Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Ace Fraley: No Trouble Walking

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

Justus prevailed in Anaheim last night, as the Mariners won 6-2. D.C. talks about the game, including Justus Sheffield's semi-rocky evening, the M's offense getting it done in the middle innings, and Jake Fraley drawing lots of walks. Again. D.C. then dives into Ace's numbers a bit, and the difference between his on base percentage and batting average is almost laughable. He compares Ace's stats to a player from around 30 years ago who was known for drawing lots of walks. In the second and third segments, Jonathan Miller is back; he and D.C. talk about umpiring once again, including talking about the biggest misconception there is about how games are umpired. 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.

Today on Locked-on Mariners, two contestants tried to make matches on a game board in order to reveal pieces of a rebus puzzle. Whoever solves the puzzle first goes on to the bonus round for a chance to win one of eight fabulous cars. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. It is Friday afternoon, gang. Weekend is just about upon us. I hope you had a good week, and thank you for. choosing to close it out with us. I am D.C. Lundberg here to bring you another episode of Locked-on Mariners, part of the

Locked-on podcast network, or T-L-O-P-N, or T-Lopin, brought to you by the locker room. Please remember to download, rate, and follow this program on whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast or any program here on Tloppin. I have to admit, ladies and gentlemen, that after the Angels took an early 2-0 lead last night, I figured here we go again. But they mounted a rally the next half-inning, which began with a walk from who else? Jake Fraley, no surprise there. He was, however, picked off first base, not a close play.

But then Donovan Walton singled, J.P. Crawford laced a double into right field, and Mitch Hanigur hits something of a chopper past the third baseman. The shortstop got to it. He had to backhand it, but the throw was very late to first base. Sunshine Superman scores the first run of the game, and Manager is safe at first with an RBI single. That's the way to do it, gang. And if Ace hadn't been picked off first base,

he'd have scored on Crawford's double, and they would have tied the game. But as it was, they cut the angel lead in half. Justice Sheffield allows a single, a double, and a walk to load up the base. with one out in the bottom of the inning, but escapes trouble and doesn't allow any more runs to cross the plate. Then the M's got busy again in the fourth.

Jared Kelnick led off with a walk, the only time he'd reach base last night. Jose I getaway struck out, but then Taylor Tremel singled, which brought up Ace Fraley. During the at-bat, something got in his eyes, some dirt or dust, or durst, which is a combination of dirt and dust, and the trainer had to come out and put some drops in his eyes to clear him out.

and then Griffin Canning hung a slider in the lower inside quadrant of the zone, and Ace nailed it. His first career home run brings the score from 2 to 1 Angels to 4 to 2 M's and chased Mr. Canning from the ballgame. The Angels collect two more hits in the bottom of the inning, back-to-back one-out singles, and both of them moved up on a while pitch, but neither scored. So Chef limited the damage, actually prevented any damage, once again. But he labored quite a bit in the game. He threw 103 pitches in 5 and 2 thirds, not very efficient, gave up six hits, two runs on those two solo home runs, walked three and struck out seven.

J.T. Chagua cleaned up the sixth for Mr. Sheffield, and Paul Seawald, Keenan Middleton, and Raphael Montero all pitched a scoreless inning a piece of relief. In fact, Chef is the only pitcher who allowed any base runners. Montaro was not in a save situation, so he didn't give up the farm. The mayor has tacked on a run apiece in the 6th and 7th, an RBI double by Crawford, and a solo homer off the bat of Kyle Seeger, adding the two insurance runs, and the final score was 6 to 2 in a pretty good team effort. Crawford was a lead-off hitter once again and had a great game.

3-4 with 2 doubles in an RBI. Manninger hit behind him in the number 2 hole. He went 2 for 5 with an RBI. Seeger also went 2-4 with that solo ding-dong. Tai France went 1-4 with a double, And Ace Freyley went one for two with two more walks. Mr. Fraley is the modern-day Lance Blankenship, without the ability to play the infield since he's left-handed, of course.

I make the comparison because Mr. Blankenship was known as the Walking Man. In his final season, Blankenship had a batting average of 190 and an on-base percentage of 363, 328 plate appearances, 48 hits, 67 walks. And for his career, he hit 223. slugged 299, but had an on-base percentage of 350. Mr. Fraley is going to wind up with a higher batting average and slugging percentage than Mr. Blankenship, I think. But the parallels in the on-base versus the batting average are actually quite similar.

And I think it's funny that the guy I nicknamed Ace, after hard-rock guitarist, Ace Freely, spelled differently, winds up having this insane ability to draw walks since one of guitarist Ace Fraley's albums was titled Trouble Walk. The Mariner's ace Fraley certainly has no trouble walking this year, and his numbers are quite amusing thus far. He's played nine games only, so the difference in the on-base and batting averages are extreme. So far, he's hitting 200, and has an on-base percentage of 556, and an OPS of 100. He's drawn 15 bases on balls and has 20 at-bats. These numbers are borderline comical.

His career slash line is actually very Blankenship-esque, 163-321-279. Time for the trivia corner, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to be talking about umpiring with John Miller for the rest of the show once again. So we have an umpire-type question. How many umpires are in the Hall of Fame? Answer following this word from bet online the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports. sports action. Baseball season is in full swing and you can track all the action at BetOnline. Get all the latest news, odds and info for all your sporting needs, including Major League Baseball,

the NBA, the NHL, and all your UFC slash MMA action. Before the next pitch, head over to Bet Online on your laptop or mobile device and check out all the great sporting news, sign up bonuses, and contest info. Don't sit on the sidelines any longer as this is your chance to get into the game as teams prep for their runs to the playoffs. Head over to the website or use your mobile device to sign up today and receive your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Bet Online, your online sportsbook experts, promo code locked on. Answer to the trivia question, ladies and gentlemen, there are in fact 10 umpires in the Hall of Fame.

Al Barlick, Nestor Shilak, Jock O'Conlin, who's a former player, Tom Connolly, Billy Evans, Doug Harvey, Cal Hubbard, Bill Clem, Bill McGowan, and Hank O'Day, also a former player. Well, Mr. Conlin and Mr. O'Day were players, they are both in the Hall of Fame as umpires. Coming up, what will John Miller say is the biggest misnomer about umpires? I already know because we recorded the next two segments a half hour ago, but you will find out following this word from sports trade. Like that segue, ladies and gentlemen?

Yes, indeed. I've been talking a lot about sports trade lately. If you haven't heard about it, it's where fantasy sports meets the stock market. Their platform allows you to buy and sell shares in your favorite players just like real stocks. It's a fair and exciting way to cash you in on your knowledge of sports. And they just added baseball to the platform, so check it out today. Making money with sports trade is simple. Player values rise and fall based on two factors.

One, their performance in each game compared to their projected fantasy points in that particular game. The more points scored, the higher the player values go. And the two, good old-fashioned supply and demand, the more shares that are purchased in a player, the higher their value goes. Economics cannot get more simple than that. You can instantly buy and sell as many shares

in as many players as you like, just like the stock market. Then watch your players battle and watch your portfolio value rise. Simply go to SportsTrade.com, watch the How It Works video, then sign up to get started. Sign up today at SportsTrade.com

and discover the fun, exciting, and profitable new world of sports trading. This is truly the evolution of fantasy sports. I think you'll be amazed. Don't sit on the sidelines any longer. Get in on the action at sports trade.com. Welcome back to Lockdown Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. There was a great cover of the E.L.O. song, Do You?

On Ace Fraley's album, Trouble Walking. Thank you very much, Joey Martin. Released in 1989, by the way. well before Jake Fraley was born. Actually, not well before, but before, what am I talking about? I am here once again with Locked on Meritor's contributor, as promised. John Miller, John, happy Friday. Happy Friday indeed.

Thank you so much for having me. Always a pleasure to have you on the show. Friday shows hopefully will be a little bit on the lighter side from here on going out since we actually are recording on Friday rather than very late Thursday night. And ladies and gentlemen, again, We don't have a script. We don't have a plan. It's just two guys talking baseball for the next, you know, 15, 20 minutes,

or however, the crow flies, as it were. One thing that we've gotten into a couple of times on this program before with Mr. Miller is the subject of umpiring because he is an umpire. And I guess I'll ask this question, John, and I know I'm putting you on the spot. What is the biggest misconception the average baseball fan may have about how a game is umpired. Right off the top of my head, one of the biggest misconceptions or falsities, if you will,

in regards to umpiring, is that there's any such thing as a makeup call. I'll call something for the Seattle Mariners, for instance, and the manager comes out and is venting his spleen to me. And then for the Chicago White Sox, turn around and make another call and he's like, oh, that's a makeup call.

You're making up for what you did to us or whatever. Like, no. And I know I mentioned books on this show enough. I am a big reader. I believe it was in umpire Ken Kaiser's book where he

explained there can be no such thing. You don't have time to, as a pitch is coming in, at anywhere from 85 to 100 miles an hour to think, okay, I know where this is coming in, even though the ball is moving on you. Even a fastball that appears straight is moving somewhat.

Yes. And you can pretty much guess, okay, it looks like, but then if the bottom drops out before it gets to the plate, well, that's a ball. And you can figure, oh, okay, well, yes, if it continues this way, it's a strike, but as soon as you think that, the hitter is going to swing through it, and whether he makes contact or not, that determines your actions.

So you can't even predict what is going to happen on that pitch from how you see it, and a pitch is coming in at you've got less than half a second to react. Yeah, true. So you get down in your position behind the plate, then you're checking everything. If there's a runner on, you're checking, okay, my part. out there in the correct position. Because if there's not, I need to

stop the game. I need to find out what's going on. If suddenly a fielder decides they need to tie their shoe, and I've had this at numerous levels more than once where they're not even paying attention like, oh, my shoe's untied, okay.

Or if whatever else is going on, you're doing that before you get down in your set position, and then you get down in your position. Okay, I've got the runner over there. I've got the catcher right where they need to be. I've got the bat because if the batter were to step out or if the pitcher were to step off or anything. So I've got my position. Pitcher goes into the stretch, the wind up, the pitch,

and you are zoom focused on that or if it's a play on the basis as everything is, and literally everything is moving all at once. Yeah, it is. The field is throwing the ball, as we'll say in the second base, is moving. The fielder that's receiving the ball is moving. The runner is moving. The umpire

is moving. And the other infielder are moving to back up the potential errant throw. Yes. Everyone is moving, and you as the umpire are doing your best to watch the ball coming in to the fielder that's moving to the

base to start is feelers choice or double play at second base and the runner coming in to make sure okay if they need to slide they're sliding correctly and all these things are coming together you don't have time to think well it's the fifth inning now in the second inning i made this call and it may have been wrong so i have to so yeah something like that i would say the biggest misconceptive and that was a long answer. That's all right. But the biggest misconception is the idea that there's such thing as a makeup call or that, well, I saw it in a game the other night. I do not remember which team it was where the pitcher was just not around the plate. He was throwing down, he was

throwing up, he was throwing on both sides of the plate, and even if you're looking at the box they've got around there on the television, it's missing. it's just missing and umpires getting it right and he's got the bases loaded at this point I think he's walked at least two of the three batters and gotten behind on everyone sounds like when a Raphael Montero save opportunities sorry

and then the next pitch comes in around the top of the zone and you look at if you were to look at it on the box like okay it's kind of in there but he's just missed like 12 of 15 pitches. Yeah. The tendency is to you've got to bring it in there. This is just something that tends to happen mentally with the zone,

whereas if you've just gotten 12 out of 15 pitches right, and then the next pitch is one of those borderline, you're more likely to get the call. Yeah, it's been that way forever. And as you were talking about that, two names sprung into my head, Greg Maddox and Jamie Moyer. They probably got the benefit of the doubt on more close calls and some of the other pitchers of their day may have because they had a reputation for always being in the zone. And younger pitchers tend not to get the benefit of the doubt on those close calls because they don't yet have the reputation that a Maddox or Moyer has built up, even if their command in the minor leagues was very good.

Logan Gilbert has seemed to have been squeezed a little bit in his first few games, it seems to me. But we've got to take a break at this time. We'll continue this umpiring talk in a little bit. But if you out there have a question or a comment that you would like addressed on the air, please send it into Lockdown Maritors at gmail.com. And I will in fact address it on a future Mayo Black episode, probably, about a week and a half from now. Questions and comments on any subject whatsoever are highly encouraged.

Does not need to be about the Mariners. Doesn't need to be about sports at all. Locked on Mariners at gmail.com is the place to send those questions and comments. Coming up, more umpiring talk with an umpire. But first, this word from Bilt Bar, the greatest protein bars in the history of things that I have found in Maverick stations. High in protein and fiber, they're low in sugar and calories. But best of all, gang, they are off the chival. hearts high in deliciousness.

They now come in nine standard flavors, and they've almost always got a limited edition flavor in the mix as well. Go to beltbar.com to buy them. Yes, buy them. You can order the variety box to sample a little of everything or compile a box of the three

flavors you would most like to try. Like cherry, coconut almond, and mesquite barbecue. And if you use promo code Earths splurfs, sploof, spaglardle, nothing happens. So just use promo code Locked 15 at checkout instead, and you'll get 15% off your order. Builtbar.com promo code Locked15 at checkout for 15% off your order.

Builtbar stops static before static stops you. Now back to Locked-on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. It's a root beer, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, J.M. This is the final segment of the week here on Locked on Mariner's. And with us again, as he was in C Block, umpire and locked on mariner's contributor John Miller

John you brought up the subject of the misnomer of makeup calls as the biggest misconception that there is out there on how a game is umpired and I'm glad you did because this actually came up at one of the Spokan Indians games my friend and I went to this year someone was picked off first base

I don't remember which team it was it was the Indians versus the Aqua Sox but anyways everyone in my section thought he was safe but the umpire called him out. A little later on, may have been the next inning, as a matter of fact, a guy from the other team was picked off first base in a close play, which may have been missed, and there were a lot of people in the stand saying,

that was a makeup call. That was a makeup call. I heard three or four people, at least, different people say that. But even by the time the umpires reached the low minors, John, the makeup call situation just does not happen. They're professionals by that point. They indeed are. Everyone, who, and this is, I believe you've said, it's now high A? Yes. Okay.

Yeah, everyone at that time has probably gone through a couple years of umpiring at the minor league level. Yeah. And you've gone through a very intensive school. There are a couple of them down there in Florida, most notably, the Wendlestit School, which I went to. Yes. Yes. Back when the chief, the great Harry Wendelstead was still with us. So anyway, these guys have been through pretty intensive training.

They have to have mastered the rule book. And this is not just like some things like, well, I just got a C on it. No, you have to, I think, get an A. It's the best of the best who even make it to the minors. Yes. When I went to the school, there were a. right around 100 people. Only a few from that group will get chosen to go on to the evaluation course after that and then possibly go on to work minor league ball.

Yeah, and they rise, umpires rise through the ranks of the minors, like ball players do, but they don't rise as quickly as ball players do. There are fewer umpire. There are fewer major league umpires by far than there are major league baseball players. About how long on average, and you might not know this, and that's fine, about how long on average does it take for an umpire to start out in the minor leagues and then reach the majors? Because I think for a ball player, it's around three or four years. An umpire, it could take five to eight years.

Okay, so yes, a little bit longer and sometimes substantially longer than the average ball player. Well, and that's largely due to the fact that there's a limited need. There is a limited need, and there are fewer umpires, like I said, than ballplayers, and the shelf life of an umpire is much longer than a ballplayers. Oh, it definitely is. As we've seen, most recently with Cabboy Joe West, he's umpired for 35, 40 years or what have you. Jerry Davis is close behind him. And you mentioned Bruce Freming on our last episode.

He umpired for a great amount of time. Oh, yeah, he umpired forever. Another story he told on that Studio 42 episode I talked about kind of went back to the makeup call subject from earlier. There was an umpire he worked with in the low miners, didn't mention his name, but also said that he didn't make it very far. But he heard this umpire telemanager who had come out to argue hey, you know what, I just missed the call.

And the manager said, that's the seventh time this year you've told me you've missed the call. The good umpires don't do that and don't need to do that. No, and as we see, especially with replay now, oh yeah. Umpires very rarely actually miss a call. That's another thing to point out. I mean, there's kind of this misnomer that, oh, umpires are bums, they get everything wrong all the time.

No, think about the plays that they miss. obviously are magnified, and they get much more attention than the calls they get right. Think of how many calls, an average umpire, whether it's a third base umpire, home plate umpire, first base umpire, whatever. Think of how many calls he has to make during a game. And, you know, that one that he gets wrong is the one that everybody's going to talk about. But they get so many of them right. They get the vast majority of them correct.

And I think that gets lost sometimes. It really does. And that part, that part of it is kind of a shame. And the replay umpire in New York, however, I kind of feel like they're wrong about half the time. What are your feelings on that? Well, sometimes, and even to me, it may look that way. I do think it is important to keep in mind

that all they are looking for is, is it possible to over? turn this call. Yeah, that's true. Not, yes, that was indeed and out, but no, I cannot tell definitively that he was, he got there before the ball did, so

I have to uphold the call. And one thing that would help with that, John, would be for the crew chief or the home plate umpire on the field to be miced up to the PA system, to explain to the crowd what the umpire in New York

told him, because often Sometimes it'll be the ruling on the field stands. There was no evidence to overturn the play, or the ruling on the field is upheld because we saw this, that, and the other thing. The NFL does that very, very well, and Major League Baseball does that very poorly, and I wish that would change. That would be a good thing. It would be a very good thing. I like the way that the MLB does it in regards to the NFL with, they are having an objective, third party look at the play versus, say, the crew chief look at the play.

That's a good point. Well, it might have been the crew chief's call. That's true. And he's just going to, like, well, I'm going to see whatever I want to uphold my call. No, it's not like that. We've got an objective third party who gets the notification. He watches the play and then lets you know virtually whether the call is upheld or overturned. You know, John, I never thought of that, but you're exactly right.

But you still got a mic. the crew chief so he can communicate better with the fans and the stands and with the announcers and not just on replay calls if there's some sort of on-field delay or just a really confusing play let him explain to the crowd what just happened usually when there's something unusual the crowd is left completely in the dark and the announcers are left to guess what happened and cannot accurately tell the audience at home what happened i would love to see more communication from the umpiring crew to the fans over the PA system. That would be great.

That would, as much as we're focused on when we need to speed up the game, we need to add some clarity to the game. There needs to be a lot more clarity, yes. I'm sorry, John, I didn't mean to cut you off. Yeah, no problem. You mentioned the broadcasters and having watched a number of games recently where there's a delay on the field or a possible, an argument. over a play, and quite often recently what I've seen in games is the running lane going to first base.

Oh, yes. Where it's a tag play and the runners trying to get out of the way. And actually, it was a game last night I was watching, and they're saying, well, he was out of the baseline. That's been happening a lot this year. Well, there's a big difference between the baseline and the base path. Oh, yeah. For our listeners who may not know, who don't necessarily want to go to the rulebook, which, by the way, can be downloaded for free off of MLB.com.

Yes, it can. So you can all have it and look this up. But the baseline is the imaginary straight line between each base. Yep. The base path is the path that the runner takes going from one base to another. which, as we know, is not a straight line from first to second base, or in this case of this play, from the batters box to first base. Right, yeah, they're trained to kind of go around it in a sense,

so they'll just clip the corner of it and then be able to turn to the next one, you know, kind of in that fashion. If he doesn't run straight from base to base, that's going to slow you down, because that's not a natural way to move. Exactly. And so in the case of this, We'll say, runner hits a ball out to the fence, going to be extra bases rounding first base.

At the angle he rounds at, and then is turning to second base, he has three feet on either side that he can run in. So he's got like a six-foot running lane, if you will. So when you're trying to avoid a tag or avoid a fielder or something like that, and then these announcers say, well, he was out of the baseline,

like, well, first of all, he's not out of the baseline. He might be out of his base path, but still, they need to look at the book to be able to tell us, because if you're not up on the rules, you're watching this, or, and especially now since we're coming back to stadiums, that would be great. And start training at the A level that you're watching so many games there,

Have the home plate umpire or crew chief, okay, here was the call, or whatever you can do. It's a little more difficult watching a game like that, but if you have a radio or television broadcast, have something like this so that the announcers are not, I guess, talking when they really don't know what they're talking about. John, I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut you off. I hate to do that. but we're pretty much right at our time limit. I'll tell you what, the mayor has had an off day on Monday.

So on Tuesday, there's not going to be a game to recap. I would love to continue to talk about umpire on the show. This stuff is fascinating to me. I hope it's fascinating to the listeners as well. Can you come back on Tuesday so we can continue to do this? I would be more than happy to. All right. Where can people find you on the socials?

I can be found on the socials on Twitter at Seattle Pilot 69. Excellent. Thank you very much for hopping on today, John, on short notice I will add as well. Always a pleasure. Thank you very much. Next week on Locked-on Mariners, ladies and gentlemen, guests include Jack Tripper, Mr. Ed,

and a plate of extra-chrismicry hashbrows. Also a special musical performance by legendary soul singer Marvin Gay. You will not want to miss that. So download right and follow Locked-on Mariners. Look for us on any podcasting app that springs into your head. Leave a rating and review of your podcasting app of choice

so allows. That'll do it for this week. It's Friday afternoon. Go out and enjoy it. It's a beautiful day here in Spokane. Once again, I hope the weather's cooperating wherever you are as well. I'll be back on Monday to wrap up the weekend series in Anaheim, and in the meantime, have a terrific weekend. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Lockdown Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski will keep you updated on the latest news in every major sport with Lockdown's team of local experts. the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. This is Joey Martin for Lockdown Mariners, part of the Locked on podcast network.