Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: What Should Mariners Do About Struggling Matt Brash?

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

It's time for our weekly mailbag episode! On today's show, the guys discuss the struggling Matt Brash, Chris Flexen's role, Eugenio Suarez's lack of power, and where their expectations stand 40 games into the 2023 season.Help us out by filling out our survey!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 | @CPat11eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. 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.

Is it time to wave the white flag on Matt Brash? We'll answer that and more on today's mailbag episode of the Locked on Mariners podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariner's. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ohoy, sailors. It is Monday, May 15th, 2023.

This is tidying. Is Olick and Colby Patnaud for the Lockedon Mariner's podcast. 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 sending out for our patreon by skin in the QR code that's right above my head the link as well as our social accounts is also in the description of this episode and

this episode is folks mail bag monday the show where we answer your mariners questions but before we kick things off a reminder that you can catch tonight's game between the mariners and the Red Sox on the Mariners hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. First pitch is at 410 Pacific. All right, let's kick things off here on Mailbag Monday with Ryan, who asks, what is the bigger concern at the moment with the Mariners? The bullpen or the offense? Colby, start us off.

Definitely the offense. Bullpen's been your best group, maybe your second best if you want to count the starting pitchers. So, yeah, bullpen wasn't good yesterday, no doubt about it. But overall, the bullpen's been very good pretty much since the second week of the year. Early in the season, they had their little issues with walks since then. Festa's been demoted. Castillo was DFA.

They've made some other changes. They've had a topa and spire. So the bullpen's already solidified itself over the last, you know, five weeks. So the bullpen wasn't an issue for long for the Mariners. And the offense, to be honest, I'm not all that worried about the offense. I think they're still right now middle of the pack and runs per run's per game. I think they're 15th.

And that is without really Julio being even a league average hitter. That's without Tay Oscar being even a league average hitter. That's without Gino being a league average hitter. And we know all three of those guys are above league average hitters. So I'm really not all that worried about the offense either. I do think they need another bat at some point. they'll have to go out and get one and then we'll see how healthy everybody is and that'll dictate, you know, if they need to go out another.

But I do think that they're a bat short still from being like a truly great offense, but I think they're going to be a good offense just because Teo and Julio and Gino, they're better than this. At least we have to assume they are still because the track record says that they are. So yeah, I'm actually not worried about either. But if I had to pick which one is the bigger concern for me, it's definitely the offense. The bullpen's just fine, and it's actually going to get even stronger here over the next few weeks because you're going to add Penn Murphy back. You're going to add Andres Munoz, hopefully, in the next month or so.

And then it certainly looks like Pallander, which is how you pronounce it, by the way, apparently, I've been told. Pralonder Baroa is going to be up here in the next week to two weeks at most. Heck, for all we know he's in Boston right now. So he has certainly has a high leverage upside. We'll see he kind of has some issue throwing strikes sometimes, much like Matt Brash. So we'll see what happens. But yeah,

I mean, you're looking at it right now and you're going, you know, pretty soon we're going to have to send down Juan 10 or Taylor Sossato, both of whom have been pretty good. So the bullpen's in really good shape right now. I'm not worried about that at all. The offense, again,

I'm still pretty optimistic about it, but it forced to choose, or the other, I'm definitely more concerned about the offense. Yeah, this question feels, and no shade to you, Ryan, but this question does feel like a bit of a no for reaction to yesterday's game. And if there is a bullpen problem, it's really not a bullpen problem. It's a Matt Brash problem. He's really been the only true issue out of that unit.

I mean, Chris Flexen's presence there doesn't really make sense. I think we might have a question about Flexen that we're answering later on in the show, so I won't go too deep on him right now. but other than that, yeah, I, this has been, I mean, despite those two things, despite brash's struggles this year, this has been one of, if not the best bullpen in baseball. The offense is a bit of a concern right now because, again, you know, for all the reasons that Colby laid out and for all the reasons that we've talked about for the last week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, that's why the offense is a bigger issue right now, a bigger

concern right now for for me because this is something that you are going to have to address outside of the outside of the organization at some point the bullpen though i think there are going to be in-house fixes there are reinforcements on the way with and andres monios and perlonder baroa and also you know guys like riley o'brien and stephen coleck might something for you as well so tie adcock is another guy that might factor in here so yeah i just i think you have an abundance of options on that front the offense though that's going to be something that's going to be a little bit more complicated to fix. And what do we know about Jerry DePoto and this regime, folks?

What is the one thing we can rely on them to do correctly? Rebuild bullpins on the fly. So even if the bullpen does become a problem, I'm not concerned because they have proven time and time again, this regime, that they can field together, at least, they can put together at least a league average bullpen. Yeah. basically the snap of a finger. And, you know, that doesn't even count guys like Brian Wu and Emerson Hancock who could

shift to the bullpen later in this year. So, yeah, bullpen's not a concern. Because, like you said, right now, it's who's the least trustworthy guy in that pen? You throw out Chris Flexen because he's barely a part of the bullpen. It's Matt Brash. Everybody else you trust pretty much to be automatic. And when they don't, it's, I understand.

Taylor Sosato I haven't seen enough of to say that I trust him. He's been pretty good though. But yeah, he's been he hasn't been an issue. Right. And he's probably the guy that goes down when Murphy's ready or Baroa and then we'll see what they decided. Yeah, we'll see what they decided to do with Juan 10 too. Because he's been pretty solid.

But it seems like he's probably one of the odd men out when they make a change to the bullpen. But we'll see. All right. Next question comes from Darren McCacken. enjoyer that's right bud you finally got a question on the show it's your time to shine what has caused the downfall of matt brash darrow macaan and joyer ass yes the advanced numbers show that brash is getting unlucky and his phip being a 153 is showing him being unlucky but sometimes

finally lose that and get the results you should get how do you have brash figure it all out should you move him to AAA or see if it clicks eventually since he should be getting the results, but he is, again, unlucky with the FIP and the BABIP. That was the second part of this question. I wasn't able to throw that part up on the screen. But yeah, Colby, what's your assessment of Matt Brash? What's going on with him right now? He's terrible.

Matt Brash is really struggling right now, and it, as always, comes down to command, not control. its command is an issue and control is also an issue too but he's not walking a ton of guys so it's not like he's not walking anybody but he's not walking a ton so I know a lot of people are like he's fine he's fine but he kind of watch these guys

especially in a small sample size with a bullpen because Matt Brash has filthy stuff and because he's always going to strike guys out his FIP is always going to be lower than his ERA that's just what FIP does it value strikeouts immensely because it's one of the three things pitchers can control one of the three outcomes the pitchers can control.

So to me, I watch Brash and I say, I don't have any faith that he knows where 80% of his pitches are going when they leave his hand. And that is an issue. You cannot have 20 grade command and be a major leaguer, no matter how good your stuff is. It's not going to happen. And yesterday, he had 20 grade command and only like 25 control.

So, yeah, you never know when it's going to come and go either. He'll have three outings in a row where it looks like he's got it all figured out. out and then the next outing out, he'll walk two guys and hit another to give up two runs without, you know, without the opposing team having to swing the bat, essentially. So, yeah, you can't really trust Brash right now. My solution would be to send him down to AAA, let them work on some things in, you know, where results aren't so dire. The other thing you could do, you don't want to send them down to AAA, which, again, I would.

I think you have other options. We talked about them, you know, Murphy, Baroa, and 10 is proven that he's, at least a middle-endings guy. You're going to get Murphy here in the next week or so. I think you have enough to cover the Matt Brash problem. But if you don't want to send them down, then you just can't put them in high-leverage spots. Give them the clean inning to start. Don't let them pitch with guys on base because when you bring in a guy with control and command

issues with guys on base, regardless of how filthy their stuff is, you're one walk away from impending disaster because there's already a scoring threat. and now you just added another guy on base who could score because your pitcher can't throw strikes. And when you play as many close games as the Mariners do as the Mariners are designed to do, those little tiny walks and those hit by pitches and those pipe fastballs, they come back to hurt you pretty quick because you're not built to score runs quickly in the last two innings of a game. You're built to win four to three, five, five three, you know, two one. Like you're built to win these close games.

and you can't have a reliever in the back end of that who you're putting in your highest leverage spots who can't throw strikes. It's just completely, it's the opposite of what you're trying to build and how you're trying to win games. So for me, you have to send Brash down.

But at the very least, you can't put them in high leverage spots. If he pitches tonight, you want them to go, pitch the sixth to the bottom of the order with a three run lead. That's where you want to start using Matt Brash in until you feel like he's got to figure it out.

But we'll see what the Mariners want to do. they certainly are less reactionary than, uh, than I am. But you know, I'm right. So. Of course. Of course you are. Yep. Yeah, you, you may be the Darren McCacken enjoyer, but I am the Matt Brash enjoyer. And even for me, it's time. It's time to send him down for a little bit here. Because like, I don't know if he's going to fix his issues. Command issues are very hard to, to fix. And a lot of guys never fix those issues. use. But he's hurting you more than he's helping you right now. And just look, I get what the underlying numbers say. But use your eyes here. What are your eyes telling you? My eyes are

telling me that Matt Brash needs Tacoma right now. I have no faith in him whatsoever to get through an inning clean, especially in situations where the Mariners only have a one run lead, or they're trying to hold on to a tie, or even if they're trailing to keep things at one run or two runs. I just don't have any faith in him doing that right now. So he needs to coma and hopefully he figures it out. But again, you have plenty of reinforcements on the way, like five, at least five guys in your bullpen right now

who you feel pretty good about to great about. I don't need Matt Brash on this roster at the moment. I don't. So that's where things are for me on Brash. Still have a lot of hope for him. I think, you know, sky's the limit for him, obviously, especially with how much he can generate swings and misses. But I just, I can't trust him.

I can't. All right. We got, let's see here. We got one, two, three, four more questions to go over on this episode of the Lockdown Mariners podcast. But first, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by eBay Motors. For a championship team, it's all about making sure every player is a perfect fit. It's the same when it comes to your vehicle.

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Let's ride. eBay guaranteed fit only available to U.S. customers, eligible items only. Exclusions apply. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. And again, you can catch the Mariners on the Red Sox tonight on the Mariners' hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app 410.

First pitch, Pacific. So let's get back into these questions here on Mailbag Monday. Max asks, any chance we see jake shiner this year maybe we bring him up and send down haggerty to get him consistent at bats now colby before you say no let's just listen to the numbers here on jake shiner i get he's 27 years old and down in trouble i don't i don't care i don't care just listen to the numbers just listen to the numbers then you can form your opinion he right now is second in the pacific coast league and home runs with 12 saying two seven seven seven seven seven

grade on base percentage. He's also only striking out 20% of the time and he's walking almost 15% of the time. Okay, put the numbers out there. Now you can tell me why no, it should never happen. I'm stupid. He's a 27-year-old hitting in the PCL who brings no defensive or base running value.

There you go. So Sam Haggurty is more valuable to the Mariners on the Major League roster than Jake Shiner to you? No, but Mason McCoy is. So, because at least McCoy can play defense. At least McCoy can play multiple positions. So don't do that. You know, Mason McCoy's. Do I need, though? Do I need that, though? Do I need that with Jose Caballero? You're going to stick Shiner on the bench? Look, with how little they use Haggity in general. It sounds to me like what Ty is saying

is that they should bench a Eugenio-Souraz for Jake Shiner. That's that's bold, but it wouldn't be the first time one of us has pounded the table for Jake to get more bats over Aemaniasaurus. Yeah. More, not all. Big difference. But anyways, no, I don't think Shiner's your call. Here's the deal. You're not really using that roster spot anymore. And that by itself is a problem. You don't want to have wasted roster spots. And right now it kind of feels like the Mariners have two. Because Haggertie is getting one start a week maybe. And he's not doing anything to earn more. But it's tough to earn more when you're on the bench six days a week. So it's kind of a catch 22 there. And then obviously they're wasting a roster spot on Chris Flexen for God knows why. So yeah, it kind of feels like the marriage are playing two guys down. So in theory, you want to use that roster spot on somebody

who might actually help you. Jake Shiner, how is he going to help you getting one at bat every five days as a pinch hitter? I'm just saying if you are using if you were not using that roster spot in general, why not just have a bat that, hey, I might need someone to run into one here late in the game.

That's my for. Shiner. That's Mike Ford, who's a better fit for Team Mobile Park because he's a lefty power swing. So if you're going to run with basically a zero on the bench for a month, you probably wanted to be the guy who fits your home ballpark best. That's Mike Ford. So, yeah, even if you wanted that. I know it's 271, 380, 597.

I know it's the PCL, but all right, let's go over Mike Ford's numbers. They're pretty good as well. They're really good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's why to me it's Mason McCoy because then I can play him at shortstop. I can give JP a day off. I can't do that right now.

I really can't. You know, well, unless I want Wong to face lefties. Mike Ford right now, 308, 420. Nice.

631. 149 WRC plus. Would you say that's better? He's hit fewer home runs, Colby, two. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Look, I am just trying to push the narrative of my game seven walk off home run by Jake Shiner. The only way we make this happen is by him getting an opportunity at the major league level, proving that he belongs, and then, you know,

ultimately working his way into that moment. Against the Phillies, by the way, for the ultimate revenge, the ultimate chills. That is the ultimate chills. So not only does he have to just be on the roster, he has to be good enough to be carried on the postseason roster. Right.

Not only the World Series roster. Right. Yep. Yep. And be trusted enough to pin it. hit in the ninth to walk off home run. So essentially what you're saying is Jake Shiner's going to come up and he's going to be at least David V.R. from last year. Yeah.

Yeah. Mike Ford. Mason McCoy is my first choice. I know people want Marlowe in all seriousness. Marlowe doesn't make really a lot of sense right now unless you're sending down Trammell, too. Because how are you going to get Tramel, Marlowe? Are you going to get six outfielders? Enough at bats.

Yeah. Especially when two of them are young guys. who you want to get at bats. You want Marl to get at bats, a lot of at bats. You want Tramel to get a lot of at bats. You can't really do that, or they're both on the same team,

at least not at the majors. So, yeah. For me, it's, it's McCoy is the guy I would make the move for. No one's going to get the Shiner thing,

by the way. That's such an inside joke from such a long time ago. A different life, if you will. God, that trade was five years ago. Right?

Or four years ago, four years ago. Four years ago. Four years ago. four years ago four years four years ago and like a couple days i think yeah like two weeks it was may they traded bruce well can't believe they actually got something for j bruce did they though don't disrespect jayriner pcel all-star jake shiner yeah that's that's tough to do man next question from william loft and yes we did have another or we did have a chris flexen

question is it time to stop wasting the chris flexing the chris flexing Flex in a roster spot and DFA him for some moves in the pen. Seems like he's only used in blow up games or as a spot starting in which we have two to three far better options. I agree. I think it's time to just move off of them. Colby, you talked about the Mariners wasting roster spots or it feels like they're wasting roster spots. Flexit is one of those. It really feels like the Mariners are playing with 24 roster spots and everyone's playing with 26.

Yeah, flexin, I think the only reason you're, you would keep them around is if you're like, oh, just in case, you know, Marco gets her. or, you know, Luis gets blah, blah, blah, whoever, right? Then we have flexing and it's, well, okay, but first of all, you're keeping a guy around just in case something happens. But also, if that does happen, just go recall Tommy Malone. He's better than Chris Flexon anyway, or he's at least just as good as Chris Flexen anyways or go get, you know, dollared or go get Hancock for two weeks. You know, if you're not talking about a long-term thing, and by the way, if you are talking

about a long-term thing, God forbid somebody else goes out. for the year. I mean, flexion's not going to help you there either. Yeah, you don't want him to be the answer there. But the thing for me too is like if he's essentially waiting for this moment and getting you know, little few outings sprinkled in here in between, he's not going to be ramped up enough. Like the bullpins that he'll be throwing and then the few little outings that he has, that's not

enough. It's not enough for a guy that needs to be ramped up to, you know, if he needs to be called upon to go out and throw six innings every fifth day? Like that's, what are we doing here? Yeah. And it doesn't appear that the Mariners are interested in piggybacking or using the opener or anything like that with any of their guys right now.

So they don't have to. By the way, a quick thing I noticed on Twitter, a lot of people assuming that Bryce Miller might get his start skipped because of the off day and blah, blah, blah. There's no reason. Miller's good to go. He threw 130-some-odd inning. last year he's good for 150 160 you don't have to worry about that with the all-star break you

could always finagle it you don't really only have to skip them once uh and it doesn't have to be now so right uh yeah wouldn't worry about miller's innings so if you're thinking well when they shut miller down though flex and ready to go no no they're not going to have to shut miller down uh in all likelihood so but even if they do by the time they do you know you have better options so flex and also you you want miller pitching against the praise because right now, I know it's only been three spots, but he gives you a better chance to win than, you know, some of the other guys that you have there, whether it's flex and whether it's Marco, whether it's, you know, whoever would end up making that start. So the disrespect to Marco. Sorry.

I believe in Bryce a lot more. He's been pretty good. Yeah, but I believe in our in and out king more than the Marco. I'm sorry. Yeah. We'll see. We shall see. Yeah.

all right next question here comes from ryan another ryan this one is ryan wilson maybe it's just me but how concerned are you guys about the lack of power gino has had this season uh not concerned overall but like curious as to where the power is where it's gone because eohenio hoswara is just heading for singles not really valuable of a player because he doesn't he's not athletic enough to make up for the lack of power in other areas simple as that he needs to hit for power in order for him to give you the value that you need out of a uh henny oswaras so yeah that is a problem right now that is contributing to the offensive issues that's not the problem by any stretch of the imagination but it is a

part of the problem and it's something that does need to get turned around am i concerned about it No, because Like, I don't like have you looked into Gino's numbers at all? Like is it a launch angle issue? Like what's going on here? What do you think is the problem right now? I think he's toast. Crispy toast.

I don't know. I haven't looked. But yeah, you know, Gino, it's not unusual for him to go long, fairly long stretches without hitting home runs. He is kind of a bunch hitter. meaning he'll get, you know, four in a week and he'll be right back where you want him to be. But yeah, you know, from what I can tell on this, again, I'm not, I'm not a swing coach or anything like that.

Bat speed looks roughly the same. I haven't noticed a big drop in that. It doesn't seem like he's having more trouble getting into velocity than he did last year. So I don't know what exactly the issue is. How concerned am I a little? It's not something that you're panicking about right now. but if we get into, you know, late June and he's got four home runs, you know, you're probably going to have to start looking at third base as a position of need

because you can't have a third baseman who's going to hit, you know, 11 home runs and hit 2.30. That's not going to help you at all. So you really need to find somebody who get the very least can share that spot with Gino. So he's got another, you know, four to six weeks to show the power is legit. and, you know, it's a pretty good spot to prove it here in Boston. So we'll see if that helps at all. But, yeah, I think it's at least worth noting that the home run power is way down.

I don't think it's time to panic or anything like that yet. But he's, you know, he's coming up on it here. We got four to six weeks before trade talks start to get very, very real. And if he's, again, if he's sitting 225 with four home runs on July 1, then you're definitely looking for a third base option, or at least somebody who can share that job with AUHenio. So we'll see. But for now,

not worried, but definitely tracking. You mentioned Boston. That's where the Mariners are playing tonight. You can catch that game on the Mariners hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app first pitch again at 410 Pacific Time. All right. Last question of the show comes from Vlad.

Have the expectations for a good year, change from the preseason to now? Colby. No. Yep. Why would they? Yep. Because they're 20 and 20.

Okay. Last year they were, what, five games under at this point? They cruised into the playoffs. And by the way, the Mariners are turning in the right direction. They went 9 of 13. Mm-hmm. No. I'd actually argue that considering how, you know,

poor your three best offensive players have played, and I mean, heck, Ty France himself had two weeks where he was just the worst hitter in baseball. Now he's turned it around. So the fact that you haven't really gotten any kind of meaningful production for the most part from Colton Wong, from Teoscar Hernandez, from Julio Rodriguez, you know, for Thai France for a good chunk of this year and you're still 20 and 20. And that's, by the way, is without Robbie Ray and that's with like three innings of Andres Munoz. To me, I'm really encouraged by where this team is right now. And it looks to me like there are 90,

plus win team to me. So, yeah, we'll see. Obviously, you would have liked to have been, you know, 25 and 15 right now, but you're right there and you're a couple one run losses away from being right there. And again, that's without your best players really contributing all year. You're doing it right now with pitching and bullpen and the defense has gotten cleaned up quite a bit since the first couple of weeks, base running. But the offense.

is scoring a few more runs now. Hopefully, you know, we're seeing Julio kind of start to come out of his slump. Hopefully, Tateo's getting ready to do the same. But no, I'm actually right where I was 40 games ago. I think this is a 90 plus win team

that's going to make the playoffs and they stay healthy, do some serious damage in the playoffs. So I'm not too worried. Yeah, my expectations are about the same. My expect, or the reason for those expectations, though, have changed a little bit over the, first 40 games. Really what I mean by that, the reason for these expectations changing is

certain guys are failing to meet expectations so far and certain guys are exceeding expectations like Jared Kelnick, like this pitching staff that despite losing Robbie Ray and Andreas Muño's very early on has been one of, if not the best in baseball. So once that starts to, you know, once both of those things regress back to the mean, I think we're pretty much going to be right where we expected this team to be and have an opportunity to get a hell of a lot better at the trade deadline in July

assuming that they don't fall off a cliff here in the next two months and are still in a position to buy at that point. So, yeah, my expectations are about the same. Just the reasons for the expectations are a little bit different just based off of what I've seen.

If that makes sense. I don't know if that makes sense. All right. Sure. So before we hop off here, I wanted to mention that we are currently running a survey for this podcast to gauge community interests and some things that we might end up doing to help grow the community or just some content ideas, interview ideas, give away ideas, stuff like that. If you want to have your voice heard on that front, we'll leave a link to the survey in the description of this episode on YouTube or. wherever you are listening to this episode. So Spotify, Apple, all that stuff. It'll be in the description as well. You can click that link and put in your answers for the survey. So yeah, help us out. And we've gotten some great responses already. I think we're almost at 400 already. So it's

been nice to hear all of your feedback on that front. So and I'm hoping that we'll implement some of the things that you guys have voted on pretty soon here. So with that, that's going to do it for our show. so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. Colby Pat node, I'm Tadang Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, it's D-A-N-ZL-Z and Colby at C-Pad 11. That's C-PAT-11. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok as well at Lockdown Mariners.

That's one word Locked-on Mariners. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Catch us after the game tomorrow night for a Locked-on Mariners post-game show. but for now have yourself a beautiful baseball day. We'll see you after the game tomorrow night. Peace.