Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - We Want Off the 2024 Seattle Mariners Rollercoaster

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

After sweeping the Mets in arguably their most impressive series of the year, the notoriously inconsistent 2024 Mariners proceeded to get swept by a mediocre Tigers team. The constant up-and-down of t...he past four or so months has gone beyond the point of frustration and exhaustion for Ty and Colby, who share some of their thoughts on the state of the team as things currently stand.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Stitch Fix With Stitch Fix, you get a Stylist who understands your style, size and budget—they do all the shopping for you! Now’s the best time to get started at StitchFix.com/MLB and get $20 off your first fix! Must redeem within 7 days of sign up. Offer does not include Kids Fixes. Liquid IVNo more thirsty summers when you indulge in hydration with Liquid I.V. Get 20% off your first order of Liquid I.V. when you go to LIQUIDIV.COM and use code MLB at checkout.   SupplyHouseSupplyHouse.com is the reliable way to get parts fast. Shop for your next plumbing, h-vac, or electrical job and get fast shipping from coast to coast. Booking.comThe right stay can make you a fan of any US city - even your rival’s. Book today on Booking.com on the site or in the Booking.com app! Booking.com, Booking dot YEAH! PrizePicksGo to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/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. Terms apply. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list! 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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Right on cue, after the Marers played their best series of the year, they go on to play their most pathetic series of the year. That is the story of the 2024 Seattle Mariners. Let's talk about this mind-blowingly stupid baseball team here on the Locked-on Marrars podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariner's podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Ahoy, Sailors. It is Thursday, August 15th, 2024. This is Tedding Azores. that note for the locked on mirrors post game show part of the locked on podcast network your team every day the mariners have been swept by a mediocre baseball team and they only have themselves to blame every episode of this podcast for the last four so months has been a game of it's over we're back it's over we're back and guess what the wheel landed on today uh before we get into this dumpster fire shout out to our title sponsor today game time download the game time app create an account
Starting point is 00:01:03 and use the promo code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more, help support the show. Check out our Patreon. The link is in the description. And you can sign up for a free seven-day trial. So the Mariners went up against scrub after scrub after scrub on the bump for the tigers today. They walked four times in the first inning.
Starting point is 00:01:26 And they only ended up scoring one run today on a walk, on a basis-loaded walk. That's it. Colby, the Mariners, had one more hit than you and I did today. And we said yet another brilliant starting performance from one of their pitchers. Scored four runs in the entire series.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Yep. I'm exhausted, Colby. I don't know about you, but as a content creator covering this team, I'm exhausted of watching this team play every single day. I'm exhausted of
Starting point is 00:02:04 wondering what version of this team will see on a night-to-night basis, what version of this offense will see on a night-to-night basis. I'm exhausted of being immediately punished for daring to be optimistic about my favorite baseball team. I'm exhausted of all of this, but more so than anything, I'm exhausted of watching this team lack any sort of sense of urgency, any sort of feel for the moment, any sort of feel for the opportunity they have, right in front of them. And now there are three games back
Starting point is 00:02:41 of the Astros and the Aal West. This thing has fallen apart quickly. And this team just has no idea what it wants to be, right? They sweep one of the hottest teams in baseball over the course of the weekend. The vibes are amazing. They extend Victor Robles on Monday, or I guess Sunday.
Starting point is 00:02:59 But it gets announced on Monday, and then they just they do this against the tigers for the second time in about a week and the tigers while they are a scrappy team they're a team that is relatively close to the 500 mark they are a talented ball club this isn't a team that you should be having this many issues against and you know all do credit to to the tigers they did play a good couple of series here. They made less mistakes than the Marries did. They capitalized on more opportunities than the
Starting point is 00:03:36 Marys did. But at the end of the day, the Mariners only have themselves to blame here. The Mariners ultimately beat themselves in both of these series against the Detroit Tigers. Yeah. I mean, there's really no way around it. They, the offense is toothless. They seem to lack any desire to even attempt to put up quality plate appearances most of the most nights.
Starting point is 00:04:03 You know, the additions to the lineup have actually been fine. Like Turner and Rosarena have done, you know, what you would expect them to do. They've been totally fine. But, you know, you're still putting up, you're still struggling to put up one or two runs a night,
Starting point is 00:04:17 even against terrible pitching, you know, half the time. So, you know, it's basically become impossible to watch. By the way, you get Paul Skeens tomorrow. Astros are in Chicago. Your chances of winning the American League West probably in this weekend the way that they're playing right now. So that's fun. So, yeah, the offense is a joke. It is something that needs to be torn down and a lot of tough questions need to be asked this winter.
Starting point is 00:04:48 There's really nothing you can do about it right now, unfortunately. You know, you just hope that maybe they get hot again for a couple weeks, and then they can get back in this race. But yeah, there's obviously something very wrong with the way that the Mariners either identify or who they pursue or, you know, what they're teaching. Like, clearly there's something wrong here with the hitting offensive philosophy as a whole for the Seattle Mariners. Because this is not anything new. Like it really isn't. And it's been, you know, three or four years now where,
Starting point is 00:05:25 it's just kind of been this every single year where, you know, you have stretches where you certainly look like you can hit. And at the end of the year, you might actually be in an okay offense, but the consistency just is not there whatsoever. And it's more so than even just, you know, well, you know, sometimes team struggle and all that stuff. Like, yeah, they do, but nobody struggles quite like the Mariners. Like nobody goes through these stretches.
Starting point is 00:05:49 Nobody is as inconsistent offensively as the Mariners. And nobody has been for the last two or three years. So clearly there's something that needs. needs to change. I don't know what it is. But yeah, clearly this team is right now playing a style of baseball, at least the last three days. That looks more more like what you would expect in the first, you know, two or three weeks of spring training when everybody's just trying to get their work in and go home and hit the golf course. And that's kind of what this effort looks like here against Detroit. And again, it's not like they're facing, you know, Tariq Scoobel every night.
Starting point is 00:06:23 if you want to you know if you're getting shut down by scubel you know fine whatever that that's sure talked about that yeah like the the zach wheeler start all right i can accept that it's zach wheeler right i mean just we're talking about kintamaiata some lefty who just absolutely destroyed you twice and around it's a lefty with a bad curveball and you get walked four times by alice fayato today and you get one run out of that situation yep they had runners on or they had a runner on first and third with one out and they didn't even come close to scoring that run. So, yeah, it's just consistent, consistently poor plate appearances in these big moments with an offense that, you know, or with a pitching staff where you know, you know, they're
Starting point is 00:07:08 going out there and basically saying, hey, I got to throw nine shutout innings to have any shot to win this game. And you don't really have the bullpen right now because it really is two guys, maybe three guys who are trying to hold that back in together. And if they struggle, you're screwed because you don't have the firepower to score. He scored one run because you got walked in, walked around the bases in eight innings. You can't reasonably expect this offense to go out there in the ninth against a better pitcher and just put up three or four runs every single time. It's not going to happen.
Starting point is 00:07:37 So, yeah, the offense is clearly broken and changes need to be made both in personnel, probably coaching, maybe even the front office. But yeah, right now you're just kind of stuck because there's nothing you can change right now, you know, firing the hitting coach. tomorrow doesn't really do anything like there there's just not any quick fix here if you if you want to do it fine go ahead i don't really care but right it's not going to change anything it's not going to change anything but yeah if you want to do it fine um you know same thing with the brant brown thing it was like all right cool if you want to do it that's fine but like we've seen didn't change anything so this is a failure across the board though it's a failure by the people that put this roster together. It's a failure by the coaching staff. It's a failure by, you know,
Starting point is 00:08:25 most importantly, the players and specifically the guys that are supposed to be your stars, are supposed to be leading this thing. Everyone's to blame here. Now there's a varying levels of shares of the blame for each group, but overall it doesn't really matter. This is a failure. Yeah, they're four games above 500. Whoopty freaking do. They had a 10 game lead in the AL West and they blew it at a historic rate. It doesn't really feel like this team has a shared goal. And it really doesn't feel like this offense plays for one another. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:04 I just, I don't know. What is the game plan? Because it seems like, you know, the game plan is I'm going to try and hit a home run. And if I do, we might win.
Starting point is 00:09:17 If we don't, we're probably going to lose. But whatever, I'm going to try and get my numbers. I'm going to try and get, you know, And it's just frustrating because there's literally nothing you can do. And I think you just kind of have to hope that it kind of all clicks for a long enough stretch that maybe you can get back into this thing.
Starting point is 00:09:36 But like I said, your season's very much on the line this weekend because if you fall four or five, six games back at the Astros with 35 to go, it's over. And again, they're playing the White Sox. You were playing the Pirates. So you better find a way to win at least two or three here against Pittsburgh, year season's pretty much over. All right. So I, I want to make sure that we,
Starting point is 00:09:57 that we do give some props here to Brian Wu and Bryce Miller, uh, because they at least showed up in this series. We're going to talk about them in just a moment, but first, a reminder of this episode of the Walkdown Mary's podcast is brought to you by game time. Game time is now an authorized ticket marketplace of major league baseball, which makes getting tickets even faster and easier.
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Starting point is 00:10:47 for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem the promo code Locked on MLB that's LOC, KED, O N, MLB for $20 off. Download the game time app, last minute ticket's lowest price guaranteed. And you're listening to the locked on Marreras postgame show. Tomorrow you can catch all the action between the M's and the Pirates on the Marriss hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app.
Starting point is 00:11:14 All you have to do to find that is search the word Mariners. So I want to continue having a pretty serious discussion about this team and where it's at. have a very realistic discussion about this team, but I do want to break that up here with at least a couple of positives. I want to talk about Brian Wu and Bryce Miller, who refreshing to see at least someone on this team cares still. Wu and Miller were fantastic over the last two games. They both went seven-ending scoreless,
Starting point is 00:11:44 15 strikeouts over that time. And the team ends up going O-N-2 in those games, as we all know. so you know you can get your felix puns and jokes and memes and all that stuff off i don't really care but uh yeah it's really disappointed to see that both of these guys uh their efforts did uh did not go rewarded uh but i still want to give them their props yeah both guys are uh taking big steps forward based off where they were last year when they were pretty darn good as rookies uh and uh now you know Wu in particular, the last three starts has been dynamic, electric. He's gone six and two thirds or longer in all three starts.
Starting point is 00:12:29 The pitch count hasn't been an issue for him. He's throwing a ton of strikes and it's still just dominating fastball. Miller today might be his best outing of his career. Go seven scoreless gives up just a couple hits. He threw 23. A little dealing with a blister, by the way. Yeah, he threw 23 splitters today. he got seven whiffs on 15 swings on that pitch 47% whiff rate on the splitter it was the best we've seen
Starting point is 00:12:57 it he also got seven whiffs on the four scene fastball 29% which we know is a good number for him just three hard hit balls all game he was simply electric uh really didn't fall behind uh in the count all that often uh so it was you know it was a really really great uh day for for miller and and Wu and, you know, it is, as we, you know, kind of look at this season, it's, it's, you know, been a disappointment, particularly when, you know, you look at what we were talking about two months ago. There's still a little bit of time left to get, you know, get back into this thing. But one of the things that is not, you know, has not been a disappointment this year is the development of Bryce Miller and Brian Wu. And it's, you know, a good reminder that like, yeah,
Starting point is 00:13:41 things are dark right now, things are bleak right now, but there's a lot going right. in this organization. And one of them is the development of those two guys. And also, you know, Logan Gilbert has taken that step, another step too. And, you know, Kirby struggled this last couple times out, particularly on Tuesday. But obviously we know how good George Kirby is. And the Mariners probably have the hardest thing figured out in baseball, which is, you know, how do you build a rotation, a good one?
Starting point is 00:14:08 The Mariners have that. And that's what makes this whole situation all the more maddening. Right. is like you got the hard part out of the way you figured that out you don't even need your offense to be good you need them to be functional right you have again what we talked about and this wasn't hyperpically like really when you think about it when you think about the era they're pitching in what they're doing right now you know the historic runs they've gone on at times throughout the course of this season like this is one of the best pitching staffs we have
Starting point is 00:14:38 seen in a very long time you just need the offense to be as close to to average as possible, that shouldn't be that difficult to accomplish, even with the unfavorable confines of T-Mobile Park. And as we saw over the course of the series, it's not just a T-Mobile Park issue, right? It's not. This team struggles on the road. It'll have success on the road. It'll struggle at home.
Starting point is 00:15:13 Sometimes it'll have success at home, right? Sometimes it'll score 12 runs against the Mets. So there isn't really a rhyme or reason to it. That's what makes talking about this team so difficult. Yeah, you know, it's kind of a lot like last year where you had JP have this incredible season. And, you know, he was carrying the offense for a long time. And you had Julio having the month of August he did. And you just kind of were looking at you go like, man, you're probably never going to get like this version of J.P.
Starting point is 00:15:44 Crawford ever again. And like it would be a shame to not take advantage of it and get into the. playoffs and, you know, ride that out. Well, this time it's, it's your five guys. Your, your five starters have been really, really good outside of, you know, a handful of outings combined between
Starting point is 00:16:01 the five of them. They've been electric and elite for most of the season and you're just going to waste it because, again, not because the offense is, you know, mediocre. Like, if the offense was mediocre, the Mariners probably have the best record in baseball right now.
Starting point is 00:16:17 Like, that's literally all we need is just be be bad like even a bad offense you're probably still leading this division the mariners don't have a bad offense the mariners have a dreadful offense they have a horrific offense like pick your adjective it is not bad like you should strive for a bad offense like a bad offense you know four runs a night like that'd be great that'd be incredible right now you're averaging less than three less than like three and a half like it's just you're not even like in the of like acceptable and the sad thing is is that you don't even need to be you don't have to get there you just have to get close to acceptable and you would win 100 games this year and well you know
Starting point is 00:17:04 kirby and logan and and certainly miller and woo while they're all young and they're all going to be back next year castillo probably going to be back too um there's no guarantee you're going to get these repeat performances for many of them uh you feel pretty good about it like obviously you you enter this going like, well, we got the rotation. Like we don't need to really focus really any resources there. But, you know, it's not a guarantee. Like some of these guys, they're going to have off years or they're going to have bad years or they're going to go through their own struggles or whatever.
Starting point is 00:17:33 And, you know, there's also a timeline on, on, you know, how long this rotation can stay together because you are going to have to make some tough decisions because, unfortunately, we know that the Mariners are not just going to, you know, sign these guys to long-term deals. They're not going to have them forever. and they're probably not even going to have them all the way through their club control years. So you might only have one or two more shots with this rotation intact after this year to really win with it. And then, you know, do you trust the Mariners to find the next Logan Gilbert before they trade this one?
Starting point is 00:18:04 Maybe you do. Maybe you don't. It's pretty hard task. Logan Gilbert's one of the best pitchers in baseball. But even if you do trust them, that's not a guarantee that they can actually do that. And so, yeah, you're just running out of opportunities. It's like when you have that rookie. quarterback, that elite rookie quarterback on the rookie contract, it's like, okay, well, we only have
Starting point is 00:18:22 one or two shots at this. And every time we don't connect on one of these shots, it's devastating because we're that much closer to having to completely, you know, kind of rebuild and restack the deck and reshuffle the chairs. And that sometimes can lead to, you know, a lot of confusion and a lot of, you know, steps back. And so this, this offense is an anchor around the neck of the rest of this organization. And it's not acceptable. yeah so obviously a lot of the blame has to fall on the players the players have to execute at the end of the day right coaches can't can't go up and take the at bats for them you know jerry depoto and jesson hollander can't go up there and take the at bats for them but clearly something is wrong in the way that they identify players and ultimately come to these decisions that yeah this is the guy that we want this is the guy that we want to acquire and so a lot of the blame still has to fall on the front office for this because they're the ones that put this roster together. That's just how sports work, right? At the end of the day, your team doesn't perform. It falls on the guys that put the whole thing together. So,
Starting point is 00:19:29 the issue with the discussion about moving on from the front office, the only issue that I have with it really is that I don't trust the guy at the top to find a proper replacement. Yep. So it's a weird spot to be in because it's like, all right, do you just continue to roll with what you know and hope that eventually they figure it out and you just, you know,
Starting point is 00:19:55 you know that you at least have people in place that are good at some things. They're good at drafting and developing. They're good at developing pitching. They're great at it, right? There might not be an organization better at doing that specifically. But for whatever reason, they can't find offense at the major league level.
Starting point is 00:20:14 Do you go with what you know, right? Do you continue to just go with what you know and like, all right, I at least have a front office in place that is good at this. And I just hope that they redevelop their philosophy when it comes to identifying offense and they're able to figure this thing out and rebuild this offense. Or do you go with a complete unknown, right? Which can lead to now you still can't get offense. And now you're worse in the draft. You're worse at developing pitching.
Starting point is 00:20:44 You're worse at all the things that the previous regime was. actually good at. Yeah. I don't really know what you do. A tough question. Not bad about it. Yeah. Nope.
Starting point is 00:20:51 I don't either. I think, though, at this stage, you have to be open to the idea, though, that at least, you know, they should explore it. They should, they should consider that maybe they can't upgrade. But, you know, I don't know if that's actually the right call to make or not because it is a nuanced discussion. Yeah. All right.
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Starting point is 00:23:26 So let's get real here for a second. Colby, you and I as content creators, have we done a good job of talking about this team? Have we talked about the right things? Have we attacked this team in the right way? Or did we kind of dilute ourselves in thinking that this team was actually good enough to compete for a division that it was actually capable
Starting point is 00:23:53 of doing these things. Because look, even back when they had the 10 game lead, if you remember the episode that we did when they had the 10 game lead, even when we talked to Gary Hill the last time we had them on, it was like yeah, they have a 10 game lead, but how? How are they doing this? Like, they're not
Starting point is 00:24:09 playing good baseball overall. Like, the offense is terrible. Like, this isn't a new thing. This didn't just suddenly happen. You know, after that Cleveland series essentially. So did they just get hot randomly and now we're basically seeing who they are, which is basically just a mediocre team. They're kind of the tigers, right? They're kind of in that realm of a baseball obviously got a great rotation, but this offense sucks. Yeah. I mean,
Starting point is 00:24:37 I don't know, because they did have a 10 game lead. They did have a stretch from basically mid April to the end of June, which is, you know, roughly the stretch that we're in right now in terms of how bad they've been, where they won pretty much every series. Like, and they, they weren't getting swept. And, you know, even the close losses, it was like, oh, yeah, this one little thing goes, right. And you suit that team. And so, and they were, they were beating, you know, pretty decent teams, too, at the time.
Starting point is 00:25:06 So I don't know. I don't think so because I think we looked at, at the time, the offense was bad, but they were still winning. And the idea is like, well, the offense is going to get better. like it has to because obviously Garber's not going to hit a buck 60 all year. Polanco's not going to hit 150 all year and Polanco's going to get healthy. And obviously Julio will figure it out at some point. He'll go on a run and just none of that really happened.
Starting point is 00:25:28 So and, you know, it's to me I look at it and I said, you know, we're basing that off of what, track record that these guys had. Some of these guys for a decade plus of being just this really good, good hitter. And they just randomly decided this year, I don't know. excited, but like, they weren't, they weren't going to be good hitters for the first time in their entire careers. Like, I don't think that's foreseeable. And I think, you know, as easy as it is for people to be like, oh, it's Colton Wong, it's all that. Like, you don't actually know that. Like you are, you're trolling, you know, with those because one thing I'm not going to do is I'm not going to all of a sudden pretend like track record doesn't matter. Right. Like, oh, this guy's been, not only is this guy been a good player for 10 years, but he was really good last year and he was really good the year before that. So. No, I'm not going to suddenly assume that guy sucks now. And again, we're not talking about like, oh, well, we didn't count for regression or anything like that. No, I'm pretty sure we did account for regression.
Starting point is 00:26:26 What we didn't account for is the cliff coming at, you know, the age of 30 for a couple of these guys. Because that's not what happens, you know, that doesn't happen seemingly anywhere else most of the time. So, no, I think we were fine because I think that the Mariners showed us who they could be. during that time. And now, you know, that was about six weeks. Now we're about eight weeks into them being a bad team, you know, just objectively a bad team. And, yeah, I think what we see here is a team that is as inconsistent as its offense. And we see just how far pitching can carry you because somehow, some way, the Mariners are still, you know, in the playoff hunt.
Starting point is 00:27:07 They still can win the division. They still could win a wild card spot. And if they get in, they're going to be dangerous out because they have the starting pitching. So we've seen just how far pitching can carry you. But I think what, you know, maybe what we didn't notice is that we didn't, we didn't allow for the idea that the offense could get worse. And that, you know, obviously Houston, who at the time had about 70 games of just being trashed under their belt. Now they played their last 50 games like they're the old Houston Astros. And so I think it's just a combination of things.
Starting point is 00:27:42 I'm not afraid of being wrong. And we've been, I've been wrong a lot on this show. We've been wrong collectively on the show. I know you don't want to have been. Yeah, right. I'll speak for the both of us, though. We've been wrong. All right.
Starting point is 00:27:56 We've been wrong. Do we need to pull up the flag list? Right. I don't think yours has aged that well, though, over time. I got Bryce Miller. It's still better than mine, but I don't think it's particularly aged super, super well. Significantly better than yours. But I know it has not.
Starting point is 00:28:16 But yeah, I, you know, I'm not afraid of being wrong. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I just want to talk, Paul. I want to talk about my favorite baseball team. And like I said, you know, while I am tired of being pretty much immediately punished every time I dare to get optimistic about this team, I'm not going to stop getting optimistic about this team if it makes sense to me. And this offseason, it made sense to me. There was nothing that I saw out of the profiles that they brought in.
Starting point is 00:28:44 offensively that suggested to me oh these guys are going to fall off a cliff right and miss me with the whole but it's the Mariners of course you know now that they're part of the mariners and they're in Seattle like this is where hitters go to die like miss me that's not analysis right
Starting point is 00:29:00 like that's just fan pessimism which is fine that's fine that's totally fine you can do that if that's how you want a fan that's totally fine by me that's just that that's not how and that would be a disservice to you guys if that's all we just said and that's how we based our analysis.
Starting point is 00:29:17 Yeah, it would be intellectually disingenuous. Just be like, oh, it's just the Mariners, so they suck. We just did that every day. You guys wouldn't listen to us. You wouldn't. I looked at Jorge Polanco. I looked at Mitch Garber. And again, we had talked about this.
Starting point is 00:29:31 We had said this so many times over the course of the off season. Once this roster came into full view and we said, yeah, it's not really performance risk. It's just injury risk, right? Like if these guys can stay healthy, this should be a problem. pretty good offense. Well, they've stayed relatively healthy. The guys we were worried about health-wise have. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:52 I mean, Julio and JP haven't, but. No, no, but like, yeah, Garver and obviously Polo's been hurt throughout the year, and he's been dealing with stuff. But overall, like, they've been able to be on the field more often than not. Mm-hmm. And yet they have not performed. Nope. And I just, I don't really, I don't understand.
Starting point is 00:30:14 I really don't. It's like last year, I didn't understand the Colton Wong thing. Now I can wrap my head around Colton Wong a little bit easier than Ori Polanco because at the very least with Wong, there were years where he was a below average hitter in the past where it was kind of inconsistent,
Starting point is 00:30:28 but he had made a swing change. So I'm thinking, all right, swing change. Last couple years have been really good for him offensively. Like that's just a new hitter, right? We can kind of just describe it like some of the previous years because this is just, this is a remade,
Starting point is 00:30:44 version of Colton Wong, right? Or AJ Pollock where it's like, all right, well, he's at the very least crush lefties. And then you bring him in and then he posts like a literally like a 12 WRC plus against lefties. Go figure. Right. But, you know, we say that and we point out the negatives. And it's like, okay, cool. They got Teoscar Hernandez and Teosker.
Starting point is 00:31:06 Well, he wasn't what you wanted him to be. He was totally fine. Like he was a good hitter. You know, Jesse Winker, again, not what you acquired. him to be, but he was actually fine. He was above average hitter. A. Mostly works, but yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:18 So we had a 350 on base. Like that's the most important stat. So, you know, A. E. E. E. E. Hanyos Juarez was great. His first year here. And he was mediocre last year. So, you know, it's not like, obviously, Randy, Rosarana's come in.
Starting point is 00:31:31 He's been totally fine. So it's not like they just, every time they take a swing, they miss. And they just whiff huge. But it's enough that it's just like, I don't know. You know, obviously there's, there's something wrong. here. Either it's, you know, the ball part, the bat, maybe it's the batter's eye. Maybe it's, you know, maybe it's the methodology. Maybe it's just the people making the calls. Maybe it's just Jerry and Justin picking the wrong guys over and over and over again. But they picked enough of the
Starting point is 00:31:57 right guys enough that it's like, it doesn't seem like, you know, it's just, what makes it so frustrating is that there is not an easy answer for a solution. There's not. You could say fire, fire service. Okay, how does that make the offense better? you could say fire Jerry and Justin like, okay, who are you getting to replace them? And how do you know that they're going to fix the office? They're going to fix this problem.
Starting point is 00:32:21 You know, so you're basically firing people so you can feel good for a couple of days before, you know, ultimately none of the guys who are stepping up to the plate and actually taking these at-bats are being held accountable. So, you know, there's not an easy answer.
Starting point is 00:32:38 There's not a simple solution as much as we want to make this a, you know, a binary question. It's not. there are multiple angles there are there's you know there's different ideas there's different uh you know it's it's just not you know a binary decision it's not just this guy's fault or this guy's fault or it's everyone's yeah this is the problem this is the problem right it's very nuanced and that's what makes it difficult colby let's wrap up on this if i told you i don't know maybe in November, December, last year, January, whatever,
Starting point is 00:33:13 that this offense would consist of J.P. Crawford, Julio Rodriguez, Randy Orozarena, Justin Turner, Jorge Polanco, Mitch Garver, Cal Raleigh, et cetera. You'd think that team was, with this pitching staff, was winning at least 95 games, right? I just told you who those guys were that were going to make up that offense with that pitching staff. like at the very least it was going like they are division favorites they might be a l favorites i mean i
Starting point is 00:33:43 tweeted this earlier today um if the offense was half as good as the mariners rotation they would be the best team of baseball and frankly i'm not sure it would be that close uh that's how good the rotation is and and yeah when you start talking like hey they have a rosarina they have Julio they have cow and you know cow's going to hit 30 home runs again and all that like you'd be like in garber and polonko like obviously you know those are those are established hitters. Yeah, I would say that's at least 95 wins. Like, that's a World Series contender right there.
Starting point is 00:34:14 And, you know, just right now, they're not because they're not even, you know, right now they're a fringe playoff contender. So it's a bummer. There's no way around it. But, you know, it's got about six weeks to try and save your season. It's not going to be easy. And you're running out of time where it's even feasible. to expect that kind of turnaround, but it still does exist.
Starting point is 00:34:41 And, you know, if they make it to the ALCS or whatever, are we really going to care about how they looked from, you know, mid-July to late to, you know, August? Probably not that much. No, but, yeah, it doesn't really seem like that's a feasible achievement here with the way that they're playing right now. All right, that is going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here, a reminder that a lot of
Starting point is 00:35:06 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 Lockdown. Plus our national shows covering every league by Lockdown Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Pat Note. I'm Tiding Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tiding Azales and Colby at C-Pat-11.
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