Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Does the Seattle Mariners' Rotation Have a Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo PROBLEM?!

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Ty and Colby review the Mariners' pitching staff through the first 26 games, diving deeper into the numbers to identify what's worked, as well as some concerning signs. Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club! Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server! Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Turbo Tax Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert, and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot.  Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to find a store near you and book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get two-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pitching has been the Mariners' greatest strength through the first 26 games, but it's also been an issue at times, especially in their last series with the A's. So we're going to dive into the numbers a bit and talk about the staff and more coming up here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Thursday, April 23rd, 2026.

My name is Tad de Gazzalus, and I'm joined as always by my. my co-s Colby Pat noted on today's show we'll be doing a little bit of a team review 26 games into the season now we're mostly going to be looking at the pitching set of things but I also want to talk a little bit more about what Julio's doing because he's off to a really nice start but for the most part we're

going to do a big picture review of the mayor's pitching staff and also get into some of the specifics like you know Andres Munoz's the struggles for example but let's just start with an overall review here of the mayor's starters Colby the rotation has been a big

part of this thing so far for the Mariners. They have thrown the most innings of any starting rotation and all baseball 150 and a third, which is really good because that obviously has a positive trickle down effect on the bullpen and bullpen usage that obviously didn't show up in this

past series against the A's, but for the most part, the Mariners starters have been able to get deep more often the knot into their starts. They're not striking out a ton of guys. 16th right now in Ks per 9, but they're first in walks per nine not issuing any free passes at all. ERA rise, they're seventh right now in the league.

And then FIPP wise, they're fifth in the league. Three, three, three, two, FIP. And according to fan graphs, they are the fourth most valuable starting rotation and all of baseball right now at 3.3 F.4. So the rotation as a whole has been really good. But like we talked about yesterday, Colby, it's once you get into those individual performances, you start talking about the Logan Gilberts and the Lewis Castillo's of the world where they start to become some some problems that crop up.

Yeah. Obviously, Logan's problems are the same as they were last year. He's really struggled to get deep into outings except for twice this year. He did get deep, you know, which was nice to see. But overall, yeah, he's just been kind of what he was last year, which is a five and dive type of guy. who goes out there and he might get you, you know, eight strikeouts, but again, if he's only getting you 15 outs every five days, that's a bit of a problem.

And this last series, it was exacerbated because Luis only went five and Hancock only went five. So you had three days in a row where your bullpen had to get, you know, your bullpen in the series had to get, what, 39 outs in three games, which is quite a bit, quite a lot. and the bullpen, you weren't able to stack your bullpen the way you wanted to because some guys weren't available because they had pitched three of the last four days. I mean, you were in a position yesterday where had you not gotten that hit from Naylor, you were going to throw Alex Hoppe in his major league debut in the 10th inning, you know, in a high leverage spot because you didn't have anybody else. Bizarro and Inspire obviously not available yesterday at all.

So, you know, it is kind of that problem. And it's right now also Luis Castillo is having a bit of. of a problem getting deeper into games, which is not great because now you have two guys going back to back who kind of struggling to get through five on an average night. And that's just not going to fly with the bullpen. I mean, at that point now, if Hancock only goes five or if, you know, Kirby happens to have an outing where he only goes four or five, now you're in real trouble. Now the Mariners haven't had a lot of days off so far.

they played the they played more games or the highest number of games of anybody this season. Nobody's played more games than them. It's also a normal way to say that. So yeah, it's just one of those things where like the innings, they leave the league and innings pitch from the rotation. It's like, yeah, they've played, you know, nobody's played more games than them. So that's part of it. But part of it too is that, you know, they had a George Kirby complete game.

They've had what, I think four outings already of seven plus innings, not counting the Kirby complete game. So, yeah, they've done a really nice job, but it's mostly been Wu and it's been Kirby, and Hancock is more in that camp. He usually goes six. So, yeah, it's a little bit of a tricky thing here because the starting pitching has been very good overall

as you laid out in the numbers. And it is the reason that you've kind of avoided disaster here. I know it feels like disaster, but there are four games under 500 with 135 to go. Like, they're fine. So overall, the biggest problem with this team and why they're four games under 500 is the offense still. But that doesn't mean that the pitching has been perfect and that the pitching has been, you know, we don't have to worry about it. And there's no way we can improve it or anything like that because you absolutely can.

But yeah, right now the starting pitching in particular has been very good overall. But, you know, you kind of start checking in on some guys. We'll see what happens now that there's a little bit of a book out on Hancock and the new arm angle. his next start will be very interesting. And then obviously Logan Gilbert kind of continuing with the same problems he had last year. And Luis Castillo is in a little bit of a funk as well. So, yeah, the rotation, you know, could get a little bit dicey here. But for right now, it's pretty good.

You know, Bryce Miller's on his way back. We'll tackle that, you know, quote, problem when we get to it. But, yeah, the rotation's been good. There's no question about it. But, you know, there are some some, some, of flags or maybe some yellow flags, like just like, they're not problems yet, per se, but something to keep an eye on in track as we go forward. Again, it's that Gilbert Castillo stack that worries me and how that's going to impact,

not just the games that they pitch in, but future games. And again, like you said, like if, you know, a turn through the rotation, Lou doesn't go six or Kirby doesn't go six or Hancock doesn't go six or Miller when he gets back, he doesn't go six. Now you're in a tough spot, you know, having to essentially rely on Castillo or Gilbert to be able to get deep into one of their starts.

Now, Castillo, I'm not as worried about in that regard because this isn't an issue that's lingered now for over a year, whereas that is the case with Logan Gilbert. I have legitimate concerns about Gilbert's ability to give you innings with any sort of consistency right now

because it just hasn't happened for the past what 40 starts or so that he's had. So again, you know, we saw exactly the kind of impact that, the kind of negative impact that that can have on this team over the course of this A's series. And it's concerning, especially if, you know, one of the other three guys start to take a little bit of a step back here.

You're going to need Gilbert and Castillo to step up. Those are supposed to be, you know, two of your, your horses here in this rotation. I mean, like, you can argue that all five guys, you know, once you have Millie back in the rotation. All five of your guys are horses, but, you know, Gilbert and Castillo are supposed to be the guys in this rotation. And objectively, they've been the two worst guys so far through the first 26 games of the season. Now, despite some of the not necessarily red flags, we'll call them orange flags for now in this Mariners rotation. I think you have to feel pretty good about what the group has done

overall, especially after the struggles last year, where things get interesting in the Sparrow's pitching staff. though is in the bullpen. We'll talk about that group in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the lockdown errors podcast is brought to you by five hour energy. If you've got a sweet tooth like I do, then you know how tough it is to find that perfect treat without all the sugar. That's why the confetti craze five hour energy shot brings that nostalgic flavor back in a whole new way. This is that classic taste you remember, but with a tasty caffeine boost and zero sugar. It's a quick, easy way to satisfy that sweet craving while keeping things simple and on the go.

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and unstoppably energized. The fun fetti flavor is back on five-hour energy.com or Amazon. So crack open a confetti craze five-hour energy shot today. And you're listening to the Locktime Mariner's podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things,

Mariners, and also thank you for making the Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Don't forget to check out the Everydayer Club for ad-free episodes and access to a group chat with me and other listeners of this show. That's the link in the description or go to lockdown mariners.com to learn more. So let's get into some of these standard numbers

on the Mariners Bullpen. to kick things off here, Colby. Of course, like I said, earlier on in the episode, they haven't thrown many innings. They've thrown the fifth fewest innings in all of Major League Baseball, 81 innings flat for this bullpen.

They're not really striking out many guys, though. You know, 8,67Ks per 9, that's middle of the pack right now. They're also not walking guys, though. So very similar to how the Mariners starting rotation is handling business. They're actually fairly in line with rotation in terms of some of these numbers.

3-2-2 walks per 9. That's not tops in the league like the Marin's rotation, but it's still good enough for a top-five placement. They're tied for fourth with the Mets in that regard. ERA-wise, they're eighth right now, 34-4-4-ERA, and then FIPP-wise, they're fourth. They're even better in that regard among all bullpins

and Major League Baseball 351. The issue here, though, or like the thing that kind of stands out, the negative potential negative, that stands out here from the standard numbers is, again, not striking out a lot of guys, also not getting a lot of ground balls. So a lot of stuff is in the air against this bullpen right now.

They're running the fifth lowest ground ball rate and all of major league baseball, 38.1 percent. Thankfully, that hasn't led to too many homers right now. They're actually six right now. They have the sixth lowest home run per nine. 0.67. Yes, yes. The meme, uh, six, seven, whatever.

whatever. Anyway, grow up. That said, though, like the standard numbers say this is one of the better bullpins in Major League Baseball, though I've also seen in the Marys fan base that, you know, a lot of people feel the bullpen is a problem. I'm not necessarily there. I think there are problems within the bullpen. I think depth is a big problem for the bullpen right now. I don't think the unit as a whole, though, is a problem. And I think there is enough positives here in this group to not say that just yet,

to not go to that extreme. And I feel like ultimately a lot of their issues so far have been magnified by the fact that the Samarra's offense is mediocre at best right now. They're 19th right now and runs scored. They've scored 101 runs in 26 games. That's only a 3.8 runs per game rate. they were averaging 4.7 runs for game last year. So they've significantly regressed in that regard.

And that's made the margin for error for the Smares pitching staff, this rotation included, very slim. So I think that that has to be part of the discussion here. But there are some things here that we do need to talk about in the Smyra's bullpen. So where do you want to start? Yeah. We'll start with, I can't really back it up with numbers, but so just a vibe. It does seem, to me at least, just watching the games that Spolpins actually at its

worst when they're trying to keep a game where it's at, you know, when they're trailing by one or two and trying to give the offense a chance to come back. And they tend to give up, you know, they allow tack-on runs. Like they're actually okay when they have a lead. I mean, obviously, you know, Munoz has blown two leads last week, but whatever. For the most part, they're pretty good at that. But it does seem, at least to, you know, my observation that they actually struggle more when they are trying to keep the game where it's at. But whatever, again, I don't have the numbers right now to back that up.

So just a vibe. But, yeah, I came across some red flags when looking at this bullpen. Got them written down here. Now, these are as of yesterday before yesterday's game was counted. So they're not going to be perfect, but they're going to be close enough. So like you mentioned, this bullpen's not really striking anybody out. They only have two relievers when the above average K percentage, which just for the record is 22.2%. And they only have two guys that are above that.

Now, I think they have, maybe it spires at like 22% flat. So close enough. So three. But still, less than half the bullpen is striking out guys in an acceptable rate. They only have one reliever with a win. probability added of above 0.02. And four of them, four of the relievers in the bullpen have a negative win probability added.

And they have the sixth lowest win probability added as a team, as an entire bullpen. So now, again, one of those guys is Jose Ferrer. Does your eye test tell you Jose Ferrer's been terrible? No, or at least it shouldn't. So again, these are just numbers really. I mean, these are all small sample sizes as well, so things can change very quickly. This team has the highest line drive percentage allowed this bullpen does with the fourth, worst ground ball percentage or fifth, whatever it is.

They also have the highest batting average allowed against them as a unit. They are bottom 10 in whip, which is pretty much all coming from hits because they don't walk anybody, as you mentioned. here's a slightly concerning number or fact rather. You know, Jose Ferrer has appeared in exactly half the games the Marriers have played. He's pitched in 13 of the 26 games the Marriers have played. That's absurd. Yeah.

Especially national. Nationals used him a lot last year. Yeah. Marin is now using him a lot this year. And, you know, like we learned last year, they're not afraid to essentially run their guys into the ground. Right. And, you know, Bizarro,

one of those guys who is struggling with walks right now. Is that a direct correlation to his overusage last year? I don't know, but it wasn't really a problem last year. So not great. The team's 20th and XERA and XIP. So, you know, the expected numbers aren't what you want them to be. So despite, you know, their actual ERA and their actual FIP being very good, the XFIP and XER says that they've been a little bit lucky, but we'll get to that in a minute.

they've had nine save opportunities this year. They've blown four of them. I mean, you're blowing half of the games that you have a chance to win. I mean, again, nobody's going to be perfect. But let's say that they have blown, you know, just one of the nine save opportunities. That's three more wins. Like we're talking about first place team at that point. Sounds to me like they're having an issue winning the game in the fourth quarter, Colby.

Well, I mean, as we know, you can't win it in the first. second or third unless you're facing the 49ers on, I don't know, divisional weekend. So, yeah, those are kind of the big problems right now. There were obviously reasons for optimism that I found. For example, the walk rate is fantastic. It's right where you want it to be. Actually, it's exceptional.

They also have the highest BAP-Hip in baseball, which is batting average in balls in play, but they're middle in the pack of like hard-hit percentage. Now, hard-hit percentage is weird because like different places calculated it differently. So whatever. Either way, they're not giving up a ton of hard contact, yet they're giving up a ton of hits, which would seem to indicate, you know, a little bit of bad luck. And if you've watched Jose Ferrer pitch at all this year, you know what I'm talking about. So. Yeah. And they're also fifth and in FIPP, again, as of yesterday before the game.

So lots of positives. Really what it comes down to, though, or what at least comes down to in in my eye when I look at the numbers is they need to strike out more dudes, definitely. But also, you know, when balls are being put in play, they're turning into hits more frequently. And part of that could be bad luck. Part of that is an ineffective defense. So, you know, one of those things isn't going to change, at least not dramatically here anytime soon. So it really is kind of one of those things where it's like, look, they need to miss more bats. They need to strike more guys out because the defense isn't very good.

And right now they are just for whatever reason, struggling to turn soft contact into outs as consistently as other teams are. And so getting more swing and miss, getting more strikeouts, putting in the ball and play less would be very valuable to the Mariners right now. But they also have individuals who are struggling like Bizarro has got a walk rate, I think, of 12 percent now. Munoz has obviously struggled and obviously the big blow-up outing. The other day really kind of carries the water for that. was saved yesterday, ranted, Nick hurts, so that's going to happen sometimes, but

yeah, it's just, you know, Spire's been fine, but he's not striking guys out like he did last year, and Ferrear, again, just any time a ball's put in play against him, you're like, oh, that's probably going to be a hit, even if it's right to the shortstop.

But, like, yeah, it's just kind of one of the things where it's like, some of it's bad luck, some of it is mediocre stuff, Some of it is, you know, falling behind and then having to be very aggressive in the zone. So maybe they're not walking guys, but they're falling behind 3-1. Now they've got to throw a fastball down the middle and hope that it doesn't get hit far. So, yeah, the bullpen overall has been pretty good.

But there are some red flags in there. But I think they mostly stem from them. They need to find a way to get more strikeouts. Matt Brash hasn't really strike anybody out. Ferrer hasn't struck anybody out, like relative to what you were hoping. pretty much it's just Munoz and Wilcox. Those are the only two guys that have above average K percentages right now. And that's a problem because you can't trust Cole Wilcox right now.

So hopefully Hoppe can help with that. He is kind of a swing and miss guy. Yeah. But it's painfully clear. They're going to need more strikeouts from Brash. They're going to need more strikeouts from Spire. And yeah, obviously we get to July in a position where they can add the bullpen needs to be a high priority. And they need to get high leverage guys.

not, you know, the six-th inning guys who can get you three ground balls, they've got seven of those. Like, they need legit swing and miss stuff. The Mariners are building their bullpen in a way that's kind of like how the crack and build their lines. They got like six geribankans, essentially,

in their bullpen. Yeah, six Berkovskys. Is he even on the team still? No, he got traded to Chicago. What am I thinking of then? Who's the whatever? It doesn't matter. Borkstrand? he's also gone. No.

There's somebody on the team right now. That is like, Tolvinen? Maybe. Yeah. Or never Lee. No, whatever.

Either way, they're all the same player. That's why I get him. They're all like, I'm sorry. 20 goal guys, you know, fine,

but not like daddies, if you will. They're Bobby McMahon's. Like, who cares? Like, fine, whatever.

Helpful. But you need a star. You know, and the Mariners need moon. us to pitch like the star that he is and I'm sure he will at some point they need brash to find more whiffs like brash's been very good this year don't give me wrong but he is not the strikeout guy he used to be and uh that's that's a problem because you're kind of counting on it to be you

have to get swing and miss out of the bullpen especially when you're running out a dreadful defense like the mariners are and we talked about that all winter how they're building this bullpen and the building of their like run prevention they don't mesh at all so yeah two plus two doesn't equal four there. Right. It's just insane, frankly. So yeah, they need to find more strikeouts. It really is that simple. Just like the offense needs to hit home runs and it sounds like that's, you know, oh, that's way too simple. Like, no, that really is the problem. They need to slow more in the bullpen. They need to get more swing and miss. They need to get more strikeouts. So that's pretty much what we wanted to say about the mayor is pitching staff here through the first 26 games. But before we get out of here, I want to talk a little bit about what Julio Rodriguez is doing right now. He might be off to his,

best start to any season so far, despite the overall number is not really looking great. But over the last three weeks, he's actually been pretty darn great, despite not really slugging. So we'll go over those numbers in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the lockdown era's podcast is brought to you by Indeed. Workplace chaos. Deadline stacking up, inbox overflowing, and the one position you have to fill still sitting open. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsor jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for, skills, experience, location.

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Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And you're listening to the Locktime Mariners podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone. And on there, we talk Mariner, Seahawks, all that good stuff.

For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode. So as we all know, March and April has not been particularly kind to Julio Rodriguez. His highest WRC plus during the month of the month. months of March and April combined is 109. That was back in 2023. Aside from that, he's never eclipsed 100, which is league average, of course. In 2022, he posted a 62 WRC plus in 2024. He posted an 81 WRC plus.

Last year he got close, put up a 98 WRC plus. And this year he's at 94 right now. He's slashing 245, 339, 306. That slug is not pretty. But since the end of the first homestand, and we've been tracking this for a little while, and we've talked about this before on the show, but just giving you an update on it.

Since the end of the first homestand, so the start of the Angels series and beyond, Julio is slashing 306, 390, 389. That's a 133. WRC plus. And it's only a 20.7% K rate, 9.7 or 9.8% walk rate, rather. And he is hitting the ball hard right now. 38.2% 7.3% barrel rate.

It's just he's not lifting the ball. So it's been a lot of singles right now. It's been a lot of ground balls. He's getting to the pool side a little bit. He's just not lifting the ball to the pole side. but Julio has actually had a pretty good first month of the season in all. I mean, you think about some of the big moments that he's had already,

some of the clutch hits that he's had. And he's doing something that he really hasn't done. And that's hit for an extremely high average. And this overall, this version of Julio is not, you know, what you want to see. Like you need him to slug more.

You need him to hit for doubles and homers. That's what you pay, Julio for. But I mean, it's better than the alternative. You know, it's better than what we've typically seen from Julio in the months of March and April. It's obviously a very low bar to clear, but we might be seeing Julio off to the best start

of any season right now. I mean, yeah, it's pretty clear. I think the one thing we feel pretty good about from Julio is the power is going to eventually come. So it's really just a matter of like, hey, when you're not hitting for power, can you still find a way to contribute? And the answer for Julio this month really has been yes. I mean, again, it's the overall numbers are fine. But if you really break them down from, you know, after the first week of the season, he's been great minus the power output is not quite there.

But we are seeing him get pole side a little bit more recently. We just need to get him pole side in the air. And the home runs will come. So, you know, for Julio, it's really not like he has to make any dramatic changes or anything like that. And we've already seen him make a tweak and it's helped him, at least, you know, production-wise, it's very clearly helped him with his setup and, you know, resting the bat on his shoulder before the pitch comes. And it's kept him, you know, calmer, I guess, less anxious. And, you know, the walk rate is what it is.

And it's very good. And it is a step that can turn Julio from, you know, All-Star to Superstar. are so long as the power also comes. And I think we know that it will. It's not a bad speed issue. It's not, you know, like he's forgotten how to hit home runs. It's not like he's made a wholesale change, kind of like Randy has, where he's trying to, you know, hit for a higher average. He's still doing the things he does.

He's just being a little bit more disciplined. And he's finding hits even when he's not quite getting the ball airborne because he's still hitting the ball very hard. So if Julio's not going to chase as much. And we've already seen Julio work a lot of, a lot of deep counts relative to what he did last year. a lot of, you know, a lot of O2 counts that become 3-2 because, you know, pitchers keep on trying to get him to chase that slider off the plate and he's recognizing it or he's spoiling it. And so Julio's having really good at bats right now.

Essentially, if Julio had like four home runs right now or five home runs right now, we'd probably still be talking like MVP Julio season is loading. So, you know, again, the power is going to come. We know he's going to, he's going to slug 450 to 500, maybe a little bit higher than that. and there's always the upside for more. But if he's going to hit, you know, 280 to 300 like he has the last couple of weeks, if he's going to post on base percentages, you know, in the high 300s like he is right now, then honestly, you can live without a little bit of power.

If Julio is just a 25 home run guy, but he's, you know, got a 380 on base and a 290 batting average, you're going to take that because that's a seven-win player, you know, and so. Yeah. But we know that the possibility of hitting 30, maybe 40, maybe 40, 40 is still there. And we know that Julio can do it even if he's not, even if he ends April with three home runs. We know he can certainly still get to 35, 40 because we've seen him do it.

So yeah, this has been a really good year for Julio, uh, offensively. Defensively, you know, been good, not great. Uh, a couple of balls that he doesn't get to. He looks slower to me this year. I don't know if that's, you know, a, uh, you know, like a, he's maybe got like a, a little something something that he's trying to play through or if it's just you know he's 25 now and maybe he lost a step i don't know but he's still plenty fast i mean his his sprint speed has

has gone down this year yeah is that 29.2 last year it's down to 28.4 this year right it doesn't seem like a lot but i've seen some balls in the gap that like last year Julio catches that and this year he he can't track it down and again maybe it's just it's cold and he's just a little tight and And once things warm up, he'll really, you know, whatever it is. And he's still very fast. He's still a well above average runner. But there's been some balls, you know, in the infield that like, I think Julio beats that out last year.

And there's some balls in the alpha that's like, yeah, Julio tracks that last year. But other than that, he's been very good. And we talked about, you know, Julio can't, we need Julio to get off to a fast start. Well, I mean, he has. It's just now we're going to move the goalpost on him and be like, oh, well, actually, no, he has to get off to a hot start with power. We don't care if he's, you know, a 130 WRC plus guy.

if it's all, you know, singles and walks. So, yeah, Julio's been fantastic this year, really again, since that second series against the Yankees. And hopefully you can keep it going because it looks like Cal and Josh are starting to find their stride too. And if those three guys can hit all the way Randy's playing right now, maybe they stay all, maybe they all stay hot until Brennan Donovan comes back. Then you can really start to stack a bunch of runs and a bunch of wins here in the next month or so. remember like a week or so ago we were talking about in zone contact rate with this team and how much they were struggling in that department you know cal was the worst uh among all qualified hitters in that regard uh hollio was third worst

julio is now up to an 81.4 percent in zone contact rate which is still not like amazing but it's significantly better than where he was i think he was around like 73 percent looking at those end zone contact rates by the way Cal now 23rd, 80% in zone contact rate. So he's getting to pitches inside the strike zone a lot more. The mayors don't have anyone in the top 20 now. Cole Young's at 21, or the bottom 20, I should say. So big improvement there from the offense as a whole. But yeah, Julio, again, it's not the Julio that we ultimately want to see. But like I said earlier,

It's better than the alternative. It's better than what we've typically seen from Julio around this time of year. It's a Julio you don't necessarily want to see, but it's still a productive Julio. Whereas in the past, Julio that you didn't want to see, you know, wasn't all that productive. He was like an 80 WRC plus guy, a 90 WRC plus guy. So, yeah, Julio has been great. And if the power starts to come, then, yeah, I mean, look, is it going to be the MVP? I don't know.

Aaron Judge still exist. But, like, yeah, could he have that type of year? Could he be, you know, could this actually be the breakout year? Well, I mean, if part of, you know, confirming a breakout year was that he got off to a good start in April. So far, so good. So, yeah, you just have to, you know, trust that the power is going to come. And right now, while you're waiting for it to arrive, it's still pretty good to see Julio hit like this and drive the ball around the ballpark and take walks and work counts and not. not chase as much.

Like it's a really good sign from Julio over the last three weeks or so. All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown mirrors podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Lockdown Every Day or Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members, only Discord and more.

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