Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - A Much-Needed Conversation About Julio Rodriguez's Struggles + More Seattle Mariners Questions

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Ty and Colby discuss Julio Rodriguez's struggles and answer Mariners questions from listeners. Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Amazon This Back To School Season, spend less on your kids, with Amazon. With Amazon’s low Back To School Prices, just spend less on your kids. Because every dollar you don’t spend on them, is a dollar you haven’t spent on them.  Clutch Parlays Go to https://ClutchParlays.com today and use code LOCKEDON for your first month free on a monthly plan. Pick Smarter. Parlay Sharper.  Stance Check out the ICON collection from Stance—premium comfort, performance, and durability designed for whatever your day brings.  Use promo Code LOCKEDON at checkout for 20% off your purchase.  Learn more at https://Stance.com. Stance. The Official Sock Partner of Major League Baseball. Dose Daily Ready to give your liver the support it deserves?  Head to https://DoseDaily.co/LOCKEDONMLB or enter LOCKEDONMLB to get 35% off your first subscription.   5-Hour ENERGY Get candy-flavored chaos with Fruity Rainbow 5-hour ENERGY®️ Shots - available online at https://5hourENERGY.com or Amazon   Clutch Parlays Go to https://ClutchParlays.com today and use code LOCKEDON for your first month free on a monthly plan. Pick Smarter. Parlay Sharper.    KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get $10 when you trade $10.    Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMto play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season.    FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I feel like I've said this same thing a billion times over the years, but here we are again. What's going on with Julio? I answer that and more coming up. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors.

It is Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. My name is Tadding Gonzalez, and I'm joined as always by McCos, Colby Patnode. This episode is brought to you by K. Cali for a limited time, download the Calci app, and use the promo code locked on. That's L-O-C-K-E-O-N to get $10 when you trade $10. Ameris, of course, lost five in a row. Last night was incredibly infuriating,

and you have questions. So we're going to answer something on today's show. But obviously, we got a lot of questions about Dan and firing Dan. And look, we have answered those a billion times. already. If you don't know what our feelings are on Dan and if they should fire him, the answer is yes, by the way, we both are in agreement on that. Go watch a previous mailbag Monday or Mailbag Tuesday or whenever we've done a mailbag episode. We have probably talked about it. We have probably talked about who we think should replace Dan if he has fired and all, all that.

So we're not going to answer any of those questions today. We're also not going to answer any of the questions about firing Jerry Depoto and Justin Hollander, not because we don't want to, but because we are going to be doing a show all about that on Thursday. We are dedicating an entire episode to weighing the pros and cons, firing the front office, hiring a new front office, especially during a lockout and all that. We're going to dive into all of it. So we are not ducking those questions. We are just going to be talking about that in a full episode on Thursday.

So please look forward to that and be sure to tune in for that. So we're going to answer the rest of the questions. So we got a lot of them still. We got a ton of questions following the Mariners sweep in Toronto. This was before the Mariners had that god-offal loss last night. We got even more after that as well. But because we did the Lazaro-Montas reaction on Sunday night, we made that our Monday episode.

And now we're finally getting into you. and getting into your mailbag questions. So let's start with Noah, who wants to know what is contributing to Julio Rodriguez's poor season. For a while, it looked like he was getting shafted by bad Babit Bluck, but he's looked especially poor the last few weeks. How does he turn things around in both the short and long term? So I think you're mostly talking about Julio from an offensive standpoint here.

So diving into the numbers, I think it's. at least partly due to either a pitch recognition or pitch selection issue. Because right now he is running the lowest end zone swing rate of his entire career. And it's

the first time that he's ever been sub 70% in terms of swinging at pitches inside the strike zone. And so I've wondered like what pitch are you looking for, Julio? Like what exactly are you looking to do here and what

exactly are you looking for in these at-bats? And frankly, that has been a question that I've asked of a lot of Mariners hitters this year. So I do wonder if this is more of a team-wide philosophical issue, whether that's from Kevin Siteser, Edgar Martinez, both Bobby Boggianus before he was let go, whatever. But like, for example, like Taylor Ward comes over and I'm asking the same exact questions of Taylor Ward. Like what pitch are you exactly looking for here, Taylor? So there's that. That's the thing that stands out the most to me from Julio's numbers. And then there's obviously the hard hit data where he's running the lowest hard hit rate of his entire career, 43.4%, the previous career low before that was last year at 48% flat. He had been above

50% in each of his first two seasons. So that has declined each year for him. and this year significantly so. The barrel percentage is roughly around his wheelhouse, though it is also a career low for him, 9.5% for Julio in terms of barrel rate, 9.8% last year, 10.2% the year before that, and 11.9% and 13.1% in his first two years. But outside of that, like the bat speed is the same.

You know, the ex of VLOs are roughly the same. So there's nothing that stands out there. But obviously the hard hit rate, barrel percentage, that does stand out. The number here that I'm looking at, though, under the stat cast part of his fan graphs profile, the number that really stands out here is his launch angle. 13.7 on the average launch angle, that is by far a career high for Julio. Previous career high before that was 10 and a half back in 2024. so he's hitting the ball straight up into the air a lot more right he's not getting that good launch

angle that he usually gets and pairs with the high hard hit rates so he's not doing enough damage but my concerns with Julio go beyond what he's doing offensively and the other thing that we need to keep in mind here is how much is the the lasting effects or the lingering effects rather of his concussion impacting him if at all because with concussions especially when you return from them during a season you know that might completely derail the rest of your year now when he first returned from the concussion he was actually pretty good you know first couple weeks removed from the concussion he was running like a 115 WRC plus and it's not amazing but like that's that's fine you know it's protective uh but if you look at his numbers overall

now when you add in his last couple of weeks since being removed from the concussion, he's running like a 76 WRC plus. So is the concussion having any sort of impact on him for the rest of the year? I think that's a fair question to ask and to ponder here with Julio. But I think the thing that concerns me the most, Colby,

are the mental mistakes. Yep. Especially from a guy that's supposed to be face of your franchise, one of the leaders in your clubhouse. Three in three weeks, each one a little bit worse than the last. This one not coming in a 20 to nothing game or in a six to one game. This one coming with your team up and a chance to, you know, maybe just maybe start to turn things around and you commit the Cardinal sin as an outfielder.

You let the ball get behind you on, you know, late in the game. game with, you know, that guy representing the, the tie and run. Like, you cannot let the ball get behind you. You would rather give up. It takes three singles to score a guy. It only takes one triple for you, for you to lose the game. That's exactly what happened yesterday. And I think the thing that's a little more annoying than all that is that Julio didn't take any responsibility for it. She said, oh, you know, it just kind of happened to me. I was trying to be aggressive and it just kind of happened. No, Julio, no, you screwed up. That is a mistake I cannot make. I need to be better.

I am the face of this franchise. I'm not getting it done at the plate. The very least I can do is, you know, provide good defense. And Julio's defense has been bad this year by his standards. It's been a little bit better in, you know, June and July. But it was a disaster in August. Last night capped just another horrendous mental mistake. Let's not forget that he had a couple opportunities to add on insurance runs in this game with the bases loaded or a runner on third.

And he failed. Like he had a good first half. that and then he was just the worst player on the field last night. That is not acceptable. And Julio needs to be the guy who says, what I did, how I performed is not acceptable. You want to be a leader of this franchise. You want to be like the mariner. You want to be what Griffey was to this franchise.

And you sign that long-term deal. And you said, I'm going to bring a world title here. That is my goal. Blah, blah, blah. That's great to say you have to act like it. And I can live with Julio struggling because baseball is very difficult sport. and even the best players on the planet struggle. Julio's had pretty much a full season of struggles outside of one month.

All right. But I feel like that's something that I can live with. It sucks, but I'll live with it. It's the mental mistakes and not learning from these mental mistakes and making, having this trend going down and down of even bigger mental mistakes that affect you even more and more. That is troubling. And to me, that speaks to a guy who's not dialed in right now.

And so I don't know if it is, he's, struggling so much at the plate and he doesn't really have a game plan there. It just kind of seems like he's up there just flailing and reacting without any kind of fundamental game plan and he's carrying that out to the field with him. Or he's given up on the season and he sees where they're at in the standings and he's like, yeah, you know, whatever. He's not dialed in for whatever reason. Julio's not dialed in and maybe part of it is the concussion like you mentioned. Maybe that it, there is some lingering effect there. But for whatever reason, Julio has been bad this year for Julio relatively to other major leaguers.

good player, but not what we expect from Julio, not what the Mariners need Julio to be. And again, like, just the salt in the wound yesterday is like, oh, yeah, I was, I was trying to be aggressive. I got caught in between and I thought I could get it. So I dove. Like, these are all things that happened to me. I didn't mess up. These things just happened to me. And that's why that, no, Julio, no, you need to take accountability. You have to grow up and be a leader of this team. you're 25 years old. You've been steadily and declined offensively since your rookie year. Your defense is now a massive problem as well.

You've just made three mental mistakes in three weeks, including one that really screwed over your closer, who was dominant last night, by the way. And then you had an opportunity to make up for it several times throughout the game or to where that mistake wouldn't even matter and you failed there. It's time. Julio has to go away this winter. And he has to take a good long look at,

at everything, not just from the Mariners' perspective, not just from the Mariners hitting coaches, but who is your personal hitting coach, Julio? Because it might be time to make a change. Are you willing to do that? Because you have a responsibility to the Seattle Mariners to be the best version of yourself that you can be, and he has not been this year.

Somebody needs to have a hard conversation with Julio. Julio maybe needs to have it with himself, and there needs to be some, not a word we use often with Julio, but there needs to be some maturing that happens this winter. and Julio needs to, again, it's not that he doesn't put in the work. It's not that he doesn't care.

We know he does. Yeah. But there needs to be a change of something because what he's doing right now is not working. And it can't just be the Mariners need to do this and this and this. Julio needs to do this and this. Julio needs to make changes on his personal level because what we're seeing right now just is not acceptable. And again, it's one thing to struggle. I'll live with that.

It's another thing to make the mental mistakes and then just have those be things that happened to you instead of you taking any form of accountability for what happened. That's just not acceptable. Well, and frankly, I think it's kind of ridiculous that we're five years into the guy's career. And there's still fans being like, oh, they should claim Carlos Santana. So Julio can have his accountability buddy back and all that. Look, man, like, Julio is only 25 years old. He's still a kid, right?

Relatively, like relative to the rest of the league, he's still a kid. but he is a five-year season major leaker at this point. If he can't get himself motivated, Julio needs to be, yeah, Julio needs to be his own self-motivator. He needs to be his own accountability, buddy,

frankly. Like, you know, and like, I do think part of this is, does speak to the more bigger issue with the Mariners as a whole, that there probably isn't anyone in that clubhouse. That's like in his year and like holding him accountable.

but still, like, we're deep enough into Julio's career that he needs to start doing that himself. Right. And that we can't just excuse these things because of his age. Like, you've been around the block for a while now, dude. Like, you've been here for half a decade now. Like, not everybody is the personality to be like the team leader and the guy who holds the team meeting and make sure everybody's accountable. Griffey wasn't that guy, you know. Sure.

But Jay Bioner was. And so, and Griffey at least cared enough. And he was at least, you know, self, like, realizing enough. He's like, okay, like, look, I need to at least, if I can't provide or if I can't lead vocally, then I need to at least lead with, you know, showing up every day. And early in his career, he had Hanager, he had Santana, he had Gino, and he had these guys. And it's like, okay, but the point of having those guys, Julio, is that you learn from them. and then you take what they provided for you and you internalize it.

And then that way when they leave, because baseball is a game of people leaving, you have those lessons still inside you. And you can activate them without having to have somebody there to babysit you essentially. And again, like I don't want this to come off as like Julio's lazy or Julio is he doesn't care or anything. Like no, no, no. No, I'm more so just speaking to the narrative that he needs. X, Y, and Z. And it's like, I think he needs himself, frankly, at this point.

Again, Julio, again, just to be very clear, not lazy, not, you know, blasé about this. He knows he's struggling and he hates it. I have zero question about Julio's work ethic or his desire or his drive. None of that. I'm not concerned about that whatsoever. But at the end of the day, Julio needs to have an honest conversation with himself, look himself in the mirror and say, what can I do? what I'm doing right now is not working. I need to change something.

Maybe it's a workout. Maybe it's a hitting coach. Maybe it's, I need to go to drive line. Maybe it's whatever. But Julio needs to make some changes this winter because what he's doing right now simply is not acceptable. And that's just the hard, cold hard truth. And hopefully Julio can accept it.

And I think he probably will. Again, he's a pretty mature kid, all things considering. And he's not even really a kid anymore. But he's a pretty mature guy and he's a smart guy as well. And again, he works very hard.

So I don't doubt that he will. it's just you have to do it now. Like if the last couple years were warning signs, this should be the big flashing red light like, hey, something needs to change. Yeah. Yeah, when we're talking about he needs some maturing, it's not personal maturing.

It's baseball maturing. Yeah. Like, you know, I know there's a lot of people out there complaining about him DJing and all this stuff. I don't care about that. I don't care about that. The only reason that you and I talked about that was because we knew what the narrative was going to be

when people saw him out there DJing after the mayor's law. Like we knew what that was going to cause. Ironically, kind of his last good game was that one. He's had a couple of decent games and some, but like, yeah. Whatever. But like, but sure. But like what I'm talking about here, though, is like you've been in the league for five years now. Your offensive numbers, like again, like the hard hit rates, the barrel percentages, all that stuff, continue to decline.

You need to do something different. And I don't like this narrative that he. needs Gino around or Carlos Santana around or whoever to quote unquote fix somebody else to like Julio it's on him it's on him now he's been around the block enough it needs to be on him it needs to be on him 100% all right we will answer more of your questions in just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the lockdown errors podcast is brought to you by Amazon this back to school season spend less on your kids with Amazon we all know how crazy the back-to-school shopping experience can be.

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your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things, Mariters, and also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Let's get back into your questions here as we open up the mailbag. The Strot wants to know, club control aside, how much value has George Kirby lost the past two seasons? I'm probably lower on him the most, but I don't. don't think he's going to be worth a controllable everyday player on his own. Am I being too reactionary?

It's tough because I do think there are teams out there still who will dream on what they think George Kirby can be. They have the fix for George. Yeah. Absolutely. And I do think that will carry a lot still in those negotiations. But look, the fact of the matter is the last two seasons combined, George Kirby is, George Kirby has put up a 4-200 ERA

with a 3-60 Fib. He's averaging less than a strikeout per inning. It's walking two guys per nine. You know, those are solid numbers. Well, those are more like low-in-three, high-end four type of numbers. And obviously, we know what type of pitcher George Kirby can be.

We saw it against the Phillies, right? There are times where George Kirby can look like a one or a high-end two or whatever, right? Whatever you want to call it, right? But there are also times, or more often than you would like to see where George Kirby just straight up gets sheled. And we've talked about it.

We're not going to go down that whole route though. But like in terms of the trade value, just to answer that question directly, honestly, I don't know. Because again, on one hand, I think there are a lot of teams that are still going to be dreaming high and dreaming big on George Kirby.

But when you look at the production, there is a limit on that. But here's the thing, too. you can't say aside from from club control. That's a major factor. Of course, especially in a lockout season

where you don't know how many games you're going to get to play this year. That extra year club control does matter. So what is he worth? He's worth what the market says he's worth. And what you would hope if you're the Mariners is that there are two, three, four, five teams who believe they know how to get the most out of George Kirby

and they're the ones that can fully unlock him the more teams you have like that, the higher the price is going to be. So to me, when I look at George Kirby, I think he's worth at least Freddie Peralta that package. And Peralta was only for one year.

Keep that in mind. But because of Georgia's recent struggles, I'm willing to, you know, lower my expectation. But I think Freddie Peralta is kind of a good comp here. And again, we'll see how George finishes the season. He's going to have five more starts, I believe.

if he finishes on a bit of a heater. Cool. That might help. But yeah, like he's not going to get, you know, three top 50 prospects or anything like that. But can he get an everyday major leaguer?

I mean, a proven one, maybe straight up. Could he get a, you know, a young, like, you know,

we talked about Matt Shaw a lot. Could they still get a Matt Shaw? Yeah, I think he probably still could. But yeah, I do think that it's going to be less than it would have been at the deadline, obviously, how much less. I don't know, probably not significantly. But I think ultimately the George Kirby swap may end up being a guy, George Kirby, for two years of a guy who's the offensive version of George Kirby. Maybe this is just to throw it out there.

I don't even know this makes sense for either team. In fact, I pretty sure it doesn't make sense for the Mariners, but would you trade George Kirby for Alec Burleson. You know, like, is that something you would consider? You're not getting prospects, but you are getting a major leaguer who can help you. Blah, blah, blah. Obviously, roster fit there is a bit of a concern. But that's the type of deal I could see them doing.

I could also see them doing more of a kind of a bulk deal where maybe it's, hey, we're going to get this part-time player and then we're going to get these two like solid but not elite prospect types of guys and go from there. But I do think there are going to be enough teams that believe. they can unlock George Kirby and that extra year of club control is valuable. It does have value. So we cannot set that aside. I think you're going to get enough to justify trading him this winter.

As for what that is, though, I don't know. I think, you know, unfortunately, his last five starts are going to dictate at least a decent amount of that. But at the very least, I'm getting the Freddie Peralta package, which was what, Jet Williams and Brennan Sprote. Yeah. So two like top 50 prospects, our top, yeah, top 75-ish. I think I can get that or I can get an everyday player. I think the Cubs still make sense here. I think the Blue Jays make sense.

I think the Mets make sense here. So I do think there will be a handful of teams that will drive up his value. But ultimately, we'll have to wait and see what the market decides George Kirby is worth. I know I'm hoping that the Mariners like the valuation they get and they trade them, but we'll have to wait and see. All right. We'll answer a couple more of your questions than just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Fandul and Kalshi.

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And you're listening to the Lockdown Marries Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcasts, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone. On there, we talk Mariners, Seahawks, all the good stuff. For more information, go to Patreon.com, forward slash Control the Zone. link in the description of this episode.

Let's get back to your questions. Josh wants to know, now that it's been roughly a full season of legit production, is it safe to say that the version of Dom Kanzone we've seen this year is the real one? Yeah, I think so. Like we're over 650 plate appearances, give or take. And this guy has pretty much looked like the same player for the last year plus now. So, yeah, I think there's relative safety in saying that. You know, everyday hitter, probably ideally suited to be a DH,

but it's actually been okay in right field this year. Like, I think he actually has a positive either outs above average or defensive runs saved. So go figure. You know, probably should be hitting like sixth in a good lineup. But, yeah, he's certainly capable of getting hot and carrying you for a little bit. So, yeah, I think Canzone is a guy that going to be around for the next couple of years. he's cheap and affordable and he hits a team mobile park just fine and he is not a platoon guy he's actually i believe 10th uh highest w rc plus and baseball left on left uh which hilarious this team decided

to give abats to connor jo and rob ruff snider for half the year against lefties because canzone couldn't hit those guys um now again should he face every single lefty no but okay all lefties are going to struggle against chrisale like you know whatever um It doesn't mean he's not an everyday player. So, yeah, I think the version of Canzone we've seen in 2026, I think it's pretty fair to expect that to continue and, you know, maybe even get a little bit better. I don't know if it's reasonable to expect that,

but is Canzone capable of hitting 30 home runs next year? Yeah, of course he is. So, yeah, we'll see how it goes. But, yeah, I feel relatively safe, penciling him in to be 250. decent on base, hits the ball really hard, has some really ugly games. That's just going to be part of it for him.

But, you know, 20 to 30 home run power, a guy who can be in the lineup every day. Sure. Yeah. I think that's a safe assumption heading into 2027. Yeah, I mean, his first 370 played appearances,

he was a low league average hitter. But now we have 692 plate appearances. Let's say that he's a 273, 340, 482, 135 WRC plus hitter. I'll lean into the larger sample size. Yep. You know, we talked about this before the season, that the 370 played appearances that I mentioned earlier,

that was the large sample size at the time. Yeah. So that's why I wasn't sure if we should buy it or not on Dom. But now, like, we have the large sample size that says he's really good. So, yeah, I would say this is Dom-Can zone. Dom-Cand-zone, really good hitter. and especially a really good hitter against left-handed pitching.

Go figure. He's got a 148 WRC plus against lefties this year. 127 against righties. Yeah, he more or less, he's Randy Rose Arena, minus the base running. Next question here from Nate. Once to know,

why not call up Ryan Sloan to replace Emerson Hancock instead of bringing Bryce Miller back to the rotation? At least Miller gets through the lineup twice and you have to go to the pen anyways, or at best, Miller gets through the lineup twice. then you have to go to the pen anyways. I think at this point now, you're six games back in the ALS.

I'm not calling up Brian Sloan. Because if you add him to the 40-man roster and then add him to the 26-man roster, then he's not eligible to pitch in the minor and the minors like during the lockout next year. I think at this point I'd rather just keep him stretched out, have him pitch next year on a regular schedule, get to go to camp at a normal time, all that,

and then be ready for whenever the major league season starts up. Yeah, just the cost benefit analysis is just no longer there. And even if the Mariners go on some kind of like crazy, they win 14 out of 15 or whatever. They do it like the Royals. They recently won 12 out of 14 and the Royals are actually worse than the Mariners. You wouldn't know that from watching those two teams play each other. But they are worse than the Mariners and they won 12 out of 14.

Well, the Mariners could do that. they, you know, they'd be back at 500. But if they did that, then would you call up Brian Sloan? Probably not because at that point, you know, you're just going to put them in the bullpen without any kind of warm up period there. And again, you're going to burn that, that, you know, ability to pitch next year while the major league side is still working on their stuff. Remember, the MILB teams, they will play next year.

their CBA does not line up with the major league CBA but any player on the 40 man is a member of the players association and therefore they would be on well they would be locked out next year and they wouldn't be able to participate but if you keep them off of that then he can go to spring training like Ty said and then he can

pitch for Arkansas probably again and he can be stretched out and warmed up and if the major league team comes back in like May and and Sloan will already have a hand of innings under his belt and he'll be already stretched out and he'll be ahead of of guys like Anderson and like that and it just makes more sense. So I just think, you know, if you're going to do it, you would have done it like today and you would have started that transition to the bullpen,

which is where they were always going to use him if they called him up at all a couple weeks ago, but now it's just not worth it. Well, and that's the other thing too, right? Like if you were only going to use them out of the bullpen, then it's definitely not worth it right now. No, like it's not. But it's not worth it to pitch them out of the rotation right now while your six games back, frankly. You haven't earned the right to make these aggressive call-ups, frankly. Yeah. No. And this would be a very aggressive one. Yeah.

Like I get it with Cade. Like, it was long overdue. Like, Cade should have been in this rotation earlier than he was, frankly. But whatever. They did it. Fine. I mean, like, in hindsight, if he had to do it over, maybe you don't call up Cade. So he can just pitch next year in the minors.

And, you know, same thing. like we just talked about with Sloan, but still like... He's pretty polished, whereas Sloan's a lot of polished and a lot of workload to build up. You know, Anderson threw 140 innings last year in college. And so, yeah, there's, it's a little bit different. But yeah, Sloan, it's just not worth it anymore. Yeah, yeah, great. Troy wants to know what movie had similar hype and let down for you guys as the merits this season?

it's not a perfect comp but Rise of Skywalker yeah that was going to be my yeah yeah yeah

uh Fantastic Beast too uh fantastic beast I so not to turn this into locked on movies

which we would absolutely kill by the way yeah we might have to at some point during the long ago yeah Fantastic Beast is the best Harry Potter movie the first one and I die on that hill. Force Awakens is the best Star Wars movie. I will die on that hill. The movies

that preceded them are so awful, though, that they just destroyed the first movies, the first part of the trilogies that were really good. Uh, so yeah. I, I, I hate, I hate that we're answering this question, even though that I'm the one who picked it because now we're exposing our lockdown audience to what our CTZ audience has unfortunately had to, uh, be privy to and that's your awful movie takes. they're not awful. Okay. Force Awakens is not the best. It is.

It's not debatable. It is. And you know what? I'll do you one better. Empire isn't even in the top five. No, that's crazy. Empire is number three.

Because that's right. Rogue one is actually number two. But the only person in the world. It is really good. But anyways, we don't have time to do this. How about the?

original Spider-Man trilogy, like all of them. Inside Joe. Inside Joe. Yeah, I don't know. This is a tough one. Like, I know a lot of people love them, but for me, I hate Avatar. Like, I just think that's a bad movie. That was, now, to be, I didn't see it in theaters or anything.

Like, when it first came out, I watched it. But were you disappointed by Avatar? Yeah, I was because, like, I didn't watch it until, like, 10 years after it came out. And it was, like, the most hype movie of all time. I watched and I was like, this movie kind of sucks actually. You know what other movie kind of sucks? Dune.

I just, I couldn't watch it after 45 minutes. I gave up. The movie was so boring. So yeah, I mean, like movie, The Mariners are a team that I had all these expectations for.

They're coming off of a great, you know, previous season. So it feels like it has to be a sequel. So I think my answer kind of has to be Rise of Skywalker or a sequel that just did not live up to the original. So I think that's the most fitting analogy for it. So what was was Rise of Skywalker the second of the third trilogy?

No, that's the last one. What's the second one again? The second one is the last Jedi. So here's actually what I'd say. Yeah, now that I've thought about it more, you know, I was so excited for the Star Wars reboot. And then like, Force Awakens comes out. And I'm like, cool, this is awesome. Certified panger.

There's a great start. Yeah, it's basically the same thing as a New Hope. whatever it's a great start it's great start that was the first trilogy or the second sequel trilogy first sequel trilogy very similar stories we're not doing this we're not doing this anyway

let me finish my star wars so you know but then I would say like the first half of the season was like the last Jedi where I'm like there are issues here but like I feel like they'll be able to turn this thing around

you know like movie just kidding she literally just said like two minutes ago last Jedi yeah you're like okay there's hope maybe maybe like there's issues here and I don't really like this but give it a chance

yeah they'll they'll turn it around right and then the second half of the mariner season has been the rise of Skywalker yeah yep where it's this a giant middle finger to all of us. Yeah, I think

the 2025 team is the Force Awakens. The 2026 team is the last Jedi. I just think that's the perfect analogy for me, at least. You don't like Star Wars. I'm sorry, I don't have a better analogy for you, but I have to say the Last Jedi. All right, that is going to do it for our show.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marinas podcast. For the Locktime Podcast Network, your team every day for Colby Pat Node. I'm Tadangazel. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tadeng Azales and Colby at C-Pad 11 that's CPAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariners.

You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.