Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: Pitch Clock, Jarred Kelenic, Mariners Relievers and More

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

It's time for another Mariners Mailbag Monday! Colby and Ty answer your questions submitted on Twitter, including: their thoughts on the pitch clock, early spring standouts, Jarred Kelenic, and reports that the Mariners are sniffing around the starting pitching market.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Join our Slack!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. 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.

On today's episode of Locked-on Mariners, we'll give our first impressions on the pitch clock, Jared Kelnick, and a whole lot more 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. It is Monday, February 27, 2023.

This is Tiding Gazzalus and Colby Patinev for the Locked-on Mariner's podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe, like, internal 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 want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description below. It is Mailbag Monday, the show where we answer your Mariners questions. Going to talk some pitch clock, Jared Kellnick, Marco Gonzalez, and a lot more today. So look forward to that. Let's start here with C&C talks,

who asks, what are your thoughts on the pitch clock now that we've seen it in action? Are there things you would change about it? I personally feel like it makes the game feel too rushed and won't actually help grow the games. Colby, do you agree? What are your thoughts on the pitch clock now that we've seen it over this past weekend? It's certainly having the desired effect of making games shorter. However, we've kind of reached the category where I would say that, you're in danger of moving the game too quickly.

I think there's this idea that we want games to be two hours and get out. And that's no, that's not the appropriate way to look at this. I think you want to shoot for games in the 240 range right around there. I think that's what you're really looking for. And we've seen some Mariner games go, you know, 2.30, 235, which is, which is fine. That's within range.

But we've also seen some games go two hours and six minutes, right? And that's moving too quickly. You want part of your appeal of baseball is that you're kind of a slow pastoral game, right? There's a fine line that you have to walk where you don't want to speed up baseball. So it's like, you know, a sprint. You still want it to be a marathon. To me, when I watch the 15 seconds with nobody on base, that seems too quick to me. I think I would add, you know, two or three seconds to that.

20 with guys on base, that's fine. I would also eliminate the pitch clock after the sixth inning. So I need 7, 8, 9 is just natural normal baseball because I do feel like one of the things that baseball has going for more so than the other sports is the buildup to the moment. And, you know, there's this chess match that you can see the pitcher and hitter going through in their head. And I just feel like when you put a clock on that, you're kind of losing some of the charm of your sport, which is, you know, those rich.

really high intense moments. Pitcher steps off because he's thinking about what he wants to throw. The hitter calls a time out because he's trying to process. And there's just this buildup, this crescendo to the moment, to the pitch that is thrown. And there's a split second before the pitch is thrown that, you know, is hard to replicate in any other sport. And I feel like we're in danger of losing that with the pitch clock. So overall, I think it's a good idea. I would tweak it, though.

I think it needs to be 18 seconds and not 15. I don't think that at bat should end on a pitcher. or batter penalty or whatever, and I would eliminate the thing entirely after, even if you just want to say the last two innings, like if you want to say one through seven, we're using the pitch clock, fine. But eighth and ninth inning, at least I don't want a pitch clock

because I want that moment, that buildup. It's weird, man. It's going to be really difficult to get used to. It's something that I will get used to eventually, something that's just going to become, you know, a normal part of the game. But right now, I mean, this, kind of deconstructs what baseball is,

what we all know baseball to be, because it's just, it's so sped up. I feel like I'm watching baseball at 1.5x, you know, 2x speed, really when I'm, you know,

watching these last couple of games here over the weekend. And, you know, a lot of these pitchers, you know, pitchers just have to start their wind up before the clock ends. And they're good to go. They won't be penalized for that.

But I think some of these pitchers don't really, realize that yet. And we're seeing a lot of guys start their windup with nine seconds, eight seconds still left on the clock. And it's just going so fast. Like I remember on Friday, which was on MLB TV, the Mariners Padres game, the first at bat, Colton Wong steps into the batters box. And it looks like he's rushing. It looks like it's on fast forward. And it just, it feels unnatural. It feels weird. And, you know, you mentioned it, right? Baseball is essentially a chess match. You know, you have to think about it.

That's the beauty of the game is that you kind of, you have to put some thought into your next move. And now when we hear guys like Spencer Strider talking about having, you know, a default pitch that he and his catchers will essentially set for a game that if they can't get on the same page, that's just what they're going to end up throwing, that dumps down the game to me. And so I just, I'm concerned about how this is going to impact things. obviously, you know, there's going to be time to work through the kinks of all this. And I'm sure that guys will get more used to it and teams are going to get more used to it. And there's going to be more and more strategies that are developed and loopholes that are found and all this stuff. And it will just end up becoming a normal part of the game. But right now, yeah, I have concerns about this.

And while I enjoy, you know, or maybe not enjoy is the right word, but I appreciate, you know, the attempt to shorten some of these games and, you know, avoid, you know, having, you know, I don't want to watch like a four-hour game on a random Wednesday in the middle of May. Fine. That's okay. But I don't necessarily need a two-hour and ten-minute game either. I don't think that's the solution either, especially when it's making, when it's taking away such an important part of baseball.

So I'm really interested to see how this thing develops, how a lot of these guys get used to it. because for, you know, a lot of these guys, it's their first time doing it. For some of these guys that have, you know, we're in the minor leagues this past year are going to be coming up through the minor leagues and into major league baseball over the next year. So they're going to be more so used to it than, you know, say a Max Scherzer is or a Garrett Cole is. But yeah, there's a lot that I have concerns about here issues with. And so I'm really, really intrigued to see how, you know, over the course of the next few weeks, as we get up to opening day and then over the course of the regular season and then into future

seasons how this thing develops and if they you know make tweaks to the rules i agree with you that i think that they need to extend the clock in certain moments maybe get rid of the clock late in games um you know i i think that's something that really we we need to look at for all rules that or all rule changes that we're making in baseball right now you know i talked about this with the extra inning rule and the automatic runner like why do we need to make it right in the 10th inning do it in the 12th inning why does it have to be the full game for the pitch clock why can't we take it out after the sixth inning right you know because like we can get to the seventh inning within an hour and a half and then we can make the game a little bit longer and for the high leverage moments we get back to what

baseball really is where guys you know because that's when it's most important when guys really need to think about things when the thought process is so crucial in the game so yeah so hopefully that's you know something that uh the competition committee is is keeping at the forefront of their minds right now as they're watching this happen and and i'm sure there's going to be discussions between major league baseball and the players association about all this and uh we'll just you know we'll see how it all develops but right now uh it's fine overall i just there's certain elements of it that i've just i'm not cool with just yet we'll see if i get used to it all right let's go on to our next question here from jace uh and an interview live

week Marco said that he and his wife are expecting to have another kid in April. Do you think the M's might give Bryce Miller his first major league start while Marco is out or do they just give it to flexing? Colby, what do you think? They'll give it to flexen. There's no reason to call up a guy to make one start. When you're calling up Bryce Miller, it's time. Like he is in the rotation going forward or you've made the determination that he's going to pitch out of the bullpen for the rest of the year. There is no. reason whatsoever to say we'll give him a spot start then we'll send him down and then maybe we'll give him another spot star and then we'll send him now to chris flexen is still on the team it just doesn't make any sense and and you know even and if you don't think he's ready to go in april which he might be i don't know but um if you if you think he's going to be ready to go i should say in april you might as well just put him in the rotation now i mean there's very little value to bringing up miller for a spot for a spot start on april 17th and then sending him back down to the

minors for a month. It doesn't do anything. It doesn't help you. So no, if you're going to put Miller in the minor. And there's nothing that you're going to learn in the few starts that he has in early April that you're not going to know. He's going to go spring. Yeah. You only get three days. Marco does. So you get one start. You just roll with flexing in the bullpen and you go from there. So when Miller gets called up, it's go time. You do not send him back down unless he really, really struggles, but once you make that decision that Miller's coming up to be in the rotation, he's staying in the rotation until you get an upgrade or if you can't get an upgrade. Right, right.

Yeah, so I answer your question. It's either going to be flexing or just a bullpen day. Or maybe you see someone like Tommy Malone. Mason McGee, Tommy Malone, whatever. Yeah. It's the spot start now. Miller's not your spot starter. Yeah.

And again, like I said, like there's nothing that you're going to learn from, you know, one or two starts that Miller has in AAA in April that you wouldn't have learned already in spring training to determine if he should be a part of your rotation or not that early. And then again, you know, that goes into the whole service time thing and all that, you know, whatever. Yeah, it's going to be a spot start. All right, we got a few more questions to answer here on Mailbag Monday. But first, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bilt Bar.

Looking for a delicious treat, but don't want all the fat and calories and you got to try built bar we just got through the holidays and i know my goal is to eat a little healthier this year and if you're like me where you want to eat healthier but don't want to compromise taste so man i've got just the thing for you you got to try built with built healthy is actually tasty seriously they're so delicious you won't think they're good for you which is perfect for your new year's resolution what makes milk bars so good well for starters they are all covered in a hundred percent real chocolate that's right real chocolate and they come in unbelievable flavors like churro peanut butter brownie and coconut almond i'm not sure how built does it but these bars tastes like a candy bar

while maintaining an amazing macros. And what's even better is that they are healthy. Only 130 calories and 4 grams of sugar with a whopping 17 grams of protein. And now you don't need to wait around to get yourself a box. For years, we've been talking about ordering your built bars at BiltB.com. Now you can get them at your local Walmart or Sam's Club. That's right. Head to your nearest Walmart today.

Walk to the pharmacy section and grab yourself a box of built bars. You can pick up a four bar box of cookies and cream, double chocolate or coconut puffs. And if you're close to Sam's Club, run in and grab a 13 bar box for yourself with our hit flavors, brownie batter and churro you can thank me later and you're listening to the lockdown mariners podcast it is mailbag monday thank you so much for making us your first listen let's get back into these questions this one comes from max very simple question straight to the point do you like the idea of colton long batting leadoff so colby we saw this on friday i talked a little bit about wong's first at bat and how that looked like it was on fast forward to start that game against

the podres uh but this is how Scott Service had it lined up for his first lineup of the spring. Colton Wong hitting one, Julio Rodriguez, hitting two. What do you think about it? They should be flip-flopped. And Wong probably shouldn't be in the lineup against most lefties, but certainly shouldn't be at the top of the lineup against lefties. So I don't hate the idea of Wong leading off against right-handed pitching.

I get the idea behind it, but to me, I want Julio to get his. any of bats as possible. And, you know, when it's a 4-3 game in the ninth and I got a guy on second base and I can't, you know, Julio's sitting on deck, right? And that's how the game ends. I'm going to be pretty upset that my best guy didn't get that opportunity. And for what? Because maybe he might get to drive and run like, oh, that scenario I just laid out where

he might get to drive and run. So for me, hitting him lead off is the thing that makes the most sense. Again, if they want Wong to hit lead off early or whatever, and fine. I don't hate the idea. I think he's, I think he'd be fine at it. But for me, Julio is the obvious leadoff guy.

And the idea that, you know, oh, he needs to hit second to get more RBI opportunities. You get just as many RBI opportunities hitting first as you do hitting second, especially with the Mariners, especially of Wong's the lead off guy. Yeah.

So going, yeah, going off of everything that you said there, Julio stole my preference, uh, hitting lead off. And I've said this time and time again. Yeah,

we've talked about this. we've been asked about this a lot. You know, who should hit lead off instead of Julio all this? You know, because a lot of fans want, you know, Julio to hit second or third to, you know, for them to create more RBI opportunities. For me, though, you know, again, it's about those late game scenarios where it's like,

you know, you could have Julio or you could have Julio up to bat with a runner on first and second and two outs, but instead, here's Colton Wong or here's Thai France or here's to ask her. And whatever, it doesn't matter. whoever is hitting ahead of Julio and that uh in those scenarios and like I've said in the past I'm fine with Julio getting pushed down the lineup but for someone that's an elite on base guy Colton Long isn't necessarily an elite on base guy last couple years 335 on base percentage 339 on base percentage that's really good it's really good on base guy but he's not elite when I'm talking

elite I'm talking like back when brandonimo was a free agent and we're talking about adding brandonimo yeah I would have had Brandon Nemo hit ahead of Julio Rodriguez of the mayor to sign him, but they didn't. Colton Wong's just not that guy for me. If they end up doing it, fine. I can wrap my head around it, just like you. I don't hate the idea. I also don't love the idea either. I rather have my best hitter guaranteed the most at-bats of anyone in the lineup.

And again, because, you know, maybe that doesn't show up most of the time, but it might show up in a game in September, in a really important game in September that might, you know, flip things in the standings. It might show up in a game, you know, in the midsummer, you know, there's going to be moments where it does matter, where Julio might be one guy away, where he would instead be that guy up to that in a crucial moment with two outs and a guy in scoring position. So, yeah, not a huge fan of it. But, you know, if that ends up being the case and long as the lead off guy, fine. I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to rant your ears off about it every single episode. But not a huge fan. All right. Next question comes from Brandon, who asked, do you think Marco can lose the fifth starter spot during spring training if he continues to struggle? Not really because, you know, look, yeah, Saturday was really bad against the Angels. But Saturday, didn't really change my opinion about Marco Gonzalez and nor should it change your opinion about Marco Gonzalez because that's who Marco Gonzalez is. Even Jerry Depoto when we had him on our show said

that that's who Marco Gonzalez is. There's going to be the blowup start and then there's going to be the, you know, the bulldog start the the next time around. You know, it's just that's who he is. He's on one extreme into the spectrum or the other. And so that's just what you're going to get out of Marco. Am I cool with that being a part of my rotation? for the full season, not really. But if they want to buy themselves some time, well, Bryce Miller gets more acquainted in AAA, because again, any of these guys that you want to replace Marco in the rotation

outside of Chris Flexen has not pitched above AA. And really doesn't have that many innings in AA to begin with either. So you want to try and give these guys like a Bryce Miller, like an Emerson Hancock, like a Taylor, some more action above the AA level. and so if you know your only way to buy yourself some time on that front is to give marco gonzola some starts so be it because marco yeah is going to have that blowup start but he also might give you a few quality starts as well sprinkled in there as well so um that's just kind of how

i feel about it i my feelings didn't really change on marco one way or the other after saturday uh what about you colby uh no marco's going to be in the rotation barring an injury or trade um I actually don't think they care much about giving, uh, giving, uh, their pitchers time in AAA. Logan Gilbert and George Kirby got like a start at AAA. So to me that, that doesn't matter to them. But you do want a little more seasoning, um, in general, uh, whether it's a double or triple A.

I don't think they care. But, uh, yeah, I just, to me, no, uh, I don't care about spring training numbers. There's, or even how it looks smart. It's Marco's first time out. Okay. I don't. Well, the thing that we need to keep in mind here, too, context is so important with starting pitchers and spring training because a lot of

these guys are working on things. There is a certain game plan that they go into the start with. They're not really going after these hitters. They're not game planning for the hitters specifically. They're game planning for themselves to work on things. Right. So, no, I'm not, you know, I'm not making that change off of one spring training start. I would be pretty surprised if it was anybody but Marco.

in the rotation. That includes flexin. I mean, unless he gets hurt or Seattle goes and acquires somebody, then no, it's going to be Marco and it probably should be. And if it's not Marco, then it probably should be Miller. So we'll see. I just, I can't imagine any scenario where Miller is like more impressive than he already has been, where it changes the Mariners mind. Spring training is not about changing minds.

It's about getting your reps in and making sure that, nobody gets hurt. Yeah, staying healthy, getting ready, getting back into baseball shape, all that. All right. Next question comes from Adam, who asks, is Pralander Baroa going to be on the opening day roster? Colby, Perlainer Barroa had a pretty good outing on Friday against the Padres. Impressed a lot of folks. What do you think? No. The problem with Baroa is still what we know it is. He has no. command whatsoever. He's just kind of out there, you know, and he's throwing his stuff up there. And it's really good stuff.

Don't get me wrong. But you don't know where it's going at all. You're going to run into some issues. And Baroa doesn't. He had a slider back up on a couple times, spiked a couple fastballs. Like it's 35 command, right? And while that can still play in the big leagues, it certainly can. I mean, Matt Brash doesn't have much better command.

But you don't want to start. the year with that guy in your pin you kind of want to give him a shot to figure it out in the miners and if he does great call him up put him in the bullpen but i also don't think they're quite ready to give up on him as a starter yet so to me the idea the ideal is you put him in triple or probably double a put him in double a for about a month you give him you know five six starts and you kind of assess from there and if you know the command's not really getting better the change up hasn't really you know flash more like you wanted to then you just quickly move him to the bullpen and he's up by you know middle of may

or the end of May, something like that. So to me, no, he's not going to make the opening day roster. I wouldn't say there's a 0% chance, though. I think it's possible. I just think that he's behind a number of other guys like Justin Topa and probably even somebody like Gabe Spire. And obviously, those two guys have to be, you know, even Penn Murphy or Matt Vesta. So barring a trade, I think the bullpen's pretty much set in place or injury, which, you know, both are. I would say somewhat likely when you're talking about just general pitcher health and Jerry Depoto running your ball club.

But no, I don't see a scenario short of trade or injury where Baroa leap frogs, multiple guys to be on the opening day roster. But again, I wouldn't say it's impossible. I would just say it's unlikely. Yeah, I would think that still, you know, for me, again, this is just one outing. So I'm not going to change my mind based off of one spring training outing, especially one that was literally the first game of spring training. training on February 24th. There's still a lot of time for things to go one way or the other for Broa and really any of these guys.

But, you know, I liked what I saw, you know, the fast, the stuff that Broa has is ridiculous. When he actually can find the strike zone, it's nasty. And I also, it seems like he may have done some work with his changeup, which was kind of a question mark going into the season. So, you know, we'll see if that's actually a viable offering. forward. He threw at least one that I saw on the broadcast. At least it looks like a change up. Of course, we don't, you know, it's not the best camera angle and we don't have velocity on the screen

or anything like that, but it looked like a change up to Nelson Cruz there to get Cruz for strike three. And so that looked like a pretty good pitch there. So, you know, and there's been some reports about it off of the backfields as well. But I'm excited about him. You know, I like what I've seen so far, but I still think that there's some guys that they added this offseason that they would like to see before Baroa, before making that pivot to Baroa because, you know, I think once they go to Barrowa, they're going to them, you know, full time and see them, you know, what happens there. So, but yeah, you know, he's interesting. We're going to be doing our first 26 man projection, I believe, on tomorrow's show.

So we'll get more into who we think is going to end up making the bullpen. But right now, for me, I think the bullpen is pretty much chalk across the board, save for maybe one, spot, but we'll get into that tomorrow, like I said. All right. Next question comes from Christopher, who asked about the bullpen. Who do you predict to be the starting day, starting opening day bullpen squad has Topa or any of the guys we signed over the offseason look good to you? So again, yeah, we're going to go over the bullpen tomorrow and all the other position groups tomorrow when we do our first 26 man projection. Topa pitched yesterday, but that game wasn't on TV, so I didn't get a chance to see him.

I don't think I've seen any of the guys that they've added the off season. I know that Spire also pitched yesterday, so I didn't see him either. Has Trevor got pitched yet? Yeah, I don't know about any of the other off. Did you see him? Yeah, it's fine.

Nothing. The answer to all these questions in general is, no, I'm not changing my mind on anything based off of one outing or one game. Not happening. Not in February, especially. Not going to happen. Like Cooper homel could go out there and go five for five with five homers tomorrow.

I'm not putting them on my opening day roster as a result. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Next question comes from Dustin. Will the pitch clock destroy traditional commentary during broadcasts, especially one inning guest appearances,

which are now cut to about two questions due to increase speed of play? This is a great question. One that I probably should ask Gary Hill about more, but I didn't really, I didn't really wrap my. head around the the idea of that of how it would impact the broadcast itself you know really when we talk about the pitch clock it's just about how it impacts the game but yeah it does impact the broadcast quite a bit and we've seen that over the last few days with a with a couple of the broadcasts both with

root and then you know some of the the opposing teams broadcasts if you've been watching on m lb tv it's it's really fast and guys kind of have to stay on their toes here um especially in spring training because you know spring training we talked about this with gary hill that you know it's very lax and there's more stories that are told and all this stuff. But, you know, if you have a quick one, two, three inning, like, it's, it could be over in a minute and a half, depending on how many pitches are thrown. So, uh, you don't have a lot of time to kind of just sit back, relax and chat. Um, so yeah, so I do think that that does greatly impact the broadcast, um, but it also, you know, it depends on what the inning looks like, right? You know, is it a one, two,

three inning or do a couple guys get on base or is there, you know, a couple of, full counts in the inning, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And there's still, you know, batters can still call time. Guys can still, you know, step off. They do still have that, you know, at their disposal, not as much so, you know, than in years past, of course. But there's still opportunities for discussions to be had and stories to be told and all that.

But yeah, it's certainly pretty limited. So, I don't know. You know, Colby, do you have anything to add anything on how this might impact the broadcast moving forward. First thing I'm adding is I'm not talking about the pitch clock after this episode. This is incredibly boring to listen to. Second of all, what I'm saying is if it does eliminate those like in inning guest or whatever, then we finally found something that the pitch clock has successfully gotten rid of because I don't need to heal from, I don't need to hear from Bill Krueger every fourth inning to tell me how, you know, Louise Castillo is doing his thing like Bill Krueger has any idea, how Louise Cassio is throwing 97 with run. Like I don't need to hear from those guys. I don't. And the whole idea like, oh, you can only ask too quite.

What if like Edgar Martinez comes in the booth? Great. You get Edgar for two minutes. I don't care. I really don't. Now, how does it affect Aaron and Gary and Rick and Dave and like building the moment, which, you know, it takes time. It takes effort to kind of build up this moment.

That's going to be tough on them. I don't know how it's going to affect them. They'll have to figure out a work around. Thankfully, you know, they're all very seasoned and, you know, very good broadcasters. So I'm sure they'll find a way to make it work. work. But if this eliminates the Ryan Roland Smith midgame, you know, questionnaire that just hijacks the entire broadcast for 15 minutes, fine, good, get rid of it. Never wanted it anyways. So, other than that, no, I don't, I don't care. Figure it out. What were your takeaways from Jerry Kellnick

at Sunday's game? Ask Alex, uh, nothing. Really, because, well, one, we didn't even get a chance to watch the game. It wasn't on TV. So what you're at? is essentially what did we see off of the two videos film from the broadcast booth? Yeah. Not a lot. We've said time and time again, we're not swing doctors, so I can't really tell you about what I'm seeing from Jerry Kellnick's swing. You know,

that's not something that I'm claiming to be an expert in. Never have, never will. You know, he's clearly made some changes. The bat speed looked pretty, you know, solid in both of those at bats, but ultimately I have no idea. what exactly the changes are that he's made

if that's going to lead to more success. Plus, you know, he hits one of the home runs off of Brad Keller, who's like a number four. And then he hits the other one off of, I believe, Jonathan Hesley, who I didn't even know existed until yesterday. So he's a four A, you know, back and forth reliever. Yeah.

Yeah, here's the problem with those. Obviously, the only thing we would care about is the change to the swing. We can't really see it from that angle. Um, so it's a little tough to say, but also, we don't know where the pitches are. We don't know what they were. We don't know the sequencing. You know, did he get into a three one count where, you know, you know,

Keller's throwing a fastball and he left it in the middle of the plate or, you know, was it on a curveball? What was the pitch selection? You know, how did the sequencing? How did it build? What was the game plan? There are just a lot of things that we can't tell at all from, you know, from this weird kind of off-kilter angle.

it's just it's too hard to make any kind of judgment off of that. You need the center field camp so you can see pitches. And, you know, was it a cookie? Was it a hanger? Was it a good pitch? Which, what was it? How did the home run come to be, essentially? Is what I'd be more interested in.

Swing-wise, I don't know. I can't tell anything from the angles we've seen. And it's probably going to take me more than, you know, four at-bats, four televised at-bats to come up with any kind of theory on, you know, how good the swing is. And look, you know, outside of Sunday's game, Kelnick's been back. He was bad on Friday.

He's been bad today as we're recording this. We watched his first couple of vet bats before we started recording. It was not great. So for the most part, for the majority of the spring so far, Kellnick's not been very good outside of those two home runs that he hit yesterday. And of course, you know, he had the other one. I think it was a flyout. Line out.

That was center field, I think. It was 107 miles per hour off the bat, though. I mean, that's fine. That's good. The process is sound. That's all fine. But again, there's nothing that we can really. take away from this that we can tell you in good faith is is you know something to pay attention to

or not I mean it's certainly better than him going 0 for three with two strikeouts and a pop-up agreed right but it doesn't mean it it's valuable by itself so we'll see you know it's is as annoying as you guys probably are with us saying you know we'll see how it looks you know in the regular season that's reality there's nothing that's happening in these spring games that is going to get us to change our minds short of injury. Last question here comes from Jace. If the Mariners were to trade for a starting pitcher to replace young starters,

that might be shopped for a bat at the deadline. And he puts in parentheses here, Jason A. Churchill, friend of the show, mentioned this in relation to hearing rumors on his podcast. Who might be a good fit? Colby? First of all, the name of the podcast is baseball things. So I saw this question. I went and listened to the conversation.

And there are a few things to glean, you know, number one is that people, front office people are asking Churchill, why is Jerry sniffing around our pitching, essentially? And he's heard that from three different teams. Jason has a theory about it. I will go into it. You can go, you know, subscribe to his show on Patreon and you can get that type of information from him. But essentially, you know, what it boils down to is that Jerry DePoto is looking to add pitching. and Jason says that they are more focused on starting pitching than they are relievers, but they have asked about some relief help too.

So he didn't name names. He did mention, though, that none of the guys that were talked about were all stars or anything like that, but there were some recognizable names and some, you know, back end help. So we won't get into, you know, his theory or anything like that. Again, go listen to Jason's podcast. It's great. But as for names, you know, he did drop a few hints. He dropped, you know, where his three contacts, like what division,

the team that they work for plays in. And so I kind of went there and I started looking at some, some, you know, depth charts and stuff like that. Could I take a guess real quick? Sure. I haven't listened to the pod. Well, is one of the divisions in L. Central? No.

Oh, really? Because I was going to guess J.D. Brubaker. Yeah, I mean, but no, that wasn't one of the divisions he made. I'll let you go. Yeah, so all these guys pitch in, well, actually, four of them pitching the NL West. And then one pitch is in the AL Central, which are two of the three divisions that Jason said that his sources work for. You know, one of the guys that makes kind of some sense to me is Tyler McGill of the Mets. The Mets have some, you know, pretty impressive starting pitching depth.

McGill is kind of on the outside looking in now. And I feel like he might be available and he's a guy who has flashed, you know, at the big league level as a starter. So he's more of a long-term play. So is Dre Jameson of the Diamondbacks. Six foot, 170. He's a smaller guy. Big fastball, big change up. Command control issues.

He might be a reliever. But again, that's kind of the type of guy I think Seattle's going for. Somebody who has some experience pitching it both out of the rotation and the bullpen. There's another one, Anthony Descliffeani, if the Giants are willing to eat pretty much all of that contract, because he was awful last year and he was hurt. And he's got two years left and I think $24 million. So unless that's like a Marco for Desclofani swap, I don't see that being very realistic. And then, you know, going to the Dodgers, you know, they have a lot of starting pitching. Definitely know about this.

Ryan Pepio is kind of an interesting arm. He's more of a long-term play. some command control issues, but he's definitely got number four stuff, number four upside. But the guy I think makes the most sense here is a guy who, Ty,

you know, I've liked for quite a while here. Jason did drop, you know, a pretty sizable hint that the team that he was talking about in the AL Central was a team that's projected to win like, you know, a good amount,

like 85, 90 games. So to me, that's Cleveland, Chicago, Minnesota. one of those three teams. And the guy who makes the most sense for me out of that group is Kenton Maeda of the twins. He's got one year left on his deal.

He's only making $4 or $5 million. He's pitched both out of the bullpen and as a starter. He strikes guys out. He doesn't walk guys. You know, gives up the home run, which kind of prevents him from being a number two type of starter. But the numbers are all really good.

He's got one year left. Coming off of a very significant injury, of course. Right. Right. But, you know, again, the twins aren't going to trade you. you know, Bailey Ober or Joe Ryan or, you know,

Tyler Malley, Sunny Gray, Pablo Lopez, they're not training those guys. So who would it be? Be Maida, who can pitch out of the bullpen. And, you know, can, in theory, pitch out of the rotation. So also wouldn't be extremely expensive, I don't think. So I think Maeda is one of the guys because he does do some things that we know that the Mariners like in the control the zone to the department.

I do think, though, that they want to see him pitch a couple times before they make that determination. He apparently threw an inning the other day. Only got up to 90.3 on the fastball, so we'll see if that can kind of jump up. He's never been a 95-96 guy, but you'd like to see him 91, 92, for the most part. We'll see, but I think that's the guy

who kind of stood out when I started looking at a list of potential candidates. All right, well, that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on Lockdown, Mariners for Colby Patnaud. I'm Tadine Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-S-R-N-R-N-E. You can follow me at Dane G-N-Z-L-Z-E and Colby at CPAT-11.

You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Now, for your second listen, check out Locked-on Fantasy Baseball, win your league by listening to Matt and Dom every day as they bring you the best fantasy draft strategies. It's free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.