Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - 9-4-19 Locked on Mariners Episode 17: King Felix struggles as the Mariners get swept by the Cubs

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

The Seattle Mariners got swept in a two-game series by the Chicago Cubs, falling 6-1 on Wednesday. Host Andy Patton recaps the game and then goes into detail about the prospects called up by the rest of the teams in the AL West, and what kind of impact they may have on the division in the ensuing years to come.Finally, he wishes a Happy Birthday to two Mariners pitchers. 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.

What is up Mariners fans? I'm Seattle Sports Media's utility infielder Andy Patton, and you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. The Mariners are leaving Chicago with two ugly losses after falling to the Cubs yet again on Tuesday by a score of 6 to 1. I'm going to talk about that in segment one. And then coming up in segment two, I'll host my A.L. West Wednesday segment.

We're all focused on the September call-ups for each team in the division and how those players could do down the stretch and in the future with each team. Finally, we have two Mariners' birthdays to celebrate today, including a player who played yesterday afternoon. Stay tuned to find out who. First, I want to talk about crossover Wednesday. The NFL season begins next week, which means crossover Wednesday will be back. For the entire regular NFL season, you'll get a special episode every Wednesday as the hosts from opposing sides meet up to preview the excitement of the games happening that week. Find your favorite team wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure not to miss the NFL listeners' face.

favorite segment. All right, so before we start talking about yesterday's game, I want to highlight a really, I guess we'll call it a fun fact from the Twitter account at Cesspides Family Barbecue. If you don't follow them, they are amazing. They have some of the best baseball content out there. But they tweeted this fun fact about how the last time the Cup, the last time Felix Hernandez pitched at Wrigley Field was July 31st, 2016, which when you first hear that doesn't really sound like it was that long ago.

But they posted the lineups from that game, and it is startling how different these two teams, particularly the Mariners. Look, a few of the names, obviously Robinson Canoe, Nelson Cruz, those are kind of the obvious ones you'd expect to see Franklin Gutierrez started this game. The leadoff hitter was shortstop Sean O'Malley. Leonis Martine was in the lineup. Mike Zunina was in the lineup. And, of course, everybody's favorite first baseman, De Ho Lee. The only familiar faces that were in the line. that starting line for the Mariners are third baseman Kyle Seeger and of course Felix.

The Cubs had more similar lineup that they do currently, excuse me. Wilson Contreras was their starting catcher. He started a catcher for them yesterday as well and hit a home run. Ben Zobras started at second base for them. He started for them yesterday as well and had a really good game. Chris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo were in the lineup, Addison Russell. So a lot of similarities there. They also had Dexter Fowler.

They also had Jason Hayward. they had Chris Coglin was their left fielder, which I don't think he's around anymore. Brian Matus was their starting pitcher. He's definitely not around anymore. So kind of funny to see that, realize how quickly things can change in baseball, especially when you decide to switch to being a rebuilding team. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's a little tough to look at a lineup that had Robinson Canoe and Nelson Cruz and to look at yesterday's lineup that had Aaron Nola, or Austin Nola and Dylan Moore in those same spots. That's, That's a little tough.

But let's get into the game, which was also a little bit tough, unfortunately. King Felix did not look like King Felix, at least not the one that we wanted to see in this game. He only threw three innings. He only gave up two runs, which isn't terrible. He only gave up two hits, but he walked four, struck out five, 70 pitches. He kind of labored through 70 pitches. It wasn't a really pretty outing from him. Wade LeBlanc came in and did worse.

He only gave up three. runs in just two innings. Brandon Brennan, Eric Swanson gave up a run. He gave up a home run to Kyle Schwerber. Zach Gratz came back up and pitched. Just not a good game on the bump for the Mariners. Gave up a couple of home runs, three home runs, actually. Wilson Contreras hit one.

Nick Castellanos hit one. He's been on absolute fire since going to the Cubs. I just saw a stat. He had 12 home runs with the Cubs in 31 games. He only hit 11 home runs with the Tigers all season. So change of scenery. did him well, and then the Schwabber home run as well. So just a rough game on the bump, and arguably just as rough, if not rougher game at the plate. The Mariners left three,

the left the bases loaded three times against John Lester. That is beyond inexcusable. I know this team does not have as many major league caliber hitters as they maybe should. I know that they're trying out some younger guys, but come on, you cannot leave the bases, You cannot leave the bases loaded, really at all, ever. It should never happen. Malick Smith struck out looking with the bases loaded in the sixth inning. That is inexcusable. He's been benched this year before for some stuff.

I don't think you'll get benched for this because it's not necessarily an effort thing. It was a three-pitch a bat. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, good night, you're done. That is inexcusable. I can't think of any other words to say. I try to be the optimist about this team, and I understand they're in a rebuilding process that winning games in September is not necessarily super relevant to their future. You know, maybe they're playing for a better draft pick, et cetera, blah, blah, blah.

And we really should just be evaluating how the younger guys are playing. But, man, that is a tough one. Braden Bishop did get two hits, which was nice to see. He's been really struggling up at the big league so far this year. So I'm really hoping he can kind of turn things around a little bit. So that would be encouraging D. Gordon went two for four. stole a base, so that's good to see him kind of turn around again. Kyle Seeger got another hit.

Ryan Court got a hit. Dan Vogelbach delivered the RBI single. He pinch hit in this game, so it was good to see him. You know, he had a really rough August, so it would be nice to see him have a better September, kind of go into the offseason with a little bit of momentum. Gratz was one of the call-ups yesterday. The other one was shed long. The Mariners were a little hesitant to call-up shed long.

It seemed like they were kind of, he'd been injured a lot. He only played 50-something games in the minor leagues. this year, but they did announce that they're going to call him up. He did pinch hit in this one. He went 0 for one. But Scott Surveas had quotes after the game where he kind of said, well, we don't think he's going to play every day, which is a little odd. I understand that you can't promise everybody every day playing time, but to immediately write off, okay, we're not going to play Shedlong every day instantly is a little odd. I'm not sure what their plan is with him. Obviously, they want to get DeGordon Kyle Seeger. They don't want to just bench them completely.

J.P. Crawford, they're hoping to get back. but he's getting a second opinion on his, or he just had another meeting with doctors after he missed his fourth game with hamstring injuries. So Dylan Moore's been starting at shortstop, which theoretically means that Long could kind of step into that utility role if they wanted him there. I don't know. I'm not sure what they're playing is with Shed Long. I'm a big Shed Long fan.

I love when they made the trade. I really think that he's got the potential to be a big-time contributor for the Mariners. I do think he has, he could be a regular starting second baseman at some point, but they've kind of been hesitant to really let him loose. And he hasn't hit exceptionally well. I'm not saying, you know, if he was hitting 3-10 in the minor or in the major leagues or in the major leagues and they weren't playing him, then, yeah, that would be understandable. But he's hitting 2.29.

But I still hope that the Mariners can find a way to get him some more, some semi-regular to regular at-bats for the rest of the season. But anyway, that was that for the Mariners for this quick trip to Chicago. Didn't go exceptionally great. Now they get a day off. And then they get a four-game stand against the Astros, which will be even more difficult. So hopefully they can find a way to fare just a little bit better. Coming up, I'll talk about the September call-ups for the rest of the AL-West teams

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the A's are in a playoff hunt. The Angels and Rangers are kind of just spinning their wheels, and the Mariners are rebuilding. So what I want to do instead is I want to focus on the September call-ups that happened. Each team called up, you know, five, six, seven different guys and kind of focus on which I pick two players from each team. I want to talk about those players, which ones of them I think are going to make a big difference for the team this year and maybe the future for them. You know, we talk a lot about the Mariners' future with Jared Kelnick, Julio Rodriguez, all those guys. but, you know, it's always worth paying attention to how the other teams in the division are looking for the future because that's going to determine whether the Mariners are going to be able to run away with the division or not.

So we'll start with the Astros who just seem to get the rich get richer here. It's absolutely ridiculous. I mean, they already called up Yurdaun Alvarez, who's been a freaking animal. You know, it's just, they seem to hit on hitting prospects better than almost any team in the world. I mean, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, George Springer, they seem to never miss with these guys. And so, of course, they had two more that they called up this week, who were both fantastic. The first is Kyle Tucker. They finally are giving him a shot.

Kyle Tucker has been an absolute monster in AAA over the last two years, and yet he's only gotten 28 big league games last year, and he's played one so far this year. He just did it today, or yesterday, excuse me. But his numbers are absurd in AAA this year, and I know the balls are juiced and all that stuff, blah, blah, blah. But he hit 34 home runs with him. 30 stolen bases. He's on pace, arguably, if he has a good September, he could put up a 40-35 season. If he goes nuts on the bases, he could put up a 40-40, although I don't see that happening. Meanwhile, Josh Redick has hit about 220 for the last couple of months, and yet the Astros refused to

call up Kyle Tucker. Now, they didn't need to. They had their division wrapped up pretty much in July, but it's still kind of crazy that they were so hesitant to give this guy a shot in the major leagues. But he's here now. He'll have every opportunity to displace Josh Redick and right field. He's one of the most exciting young prospects in baseball. I think there's a decent chance he's not, I mean, he's not going to be elite right away. He's got some kind of strikeout concerns in the minor leagues. I think he'll strike out a fair amount in the big leagues. But this dude is an animal. And I think we're going to see a lot of power, a lot of speed. And once he kind of gets his bearing straight in the big leagues, he's going to be a freaking animal. Next up is Abraham

Toro. They called up Toro a little bit before the September call-up deadline, but I'm going to talk about him anyway because I think he's an exciting prospect that maybe isn't getting enough attention. He spent most of the year in AA. He hit 16 home runs in 98 games there with four stolen bases. He had a 306 average and a 153 WRC plus, so he was clearly too good for that level. They bumped him up to AAA. He only spent 16 games there, but he hit a blistering 424 in 16 games. He did only hit one home run, but still, you cannot not call up a guy with those kind of numbers. So he's been in the big leagues for 10 games now. He's got two home runs. He's scored seven runs. He's got four RBIs. He's only hitting 222, but he has drawn five walks already.

He's been playing third base. They've had to kind of shuffle things around with Correa's injury. I think that he's going to be the odd man out when Correa comes back. They'll shift Bregman back over to third base, and they kind of won't have a spot for him. So he won't go back to the minor leagues, but he's not going to be on their playoff roster. And I'm kind of curious where his future lies. He's only 22 years old, and he's got almost no experience in AAA. So I think barring some kind of catastrophic trade or change in the Astro system, he'll probably be in AAA to start the year next year.

But this is a guy that if the Astros are looking for more pitching or more positions, if I'm a GM, I am absolutely trying to get this guy off their hands because they don't have a clear spot for him, and I think he's going to be a stud. So that's Houston. We'll move on. We'll look at the A's now. Two of the A's biggest prospects that came up was catcher Sean Murphy. Murphy is one of the best defensive catchers in all of baseball.

I think he would legitimately contend for a gold glove now if he were in the big leagues. He's not an elite hitter. He posted pretty good numbers in AAA, but again, I know I say it every time, but the AAA, the Pacific Coast League, is borderline rigged with how the baseballs are juiced, the parks, everything. But he hit 308 in AAA and 148. at bats with 10 home runs. So a lot of power, high batting average, juiced balls, hard to know what exactly we're doing

with that. He had some injury issues this year, so he didn't get to play a ton, but he's healthy now. I think he'll contribute to the A's right away, especially on defense. You know, he's not a guy I'd pick up in a fantasy league if we were talking about that just because I don't think that he is going to, he's never showed a whole ton of power in his career. Again, 10 home runs in 31 games is obviously great, but other than that, There just hasn't been a lot of pop.

But I think he's an exciting guy. I think he's a guy that as Mariners fans are going to get to see a lot over the next five, eight, ten years. He's going to be behind the plate a ton for them. And he's going to challenge our guys on the bases. So I think it'll be kind of fun to get to watch him develop. Next up is Sheldon Nucy. He was called up just a few days before September as well.

He actually replaced Chris Davis on the roster who was on the paternity list, but he's up for good now. Nucy was a monster in AAA this year. He had 27 home runs with 100. and two RBI's. He hit 317 with a 389 on base percentage. He was great at drawing a walk. He did strike out a fair amount, but he's up now. He's been playing some second base, which is kind of interesting.

He definitely came up as almost exclusively a third baseman. The A's obviously have a third baseman in Matt Chapman. They have a first baseman in Matt Olson. They're a little less secure at second base. Jerks and Profar has been there a little bit. Chad Pender's been there a little bit. They called up Franklin Barreto as well. He's been there a little bit.

So I think Nusie might get a decent shot there. Of course, ProFar heated up at the plate right around when they called him up, so I think he didn't want to lose his job. But Nusie's a guy that I think if Oakland can find a regular spot for him, I'm not saying he's going to be as good as Chapman and Olson, who are kind of absolute studs, but Ducey could end up being a guy that they factor in quite a bit if they can find a place to play him.

Moving on to the Angels, this guy is maybe my favorite guy that I get to talk about today. His name is Jared Walsh. If you haven't heard of him, you're not alone. He's not an incredibly well-known guy. He's a 26-year-old prospect who's barely, he's only played 18 big league games up to this point. But the dude is having a ridiculous season. For starters, the most important thing about Jared Walsh is he is a pitcher-slash position player. He is Shohei Otani.

He can do both of those things. And he is doing them really well this year. At AAA in 98 games, the dude has 36 home runs. That's absurd. He's on pace to hit 45 home runs this year, depending on how he does in September. It's got a 323 batting average with a 423 on-base percentage. That's a 13% walk rate with 36 home runs. That's obscene. That is MVP caliber numbers if he was doing that at the big league level.

36 home runs in 98 games. I cannot get over how ridiculous that is. And then for fun, he's pitching too. Why not, right? He's got his last eight outings. He's been scoreless. He's a reliever. He is not starting like Otani does, but he's been pitching well as a reliever. That is crazy. I mean, you know, I mean, everybody talks about Otani, and obviously what he does is absurd, but Jared Walsh, you know, a name that not as many people know. Now, Walsh has only thrown 13 innings in AAA, so let's not get crazy ahead of ourselves. He's got a 4.15 URA, but his last couple outings have been scoreless. He threw four innings in the big leagues earlier in the year. He had an 8.

3-1 strikeouts per 9, which is pretty solid, but his walk rate was 10.3 per 9, which is obviously problematic. So I think he's probably going to stick as a hitter in the big leagues. I don't know if they'll give him a lot of time as a reliever, but I would love to see it. This is what I will be watching outside of the Mariners. This is probably the most intriguing thing that I want to watch for the rest of the year. Besides whether Mike Trattle hit 50 home runs, which I am interested in, but I also want to see, will the angels let Jared Walsh hit and pitch? And how is he going to going to do at it. So he's up now and we'll get a shot to see it. The other guy for the Angels is Taylor Ward. Ward was up for a while last year. He was a former first ground pick. He was a

catcher who has now transitioned to being a third baseman and kind of more of a utility guy. He had a great season at AAA this year. It's kind of surprising he's just now getting a shot in the big league since the Angels have had so many injury issues and haven't really been all that productive with the guys they have had. But Ward hit 306 with a 427 on base percentage and 20. 27 home runs and 11 steals. Those are also awesome numbers. So he's going to get a shot down the stretch. He's only played in seven games so far for the Angels,

but he has a comically bad 63.6% strikeout rate. Small sample size, I don't know that it really matters, but it is worth paying attention to because he has had a lot of strikeout issues in the big leagues and in the minor leagues. But Ward's another guy that I think could end up being a big-time contributor for the Angels down the stretch. Last but not least is the Rangers.

Rangers were pretty boring. They didn't really call up anybody very interesting. They made a lot of those moves already earlier in the season when they called up Willie Calhoun, when they called up Nick Solac, who's taking over at second base for Root Net Odour. They're still trying to give Odur a shot to win that job, but I don't think it's going to happen. I would be pretty surprised if he's the opening day starting second baseman for the Rangers next year. But they did bring back Ronald Guzman. Guzman was a contributor for them last year.

He had 16 home runs and 123 games. He started out this year with the team, but then ended up getting sent down to the minor leagues. He hit 308 and AAA with the five home runs in 30 games, so now he's back. I don't think he's exceptionally interesting. I'm not sure how much playing time he'll get. It kind of depends on when slash if Joey Gallo comes back this year. Gallo's still on the injured list. But, yeah, Guzman's just kind of a dude.

I don't think that he's going to be particularly interesting down the stretch, and he's already 26, so I don't think that he's got a lot of long-term potential. other guy is Ian Gibbo. Not sure if I'm pronouncing that right. He's 25, so again, not super interesting prospect with the race for a while. He's been with two big league teams already this year. Only thrown 8.2 innings in the major leagues, but he's looked pretty solid in them. He's looked really good with the Rangers.

He's only got a 1.35 ERA, so he'll be a nice bullpen arm for them down the stretch. But, yeah, the Rangers are just in a weird spot. You know, a lot of their younger talent is that they're too young to contribute right now or is already in the big leagues. They just don't have a really clear contention window. So they're kind of stuck trying to figure out, like, at what point do we actually throw all our cards in and go for it? And they haven't quite figured out when to commit to that yet.

So I'm curious to see what they're going to do because I think they could end up being successful aiming for a contention window similar to Seattle's, but it kind of, it's up to them. And they'd have to make some decisions on some of the guys they have now on whether they want to keep them around for that. So we'll kind of have to see what they end up deciding to do. All right, we're running a little bit long, so I'll be kind of quick on these two guys. We just have two birthdays to celebrate today.

The first one is a happy 26th birthday for Eric Swanson. Swanson threw yesterday for the Mariners. He's been throwing quite a bit this year. He's already up to 49 innings pitched. He was a prospect they acquired in the James Paxton trade, along with Justice Sheffield, obviously. Swanson hasn't really been all that good. I mean, he's got a 6.24 ERA, which is obviously bad. I really like his 45 to 10 strikeout to walk ratio a lot.

That's great. He's also given up 15 home runs in 49 innings, which is astoundingly bad. That's a 2.8 home runs per 9. That's nearly record-breakingly bad. Again, juiced ball, blah, blah, blah, but you have got to find a way to keep the ball in the park. I still have some faith in Swanson. He is already 26, as we talked about, obviously. But I think that he's got some potential.

I don't think he's going to be a starting pitcher. That's kind of what they were, I think, hoping for. He strikes me as a late-ending relief option, who, that's his ceiling, is eight, nine-inning type guy. I think he might end up being more of a six, seven-inning, just hard-throw and reliever, who has some good years and some bad years. Think Danny Farquhar type guy, which is fine. I think, you know, if you're the second piece into trade and you can end up carving out a

quality big league career, even if it's not as a starter, I think you'll take that most of the time, and I think Swanson has the potential to be that, but he's not quite there yet. Anyway, he's still got plenty of time, and I'm excited to see what comes for him in the future, and I want to wish him a happy 26th birthday. Last but not least is Cody Martin. Cody Martin is turning 30 today. I know Cody Martin, so I wish him a happy birthday on Facebook myself. Martin went to Gonzaga University, which is where I attended school.

He was there the same four years as me. He was an absolute beast there, as you would imagine, for most players who make it to the major leagues. He wasn't as much of a beast in the major leagues. Unfortunately, he threw a little bit with Atlanta, a little bit with Oakland before he landed with the Mariners. He was pretty solid his first year in Seattle. He only threw 25.2 innings. This was back in 2016. But he had a 3.86 ERA, 1.44 whip. He wasn't too bad. And then he only managed to make it into one game in 2017, which did not go very well. He gave up three earned runs in just two innings pitched. And then He bounced around a little bit after that and decided to retire.

So Martin is a good dude. I was pumped to see him come to the Mariners. I was glad that he had a little bit of success there and managed to play in the big leagues for three years. Not a lot of guys do that. So happy 30th to Cody Martin. All right, that is going to be it for me today. Please remember to tell your friends about the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Once again, I'm Andy Patton.

You can find me on Twitter at at Andy Patton, S-E-A. You can find the Lockdown Mariners podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening and go Mariners.