Are The Mariners The Most Complete Team in the A.L.? w/Jeff Passan | Seattle Sports

Are The Mariners The Most Complete Team in the A.L.? w/Jeff Passan | Seattle Sports

How Let me just ask you this way. How complete is this Mariner team right now? I’m going to do something that I did not necessarily want to do because I I am I am very wary and very cognizant that Mariners fans believe I am a pox. And and I and I try to like it’s it’s scared me to this point. It really has. Like I didn’t say anything on social media. The game they lost against the Royals. I was there. Like it’s the only game that they’ve lost in the last two weeks and it’s the only game series that I went to. But um I uh you know we have a story coming out on ESPN.com. I think it’s tomorrow. And uh you know we’ve been the the whole baseball writing staff has been asked to just go around and chat with sources and pick their brains about the playoffs. And first question, what’s the boldest prediction you’ve heard from an MLB executive or scout? Passen, the Seattle Mariners are going to win the World Series. Like that’s where we’re at at this point, guys. That like and this is this is not two things. one, this is an evaluator who has been around for a very long time, has seen a lot of things, and whose opinion I trust. Um, but but the other part is he’s not the only one who thinks that. And and I think it’s a function certainly of the American League being a festival of mediocrity, but it’s also if you just objectively look at what the Mariners are doing right now and the talent that they have, they’ve had the best offense in Major League Baseball in terms of runs scored as well as peripherals. uh in the month of September uh they have a rotation where as long as Brian Woo is healthy, you know, Brian Woo followed by Logan Gilbert followed by, you know, whether it’s George Kirby or Luis Castillo, uh that’s a lot of good starting pitching. And then you kick Bryce Miller over the bullpen in the playoffs and add him to Caleb Ferguson and Gabe Spy and Matt Brash and Edward Bazardo and uh Andre Munoz and all of a sudden it’s like the you add that together with the quality defense that they play and you can make an argument that they are actually the most complete team left right now. Kind of tired of the MVP conversation. I’m going to give Cal a different award. I’m going to give him the Badonka Conunk award. What do you think about that? I think you need to pronounce it correctly. Can you try it one more time? Nope. The second D in that Brock, just one more, please. Please don’t. Please. One more time. I didn’t write it down. I just I read your article and I didn’t write it down. That’s just how it was stuck in my head. Yeah, I think that’s how Missy pronounced it, too. If I’m badona No. No. Two D. It’s not conk, it’s a donk at the end. Try it one more time. Third time’s a charm. Badonka donk. Got it. Yeah, nailed it. I got Brock Huward to say bonka on his cry. Badona. Bonkadon. Badona. Badona. Badon. What is that? What is that award? What are we doing here in New York? Do you know are you are you aware of what a badonadonk is? No, I am not. Nope. Nope, I am not. That’s that’s another way of saying that somebody’s got a big booty. Oh, nice. Yes. As I as I said, as I said in the story, in awarding Cal Riley the Bonad of the Year, he puts the Maximus in Glutius. And uh I was I was not going to uh award MVPs like everyone else. Number one, just because I do not want to get caught up in the discourse. Like there’s a big part of why I stopped voting. Um, beyond beyond the fact that my my vote potentially having a financial impact on players, I didn’t think was was right or reasonable. But that’s that’s for each particular writer to decide for him or herself. But beyond that, it’s like the Yeah, I I just don’t want to sit here and argue with people who are are like going to be irrational about this. And I’m not even like questioning their irrationality. Like, I get it. You’re a fan. You want to see your guy win. You You watch him every day. And if you watch Cal Rowley every day that there’s no universe where you don’t think he should be the most valuable player. And if you watch Aaron Judge every day, there’s no universe where you think anyone else should be most valuable player. And it’s like I I love that the debate exists for people because I think there are exceptional cases to be made for both guys. And uh I I’m just super interested to see what voters do cuz guys, I’ll be honest, I have no idea what direction this is going to go in. And has there ever been co MVPs? Has there ever been just, you know, the the 30 writers just say, “Listen, this is so like these these guys are both so worthy of this.” And by no means am I an everybody gets a medal kind of guy, but has there been what’s the precedent for co- MVPs? I mean, it it like it has to be really really lucky because I don’t think you’re going to have Cal Raleigh getting 15 first place votes and Aaron Judge getting 15 second place votes and vice versa. Um but I suppose that’s possible. Um because I don’t think there’s anybody else who’s going to get a first or second place vote this year. Like if if you want to say Bobby Wit Junior, Bobby Wit’s been great. He has not been as good as Aaron Judge or Cal Raleigh. Jose Ramirez has been awesome. Not as good. And uh the only time I believe was 19, fact check me on this. 1979 I think it was uh Willie Sargel and Keith Hernandez in the National League. Jeeoff, are you a um you like Zips projections? Is that Do you have a favorite projection uh system? I’ve always gone with Zips just because of Dan. I think he does a great job. I was going to say I think Dan Zimborgski is great. Um I I I look I look at projections and I always think that projections are safe, which inherently they’re supposed to be and should be, but I don’t think I I don’t think projections like I that I look at them and say, “Yeah, this is this is what a guy’s going to do.” No, of course you’re not supposed the low side of that. But what which do you make which do you think is crazier? Cal Raleigh being where he’s at right now after being projected to hit 28 home runs and 80 RBI this year. He’s obviously at 58 and 121. Or Jorge Palano being less valuable to the Mariners this year than Ryan Bliss or Samad Taylor. Um the answer is yes. The Yeah. Yeah. The Well, here’s the thing. Like I get both of them. Sure. I get both of them. This is this is just such an outlier season for Cal Raleigh. Not not only from his career norms, but just the perspective of the position that he plays. I don’t care who we’re talking about. The notion of any catcher, any catcher getting close to 60 home runs is foolish because catchers don’t play enough games to compile those kinds of numbers. And that’s the thing. I don’t know if you guys heard before the Sunday night game, I did a little video essay on Cal and you know, I started off with the fact that he’s there every day like that. That to me more than the home runs stands out that every single day Cal Raleigh is in this lineup. I think he’s going to finish with 159 games played unless the Mariners clinch and and give him a day off, which they they should. Um, but they’re going to be at this point they’re fighting for for home field, right? Like that’s the the thing about Detroit’s collapse has been not just that Cleveland is within one game and now, you know, could be tied after tonight. It’s that it’s allowed the Mariners who are 48 and 27 at home this season to be in position to miss the wild card series alto together and then host the division or uh yeah the division series. Their their magic number is four to have the second set. That’s incredible to play. Do you guys want to know what the what the wildest number going on right now is? I don’t know. Have you looked at uh the playoff odds on fan graphs? Yep. Do you guys Do you guys know Yep. who has the Badona? Yep. I mean, it’s it’s bonkadonk. It it is if you mean ridiculous by that. Yes, it is. Yes. And it especially for this fan base, Jeffrey. Especially for these fans, especially for this city that wants this so stinking bad to look at that. And there’s part of them that want to just put their hands over their eyes and not really you know you know why Brock because that’s the that’s the group of people who saw this team lose 15 of 21 games less than three weeks ago like they are they are eminently aware as good as the Mariners look right now as great as everyone feels coming off that Houston series and with an American League clinch in sight at this point. I’m not I I love Bob. I’m not going to be Bob and Crown the Mariners yet because uh it’s baseball and it’s Seattle and when you put those two things together uh entropy happens. So uh I I’m not going to say that the Mariners are going to be American League West champions, even though for for months now I’ve been saying I think that’s going to be the outcome. I’m just shocked that Fangraph stinks. Um, and not Fangrass as if it’s a human being, but the computers that the very smart people at Fangraphs use that they believe that the Mariners have greater than a one in5 chance of winning the World Series, a number that’s significantly higher than any other team in baseball. The next best team is the do the Mariners are at 21.5%. The Dodgers are at 14.2%. The Yankees are at 13.2%. The Blue Jays at 115. the Phillies at only 96. Like, well, isn’t that because some of those national teams are gonna have to play each other, right? I mean, like just to get through the gauntlet of the Phillies, do like I think if you ask the same people or computers, who are the best teams? I think they’d still say Phillies, Dodgers, Brewers are probably the three best teams in baseball. But the Mariners don’t have to face any of those teams until you get to the World Series. They have to face a grouping in the American League that is nowhere close to that. Um, and so I I guess I ask you this. Let’s say the Mariners do win the division or or Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Boston will be left for three spots. Who who who’s the odd man out? Um, my instinct tells me Houston, but the Astros are playing the A’s and the Angels this week. And I know the A’s have been playing better, but god, the Angels are just awful. And by the way, um, in in the, uh, in the spirit of of transparency and accountability, uh, I was very wrong last week on this program about the Guardians, completely dismissing them. Uh, somebody give you the business about that? Did somebody did somebody Yeah. Yeah. Mike Mike did. And And I’m honestly, Brock, I’m I’m I’m perfectly okay with that. I I think accountability is an important I’m not even going to read you the text. that Sulk sent to Mora. I’m not even going to read you the text. It’s Sulky sent to me and Ly and Mora about that. I said I was busting your something, but it it didn’t come out right on autocorrect or something. It became highly It sounded like you and I had a different type of relationship than we do. Is this an Is this an HR issue, guys? It could be. Yeah. As an autocorrect HR issue. Did I clip it and save it for maybe a later date? I love it. I love it. I love it when people say autocorrect without putting the air quotes up. Just give a nice little wink here, Mike. It was auto correct. You know what it is? Honestly, jokes aside, you know what it is? It’s getting to an age where if I don’t have my glasses and I’m trying to text something. I have no idea what it says by the time I send it. So, I hit send without having figured out whether or not it got changed or not. Yeah, that’s how you get arson judged, though. Like you have to you have to have better better like fidelity. No, you’re right. You have to like because you’re you’re going to make a bigger salt. You can make it like some people I refuse to do that. I refuse to make it that bad. Hey uh two serious questions here, Jeffrey. Two serious questions. You wrote a book all about the arm, all about the elbow, all about Tommy John, all about flexor bundles. We’ve talked a lot about that. I don’t and I’m sure there was a section on a pec and a you know the pectoral muscle and the impact and effect. What what do we know about that? Because that’s what Mr. Woo has. We’ll get further detail from Mr. Hollander later this afternoon. How concerning is a pec? There was not a section on a pec because a pec is a muscle and muscle strains tend to sort of just come out of nowhere. I don’t know what caused this with Brian Woo. Um, but if it is as minimal as the Mariners are hoping, uh, I think we’ll see Brian Woo out there in game one, uh, of the postseason. And I think he’ll be just fine. But it it like you you know what I think the closest thing to liken it to is Brock. Um it’s an oblique you know it’s in the it’s in the same general area and uh recurrence is more frequent than you would like. But uh you know hopefully for the sake of the Mariners this was just a one-time thing. And I know Brian Woo has been getting treatment the last few days and there’s optimism right now, but it’s optimism that can vanish very quickly because of the nature of the injury. Your guy Carl Ravage had a good little point on this yesterday. I’m curious if your mind goes the same way his mind went and opinion went yesterday with us. Cal Raleigh season this year has benefited whom the most on the Mariners around him. I’m guessing he said Julio. Yep. Um I think there’s probably some truth to that. I don’t know if it’s the most necessarily. Um, I I just think that when when a guy is doing unprecedented things, it benefits everyone. And I know that’s kind of a copout, but uh just the way that when a guy has to get pitched around in a lineup, it’s not necessarily the one before him or the one after him who benefits the most. I haven’t dug in enough on pitch patterns for for other players to say definitively that what Cal Raleigh has done is is giving this guy the most impact. So, I don’t want to say that, but I I get the I get the rationale and one would think uh like logically it makes sense. And he went more intangibly honestly, Jeff. He went more to just the pressure, right? There’s been so much expectation on Julio and so much to carry and his ceiling is so high and he’s this and he’s that and he’s all these expectations and it’s like now I get to just play free, right? And he’s a freespirited fun spirit guy. Yeah, I I think there’s that, but I think that I think that went away a little bit. The the self-inflicted pressure uh with Julio. I I think that’s come more with just him growing up a little bit. Um it’s, you know, it’s nice to sit here and think that Cal Raleigh’s emergence as a superstar um would free Julio, but I think that sort of sells Julio short, as if because one guy is performing that suddenly he doesn’t feel the need to be great. he the need to be great for him is there because it’s inherent, not because it’s what the Mariners need from him. Um I I think all of all of those sorts of things uh they they tend to to emanate more from the kind of personality you have uh than the people who are surrounding you. And and let’s not forget like Kyle Raleigh had hit 38 home runs last year. Like he was he wasn’t a jobber last year. He uh he had turned into not this version of himself, but a pretty pretty reasonable fact. And uh I I I don’t look at Julio like he’s changed a whole lot as a player. I know he’s striking out less and and that’s nice to see. And I know he’s tapped into the power that we’ve seen in past seasons and in a lot of ways and correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this kind of remind you of 2023, Julio? kind of reminds me of every year, Julio, like some struggles and then he comes roaring back in the in the second half and with a couple of steals he’s going to be 3030 again. I mean, it just really really remarkable. I was going through some of the numbers that that the Mariners could end up with here uh by the end of the year. And, you know, there’s some really cool milestones, I guess you would call them, that are that are still in play. Cal could get to 60 home runs. Obviously, he’s not going to get to 20 stolen bases. He would need six more. So that was He’s not that far from 6020, but it’s not going to happen. Julio needs two steals for 3030. Randy needs three home runs. Ry’s close. Yeah. Three home runs and two steals for 3030. Gino needs three home runs to get to 50. But my favorite little stat is this. Do you know, this is so bizarre. Do you know how many stolen bases Ken Griffy Jr. had in his best stolen base career of his season of his career? 25 24 or four fewer than Josh Naylor has this year. I know. I know. It’s It’s absolutely absurd. I And I was I was kind of sad in in my uh I I gave out uh the awards today and and in the same article as uh the Badona of the year, I I crowned the thief of the year and gave it to Juan Sto. And Juan, guys, Juan Sto leads Major League Baseball in stolen bases in the second half. That’s crazy. Juan Sodto, he’s got 35 steals this season. He had never stolen more than 13 bases in a season pre or more than 12 bases in a season previously. Like it’s and and looking it it’s just so funny to look at stolen base leaders like Augustine Ramirez who is a catcher with a Cal Raleigh caliber body uh from Miami Marlins has more stolen bases in the second half than Bobby Wood Jr. Ellie Dea Cruz uh Fernando Tatis Jr. and like a number of guys and and it just it’s one of those things that goes to show that there are little marginal advantages still left in baseball. Yeah. Hey Jeffrey, we got 30 seconds. I’m going to put this on a T for you. Take it wherever you want. But with the final week of the season with everything available, with everything on the horizon for the Mariners and their fan base, fill in the blank. The Mariners fan base is not spoiled. It’s a good answer. Can’t really argue with that one. I think that’s uh right on Q. There she is. Nice job, Missy Brock. You don’t you don’t know that. That means nothing. Somebody even Mora even put in some country song. [Music] Cuz someone said, “How does Brock not know that?” How do you not know that one? Come on now. All right, there we go. Thank you, Missy. Trace Atkins, apparently. I don’t know who that is, but yes, Trace. And thank you to Jeff Passen. Jeff, when we talk next week, the season will be over. We won’t be over. Uhuh. No, we won’t. Baseball season ain’t ending Sunday for us, Jeff. Brock, stop. Goodbye Jeffrey. We’ll talk to you next week. There’s Jeff passing every Tuesday at 8:30. We’ll be right back on Brock and Sulk.

ESPN MLB Insider Jeff Passan joins Brock Huard and Mike Salk (Brock & Salk) to react to the mariners HUGE 5-1 road trip and look ahead to the final week of the season and postseason possibilities

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0:00 – How Complete are the Mariners?
3:45 – Cal Raleigh vs Aaron Judge for MVP
6:30 – Jorge Polanco and Cal Raleigh Outperforming Expectations
10:45 – Mariners Postseason Seeding and AL playoff race
13:40 – Bryan Woo’s Injury
15:15 – Who on the Mariners has Cal benefitted the most?
18:30 – Mariner Milestones this season
20:30 – Jeff’s message to Mariners fans

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