Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Bryce Miller's First Blowup + Could the Mariners Trade For Andrew McCutchen?

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Last night was a rough one for Bryce Miller... and Scott Servais, but not for the reasons you might think. Colby and Ty discuss what Servais actually screwed up on and why Miller struggled for the first time in his MLB career. Plus, we're introducing a new segment for the next few weeks: Mariners Trade-a-Day, where Colby and Ty discuss one of the potential trade deadline targets for your Seattle Mariners.Help us out by filling out our survey!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 | @CPat11FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bryce Miller got punched in the mouth for the first time in his career as Aaron Judge did Aaron Judge things. We'll talk about last night's defeat and then introduce a new segment. We're excited to get started here on the Lockdown Mirrors 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.

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on the link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. And on this episode, we're excited to start our Trade Today series, where we pick a player from around the league and determine if the Mariners should trade for them, but we think it would cost and more. But before that, let's talk about last night's game. Mariners unfortunately fall 10 to 4 to the New York Yankees, Bryce Miller on the hook for eight earned runs in this one. By far, his worst start of his young Major League career.

before we get into the specifics of Miller's issues, Colby, you were there at the ballpark watching and utter disgust. What frustrated you the most about last night? The fact that Bryce Miller didn't have it and everybody in the entire ballpark knew he didn't have it and yet somehow you enter the top of the fifth inning with a chance to win this game against the Yankees. The first game of the series, which is always an important one.

And not only does Scott sent him back out there, he kind of lets him twist in the wind and keeps him out there for well beyond what was even reasonable. And the thing that is the most annoying of it all is that you literally have a player on your roster whose sole purpose, his only value to you is to eat innings when your starter doesn't have it. and you didn't use him. In fact, you didn't use him until the eighth when the game was out of hand. Now, I just, but you can't justify Chris Flexen's roster spot if you're not going to use him in that situation.

You cannot do it. Because that is the sole reason you've said repeatedly, you like having a long guy in the pen for situations just like that. And you didn't use them. And he left your rookie pitcher out to dry when he clearly didn't have his best stuff, when he clearly was,

you know, struggling with just about everything. And you have this guy. And the only thing I could think of at the time was like, well, you know, there's kind of that weird thing where they have Luis Castillo scheduled to pitch on short rest.

I don't think that's going to happen. Not in, you know, the end of May. So maybe they need flexing for an emergency spot start. Maybe they want to push Kirby back a day or something like that. Nope. Because if they wanted to do that,

they wouldn't use flexin. in this game, it doesn't make sense. There's absolutely no reason to hang your rookie out to dry like that. He didn't have it. And you had a shot to win this game. Go to Flexen. You're down 4 to 2. Odds of you winning the game.

Still not great, but still winnable. And you go to Flexen. If Flexon blows it, oh, well, then flexin's out there for the next four or five innings. You're not going to use them for the next few days anyways. And then you DFAM on June 1st or whatever the heck they're winning for. But nope, we're just going to let Bryce stay out there and get crushed, watch him throw a ton of three ball counts, watch him just fight.

every single bit of his mechanics to try and get guys out. And we're just going to let him twist in the wind because I can't afford to use Chris flexen when I have Logan Gilbert going today. Pretty safe bet to go six innings. I just, I don't get it. I don't get it. Basically,

you waste one 10 in a game you can't win. We'll probably see a roster move there today. I can't imagine that he's going to be available after two innings. And there's no reason to have a guy, two guys in your bullpen that you're not willing to use like Chris flexen. This is why you have Chris Flexen. This is why you've refused to DFA him for this specific reason. If you didn't use it. Scott continues to be awful, absolutely awful at the improv game. If things don't go according to plan, Scott refuses, absolutely refuses to go off page until it's

too late. You won't go off script until you've already lost the game. That doesn't help anybody. You had a chance to win this game. It was still a winnable game. you didn't use the one guy who's literally like his only purpose on this ball club right now is to do what he needed to do there and you wouldn't do it you you sacrifice the game you sacrifice the game to get what an extra out out of brys miller an extra two outs out of brys miller good job scott good job you played a stupid game you won stupid prizes congratulations you probably just lost this series because you didn't even give your guys a shot to win that last night because you kept running Bryce Miller out there when it was clear dude didn't have it he didn't have it he wasn't comfortable yesterday that was painfully obvious even from my seats in the 300 level didn't have it was not going to get better the first four innings proved that definitively he was getting worked by Willie Calhoun and Jake Bowers hashtag Bowers rangers and your idea is like oh no yeah we'll just let him face the top of the order again what could

go wrong there you go that's what could go wrong You blew it, Scott. You absolutely blew it because you have a guy. I get it. You use a lot of guys the day before in the extra inning games. Bullpen's probably a little thin. That's why you have Chris Flexen to go out there and eat three or four innings. And if you're not going to use him in that situation,

then get his bum butt off of this team. He doesn't belong on this team. He doesn't. You have Perala Barrow just sitting down there throwing darts in the minors. You're not using them. Matt Festa has been a lot better. Fessie can go two innings if that's all you're looking for. What are we doing?

Flexon doesn't deserve to be on this team if you're not going to use him. In the one situation you quite literally have said is the reason he's sticking around. You blew it. You sacrifice the chance to win because you didn't want to go off script too early. That's on you, Scott. And to make matters worse, you left your rookie pitcher out there to hang. You left him out there to dry. You left him out there to get battered and beaten and straight up bullied by the Yankees

on a day where he just didn't have a punch. you made him look awful because you refuse to use the veteran who you're going to DFA in three days anyways. You refuse to let him be the punching bag. So now the rookie has to wear her for you. Awful. Just awful. I appreciate your attempt to censor yourself during that rant, by the way. Good rant.

Solid rant. What would you guys give it down in the comments below on the 20 to 80 grade scale relative to other Colby rants? Yeah. Now imagine it was yesterday like after the fifth inning. Yeah. yeah I'm sure the 12 or so hours that you've had to stew on that have I don't know maybe diminish your your anger a little bit on that front but uh I'm pretty good picture guy come back today win the game today everything's good sure there you go uh flexen like you mentioned

he he ended up getting into this game but after this one was over and done with he goes the final two innings of this one gives up an earn run walks two strikes out too uh Bryce Miller four and two thirds innings pitched eight earn runs on a lot 11 hits 12 hard hit balls, just three strikeouts, no walks, two home runs, both of those being his first and second home runs allowed in his major league career. This was a fairly off speed, heavy approach from Miller relative to what we've seen from him and in past starts. Still, you know, 50 fast balls out of his 86 pitches, but we saw 11 sliders, 10 sweepers, eight changeups. They actually have that call to sweeper now on baseball savant, by the way, eight changeups and then seven curveballs. I don't know how they're determining all of this.

So whatever, because Miller says that he has three sliders. I don't know which one is which, really. I don't know what baseball savant is considering, you know, what to be what. But those are the numbers on that. And, you know, we saw what the game plan was against Judge pretty clearly. It was off speed away. He tried to sneak one fastball by him. on the outside, a third of the plate,

couldn't get the call, and then his next fastball, they threw him in that second of bat, judge obliterated to Edgar's Cantina, 117 miles per hour off the bat. Really what the issue was here, fastball command for Miller, just wasn't there.

He just didn't have it. He was missing his spot pretty significantly. Try to get the counts on that. I don't have that right in front of me, but I'll try to get that in a second. But overall, yeah, I just, Miller's game plan to the execution just completely off in this one. So you've looked at the numbers now.

What do you think? What went wrong for Miller? I think it was a terrible game plan before the first pitch was even thrown. And then it was just an even worse execution. Because, you know, you look at the home run that he gave up to judge, right? like cow is set up off the plate and that fastball is middle middle like that is obviously not where you want to leave a pitch to anybody let alone erin judge um so i think you know it was just didn't really have it we saw i saw quite a few 92s on the radar gun um from miller which is kind of a red flag um it just

it kind of shows that he just he just did not have uh his stuff he just did not have his control his command his mechanics were out of whack um now we did see 98 so it don't think it's a huge concern but we did see a lot i saw quite a few 92s uh on the stadium gun and that was kind of a red flag for me because miller typically 94 to 96 um but yeah he just clearly didn't have it you know he saw him missed spots by you know six inches not an inch here and there it was six seven eight inches sometimes a foot um you know so he just didn't really have any any command uh of his of his stuff uh which obviously isn't great uh and they you kind of factor that in with the plan to not use your best pitch as much as you possibly can.

I think it was just a flawed strategy. And I think it was a poorly executed, it was a poorly executed poor game plan. Now, I don't have all the numbers that the Mariners do. I don't have all the data they do. But I do know something at the end of the day, like you have to do what you're good at. To a certain extent, you have to do what you're best at. And what Bryce Miller is best at is fastball heavy. 70, 80% fastballs.

Last night he was around 55, I think, was the account, 56%. It's not enough, not nearly enough. You need to be at least 65, at least. Just too many breaking balls. The breaking stuff, the off-speed stuff, it's not good enough to just throw that. And then the fastball's complimentary. It has to be a fastball-led game plan.

And I didn't feel like last night's was. And I don't feel like the Yankees did. anything to force Miller to change his game plan. He just kind of did it. And I think that was a mistake. So, you know, poor game plan, poor, probably even worse execution. And it all adds up to, you know,

get knocked around the park. Right. I finally got game data load here. So 58 strikes on the 86 pitches. I don't have the specifics on each pitch on that front. But still just command, not where you needed it to be. And that home run specifically to judge.

fastball right down the middle of the plate. Can't leave that there to anyone, especially Aaron Judge, who had two home runs all the night, also robbed one from Tay Oscar Hernandez. He is annoyingly good. I think that's the best way to describe Aaron Judge. If you're not a Yankees fan,

it's annoying. It's utterly irritating how good Aaron Judge is at baseball. Ridiculous, ridiculous stuff. And unfortunately, the Mariners get burned by him. Hopefully the game plan and the execution against him tonight and tomorrow is a lot better

because that's really the only way you're going to be able to beat this Yankees team if you can stuff out judge. And also, hey, maybe not allow two hitters that entered the game last night with a WRC plus of 95 and 70 respectively to go a combined five for nine with five extra bases.

Maybe don't do that either. Yeah, two of Colby's guys come out and torch the Yankees. How about that? Are you a Willie Calhoun guy? Yep. Sure. That feels like revisionist history.

It's not, though. All right. Let's talk about a guy that you and I both really like and have won it on the Mariners for the last couple of years. Andrew McCutcheon. He's going to be the target of our first trade-a-day segment here that we're going to be doing over the next couple of months leading up to the trade deadline.

We'll be talking about that in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. It's brought to you by Fandul. Grand slams, no hitters and double plays are back, and there's no better place to get in on the MLB action than Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Because new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's bonus bets back if your first bet doesn't win.

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And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Tonight, Yankees, Mariners, 6.40 p.m. first pitch. You can catch all the action on the Mariners hometown broadcast with Sirius XMV, the SXM app. So Colby, back when you and I wrote over on a little website called Sotomojo.com, We did a series starting roughly around this time of year called Trade Today. And we would do that all the way up to the trade deadline proposing mock trades for the Mariners and seeing, you know, what it would cost to acquire certain guys.

It was a fun exercise and now we're going to bring it here to Lockdown M. So the first target for us, I think is a perfect target. Andrew McCutcheon, someone that you and I have wanted to see in a Mariners uniform for the last couple of years. years. We just recently saw him at T-Mobile Park this weekend, and he's having a pretty good year. Basically going to be a full-time DH. If he were to be acquired by the Mariners, he has played right field like seven times, but really all he can do out there is just kind of stand out there at this point in his career. But the bat still playing up quite a bit, 117 WRC Plus as we speak. So let me ask you this. First of all, what do you think it would cost to a cost to a bit?

acquire McCutcheon. That's a complicated question because as we sit right now, the pirates are not yet eliminated or anywhere near eliminated from the playoff conversation. The NL Central is kind of bad right now. It's both central divisions are pretty bad right now. And also Andrew McCutcheon is a legend of the Pittsburgh Pirates. And he's already expressed interest in signing an extension. and obviously he's having a great time right now. And Pittsburgh is a young team. So his veteran leadership, blah, blah, blah, is going to carry a lot of value.

So how much is, you know, a half a year of that worth to Pittsburgh? Probably enough that it's going to jack up the price. And if you're the Mariners, you don't want to overpay for anybody, but especially not a 35-year-old outfielder who's really just a DH. the similarities between McCutcheon and Pollock, A.J. Pollock are pretty much dead on. Pollock's actually still a capable defender even. So the only real difference is right now is McCutcheon is producing at the plate and Pollock is not. So, yeah, obviously all the issues that stood with the AJ Pollock acquisition, his age,

how often can you play him, how long he's going to hold up, those all apply to McCutcheon. And when you kind of combine all of those reasons with all of Pittsburgh's, non-baseball reasons. I don't know if there's going to be a match here just because I don't know if the Mariners aren't going to value Andrew McCutcheon for his, you know, clubhouse stuff like the pirates are. So the pirates probably look at us and say, look, all these factors for us to like sell this to our fan base that we traded Andrew McCutcheon again, we're going to want something that makes it worth it and probably want something that's close to major.

league ready. So I wouldn't be shocked at all. They came to you and like, okay, you know, give us Brian Wu. And of course the Mariners aren't going to do that. Of course they're not. But if you're Pittsburgh, why would you trade Andrew McCutcheon for, you know, Zach Deloach and and Ashton Izzy, like Deloche is a fourth, fifth outfielder at best. And Izzy is four or five years away from the big league. So what's the purpose there? And if you're the Mariners, you're not trade anything off your big league roster for Andrew McCutcheon, right? I mean, like, obviously well i mean you probably you trade chris flexen for him but obviously Pittsburgh's not going to do that so there's just nothing really where i have a hard time imagining

that the mariners are going to be able to offer a prospect that is going to you know fulfill a need for the pirates to look their fan base in the eye and say oh we traded the franchise player again for a guy who's four or five years away you know what i mean so maybe because o'neal Cruz is there. Maybe because Brian Hayes is there, who sucks, by the way, maybe because Brian Reynolds is locked in long term. Maybe they feel like we have enough going in the right direction that we can do this and just resign McCutcheon next year. But if you're Andrew McCutcheon, do you want to sign with the pirates again after they've traded you for the second time? Because they can just do it again next year. So I don't know. I don't know McCutcheon is,

he's not a great fit, obviously. Again, he's pretty much DH only. He's a right-handed bat. You really prefer a left-hand-a-bat. And while he's having a good year, he hasn't been all that great the last few years. He's been fine. But he's essentially A.J. Pollock, but Pollock has more versatility. So I don't know how much you're willing to give up if you're the Mariners. I don't think you're going to meet the probably inflated asking price of the pirates, even if it is just for half a year. So I don't know.

It's kind of a tough, it's a tough needle to thread. So look, I get everything that you're saying, but if you're the pirates, the smart baseball decision here is to take advantage of McCutcheon's value, whatever that may be and get something, get a long-term asset. Noted smart baseball organization, Pittsburgh Pirates. I'm aware. I'm aware. I'm aware. I'm aware. I'm aware. I'm aware. I'm aware. I'm aware. But kind of a big hole in the logic there. Just saying. They gave Caprienne Hayes like $100 million. Here we go. Here we go with the Brian A's thing again. If they are open to it, I do think that there is an opportunity here for the Marys. I think that there is that there would be some interest from the Marys,

even though like you said, that you would prefer this bat to be left-handed, that you would prefer that he has some sort of positional flexibility. But at a certain point, you just need a bat right now. Any bat, really. in my mind. Not at that point yet, but yeah, sure. beggars can't be choosers.

And look, if, let's say that they go all in on another pitcher, this deadline. And that's their big addition of the summer. Not going to happen, but okay. You were literally the one pounding the table for a pitcher acquisition like two weeks ago.

What are you talking about? Yeah, and then Bryce Miller dominated the Braves. Yeah, but really, that changed your mine really kind of yeah wow okay well all right but what's the big pitcher acquisition that's out there this year Eduardo Rodriguez or maybe just someone like you mentioned like oh we're gonna talk oh now said Alex Cobb is a big addition interesting that's necessarily a big big addition but look if if if their biggest edition of the summer is a pitcher maybe someone like McCutcheon makes sense where look on

the high end, I feel like he probably cost you what, Jonathan Claese, and then on the low end, a couple of lottery tickets, right? Does that sound about right? Yeah. So, you know, maybe that's something that makes sense. You know, the thing that I've been seeing for Mariners fans is like, oh,

this team needs another Carlos Santana. One, I don't necessarily agree with that. But why does your Carlos Santana have to be Carlos Santana again or Eric Hosmer? Why can't it be an Andrew McCutcheon? Why can we dream a little little bit bigger here.

And not by much, but why can we do you to bash Eric Hosmer? Just anything. I know. I know. You got your key Brian Hayes one in here. I got my Eric Hosma room. There you go. So let me have this. So. No.

No. Of course. Of course. I don't know. I don't think that it's a, that is a great fit. Really. I do love catch, though. So if they acquired him, awesome. I'm doing backflips because Andrew McCutchen is sick. and if he's in a mariner's uniform then I'm super happy about that

but I would prefer the mariners to go out and look for someone that can actually play in the field and someone that preferably hits from the left set of the plate yeah there's no there's no like perfect fit that's well

to me like the perfect fit for in terms of need and position and you know skill set and blah blah it's Alex Verdugo but we don't think Verdugo is likely to be available. I'm sure we'll talk about him at some point, but yeah, you're just probably not going to find the guy who checks all those boxes, right? Line drive hitter, left-handed bat, can play multiple positions,

high on base, doesn't strike out. That's a lot to ask for in a mid-season find, and McCutcheon doesn't check a lot of those. He's not defensively versatile. Strikeouts aren't a huge issue for him. He's about league average, so that's a plus. in his hand, but he's not left-handed. And I don't know how that bad is going to play at Team Mobile Park.

And again, he's just so similar to AJ Pollock that like, I wonder the mayors might not look at him be like, look, let's save the asset that we're going to have to probably overpay in order to get Andrew McCutcheon. And let's just, you know, spend that elsewhere and hope that Pollock turns it around. And there are some signs of that. Now, kind of the interesting thing on Pollock is we haven't seen them in like a week. And there's a lefty on the mount today, Nestor Cortez.

I believe is pitching today. Right? Yep, yep, correct. We'll see. By the way, folks, you can catch that game on the Mariners hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app.

There you go. So, yeah, we'll see if he's in the lineup today. That's pretty telling, but yeah, Mariners don't have a ton of outfield options right now. Cade Marlow hasn't played in a few days and nobody really knows why. Dill Moore's had a setback.

Yep. Surprise. Sam Haggarty still stinks. Taylor Tremel. I mean, he's fun when he's sitting home runs but if you're not going to do it 35 times that profile's not going to work so yeah mccutcheon fits in some sense but i just think that there is a practicality issue here just because of how much the pirates are probably going to overvalue him and if you're the mariners you're

not interested in like no why why would you trade jonathan clausay sure for half a year of Andrew McCutcheon sure that you wouldn't well it's also all relative to what the cost of other bats around the league are as well right I mean is that what the is that what you think the best value is at the time then then sure but we have no way of knowing that and really I can't imagine that that would be the best value at any given point in time quickly just going back to the pirates for a second though when it comes to a franchise legend like Andrew McCutcheon yeah you obviously want him around and yeah he's he's shown interest in signing an extension with you

but also wouldn't you want to try and do right by him if you can give him an opportunity to compete in the postseason maybe compete for a world series I mean that's ultimately up to McCutcheon I would think but yeah I mean

hey by the way do you remember what Andrew McCutcheon was traded for? I don't even remember who he was traded to, to be quite honest. It's traded to the Giants. Yeah, it was the Giants. For Brian Reynolds. Oh, yeah, that's right.

So what you're saying is Jonathan Clossey would turn into Brian Reynolds if they trade it. Sure. Sure. I'm totally okay at trading Jonathan Clossey, though. I am, the hype on him is getting a little ridiculous, which might be good, because maybe the mares can cash in on that, but like, sure. The dude is like a walking one

for his last eight with a massive home run and five strikeouts. And so like, look at the whole run. I mean, cool, but so Taylor's right over here. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. Honestly, uh, faster, better base runner than Tramel.

But yeah, pretty much the same thing. Offensibly, but we'll see. But yeah, class A is probably the guy I'm going to try and fit into a lot of trades just because I feel like he's one of the more replaceable prospects that's going to carry a lot of value. So I'm going to ask you this at the end of the day, or at the end of all these trade a day segments, yes or no, trading for Andrew McCutcheon.

Yeah, or nay. Thumbs up, thumbs down, whatever. Like, just in theory. on paper. Yeah. Like if the price is right, okay. If the pirates want you to pay even 10 cents on the, or like 110 cents,

they want you to pay $1.10 on the dollar for Andrew McCutcheon to, you know, help relieve their clubhouse issues, then they can go kick rocks. Like I'm not. No, Colby, simple yes or no answer because context does not matter when we have these conversations.

Okay. It's not important at all. okay I'll say maybe and I'm the only one who gets to say maybe not you interesting only I can I mean hey if they want Cade Marlowe like sure I guess but I think you should probably try and do a little better first but we'll see sure we'll see it's a it's a fun idea in theory because it's Andrew McCutcheon. Hopefully he doesn't make any base running bludders like he did in the top of the 10th on Sunday in a Mary's uniform. It's a double agent already helping Seattle.

Right. Right. Right. All right. Who should we do next? Let us know in the comments below. It's not going to be Shoahe Otani if you're curious. It's definitely going to be Shoaheotani.

It's going to be Jose Ramirez. It's going to be Brian Reynolds. It's going to be all of them. I'm going to say, Julio Rodriguez for all of them. And you know what? Since, you know, we spent this whole off-season grading and dragging your trade ideas, grade and drag our trade ideas.

Give us a grade on the 2080 scale down below. I'm sure Colby will love to read all of them. I want you to know ahead of time. I do not respect any of your opinions on that matter. Right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us on the lockdown. Mariner's podcast.

Colby Patnode. I'm Tiding Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, the C-A-N-Z-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-A-T-1-1. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok as well over at Locked-on Mirrenors. That's one word locked-on Mirreners. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first listen.

Again, you can catch the Mariners and the Yankees tonight on the Marriss Hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see. you tomorrow. Peace.