Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Play Ball?? Sort of...

Episode Date: June 24, 2020

Baseball season is on the horizon, ladies and gentlemen. But before you get too excited, Major League Baseball will look much different this year, aside from the obviously shortened schedule. Jason Hernandez and Taylor Blake Ward join D.C. to talk about these changes. 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.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. I'm called the Padres trendy. What's going on? Well, I don't know about that, J.D., but thank you, J.M. for introducing the program. Welcome to Locked-on Mariner's, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, brought to you by Built Bar. Please remember to download, rate and subscribe to Lockdown Mariner's on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher. radio or whichever podcasting app you personally care to use.

Ask your smart device to play Lockdown Mariners podcast or any of the other programs here on the Locked on Podcast Network, or T-L-L-O-P-N-O-P-N-O-P-N-N-R-N-R-G, or T-L-O-P-N-R-G, for those scoring at home. Believe it or not, gang, we have actual baseball news to speak about today. Here with me to do that are two of my colleagues here on flopping. First of all, Jason Hernandez from Locked on Anaheim Ducks. Welcome. I can't believe they're playing baseball, but whatever. And of course, from Locked on Angels, Taylor Blake Ward. Taylor, how goes it?

The hell on Twitter and all of all are definitely two of my favorite sentences you've ever used. And yet they may be cut out of the program, but ladies and gentlemen, if you at home only knew how much mumbling and fumbling and stumbling, I cut out of the program. because I get tongue-tied, you would be shocked. But in any case... Chris Berman. Back, back, back. Anyways, it was announced yesterday, June 23rd, 2020, Anno Domini, that Major League Baseball will resume shortly.

Players will report to spring training 2.0, as it were, on July 1st. Opening day will be either July 23rd or 24th. There are many other stipulations are a part of this, and I'm not sure I have found all of them, which is why I have these two gentlemen on the show today to explain it to me. And I did find two items in an MLB.com article written by Paul Kisela last night. The first is, quote, For the first time ever, the designated hitter will be featured in the National League

as part of the health and safety protocols being put in place for the 2020 season. Translated into English from Manfred speak, That should read, for the first time ever, the designated hitter will be featured in the National League because Rob Manfred is a douchebag. There, that's better. Honestly, what does a Universal DH have to do with health and safety protocols? Gentlemen, isn't this just a sneaky way for Manfred to implement a Universal DH because he wants one? I think he's been hearing your show, Taylor. No, well, I mean, I'm a baseball period.

I love seeing pitchers hit, but I think when it comes to health and safety, you know, maybe it drops at a certain percentage of not having a pitcher have to worry about going up to the field X amount of times, whatever it is. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. You know, I think most people want this and I don't, but most people do. and if there is like the slightest statistical data that shows that you're protecting a pitcher by that much amount of COVID, sure. Go ahead and say that it's a safety measure, whatever it is. It's not. It's a universal DH for a reason.

Jason, your thoughts? Show me the science behind it and maybe I'll get behind it. Otherwise, I think it's complete BS also. And I'm with Taylor. They should not be playing either. This is all ridiculous. where are they going to play? Are they still going to play in Florida, Arizona?

What's going to happen there? I'm not a fan of the Universal DH at all. I'm also a bit of a baseball purist. It should be the way it is now. In fact, if I'm going to be a total baseball purist, pitchers should hit. Look at Babe Ruth for crying out loud. Come on.

Yeah. I mean, I come from a city where Edgar Martinez is a Hall of Fame or so. I feel like a little bit of a hypocrite saying that I, like, like pitchers hitting just because I grew up rooting for the Mariners and we had Edgar Martinez as one of the best offensive players on the team at that time and in the

American League at that time. I do like pitchers hitting. I have to be honest. I mean, jumping in on this, people always say that Madison Bumgarner is a good hitter. He's not. He's just had some vital home runs against Clayton Kershaw. He's not a very good hitter.

He's really not. But, no, I mean, look, you want statistical data, I'll give it to you. It's just not sitting in front of me, but go look it up yourself. It's horrible. It's not a very good hitter. I'm very aware of that. But, you know, one thing that I think you have to note is it's like, you know, the last

time an Angel's pitcher hit a home run I think was 1972. It was Clyde Wright. It's like, I mean, and I know it's American League, but yeah, you know, I mean, come on. Like, there's there's some form of, I'm a purist

and I love seeing pitchers hit. I think that we should develop hitter or pitchers to hit in the minor leagues. I think that's where we need to start the transition is see pitchers hit in the minor leagues, but I definitely get it for this season. And hey, you know what? It might be a job for a hitter that didn't have a job in the air to start off with. This is such a weird season to begin with that I'm not that broken up about it, but originally the Universal DH was also going to be in place in 2021,

and then it wasn't and it keeps going back and forth. Do either of you know for sure whether or not there will be a universal DH in 2021 or is that still yet to be seen? From what I can tell, it's likely that we still could see a DH in 2021, but there's still

some hurdles to go through there. I see. Yeah, nothing is set in stone. I think it's an expectancy, but it's nothing set in stone. Okay. Cool. We're going to take a break at this time, but not for posing the Mariners trivia question, which today is,

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off your first order. Wrong company? I think so. Should I say have it your way instead? No. That's good. By the way, you... Sorry. Sorry. I'm going to interrupt you here. You mentioned Yolone. I got to give shout-outs to Cam Loops, British Columbia, and

Red Deer, Alberta. Medicine hat, baby. Medicine hat. Medicine hat, Alberta. Yeah. Play hockey there. This show is kind of going off the reels already, which is a great reason to have you two gentlemen on because I love it.

Answer to the trivia question. There's actually a tie for most complete games in the season. I know it, though. I know it. I know the answer. Say it. It's Mark Langston in 87. He had like 14 to 15.

He had 14, but he's tied with one other pitcher. Do you know who it is? Is it more? Mike Moore? Yes, it is. In 1984? Oh, you're so close. 1985.

Was it 14 or was it 15? It was 14. They both had 14 complete games. More in 85, Langston in 87. Terrific job, Taylor. That's great. How many times can we talk about a lefty that's underrated, right? I think this is the third show in a row where we have done just that.

And he's a mariner and an angel. So maybe we can get like two hours out of Mark Langston in a couple weeks when we have nothing to talk about. Sounds like a plan. All right. More locked on Mariners following a word from Rock Auto. With the ever-increasing numbers of makes and models, it is now impossible to stock all the parts you need in a traditional chain storefront. Why endure often pointless or seemingly intimidating questions and wait while the counterman offers the parts on his computer, while choosing old the only brand, his warehouse happens to carry. You've got computers with.

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Medicine, Matt. Mark Langson, you got the right answer, and we are back on Locked-on Mariners. I am D.C. Lundberg, along with the other two members of the power trio of the Lockdown Network, Jason Hernandez, and Taylor Blake Ward. Gentlemen, there's one other item that I read about, and this one's a doozy, that each extra inning will now begin with a runner on second base. Stephen Cruiser may have said it best yesterday, tweeting, quote,

So, MLB is a T-ball league for six-year-olds now, end quote. Yeah, pretty much. Again, what the hell does this have to do with a truncated season? I've seen it. I hate it. They've been doing it in the minor leagues for a few years. It's, I mean, Quicken's a pace of play, obviously. And with the health risk, they're involved with playing in 2020 here.

Yeah, you get the players off the field for an extra whatever amount of time it is. I hate it. you know what, Billy Hamilton suddenly just became the most valuable player in baseball. That's actually a really, really good point, Jason. I mean, honestly, like, I mean, Billy Hamilton and Sterling Marte and all these, and you know what, screw it. You have a prospect in the low miners who's a total 80-grade runner. Bring them up.

Put him up. Put him up. He's the fastest guy in the organization. You put him up. Say, hey, we're going to pinch hit for you in the ninth inning. We want you to strike out so we can slap you in there and extra innings on second base. Just run. Just run. It's so dumb. It's horrible. It's so dumb. It changes everything.

I mean, they foisted this crap on us during the World Baseball Classic a few years ago as well. And if memory serves it wasn't real popular because you said, you know, it sucks. It does. And it changed the outcome of, I think it was, I don't remember whether it cost the Netherlands a win or whether it gave them a cheap win,

but they were on one end. They were involved with the game. I don't remember on which half. Jason, do you have anything to say about this? Yeah, good point, Jason. I mean, Taylor. That makes players like Malix Smith extremely valuable, players like Ramon Luriano.

I know this makes Mike Trout look even better than he already is because of his speed. I look at guys like that that are going to become so valuable if we see a lot of those games go extra innings. And this also makes me wonder if teams are going to be content with going to extra innings.

or if they're going to try to go all out and try to win it in the ninth and be super aggressive in that way as well. Also, this brings up a counter with a question to both of you guys. Yes, yeah. What's wrong with the ties in 2020? I'd rather have that quite honestly. I would rather have that. Let's go 11 innings or 12 innings.

So let's go 12 innings, call it a tie, give it a point system. I am totally with you. Honestly, I'm totally with you. I was actually going to bring that up. I was actually going to bring that up. It's a wasted season. 60 games. That's not a season.

It's a wasted year. Might as well include ties in the baseball. And do a point system like hockey or soccer and say, screw it. This is how we're going to do it. And you know what? Ties are going to be for, you know, you get a one-on-one extra record to your 60 game season,

whatever it is. Who cares? Just there's nothing wrong with ties this year because this year is a total hoax. So you're, oh, wow. So you're trying to turn baseball. into pre-2005 hockey is what you're saying. Yeah, well, I mean, I made a no earlier today. Why not have a baseball version of a shootout

if we're going to go really off the rails here? Like a home run derby playoff. To end the game. But I mean, you know, I made a note earlier today is, you know, if Mike Trout misses 10 extra hits or 10 extra walks over the season and 20 extra total bases, suddenly he goes from a 300, 400, 600, 600 slash

to a 250. 350, 500 slash. And literally, that's like one hit per series. This is a hoax of a season. You can't take stat seriously. You may as well have ties. The difference between a 3-ERA and a 4.5 ERA is about five runs.

It's absurd. Baseball is meant to be played over a course of the season, which is about what, three and a half times 60 games because it's 162. I'm honestly with you all the way, too. Whatever. I can't laugh.

Okay. All right. I got to say, just because I know we're off the rails, I agree completely that this is a hoax. This should not be happening. As soon as I saw this happen, I tweeted out right away. I hate baseball right now. This is ridiculous. This is so, ah, I can't even wrap my head around what Manfred is doing to baseball.

He's ruining baseball. You know what? I'm not bad as Manfred, but this is even on him. This is on baseball as a whole. Yeah. This is as, it's on the Players Association, it's on the owners, it's on Manfred, it's on the commissioner's office. All three parties really screwed the pooch here.

All three parties utterly failed, as I did with my math, because 60 times three and a half, ladies and gentlemen, is 210. So there you go. The host is an idiot. Nothing new. Yeah. That's not new. That is not new.

No, but my original point, my original points, what I was trying to make still stands is that baseball is not meant to be a 60 game sprint. And I don't even know why they're bothering with a playoffs because everybody's going to view the world champion, so to speak, this year as a joke, no matter who it is, whether it's a legitimate contender who was thought to be a legitimate contender going into spring training before everything went boom, or, you know, an up-and-coming team who just happens to put everything together at the last minute. nobody's going to view this season's champion as a real baseball champion just because of the weirdness of everything. That's going to be a bigger asterisk than home run hitters after 1961.

Ooh. Yeah, I said it. I said it. I know what I said. Is there anything else in terms of how the season is going to be different that I've missed, aside from the obviously shortened schedule, or is that pretty much, that I pretty much hit everything? Toss the stats, put an asterisk on it.

one more minor point there's still the hurdle of health it's going to be a major hurdle I still am not confident that we're going to have a 60 game season I mean if a player misses 12 15 games because they get a positive case that's a quarter of the season

it's a little ridiculous Charlie Blackman Rocky's just lost their best player yeah Charlie Blackman tested positive today there you go there you go I mean I guess I will ask this Jason I I honestly don't remember your answer from earlier because we were on the phone and I was at my mother's house and I had other things on my mind.

Are players allowed to say this is too much of a health risk to me? I'm not playing this season and sit out or is everybody being made to report to spring training? I mean, they're essentially being forced. They could sit out, but that would not be good. That would not be good. They can sit out. They can't see. See, I think that's the way to go.

the players the option. You're not going to get paid if you don't play, just like everybody else of the country who's not working, but they should give the players the option, I think, and Taylor, they are doing that. Yeah, they can sit out. They can opt to sit out or take time off. Okay. Keep using Mike Trow as an example, but, you know, Mike Trout's having a kid in like a month and a half, two months here. And he's not going to, you know, he's going to go and see the birth of his first child, and then he'll be on two-week quarantine. So he's going to miss, what, three weeks of the season, four weeks of the season?

That's a quarter of the season, more than not. Which is essentially a third of the season, yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, toss even more of Mike Trout stats out because you're only looking at a 30-game season for him, or whatever it is. You said it earlier, throw everybody's stats out. It's, um... Yeah. I mean,

I'm not going to go so far as to call it a hoax, but it's, it's an exhibition season. It's an exhibition season. Video game. There you go. There you go. Simulator. And Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, they only needed, I think, the lowest season, or 21 games was their shortest season. So why don't we just play 21 games and the Phillies and the Blue Jays will play the World Series again? And Joe Carter will make everybody, but Phillies fans happy.

I don't know. I'm losing my mind. What did the Phillies do to you? Nothing. I just happen to like Joe Carter, that's all. What happens when Jared Kalenick hits a walk-off home run in game season? of the World Series this year. Against the Mets. Against the Mets. Against the Mets? Because he was straight to get it from the Mets.

Oh, yeah. Oh, man. And Justin Dunn is the pitcher for the game or whatever it is. Justin Dunn gets the win. Yeah, and it's hit off of Edwin Diaz for whatever reason. I'm not being terrible. I'm going to put it on a Post-it note, see if it happens. All right. Let's all write this down on Mail it to our and see if it actually comes true.

But I got to run, gang. Jason, where can people find you on Twitter? And where can they listen to your show? They can hear my show locked on Anaheim Ducks at L0 underscore Ducks on Twitter. And they can find me at Stimpy J.D. Yeah, I've been a little vocal about baseball recently. And you can't blame me because this is all ridiculous.

But let's try to stay positive anyway because there's hockey. Wait, they should play hockey in Canada. Come on. Play it in medicine hat. Play it in moose jaw. And on the note of staying positive, I will say Locked-on Ducks is such a wonderful program. It's everything you ever need to know about hunting waterfowl recipes.

It's a great show. Absolutely. For you field and stream crowd out there. Yes, that's ridiculous. Taylor, where can people find you on Twitter and where can people listen to your show? If you can find us at Lockdownangles.com. And I'm at Taylor Blake Ward. Yep.

In any case, next time on Locked-on Mariners, ladies and gentlemen, I will be joined by guest panelists, George Jetson, Horace Horse Collar, and a bowling ball. The four of us will discuss just why I'm so irritated with MLB Network these days. In the meantime, please remember to download rate and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Follow the show on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-Sor-Mirners, and follow me on Twitter at D.C. underscore Lundberg. Thank you once again to Taylor Blake Ward and Jason Hernandez for joining me on today's show. I am D.C. Lundberg. I hope you have a great day.

Saskatoon! Regina! This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on MLB upon the conclusion of this program.