Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners See Win Streak Snapped + Is Cal Raleigh MLB's Best Catcher?

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

Running on little rest, the Mariners predictably dropped a 3-2 clunker to the White Sox on Monday afternoon. Colby and Ty recap the action, reflect on Cal Raleigh's big series in Cleveland and run through the keys for Seattle to win its next two games against its visitors from Chicago.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] up to date with all things Mariners at Inside the Mariners - a FanNation website covering the Seattle Mariners on the Sports Illustrated network.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11 | @InsideMarinersFor more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. 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.

The Mariners swept their road trip and then after getting back to Seattle with a little over 12 hours before hitting the diamond again, predictably dropped a dud against the White Sox yesterday. And that's okay. We're back on the mics to give you our thoughts on the last four days of Mariners baseball here on 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. What's up, everyone? Welcome to the Locked-on Mariners podcast.

It is Tuesday, September 6, 2022. And thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all platforms with new episodes dropping every Monday through Friday. I am your host, Tiding Gonzalez. Join as always by my co-covee, Colby Patnode. We cover the Mariners over at inside the mariners.com for Fan Nation over on the Sports Illustrated network. Be sure to follow the show on Twitter at L-O- underscore Mariners. Follow inside the Mariners.

You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. us. It's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-P-E-T-E-N-1. Be sure also check out our Patreon over at patreon.com forward-stall control the zone. We post two additional podcasts on there every single week. Again, that is patreon.com forward slash control the zone. And if this is your first time joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follower, subscribe, wherever you're listening to this. And if you're watching us on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, turn on the notification bell and give this video a thumbs up. We greatly appreciate it. It's been a little while since we last recorded. I appreciate

everyone being impatient while I dealt with a personal matter yesterday. Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. We got a lot to cover on the show today, including Cal Raleigh's big series in Cleveland yesterday's Dudd against the White Sox and Keys for the Mariners over their next two games against Chicago. But let's get into the series that we miss with no show yesterday. The Mariners sweep the Guardians in Cleveland and played an eight and a half hour affair that was broken up by a three and a half hour rain delay. And unfortunately got into Seattle around 2.30 a.m. yesterday morning. We'll get into the effects of that later on in the show. But before that, Cal Raleigh cemented this series as the series of Cal Raleigh. the series of the big dumper.

He goes four for nine with three of those hits going over the wall for Beef Boy bombs. He drove in seven runs, including the dagger on Sunday night against the Guardians. Colby, it feels like the more we watch Cal, the better he gets. And I'm wondering, you know, where do you think he kind of falls in the catcher hierarchy now in Major League Baseball? definitely top 10 you know you kind of look around the American League right now and it's you know Alejandro Kirk

and I mean Jonah Haim maybe Jose Trevino maybe like it's probably Cal number two so you kind of look around Sean Murphy is certainly up there as well

so yeah you kind of look around in the American League particularly the American League playoff teams nobody's got a player like Cal Raleigh except for the Seattle Mariner. So yeah, you know, he's definitely top top 10, I would say that that's a lock, maybe top five. I think, you know, Will Smith, Real Muto, Kirk are certainly way up there. So yeah, you know, it's up for debate, I think.

But I believe Cal Raleigh has like the 20th highest war in all of baseball, regardless of position. So you kind of look at he's thrown out 25 base runners, I think. would be base Steelers. He's got 22 home runs. You know, it's again, batting average still low. Not not super low, though, considering what league average is on baseball below league average, but the slugging is well above. So yeah, I think I think Cal has probably played himself into at least top 10 in all of baseball. And I think you can make a pretty good argument that he's top five or six. Yeah, if he's not five, he's definitely six. You know, because like, like you said, real mute Will Smith, Wilson Catarris, Sean Murphy, Alejandro Kirk.

You could probably make an argument for those five guys over Cal right now, but Cal is very close. And Cal is getting better defensively. We're seeing a lot of growth out of him defensively over the last couple of months, especially the way that he has handled this pitching staff and all the different kinds of arms and the amount of innings that he's had to take on his legs as well. And on top of that, he's producing at the plate. He's had, you know, a little tough stretch here and there, you know, for a week or two. But then he gets right back on the horse.

And right now he's maybe the hottest that we've seen him this year. The series in Cleveland was incredibly impressive. He took over that whole series. He did his best Greg Jennings impression, if you get that reference. It was incredible what Cal Raleigh did in the series. And it's been incredible to watch him progress over the season. And like you said, he's not just one of the best catchers in baseball right now. he's one of the best position players in all of baseball right now by F word standards so I mean we're seeing a

basically an all-star catcher develop right in front of our eyes and going into next year especially cow rally is going to be one of the best catchers in major league baseball and hopefully for for a very long time and he's got a long long career in front of him and it's incredible to think where he's he's he's been able to go after the way that this season started for him with, you know, being the third catcher on this roster. He struggled in his limited action. He gets sent down to AAA and isn't even down there for two weeks before he has to come back up after Tom Murphy gets hurt. And then all of a sudden, he just kind of figures it out.

That's pretty rare to see from a young player. And obviously, he's a little bit on the older side because he was a college player, you know, and he's, you know, kind of in the mid-20s right now. He's a little bit older for a prospect. But, and, you know, by virtue, a little more advanced. but I mean still for a young player to be able to fix himself at the major league level midseason you don't really see that often so very impressive stuff out of Cal Raleigh. What were some of your other takeaways from this series? We saw some really good pitching.

The offense was able to put together some runs against a good pitching staff. Obviously the guardians got hit with some injuries to Zach Plesack and Aaron Savale. So, you know, the Mariners caught a break on that front and they were able to take care of Xavier and Curry. and what was the other guy's name? You remember? Something Morris? Cody Morris. Yeah, Cody Morris.

Cody Morris, yeah, right. So they were able to take a vision of that. Cody Morris sounds like somebody who played quarterback for the University of Washington. So I wanted, not sure. Yeah, no, overall, I feel like, you know, last night or yesterday afternoon, notwithstanding, the offense has been on a nice little role recently. you know you kind of you look around at this at this team and cow Raleigh obviously you know kind of carrying the load at the bottom half jp crawford's been pretty bad uh you know adam fraser's been pretty bad lately so they really need somebody at the bottom to kind of you know add some thump to that that part of the lineup and they got it and you know hulio's on a nice little run right now as well uh over his last seven games he's 11 for 31 with uh you know a couple bombs, couple stolen bases.

And that's nice to see because the week before, he's struggling a little bit. So Julio appears to be getting on a little bit of a role here. Raleigh's getting on a roll. Ty France is obviously in a role. On a roll, that's very important. So, yeah, you know, the Mariners starting to swing the bats, which is good because, you know, Hanager's on a little bit of a slide right now. Winker is just MIA yesterday.

They didn't pinch hit him at all, which is very, very weird to me. So yeah, it's just one of those things where you kind of look, you know, Santana hasn't been very good recently. So, yeah, it's nice that Julio and France are kind of, you know, patrolling things one, two, and then Raleigh's at the bottom to kind of clean up the whatever scraps, the rest of the bottom of the order can put forward. So kind of a total team effort. Still, not everybody swinging the bat. That's probably never going to happen. But it just shows you, you know, if you have three or four guys in the lineup who are swinging it pretty well on a daily basis, you don't need a lot else from the other guys.

in your lineup, which is good because the Mariners really aren't getting it from anybody who's not, you know, Julio, Thai France, Geno, or Raleigh right now. So we'll see if they can continue. Obviously, you know, they got shut down yesterday by Lynn in what was a abysmal effort against a pretty good pitcher, but still. And, you know, they don't really catch any breaks. They get Johnny Quedo tonight, who's been very good. So we'll see what they can do. But yeah, for the most part, the offense was really good in Cleveland and see if they can bounce back tonight against another pretty good pitcher.

All right. So we'll get more into yesterday's 3 to 2 lost to Chicago in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bilt Bar. If you haven't tried Billed Bar puffs yet, you are depriving yourself of one of life's greatest joys. And guess what? There is a new flavor. You ready? Delicious indulgent cookie dough covered in chocolate.

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The Mariners, you know, of course, running not on the most sleep that they'll probably get in the middle of a season. You know, they got into Seattle pretty late, around 2.30 in the morning, had to play a game at 3.40 in the afternoon.

So I can't imagine there was a ton of rust there being taken by the Mariners players. And they look like it. They certainly looked like they were running on fumes yesterday. And you know what? I kind of expected that this was going to happen, considering

what they had gone through over the last 24 hours and wasn't surprise at all. But was there anything outside of them just running on fumes that led to their demise yesterday? I mean, I guess if you want to make excuses for them, you can blame the entire situation. But no, I'm not here to make excuses for them. Their playoff caliber baseball team,

they didn't play like it yesterday. Shame on them. We should all give up on them. No, it's obviously again, Yes, there are some issues with travel and things like that, but I don't want to use that as too much of an excuse. That just seems lazy to me. Lance Lynn was really good yesterday. That's part of it.

And he has been on a little bit of a role since the all-star break as well. So even though the numbers overall don't look great, he's been very good as of late. And he showed it again yesterday. You know, Mariners just seemingly not able to do anything with the fastball. And if you can't hit a fastball, you're screwed. Like, let's just call it what it is. You're screwed if you can't hit fastball. Lynn was very, like I said, Lynn was very good.

That and the combination of the Mariners and all their excuses that people will make for them. And the fact that they really didn't run out an A lineup or anything like that, it didn't really bode well for success. I guess the good news is, you know, at the end of the day, twice they had a chance to, you know, tie it or win it late. And unfortunately, you know, Thai France flies out at the warning track and Adam Fraser instead of Jesse Winker is a choice. that was made. By the way, Aaron Goldsmith, Dave, semps us yesterday. Root really, uh, root really did most of us dirty, though, because they did, they pulled out into that like deep, like zoom all the way out, uh, where they usually do when that ball is in

the upper deck. And it's like that, that's their establishing shot. And I was like, what? Um, it sounded good off the bat. I'm not going to lie. And it just kind of died. Honestly, why wouldn't you believe that ball was going out? things has been going great for the Mariners last week or so.

So why not? Plus it was Graveman, so I think we all kind of wanted it to happen. We were so close. Kendall Graven almost helped the Mariners. Kendall Graven almost helped the Mariners win their third game since they traded him. But yeah, you know, it just fit a little short. And then they do what they did against Hendricks,

really good at bats there. You know, just ended up falling one hit short. And you look at it and the Mariners had three legitimate opportunities. We could say two if you want. You know, you can say whether or not the opportunity in the eighth was a good one or not. They certainly had one in the second runner on first and third, one out, couldn't get that guy in back-to-back strikeouts. And then last night or in the last inning, you know, bases loaded, two outs. You go down on three pitches.

Like, it's just one of those things where you needed the big hit. And this is going to be a running theme for the rest of the year because the Mariners aren't going to put up, you know, runs in six different innings. every night. They're going to get two or three chances, and either they'll get the big hit, and they'll put up runs as a result, or they won't. And then they'll have to try and win a pitcher's rule, which is incredibly tough to do. So, yeah, you know, I guess good news is, Graveman and Hendricks had to throw a ton of pitches. They might be down today. We'll see. But yeah, you know, it's no fight, or not no fight. They didn't give up. They had plenty of fight there at the end. And that's pretty good because that was an easy game to roll over, especially, you know,

with how the bats had been all day, and then you get Graveman and Hendricks. It's an easy one to just kind of write off, and they didn't. And, you know, shame on us for going 15 minutes in and not mentioning the great job, Marco Gonzalez did,

giving the team exactly what it needed, you know, seven innings to help reset the bullpen. And on top of the seven innings, he gave them a legitimate chance to win that game, you know, just Elvis freaking Andrews. So Elvis,

Andrews, man. We said this. We said this when he got claimed by the White Sox that this was going to happen. It's happened all year. What is with Elvis Andrews at T-Mobile Park? I think Elvis Andrews has five home runs this year, and I think four of them are at T-Mobile Park.

They have to be. That sounds right. That sounds right. And I think all five have come against the Mariners. I think he had one in Oakland. So, yeah, just, you know, one of those years. Last year was Jonah Hyme. Apparently this year, it's going to be Elvis Andrews.

So we'll see what happens with that. But, yeah, you know, good on Marco. Really was able to get deep. even helped this bullpen reset, which puts them in really good shape for the next two days. And then they have the off day on Thursday. Then they have another off day of the following Monday. So the bullpen should be in really good shape going forward. And Marco played a big role in that.

So it was good to see. So when you were watching Lance Lim pitch yesterday, were you thinking what I was thinking that he would look incredibly good in a Mariners uniform in 2023? Yeah, I was. I mean, clearly better than Marco, right? Like, not to bash Marco too badly, but anybody telling you they'd rather have Marco than Lance Lynn is lying. I'll just say that.

But yeah, no, he's, he was good. And, you know, he's on a nice little role here. Chicago's feels like they're going to back their way into a playoff spot, meaning the division, because the AL Central is a mess. It's so bad. I think if you're a Mariner fan, basically the only team you're worried about, unseating you for a playoff spot is Baltimore at this point. And even Baltimore is fading pretty fast right now.

So you're still playing for seating. You still want to win because you want that home playoff series. I get all that. But in terms of where you're at playoff-wise, yesterday's scoreboard was very good for you for clinching a playoff spot. So we'll see. Like I said, see if they can bounce back.

Quedo's going to throw everything in the kitchen sink at him. He's going to quick pitch him. He's going to use the hesitation. He's going to do all that stuff. and he's not going to throw good stuff at you. He's just kind of kind of, you know, bulldog you, more or less. And you got to find a way to, you know, make that work for you and score some runs. But, yeah, you know, it's, there are some valid excuses for the Mariners performance yesterday,

but that's all they are excuses. Demand more people, stand up. But now, they'll be fine. Now they've only won seven of eight and like nine of their last 12. What good is that? So, yeah, you know, just go out. They could have won eight of eight. Yeah.

Just saying. Demand perfection. Exactly. They'll be fine. Like I said, I do think you want to win one of these next two, ideally both of them, obviously. But you just don't want to start the extended losing streaks. And obviously with Atlanta and San Diego coming into town after this, it's a possibility. Those are two really good rosters.

So you just want to avoid, you know, sweeps and try. and win one of these series and they still have a good chance to beat the white socks the next two nights so we'll see what happens god i wish the mariners were in the central everything clinched baby this this would be so much easier life would be so much easier the mariners were just on the central um all right so let's talk about these next two games so we know that johnny quito like you said is is going on the bump for the for the white socks or tonight uh we don't know who's going on the bump for them tomorrow it's tbd right now so we'll see I don't know if you've heard anything on that but I haven't heard anything so looks like it's TBD gets Luis Castillo and then you know tonight we got Logan Gilbert going for the

for the M so what do the Mariners have to do now over these next few games to to win and you know if they do lose did they build themselves enough of a buffer on the road trip to to survive that even if they were to say get swept by the White Sox which I don't think is going to happen. Yeah, like I said, they're in a really good spot. I think they're five and a half up on Baltimore right now with, you know, 28 to play. And it's really six and a half because they have the tiebreaker. So they can afford a sweep. You don't want it because, again, you're still trying to get that four seed. But, you know, priority one, make the playoffs. They're in great shape for that. So they can, they can survive a little bit of a down stretch here again. You just have to avoid the, you know, the one and

nine's or the you know the two and 13 stuff like that so as long as you're even you know it was eight game road trip 18 eight game homestine if you go three and five like you're fine like you're totally fine so in that case yeah they're fine uh as for what they need to do tonight uh gilbert this is a really interesting matchup he was pretty good last time out again against detroit which does that count i don't know but chicago is a very aggressive team they're going to be very aggressive on the fastball early. Gilbert's got to spot it. And if he doesn't, he's going to get hit around the ballpark pretty hard.

So hopefully Gilbert has, you know, a breaking ball of some kind tonight, whether it be the slider or the curveball. He's going to have to flip that in for some first pitch strikes. And he's going to have to force the White Sox to expand the zone, you know, chases outside of the zone are earned. And the White Sox will do that if you force them to respect the fastball. So he's got to have good command with the fastball. He's got to have at least one breaking ball.

He should be okay. But if he's, you know, first pitch fastballed every single hitter in its middle of the plate, it's going to be a long night for Logan Gilbert. So we'll see which version of him we get. Yeah. And then, you know, the bats, Gino should be back in the lineup today. I'd say Winker should be back, but they didn't use him yesterday, which wasn't really weird to me. So probably Carlos Santana for some reason.

So, yeah, we'll see what the lineup looks like. But yeah, for Gilbert, it's going to be get ahead. you know, get ahead 01, 1, 2, and then expand the zone because you just can't throw fastballs down the middle of the plate to this White Sox team. They're too aggressive. They're, you know, they don't walk, but they put a ton of balls in play. They hit for high average. So you got to force them to expand the zone. And the only way you can do that is to get strike one.

And the Mariners, offensively speaking, have to be on their toes. Because like you said, you know, Quedo will throw the whole kitchen sink at them. He doesn't have overpowering stuff, but he's incredibly deceptive, especially with his approach, with the quick pitches, with the delays and his wind-up and all that stuff that he does, all that weird stuff that he does. The Mariners have seen a pitcher like that, though, this year, Nester Cortez Jr.,

and they were able to survive him well enough to win that game that they played against the Yankees. So hopefully they are able to follow suit here against Quedo as well. But that's going to be a, it's going to be an interesting matchup for the, them, especially coming off of a disappointing offensive effort yesterday, hopefully with more rest and everything and more guys in the lineup, you know, more of the regular starters in the lineup, they'll be able to put together a little bit of a better effort tonight. And as you said earlier,

Liam Hendricks, Kendall Graveman might not be able to pitch tonight. So if you're able to get into the White Sox bullpen, that would behoove you. So we'll see. And then we'll see, you know, what the pitching matchup is tomorrow, but I mean, you always like your chances. when Luis Castillo is going for you. So hopefully the Mariners at least are able to win one of these games. But like you said, not a huge deal if that's all they're able to accomplish here. Because they have created such a buffer for themselves. You know, you don't want to make a habit of losing, especially with the Braves and the Padres coming to them.

But if this is, you know, maybe your one hiccup before October, so be it. So be it. But we'll see how it goes. Any final thoughts before we hop off here? Yeah, you know, again, the Mariners are five games up on Baltimore. You know, it's six really with the tiebreaker. So, yeah, the Mariners still in a really good shape. If they go 500 to the rest of the way, that would be,

now I have to do math live on air. 27 games left, so they go 13 and 14. Right, they'll finish 8 with 89 wins for Baltimore to beat that heads up. to get to 90 obviously so they would have to go 19 and 8 to do that it's not happening folks you're in really good shape just again avoid the disaster series trying to win one of these games you know don't don't give you know this this losing streak life just nip it in the bud in the next two days get your off day at home which you desperately need and then get ready for a really fun series against two really good teams and you know sandwiching in between there another off day at

home. Hey, how about that? So just, uh, you know, find a way to survive these next two games and then get ready to go to battle with the, uh, with the Braves who unfortunately you will not get to throw Luis Castillo against. So yeah. Get to throw them against San Diego. Yeah, you got some Padres. That will be with an extra days or a lot of fun. So it'll be a lot of fun. All right. So, uh, we'll be back after the game tomorrow because it's a, uh, it's a day game. It's a matinee. Getaway day for the, uh, for the white socks. Mariners have the off day. Uh, that's, uh, next day so that's that's nice that helps them a lot and this one will actually get played at a reasonable time because we have a roof because we're smart exactly exactly the Midwest

Midwest man all right that's going to do it for our show today thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown mariners podcast for colby pat node I'm tied and gonzalez be sure to give us a follow on twitter at l0 underscore mariners you can follow inside the mariner's at inside Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, this D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-E-N-Z-L-E. That's C-PAT-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you

again for making us your first listen of the day. Now, for your second listen, go check out the Ultimate Pro Football Preview 2022. It's an eight-episode extravaganza to get you ready for the NFL season. The local team experts of the Locked-on podcast network, plus a

betting angle from Lee Sterling of locked-on bets all combining into one Ultimate NFL preview. Search for Ultimate Pro Football Preview 2022 on your Odyssey app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you tomorrow. Go,ims. Peace.