Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Go Go, Bauers Rangers!

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

Join Locked On Mariners hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode as they break down the Mariners' big come-from-behind victory over the Athletics last night. They also get you set for this afternoon's series finale between the A's and Mariners and wrap things up by debating if Seattle should consider extending left-handed pitcher Tyler Anderson.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: http://patreon.com/controlthezone/BetOnlineThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Alaska AirlinesIt's now easier than ever to travel globally because Alaska Airlines has joined OneWorld. Visit AlaskaAir.com/OneWorld for more information.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Spotify GreenroomThis episode is brought to you by Spotify Greenroom. Download the Spotify Greenroom app and find one of our Locked On rooms. 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.

You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode of Locked-on Mariners is brought to you by Rock Auto. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit Rock Auto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. It is Tuesday, August 24th, 2021. This is the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Your home for Daily Seattle Mariner's News and analysis.

I am your host, Tiding Gonzalez. Join, as always, by my co-host, Colby Patnode. The Mariners done, did it again. Yet another comeback victory for the Mariners last night. This time against the Oakland A's by a score of five to three. We're going to talk Thai France. We're going to talk Jake Bowers. We're going to look at some of the numbers the Mariners' offense has put up in high-leverage situations.

We're also going to get you set for this afternoon series finale against the A's at 1237 Pacific Time. Chris Flexen against Cole Irvin. And we're also going to talk about Tyler Anderson. and the model of consistency for the Mariners and whether or not they should extend him slash resign him this winner. But first, I want to remind you to give this show a follow or subscribe to it wherever you prefer your podcast.

We'd greatly appreciate it. Yesterday, we talked about the Mariners comeback win and Hussum, which was thanks in part to a game tying home run from Thai France on the top of the ninth. And now today we're talking about another game tying home run from Thai France and the top of the ninth. Colby, I know what you want to talk. about or rather who you want to talk about and we'll get to that in a moment but tie france man this

guy is putting this offense on his back and colby you said it last night it's time to get him more at bats and get him in that number two spot in the lineup or even hit him lead off yeah you know it's uh it seems weird to me that you know anybody would would demand that j p crawford get the most at bats on this team. It feels weird to me that anybody would demand that anybody but Ty France would get the most at-bats on this team. But that's what the lead-off hitter gets. And, you know, sometimes he gets the same number of at-bats, but he never gets fewer.

And I, to me, I mean, having tie France in the lead-off spot seems like such a no-brainer. I don't really understand it. But, you know, last night again, another hit, another game tying home run in the ninth. Actually had three hard hit balls aside from the home run or with the home run. So the one for four, but he was, he was right on it. He was hitting everything hard once again. So, yeah, it's becoming kind of a common place here. He's creeping up on that 300 batting average.

And, you know, hitting 300 in 2021 is like hitting 330 back in the early 2000. So, I mean, it's, it's a legitimately great season for him. And the power is starting to show up the last few weeks, which is, I think, you know, something that we probably expected, just, the guy's such a good hitter and he's such natural raw power that it was only a matter of time before it started showing up in games and now it is and so of course we also have to talk about the babb of god jake bowers the bowers rangers once again just absolutely vibing he saw all the tweets yesterday complaining about him being in the lineup and after being one of the reasons they won that final game in houston he comes through with a game winning two rbi single last night to make it five to three because that's just what jake bowers does he sets up Paul Seawald to shut the door. And in his last five games, Bowers is five for 12 with a double, the two RBIs that he had last night, a walk and two stolen bases. He's been pretty good the last week.

And an outfield assist. Boom. Yeah, that was an experience last night. That's called the long con. Okay. You're just your simple mind can't comprehend it. But it turned out to be a very big play because the next hitter hit a Matt Olson hit a home run. So it would have been 40 to do.

And you might not ever gotten the Thai France homer and all that stuff. But yeah, Bowers continues to look, you know, better up at the plate. It is funny. You know, a lot of his hits just seem to, you know, like there's kind of thrown in the right spot. And even his first hit was, you know, shift. beating kind of jammed him a little bit here. The last step at though was, you know, a good piece of hitting. He fouled off, you know, he took a couple really close pitches.

And then he took a change up that was probably off the outside corner and he just kind of flipped it into left field past the shortstop and got the two big insurance runs or two big, you know, game winning runs. Go ahead runs. Yeah. And yeah, it's the, it's it's Bauer out. It's Bauer's hours, baby. So, you know, I think we might seem in the lineup a little bit more going forward.

where Seattle's kind of in a spot where they have to, you know, they have to roll with the hot hand, so to speak, because we're 37 games out and they still have some ground to make up. So, you know, if Bowers probably continue to sprinkle him in a little bit more against Rides and if he continues to hit, it's probably time to give him a shot. So listen to this. In high-leverage situations in the eighth, ninth, and the extra innings, the Mariners' offense is third in Major League Baseball and WRC Plus with a mark of 138. They're trailing only the Phillies and the Giants in that category. Overall, they're slashing 270, 377, 453 with six home runs, 33 RBIs, and 23 blocks. And in that same scenario, but with runners in scoring position, they are the best in baseball with a WRC plus of 149. They're slashing 296, 400, 479 in those instances. I mean, can you win a game in the first inning?

Hell no. Yeah, you know, it's weird because we've seen this team pretty much all year just look like absolute, you know what, in the first six or seven innings. And then starting pitching bullpen keeps it close enough. And then, yeah, you know, they attack a bullpen. And it's weird. It's frustrating. Certainly you don't want to have to rely on, you know, getting to Lou Trevino for like the third or fourth time this year. You don't want to have to rely on that when Paul Blackburn is a starting pitcher.

But hey, you know, it is what it is. And, you know, Blackburn, Blackburn's line a little bit deceiving. There were quite a few hard hit balls that went for outs. In the second inning, the Mariners had two hits. And the two hits were the two softest hit balls that entire inning. So, yeah, they were squaring them up a little bit. But, you know, ultimately just couldn't get that hit, couldn't get that base runner. the big one that they needed.

So, yeah, it's, you know, a little bit deceiving there. But at the end of the day, you need to score more than two runs off of Paul Blackburn. Because, you know, while you've owned Lou Trevino pretty well this year, it's unlikely that you're going to get them again. Of course, I said that after the last time and I said that after the last time. So who really knows? But they do seem to have his number. By the way, you need to start tweeting more about how bad Mitch Hanager looks, as if you have an R. already because every time you do, it seems like Hanager does something well, right?

He hit the home run last night after you criticized one of his at-bats. Oh, they're bad. I think the reverse jinx is working out for you pretty well with Mitch Hanigar this year. Yeah, maybe, but I mean, most of his at-bats look like trash. So, yeah, I'm going to continue to bash for that. But, you know, he's had three home runs, the last five, you know, the last five games. And, you know, if he pops a home run a day, then fine. then you can have those trash at bats,

but when he doesn't, it's mostly just bad at bats right now. So, you know, I'm hopeful that he's starting to turn things around. We all saw how good he can be. We've seen him carry offenses for extended periods of time. And again, with what, 36, 37 games going, somebody needs to do that.

And Hanager's probably, you know, somebody needs to help Thai France do that. And Hanager is probably the most likely candidate, although Kyle Seeger has looked better this road trip. but not great still. Yeah. Another reason why Ty France needs to be higher in the lineup. Yep.

For sure. All right. Coming up, the Mariners get their third crack at A's lefty, Cole Irvin this afternoon. We're going to get you covered on that. But first, a quick reminder,

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So go global with Alaska Airlines and One World. Learn more at Alaskaair.com slash one world. On May 25th, 2021, the Mariners defeated the A's by a score of four to three. All four of those runs came off left-handed pitcher Cole Irvin, who went four innings and gave up 10 hits to the Mariners' offense. And after that game, Irvin said, quote, The team like that should not be putting up 10 hits against me or anyone. I'm extremely disappointed in my efforts tonight, end quote. So what did Irvin do in his next shot against the Mariners last month?

T-Mobile Park. Well, he did cut the hits in half, but in the end, he went four innings and gave up four runs. After that game, Mariners' third baseman, Kyle Seeger said, I didn't even know we've ever faced him before. So today is round three. Cole Irvin on the bump for the A's. Mariners countering with Chris Flexson.

The Mariners win. They are just one game behind Oakland and the standings. Colby, well, the Mariners' offense amidst all its struggles over the past couple weeks finally succumb to Cole Irvin or will an offense like that continue to do what it's done to a pitcher like that? Boy, you sure hope it's the latter. But again, you know, just watching this offense all month, it's, you know, they're capable of, you know, running up a pitch count and getting to the bullpen and Oakland's bullpen is still pretty mediocre, even after the deadline. But, But yeah, you know, it's, I'm not running high on confidence, but, you know, they've got their,

their righty, heavy lineup in there. It feels like a good Tom Murphy game. Murph's going to get a couple hits, maybe a dinger. The, you know, we'll see, we'll see. You know, I don't, I don't love it just because I really don't love any matchup for the Mariners offense right now. it literally does not matter who's who's on the other you know who's who's the pitcher for the other team doesn't matter there they've been that bad but uh yeah you know it's it's maybe a little

bit of extra motivation they've got the lineup in there that they like against against lefties and then you know irvin's a guy who i i think a guy like murphy can can do some damage off of and also louise turen so uh it's a pretty big day coming from the bottom half of the lineup today and i think that's gonna that's gonna you know help the Mariners at least look respectable against Cole Irvin, but it sure would be nice if they just tagged them for five or six in four innings.

I mean, yeah, absolutely. The lineup today, Crawford one, Hanager 2, France 3, Seeger 4, Toro 5, Turin 6, Murphy 7, Kelnick 8, more 9. Your picked click, I assume, is Murphy, like you said.

Yeah. I'm going to go, you know what? I'm going to go Jared Kelnick. He has already hit one, run off of Cole Irvin at that ballpark. It's been in kind of a slop lately. I think maybe he breaks out of it with a dinger against Cole Irvin. He broke the over 20 yesterday. Yeah.

You know, then over two with a pretty poor at bat at the ninth. Although granted, it's against a really good relief. It was full count. It was full count, I think, right? Yeah, runners on second and third. You got to put the ball in play for me to consider it a good at bat or walk. Sure. But yeah, you know, good. believer. So it's not, you know, it's not the end of the world. And by the way, can we normalize

this idea of saying, oh, Jared Kalick's struggling? Can we normalize that it, that doesn't mean I'm saying Jared Kellnick is a bust. Because every time I, every time I tweet that or anytime anybody else tweets that, you either get people saying, yeah, he's a bus or you get people saying, he's young, you got to give him time. And I'm like, I literally didn't say you shouldn't, like, I don't get why you're, why is me saying, oh, that's not good at bat from Kellnick. Why is that me saying, oh, Kelnick is a bust. Like, no, that's not what I said.

But whatever. You got to have an extreme opinion on Twitter these days. I know that. I mean, you know, last week, we talked about some of the ups and downs of the Mariners' offense and Jared Kellnick at the time was one of their best hitters, right? He goes into a slop and now those numbers go

down quite a bit. I think is WRC plus is under 100 now, which is below average. but he was at like, I don't know, 138 or something like that when we looked at the numbers just last week. So, you know, we've talked about that he's started to figure it out a little bit. I think there's signs that that's going to continue. Everyone's going to have slumps like this. I mean, you're seeing it with Mitch Hanigar, an established major league hitter.

Right? We've talked about how abysmal he's been. Yeah, I'm not. There's nothing that indicates to me that Jared Keldnick is bust. There's nothing that you could see this year, even if he, you know, came up and didn't even have any success to say that he's a bus this year. Just nothing. No, no evidence of that. No evidence whatsoever.

Guys struggle. That's just the way it is. That's the nature of things. And Kellnick has been able to contribute to this team in quite a few big ways this year. And I think for that alone, you got to feel pretty good about where he is. And, yeah, he had an offer. you know, he's had some pretty rough at bats. He had the four strikeout game against the Astros the other night.

But we've seen Kelnik figure things out, you know, and it's a counten, cat and mouse game with prospects, right, when they come up. You know, they adjust the league, the league adjusts to them. They adjust to the league, the league adjust to them, blah, blah, blah, blah, it goes on and on and on forever and ever and never. And so now we're seeing the part where the league is adjusting back to him and he'll adjust back to them. it'll just go on and on and on. And I think he'll figure it out.

And today, maybe that's the start of that. I think he's going to have another home run off of Cole Urban today, if I had to guess. Maybe shoot my shot a little bit. What do you think about flexing at the Coliseum? Yeah, it's a pretty good ballpark for him. You know, big outfield. It's not a

Like D.A's lineup is not Scary. Like it's not bad. I'm not saying it's bad. It's pretty good lineup. But is it like does it strike fearing you? Once you get past Matt Olson. No, it just kind of is. You know, so I think it's a pretty good matchup for him. We'll see how he does. I don't buy into the whole, you know, home road split thing with Chris Flex and all that much. I know like oh, he's amazing. I team mobile, but he's bad on the road. No, he's not. It just happens to be that way this year. So I'm not too worried about it. I actually think it's a pretty good, pretty good space for him to pitch in. And yeah, you know, it's, you just hope that he continues to be what he has been, especially recently. That would be fantastic. We're going to talk about another pitcher in this rotation. He's not starting today, but Tyler

Anderson. Should the Mariners keep him around? We'll debate that next. But first, this episode is brought to you by Rock Auto. With the ever-increasing numbers of makes and models, it's now impossible for your local chain auto parts store to stock all the parts you need. Why endure often pointless or seemingly intimidating questioning like is your Odyssey an LX or an EX and wait while the person behind the counter

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on Mariners conversation you listen to here every day. Green Room is the perfect place to start or join conversations about Major League Baseball as a whole and so much more. You'll find fans just like you on Green Room for watch parties, debates, post-game breakdowns, and of course reacting to big news or rumors. Go download the free Green Room app now, currently available on all iOS devices, and be sure to create a profile, link your Twitter, and join the MLB group for the latest league updates. Follow me at Dane Gonzalez. That's D-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z, and Colby at Colby Patnode

to be notified when our room goes live. I know you won't want to miss it. We can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts on the Mariners, so we'll see you there. Green Room, changing the way we talk sports. I said this on yesterday's show, but Tyler Anderson has been the model of consistency since coming over to the Mariners and a trade with the pirates last month. Just listen to his first five starts with the Mariners here. At the Rangers, five in a third innings pitch, three earned runs, six hits, three strikeouts, no walks. At the Yankees, five innings pitch, two earn runs, five hits, four strikeouts, two walks versus

the Rangers, five and a third innings pitch, one earn run, six hits, four strikeouts, no walks. Are you starting to see the trend here? Then back at the Rangers, six innings pitched, one earn run, three hits, four strikeouts, no walks. And finally, at the Astros this past Sunday, five, in a third innings pitch, two runs, eight hits, four strikeouts, one walk.

Of course, a lot of starts against the Rangers in there, but a couple of really good teams with stellar lineups mixed in as well. He's been everything this team needed when they got him, and he's honestly been probably a little bit better than he could have hoped for. Of course, you know, he's a rental and a free agent at the end of this season, but given his level of production thus far and the fact that you have kind of a big decision coming up with you say cacucci this winter your rotation might go into a bit of a reboot is it time to consider extending Tyler Anderson now yeah you know it's it's an interesting conversation that we we've probably chatted about on the fringes on CTZ for a little while now and you know for the most part it's been no patreon dot com forward slash control the zone by the way but yeah it's something that we've talked about and kind of like him to not about and you want more upside there but here's here's the thing you know it's

if you say kukuchi's not around and we can't really trust logan gilbert right now um you know you're rolling into next year you can't trust done or sheffield so you're rolling into next year with flexen who we've talked about wanting to find legitimate competition for anyways in marco gonzalez i mean so yeah having tyler anderson around you know, just having that to fall back on, that would be a great, you know, a great thing for Seattle. But, you know, is, is Anderson going to take a, you know, let's say hypothetically, two-year extension worth, I don't know, $6 million a year for a non-guaranteed rotation spot? Probably not.

So, you know, it's probably, he's probably not going to want an extension unless he can, you know, lock in a rotation spot. And if I'm Seattle, I'm just, I'm not willing. to give him that because again, I'm still trying to aim higher. But, you know, if he's willing to come in and compete in battle and if he loses, he's willing to go to the bullpen, then yeah, I think you should because it's always good to have depth. And I mean, how nice would it have been to have a Tyler Anderson, you know, to slide into the

rotation when James Paxton went down. You know what I mean? So those things are going to happen next year, too. The Mariners rotation is not going to use five guys all next year. So it's something that, yeah, I mean, I think the team should at least look at right now. But ultimately, I think Anderson's going to want to get out to pre-agency, see what he can get. And I think it's probably better for Seattle if he does that. And, you know, they can still keep the line of communication open and be very honest with them.

And, you know, once free agency starts, they'll know what's going to happen with Yucay Kukuchi. They'll have another, you know, five starts of Logan Gilbert in theory. and so yeah I think it's probably one of those things that just wait till the off-season but in terms of like should they bring them back I think they should explore it at least

yeah I think it's still too soon to make that decision I would say ask me again in about a month now if he continues to do this and he does it against you know the Red Sox and the A's and the Astros in September

then you know maybe you start to feel a little bit better about carrying Tyler Anderson into 2022. I mean, to be fair to Anderson, he already has done it against you know, the Astros. The Yankees. Twice, three times against Texas.

I mean, but three times against Texas, yeah. But no, it's, he's a solid pitcher. I just, I think Seattle, Seattle doesn't need back in starters right now. They need difference makers. So you get in a situation.

It's like you said, aim higher. Yeah. Anderson's a fallback. And honestly, Anderson should be like a guy you're bringing in to compete with Flexen for the five spot. Well, and also,

you know, no team is going to jump out and try to sign Tyler Anderson, even if he has an excellent last month and a half. There's still going to be really big names on the market that teams are going to key in on.

They're not going to suddenly, you know, that's the guy you've, pivot to. Tyler Anderson is the guy that you pivot to. Right. If you're, you know, and that's kind of what we're saying here with the Mariners is that you either pivot to them if you, if you're not able to get what you want or as, you know, potential competition for Chris Flexen, especially if you're, you know, planning on potentially moving Chris Flexen to the bullpen to be that kind of column a cue type for you, which is still very valuable, right? You know, I don't, I don't want to

get it misconstrued here that we're devaluing Chris Flexen or we're low on. Chris Flexen as a pitcher, but I think he has quite a bit of value in that role. It can be huge for you in that role. And so, you know, and also that that means that something's gone really right in terms of what you've been able to add to the rotation. And having that depth in general is insanely valuable. You've seen it with all the injuries that you had.

You've seen it with how little you can rely on your prospects. You know, Logan Gilbert, I think, you know, neither. one of us are concerned about Logan Gilbert's future, but right now he's not helping you a ton. And so even if next year, you know, say Emerson Hancock stays within the organization and George Kirby stays within the organization and Matt Brash stays within the organization and Brandon Williamson stays within the organization, those guys that might make their debut at some point next year, you can't rely on them. Right. can't so it's it's valuable having depth and if you're able to get Anderson as depth that's great if you're able to get him to compete with flexen if you're you know if you feel that flexen should be that that long relief type and you need a number five to slot in behind your you know one free

agent that you signed and the one big trade acquisition and marco and logan gilbert or whoever it is then that's great. But I think you don't need to make that decision right now because you'll have time. Anderson isn't going to go anywhere right away. And you maintain that line of contact with him and you'll know. It's not like it's going to blindside you.

So you'll make that decision when the time comes and you'll have a chance to make that decision when that time comes. So I just, I don't think there's any need to rush it right now and extend him. But again, ask me in a month. And maybe my opinion changes. All right.

So that's going to do it for today's show. I appreciate you tuning in and hope to see you tomorrow. We're going to recap this afternoon's game and also ponder the question, who would you want starting a one game playoff for the Mariners this fall? Colby Pat note, I'm Ty Dan Gonzalez, and this has been locked on Mariners. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-S-Riners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. That's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E.

at 11. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow. Betting on Major League Baseball doesn't have to be a guessing game. If you listen to the new Lockdown Betts podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapped and handicap and expert Lee Sterling. Get daily picks, blowout specials, wrong team favorite picks and Lee Sterling's lock of the day. Follow the Lockdown Betts podcast brought to you by betonline.ag wherever you get podcasts.