Chapter 1: What recent signing has energized the Mariners' offseason?
Deep in the playoffs, he won game away from the World Series. He's a big part of it, so you don't fool around. He is part of the solution, not part of the problem. You sign the guy to a contract, even though he's a free agent, and probably could go a little bit longer and waiting and waiting and waiting, but no. Mariners offer a fair deal, and the player takes it.
That player, of course, is Josh Naylor. Josh Naylor, the guy who inexplicably steals bases at an unbelievable rate, 30 for 32, despite not being, let's just say he's like one of the slowest guys in baseball. But still, it's another facet of his game, which is fascinating. He's a winner. He brings a lot to the table.
Chapter 2: Why is Josh Naylor considered a cornerstone player for the Mariners?
when the Seattle Mariners saw that, saw him as a cornerstone player. Again, part of the solution, not part of the problem. So, again, good for the Mariners for striking early, not playing around, getting the job done. Boom, boom, boom. There it is. All right. Well, along those lines, I wanted to surface a conversation that I had with Mariners GM Justin Hollander at GM meetings.
Basically, it's just a conversation where – You're going to love to hear from Justin. You're going to love to hear how fired up this guy is about the great game of baseball. That's all I have to say. And also, it just speaks to the excitement that is around that franchise, that is around that team, and probably a reason why Naylor wanted to come back.
Again, it's the Rudy in the stool type of speech interview. It's going to get you fired up. All right, here you go. Baseballs and boring on the go with Justin Hollander.
about learning like learning we come away from every postseason we're like oh we learned this and we learn and we think that okay this is the way it's going to go um i think that for you guys it's like all right well pitching is always going to work and you came very very close but is there anything that you took away from whether it's the regular season or the postseason it's like all right this is changing and this is how we have to adapt yeah i think we probably put too much stock into who won a five game or a seven game series and like try and make it this overarching thing like you know
This is the year that contact surpasses power in terms of how that helps you win the World Series. And then the team that wins hits solo homers the whole time. There's a bunch of different ways to win in the postseason. My opinion mostly is the teams that pitch really well and hit homers.
I know that's not exciting or unique in terms of a creative way to reassess the game, but I think if you pitch really well, you throw a ton of strikes, you strike people out, and you hit homers offensively and get on base somehow... you're probably going to be a pretty good postseason team, but anything can happen in a five-game or seven-game series.
It's why we decide the regular season over 162 games, and usually what works well in the regular season works mostly in the postseason. I don't think there are overarching things. I think the thing for me personally watching it this year and appreciating was the intensity and level of play across the league this year in the playoffs. was off the charts. Like, next level.
Like, the pitching was incredible. The quality of that bat was mostly off the charts to be able to handle that pitching. The intensity, the uniqueness of some of the extra inning games this year. Like, you just handed me the baseball as a boarding sticker.
Anyone who watched any of the postseason series this year. It was hard handing those out in some of these games.
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Chapter 3: What insights did Justin Hollander share from the GM meetings?
Baseball was awesome this postseason. That's my takeaway, is that... If you love baseball, this was a great showcase for you to explain why baseball is awesome.
It was this postseason. And you talk about building. I think that you guys did exactly what you should do. You don't need to hear it from me. I'd rather hear that than the other way. Right. No, but I think that it's like we go into starting pitching. Okay, if you said to me, What did I learn? Like, okay, you're starting pitching, right?
That you think guys who can get through postseason games so that you don't have to – much like we found out with the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. And then, you know, and then you've got the quarterbacks and you did all the right things, right? But that's the thing I would imagine.
I think in general, look at the teams that played in the postseason. Just, like, those teams had the best players in the world. Yeah. And if you want to go compete in the postseason year after year, like – You need a good, well-rounded team. You also need dudes. You need the best players in the world. And we're very fortunate. We think we have some of the best starting pitchers in the world.
We think we have some of the best relievers in the world. We think we have the best catcher in the world. We think we have the best center fielder in the world. And that makes us good enough to compete in the American League. It doesn't make us clearly the best team, but it makes us good enough to go play the best teams and feel like, wow, we were right there.
one thing could have gone another way and we could have won the World Series. And that's – the bar is high to win the postseason. It is. Teams are really good. You know, we played, like, again, the series of the Blue Jays. Vlad Guerrero was out of his mind how good he was. Every ball was on the barrel.
And, like, I think he struck out, like, three times in the first three rounds of the playoffs or something like that. Like, just an incredible showcase for, like –
someone at the peak of their powers and just doing everything good to carry a team offensively and like And he was hitting third and George Springer at a thousand OPS and Ernie Clement at a thousand OPS You have to have great things happen
What's good, y'all?
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Chapter 4: How does postseason performance influence team strategies?
It's Von Miller, Super Bowl MVP, SAG Master, and now your host of Free Range. This is where NFL meets real talk every week. I'm bringing you inside the game from locker room stories to league-wide headlines. You want football IQ, locker room insight, and real conversations with the people shaping the league? Welcome to Free Range with Von Miller, where nothing is off limits and every down counts.
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around the roster to win in the postseason and like everybody's got guys pitching on short rest and like the the will to win is high in the postseason and that's my takeaway is like more than style of play or like sort of like takeaways on how the game is evolving my takeaway is that like these are the best players on earth and in order to win in the postseason you need the best players on earth to go do that you're not walking your way into it no you need the dudes you're right you're right thanks man you got it good to see you