Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - D.C. Catches Up On Last Week's News After Predicting a Slow News Week

Episode Date: February 18, 2020

After taking the week off to watch the National Curling Championships, D.C. finds himself having to recap the entire week's worth of news after predicting there wouldn't be much news. The M's added a veteran outfielder to the mix, Mitch Haniger underwent another surgery, and a familiar face is back with the team. D.C. ends the show by expounding the wonders of curling. 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.

Thank you for tuning in to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Yep, pitchers and catches reporting, nothing is going to happen. It's going to be a slow news week. So go enjoy some curling. No news is going to break, no injuries, no roster moves, no nothing. Oh, boy, was I wrong. Although I did very much enjoy the week of curling.

I am D.C. Lundberg back with you again, and if USA Curling is listening to this, please come back to the Spokane area in the near future. However, this isn't a curling show but Locked-on Mariners, which you can download, rate, and subscribe to on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app you're listening to us on right now. That wasn't proper English. However, you can ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast,

and you can also follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners, and you may follow me on Twitter also at DC-U-Lundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G if you are scoring at home. Well, there were multiple news items that broke last week while I was attending the National Curling Championships. Congratulations, by the way, to Team Schuster and Team Peterson Roth, who will represent the United States and the upcoming men's and women's world championships, respectively.

The first Mariners news item that took place last week was a minor transaction that occurred last Monday the 10th. Matt Festa cleared waivers and was outrighted to AAA Tacoma. He had been designated for his side. assignment after the Mariners signed outfielder Jose Siri to a minor league deal and put him on the 40-man roster. I think the Mariners catch a little bit of a break with this one. I've always liked Festa. I thought for sure someone would claim him.

That did not happen, so Festa remains in the Mariners system, and it's possible he could be back up with the big club sometime this year. Then on Thursday, the Ms added to the spring training competition in the outfield. Former Rockies batting champion and three-time all-star Carlos Gonzalez signed a minor league deal with the Mariners. signed a minor league deal with the Mariners, including an invitation to spring training. Bob Nightingale of USA Today reported that Gonzales, or Cargo, as it were, will be paid $750,000 if he makes the Major League roster. Last season in 45 games with the Indians and Cubs, he hit 200 with three home runs and 10 RBI. He struck out 52 times in 145 at bats, which means he struck out almost 36% of the time. And while that's not quite Mike Zanino territory, that's still.

still really terrible. However, in 2018, he did hit 276, with 16 home runs and 32 doubles, and 463 at bats. He's got a career slash line of 285, 343, 500. He's 344 years old now, but he does fulfill something Jerry Depoto had been seeking since Mitch Hanigar underwent sports hernia surgery late last month, an outfielder with Major League experience. This is the perfect signing for the Mariners. If he has a good spring training, and makes the opening day roster, he's got a chance to contribute. He's not going to be the same player he was when he was making all-star teams as a Rocky, but he could hit a little bit and provide some much-needed veteran leadership

at a minimal investment. And if it doesn't work out, the Ms don't lose very much. This move became much more important a few days later, as it was announced last Thursday that Mitch Hanigur, or of course, as I like to say, Manager, underwent another surgery to help alleviate lower back problems. There's no timetable for, his return. Jerry Depoto added that Manager, quote, seems to be in pretty good spirits, end quote,

which I believe means that he was drunk. DePoto went on to say, quote, we're expecting him to be in camp, but we don't have a timetable for that either. Mitch works hard and nobody will be more attentive to the detail. We'll assess as we go and then find out how long this is going to take, end quote. Manninger has not played since last June after rupturing a very sensitive part of the male anatomy. while rehabbing from that injury, he suffered from lower back pain and core muscle problems. Depoto said of these injuries, quote, I think they're all interconnected. I'm not a doctor, but this didn't come as a shock to our medical people that this was possible, end quote. Whatever that means.

He went on to say, quote, we didn't expect he'd be here opening day regardless. One of the things we're doing organizationally is providing opportunities for young guys. There's a reason we brought in a guy like cargo to provide. some leadership and mentorship, and we'll see how he looks physically when he gets to camp. We're open to any possibilities, but we really don't believe this is something that affects all of 2020. We have no timeline on it yet, but if this is an opportunity to provide the at-bats for the younger guys, then that's what we'll do.

End quote. And with that word salad, we shall move on. Before I pose today's Mariners trivia question, we've got a new feature we'll be doing this week, and that is the League Commish Fantasy Minute. And you know, my fantasy is unlimited cornbread steak and ribs at famous daves for free, and I don't get any fatter. Ah, yeah. Anyways, that's a discussion for another time, because we're talking fantasy baseball here,

gang. In this segment, we will discuss the fantasy prospects of one Mariner player, and I'll tell you whether I think they are better or worse than they were last season. Today's featured fantasy player is Evan White, and since he has yet to see a big league at bat, and since he'll most likely be the Mariners starting for, first baseman, of course he's going to have a better season this year. Okay, that's not there. I'll talk about J.P. Crawford instead. After Crawford was called up from AAA Tacoma last season, he started off pretty well. He hit a solid 279 in 17 games in May before an injury knocked him out.

He came back in the second half of June and hit a robust 338 in 16 games. He faded from then on out, however, and hit a mere 178th the rest of the way, and his power numbers faded a little bit also. He's now got pretty much a full season under his belt. It'll be another season of growth for him, so I don't think he'll set the world on fire, but I do expect him to put up better numbers than he did last season. And that's today's Fantasy Minute, sponsored by League Commish. What are you doing for the game?

A universal question. Whether the casual follower, the tweets everything, the beginner, the diehard, the stat nerd, the smack talker, the appetizer guy, the couldn't care less or the makes everything, everything into a competition person. We all have our place in the sports world. The same personalities apply to fantasy sports and league commish exists to ensure your fantasy sports experience is the best one for you. We match managers to leagues as we lay the foundation for your new league.

It's as easy as sign up with your preferences, get matched, and approve of that match before any commitment on your end. Sign up with league commish by February 29th and receive 15% off by entering the code locked on in the referred by section on the sign-up form. The first 25 people to sign up using our code receive their first match for free. What are you doing for the big game? Find your next fantasy sports league at league commish.com. And now, gang, time for today's Mariners trivia question. Which Mariner hit the most home runs in the 1980?

And we're talking only home runs hit as a mariner. I'll let you know who that is when we get back. And remember, if you've got a question for me or a comment on the show, please email said question to Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com, and I will consider using it for the Friday mailbag segment. And again, the question doesn't have to be about baseball. It can be a silly question about anything. Ask me about curling.

Locked-on Mariners will continue as soon as I decide which story from last week to discuss. Now back to Locked-on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, J.M. for leading us back into the show, and thank you out there for sticking around for the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Do you remember the trivia question? Which Mariner hit the most home runs in the 1980s? Do you know who the answer is? It is Alvin Davis with 131 home runs as a mariner in the 80s.

Second is Jim Presley with 115. Third is Ken Phelps with 105. Dave Henderson checked in with 79 home runs for fourth place on this list. Continuing to catch up on last week's Mariners news, last Wednesday the 12th, the Mariners added a piece to their pitching staff. I mentioned that this particular person was still a free agent on this show a few weeks ago. I speak, of course, of Taiwan Walker, who's been signed to a major league contract. Walker jumps right into the competition for a starting rotation job.

The Mariners already have Marco Gonzalez, You say Kikuchi and for some odd reason Justice Sheffield set in stone for three of the five rotation spots. Walker joins Kendall Graveman, who's coming off surgery, Nick Margibichus, Nestor Cortez, Justin Dunn, and Phillips Valdez

in competition for the remaining two spots, in addition to Wien Chen, whom it was reported the M's signed to a minor league deal several weeks ago. According to Jeff Passon of ESPN, Walker's contract is reported to be worth $2 million, with another $1 million,000, dollars in incentives. And if my math is correct, that makes the potential value of this contract

$7.38. To make room on the 40-man roster for Walker, pitcher Austin Adams was moved to the 60-day injured list. Adams is coming off knee surgery and isn't expected to be ready to play until mid-season. Taiwan Walker is coming off two injury-riddled season with the Diamondbacks. In 2017, however, he pitched well for the Diamondbacks after being traded there from Seattle as part of the Mitch Hanager trade. He started 28 games that year and had an ERA of 349, but he walked too many hitters and had a whip of 1.328.

Even with the solid season prior to his injury woes, Arizona still gave up on him and non-tendered him rather than offer him arbitration, making him a free agent. This seems like another good move for the Mariners. You can never have too much pitching, and the M's not only need serviceable arms, but they need

some veterans to add to the mix with all the youngsters they've got. And Walker, won't be 28 until August, so he's not over the hill. Rotation-wise, after Marco Gonzalez, there really isn't very much, aside from Graveman, who also is a question of mark since he's coming off Tommy John surgery. Kikiji had a very bad second half of last season. Sheffield is not a major league pitcher at this point, and for my money probably never will be. And the others competing for rotation spots are all unproven kids for the most part.

If Walker can come back healthy and pitch as he is capable of pitching, He could be a very nice number two starter behind Gonzalez, which also means that the M's first two starters have ridiculous uniform numbers. But back to seriousness, if this does not work out and if his arm problems persist, the M's really still don't lose very much. This is a very low risk, potentially pretty high reward situation. There are some rule changes coming to Major League Baseball, which were made official last week. I was going to talk about them a bit in the second half of today's show,

but I soon realized that can take an entire episode, so I'll discuss those on tomorrow's program. But to close out the show today, I want to talk about my experience last week a little bit. Yes, this is a baseball show, but I'm going to talk about curling. If you've never given curling a chance, watch a game, a full game. It's a great sport.

And I have to say, it's an absolute blast to watch live. As soon as I walked into the arena and saw those curling sheets, I couldn't help but smile, and I knew that I was in for a treat. The whole week was super fun. The competition was great, and both gold medal matches were absolutely fantastic. In addition, the curlers were very good to the fans, especially the kids. Matt Hamilton in particular has a reputation of being very friendly, and he was absolutely as advertised.

He came over to the stands before his games and gave kids in the front row a high five, and then he returned after his games were over to give these same kids more high fives. He is a great ambassador for the game. sport. Jackie Lemke made friends with a young girl in the front row as her game was starting and encouraged this young fan to root for her team in a very, very nice, joking sort of way. And I was particularly impressed with Chase Sennett, who is the skip of a junior team that not only qualified for the national championship, but they took the bronze medal. Not only does he have a bright future as a curler, but he seemed like a very personable,

nice young man. Those are just a few examples. I could go on. There was a team from the Seattle area that competed also from the Granite Curling Club. USA Curling, thank you for coming to the Spokane area for your national championships. I hope you'll be back in the near future. It was one of the best experiences of my life. And ladies and gentlemen listening, if you've never been exposed to curling, please give it a shot. If you're in the Seattle area, look into the Granite Curling Club.

And if you're in my neck of the woods, check out the inland northwest curling club. They've got Learned to Curl classes, which I am going to take, and they've also got a beginners league, which is advertised as no experience necessary. Well, now that that rambling is over, I would like to remind you that you can access this particular program on Google Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app you like to use.

Please download, rate, and subscribe to Lockdown Mariners, on any of the above apps. Actually, just go ahead and do it on every single app that there is, and tell everybody in the world to listen to this show. You may also ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast or Locked-on-N-N-Ton-N-Ton-N-Tac. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. Follow me on Twitter also at D.C. underscore Lundberg.

Well, gang, that is the show for today. Sorry it was not published in the morning, as I like to do. Tomorrow morning should be back on schedule for the usual 6 a.m. publishing time so you can listen to it on your way to work. Hope you enjoyed today's show, late as it was, and do have a good evening. This is Joey Martin, speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.