Season 3; Episode 1: The 12 Game Hot Streak that Earned Randy Arozarena an All-Star Bid
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Adam Jacobson (00:01.71)
Welcome back to Grand Salami Time! This is your host Adam here with my co-host and good friend, Robbie. How's it going, Robbie?
Rob Pod (00:11.361)
Hey, it's going great. I'm so happy to be back here. I got Dave Niehaus by my side. I got Adam coming through my headphones. Life's good, man. How are you doing?
Adam Jacobson (00:15.692)
What up Dave?
Adam Jacobson (00:22.348)
Yeah, awesome. Life's pretty awesome. Doing the podcast again. Big events in my life. We're about to have a baby anytime now. yeah, doing things in life productively and getting going, I guess. So I don't know what to say. So yeah, things are going great. How about you? What's going on with you?
Rob Pod (00:42.529)
That's awesome. I'm great. I'm just glad that you're being a productive member of society. I'm going to become an honest man soon, getting married in a couple months. So I'm excited for that.
Adam Jacobson (00:52.014)
There you go. So yeah, we had a long pause for like a year. think I got married and I've won a four yard dash against Robbie and now we're having kids and Robbie's getting married. So yeah, life's changed since last podcast, but here we are and the Mariners are on their way to potentially be in the playoffs again. So exciting stuff we got to talk about.
Rob Pod (01:14.401)
Yeah, wasn't that like a 32 yard dash?
Adam Jacobson (01:16.941)
I think it was 30. But yeah. So we're changing our podcast a little bit. We might talk about current events a little. Like, of course, we'll chat about the All-Star game that happened in the home run derby that Cal demolished and won. But we're going to actually pivot the podcast to be a little bit more analytical and talk about very specific pieces from the Grand Salami Times.
Rob Pod (01:19.806)
You
Adam Jacobson (01:46.061)
Which is our new website so feel free to check it out that Grand Salami time calm and of course subscribe but subscribe to our podcast too and Today, I guess let's chat a little bit about the all-star game What's on your mind Ravi?
Rob Pod (02:03.373)
a little birdie told me we had four, maybe five All-Stars. Pretty amazing for a team with like the fifth or sixth best record in the American league. I think it was really cool that Julio stepped aside, took a couple days for himself and let Randy, one of the hottest hitters in the league right now. Possibly the hottest, maybe we'll get into that later.
take that all-star bid and really run with it.
Adam Jacobson (02:36.1)
Yeah, I think it's crazy to think I mean Julio probably heard some birds like yelling at him on Twitter and all that and he probably got in his head a little bit and decided you know what?
maybe I'm not really deserving of this All-Star spot or maybe I just need to like, you know, get my head together and not play in this game to come back fresh after. And then, yeah, Randy Rosarena, who didn't really have a great start to the season, probably didn't earn his All-Star bid right off the bat, but by the time Julio dropped off, he definitely was in consideration and deserved the All-Star spot. But we had five All-Stars and...
That's like reminiscent of 1995 or 2001, it seems like when we just, the Mariners are representing, you know, the American League in full force.
Rob Pod (03:26.997)
Yeah, it was kind of a blast from the past. And boy, did they have contributors from like every facet of the lineup, right? Cause you have Brian Wu coming in, getting whiffs against Hall of Fame caliber, right-handed batters on the road. You got Cal Raleigh, behind the plate, starting the game behind the plate, which being an All-Star starting catcher is such a cool honor to have. And I think it's really cool the moment that he's kind of having.
Adam Jacobson (03:48.599)
Amazing.
Rob Pod (03:55.113)
with being in the MVP race, being on the home run pace that he is, and then I know you're keeping up with his endorsement deals.
Adam Jacobson (04:05.356)
Oh yeah, honey bucket just got him on. I'm the big dumper here and he comes out of a toilet. And then I think Castio watches got him on an endorsement. So Cal Raleigh is just making good money. Not only did he make a million from the home run Derby, but it's probably making a cool million from honey bucket and Castio and stuff. I'm sure for a major league player to do a honey bucket commercial, you have to probably get a paid premium for that kind of spot.
Like I don't think any, a lot of players don't have that kind of pride.
Rob Pod (04:40.519)
No, I think that they probably paid extra just to get him. Did you say he got a million dollars for winning the All-Star game? Err, he lost the All-Star game, famously, but the home run derby.
Adam Jacobson (04:44.524)
You
Adam Jacobson (04:48.107)
The home run derby. Yeah, no Yeah
I believe a million, yeah. I think second place got like 750 or something. Yeah.
Rob Pod (04:59.179)
So you're telling me that that stat cast, one billionth of a foot calculation they did to get him over Brent Rucker out of the first round, got pretty much got him a million, that was a million dollar, million dollar inch.
Adam Jacobson (05:09.92)
yes.
Adam Jacobson (05:15.083)
I don't know if Rooker would have for sure won the home run derby or anything like that. But like, yeah, I don't know. kind of want to, you know, there's actually a way we could calculate how far the ball went. And I was thinking about doing that, but I don't really have the time to do it. And I want to see if like MLB's cops were legit or not. Like they actually provide their API or stats information so you could see based on like where the ball landed, like approximately how far it went.
But I'm not going to do that in today's episode or anything like that. let's talk about, who do we have in the All-Star game other than the big dumper we had? We mentioned Julio, Randy. We also forgot to mention or we'd be remiss to not mention Brian Wu and Andres Munoz, the pitchers who well deserve the spot.
Rob Pod (06:12.095)
Yeah, it's cool. have the best catcher in the league right now and we have the best closer in the league. I almost said the best saver. You can tell I'm out of practice. The fireman, that's Matt Brash. But the Mariners have two players who are the absolute best at their positions right now. It's special times and I mean, they're, you know, talk about current events. They're in a wild card spot right now and
Adam Jacobson (06:21.076)
The fireman.
Rob Pod (06:38.955)
about to make a run at the AL West. We'll see what they do with the trade deadline, but all time high excitement for Mariners All-Star break. Like pretty much as close as we've come to 2001, you know, having like six or seven All-Stars. This is as close as we've come to that since then, I think.
Adam Jacobson (06:56.781)
Absolutely. So we're going to pivot now to our main topic for the episode, is Randy Arosa Rosarina's hot streak.
so essentially what we're going to mention is he wasn't very good in the beginning of the season and over the last 12 games, he essentially willed his way into the All-Star game by hitting nine home runs. So like, I think it was fair to say, I think some people might argue he didn't deserve to be an All-Star when the All-Star voting finished. but like,
Basically because Julio dropped out, he was at the time the hottest player in baseball and started already. He actually deserved the All-Star spot by then.
Rob Pod (07:48.267)
He did. I'll just pull up, know, June and July OPS, 854 in June, 1112 in July, weighted runs created plus 206 in July. He is the hottest hitter in the league right now. And it was cool to see him get the recognition of that. It would be easy to pull an old name, you know, like how Clayton Kershaw got the lifetime achievement All-Star. They could have given
that all-star spot to someone else, but they gave it to the best player right now, which is Randy Rosarena. We'd love to see it.
Adam Jacobson (08:27.005)
Yeah, so his OPS during the 12 game streak was 6 in the major leagues Behind Aaron judges number one up for for during that span still so it's not a huge surprise Jose alto all to ve
Sedon Raffaella has been really hot for Boston, Trevor Story, so some big names in there. His slugging percentage, he's ranked third during the 12 game span, second in the AL behind Sedon Raffaella of Boston. He has, yeah, 863 slugging percentage. Not even, that sounds like an OPS, but his slugging percentage was 863, which is insane.
Rob Pod (09:09.537)
That's like Barry Bond slugging percentage.
Adam Jacobson (09:12.392)
It is, yeah, exactly. Pretty much.
Rob Pod (09:14.527)
Like Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds, like peak, like 2004 peak steroids users, slugging percentage. And Randy is definitely not writing, so.
Adam Jacobson (09:24.743)
He's a small guy. like my size. I think I was actually surprised when they like did the pictures with with the all-stars all together and how small he is. You know, Randy or Rosarina got second in the home run derby like a couple of years ago. I think the year before Julio was like in the home run derby the first time and like he so he got second in the home run derby. He's he's five, ten, one hundred and eighty or something. He's not even he's literally like an average size human being. But
Definitely not, I don't think he doesn't even look strong if you like see him. He just kind of looks like a normal lanky skinny guy, but he swings.
Rob Pod (10:00.747)
There's a reason that he does his pose like this because it makes him, it makes his chest look bigger and he pushes his arms out and he crosses his arms and it's like, yeah, I'm 5'11 and a half. Don't get it twisted.
Adam Jacobson (10:06.76)
Hehehe.
Adam Jacobson (10:12.52)
I think he's just like 5'10". He's so small. then, yeah, so here's the thing about the Hotstreak. This is the one stat that gets it, right? Like, okay, cool, he was second or third in slugging, right? Or second in the AO and third in the MLB. That's like a really cool stat. It's not the best, but this is where he actually takes the cake. So basically I did a little digging.
pulled a little data and we found who had the most home runs over a 12 game stretch. And there were two players during the entire season over a 12 game stretch that had nine home runs or more. And when I say or more, mean nobody else had more. But, Randy Arroz Arena is one of them. And the other one is our very own Cal Raleigh.
So back in June, when Raleigh had like kind of the hottest streak, he actually had a nine home runs over a 12 game span. Not even Aaron Judge or Otani, know, who are the MVP favorites had such a streak. And this is a Rosarena who was batting like 2-41 or something with eight home runs. He had eight home runs in 85 games.
Rob Pod (11:42.208)
Yeah.
Adam Jacobson (11:44.359)
He had more home runs in next 12 games than he did in the previous 85.
Rob Pod (11:50.623)
And he plays his home games at one of the worst hitters parks for ball traveling in the air and for right-handed batters in the league. mean, it's actually amazing. think that when you take into account peripheral stats and when you put it into context, what he's accomplishing this year becomes even more impressive.
Adam Jacobson (11:59.323)
Does he now?
Adam Jacobson (12:07.164)
Yeah.
Adam Jacobson (12:19.665)
So we're actually going to talk about how difficult it is to hit in T-Mobile Park in our next episode, which is about how many home runs Cal Raleigh would have if he played elsewhere in New York or other stadiums. But back to Robbie's point, yeah, T-Mobile is considered one of the hardest stadiums to hit. The ball doesn't fly as far due to physics.
Colorado, the ball obviously flies like 9 or 10 % further. Even in New York, the ball flies 3 % further due to higher temperatures from what I've seen in our analysis. But their stadium is smaller, especially in right field. I know that right field is for lefties, but the whole point is Safeco or T-Mobile, we like to call T-Mobile these days, basically is a hard, it's a hard stadium to hit in, especially for righties.
Rob Pod (13:18.645)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, back to his hot streak. I don't know if you might. Did you mention his average in that span? 314?
Adam Jacobson (13:28.615)
Okay, this is his rabbit. His average is 314 during the span. Nothing crazy like, but good, you know, like he's more just hidden bunch of homers, you know, like 314 is a very solid batting average. Nothing. It's not like top five or 10 and batting average during that time. But Hey, I take any battery bats over 300 during any span.
Rob Pod (13:50.465)
Batting over 300 with, you know, three home runs every four games on average. Like, obviously that's not sustainable through a whole season, but when you're making a push before the All-Star break, you have a couple of series against some of the best teams in the league. The Yankees are in a playoff spot right now. They go to the Tigers, they sweep the Tigers, and he just continues to mash against
some of the best teams in the league. It's super promising for what the second half holds. And my only thought, my only like sort of downside thought is I hope that the All-Star break doesn't cool him off at all. Cause he was so hot going into it. But I think he'll be buoyed by the All-Star nod. And he almost hit one out. you, I didn't watch the entire All-Star game, but he almost hit a home run in Atlanta in the All-Star game. How cool is that?
Adam Jacobson (14:35.75)
He technically did in the home and the hitoff or whatever. They have the. He was selected as one of the hitters to to go against the National League players when they tied the game at the end, and I think basically each player gets three chances.
Rob Pod (14:53.195)
True.
Adam Jacobson (15:05.914)
Yeah, one home run out of three, I think.
Rob Pod (15:09.237)
Yeah, you three swings and he hit, he hit a home run on one of his three swings, which boy talk about streaks and averaging out. If we could extrapolate one home run for every three swings, he'd be like the best hitter ever.
Adam Jacobson (15:23.568)
Totally. That he's, I think on average, like, you know, if you're hitting 10 home run, 10, one home run every 10 at bats, you're basically going to leave the league in home runs for the season probably. So I actually came up with like one of the reasons I wrote about Randy Rose and arenas hot streak is cause my mom was like, Hey, you should write about Randy Rose arena.
He's been really good lately and I was like, okay, yeah, sure, mom. She's been a season hit to get older for 25 years and I usually kind of ignore any suggestions she has on Mariners or sports or anything. But she was dead right. I was like, yeah, he's kind of killing it. And then he was butted into the All-Star game and like, you know what, maybe my mom's got some solid sports game. So give her credit for that.
Rob Pod (16:22.421)
Mom's got the juice. And this hot streak has actually kind of put him back on track to be at his career sort of his career average. He has had a 2020 home run stolen base season, each of his four full seasons in the MLB so far. And this put him right back on track. has 17 home runs, 16 stolen bases. So he might wind up with career best.
Adam Jacobson (16:37.926)
You know, thanks for mentioning that. That's actually going to be a future one later on, maybe in a month or so. So mentioning how similar his start of his career was to Julio's and basically
Rob Pod (16:51.709)
in home runs. Just got to keep it up.
Rob Pod (17:06.836)
Whoa.
Adam Jacobson (17:07.941)
So Julio is like, he mentioned the 2020, like right, he's had three years of 2020 and maybe this is his fourth, I believe. Randy's, he gets, Julio, who knows if he's gonna get it this year, he's a little behind, I'd say. But Randy's started his career in 2020. It's the same start, they essentially are the same person. Rookie of the Year's, AL, right? They both won Rookie the Year their first season.
Yeah, there's a lot of similarities between the two players actually. know, obviously Randy Rose Arena in Tampa Bay had a lot of hype when he started his career hot and then kind of cooled off and then everyone eventually they traded him away. So hopefully that's not the same with Julio because his potential and ceiling are good. And even as a player himself, he's he's still our second or third best hitter on the team. Why would you give that up? He's not like that compared to his market value. He's he's right.
right there. think Julio is a solid player. And it says a lot about Randy, right? Randy's more of a veteran than Julio, but he's still a very productive player. Right? He's an all-star, and we're getting a good value for him.
Rob Pod (18:22.539)
huge value and you know there's a there's a hashtag extend Randy movement getting going on Twitter and that might be partially a product of the hot streak but as someone who has posted good numbers in the full just almost full season since he joined the club I wouldn't hate it
Adam Jacobson (18:44.933)
No, I think like who would replace them, right? Like what are you gonna bring up? I mean...
Rob Pod (18:50.858)
Laz?
Adam Jacobson (18:53.634)
I can't think of a player who would take another player from another team that plays outfield. I mean, there's not that many players who are going to hit 25 home runs and get 20 stolen bases and bat like above 250 for the season, you know, as for a good for as good of a price as Randy is for us right now.
Rob Pod (19:14.889)
Not at all. He's, I think he's your guy going forward in the left field. And he's not, he's no slouch defensively either. He covers left field really well. You see him make a lot of catches going out into the, especially into foul territory. He's really good at watching no doubt home runs go over the fence without moving a muscle. And his possibly best attribute in the field is how many balls he gives away to fans in the left field stance.
Adam Jacobson (19:27.491)
No.
Adam Jacobson (19:41.0)
I think he's got swagger. I believe he's friendly with everyone in the clubhouse. I don't think anyone's like, ooh, this guy has trouble in the clubhouse or anything like that. I think everyone loves him. He's very positive. Positive attitude. mean, the guy has... He was in a slump all season, but his attitude's been solid. Up until the 85th game, he was not having a good season. And he...
Rob Pod (19:55.989)
I do.
Adam Jacobson (20:09.219)
I don't think anyone noticed based on how he was acting or personality, right? He'd be the first one to the dug out handing someone a trident and high-fiving people and he's just a good guy, like someone you'd want on your team.
Rob Pod (20:22.537)
I want them on my team this year and going forward.
Adam Jacobson (20:28.021)
Anyways, think closing remarks, yeah, Randy's the man. Hope he has a hot second half. I'm excited, excited for him to help us get into the playoffs. What are your thoughts?
Rob Pod (20:41.057)
He is going to be an integral part of getting us into the playoffs. think that having a couple more hot streaks like this, don't need to be a 300 batter for the whole season. But if every, if one week out of the month, you can bat 320 with five home runs and then just be a 250 batter the other three weeks of the month. Well, he did nine and 12 games.
Adam Jacobson (20:56.994)
Five home runs in a week.
Adam Jacobson (21:08.46)
Yeah, he did it once, why not? You can do it again.
Rob Pod (21:11.201)
Okay, that's a little ridiculous. But you know what I'm saying, like, if you can go through hot streaks, especially, like I mentioned earlier, against the best teams in the league, that's what it's all about, coming down the stretch. And we're gonna need it. We end the season with the LA Dodgers coming to town. So that's gonna be, it's gonna be fun to watch coming down the stretch.
Adam Jacobson (21:14.423)
Yeah.
Adam Jacobson (21:27.746)
Yeah.
Adam Jacobson (21:31.703)
Yeah, as long as everyone could be streaky but have like hot streaks, think we're covered. Like, Cal just keep hitting like three home runs a week and then you got Horag who could all of sudden hit two or three home runs and then Julio who all of sudden gets hot and then he gets cold and then Rosarina gets hot and that's kind of how we get on the field. It's just to have one or two players getting hot at all times. So anyways, this is Grand Salami Time. Thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe and check out our website. Grand Salami Time.
