Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Head to Anaheim

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

Locked On Mariners hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode get you set for the M's road series in Anaheim, discuss two AL Central trade candidates and talk all about the bullpen, including which of the group has the best pitch, which is expendable this winter, plus what to do with Matt Brash and Andres Munoz this week.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/NetSuiteNetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program only for those ready to switch today! Head to NetSuite.com/LockedOnBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. 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.

You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Happy Friday. This is Tain Gonzalez, host of Lockdown Mariners here. Joined, as always by my co-host, Colby Patnode. Our show today is brought to you by Spotify Green Room. Download the Spotify Green Room app and find one of our locked-on rooms.

You can also find Colby and I on Twitter at Dane Gonzalez and C-P-T-P-E, G-N-Z-L-Z-L-C-P-A-T-A-T. T-1-1. Be sure to also check out our Patreon where we talk about the Mariners even more. Also get into some non-baseball talk twice a week. Visit patreon.com forward slash control zone for more information on that. On today's episode of Lockdown Mariners, we're going to get you set for the M's weekend series down in Anaheim. And just because their playoff hopes have been somewhat revitalized over the last few days. We're not going off of our off-season coverage and debates. Got a couple trade targets I want to talk about and see what Colby thinks about them. And then we're going to talk about the bullpen, which actually kind of branches off of the trade talk and discuss which relievers are expendable, which are must keeps, if any, who has the best pitch in the group and who's the best pitcher in the group overall.

We'll probably also talk about Andres Munoz, who is now in Tacoma. And there's been some talk about possibly calling him up as well. So if you like what you hear, give the show a follow or subscribe wherever you listen to this. We greatly appreciate it. We're going to kick things off here, though, by looking at this upcoming series with the Angels three games set down in Anaheim, the Mariners last trip down to Anaheim. Colby, what are your thoughts heading into this one? You got to find a way to take two or three here. You know, you can't really afford to lose a series.

And, you know, the math tells you you probably need to sweep one of these three series. So it would be great if it was this one, that would be fantastic. But you have to find a way to take two out of three. you know, with the Yankees playing the Red Sox, those games, those matchups can go either way. So you really have to just focus on winning the series that you can control. And it's this one right here. So find a way to win two out of three at least. And you'll be in it when we talk again on Monday.

So it's really just about controlling what you can control. Go win two of these games. And, you know, it'd be nice to win the first two. So you don't have to try and beat Shohei Otani on Sunday. Sunday, but we'll see how it works out. This team is, let's say, different. So who knows what's going to happen. So tonight, it is Logan Gilbert versus Jose Souraz, and we'll see if Gilbert's able to continue the nice little streak that he's on the last few starts. Tyler Anderson going on the bump for the M's tomorrow. We don't know who's taking the bump for the Angels,

however and then you mentioned Otani of course pitching on Sunday Marco Gonzalez squaring off with him which of these matchups is it the Otani one or is there another one here that maybe stands out to you maybe the Gilbert one tonight it's the Otani matchup

he's their best guy there was some thought that maybe the angels would shut him down from pitching since they're out of it but it sounds like he's going to get at least one more start. And, you know, if he does make another start again, you know, again this year, it will be against the Mariners. So you might have to face Otani twice in the next 10 days.

So yeah, it'd be nice to see them, put some pressure on them, maybe get the pitch count elevated, maybe push, you know, Los Angeles to maybe not be quite so aggressive with Otani's pitch count and maybe you know you can get him up to 60 through three innings they just might pull him and say you know that that's enough so um yeah it's definitely that one anytime otani's doing anything he's going to be the biggest storyline you know whether or not he deserves to be but he mostly does but sometimes it's a little it's a little too much but uh no he's he's he's the guy right and especially without trout he's kind of the one guy who makes that lineup respectable um And obviously on the mound, he's very good.

Seattle's faced him, I think, once this year on the mound. And it was, I think they got two off of him. So it wasn't exactly, you know, dominant. It wasn't exactly a great effort from the offense. So we'll see what happens. But, yeah, I mean, Otani is going to be the toughest. Otani might be the one matchup where you don't have the advantage on the mount. So we'll see how it works out.

that's why I would really like to win these first two. But yeah, it's Otani versus Marco because Marco's been really good the second half as well. So that should be a good, solid, low scoring game, hopefully. And it should be a fun one to watch. But obviously right now, Logan Gilbert is incredibly fun to watch as well. So obviously, no Mike Trout, no Anthony Rendon, but they still have some pretty solid bats in their lineup. Of course, Otani is the big one. But Brandon Marsh has been playing pretty well.

Phil Gosselin's been kind of pesky this year, Jared Walsh. David Fletcher has given the Mariners quite a bit of problems here. So, you know, is there really maybe a name that you're looking at here other than Otani in this Angels lineup, someone that might give the Mariners some problems in this series? Yeah, it's Fletcher. Keep him off the bases, make Otani hit with two outs and nobody on unless he gets a leadoff, which they've done. But yeah, it's, you know, limit the guys in front of Otani.

So you can limit the damage that Otani is going to do. He's probably going to hit a home run in the series, maybe two. But the key is to make him solo shots or, you know, to make them two-run homers when you have a four-run lead. Like, just don't let him be the one that gets them back into the game for somebody else to beat you. And the Mariners have actually had pretty good success against Otani. He has not hit them particularly well. He's hit some home runs off of it off of them. but really a very low on base,

very low batting average. So they seem to have a good idea of how to pitch him. For Logan tonight, it's going to be about the change up, fading away from him. And for guys like Marco and Tyler Anderson, it's probably going to be the cutter running away from Otani. That's how you're going to get them.

So, yeah, it's really making sure the guys in front of Otani don't do damage so that Otani can clean it up. And that means Fletcher. And Fletcher, you know, Askingy Mariner fan, David Fletcher has been a bigger issue than Shohei Otani this year. So, yeah, it's Fletcher. And then obviously you have to respect Walsh and his power.

And Gosselin is pretty good, particularly against lefties. So, yeah, it's, there are some bats here. But it's pretty much Fletcher Otani and Walsh that you really have to pay attention to. And then, you know, just make good quality pitches to the other guys in this lineup. And they will help you out. and I'm sure Max Stassie will hit like three home runs because that's what he usually does against the Mariners. That guy has just been really annoying to face. It's really strange.

The Angels have a couple of guys who just all of a sudden find their stroke against the Mariners. It's weird, but it is what it is. Of course, Jack Mayfield, Mariner Legend, also consistently in the Angels lineup, playing third base for them. Yeah, this is not a good team. the Mariners should at least win two or three here hopefully get all three uh but yeah it's i mean there's there's really no excuses here the i'm even with how not so great the mariners are really you know lineup wise particularly uh i i don't have any qualms uh with with saying that the the mariners are a better team than the angels here uh so we'll see we'll see how it turns out

But it should be a fun series. And we'll see if you'll be able to use your favorite GIF quite a bit over the next three days on Twitter. So we're going to talk about some trade targets and just a moment. But real quick, I want to remind you guys that this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by NetSuite. Slow is just right if you're on vacation, a sloth, or describing quickbooks. More like Slow Books, am I right? It sucks you in and slows you down with manual. processes, integration difficulties, and glitchy delays that leave you scrambling for the numbers

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Go to built.com and use promo code Locked 15 and you'll get 15% off your order. That's LOC, KED, 1,000. 15% off your order at built.com. So we talked about on our Patreon show on Wednesday, our offseason plan that we do pretty much every year since you and I have been writing about the Mariners together. And that's been what four years now? We've crafted quite a few offseason plans together. And what you and I usually do is I'll make a plan, you'll make a plan.

And then we'll get together and kind of figure out how to piece together both of our plans and create one master plan, if you will. and so you know you and i have been already cracking on this for for a while now for a few weeks now and um you know i've been you know slowly but surely like working through some guys that i like really what i'm doing this year is um just kind of identifying which players that i like trade targets free agents and then putting together a 26 man roster and a 40 man roster and then figuring how to how to make it all work from a trade perspective from a dollar amount and all that stuff and and tweak it that way. And so because I've been doing all this research and stuff,

you know, I'm looking at every roster. I'm looking at every single possibility. Any single play, you know, any, any potential player that would help the Mariners trying to cover all my bases. And I have a couple new trade targets that you and I haven't really talked about. You and I did talk about one of them in our DMs yesterday. But, and I'll, and we'll, we'll start with him, actually. Mitch Garver, the twins catcher who really helped the twins beat the Blue Jays last night and help out the Mariners. He is 30 years old, has dealt with some injuries, but when he's healthy, he's been one of the best hitting catchers in all of baseball. In 2019, he slashed 273, 365, 630 and 93 games with a 155 WRC Plus. This year he's only played in 63 games, but he's slashing 262, 365, 539.

also a pretty solid defender behind the plate as well. What do you think about Mitch Garver, who's under club control for the next three years? I think he's probably going to be too expensive. You know, like you mentioned, when he plays, he's a very good offensive catcher and a pretty good defensive catcher as well. The twins, I don't know what the twins are going to do this offseason. Obviously, they traded Brios, and they talked about trading. Buxton and that would seem to imply that they're open to some kind of rebuild situation. And Buxston only has a year left.

So expect those talks to kick up again. They do decide to rebuild. And Garber is probably a guy that makes a lot of sense for them to trade. But also, I just have no confidence that the twins are actually going to do that. I think the twins are going to do what the twins always do. And they're going to, you know, find a one year kind of prove it deal for a good but older player like Josh Donaldson a few years ago. I think they're going to acquire, you know, a number three starter like Kenton Maeda

and kind of replaced Burrios that way. And I just feel like they're not going to really dive headfirst into a rebuild. And if they're not going to do that, then keeping Garber makes a lot of sense. So I like the idea. I just think he's going to end up being too expensive for Seattle. or anybody who wants to acquire him, particularly when, you know, Seattle has some, some options right now.

It's not like Seattle has no catching options for next year. So they don't really need to overpay. So, yeah, Garber is a fun idea. I just, I just think ultimately he's going to cost a little too much. That's pretty much where I stand as well. And obviously, you know, you mentioned the options. They have, you know, a few in-house options. They also could look at young.

Gomes they could look at trading for Wilson Contreras. These are guys that we've talked about quite a bit over the last few weeks when talking about the offseason. Let's stick with the Yale Central here, though. Here's another guy that I've been looking at. And it's with the White Sox. And you and I have talked about possibly trading one of the Mariners relievers to the White Sox who are always looking for bullpen help.

Good team, obviously not going to be selling off too many pieces. But I think you might be able to get one major league piece from them for one of your relievers. Adam Engel. What do you think about Adam Engel who's been, he's figured it out at the plate as of late. However, he's dealt with some injuries, but when he's been healthy and, you know, I've talked about Miles Straw wanting to add better outfield defense this offseason. Adam Engel's been one of the more underrated outfielder's in baseball sprint speed, 98th percentile this year. Last year, 100th percentile in sprint speed. And then in 2019, he was 80th percentile an outfielder jump.

That was the last time that he played enough games to register that. And now that he's been figuring it out of the plate a little bit, you know, he's last year in 36 games, 295-333-477. This year in 36 games, 254, 338, 509. And with the injuries, I feel like he is attainable. What do you think? I think if you're Seattle, you want something that's more stable. than angle is.

Yes, he's been good the last two years, but he's only played 72 games out of a possible, what, 200 and 22. So that's obviously,

you know, guys missing three quarters of a season. I'm approaching this as a fourth outfielder, by the way, or like a... Yeah, I still think you want... Like a platoon-ish with Kelnick.

I still think you want somebody who's going to post every day. Um, so like, and also look, this is the, you're trading, this is a white socks guy. The white socks are going to be competitive. So you're going to have to trade something that helps them now in theory. I mean, maybe they just want angles roster spot free and maybe that's a way you can get him. He is going to be obviously ARP, ARP two this year.

So he's going to cost him, you know, probably two, three million bucks, which isn't nothing. But the white socks also haven't shown that they're willing to spend a 180, million dollars. So, uh, it's possible that he's available. It's possible that that maybe this is a like Drew Steckenwriter for Adam Engel type of thing where that's what I was asking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's one of those things where it's like, it could it work? Sure. But I, I would prefer somebody who I feel really confident is, is going to play a lot and is going to produce. And while he's been very good over his last 72 games, it's just 72 games so the rest of this his track record is subpar but again he's

do you have someone that do you have someone that kind of fits in that similar mold that has a better history health-wise that comes to mind uh as in terms of like a fourth outbuilder platoon yeah i mean i've looked at i mean markana for one um Um, I mean, obviously that's going to be more expensive money wise, but doesn't cost you a prospect. So or maybe a reliever. But, uh, no, it's, you know, you talked about, uh, Miles Straw. I'd probably be more interested, interested in Miles Straw, um, than angle. Just just because straw plays, you know, every day.

So, um, like I said, angle could be a good idea. It's just you have to believe that he's going to stay healthy for the first time. And well, I mean, last year you played 36 out of 60. so it's not like, but you know, he wasn't healthy this year. You have to trust that he's healthy. And you have to trust that what you've seen over the last 72 games scattered over two years is more substantial than the previous 300 games where he was well below average at the plate. So, yeah, it's somebody like that.

And I mean, again, there are going to be right-handed bats that you can bring in as a fourth outfielder like Tommy Fam or or Mark Cannon, like I mentioned. Angle definitely could feel that just how much do you trust him to, A, stay healthy, and B, repeat what he's doing this year. Well, what I'm really looking for is, like, what's kind of a cheapish flyer that I can take? And maybe what's the way that I can maximize the value of Drew Steckin Rider? And I feel like Angle's a guy that if you can keep him healthy, I mean, he could be a legitimate contributor for you next year. but yeah these are you know it's just a couple of guys that that i look at that that have you know some some health issues that maybe hey maybe they can finally get back on the horse and play an actual full season or at least close to that maybe you can get them for for less

than they would typically cost if they had been playing full seasons last couple years um you know and that's you know and that's kind of how i look at it with garber you know yeah i i i I think you're out looking for your hunter rent fro, to be quite honest with you, who is, you know, not never really had like this huge success before this year. But it was always a quality player who showed traits and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And now this year he's been very good as kind of the everyday right fielder. So it feels like that's the guy you're looking for is where's my, where's my hunter renfro type? who probably starts as a platoon guy. Maybe he's a starting left fielder because Kelnick needs to go to AAA for a while.

But then I could use him in a platoon spot. And then you hope that he's just actually good. And he takes one of the jobs, like Hanniger's job, for example. Feels like that's kind of what you're searching for. And I'm also looking for ways to kind of cut down on the money, right? Yeah. Because a lot of the guys that feel like they just scream, like they fit, you know, this team and this roster, guys are probably going to cost, you know, $14, $15 million.

And that starts to add up, especially, you know, you and I are probably going to have a cap of like $130 million. And, you know, once you go through the offense, it's like, all right, well, I've already eaten up more than half of that. And I still need to add pitching, which is going to cost money and prospects and stuff. So trying to limit how much resources I'm spending both from a, from a prospect standpoint and a financial standpoint. It's hard. It's hard because there's a lot of holes that I want to fill on this roster. And it's just, it's a lot of moves that are required to do that. But it should

be fun to piece it all together. But yeah, those are a couple guys. Wow. Oh, boy. Those are a couple guys that I am considering right now. And just, and more so, I would say it's the idea of it. And you made a good point there. Maybe it's like a like I'm looking for my hunter refro. Um, it's, it's Adam Engel and Mitch Garver are more of an idea than, um, you know, they're a proof of concept, basically, rather than definitively these guys, um, but I wouldn't be opposed to adding either of them either. Uh, so we talked about Drew's second writer there and maybe taking advantage of his trade value. Let's talk more about the bullpen in just a moment, but real quick, want to remind you this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by betonline.ag.

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Content varies by package. So the Mariners' bullpen has been their crutch this year. It's pretty much the reason why they're in the position they're in right now. For the most part, they've been able to keep the Mariners in close games and have allowed them to win all these one-run, two-run games and kind of mask some of the deficiencies that this offense has. So I want to talk about all of them, really, here before we wrap up our show and wrap up our week here on Lockdown Mariners.

You know, Paul Seawald, Diego Castillo, Casey Sadler, Drew's second rider. These have been the four horses here. And then you think about next year, you're adding Andres Monos, you're adding Ken Giles. This bullpen is going to get better and better. So which of these guys, this winner, do you view as maybe more so expendable? Whose market do you really want to explore? Is it Seawald? Obviously, we've talked a lot about Second Rider and how he's probably going to get traded.

you know is is there a guy other than second rider that particularly jumps out to you that yeah i want to actively shop this guy or at least i want to explore that and then um you know what do you think that you could get for any of these guys if if you do look to trade for uh trade them yeah i mean aside from steckin rider um it's probably either sadler or or seawald um i don't think really anybody else in this bullpen aside from i mean you're you're not going to trade giles or munoz and you're not going to trade uh castillo because you just acquired him so i feel like those three guys aren't even a part of this conversation so you take away those three and you're left with stack and rider seawald and uh and sadler so i feel like it's one

of those two uh personally i would chop of those two i would shop seawald more heavily just because I feel like his value is higher. And I don't know, I feel like Sadler is a better bet to repeat the year he's having than all Seawald is. So what do you think that? Real quick. Just,

just, it's, Sadler's been, you know, decent for more than one year. He was pretty solid last year when he played, when he pitched for the Mariners. I think the stuff is a little more repeatable.

There's less variance. With Seawald, it's, you know, hey, he's kind of got this funky arm angle and we see what happens when he loses the feel for that pitch or we see what happens when he doesn't have a slider. It's pretty hitable, whereas Sadler has a couple of tools to really deal with you. So I think Sadler is just safer to repeat this year. And again, you know, like I said, Sadler does have really two years of pitching pretty well. In 2019, he ran a 214 ERA. You know, this year he's at 0.76, but it just, it feels like he's just safer.

And Seawald, there's a bigger possibility that he, you know, to borrow a phrase, he kind of turns back into a pumpkin. But on top of that, I think that Seawald has done enough this year that other teams are going to believe this is who he is. And you should maybe try and take advantage of that. And so it's different, though, than when you traded Diaz, when you traded Diaz, you were looking for best young talent you can get. Whereas this year, if the Mariners were to shop, Steck and Ryder and Seawald and Sadler and

whoever, they're looking for probably a piece that helps them this year or a piece that helps them acquire a piece for this year. So they might trade, they might trade these guys for a pretty good prospect, not top 100, but a pretty solid prospect. And then use that prospect to go get the starting pitcher they want. want to be the difference in, you know, hey, we just acquired this, I don't, Brandon Williamson ask pitcher here. Now, let's put him in this trade package so we can convince the, the Cardinals to give us Jack Flaherty or whatever it is. So, yeah, it's, it's probably, I would, I would trade C-Wald.

A second rider would be my first choice to trade, but if I can't trade him, then I'm probably trying to trade C-Wald before Sadler. But I'm not, I'm not saying no. either or both. So Jerry and his crew are pretty good at putting bullpins together. So if they want to trade one, I'm not going to be upset about that. So real quick here,

you mentioned stuff. Who would you say has the best pitch in this bullpen? Is it Deo Castillo a slider? The best individual slater? Yeah. When it's when it's on like when it's at its very best it's probably castillo slider um see walt slider not too far behind um sadler's curve balls is very fun to watch though um he flips that bad boy in there um

johan ramirez slider when that thing's on and when he's thrown put the fastball for strikes i mean that that that's unfair so uh what's what's funny about this is that you know you ask me again and next week, I could conceivably tell you it's Andre Smoonios' fastball. So it's there's a lot of these guys have a good pitch. You know,

Swanson's split change that he's thrown this year has been pretty darn good. So yeah, everybody in the bullpen has at least one nasty pitch with the exception of Anthony Mischavits, which, yeah, you know, not a ton of, sandwiches fan.

I would have to go with Castillo slider because I mean that thing like you said when it's on it's just filthy. I think he's generated what like a 40% whiff percentage on it this year? I mean dude, that is ridiculous. I think last year it was half of the sliders that he threw generated whiffs.

That's just stupid. That's just beyond stupid. That's so good and so unfair. Yeah, he, he, And now that you've seen him get over the shoulder issues and stuff, he's been, obviously he had a little bit of a hiccup in the Oakland series, but he's been really good for the most part. I thought he was okay in the Oakland series. I know he gave up the hits and all that stuff, but one of them was like a, he toothpicked a bat.

I mean, and it landed into right field. So it's like, uh, kind of tough to be too upset about that. But, uh, yeah, Castillo is, his slider this year is generating a whiff on. 39.8 of the swings made against it. Last year, that number was 51.2. So there you go. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's just ridiculous. So you mentioned Munoz. And Shannon Dreher today wrote about that the team is considering it, is considering calling him up. He was down in Arizona in the Developmental League or the Arizona a complex league as they call up. He was around there. He's been added to the

Tacoma roster now because they're the only Mariners minor league affiliate playing right now. And he was sitting 100 down in Tacoma. And I don't know, he looks pretty good. So if the playoffs continue to be a thing

by the time that they get back home on what is it Monday, you considering calling up Andres Munoz? I'm probably not. it's the problem with with Munoz right now is that I mean the stuff is probably going to play but also we don't really know because you know stuff right after a Tommy John surgery it's hit or miss but the bigger issue for me is that you call it Munoz and you're not going to throw him on back to back days like that's not going to happen so you're talking about getting him one inning. you know, every two or three days. Does that really help you all that much?

I mean, I'm sure there will be moments where it's like, oh, well, it sure would be nice to have Andres Munoz right now. And it's like, well, I mean, it would be nice to have like the healthy, good version of Andres Munoz, but we still don't know what the command looks like. That's usually the last thing to come back after Tommy John. And again, it's this idea of, well, he's only going to pitch, what, what's the most, he's going to pitch what? Four innings before the end of the year.

at most. And is that really worth all that much? Probably not, especially since Scott really isn't going to feel that comfortable using him in these leverage situations. So what's the point? I don't understand the point of doing that. Like he's not a starter, right? He's not going to, you know, he's not going to start the Kikuchi game. And that's just a straight bullpen day.

And at that point, you might as well just roll with the guys who got. there so I don't really see the point in calling up Munoz right now if he could pitch back to back days then I'd be more interested but there I there's no way they do that there's no way they allow a young arm that they're really high on coming off of Tommy John

to go back to back days in a playoff race they're just they're not going to do that so I don't really see the point if you're going to do something like that just call up Matt Brash and put him in the bullpen but speaking of Brash they have him on a throwing plan apparently right now. Now that AA Arkansas's season has ended.

I know there were some questions about that yesterday when the topic of Brash being called up came back up. But yeah, so he's on a throwing plan right now. So they're keeping him ready in case that they want to pull the trigger on that. But it seems like this is going to be a very fluid situation, really depending on what happens over the next four games between yesterday and Kakuchi's now. start because it seems like they're at least going to i mean like we talked about this yesterday

but real quick if you do call up brash are you piggybacking him with kakuchi are you just letting him start the kukuchi game like when like if they do call him up and we we've talked about should they what would they do with him but like how how do you utilize Matt Brash if he doesn't end up getting called up. Do you piggyback him with Kakushi or what, what is it? What's the plan? Yeah, I just, again, I think Jerry said recently that he's out of, quote, starter innings.

So, I mean, that tells me that he's not going to go five, six, seven innings if he does get called up. So I think this plan has to be that you. maximum he faces the lineup once, which hopefully gets you through three, but more than likely two, two and a third, something like that.

And then from there on, I just, I wouldn't use Kikuchi at all. If I don't trust Kikuchi to get through the lineup once, then I'm probably going from Brash to Joe Smith to Eric Swanson to, you know, the rest of my bullpen as normal. So,

yeah, it's, to me, it's like if you're going to call it Brash to take Kikuchi's spot, then just don't use Kikki. Cucci at all. Right. If you have that little trust in him, it's why I put him out there.

Would you try to delay his start a little bit to maybe get him against the Angels instead of the A's? Nope. Too late in the year to do that. You don't have an off day till next Thursday. It's just, it's not going to work. So it's too late in the year to ask somebody to go on short rest. It's too, I mean, you'd be moved. We've seen how Bacuchy's been on four days rest.

You're going to move him up or back a couple days. So that means what? You're going to have... No, I'm not talking about Kikuchi. I'm talking about Brash. I'm talking about how to get a softer landing spot. No, because I think he has to slide into the Kikuchi role. I think you want to keep everybody else on schedule.

The rest of your rotation is on a nice little run right now. So I don't think you want to disrupt that. So yeah, for me, the answer for me is still Kikuchi is probably making that start, which sucks, but it's what's most likely to happen. an incredibly short leash. And it might even be, even if he gets through three and he's only given up like one hit and one walk and he's thrown 55 pitches,

they just might take him out anyways, just to play it safe. But I do think he makes that start. Well, Mariners won't commit to it yet. Scott Service wouldn't commit to it last night after the game. So we'll see, we'll see what happens. But they are keeping their options open.

And like I said, it's going to be fluid. But Monday's episode could be pretty fun, depending on what happens this weekend. But that's going to do it for today's show. Thank you so much for joining us here on Lockdown Mariners for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadayin Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners.

You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. That's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you on Monday. Betting on Major League Baseball doesn't have to be a guessing game. if you listen to the new Lockdown Betts podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicap and expert Lee Sterling. Get daily picks, blowout specials,

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