Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners EVEN SERIES against Cleveland Guardians with BLOWOUT WIN

Starting point is 00:00:01 Welcome to the Mariners Postcast. I'm Anderson Hurst. Mariner split the series with the Cleveland Guardians in the first series of the season. I'm Chris Crawford. That was a heck of a game. It was fun to watch. And we also got to see the implementation of one of these stupidest stats in all of baseball. I'll tell you about it in a second. This is the Mariners Postcast. Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Your team every day. Welcome all. Thank you so much for tuning in with us today. A little bit earlier than last night, thankfully. Just a little bit. Mariners kickoff Sunday night baseball on Peacock in a good way, winning. I believe it was 8 to 0. Let me double check.

Starting point is 00:01:01 Yes, it was. Big win for the Mariners to split the series of the Cleveland Guardians. We'll talk about Emerson Hancock. talk about, you know, the offense a little bit. We'll talk about should he have stayed in? Maybe. Maybe not. Are you a fan of trying to keep him fresh?

Starting point is 00:01:20 Or are you a fan of looking for possibly seeing something special? Let us know in the comments. We'll give you guys our take here in a second. But first, Chris Crawford, what are your thoughts on the game and the series as a whole as the Mariners split with the Cleveland Guardians? Well, every game outside of this one, I thought was pretty darn good. So that was kind of fun. If you were a neutral party watching this series,

Starting point is 00:01:42 I think you got the most of your money's worth for sure. It probably didn't cost you too much money unless you were going to the games. But it'd be weird if you're going to the games if you're a neutral party. What are you doing in Seattle and March? Come on. Come in April. It's a lot prettier. Just super impressed with what I saw from Emerson, Hancock today.

Starting point is 00:02:00 And I know we'll get into it. By the way, that's stat. Cooper Criswell gets a save today. That's just dumb. That's dumb. It's a stat that actually determines salaries, too. Like, good for Cooper, Chris. Well, I'm sure that's his first MLB save. If not, it's one of few for him, but that's just dumb. It's a really silly thing that Major League Baseball created a very long time ago. But that's besides the point. Everything else here is spectacular. They looked good.

Starting point is 00:02:32 They literally looked good because they were wearing incredible jerseys. I'm super excited to see these every Sunday. Really nice during game for the lineup. Yep. And I mean, we got to start with the start. Emerson Hancock, absolutely spectacular. Yeah, as you know, let's start with the start. Emerson Hancock, you know, after two years of looking mediocre at best, really kind of struggled with his command the past couple years.

Starting point is 00:02:59 I mean, he was a serviceable like sixth or seventh starter the last couple years. the talent has always been there, but he hadn't really put it together. I saw a different picture today. I'm going to be completely honest. I know it's just one start. I'm not like anointing him as he's now or ace, as some people in the comments are saying.

Starting point is 00:03:21 But it's like it's great to see him kind of realize what made him a top 10 pick in, what was it, 2020? 2020. 2020, okay. The Panini, yep. Yeah. So, I mean, like,

Starting point is 00:03:35 we talked about it so much last year. If you're going to be a pitch to contact guy, which he up until now has been, you can't be throwing, you can't be issuing walks. You can be a pitch to contact guy. You just got to get throw strikes and rely on your defense. And that was one of his main issues.

Starting point is 00:03:51 Not only did he get rid of a lot of the walks today, he was starting to get some stuff too, like some really good stuff. And working in, you know, his sweeper, which looked excellent. and that's kind of a new wrinkle to him this year. But more than anything else for me, it was kind of, without a lack of a better term,

Starting point is 00:04:14 his aura on the mound today. He looked completely confident, way more like, all right, I'm now sort of a veteran, so to speak, since you've been here for three years. I know exactly what I'm doing, when I'm going out on the mound. And I'm not like, oh, my God, I'm a young guy trying to prove myself. That's just the vibe I got at Chris Crawford. give me more analytical reasons why Emerson Hancock looked good today. I don't know if I can give you so much analytical reasons, but I can give you this.

Starting point is 00:04:44 I do feel like Emerson Hancock sometimes gets put into this category of bad, when I just don't think Emerson Hancock is that. Now, he was a different level today. For those who don't know, Emerson Hancock coming into his 2020 season, in his junior year at Georgia was the overwhelming favorite to be the first overall pick. Now, some guys played better than him, Spencer Torkelson, among them. So he lost his spot there. And then there were some inconsistent stuff.

Starting point is 00:05:15 And due to injuries and due just some other stuff, Emerson Hancock just hasn't put it all together. But today was an example of what Emerson Hancock, I think, can be. And I wanted to give you this stat because I was just looking it up. last year Emerson Hancock gave up 49 total runs. 22 of those runs, Anders, came in three starts. One of them, the disaster against Detroit, where he couldn't get out of the first inning, he gave up seven runs.

Starting point is 00:05:43 And another one where he gave up nine against the Cubs. Do you remember that series, Anders? Yeah. It was blowing like insane, and he gave up four homers. If you take those two starts away and then one against, in fact, it was our very first ever locked on show where he pitched against the Yankees, where he looked good at the beginning of that start and just fell apart. Emerson Hancock has been, I think, better than people give him credit.

Starting point is 00:06:07 Somebody told me that after his disaster start against the Cubs, again, the Gale Force win game, 3.77 FIP, that's a pretty solid number. It's not an elite number. It's not an ace. But when that's your sixth best starter, and right now, he's still your sixth best starter. Like when Bryce Miller's healthy and hey, Anderson's ready to go. Maybe he's your seventh best starter. Long story short, Emerson Hancock was fantastic today.

Starting point is 00:06:35 And that sweeper was the biggest reason for me. Like, you had to be cognizant of it, and it allowed him to change eye levels as well as any I've seen. Also, worth pointing out, apparently like seeing these Guardians uniforms, he had a seven inning two hit start against the Guardians last year as well. So, you know, I'm not sure how much of that can carry forward. but I was really impressed with what I saw from Emerson Hancock. And it's an example of why you don't just trade guys like this. It's an example of why you don't throw in an Emerson Hancock in a trade because having somebody like this that you can rely on maybe too strong a word,

Starting point is 00:07:13 but hopefully you know what I mean. Like you don't feel like you're going to get your stuff pushed in when you start in Emerson Hancock. Yeah, it's important to have pitching depth. Yeah. If he's your fifth starter, I feel fine. I'm like somewhere in the middle with him overall as a pitcher, at least up until now.

Starting point is 00:07:31 If he is as good as he showed today, I will definitely change that opinion. What's like 100%. But up until now, I felt like, yeah, he's probably better than what he's shown me, but it's a results-based business, right? He definitely is not on the level of our other four or five stars. So maybe that's like a compliment to them more than anything else.

Starting point is 00:07:56 So it is what it is, but he's a fine pitcher to have on the back end of your rotation. Now, if this is what he's giving you, like I said, with the sweeper working the other way, it seemed like a lot was happening last year is he was relying too much on that arm side movement and wouldn't get enough on that glove side movement. And as someone who has that kind of three quarters angle of a delivery, you need the left to right movement. You can't just be up and down. You've got to be left to right as well. So the fact that he's getting that figured out.

Starting point is 00:08:26 is huge for me. So I definitely think that can change. And we've seen pictures like this kind of develop after their first couple of years. I know it's weird when Brian Wu, Bryce Miller, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby have all come in instantly and been really, really good. That doesn't always happen, guys. So it's a good reminder that that's kind of how it goes. And especially when you know that you've had some injury stuff recently. Like Bryce Miller right now, both Logan and George were big time injury risks during the beginning part of last year. And then Ryan Wool at the end of last year. You need these guys as your six and seven starters and even as bullpen guys, if everyone's healthy. So I think this is a big kind of development for Seattle. If Emerson Hancock is, what do you show

Starting point is 00:09:16 it today? Sure. Just real quick before we get into the second half, talk a little bit about the offense and stuff. Yeah. The no-hitter thing. Because for those who missed it, Emerson Hancock wrote, let's talk about it. Does not allow a hit.

Starting point is 00:09:29 Just gives up two base runners a walk to Jose Ramirez. And then he hits, I do not remember, but it doesn't matter. There was no way in hell he was going to throw a no-hitter tonight. Not because I think he was going to give up a hit. I don't know if he was or not. It's really hard to throw a no-hitter.

Starting point is 00:09:44 There's not very many of them. There's no way in Hades. You aren't having a guy who has had our, issues on March 29th, throw 120 to 130 pitches. It's just not going to happen. And it's the right call. I know there's a lot of people frustrated. We're in a text chain with one of the people who was frustrated by that decision,

Starting point is 00:10:07 Andrews, and I understand. We'll let Chris's Wi-Fi continue to buffer a little bit. But he was mentioning how we're in a text chain with people who might be frustrated about the Emerson Hancock decision to pull him after. Yeah, you just kind of sputtered out Wi-Fi. for a second, but continue that thought. We're at a text chain with people that were frustrated. Frustrated, yeah, because, you know, they, it's,

Starting point is 00:10:36 no hitter's a big deal. And it is a something that not a lot of people get to do. But it's also not something that's worth risking long-term injury over. It's not something. And the Seattle Mariners don't have enough pitching depth to just like take a risk with something like this, man. You just talked about it that Emerson Hancock ended up being, making more starts than the Seattle Mariners wanted because of injury.

Starting point is 00:10:59 for Logan Gilbert because of injuries for George Kirby. At the end of the year, and Mr. Hancock ends up making a start because Brian Wu is available for you. Bryce Miller missed his time. Bryce Miller currently out. You have to keep these arms healthy, and it's not worth the risk. It's not something that as much as individual accomplishments matter, it's not an accomplishment that is worth hurting your team and also hurting one of your best player.

Starting point is 00:11:26 And best players is just too strong. or preserve him here, but hurting one of your players because you need Emerson Hancock to be healthy and you want him to be healthy just as a decent human being as well. Yeah. And like usually I lie somewhere in the middle on the leave the guys in for doing something special versus, you know, preserving them for the long run. I would feel differently if he was at like 80 to 85 pitches through seven innings or whatever.

Starting point is 00:11:53 Like, all right, throw him out for one more, see how much he can do. Sure. But he was at 97, guys. Through seven, he would still have to get through, wait, was he through seven through six? I can't remember. I think he was seven. Through six. Oh, through six.

Starting point is 00:12:06 So we have to go three more innings. It wasn't going to happen. Yeah, no. That's not going to happen. And it's his first start of the year. Like, there's just too many things that are kind of in my head that are limiting this from, you know, doing the right thing and throwing him back out there. So it's just the right thing to do from Dan Wilson, especially someone who maybe if it,

Starting point is 00:12:31 even if it was someone like Logan Gilbert or George Kirby, I wouldn't want that to happen either. But you would feel a little bit differently, maybe because you've relied on, you know, high volume from them before or Louise Castillo or something like that. But Emerson Hancock, just a guy didn't make every start last year, obviously being your six or seven starter.

Starting point is 00:12:50 And then, you know, his first start this year is just, it makes sense not to not to put him back out seven zero as well like if it was two zero maybe it's like hey he still gives the best chance to to win or something like that but no the game was over at that point yeah go ahead no i was just going to say the only other thing here too is if it was a perfect game i'd think it a little different here here's the difference too if it's a perfect game he doesn't have 86 pitches going into the sixth inning like we are just it's a completely different story if it's a perfect game and it's a completely different story if it's a completely different story of it's July 28th, too, probably, but you just can't take that risk this early.

Starting point is 00:13:28 All right, let's get to the offense because you did score eight runs today, believe it or not. So we'll talk about that on the other side here as we break down in 8-0 Mariner victory to split the series against the Cleveland Guardians. They are now two and two on the young season. I think it was actually very important. Chris made a point right before we went live, how important it was to get that series split. But we'll talk about the offense, you know, some breakout-ish performances that we've been waiting to see. And we'll get to that here right after the break here on the Mariners Postcast. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot.

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Starting point is 00:16:11 Welcome back to the Mariners Postcast, Anderson Hirsch, Chris Crawford with you. If you're new, we go live right after every single Mariner baseball game. You'll see Ty and Kobe tomorrow on the Locked on Mariners podcast. We kind of got a day and night thing situation going here. They got your day-to-day, bigger picture stuff. They do some game recap situations as well. But Chris and I got your instant reaction right after every Mariner baseball game as soon as the final pitch is thrown or the final out is recorded. Or maybe it's a walkoff.

Starting point is 00:16:40 It's not an out. We go live right on YouTube. If you want to catch us right after the game, we like to be your postgame. So postgame show destination, but you can also listen to the podcast after the fact as well. Chris, offense, score eight runs. Who are you impressed with today? Kind of everybody? like everyone I think had at least one good at bat today. Josh Naler finally gets on base.

Starting point is 00:17:03 He draws that first walk, but he stung a baseball. Yeah, a couple of them. Julio goes 0 for four. It's not going to be 0 for much longer. I guarantee you that's going to be changed to a hit because somebody on the Mariners is going to throw a fit and make sure it gets changed to a hit. I just tell you right now, but he also draws a walk. It's been nice to see.

Starting point is 00:17:21 I believe that's three straight games for Julio with a walk. So that's nice to see. Yep. Want to see the results, of course. Big Dumper has the luckiest double that I've seen in quite some time. But hey, it falls in. Sejcifis, boy, you had a rough day out there today. I thought our left field situation was bad.

Starting point is 00:17:39 Yeah, yeah. And you know, CJ. This is normally a decent little outfielder. He's a 24-year-old who looks like he's turning 52 next year, which I noticed when the hat fell off. But there were a lot of really good offensive days today. Brendan Donovan, I think, cheap among them. And that whole run was huge. And a rare mistake, I think, from Stephen Vote, who is one of my favorite managers to leave Chikoni in the game for as long as he did.

Starting point is 00:18:04 Some people bringing up the fact that, yeah, it's early and they're, but you're getting somebody hot. So I might as well get somebody hot for a guy who is way worse against left-handed pitching than he is against right-handers or just. And as somebody brought up, Kaffis did just give up on that hit by big dumper, by the way. Like that was poor effort. It wasn't just mistakes. It was a poor effort. But Brandon Donovan was absolutely sensational this series. I was really impressed with what he did outside of one throw that wasn't so great yesterday.

Starting point is 00:18:37 Might have cost you the game. Might have cost you the game for sure. But hard to complain about what he did at the bat. And you see why Seattle wanted this guy at the top of the lineup so much. Then you're 7-8-9. Cole Young had some really good at bats today. Leo Rivas with the hit. Luke Rayleigh strikes out three times, but he does drive in the run.

Starting point is 00:18:57 It was great to see that. I was really impressed with the offense today. And honestly, for the whole series, even with your two, three, four, not getting a whole lot done, I'll take a bunch of five to six run efforts. And tonight you get eight. That's pretty dang good, man. That is pretty dang good. Now it just gets frustrating that you see two and two instead of three and one and four now next year.

Starting point is 00:19:20 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's going to happen. You're going to lose games that you feel like you should win. Absolutely. And you're going to win games that you probably shouldn't win. It's just how baseball goes sometimes. You know, you make a couple of plays here and there.

Starting point is 00:19:32 The record could be different. But I think if we're looking at bigger picture stuff, I take more positives out of this series than negatives, if I'm going to be completely honest. Maybe Logan Gilbert not looking like Ace Logan Gilbert's one of the big negatives I take from it. I still think, as we saw today, Josh Naylor, like he stung a couple balls. Julio's at bats are looking better and better.

Starting point is 00:19:56 Cal, just getting off the shine is going to be huge. And then the rest of the lineup's been really good. Randy or Rosa Raina had himself a really nice series. He did. Dom Canzone, obviously. Luke Rayleigh doesn't get the home run to go in four straight, but then obviously Brendan Donovan, who I think is going to be a huge difference maker at the top of the lineup.

Starting point is 00:20:15 The Mariners have been just starving for an actual leadoff hitter. And I think that kind of turn gets thrown out a lot because you can have just good hitters, that in the leadoff position and be totally fine. But when you have a good hitter that's kind of a pretty traditional leadoff hitter, it helps the rest of your lineup in a lot of ways. So I still like what I'm seeing from Leo Rivas as well. There's a lot of love to go around today. And I think this eight zero victory is cathartic because it showed like, hey, we're still like a really good baseball team, even though we may have maybe thrown away last night's game and we shouldn't have and we didn't look great on opening

Starting point is 00:20:50 night you still come away against a playoff team last year by the way i'll throw out there it doesn't seem like it cleveland's the weirdest team ever they just they have two talented players in their lineup and then maybe two talented pitchers yeah and then all of a sudden they win the central every year i i just don't understand how that works some of that's manager you know i think Steve a vote. And also some of it playing in the division they do, I don't think hurts. And also, they're just scrappy. They're a scrappy pain in the butt team. And by the way, I think Jason Benetti brought up a really good point here. Losing a series here wouldn't be that big of a deal, right? With 158 games to go. Undersstatement of understatement,

Starting point is 00:21:31 it wouldn't have been that big a deal. I do think evening the series against the Guardians matters, any team that you're evening a series against or have a chance to win because there is no game 163 anymore. And because of how the tiebreakers and baseball works now, you want to win as many series against those teams as possible. Obvious point is obvious because if you do that, you're winning a lot of games. But hey, I'd prefer to have the tiebreaker against teams like the guardians, the tigers, the Yankees, the Astros, obviously, all of those playoff teams. I'd prefer to have the tiebreaker there. Now, if you just go win the series in Cleveland, whenever the heck that is, you win that series and you get that tiebreaker. Instead of needing

Starting point is 00:22:10 the sweep in Cleveland to get that tiebreaker. So just looking way, way ahead. But I do think it is something that you have to be, the Mariners have put themselves into that position where this type of stuff matters, where if you're serious about winning a World Series, you want to have home field advantage and you want to have the tiebreakers against good baseball teams. Unsung Hero, who you got?

Starting point is 00:22:33 The uniforms. I just love them. It's so good. And, you know, you could go with Cooper Criswell. I know he gives up the two hits. And that frustrated everybody because whatever. But I just love these uniforms. I think they're so slick.

Starting point is 00:22:46 I think the fact that they're paying tribute to a team that deserves being paid tribute to as well is another reason why I really like them. But I just love these uniforms. Yeah, I think they're clean having the Seattle and just the S black and white. Awesome. I'm going to do something rare. Unsung hero Dan Wilson. There you go.

Starting point is 00:23:08 Taking out Emerson Hancock. I know that's a controversial. take. Sure. Not even just to make you win this game because the game was already basically over at that point. But overall in the series, I think the day-to-day kind of bigger picture stuff that he's good at, maybe lineup placement, you know, getting the right guys in the right situations,

Starting point is 00:23:33 getting guys in the right frames of mind, that's where I think Dan Wilson thrives. And if you look at that over the course of an entire. season. I actually think he's a good man. Yeah, that's where he that's where you see his value. Obviously, the in-game management, there's a lot to be desired. But I think overall, I think the way they kind of, as we've seen now with both a righty and a lefty, I like what they did with the lineup. I like having Rod Reff Snyder lead off against lefties. I like not benching Brendan Donovan against lefties, but also not leading him off against lefties. Right.

Starting point is 00:24:11 Somebody brought that up in the chat, by the way, he's been bad against them. He is a significantly worse hitter. That's not who you want hitting at the top ahead of your big bats. But he needs to be in the lineup unless they feel really confident in a Patrick Wisdom or someone like that coming to play a platoon. And there's only so many roster spots for that. Absolutely. And just overall, I think he's made mostly, like I said, the bigger picture decisions,

Starting point is 00:24:36 like Leo Rivas playing short. I love what Cole Young kind of has started to pick it up a little bit as of late as well. And Zone once again looks like he's figuring things out. And I know a lot of people won't point to the manager as the reasoning why a lot of this happens. But I don't think it's coincidence either. So this is where the positive side of Dan Wilson. We know the negative side. We talk about it a lot.

Starting point is 00:25:00 But you can look at the positive side of what he does as well. So I'm going to go with Dan Wilson as my own thing. Love it. I love it. And here's the proof that we will say nice things about Daniel Wilson. Exactly. And hey, you know what? We react to every single game. We react to the series as a whole as well.

Starting point is 00:25:18 And like when he does good things, you can point them out. So let's be back tomorrow. Yankees are in town. Luis Castillo. I don't know who he's facing against New York. But we'll kind of double check. Yankees swept their opening series. So I think this is actually awful.

Starting point is 00:25:35 Yeah. This is why I think. it's a perfect time to get them because they're due for a loss. So let's go. And they're facing the lefties and back-to-back games, by the way, guys. Ryan Weather's on the mound for them tomorrow and then Max Fried. Loeb and Gilbert against Max Fried. That's a hell of a good thing.

Starting point is 00:25:50 Yeah, that will be fun. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Have a good one. Go Mariners.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners EVEN SERIES against Cleveland Guardians with BLOWOUT WIN

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