Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Julio Does It Again as Mariners Sweep Rangers

Episode Date: July 27, 2022

Julio Rodríguez is truly incredible. The 21-year old outfielder put the Mariners on his back on Wednesday, driving a go-ahead, three-run home run to give his club a sweep over the visiting Rangers. Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode recap the action, go over George Kirby and Marco Gonales' recent starts and look at some under-the-radar trade targets.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] up to date with all things Mariners at Inside the Mariners - a FanNation website covering the Seattle Mariners on the Sports Illustrated network.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11 | @InsideMarinersFor more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Blue NileMake your moment sparkle with jewelry from Bluenile.com. And, going on now is the Blue Nile Anniversary Sale … Save up to forty percent on classic fine jewelry pieces and twenty-five percent on engagement ring settings. Shop stress free and find your forever piece. Go to BlueNile.com today.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.

On today's Locked-on Mariners post-game show, Julio did it again as the Mariners sweep the Rangers in three games, but will this be enough of a boost for a successful road trip to Houston and New York? All that and more coming right up. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, everyone?

Welcome to the Locked-on Mariners Post-game show. it is Wednesday, July 27th, 2022, and thank you so much for making us your first listen after the game. We are free and available in all platforms with new episodes dropping every Monday through Friday. I am your host, Tadayn Gonzalez, joined as always by my co-coast Colby Patnode.

We cover the Mariners over at inside the mariners.com for Fan Nation over on the Sports Illustrated network. Be sure to follow the show on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. Follow Inside the Mariners at Inside Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, S-T-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-P-A-L-Z and C-P-P-A-T-1-B. Be sure also check out our Patreon over at patreon.com forward-slash control the zone.

We post two additional podcasts on there every single week. Again, that is patreon.com forward slash control the zone. And if this is your first time joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follow or subscribe wherever you're listening to this. And if you're watching us on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, turn on the notification bell and give this video a thumbs up we greatly appreciate it again we are trying to get to 2,411 subscribers by august 2nd and if we do given away a sign mitch hanniger card there it is

oh shiny very shiny uh for those that are listening and not watching us on youtube just take it from me it's a very cool looking card so if you haven't jumped on over to our youtube yet Come on over. Subscribe. Tell your friends to come on over. Tell your enemies to come on over. Anyone who you know that is a Mariners fan, tell them to come right on over to YouTube

and subscribe to the Locked-on Mariners page. And then they'll enter for a chance to win a signed Mitch Hanager card. And I mean, who doesn't love Mitch Hanager? Well, I guess Colby, because he's given away his card and has besmirched his good name earlier on in this season. Tie, tie, tie. If you want me to pull up the receipts of a certain tweet that was sent last August, I can do that for you. Oh, no.

Yeah. So let's not go there, buddy. Let's just move on, guys. You heard nothing. You heard absolutely nothing at home. So this is, of course, going to be a little bit more of a casual show than some others because it is so late in the day. And the game has happened already for the Mariners. they did win four to two over the Texas Rangers.

They sweep the Rangers. And because the Astros got swept by the A's down in Oakland because baseball, baseball, yeah, exactly. The Mariners are pretty much right back where they were at heading into the All Star Break. So they've also surpassed the raise on the wild card standing. So right now they hold the second wild card. They're, of course, trailing the Blue Jays, who I believe haven't lost since the All Star break. So that's a little. Yeah, that's a little unfortunate, a little unfortunate time in there.

But it's going to do the Ems of close. Yeah, they got to play the AAA Royals. And then they now they're playing the Cardinals without Aeronado and Goldschmidt. So sometimes the schedule works in your favor. So, but hey, you know what? If the Blue Jays lose tonight, I believe the Mariners will have regained the number one wildcard spot. So it's Blue Jays loose tonight. and the season ended at midnight,

the Mariners would be hosting playoff games. So you're still in a pretty good spot. Not bad, not bad indeed. So we're going to be talking about today's game. We're going to be talking about last night's game. I'm going to look at George Kirby's start. He was really, really good last night in his five innings of work. And we're also going to look at some under the radar trade targets,

including a catcher out in Detroit, who Colby really likes. And now that the Tigers have basically said, everyone's available. I mean, shoot, let's look through that whole roster and see if there's anyone we like. Obviously, they're not selling Riley Green, though. But I would like Riley Green.

Riley Green is pretty cool. Sure. Well, I mean, if they're dumb enough to trade Tariq Scoopal, doesn't hurt to ask, I'm just saying. Just throw it out there. That's true. That's true. That's true. So, Julio, of course, did it again chills

Julio did it again three run home run to give the Mariners a really really much needed win when you think about it because I mean taking two of three is nice against the Rangers but getting this sweep I felt was really really important

for just kind of the momentum going into this road trip this is a huge road trip coming up they got Houston for four they got New York for three all on the road that's it's going to be a gauntlet man and so any sort of buffer that you could give yourself to survive that if worse comes to worse on this road trip you needed to get it and so they were able to get this all three games in some pretty big ways obviously they walk off last night and they mount a little bit of a comeback here today it was two to one but it you know it seemed like they were kind of sluggish they were really struggling to pick up john gray for most of the game and they I mean, Julio himself was just getting absolutely owned by John Gray's slider for his first couple of bats and then finally got him in his last abat against him in such a huge way. But, you know, again, I just felt that this was such a huge, hugely needed win for the Mariners.

What did you think coming out of the series? Yeah, you know, it's honestly, I would have been fine with a series win. you always want to sweep. But, you know, series wins are pretty good. And at this stage, if you're just consistently winning series, you know, 65% of the time, you're going to make the playoffs. You're going to be in good shape. So, but, you know, because you're playing Houston for four and because you're playing the Yankees for three in New York,

you want to create a little bit of a buffer so that if you go, you know, two and five this next week, it's not a disaster, right? it's not the end of the world. And by sweeping the Rangers, what you've done now is that, you know, and you can do this any way you want. But what you've basically done is you is if you go two and five against the two best teams of the American League, well, you went five and five over your last 10. You're fine, right? So you've created that buffer. And then you're done with the Astros until potentially the playoffs. The Yankees got to come back here. And they'll do that after a, I believe it's a three-game series against the Angels.

Might be a four-game series in three days against the Angels, and the Yankees will come to town, and then you're done with the Yankees. It's one of the weird series to make up for the lockout games. Genius. Let's play nine innings on those double-headers, too, while we're at it. Anyways. Yeah, insane.

The Mariners, by the way, just real quick, don't want to get off on a whole thing here, but the Mariners likely won't face Mike Trout in that series. He's been diagnosed with a rare back disorder or something. So that's something to keep an eye on. Hopefully, you know, as much crap as we talk about with Mike Trout and the angels and everything, hoping that Mike Trout is okay. And then everything is good on the front.

He's fine. Yeah. He's fine. But, yeah, so I don't know, man. It was kind of weird because Gray was dominant today. He was very good. The slider was filthy. The fastball was 98.

and he was dotting it on the corners and even mixed in a really good change up that was about 91 miles an hour a few times, mostly to the lefties. So he was tough, and they just had to grind it out and give credit to Marco for keeping the game, you know, right where it was,

you know, giving up two runs over seven, giving the Mariners' bats a chance, waiting for the kind of crack in the armor that was John Gray. And, you know, they push Gray's pitch count up to 100 and then shortly thereafter, he makes the mistake. And the Mariners, in this case, Julio, did not miss the mistake.

And as a result, they win. So you got to give credit to Marco because that's a good bounce back when the bullpen was short today as well. So Marco giving them seven and doing what he couldn't do last time against Houston, giving his offense a chance to mount a real comeback attempt. And the Mariners were able to pull it off. Another big game for Sam Haggurdy. he collected a couple of hits including the mariner's first run on an rbi hustle double that he just kind of chipped into left field and then had a a nice little double down the right field line to set up second and third there there was a review to see if he came off the bag

was one of those silly you know did he come off the bag for split second type of plays which those to me i just i don't think that should even count honestly if a guy pops off the about for a split second. Anyway, he was called safe and the review kept it as such. And then Julio, of course, you know, came through with the big three run, home run there. If I was a Rangers fan, though, I would hate Sam Haggurdy. All this guy has done has just destroyed my team. And he's just this, he's just this dude.

Like, if I'm a Rangers fan, I just see Sam Haggurty is just this guy, right? Like, he's like Sam Fold. He's Sam Fold. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it's, it's, we can ask Bryce, but I'm sure he doesn't have warm feelings about Sam Haggertie. Yeah. Yeah, Haggurty, you know, he also came off the bench, what was it? Yes, last night. And he had a big stolen base. I mean, it was, it was a, it was, it was, the pitcher was quick to the plate. The catcher made a great throw. Haggurty just got a better jump and was faster.

And that, that's a really impressive bag to steal. And so, yeah, it just seems like every time Sam plays, he'll do something to help you win. And I just, I just, you just, you just, you just, I wonder when we got into the point where the Mariners, we know that they're going to add Mitch Hanigar at some point, barring some kind of setback. We think that Taylor Tremel is relatively close to coming back as well. And we believe that the Mariners are going to acquire a bat of some kind, probably not a big name,

but maybe somebody who's, you know, a Brandon Drury, a Joey Wendell, somebody like that. I have to wonder if at this point when they start their roster shuffle to accommodate all these bats, if it's not Sam Haggerty who stays up and Dylan Moore and Abraham Toro are the ones that get shipped down to AAA, where I think in the past we've assumed that Moore would stay up and it would be Toro and Haggerty going down. I think Hagerty has earned his way and to be the utility. Basically the Dylan Moore role, I think Hagerty has earned that over Dylan Moore with his play the last few weeks. So I want to ask you about Marco Gonzalez and George Kirby.

And just a moment of a bit real quick, got to remind the folks that today's episode of Lockdown Mariners. It is brought to them by Blue Nile. Whether you're ready to pop the question or you're celebrating a milestone moment, find jewelry as unique as the person you love with the modern convenience of online shopping at Blue Nile.com. Blue Nile has simple online tools that let you choose the diamond shape, size and clarity as well as setting style. Blue Nile's benched jewelers will then handcraft their perfect engagement ring and each ring will be a one of a kind. Looking for fine jewelry, but having trouble choosing, Blue Nile has jewelry experts on hand 24-7 available via phone or chat to help you find a memorable gift at every budget.

Make your moment sparkle with jewelry from blue nile.com. And going on now is the Blue Nile anniversary sale. Save up to 40% on classic fine jewelry pieces and 25% on engagement ring settings. Plus, every order is insured, ships free, and arrives in discrete packaging that won't give away what's inside. Shop stress-free and find your favorite piece. Go to Blue Nile.com today. you're listening to Lockdown Mariners. Thank you again for making us your first listen after the game.

The MLB trade deadline is, of course, August 2nd and Locked on MLB has all the breakdowns. And Locked on Mariners will have rapid reactions to any move made. Subscribe now to your favorite Lockdown MLB team on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. So you get notified when each episode premieres. And of course, we'll be talking more trade stuff later on in the show. but first like I said earlier Colby I want to ask you about the pitching let's start with George Kirby who pitched last night he went five innings was on a limited pitch count and made use of that he made quick work of the Rangers and his five innings of work for

strikeouts for him what did you see out of Kirby and his first start back after getting sent down a little bit to manage his innings there might have been the best we've ever seen of Kirby and considering the start he's been on you know a few hiccups here and there but he's a rookie who's blown passes inning career high innings cap, you know, already. So it's pretty impressive to say that. It was pretty reminiscent of the Tampa start where he was very fastball heavy. But in this particular start, it was more of the two-semer. It was more of the armside run to the fastball.

And I think the entire night was best summed up by a pitch he threw to, it was a low. Nathaniel Lowe, I believe. It was a 2-2 pitch and Kirby threw a 95-mile-an-hour fastball that started basically at the elbow of Nathaniel Lo and broke into the inside corner for a left. He Greg Maddox him. That's the pitch that Greg Maddox made famous when he was in his heyday. That two-seamer that starts like at the hip of a lefty and ends up on the inside corner. And he did that.

The difference is that Kirby did his at 95-96. Maddox was thrown 88 to 91. It's just it's a pitch that's literally impossible to hit if you locate it like he did there. And that's that's a difference. That's a difference maker. You know, we saw Kirby 96 with his regular fastball. We saw the two seamer 94 to 96 as well. So there's no real speed discrepancy there.

And we also saw, you know, a sharper breaking ball, a sharper slider. So he was efficient. It was a really good matchup for him in terms of efficiency just because Texas is so aggressive. I was a little disappointed they didn't put him back out there for the six. I know he was working on like a, I think they said 65, 75 pitch count. He got through five and he still had like 15, 20 pitches left. But, you know, it is what it is. They're trying to be careful with him.

I don't know. We might not see a better five innings out of George Kirby this year. It was just a little bit of everything, throwing strikes, attacking guys, and then breaking out the new two seamer, which looks like a fun new toy. Yeah, gosh. It was a lot of fun to watch him pitch last night. It was, he's, he's so fun. He's so fun when he's on. This is everything that I, you know, was hoping for, you know,

just watching him over the last year or so. And just thinking about when he would eventually reach the big league level, this is just, this is that, this is everything. Right. Kirby's got a higher upside than Gilbert. I mean, like, I'm not sure if it's close either. There's just more diversity in his skill set. And there is a local.

back when they were still ranked, you and I both had Kirby ahead of Gilbert in the cross- It's always close. Yeah. Right. And it's still close.

Like it's like Kirby just a little bit more variety in his skill set where Gilbert, it's just, if he has to have the fastball. If he doesn't have the fastball, he screwed. And while all pitchers have to have some fastball value,

Kirby can have less of it and still succeed because he throws a ton of strikes, because he has the slider more consistently, the curveball more consistently than Gilbert ever does. But we're talking about like one's a number two and one's a high in number three. Like we both, I mean, honestly,

if Kirby and Gilbert both won a Sine Award at some point in their career, that wouldn't be shocked. Yeah. I would also say, you know, with Kirby, there's a little bit more probability in his fastball than Gilbert's because the command, obviously the command is, you know,

potential for elite, right? So. Right. Gilbert's going to strike out more guys too. He's going to miss more bats than Gilbert. But both are great. So Marco pitched today. It was a solid start for him, I would say.

Especially at the beginning, he was really doing a nice job of managing contact. He only gave up a couple of hard hit balls through, I believe the first four innings of work. But then I think he, I don't know if it was maybe the heat or just, you know, it's late in the season, et cetera. He just kind of seemed to tire out.

He was starting to miss really bad. And he started to get into a lot of, you know, we saw him in some three, three ball counts, some three O holes. And it just, you know, he was. And then, of course, he gave up a couple of hits there to, to Hime and who drove in the first run. Yeah. Culverston, Culverson, Culverson drove on the first run. Yeah.

So what did you see out of Marco? I thought it was pretty good. It's, you know, it's basically what we've seen for Marco all year, where he kind of, you know, grits and bulldogs and, you know, outworks the other team. And he gets through six or seven, giving up only a couple of runs. And, you know, naturally people, oh, well, see, you don't need to replace Marco Gonzalez. And it's like, well, what part of Marco's start was easy today? Not much.

but overall he was pretty good it was you know for the most part he threw strikes for the most part he commanded the change up really well and made the mistake to Hime to give up the lead he did have some help from his defense Julio made a nice running catch in the right center field gap Gino Suarez had a couple of

really nice plays at third base Santana caught a line drive hit hard right at him so there was definitely some BAPib luck for Miro because of the stellar defense played behind him, minus the Adam Fraser air. But, yeah.

But they played good defense otherwise. And so Marco was kind of pitching. I mean, Marco always pitches to contact. And that's part of the problem. He doesn't miss a ton of bats, five strikeouts and seven innings. It's pretty good for Marco, but that's kind of part of the problem sometimes. So it was about as good as you can expect for Marco this year. but it's still not near enough to be,

I don't want Marco starting playoff games for me. But he, it was definitely a kind of a classic Marco gritting his way through a decent lineup, not a great lineup, but a pretty decent lineup. Yeah, I would, you know, I would say that at this point right now, obviously there's, of course, the lingering issue of George Kirby's innings cap, but I feel like there is a fairly good possibility here that the Mariners end up getting two starting pitchers, one that kind of fits on the back end of the rotation and then of course

like a Frankie Montes, a Luis Castillo type, to fit more near the top or the middle of the rotation. So at that point, kind of feel like Marco and Chris Flexner and a little bit of a competition here to stay in the rotation for which one stays in the rotation and which one ends up getting relegated to the bullpen. Who would you say is winning that competition if there actually is one right now? Because Flexen over his last 11 starts has never allowed a more than three runs over his last 11 starts. Yeah, he's also not being asked to go deep in a lot of those.

Last 11 starts, I think he's gone six or later in five or six of them. only so it's not like he's covering a ton of endings. Most he's gone during that time seven on May 27th. I feel like there's been a lot of like five and a thirds mixed in there. I can just go through it real quick. 6.3.26, 6.26.5.5.5.5.15

6.257 and that's it. That's the 11 game stretch. Yeah. So just as many five inning outings as as six plus. So like, it's just one of those things where it's like, I don't know who's, my guess would be that Marco would be more likely to stay in the bolt or in the rotation

just because he has kind of the, the pelts on the wall, so to speak, in Seattle, he's an established veteran. He's a leader of that pitching staff. And I think that would come into play because I don't think the difference between him and flexen is so significant that stuff like that shouldn't matter

or wouldn't matter to Scott's service. So I still think I would give Marco the edge, but if it's just about, you know, who gives you the best shot to beat, you know, the Yankees or the Astros, it's probably flexing by a slight edge just because he can generate some more swings and misses. You know, it's not like he,

it's not like it's a ton, but just every, you know, there are days where Flexen has a really good fastball and curbstall combo and he gets eight strikeouts at six innings. You know, and that that type of performance just doesn't exist with Marco Gonzalez right now. Right. So we'll see what happens and what the Mariners do. I mean, this could be a non-issue if they only come away with one starter because I think whoever that is eventually just replaces George Kirby's spot in the rotation.

Maybe one of Marco or flexen goes down to the bullpen for the time being until Kirby's any limits, any endings limit comes up or maybe they piggyback those guys. guys or maybe they go six man rotation. Yeah, for a week or two, rest of the other guys. Maybe they skip Kirby one time around or something like it. They can get pretty clear. Maybe they just put Kirby in the bullpen for the month of September.

I mean, Kirby coming out of the bullpen, if he's got that two seamer, is going to be pretty nice. So, and maybe that's your middle, your middle innings addition to your bullpen is actually Kirby in late August or September. So we'll see. Well, speaking of

additions, let's talk about some, under the radar guys some some guys you know because we've gotten big on this show for a while now over the last couple weeks we've talked about the juan sodos we've talked about the zander bogarts we've talked about louise castillo and frankie montes to death uh and i'm god i'm gonna be so glad not to talk about frankie montes ever again whether or not he ends up being a mariner over the next week or so i really hope he gets traded just so i don't have to say his name again but yeah so we're gonna we're gonna talk about some guys that are like not not not of that tier of course. Some some more you know look the Mariners aren't going to hit a home run with

every single deal that they make over the next week right some guys are just going to be depth and so we're going to look at some guys that might fit that might appeal to them from that standpoint. But first a reminder this episode of locked on Mariners is brought to you by bet online. Betonline.net is the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your betting needs. Find all your favorite sports and events at the number one online source. for odds, lines, and games. Fine reviews and news of every league, including Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA,

NHL, Combat Sports, e-sports, and even golf. Bet Online continues to be the top online resource for all your sports wagering information from live in-game betting, scores, and podcasts. They have you covered. Head to bet online today or use your mobile device to learn more about the Jens and action.

Bet Online is where the game starts. So I think I pretty much gave you the run down there on what we're going to be talking about here. Just to really, you know, just to recap real quick, we're going to be looking at some under the radar trade targets. Some guys that are not going to wow you when you see that the Mariners have traded for them. But guys that are going to help potentially. And Colby, you brought up a very interesting name because of course the Tigers have at least according to Ken Rosenthal made every single player that they have available. within reason, of course. But I mean, guys like Tariq Scoobel are apparently out there available for offers to be made on.

So they have a young catcher slash left fielder. He does play in left field a little bit as well. Eric Haas, who actually tormented the Mariners last year. I feel like he hit a bingillian home runs against them. So what do you think it would take to acquire Eric Haas, who would severely, I mean, significantly help the Mariners at a, position of need that might be a little hard to fill considering what the market looks like. Yeah. Actually, I've decided I want to talk about another under the radar guy. His name's Max Scherzer. I don't know if you're familiar with his work. Oh, never heard of him. No, but Haas is in a kind of a very fairly similar position as Austenola when the Mariners traded him.

He's got four and a half years of club control left. Four and whatever is left on this year. not exactly four and a half. He's kind of an older major leaguer. He made his debut kind of late. He's 29 right now. Not a ton of wear and tear on the knees, a little bit more than Nola. A little bit bigger track record than Nola, though,

although not the on-base type of player that Nola is, and also not quite as diverse in the position flexibility. Nola could actually play first base in the outfield and actually play a pretty decent second base, too. That's not Hoss. Hasst plays an okay outfield. It's passable. If you've seen Jesse Winker out there,

you're willing to accept a lot out of your left fielder. So Haas would be fine out there. You can get him and Cal on the lineup at the same time. You'd also rest Cal Raleigh. I know he's on a bit of a bit of a heater right now, but like how many days in a row can you run Cal Raleigh out there before he just runs out of steam? So Luis Turence had just non-competitive at Bats today.

just can't seem to get his back going. And while Turenz is fine as a backup, you would like somebody that you feel good about playing at least two or three times a week instead of one. And Raleigh is just, you don't have that. So you feel like you have to play Raleigh. And Raleigh will wear it down. He's a catcher.

I mean, that naturally happens. But if he's playing six times a week, it's going to happen faster. So I look at a guy like Eric Koss and I go, you know, honestly, the NOLA trade is probably a pretty good comp. and we know how big the Nola trade was, you know, for the Mariners. They got basically four major leaguers out of it. They got a backup catcher, an all-star first basement, a dominant late inning reliever,

and Taylor Tremel, who's, you know, a bit of a mystery right now, but it's still, if he was a prospect, he'd be top five in the mariner system, and he's got a ton of skill and talent. That's what it's going to cost, you know, to get to get hoss, especially with the catcher market down. this year. So, I mean, I don't know what the exact crossovers for those guys are, but it's kind of like, I mean, I don't even know the mayors have those guys in their system, you know, right now to give.

So we're talking about like Jared Kelnick, Luis Turenz, Levi Stout, yeah, maybe even Taylor Tremel. And like the big prize, which will be like, Noel B. or Edwin Arroyo, somebody like that. It would be extremely expensive. So I don't really see it happening because, again, you're not, you don't need Haas to play every single day for you because you do trust Cal. So it's not like you have this big black hole a catcher that you're trying to fill. You just, it'd be nice to have a really good backup.

And Haas is better than a backup. But I just, I don't see it happening unless the Mariners eat a ton of salary from Detroit's side. And there's really only one player who makes sense. for that to, you know, for that kind of salary dump, uh, for the tigers to take less. And that's Hobby Baez. And I just, yeah. So I don't, I don't like Haas is getting, uh, traded to the Mariners, but they should absolutely ask about them. Yeah. Maybe Hobby Baez is someone that we talk about more so tomorrow because that is a big, massive, very large idea. That was, brought up by Jason Churchill at Prospect Insider on his, uh, Patreon show yesterday. Um, you know, how I,

I want this team to add relievers at the deadline. I think if they don't, that's, it's not necessarily a failure, but I think it's really missing an opportunity. And it's really not taking an advantage to add luxuries in a smart way, not in a reckless way, in a way that just, it gives you more probability from a place of great strength for you. But you've seen,

you know, some guys have kind of fallen off a little bit from where they were performing. You know, Diego Castillo had a hiccup the other night. Eric Swanson hasn't been very good since he's come back. He's struggled a little bit. He struggled again today. Of course, had a little bit of bad luck there with Adam Frazier's booted ball. That ended his day.

But, you know, there's going to be some guys that end up regressing a little bit. And maybe they, you know, they come back up as well. But you want to be able to prevent, you know, that from happening as much as possible. Or at least, well, not really prevent that from happening, but more. So protect yourself from when that is going to inevitably happen, where you can go to other guys and not have to rely on Ryan Buraki. Ryan Buraki should not be pitching high leverage endings for the Mariners. Had Matt Fesda allowed another base runner today, I'm pretty sure Brian Baruchy was going to enter that game. And I do not at all feel comfortable with Ryan Burrucky trying to hold on to a two-run lead.

I know he had the great performance against the Blue Jays. But outside of that, it's Ryan Brucky. It's Ryan Burrucky. He's been pretty good against lefties in particular. Sure, sure. But I just. Yeah, I get there's still a trust that has to be run there. Yeah.

So do you have a reliever that we haven't talked about? So, well, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned some of these guys, you know, over the course of these shows. But I'll just list some names here because there's a plethora of guys that they could go after. I've mentioned Daniel Bard a lot from the Rockies, a guy that averages more than a strikeout per nine, but is also walking like four guys per nine. you know so there's a little you know there's a little instability there with someone like that but will crow might be the most expensive guy that i have on my list because he's a former second rounder he's under a lot of club control he just became a reliever exclusively this year he's been great he's been elite at generating weak contact he's basically like the sergio romo idea but

supercharged to the you know times 10 so uh obviously chris stratton I'm going to mention it. I'm like, I'm contractually obligated to mention Chris Stratton every time that I talk about relievers for the Mariners. Um, of course, I've talked about one Nationals reliever Tanner Rainey for a long time.

But unfortunately, Rainey is, uh, on the I'll look like his season is done. Uh, I believe it's like an elbow or a shoulder thing or something for him. That's unfortunate. But actually,

I believe it's a UCL sprain. So that's really unfortunate. Um, but they do have, uh, another reliever named Kyle Finneg. he's striking out a lot of guys he is giving up a ton of hard contact like he's like first percentile second percentile something like that and hard contact but he's missing a lot of bats

and you know that's flashy i like that and uh and obviously it's like 96 on the fastball there's some tools there though like um but i mean there's just there's an abundance of names right going back to the tigers jo jeminez jo jeminez is another you know he's a guy that has struggled over the last couple years but now he's figured it out he's striking out a lot of guys and he's not walking anyone really he's walking under two guys per nine so that's incredible plus you get him for a year and a half that's a like if you're able to trade for tarik scubel i really really hope that joey him and is involved in that deal um but again there's so many guys that you know you could go uh you could talk about here the diamondbacks even have some guys

what's the lefties name god i forget his name doesn't matter there there's there's no shortage of options here with release for the Mariners and not all of these guys are going to cost you really anything anything that is going to scare you away from Maddie I mean some of them Jimenez maybe yeah Jimenez

as Will Crow for sure like those guys but like not like top four or five guys but also once you go further down the list and you know we're talking about like someone like Daniel Bard again someone that's only under club control for the next couple months and is a bit older,

like that's not going to cost you really anything. So why not do it? Why not do it? You're in a great position right now. You have a great bullpen as is, but just further bolster that. Make it even better. Add even more probability

to an already great unit. Is there anyone else you want to talk about? You know, we're running out of time here. I just want to throw out a name that, well, a couple names. one of whom I feel like is going to be a mariner by Deadline Day, and I don't know if I mentioned him before on the show.

I don't know why, but I just have a gut feel that Whitmerfield is going to find his way to the Seattle Mariners. Play second base. He's kind of a good fit with Adam Frazier. You can also play center field. That's something the Mariners don't have right now. He's a guy you can move around.

He's, you know, he's more or less, you're kind of replacing Adam Frazier with him, but in reality you're replacing Dylan Moore, like that type of role. You can still base, which the Mariners desperately need. They need athletes who can run the bases a little bit here. So I just feel like that. And the Mariners like to circle around on guys I've talked about in the past.

So I feel like he's a pretty good option. It sounds like the Royals will finally be reasonable and try and trade him. Yeah. No more asking for Kalnick or Julio. You know, Jonathan's scope, not having a good year offensively, but it's really weird. Nobody on that Tigers team is hitting right now. Like the entire team cannot hit.

Yeah. Scope last time I checked and keep in mind this was like two weeks ago, but scope last time I checked had a 60 WRC plus, but he was leading the Tigers in F1. I think he was at, I think he's up to like 80-ish right now. So he's playing a little bit better. I think he had like 21 defensive run saved

or something like insane like that. Wow. And that's why his F-R is that high. Yeah, he's actually a pretty good. second baseman. I think he's been playing a lot of first this year. Could be wrong. I think McGee's primarily been the DH, but yeah,

he's actually a pretty good defender. He's definitely got some power. So Jonathan's scope is a guy who could make some senses, especially if you're going to try and go kind of cheap at second base. And you kind of try and, because Frazier's starting to do some things, including make errors, but whatever. So if you want to like...

We don't talk about that. We don't talk about that. No, okay. But if you want to like platoon, Frazier and Frazier's got some defensive versatility, so you want another guy, I think scope is kind of an interesting counterbalance to that. So just guys like that, maybe a Tony Kemp, but, Ramon Luriano, but, you know, I feel like it's backup catcher and somebody who can handle second base every day is really the place that the mayors will look to improve offensively. And that's why we keep talking about like Brandon Drury.

but I think Jonathan Scope and Whitmerfield are two other under the radar options. I misspoke earlier. It wasn't defensive run saves. He only has six defensive run saves. However, he has 20 outs above average, though. Wow. At first base? At second.

He's only point in second. Oh, okay, nice. 93 games there. That's significant then. He's been worth 0.9F4. He's hitting for a 51 WRC plus right now. Oh, way down. Okay. Yeah, yeah, it went down.

So yeah, I mean, do you think he can hit? Because if you do, it's worth it. And like I said, nobody in Detroit is sitting right now. It's really weird. Does Riley Green lead the tiger? Well, it's probably Haas. Hoss probably leads the tigers in WRC Plus. But I feel like Riley Green's got like an 88 and it's like number two or three on the team.

Like that entire team cannot hit. It's really weird. Yeah, dude. It's, let's see here. It is, right now it is, yeah, it's Eric Haas 112 Harold Castro at 107. those are the only two guys that have qualified that have a WRC plus above 500 or above 100 rather on on the tigers crazy out yeah all right well that's going to do it for our show today thank you for joining us here on the lockdown mariner's podcast for colby pat note i'm titan gonzalez

be sure to give us a follow on twitter at l0 underscore mariners you can follow inside the mariners at inside mariners you can follow me at dain g nz lz and ls i and colby at That's C-P-Eat-11. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode, whether you're listening or watching it. Thank you again for making us your first listen after the game.

Now make your second listen the Lockdown MLB podcast. MLB expert Paul Francis Sullivan brings humor, passion, and unique perspective on every team and the biggest stories around the league. Follow the number one daily league-wide podcast Locked-on MLB on the Odyssey app,

YouTube, and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow go ms peace