Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Seattle Mariners' Shorthanded Bullpen STEPS UP + Julio Rodriguez Is Hitting Like an MVP CANDIDATE

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Ty and Colby react to a clutch performance by a severely shorthanded Mariners bullpen in a 3-1 win in Houston, discuss Julio Rodriguez's continued hot start, and more. Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club! Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server! Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY The funfetti flavor is BACK on https://5hourEnergy.com or Amazon, crack open Confetti Craze 5-hour ENERGY®️ shot today! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDONto get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything.  HIMS To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/LOCKEDONMLB. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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.

Down three of their five best arms, the Mariners' shorthanded bullpen was immediately put to the test down in Houston last night. And it was awesome. Let's talk about it. 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 Tuesday, May 12th, 2026. My name is Tading Azales. And I'm joined as always by my co-co's Colby Patnode. and on today's show, we'll talk some Julio, who of course went yard in last night's three to one win over the Astros. Also assess George Kirby's start as well, some good stuff in there, despite him only going five last night. And because he only went five, that meant this Mariners bullpen, which is now down

Jose Ferrear on top of Gabe Spire and Matt Brash, had to protect a two-run lead over four innings of work. And they did it. How about that? Nick DeVila, Cooper Criswell, Edward Bizarro and Andreas Munio, combined to give up just Two hits, one walk, and no runs while striking out six. Two of those strikeouts coming at the expense of Yordon Alvarez. The bullpen was awesome last night.

So much so that it earned the first ever sailors. Yes, plural, sailors of the game honors. Just cannot say enough good things about the performance by those four. Like I said, back on Friday, you know, I wanted to see Andreas Munoz have a good road trip. So it was especially nice to see him shut things down last night. Mooney was feeling good. Hit 101.3 on the radar gun at one point. Really good to see him get the job done there, despite some hard contact.

Yeah. The three hard hit balls that Munoz gave up were the only hard hit balls that the Asheras had off of the Mariners bullpen. And, you know, only one of them was a hit. The other two had, you know, expected batting averages below 200. So they weren't, like, dangerous. You know, a hard ground ball is still an out. most of the time, a pop fly can leave the bat at 110 miles an hour,

but if it's straight up in the air, it's not going to do any damage. So sometimes the exit veloes are not telling us exactly what we think they are, and not all hard hit balls are bad. Because again, like the batting average on an infield fly ball is 10. It's basically a strikeout. So it doesn't matter if you hit it 100 miles an hour,

if you hit it at a 60-degree launch angle, it's now. So, yeah, But again, other than that, pretty good. He was able to get Yordon really felt like a intentional or unintentional, intentional walk, where it's like, hey, if Yordaun gets himself out, fine. If not, we'll go after Walker. And Yordaun got himself out. He swung at a couple pitches well outside of the zone, a really nasty slider early in the count.

And then the kick change, which I don't know why Yordaun swung at that. I guess he's probably sitting slider, I don't know. and he thought it was going to break over the plate. But those are different spins. He should have been able to recognize that. Yordon apparently going through a bit of a slump right now, which is great timing, but also terrifying for what he's going to do the rest of the series.

But yeah, I mean, he's able to get the job done. But, yeah, I think, you know, Munoz and Bizarro, when they come out and they pitch like they did, you kind of expect it. You're like, okay, they should do that. Like that, that's what they're capable of. So really, it's DeVila and Chriswell, who kind of come out, and they surprise.

they don't allow hard hitball between the two of them. They only allow one base runner. And Chriswell, by the way, again, facing one, two, three. Or, well, I think 9-1-2 at that point. But either way, really impressive stuff from those two guys. And Chriswell might be the most, like, underappreciated Mariner on that roster right now. He's filled a couple different roles. And he's pitched pretty well seemingly every single time out.

I mean, he's had a couple little hiccups here. But no, I mean, he's giving you multiple innings. these kind of had to slide into more of a high leverage situation now, especially with Rare Out too, you know, for the next couple days. So yeah, Chris Well, probably the best free agent pickup the mayors have had, at least this winter so far. I mean, Russ Snyder, you.

Although he had a hit last night. So there you got. I fixed him. Clearly what I said on the show yesterday. Fixed him. I mean, he got hit by that train and now he's fine in his legs. So you're welcome at Mariners. Put that up on the Amazon Firestick board.

But yeah, the bullpen was very good last night. Again, it really has no reason to be. If the bullpen was going to implode, I think we all would have been like, I mean, yeah. That's why it was really important for George to go at least six innings, and he barely got through five. And so you put DeVila in an awkward spot.

But like we talked about, you're going to have to ask some guys to get big outs for you. Last night it was DeVila. and Chriswell. Tonight it might be Hoppy and Simpson. You know, like there's probably a point in this series where Simpson is going to be asked to get Yordon Alvarez out. And if he doesn't do it, they probably lose. Like, that's just kind of the way that this is set up right now

with how, you know, in shambles your bullpen is. And it's not just the three out of, you know, your five high leverage guys are gone. Don't forget, you also don't have Carlos Fargus, who is a serviceable solid reliever, who would be the guy, step up into more of these leverage roles in this scenario, but he's also out.

Like you're missing, and you're missing half of your bullpen, your opening day bullpen that you put out there, half of it's gone. Well, it's, it's, it's, it's Munoz. It's Bizarro. It's Chriswell, who was at the bottom of the pecking order of this bullpen on opening day, and then it's a bunch of guys that have just been recently added

to the team, either via AAA call-up or waivers. This would just be a phenomenal time for the Brian Wu complete game that we all been waiting for. Yeah. Just phenomenal. Yeah.

And don't forget, we have Bryce Miller in his first start of the year, probably not going, you know, 100 pitches. And then you have Luis Castile after that. And then you have to fly across the country to play the Padres with no day off

in between. Like, you really need Brian Wu to give you at least six, at least six. Probably something, though. This is one of those cases where it's like, Brian, you might have to take it in the teeth just to guarantee you give a seven because I, I mean, plus it's like, oh, we just call up a fresh arm.

Who? Who can they call up? Who's left to call up? Like, it's just, the bullpen is in rough shape, which made last night's performance all the more fun and enjoyable. Yeah. And so, yeah, don't want to overlook it, but just, you know, kind of looking ahead, who they're probably going to need another performance like this from another three or four different guys. You're going to need, you're going to need, you know, Nick DeVila again. You're going to need Josh Simpson.

You're going to need Domingo Gonzalez or someone, you know, Jose Suarez. You need someone to, yeah, Alex Hoppe. You're going to be in a position where Hoppy has to get like a big strike. Runners on second and third and one out. And Hoppy has to strike out Christian Walker. It's just, it's going to have to happen, right? And yeah, that's scary and that's concerning. But also it's an opportunity for these guys as well.

So we'll see how it goes. Yeah. All right. So let's dive into George Kirby's start a little bit more in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the Longtime Marys podcast is brought to you by Rocket Money. If you've ever opened your bank account and thought, where did all my money go? You're not alone. Keeping track of subscriptions, spending, and bills can get overwhelming fast.

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Join at RocketMoney.com slash locked on. That's RocketMoney.com. slash LOC, KED O.N. And you're listening to the Locktime Marries Podcast, part of the Locktime Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things, Mariners.

And also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Don't forget to check out the Everydayer Club for ad-free episodes and access to a group chat with me and other listeners of this show. Tap the link in the description or go to lockdownerrors. That's supercast.com to learn more. So George Curry again only goes five in this one, which put a lot on the shoulders of this Mariners bullpen, gives up one run on seven hits,

strikes out seven, walks two on 99 pitches, not typical to see that pitch count get ballooned like that, that early for George. But he battled, and, you know, again, only gives up that one run there in the fifth inning,

was able to limit the damage at least. You know, things started to get a little out of hand there. There was that weird, single that Yordon hit down the right field line that that looked foul on the broadcast, but it clanked off of Josh Naylor's glove. But overall, I thought Kirby, you know, despite some of the issues here, despite not, you know, being able to get, you know, deep into this one,

despite the seven hits and the seven hard hit balls, I thought he was pretty solid last night. What did you make of his outing? Yeah, it was okay. It was very Logan Gilbert-ish where he racked up the strikeouts. He had seven and five innings. But he had a lot of long at-bats. He had back-to-back 20 pitch innings early in his start. There were a few 0-2-1-2 counts that ended up being, you know, eight, nine pitch at-bats that really kind of did him in.

And that's not typical of George. So it felt more like I don't have my best stuff type of night, but I got to try and kind of, you know, battle and give my guys a chance to win. he did i mean again you really needed six from him last night but sometimes you know it just be like that and uh the stuff was okay i thought i don't think the stuff was incredible uh i don't think the command was incredible uh it was just kind of a like to me kind of a c plus george kirby uh and so to be able to work through that lineup which again definitely not as deep as it used to be but still has some very dangerous hitters in it obviously um i thought it was okay overall uh the whiff percentage of 23% nothing that special.

Called strike plus with only 23% nothing that special. The Velo dipped a little, but, you know, obviously through 100 pitches and five innings. He's tired. So, yeah, I don't feel like he got unlucky in any case. I just think the Astros, you know, grinded through some long at bats early and it kind of set him behind the eight ball and he wasn't able to really get that quick inning to recover. So, yeah, overall, like if this is the floor of George Kirby, which we know it's not. But this is just kind of like one of his bad starts, you're in really good shape.

But yeah, this is one of George's worst starts of 2026. And that's a good thing because it wasn't really all that bad. It was pretty decent. So yeah, I thought George was fine. I think it's the word I would use. I wouldn't say he was good or great or anything. I think it was just fine. And, you know, that's what you want.

You know, when George Kirby isn't fine when he's struggling a little bit, he tends to give up, you know, eight or nine runs in a very short time. In fact that he could grind through and battle through and, you know, keep his head about him and all that. And stay out of the middle of the plate is good. So, yeah, overall, I think this was a, I'd give him like a C plus. It's kind of a 45 grade, George Kirby. But, yeah, it was overall effective enough. And again, he had to grind through some long innings to get through five.

Production-wise, he's kind of been the ace of the staff. so far probably um yeah just when you factor in those two blowups starts that that woo had um you know george is the only only guy that really hasn't had a blow up start um you know he did give up four and six innings to the yankees but whatever other than that though his earn runs per start one three two one two two two one it's really good it's got an era of two eight four FIPP is just 3-2-6 He's over a full win now by

Fangraph standards He's off to a really nice start And you know we talked about this going into the season for him That he's over the last couple of years You know over his first few starts of the year Whether he's starting the year You know right out of the gate Or he's starting the year after an injury

He's had you know a blow up start Or you know just kind of a shaky start to the season So it's nice to see him have some consistent success here right out of the gate and he's continuing it and I mean this this rotation really needs it because again like you know who's had those couple of blowups starts Logan Gilbert necessarily hasn't looked like you know the Logan Gilbert that we know and love obviously we know about Louis Castillo struggles so that's been big time from from George and I think really the key is that we have seen some real maturity from him when things have gotten tough on him

in some of these games and that he's been able to dig deep and get into was bag and we saw that at times last year for sure you know but then there were still moments like the the Tampa Bay start and maybe there will still be a moment or two like that over the course of this season but I but I do feel like we've seen some real growth out of George here in 2026 it's really encouraging yeah I would agree so I mean look the Mariners rotation statistically has been fine despite Luis Castillo's struggles and despite the two blow-up

starts from Wu. Like statistically it's fine. It's top 10 and all that. But it really has been George has kind of been the steady force in the middle of this whole thing. And Wu again, minus the two

starts has been very, very good. But the two starts still count. You know, they exist. And Hancock has been very good as well. But also there's not anywhere close to the the sample size that we have of Kirby and Wu and even Miller. So you still have to be a little bit weary of that, especially after the White Sox kind of took him to town the other night. So yeah, it's kind of one of those things.

The Mariners rotation has been good, but it can still be better. And that's either a positive or a negative. I mean, kind of depends on how you want to look at it. But I think the fact that it's, you know, giving you a chance to win most nights right now is pretty good.

I just, I would like to see them get deeper into ball games more consistently, which they've done a better job at this year than they did last year, admittedly. But we've even seen a couple of six or, yeah, six innings starts from Logan. I think one seven innings start from Logan. Yeah, yeah, the seven inning start against the Astros. So, yeah, Logan is getting there, you know, and I think we've seen already, he might have more six plus inning starts this year than he did all of last year already.

And obviously, Wu is, is, you know, prone to getting deep into game. but he had a couple of rough ones in there. So, yeah, I think overall the rotation's in a pretty good spot, but Kirby's been the most consistent, the most reliable guy so far. And he probably will have a blow-up start at some point. That's just the nature of baseball. But I do feel more confident that when, you know, like Babbitt does him dirty or there's an air or something like that.

He does, I am more willing to think that George can get out of that situation and keep his cool long enough. And, you know, George's had certain starts this year where he has had bad, bad bit luck. And things have kind of started to pile on. And he's been able to limit the damage. And that's really something that he hasn't done consistently in the past. But he's doing it consistently this year. So that's a huge step forward for him.

Yeah. So Logan, not exactly there in terms of the six plus innings starts. Like you said, he had seven last year during the regular season. He's at four right now, though. So he's getting there. He's probably going to pass that mark, assuming that he stays healthy. Sure.

I mean, we didn't really get to start. We didn't really talk about it. But he looked very good on Sunday and that he's still able to get the strikeouts. And yet he also got quickouts. So that's kind of the blend you're looking for going forward from Logan. And he's certainly talented enough to repeat that process over and over. If you get 2024 Logan Gilbert again,

it changes the ceiling. of your rotation dramatically. Yeah, it changes a lot. It really does. It really does. And then if you throw in, you know, Bryce Miller, hopefully it bounced back from him as well.

And, you know, a continuation of kind of the turnaround that we saw in the playoffs last year from him. Things get really, really fun here for the spares rotation. Bryce is very much in the same boat as Luke Rayleigh, where it's like, oh, why did Luke Rayleigh stink last year?

Injuries. Like, it's very clear injuries. Same goes for Bryce. And we'll talk more about Bryce on tomorrow's episode leading up to his first start of the year. Well, let's switch gears here. Let's talk a little bit about Julio, who is off to a fantastic start on this road trip. Another big night for him last night. We'll go over his numbers in just a moment.

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Link in the description of this episode. It's another really good night for Julio Rodriguez. as he's off to a fantastic start on this road trip in three of the four games of the maris have played on the road so far Julio has two hits and them. I had two hits last night, infield single, and also a homer off of the tracks. That's the seventh of the season.

And yeah, if you're looking for some, you know, reasons to be positive about the mariners that aren't just, hey, the ALS sucks and the ALS sucks in general. And the marries are not really in much of a hole, right now to dig themselves out of. It's Julio, right? It's specifically that, you know, since the first homestand numbers that we've been tracking,

you know, since April 3rd now, those numbers are up to 314, 368, 521. That's a 155 WRC plus. That is an MVP caliber bat. And honestly, we don't really even need to use the since the first homestand stat line anymore to just illustrate how good. to Julio has been to start the year. The overall numbers are starting to really look good for him. 277, 341, 452, that's a 128 WRC plus for Julio to start the season. And, yeah, if he can get the defense to normalize eventually, this could be it.

This could be the year that we've been talking about. We've all been waiting for for Julio. Right. I mean, he still would need his like summer explosion to reach MVP levels. Because I mean, obviously you can pace it out right now. He's on pace for 28 homers and 20 steals. And like so yeah, he still needs to have that same second half explosion to get to the MVP level. And obviously we're not saying he's going to win MVP just that like he'll put up those type of numbers.

Like he still needs to have that. But yeah, this is by far the best start in Julio's career. and it's been pretty consistent now for a month. And he's getting to the pole side more and more. And obviously last night got pole side to the air. And yeah, I just feel like we are seeing the Julio breakout at the plate offensively. And I am confident that he's going to get to his 30 plus homers and he's probably going to steal 30 plus bags. But, you know, it does stink that it happens to also coincide with his defense falling off a cliff because now,

we still don't have like the full Julio right now. So it's kind of one of those things. Anders from the from the post game show asked like, would you make that trade? Like would you trade Julio his glove to get off to a fast start? And it's like, I mean, yeah, probably, but. Yes. Especially right now while,

while Cal's on the tank. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. But like in general, no, Julio has to be at least an average centerfielder. Like he has to be.

This team is not built to sustain Julio being the worst centerfielder in baseball. They can't have that. So Julio's got to figure that out, whether it's the jumps or he's playing through something, or maybe he needs to play more shallow or maybe he needs to play deeper. I don't know. The positioning needs to change. I'm sure he's working on it. We know he is working on it, but he needs to get better there.

But the bat, yeah. If Julio got off to this start every single year, he'd probably, have an MVP already in his back pocket. Yeah, I mean you, yeah, I mean, again, you eliminate the first seven games of the season and he's slugging 521. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the 452 slug right now would be

second lowest of his career, but again, things are starting to normalize for him. He's starting to make that claim. Whatever would be the career high, barely. I believe his career high right now is 509. 5.09. Yeah. Yeah. So Yeah, again, he's You know, and also, you know, what I what I mentioned Like a week or so ago, the thing that's honestly the most impressive to is like how much he's lowering the strikeouts right now Now the overall strikeout rate is like 23.1% which is fine

Like don't me get around this below average as in like yeah But that's it's only average is 22% But yeah with the power and all that yeah yeah that's totally fine for for the type of hitter that Julio is But you know again since that that first home stand 21.1.1% percent. I believe that would be a career low. Yeah, that would be a career low by 0.3%. But yeah, that's great as well. Like we're just seeing like overall just better swing decisions from Julio.

We're seeing him actually, you know, again, going back to that end zone contact rate set that we were talking about to start the year. Like he's really started to normalize that, starting to do damage more on pitches inside the strike zone. Like we're just seeing some really good stuff, Julio at the play right now. Right. The bets look better. They look more competitive. And again, Julio is going to have bad at bats.

He's going to have bad games. Every single player in Major League Baseball history has had bad at bats. Yeah, pitching is really good. Yeah, it's better now than it's ever been. So look, I mean, I know that Julio goes 0 for 4, like, he's the worst player ever. They should send him down to like 5% of the, you know, the fandom. And the other, there's 5% who thinks that, like, he could go over 80 and he would be above, you know,

criticism. So ignoring those two factions, I think everybody who's like in the realm of reality has to be very happy with Julio's performance this year. They'd have to admit that there are, you know, changes that, you know,

there's actually been a physical swing change too. Well, a setup change, not so much a swing change. That also can be factored into this. But we've seen how much better the Mariners have been when Julio starts to pull the baseball when he starts to hit home runs when he starts to get extra base hits. It's amazing.

Even without Cal Raleigh, even without, you know, the Batman and behind Cal or behind Julio, Julio's still kind of, you know, carrying things. And he doesn't need help. Cal needs to break out of his funk, which at some point he will. I don't know if it's close, but at some point he will. He's too talented, not to. Yeah.

But yeah, right now Cal or right now Julio is kind of, I don't want to say carrying things, because obviously Randy's been very good consistently this year, at least in the batter's box. Josh Naylor's been very good for, I mean, like, what does Josh? his numbers in that same time span as Julio because he he was still about a week or two later than Julio his numbers are are pretty ridiculous over the last. Do you want me to do you want me to look since the first since the first end of the first homestand or do you want me to look since that that last Astros game where he had the two homers? Yeah.

I mean like I guess both like let's see how big of a difference because he's been pretty good now for so since the end of the first homestand Josh is slashing 2904. 348 444 that's a 129 WRC plus yeah since that Astros game which I believe was May or April April 13th yeah 340 3802 543 that's a 165 yeah so yeah and even if you want it like oh he got super hot then like okay fine but go to go to the same time frame we're judging Julio on he's been exactly what you wanted like exactly that's the exact stat line you were essentially a 130 VRC Plus hitter. Yeah, that's exactly who Josh Naylor needs to be.

And you know, it's like I talked about yesterday. I don't know if this made the show or not. We had to cut some things. But like if you go and look. Way too long. Yeah. If you go and look at like the Mariners offense right now and you look at the individual WRC plus.

Donovan's is too high. Like that's not sustainable. And he's already obviously he's coming down. He's in a little bit of a solid year. Yeah, it's starting to normalize already. Cowles is way too low. That'll normalize. But the other seven guys.

who play pretty much every day, nothing they're doing is unsustainable in terms of their overall numbers. Like their WRC pluses are all like, yep, that's totally normal. Yep, that's totally normal. That's totally normal. So essentially this offense is only missing Cal Raleigh from being 2024 Cal Raleigh. He doesn't even need to be last year's 24 Cal Raleigh from today to the end of the year. It's one of the deepest lineups in Major League Baseball,

especially with Cole Young doing his thing at the bottom and JP continuing. You know, JP's kind of an up down, up down a little bit. but overall he's up well above average hitting shortstop. And this lineup could be really good. It could be exactly what we thought it was going to be two months ago. They just kind of need Cal to figure out his thing. And at that point, they could really take off. Yeah.

Some numbers here, some more numbers here on Julio. Again, I mentioned the end zone contact rate. That's now up to a career high on the whole for the whole season, 85.1% in zone contact rate for Julio. And his swinging strike percentage is also at a career. low right now, barely by about 0.3%, but that's still good to see that he's whiffing less. I think an underrated part of Julio's game

because we always focus on the power and the speed, like, rightfully so, but like Julio hits her average. I don't think people understand like major league batting average, like the average average average across baseball is around two. By the way, he's doing By the way, he's doing this While running the, by far the lowest

Hard Hit rate of his entire career. He's only at 41.9% right now. The lowest before that in his career, 48% flat. Yeah. So, sorry to interrupt. No, but it's fine. I'll just try and remember where I was.

But anyways, like, Major League average for batting averages like 2.3. Julio in his down years hits 260. Like, he is legit. 55 great hitter on the 2080 scale. Like I think there's this idea that Julio strikes out too much. And when he's not hitting home runs, he's like a 40 great hitter.

No, no, no. Julio is a 55 great hitter. It's just sometimes the power is a 40 when it could be a 70. Like that's the thing that's keeping Julio from like being the player we all know he can be is that the power kind of ebbs and flows. But consistently like just he's going to hit between 260 and 280, which for a lot of people, it's like, oh, that's fine. That's good, but it's not great. It's like, no, you're still thinking in terms of like the steroid era where everybody hit 300. Major League average for batting average is like two.

The on base, the major league average on base is like 315. Like Julio is a very good hitter, period. And he becomes a great hitter when he starts to rack up the home runs, which we know he's capable of doing at really any moment. And he's starting to do it right now. So, yeah, Julio is is. The league average batting average this year is 241. I think people live in this idea. were like, oh, well, 300's a good batting average.

No, no, no. 300's a phenomenal batting average in this day and age. But also, it's not that important. But I know some people like it. But Julio is a very good hitter. And he has been throughout pretty much his entire career at the one little year in 2024. But he's very good hitter. And it's really always been about how much in-game power can he get to and how consistently can he get to it.

And again, if he's putting up 40 home runs, this year, which he's fully capable of doing. And he doesn't have to do it in a way where it's like, oh, he's got to hit 16 this month because he only has two, you know, through the first 40 games. Like, no, he's, he can definitely get to 40. And if he gets to 40, I mean, if he gets to 40 and the batting average and the on base just kind of stay what are normal for him, that is an elite major league

baseball player, elite elite, not just an all-star. That is MVP candidate type of stuff from him, with or without the defense. now factor in if the defense figures if he figures out the defense. We might be talking about nine win Julio Rodriguez. Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marrars podcast. Part of the lockdown podcast network of your team every day. And once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official.

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