Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Logan Gilbert, Shortened No-Hitters, and the Negro Leagues

Episode Date: July 9, 2021

Jon Miller guest hosts today's episode, and he's joined by Locked On Anaheim Ducks host Jason Hernandez. The two of them are still abuzz about Logan Gilbert's stellar outing against the Yankees from the previous afternoon, so the two of them talk about their impressions of how the young right-hander did. They also talk about some of the more disappointing teams around the league, and ponder whether or not the Cubs will be buyers or sellers at the deadline. A discussion on shortened no-hitters follows, and to close out the show, the two discuss the integration on Negro League statistics in the Major League Baseball record books; Jon doesn't think they went far enough and has a very interesting point to make about who should be the all-time home run leader. 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.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your guest host filling in for D.C. Lundberg, John Miller. Thank you, Joey Martin. I am Locked-on Mariners contributor and guest host this afternoon. John Miller, D.C. is away. Unfortunately, he is working on his flon recipe because some of the cheerleaders ate a little too much and got ill. We are told that this did not impact their performance during the game, but DC does not want a repeat performance of that.

And joining me today is Locked-on Anaheim Ducks host, Jason Hernandez. Welcome, Jason. You mentioned Flawn, right? Yes. So are they only Flawns? Oh. Actually, it's funny, there actually is a Twitter account called only Flawns. If you look, I'm not even kidding, folks.

If you look up only flans, F-L-A-N-S, there is a Twitter account. And it has all the best flan that you could possibly look at. Some of it looks amazing. Locked-on Mariners is part of the Locked-on podcast networked. We are brought to you by Spotify Green Room. Please remember to download and follow this program on whichever podcast net that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners Or any of the other great programs

How about Locked on Anheim Ducks Here on the Lockedon Network Yeah, speaking of the Spotify Green Room I think I'm on there as well I'll talk about that a little bit later So John, you watched I guess yesterday's Mariners game That was a fun one, right?

That was a fun one Yeah, you had a brilliant outing From Seattle Mariners pitcher, Logan Jebert. I know. I'm a hockey host. Whenever you see that last name, you go Gilbert, like Rod Gilbert.

But Logan Gilbert, as he would like to be called, pitched a masterpiece against the New York Yankees, going seven innings allowing only one hit. He got the last 18 batters out, and he had

eight, count them eight strikeouts. Once again, against the New York Yankees. I know you talked about that a little bit before. That was just an impressive performance, wasn't it? That was very impressive. But you know what's even more impressive? Here's a fun little stats as D.C.'s enjoying some yakisobo noodles.

So, Logan Gilbert, he went seven innings, eight strikeouts, only one hit. He had a game score. You're familiar with game scores, right? Yes. Yeah. So he had the highest pitching game score for the Seattle Mariners so far this season. Yes, you heard that right. He had the highest game score just to show how impressive it was.

Higher than Kikuchi's, which was an 80 earlier this season against the Houston Astros, even better than Chris Flexens ate any performance against the Minnesota Twins. His game score for this particular outing was a, An 83. Hey, that's a good year. So his game score was 83. He did get the victory. But, you know, I should deduct five points from Flexens because that came against Minnesota.

They suck. So I'm just saying, am I wrong? Am I wrong, John? You are not wrong. Yeah. Take away five points because the twins suck. And maybe add a couple of points because the Yankees are not bad. I mean, they are above 500.

They are in the wild card chase for whatever it's worth. So I guess that should count for something, right? Because this Yankees team is not bad. Now, do you adjust a game score based on how a team is playing? I was talking with DC on his green room earlier about how we joke, although some times maybe we're not joking, about how the Florida Marlins are a AAA team. No, they are not a triple A team.

A team. If there's any team that's a AAA team, it is obviously the Arizona Diamondbacks. They are the AAA team. If we had relegation, it'd be Arizona by far. Miami does okay by comparison. Trust me, folks. When you have a 14 game difference between the Dunmanbacks and the Marlins, you know that is bad. So going back to Rod Gilbert's, masterpiece. Seattle hasn't had any no hitters. In fact, this was, I think, the finest pitching performance from the Mariners. Yes, Kikuchi gave up only the one run, but he did allow two walks. For Gilbert's to allow no walks, only one hit, and I think what really changed for him was in that first second, he really calmed down after that. He had a shaky start, but immediately

afterwards. He was zoned in. His command was impeccable. He was hitting every spot, even cutting the corners a little bit, at times hitting the same spot that was called as a strike and called as a strike again. And generally, he was starting to extend the strike zone as the game went on as any good pitcher does. What I was impressed with was his slider. He had his slider working for him, getting a bunch of excellent strikeouts on pitches that should have been out of the strike zone, and in fact a couple of them were out of the strike zone. So really, this was just a masterful performance. I love that game score of 83.

By the way, that is the 15th highest game score in the American League this season. Obviously, the highest ones being no hitters from John Means, Corey Klouber, Carlos Rodone, Spencer Turnbull. They each had game scores above. above 94, but those were all no hitters. So of course they'd have higher game scores. Of course, the highest being John Means, he had a game score of

99, almost 100. Can you imagine? That's a really high score, isn't it? That's insane. Yeah. So John Means, he has the highest one in the majors at 99, even higher than Jacob de Grom's this season. Yeah, John Means

was unbelievable, but give credit to Villalbert, having a game score of 83. And do you find this being the kind of performance that could propel him later on this season? I certainly hope it is. If you're a Mariners fan, you got to hope so too. We got to head to the first break, don't we? Yes, we certainly do. All right, so why don't you take that one away?

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Welcome back to Lockdown Mariners, where Jason and I talk random baseball. Yeah, buddy. Ooh. Oh, boy. And this is still brought to us by the Spotify Green Room, yes? Yes, it is. So there was one team that I mentioned to Arizona Diamondbacks

that are by far the worst team in the majors. There's one team that's been struggling a little bit. I don't know if you've paid attention to how terrible the Chicago Cubs have been recently. They're awful. They're bad. Do you know what their losing streak was recently, John? Take a guess. Random guess.

How many did they just lose? I think it was worse than the Houston Trash Camping or said Houston Astros' winning streak. of late. Yeah. The Chicago Cubs yesterday broke an 11 game losing streak. They were, they were 10 games above 500. They are now below 500. They did lose again against the Philadelphia Phillies. Oh boy. It's so bad to lose 12 of your last 13, but to lose 11 in a row like that. it does not speak well for the Chicago Cubs. And rumor has it. This is just rumor over the past 24 hours that maybe Chicago is thinking about moving on from some of its core pieces.

If you're the management, if you're leadership, do you do that right now? Is it a good time for the Cubs to move on from some of their core pieces? Well, the Cubs don't appear to be even looking at a second wildcard spot. So this might be the time to start if you're going to start a rebuild. Well, rebuild. You're going to go full rebuild here, right? I'm not sure what they want to do. But if they're looking to get back to what they accomplished five years ago.

All right. So look at their lineup. Look at their core lineup. They still have Chris Bryant, Javi Bayez, Anthony Rizzo, Wilson Contreras. They're still great players, you would think, right? Yeah. So, I mean, is there any reason to really move on from those core players, or what else can Chicago do, do you think? Honestly, I would have to look at their contracts and see who's going to be up and go from there.

Oh, that's a good point. I'll do some live research here, but just kind of off-shooting. The Cubs are currently 43 and 45. They lost 8-0 to the Phillies recently, which is just, you know, kind of the cap in front. in front of all the Wrigley faithful, many of whom left after maybe the fifth inning. Looking at the salaries and the payroll, there's a lot of contracts that are going to be up fairly soon. Chris Bryant is going to be under arbitration, so we'll see about that. They still have Ian Hap under contract. I don't know what else the Cubs can do. They still have that expensive contract of Jason Hayward after that.

Oh, boy. He's getting paid $23.5 million this season. Chris Bryant, then Anthony Rizzo. But these are all players that are kind of entering their 30s. Hayward is 31. Rizzo is 31. Kyle Hendrix is 31. Chris Bryant is 29.

These are not the young pups that they used to be, aren't they? I am not sure how many of them they would maybe want to maybe put the rumor around that they're searching to trade them. I mean, it's possible. I mean, the trade deadline is coming up in about a month. And I would have thought if you had asked me two weeks ago, they would be buyers at the deadline. Now I'm not so sure.

I don't know what direction this team is going to go in. That's the one that is really surprising to me. The team that is surprising. I mentioned the Minnesota Twins. They're off to a very poor start. There's a team that I like out in Cleveland that I'm not sure what direction they will be going is the Cleveland Indians. They are above 500. They're not too far off from that American League Central.

Earlier this season, the Indians did have the Mariners number, including winning a series in June. And included in that was a seven. and nothing shalacking of Seattle. But Cleveland has kind of been that team that I don't know what to make of them. Then again, earlier this season out at Safeco Field, Seattle pretty much thrashed them in early May. So when you think about the Cleveland Indians, they're a team that many thought they were going to be below 500. Some even thought they had no business being where they are. But hey, they're above 500.

They're somehow making it with a roster of Cesar Hernandez. and Bobby Bradley and Harold Ramirez and Ahmed Rosario. And yeah, who are some of these guys? Like, what's going on in Cleveland? How are they, I don't know how they're making it work. Whatever they're doing, they're doing it right. I mean, the only bad thing that happened was Wednesday when they got quote-unquote no hits against the Tampa Bay race.

Do you know why I say that in their quotes? I could not see the subtitles, no. Because it was part of a double header. It was a seven-inning no-hitter by the Tampa Bay raise. I'm sure, I don't know if he's mentioned this, but Colin McHugh, Josh Fleming, Diego Castillo, Matt Whistler, Pete Fairbanks, they combined for a no-hitter. So I'll ask you straight up, should a seven-inning no-hitter still count in your eyes, or is a no-hitter, nine innings, no-hit baseball?

Or I guess a complete nine-in-in-ing game. Well, if you do it that way, then you completely negate anything that happens during the double-hitter. You could have a perfect game through seven, but it's not a perfect game, even though that was a complete game. So I know I see in some stats, it's a complete game,

but it doesn't count as a no-hitter because it's seven innings or, hey, that could happen. What if someone pitches a perfect game? Wouldn't that feel like it's robbing from the, I guess, prospective achievement of throwing seven perfect innings? I think that's very much robbing. And since we have seen this already, we saw a complete game, or not a complete game. or not a complete game, but a no-hitter. And it was a regulation game. The game can't go any longer unless it goes extras.

And it's not a rainout or anything like that. So I think if we're going to keep these seven-inning double-headers, then we need to change the qualifications for a no-hitter or perfect game. But wouldn't that also take into account some of of the other no-hitter's that may have been rain-shortened games, for example, we'd have to go back in the history books to see if there was any no-hitters that took place in eight innings, for example, that were shortened by rain or darkness or whatever would have happened the previous 150 years?

Yeah, in theory, we really would. Hmm. And that's where I don't like, just my own soapbox here, I don't like the Major League Baseball is doing that, because, you may end up like, oh, we've got more no hitters than we thought, or you've got to negate some or whatever. And this, for me, is leading into I am not particularly happy at the way Major League Baseball is now saying that Negro leagues are major league.

I have nothing wrong with that. Oh, that feels like a conversation we could have right now after the break if you want, because... Let's have it. We could definitely talk about that in the next segment, but... I think we have a word from bet online, correct? We certainly do. Bet online is the fastest, easiest way to bet on all your sports action.

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Head to the website or use your mobile device to sign up today and receive your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Bet Online, your online sports book experts. promo code Locked On. Yeah. We now return to Locked On Mariners with your guest host, John Miller. And now welcome back to Locked-on Mariners, where Jason and I were just starting on, and he kind of cut me off because we needed to go to break. I love the idea that Major League Baseball is finally recognizing the Negro League. I think it is about time.

Wow. Care to elaborate? Why? Well, we have so many of these players in the Hall of Fame, and I think. think they were kind of put there. First of all, enough attention is not being paid to

the Negro League Museum. It is great. I've never been there. I've heard all about it. I know people that have been there. Go. Yep, myself included. This is baseball history. We need to talk about this and it needs more publicity.

Anyway, we've got these great players in the Baseball Hall of Fame but then their stats were not included as any of this. And that would include some of, say, Willie Mays. Or the guy I'm wanting to talk about Hank Aaron. And this is my problem, is MLB is counting the stats up through, say, 1948. Okay.

So they're not counting Mays or they're not counting. You can now buy clowns' jerks. with Hank Aaron on them, but they're not including his stats. Yet he did play in the Negro leagues. So they're including the Negro leagues, but they're not including all the Negro leagues. And what this would do, folks, is Hank Aaron had nine Negro league home runs before he got to the major leagues.

That means that technically he is, once again, the home run king. Ooh, that's a take. So, really, it should be Barry Bonds, should not, I mean, I know people have their own reasons for not wanting Barry Bonds

to be the home run king, but that's a very legitimate reason to come up with. As you mentioned, you said nine home runs. Yes. So now put him ahead by one, wouldn't it? I...

Oh, my God. I believe that would put him up by two. Wow. That's amazing. This brings up some other players that were in the Negro leagues that otherwise wouldn't have been counted before. And I'm going to mention this name because he's a Dodger. Jackie Robinson. How about Jack Roosevelt Robinson being in the Negro leagues and having those stats count for him?

If you think about it, Jackie Robinson played more than the amount of time he was. played in Major League Baseball, why, you know, count those stats, count everybody's stats, because the Negro leagues were around past when the color barrier broke. And you talked about Hank Aaron. I think it was in the Negro leagues in the early 50s when it was coming to a close, right? Yes. Yeah. So, wow, when you bring that up, that could change the history books a lot.

I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't count that. to be honest. I certainly hope they do, and I want this to be, folks, if you were to go over to the basketball reference website and look up, say, Moses Malone or Julius Irving, for example, you will see their stats, and their ABA and NBA stats are listed together. You're right, they are. I want this for the Negro League and then MLB stats listed together and add it to their career totals. Not just say, well, they're major leagues.

Well, the guys that played in both, we need to add that. So have it like the American Association or what have you. And it's another major league. That would change their history books altogether. Because in a lot of people's minds, Hank Aaron, is the home run king without a doubt. I mean, this is without question. Definitely.

And I look at the Howe Sports Bureau. They credit him with a 366 batting average in 26 official Negro League games. So, yeah, that would put him ahead of Barry Bonds. Hmm. No asterisk on this one, I don't think, because those are major leaguers that he's playing against. The only reason I could think of that the stats are only up to 1948 is because that was the year that the color barrier really broke open in the major leagues when you had not just Jack Roosevelt Robinson,

but you had other players come in, you had Larry Dobie come in, you had Campanella come in, you had a lot of these other African-American players that started to play in the major leagues, so that could be the only thing against Hank Aaron, but that'd be it. that'd be the only other thing going against Hank Aaron in that regard.

But it's a very good point made about the NBA and the ABA because Julius Irving, one of the best players in basketball history, Moses Malone, one of the best players in basketball history. Those players don't get talked about enough because they played a number of years in the American Basketball Association. And in fact, a lot of people say Julius Irving was one of the best NBA players that they ever played against. And he's won multiple championships.

Yes, I say multiple. He won the one in Philadelphia. He also won with the New York Nets back in... I'm sure I have this. I'm sure I have this, John. 1976. Yeah. Woo!

Got that one. I believe New York correct. I just checked it and it is, 1976. New York Nets. Ooh, boy. My basketball knowledge is pretty strong on this one, too. I had talked about, you know, big home run hitters. I have to end this program with your permission to talk about the events happening this coming weekend.

And I think you know what it is, just a little bookend. The home run derby is happening in Denver. So I look at this lineup for the home run derby. There's a lot of good players on this. I'm just going to go through the eight really quickly. You have Joey Gallo, Trevor Story, Matt Olson, Trey Mancini, Great Story, Tray Mancini, who came back from cancer. Then you have Pete Alonzo, Sal Perez, Juan Soto, and some other guy.

I host Locked on Anaheim Ducks. There's some other player on this list from Anaheim. I hear he's pretty good. Some guy by the name of Shoeh Tani. Yeah, he's only pretty good. pretty good. He only leads the majors in home runs going into the All-Star break. This guy is a

cheat code. He's ridiculous. He will one day go out and pitch seven innings and have an RBI during that game. The next day he'll hit a home run. He's bonkers. Out of those eight that I mentioned, do any of those

strike your fancy as being the favorite or is it Shohai Otani? I would like to see either Otani as a Cinderella story, so I would like to see that, or Mancini, to stage the ultimate comeback and just win the home run derby. You know who I think has a chance at being a dark horse because he does hit a lot of home runs that are deep, is Joey Gallo. I mean, when Joey Gallo gets behind when he hits it really deep, but if you've seen Shohei Otani this season, he's got several home runs above 430 feet.

I think it's got to be show Hey O Tanya. It's going to be his show. He's going to do the home run derby. He's going to pitch and hit in the All-Star game. This whole thing is unbelievable. So I can't wait to see how that goes for the home run to be. At Coorsfield, Denver, Colorado. Can you imagine how far some of these are going to go?

Oh, that's going to be so much fun. I'm going to predict this right now. I'm going to put the over-under. on the furthest home run being 501 feet. You think it'll be higher or lower than that? I'll go 485. 485. Okay, I'm going to write these down.

501. 485. We'll see who was closer to the longest home run distance at the Home Run Derby, which takes place on Monday night. I will let John close this out so you can find me at Locked-on Anaheim Ducks, which is L.O. underscore Ducks on Twitter. You could find me on Twitter at Stimpy J.D. I have some hockey takes.

Hockey season's over. So it's baseball time again. Woo-woo! And we have the brightest star in Shohei Otani in Anaheim. Folks, he's worth the price of admission. Go check him out and go check out Locked on Anaheim Ducks. And once again, Stimpy J.D on the Twitter. I believe you are also on the Spotify green room, sir.

At Locked on Ducks. Thank you so much. much. That'll do it for this one, gang. It sure was fun on this end. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. D.C. will be back after he perfects the fun recipe because as we said earlier, some of the cheerleaders got a little sick. And Jason, if you didn't catch on, D.C. is now a cheerleading coach at a local university. Oh, boy. Yes. In the meantime, folks, please remember to download and follow Locked-on Mariners. Look for our us on any podcasting app you can think of. Leave rating and review if your podcasting

app of choice so allows. And remember to check out all the other shows here on the Lockdown Network. Check out Lockdown Anaheim Ducks. Have a good night, folks. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski will keep you updated

on the latest news in every major sport with Locked On's team of local experts. Follow the Locked On today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.