Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Were Flexen Their Muscles/Justus Didn't Prevail

Episode Date: June 24, 2021

Two games to discuss today on Locked On Mariners. First, last night's great pitching match-up between Chris Flexen and Kyle Freeland, in which the M's had the upper hand, albeit slightly. Shed Long Jr. did his thing again, hitting the go=ahead home run in the 8th inning. This afternoon's game did not go as well, as Justus Sheffield again struggled with the feel for his secondary pitches, and command of all of them. D.C. talks about both games, and then goes on another rant about modern-day baseball. But the big question: What did he learn on his quest to find the perfect flan recipe? And the bigger question: Was Clive serious when he talked about D.C.'s pursuit of a waitress named Mazey on yesterday's show, or did he make the whole thing up? 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.

Today on Locked-on Mariners, I reveal the world's greatest flogne recipe. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. The secret is to use an extra egg yolk. I'm D.C. Lundberg, ladies and gentlemen, back after a little bit of a hiatus, as it were, back to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, brought to you by the locker room. Please remember to download and follow this program on whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any program here on the Locked-on Podcast Network or T-L-O-P-N or T-Lopin, as it were.

Big thank you to John Miller and Clive Braithway to the Fourth for filling in for me over the course of the last two shows. John did last Friday's show. There was no Monday show, and Clive did yesterday's show. And despite what they were saying about my quest for Flawn or about waitresses named Macy, I've been a little under the weather. That's also why there was no show at all on Monday. In addition, neither Clive or I realized yesterday that today's game was an afternoon game. And because of that, that's why this show is late.

Otherwise, this show would be dropping, you know, in the middle of the game. We're going to be talking about both last night's game and this afternoon's game today on Locked-on Mariners. Mariners have an off date tomorrow, but there will be episodes of Locked on Mariners tomorrow and Friday, despite the fact that there will be no games to discuss. One of them will have a mailbag segment. I have a few emails, some of them touching on the same topics, so I'm not going to get a whole episode out of them. But as for last night, it was a good game, but I still found it a little on the frustrating side. And even though both starting pitchers were very good while they were in the ballgame,

I wouldn't call it a pitcher's duel, since neither of them would. went all that deep into the ball game, and I'll touch on that. I won't touch on that. I'll rant about it later on in the program. Not about this game specifically, though. Roster moves, roster moves, roster moves. In-fielder Jake Hager was claimed off waivers from the Brewers. Why did I say it like that? He's been optioned to AAA Tacoma. All of this took place prior to last night's game, by the way, ladies and gentlemen. He's a former first-round draft choice of the Tampa Bay raise in 2011, and he had been in the Mets system over the last two seasons. made his major league debut with the Mets this year, played in five games, and was claimed

off waivers by the Brewers on May 25th, and it was claimed off waivers from the Brewers organization by the Mariners yesterday. He's a middle infielder by trade, but played left field and right field with the Mets this season. He didn't get into any games in the infield, and he went one for eight in those five games. Over the course of his AAA career, which spans 318 games, he has a slashed line of 241, 219. 375. He's at 24 home runs and 20 doubles and has driven in 117 runs. He looks to have okay defensive numbers. Not great, but not all that terrible either. Evan White was transferred to the 60-day injured list. He still has it left hip flexor strain. He was removed from his rehab assignment with AAA recently and moved to the 60D injured list, more or less to clear a roster spot for Mr. Hager.

Mr. White will be eligible to return on July 13th, which is right in the middle of the mid-season break. Donovan Walton was recalled yesterday, and Johann Ramirez would sit back down to Tacoma for a little bit more depth on the bench. Johan Ramirez has not pitched in a major league game since May 26th, I believe, but he's been called up and down three times since then, I want to say, strictly for bullpen depth. And getting to the game now, Chris Flexon was very, very, very. good last night once again. Six and two-thirds innings pitched. Four hits.

One run, it was on a home run. Two walks and six strikeouts. The avocado picked up the final out of the A of the seventh inning for him. Paul Seawald pitched the eighth and could have gone one, two, three, but the third hitter of the inning wound up walking. It went to a full count. And that three-two pitch, you know, if I was Mr. Seawald or if I were Tom Murphy behind the plate, I'd have wanted that pitch.

borderline at worst. Umpire called it a ball, but he got the next guy, and then the Amherners took the lead in the top of the 8th, which again I will talk about later on in A block. And once that happened, I was very happy to not see Raphael Montero warming up the bullpen. It was Kendall Graveman, and while he's been pretty rusty since coming off the injured list, he set the Rockies down in short order. He went 0 and 2 on C.J. Chrome, the third hitter of the inning, who had homered earlier in the game. and that 0-2 pitch was also borderline at worst, and if I were Mr. Graveord or Mr. Murphy,

I would have wanted that one as well, but Crone grounded out on the next pitch to end the ballgame. The M's really could not get too much going against Kyle Freeland until the fifth inning. They loaded the bases with one out, but could only squeak across one run. Shedlong Jr. struck out with the bases loaded with one out, and then J.P. Crawford grounded deep to the hole at short, and he beat out the throw to first base to score Tom Murphy. Jake Fraley moved along from second to third,

while Dylan Moore, who had been occupying first, also tried to go to third. The runners were going on contact, and Mr. Moore did not see that Ace did not try to come home, so with third base occupied, he had to go back to second base and was retired there to end the inning. That base running mistake killed what could have been a great inning. The Rockies tied the game in the seventh on a solo blast from C.J. Cron mentioned that a little earlier.

It was pretty much right in the middle of the lower, outside quadrant, and Mr. Crone wrote it out the other way to tie the ballgame. The Rockies had gone to their bullpen by that time, which has been terrible this season, so I wasn't too terribly worried. But at the same time, the Marriers did very little against a man who came into the game with an ERA over nine and a half, so I wasn't super confident at the same time. Kyle Freeland went six innings, gave up five hits, one run. It was earned. he walked one, and he struck out seven. And as I mentioned, his ERA coming into the game,

over nine and a half, and he left the ball game with a 7-76 earned run average. Lucas Gilbreath pitched a 1-2-3-7th inning for the Rockies, and then the Rocks turned to Tyler Kinley in the 8th. And they were mentioning that he had control problems on the air. That was evident at times. But I like the looks of his breaking ball. And if he can get that thing under control, I think he's got a chance to be a good arm out.

of their pen. He left a force seamer out in the middle of the plate to the second hitter of the inning, and that was none other than Shed Long Jr. And he launched one out to the batters eye in center field, and there was no doubt about that one, gang. Not only was it an important hit, but I thought it was a very impressive piece of hitting at the same time, because he hit the ball where it was pitched. It was dead central in the strike zone, and that's where he hit it, dead center field. And he had ended the previous game, remember, with the Grand Salami, and effectively won this one with a solo home run.

He's back, gang. It is so good to see him succeed after last season's struggles. And they brought this up on the TV broadcast in this morning's game. There's only one other Mariner to hit a game-ending home run and then Homer in the following game. And that's Tino Martinez, who did it in 1995. Not only that, ladies and gentlemen, but Tino did it in games 74 and 75 of that 1995 season. And Shed hit his game ending salami in game number 74, and game 75 is the one we're currently talking about.

They both hit their home runs in games 74 and 75. How's that for a coincidence? And for another coincidence, as I happened to have been writing this exact portion of the show, Aaron Goldsmith was telling us about this little factoid about Mr. Martinez's and Mr. Long's heroics. Ah, can't get any better than that, can you, gang? That little piece of trivia leads us into today's trivia corner, and we have this hall pass.

This gentleman has enjoyed an 18-year career as a catcher. I'm not going to say exactly when he played, because I think it's going to give it away. But I will say that he's a fairly recent player, and he has a slash line of 281, 332, 4-05. 392 doubles, 167 home runs, 3-100-62 runs batted in. Remember, he's a catcher, and this guy's calling card, defense. He threw out 40% of would-be base stealers against a league average of 27% during that same time period. He has nine gold gloves, nine all-star appearances.

He has a silver slugger as well, and he's received. MVP votes in five different seasons, placing as high as third. Would you consider this man for the Hall of Fame, ladies and gentlemen? I will tell you just exactly who that is after this word from the locker room. Tonight's episode is brought to you by the locker room. As I just said, locker room is the first social audio platform made for sports fans. It is free to download, and once you're in, you can talk with me, yes, yes, what, what? Other fans, athletes, and insiders, why I say that in real time about your favorite team or sport.

I will be hosting rooms for Locked-on Mariners once per week. Again, no rhyme or reason is to win that happens just whenever I happen to have a free afternoon. Locker room is a great place to join or start conversations about the league. So if I'm not there, open up your own Mariners room. You'll find fans there just like yourself for watch parties, debates, post-game breakdowns, and of course reacting to big news or rumors. Download the free locker room app now currently available for all iOS devices. Be sure to create a profile and join the MLB group for the latest league updates.

Follow me at Locked on Mariner's oddly enough to know when my room goes live. Locker room, changing the way we talk about sports. Today's hall past subject, ladies and gentlemen, is someone who's still active, and that's why I didn't want to give a time frame of when he played. This is the first time that I've done this, and that is none. I'm sure you know who it is now, but it's Yadier Molina, and I chose him because of something that occurred in today's Cardinals Tigers game. Daz Cameron of the Tigers stole a base against Mr. Molina.

All right, so what's so notable about that? Well, his father is Mike Cameron, who also stole a base against Mr. Molina during his playing career, and they are the first father and son combo to steal bases against Yadier-Malina, who was regarded as one of the top defensive catchers, not only of recent vintage, but I think he's right up there among the all-time greats in terms of defense, and in an era where catcher's offense has become akin to pitchers hitting,

those offensive stats for Mr. Molina are just that much more impressive. I don't know anyone who doesn't think that Mr. Molina will not find his place in Cooperstown once he decides to hang up his spikes. Coming up, did Justice prevail in Seattle this afternoon? No. Nah, well, so much for B-block now. Maybe I'll yodel the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald instead. But before I do that, we have this word from Built Bar,

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Welcome back to Lockdown Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you, Joey Martin. Welcome to the second segment of Lockdown Mariners. Yes, the second segment. today? This is actually the third segment I'm recording. I recorded A block and C block while the game was still in progress

to be able to get this thing on the air as soon as possible. And I'm glad that neither segment was short because there really isn't much to talk about in terms of today's game. It was not good. Justice Sheffield again lacked the feel for his change and his slider. Did not locate particularly well either. Only went four in a third inning, gave up four hits. Could have been more if not for a great, play by J.P. Crawford in the first inning to Rob, I don't know, whoever hit that line drive

of at least a single. Chef also gave up three runs they were all earned. He walked three, struck out five, gave up two home runs. All three of the runs he allowed were on home runs. The first one was to Brendan Rogers in the second inning, and it was weird. It wasn't that bad of a pitch, and it looked to me like a long pop-up, which kind of kept going and going. Taylor Tremel and center field had gotten a beat on it, jumped up against the wall, but it was just out of his reach. Weird home run. Fruz two runs of the ball games scored on that. And then Trevor's story led off the fourth inning with an absolute bomb out to dead left field.

No doubt about that one. It was a hanging slider in the middle of the zone, and you cannot make mistakes like that to a hitter-like story. He's going to make you pay. He also later hit to home run off Vinnie Natoly in the eighth inning. More on Mr. Natoly a bit later. All five Rockies runs came via the home run. Meanwhile, Hermann Marquez was fantastic. The Rockies pitching staff is pretty awful overall,

but Mr. Marquez is not a problem, and he looked very good this afternoon. Eight innings, two hits, no walks, one run. It was a solo home run off the bat of Taylor Tremel in the sixth inning, which ended a perfect game up to that point, and then following Trams' home run, J.P. Crawford hit a single. Those were the only two hits that Mr. Marquez gave up.

As a matter of fact, those were the only two base runners that he allowed. Carlos Estevez came in to pitch the ninth for the Rockies, and he was not good. He allowed a one-out double to J.P. Crawford, and then one-out later, Kyle Seeger drove him in with a single, and that Mr. Estevez's day was finished at that point. Daniel Bard came in from the pen. He is there closer. He walked Thai France as the first hitter, which brought the top. trying run to the plate in the form of the red-hot Jake Bowers.

But Mr. Bowers fanned to end the game. It was a 5-2 final. Chef just did not have it once again. Mr. Marquez was spectacular. All of the momentum was on the Rockies side. Most of the game. It just was not the Mariners' day. Although J.P. Crawford has now hit safely in 10 straight games,

although Jake Bowers ended a 10-game hitting streak by going O'Fer 4 today. but he still has hit safely, ladies and gentlemen, in 11 of 13 games as a Seattle Mariner. This was only his second game since being acquired from the Indians, in which he did not get a base hit. Making his Major League debut for the Mariners today was Vinnie Natoly, the minor league veteran who was signed as a free agent, was originally drafted by the Mariners in 2014.

Only spent a couple years in their system, moved on to the Independent League, with the St. Paul Saints, I believe, bounced around the Diamond Bank. and the Blige's organization. Came back to the Mariners as a minor league free agent a few weeks ago, was called up a few days ago, and then finally got into a game today.

He wasn't all that sharp. He also hasn't pitched in almost two weeks. So that might play into it as well. First batter he faced was Jonathan Daza, who walked on four pitches. Then that two-run, home run to Trevor Story, made the game five to one at that point. He then walked Charlie Blackman,

but he did get the next three guys in order C.J. C.J. Cron, Brendan Rogers, who had homered earlier, and Chris Owings. Although he needed a ton of pitches to get through that inning, C.J. Cron grounded out on a full count. Brendan Rogers flew out on a 3-0 count, and then Chris Owings was in a 2-2 count. Speaking about pitch counts, Mr. Sheffield had a great at-bat against Joshua Fuentes in the fourth inning,

in the top of the fourth inning. It was a 14 pitch at-bat. Fuentes kept fouling off slider after slider after slider. Sheffield looked good during this at bat, and Fuentes kept fighting him off, and he finally got Fuentes to swing at a slider for strike three on the 14th pitch of that at bat. Did not do a whole lot for Mr. Sheffield's pitch count, but he wasn't long for the game anyway,

because, again, just did not have field for his pitches most of the game, unfortunately, although that at bat against Mr. Fuentes, certainly fun to watch, and Sheffield wound up getting the upper hand. There's an off-date tomorrow. Then they begin a three-game series, I believe, with the White Sox in Chicago on Friday. And we'll talk about Friday's pitching matchup on tomorrow's program. Have you got a question or a comment?

I bet you do. So send it in to Lockdown Narrators at gmail.com. You're not preschoolers. Questions and comments on any subject are highly encouraged. Does not have to be about baseball. Does not have to be about sports at all. Coming up, my pilgrimage is complete, and I have developed the world's greatest recipe for Flon. I make a giant batch and then rub it all over Macy following this word from Wealthfront.

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For the average client, their tax loss harvesting can more than cover the low annual 0.25% advisory fee. And best of all, that is automatic. Wealthfront is trusted with over $20 billion of assets, and you can get your first $5,000 managed for free by going to Wealthfront.com. slash locked on MLB. All you need to get started is $500. Grow your wealthy easy way and let Wealthfront do the work for you. So you get your first 5,000 simoleans manage for free for life.

Go to Wealthfront.com slash locked on MLB. That's W-E-A-L-T-H-F-R-O-N-T.com slash lockton MLB to start growing your savings. I don't know why I can't spell that. Go to Wealthfront.com slash locked on MLB and get started today. And then head over to bet online, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Baseball season is in full swing and you can track the action at Bet Online.

Get all the latest news, odds, and info for all your sporting needs, including Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL, and all your UFC slash MMA action. Before the next pitch, head on over to Bet Online on your laptop or a mill-buy-a-device in honor of Clive Braithway to the 4th, and check out all the great sporting news, sign-up bonuses, and contest info. Don't sit on the sidelines anymore as this is your chance to get into the game as teams prep for their runs to the playoffs,

and we're not even at the mid-season break yet. Head over to the website or once again use your mobile device to sign up today and receive your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Bet Online, your online sports book experts promo code Locked On. Now back to Locked-on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lungberg. Thank you, J.M. After several days away trying to find the perfect and world's greatest recipe for Flon, I have made my triumphant return.

Anyway, I have to give John Miller credit for that, though. I did not write that for him. I told him to say anything about why I was absent last Friday. That's what he came up with, so I decided to run with it. Anyways, I started to bring something up at the top of the show, but I didn't want to lead off with a rant that's going to make me sound like a senior citizen, so I saved it for C Block. We're almost in July, ladies and gentlemen,

and pitchers are still getting pulled way too early. This is not new. I realize that. This has been going on for several years, now, but it's ridiculous. This whole notion of, you know, well, he's thrown 100 pitches, so we got to get him out of there, that's got to stop. That's what leads to eight men

bullpens being overused and also what leads to three-man benches. Hell, the Mariners have gone through games this year where they've had two-man benches because they still need an extra army, even though they have tons of release pitchers. Major League football, pardon me, expanded the active roster

which was supposed to begin last season from 25 to 26 players. Last year, there were more than that because of all the weirdness surrounding everything. 25 was a good number for an active roster, and it still is. Modern managers do not know how to manage pitching staffs. The solution was not to give them an extra roster spot to play with. You do not reward ineptitude. The solution was to tell these managers, learn to use what you have. It's like a kid who keeps losing his allowance money. You don't give him more. You tell him to learn to keep track of what he has.

Some others are advocating for new rules in terms of infield shifts, only allowing two infielers on either side of second base. And the reason they want to implement that is because even with all these extreme shifts you've been seeing, hitters by and large are not making the necessary

adjustments. They're still trying to pull everything and usually wind up grounding out into that shift. That's on them. Don't penalize the defense or opposing manager because the hitter that's up there can't or will not make adjustments. It's obvious now that the hitters are not going to make that adjustment. This has been building for more than a decade.

It does not make for good baseball. But the solution is not to penalize the defense for the hitter's poor approach to hitting. And across the board, most hitters these days have a terrible approach to hitting. Also, most pitchers have a terrible approach to pitching. It's all about velocity these days for the most part. 92, 91, 92 today is considered slow. And I remember when pitchers who threw 93 were considered power pitchers. Nowadays, that's nothing special.

Look at these guys throwing 100 miles an hour plus. The way they throw the ball is different. They have to put so much strain on their arms, they are begging for Tommy John surgery or rotator cuff surgery or some other major type of damage. It's not natural. And it's also not that impressive anymore. It was fun when one or two guys in the league could go in and just blow people away throwing gas.

But now that's what most pitchers try to do. And it's boring. Same with home runs. Now that pretty much everyone is trying to yank the ball out of the ballpark, it just makes for bad baseball. Back to pitching, though. Strikeout pitchers generally have higher pitch counts than others because it takes more pitches per at-bat to strike someone out

than it does to induce a ground. out a pop-out or anything else. That plays into games running longer than they have been in the past, since more pitches, since more pitches, pardon me, need to be thrown, and since no manager wants his pitcher throwing too many more than 100 pitches, it leads to a lot of pitching changes. The rule that was implemented last year was that a reliever must face three batters minimum unless he had to leave the game due to an injury or was ejected,

or somebody can go and get the final out of an inning and then get replaced. but it got to the point recently where managers would bring in a reliever, have him face one hitter, then bring in someone else, especially in September when the rosters could be expanded. I'm still not sure I like this new rule. The jury really is still out for me. I did not like it when it was announced. I did not think it was something that needed to be legislated,

but that managers just needed to learn how to use their bullpens better. But like haters not making the adjustment and still trying to yank everything, it became clear that managers were not going to make that adjustment either. Getting back to an earlier point about power pitching, I will say that Jerry Depoto and the Mariners, they have the correct philosophy, ladies and gentlemen, at least for the rotation. Their mantra is, control the strike zone.

And Marco Gonzalez is a great example of this. He doesn't throw hard, but he has great command, throws strikes, moves the ball around, mixes his pitch as well. And while he hasn't had success, this year, I think something is off in terms of his mechanics or something like that. Last year, he came up aces. When Chris Flexen is on his game, he is another example, although he throws harder than Marco does.

He mixes his pitch as well, and when he has them working, moves the ball up and down, fastball up, curveball, and change down. The average pitcher this season is giving up 1.2 home runs per nine innings coming into today. Mr. Flexen is better than league average in that department, allowing 1.1.1.4 1.0 home runs per 9. Marco's out of sorts this year, but over the previous three seasons, that number is identical to Mr. Flexens.

1.0, pardon me, home runs per 9 innings from 2018 to 2020 for Mr. Gonzalez, and the league average was slightly up during that time frame at 1.3 per 9. Justin Dunn is the only other pitcher this season in the rotation for the Mariners below the league average in terms of home run per 9. and he has 1.1 per 9. Even you say Kikichi, as good as he has been, he's given up the long ball. But at the same time, eight of them have been solo home runs, and the other five have been two run home runs.

All of them just with the runner on first base only. No home runs allowed with runners in scoring position this season for Kikiguchi-Song. I think the Mariners have the right idea for what types of pitches that they want. It remains to be seen how Logan Gilbert and George Kirby and Emerson Hancock turnout, but the latter two in particular, their first round draft choices over the previous two years, they at least fit that mold. And in terms of offense, the managers don't have a lot of sluggers, and they have a decent philosophy. Although I'd like to see them bunt more and play a little more small ball. They have some guys who can run the base as well, but you also need guys like

Ty Franch who's going to go drive the ball into the gap and drive in some runs for you. I don't value the home run ball very much at all, but I do value gap, power. And Mr. France is a prime example of that. And J.P. Crawford has made himself into a very good lead-off hitter. He's not one to try to pull everything. He hits the ball where it's pitched. But if you miss inside to him, he can pull it for power. The one thing that I think the mayors could improve on is how much they strike out. But I can say that about all 30 teams. Make contact. Make the defense do something. Okay, that is enough. Ranting. Let's end this. Tomorrow, I will be just.

joined by Dr. Jason Seaver, Lord Zed, and a shoebox. What we're going to be talking about? I have no idea. But download and follow the Lockdown Mariners. Look for us in any podcasting up that you can think of. Leave a rating and review, my goodness, if you're a rating

and review, my goodness, if you're podcasting a app of choice, so allows. Thank you for listening, ladies and gentlemen. We will be back with you tomorrow and Friday to close out the weekend. It's supposed to get really hot here, I spoke, and it's supposed to be 108, Monday. I'm not looking forward to that. In any case, have a good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

We'll be back with you tomorrow. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski will keep you updated on the latest news in every major sport with Locked On's team of local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked On Mariners, part of the Locked On podcast network.