Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: Is the Mariners' Season Still a Disappointment Even If They Sneak Into the Postseason?

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

Another weekend has come, and the Mariners left the weekend getting swept, yet again. The division is out of reach, but the final playoff spot is still up for grabs. Colby and Ty crack open the mailbag and answer questions like: what was Scott Servais' biggest mistake, what the long-term prospects for Ty France are, can the season still be seen as a success if the team simply makes the playoffs? Plus, which is worse: the contact play or bunting? All that and more on this episode of Locked On Mariners!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.  eBay MotorsKeep your ride-or-die alive at ebay.com/motors. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelMake Every Moment More.Make Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.SleeperDownload the Sleeper app and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details. Currently operational in over 30 states. Check out Sleeper today!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) 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.

Even if the Mariners sneak into the post season, can 2023 be viewed as a disappointment for the team? Plus, what is the future of first base look like in Seattle? We'll discuss all that and more coming up here on Mailbag Monday. Colby, hit it. 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 Monday, September 25th, 2023. This is Tedding Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marries podcast. brought to you by Sleeper. Swing for the fences on Sleeper Picks and you can win up to 100 times your money. Download the Sleeper app and use promo code locked on. That's L-C-K-D-O-N. You'll get up to $100 match on your first deposit. Terms of Conditions Apply. See, Sleeper's Terms of Use for Details, currently operational in over 30 states. Check out Sleeper today. Thank you so much for making us your first listen, 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 us know in the comments below. 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. It is Mailbag Monday, the show where we answer your Mariners questions. Let's see what you want to know. We're going to start here with Linguini, who wants to know

if we do still make the playoffs, but it's still be fair to call this season a disappointment. We've seen a good amount of players making somewhat of an improvement, but for a team looking to take the next step, we really didn't. Colby, thoughts? So I would say that this is one of those things where it's one of those things where like it's really up to you. It's really up to interpretation because if they miss the playoffs, obviously, yeah, that's a

that's a really bad season. That's a huge disappointment. But if they make the playoffs and, you know, they go to the ALCS, they get, hot and they go to the ALCS, like nobody's calling that a disappointment anymore. So it's kind of one of those things. For me, it'd be a little bit tough to call it a disappointment if they get into the playoffs because they did compete for the division. They did clearly close the gap, you know, between them and pretty much every other

American League team. So I don't know. I think they get in. It's still going to be disappointing because you had a shot to win the division and you just fell flat on your face. But overall, it'd be tough. have to call the entire season a disappointment because you did see growth from J.P. Crawford and Cal Raleigh and Julio and Logan Gilbert took another step forward.

And a lot of the guys that you consider to be a part of your core going forward had really good years or at least, you know, really solid years. So I don't know if I would call that a disappointment. But this is one of those things where it's really up to you. Like it's a personal preference thing. If you thought this team was going to win 100 games and cruise to the World Series, then yeah, it's disappointment. And then that's, you know, probably more about you than anything else.

But it's totally up to you. If they win 88 games and they get to the playoffs and, you know, they get bounced in round one or round two. And you say that's, that's a bad season. I disagree. But, you know, it's not a hill I'm going to die on. It's not something I'm going to fight you on because this is a personal preference thing. This is like a, this is how you feel.

Like there's really not a ton to debate here. It's totally up for interpretation. how you want to interpret a season as a whole. For me, they make the playoffs. I would struggle to characterize it as a disappointment. But it certainly, I don't know if I would necessarily call it a step forward. So it's just kind of one of those things that there's some semantics involved. There's some personal definitions and all that stuff.

So it's a really tricky question. But overall, I mean, it's your call. If you're disappointed by how the season ends, then you're disappointed. Like, I'm not going to talk you out. of it. But for me personally, they still make the playoffs. And then it's like, okay, like they didn't accomplish everything I wanted them to, but they gave themselves a shot. They put themselves in a position to make a run. And if you do that consistently over the years, then you've got a good shot of, you know, eventually breaking through. But yeah, this one, this one's all about personal

preference or personal definitions. Right. It really does depend a lot on what they do once they get into the dance. If they go on a run again, like you said, no one's going to be complaining. No one's I'm going to say that this was a disappointment of a season because really all that matters is that you get in and what do you do once you get in. But if they do get in and they're just one and done and they don't really look all that competitive like they have for most of the month of September, then a lot is going to ride on the regular season, at least for me and how I look back on this season and the opportunities that they had in front of them that they really didn't take advantage of, whether it comes down to, you know, the month of September or what they did in the first half of the season, where they basically had to force themselves to have a historic month of August just to get back into the conversation here. And if they're not even able to finish that off after having that great, great month of August,

that's really, really disappointing. It's also disappointing from the standpoint of, you know, certain guys either regressing hard like Ty France and Eugenio Swaras or guys not really taking the next step, right? that you were hoping for. But there's also on the flip side of that, there's JP taking the next step. There's Julio taking the next step. I mean, it took a while for Julio in particular, and especially when we look back on the first half of the season

and what went wrong, Julio's kind of a big part of that. That's an unavoidable part of that. But overall, I mean, there's definitely some really good things to take from this season, right? And when we talk about this team getting into the dance, they absolutely can go on a run, right? I think that they're not deep enough,

which we've talked about. about, which we've seen play out over the course of September, but we know what the upside of this team is when everything clicks. And so if everything clicks, once they get into the dance, they could definitely go on a run to the World Series. Absolutely. And if they do that, then who cares what happened during the regular season? Who cares what happened at the deadline?

Who cares about any of that? If they end up going and competing for a championship, like we all want them to, I don't care what the journey looked like. Sure. I'll say this. I don't think there have been a lot of players who failed to take a step forward like we were hoping. So I'm not sure that really applies. It feels like everybody did about what we expect and then some from a few guys.

But also, I know we're not answering this question today, but I did see it thrown in there. The idea that like, oh, wouldn't it just be better to not make the playoffs and just be disappointed at the end instead of going to the playoffs and getting like cut after just two games? Like, wouldn't that be more heartbreaking? why are you watching sports my man? Like if that's your if that's how you're thinking like would I rather not go to the playoffs just because I think I might get swept in round one.

Are you insane? Like we watch the team not make the playoffs for 21 years and it the first sign of trouble of them not making the playoffs again. It's like oh, do we even really want to go? Seek help if you're asking that question either out loud or to yourself. You're nuts. The answer is of course you want to make the playoffs. Don't be stupid. Of course you want to make the playoffs.

Even if you think that you're probably going to get swept by Minnesota or whoever. Of course you do. Don't be dumb. Come on guys. Right. On the step forward conversation, I'm more so talking about guys like Thai France. I would like to have seen him obviously take a step forward.

Instead, he took like 10 steps back this year. Right. But if he was as expected, like you'd be like, yeah, that's fine. Like it's not like you needed Ty France to be more than he was to win the divit, more than he was last year to really have a good shot to win the division. just took a step back. And I don't know. I never counted Ty France as part of that.

Like, oh, he could find another gear. It's like, I feel like we know who Typhrances is. I feel like we talked about that during the off season, but whatever. Yeah, but I feel like I said. I feel like we know what his ceiling is and we probably saw it last year. Probably. Yeah. All right.

Let's get to Reggie's question here. He asked, or they asked, rather, which decision was worse? Not starting Kelnick on Saturday or leaving Edward Bizarro in when down by only two runs on Sunday? Yeah. The worst decision was actually keeping Wu in the game to start the fourth and then keeping them in the game after he gave up the home run to Garcia and then keeping him in the game after he gave up more hard contact and then keeping him in the game until Laotas pretty much put this game out of reach because you had to have known that your bullpen wasn't going to be able to shut it down.

Particularly if you're going to go to Bizarro for a second inning after the Mariners have closed the gap. So to me, that one's worse. I thought Scott had a terrible game on Sunday. I don't think he pulled a lot of the right levers. uh, Kelnick should be playing every single day. Uh, there's really no debate about that. He had an incredible series, uh, in Texas.

In fact, Kelnick probably should be hitting one, two or three in this next series because he, he's having the type of at bats that you wish Julio would have. He's not forcing anything. He's not chasing anything. He's, you know,

taking his walks. And when they make a mistake, he's finding a way to hit it hard and all that stuff. Like Jared is, is stepping up in the way that you kind of wanted Gino, Ty, Julio, like those guys who didn't have great series.

series in Texas. He's doing what they, what we wanted them to do. So he should be in the lineup every day. And Montgomery is a good lefty, but who cares? Kelnick hits lefties. Like this isn't a thing. And it's not like Dylan Moore is like crushing lefties right now.

It's not like Sam Haggertie is crushing lefties. So I didn't think Scott had a very good weekend to be perfectly blunt. But the pitching decisions he made on Sunday, I think cost them a really good shot to win that game. Now, they still could have. They were one hit away. kind of a common theme recently for the mirrors. One good hit away with guys in scoring position to win a game.

And they couldn't get it. But that's all set up because he let Wu go for about four or five more hitters than he should have. And he let Bizarro go back out there when clearly it was time for a shutdown in it. And we can close this gap and we can keep the momentum. And he didn't do that. So I think ultimately Sunday is worse than what Scott did Saturday. But none of it was particularly good in my opinion. Yeah.

I don't think there's necessarily a wrong answer. here I would go with Bizarro, but on the thing with Kellnick on Saturday as well, I mean, you actually, like your pitching actually held up on Saturday and then you just couldn't score. Like you weren't able to get both at any particular point in the series. And I think, you know, if Jared Kelnick is in the lineup on Saturday, maybe it doesn't make a total difference to the point where you wind up winning, but it gives you a better shot because, look, I get playing the matchups.

I get if, you know, you don't think that Jared, uh, is. is good for going up against Jordan Montgomery, whatever. Totally can wrap my head around that in a vacuum. But when your alternative options are Dylan Moore and Sam Haggertie, no, play Kelnick. Absolutely played Jericho. So yeah, I agree. I didn't think that Scott had a good weekend.

And we talked about on Thursday, you know, how does Scott service maneuver this? And we laid out some things that we would like to see. And I don't think he accomplished really any of those things. So yeah, that was really disappointing. All right, we got a few more questions coming up here on Mailbag Monday. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Locked-on Marra's podcast is brought to you by DoorDash. Need fresh groceries for the week, but don't have the time to go to the store.

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That's 50% off up to $20, no minimum subtotal and zero delivery fees on your first order when you download the DoorDash. app in the app store and in a promo code locked on MLB. Don't forget, that's promo code locked on MLB for 50% off your first order with DoorDash. I have no idea why I look so green in that ad read. Anyway, welcome back to the Locked on Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. The Mariners and the Astros start their three game series, massive, massive three game series tonight at T-Mobile Park.

Thankfully, due to the Kansas City Royals being uttered. annoying once again. The mayors are still in this thing. They're still in this thing. There you go. You got the monarchs hat on. Yeah, we're representing today. So, yeah, you can catch all the action on the mayor's hometown broadcast, Sirius XMV, the SXM app. We'll see. We'll see how it goes.

We'll certainly see how it goes. All right, let's get back into these questions. Tate wants to know if the mayorers find a way to sneak into the postseason, do you still think they can do damage with their pitching staff struggles and offensive inconsistency? Yeah, pretty much touched upon this during the last segment. But again, we know what the upside of this team is when things click, even with how they're just not deep, right?

I think that's an unavoidable fact here is that they're just not that deep, especially on the offensive end and in the bullpen and in the rotation. But the thing here is like if you get into the dance, first two rounds, Like if you get into the wild card, if you make your way into the ALDS, you're probably, I mean, you're definitely not throwing Brian Wu and you're probably not throwing Bryce Miller either. So that improves your chances quite a bit. The bullpen is still a little sketchy. And again, how are you going to score runs?

Are you going to get enough from the top of your lineup? And if you don't, is someone in the bottom of your lineup or the middle of your lineup going to step up? That's really the big question there. But again, when things click, I mean, we saw it in the month of August. when things click, this team can beat anyone. This team can absolutely go on a run into the ALCS into the World Series. Do I think that's going to happen? Absolutely the hell not after what I've seen for the last three weeks.

But I'm open-minded to it. I know that's a possibility. Sure. I mean, look at what teams like the 2021 Atlanta Braves did. They won like 85 games snuck into the playoffs. They won the World Series. You look at what the Phillies did last year where, you know, they kind of snuck in. They didn't win 90 games and they just got hot and they wrote it all the way to the World Series.

So, yeah, they certainly can because, again, the Mariners do things that typically you have to do well in the playoffs to advance. You have to pitch and you have to hit home runs. And the Mariners pretty good at those things. But, you know, obviously that's a risky business because if you don't get one of those two things, you probably lose. And that's just kind of the formula for winning in the postseason is the team that does those two things the best for a three-week stretch typically wins the World Series. So yes, they're still a threat if they get in, which again, we'll see. But, yeah, of course they're still a threat because like you said, for the first couple of series, it's, you know, it's Castillo, Kirby, Gilbert, in some order, maybe on short rest. but you've got to do what you got to do.

And so, yeah. And then at that point, too, you're also probably not giving Bizarro. I mean, Bizarro's probably not making the playoff roster, but like you're probably not asking Bizarro to go a second inning. You're probably asking Matt Brash to go a second inning instead or Munoz or Topa or Spire or somebody you have a little more faith in. So, yeah, you kind of pair everything down and guys don't get used like, Jose Cabiero's not getting a start in the playoffs.

He's coming off the bench to steal you a bag. Like, that's his entire role. So yeah, you kind of pair things down. You're not worried about resting guys. They're built in days off every couple of days in the playoffs. So you just roll your best out there consistently and go with it. And, yeah, the Mariners have a depth problem. But depth doesn't always come into play in the playoffs if you have, you know, the right guys sitting at the right time.

Because then after that, your depth is just rolls. It's, you know, who can steal me a bag, who can play shortstop, who can, you know, go and play the outfield for me. if you know I have to pinch run or pinch it for somebody it's stuff like that so yeah they could absolutely make a run um but based on how they play the last three weeks to a month i wouldn't i wouldn't bet on it but it's certainly possible yeah i would say this that i don't think that uh this past weekend is necessarily indicative of how a playoff series would go as even against the the rangers right specifically um because the the situations are so different, right?

They're so vastly different. And the way that Scott's service would manage those situations are vastly different to how he, you know, did on, on the weekend as well. I mean, you know, again, on Sunday or on Thursday, we talked about how he needed to manage that series like it was the playoffs, but you can't do it one for one. You know, you can't bring in Luis Castillo in the eighth inning of a game to get you three outs or two outs or whatever, right? But in the playoffs, you can, right?

And in the playoffs, again, you're not throwing Brian Wu. And you're probably not throwing Bryce Miller, or at least. in the first two rounds of the postseason. So given all of those things, yeah, I think you're better positioned to have success compared to, you know, how you were going into this past weekend. But again, they have to,

they have to get hot. And they need guys to step up. And, and that's really, again, because they're just, they're not deep enough. So you need the top end of your roster to really carry this thing.

Or you need something completely unexpected to happen. And I would lean towards the form. happening rather than the latter but but yeah all right next question here comes from jace how different slash not different do things look today if tom murphy doesn't get hurt mostly in the context of him getting more of those at bats that uh more cabbiero cal etc are getting versus lefties i mean it might be like a win difference maybe but um you know mirf after he was hitting really well he was starting to teeter off just a little bit. And at the end of the day,

we're talking about a backup catcher. I know for a while there, he was like your third best hitter, especially during the like the trip to Arizona and all that. Like he was hitting very, very well. But is that sustainable? Right.

How much is he actually going to get into the lineup? And what does that do specifically for Cal Raleigh? Right. I think that's the other thing that we, we have to look at here is like what does that extra rest that that cow would theoretically get here by having Murphy still on the roster do for him would that be reflected in the numbers at all in a positive way because then if we're talking about that if that is also the case here then maybe it's a two-win difference right maybe it's a win

from having Murphy in the lineup over someone like Sam Harity you know because how Hardy has d-hed a couple of times over the last three weeks so if it if that's instead Murphy, how much does that help you? How much of a boost is that? And then how much is a boost of a more rested, more well-rested Cal Raleigh? But those are all hypotheticals, right? If I had to guess, it's probably like a one-to-one-half win difference at most. I'd say probably a little bit less than a win, but like a win max. And honestly, it's not even close to the type of impact that would have happened if Thai France was just good Thai France. And if A. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. Hineo. was just good A.U.

Hennio during any stretch of this last month. If they had just been that guy for a week, and, you know, Ty had a pretty decent series in Texas, minus the Friday game. But, you know, but if you just got, you know,

just good Thai france for a week at any stretch this month, you probably have more wins than if you had a healthy Tom Murphy. If you had to pick one or the other. Right. So, yeah, this is about, you know, Don Canzone kind of, not really doing a ton. This is about Dillon Moore. is more about the guys who are here than it is about the guys who aren't right so yeah it's tough to say

but i would say it's probably a win at most uh which it's pretty big right now but i also think that's like if you really try to stretch things you can maybe make it a win there's a lot of mental gymnastics that you have to do here to convince yourself that it's anything more than a win to one and a half at most like because again a lot of it is like what is a well-rested cow raleigh give you and all that stuff so yeah you just go further and further down the rabbit hole and there's nothing good that really comes with that. There's no real point in doing that. But, but yeah, I think it would have made a, you know, an obvious positive impact. I mean, there's nothing negative to take from from Tom Murphy still

being on your roster. But really, you know, what this comes down to is like, well, what I talked about on Thursday's episode that, you know, all four of your top hitters are probably not going to click all at once. So who else is going to step up beyond, beyond those guys, right? And no one's really stepping up right now beyond those kids. I mean, Jared did. Jared did on the weekend, but they weren't, you know, he obviously didn't play on Saturday. And the pitching was so bad. Even a couple of pretty solid offensive performances on Friday and Sunday were not enough to overcome that. So yeah. All right, we got a few more questions to go over here in just a moment. But first, a reminder this episode of Lockdown on Airs podcast is brought to you by Sleeper.

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Thank you again for making us your first listen here on Mailbag Monday. Again, you can catch the Astros of the Marys starting their three game series tonight. We're at Team Mobile Park on the Maris hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. Let's get back into these questions here. We got one from Cobbs who wants to know. Has Thai France really been that good defensively to justify? not getting platoon even just a little bit or do they just not trust any of our bench guys to play first base at all i wonder if more days off or tie would have helped his season totals

at all first base defense does not matter in the grand scheme of things here i need someone who can hit out of that position first and foremost i don't care if they're terrible defensively i need someone who can hit because even a terrible first baseman isn't going to kill me at the end of the day Like that at least it should it should Uh so yeah I don't care about tie frances defense I heard dave sims you know mentioned that on the broadcast over the weekend and be like you know tie's really struggling at the play but at least he's been nails defensively i don't care who cares who cares about that i do not give a single flying you know what about first base defense i don't care

so tie france should not be starting every game it should be mike ford it really should and ford's been fine at first base it's been fine Like, I just, it blows my mind why they keep on pushing the envelope here with Ty France. Yeah. You know, the first base defense, even like Evan White, right? Like he's kind of the gold standard. You say, oh, you take a little less offensively because he's so good. First of all, Thai France isn't even in Evan White's league defensively.

So we'll start there. But even that, if Evan White was hitting 220, 290, 380, whatever, or whatever, like with his, you know, platinum glove defense. he still wouldn't be an everyday first baseman in Major League Baseball because the defense isn't that valuable. France, he doesn't need to get all that. He doesn't need to get every at bat. I get why they're doing it because like they feel like, you know, if we do catch something here, like he is significantly better than anybody else we could throw out there. And they're right.

But we're 150 some odd games in at this stage. Like, what are the odds that he's catching something, you know, this late in the year? Probably not very good. Now, again, he was pretty good this weekend, better at bat. hit the ball hard more more frequently. So that's good. But yeah, you know, he should be in there against lefties. That's totally fine.

I get not using Mike Ford against lefties. But yeah, there are certain situations where like even if it's lefty on lefty, you need a home run. Mike Ford should be getting those at bats because he's more likely to run into one than tie is. So yeah, his defense is nowhere near enough to prevent Mike Ford from being in the lineup a little bit down the stretch here. but I feel like that ship has sailed in the meantime.

So it feels like they were going to do some kind of platoon at first base. They would have done it a few weeks ago when things started to slide a little bit. And there was no sign of life from Thai France. And now there is a little bit. And I feel like they've kind of, you know, that's their guy. And they're going to go to the grave with him and just kind of see how it goes. But yeah, they should have started this a few weeks ago. Again, they should have gone out and gotten somebody like Marcana to kind of protect

yourself from a struggling Thai france, who was even, been even worse in September from Mike Ford regressing, which has happened. Like yeah, we know that they needed to the, the idea that like they could replace Typhran. Like they had Thai Francis like bad Thai France at bats covered in their in their system after the deadline was not accurate at all. And obviously Canzone is is not somebody they trust at first base in the slightest right now. So, um, yeah, I probably should have done a few weeks ago at this stage. I think you're just kind of locked in and, and. You just kind of hoping that you catch fire with France for, you know, for the next week.

And right. Maybe you do. But I like, I don't know why I like, why would I start tie France against Furlander tonight? I wouldn't. I would start Mike Ford. Yeah. 100%. Yeah.

Especially, yeah. Especially against Ritees. Why isn't Mike Ford in the lineup over France? I mean, I know, you know, on some occasions it might be both are in the lineup. But if I have to pick one or the other, no brainer. 10 times out of 10, I'm picking Mike Ford. right now and that scenario so and then i guess it comes down to do you trust dom canzone or do you trust tie france because you could just put for it at dh yeah or put um ford at first base and then dhs

can be can zone or it could be france and it seems pretty clear to me at least that the mariners have made it abundantly clear that they're not quite willing to trust dom can zone a hundred percent because he barely played this weekend even against a couple righties so So yeah, I don't blame them for that either because we've talked about Canzone quite a bit on this podcast. Yeah. Has some big moments. Certainly has a lot of upside. I believe in the bat long term, but he has not been that guy this year.

Yeah. Well, and with the way that we've seen them, you know, just like you said, go to the grave with Thai France here. This is why I've been telling you for the last couple of months when you've brought up the possibility of non-tentering and I'm during the off season. I just, I don't see it. I don't see it. maybe that changes. You know, maybe they will,

once they have more avenues to replace him, maybe they see that differently. But I just, right now, I can't envision Jerry DiPoto and Justin Hollander are just completely washing their hands of Thai Francis off season. I think they're going to give it at least a few more months

next season, but we'll see. Speaking of, we have a question about that from Mudcat Grant. If this is Ties last year, and Mudcat Grant mentions, I don't think it will be. I think he gets a little.

least until next trade deadline. I agree. And he is replaced inside the organization. Who do you want to see you get a shot at first? Robert Perez, Tyler Locklear, Dominic Canzon, Spencer Packard, Wormouth. No way Laz is ready by July, right? Yeah, no way that Laz is ready by July or next year at all or maybe even 2025. We'll see. Yeah, I mean, like, the logical choice would be probably not Canzone for all the reasons that you just mentioned Colby. And Canzone, looks like he's probably a platoon hitter until he proves otherwise. It's probably Tyler Locklear then.

He's the closest. He has the highest upside of the guys that you mentioned. It's not ideal. You need to go out and get someone that actually is proven at the major league level. But yeah, if I had to pick one of those guys. The answer is none of the above.

It has to be. Yeah. But yeah, if you're picking one, it's Locklear. Yeah. And that's where, like you were saying, like the Mariners could like give tie france one off season kind of fix things you know work on a swing make some changes give him the first couple of months and it just so happens that if you get to june

like 15 or whatever in france is a league average bat again then that would be roughly in theory the amount of time you would need to see locklear go out there and hit at double a and feel kind of good about it and remember the mariners aren't afraid to jump guys from double a straight to the big leagues hitter or pitcher. So, yeah, Locklear is the only guy that you even listed there that is going to be major league ready aside from Canzone. But again, they've been pretty clear. Like, we've seen how if he canzone is in the outfield and the Mariners still don't

want to play him at first base. They might not think that's a possibility at all. So I don't, we'll see how that goes in spring training. They decide to play them over there a little bit. But yeah, internally, if it's not Thai France, it's, it's, there's a only one option. So that's why the correct answer has to be you have to go outside of your org and you have to get somebody at the very least. You have to go get a Marcana. You have to go get a JD Davis. You have to get somebody who can go stand at first base. And if, you know,

if they could play somewhere else along the way, great. But you have to protect yourself from Ty France. And you can't have Ty Franzen and 100 WRC plus and then have the backup plan be like, oh, yeah, no, we'll just trust Tyler Locklear to come up and give us 120. Yeah, no. As a rookie. no. Yeah. The other option here could be a Eugenio Suarez, but also given his defense at third base, why would you want to move him off a third basis? He's still going to be a part of this thing next year. And I think a hundred percent, at least one of these guys, France or Suarez is going to be a part of it in 2024. I would be very, very surprised if they moved off of both or even one, to be honest with you. I'd be pretty surprised if they even moved off of one of them. All right. Last question of the day. Here comes from Mariners Jersey tracker. more of a Colby question, but rank your favorite from best to worse. Hunting, the contact play, Ty France being your first basement next year. My favorite from best to worse. So like which one of these do I hate the least?

Yeah, yeah. That would be a better way to word it, I believe. Yeah. The one I'd hate the least would be Ty France being the first basement next year because like we're not that far off from France being. like a 120 WRC plus guy, which is all we need from the first base spot. So if they,

like, if that's their plan and they're like, okay, and we're going to have Locklear come up, but we're also going to go sign Mark Kana, or we're going to go sign, or we're going to go sign, or we're going to go trade for J.D. Davis or whoever, right?

Somebody who could legitimately play first base and be at least an above average bat. Like, then, yeah, I could, I could make that work in my head. Like, okay, I get it. It's not what I would do, but I get it. the contact play is probably the thing I hate second most or second least I guess it's in the middle it's in the middle so it's either way like I despise the contact play it's stupid these are professionals like the idea that you're going to get you know a gold glove third basement to throw the ball away

when he's got to throw it 80 feet before your guy can run 90 feet from a dead stop like that's stupid stupid you got to make a guy make a play colby they're going to make it yeah they're like 99 percent of the time. They're going to make it 100.10 percent. They're going to make that play. And then, yeah, number one is still bunting because despite everybody's rhetoric and all this and, you know, common baseball, there is no such thing as a productive out. All outs are bad. The only productive out is if you hit a sacrifice fly to win the game. There's the one like you score to run and it won you the game. That is the productive out. because otherwise with the way strikeouts are right now, with the way that pop-ups are right now,

it is harder than ever to get a hit in Major League Baseball. And moving a guy from first to second where you still need a hit to score that guy is pointless because now you've given yourself two less opportunities to do it. The bunt is 99.99999% of the time, stupid. It's beyond stupid. If you don't think that guy at the play can get a hit,

get him out of there and get somebody in there you think can. really that simple. Like, oh, well, I have to have Sam Haggarty hit here. Like, he's got a bump because I don't trust him to get a hit. It's like, then go to Dylan Moore, go to Mike Ford. Go to somebody you think can get a hit because you're much more likely to hit a double than you are to have, first of all. Like, you are to have, first of all the best thing that baseball team still do. It's more than it is just on first or when he was on second with nobody out. Like, it's beyond stupid. The bunt is forever. The dumbest thing that baseball teams still do. It's moron. It's like it's like in the NFL if you're like you know what first and second down only we don't need third down we're going to punt on every third down even third and inches that's what we're going to do it's the same same idea you're a moron that's a chance to score and you're just ripping it out and typically what's even worse is a lot of the times there'll be first and second nobody out and the pitcher will be struggling he's either giving up a couple hits or he's giving up a couple walks and they just go here you go here's a free out take it and even if it's a good punt then you just need a strike out or you need a base hit because we're just going to bring our infield in. The ground ball's not going to score this guy. You need a base hit or you need a deep fly ball against this really good pitcher. Like it's so stupid guys.

There, I have seen zero good bunts. By the way, bunting for hits with guys on with runner on second base. That is stupid too and incredibly selfish. You don't try to bunt for a hit with nobody on like, fine, whatever. Like they're shifting you fine. Like whatever. Bunting for a hit is different than sacrifice bunting. Sacrifice bunting is moronic.

basically every single time it happens. I'll let you guys know when I don't think a bun is stupid. But rest assured, if you see somebody square up to try and bunt over the next seven days, I think it's stupid. Well, yeah, and the frustrating thing ultimately here is like what Ryan DeVish is currently dealing with

with a lot of his Twitter followers where they're like, they should have JP Bunner, Julio Butt. Are you serious? Like, look, I know that they didn't, you know,

come through. in a couple of clutch moments, particularly against the daughters, right? But under no circumstance was I, was I feeling like they needed to butt in that situation? They just needed to execute better. They just needed to put the bat on the ball and create quality contact.

But asking guys, asking the top of your order and specifically asking guys who don't bunt at all to suddenly do something that they never do is wildly dumb. Like galaxy brain stupid. yeah yeah so bunning discourse is really stupid but Julio's more likely to hit a home run than he is than it then it that's more likely to happen than if Julio lays down a bunt and the next guy gets a hit

you're much more likely to just hope Julio hits a home run your odds are better so yeah bunting is stupid and you know what if you're a youth baseball coach and you're teaching your kids how to punt stop you're not teaching them a reliable skill stop it's not that big of a deal It's Little League Baseball. They don't need to know how to bunt. Let them swing the bat. Bunting should be at something that we kill off. Like, I don't know what's something we've killed off recently.

Like dial up internet. Like that is what the bunch should be. Like get rid of it forever. If you're still using it, you're a dinosaur. Right. Join the 20th century. Yeah, that's right. I meant that the 20th century.

Stop bunting. It's stupid. At all levels. Bunting is the my space of baseball activities. at least my space had some use at any point sure bunting was always a bad idea just took people a long time to realize it yeah uh well also it's like all right if you're going up against the twins and this is the last point that i'll have here but like if you're late in the game against the twins and johan duran is thrown 104 you really think anyone's a land in a successful bun against

that really yeah no all right that's gonna do it for our show thank you so much for joining us here on the locked on marries podcast for colby pat node i'm titan gonzal us be sure to give us a You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z, and Colby at C-P-E-E-N-Z-L-E. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. Follow us. You can also find all that stuff

in the description of this episode. I almost said the same thing twice. It's been a few days off. You get it, yeah. Yeah, whatever. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Again, you can catch the Mariners

and the Astros on the Maris Hometown broadcast tonight. Sirius X-M-V-E of the S-X-M-A-M-A-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. We all get it. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.