Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - It Shouldn't Matter Who the Mariners Play This Weekend

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Mariners fans are concerned about the team's increasingly likely trip to Toronto for the wild-card series, instead preferring a visit to Cleveland. But Ty and Colby say it doesn't matter what the matchup is; it all comes down to Seattle playing its best ball. They explain what that means and discuss the impact of Sam Haggerty's injury in this episode.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: patreon.com/controlthezone/Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. 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.

It is now confirmed the Mariners will be hitting the road for this weekend's wild card series, and they'll be doing so, unfortunately, without Sam Haggerty. We'll get you caught up on Haggody's injury, the team's other roster moves and more on today's episode of Locked-on Mariners. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Tuesday, October 4th, 2022 is the date. This is Tyane Gazzalas and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown.

on Mariners podcast. Thank you so much for making us to your first listen, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description below. And on the show today, how much of an impact does Sam Haggarty's injury have on the Mariners? We'll be talking about that, plus some of the other roster moves the team made today. And I'm going to tell you why we need to stop worrying about who Seattle plays in the postseason.

Let's just stop it. I'll tell you why coming up here a little bit later. But Colby, let's start with Sam Haggertie, who in the bottom of the ninth last night, Mariners down four to three. He gets on base with a broken bat single up the middle and immediately tries to steal second and does successfully. However, he came up writhing in pain and unfortunately

had to be helped off of the field. Turns out now he has a groin. strain that has landed him on the 10-day injured list. So it's very possible we've seen Sam Haggody play his last game in 2022. That's very unfortunate. So what's your just kind of your overall reaction to the injury and how much does this impact the Mariners moving forward? Yeah, it's a bummer.

We're not going to see him again. Word is they're trying to find out if he has to have the surgery, which you just, you have to have the surgery. It's a serious groin pull. We saw how painful it was. Couldn't even get off the field. It's a bummer, especially since it comes on what is largely a meaningless game. You know, the decision to steal, it's easy to second guess because he got hurt.

But there were some legitimate questions about why risk it, particularly with Santana up there, who's pretty much going to hit a home run or he's going to walk or he's going to make it out. Like, he's probably not going to get a base it. That's not what Santana does. So, yeah, just kind of a weird way to end last night. And what was a game where the Mariners came out? And basically for most of the game, looked like they were mad that they had to play.

It was another pretty poor effort, particularly from the offense. And that was just kind of the caper of it all. You know, good news is Julio's back. But Haggerty, you know, probably being out for the rest of the year, that's a big blow. That's your best base dealer. It's kind of the one guy that you're not afraid to steal bases. You know, with Julio, it's different.

You don't really want to push Julio right now. And in the playoffs, maybe all bets are off, but I kind of doubt it. So I don't think Julio is going to steal many bags. Dylan Moore, when he gets on base, can steal bags. But again, when he gets on base. So other than that, that's it. So what the Mariners lose is they lose speed element and, you know, their best base dealer right before, right before the playoffs start.

They lose some versatility, a guy who can play, you know, all around the outfield, even, you know, play some second base if you need them to. And they lose a switch hitter off the bench who, you know, had been in a pretty rough slump for the last month or so. But still, contact guy, you know, can make things happen, handles the bad okay, a guy who can bunt, you know, hit and run. Just kind of a nice, useful player to have off the bench. you know the Mariners lost a valuable player to their roster and it opens up a spot that will be filled by a player who is frankly just not as good.

So it is a blow. Yeah, it is a blow as certainly is. There's no denying that. And also just the energy that Haggerty brings, what he brings to the clubhouse and the dugout, just how much they love Sam Haggerty and kind of rally around him as well. So from an energy standpoint, from a on-field production standpoint, all of it, it sucks. There's no way around that. That said, I saw some folks on Twitter last night when the injury happened and even today going, well, the Mariners are screwed now. Okay.

If your playoff hopes were hanging in the balance of Sam Haggardie's availability, you didn't have any hopes to begin with. the other thing too is like you know i see well oh god now jesse winker has to play in the outfield no he doesn't jerry kelnick is that guy still oh well jerry kellnick's two for his last 24 look you're not going to get offensive production out of all nine nine of your spots in a wildcar game just not going to happen so you deal with it you get really good defense out of kellnick for sure that's guaranteed and you just roll with that so look this sucks the mariners lose some versatility but this really changed my opinion on how deep or not the mariners can go into the postseason it doesn't affect that at all it would be nice to have haggerty of course it would be nice to have that element to have that

weapon at your disposal but you know those those opportunities i would get also we're going to be so few and far between for the most part that i think you can survive not having that as well uh so yeah I don't think it's that like at the end of the day in terms of just their their playoff aspirations as far as they want to go doesn't impact that really in any sort of way at least in a significant way you lost a bonus a really nice bonus and it's an important bonus because this is a team that is going to if they're going to win they are going to have to probably win a bunch of one run games and you know pinch running laid getting that big money bag at the end of the game that can make the difference but it's at the end of the the day, you know, if Kellnick steps up and plays well, then it doesn't really matter. If Dillon Moore stays healthy, if Julio can run a little bit, it doesn't matter as much as some people are making it out to be. And I also kind of find it weird that, you know, there's a lot of people who are, you know, freaking out about Kelnick and Kelnick had the best at bats on the team last night from a guy

not named Julio. So, Kellnick looks fine at the plate. he's also facing a lot more lefties now. In the playoffs, it's probably not going to happen. It's probably going to be Dylan Moore out there in left field against lefties. So we'll see how it goes. He's playing a lot of center field as well. He has to be in the lineup every day because they're not putting Julio out there quite yet.

So, yeah, it's definitely it's a bummer. You know, it really is. But, you know, you have to, there's nothing you can do about it. You know, you didn't add that offensive player at the deadline. You didn't really add much athleticism throughout the year. And that's just kind of how you have to play now. You have to adapt. And right now it's Toro.

We'll see if he's the guy who replaces Hagridi on the playoff roster. Or maybe it's Taylor Tremel who's in the clubhouse today. There's some speculation that there's another move coming. I kind of wonder maybe this is just an anticipation of adding him to the playoff roster. and so he's just there to be with the team for a couple days before they head off. We'll see. We'll see what happens. But it's a bummer.

Like I said, but it's not, it's not season over or like, it's not back. Like this is, yeah, stop acting like this is Julio again. Like, it's not. And Haggerty was terrible at the plate for the last 70 at bats or so. That's another thing. Yeah. Yeah, he's been pretty rough at the plate. So, you know, you're not losing a ton of offensive production, at least in terms of what's

been going on lately. Pretty much hoping he was a slightly better Terrence Gore for you. It's more or less what it was. Yeah. So, we'll see. Again, you know, not trying to be disrespectful

to Sam Haggurty or anything like that here, but it's just the Mariners are still fine. The Mariners can still do everything that they are setting out to do and all that with or without Sam Haggurty. It'd be nice to have them. So it does suck. But anyway,

So as you were talking about, the Mariners have made a few roster moves today. And there's a couple of other guys in the clubhouse right now that haven't been at it. We'll be going over all of that in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by BetOnline. Betonline.net is your number one source for football betting info this season. Find all of the latest player developments, team matchups, news, podcasts, and in-depth articles and analysis on every game you can find. And as always, Bet Online remains your continued source, all your sport wagering information with live betting and up-to-the-minute scores for every sport out there.

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Greatly appreciate your support. Now, Colby, the Mariners have made a few roster moves today. of course, Sam Hagarty going on the injured list. Abraham Toro has been brought back up. He was sent down a couple days ago. But he is back up because of the, you know, because of the injury. He's allowed, he's eligible to be reinstated on the major league of roster. So he's back.

The Mariners have also made Justice Sheffield. They're 29th man for the day. So presumably he will be starting game two of today's double header. Chris Flexen, of course, getting the start in game. one. Taylor Tremel, as you alluded to earlier, and then Brennan Bernadino, the lefty reliever who we saw in Houston, are also in the clubhouse right now, but they have not been added to the roster. Not really sure what that might be about. Any sort of theories as to why Bernardino might be there? Um, no. you know, Matt Boyd did go three innings last night, so maybe he's there in case.

You know, you hope Matt Boyd isn't all of a sudden hurt or anything like that. He was one of the few bright spots last night. And, you know, the Mariners have kind of looks, it looks kind of like the Mariners are not trying, let's say. Not trying, at least in this first game. No Julio in there, that's fine. They said he was only going to play one game anyways today, and that's what you want. But, you know, Adam Frazier in left field against a lefty,

so that Abraham Toro could play second. No Dylan Moore. You're starting Kirk Casale over Luis Terrans. Hold on. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Are you pounding the table for Dylan Moore today? against a lefty over Adam Fraser and Abraham Tora?

You heard it here, folks. He's pounding the table for Dillamore. It doesn't matter if it's against the lefty or anything. We're ignoring that part. The fact is you are pounding the table for Dillamore. It's weird to me. I mean, I was on the Dillamore bandwagon before any of you guys were, so I don't know what your surprise is about.

Check the receipts from 2020. I got them. And as I said to you off air, then what happened? Colby, then what happened? 20, 2020, 2021? and I was a huge Dillmore guy. I was there before everybody else.

So that's why you need to know. But no, it's not a good lineup today in a game that, I mean, you don't need it, but it does feel like today's lineup is kind of like a, let's see what Tampa does in their game today. Let's just see, see that number six is possible. It's just, it's so weird to see what they did today, but it is what it is.

Bernardino can only be up for a pitcher. That's the thing is it can't be for anybody else. And Tremel, I would assume, is going to be up for, is up in case Winker needs to hit the IL, who, you know, has missed the last couple days with a neck thing. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know what Bernardino is doing up because there's nobody that you would put, unless somebody's hurt. there's nobody that you would send him, send down for him. Like, you're not DFAing Matt Boyd, right?

For Bernardino, you're just not using him for the next three days. Like, okay, you don't need that extra arm. And Sheffield is the guy for the double header. So I don't, I don't know. I don't know.

It sounds like you said Sheffield's going to start, you know, game two, the Mariners Bullpen has to cover a lot of innings today because Chris Flexen is not stretched out. He's probably only going to be able to go 40, you know, 50, 65 pitches, something in that range. They had to cover five innings last night. You know, obviously they have to cover at least more innings in the second game.

And then we don't know who's starting tomorrow. It should be Marco, but if Marco is hurt, maybe that's it. Maybe Marco has to go on the IL. And you can do it now because you can retroactively do it, and you weren't going to use them in the first series anyway. So now you can bring up Bernardino and he and Bernadino can can you know be an extra arm in the bullpen and and you know be a bolt guy tomorrow. Maybe that's the plan.

So a lot, a lot up in the air right now. We don't really know what's happening. The Mariners have not yet told us. All we know is that Bernardino and Tramel are in the clubhouse. Hagerty is down. Toro is up officially. And then my, my guess is that Winker, they might, they think Winker might need to go in the I.O., which Tremel is. is the answer there. And then maybe just maybe it's Marco is going to be put on the IL

for like next strain or blisters or whatever, right? And it's just really, it's more like, look, Marco, you're not going to pitch in the first series anyways. We can retroactive you back to four days ago. And you'll be back in time for the ALDS. And we just need the extra bullpen arm for the next few days. It's my guess. It's a total guess. I don't know if that's how they're going to play it, but that one would seem to make sense. Yeah, that really is the only thing that makes sense to me. I don't have any additional theories on top of that as to why Brin and Bernadino is there. So we'll see.

I mean, if he has to be out of the roster, it's probably not good news necessarily. But I think the one that you could probably live with the most is Marco, right? because again for what you said you're not going to use him in the wild card series and would you even use him in the division series? I feel like it's probably not but yeah I feel like if he were to get an opportunity at all it would have to be a best of seven series

well but you're going to carry him in a best of five just because you know you're going to use four starters in theory and so you want that extra guy in the pen maybe I don't I don't I don't know how it works option-wise. Maybe Flexen has an option, and they're just going to option him down and call up Bernadino. Maybe that's the way after game one. That's also a possibility.

Chris, in theory, should have options. But, you know, because he signed a majorly contract as an international free agent, sometimes there's an agreement put in place that that's not, you know, they don't have options or they, you know, they don't go through arbitration or whatever. So fan graph says no on that, but who knows? Fangraphs doesn't always have the best information on contracts anyway, so don't know. Yeah, but you know, anybody you send down, I think, I could be wrong here. Maybe it's, you know, hey, we can send down Matt Brash and just recall him in three days. You know what I mean?

Like because it's the playoffs, maybe there's an exemption. You know, following the Mariners for the last 22 years hasn't given me a wealth of knowledge on playoff rules. roster rules so not sure about that that doesn't seem like that would be okay but we'll see Bernardino's kind of the weird one to me and then but I mean you know again if they don't add him it's not maybe that's just their travel squad because you're allowed to bring like a taxi squad with you in the playoffs so maybe they just those are the two guys they're bringing and they're like yeah well you know just have them up now yeah it's also a possibility so speaking of the playoffs I'm seeing this thing now and I mean like you you are even kind of talking

about it there where it's like maybe the mariners are trying to see what's going on with the six seed. There's this narrative going around that, you know, the, the mariners don't want to play the Blue Jays. I've been told, you know, when I said, you know, I want Toronto. No, you don't. You don't want that. And of course, Toronto's playing some pretty good baseball right now. Not denying that. But so is Cleveland. And let's be honest about it, folks. This is the postseason. Every team is good. Every team is going to pose a challenge. You can lose to any team in this field. Doesn't matter. You just got to play good baseball. I'm not concerned at all about who the Mariners play in the postseason. I really am not. I don't care who they play because it's all going to be difficult.

And you shouldn't care either if you're a Marius fan. We need to stop worrying about what's the easiest path for the Mariners. What's the hardest path for the Mariners? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. And we need to not look down the road either here, talking about like whether or not, you know, you want to play the Yankees or the Astros, the ALDS.

Take care of business in the Wild Card Series first. How about that? Let's worry about that series first because the next series is not guaranteed. So whether you play Cleveland or Toronto, it presents a massive challenge. And both of those teams are on a heater right now. There isn't one weaker opponent or the other, really.

And look, you play Cleveland on paper. Does Cleveland look like a better matchup for you? Just in general, just stacking roster against roster? Offensively, yes. Like Cleveland doesn't have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Teasker Hernandez, Boeachette, etc. But what they do have is Shane Bieber and Tristan McKenzie. So again, I'm going to say the thing that I always say on here.

Can't win games, zero to negative one. So the pitching matchups, they're brutal, no matter what. You're going to have to face Kevin Gossman or you're going to have to face Shane Bieber. You're going to have to face Alec Manoa or Tristan McKenzie. Like you're going to have, like, pick your poison there, folks. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day who the Mariners play or they don't play. Because it's all going to be tough. It's all going to be a gaunt.

Yeah, there's no such thing as an easy road in the playoffs. And, you know, I think one thing that people maybe aren't considering right now is, you know, playing indoors versus playing in Cleveland in October. Like, you know, you get the controlled environment of the sky dome. Is that still what it's called? The Rogers Center. Yeah, the Rogers Center. Everyone here, though.

Everyone here, though, calls up the sky, sky dome. People, it's like calling a climate pledge arena, the key still, or like calling Timo, like, you know, SafeGo. You know, it's like, it's like that. No one refers to it here by, by Rogers. Yeah, I still call Lumenfield CenturyLink, like 95% of the time. So, yeah. But whatever, either way. Like, you get that climate control or you go to Cleveland.

I haven't checked Cleveland's weather, but, you know, it's a little unpredictable. I'd rather be indoors if I, you know, if I have to go one place or the other. And, yeah, Toronto's playing good ball right now. Cleveland's been the best team in the American League for about a month. So who knows? The pitching matchups are not, you know, that favorable one way or the other just in terms of would you rather face Bieber, McKenzie, Quantrell, or Manoa, Gossman, Burrios? Yeah. Sounds like a toss-up to me, you know.

And so it's just one of those things where there is no correct answer here. It's always going to be hard. it doesn't matter if you go to you know you go to new york or or the astros you're going to be underdogs in that series heavy underdogs it doesn't matter what you're going to do both of those teams have had a buy they're going to be able to throw jesson verlander or garret cole and you're going to have to throw you know logan gilbert or george kirby or marco gonzalez like they're going to have the advantage right away there is no easy road uh to the playoffs now you look at i'm looking at the weather in cleveland right now 55 53 50s wouldn't you rather playing 72? Yeah. I probably would. So, yeah, there's no easy path. The easiest path isn't available to you anymore.

You blew it against your 20 games of bad teams. You blew it. That's what you lost when you, you know, you've won like what? Of these, you played 17 of these games and I think you're 6 and 11, 7 and 10, something like that. You blew it. All right. You didn't get your home playoff game. games, that's on you. That's on you. You didn't play well enough. You didn't earn them.

Even that road would have been tough because you're still having Toronto come here. You're still having, you know, well, I guess, or Tampa, but probably Toronto coming here and then you're still going off to play the Astros either way. So yeah, you know, it's unfortunate. Things didn't work out exactly the way you wanted it to. But that, again, that's on you. You didn't play well enough to earn that right. So now it doesn't matter who you play. You have to play well. You have to pitch well, you have to get the timely hits, you have to, you know, play smart defense. You have to do all the things that you've done for a majority of the year. I would say for about 80% of the year, you have to do all of those things well. And if you do those, you have a shot. If you don't,

you're going to lose to anybody. The Mariners are good enough to beat anybody in this field. They are good enough to get sweat or they are bad enough to get swept by anybody in this field. It all comes down to who they play or it all comes down to how they play, not who they play. and I don't see Cleveland or Toronto as being a big disadvantage one way or the other. I think there's two really solid teams. They do it differently. Yeah. Toronto's power, Cleveland's contact, but the pitching is very similar.

The bullpins are pretty similar. You know, and I guess Cleveland. The thing, too, the thing too is like, you know, the Mariners are also good. folks like let's not act like they're not good like they don't deserve to be here or anything like that they are also good like Toronto should be scared of the Mariners because the Mariners pose some unique challenges Cleveland should be scared of the Mariners because the mariner's pose unique challenges the Yankees the Ashers etc because the Mariners are also good at baseball and it's just as simple as that right every team in this postseason field is really good really good and obviously there's varying levels of that but Any of these teams can beat any of these teams on a given day. Doesn't matter. So you just got to go out and you got to play your baseball and that's it. Right.

And so, you know, and look, like the Mariners obviously have glaring flaws on their roster. But so do the Blue Jays. Blue Jays, like their bullpen has been better since the trade deadline. Still not very good, though. Like Cleveland doesn't have a killer offense. Like, look, these teams also have. issues they have things that could derail their entire postseason just like you do it it all comes down to who has the most going for them over the next few weeks that's all it comes down to

who has the most going right and so if you're the mariners like you got to play good defense you know you got to be you know you're a run prevention team you're a pitching and run prevention team so you got to be excellent at that and if you're not you're going to lose But it doesn't matter who you're playing against. It really doesn't. And yeah, Blue Jays have an offensive juggernaut. Mariners have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. So someone's got to give there, right?

And it doesn't automatically mean. And I know that we're all, you know, the whole same old Mariners thing. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's the mariners. So, of course, like, you know, the thing that's going to give is their pitching. No, it's not, like, that's not guaranteed, folks. It's not guaranteed. And so, you know.

Everybody in the playoffs is good. And also, by the way, the way that the Mariners constructed their roster this year is built to beat teams like the Toronto Blue Jays. Mm-hmm. I just, I think it's important to remember everybody in the playoffs is good. But on Friday, everybody has the same record.

Mm-hmm. Everybody zero, the Astros 103 wins means literally nothing starting Friday. if the Astros don't play well, they will be bounced in the DS. The team that's going to win the American League and go to the World Series is simply the team that plays the best. That's lazy. That's cliche. But it's the truth.

If the Mariners play the best baseball of anybody in the American League over the next three weeks, they're going to the World Series. Fact. That's the way this game works. And that's the beauty of baseball. Throughout the year, there's a lot of weird things that kind of have to go your way. maybe sometimes they don't. But at the end of the day, when you get into the playoffs and your 12 wins away from the World Series, if you play better baseball than everybody else than the other 12 teams, not the other, not the other 30 teams,

29 teams, if you play better baseball than the other 11 teams for one month, you win a World Series. Ask the Atlanta Braves. Ask the Washington Nationals. Asked the Cardinals who got in as a, you know, an 84-1 team. Right. and like anything can happen the Dodgers have been the best team in baseball for like six years running now.

They won one World Series. It was in 2020, the 60 game season. It doesn't mean anything in the playoffs, guys. You just have to play well. It's usually never the best team that wins. And look, the Mariners aren't the best team

that's entering the field. But at times the season, record-wise, they've been the best team in baseball at times. Like, they can get on a heater. They can get on a roll here. And look, you know, as much as we joke about it,

they're only going to be playing good teams from here on out, so they should be fine. So, yeah. All right. Well, that's going to do it for our show, unless you have anything else to add, Colby. You good? All right.

Let's get on out of here then. Thank you so much for joining us here on. Real fast. Just coming down the wire from Divish, Marco is going to start on Wednesday. So. there's one Bernadino possibility down okay crossing our fingers from Matthew boy then not that he's the one that's hurt crossing my fingers that he's not hurt that he's not hurt

wow tie hates the local boy shed his tears celebrating along with you and tie's like god I hope he's hurt for shame my wording could have been better there it could have I'll admit that that that's on me you know i i mean i could point the finger at you for you know poking the bear uh you know stoking the flames here but but my wording should have been better there anyway crossing our fingers here that it's not matthew boy that it's not any injury on the seattle mariners there now with that said and clarified thank you so much for joining us here on locked on Mariners for Colby Pat node. I'm Tiding Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. That's T-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z, and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's

C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Oh yeah, I want to mention real quick. We are going to be recording with Jason A. Churchill of the Baseball Things podcast here in a little bit. We're going to be making an appearance on the Baseball Things podcast. So be sure to check that out if you're a subscriber of baseball things or check out Jason's Patreon. Patreon.com forward slash baseball things, I believe it is. All right. Now make your second listen to the day.

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