Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Ichiro Cruises to Hall of Fame Induction, Felix Hernandez Makes Good First Step + Mariners Updates

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

Ichiro Suzuki cruised to a nearly unanimous selection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, and his former teammate and fellow Mariners legend, Felix Hernandez, put together a strong first showing on the ballot as well. Ty and Colby react to the results for both stars, then dig into some of the latest news and notes revolving around the current Mariners.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Rocket MoneyCancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com/lockedon today. SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at SELECTQUOTE.COM/LOCKEDON.SelectQuote - They Shop. You Save. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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.

To no surprise, Ichero is officially in the Hall of Fame. And Felix Hernandez took an encouraging first step towards Cooperstown as well. We'll talk about that as well as a few other Mariners news and notes coming up here on the Lockdown Marriss 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 Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025. This is Tiding Azales and Colby Patnaud for the last. Locked-on Ameris podcast. Part of the Locked-on podcast network your team every day. We're talking Hall of Fame today. Eitro is officially in and Felix took a nice first step as well. We'll go

over the results for both of those guys. Plus Daniel Kramer of MLB.com posted some interesting notes about the Maras off season yesterday and we want to go over and the Maras were also featured prominently in baseball America's top 100 prospects this morning.

Before we get into all that, quick shout-out to her title sponsor today, Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the promo code Locked-on MLB. That's L-O-C-K-A-D-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off your first purchase. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode.

So we haven't really talked about the Hall of Fame on this show. Talked about it a little bit on the Patreon, but not really here. because obviously it was a forecutting conclusion. Eitro was going to get into the Hall of Fame. And sure enough, he did officially yesterday. He gets 393 of the 394 possible votes. The one person that didn't vote for him, as far as I'm concerned,

is an attention-hungry loser who should have their voting rights revoked. At least they have the courage to put their name on it, though. Totally, totally, right? Yeah. So whatever, right. Don't want that to detract from how cool of an accomplishment this is for each row. He ends up getting the second highest percentage of votes or tied for the second highest percentage of votes tallied by a Hall of Fame inductee.

Tying Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, of course, is the only unanimous Hall of Fame inductee, which is a whole other conversation. By the way, each year old. owned Mariano Rivera. That's correct. That's correct. So, yeah, really cool for Eichero. We'll talk about Felix here in a moment. Felix ends up getting 20.6% of the vote,

which is a really, really encouraging first step for him. We'll talk more about that later on. But Eichero officially in has his press conference yesterday. It was a really cool moment. And, you know, starts making the rounds. You got to see him on MLB Network, all that stuff. the mayor has officially announced that they are going to retire his jersey on August 9th. They're going to be doing a commemorative plaque giveaway.

They're going to do a jersey giveaway. They're going to do a Funko Pop giveaway the series before his jersey retirement. So a lot of fun stuff planned for the month of August to honor Eichiro. So, Colby, your reaction to Eitro officially being inducted into the baseball hall. of him. Yeah, it's very cool. Obviously, we knew it was going to happen. We didn't spend much time talking about it because it's inevitable, right?

And so the only real question was, was he going to get in unanimously? Almost, not quite. But at the end of the day, is it really like that big of a deal? No, we don't want it to overshadow, you know, the accomplishment that was each row, 3,000 hits and he wasn't a rookie until or until he was 27 years old in 2001. I think prior to that,

the oldest player, the oldest debut a player had and still collected 3,000 hits, was Wade Boggs and I think he was 23. So, Ichro just, you know, a unique player, particularly for the era that he played in, you know, the era of the home run and, you know,

the tail end of the steroid era and all that. He was, you know, the slap hitter who stole a ton of bags and played great defense and all that stuff. So it was very unique to the era, certainly, and very much a throwback. And yet he was arguably the most popular player on the planet for, you know, five, six years there. So, yeah, it's a unique, it's a unique player, it's a unique person. And obviously, we know how much baseball means to each row and how much Seattle Mariners mean to each year. on how much each row means to Seattle Mariner fans. So it's very cool to have a day to celebrate,

and then we're going to all get together in August and thank him one last time. The jersey is going to go up. It'll be right there next to Edgar and Griffey and obviously Jackie. And it'll be cool. It'll be emotional. Each year I got emotional yesterday. It's one of those things where it's just cool

because we tend to think of athletes as like sometimes they're drunk. essentially and we're just they're fighting for our entertainment essentially but the humans you know and this means a lot to him you saw billy wagner's reaction uh yes well um how much it means to to these players to be honored like this so it's still a big deal ultimately um i think the hall of fame is kind of becoming a little bit of a joke of itself not because of the people they're letting in but because of the people they're keeping out uh and how full of themselves a lot of these writers are thinking that they are the judge during executioner of baseball history. I think that in the Hall of Fame a little bit, but it's still, you know, a huge honor.

Yitro's going to go in as a mariner. I think somebody wasted all him inches being like, we're pretty sure each real was going in as a man. No kidding. He's going to watch him go in as a Marlon. Yeah, like, come on. What are we doing? So, yeah, it's cool.

It's exciting. It's fun. But, you know, there was no real buildup to it because we all knew. It wasn't, it's kind of like more like the Griffey induction. We're like, okay, well, how high is the number going to go? As opposed to like the Edgar Martinez one where that was us, you know, fighting as a community for years to get him in. So not quite as sweet as that, but at the end of the day, each year was a Hall of Famer, we all knew he was going to be. And, you know, first Japanese-born player to ever be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He got a higher percentage of votes. This is one of my favorite things that came with this. You got a higher percentage of votes. for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Then he did for the Japanese baseball. Yeah. Hall of Fame in Japan. It's crazy.

It's crazy. I don't know what that's about, but yeah, it's really cool. I mean, there's no question about it. And it's well deserved. And, you know, Ichiro is, he's a mariner, like, through and through. And he chose to, you know, he still chooses to interact and be involved with the mariners. And so I think that says a lot about him and what the city means to him. and what he means to the city.

Yeah, Eitro for me growing up, you know, I was five years old when Echro made his major league debut. He was kind of that like superhero figure in sports for me. Like, you know, Michael Jordan was for a lot of kids growing up. So to see him now,

you know, all these years have passed to see him in the Hall of Fame. I mean, you talked about it just a moment ago, like how much Eitro still loves the game, how much you just, you can't. keep him away from the game how he'll be throwing on the backfields and peoria he'll be you know

doling out BP uh you know on a random wednesday afternoon at t mobile park shacks fly balls plays against high school girls you know uh sure and all that stuff like he chose a baseball like he's a he's a each row is baseball yeah and you know the hall of fame for all the issues that you and I both have with it, the Hall of Fame is about telling the story of this great sport. And you can't tell the story of baseball without Ichero Suzuki. And now he has his rightful place in the hall. So yeah, congratulations to Yichiro Suzuki on officially being inducted into the Hall of Fame. He's been a Hall of Famer for years and years and years, but we can officially say it now.

And hopefully one day we can say that about Felix Hernandez as well. We'll be talking about him and how he did on his first turn on the ballot in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown on Marys podcast is brought to you by select quote. The World Series, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the world's top athletes get to play in these top level sporting events thanks to one thing. Teamwork. And teamwork can also protect your financial legacy and your family's future. Select Quote's licensed insurance agents are the perfect teammates when shopping for customized affordable life insurance. They can find you the right policy to keep your financial legacy safely in your family's end zone.

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And you're listening to the Locked-on Mariners podcast. Yeah, so again, it was a foregone conclusion that Itcher was going to get in where my attention lied for this process with the Hall of Fame voting this time around. It was really on Felix Hernandez and where he was going to wind up. Now, look, we all know how great Felix was and how high his peak was. But how that conversation was going to be handled on a national scale was kind of up in the air. But so far so good. Got 20.6% of the vote. He only needed five to stay on the ballot.

This is a really cool first step for Felix. I would say this is very, very encouraging for Felix. And we know how well the Mariners can campaign for their guys. They did it with Edgar. They obviously have the book on this now on how to educate the voters on their guys. And now that each rows in, they're going to, it's going to be a full court press for Felix for however many years it's going to take to get him into the Hall of Fame. So, Colby, your thoughts on what Felix accomplished this first turn through the ballot. And do you think now at this point, does he have a real shot and making his way into Cooperstone?

Yeah, it'll be interesting. You know, 20% is a good number in year one for a player like Felix. What's pretty interesting here is that the first year number seems to matter less and less. Andrew Jones had a very low first year number. He's going to be inducted next year. Billy Wagner, I think, was in the single digits his first year. I think he got like 8% his first year on the ballot. And he got in 10 years later.

And, you know, Edgar, I think, was initially at about 35%, but he dipped as low as I think 22% in year five. And he was able to make that climb in five years with an aggressive campaign. So yeah, Felix is a very interesting case. He has the potential to, I mean, keep in mind, Felix won the Siong Award with a 13 and 12 record. And that was considered to be like a huge win for the analytics community and all that stuff. And spoke to like the growing power. or whatever you want to call it of that community in the in the voting block essentially. You kind of has the chance to do that again with the Hall of Fame where we might see a shift in like,

hey, while we still can't acknowledge like the guys who are accumulators, like the Tom Glavins or the Craig Vigios who put up the 300 wins, the 3,000 hits. And that's because they're consistently good for 15 years instead of like elite for for five to 10 years. but you know guys like johan santana didn't even get a second shot on the ballot and santana was incredible he had a he had a similar run to felix uh you know for six or seven years and and he didn't even get a second shot so the fact that felix got 20 percent um pretty interesting uh again when a guy like johan santana didn't uh get that shot uh i think there's a i think that these next two or three years is pretty important.

The number of new players who are going to be on the ballot over the next couple years, who are absolutely first ballot Hall of Famers, I don't know if there are any. Next year, the best player on the ballot is Cole Hamels. And Hamels, to me, is kind of a,

he's an accumulator, right? Like Felix Hernandez is a better pitcher than Cole Hamels was at their best. But Hamils did it for a little bit longer. So how do you, how do you know, value that? So, yeah,

I do you think the next couple years, there's going to be a lot of log jams that are removed from the ballot either they're getting in. And I think there are a lot of, you know, one and done candidates here on the next couple of ballots as well. So there's really no excuse to, you know, not have Felix as one of your top 10 votes. That's how you want to do it. So I do think the next couple of years are pretty critical. But yeah, I think he's got a shot. It's probably going to be a year eight, nine, ten thing. I don't think he's going to have this huge leap and be in any time soon. But yeah, he has a shot. The 20% is interesting.

And there was quite a bit of conversation about him on a national level, you know, people kind of explaining why they voted for him this time, why they didn't, why they planned to vote for him in the future and all that. So certainly there's a lot of interest. Felix has a very unique case to make. And, you know, we might be seen kind of this shift. And we've seen it over the last couple of years of the old guard of the Hall of Fame voters kind of leaving and this new wave of. younger, more, you know, less establishment type of voters coming in and being like, no, look at this, look at this, look at this. And embracing the new way to evaluate players. So I think this is a really good first step for him. I think he's got a shot to get in. But it's still going to be an uphill climb. And it's going to be, it's going to be, you know, kind of a campaign more or less. And you're going to have to push forward and all that.

and, you know, the Mariners have done it once with kind of another interesting test case for the Hall of Fame. Can they do it again? I think they can, but I think we got to bring the same energy because it wasn't just the Mariners stumping for Felix or for Edgar that got him in. It was the fan base as a whole kind of pushing this, the idea and pushing the numbers out there and really, you know, fighting for this that turned a lot of people into yes votes for Edgar eventually. Yeah, obviously the biggest concern for Felix's hopes of making it to the Hall of Fame were those last few years of his career and how much that was going to weigh on the voters' decisions. So far, it doesn't seem like it has much.

We'll see how that goes as we get into year two, year three, year four, et cetera, of him being on the ballot. but it seems like quite a few voters are valuing peak over accumulation, which, as I've talked about, that's going to be a big topic of conversation with some of these other pitchers that are going to hit the ballot in the next, you know, five, ten years. And so Felix is really interesting, not just, you know, for Felix's sake, but for some of these other pitchers that are going to be on the ballot soon as well. So, yeah, it's going to be a fascinating thing to keep track of.

To me, Felix Hernandez is a surefire Hall of Famer. He should absolutely be in. And hopefully the mayors are able to, you know, educate the voters enough to make that happen. So, you know, we'll see how it goes. But that's something that we're certainly going to be keeping track of here on the show over the next few years. All right. So that's all the Hall of Fame talk. for the show. Let's let's get back into the current Mariners.

We're going to talk a little bit about what Daniel Kramer had to write about yesterday on MLB.com. And also all the prospects I landed on baseball America's top 100 list this morning in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown on Maritors podcast is brought to you by game time. So I used to live in New Mexico and down in New Mexico, there are zero pro sports teams. And a lot of bands and artists I listen to skip going there more often than not. So when I moved to Toronto where there's a baseball team, a basketball team, a hockey team, even a soccer team and there's great music being played every night in the city, I was right in my element.

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And you're listening to the Locked-on Maris podcast. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com wrote an article yesterday, detailing the latest on the mayor's off season, which isn't a whole lot. Surprise, surprise. But the mayors apparently are waiting on Alex Bregman to sign somewhere so they can acquire a third basement that's not named Alex Bregman. Also, they apparently aggressively pushed for, at the time, Rangers first baseman, Nathaniel Lowe, now Nationals First Spaceman Nathanielo.

That's kind of interesting. What do you think about that? Because that's another first baseman the Marys have now been linked to. They've basically been linked to every first baseman on the market except for Pete Alonzo. I mean, to be fair, they were never officially

linked to Josh Naler. But true. It was the yapper, which doesn't count. So yeah. I mean, it's just funny. And like, like John Heyman did say the marries were in on Peter Lozzer. There were one of the teams, but also John Hammond, he's in the Yapper category.

He doesn't count. So, like, I mean, like either you count both of them or neither of them, but. Yeah. Yeah, it is interesting that, you know, the, you look at some of the bigger bats that have been hard linked to the Mariners, uh, this, this winter. You're looking at Carlos Santana and Justin Turner and, uh, Paul Goldschmidt and, uh, Tristan Kossis, now Nathaniel Lowe. and you kind of go, huh, and they added Solano.

And you're like, oh, what do all these guys have in common? Oh, they are all first base only type of guys. Apparently Donovan Salonzo is going to play some third, Colby. But not second. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, I think that's just the reality of what they're looking at.

Like they want to add like one kind of middle of the orderish bat. And we could talk about whether or not Turner or same. Montana or middle of the order. They're not. But whatever. Where are you most likely to find that player? First base. There are a lot of options there this off season.

Right. And third base, there are none. Well, none that you're willing to pay for. So. Yeah. Low,

not that surprised. It does sound like the Rangers just weren't going to trade them in division. No matter what. File that name away for July, though, if things go south in Washington. but yeah not that surprise i will yeah not that surprise that's a pretty good profile he makes a lot

of sense for the ballpark uh hit the style of hitter he is uh i wouldn't be surprised with there other first baseman out there that are being talked about really the only players infielders that have been like hard linked to the mariners who aren't first baseman are nico horner which uh was addressed in in the same article about how real that was and kind of alec bone that's really been it like I can't think of anybody else. Okay, Moncada. So there you go,

which, I mean, Moncada hasn't. That was also only a national report. I don't think we've heard from any of the local guys that they've, that they've been on on Mankana. So.

Mostly just first baseman. That's really what seems to be where they're looking. Which again, most of the options are there. But, but yeah, it's interesting considering that like, if push,

comes to shove, you could feasibly plug first base with Luke Rayleigh. Right. But I think you'd like Rayleigh to play left, right, first, DH, and, you know, push some of the other guys in the outfield to DH days. But at second or third, you don't have a Luke Rayleigh type of option. No, no. And Luke Rayleigh, by the way, also a platoon guy, right? So, like, you can't, you don't even want him to play for a space every single day. And I guess that's where Solano comes in right now. So, yeah, if you can go. get an everyday first baseman then you pretty much push rayley into you know the fourth outfield um fully there was an everyday first basement whose market has suddenly cratered and the team that he

you know was just playing for apparently doesn't want to bring him back hmm anthony rizzo boom you nailed it i was waiting for you to say he did play new york last year too yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah And pinstripes. Yeah. Still doesn't eliminate it. Yeah, yeah, that's true. The pinstripes are ugly, by the way. Yeah, I know you think that.

Yeah. I know that. That's a fact. There are no good jerseys that have pinstripes, except for the old school Orlando Magic. Wrong. Wrong. The Orlando Magic back in the day.

Yeah, Orlando Magic, but also Philly's jerseys. I like the Philly's jerseys. I like the baby blues. I don't like the baby blues are great. I don't like the pink pinstripes. like no uh so that's about it from kramer's article uh he did say the bearers expect to make a notable move before a spring draning and whatever that means anthony rizzo hey i guess we'll have something to talk about colby before spring training yay i mean to be fair maybe he was talking about

will klein yeah you got anything on will klein before we uh switch gears here to talk about prospects. I mean, technically Will Klein is a prospect. He is. Yeah, you know, I watched him in the futures game. I went back and watched that. He threw 20 pitches. By the way, for those that don't know, the mayor has acquired right-handed pitcher name Will Klein from the Oakland Athletics yesterday for international.

Yeah, international slot bunny. He was, he was acquired from by Oakland from Kent. Well, they're not Oakland anymore. from Kansas City and the Lucas Urseg deal at the deadline. Yeah. Pitch to the futures game in 2020 and Seattle. So I actually watched that outing. There are 20 pitches, I think seven strikes.

So the control commanding is a problem. But it's, you know, 96 to 98 touches 100. Pretty good curveball. I've been told I didn't see it from what I watched, but nothing was near the zone. So it's kind of tough to judge. But a pretty good curveball. There's a slider.

Now, on the broadcast, they called it a cutter. It's being classified as a slider. So we might have a James Paxton situation here. But that pitch apparently had a 54% whiff rate in the miners last year. Can't escape that percentage. Yes. That is like Matt Brash level of whiff rate on a pitch. So he's interesting.

You got to teach him to throw strikes. It's kind of like Carlos Vargas a little bit, just better breaking ball, whereas Vargas is more just velocity. So, yeah, it's just an arm for the pile. He's interesting. he'll probably be in my top 30 somewhere. But, yeah, I mean, it's, again, you're just see if we can teach him an ounce of control and watch the stuff play with 40 grade command and 45 control. Yeah.

The mayor's DFA, Tyler Jay, who they claimed off a waivers from the brewers, I think, whatever. So, yeah. What was your favorite moment of the memory of the Tyler J. era, Colway? Probably me wasting $3 on his baseball card for my Jerry Depoto acquisition binder. Yikes. Hey, baseball America dropped their top 100 prospects this morning. And the mayors have the most prospects on that list with seven. That is headlined.

We'll go through the names and you can tell us how you feel. The list is headlined by Colt Emerson at number 16. Then you have to go all the way down to number 56 for the next ranked mariner. That's that's Cole Young. Johnny Farmelow is the third highest ranked mariner at number 70. Michael Arroyo at number 77, Felon Celadine at 89, Harry Ford at 95, and Lazaro Montes at 97. So not very high on Las Montes like some other outlets. I think he fell pretty significantly from where he was last year in those ranks.

So they really bought into the struggles he had when he first made the leap from Modesto to Everett. So I imagine he'll go back up this year. So the thing that really stands out to me here and what's stood out to me quite a bit with some of the other rankings that we've seen come out over the last few weeks, Johnny Farmello ranked pretty high after a season in which he's stood out to me quite a bit with some of the other rankings that we've seen come out over the last few weeks. Johnny Farmelow ranked pretty high after a season in which he missed most of the action due to a torn ACL. He's probably going to miss most of the action this year as well. Yeah, that's quite a vote of confidence

and a guy that, again, you know, speed and athleticism is a big part of his game. You don't know how he's going to recover. Now, obviously, ACLs are not the death knell that they used to be in any sport. But still, you don't know how he's going to look post-surgery when that is such a huge part of his game. But yeah.

You're going to tear your ACL. You'd rather do it at 20 than 30. But yeah, clearly a lot of these outlets really, really like Johnny Farmelow, despite the injury that he suffered. And the other one, Harry Ford did make this list just barely. He's missed a couple of other lists around the circuit, though. seems that some of these outlets are starting to fall out of love with with harry ford what you think about that yeah not that surprised uh it was uh it was an up and down year for harry last

year um the the big question surrounding him right now is just where's the power is it ever going to come uh i think he slugged like 360 last year like it was it was not great now the ballpark's not easy right and especially for right-handed hitters I'll grant you that. But you know what else is an easy? Major League pitching. And so Harry right now is a guy who you're kind of in a weird spot with him because he is an incredible walk machine.

He's incredibly patient. But at the same time, is he too patient? Like, do you want him to be more aggressive? Well, what if he is too aggressive and he doesn't take his walks? And he's not that valuable of an offensive player. But as it is right now, you know, is he going to walk 15, 16, 17 percent of the time at the major league level. No, probably not.

Most, you know, I think like two or, like the guys who do that are Juan Soto. So, yeah, you're kind of in a weird spot with Harry right now. And so he's, he's tough to grade because on the one hand, he's still just 22 and he's in AA. He's not late or anything like that. And he's progressed nicely as a catcher defensively. And there are something, like he walks a lot and walks are valuable. He has a high on base skill.

He makes contact at his age. which is, you know, a really good skill. But, you know, obviously he's a really good athlete. He steals bases. So he is a good prospect. I don't think he's top 100. I don't think he should be above Las. I don't think he should be above Sanja.

So, yeah, he's a really interesting case because, you know, I don't think he, I don't necessarily would say that he's, like, stagnated because he's just moved up one level every year. He's been a pro. but the power just has not come at all. And if you're a fringe average catcher, which I think most people would say he is, I think he's fine back there.

But most people, you know, his defense is still questionable for some. And you're not going to hit for any power. Like you have to hit 250 and have a 350 on base to be an everyday big leaguer. If you're not going to hit for a shred of power. Look at J.P. Crawford last year, right? Played a premium position, good defender. didn't hit for any power, didn't hit for average, didn't get on base enough, and he just wasn't

useful. So Ford is kind of, you know, one of those players where it's like, you don't want to ding him too much for just naturally progressing as he is, because again, he's not behind schedule. Like, that's not what's happening here. But, you know, the power is not there. And there's still a question about where he plays and how much is he too patient at the plate? Is that going to play at the big leagues? Is he going to be able to take that many pitches? and still be a productive, you know, pitter. I don't know. And so I think there's some very legitimate questions there with Harry.

I tend to think he'll figure something out. I think he'll get to at least average power. But he hasn't yet. And he's been on prospect list now for like four years. So there's also some fatigue that's setting in from, you know, the people who make these lists. So, yeah, it all makes sense to me why he's falling off these lists and why he's, you know, going down. Pipeline has their list out.

I think sometime next week we'll see if he's on that one. 249, 37, 37, 367. That was the slash line in AA and 116 games this year. Yeah, that 367 slugging percentage sticks out like sore thumb. It's going to be a big year for Harry, really in terms of just developing that power. You know, there's this misconception in the fan base that like, oh yeah he's knocking on the door he's going to be you know part of the major league roster at some point in

in 2025 i don't think there's any guarantee of that happening uh he might he might he might he might but that's going to require him having to prove some things uh down he's going back to double a to start this year as well i don't think he's going to make that jump to triple a with cole young yeah we'll see so yeah he might again like i don't want to say he can't help you in 2025 I wouldn't count on it for a second. It's just not a slam dunk. It's not the slam dunk that I think a lot of fans think it is. At least that's kind of how I've gauge.

Like, when we get questions in our mailbag or what have you about Harry. Probably the like least logical question we get in our mailbag segment is like, what do you do with Harry Ford because Cal Raleigh? Do you trade Cal Raleigh because Harry Ford is ready? Or is, do you trade Harry Ford? Cal is blocking Harry. So where is Harry going to put?

We're not even close to what we're not. That's a bridge we'll cross when we get to it and we are not there. But I think a lot of fans assume that we're there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I just, yeah, we're not. At least a year away from that being a real conversation, at least. Yeah.

I mean, we'll see, you know, how the first few months of the season goes. But yeah, he's got quite a bit to prove down on the miners. And, you know, we'll see where he starts the year. But starting the year in Arkansas again, might, might do him. some good. See how he retackles that level. Also, it might be one of the rare instances where where and what he plays in spring training actually matters and how he looks actually matters a little bit. Again, not the numbers, but just kind of the app batch of having and the approach and the game

plan and where he's playing on the field and how often he's playing there on the field. Who's he playing against? Right. Like those things, Harry Ford's probably one of those guys you want to watch for that. and that'll tell you a lot about where the Mariners think he's at, assuming he is still here, which we don't really have any reason to believe he's not going to be, but you never know. Right. I mean, they could trade them, but again, the meta in the market right now isn't necessarily prospects for major leaders. So who knows?

I think the mayors would love to make a trade like that, not saying that they would love to trade Harry Ford, but I'm sure they would love to trade just pure prospects for major leaguers. and obviously Harry Ford is someone that I'm sure a few teams still believe in quite a bit. He's still a good prospect, whether he's in the top 100 or not. It's just is he one of the elite prospects in the game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So we'll see again, going to be a big year for him. All right. That's going to do it for us. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marriss podcast for Colby Pat. I know. I'm Tading Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore mirrors.

You can follow me at Tidingazales and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's C-Pat-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Errors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.