‘Hot Stove’ podcast: Mariners pitchers already at work in Peoria

If you missed the “Hot Stove” show Tuesday night on 710 ESPN Seattle, fear not, we have a podcast.

Two hours of baseball talk kicked off with a visit from pitcher James Paxton, who is already in Arizona putting in work 10 days ahead of the report day, and he is not alone.

“I’d say altogether (major- and minor-leaguers), there’s 25-30 guys down here right now. I played catch with Taijuan (Walker) today, threw a bullpen next to him. It was good,” Paxton said.

Paxton was followed by MLB.com national columnist Tracy Ringolsby, who gave us his thoughts on what he expects from the Mariners in 2016. He also gave us a little insight into the battle that Edgar Martinez is facing in getting voted into the hall of fame. Ringolsby is a good baseball person, a good baseball writer and even covered the Mariners earlier in his career, yet he did not vote for Edgar.

This was not a topic we addressed with our next guest, who just happened to be Edgar Martinez. We kept Edgar for two segments and easily could have gone three or four or could possibly still be talking about hitting with Edgar right now if that was allowed. He hit on a number of topics, including the adjustment for him going from a part-time role in the organization to the full-time big-league hitting coach. He talked about the organizational hitting philosophy and why it is important to have one and also shared his approach at the plate, the approach he tries to teach.

Sign up for breaking sports updates

Outfielder Boog Powell followed and talked a little bit more about the hitting summit in January from a player’s perspective. He clearly was excited about the opportunity to get to work with Edgar and looks forward to his call-up to the big leagues and getting the opportunity to play in front of his family when the Mariners travel to Anaheim, Calif.

Chris Calcaterra from the City of Peoria was our final guest and he gave us the update on the new improvements to the stadium there, which is the second phase of the three-phase plan for the Peoria Sports Complex.

Pitchers and catchers report in nine days.