Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Bryan Woo Shows Off His Best Cutter in Mariners' Win + Can Julio Rodríguez Steal MVP Votes From Shohei Ohtani?

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

The Mariners had one of their most stress-free games of the season last night, cruising to a 7-0 victory over the Oakland A's. Bryan Woo showed his best cutter of the year and Colby and Ty wonder what his workload will look like going forward. Plus, after another four-hit game for Julio Rodriguez, Colby thinks there is a small path forward for him to steal MVP votes from Shohei Ohtani. All of that and more coming up on today's episode of Locked On Mariners!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!IbottaDownload the free Ibotta app and use code MLB for $5 off when you register. eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.BunchesDownload the Bunches App today and when you do, our friends at Bunches have featured the LOCKED ON MLB Bunch in the “Discover” tab. Find the Locked On MLB bunch HERE. NutrafolTake the first step to visibly thicker, healthier hair. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com/men and enter the promo code LOCKEDONMLB. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, when you bet on a Super Bowl Winner, you can GET BONUS BETS EVERY TIME THEY WIN IN THE REGULAR SEASON! FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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.

With a stress-free 7-0-0 win over the absolutely dreadful Oakland athletics last night, the Mariners jumped to a 4-0 record on their current homestand. Thanks a large part to Julio Rodriguez. We'll talk about the game, discuss whether or not Julio has a chance of the American League MVP coming up here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day.

Ahoy, sailors. It is Tuesday, August 29, 2023. This is Tiding Azales and Colby Patented for the Lockdowneer's podcast. Brought to you by Sleeper. Swing for the fences on Sleeper picks. You can win up to 100 times your money. Download the Sleeper app and use promo code Locked On. That's L-O-C-D-O-N. You'll get up to $100 matched on your first deposit. Terms of Conditions apply. See Sleeper's terms of use for details currently operational in over 30 states. Check out Sleeper today. Thank you so much for making us your first listen, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts. If you're watching on YouTube, subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform. If you like what you hear, if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below.

We want to see you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial. Check out the show. The link as well as their social accounts is in the description of this episode. On the show today, we'll talk about last night's win over. the Oakland athletics and Colby wants to paint a scenario where Julio could steal the AL MVP award from Shohei Otani. But first, Colby, let's start with Brian Wu, who made his second start

since returning from the injured list last night. He goes six innings pitch, 69 pitches over those six innings, five strikeouts, one walk, just three hits allowed, just two hard hit balls. And look, yes, it's the athletics, but I don't really care about the results on this front. the stuff just looked really good from Wu last night. So what did you think about his night? Yeah, you know, it was pretty interesting night for Wu. Only 69 pitches still goes through six. Obviously, there's a pitch count limit.

Otherwise, he would have, you know, gone much further. But hey, you know what? You're trying to even if he could have gone 80, like what's the point of wasting bullets in the game that you have, you know, in hand. So, yeah, it was a fast night. It wasn't a short night. It was a fast night for Wu, but the big development in this start was definitely the cutter, which appears to be, or at least last night it was a legitimate counter to left-handed heavy lineups that teams have run out against Wu recently. So it was we saw some really good ones.

We saw some, you know, okay ones. But it was a pitch particularly early on when the game was still a little bit close. It was a pitch that he was going to a lot and getting whiffs with as the game. kind of became more and more of a blowout. We did see more fastballs, four seam two seam, just woo throwing strikes, getting quick out. So the whiff rate did decline as the night went on. But the cutter was a legitimate pitch, you know, average exit Velo on it of 84.

You got four whiffs on 11 swings on that pitch. That's a pretty good ratio. So, yeah, it was a legitimately good pitch. We haven't seen it. This was the most we've seen him throw. it and it pairs really nicely with his four seam and his two seams. So if he can have this type of cutter going forward, it's a legitimate neutralizer to lefties.

We saw him, saw a couple guys off with it. We saw him get swings and miss. We even saw him get chases against righties with that pitch. So, yeah, you know, sometimes it's a little tough to tell the cutter and the slider apart. So I don't know if it was actually 19 cutters to three sliders,

but anyway, you want to slice it. Woo, you know, deployed a legitimate. pitch to, you know, counteract lefties. And that's a big development. Now, the question is, can he do it again?

Can he do it in his next start? Can he repeat, you know, that cutter or whatever that pitch was? Can he repeat that effectiveness going forward? Because if he can, then Wu has, you know, found at least a reasonable counter to his greatest weakness. And that would be a huge development for the Mariners, either as a starter or maybe in the playoffs as a potential high leverage reliever type. 29% call strike plus whiff rate for Wu last night.

I also thought that the sinker looked really nice at times. Again, just his stuff looked really, really good last night. So again, you mentioned, you know, a moment ago that, you know, you don't want to waste your bullets here in a game that you already have in hand, but we've seen him go 65 pitches, now 69 pitches, and his second start since returning from the, from the IL. Do we think that like 70, it might be his cap the rest of the way here maybe 80 if they want to push it like where do you

think his maxes in terms of pitch count from here on out i don't know if it's a pitch count thing necessarily because you know and this goes back to like the whole innings thing too right we it's an innings cap and it's like well it's really more of a pitch cap well not all pitches are created equal not all innings are created equal so i don't know if it's necessarily a raw because like if you throws 60 pitches and he's in the seventh inning and he's just 10 pitches in an inning sometimes less than he's cruising like those aren't high stress so I don't know if it's a pure pitch count thing going forward but it might be it'd be great if his pitch count was 70 and he could still get through six innings every single

time out but there are going to be times where he's only going to go four and and the mayors have to decide to we push him for a fifth with you know only two days off in the month and it also does sound like there is a plan in place to skip him once sometime in the month of September in favor of Luke Weaver getting a spot start. So we'll see, obviously, they're still, they're still very cognizant of trying to, trying to save, you know, bullets for, for a woo. So how, how that, you know, takes shape. I don't really know.

It's pretty interesting, though, that they are, I don't want to say going to this extreme, because it's not an extreme, but, you know, was probably not getting a start in the playoffs anyways. So he's probably moved to the bullpen if they indeed make the playoffs. So I don't know what the plan here is. Maybe it's to, you know, just keep it around 60, 70, so that when he comes in and, you know, needs to go two and a third. He can do that.

But I think, yeah, we'll see. I don't think you're going to see him push 100 pitches the rest of the year. Yeah. And I think that, obviously, you know, I think he'll skip him once or twice when they can down the stretch. But yeah, they're going to need some innings out of him because you can't have a guy go out there every five days in the middle of a pennant race and go three innings. Like that's just not an acceptable outcome. So he's going to have to be efficient like he was last night because they still do need innings. But the Mariners are going to try and protect him as much as they can.

Big night on the offensive side of things from Gino and J.P. and Teo. and of course, Julio Rodriguez. We're going to be talking about those guys in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is brought to you by Sleep. Want the chance to win more money with less picks? Head on over to Sleeper, where you can win up to 100 times your money on just two or more fantasy baseball picks.

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You can catch all the action on the Marriss hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. So J.P. Crawford got the party going last night and the Mariner 7 run explosion against the dreadful. A is another leadoff home run for JP. That's his fifth on the year. Now a career high, 12 home runs in total on the season. Julio goes four for five. He's the story in this one. Of course, he hits his another home run, three straight games with a home run for Julio.

A. E. E. Hennio Suarez with a couple of hits, a couple of doubles. Tay Oscar Hernandez with a couple of runs driven in. He's staying hot. Really good night for the offense. It was kind of a heat check lineup for the Mariners. The bottom of the order didn't really do a whole lot. And Colby, this team really misses Tom Murphy, right? Yeah.

Again, no disrespect to Brian O'Keefe. But, yeah, going from Murphy to O'Keefe is a massive downgrade. Thankfully, the rest of the lineup has more than picked up the slack for Tom. which does back the question, you know, when Murphy comes back and it does sound like it's a matter of when, not if, you know, how dangerous is this lineup really going to be? Because like you mentioned, you know, last night at the bottom of the lineup, really the only part that didn't contribute, you know, seven of the starters had at least a hit. But Cabrero and O'Keefe went 0 for eight with three strikeouts. Each did have a hard hit ball, though. So, you know, sometimes bad luck.

But, yeah, the story of the night is definitely the top. the top five really for the Mariners they had let's see they had two six 10 12 12 hits 12 of the Mariners 14 hits came from the top five and this is this is nice because we saw parts of the road trip where the bottom of the order was actually carrying and the top was struggling so you know this is what happens when a when you face really bad pitching but also you know when you're playing really well and everybody's executing their game plans correctly and their swing decisions are good. You just pick each other up, you know, on different nights.

And, you know, JP went two for four, scored three runs. You know, Julio went four for five, scored three runs, drove in three. You know, Gino two for four, you know, Teosker, two for four, you know, France, two for three. So, yeah, it's just one of those things where you have everybody. the top five has multiple hits, you're going to score a lot of runs. And that's what happened last night. And the Mariners offense is just cruising right now. And, you know, it's easy to dismiss this and say they're facing terrible pitching

staffs, which they are. Like Oakland and Kansas City might be the two worst pitching staffs in baseball. But when you watch the quality of the at bat, regardless of the quality of the opponent, it gives me some, you know, fairly good, you know, good amount of confidence that they can score four or five runs a night, even against good pitching staffs. They're not going to do it every single night. They're going to be nice where they struggle just like Sunday. But they're going to find a way to give their team a chance to win.

It's no longer the Mariners get down two to nothing in the first, which they haven't done like in a month. So, but it's no longer like if that happens, well, I guess in Kansas City it happened. You're like, oh, this one's over. Well, no, they have time. The pitching just got to keep a minute and the offense is on fire. But yeah, right now, Julio is overshadowing everybody, including a red hot to Oscar Hernandez, who people just don't care.

about right now because Julio's on a different planet. Right. Yeah, Teo's been fantastic and we're finally seeing that one two punch that we were hoping for between him and Julio. And I mean, the one two punch at the top of the lineup too with JP and Julio, that is incredibly dynamic. That is one of

the best one two punches at the top of any lineup in Major League Baseball right now. It is a lot of fun when both of those guys are cooking it. It's also nice to see that JP despite having the concussion because you don't know with a concussion. You don't know how a guy is going to respond, especially when he was only out for what, 10 days,

how he's going to perform at the plate and he has just basically picked up right where he left off. It was a little bit of a slow start for him in that White Sox series, but since then, he's been excellent. So, yeah, just this offense is a whole lot of fun. And also, you know,

Colby, to your point, right? Yeah, it's bad pitching staffs, but how many times have you and I gotten on this show talked about, you know, they went up against a bad pitcher and they just didn't do what they needed to do against them. Right? Like, yeah. Yeah, it's Look,

hitting in major league baseball is incredibly difficult But there are times in the first three months of this year Where you were going up against Triple A call-ups and like four A pitchers And you're struggling to score two, three runs You know, you score five runs in a night And you're like, wow, offense might be turning things around And now you look at it

And over the last, you know, three weeks or so The mayor has score five, you're like, yeah, kind of an average day for them. Like so it, again, yes, they're going to face tougher pitching down the stretch. Yes, the offense will go through some kind of struggle down the stretch at some point. But the fact that they're doing what they're supposed to do against bad pitching is a good sign because they weren't doing that March through June. So the fact that they're doing, and I mean, even then they were about an average offense, league average.

The woes of the Mariners offense were a little bit exaggerated. But they are now, I think, top five in WRC plus. which accounts for the ballpark and they are now inside the top 10 in runs per game overall. So yeah, and we also have to remember Seattle's not a great environment to score runs. It does the Tim Mobile Park does suppress runs a little bit. That's why WRC Plus carries a little more value, you know, at the end in predicting than runs per game just because there's fewer runs per game scored in Seattle than there is in, say, Cincinnati. but yeah the the offense has been on fire it's gone from average to good like legitimately good maybe even great and they've done it with I mean obviously look Julio and Teosker being like stars

being like two of the five best hitters in the American League for a month that's going to raise all the boats right the that that's the tie that's going to lift up all the boats but jp's also like a top 20 hitter in baseball right month of August as well like yeah right and cows certainly contributing with home runs and they're getting little bits and pieces from everybody else. Obviously, Josh Rojas has been a, you know, a find in the month of August at least. So, but I think the big difference here is that when you look at April through June, you're really looking at like Julio is an average hitter to Oscar's a fringe average hitter. Gino is a fringe average hitter.

It was really J.P. Crawford and then you hope somebody else got hot. J.P. Crawford's been the most consistent bat all year. And, you know, it's, it's, Colton Wong is struggling and AJ Pollock is struggling. And you're getting nothing from DH. You're getting nothing from second. You're getting Thai France has been mediocre at best this year. And it's really like at any point, you had like three guys trying to do the job of nine. Right now, you probably have 11 guys doing the job of nine, right?

You're getting production from 11, 12 guys at the moment. But the only one you're not really getting production from right now is your backup catcher spot. And that's just because Tom Murphy got hurt. You're getting production from the DH now. You're getting production from, you know, all nine, all eight spots in the lineup plus the DH. So, yeah, it's just a deeper lineup. And there's more options. And the bench is better.

And it's going to get better when you had Jared Kalnick here in a couple weeks. So, yeah, the lineup, it's legitimate. there's no I mean there's one fairly easy out in the Mariners entire roster right now when properly deployed so you know Dylan Moore has been great since he's you know kind of you know got his feet underneath him cabriero continues to find a way to help you uh typically by getting hit by a pitch but you know whatever yeah um he's stealing a base right after sure yeah i mean cade marlow's he's he's struggled he's a little bit of a the struggle bus last week or so, but he's still putting up good at bats. He's taking pitches. He also had that

really impressive home run the other day. I mean, there's still some pop there. So you're still getting a good at bat. Mike Ford has been a lot better the last 10 days or so. There's always a chance he pops Homer. There's a chance he draws a walk. He typically is going to give you a quality at bat. And that's kind of like if that's the worst that you have is that like, oh yeah, this guy will at least give you a quality at bat. You're a pretty deep lineup. And that's what the Mariners have right now. Well, yeah, and you just mentioned it. You're adding more talent to it soon. But Jerry Kellnick with Tom Murphy. I mean, we don't know how those guys are going to perform coming back off of injury, but still just on paper. Adding those two guys who, I mean, Jerry Kellnick was one of the best hitters in baseball in the month of April.

Obviously kind of fell off a little bit from, you know, the rest of the way, but was starting to pick it up before the injury. and then Murphy has been one of the best hitting catchers in all of baseball. Like you have a very dynamic lineup and a very dynamic bench. I mean, this is by far the deepest we've seen the Mariners in a very long time, offensively speaking, very, very long time. Like you're adding at at worst, assuming these guys get back healthy and they can stay healthy and all that stuff, you're adding at worst to league average bats back to your lineup in a couple of weeks. And honestly, when properly deployed, they're above league average Murphy especially.

And then like Kelnick is like we're kind of assuming that Kelnick will come back and he'll just be like what he was in July, which is, you know, you know, draw a walk, hit a home run every once in a while. Maybe we're like, oh, well, what if he's just like the 113 WRC plus guy he was, you know, before. But if it's September Kelnick. But yeah, what if it's September Kelnick? What if it's he comes back and oh, all of a sudden he's hitting, you know, a 135 WRC plus. then all of a sudden you're cooking with gas because I think you're going to get a motivated Kelnick too right you know a guy that that feels like he let his team

well I mean obviously relax for motivation but yeah but I think like you know there's going to be an extra chip on his shoulder right because you know he feels like he let his team down and sure that could manifest its way in a couple ways so yeah yeah it could we'll see how it goes for him but by the way can we stop I saw the emails I saw the questions yeah I worried about Jared Kellnick's headspace when he comes back. No.

No. Don't be that person. No, and I'm not worried about messing up the vibes. I don't think Kelnick is poisons for the clubhouse. Yeah, calling him egotistical and all this stuff. Look, he made a mistake. He made a very dumb decision. At 23 years old.

And he was very regretful of that decision. I think he learned from his mistake. He paid the price of his mistake by breaking his freaking foot. like let's let's touch grass here folks let's touch some grass careful your toxic masculinity is showing sure yeah so just remember you arc enough that's right that's right have you seen that movie yet no no i know i want i want to see it i do you know uh by the way 30 37000 434 people at the ballpark last night on a monday it's the aes probably a sellout tonight

Julio Funko Pop Night which by the way if you guys get an extra let me know I think I can put together a very competitive trade package for that Funkop not Ty not Ty doesn't have the stuff that I have I have a sign Joe L. Pinero card that would be more than willing to give you I have

J.P. Crawford Funko Pops I have Bobbleheads I have one of which you you won't give me any of them you have like five J.P. Crawford Funko Pops don't you like you won't give me a one of them? Well I got to I got to save them in case had to trade five for the Julio. So, yeah.

So if you get an extra Julio Funko Pop, let us know. I think we can work out of trade. But yeah, enjoy the game. You're going tonight. It's going to be a fun game, even though it's a Tuesday against the Astros. I'd be pretty surprised if it was. Sorry, yes. Tuesday, that is different.

I wish it was against the Astros. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. I would expect at least $35,000 again. Yeah. And I wouldn't be too surprised if we got a Tuesday sellout. Uh, so have fun. Uh, but yeah, let us know.

Let us know if you happen to grab an extra. Yeah. The reason that I wish it was against the Astros is because watching Astro's Twitter try and cope with what the Mariners doing right now. Oh, and Rangers Twitter too. And Rangers Twitter, but mostly Astros Twitter. It is just delicious. What the Mariners are doing now is unsustainable, but what the Rangers did for the first

three months is totally who they are. Absolutely. Right. Right. Right. Right. Do you see the guy that was like, oh, the mariner's have been playing Bishop sycamore for the last 10 games the astros guy and like literally three of the last 10 games were against the astros yeah yeah yeah i saw him getting dunked on pretty seriously so it's it's fun when it doesn't happen to you yeah yes indeed you're listening to the locked on marries podcast thank you again for

making us your first listen again the mariners and the a is playing game two tonight's ken walditchuk versus george kirby at the ballpark you can catch all the action on the marris hometown broadcast with serious xm v the s xm if you are not going to the ballpark check it out all right so julio four hit night last night that's his fifth four hit game of the month of August

this is the most four hit games in a calendar month since 1938 colby once again decent yeah once again Julio doing otani level stuff but unlike otani his team actually

wins when he does this stuff so yeah he now leads the American League in hits, which is insane, considering that he was like a league average bat for basically half the season. I mean, listen to this. Julio heading into the month of August was slashing 251, 315, 423 on the air. That's a 107 WRC plus. His overall numbers now, 286, 346, 482. That's a 131 WRC plus. I think he's added like 2F4, maybe even more. I don't know where he was heading into the month, but it's been a lot. Like he's been insane.

He's obviously going to be the AL player of the month winner. But Colby, you told me last night, you want to paint a scenario where maybe he gets into the conversation for American League MVP. So tell us about that. Sure. Real fast, big Mariner playoff news. Well, Mariner adjacent playoff news. Bo Bichette headed to the 10-day IL with right quad strain. So that is Matt Chapman and Boba-Bchette, both on the IL now.

And former Mariner, Mason McCoy, selected. He will make his major league debut. You might get to see his first career hit tonight. Hey, let's go. Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to Rogers Center tonight for those that don't know. I'm going to be wearing my mariner's hat. I'm going to go full hater tonight. You can, there's at least a one blue jay you can root for, though.

Mason McCoy. Go Nats, go Nats, though. Yep. Absolutely. I'm all about that in attitude tonight. Anyways. So last night, you know, I'm looking at who, you know, I'm at work. So, of course, I'm looking at Julio's numbers and kind of tracking.

You're not doing work. No, God, no. Just kind of looking around and I'm thinking, hey, you know what? Julio's got a real good shot to finish second in the American League MVP race, which is insane. And then you dig a little deeper in the numbers. Julio is one good month, not even great. he doesn't have to repeat August to get here. But Julio is one good month away from finishing the year with 40 stolen bases,

30 home runs, 100 runs, 100 RBI. And if he does that and he just maintains his current slash line, he will be one of just 10 players in major league history to have a season that I just described. It tied to his list because it's a pretty impressive list. Yeah, listen to these names,

right? 1990 Barry Bonds. Bonds also did it in 1996. A rod with Mariners in 98, so Julio wouldn't be the first mariner to do it. Matt Kemp in 2011. Howard Johnson in 1989. Vladimir Guerrero in 2002. Eric Davis in 1987, Jose Cansecoe in 1988, Bobby Abraeu in 2004.

It's an elite company. That's a good list. That's a good list. Good list of players. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And again, he's at like 80, I want to say 82 RBI.

in like 84 runs. Obviously he's already got, he needs five stolen bases to get to 40. He needs six home runs in the last 31 games. Like these are all very attainable numbers. And then you factor on top of that, that he's probably the favorite to win the gold glove right now. He is one of the best base runners in major league baseball.

He has the fan power and his team right now is the narrative is that Julio has single-handedly put them in position to win their first. American League West in over 20 years. My question is, is why is it insane to suggest that Julio could take a couple of MBP votes? Because we know the Baseball Writers Association of America, they love narratives and they love narratives more than they love stats. Shoah Otani isn't going to pitch for the next six weeks. So that little narrative is gone.

He was a good pitcher. He wasn't a great pitcher. Look, if Otani was still pitching like, he cruises. And honestly, he probably still does. He's probably still going to. Yeah. And he probably and he should. He should.

Let's let's be very, of course, show Hey, Otani is, is the most valuable player. Yeah, let's say that real quick. Right.

Show Hey, Otani is going to win the American League MVP. Right. Of course he should. Yeah. But, but what if the narrative engine takes over? What if the Mariners continue to play really well in September?

What if Julio continues to have a really good year? He's got an outside shot to hit 300, by the way. What if he does get to 30, 40, 100, 100, and he does it? at 300 and he does have continue to play the gold glove defense and the mariners do win the american league you can start to build a narrative where the the baseball writers association of

america plays their favorite game what is valuable actually mean is it the best or is it the most valuable how can you be valuable if you don't make the playoffs like all that garbage right which i hate but also still happens it's insane how often that happens with these people who vote for awards. So of course, Otani should win. Of course you should win. Yeah.

Do I think Julio is going to? No. Do I think this could get really tight, really quick? Yeah, I do actually because, again, the narrative engine drives so much of this,

so much of this award talk. And if Julio has got the gold glove in his back pocket, if he's got the silver slugger in his back pocket, if he's going 30, 40, 100, 100. If he's hitting around 300, if the Mariners are winning the division, there is going to be a little voice that says,

well, what is really valuable? What does value mean? And it's a terrible argument. I hate it, but it's one that they've used in the past. And if they apply it this year, based on how they've applied it in the past, Julio has a legitimate shot to get there.

He's the second most valuable position player in the American League by F-4. He's hard charging. He's probably going to finish at six wins this year. And again, I mean, he's already at 5.4. He might finish that. seven like I mean he's added he's added two wins just this month alone yeah uh so again it should be show hey it should yeah yeah even if like and by the way what happens if show hey

just says you know what october or september 10th i'm done i'm going to get the surgery early i'm just going to sit out the rest of this year i'm not playing for anything um what if that happens right and all of a sudden he's not adding on to his resume and hulio can hulio catch him with three good weeks at the end of the year he might He might. So it's funny. You know, two weeks ago, I hate Julio Rodriguez because I don't think he should smile when he gets picked off. Like, clearly.

I mean, come on. You hate him. Yeah. I hate his guys, right? I'm the one guy on Mariners Twitter who unifies everybody because I hate Julio. Two weeks later, I say, Julio's closing the gap on the American League MVP race. And if he does this, this and this, he has a legitimate case to make that he should be in the dog. So positive, Colby.

And I am insane. I am nuts for even suggesting that the gap could be closing in the American League MVP race. To be fair, it was like one guy on Twitter, but still. It was like three or four. It was like three or four. But still, I just, I think that, I think that duplicity there is hilarious. So, yeah, again, I'm not saying he's going to win the MVP. He shouldn't.

It should be show hey. What I'm saying is that if he continues to play like this, if he does something, historical like he is on pace to do, the gap will close and if Shohay shuts himself down for the year, what if he struggles for the rest of the year? What if Julio continues to take off? What if the Mariners win the West? These questions will start to get asked. At the very least, they will be asked. I think if all that happens, Julio still finishes a pretty distant second to Shohay, but I think the gap is closing and that is the whole point. Julio has put himself on a level where a month ago, like well two months ago

Ty was asking you know is Julio even an all star like should he even be an all star and now we're sitting here talking about like oh he's probably finishing second in the most valuable player race and that happened in the span of two months like six weeks yeah seven weeks like it really clicked from

when he hit that that game time home run in Minnesota that's when it really started to kick into high year and that was exactly 30 games ago I was trying to look this up because I was like, because he's OPSing 12.06 since that day. And I was like, all right. So I went on stathead. I tried to look it up. I tried to see like how many people have OPS that high over

a 30 game span? It's actually a lot. Like there's people that have gone like 1500 over that kind of span. I think Edgar did that a couple of times by the way. I think I said, I'm sure. Yeah, I saw I a couple times on that list. I was pretty surprised because like this feels like it is like something that hardly anyone has ever done but actually a lot of people

have done this but still like Julio is on are they done with the home runs have they done it with the stolen bases have they done it? Well and that's the that's the thing right like that's what makes that's what separates Julio here

is that it's not just what he's doing at the plate it's what he's doing on the base pass it's what he's doing with the glove he's every like he's literally like Otani obviously like he pitches and he hits and all that but Julio does everything except for pitch like that's like he is elite at every single aspect of baseball aside from pitching right now like that's it and he'll go well I mean catching by balls but uh sure yeah yeah Julio also plays a major role and run prevention just like pitching does though so yeah when you look at it Julio is

impacting the game in every way imaginable yeah every way he possibly can. Yeah. And again, the gap is closing. Like, I honestly, I don't think that's insane. I think, I think you're insane if you think the gap isn't closing on Otani. Now, it's still a sizable gap, but, you know, a couple months ago, there was no gap because it wasn't a conversation.

All Julio has to do is have a good month of September. The Mariners continue to win. They make the playoffs. They win the division, right? Yeah. Yeah. If they do all of that, Julio's going to finish in second place. for the most valuable player award.

And if Shohei gets shut down or if he decides to shut himself down and he doesn't have a, you know, three or four weeks to pad the numbers offensively, that gap can close permanently. And it can get real interesting, real tight. Again, mostly because and really only because the group of voters who vote for this type of stuff while they're getting smarter. Still pretty dumb and still pretty arrogant. So we'll see what the, a lot of gatekeeping.

in that group. Yes. A lot of us. Yeah. Yeah. We don't need to get into that whole thing because it also leads into the Hall of Fame discussion and all that. But whatever. No more arrogant group of people on Earth than the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Yeah. Yeah. Just the worst people to hang out without a party. It's probably the first half for Julio is probably what's going to ultimately hold him back here. And obviously, O'Tani is, you know, as something that no other player would ever even dream of doing. He's pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

So, you know, it is what it is. But I think Julio definitely has a really good case to make here for second place in the voting. Because like especially if you compare him to someone like Corey Seeger, Corey Seeger's had a more spread out season of production, but of insane production. But he's also been heard a couple times. So, you know, it's just Julio, especially with the narratives, Julio should have the inside shot here at a second place, unless he just falls off cliff, which I mean, there's nothing.

That suggests that's going to happen here. No. Yeah, it's a lot easier to, it's a lot easier to produce over 75 games than it is over 130. So that's the argument against Seeger. The argument against Bobby Wood is that his team is so terrible. And he's just not as good as Julio yet.

Right. Right. So, yeah. Yeah, I think Julio's going to finish second. All right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lotton, I'm Marendon's podcast for Colby Patnaud.

I'm Tiding Azal. Let's be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan G-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-P-A-11, that's C-P-A-T-1-1. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok as well over at Locked-on Mariners. That's one word, Locked-on Mariners. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Getting and catch the Mariners on the Mariners' hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the X-X-M app. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time.

Peace.