Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The 5 Most Concerning Things About the Mariners This Offseason

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's top five Tuesday. Today I'll give you my top five mirrors concerns heading into the off season and Colby will give you the top five pitches in baseball. 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, November 5th, 2024. This is tighting is Austin. Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. It's top five Tuesday, and the wheel has spoken.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Today, I will give you my top five Mariners concerns this off season, and Colby will list the five best pitches in Major League Baseball. But before we get into all that, shout out to our title sponsor today, Fanduel. New customers can place a $5 bet. You'll get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, visit Fandulul.com to get started. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show,

Starting point is 00:01:04 check out our Patreon. all you have to do is click the link in the description of this episode so before we get into my top five list let's go over some quick news and notes for the mariners that's happened over the last 24-ish hour since we last talk to you guys Mitch Hanager officially picked up his player option it took a little while for it to get officially announced but did pick up the option as expected so he's on the roster and the mirrors will either have to do something about it or maybe they won't we'll see they also added blast castano right-handed pitcher to the 40-man roster and like we always say folks if the marries do something with a pitcher particularly one that you haven't heard of i want to

Starting point is 00:01:48 still pay attention you know if they add them via waivers or add them to the 40-man roster what have you so we'll keep an eye on blast castano might just you know want to log that in your memory banks for later and the lastly the most recent piece of mariners news uh Tommy Joseph, assistant heading coach for the Marys this year, has moved on to the Baltimore Orioles. So we finally have a piece of coaching news coming for the Marys. So that's pretty interesting. So yeah, it's about it. Any thoughts on those moves, Colby?

Starting point is 00:02:18 I mean, no, nothing too unexpected. Obviously, the Blas Castano one is kind of out of left field. He wasn't particularly good in AAA this year. But, you know, the Mariners very clearly thought that he was going to either leave in minor league free agency or he was going to get picked in the Rule 5 draft. And they clearly like something about him to add him to the 40 men and be worried enough about him leaving that they didn't want to risk it. So, you know, like you said, with the Mariners, whenever they target a pitcher,

Starting point is 00:02:49 whenever they, you know, add any kind of arm whatsoever, you really do have to stop and kind of give them the benefit of the doubt, even when it doesn't appear to make a lot of sense on the surface like this one does. But also worth noting that it's because you're on the. the 40 man on, you know, November 5th doesn't mean you're going to be on the 40 man on December 5th or November 8th. You know, like they could DFAM at any point if they need to make room, but they also have plenty of other levers they can pull. Like the Mariners do not have a 40 man crunch. So, yeah, they want to use a 40 man spot on Costano and try and carry them all winter and give them a shot to, you know, pitch out of the bullpen next year.

Starting point is 00:03:27 Then maybe they're right, given the benefit of the doubt on that. And if it doesn't work out, it really didn't cost them anything to try. So let's get into my top five list. I did top five reasons to be optimistic about the Marries a couple of weeks ago. Now I am listing my top five concerns about the Marys. And like Colby usually does, I am setting my own parameters for this list. I am doing top five concerns regarding the off season specifically. So number five, the Mariner's positional needs and headaches are not just exclusive to them.

Starting point is 00:04:00 For example, there's a reason there aren't many quality. third basement on the market this winter because there aren't that many quality third basement in major league baseball right now and other teams are going to be swimming in the same waters the merrars are and while that isn't an excuse for not coming away with what they need this winter it does make me a bit concerned that they might fall short in some areas and what their fallback plans might be basically the mariners have to be the aggressors this winter they have to essentially set the tone jump the market and they've done that in the trade market a couple times over the last few acquisition periods. I think about the Randy trade, the Luis Castillo trade a

Starting point is 00:04:37 couple of years ago. But it is imperative now more than ever that they do that again this winter and to an even more aggressive degree. Yeah. I mean, like you don't want to be back on your heels essentially and waiting for the market to dictate. That's the mistake they made not last winter, but the winter before where they were sure that the market was going to come back to them and the market It was going to crash back to them and it didn't. And of course, we have the infamous, you know, it was from Ryan Divish. I think it was said by,

Starting point is 00:05:10 I can't remember who said it. But like they're going to come crawling back to us asking, you know. It was Mather. Yeah, of course it was. Yeah. And it wasn't just from Ryan DeVish. It was the Bellevue Rotary Club video. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:25 Specifically, it was about like Taiwan Walker. Yeah. But, yeah. So, like, in the past, you know, the Mariners have waited out the market, waited for prices to get to a point. And you should do that to some degree, but you also have to be aggressive, particularly on the trade market. Like, you set the prices. And then, you know, if you happen to overpay by 10%, who cares? Like, it really doesn't make that big of a difference.

Starting point is 00:05:47 So you be the aggressor. You go out there. You set the market. You make the first or second big trade, you know, be one of the first teams to make the big trade this winter. And Jerry's done it in the past a couple times. and other times he's played back on his heels. And typically things work out a lot better for him when he's aggressive. So hopefully he is again this winter.

Starting point is 00:06:07 Number four, the Mariners assume too much out of the bullpen arms they already have. We talked about this a little bit yesterday. The bullpen was a problem, particularly towards the end of the year. Injuries obviously derailed things, not just Santos and Brash, but also Jimmy Garcia. And while Santos should be ready for opening day and Brass should come back at some point, I don't think you can build your bullpen in a way that banks on getting anything out of either of those guys, especially Brash in good faith. So I think they need to add another high leverage arm, not just to take some of the workload off of Andres Munoz, but also to reset some of their mid leverage guys back into strictly mid leverage roles, right? Ideally, I'd like to very rarely see the Trent Thorntons and Edward Bizardos of the world throwing high leverage enemies, unless they've absolutely.

Starting point is 00:06:57 earn the right to do that. I'd also like to brace for a potential setback from Colin Snyder. So adding another legitimate dude in the bullpen does that. It accomplishes that. Yeah. I mean, like we talked about this. I said I'm probably going to end up being a broken record on this topic. But the Mariners need bullpen out.

Starting point is 00:07:14 It is a sneaky need that they absolutely need to put real effort into. Like not just like, oh, well, you know, we claim two more Colin Snyder types. Hopefully one of them hits. Like, no, they need to go get better. They need to go find, you know, another Gregory. Santos, or maybe they need to actually invest like real, you know, either prospect capital or money, and finding, you know, at least the backing guy. And it doesn't have to be the $15 million a year relievers.

Starting point is 00:07:40 It can be the $7, $8 million a year reliever types. Or you go trade for one who would be making $15 million if they were on the open market. But they're not. So you have to get a good prospect capital to go get those guys. The bullpen is important, particularly if you're the Mariners and you're a run prevention team, you have to have a good bullpen. So they absolutely should be, you know, again, you're going to get to a point, unfortunately, where you have to kind of prioritize, do you need an everyday second basement?

Starting point is 00:08:07 Do you need a high leverage arm, blah, blah, blah. And obviously, you'd want the everyday second basement. But they should be trying to do both of those things because they're absolutely both very important if this team wants to win the division and, you know, make a deep playoff run next year. Absolutely. So I'll be going over my top three concerns for the mayor is this. off season in just a moment, but first, you'll like this, Colby. This episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Hems.

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Starting point is 00:09:36 Subscription required. Price varies based on product and subscription. And you're listening to the Locktime Marries podcast. It is top five Tuesday. I'm giving you my top five concerns for the Marys this off season. Just went over numbers five and four. Let's get into number three. And that is, you know, because of how limited the outside options at their biggest

Starting point is 00:09:58 positions of need are will the marries allow defense to fall by the wayside in pursuit of offense and this works both ways by the way like will they also not get the offensive upgrades they need in order to stay competent defensively so i'm really curious to see if they can find some sort of happy medium right and it's possible the way they do that is by getting a guy who's i don't know for example a better hitter in a slightly worse glove than josh rojas but still doesn't have an ideal hitting profile for third base, but they're able to make up for some of that, you know, like the power deficiencies,

Starting point is 00:10:32 let's say second base, right? Obviously, they tried to do that last year with Polanco and Rojas. It didn't work, but that's probably the most sound approach for them again this winter. And we do have, spoiler alert,

Starting point is 00:10:44 something revolving around that idea in our offseason plan, so you'll see how that can potentially work tomorrow. Potentially tomorrow. Potentially tomorrow. Yeah, we're still unsure that is still pending. It's happening this week, though.

Starting point is 00:10:57 Yes, either tomorrow or Thursday based on outside factors. So, yeah, I mean, like, basically it's like, hey, would you rather have Alex Baum's, aka Alec Baum, who is a worst defender, but a better hitter, but still doesn't have the, you know, 25 home run pop you want at third base. Or would you rather have, like, pure glove with below average bat? And, like, I think what we would like is, like, something kind of in the middle here. like be at least an average glove and at least an average bat at third base, like ideally.

Starting point is 00:11:30 And maybe they can't accomplish that. And if they can't, how do they maneuver that? It'll be interesting to see if they place value on defense or offense because, yes, the offense needs to be better. But again, the Mariners, if they're going to make the playoffs, if they're going to make a deep playoff run, it's probably going to be because of run prevention, not because they have a juggernaut offense. So how they balance that is going to be a really interesting part of their offseason.

Starting point is 00:11:52 number two yeah the marrists have a great farm but how much will they be able to trade from it and for what we talked about this as well the other day you know on one hand you've got teams right now who are hoarding prospects and on the other you've got teams who really aren't interested in prospects particularly ones that are multiple years away because they think they can immediately compete to at least some capacity now some of the mayor's top prospects are getting pretty close of the majors, but which teams and how many of them are going to be interested in pure prospect packages? You know, I'm sure there are some, obviously, but my concern here is, can I count them on one hand and do those teams actually have what the mayor's need? Because I can name two I feel pretty sure about, and that's the Rockies and White Sox. And we talked about both of them during our divisional trade preview series. And yeah, they don't have much.

Starting point is 00:12:50 So maybe one or two players. between them. Plus the Rockies are dumb, so they probably think they can still compete next year. But yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, at this last deadline, zero top 100 prospects, changed hands. And now, I mean, to be fair, Vlad Jr. didn't get moved, Brent Rooker didn't get moved, but Randy Rosarena did. Esok Paredes did. Like, you're legitimate dudes that were moved at this deadline that in the past easily would have fetched you one top 100 prospect. as kind of the headliner.

Starting point is 00:13:24 And instead they were moved for, you know, good quality bulk. And then kind of a major leagher for major leaguer swap. And that's kind of what we're looking at. There's just a shift here in baseball where hoarding prospects is becoming more and more of the game plan, more or less. And, you know, the Mariners have at times been pretty hesitant to move some of their top prospects. but I think again that usually where you find value in player acquisition, right, is you kind of zig when everybody zags. So hopefully they're willing to talk to some of those top prospects.

Starting point is 00:14:02 I mean, depending on the publication, they have between five to eight top 100ish prospects. And so hopefully they're willing to move a couple of those guys because I do think that that is their best opportunity to add an impact bat. But, you know, if they can add another Randy Rose Arena type without giving up one of their top you know top five or six prospects like they did in the summer that is also totally

Starting point is 00:14:25 fun yeah because like we know the mariners are going to hit the trade market hard and we know they're going to have to trade away some major league talent because that's just the name of the game nowadays but can they get what they need without having to subtract too much from their major league roster can they use that great strength of theirs that farm to make their roster definitively better no

Starting point is 00:14:46 answer butts that's kind of my concern right now So number one, do I even need to say it? John Stanton, Chris Larson, and the rest of that ownership group are still calling the shots. That seems pretty concerning to me. And look, I'm not saying that if Jerry DePoto had no financial restrictions, he'd just start throwing a bunch of money out there. I'm not. I'm not saying that. But the unwillingness to spend big dollars by ownership does close you off from a major portion of the market.

Starting point is 00:15:18 And that ultimately narrows your paths to improving your roster. And while, yes, there is a lot of risk in handing out significant contracts to players either in their 30s or heading into their 30s, there are also exceptions to that. And it would be nice if the mayor has at least allowed themselves every now and then to realistically explore which of those free agents are the exceptions and take a real shot on someone. I'm not talking about two years, $24 million for Mitch Garber. I'm talking about like a real shot that is, you know, multiple years, big time dollars, right? But they won't, but make no mistake.

Starting point is 00:15:58 It's also on them to maneuver that because they know what they signed up for and they know what's being asked of them by this ownership group. So if they fail this winter, it's obviously not just on ownership, but it starts with ownership because they put the organization at a disadvantage right from the jump. I'm getting real tired of this conversation, but the Mariners just keep on forcing it to be a part of it. the conversation. Like legitimately, if the Mariners had like $185 million payroll, we wouldn't talk about ownership nearly as much. And 185, by the way, in case you're curious, is like the 13th ties payroll in baseball this year.

Starting point is 00:16:38 We're not even asking them to be top 10, even though they absolutely should be. There's no reason for them not to be. Like, we're literally asking them to spend a little bit more than the angels. Right. You know. And honestly, I'm not. even asking them to get to a specific number. I'm just asking them to not close themselves off from a market, from a major, major portion

Starting point is 00:16:58 of the market. That's it. Right. I mean, we talk about this all the time. Like, at the end of the day, you don't really care what the number is as long as it doesn't prevent you from building the best team you can. Yeah. Just build a good baseball team.

Starting point is 00:17:09 Right. Like I said, if the Mariners win the World Series and their payroll is $165 million instead of 185, most of us will not care. However, when you consistently come up short, of your goals and you're not spending as much money as you can and should to kind of burst through that that ceiling that you put on yourself. It's absolutely justified to be angry, to point at you and say like, that's the problem. You're the problem. So yeah, the only thing ownership ever has to do is not stand in the way. And again, I'm not saying

Starting point is 00:17:44 that they should absolutely greenlight every single idea that Jerry has. I'm not even, I'm not even like they should spend $300 million like the Mets and like could they? Yeah, absolutely they could. Will they? No, and I'm not asking them to it. What I'm asking you is when Justin Hollander comes to you and says, hey, I think if we sign Christian Walker to this three year 62 million dollar deal, I think we can win the American League West and I think we're at 95 to 100 win team.

Starting point is 00:18:11 You don't say like, yeah, but can't we win 89 games if you go sign Carlos Santana and save $50 million. And that's kind of what's happening more or less. I mean, they won't come out and say that's exactly what's happening. That's essentially what Jerry and Justin have had to deal with for the last three off seasons. Like, hey,

Starting point is 00:18:30 give us this and we can build you a World Series team. And they go like, yeah, but the World Series is not really the goal per se. So like, you know. Just don't close yourself off from like the Anthony Santander's of the world. Yep.

Starting point is 00:18:43 That's all I'm asking. If you don't want to spend. I mean, it's dumb, but whatever. Okay. Yeah, you don't want to give seven years and almost $200 million to Alex Bregman, fine. Whatever, right? But four years, Hunter Mill to Anthony Santander. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:04 You should be willing to do that. Yeah, absolutely. And you should be willing to do that without being like, okay, now go save me money somewhere else. Like, no, it should not be the baseball people's job to save you money. That's not their job. Their job is to build the best baseball team they possibly can. And your job is to support them in any feasible way. And it's absolutely feasible to expect the Seattle Mariners to put real financial resources into rounding out this already pretty good roster with pretty good players on it.

Starting point is 00:19:36 That's absolutely a reasonable ask. And ownership will continue to stand in the way of that. We'll see they only have to do it once, right? Like if they go sign Christian Walker this winter or whatever, some of that goes. goes away for at least a moment, like you buy some time. But, you know, when it's, hey, go trade for this league minimum guy. And we have to give up, basically we have to go Cole Young to get a worse first baseman because you won't let us just spend money to go get. That has long term impact on the baseball, on the baseball team and the baseball side of things.

Starting point is 00:20:06 And keep in mind, baseball is the business. That is where you make your money is from the baseball. It is not about hat sales and merch sales. It is about the baseball team. And the baseball team has to be, you know, relatively competitive for you to turn a profit every single year. Unfortunately, that's what all that's all ownership cares about. Just be competitive so we can turn our profit. And then we can sell the team in 10 years and make, you know, $2 billion on our investment.

Starting point is 00:20:32 So, yeah, ownership, of course, it's the biggest question mark. It's, again, if the Mariners had the San Diego Padres ownership, they would have been in the playoffs probably three, four, or five times by now in the Jerry to Potow era. So there you go. Top five concerns for the off season for the Marrars. Now it's time for Colby to give you his top five pitches in Major League Baseball. Just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marries podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook,

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Starting point is 00:21:49 five Tuesday. I just gave you my top five concerns for the merrers this off season. Now it's time to switch things up. Give the floor to Colby for his top five pitches in Major League Baseball right this second. So Colby. Yeah. A couple honorable mentions. Bryce Miller's Splitter, believe it or not, the highest run value in all baseball in that pitch on all splitters, I should say. Plus 10 run value. And this is the first year he's on it. So, you know, it might get even better. So Bryce Miller's Splitter, honorable mention.

Starting point is 00:22:26 I did want to throw Luis Castillo's four seamer out there. I know that a lot of people think Castillo sucks. But this year, even with all of his struggles, opponents still hit just 203 against that pitch with a 365 slug and a 27.3% whiff rate. Those are all fantastic for a four-seem fastball. but it's actually kind of an outlier because even last year, opponents hit 165 off of the four seamer and he had a 33% whiff rate on it. So Luis Castillo's fastball is still an elite forcing fastball. Just want to throw those a couple of mariners out there. I think Brian Wu's,

Starting point is 00:23:04 I think Brian Wu's fastball is close to being there. It is that dominant. Yeah, I mean, probably the four seamer more than the two seamer. but again, you know, not you got to be consistent. You got to go out there and you got to pitch like every five days. And it's got to something you can kind of count on. So yeah, I mean, like you kind of look at these pitches. There are a lot of great pitches in baseball.

Starting point is 00:23:30 I know I'm missing people off this list. And somebody would say, like, where's Garrett Cole's fastball? Yep, Garrett Coal's fastball is a great. Spencer Strider slider is great. Like there are a ton of great pitches out there. Had to pick five. But yeah. So we'll just, we'll just dive in here.

Starting point is 00:23:47 A couple iconic pitches on this list. And then a couple, you know, maybe you didn't think about. How about Tariq Scoobles fastball coming in at number five? Sits anywhere 93 to 96. But when he wants seemingly at will, he could throw 100. And it's a left-handed fastball coming in at 100 miles an hour. It's insane how good that pitch is. Opponents at 203 off of that pitch.

Starting point is 00:24:09 Same as Luis Castillo's. The difference is that the slugging percentage on it was 80, points lower than Castillo's. 286 was the slug on on scoble's fastball. With rate basically the same. So Castillo and in scubel their fastball very similar except scoble had a little bit better command, was able to keep it out of the middle of the zone, give up a few less extra base hits on it.

Starting point is 00:24:34 So that's the difference. And that's why scubble gets the number five spot instead of Castillo. But Castillo's fastball, four seamer is legitimately one of the top, I don't know, 20-ish pitches in baseball. he still has it. But it did decline this year. But Scoobel's fastball. Really good last year.

Starting point is 00:24:51 Fantastic this year. It sets up everything else. And again, 100 miles an hour from the left side, you don't see that very often. Even today when everybody's thrown 100. Still not a lot of left. He's throwing 100.

Starting point is 00:25:02 And again, you have a sub three slug and a 27.7% whiff on that pitch. 30 is like elite for enforcing fastball. So scoble almost elite with no power, no hits. giving up on that pitch. It's a great pitch in Major League Baseball. Coming up at number four, we have kind of an iconic pitch, kind of, so to speak, or at least it's getting that way. Emmanuel Claese is cutter that he throws at 100 miles an hour, a cutt of a cut at 100 miles an hour.

Starting point is 00:25:35 Not a huge whiff pitch. Classet doesn't strike out a ton of dudes, so it's a little bit different than other pitches on this list. But opponents hit 150 against that pitch this year. They slug 209. Clossey had one of the best regular seasons in baseball history for a reliever. And it's because of that cutter. By the way, Clossey slider also could have made this list. It was really good this year as well. But it's a hundred mile an hour cut.

Starting point is 00:26:01 It's Mariano Rivera throwing 100 miles an hour. Like, I mean, come on. Like, what do you, what do you do with that pitch? Like, it's very difficult to square up. even in the postseason when he struggled or at least in some of his audience where he struggled it was the scene i single it was the broken bat looper that really did him in and he typically has very good command of that cutter so emmanuel class is cutter has to be uh somewhere in the top 10 i have at number four again the difference between number one and like number 15 is probably negligible you can make a case for 30 different pitchers having the best pitch in baseball um but anyways uh kind of coming in at number three. I'm going to go with Matt Brash's slider. It is number three.

Starting point is 00:26:55 He did it. He did not throw that pitch in 2024 because he didn't throw any pitches in 20. He's still an active major leaker though. Yes. But we still have to like, will he have the same bite? Will it have the same bite as it did coming off of the Tommy John surgery? That's a big question. Sure, sure.

Starting point is 00:27:13 But based on the information we have right now, Matt Brash's slider is one of the elite pitches in baseball. And honestly, his sweeper or his slur or his curb, whatever, the other breaking ball is pretty darn good, too. Matt Brash, again, just in terms of raw stuff, might be the best guy in baseball. It just raw stuff. Command control, actually like pitchability, like, maybe he never gets there. But raw stuff-wise, Brash is definitely up there. These are 20-23 numbers for obvious reasons. But against that slider,

Starting point is 00:27:44 opponents hit 162 with a 216. And get this a 48.5% whiff rate. Half of the sliders, Matt Brasch through towards on plate, got swung at and missed. Yep. I'm sorry, what? Ask Jose Ramirez how he feels about Matt Brasher's slider.

Starting point is 00:28:09 It's got to be up there. All right. Coming in at number two, I might be a little bit biased here, but I am a sucker for the left-handed curveball. So coming into number two on the list for me, Blake Snell's curveball. It is a thing of me.

Starting point is 00:28:22 You love Barry Zito. Barry Zito is one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for the big left-handed curveball. But Blake Snell's curveball is legitimately great. It is better, statistically speaking, than Matt Brash's slider even. Opponents this year hit 111 off of the curveball with a 183 slugging percentage.

Starting point is 00:28:43 And a 49.3% whiff rate on that pitch. Blake Snell's curveball is a, it's a joke. Like it is, it is just a thing of pure beauty. And again, I like the tall, lanky left-hander with the big bender. One of my favorite profiles. That's why I love Barry Zito so much. Yep. But coming into number one, probably the most iconic pitch in baseball,

Starting point is 00:29:05 at least right now, it's Devin Williams change up, screwball, whatever we want to call it. You know, it has, it's as it's, it has its own nickname like a really good one too. The airbender. I mean, like, who, that's, that's a great nickname. And, you know, this year, it was actually a little more hitable than it was the year before. This year, opponents hit 162 and 216. And that was up from what it was in 2023.

Starting point is 00:29:37 Now, he also got more whiffs with it. This year, that, that pitch had a 48% width rate. in 2023 it only had a 42% whiff rate. Wow. But opponents scrub pitch. I know. Opponents hit 097 with a 187 slug in 2023. Like the airbender change up is still the best pitch in baseball.

Starting point is 00:30:02 At the very least, like I don't think you can do it. It's definitely in the top. I feel like most strongly that like Devin Williams change up is like the undisputed top five. everything else in here. If you want to nitpick, you want to say, oh, Garrett Cole had a better fastball than Triggs-Skubel, blah, blah, blah, whatever, fine. But I'm thinking of pitches that like immediately came to mind. Like this is one of those, those things where you have to look at and you kind of have to go like, yeah, I can look at the numbers. I can look at the data and all that. I could probably get like,

Starting point is 00:30:28 like, I think Cade Smith had like the best fastball by run value in all baseball this year. Nobody talks about Cade Smith's fastball outside of Cleveland, right? Like, you kind of have to have like this big national like appeal like it has to be like something that is so obvious when I say nasty you just it pops in your head right like oh nasty like a matte brash slider right like one that popped in my head immediately that you didn't mention was yon duran splinker yes which you can throw for like 101 right yeah they were definitely on the list um you know I thought about both of those over scoobles fastball uh but But Skeens, I was like, let's see if you can do it again next year.

Starting point is 00:31:12 And Duran is, I mean, he's such a freak, dude. He's such a freak. Yeah. But I, you know, it's just tough because also when you kind of, when you go look at statistics for pitchers, typically a lot, a lot of statistics are cumulative, right? They're like run value is kind of cumulative. So relievers kind of get knocked down unnecessarily unless they have just like an insane pitch. but also if you throw fewer pitches, typically, and you would think in theory,

Starting point is 00:31:41 there would be less opportunity for that pitch to get hit. So we almost should do like top five relief pitcher pitches and top five starting pitcher pitches because they're different skill sets. But yeah, you know, I guess I said, I feel really good about this list. Paul Skeens definitely could be on it next year. Probably will be, honestly. Like he's that good.

Starting point is 00:32:04 There is, oh, it's the guy for, from the Dodgers that we've talked about a little bit. He has like an elite, elite change-up, but he just hasn't done it. He was really good in 20-23, but terrible this year, righty. Bobby Miller. Yes. Like Bobby Miller's change-up could be on this list next year. That is a filthy pitch.

Starting point is 00:32:26 But yeah, you know, like I feel like Devin Williams and Emmanuel Claucet, those are just iconic pitches of the era. Like you think Cutter, you think of Closet, you think change up, you think of Devin-Williams. to me when I think slider I think of Matt Brash when I think fastball I think of turricks cool when I think of Blake's knell like I think if you put these five pitches on one pitcher they would win the Cy Young every single year so yeah these guys these are the elites of the elites and there's like so there's a lot of guys like you know me I love a good fastball I have a very particular name for a good fastball that also starts with four letters

Starting point is 00:33:01 but you fastball yes it doesn't start with an age though But yeah, like it ends in a CK though. It does. I love that pitch. And so I could have probably done top five fastballs. And that's been great. But they said you kind of have to pick and choose. And this is kind of a, this is kind of a taste thing.

Starting point is 00:33:21 Like if you really like the splinker, then Duran and Skeens are probably going to be on this pitch. I'm more of a fastball curb ball change up type of guy. So that's why my list ended up like it was. But the cutter, I couldn't ignore the cutter of Kloss. say that thing, it's lethal. So, yeah, I feel pretty good about my list, but I'm sure I missed like a lot. Like there's a lot of people who are screaming like, oh, you didn't even mention this pitch. It's like, well, mentioned it in the time.

Starting point is 00:33:47 Like Codda, Sanga's Ghost Fork and all that. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great pitch. Like pitching has never been better than it is right now. Oh, yeah. So to whittle this down to five guys and five different pitches, impossible. But yeah, let us know. Like, what is your favorite pitch in all of baseball?

Starting point is 00:34:04 You know, let us know. if you want to let us know like what your favorite pitch of all time is like yeah for me like randy johnson's fastball is way up there love that pitch also the slider i mean randy johnson's awesome anything he threw it was pretty awesome um pedro martina's change up is way up on my list that thing was oh philix hernandez's change up like i was just about to say yeah i mean there are so many great pitches uh in in baseball so many iconic pitches and there's never been better stuff in the history of the game than there is right now, and that's not going away.

Starting point is 00:34:39 Next year we'll say the same thing. The stuff in 2025 is better than we've ever seen it before. You know what? We're going to say that in 2026 as well. Like that's the trend we're heading towards. It is freakish what these guys can do with the baseball. That's going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here,

Starting point is 00:34:54 a reminder that lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. But now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV in the free Fire TV channels app. Lockdown Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked-on Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast for Colby Patnaud.

Starting point is 00:35:20 I'm Taday Gazzalas. Be sure you give us a follow on Twitter at L-O- underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Tiding-A-Zalus and Colby at CPAT 11. That's C-PAT-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you next time. Peace.

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