Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Julio Destroys Baseball, Sadler Out For Year and MiLB Signings

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode discuss what's stood out to them through the Mariners' first three Spring Training games, how Casey Sadler's season-ending injury impacts the Mariners' bullpen and what the three minor leaguers the Mariners signed over the weekend have to offer.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 “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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. It is Monday, March 21st, 2020, and this is Locked on Mariners. Apologies for not having a show on Friday. We had a scheduling conflict that kept us from being able to record. However, we're back to five shows a week.

You're getting more of us starting now and all the way through the season. So thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. I am your host, Tiding Gonzalez, joined as always by my co-host Colby Patnode. Follow us on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez, this D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-E-P-E-E-Pat-E-1-1. Be sure also check out our Patreon

where we talk about the Mariners even more and also get into some non-baseball talk twice a week. Visit patreon.com forward slash control the zone. For more information on that, if you are interested in, before we get into the show, I got to mention that today's episode of lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bet Online. Bet Online has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before.

Bet Online, where the game starts. So, spring training games are underway. We are going to be discussing our first impressions from the first three Mariners games this past weekend. The Mariners also lost a key member of their bullpen over the weekend. We'll tell you how that impacts them moving forward. And they've also signed some recognizable names. minor league deals over the past couple days. We'll get you caught up on who they are.

And if they might be able to work their way onto the roster at some point, and if this is your first time joining us, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follower, subscribe wherever you're listening to this. There is no better time to do so than now with the season, just a few,

what, two weeks away? How long away are we from opening day? Colby. A little over two weeks. I believe it will be two weeks on Friday. Wow. So close. So close. So exciting too. It's crazy, right? Because spring training just begun. Games just started on Friday for the Mariners. We saw Marco Gonzalez in the opener. We saw Levi Stout on Saturday and Chris Flexen on Sunday. The Mariners won the Saturday game. They lost the Friday and Sunday games, which, you know, that doesn't matter. It's spring training.

ultimately a lot of things that spring training don't really matter but colby has there been anything that has stood out to you thus far over the last three days not not really it's been a pretty um nondescript start for the mariners uh so far i guess the good news is that marco and chris flexen both look pretty pretty good uh in their outings obviously flexen not exactly facing a you know, quality lineup by any stretch. But, you know, three strikes, off-speed stuff was working pretty well. Marco is apparently been working on a new breaking ball, and he flashed it a little bit in his start. So it was a pretty good outing. First three games have been started by two guys who are definitely in the rotation

and one who apparently is in the running, according to Jerry DePoto in Levi Stout. stout stuff was was pretty good uh just not a ton of control uh on uh what was that Saturday um and that's kind of you know what the scouting report would tell you is going to be the case with him right now so uh not all that surprising of a result and he was going up against the Dodgers lineup that's you know wasn't at full you know it wasn't at full power but it still had what Cody bellinger i think tray turner played in that game as well yeah quite quite a few guys We're still there.

I was still present in that. I think AJ Pollock was playing. Yeah, it was, yeah, it was a good solid lineup, a major league quality lineup for the most part. So yeah, you know, it's just been that. A couple guys came in out of the bullpen looked really good. Danny Young had a great inning. He might be a sleeper candidate to be the lefty in the bullpen.

Personally, he might be better than Mishevitz. I've never been a fan of Mishovets anyways. So that's a possibility there. There's also a really good inning from Johann Ramirez. I think he threw 14 of 16 pitches for strikes yesterday, which is obviously huge because Ramirez has the stuff to be locked down upper level reliever in baseball, just a matter whether or not he can throw strikes. and yesterday was a good first step.

And then, of course, you know, Devin Sweet, just toying with guys in his change-up and then blowing 94-95 by him on the inside corner. He was, that was a lot of fun to see. Yeah, that change-up lived up to the hype. You know, you had been telling me about it. You sent me some videos of him throwing that change-up. So would you say that was right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm not ashamed to admit it. You were right, Colby. about what? Be specific. About Devin Sweet's changeup. Now, I'm not going to say that he's Devin Williams, like you said. But.

Okay, well, you'll get there eventually. I'm not ready to make that commitment yet, but I like it. I like what I saw. I'm very intrigued by Devin Sweet, I'll say. So, I mean, we got to talk about Julio's home run on Friday, right? That's the highlight of spring thus far. we were live

on YouTube tweets change up but sure you want to do Julio that's fine too of course but we were live on YouTube for this

yeah too so if you're listening to this you want to see our live reaction to Julio's absolute tank on Friday

go to YouTube control the zone on or sorry true to the Trident on YouTube I always get it confused if we have it called

control the zone or true to the Triton but go to the Triton on YouTube and Watch the last Control the Zone live that we have uploaded there because we reacted to it live 117 miles per hour on the exit velocity

Do we know what the feet was on it? I believe 421 or 431 I don't believe them That at least had to be like 6,000 feet At least 6,000? Okay Yes, Mr. hyperbole It was impressive. I mean, it's not like it came off of a real major league or anything.

Guy basically threw him a batting practice fastball, i.e. a hanging curveball. But he didn't miss it. And, you know, it was kind of funny because he had gotten ahead, oh, two with two curveballs at Julio. Didn't look like he saw them real well out of his hand. There was a little bit of a flinch there on both of those pitches. And then he tried to sneak a third one by him and Julio,

obliterated it. So yeah, it was fun. You know, he got to start the other day. Didn't, didn't register a hit. Kind of just, you know, a forgettable day at the ballpark for him. I believe he's in the starting lineup today. Unfortunately, the game is not on TV. So today's like the really fun game, by the way. Yeah. We're going to see or well, we're not going to see. Yeah, we should see. But, uh, yeah, George Currie. Kirby and Matt Brash are going to be pinching in this one. Also, Evan White is apparently going to be getting netbats today. Yeah.

So it's too bad the Mariners don't own like their own like sports network. So they could broadcast more of these games for us. That would be that would be delightful. Yeah. But no, you know, I mean, any, anytime you can show old reruns of Montana State versus Montana from 2018, you have to show that. I mean, like, you got to do it. Yeah.

You got to do it. That and the backpacking through Europe show, like, they're the two best shows they have. So because, you know, everybody watches root sports when there's not a game on. Seattle Sea Wolves rugby reruns. Hey, you know what? I would appreciate that more than the backpacking through Europe show or the fly fishing show. So at least show me that. But no.

Nope. Again, real shame the Mariners don't own that network or anything. Shoot. Darn. So yesterday. Jesse Winker got his first hit as a baroner to run double that was nice Ty France got a home run so you know top of the lineup doing some stuff it's going to take probably another week week and a half for for these hitters to kind of start

really getting into their groove getting into more you know season ready form pitchers are going to take a little longer it's going to be interesting to see how this fifth starter competition plays out if Jerry depoto can't land a trade for a for another pitcher which kind of concerns us. We'll probably talk about that later on this week. But up next, we're going to be talking about Casey Sadler, who unfortunately is going to be missing the 2022 season and how that impacts the Mariners bullpen going forward.

But first, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners, it's brought to you by Bet Online. It's that time of year again as college basketballs tournament is finally upon us. From all the latest odds, contests and player props, betonline.com. net is the number one source for all your sports betting needs and info. Bet Online remains the best spot for all your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. And it's not just basketball.

Bet Online is your continued source for all your sporting wagering information needs, including live betting and your favorite Vegas casino games. So head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. Bet online, where the game starts. You're listening to Lockdown Mariners. Thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. And just a reminder to check out Lockdown MLB Prospects. Host Lindsay Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia.

And he's going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow. It's free and available wherever you get podcasts just like us. So check it out. All right. So like I said earlier, Casey Sadler is done for the year. A couple days ago, it was reported by Ryan Divish that he was dealing with some shoulder discomfort. it kind of seemed at first that it wasn't going to be much of an issue, but he was a little behind on his throwing schedule.

And then yesterday he posts a video on Twitter that threw up some red flags for for Mariner fans. And shortly thereafter, the news came out that he is going to have to undergo season ending shoulder surgery. So Sadler coming off of a great year, in which he had a 0.67 ERA 248 FIPP, average nearly a strikeout per nine innings. He was one of the Mariners, better relievers and really just lengthened an already great bullpen for them. And now he's gone, but, you know, Jerry Depoto has been able to identify quality relievers, guys that have helped his bullpins in the past pretty much out of nowhere, right? He's more or less pulled these guys out of thin air.

And there's also the addition of Andres Munoz for a full season. there's the return of Ken Giles. So the Meritus Bullpen is still in a really good place, right, Colby? It is. I think we need to be a little cautious about expecting Giles to start opening day, you know, in the bullpen. Through a second bullpen the other day, he felt fine. Command was just not there. Slider wasn't as sharp.

And those are two things that are, you know, typically commonly associated with your first. year back off of Tommy John. Apparently the velocity was 95, which isn't too bad for, you know, a second bullpen. We'll see. Hopefully you can get into some games here in the next week or so. That would that would really go a long way. Yeah, you still look at what's still available. You know, Paul C. Wall, Drew Stack and writer Diego Castillo.

Those guys are locks. I think Munoz is probably going to make it, but we'll see. He hasn't gotten into a game yet, so it'll be. be interesting to see what he does. So yeah, you have four, you know, between Giles and Munoz, one of those guys is probably on the opening day roster, at least one. So you have four spots accounted for. And then you saw like Eric Swanson, who was sneaky good last year.

I don't think people quite get how good Eric Swanson is. Johann Ramirez probably mixed the team now, I would assume. but yeah you know there's a lot going on but the mariner's still pretty good and depoto if he's proven anything as a general manager is that he's really good at putting together bullpins on the fly so yeah i wouldn't worry too much about this it's a bummer because sadler is definitely a quality middle reliever and he was kind of the guy they went to to you know get them out of the jam when the starter tired um you know it was kind of like j t sharkwa was in the first half that That's who Sadler was in the second half only better.

So the bullpen's still in pretty good shape. It'll be interesting to see what they do. They're going to carry eight. That's the most they can carry, at least as of right now. Rosters still haven't expanded. So they're going to carry eight relievers. So there's still a couple spots up for grabs. And we also need to remember that Seattle's very likely going to want to carry a traditional long reliever.

Just because, you know, service has said in the last week that his hope is to get to opening day with all of his starters being prepared to throw between 75 to 85 pitches. So that's not quite full, you know, a full workload. So, yeah, they're going to want to carry a guy who can go multiple innings. So maybe somebody like Justice Sheffield makes the club now. Maybe somebody like Matt Besta, Nick Mark Gavichis, maybe. And I would watch if he's healthy, that's big if. Rowan is Elias.

We know how versatile he can be. If he's healthy, then I think he's got a shot. particularly since he's a lefty as well. And I don't think the Mariners are thrilled with Mishavitz, but I do think that he's probably going to be in the bullpen. So they have some options. Didn't he get hit hard a little bit yesterday? Yeah, he gave up the home run.

He's just a dude. There's one thing you guys are going to learn about me through this season. I'm no fan of Anthony Mishavits. Just kind of a guy. and he gets trusted in a lot of a lot more high leverage situations than he should be. That's my opinion of it. But yeah, he'll probably be there. And I think I think Mark Gavittes or Sheffield is going to make the bullpen as well

because I do think they're going to really push for that guy who can go two, three innings once or twice a week. They've also added a couple lefties to maybe get into the mix on minor league deals. We'll talk about those guys in a little bit. Um, they've also added, you know, they had also added some other minor league guys throughout the lockout and shortly after the lockout with, uh, Patrick Weigel and, um, Kyle Bird and some of those guys. So maybe they factor in. Wigel looks pretty good.

Yeah. So, you know, so. Yeah. We'll, we'll see how they go about this. But like you said, like I said, Jerry Depoto has. I mean, pretty much the one thing that he's been consistent about at the major league level in his time as general manager of the Mariners is being able to just pull, you know, quality relief talent out of thin air. So I don't have much or many concerns really about how this is going to go if they're going to be able to survive without Casey Sadler. It sucks.

It really does. Don't get me wrong. It really sucks for the Mariners and also for Sadler himself, especially because he's kind of become a little bit of a fan favorite here as well. So, yeah, that's really disappointing. You know, wishing him is speedy recovery and looking forward to seeing him, hopefully back on the field next season. But the Mariners should be able to survive.

They should be able to stay afloat. And even if Giles, for example, is not able to make the opening day roster, we should be able to see him at some point sooner rather than later and hopefully that gives them at least a decent boost if he's the fourth or fifth guy still in that bullpen. We of course love the upside of Johan Ramirez. He made some great strides last year. He looked good and as you mentioned earlier in his appearance over the weekend. And then yeah, you got guys like Eric Swanson and, you know, maybe Nick Margavitt's or Justice

Sheffield or who have you. I think the good thing right now is that they have a lot of options at their disposal to make this thing work. So we'll see how it comes together over the next couple weeks. And there's also always the possibility that they go out and add more. Still some names out there that they could potentially bring in. And they certainly have plenty of money to do so. Not that they would spend any sort of exorbitant amount on any of the remaining relievers.

but yeah, they have the means to do so. There will be guys who are DFA'd, 40 man casualties and things like that. So, yeah, it's not something to be worried about yet. But it is, it's not like it's nothing. You're trying to walk that line. It's significant. You lost a pretty good arm. But if you're going to lose a player for the season, you know, the bullpen is, is the one place

where you can make it work without feeling too much of a, you know, too much of a letdown. And particularly the Mariners as well, right? Coming off of the year that they just did, bringing back pretty much everyone from last season as well. So having that carryover, having that continuity is really important here. And yeah, you know, there's probably going to be some regression. We've talked about this before.

Bullpins are volatile. but, you know, having that security, having that familiarity, it could go a long way. And, you know, it's nice to have that to kind of fall back on and rely on here. You still have, you know, one of the best bullpins from last year intact, you know, aside from Sadler. So they're in a good spot. And we'll, like I said, we'll see how they make the rest work. So we're going to be talking about some of the minor league free agents that they brought in. A couple could factor into the bullpen competition now with Sadler out or even if Sadler was still around.

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So over the last 24 hours or so, the Mariners have added a trio of minor league free agents, all of whom are fairly recognizable, especially to Mariner fans. The first one being Andrew Albers, who's back. He was with the Mariners back. 2017 made some spot starts. He was actually pretty decent for them during that stretch.

He ended up going to Japan after that and ended up making a return to the major leagues last season with Minnesota, 758 ERA, and I believe it was three games started for the twins last year. So not a great return for Albers, but he comes back to Seattle and provides at least some starting depth in Tacoma. and could also be stretched out as a reliever. The Mariners also added Ryan Bukter, the 35-year-old left-handed reliever

who were, who Mariners fans probably recognize most from his time with the A's in 2017 through 2019. His best season was in 2018. He had a 275 ERA, 354 FIPP, striking out a little over better per inning. in 39 and a third innings pitched. So another name to throw into that lefty competition there with Anthony Miss Savage, Danny Young and some of those guys.

And then finally, Billy Hamilton, someone we talked about quite a bit over the last few days, especially with Mariners needing to improve their outfield defense, was seen in the clubhouse today with a locker. So he's signed into a minor league deal. And last year, he played 71. games with the White Sox. He's 31 years old now. He's not going to give you really anything offensively, at least at the plate. But he can certainly still some bases still. And, you know, he's a good defender out in center field. So he at the very least is a hedge if their plan to, you know,

it seems like their plan is to have Julio Rodriguez make the opening day roster as their starting center fielder. But if that doesn't work, Hamilton is kind of a hedge for that. So what do you think about these moves? Which one do you like the most? And how does Hamilton kind of impact the, the Julio thing? Yeah, to be honest, I don't care about the other two. The only one I care about is Billy Hamilton.

Is that mostly because I've been pounding the table for Billy Hamilton, pretty much since the lockout lifted, maybe. But, you know, I'm not the guy who beats his chest and talks about how awesome. often he's right. You know that about me, I'm, yeah, of course. Modest Colby Patnaut, of course.

That's the one word people would use to describe me, modest. Only when I'm around you, apparently. The Hamilton thing is interesting because I said this over the weekend, and I'll say it here on the show. Billy Hamilton makes more sense

for the Mariners than Dylan Moore does right now. Because really they're both pretty similar players, right? Neither is going to give you anything offensively. And their primary value to you is what they do on the basis. Well, Billy Hamilton's a significantly better base stealer and runner than Dylan Moore. And while Dylan Moore can play second and short and third, you know who else can do those things? Adam Frazier, Abraham Toro, like J.P.

Crawford, like there, there's no reason. And then you say, well, Dillmore can play the outfield too. Well, guess what Billy Hamilton does better than Dillamore? He plays the outfield. So, yeah, I would not be shocked at all to see Billy Hamilton make the opening day roster. He would be, clearly be the 26 man. Mostly just used late in games, defensive replacement, pinch running, that type of thing. But when you watch the Mariners' outfield defense, and that was already kind of on display down in

Arizona this weekend, you understand why they might want a guy coming off the bench who can cover some serious ground. So I think he's got a shot to make the opening day roster. I wouldn't say it's a great shot, but I think he does have it. And yeah, he's just, you know, again, like you said, it's a little bit of a, you know, hedge your bets. You know, if we just don't really quite trust Julio, then I guess we'll roll with Hamilton for a couple weeks. weeks and see how it goes. But yeah, he's not going to give you anything offensively, at least not at the plate. But it's a really good minor league signing.

It makes a ton of sense. And I think he's got a real shot to make the opening day roster. I would say, I don't know, 35% something like that, which is fairly significant for a minor league free agent this late into the off season. Yeah, I'd say the chances of him making the roster are pretty decent. And I agree with you on Moore for the most part. Like Moore obviously has higher offensive upside, but is he actually going to see that through? He's done it one for 30 games.

Can't really bank on it right now. Right? Like you can't, it's tough. And also, look, Moore has three minor league options remaining. You can set them down and call him back up later. It'll be fine. You will have to do. Like Dillmore is going to have to happen.

have a role with the Mariners somewhere because guys are going to get hurt. And there's always the off chance that Dylan Moore makes a swing adjustment for the first time in his career and actually shows that he can be something close to what he was in 2020 for 30 games. So, yeah, he's going to play for the Mariners at some point. But you just look at it right now. I mean, what, like, like, coming off the bench, who are you going to use as a pinch hitter off the bench.

Based on the way it looks right now, probably Toro and Torens are probably going to be the first two. And if somebody, they need to replace somebody like, I don't know, maybe a E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. Haneo S Juarez, right? G.E.E. H.A. France. Like, Toreau. Oh, Bresor. Or Frasier. Like, what it, or even if, God forbid, you have to. Thai France. Like it's

Right. There's just no use. Dillmore's versatility really doesn't play a role here. Because essentially what you're doing is you're replacing Dillon Moore with Adam Frazier defensively. And you're replacing basically everything Dillmore does well or everything Dillmore does to help you on offense with Billy Hamilton. So yeah, it just doesn't make sense to me to carry Dillan Moore. Obviously, if Toro gets hurt or Frazier or whatever. whatever, then things change.

But right now, the good center field defense is more valuable than anything Dillmore brings to the table. So I think... Also, yeah. Man, the Mariners really like 2018 Reds.

Jesse Winker, E. E. Henio Suarez. Billy Hamilton. Quite a few guys from that team on here. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. By the way, we do have some late breaking kind of breaking Mariner News

a couple guys getting sent reassigned to minor league camp so nothing major here but the idea that Danny Young

might make the major league open day roster not going to happen David Ellinson and Patrick Michael as well yep have been sent

down to the minor league camp so of Danny Young and Ian McKinney Brian O'Keef has also been sent down to minor league camp and Jack Larson

as well so yep no real surprise there. I would have thought Weigel might have stayed up a little longer. But yeah, no real surprises on that end.

Yeah. So 60 players left in camp for the Mariners. So still a lot of shuffling to be done. But they're making some small moves here and there. As they try to piece this thing together.

But yeah. So the Hamilton thing. I think it would be smart to at least start the season with him on the roster instead of more, see how things go, especially if Julio is going to open up as the center fielder. Still got to see about that. You know, Julio is kind of playing in what is pretty close to what would be the opening day lineup today. So, yeah, but I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see how the next couple weeks kind of dictate that whole situation. Right.

If Julio Rodriguez comes up and he can play an average center field and he doesn't look overwhelmed at the plate, I mean, Hamilton's time with the Mariners organization might be a month. Right. But if things go wrong, you'll want Billy Hamilton around. So, yeah, I just, I still feel like Julio's going to be the opening day center fielder. And that is why it makes sense to meet at Billy Hamilton.

They're connected. It's like I said, you get into the seventh, eighth, ninth inning, you're probably going to want an outfield of Kellnick, Hamilton, Rodriguez. Because we saw Winker and Hanigar and the outfield together the other day. It directly cost, I believe it was Chris Flexen, directly cost him a run. So, yeah, let's try and avoid. that as much as we can. Yeah. Yeah. That would be nice. That would certainly be nice. So that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on Lockdown Mariners for Colby Pat

Node. I'm Taday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-E-P-E-E-E-N-Z-L-Z-L-E and Colby at C-E-Pat-E-E-E-E. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. And a reminder, we're going back to five shows a week starting this week and all the way through

the regular season and hopefully the playoffs for the Mariners as well. Now, make your second list on the day, locked on MLB, where Paul Francis Sullivan and please call him, Sully brings you his unique perspective on the major league's president of past. It's free. Wherever you get your podcast just like us,

have yourself a beautiful baseball day. and we will see you tomorrow. Peace.