Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - A New No. 1 Trade Target for Mariners?

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

The trade deadline is exactly one week away and hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode think the Mariners should have a star in their crosshairs - and no, it's not Juan Soto. Ty and Colby tell you the who and the why, then look at a starting pitcher who's unexpectedly come up in trade discussions and recap last night's 4-3 win over the Rangers and how Seattle has become a fundamentally-sound ballclub.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] up to date with all things Mariners at Inside the Mariners - a FanNation website covering the Seattle Mariners on the Sports Illustrated network.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11 | @InsideMarinersFor more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Blue NileMake your moment sparkle with jewelry from Bluenile.com. And, going on now is the Blue Nile Anniversary Sale … Save up to forty percent on classic fine jewelry pieces and twenty-five percent on engagement ring settings. Shop stress free and find your forever piece. Go to BlueNile.com today.Sports Card InvestorDownload the Sports Card Investor App today and easily browse over 630K cards from every sport, with hundreds more added each week . Available for free in the Google Play and Apple App stores or go to sportscardinvestor.com/lockedon. 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.

On today's episode of Locked-on Mariners, we'll tell you why last night's win for the Mariners was a must-have, what our overall feelings are a week out from the trade deadline, and why Juan Soto isn't the star player the Mariners should be targeting this summer. Thank you so much for being here. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, everyone. Welcome to the Locked-on Mariners podcast. This is Tuesday, July 26, 2022. And thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all platforms with new episodes coming out every Monday through Friday. I am your host, Tadang Gonzales, joined as always by my co-coes Colby Patnode. We cover the Mariners over at inside the mariners.com for Fan Nation over on the Sports Illustrated Network.

Be sure to follow the show on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. Follow Inside the Mariners at Inside the Mariners. side Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. That's D-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z, and Colby at C-P-P-A-T-1-1. Be sure to also check out our Patreon over at patreon.com forward slash control the zone. We post two additional podcasts on there every single week again. That is patreon.com forward slash control the zone. And if this is your first time joining us here on the Locked-on Mariners podcast, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follow or subscribe wherever you're listening to this. And if you're watching us on YouTube hit the subscribe button turn on the notification bell and give this video a thumbs up we greatly

appreciate it we got a lot happening here with a week out from the trade deadline yes next tuesday is the trade deadline it is jerry season things are going to be happening players are going to get moved the mariners are going to get better but we'll tell you how much we think the mariners are going to get better later on in the show we're also going to reflect on last night's four to three win over the Rangers and why that was a must have win for the Mariners. But let's start with a statement that Colby made on social media last night from the Control to Zone Twitter account. I'm just going to throw up the meme that you posted right on the screen here. And for those that are just listening, it says, Sandra Bogart's makes more sense for the Mariners than Juan Soto.

Hmm, very interesting. Now, of course, the Red Sox, we talked about yesterday. They could be potential sellers here in a week. They are hovering around 500 right now. They got back above 500 yesterday with a win. But, you know, they're just kind of in the pack right now in the wild card race with six other teams. You know, their path to the postseason is very murky. They still got to play the ALE East a lot.

They still haven't won a series against an ALEA team this year as a whole. So it's very plausible. And on top of that, of course, they have many, many contributors, key contributors that are likely heading to free agency this winner, including Zander Bogarts, who has a $20 million player option. He's not taking that at the end of this year. He's just not. He's way better than that. So, Colby, why is two months of Zander Bogart's worth more to the Barroners than two and a half years of Juan Soto? Because he costs less, you know, first and foremost.

I mean, for Xander, two months of Xander Bogarts, we're not talking about nothing. I mean, you're going to have to give up something pretty sizable. And because it's the Red Sox, it's probably going to be something that they think can help them at some point next year. My guess, just this is just a guess. I haven't dove too much into this, probably Emerson Hancock for two months of Zander Bogarts. and while that, you know, is kind of steep for a rental, compared to George Kirby, Noel V. Marte, Harry Ford, etc. For Juan Soto.

And it's kind of a no-brainer for me. In addition to that, Zander Bogartz also plays up the middle. He is valuable defensively and, you know, on the basis. So he's more than a one-dimensional. And, I mean, you think about Zander Bogartz, this year is having the stat cast community is not huge on Bogarts this year. They say he's having a fine year. And his fine year is 312, 385, 443 and a 133 WRC plus as a shortstop, by the way.

About average shortstop, he's not elite by any stretch. JP's a better shortstop. But you don't need Bogarts to play shortstop. And if you're acquiring Bogarts, you can either put him at short and move JP to second. You can just put Bogarts at second. He'll handle that just fine. You play third if you need them to. And J.P. Crawford, nice player, shouldn't be hitting at the top of the order.

He's really struggled the last three weeks or so. And this is a way for the Mariners to upgrade second base without actually acquiring a second baseman. So I think when you kind of factor all those things in, Bogarts as a rental, considering cost, position fit, I think he's just a better option than Juan Soto. Soto is certainly the better player. But one of the things I hear constantly in regards to Soto's value is that, oh, well, he's 23 years old. He's 23 years old. That doesn't matter.

Why does that matter? If he's 27, it doesn't matter because you're only going to have him for the next two and a half years. You know, I mean, like it doesn't matter. So when you say, oh, well, Soto is younger, that's irrelevant to this conversation. So you just look at who's the better all-around player. I mean, Soto's bad is so good that it's probably still Soto, but it's a lot closer than people think and Bogart's going to cost significantly less

and play a position that you actually have need to fill. So I think Zander Bogartz makes a lot of sense whether or not the Red Sox trade him. I don't know. My guess is that they would prefer to hold him and then maybe try to re-sign him, but you can trade a guy and then resign him. It happens all the time.

You know, it's a role as Chapman is kind of a famous example of this, where the Yankees trade him to the Cubs and they go back and they sign him. So I think Zander Bogartz makes a lot of sense. He fills a bigger hole for the Mariners than Juan Soto does. He can help you in more ways than Juan Soto can. And just value-wise, war-wise, they're pretty similar. I mean, Zander Bogart's thrown up at 3.7 F-war this year. last year was 4.4.

In 2020, the shortened season, it was on pace to be about 4.8, before that was 5.9. Before that was 4.5, he's a very good player. So it's Xander Bogart's for Emerson Hancock or Juan Soto for George Kirby, Edwin Arroyo, Harry Ford, Jared Kelnick, and, you know, Emerson Hancock. you know, to me, it's kind of a no-brainer here because Soto is not the piece that gets the Mariners to the World Series this year. I just don't think it's, you can justify paying the freight for it. So I think Bogart's is that impact bat who actually can play a position of need and help you in more than one way. So I think Bogarts makes more sense. Well, yeah, and like you said earlier, he fills a far greater need for you, you know,

and I don't want to say that the Mariners have a logjam in the outfield because they have a lot of gas. that can't really play defensively in the outfield at least play well in the outfield they can stand out there potentially but that's really it and i mean like you know obviously bon soto wavy and upgraded clear cut upgrade over guys like you know Mitch hanniger jesse winker Kyle lewis Taylor tremont the list goes on and on and on i'm not discrediting that but the thing too is he's like first percentile and else above average in the outfield he's awful like he's genuinely like a terrible outfielder and a bad base runner to by all accounts and i mean like while he's basically ted williams at the plate you don't like he's just kind of another guy that you have right now in

terms of positional flexibility which is he doesn't really have any right you have the carlos santanas and the mitch hannigers and the kyle lewis and etc etc of the world and only so many at bat so many positions to play these guys at and it's like you're you're fine there right you don't have a Juan Soto caliber player there, but you have have good to even like, you know, better, you know, above average players. Yeah, you have like all star potential players there in those positions already. Whereas the second base, obviously, you know, you have a former all sir and Adam Frazier who has played better over the last, you know, week and a half or so. But you'd like to upgrade there. And also Adam Frazier could be a pretty decent pace off of the bench. And so again,

like you said, you acquire Zander Bogart's. He, he. plays wherever you want him to play. So if he if you want him at second base, he, he can't really say no, right? You trade it for him. So you play him at second base. You pair him with with JP. That fills a greater need. And you don't have this headache, this lineup headache that kind of, you know, Soto's acquisition also creates not from not just from the outfield perspective, but also from the starting pitching perspective as well where now you got to fill that hole, whether you trade Logan Gilbert or George Kirby. And of course, maybe there is a path here. where they don't have to trade either for Soto.

I personally don't see that. Coley, you don't see that. So we're just working off of that, knowing that. And I just, I think Bogart's, you know, taking all that into account, Bogart's makes more sense here because he just, he doesn't create any of those headaches for you. Right. And it's not a, you know, you're not emptying the barrel for one player in the hopes that he saves

your season. You can go trade for Zander Bogart's and go. and go acquire Frankie Montes. You can do both of those things. You can afford to do both of those things. You can, or Pablo Lopez or pick your pitcher and probably still get a reliever too. So it's just about, you know, taking more shots at high impact players and saying, this is the one guy.

Because if you're going to trade what it's going to cost to acquire Juan Soto, at least what we assume it's going to cost to acquire Wonsoto, you kind of have to win a World Series in the next two years. Otherwise, it was a bad trade. you know and and i know it's it's a simplification people don't like to think of it that way they should they should so for me the goal is to win for a decade not oh here's my two or three year window and then after this i guess we have to start over again like that's that's not anything i'm interested in um and and you know quick side note i already talked about the age thing not being a reason for me to care about wonsoto at all i'm not artificially pumping his

value because he's 23 that means nothing to me he's gone in two and a half half years anyways. The other argument that I've been seen lately that doesn't hold weight is the idea that Juan Soto, his defense and base running will get better when he's outside of Washington because he'll care more. That's what I call a red flag, that he's playing like half speed because he's not happy of where he's at. Like that's not a positive. That's a red flag guys. So we'll see what happens again. I ultimately don't think Juan Soto gets dealt. I know it's kind of an up and down debate here. Do they try and train him before ownership changes? Blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't think he gets moved this summer. And if he does, I think the Mariners are probably,

I'd call him a dark horse at best in that sweepstakes, Zander Bogart. So it just makes more sense. And honestly, you might be able to snag something like Bogarts and Avaldi for Hancock and Stout. And to me, that makes a lot more sense. All right. So what are our overall thoughts heading into the deadline? We're going to tell you those in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Locked-on Mariners is brought to you by Blue Nile. Whether you're ready to pop the question or you're celebrating a milestone moment, find jewelry as unique as them with the modern convenience of online shopping at Blue Nile.com. Blue Nile has simple online tools that let you choose the diamond shape, size, and clarity, as well as setting style.

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We greatly appreciate your support. So we are exactly one week away from the MLB trade deadline. They pushed it back out of the end of July to August 2nd because the lockout just to give teams a couple more days to get set for that. But it is fast approaching here. The trade market is already starting to go a little bit here. We saw, of course, the Daniel Vogelback trade to the. the Mets a couple days ago. And, you know, there's more talks. There's more rumors happening. So I would, I would expect that there's going to be more deals happening here in the coming days. And certainly

over the weekend, I think the weekend is going to be pretty busy. And then, of course, you know, Tuesday, I think is going to be a lot of fun, a lot of fun to watch. So and we expect the Mariners are going to be in the middle of all this fun, of course. So Colby, considering where this team out right now. Seven games over 500. Feeling pretty good about themselves. Got back in the win column last night. How do you feel about the trade deadline? How do you feel about where this team is at and what they should prioritize heading into next week? Yeah, they're three clear of the of the first team out basically. So they have a little bit of a buffer. There's like four teams that are within three and a half games of them. But when you really start to look at the standings,

it kind of starts to look like it's Tampa, Toronto. Seattle, and then there's a drop, right? And Chicago can certainly make up that ground. That's probably the team I'm most worried about would be the White Sox. But you do get to play them, I believe, four more times, three more times.

And they're not playing that well. It's totally possible they fall off this week. You know, they play Cleveland right now. They're kind of going back and forth with Cleveland. Not all that worried about Cleveland. I know they have good pitching. I just, I don't know. I don't really fear Cleveland or Baltimore.

So I think in Boston, I think ultimately will sell. And by the way, Baltimore might be selling. There's been reports, rumors about them potentially selling off Tree Mancing. Right. And so I think when you're looking at this, you're going, okay, so I feel pretty comfortable that Toronto and Tampa are going to get in. Although Tampa just lost Mike Sinino and Kevin Kiermeier for this season. So, you know, we'll see. But I feel pretty confident that those two teams are getting in. So for me, the wild card comes down to either the twins,

either the twins, white socks, or mariners that last wildcard spot. It doesn't mean the Mariners are going to be the six either, I'm just saying. But to me, when I look at the landscape of the Seattle Mariners and this playoff race, starting pitching still is the thing that stands out. You know, we watched Marco really struggle against Houston. you know we watch chris flexen kind of you know kind of dance around with a decent texas rangers lineup and you just kind of think about them going up against the astros the twins the the the yankees it's it's not something that you want to see multiple times in a playoff

series and it's interesting tie as we were recording as you were doing your ad read saw a little bit of news uh that might interesting are you talking are you talking about yes Tarek Scouble is apparently available via trade from the detritus. This is from Ken Rosenthal, legit reporter. Yeah. Who says the tires are willing to trade Tariq Scubal. And that is just like, that blew this thing wide open. Because to me, if he's actually available, that's the number one guy.

Yeah, I'm down. I'm like so down. I mean, that is going to cost you, Edwin Arroyo. It's probably going to cost you Emerson Hancock. But not only is Tariq Scouble good. He's young. He's controllable. He's 25. He doesn't turn 26 until November. You get him for four more years after this year.

Let me just read all these numbers for Tarek's school right now. So 388 ERA, 293 FIPP, 322 XFIP. He's been worth 2.7F4. He's striking out 9.37 guys per nine innings pitch. 2.28 walks per nine innings pitched through 106 and two thirds earnings he should have been an all-star this year ridiculous that he wasn't like Gregory Soto and Miguel Cabrera really that's who represents the Tigers on the All-Star again this year

okay but yeah Tarek school bowl has been fantastic this season and I've loved him coming up and through the through the Tigers system of course Seattle you guy like there's there's a connection right there too like you you I just I think that's an amazing fit for the Mariners to wreak school I would be thrilled I would be over the moon if they went after him and they should go after him yeah and again obviously scubel's probably going to cost more than Montes more than Castillo and you know the tiger's saying that we are willing to trade him doesn't mean that they're looking to it means come blow our socks off but fortunately for

Mariners fans. They can do that. They have the ammunition. They can make that happen. So when you kind of look at it from a Detroit standpoint is this has kind of become a trick scoble, it's kind of become his segment. Detroit all of a sudden is like, how aggressive would you be, Ty? If you could get scubel and another guy you like Joe Jimenez.

Like are you giving up two top four prospects? and then like, like, would you do like Edwin Arroyo, Emerson Hancock, uh, Taylor Trammell and like Levi Stout for those two? Yes. Yeah, in a heartbeat. What, what have I replaced Trammell with Kelnick? Ooh, all right. So, so Royal Hancock, Kelnick, style.

I mean, that's expensive. I mean, still though, I think scubel's a two. Four, four years of scoble, two, uh, one and a half years of, uh, of Jimenez. Yeah. Yeah, I'm doing that. Because like, again, school to me is a number two. I honestly, and I think Kellnick is the type of guy who Detroit would be really interested in because he's 23.

He's young. He's controllable. The Tigers don't really have that. We should mention here that friend of the show, Jason, Jason Churchill, Prospect Insider, tweeted last night that he's hearing that Jerry Kellnick has been the player that's come up the most in discussions between the Mariners and team. So I would say there's a pretty high likelihood that if the Mariners land someone pretty huge, Jared Kelnick said in the other way. Right. And that makes sense because Seattle, they don't have outfield depth,

but that is a position where they've kind of stacked up bodies. And Kelnick, as much as I still believe in the upside, he's not an up the middle player. He's a right fielder. Finding a right fielder who can hit and play a little defense, a lot easier than finding a center fielder, a lot easier than finding a number two. two starter like Tariq Scoobel. So to me, you know, it's, we don't know, you know, Churchill did reiterate that.

He doesn't know if the Mariners are engaging in these talks, if they're interested in trading Kelnik, but he can't say that other front offices are asking about him more than any other Mariners player. So clearly Kelnick has maybe a bit more value than we thought, at least to some teams. So like, I'm looking at Scoobel and I know this is supposed to be a big discussion about the overall trade deadline, but this is like the guy that, like, if this

is the guy that you have to trade three top prospects for, do it. Like, it's, because you're talking about Robbie Ray, Tariq Scoobal, Logan Gilbert in a playoff series. And maybe even you get, you know, Jimenez thrown in there.

Like this, yeah, this is the, this is the deadline altering announcement. And again, I don't know if Detroit's going to trade them or not, but. I'd be very aggressive. Like if you were able to do even say the deal that we just proposed for Scoobel, which who knows if that's actually like what it would take or what have you.

But on top of that, though, that doesn't prevent you from doing other things. That doesn't prevent you from going out and getting another starter on top of School. Right. Like that doesn't stop you from going out and getting a second basement potentially. That doesn't stop you from going out and getting outfield depth. That doesn't stop you from going out and maybe getting a catcher. Who knows?

Right. Like that, you know, and for me, just kind of looking at the overall. you know the big picture here for the for the deadline and we don't have a ton of time here so I'm just going to try to keep my thoughts short but I think that you need to leave this deadline with one starting pitcher who is a number three or better you have to if you don't failure failure really like like because like this is what this team needs because this team right now they're not a bat away and they're not really in a position either where they're going to upgrade over the bats that they currently have in place that are at least

decent that are at least average to slightly above average they're just they're not going to wait to add luxuries i don't think uh you know in terms of position players i think they should add luxuries however in the bullpen bullpen is a place that you can go add guys for literally nothing guys that are going to help you for literally like nothing for like cd tier prospects like i'm talking like a daniel bard right like a guy that's running like a walks per nine of like four right like that guy is and is going to be a free agent. Like a middle guy. Yeah, like a middle relief guy.

Yeah, not a high leverage guy. Of course. Like, if you're not going after the cream of the crop, you're not going to have to give up a ton for a believer. That's kind of why I like the Jimenez Scoobel thing, though, because I feel like if you get that like top end reliever, then all of a sudden you say like,

oh, well, I guess my middle relief core, like my three high leverage are Jimenez, Seawald, Munoz. I guess my middle relief core is now Festa, Barucchi, Castillo, you know, Murphy,

like Swanson. Like that's my middle relief core. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm right there with you. You know, like,

like I want beef up the, beef up the bullpen. Just beef up the pitching as much as you can because it is so important once you get to the postseason and at that point, all bets are off.

Once you get in, anything can happen. And pitching is so crucial in those games. It is so, so crucial. Do that. Don't go try to add a luxury like Juan Soto, right?

Don't spend all your chips on it. Because look, at the end of the day, as good as Juan Soto is, as good as he would make the Mariners, he's a luxury at the end of the day. You don't need Juan Soto right now. You don't need him. You don't need either, even going back to our conversation earlier, you don't need Zander Bogart's either. You know, you want to, you should take that shot.

You should kick the tires on that. But at the end of the day, I think what you're mostly going to be able to do here is just build up your depth. and the big piece that if you're going to add a big piece it's going to be a starting pitcher and then after that you just add solid guys solid dudes that just make you deeper across your roster right i mean i don't maybe we have to bleed this into the next segment a little bit but i to me i think if you're going into a playoff game and you're going robbie ray for six and then you're going seawald uh jiminez munoz you're only going to need two or three runs to win that game most nights.

And that's a place you want to be in the playoffs because you are going to be facing elite pitching staffs as well. Yeah, you're going to. No matter the weapons that you have in your offense either, right? Like a really good offense of the struggle to score in the postseason as well. Like it's just you got to be able to pitch. You have to be able to pitch. And it seems like that's the focus for the Mariners right now.

And that would be my focus. Honestly, if I was Jerry DePoto and Justin Hollander and company, I'm going into the deadline knowing that I need to add pitching. the rotation has to get better. That has to get better. The floor, the ceiling, both have to be raised significantly at the deadline and the rotation. And the bullpen just needs to get deeper, I think. Right.

Like, don't leave it up to guys like, like, don't use roster spots on guys like Tommy Malone. If you're a playoff team, you don't use playoff spots on guys like that. Yep. So. All right. So let's talk about last night's game because the mayor's, of course, had a disappointing weekend. But then they were able to hold off the Rangers. It was a little sketchy there towards the end,

but they were able to hold off the Rangers. Another example, by the way, of why bullpen depth is needed and why you can't just rely on what you have last night. We're going to get into all of that. And just a moment. But a reminder for folks, we are giving away a signed Mitch Hanager card

if we reach 2,411 subscribers on YouTube by the trade deadline. That's next Tuesday again. So subscribe. There it is. subscribe if you haven't and you'll be entered automatically and now this is of course far from the first card giveaway we've done we like cards and if you like cards we have a great new app to tell you about the sports card investor app it is a one-stop shop for all your card collecting needs you can check the market activity and trends for over 630,000 cards see all the ebay listings and make purchases right through the app and if you want to find the going rates for holio rodriguez tie france lincoln gilbert and other mariners cards and even scornment scoop some up for yourself. You can find all the info you need on the sports card investor app right now on your mobile device.

It's available for free on the Google Play and Apple app stores. Or you can go to sportscardinvestor.com forward slash locked on. So last night's game, Ty France had an incredible night. Three for three. Solo home run to Dead Centerfield. Very impressive. Solid night for Chris Flexen on the bump. Andreas Munoz was lights out.

He just so nasty. He's so fun to watch now. like since was he though i mean didn't strike anybody out like yeah yeah i mean all i did was get like three soft hit ground balls but like i guess that passes for electric only hit 100 like twice yeah only twice what a scrub what a scrub what a scrub i just took it easy last night i guess yeah yeah didn't didn't hit 103 this time i just you know i guess you know pick it up there i question i mean i question his his his motivation. I mean, clearly.

Clearly, is the guy who didn't want to be there last night. Clearly, he's only playing at half speed because I can't wait

to read the comments after that. Yeah. He was great. Yeah, he was great. He was great. Paul Sewald

with a scoreless sending as well. Then we got to Diego Castile who's been great, who's been great for the most part over the last two months. Yeah.

But last night, it was not happening for him. The slider was just nowhere to be found. He didn't have it. He did not have it whatsoever. He ended up giving a solo home run up to Nathaniel Lowe, made it

for three. And then he allowed the game tying and go ahead runners to reach base before getting a key strikeout. Then handed the ball off to Eric Swanson. Close the door. Thankfully, thankfully, because

Colby, I don't know about you, but had they lost this game and that fashion had they blown a two run lead in the ninth after the weekend that they had just had this show would have been very very depressing first of all second of all i feel like that's one of those things that just happens to a team and just rips their absolute heart out right like i just i feel like last night holding on to that game and the night there was crucial for the mariners here and in this rotten right now yeah it's uh it uh it uh it's you need this series let's just be honest about it you need to win one of these next two because

you're going to play the the astros for four and then the Yankees for three right after it's it's going to be a tough road trip right and if you can go three and four on that road trip you have to feel really good about yourself coming back home where you you know get a kind of a soft landing at home and then you play the Yankees again so like I mean it's there's nothing to about this stretch. So you really have to win these series that you should win. And the Mariners are a better team than Texas. Just flat out, Texas has some hitters. They have some talent. They have some guys. They're not that far off. I don't, I don't know if they're a year away, but I, there's some talent. They're a dangerous team. They can beat anybody in the league if they pitch,

which, you know, the bullpen can't, really. So I, but to me, you know, I was watching that game last night. And I came to the realization, I know why the Mariners have the record they have and the Rangers have the record that they do. And it was encapsulated on two plays, I think in the same one in the bottom, one in the top. Base is loaded. Carlos Santana at the plate, hits a ground ball, has some top spin on it. The third baseman has to take a step back to try and turn the double play to get out of the inning without scoring a run. It's three to two at this point. Santana busts down the line, right, going as fast as he possibly can, and he beats it out.

And at the time, you're like, oh, well, fielder's choice, RBI, like, okay, whatever, four to two. Ended up being the winning run, all because Santana's hustle. By contrast, you go to the Rangers, right? And you look at what's happening, I believe this was the eighth, yeah. Seawald walks Adolas Garcia with two outs in the eighth inning to bring up Nathaniel O, injure hitter, good pull power. And Lowe represents the tying run. What does Garcia do?

He tries to steal second. Why? That run doesn't matter. Right. Like if you get thrown out, which he did, you just remove the tie and run from the plate. And now you have to go into the ninth and you have to score two times now instead of maybe one.

Or maybe you could have maybe Lowe could have tied it. You know what I mean? So it's just you look at smart base running, the hustle that you see from Carlos Santana, who's not a base runner, not a good base runner, not a fast guy. And then Adolas Garcia, who's this electric player who's, you know, near elite speed and a great base dealer. One of them earned their team will run with his, you know, hustle. The other one may have cost his team the game with his dumb decision to steal. And so when you look at it like, hey, why are the Mariners this much?

much better than the Rangers because roster-wise, they're probably not, what are they now, like 10 games up on the Rangers. They're probably not 10 games better than the Rangers, not through 90-some-odd games, but they are. Why is that? Because Gene's, because Ae Junio-Svarez can score on a wild pitch that gets five feet away from the catcher because it gets a great jump, and Carlos Santana's busting it down the line. Meanwhile, the Rangers with all their athleticism and all their youth, they're trying to steal pointless bags down by two, the eighth with the tie and run at the plate. So to me that was the takeaway is that the Mariners are a well-coached team.

They have a culture. They understand what they're trying to do. And the Rangers are a team that are still trying to find it. And because of that, you have to win. You have to beat the Rangers if you want to make the playoffs. And to Seattle's credit, I think they're nine and two against them this year. And they won six in a row. So to their credit, they are beating the Rangers.

The games are always close, but they're finding a way to beat them. And that's exactly what you have to do. Yeah, I would say this about the Mariners. You know, they're not super athletically gifted, not this current team. I mean, you look at their sprint speeds and everything. I think they have like four guys that are above the league average and sprint speed right now. J.P. Crawford is their fourth fastest guy. Yeah.

So that's that tells you a lot. That tells you a lot. But they are probably one of the most fundamentally refined teams in the same. league right now. I mean, you look at just their defensive numbers. You know, of course, again, athleticism plays into them not being great, particularly in the outfield and the corner spots. But, you know, they've made, I think they've committed the least amount of errors or at least one of the fewest amount of errors. Yeah. And all baseball, they, they are a smart baseball team for the most part, right? Like, there are some times where they, they, they do buntz in certain interesting

situations. But yeah, but they don't, they typically don't make base running mistakes. They typically don't throw to the wrong base. They don't take the extra risk. JP will eat a ball instead of trying to turn to the pitchers like not quite at first base. Like they do all those little tiny things. Essentially, I think what you're saying is the Mariners

don't beat themselves. Yeah. They don't. They don't. And like you look and I think that they are smart enough too to capitalize on other team's mistakes like last night with Suarez being, you know, on his piece of cues in that moment and seeing the ball get away from the catcher and being able

to not even, you know, think about it, just take the step towards home and go for it, you know, and just full send it, right? I think we've seen that a lot from particularly the veterans on this team and they're leading by example here. And I think that you're seeing that, you know, rub off onto some of the younger guys as well. And they're just a smart ball club. They just, they do all the little things really well. And that's what's going to give them an edge here over the course of the final two months of the season. and hopefully into the postseason over some of these other teams that are, you know, a little more like obviously they have all the athleticism in the world like like a Rangers team like, you know, a team that has Adela Garcia, et cetera. But they don't have the wits about them that the Mariners do.

They just this team is different. This team is different in terms of how it just approaches the game is very, very refined. And so I've been very impressed with just how they've been able to limit mistakes and not. shoot themselves on the foot most of the time and really whenever they have shot themselves on the foot it's not something that they're necessarily doing on the field it may be more so a decision to bunt late in the game or a bullpen decision etc and that mostly falls on scott but that you know all of this really is reflected by leadership as well so this is you know a great job by scott great job by folks like perry hill maniac etc for you know getting these guys to focus on doing the little things well

and being able to play great situational baseball, which they've been able to do. We saw that again last night. So this team is in a really good spot. Loving what I'm seeing from them. Very excited to see what they do with the deadline coming up here in a week. Just keep winning games. Keep the vibes going as best as you can over this, you know, this really big strikes. This is the last gauntlet of the season, really, until hopefully you make the postseason.

So just try to get through this as best as you can. Get to the trade deadline, bolster this team. And I like their chances. for it. So that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Pat node. I'm Tadden Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow inside the Mariners at inside Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-E-T-L-E-L-E. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode, whether you're watching or listening to it.

Thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every single day. Now make your second listen of the day. Locked on MLB. MLB expert, Paul Francis Sullivan brings humor, passion, and unique perspective on every team and the biggest stories around the league. Follow the number one daily league-wide podcast locked on MLB on the Odyssey app, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you tomorrow. Go M's. Peace.