Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Julio Show

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode discuss Julio Rodríguez's big night in Peoria and why the top prospect is going to make the Mariner's Opening Day roster. Plus a look at the rest of Seattle's outfield and the final two players in Ty and Colby's "Flag Week."Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, after last night, I think it's pretty clear. Julio Rodriguez should start the year and AAA to work on his defense. April Fools, of course he's making the big league club. What's the matter with you? We're talking about Julio's Big Night and Peoria, how the rest of the Mariners Outfield stacks up for 2022. And we're also going to wrap up Flag Week with two more players were high on this season. All that and more here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast.

Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. It is Friday, April 1st, 2022, and this is Locked-on Mariners. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. I am your host, Tidey and Gonzalez.

Join, as always, by my co-host, Colby Patnode. I think he's over here on this side of me, right? I'm still trying to learn how the mirroring works here. But be sure to follow the show on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-Rerner's. And you can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. That's D-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z. and Colby at C-Pat-11, that's C-P-A-T-1-B. Be sure to also check out our Patreon.

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And we are doing a giveaway. Not sure if you heard about it yesterday, but if you're just tuning in today, we are given away two main level tickets to the Mariners April 17th Sunday game against the Astros in section 126 row 33 if you want to win those you can start by subscribing to us here on YouTube if you're watching on YouTube or if not go to our YouTube it's called Lockdown Mariners of course you can subscribe there

then head on over to our Twitter follow me you see my at down below me at Dane Gonzalez this is D-A-N-Z-L-Z. Subscribe to Colby, C-P-E-P-A-T-1-S-P-A-T-1, subscribe to our Lockdown Mariners page, it's L-O-U-U-U-N-Rer-N-Rer-N-RORS, of course, and then retweet the giveaway tweet. All that information is down below.

The link to the tweet that you need to go to is down below or in the description of the episode wherever you listen to it on Spotify, Apple, all that good stuff. So, yeah, be sure to check that out and score yourself some Mariners' tickets. So, with that out of the way, you know, if you win the giveaway,

you might actually see Julio Rodriguez because again let's not kid ourselves Julio is making this team last night Mariner's defeated the Guardians three to two down in Peoria and Julio was the story of the night of course kick things off with an infield single on a hard hit ball to third base and beat it out it was a tough play for the third basement of course but still pretty impressive beating that out steal second right after that score on an RBI single by Adam Frazier. He moved to second on an error.

And then next that bat, he walks. And then Adam Frazier drives him in. I think you're starting to see a trend here. Then after that, he plays a ball off the wall, hit by Josh Naylor in the left center field, and fires a seed to Adam Frazier, of course. To get Naylor out at second. Basically, Adam Frazier and Julio Rodriguez last night

were playing their best Greg Jennings' impression putting the team on their back though and finally the big thing that happened of course Julio Rodriguez hitting an inside the park home run off of one of the more fun

relievers in baseball to watch a manual class A and right afterwards as soon as he crossed home plate slid into home plate pumped as ever Dave Sims turned to blowers on the broadcast and said he's making the team

Mike and I think we've all known this deep down. Maybe some of us don't want to admit it or some of us are afraid of getting hurt and some of us are aware of service time manipulation and baseball in general, not just with the Mariners. We know that some teams, they will put down some of the best prospects who are very clearly ready to take that next step, down on the minors to work on their defense.

That doesn't seem to be the case here with Julio Rodriguez, right, Colby? No, it's nice to talk to you, five minutes. minutes into the show. I appreciate that. Is it five minutes? Oh, my God. It's five. It's in the show. So, yeah, Julio was great last night, obviously. Overshadowed a bit by how good Chris Flexen looked, I would say. Yeah, you guys forgot about Chris Flexen, didn't you?

No, he looked great, and it was awesome because the game before he had a rough day. He made the base running air that cost the team a run. He lost a fly ball in the sun, and that cost the team at least. two runs, you know, so it was a rough day for him last, or yesterday afternoon, two days ago. Last night, he was the best player on the field with the notable exception of Adam Frazier, but, you know, Frazier only, Frazier's only in the conversation because of what Julio did. So, Julio was the best player on the field. And that was not an A plus Cleveland team, but it was still a pretty good, you know, product

that Cleveland put out there. Savali is a really nice. pitcher. And he was really the only Marinus Center aside for Madam Fraser to actually get to Savali in this game. Right. And you know, Klaus Sagan is also a very solid reliever with some really wicked stuff. Julio got it on the inside of the Parker. He got a breaking ball, which is kind of unusual for Klausi. And it was up.

So it was a good pitch to hit. But when you're going up against a guy who throws, I know, 120, 120, 102 mile per hour cutters. Yeah. Sometimes you're, you're, that, that breaking balls is tougher to hit than you would think. And he still, you know, drove it to right center field. I'm shocked that that didn't leave the ballpark. I really thought it was going to, he touched it up very nice. But, you know, you saw him run hard out of the box the entire way.

Never looked like he was running that hard, but he ate up ground so quickly. It's kind of, it's kind of Griffey-esque. I mean, I know Ty and I, you're too young. I'm too young to remember like when Griffey first came to Seattle. But it was just kind of that similar type of like gliding. where it's like it doesn't even look like he's running that hard, but he just covers so much ground that you can't like, it doesn't look like he's fast,

but he's just eating up so much ground with every step that I didn't time the inside the park home run trot. But it's funny because you watch him run the bases like when they kept, when they kept cutting to him on route, it kind of looked like he was jogging, but there's no way you get home on that ball if you're jogging. Like it's just, it's just effortless.

Yeah, just weird. like it's like he was almost eating up like 10 feet per step like it was just insane um it's kind of like when uh when Colin Kaepernick would break out those huge lead option runs right it didn't look like he was running that fast but he was just going man so I'll running everyone on the field there's that guy you're like oh that guy's got an angle and then nope nope he does not yeah um yeah because he just take two steps and you'd be by the guy who needed to take four more steps to get to that same spot so yeah It's very effortless the way he runs. And obviously, you know, we've talked about how, or he's talked about how his speed probably went up like, what, one and a half grade.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think Jerry DePuddle was BSing. I did at first and now I don't know. I don't know. He might be a legitimate 65 runner. Like he's not, I mean, let's be clear, he's not, you know, Trey Turner or Byron Baxter. But I think, I think earlier this spring he hit 29.2 feet per second.

on a ball from home to first. I mean, if you guys are wondering, 30 feet per second is considered elite, right? So 29.2. CJ Abrams just had that for the Padres. And he's got, yeah, and he's got, what, 70, 75 grade speed. I think 75, yeah. Yeah.

So Julios, probably the, depending on if Billy Hamilton makes it or not, he's probably the second fastest mariner on the club right now. Yeah. So yeah, it's all five tools. And I just, I can't imagine, you know, just I find it hard to believe that the Mariners would send him down. I think he said AAA ball starts on Tuesday, right? Yeah, Tacoma starts their season on Tuesday. So we should probably know.

either today, maybe tomorrow, maybe Sunday at the latest. I don't think they would let it linger until Monday for them to announce the Tacoma roster. He's not going to be on it. Like, again, I know there are some that are like, let's wait and see.

You know, I'll believe it when I see him in the dugout in Minnesota, but he's going to make this team. It's been, the writing has been on the wall for a while here. They didn't put anyone in front of him. And then the Kyle Lewis injury, or Kyle Lewis being unable to make it by opening day. Pretty much, I think, pushed them over the hump for that.

Push the Mariners over the hop. And yeah, you know, they keep on saying, you know, we'll see if he makes it and blah, blah, blah, he's looked good. And all that stuff. They asked Scott Service about it yesterday. Jerry DePoto got asked about it on 710. Seattle Sports yesterday morning. And, you know, they've been playing that game.

But he's, I think they made this decision to put him on the team probably two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Yeah, tell me the players on this mariner roster that you know for a fact are better than Julio Rodriguez right now. No, Jesse Winker. Yes. Yeah. Ty France. Mitch Hanaker.

Robbie Ray. Yeah. Marco. The point is, he's one of the best 26 guys in your organization. he should be on the team he's probably one of your top 10 frankly yeah so yeah yeah he should be i think he's going to i would be shocked at this stage if he didn't make it um and you know it's the whole well the mariners are going to service time him you know they could technically do that and still

have them make the opening day roster right that's true like they could send him down in may be struggling and still win the service time thing so it's really not that big of a deal and and again the mariners are trying to you know milk every when they can out of the season to not have Julio Rodriguez on your opening day roster would be the opposite of that. So he's going to make it. April 7th, mark it down. Yeah. And again, if you want to see him, go enter our giveaway.

He's probably going to be in center field. It's probably going to be the starting opening day center fielder. And by probably, I mean, he is going to be the starting opening day center fielder. We're going to talk about how the rest of the outfield stack. up along with Julio as well in our outfield preview to wrap up our position by position preview here on Lockdown Mariners for the 2022 Mariners. But first, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bilt Bar. This is the time of year that I've pretty much given up on all of my New Year's resolutions, but not this year. I'm sticking to my resolution

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That's LLC KED-15 for 15% off your order. Again, that's LLC KED-1-5 for 15% off your order at built.com. All right. You are listening to Locked-on Mariners. Thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. And just a reminder to check out Lockdown MLB Pros. Hosts host Lindsay Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia, and he's going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow.

It's free and available wherever you get podcasts just like us. So, Colby, I'm not going to belabor here. We're doing our outfield preview. And because I spoke for five minutes or whatever to start the show without letting you chime in, I'll let you take the reins here and talk about the outfield. Who do you want to talk about first? Well, first of all, we should probably acknowledge we have some breaking news. coming in on the injury front.

Some of it good, some of it not so good. Kyle Lewis is going to start D-Hing, start the year D-Hing in the minor leagues. He is going to start D-Hing in the minor league games in Peoria now. And he sounds like there's a pretty good chance. He's going to get some at-bats in major league action at the end of spring training. So there you go.

Kyle Lewis, going to start taking live at-bats. The unfortunate news here is that Ken Giles will not be on the opening day roster. The good news on that is that it is not his elbow, his surgically repaired elbow. He's dealing with a tendon issue in his right middle finger, and he's not going to begin throwing for another few weeks. So probably May is the earliest we're looking at Giles. That's not great. That certainly hurts, especially after losing Sadler. Now you lose Giles for an extended period of time. Wonder if maybe there's another move that happens here to also open a little bit. Yon Ramirez?

I mean, obviously, yes, but like, he's already making the club. So I'll give you a trade name. Okay. Lou Trevino. Ooh, I like it. Yes. So there you go. Name to watch. But for now, they're still pretty good shape with the bullpen. Another, another loss to a potential high leverage guy. Start to worry a little bit. But yeah, like I said, the good news is it is not his elbow. Let's just make that clear.

Yeah. It is still a throwing hand, though. Yes, but it is tendon strain in his middle ring finger, or his middle finger, right finger. Anyways, outfield wise, I mean, it feels like a position where we already know what's going to happen, right? Julio's going to be the opening day center fielder. Kellnick is probably going to be the opening day left fielder. I know some people think he should start AAA. I don't see the point in that, to be quite frank. Yeah, I don't either.

So just, you know, give him April, see what happens. So he'll probably be the left fielder. I'm going to guess Hanager will be the right fielder. and then Jesse Winker will D.H. It's possible that Winker plays left and, you know, Kellnicks on the bench or whatever, what have you. But, yeah, it's going to be those four guys. Then the fifth guy is going to be,

eventually it'll be either Dylan Moore or Adam Frazier, who also obviously, you know, are going to play in the infield as well. There's a chance that Billy Hamilton's on the opening day roster. I would say 35% chance. So like a pretty decent one, just as kind of an extra and defensive guy. And you know, you could put Hamilton out there in center, move Julio to right and have Kellnick and left late in games to kind of try and help out there. But yeah, it's going to be those four.

And then eventually, hopefully Kyle Lewis is the five. And, you know, the best place to be would be if all four of those guys are hitting and then Kyle Lewis is ready to go. That's a really good problem. It's where you want to be. So yeah, it's those four to start followed by. probably Dylan Moore and Adam Frazier. And then eventually Kyle Lewis, hopefully by May, May 1.

I think that's a pretty good, you know, a pretty realistic point where you can start to think maybe Kyle's ready to come back up to the big leagues. Yeah, we'll see how he's able to progress. And, you know, the thing is like he's going to have to play in the field some. You're going to have to feel confident that he can play in the field some. You can't just exclusively DHM. That's the problem we've talked about with having Louis Terenz on the roster. He's got to catch and the same thing with Kyle Lewis. He's got to play

in the outfield some. He's got to play somewhere for some period of time. And the only way that you can figure out if he's healthy enough to do that is in the minor leagues. And you know, back before the lockout happened, Jerry DePoto talked about Kyle Lewis and said

you know, basically anything that he can give us this year, we're looking at as a bonus. And I think that's kind of the approach that they're taking right now. They're taking things slow. They're They don't really have to force things right now. Plus, they have Julio, who's electrified this ball club. He's going to be the center fielder to start things out. We'll see if he's actually able to make it, you know,

and to make it work at the major league level. And if so, I mean, you know, again, Kyle Lewis is just kind of a bonus. And that's really exciting because, like, if Julio does pop here and say Jury Kalmak is able to give you, you know, at least average production, maybe slightly above average production, hopefully slightly above average production or even better.

You had Kyle Lewis to the mix with Jesse Winker and Mitch Hanager. I mean, this is kind of finally an outfield log jam of sorts, but it's also incredibly exciting because you have a ton of potential there in that group. This has the potential to be one of the best outfield units in all baseball. as it stands and you know we'll have to see you know if health provides

and all that stuff defensively it's going to be atrocious to start at least I mean it could be okay by the end of the year yeah and it could and it could be okay right now if Julio is average

you got Jared and left Jared should be fine and left Jared should be fine and left right field is a major question You're saying. Jared Kelnick looking like Jay Bruce at the plate. I hope he doesn't look like Jay Bruce defensively. Although young Jay. You see it?

You see it? Yes. Yes. I'm so weird, right? Maybe it was just the camera angle. We've talked about how the angle like looks a little lower. His elbow is up over. It looks.

His left elbow is up over his own. It looked a lot like Jay Bruce. Now, I know a lot of manner of fans cringe when they hear Jay Bruce, but if, if Jared Kalknick turned out to be Jay Bruce, like, that is a steal of a deal for the Seattle Mariner still Bruce was what one trade to Jay Bruce double the Bruce there you go return of the Bruce um return of the Bruce no Jay Bruce was was a really good player though like we need to acknowledge that um especially early uh in his in his tenure in Cincinnati the reds um yeah so yeah if if Kalnick is only j Bruce great I mean that that's

awesome. Not quite what we were hoping it would be, but that's still really, really good. So, Kellogg should be okay and left. Yeah. Julio, there's probably going to be some balls that are going to be an adventure in center field. He's, I don't think he's going to be better than say Kyle Lewis was out there. And Lewis was only what above average, like 55 maybe in centerfield. Which was surprising, by the way. We didn't think that he was a center fielder at all. No, his jumps and his reaction time were just so much better than his overall, like, foot speed and acceleration. Does that make you feel maybe a little more confident about Julio? Maybe the Mariners actually understand that some of these guys are better at center field than maybe we think?

I don't know. They thought Jared Kelnick could play out there. Yeah. I mean, maybe they didn't foresee that Jared Kelnik was going to come in looking swole. but even more swole than he already was. I don't know. Maybe. Yeah.

Yeah, you know, we talked about this yesterday with the infield preview. This often, the Mariners thump kind of has to come from the outfield. So you need Jay Bruce to, you know, you know, Bruce hit 24 home runs last year and he missed like 45, 50 games. So he's, I feel like he's a pretty safe 30 home run, 40 double type of guy. Canada is probably going to hit around 30 home runs. Kelnick can certainly hit 30. It certainly seems like he's trying to. And then Julio's, you know, just kind of the X factor here. I can see Julio hitting, you know, 20. I can see him hit 30. It's really, it's just kind of an up in the air type of situation there. So yeah, the offense has to

kind of, the outfield kind of has to carry the offense because it's going to drag down the run prevention side of things a little bit. So they have to make up for that with their bats. So it's a little bit of a balancing act here between the infields, you know, plus defense and contact bats versus the outfields below average defense and, you know, power bats. So it's kind of a unique balance there. So, yeah, there's a little bit of pressure on certainly Kellnick and Julio, since we haven't seen them perform in the big leagues for a significant enough track, you know, significant enough sample size for us to feel good about it, if that makes sense. Whereas like Adam Frazier, and J.P. Crawford and a Ty Frant, like,

we know what they're going to do, roughly. We have a pretty good idea. The outfield has a wider week of outcomes. For sure. All right, so we're going to wrap up Flag Week. We've been doing this all week long. We're going to plan our flags and two more Mariners in just

a moment, and hey, maybe one of these guys we just talked about is going to show up here in this next segment. Real quick, reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bet Online. After months of playing, In college basketball has determined the top teams for the final four and will determine this year's national champion this coming week. And betonline.net is your number one source for all your betting needs and sports info from all the latest odds, contests and player props, you name it.

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Okay. So we've been doing flag week all week long. This was your idea, Colby. We have been planning our flags and Mariners players that we are excited about. We're championing as our guys for this year on this team. And we're not repeating picks. You know, if I take a guy, he's off the board. If you take a guy, he's off the board.

I picked Matt Brash. I picked A. Johanio Suarez. I picked Jared Kelnick and Adam Frazier. You've picked Luis Trenz, Logan Gilbert, Abraham Toro. I'm trying to remember. And then who was your pick yesterday?

Marco. Marco Gonzalez, correct. I like that pick. All right. So I'll let you go first pick here. Since this was your idea, you get to close this thing off. And since it is my turn anyways. since I picked last yesterday.

Oh, was it? Okay, whatever. Let's see. Which way could I go with this? Maybe we'll just go ahead and make this the Julio Rodriguez episode. Oh, no. I think that's where we were both going with number one, right?

Yeah, yeah. I am willing to co-share number one, Julio, with you. But you do have to come up with an alternate so we at least talk about somebody else. Okay, we'll co-share number one. You're welcome. Yeah, I've been.

mean just come on who else is going to i almost took cooio yesterday just because i was like i don't want tie to try and sneak them away from me um but then i remembered i had the back-to-back picks so yeah kind of get two for there um but yeah i figured we were both going to go hulio at number one i actually didn't like set out like hey i'll go first this time so that means on friday i'll also go first i didn't really honestly i didn't even look at it as like the guy we pick on monday is number five and the guy we no i didn't either okay i didn't either. Well, initially my idea was just we're just going to pick five guys each and we happen to share one, then whatever. We'll just talk about that guy. Right. But you wanted it to be like,

you can't have the same guy. So I was like, okay. So yeah, these aren't in order, but I feel like Julio's probably most people's number one anyways. You know what I mean? So yeah, I mean, how can you not? Julio last night was just energy in the late days of spring training where it can be really hard to play with any fire. You're just kind of, you know, you're kind of down the home stretch. And last night you were what exactly one week away from opening day? So you just kind of, man, I just want to get to Minnesota. I just want to get this thing started.

And Julio brought energy. He brought excitement. He brought passion and joy and fun. And that's who Julio is. You know, that's not an act. That's not, nothing about what he did last night is unrepeatable or disingenuous. He's a dude who loves baseball. He loves playing the game.

He loves having fun playing the game. And he's a guy who the Mariners are building around. What does Jason Churchill call him? Jason Churchill, baseball things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The franchise.

The franchise. The franchise. And it certainly feels that way. The Mariners, I would not be shocked if the Mariners gave Julio a Wander Franco like contract sometime in mid, mid June, July.

Assuming he's sitting like he is. The Mariners love Julio Rodriguez. he is the only player. Yeah, absolutely. He's the only player, I believe, is as, he's as close to as untouchable as any player ever will be under Jerry Topoto. The only guys I could see him being traded for at this stage are like, Shohei Otani.

I'm not even, Ronald O'Kunia Jr. Renano Tatis Jr. Like, I'm not even joking. It's guys like that, Juan Soto. So, yeah, he's got that kind of upside, too. There was a report yesterday from, I can't remember who was from, but they had a couple of like, there was a quote from, I believe it was an assistant GM, if I'm remembering correctly, that said that they see Julio Rodriguez as kind of like a combination of Fernando Tatis Jr. and I believe Juan Soto. Like this week and hyperbole. Yeah, I mean, obviously.

And let's let's be clear about this. Julio does not need, nor should you expect him to go out and be Ronald Acuna. or Fernando Tatis Jr. or Juan Soto, right? Like that is a completely unfair expectation of Julio. Just because those guys did it at roughly the same age, doesn't mean that Julio has to, has to do it to be on their level or he has to do it for the Mariners to be good. Like that is completely unfair to ask of really anybody,

but especially Julio who's only played, I think the official number is 46 games above the A ball level. Yeah. I mean, it's insane. how much talent he has. But damn it's hard not to look. It's hard not to get excited about him. Oh, absolutely.

Like, I'm in like, like, like, here's what I would say. Like, what do I think Julio's going to do this year? I think a fair expectation would be 23, 3, 3,000, 450. Like, I think that's fair to expect that. If you're asking me, like, what Julio's ceiling is as a rookie, 300, 400, 500, 30 stolen bases, 30 home runs. Like, I'm not like, again, that's absolute high ceiling. All right.

But what, what do you, the fan? Not the analyst, the fan. Colby Patnaud, think Julio Rodriguez is going to do this year. I think he's going to win the batting title and compete for the MVP. Come on, the guy. Honestly, like, we talked about this in the past. like I think a good like just baseline comp for him like this is like the majority of the times you're on the simulation this who he ends up being.

I think it's Nelson Cruz in Texas with better defense and base running, right? But people forget Cruz was a really good athlete. Yeah. So I mean, I think he had a couple of years where he stole 20 bags. So I think that's like the baseline for Julio. But I think there's a chance that he is Seattle Mariners Nelson Cruz with above average defense. Like I think that's a fair comp. And I think one of the comps I've seen to is bat that obviously stands out, Miguel Cabrera.

Yeah. Like the guy's special. And like, again, if Julio can't become like a multi-time all-star and maybe win an MVP or compete for a couple down the road, then we should all just give up on trying to project prospects, which, you know, honestly we might want to do that anyways. But like, if he can't do it, I don't know who can because he's got every single tool. I'm probably going to curl up in a ball and cry. frankly. Yeah. Probably.

So like I'm just, yeah. Again, I want to be clear. Expectation should be like a one 100 to 110 WRC plus. I think that's totally fair. What is his ceiling? That he's the best hitter on the Mariners. And it's not close. Yeah.

That's a lineup that includes Jesse Winker, who we've talked about as being perhaps the most underrated hitter in baseball, who finished 6th last year in WRC Plus. Beyond like Shohei Otani, Bryce Harper, Vlad Jr. One, so like just an insane list.

And there's, there's a shot. I would say it's less than 1%, but there is a shot that Julio is better than Jesse Winker this year. It's a non-zero chance. It's a non-zero chance. Barely, but yes,

it is. So, Ty, give us the alternate real fast. All right, the alternate, there's a couple options that I could go here. Could go in the bullpen.

It's kind of an alternative one, but, uh, no. I, I, I, Chris Flexen. No, I'm not going to go with Chris Flexen. I like Chris Flexen. You guys are all sleeping on Chris Flexen. I like Chris Flexen. It's good. He's going to be good this year.

You're all steep on. Is he going to be my guy, though? You're guys, Julio. We've already discussed this. Well, all right, but my alternative guy, like, playing within the rules of Flag Week. Just pick you in.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go Thai France. I'm going to go Thai France. I think Thai France is going to hit over 300 this year. I think he might actually challenge to be to be pie France as you've been pounding the table for it. It's got to hit 14 batting average. Yeah,

pie France. Yeah, exactly. I think that. Then we will make the t-shirt with a slice of pie and an outline of the city of France. And only Mariner fans will get it. I think that that's actually going to be a, we're going to be at the middle of the season,

near the all start break, whatever, even past that. And that's going to be an actual possibility. I think Thai France has only tapped into his hit tool at the major league level. I really do. I really do. I think he's going to tap into more power.

I think he's going to tap into more average. And plus he actually has a, position now where he's good. And yeah, it's first base, whatever. You know, it's one of the more, you know, blase, you know, whatever, who cares. Positions on a, on a baseball diamond. But he's really good there.

He's above average there. At least last year. We'll see, you know, if that continues this year. But he's a lot better there than he is at second base or third base. And for a while there, it was like, okay, is Thai French just a DH? Doesn't seem like it. So now that we've gotten that out of the way, he's got his position. That's not a concern anymore.

Who cares? You can just focus on hitting. And damn it, Ty France is an incredible hitter. So I think he's going to be fantastic this season. I think he's going to hit over 300 this year. I think we're going to see him finally crack 20 home runs, get over that mark. And I think we might be looking at Ty France here in July. And we're talking about an all-star.

quite frankly. So there you go. All right. That's Flag Week. So to recap, mine, Thai France, Adam Frazier, and also kind of Julio,

but that's cheating. So Thai France, Adam Frazier, Jero, Suarez, and Matt Brash, your guys, Abraham Toro, Luis Trens,

Logan Gilbert, Marco Gonzalez, and Julio, of course. And that's it. So let us know with the comments if you're here on YouTube

or let us know on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners, who your flag players are. Name five of the guys that you are championing this year on the Mariners roster. And with that, that's going to do it for our show. Again, don't forget to enter our giveaway if you want to go see the Mariners play the Astros on April 17th. You can find all that information here in the description wherever you're listening to it. If you're here on YouTube or if you're

on Spotify, Apple Music, all that good stuff, or Apple Podcasts, rather, all that stuff. And thank you so much for joining us here on Lockdown Mariners and for making you. us your first listen of the day, just like you always do. For Colby Pat node, I'm Taday and Gonzales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter. Like I said, at L-O underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-N-Z-L-Z and Colby.

You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. You can find links to where you can just listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify and all that good stuff. Now, make your second listen to the day, locked on MLB, where Paul Francis Sullivan, and please call him Sully brings you. his unique perspective on the major leagues present and past. It's free wherever you get your podcast just like us. So have yourself a beautiful baseball day and a beautiful baseball weekend. And we will see you on Monday.

Peace.