Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Mailbag: Are We Seeing Glimpses of a Sophomore Slump For Julio Rodríguez?

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

On today's episode of Locked On Mariners, it's time for another Mailbag Monday! Topics include the bullpen's new high-leverage arm, impressive starts in the farm system, and the struggles of Julio Rodriguez.We’re raising money for Feeding America! 34 million Americans are food insecure, including 9 million children. Feeding America turns every dollar raised into 10 delicious meals to feed the hungry. We have set up a direct donation fund you can access by heading to https://teamfeed.feedingamerica.org/participant/13390 If you can’t donate, remember that we are donating 10 cents for every new YouTube subscriber we gain in the next month. By hitting the subscribe button, you’re donating one meal to somebody suffering from hunger!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/ 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.

With the rise of Gabe Spire and Justin Topa, could the Mariners bullpen be even better than it was in 2022? And how concerning is Julio's recent slump? We'll answer that and more here on Mailbag Monday. Colby hit it. You are locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. It is Monday, April 17th, 2023. This is telling Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Mariners podcast. to you buy Hello Fresh. Skip trips to the grocery store and count on Hello Fresh to make home cooking easy, fun, and affordable. That's why it's America's number one meal kit.

Go to HelloFresh.com slash MLB60 and use promo code MLB 60 for 60% off plus free shipping. 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. you like what you hear. And if you listen to us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We want to see how many of you can call yourselves a true everydayer of the Locked-on Mariners podcast. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon by scanning the QR code right above my head. The link as well as our social accounts is also in the description of this episode. And this episode is Mailbag Monday, the show where we answer your Seattle Mariners questions.

let's just dive right into them colby starting with nick who asked would you say our team's two strike approach is poor overall it seems as though they don't shorten up their swings or expand their zone is this an issue at the player level or coach colby floor is yours my man no it's not an issue uh period uh at floor at uh you know at the coaching level or the player level just not really a thing two strike exists or two strike approach really kind of stopped existing 10 years ago when Major League Baseball teams just decided they really didn't care that much if you struck out a lot as long as you can make up for it in other areas and that area has been so far power. You know, when you look at where the Mariners rank in terms of strikeouts,

they're not egregiously high. You know, they're kind of, they're in towards the top of the pack, top of the middle of the pack, but they're right there, you know, basically in the middle of the pack and a lot of different categories, including two strike hitting. and all that stuff. So the approach isn't really the problem, you know, and the guys who are kind of struggling with strikeouts right now, Raleigh, Tay Oscar, Gino, Julio right now, those are guys you kind of expect to strike out some.

So I really don't think, I mean, Ty France isn't striking out. JP's not striking out. You know, these are guys who you're going to strike out some. When you're trying to hit for power like these guys are, you're going to strike out a little bit more. And really what you're sacrificing is probably, I don't know, 10 singles for 15 home runs. You know, they were to drastically change their approach.

So it's just not worth it. The calculus isn't in your favor to worry too much about strikeouts and therefore adopt a really aggressive two-strike approach. It's just not really a thing in Major League Baseball anymore. It hasn't been for 10 years ever since, you know, the strikeout really dominated baseball. And honestly, how much would a two-strike approach really help with the dominant level of pitching that we have in the big leagues right now. Everybody coming out of the bullpins throwing 98 with a wipeout slider.

It's really not going to help. So you might as well go out there. You might as well, you know, try and do damage even with two strikes because it's really hard to string together three singles to score off a reliever. You're going to have to hit a double or a home run or something to make that happen. So I really don't think the two strike approach is much of a thing anymore. And even if it was, the Mariners aren't terrible with two strikes. So I would say it's not really a problem right now.

The Mariners, interestingly enough, are actually third in Major League Baseball in hard contact percentage, 34% of the balls that they put in play, hard contact on two strike counts. They are striking out round middle of the pack, just like they are overall on two strike counts, 43.3% of the time striking out. they're also about 13th in WRC plus with their 14th with a mark of 44 the leader in that category is the raise with 95 and then there's a pretty big gap between first and second place the Phillies are at second with a WRC plus of 77 on two strike counts the A's interestingly are right behind them and third but overall you know we've talked a little bit about them taking pitches just to down the middle, just, you know, fastballs down the pipe for strike three. That's been a little bit annoying. We'd like to see them get a more, you know, get more aggressive on those types of pitches.

But like Colby said, overall, you know, you don't want to change guys' philosophies too much, especially for guys like Julio, Teosk, or Gino for, you know, as many strikeouts as they're going to rack up. They're also going to hit some game changing, maybe even season changing home runs in those spots as well. So it's a give and take type of situation. It's frustrating to see him strike out with a guy on third and one out or nobody out. But just kind of part of baseball right now. And I don't think that adopting an obvious two-strike approach type of swing is really the answer that you're hoping for. Next question here comes from Doug.

Are we starting to get a little worried about a possible sophomore slump for Julio? Nope. Next question. seriously though I mean it's Julio at the end of the day and look he's been a hell of a lot better this April than he was last April so

we think that he can have a similar May through October as he did last year you're looking at a six plus one player Julio's gonna be fine Julio's Julio like we said within the context of talking about Jerk Kellnick and when he would face adversity talked about everyone slumps

everyone's gonna slump including guys like Julio and we're seeing Julio go through one of the few slumps that he'll have over the course of the season just like everyone else. Just like Yordon Alvarez and Mike Trout and Joey Otney and Aaron Judge all those guys are going to slump at some point. Yeah, I mean, it's worth noting that the

slump for Julio has only been about a week the first week of the season. He was really good. He was fun. And even this last week, he still found a few hits here and there. You know, he's managed to keep his head above water. But he isn't a little bit of a slump right now. But just in general, I don't really think

sophomore slumps exist to the degree that a lot of fans think they do anymore, just because it used to be back in the day, you know, it would take about a year to get a good report on you. But now every single pitch of every single game is recorded and televised and there's scouts from every other team, from every team at every game, just watching for the little way that they can exploit you. There's so much data that pitchers are adjusting, pitching staffs and coaching staffs are adjusting to the hitter in the middle of a game. they're not waiting until next year to try and get you on this. And Julio has to react and he has to counterpunch their counterpunches. And it's just this give and take. So I don't really think sophomore slumps exist all that much anymore. Sure. Sometimes guys have better rookie years than second seasons. But that's probably has more to do with the batter not making the adjustment

to the new pitching style than it does just that the league's figuring him out. Because Julio knows how teams are attacking him now too. Of course he does. He's not stupid. The Mariners aren't stupid. He'll make his adjustment. The league will adjust back. And it's just a back and forth type of thing. And that's why slumps happen. So, no, I'm not worried at all about Julio. And I really don't think sophomore slumps are that big of a thing. And, you know, what is a sophomore slump? If Julio is a five-win player this year, is that a slump because he was a six-one player last year? I guess. But are we really concerned about that? No, it shouldn't be.

right so at the end of the day concerned not at all a little frustrated with what we're seeing out of hulio absolutely in some of these situations where he's overswinging he's trying to do way too much but also admits this slump that he's in he's also racked up some pretty high exa velos they've just gone right at guys and then he also had that really nice basis clearing triple the other night against the rockies as well so there's still been some positive things out of julio even when he's not doing what you need him to do when he's not being the guy that you need him to be but that's going to happen over the course of the season i'm not concerned about holio i still think that he is well on his way to a six seven plus win season and uh you know finishing hopefully in

the top five of american league MVP voting that's what i think that he can still be this year and he's off to a decent enough start to get him on track to do that i think even with this little bit of slump that he's going through right now all right so we have more questions coming in just a moment, but real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by So Rare. Our new sponsor, So Rare, is a revolutionary fantasy baseball game and marketplace transforming fans into owners with officially licensed digital cards featuring players from across all 30 MLB teams. Unlike other fantasy baseball platforms, so rare managers truly own their fantasy experience, collecting, buying, selling, and competing with player cards against global opponents to win epic rewards. lose you still own your cards and there's no cost to play plus the more you win the more you advance collecting increasingly powerful cards and accessing next level competitions and rewards mlb game

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Set your lineup and start competing today to win epic rewards. Again, that's so rare.com slash locked on to start playing today. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you for making us your first listen here on Mailbag Monday. And before we get into the rest of our questions, because we don't have any more ad reads, I'm sure some of you will be happy to know that. We are going to do that thing that we do every single episode where we talk about our fundraiser over on Feed-In America. So Colby, tell us what's going on over there.

People are hungry. They need food. We can help them. Nice. End of summation. Yeah, obviously you guys probably know this by now. We've teamed up with Feeding America. It's a fantastic organization, which aims to end food insecurity in the United States.

34 million people are affected by food insecurity every single day. Nine million of them are children. And we can all help. Feeding America works with wholesalers to turn every dollar that is raised into 10 delicious, nutritious meals to help those facing food insecurity. So we started a fundraiser page with Feeding America last month at the end of the end of last month with the goal of raising $500. You guys have knocked it out of the park. We're nearing $6,000 with, you know, about two weeks left to go.

We are at last check, the 13th largest individual Feeding America fundraiser in the world right now. And that's all thanks to you guys. So if you want to donate, again, remember every dollar raise is 10 meals. So $10 would get you 100 meals. And hey, you know, Jared Kellnick's number 10. It's the week of Jared Kellnick. So, you know, maybe think about it. Think about it.

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Every subscription we get in the month of April, Ty and I are donating 10 cents to feeding America one meal, essentially, for every new subscriber. And we're closing in on 500 new subscribers right now. So we might get to 1,000 by the end of the month. We'll see. But that's another way you can help. And finally, you know, again, if you've already done all that,

and you've tapped yourself out as far as you can go, thank you very much. But consider maybe sharing this fundraiser link with friends, family, put it on your Facebook, on, you know, TikTok, Instagram, wherever you can, you can spread the word. And, you know, ask your, ask your employer if they will match your donation because apparently a lot of employers do that type of thing. So, again, thank you guys so much for all the support. It's been incredible. It's been really fun to watch the number go up every day and to see all the, all the fun messages that are put on the donations. And, you know, whether it's anonymous or, you know,

you want to let us know who you are. We, we do a. appreciate it very much. And, you know, we're closing in on 60,000 meals raised, you know, through Feeding America in about, what, three weeks. So it's really, really cool. See the community come together like this. Thank you guys a ton for the great response to this. Let's keep it going because at 10K getting that tattoo. So get us to 10K. And hey, if you want to maybe donate more than $10 for Jared Kalnick, maybe. 34 for Felix because he is still the last major leader to throw a perfect game Colby. I couldn't care less.

I know you don't. Let's see if you maybe care less about this question from Joe who says he's only been on the major league roster a week, but do you think Justin Topa is turning into something similar to Paul Seawald turned into in 2021? Seems like they're trusting him more because they gave him the ball in the eighth. inning today. So yeah, we saw Topa laid in yesterday's game. He continues to pitch very well. What do you think about what we've seen out of Topa? Is he the this year's version of Paul Seawall, Colby? It's possible. There are some similarities. Both guys kind of had cups of coffee with their

first organization. They didn't really go that well. Acquired by Seattle for Seawall. That was just a minor league free agent deal. The Mariners traded, but didn't trade a lot. And Topo was kind of have a, you know, an afterthought in the off-season, you know, they both kind of throw from a high sidearm style release point, you know, they both kind of have sliders that they rely on heavily. Topa's sinker is a little bit more of a weapon, or it's a little bit different of a weapon than Seawalt's fastball. Seawalt's fastball, while not explosive in any manner whatsoever, is still a pretty good pitch for him.

So, yeah, there are some similarities here in terms of could they just be that style, though, could Justin Topa end up being like a high leverage arm that the Mariners trust, you know, late in the season in these, you know, must win type of games. Sure. It's certainly possible. We've already seen them kind of start to do that. We saw him come in last night in the eighth ahead of Matt Brash in a one run game. Brash wasn't used at all yesterday. So maybe that's telling. Maybe that's not. We'll see. But yeah, I think they're starting to trust Topa and obviously they're starting to trust Spires. spire a little bit. So, yeah, I think it's possible, sure.

You know, Jerry and his staff are pretty good at this. And Topa's always had good stuff. It's just kind of been a matter of harnessing it correctly. And the Mariners seem to be doing a pretty good job of that so far. We'll see. It's only been a handful of outings and any reliever can look good for, you know, five outings. We'll see how he looks on outing 10, 20, 30 if he gets there.

But so far so good. And, yeah, it's hard not to like the stuff. that we've seen from Topa so far. It's still very early and the data is limited, but one interesting thing that I've seen or that I've noticed in Tobas profile this year is that the slider velocity has gone up almost a full tick. And we talk about how the Mariners try to emphasize certain things in a guy's game or try to elevate certain pitches in a guy's repertoire.

It seems like maybe they've done that a little bit here with the slider, but still the data is so limited at this point. We don't know for sure. but that is something to at least keep an eye on as the season progresses. We have another question about the bullpen here, Colby. This one comes from Stu. I think this bullpen has the potential to outperform last year's group. Topa and Spire have been fantastic additions.

Is there anything you would change at this point? Well, Colby, on Thursday, you and I talked about potentially moving on from Diego Castillo. Is that the answer here? Is there anything else you would change about this bullpen right now? not right now um yeah Diego's interesting he's the stuff is really flattened out he's just not throwing enough strikes either so it's tough to trust Diego and even mop up duty right now uh you know we saw him what walk a guy and hit a guy with a seven run lead in the ninth the other night um it's just really tough the sliders you know the slider's actually been a little bit better

this year, but it can still flatten out on you, which means he has to get value out of either the sinker or the four seamer. It's just not. The velocities down. Diego's really the only guy I would consider moving on from right now, but I still think you want to give him another couple of outings just to see because the ceiling on Diego is, you know, a legitimate, you know, back-end guy who avoids hard contact and gets a few strikeouts. So, you know, I don't think that I would change anything in the pen right now. with the exception of, you know, getting Andres Munoz back and healthy. And it sounds like he's on track to come back at the minimum, 15 days and, you know, move on from, from macaquacken, who is right now just kind of there to exist if needed.

Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's the move because you don't want to bring up anybody and then send them back down for a macaqueen. You can just keep macaquen in the pen for now. So, yeah, I think that's it. because once Munoz comes back, obviously, you know, macaquin is the move for Munoz. And then everybody else right now, I think you're okay with, you know, Brash, maybe a couple more rough outings where he's really struggling to throw strikes.

Maybe you make a move there, but I think you just kind of chill with the bullpen as is. And, you know, be opportunistic if somebody hits the waiver wire that you like and don't be afraid to make that move. But no, I think the bullpen is okay right now. But there are a couple guys who are certainly, I don't want to, I want to say they're on the hot seat, but we're certainly watching them a little closer to see if maybe they need to make a move there. And guys like Taylor Saucato and AJ. Riley O'Brien. Yeah, Riley O'Brien.

AJ Puckett is a guy who's already moved up to AAA. They really like his stuff. Juan Tane is another guy who looks like he's, you know, back to where he was a few years ago. Or, well, back to where we thought he could be a few years ago out of the bullpen. So, yeah, the mayors have some options there that they can call on pretty easily. So, yeah, I don't think you're making a move. yet, but I think you're watching pretty much you're watching

Braschen and Castillo right now, and Castillo is the easy one if you do have to make a move. Yeah, and I think it's just, it's going to be a while before we see a pretty significant move in the bullpen. And that's probably when you finally have some clarity with regards to Prelanda Baroa and what and what you want to do with him this season. If you want him to actually throw out of the bullpen or not,

Isaiah Campbell could make a play eventually. But, you know, O'Brien, pocket, some of those guys, I'm sure they're going to filter in here. Maybe they'll even start doing that now. Maybe that spot that currently McCacken holds will kind of rotate some of those guys through. And they'll see who ends up sticking. But they're not short of options. And knowing the history and the reputation that this organization has for relief talent and for development. and for developing relief talent and identifying them.

I'm sure one of those guys is going to hit for them. I would feel fairly confident about that. So I'm not too concerned about the bullpen. I think they'll eventually find their good mix of eight guys that they go with. So next question here comes from Daisy and the dingo, who asks, if Kelnick keeps on playing well, what does the role look like for Taylor Tremel when he gets back? Um, how good does Taylor Tremel look?

Yeah, that's the important part. That's the only important part. Yeah. Because the Tremel looks good. You still have that bats to give because you haven't figured out something to do with the D.H. Um, you're still bat short. So it Tremel looks good. He just rotates in the outfield and the D.H like the other three guys or four guys with Pollock.

Yep. Pretty simple, really. But he has to look good. Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, ultimately it affords you more opportunity. and this is again, assuming that he looks good and Kelnick looks good, it affords you more opportunities to D.H. Teo and possibly get Tramel and Kellick and

Julio all in the same outfield, which would be really nice defensively. Also gives you a legitimate center field option so you can give Julio a day off or have Julio DH once in a while. Tramel is a legitimate center fielder. Kelnick is passable. So, yeah, it affords you a lot of different opportunities, but ultimately, Tramel has to play well. He has to play well. He has to stay healthy.

He has to be healthy when he gets here, too. So all those questions need to be answered first. But yeah, if both of those guys are looking good, I mean, that's great for the merits. That's a right now. That gives them an answer to one of their biggest issues right now. Sure. Right now you have four guys for four spots. You want to have five guys for four spots is what you really want.

Agreed. That could be Trammel. next question here comes from Cody are you concerned at all about Tom Murphy's slow start no no really why because it's been like 12 at bats that's good point the guy missed

you know the entire year and he's just now getting back to seeing major league pitching on a nightly basis so no Um, yeah, just I'm not going to be concerned about anybody in April. It's just, it's, it's not going to happen. So, um, you know, it's been, Murphy's looked really rough. Uh, there's no denying that.

He's looked awful at the plate. Um, hasn't looked amazing behind it. It hasn't been a huge issue, but not looking great behind it either. Uh, but again, this is a guy who had major surgery on his shoulder and we know that, that, that, that can disrupt your swing and everything. And you can take as many hacks as you want in the, in the cages and, and spring training at bats, but it's just not the same. It's not the same as seeing major league pitching. So, yeah, I think you have to give Murphy a little bit of time to kind of reestablish his,

his eye, his hand, his shoulder. He just has to get reestablished and we'll see what happens. He doesn't have unlimited time, but there really isn't an option aside for Murphy. It's pretty much him. And Cooper Hummel hasn't been much better. And Hummel is not the same caliber of catcher as as Tom is defensively. And I know Brian O'Keefe's gotten off to a really good start in Tacoma, but so, like, has the bats speed gotten significantly better? Maybe it has, I don't know. But that's kind of been the big issue with O'Keefe

and why he hasn't been in the majors for more than the cup of coffee is that there's some real question about whether or not he can hit velocity. And maybe he's a 4A player. I don't know, but I don't think that you want to, and by the way, remember, if you want to move on from Tom Murphy, you have to DFA him. and somebody's going to pick up Tom Murphy. So I don't think O'Kee's the answer.

I don't think Hummel's the answer. Nottingham's not the answer. Until Murphy is so bad for so long that you have to make a move, don't make a move. Just kind of write it out. And to me, Murphy's defense, his leadership, which we know that he's one of the bigger voices in that clubhouse. And his rapport with the pitching staff matters a lot more to me

than whatever he's doing offensively. If I just have to assume that he's kind of a black hole in my lineup, at least for now, then so be it. That's pretty much the case for most backup catchers in Major League Baseball anyway. It's disappointing that he's not coming out of the gates, blazing hot, you know, and really kind of living up to this. You know, we've talked about how the Mariners can potentially have the best catching situation in all of baseball. That hasn't been the case so far.

But nevertheless, they have a pretty normal, or better than average, you know, catching situation still because they have one of the better catchers in baseball in Cal Raleigh. So, yeah. You know, a lot of teams have a black hole at the catcher position, not the back in general. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Martin Maldonado is the starting catcher for the Houston Astros who are a World Series like favorite. Yeah.

Great defender. Yeah. Terrible offense player. Except when he plays against the Mariners. Oh, when he plays against the Mariners. she's Johnny Bench, but, you know, David Fletcher is Ryan Sandberg, so it happens. Yeah, yeah, David Fletcher now went AAA after the call-up of Zach Netto,

which has not worked out properly for the Angels. It's only been a couple games. It's only been a couple games. As you know, I'm a Zach Netto fan, but yeah. Yeah, not great so far, not great. All right. Next question here comes from Daisy and the Dingo again. Who has impressed you this far in the farm system

through the first two weeks of minor league games. Nobody. I'm going to start with Cole Young. Cole Young's been awesome this year. Yeah, of course I am because the guy just keeps on hitting. I think he's around a 400 average right now through the first nine games of the year. He has seven extra base hits.

We haven't seen the over the wall power. We haven't seen a home run yet. But yeah. Cole Young is a backup. He's Sam Haggretty. Like fine, whatever. Cole Young's been really good. yeah we've seen we've seen him have six doubles one triple already through the first nine games of the year he just keeps on hitting and he's playing good defense you're seeing all the things that you really want out of young aside from the development of power over the wall power so we'd like to see more of that as the year progresses but again we're only nine games in so there's still plenty of time for that to happen yeah he's gonna see ever it soon uh yeah i he's not long for modesto no if he continues anywhere near this pace he's not gonna make it to memorial day

in Modesto. So outside shot that maybe he had Sierra in Arkansas, I'd say unlikely, but, you know, maybe he gets a cup of coffee at the end. Yeah, you know, I think Brian Wu is a guy who's really, you know, opened up some eyes again. Just the one start, I think, so far for Wu. Two. Two. Okay.

But Wu's been really good. He might be closer to big, to helping you in the rotation right now than Bryce Miller. Miller's been okay. But, you know, the slider hasn't really worked out too well. and his outings have been fine but not amazing. So we'll see. It's early for him. Emerson Hancock has created some buzz.

There seems to be some belief that he's extracting value out of his fastball right now. There are reports that he's actually getting more extension than he was in the past. And that's allowing the fastball to play up a little bit more at the top of the zone, which is great because we already know Hancock has the really good change up. And he throws a ton of strikes. So that's an interesting one. How about Hogan Winddish? Seems like he's just continuing to mash. And like this is a guy who just feels like he's inevitably going to hit his way to the big leagues.

You know, and you figure out what to do with him. But he's not a zero at second base either. I'm not saying he's good. But he's better than Thai France at second base. So maybe he can have a little bit of defensive versatility, but he continues to just absolutely crush the ball. And that's good to see. So yeah, there's a lot of really good things happening down on the farm right now.

Harry Ford is an on-based machine, not really hitting for average right now. But I think he's walked like two times in like six of the last eight games or something like that. Like he is drawing plenty of walks and he's sitting in the ball hard. So yeah, a lot of good things happening down on the farm. You know, Wontane again, looks like he's a legitimate major league bullpen arm right now. So yeah, a lot of fun things are happening. But I'd say Hogan Windish, Cole Young and Brian Wu probably stolen the show. so far.

Yeah, Wu looks very comfortable in his first little taste of double A ball. So that's been nice to see. And like you said right now, he's looked better than Bryce Miller. So maybe, you know, this whole, oh, Miller is the guy. Miller's going to be the five, you know, eventually. Maybe that's actually Wu. Maybe it's Emerson Hancock. Yeah.

Who knows? It could be. I think both of those guys would fare better right now against some major league lineup than Miller. just because Miller right now is basically one pitch. And that may mean that Miller ends up pitching out of the bullpen at some point in Seattle this year. Yeah. It's early. It's very early.

But again, you know, if he can't really figure that out, you can still get some value out of him pitching out of a relief role. Same with Wu. Same with, you know, same with Hancock and same with Broa. So, yeah, that double A rotation, pretty, pretty good. All right. Last question of the day, Colby comes from at Dime Flows. Are you worried about Colton Wong's offensive performance so far? Colby, you're the one guy. So I would say I'm the right guy.

David Wright, of course. Jamie Wright, former Mariner. No. Wow, that's such a weird poll. Yeah, I know. I used to dominate with him in MLB2K, 12. nasty cutter curveball combo Rob Brantley

MLB 2K12 God also former Mariner also former Mariner yeah for a brief moment no I'm not really it's been frustrating to see him struggle like this but

it's still he's not chasing all that much like the quality of the bats are okay he's just not getting hits you know and that's a bummer and obviously you know he's by this point he's definitely pressing it's not easy to look up at the score board and see a sub 100 batting average at any point but let alone in the middle of april so uh no i'm

not worried uh by the way teams on a four game winning streak and half the questions we got today are are you worried about a player come on guys i'm the negative one really really wow because i'm not worried about anything and here we oh my god Julio's awful colton Wong's been so bad oh my and what are we going to do when four games in a row i i don't know that's not good enough for you anymore. That's right. I'm turning it on you guys. Turning it on the chat. Colby chat node over here. Get a load of these guys. No, I'm not yet worried about Wong offensive performance, but you just have to figure it out pretty quick. The Mariners don't really have another option right now, especially since we don't know

Dylan Moore's coming back at all. They keep on saying, no, he's a couple days away, but you say that every couple days and you get to July and you're like, oh, well, you know, stuff happens. Saw him in the dugout during the Rocky series. Ooh, fun. I mean, he's alive. Yeah. That's good. That's good.

But yeah, and it's not like Haggerty has pushed the issue there either with his play. So, yeah, you know, you just kind of have to wait it out and trust the back of the baseball card. So no, I'm not worried yet.

But I do think, you know, we're about a month away from having to ask some pretty tough questions about, you know, how do you extract value out of Colton Wong if he's not going to hit. But there's nothing in Colton Wong's past that would lead you to believe that he all of a sudden decided or his body decided that he's not a majorly quality player at 30 years old 31 years old so no not too worried about it yet yeah i mean you know you're just gonna have a couple guys that start out slow it's weird there's really no explanation for it but just an entire batting order just doesn't all get out to a hot start all at once for every team i don't know why it just it always happens and it's always a couple of guys that you just you don't expect

to really struggle and colton's someone that yeah i didn't think was going to get off to a you know a 300 400 you know 500 like start to the season but like i also didn't think that he was going to be this bad coming off of the last couple of years made a swing change he's had some real good success at the play the last couple of years he's been a 115 1117 w rc plus guy in the last two years so it's weird to see him just kind of fall off the face of the earth to start this year but also it's so early. If he has just a good string of games for a week offensively, those numbers are going to drastically change because we're so early on still. And numbers are still all over the place at the start of the year. So yeah, if it gets, you know, if we're a month down the line here

and it's still this, if we're not even seeing some form of progress, yeah, we need to have a serious conversation about Colton and have a serious conversation about what the Mariners need to do at second base and how they need to get better at that position. But right now you just kind of have to write it out because I still think there's really good ball player there in Colton Wong. We just haven't seen it yet, but

I think we will eventually. Any closing thoughts before we head out of here, Colby? I'm just shocked that you guys are as negative as you are. You know, teams playing pretty good ball right now and you guys are just whining and complaining the entire time.

Weird. It's weird. You know, I just Wow. Here I thought I was the negative one, but you guys have managed to surprise even me. Yeah. Look in the mirror. Sure. Sure. Let's, yeah.

All right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. For Colby Pat No, I'm Taday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez, and Colby at C-Pout 11. P-A-T-1. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok as well

at Locked-on 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. Be sure to tune in tomorrow. So we recap tonight's game between the Mariners and the Brewers and we'll get you set for tomorrow night's game

as well on that episode. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.