Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Division Day: Crossover With Locked On Rangers

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

Brice Paterik and D.C. Lundberg do a joint episode of both their programs and talk about their two teams. They also spend some time complaining about corporate naming of stadiums. A recurring theme of this episode: Joey Gallo bombs. 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 very much. This is a crossover between Locked-on Mariners and Locked-on Rangers. And for you, Locked-on Rangers listeners, that was my announcer, Joey Martin, and we are both part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, or T-L-O-P-N or Topin, as I like to say. Please remember to download, yes, thank you. Please remember to download rate and subscribe to this program.

using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked on Mariners and Locked on Rangers podcast. Not at the same time because that would be weird. Using whichever user smart device to do that. Yes, I am D.C. Lundberg. Also with us, of course, the host of Locked on Rangers, Mr. Bryce Padderick. How art though doing today? I am super duper.

You know, I got Stars game on in the background. Just finished another episode before this. So I am living the dream as much. as one can be living the dream these days. Fair enough. Especially as one, as much as one can be living the dream while cheering for a very, very, very terrible baseball team.

I think we kind of both know that feeling or both of our audiences, because the Rangers, honestly, did not have as good a season last year as I thought they were going to, and then the Mariners in rebuild mode. I think every fan base has been through that sooner or later. Yeah, it's just kind of how it goes.

I mean, the Mariners are really coming out of it. I mean, a few years ago, the Mariners were in one of the positions. They were not only bad, but from the outside looking in, like the farm system didn't look great. All these, like, big contracts that, like, for guys who weren't really performing. And it was like, man, that's, like, the worst place to be. And that's about where the Rangers are, except without any of the bad contracts. They're just bad.

But at least you're not spending a tremendous amount of money on those players that are not performing like the Mariners did about, oh, I want to say 10, 15 years ago, I guess. That's kind of when it was really bad. Well, it's entirely possible that they might pay Chris Davis with a K, $16.5 million to not play baseball for them this year. He looks that bad in spring training. Aye, aye, aye. But yeah, we're going to do a fun little format on this episode. I'm going to ask D.C. about questions about the Mariners, because I got a lot of questions about the Mariners.

I'm just more intrigued about the Mariners than I should be. Okay. That's probably healthy. But we're going to flip it around for segment two. and then we're just going to go wild and play it by ear for segment three. Unless you don't get to all the questions in segment one, you can save those for segment three, if that winds up being the case. That might be, but that would assume that I plan questions ahead of time,

and I'm not just flying off the hip anyway. Let's just see what happens. Let's do it. Let's do it. My first question, where did all of these young, talented mariners come from? Like, two years ago they had, like, one of the worst farm systems in baseball, and you made some trades, nothing. Like, I mean, you trade Robinson Canoe. Yeah.

Is that where, like, every single one of these came from just fleecing the Mets? Because it's so, Bravo. That's where Jared Kellnick came from, and he is actually going to be injured on the shelf for a few weeks, from what I understand. We got, or we got, the Mariners got Jared Kelnick in that trade. They also got Justin Dunn, who's in the starting rotation, who I'm not real high on, to be honest. It was a lot of other trades, too. Just as Sheffield came over in the James Paxton trade. and Paxson is resigned with the Mayors as a free agent.

Kyle Lewis is homegrown. Marco Gonzalez was a trade with the Cardinals a few years ago. It's been mostly through trades, and they've also drafted pretty well. Also, Logan Gilbert might be into big leagues this season, and he was a draft pick from just a couple of years ago. And the other names are escaping me right now, but it's mostly been through pretty decent trades. J.P. Crawford was another.

player acquired in a trade. Shedlong Jr. came over in a trade. It's mostly been trades and some good drafting. Yeah, Julio Rodriguez is a guy who really intrigued me. I hadn't heard much about him until recently. I mean, y'all have had a very chaotic offseason. I want to know your take on what was going on with the Mariners' GM situation and those just horrendous comments that were made by the guy no longer in charge of your team. Honestly, I think the less said about that clown the better. He's gone. No, honestly, he's gone, so that's probably

the best thing that's come out of it. And I'm not trying to cover anything up or that or anything of that sort, but yeah, he's gone. Let's move on and talk about baseball because that's what's really important. If he was still hanging around, then it would be a different story. But he is

gone, and I just prefer not to think of it anymore because what he said really was bad. Yeah, it was quite bad. I made the only statement I really made on it is my podcast is against racism and that's about where we should leave it. We don't need to talk about him anymore.

He's not relevant and he kind of sucks. So let's move on and talk about the Mariners coming out of the dredges of, you know, I was never really a big baseball fan when the Mariners were good and I've heard, I know what Seattle fans are like with their other teams and how insufferable they can be. Are Mariners fans, like that specific breed of Seattle sports fan,

are they still like, you know, cautiously optimistic, not ready to go full on and, you know, terrorizing people's Twitter mentions for disparaging the mighty Mariners, are they still beaten and broken and, you know, holding out hope that everything is going to fall apart, which is where Rangers fans are right now.

You know, honestly, I really don't know. I've pretty much watched my hands of social media, so I don't... A wise man. So I can't comment on that at all, to be honest, but, and I don't really want to disparage the Mariners fan base on my show either, but it's, so I'm going to choose my words very carefully, but the Mariners seem to have a lot of diehard fans, and that's really the ones that have been going to the ballpark recently. And the Mariners seem to attract a lot of bandwagoners, or at least they have when they were really, really good. And I'm not talking about people in the Seattle area. I'm talking about people, everybody in North America was wearing a Mariners cap from about 1990.

through about 2002, especially when Ken Griffey Jr. was their top player. You know, there were a lot of kids running around with Ken Griffey Jr. jerseys all around the country. So I'm not really a part of that scene, so I can't really comment on anything that you said. Baseball really is the only major sport that I follow. Bowling and curling are not major sports. Agree to disagree. Oh, really? I mean, they're not considered major sports. major sports, but they are, honestly, they are my two favorite sports, even above baseball

this time. I really can't comment on that one way or another just because I, I choose to be oblivious. That's a fair place to be. So it's looking like, earlier, I think I did a show with Jason Burke of Locked On A's, which I will be doing another one of in the coming weeks, but I made the bold prediction that the Mariners are going to win the AOS this year, which felt right at the time, given what the A's had lost and what the Astros had lost as well. And then kind of looking back at what the Astros have done now, especially getting J-Code or Rizzi. That, like, that sucks. I am upset about that. I want them to be terrible, and I want them to, I want nothing but badness for all Houston sports teams. But it's looking like it might be a difficult thing for the Mariners

to come out and win the AOL West in 2021. But what are your predictions? Like, how well you think of this team? Is this the year that they put? pull out because they'll have some hot stretches like they have the last couple years. Do you think it's something they could sustain like a 500 record, like maybe chase for a second wildcard spot? No, I think they're a 500 team at best. Honestly, I'm sorry. I mean, this is still a rebuilding team, especially based on how the bullpen specifically performed last year and the back end of the rotation was not very good either. The offense was very, very streaky. It was great at times and just completely non-existent at other times. I

still think that this team, I said before last year that in terms of development, the young bats are ahead of the young arms. I still feel that way, even though the Mariners did make a bunch of moves or a few moves through free agency, pardon me, to shore up their bullpen. Keenan Middleton, I thought was a terrific signing. I cannot wait to see what he does. Even though he had a bad season last year, he knows what he needs to do to improve. He feels as if he was too reliant on his fastball, and he wants to mix his people. pitches better. That's great. Let's see, you know, where that goes. And the other names are escaping me right now, but I think the bullpen is going to be a bit better. And also the James

Paxton signing, the Mariners all of a sudden have a pretty good front end of the rotation, anchored by Marco Gonzalez, who just hardly walked anybody last year. Yeah, he was excellent last year. I really think that, I mean, I don't know if he is a true ace in that sense of the word, because he's not dominant, but he is a very effective number one pitcher in my estimation. James Paxton behind him and Justice Sheffield, who really improved last season as well, at number three.

That's a very good one, two, three punch, and they're all left-handed. I'm looking at his numbers now, and he had fewer walks than home runs, seven walks and eight home runs allowed in 69, two-thirds innings, which I think is pretty nice. Yeah, and he didn't really walk anybody in his last full season, 2019 either.

I was thinking about this actually earlier today, in preparation for the show or anticipation for the show, I think a decent comparison between Marco Gonzalez could be made with Jimmy Key from about 30, 35 years ago, somebody who's not going to walk anybody who has a moderate strikeout total. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah, the Rangers did have a left-hander who didn't walk anybody and struck out quite a few. He was also a mariner guided by the name of Cliff Lee.

Bring back any memories? I remember that trade. I remember, when that trade went down. My boss at the time where I was working was also a huge Mariner fan. Actually used to work for the team. So I said, and I found out, and I went into work and said, hey, the Mariner's got Cliff Lee. And I was excited and he wasn't excited because he didn't think that the team was good enough. And he wound up being right.

They traded him at the deadline, as if I recall. And I have no idea who they got in return. I don't even remember. Justin Smoke. That's right. Yep. It was the Justin Smoke and some other pieces that didn't out. Exactly.

Justin Smoke was pretty good as a Blue Jay. He did nothing as a Mariner. He didn't do much for the Rangers either. They had a good old-fashioned first base battle between three guys at that time. It was Justin Smoke, Chris Davis, and Mitch Morland. And Chris Davis wasn't doing anything. He was actually traded in the Koji Uahara trade back in 2011, I believe. And Kojiuahara didn't do any.

that special with the Rangers. But then like the very next season, he left Texas. He went to Boston and had like a sub like one ERA and was just like stupid good. And I was very mad. Now you know how Mariners fans feel about a whole lot of other acquisitions. Justin Smoke being one of them who didn't do anything as a mariner went to the Blue Jays and had a, you know, was pretty effective. And then another comparison there would be Adrian Beltray, who was league average at best as a Mariner, goes to Boston for one season, and then goes to your Texas Rangers, and then puts together

a Hall of Fame career. And those are not the only two by any stretch of the imagination. But the Mariners are used to this. Also, Alex Rodriguez, you know, he was really terrible with Seattle, and then he signed with the great contender Texas, and everything went really well there. Well, yeah,

less said about him, the better I feel, too, but for completely different reasons. Absolutely agree with you there. Is it about time for taking a break and hear some word from our sponsors? I feel like it is. I think it is too. And I didn't, for the Rangers fans, I usually have a trivia corner at this time in my show,

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And the second matchup is between two very good ones, orange and peanut butter. Yeah, I'm leaning peanut butter and toffee. You know, I'm not a big fan of banana-flavored things. Like, I've yet to have one banana-flavored, like, sweet thing that's, like, good. Like, it's still solid. I mean, they don't sell a bad bar. But, like, toffee, it's just so good. That's one of the better ones for sure, yes.

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and check back to see who won today's matchup and who will become the best-tasting protein bar. Now back to Locked on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much. That was Locked on Mariners announcer, Joey Martin. Today, a Locked-on Rangers, Locked-on Maritors crossover featuring me, D.C. Lundberg, host of Locked-on Mariners, and the host of Locked-on Rangers, Mr. Bryce Paderick, to whom I toss right now. Now, we're covering everything you need to know about the Rangers and the Mariners, but what about sports in general? Now, the Locked-on podcast network has you covered there as well with Locked On Today.

It's hosted by the great Peter Bukowski, and it's got all the sports news you need every day, every morning, in under 20 minutes. Follow the Lock on the Day podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Now, it's time to talk about some terrible baseball teams, or just this terrible baseball team, just the Rangers. You know, we're not going to go into all of the terrible baseball teams. I have nothing to say about the Pittsburgh Pirates or any other terrible baseball teams out there besides the Rangers.

What are your burning questions for this terrible team that no one to really care about that much, outside of Joey Gallo being amazing? And no longer have Lance Lynn. It used to be Lance Lynn and Joey Gallo. Now it's just Joey Gallo and friends. Well, you know, as we were mentioning before the show, Bryce, I'll fill the, your listeners in on what's been going on.

My listeners know that I've been going through some minor health problems, basically since October. So I have not really been paying much attention to baseball, what's been, you know, what's been going on over the off season, except, of course, for the Mariners, and I couldn't even remember half the free agent acquisitions. So you did mention that Lance Lynn is no longer a Ranger. Pardon me, the Rangers, I mean, the Rangers were last in the American League West last year, 22 and 38.

So I guess I just have more general questions rather than specific ones with Lance Lynn gone, and you were mentioning to me that you weren't a big fan of the Rangers starting rotation. I was just wondering if you could expand on that a little bit. Well, the Rangers have basically one guy coming back from last year who I trust to be. a consistent starter and actually give them like starter innings and, you know, about 30 starts and maybe 150 innings.

And that is opening day starter Kyle Gibson. Yes. That's where the Rangers are. And did Kyle Gibson have a good year, you ask? No, not really. He had kind of a bad year. Just like everyone. Last year his first year with Texas,

did pitch in 12 games, all 12 of those were starts. A 535 ERA 67 innings. 58-walks, not great. 58 strike-outs, not super great for 67 endings. 30 walks, 12 home runs. It was not a super-inspiring performance, but he was the Rangers number two starter behind Lance Lynn, because that's how bad everything was.

Jordan Lyles was so utterly terrible. He guaranteed that he will not be a starter on this team. He had a 702 ERA in 12 games. Actually lost his starting job. By the end of the season, had 9-3-3. three games that he pitched out of the bullpen, 57 innings. Mike Minor is gone. Colby Allard was quite bad.

This was basically his year to be like, all right, here we go. I am a major league caliber starter, and he couldn't really do it. Had a 775 ERA in 11 games, 32 innings. Struck out 8.6 per 9, which is fine. The walks were a bit of a problem as well, 20 walks and 33 innings. Kyle Cody,

who was a guy, he was 25 last year. He missed two straight years with different surgery. He had Tommy John, and also had just missed quite a bit of time. He hadn't pitched five innings in a game since, I believe, 2017, and he pitched five innings two or three times this year with the Rangers. Only had eight games that he pitched in. Five of those were starts.

Three of those were finishing games. Had a 159 ERA. Decent strikeout numbers. Not great with the Wants. walk, but limited runs and was able to get innings, which was huge for the Rangers. So they brought in a whole bunch of people.

They brought in a Japanese starter, Kohe Arihara, who was pitched in Japan for, I believe, six years. He's in his late 20s. They brought in Mike Fultenevich from Atlanta, because Atlanta just straight up cut him last year, because his fastball was in the low

90s, as opposed to 95, which in his first start, it was 95 to 97, which was where it was when he was an all-star. So that's inspiring. Also, his slider looked good. They got Dane Dunning back in the Lance Lynn trade. He's looking like he should be pretty solid.

Like I said, Ariara is probably going to be pretty solid. He's not anything too special, but he's going to be an innings eater. He's very consistent in being able to eat innings. And the fifth spot, it's going to be either Kyle Cody, Colby Allard, or a Korean pitcher, who is, I believe, 32, Hiongang, Yang, Yang, excuse me, who was pitched in Korea for about 12 years. Rangers have wanted to bring him over for quite a while. So, yeah, that's kind of the state of the Rangers' rotation.

It's bad, but that's kind of where we are. They got guys who I think can eat innings, which they didn't really have last year. Mike Miner followed up two really good years with a terrible one, but still was able to get the Rangers a decent return in the trade. And now Elvis Andrews is gone, and my heart is broken into many pieces because I've seen him in Oakland A's gear

and smiling and happy. and I'm happy for him, but I want him to be happy, like, not in front of my face. Like, just go through it behind my back. Go to the National League or something like that, yeah? Not just, like, right next door, the A's. The same division hurts.

I see him 19 times a year in that beautiful green uniform with the elephant hat on. And I'm like, I can't do that. I can't do that. It hurts my heart too much. Who's going to play shorts? I'm sorry, go ahead. On the bright side, he is physically closed.

to Adrian Beltrate, who's living in LA, so that makes me a little happy. But to answer your question, Isaiah Kinear-Flefa is going to play shortstop. He was given the starting job in December, which we all thought, okay, that's weird. Why would you announce that now that he is guaranteed

to be your opening day shortstop? But apparently they were already in the works on Elvis Andrews trades. So he was downright elite defensively last year. People who don't watch the Rangers, which you shouldn't they're not a lot of fun, except for Joey Gallobams. He was elite defensively.

He had the best defensive war of any player at third base in the American League. Best of anyone in baseball besides Nolan Aronado. He split his time between third base and shortstop, kind of like, I think 60 to 70% at third base and a little bit of shortstop as well. He's got literally no power. Like he is very close to becoming like the Michael Young, like the Hawaiian Michael Young.

That's kind of how I. I would explain in him. But Michael Young did at least hit for 20 home runs a couple of years. Got really good bat speed, good eye. I really love him defensively. And, I mean, what, two years ago, he was playing catcher? They wanted to be a full-time catcher. That did not work out.

The guy was too thin. And he was just so good defensively at third base, it felt like such a waste. It's like, why are you doing this? He's got an elite skill. He doesn't have a lot of power. You kind of want that from a lot of pop from your third baseman. but I think he can be above average to bordering on elite shortstop. And for the range of the next couple of years,

I think that's more than good enough for him. And I really love the kid, always love this kid, works his butt off, and he won a gold glove at third base. And Joey Gallo won one in right field, his first gold glove in his worst offensive season. I want to talk about Isaiah Kynar Philafah a little bit more. more because I'm looking at his numbers from last year. I've got his career numbers up here.

It looks to me like he's not going to strike out very much. He's going to put the bat on the ball. Pretty decent on-base percentage, but not a lot of slugging, which you can accept from a shortstop, especially if he's going to be that good defensively. He hit 280 last year with a 329 on base, which is not great,

but 238 versus a 299 on base in 2019 is a bit better. So I don't go. Do with those numbers what you will, gang. I don't know why I brought. that up. Yeah, he ended the year at 280, but there was a time where he was hitting like 320, like a month and a half end of the season, like pretty late. I'm trying to pull up these splits real quick. Let's see, the month of, because there's literally only three months here.

There's July, four games. I can't find like a two-week split start, but there was like about midway through August. He was hitting like 320. The walker, still weren't great, but like he wasn't getting nearly as many doubles. Like this ballpark really just swallows up batters. Like I did a number on Joey Gallo and Willie Cahoo

when he was playing. And also Nick Solek is a guy who, the range of expecting a lot from offensively. And he only had two home runs. He played a whole season, 58 games, 10 doubles. Just no power numbers. Where he had a lot more last year, he's got

definitely potential for that. Willie Calhoun had just the year from hell last year. It was absolutely horrendous because he got hit in the face with a fastball from Julio Arias in spring training. Mist was going to be out for what was regular opening day. Then ended up, he was healthy for summer camp. And then he had a hamstring train that kept him out for most of the year. His production was terrible.

End up getting one consolation home run towards the end of the year. But now he's back. He's ready. and then they go in and they bring in David Dahl. But it looked like he was definitely going to be the starting left fielder and it's like, okay, what the hell is going on? Like, okay, well, I guess I'll be the D.H. Then they trade for Chris Davis.

And he's like, what is going on here? But Chris Davis looks absolutely terrible. There's like 50 to 60% chance. He doesn't even make the opening day roster. The ranger had to swallow these $16.5 million he's owed. But I think there's a big year for him. David Dahl could be an absolute steal. I feel like any team picking up on the mistakes of the Colorado Rockies is a great way to improve your baseball team.

They just straight up cut them. So the Rangers are going to get a couple years of control of them, see if they can keep them healthy. And if so, then the Rangers will have got a former All-Star for pennies on the dollar, which would be really nice for them. Yeah, I mean, the Rockies were pretty deep in the outfield, but just up and out cutting the guy does not make sense to me. No. No, there is really basically no reason for it. I mean, the injury history is definitely a little scary, but having Willie Cahoon there, like, okay, if we don't have David Dahl at all, then, okay, we just have Willie Cahoon and left field,

and then we have Ronald Guzman playing elite defense at first base, and we have Nate Lowe at D.H. Nate Lowe was the other kind of big trade. I'm still kind of pissed at the Rangers for making, because they traded three guys with a lot of potential in the lower minors, for him, which didn't seem like that much an upgrade. And by the way, for those who weren't paying attention to Dominican Winter League, which probably is quite a few of you,

Ronald Guzman won the MVP of that league. He was fantastic. He was hitting homers like crazy. He had shortened up his swing. When he basically got to the majors, they tried to lengthen his swing to try and get him to tap into more power. He's listed at, I think, 6'5. He's actually closer to something like 6'8.

The guy is an absolutely massive human being with a big wingspan who is elite defensively and like an okay hitter. But he's so big that like if you shorten up his swing, we're seeing that he's tapping into more power more regularly without having to try for it because he's just that big. So that's kind of the things to watch for that competition for first base slash DH slash left field. It's kind of up in the air at this point. I'm leaning towards Guzman because I love Guzman and I'm still pissed at John Daniels from making the Nate low trade but like it's very low stakes right here

there's not much going on but I do believe that Joey Gallo will have a much better bounce back season because he's already got five home runs and I think six spring training games so far and he looks incredible not that it means anything but like it's always fun to watch Joey Gallo home runs no matter what team you cheer for like they're just

works of art I have his numbers up here and we're running up on a break, so I'll make this short. But what struck me about last year's number with Joey Gallo, it's not the power numbers. It's a fact that he's always, he's never going to, well, I shouldn't say he's never going to hit for a great batting average. He hit 253 in 2019, but last year he hit 181, but his on base was 301. That's 120 points higher. That's massive. Yeah, he's always been a guy who's always been a guy who, you know, people like to heart, who don't really understand baseball, love to harp on his batting average. He always hit around like 200 before.

even when he's having 40 home run seasons with an on base of like anywhere from like 340 to 350 which is really solid for a guy with that kind of power he's Rob Deere basically exactly he's like Adam done but more athletic and has a gold glove in right field but I've always said the thing the defense really really saves him exactly if and he was a third baseman coming up and now he played uh basically almost gold glove caliber defense in center field the year that he had his first all-star year in 2019 I've said this many times about Joey Gallo, but I'll repeat this for your listeners.

If Joey Gallo, his batting average is, and the thing is, like, the batting average has to stay there with the other numbers staying the same. Like, the selling percentage of the on base are still going to be insane. If he hits 220, he's an all-star. If he hits 250, he's an MVP.

If he hits 270, he's a gosh-darned Hall of Fame or Barry Bonds. Like, that's the kind of insane extra behind the batting average stuff that goes on with Joey Gallo. I love him so much, and he's such a freaking weirdo unicorn. And that's why I defend him with all of my heart, mind, and soul, and have for basically since he was drafted.

He's a very unique player. I will certainly give him that. Pardon me, ladies and gentlemen. We are up on a break, so this is the point in the program. Why I remind my listeners, and I'll say to yours as well, if you have a question or a comment for me, please send it to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com, and I will reply to it on the air in an upcoming mailback episode.

I accept questions and comments on any subject. In fact, I encourage questions and comments on any subject. Bowling and curling, I love answering questions on those. I've answered questions about music, which took up an entire show one time. So if you have any questions at all, send them to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com, but do keep them appropriate since this is a family show. Coming up, Bryce and I talk about stuff. Yeah, that's it.

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I am D.C. Lundberg talking about kind of shoot from the hip in C block, aren't me, Bryce? Aren't we? We sure are. You know, I have a real important question for you as a Mariners fan, and if you could speak to Mariners fans in general, obviously from your own experience

first. Yeah. But I'm curious, who do Mariners fans hate most of the AOS teams? Or it could be not a aOS team. I mean, like, obviously, the obvious answer is the Yankees, but like, I'm thinking like division-wise. Aseros. Yeah. Everybody hates the Astros. That's good.

You know, it's definitely, it's been my answer. And, like, one of the nice things about, like, the Asthma of Becoming the Villains, I mean, besides, like, that just being very nice in general, is, like, for years and years and years, Dallas fans have always been saying, like, Houston's Force fans are the worst. They're awful. They're so miserable. They're so annoying.

And everyone's like, oh, it's just because you hate their team. And now, with all of this stuff coming out, and especially with, like, baseball fans in general, dealing with the Astros, they're like, oh my God, they really are the worst. And it's just that vindication has been so sweet for me the last few years. All baseball fans being like, oh, yeah, Astros fans are trash. And so are the Astros. It used to be the Yankees.

It used to be the Yankees, but it's now the Astros. They've taken the trash can, so to speak, and ran with it. But the Mariners have a little bit of history with the Yankees, specifically, dating back to the mid-90s where they face each other in the first division series. And the Mariners won that one. And then the following season, there was a game in the kingdom against the Yankees where Paul O'Neill was kind of threatening to charge the mound against a 5-foot 10, 165-pound left-hander. And the catcher at that time was a man named John Marzano. I don't remember if you remember him or not, but he's one of my favorite. I did, I didn't think so.

But John Marzano is Philly, born and raised, really tough guy, basically told O'Neill to cram it. If you want to get to Tim Davis, you got to go through him. And a pretty good brawl ensued. And kind of from that point forward, the Mariners and Yankees really didn't like each other. And then the Yankees started, you know, acquiring a bunch of big money free agents pretty much right after that. The 114 win season in 1998, 1999 World Series, 2000 World Series, were, they spent just a ton of money in free agency, and nobody liked them at that time.

And they always seem to beat the Mariners in the playoffs at that time, too. So that's why the Mariners specifically don't really like the Yankees, but now it's the Astros. Yeah, I mean, it was the Yankees for the Rangers back in the 90s, too. I mean, the first three times that the Rangers made the playoffs back in the late 90s, I think 95, 96, 96, 97, 99. Yeah. They were, I think they were,

I think at least two of those years. They might have been swept all three of those years. I don't think it was all three, but eliminated every year by the Yankees. Yeah, I think in 1996, I'm pretty sure the Rangers won at least one of those playoff games. And one comment that I remember Bob Costas making on the air when Juan Gonzalez was having a pretty good season, that he said,

George Steinbrenner better check the deed, because right now it's Juan Gonzalez who owns the Yankees. Gosh, those teams were so much fun. Just bashing Rangers, I mean, back when they were at the old Global Life Park, which I hate calling it. It's the ballpark. Thank you, thank you.

That's literally what it is, and I don't have to call it whatever stupid name it has now. And I hate that they name this new one. It's Global Life Field in perpetuity. Like, it's the life of this stadium. It already has the naming right. It's not just like a three-year deal. It's such a boring name.

Granted, there are worse. There's guaranteed rate field. There's, I don't know, I feel like there's a few others. I think they're all pretty bad, quite honestly. I miss the days of Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Kamiski Park. I still call it Kamisky Park. I mean, it should be called that. I mean, guaranteed rate fee.

That's awful. That's straight up awful. The other part of it is. Mobile Park now in Seattle? Yes, and I refuse to say that for multiple reasons. but this corporate naming, when you were talking about guaranteed rate field, I didn't know what city it was in.

Everybody knows that Kamiski Park is in Chicago. Yep, Southside. Exactly. I mean, the more, you slap a corporate name on a stadium that's going to last for five or ten years, why bother remembering, A, what the name of the stadium is,

and which corporate sponsor is in which city? There's no reason to do that. Also, the big ones, like AT&T isn't that bad, only because there's 800 AT&T this, that, and the others. There's AT&T stadium in Arlington where the Cowboys play. There's AT&T Park in, I believe there's at least like two baseball parks named AT&T Park. There's one in San Francisco. And then there's AT&T Arena in San Antonio where the San Antonio Spurs play.

And like there's just so many of them. I mean, American Airlines even has two NBA arenas. American Airlines Arena and American Airlines Center in Dallas and Miami, which was really interesting in the 2011 NBA finals and the 2006 NBA finals when the Mavericks and Keith were playing against each other. Oh, we're at the American Airlines place. The center or the arena? Depends on the day.

I bet AT&T loved that. Yeah, yeah, they did. I have a couple more questions for you on the Mariners because they're just a very intriguing team. And, you know, I'm kind of excited because, you know, y'all have been the beaten down fans and I like you all to, everyone to, like, just spend, like, a little time being beaten down.

Like, Pittsburgh has it too much. Like, just way too much. It's just not fair. And prior to that, they had 20 years worth. Yeah. And they had, like, what, two, three years where they were like, okay. And I'm like, you know what?

No, I don't like this. I want to go back to sucking. Let's trade Andrew McCutcheon. Let's trade everybody. Let's just not spend any money and tear it down. and continually trade our guys who we draft with those number one overall picks

to, I don't know, teams like the Yankees and the Rays where they figure out how to actually be good. They may be better if they actually signed Orlando Merced to play first base now. I say it is not knowing who the Pittsburgh first base is. Well, gosh, they had a guy. Oh, wasn't it Josh Bell?

It was Josh Bell. It's no longer Josh Bell. I think he got traded. I can't remember to where. The only reason I remember that because Josh Bell went to Jesuit high school in Dallas. Oh, okay. Keep some tabs on him. I'm sorry to digress, though.

Your questions were, because we're running out of time, too, unfortunately. That's all right. I'm just curious on what's the, you don't think that this year is the year that the Mariners start contending. No. What is the timeline do you think for the mayors get back into contention? I think it depends on how well the pitching staff does this year. And then I could give a better answer at that time.

I think 2022 is absolutely. possible, but it really does depend on how the pitching shakes out this year, and I can't predict how that will be. Starting pitching, though, not the bullpen, which Y'all did get a new closer, I believe you'll be your closer,

in Raphael Montero. That's correct. Yeah, I mean, I think it's the bullpen really more than the front end of the starting rotation is going to be fine. The back end of the starting rotation, and the Mariners are going with a six-man rotation this year. I don't know if they're going to do that next year. But just and done, I'm not

real high on. I went over his numbers on my show last week. Too many walks, too many home runs. If he gets those numbers down, then he could be pretty good. But I don't know if he's going to be able to do that or not. You say Kikachi, which is a name that I cannot say properly. And I've tried and I can't do it. He's had, I just have no faith in him at all. I'm sorry. But and then beyond him, L.J. Newsom, I think, has a potential to be an effective starter. and then there's also Nick Markgevich's, who's kind of a similar type pitcher. To Newsom, they're both,

they're kind of both like Marco Gonzalez. They're going to walk a few more hitters than Gonzalez, but then again, who is not? With some moderate strikeout numbers. The Mariners philosophy, what they're starting rotation, is control the strike zone, which in Marco Gonzalez is a prime example of that, kind of harkens back to the mid-90s Braves team

to a lesser extent because they had elite, pitchers who fit that mold and the Mariners have very good pitchers who fit that mold. So it's not quite the same thing, but it's the same idea. So I'm more concerned about the bullpen, specifically the middle of the bullpen, than I am the rotation. That makes sense. Well, I have one more thing to ask you before you go. Of the young Mariners hitters, there's quite a few that have some upside.

Kyle Lewis was a guy who won rookie the year last year. Got some top prospects. Jared Kalenik and who, Rodriguez, also Taylor Trammell, or Tramel, I'm not exactly sure. I think it's Tramble. I'm pretty darn sure. Actually, I was incorrect. It is Tramel. I thought it was Trammell as well. Everybody on Mariners in Seattle sports media says Tramel. So that's what I'm going. I was thinking Allen Trammell. That's why I thought that's what it was. But everybody else might have been why I thought that too. Yeah, I think that's where everybody thinks that, but everybody else says Tramel, so I'm going with that.

Okay. Well, of those young guys, also I'll include Shed Long in there who came out of nowhere last year. I really liked the season that he had last year. Of those youngens, which one of those do you think will have the highest ceiling? Which one of you are the most excited about just for his future career, not necessarily for 2021, but just in general, who do you think will become the biggest thorn in the side of the ranger for the next five to ten years, however long they're there? I like Jared Kellnick's skill set, but my goodness, Kyle Lewis certainly plays a great center field. So I think it's between those two. I want to see what kind of season Shed Long has. He's actually in a spring training battle for his starting job with Dylan Moore, because he did have a very good 2019, but 2020 was actually quite poor. And I'm also willing to throw those numbers away. There were a lot of players who had poor 20, 20 seasons.

Yeah, I'm very willing to throw almost all, like, Anyone who had a bad 2020, I'm like, all right, yep, let's throw out of the door. Christian Yelloch at 204 for goodness sakes. I know. Like, everything was topsy-tur. Like, every single Cubs player was, like, trash. Yeah. Like, every single one of them.

Like, Rizzo had a bad year. Javier had a horrible year, which he and Joey Gala were two of the ones that were hurt the most by the trashdow's cheating scandal and not being able to look at film in the middle of the game. That really, really hurt both of them. and so are they did they fix that this year are they able to do that or can we just like say the astros aren't allowed to do that and like everybody else can't I feel like that would be the most fair thing them in Boston excuse me Boston was also caught for being dirty rotten cheaters yeah and they rehired the same manager that uh which the scandal was under Alex Corr is back

I know I am totally shocked that that happened wow I learned so much from it definitely never going to do it again way to go me this goes to prove something I don't know I don't know. To answer your question, though, I'm going to go with Kyle Lewis. I just love the way he plays the game, even though I think that Kelnick may be a little bit better offensively. I think he's got better bat-to-ball skills.

But Kyle Lewis has shown surprising to me power in the big leagues, where in the minor leagues it more manifested itself in gap power. But he's hit more home runs at the major league level than I thought he was going to. Yeah, that's kind of what happened with the Rangers center field there last year. Gosh, why am I blanking up? on his name. I didn't have spent so many years. Leone Tavares, there we go. He was a guy who's

still young. He's also a woman who's going to be hurt really badly by the AAA season being postponed. I thought he was going to start the year in AAA. Now he's almost assuredly going to start as the Rangers opening day, center fielder. A guy who didn't show much power, he was elite defensively. Honestly, one of the best

defensive players in baseball was right up there at the leaderboards in defensive war, even though he only played like 30 games. That's how good he was defensively. he got a big arm, runs fast, patrols center field, like better than almost anybody that had the pleasure of watching consistently. And, you know, knows the strike's unwell, hits for average, and on base pretty well.

But if he hits for power, then he could be an all-star. I don't know that he will. He's probably going to be at least a serviceable player for his whole career. But that's a big, big question with that guy. Other than that, there's not much to look for in the Rangers. it's probably going to be bad. Just when you do watch the Rangers games against Seattle, don't be too sad when Joey L.

hits massive towering home runs because that's probably going to the only highlight for the Rangers in those games, just like the only highlight for them probably this year. Unless David Dahl and Willie Cahoon do amazing things, which, you know, anything's possible, and also some ICF defense. All right.

Anything else you want to cover before we wrap this up, sir? No, no, I think I've spent enough time with you, Mariner's fans who have some hope now, you can see the pit of despair that it is being a Rangers fan, being someone who covers the Rangers every day. Not in a great place right now. But, you know, I'm looking forward to the draft. It should be fun.

That's about where I am. And Joey Gallo bombs. That's basically it. That's the theme of the show, Joey Gallo bombs. Well, then, gang, shall I close it out? Go for it. All right. Well, I guess that's going to do it then.

Locked on Rangers fans and Locked on Mariners fans as well. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to both of our podcasts. Look for us on any podcasting app that you can happen to think of. Ask your smart device again to play Locked on Mariners podcast and Locked on Rangers. Podcast. Any social media accounts that you want to plug, Bryce? Yeah, follow me on Twitter at Bryce Patrick. That's Bryce with an eye, Patrick with no C.

follow Locked-on Rangers at Locked-on Rangers and yeah, that's it. Those are the two I got. Fair enough. Well, that's two more than I plug on my show. So there you go. Thank you very much for listening, ladies and gentlemen. Tomorrow on Locked, not necessarily tomorrow on Locked on Manors,

but next time on Locked on Maritors, I will be joined by Pumpy Brewster, Gobo, Fragel, and a Jacko Lantern. You won't want to miss that terrific conversation. That's it. much again for listening. Sorry about my performance, ladies and gentlemen. I will talk to you next time. Bryce, thanks for joining us on Locked-On Mariners. It was a pleasure being on your show at the very same time. Happy to have you here on Locked-on Rangers. Until next time, don't forget to enjoy baseball. This is Joey Martin for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.