Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Who Are the Greatest Mariners Designated Hitters of All Time?/Mailbag #4

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

The week-long series concludes with D.C. Lundberg and Jonathan Miller discussing the top three designated hitters the M's have had. In the second half of the program, D.C. opens up the Friday mailbag. 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.

Welcome to Locked-on Maritors, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Man, J.M. is working overtime today. Thank you again for leading us into this program today. Second show of a double-header, so to speak, on Locked-on Mariners. I am D.C. Lundberg. We are wrapping up our week-long series looking at the top Mariners of all time, position by position. That will end in the first half of today's show. We are talking about the D.Hs. and in the second half of the show, I will be answering your questions in the fan mailbag segment. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,

Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or any other podcasting app that is out there. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any of the other shows here on the Locked-on podcast network. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners, and follow me on Twitter also at D.C. underscore Lundberg. L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G if you're scoring at home. Wrapping up the series this week. Once again, for the sixth time in five days, is Lockdown Mariners contributor, Jonathan Miller.

John, thank you for joining us all this week. Thank you ever so much for having me. It's been a pleasure. It's a pleasure having you on this show also. We were talking prior to recording this one about the D-Hs, and aside from maybe two or three guys, nobody has any sort of tenure a designated hitter. We will, our lists again are very, very similar.

One and two are the same. Three is where we differ, but we'll start with three anyways. I will let John say his number three designated hitter first. Go for it, sir. I have at number three. Nelson Cruz. The recent Mariner. Yes.

In his four years with the Seattle Mariners, he had 163 home runs, 414 RBIs. That goes with the slash line of 284, 368. 546. For those that are quick at math, that makes his OPS 908. That's huge. Yes. And that's an average, an average, ladies and gentlemen, of 41 home runs per season as a Mariner. And an average of 104 RBI, and some of those teams were not the best. No, they weren't. And he was an All-Star 3 out of his four seasons.

My number three is going back in Mariners history a little bit, Richie Zisk. He only played 315 games as a Mariner, kind of two and a half, three seasons, 286, 347, 463 slash line, 49 home runs, 52 double, 141 RBI, which Nelson Cruz averaged in his season. And the reason that I am omitting Nelson Cruz, ladies and gentlemen, is the same reason I didn't want to put Robinson Canoe on the second base list, and that's because he has been busted for performance-enhancing drugs. He was part of the biogenesis scandal.

I think when he was a member of the Texas Rangers, and personally, I'm just not comfortable putting any person who has ever popped for PEDUs on the greatest of all time list. But that's just me. I know that there are differing opinions out there. Number two, we both agree on this, is Ken Phelps. He played 529 games as a Mariner, hit 249, but his on-base percentage was almost 400.

392, and he slugged 521. 105 home runs, 53 doubles, not much of a doubles guy. When he hit it, he was generally going out of the ballpark. 317 walks, which is a very high total. 337 strikeouts. He struck out a little bit more than he walked, but the on-base percentage is obviously very, very high. Zisk and Phelps kind of, I was debating on whether to put one of them number two

and the other one number three. I kept flip-flopping them, but I went with Phelps because of the higher on-base percentage and the higher slugging percentage for number two. Anything to add about Ken Phelps, John? No, not really. He did wind up netting the Mariners Jay Buneer. Well, that might be one of the best things that he did.

No offense to him, but... One thing else I remember about Ken Phelps when he was in Oakland Athletic. Brian Holman, and I know, I think everybody knows where I'm going with us. Brian Holman had retired the first 26 batters he faced. Ken Phelps comes up at... as a pinch hitter in Oakland Coliseum, and not only does he ruin the perfect game,

he ruins the no-hitter, he ruins the shutout, he hits a solo home run, and I love Dave Nehouse's call of that, because you can just hear his excitement deflating as the ball is traveling out of the ballpark. It's funny to listen to. I mean, I'm sorry, Brian Holman, I'm sorry, but that call was kind of funny.

He wound up retiring the next guy. I mean, a one-run, one-hitter is nothing, to sneeze at. That's a tremendous pitching performance. That one blip. That one blip is what did it, John. Yeah. Holman was a good young pitcher for a while, too. If I recall injuries are what got the best of him. I believe so, yes. Yep. Speaking of injuries, kind of getting the best of somebody, it kind of happened to the number one guy. It's Edgar Martinez. And if his, if he didn't get injured, he probably would have remained at third base. But the Mariners, wound up de-hing him full-time by 1995.

He was kind of de-hing and playing third base in 93 and 94. But in terms of designated hitters in Mariners history, John, this guy has to be the king. There is no other choice. He has 309 home runs, 514 doubles. This goes with a slash line of 312, 418, 515, which makes his career OPM, 933.

Which is third among Mariners, I believe. Griffey is higher, and I think Alex Rodriguez is a mere one point higher. Yes. So when you're talking about one point, they're basically the same. Yeah, exactly. Edgar couples this with 1,261 RBIs, 2,247 hits, 1,119 runs. He had five Silver Slugger selection, seven All-Star teams, and for someone who was a designated hitter, that's pretty good. That's enormous as a designated hitter because a lot of those were played in National League ballparks

where he was only available to pinch hit Philadelphia in 1996 and 2000 in Atlanta spring to mind. As a matter, I think he participated in the home run derby in 2000, if memory serves. I think you're right, yeah. Another thing about Edgar that I admire, the 514 doubles, he couldn't run. So when he was getting those doubles, he was hitting. him into the gap and he wasn't legging mini out. Yeah, when you say he can't run, he only had 15 career

triples. And this is after, I mean, this is kind of after the I believe it was a rib injury and a side injury that kind of limited him to deaching. He also didn't strike out very much. I'll get back to the strikeouts in a second, but the on-base average is 418. That's

106 points above his batting average, which was already high, 1,283 walks versus 1202 strikeouts. He drove in more runs than he struck out. That's just insane to me. And he also had a number of

league leader seasons. He's a two-time batting champion. He led the American League in doubles twice. Led the American League in RBI once. That was 2000. He led the league in on-base percentage three times. In 1995, he led the league in batting average,

on base percentage. OPS, doubles, runs, scored, which is amazing for somebody who couldn't run. And he played all 145 games that season. It was a strike short in season. Supposed to be 144, but then the one-game playoff against California. And among the all-time greats as a mariner, he is the only one whose entire career was as a Seattle mariner. Aside from Felix Hernandez,

who's in spring training this year with the brink. raves. His magnificent career landed him a place in Shrine in Cooperstown. Yes, indeed. It took him a while to get there, but I'm certainly glad he was there. And in Cooperstown, in the hall, in the plaque gallery, his plaque is right next to Mariano Rivera's, which, and I think there's come some kind of sick justice in that, in that Edgar was seemingly the only hitter that Mariano Rivera could not get out. And they were inducted on the same day. I just love that, Edgar plaque is right next to Mariano Rivera. I don't know. I don't know. I've got that kind of sense of humor gang. Any honorable mentions, John, that you care to mention? My first honorable mention is

Kindries Morales. He had a pretty good season as a mariner, the one full season that he had. Yeah. In his short time with the Mariners, he had 30 home runs, 104 RBIs, 43 doubles, 211 hits if that were one whole season, that would be a career year for most players. Sure would. He added 259, 323, 422 slice line, which puts his OPS at 745. And the one full season he spent with the Mariners, he slashed 277, 336, 449, which are very, very good numbers for a designated hitter. But again, we're kind of running into the same problem here, especially as we did.

in left field in that there are very few players with any sort of tenure. And with designated hitter especially, aside from the players that they used every day, which were so few of them, the marriages kind of tended to use DH as a timeshare position to kind of give players a day off here and there, which they did that after Edgar Martinez retired for the most part. And a little bit before also, Mike Blowers and Edgar Martinez kind of split time at designated hitter in the early 90s, if I recall. I believe you're correct, sir.

And for that reason, I have no honorable mentions. Do you have anybody else? My second honorable mention, and kind of like I mentioned in the previous show, this kind of comes with an asterisk because he's spent such a short time in the major leagues and with the Seattle Mariners, but if he can really start producing, and that's Daniel Vogelbach. Oh, thank you. I actually was going to mention him.

I'll let you go first, though. even just last year since that's most of his stats with Mariners. But last year he had 30 home runs. He has 34 career home runs. His career slash line is 205, 322, 413. His OPS is 745. One thing about Vogelback is going to strike out a lot, and he has struck out a lot historically.

And that's kind of why I was ragging on Mike Zanino. But two things differentiating the two. not only did Zanino strike out an over 40% of his bats as a Seattle Mariner, which is a huge number. Vogelback hasn't struck out that much, and his on-base percentage is just insane. He's got a great eye. Last year, he accumulated a 208 batting average, but his on-base average was 341. That's almost 135 points higher than his batting average. The man knows the strike zone.

If he can shorten up a swing a little bit and kind of fill in the, the holes that he's got, then I think he could probably be a 230 to 250-ish hitter while maintaining the power. Yes, he struck out 149 times last year, but he also walked 92. Yeah, I mean, his on-base average is just insane compared to his batting average. That's why I think he's got more of a future as an offensive player than Zunino does. Oh, definitely. And talking about D.Hs, he is a D.H. I mean, I know he's worked his behind off, trying to play first base, but the mobility just isn't there. And he does. He is a very, very hard worker, ladies and gentlemen. He's got the right attitude. Kind of takes everything in stride, and if he fails. He's kind of like, if you fail, just try, try again. He's got that kind of attitude. I like the guy.

John, we're going to let you go at this time. Thank you so much for joining us this week, six shows in five days. Where can people find you on Twitter? Thank you so much. I can be found on Twitter at Seattle Pilot 69. Very good. Thanks again, John. It was a real pleasure. you on the show this week, and I'm sure that you'll be back throughout the course of the season. Thank you so much. Excellent. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to take a break. The trivia question for the day is a DH-type question.

The Mariners leadoff hitter in their first-ever game against the California Angels in 1977 was their DH that day? Who was it? If you've got 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 it for the Friday mailbag segment, which is coming up on the other side of this commercial break. Locked-on Mariners will return upon the conclusion of these very important commercial massages. Welcome to the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you once again, J.M. Welcome back to Locked-on Mariners, ladies and gentlemen. Answer to the trivia question, the first batter in Mariners history, the lead-off batter in the first game,

rather, was the DH that day? Who was it? It was Dave Collins who went 0-4 with a strikeout against the California Angels that day. Time to open up the Friday mailbag, and because the first segment ran long, this is going to be something of an abbreviated mailbag, not going to get to a whole lot of questions. One email definitely that I want to address came to me in the middle of last week.

A gentleman named Joe sent in a very long email with a lot of questions, and I'm going to get to a few of those today. Not every single one. I'll save some for next week for a couple of reasons because I got other emails also. I'll address some of the questions that he posed. The first one was this. With the talk that surrounds Dunn and the starting

rotation, looking like it's going to be Marco, you say Sheffield, Graveman, and Walker to start this season, doesn't it make more sense to have Dunn start in AAA to begin the year and use Cortez and possibly Chen to piggyback? As far as Chen goes, he's at a very bad spring training. I wouldn't be surprised if he's released before the regular season starts. And as far as starting done in AAA, I think you're definitely onto something here. However, AAA is a very offensive. league right now, and developing pitchers in AAA is impossible. Most pitchers these days are being developed in AA. So I think you're onto something, but I would put done in double A to start the year to further his development. If he doesn't wind up in the bullpen, the bullpen might be

filled with the pitchers who don't make the starting rotation. As far as Sheffield goes, I have said a lot of negative things about him on the show. So far, he's had a very good spring training. The Control problems seem to have gotten better. He's got a new pitch he's working on. He's working with a two-seem fastball rather than a four-seem fastball. That came out a few days ago. So I am cautiously optimistic now about Justice Sheffield. My opinion of him has changed.

But I definitely think you're on to something with Dunn starting in the minor leagues, but I don't know if that's going to happen or not. Another question, kind of in the same vein in terms of minor leagues, he asks, has the league done anything to address the ball? used in AAA? Or do you think that we are going to start seeing more pitches jump from AA to the majors and start to see more power bats from AAA and not do as well in the majors or was last year just the exception? Triple A is going to use the same baseball this year than they did last season, so I do think you're going to see more pitchers jump from double A to the major

league. Sort of what I addressed in the first question. The Pacific Coast League in particular is a very offensive league, as I said. It's because of the ball. They're using the major league baseball, which they had not done in the past. AA and other leagues do use a different minor league baseball. But AAA is using the major league baseball, and that's why the jump in offense has occurred. And as I said, they're going to continue to use that major league baseball, so it's going to continue to be an offensive league. And hopefully they change it in the future because nobody can develop a pitcher in

AAA anymore. I will use one more question from Joe before I get to the others. And he asks, if Gilbert and Kirby continue to progress. and Graveman or Walker puts together a solid year. Would Jerry trade one or both of them this year to add Dunn and Gilbert to the rotation, or is that too soon? I add Kirby because I think that if Dunn doesn't stick as a starter, that he is the next name up.

I think it's much too soon for Gilbert and Kirby. They both had their first taste of minor league ball last year, and pitchers need more time to develop than that. And as far as Graven and Walker being traded to make room for one of the younger pitchers, no matter who that might be, Graveman possibly Walker probably not, even though Walker's only on a one-year contract. If I were the Mariners,

I would be looking to sign him to a longer-term deal if he has a good season. I'm not going to speculate on what the Mariners want to do or are going to try to do, however. Dunn is probably the next one up on the list, and his progress should be monitored, whether it's in AA or the bullpen, or really wherever he winds up.

He is kind of the next one on the list who's anywhere near the major leagues. I don't think Gilbert and Kirby are near the major leagues. Joe, thank you very much for those questions. We will read more of them next week. We're going to move on to our old friend John from Fife, who sends in the following. Who is your all-time favorite player and why? My all-time favorite player is not a mariner. My all-time favorite player is Cal Ripkin Jr. I started getting into baseball when he was breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played streak. I thought that that was very impressive. and just watching him on the field at that time,

you could tell that he was somebody important. And watching him play shortstop, he looked almost regal out there. You could tell that there was something special about the guy. He just had an oar about him when he played, or at least that's the impression I got. But Cal Ripkin, Jr., basically for the longevity and for the fact that he was really, really good

for a long period of time. And then a six-foot-four shortstop was an anomaly, and a shortstop who could hit with power was an anomaly. anomaly and a six-foot-four shortstop who could hit with power who was also a really good defender was an anomaly it still is an anomaly and honestly because of ripkin i grew up more of an orioes fan than i did a mariner's fan although when he was getting ready to retire the oriels had a fire sale in 2000 i want to say and they were just terrible and then the next year was ripkin's last and 2001 was also the mariner's great season they all kind of coincided with one another and i really began rooting for

the Mariners at that time because I am not a Peterangelo's fan in the slightest. The Orioles were were and the Mariners were and my favorite player was no longer with the Orioles. So I still kind of root for the Orioles, but not nearly as much as I did. I'm already over my time, unfortunately, so I'm going to wrap it up with one quick final question. Comes to us from Lucy, from Bellingham, asks, are you married, single, or dating? I'm single. This has been Friday mailbag. If you've got a question. I still have questions in the bank for next week, so we will have a mailbag next week. If you got a question, though, please send it in to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com or just a comment on the show. It doesn't necessarily have to be a baseball question either.

I'll answer just about anything just as long as it's appropriate. Thanks for tuning in this week. It's time to go, but please remember to download rate and subscribe to Locked on Mariner's on Google Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Lockedon Mariners podcast or any of the other shows here on the Locked On podcast network. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. And follow me on Twitter also, if you would please, at DC underscore Lundberg. I hope you enjoyed this series looking back at the best Mariners position by position.

I know I enjoyed recording it. Thank you again to Jonathan Miller for joining us all this week. You can find him on Twitter at Seattle Pilots 69. That'll do it for today. Ask your smart device to play Locked on MLB upon the conclusion of this program. Ladies and gentlemen, have a wonderful weekend. This is Joey Martin letting you know that we'll be back on Monday for another edition of Locked-on Mariners,

part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.