Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Revenge Series Opportunities Aplenty as Mariners Host Diamondbacks

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Fresh off a 4-2 road trip, the Mariners back home for a highly difficult homestand, starting with the defending National League champion Diamondbacks. Ty and Colby give you their thoughts on Arizona, ...look at Eugenio Suárez's season thus far and compare it to the Mariners' current third base situation, and discuss how Emerson Hancock can help give Seattle a three-game win streak.Ask us questions! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonmlb to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Play. Yahoo FinanceFor comprehensive financial news and analysis, visit the brand behind every great investor, YahooFinance.com. PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! 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. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON 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 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Mariners are back home, but the schedule does not get any easier. After taking two or three from the defending World Series champs, they now face the team the Rangers beat in the fall classic, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Get you set for the weekend series coming up here on the Lockdown Marers podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast.
Starting point is 00:00:26 Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors. It is Friday, April 26, 2020. 24, this is Tiding Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown errors podcast brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more and right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. That's $150.00000000% win or lose. Visit Fandul.com slash locked on. That's LOCKD-O-N to get yourself started.
Starting point is 00:00:55 Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe like and turn all 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're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. Marers kick off a three-game set with the Diamondbacks tonight at T-Mobile Park.
Starting point is 00:01:24 You can catch all the action on the Marry's hometown broadcast on Sirius XM with the S-XM app. All you have to do is search Mariners. Quite a few familiar faces on this Diamondbacks roster, of course. We'll see if Paul Seewald is one of them. He's been rehabbing from a strained oblique, but it seems like he's pretty close to making his return as of a couple days ago. But there's still Catelle Marte, Eugenio Suarez, of course, and the local kid, Corbyn Carroll.
Starting point is 00:01:51 Diamondbacks, though, off to kind of a slow start. They're 12 and 14 on the year. Now, their offense has been very good. They put up double-digit games multiple times already, but their pitching has been kind of middle. the pack. Now, pitching isn't an issue for them tonight on paper, however. Zach Gallen, one of the best righties in the game is going for them in game one. We'll get to him and the rest of the pitching matchups a little bit later on. But Colby, what do you make of the Diamondbacks and what are your
Starting point is 00:02:18 general thoughts heading into the series? Yeah, it should be a pretty fun series. These are certainly two teams that have playoff aspirations this year. And, you know, like the upcoming series against Atlanta, this series also represents kind of a strength-on-strength matchup where, you know, the Diamondbacks lead the majors and runs scored. And now they've done that on the back of like three games where they've scored about 40 runs. So like, you know, that can sway the sample size pretty significantly. But they're also pretty consistently putting up runs early on in the season. It's a very good lineup.
Starting point is 00:02:51 It's deep. You've already mentioned Marte and Carol. And then there's Suarez and Joc Peterson and Gurriel. I mean, it's a pretty good. pretty good lineup. You know, Philo guys who can beat you in a lot of different ways. They have speed. They have power. They play defense. Like, it is a good roster. So it'll be interesting to see how Seattle's starting pitching kind of lines up with the next two teams.
Starting point is 00:03:15 But obviously, Arizona is first. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how they handle the speed that Arizona can bring to the table. This is a team in the Mariners that has struggled at times to really control a running game. And we know that guys like Corbyn Carroll are capable of stealing 70 bags, 50 to 70 bags in a year. And we know that they have speed up and down this lineup. They have it on the bench as well. So, you know, how they control the run game, not giving up extra bases.
Starting point is 00:03:43 When the mayors have really struggled to prevent runs is when the opposing team can kind of create runs with their legs. Put a lot of pressure on this defense, which, you know, unfortunately now without J.P. Crawford has a really. shallow, like mediocre at best defensive middle infield. So, you know, when you look at what Cleveland was able to do, when you look at what Boston was able to do early in the year, those are two teams that could really make a lot of contact and they can really run the bases and they were able to put a lot of pressure on the
Starting point is 00:04:15 Mariners defense to be perfect. And so, you know, that's obviously less likely to be the case when your backup shortstop is out there. So yeah, it's an interesting matchup. It's a bit of a difficult one, but it is strength on strength. It's your starting pitching versus their offense. And then I have a hunch this might come down to a battle of the bullpins. And right now, both teams' bullpins are a little bit banged up. You know, they're missing some really big pieces. We'll see if Arizona gets Seawald back. I'm sure Paul really wants to play in this series, but you can't brush an oblique. Like, it's just unfortunate timing, but that's the reality. He got into one rehab game. Do they think that's good enough?
Starting point is 00:04:55 maybe. But we'll probably know what they do here in the next couple hours on him. So, yeah, we'll see if Paul pitches. But yeah, I think this is going to come down to the bullpins a little bit here. I think, you know, Seattle, you can't get into a slug fest with this lineup. You're outgunned right now, particularly with the way that Hanager has been swinging the bat recently, the way that Garber's been swinging it, the way that, you know, Polanco is kind of stuck in this, like, he's okay range, but he hasn't really climbed out of it yet. that like you really can't try and score, you know, six, seven, eight runs to beat these guys. You're probably not going to do it.
Starting point is 00:05:31 You have to keep these games around three, four, five runs. And you have the pitching lined up tonight. Big test for Emerson Hancock, but you do have a couple of guns going in the next few days after that. So we'll see how this whole series matches up again. Like taking two or three from this, from, you know, this team would be huge. And just keep on a series like we've talked about. about. But it's going to be, it's going to be a challenge, you know. And so I'm interested to see, like I said, there are some some really positive things in this matchup. There are some really
Starting point is 00:06:04 negative things in this matchup. And I think these are two teams that right now are roughly the same in terms of talent, just overall talent on their roster. But, you know, either team can can certainly run away with a series of the other one doesn't play well. So you got to play good, solid baseball and you got to find a way to keep these guys, you know, from touching home plate five, six, seven times. Otherwise, you're probably looking at a sweep. So run prevention is the key to this game. The Diamondbacks have been shut out just once this season. They've scored one run and just one game this season. They've scored two runs and two games this season, which means they've scored three or more runs and the other 22 games, including four double-digit games,
Starting point is 00:06:49 where they scored 17, twice, 16, and I believe 13 in that, or 12, rather. They won 12 to 11 against the Cubs. That was a really fun game back and forth. And these two teams, of course, pretty intertwined with one another over the last eight or so months because of a couple big trades they made with one another. Of course, the Paul Sewell trade back of the deadline last year, and then more recently the A. E. Ohenio-Swaris trade. and with Gino coming back to town for the first time,
Starting point is 00:07:20 kind of renews one of the biggest talking points of the off season, which is the Mariners' third base situation. So we're going to look at the state of the Mariners' third base situation, and then what Gino has been doing down in Arizona in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marries podcast is brought to you by DoorDash. Want to make Mom smile? Start Mother's Day with flowers or surprise her with gifts from the brand she loves, delivered the very same day with DoorDash.
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Starting point is 00:08:42 Once again, the Mariners are back at it tonight, beginning a three-game set against Corbin Carroll, E. E. Oh, Henni, Oswares, and the Diamondbacks. can catch all the action on the Marr's hometown broadcast with SiriusXM on the SXM app. All you have to do is search Marrars. And speaking of Gino Suarez, we're going to get to see him tonight. He's played in 25 of the Diamondbacks 26 games so far this season. And, you know, this was a big topic all off season, the third base situation after the mayor has traded Gino to the Diamondbacks, partly for salary relief, of course, but also
Starting point is 00:09:17 because they felt that Gino was approaching the cliff or he had already approached the cliff. They had some concerns about the bat speed. And so far, it's very early, things can change at the drop of a hat still. It's only April 26th. But so far, it seems like they were right in that assessment. Gino so far, just hitting 234, 308, 351 with an 87 WRC plus. He's been worth just 0.1F4. On the flip side, the Mariners, of course, went,
Starting point is 00:09:47 with a platoon of Josh Rojas and Louisa Reyes. And as of now, heading into this game, the Marr's third base platoon has been good for the third best WRC plus amongst all third base situations in baseball, a 147 WRC plus slashing 268, 355, 476, and the former Diamondback, Josh Rojas, has spearheaded that effort 315, 383, 463, with a 153 WRC plus to start the season.
Starting point is 00:10:20 So like I said, Colby, it seems like the Mariners, at least so far, have been right in their assessment of third base. Yeah, I think that's fair to say right now. Now, it's still early enough in the year that if Gino has a really good series, then these numbers can really start to kind of even out. But even if these numbers are equal,
Starting point is 00:10:42 even if they are even at the end of the year, the Mariners still come out ahead because their third base situation saved them about three or four million dollars now. To you and me, three and four million dollars doesn't mean anything. Like, who cares how much money you saved. But to Jerry DiPoto, who's working with the budget, that three, four million dollars could have been the difference in, you know, whether or not you could have acquired Jorge Polanco or Mitch Garver or whatever.
Starting point is 00:11:07 Like, it was mostly a salary relief trade. Like, we all admit that. A small part of this is, though, that, yeah, Gino's bat looked like it slowed down last year. And we know that he's reached the age, which additionally we see pretty serious, you know, bat speed starts to decline pretty seriously once you reach Gino's age. So it was a calculated risk to not pay him this money and think that we can get similar production to what we got from Gino last year for cheaper. And so far, that's paid off. Rojas looks great. It's kind of a continuation of where he, you know, where he was after, I don't know, how many games do you play with further Mariners last year, 45.
Starting point is 00:11:44 whatever it was. And Eureas, while he's not hitting for any kind of average or really any kind of consistency, he does have a 500 plus slug and he does have a couple big extra base hits and he looks totally fine at third base, so does Rojas. So it appears, I think what we can say objectively right now
Starting point is 00:12:02 is that through 26 games, is that where we're at right now, 25 games, the Mariners have gotten better offensively and defensively at third base from if they had brought Gino back. but I think it's also fair to say that, you know, until we get to the end of the year and we can look at these numbers combined and we can look at what Gino actually ends up doing, you know,
Starting point is 00:12:23 the trade itself is still up in the air and you could still hate the trade just based on, you know, what it represents. But right now, the Mariners have gotten the better end of not that trade specifically because you remember that trade was Vargas and Sebi for, for Gino.
Starting point is 00:12:41 But what it really was is, shed $12 million and try and build something as good over there at third base for cheaper so we can spend that money elsewhere. And so far that part of the plan, the overall plan has worked very well. The specific trade, they were probably never going to win this trade, at least in the fan's eyes. So they're not worried about winning individual trades. And this is why we talk about all the time, like wait until the offseason's over. Look at the big picture because the day they traded Gino for this package, Armageddon, everybody's freaking out. And rightfully so, totally get it.
Starting point is 00:13:13 Yep, yep. But when you look at it now in the totality of what they did in the offseason, you look at that trade and you say, you know, if that, if they had traded, if they had traded, Gino for, you know, Josh Rojas, right, and Sevy Zavala. And Vargas was just a member of that Paul C-Wall trade package, right? If that's, if you just flip those two pieces, nobody would bat an eye and they'd say, look, they're really smart. They figured out how to upgrade a third base, uh, on the cheap, uh, well,
Starting point is 00:13:43 also getting rid of a declining player before the clip actually came. So we'll see. I think we all really like Gino. I suspect he'll get a very nice ovation tonight when he's announced. You know, he's a he's an awesome dude. And he was a really fun player here. And he was a really important player here. So no shade being thrown at Gino here.
Starting point is 00:14:04 Just the simple fact of the matter is that through 25, 26 games, the Mariners were absolutely right. Now, could that ratio flip, you know, in six months? Sure, we don't know. But as of right now, the mayor is third base spot is probably their second best position group behind catcher. Right. And it's been. And again, just from an offensive standpoint, when you look at the numbers as a whole, they've had the third best, third base situation in the entire game through the first 25 games of the season. They've been fantastic.
Starting point is 00:14:37 And both players have kind of complimented one another well. And, you know, there was obviously a lot of anxiety. about the defense and going from, you know, how good Gino was defensively last year to Rojas and, you know, Arias with the shoulder issue. But so far, those guys have both looked pretty darn good over there. I mean, Arias had a couple of really nice plays yesterday. He had, you know, a great defensive game against the Reds about a week ago. And Rojas has been more than fine over there as well defensively. Even if you want to nitpick the third base defense, you can't seriously argue that, third base defense has been any sort of a problem for the Mariners this year. At the very worst,
Starting point is 00:15:19 they are net average at third base. So yeah, the defense has not been a significant hit like a lot of people thought it might be. So yeah. And we say all the time how defensive metrics aren't perfect. They're far, far, far from perfect, right? I think, you know, again, we just praise Josh Rojas' defense, I believe out's above average has him at a negative one. right now. Yeah, I know fans. But Alta above average was a fan of Gino last year. He was 97th percentile plus 11 in that department last year.
Starting point is 00:15:54 So far to start this year, 18th percentile. So it's possible that Gino's defense is also taking a little bit of a hit here going from 2023 to 2024. One year sample size for defensive metrics are really useless because if you just took that sample size, Josh Rojas was the best second basement in all baseball last year defensively because in the short time he played second for the Mariners, he finished the year at like plus six outs above average. And so if you extrapolate that over the course of an entire season, you're talking about the best, you're talking about a platinum gold glove,
Starting point is 00:16:30 or a platinum glove winner, right? And we know Rojas isn't that good. So, yeah, the defensive metrics are always something you have to take with a, you know, the grain of salt. But I do think that Fino's probably still a solid defender over there at third like he has been, you know, for the last three years. And last year he was a little bit better than that. And I don't think there's a huge drop off between what you would reasonably expect Gino to play and what the Mariners third baseman are playing defensively right now. Yeah. So they've been a huge boost and they've helped kind of make up for the struggles of Mitch Garver and Hoyt Polanco. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:09 You might be seeing Rojas in the leadoff spot. for the next few weeks too. I think the marriage really like that idea. And with JP out, you know, they could go Julio. But I think they like having Julio hit second appears to be their preference. They might do it where against lefties, Julio hits leadoff. And then against Ritees, when Rojas is on the lineup, they'll hit Rojas leadoff in Julio too, which is what we saw.
Starting point is 00:17:34 And game two, Rojas let off against the Rangers. And then game three, Rojas wasn't in the lineup. Yep, Ulio hit leadoff against Andrew Heaney. So it's possible that's how they're going to roll with things here until J.P. is able to get back. So let's talk about these pitching matchups in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the lockdown airs podcast is brought to you by Fandool.
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Starting point is 00:18:52 With Sirius XM on the SXM app, all you have to do is search Mariners. So let's talk about these pitching matchups here, Colby. And I want to specifically focus on Emerson Hancock, who's going toe-to-to-to-to with Zach Gallen tonight. How does Hancock give the Mariners a chance to win this ballgame tonight, Colby? Yeah, you know, it's going to be a tough task for Emerson because this is probably the best lineup he's faced so far in his, you know, his season thus far. I think Milwaukee might have a challenge for that. Pitching in Milwaukee, not easy.
Starting point is 00:19:25 You know, it's a pretty decent lineup and it's a pretty good hitters ballpark. The one benefit that Hancock does have tonight is that it's supposed to be kind of a cold, wet, windy kind of night in Seattle. So the roof's probably going to be closed. but, you know, we know how well the ball travels in April when it's, you know, cloudy and all that. So maybe the Marine layer helps him out a little bit. But I think for him to really have success against this Diamondbacks lineup, he's got to do what he did against Colorado. And that is live on the edges of the plate. You cannot leave pitches in the middle of the plate, especially if you're Emerson Hancock with his stuff and expect to get away with it.
Starting point is 00:19:59 I mean, you can do it a little bit against Colorado. But to be fair, he didn't even do that to the Rockies. So he's got to be on the corners. he's got to mix it up. He's got to be willing to pitch to all four quadrants, and he has to stay out of the middle of the plate. He has to stay out of the danger zones. Now, again, he did that last time out,
Starting point is 00:20:16 and it was great. I think it was 21 of 24 batters he faced. He threw a first pitch strike. Like, that is off the charts, astronomically good. It doesn't have to be that good, but he's got to be on the corners. He cannot be in the middle of the plate. Against the Cubs, he was more in the middle of the plate,
Starting point is 00:20:31 and he got hit hard, but thankfully, through some bad bit luck and some good defense. Like he only gave up the two runs. So he was he was managing the Cubs lineup. He kind of dominated the Rockies lineup. And the difference there was command. It was not stuff.
Starting point is 00:20:46 His stuff didn't magically get better, right, from one start to the next. It's very mediocre stuff. We've been over this. But Hancock, the one tool that he has shown consistently in his brief majorly career, is that he really does battle through these lineups. He really does grind through at bats. Like he's not going to blow you away, but he's, thinking his way through these at-bats,
Starting point is 00:21:07 and if he's got the good command, like he did against Colorado, he can manage to work through this lineup two or three times and then give you a chance to win. If he doesn't, it's probably going to be ugly early, and you hope it's not because you don't have an off day for a while, so you really want the bullpen to get rested.
Starting point is 00:21:25 So it'd be great if Hancock could give you five or six tonight. And again, it's all going to come down to the command. There is no question about what the stuff's going to look like tonight, because we've seen his stuff at its best and it's still not very good. It's all about command and control. Can you work ahead? Can you get some swings and misses outside of the zone? You're not going to get a ton inside the zone.
Starting point is 00:21:45 Can you limit damage? Can you get ground balls? That's really what's going to be important for Hancock. So I think we'll have a pretty good idea early on in this game, what version of Emerson Hancock we're going to see. If he's on the corners and he's dotting guys up and he's working ahead, then you might have a chance to kind of run through this lineup, a couple times before you have to start thinking about the bullpen.
Starting point is 00:22:06 If he's missing in the middle of the plate, even if he gets away with it in the first inning, red flags have to be going up because his stuff in the middle of the plate is going to get hit very hard. So he's got to be on the corners. He doesn't have the Luis Castillo fastball where he can just challenge people in the zone. He's got to be very intentional with all of his pitches.
Starting point is 00:22:25 And when he misses, he's got to miss wide. He can't miss in. He's got to miss wide. Yeah, like you said, I feel like Hancock's best tool right now is his brain, right? He's a very methodical pitcher. And I listened to Logan Gilbert talking to Ryan Roland Smith about him a few days ago. And he, you know, talked about how Hancock sees the game very similar to him, right? And so that's just going to have to be his best weapon right now, because he, like you said, he doesn't have that overwhelming stuff. So he's basically more or less,
Starting point is 00:22:56 for lack of a better term, has to outsmart other lineups. And so that's what he's going to have to do against the team like the Diamondbacks who are third right now in contact percentage. We talked about how many runs they're putting up right now. This is a really good lineup. So I'm interested to see how Hancock attacks the Diamondbacks lineup and what the game plan is between him and Cal Raleigh tonight. Tomorrow we're going to see Slade Saccone for the Diamondbacks against George Kirby. Kirby's been pushed back a day.
Starting point is 00:23:24 And his last start, he said that he wasn't pitching at 100%. there's something going on with his arm he wasn't specific about that we haven't learned more about that so i assume really the the big thing there for you heading into that start is just kind of keeping an eye on george's health right yeah i think so uh you know it was interesting he said he wasn't a hundred percent last time out he was still throwing 95 uh which is well within the range that he would throw and he still through i think 88 pitches uh so it feels like a this was anything super they were super concerned about he would just be on the aisle right now and they would just right and they've been very cautious with their guys here to start the season so that would
Starting point is 00:24:09 seem oddly out of character for that right we don't know what it is I I have to assume it's not elbow or shoulder related because I just feel like we don't even know if it's his throwing arm yeah just his arm yeah and again this team has been so cautious with how they develop pitchers I mean look at look at Brian Wu you know they basically went a month without him, you know, when they've said, you know, in like in a playoff situation, like he'd be pitching through this. But like, so they're very cautious with those arms. So if it was elbow or shoulder related, I don't think he'd be pitching right now. So, you know, one thing that you should always keep an eye on when you know that you have a guy
Starting point is 00:24:47 who's kind of, you know, they might skip him. So be on the lookout. Maybe randomly tomorrow, Austin both gets a start or whatever. And, and so we'll see how that goes. But, you know, know when you look at what he did against the Rockies in his last outing, velocity was fine, nothing great, but nothing too concerning. He threw 88 pitches. And typically they like to get Kirby out around the 90 pitch mark anyways.
Starting point is 00:25:11 So, yeah, I didn't see a ton that would lead me to believe this is anything more than, you know, I don't know, blister from throwing the splitter or, you know, maybe it's a wrist issue or something like,
Starting point is 00:25:22 I don't think this is elbow or shoulder related. But yeah, obviously you're watching them. You want to see control and command. obviously they're huge for Kirby, but you also now, because you know about the soreness or whatever it is, you have to check the radar gun a little bit. If he's 92, 93 early, it's a bit of a red
Starting point is 00:25:40 flag. And if he's in the middle of the plate, that's also a red flag. So I'm not really sure what to expect out of George tomorrow. You know, you would hope that a team like Arizona who makes a ton of contact, that's a team that George, we know that they're going to be aggressive because every team is going to try and be aggressive with Kirby. if Kirby's not trying to strike guys out because we know he's you know this team doesn't strike out a ton that can actually play right into his hands we've seen Kirby do things where he goes six innings on 65
Starting point is 00:26:08 pitches and you're like right wow he might throw Maddox or whatever so you know this could work out but he has to be healthy enough to throw you know his to have his normal control and command and throw with the velocity he's accustomed to if you can do that he's got a shot here and this is one of those teams where he can go either way for George they could ambush him and they could get the bat-bit block and they could, you know, run him out of this game early, or Kirby could mow through them because they're being hyper-aggressive, and he's on the corners and he has his good command, and he can get the soft contact early in counts to kind of get deep in this game.
Starting point is 00:26:41 So I went to wait and see not only what version of George Kirby would get health-wise, but what, you know, version of Kirby we get with a team that we know will be hyper-aggressive on him early in counts. We basically know the deal with Logan Gilbert. I don't think we really need to talk much about him. He's been fantastic this year coming off of a nice start. in Texas. He's starting the Sunday game. Anything stand out to you about these Diamondbacks pitchers?
Starting point is 00:27:04 It's Brandon fought on Sunday for the D-backs. And then, like I mentioned, Gallen tonight and then Cicconi tomorrow. Yeah, Gallin's an interesting arm because he is a, he's not an ace. He's probably closer to a number two, but he's a very good pitcher. But he doesn't do it with velocity. It's 92 to 93. And it's really, it's closer to a two-pitch mix and it is a three-pitch mix. It's the forcing fastball and then a knuckle curve.
Starting point is 00:27:31 That is very good. So we talk about, you know, how the Mariners struggle with spin and all that. Gallin's not really a spin guy. The knuckle curve doesn't have outrageous spin rates and all that stuff. So is it really about spin or is it about breaking balls? There's a difference there. Not every breaking ball is a high spin breaking ball. So it'll be interesting to see how they handled that.
Starting point is 00:27:51 Fafta was a guy who had a really nice postseason, but kind of, you know, in the regular season. Soconi is a guy that I've liked for a while. in the diamond back system, but I don't have a good enough feel for how he's going to perform to really give you any insight. So tonight it's forcing fastball, 92, 93. It's a fastball that plays up more than that. So it won't be unusual to see them swing through 92 in the middle of the plate.
Starting point is 00:28:17 You know, velocity is not everything here. I think tonight's game is going to come down to how well they handle that knuckle curve. It is Gallin's best pitch, and he throws it pretty often. So you do have to, you know, it's pretty much fastball curve by. I think the approach tonight, the game plan tonight at the plate is just to go up there and look for one of those two pitches. If you can throw you something else in the strike zone, fine. You take it, you move on. But you got to be ready to hit.
Starting point is 00:28:40 It's kind of similar to Aaron Nola is who Zach Allen reminds me of. Yeah, for sure. All right. Any other thoughts here before we get out of here? No, you know, try and find a way to win this series. That'd be great. But yeah, it's going to be a tough one. You know, Arizona, not a team that's playing super well right now.
Starting point is 00:29:03 But fortunately, the Mariners do avoid Merrill Kelly, unfortunately, because he's on the IL. And they also avoid Jordan Montgomery. So who's been throwing the ball pretty well. Also, Eduardo Rodriguez on the IL. He is not pitched yet this year. So, you know, the Mariners. Yeah. The Mariners have got pretty fortunate thus far.
Starting point is 00:29:25 or in the series just based on when they're playing Arizona. But again, it's really impaired. I don't see them winning seven to five games here. I think if they're going to beat Arizona, they're going to have to do it four to two, five to three, you know, maybe even won nothing or something like that. So we'll see. But it sure would be great if, you know,
Starting point is 00:29:46 somebody, one of the big offseason additions, could step up and have a really good series here, you know, at home with three Riteys on the mound. 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.
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Starting point is 00:30:19 Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrists podcast. For Colby Patnode, I'm Tidea and Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O- underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tidea and Gonzales and Colby at CPAT-11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1.
Starting point is 00:30:31 You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and a beautiful baseball weekend, and we'll see you next time. Peace.

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