Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Ty France Leads Mariners to First Sweep of 2022

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode offer their takeaways from the Mariners' first sweep of the year, discuss how good Ty France has been and explore the possibility of extending him and talk about Matt Brash's struggles with his control.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. 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.

The Mariners got their first sweep of the year and their first walk off of the year. Thanks in part to tie France, who is very good at hitting baseballs. We're going to recap the sweep, gush about France, and a whole lot more on today's episode of Lockdown Mariners. 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 Monday, April 25th, 2022, and this is the Lockdown Mariners podcast brought to you by Bet Online.

Bet Online has you covered all season long with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. Bet Online, where the game starts. Thank you so much for making us your first. Listen to the day here on Lockdown M's. We are free and available on all platforms. I am your host, Tadian Gonzalez. Reporter and Editor at AllSeahawks.com. Join, as always by my co-host, Colby Patineau.

Be sure to follow the show on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. It's D-A-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-E-E-E-L-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-Pat-E-E-1. Be sure also check out our Patreon where we talk about the Mariners even more, and also get into some non-baseball talk twice a week. Visit patreon.com forward slash control the zone for more information on that. If you are interested in, if this is your first time joining us here on Locked-on M's, welcome to the show.

If you like what you hear, give us a follow or subscribe wherever you listen to this. And if you're watching us on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, turn on the notification bell, and give this video thumbs up. We greatly appreciate it. The win was taken out of our sales the last time we were on here. The Mariners had blown a 5-0 lead. and a loss of the Rangers the night before, but they bounced back in a pretty big way this weekend.

We're going to review their sweep of the Royals and offer up our biggest takeaways today. We're also, of course, going to talk about Thai France after his monster weekend and maybe explore the idea of extending him. What would that look like? Matt Brash struggled again with his control on Saturday. So we're also going to look over the rotation,

and if the Mariners can live with him in it, should be an interesting conversation. But let's talk about this weekend series for the Mariners against the Royals. They win all three games. They get their first sweep of the year. Like I said, Colby, you were at the ballpark on Friday. And in that game, Julio Rodriguez and Jerich Kellnick led the way for the Mariners' offense. Four runs between those two guys with a couple of double, or, well, one double and a triple from Jerichkelnik.

And Chris Flexen was solid in this one. You were up in the stands watching him. What did you see out of flexing? Yeah, it seemed like a better mix of stuff. He seemed to be working in the curveball and the change up a little bit more than he had in the past. Velocity, I didn't keep super good track of it, but it did still seem to be down a tad. I saw a lot of 90s on the scoreboard. You know, flexin is typically 92, 93.

I wouldn't call it an issue yet, but, but it's odd it's something to keep an eye on maybe it's intentional maybe it's it's not but yeah you know that's probably as good as you can get from flexen you know he's never going to be the guy who's going to go oh well very very rarely is he going to be the guy who will go toe to toe with Justin verlander like he was asked to do last week but yeah i think that's a guy who can keep you in the game give you a good opportunity to win most nights and on a very rare occasion, he can get after a mediocre lineup.

A lineup that is struggling right now, but has some quality major leaguers in it. So, yeah, overall, it was pretty much more or less what, you know, Chris Flex and it was last year. It was very similar to that. So nothing really jumped out positively or negatively, except for maybe the efficiency. He was very efficient to get through his six innings, seven innings.

So it really did help the bullpen. And thankfully, he did that because on Saturday, they needed every, well, in yesterday, the next two days, they needed every arm they could get. So flexen start probably a little underrated because he was able to get so deep and really allow the Mariners to have the bullpen flexibility they did over the next two days. and coming up on a nine game and nine day, nine games and ten day road trip. So, yeah, it was good.

It was good Chris Fleck. Nothing that I'm, you know, over the moon excited. But he was solid. No, it was absolutely critical, though, with the state of the bullpen. I had said this when we were doing or when I did our live watch along on the Truth of the Trident YouTube account. At the beginning of the game, I told, you know, the few viewers that tuned in. and I appreciate everyone who did come through that night,

that I wanted to see Flexen go deep in this game. And I thought he should have gone eight, quite frankly. I was a little... But again, there was also, you know, it was going to be the fourth time through the lineup for him and all that. So, you know, there's obviously reasons for that, but me personally, I probably would have sent him out there for eight

because the pitch count was good. He was looking solid. He was moving along. Only made the one mistake, Salvador Perez, who, again, was pretty, much the lone source of offense for the royals for the most part and yet they continued to insist on on pitching to him. Julio Rodriguez really impressed me in the series. The strikeouts were still there, but he had the big double to get the scoring going on Friday. He had the game winning walk

on Saturday and he had a really good catch yesterday in the in the top of the ninth after Hunter Dozier tied things up. There was another ball that was hit deep into the gap. I forget who hit it but he ran that ball down he also stole some bases that was he came up big in the series it still wasn't a fantastic series from Julio but it was a pretty big step in the right direction and honestly at this point now just kind of see him where both of these guys are at Julio Julio looks a little bit better than Jared Kellnick is that concerning to you do you agree with that sentiment as well I think it's easier to

forgive Julio's struggles because there's been so much attention paid to his fortunate luck with just terrible um sure but overall I honestly don't see that big of a difference in the approach of Julio and I'm in and Jared they're still you know taking pitches they should probably swing at

they're still you know they're chasing not necessarily balls, but they're chasing pitches they can't do a lot of damage on. And they're both getting to these O2 counts in very similar ways. So I'm not concerned

about either of them right now. Kelnick had his moments again in the series. It's, you know, it's kind of right now, it's kind of a one step forward, two steps back type of thing for Kalnick. But he has had his moments.

by the way, the throw in extra endings last night, or yesterday afternoon, 92 miles an hour to third base. I think Kelnik looks pretty good in the right field. I know that's Mitch's spot, and they're probably going to move Kahlnick to left field a majority of the time when Mitch is healthy, but Kelnick sure seems pretty comfortable and right.

So I maybe would see if Mitch is able to play in left. But, you know, it's Hulio is definitely, again, he continues to look more comfortable, certainly. And over his last 10 games, you know, he's sitting 263 with a 349 on base. Not much power has showed up yet. A couple doubles here and there, but nothing to no mammoth home runs, no, you know, nothing like that.

Nothing really even that close to home run. Yeah. But no, I still think that, you know, Julio and Jared, they both are facing kind of similar problems right now. I think Julio gets a little bit more of a break, though, because, again, he doesn't have as long of a train. track record as Kellnick does at the majors and because there's a lot of emphasis placed on

Julio's unfortunate luck on those kind of let's be generous and say borderline pitches. And let's just call it for what it is, right? He's more of a fan favorite than Jared is. Yeah. A lot more fans in the Mariners' fear gravitate towards Julio than Jared Kelnick. That's just kind of how it's gone. Personality is, yeah. Yeah, Jared, though, you know, the big triple, of course, on Friday.

And then, you know, he might have been one of the reasons that they ended up winning the game yesterday, even though that he had an awful at bat with a chance to win that game in extra annions. He, but to throw out, what was it, been attendee at third, it was already four to three royals at that point. That would have been, what, first and third would no one out or one out? one out, I believe. And I mean, the Mariners weren't going to score two runs the next inning. So there's a pretty good shot that Jerry Kalnick saved that game for the Mariners with that throw. So that was huge.

A lot of big moments in yesterday's game overall. I mean, Matt Cook and Johan Ramirez holding the Royals scoreless in the 11th and 12th innings. That was massive. That was incredibly massive, especially for two guys that you. you have really no confidence in whatsoever heading into that into their appearances. For them to, you know, and especially Ramirez, had to walk the tightrope quite a bit. Basis loaded. Control was not fantastic, but he still got a pair of strikeouts to end that inning.

And again, gave the Mariners a chance to win this game because they had fumbled an opportunity the inning beforehand. Where they had, you know, Cook obviously held the royal scoreless. all they needed to do was push one run across the plate and they were unable to do that Cal Raleigh and Jerry Kalnick with some rough at bats rough at Bats yeah Keldick especially chasing those those fastballs up outside of the zone Raleys was really bad too Raleigh was really bad too yeah yeah it was not a good day for Raleigh as well yeah fortunately the mariners are getting some reinforcements on the catching front Luis Srenz is back from the COVID list Mike Ford

has been DFA'd to make room for for Terenz back on the 40 man. Still no update on Mitch Hanager. We'll see how that goes. But the Mariners don't play again until tomorrow in Tampa. So there's still time for Hanigar to be activated ahead of the road trip. I would presume that we will see him at some point. No idea if Scott Service, maniac, any of those guys are going to be back as well. But yeah, Christopher Negron, what would you, before we hop on over to our next segment,

what would you, if he had to give a grade to Christopher Negron in his first, what has been, five games as interim manager? Because the pitching decisions, the bullpen decisions have not been the best, I would say. How do you feel about Negron with what he's had to do? Yeah. I can't even give him a grade because that is a collaborative effort. Those decisions are largely made. at, you know, pregame.

You know, we get in this situation. This is what we're going to do. And again, so, and it's not like you had this vast bench to go to. Like for basically the entire week his bench has been Mike Ford, Dylan Moore and Donovan Walden. Yeah. Ooh. So it's really hard to give him a grade. I'm tempted to give him a high grade just because he was able to dump the Gatorade on, was it high yesterday?

Or Jesse yesterday, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, that's pretty baller for a manager to do that. So I guess for that and that alone, I'll give it like a 65, 70, but like that is such a collaborative effort. Even when Scott service is there, that Scott is making decisions based largely on things that his staff and his analysts have already agreed to hours before. Right, right. And that's why it was obviously involved in the pregame stuff as well via Zoom. So, yeah.

And that's why the Mariners are, you know, able to to lose their. manager and not skip a beat because it is a collaborative effort. And it shows more of the strength of the organization in game planning than it does, you know, the individual strength of service or McGrath. But, hey, it's cool, man. Negron was, you know, wearing a major league uniform three years ago. And now he's got a major league record. And it's a pretty good one.

So it's cool. It's cool. But I can't really give him a grade because it's, it's a class. collaborative effort. Yeah. So he goes, he's gone four in one now. So it's a pretty good winning percentage right there for all,

for all Kristen Garand. You guys heard it here first. Ty is advocating for firing Scott's service. Clearly. Clearly. That's exactly what I said. Hashtag Ty hates Scott. You're going to get it going now.

All right. Well, the biggest takeaway from this weekend, really at the end of the day, I mean, I got three words for you. Tyler, Lawrence, France. Our next segment is all about him. But before we get into that, though,

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taking fans through the season like no other network. It is free and available wherever you get. your podcast just like us. Colby, is Ty France the best hitter in the American League? Because right now, by F4, he is. 1.2. F.4 tied with

Wander Franco, of course. But he also has a, he has the same WRC plus as Mike Trout, 235. The guy was incredible this weekend. Five for six on Saturday night. He had three hits yesterday, including a two run, home run to start the game off. I mean,

this guy is just ridiculous, right? I mean, he was pretty good this weekend, but there were a few opportunities he have that he didn't really take advantage of. Sure. I mean, like, for example, he was so good that the Royals didn't even pitch to him in the 12th. And like, you had to put all that pressure on Jesse Winker

just because he was so good. Like, that seems unfair. But he's certainly the best hitter, or certainly was the best hitter last week. I don't think that he's, I mean, I think we can all agree he's not going to hit 370 or whatever he's hitting now for the entire year. But yeah, you know, it's, we shouldn't be so surprised. And I don't know we're surprised so much as we're excited.

Sometimes it's tough to kind of draw the line between those two. But yeah, Typhrance is, just a very, very good hitter. We knew that last year. Pretty much the only thing that kept him from hitting 300 with 20 plus home runs last year was the month of May where he tried to play through a pretty bad wrist injury. And before he hit the IL and it totally impacted his numbers.

So, yeah, I mean, the guy is that good. He's just an all-around good hitter. He uses the whole field, understands his approach. He's got some power. We're starting to see it a little bit more. like I say, I don't think he's got consistent 30 home run power, but I think he's going to hit some home runs and bunches. And I think he's probably still, you know, 22 to 25 home run guy,

but we'll see. Well, right now he's the he's tied for the major league league and home runs five. And we're 16 games in. So yeah, yeah. We'll see. We'll see how, how he finishes up. But I think one thing we can all agree on is that Ty France can really,

really hit. And yeah, if Jesse Winker can get it going, then the Mariners arguably have the two most underrated hitters in Major League Baseball probably hitting back to back, which seems good. So yeah, it was an incredible weekend. You know, it's funny. On the road trip, you have like an 0 for 10 stretch.

And they were like six or seven of those at-bats were just god-awful. And yet here he is just, you know, small sample size and all. best hitter in the American League statistically speaking. And that kind of that kind of summarizes the Mariners as a whole right now with their offense. I mean, because they're right now the top hitting team

in all of baseball from a WRC plus standpoint, which is kind of the all encompassing stat for determining who's good at hitting and who's not. So I mean, right now, arguably, I mean, the numbers right now say that the Mariners are the best offense in baseball through the first

16 games of the year. Of course. You know, it's very, very early on. But I kind of feel like Thai France kind of represents the Mariners as a whole right now. And, you know, because right now he's not striking out at all. It's 10.8% clip. He's walking pretty much at the same clip. He's getting on base. I think he's third and on base right now.

I mean, the Mariners, for the most part, are dominating the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the ability to. The, uh, the, the, the, the, the, the ability to. not only, you know, hit for gap power and over the wall power, but to also slap the ball the other way. We saw that a couple of times in this game as well, his ability to hit it up the middle, all this. He's just a complete hitter.

I mean, he's everything that you would want out of, out of a guy who is a just a pure hitter. And then on top of that, it's a pretty good first baseman, too. And really, I mean, you look at his F4 right now. He's a 1.2 F-war guy. That honestly would be probably a lot higher. He might be in the Major League lead in F-war, if not for the fact that he plays first base,

because Fangraphs in general is just not kind to first baseman in general from a defensive standpoint. They have them at a negative 2.3 defensive rating right now, and I can't think of a play where Thai France looked bad at first base this year. So not really sure whether they got that, but also in the year that Evan White won the gold glove, he had a negative defensive rating as well. just first baseman are kind of frowned upon from a defensive standpoint by Fangraph's standards.

So, you know, that ultimately is reflected in his effort. But quite frankly, I mean, you just look at the numbers. You stack them up against any hitter, even the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. right now, he's either better than or at least equal to the best hitters in the game right now. Will that continue? Probably not. There's going to be some regression there. But this is the kind of dominance that we saw from Thai France in the minor leagues as well.

Remember, this guy in 2019, I believe, hit nearly 400 in AAA. It's just, that's just mind-blowing. That's stupid. That's just ridiculous. So my question to you is this, because I was asked about this yesterday, and we even talked about this a little bit in our private conversation on Twitter. What do you think about extending him? Because he's got three years left of control. He's going to be ARB1 next year.

So technically four years of control, if you're including this season. But three years of control after this season, he'll be 31 when he hits free agency. If you think that Thai France is still on an upward trend here, if maybe this Thai France is more in line with what we're going to get over the next five, six years than what we saw even last year, do you want to get out ahead of that and maybe buy a couple years of free agency? I mean, if you can, but if I'm Thai France, I'm going to be kind of an older first-time free agent. And if I think I can continue to hit like this, at least somewhat close, then I'm probably going to get $20, $25 million a year, right? So if I'm France, it's like I'm willing to, but if I'm going to sell. you some of my free agent years and what's probably going to be my last shot to get a huge contract

just because unless he's Freddie Freeman, you know, first baseman don't exactly break in a ton of money in free agency. So we'll see. We'll see. It's I think, you know, again, the three year, there's really no rush to get it done. But the Mariners like Thai France, he's only 27. So I feel like maybe if he's willing to do something like, so you want to buy out probably at least two years of free agency would be my guess. Otherwise, it's not really worth it to explore right now. So that's a six-year deal. He's going to make 700K this year, probably about three, four million next year, depending on how he finishes up. You know, then probably let's just go eight and 12 for easy math.

So it's $25 million over the next four years. And then you want to give, let's hypothetically, he wants $25 million per free agent year. Are you giving him $6.75? I mean, maybe because you're paying him up front, maybe it's six and 68 or something like that. Well, here's the thing too, right?

Is like Jerry DePoto and his team had coveted Thai France for so long. They finally got him. and he's really good. And it seems like he kind of embodies everything that the Mariners want to be about. And that's exactly what we talked about with the J.P. Crawford extension. That if you put in the work, if you come to the ballpark and you, you know, like I said, embody what the Mariners want to be about, you will be rewarded. And so for me, I think maybe the Mariners have seen this coming. And at that point, I mean, if.

If they truly believe that this is who Ty Francis or something at least close to this is who he truly is and who he's going to be over the next five, six, seven years, then I think you make that move. And I think you bank on it. And I think you give him that money. But, you know, the other side of the coin, and this is what you were alluding to earlier is and what you also talked about with JP's situation as well, you don't have to rush it. And I mean, that's a fairly big risk. This is, you know, the other side of the coin here is the very big risk of giving Ty France and committing $25 something million to him five years down the road. Because we don't know. He could suffer an injury.

He could just regress flat out. There's a lot of stuff that could happen in five years time. You know, so there's also the possibility that he regresses defensively. first base and he's just a full-time DH. Do you want to pay a full-time DH that kind of money? Like these are the things that Jerry DePoto and crew have to consider here before making such a commitment. But I think from their perspective, just knowing how they feel about Ty France, I wouldn't be surprised if they

made this happen. Yeah. You know, there's also some concern about Ty France's swing. It's not the prettiest swing in the world. There are a lot of moving parts to it. There's a lot of load and timing involved. And if that slows down, then obviously that might not age well. But France is pretty adaptable. He's a student of the game. He can tweak his swing. And it's not that he doesn't generate bat speed with the swing either. So, you know, he can make adjustments there. But that is something else they're going to have to factor in as well. So to me, I look at it and I say, look, if I can get France for I probably want to get six years because I want to buy out two free agent years.

Otherwise, that extra year of free agency, I'll probably just play it out and, you know, wait a year or two before I try it. But if I can get two years of free agency at about, let's say, $20 million a year, then I'm interested. And that would take them to write about six years, $65, $66 million. And at that stage, does France do that? Probably not. But it's probably going to be pretty tempting for him.

Because so far right now, he's made about a million and a half bucks in his majorly career. Yeah. And he's 27. Yeah, exactly. So we'll see how it works out. I think they're interested. I don't. It does seem kind of.

like he would be the next guy, unless, you know, Julio's willing to sign that eight year $95 million, $100 million extension, whatever. Right now, it seems like France is probably the next guy because the mayors don't really have that many guys who are pending free agents who they seem likely to try to extend. Adam Frazier is kind of it. I don't believe they're trying to extend Mitch Hanager. I don't think they're working on a winker extension right now, but maybe they are. We don't know.

so pretty much Frazier and then it's a bunch of guys who are four or five years away from pre-agency that they have to worry about so we'll see and hey I'll give you I'll give you one like many

like maybe it's an extension maybe it's not type of thing what about Paul Seewald what do they give him like kind of an Andres Munoz level type of deal sure how old is Paul now?

31? 31 I think yeah yeah so something like you know four years I think he's got four years of club control left

so something for Paul like five years 8.5 million dollars you know what I'm talking about someone that embodies who the baroners are right right Paul CWall he's a leader yeah despite being a reliever he's still a he's still a leader uh he's got three years

of club control left so why not give Paul CWald four years two million per yeah um three million per or whatever and then if it's if he gets hurt or he's bad it's it's like the Evan White trade it's like the Evan White deal where you're like yeah oh well yeah bummer but doesn't really matter Well, speaking of the pitching, Matt Brash has been one of the most fun pictures to watch when he's on. The problem is he hasn't been all that on since his first start in Chicago. How much of a problem is that we'll discuss in just a moment, but real quick, a reminder,

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the E-control to be generous was 30 at best. It was not good. How long do you think the Mariners could survive having this kind of Matt Brash in the rotation, assuming that he's not able to bounce back? I think they can survive a little while longer. But I don't think we're talking about, you know, July here. I don't think we're talking about middle of June even. I think we're talking about two or three more starts that without, you know, pretty

drastic changes in results. They might consider doing something. And maybe it's George Kirby. Maybe it's not. Kirby's looked pretty good. Still has some things that needs to work out with his, with his breaking stuff. So, I mean, I don't know if he's particularly ready, but one thing at least I know about Kirby is that he's going to throw strikes.

And he's going to give me a shot to win the game. And I don't know if I can say that about Brash right now. I know the Mariners haven't lost on days that he's pitched. Like, it's not. They lost the first start, which is actually when you look the best. It looked the best, right? Which is crazy. It is.

But, you know, like, I know that the Mariners have technically won. the two starts he was bad in. But did he really give them that great of a shot to win? No, against the Astros, it was a lot of, you know, luck, basically, bad bit luck. Double plays. Yeah. And then this time around against Kansas City, it was, it was, it was, it was. Yeah.

It, it was bad. So, yeah, I just, I think they can, I think they can go, I think they will go a little while longer with him. But when I say a little while, I think I mean maybe two times through the rotation, maybe three. But if he's still thrown out there at 35 control, like at best, being generous, 35 control, then I think they will make a move. And I don't know that's going to be Kirby, but it seems like he's probably the most likely guy that they would go to. And then I would assume they would send Brash down in that scenario rather than stick them in the bullpen.

But it is a possibility that is add Brash to the bullpen. Or maybe they go a six-man rotation. You know, we don't really know. But I think, I think it's premature to say that like Brash is on the hot seat, but I don't feel like the Mariners are going to give this version of Matt Brash a super long leash going forward. And if he's taxing the bullpen every five days because he just can't throw strikes, then you have to do something to protect, to protect your pen because it's a very, it's a really important part. thankfully he's sandwiched between guys like Marco Flexen and Ray who have given you innings

for the most part this year but it's just it's too much of a burden to place on the bullpen for a guy to go out there and walk you know five six guys and only get through four innings on 85 pitches it's just too much for some guys so I feel like I would say we're not seeing drastic improvement over his next three starts, I think the Mariners would strongly consider making a move. And I think it would be Kirby. I guess it could be Sheffield if he's still around. But my guess is it would either be Kirby or an outside, outside the organization addition. But yeah, Frankie Monta still hasn't been traded. So yes, maybe the A's lower on their asking price, the longer this gets dragged out.

But yeah, yeah. Maybe it's somebody like Daniel Ponce de Leon who they picked up. up as a minor league free agent. Maybe it's Tommy Malone, who I believe is still in the organization. Maybe they go with a spot starter for a couple of days for a couple of turns through the rotation. But I don't think Brash has a long leash. I think, you know, his next start is against Miami, correct? Yeah, on Friday. And so that's not a, that's not a, they are striking out a ton. Yeah, they're striking out a ton. There's six right now in strikeout rate. 25.1% of the time.

That lineup is not, is not you know, Houston Astros level, but I mean, Jazz Chisholm is still a really nice player and Brian Anderson can hit a little bit. You know, it's Alveso Garcia. So there's still some guys.

I think Corey Salere. So yeah, hopefully he can go five. It's not even so much like, if he walks three or four guys, like, okay, but how did it look? You know what I mean? like, were they close pitches? Because a lot of the times against Houston and Kansas City, he wasn't close to the zone.

And guys were just going up there and just taking the off speed stuff because it had no shot of being a strike ever. So you just has to have more competitive at bats. And I think he will. But I think he's on watch. I wouldn't say it's a hot seat quite yet, but I think the team is monitoring this situation. And I think they'll be fairly aggressive in making a change if they feel like it.

Well, also, look at the position that you're in right now. You can't really afford to wait this out too too long because you're not a rebuilding team anymore. You are a competitor in the American League right now. I just, like, obviously, you know, we're 16 games in. I'm not saying that they're competing for the division or anything like that. I'm not going to know ahead of myself here, even though that they are first place in the division. And it sounds like it.

And they're in a three-way tie for the best record in the American League. However, I'm just, even though that I think they're more in line with contending for the wild card, for one of the wild card spots, I just think that you can't let something like this linger on for too too long, because you need to get quality starts every time throughout the rotation as much as possible, especially with the way that the bullpen is right now. You know, guys kind of, you know, we're seeing a little bit of regression from some guys like Drew Steckin Rider, and there's been some injuries. And you've seen what a couple of injuries or COVID diagnoses can do to this bullpen. it can deplete it pretty fast and yeah they have been able to survive for the most part here but you know you want to try

to protect that bullpen and not rely on it as much as possible and do that by getting some consistent starts out of your guys in the rotation and just right now Brash is so boom or bust at the moment that it makes me

a little concerned even though I love him and this is you know I'm the biggest Matt Brash Stan you'll find And I'm saying this here that, you know, he might not be ready to go five or six for a team like this right now, just right now. Because I'm legitimately concerned about his start after the Miami start because that's in Houston against the Astros in that glorified little league ballpark. That's the Crawford boxes and all that stuff. That is legitimately concerning for me for Matt Brash. So we'll see if you can get things turned around here, because that would be huge.

If he can get things turned around, if he can get the control at least up to like a 40 consistently, that would go a long ways for him with that stuff. Because he's the type of pitcher that can at least be effectively wild, I would think. So if he can at least be that, then the Mariners should be in a decent spot. I don't know about relying on George Kirby because that's another rookie even though the command and the control all that stuff is a lot better

than Brash I would say still a rookie still a guy making his first major league starts that's a lot of pressure to put on him even as a number five starter so I don't know I feel like eventually we're heading down the path of going to the trade market

and whether that's Frankie Montas whether that's someone on a lower tier what have you I think the Mariners might have to look outside of the organization to get their number five starters still. And I think we kind of see why there was such an emphasis placed upon doing that from Jerry DePoto this off season, even after they got Robbie Ray. So we'll see. We'll see how it turns out. Obviously, as a Matt Brash stand, I would love for him to get things figured out.

But it's a little concerning right now. I'm not going to lie. That's going to do it for our show, though. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. For Colby Pat note, I'm Tidang Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez, it's D-A-N-Z-L-Z, and Colby at C-E, P-E-E-T-L-E.

You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode as well. Thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. We greatly appreciate the support. Now make your second listen to the day. Locked on MLB, that's where Paul Francis Sullivan, and please call him Sully brings you his unique perspective on the Major League's President Pass.

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