27:04
Speaker 1: But I will say this though, I think they are
27:08
Speaker 1: gonna make him earn it. I think they are gonna
27:09
Speaker 1: work him. And I think watching camp unfold, watching preseason
27:14
Speaker 1: games unfold, that to me is going to be pretty
27:17
Speaker 1: fascinating to see how he might when he might pass Allani.
27:22
Speaker 1: Maybe it's on the first turn of the first lap,
27:24
Speaker 1: we shall see, but just watching him close that distance
27:29
Speaker 1: and earn that trus quick story.
27:31
Speaker 3: So, I was teammates and roommates with Jim mora junior
27:35
Speaker 3: at the University of Washington on College. He just got
27:38
Speaker 3: married a couple of years ago in Sun Valley and
27:42
Speaker 3: he asked me to speak at his wedding. Jimmy and
27:44
Speaker 3: I have been closed for decades, and he tells the
27:46
Speaker 3: story when he was a defensive coordinator for the forty
27:49
Speaker 3: nine ers and Bill Watsh was not the head coach,
27:51
Speaker 3: but he was the president of operations of some sort
27:55
Speaker 3: might have been.
27:55
Speaker 2: I don't think he was a GM, but he's a
27:56
Speaker 2: president anyway.
27:58
Speaker 3: So the forty nine Ers draft aft Andrey Carter, a
28:02
Speaker 3: defensive end out of Cow in the first round. So
28:06
Speaker 3: it's mini camp and jim the defensive coordinator, has Carter running.
28:13
Speaker 2: With the twos. Bill Walsh says, hey, Jim, come, you
28:17
Speaker 2: know mini camp.
28:19
Speaker 3: Jim jogs over to uh to Bill Watsh, he says,
28:22
Speaker 3: he says, why do he got.
28:23
Speaker 2: Carter running with the twos?
28:25
Speaker 3: And Jimmy speaking in a manner that Don James would say,
28:30
Speaker 3: because Jimmy was was following Don James velos, Hey, you know,
28:34
Speaker 3: I just want him to earn it, you know, and
28:36
Speaker 3: and uh, you know, let every let the guy, the
28:39
Speaker 3: veterans know that that he wasn't just handed anything, you know,
28:42
Speaker 3: that type of thing, right, which is exactly what Don
28:44
Speaker 3: James I believe would have done.
28:46
Speaker 2: Had he been in the.
28:47
Speaker 3: NFL and and Walsh looks at me, says, Jim, he's
28:52
Speaker 3: a first round draft pick. He earned it by being
28:56
Speaker 3: a first round draft pick. Put him in with the
28:58
Speaker 3: ones and let him get used to his teammates and
29:03
Speaker 3: being in the number one huddle. Jimmy looks at Bill
29:05
Speaker 3: Walsh as he messed, nods his head and says okay, coach,
29:08
Speaker 3: and just jogs off, and all of a sudden, carters
29:11
Speaker 3: in the ones. So so there's some really good football
29:15
Speaker 3: people that are on either side of this.
29:18
Speaker 1: What did Jim do from that point for when he
29:21
Speaker 1: got to run his own ship? Did he go more
29:23
Speaker 1: Don James? Did he go more? Bill wall I think
29:25
Speaker 1: I think.
29:26
Speaker 2: He did more Bill Walsh.
29:28
Speaker 3: I'd have to give that more thought, like what what
29:31
Speaker 3: did he do with first round draft picks? Because he
29:34
Speaker 3: went on to Atlanta, uh and coached for three years
29:38
Speaker 3: there and uh they went to the NFC Championship game. Yeah,
29:42
Speaker 3: so uh, that's a good question. But but the point
29:47
Speaker 3: is that we don't know exactly where Mike McDonald and
29:51
Speaker 3: the and the offensive brain trust are with this. They
29:55
Speaker 3: may be of the Don James, you know, prior Jim
29:59
Speaker 3: more of my said and and and and I don't
30:01
Speaker 3: want to just tab it that because I'm sure hundreds
30:04
Speaker 3: are like that where they say, hey, let's let him
30:07
Speaker 3: earn it, and then there's the other they're just like, no,
30:09
Speaker 3: let's not let's not fiddle f around, let's stop playing.
30:12
Speaker 2: Foot seas with this process.
30:13
Speaker 3: Let's just he We know he's a first round draft pick,
30:16
Speaker 3: he earned it the uh and and we know he's
30:19
Speaker 3: going to be the guy, so let's not mess around
30:21
Speaker 3: with that.
30:21
Speaker 2: Just put him in there.
30:23
Speaker 1: I agree with that. By the way, I would be
30:25
Speaker 1: a I'd be a Bill Walsh guy on this. That's
30:29
Speaker 1: the way I would do it, for sure. It just
30:32
Speaker 1: depth chart wise, it seems like Halani's at the top
30:36
Speaker 1: of the depth chart, and it kind of feels like
30:39
Speaker 1: that's what how they're going to approach this. Greg just
30:43
Speaker 1: had an article of The News Tribune saying they are
30:46
Speaker 1: working Jadarian price hard already here in the camp process.
30:51
Speaker 1: So I would do it that way. I would be
30:54
Speaker 1: a Bill Walsh guy on this. I think it's kind
30:56
Speaker 1: of silly if you think he's the better running back
30:59
Speaker 1: to wait in any way.
31:01
Speaker 3: Shape as long as we can agree that. One takeaway
31:05
Speaker 3: from this conversation should be that there are really competent
31:09
Speaker 3: coaches that are brilliant and very accomplished that are on
31:15
Speaker 3: both sides of this. There's no there's no like, well,
31:18
Speaker 3: this is how football people do it, because there's enough
31:21
Speaker 3: examples on either side. So so what the Seahawks should do?
31:26
Speaker 3: I don't care what's happening right now, it's too why
31:30
Speaker 3: but on opening day? But it would take a lot
31:34
Speaker 3: of convincing. My eyes would have to really really recalibrate
31:39
Speaker 3: to what George Hallani is. Remember in that second quarter
31:42
Speaker 3: of the NFC Championship game of the little that Well
31:45
Speaker 3: he leaks out on the flat and Darnald hits him,
31:48
Speaker 3: he would have run for he would have run.
31:50
Speaker 2: To Tacoma with that ball and he drops the ball.
31:53
Speaker 3: Now, I'm not saying that that that distinguishes, and I
31:55
Speaker 3: had already made my determination about Halan.
31:59
Speaker 2: I just think that they're just lids on what he
32:01
Speaker 2: can present for you. All right, coming up next?
32:03
Speaker 1: Why is Michael Jordan's name keep coming up at camp already?
32:06
Speaker 1: Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM put our previous conversation, Yes,
32:27
Speaker 1: Greg said that Jadari Press getting a lot of work
32:30
Speaker 1: out here catching the football, getting a lot of reps
32:33
Speaker 1: out here, but it is George Halane that's always getting
32:36
Speaker 1: the first one, and by the end of practice it's
32:39
Speaker 1: pretty much coming out about even between the two of them.
32:42
Speaker 1: Another thing that Greg put in his article from yesterday
32:46
Speaker 1: was a story we mentioned at seven oh five in
32:49
Speaker 1: our conversation with Greg about Mike McDonald channeling the great
32:54
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan to get camp started, and the apparently feeling
32:59
Speaker 1: the necessity to remind his champions Hugh Millen, that Michael
33:04
Speaker 1: Jordan didn't become the great Michael Jordan until he stopped
33:08
Speaker 1: worrying about averaging forty points per game and started focusing
33:13
Speaker 1: on what was best for the team. And that's when
33:16
Speaker 1: he became the greatest basketball player of all time. Your thoughts,
33:22
Speaker 1: your reaction to that.
33:24
Speaker 3: And that's when they brought in the triangle offense too, right,
33:27
Speaker 3: and and he had that, yeah, and so he had
33:32
Speaker 3: to kind of subjugate himself.
33:34
Speaker 2: So I think that.
33:36
Speaker 3: A very central part of all professional sports may seem
33:43
Speaker 3: self evident, but I think it's more profound than it
33:48
Speaker 3: might first appear if you think about it for a minute.
33:52
Speaker 3: And it's this that you got coaches and you got players,
33:58
Speaker 3: and you're trying to tap into the motivation, right uh
34:02
Speaker 3: Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, right, metabolic needs, then
34:05
Speaker 3: safety needs, then relationship needs, then uh self esteem needs,
34:10
Speaker 3: finally self actualization and and what's that that's the the
34:14
Speaker 3: gnawing voice in your head, that that that measures what
34:17
Speaker 3: you're accomplishing versus what your potential is. And you know
34:20
Speaker 3: that's what drives people. So people have given a lot
34:22
Speaker 3: of thought to motivation right in you start as a
34:28
Speaker 3: kid playing youth sports, litle league baseball. You know, my
34:32
Speaker 3: first year playing tackle football is nine years old. You
34:35
Speaker 3: know that that's not atypical, right, And even if you
34:38
Speaker 3: started at ninth grade, which is relatively late, it's something
34:42
Speaker 3: you started when you were playing. You played for the
34:45
Speaker 3: love of the game, as simple as that love your
34:48
Speaker 3: your teammates, the love of the competition, the love of
34:51
Speaker 3: that particular.
34:52
Speaker 2: Sport or what have you.
34:53
Speaker 3: And there but they think think of it like a
34:59
Speaker 3: vend there's always there's the part of the individual satisfaction
35:06
Speaker 3: and then the team satisfaction. And everybody has a blend
35:10
Speaker 3: of that, right, like like, hey, you played little league baseball?
35:15
Speaker 3: Are you happier if you went four for four and
35:18
Speaker 3: your team one, or you happier if you went if
35:21
Speaker 3: you struck out four times into team one, like you're
35:23
Speaker 3: probably you know, the popsicle tastes a little better if
35:28
Speaker 3: you won and you went for for four. Right, So
35:30
Speaker 3: this is right. So this, this blending of your personal
35:35
Speaker 3: motivation and the team motivation is something that that you
35:39
Speaker 3: navigate in team sports that just you just it just
35:42
Speaker 3: is when you get into professional sports. Let's pick a
35:48
Speaker 3: very easy example to explain. The coaches up there, and
35:52
Speaker 3: he's motivating all about the team, the team, the team.
35:58
Speaker 3: What is his personal motivation? His personal motivation to feed
36:04
Speaker 3: his family and for him to get success is if
36:07
Speaker 3: the team wins.
36:08
Speaker 2: That's it.
36:10
Speaker 3: So his personal motivation is aligned with the team. There's
36:16
Speaker 3: no oubea that. It's like a ven diagram that stacks
36:18
Speaker 3: on top of each other, a two ven diagram, A
36:21
Speaker 3: two circle ven diagram just looks like one circle.
36:24
Speaker 2: You got it.
36:25
Speaker 3: The team and the individual from a head coach's perspective
36:29
Speaker 3: are one and the same. Now he's up there motivate,
36:32
Speaker 3: trying to motivate the players. Let's take the punter. If
36:38
Speaker 3: he says, hey, that it's all about the team. You
36:42
Speaker 3: know what, the punter at some point thinks we could
36:45
Speaker 3: win the super Bowl and I could have the lowest
36:49
Speaker 3: net punting average in the NFL. You think I'm coming back. No,
36:56
Speaker 3: I'm freaking gone, even though we won the super Bowl.
37:00
Speaker 2: You see that, See how that plays. You see how
37:03
Speaker 2: the Van diagram is different for him than it is
37:07
Speaker 2: for the coach.
37:09
Speaker 3: So it's easy to see with the punter, but it
37:12
Speaker 3: applies to all the players in all the leagues, in
37:16
Speaker 3: all the sports. There's this this this this blending, like,
37:22
Speaker 3: how do I approach this because you know it is
37:27
Speaker 3: my career. I would you know, whether you have a
37:30
Speaker 3: family or not. I want to make as much money
37:33
Speaker 3: that I can invest, So like like that that shouldn't
37:36
Speaker 3: be hard.
37:36
Speaker 2: That that's not.
37:38
Speaker 3: Some kind of of reprehensible motivation, is it?
37:43
Speaker 2: That it's your profession.
37:45
Speaker 3: But you're playing the sport that you started playing when
37:48
Speaker 3: you were nine, and so you got all these things
37:51
Speaker 3: that you have to navigate, that the team objective and
37:55
Speaker 3: and the personal objective. And when coaches talk about the team,
37:59
Speaker 3: the team, the team, it's really easy for them to
38:02
Speaker 3: say that because they're they feed their family, their personal accolades,
38:07
Speaker 3: they get Coach of the Year, they make the Hall
38:09
Speaker 3: of Fame, they get the yellow jackets exact.
38:11
Speaker 2: All for one thing. What the team does yea and
38:14
Speaker 2: so yeah so uh.
38:16
Speaker 1: In other words, js End's raising his hand and he's saying,
38:19
Speaker 1: you know, Jordan's still average thirty four points a game
38:22
Speaker 1: on those championships.
38:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Lebron has one scoring title, Jordan has ten.
38:30
Speaker 2: Right, you know, I had to get that in there.
38:32
Speaker 2: But uh, but I think that that.
38:39
Speaker 3: For coaches to try and touch on, you know, and
38:42
Speaker 3: motivate to the highest degree, touch the buttons that that uh,
38:47
Speaker 3: that make the players give their best for players, it
38:52
Speaker 3: is it's it's a blend, man, It just is and
38:56
Speaker 3: and and it would be a blend for anybody who
38:58
Speaker 3: who you say, oh, well, I would give my iteth
39:01
Speaker 3: to be a professionally athlete.
39:02
Speaker 2: Of course you would.
39:04
Speaker 3: It's you know, unless you want to be a movie
39:08
Speaker 3: star or rockstar. Like it's on the top three things
39:10
Speaker 3: that anybody would want to be, right. But that whole
39:13
Speaker 3: idea of how how you motivate yourself its team and
39:18
Speaker 3: an individual and it's complicated.
39:21
Speaker 2: Well just like.
39:22
Speaker 1: The show, Like I want everybody to enjoy the show
39:24
Speaker 1: today but I want them to enjoy me more.
39:31
Speaker 3: That is really easy when I'm writing Shotgun with you.
39:35
Speaker 3: Mission accomplished, Hugh Villain with us here in our training
39:38
Speaker 3: camp coverag Joe.
39:39
Speaker 2: We'll continue next.
39:40
Speaker 1: Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM