Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Next Few Weeks Will Be the Biggest of Ty France's Mariners Career

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

The Mariners dropped the first of four games in Minnesota last night, wasting a strong outing from Luis Castillo with a pitiful offensive performance. Ty and Colby recap Castillo's start, discuss why the next few weeks will be huge for Ty France's future in Seattle, and get you set for what looks to be Emerson Hancock's final start before the return of Bryan Woo.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashGet all your Mother’s Day gifts, all in one place and get 50% off your next order, up to $15 when you spend $15+ on your next flower, convenience, grocery, or retail order now with code LOCKEDONMLB. That's LOCKEDONMLB. Order using DoorDash today. Terms apply. Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Click HERE to Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Play. PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Luis Castillo was good last night, but it didn't matter. The Mariners struck out 14 times while collecting just three hits on their way to a series opening 3 to 1 loss in Minnesota. We'll talk about Castillo's start. This is Thai France and get you set for game two coming up here on the Lockdown Marrars 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, May 7th, 2024. this is tiding his all us and colby patnode for the locked on mirrors podcast brought to you by prize picks it's the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to priespix.com slash locked on MLB and use the promo code locked on MLB that's all lowercase for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars thank you so much for making us your first listen subscribe like and turn on alerts if you're watching on youtube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear

and if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day let us know in the comments below we'd love to hear from you and if you want to hear from us even more please consider signing up for our patreon you can now get a free seven day trial to check out the show the link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode last night sucked but louis castillo didn't so coli what did you think about castillo last night he was the only guy in the entire team who looked like he gave a damn um and he he pitched his butt off you know for six innings until the sheer weight of having to carry the entire franchise on his shoulders for a night became too extreme and he couldn't get through the seventh

before it kind of fell apart. But overall, Castile was pretty good. The walks, not great, three walks and six and two-thirds. That's not something to be super excited about and is something to point out as a minus on his grade sheet. But I think when you look at the stuff overall, it was pretty good. Velo was really solid.

It was 95 to 98 all night. this might have been his best change-up we've seen in a long, long time. He threw 20 change-ups. Got 11 swings, got five whiffs on that pitch. Two called strikes, actually, too. So 35% called strike plus whiff on the change-up. That's pretty good. Slider was really solid.

You know, he got four whiffs on 11 swings on the slider. But he also got six called strikes, which is something we saw him do in his last start as well, is not only get people to swing and miss at the slider, but throw it into the strike zone and get strikes on it. That pitch is starting to become a legitimate weapon again because he's finding consistency with it. So, you know, it was slider changeup last night. It wasn't super fastball heavy.

Like the Mariners have been the last two or three times through the rotation where it's just been fastball, fastball, fastball. It was still primary fastball, but we saw the slider and the change up more than we saw the two seamer, which is, again, not something that we've seen. So Castillo kind of mixing it up, maybe just because of the lineup, maybe just because he had good feel for those. two off speed pitches, but he was pretty good, you know, all things considered. And it was another really good quality start and very nearly a great start. You know, the margin of Castillo having a pretty good start and a great start last night was an inch or two on a ball that was, you know, hit off the bag on first base. Like, that's what we're talking about.

So, you know, if he had any kind of offensive effort given to him, he probably wins that game nine times. out of 10 but this is what happens when you're the only guy who seems like winning yesterday's game was important to He ends up going six and two-thirds innings three earn runs on three hits three walks seven strikeouts He was able to limit the damage in the fifth inning to just one run Then in the seventh got into some trouble give up the the sacrifice fly to Vasquez which ended up proving to be the the game winning run in this and then Trent Thornton give up another run which is accredited to Castillo. But overall,

pretty good night for Castillo and really this one falls on the offense. And look, the twins are a very annoying opponent for the Marriers because they can very easily and have in the past out Marinerd the Mariner's. This is a really difficult matchup for the Mariners and we saw why last night. And the Mariners have to put a better foot forward

offensively speaking starting tonight. Sure. I mean, if you're looking for a silver lining, I would say that it's impossible for the Mariners' offense to be worse than it was last night, but this franchise continues to find ways to surprise me in that arena. So, you know, the stat yesterday that kind of made the rounds on Twitter was the Mariners are fifth and WRC Plus, or they were fifth and WRC plus since April 15th, which is the start of their series win streak, that first game against the Reds. But that number is pretty hard to believe when you watch performing.

like last night. This offense still has some pretty glaring issues. And one of them to me and showed up last night, Thai France. So we're going to talk about France coming up here in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is brought to you by Price Picks and Monopoly Go. Baseball season is in full swing, so don't miss your chance to add your favorite players from the diamond and your prize picks entries.

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And you are listening to the Lockdown Marries podcast. Thank you again for making us your first. Listen. You can catch Game 2 between the Marins. and the twins tonight on the Marriss Hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. All you have to do is search Mariners. And in order for the Mariner's to win that game,

they're going to have to put together a better, much better offensive effort than the one they put together last night. And Ty France wasn't the only culprit, but he was one of the culprits of the Marish struggles last night. And he continues to be pretty middling at the plate, I would say. Not bad, not a disaster, but not good. not what you need him to be, especially out of that first base position.

And over the last couple weeks, he's striking out roughly 27% of the time, which is not part of his game at all or shouldn't be part of his game at all. And, you know, when we talked about France last time, I was talking about how, like, I thought, you know, a big contribution to his struggles early on here, why the numbers haven't really shown up so far

is due to a launching. issue because he has been hitting the ball hard, but even over the last couple of weeks, the hard hit rate has significantly declined. So he doesn't really even have that working for him right now. Obviously, he had a strikeout with the bases loaded last night in a big spot. What do you make of France right now? And are you getting closer? Because I know you're not there yet. I know for sure you're not there yet, but are you getting closer to wanting to make a move there? Yeah, you look at these numbers and like you're looking for a positive. He is hitting the ball harder.

Cool. I mean, awesome, I guess. He's chasing a lot less than he was last year. So that's good. Unfortunately, he's swinging and missing a lot more in the zone. So that means he is getting pitches to hit and he's not hitting them. He's swinging and missing them. He's not even fouling them off.

He's not putting the ball in play on strikes. That's a massive issue. Typhbrance gives you nothing defensive. He is one of the worst defensive first basement in baseball this year. And that's been trending down for the last three or four years on top of that too. Obviously, he's one of the slowest guys in baseball. We all know this. So if he's not going to hit, he is a worthless, worthless player.

And if you're not going to hit with consistency, then you're even more worthless because if you're going to go through these prolonged cold stretches, that means for about half the season, you are actively hurting your team, right? You have to either hit consistently or your highs have to be so good that you were willing to live with the lows and like no defense and no base running. And Ty France has never been that guy. He's been the consistent guy, right? Just kind of, you know, bouncing between 250 and 300 every month for a batting average and just kind of putting up the 120 WRC plus monthly. He's not this guy.

And my fear that, you know, I started to see last year and I'm so far continuing to see this year. is another guy who's decided to change his career trajectory by trying to sell out for power and hit more home runs and go get paid as he approaches free agency because there's a guy who can hit 25 home runs, you get paid more. It's ruining who Thai France is, like who Thai France at his best is, which is, you know, not a typical first base profile, but somebody who the Mariners should have no problem playing every day at first base because they're getting excess value offensively from their catcher and their center fielder.

So France's bat should work in the Mariners lineup. But this current version of France, the guy who's whiffing, who's, uh, with percentage is 53rd percentile, his K percentage is 40th percentile. His walk rate is 37th percentile. That is not good enough. Like, Thai France is a problem. So while yeah, sure, he's hitting the ball harder, cool. He's also not hitting the ball as much.

That is a problem. So this idea that he's not chasing. that's good. But if you're getting strikes and you're mostly only swinging at strikes and you're not getting the results off of that, you have a problem. That is a big problem. You can't swing through strikes. And last night we saw France swing through half a dozen to 10 strikes that were down

the middle of the plate. Like he was bad. He was awful last night. Worst player on the field, which is saying something when you look at the effort that the Mariners put out there as a group. France was the worst one. So he just looks awful right now. And again, my concern is that France has decided.

He decided last year and he continued to do it again this winter, this idea that like I'm going to be the guy who it's 25 home runs. Like I'm going to hit 230, 240 with 25 home runs because that's how you get paid. And that's his own decision to make. And, you know, that's not a Mariners problem. The Mariners didn't ask him to do that. Tai France made this decision to be a power. bat and that's just not who he is he doesn't have tremendous bat speed he doesn't have a great

knack for putting backspin on the ball he's got a long swing with a lot of moving pieces in it he's not that guy he's the guy who he's the guy who flips the ball into right field for singles he's a guy who hits line drives down the line for doubles like that's who tie france is and then occasionally occasionally he'll get a hanging breaking ball or he'll get a fastball that's you know in the middle the plate and he'll drill it and he shows the idea with france essentially is poor man's Luisarise. Right. That's essentially what he has to be in order to give me value because he doesn't have the power output.

He has more power output than Luis Arise. But he doesn't have traditional first base power output. Right. So essentially that's, you know, you're looking for high averages, high on base totals. And he's not really giving you that right now. And when he's striking out, you know, right now he's he's well above his career. average and strikeout rate he's hanging around 23% at the time right now I think it's 22.6% and then again like the last couple weeks I think he's at 26.8% K rate that is unacceptable

from Ty France that cannot be part of his profile think of how bad Ty France was last year and understand that he still had a 17.6% strikeout rate like Ty France puts the ball in play yeah this year they went he went to a drive line. They made some changes. They're trying to get to some more pull side power like he tried to do on his own last year. It didn't work last year. Guess what? It's not working this year. And now there's an unintended consequence of him swinging through good pitches to hit. Now, you know, if you're, again, if you're looking for kind of a array of optimism here, aside from the fact that he's hitting the ball hard, although not recently, uh, JP really didn't explode. It took him about two months

before he really started to, you know, pop off. And it was June, July where JP really took off and became like this dude that we now trust to be like an above average hitter. So I guess it's possible. The same could be happening for France. And he's just kind of going through the final adjustments in bringing his new swing into games. And he's about ready to pop off. But it sure doesn't look like that. And the Mariners really can't afford to wait around because unlike JP, Thai France brings nothing else to the table.

Nothing. He has to. If Thai France isn't hitting 270 with like a 340 on base percentage, he's a worthless player like he's a bad objectively bad not majorly quality player because he brings nothing else to the table jp at least brings a solid shortstop defense and good base running to the table yeah brantz doesn't bring any of that so he has to hit and it's got to start soon like we're running well i'm i'm hitting the ball right at go cool it doesn't matter we're six weeks in now you have to start starting hits and you have to start you know showing us that you're an actually different player

than you were last year because just a reminder last year's tie france not acceptable he cannot be a repeat of what he was last year that was not acceptable if tie france was what he was in 2022 the mariner's make the playoffs last year that's a fact he wasn't tie france was a major problem last year and he's starting to become a major problem again this year he damn near got non-tendered because of it and he was afraid that he was going to like that's not us talking like he legitimately was worried that he might be out looking for yeah right ryan ryan divish talked about that. Right.

And we've also, Divish also, you know, had some not flattering things to say about France's work ethic in the middle of last year, too. So at some point, this is on France. I mean, it's always been on France.

He's his own person. It's his job to make sure he's prepared. Et cetera, et cetera, it's always on it. But at some point, you're just out of excuses. And we're getting to that point very quickly.

So, again, he hasn't been a disaster relative to some of the other players on the team, just hitting wise, right? You look at the WRC Plus, he's hovering around him being a league average bat, but again, he's not giving you the production you need out of that position at all. And there are, again, concerning signs that are detracting from what type Francis profile needs to be. But how much longer are you willing to wait on him? because look, right now, the only solution you have or the only option you have is calling up Tyler Locklear at first base.

If you're going to make a move with France, because you're not going to be able to make a trade. I know the Jim Bowden article came out yesterday with the Pete Alonzo trade and all that. That's not going to happen right now. That might happen in July, but that's not going to happen right now. The Mets are hovering around 500. The Diamondbacks, they're not going to trade Christian Walker right now.

So you're not going to be able to make a trade for a significant first space upgrade right now. So it's basically Tyler Locklear bust at the moment. So how much longer are you willing to give France before you make that decision? You pull that

trigger and call up Locklear. The problem is specifically with Locklear is that I don't like if he's the only answer, I don't know if he's the right answer. Like I don't know that he's any better than tie france right now and so you add the guy to the 40 man you have to make another 40 man move

you have to dFA somebody and now you you know you start his options clock and all that stuff so like if you put him on the 40 man you better be sure that he's going to hit to some degree because like france there's nothing else he brings to the table he's not a stellar defensive player he plays first base he's fine there but whatever right you're not bringing up a guy for first base defense that's not a thing uh you know he's not a great base runner he's not as slow as France, but it's not like, you know, he's stealing 20 bags. So you better be sure he can hit major league pitching if you're going to call him up and use a 40 man spot on him right now when you don't have to. And I'm not sure that that's where I'm at, you know, one month into double A. I'm not

sure I'm ready to make that call. But, you know, I think I'm willing to give him until Dom Canzone comes back, whenever that might be. Because at that point, if Luke Rayleigh is looking better than France and he is right now. Luke Rayley looks better than Thai France right now. At that point, I could put Canzone in left field and I could have Rayleigh be my primary first base. Sure. Yeah. So I'm willing to give him until Dom Canzone is ready to go. And it's not like, like, oh, he has to hit 360 between now and the time Canzone comes back. But he's got to be better, like significantly better. And also this assumes that Luke Rayleigh kind of continues on this trajectory that he's on right now where he's getting a little bit better every day. But you know what that also. But

You know what that also means, right? You play Luke really at first base. That means Mitch Hanager is probably playing the outfield a lot more than you probably want them to. Right. Right. Mitch Garber could factor into first base as well. You could have Hanager DH there.

So yeah, you know, Francis is a guy who can't send him down. You know, he's past the service time threshold, even though he has options left. He can't send him down without passing him through waivers. And he probably clears because I don't think anybody's going to want to give, you know, him, I think right now he's due about 4.5 million bucks. You know, like I don't think anybody's going to want to give that to a first base only. Tai Poo isn't hitting. So he probably clears, but still, that's a messy thing that you're going through.

And right now, like, if we had to make a decision today, the Mariners are absolutely not tendering Thai France. Like, no chance would they tender him a contract. And if he doesn't get significantly better, like, if he's not, at the end of the year, we look up in France isn't 280, 350, 450, 450. I'd say there's 0% chance they tender him because he's going to that's going to be like a 10 million dollar player. Ty France is not a 10 million dollar player. He has to be a 120, 1.30 WRC plus sitter somewhere in there. Exactly.

And I just right now with what I'm seeing, I don't see how he gets there. No. Right now I think his ceiling like his absolute ceiling right now from when I'm watching him is 110. Yeah. So yeah, I'm willing to give him until can zone's ready to go. which is basically about a month. Like June 1, if Thai France isn't significantly better,

you might just have to bite the bullet and DFAM and, you know, roll with something else at first base, but first base cannot be a black hole for you offensively. And, you know, I get it. Like France is like a 100 WRC plus guy. So it's not technically a black hole. That's not going to be good enough though.

No, but it's, has to be an asset for you. Yeah. Again, it's, you know, there have been hitters that have been worse this year on the Mariner's like just by a pure WRC plus standpoint but given everything that you talked about right France doesn't give you any value on the base pass he doesn't give you really any value defensively he has to hit and he's at a position where not just hitting gets you by you have to hit for some damage you have to be able to do damage or you have to hit or you have to hit or you or you have or you have to get on base at a 350, 360, 370 clip like Ty France was, you know, a couple of years ago, but he's just not that guy right now. And I'm not sure if he's ever going to be able to be that guy again. Right. And it's not about home run power for like obviously you want your first basement

hit a lot of home runs. That's kind of doubles. Yeah. But like if Thai France hits 40 doubles and 15 home runs like that's fine. That works. Because again, you're getting excess power from your catcher and from your center fielder like and second base. that works. But he's got to get there and he's not even close to that. But he's on pace for what, six home runs this year, seven home runs this year?

And like 22 doubles. Like that's, that's not going to fly. Yeah. So this is going to be a very important next few weeks for Thai France. And if he's pretty much the same player. Yeah. And if he's pretty much the same player as he is right now by June 1st or June,

7th, which is exactly a month from now, I think you got to do something. I think you have to do something because you just, you can't wait. And again, I don't want to just like put, like I don't want this to get misconstrued here and that we're just like trying to solely place all the blame on Thai France or not.

But he is part of the problem. And if you have an opportunity to address the problem, which they might be able to with Tyler Locklear, I mean, he is hitting well and down in double A. We don't know how that's going to translate. to the major leagues. I have to say that. But there's actually a potential path here to upgrading that first base.

Heck, you might be able to go do it with Mike Ford right now. Because Ford's going to strike out a ton more, but he's not going to be that much worse defensively, believe it or not. And he's going to hit home runs. So we'll see what the Mariners want to do. But yeah, the reason why we're focusing on Thai France right now is because he is by far the most expendable of the struggling mariners.

There's actually like an alternative that we can talk about too. Like a legitimate alternative. Yeah. So. All right. So we're going to get you set for game two of this series. Emerson Hancock versus Bailey Ober in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by DoorDash.

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Once again, you can catch a game to between the Mariners and the twins tonight on the Mariner's hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. All you have to do is search Mariners. and that's what we're going to be talking about now, game two, between these two ball clubs, which, again, mirror each other very well. The twins are probably the best equipped to out-mariner the Mariners, essentially. So tonight, Emerson Hancock on the bump for the M's, and what could be his last start before he goes down to Tacoma.

So expectations for Hancock, and then just overall thoughts on what he was able to accomplish in his time here in place, of Brian Wu. Basically, my expectations for Hancock every time he goes out there is that he gets shelled because the stuff is, it's really not good stuff at all. So, and by the way, that hasn't changed even though he's pitching well recently. It's still very mediocre stuff.

And we saw that. Like when he doesn't have 60 grade command, he's going to get hit hard. And then it's just kind of a matter of luck and all that stuff. So my expectations for Hancock are always very low because I think, subpar major league stuff and stuff is vitally important to get through a lineup multiple times. So, you know, my expectations are always low and I like being pleasantly surprised by him anyway. So that works well for me. I think he'll probably throw a lot of strikes.

The strikes have to be super high quality, but he'll probably just throw a large raw number of strikes. You know, as for they're in the middle of the player around the corners, I don't know. We'll see. they better be on the corners or he's going to give up four or five home runs to this twins lineup tonight. So my expectations are always low because I don't trust the stuff. And I just don't trust a pitcher who's not like George Kirby or Logan Gilbert to go out there and have like 60 grade command every time he goes on to the mound. And that's what Hancock needs to succeed. So overall, you know, regardless of how this last start goes, the Hancock deployment has been about as good as the Mariners could have reasonably.

hoped for. He's given you a legitimate chance to win, what, four of the six starts, five of the six, depending on how you want to grade the Atlanta start. Like, he's given you a legitimate chance to win most of the starts that he's, you know, he's gone out there. And he's held it, he's held his own. He hasn't burdened the bullpen, right? He's not going four innings and asking the bullpen to cover five innings every single time out. He's going six innings. Five, five in a third, six innings. Like, he's getting the number of outs he needs to get. He's giving his team a chance to win. And we've seen some interesting developments.

We've seen the four scene fastball get a few more whiffs on certain nights than we thought would be possible. So maybe there's something there. We've seen the slider. He's made some changes to the slider. And that pitch could become viable. Like we've seen some signs of life from the slider, a pitch that we've long since given up on, or we had long since given up on.

Now we've seen some positives there. So overall, Hancock, you know, regardless of what happens tonight, he should go down to Tacoma and feel like really good and proud of his effort. And he should feel like there's a lot there to build on. So he should go down with some confidence and some very obvious things he needs to work on. But overall, like the Hancock experiment, if you want to call it that or whatever you want to call, the Hancock starts. Overwhelming success from the Mariners standpoint and from Hancock standpoint because he's giving you every opportunity. to win almost all of the starts he's made, which is exactly what a number five starter should do.

Just give your guys a chance to win the game. And he's done exactly that. So, yeah, and we've seen when he has, you know, well above average control and command of his stuff, he can be a light number four, a very low end number four.

But yeah, my expectations for him are always low because I know that he's not a guy who's just going to have 60 grade command every time he goes out there. If he's at a 45 or a 50, he's going to get hit. hard and he's going to walk some dudes.

And that's a recipe for disaster. But overall, the Hancock starts have been, I don't know if the mayor's legitimately could have asked for anything more than Hancock gave them. And that's a really good sign. Like we talked about last time that we talked about him, you know, he's a really smart pitcher. And it seems like every single start that we've seen from him, especially over the last few starts, there's been like this new, like a little new discovery, right? Like, oh, the slider looks a little bit better.

oh, the command and control took a tick up. So like I said, you know, last time, I'm excited to see what he does down in Tacoma where, you know, he can experiment more and he can work on some things. So yeah. Don't stare at results in Tacoma, by the way. No, no. Like he'll go six in eight and so he'll give up five earned runs,

but it'll be in Vegas. And it'll be like there were two fly balls that are routine and they both left the ballpark because they're playing in, you know, wherever Salt Lake City and it's like oh well don't they're you know he have two two run home runs but those were both like routine fly balls at any major league stadium so don't focus on ERA or anything like that you know you just watch you're watching for stuff and control and command that's what you're watching for the results whatever doesn't matter control command uh and

stuff is what you're looking for uh if you're going to watch Hancock down in Tacoma so Bailey over opposing him for the for the Minnesota twins uh the first thing that obviously stands out about Ober's a stature. Six foot nine. Dude is super tall. You are a big Bailey Ober guy. So educate us a little bit

here on him. What should we expect to see? Elite extension. It's your thing. I mean, it apparently, by accident, it has become my thing. But yeah, Bailey Ober is a guy who is going to throw strikes. A lot of strikes. He's

pretty easy to extend, by the way, when you're 6 foot 9. Yeah. I mean, there's some built in advantages, sure. But yeah, he is going to throw the fastball and he's going to throw a cutter. Those are his two primaries. Not a ton of breaking ball, 13% slider. He'll mix in a curveball on occasion, but it's mostly forcing cutter changeup. Now, that might seem like a good thing because the Mariners struggle was to spend,

but I'll remind you, you've seen Cal Raleigh swing a chain jumps in the last like 10 days, right? Last 10 days. You mean all season? Sure. We've seen Jorge Palanco look pretty darn bad on a lot of changeups, right? So this might be a case where the right-handed hitters actually have more of an advantage than the left-handed hitters. But yeah, he had a really bad first start.

But you know, you look at what he does. He's only going to be 92 miles an hour, 92 to 94. Like it's not overpowering, but it plays up so much because of the extension that he gets. And he's going to pitch at the top of the zone. He's not afraid to do that. Now, so far this year, the first. fastball has not been very good. It's been his worst pitch.

Opponents are hitting 351 on it, and they're slugging 649. So it's not quite where it needs to be yet, but this offense has a tendency to, let's say, put the opposing pitchers right back on track to where we think they can be. So it's going to be a challenge. You're going to have to be ready to hit the fastball, and you're going to have to be geared up because, again, it's only going to come into 92, but his 92 and Woods Richardson's 92, are not the same. So they're going to swing through fastballs down the middle of the plate.

I guarantee you that's going to happen more times than you would like. But they just have to connect with enough of them. It hasn't been a great pitch for them. But that's the pitch you have to hit. You have to hit the four seam fastball when you get it. You can't miss it. When you're a lefty, you're going to see a ton of changeups. Not a lot of breaking balls.

So maybe this is a good night for Mitch Garber. That's going to do it for our show. 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 Nod. I'm Tad

Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Ty Dan Gonzalez and Colby at CPAT-11. That's C-Pat-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you next time. Peace.