Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Playoffs? Playoffs?!?!

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

D.C. talks about the Mariners playoff chances in the first half of today's program. They're battling Houston for the second spot in the Western Division; whose schedule is more favorable? And will this ludicrous playoff structure be in place beyond this already-bizarre season? Also, D.C. updates you on how some former Mariners who were traded near the deadline are doing with their new 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.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariner's, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lunberg. Yes, I'm back, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much, Joey Martin. This is Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Please remember to 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 Mariner's podcast or any of the other programs here on the Locked-on Podcast Network. Follow us on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-Skore Mariners,

and follow me on Twitter at D.C. underscore Lundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G, for those scoring at home. A couple of items that I would like to address before getting into the meat of the program. First of all, thank you very much to John Miller for filling in for me yesterday. I've been sick all week and just couldn't do the show. I'm still not completely myself, as I'm sure you can tell,

by the sound of my voice, which is pretty terrible right now. John, thank you very much for filling in for me on Tuesday morning. Did a great job. The other thing that I want to address is the Mariners were supposed to start, supposed to start, pardon me, a two-game series in Seattle yesterday against the San Francisco Giants. That was postponed and moved to San Francisco, which is going to start today and end tomorrow,

because of the air quality in Seattle, which is obviously still very, very smoky here in Spokane. There's an air quality warning. in effect until noon on Friday. I'm not sure when the air quality warning in the Seattle area ceases, but still very, very smoke in the air. To be honest, ladies and gentlemen, I'm surprised that the doubleheader on Monday was still played.

And I forget who it was. I believe it might have been Ramon Luriano, who said of some of the A's players that, yeah, they could tell that there was something in the air, and the next day is when they really felt the effects of it, talking about, and I apologize if you have a queasy stomach over this stuff, but, you know, phlegm in their throats and things of that nature. So, you know, hindsight being what it is, probably should have held that series,

that doubleheader in Oakland or moved it to the next day or rescheduled or done whatever. I'm very surprised it took place nonetheless. Today, since we have no game to talk about all of a sudden, we are going to look at the Mariners' playoff chances. Playoff chances. Yeah, playoff chances because they come into today two games back of the Houston Astros for second place in the American League West. And as I've said a couple times, second place in your division is good enough for a playoff spot this year, which is absolutely ridiculous, but that is the way it is.

And we're going to talk about more ridiculousness towards the end of this segment. Commissioner Manfred at it again, boo. But here is the current situation. with the Mariners. As I said, the Astros are currently two games ahead of the Mariners for a second place in the division, and whoever takes that second place is in, is into the playoffs. The Mariners do play two against the San Francisco Giants today and tomorrow. Mariner's will be the home team, even though it's going to take place in, pardon me, in San Francisco. Then they have three against the Padres. Then they have three against the Astros, and then they

finish up with four games versus Oakland, one of those being a doubleheader on Saturday, the 26th. So they've got the Giants, the Padres, the Astros, and the A's. That's honestly kind of a tough road. The Padres in particular have just been red hot lately. And the Giants, there are no slouches either. They come into today, 23 and 24. They're pretty much out of playoff contention only because the two teams in the Western Division who lead are is so damn good. The Dodgers lead that division at 34 and 35. The Padres are 32 and 18.

Those are the top two spots. And then the Giants are the only other team. Over 500. I apologize. They are 23 and 24. They're a game behind 500. But they're still okay. That's definitely a better record than the Mariners have.

Mariners are 22 and 26. Although over the last 10 ball games, they are 6 and 4. After the Giants, the Mariners do have three against those San Diego Padres. As I have said, 32 and 18, very, very good team, very exciting team. They have won eight of their last 10 ball games. That's going to be tough. And then Houston, you know, Houston being Houston, they're exactly at 500 right now. They have been a very, very up and down, streaky team this season. 24 and 24 is their record coming into today.

They have three against the Astros following that three game series against San Diego. and then they finish up against Oakland, who's 30 and 19, a very good team, another very, very exciting team. So the Mariners do have something of a tough road ahead. We're going to look at the Astro schedule now just to see kind of what they have on tap for them in terms of schedule. They are in the middle of a four game, pardon me, a three game series in Texas. They won the first game yesterday by a score 4 to 1. Texas is not very good. They've got two more in Texas before moving on to Arizona.

Then the three games series in Seattle that I mentioned, which begins next Monday. And then they finish up with a four-game series in Arlington. So the Rangers have a much easier road ahead. The Diamondbacks are okay. The Diamondbacks are okay. The Mariners took two of three from them. Hopefully Arizona can reverse course, so to speak, and take at least two of three from Houston.

I don't know if I would bet on that. And again, Texas is just terrible. So, you know, in terms of playoff hopes, the Mariners do have some playoff hopes, but based on the two teams' schedules, honestly, gang, I have to give the advantage to Houston, which pains me to say on a few levels, it's been so long since the Mariners have been in the playoffs. And the other part of it is, you know, everybody outside of Houston hates Houston. They're kind of, they just in one fell swoop took the Yankees place. as the most hated team in Major League Baseball.

And I think the Yankees fans are kind of relieved about that because there's actual legitimate reason to detest the Astros where in the Yankees case it was just kind of tradition and just the fact that they've been so damn good over the course of their history, although about 20 years ago, 15 years ago, I think it also had to do with the fact that they just spent so much damn money on free agents

to try to assemble a winner that way. Rather than doing what they've been doing over the last several seasons, homegrown talent, and the other difference between this year's Yankees and the hateable Yankees of the mid-2000 aughts is the fact that these guys are likable. Aaron Judge is very likable. Jean-Carlo Stanton is very likable. They've got good, likable people on that team, and I guess that's another, I mean, I haven't, I used to loathe the Yankees. And I, you know, I admitted to it just now, you know, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, during that era.

But I have no hate in my heart for the New York Yankees anymore. And that really atrophied a few seasons ago. It has nothing to do with the Astros taking their place as the most hated team, even though, you know, they've earned it. They've earned it, gang. Mariner's, no Mariner's trivia question today. So we're going to go right into the advertisement. Today we are brought to you by Bilt Bar.

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and I'll consider using it for the Friday mailbag segment. And remember, ladies and gentlemen, questions about anything about music questions. I had a music question last week I answered. We spent a great deal of time on it. As for my opinion on just about, anything. As long as it's appropriate, I will use it on the program for the Friday mailbag segment. And you can even, you know, tell me, gee, you should have had John host this one again because you sound awful. I'll probably concur. More Lockdown Mariners after this.

Now back to Lockdown Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you, J.M. I am still D.C. Lundberg. I think. Still not feeling it this week. Probably should have had John host this program, but hey, I didn't. And here I am. We talked to. about the Mariners' playoff chances in the first half of the program. Going to wrap up one or a couple thoughts on that before moving on to the other subject. Going to kind of update you on how the other mariners, or not the other mariners, but we're going to kind of update you on how some former mariners who were traded at the deadline are doing with their new teams, including Austin Nola and Taiwan Walker, you know,

those guys, we're going to see how they are doing. We, the playoff structure, very different this year, as you know, 16 teams out of the to get in. That's more than half of them. That's ridiculous. Eight per league. The two division winners in each league plus two wild cards. You know,

it frustrates me to think about, really, that the commissioner's trying to, that the commissioner's implemented this in the first place. I know it's because of TV revenue and money. And the owners apparently have been behind this for a

long time. And the commissioner, I think, yesterday said that, yeah, this playoff structure is probably going to extend beyond 2020. And I knew this was going to happen because Rob Manfred is a very sleazy person, apparently, or at least that's the vibe I get from him. All this stuff that was introduced just because of the weird COVID season is probably going to hang around for next year as well. I'm talking about this ridiculous playoff format. I'm talking about the Universal DH.

All this bull crap is probably going to remain in place for next season. Rob Manfred is hell-bent on destroying Major League Baseball, or at least in his eyes, making it better. No, you're not making it better, you're fucking it up. Well, I'm going to have to bleat that, aren't I? Sorry. But, you know, not even this many football teams make it into the playoffs each year. They have a 32-team league.

I believe it's six per league that get in there. I don't know. I haven't watched the NFL in years. So my memories may be hazy, but even if it's eight per league, that would still be a greater percentage of baseball teams making their postseason than football teams. Basketball, it's eight per league. And I don't know how many basketball teams there are.

I've never watched the NBA. I've never cared to. Baseball is a different sport than basketball. I don't remember who brought up this point on Twitter, but it's a very good one. The best football teams and the best basketball teams win 80% of their games and the best baseball teams win maybe 65% of their games. So that is why.

so few teams make the playoffs. Football is a 16-game season. The NBA is an 82 game season, and Major League Baseball is almost exactly double the NBA. It is a 162 game season. And to compare that to football, every NFL game is worth 10.125 Major League Baseball games.

The schedules are totally different, and that's why the playoff structure is totally different. You're going to have a lot of mediocre teams making the postseason under this format. We just talking about the West. There's potentially going to be a team under 500 making the playoffs. That should not happen. It frustrates me to no end. Not only this, this is the most egregious thing that Manfred's doing to the game.

The Universal D.HM also not. not a fan of. I am a little bit old-fashioned, and I know that I'm sounding hypocritical because I cover the team that had Edgar Martinez. So in terms of, you know, and I grew up watching Edgar Martinez as, you know, the greatest DH of his era and one of the best pure right-handed hitters of his era. And had the DH not been in place, you know, what would it happened? You know, would he have, he ran into some health problems and really couldn't play third base anymore. You know, what would it happen? I'm straying off topic. I'm sorry. Manfred frustrates me to no end. As you can tell, I never thought I would miss Bud Seelig. But I do. And Manfred got me to miss Bud Seelig. And I guess that's an accomplishment. Perhaps, I don't know. But enough about that clown. Let's talk about the former Mariners that are no longer the former mariners that are no longer mariners. Oh, good grief. I need some rest. Austin Nola was one of the players dealt away at the trading deadline. He's now a San Diego Padre.

Not getting off to the best of starts with the Padres. Coming into today, he is slashing at 220, 319, 439 with the San Diego Padres. He does, however, have two home runs, three doubles, and eight runs driven in for the San Diego Padres. So, you know, kind of a mixed bag, kind of a mixed bag. Austin Adams is on the disabled list. He's not going to pitch for the Padres this season. Dan Altevilla is also a member of the Padres. He's appeared in three games. He's finished two of them, three innings pitched, four hits and no walks and four

strikeouts. Where was this Dan Altevilla in Seattle? You know, good for him. I hope that this string continues and that he has success in the San Diego Padre. As I kept saying, he has really good stuff. He just gets kind of overexcited and overthrow. Maybe a change of scenery is just with this gentleman needed, and maybe he'll now find success at the big league level. I certainly hope that he does.

Good for Dan Altavilla. Very good to see. He's also switched uniform numbers. He is now number 57 because 53 was unavailable for whatever reason. Austin Olin out wearing number 22. Why am I talking about this? Taiwan Walker is now a Blue Jay. Yes, he is indeed a Toronto Blue Jay.

He has started four games for the Toronto Blue Jays, 17 and the third innings pitched, 18. hits and three earned runs over that period. However, nine runs given up total, but that was pretty much directly related to a very poor inning that happened the other day because of a fielding error by Derek Fisher and the inning just spun out of control. Nine walks in those 17 and a third innings, 13 strikeouts, a 156 ERA,

and a whip of 1.558. That whip's got to come down. But you know what? The results are there. The results are there in the earned run average. He's now got a season earned run average of 305 and a season to whip of 1.263. Those are very respectable numbers.

You'll take that. Another player who was dealt to the Blue Jays was Daniel Vogelback. He's no longer a Blue Jay. He appeared in two Blue Jays games before being designated for assignment, failing to get a hit, but he did walk once. He's now a Milwaukee Brewer. And coming into today, he has appeared in eight Brewers games

and get this gang. He is slashing four, six, 62, 533, 646, in 30 plate appearances, four walks, a home run, two doubles, five runs batted in, but eight strikeouts. Oh, I hope he continues to do well. Again, maybe this change of scenery is just what he needed. The trade to the Blue Jays, kind of odd. The Blue Jays didn't have a place really for him on his roster. I don't know why they traded for him to begin with.

and that is not a slight at Vogelback. That's just because his player profile was really not something that the Blue Jays needed at that time, but he's found some success in Milwaukee this far. And, you know, again, I really do hope that continues. Taylor Williams has now a Padre. He's only appeared in one game so far in inning pitched, so I'm not even going to bother telling you how he has done so far because one inning from a relief pitcher, you know, it's kind of tough to judge.

That'll do it for today's program, ladies. and gentlemen, tomorrow on this program, hopefully I sound a little better and, you know, feel a little better, but nonetheless, I will be joined by Officer Jim Reed, Stretch Thompson, and a flare gun. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that springs to mind. Follow us on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners, and follow me on Twitter at D.C. underscore Lundberg. Thank you for listening to you today. program awful as I sounded.

Thank you for muddling through, as it were. We'll be back tomorrow and as I, uh, never mind. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.