Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - We Asked Mariners Fans How They Feel Heading Into the 2025 Regular Season

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Ty and Colby review the results of their 2025 preseason Mariners fan survey.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosLooking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for you, for less, at SelectQuote.com/LOCKEDONMLB.  FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.  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.

We asked Mariners fans their feelings on the 2025 ball club. Here's what they had to say. 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 Thursday, March 6, 2025. This is Tiding Gazzalus and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Mariners Podcasts.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. So last week, Colby put out a survey to Mariners fans to gauge their feelings on a plethora of topics regarding the 2025 ball club we're going to go over the results on today's show but before we do is always a reminder that if you want to hear from me and colby even more and help support the show you can check out our patreon all you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode we have 10 polls to go over here 10 questions pretty simple just straightforward we're just trying to kind of gauge the temperature of the fan base and we're going to start with a very simple question uh how

excited are you about the 2025 Marrers Roster. 55.4% of you voted somewhat excited. This is out of 547 responses by the way. 27.1% of you voted not very excited. 13.5% of you voted very excited and what was that? 4% I believe.

Yeah, 4% voted. Not at all excited. So overall, not too surprising. I think the very excited categories a little higher than I would have expected. Now, if this question was about like just the offseason and what the mayor has brought in during the off season, then if you voted not at all excited, totally get it actually right there with you. But at the very least, I think you have to be somewhat excited about this roster because it has Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh and this rotation and Randy or Rosarana.

So full season of Randy, full season of Victor. Yeah. Munoz, hopefully some help now with Santos and Spire Healthy. Looking like you might get brash back by the end of April. Like, yeah, there's plenty of reasons to be excited. And, you know, despite the lack of activity, you know, the Astros got worse this winter. I really don't think that's debatable. The angels are not good.

The A's are better, but still not very good. So, you know, Texas definitely got better. But they had, what, a 10 game, like a 10 game gap to catch up on with you? So despite all of these problems with the offseason, like the Mariners are still very much in the thick of things in the American League West. They could still win that division. And I don't think it would surprise anybody if they did. Should they be in a position where we're like, well, maybe they win the division. They should probably be in a position where we're like they're going to win the division or they're the favorites to win the division.

We all agree. We all understand that. Overall, I think the numbers came out about as I would expect them to. Most people being somewhat, you know, optimistic or somewhat, you know, whatever the verbiage is. I always kind of assume when we do these polls too, that you're going to have 5% who are just going to almost troll and they're just going to be like way on one direction or the other. They're going to represent the absolute fringes. So when I see 5% saying or a little bit under 5% saying that they're not excited at all, that's expected. The very excited people, you know, that's a higher number than I thought we were going to get.

But it's within the range of what I would kind of consider. So yeah, overall, not too surprising, you know, of a of a poll here. It's a pretty good sample size. Again, it's not scientific or anything like that. But it's not these 545, whatever many people it was. they don't represent every Mariner fan. So it's not an exact, like, 55% are somewhat excited. And we can take that to the bank.

But it's a pretty good number. And it is a pretty hefty sample size of a, you know, Mariner fan base. So I do think that what we talk about today is going to be pretty close to what, you know, Mariner fans in general are going to believe. I think the poll does carry some weight there. of the number of people.

So yeah, I mean, could it be a little bit, could it be 50% of people are somewhat excited? Could it be 60%? Sure, but we're right in the middle. And I feel like that's the number I kind of expected to see. So no real surprises on this first question. Yeah, so 68.9% of the voters, we were so close to greatness, guys, or at least somewhat excited about the 2025 ball club. All right.

Well, here's kind of a big one. Are you confident in the current front? office. 52.5% of the voters said somewhat. 27.2% said not vary. 13.9% said vary. And let's see here. The people who voted none accounted for 6.4% of the vote.

35 votes for no confidence whatsoever in the front office. So actually kind of similar results to the last question that we just looked at. but that's what 66.4%. Yeah, 66.4% of you voted that you're actually at least somewhat confident in the front office, which to me is pretty surprising considering what I see on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, sure. That's fair. And, you know, it's also worth noting that like this poll was put out there and most of the responses came before the

Justin Turner thing. And before Jerry opened his mouth again today and continue to insert foot, uh, shut up, man. You're not a victim. Okay. You're just terrible with your messaging.

That's a you problem. That's not an us problem. Anyways, um, I can't say I'm all that shocked, uh, because I did figure like if you're somewhat excited or you're like, I figured the first two polls would look very similar,

uh, honestly, because they kind of go hand in hand. But I thought maybe there might be a little more discrepancy because like, hey, like you can say the front office did a good job of building this team. But they did that over the last three or four years mostly. And so, yeah, I'm not all that surprised that it's pretty close to the same as the first, you know, the first question. But yeah, I thought there'd be maybe a little bit more discrepancy. But I guess it makes sense that the two polls are, the two questions are producing roughly the same results.

I think front office and how you're excited for the roster. I think they're kind of just linked by this fan base. Let's get into this one. How much faith do you have in the current ownership group? Least surprising results ever, really. 65.6% voted no confidence, no faith whatsoever. 29.7% voted, not much, which... I can't believe there are 30% of people who are like,

well, I mean like some, not none, but like not a lot. Like what's 3.8% voted a little. And five people voted a lot. Hmm. Which confirms that at least five people in the Mariners ownership group listen to Locknone Mariners. You have fallen for my trap, Chris. So yeah.

Honestly, I respect the five people who voted a lot more than I respect the people who voted a little. what more do you need to see i i feel like you should have a hard set opinion on this either it's yes or it's no instead we got what 35 percent total or whatever it was of the people just like oh you know not not a lot but not none what are you doing man stay it with your chest i don't yeah i don't yeah i don't really know how how you can find some middle ground here with the ownership group i think it's pretty cut and dry yes and i think and i think think even with the like 30% of people are like, oh, I don't know, not a lot, but maybe a little, like,

even with that group, when 65% of your fans are saying, like, I do not have any faith in you whatsoever. Yeah. I'm very much in the none category. Yes. Why would I point to one reason I would have any faith in the ownership group? Yeah. Any.

Yeah. You're listening to the Locktime Mariners podcast. So we are going over. our survey that we put out to Mariners fans about the 2025 ball club do you think the mariners will make the playoffs in 2025 that's the question of this poll here 56.1% of you said yes they'll win a wildcard 27.2% of you said no they won't make the playoffs and 16.6% of you said they'll win the division so 72.7% of you believe that they are a playoff team not bad yeah that that That's actually about more than I would think, considering again, the dialogue around this team this offseason within the fan base.

I don't know. Some of these results are actually kind of surprising me. Like the, there's quite a bit of positivity here. And a lot of these results so far outside of obviously the ownership one. It seems like mostly people are at least like cautiously optimistic. Yeah. I think that's a fair, like, default state. you know, with the Mariners in general is because every time you get like super optimistic,

they blow it like 20, 23. Like they just find a way to blow it. So yeah, I think the cautious optimism is fine. What's kind of interesting is that one in six roughly of the people surveyed said that the Mariners are going to win the division this year. I wonder when's the last time it was that high. It might have been 2023, like the year after they made the playoffs. Yeah.

But maybe not. You know, it certainly is not something that I think we would see one and six positive responses for for most of the last 20 years. So that is interesting. And then, yeah, most people saying, yeah, they're going to win a wild card. I actually kind of feel like you need to win the division to make the playoffs because I think the American League Central is just going to get another, you know, two or three teams in because they're all going to beat up on the White Sox and all of that. but yeah, I think, you know, seven out of ten, a little bit more than that of the respondents think that the Mariners are going to make the playoffs this year. I'm a little surprise. I figured it'd be closer to 6040, maybe 50, 50 even, just based on just because of how people react to the offseason and how people, you know, respond to us in the comments and in social media.

but it also does make sense that a lot of the times the loudest people are the ones who are in the minority. So yeah, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. But yeah, I thought it would be closer to 60, 40 Mariners getting in. But, you know, again, 70% of people think the Mariners are getting in and one in six, roughly, think they're going to win the division. That's reasonably optimistic for a group that said they're somewhat excited about the roster. All right. So we're going to start getting into some player and roster specific questions here,

starting with which starting pitcher will have the best season. 42.2% of you say Logan Gilbert. That's fair. 29.8% of you say Bryce Miller. I agree. I'm very high on Bryce Miller, as we know. I think they're right. Like, I think you should be second.

By the way, I did vote in this poll. I'll just admit that. I did vote in this poll, and I believe that I voted for my fellow. skewed our sample size. That's right. That's right. 18.6% said George Kirby. 8% said Brian Wu.

And I have to go to the actual poll here to see how many of you voted for Louis Castillo. 1.3% seven people. Disrespectful to Louise Cassio. It's a little disrespectful to Louise Castillo. Now, to be fair, he is up against four really good pitchers. Yeah, no, I get who he's going up against here. Right.

And I get that he did have a. step back year this past year. Like, I wonder like, he was involved in trade talk. Trade talks this year. I get it. There are some metrics that you're like,

uh, might be a start of a decline. I don't know. But it's like, yeah. And I don't know for all we know, like he would have gotten the most second place votes if we had done that question,

you know. Yeah. Uh, we'd ask people to rank him. He might have finished second or third. But yeah. It feels like the hate. But I feel like if you're given 8% of Brian Wu and 29% of

to Bryce Miller and 18% to George. Like there's, there should be at least a little bit more room for for castio here to find i like i i'm not surprised at all that gilbert won i'm a little surprised he got 42 percent i thought this would be a little bit closer yeah um i didn't think it was going to be 20 20 20 you know but i 20 yeah um but i did think that it would be like 30 the louise would have like 12 and you know i i thought kirby and and miller would have been closer uh i i agree with Miller being like the number two, you know, being the second highest vote getter.

Like I think that's, I'm not surprised by that. I'm a little bit surprised by how much, how much more votes he got than Kirby. But, you know, there's another question coming up here. Mariner fan base a little down on George. So that is kind of interesting. Now, that's in comparison to other players who are really good too. So again, it's not a perfect question. But yeah, the thing that's set out immediately.

not a lot of Luis Castillo stands out there and more. And that's that's kind of a bummer. All right. So what concerns you the most about the 2025 season? 39.3% of you voted injuries to key players. Well, yeah. Yeah. This is not a poorly.

I wanted four options. I couldn't think of a fourth thing. Yeah. You know. So after the injuries to key players. 28.2% of you voted third base. No surprise there. 26.5% of you voted second base.

Also, no surprise there. And then 6% of you voted for the bullpen. So, yeah, I mean, relative to the other options, yeah, 6% for the bullpen feels about right. I don't know, man. I feel like a lot of people are just assuming the bullpen's going to be really good again. They're posed against, you know, second base and third base. Right, which are currently being filled right now by Dylan Moore and Donovan Solano.

Yeah. Polanco actually plays. So, yeah, I get it. I just like, I do feel like the bullpen is kind of an overlook. Like last year, the Marys have a good bullpen. They make the playoffs. And they probably do damage. Like that was the biggest problem with last year's team.

Well, especially in those six weeks, when the offense started to figure it out, the bullpen became the biggest problem for the Marys. It just collapsed like Andres Munoz just couldn't carry the whole thing on his back for six months. And the hope is that he won't have to, but they didn't really add anything to make you feel like that. They're basically banking on Santos and Spire bouncing back and Brash being healthy and relatively good, you know, 13 months after Tommy John surgery. So. But yeah, third base, second base. I figured that would be pretty close to a 50-50 split between those two spots. So not all that surprised. All right, we will go over the final few polls that we have here in just a moment.

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31.5% for Mitch Garver, 28.2% for Jorge Polanco. Oh, boy. 1.3% for Mitch for Mitch Hanigar. Yeah. So there's actually overall pretty close between the the top three guys. And that makes that makes a lot of sense. This actually pretty much as I would expect it to go, the one, two, three. JP first, Mitch second, Garver, that is.

And then Polo third. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Again, the poll started and a majority of the respondents answered this before Garver got off to the hot start of the. of the Cactus League and J.P. struggled and Polanco hasn't played. So it's a little bit. We did the same question again today.

I imagine it would skew more heavily towards Garber. But yeah, I, I'm not all that surprised that it was kind of a three horse race. And then Hanager got a couple of pity boats. Like it just, it's tough to look at Mitch and just not be like, yeah, dude's toast. He's toast. Like, so yeah. And I also, you know, obviously significantly more. more injuries for Mitch than these other three guys.

So, yeah, Garber, the only one that wasn't injured last year. So, yeah, I'm not all that surprised by the spread here. I think if we did this again today, I think Garber would be the number one answer, but only by a very, very small margin over JP. And then I think Polanco would be third. So, yeah, I'm not all that surprised as about what I expected. I expected a pretty even three-way race, and that's what we got. So not a lot to glean from this particular poll.

The team MVP will be, by the way, we had right-in option on this, and that's why there's one of three lists of results here. But Julio ran away with this, 65.8%. That's not a surprise. Cal Raleigh comes in second, 28. 0.4%. I'm not going to even try and figure out the numbers on all the other options

here. But Radio Rosarana got some votes. Luke Rayleigh got some votes. Bryce Miller got some votes. Victor Robles got votes. Logan Gilbert, Andreas Munoz. JP Ben Williamson got a vote. All right.

Starting pitching got a vote. It's not a thing. Most valuable player. Not players. Just Robles. Robles in all caps with three S's. Andres Munoz without the accented end. Cole Young. Luke Rail E.

spelled R. A. L. E. Y. See what else we got here. Dillamore. Bryce Miller in parentheses. A. L. Sy Young. Then just blank. There's just a blank vote here. And lastly, this is kind of my favorite.

The bullpen. and or Cal. So not only is your first choice, not a player, but you hedged. Yeah. A lot of confidence there. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm a little bit surprised that Cal wasn't a little bit closer to Julio. I figured it was a two horse race there anyways, but what you didn't end up being. But I thought it'd be closer to, you know,

50-50, honestly, because Cal was the most valuable player last year. And I think you can make an argument. He was the most valuable player in 2023 as well. So, yeah, it's a little bit surprising that the spread is that, you know, that wide. I think most fans are really hoping that Julio is the true MVP of this club because

if he is, they're probably going to the playoffs. They're probably winning the division because if he's putting up enough, you know, enough value to outperform Cal Raleigh, who's probably pretty close to as a, you know, they're pretty close to as a for sure, like four, four and a half, five one players you can get, particularly as a catcher. Then, yeah, Julio's probably having a really nice year too. But I thought this would be closer to 50, 50. I knew having a right-in option was not going to be a good idea.

But I mean, I needed four options. And I barely wanted to put a Rosarina on there because it was Cal versus Julio, right? And, you know, maybe I should have thrown a starting pitcher on there. but to me MVP's are position players which young players slash prospect are you most excited to see in 2025

and uh, Cole Young 80.6% for Cole Young then 12.7% for Ryan Bliss. Tyler Locklear comes in at 3.9% that's ahead of Harry Ford who had 2.9% of the vote. I don't agree with that.

I don't get it. But yeah. Now again, because remember when the poll was published. Yeah. We had published it today. I probably would have replaced Terry Ford with Williamson or maybe Locklear with Williamson. And I think this would have been because of the start Williamson is off to because kind of the hype that he's generated early.

He would have ate into Cole Young's, you know, dominance a little bit. He probably gets like 10%. Uh, yeah, 10 to 15, I think. Yeah. But I still think Bliss would get his like 10 to 12%. that he got here. So it would have been closer. But yeah,

Cole Young was, I knew Cole Young was going to win this, uh, win this poll, uh, you know, the, the second I made the question.

And it was more about who's, who was going to get second. Uh, and I'm not super surprised of the other three options. That Bliss was the, kind of the runaway winner there, uh, between the other,

the other two guys. Uh, but I am very surprised that Tyler Lockler, who we saw last year and, wasn't impressive finished ahead of Harry Ford, who has been, you know, a top Mariners prospect for what, four years now? This is year four.

So like, that's a little surprising, but yeah, the overall, you know, I'm surprised that even like 20% of people didn't vote for Cole Young. So, yeah, but good on you if you didn't. Last poll to go over here. Which core player?

Do you most want to see extended? This one is fascinating. Now, I think the top answer, not too surprising. Cal Raleigh, 52.4% of the vote. It's obviously a fan favorite as one of the most important hits in Marinus History. Of course, that makes a ton of sense. 31.9% for Logan Gilbert. 11.2% for Bryce Miller.

George Kirby only got 25 votes. 4.6% of the vote for George Kirby. Oh, that's kind of my biggest takeaway from this. It seems to me like one of the things we can kind of, you know, take away from this poll when we survey, whatever we're calling it, when you kind of look at all the questions together, is that it appears Mariner fans in their mind, they have a new number two starter and it's Bryce Miller.

It appears safe to say that, at least from our sample, Mariners fans would probably rank the starters as Logan, Miller, uh curvy and then probably blue and then and then as far as the top three goes yeah that's probably where i'm at yeah so yeah it's a little surprising that cow and logan weren't closer to me i probably am not extending cow right now uh i would much rather focus on getting Logan done. Not that if they got Cal done, I'd be upset or anything like that. That'd be very happy. But, you know, he's a catcher, a lot of wear and tear already. How is how much value does he bring you as just a bat? Because eventually he's going to have to transition to first base.

So, yeah, I'm a little bit surprised that it wasn't closer. Like that Cal, you know, had a mandate. And he won more than 50% on this one. But yeah, I thought it would be closer to, you know, 40, and then the other two guys would split. But Miller's probably the one you're most likely to actually get an extension done with right now, though. So yeah. Yeah, a little bit surprised here, but not super surprised. Cal is, you know, he's the guy right now. And it's easy to see why.

Yeah, I mean, the Cal conversation is a very nuanced one. But just in general, like, yeah, this doesn't surprise. me at all. He's always going to be a legend in Seattle. So I want to thank everyone for participating in the survey. Really appreciate it. If you like stuff like this, let us know and maybe we'll do more. Maybe we'll do like maybe like a midseason check-in or something like that. But yeah, that's going to do it for our show.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marriss podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Ted and Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Marys. You can follow me at Tedding Gazzalus and Colby at C-Pat 11. that's AT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Marys.

Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.