Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Postgame Show: George Kirby Good Enough in Sweep Clincher

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

It wasn't pretty, but it doesn't matter. After the Mariners' offense was M.I.A. for most of the road trip, the club managed to breakout 12 runs in their last 11 innings to secure a much-needed sweep of the Oakland A's prior to a big three-game set against the Astros this weekend. Colby and Ty discuss the starting pitching performances, Taylor Trammell's role going forward, positive signs of offense, and more on today's episode of Locked On Mariners!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/RocketMoneyStop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions -- and manage your expenses the easy way -- by going to RocketMoney.com/lockedonmlb. BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp connects you with a licensed therapist who can take you on that journey of self-discovery from wherever you are. Visit BetterHelp.com/lockedonmlb today to get 10% off your first month. 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.

George Kirby didn't have his best stuff today, but he was still able to provide seven strong innings as the mayor has finished out a five and four road trip with a sweep of the worst team in baseball. Our thoughts coming up here on the lockdown Mariners postgame show. Colby hit it. You are locked on mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Ahoy, sailors. It is Thursday, May 4th, 2023.

This is tiny Gonzalez and Colby Paddened for the Lockdown Mariners Post game show. brought to you by Rocket Money. Stop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions and manage your expenses the easy way by going to rockandmoney.com slash locked on MLB. Thank you so much for making us your first listen after the game. Subscribe like and turn 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're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our

Patreon by Skin and the QR code that's right above my head. the link as well as our social accounts is also in the description of this episode. Mariner's win five to three to sweep the Oakland Athletics this afternoon. George Kirby's seven innings of work, three runs allowed, all earned, just two strikeouts, one walk. Colby, your thoughts on Kirby today. Yeah, it wasn't great. I would say, you know, to be nice about it, he was mediocre today against a mediocre lineup. But, you know, he was able to go deep in this game, which is,

nice given the Mariners current bullpen and the fact that you don't have an off day before you head into your big weekend series against the Astros. So the very least, he was able to get deep in the game. Pitch count was in good shape pretty much the entire day. But just not a lot happening here. He didn't spend the ball particularly well. The spend rates on the day were down based on his yearly average. The fastball velocity was fine.

It was right in line with what his yearly average has been so far. But it did seem like there were a lot more 93s today. day than 95, 96. So I don't know, maybe just one of those days. It was kind of a cold, damp day down in Oakland, too. So we'll see. I don't think there's anything to be worried about here. But obviously, you know, seven innings, you only get, what, three strikeouts?

Obviously, that's not a great performance. You give up three runs against a pretty bad A's team. Again, not great, not awful. He was fine today. he was good enough to get the win. At the end of the day, you know, that's the only thing that matters. Did you pitch well enough to give your team a chance to win? He certainly did.

But this was a far cry from what we saw in Philly. And it's just kind of one of those games that every pitcher will have. And, you know, thankfully the Mariners were able to win this one. And Kirby did his part to keep his team in it for seven innings before he was able to allow Scott the very easy decision of going to Topa and Cewald to lock this down. the two guys he trusts the most at the back end. So overall, Kirby was fine, you know, somewhere between mediocre and fine, but this isn't one of those outings that we'll remember a month from now or that we'll be talking about like this was just kind of mid George Kirby against a pretty like meh lineup.

So again, good enough, but nothing too exciting coming out of this outing. Right. Kirby going seven though gives your bullpen a little bit of a blow here before heading into a very important weekend series against the Astros with no day off in between. Now Kirby entered this game with a 704 case per night. That's really low and again he only had two strikeouts today. So what's going on on that front? Why is George Kirby not striking guys out right now? Yeah, I think, you know, maybe the numbers don't bear this out. but it seems to me that teams are being really aggressive with Kirby early in the count, particularly on the fastball.

They know Kirby's going to throw strikes. They know he's going to be around the strike zone. So they're not allowing themselves to get to two strikes. And Kirby's stuff, while it's very good, it's not elite stuff. It's not, you know, number one stuff. It's not Luis Castillo stuff. It's not Matt Brash. Like, it's not on that level.

It's good stuff that plays up because of the excellent command and control Kirby has. So there's going to be games like this where he doesn't really strike anybody out. And then there will be games where he'll go six and he'll strike out eight or nine. But for the most part, he's probably going to settle into that eight and a half, nine K per nine range. And maybe there's a year where he bumps it up to 10. But it doesn't have to be a big strikeout guy. He has the arsenal to go out there and just kind of pitch to contact if he needs to get deep in games. So I think right now the reason the Ks are a little bit down, mostly because teams are really a

trying to attack him early and they're trying to put the ball in play against him early because they know he's going to be around the strike zone. So it's a double-edged sword, right? Kirby doesn't get the strikeouts. You don't get to two strikes on them. But these teams can't exactly run up the pitch county. You're swinging at the first or second pitch every time up there. So it allows Kirby to go a little bit deeper into games.

So I don't think we've seen the best of George Kirby yet. I mean, the Philadelphia start kind of an outlier right now. But I don't see any reason to think that Kirby isn't. going to still remain a really good pitcher. And I'm going to assume that the case are going to go up as we get deeper into the year two. So I wouldn't worry about it right now. But obviously, yeah, he's not striking out as many guys as we would like.

But I just think it's because teams are attacking him. I don't think it's because the stuff took a step back or anything like that. So during the game about midway through the root sports cameras caught Thai France, saying something to George Kirby. Any theories as what might have been? been going on there. I think he was probably saying, congratulations, you're being rescued.

I don't know because like, or maybe it was something along the lines of like, hey, George, could you teach me how to hit? Like, I don't know. So it could have gone really easy. Ty had a better day today. Did he? He had a better day today.

He's still chasing stuff at his eyeballs. It wasn't, it wasn't great, but he had a better day today. Had a pretty decent day defensively. well as a big double play which I think was what they were ultimately talking about I think he was giving it to George a little bit about how he had to finish off that double play I don't maybe I guess the good news is it doesn't matter of ties the worst hitter in all of baseball for a month he's still gonna have fun he's

still gonna enjoy himself so you know good good for him it was definitely a fun moment though that's for sure George George didn't look like he was really in the mood to be messed with. So, uh, I don't know. Like I said, I mean, he cracked the smile. He, tie got to him a little bit. He broke him down. And also did you see, uh, did you see Gino with, uh, Kirby as well?

They only showed this on the A's broadcast, but the Mariners reposted it on their Twitter where Gino like shook George's hand and then just wouldn't let it go. And then George just finally gave in and just followed Gino throughout the dugout. Carson Vital had to like limbo under their arms and everything. It was pretty great. Yeah. I don't know. George must have just been in a bad mood today, I guess.

Yeah. He probably went to the ballpark a little bit like, P-Oed and I guess they're just like, hey, man, relax. It's, it's fun. Or maybe he wasn't happy with his performance today. I don't know. But yeah, they were, they were ribbon to him a little bit today.

Yeah. The team still loose, despite, you know, early season's struggles. and current struggles through most of the people in that lineup right now, it doesn't feel like they feel like this, it doesn't look like they feel like the season is lost. So yeah. And hey,

well, do look at that. After the win and after the 5 and 4 road trip, they're only one game under 500 now. They are 15 and 16. Again, heading into a really big series with the Astros. We'll get you set for that series tomorrow.

You can catch those games on the Sirius XM app, or the SXM app with Sirius XM on the Mariners, hometown broadcast. But now we're going to turn our attention to Taylor Tremel, who had a big game at the plate today. We're going to talk about his big day overall and the Mariners' unwillingness to let him hit against any sort of left-handed pitcher no matter the situation. It's really mind-boggling.

But first, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by betterhelp.com. Getting to know yourself can be a lifelong process, especially because we're always growing and changing. Therapy is all about deepening your self-awareness and understanding because sometimes we don't know what we want or why we react the way we do until we talk through things. Better Help connects you with a licensed therapist who can take you on that journey, self-discovery from wherever you are. I'm really struggling with this one today. Therapy can be helpful for learning positive coping skills and how to set boundaries that can empower you to be the best version of yourself. And if you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient,

flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist. And if you don't feel that your match is suitable for you, you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. No worries whatsoever. Discover your potential with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash lockdown MLB today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-L-P.com slash Lockdown MLB. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners Postgame Show. Thank you again for making us your first listen after the Mariners 5 to 3 win over the Oakland Athletics. And a big contributor to those five runs was Taylor Tremel.

He drove in three of them, two with a opposite field to run home run. That gave the Mariners a two to one lead early on in the game. And then he walked with the bases loaded to get his third rib of the afternoon. But eventually the A's brought in a lefty reliever. and pulled Tramel, despite the marries being up by two, and went with A.J. Pollock, who is a worse defender than Tremel, which is a little bit weird when you're protecting a lead, not trying to claw your way back into a game.

To me, I would prefer the defense over the offense. Colby, I just, we saw this last night. They brought him in after Jared Kelnick was ejected from the game, and they let him play some defense for a couple of innings before they pinch hit Sam Hargety for him who is not hitting whatsoever right now. Just say he's not a major leaker. So what's the deal with this? Why are they just absolutely unwilling to let Tramel face a lefty,

even in a situation like this where you got a two-run lead? This is the way, Ty. This is the way of Scott's service when he has platoons. He sometimes tends to overthink them a little bit. it here. Now, maybe he thinks that there's always a bigger fish. And by protecting Trammell against lefties, he can keep him going against Ritees. Maybe he thinks that his confidence is so small that one at bat will shatter Taylor Trammel. I don't know. Or maybe they just want A.J. Pollock to get more at bats, particularly against lefties, because it looks like Pollock is starting to, you know,

come out of his slump. So I don't know. Maybe they don't think Taylor Trammell is that good. defensively. I tend to disagree. He probably should be playing center field instead of Kelnick. But yeah, it was just kind of a weird decision. I don't get it. Tramel was having good at bats again today. Obviously, the home run was huge. The walk also huge.

Stayed within the strike zone on that. It would have been really easy for him to chase. But he didn't. So yeah, I don't know. It was a really weird decision. I didn't get it because, like you said, even if you think Taylor Tramel has no shot against the lefty, who cares you're up by two in the eighth

you want his defense out there so and by the way what happens God forbid you know Jared Kelnick twist his ankle out in center field and now you've taken Tremel out of the game Julio's the DH you really want to run Sam Haggertie back out there in center field oh you probably shouldn't

so yeah I mean you can forego the DH and put Julio out there but if Julio's still alien it's healthy enough yeah yeah maybe maybe not so yeah I don't it was it was a really weird decision I didn't quite get it I didn't really even understand the thought process it just kind of felt like it was one of those like oh lefty on the mound have to go to pollock now and it's like really yeah yeah they're acting as if like taylor's going to die if he faces one lefty which is weird it was what was interesting is is that the next hitter right was was

was Pollock out number three? I believe Pollock let off the inning. Okay, so they let Wong face a lefty. Yeah. Why didn't they automatically go to Cabrero or Haggerty? Right.

So I don't know. It's weird. I don't understand the decision. And they did this last year. This is why we're talking about this, right? Because it's not just, you know, the three games that Taylor Tremel has played in this year. It's last,

it's all the data that we have over the, really the course of Tremel's short, major league career so far they just have avoided it like the plague letting him face lefties and look i'm sure they have more data and you know more information on him about that than than we do obviously but still like in this situation i think you can just let him hit against the lefty and just take the defense like just you know i would i would give an out to have taylor trimmel's glove out there in the ninth over Pollock's, which, you know, this didn't, this didn't get put to the test and the ninth, obviously, thankfully, you know, nothing bad happened out of Pollock playing in the field.

But again, it's just, Tremel, like the process of it doesn't really make any sense because Tremel has the better glove than Pollock. And you have a two run lead, just sacrifice the out for the defense. Simple as that to me. It is. I'm trying to pull up Taylor Tremel's minor league splits, see if maybe there's something there. But, you know, we kind of talked about this with Kelnick, right? Like the only way to know if Kelnick needs a platoon partner is to give him at bats against lefties because in the minors, there was no indication whatsoever that Jared Kellnick was a platoon guy.

And then what happened? They started to give Kelnick at bats against lefties. Now he's an everyday player. Like you don't even check to see who's on the mound to see if Kelnick is going to be in the game. Chances are, yeah, probably. So, yeah, I just, I'm curious to see. what uh taylor's splits are like in the minors um i want to see i'm going to look this up i want to see how many career plate appearances he actually has at the major league level against

lefties compared to how many he does against against righties because like again it just feels like the the entire time he's been up at the major league level they have just completely avoided it he's actually wow surprisingly he has 83 plate appearances against lefties which I mean is a lot relative to how little time he's really had at the major league level. He has 219 played appearances against righties. So still a very large disparity there. And yeah, he struggled mightily against lefties in his career. Oh, 99 average against lefties.

But again, in this particular situation, right, just let him hit against lofty. ultimately this isn't a big deal right because nothing negative came out of it it's just for the future you know long term i just i questioned the process on that yeah so it's a little hard to to track through tremel's minor league stats because again he was hurt most of last year two separate occasions didn't get it so the last time he got significant number of played appearances in the minors uh was 2021 and that year he was significantly better against lefties than he was righties. Against Ritey's that year, he hit 230, 339, 395.

Against lefties, he hit 351, 429, 622. Like, it doesn't sound like a guy who needs to be platooned. Now, obviously, again, they have more data than we do, because we're just pulling up numbers that anybody can access. They have access to numbers that, you know, very few do. I don't know. And they also have swing coaches. And maybe they just genuinely thought that was an awful matchup.

But again, it doesn't really matter if it was because you're up by two. You need the defense. Yeah, trade the out for the glove. Yeah, I'm going to keep on saying that. That just, yeah,

that was weird. I mean, look, I know we're harping on this a little too much for how inconsequential it really was. But still, just for like, If you find yourself in the situation again, you know, against a better opponent,

an opponent that actually can threaten to make a comeback on you, because the A's are not that. I felt no concern whatsoever. Once the Marys went up five to three today, I was like, all right, that's a route. Look, yeah, the odds are that A.J. Pollock is more likely to get a hit in that situation than Taylor Tremel. But you know what? Don't tell me the odds.

Don't ever tell me the odds because I just want the defense. in a two-run game. That's all I care about it. There's a deep fly ball to left field. Who do I want tracking it down? I want Taylor Trammell because AJ Pollock, it's been okay in the outfield. Like, he's not a disaster out there. He's fine. Tramel is better. Like, end of story. So I don't understand. I don't understand the point of it, but whatever. Like, ultimately we're kind of nitpicking here because, you know, it was actually a pretty fun last, I don't know, what, 12 hours or so from when the Marin game ended yesterday until around the fourth inning today when it kind of just, you know, it was actually. became a drag and stopped being a lot of fun. So yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so we're nitpicking a little bit.

I honestly didn't think we were going to spend eight minutes talking about that. No, no, no. Yeah. But it just, it was weird to me. So and it's just something that I've noticed a lot since Tremel or like whenever Tremel's been on the major league roster. And it's just, I don't know. There's been other situations like this where you're up and they still just take

him out of the game. I don't, I don't get it because to me, he's one of. of your more valuable gloves that you have on your roster right now, but whatever. By the way, so you mentioned, you know, Chamele should probably be playing in centerfield. I think he's a better defender than Jerich Kellnick at this point. I think so. I don't like, I'm not 100% certain on that, but I think so. But on that ball.

I find your lack of faith disturbing, Ty. That's right. It's not questionable. Taylor Tramel's better in center field than in Kelleck. So like why? I mean, I just I,

we haven't seen him in center lately. So I just. Yeah, but I just like, he's better. He's better. We know Jared Kalick shouldn't be playing centerfield. So,

so real quick, on the ball that that Jared misplayed, he tried to go for the dive. Astorio Ruiz ended up having an RBI triple out of that. Um, the, did you notice Tay Oscar Hernandez's, uh,

urgency or lack thereof to get to the ball. No. Here's the deal with that. I think once it got past Kellnick, it's a triple. Like, it's a triple. Everybody knows it's a triple. We know how fast Ruiz is. He was in pretty good position.

Like, could he have maybe, could he have maybe gotten it in a little bit faster to make Ruiz only safe by five feet instead of 15 feet? Maybe, but who cares? what if he bobbles it because he's trying to rush to get an out he knows he can't get so i didn't think there's anything wrong with the effort to be honestly i was a little bit i was a little bit puzzled by kelmick's decision to die for it honestly because i mean he just he just full sent it yeah i know it's kind of it's kind of it's kind of it it was a little bit like when you're playing m lb the show and you accidentally hit the trigger and you like dive and then the ball's like way

over there and goes, boop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's at least a triple. So, yeah, I think Taylor probably, probably catches that. But yeah, no, I didn't have an issue with, with Tia Oscar. The minute it got down, my only thought was like, please prevent the inside the park home run. So that's what I was saying, right?

When I saw him just kind of jogging over the ball, I'm like, dude, Asserre Ruiz just at that ball. Like, he might actually go all the way. Like, I don't know. Let's pick up the pace here. a little bit. Like, I just, I thought that was a weird play. I didn't even try to be honest with it. You play on the A's. You're six and 25.

What do you got to lose? Yeah. Now, I'm not questioning Teo's overall effort because he, he seems to hustle even then, you know, even when things are not at a great point, right? So this is kind of an isolated thing, but I just, I saw that and I thought

that was a little weird and a little out of character for Teo, but overall, I mean, it was, like you said, it was, it was, like you said, it was it was going to be a triple well you know after kelnick made that decision it was going to be a triple so yeah Taylor catches that

Julio probably catches that or at least gets closer than Jared I'm not trying to pile on Jared it was tough play which is why the decision to die for it was all the more puzzling to me but whatever yeah all right we're harbbing on too much inconsequential stuff this is all your fault that's right that's right it's all on me. So I'm the negative one.

We're going to switch things up. We're going to look back on yesterday's game, the seven to two win for the Mariners, which if you look at the box score, you wouldn't have guessed how bad the Mariners' offense was for the first seven or so innings, but we're not going to focus too much on that. We're going to talk about Logan Gilbert.

We're going to talk about Jose Caballero's big day and more coming up here in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder, this episode of Lockdown Mariners is 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 bills all in one place. Over 80% of people have subscriptions they forgot about,

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RocketMoney.com slash locked on MLB. Did you need me to repeat that for you, Colby? One more time. I think I got it. It's RocketMoney.com. Lockdown MLB. Yeah. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners Postgame show.

Thank you so much for joining us after the Mariners 5 to 3 win over the A's. Got a big series coming up here with the Houston Astros debut of the City Connect jerseys tomorrow night as well with Louise Castillo on the bump. Yeah, we're rocking the hats right now. We are in the mood, in the spirit for the City Connect uniforms. You can catch that game on the Mariners hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. Check it. out. Now let's talk about last night's game because we haven't had a chance to talk about that. Logan Gilbert. Let's talk about him real quick. What did you see out of Gilbert last night?

Me. Yeah. He was, look, anytime you go, what, six innings, I think it was. Yeah, so here, let me read off the stateline real quick. Six innings pitch, three hits allowed, two earn runs, two walks, six strikeouts on 89 pitches. give a seven hard hit balls, I think. Yeah. Yeah. It was fine. Anytime you go six and you give up two, it's a good start. All right.

It doesn't matter who you're going up against. It's a good start. Yeah. Was it great? Was Gilbert just like cruising for stretches of that start? Yeah, he was. But I don't know. I feel like Gilbert is, he missed up a lot too.

He was missing above the hands quite a bit last night. It was just a really weird kind of start for him. because it's kind of, you know, to me, honestly, he looked a lot like he did in Philadelphia. Now, Philadelphia is a better offense than Oakland, and the results were better in Oakland than Philadelphia. But I don't know, like, I don't feel comfortable saying that's because Gilbert was better in Oakland than he was, you have better stuff, better command than he was in Philly. That might just be because the A's are bad.

But overall, I would say he was pretty good. I was a little concerned that I saw 91 miles an hour, 92 miles. miles an hour flash up on the fastball a couple times last night that's that's a bit of a concern for me so yeah does not really throw in a splitter much either maybe that's due to some kind of arm fatigue as well or maybe it's just the matchup because there were a lot of righties in the lineup I don't know but yeah Gilbert was was pretty solid um but the one thing I did find interesting knuckle curve over the slider um last night that that's pretty unusual for Logan um so I don't know if that's a feel thing again I don't know if maybe he's trying to

protect some kind of, you know, soreness or something like that. But yeah, it was just pretty interesting, knuckle curve over the, over the slider. And honestly, his knuckle curve was his best pitch last night. So we'll see. Overall, it's a solid outing. But again, it's not, you know, it's not Bryce Miller, you know, obviously. But it was, it was fine. Like, there's nothing wrong without outing.

It was more than good enough for the team to win the game that he's, that he pitched. and, you know, ultimately they did. It took a while. It took a while. It took a while. It took a while. Gilbert was better than Kirby today, but I wouldn't say that Gilbert was great by any stretch. He was good, not great. I think that's pretty fair characterization.

Agreed. Agreed. Jose Cabiero came through with a three-hit game, his first multi-hit game of his career. And he broke the Mariners scoring drought with an RBI single, one of his three singles on the night. By the way, shame on us for not mentioning that Colton Wong had a couple of hits today, including a two RBI single that proved to be the difference in this game. So Colton Long's starting to figure things out. You actually posted some numbers about his last 10 games on the Lockdown Errors Twitter. Sure.

You vamp while I pulled him up. Keep you mind, this is after his second app at bat. He did add another hit later. So the numbers are actually better. There you go. So yeah, I posted. but yeah so him and cabbiero have at least provided some offense towards the bottom half of the merriest lineup actually the bottom half of the marries lineup was where really all the contributions were coming from for most of last night that when when they had second and third no outs like when j p and caviero got on made it second and third no outs and julio and tie france struck out consecutively

Hit a ground ball to the freaking shortstop. Please. Get a run. Dude, I was, especially Thai France. I was going to turn into the Joker after watching those two at bats. Like if Julio wants to go up there and try to make it a three run bomb because there's nobody out like fine, whatever. I think that's selfish.

And I think Julio's taken some really selfish hacks the last few days trying to break out of a slump by hitting a 500 foot home run every time he's up there. Selfish baseball. But you're Thai France. Okay. You don't have the luxury being like, oh, I just knock a three run home. we're going to be fine with this. Put a ball on the freaking ground somewhere past the pitcher and you score a run. That is your literal job as the number two hitter in this lineup.

Do it. Instead, he chased a pitch up at his eyes again. He's doing this over and over again. Anyways. Yeah, elevated fastball is about foot and a half outside of the zone, outside of the top of the zone. Like, I just, what are you swinging at? At the letters or slightly above. They are at his head.

They are eye level. And he's swinging at him like an idiot. Yeah. I just anyways all right you got the cold and long numbers for us yeah over his last 10 to 10 games

including through two at bats today so obviously he added another hit and two more at bat so these numbers would go up but over his last 10 games nine for 31 which is a 290 average plus three walks it's a 290 batting average with a 353 on base only a 311 slug

So only one extra base set in those nine. You want more power. Wong should be able to have, you know, around a 400 slug, give or take. So you want more power out of that. But if Colton Wong is going to hit 290 with a 350 on base the rest of the year, which, again, he's not. But then he's going to finish the year 260, 340. That is a really good player.

That's probably a two and a half three-win player, which is all you ever needed and wanted Colton Wong to be. So he's starting to figure it out. No, he's not, he's not torching the ball. He's not hitting line drives all over the field, but that's not really his game. Colton Wong is a guy who's going to, it's like Thai France, right? They're not going to hit the ball hard. They're not going to have high exit Velos.

That's not their game. They use the whole field. They find base hits. They get the ball on the grass. Or, you know, in Thai France's case, the last week or so. No, never, nothing. Worst hitter in baseball. Thai France, apparently, is a thing now.

So, yeah, but Colton Wong's starting to figure it out, which is nice because J.P. Crawford is still taking walks like a champ. And Jose Cabrero just seems to do something every time he's in the game to help his team win. And so you can kind of start, and AJ Pollock, by the way, starting to hit a little bit. We talked about that, what, a few days ago that Paul- yesterday. We talked about it yesterday, yeah. Look like Pollock was really, really close because he's hitting the ball hard, right? He's not striking out anymore.

And it's just the launch angle is a little bit off. It looked like he was close, and then boom. So Wong is getting there. Pollock is getting there. JP is maintaining what he's done pretty much the entire year. He's just walking a ton. You know, in Cabiero, they kind of found their Dylan Moore replacement. They're getting that production from somebody else, and it's Caballero.

And that's really the frustrating thing about this offense. And I tweeted this last night. The frustrating thing about this whole conversation is that people are pointing back to the offseason saying they needed to add a DH. They needed out of DH. they don't well they do but that's not what we should be focusing on right now the problem is is that right now Julio Rodriguez Thai France a Eugenio Suarez to Oscar Hernandez they've been bad for a majority of the first month those are four players who are all-star caliber players we're not talking about them going out there and relying on some four a guy like Tommy

Lestella no Tommy Lestela is not the problem and now he's gone so stop blaming him the problem is that your four best bats they aren't hitting right now yeah they're not hitting enough. That is the problem and that is what we should be focusing on. Not, well, they should have signed Nelson Cruz. Yeah. No, because if those four guys are hitting anywhere near and we're not asking them to be anything more than they've ever been for their entire career, if they just did that for the rest of the year, this is a top 10 offense in all baseball. You could put that down in Penn. I tweeted this last night that, yeah, they absolutely should have added, you know, one more legit bat during the off season. But that falls

down the list of things to point the finger at for the reason for the Mariners lack of success so far offensively their struggles offensively because again like you mentioned, Julio, Gino, Ty and Teo, you're not getting really anything out of those guys. Now Gino and

Teo kind of turned things around since I tweeted that. Gino broke through with his first home run and what feels like forever. Since April 15th. Jeez. Yeah. So a little over half a month since his last home run. So that was nice to see. Nice three run opposite field shot after, you know, a couple

outs there in extra endings where it was looking like, uh-oh, the Mariners might not even score here in extras. And then they end up blowing up for five in the tenth to win some of the two. Brilliant app by Thai France. Uh, yeah. So you're, you're, you're, you're being a dead horse now on Ty France. It's just, it's really frustrating, dude, because like, he's better than this. We know no, yeah, yeah. And he should absolutely be held to that standard, too. Yeah, this is the worst. he's ever looked last year he played without one of his elbows essentially and he looked better than this

it just it boggles my mind but anyways back to the point well real quick on that just at the very least it's you know it's worse because he's healthy or at least as far as we know he's healthy yeah and I don't think we've ever seen a healthy Thai France

struggle and definitely not a struggle like this yeah because it's not just that he was 0 for 22 it's that he was over 22 striking out 12 times, half of them on pitches at his eyeballs. Like the abats are just putrid. Anyways, as you were going to say, I'm sure. Tay Oscar, three hits in his last five or six at bats, all of them hard hit, line drives. Just missed having all three of them be doubles by about a foot.

Just missed a home run today. Yeah, right off the wall. Yeah. Yeah. So hopefully again, that is kind of going to, that is a sign that those two guys are starting to turn it around. you know, Gino technically did have a hit today. Really knock the crud out of the ball. Ex of velocity of about 28 miles an hour, but whatever.

It's a wheel for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So hopefully that is a sign that those two guys are turning around because here's, you don't need Julio and Ty and Gino and Teo to all be good at the same time for this to be a pretty good offense. You just need one or two of them. Yeah. Just one or two of those guys step up and just do what they've done their entire career. your top 10 offense in the American League, certainly.

And if all four of those guys are going, your top 10, top seven, and all of baseball. Because you're getting what you want and more from Kelnick. You're getting what you want and more from J.P. Crawford. You've had two guys step up and give you value at the plate that you weren't expecting so far. So all you need is for everybody else to just be the guy they've always been. And this is a really good offense. Yeah.

So in theory, you know, if you added one more bat this, off season. Yeah, it would help the problem, but it's, you're still in a pretty rough spot if, if Julio, Ty, Gino, Teo are performing like this. This is something that no one could possibly foresee, like, especially like Julio coming off of the year that he, he had, you know, it's just all these guys are really struggling right now. Does that mean that they're going to struggle through for the whole year? No, no. These guys are going to turn it around. It's just right now, it sucks. What we're seeing right now,

it's really bad. It's really bad. It's really frustrating. Like that, again, going back to when it was second and third, no one out with Caballero and Crawford on base, and you got Julio and France coming up.

Those guys, it shouldn't even be a question. Those guys should be at least, you know, sack fly, you know, score run. That should be the bare minimum

from those guys from the top of the lineup. They had their heels on the outfield grass. You just had a hit. get a ground ball past the pitcher. And you score around. I just, yeah. So it's frustrating right now.

They'll get things turned around. But in the interim, though, it's, it's a rough watch. All right. So 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 Tad de Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez.

That's D-A-N-ZL-Z and Colby at C-Pad 11. That's C-Pat-1. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok as well over at Lockdown 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 after the Mariners 5 to 3 win. Tomorrow we'll get you set for the Mariners Astros series, which you can check out on the SXM app with Series XM on the Mariners hometown broadcast tomorrow night.

But for now, having yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.