#94 Bill Krueger

Jason “Puck” Puckett  and Bill Krueger start off talking Mother’s Day and all the Moms that had to endure club baseball all weekend, the Mariners’ recent games, the performance of players like Julio Rodriguez and Ty France, the need for a first baseman, the injuries to Matt Brash and George Kirby, and the potential role of Brian Wu in the bullpen. They also touch on the importance of managing players and the challenges of pitching when not at one’s best.

Rundown

00:00 Mother’s Day, Mimosas  and baseball
04:43 Mixed results against the Athletics
06:55 Julio Rodriguez’s improvement in at-bats
08:59 The importance of positive reinforcement in player management
15:03 Exploring options at first base
21:13 Brian Woo’s forearm tightness
25:29 Learning to pitch when not at one’s best
29:46 Bill wraps up talking about his golf classic 

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so you on Mother’s Day uh Bill Krueger you didn’t get a spend it or the weekend of 14 to 15 hours actually actually let me let me stop 18 hours of of baseball no no no I didn’t I didn’t uh get that privilege yeah how do you think my wife slash mom of a 10-year-old who plays uh who plays baseball how do you think she liked spending her Saturday and then Sunday on Mother’s Day let’s say sun let’s just take Sunday you know spending uh let’s drive 90 minutes to chahalis and then let’s watch not one but two baseball games and then drive back what do how do you think that went over there with with her and the other moms I think uh it’s their kids so I think they’re kind of they’re kind of they’ve kind of sold out you know what I mean like like you get a hall pass if it was just you like were going to do something for Jason uh I think that would go over like a lead balloon but you’re you’re you’re you’re kind of buying you’re you’re you’re you’re surviving this because it’s your son and her son playing baseball something that he loves and Mom does love to watch her son play baseball so but moms also like to just kind of have their have their day and it was but here’s I saved the day I’m going to tell you here in a second well that was just good good I’m not trying to say that you know that’s the best way to spend Mother’s Day I’m just saying that you know there’s there’s some of that where she’s kind of she saw it coming you know she had a son and he likes baseball you have to sort of see it coming right so I saved the day for all these moms on the baseball team knowing knowing that hey we’re playing in this we’re playing in a tournament and it’s gonna it’s gonna if we win these games on Saturday we got to play on Sunday on Mother’s Day and so they’re like I could some of them on Saturday were like well if we lose both and we’re out okay we’re out but they win their planing on Sunday yeah I said hey everybody tomorrow bring bring a cup bring a glass of bring a you know like a Yeti cup or something all right so then I brought to the tournament a mobile uh not a mosa a mosa bar oh so I serve mimosas to all the moms wow how about that huh that I I dad of the Year husband of the year and really baseball parent of the Year Jason pun I think so I think so I think we have to sort of recognize you I don’t if they have a certain recognition that that that comes up with these things I don’t know I think you you’d have to be nominated well now n now here’s the thing I’ve set a trend now so now I think I don’t think I I don’t know if we have many more tournaments but now there’s an expectation right that this guy is bringing some type of mobile bar with him every time so and you know what and Bill happy to oblige it’s a long day of baseball the kids the kids are learning it’s a slow game and you know what you know what passes the time especially for the moms is a little prco with a and this was the best part so Mimosa right it’s champagne prco and then orange juice and every mom you know because the first ones I poured you know like uh probably 60 40 60% prco 40% or maybe it was like 7030 really and every mom every mom when I would come back around all right you want you want to refill it was always the same thing was like yeah next time how about just you know the prco just a splash of orange juice just just give every one of them bill just a just a splash not a lot just a ding and that’s where I that’s when I knew with these moms we’re gonna be friends we’re gonna be we’re gonna be it’s a tight group it’s a tight group group Bill Krueger’s with us not to talk about mimosas and and all that that’s important stuff I know above Foundation Root Sports rise above Golf Classic coming up on Monday June 24th Bill’s going to have more information on that at the end native youth RAB above.org is the website Bill joins us every Monday talking Mariners baseball well they uh you know Oakland comes to town and they uh they take two out of three Saturday certainly you know wasn’t a good game for the offense but sandwiched I guess or the booking skinned on it uh was pretty good um you know they came in they they did their business right they they handled well they didn’t handle I mean they handle Oakland but they won the series and that’s that’s all you can ask for I mean Oakland’s flirting with 500 um I think they must have found Yukon Cornelius because he must be managing the team because that is the island of myth toys as I’ve mentioned to you before only Yukon can find which toys there are a lot of good toys out there just goes to show you right and to their credit to their credit um but two out of three is great that’s what you got to do the old adage win serieses and uh you know they’re they’re starting pitching is still their calling card and when they when they do hit it’s yatsi yeah what do go to I want to Circle back to Saturday because I thought it was just I think Saturday and Sunday to me in in seeing it and then reading about it to me was fascinating because you know you we’ve talked a lot about this before now you correct if I’m wrong you are I think you like numbers I think I think you think that these players nowadays can get paralyzed by by too much information but one thing I liked about Saturday was when you watched it you can see that Julio is hitting the ball he’s hitting it hard like and you know what it sounds like and what it looks like and so sometimes you know players just get unlucky the ball just goes right into a guy’s mid or a kid or a guy makes a fantastic play but Saturday he was hitting the ball hard and then the statistical information backed that up that when you looked at all the stat cast numbers how hard it was hit Barrel rate and exit velocity and all that kind of stuff I I kind of liked Scott service pulling him aside before he left to go home Saturday night to say Hey you maybe you look in the box score and it’s not the results you wanted but you’re fine you did a you had a really good game tonight in terms of your at BS and how hard you hit the ball I thought it was a good job on his part to to kind of reinforce that to Julio and then the next night Sunday or the next day he comes out and has one of his best games of the Season how do you like how do you in terms of like how he managed that bill I guess it’s just my L long winded uh point in Rambling here is when a manager is able to kind of deal with that and massage that and back up the numbers with what the eyes are showing you um and then Julio took it you know took it on the field on Sunday I I know I just thought it was a great job piece of managing there by by Scott because I think a lot of managers always get kind of you know accused of you know when we follow this stuff is oh this you know they don’t do much right they set the lineup and they get help from above but it really is for the most part managing you know personalities and players without a doubt managing people is a big part of the job it’s the job is taking diverse sets of of people um bench play starters um starting pitching bull different segments of the game you’re the CEO you’re trying to get above the noise but you’re also intimately involved in each one of these players’s Futures and presents and what they need to do that day to be successful and when players know that you’re invested in them that you believe in them then that can go a long ways that way if you show that to someone then when things aren’t right and they come to you with some perspective you’re able to take it better because you know that that person has your best interest okay that’s just 101 you know leadership right uh I think Scott understands his job as a CEO this is not this is not the world of like there’s one way and it’s the hard way that’s not the world we live in anymore and his job is to massage these Personalities in a positive way make sure you don’t get critical to them in public because managing the media is a huge part of the job right a huge part of the job you think about it 162 games plus 30 spring training games that’s 192 times two we’re talking 400 times 400 times you got to speak to the media and answer the soft balls but also answer the difficult questions and try to keep the ship steady right and occasionally you have to you know be be a little tough but for the most part you’re trying to get get their players to the best of their abilities and then good things happen so that’s great I mean he’s our best player and he hasn’t had a great start from the standpoint of slugging because not just homers it’s slugging I mean he had two extra base hits yesterday he had he had four I mean Dylan Moore’s got more extra base hits than Julio I mean so yes can he force that no uh he’s obviously realized that maybe there’s some things he had to work on because he put some more time in on Saturday and took some extra BP and and maybe that made a difference for him I I don’t I don’t know I mean I don’t know his work ethic I don’t know where he gets his information um I think it it helped him to get a soft Landing saw some guys with average stuff particularly on Sunday at average stuff where the longer swing and we don’t want if you want to get into that conversation we can because there’s a difference between being short to the ball and Swinging fast and Swinging hard because the great hitters are short to the ball and the reason they’re short to the ball is they’re able to be quicker and they’re able to make good good pitch decisions okay so so there’s some things that he needs to work on because his plate discipline is not good and he’s long to the ball so in my opinion yeah but but stop there so when when when like some ‘s watching this and listening to this when you talk about short and quick to the ball rather than he has a long swing just kind of go into the Weeds on that one what do you mean by short and quick well the great hitters are guys that can wait longer to see the pitch right the longer you can wait the better the better you are to see the pitch the better better chances are of you scoring the ball up right if you watch Julio where does he struggle there there he struggles with the ball in he’s actually a decent off speed hitter in the strike zone why is that because his swing is long he gets to the slider and now the League’s kind of woken up and going yeah he’s not your typical um you know typical young player that you know can’t hit the breaking ball they realize that he’s got a little bit of a long swing and they attack him inside with when he sees the plus stuff and then really fast and really slow in between he hits that pretty good you know that the 87 to 91 the 85 to 91 it’s the 93 and above and the Seven the 80 three and Below real slow and real fast it struggles and a lot of that has to do with a couple things getting a good pitch to hit like Ted Williams said number two it has to do with not many guys and we talked about this when we were talking about pitching when the batad If This Were the batad the batad goes this way then it goes this way right and it doesn’t mean we need him to flatten it completely and be a Judy but he needs to take and be a little bit less of that bat till this way CU you go here here now look how long it’s going to take and guys come in here if they have nowhow right and he chases he chases off the plate and in particularly when he get sped up are these curable has he done some things that maybe have cured it a little bit I think there’s a chance that he’s gotten a little bit better I I’m not able to really see him from the side enough to notice the difference he does he have enormous B speed yes but it’s not always about Pat speed it’s about being quick to the ball and getting a good ball to hit okay those are the things because if he finds that that ground in there somewhere in between he’s gonna be great and he’s done that at times where he’s been great right so he’s a young player he’s gonna get there good signs you’re right confidence is everything in sports right it it’s a hard one to CH do have you noticed it it like La he talked about how he you know he changed a little bit of his his his stance and setup in spring training this year but then he and then this past Saturday when he’s working with the Jared D har he kind of reverted to where he was back a little bit last year did the setup you know guys you you play golf these hitters and and then golfers they just always Tinker so much with their swing even when they have success they Tinker uh do did you have you seen the the not the difference of how he set up last year opposed to how he set up this year and did you see him revert back to Sunday of how he was last year as he talked about or is it is it just to minus I think it’s it’s probably hard hard to see I mean I think what we’ll what we’ll get to see is he’s going to see Kansas City top top top they’re right with the Mariners they’re a top six pitching team in the American League three pretty good starters they miss Cole Reagan and they miss um Lugo two of their best stars but they do get they’ll see singer tonight he’s got good stuff right-handed right hand right now we’re hitting left-handed pitching and better than right-hand pitching our team we’re punching out against the world but we’re doing a little bit better against left-handed pitching our lineup is getting a little buoyancy all our right-handers palanco hits it better Garver hits it better Julio had a great day the other day we have a little bit more juice against left-handed pitching because we’re a right-hand hidden team I’m getting off the topic here uh it’s going to be a test he’s going to see more right-handed pitching in the next three days and a better quality pitching so we’ll see if the adjustments are real that is able to get a better Bell to hit and he’s able to get the batad on time because we know he’s strong so it’s a matter of getting the batad to the position that you want to get into on a ball that’s a good ball to hit right so he gets a lot of ABS he lets it rip the nice thing about Julio the good thing he’s got is that he does stink up the middle of the field and he runs like the wind so you know he could hit the two-hopper and he could have a bad day and go one for three with a walk but hit a two oper the short stop had to go a little bit one way or the other and it’s a knock right not everybody’s got that in their back pocket right but we’re looking for more from him right we are we’re looking for more and and that’s a lot of it’s because we anointed him and paid him a zillion dollars so tough tough tough sleding for a young player yeah we’ll see if that the turnaround and hopefully it’s a good sign I mean sometimes when he gets on the a little bit of these runs he did this last year he got on a run where where he he started seeing the ball and then it was boom he just he just he just absolutely took off let’s go over to first base here real quick options at first base what would you do what do you think they need to do moving forward I mean this this trend uh bill with with Tha France is not just what has happened this year it’s not just last year this now dates back to we looked it up or I looked it up August 5th of 2022 it’s since then it just hasn’t performed um where do they go what options maybe would you like to see them turn to it’s a big topic um he plays a very solid um first base he’s hitting 250 on this team that’s pretty good and we can cry about his power um I I I think that if you want to do something there you can put Luke reallyy over against tough righties you can do that and then you know sit France I mean our problems sorry about that sorry about that we had some audio jumped in there on the on the feed there Bill my my fault oh okay maybe just in my um well so so um you got I I got you off guard Luke you’d like to see Luke Ry over there uh maybe a little bit of first base I threw this out to divish on Friday just tell me what you think you obviously you acquired Mitch hanar because you know of his Bat and you know he’s older and you want to save his legs why not give him a first baseman’s glove I I I don’t think at this point you treat that’s a that’s a new dog uh you know dog a new trick I don’t think you want to do that I think that the answers are um our you know our problems are the three guys we acquired who are they Garver palano and hanar those guys are all not hitting so if you want to do anything I mean right now Garber hits left-handed pitching he looks like a right he looks like a platoon player to me so if you want to do anything let’s just put well canzone can force this but let rley hit against right-handed pitching until Garber figures it out I mean I I I I mean and Pano’s got a play we don’t really have an answer there he’s got to figure it out right-handed he looks okay left-handed he’s in the bucket trying to pull everything hanar just just uh he kind of he and Garver are kind of in the same boat middle in they hit the ball middle away and Sliders it’s just it’s just it’s like you know putting coins and watching it happen over and over and over again right the same result right slid her away and swinging a miss right I mean these guys have track record so you have to sort of lean on that that they’re going to hit but maybe you pick moments whether it’s really taking a France off the field against a tough righty or taking garvar the lineup against a tough righty and let rayy hit against a rightand a pitcher even though really hitting pretty against both he well he’s hting better I left hand a pitch right now but that’s a statistical anomaly but canzone can kind of force all that action so we’ll have to see what what happens there but um yeah I mean France I mean yeah can you go to the market and get a first baseman can you go to the the system we got some guy in doublea you want to mess with the kid in doua and they don’t want to play roster roster gymnastics now you know because they worry about all that stuff you know playing time and who’s off the roster do we have any more 60-day DLS we can throw out there we’ve used a couple now which is sad because two of our most important components are on the 60-day DF one is not coming back and one looks sort of Bleak right well yeah let me let me go there first I’m going to get I want to touch on Kirby because I think he gets the ball tonight I think it’s an important start for George Kirby and I want to get your thoughts on that but uh your reaction Matt Brash is done he’s he had Tommy John surgery we we we just we speculated and thought this was probably the the route that it was going to go uh down and unfortunate that that it does happen to him that he’ll be now out for what 15 months or so so a devastating loss obviously to their Bullpen there with the Matt Brash injury yeah he’s he’s electric he was dominating last year he was the most dominant reliever and he he came with he came with great stuff every time he threw the ball every time out he’s got you know the Nintendo slider in 98 every time and so that’s that’s tough to replace you can’t replace it and you can feel it a little bit you know that you know that that that that group that they’ve got out there that work group that gets you to to Munos is a work group you know you’re going to juggle and you you know you’re going to you know try to make it work try to get the matchups to work and and those kids are all pitching pretty well I mean they are they’re all pitching pretty well but they’re not you know an elite group and so they hope that Santos and Brash would give them that that that Trio at the end that just knocks your knocks your teeth out right so and Santos we get the news on Santos and I’m starting to believe and I hope I’m wrong that we’re never going to see Gregory Santos this year he’s he’s he had a setback in his rehab now the earliest is July I I got a feeling that’s it’s going to be the same kind of thing that we went down the the road with Matt Brash so I mean if they they maintain themselves in this position where they’re at we keep talking about adding offense at some point when they get to the deadline they’re gonna have to uh dip their toes in the water of a finding another reliever or two yeah I think relief is where they’re going to go that’s where the team could help themselves the most that’s where there’s a lot more inventory a lot more deals can be made for those type of players I think um than opposed to trying to get a guy who a position player I think they have to keep betting on their position players that they got so um and just be average and they can be an average offensive team even slightly below average Puck and be a top six pitching team they’re in the hunt they’re in the hunt and they’re in it they’re they’re in it right where they are today so um and that’s that’s good enough um and that’s that’s a winning formula um what if Brian woo made his debut the what did you make of it and then I want to get to the he comes out of the game he’s dealing with tightness in his form before you get to that go to what did he look like to you in his his debut in 2024 ah he looked good I mean his his he was a little nervous at the beginning and then he kind of found his release Point his change up his change up he’s got a change up which is important he’s got kind of a nickel breaking ball you know not great but his change up was playable 88 889 you know with his 93 to 96 I thought he put on a good show he’s he’s he’s he’s he he can definitely fill the B fit the bill and he had to get some left-handers out and the change up really helped him um I’m concerned when a guy uh can’t get doesn’t Can’t Get Loose after sitting the dogout that was never a problem for me and that’s not a good sign that’s a sign that there’s still some weakness in his arm and you know I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with them but I think a lot of times in today’s game we do not get pitchers we like to get them almost till they’re ready because we don’t want to leave the innings in the minor leagues well that’s not in my opinion a good idea oh well he got three or four innings in you know he got 80 pitches now let’s bring him up no he’s got to pitch five he’s got to pitch 75 to 100 pitches and throw five plus innings in the minor leagues so that he is ready when he gets here because and then we then then when baseball whines about oh my god well there we go the bullpen oh we’re going to have a our Bullpen is going to be sure oh that happen oh we got two days in a row like that what are we going to do right that’s such a tired topic get your starter ready to pitch in the minor leagues and then bring him up and have him ready to go to me he needed another turn and it it’s going to work out hopefully he’s just fine he just like you said sat for a while well that’s why I want to jump on because he he talked about this was also a problem in the minor league starts and he said he’s been dealing with this before right and he said and service talked about it and even wo talked about changing his routine whatever it is between Innings do you think it’s a routine thing what did you do between Innings when you were starting did you did you do certain exercises to stay loose because if this continues to be the problem I I’m with you it sounds concerning to me if his forearm is always tight now on these rehab starts because it seems like that’s that is a byproduct of something else that was going on with his arm before and now it’s starting to creep down to the forearm yeah if anything you know when you when you’re when you’re in between start I in between Innings if anything if you sat for a long time where do you get a little tights your shoulder you know I mean your shoulder has to kind of get loosened up not your your forearm which concerning because forearm people think it’s the top of your forearm when you talk about forearm engers you’re talking about the other side of your forearm right the insertion of the uh you know where the where the tendons coming into the elbow on the other side the weaker side this is the top of for is the strong side um yeah I just I just think you know uh tightness and fatigue those are those are things once you get loose I mean I sat through rain delays I pitched I that was never a problem for me to me and I brought this up to you before now what I don’t know that we’re sold as hancocks to five but as this thing marches along we’ll see how he does if he can step up and and start being able to go five six Innings then then Yi but you know I kind of like him I I look at that group out there that’s not very talented and I think about him and maybe we use him like you know a couple times a week and or two or three times a week and he pitches a couple you like him out of the bullpen and let that I do I do I think that that would that would resolve the problem that we’re fa that they’re facing right now um but you know that’s what they conditioned to be that’s what he did last year he had success that’s what he wants to do that’s what the club would love him to do why do you think he’s better fit for the bullpen well look just just just look at this last turn that’s that’s an example of like this is this is a way around that problem okay as long as you can kind of schedule him a little bit you don’t try to get him where he’s like okay you know uh can you get ready in one hitter right how would you use it and like what what give me give me the the the role the perfect Bill Krueger role for Brian woo I probably I try to I try to spot him in you know the that that that fifth sixth inning and let him pitch through the lineup which baseball hates oh we can’t do that we got to mix and match we got to play the numbers you know we got to we got to get this guy against that guy and this guy because we’re playing chess I like chess no I mean he can pitch through the lineup which is huge because then you know he’s just he kind of gets it going by the six titter he face you know I mean pitch a couple Innings two or three Innings and then boy then you could have him in some of those games where maybe you’re a little short you’re winning or even and you’re a little short in the B you know then you could go straight to the to the guys at the end right you could let him pitch in the middle righties lefties doesn’t matter he kind of wows with the bigger stuff and then you know and do that a couple times a week you know uh well that’s why that’s why we have you on here just we’re gonna rename the show just a thought with Bill Krueger lastly I want to end on George Kirby who gets the ball tonight last two starts have just been not they’ve been poor they’ve been odd it’s just the the the the second the the first one of the two starts ago it was the knee thing and then we talked about it was odd the interaction afterwards and the questions and the answers and then he comes back for the the next start now he wasn’t great he wasn’t great but he gets pulled again early and where people are like well why is he coming out now I mean I know that he’s not he’s been leaving balls over the middle of the plate but it seemed like an early hook then and then they came out hey he’s fine nothing’s wrong with them he’s completely healthy it’s just the last two turns have just I don’t know has been have just been odd it been odd to you I think the game with the 88 pitches where they had they had the lead you know it felt like he was overwhelmed the competition there three homers through five four runs um he was he wasn’t he didn’t he didn’t have that really great stuff I mean a lot of our young pitchers have to learn to pitch when they don’t have great stuff and we condition them to be only really we try to we try to make sure they have their great stuff right we don’t pitch them too deep in games we train them in the my leagues they pitch like one a week so they’re always pitching with big stuff right well they never learn how to pitch when they’re just not they don’t have quite as good of stuff right where the change of speed in the location and the pitch decisions that you make are so much more important than if you’re just able to just huff and puff and blow their house down you’re just a big bad wolf right and they all can play that role majority of the time but there are times like where you’re a little bit short Gilbert was short and he made a couple of errors but he didn’t have the huff and puff and he didn’t have the great Wipeout stuff and he got knocked around right now does that does he does he never get knocked around of course not everybody gets knocked around but Gilbert’s the same Gil Kirby’s the same way he’s in the strike zone a little bit more but uh you know they’re not going to have big stuff every time out and so we said oh he doesn’t have big stuff so you gave up three homers we get them out of the game and then he’ll he’ll get a little bit more rest and he can then he can be the big Val Wolf the next time out right yeah that’s how they think as opposed to saying your job is to give us seven you’re still in the game we’re leading or whatever it’s even yeah carry the game job right not how we so but you you felt that decision was was you didn’t like the decision I don’t know it’s okay I mean depends it depends on what you have and what you have out there and what you’re thinking forward and sometimes it’s good see I would have been fine with it I would have rather seen him pitch when he was winning when he’s pitching good lead guys in when they’re pitching good be less worried about where the pitch count is or where the hitters are coming up and but when he’s like like that you know if he’s a little uneven and you finally kind of feel like you know you could regroup him and you got a guy cover and maybe you can win the game a little bit of bull more Bullpen that’s fine but yeah I I think you know these kids are wonderful pitchers they got enormous Talent um I know they’re trying to manage the long the long game and that’s important you don’t want to go and burn them burn them to a crisp and and never never really see their full potential so um but we also need to learn as pitchers how to pitch when we’re not really at our best there he is well you’re at your best every single time that we talk to you rise above Foundation rise above Golf Classic coming up on Monday June 24th at the golf club at snami Ridge log on to Native youth riseabove toorgle filling up uh sponsorships are almost done uh so uh we’re just still I would say we’ve got commitments to fill the field but that doesn’t mean the field is full how’s that we’re way past halfway paid all the way paid so that means there are places to Native youth rise.org for more information all right sir we’ll talk to you next Monday as always we appreciate it there he is Bill Krueger check it out on YouTube 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