Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Do the Mariners Need to Go All-In on 2024?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Why is Julio still struggling? When will Brian Wu make his debut? And is 2024 the year for the Mariners to go all in? We'll answer that and more coming up here on Mailbag Monday. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:27 Ahoy, sailors. It is Monday, May 6, 2024. This is Tadangis and Colby Pat Doe for the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. Brought to you by Monopoly Go. The mobile hit twists on Classic Monopoly. Join your friends and download Monopoly Go now free on the app store at Google Play. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear.

Starting point is 00:00:51 And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider sending up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. his mailbag Monday, the show where we answer your Mariners questions. And we're going to start here with question that I think is on a lot of your minds right now. What is wrong with Julio's bat?

Starting point is 00:01:16 This question coming from OSG. He's very easy to pitch to right now. He's either getting a fastball in off the inside corner and he's going to swing at it and not do anything with it. Or he's going to get something soft away, probably a slider away. It's the same thing we saw last year. It is the exact same way he was pitched last year when he struggled at the first half. This year, you know, the fact that he's even hitting 260 right now, you know, is with a pretty decent on base is, you know, a testament to how talented he is because he's really not swinging, like a lesser player swinging the bat like he is right now would probably be hitting the buck 50. So like Julio's still hitting the ball hard, but he is striking out a little bit.

Starting point is 00:02:00 He's not walking and he's very predictable to pitch to. And you and I know how he's going to get pitched to. Julio certainly knows how he's going to get pitched to. And he can't make that adjustment. He's got to get to the pole side more. He's got to hit the ball hard. And that basketball insider right now is eating him up. And he just can't even lay off of it right now.

Starting point is 00:02:19 So he is basically, you know, if you execute, you're going to get him out every single time. Right now he's only hitting mistakes. And he's got to get pole side and he's got to get the ball elevated some. So it's a pretty. simple thing right now. Like everybody on the planet knows how to get Julio out, including Julio, it's not like Julio hasn't figured it out, but he's just not making that adjustment right now. And we know he made a kind of a swing mechanical change this winter that was supposed

Starting point is 00:02:49 to help him, you know, stay more upright. And in theory was supposed to help him with his launch angle and all that. But right now it just kind of has produced this weird slap hitting Julio, which is, is not what you need Julio to be. We've seen him do the Derek Jeter thing a lot where he gets the inside fastball and he flips it into right field for a single. It's like, cool, that's fine for Sam Haggerty.

Starting point is 00:03:17 That's not fine for Julio. That's a pitch that you have to turn on and hit hard with authority. But that's also something that I would like to see with runners in scoring position from him. But he's not really doing that. He's just getting singles with no one on base. Right.

Starting point is 00:03:31 And then, like, you see yesterday in the second inning with bases loaded, no one out, and he's swinging out of his shoes again. He saw seven pitches in that at bat. None of them were actual strikes. None of them were in the strike zone. He struck out. Like, he is going up there thinking, I need to hit a grand slam. I am hitting a grand slam or nothing else. There's no in between.

Starting point is 00:03:57 I'm not going to look to try and just poke the ball through the hole and get a couple of ribs here. that's not his approach it's very clear that's not his approach so you talk about he's not making the adjustment is he not willing to make the adjustment i think is the question here because again like it's it hasn't changed every single time he comes up within these kinds of situations he's trying to swing out of his shoes and it's very apparent first of all if you want to try that on like the first pitch like you want to take a swing to to do damage fine whatever like uh fine but you have to you have to be willing to kind of change your approach as the bat progresses, but also I would point out, Julio is 23 years old.

Starting point is 00:04:37 Like, I mean, cool. Yeah, totally. This idea that like it's his only year in the league, though. Sure, but the idea that he's always going to be like this, like in the grand scheme of things, Julio Rodriguez has not played a ton of professional baseball. He really hasn't. Does he need to be better? Yeah, absolutely. Like, but are we just writing him off that this is just who he's going to be forever at 23 years

Starting point is 00:04:57 old? No. No. So it's, there's, there's a line you have to walk here. and understand that despite, you know, playing in the big leagues now for two years and a month, he's still a very young player. So there's still some things that you just have to mature into. And, you know, we did see Julio start to take some of the right steps.

Starting point is 00:05:13 He did have the game when he'd hit against Boston and he did exactly what you wanted him to do. But the last few times out, it's been like, hey, I'm going to hit the nine run home run and I'm going to break my slump right now. And it's like, that's just not how it works. Right. But I think we can make these criticisms independent of having to add all these qualifies. fires as well. Like he needs to be better in these situations full stop. Yep. But I don't think that it's fair to just, you know, because I've seen this where people are like, well, Julio's never going to be the guy. He's he's not that guy or whatever. It's like he's 23 years old.

Starting point is 00:05:47 He might he might not be right now. He might be in the future. Maybe he's not. We don't know. And by the way, Julio as bad as he's been at the plate and, you know, relative to what other players are like not really, but relative to what we expect from Julio. Yes. certainly. He's still on pace to be like a three and a half one player. Like that's the floor for Julio Rodriguez and and it's frustrating as heck to watch. It really is. But, you know, I just think that there's a little bit of criticism that's going a bit too far. And then there's kind of the other end of the spectrum where it's like, boy, that's a terrible out bat from Julio. And you get the like the Julio stands who just want to rip into you for daring to say anything

Starting point is 00:06:27 negative about Julio. Like he's just a player, guys. You just, you judge him like you would any other player and right now Julio is struggling and he's not doing very similar to the discourse around Russell Wilson especially towards the end of Russell's time in Seattle so let's answer a few more questions here in just a moment but first reminder this episode of the lockdown errors podcast is brought to you by LinkedIn and Monopoly Go. Are you struggling to close deals B2B selling is tougher than never and that's why I want to tell you about LinkedIn sales navigator LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales intelligence platform that helps professionals effectively prospect and engage high-value customers, drive higher revenue, and increase sales performance.

Starting point is 00:07:10 Sales Navigator helps you target the right buyers, surface key signals such as job changes or which accounts you should prioritize, and shows you hidden allies so you can find those buyers that are most likely to convert. Fueled by LinkedIn's one billion member platform, sales Navigator gives you the most up-to-date, first party data enabling you to unlock conversations with people that matter. Right now you could try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a 60 day free trial at LinkedIn.com slash locked on. That is LinkedIn.com slash LOC, KD, ON for a 60 day free trial. Let LinkedIn Sales Navigator help you sell like a superstar today.

Starting point is 00:07:54 Just go to LinkedIn.com slash locked on and get started. I'm a very competitive person and my competitive side is a big fan of Monopoly Go. I'm sure you've heard of it. It's been downloaded over 150 million times. But if not, it's a great twist on Monopoly where you play on not one, but hundreds of Monopoly boards and crazy locations building up amazing cities that bring you big money. But the best part is messing with my friends. I can charge them rent on my iconic properties just like classic Monopoly, but now I can also rob their vaults of riches for myself and the leaderboard show me who the biggest monopoly tycoon is but it's not just my competitive side that loves it you can team up with friends and

Starting point is 00:08:37 people all around the world in time tournaments to earn huge rewards so get in the game and join your friends download monopoly go now free on the app store or google play and you're listening to the locked on marries podcast thank you again for making us your first listen marries the twins squaring off tonight and catch all the action on the Mariners hometown broadcast with Sirius XM on the SXM app. All you have to do to find that is search Mariners. Let's get back into your questions here on Mailbag Monday. Zach wants to know when do you think Brian Wu makes his debut? Hancock is scheduled for Tuesday but will Wu make the start on Sunday? Yeah so Wu and Hancock weren't lined up anymore

Starting point is 00:09:22 on their rotation turn. So it doesn't obviously they're not going to push Wu on three days rest to make this start on Tuesday. So Hancock's going to get that start. But I think it makes a ton of sense to just, you know, keep Wu in the Northwest and then he can just meet up with the team when they get back for the weekend series. So yeah, I think Saturday or Sunday is when we'll see Brian Wu.

Starting point is 00:09:42 We'll see what they want to do. Obviously Kirby had the MRI on his knee. And so that's, you know, precaution, blah, blah, blah. But maybe they want to push him back and then they can kind of finagle it so that. Like a 10-day I-L him and skip his start and then have Hancock, or Wu, make that start. and then have Kirby back after one missed start if they want. Right.

Starting point is 00:10:02 But assuming there's no surprise late setback, yeah, I think Blue makes his debut against Oakland this weekend. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Probably Sunday, but it could be Saturday. Wesley wants to know, according to baseball savant page, T-Mobile Parks seems to have the largest factor on strikeouts

Starting point is 00:10:18 to both home and visiting offenses. Being that the Marine layer really doesn't affect strikeouts, why do you think everyone strikes out more at T-Mobile? And what can change it? I know people have talked about like an angled batting eye, whatever. I don't really know much about that to really theorize on that and give you my opinion on that. I think I think some of it is just like the mayor's pitching staff is really freaking good. Like isn't.

Starting point is 00:10:42 Yeah. Isn't the obvious answer that the Mariners strike out a lot and their pitching staff strikes out a lot of people? Yeah. Yeah. And their offense has been striking out a lot. And they've been striking out a lot on the road too. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:10:54 Well, it's just like the last two years, the Mariners have like, been first or second in strikeout percentage. So obviously nobody plays more games at T-Mobile Park than the Mariners. And then their pitching staff is really freaking good. So they're going to strike out guys, you know, more so than the average pitching staff. So isn't the answer just because the Mariners strike out a lot and their pitching staff strikes out a lot of people? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:11:16 Like, isn't that the most likely answer? Yeah. Next question here from Matthew. What would it have a similar trade package look like for Louisa Rice from the Marrars? and would you guys have done that trade right now for him? They got a couple, what? A couple good solid AA outfielders in this deal. They also got a reliever who, you know, whatever.

Starting point is 00:11:39 He's a lottery ticket. So I think if you're looking at this from the mayor's perspective, and again, assuming that they view prospects similar, blah, blah, blah, all that. I think this is probably Tyler Locklear is in this deal. I think it's probably Classet, maybe, in this deal. And then I think it's I see this is where Gabriel Gonzalez would have fit really nice.

Starting point is 00:12:11 Like you kind of need that like fringe top 100 guy to kind of complete this. And I feel like Locklear is pretty close to fringe top 100 right now. It feels like you need another one. So I feel like it's like Locklear, Class A. and then maybe it's like somebody like Carlos Vargas and then you know it's kind of like a 12 to 15 prospect somebody in there and again depending on how close the marl like a Jeter Martinez perhaps but it kind of depends on how close the the Padres want their or the Marlins want the prospects and those guys are in double A both of those guys

Starting point is 00:12:49 have a shot to make their debut this year so that would be Claucay and Locklear and that that regard and then you look at for an interesting reliever to kind of make up for the fact that Locklear is a first base only. I think you're looking at Vargas or maybe like a Jeter Martinez type. I think you're looking at something like that would be my guess. Yeah. The Marlins also ate all of Arise's money. Right. Which so maybe instead you would trade tie France to them and that would be like a swap of of the salaries essentially. Sure. And because a rise is probably playing first base for you with the way this roster is constructed yeah so i think that would make the most sense right uh but it'd be like brantz locklear clause vargas something like that yeah um

Starting point is 00:13:39 and i mean like i wouldn't have hated it but i i think a rise is a bit overrated uh because you know he he's a good hitter don't get me he's a very good hitter really good uh that's it like no power doesn't draw a ton of walks. So if he's only going to hit like 270, 280 in a year, which maybe he doesn't hit 350. If he's only going to hit 270, 280, then his on base is going to be pre-pedestrian.

Starting point is 00:14:05 And again, you're getting no defensive value. You're getting no base running value. You're getting very little pop out of a rise. So, yeah, I mean, obviously you'd like a guy who can just make a ton of contact and all that stuff. And he would fit pretty well from that regard. And he could play second. Like, he's not awful. but he's probably that belongs at first base or DH. So I don't think I would have done that deal because I don't think France is,

Starting point is 00:14:32 you know, I would rather take the chance on France giving me some power over a rise. And I don't know if he makes me that much better to give up, you know, Locklear and Classe and, you know, Jeter Martine or whoever it is, right? Whatever the pitcher is, the high upside pitcher. So I don't I wouldn't have been upset if they did it. In fact, I probably would have been pretty happy because I like the teams are aggressive.

Starting point is 00:14:58 But like it's it's not like I would have been like, oh, they, they, you know, woodshetted the, the Marlins. I think I would have been like,

Starting point is 00:15:05 okay, like I get it. I understand it. Don't love it. Don't hate it. I think it's a, I think the message it was sent to your clubhouse would be, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:14 pretty good. Like, hey, we believe in you this early that we're going to go out and get this guy, this all star for you. Yeah. So yeah, I would have been fine with it. I'm totally fine that they didn't do it.

Starting point is 00:15:25 And I'm also totally fine if they just really didn't have any interest in their eyes because I understand why they would. If the Marlins are open for business now, which maybe they are, maybe they are. Maybe it's just like, hey, if we get like a deal that we just can't possibly refuse, we'll do it now. But otherwise, we'll wait. Still didn't look like it. But again, beauty in the eye of the beholder. Well, they said, I mean, Peter Bendix said that that was a lot of. deal that they couldn't refuse that they can pass up on.

Starting point is 00:15:52 So they really like the young bats, which is fine. Yeah. Yeah. I think they did okay. I don't think the Marlins did terrible for a May trade or anything like that. I think they did fine. But if they're open for business, I would check in on Tanner Scott, who's not off to a good start. He's really struggling with the walks, but he was by F4 standards last year, the most

Starting point is 00:16:10 valuable reliever in all of baseball. If you can get him fairly cheap because he is a rental and try to fix him, cool. I'd be down for that. I know some people really want Brian Dela Cruz. I'm not super on board with that, but I won't get it if they, yeah. He's a, he's a bandaid.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Yeah, and then of course, jazz chism. Jazz is the big one. Yeah, we're probably going to get asked about jazz a lot. Sure. In the coming months, I assume. Yeah, I mean, like Bell, Josh Bell could make some sense. Josh Bell, you'd have to eat some of that salary, but Marlins already did that once.

Starting point is 00:16:42 Would they do it again? Maybe. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's some pieces, some bullpen arms. they could go crazy and go get, you know, Jesus Lazzardo and then just bump Brian Wood to the bullpen and that would be the high leverage arm. So they could get a little crazy here.

Starting point is 00:16:56 Wild and wacky. Yeah, Lazzardo's got the flexor strain. So it's mild, but we know how that goes. So we'll see. But yeah, the Marlins are certainly a team that are going to have some pieces that make sense for Seattle. All right. We got a couple more questions from you guys in just a moment.

Starting point is 00:17:15 But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown, Mare's podcast is brought to you by Yahoo Finance. Wouldn't it be great if you could see all of your investment and retirement accounts in one place? With Yahoo Finance, you can consolidate your views from multiple accounts into one hub and access the expert analysis you need to tend to your entire portfolio with confidence. For more than 25 years, Yahoo Finance has been the brand behind every great investor. Whether you're a seasoned investor or you're looking for that extra guidance, Yahoo finance gives you all the tools and data you need in one place.

Starting point is 00:17:52 With a community of over 90 million users each month, their real strength is helping you on your way to financial success. For comprehensive financial news and analysis, visit the brand behind every great investor, Yahoofinance.com, the number one financial destination, yahoofinance.com. That's yahoofinance.com.

Starting point is 00:18:19 listening to the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen here on Mailbag Monday. Once again, you can catch the Mariners and the Twins on the Marrars hometown broadcast with SiriusXM on the XXM app tonight. All you have to do is search Mariners. A couple more questions here from you guys. We're going to start here with D. Panky. D. Panky wants to know. I've seen some mention the Mariners aren't serious about their run scoring issues at home. I would think their first round draft picks the last three years of high contact and athletic players would suggest otherwise. A lack of payroll also hasn't helped. Thoughts, look, that's essentially what you described, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:58 high contact players who don't strike out of time. That's essentially what they were thinking that they were buying this off season. That's what they thought they were building this offense out of this off season. And it just hasn't worked out that way so far this year for one reason or the other. Is it a coaching thing? Is it a player issue? Whatever? Who knows?

Starting point is 00:19:18 Right. Who knows? But yeah, it just, you know, they've tried to build their offense like that. Yeah. Payroll kind of plays a role, sure. But again, it's just really hard to get hitters to want to come here because of obvious reasons, right? So, you know, there's not much you do short of, you know, putting an entire dome over to Mobile Park and making it an indoor ballpark and just eliminating the Marine layer. or moving in the fences to a ridiculous margin to where in the summer the ballpark is going to play like, you know, the number one hitters ballpark on the planet.

Starting point is 00:19:58 And that's not going to do anything for you because then your pitching is going to suffer. So accept it. You know, it's part of what happens in Marinersland. Even the 2001 team didn't have a robust offense in April. So it's just, it's part of it. It's going to be cold. It's going to be windy. it's going to be wet early in the season.

Starting point is 00:20:18 And, you know, your ballpark's pretty big. You've already shortened the fences a couple times. You've tried some things. And it just is what it is. Like the team definitely cares about scoring runs. But, you know, you got to also remember that the Marine layer really only comes into effect for like, what, 40 games out of 162 for you. So you don't want to overcorrect just to try and solve the problem in the first month and then create a problem later down the same. the road.

Starting point is 00:20:47 So the team absolutely cares about scoring runs. Anybody suggesting that they don't is stupid. Let's just call it what it is. They're stupid. So yeah, clearly they care. Payroll is part of it. Sure. But there are just some things you can't change.

Starting point is 00:21:01 Like the weather in Seattle and the early spring, it's a tough environment to hit in. So yeah. And, you know, selling free agents on that, it's always going to be a tough sell. So I'm not saying that you don't try to do it a little bit better. but I don't think you're ever going to see the Mariners at Team Mobile Park be like, oh, they have a juggernaut offense in April. Like, probably not. It's just something you have to deal with.

Starting point is 00:21:25 GameFace Sports wants to know. Would you go all in to try to win the World Series this year with this pitching staff, meaning trade away future picks or best minor league prospects or even some of our pitching to add in some big name bats to the lineup? Real quick on that. So you can't trade future picks. Like, let's just make that clear.

Starting point is 00:21:43 You can trade away compensatory picks. which the mayor has did this offseason. They had a compensatory round B pick in this upcoming draft. They traded that to the White Sox for Gregory Santos. I'm not on board with trading the pitching, specifically the top five guys, any of your top five guys in your rotation. But every prospect should be on the table.

Starting point is 00:22:04 Every single prospect. Right. Don't one's off limits. Right. But it doesn't mean you just give them away. Yeah. Especially if you are, in the position that you're in right now,

Starting point is 00:22:18 meaning you're in first place in the AOS come the trade deadline or come mid-July, whatever, right, when you start engaging in these conversations. This team... Particularly if it's a two-team race. This team might not be better set up than it is right now to win a World Series

Starting point is 00:22:33 because of how affordable a lot of their roster is at the moment, especially their pitching. They have, once Brian Wu returns to the rotation, five legit dudes in that rotation, and, you know, starting next year, you know, guys are going to get more expensive via arbitration. Boulio is going to start making more money as part of his, as part of his contract. This is the time to strike, right? You don't have to push all your chips in and start getting reckless, right?

Starting point is 00:23:03 But this is absolutely the time. Like, they need to, again, if they're in the position that they're in right now, come the trade deadline, they need to make another Luis Castillo type of trade, right? They need to make. And then after that, make more significant additions than the Kirk Casales of the world, the Jake Lambs of the world, the Bathyboids of the world. They have to do more than that after. Right.

Starting point is 00:23:24 You could still make those trades and like spruce up the bench and the bullpen a little bit. Fine, whatever. But it's like we need a Luis Castillo trade. And then we need like a, you know, it's hard to think of like a mid level impact trade that Jerry DePoto's made at the deadline. But like a Diego Castillo, right? Like, except. But maybe the hitting version.

Starting point is 00:23:43 of that. Yeah. Yeah. Like, well, hopefully the hitting version of Castillo, but like, if it's just like,

Starting point is 00:23:48 hey, we got, you know, this elite reliever and then we went out and we got like this 120 WRC plus bat. It's like, okay,

Starting point is 00:23:57 that's fine too. But like, yeah, this is a year to get aggressive. To push all your chips in on one single year, no, don't do that. But to get really aggressive with it,

Starting point is 00:24:07 sure. Yeah. Okay. So that is going to do it for us. Before we get out of here, a reminder. that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube, and now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app.

Starting point is 00:24:23 Locked-on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows covering every league to find Lockdown Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadangis. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby at C-Bat-11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1.

Starting point is 00:24:47 You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first. Listen, have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Do the Mariners Need to Go All-In on 2024?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.