Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Sign Victor Robles + Does Brant Brown's Firing Signal Sense of Urgency?

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

The Mariners have signed former Nationals outfielder Victor Robles, as first reported by host Ty Dane Gonzalez. Ty and Colby discuss the Robles addition then answer some listener questions, including what they thought about the dismissal of offensive coordinator and bench coach Brant Brown.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonmlb to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. PrizePicksGo to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! SupplyHouseSupplyHouse.com is the reliable way to get parts fast. Shop for your next plumbing, h-vac, or electrical job and get fast shipping from coast to coast. eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Mailbag Monday here on the Locked-on Mariner's podcast. We'll tell you our thoughts on the firing of Brant Brown and a whole lot more coming up. 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, June 3rd, 2024.

This is Tadian Gazzalus and Colby Patnode for the Locked-on Mariner's podcast, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. On today's show, we're going to open up the Mailbag. like we do here every Monday and answer some of your Mariners questions. But before we do 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, 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. All right, let's kick off Mailbag Monday here with Lance, who wants to know, do you see Jorge Polanco or Mitch Garver being used strictly as payroll offsets and trade packages, or do they stick with them and hope they regress back to their career norms? Yeah, you probably could put them in a deal to kind of offset some payroll, but the issue with that is, is that if you want to do that,

it's going to cost you more prospect capital to make up that difference. Teams that sell, typically they're not looking to add payroll. They're actually a big part of the reason they sell is to clear payroll. Well, the baseball people want to get those prospects and get something for the player before he just leaves in free agency or whatever. And they can kind of start to reset their build on these trades. Another reason to do it is that they want to clear some payroll space, right? Because if you're going to, you know, pay $100 million for a 72 win team, why not just pay $75 million for a 68 win team?

What's the difference? To fans, nothing. To ownership, $25 million. So it's always a little difficult to say, you know, just add the salary here and offset it here. But there's one thing we know about Jerry and Justin is that unfortunately, because they've had to, they're pretty good at clearing payroll, getting creative and clearing payroll space when they need it, again, for unfortunate reasons. But so it's easier said than done.

It's one of those things where it's like, cool, that would be great. But if you get rid of like Polanco's contract, for example, you're, The other team's still giving you an asset because they're giving you that payroll flexibility. So you still have to pay for that asset that they're giving you, which means, you know, sometimes it could be something as like small as, hey, instead of small as relative, but like Ben Williamson, you have to give us Tyler Locklear now. Or it could be something like, hey, instead of Tyler Locklear, you have to give us Lizarra Montez or Johnny Farmello or somebody like that. So it could also just be you add on another prospect.

right right and it's usually a pretty good one like especially if you're talking about polanco by the time you'd be able to trade him would probably be talking i don't know five to seven million dollars left on his contract like that's not going to be a so a team is yeah so a team is is paying five to seven million dollars to buy that prospect essentially right and so it's not going to be some 27 year old reliever in double a right it's going to be a little bit more expensive so could they do it? Sure. And like I said,

Jerry and Justin have proven that they'll, they will certainly get creative and they'll add contracts and they'll swap contracts around to make the payroll work. So they absolutely could do it. Is it likely? I don't think so. I think you're better off just holding on to those guys and see if you can get them back to their,

you know, anywhere near what they've done in their entire career. And, you know, that doesn't mean that they just get all the abats that you were going to give them. No, they still have to earn those.

things, but it's just about, you know, do I want to give up, for example, just hypothetically, do you want to give up Las Montes for no reason? Or do you want to just take a shot on these guys playing two or three times a week to see if they can get it figured out over the next couple months? And, you know, sometimes the latter will be the better option. Sometimes the former will be the better option. But it really just depends on the player that you're getting. And so, yeah, it's a tough question.

question, answer. So, like, in theory, could they do that? Yes. Right. In practice, are they going to be able to do that? I don't know. It'll be tough. I think they're certainly going to try, because at the very least, you're probably going to run out of roster spots. So it makes more sense, even if you have to eat some of the money to try and just trade them, include them in a package. You know, like if you're trading with Toronto, right, you're acquiring Boba Shed or you're acquiring Vlad Jr., right? Like, send them Polanco, send them Garver, send them Thai France. you know, whatever, right? Just to offset some of the money

or just to clear that roster spot instead of just outright DFA in them. Right. Next question here from Doug. Doug wants to know, what do you think about adding Elias Diaz, the Rockies catcher? He'd helped to give Cal Raleigh some time off

without such a huge drop-off and as a rental shouldn't cost too much. Although a team who would plan on playing him more than the M's would might be more willing to part with more. Yeah, you said it right there. at the end. Like the, the Mariners are going to look to,

if they are interested in LESD as they are going to look to add him as a backup, whereas six to eight other teams are going to be looking to add him as a starter at the deadline. So in theory, they should be willing to offer the Rockies more than the Marers would. But it really, all it comes down to is just how much to do the, the Marys value having that kind of player behind Cal Raleigh

and the flexibility that would, essentially give them. Right. I think, you know, we're already starting to see the Mariners answer this question a little bit because they traded Blake Hunt, which, you know, still don't like that at all. And, you know, in the past they've had Tom Murphy, who's, you know, pretty good catcher. Unfortunately, just couldn't stay healthy. So it does seem to me like they do care about the backup catcher a little bit, but they're not

really acting like it this year. but we did see Mitch Garber get a start at catcher. So that to me would kind of indicate like, hey, if we think we can get to a place where we're comfortable with Garber being the backup catcher and still deaching a couple days a week and all that stuff, like then that's what we'll do. That'll be our backup catcher plan, you know,

because it doesn't seem like they think Sebi is the answer, which fine, whatever. What was the last time Seby played? He did come in at the ninth, in the 9-0 game. But, yeah, I think he got a start in the Houston series. Okay. So, you know, he's only playing like once every nine or ten days.

So the Mariners very clearly, you know, I would like it if they cared a little bit more about getting Cal Raleigh a full day off. You know, every, you know, maybe twice every 10 days instead of once every 10 days. but it does seem like their His last start was against the nationals So he didn't get a start He didn't get a start all week So yeah So to me like I think the Mariners are hoping that

Garber can catch enough that they can You know DFA savvy hopefully sneak them through waivers Put them down in AAA And that'll be your third catcher I think if Seattle does trade for a backup catcher Like a legitimate upgrade at a backup catcher It'll be because that catcher is the second player In a deal for example

Boba Chant and Danny Jansen, right? Or Ryan McMahon and Elias Diaz. So I think that's how they're going to get the second catcher if they do, in fact, go outside the org to get that second guy. But yeah, like you said, you have to pay like the team that is trading the asset. They don't care what your vision for that player's role is. They're going to value him for what the height of his role is, which is everyday catcher in this league.

So I don't care if he's all. only going to play, you know, 15 games for you guys. You still have to pay me like he's going to pay, he's going to play 50 games for you guys. And are the manner is going to do that? They might. They might. Right. Is it likely? I'd say no. So looking at Zavala's lack of starts and, you know, obviously the Garber experiment seems like the writings on the wall here. Seems like two plus two is adding up to four with Zavala and how they feel about him. Right. It's, it's, it's a interesting situation. But yeah, I think the Mariners would like their ideal scenario in their minds would be

Garber assumes the backup catcher's duty and Savala somehow sneaks through waivers and we can stash them in AAA as our third catcher. All right, we're going to answer a few more of your questions coming up here in just a moment, but first a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marries podcast is once again 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. Their easy-to-use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right.

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pick off a three-game set with the athletics tomorrow night. You can catch all the action this week on the Mariners' Hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app. All you have to do to find that is search the word Mariners. Now, before we get into your questions, or back into your questions, rather, let's talk a little bit about Victor Rubles, who the Mariners are signing to the 26-man roster. Where did you hear that from? Yeah, yeah, a certain someone here on this podcast might have reported that earlier today.

on Twitter. Adam Jude? Yeah, even though some people in the community want you to think otherwise. This was first reported by Mua, myself. Victor Robles is signing with the Seattle Marys. He'll be with the team in Oakland tomorrow. Jonathan Klosset, of course, sent down to AAA earlier this morning, which sent Marys Twitter into a little bit of a frenzy like, oh,

oh, my God, they're going to make a big trade now. No, no, no, no. It's not time for that yet. It's not time. It's just Robles, who, he might, might only be on the team for the next 10 or so days, depending on, I think a lot of that depends on how Ryan Bliss does

over the next little while here before Horri Polanco gets back. Because they could just send down Bliss or they could keep Bliss on the roster and release Robles and just have Dillamore essentially be their fifth outfielder. But you got any thoughts on the signing of Robles, kicking the tires on Robles? My guess is that he's literally here because he's, you know, Jonathan Clase, who doesn't need any development time. So if he sits on the bench all week, then nobody cares.

I guess at that point, though, my question is like, why not just have Cade Marlowe or Samad Taylor do that? Why go through the hassle of signing him, you know? It's really not much of a hassle. You're paying him a pro rated league minimum. Right. So $740,000 broken down into how long he stays with the team. So he could legitimately be talking about like 100 grand, uh, being paid. to this guy.

Which is a lot to John Stanton. Sure. But is it worth 100 grand to give Class A at bats in AAA where he desperately needs them to give Marlowe at bats, you know, in AAA where he's struggling right now. So the answer is probably yes. I think the Mariners will be facing a lefty in this Oakland series.

So I assume we'll see, we'll see him there. We'll see Robles get the start against the lefty like Clase would have. And then, you know, he's certainly a better defender than Clase. He can play all three outfield spots. The numbers haven't been great to him in the last few years defensively, but he has been hurt before that.

He was a premier defensive outfielder at all three spots, and he has one of the best arms in baseball. So defensive versatility in the outfield still has some good speed. It's been okay against lefties in his career, and he literally costs in the grand scheme of things nothing. So worth a shot, nothing get too excited about. But it's worth a shot. It's kind of like when they brought in Justin Upton.

and like do you remember anything from Justin Upton except for the one home run he hit against the Oakland days to tie the game in the eighth before they would win it in the ninth? Yeah, it was it worth it for that one home run alone? Yeah, it was. We salute Justin Upton for that. Sure.

Mariner's legend. Yes. So could Victor Robles do something like that? Yes, but I would suspect that he's only going to get starts against lefties and then he'll just be a defensive replacement because he is better defensively, certainly than Hanager in Canzone and Dylan Moore and probably Luke Grayley

So he's a viable center fielder Which the mayors might not think they have Outside of Julio so Right Yeah worth a shot And he's only 28 I think like he's still pretty young So he's still 27 He's still 27

He just turned 27 actually a couple weeks ago Um Yeah this year or last year rather 299 385 364 that was only in 36 games and by far an outlier for his career. 2019 was his one good full season. Yeah. But,

you know, he's a guy that has experience, former top prospect, World Series champion. Just kick the tires on him, see if there's anything there. And if not, okay,

you can move on. You're not using that 26th man's spot on your roster anyway. So might as well have a guy who can play some defense and run the bases a little bit on there. And doesn't need time in AAA. to develop. Right. Gregory wants to know, is Ryan Bliss just a fun little story with his speed and guts on the base pass, basically a second base class A, or can he be more, a real everyday player?

I think something in between. Like, I think he can be like, I think he can have a similar impact to the one that Jose Caboero had last year, you know, walks, base running. We've already seen that a little bit here from Bliss. And there's some pop in the bat, too. I think he might be able to hit a little. Just hasn't yet. Sure.

Is Gregory making a joke at the expense of the vertically challenged Ryan Bliss? Interesting. Called him a little player. Oh, a fun little story. Yeah. Watch your biases there, Gregory.

But watch Gregory's five before. You know who else was a fun little story? Jose Altuve, Gregory. Literally, same guy. Justin Padrella ever heard of him. No, like here's the I really like Ryan Bliss. I was there on Saturday. I watched him terrorize the angels on the base.

Colby and I fell in love with Ryan Bliss on Saturday. But at the end of the day, he's one for 11. Like he's drawn some walks. He's had some good at bats. Like four walks. Yeah. So like it's not like he he's not competing at this level. Like Jonathan Clause.

wasn't for the last, you know, two weeks. He's also had a couple of hard hit balls that just bad luck. Yesterday he had the 102 to center and then his first game he had, I think, also 102. Yeah. Yeah. So look, like I don't want to like dismiss Ryan Bliss's debut. He's been fine. But we have seen, you know, again, at the end of the day, however you want to slice it,

he's one for 11. You know, the defense has been a little questionable at second base. His arm is questionable. For sure. Right. Very questionable. It's why he's not a shortstop because he can absolutely play short. He's athletic enough to play short stuff.

But yeah, like he's one for 11. It's only been like 15 plate appearances total. So this idea that like, oh, Ryan Bliss should be the everyday second baseman or like, oh, Blitz should keep his, keep his spot when, you know, Polanco, let's pump the brakes on that. We might get there in the next, you know, a few weeks until Polaro gets back. But should he kind of be splitting the job so much? like to me I would I would start him at second base all three games in Oakland and just kind of see what happens because Dylan Moore clearly like he's cool off yeah that has fallen apart like as we all knew it would happen but you know thank you for your service Dylan Moore so you know Dylan can go back to being the outfielder against lefties maybe we'll see what Robles does you can start at third base for Rojas you know so more can kind of slide back in let more slide back into that utility role just roll roll roll Ryan Bliss for a couple days, see what happens.

But I'm not, certainly not one of those people who's like, yeah, Ryan Bliss should be the guy for the rest of the year. And, you know, screw Harry Falunco. It's like, Polanco's still been better than Ryan Bliss. So, you know, I like Bliss. I like what he brings to the bases, like on the bases. You know, I think he'll be a fine defender. I think this is just kind of, you know, just some early hiccups from him. He's a very good athlete.

And he does have, he does have tremendous power for his size. So I like Bliss plenty. You know, should he be the should he be on this roster when Horace Polanco comes back? Probably not, but it kind of depends on what everybody else is doing. So yeah, I like I like Bliss, but yeah, I think his ceiling is like Ty said it. It's pretty much Jose Cabriero this year, which was helpful last year, very helpful. So Bliss can absolutely have a role on this team. It's just I would stop well short of being like, can he be the everyday second base?

Can he be the answer at second base? right now no like i think it's pretty clear the answer is no to that uh you know can he earn more playing time at second base can he stick on this roster for you know longer than than polanco's i l duration sure it's possible i would say it's unlikely but it's definitely possible i like the guy too yeah and again i think depending on what he does over the next you know week or two however long it takes polanco to get back think he's probably the the guy that has the biggest impact on the future of Reblis in Seattle as well. Because again, it's probably either, you know, it's him or Robles.

I don't, I don't think anyone else is under consideration there. And Bliss has got all three options. Yeah. So yeah. We'll see. I would say wouldn't count on it. Long term, I think he can be a, you know, kind of solid everyday player. I don't think he's going to be an all-star or anything like that.

I love to be proven wrong. But yeah, he's fun. He runs the bases very aggressively. He's a good athlete and he'll, he'll, he's going to hit a ball that like, like, people are going to be like, wait, what? Like, he's going to hit a ball 400 feet to his whole side or something. People are going to be like, wait, what? Like, he has that kind of power.

So the thing I've been most impressed with him right now is that he, strikeouts have not been an issue for him. Nope. So he's struck out what twice walked four times. Right. They have not been an issue yet. I think they might be at some point this year. but for now he's fine.

Yeah, I still wholeheartedly disagree with putting him in against Josh Hader over Josh Rojas in that situation. But overall, he's been very impressive. He's been very impressive, especially in a couple of big spots for this team over the last few days. He's surviving right now. For sure. All right, we're going to answer a few more of your questions here in just a moment. But first, reminder of this episode of the Lockdownernerner's podcast is brought to you by prize picks. With prize picks, you could turn $10 into a thousand in a single game.

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Pick more, pick less. It's that easy. And you're listening to the Locked-on Marrers podcast. Once again, you can catch the M's and the A's this week on the Marrers hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. you have to do to find that is search the word Mariners. Matthew wants

to know what are your guys' thoughts on the Brant Brown firing. So this happened like an hour after we stopped recording on Friday. So we didn't have a chance to talk about this. We talked about it a little bit on the Patreon show. We did a postgame show together yesterday. So let's

talk about this a little bit more. What are your thoughts on Brownite? You know, I think everyone knows kind of what you're going to say about the, you know, we don't know if it's going to have an effect if at all we probably never will know but overall what did you just think about like the fact that they did it right like they actually did it yeah i was really surprised uh i believe and i've i've looked into this and i haven't found anything to contradict it i believe this is the first in season firing of a coach in the entire scott service regime like he's they've made changes in the coaching staff but they've always been in the winter uh so uh so uh so

surprised they did it. It's not really their MO, you know, Scott and Brandt are good friends also. So, you know, I know that must have been a really tough conversation for Scott to have. But, you know, I'm surprised they did it. At the end of the day, like, it's a scapegoat. Like, look, and as much as people want to make it not a scapegoat or whatever, that because they want to justify firing a dude, like a dude losing his job, they want to justify it. At the end of the day, Brown got fired because Jorge Polanco, Mitch Garver, Mitch Hanager, you know, to a lesser extent, Cal Raleigh, or Cal Raleigh, Julio, JP, like, those guys sucked. That's why Bram Brown lost his job, not because Bram Brown made them suck. So, you know, could there be some improvements on, like, communications?

Could there be some tweaks in the game plan that could help guys a little bit? Sure. But at the end of the day, let's not kid ourselves. Bram Brown was fired, and it's the player's fault. that he was fired. So Mitch Hager said as much. Right. And they should because they're,

they may be a young ball club, but they're still a veteran ball club. And, you know, again, if the mayors were averaging four and a half runs a game, nobody is talking about Brant Brown. And they certainly have the bats to do it. So, you know, this isn't like the offensive coordinator in football where he calls plays

and you can directly point to his play call and be like, this needs to get better. This needs to get better. We don't know. We do not know if Bram Brown was the problem or even a problem. So you kind of have to take the Mariners like word for this. And if the Mariners thought that it was best for for them to move on. Right.

Then you just kind of have to like acknowledge like, okay, well, you know, we'll see if they're right. But we won't know. We can't possibly tell you with any kind of certainty whatsoever that Brant Brown was the thing that was holding back this offense. And if you just want to look at it and just like a big picture of you, it's almost impossible to fathom. that one person, a hitting coach,

is the sole reason why this offense has been bad. Well, clearly it was because Colby, they, they scored 19 runs and only struck out 17 times over the last three games. It's funny. A man lost his job. Let's make jokes. Real nice. Real nice. But yeah, it is ironic to say the least that

yeah, they scored, what was it again? 19 runs. Yeah, it was 19 runs. 19 runs and 3 games. Yeah. Yes, it is ironic that that happened. But again, it was against the angels who have some of the worst pitching in baseball. So not that that's ever stopped the merits from struggling before, but we'll see how it goes

forward. Like I said, I feel bad for the dude. I know that ultimately he is a scapegoat doesn't mean that like he didn't maybe, you know, like there were other issues. Right. Yeah. So that's that's kind of what I wonder here.

Because again, like you said, this hasn't been the like the MO of Jerry Depoto and Scott's service. Right. They've never done anything like this before. And generally speaking, they've been very patient, whether it be with player decisions or staff decisions, et cetera, almost to a fault. So to see them do this just a few months after hiring the guy, I think at the very least it signals that there might be a sense of urgency within the organization. You know, not really in terms of performance. because again, how much does a hitting coach or an offensive coordinator actually,

how much impact does that guy actually have on performance? We have no way of quantifying that, really. But in terms of just like we need to make change, we need to make essentially a statement here of some kind. That to me is interesting. That aspect of that is interesting to me. So yeah, so, you know, we heard Aaron Goldsmith and Mike Blowers talk about this a little bit during the broadcast, and it seemed like they were kind of alluding to things that maybe they had heard from players, you know, talking to players on the field over the last couple days.

Did seem to kind of allude to like a too many cooks situation, which I also heard on Friday after the news came out. So maybe it was just as simple as that there was just too much information and maybe there were conflicting philosophies on, you know, how to proceed. because obviously frustrations are starting to boil over. The offense has been terrible. You know, how do you fix this, right? Or how do you try to fix this? And maybe there were different, you know, opinions and ideas on how to proceed with that. And not everyone aligned on that.

And maybe that's what led to this. Who knows? We'll never know. We'll never know. But it is pretty funny that the first three games in the post-Brant Prown era, they were really good offensively for the most part. Seattle Sports fan wants to know. with Wu missing a bullpen session due to quote unquote arm stuff, would it be beneficial at some point later this year to expand to a six-man rotation?

And if so, when would be a good time? If not, what would be a more effective way to manage Wu's workload so he doesn't overdo it? Colia, no, you have some thoughts on this. We actually talked about this a little bit on the Patreon show last night. The nice thing about, you know, the Mariners schedule coming up here is that you get the day off today. so Wu's next start will come on six days or five days rest instead of four days rest. And then they have a 13 game stretch. So he'll have to make two start or he'll have to make another start in rotation.

Then he'll get another day off. And the Mariners schedule actually over the next, you know, really after they get through this next 13 game stretch really favors the Mariners to kind of give Wu extra days off throughout the season without having to go to a six-man rotation. They have, for example, in the month of, July, they have the four-day all-star break off. And then they also have two days off in between those, that four-game break. In August, they have four days off.

And they play, they never play more than nine games in a row in the month of August. And then September, they actually have three days off. And again, they never play more than nine games in a row. So the schedule actually sets up pretty well for them to manage Wu and maybe push them back or kind of shift their, their, their rotation plans a little bit, maybe keep Castillo on regular rest, so that way Wu gets an extra days rest, that type of thing.

So the schedule is actually going to allow them to manage Wu's, you know, time between starts a little bit easier than it has been in his first five games back. But yeah, they could consider a six-man rotation, but again, the issue of the six-man rotation, as we've said,

every single time it's been brought up, is like, do you really want to give the ball to Luis Castillo less? do you really want to give the ball to, you know, Logan Gilbert less. You're trying to win the division now. The conversation shifted. You're not trying to get into a wild card spot. You're trying to win the division.

Scott said as much. He said, we're making these decisions so we can win the ALS. Right. So, like, do you want to give, essentially, do you want, like, Louis Castillo to only make 29 starts this year instead of 32 so that you can give Emerson Hancock the ball three extra times. I think I would rather just send Wu down for a couple weeks if that's what you want to do and use Hancock during that time. And then you can kind of get him to, because remember, you can send a guy up and down four times in a year. You know, so they, and Wu hasn't been sent down yet. So they can send him back down if they want and they could have Hancock come up, take his turn in the rotation.

Then they can send him back down when it's Wu's turn because you only have to stay down 10 days. So they can get really creative with this. I don't think they have to use a six man rotation. it's not the worst idea in the world but i think for me personally i would rather you know have the extra two or three starts from castillo gilbert and kirby i would rather have those guys and then just send woo down and have hancock takes wo starts instead of having hancock take starts from you know castillo and gilbert and curvy so you know it's it's a gray area but with the days with the days off that are coming here down the really in the second half where you know woo is going to have basically every

every other start of Wu will be on an extra day's rest. I don't think it's going to be that necessary. So schedule could be coming into play here for Seattle. They're about to end. After this 13 game stretch, they'll have played, what was it, 50 games and 53 days or whatever?

It was 52 and 55 days. Right. And so after they get through this next 13 game stretch, it'll be a much more like once every 10 days or so. They have a day off. And it's much easier to manage your pitching staff with that. So they could do it. I don't think they'll have to.

They might take a shot at it, though. So it's a little gray area. And obviously, the health of the other four guys also comes into play too. So, yeah, they might do it. And particularly if they are, like, if we get into like September, right, and they are like six games over, like six games ahead of like Texas or whoever for first place, then they might do it for a week or two and just kind of try and like keep their arms fresh for the playoffs, you know as much as they can

so I'm not saying they absolutely wouldn't do it but I don't think they need to just based on the how the schedule is breaking down for them after this next little 13 game stretch right the other thing too here is like you might get to a point where you're not just playing to win the division you're playing to win one of those first two seeds so you don't have to play in the wild card

right so that'd be great you're going to have to be you know aggressive if you want to avoid that and plus like the wild card might be pretty stacked last question of the day comes from Zachary. I have been surprised the number of times I have seen the Mariners and opponents play in early in the game with a runner on third and less than two outs. I thought the

conventional wisdom was to give up a run for an out early in the game. Has this changed? I've been wrong the whole time. I think some of it is just the way that the Mariners play games right now. Teams know that it's going to be tough to come by runs against this pitching staff and for the Marys sake, like they know that they're having an issue with scoring runs in general. So I think it's just some of that. Yeah, I think it's mostly that. Just, you know, hey, scoring runs at Team Mobile Park is difficult. So why would we concede a run? Like, you know, so I think it's mostly that. And obviously, since you're watching the Mariners, we know how difficult it is for the Marriers to score runs in general. So like ties to like, yeah, they don't want to give one up because giving up one is like

akin to another, a good offense given up two, right? It's, it's difficult to come back. If you, you just concede a run early like that that could be the difference in the game so uh yeah i think it's mostly that uh and then i think the reason that other teams are doing that as well is because they know how difficult it is to scrape runs together off of this mariner's pitching staff particularly in team mobile park uh so they don't want to fall behind uh so yeah i think it's mostly just the mariners uh it'd be interested to see like data on this for across the league yeah but i think specifically the reason we're seeing it so much is just because the mariner's Mariners know their strength and their opponent knows how difficult it is to score

runs. So Seattle's not going to concede runs because they have trouble scoring them and because the other team knows how difficult it is to score runs against Seattle. You know, they are not going to concede a run to the Mariners because they could very easily lose one to nothing. Right. So, yeah, I think it's mostly just because of who the Mariners are and how they're playing right now.

Yeah, I watch quite a few games around the league every week, but not intently enough to pick up on if other teams. are doing this as well. And obviously I haven't looked at the data regarding that. So I don't know if it's just a league-wide thing, but I think when you just look at like stylistically, the way the Mariners play right now, seems like things are adding up on that, on that front.

Right. They've played, what, 61 games now? 16 have been one-run games. It's a pretty high percentage. So, yeah, every single run counts against the Mariners. And if you're the Mariners, every run that you give up counts because it's that much unlike that much more unlikely that you're going to be able to get that run back. So I think in our case specifically, to me, it seems like it's just a mariner thing because of who they are and what their opponents know they are.

But yeah, maybe we could reach out to a few people and ask them if they've noticed. Sure. You know, but I would be too shocked if that was the idea because I think people are realizing how valuable runs are right now. So I wouldn't be shocked at all. They're like, hey, yeah. I mean, like, I'd rather give up a hit than. you know, give up a run. Plus, you know,

starters aren't going as deep as they used to. So, like, they're not really all that concerned about, like, pitch counts. I don't like, yeah, you know, just lob it in there. We'll score off the starter when he's tired in the seventh. Like, you're not going to face the starter in the seventh. So it could just be a completely different style that's being played right now

because of how dominant pitching is really across the league. So good observation. But yeah, it used to be. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Common knowledge used to be like, hey, it's the third inning. Like, we don't want this to become a big inning.

so we'll give them one run if we can get it out and that way we're only down one to nothing instead of you know infield end we give a base hit now it's one nothing and they still have a guy on first yeah usually teams are just playing straight up right yeah yeah yeah good observation yeah so that is going to do it for our show but before we get out a reminder that locked on has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on youtube and now it's also available on amazon fire tv and the free fire tv channels app locked on sports today is here free 24-7 covering 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 Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Pat Nod. I'm Tadangazales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tideane Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pat-11. That's C-PAT-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.