Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Mailbag: Is Jarred Kelenic's Hot Start For Real?

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

It's a rare Mailbag Sunday for Colby and Ty, who spend the duration of this episode answering questions about Jarred Kelenic's strong weekend in Cleveland, the state of the Mariners' ailing bullpen, a...nd more.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: lockedonmariners@gmail.comFollow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Ultimate Pro Baseball GMTo download the game just visit probaseballgm.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store.RocketMoneyStop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions -- and manage your expenses the easy way -- by going to RocketMoney.com/lockedonmlb. 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.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Has Jared Keldick finally arrived? We'll answer that and more on this mailback episode of the Lockdown Mariners podcast. 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 Sunday, April 9th, 2023. Happy Easter, everyone.
Starting point is 00:00:22 This is Tyning Azales and Colby Pat note for the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Brought to you by Ultimate Baseball GM. Ever dreamed to becoming an MLBGM? and managing your baseball franchise and this game is definitely for you to download the game just visit ultimate baseball gm.com or look it up on the app stores our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo code locked on in the game thank you so much for making us your first listen subscribe like internal alerts if you're watching on youtube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear and if you want to hear from us even more
Starting point is 00:00:55 please consider signing up for our patreon by skin and the QR code right above my head the link as well as our social accounts is also in the description below. It is a rare mailbag Sunday because of the weird start times for the next three games in Chicago. And if you like the post game shows, you're in luck because we're planning on doing one for each of those games. So look forward to that. But for now, sit back, relax, grab your favorite drink. We're going to answer some Mariners questions here, Colby. Starting with J. Mars, D420, who asks, can we now say that Jared Kellnick is doing good?
Starting point is 00:01:28 well it's been a good weekend for jerry kellnick i'll say that three four uh yesterday had a couple of really impressive at bats or played appearances rather at towards the end of today's game which unfortunately resulted in a seven to six extra innings loss for the mariners but he uh he had a really nice walk against a manual class a had a really nice double off of eniel de los santos that uh gave the mariners a go-ahead run uh that unfortunately did not hold, as I alluded to. But yeah, it was a good weekend for Jared overall at the plate, on the
Starting point is 00:02:05 base pass, and even in the field with his glove. He was looking pretty nice out in right field today as well before he moved over to left later on in the game. So, Colby, do we have enough data now to say that Jared is in a much better place? No.
Starting point is 00:02:24 Also, you correct my grammar all day long, but no, the guest grammar is totally doing it. Doing well, doing well. Doing well, yes. Yeah, there you go. So here's the deal. He is doing well. You know, and like we can say that.
Starting point is 00:02:37 Of course we can because we see it with our eyes and we see the appats and we see the quality of at bat. So yeah, he is doing well. Is it enough data for us to be like, yep, this is who he is now? No, no, absolutely not. You know, he's only played Nate games and they really won't let him face lefties still. So no, we can't say based on what we saw that he is. going to have a good year. But what we can't say is he is playing well right now because he is.
Starting point is 00:03:05 He's hitting the ball hard. You know, he chased a few times today against Plysac and that was noteworthy just because he hasn't done it pretty much all year. So he leads the team in hard hit rate. He had a couple more hard hit balls today, including obviously what should have been the game winning double. But, you know, stuff happens. So yeah, we can certainly say that Kellnick is playing really well right now because he is.
Starting point is 00:03:27 And is that encouraging? Yeah, absolutely it is. but you know is it enough data to sit here and say like well they got the kelnick thing right he's obviously good no no we're still weeks if not months away from from being able to make that claim but if you want to ride with it i mean i'm not going to stop you go for it yeah i mean if you want to be excited about what you're seeing out of jerrick kelnick absolutely uh for me should be yeah yeah absolutely i mean this is i mean this is ideal i would much rather he'd he'd do this and you know start the year struggling again or just kind of being me like he's been one of the baroners better hitters right you talked about
Starting point is 00:04:04 how he's leading the team right now in hard hit rate it's incredibly impressive uh i've i have been very impressed with his uh played appearances over the last couple days especially that one against class eight you're going up against one of the best relievers in all of baseball and you find yourself in an early hole in that plate of appearance and you lay off a couple of breaking balls some some nice breaking balls outside of the zone as well and you talked about how he was chasing earlier on in the game against Pleat Sack kind of fix those issues towards the end of this game. That was really nice to see him make that kind of adjustment
Starting point is 00:04:36 and to not get impatient in that about with Clause A. And, you know, because the Mariners at that time, and obviously things did not go their way over the course of the end of that game, but they really needed an insurance run in the top of the ninth there. And he was able to, you know, get on base at a really crucial moment
Starting point is 00:04:59 and keep that thing moving along and they end up pushing that run across as Josh Bell commits that error thrown a second with Kellnick on the base pass who definitely impacted Bell's line of sight there on that throw as well. So Kellnick just really making an impact everywhere both at the plate on the base pass
Starting point is 00:05:19 like I said and in the field. So I've been really impressed with what he's been able to do so far. Hope he is able to continue this and ride the hot streak. And really, again, this is what I said last month when we're talking about his hot stretch and spring is, you know, when things aren't going as well for him, how is he going to respond? That's going to be the really interesting thing for me. Because, you know, he got off to a fairly slow start, yes, but things have quickly, you know,
Starting point is 00:05:46 turned around for him. But once he hits that first real slump, how is he going to respond to that? That's going to be really key for Jared moving forward. All right. So let's move on here to Chels who asked after today's game. It's clear our bullpen is running thin. Do you think they will have to adjust the reliever strategy to have them pitch more than one inning? If not, what else can be done to ensure we aren't having to throw newly option players in high leverage situation?
Starting point is 00:06:13 So we should mention this. First of all, Andres Munoz, we haven't had a chance to talk about this yet. Andres Munoz goes on the IL today, having a little bit of issue with his short. shoulder when throwing off of the mound. So they're trying to get out ahead of that. They put him on the 15-day IEL today. And they called up J.B. Pukakis, who, of course, was not able to hold a two-run lead. And what was it, the 12th inning?
Starting point is 00:06:41 I think it was the 12th inning that Pukascus came in. We also saw Justin Toba today, who on the flip side actually had a really nice day. But the bullpen is obviously a big topic of discussion coming out of today's game because, frankly it's the reason that the mariner's lost or one of the biggest reasons that the mariners lost today because they were given the unit as a whole was given three leads to hold their late in the game with a chance to win and they blew all of them and ultimately lost this game you know but good days for trevor got good day for jostin topa not so great day for a guy like matt brash or j bick caskas so today was really just like you know kind of a particular
Starting point is 00:07:22 you know, situation where you had Paul Seawald, they didn't want to go three days in a row with him. They ended up going three days in a row with Penn Murphy, which is a little interesting. But I think today was kind of a special circumstances with regard to your question. Colby, do you have anything
Starting point is 00:07:38 to add on this? No, I think one of the keys to you know, mixing up the bullpen usage or whatever is for your starters to go deeper into games. Yeah. You know, we saw you know, you saw the direct impact of Logan Gilbert only being able to go four innings on Friday. You saw that impact today on Sunday. You didn't see the impact yesterday. You saw it today on Sunday. And that does wear on your bullpen. The mayors have had one day off in the first 10 games. You know, that's not unusual. But typically teams will get two days off within their first 10 to 11 games. And we've had a few short outings. Kirby had a short outing. Marco only went five once. you know obviously Gilbert had his short outing and the Mariners have been
Starting point is 00:08:28 ultra careful trying obviously Robbie Ray had his short outing the mariner's tried to be ultra careful with their arms so they're not going to extend them so no I don't think you want to use guys for multiple innings this early unless you feel like you have to so you still you have to play the long game here and it might feel good if you force Seawald out there for a third day but what if he gets hurt because he's overused early in the season and now you've lost Munoz and Seawald. You know, so you have to think about this long term.
Starting point is 00:08:59 And yeah, I mean, it stinks when you have, you know, your literal 10th and 11th got bullpen arms coming into these high leverage spots. But that's the reality of the situation. And it's why it was important for Seattle to win those first two games because then today you can kind of play a little bit with House Money. And by the way, even today with the down bullpen, the Mariners handed the ball to one of their best relievers with a two-run lead in the ninth. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:22 That's the ball game, right? that that should be the ball game. Brash just didn't have it, walked a guy. Slider was either, you know, an 80-grade or it was a 40-grade cement mixer. You know, we can blame Teo all we want for the miscatch. And it's probably a play he should make, but it's by no means an easy play. And let's not, let's ignore, you know, let's not ignore that brash through just a spinning junk ball in the middle of the plate to a really mediocre hitter.
Starting point is 00:09:49 So despite all the bullpen issues today, Scott managed it well enough to hand the ball to his best available reliever in the ninth with a lead. And after that, once you fail to hold down that lead, you kind of deserve to lose because your bullpen is stretched out. And it's because you have to use so many guys to cover those five innings from Logan. So, no, I don't think that this is a big concern. I don't think you need to drastically change how you're using these guys. And I'll say this, though, they have to find a way to not use Penn Murphy. Penn Murphy has appeared in seven of the ten games this year.
Starting point is 00:10:27 Right. Like that is drastic overuse. And thankfully today, I think you saw from Topa. I think you see a guy who can take kind of those middle innings type of roles that Murphy handled most of last year and so far this year. So no, I just think the starters need to go a little bit deeper. And so far, you know, Kirby went six today. Marco went five and two-third. And we're going to see these guys, their pitch counts start to push 100 here.
Starting point is 00:10:49 So I think it will take care of itself. But, yeah, you're just, Scott is not willing to sacrifice tomorrow for today. He's just not going to be that guy. Yeah, again, because you didn't have everyone available to you and you really didn't want to go to Murphy until you were basically forced to. That's why guys like J.B. Bukowsk has found their way into a high leverage situation. Like, that's not going to happen every night here over the course of Munoz's I-L-Stat, you know, unless more injuries, of course, continue to pile up here.
Starting point is 00:11:19 but yeah you know it's just it's too early for these guys to get ramped up to a point of you know throwing multiple innings like you don't want to run the risk of you know landing more guys on the iL because you can't really afford it at this point matt festa hasn't panned out he got option today so that you're already down an arm there and then munoz obviously goes on the iL as well and so you don't want to lose more of the guys that you went into the season with if you can avoid that so uh just you know but again like i said just right now I wouldn't overly fixate on how the bullpen was deployed today and think that's going to be how it's going to be going to be deployed every single night. That's just not going to be the case because like Colby said, you had a chance to end the game there right in the ninth with Matt Brash. And then we wouldn't have even talked about Justin Topa or J.B. Wukkowskis or Penn Murphy today. So just says what it is. It's baseball.
Starting point is 00:12:16 It happens. All right. So we got a few more questions to go over here. in just a moment, but real quick, a reminder of this episode of Locked-on Mariners is brought to you by Ultimate Baseball GM, ever dreamed of becoming an MLBGM and managing your professional baseball franchise. Well, your dream can come true in this game is definitely for you. It's late at night, folks. Manage every strategic aspect of your team, play through the season, and lead your team to glory.
Starting point is 00:12:41 You're responsible for hiring the right coaches and staff, managing team finances, scouting and drafting players, managing difficult personalities navigating your franchise through free agency and all the ups and downs of a season all this and a challenging and realistic game world ultimate baseball gm is completely free and playable offline play on the go as you want and when you want it's basically the jerry depoto simulator so instead of saying chills depoto did it again you can south say chills i did it again that's right download it now and locked on mariners listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo code locked on in the game stores. So make sure to check it out to download the game.
Starting point is 00:13:20 Just visit pro baseball gm.com scan the code or look it up on the app stores. That's pro baseball gm.com. Ultimate baseball GM start your dynasty today. And you're listening to the locked on mariners podcast, which is also brought to you by rocket money. Rocket money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bill.
Starting point is 00:13:45 all in one place. Over 80% of people have subscriptions they forgot about, and chances are you're one of them. Like that Stars app, just to watch one show or that free gaming trial you never actually use. Rocket Money will quickly
Starting point is 00:13:59 and easily find your subscriptions for you, and for any you don't want to pay for anymore, just hit cancel and Rocket Money will cancel it for you. It's that easy. Rocket Money also helps you manage all your finances in one place and automatically categorize your expenses so you can easily track your budget in real time and also get alerted if anything looks off. Over 3 million people have used rocket money saving the average person up to $720 a year.
Starting point is 00:14:26 Stop throwing your money away, cancel unwanted subscriptions, and manage your expenses the easy way by going to rocketmoney.com slash locked on MLB. That's rocketmoney.com slash locked on MLB. Rocketmoney.com slash locked on MLB. and you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast and you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast and you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast thank you so much for making us your first listen
Starting point is 00:14:54 of Easter Sunday night let's before we get back into our questions here on this mailbag episode let's get a status report on our fundraiser over at Feeding America Colby what do you got for me yeah so we're still around 4,500 pushing 4,600 again.
Starting point is 00:15:14 The weekend was taken. Okay. So the weekend was kind of taken off on the fundraiser, which again, we're totally cool with. But now that we're back and we're doing shows, guys, just a reminder, we're raising money for Feeding America. 34 million families suffer from food insecurity every single day in the United States. 9 million of those people are children. Feeding America can turn $1 into 10 nutritious meals. It's a great organization.
Starting point is 00:15:40 Ty and I are raising money for the organization. organization. If you want to donate, scan the QR code right there, or there's a link in the description of every podcast episode that you can also go to. That'll take you directly to our donation page. If you can't donate monetarily, but you still want to help out, go ahead and hit the subscribe button. Ty and I are donating 10 cents for every subscriber we get in the month of April. And, you know, if you already done all that, then, you know, please tell your friends, put it on Twitter or Facebook or TikTok, Instagram. We don't care. Just, you know, get the word out there and if we happen to get to $10,000 raised by the end of the month,
Starting point is 00:16:17 this guy over here is going to go ahead and get some ink in honor of the 10K. So he's very excited about it, but we have to get there. We're a little bit less than halfway there. We got 20 days to do it. So let's go ahead and do this. And hey, you know what? Maybe throw this link out there and let's start adding some people, huh? Let's start adding the Mariners and all that stuff.
Starting point is 00:16:39 And let's see how we can get this thing because it's been a lot of fun. Quick reminder, I'm also giving away Cal Raleigh autograph card and a Mike Cameron autograph card. So if you subscribe, leave a comment in any of the episodes we shoot this month, you have a chance to win. And if you subscribe, I mean, that's 10 cents and a chance to win an autographed Cal Raleigh or my camera card. So, you know, two for one there. So, yeah, thank you guys again so much. And please continue to donate and spread the word so we can see just how far we can push this thing. And if you're interested in donating or you've already made a donation, you can ask your
Starting point is 00:17:15 employer as well if they're willing to match. Apparently, a lot of companies will actually do that. We were alerted by a listener, so we do want to put out that reminder as well to check in with your employer and see if they want to help out as well. We'd greatly appreciate it. So, yeah, just scan that QR code or check out the link in the description of this episode if you're just listening to the show. And you can go to the donation page.
Starting point is 00:17:40 $6,400 and $4,649 raised. Are you doing Canadian on me? No, no, no, no. 6,000? Just a little dyslexia, huh? We are, yeah, $4,649. Yeah. Yeah. Got my, you know, my eyes got mixed up there.
Starting point is 00:18:00 Just like they did on the ultimate baseball GM read. All right, let's get back into these questions. Hopefully I can read these properly. Probably not. Here comes a question from Tobacado. What would you do with Colton Wong at this point? He's having good plate appearances and contact, it seems, but just not finding the hits anywhere.
Starting point is 00:18:18 Defense seems to be up and down as well. All right, well, Colby, I'm going to give you the floor here because you've been going to war on the lockdown Mariners' Twitter account over Colton Long. So you say your piece. I'm going to sit back. I'm a show. Yeah, I'm on a mission to civilize the masses, which went really well for Don Quixote. But here's the deal with Colomong.
Starting point is 00:18:42 What would I do with him right now? Nothing. Why would I take him out of the lineup? Why would I move? They've already moved them up and down. Nothing. You just wait and see what happens. This guy is, you know, a 20 win player in his career or whatever it is.
Starting point is 00:18:58 He's been to a couple all-star games. He's going two gold gloves. In the back of the baseball card says he's a lot better than he's hitting right now. And you mentioned it yourself. The app bats, there's still some good at bats. It's not like this is a like awful 0-4-20. breaking out, you know, 18 out of 24 outbats or anything like that. And he did get a hit today.
Starting point is 00:19:16 And he did have a nice sack fly, big sack fly, which once again should have been helpful in a Mariners win, but yeah, what are you going to do? So, yeah, you just kind of have to stay the course with Colton Long. There's really not a lot you can do. You don't even have a viable backup second baseman at this stage to throw in there because Sam Haggurty is not that guy. As much as you guys want to try and make Sam Haggurty that guy, he's not. So until Dylan Moore is even back, you don't even really have another option.
Starting point is 00:19:43 So yeah, you just stay the course of Colton Wong, trust the back of the baseball card, and you know that good things will come. Yeah, I saw someone on Twitter respond to one of your tweets about Colton saying that he wasn't actually very good last year and that, you know, Adam Frazier is a low bar to clear, which the last bit, yeah, sure. Yeah, Adam Fraser last year is a pretty low bar to clear. a second base standpoint. But Adam Frazier was 19% a worse hitter than the league average hitter last year. Colton Wong was 17% better than the league average hitter last year.
Starting point is 00:20:23 So, yeah, that's a pretty significant upgrade to me. So when you just look at the 22nd2s of those two players, and you just look at the track record of Colton Wong overall, in contrast that to Adam Frazier, there's more success. you know, there's more successful years at the plate. There's more league average or above league average years from Colton Wong than there is Adam Frazier. And that's just fact. So, yeah, it's not working out right now.
Starting point is 00:20:48 But I have faith that Wong, at the very least, is going to be a Lee average player for the Mariners. It's just, you know, he's one of those few guys that's going to get off to a slow start. That's just what it is. And that's just baseball. And that's just how April, you know, goes for some guys. Toa Oscar Hernandez is not going to be like this either for the entire year, right? at least I don't think he is.
Starting point is 00:21:07 Maybe he is Jesse Winker after all, but at least he's been better defensively. So, but yeah, so I wouldn't, I wouldn't trip too much on, on Colton, because I think there's a pretty good hitter in there.
Starting point is 00:21:18 And I think he's, you know, right now he just seems a little snake bitten defensively. There's just been a couple plays here that's kind of messed up, mess him up a little bit. And, you know,
Starting point is 00:21:28 hopefully he doesn't mess up his psyche a little too much. Because, I mean, this is a former gold glover. Now, I don't think he's going to get back to that, but I think he's at least a, an average club at second base.
Starting point is 00:21:37 And I think he'll, he'll show that in due time for sure. All right. So let's go on here to Daisy and the dingo who says, or who asks, rather, are there any adjustments from past usage or location that you've seen from Trevor Gott that may be contributing to his success,
Starting point is 00:21:55 to his early success? I tried looking into this when I saw your question just a little bit. There isn't a lot, really, that that signifies a significant change. at least that I've noticed. But it's so early that there isn't a ton of data. And baseball savant is where I went to try and find things like pitch usage to see if the Mariners are hammering home a certain pitch for him or anything like that. There really isn't anything like that.
Starting point is 00:22:23 Right now he's just making more guys swing and miss on the basketball. And that's really the only thing that I've noticed. But again, the data is so minimal that those things are going to be inflated anyway. So there isn't a lot for that for me that I can personally glean from the numbers that I've seen. But that's also after just a quick glance because I haven't really looked into it as much. Colby, is there anything that maybe I missed? No, we still don't have enough data to really look at anybody's adjustments that they've made. Even somebody like Jared Kelnick.
Starting point is 00:22:57 So we still need to collect more data and we're not there yet. So, you know, with God, he's been really good. Like that's the good part, but there probably stretches last year where Trevor got was really good as well. So it's just one of those things right now. There's not enough data to really draw any clear conclusion. The thing I like about Trevor Gott right now is that he's living on the corners. He is not in the middle of the plate at all. And so maybe that is something that the Mariners have found some way that he can work off the edges instead of being in the middle of the plate as much as maybe he was last year.
Starting point is 00:23:32 Yeah. And that's really what it boils down to for next. But, you know, give it a couple weeks and we'll probably have some data that better tells the story of what's going on with Trevor got So just kind of a wait-and-see on that front really with all the pitchers really with every player on the Mariners in general All right, we got a couple more questions to go over here in just a moment, but real quick a reminder this episode of locked-on 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 a officially licensed digital cards featuring players from across all 30 MLB teams. And unlike other fantasy baseball platforms, so rare managers truly own their fantasy experience,
Starting point is 00:24:16 collecting buying, selling, and competing with player cards against global opponents to win epic rewards. Win or 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. So rare recently partnered with MLB. all-stars Juan Soto and yes your Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez to serve as brand ambassadors. Very exciting.
Starting point is 00:24:45 MLB game weeks happened twice weekly and span a three to four day cycle and at the end of game week so rare MLB managers who rank at or near the top of their leaderboards with a variety of rewards which can include so rare scarcity cards, game tickets, merchandise, signed jerseys, and VIP experiences like meeting MLB stars. like Julio. Prices may vary depending on the competition. Head to so rare.com slash locked on. That's spelled s o r a r a r e.com to draft your team of free player cards, 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 again for
Starting point is 00:25:31 Meganess, your first listen here on Easter. Sunday night. Let's get into these final two questions here on our mailbag episode. This comes from Coleman Dawkins, who asks with Gabe Spire and Justin Topa looking good, who do you send back down after Robbie Ray comes off the EIL? This is too early to answer, quite frankly, you know, because we don't even know when Ray's coming back. They're shutting him down for two weeks from really any baseball activity. And then they're going to reassess.
Starting point is 00:26:03 And, you know, at that point, even if he's ready to go on a rehab stent, that means that he's going to have to at least make one rehab start, maybe two. And you go from there. So there's still a lot of time. There's still a lot of data to collect. There's still a lot of innings to be pitched by these guys. And also, I mean, look, it's one inning from Justin Topo. He looked really good today. Don't get me wrong, but it is just one inning at the end of the day.
Starting point is 00:26:30 Spire, though, right now looks like a dude to me over his. what four appearances now he looks really good he looks like he can be a part of this thing long term i mean again it's very early though so things can quickly change perspire if he has a couple of bad outings um right now though you know i yeah i don't know i mean like obviously the obvious answer is j buchas you know uh but does munoz get back before robbie ray does you know that's another question here who knows so again for me just to too early. Colby, you have anything different? No, because Bukascus is going to be one of the guys sent down for Munoz, if Munoz gets back
Starting point is 00:27:12 before Ray. And right now, I would say that the odds with that happening are pretty good. We don't know much about Munoz. It's possible, sorry to interrupt, but it's possible that Bukascus could also get sent down tomorrow before tomorrow's game so they can get another fresh arm in there. Yeah, it is. They have kind of 40-man spots to play with right now, too. so I could see them just swapping him in Brennan Bernardino for example. So yeah, it's going to be, it'll be whoever that spot is. And then we'll have to see with Robbie.
Starting point is 00:27:42 We're not even, we're not, we don't even have a timeline for Robbie. So it's just too early to really give this question a good answer. And like you said, Spire could, could, you know, fall off, Topa could fall off. We've only seen Topa once. And I like what I saw and I like what I've seen from Spire. And, but yeah, I mean, right now, you know, know those two guys are are in whereas somebody like matt vesta has to earn his way back in but it's just way too early to to wonder what the roster move is for robbie because we don't
Starting point is 00:28:12 know what the timeline is for robbie exactly all right we got our last question here from frankie who asked do you think the aOS is going to remain tight all year i think it's going to remain tight just now with the current teams that are in play at the moment um nothing has changed for me mentally from you know from looking at this aOS landscape over the first week or so of baseball here to suggest or to make me think that uh you know the the rangers or angels are angels are really legitimate threats maybe that changes you know but it's what how many games are we in now 10 10 games it's 10 games so there's only so much that you can glean from that i still think this is a two horse race between the astros and mariners and that's what it's going to be at the end of the year and
Starting point is 00:29:00 yeah, I think it's going to be tight. You know, so to answer your question, yes, I just think that it's going to be, you know, Houston and Seattle kind of jockey in for first place throughout the course of the season with the Angels and the Rangers kind of staying close for a while there. You know, maybe make the Mariners and Astros sweat a little bit, but eventually tail off over the final, you know,
Starting point is 00:29:23 two-ish months of the season. Yeah, I think like right now, pretty much every team in the American League West is within two games in first place, and that's because they've only played 10 games. We're 6% of the way through the season. So I don't think it will be this close if that's what you're asking. I still, I think the AOS will be pretty good. I think they'll probably have four teams that are, if they're not 500 or better,
Starting point is 00:29:51 they're certainly pushing 500. So I think they'll be a good division, but it's not going to be this close. I mean, Houston's going to start to piece together wins. the Mariners are already starting to do that right now. So, yeah, eventually, you know, the cream will rise to the top, and we'll have to see because, you know, even today, Anaheim had a 6-0 lead and then blew it and then came back and then blew it again. So Anaheim's bullpen still a mess.
Starting point is 00:30:17 The Texas Rangers rotation, again, it's just a ticking time bomb. We'll see they've been a mess defensively. Two, Texas got off to a hot start. They're kind of sliding already. We're 10 games in. So it's tough to say, I would say that I think the difference. division will be decided by less than five games. I don't know how many teams will be, you know, in that race at the end of the year.
Starting point is 00:30:36 I think is how I would phrase it. So I think it'll be relatively tight. But I don't think you're going to see four teams within, you know, two games of winning the division. And, you know, much beyond the end of April, really. So. Yeah. None of these teams are playing particularly good ball right now. I think Texas is probably playing the best ball of the four teams right now.
Starting point is 00:30:56 And that's. Angel's playing some pretty decent ball. but they lost a series of Toronto today. Yeah. Well, and again, like you see like what their negatives are. It's very clear what their negatives are, what their flaws are. And they've already, you know, they gave up 12 runs today. They gave up 11 runs to the Mariners a couple of days ago.
Starting point is 00:31:16 Like they're a team that can easily fall apart and get embarrassed. And so I just, it still looks like a roster that's just not capable of being saved by Joe Hey Otani and Mike Trout. that's still like to me when I look at this angels team and I'm trying to be as objective as I possibly can be and yes there is a little bit of bias in here still I'm not going to deny that but for good reason because the angels just haven't really shown us that they can overcome their let's just say it horrific roster building practices and once again this roster just does not look like it compliments their their two superstars that very well.
Starting point is 00:31:57 So I think they're going to eventually kind of fall back a bit. And the Rangers just the Rangers are still a year off for me. They certainly have talent. And a lot of that is because they've paid for that and good on them for doing that. I just, I look at that lineup and it's like four deep, really. Like there's some guys that have some potential, but and have kind of flashed here and there like Josh Young. But I just, I'm just not a.
Starting point is 00:32:26 believer in that lineup right now that bullpen still questionable to me and like you said there's you know we can uh injury concern you know with every team but there's more tangible evidence there in texas that there should be you know injury concerns with those guys in that rotation with guys like jacob to grom and nathan devaldi because they have that history andrew heaney they have that history so i don't know my my feelings on the division haven't really changed at all. It's still Asheros, Mariners to me, and then a pretty, you know, large gap between the next two teams and then, you know, 50 feet of crap between those two teams and the A's. So, yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:10 All right. Any closing thoughts here, Colby, before we hop off for the day, we're going to be doing postgame shows for the next three days. So we're probably not going to be able to talk about any sort of broader topics on this show. So anything you want to cover real. quick. No, I mean, it's a good series win, you know, down in Cleveland. I know today left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths, but those people should, you know, go outside and touch some grass and breathe some fresh air because that's a
Starting point is 00:33:42 good series win. And you had a shot to sweep them. It's a bummer that you couldn't get that done, but that happens, you know, and, you know, I didn't feel too great about it once Brash gave up the game time double because the bullpen And it's just, it's, it's toast. And you kind of need Castillo to go deep tomorrow. So hopefully he can give you at least six, maybe even seven, if he's feeling zesty, and maybe you have a shot there to go in the series.
Starting point is 00:34:05 And if you can do that, four to homes, home road trip. And you get back home on Friday and you try to keep doing it again. So I thought, you know, for the most part, they played a pretty good series against a good team. And just one or two mistakes today kind of did you in. Yeah, they're going to lighten their load here on the schedule a little bit. Chicago, you know, got some talent. Honestly, Chicago is a fairly comparable team to Texas in terms of like the, the talent balance there. Because, I mean, they obviously, they got guys like, you know, Dan Zby Swanson and Marcus Stroman, et cetera.
Starting point is 00:34:41 But they, you know, there's still kind of in this weird rebuild area, I guess. So hopefully you can take a series from them and then you got Colorado right after in Seattle. that's a team that you should be able to beat. Milwaukee's got talent, but they're a team that you should be able to beat. So some opportunities here for the Mariners to collect some wins. Hopefully they take advantage of it. All right.
Starting point is 00:35:05 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 node, I'm Tadang Gonzalez. Be sure to give us follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. S, D-A-N-Z-L-C and Colby at C-Pat-E-E-E-T-1. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Starting point is 00:35:22 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. Now, for your second listen, check out Locked-on Fantasy Baseball. When you're league by listening to Matt and Dom every day is they bringing the best fantasy draft strategies. It's free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us. Part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you after the game tomorrow. Peace.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.