After his Cactus League start on Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners starting pitcher George Kirby made an interesting revelation that he was experimenting with his own PitchCom device that will allow him to call his own pitches and operate with more conviction.

Kirby said he won't do this all the time and estimated he used it for only 8-10 pitches on Sunday. Still, he likes the ability to take more ownership of his outings.

Let me make this clear: As a former pitcher, I love this. The pitcher is the one who is throwing the pitches and the pitcher is the one who knows what's working and what's not. Trusting what you're throwing is a huge part of pitching and that is easier to do when you have more ownership of what's happening.

Pitchers already have the ability to take control by shaking off, so this is really just a pre-emptive way of doing that.

All that said, I still think this could be an eventual problem for the Mariners. I don't want to make it sound bigger than it is: It could be dealt with easily, swiftly and out of the public eye, but I still think an issue will come up at some point during the year.

I addressed this on the most recent 'Refuse to Lose' podcast:

"But at some point, I fear that this is going to be an issue. George Kirby is telling you that he wants more accountability and more control and more ownership. Well, there is a guy behind the plate who the Seattle Mariners pay more than $100 million to, who also, I'm sure, wants control and has control.

Cal Raleigh has a really, really good reputation for how he handles a pitching staff, for how he prepares for a game, for the scouting report that he works on, for how he calls the game, for how he handles the pitchers. Cal Raleigh has a Platinum Glove. Now, how he receives the ball, how he frames pitches, how he blocks balls in the dirt, that all goes into the Platinum Glove more than what he does behind the scenes. But he draws massive praise for what he does behind the scenes.

At some point, are George Kirby and Cal Raleigh going to butt heads in some capacity over this issue? I believe yes. Now that is a guess, but that is an educated guess on what I know about Cal Raleigh, what I know about George Kirby, and what I know about pitching, right? It's a guess, but I feel like it's an educated guess.

Cal Raleigh has the ability to tell Logan Gilbert to scrap X, Y, or Z in his game. Every year, Logan Gilbert comes to camp having worked on a new pitch, and Cal Raleigh shoots him down on it, all right? So if Cal Raleigh has the ability to shoot Logan Gilbert down, the Opening Day starter last year, he's got a lot of say. He's got a lot of power, and what he says matters.

So if Cal can do that to Logan Gilbert, I'd have to think that Cal wants the ability to have most of the final say when it comes to everybody else on the staff. And George Kirby is telling you that he wants the final say."

It's certainly something to follow once Raleigh returns from the World Baseball Classic, where he is currently playing with Team USA. The Americans will await the result from Italy and Mexico on Wednesday to see if they advance to the elimination round of the tournament.

Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!