Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Projecting the Mariners' Opening Day Lineup + Start, Bench or DFA

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

We're slowly creeping our way to Opening Day! But what will the lineup look like when the Mariners host the Guardians? Colby and Ty take their educated guesses at what the Opening Day lineup will look like, but do they actually like the way they think it'll look? Plus, Ty attempts to make Colby look bad with a new game of Start, Bench or DFA.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL 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)  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.

On today's episode of Locked-on Mariners, what will Seattle's first lineup of the season look like? We'll hammer that out and then play a fun game of start, bench, and DFA. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. It is Wednesday, March 1st, 2023. This is Taday Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Brought to you by Fandul, the official sports book of the Lockdown Podcast Network.

Make every moment more. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on today to get started. Thank you so much for making us your first listen, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube, or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon link as well as our social accounts is in the description below. Yesterday, we projected the Mariners opening day roster. Today we're going to project their opening day lineup. Afterwards, we're going to play a few games of Start, Bench, and DFA.

some current and former Mariners. But Colby, let's start with this lineup. Let's figure out what this thing is going to look like on March 30th when the Mariners host Shane Bieber and the Cleveland Guardians at T-Mobile Park for opening day. And there's a couple of questions that I think we need to answer here first that are really going to determine

how the rest of this lineup is going to shake out. One, the biggest question here at the top of the lineup, how much stock are we putting in Colton Wong, rather, hitting leadoff in the Mariners first game of spring training. Is this actually what the Mariners are going to do or is this just them experimenting? What do you think, Colby? I think it's certainly experimental at the moment. But because they've done it every time both guys have been in the lineup,

it's something that they're seriously considering. So you can't overlook it. It's not something that we can easily say is definitely going to happen or definitely not. just one of those things you know so we're not really going to have a good idea of this either because Julio's about ready

to leave in a couple days he'll be gone along with Teo obviously for the world baseball classic and we won't see him in the next you know five to ten lineups so it'll be a little difficult to know which way they're leaning we'll probably see a lot of Colton Wong

in the leadoff spot when Julio leaves but yeah, it's interesting because there's a couple of things that play here for Scott, for Scott's service based on trends of his lineup construction. Number one, you know, he really cares about handedness, or at least in the past, he's cared about handedness, and he likes to break up the righties and the lefties. His idea line up would be left, right, left, right, or right, left, right, but the Mariners don't really have that option available to them right now.

they're lefty bat short of being able to do that. And we saw Scott really kind of throw that out the window when the playoffs came. He just wanted his best guys up. He just kind of wrote the lineup that way. You know, these are my best guys. That's one through nine. That's how I'm going to write the lineup. So it'll be interesting to see which path he takes with that.

But I think they're going to give Colton Wong a shot to lead off here, at least early in the year. So I think Wong against right-handed pitching for the first few weeks is probably going to be the leadoff hitter. I don't like it. But I think that's probably the reality. So that now, I mean, again, how much of handiness is going to be important to Scott's service when writing out these lineups here to start the season if Wong is the number one guy if he's leading off because you got a whole mess of righties. I mean, when you think about the top. six hitters on this Mariners roster only one of them outside of wong can hit lefty and that's cal raleigh who's of course a switch hitter so where does raleigh fit in this where does tie

france fit in all this where it is teoscar randes and a eugenio swars where do all these guys fit in this because obviously hulio's going to be number two right or in any surprises and then number three there's it could be tie france it could be de oscar nandez it could be gino it could be any of these guys really. So where are you leaning? It should be Teo. Julio and Teosker should both be getting at bats in the first inning and they should both be as high up

in the lineup as possible. But I think what Scott's probably going to do is I think he's probably going to try and put Ty France at three and then move Teo to four to kind of you know the traditional like well

Teo has more power than France so therefore Teo hits four and France hits three because France is more of a batting average guy. It's a very traditional way of looking at this lineup as is having Colton Wong lead off, which I'm not a fan of. I don't like the idea that, oh, my lead off guy has to be, you know, has to hit left hand in,

and he's got to be short, he's got to have a small strike zone, he's got to be able to steal bases, blah, blah, blah. Like, that's so dumb. It was dumb when that was the standard 100 years ago, right? It's antiquated. Yeah, it's an adequate view of lineup construction, yeah.

But I do think we're going to see Colton Wong leading off. I think Culeo probably hits second. And then I can't imagine that Scott is going to have Thai France any lower than four, maybe five. But I think he hits three and then I think Taylor's going to hit four. And then five, six is kind of where it gets interesting. Yeah, man. I just, I mean, like there's an outcome here that I could see where it's, you know, because of the handiness, right? Wong 1, Julio 2, Teosker 3, and Raleigh 4 just to get a lefty in there.

And then, you know, Gino 5, France 6 or France 5, Gino 6. But I just, I don't feel like that's the best deployment of your guys either. So, you know, I, I feel like it probably has to be Wong 1, Julio 2, France 3, Teo 4. and then Raleigh 5, Gino 6 or Gino 5, Raleigh 6. But it's still, it's not perfect to me. I'm with you. Teo is one of my three best hitters. He needs to be in the top three of this lineup.

And so any sort of construction here that takes Teo out of the top three to me is a misuse of your resources. So, yeah. Well, no matter what, we know who. of the six best hitters on this team are and that's who is going to make up one through six in this lineup. But the bottom three is really

interesting and that's where the second question that we need to ask here comes into play. And that's, you know, on opening day, do the Mariners actually play matchups? Or do they just roll out their best nine hitters? Because that's going to determine whether or not AJ Pollock is in this lineup because

Pollock, of course, not the best hitter when it comes to facing right-handed pitching. Fantastic against lefties. I mean, historically pretty good against Ritey's, but not last year, of course. Or, you know, does someone like Tommy Lestella crack this lineup as the D.H., you know, as a lefty to face the Ritey in Shane Bieber? And that also determines, you know, maybe, maybe it determines if Jared Kelnick is in this lineup or not. I think it's pretty much a guarantee that he's going to be in this lineup. But how do you think those three guys with Jerry Kelnick, J.P. Crawford, and then that D.H. spot,

whether it's Pollock or Lestella or Collin Moran or whoever, how do you think that shakes out? I think on opening day, Scott will give, not special treatment, but he'll give the bigger name, the veteran, he'll give Pollock the start at DH. I think that'll start. I think also, you know, Cleveland's pitching rotation is very right-handed heavy.

So if you're just going to do lefty-righty, Paulick's not going to get any at bats, you know, in that first series. And obviously, that's not something they're going to do. So I think they'll start the year with Pollock as the DH, at least in game one. It'll probably be different in game two. But also, we don't know if Lestella can even be on this roster yet.

He hasn't played. They shut him down with a right elbow thing. You know, obviously that's the elbow he, you know, on his throwing arm. So that possibly limits him defensively. And it was supposed to be five days and now we're on day six. He saw him played. Right.

I mean, five to seven. So. Right. But we haven't really gotten any encouraging updates. We haven't heard that he's swinging or anything like that or throwing. So we'll see. We'll have to wait and see. But there's no guarantee he even makes this roster.

So I think they go with Pollock at DH. And then I think they almost have to, you know, with those last three spots, I think you have to put Calnic at seven. Pollack at 8 and then JP at 9 because, you know, you sick Pollock in the seven spot. You're talking about, you know, what, five righties and a switch in a row instead of, you know, on lefty, righty, lefty. And if you have Pollock hitting seven, then you have three lefties in a row, which we know Scott really doesn't like to do because you'll have Kellnick, JP, and then Wong on the wrap around. So I think if Wong is sitting leadoff, I think Paul. is probably hitting 8th, which means Kalnick's sitting 7th and JP is hitting 9th.

All right. So we're going to play a game of start, bench, and DFA. I got a few of them that we're going to go over here that Colby is going to choose from. In just a moment, I'll let you know what all that means here in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder, this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Fanduel. The midway point of the NBA season is here and now is the perfect time to download Fanduel. America's number one sportsbook because new customers get a no sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's bonus bets back if your first bet doesn't win.

Just download the Fanduals Sportsbook app. It's safe, secure, and super easy to use. And you can bet on everything like the Sixers at one and a half plus one and a half against the heat. Plus, Fanduel even lets you combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with a same game parlay. So don't miss your chance to get your no sweat first bet up to $1,000 in bonus bets when you go to Fandual.com slash locked on. that's L-O-C-K-D-O-N.

That's Fanduel.com slash locked-on. To learn more, make every moment more with Fandul an official sports betting partner of the NBA. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us to your first listen. Before we get into our start bench and DFA segment here, just a reminder, we are now on Instagram and TikTok. Give us a follow over there. We are at Locked-on Mariners.

One word, Locked-on Mariners on both platforms. Let's give us a follow where you're planning on posting content on both platforms throughout the season. All right, so let's play a game of start, bench, and DFA. Now, there's a bunch of different names for this game, but the rules are very simple. I'm going to give Colby three players or three people in general, and he has to choose which one he's starting, which one he's benching, and which one he is DFA. And he has to do one for each of them. And I have seven of these, I believe, and some of them are pretty straightforward. and a couple of them are kind of unhinged.

But let's just get into the ones that are pretty straightforward here to start. Let's start with the Mariners current rotation. There are three, arguably, there are three best starters in their rotation. Maybe Robbie Ray, you know, there's an argument there for Robbie Ray in here. But I went with Luis Castillo, George Kirby, and Logan Gilbert. So which one of these guys are you starting, benching, and DFA and Colby? Yeah, definitely DFA and Logan, which is. weird. Then the starts,

I'm tempted to go Kirby, but I think you have to go Castillo here at this point. Could change in a few weeks, but Castillo, just frankly right now, the better pitcher, it's close, but I do think there's a distinguishable difference between the two, at least based on what we know right now. Again, if you ask me in May, it could be completely different. But I think you get the edge Castillo right now. He was so good down the stretch and so big in the playoffs, as was Kirby.

But Castillo's got the track record. He's got the stuff. He's got the swag, I guess. So I gave him a slight edge over Kirby at this stage. Yeah. When comparing these three guys, I think it's a no-brainer to DFA Gilbert. And this is the only, these are the only circumstances under which you could say you could DFA Logan Gilbert. I really want to go Kirby as well. But, but I agree. with you, you know, look, I'm so high on what Kirby can do this season. We've talked about the Sy Young possibility and all this stuff. And we're going to talk about that even more over the course of this month as we head into opening day. But I think just right now, it would be unwise to go against Luis Castillo. That probably changes in a few months. We'll

see. But I'll start Castillo. I'll bench Kirby and I'll DFA Logan Gilbert here like you. All right. Next one, going to the Mariners current bullpen. Got their three big names out of their bullpen, Andres Munoz, Paul Seawald, and Matt Brash. Who are you starting? Who are you benching? Who you DFA in? Definitely starting Munoz. That's really a no-brainer. You get the upside play of Brash, but you also get relatively the same amount of safety as you do with Seawald. And based off of what I just saw during spring training, I'll take Seawald and I'll DFA Brash. Wow.

We were recording this as the marriage were playing, and Matt Brash was awful today. He fell behind every single hitter. He walked a couple of guys, a couple of blue pits. He was terrible. Well, there you have it. Colby just said that spring training stats matter. Right. I mean, they don't, but that was really bad.

And that's part of the issue with Matt Brash is that these type of blowups are totally, he's totally susceptible to them because he walks guys, because he falls behind. He had like four straight accounts that went to a three-ball count. And we're going to see outings like that from Brash. He just does not have control or command that is conducive to him being shut down every single time he goes out there. And Seawald, at the very least, I mean, Seawald's like, bases loaded one out. You're probably going Brash over Seawald, but like clean inning tie game or whatever, you're probably, you probably feel better going to Seawald because he's less likely to fall behind.

he's less likely to give free base runners. So, yeah, it's kind of a tough call between those two. You know, like, who do I trust more with the game on the line? Probably Seawald, but who do I want on the mound? Like, you know, if I'm down by one and they have runners on second and third and one out and I'm trying to keep it right where it is, probably brash. It's, do you want the, do you need the strikeout or do you just need outs? Which one do you need?

And that's kind of the guy you trust more. but I seriously I think I probably I probably ride the upside in this case I probably bench Brash and then DFA CWald which is really close it's go either way on that side it could go either way but I'm like you I'm going upside with Brash so I'm benchy Brash

I'm starting on Andreas Munoz that's a no brainer absolutely and then yeah slight slight slight DFA on Paul Seawald but it is it is very close and it really I think it depends on the day that you asked me about that, but I'll go I'll go Brash over Seawald there. All right. Next one, we got Thai France, A. Eugenio Suarez, Cal Raleigh.

I wanted to do a position player one with the current Mariners, but I didn't want to do, you know, Julio Teosker, because like that's, that's going to be too obvious. And by the way, guys, feel free to play along with us down in the comments below. If you're watching on YouTube, let us know what you would pick for all of these as well. But yeah, so Colby, France, Suarez, Raleigh. What do you lean in here? Definitely starting Raleigh. He, Raleigh, probably the second best position player on your team, which is saying something,

considering there's, you know, all stars on this roster after Raleigh and Julio. So definitely starting Cal, he just means too much to the lineup and to the team. probably bench Gino and DFA tie. It's close, but I mean, third base versus first base, third base is a little more valuable. You know, they do it differently, but they're both incredibly productive at the plate. So it's tight, but I'd probably give the edge to Gino just because he plays third base and he plays it pretty well. Whereas France is, you know, kind of a average first baseman, maybe such. above average. So I'd probably go Gino, but obviously in the long term play, you'd rather

take a chance on France because he's a little bit younger. So it's a tough call. I'm starting Raleigh because he's one of the most valuable players of one of the most valuable positions on the diamond. I'm going to bench Gino because I just, I can't in good faith, DFA, Gino Souras, good vibes only, of course. So that that does mean that my fellow Todd, I'm sorry gets the axe here. I'm sorry. Trader.

But you're out of here. But I apologize. But it's over for you in this exercise. All right. Mariner's prospects. Harry Ford. Bryce Miller. Feldman Salliston.

Who you got? Considering I have them ranked one, two, and three. It's probably just safest to go with that order. So starting forward, benching Miller and DFA and, Celestine and Celestin might have the highest ceiling out of all of them, which is honestly debatable. But we haven't seen him.

Yeah, we haven't seen him. He essentially does not exist. And like if Felman like just retired tomorrow for whatever reason, right, would we care? I mean, we'd be bombed. But like we're like five years away from seeing this guy in the major league field. Who cares? Right. So definitely DFA in him.

Ford and Miller is really close. but like, I don't know, man. Harry Ford is a unicorn a little bit here. So I think I have to give the edge to him. And hey, you know, I saw Bryce Miller on the bench. So, you know, things could be worse. But yeah, I'm going to give the edge to the unicorn over the flame throwing right-handed pitcher. Well, when we did our prospect ranks, I put Bryce Miller over Harry Ford.

So I have to start Bryce Miller over Harry Ford here in bench Harry and D.E. FFa Felton and Celestine because again look the upside is great with Celestine at least you know so we've heard right neither you nor I have seen him with our own two eyes aside from you know a couple of

video clips on on Twitter I probably seen two and a half minutes worth of footage of Felden Celestine in my life so yeah there's you know there's only so much that I can base off of that yeah yeah yeah really really like

everything that I've heard about Tillisden, but I can't in good faith pick him over either one of these guys right now who I've actually you know seen so. Right. By the way, Julio just went to Dogtown. Nice. The wind in Mesa, I think they're in today, is

horrific. So it was a wind bomb? It went really high and it left the ballpark. I don't know if the wind's blowing in from left or out from left, so I don't know. Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, yeah. Nevertheless, plus Julio. I think Emerson Hancock's getting ready to pitch.

Oh, all right. Let's hurry up and finish this episode. I can watch that. All right. Next one, we're getting into unhinged territory here, Colby.

Three players. Yeah, yeah, three players, the Mariners, or three prospects, well, they were prospects at the time

that the Mariners traded them that I think the Mariners wished that they had back. Adam Jones, as Dribble Cabrera. Pablo Lopez. This one's easy. Adam Jones, I'm starting.

I'm benching Lopez. I'm DFA and Cabrera. Cabrera is an all-star player. And Pablo Lopez, he's thrown like one full season in his career. And that is more valuable than a bloated 38-year-old second baseman.

So, no, prime is durable is a really solid player. But again, we're talking about, you know, Adam Jones is a prime center field. his prime. He was one of the five best centerfielders in baseball. So he's an easy set. That's the no-brainer part. Yeah, yeah. Right. And then I look at

somebody, and then I look at Pablo Lopez who is, you know, a really good, really good pitcher, right, a mid-rotation arm, I think. Yeah. And then as Drewble, I mean, he technically also played up the middle, but

did he? I mean, like he stood out there. Was he great out there? I'm benching as Drewble. and I'm DFA and Pablo right now because Pablo, I just need to see him stay healthy for more than one season. Think of how good he's been without being all that healthy. I know, I know, but

his dribble has the, you know, I mean, look, it's hard to compare these guys because two of them have played a full career and one of them is like five years into his career, four years into his career, whatever it is. But yeah, I just, I'm still going as dribble over

Pablo here. What do you see him? What are you watching? Kelnick just went yard off of a lefty. Hey. Oh, wow. All right. Yeah, Elias threw him like four breaking balls in a row. Yeah, yeah, Ronas. Ronas threw him like four breaking balls in a row and he was not close on any of them.

Probably should have struck out the pitch before, but he just barely fouled it. And the catcher dropped a foul tip. And then Roanis gave him a fastball on the outside corner and he just went to left center out to Dongtown. Nice. I don't think that one was wind-aided either. That was crushed. So. Nice.

All right. Kelnick, two hits today. I mean, there we go. There we go. There we go. Yeah. I think the more interesting, you know,

got to be careful here. I think the more interesting start bench DFA would have been if you had added Freddie Peralta in there. Oh, yeah. I mean, Adam Jones is the, there you go, the Jerry version, right?

It's Chris Taylor. Chris Taylor, Freddie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pablo Lopez. That's the Jerry All right.

Let's do that then. That's tougher. Because of the track record, I'm going to start Taylor. Okay. Taylor wasn't very good last year. No, but I mean.

But he was pretty good. He's been really good for like four, five years now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then I'd probably go Peralta and then DFA Lopez? Yeah. Yeah. I might, yeah, yeah, I'll go with that as well. Yeah, Peralta. I don't know, man. Actually, you know what? I'll go Lopez over Peralta.

Oh, now he's a Lopez fan. Yeah, now I am. Now I am. All right, we got two more here. Again, I want to, I want to get out of here. So I can watch Emerson Hancock. King Griffey Jr. Edgar Martinez, Eichiro. Three Mount Rushmore guys for the Mariners. Yeah, unfortunately DFAing. Unfortunately DFA and Echero, like, sorry. And then it's time to rile up the comments section.

I am starting Edgar and I am benching Griffey. Spicy. And honestly, I am closer to DFA and Griffey. than I am to starting him over anchor. King Griffey Jr. abandoned the Mariners twice. And the first time he did it, he forced their hand by saying, I will only play for the Cincinnati Reds.

And sorry, Gino almost went yard. Stop watching the game. Stay on task here. Griffey, Griffey, he kind of screwed the Mariners twice now. And both times the Mariners are like, oh, well, and I get why, right?

Obviously, like, Griffey is the face of the Seattle Mariners still. Sure. Until like 2028 when it was a rod gets lowballed and goes to Texas. Yeah. And it's like, and they vilify them. Yeah. Right, right. When what Griffey did was actually much worse from a like trader standpoint,

but whatever. Like water under the bridge, I honestly don't care that that Griffey did that. Like I think it should be talked about a little more than it is, but I don't care. I don't hold it against them. Like it's Griffey, right? You love, you love Ken. So, um, not a huge deal. but for me it's just one of those things.

Well, Edgar is your favorite mariner of all time. For anyone that doesn't know that, Edgar is your favorite mariner. Yes, I get it. I'm number 11, my entire baseball life because of Edgar and all that. But,

you know, Edgar, like, Edgar was really, really good. And I feel like, you know, there's this idea that,

like, oh, he's such a fan favorite and he was good. But, like, no, no, Edgar was. But Colby,

he never played in the field. So clearly, clearly he should be at, least I mean, I consider that, but then I remembered that Griffey literally quit on the Mariners twice. That's two more than I like. I'm still, I'm still starting Griffey. He's the greatest player in Mariners history. And then I'm bitching that.

And then I'm DFA and each. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. There's really like no wrong. You know what? I'm not even going to say that. There is a wrong answer. If you're starting each year-o, you're wrong.

Like you put each row on the bench. You can DFAM. I don't care. But you can't start each row. Not after these two. like love Ichie but not no you're killing my childhood here Edgar Martinez is one of like the 10 to 15 best right-handed hitters since World War II of all time.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I mean, that's what we're talking about. So yeah, it's a tough one, but yeah, I, the tiebreaker is that Griffey quit on the Seattle Mariners twice. That's the tiebreaker. All right. Last one here.

And this one is another one where I, the starter is, a no-brainer. The interesting conversation is who gets benched and who gets DFA'd here. Dave Niehaus, Aaron Goldsmith, Rick Rez. Yeah. Obviously, we're starting Dave. Yeah, that's a no-brainer.

Yeah. I will bench Aaron and I have to DFA Riz. I'm sorry, I'm going with the upside. I'm going with the younger guy. You know, it's yeah by the way put rick riz on the mariner's hall fan please what are we doing here what are we doing here like what you're just waiting for tragedy to happen and be like oh i guess we'll do it

now let's do it in the hall of thing no do it now do it now like it is such a no brainer um but again you know accusing the mariners of having brains when it comes to this sort of thing not common but yeah riz definitely deserves to be in the mariner's hall of fame he he's he's He's great. But I had to DFA him just because Aaron is like so good at what he does. And he's the future. So. Yeah.

Now we'll pull back the curtain on the show a little bit here. So we did record this episode already earlier today. And the audio was just destroyed for some inexplicable reason. Hopefully it works now. We've recorded this whole episode. It sounds fine to us. But the last one sounded fine to us while we're recording as well. who knows. But there was one other one that you brought up here, one other start bench DFA

that you felt was more interesting than this one when it came to the broadcasters for the Mariners, Gary Hill Jr., Dave Sims, Mike Blowers. Obviously, we have to start Gary Hill Jr. Because he's a friend of the show, friend of the show, Gary Hill Jr. You know. Also, Caroline, my wife will kill me if I don't start Gary. So after that, though. Simsy or blow? Who gets benched? Who gets DFA? I'm benching Sims and I am DFA in Blauers.

I don't think Mike really wants to be here. Wow. Yeah, I probably shouldn't say it. I think Mike is slowly like building an exit strategy. He's got grandkids now. I think that he would like to reduce his role in the near future. Maybe not to zero. But I think, you know, I think he's slowly starting to face.

phase, phase his way out. And that's tough because are you angling to take his role? I mean, since I have zero major league at bats, I think it would be pretty weird for me to be an analyst.

So no. But yeah, you know, I can't wait for the first time that Aaron Goldsmith is like, so Colby, break down this play. I don't care.

Break down this play. You saw it. Yeah, you saw it. What is there to break down? Look at it. Yeah, it's right there. People watching have eyes.

Blowers is, Blowers is great, especially when he's paired with Aaron. But, yeah, it's just, I don't want to, I don't want to contribute to this nonsense narrative that Dave Sims is, like, bad at his job or something. Yeah. No, we stand Dave Sims in this house. Yes, yes, he is hilarious.

He has his quirks, sure. Yes. But nobody rises to the moment, quite like, Dave Sims. That's right. And he's got some excellent calls in Mariners history. So we definitely stand Dave Sims. So unfortunately, because I refuse to play into that whole narrative, I have to DFA Mike

Flowers. All right. I'll go with you on that one as well. All right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on Locked on Mariners for Colby Patnode. I'm tiding. Oh, you got something else.

Yes. I just want to let people know that we will not record this again. this doesn't sound well because Ty has to go ref you know a seventh grade basketball game after this actually I have to go to my my five to close shift at foot locker are you going to steal some hamburgers

from McDonald's while you're at it? I might do that all the way there yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah actually I might swing by on their on their night shift after I get done at footlocker yes and then you're waking up right in early tomorrow to go to Mime school so yeah yeah yeah I'm ignoring you

that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners. Nope. I'm not getting pulled over there. Nope. That's good. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. For Colby, Bad No, I'm Tad Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-ZL-Z and Colby at CPAT 11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok as well over at Locked on Mariner's. That's one word, Locked on Mariners. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Now for your second listen, check out Locked-on Fantasy Baseball.

Win your league by listening to Matt and Dom every day as they bring you the best fantasy draft strategies. It's free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.