Are the #Mariners the BEST Team In the AL Post-Trade Deadline? | #SeattleSports

Are the #Mariners the BEST Team In the AL Post-Trade Deadline? | #SeattleSports

talking through this M. I mean, we’re going to spend a ton of time on them, right? Because they’re just on fire and they are now, you know, essentially in a virtual tie with with Houston. They’re halfame back, tied in the win column, a game back in the loss column with Houston, who was fading and fading fast. Um, Texas fading and fading fast, even faster. Yankees fading and fading f like the teams in the American League just on they’re just not that good. And Detroit and Toronto are both decent teams. And the Yankees are There’s some decent teams, but they’re not that good. And I am very curious to see what the Mariners look like this week as you do Baltimore and uh then the and then the Mets and then the Phillies. Like Baltimore has given them some trouble. And then obviously the Mets and Phillies are two of the better teams in the National League this year. It’s a good test for them, right? On the road all at once. That’s a good little test. But in the American League, like you know, it’s not I don’t think it’s gonna take a hundred wins to get yourself a a uh a first round buy this year. Nope. And Toronto’s only three up on you. They’re not eight up on you. They’re three up on you. You’ve just eaten that up with Houston in the last uh seven to nine days. Detroit is two up on you. So that those one and two seeds to me, that’s how I’m looking at these standings. Now you’re looking at Houston. You’re right there with Houston. Houston will get healthier. Saul Pass will tell you tomorrow when you know when you have this take he’s going to tell you about the guys that are coming back and I’ve heard that story in that mix. No, I’ve heard that before. Oh, this team’s going to get healthier and then when they come back it this just doesn’t always work that way. Like sometimes the guys come back and they’re not what they’re supposed to be and they’re still dealing with something like I don’t know. I th those stories don’t do it for me. Yeah, maybe that happens. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but I’m not going to sit here and be like, “Oh, terrify Houston’s going to get their guys back and then this and that.” Yeah, we’ll see. Mhm. We’ll see. Because the Mariners are going to get some guys back. Is going to come back. Nice grand salami yesterday. Rob is going to be coming back. Bryce Miller’s got what, one more rehab start this week hopefully. Yeah. So, you’re getting some guys back. It’s not Yordon Alvarez that you’re getting back, but like you’re going to get some guys. And we’ll talk through what that looks like at 8:00. But I I don’t know. I I just I look around and and I see an American League landscape that is ripe for the taking and the Mariners right now doing all they can to capitalize on it, which is great. I I I’m going to keep coming back to the trade deadline as the single most important event of this year. And I’ve told the story before, but I’ll tell it again and I’ll try to be quick because I know it involves the word Boston, which makes half the people in town immediately change the station. So, I apologize. Barf. Boston Barf Red Sox parf. But it’s just my history. This is this is the first team I ever really covered and it was the first championship team I ever covered, the 2007 uh Boston Red Sox. And they were an interesting team, not entirely like this one, although it did have some similarities. Uh that team had some older players that were left over from the previous championship, the 04 championship. Manny Ortiz, Kurt Schilling, Jason Veritech were all on that team, but they were not they weren’t toast, but they were not quite at the same level they had been. And they were very much powered by these younger guys like Pedroa, Kevin Uclas, eventually Jacobe Ellbury. And I do see some similarities there with this Mariner team and what they’ve gotten from some of the young guys that have been at the bottom of the lineup, but have really, really contributed to what they’re doing. Uh, and like the 2025 Mariners, that Red Sox team had kind of an iffy off season. They went in a different way. They went big, but none of them worked. It was Julio Lugo and JD Drew and JC Romero and Old Mariner Joel Pierro, who was supposed to be their closer, and like none of those really worked. Disc Matsuzaka was the other big one that worked that year, but I I mean like it was another team that was a little funky. They weren’t put together necessarily the way you would want them to be. and they got to the deadline and they were a few games up. They were not a bad team. They had sort of o maybe overplayed what everybody thought they would be. They got to the deadline and they made a deal for the best closer, the best reliever available at the deadline. Eric, remember Eric Gier when he was at his best with in LA with the Dodgers? Eric Gier was nasty. He won a Sai Young, didn’t he? I think he did as a closer. That’s insane. Yeah, that was not the version of Eric Kanye they traded for. This version of Eric Kanye had been hurt, had been building back up his value in Texas and had done so. He got to the Red Sox and for the last two months he was atrocious. He was awful. He was terrible. He had an RA over six. He got left off one of the playoff rosters. Where is this going? I’m sorry. He was terrible. Absolutely awful. But every player I talked to on that team, and I, you know, I was not a big-time reporter, but I had a couple people that I could talk to on the team, they all talked about how important that trade was to their confidence. And Brock, you used that word earlier, the confidence of this team is just like, “Yeah, we’re good. We’re just we’re good.” And it showed that group, especially those young players, but but I shouldn’t even just say that. It was a little bit of everybody. It showed that whole group that management believed in them, that they were serious about their chances of winning it all. And I I look at what the Mariners have done since, you know, acquiring those three guys in the last couple days before the deadline. And Josh Naylor’s been awesome. The personality is awesome. The vibe that he gives off, I just production has been unheard of, but the production has been tremendous. Yep. Mostly the stolen bases, but also everything else that he brings to the table. three bombs since he’s been back. It’s He’s good. He’s just a really good hitter and it’s really fun to watch him. I really enjoy him. But Ahane Suarez, I mean, objectively, he’s been terrible. Well, I think a WRC plus of minus 6 and a 38% strikeout percentage. Not not ideal. He’s been awful. He has been awful since the Mariners traded for him. And it doesn’t matter at all. Hasn’t mattered at all. Gino’s been bad. I don’t know whether he got that. remember he got hit in the hand right before they traded for him. I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe it’s just a, you know, a bad week and he’s maybe putting too much pressure on himself. I don’t know. We’ve seen this before with Gino, the ups and the downs and everything else. I think he’s going to have a big moment before it’s all said and done. And I think we’re going to see the better version of Aaneo Suarez, but they’re playing a different and better brand of ball ever since he showed up. And that has happened without him doing a darn thing in the box. Yeah, I think that’s pretty pretty incredible the effect that that trade, that belief had on the rest of the team to just get them going. Sulk, you’re kind of our nailer in the show unit. Thank you. Yeah, maybe that’s why I like him so much. Yeah, as I kind of look at the show unit, you know, maybe I, you know, I I don’t maybe that’s where the analogy stops and starts, but like you come back in and it just settles the rest of us down. you come back in and you got an edge, you know that you do about memorabilia and other stuff. You you just kind of bring a little little fire. You bring a little edge. You bring production and you just kind of do it just settled the show feels and all four of us would agree. It just feels so much more settled when we’re all in the roles that we are built to be in. This Mariners team now with those additions and I think why we dreamed of this a month before it happened. Can you imagine Jeff Passen? I mean, if you get Naylor, get both. Mhm. You’re in for a penny, be in for a pound if you get an opportunity and Arizona is truly selling. Can you imagine this lineup? Can you imagine this diamond that just felt a little bit, you know, with some significant voids on the corners. Imagine them filled by those two personalities and production and age and experience and pieces. Like it would just it would complete the lineup. Yeah. everybody being in their right roles and even if they’re not humming, you know, even if they’re not necessarily at their peak performance, the fact everybody feels settled can go a long way for the rest of the group and especially the guys at the bottom to maybe pick their end of the thing up as well. It’s been just it’s been just a remarkable run and it’s baseball and it will end. They’re not going to win nine out of 10, right? They’re not going to they won seven in a row right here. Like it’s there’s going to be some rough bumps, you know, pitcher going to give it up. uh bullpen’s going to give something up. They’re going to get shut down by somebody. But overall, I think there’s just a a collective trust and belief in one another that like your point, we’re good and we know it. That’s a fun place to be. Yeah, it it it is. Um, I I kind of smells like some of again kind of smells like some of those championship DNA kind of teams that we’ve been around enough to know whether it was your experience there, whether it was in the heyday of the of the team across the street that you can just kind of kind of smell it. I do I think of that Joe Buck chapter in his book. remember when he came on with us all and he after he’d written his book and I loved his book and everything else and he talked about right there before the Super Bowl and I was listening on the other side to our sister station here in Denver uh they got into some storytelling and we’re talking about that Super Bowl in New York and they were like man it just never felt right you know we were kind of banged up our guys were not focused guys were going downtown into Manhattan and then like across the way the Seahawks were just these ferocious pit bulls I mean You could just feel them foaming at the mouth. And Joe Buck said said as much that the most impressive production meeting he ever sat in was with the Legion of Boom the day before the game. And he called his wife and said, “Wow, this isn’t going to be good. This is not going to be close between these two.” You know, could kind of read both teams, see both teams and kind of I don’t know, 43 games to go here in the regular season. I’m not about to crown anybody yet. No. But you’re starting to sense and smell a different kind of confidence in this club than we have sensed and smelled. And I think I think that’s right. And that confidence, I think, comes from a few places. It comes from the focus we’ve talked about. It comes from looking around and seeing what’s in their lineup. It comes from the veterans that are on this club and and there are a bunch of those guys mixed with some of the young players, the Julio’s and Cole Youngs and Dominic Hanzones. And you know, Julio’s obviously been in the league for a while. It depends kind of on your definition there of young player, but you know, like that mix and looking around and seeing what you got and knowing that you’ve got some dudes who’ve been there and done it before mixed. You know, Ry’s been in the World Series and obviously, you know, uh well, all right, maybe that’s about it. Not a ton of guys who’ve had that experience, but Josh Naylor’s been in the postseason. Gino’s been in the postseason. Even Julio and Cal had their one experience in the postseason. So, yeah, I I I I just think there is some an ability to look around like, all right, we’re a good team. The front office believed in us and added, you know, around the edges or maybe even more than that to what we needed. We’ve got a starting rotation that has not been as good as expected this year, but we know who those dudes are. And you got two horses in the back of your bullpen that are just ridiculous. I I’m saying again, Matt Brash with two saves over the weekend. I I understand why Munoz is the closer. He should be the closer. This is not an argument. I am not I don’t know how anybody hits the ball off Matt Brash ever. Every time he gives up a hit, I am in complete state of shock. His stuff is ridiculous. How does anybody hit that? Yeah. You ever played song before Blue 88? My mind is going back as we’re talking about this in the lineup. You ever played in a in a scramble with four sticks and you were like the fifth? Yes, I have actually once. How fun is that? Except you feel bad. You feel like you’ve got to contribute at some point. Yeah, I played at Newcastle. Rick Newheisel in his prime. I think he was like a two. A guy named Beasel Shaw, who may be listening right now. Beasel was a wine maker. He was a scratch that hit like 350 yard bombs. Oki. Oki golf. Actual Mr. Oki, who’s who was un unbelievably uh crispy and and and talented and and then the fourth guy I think had been on like the pro tour at some point. And I’m like, well, what am I doing here? I think I contributed one shot on an uphill where I sliced it so badly, hit off a rocking and bounced to two inches. I’m I’m I’m going with the fact that like every hole you just knew you’re going to deliver. Like it we’re going to birdie every hole. Like we’re going to win. Like we’re good. We we and and and like that crew all knew it. They’re all like scratch golf coffers. And honestly, for the first time in our tenure of doing this, just a way of putting a picture to what you have said repeatedly over the last eight days since the trade deadline, this is the best Marin lineup we’ve ever seen. That you and I doing this show have ever seen. I think it’s the best Marin lineup anyone’s ever seen. The numbers would bear that out. Adjusted for park factor and league factor, this is the best Mariners lineup you’ve ever seen. I got to take a look at that. I just look I mean what you have to do is look at like combined OPS+ or WRC plus rather than just looking at the overall numbers because the league does not hit the way the league did in 2001 or 1995 or 1998 when you adjust for the league that you’re in and the ballpark that you play in. This is the best Mariner lineup of all time. You’ve never seen a better Mariner lineup than this. Yeah. Even 01 like if you’re going to use this like if we’re going to play this exercise and just use this twoe sample with the Mariners and compare it to other teams like Carlos Guian and01 91 OPS+ David Bell at third base 90 OPS plus Al Martin in left field 90 OPS plus that was the 01 team starters this team has every single player hitting right now in their regular lineup with a WRC plus over 100 like this is the best Mariner lineup you’ve ever seen adjusted now again I get it like obviously other teams have scored more runs and have Hall of Famers and all of that, but just looking at the just raw numbers, this is the best you’ve ever seen. And you combine it with a pretty good pitching staff and a pretty good bullpen and you end up with a team that I think is going to end up winning the West. And we’ll see where it goes from there. Let’s do some blue idiot.

Brock Huard and Mike Salk break down the Mariners sweep of the Rays over the weekend and how the trade deadline has transformed the lineup. Salk also puts the impact the additions the M’s made into historical context comparing it to the 2007 Red Sox.

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