Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - M's Have a Problem in Houston

Episode Date: August 17, 2020

Yes, the Mariners got swept in Houston. Yes, the first game was one that everyone would just as soon forget. However, the final two games weren't nearly as dreadful as the first. D.C. talks [briefly] about each game. In the second half, he is joined by Locked On Mariners contributor Jon Miller, who shares his observations of the club through the first third of the season. 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.

Thank you for tuning in to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Well, gang, I'm not exactly sure that's what the Mariners had in mind when they went to Houston, but what can you do? Everyone in Houston right now is banging trash cans with brooms. This is Locked-on Mariners, ladies and gentlemen, and I am indeed D.C. Lundberg, and we are part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program on Google Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any of the other great shows here on the Locked-on podcast network. Follow this program on Twitter at L-O underscore Mariners, and then follow me on Twitter as well at D.C. underscore Lundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-R-S-E-R-S.

for those scoring at home. Yeah, I've got to talk about Friday night's game, don't I? Well, actually, I'll talk about some roster moves that were made before the game. Catter Joe Odom was recalled from the alternate training site, from the taxi squad, really, and Joe Hudson was sent to said taxi squad. Taylor Gilba was also optioned to the alternate training site, and right-handed pitcher Brady Lyle, who had been claimed off waivers from the White Sox on Monday, cleared his testing and whatnot and was added to their active roster on Friday as well.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Lyle, the Mariners released corner infielder Patrick Wisdom. Back to Lyle, he did pitch in Friday night's game, and in doing so became the fourth player in modern history and the first in almost 100 years since 1921 to, I guess, quote unquote, accomplish something. This was his third Major League game, and this third major league game was with his third different team. Last season, he appeared in one game as a Yankee. Earlier in this season, he pitched in one game as a White Sock and now as a mariner. Again, he's only the fourth player in the modern era, that's 1900 and beyond, to do this, and the first since 1921,

who had catcher John Peters did this with the Tigers, Indians, and Phillies. Now to the actual game that took place, and I'm actually not going to talk about it that much because we all know what happened. You say Kikichi was slated to pitch this one, but he was scratched 35 minutes before game time with neck spasms, and Nestor Cortez started in his stead. And to say that he was not impressive would be the understatement of the year. The Astros wound up scoring nine runs in the first inning. Cortez lasts a whole third of an inning, five hits, eight runs, seven of them earned, two walks a strikeout and two home runs. Brian Shaw then comes in to relieve the mess.

He pitches one and two thirds innings. Three hits, two more runs, both of them earned, two walks a strikeout. Johann Ramirez, three innings a run, three walks, four strikeouts. This kid, I keep saying it, this kid has great stuff, he has trouble controlling it. And then Lyle pitches the remaining three innings. This was not the Mariners' most auspicious day, and I'm not going to talk about it anymore. However, I will note that this was not the record. This is not the most runs the Mariners have ever given up in a single inning.

In 1983 and 1984, they gave up 11 runs in one inning. And the Mariners' trivia question today will also hopefully make you feel a little bit better about this travesty, as it were. What was not a travesty was Saturday's game. Nick Margieviches made his second start. Kendall Graveman is still on the DL, also with neck problems, I believe. And Margevich, well, service was hoping to get about, oh, five or so innings, 85 pitches out of Margeviches. He gets six innings out of Margeviches, two runs, both of them earned on four hits,

three strikeouts, a home run, but here's the kicker. No walks. This was a wonderfully pitched game by Nick. Markgevich's. It's just a shame that the offense couldn't come through for him. The offense just looked terrible. They only had three hits all game and didn't score until the eighth inning. This was a two to one loss. Prior to Saturday's game, the mayor's made some more roster moves, all of them involving the pitching staff. Cortez was placed on the 10-day injured list with the elbow problems, elbow impingement, I think they're calling it.

And Brian Shaw has been designated for assignment. Taking their roster spots are Taylor Gilbo, who was just sent out the day before, and right-handed pitcher L.J. Newsom, who will be making his major league debut when he appears in a game. Newsom had to be added to the 40-man roster, which is one reason why Shaw was DFAed, the other reasons being, aside from his first outing, he's looked pretty bad all season. Although his ERA in his latest outing actually went down to 18. Sunday's game was a 3-2 loss. Mariners scored the 3rd Astros and the 2nd. and fourth, and then Kyle Tucker hits a walk-off home run against Eric Swanson to sweep aside the Mariners.

Oh, it is sad. I'm not going to talk about it anymore. In the second half of today show, we've got John Miller talking about what he has seen from this Mariners team thus far this season. Before that happens, though, it is time for the Mariners trivia question. On this day in baseball history, August 17th, 1993, the Bellingham Mariners, the short-season single-A, Bellingham Mariners, which no longer exist,

dropped 17 runs on the Spokane Indians. In the third inning, it wound up being a 25 to 2 win. My question to you today is, what was the last season the Bellingham Mariners existed? Answer following this word from Ron. Rock Auto. With the ever-increasing numbers of makes and models, it's impossible now to stock all the parts that are needed in a traditional chain storefront. Why under often pointless or seemingly intimidating questioning and wait while the counterman orders the parts on his computer choosing the only brand that his warehouse carries? Gang, you have computers with access to rockotto.com at home and write in your very own pocket.

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easy clicks delivered directly to your door. The Rock Auto.com catalog is unique and remarkably easy to navigate. Quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brands, specifications, and prices that you prefer. Why spend up to twice as much money for the same parts? No reason to do that. Again, go to rockato.com right now to see all the parts available for your car, your truck, your SUV, your crossover, your van, whatever you drive gang, they've got auto and body parts for it. Right, locked on in their how did you hear a badass box so they know that we sent you?

Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Rock Auto.com Answer to the trivia question, the Bellingham Mariners final season was 1994, the season after the one we just spoke about. Bellingham would have a minor league team. It would be the Bellingham Giants. And the Everett Aqua Sox began play in 1995. If you've got a baseball question or a comment on the show, send an email. Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com,

and I will consider using it for our Friday mailbag segment. Please get those questions, and I want to have a mailbag segment this week. I have three questions so far, three emails that I'm going to read. I need more than that to do a complete segment, so send those questions in. Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com. It does not even have to be a baseball question. You can ask my personal opinion on something. I'll provide an answer just as long, as I keep saying,

just as long as it's appropriate, that is the only stipulation. More Locked on Mirrors following this. Now time for the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Once again, your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, Joey Martin. Second half about to kick off here. I say kick off on a baseball show. Oh, whatever.

We have John Miller with us today. Actually, not today. I had a conversation with him on Thursday, which was going to be part of Friday's show, before I realized just how much of the conversation with Aram I had, yet to broadcast, which wound up being the entire show. So this is a conversation about what John has seen with this current iteration of the Seattle Mariners.

And this is through the first 20 games. This was before that three-game sweep in Houston, which we would just soon forget about. Enjoy it. We have back on the show after a lengthy absence, actually. Time just kind of got away from me. I apologize. Locked on Mariners contributor, John Miller. Miller, John, welcome back to the show.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be back. It's a pleasure to have you back. Like I said, time just kind of got away for me. And this is your first time on the show. Since the season began, and since the Mariners do have an off day, I was just kind of wondering what have been your impressions on this particular Mariners team through the first 20 games,

which actually, that's a third of the season already. Yeah, season is really moving fast. we're playing pretty much where I expected us to. We're kind of bouncing in and out of the last place spot, but still not too far back from anybody, and surprisingly the Astros are not doing well. Which is pretty cool to watch. Yes, but I am impressed at the potential

that some of these young guys have. Absolutely. That Lewis and Crawford are actually doing the job of full-time major leaguers. They are, especially Lewis at this point, although his banning average has kind of come down in recent times.

He's been a much steadier defender than JP Crawford has. I talked about it on the show yesterday where he can be a really, really good shortstop, but he kind of gets lazy with throws from time to time and just kind of lazily tosses him to first base

and they go for fielding errors. He's got to correct that, John, but I agree with you at large. about Crawford's potential. And also, I like what he's done in the lead-off spot. He's flourished there. Definitely. It's been really good to see. In fact, I'm going to look up to see exactly how he's been doing in the lead-off spot. Live research on the air, ladies and gentlemen, which makes her great radio. I know, he says sarcastically. But here is what he has done in the lead-off spot. He's never hit lead-off before. This was his first lead-off experience in Major League Baseball. And as I scroll down,

he's hitting 291 and is on base, which is the most important thing for a leadoff hitter, is 381. That's pretty good. I'll take that any day of the weekend of a leadoff hitter, and he could run on the bases too. Yeah, I am more than happy with that. Absolutely.

Some of the other pieces have not been as impressive. What have you thought about Evan White? I know he's struggled, but at the same time, I'm glad to see him still getting at bats because he really does need that learning experience going forward in the future, or at least that's my opinion. What say you? I agree.

I think a lot of this is a learning experience, the struggles. I think maybe because it's such an abbreviated season that surveyists may be allowing for that those growing pains that this is season as an asterisk by it. So we can allow you that time at the major league level. level and then come back in 21 and come out of spring training and see what you can do. I am right there with you on that one. And the other part of it is, even if it was a longer season, well, no, I'll kind of walk back what I was going to say.

If it was a longer season, he may be back in AA or AAA, probably AAA. But at the same time, the Mariners were not going to contend this year. This is absolutely a growing period for this team. so with that in mind, why not give him major-licked bats, which is exactly what they're doing. Exactly. And having, of all the people that they've just kind of tossed by the wayside and sent to different teams and whatever else they did,

some of which we were happy with, some of which we weren't, they've kept Grandpa Seeger, if you will, there, because all these kids were talking about, they are 24 and 25, Seeger is 32. And they could not trade that contract away, especially with the production that he had shown over the previous three seasons. Nobody was going to take that on. But honestly, I think that that was probably a blessing in disguise

because he was hurt for much of last season. And in the last maybe third or quarter of the season, he started to turn it on. And I've said this on the show many, many times, but he lost the muscle weight that he accumulated to try to bulk up and to become stronger, which had an averse effect on his offense and his defense. he's back to his old playing weight,

and he looks, he's playing like he's five years younger than he really is. He really is. I mean, if you can keep this up through the next two-thirds of the year, you could see a comeback player of the year. Singer is hitting a higher average than he ever has. That's true. He's actually exceeding what he did in his peak. And I'm looking up to see if this is the last year of his contract or the next one.

Next year, he signed through next season. So they'll still have one more season of Kyle Seeger and that kind of makes him a candidate to be traded away if he's going to put up these kinds of numbers next year to a contending team for some prospects if the Mariners are out of contention. I want to stay with third base and I've kind of come to this realization over the last

couple days with Dylan Moore playing every day. I'm not really impressed with what the Mariners have at third base down on the farm. However, with Dylan, more doing what he's doing, after Seeger's contract expires, and if Dylan Moore can keep up what he's doing, because he continues to barrel the ball and hit the ball hard, this is not a fluke. He could be your everyday third baseman. He certainly could. In which case, do you trade away Seeger or see how he does, see if you want to maybe re-sign him middle of the year next year, and if Moore's doing well enough, move Seeger

over to DH. That's actually a very interesting point. I mean, Seeger's not playing poor defensively, but Dylan Moore is certainly hitting well enough that he should be in the lineup every day. And the other part of that equation is that the current DH, which I was kind of harsh on yesterday.

I was a little hard on Voguey yesterday, and I want to bring this up. I'm not a batting coach. The Mariners have been working with him to be more aggressive earlier in the count. I was not saying anything, groundbreaking, although I shouldn't have said that that's why he was hitting 100. But at the same time, he's not performing.

And he's been giving opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. And it's starting to look to me like the beginning of last year was a fluke. And that for me is sad because even from his time in the minor leagues, I've been a fan of Daniel Volgolbach. I root for the guy. Also, he has the right attitude. He has something of a live and let live at, not a let him let live, but if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

He does work his tail off, but at the same time he does not get too down on himself. When he fails, he comes back and tries it again the next time. And that's not to say that he doesn't care because he obviously does. But those are the kinds of mindsets that are generally successful in pro sports. But again, at the same time, you know, the big guy is just not performing. I wish he was because I root for him too, because he is also a likable guy. But at some point, you just have to kind of cut your losses, do you not? you definitely do.

And when I was mentioning Seeger, I kind of toying with the idea of, do we need another Felix Hernandez, another franchise player, someone who's been around with the team for that long, just keep them around and for the fans, if you will. Yes, we did sign Felix to that long contract. In some cases,

I've heard people saying we got stuck with him, but having that guy that the fans can rally around. That's actually a really good point. And again, Felix Hernandez's contract did kind of become something of an albatross towards the end because he wasn't performing. The difference here being Kyle Seeger is rejuvenated, he is performing. So I would maybe they are going to extend him in the middle of next season if he begins next season as he did this season.

He's played in all 20 games. he's hitting 292, 373 on base, and he's slugging 500. He has never had a slugging average for a full season of 500 or better, although he came $4.99 in 2016, so one point off of that, so that's basically a 500 slugging percentage. But again, he is exceeding the numbers that he put up in his peak, and it's really fun to watch. It is.

What has not been so fun to watch? There's a transition for you, ladies and general. has been the Mariners pitching staff's propensity for giving up the big inning. And I kind of feel like that is really what's held them back. And kind of most of the bullpen at large, and I'd like your thoughts on that. That has been the part of the team that is cringe-worthy, if you will. Yes. It doesn't seem to matter whether they're going to the pen or because, and some of you can think back to,

oh, we've got Randy Johnson coming. This will be a good game. We got Felix Hernandez, this will be a good game. We got Jamie Moyer or someone like that and like, okay, he's going to give us a good start and we got a chance for a win. It doesn't, with the pitching, it doesn't seem like that this year. It's like, okay, well, I hope we get enough good hits because I'm not sure if we have a pitching staff. The starters, and I will kind of temper this because across Major League Baseball,

pitchers are not going as deep into ball games this year. And this is the one season that we're able to forgive this, just because the prep time going into the season was so short. I mean, they're basically at the tail end of spring training, according to what schedule they should be on. So I'm not really concerned about a five-inning or a six-inning start. That's pretty much been the norm. But once you get into that Mariners' bullpen,

and I thought before the season that this is a team that maybe they can put everything together offensively and make a run at it. but I always felt like the bullpen was going to be a problem, and it has been. And added to that, some of the starting pitchers also have had a propensity for giving up a big inning. However, Justice Sheffield and Justin Dunn, in their two previous starts, they both got into jams, and the innings in which they did, those are the innings that had been spiraling out of control, and they didn't allow it to happen, and that was a positive.

That's very much a positive. Yes, it was. general thoughts on this team, John, before we wrap up, because we are already over time. I was afraid we would do that. I think that pretty much sums it up. I don't want to eat into your time. Well, if you have anything else, feel free to say it. I don't want to cut you off if there's anything left on the table. I think we're good. All right, John, thank you very much again for joining us. Please remind the nice folks where they can find you on Twitter. You can find me on the Twitter sphere at Seattle Pilot 69. Yes, I do feel bad that I let time

get away like that and he hasn't been on the show for so long. I cannot let that happen again. He will be back on this program sooner rather than later, ladies and gentlemen. I cannot believe that over a third of the season is gone. I have to keep reminding myself it's 23 games. I keep expecting everybody to be in mid-season form when it's really just the beginning of the season. It doesn't seem like, in any case, I'm digressing here. Tomorrow on Locked-on Mariners, I will be joined by guest panelists Marcia Brady, Mayor McCheese, and a pair of pruning shears. That is one you will not want to miss, ladies and gentlemen.

So please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program, so you never miss an episode. Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, any podcasting app that you can think of. We are probably on there, so check it out. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Meritors, and follow me on Twitter at DC underscore Lunberg. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have a great Monday.

We'll see you back here tomorrow, talking hopefully a Mariners win. We shall see. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.