Mariners ‘Hot Stove League Show’ rewind and podcast

By Shannon Drayer

Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon was a special in-studio guest Tuesday night on “The Hot Stove League Show” on 710 ESPN Seattle. If you missed the broadcast you can catch up on the latest from the skipper and other guests by checking it out on our podcast page.

• The first hour featured a full half hour of the new Mariners manager talking with me, Aaron Goldsmith and special guest host Bill Krueger from ROOT Sports. McClendon hit on a number of topics, including his trips to meet some of his new players in person, working with Miguel Cabrera in Detroit and the quality he most admires in Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

• Shortstop Brad Miller followed McClendon, whom Miller talked about meeting in Orlando this winter. He also confirmed to Goldsmith the rumor that he wears his stirrups to bed at night. “I figure if a game breaks out at night I am that much closer to being ready,” he said. On a more serious note, he talked about the realization that he needed to get stronger after his first major-league experience and outlined his offseason workout routine.

• The second hour kicked off with a discussion about Taijuan Walker with Krueger expressing his belief that the importance of a well-placed fastball often gets overlooked in this day and age by pitchers who prefer to go with another pitch such as the cutter. Krueger also talked about the need for the Mariners to add more pitching and thought Scott Baker – who has been rumored to be of interest to the Mariners – would be a great fit.

• New pitching coach Rick Waits joined us from his home in Patagonia, Ariz., which is just 16 miles from the Mexican border. Waits, who was the pitching coordinator for the Mariners organization before being named pitching coach, talked about his experience with a number of Mariners pitchers and explained why he thought Brandon Maurer could have an impact at the major-league level this year.

• Bob Dutton, who is the new beat reporter for The News Tribune, also joined us. Dutton, who covered the Royals for years, told us he is thrilled to be in the Pacific Northwest and is looking forward to seeing what develops in spring training. He stated that he believes that the Mariners are out on Masahiro Tanaka but thinks they could be in on one of the other bigger-name free-agent pitchers still available.

• Finally, Mandy Lincoln from the Mariners’ marketing department joined us to give us the details of FanFest, which takes place this weekend at Safeco Field. On that note, we will broadcast a special edition “The Hot Stove League Show” from FanFest Saturday from noon-2. Drop by our booth located on the third-base side of the 100 level to see the broadcast, which will include a number of Mariners guests. Hope to see you there!