Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - PRACTICE: The Solution to the Seattle Mariners' Defensive Issues?!

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

Ty and Colby react to Justin Hollander's recent radio appearance, Jerry Dipoto's thoughts on the Mariners' second-half pitching struggles, and more.Listen to Justin Hollander's appearance on Brock & Salk hereCheck out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_MarinersFollow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast.Gameday Mens HealthGameday Men’s Health is a real, in-person men’s health clinic that looks at the full picture  before developing a treatment plan. Book your complimentary test and consult at https://join.gamedaymenshealth.com/reasons_to_choose_gameday-1201?utm_source=lockedon&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=MLB&utm_network=lockedon&utm_adgroup=corp&ghl_tag=national,corpOdooGreat organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.5-Hour ENERGYGet candy-flavored chaos with Fruity Rainbow 5-hour ENERGY®️ Shots - available online at https://5hourENERGY.com or AmazonStanceCheck out the ICON collection from Stance—premium comfort, performance, and durability designed for whatever your day brings. Use promo Code LOCKEDON at checkout for 20% off your purchase.  Learn more at https://Stance.com.Stance. The Official Sock Partner of Major League Baseball.KALSHIFor a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next.  GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. It’s time to put your knowledge to the test with College Football Pick’Em from FanDuel.  Download the FanDuel app and play College Football Pick'Em for free. Only on FanDuel.  Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're talking about practice. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors, it is Wednesday, September 30th, 20, 26. My name is Tiding Gisales, and I'm joined as always by my host, Colby Patnode. This episode is brought to you by Kalshi for a limited time download Kalshi

and use the promo code locked on to get $25 when you trade $25. Calci, trade, what's next? On today's show, we're going to react to Justin Hollander's appearance on Brock and Salk yesterday. We're also going to go over another interesting quote about the Mariners second half pitching struggles from Jerry Depoto's media session on Monday. And after we do that, we'll give you our final thoughts on what both Depoto and Hollander had to say. But we'll start with Hollander and his appearance on Brock and Salk on 710 Seattle Sports yesterday morning. We'll link the full interview and the description of this episode. tone from Hollander very similar to depotos on Monday very frustrated a bit humbled and very

apologetic I mean he literally opens this interview by apologizing to Brock and Salk to by apologizing to the fan base by apologizing to Rick Riz for how this season went but a running theme throughout this interview and throughout Hollander's was the importance of practice. Not a game, Colby. Not a game. Practice. Specifically when he was asked about the defensive struggles this year,

he said, quote, we need to take a step back and really look at how we practice and coach defense and make sure we're building the fundamental foundation of what makes a good defender and pushing people and challenging them to be the best version of themselves, end quote. and the word practice came up probably 10 other times throughout this interview when he talked about what they need to focus on more in 2027 when he was specifically asked about alignment with the new manager

alignment on practice is something that he said and I'm going to jump in here before the comments get going I don't think he was talking about practice in the philosophical sense I think he was talking about practice very literally. This kind of feels like something that we would just see in our comments section, people yelling at us that, oh, they need to practice better or whatever. But here you have the GM of the Seattle Mariners saying,

no, we actually, we need to practice better. We need to practice harder. What did he say specifically? We need to practice dirty and play clean. Yep. Yeah, it's a bit unusual, you know, because this team just went 76 and 86, and here we are talking about practice. You know, not the game, not the game. Not the game.

We're talking about practice. We're not talking about the franchise player. No, no, no. We're talking about practice. Practice, man. Yeah, so there are people who don't understand that reference at all, and I love it. It makes me very sad and also makes me feel. old but uh yeah it is weird because major league teams don't really practice during the season not in

the traditional sense that we we think of you know it's not like the NFL where they practice all week and then they play or the NBA where they practice and it's kind of more like NBA shoot around a little bit like they they take their hacks you know they field some ground balls and stuff they do their running but that's really it like it's not like a full-fledged like practice that pretty much ends after spring training. Like spring training is a lot of play some games and we're going to work on scheme and all that like that. Yeah. No, that isn't really that isn't happening consistently at all. No, it's just one of those things like baseball because you play every day and because the days off, you are either traveling in theory or you are actually getting away from from the ballpark for

the day. Practice just really isn't anything you hear about after spring training ends. And yet most of these things are more so talked about in meetings and yeah right so again it's it's not it's not a practice in a traditional sense of how we think about it for other sports even hockey uh they actually do practice so it's one of those things where it's just really unusual for a you know major league team to talk this much about how they practice because they don't really practice all that much practice because now that we say that word so much it's losing all meaning um But yeah, it is interesting to hear them talk about it this much. And it does, at least to me, seem to point the finger a little bit at the old coaching staff because this is something that they've clearly thought was a problem.

And, you know, they've talked a lot about defense and how a bunch of defenses, you know, want to and standing in the right spot and, you know, doing all the little things, right? and those things are typically associated with the coaching staff that just did not communicate well to the players that they had. And, you know, Jerry and Justin aren't going to go out of their way to throw Perry Hill and, you know, Dan Wilson and Eric Young Jr. And maniac under the bus. But like, those are the guys most associated with defense and positioning on the field and communication. And those are all the ones who aren't here anymore. So. Yeah.

Hollander did have a little bit of a Freudian slip, though. I'll get to that in a second, though. I want to read this quote where he was talking about the coaching aspect of this and the scheme aspect of this. He said, quote, Jerry talked about standing in the right spot. If you stand in the right spot to the best you can, that can help offset some range issues. Doesn't always work.

Ranges range, but we have a good idea generally where the ball is going to get hit based on the hitter and the pitcher. It's not perfect, but you can strength the zone a little bit defensively. So shifting all that kind of pointing to you like, hey, we didn't do a good job in that regard specifically. But the Freudian slip potentially was when he was like, you know, shifting doesn't automatically mean that you're going to turn into Bobby Witt or Andrelton Simmons or Ozzy Smith. And then he goes, I know I mentioned all, you know, all short stops there. But like that's not a shot at any of our short stops. I'm like, hmm.

I mean, when we're talking about range on the team, who's the first person that comes to mind. I mean, Justin spent a lot of time talking about range yesterday. DePoto spent a lot of time talking specifically about throwing related errors. Who kind of has a problem with both of those? Yeah. It's JP, you know. So to kind of like carry over from our conversation yesterday about JP, I'd be fairly surprise of JP was back next year.

Again, I think he is like the break glass in case of emergency guy. Like if he is what they can get like in February or March whenever the lockout it lifts like, okay, fine. They'll live with it. But like, yeah, very clearly they're looking to upgrade defensively at shortstop.

And maybe not with an elite defender, but certainly with at least an average one. And, and you know, we've talked about this and Ryan Divish reiterated it and we could probably have 15 other people on and they would all tell us same thing like the mariners have to add a shortstop this winter doesn't necessarily have to be like an everyday shortstop like if they can get gunner henderson great go to it but like they need to add

somebody you can at least handle that position for you know at least plant like hey this is our starting shortstop for like most of the year it's not going to be a disaster because he's either going to be a really good glove or he's going to hit a little bit and like yeah they have to add that guy and i think jerry kind of planted the seeds for that a little bit as well on monday he talked about you know, Emerson could play short. He could also play some third, you know, so. Right. I'm at least hoping that that's planting the seeds of like, hey, we'll probably

Well, I mean, like, look, we've talked a lot about how it's really hard to find a third baseman in Major League Baseball today. There's just not that many good ones. So, yeah, the best you can do to improve your team is actually to get a better shortstop. And yeah, move Cole to Emerson to third. Who cares? So, yeah, it is interesting, though, again, that practice was mentioned as much as it was preparation in a way was mentioned because they talked about,

you know, shifting and knowing where to stand and all of that. And these things just all to me, they point to coaching staff. And, you know, Jerry and Justin, again, they're not going to come right out and say like, yeah, those guys sucked. That's why we got rid of them. But when you kind of just read between the lines here about all the things that

they, the lack of focus, the lack of attention to detail, the lack of double plays turned, the sheer volume of throwing errors and not being properly positioned. before the pitch and all that those things all point to Perry Hill, Manny Acta, Dan Wilson, and unfortunately Eric Young, and like, yeah, that is the guys who they decided to get rid of. Like, they decided to move on from.

So it is just kind of one of those things where you just, you have to read between the lines a little bit, but only a little bit. And I think the context clues are all there. And I think we know why specifically those guys all moved on. along with Kevin Sitzer and we don't have to read between the lines to understand why Kevin Siteser's no longer here. You know, the offense is the offense. So,

yeah, I think we know why they made the moves that they made. And also, obviously, because a new manager from outside the org, he's going to hire his own guys. And so those are good places to, you know,

help. So, yeah, I do think that the quotes from Hollander were more of a continuation from what we heard from Depoto, which is good, because they've also talked about alignment and those two guys going on separate, you know, platforms, 24 hours apart, a little less than 24 hours apart and saying essentially the same things, good, that's alignment. Like, that's what you want and you want your next manager to come in.

And again, he doesn't have to think exactly like Jerry and Justin. He doesn't have to, you know, truly, you know, believe everything that they do. But they have to talk about it. They have to work through it. And they have to come to some sort of agreement of alignment and present that to the. player so that there is a united front from both the front office and the field staff and then they can go about you know getting the players to buy in um so yeah i i just listening to the hollander interview i just kept on thinking like yeah this is this is about this is about dan wilson this is

about perry hill and this is about uh you know and and it's also about the players too obviously you know and it always is going to be about the players that goes without saying but um very clear the Mariners think that a decent chunk of their problems this year were directly attributed to the field staff. And that's why they've hit the most that they did. All right. Coming up, Jerry DePoto shared some thoughts on why the pitching staff struggled, especially in the second half. We'll dive into that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the lockdown era's podcast is brought to you by five-hour energy and game day men's health.

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YouTube or if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, leave us a five-star review. It only takes a few seconds and really helps us out. So obviously, the mayor is pitching staff across the board was one of the worst in baseball in the second half of this season. Jerry DePoto has some thoughts about that and specifically how their philosophy on pitching kind of got away from them over the course of the year. He said, quote, you know, we've had a culture of relentless filling of the strike zone. That's what we do.

We get ahead, we stay ahead, we work ahead. Where we struggled this year was we struggled in our two-strike execution, particularly in the second half of the season. It's something our pitchers are aware of. All of them have talked about it openly in private discussion, and we know that's an area we need to focus on moving forward. It's something that kind of happened over time. We got so focused on winning our OOs and winning our 1-1s

that we forgot that was only a proxy for the greater goal, which was finishing the at-bat. So I actually have some numbers here. to go over. The Mariners starters in the second half and two strike counts. Give up a 200, 273, 339 slash line, which doesn't sound terrible, right? But that would be the fourth highest batting average in two strike counts.

That would be the fifth highest on base percentage in two strike counts. And the third highest slugging percentage in two strike counts. The bullpen wasn't that much better either. Opponents slash 2. Sorry, 187, 250, 2.93, and two strike counts. That average is the fourth highest, if any bullpen and two strike counts. The on base percentage is the 12th highest.

And the slugging percentage is ready to go. There, fifth highest. Yeah. Not great. Yeah. So two-strike execution statistically, and now you're hearing it from Jerry to Poto, big issue for the Mariners pitching staff

across the board in the second half of the season. Now, what I found interesting here is that Jerry also said in the same response, perhaps, you know, new eyes, new voice, new thoughts can stop that from happening the next time. That's kind of interesting because Pete Woodworth and Trent Blank are coming back and it doesn't seem like there are going to be any changes on the pitching set of things on the coaching staff so curious what he means by new eyes new voice

yeah thoughts there yeah it's a bit peculiar uh that uh yeah new eyes new voice new thoughts when you're bringing back the same eyes the same voice the same thoughts uh yeah it's it's a bit quizzical uh so to speak about how you can, you know, square that circle. So we'll see what the thought process is there because I think we know like the manager they're going to bring in is probably an offensive minded guy because just most managers are their former position players. Not a lot of former pitchers become managers. Are they adding like a position on the staff? Like is there like a director of pitching whatever that's going to come in? And I mean, that's kind of Trent's job already. So like I don't know what the what the idea here is how you're going to get new voices when you brought back the entire pitching site.

You even brought back the bullpen coach so far as we know. I mean, Jerry said no no other changes. So we have to assume that Danny Farquhar, Osnola, like those guys are back. It's just kind of like, or maybe the bench coach is going to be, you know, I don't know. Like it's just kind of weird how you get these new voices when you kept all the old ones. So either you have to replace you. your hitting coach with like a pitcher or you have to, you know, kind of create a new position in your dugout or or maybe in your front office even and kind of, you know, run them through

the paces and all that. So yeah, it is a little bit of a disconnect there. It also is, you know, you talk about the struggles with two strikes. Like, yeah, if you're not going to get a ton of strikeouts, when you get to two strike counts, you better have good defense to handle the balls that get put in play and you don't. though, yeah, it really is something. And, you know, the numbers with the two strikeouts, they don't really, or the two strikes, they don't really surprise me all that much because just watching the games, like, eye test-wise, Kate Anderson threw a lot of pitches middle-middle when he got to two strikes

and he gave up some home runs out of it. Bryce Miller did the same thing. And George Kirby did that a lot, particularly in the second half. And it just kind of felt like, at least by my eye test, like, yeah, they're struggling to put guys away. And they're giving up damage when they get it. get to two strikes. And again, like, now the bullpen was actually pretty good in terms of strikeouts on those two strike counts. They were eighth in strikeout percentage in the second

half. Starting pitchers were 18th. And again, it's not so much about they have to get strikeouts when they get to two strike counts, but there's just too many pitches in the middle of the plate when they got to two strikes. And that's not where you want to be at all. So and, you know, Cal also talked about this. You know, when he did his little thing, the last couple of days of the season. We preach a lot about getting strike one and throwing strikes and, and, you know, getting ahead and, and like, that's all great, but you get to a point where, you know, the league has made their adjustment and we're, you know, not adjusting back. And he talked a little bit about the balance of like, yes, we want to throw strikes, but we have to kind of alter our

strategy a little bit where it's not just about throwing strikes. And I think you hear Jerry kind of saying something similar there. So I don't know is is, I mean, you know, a common like bench coach or manager was a former catcher. And while they're not pitching related, they are pitching related, you know, and they have different ideas. And so maybe that is part of the conversation here. But yeah, just very weird for Jerry to talk about, you know, wanting new ideas on the pitching side of things, new voices. And yet bringing back the whole pitching crew, that whole side of it to the dugout is just, it's again, it's, again, it. That's a tough circle to square.

So I just, I'm not really sure what the, what the plan is there. But, you know, again, it is an acknowledgement of like, yeah, we know this was bad. Like, yeah, we know this was bad. Yeah, we know that this is something that needs to change. And it is, you know, at least a point in like, look, this has been our philosophy. While we agree with the basic tenets of our philosophy, we should probably look at tweaking. it because something's not working here. It's just weird, like you said, though.

Like new ideas, new voices, same ideas, same voices, same people. You see how they don't level out. Yeah. We'll see what the plan is, I guess, and we'll see who they add or if they add anybody. But, you know, this is the front office has said this now. The players, the catcher has said this now. Yeah. I'm sure the pitchers feel the same way if you were to talk to them.

and so it's very clearly something needs to be tweaked. Maybe it doesn't need to be, you know, ripped down to the studs and rebuilt again a pitching philosophy, but something obviously needs to be tweaked at this stage. All right. Coming up, now that we've heard from Jerry DePoto and Justin Hollander, what do we think? Go over that in just a moment.

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where we talk about the Mariners, the Seahawks, and a whole lot more, completely uncensored and unfiltered. Visit patreon.com forward slash control the zone for more information. Link in the description of this episode. So, Colby, we've heard from Jerry DePoto now. We've heard from Justin Hollander now. So as we officially enter this off season, enter this management, enter this management, jurial search and await free agency to begin.

What are your takeaways from everything they had to say? And how are you feeling going into this off season? Well, first things first, they should sign T.J. Friedel, who's declared for free agency. But other than that, yeah, it was good. Like, they said all the right things. They had the right tone. you know, they apologize, like literally the first words out of Justin Hollander's mouths are, we're sorry, we apologize to the fans and to, you know, Rick Riz and to everybody who had to

watch us every night and talk about them the next day. You'd always come on the show and tell us yourself there, Justin, just throwing that out there. But yeah, it was the right tone. It was the right sentiment, certainly. And it was a lot of encouraging things and a lot of the things that we talked about, you know, hey, what do we want to hear from these guys over the next couple days? What we heard, like they nailed it. They hit all the bullet points right there.

And again, while talk is cheap and certainly with this fan base, you know, words are going to ring hollow with this runoffice in particular. But again, you can't solve a problem. I'll say this again and again. You can't solve a problem until you admit there is one. The last two days, the Mariners' front offices admitted that there were problems with the roster build, with the coaching staff, with, you know, just the way. the players performed in general.

They've acknowledged the problems. They've accepted that they're there. And now comes the harder part, which is fixing the problems. But you can't solve the problem until you admit there is one. And the Mariners front office personnel at the very least have gone out this week and done exactly that. They've accepted responsibility. They've offered their apologies. And they've told us they're going to fix it.

Now they have to go do it. And so while people are going to wait and they're not going to care and they're going to be pessimistic. and like this doesn't matter. These are just words. And they're not wrong. They literally can't do anything right now, but tell us. And,

and, you know, there is definitely a path where Cherry and Justin go on the radio over the last couple days or they go, do the press conference. They're like, oh, injuries and, oh,

you know, what are you going to do? Everybody suck this year. And no, we think we have the, you know, 100% right roster and we're just going to run it back and take our chances again.

Like, there's definitely a real risk, especially somebody like Jerry would go out there and be like, you know these years happen like there was a chance that he maybe even threw the 54% thing back out there he's like yeah when I talked about 54% this is what I meant you're gonna have some seasons like this and so but he didn't he didn't neither to Justin they took accountability they answered questions they didn't duck you know as as much as they can't again there's some things they literally cannot answer at this stage but they answered the questions that they could they were concise they were contrite and they just laid it out there And they spoke openly about some of the troubles that we saw that you and I had speculated were there that ended up obviously being there based on what they said. And they gave us, you know, little tidbits about how they might attack this offseason without divulging exactly what their plan is. And we don't know. So I thought they nailed it.

Like, again, it's just words. I understand like being like, who cares what they say, blah, blah, blah. But literally the only thing they can do right now. the only thing they're allowed to do right now is tell us what went wrong and explain how they're going to try and fix it and at least acknowledge that they understand this was a disappointment. This was disastrous and we need to change things and they've done all those things. So, you know, as for the first part of the off season, nailed it. I guess what comes next is the manager process and we'll see how they do there before November comes around and you can actually start getting players. So yeah, so far, I have to give them like an A, like for their offseason.

But this is the easiest part. Yeah. They don't always succeed at the easiest part. They don't, no. So this was progress for them. Yeah, I think they articulated themselves well and they weren't afraid to face the issues head on and the hard stuff head on. And I especially appreciated that unprompted, they had drafted. they addressed a lot of the very clear issues with the roster build

and with their inability to identify talent in different areas, specifically right-handed bats, right? We heard Jerry mentioned that unprompted. We heard Justin mentioned that unprompted yesterday on Brock and Salk, you know, talking about guys like Rob Ruff Center, not mentioning them by name, but we know who they're specifically referencing to and how they have continued to fall short in that regard.

And Justin made it sound like they're going to approach building out the fringes of their roster in a different way because of their failures in that regard now. I was especially glad that they acknowledged there's a standard here. There needs to be a standard here. And we've made some of these decisions because we didn't meet that standard. So, you know, again, at the end of the day, words are just words. but I think they handled this about as well as they possibly could have. All right, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariner's podcast.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadeng Azores. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can also find us on Blue Sky at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.