Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Luis Castillo, Mariners Bats Continue to Struggle in 5-2 Defeat to Guardians

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

Luis Castillo's struggles continued on Tuesday night, with the Mariners' ace surrendering four runs on 10 hits to the Guardians in nearly six innings of work. Compounded by another lackluster effort from Seattle's offense, the M's suffered their third loss of the year without much of a fight and will head into Wednesday looking to end their opening homestand on a positive note. Ty is joined by Ben Ranieri of Sea Level to discuss it all, as well as some minor Mariners news.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer. Amazon Fire TVFire TV recently created Fire TV Channels to deliver a constant supply of the latest videos from your favorite sports brands, all for free. That includes all of us at Locked On and most of the big pro leagues and college conferences as well. To Learn More, visit www.amazon.com/LockedOnFireTV PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It was a battle of aces tonight at T Mobile Park, but while Shane Bieber was really good, Luis Castillo had yet another disappointing showing. Ben Reneery of Sea Level and I will discuss it all coming up here on the Lockdown Marriss Postgame show. Let's sail. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Ahoy, sailors.

It is Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024. this is tightening is awesome. Ben Renere for the Lockdown Marriss Postgame show. Thank you so much for making us your first listen after the Marrers 5 to 2 loss of the Cleveland Guardians. Subscribe, like and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let's know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. So Colby was at the game tonight, so I'm here with Ben. Be sure to check out C level. That's Ben's substack. Ben, let's start with Luis Castillo tonight. He looked awesome through the first three or so innings and nearly got out of the fourth unscathed, but of course loses a two-strike count to Will Brennan.

Hanager boots the ball, allowing Jose Ramirez to score. And then right after that, Castillo, gives up the two-run home run to Bo Naler, and for a little while after that, his command was shot. Had a really hard time throw on strikes, and when he did, he was catching a lot of plate. Got it under control a little bit there towards the end, but the damage had already been done. Final line tonight, four runs on 10 hits and a walk, seven strikeouts and five and two-thirds innings pitched. Yet another start in which the Mariners ace did not give his team. team necessarily the best chance to win. What did you think happen to Luis tonight? And what do you

think is going on with him in general? Because this, of course, you know, dates back to the end of last year as well. Yeah, he was he was really sharp at the beginning of the game, obviously. And then I don't know. He, I don't know if it's that when he goes into the stretch a little bit, he loses it. but when he has to consistently pitch out of the stretch, sometimes he loses his command a little bit. And it's basically the same story whenever Luis Castillo struggles. It's that he spins his slider right in the middle of the plate. I know it's a fastball that was the homer, I believe.

But he'll spin fastballs in the middle or spin sliders in the middle of the plate. And his command is just not great. Basically, that whole inning was just at the belt or below. and he really got away from they really got away from calling fastballs in that inning. It was just bad command of his off-speed stuff. And it got hit hard, mostly by the Guardians, left-handed hitters. And the Guardians just, they continue to be kind of that annoying, pesky offense. So I don't know.

It could be a lot of different things. I saw him actually get frustrated, like visibly frustrated tonight, which you just don't see very often from him. So obviously he's frustrated. Like you said, it's been dating back to last year. It's like four bad outings in a row or so for Castillo. So I'm not that worried about it, ultimately. I think I've seen a stat where his ERA goes down as the weather gets warmer. So maybe it's just a little bit of cold weather and just a little bit of kind of feeling out here in the early season.

Now, this wasn't just a Luis problem tonight. The defense was also pretty strong. sloppy a couple misplays by josh rojas obviously the booted ball by hanager are you getting concerned about this smerner's defense this was obviously a pretty big question mark heading into the season and it's already kind of reared its ugly head here in the early going yeah it's a little bit concerning especially like especially when they don't have guys like brash and santos and stuff like that they can get a little bit of swing and miss because they they don't necessarily i know the bullpen was good tonight but they don't necessarily have as much swing and miss as they would normally have.

So it is a little bit concerning. Third base has been the major issue. I don't think Polanco's looked terrible at second. But obviously, like, Mitch, that was kind of an uncharacteristic mistake by him. He's not, when I think of Mitch Hanigar, like, he's a pretty, like, technically sound outfielder. He's just kind of lost the speed and the range and stuff like that. And so that I'm not terribly worried about Mitch, like booting balls all the time in the outfield. But the third base thing is definitely concerning going from what they've had over there the last, you know, 10 years or so.

And Kyle Seeger and Gene O'Swarez what they have right now. I don't think Josh Rojas is as bad as he's been. I don't think he's that bad, but the least area stuff is concerning, especially the throwing stuff. hopefully Perry Hill and those guys can get stuff ironed out so they can at least just be like we're not asking for all-star level defense over there you just need them to be not a giant issue but yeah when do you think we get to a point where they might try Blanco there and move Rojas and Arias over to second it's it's possible I mean I think when you're talking about that it's more of like Planko's a veteran player and obviously he hasn't been super great at the plate so far either. But if that's something that he's not comfortable with, I don't think you're going to make it. I don't think you want to make potentially the offensive part of things worse

because it is different footwork. Second base is different footwork than third base. Like playing on the right side is much different than playing on the left side. And so if that's not something that Polanco is comfortable with, I don't think that that's necessarily the smartest thing to do that. I mean, if he's open to it and he wants to help the team out that way, I don't think it's a bad idea. It's something that I think it's probably their best defensive alignment to do it that way.

But then again, you're asking Polanco to do something that you don't know if he's totally comfortable with and you acquired him for his bat. So that's the important thing there. But yeah, I don't know. It'll be interesting to see kind of how they attack this moving forward. So dating back to September, the earn runs per start for Luis Castillo 4,4452205. Not a great stretch here for Castillo. And right now, of course, with the struggles that the Mariners' offense is also going through,

the margin for error is pretty slim with this team right now, especially against a really good starting pitcher and Shane Bieber, who, you know, they had some doubles tonight. They had some hard hit balls, but they just couldn't really string together hits and ultimately push runs across the plate. We're going to talk about that some more in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdownerrorist postgame show

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And just a reminder that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube and Amazon Fire TV 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 locked on, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Lockdown Sports Today, now available on the free Fire TV channels app. So, as we were talking about just a moment ago, Ben,

Marr's offense were able to put together some hits against Shane Bieber. They had three doubles from Mitch Hanager, Mitch Garver, and Thai France, but they just weren't able to push any runs across the plate against Bieber. They were finally able to get some apps, action going against Eli Morgan in this Cleveland Guardian's bullpen, but only a couple runs. They weren't able to dig themselves out of the hole that Castillo and company created.

So instead of just hyper-focusing on tonight's offensive performance, because it was very similar to some of the other offensive performances we've seen, I just want to get your general thoughts on the offense now that we have basically a full week's worth of games at this point. Yeah, I think on tonight, like one part about tonight is that Shane Bieber is just really, really good. He had seven whiffs on his slider, and it's kind of just the theme of this season so far has kind of been this spin-to-win thing, and teams are just spinning the Mariners to death, and they haven't so far responded. This is probably not the answer to people want to hear, but it definitely seems like they're pressing. and I don't know if that's them putting pressure on getting off to a fast start, getting off to a fast start, or really what it is. But overall, like, one thing that I think we can feel pretty good about is, like, there's a lot of guys that are really good hitters, and we've seen be really good hitters that just haven't really done anything yet.

I mean, J.P. Crawford had the home run on Friday. or whatever that was, but he's been struggling a little bit. Like Cal Reilly kind of got going again tonight, but he's been struggling. It's guys that we've seen do it in Seattle that have struggled a little bit already to start. And Mitch Garber was obviously out. He looked okay tonight. He had the double.

But there's been a couple guys that have been swinging it pretty well. Mitch Hanigur and Thai France, I think, are two guys that's encouraging to see at least. But overall, it just looks like guys are really pressing and, I don't know, getting out of their approach a little bit. Ultimately, it hasn't even been so much a chase issue, really. It's just hit the pitches in the middle of the plate. Like, don't put so much pressure on yourself and just have a little swag and go out there and do it. They got a chance to go win a series tomorrow, which is really all you can ask for at the end of the day. but it just looks like a bunch of guys that are pressing and trying really, really hard.

And in baseball, that's the one sport where I think Gary Hill said this when I talked to him the other day. It's the one sport where trying harder probably makes you worse most of the time. So one positive that I think we can take away from these first few games, and especially tonight, is that it's starting to look like drive-line tie France might be real, which I know is a pretty big deal for you because, of course, you have been, been very involved in that storyline talking to Tanner Stokey from Drive-Line, of course, on your show. And you came on the show a few weeks back and talked a little bit about, you know, just your assessment of Ty and where he was at in spring training.

Now, what is your assessment so far of Ty through the first week here of the regular season? Well, one thing that's super encouraging already is that so when you make bat speed adjustments and stuff like that, it doesn't necessarily mean that that stuff's going to translate to the game. It doesn't always, the bat speed doesn't always translate fully or sometimes not even really at all. The swing has to sequence correctly to be able to translate to the game. It took J.P. Crawford a little while into the season last year to kind of figure out how to organize the swing, get the ball in the air. So far, kind of the way that I put it, is that we're kind of almost seeing a supercharged version of old Thai friends.

Like he's just hitting the ball really hard. He's still hitting the ball on the ground a lot, but he's hitting the ball really hard and in a similar manner to how he was hitting it in 2021 and the beginning of 2022. So he's not hitting the ball in the air to his pole side yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if that's coming. I think he's starting to get a little bit more confident. He looks way better than at any point last year, in my opinion.

So it's really exciting. He's hitting the ball harder than he's hit it basically ever, which is a really good sign. And obviously, almost hit one out to right center tonight on a kind of windy and cold night, it seemed like in Seattle. So there's a lot of stuff to be excited. about i i'm not going to say he's back yet but it's looking pretty good so far yeah no he's he's looked really good and i think the most impressive thing i know he's hitting the ball really hard

but also just like some opposite field singles not doing too much with the ball just dropping the barrel on the ball and seeing what happens i've been very impressed with just that aspect of tie francis game the past week so hoping we get to see more of that as well as seeing what you know some of this power can result in eventually so uh we're going to to step away from tonight's loss and talk a little bit about some minor Mariners news. The mayor has made a couple of, well, they made one minor league signing. They claimed a guy off of waivers. They also lost someone on waivers.

We're going to go over that in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys Postgame show is brought to you by Fandwell. The sports calendar is loaded and Fandwles making it even more exciting to get in on the action because right now new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning five. dollar bet. That's 200 bucks you can use to bet on the tourney, MLB, NBA, NHL, and so much more. Visit fandual.com slash locked on. That's LOCD-O-N and make your first bet a big win. Fanduel, America's number one sportsbook. And you're listening to the Lockdown Merritt's

postgame show. Thank you again for making us to your first. Listen after the Marys five to two loss to the Cleveland Guardians. And I'm still a little sick. So, if I'm talking a little low right now, I apologize. I'm getting over it, folks. I'm getting there. I'm rounding third and heading home, but I'm just not there yet. By the way, we are going to be doing another post-game show

tomorrow afternoon after the series finale between the Mariners of the Guardians. Colby's going to be back with me for that. I want to thank Ben, of course, for hopping on here tonight because Colby, of course, had to selfishly go to the ball game tonight and get his no-fly zone bottlehead of course and watch that ball game tonight so uh i'm sure he had i'm sure he's thrilled about it yeah he was i'm sure he's so stoked to drive back to yakima right now

after after that so yeah uh all right so let's get into some minor mariners news uh the first thing here uh that came out today we were waiting on this uh for a while now uh taylor tremelt uh had has been claimed off of waivers officially. But Los Angeles Dodgers, kind of weird that they, of all teams, are the ones that end up with Tremel and that they, of all teams, are willing to give Tremel a shot on their 26-man roster.

So what do you think about that? Yeah, that's super interesting. I kind of always thought and kind of hope that it would be like, well, the Rockies are a terrible organization, but I kind of hope that he would just go to the Rockies and hit like 40 bombs there. but like I don't know it's interesting I'm interested to see like what they have planned for him I don't know if they have like an injury or something or how they even

fit him on that roster but that's that's very interesting I'm hoping for the best for Taylor he's an awesome dude I I've heard nothing but great things and in the little time that I've got to be around him I've seen nothing but great things he's an 80 grade human being and I hope he absolutely kills it. This is this is not somebody that I hope that Mariners Twitter is rooting for to fail. I hope he has an awesome time there. But yeah, it's certainly interesting. The Dodgers could fit him on to their 26 man. Yeah. Yeah, very fascinating. But like you said, big Taylor-Jermel fan always will be hoping nothing but the best for him. I don't know if it's the best fit for him in terms of.

of getting playing time, obviously, because it's the Dodgers. It's one of the best clubs in baseball. But on the flip side, it's one of the best clubs in baseball. That's a pretty good spot for him to land and, you know, hopefully revive his career. But yeah, I'm kind of surprised that it wasn't like the Tigers or the A's or Rockies or someone like that. But no one in that kind of realm was willing to give him a shot. Secondly here, the Mariners claimed a reliever off of waivers today from the Chicago White Sox Sammy Peralta.

Lefty with a funky delivery, funky arm slot. What do you think about him? Yeah, he's kind of like a low arm slot. Another one of those guys, but he's from the left side, which is kind of interesting. He was actually pretty good last year. That was my first takeaway when I looked at him

was I was shocked at, I think he threw 20 innings last year, but he had like a four ERA, like totally fine. I was shocked at the White Sox. of all teams. They might be the worst team in baseball. And they didn't have room for him. That was kind of shocking. But he's not a hard thrower.

He's like 89, 90 with a fastball. But this seems like the classic case of a guy who's got a really good sweeper potentially that just needs to throw it more often. But he got good results on it last year and got good results at the major league level last year. So kind of surprised and this might be kind of a really interesting pickup for the Marriars. Maybe like a left-handed version of Tyson Miller. Maybe kind of something similar to that. So I think it's interesting and the 40 man's now at 39 players. So they have some room. So maybe he'll be able to stick on there for a while and see what he can kind of do down in Tacoma.

Yeah, we'll see what they're able to do with him. finally babe wake up the new tommy boulone just dropped and it's someone that i didn't expect was ever going to be a seattle mariner dallas kikele former si young award winner former astros pitcher i'm sure we're all very familiar with i'm sure we all remember the kikles corner which was totally not a copy of uh the king's court but you know whatever we'll let bygones be bygones um he was most recently with the Minnesota twins the last three years of his career have not been particularly good he's dealt with some injuries of course but he's depth and arguably some much needed starting depth for this organization so what do you think about taking a flyer on Dallas

keikle out of nowhere seemingly hey like I mean we've been we've been asking for starting pitching depth um and he's there we go I guess he's this starting pitcher. He hasn't really been very good since 2020. I know he's, and people are probably tired of me talking about this, but he's been a driveline along with Shane Bieber this last off season. And so, I mean, who knows? Maybe he's found a little something that can, I'm not saying he's going to return to Sy Young. That pitcher is obviously gone, but maybe he can be somewhat like a swing guy or a number five type starter. I think it's a worthy flyer.

It's a minor league deal, right? There's no risk on that. And you never know. Maybe the mayor's pitching lab can kind of help him throw one of his pitches more often and get him to be kind of a serviceable starter down in Tacoma. So with a minor league deal, there's no bad minor league deal. And for a team that sorely kind of needs some pitching depth, I think it's a nice little interesting ad.

Like Colby and I always say, and like you just said, there is no such thing as a bad minor league deal unless the player has off the field issues. So we'll see. Again, the mayor has needed starting depth, some veterans starting depth, some guys that have been there and done that. Again, I would have taken Tommy Malone had it been Tommy Malone. Like just literally give me someone that has some major league starts within the last. couple years and I'll take it. So, uh, unless, uh, unless Logan Evans is that starting pitching depth. Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about that real quick. Right. Let's talk about that. Logan Evans is

starting the year in double A. Yeah. This is a guy that again, I think a lot of us only found out about really found out about I'm, you know, I think some of us were aware of him, you know, the fact that they drafted him. Yeah. This past year. But like actually became aware of him and the hype around him that this organization has only a few weeks ago. Now this guy is, again, starting in double A. What do you think about that? I mean, I've heard nothing but great things about the guy. Amazing things.

From people, I mean, obviously, Jerry, on your guys' show and then just talking to people, like, I think stuff-wise, they think this guy's, like, and obviously it has to translate out on the field. I would like to preface this by saying that. they think he's like one of the best arms on the planet stuff-wise and what he can do on the backfields. Yeah, it's super interesting. I don't know if you saw the Jeff Passen. Yeah, but he had somebody, yeah, text him and be like, do you know who Logan Evans is? And he's like, no, should I?

And they're like, yes. Like, this guy is pretty legit. And the biggest takeaway to me is like, if they're putting him in Arkansas this year, when you're in Arkansas as a pitcher, that means you're a call away. So like, that's insane to me. But Logan Evans might be able to make his big league DAB this year. Now, I'm not like expecting that or anything like that. But it's crazy.

But if they think his stuff is there, I mean, he's an older, right? He was a college drafty. So I don't know. It's something to think about. he's a call away he's at arkansas so he's technically a call away we'll see we'll see how he does but yeah when i when i saw that i was like do they think he can pitch out of the bullpen this year because that you know and maybe he is part of the starting depth who knows uh i don't know yeah well again like the first that i really heard like hype around him was keith law's top 25 or top 20

Marrars prospects or whatever he did on the athletic a couple of months ago. He had him like 14. I was like, I've literally never heard anyone talk about Logan Evans like that. Like, where is that coming from? And then, yeah, then Jerry said what he said on our show. And then, you know, you're hearing Jeff Passon talk about him now. And you're hearing some other people talk about him. And then, yeah, you and I have talked about that a little bit as well.

In hindsight, I wish I would have done more. more digging because I didn't have them in my top 20 hand up like I didn't have in my top 20 but I didn't do any digging on him I just kind of wrote them off early in the process and yeah I think I had him 28 I think I had him 28 in my top 30 I don't know if he cracked our overall top 30 here on the show he might have but yeah like I I don't think anyone could have expected the hype that's that's been built here for Logan Evans but yeah dude's starting in double a and we'll see what that means for the rest of his year and we'll certainly be keeping an eye on him with the with the travelers down there so all right

that is going to do it for our show uh thank you again ben for uh for hopping on here well colby's away uh appreciate it thanks for having me uh before we get out of here once again 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 and the free Fire TV channels app. Locked on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of locked on. Plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked-on Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Once again, check out Ben's substack, clevel.com.

Got that right, right? C-level BR. C-level BR.com. I always, yeah, I always mess that up. Check it out, though. It's great stuff over there. Ben just did an interview with Gary Hill Jr., friend of our show as well. Love Gary.

Got to get Gary back on our show as well. He's the man. Yeah, he's great. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Ben Rennery. I'm Ty Dan Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Ty Dame Gonzalez and Ben at Ben Rennery 10. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode.

Thank you again for making us your first. Listen after the Marys 5 to 2 loss to the Cleveland. guardians have yourself a beautiful baseball evening we'll see you next time peace