‘Hot Stove’ podcast: Jerry Dipoto gives his view on the nearly-complete Mariners

If you missed the first “Hot Stove Show” of the new year, fear not, we have a podcast.

In the first hour, Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto joined the show hosted by Rick Rizzs, Aaron Goldsmith and Shannon Drayer and talked at length about the team’s pitching staff. Dipoto feels that the Mariners have good mix of candidates for the fifth spot in the rotation, including a  number of young pitchers, both those who have been in the organization and those who were recently acquired in a trade. Dipoto gave the rundown on starters 1-4 as well and outlined what he believed they could see from Felix Hernandez coming off his injury-shortened season.

As for the position players, the new-look offense was discussed with Dipoto giving a good rundown on new Mariners outfielder Jarrod Dyson. Dipoto told us that he had a 45-minute conversation with Royals general manager Dayton Moore after they completed the deal, much of it about Dyson. I found this interesting.

Aaron got into an interesting topic with Dipoto, talking about the role that home runs – both those the Mariners hit and those hit against them – played last year. Will we see something similar next season?

Finally, at this time last year, Dipoto told us that he believed he had built an 85-87 win team that would win more games if things broke right and fewer games if they broke wrong. I asked if he could put a number on this team, and while he wouldn’t give an exact number like last year, he did talk about what he believed the Mariners could do in relation to what they did last year.

The second hour of the show included a visit with reliever Dan Altavilla, who is currently on the Mariners Caravan in Eastern Washington. Larry Stone from The Seattle Times joined us as well, and there was plenty of Edgar hall of fame talk.

The “Hot Stove Show” will return next Tuesday at 7.

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