Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - M's Snap Losing Streak... In Oakland?!

Episode Date: May 25, 2021

Having been swept in the last two series, the Mariners headed to Oakland, where they have perennially had problems. Such was not the case last night. Guest host Taylor Blake Ward takes you through the M"s 4-2 victory, and then discusses the Seattle Mariners from a national perspective. There's a shortstop currently playing in the M's minor league system for the Modesto Nuts with whom Taylor is very impressed, and that would be Noelvi Marte. Taylor gives his impressions in Mr. Marte, and talks about what kind of player he could potentially develop into. Finally, more of D.C.'s conversation with Locked On A's host Jason Burke; they discuss the Athletics' offense and defense. 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, well, D.C. isn't here. So you'll be in the hands of some different initials, but yet another suite. Let's cue that drumbeat and quick tempo guitar riff. Welcome to Lockdown Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Here's your host filling in for D.C. Lundberg, Taylor Blake Ward. Thank you, Joey Martin. As you can tell, I am not D.C. Lundberg, your usual host. I am Taylor Blake Ward or TBW as summer fur. and I'll be taking you through Lockdown Mariners today, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, or TLOPN, or as D.C. refers to it, Tloppin, brought to you by Rock Auto. As a reminder, you can download today's show as well as rate and follow this program on whatever your preferred podcasting method or application is. Feel free to ask your smart device to play the Lockdown Mariners podcast or any of the great programs here on the Lockdown Podcast Network.

If you tuned in yesterday, you heard why D.C. is taking the night off. Tonight is his first class at Whitworth University, which is located somewhere in Washington, to my belief. I had to Google it and found out that it is in the Spokane region where D.C. currently resides. For those of you that are unfamiliar, I am Taylor Blake Ward, former host of Lockdown Angels and currently covering the team in Major League Baseball draft for my 10th season, actually, 10 years covering the Angels. Now, if you're thinking that today's show will come from an Angels perspective, that is not the case. I do follow all of baseball. We'll be talking about the Mariners 4-2 victory over the Oakland A's last night, snapping a six-game losing streak, as well as touch on a few of the young pups down the

Mariners farm system. Let's jump right into it and chat about last night's game in which Seattle came out victorious over Oakland by a final score of 4-2. Now, and over the last few weeks here, D.C. has been a bit critical of the offense. Seems that that changed when it comes to last night's game. Jared Kalenik, leading off the game with a walk, followed by, a double by Mitch Hanager to put the Mariners up 1-0 in the first. Mariners would score two in the third compliments of Kyle Lewis.

Once again, Mitch Hanager on base. He did single with one out, and then two batters later. Kyle Lewis came up, hit a massive home run to left field there, 425 feet. The Mariners did put on a lot of hard contact against Frankie Montas. Frankie hasn't been his usual self this season. sporting a 492 ERA this year. That is also compliments of the four runs the Merrittors put on yesterday. Frankie did strike out 11 over the span. Speaking of Jared Kalenek from earlier, he actually did snap a pretty big streak. I'm looking at his last few games here. You know, 11th game in the major,

still a small sample. But since that three for four night, his second game of the season, where he hit the home run, went three for four, scored two runs, had the two doubles in the home run. Jared has only been going two for 29. He's been putting the ball in play. He hasn't been striking out a ton. Isn't walking a lot right now. Obviously, he did have the walk to lead off the game and scored on that double from Hanigur. But you look at Jared right now over his last eight games, excluding this last night's game.

Two for 29. No extra base hits there. Did steal a base betting a 069 over that span, a 225 OPS, I think a 225. batting average is forgivable at this point, but a 225 OPS, not exactly the case. Jared, you know, he's a kid. I mean, gosh, he's, how old is Jared now? He's 21. He'll be 23 or 21 to 23.

That's a pretty big jump. 22 come mid-July here, about a month and a half out. But, you know, it is a kid. Still getting a little bit wet out there. But I got to say, you know, this swing that he put on the Frankie Montas fastball, He had a chance earlier in the game, earlier in the batting, actually, just missed a fastball during his second at bat in the game. Didn't miss on this one, 94, right in the heart of the zone. Jared placed it out in the right field stands, 414 feet from home plate.

Absolute tank of a home run. As we look at the offense just over the night, Jared Kalanick did go one for four. That one hit was the home run, of course. He did walk, scored twice from the home run and that walk. Mitch Handergo goes two for four. Kyle Lewis went one for two with two walks in the home run. J.P. Crawford and Thai France also come along with some hits. Ty France did have a, no, he was a single.

I don't know why I'm thinking it was a double. Oddity there. But Mariners chased Frankie Montes out. Frankie went six innings, allowed six hits, three walks, four runs on those base runners. Struck out 11 did allow the two home runs. The rest of the night for Oakland, Camp of Drojan comes in, throws two scoreless innings. Daolaus Garra comes in, throws a scoreless perfect inning. As for the Mariners pitching, though, I think that's really where we want to focus in on.

You say Kukuchi had himself a night, and he's kind of needed this. Usay now has a 402 ERA following last night's game, six innings of one-run ball. One thing to note, though, Yusei did come out of the game with a trainer coming with him. Not the greatest sign. after the post game, it was noted. Scott Service did say that Kukuchi was cramping in his back. Team is hoping that it's not a serious issue. They're going to monitor his back issues over the next few days.

Make sure he can make his next start. But Yusei did say that his... Usay said his hands were cramping early in the game, and then it was his back later during the sixth inning. But Yusay seems like he's pretty confident moving on to his next start. Looking at the rest of the pitching staff, Rafael Montero did go an inning, a lot of a run, Mr. Swanson there, Mr. Swanson, Swanson, Swanson, Eric Swanson. I'm drawing blanks. Keep in mind, I haven't watched a ton of the merits. Eric Swanson having himself a heck of a season,

ain't he? I mean, realistically, this guy is really pitching at a high level. It's small sample. We're talking about, gosh, what are we talking about here? I'm going to pull up his stats. 11 and 2-3rd inning so far this season, but only three hits allowed in one run over that span, struck out 12, only walked five. Eric Swanson having himself one heck of a year so far. Keena Middleton did come in, close out the game with a save, one inning, saved struck out two to close out the game. A 4-2 victory for the Seattle Mariners.

Seattle does move to 22 and 26 on the season. Now five and a half games back of the Oakland A's in the AL West race. This is now May 24th is what we're talking about. officially May 25th today, but as of last night, May 24th, Seattle, five and a half games back. Just a perspective from someone that doesn't necessarily watch the Mariners on a regular basis. From an outside perspective, the Seattle Mariners were kind of one of those teams that you talk about Detroit, you talk about Kansas City, you talk about Toronto, those are kind of teams. They're on the rise, and that's kind of how I view Seattle is. This is a team on the rise.

they're still not there yet. This isn't necessarily a playoff caliber team, but this is a team that's on the cusp of kind of making some noise and playing that pesky little brother in the AL West, and I think Seattle is capable of doing that. Obviously, we see it last night beating up on the division leader of Oakland. I think that this is going to be a really fun team to watch. This year is going to be tough.

I mean, if we're being realistic, I don't see the Seattle Mariners really being a 500 team or even really around that mark. But realistically, This is a team that's going to make some noise here in the near future. And we're going to talk about that in the next segment, talking a little bit about some prospects coming up, a kid that I got to see last week that really impressed me.

Before we cap off the first segment here, let's do a trivia corner, and we'll do a haul pass this time around. Now, D.C. left me a note, handed me one that I think I'm going to save for him and put in my very own. I actually didn't even read it. So we'll see if, well, I'm not going to read that. I'm going to use my own here. So today for Hall Pass, we have a pitcher who threw in the 1980s and 1990s, spending 16 years in the majors.

He had 179 wins and 158 losses over that span with a 3.98 ERA while striking out 2,464 batters. He led the league in strikeouts three of his first four seasons in the majors. He was a four-time all-star, a seven-time gold glove winner, which may be given it away. He placed in the Siong voting twice, never garnering a finish better than fifth, and finish runner-up for Rookie of the Year. Are those Hall of Fame credentials, in your opinion? Well, I'll tell you exactly who that is, after this word, from Wealthfront.

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All you need is $500 to get started. Grow your wealth the easy way and let Wealthfront do the work for you. To get your first $5,000 managed for free, for life, go to wealthfront.com backslash locked on MLB. That's W-E-A-L-T-F-R-O-N-T-com to start growing your savings. Go to wealthfront.com backslash locked on MLB and get started today. Let's get to today's Hall Pass, and I just realized the dude that D.C. had lined up for you is actually someone I would place in the Hall of Fame, so you will be able to enjoy that whenever D.C. returns with the Hall Pass. Before today, if you guessed Mark Langston, former Mariner and Angel and current Angels radio color broadcaster,

well, then you would be accurate in your assessment. I will leave the Hall of Fame opinions to you, the listeners, based on your own personal. reference. Coming up, we're going to talk about the farm. No, not that farm. We're going to talk about Mariners prospects or prospect in this case, but first, a word of interest from Rock Auto. Rockado.com is a family business serving auto parts customers online for 20 years. Go to rockato.com to shop for auto parts from hundreds of manufacturers. Whether it's for your classic or daily driver, get everything you need in a few easy clicks delivered directly to your door. The Rockato.com catalog is unique and remarkably easy to navigate.

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and all the parts your car will ever need, rockadoado.com. Now back to Lockdown Mariners and guest host Taylor Blake Ward. Thank you, Joey, or JM, since we are sticking to initials such as DC and TBW. Do you have a question or comment for DC for future podcast? If so, feel free to send an email to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com, and DC will reply to your message on the air in a future mailback segment. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome and encourage?

doesn't need to be related to the Mariners or baseball at all. So I think I might fire one off before we wrap up today. Actually, let me think of one real quick. Let's see. All right. Hey, D.C. Lundberg, TBW here. Great show, long-time listener, short-time guest host. My question for your mailbag is, if Marty McFly have returned to 1955 in the second

Back to the Future movie but stayed and then went back to 1885 in the third film, what happened to the Marty McFly that returned to 1985 in the second film? Are there now two Marty McFly's in the current world due to this? Well, I guess that's your Barn burner question, DC. Speaking of Barn, let's take a trip down on the farm. For those of you that don't know, once again, I am Taylor Blake Ward, former host of Lockdown Angels. I cover the Angels for HomeplayVue.com.

This is actually my 10th season covering the team. I also cover the Major League Baseball draft, but I could see a lot of prospects during my coverage, mostly Angels prospects, of course, but a lot of Mariners affiliates do stop by when it comes to Angels affiliates. So just last week, I was actually the Angels affiliate down in San Bernardino, California, Inland Empire Six Sixers, and they were playing the Modesto Nuts. Now, the Modesto Nuts are actually, if I'm remembering right, they have the best record in My League Baseball.

I'm digressing a little bit here, but they have a short. shortstop that I was just blown away by. Noel V. I knew I was going to butcher that. Noel V. Marte. Mariner's prospect actually ranked number seven by MLB pipeline in the organization. I don't believe he's a top hundred prospect at the moment. He is a shortstop. Backstory on him, he signed for $1.5.5 million back in 2018 during the international signing period. I really did well at his first stint with the Dominican Summer League. Then he was invited to the summer camp, the extended roster camp,

alternate site, whatever the heck you want to call it last season when there were 60 guys at the alternate site due to COVID-19. And he was definitely just, I mean, he was 18 years old. Really a young kid out there. But, you know, he performed well, had some interesting notes to kind of go along with him. Very interesting kid. But I'll tell you, I saw him for the first time.

This was on, what day was that? I can't remember what day it was. It was, I got my notebook. I've got my notebook out and everything. So the 18th would have been last Tuesday, so a week ago. I was blown away. This kid's approach at the plate is remarkable. The Angels pitchers didn't really have any good command.

I mean, they walked seven guys over their span. But I'll tell you, Noel V Marte, the power that he, he possesses is really intriguing. He's got some real authority in a swing. I'm a big fan of his. I think that a lot of people are going to question the hit tool a little bit. Not so sure if they're going to believe that he's going to be a 270, 280 hitter. Baseball's changed so much. We talk about batting average. I think the consensus is that the average batting average or the average hit tool is going to range right around 260 to 270 right now. I think that's fair. I'm not so sure that this guy is going to be that, maybe a 260 hitter, but he's going to get on base. I love the approach.

I think he's very advanced in his approach. 19 years old and single A very advanced already, but the power, he hit a ball. It was a hanging slider and in respects, you know, for a guy that's of the status of Marte, you want to see him hit this ball out. But man, he smoked it. He was so impressive with the power. Really put on a show during batting practice. He's just got power to all fields. Very strong kid. Big-ish.

I guess you can compare him kind of Kalenic body size. He's a little over 6 foot, about a buck 90. Really just a strong upper half. You can really see it in the forearms. Strong kid, but I was just really impressed. In the field, average. He got to work with J.P. Crawford at that alternate site last year, and I think that's going to help him quite a bit. I think it's more probably going to

move to third-based long run. One thing that I did like, he has some speed. Now, it's not, that's where I think the mark is for shortstop for me, is I'm not so sure if I'm going to buy in that he's a long-term shortstop because the quick-burst speed isn't outstanding the way that you talk about, you talk about short-stops and you talk about quick-burst speed. It's that first step. And I wasn't blown away by his first step. But when he has a full head of steam, this kid's got some positive speed. I mean, he's a plus runner. I'm telling you know, I sat and we talked to D.C. last week about Mariners prospects. Actually, might have been about two weeks ago. But I sat and talked to D.C. about prospects for half an hour.

We talked about Emerson Hancock, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, etc. We talked about Jared Kulenek right before he got called up. Logan Gilbert, of course, called up as well. We talked about Cal Raleigh. We talked about a few people, and it's just this kid belongs in that category. I think he's a top-hundred prospect with ease. I think that obviously the performance is there, as we're sitting here talking right at this very moment,

I'm going to pull up his stat line. He is batting 347 with a 427-on-base percentage, 5-69 slugging. He has four home runs at 17 games at the single A level. His OPS just below 1. It's a 0.996. Let's see, stolen base. Four stolen bases. Obviously the performance is there.

He definitely has the performance numbers. But along with all that, this kid belongs in the top 100 prospect list. I think he is definitely someone that you could see Manning. I think third base. I'm going to say third base. But this is a guy that you could be really excited about when it comes to the future of the angels. I'm sorry. I knew I was going to do that. I knew for a fact I was eventually going to slip up and say angels. My apologies, the Mariners Farm System, the Seattle Mariners of Seattle,

downtown Seattle. It's not Safeco Field anymore. What is it? It's not AT&T. It's T-Mobile Park. Seattle Mariner's of T-Mobile Park in Seattle right next to that naval base, right next to the football field, just south of downtown. I know where it is. I've been there. I love, I love, I love, Seattle. I'm a big, I love Seattle, the city. T-Mobile Park is actually, I'm going to say that's my second favorite park in all of baseball, just behind Petco Field down in San Diego. I guess it's not Petco Field, it's Petco Park. I'm digressing a ton. I think it may be time for us to kind of break away from this, but I'll tell you guys, if you're into prospects, definitely take a long look at Noelvi-Marté. Very, very exciting.

up-and-comer in this Mariner's farm system. Coming up, more of DC's conversation with Lockdown A's host and my buddy Jason Burke, but first, this word from bet online. Bet online, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Baseball season is a full swing and you can track all the action at bet online. Get all the latest news, odds, and info for all your sporting needs, including MLB, NBA, NHL, and all your UFC and MMA action. Before the next pitch, head over to bet online on your laptop or mobile device

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Welcome back to Lockedon Mariners. Here once again is your guest host, the man with three first names, Taylor Blake Ward. Grazie, my hermano Joey, my nombre is three first nombres. My Spanish sucks. Once again, I am Taylor Blake Ward, and that was Joey Martin. a man of just two first names and obviously the lesser of the two of us because of that fact. Sorry, Joey, man. Here in the C block, we will play a pre-recorded conversation between D.C. and Jason Burke of Lockdown A's. Enjoy.

In any case, let's talk about the A's offense. Generally, how have they been at large and what can Mariners fans expect to see from them against Kikichi-San and Mr. Gilbert? as a whole they've been a pretty solid group and you know looking at them you wouldn't think that because uh you're not comparing them to the rest of the league you're just comparing them like yeah they they kind of stink but when you watch a team every day you're like oh well they didn't come through at all today but then they do it like every time the next game it's all about you know how it plays out over the entire course of a season uh i was looking at their stats last night as well and i think they're like the number eight offense in baseball according to w rc plus

which did not guess that because they don't score a ton of runs usually. They might score like four or five here and there, but they're not putting up like those 12 spots like the Padres. Sorry. If it's any consolation Mariners fans, that was not the biggest loss on Friday. I think it was only the third biggest loss, honestly, which I'll be,

which I will have talked about on Monday's program. I'm sorry, Jason, go ahead. I was going to be like, oh, should I say like, White Sox, and then as I was about to say White Sox, I was like, I should really just go for the kill. I've been trashing my own team on this show for a few days now, so it's fine. I do love the Mariners, though, and I mean, I don't watch them a ton, but if they're on, I'm like, I'll watch them.

I got some time. And, you know, I love the jerseys and what they're building to. And because I don't have to watch them every day, I enjoy the entertainment of that. Okay, that I understand. that. I understand that. The future is bright, ladies and gentlemen, present day, not so much. Is there any one specific A's

player on offense that might give somebody like Kikachi San or Mr. Gilbert or any of the other Mariners' pitchers trouble? I would say that it's basically between Mark Kana, who is one of the top players, top hitters in baseball.

He's got a 149 WRC plus, if you're, you know, big into Sabremetrics, which is one points below Yordon Alvarez. So if you think highly of Yordon Alvarez, Marc Cana is right behind him and you might not even think that you might not even know

who Markana is. He's fantastic. He gets on base. He's the leadoff hitter most games these times or these days. And against like Kikachi, he's a lefty. Markana's a righty. I would assume that that would play into Cana's favor a little bit. The other guy that I would go with is Ramon Luriano.

He had a good first couple of games. games. I think he got like seven hits in the, the Angel series in the first two games, which I didn't even pay attention to his stats from Sunday. I'm like, I'm talking about him anyway. I'll look those up later. And so, yeah, I would say that those two guys specifically against somebody like Kikachi, but Matt Olson's also their other, like their third very, very good guy, like top 30 hitter in baseball right now. And this is all just WRC plus. It's not, you know, solely home runs or anything. But Ramaloreano also has 11 home runs, which is insane to me.

And Mark Kana's like third in baseball and runs scored, which sure, I guess. He's like right up there with like Ronald O'Cunia Jr. So everybody's doing great. So those are the main three that you would probably want to be worried about, try and pitch a little bit more carefully because they can do some damage. But, you know, Matt Chapman can go on a hot streak real quick. Sean Murphy will hit the snot out of a ball. Whether or not it's caught, we'll see, but he can hit the ball hard.

Chad Pender's been pretty solid. If you see Elvis Andrews, he might get a hit, maybe. I like it when he does. Yeah, that's most of the lineup right now. Jeff Lowry's been slumping a little bit more, and I can't, oh, like Seth Brown would be the DH, or potentially Stephen Biscotti or whoever. And Seth Brown's hit a home run in three straight games, so that's good. and Piscotti's kind of just there

and he goes on hot streaks every now and then, but he's not on one right now. So that's the A's entire offense for you. Also, Tony Kemp, he's been solid, but I don't know when he plays. He just kind of shows up, and then he's like, oh, there is. Okay.

I have to say something about Elvis Andrus. It's actually not about Elvis Andrus, but I was driving around the other day in southwest Spokane in a very rural area, which I'd never been to before. There is an Andrus Road in Southwester, Southwest Spokane, and I thought of Ellis Andrews. I like it.

Yes. Maybe they should take them over there. They were like, hey, they named this place after you because you own the Mariners. And then this series is actually in Oakland, so that'd be kind of out of the way. But maybe next week when they play the Mariners. It'd be out of the way, even if they played in Seattle, considering that it's about 300 miles away from Seattle. And I was going to pull over and snap a picture, but it was one of those rural areas where

there's no shoulder on the road, so I couldn't. Very quickly, one more thing. Just in general, how is the A's defense been? Okay. It hasn't been great. I mean, by the metrics, they say that they're actually a bad defensive team. Not quite as bad as like the Angels who, man, that was those were rough games. I felt bad for the pitchers, like so bad.

But Chapman and Olson haven't been their usual selves on the corners. according to the numbers at least, they're still making plays and whatnot, but every now and then you see, like, one of those mental laps plays that, like, you know, regular normal people make,

and usually they don't, so that's weird. They're like, oh, I drop the ball, kind of. And then they get the out anyway, but they drop the ball. So usually it's just strange little things like that.

Nothing to really concern yourself about just yet. But maybe if it continues, then you're like, oh, that stinks. It's not like they're going to go anywhere. And, you know, if Evan White was still playing, maybe he could get a second straight goal,

glove, but he is not currently. Yeah, and Evan White, you can really tell the difference on the Mariners. When you got another first baseman in there besides Evan White, Jose Marmolejos had been playing a lot of first base before he got designated for assignment. Absolutely no Evan White out there. It's been Jacob Nottingham the last few days. And while he looked better than Marmo did at first base, you know, it's still, he's not Evan White out there.

Few people are, if Evan White weren't left-handed, he'd make it a strong. spectacular third baseman. His glove skills are that good. That'll close out today's show. DC will be back with you tomorrow here at Lockdown Mariners to discuss tonight's game against Oakland. Please remember to download, rate, and follow Lockdown Mariners on social media platforms.

If you like, you can follow me as well at Taylor Blake Ward. Look for us on any podcasting app you can think of. Leave a rating and review if your podcasting app of choice allows you to do so. Thank you for listening. This is usually where DC says that he, will be joined by an elusive cast of misfits, so I will fill in tomorrow's guest with Bugs Bunny, Jessica Rabbit, and a sketchy man with a top hat and a trench coat. Also, I believe the Seattle Crackin, the actual Crackin itself will be a part of tomorrow's show.

For Lockdown, Mariners, I'm Teo Blake Ward, reminding you to dot your eyes, cross your teas, and enjoy the day Mariners faithful. We'll see you tomorrow. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Lockdown 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 else you get your podcasts. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked On Mariners, part of the Locked On podcast network.