00:00Welcome to the show for 2026, Craig. That's those Mariners. We've been waiting. Wait, hey, what's going on in April?
00:07What's going on in May? Well, you know who's alive right now? It's those Mariners. And we've been waiting, Craig.
00:11When are they going to take the mantle out there in the West and be the best team that we
00:14think the most talented team, I should say, and they should be in first place? Well, how about this? They
00:18are by two and a half games entering in the Sunday over the Texas Rangers. We've been waiting, Craig. The
00:24Mariners, have they finally arrived in 2026?
00:27I think so, but I'm not positive, but I do think so. I do think they and Texas, who we'll
00:33talk about in a minute, I think both of those teams should be better than their record is right now.
00:38So I would expect their second half to be better than the first half. You mentioned the starting pitching for
00:42Seattle. That's where they're certainly superior, and we saw that against the Tigers yesterday, and we saw it earlier in
00:48the week against the Mets. But look, Seattle at some point is going to have to decide who they want
00:52to be.
00:53This is the best opportunity that they're ever going to have in the American League, especially, Donnie, if Aaron Judge
00:58is out. This is their shot. Either go for it or not. The Blue Jays are not playing like we
01:03thought they were. They did not repeat from last year, just coming out of the gate real hot this year.
01:08It's wide open right now in the AL. Are the Mariners going to just try to kick the door down
01:13here? Are they going to roll with what they got? I don't know the answer to that, but I think
01:15they will be better.
01:17Starts there with that starting pitching staff that we know is just so talented. Strikeout guys, yes. He had a
01:22379 ERA for Logan Gilbert. Like to see that better. Even George Kirby, 4.04. Like to see that better.
01:27But Brian Wood, 374. Emerson Hancock, 280. Bryce Miller, 133 here in that lineup. And then Luis Castillo, obviously struggling
01:35a bit on the season at 5.53. Waiting for the big dumper to get back into that lineup here.
01:39But some guys holding down the 40-year, Craig. 13 bombs for Julio Rodriguez and also Luke Raley here. But
01:44I think so many times we look at that Mariners lineup and say, boy, every day their pitcher should be
01:48better than yours. When are they going to wake up struggling under .500? Now above .500. And as you pointed
01:53out, Craig, same division, but still under .500. But only two and a half games out of first place. Look
01:59who it is. It's those Texas Rangers entering into the season, Craig. I really like this team. Give me a
02:03healthy pitching staff. Like the lineup if they can stay healthy.
02:06But we've seen at times this lineup continuously be injured here. They're too talented, Craig, to be under .500. But
02:12maybe they are turning the corner here on the season.
02:16Yeah, I think talent-wise they should. I'm not positive that's going to happen because they do have a lot
02:22of injury-prone type players. Their defense maybe hasn't been as good as they would have thought going into the
02:26year, too.
02:27So they've given up some unenforced runs. But the thing that sticks out to me is that they're just playing
02:32so many close games. I don't know how sustainable that is.
02:35We saw the win over the Cardinals earlier this week, 2-1. On Friday, they beat Cleveland 3-2. They
02:40edged the Cardinals 7-4.
02:42I mean, these are all close games that they're in. And I would have thought that Texas had the thump,
02:46you know?
02:47Like, I would have thought that we'd see a lot of crooked numbers for them this season, and we haven't
02:51done that.
02:51But I'm like a pseudo-believer in Texas. I think they'll be in it.
02:56I just don't know if they're as good as Seattle, which is kind of what we thought at the beginning
03:00of the season.
03:00But I'll tell you this, Donnie. If Seattle decides to do nothing and just stand pat with what they have
03:05and Texas decides to put the foot down a little bit, they could pass them.
03:09And by the way, you're waiting for your superstar players to sort of carry on the season.
03:13Sometimes you're only as good as those real high-playing guys.
03:15Like, look, they've been there, done that, World Series champions.
03:18You look at Corey Seager. Now, yes, he's been injured quite a bit over the past two years.
03:21He only has 190 played appearances, but a 183 batting average, something you never thought you would see out of
03:27Corey Seager.
03:27The same way, Craig, we talked about Manny Machado, but maybe an anomaly in Major League Baseball in this day
03:32and age.
03:33Josh Young, look at how many bats he's had. 248. 310 batting average.
03:39It's got the greatest hitter we've ever seen in our life because it used to be, Craig, you have a
03:42couple of guys in your lineup that hit 300 here.
03:45Now it's like a unicorn if you see a guy hit 300.
03:47But Josh Young, 310 on the season, man. That's impressive to see.
03:50Yeah, the point that I think that you make overall is that doing these shows 5, 10 years ago, if
03:56you saw somebody hitting 230, you would say that that's horrible.
04:00And now that's about average, you know?
04:03Like, so there's no reason to bash anybody hitting 230 anymore if the league is hitting 240.
04:08So that's kind of where we've gotten to.
04:11Young will not hit 300 this season, but definitely a fun start for him.
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