Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Julio Rodriguez Hits Unique Milestone + Our Message to Mariners Ownership

Starting point is 00:00:00 After officially being eliminated from ALS contention last night, the mayor is beat up on the Astros hangover lineup this afternoon to stave off complete elimination from the playoffs for at least one more day. Our takeaways from the game and more coming up here on the locked on Marers post game show. Colby, hit it. You are locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:27 Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors. It is Wednesday, September 25th, 2020. this is Tadang Gazzalus and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marriss Postgame show part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And barring a miracle of all miracles, this will be the last postgame show of the season for us here on the Lockdown Marr's podcast. Marr's win 8 to 1 today against an Astros team that very clearly had a lot of fun celebrating its AOS title last night. We'll talk about Julio reaching another milestone today, how George Kirby looked in his last last start of the season and quickly give you an update on Seattle's playoff odds for those of you

Starting point is 00:01:10 that, you know, believe in miracles. But before we do that, shout out to our title sponsor today. Booking.com booking. Yeah, the right stay can make you a fan of any city, even your baseball rivals. Book today on booking.com, the official accommodation partner of Major League Baseball and get the booking.com app today. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. The link is in the description you can sign up for a free seven day trial so colby let's start here with julio who goes one for five today had three hard hit balls but the one hit that he had ends up putting him in rare company he goes 2020 for yet another season that is 20 home runs 20 steals

Starting point is 00:01:56 and he is the second player in melb history uh to reach that mark in each of his first three seasons and the bigs joining bobby what jr who just recently did that as well. And it came off Hector Nerris, which is very interesting because I believe we all remember the last time these two faced off. Nerris got the better of Julio, striking him out in Seattle

Starting point is 00:02:21 and then walked him down in a very bizarre looking situation. And according to Eugenio Suarez, used a homophobic slur when chirping at Julio and that caused the benches to clear. Julio was very upset. Gino was very upset. Everyone was very upset. Got it.

Starting point is 00:02:42 Nara started the year on the Cubs. So this was the first opportunity Julio has had to see Nara since that happened. And Julio takes him yard, which was pretty damn cool to make it 8 to 1 Mariners, which of course was the final score

Starting point is 00:02:57 in this one. So another 2020 season for Julio and a year where for a good chunk of it, straight up, There's no way around it. He was just bad, objectively speaking, right? Not for his standards. Just bad.

Starting point is 00:03:11 And yet here we are where he's going to be a 4-1 player. He's going to have a 120-ish WRC plus when all, you know, when things are all set and done on Sunday. And I mean, this just shows because this has to be the floor, right? This is, I mean, things just went awful for him. He was bad. He suffered a significant injury that he had to play through. So this shows just how good this player is and can be, right? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:42 There have been a lot of people desperate to write Julio off and as just kind of a over-hyped, you know, not a superstar type of player, that type of thing because he hasn't had the, you know, Gunner Henderson or Bobby Witt Jr. Breakout season where he puts it all together for an entire year type of run yet. We've seen glimpses of that guy.

Starting point is 00:04:04 you know, last August, obviously, and pretty much the last five months, for the last five months in his rookie year, he was a great player. And so people, you know, quick to point out that Julio hasn't had like an eight-win season like Gunner Henderson or whatever. And it's like, okay, I mean, sure, he's 23 years old and he's got a couple six-win seasons and now a four-win season under his belt. And so, yeah, this is just a good reminder that like those types of seasons that you want and you think that Julio has to have because he's making $200 million, which no, that's not a thing, but it's there. Like, you can absolutely do that.

Starting point is 00:04:44 It is within his skill set. This is an immensely talented player. So, yeah, it's just a good reminder that, you know, like, this is in here. Like, this is definitely a possibility. And in this case in particular, this isn't something that's been, you know, like just, oh, he had a really good August and that just raised his entire numbers. He's been really good since July. and he's continued that through, you know, the end of this year through September.

Starting point is 00:05:08 And that includes a three-week stretch where he was on the IL. And then about a week after that, where it took him a little bit to get his timing back. So, you know, Julio since July 1 has been one of the best hitters in baseball. And he's doing it with power. Whereas before July 1, it was, you know, opposite field singles were kind of the best you could hope for Julio. And so 2020 is there. This dude absolutely has 40 home run power. This dude absolutely can steal 40 bags in the.

Starting point is 00:05:33 the season. We know he can do that type of stuff. And by the way, even when he's been bad this year, he still found a way to hit like 250 to 270 the entire season. So it feels like we even know what like his hit, like what his hit tool is and that is above average. He is a 55 bat at the very least. So, uh, and by way, his defense, very good again this year. So this guy's a great player, uh, who just hasn't had that like elite season yet. But again, he's 23 years old. Right. Like this is a guy who's like a year and a half removed from college, you know, had he been, you know, drafted as an American-born player. So like this guy's already worth more than 15 wins in his three major league seasons. And people want to make assumptions about what his ceiling actually is.

Starting point is 00:06:22 And it's insane because, again, this guy is Uber talented. And look, is Julio struggles in the first half? Was that a major reason why this team is in the position they're in? yes absolutely it is there's nobody who's saying it's not but again this is why you don't give up on the guy this is why you don't write a guy off because the talent is immense it is just in terms of raw skills there may not be a more talented player in baseball when you talk about bat speed we talk about power you talk about you know the ability to to use the whole field and and hit for average and steal bases and play great defense in a premium defensive position like he He threw all of that stuff.

Starting point is 00:07:00 And the fact that he hasn't done it yet for six months when he's 23 years old, shouldn't discount how good this guy has been to start his career and how much is still left in the tank. So as frustrating as this year has been, it remains, I remain very optimistic about Julio being the superstar player because he kind of already is, whether you want to admit it or not. and his down season in which he spent three weeks on the IL and where he was basically a 20% below league average hitter for three months, that down season is still going to produce a four-win season in a 2020 campaign. Like that's the floor for Julio Rodriguez. And he's 23 years old. And it's really nice to see him finishing the year on a strong note because last year September didn't go particularly well for him.

Starting point is 00:07:49 He slashed 227, 27, 47, 486. He slugged a lot. That's a 105 WRC. plus that's not how he wanted that September to go especially when the Marys were competing for a division title but yeah I mean like if this is his floor

Starting point is 00:08:03 and it kind of feels like it has to be his floor given how many bad things happened with Julio this year and how bad the start of the season was for him and really just the first half in general and then the injury happens he ends up slashing I mean as of now obviously these numbers

Starting point is 00:08:20 are going to change over the final three games but 275 or here actually have the updated numbers after today's game 274 326 413 so 117 wrc plus he was worth 3.8 4 heading into today's game i'm sure that's going to go up probably by point 1 tomorrow um i mean that's not those are not superstar numbers but that's really good that's a really damn good player and if that's julio's floor i mean yeah his floor is essentially randy a rosa roza Raina with plus center field defense. That's his floor.

Starting point is 00:09:03 Yeah. So, I mean, the dude's a freak, and he's going to have a season sooner than later where he, you know, puts up the 160 WRC plus and he hits 35 bombs and he steals 30 bags and he wins a goal. Like, he's going to do that at some point in his career. And, again, he's 23. He's got plenty of time to do it. So, yes, it is possible to both acknowledge that Julio's struggles in the first half. for such a major problem for this team that it helped dig this significant hole, although Mary's found a way to win.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Well, he was still doing that. But yes, Julio's problems, they do still exist. And yes, you do need him to be more consistent throughout the year. But again, you look at what he's done in the second half. You look at where he's going to end up despite all the issues he had in the first half. And despite missing three weeks in the middle of him swinging the bat very, very well. He still ends up 2020. He's still going to end up a four-win player.

Starting point is 00:09:57 He's still, you know, put up a really good average. He's still putting up a good on base skill. Like, this guy is a special player. And obviously, we haven't seen what he's capable of yet for an entire season. And that is a little terrifying if you're not a Mariners fan and very exciting if you are a Mariners fan. So Julio is still a huge part of what's going to happen over the next decade or so. And fan should still be holding him a to a higher standard. but also appreciating just how good of a player he already is.

Starting point is 00:10:32 Absolutely. And like I said, it's good to see him ending the season on a really high note. So speaking of, George Kirby ended the season on a pretty high note as well. We're going to talk about his day down in Houston in just a moment. But first, a reminder,

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Starting point is 00:12:11 mariners and the a's on friday night on the merrers hometown broadcast serious xm via the xm app all you have to do to find that is search the word mariners so george kirby made his final start of the season today he goes six inning strong one earn run on four hits six strikeouts one walk. Just four hard hit balls against them. Obviously did not go up against an Astros lineup at full strength. No Yard on Alvarez. Jose Altuve gets the day off.

Starting point is 00:12:41 Kyle Tucker gets the day off. Alex Breggman only played what four innings, three innings. By the way, Shea Whitcomb, who started the game at second base, went over to third after Bregman was taken out of this game. Yeah, he had a rough, rough day out there. Four errors today against the bearers. which helped them score a couple of runs in this one. So yeah, Kirby, it's obviously been a struggle for him over the last, I don't know, six or seven weeks, give or take.

Starting point is 00:13:11 He had a couple of solid starts back to back against the Rangers, but today looked more like the George Kirby that we know and love, which is nice to see in his final start of the year. So what do you think about his day? Yeah, pretty good. It's been a really disappointing second half for George. We all know this. he's had a real issue with the home run ball in the second half. Again, this is something we know.

Starting point is 00:13:32 And overall, you look at his season, he's going to finish with four wins, four war, which is a very solid season. But considering where he started and how the last two months have gone, it's a little disappointing that he didn't push five wins. And he was a big reason why this team really, you know, faltered in August in particular. He really struggled for most of those games. And, you know, he's been a little bit.

Starting point is 00:13:57 better the last few times out a couple times against Texas he's been pretty good but you kind of think like that's Texas no corey seger like it's not a great it's a struggling lineup and look at the lineup he faced today no tucker no altouvae no yordaugh redon bragman only got one at bat um but if that's the circumstances you're being thrown into right you should pitch really really well if you're a good pitcher and kirby did that today like you can only face the guys that they throw out there against you like it's not his fault and you look at what he did six innings for him pitch. Just the one run hit by pitch. So a couple free base runners, but just four hard hit balls on the entire ball game. The only reason he didn't go deeper in this game is he had two

Starting point is 00:14:39 at-bats, one against, I believe, Karen Tini and the other one against Singleton. And I think between those two at-bats, he got him to two strikes. And then both of those at-bats ended up being 10-pitch at-bats. He just couldn't quite put those two guys away in an efficient manner. That's probably what prevented him from going an additional inning, the seventh inning. which would have really driven this start home. But overall, you know, six innings, one run, just the one walk. Six strikeouts, it's a pretty good number for him, just four hard hit balls. It was a solid night for George in what is almost certainly his last start of the season.

Starting point is 00:15:15 Finishes with a new career high innings pitch now by one. So Kirby is, you know, he is a very good pitch, a very rough stretch at a really bad time for Seattle. but overall, I mean, the Kirby's future is still bright. And I still don't think we've seen his ceiling quite yet. He's always going to be a guy who adjust and adds a wrinkle every winter and that type of stuff. So we'll see what he does, you know, this winter and see how he carries that into spring training and all that stuff. But as of today, or as for today's start, he did a very nice job with the season. I mean, technically still on the line.

Starting point is 00:15:54 They have not been eliminated yet. Yeah, yeah. We'll get to that in a moment. So yeah, blah, blah, blah, against a bad lineup, right? And he just went right after him. And it was a pretty solid night. 12 whiffs, you know, nothing great. But 96 pitches, 64 strikes, just the one walk.

Starting point is 00:16:11 He'll be the, I think he's the, I think this is the third season in the modern era. Or so I saw a tweet about this. I should have pulled it up. But basically, three guys have surrendered 25 walks or fewer when throwing more than 190 the in major league history and George Kirby's done it twice. He's two of the three. So yeah, baseball reference tweeted,

Starting point is 00:16:35 yeah, he's the only AL pitcher in their database to have multiple seasons with 150 plus strikeouts and fewer than 25 walks. Zach Eflin also did it in 2023. Max Scherzer did it in 2022. Those are the two most recent non-George Kirby instances of that happening. Dude's really good. Also, Iwa Kuma is on that list.

Starting point is 00:17:00 Hey, there we go. Love Kuma. But yeah, so Kirby, solid year. Unfortunately, had a shot to be a really special year, but he stumbled in the second half. Okay. Bad timing, too. But it is what it is. And, you know, those issues happened in April and he was, you know, what he was in the first half in the second half, we'd be talking about, you know, hey, this guy's a Cy Young, dark horse next year.

Starting point is 00:17:27 because he's on such an upward trajectory. So, yeah, overall, was it really annoying to watch Kirby pitch in the second half? Yeah, it was. And it certainly felt like he let you down a few times, a couple times against Detroit, you know, where he just didn't give you a shot to win those games. And those matter right now, right? But overall, George Kirby is still a very good pitcher. He is at worst, a good number three starter, probably still a number two.

Starting point is 00:17:56 and again, you're just going to start paying him this winter. Like he's going to make real money for the first time this winter. You get him for four more years. Like the dude's really, really good. And you should be very happy that he pitches for you. And any thought of trading him is foolish. Let's just put that out there. We've talked about him developing more of a consistent out pitch.

Starting point is 00:18:17 But outside of that, I think the thing that he needs to work on is being able to recover from defensive miscues. And, you know, we, hits, right? That fine, you know, like bad, bad, but block essentially. It's very clear that he doesn't respond well to when those things happen. And sometimes, especially in that start in Detroit, he allows things to unravel when that happens. He's not able to work around those situations. Because look, yeah, your teammates might have let you down on that situation.

Starting point is 00:18:51 Or you may have made a great pitch and it's still found grass, right? but how do you respond to that? And he hasn't particularly responded well in those situations. So I would like to see him grow in that respect as well moving forward besides the the mechanical stuff that we've talked about. Right. I think, you know, part of that too is is look at, remember, what was it last year or was it this year? They're kind of running together. Very similar years, right?

Starting point is 00:19:18 Where he was mad that they asked him to go another inning against Tampa. Yeah, that was Tampa last year, last up. Yeah, and it's like once something like throws him off of his little routine or whatever, or once he feels like he is being asked to do more than he should be, like he's asked to carry more weight than he should be. He lets that get to him. And that's something that we saw last year because remember they asked him to go an extra inning and he bombed. And he lost the Mariners that game. And then, you know, obviously this year we've seen some bloopers. We've seen some errors.

Starting point is 00:19:48 And then just things go wrong. And he just pipes fastballs at that point. Like there's still some maturity, you know, some maturing that. George has to do mentally to get around that because you can't be a great pitcher if every time somebody makes an error or every time somebody you know bleeds a single up the middle that you just unravel that's not an ace mentality that's not what pitchers do that's not what great pitchers do so it's the whole like Bruce Lee be water type of thing right sure you got to be more more adaptable right that's that's going to be the key for for Kirby moving forward right so yeah but overall

Starting point is 00:20:22 I hey you know look at his numbers here uh to wrap the year 353 ERA 326 FIP 358 X FIP 8 43 case per 9 108 walks per nine and a 191 innings pitch pretty good 33 starts pretty damn good and this might be his floor yeah for the next few years like this season might be his floor because he was objectively bad for about six weeks so yeah uh you know the mariners as frustrating as the season has been A lot of good things on this roster that they can build around. Like they are not that far off. And it's a bummer.

Starting point is 00:21:02 And we're not going to turn this into a, we're not going to turn this in anything. But it's a bummer that the ownership group doesn't see that and actually want to invest in this core because the core is pretty darn talented. It is a very talented core. It's certainly a part of that. Yeah. It's a great core. It would be pretty cool if you, you know,

Starting point is 00:21:18 be nice if you go out another person to it and then support it. But, you know, those things cost money usually. Yeah. We'll have plenty of time to have those discussions here over the coming weeks and months. By the way, we're going to be off tomorrow. We'll be back on Friday to talk to you guys one last time before the end of the season. Very well. Very well could be talking about the recently eliminated Mariners because even though they want today,

Starting point is 00:21:46 there's a path where they're eliminated on their off day. Yeah, yeah, before they play. So before they play again. So we'll talk about that in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by game time. So I used to live in New Mexico and down in New Mexico, there are zero pro sports teams. And a lot of bands and artists I listen to skip going there more often than not. So when I moved to Toronto, where there's a baseball team, a basketball team, a hockey team, even a soccer team and there's great music being played every night in the city, I was right in my element.

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Starting point is 00:23:26 And you're listening to the locked on Marrers Postgame show. Once again, you can catch all the action between the Mariners and the A's on Friday night. And over the course of the weekend on the Marers hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app, all you have to do to find that is search the word Mariner's. So, just going to lay it out to you very simply here. The most wins the Marers can get the rest of the way,

Starting point is 00:23:49 85. The Royals and the Tigers, they're at 83. Right. So you do the math. The marries have to be one win better than those two teams. Royals play the national site tomorrow. Tigers play the raise tonight and tomorrow. So we'll see on that front. But like Colby said, before we ended the last segment, you could be eliminated on your off day. So there is a path here. It is very, very narrow. It requires a miracle. on a multitude of fronts. But there is a path, and so we'll be keeping an eye on it.

Starting point is 00:24:31 And like we talked about yesterday, I mean, it would be very mariners for them to still be alive heading into the final series of the year. I can think of nothing more marinary than refusing to die until game 160, 161 or 162. Refuse to lose, baby. Y'all remember 1995? Except for they always lose.

Starting point is 00:24:55 I've yet to have one of these. Oh, they need a little miracle to go. away in game 161 and 162. I've yet to have it go that way for me. And I've been to all four of the previous times. Ironically, they always happened at home too. When's the last time the Mariners didn't in their season

Starting point is 00:25:09 at home? It feels like they always in their season at home. But whatever. Yeah, actually, yeah. I don't know you say that. I can't remember the last time. It kind of feels like they're always on the road for the 4th of July and they're always at home for the final three games of the year. Let me let me check their schedule next year. I wonder if they're in the season at home again.

Starting point is 00:25:30 But yeah. Checking the important things here. Right. But yeah. So maybe, I mean, the likely outcome here is that you're not going to have to sit through another painful game 161, game 162 in person. But it would feel very marinary if that happened. Yeah, by the way, they end the season against the Dodgers at home next year.

Starting point is 00:25:53 Boy, I hope you're up on more than three games. That's a weird series, by the way. That's a really. word series in the year on. I said, I hope you've clinched everything you need to clinch by that point next year because, their final series, their final four series of the year next year at Kansas City. Great.

Starting point is 00:26:09 Awesome. Love playing at Kaufman, especially with, in high leverage situations. That sounds awesome. And then at Houston, great, so fun,

Starting point is 00:26:20 looking forward to it. Then you get three. Turn the tides and take that series against Houston and win the division, maybe. You do get three. the Rockies at home after that. And then the and then the Dodgers and then Otani and boogie. We have any idea how good those teams are going to be or how those games are going to be.

Starting point is 00:26:40 I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Rockies are going to be pretty bad. Sure. And the Dodgers could be pretty good. But for all we know, by the time the Mariners go down there, they've clinched everything. And Otani and bats are taken three days off. And it doesn't matter how good or bad the royals are because it's a series at Kauffman Stadium. Yeah, that hell hole. Yeah, God, I hate that place.

Starting point is 00:27:00 But yeah, pretty simple. The Mariners tragic number is two. So any combination of two mariners losses or any combination of mariner losses or Royals, I guess technically twins still wins like tigers. But yeah, twins as well. Yeah, yeah, tigers. So yeah, basically if you lose one and. Kansas City wins one after today, your season's over, right?

Starting point is 00:27:30 Unless Detroit also goes 0 and 3, 0 and 4, whatever they have left. So, yeah, basically, again, you can't afford to lose if you lose one game, it only takes those two teams winning one game themselves. Yeah. To guarantee that you're eliminated. So, yes, you can get in at 84 wins, but you need one of the tigers or the royals to lose out. And that's the area.

Starting point is 00:27:53 So, yeah, very simply put, once Detroit and Kansas. City get to 85, it's over. Yeah. So once you get to 78, I believe, it's over. Or 79. It's definitely over. So you're checking to see Detroit, Kansas City don't win 85 games. You're looking at yourself saying you can't lose any more than 78.

Starting point is 00:28:17 And in all reality, you have to finish the year with 85 wins to have any shot. And even then, it's. You need a lot to happen. Yeah. Yeah. Losing yesterday's game, losing. that game on Sunday, really the game on Sunday is the dagger because that was your margin of air game.

Starting point is 00:28:31 And then you had to run the table after that. And you couldn't, unfortunately. And asking, you know, to sweep Houston in Houston, that was always a tall task. So that game on Sunday, if you had won that, you'd be ahead of Minnesota right now. You'd actually be, what, a half game back to Kansas City? Yeah. Like, I mean, like, we would very much be hyping up this last series and saying this is going to mean something.

Starting point is 00:28:54 but, you know, again, them's the breaks. And when you don't play well and you lose games that you should win, it's tough to feel like you're cursed or like, oh, man, just things didn't go our way. Like, no, this is all self-induced. So it's a bummer. But, yeah, Detroit, Kansas City, they get to 85. It's over. So, again, tragic number is two.

Starting point is 00:29:18 And you can do the math. If Kansas City and Detroit just win the next two days, They haven't played yet today. They are playing tomorrow on your off day. If they both do that, it doesn't matter what you do. You're eliminated tomorrow. So it's a bummer. So I want to end on this.

Starting point is 00:29:36 I hope the image of the Astros celebrating last night, six in the brains of every single person that contributed to how this year went. Specifically, John Stanton, Chris Larson, any of those other people that own the ball club, right? If you have any self-respect for yourself as a baseball owner, that should haunt you. Right. Because look. They've seen it now twice in a row.

Starting point is 00:30:05 Because the players obviously contributed to the issues. Coaches obviously contributed to the issues. Front office obviously contributed to the issues. But all roads lead back to you, the ownership group. Yeah. Like any way you want to slice it, right? whether they're eliminated tomorrow or they actually get to Friday this weekend, the last series with a shot to make the playoffs,

Starting point is 00:30:28 any way you want to slice it, right? The Mariners have now gone five seasons in the last 10, where they've made it to the final week of the season with a shot to make the playoffs and have failed to do so. And we can point to owners or we can point to the players. Yes, they deserve blame most of it. We can point to the field staff. Yes, they deserve some blame.

Starting point is 00:30:49 We can point to the front office. Yes, they deserve some blame. But at the end of the day, when you are consistently right on the edge of making the playoffs at a pretty good rate of the merits I made the playoffs six times in the last 10 years, nobody would be complaining. But it's about to be five times you've gotten to the last week of the year with a chance to make the playoffs and haven't done it yet. When you're spending significantly less money than you have any right to spend based on your market size, based on your revenue, based on all that. When you're spending less than you should be and you fall short this many times at this close of a margin,

Starting point is 00:31:29 that is a 100% ownership problem, it stops with them because if you're consistently missing by a game or two, yet you're the 10th biggest media market and you have the 18th highest payroll in this game, that's on you. It's not hard to go buy another winner to. It's really not. So, yeah,

Starting point is 00:31:49 you can blame Jerry all you want. You can blame the players. and again, it's not like they're blameless. They're not. They're sharing the blame too. All of them have blame. Yes. But when it's happened this consistently, this will be the fourth time in the, in the, in the, in the Stanton era.

Starting point is 00:32:04 And by the way, Stanton was a big part of that previous ownership group too. So it's not like we should absolve him completely from 2014 either. But when it's happened this many times, including, by the way, three of the last four years, it's happened. And you're not spending the money. you should be spending. We're even giving you a break here. We're not asking to spend $300 million. Can you spend $180?

Starting point is 00:32:29 Can you spend $190, which would be about 12th in baseball with the 12th biggest media market? Yeah, we talked about it on Monday. Yeah, I think it's $176 million. Based on 2024 payrolls would get you to 12th. Right. And you're $30 million below that. And you're going to miss the playoffs again by one, two, or three games.

Starting point is 00:32:49 Yeah. That is on ownership. That is an ownership problem. And every minute we talk about like, oh, well, actually, they should fire Jerry because you're missing the point. It is time to point the finger squarely at ownership. And this is the second year in a row that the Mariners have witnessed an American League West rival celebrate clinching whatever against them.

Starting point is 00:33:11 They've had to witness it two years in a row now. If not this winter, it's never going to happen. So, yeah, I hope John Stan steps up. But. And we can have the conversation about if Jerry and Justin are the right guys to work with in the confines set by ownership, but that still misses the point. There shouldn't even be confines set by the by ownership because they can afford to not set any sort of confines. And not set any sort of restrictions upon their front office. This team was spending $175 million or whatever the number is, right? And they were spending that much money and they were still consistently falling one or two games short. Then we can have a very real conversation about, well, they're spending the appropriate amount of money. This is a front office, Jerry and Justin problem, and they should be the ones to take the brunt of the blame. You're

Starting point is 00:33:56 $30 million short of where he should be at minimum. 30 million dollars and you're going to miss the playoffs again by a game or two. Stop deflecting. This is a John Stanton, Chris Larson, that group. This is a them

Starting point is 00:34:13 problem. More than anything else. It is them. So again, everyone played a role in this. Players, coaches, front office, some more than others, of course. But as far as I'm concerned, this is on you, John Stanton. This is on you, Chris Larson. This is on you, the rest of that ownership group. I don't know all of your names.

Starting point is 00:34:34 All roads point back to you here, right? The lack of spending has capped what you can do, right? What the front office can do in terms of roster building, what this roster is able to do, is severely cap this organization's ceiling. Yep. This team is not as successful as it can be because of you. It's your fault.

Starting point is 00:34:59 By the way, they're probably going to have their end of the season presser at the end of the year sometime next week, probably Tuesday. And it should be John Sand, not Jerry DePoto. Right. Will John Stan do it? No, absolutely not. He'll probably be lurking in the back. A, I don't even have it.

Starting point is 00:35:13 They should. They absolutely should. They should answer questions from the media. They should put their names on the record. or whatever, and they should have what they say at this press conference weighed against them in the coming year. They should do that. Like they shouldn't just shirk that responsibility because it might make them look bad.

Starting point is 00:35:29 They should do that. But they should do it with John Stanton sitting right between the two of them and the words should be coming from John Stanton's mouth saying, we're going to put out the resources. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. And it's not going to happen, which makes pretty much everything that will be said in that press conference completely unreliable and unimportant. It's not going to matter because the guy who ultimately makes that decision won't put himself in front of a camera and say, this is where we were at.

Starting point is 00:35:56 This is why certain decisions were made. This is where we're going. And he won't be held accountable for saying those things. He'll make Jerry be held accountable for saying those things, even though Jerry literally has nothing to do with the budget that he is given. Nothing. And yet Jerry and Justin will be the one to take the arrows. Jerry and Justin will be the ones to make false promises while John Stan's citizen. in the back, behind the camera, smiling, knowing that nobody's going to call him out on it,

Starting point is 00:36:21 except for us, the lowly podcasters, nobody's going to care. And when the time comes, he can just fire Jerry and Justin and just hire somebody else because he's untouchable because he's a greedy, bad owner who doesn't want to win baseball games, but loves to tell you he wants to win baseball. You can't get rid of the dude when times are good. We're doing a Hall of Fame, you know, welcome to the Team Hall of Fame thing. I'm going to talk for 20 minutes. Everybody look at me.

Starting point is 00:36:45 We make the playoffs. I'm on the field, man. I'm celebrating with the boys. I'm in the clubhouse. When things go bad, I'm in the back, literally behind the cameras off screen, watching Jerry give this ridiculous press conference

Starting point is 00:36:56 that I know ultimately is a bucket of lies because I know what the actual number is, and I'm going to send him out there anyways under false pretenses and pull the rug out from under him again, knowing all the well, all the while that he'll get blamed for it. And I'll just do it again next year, and the year after that and the year after that.

Starting point is 00:37:16 because I can. So again, say, I've said it before. I'll say it again and I'll say it every show. We talk about the dude, John Stanton, you're a coward, get in front of the cameras, put your name on something, and show us that you actually give it damn. Because right now, nobody has any reason to believe you. And I don't want to be a little brother to the Astros anymore, frankly.

Starting point is 00:37:35 Like, I knew yesterday was coming. Didn't change the fact that I was disgusted by it. Yep. As a fan of this team and someone that had to sit through that, ALDS and see Robbie Ray give up that home run to Yordon Alvarez and see Jeremy Pena walk off the Mariners, or not walk off the mariner's, but hit that game winning home run in the 18th inning. You know, I had hope at least coming out of that series. Yeah, some of us unfortunately saw it live. All 18.

Starting point is 00:38:03 In person. Yeah. But as someone that still exited that series with hope that like, oh, they're right on the doorstep and now has had to experience two consecutive seasons of letdown, tired of it. No more. No more excuses. I want to be better than the Astros. Make that happen. Yeah. Your bar is right in the division where you want to be. They happen to play right in your division. How great is that? You get an up close look at them 13 times a year. That's the goal. That's the goal. To win the division every year, to go to the ALCS every year to win a couple World Series. That's the goal. And there is nothing, nothing stopping you from doing that except John Stanton Howard. Yeah. By the way, before we get out of here, Julio spoke to the media about his homer off of Nairus, said, quote, life is too short to be holding things on. Obviously, that's something that he understood that it was not correct to do. And we talked about it and he apologized in person and it's all good for grown men.

Starting point is 00:39:04 But he still got his get back. So that was fun. We don't think he got a little extra kick out of it being against Naris. You're wrong, though. Yeah, yeah. Let's be very clear about that. Absolutely. That is the correct response from Julio, but also. A little bit tongue and cheek. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:39:19 Just a little bit like, right. Sucks to suck, bro. All right, that is going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here, a reminder that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. And now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV

Starting point is 00:39:35 and the free Fire TV channels app. Lockdown Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockdown, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Lockdown Sports Today, now available on. the free fire TV channels app.

Starting point is 00:39:48 Thank you so much for joining us here on the last Locked on Mariner's post game show of the season. Again, barring a miracle, barring a miracle. We might tell you guys a little bit about what we have going on for the for the off season, what we have planned for the off season, either on Friday show or maybe next Monday or Tuesday. We'll let you guys know, though, what we have planned. Colby and I have been hammering that out the last couple days.

Starting point is 00:40:12 So yeah, but for Colby Pat note, I'm Tadang Azalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter. at LO underscore mirrors. You can follow me at Tiding Azalus and Colby at C-Pad 11. That's C-PAT-1-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you next time.

Starting point is 00:40:28 Peace.

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