Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Who Are the Greatest Mariners Corner Infielders of All Time?

Episode Date: March 10, 2020

In the second episode in this week-long series, D.C. Lundberg and Jonathan Miller talk about the greatest first basemen & third baseman in Mariners history. 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.

This is Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you for joining us today on Locked-on Mariners, going to talk about the best corner infielers to play for the Mariners today. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Please remember also that you can ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast. It is as simple as that. Also remember to follow the show on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-R-N-R-G, if you are scoring at home.

Here once again today is Locked-on Mariners contributor, Jonathan, welcome back. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Excellent. Today, John and I will be talking about the top three first baseman and third baseman in Mariner's history. And again, ladies and gentlemen, we're just talking about a player's tenure in Seattle. Otherwise, yesterday we both would have talked about Dennis Martinez,

whose Mariners career was less than spectacular. In any case, we're going to begin today at the Hot Corner, third base, which we both found far less interesting than first base. As a matter of fact, our lists are identical. We will get to those after a quick note. I realized after recording yesterday's program that any list or countdown, show worth its salt always starts at the bottom and works its way up. I don't know why we started at number one. But today, from here on now, we're going to start at the bottom. We're going to start

at number three. We both have Jim Presley as our number three third baseman. In 799 games with the Mariners, he compiled a 250, 293, 426 slash line with 115 home runs, 147 doubles. He drove in 418. And his defense was almost exactly league average at that time. Anything you care to add about Presley, John? No, I think that about covers it. All right. We'll move on to, actually I'll let you say number two, since our lists are the same. Who's number two? Number two is Kyle Seeger, who in his time with the Mariners, and let's put an asterisk by that, because he is a current mariner. Yep, so he'll add to these numbers. In his time with the Mariners, he has 198 home runs, 666 RBI's, is hitting 256.5,000.

to finish that slash line, 324 and 443, 268 doubles, 13 triples. He has over 1,200 hits and 597 runs. And at one point, he was a gold glove caliber third base, but not so much anymore. The last few seasons have been hampered, not only by injuries, but he had tried to add too much muscle weight to kind of power up. And all that did was limit his mobility at third base, made a much tighter at the plate, whereas batting average went way down, the bat to ball skills disappeared.

I think this season will probably be a better one for him than he had the last couple years because he did shed the muscle weight and he's healthy. But definitely a consensus number two for both of us at third base. And number one, we both chose Adrian Beltray, who his Mariners career was not real spectacular when he went to the Red Sox the following season, and then especially after he joined the Texas Rangers.

That's when his batting. average went into orbit. But as a mariner, he played 715 games, accumulated a 266, 317, 442 slash line, 103 home runs. He did hit a lot of doubles. 172 of them drove in almost 400 at 396. And his defense was there. He has a very good defense as a mariner. John, anything to add about Beltray? He had a spectacular career, not just with Seattle, and we look forward to seeing him in the Hall of Fame very soon. Absolutely. He is a future Hall of Famer. You know, that 266 average in that 442 slugging, that's not going to get him into the Hall of Fame. Look at

his numbers as a Texas Ranger. That's really where he took off, and that's why he's going to be in the Hall of Fame. He has over 3,000 career hits. Very spectacular career overall. Just kind of an above-league average player with the Mariners, though, and I kind of didn't realize, John, that the Mariners' third baseman throughout history are so mediocre. There's not really one terrific one that stands out. Now, we've had too many that, and as you think of them,

you think of Russ Davis who hit for decent power, but his fielding was lackluster, and he struck out way too much. Mike Blowers, but he did that over, I think, three stints with the Mariners. Yes, and a couple of those stints, he was kind of a platoon first baseman. When he came back in 1997, after the Mariners had traded him to the Dodgers,

he was in a platoon situation at first base with Paul Sorrento, so play against left-handed pitching because Sorrento couldn't hit lefties. Exactly. And we've had several others that I'll just mention briefly, guys like Joan Figgins or Jeff Cirillo, who they seem to just have there for like a season and a half, maybe two, and they're just here and they're gone. whether they were productive or not. And Sorillo wasn't really productive as a Seattle Mariner.

He'd always hit well prior to joining the Mariners in his time with both Milwaukee and Colorado. I want to say his batting average was in the 320s. He was a pretty good doubles hitter. The one thing that did carry over when he came to the Mariners was his defense. He was a very good

defensive third baseman. I was going to mention Mike Blowers and my honorable mentions as well. In 93, 94, 95, I think that kind of was his peak as a major league where he was the everyday third baseman for the most part. He was a pretty good RBI guy. He has 231 RBI as a mariner. His batting average as a mariner, believe it or not, is 270. I didn't think it was going to be that high.

His defense really wasn't anything to write home about except he had a pretty good arm at the hot corner. And David Bell, I think, deserves mention as well. Defense was really his calling card. His range was not what it should have been, but he made some very, very good plays. Had a 262, 320, 412 slash line, and the Mariners traded him to the Giants after the 2001 season, which kind of surprised me.

I believe they traded him for Rich Aurelia and then moved Carlos Guienne from shortstop to third base, which did not wind up working out. Aurelia's time with the Mariners was not good. But had he played more games with the Mariners, David Bell could have made the top three, I think. I quite agree. Just to throw it out there, I also add, as my honorable mention, both Mike Blowers,

who we have respect for his tenure as a player and his announcing career with the Seattle Mariners. He's a good baseball guy. Yes, he is. And then I also had David Bell. Yes. I'll mention Russ Davis, too, because he did have a pretty decent 1997 season. I think his batting average was in the 270s that season. And his defense wasn't that horrible that year.

It's really 1998, where I think he made 34 errors or something like that. And Lou Pinella even tried him in left field for a few games. Tried him at second base shortstop. That just did not work. Mariner shipped him off to the Giants where he was mostly a first baseman and pinch hitter. Ladies and gentlemen, I think it's just about time for a commercial break. In fact, it's past due time for a commercial break, which is okay. But it's time for the Mariner's trivia question, which today is the following.

Which corner infieler holds the Mariners' single-season record for grounding into the most double plays? I will tell you to answer after the break. If you have a question for me or a comment on the show, please send an email to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com, and I'll consider using your question or comment for the Friday mailbag segment. Locked-on Mariners will continue in about 43 billion nanoseconds. Now time for the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Once again, your host, D.C.

Dunberg. J.M., thank you once again for leading us back into the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Today's trivia question, which corner infielder holds the M's single-season record for grounding into the most double plays? John, would you like to wager a guess on this? Russ Davis. Good guess, but not Russ Davis. It is Jim Presley. Oh.

Grounded into 29 double plays in 1985. I didn't, that's kind of surprised me. But then again, I was born in 1985 and obviously didn't see Jim Presley play for myself. However, we're going to get back to the top three Mariners at First Base of All Time, which is kind of redundant and also very poor English, for which I apologize, ladies and gentlemen. But I'll let John go first. Top three M's first baseman of all time, go. Number one on my list, I have Mr. Mariner Alvin Davis, who,

has a 281, 381, 453 slash line. He had 160 home runs as a Seattle Mariner, 667 RBIs, 2212 doubles. Number two on my list, I have someone who was there for that great 2001 Mariners season, John Uluru, who in 702 games for the Mariners, had a 285-38, 439 slash line, with only 72 home runs, but 164 doubles. Second most for any first baseman in Mariners history, and 405 RBIs. Which is pretty good. And if you consider that his last couple seasons as a Mariner, were pretty lackluster, I think his batting average goes into the two 90s.

Yeah, that sounds about right. And who have you got for number three? Number three, I have the other Martinez, Tino Martinez, who in it 543 games with the Mariners, he had a 265, 334, 466 slash line with 88 home runs, 312 RBIs, and 106 doubles. And he, of course, was traded to the Yankees after the 1995 season with Jeff Nelson for Jim Miss Sierra and Russ Davis, if I recall, yes? Yes, he was. that trade did not work out for us and looking at his stats with the Yankees, it really worked out for them.

Yeah. No, they got Jimisier out of that deal. Pardon me, or did they not? In any case, yeah, Tina Martinez went on to a fabulous career with the Yankees. Jeff Nelson was a very valuable setup men for them as well. My top three are very similar to yours, actually. I've got Davis number one again. What kind of jumped out to me is that his on-based percentage is exactly one.

100 points higher than his batting average. So he got on base a lot. He walked 685 times as a Mariner only struck out 558 times. I say only 558 times. And his defense, looking at his numbers, and again, I was five when he played his last full season as the Mariners first baseman. He was the DH in 1991. But looking at his numbers, it looked like his defense was pretty well above average.

My number two, Mariner is also John Oler. One thing the bears mentioning with Olerud is the fact you mentioned the walks and the on-base percentage. His on-base percentage is over 100 points higher than his batting average. He didn't strike out very much either. He was a good contact guy. Put the ball in play. 340 strikeouts in 2,490 at bats.

That's really, really good. And he played gold glove defense for the Mariners. He was a really, really good defensive first baseman. Number three is where we differ. My number three, Mariners' first baseman is Bruce Bakhty. He played 681 games for the Mariners, accumulated a 290, 370, 429 slash line. He also wasn't much of a home run hitter. He was more of a doubles hitter.

He had 134 of them. 329 RBI. He was an all-star in 1979. He didn't walk all that much, 313 walks, 316 strikeouts. His defense was pretty much at league average. And who are your honorable mentions? My honorable mentions are currently playing Justin Smoke. He's not currently with Seattle Mariners, however.

I believe he's with the Brewers this season. Yes. He had a 226-308-38-4 slash line with 66 home runs, 200 RBIs. Number two on my honorable mention, we have Richie Sexton, who had a 244, 334, 4-74 slash line with 105 home runs and 321 RBIs. He did strike out a bunch, and him and smoke, that's why they did not make the top three. And honestly, about Ritchie Sexton, I didn't realize his on-base percentage was as high as it was. That is surprising to me.

Yes. I don't remember him drawing that many walks, but obviously I was misremembering. Yes. I've heard some people say that it has to do with his height, but that I'm not quite sure. This is more strike zone for the pitcher to be able to lay the ball into. Yeah, that's what I thought too. And then in this case, I have a third honorable mention, and that is Paul Sorrento, who had a 279-358-5-1-1 slash line with 54 home runs, 173 RBIs in his time with Seattle Mariners.

And he loved hitting in the kingdom. The best years of his career were as a mariner. They certainly were. My honorable mentions kind of mirror what you've been talking about. And another thing I want to mention is the Mariners' first basement and third basement kind of fall into the same category in that there were several first basement who played for the Mariners for a few seasons or even just a couple of seasons. And then they moved on. Paul Sorrento is a good example of this. Among Mariners' first baseman, his slugging average actually is the high.

highest. He's the only one over 500 that I can see on the list that I've got here on MLB.com. Bucky Jacobs and also had a 500 slugging percentage, but that's only in 160 at bat, so that can't count. Tino Martinez certainly stuck around for a while with the Mariners. 543 games, 1896 at Bats, 265, 334, 466 slash line. And the man who replaced Paul Sorrento, who was assigned to a two-year contract for the 96 and 97 seasons. The Mariners then went with David Sigi. He was a bit more of a contact hitter, more of a doubles hitter than Sorrento was,

not as many home runs, and far superior defense to Sorrento. But again, there are a lot of players who have played 300 games, 300 games, 250 games, as a first basement for the Seattle Mariners. And lest we forget Pete O'Brien. Yeah, I think we actually rather would forget Pete O'Brien, wouldn't we? Yes.

John, thank you again. for joining us today to talk about the M's Corner Infielers. Once again, where can we find you on Twitter? You can find me on Twitter at Seattle Pilot 69. Very good. And ladies and gentlemen out there, you can find me on Twitter at DC underscore Lunberg. Follow the show also at L.O. underscore Mariners.

Please also remember to download rate and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you like to use. Also remember that just ask your smart device to play Locked on Mariners podcast. It is that easy. Tomorrow we're going to switch from the corner infield to the middle infield, and John Miller will be back with us to talk about that. Ask your smart device to play locked on fantasy baseball upon the conclusion of this program.

We'll see you tomorrow and have a great day. This is Joey Martin saying join us back here next time for another edition of Locked On Mariners, part of the Locked On podcast network.