Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: With Very Few Days Off Until Mid-June, Should Mariners Consider Six-Man Rotation?

Starting point is 00:00:00 After beginning his rehab stint and dominant fashion yesterday, when will Brian Wu return? And what will the mayor is do with Emerson Hancock when he does? We'll answer that and more coming up here on Mailbag Monday. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors.

Starting point is 00:00:28 It is Monday, April 22nd, 2024. This is Taday and Gonzales and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marys podcast, brought to you by eBay Motors. From brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride or die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride or die live at eBay motors.com. Eligible items only, exclusions apply eBay guaranteed fit, only available to U.S. customers. Thank you so much for making us your first list and subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star

Starting point is 00:01:00 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 with us know with the comments below we'd love to hear from you and if you want to hear from us even more please consider signing up for our patreon you can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show the link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode and this is mailbag monday the show will re-answer your marion's questions and we're going to start here with ian who wants to know who will replace louis urius if he goes on the injured list sam harity or ryan bliss or samad taylor so of course yesterday during game two of yesterday's double header uh louis serius was hit on the

Starting point is 00:01:35 the hand wrist area in the second inning. He was able to finish that inning, both on the base pass and defensively, but was later pinch hit for by Josh Rojas. So it's possible he could land on the IL. And if he does, Colby, who do you think takes his spot? I think it's probably going to be Haggerty. He would be the, I would say, the overwhelming favorite in this scenario. You know, the interesting thing here is that you don't need to call up somebody who would

Starting point is 00:02:06 in theory directly take Eureas's role, which in the first 20-some-odd games has been almost a straight platoon with Rojas, because you already have that player on the roster. His name is Dillon Moore. So Dillamore kind of replaces Eureas in that role. So what you have to do now is you have to replace Dillamore's role, which for the most part has been outfield against left-handed pitching. A little bit of shortstop sometimes when, you know, JP needed a day off. But yeah, mostly Demos has been an outfielder this year.

Starting point is 00:02:36 So you kind of need somebody who, you know, can play the outfield. It doesn't hurt if they can play the infield, but it's not 100% necessary. And it would help if they could hit left-handed pitching. If they had a track record of hitting left-handed pitching, and that's all Sam Haggarty right there. And Haggurty has actually been up and down and up and down with the Mariners for the last few years and done some really nice things for Seattle when he has been in the big leagues. He also traditionally hits left-handed pitching very well.

Starting point is 00:03:02 He's a much better hitter from the right side than he has the left side. But he does have the switch hit ability. which is a nice little bonus here. We know he can steal bases. We know he's pretty good in the outfield defensively. We know he can play second a little bit. So while that also, all those characteristics also apply to Samad Taylor, Haggerty is the guy who has kind of earned that right to be the first guy up in a situation like this.

Starting point is 00:03:28 So I think it's Haggerty. It could be, Taylor would probably be number two on my list. Ryan Bliss is not a third baseman. He is not an outfielder. It's not that he's not athletic enough to play those positions. It's just that he hasn't. So he, I mean, you're calling him up. He's never played in the outfield before.

Starting point is 00:03:45 There's not a lot of outbats to get in the infield. You're adding him to the 40 man, which means you have to DFA somebody else. So it's a little more complicated than just calling up Haggerty and putting Eureas on the IL. So I think Bliss is probably in the background. Plus, if you're calling up Ryan Bliss, you want to play him because he's still a guy that you're hoping

Starting point is 00:04:04 can develop into something. theme. And so calling him up and just having him sit for, you know, five days in a row, hoping to find one left-handed pitcher that you could start him at second and then play Polanco at third, I guess. I mean, I don't know. So I don't think Bliss is the answer here, although he's had a very nice spring that has extended into Tacoma as well. One name I throw out there that wasn't mentioned here, Cade Marlowe could come into play because, again, you don't necessarily need an infielder. Right. It's just someone that essentially takes Dillamore's left field reps because Dillamore is going to take Erez's third base reps. Right. Right. So that's why Marlowe could come into play here. The thing with Marlowe, though, is that Seattle's already having a difficult time managing at-bats for their corner outfielders right now.

Starting point is 00:04:54 And not that we need to get into it, but we've already told them how they could do it. But they seem to not think that's a possibility or whatever, despite Luke Grayley having. two of his last three starts to be very good, but, you know, whatever. No, God forbid. It's fascinating what happens when he actually put them in the lineup. Imagine that. So I don't think it's going to be Marlow, though, because that's another lefty. I don't think they want to add another lefty. I think they would prefer a right-handed bat to replace Erez.

Starting point is 00:05:21 And to me, that's Haggerty. So when you factor in everything here from the roster construction to, you know, having done it before and the trust factor that the Mariners would have in a guy like Haggurty who they've seen do it repeatedly. I think Haggdy is the clear answer here. I don't know if it should be Haggurty, but I don't think that there's a big enough difference between Haggurty and Taylor and Bliss at this stage. And I think Hagridi just checks most of the boxes for what's what actually need from this roster spot. Right. And when you've heard Justin Hollander talk about Haggurdy recently, it seems like he's

Starting point is 00:05:55 kind of the guy that's first in line to get that call up. And I think even back in Milwaukee when Thai France had to go on the paternity. list. That would have been Haggerty had he not still been rehabbing from his own ailment at the time. So yeah, I think it's Haggerty. I think he'll be the one that gets the call up if Ereus has to go on the IL. But hopefully that's not the case. And Ereus is able to stick around here. Right. Initial reports are that it's contusion. But the way these things work a lot of the time is that the swelling happens so quickly that they can't get good imaging of the of the wrist itself. So, It's labeled as a contusion, the swelling goes down, then they can get a look with an MRI. And then a lot of the times how he was hit specifically when you watch the replay, it's not uncommon for that exact injury to, you know, or is it that exact scenario to lead to a fractured wrist or something like that. So, you know, fingers crossed. But even if it's just swelling and he's not going to be able to play for a few days,

Starting point is 00:06:57 they still might consider popping him on the IL just so that they have a bench spot that they can use for the next two weeks and just make sure that he gets right and all of that. So hopefully it's just the bruise, but just because that's what it was initially diagnosed, doesn't mean that's all it is because these things, the swelling has to go down. You have to get a clear picture of it. So hopefully it's just a bruise. But I wouldn't be shocked at all if there was a fracture. Next question here comes from Matthew, assuming health and once Wu is ready to return.

Starting point is 00:07:27 Could you see the mayor is going with a six-man rotation for a little while? starting Tuesday, they play 52 games and 55 days. I don't think they'd go with a six-man rotation, simply because I don't think giving the ball to Logan Gilbert and George Kirby and Luis Castillo less is a good idea in general. So I don't see them going to a six-man. They might do it for a little while. If they want to do it for like a month, then I think you can make that work.

Starting point is 00:07:56 But again, at the end of the year, you want to make sure Luis Castillo has his third. You want to make sure Logan Gilbert has his 32 starts. You want to, right, like, would you rather have Luis Castillo get 28 starts or 32 starts? Right. Like, it's just math. So if you go with a six-manor rotation, you're taking away starts from the guys you actually want to pitch and you're giving them to Emerson Hancock, who, while he's certainly held his own, well, three of the four starts and he's given you a chance to win. He hasn't done anything that makes you believe that this is a guy who's, you know, significantly bad. better than just giving the ball to Luis Castillo every five days instead of every six days.

Starting point is 00:08:37 So, you know, Hancock's done a nice job. He's certainly been a number five, you know, and most of his starts. And even yesterday, he was a little bit better than that. But I don't think he's the type of guy that you extend a six-man rotation for. If they want to do it short term, just so that Wu can kind of build up and they can get that, maybe a turn or two through the rotation, they can get away with that. But I don't think they're going to do that. I think they're going to want to keep Hancock in line as well.

Starting point is 00:09:02 So sending him down to Tacoma and just making that swap with Brian Wu, keeps him in the same rotation, keeps him in the same schedule. And he can kind of continue to build there because we have to remember too, Hancock is not a guy who, you know, shouldn't have any innings caps or anything put on him. He is a guy who has never gotten through a full season either. So I think, you know, sending him down and maybe short scripting him

Starting point is 00:09:26 and, you know, kind of giving him a couple weeks off in the middle of the year, is something they'll want to do. So in the short term, it's possible, you know, for the rest of the season, or even for the next two months. I don't see it. Maybe for a couple weeks, but for a two-month stretch, no, I don't think that's something they would do. Yeah, they only have three off days between Tuesday and June 16th. All right, we got another question about Brian Wu and more coming up here in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Mary's podcast is brought to you by eBay Motors and Monopoly Go.

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Starting point is 00:11:47 The Marers kick off a three game set with the Rangers tomorrow. Catch every pitch on the Marriss Hometown Broadcast with Sirius XM on the SXM app to search Marrars. We're also going to be joined by Marrers broadcaster Gary Hill Jr. I'll show looking forward to that always fun checking in with gary let's get back into your questions Nate wants to know with Brian Wu's dominant first rehab start any chance the M's just bring him up and let him throw 60 pitches versus the debacks this weekend I don't think so I think he's going to get one more and then we're looking and then I think we're looking at um his season

Starting point is 00:12:20 debut in Houston potentially yeah at least one more uh first of all we have to make sure that Brian, who came out of yesterday. Okay. How is he feeling today? How is he feeling tomorrow? Does he make his next start on time? These are all important things.

Starting point is 00:12:36 And then what's the pitch count? I think he threw, was 35 pitches in this outing. Not too sure. I think it was 35 in three innings, struck out five. I think it was 25, 45 strikes. So if it was 35, 40 pitches,

Starting point is 00:12:51 his next outing, probably 55 to 60 in there. And then in his next outing in theory, at the big league level, he could probably go 75 pitches. So a lot of this might depend on what the previous few days look like. Did they have to tax the bullpen in those games? Then maybe they just leave him down there for one more start because Hancock is built up where he can go 85, 90, 100 pitches.

Starting point is 00:13:12 So I don't think it's a sure thing he's even up after this next rehab start. But he's certainly not going to be up after yesterday. They're going to want to see him go out there and do it again. And they're going to want to build a pitch count up more than, you know, more than 60, I think, before he pitches in the big leagues. And plus, again, something to keep in mind here, Brian Wu is a guy who you do kind of want to be careful with in terms of his workload this year as well. So if you don't have to call him up, you know, maybe you can find a way to like, hey, Hancock pitched well against Arizona too. Like let's push Wu back a day or something.

Starting point is 00:13:49 Let's give him an extra day or let's have him make his rehab assignment start in Tacoma. and then we'll push him back like seven days or whatever and then we'll call him up like they're going to be a little bit careful with Brian Lou. But no, I don't think they're going to jump him straight to the big leagues. Yeah, it is, it is interesting that suddenly, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:06 partly because of the rain out on Friday that him and Hancock are now lined up. Yeah. So we'll see. Again, I assume that he's going to get one more, at least one more rehab start. But like you said, we need to see if he made it out of yesterday,

Starting point is 00:14:22 you know, totally fine. But assuming that he did, I think that that Houston series, I believe that's May 3rd through the 5th. I think that's kind of the target area for, for we to make his season debut. I think so too. Next question here from David. How much of a different player is Julio if he doesn't have the home run power this year, but hits 285 and swipes 45 bags? Is he still an MVP candidate slash top 10 player in the American League slash MLB? No. he's he's going to get to his power yeah it's going to happen and it's going to come in droves you'd still be a good player

Starting point is 00:14:58 because the 285 batting average is well above league average you would also assume then that his on base percentage would be 340 350 and when you pair that with his elite center field defense still probably a 4 1 player 3 and a half 4 1 player all star yeah so still a really good player just that you need hollio to be right right i mean like and all you need from the power department if julio hits like 20 home run but hits like 40 doubles and he's sitting 290 and you know 350 360 on base and he's stealing 45 bags like that's a little disappointing in the power department but that's still probably a six one player yeah so he's gonna he's gonna get to his power how many home runs do you hit in his rookie year uh 27 yeah and that included two stents on the i l and he didn't hit his first

Starting point is 00:15:47 and he didn't hit his first home run until my birthday which was may first yeah it's sandy al Yeah, I remember the absolute mammoth blast in Miami. BT wants to know if the bottom of the lineup keeps producing, how far up will say Rojas slide or does Scott value the second leadoff better that much? I think the lineup is what it is. Yeah. Like I don't see the moving JP off with a leadoff spot anytime in the next couple weeks at least. Julio's pretty comfortable in the two and he's starting to produce right now. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:20 And then, you know, the three, four, five, like, you're not moving Rojas up that high. So. Right. Like I said, I think it was, it was last Monday that we answered a pretty similar question. Like, I wouldn't hate it if they wanted to try Rojas in the lead off spot. I don't really think that it's necessary. Sure. I think we're, I think we've seen some positive signs out of JP the last few games.

Starting point is 00:16:40 Sure. Sure. Again, JP also still has a ways to go. But starting to, you know, move in the right direction. And then you're not going to hit them over Hanager. Polanco, even Garver, really under any circumstances. So, you know, I think the highest you can go is seven, you know, but then you're, I mean, you're not going to hit him ahead of cow right now either.

Starting point is 00:17:04 So probably seven, eight is something like that. And you're choosing between eight and nine, there's really not enough of a difference there in terms of quantity of at-bats to not just put him in the nine and, you know, let him get on base and that way if JP doesn't, Julio still gets to hit with a guy on base. So I don't see them moving them up much higher than seven would be the highest I can go. And if they don't want to go to seven,

Starting point is 00:17:29 then they might as well go with nine instead of eight. I think your worst hitter should probably hit eight. But obviously, the difference between eight and nine isn't huge. Yeah. In terms of that, so I don't see them moving up, Rojas. All right. We're going to answer a couple more of your questions in just a moment.

Starting point is 00:17:45 But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdowner's podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. It's playoff time in the NBA and NHL, baseball is in full swing, and Fandul is your place to bet on every game. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. That's $150, win or lose. Bet on everything from slap shots to home runs to slam dunks, all on an app that is safe, secure, and super easy to use. So what are you waiting for? Visit Fandual.com slash locked on. That's L-O-C-K-D-O-N and make your first bet. And make your first bet an automatic win. Again, that's Fanduil.com slash

Starting point is 00:18:24 Locked-on, L-O-C-D-O-N. Van Duel, America's number one sportsbook. You're listening to the Lockdown Marriss podcast. Thank you again for making us your first. Listen, once again, the Marys kick off a three-game set with Rangers tomorrow. Catch every pitch on the Marra's hometown broadcast with Sirius XM. On the S-X-M app, just search Mariners. Max wants to know if Jonathan Clase continues to impassee continues to impasse.

Starting point is 00:18:51 impact games and Luke Rayleigh gets opportunities like he did in game two looked pretty solid max ads. Is there any chance Dominic Canzon doesn't have a spot when he's healthy? Of course, barring injuries. Hashtag keep winning the series. I can agree with that. Suppose it's possible, but Claese's got to play a lot better than he is right now. I think there's this idea that Claucet's just been incredible since he's come up and he really hasn't. He's held his own. Like he certainly doesn't look. I mean, he's certainly had an impact. I think it's The impact has outweighed the overall numbers, right? Because you look at the overall numbers,

Starting point is 00:19:24 I think it's like an 80 WRC plus or something like that right now. 76. Yeah. 250, 286, 330. That's also a five game sample size. Right. But it was also a 29 strikeout or 29% strikeout rate before he went 0.4 with no strikeouts yesterday.

Starting point is 00:19:42 So these numbers can jump up and down pretty significantly in such a small sample. But overall, he hasn't been great. He hasn't been bad. Like there's nobody saying, he's been bad and he's found a way in each game to make kind of a distinctive play like something that helps the team win with the exception of Saturday or sorry Sunday the first game went over though he did he did reach and I believe he stole base so didn't end up mattering but whatever he's done a little bit of something you know in each of his starts to kind of help so that's good he

Starting point is 00:20:13 hasn't looked overmatched or overwhelmed but to me he doesn't look like a guy who should be playing every day in the big leagues not yet so So we'll have to wait and see not only is it barring other people's injuries, but it's also barring Dominic Canzone. We don't know when Canzone's coming back. Like I have not heard an update since. So does he have a month to prove it? Does he have another two weeks? Like that's going to matter quite a bit.

Starting point is 00:20:37 So plus we haven't really seen the league make the adjustment to Claice yet. Yeah. So to me, like if I had to make a decision today, Clause is going back down. He doesn't look like a guy who should be playing regularly at the big league level. me. Could that change in a month? Sure, it's possible. I would say it's unlikely. But yeah, if I had to make a decision today, Clause is the guy I send down in a month. It's possible that Class A, you know, is surviving still. It's been five games. We have no idea. Yeah. We have no clue or six games, however many it's been. Like, we have no clue what Jonathan Clausee really is

Starting point is 00:21:15 yet. But he has been an impact in almost every single game that he's played in in a pretty big, I might add. But yeah, it's just, we need more time. You know, this question would be better asked three weeks from now. Yeah. So this is pretty topical. Marys Mojo wants to know why are retractable roofs not mandated in the bigs, a game that is so weather dependent, you think this would be a requirement,

Starting point is 00:21:40 especially in places that are prone to weather like Colorado, right? Sure. Look, I can get it if like Atlanta, you don't want to build. a roof in Atlanta. Even then the heat. But a lot of the ballparks are older in this like course field is a beautiful ballpark, but it's older, right? Like they didn't put a roof on it.

Starting point is 00:22:01 I don't know how expensive it would be to just throw a roof over existing stadiums. But I'm going to guess somewhat very expensive. And this is a group. But Colby, we know that that major league owners, they love to spend money on their ball club. Right. If there's one thing we know, just based on the last free agent period is that owners care about not only player safety, not only paying the players

Starting point is 00:22:25 a fair wage, but also giving the fans the experience they deserve. Those are the three most important things to MLV owners. That's right. And that's really the answer to your question. But yeah, could you imagine them ever putting a roof on Fenway or Yankee Stadium?

Starting point is 00:22:40 Like, that's never going to happen, right? Nope. It just feels like some of these newer stadiums, though, like Minnesota. Minnesota should have built a roof. on there is because that's new enough that they could have that should have mandatory target field is absolutely gorgeous by the way I love that stadium but just a retractable roof baby yeah like you can even do the team mobile thing where it's like oh yeah we close the roof but we're still an outdoor stadium right it's not you're not closed it's not

Starting point is 00:23:07 like Toronto where you're just closing a dome now um which sucks by the way that takes rogers center down like three four full grades when it's when it's fully when it's fully especially after the renovations. My favorite thing is like the Rangers, like they have a retractable roof, but their roof is just always closed. It's like, what's even the point?

Starting point is 00:23:29 It looks like a toaster too. Yeah, I mean, it's ugly. It's aesthetically horrible. Minutemate is better aesthetics than the Rangers new ballpark. Is it still Minutemate?

Starting point is 00:23:42 Yeah. Yeah. Still metamade. But yeah, that's the real answer is that they didn't do it at the beginning and now they're too cheap. Has any stadium added a roof?

Starting point is 00:23:50 recently. I don't think so. I think it has to be built in any stadium ever added a roof. I don't think so. I think it's you have to build it when you're building the whole thing. Otherwise, I imagine it's an engineering nightmare, but I don't know. I'm not an architect. I'm not an engineer. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a lawyer. Hashtag not gambling advice. But the real answer is money. Owners don't want to spend it. That's going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here, a reminder that locked on has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube and now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free fire TV channels app.

Starting point is 00:24:26 The Locked On Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked-on Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tidey Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Ty Dane Gonzalez. and Colby at C-Pat 11, that's C-PAT-1-1.

Starting point is 00:24:52 You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first list and have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: With Very Few Days Off Until Mid-June, Should Mariners Consider Six-Man Rotation?

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