Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Putting the 2024 Mariners to Rest + End-of-Season Press Conference Dos & Don'ts

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

The Mariners have officially been eliminated from all paths to the postseason in 2024. So how would Ty and Colby describe this ballclub? They give their answers, discuss what they're looking out for during the team's season-capping series against the A's, and lay out some dos and don'ts for Jerry Dipoto and the Mariners organization before their end-of-season press conference.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11For your next listen, check out the Locked On MLB podcast. Prepare for the Fall Classic with Sully, who has it all covered every single day. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Arena ClubWhether you’re buying, selling, trading, or displaying—Arena Club is the card-collecting platform you have to check out. Right now, you can get 10% off your first Slab Pack or card purchase by going to ArenaClub.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb. RobinhoodRobinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new gold standard is here with Robinhood Gold.Sign up at robinhood.com/gold   Terms apply, for product specific disclosures visit robinhood.com/gold. Investing involves risk. Rate may change. Gold membership is offered by Robinhood Gold, LLC.   PrizePicksGo to prizpicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game. IbottaIbotta is a free app that lets you earn cash back every time you shop. Right now, Ibotta is offering our listeners $5 just for trying Ibotta by using the code LOCKEDONMLB when you register. Just go to the App Store or Google Play store and download the FREE app to start earning cash back when you use code LOCKEDONMLB. eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelNow through September 22nd, ALL FanDuel customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get a THREE WEEK free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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- Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Mariners were officially eliminated from the wild card race on their day off yesterday. So the next and final three games of the season come with zero stakes. Are we looking out for anything in particular these next three days? And also when the Mariners hold their end of season press conference, what are some do's and don'ts for Jerry DePoto, Justin Hollander? Hey, maybe even John Stanton will be there. Probably not. We'll discuss coming up here on the Lockdown Marries podcast.

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 Friday, September 27th, 2024. This is Tadding Azolus and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marers Podcasts. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. On today's show, we'll put a bow on the 2024 season before the Mariners wrap things up against the A's this weekend.

We'll reflect a little bit on the year, discuss this upcoming series. and then we're going to go over some do's or don'ts for the mayors when they hold their end of season press conference. But before we do that, shout out to our title sponsor today. Booking.com booking dot yeah. The right state can make you a fan of any city, even your baseball rivals. Book today on booking.com, the official accommodation partner in Major League Baseball, get the booking.com app today. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show,

check out our Patreon. The link is in the description. and you can sign up for a free seven-day trial. So with the Royals and Tigers wins yesterday, the Mariners were officially eliminated around 1234 p.m. Pacific. So the outcome that we were all kind of expecting, waiting for, especially after the Marers blew that 5 to nothing lead against the Rangers

last Sunday, has finally arrived. And the 2024 Mariners are officially, unfortunately, dead. So, Colby, when you reflect on

this year, how would you describe the 2024 Seattle Mariners? Disappointing. Billed with missed opportunities and a real

pain in the butt to watch for about half the season. Got that right. Yeah, it is not a team that will be well remembered.

And, you know, it's, the mayors have had bad teams that are pretty well remembered. They've had, you know, good teams that didn't make the playoffs that are pretty well remembered. I think this one's just going to kind of fade into obscurity a little bit. You know, now a lot of the players on this team will be back next year. And there's certainly reason to be still excited about what lies ahead for the franchise and all that stuff. But, yeah, overall, this is just a year of, of perplexing baseball being played, and it's a year of missed opportunity. So, yeah, I think for me, like the key word or phrase for the 2024 Mariners is opportunity

because they had it. They had it in front of this. This was the easiest year to win the division. They couldn't do that, even though they held a 10-game lead at one point. Easiest year to make the playoffs in terms of number of wins required to do so. they didn't do that this year. So it was certainly an opportunity to get into the playoffs in a weekend AL. And they maybe even make some damage,

maybe even do some damage in the playoffs with the pitching staff that they had, the starting rotation, and certainly what they're capable of being and, you know, what the lineup has been for the last month or so. Like they had an opportunity, I think, to get in and do some real damage and make a deep run at it. And they just couldn't take advantage. They just never lined up for them, and it's a bummer.

So opportunity is the name of the game. They got it. And even in a more of a micro sense, we talked about, like, how the team, how, you know, they needed help to make the playoffs after they'd already blown their lead and all that stuff. For the most part, they got it. And they just never took advantage of the help that they got. So it's unfortunate that, you know, six weeks ago, we're talking about the Mariners destroying the Mets and they're tied for first place.

And even though they've blown the. 10 game lead. They're finally starting to play a little better. And then they're going to end up losing the division. I mean, we'll see what the final tally is. I mean, it could just be one game at the end of it. But either way, it was an extremely winnable division this year. It was an extremely manageable win total they needed to get. I mean, they didn't even need to get to 90 wins to coast into the playoffs this year. And they fell short. So I think the overall sense of the team is just missed opportunity to do something special. Yeah, I would also say wasteful,

wasteful of rotation, and not just for what they were doing on the field, but the fact that you had incredible health in that rotation for most of the year until the Luis Castillo injury occurred. And even then, you still had four guys pitching at number three levels or better.

and those guys aren't going to pitch in the playoffs and that is a crime. It's a damn shame to be honest. And I feel for those guys, even though that they've had their share of the struggles. I mean, look, they're human too, right? Like there's going to be some bad starts. And in those moments, the offense has to pick them up. And more often than not this year, the offense just was not able to pick them up. I think it's also wasteful of the offense that we have seen, though, over the last couple

months and especially since Edgar got here and especially since Randy and Justin Turner showed up. This offense has been legitimately good for a month, month, and a half straight. And it's really annoying watching them play right now because, yeah, they had a couple of really bad moments in that Yankee series and that's an understatement, frankly. and they obviously blew that lead in Texas but outside of that they've actually been playing pretty solid ball. I feel like if they did get in right now

this current iteration of the Marys would actually be able to hold their own in the playoffs and actually maybe do some damage if they got in. So I don't know if it's a season full of what ifs but it's definitely wasteful of a lot of the right pieces being in place. but just not enough of them and not at the right times. And now as a result, I believe the Mariners,

even if they went out, are going to have their second worst record in the Jerry Depoto era in years that they've actually tried to win, right? Because there's like the rebuilding years. There's 2020. There's 2019. But I believe the only worst season that they've had

outside of this one, record-wise, under DePoto and company, It was 2017 when they finished 78 and 84. So, yeah, I mean, and we'll talk about this a little later on when we get into the end of season presser, but this wasn't a step forward, right? As they tried to sell last year, as Jerry tried to sell last year and his end of season presser. Like, this isn't a step forward. This was a massive step back. This was a massive failure across the board.

And it's really heartbreaking, considering that they had such a great opportunity. we all know about the 10 game lead and while even when they had the 10 game lead we were all very confused as to how they got there because they still were playing pretty bad ball particularly on the offensive end of things

but there was still the opportunity to get it right and be able to maintain that lead and they eventually kind of got right but it was far too little too late so yeah I just I mean there

there are many many things you can say about this this season and there are many ways that you can describe this season but i would just say disappointing wasteful and ultimately like let's not beat around the bush here a failure an abject failure it's kind of interesting uh there was so much emphasis put on this team getting off to a fast start and not having to dig themselves out of a hole. Well, they did. And then kind of the side thing was like, well, you know, last year they really stumbled down the stretch and they fell flat on their face in September when it looked like they had a playoff spot locked up heading into that month. They really struggled. And it's like, well, this year, you know, since Dan Wilson took over, they've been playing at a 94 win pace.

So they're actually finishing pretty strong down the stretch. So they got off to a hot start. They are finishing relatively strong. And yet they're still going to miss the playoffs and why is that? Well, it's like it's almost like it doesn't matter how you start, how you finish. You just need to be more talent, more talented, right? Like, so forget, you know, how do we get off to a fast start? How do we, how do we sustain this throughout the year? Like, how about you just build a better team?

You just build a better roster, more talent. How do you just win more ball games? Right, because obviously that's the problem because you can't say, oh, well, we got off to such a slow start that we dug ourselves a hole. Nope, nope, you didn't quite the opposite. Can't say, oh, we just didn't finish. We stumbled down the stretch. Not really.

I mean, there's been some bad moments, certainly, and those are amplified by the fact that you had already blown the lead by the time you started to play this well. But again, you won 18 of your last 30? Like, that's 94-95 win baseball right there. You can do that over the course of six months. So they're actually playing pretty good ball right now with, you know, some truly asinine moments still mixed in of complete incompetence.

But overall, they're playing good ball. So they started the year hot. They're ending the year hot. And it's not going to matter. They're going to miss the playoffs again. So again, it's not about how you start. It's not about how you finish. It's about having more talent.

And so, you know, at the end of the day, this team just not talented enough. This team just not good enough. Any way you want to slice it, not good enough. Yeah, 100%. All right. So the A's are coming to town for a meaningless three-game series to wrap up the year after a very emotional send-off to the Oakland call. see him yesterday. We'll talk about that series and kind of what we're looking for here over

the final three games in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown errors podcast is brought to you by Robin Hood. With Robin Hood Gold, you don't need a silver spoon to eat up the financial favors of the 1%. Robin Hood Gold allows others to get the rates and perks usually reserved for the high society. Now the resourceful individual with Robin Hood Gold can earn the very liberal rate of 4.5% APY on uninvested cash. receive unlimited 1% deposit bonuses and be rewarded with a handsome 3% retirement boost on an IRA account. Robin Hood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5 a month.

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All you have to do to find that is search the word Mariners. A's again coming off of a very emotional send-off to the Oakland Coliseum yesterday. I watched that game or at least the final couple of endings of that game. and obviously everything that that happened after the game. I assume you did as well, Colby. Do you have any thoughts on that? What were you feeling and thinking during that? Screw John Fisher.

You know, it's really sad that this guy essentially single-handedly ripped a team away from a city that has supported it for 50 years just due to greed. and disingenuous efforts to keep the team and this whole like, oh, geez, we tried everything we could to stay here. It just didn't happen. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Essentially, in a way, blaming the victims of the crime he perpetrated.

So, yeah, it's just, it's a bummer, man. Like, Oakland is a city that has really gone through it the last three or four years. I mean, they've lost the warriors that they just moved across. the across the bridge, but still the Warriors playing San Francisco now, not Oakland. They lost the Raiders. And now they've lost the A's. And it just feels like they're being completely, you know, taking advantage of as a fan. And they're, you know, they're having to bear the brunt of the hardest thing there is in sports, you know, having a team taken away from you.

And they're having to bear that quite a bit over the last five years. And, you know, it's as Seattle's sports fans, I think we can all. all sympathize with Oakland A's fans and what they're going through right now. It's something that a lot of us have experience with. It's a very similar situation to be frank. So, you know, it's just, it's a bummer. It really is. The Oakland area deserves a major league baseball team.

We know how supportive that fan base is when they have an owner who actually cares, when they have a good team, when they know that they're not being taken advantage of. They show up that is a loud ballpark. It's an ugly ballpark and they desperately need a new one, sure. But a lot of good, a lot of fun memories at that ballpark. A lot of really cool things happen there and some great players have played there. It is a franchise that is steeped in history and it's also been one that's moved around quite a bit, you know, from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland, but it stayed at Oakland for 50 years. And it's just, it's a bummer that it ended the way it did. And my hope is that,

that Major League Baseball expands soon and Oakland gets a team. There are apparently, there were apparently plenty of investors who wanted to buy the A's from Fisher to keep them there. And he just refused to sell. So I guess you really didn't try everything, did you, John? There were efforts to build a new stadium. Right, that he catapulted. And then his proposals were always just non-starters, like fully funded with public money, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. So, yeah, make no mistake.

The Oakland A's have been stolen. from the city of Oakland. It's not fair. I really hope that the expansion comes and Oakland is awarded a team and I hope it doesn't take as long for Oakland to get their team back as it's taken Seattle to get their team back

and we still do not have the Sonics and we still don't really have much of an idea of when that might happen. But hopefully soon for the Sonics and hopefully Oakland gets a baseball team back sooner rather than later. Yeah, watch. that last night

took me back to where I was about 16 and a half years ago, watching that Sonic's Mavericks game. And also seeing you know, Clay Bennett's press conference, you know, announcing the move and all that. Seeing the shots of fans crying hearing Dallas

Braden fight through tears and talking about his daughter on the broadcast. It was heart-wrenching. It was heart-wrenching stuff. and seeing, you know, Mark Cates, who, you know, played there for, I believe, four years, is now the manager there. Seeing him have to, you know, fight through tears and seeing him embrace Mason Miller and some of his other players. It was all just really, really heartbreaking. And I just, I feel for all of those fans.

And frankly, yesterday, because I had already come to terms with the mayor is getting eliminated. So that wasn't really on my mind yesterday when they officially got eliminated. What was on my mind yesterday, baseball-wise, was just all those fans in Oakland that I've had to watch their team just ripped away from them because I know exactly, exactly how that feels. And it's terrible. And I still haven't gotten over it. And, you know, I don't know, you know, I can't speak for every single one of those fans. I'm sure there's some of those fans that are going to still support the A's when they're in Sacramento and when they move to Vegas eventually. But for me personally, I mean, when the Sonics left, that ruined my relationship with basketball and the NBA.

I still watch the NBA casually, but it took me years to even start doing that. And so I think for some of these fans, that might be the end of their relationship with baseball. And that's a shame. So, yeah. All right. Well, baseball still has to be played the next three days. You're going to be at the ballpark Saturday and Sunday. Are you watching for anything?

Obviously zero stakes here in the series, but any sort of like individual marks for players to get to or just anyone you want to see anything? Sure. I mean, I think, you know, Cal Raleigh has a shot with a good series to not only set the record for most home runs in the first, what, four years or whatever. for a catcher to beat Mike Piazza. I think he needs two this weekend. Two to tie, three to take the lead. He also has a shot at 100 RBI, Mark, which is.

He's at 96 right now. Right, which is impressive for really anybody, but especially impressive for a catcher to manage that kind of offensive production. So I assume Cal will get two starts. He'll probably get that Sunday off or maybe he'll DH that day. But again, he's caught a lot of a lot. of innings this year. So maybe he gets a couple of D-H days.

I don't know how much any of these guys are really going to play. Two things to keep an eye on here on a personal level. This could be Justin Turner's last three games in what has been a very good major league career. But I think more importantly for Mariners, almost certainly the final three games in Mitch Hanigar's career. Yeah. And now Hanager hasn't played really at all this month.

So he's very clearly, it seems obvious that the Mariners have made their decision. on Hanager and all that. He will exercise his player option. The Mariners will just DFA him and pay him his money to go away. So I would hope that he's in the lineup all three games. I would hope that he gets his final start and right field on Sunday. And you can take him off the field. And I hope people understand the magnitude of that,

not just because I posted this on Twitter yesterday, and people are like he's back next year. He's got a player option. It's like it doesn't mean anything, guys. So I hope people aren't taking this for granted that Mitch Hanigur is, oh, well, he'll be back next year. Like, I guess there's a small chance he is, but the overwhelming odds are is that Mitch Hanager

is never going to wear a Mariners uniform again. And I hope that fans just, you know, show their love to a player who's been through a lot. He's on the playout, the team that broke the drought. He was kind of the leader of that squad for a long time. And he was on the teams that, you know, he lived through the rebuild and all that stuff. And so Hanager's a pretty underrated character

in the history of the Seattle Mariners. I hope that people recognize that on Sunday and recognize what's happening when he comes off the field. And I guess more than that, I hope the Mariners also recognize what they need to do to send off Mitch Hanager. And maybe just maybe, maybe we'll get one more magical Mitch moment and we'll get a walkoff hit or some kind of big hit because Mitch is really, really good at that. So maybe just maybe we'll get one more Hanager moment and it'll be awesome. Yeah, I agree with all of that, especially, you know, Mitch, like if they allow Mitch to, you know, if they go out and they get Mitch and he's able to walk off the field. Hopefully there's a really nice ovation for him and for everything that he's done for this organization and for the city. And then for Justin Turner, like, if you love baseball, if you're just a baseball fan, I know Turner's only been here for a couple months.

He's obviously had some really nice contributions in his time in Ameri's uniform. But overall, if you just, you love baseball, you respect baseball, you should give Justin Turner a nice ovation if this is it for him as well. And like you, I'm going to be keeping an eye on Cal and in general, I'm just going to be looking out for like who plays, who doesn't, right? Is Victor Rubless going to play these, you know, final three games? Yeah. With how much he's been beaten up? How much is Cal going to play, right? Is Cal even going to get the opportunity to get to 100 RBI and, you know, 92 homers?

I think he only needs one more steel also to beat Dan Wilson for the Mariners single season. catcher. Okay, well, he's got to let him do that, right? I mean, if he doesn't, it just shows that Dan Wilson

is kind of a coward. Right, right. Yeah, you know, also I think you're, let Cal pinch run. If he's like,

if he's not playing one of these games, let him pinch run. Let him try and steal. Let him pinch run for Victor Robles and steal second base. How about that? But yeah, also like, are we going to see Luis Castillo?

There's probably not much of a point anymore, but. Right. It does. if they want to, they could put them back out there. But again, it doesn't seem like much of a point. It seems like they're just going to skip that spot and everybody will still be pitching on normal rest.

It'll just be, you know, they'll just skip the number five spot in the rotation and go with Wu. And what would it be? It would be Wu, Miller, Gilbert. Gilbert, yes. Yeah, I think that's how it would go for the last three. So we'll see if Castillo pitches.

but yeah, you know, just enjoy the last three games because, hey, you know what, this team, as annoying as they are and as hard as they are to root for, they're not playing baseball games for the next five months after Sunday. Yeah. Not meaningful ones anyway. So, you know, if you're going to the ballpark, enjoy it. Don't feel like you're, you know, handing your money over to John Stanton and complying with his. You're enabling him. Yeah, you're not enabling John Stanton. You're going to a baseball game.

The last opportunity you'll have to do so. for what five six months now so just go enjoy and cheer on the boys and and uh you know pay attention as much as you want walk the ballpark whatever do whatever right yeah um it is it's your money it's it's your time and the mariners are bigger than john st right and so uh you know if you don't if you don't feel like going then then don't that's totally fine too but yeah don't feel like you are committing some kind of sin against the fandom it's not your fault okay let's like make something very, very clear here. You, the fan, us, Colby and I,

none of us are at fault for this, right? For still supporting the team. We're still believing in the team, right? Don't deprive yourself with something that brings you joy just because some other people want to try and feel like they're bigger than you because they won't

support this fan or this team when they don't blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. When we raise our kids to be Mariners fans, which is a subplot. That's a different problem. that you're raising kids specifically to be Mariner fans, but whatever. Like, in general, don't feel like, you know,

you're enabling John Stan because you're going to these games. Go, have fun. Enjoy the ballpark. And, you know, enjoy. Again, it's a long winter, man. It's really long winter. And so this is your last shot to go to the ballpark. Do it.

I know I am. So, yeah, it's don't feel like you're enabling. don't feel like you're a bad fan if you go to these games, you're not. This isn't your fault. This isn't your problem. And depriving yourself of something that makes you happy just to make other miserable people feel better. Stupid. Stupid.

100% agree. All right. So we're going to wrap things up here by, because I was wondering if we should do this next week or today, because I don't know when they're going to have their end of season press conference. I don't even know if they are going to have an end of season press conference after the disaster last year, but they better. So we're going to get into some dues and don'ts for whoever holds that press conference. I'm going to assume that it's just going to be Jerry to Poto again.

But if Justin Hollander is there, maybe even John Stanton, most likely not. We'll go over that in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Merritt's podcast is brought to you by booking.com and price picks. Explore those U.S. cities you always secretly wanted to learn more about. With hotels, bed and breakfast, vacation rentals, resorts, and so much more on booking.com, you might just find your perfect stay even in your baseball rival city during the postseason. Even an Orioles fan or a Guardians fan can have a good time in New York no matter what happens on the diamond this October. You can drown your playoff woes with a New York slice or celebrate advancing to the next round with a delicious chop cheese,

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So not sure if the Marriers are going to hold an end of season. press conference or not they should I assume they will even despite how much of a disaster last year's end of season press conference was I'm going to assume that Jerry de Potos time to just freely talk

though is going to be a lot more brief than it was last year yeah so we'll see put a microphone in front of Jerry yeah brevity's not really his strong suit so

We'll see. We can relate to that. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a professional. Right. Yeah. I'm in and out 30 minutes. Yeah.

As it's 30 minutes here on this recording, we're definitely going to have to edit down. Yeah. Yeah. If you see some cats in this episode, you know why, folks. All right. So let's go over some dues and don'ts for this end of season presser. I think it would be a good exercise for us. you to do here and maybe you know some people that work for the mayor's organization might be

listening to this so you know what uh take out the notepad and take some notes here folks because uh you guys haven't done a great job of speaking to your fan base over the last year if you want some expert opinions about how your fan base is going to react to certain sound bites yeah yeah that's us so yeah yes okay so i think this one we should just get out of the way this is the most obvious one don't spend this year as anything positive, right? Talked about this earlier on in the show. This is not a step forward. There's nothing positive about this.

No matter how many good things you did do this year, no matter how good the rotation was, no matter how you did hold a 10-game lead at one point, all that stuff. No matter how much better the offense got in the last, you know, month and a half of the season, nothing is positive about going at best 85 and 77

and missing the play. I'll say that you can acknowledge like individual. Like, hey, look, our offense was pretty good in the second half. We feel like we are in, you know, when Dan took over, we feel like we figured something out there.

The rotation was really good all year. But ultimately, we won 85 games and missed the playoffs. So we're not satisfied. We don't view this as a step forward. This is definitely a, a kind of a wasted year. in terms of what we want to accomplish.

So you can acknowledge some of the things that went well. But I really hope like if you utter the frame, at one point we had a 10 game lead, you are asking. That's exactly the problem. Right. That's exactly the problem. That is not a positive, right?

Yeah. That is a negative. So do not mention that unless it's in this, in the vein of like, we had a 10 game lead and we missed the playoffs. obviously this was not a good year. This was a disaster, whatever, right? But you can't spin.

Like, we had 10 game lead at one point, so that's good. No, no one wants to hear. No one wants to hear about the good things of this year. I'm just going to tell you that right now, straight up. Right. Right. Again. What people want to hear is you taking responsibility, accountability,

and how are you going to fix this? The big one is acknowledge that this year was a disaster. And I mean, the verbiage doesn't really matter. You don't have to call it a disaster or whatever. I mean, you probably score some points if you did say that. But like,

look, this year was a disappointment. There is no question about it. And everybody in this organization at every level failed to some degree. I failed this offseason. You know, the players didn't perform the way that they usually do.

The field staff had some issues. And, you know, we'll see if Jerry wants to throw ownership under the bus, he probably doesn't. He probably won't. But like I think you can make like from the top down, we as an organization failed this year. It was a failure.

There is no question about that. Did we have some things go right that we're excited about in the future? Sure. Absolutely. Does that matter today? No, it does not. We're here to talk about our failures. We're here to talk about where we can get better.

And we're here to talk about the people. future of this team. You have to acknowledge that above all else, this year is a failure. That is the number one goal. You should repeat that over and over again just to hammer home the point, even to the point where people are like, okay, we get it. Like, just hammer that home. All right. This year was a bust. We did not. This year was a step back. Just use that phrase. It's a step back from where we want to go and where we think we can get. All right. Obviously, the entire press conference isn't going to be doom and gloom, right? They're not going to sit up there just, you know, light themselves up for, for 20 minutes.

It's not going to happen. Okay. But you also shouldn't spin this. No. The overall tone still has to be like, wow. This is a wake-up call. This is what, right? It still has to be an overall.

Yeah. It has to be very clear from the moment you sit down on that stage, the moment you leave. This is not an acceptable outcome for anybody involved. Yeah. And if you try to spend this as any kind of positive, like, Step forward, you completely undercut the entire message, which is, this is not acceptable. We're going to fix it. Yeah.

Also, if you get asked about specific positions or you just find yourself talking about that and which positions you might need to address this off season, don't say that you had the fifth highest F war from your third base position this year. because a lot of that I shocked tie with yesterday. A lot of that comes from defense and we all watch the third base situation this year. Josh Brohoss got off to a really nice start. Want to give credit where credit is due on that front. He was one of the worst hitters in baseball for about four months. Exactly. Exactly.

Marr's third baseman, despite posting a four and a half F for this year and finishing fifth in all of baseball at that position. I don't believe, but it's true. Yeah, slash 212, 311, 358. That is unacceptable from your third base position, especially that slugging percentage. Make that work from second base. Yeah. So do not at all. And I'm telling this specifically to the man who said, well, when you combine Josh Rojas' best season and Luis Serrae's best season, you got a five-win third baseman.

Don't know. Your Reyes didn't really contribute for five months. Right. Exactly. That's the other thing. Mostly doing more and Josh Rojas. Your initial idea at third base was a disaster. You gave up on it a month and a half into the season. Right.

So, yes. Don't pat yourself on the back, essentially. Like we thought we were going to get about five wins from our third base position. And we did. We actually did. We were fifth. Nobody cares. Nobody cares, Jerry.

Nobody cares. Justin. Whoever else is up there. They don't care because nobody. is going to look this fan base in the face and with a straight face, look at them and say, third base was great this year. Like we feel really good about what happened at third base.

You're lying. Okay. And you're, you're insulting the fan base by suggesting that. So, yeah, do not, do not pat yourself on the back for,

for that. Don't pat yourself on the back for finding Luke Grayley. No, patting yourself on the back. no if anybody wants to like present you like well like if somebody wants to ask you like well what about luke raley you found him you found victor robes then you talk about those guys but what you don't do you don't sit there and go like yeah you know we had some misses this off season but when you look at what we got from raley when you look at what we got from yeah no if someone asked you about like what why did you know horre polanco or Mitch garver or whoever you know why did those guys fail and

why does this continue to happen they'll be like well we also got randy over Rose Arena and Victor Robles. No, no, no. No. Answer the question. Don't spend. Stop spinning. Just answer the question. Well, and also, if you have changed something in your approach to acquiring offensive players, and that's what's led to the success of like Justin Turner and Randy or Rosarena, talk about that. Talk about how you've changed things since the off season. Right. You don't have to go into detail, right? It'd be cool if you did.

But you don't have, you just have to be like, look, we think we've identified something that will help us in the future at identifying major league talent who can come in and produce in Seattle. We saw this early and we applied it to Justin Turner and Randy Rosarena and Victor Robles. They all came in and they hit. So we're really excited about that. But obviously, it's something that we did not do a good enough job of this winter, right? Something like that. Because not enough of the guys we brought in hit anywhere near where we expected.

Right. So, yeah. Finally, don't get into any weird baseball theory, 54% type of stuff. No, none of that. Nope. You're not going to educate the masses at this press conference. That's not what this is about. Okay.

Don't rely on the media to spin it for you either. No. Because newsflash, they're not. I'm not going to get on here and try to translate for Jerry to Boto. No. So don't tell fan base, don't tell the fan base how lucky they are. Don't tell the fan base, you know, how patient they, they need to be like, no, no, no, no, no. This is a very simple, straightforward press conference.

Yeah. It really is. Take accountability from yourself. And, you know, talk about where you fell short across the board. Don't make any sweeping promises about payroll. Just don't because here's the deal. I want to believe Jerry Depoto. and when Jerry DePoto says, like, we're going to have more resources this year than we ever have.

Fine. You said that for the last three winters. And every single time, you've gotten burned. So Jerry, instead of setting yourself up to be the fall guy for John Stanton when he pulls the rug out from under you, just say, we're not going to get into that at this time. So very, very simply put, right? This is a very easy press conference to nail. No positive spin unless directly asked about something positive that happened. right

acknowledge the mistakes that you made vow to fix them even if you don't know how at least say it we're going to fix it we're going to change it right we've already started to make that change and don't pat yourself on the back for anything that that went well this year

everything that happened this year was a disappointment or the fans right like individually you could be geeked out of your mind that Brian Wu looked as good as he did. But individually, none of it matters because you didn't make the playoffs and you didn't pay it off. Like I said at the start of the show, this was a wasteful season, right? Again, you failed to meet your ultimate goal and you waste it all.

You can acknowledge some of the good that happened this season as long as it is in the realm of and we wasted it and we couldn't take advantage of it. And that is the problem. This isn't the data. This isn't the day to trumpet brighter days are ahead. This isn't the day to, you know, talk about like, oh, we think we're so well set up for 26 and 20. This is the day to trumpet your farm system. Like, this is the day to talk about the failures of this entire franchise, top to bottom. They failed yet again to deliver playoff baseball to the city of Seattle. And that is what the whole press conference has to be about.

That's what the whole tone should be about. Yeah. Is that failure. It's really not that difficult. Yeah. And as someone that has. believed in your process a lot more than many others in this fan base and has appreciated what you've done within the organization through you know drafting and trades and all that uh i don't care

anymore about what you have coming down the pipeline i don't care that the arkansas travelers and the bodesto nuts won their their respective league championships i don't care about any of that i want the seattle merrists to be good i want the seattle merrists to win divisions i want the Seattle Marr is competing for championships. Tell me how that's going to happen. So that's all I want from this press conference. I don't want to hear about all the good things you've done. I don't want to hear you patting yourself on the back.

I want to hear about how you're going to fix this and you're going to get this thing back on track. Yeah. Yeah, I really doubt we're going to get any, like, actual news out of this presser, nothing that like we would say is like that's something. The only thing that is going to make headlines is if they say something stupid like last year. So just don't say anything stupid.

Yeah. I know that's very hard for this organization to accomplish, particularly over the last calendar year, but you can do it. I believe in you. Right. So now we don't know when this into season presser is going to happen, but A, it has to.

You cannot duck the media after what you just did. So as much as people are out there like, I don't even want Jerry, like it would be disaster if he did. I don't want them to. Yes, you do. You absolutely do. So they have to have it. Or they should have it, certainly.

And they almost certainly will. We don't know when it's going to be, right? It probably not Monday would be my, my guess it would be Tuesday or Wednesday. And when they have it, we'll talk about it. Also, also actually stream it this time where people can access it and not, you know, mysteriously not stream it. Right.

Because of the playoffs are on. No. No, stream it. Put it on your YouTube channel. Put it on your website. side at the very least, you should be carrying it on Root Sports Live, but whatever, right? At least put it out there so people can see. Otherwise, it feels like you're trying to hide something.

So, and also, it has the added bonus of you being able, like, if you say something, like, we can see the context surrounding it, right? It's also to protect yourself a little bit, unless you're so afraid you're going to screw that up, even, that you don't want the context out there. But anyways, we don't know when this is going to take place. It usually happens a couple days after the regular season ends, probably not Monday, that's typically when guys clear out the locker room and then the clubhouse and all that stuff. They have their exit interviews. So it'll probably be Tuesday or Wednesday. And regardless

of what's said, we'll talk about it on the next day CTZ or sorry, locked on. Probably both honestly. Oh, definitely both. Yeah. Hopefully there's nothing to news. Subscribe to the Patreon. If they do say something stupid, we'll let it rip on there. Yes. We, that is the unfiltered. Yeah. you know the unfiltered look at how we view the mariners unfiltered meaning not not that we change like our opinion it just are we can just say we can just say words that we can't say on this show right and we have like no time limited which to explain our our discuss exactly exactly yeah we don't have to cut anything out which is kind of how we're treating this show right now but yeah but anyway we will talk about whatever is said at the presser after they actually have

it. So that'll probably be next week sometime. Mailbag Monday will be back on Monday. And then on probably, you know, Monday or Tuesday next week, we'll kind of share with you guys how we're attacking the offseason shows and all that stuff. So stay tuned for all that. Yeah, absolutely. So we have a really, really fun plan for the offseason. Colby and I started hammering that out a few days ago. We have some new ideas, especially one for a new like theme show that's going to happen almost every week. not every single week. Like how we have, you know, Mailbag Monday and Fan Fiction Friday,

we're going to have a new one of those. So really excited about that. Fan Picture Friday coming back next week. Tye is so excited for it. So stoked. So stoked. Look at him trying to hide his excitement. Exactly.

But yeah. But yeah, lastly, before we get out of here, I just want to say thank you to everyone that has been with us for years, that joined us for the first time this season, for sticking with us. this season.

Obviously, it was very disappointing. There were a lot of highs, a lot of lows. So if you've stuck with us during the lows, really appreciate it. You know, the way that Colby and I get paid, this is our full-time jobs for those of you that don't know. But the way that Colby and I get paid is based on how much you watch and listen to the show. So for those of you that still supported the show, even when the team was incredibly annoying to watch, I really, I really, really appreciate you for, because. for how rough it was recording during those times.

I can only imagine how little you probably wanted to consume Mariners content during that time. So, yeah, if you still supported the show during that, especially we are very, very, very, very grateful for that. So thank you. Yes. Also, some giveaways probably going to happen over the next few weeks. Just to thank you guys for sticking around. This is our third full season doing this, actually, believe it or not.

every day for six months watching every single day. Yeah. Every single damn day. Anyways. Yeah. Yeah. There's some giveaways, stuff like that. We are looking into more charitable stuff like we did last year, which, you know,

we'll probably talk about when we actually announced the thing more. But there's been some really cool things that have happened over the last three years. We want to give back a little bit as we try to do. It's been a while since we've done giveaways and stuff like that. So it's time to start doing those again. And so just stay tuned, guys. I think next week will be, there'll be quite a few announcements taking place.

So stay tuned for all that and hopefully some good offseason coverage. And, you know, will we talk about Wants Soto once a week? Maybe. Soto Mojo, hashtag. Leave it in the comments, guys, hashtag Soto Mojo. Also want to thank our guests that we had over the course of the season, the Marine Lair guys, Jay's Triton podcast, Ben Reneery, Gary Hill Jr., Aaron Goldsmith, Ryan Dibbush,

all of you. Thank you guys for helping us make this show even that much better. And obviously, again, thank you, everyone that listened. If you listen to one episode this year, if you listen to all of them, we really, really appreciate your support. So that's going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here, a reminder that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube.

And now it's also available on Amazon, Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. Locked on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked-on Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tiding Azzalus. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-U-Urars.

You can follow me at Tiding-A-Zallis and Colby at C-Pat-E-E-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you next time. Peace. Go Epps.