Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Mariners Are Nine Games Up in the AL West... But How?

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Despite a plethora of key injuries and a mostly woeful offense, the Mariners find themselves nine games up in the American League West, which is their largest division lead since the end of 2001. How is that possible? Plus, Ty France is back and Tyler Locklear is still on the roster. How will Seattle make that work? Ty and Colby discuss.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Tax Network USAReduce your tax debt and get help from a team of licensed tax professionals call 1-800-549-1000 or visit TNUSA.com/lockedon. Stitch FixWith Stitch Fix, you get a Stylist who understands your style, size and budget—they do all the shopping for you! Now’s the best time to get started at StitchFix.com/MLB and get $100 off—that’s $25 off your first 4 Fixes for a limited time only. Must redeem within 7 days of sign up. Offer does not include Kids Fixes. LinkedInRight now, you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDON. PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonmlb to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. PrizePicksGo to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! SupplyHouseSupplyHouse.com is the reliable way to get parts fast. Shop for your next plumbing, h-vac, or electrical job and get fast shipping from coast to coast. eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET. That’s TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET!! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Mariners are nine games up in the AL West. It's the biggest lead in any division in baseball, but how are they doing it? Plus, Ty France is back and Tyler Locklear is still on the roster. How will those two coexist? We'll discuss coming up here on the Lockdown Marries 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. Ahoy, sailors, it is Tuesday, June 18th, 2024. cutting Gonzalez and Colby Patnode for the Locked-on Marries Podcasts part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team, every day. On today's show, we're going to look at how the Marys have gotten to where they're at so far and try to make sense of it. We'll also talk about the latest move made by the team. But before we get into that, shout out to our title sponsor today, Game Time.

Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the promo code Locked-on MLB, that's L-O-C-K-E-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show check out our patreon the link is in the description and you can sign up for a free seven-day trial tie france has returned from the injured list and the corresponding move is not sending down tyler locklear to triple a to coma it's actually designating sebi zavala for assignment which we pretty much saw the writing on the wall with regards to zavala he had only started one game since

may 26 had only appeared in two games since may 26 Mitch garver is now officially the mayor's backup catcher. But again, the big thing here really is that Tyler Locklear is still on the roster as of now. Maybe he ends up being the corresponding move once Jorge Polanco rejoins the team in the next week or two. But for now, it seems that they're going to try and have Locklear, France, Garver, Hanager, all those guys coexist on the same roster. So Colby, I know our comments section is chomping at the bit to hear you. you talk about Tyler Locklear even more after yesterday's episode. So how do you think the mirrors are going to make this work?

Well, first things first, I want to reiterate what I obviously said yesterday. Tyler Lockler is a failure. He should retire from baseball. Right. Worst first baseman. That's exactly what you said yesterday. Yep, very clearly, according to the common section, I've given up on Tyler Locklear after 25 decent plate appearances.

Right. Yep. Bum. But in reality, I don't know how they're going to handle this. It's going to be tough. there's going to be a lot of mixing and matching because, again, Tyler Locklear and Thai France,

they should only play first base. Like they are not third base, but I know they drafted Locklear to be a third baseman, blah, blah, blah. That was no, no, no, no, no, no. They knew back when they drafted him, he cannot play third base. Ty France, we know can't play third base.

We know he can't play second base. He is a first base only. And Garber and Hanager are really DH onlys. So essentially what you have right now is you have four guys who are first base, DH only and yet you only have two spots for them to play every day. Now there will be some days where Garber will be the back of catcher and that opens up one of the spots, fine, whatever. But yeah, how do you get these guys all you how do you

get all these guys at bats? I don't really know. I think Hanager moves to the bottom of the list, but because Hanager can stand in right field, he'll still get his at bats for Tom Canzone or Luke Grayley. Obviously, it's going to be tough. They're they're going to have to pick and choose matchups a little bit here. Because I don't think they're just going to bench Garver for Locklear most nights, maybe once in a while, but I don't think that's going to be something that we're going to see regularly, particularly when Garver is actually starting to hit a little bit right now. You don't want to stunt that, that, you know, positive growth that we've seen so far.

So it'll be a tough squeeze. That being said, I don't know that they had any better options. They just were refusing to use Sebby Zavala. And we talked about this. Why are you trying to play with? 25 guys when everybody else in the league is playing with 26. So if you don't, if you don't want to give Seby any playing time,

and I think he got one start literally in a month. Like I think since in the last 30 days, he maybe got three starts total. And they didn't even go from start to finish. He was always pinch hit four. So they didn't want to use Seby very clearly. Get him off the roster. It's fine.

I think Seby still got done pretty dirty by the Mariners, because they refused to let him play essentially. But whatever. They didn't want him on the roster. makes sense to get rid of them even if what you're left with is kind of this mess of similar players who all kind of play

a similar position. So, you know, I think that makes some sense. It'll be interesting to see what they do with Polanco. He is a couple games into his rehab. That one is supposed to take a little bit longer. So we'll see probably another week on him. I didn't think Ty France would be back today. So

that was certainly a surprise to see. But yeah, I think they're going to have to really manage this thing. I don't like carrying a pure backup first base only type on your roster. To me, that's just a wasted roster spot. And I think the risk you're running right now is that if, you know, Lockler's only going to play twice a week for the next couple weeks, like are you stunting some development there?

Like, because Lockler should be getting regular at-bats somewhere, but probably not to major league level because, again, you're not taking at bats away from Garber or France at this moment for him. So it's a little bit of a jumbled mess. We'll wait and see what the lineup looks like today. I imagine Ty France will be in it. Otherwise, they wouldn't have activated him.

So we'll see if Locklear, you know, plays, you know, gets a DH day. But, or maybe France gets a DH day. Right.

But then obviously that means Garber to the pinch, which again is going to happen a little bit more now because he's the only catcher on the roster other than Cal Rale. But I don't love the idea of, you know, essentially benching a guy who has been really your best hitter this month for extended periods of time. So it's going to be a little bit of

a juggling act. You kind of have to trust Scott to manage that well and the rest of the Mariners staff. So it'll be interesting to see. I think seeing Thai France at second base, as I've seen some people suggest, would be a disaster. And it is grounds for immediate dismissal from anybody. Perry Hill is pretty good at his job. He's not a miracle worker. So that's

just not going to happen. So yeah, we'll see. What is interesting here is at the, starting at the last game of this series, the Mariners are scheduled to face four lefties in a row. So, you know, we see a lot of interesting lineups

as they try to get Hanager, Garver, you know, Locklear and France in there against lefties. And my guess is, you know, Locklear probably sits against the lefties, but I don't know. We'll have to wait and see it. A little bit of a jumbled mess right now. I don't love, you know, that essentially, you know, a third of your position player group can only play one position.

But, you know, it is what it is right now. And again, I don't think they had really any better options because we know Class A, he isn't it. We know that. Marlowe's continued to struggle at AAA. So they wanted to call it Marlowe and, you know, just get some speed and some defense on the bench. Fine. But yeah, they just didn't really have a ton of other options, better options. It was either keep Sebi on the roster, waste a roster spot on a third catcher you refuse to use,

or waste a roster spot on a pure backup first baseman who actually, you know, has some power and can do some things at the plate. So, you know, there's two not very good decisions you get to make there, and they just pick one of them. And so, you know, it's hard to, it's hard to complain too much about the, direction they picked because they just they were not going to use SEVis of all under any circumstances. Well my concern though is

does Locklear now suffer similar fate like they got to play him right if they're going to keep them on the roster they got to play him and if they're not going to play him they should send him down to Tacoma and then just let like Leo Rivas or whoever waste that roster spot. What this also potentially means is that Cal Rale might actually get some true days off

you know because he's been deaching on the days that that Garver has caught maybe instead Garver catches and then it's Lockley or France or Hanager or DHS and Cal just gets the full day off or at least most of the day off and maybe comes in late in the game, whatever.

So that would be nice for Cal at the very least. But yeah, I think the best way they can go about this, because one of these guys, at least one of these guys is going to sit on a night to night basis. Just rotate. Every single night, someone else is in the

DH spot. I mean, that's not the best way that you can get these guys at bats. Right. And obviously, if Garber is taking on more of the catching responsibilities, he's going to need more days off from D-Hing. Yeah. So you can make it work against the four, the four-day stretch against the lefties. That'll be pretty interesting because obviously Robles is going to play left.

Hanager is going to play right. Hopefully not four days in a row. You're going to bench Luke Grayley for four straight days? Probably not. He's probably going to get a start somewhere in there. And then you could go, you know, Garber can. catch one or two of those games. And then Locklear can

DH for a couple of them, France. So, you know, there's a way they could jumble it a little bit. But I do wonder maybe that that's stretch against lefties that's coming up. If they looked at that and was like, okay, well, let's carry Locklear through this. And then we'll kind of reassess where Polanco is, where everybody is. And then we can kind of make that change. One thing to note, at least it's noteworthy here. Mariners 40 Man's down to 37.

So three open spots. Yeah. One of those spots could eventually go to Logan Evans, depending on how far away he is. But yeah, there's, you know, at the very least two other spots that I have no idea who could potentially fill those. Right. We should keep in mind that eventually, the hope at least is that Gregory Santos will resume his 40-man spot because he'll be activated off the 60-day I. So you want to look at it that way. Technically, they have two, but whatever.

They have a couple open 40-man spots as immediately. a trade is imminent. No, no, not necessarily. But they do have some wiggle room there. So, you know, keep an eye on some DFAs of, you know, interesting like utility guy gets DFAed or something like that or I don't know, another catcher maybe. I don't know. Like they do have some. Well, we'll see if Sabie clears because of not, then your third catcher is either Michael Perez or Michael Papyrski or Harry Ford. No.

No. But yeah. So we'll see how they kind of work this thing out here over the next few days. But like you mentioned, Garver's been hitting really well in June. Even Hanager has like a 103 WRC plus in the month of June right now. So you don't want to sit those guys for too, too long. Hanager is the easiest one though. Yeah.

Because he can stand in right field. Again. Yeah. So it's really. And with the four. And with the four straight lefties, I assume he's probably playing every single one of those games. I would be pretty surprised if he didn't play at least three. Yeah, yeah.

So for sure. Yeah. All right. So we're going to switch gears here. The Mariners are nine games up in the American League West. Some way, somehow we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about how they've gotten to this point.

Try to make sense of it. And just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Locked-on Mariner's podcast is brought to you by GameTime and Supply House. Game Time is now. an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets even faster and easier. Prices on the GameTime app actually go down the closer it gets the first pitch and I get to see the view of every seat in the house so I know exactly what I'm buying.

Game Time's last minute deals give you up to 60% in savings buying last minute for sports, music, comedy and more. And to avoid any surprises at checkout, you can turn on their all in pricing to see the full cost fees included. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use it. the promo code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem the promo code locked on MLB. That's LOC, KED, ON, MLB for $20 off.

Download the GameTime app, last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Get supplies from the site that's made for the skilled trade. Supplyhouse.com. Supplyhouse.com is the reliable way to order plumbing, HVAC, and electrical products online. Their easy-to-use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right. Shop a complete inventory of over 200,000 parts from over 400 top brands and get your order delivered right to your door with fast shipping from coast to coast. Need help with an order? Get expert support and industry-leading service from the friendliest folks in the business and talk to a real person every time. Pros in the skilled trades can get a competitive edge by joining Supplyhouse.com's free trade master.

program. Every trade master gets access to a dedicated phone line, free shipping, and discounts on every order. Join the thousands of trade pros already benefiting from their free membership at Supplyhouse.com slash TM and order plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies from anywhere with just a few clicks at supplyhouse.com. And you're listening to the Locked-on Mariners podcast. You can catch the M's on the Guardians tonight on the Marriss Hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. All you have do to find that is search the word Mariners big series there between Cleveland and Seattle.

But let's talk about this division leading Seattle Mariners Ball Club. They are nine games up in the ALS as of last night following the Mets blowout win over the Rangers. Both the Rangers and the Astros are nine

games back of the Mariners right now in the standings. And the question is, how has this happened? And that's the question. that you and I, Colby, are still kind of trying to figure out ourselves as content creators following this team on a day-to-day basis because, look, this offense for most of the year has been putrid. The pitching for as good as it's been, the 46 quality starts and 43 wins, all that, they've had some streaky moments as well. They've had a couple of hiccups a couple

times through the rotation and the bullpen has obviously been very injured. Andreas Munoz has basically been carrying that unit. And they've gotten some solid contributions out of Trent Thornton and Nossom Voth and Ryan Stannick for sure. But a lot of those guys are kind of pitching out of what you would prefer their role to be. And yet somehow, some way they have the biggest division lead in all of Major League Baseball right now. And I think some of that at least has to be attributed to Scott's service, correct?

Yeah, I mean, as much trash as this fan base likes to throw on Scott the number of times his job has been called for, even in our comment section after, you know, like a small move that he decided to try, didn't work out is something else. And, you know, people point to, I don't even know what Scott's service does well.

Well, you know, aside from, you know, winning baseball games, which he's pretty good at, I think what has become increasingly clear about, you know, because of this club,

is that this team is, I don't think this is deniable at this stage by anybody. This team is mentally tough. They are extremely tough. They get down by a couple runs, no problem. They scrap it out and they find a way to win games.

They have a lead late. They blow it. They get it right back. They win the game. Like they play 30 games and 31 days. They go 19 and 11, right? They play 50 games and 53 days. They're going to go like 30 and 20 in that show.

stretch. Like, this is a team that has had a pretty bad schedule in terms of, you know, days off and rest and all that stuff. They've had countless injuries. They've had just about everybody in this lineup is underperformed to some degree. Their bullpen has been a mess. Again, like they lost two of their three high leverage arms and spring training. They didn't have their number five starter for a month. Now they're trying to deal with their number five starter. You know, is he available today? Maybe we'll see. Gabe Spire is out now. Right. Right. And somehow the Mariners find themselves 12 games over 500, nine games up on the Rangers, and the Rangers and the Astros have had similar issues with their injury luck, right? So it's not like the Mariners have just stayed remarkably healthy all year.

And the Astros and the Rangers have just been bit by the injury bug. No, it's not that because the Mariners have missed significant portions of the season from some of their best players and some of their best players. and some of their best players aren't even performing up to their level, and yet somehow they're here. So what makes them different? Like is it the bullpen in the past? We could point to the bullpen and be like,

well, the bullpen's so good that that's why they win all those one run games is because the bullpen is so good. Not this year. Bullpen's okay, but it's not very good this year. You know, the offense isn't very good this year. And yet somehow they're, what are they,

16 and 4 in the division, 17 and 4 in the division, whatever it is. They are one of the best teams. in baseball and one-run games. How do they do that? It's got to be, when you look at the stats, you're looking for a stat that tells us this is why they do it.

It doesn't really exist. They're a little bit better in those high leverage spots offensively than they are normally cool. There's 17 and 5 against the loss, by the way. There you go. So it's like, why are they doing this? The only thing I can point to is that they have a culture that has been built for the last nine years

by, you know, one guy. And obviously, you know, Scott doesn't directly dictate the culture. A lot of that has to do with guys like JP and Cal and Logan. And in the past Paul and Marco. And so guys have to still buy in and then evolve that culture. Right. But the one who sets the tone, the one who creates the culture, the one who the one constant essentially is guys filtered in and out.

The one guy who can actually undermine it to a significant degree is Scott's service. and he hasn't. He's cultivated a winning culture here. And I think we see that in the mental toughness of this team, you know, grinding through games, getting absolutely dominated through eight, but finding a way to win the game anyways, by, you know,

not having your best high leverage guys, but still finding a way to get the 27 out you need and being up on the scoreboard at the end, is it pretty? No, no, it's not. Have we seen this team, you know, play some absolute duds? Yes, absolutely they have.

but they always seem to respond back. They get punched. They get knocked to the ground. They get back up team that hasn't been swept this year so far. Their longest losing streak is four games. Their longest winning streak is four games. They're just playing super. Perfectly balanced.

Yep. They're just playing super consistent baseball record wise, despite having a roster that is underperforming. So, you know, you have to give, I think this is where we have to give Scott a ton of credit. And this is where Scott is better than most managers in baseball. And this is why despite all the frustrations we've had with them over the last couple of years, I don't think you and I have ever called for Scott's services job, which is, you know, I think for especially I think, you know, a lot of people think that I'm very reactionary. There's, I've never called for Scott's job.

Why? Because he's great at this. This is what he's great at. This is his 80 great. The on field decisions are one thing, right? But show me a fan base that doesn't complain about their managers in game decisions. Yeah. Seriously.

Oh, yeah. So the thing that separates Scott, and this is why Jerry trusted him in the first place to take on this job when he had no experience doing this ever, is because he's been in player development. He's been a player. He's been a catcher. He speaks the language, right? and a lot of times, right, when we've seen this with like the hitting coach discussion and pitching coach discussion, etc. across the game, right? Not just with the Mariners, right? A lot of the times the on-field impact of a manager is widely overblown, right?

But what really separates a good manager from the rest of the pack is their ability to create culture and maintain culture and bring a clubhouse together, right? Scott has undeniably been pretty good at that. And you look at the way that the players interact with him, a lot of the players, it's very clear. Like, they like Scott's service.

They like playing for Scott's service. I wouldn't say that Scott's like an elite manager or even a great manager, but I think Scott is a good manager. I think he is really good at creating culture and engaging with his players. But like you mentioned, this team hasn't gotten swept.

this year. They haven't allowed things to snowball. You look at a series like Toronto. They had an awful road trip, you know, in Milwaukee and then Toronto, they lost the first two games in Toronto. They had the bases loaded there in the bottom of the ninth against Toronto. Jorge Polanco makes an over-the-shoulder catch keeps them from getting swept. They end up leaving Toronto with a win. Huge, right? Stop the bleeding. You look at Washington a few weeks back, you know, pretty rough road trip. They lost the first two games against the team. They probably shouldn't have lost the first two games against. They get out to an early lead. They end up blowing that lead, but they end up finding a way to win that game. And they still manage to salvage a win out of that series. Kansas City

just last weekend, right? Horrendous series. They blew that first game on the Friday. They got handled pretty well on Saturday. They get out to an early lead. They also lose Thai France to injury. They get out to the early lead on Sunday, end up blowing that in the ninth. Oh, here we go again. But then they score three. Oh, well, here come the Royals with a two run, home run. And then they still survive and again, stop the bleeding. And then they go into that homestand. They take three or four from the White Sox. They lose a really frustrating game on Thursday. They come right back. You know, they fall down two nothing early on against the Rangers, but then they hold them scoreless for the next eight innings and they win that game and they end up sweeping the Rangers and here we are eight and a half

games up in the AL West. This team's ability to stop the bleeding has been to me the biggest reason they're where they're at right now. The offense has been better since they fired Brant Brown which is kind of the big mark because it's also basically the start of the month of June. The strikeouts have gone down a little bit. They're not dead last in strikeouts. A's and the raise are both ahead of them in that department this month. They're 10th and runs scored. I believe they're like 9th or 10th in WRC Plus. They're like 12th and F war as an offense.

So they've been better. And they still need help. Don't get me wrong. They're still going to need help at the trade deadline. But as things currently stand, they're surviving. And that's all you really can do until the trade market opens up is just survive. Keep winning as many ball games as you can. try and maintain this ground that you built in between you and the Rangers and the Astros

and try to create some more ground if you possibly can. But on that note, there is another big piece of this, right? The rest of the division has been terrible. The Rangers have been very disappointing. The Astros have been very disappointing. We'll get into that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdownerrors podcast is brought to you by prize picks.

With prize picks, you could turn $10 into. to a thousand in a single game watching your favorite sports this summer by making a prize picks lineup in as little as 60 seconds you just need to pick more or less on two to six players stat projections and you're locked in price picks is america's number one fantasy sports app with over five million active members get in on the daily action with your friends and become a part of the prize picks community today download the app today and use the promo code locked on MLB for first deposit match up to a hundred dollars pick more pick less it's that easy And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast.

Once again, you can catch the M's and the Guardians tonight on the Marriss Hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app. All you have to do to find that is search the word Mariners. So Colby, the Rangers have been pretty bad this year. The Astros have also been pretty bad this year. And that's kind of a big piece. So the Mariners current standing right now in the AOS. It's at least a pretty sizable piece to watch. they're as many games up on the division as they are right now in spite of all of their flaws.

So when you look at this Rangers ball club and we just recently saw them and when you look at the Astros, why are they in the positions that they're in right now? And is that sustainable? They're not as good as the Seattle Mariners full stop. Thanks for listening, guys. Catch you next time. Bees. Mariners are better.

Yeah. It really is that simple. Now, if you look at why are the Mariners better than the Mariners better than the Rangers well the Rangers banked a lot on the two-week stretch they saw when they won the world series they banked on Evan Carter being you know a six-win player they banked on Wyatt linkford coming up and immediately being you know an impactful rookie uh like you know a few other guys have done uh in recent years they they banked on their starting rotation largely you know getting back healthy and that their offense was going to carry their you know questionable

starting pitching until shurs or and maybe de grom could come back uh they They banked on Corey Seeger having another 180 WRC plus season or whatever he had last year. They counted on Marcus Simeon to have another 130 WRC plus season. They counted on Jonah Heim to be an All-Star again. They counted on Adoles Garcia to be ALCS Adoles Garcia. None of that has happened. And all of that, by the way, pretty predictable too. So the Rangers to me, like, why are they where they are?

Injuries? Sure, that's part of it. but a bigger part of it is just really poor process by the front office and just assuming that they were going to ride the high and essentially run it back with the same roster more or less. He made a couple tweaks to their bullpen that have actually worked out. So, you know, Yates and Robertson have both been really good. But again, counting on Corey Seeger to repeat his, you know, once in a lifetime season, counting on Adoles Garcia to look like he's facing the Astros and the ALCS every single day.

And not really, you know, counting on Evan Carter to be the best player on. their roster for a couple weeks. They didn't account for losing Mitch Garber. They didn't account for losing Scherzer for half the year. Like they just didn't do much this offseason to really kind of reinforce. It was just kind of like, we're going to run it back and it's going to work because it worked for two weeks in October. And keep in mind, the Rangers were a team.

They got off to a sizzling start. And then they faded hard, held on for Deer Light to their, to their playoff spot. And then they went, they got hot. And they, you know, good for them. They won the World Series. There's no taking that away from them. But for really the last, you know, three months, except for the two weeks in the playoffs,

they were a very mediocre baseball team. And they chose the two-week sample size over the three-month sample size and thought that everything was going to be fine if they ran it back. And it hasn't been. It hasn't been. Again, our injury is a part of that? Sure. But not as much as they pretended it is because they knew they weren't going to have Scherzer.

They knew they weren't going to have DeGrom. They knew that some of these guys were going to miss time. And they still rolled with Heen. They still rode with Gray. They still rolled with LaValdi. And it's like, yeah, you know, we'll be fine because Corey Seeger is going to put up a 170 WRC plus. You know, Marcus Simeon's going to be a 6-7 win player again.

Adolas Garcia is going to take another step because he was so good in the playoffs. And it just, none of that has happened. Jonah Heim's crashed back down to Earth hard. You know, Jankowski's crashed back down to Earth hard. Laotis Tavaris wasn't very good the second half of last year. But that's rolled over. He's crashed back hard. they're just not a very well-built team.

Now, could their offense get hot and carry that team and, you know, make up some ground here over the next 80 games? Yeah, absolutely they can. They're still a talented team, but you look at it as like that team really needs Corey Seeger to be like incredible for that lineup. Because you look at the lineups, they rolled out this weekend. You get past the Simeon Seeger a bit and even, I guess, to lesser extent, Adola Garcia. and you're like, eh, Z,

Gilderan, fine, not terrifying, but fine. You know, Jonah Heim, fine, not terrifying,

but fine. You know, Well, I think also part of that is they spent so much money over the last couple of years that maybe they're tapped out. Maybe. No, obviously, adding shares or whatever was left on his deal, however much, you know, the Mets didn't eat. Certainly helped. And then they're paying DeGrom, what, $40 million not to pitch for them right now. So, yeah, now again, not saying it wasn't worth it because they won the World Series.

Yeah. So, yeah, absolutely. They're feeling great about those decisions. but yeah, they are still ramifications when you go out there and you do that. Well, they're in the part of their window where they're like, all right, we've spent our money. Now we need to develop and we believe in our development. But so far that hasn't panned out. Right.

Yeah. Carter hasn't been the guy that they saw in the playoffs. Langford has been a disappointment. Also Carter's hurt now. Josh Young has hurt again. Yeah. So injuries are obviously a very big part of this as well when it comes to the. the Rangers. But I would also counter that with, you know, hey, the Mariners are without Matt

Brash and Gregory Santos and Gabe Spire and they've been without Thai France for a little while. They've been without Jorge Polanco for a little while. And, you know, they've obviously having gotten the level of production that they thought out of, you know, Garver, Polanco, etc. so far. Julio, their best player. Julio. Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, there's obviously a lot of things that you can say on the Marrisside as well here. But, you know, you look at the Astros as well, and that's a team that's dealt with its own injuries.

Kyle Tucker most recently. Also some injuries on the pitching staff, Justin Verlander most recently. They just had another terrible season from Jose Abrae, which led to his release, and they're eating, what, $30-ish million for him to just go away, basically. But this offense has still been pretty good for the Astros. It's just they can't pitch. at all right now. And obviously some of that is due to the injuries,

but still, they, they can't pitch. I'd say a good chunk of it is mostly the starting pitching injuries, but also they spent like $90 million on their bullpen and it sucks. Yeah. It's worse than the Mariners bullpen. The Mariners bullpen without Gabe Spire, Matt Brash, and Gregory Santos.

And it's still somehow worse. You know, despite Josh Hader and Abraeu and Presley, like, yeah. Yeah. their bullpen sucks and they don't have the starting pitching to, to help their bullpen out all that much. So yeah, offense can still hit a little bit,

but I just, we're finally seeing the kind of like the end of the, oh, the Astros are just going to pull this, you know, 17 year old that they signed for a $5,000 bonus out of their, you know what? And in four years,

he's going to be a four win starting pitcher. Like, seen a little bit with Blanco, but they can't do it for all five rotation spots at one time. And that's kind of what we're looking at right now. So injuries are a bit more of an excuse, I'll say, for the Astros and they are for the Rangers. But yeah, it is a team that just they have not pitched whatsoever. And that's what's fighting them right now.

So finally, that brings us to the question. Once these teams get healthier, really just as they currently stand, how concern should Mariners fans be about either of those teams, both of those teams, making a run at the Mariners. I mean, we still have like 85 games left, so somewhat. I mean, there's a lot of time left. So that's why I asked the question. Right.

One thing to keep in mind here, and I'll keep on throwing it out there. It's a race to seven against your division rivals. If you get to seven wins, you have the tiebreaker against them. There is no game 163. Right now the Mariners have five wins against the Astros. They have five wins against the Rangers. If they win just two of their next, six games against them and hopefully they do better.

But they would just, too, their next six, they have the tiebreaker, which means they essentially get another game, another full game in the standings ahead of those teams. Because if you win 92, those two teams have to win 93 to kick you out of that division. They can't win 92 and beat you. So, you know, keep that of mind. Playing them as well as they have early this year has been a big help. But, you know, again, assuming that they get, like,

we just assume they get back to 100% healthy, right? which obviously isn't going to happen. You know, the Astros have already lost a couple guys for the year to Tommy John. But assuming that everything, you know, works well for them for the next few months, I would say Seattle still has a really good shot of holding on to this division league

just because they pitch so well. Their starting pitching is, is such a big advantage over those other two teams. It's like we talked about in the off season. It's the great equalizer. And the fact that they've thrown the most innings in the league, which again, you know, goes kind of hand in hand with the quality starts stat is insane. And the production that they've gotten just one through five, especially because, again,

they've had a couple of hiccups, right? It hasn't been perfect. It hasn't been just from opening day to now. The rotation has just been lights out. Obviously, they got off to a pretty poor start to start the year. And I was like, uh-oh, were we wrong about the mayor's rotation? And then, you know, they quickly got it together. They went on that insane stretch for whatever it was, like 19 straight starts where they,

only allow basically a run per game. And obviously they've been really good lately as well. But yeah, there have been a couple of hiccups there. And it's just like, how are the Maris at this point? Even when like, again, at times their greatest strength has not been at its hundred percentile. And I think some of that too is a little bit of everyone that pretty much everyone that has come up while they might not have been able to sustain production. They've at least had a couple of good games

here and there. They've at least been able to help. Like Jonathan Clossey was able to help for a couple of games. Ryan Bliss has been able to help for a couple of games here and there. Tyler Locklear is the most recent example of that. Like they've at least been able. Emerson Hancock. Yeah. Like even from some of the guys that you would,

you would not expect, like they are getting little, I would say, nuggets of help. And one little hidden bonus that the Mariners have, were the Astros and the Rangers. They have a farm system that can put them in the middle of a discussion for any player that's available. The Rangers do not have that. The Astros do not have that.

So, you know, the Mariners are just, they're in a significantly better spot. You know, I think you've rolled this season out a hundred times based on from June 18th until the end of it. I think the Mariners probably win this division 90 times would be my guess.

So, you know, I think for the Astros and the Rangers, something has to happen. to the Mariners. Like it's not just going to be because you start playing better ball, which you obviously have to do. But it's not like the Mariners are going to be,

you know, they're not going to win 40% of their games for the rest of the year unless something tragically happens. Big injury, something like that, a massive underperformance, which is possible. By the way, the other thing that we've failed to mention up to this point,

like they've gotten through their toughest part of their schedule already. In terms of like, you know, not necessarily quality of opponents because that's really tough to judge, you know, months in advance. But in terms of like the day off structure and all that, yeah. Like this

that's where. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they, again, they played 30 games and 31 days after this nine game stretch. They'll play 51 games in like 53 days or something like that. So yeah, it's it's been

been a brutal stretch, but they're going to after, well, starting with this series, they will not have, sorry, they only have one stretch where they will play 10 consecutive games between days off for the rest of the year. They have a couple nine game stretches in there. So it's not like, you know,

everything's hunky dory there. But you look at some of these teams, they have, they played five fewer games than the Mariners already. That's going to flip in the second half. Yeah. To where the Mariners are going to get more days off. I mean,

the guardians who we're going to see tonight, they've played five fewer. This is game 70 for them. This is game 75 for the, for the Mariners. Yep. So, you know,

hopefully the schedule helps out too. But yeah, a lot of things pointing in favor of Seattle, you know, as a franchise who's like shining moment is erasing the 12 game deficit,

13 game deficit in six weeks. I think every Mariner fan is well aware that this thing's hardly on ice or anything like that. You have to continue to play really good ball for the next, you know, three months, four months. And you're still setting yourself up to hopefully make a World Series run.

So, yeah, but obviously the Mariners are in phenomenal shape right now. Now they can absorb, you know, a bad little stretch of baseball as long as it doesn't get too far out of hand and still being in pretty good shape. So, uh, and hopefully, hopefully we're seeing them getting healthier and we're seeing some of the guys that we need to see hitting. They're starting to hit with Garber and Julio, et cetera. So yeah. Yeah. And we'll see what they can add, uh, but they've put themselves in a position where it's going to be basically impossible for the front office to be like, no, we don't think that this team is. is worth investing heavily in this summer.

So we'll see. Absolutely. Yeah, because if they don't buy now, they'll never buy. Right. Right. This is absolutely the best opportunity they've had to win a championship in the depoto era and arguably since 2003. Yep. And obviously this is their biggest division lead since the end of 2001. All right.

That is going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here, a reminder that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. on YouTube and now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. Locked on 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 Pat Note.

I'm Tiding Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tiding Gazzalus and Colby at CPAT 11. That's CPAT-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time peace