It's time for our weekly conversation with Bill Krueger, brought to you by the brand new Occidental Hall next to Lumanfield on Occidental, Seattle's newest hot spot for sports fans, with massive HD screens and a menu packed with Seattle's best smash burger, wings and the best local craft beers in town. Now with Bill Krueger, here's Safti and Dick.
Ah Thursdays being Bill Krueger talking baseball and Bill, as I mentioned, welcome, Welcome, and as I mentioned in the last segment, going to Break. I mean, it's tough to say there's any big series in May. But if you were to, if you were to rank all the potential series that you could get in May, a four game series at Houston probably would be at the top of the list.
I think that's fair. You know, the Marritors were there were just they were just like beat on them like a drum for many years, and then the last couple of years has held their own against the Astros, and I see more of the same coming. They got him there three and a half years behind the Mariners now, and you know, you keep tripping great players away from the Astros and Eventually they have to they have to show that they're not the same team and the marriage
are catching them without William McCovey Alvarez. So time is right, and the Mariners had a good picture, a great picture in my opinion. George Kirby, So the time is right. The team is playing well with confidence, and I think the one thing that Houston has now is the confidence of a champion. But they're not a championship team.
So George Kirby goes tonight for the first time Bill Woo challenges is he facing both physically and mentally? What's what's as objective as he takes the hill tonight.
I'll find his release point, get a rhythm going, uh, locate his fastball, and then work from there. This guy is coing of for I mean, he's a magnificent sprite thrower with a beautiful delivery. He's one of the real special control guys. H I rank them right up there with some of the best that have come down the pike in the last few decades. So, uh, I think he's a brilliant pitcher. Now, hey, look he's been he's been pitching simulated games and pitching in the minor leagues.
This is gonna be a whole quantum step up. But this is the guy that sees himself is great, and so far he has been great. He's gonna he's not gonna have any trepidation about facing these guys. They are a very right hand hitting team and with Alba, without Albarez and Tucker's gone, and know Albarez, it's gonna be you know, Rity's are going to have to try to hit him, and they're not going to have much success. I think the only story of this game will be, uh,
how how far will we go? Because we're gonna you know, there's gonna kid glove him, and you know, and unfortunately, in every aspect h starting pitch, he gets sold short. They get sold short when they're healthy, they get should sold short when they're supposed to be rehappy to come to the big leagues and pitch, because as soon as they get the four or five innings, they go to
the big leagues. You know, the common rule is if you want to pitch five in the big leagues, you need to throw seven in Triple A. And I think they always cut pitchers one game short because they're salivating to get him to the big leagues, right, and then they want to, you know, have a cadre of other pitchers pitching the game that are of lesser quality. You know, it's just it's more of the same, you know problem that I have with the whole the whole way it's
it's put together. But I don't want to downplay the fact that this guy is back. He's a brilliant young pitcher and I expect to see, you know, the George Kirby of old. I think he's he's going to be healthy, the ball's gonna leap out of his hand. He's going to show you great control and great stuff, and I expect him to do very well. The question is how far will he get in the game.
Well, and then you've got Ryce Miller and Logan Gilbert, who are just you know, a step or two behind Kirbyan coming back. What is the typical length of time between a simulated game and back to action? And then how long are you usually on that pitch count where they're just really kind.
Of babying you.
Well, each of these guys has got Bryce Miller is pretty close to action to be where he is now. So Bryce Miller, uh, you know, I always say they should go and fetch in real competition, where the guy that's uh, that's on the other side of this one on one equation is trying to take food off your plate, because that's the only way you're gonna know at full
extension whether a guy is healthy or not. And if he's got a bit of an elbow problem, the last place you're going to have a problem is at the elbow. If you can kind of understand that, you could throw the ball at your shoulder and you can really use your shoulder up to the point where you're you're really accelerating at the last possible is of your of your release, and that's where the flexer bundle. If that's Bryce Miller's probably know, that's where Logan Gilbert's problem is. They're gonna
really know at that point. They're not gonna Logan Gilbert is not gonna know until that last point of full release. I know that because I've had oh, i'd say probably three different flexor injuries, So I understand the flexer problem pretty well. And you can feel good and it can go right, but it's all gonna come down to where, like I said, full extension and the guys trying to together guys trying to take food off your off your table. So so getting back to your question, Bryce Miller probably
gets one. Maybe rehab starting is ready to go. I'm just wildly sort of guessing, whereas I think might want to pitch twice. But these guys, like I said, man, it's that Pavlov's dogs. You know, you dangle the carrot and they want to eat, so you know they're gonna want to get these guys back. And oh, we got it back for three innings and then they have to throw all this pitching at it and then they're complaining that they don't we don't have any pitcher. What are
we gonna do. It's like it's like poor Kasey Lawrence. He's on a plane again. He throws five inks. Granted he's not over powering of one run baseball, and his reward is he thanks a lot back to triple A for you. I mean, makes sense. Why doesn't he hurt a spot? If he pitched that good, he should stay right because there's no time to not have a fresh arm. Because everybody's got their little spot in the week. And my day is Tuesday, and then my day is Thursday.
And my my color pen is purple, and they write me on the calendar. It's like, come on, play the game. Let's put the resources into the game, Hugh, And let's play the game. That's what.
Yeah, No, I get it, But one more on Kirby tonight. So what whatever the nature of the Souldier injury had, what would be are the Are there some pitches that maybe in the back of your mind with that you say, Oh, I don't know if I can give it my all?
Is it?
Is it just a fastball, like I don't know if I can just rev that thing up? Or is it the the torque that comes with some of the breaking pitches? Like if you had if you were on the mound and you had had Kirby's injury, and I had to say, pistol to your temple. You gotta tell me, like I'm the trainer of the Mariners, you got to tell me the one pitch that you might be reluctant to know whether or not you can really let it fly. What would be that pitch?
I think with the shoulder, he knows, he knows, he's fine. The shoulder is gonna it's gonna rear up as he as he uh works his way along. If he's got some weakness in there, it's going to start to he's going to start to feel the weakness or the fatigue in his shoulder. But it most notably won't come from one pitch the other one With the elbow. When you're at full extension, that's the only way you're gonna know. And so the elbow is gonna be and it's not
a certain pitch. It's going to be at full extension. It's not Realdy throwing a slider or a fastball or a split or a curve with these with these arm situations, it's not throwing in particular pitch. It's pitching at full speed. And I I you don't get to full speed you until it really comes down to live action where they're really active, you're really going one on one with somebody and you're really letting it rip. So I don't I
don't foresee him worried about any pitch. And my guess is Kirby is completely I think he probably felt like, why did you pull the plug on me? In spring training? I have little inflammation. They could have just backed me off a fuzz and got me back going again. But they really set him back and read made sure he's okay, and really strengthened it and got all the inflammation out. I see him as being totally mindfree about his arm.
Whatever you do, the other guy's got got some some steps to get through for sure.
Well let's talk about guy that's been the ace of the staff thus far this season. He's five and one with a two six five ERA, and he's the only guy in baseball that's thrown six innings or more every single time.
He's taken the taking the mound nine times.
And what I've noticed about Brian Wouin and maybe I just missed this last year in the year before, but I'm just watching his last start Bill.
And it just the ball just explodes.
It reminds me of Freddy Couples, where it just looks like he's swinging in slow mo and he's still hitting a seven iron two hundred yards in his prime.
It's just it's effortless what Brian Wu's doing.
Yeah, you're right, And I think that's part of his deception, is that he's so smooth that it's the ball just gets on you. He's a very good athlete. Number One, if you're watching field, a position. He's a former infielder. He's a good athlete, and that has allowed him to be very good at repeating his delivery. He has the uniqueness he does come from a low slot to kind
of upshoot people, and it's unique in that regard. It's concerning he's had two TJ's, and you know why, because he's putting a lot of pressure on his elbow the way he throws elbow lead. I don't mean to cast a shadow on him because I like him, but what's really impressive about him is that it's not just trickery. It's not just he's easy on the eyes and the ball explodes. It's not because he's got this unique ability to kind of upshoot the ball in the area of
the high strike zone. It's the fact that he commands the fastball. It pitches fearlessly inside the strike zone, which is sort of counter to what they're teaching kids to pitch with. They're teaching everybody to pitch above the zone and below the zone, above and below. Throw it hard, high spin, throw it spin, make it go down, you know, not teaching kids how to get people out. In this he has to throw a lot of fastballs because his other fishes are just okay, I'm going to get it
a little bit better. But he has to understand where the fastball has to go, and he does it well. He spots the fastball and he wins inside the strike zone. And he doesn't have to strike out everybody, because striking out everybody doesn't allow you to win games. Striking out everybody doesn't eliminate the bullpen like it should. You should. If you're pitching good baseball and you're a good starter, you should be able to get to the last two guys in the pen. You shouldn't have to tack on
four guys every game you picked. Well, that's what destroys the pitching staff. And he's great. He's pitching in deeping games because he's efficient. We don't talk enough about that. We talk about swinging miss swinging miss, well, swing and miss really counts win with two strikes, right, that's the only time swinging this matters. I don't care what happens. So we get I'll take the swing and miss then, But we want to talk about with percentage and we
want to talk about all this stuff. Right, It's just it's kind of nonsensical. To me, because winning in the side to strike zone is the key to being a great starter. Seventh and eighth to ninth inning is where strikeouts are more important, because more times than not, you're coming into a game where the heat is on, the game is on the line. Guys are on base hitter spring hitting hitting position where they're going to swing the bat,
and getting someone to strike out matters. But for the starter, if I can get somebody to put the ball in play to the second basement on the second pitch, I don't care how hard he hits it, and I get to put some pitches in my back pocket, I'm all for that. Yeah, that's good pitching, that's good baseball.
Bill Krueger with us, and Bill, let's go to the other side. And I'm curious your take on the infield. Obviously JP's JP, But but if Bill Krueger's making the decisions, what what is the best plan at first, second, and third base for the immediate future.
Well, they've got a they've got a long shuited and second baseman, right, they got Polanco who's not going to play defense, I guess, And you've got Reevoffs, You've got Dylan Moore and you got master Bony. They all play second, and so you know you like it. I'm not. I'm just I'm sort of laying the groundwork. I think Rolly Tiles is a good first basement. He's kind of twinkled to post Flintstone the dancing pair, but he can really
play first. They got a benefit because really got hurt in a sense role Boods got hurt, which was the first benefit because that forced Raady off first base, which made them take their dh Tella's telenes and put him at first. And they had, oh my goodness, this guy can really play first, and he can read. He play first. Do you notice they didn't pitch Hick for him the
other day because they wanted him. They could say they wanted to keep him for the next ab against the right hander, but they kept him because he's a better defender. He's a big target. He catches the base ball, he fields the baseball. He's got soft hands. So they've improved markedly with him at first second base. Dylan Moore moves around. Dylan Moore was there all the time. He'd be really good at second, but he's been kind of hit and
miss because he plays all over the place. And he's not playing as much right now because he's not getting any time because Williamson is playing third, and Williamson has to play every day or he goes to Triple A. And I like the player. He's a little not like a great hitter, but he's hitting enough that his defense is so good that you love him. Right. He's a nice looking young player. He puts the ball in play, so and then getting to Reboss Reeboss is just the
undersold good player. He's a good player. You know, he gets on base, he puts the ball in play, doesn't strike out. He plays the best second base of all of them. And Master Boney, you know, he's just gritty, he's he's the guy you won on your team. He's nuts and ball snails for breakfast. You know, he can play second, he can play third, he could play the outfield. He had dial to Moore are a nice compliment of players.
So I don't know where I'm headed here, but for me, Roddy Tills is at first as much as possible, and and obviously Crawford is playing has having a great year and playing excellent short stop, and we already swinging the bat and getting the ball in play, and getting on base. Is it is so interesting that he finally gets back to the leadoffs blot and he's a traditional leadoff hitter.
Baseball is all about, well, let's see, now, if we hit you first or second, you get zero point two, five, seven, six, four eight too more at bats per week. But you know, it doesn't really matter. It matters when you hit, not how many times you hit. And having a guy that's taking pitches and getting on base that's a leadoff hitter's because of default. A lot of things have happened because of default with this team. Injury has forced them to take and put guys that put the ball in play
and have more patients into the game. Roadblays, no patience, Ryan Bliss, a lot of strikeouts, yep, you know, and all of a sudden you added guys that could do that or got better on defense. There's been things that have happened that have been just because of the kind of the what what should be bad fortune that turned into good fortune. And of course Polanco is the secret uh,
he's the secret story behind the offense. I mean, you've been able to ignore the fact that Rodriguez is having another uneven season that because Polonco has been beyond comprehension, right, Just to follow up, Williams is going to play third, Crawford's gonna play short, Rowdy's gonna play first, And for me, I would say, let's see a little bit more of Reevos at second before he kind of loses his rhythm.
So I'd like to say, because every time he plays man, he makes great plays up the middle, and he puts the ball in play and he walks. I'm all for that. I don't care where you rank him or how much his slugging percentage is because I don't care.
Well, just follow up, you say, Williamson for those who say, hey, he just doesn't have the power to warrant uh that type of game. You know, day to day action at third base, you love his defense. Your response is, will.
Well, you know they've got they've got enough power, so you know, you know, third base is considered a corner power position. But you know you've got to catch her that could hit forty homers, so you're you're you're kind of getting that at some place, and you got a you got a centerfielder that's going to hit thirty. So you know the fact that third base doesn't hit, and the corner left field is going to hit twenty five. So they've got some homers out there. They don't They
don't need him to homer. They just need him to stay above water, not sink. He putting the ball in play. Don't try to get bigger than you are. Survive against those tough ridings, and get the hit the guys that you can hit, put the ball in play, to play the really good defense that you're playing. I mean, I think I like the player. I mean, he's he's not and he's got a good idea about the strike zone and the more that he can just say to himself, I'm going to get trapped into like I've got to
sweep the bad harder. I gotta hit the ball harder and just stay inside the baseball and try to put the ball and play with some authority and play defense. I like that to me. I need a combination of players that have different attributes. I only need a couple guys in the middle that really hit the ball of the ballpark. But you look back at the Giants, Look at the Giants when they won three straight World championships. Once you get past gosh, the catch of the posts
the intense. Can you name the rest of their lions? They won three World championships? No, you need anybody. You can name their pitches and what do they do they want They played in a giant park like we do. They could really pitch like we do, and they catch the baseball and they run, they ran, uh you know, uh, they would put the ball. They would put the game in motion and uh and you know, get a two
to one count. Guys would put the ball and play on a tough pitch and they'd moved the guy to second, get them more to third score and then just really pitch. So you don't need everybody s plug in the baseball. You just need a couple. And if you play defense and catch and you have in this team, I think the Marriags are great. They're gonna be the division. They're pitches coming back and when it does, and if they they don't even have to be as good offensively as
they are now. They just need to be in the middle of.
The pack, right right, Bill, Great stuff, always a pleasure.
Let's hope when we talk to you next week we get maybe maybe three and one against Houston and be nice.
It would be great, guys, listen. It's fun to be on with you guys, because it beats talking to myself. So I love it.
Thanks, Thanks man, appreciate it. Have a great weekend.
Thanks Billy, go talk to yourself.
Bill Krueger, our weekly baseball guest here at four o'clock.
Hey, we come back.
We've got news yesterday, the Buffalo Bills are going to be the hard knocks team on HBO.
I've got some thoughts on hard knocks.
I'm gonna get Hughes take on if that's a benefit a detriment. And also, the Seahawks and the Packers are doing joint practices prior to their preseason game. I know Hugh's got a story or two about a joint practice he's been in. We'll tell that story next, tell.
Bad Casting Live from the R and R Foundation Specialist broadcast Studio. Now back to Saftie and Dig, powered by Emerald Queen Casino, the Betty and Capital of the Northwest on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Well, the Buffalo Bills the auspicious or maybe inauspicious, depending on how you look at it, distinction of being the preseason hard knocks team for HBO this year and just doing a little research here, Hugh, I did not realize you'd ask me an hour ago how long has Hard Knocks been on HBO.
I'd have been like, ow, ten.
Twelve years, something like that. Two thousand and one was the first Hardkno. Twenty four years ago. I still thought it was a relatively new phenomenon. The Ravens, following their championship team in two thousand, were the first Hard Knocks preseason team. Then in two thousand and two they did the Dallas Cowboys, and then it went away for three, three, four, five, six, and they've done it every year since.
Seven. And you know, there's a little there's some.
Criteria that is a little bit new this year starting for Hard Knocks. There's three new parameters to term a team's eligibility. One you must not have been featured on the show for the last eight seasons. So we know next year it will not be the Bills, Bears, Jets, Lions, Cowboys, Chargers, Rams, or Raiders. We know it won't be one of those teams,
which makes Pete Carroll certainly very happy. I'm sure must not have a head coach who was in its first season with the team, and must not be featured on any other addition on the show that year, meaning NFC East teams in twenty twenty five could not be on both the preseason and in season shows because evidently they did some sort of NFC show NFC East show this last year. So the Bills get it this year. And a question was asked, is there a curse? Well, depends
on how you look at it. Only seven of the twenty two Hard Knocks teams made the playoffs that year. But when you look at the teams chosen, there's been a lot of Jets and Falcons and Bucks and Browns and Raiders, just a lot of teams that don't make the playoffs anyway. So let's start there. I mean, is it a if you were in the NFL still Hugh and HBO was around your camp every single day of training camp? Would that be a positive in your opinion? A negative or kind of a nothing?
Burger?
Think could be a little bit of a distraction, you know, because they've got they've got these boom mics that are trying to peer into all your conversations. I bet there's some players that take some measures to say, you know, I don't know that I really want this on the conversation. Now, some would say, hey they want the limelight and hey, tape away. I think you just got different personalities there. I think in the end, I think most coaches message would be, look it is, you know, this is above
our pay grade. They're here, and so you just deal with professionals and whether it's a distraction, whether it isn't. It's certainly not an excuse. But there's some coaches where it's not above their pay grade, right. I mean, there's a reason the New England Patriots have not been on hard knocks. I mean there are a few coaches, don't you think that have the cache a I mean to say we don't want this. I think there's a reason the Seattle Seahawks we're not on hard knocks with Pete Carroll.
I think there's a reason the Pittsburgh Steelers have not been on hard knocks with Mike Tomlin. I think the reason the New England Patriots have never been on with Bill Belichick. Well, isn't it true they're mostly as you said that the to use a tyrone Willingham terment, isn't it mostly downtrodden programs usually?
But they don't I don't think they want downtrodden programs.
I mean, they got the bills this year, didn't They used to have a rule where you had to not been making the playoffs, that's right, So they have that role where you couldn't make the playoffs. So that made it so you're looking at, you know, those middling teams of drafting around tenth, right.
But I mean there's been years that Pete Carroll didn't make plays.
There's years of Bill Belichick and Mike Tomlin didn't make the playoffs, and they're not frequent, but I'm sure those teams they would want to have them in. I mean, they had the Cowboys in twenty twenty one. That was a big, big cash a team. But I just don't see any teams that have been selected really in recent history that have had coaches that are like big time, long term head coaches.
I think that the show itself has changed because early on, and I wouldn't say I've been an ardent viewer in that I've never missed an episode, but I've certainly caught more episodes than I missed. Okay, And there was a point where they had these embedded cameras, presumably small and unobtrusive type cameras and some of the really nasty conversations that take place, like guys getting cut, for example, those would all be exposed and that would be part of
the show. And it seems like in recent years they've gone away from that and almost sterile.
Huh.
Well, I think that I think that some of the juicier stuff has been omitted. Now you had. The last really titillating part of the Hard Knocks was the offseason stuff with the Giants when they had when they were disclosing the conversation that they had had about taking the market.
Right.
Yes, but I think some of the players I remember that one of the last I don't recall the name. I feel like it was a Kyle Shanahan. Oh, but but I could be wrong. It doesn't matter. What I remember is they showed a series of guys come in and get cut, and almost all of them are are like, hey, hey, we're gonna have to let you go. And they're like, okay, okay, thank you for the opportunity. Hey, if if something happens, we'll well we'll get back to you, okay, you know,
and all this handle it with with class. Right, There's this one guy I remember who was a tight end. That's about all I remember. I don't remember's name, and nobody was a tight end. And he's getting cut by the head coach, who I think was Kyle Shannon. I know this is a lame story in some respects because I can't remember who on either end, but I know what happened. And if I dug I could, I could get you the names. It doesn't really matter. This tight end when he got cut, he said, that's F and
BS and he said the whole thing. He said, no, you're not cutting me. No, that's I made this F and team and I'm better than I mean, he was going off.
He's like, no, you're not cutting me. You're not and he's.
MF and the head coach, you're not cutting me, No, and and so, and they said, well, you know, sorry, and then they show again. I'm gonna just go with Kyle Shannon. It might not have been Kyle Shanahan walks down, Well, you think I would remember, but because it would have been John Lynched he went to but that the head coach. He said to the the GM, he goes, hey, I think it was the line. You know what it was? Dan Campbell, Dan when it was it was Dan Campbell,
and it was a tight end. It was yes and uh so he tells Dan Campbell like, no, you're not f and cutting me, and Dan Campbell goes down to the GM. He goes, Hey, keep that dude's name. If anything happens, he is first on the line. We're we're bringing him back if anything happened. Like Campbell loved it that.
He was here.
He's got m F and yeah. So and I'm laughing because the source of my memory was my wife was walking by and she founded for you. She and she walks over and shows me the text and she wrote lions. So there's all on six right there my shell. You know it's John Stocked in the sh Yes.
Absolutely.
You look at you look at the question of why the Seahawks haven't been on when they go the point dick of like, well, there's been opportunities, right, well, you look at it. I mean, the Seahugs really got interesting when they were Super Bowl contenders in twelve, right when they made the twelve playoffs thirteen and fourteen in the playoffs, fifteen in the playoffs, sixteen, in the playoffs seventeen, they weren't in the playoffs, so that means they would have
appeared then in the twenty eighteen Hard Knocks. Twenty eighteen Hard Knocks went to the Cleveland Browns with the first overall pick, a Baker Mayfield. That was an obvious choice. And then they were right back in eighteen nineteen twenty. So when the Seahuks were interesting with Russell and with everything else going on, when they were interesting other than seventeen or eighteen the Hard Knocks, they weren't eligible for it.
And even then, I mean, the pretty easy choice. At that point, we're five years from the.
Number one pick.
May feel like it's obvious I went to Cleveland, so like there was never never a chance for Carol and the Seahawks to even get Hard Knocks.
And by proxy, what you're alluding to, which I think is accurate, is that they have been a boring football team for the last four years, at least boring on a national scale. Yeah, and I don't think because I think we have a crap about the Seahawks over the last half decade.
Dick, We're in Alaska and most of us think that we're in Canada.
Yeah, that's true. That's true.
I'm gonna go, i'm gonna go. Check out my sled dogs during this break