Hello Seattle Mariners fans!

Baseball remains locked out, but it appears slow, if begrudging progress continues on that front. The players association appears to be making some major concessions, and both sides have narrowed their focus down to core sticking points. John, Kate and I are here to dig into listener questions regarding the lockout, the Mariners free agent pursuits, and the general lack of baseball vibe at large. John dives into his article on the 14 team expanded playoffs and breaks down some of the pros and cons of such an alignment, and how it might change the way teams operate in terms of tanking/going all in for the postseason. We ponder the remaining names on the free agent market, and Kate extolls the potential value of Carlos Rodon. We pick over the carcass of the Oakland Athletics, and try to come up with a trade for some of their more spare parts that might fill holes on the Mariners roster. Apologies to any twitter listeners with questions we did not get to, I responded to a few personally, but we will save a few key ones to answer on a future pod.

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