Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Offense Grinds to a Halt

Episode Date: April 28, 2021

The Mariners turned in two pretty poor offensive performances on Monday and Tuesday; D.C. recaps both games, the second of which was pretty well pitched by Marco Gonzales. This was the second start of his in succession that the M's offense didn't support him. Specific players are struggling, including Dylan Moore and Jose Marmolejos. D.C. also revisits the topic of catching on one knee with runners on base in C block, then ends the show speaking about the notion of expanding to 32 Major League Baseball teams. 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.

Yesterday on Locked-on Mariners. Oh, never mind. Welcome 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 Martin. After an unplanned day off, we are back to talk about Mariners baseball. Not the best two games the Ms have ever played, but we're going to dive into them nonetheless today on Locked-on Mariners. part of the

Locked-on Podcast Network. Please remember to download rate and follow this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. This is what happens when I do not write everything out. Please also remember to ask your smart device

to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any program here on the Locked-on Podcast Network. Very easy to do. All you've got to do is say, hey, smart device, play Locked-on team name here, podcast. Before we begin, I must tell you that Tomorrow, the Locked-on podcast network is partnering with the Draft Network to cover the NFL Draft Live.

And once again, the word live is in all caps, so you know they're serious. Get insight and analysis from Locked-on local experts and the Draft Network's national experts. Subscribe to the Locked-on NFL YouTube page to watch live three-day coverage of the NFL draft April 29th through May 1st. And also this Friday, the Women's Curling World Championship begins. am so excited. All right. Now for the explanation as to why there was no show yesterday. When I got home Monday night from after listening to the ballgame on the radio, there was kind of an incident is not the right word, but it's the best one that I could come up with. And recording a show was not going to happen. That means we have two games to talk about today,

and boy, I wish that at least one of them was a win. But no. We'll begin on Monday. and prior to Monday's game, Nick Margievichus was placed on the 10-day disabled list. He had to leave his start on Sunday after throwing 32 pitches in one-third of an inning. Something clearly was not right. He had an MRI on Monday, and the results from that MRI have yet to be released. The Mariners recalled Robert Dugger from the taxi squad to take Margot's place on the active roster and got into Monday's game. The obvious choice to replace Margievich's in the rotation is L.J. Newsom,

who threw four shutout innings out of the pen on Sunday and was very, very good. However, the Mariners are also toying with the idea of going back to a standard five-man rotation until Margievich's returns. They have a couple of off days in the coming weeks, so making a transition from a six-man rotation to a five-man rotation would be more or less seamless. We'll have a better idea of how long Margo will be out of commission once those MRI results are announced.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. and hope that it is nothing serious. Now for Monday's game. I said on Monday morning's show that I would be surprised if Sam Haggurty was not in the starting lineup that evening, and color me surprised, telegram Sam, not in the starting lineup. He did later pinch hit for Dylan Moore,

who continues to struggle at the plate. It was kind of an interesting day for the offense, and not in a very good way. They collected seven hits and only one walk. They had some opportunities to cash in some runs, yet only scored two. On two solo home runs, no less, one apiece from both halves of the Kyle Connection.

Lewis went one for three and drew the loan base on balls. Seeger went two for four. Thai France also went two for four. And the other Mariner hits were had by Taylor Tramel and J.P. Crawford. Aside from those two long balls, the other five hits were all singles. The Mariners did only strike out six times, however, so that's at least a plus.

Astro's starter Jose Urquite started off kind of shaky, quite honestly, but the Mariners just could not capitalize. France and Seeger both hit one-out singles in the first, but Kyle Lewis and Evan White both popped out to end the inning. Mariners had two on in the second on a hit by pitch and a single, but could not cash in. Then the Mariners did not have another runner on base until the eighth inning, aside from the two home runs, and by that time the score was already five to two. There are a number of players who just look lost most of the time. Not the least of whom is Dylan Moore. Taylor Tremel continues to struggle, though he did collect a base hit in that game.

He also struck out twice. Both Tom Murphy and Luis Torrens are not hitting. Evan White has been hit or miss. Jose Marmalalejos has hit some impressive home runs, but too often tries to yank everything and winds up grounding out into the shift. Hanager has somewhat cooled off as well. Crawford has somewhat cooled off. and Arcady on Monday was turning in the type of performance that should have led to more than just two runs.

It was not a good day for the offense. Meanwhile, Justice Sheffield really wasn't fooling anyone. Also remember, gang, that the Astros are basically a different team now than the one that we saw in Seattle. They were down five players who were on the COVID list. Four of them were major contributors to their offense, and they're all back in action now. Chef allowed 12 hits in five and a third innings. He did only walk one, which is good, but again, the Astros simply had his number. And he had runners on base all evening, and Kyle Seeger committed an error in the fifth,

which led to another run. Chef wound up allowing five runs, which in a way is impressive given he allowed 12 hits. Four of the runs were earned. It just was not his day. The Astros are good. Trash cans are no trash cans. Apple watches are no Apple watches. They're good.

And they got some help from a lot. a mariner offense that just did not look good on Monday and who would look even worse last night, which we will talk about in the next segment. But first, the trivia corner will do a hall pass today. Today's subject played in the majors for 17 years in the 1970s and 80s as a corner infielder. He slashed 261, 354, 445. He hit 316 home runs and 328 doubles and drove. in 1,139. Remember, this is the 70s and 80s. Those numbers might look pretty pedestrian today,

particularly that slugging percentage, but it was a different era. Power is much more prevalent today as it was in the 70s and 80s. This gentleman was a six-time All-Star, acquired MVP votes in five different seasons, and was also a World Series MVP. With all that in mind,

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Washingtonian, I'm from Washington. You'd think I'd be able to say that word. Today's haul pass subject is from Washington as well, and it's former Dodgers third baseman, the penguin, Ron Say. A big part of those Dodger teams of the 70s and early 80s on an infield that included Mr. Say, Davy Lopes, and Steve Garvey. All excellent players in their own rights, Mr. Garvey has been a hall pass subject on this show before. Coming up, would the offense finally spot Marco Gonzalez some runs to avoid wasting another good start? I'll give you a hint. The answer rhymes with no. Now this word from Rock Auto, a family business serving auto parts customers online for 20 years.

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Thank you very much, J.M. Getting right into last night's game, and this one was another frustrating one. The offense just could not do anything against Astro's starter Christian Javier, and I honestly thought that Marco pitched better than Javier did, at least to start the game. Javier was a little wild early on, but the M's were only able to parlay that into two hits and three walks. No runs.

Again, not supporting Marco Guns, Gonzalez while he's pitching well. In the first two innings, Marco looked like he was going to toss a complete game shutout. And his defense looked good in the first inning as well, with Kyle Seeger making sort of a leaping catch on a hotline drive, and J.P. Crawford making an over-the-shoulder basket catch out in shallow left field. Marco only needed 17 pitches those first two winnings, but then threw over 30 in the fourth when the Astros scored their only two runs of the game.

Michael Brantley led off with a single. Alex Bregman doubled. Then Yordon Alvarez hit one out to left field where telegram Sam Haggerty made a diving catch. He was back in the starting lineup. Brantley scored on that play. Kyle Tucker, Tucker, pardon me, drove in Bregman with a single later on in the inning. And that was more than enough to beat the Mariners last night. Marco went six innings and allowed those two runs on five hits and three walks.

A high total for him, high total for anybody, really. though one of those walks was sort of a pitch-around-type walk to Carlos Correa in the fourth to get to a left-handed hitter. Wound up not working out because that left-handed hitter was Tucker who drove in the second run. Marco did his job. He labored in the fourth, but he kept his team in the game the entire time he was out there. Over his last two starts, he's gone 13 innings, given up three runs on seven hits and four walks. and he's 0 and 2 in those starts. The Mariners have scored a total of zero runs for him in those last two starts.

And while Julio Arias was excellent against the Mariners in Marco's last start, Christian Javier was not excellent yesterday. As I said, he started off somewhat wild. He was all over the place, really. He threw 19 pitches in the first inning and came out of it with only allowing a two-out single. Kyle Seeger collected both mariner hits, that two-out single in the first and a one-out double in the fourth. And that double was a good piece of hitting.

It was on a ball on the outside corner that he didn't try to do too much with. He hit it where it was pitched and drove it the other way for extra bases. Too many times we've seen left-handed hitters try to pull pitches like that and they wind up grounding out right into the shift. Kyle Seeger has been guilty of this. He can get pole conscious. But there are other times like this where he's, he'll see a pitch on the outside corner, and he won't try to do too much with it.

Jose Marmaléhos is another one who does this all the time. In fact, he did that to end this very same fourth inning, Stranding Seeger at second base. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to see this time after time. Marmo can hit. There's no question about that. But like the league has figured out Taylor Tremel, that Tremel can be struck out with off-speed stuff down and out of the zone,

The league has also figured out to pitch Marmo away, and he'll ground out right into the shift. He has not made the adjustment, and he still tries to yank everything, and that's why he's hitting 167. And he's going to continue to get pitched away until he makes that adjustment and stops trying to do too much with balls away. That's the difference between someone who sticks around for years and has a decent career, not even a good career, and someone who gets DFA'd after a year and a half, and finds themselves either playing in an indie league or selling used cars before his 30th birthday. If a hitter cannot make adjustments after the league adjusts to him, he's not going to stick around. Marma was out of minor league options, so he would have to be waived if the Mariners wanted to send him down to Tacoma

once the Rainier's season starts. One thing he does bring to the table is versatility, as he can play left field and first base. He's really a first baseman who can also play a little bit of the outfield. And with the Mariners utilizing such a thin bench this year, they need versatile players like Marmo. But right now, that's pretty much his only asset, as he is just not hitting. He needs to make the adjustment I spoke of earlier, like Kyle Seeger did, and is it bat earlier in that same inning. I know I harp on this point, but it comes up so often that I can't help but speak about it, especially when it comes up in key situations like it did last night.

Sam Haggerty led off the fifth with a walk, but he was a race in a pretty frustrating double play, though this one probably could be chocked up to bad luck. He took off for second base on a pitch that Taylor Troll popped up to right field. The right fieler caught it and doubled telegram Sam off first base, though it was a close play. I do not know if it was a hit and run or not. But on a hit and run play, you cannot pop the ball up like that.

I'm not going to place any blame whatsoever on Tremel, since I do not know whether it was a hit and run or not. Telegram Sam may have been going on his own. I have no idea. But whether it was poor execution, either on Tramels or Hagridi's part, or simply bad luck, it was another wasted opportunity, particularly with erasing a good base runner like Telegram Sam. I'll reiterate something that I've been saying all season.

This is a young team. They are going to be streaky. That doesn't make it any less frustrating when they turn in offensive performances like they did last night, leaving their pitchers out to dry, so to speak, but they're going to have games like this. And they're also going to have games where they bust out for 13 hits and 9 runs every once in a while. I don't see that happening tomorrow since Zach Grinky is going to be opposing them. And if he pitches at all like he did in Seattle not long ago, the Mariners are going to be in

for a very rough game. I honestly would not be surprised if they got no hit this evening. If they look as bad against Grinke as they look as they look. looked last night against a pitcher who was not on his game, then they've got no chance if Grinky is even remotely as sharp as he was a few days ago. I'm not here to sugarcoat anything. I'm here to call it as I see it, and right now I see an offense that just looks lost. Justin Dunn will be starting for the M's, and he's kind of been hit or miss as well. His start against Baltimore was fantastic, and the Ms need a performance like that from him if they want

any shot of winning this evening. Do you have a question or a comment such as DC, relax? If you do, send it to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome and encouraged. It need not be about baseball. It need not be about sports. I'll accept questions

on anything. Most of the time that makes for better programming anyway. Coming up, what do Tom Murphy and Martine Maldonado have in common? Aside from the fact that they're both catchers, they share the world record for fastest consumption of a 32 ounce jar of peanut butter. And I mean the actual jar, not the peanut butter that was once inside. Now this, from Bet Online, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Baseball season is in full swing and you can track all the action on Bet Online. And again, the Women's World Curling Championships start this weekend.

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They will not be around for long, ladies and gentlemen, so find them now by searching the words 10 by 10, only at Blue Nile.com. And Blue Nile.com was in bold typeface. Welcome back to Lockdown Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much. J.M.

Gang, hopefully this segment will be a little less salty than the previous one. These final segments tend to be something of a hodgepodge on days where I don't have three games to recap, and I guarantee that this one's going to be a lot less salty than the other one. To begin, I want to readdress a point I was making on Monday's program where I was talking about Kevin Ploke, the Red Sox catcher, who allowed three wild pitches and two past balls, I believe. And he did this all while catching on one knee, which again is a great idea if there are no runners on base, but with runners on, I don't see how anyone can throw at a potential base stealer

and it completely eliminates your mobility behind the plate to corral Eric pitches. I noticed something in last night's Mariners Astros game. I first noticed this when Tom Murphy was behind the plate and Michael Brantley was on first. Tom Murphy does it the right way. With runners on base, he goes back to the normal crouch. Keep in mind, Brantley's not very fast. and while Marco has a reputation as a pitcher with very good command,

he does throw his curveball down and out of the zone at times, on purpose, so the hitter will wave on top of it, but you have to have a catcher with the ability to block those curve balls should one be slightly lower than anticipated and in the dirt. Murphy puts himself in much better position to corral pitches that get away, and he's much more mobile behind the plate than Ploke was on Saturday. Martin Maldonado, the Astros catcher, also reassumes the crouch with men on base. He's one of the better defensive catchers in baseball right now.

He's got an absolute gun for an arm. In fact, he probably could throw out a base thief on one knee. But from a crouch, it still gives him just that much more of a chance to throw somebody out exploding out of a crouch rather than having to come up from one knee. And with someone like Sam Haggerty on base, you need to put yourself in the best possible position to try to throw him out should he attempt to steal. And Maldonato does do that. If I recall correctly, I believe Luis Torrens also goes back to the crouch with runners on base. So I'm glad to see the Mariners seemingly emphasize this point. And again, with the base is

empty, it's very smart to drop to one knee while catching. With as many changes as we've seen to baseball over the last several years, both good and bad changes, mind you, I'm surprised that this new catching stance didn't become more prevalent sooner. It makes total sense. And this is one change that I can absolutely get behind. One more thing I want to talk about briefly is expansion. I've gotten one email question thus far and the topic was expansion. I'm not going to answer it right now because it's one of those questions that I really need to think about.

But as I was listening to part of the Dodgers Reds game, after the Mariners game yesterday afternoon ended yesterday evening rather as I was out and about they brought up the subject of expansion as well and I guess Kaiser Manfred had made some points on the subject yesterday I know he's spoken about it in the past like three four years ago maybe anyways he talked about the potential expansion cities a few years ago Montreal was mentioned good San Antonio was mentioned and on the Dodgers radio broadcast last night, they mentioned that Nashville has been trying to get a major league team for a few years, either by relocation or expansion. And today, Kaiser Manfred said that Major League Baseball

would not explore expansion at all until the stadium situations in Tampa Bay and Oakland had been sorted out. Oakland Stadium is basically a sewage treatment plant. They've had plumbing problems for years and years, basically since the stadium opened. And Tampa Bay plays in a dome, which has been described by Jason Hernandez, frequent guest on this program and host of Locked on Anaheim Ducks, as the world's biggest Costco. He's been to every Major League stadium that there is, with the exception of the new stadium in Texas,

and he's been to several that no longer exist, and did describe Tropicana Field as the world's biggest Costco. It was not one of his favorite stadiums. The Reyes have also have the added problem that they just cannot draw fans to the ballpark, even when they're good, they cannot get people to come out and watch Ray's baseball. The Marlins can't either, and they spent a ton of money on their new ballpark a couple of years ago, which is nothing but a neon eyesore.

But with the Ray's, they've got a good team. And the Marlins are actually pretty decent this year, but the Rays have a good team. They went to the World Series last year. And while this season is not going to be a good barometer on how they're drawing fans for anyone, they have historically had trouble getting people to come to Tropicana Field, even when they've been really good. And I do not buy the argument that it's because of the stadium. At the end of the 1995 season and throughout the remainder of the kingdom's existence,

the Mariners had no trouble drawing fans to the kingdom once they put together a winning team. And that place was a dump. People will go see a winning team if it's a baseball city. and I'm not convinced that Tampa Bay is, or Miami for that matter. MLB has been really pushing the idea of splitting the race season between Tampa Bay and Montreal, who has been very hungry for Major League Baseball once again. Two or three years ago, Manfred said something to the effect that the sharing of the raise

between Tampa Bay and Montreal would be crucial in saving baseball in Tampa Bay. Call me crazy. But if saving baseball in a social, certain location means that that team plays half of its home games in a different location, then maybe baseball in the first location isn't worth saving. Just going out on a limb there. But speaking about expansion once again, once the situations in Oakland and Tampa Bay have come to pass,

whatever winds up happening, I would like to see two more teams, one apiece in the American and national leagues. One thing that Manfred mentioned a few years ago, is that going to 16 teams per league would eliminate the need for Interleague play. And that would be, and getting rid of Interleague Play would be a good thing. It was a great idea in 1997 when it first came to pass, way before MLB Network or the cable packages,

which you could buy and watch any game you wanted to. Interleague play allowed fans to see players and teams, they would ordinarily not get to see. But the novelty wore off pretty quickly, especially since you only saw teams in the other league's counterpart division. And then the specialized cable packages I spoke of came to be MLB Network came about, and Interleague play was really nothing special any longer. I, for one, would love to see it go away,

which cannot happen if there are an odd number of teams in each league. Also, there are a lot of Rule 5 draft picks in the big league this year. The Mariners have Will Vest, who has quickly become one of the the more reliable bullpen arms in a good bullpen. And we have to mention the Tigers, Akeel Badoo, who has flourished after being selected in the Rule 5 draft. And there are a number of others on Big League rosters who are contributing. Justice Sheffield's brother, Jordan, was a Rule 5 pick by the Rockies,

and he has yet to give up a run thus far. Expansion would give more players like this a chance to play Major League Baseball. That's a good thing. In the 1993 expansion, the Marlins took Jeff Conine out of the Royals organization, and he was very nearly the National League rookie of the year at the age of 27 after playing just 37 games with the Royals in 1990 and 1992. He was not going to go any farther in the Royals organization. He goes to a brand new team and flourishes. That's almost all, but before we wrap up, get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes. with the Locked-on today podcast.

Host Peter Bikowski update to you at all the latest news in every major sports with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked-on-Tay podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. That will be all for this one, ladies and gentlemen. Join us tomorrow and we'll talk about this evening's game. Let's hope the Mariner offense can at least make it interesting. Joining me to talk about the game will be Art Fern, Tukin, Sam, and a school bus. Please remember to download rate and follow Locked-on Mariners.

Look for us in any podcasting app that springs into your brainhead. Leave a rating and review if your podcasting app of choice, so allows. I don't know why I said it like that. Thank you for listening, ladies and gentlemen. Have a great Wednesday and join us back here next time. Take care. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.