Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Which Recent World Series Winner Are the Mariners Most Alike?

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

With their magic number down to 11, the Mariners head to Oakland for a three-game set with the A's. Ty and Colby get you set for the series, discuss which recent World Series winner compares most to the Mariners and look ahead to the offseason some.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 | @CPat11 | @InsideMarinersFor more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Did you know every week, nearly 40 million job seekers visit LinkedIn? Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONMLB. 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.

With their magic number down to 11, the Mariners will send their top three starters to face the A's down in Oakland. We'll go over those matchups, discuss which Mariners should be guaranteed roster spots in 2023. And if there's a recent World Series winner who compares well to the Mariners on today's episode of Locked-on 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's Tuesday, September 20th, 2022. Gonzales and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Mariners

podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first listen, subscribe to like and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe to the show and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you want to hear from us even more, consider signing up for our Patreon. The link as well as our social accounts are in the description of the show

wherever you're watching or listening to this. The Mariners kick off a three game series with the A's tonight. We'll be diving into the pitching matchups and some other notes in a moment. Later on, we'll talk some off season because we've actually received a few requests to do so as of late, and there's some stuff we want to get into,

like which Mariners should be guaranteed their current role in 2023, and what our expectations are for what they'll end up doing? Plus, is there a recent World Series winner who the Mariners compare to? We'll get into that later on in the show. But first, let's start with these pitching matchups. Colby, the Mariners kickoff three games set with the A's tonight down in Oakland, and they will lead things off Luis Castillo on the bump facing JPS.

years who's been pretty solid since coming over in the Frankie Montes deal with New York. So this is likely the Mariners toughest challenge, offensively speaking, when it comes to the pitching matchups on Oakland's side of things. But let's talk about Castillo, who did not have a good start his first time down in Oakland as a mariner. How would you like to see him bounce back coming off of that? Yeah, it's pretty interesting. I think when you look at at a guy like Luis Castillo, you, uh, it's kind of tough because he doesn't have like amazing command, right?

But his stuff is so good. It moves so much, um, that essentially what you want is you want to just avoid the middle of the plate. It doesn't matter if you, you know, if you're middle, like if you're like outer third,

but not right on the outside corner. Like that doesn't really matter that much with Castile because the stuff is so good. It's just stay out of the middle third of the plate. Um, and he should be fine. So, yeah, you know, it's kind of a fluky thing, what happened down in Oakland last time out. But Castillo's been very good since, you know, he came to Seattle. And I would suspect that he'll have another good outing tonight.

Just kind of do what he does, which is, you know, tremendous stuff. And kind of try to avoid that one beginning. And if you can do that, then the mayors have a very good shot of winning this game. So we'll see, you know, tonight might be a good night to try out the chance. change up a little bit. He's been a lot of fastball slider since he's come to Seattle and the change up has traditionally been his best pitch. So we'll see, you know, how he decides

to attack this lineup, you know, a second time. But I would suspect that Luis Castillo's going to have a pretty good game tonight. And then Robbie Ray is going on the bump tomorrow and Ray of course did not have his best start last time out. Also

did not have very good defense behind him to help him out either. So how would you like to see him bounced back coming off of that performance. Yeah, Robbery's last start was weird. He wasn't good, but he was a lot better than the line would indicate. So, you know, it's, again, he was kind of trying to grid his way through a night where he didn't really have his best stuff. And the defense just failed him at every opportunity.

So tonight, you know, we'll see what he, we'll see what kind of defense, or tomorrow, we'll see what kind of defense they play for Robbie Ray. I would suspect we might see a few more two seamers, try and get the ball on the ground some, you know, get up less hard air contact. He's been very fastball slider heavy recently. He's really been racking up the strikeouts as a result. But I do think he needs to use the two seamer a bit more, try and get outs earlier in the count. You know, the last few times out, he's run up pitch counts in one inning or two that have kind of drastically shifted. his momentum to get deeper in game. I'd like to see him get some early in counts.

I'd like to see him be aggressive with the two seamer. And if he does get, you know, O2-1-2, then go ahead and put him away with the slider. So I'd like a few more two-seemers in this outing, you know, kind of more of a ground ball, Robbie Ray that we saw in the middle of the year and see if that can maybe help him go a little bit deeper in this game. A's countering with James Caprillion.

tomorrow night and we'll see how that goes. Thursday is going to be a matinee game because the Mariners have to travel to Kansas City afterward. So we'll be doing a post game show after that one. And that's going to be George Kirby for the Mariners, Adrian Martinez for the A's. How deep do you want to see Kirby go in this game? Because we've talked about usage over the final couple weeks

and you and I are both in agreement that Kirby should be slated to start one of those three wild card games. So where would you like to see his usage wind up in this game on Thursday? Yeah, it's about pitch count for Kirby right now. It's not an innings thing. The Mariners have been very careful with his pitch count all year. I haven't really pushed him. Typically what happens is if Kirby finishes the inning and he's around or above 85 pitches,

they typically don't push him for another inning. So I think they just kind of continue to roll with that. it's probably too early to intentionally short script him maybe next week when they get back home is a better time to do that. But I think it's just the same, you know, business as usually, he goes 85 pitches and, you know, however many outs he can get on 85 pitches is how long his outing is. So I think that's probably what they're going to continue to do. I wouldn't be shocked if they do it with Gilbert in Kansas City the following day as well.

I just think those are the two arms you're really trying to kind of, nurse down to the finish line so they have something left in the playoffs, but it's about pitch counts. It's about, you know, high stress pitches. It's not about innings pitch. So Kirby's been, you know, motoring lately and then very few high stress pitches on his arm.

So he's, I imagine he's feeling really good. And so they just kind of stick with the plan that's gotten him here. So the magic number is now down to 11 after the Mariners win yesterday and the Orioles lose to the Tigers, shockingly, 11 to nothing. Orioles playing some pretty bad baseball is

of late. They're kind of tailing off. White Sox are making a late charge, but they've got three big games coming up against the Guardians, including two of which, where they're going to have to face Tristan McKenzie and Shane Bieber. So we'll see how those games go for the White Sox, who, of course, not the most offensively inclined team this year and been dealing with injuries and all that. But things could really change here for the Mariners playoff playoff wise. And I'm talking about it in a positive sense here if they can start rattling off some winds again get back on the horse here and take care of business especially against a you know one of the worst teams in baseball with the aes and on top of that if the Orioles keep on losing and the white socks don't fare too well i mean they pretty much have to

sweep the guardians i would think uh to really make this even remotely interesting um you know the magic number is just going to continue to go down and down and down and it's If it's not already a foregone conclusion, it will be that the Mariners are going to clench here in the next week or 10 days or so. I'm still looking at that Texas series when the Mariners get back home as potentially the day that they officially clench. But, you know, I'm pretty confident that this team can make a fairly deep run into the postseason. You know, I really, you know, this is going to sound homerish, but I don't think it's out of the question. that they can make a world series run because you know you just look at the way that this team has played against really really good opponents even the astros you know they went seven and twelve against the astros this year at times it looked like you know obviously houston's the far better team but anything can happen especially in a best of five series if that were to be the ALDS matchup for the mariners if they you know are able to advance but you know is there like just going back into our memory banks here colby and we'll be talking about the this in just a second. You know, is there a recent World Series team that compares well to the

Mariners? Maybe an unlikely World Series team. There's one that definitely comes to mind. I'll be telling you that in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder, this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Linked in. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available. That's why you have. have to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Create a free job post some minutes on LinkedIn jobs to reach your network and beyond to the world's largest professional network of over 810 million people. Then add your

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Did you know every week nearly 40 million job seekers visit LinkedIn. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash lockdown MLB. That's LinkedIn.com slash locked on MLB to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Thank you again for making us your first. Listen, this is Locked on Mariners podcast. So Colby, since we've been conscious watching baseball, is there a World Series winner or just a contender, someone that made a deep run into the postseason that wasn't particularly meant to that reminds you of this 2022 Mariners Ball Club? Is there an actual comp for this team going into the postseason?

Yeah, it's a little bit different. This team is in a lot of past World Series contenders. I know people, you know, Kansas City is always kind of the team that, oh, they surprised in two years in a row. They went to the World Series. And you can certainly see why there's some comparisons there. You look at, you know, the bullpen, both teams have very good bullpins. You know, you look at the rotation.

Both teams had, you know, really big starters without probably having a true ace. I mean, those Kansas City teams had James Shields and Johnny Quedo, and, you know, the Mariners are going to have Castillo and Ray. And so you can see why there's some comparisons there, but I think that one kind of falls apart when you look at the offense. You know, the Mariners are very home run dependent offense. Kansas City is much more about putting the ball in play and stealing bases. And so that comparison to me kind of falls apart a little bit. I think maybe what you're looking at is, you know, let's not look too far back. last year's Braves team.

That's a team that just pitched and pitched and pitched and they hit some big home runs. And they did it enough with enough frequency that they won the World Series. So I think last year's Brave team is actually a pretty good comp. I heard one that's kind of interesting. It's from the way, way back machine. But the 2003 Marlins, who beat the Yankees, kind of just a young upstart team. and Julio is the is the Mickey and you know Kirby is the Josh Beckett and and Robbie Ray or Luis Castillo is the Dantrell Willis and you know you just kind of make the

comparisons there that's a team again top notch starting pitching really got hot at the end of the year and you know they had a young superstar they had a bunch of veterans who had you know good years but not great years and then they just pitched and got enough big hits around you know Pudge was on that team, Pudge Rodriguez. Derek Lee is, you know, kind of Thai France-ish. So, yeah, I do think, you know, there's some comps there. But honestly, I think the best comp might be last year's Braves team. Not having to go too far back.

But, again, that's a team that just pitched. They had a deep bullpen. And they had a lot of, they had a lot of guys who could crank a big home run. And that's kind of what the Mariners' offense is built on right now. You know, will somebody hit the big three-run home or not? for me it's pretty recent as well it's another a le east or in leese team rather it's that nationals team a national team that went deep into the postseason beat the astros of all teams in the world series and did it a year after losing bryce harper and now obviously there isn't a comp to

be made there for the mariners but wonsoto became the face of that franchise just like julio rodriguez has become the face of that this Mariners franchise this year. I think we could see, especially with the way that Julio was playing pre-back injury and we'll see how that impacts him if at all, but Julio's got what it takes to take over an entire postseason. Like he can be the Juan Soto for the Mariners. He can't, like, and he's just built for that moment.

But on top of Julio, right, on top of the obvious and let's just say it, lazy comp, a comp between Julio and Juan Soto. Pitching wise, I think this team matches up pretty well with who that that Nationals team was. Great bullpen, which they built upon at the trade deadline. You know, in a great rotation. Obviously, the Mariners don't have Max Scherzer,

but they have a pretty good consolation prize in Luis Castillo. And on top of that, I think they have, you know, a Patrick Corbin, a Stephen Strasbourg, basically. I mean, like maybe someone that's a little bit under Strasbourg. but look like this is one of the best rotations in baseball one of the best pitching staffs overall in baseball which is what the nationals had and by the way national has also started that year off really poorly just like another team that i know and they were able to storm a massive unlikely comeback midseason completely changed the face of their season and get into the postseason and work their way up from the bottom throughout the entire postseason taking out some of the best teams in the league. And I think the Mariners are able to do that because they've proven they can do that. And they've proven that they can go toe to toe with literally anyone.

You know, again, they went 7 and 12 against the Astros, but they didn't go like 1 and 18. You know, they did win some of those games. They did also play some close games. And sometimes those games, they really, you know, didn't have any business being that close because they, you know, you think about that series in Houston, that. nightmare series in Houston when Julio goes down and France goes down and you know they got was a Brennan Bernadino is that was that his name like they got him pitching like a high leverage ending in extras like you know so I think this team at full strength and we'll see you

know how how full strength they can get you know with Gino etc but I think this team can go toe to toe with anyone just like that national team did back in 2019 and they have a lot of comparable pieces. The one thing to me where it's like, okay, who's the Anthony Rendon? Right? Because Anthony Rendon was a huge part of that, especially the World Series for the nationals. I mean, that could be Mitch Hanager. That could be Thai France. Can't necessarily count on those guys, though, with the way that they're playing right now. You know, the obvious cop would be Gino because, well, one, they play the same exact position, but two, Gino was just on a heater before the injury. But How is the injury going to impact him?

So, you know, but is Carlos Santana the Ryan Zimmerman? You know, like, you know, there's a lot of like cool like little like just player comps that you can make. Obviously, you know, some of them are going to be lazy. But like when you look at the situations and when you look at what both teams went through over the course of a regular season, I see a lot of that 2019 nationals team in this team man. And I felt that, you know, for a while now, you know, just going back to, I mean, even back in May when they were struggling. I think I was talking about like, you know, this is what they would have to do in order to get back into the postseason.

They would basically have to be the nationals, right? And they'd basically been the nationals. And so why not continue that into the postseason? And also the nationals in 2019 reached their first ever world series. Why can't the Mariners also reach their first ever world series just in the way the nationals did just a few years ago? I think there's just too many comps to make there, man, for me not to, to, to, pick them. But I like the I like the Braves call.

The one thing that I would say on the Braves thing is just maybe the way that the team was built, right? Because like the situation that they found themselves in, obviously the star of the team, the face of the franchise, Ronald Acuna Jr. goes down. But, you know, they have Freddie Freeman still. And they go out and they trade for Horace Oler and they trade for Eddie Rosario. And they, who else did they add? Adam Duvall. Yeah, yeah.

Favorite of ours. Favorite of ours from Fan Fiction Fridays and all that. but yeah and you know they they were able to kind of patch things together and make that run so maybe that's where you know and the mariners haven't necessarily done that it's mostly been an over reliance on guys getting healthy and coming back but you know but that's another situation there where it's like okay the braves don't have a chance you go into the postseason it's like they don't have a chance like they're like with all the injuries they sustain and just the way that that roster is built there's no way that they're going to beat the dodgers right and that's kind of how you feel with the mariners it's like Yeah, they're good. They're on their team on the rise and they have really good pieces and they have, you know, a pitching staff that can compete with anyone. But the Astros are just so good. I mean, you think about how hot the Mariners have been over the last few months and it's like they've actually lost ground on the Astros during that time. Like that's all good the Astros have been.

But maybe the Astros are the Dodgers. Maybe you get to the ALCS or the ALDS. You know, I think you would prefer the ALDS because you only have to win three of those games instead of four. But maybe you get there and, you know, the. the pitching matchups just line up well for you. And look, you're not going to have to play all of those games at Minutemade Park. You know, they are going to have to come to Seattle at some point, you know, for at least one of those games. So anything can happen, man.

I really do think that anything can happen. I think this team, you know, they got to get healthy, but they can make a run. This team is talented and they prove in time and time again that they can go toe to toe with any, with any team in the league. So, but yeah, I look at that national team. It's just like they there's a lot there's a lot there that's very similar anyway so Let's talk about the off season a little bit let's look ahead let's look past the postseason I know some people might get upset about this because the mirrors are in the middle of a

postseason race whatever but some of us some of you have actually requested that we talk about the off season some of you as have asked like what will the mirrors do what do you think the mirrors will do and you put out a tweet from the infamous control does that own account yesterday that of course riled people up and people took it out of context. I don't know if like people just are purposely trying to take stuff out of context or it's literally like they don't understand what you're saying or like I'm just I'm the only one who's fluent in Colby speak but I can translate for those that that need me to I can translate here. So Colby just remind me what did you say? What was your exact wording when

and with this tweet? Yeah. So essentially I was thinking ahead to next year, which I do on occasion, since the team building is my favorite part of what we talk about here. And so I was just looking ahead and I was like, you know, there are a lot of players on this team that people are just assuming,

like you can't move on from. You can't, you know, you just keep them, right? they just stay on this team next year and like their their locks like they are definitely going to be on this team next year um and i i thought there was too many uh people were naming too many um and so what i went out to do is i basically said you know the list of players like the exact tweet is you know a complete list of players who should be guaranteed at least their current roles for the 2023 team my list was Julio rodriguez Luis Castillo Robbie ray George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, and Cal Raleigh.

That's the whole list. No, I didn't leave off that guy. And immediately, well, you know, big numbers for us. 76 people decided to chime in on that thought process. Or, well, 76 review or comments. Yeah. Yes. So.

Did you get ratioed, by the way? No, I did not. Oh, wow. Look at you. 151 likes so so yes all right so let me just get this out of the way because I saw a couple people I'm going to leave them nameless but a couple people that I don't know for some reason they you live rent free in their head they just can't block you or and ignore you like I do with every single person that I don't like and don't agree with but I saw people saying oh well you He wants to leave Ty France off the team. He says that Typhranch shouldn't make the Mariners in 2023, that E. E.

E. E. Henni of Swara shouldn't make the Mariners in 2020. Okay. Again, verbatim, you said they shouldn't be guaranteed their current role in the 23. I don't know how that says they should be off the team. They shouldn't be a starter. They shouldn't, whatever. There's no such thing as nuance. Now, now, to be fair.

To be fair for that side of things. I'm just, look, we're friends here, Colby. We're friends here and we use the show, or we should hold each other accountable on this show. We'll see. We'll see. Colby, do you think the Mariners will legitimately upgrade over a. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. Hennioresores or Thai France this off season. No, probably not.

Okay. Then. Probably not, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't try. That's the point. But do you think, but isn't it a waste of time to leave those guys off the list if you don't think that are actually going to be upgraded over? No. Because, if you have a chance to go get Jose Ramirez,

are you going to say no because we have Gino at third days? All right. So that's what you're saying. And again, to translate what Colby's saying here, right? It's just like if you had the opportunity to get Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

at first base over Thai France, let's just say the Blue Jays, this would never happen. Again, this would literally never happen. Blue Jays come to you and they're like, we'll give you Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for Jake Shiner, right? Like, you're not taking that because, like, well, I already have Thai France, right?

Right. Of course you're not. So that's what Colby is saying. However, where we disagree is, I think it's just pointless to say that because that's ever going to happen. So Thai France and Hay or Hinawheres are guaranteed their spots in 2020. Let me ask you this. All right, let's let's just, no, they're not. Let's let's flip it on like this. tie. Should the meritors just ignore Jose Ramir, or just ignore Jose Abraeu at at one year, $12 million?

No. Okay. So why can't Jose Abraeu be the first baseman in Thai France be the DH? By the way, isn't it funny too that this is coming from. That's not the same role. Isn't it funny too that I'm seeing these complaints from the same people who were like, why didn't they sign Freddie Freeman this off the season? Yep. This is exactly what you're talking about.

It's like, well, if Freddie Freeman is there. Yeah. Entertainment. Go get him. And so, yeah, that's where we're at right now. And it's funny, too, because Ty Francis isn't had that good of a year. He's not. Like, it's good on, like, the grand scheme of baseball.

It's a good year. But for Thai France, he took a step back this year. There's no debating that. Is some of that injury, you know, riddle reasons? Sure, probably. But let's stop pretending that he didn't take a step back. Thai France last year is better than Thai France this year, period. Why can you not say, oh, oh, he has to start 145 games for us at first base?

Why? He has to? No. You know what has to happen? Julio has to play 135 games. Cow Raleigh has to be your starting catcher. You shouldn't trade any of those four pitchers, starting pitchers. They should be in the rotation entering next year.

Nobody else is that true for. JP shouldn't be the everyday shortstop next year. and if you could push Gino into a situation where he is this year's Carlos Santana because you upgraded a third base, you're just going to say no to that. Of course you're not. And by the way, anybody who's coming at me with Munoz or Swanson, you're dumb.

You're dumb. Zero relievers deserve an automatic place on your roster. Year in and you're out. Zero. There is not a reliever in baseball good enough that you were just like, oh yeah, well, I mean, obviously you can't no. I mean, you can't move on from that guy. Doesn't exist.

That does not exist. So, yeah, if I can trade Andres Munoz for Randy at Rosarena, you're darn right, I'm going to do it. So, yeah, Andres Munoz should not have the guaranteed role that he has this year because I can trade him and get better. Does that mean they should trade him for whatever they can get? No. And you know that. Now, you tie, you, the people responding, you guys know that because you're not stupid. I mean, you're dumb, but you're not stupid.

You know what I mean? So you know exactly what I'm saying? saying here. You're trying to pick apart, but Jesse Winker doesn't automatically deserve the same at bats he got last year. Mitch Hanigar doesn't deserve the same role that he has this year. JP Crawford doesn't. Adam Frazier doesn't. The backup catchers, everybody else in the rotation, everybody in the bullpen, third base. You can upgrade in all those places. First base, you can upgrade. Is it likely that you're going to upgrade in all those places? No, which is why I'm not saying you need to burn the thing down and rebuild it. That's not, I'm not saying you need 20 new players.

Only a moron thinks that's what I'm saying. Yes, I stand by my list. Six guys who deserve the exact same role. Are there going to be more than six guys who have the same role next year that they do this year? Yes, of course there are. That's the way baseball works. But does that mean that you should guarantee them?

Like, we're not even going to try to upgrade at first base. We're not even going to try. Like something falls in our lap and we can get a third basement. And all of a sudden, oh, look at that. Gino's now the DH slash first baseman slash occasionally plays third base guy. You're just going to say, oh, no.

No. No, because we have to have Gino play third base. You guys wanted to replace them with Kyle Seeger three months ago. So, shut up. Shut up. Like you said, some of you guys are dumb, but I know you're not stupid.

So let's just use some logic. Let's use some reasoning. Let's use some nuance here and understand what the tweet is actually saying. There are six players on the Mariners next year who absolutely deserve to be exactly where they are right now. What I just heard you say was that, Gino Svores sucks.

Typhrance sucks and should never play baseball ever again. See, that is what you would hear. Because, again, you're dumb, but you're not stupid. Well, yeah. So, yeah, and you know what? When I trade Matt Brash for Brandon Lowe this winter, I'm going to make you wear that. So there you go. Nobody deserves, nobody but those six guys absolutely has to be on the roster next year.

And absolutely has to have that same role. none. It doesn't mean all 20 of the other ones have to go. It just means that those are the six guys you're not moving on from. Those are the six guys that you are building around next year. And everything else is an ancillary piece. That's the core. Everything else is, that's the framework, right? The foundation are those six guys.

It's different, right? Some guys are written in permanent marker. Some guys are written in pen. A lot of guys are written in pencil. in those six guys I named, those are the permanent marker guys. All right. Can't tell me I'm wrong.

No, no, no, no. Tell me wrong, Ty. No, I, look, I knew what you were saying. I understand what you're saying. And for the most part, I agree with what you're saying. I just, I think it's kind of silly to just leave Ty, Francis Gina off of there. Because, like, you know what you're doing.

You know what you were doing. You knew what you were doing. Yeah, they're pen guys. When you wrote that. They're pen guys. Are they permanent marker guys? you're telling me you would not trade tie france for vladimir guerrero junior right now obviously you wouldn't trade tie france for fred but that's not going to happen but that's not

going to happen i know it's not but again yeah but that doesn't mean that they're not permanent marker guys like if tie france ends up playing a hundred games at first base next year and 60 at dh that's a different role than he had this year is it not yes yes all right so so quickly we don't have of time here but I did want to ask this or just like get a little bit into this at least what do we think the meritors like just kind of with the information that we have now and of course the next couple weeks next month or so depending on how far into the postseason they could go could change things in theory at least a little bit but for me like I think what this team ends up doing in the post or in the off season in the winter is pretty straightforward

I don't think there's going to be a lot of moves from this team in general. And I think it's going to be a very focused offseason and very focused messaging that we're going to receive from Jerry to Potoh that we need to get more athletic and we need to lengthen the lineup. Because defensively speaking, it's a tire fire out there for the mergers. They need to get significantly more athletic in the corner outfield spots. and it's second base because now with the shift being banned, you can only have two guys on each side of the infield, you're going to need someone who's athletic, you can play second base.

I think that ends up being J.P. Crawford, and they end up getting a short stop. You hope it's J.P. Crawford. You hope that it's J.P. Crawford. You hope that it's J.P. Crawford. Me personally, yes. I hope that it's J.P. Crawford. I have other plans.

Okay. I'm going cheap. Okay. Colton Wong. Just to annoy all of you. I'm going cheap. You're like, here's Ramon Urius, guys. But yeah, so I think, you know, we're not going to see a ton of moves from the Mariners.

I think it'll probably end up being pretty spread out. Less volume, more impact. More impact. Corner outfield, really, and I think the big thing here is what happens with Mitch. Because if Mitch continues a struggle, I agree with Ryan Divish at that point that I don't know if the Mariners want Mitch back, right? So you might need to address two corner outfield spots because like you said, Jesse Winker shouldn't be guaranteed literally anything next year.

And there's a non-zero chance he gets traded, even though that I think it would be a little silly to sell low on him. But if he just doesn't make sense for your roster, he doesn't make sense for your roster. But you're going to need to do something in the corner outfield spots to get a lot more athletic and just more defensively, literate, I guess, because Jesse Winker is the complete opposite of that right now. And you're going to need to address the middle infield.

I don't think there's going to be a lot done pitching-wise. You know, maybe a reliever or two that they take a shot on. Obviously, the minor league guys are always going to sign some of those. And you always got to pay attention to those because at least one of them is probably going to pop. I don't know if they address the back end of the rotation, though. like I think they should obviously they should like Marco gonzalez shouldn't be guaranteed anything next year in my mind Chris flexen if he chooses to opt in shouldn't be guaranteed anything in my mind

but I think mostly the the focus you're probably 90 you're probably hardly going to hear the word pitching come out of Jerry depoto's mouth when he talks about what the Mariners need this off season I think you're mostly going to hear like you know we're pretty good on that front we got Luis Cascio And I think ultimately at the end of the day, you know, aside from what they, you know, doing free agency, I think the big, you know, one of the biggest things they end up doing is extending Luis Castillo. But that's really what I expect from this offseason for the Mariners.

What about you? Yeah. I think Jerry will talk about run prevention, not pitching, which is his code of like, we're not going to go get starting pitching. But we are going to go try and upgrade defensively, right? I think that's how Jerry's going to kind of worry. like I think he'll like they'll ask about starting pitching he'll be like well run prevention is incredibly important as you know and and you know according to these metrics we did these things well we didn't do these things well and so we're going to try and upgrade our ability to keep the other team off the scoreboard and to me that's that's corner defense in the outfield so yeah I would I would suspect that maybe it's I mean obviously Jerry's always going to tinker with the bullpen he'll sign some some you know MLB MILB guys and things like that. I would expect one major,

I'd expect one major like corner outfield ad, probably a, either a platoon or some kind of like, you know, upside play average, but at least average type of, you know, other corner. And then I think Jerry will be interested in the big shortstuffs, but I also don't think he's going to be able to land any of them. And, you know, I have some other ideas for that area.

But I do think that's where maybe he goes, not saying volume plays is a bit misleading. Because I do think there are some really interesting options that we can get into at a later date to kind of cover second base and also upgrade places like the bench at the same time. So I think that's what you're going to see. I think you're going to see an average corner with some upside.

I think you're going to see a plus corner. And then I think they're going to add either, they're going to try to add one of those big short stops. If they can't do that, then I think they're going to try and add a platoon situation at second base, who can also maybe play some shortstop or maybe some third base, things like that.

So I would expect most of the money, most of the resources to be spent on the offense, but you never know. Jerry's just a creative guy, and that's why we can't rule out things like he trades Andres Munoz or Matt Brasher or Paul Seawald or or maybe Luis Castillo.

I don't know. probably not but maybe you never know what jerry you never know but i i do expect there to be an emphasis on run prevention which will be code for outfield defense yeah yeah outfield defense and second base whether that's you know someone that they already have in house like jp he moves over there or you know whatever because like you just need someone with range and adam fraser is just not that guy um so which god that sucks it's honestly the most disappointing thing about Adam Fraser this year. The bat struggling whatever he's had

years kind of like this in the past. So, you know, there's there was obviously some risks that you assume there when you acquire him offensively speaking, but defensively, man, I thought they were getting, you know, one of the most elite middle infield clubs that they could get

on the market. And he has been nowhere near that. Kind of surprising the regression there on Frazier's part. But yeah you know so it's going to be it's going to be a busy off season not necessarily in terms of the volume of moves

but there's going to be a lot to talk about a lot of different ways that the Mariners can go about this and it'll be a lot of fun to dive into we'll talk about it again you know here and there as the season you know continues to move along but obviously our focus right now is on 2022 ball club but uh we'll get to all the off season stuff eventually

and because there's going to be plenty of it once we get into the off season whenever that happens whenever we, whenever the Mariners are finally done playing games. But that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. For Colby Patnode, I'm Tadine G-N-G-N-G-N-Ranors.

You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, the C-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-Pat-E-E-T-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Now make your second listen to the Lockdown MLB podcast. MLB expert Paul Francis Sullivan brings humor, passion, and unique perspective on every team. And the biggest stories around the league. Follow the number one daily league-wide podcast, locked on MLB on the Odyssey app, YouTube,

and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.