Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Are the Mariners a World Series Team? w/ Jordan Shusterman of FOX Sports and Céspedes Family BBQ

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Jordan Shusterman, one-half of the Céspedes Family BBQ duo and FOX Sports MLB writer, joins the show to discuss the Mariners' playoff hopes, how far they could go if they get in, George Kirby's comments last Friday, and a whole lot more.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.  eBay MotorsKeep your ride-or-die alive at ebay.com/motors. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelMake Every Moment More.Make Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.SleeperDownload the Sleeper app and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details. Currently operational in over 30 states. Check out Sleeper today!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) 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.

Jordan Schusterman of Fox Sports MLB and Cessman's Family Barbecue returns to the show to talk about his Mariners here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast. Let's get into 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 Thursday, September 14th, 2023. This is Teddick Azales for the Lockdown Marries podcast brought to you by Jace Medical.

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social accounts is in the description of this episode. Now, we haven't had a guess on in a while, and the Mariners are in the heat of a playoff race after all. So I wanted to change that. And with Seattle getting a much day off, I felt there was no better time to get Jordan Schusterman, Suspiz family barbecue and Fox Sports MLB, of course, who just so happens to be a big time Mariners fan,

talk about where this team is right now, what his expectations are the rest of the way, George Kirby's comments last Friday, and a whole lot more. So enjoy. joining me today is one half of the Cesspius Family Barbecue duo and a fantastic writer over at Box Sports MLB. You can catch his podcast with Jake Mintz, the baseball barbecast, wherever you get your podcast. It's Jordan Schuesterman, everyone. Welcome back, Jordan.

Oh, thank you so much for having me back on. Always a pleasure. This is an off day. Do you remember what an off day feels like? They've played, what was it, 500 games days ago? Yeah, yeah. Give or so it's melt. Yeah, give or take, give a take, for sure.

Sweet relief. Sweet relief. Meanwhile, the Astros are getting every Thursday off this month because that's totally fair. Yeah, there's been some strange scheduling issues. I mean, you can come up with all kinds of nefarious conspiracies. I don't really care to do that, but it's not even really just like the lack of off days. I'm still, and I, you know, I saw, I was, I got to see the Mariners in Cincinnati last week a couple times, which is, which is fun. we were marveling ahead of this this road trip because they were still in the middle of it the the game on Sunday and then playing on Monday across yeah flying cross country yeah was one of the more ridiculous um I mean that was like but here's the thing like I don't love doing scheduling discourse because I feel like that's all what that's what the NBA is right the NBA is just like complaining about back to backs and I'll

kinds of rest of it's like this is baseball this is the beauty of it is that we have it every day it's just it's so weird though there's so many quirks with it it's like there there was that road trip where i think they went to minnesota arizona anaheim and it's like all right go to minnesota first then anaheim then arizona anaheim back home for three games then back on the road like what it's bizarre but also it's like remember like this is kind of just the nature of the mariners right Like there's no, there's no travel for them that's ever going to look like it makes a whole lot of sense. Right. It's the same thing with the Seahawks, right?

Like, we always have this discourse around the Seahawks. And it's like, well, they can't move. Yeah. But it's a lot different, you know, when you at least there, you know, you have multiple days between these stuff. So yeah, yeah. It's true. But it is funny. But this stretch is especially interesting.

But again, like, I say that's the nature of it. But like, I've made this joke a few times, but especially with the Mariners over the last month or so. I'm sorry, I'm just taking this off track, whatever we can get back to whatever you're going to talk about. They, one of the most incredible things about watching them over the last month is they have not really gotten their ass kicked at that time, right? They haven't really had like a normal, just a good old fashion L. Not a lot of those, right? It's been just the most dramatic, ridiculous, embarrassing sequence of errors and mismanagement and whatever. Like, I would love a good, you know, 6-1 ass kick and just like I can tune out.

It's fine. Like, no one feels like you lose, right? Like, it's baseball. It's not college football where you lose one game and your whole life is over, right? But that's, but I mean, that's a merit of Twitter. That is, I know, but that's what I always try to get back to. It was just like, that is the beauty of, I mean, you think about earlier this. week, right? Like, that loss on Monday, which I thankfully did not stay up for. I tapped out of that

game early. I had a bad feeling early on. I was like, no, I'm going to skip this one. But like, see, and you get my pain, by the way, because you're, you're also Eastern time zone, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you get my pain. And I've talked about this many times. Like, that's just how I, as I became a Mariners fan was like, like, because I like staying up late for the games. I like watching the West Coast games. So, like, that's just become my routine. So I'm never really good to complain about it. But, you know, now is that become an old or an older? And I'm like, oh, it's not as quite as easy to stay up until two every single life.

Now, pitch clock has certainly helped that. But it is just an amazing thing about baseball where, like, you just have a loss like that. And you're just like, that was the worst thing that's ever happened to me. And then you're like simultaneously, you're like, oh, my God, they have to play again tomorrow. Like, I need more time to process. And at the same time, like, that's the best part is that they can go out the next day. Kick the Angels ass because they're the better team. And we're all fine.

And so I know that we all want to log on and just lose our minds. And I get that. And I can't, I'm not going to tell people how to be fans. But that is the thing that I have, have grown to expect, you know, kind of accept and, and realize, especially during this run where they've had so many ridiculous losses, even while playing super well. I'm just like, they're a good team and they're going to play tomorrow. So whatever. It's the, it's the best and worst part about baseball because it's like you have a loss like that. And it's like, how do they recover from this?

How do you recover from this? How do you go play baseball the next day? You just do it. You just go do it. Yeah. And that's the thing too, right? It's like you just get to run it back, right? Cool.

Great. And at the same time, and the reverse of that is hanging on for deal life yesterday. And knowing, like, everyone's looking forward to the off day no matter what. Obviously the team is. But it's like, as a fan, you're like, oh, God. Like if they lose this and I've got to sit on this for the day. And then that extra 24 hours, you're like, oh, this is brutal.

Oh, my God. Right. And it's like, no. Right. It's not. Like a regular season, especially when you're still in it's like no no single game is defining anything about the team or any single player and we just got to ride that way yeah yeah it's yeah it's been it's been it's been emotionally taxing i'll

just be honest with you as someone that has to podcast about this team every single day no i that is you have no choice right again i i am i get to kind of opt in not i of course i watch you know 95 percent of the games too but there's i i totally as someone who for you is more responsible to conjure up um not conjure up but just like react in real time right that's that is a lot that's a lot to go through and but also as we i think we've all said we said this last year even in 21 it's like hey better than like pure irrelevance um yeah yeah yeah absolutely this is still better than obviously what it was for a long time oh this is significantly better but yeah like days like yesterday where they're just barely hanging on and we're doing a post game show no matter what.

And it's like, please win. I can't do this again. I can't do this again. It's funny though. We have gotten emails from, and of course, you know, Jake, as a big Orioles fan, you know, he's a little experienced this just launched out of a rebuild, right? I mean, the Mariners, it was a little bit more gradual, I feel like, as crazy as 21 was. This is like, I mean, they're going from one of the worst teams we've ever seen to one of the best teams in baseball this quickly.

And we got an email at some point on our podcast recently. I don't know if it was an Orioles fan, but it was someone just being like, I kind of miss when I didn't have to care about the results of the game. And like I feel like we've seen that this year with Yankees fans, which I kind of like, but I totally get it. And like I, they, because they were so average and so like stuck in the middle, they were just like, I don't want to care about the season anymore.

Stop pretending like I should care about the season anymore. Let me let us just watch the kids and stop caring about the wins and losses. There absolutely is some freedom in that, I think. But as we said, this is still better. I mean, as much as it's exhausting, it is still way more fun. Yeah, I did really like enjoy like 2019, you know, when it was just like Tim Beckham and Edwin and Cardassion. It was just super cracked and like, who cares what happens?

Those first few weeks, oof, I mean, that was, that is the first few weeks of 19. And I know then it was like, quickly painted as like some sort of clash. He was like, no, it stinks. Like, who cares? Like this is this is hilarious. That's what that's what made it so great at the start of the year. This team is terrible. That stretch, but that three weeks stretch like the Voguey and like that was absolutely like

Tumingo Santana. Oh, of course. Like absolutely like some of my favorite Barroner's like stretches of my entire fandom, which, you know, stretches back for that we're 10 full years. So now they're better than then, no. Now they're actually good. Yeah, now they're actually good. And I would prefer having that than, you know, the Tim, the Tim Beckham Marrars for sure. So you love Felix Hernandez.

We've talked about this. He's the reason you became a Mariner's fan. I even tried to get you on ahead of Felix weekend. But I guess you just had to get married that very same weekend. I was a real me guy move doing that really taking the attention away from King Felix. I felt bad. It was probably like the one event. like there's totally an alternative reality where I would have just like flown out to

Seattle for that right right yeah but not that weekend so yeah yeah I guess I well I did get married on the Sunday of Felix weekend and Mariners Orioles it was a funny time well I've told you this you know off air but congratulations again on that I assume you went back to watch the the festivities from that weekend so didn't didn't want the games were terrible on my understanding is at least I got to watch Friday I got to watch the the whooping on Friday, which was great. There you go. There go.

Yeah, the Saturday and Sunday one. But no, of course I watched the speeches and all that stuff. I mean, whatever. I obviously beat that stuff up. Yeah. This Felix is, yeah, so important to me. And I mentioned this on our podcast after All Star, but I'll mention it here. Like, I got to meet Felix for the first time in Seattle.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. So it was very, very. I can just retell the story again now just because it was yeah go for it yeah but um yeah so it was it was uh before the futures game so you know lucky enough to cover however many all-star games now um the last however many years and futures game one of my one of my favorite events and one of the cool things about the futures game is they get to they bring in a lot of the coaches are like a bunch of former

players usually from the city and from this you know city of the team that's playing there whatever um but even in like cleveland i remember griffie has just like made it a point to show up. I remember very vividly in the 2019 Futures game when I got to be in the dugout during the game which was a crazy situation. Griffey

hanging out with and brace yourself for these names. Well, Kelnick was there, so that's one. But Evan White and Justin Dunn were like chopping it out. With Griffey, they were just like, holy crap. And Kyle Lewis. Oh yeah, yeah, Kyle Lewis was there, yeah.

It was quite the look. But anyway, the point is, is Griffith's been part of that, but Felix was part of the coaching staff or whatever for the one of the teams of the futures game. And so on field, like way before the futures game on that Saturday. And I saw him and I was talking to Kevin Slowie, who's with the PA now, and he's one of our favorite people in baseball, has been really good to us. And he knows that like Felix is my guy.

And Felix was standing with Dan Otero, random former reliever. Wow. Okay. He was also just like part of the coaching staff. did not expect to get a Dan Otero shout out on the show today. I know, and so, and I said, and so Felix is standing in the dugout next to Dan Otero, right? Dan Otero, about what a shoutout. Anyway, so he's, and Kevin's like, realizes like, oh, like, Jordan is looking like Felix. And he's like, oh, you want to, like, do you want to meet him? I was like, yeah, like, Dan Otero is so important to me.

Like, you have to introduce me. And so he basically, and he, you know, Kevin's perfect. So he totally took the queue. So he like took me over to Dan first. They're like standing next to each other. He's like, oh, Dan, this is Jordan. Felix is nice to me. I was just like, oh, Dan, great to. Felix.

Hey, good to meet you, man. So I just had to like. And it's one of those things where it's like great case of don't meet your heroes, right? Felix was awesome. I'm not, this is not like, oh, was a bad interaction. But it was like you, what do, what do I gain out of meeting Felix Janandez? Right. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't,

to tell him that he's the most important baseball player in my marriage fan. I'm like, he hears that. Oh, you're my favorite, blah, blah, blah. Like, I, that is not, that is not going to, you know, be an interaction that I will guarantee to look back fun on. So basically, we just like, shopped it up about him being a coach. And I was like, oh, like, what's your mound visit strategy going to be? Like, and he was joking about how like he, you know, I was like, yeah, you like,

go out there and just tell him to throw strikes. And he was like, yeah, so I do it with my 12 year old. He was like, yes, exactly. So, and I'm not. I asked him something about how he should get ejected. He should be like the first ever futures game ejection. And he told the story about getting ejected. I think he said he only got ejected once in his career, which is a funny thing.

And then I went back and found that story. So it was a brief little thing, you know, a little chopping it up. And then it was like, you know what? I'm not going to overstay my welcome. I was like, Felix, great to meet you. I was like, all right, have a good one. Nice thing. It's amazing.

I mean, it was amazing. It was very cool. And maybe I'll run into him again soon. But everything watching from all that was so cool. And I'm glad he had that moment because I know that we've certainly had some kind of unceremonious exits from the organization for a few players recently. And we don't have to debate whose fault all that stuff is. But it was cool to see Felix kind of kind of get his due. Yeah, that was awesome.

It's really nice to see that relationship at least be mitted to a certain point. And hopefully that happens with Kyle Seeger eventually. Yeah. We'll see how that goes. Yeah, for sure. And I think it's much easier with Felix where not the Kyle Seeger isn't of course one of the best ways of franchise history So he deserves all the love to but like if your ownership like even strictly from a maybe this is a cynical view but like how could you possibly gosh that like if your ownership like you it's such a layup to just figure this out and do it So yeah also like this is kind of a depressing question but like is he the youngest person to be inducted into a team's hall of fame

like actively you know what that's that that's a question for Alex mayor it is a question for Alex mayor or like Sarah Langs or something like yeah and I remember at thinking that at the time but like I I don't know that felt not that he I'm glad they did it it was like yeah amazing so so that's amazing I actually totally forgot that you met him but I did see that on Twitter so that's that's incredible um so he's now on the mayor's hall fame But what about the actual Hall of Fame? Do you think he'll get there? Yeah, it's interesting.

I think now when you talk about Hall of Fame, it's kind of impossible not to think, like, you have to consider how the voters, how the voting is changing. And you just think about who's going to be voting and how we'll be thinking about pitchers, pitchers in particular once he is on the ballot, which is not that long from now, right?

I think it won't be this year, but I think the year after that, which just seems insane. But if 2019 was his last season, then I think he'll be on the ballot in the next few years. So, yeah, I mean, I mean, I don't see any way he's going to be first ballot. But I think it'll be an interesting case. Like, I haven't dug into it that much yet.

And I'm obviously the most biased person you could possibly find. Yeah, yeah. So, like, to me, like, seeing him get his love in Seattle is kind of all that matters to me. Like, I'm not, I am not going to have his Hall of Fame case. It's not going to make any difference to me. Like, obviously, if he gets in and he has more support than I realize, like, hell, yeah, I'm going to Cooperstown. Like, that would be the coolest thing ever. But it's obviously, it's not going to make that big of a difference to me as far as how I've enjoyed him.

But it's going to be a really interesting case for sure because he, yeah, I'm. And he was, whatever, he was one of the three best pitchers in the league for six years and not a lot of longevity, but also a lot of longevity because he started when he was 19. And so you kind of, once you factor that in and you realize how many miles he had on before, like, yeah, having your prime end when you're 30 is not usually a good sign for getting into the Hall of Fame. But he has a lot of other things in his favor. More from my conversation with Jordan Schusterman in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Merritt is brought to you by eBay Motors. passion, drive, and patience. What brings home the winning trophy

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I'm here with Jordan Schusterman of Suspitz family barbecue and Fox Sports MLB. So this Mariners team, they were so painfully mediocre in the first half. Then they exploded. The most mid-team of all time. Yeah.

And now they've cooled off again. Like I said, I cover this team every single day. And I still don't have a great answer for what I'm about to ask you. But who do you think this team really is at the end of the day? Yeah. I think that it's becoming harder to answer that because I actually, did feel like I had a good sense. And now that the pitching has started to wear down and we're kind of relying more on the

offense, that it's like, I don't know what this is. And so I think that the question has actually become harder in the recent weeks, not just because they've struggled because of how they've been winning. And so I think that is the real challenge. Now, at the same time, I still feel as good about Castillo Kirby Gilbert as I would about almost any other postseason rotation with the exception of maybe two or three. Now, that's obviously jumping a little bit ahead, right? They're not going to playoff spot and they have to get there, right?

But even if you consider that in the regular season, like, that is still a really strong place to be. And I think that now what we're seeing is, okay, well, at some point, point and you know coming up this weekend you face a team like the dodgers you you might have to really do both you might have to maybe your starters are going to go five and give up four and you're going to be happy with it because it's you're facing a really really good lineup of course when you look ahead i mean also and that's definitely how it's going to feel down the stretch with texas and houston you know so we might have to change the standards a little bit in terms of the pitching but as we've seen with the bullpen it's it's it's definitely getting a little thin i am a little bit

surprised they haven't pressed a few more buttons like I thought we'd see prelander borough by now I think we probably still will and I know we can you know think that oh if they only had sea wall like listen seawall will be blown some of these games too I love the guy part of me wishes he was still there I totally understand why they made the trade I do think it was a healthy move you know for the organization but you know this bullpen was getting run into the ground anyway if they still had seawalled he'd be gassed at this point too right we kind of expected that with Munoz and Brash. It was really good to see how good Brash looked out.

That was, if there's one huge positive to take away out of this, because I know Munoz has been, you know, really shaky, even though he's still, the Vilos seems like, especially in these higher leverage spots, it's like,

that's there. And that wasn't there in the first half of the season. I mean, it wasn't even there like three outings ago, really. Like, he has the left, the left hip issue in Tampa, right?

And then he comes back to last two outings. It's thrown 101 consistently. Yeah. And like, it's hard to complain when he's starting 98. But, like that's the standard he's kind of set, right? And so, but I think that if they found a way and what Wu did was just so huge. And I think he's just going to be a fascinating guy to watch

over these last few weeks and obviously Bryce Miller as well. So I don't know. Like I think in one way, it's weirder because the bullpen is tired and not as reliable, but the offense is maybe better than we expected. And so that is an undeniable positive to see that they actually maybe can score with some of these best teams when everybody's clicking. And for as much, if we want to talk about the Seawald trade. I mean, keep in tail. That's just such a massive decision that they made, right? And I think, you know, how much credits do you want to give that? Oh, maybe they were really wanted to do it and they didn't get what the offer. Whatever the reason, I think that it's just been a huge thing. And I felt that at the time. And I think,

Ken Rosendahl just had a note about him and how comfortable he's kind of felt after the trade deadline, how much it was weighing on him to have to think about just having to move. And I think that's such a real thing. we think about all this so much focused on baseball terms and oh why does he want to go there and there was a lot of discourse with edwardo rodriguez like what the hell why do you want to stay with the tigers why don't you want to go to the dodgers and of course every situation is different but it's like gang trade's got to be crazy right let alone being betrayed it and immediately being expected to be an important part of another team and all these moving all these things whatever it's got a family all these things so it's not surprising to see teo who's who was already

capable of going getting so hot he did it in in june right you know we saw that also like i think been massive. And now we've seen versions of this line of where it's like, oh yeah, like, this is kind of what the front office was clearly envisioning. There's still, there's still flaws for sure, but you can see it's like, no, like that actually can be a pretty good lineup. Yeah, like peak Teo. Like I live in Toronto, right? I've seen Teo a lot in person. Like I, I know what he can be. And like, I envision that with the Mariners, even before they traded for him. I pounded the table for him. They actually did it. I was just over the moon about it. I'm like, dude, this is going to be sick.

And then it wasn't. It wasn't for like the first half. Yeah. So, but now you get kind of peak tail, right? You see what that can be in this lineup, especially when Julio's doing what Julio's doing. JP's obviously having a career year. Like this offense has the potential to be very, very good and very, very fun.

Yeah. Yeah. And obviously, you know, Cal Raleigh's been a huge part of that as well over the last month. But, well, that's the thing with Teo is like, that's what he did last year, too. He sucked in April last year and he kind of heated up after that. So I was always going to be kind of patient. And I think that it was exacerbated by the fact that it's similar to Suarez. When it's bad, it's really bad, right?

And it's just it's the kind of at bat that is not pleasant to watch, right? It is there, there is no, you know, Z being seed as the, as the office would say, that's not happening, right? He's going up there to swing. but man, when it's when it's working, he's got, he's, he's an impact player. And I've said this a few times, like, he's just an upgrade over Mitch. Like, he is. Like, there's not, he was at the time. And I think that it was easy to look at, there's not that there's not plenty of reasons to criticize the offseason. Otherwise, I totally agree with that. But just it was amidst the criticism of the off season,

there was a lot of flippant, like, oh, and then they just swapped him, him for him. It's like, no, like, Teo can be better and he plays. So, yeah, I love McHanager. He's, of course, an extremely important mariner. I wish him the best. I always, but like, this is, that is a, that was an upgrade at the time and it has proven to be that. And it's been a cute. I mean, without him, I really, he, he's been right there, probably their third most important hitter. Yeah, the people that said, like, oh, he's a lateral move from Mitch just drove me insane.

Even like the Colton Wong stuff, and I know Colton Wong ended up being like one of the worst players in baseball this year. But to say that he was like a lateral move from Adam Frazier was ridiculous in my mind, too. No one, listen, nobody, and you said, oh, that's the poorer's job. He's got to know that Colmong's going to become the worst player in baseball. It's like, no, nobody, nobody looks at the Colmong side. And that one you at least could have made more of an argument that it was a lateral move. And even still, no one would have thought it was going to go that bad. So that one like that didn't work.

And honestly, even if it was a lateral move, that would have been amazing compared to what we got. Totally. We would have taken Adam Fraser so fast. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's so true.

So we go into September with all these teams. at the top of the ALS and all these games they have against one another and it's like man this is going to be awesome this is the best division race and baseball but so far it's been an absolute mid off the mariners as we've talked about have been scuffling the astros have lost a couple of bad series the rangers can't stay healthy and their bullpen is a mess uh what do you make of all this and how do you think it plays out yeah i think performance wise it has certainly been a little middling in the last you know couple weeks. But still, when you look at the players in these lineups and you look at who's playing, this is not the N.O. Wildcard race. These teams are still when they, all three of them, right? Obviously, Houston don't have to explain how good they can be when they're at their best. I still expect them to win the division. I still expect to see them in the World Series again, whatever um but even texas who's been going through it in uh all kinds of ways that some they're in hell they're in they're in a they're in a bad place and they've won five in a row because their offense

is that good and cori seger is that good and samin is that good and Mitch garver has a 930 ops and daniel lo's awesome and like they're going to get a dolies back and Josh young back and stuff like that is a freaking lineup okay yeah they have all kinds of issues on the mound that might sink them anyway, there are clear flaws with these teams, right? Like Houston's pitching is, at least starting pitching, is clearly not as reliable as they had hoped. They still, that's still pretty good, right? When it's going, you know, Framber, Verlander, whatever, but like Javier's step back,

Brown is kind of a wild card, very talented, whatever. That's the week's spot. Texas, I don't have to, whatever we know. And then Seattle, it's, they're the most material on both sides, right? We're seeing all kinds of stuff. We know how shaky the back, you know, what the bullpen has been. And then the offense sometimes just looks horrible, right? Because they have enough guys in the lineup that like to swing.

And so when it's bad, it's... They really like to swing. They sure like to swing, right? When it's working, it's a hell of a time. But that's the thing. But at the same time, I sell that, like, yes, they're clear flaws. But, man, when these teams are on, it's not made at all. They're all on pace to win 90 games for a reason.

Yeah. And so that's, that's where I still think that it is as exciting. And I still think we are going to get, um, assuming Houston doesn't, you know, pull away, which I thought they might be, but then that's, you can't play the strength of schedule game. You know, they go and drop two to, two to Oakland. So, um, that's the thing. I think it is going to stay tight enough where we're going to, those last 10 days are

going to be every bit as fun and horrible and stressful as we are all hoping slash fearing. Yeah, I'm, uh, terrified. Yeah. Sounds like not. It's just like everyone, I understand. I mean, whatever. I get to talk about the whole league for a living. So as far as a neutral goes, like, it's going to be freaking sweet.

But yeah, yeah. It's, if we're not already there, like, yeah, those last 10 days are going to be nuts. Yeah. But I think the roller coaster of this season has kind of prepared us for this, right? At least a little bit. The whole, it's so over. We're so back. It's so over.

It's so over. It's the epitome of that. It's literally like this Mariners season has been the epitome of that meme. Yeah. Yeah, oh, 100%. But like we said earlier, like they get to just go out there and play again. That's right. Dodgers are going to kick their ass on Friday.

Like, guess what? There's still going to be a half game out or whatever. Like there's no, like that's the other thing. The mayor, this, they, when they won on Tuesday, right, they avoided a five-game losing streak, which they haven't had the whole season, right? Four is the longest losing streak. And I believe, I meant to check this, but I believe they are one of just a few. few teams that has not lost five in a row, right? And so really hasn't gotten. That's what the pitching affords you. Like, when you're pitching is that when you have those three guys who've been there the

whole season, at some point, one of them's, and they're going to pitch every five days, like, one of them's going to be awesome and you're going to win. And so that that has just been such, I mean, the fact, as painful as all the 500, you know, all the mediocrity was, like, better than where the Padres ended up, you know? There's other teams that just went in the toilet It just spiraled when their season was done before they even had a chance to climb out of it. So they always had a chance to kind of be in the mix of this stage. And now here they are. More for my conversation with Jordan Schusterman in just a moment.

But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Merritton podcast is brought to you by Jace Medical. Modern medical care and treatment are important, but our global supply chains are fragile. Things like pandemics, natural disasters, and foreign travel may cut you off from the treatment you need. Jace Medical is your solution for that. Just fill out our online form and one of our board certified. physicians will review it to determine whether medications are safe and appropriate. Then they will send your prescriptions to one of our partner pharmacies where your Jace order will be filled and mailed directly to your home.

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Jordan, the Mariners get into the postseason. What do you think has to happen in order for them to get to their very first World Series? Oh, boy. Okay. So we're jumping. We're jumping ahead. Let's do that. They get in.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, like, man, that, that, how it shakes out for that first round, whether they win the division or not. could just be a massive factor, right? I mean, I know you're kind of asking me understandably, I'm sure about what they need to do, but the path in the American League could just be so wildly different between, right? Like, the three options here are win the division

and you don't have to play the first week, line up your pitching exactly as you want it, like, hooray, right? We're all fresh. We can all. By the way, and like you could say this about every team, but if there's a team that could really use those few days off. Oh, my God, right. Like, Cal Raleigh can take a nap, Suarez, all these things, right?

So, like, that's option one, right? Option two is you get the second barcard and you have to go to Tampa Bay. No fun. Not a good time. Or Baltimore, right? Okay, Tampa Bay or Baltimore. Tampa Bay, where I think would really be, like, maybe worst case scenario. Not that I'm saying, oh, you should take to get the sick, whatever.

I'm just saying that that would not be a good thing. Tampa Bay has been the best team of baseball at home this year, and I don't have to explain to you why the razor kit. So that's an option, right? And the third one is like sneaking in at the very end here. And you're the six, but you go to Minnesota. It's like, Minnesota, hey, talk about postseason failures. Mariners are like, I mean, what's, I think we've had this to be.

I don't know if we did we do this on here? What's worse? Not being in the postseason for 20 years or losing 18 straight playoff games. Yeah, yeah. Like, I mean, they're both miserable. So it's both really, really, really bad. really really bad right and minnesota is a very interesting they are more now pitching centriced and that's interesting so but those three pads are very very different paths right and so and in the

scenario too where oh you're sneaking in you're probably all hands on deck for that last stretch and maybe you can't line up your pitching and now you're worse off for the so that's where it does feel like the stakes of winning the division are just so massive whereas if they can actually do that i do think they're an excellent position to go on a real run i really do If they can win the division, like, that is, and if they do or not, is the funny thing about it is, you know, when you're talking about at the beginning of this season, you know, it's like, yeah, duh, if they win the division, it's easier. Like, that would mean they're one of the best teams. But at this point, we know these three teams are so close together in caliber, right? And so it is going to be about the path.

It is going to be about how they're set up. And so I think that they, because of how they're built, would be just so benefiting of winning versus, you know, that first path. I know it's a bit of a cop out of the first half the answer. Other than that, I think that it is going to take a little bit more stability, maybe an unlikely bullpen addition, whether that is Borrella. I don't know if there is someone else. Casey Sadler, like, I don't know what his status is. I don't know how hard he's been throwing. I know he's at least been pitching. Like, I think they're going to have to get a little bit of a boost in that sense, unless Brash could just kind of turn it back on to the best version of himself. And that's, that's the other thing. And then,

On offense, like, you just really have to hope that Ty and Suarez do not revert to first half versions of themselves. Because that's when the offense really, because at this point, I'm really not worried about obviously, or Cal or JP. Like, those dudes earned it. And even Taylor, right? Like, Taylor's going to strike out four times in some of these big games. But, like, he is going to make an impact, right? Yeah, yeah. But it's those guys where when it's bad, it's really bad.

And so I would say that those are the X-Factors in terms of ensuring that they can go in a long run. Yeah, who's going to be that other guy, right? And I think you do need at least one of Swaras or France to not be just an utter black bull in your lineup. And if they are, and if they are, then you're going to need like Josh Rojas. You're going to need someone like that to just randomly pop. Well, and that's, I would say that's the other thing. And, you know, Calnick is an interesting, you know, he got back and immediately got hurt again. But like, who is, I guess Cal is kind of this.

but who is another left-handed bat? Maybe it is Mike Ford. Who knows, right? Like, he's clearly proven more than we ever could have expected, right? I know we have other switch hitters like Haggerty, but that would be your can zone. Like, that's another thing where you could kind of see, feeling like they need something there offensively.

I will say, you know, Suarez and France, who were so many, like, Gino had a pretty good run there where he was, he was obviously dry, had that crazy RBI streak. like I don't want to lump them together too much. Like Ty's been, I think, by far a bigger disappointment. Oh, yeah. This year, whereas I think Swar is especially when you consider how good he's been defensively. Well, that's what I was going to say, right?

It's like at least he is valuable defensively at a much more important spot. Totally. So. Exactly. And so I understand looking at Gino's offensive numbers and being like, wow, like, what a letdown. But like also just consider how freaking incredible he was last year offensively in a way that was maybe above what even the most. the most optimistic people were expecting. So he's kind of ended up,

like if I'm like doing grades for the season, like Gino's still getting like a B or a B minus, you know? Yeah. If not even a B plus because of the defense has been. Whereas Todd, it's like, come on, dude. So that's that was where I would say, most important, I think. So last Friday,

George Kirby obviously made some comments that got national attention. You know, I don't think anyone is denying that it was bad look for everyone involved and that he shouldn't have said what he said to the media but he's young emotions riding high that road trip was a nightmare for the team he was sick and had to be pushed back like a week before that uh there's a lot of important context here that i think people and specifically former players and even current players are kind of glossing over with this and he's zoned up to it he's apologized he's moved on the team's moved on whatever um we've talked about it on this show i know you've talked about it on your show i really appreciated your comments on

on that. But if you would be willing to reshare your thoughts on it, I know our listeners would love to hear them. Sure. Yeah. I think where I'm at is, and you prefaced it well, right? I think we're all an agreement that like this is not a smart thing to say publicly. I think the the context of trying to understand why he would say something like this is pretty important here. And I think that Ryan Davis has done a good job of of kind of getting out there and be like, listen, like, This dude takes being not awesome very poorly. And that's not an excuse for it. But I think what he ended up saying, which is, I didn't need to be out there anymore.

You know, I'd throw 90 pitches. I actually think what he really was trying to say was I am pitching poorly. And remember, this is an outing where he walks the lead off guy, hits a batter, and walks another guy in the first inning. George Kirby walked six guys his junior year at he won. Okay. is the lowest walk rate, like the highest struggle up for walk rate almost in Major League history. I don't know if he still has that.

Like this dude does not issue free passes. Okay. Now, you say, oh, okay, whatever you struggled, you don't deal with it, own it up. The real disconnect, and I think what expanded the disappointment with this, and I think was what Scott Service was getting at is how it impacts other people, is that from Kirby's perspective, he was thinking, I am not good enough.

When he's saying, I didn't need to go any farther, he's saying I shouldn't have gone. brother because I'm not pitching well. Right. But the problem, as we all know, part of this road trip is everyone's gassed. And so they were obviously going to ask Kirby to go through the bottom of the order. And the homer he gave up was to the nine hitter Pinto, right? And so you can understand logically where Scott is trying to avoid the bullpen as long as possible.

He trusts George. He wants to go there. George is thinking, I'm not pitching well, like get me out of here, which everyone piles on and says, lose your mentality. you got to be out there all the time. But I think credits of George for being like, I was not very good. Now that's not what he said, right?

What he said, it made it sound like, and the people reading his quotes made it sound like, like, I did my job. I don't have to do anymore. But truly it was the opposite. Yeah, it reads like he's throwing Scott under the bus. Like he's outwardly pointing the finger, you know, and I think that there is like a little bit of that, right?

Because like he probably doesn't make these comments if he throws a scoreless seven. No, no. Like he's not, he's not saying. Exactly. He's frustrated on many levels. the way that it impacts the others is that the bullpen was taxed and like in that sense it is his job to go as deep into the game as possible like that i do sort of agree with right that doesn't mean that he's soft for saying this and whatever right like i understand that from scott's perspective

i understand that from a game planning perspective and that where it does become problematic when you are questioning the manager and questioning the overall strategy of the team so that's the problem but if you're crushing his character i mean and i trust that mariners fans do not need to have that explained to them. No, no, no. Yeah, just my issue with it was just, it felt like kind of a betrayal of the culture that Scott's service has cultivated there. Like, he's never thrown players under the bus. Like, say what you want about him, but that's never been something that he's done. Like, he won't even bench guys if they make like a boneheaded decision on the base pass or whatever, where it seems like pretty clear, like maybe you should do that. And then he, like, whatever he's done

disciplinary wise, like, is behind closed doors. And so, yeah. So, yeah, So for George to say that, I just felt like that was kind of like stepping out of what the Mariners are about. And so that was where my issue was with that. But again, you know, him owning up to it. And also the thing that we need to keep in mind here as fans is these guys, they're doing these postgame interviews like 10 minutes after the game. Motions cannot be higher. The pitchers, like it's, I don't know what the correct way to do it is. And I've experienced this now as someone who's in clubhouses more often.

Like, it's, it's just kind of how it works and some guys handle it more than others. And again, the other point I made is that like, was this a mistake for him to say yes? But I think it sparked an interesting conversation, like true, right? Yeah. Most of the discourse of the piling on, like, that was not interesting because I think that that was just misguided and lazy and whatever. And I don't care to hear from those people. But like, it kind of revealed something in a way that like was interesting in the way that he was thinking. So for that, I'm, I guess I'm thankful, but obviously it was a little at least a bit of

the mess. Right. Yeah, I think Evandrellich said it is like, you know, do you want these guys to just out to lie to you? Right. And like I get that. I think the time. Yeah. I think in that particular instance, the only thing I would say is I would like for him to be more honest, but to also be like, you know, but that's on me. I have to perform still. I have to execute, et cetera, et cetera, instead of just being like, I wish I wasn't out there. But again, it's like 10 minutes after the game. He's not going to be able to word everything appropriately. He's 25 years old. Like it. It happens. It happens. I'm not questioning his character. I'm not questioning his competitive nature. It's ridiculous. And the people that are that are questioning that too, like the former players, like, come on.

And listen, none of us should be taking anything we see on Twitter too seriously in terms of the replies and stuff. And I'm ignoring the former players, but like the people that are like not just questioning it, but being like, he doesn't deserve. Yeah. He doesn't want to. I'm like, okay, would you rather see Darren McCacken pitch on Friday against him? I'm like with respect to whoever the next guy up is, no thank you. Like I would like George Kirby to keep pitching. Here comes Adam Aller. Yeah, like we have to really teach George a lesson by, you know, calling up, you know,

Sam Carlson to make his major debut in an open role. I'm like, all right, sounds good. Yeah. So I just, and I, again, why would I take any of those comments seriously? but yeah but anyway so it is it is funny to see though and especially for you know for us as podcasters and even for me as you know someone that has to be you know very involved in the community like it is like it does get annoying at times right and sometimes you do have to kind of address it um yeah um so jp is obviously having a career year like we talked about

uh a lot has been made of his time spent at driveline this off season your colleague over at Fox Sports, Ken Rosenthal even talked about this a little bit on the broadcast on Saturday. You know, Drive Line isn't a new thing, and it's definitely not a secret around the league. You know, I know a lot of great players, you know, go there and have been going there for a while. But you talk to a lot of players and teams. So I'm curious if you've heard more people take notice to what Drive Line has done for guys like JP. And if you sense more of an openness from clubs to allow players to go outside of the organization to make significant changes to their mechanics. panic. Totally. I think that what is so interesting about what happened with JP is so much. And I was

actually just, I mean, I'm just going to go ahead and spoil this that I'm writing the Mariners comments for the BP annual this year. So I've just started right. This is the third time I've done it. And I was just working on JPs already. And the thing I was thinking about a lot is so much of the kind of technological advancement that we've made in terms of player development has been on the pitching side, right? So many guys going to places like drive line, place like tread, whatever, to throw harder, learn a new pitch, whatever. And the hitters have so far have not had as much way to kind of fight back, right? And I think that that's still true for some degree. But I also think that a lot of what we've seen on the hitting side, hitting development, oh, what gets a hitter

better is a mechanical thing and a launch angle thing. And that gets simplified. But it's basically how can I get myself in the best position to swing at certain pitches, right? Whereas what happened with JP, like bat speed training and upping your raw power grade when you're 28 or whatever he has done this year, that's what's new, right? And that's where you're fighting back, kind of fighting fire with fire, where it's like, okay, you can add three ticks on your fastball. I can add three ticks of average exit velocity. And that's a huge deal.

Now, that's not going to be a huge deal for every player, but JP's the perfect guy to do this because so many of the other skills are already in place, right? I mean, he has already demonstrated like elite plate discipline, not just the walks, but the chase rate and everything, right? And so if you give him even a tick of power more, I mean, you see it, right? I mean, it's not, it's, it is just the gains are just incredible. And credit to him for kind of requisite. recognizing how much of a difference it can make on top of everything else that he offers.

So, you know, there are some players where the bat speed, you know, this is clearly not going to be possible for every player. But this is what I'm most interested. This is the element that I'm fascinated by. Who are the other players that kind of have this kind of profile where it's like, oh, man, they could get the bat speed up more. Baseball America just came up with a fascinating story on bat speed. Because I know MLB's now been tracking bat speed more.

and I was going to talk about this on the Barbercast tomorrow, actually. It's really interesting to see the guys. Some guys, like, listen, Franchi Cordero, top three bat speed in the league, doesn't need more bat speed, right? Needs to learn not swinging bad pitches. But then there's some other guys. It's like they're C and the Z, right?

Their control in the zone already. We get them a little bit more juice, and it's a huge deal. So as for specific players, other guys, like I haven't asked around specifically about that kind of thing, But absolutely, I mean, it's only natural that we're seeing more advancements on the hitting side. And I'm excited to see what else those look like because J.P. is certainly one of the most extreme examples in this kind of way. Well, and I'm going to assume that there are going to be more Mariners attending driveline this off season. So I'm interested to see how that impacts them specifically as well.

Speaking of JP, he's clearly the captain of the marries. I think if you asked Jerry Depoto and Scott's service, what the ideal mariner looks like. It would be him to a tee. Totally. I know this is kind of a. silly question, but I wanted to ask you because I think you would appreciate it. Should JP get the sea on his chest? And should captains and baseball be a more publicly recognized thing? Because I think it would be cool. And we've seen it recently with Salvi Perez.

Yeah. And then judge, right? People lost their mind over. They were like, that's why he's back because they gave him the captain's like no, it's because they gave him, you know, nine years and a big trillion dollars. But I hear you. I do think that it could be come something. I mean, I'll be honest, not something I've, like, thought a ton about or, like, cared that much about. And JP would be a fascinating example there, right? Because Judge and Salby, it's like, duh. But, like, I don't think that the average person knows that JP's the guy. Right.

They think it's, I don't think that the new. Yeah. Which, like, I'm sure. It's not like who is the wrong answer. Yeah, I'm sure Marys fans think that it's Julio as well. Like, some at least. And it's, that's the thing. It's not like Julio's the wrong answer.

So it's one of those things where, like maybe like I think internally I'm sure every organization every franchise every clubhouse and the group of players would respond to it differently and so it's hard to say how much of an impact or how much of a boost it would like give a boost it would give or like what what would really be the net positive part of that not that certain players haven't earned that and I think that if it was like uniform across baseball where there had to be a captain where the way that I think it is in in football right yeah yeah they're probably in hockey right and it kind of and it kind of isn't hockey I mean like I'm new to hockey right I started watching hockey after the crack and became

a thing so I'm yeah okay yeah I truly don't know the the crackin didn't have a captain this year but they had three like alternate captains or whatever like with a A on their test and you know the college teams have multiple captains so it's not even so that's the thing so if it was like a uniform and like every team had to pick one. I think they probably would pick JP, right? But like going out of your way to do it, I don't think really matters that much. No.

But maybe he could, I guess he could get there and some far. I mean, that's the cool thing. That's the other thing about JP is like, holy crap, one extension. Yeah,

right. My God, right. I mean, that's the other thing in terms of like credit to him to do that because he had already signed the extension, you know, he'd gotten paid.

And I know it's not a like time. he could still be a free agent after 2025, whatever. But like, he got his money, you know, and then he still went to work. That is just not the case with every player. It is just not. And so that, I think, is another reason to really give him credit. Well, and credit to Jerry DePoto and Justin Hollander for sticking by him, right? I mean, they've had multiple opportunities here to upgrade to spend a lot of money on these guys.

And really the only guy that they missed on that I think you're really, like, really, like, oh man, I'd maybe, you know, wish they had that one back as Marcus Simeon. Oh, my God. He's truly the only one. And like, when I've talked about so many Mariners people, like, that's the one that still stings for a lot of reasons. But yeah, I mean, you look at him compared to this. And I know, like, Trey Turner's amazing.

Yeah. Of course, it would be cool with Hattray Tern. Like, realistically, like, I think that they were totally, yeah, it's, that is an undeniable dub for the, uh, for the depoto front office. Well, and I mean, you know, even up until like recently, Tray Turner was pretty mediocre. Oh, yeah. And that's still, you know, what, right, what the hell is he when he's 37? Who knows?

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't sign guys. No, no, absolutely not. For not spending more money and all these things. But like, like trusting JP to become the shortstop is that you can't, you just can't complain about that at all. It has been a huge success. 100%. Jordan, I want to thank you for your time. It's always great to sit down with you.

let our listeners know what you got going on where they can find your work all that good stuff sure so if you want my mariners tweets only j underscore shrewserman underscore which you can see there on the on the on the youtube if you're watching a video um but yeah foxports uh com the mlb tab you can follow my stuff on there usually got a couple things um coming every week and postseason definitely i expect to be doing some some traveling in the postseason maybe for the mariners who's to say Who used to say? That would be really cool. Are you coming north of the border potentially? That would be, oh, I haven't thought about that.

That would be very cool, too. I don't know yet. So hopefully some postseason travel. And then the podcast, which is my favorite part of every week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, baseball, barbecast, Sirius XM podcast network. And in the postseason, we go more often than that. So once we get to the CS, we're basically going every day. So as much reaction stuff as you can get, we go late night so that we more basically what you get for Locked on Mariners except for like all the best postseason games. So excited to kind of get into that rhythm.

And if I mean, I had to, you know, we just launched our podcast basically a year ago. And so I had to, you know, hop on here last year after the Mariners games. And that was a real, a real treat. Well, it was for the Toronto series. But it was. I had a great time after the Toronto series. I bet you. I bet you.

But yeah, so, so looking forward to all that. I mean, those are those are the main things. And yeah, that says this movie. We're still, we're still firing off those tweets and we're still calling it Twitter. Yeah, 100%. Never, never changing. Never changing. Thanks, Jordan.

Absolutely. Appreciate it. And that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown mirrors podcast. I've been your host, Tadding is all. Let's be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0. War Mariners. You follow me at Dane Gonzalez, S, D-A-N-Z-L-Z, and my co-s-C-C-P-E-N-Z-L-Z, and my co-os Colby over at CPAT 11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the

description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.