Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners LOSE SERIES versus New York Yankees

Starting point is 00:00:01 Welcome to the Mariners Postcast. The Mariners dropped the final game against the New York Yankees in the game of the home stand as well. They move to that's three and four on the season. Not an ideal first homestand, but not all negative, I will say. I'm Chris Crawford and I'm checking the soundboard here and I don't see wet fart noise. So I don't have anything else to say. This is the Mariners Postcast. Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners.

Starting point is 00:00:41 Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. I like our opening theme. What's up? Sorry? I like our opening theme. It makes me dance a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:00:57 Well, you just throw my intro, but that's fine. Sorry. You're not, sorry. Welcome. Welcome to the Mariners Postcast. My name's Anderson Hurst. I got Chris Crawford with me. The Mariners lose this one to the New York Yankees 5 to 3.

Starting point is 00:01:12 They do make it close towards the end, the last couple of innings. You know, not an absolute zero on the scoreboard or in terms of the offensive output today. Definitely still a couple performances to be desired. That's for sure, especially in the middle of that order once again. We will talk about that. I want to get Chris's thoughts on George Kirby, so we'll start. with the start will obviously get to the offense, then we'll do our unsung hero or villain,

Starting point is 00:01:42 because, you know, it's that time of year. We're rolling through. It's April 1st, no April Fool's jokes from myself or Chris, because I'm just not that funny, so I don't know anything. But Chris is pretty funny, so we'll probably throw something in there about a, you know, sound board to be appearing or something like that. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:02:01 But Chris, let's start, you know, before we start with the start, general thoughts on the game and the series. Said soundboard, so I used to... I remind you to do it. I want to get out of the way early. By the way, we got corporate feedback that they love the soundboard. So, ha ha ha ha ha.

Starting point is 00:02:19 Speaking of corporate feedback, you know, Anders and I don't do this for free. But I'd be honest with you, Anders, if we did do this for free, I'd think about starting June 6th, because it would be so much easier to do. Because baseball is the easy. a sport to have confirmation bias. It just is because it's every day. It's not just every day. It's every at bat. It's not just every at bat. It's every pitch. And you can, if you have your

Starting point is 00:02:48 emotions tied to it. Agendas. Yeah, your agendas. Oh, great word for it. That can be really easy to confirm those biases. This is just seven games. Now, I will say we're only reacting to today. We're only reacting to this game. A lot of this game just stunk on ice. It was really unimpressive offensively. I thought there was a really poor decision from the manager in this baseball game that we can talk about. This was disappointing. And, you know, a three and four homestand against two teams that went to the postseason is by no means a horrific thing.

Starting point is 00:03:28 But I expected more. I expected a more. I expected to have a winning home stand. I expected, you know, like a five and two homestand. And now to have a winning week, you got to go take care of business against the Angels. It's a little disappointing. It's disappointing. And today in particular, I'll give credit to Cam Schlittler, but I will also say that he made,

Starting point is 00:03:50 the Mariners made things too easy for him today. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. You won't hear me in regards to the confirmation bias. I try as hard as I can to be open to, you know, different outcomes than I expect, so to speak. And it's just very, very hard when you do a daily show to really put it in full perspective with that, right? And even you and I, we try and be as objective as possible. Oh, yeah. Objective as a Mariners fan as possible.

Starting point is 00:04:20 But we still have, you know, that's what happens when you watch every single 162 baseball game. So I appreciate that comment just to kind of get. get things rolling. But you're never going to hear me say it's too early to judge because that's what we're here for. We're here to judge. So let's start with a start, George Kirby. Great on his first outing against Cleveland. What do you think today? Mostly good. I thought it was mostly good stuff. The first inning, you know, he gives up the run and then second to the fifth, I thought he looked great. I will say today was another example where strike throwing was a bit of an issue. Three walks, 57, I believe, of 89 pitches landing for strikes. That is not the Kirby we are used to.

Starting point is 00:04:59 And maybe we need to start getting used to it a little more. Again, George Kirby still throws as many strikes as almost anyone in the majors, but it's different now. Because that arm slot has changed, he just doesn't have that same elite control that he did. He might, I wouldn't doubt it at all, because nobody works harder. I will also say this should have been a start where he gives up one run in five and a third innings. It was clear that Kirby was done, clear. And leaving him in to pitch to Paul Goldschmidt, I think was a huge mistake. It was pretty clear that he's done.

Starting point is 00:05:33 And this game completely changes from that, what I believe is a mistake in process. It's a justifiable mistake in process. You think one of your best starters pitching against a guy in Paul Goldschmidt, who has just been awful against right-handed pitching. but it was pretty clear watching him in that sixth inning that he was done. It was time to go to the bullpen there. And that's a fairly high-leverage situation.

Starting point is 00:05:59 It's a one-nothing game, you know, if not for that three-run home or the Yankees do not win this baseball game. Long story, Schna, he wasn't as close to as good as he was against Cleveland, but I didn't take any concerns out of a six-inning four-run start against the Yankees either. It's a better lineup, too. So you've got to put that into perspective. I think you can be both impressed with his start against Cleveland while also knowing that Cleveland is not the same type of lineup that New York is.

Starting point is 00:06:30 And then you look at today's, you can be a little disappointed with the outcomes, but then also put in perspective how good that lineup can be. You lose the series against the Yankees, you split against the Guardians. It's the first seven games of the year, right? We're not going to come to any conclusions about this team, but I still think if we're looking at, you know, how different is this team going to be than the 2025 team and how, like, how much better are some aspects of the team going to be. I'm just comparing it to what I remember as almost like a continuation of last year when you just took a like a two and a half month break or three and a half month break, I should say. George Kirby looks a lot like the 2025 version of George Kirby.

Starting point is 00:07:14 And not a terrible pitcher by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not the 2023, George Kirby. I'll tell you that right now. No. Like you said, different pitcher. He's going to get more strikeouts, I feel like. His stuff looks better. He's able to get that out pitch a little bit. But he's going to have some strike throwing issues with this arm slot.

Starting point is 00:07:33 So that's going to be something where I'm going to continue to monitor throughout the early portion the season. And really quick on the positive side, George Kirby was throwing as hard as I've seen him throw. 98.5 mile per hour pitch today and I believe five over 98 miles per hour today. So, you know, that's encouraging to see, but just wasn't fooling hitters. Six swings and this is just not going to get the job done against this New York lineup. Okay, Chris, I'm going to, you know, produce on the fly here. Normally we go to kind of the offensive performance, but I'm curious, do you want to start with offense or do you want to start with defense? Oh, that's a good one. Let's go defense just because it's pitching adjacent. Okay, let's do it. The defense behind George Kirby. And if I was a better

Starting point is 00:08:17 host, I would have done, hey, you know, George Kirby, yes, but the pitching, or the defense behind it wasn't that great. So I'm just, let's get the elephant in the room. How worried are you about Brandon Donovan at third place? I am worried in the short term. I think he's going to figure it out. And, you know, I've seen some people comparing him to Jorge Polanco, and I think that's fair, right? because it's someone you brought in to play a position. Anders, you are one of them. I wasn't going to say it, but like, you know what? You're not necessarily wrong either, by the way, because there are similarities here.

Starting point is 00:08:51 He's a guy who's mostly played second base for his career, who's being asked to play a new position. Now, Donovan's played it a little more than Polanco had in his career, but it's still a bit of a learning curve. Like the throw today, and by the way, he should have had two airs today. They ended up giving it a hit, but that's a little more concerning because that's the type of play that your third baseman should absolutely make. One of the throws, he just takes too long on and he just airmails the throw. I'm a little worried in the short term. I think he'll be fine there in the long term. Here's my thing, though.

Starting point is 00:09:26 He may not have a long term because it's really looking likely that Colt Emerson is going to come up and play third base for this team in the coming weeks. So I guess the question is like, do you make that move now? Probably not because who the hell would play third base for you, right? Like when J.P. Crawford comes back, you're not moving Leo Rivas arm would not play a third base whatsoever. That's a little bit of a tricky spot here. So I guess to answer your question, yes, I am worried because it's probably only going to be a short-term thing. because I just don't think Colt Emmer. I don't think that Brendan Donovan,

Starting point is 00:10:07 excuse me, is going to be the everyday third baseman for the Mariners. In that same breath, you mentioned bringing in Colt Emerson. Isn't that a similar thing, though? Asking a guy that hasn't played a ton of third base. Let me tell you the different. I'm so glad you asked that. That's why you're the best host in Anderson.

Starting point is 00:10:24 That's why. Because moving from the same side is not as big a deal as going from second to third. There are a lot of similarities between. third base and shortstop. There are, the biggest issue is charging the baseball. You have to do it more as a third baseman. And the arm strength matters more because you obviously have a little bit of a longer throw. But it's pretty similar. And if you can handle shortstop, you can handle third base. If you can handle second base, you might be able to handle third base. That's a pretty big difference,

Starting point is 00:10:57 but it's an excellent question. And Colt Emerson's arm is more than adequate enough to play third base. and he certainly has the range to play through base, too. Really good question. Yeah, I know. I was just curious because it seems like it's the conclusion that everyone's drawing at this point with the early struggles with Donovan in the field. Looks good at the plate, though. So I'm not going to get too mad at him.

Starting point is 00:11:18 Overall, let's talk about the rest of the lineup, though, offensively. For the most of this game, it was not very good. Cam Schlittler looked like, and he's a good pitcher, but he looked like a Cy Young contender against this Mariners lineup. How worried overall. We're not going to go individual basis. We'll mention some performances today. But how worried overall are you about the offense?

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Starting point is 00:15:22 So Chris Crawford, five to three loss against the Yankees, go to three and four in the season. Offensively, not a great day. That was my reaction to Washington these guys most of the time, man. It was a really ugly effort. and it starts so early. We talk about start with the start. The offense started with a shark because Brendan Donovan hits a double, and then Cal Raleigh,

Starting point is 00:15:49 Julio Rodriguez, and Josh Naylor just have three at-bats. And you don't get the run in. It just kind of set things off. And I'm going to give credit to Cam Schlittler. That guy has stuff, man. That guy has a chance to be a really, really good starting pitcher. already is one. Like we saw him in the postseason have some success as well. There's some really good pitchers in baseball. Big surprise there. But the offensive game plan today and the execution of

Starting point is 00:16:19 the game plan, whatever the heck it was, was just awful. Just awful. And if there's such thing is not deserving having three runs, bingo, bingo, bongo, take a look at that game right there, because they didn't deserve three runs. They didn't. And, you know, it was nice to see Big Dumper drop that splitter from David Bednar into right field to score a couple of runs. Count Raleigh is one of the major reasons why you're down four runs in the first place, right? Julio hit one ball hard, two off-flit-bats, including the one with the four-two game. And I know we said we weren't going to do individual stuff, but like, it's part of it. It is, it adds to it, right?

Starting point is 00:16:56 It's just the way things went today. And man, if there was one guy I'm worried about, to be honest with you, it's Nailer, because of the fact that he's gotten off to slow starts. And if he's sitting fourth for you right now, that's problematic. It's problematic that the guy hitting fourth for you is just chopping at the baseball right now. This was a bad offensive effort. I will give shoutouts to. I think Cole Young looked great and just misses that game tying Homer.

Starting point is 00:17:25 I think it's because he knows Anders wanted to get his other stuff done today. It was very kind of. Domcan zone had a pretty nice game. I think Randy's looked great with the bat to open the air. Agreed. Yeah. Real quick. It helps that Ryan McMahon, apparently, would be very bad at head volleys in a soccer team

Starting point is 00:17:44 because he very much misjudged that double. But, hey, it was hit hard and that's nice to see. But overall, just a really anemic offensive effort. Yeah, I think if we're looking overall at the early portion of the season, not just in this game, it's not all bad offensively. Really, it's just Raleigh Rodriguez. maybe Leo Rivas, but maybe expect that from your nine-hole hitter. It's okay.

Starting point is 00:18:07 Sure. But Donovan's look good. I like what I've seen from Randy, like you said. Raleigh's had a good start to the season, Canzone, Young. And obviously, a couple of the other platoon guys like refs and stuff have, you know, had a tough start. But again, those are guys you don't need to carry your offense. But the guys that are playing every day, almost everyone but that two through four spot right now, I think, are doing what they need to do offensively. So that's a positive.

Starting point is 00:18:35 Another positive, I know it's kind of, we're switching back to pitching-ish here, but I'm just going to swing it back around. If I were to tell you that the Seattle Mariners in their three-game series against the New York Yankees would keep Aaron Judge at a one for eight, no, 11, one for 11 with one walk and four strikeouts. I would tell you that that's a pretty good, pretty good thing to do. And they probably won the series just because I know how much of a factor he is in that offense. But the reality is because your offense couldn't do anything yesterday and most of the day today,

Starting point is 00:19:16 that ends up kind of canceling each other out. And unfortunately, you end up losing the series against the Yankees. But we go back at it tomorrow. Quickly, unsung hero before we get going. My unsung hero is whoever worked on the Mariners side and created carrots from the clouds instead of hot dogs from heavens today. That's so good. I mean, Seattle Mariners do a lot of things wrong, but they don't do stuff like that wrong. That's a brilliant thing.

Starting point is 00:19:47 And according to my friend Brittany, they absolutely were carrots coming from the cloud. So that's pretty funny. That's fantastic. Who is my unsung hero? So actually, you know, I'll go on some villain. The Mariners in the early portion of the season with their ABS situation. I've been very annoyed by both the lack of doing it at all. We see the opposite of that with the Yankees.

Starting point is 00:20:14 They obviously, Aaron Judge has mentioned it that, or Aaron Judge, Aaron Boone has mentioned it, that they basically have free right to challenge whenever they want at any point in the game. He trusts his guys to do that. And that definitely is not the case with the Seattle Mariners. And even when they do, Cal Raleigh behind the plate, boy, that was a, what are we doing? Really bad. And, you know, we talked about this a little bit before Anders, but this is both the good and the bad thing. It's not a case of Cal Rale like losing bat speed or having a huge swing change that just doesn't work.

Starting point is 00:20:51 He's just not picking up the baseball right now because both of those challenges. from him today. Really bad. Really bad challenges. And I have no doubt that Calarale is going to pick up the baseball a hell of a lot better going forward. I hope so. And I just hope the approach change. Back to my unsung villain. I hope the approach change with APS. Maybe it is a player-driven thing. They don't know not as confident about it. But utilize that tool. Again, I'm going to use this analogy as much as possible. It's like not using timeouts in NFL games. You don't have to wait for the two-minute warning to use your timeouts. You see the best teams that, you know, have a situation early in the first quarter.

Starting point is 00:21:33 Use one of their timeouts because it's there to be used. Like there are times early in games where it matters more than it might later in the game. So they need to do that more often and just maybe figuring out how to utilize that tool because it is a new thing this year. So that's going to be something I'm watching. Hopefully that's not an organizational philosophy because it might be. And that'll take some adjusting as well. But we're back at it. I'm wrong.

Starting point is 00:22:00 We're not back at it tomorrow. Mariner just have a day off. They go on the road against L.A. on Friday. Chris, what is this? Three straight series against divisional opponents, maybe even four? I think it's at least three. I'm pretty sure anyway. But get off to a good start on the road.

Starting point is 00:22:19 Get off to a good start. And start making some inroads in your division. Yeah. It's three straight. You got Texas or actually it's four. No, no, no, it's three. It's three. Okay.

Starting point is 00:22:32 Angels, Rangers, and Astros all on the road before you come back home against the Padres. So, yeah, start making some inroads in your division because that's eventually what's going to be the big determining factor on the playoffs this year. But any last words, Chris Crawford. And he froze. Excellent. Well, we will. Sorry, now you're back. Any last words for you on this?

Starting point is 00:22:57 All right. We'll talk to you guys later. Have a good one. Enjoy the rest of your day off, first day off for the Mariners this season. And we'll talk to you guys.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners LOSE SERIES versus New York Yankees

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