Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - M's Snap Losing Streak/Bye Bye Vogey

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

After a plethora of roster moves on Wednesday, the Mariners win for the first time in a week, topping the Dodgers 6-4. D.C. talks about this game, and which players were the keys to the victory. Among the aforementioned roster moves was the designation for assignment of Daniel Vogelbach. D.C. also examines what may have led to his slow start this year and his poor second half last season, but also explains why Vogey was one of his favorite Mariners. 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. Thank you very much, Joey. There is a lot to get to today on Locked-on Mariners, which is my 99th episode, episode 133 overall. Tomorrow is episode number 100 for me. Hopefully going to do something a little special then. But we've got to get through today's episode first, and of course, we are part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Please remember, you can download rate and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcast,

Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast or any program here on the Locked-on podcast network. Follow this show on Twitter at L-O underscore Mariners. And follow me on Twitter as well at D.C. underscore Lundberg. That is L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G for those scoring at home. Mariner's finally, finally win another ballgame. They snap a seven-game losing streak with a six to four victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the artist formerly known as Safeco Field. That didn't sound right. I'm not going to use that line again. In any case, also some roster moves to get to, including the seeming end to Daniel Vogelback's tenure as a Seattle Mariner.

We'll get to that in the second half, but first let's talk about the ball game. Mariners drew first blood in the very first inning, the bottom of the first inning, was a RBI single, a two-out RBI single, no less, by Austin Nola. Dylan Moore was the runner who was driven in, who stole second base for his team leading

sixth stolen base. Dodgers come back with two solo home runs in the second inning by Max Muncie and Jock Peterson, more on Muncie a little later. And in the third inning, Bellinger hits a home run. Cody Bellinger, solo home run also. Dodgers have a three to two lead at this point. Bottom of the third inning, Mariners go off a little bit. Austin Nola hits a home run of his own, but it's a three-run home run, and the two runners on base were both halves of the Kyle

connection. Lewis and Seeger both score ahead of Nola on this home run. G.P. Crawford adds a sacrifice fly in the same inning to give the Mariners a five to three lead. Bottom six. Dylan Moore does it again. His team leading, he's tied for the lead in home runs now with five solo home run to bring the Dodgers, pardon me, to bring the Mariners to a 6-3 lead. Top of the eighth inning, Justin Turner hits an RBI single professional bowler, Mookie Betts scores. And I don't say that to make fun of Mookie Betts.

I say that because I'm a bowling fan. And he did participate in a PBA tournament back in January. and it's always fun to see him out on the lanes. He can hold his own against the other PBA pros, ladies and gentlemen, trust me, and it's not easy to do. If you think that professional bowling is anything like open bowling at your local center, you are dead wrong because they throw a variety of oil patterns. Why am I talking about this?

In any case, yes, back to the game. Taiwan Walker started the game kind of was shaky through the first two innings, wound up throwing 52 pitches to get through those first two innings. However, he pitches seven innings total. Four hits. Three of them were solo home runs, and those three runs were earned. One walk and eight strikeouts. So, like, again, after a shaky first couple of innings,

Taiwan Walker turns in a very good start. Anthony Mosevic pitches two thirds of an inning. Two hits, a run, it was earned. No walks, no strikeouts. Taylor Williams then comes in for a multi-inning save. He winds up pitching one. one and one-thirds innings, one hit, two walks. He was a little shaky on those two walks.

He struck out three of the four outs that he recorded. Dylan Moore went two for five today. Dylan Moore's been just short of spectacular. He leads the Mariners in OPS on base plus slugging. He has a higher OPS than Kyle Lewis does by two points. Moore's OPS is 949 and Kyle Lewis's is 947. Dylan Moore has sneaky pop, ladies and gentlemen. He does not look like he has as much power as he does,

but he can put a charge into the ball. He hits the ball hard, and his barrel-to-ball skills this year have just been outstanding. Kyle Seeger is also above 900. He was at 924, and he went 0 for one last night, but he walked three times. Three of the four Mariners' walks came from Kyle Seeger. The other one was shed long, incidentally.

Austin Nola, 2 for 4.4. he also had a really good ball game. Tim Lopes went two for four as well. And Corey Seeger, Kyle's brother in this case. Kyle definitely wins this battle, ladies and gentlemen. Not only did the Mariners win, but Corey Seeger went 0 for 5 and was the final out of the ball game on a strikeout. Interesting note, which occurred in the sixth inning. During the second at bat of that inning, which was Max Muncie, there was a ball that was either just below the strike zone or at the bottom of the strike zone and somebody on the Dodgers bench was run. It turns out it was one of the assistant hitting coaches, Robert Van Skoyock, I guess it's pronounced. And he was tossed arguing balls and strikes.

Manager Dave Roberts immediately came out to defend his hitting coach who had been run and he winds up getting tossed. Muncie winds up striking out swinging, says something to the umpire on his way back to the dugout, which you wouldn't have known about, except that the umpire tossed him right then and there. He's got to have a longer fuse than that, ladies and gentlemen. And then Muncie, I don't want to say he snaps, but he threw his bat towards the dugout,

and then got on the umpire's face. And if the umpire's going to have that quick of a hook, I'm kind of on Muncie's side on this. I know that you're not supposed to argue balls and strikes. However, Muncie did it the right way. He didn't call attention to it. He didn't show the umpire up, and nobody would have ever known that it happened

if the umpire didn't toss him. Muncie, I think, did the right thing, and the umpire, his hook was a little quick, quite honestly. Another note to pass along in Evan White's second plate appearance, he fouled a ball off of his knee, which sounds really painful, and he could not complete the at-bat. Shed Long Jr. came into completely at-bat and walked.

Long was given the day off originally, and Dylan Moore had started at second base. With Long coming into the, ball game to replace White, long win into second base and more moved from second base to first base. Time to get to those roster moves, which I mentioned at the beginning of the show. Outfielder, Braden Bishop was called up from the alternate training site, as was infielder Sam Haggertie. Haggurty also can play the outfield, and he started in left field last night and got his first major league hit in his first at bat of the ball game. Also first major league stolen base

last night. He did play four games with the Mets last season, so it wasn't his major league debut. But just the same, congratulations to Sam Haggretty on your first major league hit and stolen base. Braden Bishop, who was called up at the same time, I mentioned that already. He started in right field last night. Reliever Art Warren was optioned back to the alternate training site after spending a grand total of one day at the major league level. He did not get a game in. Relief pitcher Brian Shaw cleared waivers. He had been designated for a science. and he was outrighted to the alternate training site. So he is still part of the organization,

but he's not on the 40-man roster anymore. And the big one, which kind of pains me to report, designated hitter, Daniel Vogelback, was designated for assignment yesterday after hitting just 094 for the season. That's 5 for 53. Two of those five hits were home runs. And, you know, what can you do? He wasn't performing.

but he was certainly working his tail off. We'll talk more about Vogelback in the second half of today's show and update you on how some of the other Mariners are doing through the first 26 games of the season. Season is almost halfway over, ladies and gentlemen, if you can believe that. That does not seem right. Let's get to the Mariners trivia question,

and today we'll give some love to Daniel Vogel back. The question is, how did the Mariners acquire him? Answer coming up following this from Bilt Bar. Belt Bar is back, ladies and gentlemen. They're improved and they're better than ever, but what they had before was great, so they've improved on something that was already really good. Protein bars that are high in protein,

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but builtbar.com promo code locked on for 10% off your order, and you can do that for multiple orders at this time, ladies and gentlemen, not just your first order. So bear that in mind when you go to builtbar.com. Answer to the Mariners trivia question. Daniel Vogelback was originally drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2011 in the second round. He was traded by the Cubs to the Seattle Mariner's with pitcher Paul Blackburn, who later pitched for the A's, and the Mariners sent minor league pitcher Jordan Pre's and left-handed pitcher Mike Montgomery. I thought that was kind of a curious move at the time, but the Cubs were in a penit race. They wound up winning the World Series, and Montgomery was an integral part of that bullpen.

So there you go. If you've got a question for me or a come on to the show, send an email to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com, and I will consider using it for the Friday, mailbag segment, which we are doing next week, probably bumping tomorrow's to next week, as I've said, most of the week. How many more times can I say the word week? Hopefully zero. Tomorrow's the 100th episode, and we are going to do something special for that.

So we will have next Friday will be the next mailbag segment, eight days from today. More Locked on Mariners after the following. Now back to Locked on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you once again, J.M. We are back on Locked on Mariners. Actually, we never went anywhere. But second half of the show is about to begin. I'm going to talk a little bit more about Daniel Vogelback. And some of the other Mariners will talk about how they've been doing through the first, almost half of the season. If there's time, first segment ran it a little longer than I thought it was going to. So we're going to talk about Vogelback. And then if there's time, update you on some player statistics. And if there's not time, we'll just do that on Monday, I suppose.

But, you know, talking about Vogelbach, he was designated for assignment yesterday. That experiment seems to have ended, which is a real shame because I thought he was a breath of fresh air for a couple reasons. He had my favorite quote of all of last season where he said, quote, I'm not analytic at all, end quote, which to me is a breath of fresh air. The other thing I found refreshing, believe it or not, was his physique because he's not built like a football player like everybody else is in baseball these days. days. He's, you know, he's a hefty dude. He's got a gut hanging over his belt and you just don't see that anymore because once again, everybody else is built like a football player. Long gone are the days where everybody could play baseball. You have to be built like a super athlete these days in order to be considered to be a prospect if you're a young guy. And that's just kind of

lost some appeal for me because baseball kind of used to be the everyman sport, much like Bowman. is now where you do have the really athletic types there, but then you've got guys like E.J. Tackett, who may weigh 165 pounds soaking wet and looks more like a computer analyst than an athlete, but he's one of the premier power players in the game. And then you've got guys like Norm Duke, who's all of 5'5 foot 5 and maybe 135 pounds, but he's also 56 years old and still performing at the top level, or curling where everybody just looks like normal human beings. But I'm digressing, obviously.

Back to Daniel Vogel back. He has been working his tail off to try to correct, you know, what he's been working on. The Mariners have been on him to try to be more aggressive earlier in the count. I don't know how many times I've said that on this program. And two at-bats in the last couple of weeks really were kind of indicative that he kind of reverted back to his old ways in that he knows the strike zone just as well as anybody in the league. He's very patient, but he's not selective. He let hitable pitches go by. I've said this a couple of times before.

He lets hitable pitches go by just because they weren't exactly in the spot he was looking for, which forces him to have to hit breaking pitches and tougher pitches later on in the at-bat that he can't handle. He doesn't have the bat-to-ball skills of a Wade Boggs or an Edgar Martinez, who can get deep into account and who can handle. hit those tough pitches. Vogelback has a lot of holes in his swing. He needed to be more aggressive earlier in the count, which the Mariners have been on him to do. This is not, this is a combination of what I have read about what the Mariners coaches have been trying to get him to do and my own

observations. But the at bat two days ago, which wound up resulting in a walk in which he was facing Kenley Jansen, that cutter that Jansen threw was right down. the middle of the plate, and Vogelbach spat on it. Even the TV announcers were kind of, I guess, frustrated at Vogelback, and I think it was Blowers who said, he's not going to get another one like that. And Blowers was right, even though Jansen did wind up walking Vogel back. It's those kinds of at bats in which he needed to be more aggressive earlier in the count, and Blowers was right. Jansen did wind up walking Vogel back, but the point still remains.

It's those types of pitches, and that was kind of an extreme example. But it's pitches like that that Vogelback would just watch go by because he was keyholeing somewhere else. But you have to jump on hitable pitches, especially with the holes that he has in his swing and his seeming inability to hit breaking pitches. I'm sorry to say. And I don't mean to pile on the big guy. I don't. He's a likable guy. He works his tail off.

And I hope, ladies and gentlemen, that he does catch on somewhere else and has something of a serviceable big league career. I still think the potential is there. But with the Mariners moving in a younger direction and him being 27 years old and out of minor league options, you know, I said last week, actually on Monday's program, which was recorded last week, with John Miller that sooner or later the Mariners might have to cut their losses with Vogel back. And that's exactly what they wound up doing last night. I'm sorry to see him go. I really am, ladies and gentlemen, because he was one of my personal favorite mariners

for the reasons that I stated leading into this segment, the non-analytic aspect of it, and the fact that he's not built like a football player. He's built like a wrestler, a Greco-Roman wrestler, and I hate to repeat myself, especially with such a cliche phrase, but he was a breath of fresh air for those reasons that I stated. was unique in today's game, and I wish him the very best. I do hope that he goes on to success somewhere else in baseball.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is going to do it for today. We'll update you on how the other players are doing on Monday's program, because tomorrow, after we recap the Dodgers game, it's episode number 100 for yours truly as host of Locked-on Mariners. And tomorrow, on my 100th episode, I will. have a panel of former big league players, including former St. Louis Cardinals' second baseman Tony Macelli, former Cleveland Indians catcher Jake Taylor, and former New York Mets infielder Chico Esquela on for a three-hour panel. It will, you will not want to miss that one. So

download rate, subscribe to this program, so you never miss an episode, especially this one, on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcast. app that you can think of. Follow this program on Twitter as well, ladies and gentlemen, at L.O. underscore Mariners, and follow me at D.C. underscore Lundberg. Remember, tomorrow's the big 100-0. For my hosting tenure here on Locked-on Mariners, have a great Thursday, and we'll see you tomorrow. This is Joey Martin saying join us back here next time for another edition of Locked-on Mariner's, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.