Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Face Defending Champion Rangers in Texas-Sized Test w/ Gary Hill Jr.

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Mariners broadcaster Gary Hill Jr. joins the show again to help Ty and Colby preview the M's upcoming series against the defending champion Rangers, as well as talk about Seattle's performance over its last 10 games, working alongside the legendary Rick Rizzs, his one year with Dave Niehaus in the booth, and much more.Ask us questions! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonmlb to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Play. Yahoo FinanceFor comprehensive financial news and analysis, visit the brand behind every great investor, YahooFinance.com. PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Mariners kick off a three game set with the defending champion Rangers tonight. Their biggest test so far in this young season. Mariners broadcaster Gary Hill Jr. joins Colby and I to help preview the series of more coming up here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Let's sail. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day.

Ahoy, Sailors. It is Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024. this is Tiding Gonzalez for the Locked-on Airs podcast brought to you by Monopoly Go, the mobile hit twists on Classic Monopoly. Join your friends and download Monopoly Go now free on the app store or Google Play. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube, or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear.

And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider sending up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. show the link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode now let's check in with mariners broadcaster gary hill junior talk about the mayor's upcoming series with the defending champion texas rangers and a whole lot more enjoy joining us from globe life field in arlington texas before the mayor's take on the rangers tonight as mayor's broadcaster and long time friend of the show gary hill jrary what's up thanks for coming on oh it's great to be here

again great to be here from texas beautiful beautiful arlington Texas and like we were talking about before we had record on this you are a ways up there in that ballpark right now yeah we are pretty high this is the third highest spot in baseball i think uh washington is the highest Pittsburgh and i think this is we're essentially at the fifth level so the the only thing that makes it tricky is fly balls there's some fly balls where it's really tough to tell are we looking at a pop up or is it a home second day So there's some of those things going on. So hopefully people cut us some slack sometimes.

What's the best ballpark to call a game from? Ooh. Oh, man. Not including Seattle. Yeah. I mean, so Fenway to me is one of the greatest, partly because it's Fenway Park and the history is amazing. And also we're kind of, the way it was built, old school park,

we're kind of almost over home plate. It's such a unique look because like a team of Barclor right behind home plate and we're kind of pushed back a little bit. The view is phenomenal. The view is great. Fenway is such a unique view for what we're looking at. We're a little off to the side, but kind of looking over our home plate and nothing below us. It's just kind of you and home plate and the batter.

It's a really cool experience. And then, you know, everything else to go on with Fenway makes it amazing. But there are not any. bad spots for us. Like we're high here, but at the end of the day, it's fine. It's not something I'll end up complaining about. You're at the ballpark. Yeah, if I do mess up a call and a fly ball, I will blame the park.

So give me it. Sure. Yeah, yeah. That's always good. That's always good. So actually, it's beneficial. Yeah, that's right. That's what we're looking for.

So you and I met up in Toronto a couple weeks ago, and this was a very different looking ball club than the one we've seen ever since. They've won seven of their last 10. The pitching staff has been sensational. The offense just exploded in two of the three games in Colorado. So what stood out to you about this team lately? You hit it. It's the pitching. The pitching has been phenomenal. There was one point of the season where rotation had basically a bad turn and a half. And it was funny. You looked at it's like, oh, they have the third worst rotation era in baseball. Knowing that there's no way in the world that could possibly last. But it did to me drive home the fact that, you know, this team's backbone is the

starting rotation. And when the rotation struggles, they're going to have a hard time winning games no matter what their offense looks like. And that has turned around. The bullpen has pitched really well, too, especially considering some of the injuries that they've had early on in the season. But the pitching to me has been so good. And when they are pitching like that, they can win every single night. And it does drive home the fact that, hey, when it comes to the offense, you know, this isn't a team that's got to score 10 runs a ballgame, right? If they could put four runs on the board on most nights, they're going to win most nights with the way this pitching is. So I have found this streak to be really encouraging and I'm super excited to see what

this series looks like in Texas. Yeah, this is exactly what Colby and I had talked about over the course of the offseason when talking about this roster build. Look, you only need to score, I mean, Some nights, only three runs we'll do with this pitching staff. But yeah, if you can score four or five consistently every night, you have a really good shot to win a whole lot of ball games. Colby, you got something for Gary? Yeah, I'm just curious. What are your thought?

There have been a couple new pitches added to the Arsenal, some of these guys, most notably Bryce Miller's splitter. Logan Gilbert's cutter, both of them have looked like they've added just a significant gear to both of these guys. So I'm just wondering, you know, what do you think about those pitches? Do you think that we're seeing the kind of the ultimate like growth of these two young arms or do you think there's even more to go get in these two guys? Because what we've seen so far, I mean, legitimate American League pitcher

of the month type of numbers they're both putting up. Yeah, you're right. And if you were to ask me the two biggest storylines or the biggest storylines for the Mariners early on in the season, to me it's Gilbert and Miller and the strides they've taken. And Gilbert, it's been more of the long haul, his growth. You know, it's been the past several years. He's kind of retooled everything in the offseason. And when I watch Gilbert pitch now, he is doing things that he was not able to do when he first came up in the big leagues.

You know, he was 60% fastball, fastball heavy. It was really all relying on the fastball. And when he didn't have that to go to, there would be some struggles. And he was still a good pitcher. Like, what I'm most impressed by with both those guys, is they both could have survived and been good pitchers just the way they were. But they wanted to take it to the next level, right? There's a reason why both of them have done what they've done in the offseason.

And it's been so fun for me to watch the transition that Gilbert has made. Because I look at him now and the cutter is kind of the final touch to what we've seen so far this season. And he looks like a Tsai Young Award contender. I know that's a big statement, but he's pitched like it. And you look at some of his starts individually. And it's like he's leaned on a different pitch in every one of his starts so far, which I find super impressive. I think that is a huge development for the Mariners.

Miller is obviously a massive development for the Mariners. I mean, that was all the conversation in the offseason was the splits were so heavy to one side. You know, he dominated righties last year, which was great. The lefties, the splits were so different. like lefties really got to him. And I felt like if he could just take out a little chunk, he'd be able to take that next step forward. He's done way more than that so far this season.

The splitter has been dynamic. That has been a nasty pitch. So he has been so far. You know, it's early, but he has been way better than I expected so far this season. I was hoping for a little step forward. This is a giant step forward. And it really makes you dream big knowing that,

hey, Kirby and Castillo are going to get locked in. and, you know, expecting Miller and Gilbert to stay at this level is, that's a big ask. But if they can stay near this level and Castillo and Kirby get it locked in and Will comes back. I mean, you're talking about best rotation in baseball. Is that what we're talking about at this point? It could be. Absolutely. I mean, that's what I felt going into the season, especially with Otani not being part of that Dodgers rotation.

and now you know you look at like the Braves rotation they've lost strider i think the the mariners are uh in my opinion pretty clearly that that number one uh rotational baseball right now just as far as the talent goes and now looking at the way that bryce's pitch it i don't think it's no i think it's no longer that they have a big three i think they truly now have a big four in that rotation we still haven't seen what what brian woo has to offer here in his second year uh and uh and uh But we'll probably see that soon here, maybe in the next week or so. So we might have some clarity on this by the time this episode drops.

But Luis Arias had to leave game two of Sunday after getting hit in the hand wrist area. I think the word on that was a contusion. Have you heard anything else about that? Is there anyone at the ballpark just in case they have to make a move? I haven't seen anyone. I haven't heard anything yet. We'll talk to Scott before the game today. So we'll know more.

Yeah. I'm not sure yet. And I know facing a lefty in game three, he probably wouldn't start the first two games of the series anyway. So I think it gives them a day or two to play with in case it's, hey, he's out for a day, but you don't have to IL him, that sort of thing. And they do have depth around that they could fill in at third

in case you needed somebody other than Rojas. So I don't have any insight on that. We'll have to wait and see. But we'll see what happens. I've been pleasantly surprised by the third base situation so far. And I think Rojas in particular has really played well in the next week's, which has been really an exciting development. More from our conversation with Gary Hill Jr. in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Locked-Ommers podcast is brought to you by GameTime and Policy Genius.

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how much you could save. That's PolicyGenius.com slash locked-on MLB. So let's talk a little bit about this series, Gary. This Rangers Ball Club obviously coming off of their first World Series and they won

nine games against the Smarrers Ball Club last year. They swept them a couple times. Obviously, we remember what happened in late September down there at that ballpark that you're at right now. What are your general thoughts going into this one? First of all, I'm just excited to see what this looks like. I'm excited to see the Mariners matched up against the Rangers to see how this plays out. I think the pitching lines up really well for the Mariners. I think you feel great about all three guys pitching in this series. And for me, when I look at the matchup between these two teams because the Rangers are really similar to last year. You know, they're going to bash the

ball. They have question marks when it comes to the bullpen and they have some question marks when it comes to the rotation. But their strength is obviously bashing the ball. And the key for me is the rotation has got to be really good in this series. They've got to get three quality starts in this series if they want to win the series. And, you know, it's, I don't, to me, it's a lot to ask the offense to outslug the Rangers. So, for me, it's up to the rotation to set the table, bullpen finish it off, and the offense do just enough to find a way. But I'm excited to see what this looks like. The first division matchup of the season, and it happens to be against the Rangers. And as you mentioned,

things did not go well for the most part against Texas. So I'm anxious to see what it looks like starting tonight. Yeah, hopefully this can be a little bit of a get back for the Mariners starting tonight. Colby, you got anything for Gary? Yeah, you know, you touched on the offense a little bit there. It's been a, it was a slow start for Julio Rodriguez up until the last a week or so. Still haven't seen the power still, you know, working to lift the ball with some authority. But Julio has been on fire the last five, five, six games. I think, what is it, six multi-hit games in a row now. He's hitting the ball hard. He's getting his numbers up there. All that's really left is the power. So you think Julio's close? You think this might be the series where maybe he gets on the board with the home run.

total, so to speak. It's going to happen. Yeah. It does feel like for me watching it that it's going to happen really soon because I feel like when we see Julio in the stage, when we start to see the big exaelos, and I felt like, I think you go back to Milwaukee, where he really started to put up the triple digits exa Vilos consecutively. So I thought it was coming then.

It didn't, but I feel like it's going to happen now. Because you're right. I mean, he's blistering the ball all over the place. And it feels like whenever we see Julio do that, the last thing to come is the lift. And that's all we're waiting for now is put together the lift with the exit below's. And we know when he gets hot, a few guys gets as hot as he does. This would be a great series, needless to stay, to start putting the home run ball together. Because the Mariners could obviously use some punch.

Because when I think about the slow start of the Mariners, this season, season. What was really stood out to me, it was the lack of punch. Like, there weren't a lot of homers early on, especially at home. And there wasn't a lot of slug early on. And I think this team has that capability. I don't think it's seen me look at, well, well, I mean, look at the lineup. They can't slug. I think this team can slug. I think they can hit homers. They just didn't do it early in the season. Now we've seen more of it lately. When Julio gets into the act, though, with the slug, I think that's it's a game changer for the Mariners I think for the Mariners and this is kind of an obvious statement but for the Mariners to reach their potential obviously reach their potential offensively they didn't do Julio to be Julio yeah the driving force of this whole thing and when it happens it's going to come in droves right like Colby and I talked about this on our show yesterday that you know he didn't even hit his first home run and his rookie season until my birthday May 1st and then he hit 27 that year and that included two while stents as well so like it's going to happen it's just it's a matter of when not not if you know and

he got kind of close there in colorado just you know hit the ball off the end of the bat but it seemed like he he got a pretty good swing on that so it's it's going to happen and uh hopefully it's in the series they can really use them against this uh this rangers ball club uh so any other thoughts on uh on this series boy uh it's kind of big picture it's It's been such an interesting start for the division overall, I think. You know, it's funny when we talked about the slow start for the Mariners. So much of it to me is context, right? It would be such a different feeling if you had a slow start and the Astros were 14 and 4 to start, right?

Yeah. It's such a different dynamic. When you look around, it's like, man, the Astros are struggling. And they actually have a lot of questions, right? Texas, they haven't hit their stride. You know, the angels are struggling. going to the A's, you know, for the A's. But so I've just been thinking about the context of this whole thing.

And now the division is going to start playing at one another. What's that going to look like exactly? Like, I feel like the Mariners are in a really good spot. They have, I think, fewer, is it fair to say they have fewer questions than other teams in their division? Texas would probably argue that. But for me, Houston's got a lot of questions right now. So I look at Meriters in Texas as kind of the front. runners as we sit here right now.

So, yeah. I mean, even with the, the, uh, the brash Santos and, and Wu injuries, they're arguably the most healthy team of anyone in the division.

So from that point. Yeah. And those days are coming back. Like they're, you know, you wonder about Houston. When's Javier going to be back? You know.

Bramber. So yeah. Framber is coming back. They, they just have some longer term questions. And the Mariners, they've filled in their missing guys pretty well.

Like, you'd love to have Brash and Santos, obviously, but I give a lot of credit to some of the Bolton, some other guys who've stepped up and pitched well. Yeah, Ryan Stanick, of course, he's taken over a lot of those high leverage duties, and he's been pretty good so far to start this year. So, yeah, and

once you, it's really exciting to think about what this bullpen can look like once it is at full strength. I mean, this could be a very, very dangerous bullpen moving forward. And when you pair that with this rotation, I mean, you know, again, goes back to like you might only have to score two or three some nights to win ball games this year yeah if you get this bullpen all healthy at the same time just just pure stuff wise

it's ridiculous like it's sick when it all comes together because then you're talking about stanick who's been a high leverage guy we're talking what sixth inning yeah right i mean that's that's what we're saying and it would give i think scott a lot of lot of options to, you know, if Santos is down for a day, you still got three guys to close it. You know what I mean? He doesn't have to push those guys hard at the back end of the bullpen because there's so much depth, which I think is an underrated part of the whole bullpen when they're healthy. So I know a lot of our listeners are really curious about Jonathan Clase. What have your impressions been of him so far? I know it's only been six games, but he's really

provided a spark yes that is the perfect word uh i think spark i think energy is another word i would choose it was interesting talking to jerry the day that he was called up and that was some of the consideration because as you guys note there was a lot of different directions they could have gone in in terms of who to call up and you know marlow and bliss you know go down the list there's a lot of different ways they could go but there was a reason uh that they called him up and part of it was spark and energy. So I didn't have a lot of expectations coming in. I didn't know what to expect from Class A. And he has surpassed my expectations so far. And he has given them exactly what I think they were hoping he would give them. Like he's flown around the bases. He's picked up a

couple of base hits. He's been fine in left field so far, which is great. To me, as a 21-year-old, yeah, man, sign me up for that. He's been excellent. He's swiped the base. So when I, When he's in the game, that's what I'm hoping for. He's not going to carry your offense, right? He's not going to be, I don't think he's going to be the difference maker. But hey, just contribute, right? And he's done that. He's more than done that so far, which has been impressive.

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I think it's pretty interesting. The Mariners have had some injuries early this year and yet the guys that they brought up to kind of, you know, hold down the fort while they wait for their guys to come back. They perform. You look at what Claiss they done. Obviously Hancock coming in is kind of a complete unknown, you know, what's he going to look like? three of his four starts, he's given the Mariners an excellent chance to win. You look at Bolton, you look at Miller, you look at even guys who, you know, Samad Taylor,

they've all come up and they've all done something to kind of hold down the spot while we wait for this team to get 100% healthy. So, you know, I think that's a credit to Jerry and Justin and the Mariners minor league development, all of it, to look at this. And I bring this up because I want to know what are your thoughts on Emerson Hancock? Because this is a guy who, you know, when we get the Brian Wu news, oh, no, you know, know that that's trouble. Like this is not a deep rotation, or at least it doesn't have a lot of high-end minor guys who are ready to jump in. So it's got to be Hancock and he's got to be pretty good. And for the most part, aside from his one start of Milwaukee, has been. So what have you thought about Emerson Hancock in his start? He's been excellent. Because when I look at that spot in the rotation and like a normal rotation in the fifth spot, you're just asking the guy, hey, give me a chance to win the game. Right. And as you pointed out, Hancock's done that in three of his four starts. And he is critical for the reasons you point out.

And this isn't going to be the only time. Like, let's say Wu comes back in a week or two or whatever. Like, this isn't going to be the only time this year they're going to need Hancock to fill in on the rotation. He's going to get plenty of starts this year. So if he can consistently give the Mariners a chance to win the game, that's what I'm asking for. And that's what we've seen so far. I thought the Colorado start was really impressive with this command. I thought that was the best command we've seen so far.

far of Hancock. And, you know, his first outing we saw in spring, we saw some big Velo. We haven't seen that in the regular season. So he is a guy that is going to have to hit his spots at this level, especially at a place like Colorado. Like, you've got to be on the corners. And so it was really encouraging for me to see that kind of outing where he could really spot his stuff. Because that plays, at Team Mobile Park, that plays. If he can spot his stuff, he can consistently give you a chance to win. And that's what you're looking for. I want to switch things up here and ask you about one of your partners up there in that booth, the legendary Rick Riz. We asked Goldie about this a couple months ago.

So I can say anything. Of course. Yeah. Tell me why you hate Rick. Let me tell you. So we asked Goldie about this a couple months ago. What's it going to take to get Rick finally in the Marys Hall of Fame? I mean, I think that's going to happen.

happen, right? Yeah. It should. You would hope. Feels like it should have happened 10 years ago by now, but, you know, better late than never. I guess I don't have a good answer for you. I just feel like I know it's, I'm pretty confident it's coming at some point.

So I think it's going to happen. Do you have a good Rick story for us? You know. That's a putting you on the spot, but. It's funny because obviously I get asked about Rick all the time. For me, my perspective, it's really funny because, you know, I'm a Tacoma kid. I grew up a Mariners fan and listened to Mariners broadcasts. It is really funny when, you know, once in a while, for whatever reason, it just dawns on me.

Like, I look over and it's like, oh, yeah, he is the guy that I listened to when I was a little kid. And now I'm sitting next to him. It's just, it's really bizarre for me sometimes. Like that's not a great story, but it's just really hard to put into words. You know, because if you would have asked little kid me, what do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a Mariners broadcaster. I mean, that was always my answer from the time that I was small.

And the fact that here I am in Texas, getting ready for the Mariners and Rangers and in this booth. And Rick's still here plugging away after all these years. It's so funny to me. there are little moments too where where that sort of thing the pinch me thing comes up like at spring training where I run into Alvin Davis and we have a conversation in the hallway and I walk away from it and it's like I was Alvin Davis you know yeah the guy who when I was a small kid like he was it he was the Mariners superstar right and he one of the guys I was like man Alvin Davis and just to have a conversation with them in the hallway.

And it's moments like that that it's really hard to describe the feeling of it. But it makes me very happy. So you obviously started as a producer. Now you're actually on the broadcast. You've been doing that for a few years now. How many years are you into this in total? So this is my 14th year as part of, the broadcast in one way or another.

And this is, I think, year seven full time. Boy, I could be wrong on that. I really feel like I should know that. But I think it's year seven full time. So my first year as part of the broadcast was Dave's final year on the broadcast. So all coming first circle, it was Dave that kind of ignited this whole thing for me and my passion. I was a huge baseball fan. I've always been a huge Mariners fan.

But it was Dave that ignited my radio passion and kind of marrying the two, the broadcast and baseball. So I certainly wish it would have been longer than a year, but I'm so thankful that I at least had one year where I got to spend time with Dave and interact and just be a quiet part of the team with him in the booth. Is there anything you picked up on in that year from Dave? You know the thing about Dave that I think about all the time and always appreciate so much? Because we can go back and listen to the highlights now and they're great.

They're phenomenal highlights. But I always thought the beauty of Dave and the thing that I really took away is how he was able to draw you in before the big moment. and whether it was like in a big at bat, if the ball was just low, he would bellow low, and just kind of trod it out. And I just remember, you know, at times you were in your car, you wouldn't want to get out, right? Or you're just in the house and you're just, you're listening to the game and you stop completely still waiting for whatever's going to happen in this Griffey at bat or whoever. And it was so magical how he'd able to draw you in. And sometimes it would be a pop-up to shortstop, right?

And the moment's over. But other times it would be the double into the gap, scoring two runs and the Mariners take the lead. And everything pays off. Like he drew you in, the moment pays off. It was just incredible how he did that. Yeah. You know, one of my favorite calls from Dave,

where he kind of set it up perfectly and then it immediately happens, which he seemed to have a real knack for. the old-time religion call in Griffey's last year, second to last year. He comes off the bench against Arizona, down 3-1, and, you know, it's Griffey pinch hitting. Obviously, at this stage, Griffey's not the guy used to be. And off-the-bench, eighth inning, you know, crack shot out to right-center field. And Dave comes on with the old-time religion lives. And that is, to me, that's always like, that's like late-stage Dave, who still has like a 98-mile-an-hour fastball.

he can pull out of his back pocket whenever he wants. So, you know, Dave is always incredibly important part of this franchise. And, you know, sometimes I get a little sad that he's never going to get to call a Julio Rodriguez home run because I think Dave would have absolutely loved Julio Rodriguez. You know, I think about that all the time. I think about Julio all the time in that context of, like, there were so many Merritt fans. And I was lucky to grow up with Griffey as the guy. and Dave broadcasting him, right?

I feel so fortunate that I was able to grow up then. And I am so happy for Mariner fans now. And I look at every time up at the ballpark and see all the little kids in the stands with their Julio jerseys, right? And they're going to have that. They're going to have the same thing that I did with Julio, is they're going to grow up. Julio's going to be a Mariner for a long time.

He's going to be a superstar for a long time. And he's ours. He's the mariner. And kids growing up with the Mariners will have Julio. They're going to have what I had with Griffey, which makes me so happy. Because especially when little kids, like it's, it can change your entire fandom, your entire perception, the way you look at baseball, your fandom completely. It can change your life.

Is that too much of a statement? No. I feel that way. I think that's very accurate. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing, right? When he signed the extension, right, that's kind of the first thing that comes into your mind is like, he's ours, right? He's ours forever.

When you look at the way that the contract was structured, it's like you get him for his entire playing career pretty much. Yeah, and big picture, one of the reasons I'm so excited about this current Mariners franchise and where they're at right now is we have never seen the Mariners produce 10.000. like they're doing right now. And I look at the field and, you know, it's Gilbert, it's Kirby, it's Julio, it's Cal. Man, that's all homegrown, which is incredible to me. Because forever it was, what, Felix and Seeger? Right. For a long time.

And those are the superstars. There's other guys that we've seen, and Colby, you alluded to it, guys have come up and just contributed so far. And we don't know what they're going to look like and how their careers will play out. But I just, I'm so excited. side of where this is all going because of that. Because if you can consistently produce your own guys, if you can build around a core like that, you're going to be in a good spot. And I'm fortunate that being a little more on the inside, I get to have conversations with a lot

of smart people that not every Mariner fans know who they are. But there's a lot of really smart people in the org doing a lot of great work behind the scenes. It's not an accident between the drafts and through the minor league system the work being done it's not a coincidence this is all happening there's a lot of good people doing good work right and you mentioned all the guys that are already up with the big league club and then you think you know eventually here in a few years time it could be cole young and las montes and cole emerson tie pt johnny farmello etc like the the next wave of talent that they have coming as well and you know they're going to keep on drafting well right I assume that they're going to replenish the pitching in the farm in next draft or two as well.

And it's just it's really exciting to think about just the long term outlook of this ball club, right? It doesn't feel like at any point right now with the way that they're set up that this is going to come to a screeching halt. Right. It doesn't seem like they're in jeopardy of having to go through another year like 2019, right, in 2020, where they're just kind of having to find their, way again. I was thinking a lot about that when we were in Toronto because, you know, Blue Jays and Mariners, there's a lot of comparisons between the two franchises the last few years. But to me, the biggest difference right now is Toronto has some big decisions coming.

Because Vlad comes up, what, after next year. And this era to me is defined by the Bichette Vlad era. and it does feel like that era is coming to an end. And maybe they're able to retool and restock and things will move forward. But it just is one example of a team that has been in competition with the Mariners recently. The Mariners don't have that. They don't have that in the horizon, right? At least not right now.

It's years and years away where the Blue Jays are kind of staring at it in the near term. Mariners don't have that sort of thing. Absolutely. Yeah. Gary, before we let you go, I always make it a point to ask you a question about broadcasting in general, just out of my own curiosity. I know we have some listeners that, you know, maybe one day they want to do what you're doing. So today, I wanted to ask you about establishing professional relationships with players

and what that's like and what that process is like. So that's a really good question. This is something I've never talked about. So it's a little different for me. I am very much an introvert. So I am not one naturally that just walks up to people and starts talking. And the people that know me well, they always ask like, how do you do what you do,

given your introverted nature? I'm like, hey, I'm in a radio booth with like two other people. And like I always think about it like I'm talking to one person. So people always think about there's a vast audience who we're talking to. But from my perspective, I'm just talking to one person about baseball. So that's how I do what I do. But so for me, it's like I do I do. I do have an advantage.

Like we have a winner's show. So we end up talking to a lot of different guys, a lot of different people. And it's a lot of times with new guys, Mitch Garver, for example, or Luke Rayleigh, for example. It's, hey, a little introduction. It's on a screen. It's a little different. But it's over time, you just introduce yourself,

little conversations here and there. Oh, let me give you a great example. Let me give you a great example. So we talked to Trent Thornton over the off season, right? Had a really great conversation about, you know, he was working on a splitter at the time. We talked to him about his vast memorabilia collection, playing harmonica, you know,

all this great stuff. We really got to know him well. And first spring game that he pitches in, I'm waiting to see if he breaks out the splitter, right? And I'm calling the inning. And I thought I saw it on the very last battery he faced. He was facing a left-handed batter, right? And so, you know, it's spring training.

So we don't have, there's no statcast, there's no anything. It's just a big guessing game, whether I actually saw the splitter or not. So the next day, I go into the clubhouse and, you know, Trent, I thought I saw the splitter. And he beams. And he's like, yeah, I threw it.

The last batter. Left-handed hitting catcher. You know, you wanted to do it against a lefty, against the Giants. It was the catcher that caught every one of his bullpins during the off season because they worked out together in Charlotte. He's on the crowd. No one, okay, got to throw the splitter here. And he's like, I know, he knows it's coming. He knows I'm going to throw it here.

I'm going to throw it anyway. It was Patrick Bailey from the Giants. And Bailey text him after the game, like, you got me on that one. Bailey hit a homeowner. But, you know, it was so funny to hear the story. And it's just that. And now you walk up, you say hi, you have questions. And one thing that's really changed for me and has made a big difference over time.

Like, we have always done interviews with guys. And early in my career, it's been kind of like five minutes. at their locker kind of thing. But it really left me unsatisfied because I feel like, I always felt like once you got something going, it came to an end. And I felt like you didn't really get to know them as well as they wanted to. So in the last couple of years,

Aaron and I have been doing kind of longer form interviews, some in the off season and some during the season, where we just sit in the dugout. We just talked to Snyder for a long time, Colin Snyder, and really get to know guys. 20, 30 minutes sometimes. And to me, that's really made a big difference

because I love the nitty-gritty baseball stuff, especially with the relievers now. What's changed for you? What are you doing now? What pitch are you throwing? You know, all that baseball stuff that I love. But I also love the real person stuff too. Like Snyder has a locker at Vanderbilt.

Like all major leaguers that play at Vanderbilt, they have their own locker at Vanderbilt right now. He's got stuff in a locker at Vanderbilt. Like that kind of stuff, I just think it's super cool. So that's a long-witted way of saying, I've kind of adjusted how I've gone about the job the last number of years. But what I'm going for is the Niti Gritty and the real person stuff. So that's how I'm going about it now.

I love that answer. Thank you for that answer. Colby, you got anything for Gary before we let him go? Yeah, I'm going to use my last question to address something selfishly. Okay. My ongoing feud, perhaps one-sided with Aaron Goldsmith. Oh, yes. Gary, I don't know if you heard this when we interviewed Aaron or not, but I've recently

started a card collection. And this collection is very specific. This collection is I'm trying to acquire one baseball card of every single player who has appeared in a major league game that Jerry Depoto has acquired. in his tenure as Mariner's general manager of president, blah, blah, blah, going back to 2016. Yes. Taking a huge den out of it. I told Aaron about it.

Okay. And I believe his exact words were he couldn't think of a more worthless indebt. So, yeah, again, maybe a one side of feud here. But I would like to know, what do you think of my collection? I think that is an amazing, specific collection. Gary's my favorite that you are the only person in the world doing which is right. That is all factual information

Gary. Who is the most random that you've gotten so far? His name is Ryan Straussberger. I have no idea who that is. Neither did I. I didn't know either. He has got like three major league played appearances and he signed with the Mariners as a minor

minor league free agent in like 2017. But he has major league played appearances and he was signed by Jerry Depoto. So I had to get him for the binder. That one took a while to track down. Technically, Colby has to get Adley Rutchman and Heston Kirstad as well. I'm doing a after I'm done with this binder, I'm going to do a draft binder for the depoto era. So any player that they've drafted who's appeared in the big leagues, I have to get that card. Okay. And obviously he drafted Ruchman in the 40th, knowing that he wouldn't sign, but he did draft Adley Rutchman.

Technically, yeah. How many to this are you? How close are we? I would say I'm probably about 65% of the way through the depoto, free agent trade waiver plan binder. Yeah, I'm trying to do it chronologically too. Now, I've already had some missteps. I'm going to have to strip the binder and redo the binder once I get all the

cards. But yeah, I'm starting to fill out pages. It's exciting. I'm starting to see pages fill out. And so, you know, obviously it's a never-ending binder as long as Jerry is here. So I always got a, you know, I recently got my Dallas Kichel card and, you know, my Matt Tabor and all that stuff. So I'm pretty invested at this point. So now, yeah, I'd say 65% or so, Don. This is really good. I had a friend, because I'll give you my worst card collection story. I had a friend. I had a friend. who decided that he was going to collect a player. He was going to go all in with one player. This was one of my friends growing up.

So he had narrowed it down to two. The two were Ken Griffey Jr. or Mike Greenwell. He goes, Mike Greenwell. So now he has 7,000 Mike Greenwell cards when... Oh, no. So you're just great. You're just fine. Yeah.

Colby's been pissed at me because we had Jerry on the show a couple of months ago. And Colby wanted to do this whole routine that he just did with you with Jerry. But instead, I chose to use our final question asking Jerry about Brody Hopkins. To be fair, Jerry really loves and Jerry really love to answer that question. So I don't feel like I messed up necessarily. I think you did. I think Jerry needs to know about this binder. We got to get in touch.

I got to get him to sign it when I complete it. That's the thing. You have to get a sign. I think Jerry would appreciate it. He is a collector. I know. That's why I was really excited to ask him. Thanks, Ty.

Next time, he will. With it too. It shouldn't be the last question. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking. Colby will never let me love that down. Gary, it's always a pleasure chatting with you. Thanks so much for doing this.

Hopefully you guys have a chance to call when tonight. That would be great. Yeah, it should be a fun series. I can't wait. It's always fun. We'll talk soon. Yeah. Thanks, Gary. And that's going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here, a reminder that Lockdowne has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube.

And now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. Locked On Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked On, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked On Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here. on the Locked-on Marrars podcast for Gary Hill Jr. and Colby Patnode, I'm Ty Dan Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby at CPAT 11. That's CPAT-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the

description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first list and have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.