Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Rainy Day Recess With Jon Miller

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

Since yesterday's game was rained out, D.C. invites Jonathan Miller on the show to do an almost entirely unscripted episode -- only one topic was decided upon before hand, and the two of them knew they weren't going to talk about it all that long. They start by talking a little about the first regular season power rankings to come out, which led into a brief discussion on how teams rebuild, they talk about Kyle Seager & Ty France... then go way off toping talking about collegiate basketball, bowling, and finally bring it back around to baseball by discussing the warnings issued to both benches on Sunday, leading to Scott Servais' ejection. 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.

Coming up. No, not coming up. That comes later. Today on Locked-on Mariners, I forgot what I was going to say. This is not going well. DC has to call out. Yes, he does. Because of foot and mouth disease. Not the way I planned for that intro to go, but it's better than what I had written. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. your host, D.C. Lundberg. Yes, indeed.

Despite that intro, which speaks to a less than promising show, we'll still have a good one. I sincerely hope. I am D.C. Lundberg, ladies and gentlemen, piloting another edition of Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast network brought to you by Rock Auto. Please remember to download rate and follow this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any of the other. are great shows here on the Locked on Podcast Network.

So simple and easy to do. All you got to do is say, hey, smart device, play Locked on Mariner's podcast, play locked on Anaheim Ducks podcast, play Locked on Anything Podcast. Well, gang, no game yesterday. The weather did not permit, so the M's and O's will play a double header later this afternoon. First game starts at 105 PM in Seattle and Spokane, 405 in Baltimore, and 505 in Baltimore, and 505 in Buenos Aires.

So we'll talk briefly about the first set of power rankings to drop during the regular season, which dropped Sunday night, discuss whether or not the Mariners placement is justified. And other than that, just going to kind of wing it with Locked-on Mariners contributor John Miller. John, how you doing? I am doing very well. Thank you so much for having me. Great to have you here, sir, especially on a day like this where there's all of a sudden no game to cover, a rainy day recess, as it were, and I have to figure out how to fill three blocks of programming.

In any case, the power rankings did come out Sunday night, and boy, were they powerful and rank. This may also give some indication of just the kind of competition that the Mariners had faced to open the season. At the top of the heap, Mr. Miller, your Los Angeles Dodgers at number one. Right behind them were their division rival San Diego Padres, or Slam Diego, as we like to say. The twins, whom the Mariners just beat two out of three, were number four. Very, very good team. And the White Sox were seven. The Mariners' first opponents, the San Francisco Giants, were all the way down the list at 22.

They've got to go to offense, but I guess their pitching might be a little worse than I thought. The Giants were ranked two places above the Mariners, who were at number 24. The Pittsburgh Pirates were last, ranking 33rd among the 30 teams. Ahead of them in the pole were a litter of Alaskan Malamute puppy, the Bradford family from eight is enough, and a six-year-old girl who had wet her pants prior to the pole being taken. John, they have the Mariners behind the Marlins,

who were a two and six entering today. The Marlins are number 23, one place ahead of the Mariners. The Mariners are four and five. That doesn't seem right. What do you think? That does not seem right for the Mariners to be behind a AAA ball club. The Marlins statistics, they're 12th in the National League in batting average.

They're hitting 213 as a team versus the Mariners 227. The Marlins team ERA is actually 366. That's pretty good. Very good. It's sixth in the National League. Starting pitching looks to be okay thus far. Bullpen looks like it's a bit of a problem for them as it is with the Mariners, who have a team ERA of 527.

But again, they have faced some very, very good offenses, their first three opponents. Even though the Giants really are not that good as a team, their offense is pretty good. Chicago's got a lot of firepower in that offense. And the twins, my goodness, are they off to a hot start? That entire team is different with Byron Buxton in the lineup. I didn't realize what a good player Byron Buckson is. But the teams behind the Mariners are, in this order, the Tigers, the Orioles, who will still a four-game series beginning today.

The Diamondbacks off to a terrible start. The Rangers off to a terrible start. They just got no hit a few days ago. The Rockies and, of course, the Pirates ranked dead last. Poor Pittsburgh. You know, I legitimately feel bad for the fans in Pittsburgh. They have not had anything to cheer about for several years. And prior to that little stretch where they had some success,

they hadn't had a good team since the early 90s. Yeah, I am not. sure what can be done with organizations like that. There are some old school people that, and you might remember some talk about this, contracting teams. Right, yeah. You and I have talked about this off the air, teams that are getting all of 5,000 people in, and they're calling that a win as far as attendance. The thing about Pittsburgh is there's such a historic franchise. I don't know if you could contract them if it came to that. The last time I remember contraction really being talked about as something that could happen

was 2002, somewhere around there was about 20 years ago, and the teams that they were talking about eliminating were the Montreal Expos, who wound up moving a few years later anyway, and the twins, and that was really when the twins started to, that began a hot streak for them. I think it kind of lit a fire under that franchise, and they had some good up-and-young-coming players anyway, and they went on to a period of success. I don't know if contraction really is the answer or a forced ownership change or something of that sort, but whatever the answer is, I cannot imagine Major League Baseball without the Pittsburgh Pirates, whether they're good or bad.

Yeah, I am not in favor of that. Right, yeah. I'm certainly not for adding a bunch of teams necessarily, unless the first team goes right back to Montreal. Right, yeah. But otherwise, what if the ownership actually cares about winning and making more money than they are with a situation like that, or maybe Miami or Tampa or wherever else, you need to kind of do what the Mariners have been doing. And, okay, first of all, we're going to clean house all of the senior staff, managers, hitting coaching. is general manage everyone's on the chopping block the senior staff infections you mean yes we're going to

clear out the staff infections we're going to lance those boils sorry i don't know why i said that and we're going to get people in here that are committed to whatever our mindset is and then you may need to do that with some of your players in the mariners case we had Felix Hernandez, who was not pulling his weight anymore and had a very hefty contract. And his last few years, he was essentially the highest paid bench warmer we had. Yeah, I mean, the only thing, I mean, I don't want to say the only thing he was good for because he had some good starts in that era. But what he did is he brought fans to the ballpark.

Whether he was good or bad, he was going to fill up the King's Court. There is some value to that. but I was also happy that the mayors decided not to renew him, and he knew his time was coming to an end. He loved his time with the Mariners, but he also knew that the team was moving on, getting younger, and he just didn't fit the bill anymore. Kyle Seeger might be on that block as well,

although that third game against the twins that he played where he went four for four, my gosh, did he have a good game, but I still don't think the Mariners are going to resign him. No, what that would do in his favor is, as the trade deadline approaches, they can use him to hopefully get some, either guys have already made the bigs or get some good prospects.

That's exactly what I think they're going to do. I hope he has a good season, because I'm a Kyle Seeger fan, ladies and gentlemen. But at the same time, I'm also a practical man, and I know that his days in Seattle are not going to continue beyond this season. So you almost have to, trade him in order to get something back for him rather than just letting him walk as a free agent.

That's the way it's been in baseball for 20, 25 years. The only way you might keep him on is if he was your David Ortiz or Edgar Martinez type who were already designated hitters or someone who you knew was a good enough, dependable enough hitter throughout his career. Yeah. We both like Seeger, but he has had his struggles with average. Yeah, he has, and I think part of it,

and I addressed it on Friday just a little bit, is that he tends to get a little pull happy, especially when he starts to get into a hot streak. He'll start trying to pull everything. And usually when that happens, with almost anyone, not just Seeger, they'll start grounding out a whole lot to either the first or second baseman.

Seeger is a line drive hitter, and he has more success when he tries to hit the ball to all fields. But offense has been the problem because he's still, at the very least, an above-average defensive third baseman. His gold-gloved days are gone, but he can still hold his own over there. I have no trouble with him on defense. No, certainly not. And actually, as far as describing his hitting,

good player that he reminds me of would be a Scott Rowland. Oh, very, very nice. Scott Rowland, Philly's, and the Cardinals, he played for a bunch of teams actually not that I think about that. Yes, he did. Yeah, he did. Borderline Hall of Famer. There are a lot of people out there who would argue that he should be in the hall,

and there's definitely an argument to be had. I'll probably use him as a Hall Pass subject at some point. Don't have a Hall Pass plan for today, but I do have a trivia question for which we are past to do, and it is this. How many men named John Miller have played Major League Baseball, both spelled J-O-N and J-O-N-J-O. O-H-N. Answer following this word from Rock Auto, which is a family business serving auto parts

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But best of all, prices at rockado.com are always reliably low. And the same for professionals and do-it-yourselfers, Alex. I almost said do-it mechanics. That's completely wrong. Why spend it twice as much for the same parts? No reason to do that, gang, so go over to rockadoot.com right at this exact moment. To see all the parts available if your car, truck, van, SUV, bus, or whatever. Right.

Rocked. I did it again. Locked on in there. How did you hear about us, box? So they know that we sent you. I almost said, Rock on again. Haven't had a David Essex mentioned on this show for a while. Amazing selection, reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need rock under.com. Anyways, enter the trivia question. John Miller. How many men named John Miller have played major league baseball? Any idea? I can remember one. He played quite a while ago. they're probably I'm going to guess two.

Guess what? That's right. Oh, wow. Yep. Two men named John Miller to play Major League Baseball. Both of them played in the mid-60s. The man who with more career appearances was a pitcher by the name of John Miller,

John Ernest Miller, born May 30th, 1941 in Baltimore, and he spent five years with the Baltimore Orioles. 1962, 63, 65, 66, and 67. 46 games, 35 of them were starts, a 12 and 14 record and a 389 earned run average. He died last June at the age of 79 in Westminster, Maryland. And the other one is John Allen Miller, J-O-H-N-A-L-E-N, who played for the 1966 Yankees and 1969 Dodgers.

He was a left-fielder and first baseman, primarily used as a pinch hitter, 32 career games, 63 plate appearances, a slash line of 164, 190, 279. Coming up, I have no idea. Now back to Lockdown Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, Joey Martin. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, get all the sports news that you need in under 20 minutes with a locked on today podcast. host Peter Bikowski updates you on all the latest news in every single major sport there is

with the help of our local experts. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Locked on Local Experts. Follow the Locked on today podcast on the Odyssey app, A-U-D-A-C-Y, or wherever you choose to get podcasts. Kind of left off in the first segment talking a little bit about Kyle Seeger, and there's one other player that I kind of wanted to do a feature on at some point this week, and this is a good chance to do it, John. I'm here with John Miller, by the way, ladies and gentlemen.

This is kind of a good chance to do it since the Mariners did not have a game yesterday, and there's really nothing to recap. And that's Thai France. He's gotten out to a very, very good start. He's been very, very impressive. And Dave Sims last week asked Mike Blowers for a comparison to one of Blowers's contemporaries, and he couldn't come up with one. A couple of games later, Sims asked him the same question.

And Blowers came up with Steve Garvey, who was not one of Blowers. contemporaries, he played primarily in the 70s and early 80s, where Blowers broke in in, I think, 1990. The comp that I came up with was Craig Beggio, and I'm not exactly convinced that they're similar type players in every regard, but I see similarities in their offensive profile at the very least. I think Ty France is going to be one of those guys who's going to hit you a lot of doubles,

maybe even as much as 45 or 50. I love the guy's gap power and his contact. Yeah, I am liking him thus far, both last season and this season. Yeah, so far this season, nine games, 11 at bats, a slash line of 324, 439, 471. That's an OPS of 9-10. That's pretty big. 11 hits, two doubles and a home run. I suspect we'll see extra base pop at a greater clip than this as the season progresses.

Yeah, I can definitely see that happening. And, wait, who was he compared to? Garvey and. I said Craig Beggio. And I know that they're very different players in terms of defense and base running. But offensively, I think that there are certainly some similarities. As far as the slash line, if you project France out, I could see him getting there. Yeah, I mean, he's going to strike out.

I mean, this is age 26C. And BGO was not one to strike out a whole lot. In terms of strikeouts, he was kind of average for his era. And that's what I kind of see Thai France as as well, because strikeout numbers have just gone through the roof in the last few years. For two reasons, I think. It has to do with pitchers just having a lot more power than they used to. There are a lot more power pitchers in the game.

And also making contact and avoiding strikeouts, for a hitter's perspective, just as not as emphasized as it used to be. No, it is, and I don't want to make this sound like it's a permanent thing. Baseball goes through generational phases. This has happened as long as baseball's been around. You will have areas where the pitchers are just dominant, and the batterers are striking out more than normal, or they're just, they're not striking out, they're just not hitting the ball.

Right. They're grounding out, they're flying out. something is happening that they're not getting on base. And then you've got eras and DC, you and I have seen a couple in our lifetime where the hitters are just on fire. Yeah, true. And it'll last for a few years, maybe 10 at most, and then it kind of tapers off a bit. Those players retire or they get old or just can't do it anymore.

Maybe the ball's not as juiced or something's going on. The balls are something. Yeah. Yes. I shouldn't say that. Well, it's true, unfortunately. This just popped into my head as you were talking about how you know how baseball is cyclical. I remember when I really got into baseball in the mid-90s, that was an era that was very heavy on offense.

Then beginning around the turn of the century, so to speak, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, pitching really came more to prominence at that time. And I'm wondering if clubs were just kind of beefing up their country. coaching on pitching and developing pitchers to combat these offensive juggernauts, which led to kind of a pitchers sort of era, which may have led to offenses maybe being beefed up a little bit to combat this great pitching. Is there any validity to that, or am I just blown smoke? I honestly have no idea.

I could definitely see that, because you saw the pitching get a little bit better. The power hitters, yes, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, and. and Griffey and stuff. They retired. Yep. But there was no one else to take their place. The numbers that we had seen were not there. No one hit 50 home runs for years.

That's actually true. There was one season, I think, 39 or something led the league. I don't remember when that was. I want to say 2006, 2007. I could be way off base. And again, that's just a theory that I kind of came up with as John was speaking. and I don't know if that's true or not, ladies and gentlemen, it makes sense to my feeble brainhead.

I really don't know. And John, we prefer the same type of baseball. And those of you out there who have listened to the show for any length of time know that I'm fairly old school. John is fairly old school. And if this is your first time to the end of the program listening to it, you'll get used to me sounding like a 98-year-old here really quickly. And I was thinking of this the other day, you know, the old school versus the new school.

And I was thinking about infield shifts and how often people shift against you as other. There was somebody a few years ago who was lamented, I don't remember who this was, but they were lamenting that, well, they're taking our base hits away. No, they're not. All you have to do is bump the ball down the third base line and you've got yourself a base hit. And if you do that on a regular enough bases, they're going to stop shifting against you, which reopens up the whole field. Plus, baseball is a team game.

Especially if you're the lead off batter in an inning, take your base hit, get on first, and let the guys behind you drive you in. That is definitely a valid option when they try the shift. Another one is to just try to beat the shift. You work with your hitting coach on trying to hit it opposite of the shift. Exactly.

batting average is going to go up. You're going to score more runs. You're going to be on base more. That's really the answer rather than just bunting the ball, you know, towards the third base where nobody is. It's all in the coaching, you know, say, hey, coach, I really want to work on hitting the ball the other way. I'm not very good at it. And, okay, so it might cost you five or ten home runs this season. Big effing deal. This is a team game, like I said. Especially if you're leading off the inning, it's only going to be, one run, and if you get on base, you know, hitting is contagious. And you can start stringing some base hits together. It's the kind of baseball that I like to call keep the wheels turning,

stringing a few base hits together. And I'm maybe a little bit bigger on gap power than most small ball guys are. But I think gap power is really important because you can see if, you know, somebody gets on via a double and then somebody else smokes went into the gap, that's what's contagious. Even if the first guy gets on via a bunt hit or maybe a single and then a sacrifice to long, a doubles got you one run. I am very much in agreement with you on this. Well, growing up, I loved it, and there's still that thrill. When you hear the crack of the bat and you see the ball fly at a hundred and some recently I saw it was 115 miles an hour or something off the bat and it just disappears out into the stand somewhere or maybe out of the

park. Well, you love that. If your lead-off hitter does that, that is one run. You started and ended a rally right there, potentially. Yeah, but there is a place for that. I think if your lead-off guy can get an instant one-nothing lead with a home run, that is a weapon. But it's also not something that should have to be relied upon is, I guess, what I'm trying to say.

And the other thing with home runs, yes, they're exciting. But one reason why they are so exciting, or one reason they used to be so exciting, is because they were so rare. Now everybody's expected to hit at least 15 home runs a season, even your number nine hitter. If he could do that, great. But I would also want him to be hitting about 35 doubles a season. I want my number nine hitter almost like another leadoff hitter. Someone who can handle the bat, get down a butt when necessary, reset the table

for the top of the order. I'm old-fashioned, and we've talked about this before. We need to move along. So ladies and gentlemen, if you out there have a question or a comment for this old buddy-duddy, send it on to Lockedon Airners at gmail.com. I will reply to it on the air in an upcoming mailbag episode or segment. Not exactly sure how I'm going to handle that this season. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome and encouraged, however.

That hasn't changed. I also want to note, ladies and gentlemen, that I have three emails thus far. Two of them are from the same person, and one of them was addressed to Clive. To reiterate, one third of our mail is addressed to a fictional character. Which, honestly, I'm fine with. I'm glad you out there have a sense of humor.

Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com once again is that email address. Coming up, more stuff that John Miller and I make up as we go along. But first, this word from, who's the sponsor? It's betonline.ag, gang. How about that? Oh, my goodness. Bet online is the fastest and easiest way to bet on. your sports action. Football's over. College basketball's over. They really got to change that

script. NBA and the NHL earned full swing, as is Major League Baseball. Bet Online even covers awards. TV shows in reality TV, don't you know? Real-time update and odds and props on almost anything that you can imagine. Bet Online has you covered for all the news, scores, and odds. It's the best way to place your bets and it's absolutely free to sign up. Head on over to the website or use your mobile device to sign up today and receive your 50% welcome bonus with your first deposit. Bet Online, your online sportsbook experts promo called Lockdown. Welcome back to Lockdown Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg.

Thank you very much, Joey Martin. Ladies and gentlemen, do you want to be a waiver-wire winner? I'm sure you do, so if you do, you've got to listen to the Lockdown Fantasy Baseball podcast. It is a daily podcast hosted by veteran fantasy analyst Scott Cullen, not related to Bill, I'm pretty sure. He uses data and nearly two decades of fantasy baseball experiments, experience, to offer the strategies and waiver wire pickups that will lead to league win. It's been scientifically proven, gang, in more than zero studies. Follow the Locked-on Fantasy Baseball podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts.

I'm very happy that I'm no longer saying audacity in that spot. It is Odyssey, A-U-D-A-C-Y. D.C. Lundberg back with you on Locked-on Mariners, along with Locked-on Mariners contributor, John Miller. Just kind of shooting the breeze after the rain. a raid and postponed game that was supposed to happen yesterday, did not happen. And John, what else you want to talk about? As you were reading BetOnline, I couldn't help but notice that they need to change that

because the NCAA is done. But I also couldn't help but think that the only reason that you and I would know that is because a local team made it as far as they did. Yeah. That is actually true. The Gonzaga Bulldogs had a perfect season up until the NCAA final game, which I had been calling the big giant basketball tournament, because I honestly had forgotten the term NCAA.

That's how much I care about college sports guys. That is Zip. My roommate, however, had gotten into watching the Gonzaga games, and that's how I knew what they had done. Plus, there was a bar that's just up the street for me a few blocks that had posted Gonzaga's record on their billboard as an advertisement to get people to come in and watch the tournament. you know, as any good bar in Spokane would.

But, yeah, it was kind of disappointing the way it wound up. It's also disappointing my English skills right now. But, and again, I don't care about the Zags. I don't even really like Gonzaga very much. But for my city's sake, I was really hoping they'd pull it out, John. Yeah, I figured they were a long shot, but it was great to see them go that far. and I am not a college sports fan whatsoever.

We've discussed this on the air. Yes, we have. Although I saw some collegiate bowling the other week that was fun, but you were going to say something else. I'll let you continue. I did not know they did bowling. Oh, yes, ESPNU, which is one of the channels on the cable package that I have. The only reason I have a package like that is so I can get the Olympic channel, quite honestly.

I didn't even know I had ESPNU. I didn't even know that it existed. But I was flipping through the channels. and, you know, just the channel guide, and I saw Collegiate Bowling. Well, I'm going to take a look at this. And nobody broke 200, but it was still kind of fun to watch because these are the up-and-coming people. Some of them are going to be on the pro tour. It was NCAA women's, not the NCAA, but it was a college women's bowling tournament.

And some of them are going to be on the PWBA, but most of them are planning on careers in the real world, so to speak, which is also kind of cool. And the coach of the winning team, of course, I don't remember which team won this tournament, is Kim Torel Tierney, who was a touring member of the old ladies pro bowlers tour, which was a predecessor to today's PWBA. She was a very, very good bowler back in the day, and now she's in the college ranks and managed one of the teams on the, one of the all women's teams at the PBA League last year, which I think is probably going to happen again. Very good coach, too. Great to hear that she's doing so well. It is. Some of those L-I-I-C-B-T tournaments, ladies' pro bowlers' tournaments, some of them are on YouTube, and they're fun to watch.

I've said on this program before, I enjoy women's bowling more than men's bowling because they have to rely on shot-making and keeping the ball in the pocket rather than just pure power, which is most of the men's game. And also on Sunday, John, I know I shared this video with the group, and I talked about it on the show yesterday too. 7-10 split converted on television. It hasn't happened since 91. That's fantastic.

And it was so fun. And the fact that this guy has, this was first television appearance, his first television appearance in a PBA event. He has a couple of television appearances in junior gold competition, which is a youth tournament, which CBS Sports used to air. But he's only been a PBA pro really for a few months.

months. And this was his first time making the step ladder finals, 18 years old. His father was a pro bowler. His father was Andy Nyer, who won at PBA tournament in 1994 against the great Walter Ray Williams Jr. This kid has bowling in his DNA. And he's done, he's done something that only three other men have done on television. That's very impressive. It was very impressive. And ladies and gentlemen, a 7-10 split is as hard. as you think it is. You have to throw it as hard as you can at either corner pin and just hope it bounces out of the pit and takes out the other pin. There's no strategy involved whatsoever. It is one of those

quote-unquote impossible splits because there's no way to do it aside from just throw a Hail Mary at it. I've never done it. John, have you ever? I have never done it. I was just talking to my wife about it earlier for two years in my teens. I was in a teen bowling league, and I was pretty good, but I was never that good. I wish that I had taken it more seriously, because if I had, I probably could have been pretty decent, but I didn't take anything seriously when I was that age. And now, now obviously I wish I had, but I've never made a 7-10 split. I thought my biggest accomplishment was making a 4-9. I would settle for a 4-9.

As you know, I am not capable of even lifting a bowling ball right now. Yeah, we both have our health issues we're dealing with, unfortunately. I don't know if you have, you've been paying attention to the men's world curling champions. I'm sure that my listeners are getting tired of hearing this, but, you know, what else are we going to talk about after a rain delay? Did you see any of the games, John, or is that just me? That was just you. I do not have access to that channel.

I see. Okay. Trying to think of what else we can talk about. Ah, you're an umpire, John. There was something that came up in Sunday's game that I'll bring up again. And this had to do with the umpires issuing warnings to both benches. This is the same crew that you and I were praising on Friday for their handling of a call that they originally missed. Ty Franch was hit twice in the ball game unintentionally.

Later on in the game, Byron Buxton was hit. hit unintentionally, and the umpires figured, well, I better stop this. Let's issue warnings. It seems kind of useless to me. Scott, service took exception and got run from the game. I'm absolutely on service's side on this one. What are your thoughts as an umpire? My first question, as you were speaking, is how much later in the game did that next hit come? I think that France's second hit by pitch was in the top of the seventh, and Bucks was hit in the next half inning, but there had already been somebody retired. There was an 0-1 count on him, and it was a 77-mile-an-hour change-up.

Yeah, there was nothing malicious about it. I am on services side. And as far as the warnings, that may be because that's what the umpires are instructed to do. Why wouldn't they issue warnings, though, after the second time France was hit? And again, the Mariners know that they were not throwing at France, and the twins knew that they were not throwing at Buxton. But why issue a warning after Buxton was hit? Why not issue a warning after the second time France was hit?

Honestly, I think it's stupid. If they are forced to do that, when they know a 77 mile an hour changeup, you are not trying to hit this guy. Right. And it's clearly not being aimed at any parts where you might be trying to send a message. You're not sending them chin music here.

And you don't send message. with change-ups. You send messages with fastballs to a guy's hip. Yes. Yeah, it may just be that that's what they're told to do. If one team's hit and then another team's hit, you have to issue warnings that the next guy that's hit, he's getting tossed, and someone else may be getting tossed as well. Okay, so they may actually just be playing it by the book just to stick to the letter of the law as closely as possible to cover their own hides more than anything else. Yes, it's, because if they don't, they will hear about it after the game.

Why didn't you do that? You know you're supposed to, because we want to get out on that because we don't want the field flooded with players. Yeah. Yeah, that would be a bad thing. Thank you for that insight, John, because now that you say that, it makes sense. And in your umpiring days, you never had to deal with a bean ball war anything like that, did you?

No, I never had to deal with beanball war. Occasionally they, like, well, she, he did that intentionally. Mm-hmm. But that was it. Nothing ever came of it. Well, that's very good. I think you're fortunate in that regard. And there's one story, John, that you have told me about your umpiring days where a manager

was, uh, was yelling at you or your partner. We're going to save that for another time when maybe we'll do a whole show about umpiring. It's a good story, ladies and gentlemen, so that's something to look forward to here in the coming days on Locked on Mariners. But at this time, I think we're going to call it a show. John, where can the nice people find you on Twitter? I could be found on Twitter at Seattle Pilot 69.

Excellent. Thank you again, John, for stepping up to the plate here, so to speak, and helping me do a show after a rain delay, as I keep saying. I really had no idea how this show was going to go, ladies and gentlemen. gentlemen. I think it went pretty well, and we have John Miller to thank for that. Thank you, sir. You're very welcome. Excellent. Next time on Locked-on Mariners, we'll be talking about Taddei's doubleheader

unless it gets rained out again. And if it does get rained out again, maybe I'll just beat box for 24 minutes. Joining me tomorrow will be Barney Miller, Alf, and a tree stump. Please remember to download, rate, and follow this program. I have a good time, gang. Please remember

to download, follow, and rate this. Download, follow. What am I supposed to say? Oh my goodness gracious. Do the thing on the podcasting app. Rate this show and say that the host has trouble with words sometimes, which is the absolute truth. Thank you for listening, ladies and gentlemen, that outro aside, and I'll join you tomorrow unless I get put in a home. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Maritors, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.