Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - 8-19-19 Locked on Mariners Episode 7: Mailbag Monday, with questions about Keon Broxton and the Mariners closer role

Episode Date: August 19, 2019

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What is up Mariners fans? I am Seattle Sports Media's utility infielder Andy Patton, and you're listening to the Locked-on Mariners podcast, part of the locked-on podcast network. The Mariners took two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend, which included an extremely impressive pitching performance from left-hander Usay Kikuchi. We'll talk about that in segment one. And then coming up in segment two, I'll host another Mariners Monday mailbag, where I will answer questions about centerfielder Keon-Brockston's future with the team

and the Mariners' closer situation. Finally, we'll continue our daily tradition of celebrating birthdays for former and current Seattle Mariners. There are four birthdays to celebrate over the weekend and four more to celebrate today. Stay tuned to find out who. The Mariners enjoyed a nice little international trip over the weekend, heading out to Toronto and taking two out of three from an up-and-coming Blue Jays squad. The series didn't get off to an exceptional start. Matt Whistler started the opening game as he's been doing a lot the last couple of weeks.

He threw one scoreless inning, struck out two. Wade LeBlanc came in after that and just bombed. He threw. He managed to throw seven innings, but he gave up 11 hits, seven earned runs, walked one, struck out three. He gave up four home runs. Just did not look good. The Mariners were very fortunate that they were able to keep them in for the rest of the game

because their game on Saturday, they ended up going with a full bullpen game. So they really needed to preserve their bullpen depth as much as possible. So they kind of just left LeBlanc out there to run a little bit. He's got a 5.40 ERA on the season now. He had been doing better in that kind of false starter role. Him and Tommy Malone were both guys who pitched a little bit better in that situation, but this one really got away from him.

Obviously, Toronto's got some good hitters. Randall Grichick got him. Derek Fisher got him. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got him. Danny Janssen got him. So, you know, it's a powerful team. The ball really flies at the Rogers Center up in Toronto. So I guess we'll give him a little bit of a break.

I think the fact that he was able to go seven innings despite giving up, he gave up six of those runs in the second and third innings, three in each of those innings and then didn't give up another run until the seventh. I think the fact that he was able to finish the game actually may have been the reason the Mariners won the next two games, so we have to give him a little bit of credit, even though his line in that game looked absolutely atrocious. The following game was better. The Mariners won four to three.

Kyle Seeger continued his hot, hot hitting. He now has 10 home runs at his last. last 23 games. He has been absolute money lately. Austin Nola, I believe in a previous podcast, I called him Aaron. I want to apologize for that. Austin Nola had his fifth home run of the season. Dan Vogelbach doubled. Keon Broxton had a couple of RBIs. He started in place for Malik Smith. We're going to get to that a little bit later, but this was a good game for the Mariners. They threw one, two, three, four, five, six, seven pitchers in this one. Reggie McLean started. He threw two innings. They had a bunch of different guys go,

one inning after that. Mariner's had a good one on Saturday, and always nice to win close games, went to four and three. And then, with a depleted bullpen, having thrown nearly everybody, Japanese left-hand or Yusay Kakucci said, all right, guys, I got it. He threw a complete game shutout the first of his major league career. He was absolutely masterful on Sunday. He threw 96 pitches. He admitted after the game, or somebody looked it up, I'm not sure, but he'd thrown a lot of complete games. I believe he'd thrown 18 complete games well in Japan, and none of them had ever been under 100 pitches. And this one was under 100 pitches, which is a term called a Maddox, because former Braves pitcher and Cubs pitcher, Greg Maddox, was exceptional at those. Cacucci admitted

he did not know what that is, which makes sense. But nevertheless, outstanding game from him, two hits, one walk, eight strikeouts. He was just, he was outstanding. He lowered a seasonary rate of 5.19, which proves how much he really has been struggling this year. His recipe for success, This is what we talked about on our last mailback Monday last week. We kind of talked about Yasei Kikuchi and what his struggles have been and what are some of the things that he can improve upon. And one of the things I talked about was elevating his fastball, trying to go high with his fastball and then bring his breaking stuff down low.

And after the game, there's a quote from Tom Murphy. I don't have it. The exact quote, but he effectively said that, yeah, he was 92, 93, which is where he normally is. But when he locates that fastball up in the zone, it looks like 95. And I think his exact quote was, good luck hitting the other pitches. Which is exactly what we talked about. Kikuchi needs to, if he's, you know, he's not going to ever throw 98.

And his breaking stuff, like we talked about, his slider's great. His other breaking stuff or other off-speed stuff is okay. But for him, he needs to be able to bring that fastball up in the zone and then drop the breaking stuff down in the zone and attack hitters that way. And that's exactly what he did, and it paid off perfectly. So if this is a recipe he can continue to utilize, the Mariners could get the Ysai Kikuchi that they wanted to get when they signed him this off-season. So this is really, really optimistic, really hopeful to see Kikuchi do this.

You know, Sunday day games, I think, sometimes favor pitching a little bit. It's hard to kind of get the bats going after playing a game the night before. But for this one, for Kikuchi to be throwing, knowing that he has virtually no help behind him and still be able to shut out a pretty good young hitting Toronto team is really, really, really nice going forward. So yeah, the next thing I wanted to talk about was what happened with Malik Smith. I think that was probably the biggest news that came out over the weekend. Malik Smith got benched after Friday's game. He did not play at all on Saturday, and he did pinch it on Sunday, but he did not start that game.

Scott Surveis was quoted after the game talking about why he benched Malick Smith, and he said, quote, We've got to be smarter. It's part of the game. You can be very, very talented and skilled and produce numbers, but part of any game at the professional level, you have to think the game, you have to understand the game, you have to know that. You have to know the scoreboard and the situations like that. And those are areas he struggles at. Yeah, Malik Smith, obviously a guy who's got a lot of talent.

As Survea said, he's leading the American League and stolen bases, but he makes a lot of mental mistakes. He's not a very good fielder, which is kind of surprising. I think when you see really, really, really speedy outfielers, you just assume naturally that they're gifted center fielers, and he's not. He's okay. He's had his moments, but he's generally not a good outfielder.

he makes a lot of base running mistakes, which is what Surveis is referencing here in this specific quote. I'm curious what Malick Smith's future looks like in Seattle. He's a young guy. You think, okay, you know, Jerry DePoto is going out trying to acquire young guys specifically to build the team around. So the initial reaction is, okay, Malik Smith is part of that group. I, at first, my initial reaction was, I'm not so sure. Now I'm very much less sure. I'm not sure how grammatically correct that was.

We'll move on. Obviously, Jared Kellanick and Julio Rodriguez are outstanding prospects coming up. Whether they stick in center field remains to be seen. Kellanick, for the most part, is considered a surefire bet to stick in center field long term. Kyle Lewis is obviously another prospect and an outfield prospect. They have other depth pieces in the minor leagues as well. I kind of think that Malick Smith is the guy who is really just kind of warm in a spot for somebody. ideally Kellanick and the way that he has meteorically rose through the system. He's in AA now. His future spot at T-Mobile Park might be as soon as the end of next season.

I don't know. The Mariners don't have a really pressing reason to push him to the big leagues, but if he's knocking on the door, if he hits 370 and AAA next year, they, you know, forces their hand a little bit. I think Malik Smith's spot is temporary. I don't think that they're going to necessarily deal him this offseason unless they continue to have issues with him and him and Surveis continue to not get along, then maybe. But for the most part, I think he's just a temporary guy. He's just here.

He's like Domingo Santana. He's just a guy filling a role for a team that isn't necessarily competing right now. The difference is the Santanas and the Seegers and the other guys are in their late 20s where it kind of makes sense that they'll be on their way out when this team's on their way up. Smith is not, but I just don't think that there's a role for him here long term. So anyway, we already talked a little bit about Kyle Seeger. That was the other big note from the weekend. Ten home runs in his last 23 games. He's been absolute money since the start of July.

It's been fantastic to see him hitting well. I sincerely hope he can finish out the season strong. I don't know exactly what the future holds for him. That's been one of the most popular questions in my mailbag Mondays. I'm going to get to it. I wanted to address a couple other ones this week, but we'll have a whole, probably a whole podcast dedicated to what do we do with Kyle Seeger? What does the Mariners minor league system look like at the third base? How does that impact what they decide to do with them?

Do they move Shed Long over there, et cetera, et cetera, all of that. I would like to get to that probably early in the off season. But for right now, let's just enjoy that one of the longest tenured mariners, the longest tenured mariner besides Felix, is hitting the ball well right now and making fans happy. Let's enjoy that, and then we'll talk about his future some other time. Before we get into segment two, I really just want to point out that my favorite fact that I saw today, Tom Murphy has the highest fan graphs war among Mariners position players. He is their backup catcher. There is a lot to unpack about that stat.

Most of it, not good, but we could focus on the positive and just say that Tom Murphy was a great pickup. He's having a great season. He's got 13 home runs as a backup catcher. Him and Omar Narvaez have created what I believe is the best. Mariners catching group ever for this season. They probably won't either of them be around next season. But for now, it's another great thing to enjoy about this team. You know, there's not a lot of things that are particularly enjoyable, but the Mariners' catching combination and Kyle Seeger's hot streak are two things to enjoy. So let's celebrate those. And hopefully the Mariners can keep winning.

You know, they've won four out of their last six this month after starting one and seven. So they've been kind of on a little bit of a hot streak. And they got the raise next. which will be tough, but hopefully they can take a couple over the weekend. Coming up, I'll answer questions about Keon Broxton and the Mariners Bullpen in our second Mariners Mailbag Monday segment. Eight total birthdays to talk about today, but before we get to that, we have some fan questions answer in our weekly Mailbag Monday segment. The first comes from Twitter user at Cornelius 13.

He asked, does Keon Broxton get DFAed when Mitch Hanigua and Braden Bishop return? short answer is yes hopefully at least for those of you who have not seen exactly if you're watching the games you probably have a pretty good sense of what I'm about to say but Keon Broxton has had 38 plate appearances with the Mariners since they got him on July 30th he is hitting a buck 52 with a 211 on base percentage at 242 slugging percentage he's got one home run in four RBI's got two steals but he's been caught stealing three times his 7.9% walk rate is okay but his strikeout rate is 50% that is unbelievably bad but also pretty on brand for keon broxton um broxen was a big

time prospect for the brewers coming up a while ago he had a 20 home run 21 stolen base season in 2017 with the brewers but even that year he had a 37.8% strikeout rate he fell back down to earth in 2018 and then got traded to the Mets and his season line this year has been with three different teams he's got five home runs and 10 steals but he's got a 44. 3% strikeout rate. The dude is toast, unfortunately. You know, I mean, he's only 29. This is who he is.

He's got some speed. He's got some power. He's a good defensive outfielder. He's a better center fielder than Malik Smith, but he's got really, really big strikeout issues, and he's just not good enough to stick in the big leagues at this point. Hanager, he's got some lower back tightness, and he's at AAA Tacoma right now, but it sounds like he's getting pretty close to coming back.

I'm not sure how much the tightness in his back is going to hold him back, but I would expect to see him perhaps in a week or so. That's just a guess. I don't have any confirmed information on that. Braden Bishop's on his way back as well. He needs to get out to play in defense. He's been de-hing for a little bit, but as soon as he can get out there and start playing the field,

he should be back relatively soon. Clearly, Hanager is a more important addition to the Mariners' outfield than Braden Bishop, but I think that they'll probably give both of them. Clearly they'll give Hanager a roster spot in the major leagues as soon as he's healthy. Bishop, I think, will be up pretty soon too. There's no reason not to give Bishop a shot. It's certainly not over a guy hitting 152. So I think Broxen's time with the Mariners is extremely, extremely limited.

He got a couple starts over the weekend because Malick Smith got benched, and depending how mad they are at Malac, that could continue. But I don't expect to see Keon Broxton and A Mariners. to form a whole lot longer. The second and final question that we're going to answer today comes from Jim on Facebook. He asks, do the Mariners intend to continue with a closer committee or is there a closer in waiting? Well, obviously, so for starters, the Mariners had Hunter Strickland and Rowanus, Alias were kind of their two top dogs in the bullpen earlier this year and they were both

traded to the Washington Nationals at the deadline, brought them back a nice hall of prospects. They also had Anthony Swarzak earlier in the year and they traded him as well. well. So they're pretty depleted on bullpen depth. As for those of you who watched on Saturday, you saw them bring out just about everybody. I would be pretty surprised if they locked in a closer for the rest of the year just because there's not really any reason to. None of the guys that they have right now really strike me as future bullpen ace guys, guys who are going to be long-term, they don't have an Edwin Diaz on this team right now, you know. I think the guys most likely to get saves down the stretch. Anthony Bass, Matt McGill, Sam, Tuiva, Lula. I think those are probably

the three guys who are going to kind of split duties there. Matt Whistler has been one of their better relievers this year, but they really seem to like him in that starting role that he's been doing lately. That doesn't mean they couldn't push him down into a late-ending relief role. In terms of his numbers, he's got a 10.8-4 strikeouts per nine and a 2.13 walks per nine on the year. That's probably the best among the Mariners relievers. For me, one of the most important things, not just for me, for most teams, one of the most important things is to have a high strikeout ratio and a low walk ratio, because that's what you want your closer to do.

You want them to strike guys out and not walk anybody. Pretty basic. But Wister's very good at that. The problem is he's got a 4.25 ERA, which is bad. 1.28, home runs per 9 is not good. He does have a 3.36 FIP, which indicates that his ERA is. maybe a little bit unlucky. So you could make an argument that he's their best reliever right now,

which theoretically means he should be the closer. I think they're going to keep him where he is, which for me leaves likely Bass and McGill as the two guys to target. Miguel got a save over the weekend. He's got an 11.41 case per nine on the year, which is very good. But he also has a 3.96 walks per nine. So he's striking a lot of guys out, which is good. But he's also walking a lot of guys, which is not good.

4.19 ERA, 3.84 FIP. He'd probably be the guy. I don't know if this question is fantasy baseball based or not, but he'd probably be the guy that I guess I would want. He'd just lock down a save. The Mariners aren't going to have a whole lot of save opportunities going forward. I think they'll win a fair amount more games, but they'll either win in big blowouts or they'll, you know,

I just don't envision a lot of save opportunities coming up for this team. So if they're splitting duties, between Matt McGill and Anthony Bass. Bass's numbers, he's got a 3.67 ERA, which is the best out of that group, but he's 7.60 strikeouts per 9, 3.15 walks per 9. You know, pretty pedestrian numbers. He's been pretty average throughout the year. I don't have super high hopes for him. He's a journeyman veteran guy, same with McGill. Same with Whistler, really. All three of those guys have kind of been around a lot. Cody Gehrin falls into that category as well. He's an older veteran guy having an okay year. he's got control issues that I think prevent him from being in that role long term. Tui Valula is 26.

He's maybe the most compelling option for like this is a guy we're going to put in the ninth inning because he could be a future closer for us. So that I guess I could see. Numbers are good. 10.45 strikeouts per 9, 2.61 walks per 9. 1.74 ERA. Those numbers are way better than any more. anybody else in the bullpen. He's also only thrown tennings coming off an injury.

He's started two games, so clearly they have an interest in potentially having him be an opener as well. I don't know. I guess if you're asking if I think they should, I would let Tui Valua run with it. Why not? He's got the best numbers. He's got, he's one of the, he's probably the only guy that I've talked about so far who's going, has a chance to be on this team when they're contending again. See what he's got. See what he can do. What I think they are going to do is rotate between all of those guys. I think Bass will get some chances. McGill will get some chances. Twoie Valula will get some chances. Maybe Cody Guerin will get some chances. Maybe they'll try Matt Whistler down there. I really don't see a reason for Surveas to stick with anybody in particular,

so I don't think that they will, which is not necessarily a bad thing for the Mariners. It's not a great thing. Obviously, if you're a fantasy baseball player, but not a terrible thing for the Mariners, although my preference would be to see them give to Ivalula a shot at it, but I'm not confident that that's going to happen. All right, we're going to talk about birthdays, all eight of them from the last couple of days, right after this. All right, Mariners fans, our final segment, as always, is going to be our birthday segment. This is our first time taking a few days off since I didn't record over the weekend. So we're going to celebrate the birthdays that we missed, as well as the birthdays that are coming up today.

So there were four birthdays on Saturday, August 17th. for the Mariners. There were none on Sunday, August 18th. I was wondering if there was going to be any days that just straight up did not have any former Mariners' birthdays. And there there were. So Sunday had none. And then today, Monday, had four.

So the first ones for Saturday, a couple guys who were with the team recently, Dylan Overton celebrated his 28th birthday on Saturday. He threw nine games with the Mariners in 2017. Not particularly well. He had a 6.38 ERA. 5.45 FIP, not very successful in his 18 innings with the Mariners. He finished out that year with the Padres and has not reached the Big League since then. That was, again, that was in 2017.

So happy 28th birthday. Not sure if he's still trying to make it back in the Big Wigs or not, but good luck to you if you are. Our other birthday, or one of our other birthdays, is Tuffy Go Switch. He turned 36 on Saturday. Go Switch, you may remember him. He was a catcher. was with the Mariners for 11 games in 2017. He hit 071 with a 103 on-base percentage.

So not exactly a beacon of success for the Mariners. He'd been kind of a journeyman guy. He played the last couple of years with Arizona. So those at bats for him in 2017 were his last. So him and overton kind of finished their career out in Seattle in 2017. But happy birthday to the both of them. Next up is Jim Converse. Jim Converse turned 48 on Saturday.

Converse spent parts of three seasons with the Mariners in the mid-90s. He was with them in 93, 94, and part of 1995, and then he ended up over with the Royals for a little bit. He went 1 in 11 with the 7.65 ERA across 80 games, sorry, 80 innings pitched, 13 games started, 23 overall games. Again, another one of those guys who just, you know, filled a roster spot. He ended up throwing 48 innings in 1994, despite having an abhorrent. 8.69 ERA. Not actually sure what happened there. Don't know why he ended up eating up so many innings.

He made eight starts. Seems like you'd have kind of seen all you needed to see by that point. He had 39 strikeouts and 40 walks. Really, really bad numbers. Ended up taking off the entire 1996 season, threw in a couple games with the Royals in 1997, and that was it. He was out of baseball.

So happy 40th birthday to Jim Converse. The last one over the weekend is Diego Segui. Diego Sagi had a very successful big league career. He actually won an ERA title in 1970 with the Oakland A's. He ended up playing for the Mariners in 1977, their first season as the Mariners. He had a 5.69 ERA in 110 innings. He went 0 and 7. I suspect Sigi turned 82.

I would have to look this up, but I got to imagine he's one of, if not the oldest, living player to have played for the Mariners. Who knows? Who knows? Certainly certainly played for one of the earliest iterations, the earliest iteration of the Mariners. So anyway, very, very good player, not very good with the Mariners, but he was 39 at the time. He hadn't pitched the entire year previously, so it's understandable. But he had a very good career otherwise and just celebrated his 82nd birthday.

So good for him. Next up, these are the four guys that are celebrating a birthday today. First up is Matt White. He is turning 42 today. White played for the Mariners in 2003. He only appeared in two innings. He gave up a couple of runs. He gave up two home runs, actually. He had a 13.5 ZERA with an even worse 19.03 FIP. So not exactly a big league career to remember. Although weirdly, he was represented by Scott Boris, which is kind of baffling. He was a 15th round pick, so it wasn't like he was a high pick who flamed out. He never really had any success. in the big leagues, but somehow convinced Scott Boris, one of the most well-known sports agents on planet Earth, to represent him. So curious about that, but regardless, happy 42nd birthday to Mr. White. Next up is Luis de Leon. He is celebrating his 61st birthday.

A lot of older guys for this weekend. De Leon threw for the Mariners in 1989 as a 30-year-old. He only appeared in one game. He threw four endings, had one earned run, which was a solo home run, walked one, struck out two. That was it. He didn't have a particularly memorable career, although he did finish fifth in rookie of the year voting in 1982 as a 23-year-old member of the Padres, where he went 9 and 5 with a 2.03 ERA and 15 saves. Happy 602nd birthday to him. And then happy 63rd birthday to Ron Reineke. Reineke appeared for the Mariners a little bit in the 1983 season. He had himself an eight-year career, kind of a journeyman utility-type guy.

appeared in 59 games, excuse me, for the Mariners in 1983. He had 253 with a 362 on base percentage, four home runs, six still on bases. Yeah. Happy 63rd birthday to Ron Reineke. Last but not least, potentially, is Paul Mitchell. Paul Mitchell is celebrating his 70th birthday. Mitchell played for the Mariners in parts of three seasons in 77, 78, and 79, so he would have been teammates with Diego Sigi on that 1977, but again, he is 12 years younger than him

because he was at the start of his career at that time. He went 12 and 21 in that time with the Mariners. He had a 4.35 ERA with 113 strikeouts and 110 walks. So, again, eight guys today, but nobody particularly memorable that was born who played for the Mariners over the weekend. Diego Sigi is certainly the best player out of the group, although his career with the Mariners was rather forgettable. Coming up tomorrow, I'll recap tonight's series opener between the Rays and the Mariners,

which features a pair of fun left-handers in Marco Gonzalez and Brendan McKay. We'll take a look at some strong performers in the minor leagues after that, including Stud Outfielders, Julio Rodriguez, and Jared Kellanick. Once again, I'm Andy Patton. You can find me on Twitter at Andy Patton, S-E-A.

You can find the Locked-on Mariners podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening, and go, Mariner. owners.