Blue Jays Season Preview with Kevin Pillar + Mariners Season Preview & TV confusion with Ryan Divish

00:00:04
Speaker 1: It is Miller time.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: We're gonna do some light takes with KP talking about the Blue Jays. Happy Opening Day to you, KP. It's great to see you. And how fired up do you think the Blue Jays fan base is for this coming season. It's kind of the perfect storm. They didn't win, but they came damn close. The team did not settle in the offseason. They've locked in extensions for some of the decision makers, and now they get to see it all play out.

00:00:28
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, what a perfect transition. You were talking about average players. Here's one right here. Did all the things off the field. You know, That's how I made up the statistic called of war off the field war, and mine was really high. You know, guys wanted to drink at the bar. I was there. They want to play golf. I was there, They want to fish. I was there. But as far as the Blue Jays, I think the fans got to be really exciting, excited for opening Day. And I'm getting a chance to fly up there tonight and be part of the opening Day for Sportsnet, and I just want fans to remember that tomorrow's a celebration, whether they win or lose. Tomorrow. I think they have a lot to be proud of. They're gonna hang two banners tomorrow. And yeah, I mean, they locked up their manager. They locked up their their general manager for the next five years, and the future has never been more bright in Toronto. They got a superstar in Vladimir Guerrero Junior, and they got a bunch of guys just scratching the surface about to be found superstars.

00:01:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, but shouldn't they panic? They're already behind the Yankees. The Yankees already in first place, so shouldn't shouldn't they be panicking?

00:01:32
Speaker 3: KP one hundred percent. I think we should be scoreboard watching right now. I think I honestly truly like joking aside, I do believe, you know, on Bluebird yesterday we kind of did kind of an al least kind of breakdown, and I truly believe starting August first, scoreboard watching is going to be happening because I think, you know, what the Red Sox did this offseason, I think what the Orioles did this offseason. I think the Yankees bringing back some of their guys and ultimately getting Garrett coleback is a game changer for them, And really, you can't never count the Rays out. If it was any other team and they didn't say rays across their chest, you maybe count them out. But it's the Tampa Bay Rays. And I truly think this division is going to be really exciting. It's gonna come down to the wire.

00:02:19
Speaker 4: What do you have to say about the people who say, wait a minute, Like two years ago, this Blue Jay team was awful, So at this time last year we were talking about the Jays is just kind of one of the decent teams in the division. Maybe the Santander signing is gonna be good. Clearly that wasn't a good signing because he never ended up playing and other guys stepped up. Is there a fear that George Springer has a step back? Is there fear that Alejandro Kirk doesn't have the same season or Vladdie doesn't have the same season and they're just the middling three or four in the American League East.

00:02:53
Speaker 3: I think it's a realistic possibility. Absolutely. I mean, you played for a long time, aj you played for a long time, like baseball is the biggest mystery sport on the face of the earth. Like I think in you know, like you know, an NFL quarterback is probably gonna be pretty good, you know, Steph Curry's probably gonna make shots, But hitting a baseball is so damn hard, like to expect guys year in and year out to do the same thing and to maybe take the next step and then the next step, Like, yeah, it's definitely a realistic possibility. You know, a year two years ago, this team wasn't very good, and now we're talking about this team potentially winning the AL East again and potentially winning the AL and I think they're probably the most bet on team to win the World Series right now too, So I think there's a huge kind of gap for where this team could be at. I think they could win a World Series where I think they could finish third in their division. I think that's also partly due to how competitive the AL East is.

00:03:50
Speaker 5: What do you make of the injuries?

00:03:51
Speaker 6: Alrighty though you Savage down, Burrios down, sant Tender, we know, down right, Jimi Garcia down. What do you make of the injuries to start the year for the Blue Jays? Do they have enough depth to cover all these all these injuries of guys they're expecting to contribute a lot.

00:04:07
Speaker 3: Well before all these injuries happened. We were sitting on Bluebird Terry talking about who's gonna be their five starters? Are they going to go with six starters. There was also a time Max Schurz there wasn't in their rotation. He was sitting at home as a free agent and they went out signed him, and you're like, WHOA, Now you have seven eight starters. You have all this depth. But I think teams are gonna get tested with their debt at some point throughout the season. It just happens to be super early with the Blue Jays right now. Yes, if someone wants to go down in that starting rotation, I think their depth is going to be tested. And I don't think there's a ton of depth kind of after the five guys they have in the rotation right now, at least proven depth. You know, going into spring training, and once they signed Max Scherzer, you know Eric Glauer was going to be their seventh starter. You know, now he's pitching Game three of this series or the third game of the season. So the depth is going to be tested early, but all these teams are going to go through it at some point or another. The blueges happened to do it, you know, pretty early on in the season, but getting give me Garcia is kind of you know, it's going to be such a big deal to them. I think he was the guy they probably missed the most last year during their postseason stretch, because when he's healthy and he's on, he's electric, and he's the back of the bullpen guy that they really desperately need.

00:05:27
Speaker 4: Injuries early in the year could be the first sign of the most fearful thing people teams that go to the playoffs fear World Series hangover. Do you see any other thing that lingers like that besides pitching injuries and the amount of innings that they threw because they pitched an entire extra month.

00:05:47
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I think if you guys listened to John Snyder's initial meeting and he quoted George Springer, it's like, this is the first time they've really had a bullseye on their back. You know, they're they're being hunted. They're not the hunter anymore. And as much as you want to kind of go into spring training and pretend like, hey, let's just do everything we did last year, you know, we'll sneak up on teams and you know, it's about us versus them. Everyone's going to give the Blue Jays their best. You know, if teams have an option of running out their closer back to back days, or they're back into their bullpen back to back days, they're moving guys up to face the Blue Jays to kind of size themselves up. That's what they're going to face. That's what the Dodgers have faced over the last couple of years. That's what teams like the Yankees, you know, always have to deal with. But I think there's also a reason, you know, up until last year, there hasn't been back to back World Series champions one. I think it's just incredibly difficult to get to the World Series back to back years, yet alone to make the playoffs multiple years in a row. So the Blue Jays have a big challenge in front of them, not just about being having that bulls on their back, but it's just really difficult to get back to the postseason year and year out. So it's gonna be a big challenge for him.

00:07:00
Speaker 2: Hey, with seakeek, we're looking ahead at games, So let's look at the weekend.

00:07:03
Speaker 1: Let's start with Friday.

00:07:05
Speaker 2: What else do we have Cam Schlitzler is making his season debut. We'll see if Luis Severino is the usual dude on the road versus at home. Kevin Gossman pitching in that game for Toronto. Chris Sale will pitch for Atlanta. Sandy al Contra on the mound for the Marlins against the Rockies. Atlanta, by the way, is playing the the Royals on the weekend. Here that includes what's your game? Do you know who's pitching?

00:07:35
Speaker 1: Oh?

00:07:36
Speaker 2: No, they've started to lay them out.

00:07:43
Speaker 5: Are good?

00:07:44
Speaker 4: The matchups are good because it's all the best starting pitchers going against each other. But like the team matchups Pirates, Mets, not a lot of fight in, you know, not like, oh, you know, we're really banging heads here, Twins Orioles, White Sox, Brewers. It just feels like I wanted to look down the list and go, man, I'm seeing all these all these number ones on the mound, and I'm like Red Sox, Reds, like what Rangers, Phillies, they have a long history of what opening days like. It just feels like a weird, weird mishmash of teams.

00:08:20
Speaker 1: I agree, some make sense, some don't.

00:08:22
Speaker 2: By the way, AJ's game on Saturday is Waka against Ronaldo Lopez.

00:08:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, it'd be good. Yeah, two good good names. Walka's teammate Ronaldo. Yeah, Villa was.

00:08:33
Speaker 1: He didn't really pitch last year.

00:08:34
Speaker 5: No, but they said his Villa was down the spring. So we'll see. We'll find out together. But I can't wait to go to the Atlanta. It's gonna be fun.

00:08:41
Speaker 6: See Vinnie, see Jack, see a bunch of the Royals, and then see a bunch of braves, people that I know from from a long time ago.

00:08:49
Speaker 2: Code for you if you want to go to any of those games that we're talking about. Territory one zero ten percent off tickets at Sea Geek, and you can make sure you click the link in the description of this episode to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so that you can use it later. You know how it works with Sea Geek. Green means good, red means it's not their favorite offer, so look for the best values. They help you out with that. Hey, I want to get into a couple of topics that you've hit recently on Bluebird Territory. Also, I want to let our audience know that right now while they're watching, if they can throw a subscribe on the show, that'd be cool, since you guys are at nine hundred and ninety one subscribers and the thousands of cool number. So let's see if we can get there in the next five minutes before this segment ens. Okay, KP first one from the show. It seems like I don't remember if it's you that I was listening to or someone else on the show was pretty high on the Orioles.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: So who was that?

00:09:45
Speaker 2: And if so, I feel like you have to play the elimination game, Like, if you like the Orioles and you think they're going to make the playoffs, you've got to pick a team in that division that's not going to make the playoffs. Forget the raise, but of those four, who is not going to make the playoffs?

00:09:59
Speaker 3: Don't put me on the spot like that. Come on, But yeah, it was me who was high on the Ools. I think the Oriols have a lot of the same ingredients that the Blue Jays had last year. They're being slept on a little bit. They have a lot of young talent, they have actually superstar talent on there. And if you look at their five guys in the rotation, do they have a legitimate ace, but they got five very accomplished major league pitchers. They got Ryan Helsley in the back end of the bullpen. They got Cano in the back end of the bullpen. At some point they're gonna get Felix Batista back in the bullpen too. I love the signing of Pete Alonso. I believe he's gonna lead the American or I think he's gonna leave major League Baseball on RBIs. I think about that lineup they built kind of around him. I love the addition of Taylor Ward. He's an RBI machine too. He hit you know, thirty plus homers last year in Anaheim. I think his game is going to be elevated, getting out at Anaheim, getting into a winning environment, being around a lot of other really good players. I think they just have all the makings. And if I had to pick a team, that oo, man, if I had to pick a team, and it's hard because last night that offense was so good for the Yankees, but it just felt like without Garrett Cole and without Rendon to start the year, it felt like maybe they could fall behind and it would be a lot for them to catch up. But the way the offense. Look last night, they can run pretty much anyone out there on the mound, and they're gonna be able to win some games. So I don't really know which one of those four teams is the odd man out. I love what the Red Sox did in the offseason two. I think once again, they got Garrett Crochet kind of leading that pitching staff, Sonny Gray, you know, they got Bryan Bello BeO, you know, and I think they got two other really legit starters in that rotation. They got a Roaldess Chapman at the back end of the bullpen. I love a lot of the young talent they have out there. And I know Alex Regman's not there anymore, but I think his imprint is in that Boston Red Sox organization. I think what he was able to do and be around those young guys for an entire year, I don't think that.

00:11:58
Speaker 1: Leaves a right one more from me on the show.

00:12:03
Speaker 2: So can you tell AJ and Kratz about your Ross Atkins take, since you said on the show, like, hey, it wasn't your favorite guy and now you're respecting the work that's being put together by him in the organization.

00:12:16
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I love being I love being at Toronto Blue Jay, and you know, I was drafted and brought up by a different general manager. The team was having a ton of success. You know, we didn't ultimately win a World Series, but we won a division. We got to the Alcs back to back years. A new president of Baseball Operation comes in, brings his own general manager in. You know, he starts, you know, year after year, they start kind of taking my friends and my teammates that were part of those two thousand and fifteen and sixteen teams, you know, and not re signing them or trading them off. You know, fast forward a couple of years in twenty nineteen and I get traded off. And yeah, I wasn't super happy with him. Wasn't super happy with getting traded. I wasn't super were happy with, you know, him kind of stripping down something that I thought was special. And you know, I'm a man of my word, and I think I was definitely wrong. He had a vision for the team long term. He knew he had guys like Laudie and Bo and Calvin Viigio and a bunch of these young guys in the lower minor leagues and ultimately he made the right choice because he got a team to, you know, four outs away from winning a World Series and we're sitting here talking about the Blue Jays as potential the beast of the Al East once again. And yeah, you know, I got to give him a lot of credit. He had to make some tough decisions. They weren't very popular decisions with the players, and definitely weren't popular decisions amongst the fans across Canada, but he made the right decision.

00:13:48
Speaker 4: I'd be in your boat because I'm kind of disappointed the fact that my roommate only got two years and he got five years. Do you feel like there's a little bit of a disconnect or is that like, hey, Schneis, I know you did a good job, but this is my team and I'll get rid of you at any point. When I see those numbers, that feels like that's what it looks like.

00:14:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was a little bit surprised by the five versus the two. But you know, maybe, you know, a general manager could still kind of have the idea of, hey, this is the team we built right now, but he can still have kind of have this vision of five years out in the future, you know, about guys that are coming up through the organization where a guy in you know, the managerial seat still kind of has to be in a much like a player. What have you done for me lately? Right now? You've got to prove yourself again and again and again. And ultimately that's the direction that they felt was best for the organization to give him some job security, but at the same time, not this long term extension where you know, things don't work out, they're eating money and having to fire him. I was a little bit confused by it. I thought he had done enough over the last couple of years, not only in the success that they had had, and it's been three out of four years they've been to the postseason. I felt like the relationships he's built with the players, especially a guy like Laddie who signed up for the next fourteen years. He thought maybe he would get the same sort of duration that Ross Atkins get got. But that's kind of the decision that Mark Schapiro and the Rogers family decided to go with the two year deal with for him.

00:15:23
Speaker 4: We saw a lot of theatrics last night in the opening night of Baseball. Whether people like it or not, you've been in different opening days at different stadiums, whether you were the home team or the away team.

00:15:36
Speaker 5: How does the Blue Jays.

00:15:37
Speaker 4: Opening day rank in all their festivities and ceremonies rank compared to the other teams that you run.

00:15:45
Speaker 3: Man, it's a great question. I would say it's up there. I mean, obviously the roof being close helped, so it's very loud. But I will tell you there has been a giant difference from twenty nineteen when I was there to now, just with this stadium renovations, with you know, the people behind the scenes running all these sort of events you know got to witness. Then getting back to the postseason, and it was night and day difference in terms of like introductions for the postseason scoreboard, entertainment, you know, all that sort of stuff, you know the last year versus you know when I was playing there in twenty sixteen. So I'm really excited to get up there and see what they have in store, you know, revealing two banners. And I know it's not a World Series championship that they're hoping for, but an AL Lease championship and an American League championship are something that the fans are going to celebrate. I expected to be super lively, rocking, and I expect them to put on a great show because that's what the Blue Jays do.

00:16:48
Speaker 7: KP.

00:16:49
Speaker 1: We're excited. We'll see out there.

00:16:50
Speaker 2: We'll be looking for you, and thanks for joining us, dude, Happy Opening Day.

00:16:53
Speaker 3: We're happy Opening Day, guys are.

00:16:57
Speaker 2: Like takes with KP. Miller Light a big sponsor of Bluebird Territory. Why not go grab some Millard like today because game time is Millard time, must be legal drinking age. Celebrate responsibly, Ryan Davis straining us right now, Ryan, happy Opening Day or evening to you as it'll be out in Seattle at night, so.

00:17:20
Speaker 1: Set the scene for us.

00:17:22
Speaker 2: How pumped are Mariners fans for this season compared to the last few seasons.

00:17:27
Speaker 8: I've been covering this team since two thousand and six, and I have never seen a city or a fan base more excited about a season than this year. There's more anticipation. There's more excitement for this season than any season I've had covering the beat. And it's a long time now. This is my twentieth Opening Day, which is kind of terrifying.

00:17:48
Speaker 5: By the way, I know you're in the press box at least.

00:17:50
Speaker 6: I think you're in the press box in Safeco whatever it's called now, it'd always be Safeco to me. Did you get some popcorn? That's all I want to know, because the popcorn in there, for some reason, is just better than any other press box I've been in.

00:18:02
Speaker 5: I don't know why.

00:18:03
Speaker 7: Now I got here a little early.

00:18:05
Speaker 8: I haven't. I'm like the first person here. It wasn't planned to be here this early, but you know, Seattle traffic and everything else, so they haven't put the popcorn out yet. But yeah, it's addictive, like if you could have beer. That popcorn is like the greatest thing ever because it's salty and buttery, but it's not too much in one way or the other. It's really it's really awful. I eat so much of it throughout the season.

00:18:27
Speaker 6: Every time I go to Seattle. It's like, I gotta get some of the popcorn. And I don't know why. It just tastes different. Maybe it's different corn up there in Seattle. I don't know, but it's really really And by the way, you can have a beer. It's opening day. You can do whatever you want, right, But that's a whole different thing. I listen, I love the Mariners team this year. I love what they did in the offseason. I love their pitching. Obviously, I'm picking them to win the American League for the first time, to actually get to the World Series. You mentioned the fan base, but does that put more pressure on Dan Wilson and these players or are they just immune to it now because of how last year went.

00:18:59
Speaker 7: You know, I mean it could.

00:19:01
Speaker 8: I think you'd rather be picked, rather be picked first than last in a lot of situations, but it can put more pressure on them. I do think that, Like one of the things that Dan is very good at is being steady to the moment and not overreacting to a three game swinger here or there, or even five games where they may be playing poor. He's so kind of like flatlined with how he acts. But I think that gives the players kind of a calm to them. And also, this team is so process oriented, Like I know every baseball player tries to say that, but guys like cal Rally and Brendan Donnov and Josh Naylor, Julio, they're just kind of they're they're just so in tune with the process that, like every day is about preparation for the game. Like that's their focus. The game is kind of like the gravy after they put in all this work to be ready for it. So I don't think that the pressure should be that much. But then again, like what if they start off five and eight or five and ten, will it?

00:20:00
Speaker 7: Will it mount? I don't think so. It's a pretty mature team.

00:20:03
Speaker 8: And also this team is a team that seems to always kind of play itself into a little bit of trouble and then you know, rally late and kind of, you know, come on strong towards the end.

00:20:14
Speaker 2: Hey, Ryan, were there any potential extensions that we were expecting for the starting pitching? You know, this team is in a great place. Like you mentioned, they've put a little into it. They saw finally what it meant to add a guy like Gino, and really Naylor was the big one last year around the trade deadline.

00:20:31
Speaker 1: They keep Naylor, they add more like Donovan.

00:20:33
Speaker 2: We're talking about all of this, but then we look at the future and say, okay, are these starting pitchers going to be here for the next five years plus?

00:20:43
Speaker 7: Yeah, I haven't heard.

00:20:44
Speaker 8: I know Jerry Dipoto had talked about engaging some extension talks with some of his pitchers.

00:20:50
Speaker 7: I don't know.

00:20:50
Speaker 8: You know, obviously the obvious one would be Logan Gilbert, but I haven't heard anything along those lines. You know, he's the closest to free agency, and maybe that's to makes him the most difficult to sign to an extension because he is that close. You know, maybe Brian Wu, who's in his first year of our be eligibility, is a guy that's easier to sign to an extension and extend through those arbers, which can be important, But we haven't heard anything like that. Then again, like we didn't hear anything about cal Rawley's extension until right up to the day it happened, and you know, I know the Mariners have looked at it. The one thing is is like, you know, if you're Logan Gilbert and you see what Dylan s Scott and some of those guys, Yes, free agent sounds pretty enticing, but I think, you know, maybe it's somebody like Brian Wu or George Kirby, but I do think that that's something they have to address. The one thing is is like they do have two young guys in their in their minor league system, Kate Anderson and Ryan Sloan. That makes the idea of losing one of those guys to free agency, or if you're forced to trade them because they're going to go into a walk. Here, having those guys in the minor leagues makes a little bit more. It's easier to stomach maybe losing one of those guys eventually down the road.

00:22:02
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00:22:17
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00:22:32
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00:23:03
Speaker 6: Have we put the Randy because he's a free agent right at the end of the year, Randy Rose Arena. Have we put this to bed yet? To Cal Rawley, Randy and Rose Arena, has this been officially squashed? Because I know I was tired of talking about it, but you know, now there's another press conference about how.

00:23:16
Speaker 5: We're good, Like, is it finally done yet? Because I'm over it?

00:23:20
Speaker 7: Yeah, I hope. So.

00:23:21
Speaker 8: I'm certainly tired of writing about it. I feel like we've spent more words and time talking about it than necessary. I think, yeah, I think they're fine. I never thought they weren't fine, honestly, but I think from a perception standpoint, what fan bases are asking, but the fan base is questioning all that stuff. Having Randy come out make that second statement because the first one wasn't so great, I think helps kind of squash it. You know, I'm sure there's still part of Cal that didn't like hearing what Randy said after that game, And you know, apology is words only, so like I think, honestly, the big thing is just let's just get to the regular season.

00:23:59
Speaker 7: And play baseball.

00:24:00
Speaker 8: And I think that all that that kind of stuff goes away. Randy's got priorities. This is his free agent walk here. You know, he's going to try and have a big season. Cal's got, you know, coming off one of the greatest seasons a catcher will ever have. How does he respond to all of this? So I think it's pretty minimal. And you know as Aja, you know as well as I do that like once the season starts and the grind begins, you don't have time for the drama. You're so busy just trying to get ready to play every single night that the little stuff doesn't come up. Now, Like if you you know, things go south, people start playing poorly, you know, somebody is being in pain, maybe it comes up. But for the most part, these guys, you know, the culture they have in the clubhouse, it's more about preparation and doing those little things. They don't have time to worry about the drama that maybe you know, used to be so written about in like places like Boston and New York.

00:24:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you don't have to be best friends with everyone either.

00:24:50
Speaker 8: Exactly due you're not even friends with aj are you?

00:24:53
Speaker 1: No?

00:24:53
Speaker 2: Only Uh well, let's see we we on Mondays Wednesdays and no.

00:24:58
Speaker 5: One is right and that's the point.

00:25:01
Speaker 8: Oh no, come on, ag, I know you've got the good chemistry with Adam and and Wayne.

00:25:05
Speaker 7: On those guys.

00:25:06
Speaker 1: Come on now Saturdays.

00:25:08
Speaker 6: True, yeah, I've I actually have a lot of friends, right, and I just don't like to talk about it.

00:25:14
Speaker 1: Saturdays is when he's my best friend.

00:25:16
Speaker 5: That's Goldie. I like Goldie.

00:25:20
Speaker 8: Goldie's great. Had a bad haircut, He's he's he's hurting a little bit. They might have to put it opening day.

00:25:25
Speaker 5: Wait, hold up, Goldie's hair is off for Opening Day?

00:25:28
Speaker 7: Yeah it was. It was looking a little rough. He got mad when I called him, I go, are you going with the hag seth look? And he really didn't like that one bit.

00:25:36
Speaker 5: Whoa wow, Wow, I didn't. I didn't realize Goldie could have a bad hair day.

00:25:41
Speaker 7: It happens, how about who.

00:25:45
Speaker 6: I know we're a little off topic here, but we're gonna get to the TV stof so this fits perfectly. But who is Goldie Stack guy during the year, because does he still have Gee?

00:25:52
Speaker 5: Have you met Gee?

00:25:54
Speaker 7: No?

00:25:54
Speaker 8: I haven't met Gee. I've met Alex. Mayer does a lot there pr guy. He's really good with the numbers and helps out Goldie a lot with some of the intricate stuff. Gary Hill's pretty good as well, so you know he got a few. And Aaron's a nerd by heart, so he's on his iPad looking that stuff up a lot. But you know he doesn't bring in his fancy guy for the day to day games.

00:26:16
Speaker 7: It's only no.

00:26:17
Speaker 6: He brings Alex in when we do Fox. He has Alex two games for him where he had Gee one time.

00:26:21
Speaker 5: I think it was.

00:26:22
Speaker 6: Somewhere he flew Gey in and I had never seen Gee, so I didn't know if he was Seattle.

00:26:26
Speaker 8: Only Alex is a savant on Baseball Reference and fangrafts. It's like I thought I was pretty good at looking up stuff, but I just have him do it because he's way faster and way better at finding the stuff I need.

00:26:42
Speaker 1: Hey, so AJ mentioned it. Let's transition.

00:26:45
Speaker 2: You tweeted a few times over the last few days about the TV situation. I know the Mariners fans were involved in this too, So what happened because I'm only getting my take from like a national perspective, and also like things seemed very secretive, But did it seems like some deals were done and they wanted to announce them all together to fans on opening day on where they can actually watch the games on television versus getting the streaming app.

00:27:12
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was.

00:27:14
Speaker 8: It wasn't handled well MLB. I don't think HANDLE did well the fourteen teams under their umbrella of Major League Baseball channeling, the distribution and the production rights. You know, they didn't announce the channel lineups till essentially the full channel lineups till today, and even that was evolving because I was trying to, like, look, my parents in Montana are trying to figure out what channel the game is on, and like they were going to scrap their entire cable system just to go to streaming because they were worried that they weren't going to be able to get the games because they didn't know, you know, and like there's a lot of people like that, and I just it.

00:27:49
Speaker 7: Was frustrating for a lot of fans.

00:27:51
Speaker 8: I was getting daily emails what channels are the games going to be on. Some people paid the ninety nine dollars for the streaming fee, thinking that was attached to their cable, and the Mariners have been really cool about saying they'll refund that money for people that were confused by the situation.

00:28:06
Speaker 7: But like, this.

00:28:06
Speaker 8: Wasn't handled well, and like you're the Mariners, you want to be able to announce it right away. You want to say, hey, look it's gonna be on Knees Channel this time. We're gonna do it here, and they couldn't do it. And you know, I know there was some frustration within the Mariners because they wanted to get it out. They wanted the information out there, and they haven't done it, you know, And I guess to me, it looks it sure feels like MLB really wants everything to push to the streaming angle. Hey, I'm a cord cutter. I love the streaming package, like the idea that you can get in game or like your in market game stream plus the MLB app and MLBtv to watch all the games. I'm in on that, Like I'll pay them money for that. I'm perfectly willing to pay them money for that. But at the same time, like there is a large segment of the fan base that watches games on traditional cable providers and waiting till the daybook, the day of opening day to announce that I just think is doing a disservice to people who are consuming your product.

00:29:05
Speaker 7: It's bad business, you know. And I don't blame the Mariners. This is MLB.

00:29:09
Speaker 8: Mariners couldn't come out and say anything, you know, they couldn't even really come out and say, hey, look, be patient, we're working through this.

00:29:15
Speaker 7: This is taking some time.

00:29:16
Speaker 8: These deals don't happen overnight and may lead up to opening day, but we will get you the games you want on the providers you want. But it's just been a super frustrating thing. And I'm still getting tweets from fans because they're not finding what they want right now.

00:29:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair, and it's a great point.

00:29:35
Speaker 2: I think we reached a point where, you know, I work in this and I'm pretty tech savvy, and I'm starting to get a little confused about everything going on, and that's when it starts to get pretty dicey, where it's like somebody who's doing this every day. So taking back to the history for a moment, here, Ryan. Of course we go back to the number one word that's used in the media space with MLB that's hopefully getting solved over time, as blackouts. But I do feel like at some point, you know, the way it was looked at was almost like it's this biblical thing, like, of course there are blackouts, Like, no, it is.

00:30:10
Speaker 1: It is not like that, like it shouldn't be fixed.

00:30:12
Speaker 2: It has not been fixed yet, right, So now we're adding on the confusion here, and it is causing I would agree with you, And that's why your tweets stood out a lot of turmoil on social.

00:30:22
Speaker 1: Media where it's not just vitriol.

00:30:24
Speaker 2: It's even like the nice fans that don't usually send out tweets and you'll look and it's like they've only tweeted once, but they just created account just to try and find something. So someone trying to is that are trying to someone trying to infiltrate your space?

00:30:37
Speaker 7: No?

00:30:38
Speaker 8: No, they want to kind of clean up around me. So but like it's just simple, where can I watch the baseball game? It's simple as that, Where can I watch the baseball game? And I think that's what fans have run into. They don't want to search. They want it to be easy. You know, there are a ton of casual fans that aren't that don't want to cut the cord. They just want to be able to flip it to channel whatever it is and know that it's going to be there ninety percent of the time. Sure, Like you know, you know, it's still frustrating for fans when Apple TV's doing games or Peacock or whatever and they can't get that or they don't have it. But you're investing money, You're asking people to subscribe or pay a higher tier for their cable, and they're willing to do that, but then you've got to make it easy for them to have access to it. Make it clear. Not everybody understands this, you know, And even like me, I get frustrated by all of this at times, because like you just want easy answers, and I feel like fans were not getting the easy answers. Not the Mariner's fault. MLB should have, you know, done something a little different, but you know, cable and MLB kind of have them kind of held captive in that way too. You want to watch the games, you want to watch it on your cable provider. Then you're going to have to wait till opening day to find out for certain I mean like with the Yankees, you know it's going to be on Yes, with with the Dodgers, you know it's going to be on spectrum. But with MLB, you know, doing these negotiations with these companies and trying to get the carriage fees and all that, it's a little bit different. And I don't know that we'll ever see like it on YouTube, TV or some of the more streaming platforms because honestly, like, if you're MLB and people are hosting on a streaming platform, why wouldn't you just get the app and pay the streaming fees there instead.

00:32:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, my last one on this to relate it to the Mariners was that they dealt with this right of two or three years ago where they were worried about being put on a higher tier. Now they end up out of that whole mix in there with MLB, And I guess my point is a lot of times there are like spending issues in all of baseball that are blamed on the media and the TV side of things, But I'm like, are we doing it right?

00:32:35
Speaker 1: Because if you do it right, more fans will pay and sign up.

00:32:39
Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:32:40
Speaker 8: I think sometimes we get so many people trying to figure it out and so many different voices trying to figure out what's best for the fan, when sometimes it's again the simplest answers.

00:32:52
Speaker 7: You know, what is it?

00:32:52
Speaker 8: I always just joke that the team should have a vice president of common sense, and like, what is the common sense thing here? What is the simplest nature of the situation you're dealing with? Because oftentimes that can be the right answer. It's like the whole Randy.

00:33:07
Speaker 7: And Cow thing.

00:33:07
Speaker 8: The simplest thing in the world would have been for Randy to just come out the next day and say, look, yeah, I miss I was upset. You know, I took it the wrong way. I shouldn't have said it. I apologize to Cow. Then everybody moves on. But then it carried on for like a week and a half when it didn't need to. You know, that's it's just the simple the simplest answer often is the best answer.

00:33:28
Speaker 6: Totally, totally, totally agree on that, Yes, student, the right is that blurry for you too, Ryan, because man I look different.

00:33:37
Speaker 7: Yeah, you're looking a little blurry, looking a little rough. Okay.

00:33:41
Speaker 6: For the Mariners and you're talking about the TV and all that the Yankees are on eleven different channels this year? Can you name all eleven different channels? You said the Yankees are always on? Yes, last night they weren't on. Yes, They're on Netflix, They're gonna be on Fox, They're gonna be on I'm sure they're gonna be on NBC, They're gonna be on Peacock. I think it's eleven different channels that the Yanks. Would you like the Marriers to be on eleven different channels? Because I'll tell teams this all the time. If you're bad, guess what, you're not on any other channel. When you're good, you're on all the channels.

00:34:12
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's it's fine for me.

00:34:13
Speaker 8: Like like I said, I have to spend a little bit of time out of my day explaining my parents where the games are going to be on at But no, like you know, when you're successful, things like you know, I don't love Sunday night baseball. I like having my Sunday evenings to go out and have dinner or whatever. But when you're good and a team is good, that's what's going to happen. You're going to move to the forefront. And Mariners have a ton of national games early on. If they're continue to be successful, they're going to keep doing that. I mean that two major stars in baseball. They have the best catcher in the best center fielder in baseball. It's going to be a huge deal whenever they play in games against the Astros or you know, when they play the Blue Jays. I'm guessing that some of those games will get picked up nationally. The rematch of the LCS. So yeah, it's it's it's really a good time in Seattle. You have the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl, you have the Mariners at their apex, sew super Sonics are going to come back. I mean, it's a pretty good time to be a Seattle sports.

00:35:03
Speaker 7: Fan right now.

00:35:05
Speaker 6: By the way, we didn't we didn't talked about Have we talked about the Seahawks since we talked to you last about, you know, them winning the Super Bowl.

00:35:11
Speaker 5: I didn't think we've talked about have we?

00:35:13
Speaker 1: No?

00:35:14
Speaker 7: I don't think so.

00:35:14
Speaker 8: I know that, like we're written about a little bit, just the Mariners guys going to the Super Bowl and really feeding off of that in the NFC Title Game. Also, Mike McDonald, former college baseball player, huge baseball nerd like loves it. Like he went to a comedy show and cal Rawley was there in Calci that he just would not stop asking questions about baseball, about like scouting, how they do their their pregame meetings, all this other stuff.

00:35:39
Speaker 7: He was super, super nerdy about baseball.

00:35:44
Speaker 1: Nice, we're gonna have to get him on.

00:35:45
Speaker 5: Well, Ryan, I can get him on. I know, I know the right people to call.

00:35:49
Speaker 1: Let's get him on. If you know, if we want guests that can talk ball.

00:35:51
Speaker 5: But you don't want me to talk about anything but baseball. Yeah, so we can't have the football coach.

00:35:56
Speaker 7: He's a Georgia guys and AJ's from Georgia around there or something like that.

00:36:00
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I've heard he's great. So the people I know say he's great. But by the way, Goldsmith says, his hair looks amazing. He texted me back and just wanted you to know, no matter what, he looks elite. So if he says something to you today, maybe it came from me.

00:36:12
Speaker 7: Just say okay, works for me.

00:36:15
Speaker 2: Ryan, Good stuff, man, Go do your thing and appreciate it. Happy Opening Day, slash night to you out there.

00:36:20
Speaker 1: In Seattle.

00:36:21
Speaker 7: Now you guys have fun to him. Man could be