Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - 2020 American League Season Wrap-Up

Episode Date: October 10, 2020

Today (which was supposed to be a few days ago...) D.C. reviews the American League, going over each division, and going over some stats for all eight playoff teams. Also, he talks about the league leaders in batting average, ERA, and other important categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariner's, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. I swear I'm going to get five shows published this week. And since it's already late Friday night or maybe even Saturday morning by the time this is published, we're in for at least two weekend shows, maybe three if this is Saturday morning. In any case, this is Locked-on Mariner's part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Remember to download rate and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcast. Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use.

Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any program here on the Locked-on Podcast Network. Simply say, hey, smart device, play Locked-on Team Name Here Podcast. Follow us on Twitter at L-O-U-U-N-Sor-Mariners and follow me on Twitter at D.C. underscore Lundberg, L-U-N-B-E-R-G, if you are scoring at home. Another one of those weeks, ladies and gentlemen, I can't do anything right. It cannot get myself together. I can't get started. Joey says it's probably the change of the season. I'm going to use that as an excuse just because I need an excuse.

In any case, we're going to kind of wrap up the American League regular season on this show. And on the next one, we'll talk about the National League. We're going to start in the American League West, the Mariners Division. Oakland wound up winning the division with a 36 and 24 record, seven games above the Houston Astros, who were 29 and 31. Astros made the playoffs since they were the second-place team in the division, even though they were two games below 500. Oakland had a team batting average, ladies and gentlemen, of 225,

second to last in the American League, lower than the Mariners average, and they had a much better winning percentage. On base of 332 was 7th in the American League, slugging of 396th, was 12th. Well, with those offensive numbers, just how did they, have such a good record. It had to do with the fact that the rest of the teams in the American League West were just that bad, and some National League West teams were not very good either. But they also had the fourth rated earned run average in the American League.

At 377, they gave up the third fewest home runs. They gave up the second fewest walks with 165, and the fourth fewest runs to score, 232 runs, and they gave up 471 hits, which was fifth in the American League. They're pitching is what got them to the postseason. They had a pretty solid starting rotation. Chris Bassett started 11 games for them and had an ERA of 2-2-9. Then you got Mike Fires at 458. Jesus Lazzardo 412.

Sean Maniah at 4-50. Not a spectacular starting staff, but a very good, solid starting staff. And the bullpen numbers are even better. Closer Liam Hendrix, 178 ERA with 14 saves in 20 games finished. J.B. Wendelkin, 1.80, ERA. Wachim Soria, 282 ERA. Usmario Petit, 1-66 ERA. The list goes on and on. Jake Deekman, 0.42 ERA in 21 games, 21 and a third innings pitched. This was a very, very good bullpen, ladies and gentlemen, and that is how they wind up with the record of 36 and 24.

Houston, 29 and 31, everyone's favorite trash can bangers, had a 240 batting out. average, 10th in the American League, 312 on base, which was 11th, 408 slugging, which was ninth. So pretty middle of the road offense for the Houston Astros, team ERA of 431, 7th in the American League. They gave up the fourth fewest home runs with 70, and they gave up the eighth fewest runs at 275, and they gave up exactly one more hit than the Oakland Athletics, 472 hits, which puts them, pardon me, in sixth place in that department. Seattle was 27 and 33 have gone over all their numbers. Los Angeles Angels 26 and 34 got off to their worst start in franchise history and came on pretty

strong at the end, just not enough to dig themselves out of the hole that they created for themselves early in the season. And Texas 22 and 38, just horrible all season, not expected to be that bad. They were expected to contend. They obviously did not. Let's move on to the American League Central. We had three teams make the playoffs from that division. We'll start with the division winning Minnesota twins, who finished at 36 and 24.

One game behind were both the White Sox and Cleveland Indians, both at 35 and 25. Kansas City 26 and 34, and Detroit was 23 and 35. Minnesota had a team batting average, pardon me, of 242, similar to what the Astros did, ninth place in the American League, 10th and on base at 315, 7th and slugging at 420. Pitching staff was better. Third in the American League and earned run average at 358. Second fewest runs at 2.15. Second fewest hits at 448.

And they walked the fifth fewest at 170. And they gave up the fewest home runs. 62 of them. Kenta Maeda was a choice pickup for the twins. He started 11 games and had an ERA of 270. Rich Hill started eight games. 303 earned run average. Jose Barrios started 12 games and had an easy.

E.R. exactly at four. I kind of expected better for M. Jose Barrios is a very, very good player. Bullpen was pretty solid, too. Taylor Rogers was their closer who saved nine ballgames for them in 16 games finished. Sergio Romo also saved five ball games with a 405 earned run average. Tyler Clippard, the veteran Tyler Clippard at 35 years old, 277 ERA. Tyler Duffy, 188 ERA. Trevor May, 386 ERA. And there are some very very very. good numbers later on in the bullpen as well. So a similar story to the Oakland Athletics. Pitching is what got them there with a, with a, you know, not a spectacular offense, better offense than the A's had for sure, but nothing spectacular. White Sox offense was better. They were second in the American League in batting average at 261. Fifth and on

base at 326, number one in slugging, team slugging at 453. They had a rookie of the year candidate in Luis Robert. He slashed 233. 302, 436, 11 home runs, 31 runs driven in. I got to think that I'm just going to plug Kyle Lewis once again. Yeah, Kyle Lewis had better numbers than this, ladies and gentlemen. One of the White Sox pickups was Nomar Mazar did not have the best of seasons. 228, 295, 294 slash line for Mazar, very off season. They expected him to do a lot better.

Tim Anderson coming off his batting championship season from last year, 322 batting average with a 357 on base and 529 slugging. He hit 10 home runs. And you've also got Jose Ibrahim, a perennial MVP candidate, 60 runs driven, and 19 home runs in 60 games. He did play all 60 games, 317, 370, 617 slash line. Jose Abrio is just on another planet, ladies and gentlemen. He is a great ball player. White Sox had a team ERA of 381, fifth in the end.

American League. Pretty good. Second and hits 448. Fifth fewest runs at 246. Sixth fewest home runs with 71 and kind of in the middle of the pack in terms of walks. They walk 217 hitters 10th in the American League. Cleveland Indians also finished with an identical 35 and 25 record to those Chicago White Sox and their batting average was in the bottom third of the league. 228 batting average, 317 on base, which was ninth. Slugging was also in the bottom third with 317 their slugging percentage. Team ERA for them, number one in the American League, 329. Fewest hits given up at 440.

Fewest runs given up at 209. Second fewest home runs at 68 and the fewest walks at 157. And that is with trading Mike Clevenger at the trading deadline. And his trade really didn't have a whole lot to do with his performance in the four games. started for the Yanians, he did pretty well. 318 ERA. WIP on the high side at 1.368, but it was more of the fact that he,

it's more the fact that, you know, he went out to a bar with teammate Zach Plesack when he wasn't supposed to do that and didn't tell people where he was and put his teammates at risk for contracting COVID-19. And that's why they jettisoned him, ladies and gentlemen, not to do with his performance. Very, very selfish move on this guy's part.

impressed with his character the slightest, although he does still have great hair. I got to say that. Zach Plesack is still an Indian, by the way. And he added ERA this season of 2-2-8 in eight games started. Shane Bieber, 12 games, all starts, 163 ERA, whip of 0.866. Holy Toledo, did this man have a great season? Carlos Carrasco, a great season as well, 291 ERA, and his 12 starts. whip at 1.206 and wow, bullpen, you know, they've got Brad Hand as their closer.

21 games finished, 16 saves, 205 ERA, James Carnichack, if that is how it's pronounced, I'm not sure. 27 games, 267 ERA for him. And Oliver Perez, veteran Oliver Perez, at 38 years old, 38 years old, ladies and gentlemen, and yes, he's left-handed,

21 games, ERA at an even to former mariner Oliver Perez, by the way. And really, when he was a mariner, I got to say, I wasn't very impressed with Oliver Perez. But obviously, if you're left-handed, you get many, many more opportunities than right-handed pitches do. And he has had a very, very solid career as a middle reliever. These guys can pitch forever. 21 games, 18 innings pitched for Oliver Perez.

Still very good numbers. Pushing 40 years old. Very, very impressive. We are not going to have a Mariners trivia question today. Instead, I'm going to tell you about postmates. When you've got a craving for red wine at 4 p.m., that indicates that you've got a problem, and you might want to have it looked at. However, if you're also craving sushi at 8 p.m.,

that makes a lot more sense than red wine in the early afternoon, a breakfast burrito at 8 a.m., which makes a total sense, an ibuprofen at 10 a.m. I've got back problems ibuprofen at any time makes sense. Postmate it. Postmate all of this. Postmates is your personal food delivery, grocery delivery, whatever kind of delivery service you can think of all year round. Anything you're craving, Postmates can deliver. They're the largest on-demand network in the U.S. and offer delivery from all the restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and traditional retailers you can possibly think of, want or need.

24 hours a day, 365 days a year, 366 in a leap year. Postmates will bring you what you need within the hour. No more trips to the store. You don't even need to know where the hell the store is. Postmates will deliver anything to you. Download the app for iOS or Android for free. Browse local restaurants and businesses and track your delivery in real time. For a limited time, Postmates is giving our listeners $100 of free delivery credit for your first seven days.

To start your free deliveries, download the app and use code locked on. That's code locked on, L-O-C-E-D-O-N-O-1 word, for $100 of free delivery credit for your first seven days. days when you download the Postmates app. Anything you need, any time you need it, postmate it. Download Postmates and save with code locked on. Have you got a question or comment? I invite you to send it over to Lockedon Mariners

at gmail.com for consideration for an upcoming mailbag segment. Questions or comments about anything need not be baseball related, as you will find out on the next mailbag segment. Whenever that is, probably going to do one to close out the week, whether Jason's available or not. And if he's not, I will save Lewis's letter for the next

mail bag go around. In any case, questions about anything does not have any baseball, like I said, rock and roll. Ask about Eddie Van Halen. He passed away a couple days ago. One of my favorite bands growing up, kind of hold a special place in my heart. Curling, bowling, anything you want to ask. And if your question falls outside of my area of expertise, I will find somebody who knows the answer. Ask him, and I'll present the answer to you on this program. Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com. Once more is that address. The second half of this program will continue following this commercial word. Now back to Locked-on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lunberg.

Thanks, Joey. Locked-on Mariners is back talking about wrapping up the 2020 American League season. We'll recap the National League on the next program. We have one final division to recap, and then we'll get to the league leaders, so to speak. The American League East is who we have to go, and the Tampa Bay Rays won that division by a whopping seven games. Best record in the American League at 40 and 20. The Yankees were second at a very good. Good, 33 and 27. That would have won the Central and the West.

They had the second best record in the National League, pardon me, the American League, and they still finished seven games behind the raise. The Toronto Blue Jays were 32 and 28, eight games behind. Then you've got Baltimore, 25 and 39, and the Red Sox. The Boston Red Sox, those lowly Red Sox, 24 and 36. Tampa Bay again finished first, as I said, 40 games. They won two thirds of their games.

ladies and gentlemen. And their offensive numbers are pretty interesting. 238 team batting average, 11th in the American League. That's in the bottom third. Their on-base percentage was in the top third at 328, 90 points higher than their batting average, and their slugging percentage was in the middle third, as I get a message here on my phone, at 425. Eighth rated in the American League.

They had one 300 hitter, and that was third baseman Yondi Diaz, 307, 428 on base, and a 386 slugging percentage. Holy Toledo was he on base a lot in 34 games played. 17 strikeouts and 23 walks. 23 walks in 138 plate appearances. And the rest of their offense looked pretty solid. Brandon Lowe hit 269, drove in 37 runs, hit 14 home runs, the only player on the raise with double-digit home runs.

And then you also have Willie Adomis, their shortstop. 259, his batting average on base of 332 and a slugging of 481. Infield is very, very solid. Offensively, their outfield was not, but Kevin Kiermire playing center field cannot go wrong with his defense. On the pitching side, they have the second rated ERA in the American League at 356. They also gave up the seventh fewest hits, 475, third fewest runs, 229, fourth fewest home runs with 70, third fewest walks at 168, and the second most strikeouts at 552.

This is a very good, solid pitching staff, ladies and gentlemen. Tyler Glasnow had a pretty good year. Blake Snell had a very good year at 324 as an earned run average, whip of 1.2.0. Josh Fleming contributed in five starts, with a 278 earned run average, and their bullpen very, very good. They kind of spread the wealth around, so to speak,

in terms of who was going to finish their ball games. Nick Anderson saved the most ball games. He had six saves, nine games finished, which also led the team. And his ERA was a minuscule, 0.55. And his whip fewer than a half a base runner per nine innings. 0.490 whip. That is amazing, ladies and gentlemen. He's not walking people.

He's not giving up a lot of hits. And he is striking out a lot of people. Walks per night innings for Anderson, 1.7. Strikeouts per 9 innings, 14.3. A strikeout to walk ratio of an astounding 8.67. That is otherworldly. Pete Fairbanks also had a pretty good ERA out of the bullpen, as did veteran Aaron Loop, and some other contributors as well, Diego Castillo, 22 games and a 1-66 earned run average for that gentleman. Very solid performance for these Tampa Bay raise. The New York Yankees, no slouches either, obviously, since they finished second in their division,

but that record would have been enough to win either of the other two records in the American League. Their batting average of 247 was sixth in the American League. They're on-base percentage first at 3.42. Second in slugging with 447. DJ LaMayhew has just been nothing short of spectacular as a New York Yankee after signing there as a free agent before last season. Slash line this year of 364, 421, 590, 27 RBI in 50 games and 10 home runs.

Luke Voight, Holy Toledo, Luke Voight, 22 home runs in 56 games played. 22 home runs this year is an astounding number. 22 home runs is a pretty decent number in a 162 game season. 277, 338, 610 slash line for Luke Voight. Holy Toledo, was he just on another? planet in terms of power numbers drove in 52 runs. Gio Urchella, another very good season, almost hit 300. 298 to be specific, on base of 368 and the slugging of 490.

And Clint Frazier contributed with a 267-394-511 slash line. Very, very good offense for the New York Yankees. And pitching was kind of somewhere in the middle of the pack. 435 was their earned run average, which was eighth in the American League. However, they walked the third fewest. 168 walks, fifth most strikeouts at 528, fourth fewest hits at 455. And in the middle of the pack in terms of giving up runs,

the middle third at least, sixth in runs given up at 270. And they gave up the long ball, however. They gave up 83 of them. That is third from last in the American League, 13th place. Still a very solid, solid team. And Toronto finished third,

and they got the other wild card spot. and they have a very good offense. Their slash line as a team, 255 batting average, which was fourth in the American League, 325 on base, which was 6th, and 441 slugging, which was 4th.

Bo Bichet played in about half the games. He played 29 games, and he slashed 301, 328, 512. My goodness. And those 28 games played, 23 runs batted in. Kevin Bezio,

son of Craig Bezio, obviously, played in all, but one of the Blue Jays games, and he slashed 250, 375, 432, and he drove in 28 runs. Team leader in home runs was Teosker Hernandez. I really hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. He had 16 home runs and drove in 34, 289, 340, 579 slash line for Hernandez. And Randall Gritchuk also contributed, led the team in RBI with 35, his slashline 273, 312, and 481.

Pitching was not exactly the Blue Jays strong suit. Their ERA was 410, which was 10th in the American League. They gave up the second to most hits, 512 hits. They gave up a lot of runs, too, 312 runs, which was 11th in the American League. They put a lot of runners on base via the walk, 250 walks that's next to last. 81 home runs given up, which was 10th, and they strikeouts, and again, I'm not a big strikeout guy. You guys know this by now. They struck out 519, which was good for ninth in the American League. Their top starter, Hun Jin Ryu, had an excellent season. 269 ERA and 12 starts,

whip of 1.149, strikeout to walk ratio, 4.24. Very, very good numbers. As a Blue Jay, Taiwan Walker started six games, and he was magnificent. 1.37 was the earned run average for him. 1.253 whip for him and a few too many walks per nine innings, three point eight walks per nine innings. I don't think he was doing quite that as a mariner. I think he was a little bit better in that department. But 1.37 ERA, my goodness, you can't really argue with that and a strikeout to walk ratio of 2.27.

Bullpen looks like it was slightly better than the starting rotation, not by much though. Anthony Bass finished the most games for the Blue Jays, 14 of them, saving seven. 351 was the earned run average with a whip of 1.1. 013. Rafael Dolis pitched in 24 games, finished nine of them, and had a 1.50 ERA, and a 1.250 whip.

AJ Cole was also down there, 309 earn run average. And you also have, oh my gosh, Ryan Baruki or Baraki, I'm not sure how that's pronounced, 270 ERA for him in 21 games, one of them finished, and a whip of 1.440,

which is on the high side, but 270 ERA, You know, he got the job done in that respect, and I know I mispronounce your name. It's one of the two, I hope. So I apologize, Mr. Baruki or Baraki, B-O-R-U-C-K-I. So that is the division recaps. Time to look at the batting and pitching leaders in the American League. We'll start on the offensive side of the ball, as I often do, for unknown reasons,

since I'm really a pitching and defense-type guy. The American League leader in batting average was the aforementioned DJ LeMayhew at 364. Second was Tim Anderson of the White Sox at 322. He won the title last year. Third was the very underrated David Fletcher of the Los Angeles Angels. Pardon me. DJ Lemayhew also led the league on-base percentage at 421. And the slugging leader is Jose Abraeu at 617.

OPS leader was LaMahue at 2011. He was the only player in the American League with an OPS over 1,000. your league leader in home runs is Luke Voigt with 22. Jose Abraeo hit 19, and then in third place you have a tie. Mike Trout hit 17, as did Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians. Jose Abraeu also drove in the most runs in the American League with 60. Luke Voight was second with 52. And again, another tie for third place between Ramirez and Trout, 56 runs driven in a piece.

And now on the pitching side, your ERA champion is Shane Bieber at 163, just out of this world. Another American League central player, Dallas Kichel, was second with 1-99 and Chris Bassett, who we mentioned in the first half of the show from the Oaklandais, in third place in ERA, at 229. Bieber also won the most games. I'm not a big one-loss guy because I consider that mainly a team record, but Shane Bieber led the American League in wins with eight, and there was a tie for second place between Garrett Cole of the Yankees who had seven

and the other man who had seven, the Mariners' very own Marco Gonzalez. Very, very impressive. Brad Hand saved the most games with 16 of them. And your American League strikeout champion, Shane Bieber again, 122. It looks like Shane Bieber is the runaway Cy Young Award winner. Lucas Jolito of the White Sox was second in strikeouts with 97, and Garrett Cole of the Yankees, third in strikeouts with 94 of them. That's pretty much how the American League shaped up this season.

in a nutshell, so to speak. Join us on the next program where we talk about the National League. And here to help me do that will be Stretch Cunningham, Moki Fragel, and a Dairy Queen Chicken Strip basket. I hope they bring the country gravy.

In any case, join us on the next program and remember to download rate and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use, probably the one on which you're listening to this program right now.

Follow us on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners, and follow me on Twitter at DC underscore Lundberg. Thank you for listening to this program. As late as it was, we'll be back later. Two more shows coming up this weekend. I don't know if they're both going to be Saturday shows if we're going to do the next one on Saturday and the one after that on Sunday.

In any case, join us for the next one where it's going to be the National League recap and I'm pretty sure that the Mailbag show will be following that one. Thanks for listening again, ladies and gentlemen. I will talk to you later. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.