Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - A Few Roster Updates (And Complaints)

Episode Date: March 29, 2021

Since the last update, the starting rotation and bullpen have become a little more clear. D.C. talks about who's left in the running for the remaining rotation spots, who has earned one of the spots up for grabs, and also talks about the bullpen. The outfield is also in a bit of flux, thanks in part to the knee injury to Kyle Lewis. D.C. spends the entirety of the last segment complaining about how the Mariners decided to structure their roster, and explains why he thinks a six-man rotation is a bad idea, and also how a three-man bench could potentially prove problematic. 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 Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Ladies and gentlemen, opening day is almost upon us just a few days to go. Get excited. Yes, I'm talking to you, Guy driving in the maroon Nissan Pathfinder westbound on SR 20. You don't look very excited to me. This is Lockdown Mariners. I am D.C. Lundberg, and we are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network.

or for those of you who are into initialisms, T-L-O-P-N, and for those of you who are just into silliness, Tlopin. Please remember to download rate and subscribe to this program on whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any other show here on Tlopin. All you got to do is say, hey, smart device, play locked on team name here, podcast,

and the more threatening your tone of voice, the quicker your smart device will get that show up for. you. Try it. Well, gang, as I said, opening day is just around the corner. It is this Thursday, April 1st. Here's how we will be getting you ready for opening day. Today I'll be offering a little bit of an update on how spring training is beginning to wind down, including speaking of Kyle Lewis's knee injury. Tomorrow, I will be answering your email questions in our fan mailbag, and I will be joined by John Miller and, of course, Clive Braithway to the 4th. Wednesday is our final crossover episode of the spring, where I will be joined by Brett Chancy from Locked-on Astros.

Thursday, the season opener, and I'll go over the M's 20-man, 26-man opening day roster. Yep, 26-man roster this year. And Friday, I will recap the season opener, which will be against the San Francisco Giants in Stupid Cellular Company Park. Or at least that's the plan for this week. If you've been listening to my program over the last few months, you know how well my plans have panned out recently. Anyways, let's actually begin this show now, and we will begin by talking about the outfield.

Their debut album, Play Deep, was released at 1985. No, no, no, no, not the outfield, the Mariners' 2021 Outfield. And you can mark that down as the first outfield joke of 2021. Anyways, I was completely wrong about the left field situation. But it turns out I was operating with a handicap that I didn't. didn't know about. I was laboring under the assumption that the Mariners were going to structure their roster in a way that actually made sense. Silly me, I'll get to more about that in C-block today. Going into spring training, Jake Fraley was actually the frontrunner to be the

regular left fielder, but he got off to another horrible start. Also working against him was the fact that two other prospects, Jared Kelnick and Taylor Tremel, both got off to very good starts. Kelnick's knee injury, forced him out of action for about a week and a half, but he came back quicker than expected. At this point, I was expecting that both Kelnick and Tramel were going to break camp with the big league roster. That will not be the case, however. Again, I figured the Ms would carry more bench players than they're going to. They're only going to have three reserve position players, and that includes a backup catcher. So there's no room for a fourth outfielder. Anyways, Kelmick has been sent to the alternate training site, as has Braden Bishop.

That left Tramel and Fraley as the only two true outfielders left, while Telegram Sam Haggurty and Jose Marmalahejos also remain in big league camp and are good bets to make the opening day roster. They can play the outfield, but they're really infielders, and Marmalejos is pretty much limited to left field and his natural position first base. I suppose he could play right in a pinch if it got to that point. So it looks as if your everyday left-fielder, to begin the season at least, will be Taylor Trammell. If he doesn't wind up playing centerfield.

Centerfield? Why, that's Kyle Lewis's domain. Unfortunately, the reigning rookie of the year has what manager Scott Service is calling, quote, a pretty deep bone bruise, end quote, in his knee. He has not played the previous five Cactus League games and also will not play in the spring finale later today against the Cincinnati Reds. As of this recording, which is about 840 on Sunday night, Lewis's status is still up in the air. It is not yet known if he'll be ready for opening day, and it's also yet to be determined if he'll have to begin the season on the disabled list.

If he does, my best guess is that Jake Fraley would break camp with the Mariners, but I suppose it also could be Braden Bishop. He's the organization's best defensive outfielder. The Mariners want to continue to develop Kelnick in the minors. So he will be seeing action in games at the alternate training site, which will begin in a few weeks, and then move on to the Tacoma Rainiers, I believe. Their season will begin in early May, and that's a delayed start for them, hence the need for an alternate training site. Kelnick will not begin the season on the Major League 26-man roster.

I wish there was a better update on Lewis. Perhaps we will get one later on Monday after the game. I don't know. It is certainly something that I'm. will be talking about on Thursday's episode where I talk about the M's opening day 26-man roster. Trivia time, gang, and in today's trivia corner, I don't really have a trivia question for you, but I'm going to speak about some of the more notable Major League Baseball players who were born on this date, March 29th, and I will do that following this brief word of importance from betonline.ag.

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There have been 50 Major League Baseball players born on this date, March 29th, including a few former Mariners, Scott Acheson, Eric Gunderson, and Mike Kingery. Oh, and Domingo Ramos as well. four former Mariners who have been born on this date. Also born on this date was Denny McLean, who was the last major leaguer to win 30 ball games in a season, doing so for the World Champion Tigers in 1968. Eric Bruntlet was also born on this date in 1978,

and he has an unassisted triple play under his belt, which he turned as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009. Current Oakland A's Matt Ols, Matt Olson, and Chad Pinder are both celebrating birthdays today. Matt Olson born on this date in 1994 and Chad Pinder in 1992. And there's one Hall of Famer who was born on this date in 1876, 1867, pardon me, and that would be none other than the great Cy Young. Coming up, has a member of the M's coaching staff been exposed as one of North America's

most notorious heroin dealers? No, but I certainly have your attention. attention now, don't I? Now, back to Lockdown Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you, J.M. Gang, get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked on Today podcast wherever you get your podcast. In fact, maybe three or four different podcasting services. It'll really be

help us out. Time to talk some pitching, ladies and gentlemen, and since the last time we've offered an update on the rotation, one more spot has been claimed. In addition to the left-handed quartet of Marco Gonzalez, James Paxton, Justice Sheffield, and Yusei Kikichi, one of the two remaining spots has been claimed by right-hander Chris Flexen. And with the Mariners utilizing a six-man rotation this year, which I will speak more about in the next blog, that leaves one other spot still undecided. And there are two men being considered for that final spot. Justin Dunn and Nick Margievich's.

Justin Dunn is right-handed, which certainly plays in his favor. But he also comes with control problems. In last year's abbreviated season, he had a walk per nine's innings rate of 6.1, which is not just on the high side. That's very nearly in orbit. of the 198 batters to oppose Dunn last year, he issued a free pass to 15.6% of them. That's a lot. He also allowed 10 home runs in 45 and 2 thirds innings, equating to a home run per nine

inning ratio of 2.0, another very high number. On the bright side, he didn't give up a whole lot of hits last year. In fact, the number of hits he gave up was identical to the number of bases on balls he issued, 31. His whip was a little above league average last year, and his ERA was almost exactly league average. His ERA plus was 99. However, according to the articles and reports that I've seen that are available, his control seems to be a little better. Let's hope so, because if he cannot rain in those walks, that is a recipe for disaster, especially if you're putting those runners on base prior to giving up a home run, which he also needs to work on. He needs to do a better job. He needs to do a better job

keeping the ball in the ballpark. Nick Margievichus was a waiver claim by the M's last January, one of the first players that I reported on this show that the M's had acquired, coming over from the San Diego Padres organization. He broke in with the Padres in 2019, but also spent some time when Double A Amarillo, where he started 12 games. His time with the Major League Padres was not very impressive,

and he was waived. The M's picked him up and he wound up starting seven games at the Major League level in 2020. with an additional three relief appearances. And in that limited sample size, he did okay. His ERA of 4.57, not that great. It was certainly above league average, but not alarmingly so. But his whip was fine for a back-end starter at 1.258. He walked three batters per nine innings, 3.0 per 9,

but gave up 8.3 hits per 9. Like done, too many home runs, but not as many. six long balls in 41 in the third innings, which gives him a ratio of 1.3 home runs per 9. Margieviches, who needs a nickname of some sort, he's left-handed. So if he were to make the rotation, five of the six starting pitchers would be lefties.

And while good left-handed pitching is certainly hard to come by, you don't want your entire staff filled with Southpaws. You need some right-handers mixed in. And this is one rare case where, Markievich's dexterity may work against him. I'm not sure who the final rotation spot will go to. But if I had to wager a guess, I would say done. If for no other reason, then the fact that he's right-handed.

But I think the Mariners like Justin Dunn's stuff better to Nick Margievich's stuff anyway. L.J. Newsom was previously in competition for a rotation spot. He has since been optioned to the miners. The bullpen is also starting to take more shape. On Saturday, the Ms sent both Joey Gerber and Eric Swanson to the alternate training site. Both had pretty decent springs, although Gerber had a couple bad outings, and Swanson has long relief capability, which pretty much none of the rest of the bullpen has. Rowena Salyas was most likely a shoe win to make the roster before it was learned that he needed Tommy John surgery.

Raphael Montero, Kendall Graveman, and Anthony Masevich will almost assuredly make the big league club. free agent acquisition, Keenan Middleton, was going to be a lock, but he began spring quite poorly. However, he's been better as of light, and he still has a pretty good chance to break club with a big league roster, I think. Casey Sadler has also had a very good spring. He is in the mix. Rule 5 draft pick, Will Vest, has struggle at times, but at other times, been pretty good. If he does not make the team, he would have to be offered back to the organization from which he was drafted, which I believe is the Detroit Tigers organization. And he'd have to remain on the Mariners' big league roster all season or else be offered

back to Detroit. Drew Steck and Ryder is still in big league camp, as is Aaron Fletcher. Brady Lale and Paul Seward will be headed for the AAA Tacoma Rainiers once the Rainier's season starts. J.T. Chagua and Taylor Gary will also open the season in the minors. None of these four men were on the 40-man roster. Gerson-Bautista has been released and is no longer part of the organization. after a poor 2019 season and subsequent injury problems.

Have you out there got a question for me or a comment? Please send it to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com. If you do, Clive Braithway to the 4th, we'll read it on the air. I will reply to it. We're doing a mailbag episode tomorrow, so get those questions in if you want to be considered. We're recording it, though, on Monday. So if you get it in after we recorded,

we'll use it for the next email go-around. Questions and comments on anything, anything at all. All, for the most part, are accepted and encouraged. Please keep them family appropriate. It's a family show. My mother listens to these shows. I'm not going to read anything on the air that's going to embarrass her. Once again, Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com for questions and comments for me to reply to on the air.

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today's matchup or something like that, and who will become the best tasting protein bar in all the land. Built bar, you're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it. Welcome back to Lockdown Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Yes, indeed. Thank you. Once again, Joey. The Locked-on MLB Division Preview series continues on Locked on MLB today. Every episode from now until the 31st features in-depth looks at each team. in every single division. It's all on the Locked-on MLB podcast feed right now. Follow Locked-on MLB on the radio.com app or wherever you get podcasts.

Last Friday was the AL-West preview featuring me and all the other hosts in the division. I encourage you to go back and listen to that one. We are talking roster structuring in this part of the show. As I alluded to an A-block, the Mariners are going to structure their roster quite differently this season. And by quite differently, I mean weird. Word of warning, gang, I'm going to sound like a senior citizen in this block. The Mariners have done a lot of things that I like over the previous couple of years in terms of this rebuild. This is not one of them.

Even with the extra roster spot, which was supposed to be instituted last year, the Mariners are carrying a ton of pitchers. Fourteen of them, to be exact. Six starters and eight relievers. This leaves room for only. three reserve position players, including the backup catcher. This could prove to be a disaster if there are a couple of in-game injuries, something of that sort, or minor injuries to starters that don't require placement on the injured

list. And this also forces you to be super careful when using pinch hitters or pinch runners. If you pinch hit for someone in the seventh inning, let's say, for the sake of argument, or replace someone on defense around that same time, you better hope that no one gets hurt the rest of the way. This has the potential to force Scott's service to play a pitcher in the outfield if things go really badly in a game. I'm not predicting that will happen,

but the possibility is absolutely there. It's looking like the three bench spots will go to Sam Haggerty, Jose Marmonejos, and Luis Torrens. Telegrams Sam can play pretty much anywhere in the infield or outfield, including center. But Marmo is pretty much limited to first base and left field. as his natural position, although I suppose he could play right field in a pinch. I know the Mariners value versatility, as I do too, but this is just taking it to the

ridiculous. The pitching staff is odd, to say the least. A six-man rotation made some sense last year just because everything surrounding the season was so weird, and there wasn't much preparation time leading into the regular season. This year, it makes minimal sense, as it gives some more yule. arms a chance to develop at the major league level. Beyond that, though, I don't get it. One article I read a couple weeks ago said something about, I'm paraphrasing here, but it said something like as more teams see the quote unquote benefits of a six-man rotation, more teams might start using

them. What? What benefits of a six-man rotation? Aside from last year, which doesn't count, the only other team that I can remember even thinking about using a six-man rotation was the 1997 Cincinnati Reds, and that was because their staff was horrible. I don't know if they ever utilized that six-man rotation, and if they did, they had to have only tried it for a brief time. As it is now with a standard five-man rotation, your number one starter will get 32, 33, maybe 34 starts in a season, maybe 35, that's pushing it, to account for six different starting slots getting an equal number of starts over the course of a full season, 162 divided by 6 is 27, meaning that each rotation spot would get 27 starts per season.

Now, that doesn't take off days or anything like that into account. I get that. But even if your number one starter gets an extra two starts because of off days and whatnot, that's still only 29 starts, as opposed to the 33 or so he would ordinarily get. So right off the bat, you're taking the ball out of your best pitcher's hand for at least four games. And if you anticipate a tight pennant race, that could make the difference. And adding roughly 25 or so games throughout the course of the season, pitched by a number six starter,

look at the back end of pretty much every single Major League rotation. It is not nearly as strong as the front end. So now you've got 24, 25, as many as 27 games, that are now started by somebody who is, let's face it, pretty mediocre. I hope this is around for just this season. I remember Scott Service and Jerry Depoto saying that they weren't sure if this was going to be in place in 2022. I sure hope it's not. I want my best pitcher starting as many games as possible.

And if I had the right pitchers, I don't see a problem with a four-man rotation. That's never going to happen again. I realize that, but at the same time, I'm not terribly shaken up by that. The most recent team to use a four-man rotation was the 1997 Baltimore Orioles, and they had one of the best rotations in baseball at that time. Mike Messina, Scott, Erickson, Ingrams, if I had the choice between a six-man rotation and those quote-unquote openers, which were infesting Major League Baseball a couple seasons ago, if those were my only two choices, I would take the six-man rotation hand.

I was very happy to learn prior last season that the Mariners were going to compile an honest to goodness rotation rather than use those silly openers, which I can get into that another time, but it cost the Mariners a few games in 2019 when they tried that. As for the eight-man bullpen, this is simply a product of modern manager's handling of pitching staffs. Each starter is five innings and you're gone. I'll bring in this guy for one inning. I'll bring in this other guy for the next and so on. down the line. I will always contend that this is no way to manage a pitching staff.

Unless my starter is really laboring or otherwise just doing really badly, I want him in the game as long as possible. Instead of telling teams, learn to manage your pitching staffs better, Major League Baseball simply gave them an extra roster spot to play with for an extra bullpen arm. I'll give Scott's service credit for this, though, his long leash with Marco Gonzalez. He lets the man go out there and do his job deep into ball games, even letting him complete one here and there. It's pretty ludicrous that it's gotten to the point where I have to give someone credit for letting a starter complete a ballgame, honestly. A starting pitcher's job is to pitch as deep into a ball game as possible, not throw five innings and call it a day.

Aside from your closer and maybe a setup man, your bullpen is going to be filled with failed starters for the most part, and a few failed closers. Guys who would either be starting or closing ball games if they hadn't washed out of those roles. And specifically with the Mariners, their bullpen is pretty much exclusively short relievers, guys who will pitch one inning only and then give way to another guy for the next inning. Eric Swanson is the only long reliever the Mariners have really, and he's going to start

the season in the minors. His major league career has been, I'm sorry, but it's a lot of it. It's been terrible. I'm not sure if the odd man out and the rotation will make the Major League club or not. But if he does, he would obviously be an option as a long reliever, in addition to Swanson if he's called up sometime this season. And I also do not buy this notion of saving a pitcher from throwing a bunch of innings to lengthen his career. The Meritors did exactly that with Felix Hernandez, and he still washed out pretty early.

Now, I'm not saying I want a 21-year-old to pitch 200. 50 innings, there is definitely a happy medium to find. And I remember pitchers like Bob Walcott and Ken Cloud, who were called up way too early, and it pretty much ruined their careers. But it seems like no one these days is willing to let anyone go pitch more than 180, 190 innings or throw more than 95, 100, 110 pitches in a ballgame. The pendulum has swung way too far to the side that it is on now.

All right, enough of that. We're going to do the mailbag tomorrow, gang, where I will be joined by Ned Shimmelfini, Dino, and a bottle of club soda. Also, Clive Braithway to the 4th and John Miller. Please remember to download rate and subscribe to Lockdown Mariners. Do look for us on any podcasting app that you can think of. Thank you for listening, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed today's show, even though I pretty much did nothing but complained in C-block.

Have a great day. I will talk to you tomorrow. This is Joey Martin, speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.