Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: Robbie Ray Rebound? Kyle Seager's Beef With Mariners?

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

We're back with another Mariners Mailbag Monday! In this episode, Colby and Ty discuss what happened to Robbie Ray last September and how good they feel about a rebound, rehash the Kyle Seager sour grapes story and discuss how MLB can improve their product for fans. Plus they discuss the bullpen trust chart, the batting order and more on today's episode of Locked On Mariners!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!FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedBuilt 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.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.

How can the Mariners get a more consistent Robbie Ray in 2023? Who are the lead dogs in Seattle's bullpen? We'll answer that and more on today's mailbag episode of Locked-on Mariners. 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 6th, 2020.

This is Tadding Azales and Colby Patnaud for the Locked-on Mariners podcast. Brought to you by Fandul, the official sportsbook, the Locked-on Podcast Network. Make every moment more, visit fanduel.com slash locked on today to get started. And 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 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 some of your Mariners and occasionally non-mariners questions. Let's just get right into these. Starting with Michael, who wants to know what does Robbie Ray need to do to consistently perform at a high level this coming season and how confident are you that he will get back on track?

So Colby, I think for Ray, in order for him to find success more consistently than in comparison to this past year, it's really about getting that slider more consistent and getting more value out of that slider consistently, right? Yeah, the slider kind of sinks or swims Robbie Ray, so to speak. He's only a two-pitch pitcher. I know he mixed in the two-seamer last year that started to be less effective as we got further down the year. He doesn't really have a change-up or a curveball. So it's a fastball slider, and he's been pretty successful with just that combination for most of his career. I even won a Tsayung with that combination.

So, yeah, it comes down to the fastball on the slider. it would be nice to see the V-Lo go back up to where it was. You know, it was pretty low early in the year and then towards the middle. It was still below what he would normally was throwing, but it was adequate enough. So really what it comes down to is he has to get the slider. It was really flat at the end of last year. It wasn't a lot of, it didn't have the two-tier break, right? It just kind of spun and slightly moved.

It was basically a really bad cutter. and you combine that with the lack of fastball command towards the end of the year. And it just torpedoed, you know, his his rebound essentially because really from May until about August, Robbie Ray was really good. He was he was Robbie Ray. You know, he had 118 innings pitched. He had a 3-34 ERA, a 380 FIP. Opponents were hitting 211 with a 284 on base, you know, and he had 149.

strikeouts in 118 innings. So for a vast majority of last year, he was exactly what you want and think Robbie Ray can be. It was just he had a rough month of April and he had a really rough September and October. So yeah, it's all about the slider. When he has the slider, he's still a very good pitcher. He can still strike a lot of guys out. He can still get deep into games. So I guess to answer the second part of the question, I'm pretty darn confident that Robbie Ray is going to get back to to be in a three-win pitcher. I mean, like even last year, even with two and a half months

that were just terrible, he was still, you know, two and a half one player. So, yeah, I feel pretty good about it. Yes, so do I. I think he's going to get back on track this year. I think the, you know,

the off-season's break will allow him to kind of revert back to neutral here and work on some things. And, you know, the fact that, you know, he's been willing to kind of reinvent himself, even on the fly we saw this past year where he re-implemented the two seamer and I'm really interested to see how much if at all that pitch gets implemented into his game plan this year is it still a thing that sticks

around because he's kind of gone off and on it's been an off and on relationship with that pitch for robbie ray so really interested to see that but yeah again it's just all about getting that that slider back on track because if you get that slider back on track you get Robbie ray back on track and that's the most important thing here All right. Next question comes from Jamie, who wants to know, what do you think of Julio batting leadoff? I think it's fine for 2023, but long term, they need to find a leadoff bat and move Julio back to the number three spot.

So we talk about this quite a bit, the leadoff spot, how we value the leadoff spot, how we think that spot should be utilized in general. I'm of the belief, and I think you're on the save wavelength here, Colby, that you should have your best hitter hit leadoff because statistically speaking, he's going to get the most at bets. And you want your best hitter to get the most at bets. And Julio, for his speed as well, he's kind of a traditional leadoff guy plus power. He's a unicorn, right? So I have no issue with him being the number one hitter in the order. Yeah, does it not create scoring opportunities for him the first time through the order? Sure. But every time after that, he's going to get opportunities.

as long as the bottom of your order is producing. So he'll get his opportunities to drive and runs. That's not really an issue for me. And at the end of the day, he's guaranteed to get the most of bats on the team. So unless they were able to add an elite on base guy. And I'm talking like of the caliber of Brandon Nemo here. And we talked about this a little bit when we were talking about Nemo as a fit this off season.

Unless they get someone like that, someone that's that quality, I'm not even thinking twice about having Julio as the leadoff man in my lineup. Yeah, I guess I just wonder why he has to be number three and like why not number two? It's the traditional power hitting, you know, right,

spot in the order, but yeah. To me, any, any lineup where Julio is in the game, but he's not hitting first or second, is a non-maximized lineup. He probably should be hitting lead off, but if you want to say, hey, we have this guy who's really good on base guy,

we'll put him lead off, and then we can have Julio hit behind him to give him some RBI RBI opportunity fine like I get that if you go acquire Brian Reynolds and he's putting up a 360 on base percentage and you say Reynolds is going to lead off and Lou is going to hit second fine but if you're not going to do that like who would hit lead off this year Colton Wong against Ritees maybe like do you really feel good about Colton Wong is your lead off getting the most at bats on this team out of anybody you shouldn't So Ty France doesn't make sense in that spot.

It just, Julio is the best guy for that job. He doesn't need to hit three. You need to get the bat in his hands as much as possible. And even if the Mariners go out and they add two Teoska Hernandez level bats at the deadline, Julio should still be hitting first or second. It doesn't sound like a lot, but the difference between hitting first and third in a season is about 50 at bats, 50 plate appearances.

Do you want Julio to have 50 more played appearances or 50 fewer played appearances? or 50 fewer played appearances it kind of adds up. So, yeah, to me, he's the lead-off guy. And I would keep him there for the foreseeable future. Yeah, absolutely. I'm not even, again, like I said, I'm not even thinking twice about that.

I'm just going with them because, again, like you pointed out here, who's the other guy on the roster right now? Yeah, if they go out and inquire someone. And again, I'm talking about like of the same ilk of, you know, the Yandi Diaz is the guys that get on base, like at a 400 clip, you know. I'm talking like that. Outside of that, I have really no interest in taking Julio off of that spot.

He's my best hitter. He's going to get opportunities a drive and run still. It doesn't matter. I just want him to get as many opportunities to swing the bat as possible because he's my driving force. He's the engine to this whole thing. So yeah. All right.

We got a few more questions to go over here in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder, this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Fandul. We're really excited. excited about our new sports betting partner for locked on because they're the number one sports book in America. FanDuel. And if you're new to FanDuel, that's even better. They have so many great features that make betting on sports fun and easy. Download FanDuel now so you can bet on Super Bowl 57 with a no sweat first bet. You'll get up to $3,000 back in bonus bets if your first bet doesn't win. Fan Duel lets you bet on everything from the money line to point spreads to who will score a touchdown.

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That's Fandual.com slash locked on. Make every moment more with Fandul, the official sportsbook partner of the NFL. and you're listening to the Locked-on Mariners podcast. It's Mailbag Monday. Thank you so much for making us your first. Listen, let's get back into these questions here, Colby. Starting with 3'9 after having such a great year in 2021.

We haven't heard you guys really mentioned Casey Sadler as any sort of option for making the final 26 or his injuries from last year. That concerning going into 2023. It's not really a concern. It's just a big question mark, right? I have no idea what to say, really. terms of Sadler's ability to make the 26 man roster right now because I just, we haven't seen him pitch. We don't know for sure if he's going to be able to pitch right away.

We had him on the show a few weeks ago and he said that he will be, but we don't know if the organization also agrees with that sentiment. So we don't really know where he is right now in his timeline. He says that he's throwing. He's, you know, full participant, all that stuff. So that's great. And I hope so. But yeah, until I see him in spring and until I see him.

him being able to consistently throw, especially coming off of shoulder surgery. That's a really difficult injury and procedure to come back from as a pitcher, especially, you know, not even a year removed from it. And to get back to where he was in 2021, that's asking a lot. That's asking a lot. I just, I don't know right now if Sadler is one of the eight best relievers in the Mariners organization right now. And, you know, all due respect to Casey, I put my money on that not being the case at the moment

until I see him until he changes my mind, essentially. Right. You have to earn it, right? And what Casey Sadler did two years ago doesn't matter at all, right? He doesn't get the benefit of the doubt because he was really good two years ago. It doesn't matter to the Seattle Mariners. They don't care because, again, like Ty mentioned, it's a shoulder injury. That's a very serious injury.

And he's trying to work his way back. So the 0.67 ERA or whatever it was, doesn't matter. He's got to go and he's got to out pitch guys like Justin Topa, who we know Jerry really likes. He's got to go outpitch guys like even Bukakis at Bikovacus, who's stayed in the organization. I haven't been able to talk today either. So I don't know what's going on here. But he stayed in the organization. So our prospect ranks are still good, just for the record.

That's right. Number 23, baby. That's right. That's right. Isaiah Campbell, Travis Coon, not to mention the guys who are front runners right now, like Matt Festa and Penn Murphy. So he's got to outpitch all of those guys to find a spot. And it's looking pretty tough. We'll see.

I wouldn't put it past him. It's certainly a possibility. But I think a lot of people are like assuming that like, oh, well, he walks in with that resume of having thrown a point 670 RA a few years ago. So he's got a really good shot. No, that's not a thing. That doesn't exist when you're coming off of a major short. shoulder injury. Yeah.

So hoping for the best for him. Really like Casey. And he was great in 2021, of course, and would love to have that kind of arm in this bullpen. But again, I just, I have to see it with my own eyes before, you know, because again, he's on a minor league contract right now. There's a lot of guys that are on the 40-man roster that are vying for the same spot that he is.

And there really is only like one or two spots available in that bullpen as long as everyone stays healthy and now that's a big if but still that's uh yeah it's it's a pretty tall mountain for for sadler to climb uh this spring and i kind of just wonder if it would be better for him to maybe start the year in triple a kind of ease back into things and then if he's pitching well and he feels good to to get him on the major league roster uh eventually you know later on in the season right all right next question here comes from aunt uh who asks early in a january episode Colby mentioned that there was animosity between Kyle Seeger in the front office, specifically saying that Seeger had lied about them to the media.

Do you mind elaborating on that for listeners unfamiliar with this situation? Colby? Yeah. So basically, you guys remember the temper tantrum that Kyle Seeger threw after the Kendall Graemean trade and then after the season when he said, oh, they never even tried to contact me. They didn't tell me they were going to decline the option. They just announced it before they told me.

me. I haven't spoken to Jerry in four years. That's all BS. Like every single word of that is BS. First of all, the Seattle Mariners don't owe Kyle Seeger an explanation for anything that they do, literally nothing. Kyle Seeger does not have the weight to throw around to think that he should be consulted in deals that Jerry DePoto made. None whatsoever. But the biggest issue was, is that from what we were told, Seeger was attempting to use his influence as a veteran in the clubhouse to persuade some of the younger players not to take, let's say, because I don't want to get dinged by YouTube, proper medical procedures to avoid getting, losing playing time due to the pandemic, right? Essentially, he was going around saying, hey, don't do this. I don't want you to do that. and the Mariners had an issue with that, as they should,

because it was Seeger directly sticking his nose in a spot. It doesn't belong whatsoever. Kyle Seeger should not have to giving out medical advice, period. And the Mariners didn't like that. Seeger at that point was already pretty upset with the organization. We know this. Then obviously you have the Kendall Graveman trade where he went on the record, but not really,

and blasted Jerry DePoto in the organization, saying they don't care about winning. Jerry's just up there playing fantasy baseball. Yeah, he's out there playing. Just called out Jerry. Didn't put his name to it. Wasn't brave enough to put his name to it because Kyle Seeger being brave. Ryan,

Ryan DeVish confirmed it was him in the comments section of Lookout Landing, I think. Yeah. It was Seeger, right? So Seeger had an issue with that. Then, of course, the whole thing about Kyle Seeger goes and he tells the media, they didn't even try and contact me to tell me they were going to decline my option. It's not true. It's simply not true.

We were told that the Mariners reached out to Kyle Seeger and his agent several times to ask about what his plans were for the 2022 season and, you know, what they were trying to do with his option. And Seeger didn't respond. His agent didn't respond. They ignored them. Now, why would you do that, you might ask? So that you can go out and say that the Mariners screwed you and you can try and bury the Mariners on your way out of town. Kyle Seeger is a liar. he tried to use his influence to talk people out of getting medical procedures that they thought they needed or that they did need whatever.

And he tried to burn the ground on the way out of town. Kyle Seeger was a bad teammate at the end of the day. The players love him, right? The guys in the clubhouse, they love him. That's Seeks, whatever. JP, Mitch, etc. All those guys love them. Of course.

Yeah. Right. So that's the player. They're going to have the players back. But what Kyle Seeger attempted to do to Jerry DePoto and the front. office and the Mariners organization as a whole on his way out of town. It's pretty slimy. So that's the issue with Seeger. He wasn't a good dude. At the end of the day, he was a distraction his last year in Seattle. It's a bummer that that's how it had to end. Did I get a little bit of

joy after the Mariners make the playoffs the first year he's not on the team? Yeah, a little. Not going to lie. A little bit. Yeah. So yeah, don't be a bad teammate. Kyle Seeger was was a jerk, plain and simple. I was told by someone that I trust very much. much who would definitely be in the know a long time ago. I got a random message on Twitter from them saying it's a lot worse than you think it is. Yeah. That's just what we were told, too, by the way. And I believe Divish was also, DeVish also reported the thing about him ignoring the

club reaching out to him. Maybe I'm incorrect on who reported that. I believe someone did, though, in the Seattle. That's common knowledge. Yeah. Yeah. And wasn't that what sparked Divish to like make an apology and all that about his reporting? There was like a whole thing on Twitter where he sent out an apology.

Yeah. Remember if it was that. I'm not sure. Yeah. The last couple of years have been kind of a kind of a blur. But yeah. Lots happened the last few years. Yeah.

Lots, lots gone down. But yeah. Yeah. You know, I just, in terms of Seeger overall as a player, I appreciate everything that he did for the city and for the organization. And he certainly is a legend in the organization and one that should be recognized in the Mariners Hall of Fame here pretty soon. Absolutely. But yeah, the way that his tenure here came to an end does leave a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

And, you know, again, this is all he said, she said, and who knows what exactly is fact and all that stuff. but just from whatever, from everything that I know, yeah, things could have been handled a lot better on Kyle Seeger as well as the Mariners in, maybe a little bit. Who knows? But yeah. I just, I don't think the Mariners owe anything to Kyle Seeger. Just to be honest, I just, I don't think that they owe explanations or anything for anything that they did. But Seeger didn't leave gracefully and was an active issue in the Mariners Clubhouse and hostile towards Scott and Jerry. at the end and that's really what it's all about.

So, you know, time heals all wounds, but, yeah, like, I'm a tie. Like, I look at Seeger a little bit differently than I did three years ago. Yeah, I do too. Yep. All right. Next question comes from Lankson. Very simple question here. Who is the opening day designated hitter for the Mariners?

I mean, that's the question of the day, isn't it? Who is going to be the DH for the Mariners on opening day? Well, if you want to specifically talk about opening day, right now. I'm sure your question is asking us is asking us to make a big grand statement here. But I think more simply, like if we just want to get into the nitty gritty of this, on opening day, guardians are most likely going to be running out Shane Bieber. Righty. So I would suspect that maybe it's a lefty. Maybe the Mariners just want to get their best nine in there. So yeah, that would be Pollock. But if not, if there you are playing some

matchups, if Scott Service wants to play the handedness game, like he typically does. Tommy Lestella maybe. Dark Horse Taylor Trammell. Um, or maybe Tay Oscar Hernandez DHS and they have some combination of Kelnick or Tramel and, you know, Pollock or what have you in the outfield. Um, but yeah, I don't I like I, I assume this again, this question is trying to make, is trying to get us to make a bigger, grander statement about some addition that they could make here. I don't think they are, uh, right now. I just don't foresee it. Um, with everything that we've heard from, from Jerry DePoto. I, you know, we've heard some things that they're still trying to acquire, uh,

both pitchers and hitters right now, but, uh, who, who knows, uh, if that's actually going to, going to happen here. So right now my bet is on some form of Lestella, Pollock, Teosker, one of those guys being the D.H on, on opening day against Shadegh. If you're asking specifically just on opening day, I think it's Pollock. I think they give it to the, uh, and the guy that they're kind of banking on, more than any of the other guys mentioned to have a good year for them. So I think, you know, Kelnik will be in left field, Pollock will D.H.

And then I think a majority of the time, it's going to be a bit of a platoon. You know, Moran is somebody throwing there. Lestella, Pollock will get some D.H. days against right-handed pitching still. And like Ty said, you know, it's possible that Tramel makes the team or, you know, they make a small trade at the end of spring training. but specifically for opening day, I would say that AJ Pollock's probably in the lineup. All right. We got a couple more questions to go over here in just a moment.

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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 with our hit flavors, brownie batter, and churro. You can thank me later. All right. Let's get into these last couple questions here, Colby. We got one here from Duffy, who asks from 1 through 8, in what order would you rank the current Mariners Bullpen Arms? All right.

So you want to start from 1? You want to start from 8? Where do you want to start here? Let's start from the top. All right. So Andreas Munoz, right? Easy. Yep. Easy.

Now there's a little bit of a debate here maybe. Matt Brash, Paul Seawald. Really? Seawald over Brash still. I just trust him a little bit more right now. I'm still worried about Brash throwing enough strikes. I'm going to go Brash because I have to. I have to go Matt Brash.

So Seawald three for me. Brash three for you? Brash eight for you. Yeah. Yeah. Brash is three. Yeah. Now this is where it gets even more interesting. So is it Diego Castillo?

Is it maybe a dark horse like a Matt Festa here? Like what are you thinking? I feel like it's kind of Matt Festa, to be honest with you. I just strikeouts. Yeah, I mean, they're legit. Like Diego probably is number four on the Mariners pecking order. But I'd probably still trust Festa a little bit more than. then Diego at this stage.

Yeah. Yeah, I trust Festa more. Diego, Diego is fun when he's got his stuff in order, but it's, it's so, it's so hitting mess sometimes.

You never know. Yeah, Diego Castillo is like a box of chocolates. Sure. All right. So, yeah, I'll go, I'll agree with you there. I'll go Festa 4.

I'll go DBB 5. Sure. And then, all right, so we get into the group of like, Trevor Gott, Penn Murphy, the guys that are essentially competing to enter the bullpen,

unless I'm missing someone. Am I missing someone? Am I doing that thing again where I'm missing someone obvious? I don't think so. I'm looking at their roster right now. So, yeah, out of all this, out of this hodgepodge of relievers here, who are you going with at number five?

I think I'm going Penn Murphy. Yeah, it's probably Penn. and then Penn Murphy and then probably got at six Yeah And then seven and eight is like Topa Just flexed off of Yeah like just based off of

What Jerry has said essentially Because like I don't know Like Jerry Jerry says the metrics are great On Justin Topa I have no idea But he's you know I guess he's one of those pitch grade poppers right Yeah PGPs

PGPs Yeah so I'll just say Topa 7 and you know what Isaiah Campbell 8 even though he's Probably not gonna make the bullpen out of camp But whatever No I mean I'll stick to the spirit of it flex in Assuming he doesn't get traded

Sure Is like probably last I think Instead of like Topa though I think I'll probably go Clark At 7 just because he's on the 40 man Oh, no, is to Pto's on the 4th, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

So do I want to rule five? Do you, do you want some other options? No, I mean, like there's Clark, right? There's Campbell. There's Issa McGee, your favorite. Your other favorite? Bernardino. Taylor Sosato.

Yeah, saucy. Yeah, yeah. Gabe Spire. Ooh, okay. And of course, one ton. yeah and bernan bernadino don't forget bernan bernan bernadino yeah and bernan yeah yeah no i think i'll probably go with uh hmm by the way how is juan 10 survived the winner that's crazy i don't we say the same thing about brin bernadino like he's the guy they're going to dFA nope um

tell you what i think gabe spires got a shot here but uh okay yeah uh i'll say because because Jerry seems to really like him. I'll say Topa and then flexing. Yeah. Same. So I have Munoz, Seawald, Brash, Festa, Castillo, Murph, or Gott, Murphy. Yeah, I think our lists are essentially the same except for two and three are flipped. Yeah.

Then we both kind of pick. Yeah. It's pretty much chalk with these guys. I mean, you kind of know, you know, what their ranking is and the overall high of the Mariners bullpen. Then there's like five or six guys who are competing for the last bullpen spot. Yeah. And so I essentially trust all those guys about the same, which is really not at all because I don't know anything about them outside of what I'm like a little bit.

Like a dark horse non-40 man guy, apparently AJ Puckett. Oh yeah. I don't know if you saw that video. I saw the numbers on. I saw the numbers from Joe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw what Joe posted about AJ Pucket. All right.

Yeah, there's some legitimate stuff there, all right? Like, he, he jumped up a little bit. And so, yeah, don't sleep on AJ Pocket. Yep. Yeah, so they got a lot of fun options this year. I'm actually really excited about the bullpen competition coming up here in a couple weeks. This is going to be pretty fun to sort through.

And they have depth because, I mean, injuries are going to happen. It's just the way things are. I know they were remarkably healthy, especially in the rotation this past year. but that stuff, you know, not trying to curse the Mariners here. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, all that good stuff. But yeah, you're going to need some depth there. And so they have some interesting arms to put from. Yeah, I would just say there's a lot of really good stuff competing for that last spot.

And it's possible that two of those guys make it because either they trade flex in or one of those guys just leapfrog somebody like Penn Murphy. Right. Or Festa or somewhat. Yeah, yeah, or injuries. Or they trade, you know, Diego or blah, blah, blah, whatever. Yeah, yeah, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All right, last question of the day comes from WIFSC.

Not a Mariners question per se, however interested in y'all's thoughts, especially given the MLB network failed contracts with the YouTube, what can Major League Baseball and teams like the Mariners do to connect with younger audiences and recapture loss viewership? maybe you know promote your players that would be a good start you know when I was a kid

baseball players were like superheroes you know and nowadays I maybe it's just now I'm an adult and I just don't have that perspective anymore but I don't feel like there's a single major league baseball player out there right now that kids can look to like a like freaking superhero

I mean I look at Julio like a superhero I look at Julio as a superhero personally but I don't think Major League Baseball is doing a great enough job to make Julio look like a superhero overall. Every promo you run Major League Baseball should have Julio prominently featured on it.

Yeah. It should have Otani. It should have Trout. It should have all these guys. Yeah. Like, I'm not, I'm not making this about the cover thing, but like, jazz chisholm, I like jazz. He's a good player. He's a fun player. You should not be trying to make that guy the face of your, of your sport. I'm sorry. but yeah I think it starts there first of all though Ty did you say the YouTube

the YouTube I thought you said with them being canceled on the YouTube you old I just I read the question verbatim especially given MLB network failed contracts with YouTube all right all right I guess I added the you said the YouTube anyways we'll roll the tape back actually because we're too lazy yeah no but anyways um Major League Baseball has an issue that stems from one fundamental principle. And it is that they are more worried about keeping old fans than they are about acquiring new fans. And I know the old adage is, you know, it's easier to keep a customer than it is to get a new one. It's a lot cheaper.

True. But there's an issue when your old customer is frankly, dying, right? Major League Baseball is still extremely popular with the 50 plus group. Those folks are dying, you know, and you haven't done enough to bring in the 18 to 34s. That's the issue with Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball also has an issue in that. They try to do this thing where they're like the NBA, like Sunday night baseball and oh my God, it's Dodgers, Giants. You know who cares about Dodgers Giants? Dodger fans and Giants fans. Nobody's, but else. Major League Baseball is a regional game. The regional networks, the regional ratings for teams

are better than ever. They're not having issue drawing regional games. It's the nationally televised games that they're having issues with because baseball isn't the NBA, right? Baseball is about teams. The NBA is about players, right? And football is just in a league of its own right now in the U.S. So they can pull, you know, a seven share on Jaguars Titans on Thursday night football. who cares. So yeah, it's a little different, but they tried to do this thing where they are. We need to make sure that we don't lose any of our 65 plus viewers, which you're losing anyways, because unfortunately they're getting old, right?

But we also need to make sure that we don't allow the guys to celebrate because we have a different code. And, you know, we're not worried about the 18 to 34s because why? Because we don't have them now anyways. And you know what I mean? Like it's just this whole vicious circle where major league baseball is so worried about maintaining like their code and keeping their aging, quickly aging fan base that for two decades, they essentially ignored anybody 35 and younger. And now they're paying the price for it because now they have to try and play catch up. Yeah. It's just it's a marketability issue.

And you know, the thing to, we could have a really long. We could do this whole podcast about this. So I'll try to just summarize my thoughts here. But I mean, it can be, you know, from the type of commentators you're getting that tell the story of the game on these nationally televised broadcasts and whatnot. You need people that can really engage, especially with a younger audience, to get them interested in the game and make the game cool because the game is cool, right? But the game at face value to kids that are, you know, growing up watching the NBA right now and everything that's going on in that league. Like you got to do a lot to catch their attention. You have to do a lot here.

You have to do a lot to not necessarily convert them, but to say, hey, come over here. We're doing some cool stuff over here too. And so the big issue with that right is like not marketing their players well, doing things on social media like taking down clips and all the copyright strikes. And they've gotten a little bit better about that, I think. But there's, but that's been a pretty big issue in the past. You know, it's just because the thing, too. like the thing that major league baseball does really well the one thing that i'll give them

is this and it's really it's not necessarily major league baseball itself but it's just kind of the the sport in general is that they make so much information and data easily available no other sport really does that right you look at football you got to pay for pff and s i s and all those outlets right hockey it's hockey is still complicated to get any sort of like advanced stats or anything like that you know basketball i'm i haven't watched much basketball lately, but I'm pretty sure.

There's like the basketball references of the world and whatnot. Yeah, but their advanced stat is like plus and minus. Right, right. Yeah. So yeah, you're right. Baseball does do a really good job of making that information available. Yeah. They don't do a great job of marketing it.

Yeah. But they do they do a good job of making it available. And that's why I think that they should be lax-ish with like going after content creators who use their their clips i mean obviously like no you can't put a whole game on your youtube channel right but if you want to use a 15 second clip we're not going to come after you like we we don't care get the game out there let's make it available to everybody well and speaking to which growth of basketball right content creators on youtube you know the guys like right bleacher report and chris the mbbya as far as i know is a lot more lenient with who they

go after on in terms of like using their uh like clips from their games and whatnot. So Major League Baseball should adopt that because, you know, most kids, they're not watching MLB Network anymore. A lot of people use YouTube, right? And they'll go on and they'll watch, oh, I like Jazz Chisholm. I'm going to go watch this video on Jazz Chisholm, right? And that gets guys, that gets people to pay attention to your game. And I guess finally, while we're at it, we might as well just say it in the blackout restrictions. It's the dumbest thing ever. Yeah. I'm trying to force people to pay for cable in an era where cable sucks. Nobody wants to pay for cable. And more people would buy MLBTV and therefore watch more games.

Exactly. So I just, if you already have MLB TV and you want to watch the Yankees and the Orioles play, right? Because if the Orioles win, you can clinch the playoff spot tonight. Gee, that sounds familiar. Right. Well, I'm not going to buy that, that package for one game. If I can't watch any of my team's games. And as we mentioned at the beginning, baseball is a regional game. You care about your team and nobody else's team for the most part. Right. So yeah, MLB network needs to end their stupid blackout restrictions. They need to get out of bed with cable companies and understand that cable is the way of the past. Now it's all about streaming. They need to make that accessible to people without having to pay. Hey, by the way,

now in order to get Mariner games on a streaming service, great, it's 80 bucks a month on top of the cable that you already pay for. That's 120 bucks a month. You know what I mean? It's just, It's dumb. It's absolutely dumb in the blackout restrictions. Get your game on as many platforms as you possibly can and screw the rest. The rest will come. And because, and when you do that, right, you open the door for content creators that have platforms to essentially promote your game for free. Free advertising. Watching who are watching all the games. I think of a guy like Rob Perez who watches all the basketball games and he talks about all the basketball games that are happening on Twitter and he does like streams and all this stuff talking about the like the night. in the league, right? And you could have people doing that for Major League Baseball. And it would get huge because people like, if you deliver your product in a way that is

accessible for people, especially for folks that are Colby and I's generation or the generations behind us, you're going to find success here and building and growing your game. Yeah. You know, it's just it's about making baseball. cool again essentially, right? Because you are fighting with the NBA, which has a lot of personalities and a lot of stars and celebrates it. And memes and all this stuff, right?

And same with, you know, football too, to a certain degree. But, you know, there's just, there isn't a lot of individuality in baseball right now when there should be. Yeah. And there should be, right? Because like, again, when I was growing up, there was individuality in baseball. you know there was like the stars right there were the berry bonds of the world and whatnot you know and and derrick jeter etc growing up so in each row um and you know whether you watch the team religiously or watch the league religiously or you just kind of watch it every now and then you knew who those guys

were if i showed a picture of mike trout like like or here i could show like my wife who doesn't watch sports at all a picture of lebron james she knows who that is automatically if i show her a picture of Mike Trout is essentially the LeBron James of baseball. She has no clue who that guy is. Yeah. She's just a random white dude. You know, it's her. Like, that's it.

So yeah. All right. Well, we're way over time. Again, surprise, surprise. Look at us. But that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here. And thank you guys for all of your questions.

We got a lot of submissions this week. So sorry to those of you that we didn't answer. I think Colby might be going on Twitter and answering some of those that were left unanswered like he does pretty much every week. that we do one of these mailbag shows. So keep an eye out for that if your question did not get answered on here. But for Colby Pat Note, I'm Taddening Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners.

You can follow me at Dane-G-N-ZL-Z and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's C-PAT-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Now make your second listen, Lockdown MLB Prospects host Lindsay Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia, and he's going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow. free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us and with that have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you on wednesday peace