Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Logan Gilbert Good Enough as Mariners Shutout Astros

Episode Date: September 2, 2021

Join Locked On Mariners hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode as they break down Logan Gilbert's start in the Mariners' second-straight shutout of the Houston Astros. Then, they look at another pitcher who helped Seattle blank Houston on Wednesday, Justus Sheffield, and tell you what to expect from the young lefty out of the bullpen. Lastly, the duo gets you set for the Mariners' trip to Arizona.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: http://patreon.com/controlthezone/DIRECTVGet your TV together. Visit DIRECTV.com to learn more about DIRECTV STREAM.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners. Before we get into today's episode, I want to remind you about Lockdown MLB. Join Walking Baseball Encyclopedia Paul Francis Sullivan, and please call him Sully every day on Lockdown MLB for a unique look at the majors, both president pass, featuring exciting guests interviews and routine check-ins from the

lockdown MLB network's team. local experts. Subscribe to Lockdown MLB today on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. It is Thursday, September 2nd, 2021. This is the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Your home for Daily Seattle Mariner's News and analysis. I am your host, Tidane Gonzalez. You can find me at Dane Gonzalez on Twitter.

That's D-A-N-ZL-Z and on Seahawk Maven at S-I.com. I am joined as always by my co-host Colby Patnode. You can find him at C-Pat 11 on Twitter. CPAT 1-1. So we're actually recording this on Wednesday night. The Mariners just wrapped up a one-to-nothing win over the Houston Astros in the afternoon. We're going to recap that game and look at Logan Gilbert's positive start. I'm going to talk about Justice Sheffield's return as well and what to expect from him out

of the bullpen. And lastly, we will get you set for Seattle's weekend series against the Diamondbacks down in Arizona. This is your first time joining us. Welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follow. subscribe wherever you're listening to this. We greatly appreciate it. Also be sure to check out our Patreon at patreon.com forward slash control the zone for more Mariners talk. Colby, you are not the only one with reverse jinx powers, man.

I had very little faith in Usay Kikuchi and Logan Gilbert had an end to the series, but wouldn't you know, they both helped the Mariners shut out the best offense in baseball and back-to-back games. Gilbert wasn't entirely sharp in this one, I would say, but he battled to the tune of five innings pitch. She threw 94 pitches in just generated 18 swings and misses, nine on the fastball, seven on the slider, which is very much noteworthy here, and also one on the curve and one on the changeup. What's your take on Gilbert in this one? Yeah, it was interesting to say the least because at no point would I say that he was sharp.

Yeah. He had a pretty good basketball today. We saw 97. We saw 98. So he definitely had that pitch working for him. He also generated quite a few swings and misses. I think he had 18 in five innings, which is a lot. But at no point did he really feel like he was in control of this game.

So it's kind of a weird little start for him because it's definitely a step forward in the right direction after just an awful August. But it's still not, you know, it's still not like, I don't feel. Super inspiring. Right. Right. I mean, like I said, it's kind of funny because he had 18 whiffs and five innings. That's a lot. And like I said, the fastball, the velocity was back up where it was.

And that obviously helped. Even the spin rates were, they were, they were better. I mean, it was, it was noticeable on the fastball. But this definitely wasn't a start similar to what he did against the Yankees. in the last day game that he threw in? No. It was much more similar to me to the start he had against the Rangers

where the final line was pretty good, but you watched it and you were like, eh, not great. But like I said, the fastball was good, the slider. He actually got seven whiffs on 12 swings. So even though he only threw the slider 22% of the time today, it was highly effective. He got 58% whiff rate on that slider today.

So not the best we've seen the slider, but he threatened the strike zone enough with it that the Astros were willing to expand the zone. He earned the chases on that pitch, which is what he needs to do. So it's definitely a step in the right direction. Is it a overwhelming start? Is it something that should have you running around and screaming that Logan Gilbert's back? No, but it was certainly a fact. perspective. Paul Seawald got a four out save in this one. I did give up a couple of hits to Alex Bregman and Yuleiguriel, but you know, got a couple of strikeouts against Jorda and Alvarez and Carlos

Correa. I mean, Carlos Correa was shaking in his boots. I want to ask you, man, you know, we've been watching Seawald do this for a while now. And when he's on, he is just so, so dominant. and he's pretty much been on more than he hasn't been. It's been pretty rare when he's had a hiccup. But are you getting to the point now where you think he might be the most dominant reliever they've had since Edwin Diaz? I mean, it's a pretty short list of candidates.

Sure. 2019 and 2020 bullpins were, let's say, not good. Yeah, but they had guys like, you know, Austin Adams was really good. Yeah, when he was healthy. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's fair to say Seawald's been a little bit better than Adams. I mean, Seawald's been absolutely ridiculous, and he's not even like, he's not walking guys or anything like that either. So, you know, you feel pretty good when he comes in.

Even the hits he gave up today, not exactly, you know, lying shots off the bat that were troubling. And, you know, he had to work out of all this drama because he was giving up hard contact. That wasn't the case. It was, you know, a ground ball and in a softline drive. So, yeah, it's, I think it's fair to say that Seawald is, is that good. And honestly, you know, it's tough to compare anything to that 2018 D.S season. But what Seawald has done this year is it's right there with that type of performance. He's been excellent.

Yeah, it's, it's been quite the revelation. And I mean, props to Jerry to Poto finding him. And, you know, Paul Seawald had a chance to join the Astros. and ended up not going there. Who was the other team that he was considering? Do you remember off the top of your head? I do not. Yeah, he, yeah, it was between three teams.

There was the Astros and the Mariners, and of course he picked the Mariners, and we are very, very thankful for that. Paul Seawald has 78 strikeouts and 47 innings. That does not count yet. Yeah, C-S-Wald, baby. He, oh, my, X-E-R-A-9. 96 percentile. X Wobah 96 percentile. X batting average 95th percentile.

X slugging 80th percentile. K percentage 99th percentile. Walk percentage 67th percentile. With percentage 97th percentile. Chase rate 70th percentile. Fastball spin 88th percentile. So good luck. Yeah. Pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah. Well, another pitcher that helped the Mariners shut out the Astro. on Wednesday was Justice Sheffield who made his first appearance since early July. We're going to tell you what to expect from him as a reliever the rest of the way. But first, let's talk about direct TV stream.

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content varies by package. So with the calendar turning to September, rosters have expanded from 26 players to 28. And with that, Justice Sheffield has made his return to the major league roster after spending the last, let's say, seven weeks on the injured list with a forearm strain. He also had an oblique thing that he was dealing with.

And the plan with him for the rest of the season is to work him out of the bullpen. And that's what he did against the Astros on Wednesday. scoreless inning for Sheffield. Did give up a couple hard hit balls, but he induced a key double play off the bat of Jordan Alvarez to get out of the six. Not a good day for Yordan Alvarez. He had three strikeouts in this game and grounded into a double play.

Colby, you know, what are you expected and hoping to see from Sheffield the rest of the way? Something that I didn't see today, to be quite honest with you. Yeah. You know, Sheffield got nine swings. He only got one with. mix the slider and the sinker in there in equal pace, eight each. Like you said, hard contact. The slider was a little bit sharper today.

It had more movement to it. So that was slightly improved. But the velocity right where it was before the injury, which I suppose is good news. But coming out of the bullpen, you would really like to see that jump up a little bit. So we'll see what happens. He's still throwing the sinker, which I just think is not a pitch that's going to work for him. So I would like to see more four seamers. I would like to see him sit 94-95 instead of 91-92.

So he maxed out at 93.1 today. That's, you know, with his current control and command, and that's just that's not good enough. So I hope we see a different Sheffield than we saw today. I mean, give him credit. He was able to get the double play ball when he needed it. But it was not a good day for Sheffield out there. The scoreless ending is nice.

But yeah, the two balls that were not, you know, the non-double play ball was the only thing that was softly hit that inning. So it worked out for the Mariners, which is great. But, yeah, Sheffield, I want to see more than what I saw today. Otherwise, he's just kind of a, you know, middle innings, hopefully not in a close game type of guy. Yeah, I don't want to see a ton of Justice Sheffield, honestly. This year he has been bad. the, you know, and the slider has been the biggest problem for him.

You know, that's his best pitch, you know, just looking back to last year. And that's his best tool and his repertoire. And that hasn't been there for him this year. And, you know, if he doesn't have that going, he's not going to be able to overwhelm guys. He's not going to be able to get through guys, even in a relief setting. You know, I know a lot of folks think that he is probably, you know, best tailored to be a reliever. I don't know. I, it's just he doesn't have overwhelming stuff if the slider isn't there.

It's just it's not very encouraging. So really for me, I only want to see Sheffield in, you know, blowouts or, you know, mop up duty, etc. I don't really want to see him in close games like this. This was not a great move by Scott's service. He got lucky to get out of it unscathed. But to have Justice Sheffield make his return against the heart of the Astros lineup was, let's call it an interesting decision to say the least. The other guy that got called up with the roster's

expanding was Kevin Padlow, the infielder that they claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay raise. We'll see if he actually plays. Ryan Divish was speculating before the game that he might be coming up as a hedge for Thai France, who got hit by a pitch in the second game against the Astros and got hit by another pitch in the series finale. But France was able to play, of course, in the series finale. So who knows, but, you know, if Padlo does play, and we have talked about him before on the show, but for those that didn't listen to that, you know, what are the manner earners getting in Kevin Padlow? Yeah, he's, you know, he's power over, overbat.

He is a minor league performer who has, you know, performed at high levels of the minors. Really, with the exception of this year, he's been pretty bad, to be blunt. but yeah, there's definitely plus raw power there, above average, in-game power. He plays a decent third base. He's not a butcher over there. He can manage, and he has played. He does have some experience playing other positions as well. He's made his major league debut, only 12 at-bats, but again, he's 25 years old.

There's some definite skills here, and there is the minor league track record that the Poto really likes. and you know since coming to Tacoma he's been pretty good uh 261 452 399 so he's kidding on base quite a bit but it's only been seven games so uh it's it's a it's a guy who crushed lefties in the miners and held his own against righties there's just it's not it's not an impact move here but it's somebody who could be useful in a pension. And if he's not getting sent down here tomorrow, there's a chance he's in the lineup the next couple of days because Seattle will be facing at least two lefties

against Arizona this weekend. And we're going to be talking about that series in a second. But they're probably going to rotate some guys in and out with the 28 man. Who are some other guys you think we might see over the next month with the extra two roster spots. We're really just the one with Sheffield. Sure.

But we did get news earlier today that it sounds like both Mischiewicz and Castillo are going to join the bullpen on Friday. So those two guys will be back, which will necessitate Seattle making a move. They could send down Padlow and Mills. That's probably the most likely scenario. But again, do you want a 16-man pitching staff?

That seems a bit overkill to me, but we'll see what they decided to do there. So in terms of minor leaguers, I could get called up. There really isn't much that is on the 40-man roster that makes sense, quite honestly, to call up. I mean, you know, Jose Godoy, he showed some things, but you're already carrying three catchers. Taylor Tremel, you know, we talked about him yesterday. He's struggling. He's not, you know, he's, he's. not in a position where he's ready for another shot.

And the rest of the Mariners 40-man roster is pretty much pitching. So you're just not, there's just not a lot of options for you. Marcus Wilson might be interesting, but it just, again, there's big swing and miss issues there. He's an athlete.

So, you know, that's something off the bench, but there really isn't much, much Seattle can do in terms of call-ups to help their offense. Yeah, There's just, it's pretty, pretty barren. One conversation we had on our Patreon show on Wednesday was,

does this get to a certain point when, when you start to think about calling up Julio Rodriguez? We might talk about that on a Monday show or one of the shows next week. But, you know, the Mariners are getting in off day tomorrow and then head down to the Arizona desert to face the Diamondbacks this weekend. We're going to get you covered on all you need to know heading into that. But first, a word from Bet Online. It's that time of year again, and all eyes are now turning to football.

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customer. So go to Rock Auto.com right now and see all the parts available for your car or truck and write locked on and there how did you hear about us box so they know we sent you amazing selection reliably low prices all the parts your car will ever need rock auto dot com starting on friday the mariners will face the diamondbacks in arizona for a three game set the diamondbacks of course hold the second worst record in all the baseball right now and you'd hope the mariners will be able to get a much needed sweep or at least two out of three in this one but don't under estimate the Diamondbacks. It's pretty much same thing like with the Royals series.

This is a team that's playing a lot better than its record right now. They've gotten healthier with guys like Ctele Marte and Zach Gallen. Josh Rojas, Pavin Smith, David Peralta. They're all having decent years at the plate. Last month they went three and three against the Padres. They swept the Phillies and also got a win against the Giants. They also just beat the Padres again on Wednesday. So, you know, they're certainly capable of hanging.

with good teams. And the Mariners haven't officially announced their starters yet, but the pitchy matchups are expected to be Tyler Anderson versus Madison Bumgarner, Marco Gonzalez versus Tyler Gilbert, Chris Flexen versus Zach Gallen. So basically it's your three best starters against their three best starters. How are you feeling about this one? Yeah, it's going to be a battle. You know, the Mariners are not blowing anybody out.

and the talent gap isn't as large as one would think with a team that's 10 games over 500 versus a team that's 40 games under 500. So it's not going to be easy. There's going to be moments that are going to be frustrating. And it's entirely possible, and I would say probable, that Seattle is going to lose at least one of these games. The offense, again, very little to inspire us the last few days. you know, Toro providing the entire offense basically for the whole series.

So there's really, you know, a lot that can happen here. And it's not something that, you know, Mariner fans should be going into thinking, okay, after we win these three games, can we take two or three from Houston again? That's just, that's not going to work. So it's, you're going to have to battle. Thankfully, they have the off day. Bullpen should be well rested. You should get, you know, more enforcements out of that bullpen.

hopefully with a healthy Castillo and hopefully a healthy mishavits. So yeah, it's going to be a battle. And, you know, if they take two or three down there, that's probably about as good as you can hope for. And, you know, hopefully they win the first two. And then

we can start talking about, hey, what did they pull the sweep here? So. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, we'll have to see, you know, it really comes down to the pitching for the Mariners and holding off what is a, you know, pretty bad lineup, aside from the few guys that I mentioned, of course, Catell Marte's come back and he's been really good.

Former Mariner and, you know, Josh Rojas has been pretty underrated. You know, and, you know, the offense, hopefully they're able to scrape by some runs against, you know, Madison, Bobm Garner and Tyler Gilbert. Tyler Gilbert's been really good this year, by the way. I don't know if you've, you checked out what, what he's done this year, but he's been pretty, pretty solid.

He obviously threw that no-hitter in his debut. And then, of course, Zach Gallen is just, you know, one of the more underrated young pitchers in today's game. You know, if you had to, you know, look at this lineup and maybe pick someone to maybe get it going here for the Mariners in the series, who do you think that might be? Based on what we saw this series. I mean, yeah, like the guy who's already getting to go. Yeah, it's, I mean, Hanigra had another rough day. you know how about how about a mitch hanager revenge series against arizona it's former team the team

that traded how about Mitch hanniger gets revenge on the 2021 version of mitch hanniger by looking like the 2018 version of mitch hanniger for three days that would be nice so yeah it's it's not it's just you know the offense again very little to feel inspired about j p cropper uh collected quite a hits this series so that was good to see um but you know if hanniger and and seeer behind him aren't going to do anything and they're leaving it up to tie france with two outs so uh yeah i i guess if i have to pick somebody i'm going to i'm going to pick louise turenz uh actually okay that's who i was going to pick yeah i think turenz and murphy are going to have good series yeah yeah i like that yeah murphy as well um Murphy didn't have a

Yeah, Murphy didn't have a particularly good series against the Astros, but I feel like this might be one of those series where he kind of puts it together, maybe gets a couple home runs or something. Three writings on the mound. Yeah, true, true, of course, of course. You know, maybe Kyle Seeger gets one of those lefty-on-lefty homers. Who knows? He's pretty good at doing that. But overall, you know, it's just for me, you got to get two out of three in this one. you got to find some way to at least get two of these games.

If you drop two or you somehow get swept, please don't get swept. It won't be a problem. They'll just go out and sweep the Astros because that's the way the Mariners work. Yeah, that is certainly how they roll. You know, they drop three or four to the Royals and then come back and shut out the best offense in baseball

in two games in a row because, you know, 2021 Marinus, man. Chaos ball. They went three and four this last week in the exact opposite way. We expected them to go three and four. So that's, you know, the end result is good, but and they didn't lose any ground, believe it or not, even at going three and four. So it, I don't know, this team, man, you can't figure them out. You can't, you know, stop with your calculations, stop with the, you know, the schedule watching and the pitching matchup, you know, discussions.

they do not matter because this team has proven over a hundred and, what is it, 134 games now that what you expect to happen is meaningless. Yeah, yeah. It's, uh, it feels almost like, you know, they're better against, uh, good teams than they are against bad teams. It's, it's really, really strange. This, this team is very perplexing, but, uh, you know, hopefully they, they are able to get, take care of business against Arizona.

They can really use, you know, some wins here over the next few days because, you know, right now Boston's dealing with a COVID situation and they're playing the raise. They got the White Sox coming up. They got some tough games coming up. The A's are still, you know, kind of just in between. You know, they should be pretty good, but they've been losing some games here and there. You know, who knows? But, you know, by the time you're listening to this, we'll know if the Red Sox lost the

raise or not. Last time I checked they were up one, nothing on the raise. but that is a team that is depleted right now. So hopefully the Rays are able to take care of business. The Rays are up two to one on a Apo Taco home run by Wander Franco. Nice. Nice. So, you know, hopefully by the time you're listening to this, the Mariners are only two and a half out of a wild card spot.

And, you know, who knows? Things could get pretty fun. They still got to play the Red Sox three more times. They got a couple more series against the A's, right? Seven games. seven, yeah, seven games against the A's. So, you know, 10 games against the two teams that you're behind. So if you can take care of business down in Arizona, you are looking not too shabby, not too shabby.

So that's going to do it for today's show. Quick programming note, though, Colby and I will be out of town on Friday. So there will be no new episode tomorrow. That's why we previewed the Diamondback series today. But thank you so much for joining us here for another week of. Lockdown Mariners for Colby Pat note. I'm Tiday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-U-N-S-Rerner. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. That's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-A-E-P-A-T-1-E. 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 Monday. Betting on Major League Baseball doesn't have to be a guesting game. If you listen to the new Lockdown Betts podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicap and expert Lee Sterling, get daily Explout specials, wrong team favorite picks, and Lee Sterling's lock of the day. Follow the Lockdown Betts podcast brought to you by betonline.org, wherever you get podcasts.