Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Crossover With Locked On Angels Featuring Taylor Blake Ward

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

Locked On Angels meets Locked On Mariners in the final crossover of the week. Taylor Blake Ward talks about what Anthony Rendon offers the Angels, how his addition may affect Tommy LaStella's & David Fletcher's playing time, and also the Halo's starting rotation. Taylor and D.C. then proceed to discuss at length the career of Frank Tanana. 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.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Yes, indeed. Thank you once again, J.M. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Locked-on Mariner's, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Please download, rate, and subscribe to this program on Google Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or whichever podcasting app that you care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or, of the programs here on the Locked-on podcast network, or of course, for short, Tloppin.

Find the show on Twitter at L-O-U-O-U-Skore Mariners, and I am on Twitter as well, gang. You may find me there at D.C. underscore Lundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G, if you're scoring at home. This is the fourth and final crossover episode this week here on Locked-on Mariners. Today, a conversation with Taylor Blake Ward of Locked on Angels. It was a great conversation to wrap up the week. And it went something like this. Hey, Taylor, how's it going today?

Good, man. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Absolutely good to have you on. Getting late in the week. I'm kind of glad that the schedule worked out that for Friday, at least, that this was the last crossover of the week because we've done show. You've been on my show before.

I've been on your show before. We've done this before. So it's kind of a comfort level for me to wrap up the week. Yeah, I'm same. You know, it's like I like close out the week with talking to somebody. And if I'm being honest, talking to you is near the top of my priority list. Well, I'm very glad to hear that. Not that I didn't have great conversations with the other three hosts.

I thought all three shows turned out very well. But there's some familiarity here, obviously, which helps. But we got to talk some baseball before we go off the rails like I did with Jason at the beginning of the week. Although that might be my favorite. He told you about that. He did tell me about it. Oh, yeah, he told me about it. I loved it.

I mean, I have to be honest, that's one of my favorite episodes I've ever done. But in any case, I wanted to talk about the obvious Anthony Rendon. I mean, obviously he helps the Angels Ball Club kind of talk about what he brings to the table in terms of both offense, defense, and maybe what he might be like in the clubhouse, if you even know that. You know what? He's loved. They love him.

And he's a very easy guy, but a great teammate. Not afraid to joke around, but is kind of like, receiving. respectful the way that Albert Pools is. New leader. I mean, Mike Trout was taking over that leadership role, but now you've got multiple guys that are taking the lead. When it comes to him as a baseball player, there's people that believe he's a top five player in the game.

I mean, I'll say top 10. I mean, I don't think I'll deny that he's a top 10 all around position player in the game. I think he's fantastic. The offense that he brings, you know, the home runs may dim down a little bit in Anaheim, but he's going to hit those gaps, and he's going to have, I mean, they call him Tony twobacks for a reason.

He's going to have 40-50 doubles this year. He's still a good RBI guy, yeah. If we played a, you know, 162 games. Correct. No, and then you look at Mike Trout, he's never had protection in the lineup like this. He's never had a guy like Anthony. Even when Albert was pretty good there for a little bit, maybe the first two years with the Angels, he was okay,

but this is a new level of protection for Mike Trout. I expect record-breaking items when it comes and Mike Trout. This is huge when it comes to these two guys being together. And then, you know, you've got a potential, well, maybe not Gold Glove because Matt Chapman's even in the division. But you've got a guy

that provides near Gold Glove defense on that left side of the infield along with some guy named Andrew Dalton Simmons. I don't know if you've heard of him or not. Yeah, the name rings a Bell, yeah. Yeah, no, yeah, familiarity there. Anthony Rendon's huge. No one

expected it. Everyone expected Garrett Cole, which we can look back on and that never happened. But Anthony Rendon, man, I mean, that's a premium pickup. And you're going to get him. The one thing I like about him is his regression period isn't going to be that bad because you can move him to first base if he can't play third anymore. Correct. And his bad, it's not like he's sitting there with some, he's a huge contact guy.

So it's not like he's going to fall off the world. He's done with this contract. He's 35, I believe. So you're getting him in his prime years, and you've got him when you can move him to first base if need be, and you've got his bat may slow down, but he's got the athleticism and everything to kind of carry him. The body's all there. This guy could be something really special for the Angels. And not only moving him to first base, he's in the American League now, where you can DH him if he needs a rest or something like that.

Yeah, worst case scenario, which I mean, that's not a bad worst case scenario to have. give him a few days when Joe Hattani's not around, you know, and he has an off date. That's, yeah, that's not bad. That's a great option. Talk about the Angels pitching staff a little bit. You did mention Garrett Cole and the Angels not acquiring them, but they've got some other decent arms in the rotation, if I recall. Well, that's up for debate.

You know, I like their arms, but not the way that, I'm not, this rotation has a lot of questions. with Griffin Canning having the early season arm injury, the spring training arm injury, that's a big hit because he was set to be essentially their number two guy, even maybe their number one guy until Otani showed up. You've got to show Hey, Otani coming back.

You know how exciting that is. I mean, when he was coming over, he was known for his pitching more so than his hitting. It just happened that, yeah, he can hit too a little bit, you know? Just a little bit. He just has to turn the corner. Andrew Heaney has to turn the corner. We all know what he is right now.

We know what he has when it comes to upside. He could be one of the top 10, 15 pitchers in the American League if he turns a corner. But right now he's a mid-rotation guy, and he's your number one. You've got Julio Tehran, who has outperformed his metrics for years. You've got Dylan Bundy, who's finally out of the ALE, so you're expecting at least some progress from him. Outside of that, you know, you're looking at Patrick Sanibal, a rookie who has some upside. but it's a guy that you kind of are looking to him to give you a Jared Weaver innings, Jared Weaver attitude, but not the Jared Weaver statistics necessarily.

You know, he needs to be an aggressor on the mound for him to have success, which he's shown so far as just whether or not that's going to carry for 162 games, which may be beneficial for him if we get playing ball here in 2020. That is an if. So it kind of sounds like the back end of the rotation has more question marks and it has answers, front of the rotation, maybe a little bit more solidified, if that makes sense? Yeah, it's just a lot of mid-rotation guys. Yeah.

So you don't have a true number two or an ace, and if you want to say a true number two, it's going to be Shohei Otani or Andrewini or Griffin Canning. If any of those guys can turn the corner and be healthy, then sure, you know, that rotation's got some weapons. But outside of that, I mean, can you make it to the playoffs with a bunch of mid-rotation guys or number fours? I don't know. I don't know, really.

if you do make it to the playoffs, you know. Yeah, you get into his five-game series, and you're facing Verlander Granky first off, and you're throwing a, I mean, you know, you're probably going to have to go throw Otani into a wildcard game or something like that, so you've got Hini and Canning, which is a fine one, too, to start off.

But if Canning's not ready or Otani is not ready, and you're throwing Hini and Tehran or Henni and Bundy or Tehran and Bundy, yeah, I'm not so certain about that. Yeah, no, I, I agree with you there. With Anthony Rendon coming over, how do Tommy Lestella and David Fletcher kind of fit onto the Angels roster this year?

Oh, man, don't mention David Fletcher, buddy. That is a godlike figure to a lot of fans in Anaheim. I like him, too. Don't get me wrong. I like him, too. I like his skill set. Joe Madden loves him, too. It's, I mean, he's an exciting player, and I'm sorry about that cough.

It's not the coronavirus, I promise. He's got an exciting player. It's just, you know, there's not going to be a lot of power there. but if you can plug him in, they're expecting to move him around between the corner outfield positions and second and third base. Now, third base locked down pretty much,

but Tommy O'Sullough being a lefty, David being a righty does help. You've also got Brian Goodwin, a lefty who is going to take the majority of right field until Joe Adela is up. So I think David Fletcher is still going to get his parachute playing time. There may even be a point where

Tommy Estella and David Fletcher are splitting games. Not like one guy starts one day, the next day it starts the other day. One guy might play five innings, the other guy might play four. That's kind of how it's going to be. You also have to see where Tommy Lostela is. Is last year's power search real? Was it really just the movement in the box and being in front of the ball a little bit more? Was that really it?

You've got to wait and see what's happening with Tommy Lestella. David Fletcher is the favorable guy at that position, though, when it comes to the Angels right now, even though Tommy O'Sull, it was an All-Star last year. And about David Fletcher, I've always thought of him as more of an infielder. Does he have the arm to play right field, or is he adequate or below? The arm's okay. The arm's okay? He played shortstop.

Most of his minor league career came up as a shortstop. Pretty good one. The arm is there. I wouldn't say that it's great for right field necessarily, but yeah, you can play the left field, no problem. It's just getting him outfield reps. He hasn't played the outfield since Little League. Oh, my. So it's going to be very interesting.

But in his short sample, looks comfortable. I mean, spring training, small sample, but look very comfortable out there in right field. So who knows? I mean, if you can get him to be your super utility guy like Ben Zobras was for the Cubs and Joe Madden, then I don't see why not. I think he's a very capable fielder. The arm, that's a great question.

And I don't think I ever thought about the arm. I thought about playing the outfield. But the arm, I believe, is fine. I mean, I don't know if he'll play shortstop after Jolton Simmons is a free agent or comes back, whatever happens at the end of the season. Okay. But one thing with David Fletcher, he is capable of playing shortstop, but the arm is kind of what said. The arm was kind of the thing that would have kept him off shortstop. So I'm not going to say he has a good arm, but it's not a bad arm at all.

So adequate is kind of the word for that, I would say. I think you said that earlier, and I totally ignored it. So, yes, adequate is definitely. Yeah, absolute perfect way to say it. Okay. We're running up on a break here, and we've got a sponsor to talk about. I will do that now, if you do not mind, sir. Absolutely.

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And before we go to break, one item that I always do is a Mariners trivia question. I've been them to the crossovers this week. Today's question goes as follows. The Mariners first ever game was against the California Angels in 1977, who started that day for the Angels. Ooh. Yes. And we'll think about that going into commercial break, which we shall take right at this

exact moment. Welcome back to this crossover. episode of Locked-on Mariners and Lockdown Angels with Taylor Blake Ward and D.C. Lundberg, D.C. Thanks for having me on your show, man. Thanks for having me on this crossover. I love talking to you. It's a real pleasure. And do you have an answer to the trivia question? I do, and I told you while we were at break, and I want you to clarify that I did not look this up because I said it immediately as we went to break. The answer is Freak Tanana. That is correct. And I will vouch for Taylor. He got it correct legitimately. I will say this. I

did take a wild guess. It's not something I knew, but I assume 77, things like that, who was the angel's best pitcher at the time? And yeah, so I'm glad that you can badge for me. And I'm glad I got it right, man. I took a shot in the dark. It got it. Well, the other hosts, I shouldn't say the other host. The hosts that have been on with me this week are now two for two in trivia questions. You and Jason Burke got them correct. Wow. Jason got something right? Yeah, he didn't. That's not fair. That's not fair. It's not fair. Jason's such a good I will say he knew the answer and you guessed. So right back at Chappelle.

There we go. There we go. I'll take that. Okay. It was that 1977 Angels team, you kind of mentioned their rotation to begin. Yeah, a guy named Nolan Ryan was on that team. Ah, that would not. Then Frank Tanana would not have been the best pitcher on the Angels at that time. No, he wasn't.

And although, let's see, I'm looking at Tanana's and Ryan's statistics from that season, Tenana was statistically a little bit better than Nolan Ryan that season. Except for strikeouts, obviously. But my goodness, Frank Tanana that year had a 254 ERA and 31 starts. His whip was 1.086 versus Nolan Ryan's 1.344. Ryan still had a sub-3 ERA, which is really good at 277. But Tanana had the better season. Tenana was 23 and Nolan Ryan was 30.

Frank Tanana was really good. I feel like we forget all the time how good he was. And he had a very, very long career. He pitched 21 years in the big leagues, started with the Angels, went to the Red Sox, Texas, Detroit, and finished up with the Mets and the Yankees at 1993 at age 39. He pitched a very long time. He did.

He was awesome, man. I would have loved to have seen him pitch life. Same, yeah, I didn't get the opportunity. I didn't really start following baseball until the end of the 1995 season, and I was only 10 years old then anyway. But my goodness, Frank Tenana, the 36-6 career ERA, 240 and 236. Let's see what his career whip was,

because that's a great way for me to judge a pitcher, because that's the only way I know how. 1.270 for a 21-year career is pretty darn good. Jeez, geez, man. Frank Tanana was a stud. I didn't realize, you mean, obviously he had to be very good to pitch for that long. I didn't realize how good ERA plus for a career of 106,

so he was, you know, above league average for his whole career. Pardon me, 3.79 was his career ERA. I was looking at his numbers for something else. That's still really good. That's still really good. Oh, that's his FIPP, Fielding Independent Pitching. Wow, my gosh. Yeah.

Who would have been the Mariners version of Frank Sinana? In 1977? No, just career-wise. Who would have been similar? Like, who had a similar career to Frank Tanana when I came to the Marin? Oh, my goodness. With those numbers, I don't know if I could come up with somebody who pitched that long. I mean, the longevity part of it would obviously be Jamie Moyer, but they were very different pictures.

He didn't have those stats. I can't think of any. I can't think of any. I mean, Felix, I guess. Felix, yeah, with the longevity, I mean, these statistics right here, I look at these, and I see Eric Hanson for his peak. I mean, Hanson had the arm injuries. Yeah, no, that's good. No, that's a good one. I mean, I think the world of Felix, I think he's a Hall of Famer, but gosh, I mean, honestly, God, those are very similar numbers, I bet, if you look at Felix and Frank. Yeah, I mean, there's a case maybe for Frank Tanana being a Hall of Famer.

I don't know how good the case is. I'll jump on board with that. Absolutely. And that's just me looking at his stats just kind of offhand right now. But there might be a case to be made there, yeah. Wow. I'm with you. Suddenly this turned into a Frank Tanana special out of nowhere.

Yeah, it sure did. And we've got about three minutes left to talk. it looks like. Bring it on. Bring it on. Let's go for five more minutes. Let's do it just a little extended. Let's do that. Let's do that. Because see, this is what I love about these crossover episodes where I just say, eh, let's just see how the conversation goes. We get 10 minutes out of Frank Tanana. I never saw that happening. No, no, definitely not. But at the same time, those are the best kind of episodes I think that we do, or at least that I do. Well, it's just, it's, it's, you know, I think when we do these shows, we try to be as

real as possible and show ourselves. But sometimes we get into that groove where we kind of just, we get in that groove where we're chatting and we're acting as either journalist or as podcast professionals. And now you and I get to talk the way that we would have talked if I had called you this afternoon. Oh, yeah. And that's what's so fun about this is people could, you know, I hope the listeners right now, whether you're a lot on Mariners listener or a lot on angels listener, I hope you understand

that, you know, D.C. and I've been friends for, oh, you. year and a half, two years now, something like this. And it's just us, you know, shooting the, shooting the... Breeze. Yeah, the breeze. There you go. Breeze is a lot better than turd. Yes, it is. So you got like three, four minutes here.

Anything else you want to talk about when it comes to? Let's go back into podcast mode. Let's go back into podcast mode, yes. I don't know if I can at this point because I still got Tanana's statistics. That 254 ERA in 1977 led the American League. for what it's worth. I believe it. Yeah.

I mean, anyone that has a 25 ERA any year, that's astonishing. That's what makes, uh, was Zach Rankie had like a one-sevary just a couple years ago. Yeah, he did. 2015, it was 1-66. It was a little better than you remember as a matter of fact. Oh, my gosh. I knew it was good. I know it was like 1-7, but 1-66.

That's, and it was like 190 innings, 200 innings? 222 and two-thirds innings. Oh, my gosh. And he did have been Syung that year. I know that. He didn't win Scy Young. He was second. Yeah, too, was it not Scherzer? And it wasn't Kershon. It wasn't Scherzer.

Who was it? I'm getting those numbers up right now. Let's see. MVP? Jake Arieta won the Sion that year. Oh, God, I remember that. But you know what? Jake Arieta's end of the season was scary good. Scary good. I remember that. It was very, yeah. And he also had a sub-2 ERA that year at 1.77, a little bit more innings pitched. The whips were both very similar.

Yeah. Yeah, Arieta's whip was 0.865, which is in the stratosphere, versus Grinke's 0.844. I mean, when you're talking about whips that low and that similar, it's like, which would you rather? They're both great candidates. My goodness. I went to a playoff game that Granky started that year.

Oh my gosh, man, that's amazing. The whole, I mean, and Clayton Kershaw was third in Syung, and he had an 0.881 whip. I mean, that pitching in the National League that you missed, those three guys, was magnificent. And I think 2015, I think, I think Kershaw threw the near perfect game that year, the no-hitter that should have been a perfect game.

Thank you, Hanley-Ramirez. Yeah, I think it was. I think it was 15. If that, yeah, that rings a bell. My goodness. Oh. I love talking pitching. Merritt.

the way. Yeah, Angels and Mariners. Well, we talked about the Angels already. I've discussed the Mariners all week on this program, and I've already talked about the Mariner's on your show. I don't think we even need to go there quite honestly. No, no. Julio Rodriguez, Jared Kalenek, very talented young men, quite a few young men that are very talented with the Mariners. That's about where I sit with it. Man, if we play 81 games, are the Mariners going to break 20 wins? 20 wins in They go 20 and 61?

I think they're probably a little better than that. I do, too. Yeah, I mean, I can't see them losing three quarters of their games. That's a lot. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I jump the gun. I'm the jerk.

It's all right. Oh, no, no, no, no. Real quick before we leave. And I'm not going to explain it. Do you remember the T-shirt concept I set you when it came to the Mariners? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah.

I mean, way off subject and not something we're sharing with the listeners just yet, but that was fun. That was really, really fun. And I think we got about 10 more minutes after we said five more minutes, which is okay. These have been running overtime all week, so I don't care, but we should wrap this one up. Yeah, I'm with you on that. So I guess I'll send myself out. Does that work? Yes, that does work.

Thank you very much, Taylor, for doing this. A lot of fun. And you can check out Lockedon Angels at lottonagels.com or any of the podcasting outlets you're using to listen to today's show. You can follow us on Twitter at Lotton Angels, and you can follow me personally at Taylor Blake Ward. Thank you very much, sir. We'll talk to you definitely throughout the course of the season if there is one. Oh, yeah. Oh, definitely.

Yep. Take care, buddy. You too, man. Always great to talk to Taylor. I've been on his show before. He's been on this one before. He's done Diamond Quiz a couple times. I've done some other shows with him as well.

It's always a good time. I look forward to him joining us back here. on this program this season. Well, that's going to wrap it up for today. I hope you enjoyed it. Please remember to rate, download, and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you prefer.

Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners, locked on Angels, or Locked-on anything. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners, and follow me on Twitter as well, ladies and gentlemen, at D.C. underscore Lundberg. I hope you enjoyed this week of crossover episodes. Remember to check out Jason Burke on Locked on A's, Brett Chancy on Locked on Astros,

Bryce Padderick on Locked on Rangers, and of course my buddy Taylor Blake Ward on Locked on Angels. Ask your smart device to play Locked on MLB upon the conclusion of this program. We'll be right back here on Monday. In the meantime, have a great weekend, gang. This is Joey Martin, saying that we'll be back on Monday for another edition of Locked-on Mariners,

part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.