Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Shine in Primetime to Complete Best Weekend of the Season

Starting point is 00:00:00 So that was the best weekend of the season. Let's talk about it. 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 Monday, August 12, 2024.

Starting point is 00:00:25 This is Tadine Gis Alas and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marries Podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. So we're pushing the mailbag to tomorrow because we have a ton to talk about. as is from this past weekend series against the Mets. But before we give you our biggest takeaways from that, shout out to our title sponsor today, Supplyhouse. Supplyhouse.com is the reliable way to get parts fast. Shop for your next plumbing, HVAC, or electrical job,

Starting point is 00:00:51 and get fast shipping from coast to coast at supplyhouse.com. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. The link is in the description. And you can sign up for a free seven-day trial. So it seems like that Mitch Hanager walk off against the Tigers might have fixed the vibes a little bit for this team because they went on to not just sweep the New York Mets this weekend utterly dominated them. They outscored them 22 to 1 over the course of this series. And Colby, you were there for the final two games of the series in person.

Starting point is 00:01:24 You got to see it all unfold before your eyes. Tell us about it. Yeah, it was a great weekend, you know, obviously could have been even better. if the Red Sox had helped out at all. But, you know, so it goes. Just so happens, the Mariners won four in a row right in line with the Astros winning five in a row. And, you know, that's how baseball works sometimes. But, you know, you did pick up three games on Boston.

Starting point is 00:01:48 You've leapfrog them in the wild card. And, you know, you're the first team out in the wild card now. So it's possible that another avenue to the postseason may have opened up for you over this last weekend. But obviously, you know, all eyes are on the division. going forward. But yeah, it was a great weekend. We saw some, you know, pretty good offense, especially yesterday. We saw some timely hitting in the first two games.

Starting point is 00:02:11 And then we just saw just utterly dominant pitching all weekend. This is, I think this is the third time in Mariners history. They've given up one run in a three-game set total. They've never shut a team out three games in a row, apparently. But they came pretty darn close. It was a Jeff McNeil solo homer that prevented that from happening. and you know louis castillo goes out there yesterday he goes six innings right gives up just four hits strikes out nine allows just four hard hit balls and somehow he had the worst start of anybody

Starting point is 00:02:45 you threw this weekend like it's pretty good run and you know it was uh it reminded me of the that mid-april run where just like everybody was was shoving and even like emerson hancock is going like six scoreless somehow and you're just like wow like this rotation when they get on a roll, they can really, you know, you know, shut you down. And, you know, again, the Mets are a pretty good lineup, pretty good team. I mean, they were arguably the hottest lineup in baseball heading into the series. Yeah, the best record in baseball since June 1, I think. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:17 Something like that. So, yeah, they were playing very good ball. And you weren't, to be, you know, to be honest about it, you weren't. You needed a kind of a fluky, you know, walk off single from Hanager. to avoid being swept by Detroit. But yeah, that's baseball, man. Turns on a dime. You get really good pitching.

Starting point is 00:03:40 There's not a lot of pressure on the offense. And then go figure the offense just randomly explodes for 12 runs on Sunday night baseball the first game on ESPN in Seattle since 2004. Yeah. Yeah. It all really worked out very nicely. But to me, the story this weekend starts with the starting pitching. it was simply sensational from all three guys.

Starting point is 00:04:06 So obviously for us watching at home, this was a bit of a different experience with Sunday night baseball with the ESPN broadcast with Victor Robles being miced up, which was incredible. I don't know if you've seen the clips of that yet, but him laughing maniacally as Hori Polanco rounds the bases after hitting that solo home run in the second inning was the best, just the absolute best.

Starting point is 00:04:30 Victor Robles continues to endear him. himself to this fan base. But did it feel any different inside the ballpark with it being Sunday night baseball? Was there like a different energy in the ballpark at all? No, not really. Um, you know, they made a thing of it before, uh, the game. Hey, we're on ESPN. They're coming live to us, blah, blah, blah. Let's make some noise. Uh, and all that stuff. But, uh, no, I wouldn't say there was a really a different energy. Um, it's kind of a weird four o'clock start time. Uh, so. Yeah, it was a good crowd. Certainly there was energy in the ballpark,

Starting point is 00:05:09 but I don't think it was significantly different from Saturday, at least from where I was sitting. So, no, it was just a good solid crowd. And they didn't really like make too big of a deal of it. It wasn't like, like they did a little pregame like, hey, here's the, you know, first time in 20 years. And then they, in the second inning, I think they showed the broadcast. cast booth and all that and

Starting point is 00:05:35 then that was pretty much it. I mean, my camera throughout the first pitch. That was pretty cool. I got the crowd going with the, with the Trident. So, but yeah,

Starting point is 00:05:45 so there's a little bit of action. Which that's a little bit different to have someone like speak to the crowd before the game. I think that was specifically because it was Sunday night baseball. Yeah. But yeah, other than that,

Starting point is 00:05:55 no, it was, you know, they still did all the same promos for the most part. And, you know, ballpark operations ran exactly like they would. So I wouldn't say there was a,

Starting point is 00:06:04 a huge difference. But obviously, you know, you sat in that ballpark when it's, well, you haven't, but you sit in that ballpark when the team's not playing well and they're just swinging and missing a lot. And then you sit in it when like good things are happening. Like obviously the vibes are fantastic when, when good things are happening in that ballpark. So, yeah, it was, it was fun atmosphere.

Starting point is 00:06:26 Didn't feel like anybody was like super amped because it was Sunday night baseball or anything like that. But, yeah, it was. It was fun. And, you know, crowd brought it when it needed to. And there was, there was a good vibe all the way around.

Starting point is 00:06:42 And I think, you know, part of it, the fact that they had already won the series also kind of played it apart. And it's like, yeah, I mean, obviously we want the sweep.

Starting point is 00:06:49 But like, we beat a good team, you know, we took two or three from them at the least. And now we're just kind of going out here where you got Castillo on the mound. We're just going to kind of vibe and see what happens. And boom, 12 runs later,

Starting point is 00:07:02 you get the sweep. And I love the decision to where the city connects on a rare Sunday instance with the, you know, obviously the special occasion of Sunday night baseball. But I thought that was just a great display of obviously Mariners baseball. Of course, that might be the best game they played all year, but also just a great display of the fans of the atmosphere in T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Hopefully that shows ESPN like, hey, bring your product up north a little bit more than you do. you know maybe maybe get it off the east coast a little bit more than than you do so be nice to be on on sunday night baseball again because uh one seems like the player is really like doing it and uh and two it's it's a lot of fun and it's a lot of fun seeing you know some new things that you don't really see with this team like again guys getting miced up again victor robes was electric yesterday during his little segment yeah he was amazing you you got to go back and watch that it was awesome all right so let's uh let's dive into this pitching a little bit more

Starting point is 00:08:03 But first a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Merritt's podcast is brought to you by Supplyhouse. Get supplies from the site that's made for the skilled trade. Supplyhouse.com. Supplyhouse.com is the reliable way to order plumbing, HVAC, and electrical products online. They're easy-to-use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right. Shop a complete inventory of over 200,000 parts from over 400 top brands and get your order delivered right to your door with fast shipping from coast to coast. Need help with an order, get expert support and industry leading service from the friendliest folks in the business and talk to a real person every time.

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Starting point is 00:09:26 All you have to do to find that is search the word Mariners. Hopefully that series goes a little bit better than the last Tiger series. This team played. All right. So the Marers dominated the Mariner. dominated the Mets offensively. They dominated them defensively. Horace Polanco suddenly became a gold glover

Starting point is 00:09:42 out of nowhere in this series. The bearers turned one of the greatest double plays you'll see. Randy or Rosa Raina barely missed Victor Robles' knee and made an incredible catch yesterday, which was terrifying, but also awesome at the same time. So that was a lot of fun.

Starting point is 00:10:01 But really, where the domination in the series starts is with this pitching staff for the Mariners. Bryce Miller, Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo shoved. And that might be an understatement. They were ridiculous this series. Now they have 73 quality starts on the year, which is insane.

Starting point is 00:10:23 It's August 12th. We had talked about the potential of this pitching staff and how good it could be. Do you think we're actually approaching like one of the greatest rotations of all time and a while at least like that kind of status with this rotation given the era that they're pitching in too i mean i the mid 90s which is you know heart of the steroid era at the braves with maddicks and glavin and smoltz and uh who was even the fourth guy uh denny nagel i want to say uh like mike hampton i think was a part of it for a minute so like yeah uh there's been some great pitch

Starting point is 00:11:04 coaching staffs. But, you know, the Mariners, certainly they're up there. They are, you know, one through five. They are electric. And on any given night, any one of those guys can just absolutely dominate a really good lineup. So, you know, I think there's probably still a few more, a few too many inconsistencies to call them like an all-time great.

Starting point is 00:11:25 I think, you know, they don't miss a ton of bats. So there's not a ton of strikeouts in this rotation. But yeah, like one through five, just the ability to just kind of go right after guys and not walk people, something that all of them are really good at. It's certainly up there. And I mean, I don't think you could make an argument for any other rotation in Mariners history. You know, it probably doesn't have, I mean, there's no Randy Johnson in this rotation. But, you know, there's like five, I mean, They, I don't, there's not quite Felix, but they're closer to Felix and people want to admit.

Starting point is 00:12:05 So like, there's like five like legitimate, you know, all-star quality arms in this rotation at any given time. And if they're all thrown the ball really well, like you might only score one or two runs, you know, in an entire series. So it's one of those things where I don't know if it's one of the all-time greats yet. I don't know how, you know, stacks up statistically and obviously, you know, pitching in this era, it's better than it's ever been. but also home runs are up. You know, there's a lot more home runs. There's a lot more emphasis on, you know, hitting the ball hard and all that stuff. So, you know, era statistically speaking, they're kind of tough to compare eras.

Starting point is 00:12:43 But, yeah, this is certainly one of the best pitching staffs, you know, probably since the turn of the century, rotation. And it is pretty, I would say pretty easily, the scariest rotation in certainly the American league at least, possibly in baseball for this year. It is just, you know, you get five Rides. They all kind of do it a little bit differently, but there's some similarities. And like you said, on a night and night out basis, you don't know, you know, you're liable to go, you know, to get shut out over seven on any given night. And so, yeah, it is simply put, but it is the best rotation in Mariners history. I don't think it's really up for debate in that regard.

Starting point is 00:13:32 And there's been some good rotations in Mariners history. I mean, we had Felix and Iwakuma both in their prime at the same time. You had Randy Johnson anchoring a staff for a decade. You had Felix Hernandez anchoring a staff for a decade. You had, you know, the 2001 team had Jamie Moyer and you had Freddie Garcia. I'm like, you had some of these, you know, these guys having big years at the same time. but no, it's consistent. There's upside play here.

Starting point is 00:14:00 There's bouts of domination, not just surviving. This is a very good rotation. And I would say it's the best in baseball right now, which is pretty obvious in terms of, is it statistically one of the best? I don't know how you compare eras and all that stuff. But yeah, it certainly is right now the best rotation in baseball. Right, right.

Starting point is 00:14:23 Because it's also not just about what's at the top. of this rotation. It's also like your number four and number five or number twos and threes in some rotations, right? Like even in a bad rotation, Bryce Miller might be a number one for a couple of teams out there. Like the depth in this rotation is ridiculous one through five. And then you got a couple of Sy Young candidates like legitimate Siong candidates this

Starting point is 00:14:46 year in Kirby and Logan. You have guys that are just kind of like right on the outside looking in and in Castillo and and Bryce. Wu has been an elite strike thrower and we've talked about how insane his underlying numbers are considering the fact that he's really only exclusively throwing fastballs, the 2% barrel rate, the 9th lowest hard hit rate against in the league. Like this rotation is, it's so dynamic, it's so diverse in the styles that they throw at you. And they're so young too, right? So it's like even, you know, so in the case of like Brian Wu, that's someone that probably has another gear or two. So we might not even be seeing the best out of some of these guys, which is terrifying for the rest of the league.

Starting point is 00:15:34 Yeah. You know, there's certainly more to go get for a couple of these guys. You know, and obviously woo the last couple times out, he's gone deep in games, which is kind of in the last little step for him is to, you know, throw 90 pitches, go six, six, seven innings. And he's done that. And, you know, he's done it all still with pretty much just the two fastballs. So there's still a lot to go get from Wu. Miller certainly is, you know, a little more polished at this stage.

Starting point is 00:16:02 A couple more offerings than Wu does. But Wu's fastballs are great. And Miller is like very quietly, almost putting together a sensational second season. You know, he just kind of gets overlooked. He's kind of the fourth guy. really he's the fourth guy, but he's the guy we talk about the least because Wu has, has had the injury stuff and he's had, you know, the durability concern. So we spent a lot of time talking about Wu and obviously Castillo, Kirby and Gilbert,

Starting point is 00:16:29 Kirby and Gilbert are, you know, Cy Young contenders and Castillo has been really good for most of this year. And then there's just Bryce Miller just kind of putting up similar-ish numbers in the back end and nobody seems to notice. And the guy's just really good. And again, this is only his second year in the big leagues. And there's kind of the other thing, too, about this rotation. you're not going to have to replace any of these guys anytime soon if you don't want to. Like Gilbert's here for another three years after this year. Kirby's here for another four years after this year.

Starting point is 00:16:57 Miller and Wu's here for another five after this year. Miller's here for, I think five. I think he's just under Super 2. So he's here for another five. And then you have Castillo for under contract for another three, I believe. So he's probably the guy most likely to go anytime soon. So, yeah, it just. you have this rotation. They're really good right now. They're still upside for them to go get better.

Starting point is 00:17:22 And they're controllable. They're controlled for together for at least the next three years. So yeah, there's this is, you know, this is what you wanted to build. This is the whole point of, you know, being a run prevention club and drafting and developing pitching and the focus on like, oh, they don't draft bats. They don't draft bats. Well, here you go, right? Like you build from pitching and now you have this great rotation. just makes everybody's job easier. You have an elite rotation, you don't need an elite offense. It'd be great if you have one, but you don't need it. You need an average offense. You need average defense when you have this really great pitching staff.

Starting point is 00:18:00 So, you know, kudos to Jerry and Justin for building this thing through the draft, mostly through the draft, but also via the big trade. They made a trade. Shout out to Scott Hunter. Yep. Justin Toll. Yep. All those scouts, all the player development.

Starting point is 00:18:13 And all the guys who aren't even here anymore, like Max Wiener and, and, and, you know, the other guys in the system who worked with these young arms as they were coming up. And you got to give those guys a lot of credit. And it's simply insane pitching staff. Like it is one through five. There's a reason no team in baseball wants to play the Mariners in the postseason. And it's those five guys right there. All right.

Starting point is 00:18:38 So yesterday, Julio made his return to the lineup. A bit quicker than I think a lot of us expected, given some of the reports. from the last few days of, you know, people at the ballpark that had watched him on the bases. And it did not go particularly well. So we're going to talk about that whole situation, bringing Julio back yesterday, how he looked yesterday, all that in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Ibada and Fandul. Are you taking that dream vacation this summer, but dreading the cost? With I bought it, you get cash back on all of your purchases so you can spend more time making memory.

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Starting point is 00:20:52 And you're listening to the Lockdown Marers podcast. Once again, tomorrow you can catch all the action between the Marrars and the Tigers on the Marriss Home Town Broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app. All you have to do to find that is search the word Mariners. And with the M's being in Detroit and Pittsburgh, though the Pittsburgh series is on the weekend. So this doesn't really apply. There's only one day that we're going to have to account for. Our schedule here on lockdown might be a little weird.

Starting point is 00:21:16 So we'll let you guys know how we're going to figure that all out. But we're going to be doing the mailbag tomorrow. Of course, like I mentioned earlier on in the show. So be sure to head on over to Twitter. We'll put the tweet out at some point by the time that you're listening to this. And you can submit your questions under there. All right. So let's talk about Julio.

Starting point is 00:21:36 Julio's back. He returned to the lineup yesterday in time for Sunday night baseball. That was obviously something that he really wanted to be able to participate in. But, yeah, it did not go well. strikeouts for Julio on a day in which the merits offense, of course, scored 12 runs. So a bit disappointing there on that front. And this is something that I wasn't necessarily on board with, given the reports we had heard as recent as Saturday, from people that had watched him run the bases, talking about how gingerly he still was cutting the bases and how. awkward it kind of looked.

Starting point is 00:22:23 It just seemed pretty clear from my point of view. And I'm not trying to play doctor here, folks, as some people jumped down my throat yesterday, cues me of. But just based off of the reports that I heard, didn't seem like he was right. Didn't seem like it was

Starting point is 00:22:39 time for him to make his return to the lineup. He looks like someone, and look, this was to be expected. For someone that hadn't hit in three weeks, his timing was not all the way there. Now, the ankle isn't really something that I'm too too concerned with with regards to his ability to hit. But, you know, once he hits the ball, he's got to run the bases, of course.

Starting point is 00:23:01 So there's still a big part of it, even if he's just outright deaching, right? But yeah, he does look like someone that, to be honest, could use a rehab assignment. But they don't want him to have a rehab assignment because they're worried about him making the injury worse. all right well at that point he probably shouldn't be playing at the major league level either none of this really makes sense and ultimately at the end of the day it absolutely feels like this wasn't happening

Starting point is 00:23:32 had the merits been playing just a regular game yesterday right but because it was Sunday night baseball they kind of push the envelope now does I does I mean that they wouldn't have just gone on to do it at some point in the road trip no

Starting point is 00:23:47 but still it feels like yesterday specifically the reason that he was activated was just because it was Sunday night baseball and I don't know if that's really putting Julio in the best position to succeed right now and by virtue the team in the best position to succeed right now. Yeah. Obviously, you know, all the reports coming out yesterday about like, oh, Julio approached the team on Friday and was like, what do I have to do to be able to play out by Sunday? And, you know, the team has a responsibility to its players to say, nothing. You're not playing on Sunday. You can't run the bases. Like, you're not cutting. Like, no, it isn't going to work.

Starting point is 00:24:31 So, you know, there are times where teams have to protect the players from themselves, particularly, you know, 23-year-olds who think that they're Superman and they heal faster than anybody else. And it's like, well, probably not, Julio. this is a four to six week injury any way you want to slice it. And here you are back in three. And it's possible that if you play before we're ready to go here, that it's just something that nags at you the entire year.

Starting point is 00:24:58 And you never get back to 100% healthy. And we'd rather have you at 100% health for, you know, as close as we can get for the final three weeks of the year than have you at 70% health for the next six. Like there's definitely a area there, a gray area where it's like, you know, the player says he's ready to go and I don't think the mayor has put him out there. They think that he could, you know, hurt the ankle more. Like I don't think that there's a chance that they would risk that. But, you know, I do think that this is obviously because Julio came to the team was like,

Starting point is 00:25:33 what do I have to do to play by Sunday and all of that. And then he was activated on Sunday. Like, it just feels like, I'm not really, my concern really isn't about whether or not he would make the injury worse. It's about is he actually capable of helping the team at the moment? Right. Because, you know, that's the thing is like if he's not playing center field, right? He can't do it and he can't really run the bases.

Starting point is 00:25:57 Then it's all on the bat. And Julio's bat hasn't been all that good this year. Now it's been a lot better, you know, recently before the injury. But also, you know, that's if you can only DH, if you're taking up a 26-man spot and you are a DH only for a couple weeks, that hurts because you basically, I already have and Hanager and Garber. Those are two guys who you really would only like to DH if all things were being equal. So, you know, it's, to me, it's just poor management decision to, you know, it's a poor workload

Starting point is 00:26:27 management thing because, again, it's not just about Julio. It's about the other 26 guys on your roster who you're, you know, trying to support and you're trying to get opportunity to. Some of these guys are going to lose opportunities because Julio's going to be at the DH. And we'll see, you know, it's possible Seattle's just like, yeah, you're only going to DH every other day, but still, that's not good that you're playing a man down on those days then. And we've talked about this how, you know, we don't like that the Mariners essentially choose to play with 25 guys for most of the year because they kind of refuse to use that last

Starting point is 00:27:01 spot on their bench. And that's kind of where we're at now. So it's either play Julio every day and now nobody else can DH and Julio's not helping you. Or it's, you know, Julio only is going to D.H two or three times a week while we try and get him back in the swing of things. And it's like, okay, but now you're playing a man down four times a week. So I just don't see any upside to putting him out there. Like you said, the timing just looked awful yesterday. It looked like he was behind on the fastball. He was out in front of the breaking balls, which, you know, is not that surprising,

Starting point is 00:27:30 considering he hasn't seen live pitching in three or four weeks. But, you know, and now it's every time it's like, hey, yeah, you took a big swing there. Like, how's the torque on your ankle? Is that going to hold up? Are you going to, are you going to have to, you know, come out of, this game at some point? Are you going to have to, you know, do you trust your, do you even trust your ankle right now to take these aggressive swings? I don't know. So to me, it just felt like it was an unnecessary risk. It was pushing the envelope just almost for the sake of pushing the

Starting point is 00:27:58 envelope and to kind of, you know, appease Julio. And it's like, you know, sorry, man, that it sucks. It's bad luck for you. But we got to look at not only, you know, your long term health, but also how much impact you can help us this year. If you're playing the rest of the year, at, you know, 65, 70%. I don't think that's going to work out well. So we'll see. It was cool to see Julio back. And, you know, obviously he's a big part of this.

Starting point is 00:28:23 And you want Julio back as soon as he can get there. But you want an impactful version of Julio Rodriguez back as soon as he can get there. Because Julio just, you know, deaching and not, you know, running the bases and not playing defense, it's not that impactful, not the way he swung the bat most of this year. yeah, I just felt like a big risk that just didn't need to be made. Yeah, it just seems irresponsible and not really with regards to Julio's health, but with regards to how much does that actually help the team right now? Right.

Starting point is 00:29:01 Especially if he's trying to figure it out at the major league level, like trying to get his timing back and all that. Like that, again, that feels like something that a rehab assignment could accomplish. but we don't want him to re-injure the ankle in a rehab assignment okay so then he probably shouldn't be playing at the major league level right i mean you get so it's okay if he re-injures the ankle in a major league game like re-injuring the the ankle is bad no matter where it happens yeah and you know with the trajectory machine it's like yeah that can simulate and emulate you know every pitcher in the league and you know you can get quality reps out of using that machine but if that was just the simple fix and everyone would just do that and not go on rehab assignments yeah right like jay b crawford went on a rehab assignment earlier this year like he wasn't just hitting off of the trajectory machine and then reinserted himself back into the lineup so the reasoning

Starting point is 00:30:06 to me that we're getting from the team itself and the reasonings that for this that we're getting from the reporters that are there at the ballpark don't really add up. 2 plus 2 isn't really equally 4 to me right now on this. So yeah, I just not a fan of it. We'll see how it goes. I mean, obviously hoping for the best here, hoping that Julio can contribute.

Starting point is 00:30:31 But yeah, just my uncertainty is with that, my concern with that paired with what we saw out of Julio yesterday, not feeling great about the situation at the moment. yeah so yeah all right real quick because i i did promise my wife carolina would ask this uh before we got out of here she wanted me to ask you what you thought about the uh the cow raleigh thing yesterday uh that they put up on the big screen where he's dumping people

Starting point is 00:31:01 they they took a spin on on big dumper with that you just got dumped by the big dumper. Yeah. Yeah. What did you think about that? Caroline wants to know. Um, I thought it was pretty funny, uh, but also very clearly like a goof. Like he's not actually breaking up with these people for like, do you really think Cal is just like, yeah, sure. You want me to break up with somebody so that you don't have to for free in a very public. Yeah, that feels like something Cal Raleigh would do. Maybe, maybe Cal Rale is a man of the people. I think he's more a man of like, hey, yeah, man up and break up with this person yourself. I think that's pretty obvious too because he mentioned in some of his messages like,

Starting point is 00:31:45 yeah, you should read your text. You know, we're breaking up. So obviously that's a joke. But it's a good one. It was funny. It was well-timed. I enjoyed the you just got dumped by the big dumper. Hearing him actually say that is hilarious.

Starting point is 00:32:00 Yeah. So it was a funny bit, but it's obviously it's a bit. I mean, come on. I'll tell this quick story before we get out of here. It's so funny to see how much he's kind of owned that name now because he didn't like it at first I remember when I was in Toronto a couple of years ago I was sitting in right field right above the the Mariners bullpen and I just so happened to sit next to a Mariners fan and he was trying to get Cal's attention to get a ball right and I was like I was like hey Jared Kalnick calls him the big dumper you should call him big

Starting point is 00:32:31 dumper. And I remember the guy yells at him, he's like, hey, big dumper and Cal looks up at him and just like shakes his head. He's like, no. Yeah, we know Cal wasn't really on board with the nickname until fairly recently. So yeah, it's nice to see him embrace it.

Starting point is 00:32:47 You know, and of course, I guess we all should have known Cal Raleigh on a big stage. Of course he was going to have a football ball game. Dude, I didn't anticipate two missiles you know, back to back at bats, back to back pitches, I believe actually. But yeah, he

Starting point is 00:33:03 I already got up out of my seat when I just saw Ottavino throw the pitch on the second home run. I didn't even need to see him hit it. I was like, oh, that's middle middle. And I was like, that's gone. Like, he's destroying that. Cow's locked in.

Starting point is 00:33:17 You're not going to get away with that pitch. Yeah. So yeah, and Cal's been really quite good for the last month or so. So, yeah, hopefully, you know, people will finally start to recognize the greatness of Cal Raw. and the dudes probably should win the gold glove this year.

Starting point is 00:33:34 He's thrown out more runners than anybody. He's been the best pitch framer of any catcher. And of course, obviously, because we know that this matters for the gold glove, he's crushing the baseball, getting a ton of home runs. So, like, Cal Raleigh doesn't win the gold glove this year. There is, we have the answer for the most underrated player in baseball. It's probably Cal Raleigh. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:33:54 And he's got the fourth most home runs now of any catcher in their first four seasons. he's two behind Johnny Bench, three behind Rudy York, and seven behind Mike Piazza. So he's going to catch a bench in York. We'll see about Piazza. But Cal Raleigh's doing special things right now. I saw, I think it was, I can't remember who tweeted it. But Cal Raleigh is the first catcher since apparently Mike Piazza, did 25 homers or more in three consecutive seasons. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:27 Now Piazza did it eight years in a row. Yeah, yeah. So Cal's got a ways to go. But yeah, dude is, dude is special. And, uh, you know, and he's like,

Starting point is 00:34:36 and he's the first catcher since like Roy Campanella, that's led his team in home runs, RBI. I forget all the, all the categories. Uh, but yeah, he like leads the team in like five separate categories and

Starting point is 00:34:50 Roy Campanella was the last guy that did that for his team. That's pretty remarkable. Yeah, the dude's already the best catcher in Mariners history. It's not close. And, uh, you know, you know right now he's he's setting course like he might be the best catcher in baseball like

Starting point is 00:35:06 just when he factor in the defense the pitch framing the throwing the power like if he had like a 350 on base like we'd be talking about MVP type of stuff we would I mean the national media wouldn't because he's a catcher for the mariner so who cares but like cow rolly when we talk about like underrated players Raleigh is near the top of that list the dude is really good I mean fan grabs agree is that he is the the best catcher in He's leading the league and or he's leading all catchers in F4 this year. He is by Fangraph standards the most valuable catcher in all baseball this year with 3.6 F4. That's a 114 WRC plus 26 homers.

Starting point is 00:35:45 Obviously we know how valuable he is defensively and just in general what he means to that pitching staff. The fact that he posts despite being constantly hurt and getting hit by baseballs and playing through broken teeth and broken thumbs and all. of that. Cal Raleigh is awesome. Absolutely dog. All right. So on that note, that's going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here, a reminder that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. And now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV in the free Fire TV channels app. Lockdown Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering

Starting point is 00:36:21 the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked-on Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locked-on Marers podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tiding Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-U-Norscore mirrors. You can follow me at Tiding Azales and Colby at C-Pat-E-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of

Starting point is 00:36:44 this episode. Now head on over to Locked-on Seahawks to get all the latest out of training camp from Corby and the gang and tell them tying Colby's Saint-Y. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next peace. Peace.

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