Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Why the Seattle Mariners' Claim of Leody Taveras Is FASCINATING + Cole Young's Heating Up

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Ty and Colby react to the Mariners' acquisition of Leody Taveras, offer their first impressions of Sutter Health Park, and check in on Cole Young and Harry Ford.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosLooking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more.Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!UpworkVisit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free to connect with top talent and grow your business today! Just IngredientsVisit JustIngredients.us/Bryce-Harper and use code LOCKEDONMLB for 20% off your order! And for more wellness tips, follow @just.ingredients on Instagram.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with MonarchMoney. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLBfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Leone Tavares made a quick impression in his marriage debut yesterday, but what's the long-term outlook for him in Seattle? Adam Moore coming up here on the Locked-on Marriss podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors.

It is Thursday, May 8th, 2025. This is Tad de Gazzalus and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So on today's show, we're going to dive a bit more into the Laoti Tveris acquisition.

We'll also give you our first impressions of baseball in Sacramento. And then we'll check in on one of the Maris top prospects who is finally starting to heat up. up down in Tacoma. But Colby, we got to see Laoti Tavares make his mayor's debut yesterday. He had the big game time hit for the M's late in that one to knock things up at 5.5. Scored the winning run on Dillamore's subsequent RBI double into the right center field gap. We also saw Tavares make his first ever start in right field in his major league career. Now, he is absolutely more than capable of playing all three hours.

outfield spots, but he has never played anywhere other than center field in his major league career. So that was kind of a little milestone for him yesterday. He looked fine out there. It didn't get too many opportunities. But again, he should be absolutely more than capable of handling that. So what are your thoughts on the move to pick him up? Obviously, Jerry Depoto was on the baseball isn't boring podcast the other day and said this was a guy that the mayor has really hoped to be able to acquire.

and they were a little surprised that he actually fell to them in the waiver order. So, you know, we'll see what kind of changes they might want to make with him offensively and all that. But, yeah, just what are your thoughts on the move? Yeah, it's, obviously, it's been out there for a couple days now at this point. But we haven't really had a chance to cover it because timing, you know, they announced the move like an hour after we wrap and then it wasn't even an hour. It was probably like 10 minutes or 15 minutes after we.

after being wrapped. And Ty was too good to do an emergency pod. So, um, yeah. Uh, so this is really our first opportunity to dissect it on this show. We talked about it on a Patreon show a little bit.

But yeah, I mean, it's when we saw that he was released or he was waived. Um, I think kind of the general consensus I got from, you know, talking with other, uh,

people who cover the team is that like, yeah, makes some sense. Uh, It just seems unlikely that they would, you know, eat the three and a half-ish million dollars or whatever it is left on his contract because we know how tight their budget is and all that. But I think everybody thought, yeah, this guy wouldn't make sense to add because, again, the Mariners do have pretty desperate need in their corner outfield right now. Really just outfield in general. One of their spots is taken by Rhineland Thomas and Samad Taylor and Miles Mastroboni.

And it's like, you know, those guys did some nice things. things and, you know, that helpful at times, but they're not everyday big leaguers. And, you know, Tavares might not be either, but he has been in the past, which is a good indication that you can be in the future. And that he has got a high floor because he's going to give you defense and he's going to give you base running. And he's also got a very strong arm, which right now the Mariners have one good arm in their entire starting outfield.

Now they have two. And, and also, you know, we should mention, like, Like this is a guy that was the everyday center fielder for World Series championship team two years ago. Two and a half one player. Yeah. Funny. That's literally what Victor Robles was. So, yeah, it's one of those things like it makes all the sense in the world, especially of the money, is something that you can absorb because this team needs something.

Right. And Victor Robles and Luke Grayley aren't walking through that door anytime soon. and so why not take a shot on this guy if you can find the tweak which I think the mayors have talked about already they think they found something in I can't remember exactly what it was

at the end of the broadcast yesterday mentioned it that he's just been a little bit late on the fastball and they think they have something yeah Angie talked to Kevin Siteser and I think it was right after his game time single because he was late on it right yeah and was just able to you know poke it past

the third baseman. But yeah, they feel like he's just been a little late, especially on the fastball. Right. And if you can't hit the fastball, you're pretty much screwed. So if they can make some kind of adjustment there, help them there, then maybe. And, you know, again, I don't think you're going to turn him into a 130,

whatever Victor Robles was last year. No. But, I mean, can you get him to 100? Because, well, it's not ideal to have a league average bat in right field. It's certainly better. than having Well, and Tavares doesn't need to be a long-term starter for you either. He just needs to get you to when Luke Rayleigh and potentially Victor Robles can return.

A couple months. Yeah. And so, look, I don't know how quickly they can get these changes made. And, you know, Tavares has to be comfortable with them. And there's obviously the, you know, he's swung like this, you know, 5,000 times. And now you have to change it. and he's got to learn how to kind of change his swing or do something different.

So there's definitely an adjustment period to consider here as well. But yeah, I think right now, again, the floor is you're going to get plus defense. You're going to get a good base running. You're going to get a plus arm. And then, you know, he'll hit some homers still. It's not insane power, but it's not no power. It's, you know, 10 to 15 homers. And yeah, you're just kind of hoping right now that he can kind of keep you afloat.

in the outfield until hopefully Robles and or Rayleigh get back. And then you kind of see where you're at in a couple months. You know, for all you know, maybe you're trading Luke Rayleigh at the deadline for a bullpen arm or something, or maybe you're trading Tavaing Tavaing tovarez because it just didn't really work that well. It doesn't matter. The whole point is right now you're raising the floor of your ball club and you're filling, you know, a pretty big hole in your lineup with somebody who is at least,

physically capable of being an everyday big leader and has been in the past. And there's some upside here. And Tavares has been in the league for six years, seven years, but he's only 26 years old. And if it does all click, you get him for two more years after this year. So there really is very little downside to this move. And I think we'll see what the mayors can do. I hesitate to say, like, oh, they'll fix him or whatever. I know everybody wants to make the comp to Victor Robles.

And there are some legitimate comparisons here in terms of the type of player and whatnot. But I think expecting to, you know, catch lightning in a bottle twice on a couple of waiver claim, you know, former top prospects in back-to-back seasons. Might be some wishful thinking there. But yeah, at the very least, again, your defense got better with this ad, your base running got better, your depth got better. and oh by the way you actually have somebody capable of playing center field if you ever feel like giving Julio a day off which without Victor without without Rayleigh it's like Dylan Moore is your backup centerfielder what's most interesting though about this ultimately is the money and you talked about it a little bit earlier you know about three and a half million dollars that is

not you know super cheap for this mayor's front office given what we what we know about their budget this offseason. Apparently they only had $16 million to spend. You know, they spent good chunk on that, a good chunk of that on Donovan Solano and Jorge Polanco. You know, we're still unsure if that, whatever they had remaining, whatever they had left over is all they have to approach

in-season acquisitions or if they have more on top of that, who knows. Daniel Kramer has speculated that if they maintain first place, maybe they have more money to spend because of that. But again, three and a half million dollars is not a super cheap flyer to take on someone who might wind up just be in a net zero for you here. That's why, I mean, that's what I said on Monday when we got asked about Tavares. And that's why I said that I didn't think they would actually do this. because if they only have so much money to spend,

this would be kind of reckless, right? So could be. One, it makes me feel like they really believe they have a fix here for Tavaris. And or two, they actually might have more money than we think. I mean, they do, but like the front office has more money to spend. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,

also could be an early indication that they believe this team and they believe this group in particular is worth investing in, which again, hopefully leads to ownership being like, yeah, you want to go trade for this guy making $8 million the rest of the way? Fine. Yeah, no problem. We're in first place. So, yeah, I mean, there's a bit of a risk here, but I do think that the reward outweighs the risk.

And again, you know, like how does this work? when Robles and Rayleigh come back. Who cares? You figure that out if they come back at all. You figure that out then. And, oh, no, we have three guys who need to be in the lineup at the same time. Oh, how will we ever survive having too many good hitters? Like, it's not a problem.

It's really not a real problem. And so, you know, if Tavares turns into something, it's well worth the $3 million. If he doesn't, if he just kind of is what he is, that's still a useful player that kind of can help you keep your head above water in a corner outfield spot for the next two months until, you know, the trade market opens up until you get your guys back, et cetera. So, yeah, it really was a no-brainer just from a roster fit standpoint. And again, the fact that they were willing to absorb the $3 million, you hope that that's not just like all they had and this is their shot.

But, you know, it's worth noting that Jerry has been able to open up payroll in the middle of the season the last couple of years. He's found a way to do that. And that while, you know, the Mariners did add payroll last year at the deadline, it was really only five or six because they were able to get the raise and the Blue Jays to, you know, pay down some of the remaining contracts. So there is way to add significant players without adding significant payroll in the middle of the year. So we'll see what happens with all that. That's ways away.

but I would imagine Leotis Tavaire or Leoti Tavares. I keep on saying that. Very similar to Leonis Martin. I mean, both as a player and as a name. But center fielders power, more offensive skill than he's shown. Can they tap into it maybe? But yeah, I think the Mariners have themselves a new primary right field. I don't know about every single day, but I think he's going to be getting a bulk of the time in right field for the next couple months.

Yeah. And if he can follow suit with the rest of this bottom of the order, great. I mean, he's already done that, right? He's already chipped in a little bit, just like the rest of the bottom of the lineup has done so far. So, yeah, yeah, the only concern that I have here is just related to the money. As long as John Stanton's the owner of this team, though, we're always going to have questions about the money. Absolutely, absolutely. All right. So the mayor has made their first trip to Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, the new yet temporary home of the cityless A's. We're going to go over our first impressions of that ballpark. In just a moment, but first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown-Mara's podcast

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Head over to Fandual.com and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandul, official sports betting partner of the NBA. And you're listening to the Lockdown Merr's podcast. So the Marys take two or three from the A's at Sutter Health Park. It's their first time visiting that ballpark, the home of the Giants AAA affiliate, but also now the temporary home for the A's until at least through 2027. And because this is a place that the Marys are going to visit at least five more times over the next two and a half years,

figured we'd talk a little bit about the ballpark, our first impressions of it, all that. What did you make of the ballpark in the three games we saw the Marys play there? I think the novelty of it's going to wear off pretty quick. It kind of already wore off for me. I don't even know if there was novelty for me. I mean, a lot of people like, oh, it feels like a spring training game. It's like it's not supposed to. It's a major league game.

That's not a good thing. Yeah, I don't consider that a good thing. It's like, oh, there's people sitting on the berm. Like, yeah, because a team was ripped away from a town that loved it and supported it. And they had to put it in a, you know, a AAA ballpark. which looks like a AAA ballpark, feels like a AAA ballpark. Yeah. Yeah, like the infield is absurdly springy.

The wind is a mess. And I just think that, you know, if you strip away the games that were played there, the atmosphere, the, just the vibe of the ballpark in general and just how it looks and presents, wasn't that impressed. You know, there are some people who. really like it and whatever to me it doesn't feel like a big league game now we were treated at three really good games yeah these two teams are a really good matchup for one another right now right they're they're they're fun matchups and and so you know that to me was the story here i did the

ballpark really play into that i don't think so not really i mean there was the one hulio infield fly ball single that the wind kind of took over but the wind really crushing you really crushed a lot of balls that were hit into right field, right center field. I thought this ballpark was going to play smaller. And it has, but in that series, there was only, I think, like three home runs in the entire series, like Rowdy, Routy, Julio Langliers. Yeah, Julio, yeah. Oh, Lawrence Butler.

So, yeah, I mean, it just, to me, it just felt like what it was. And these are like the best players in the world playing on a substandard field. I didn't think the setting was intimate or I didn't think that it was cool how, you know, the fans were so loud that the mics were picking them up and all that. It's like, yeah, because it's, you're playing this game. It's like playing in an arena football league. It's like having the Seahawks and the 49ers playing an arena football league. Like, who cares?

Yeah. There's like a surrealism to it that makes it feel like it's not even a real game that you're watching. Like it doesn't, like it almost feels like it doesn't even count. it feels like it's like a like a break in the action i don't know how to necessarily it's just weird players have to walk across the field to get to the batting cages yeah that's ridiculous yeah it's just like i it felt like i mean even even the college stadiums now have like the batting cages and the clubhouse connect like most of you don't have to walk across the field to get to the clubhouse you know again it's hard to kind of separate because i'm sure a lot of people are like what are you talking about

those games were awesome. It's like, yeah, the games were awesome, but not because of the stadium. It's because the two teams played so hard and played so well. And they had back and forth ball games, you know, so it's one of those things where it's like, I think you have to separate the actual product that we watched from the field that it was played on. The product over the last three days was really good. It's about as good as early May baseball can possibly get. And it's just like, you look at like for the Padres and the Yankees series.

like that was back and forth. That had big turns and whatnot, just like this series, but that one was played at Yankee Stadium. This one was played at Sutter Health Park. And the difference is helpful. It just doesn't feel like a big league game. And, you know, to be fair,

if this game was played in Oakland, there probably would have been like 5,000 people there. And it would have been dead. And they would have been all spread out. So like I get it. You know, not to take shots at the city of Oakland. They were robbed. And they were in baseball fans in general.

They were gaslit into thinking that Oakland was the problem. And even though none of them really bought it, blah, blah, blah. We know, right? Like the Oakland A's fans, they were great. When he gave them a reason to be there, they just were done being lied to. And so, yeah, I get it. Like, yeah, they were playing in Oakland. There would have been 3,000 people spread out across.

a 50,000 seat stadium and it would have been dead. It wouldn't have had the energy or whatever, but like, you don't really care. Well, in the stadium itself sucks. It has that ridiculous foul territory. The building is just awful. You know, there's like the sewage issues that the mirrors have been there for. And, you know, there's what raccoons living up in the broadcast booth and all that crazy stuff.

Right. So, like I get like, hey, you're comparing this to. Oakland. I'm comparing it to any other stadium in Major League Baseball, and it falls well short. It is a perfectly fine AAA stadium, maybe even a really good one, but it felt like a AAA stadium. Yeah. It's just, there's going to be a lot of ridiculousness that happens in games there, especially with that springy end field. I mean, the fact that, you know, Rowdy hit a ball like one foot in front of the plate and it bounced like 10 to 15 feet up in the air

at least 100 feet down the field over the head of Nick Kurtz. Got it over like the 6 foot 8 first baseman. Yeah. Like that's silly. I mean it worked out for the mirrors but that's silly. You know. So yeah it's uh, well and you can see the you know you can see like

Ben Williamson kind of like I'm going to take a step off on him. So yeah. Yeah or like he would you know take a step back instead of you know, attacking the ball because it just it was very clear like Mariners and fielders were pretty cautious they were unsure

of how the ball would react to the field or the field would react to the ball however you want to look at it which is why you have to play in with the bases loaded in the 11th inning because the infield is so sure of the hops they're going to get yeah

yeah by the way Dillamore had a really good game yesterday defensively um thought we should mention that because I don't think we did yesterday. Obviously, his defense has been not great this year after winning a gold glove caliber. Yeah.

Yeah, so it was nice to see Demo have like a really, really good game defensively yesterday. And then he obviously came through with game winning hit as well. So that's nice. It doesn't seem like he's really skipped a beat from his aisle stint. No. I'd say this last thing on the ballpark. The fact that the mirrors are only going to go there. you know, six or seven times a year helps.

I can't imagine like being an A and having to play 81 times there. That must suck. Yeah. That must suck. And it's funny because, you know, while they're certainly built to play well in that ballpark, they don't. They have a bad record at home. So I think that wears on you too as a season drags on.

Yeah, you're basically, you're not getting major league accommodations. at work when you're a major leaguer. And again, I get it. Is it really that much worse than playing in Oakland? I don't know. But, you know, it's, I got to walk across the field to use the batting cage in the middle of the game.

I got to go out center field to go to the bathroom. Like, yeah, I, it's, it is what it is. But Oakland does not play well there right now. It's a bit weird, right? That Butler and Rutgers signed extensions, knowing that for the next three years are going to have to play at that ballpark. I mean, money. like yeah i mean like i get it yeah yeah money right now that i don't have like yeah i mean like

like like you know britt worker got 60 million dollars so i mean yeah i would play like a 32 year old who's still three years away from free agency like yeah that might be the best he could do butler was weird i mean i know he's under club control for five more years so he only sold like one free age a year but it's like you you know like you're playing for the aes like if you if you just stay on your rookie contract you're going to make our arbitration and then you're going to get traded than like you're going to trade in five years. I mean, to be fair, you still might get traded because like we're supposed to leave this guy's going to go to Vegas and then just all of a sudden spend $180 million. No, he might do it for a year or two.

But then eventually he'll go back to his John Fisher will go back to his old like, oh, you know, we're a small market club again. And it's like, oh, that's funny because you left us a big market to go to a small market. And now you're complaining about being a small market club. Wow. Imagine that. But whatever. Yeah, the ballpark. I didn't love it as much as a lot of people seem to.

I thought it felt kind of cheap to watch a major league game. Colby didn't love something as much as other people? Crazy. What? Colby was right again. Wow. But, you know, if you like it, fine. I don't hate it.

Like, it just, it feels very like below the moment, if that makes sense. yeah yeah it was just it's not a MLB caliber ballpark and I know a lot of people have mentioned this but yeah if they make the playoffs like it's a so so not a good luck out games yeah that's not a good luck for the league yeah all right so we're going to wrap things up speaking of the Meyer leagues we're going to take a trip down to Tacoma and talk a little bit about Cole young who's starting to heat up finally just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the lockdown Marr's podcast is brought to you by wonderful pistachios. Looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious. Crack into a good source of protein with wonderful pistachios.

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with five extra base hits. A couple of homers, triple, a couple doubles. He's got a 563 average in his last four games. And he's finally getting rewarded for putting quality contact on the ball.

I just threw up these numbers on the screen here from Prospects of Ant. These are his percentile rankings compared to other prospects. You can see that he's put up quality contact with some regularity 74th percentile and barrel rate 60th percentile and hard hit rate he's about middle of the pack here in terms of exit velocity all that and hopefully this is a sign that he is starting to figure some things out and is on the upward swing here

uh but his w rc plus colby is still only 83 after these four games down in triple a which is not good. How do you view Cole Young's year right now and how it has perhaps impacted his timeline to the bigs? It hasn't.

Okay. Cole Young is having a really solid year in terms of development and growth because you look at what he's doing right now, again, as a 21-year-old taking on AAA for the first time in his career. He is only striking out about 14% of the time. He's walking 11% of the time.

Like you threw up there, the exit Velo numbers are all fine. They're not elite, but Cole Young is never going to be an elite exit Velo guy. That is not what his calling card is. So has he been overwhelmed by AAA? No, the numbers there prove it. And that's, again, as a 21-year-old, that is really impressive. We're only a month into this thing down there in AAA as well. And now we're starting to see him find those hits and not only find the hits, but he's starting to elevate the baseball and drive the baseball. We've seen a couple homers, a couple triples, a double, and he's getting to his pole side where there is some power. But again, Cole Young is not a big power guy. He just can't, you know, beat the ball

into the ground every single at bat. And that's kind of what was happening in his first month. So yes, he had a low bat hip, but the batting or the exit Vilo was still good. good. It's just again, even when you hit the ball hard on the ground, that's still more likely to be an out than hitting the ball hard in the air or on a line. So yeah, I don't think this is affected his timeline at all. I think it's actually good that he's struggled early on and he's kind of still maintained and he's started to make the adjustments and he hasn't panicked and he hasn't started to chase more or anything like that. And he's just kind of stayed the course and he's trusted himself and now he's starting to get the results. So to me, this is all positive on young. I don't think this has changed his timeline at all. I think if there's an opening at some point this year, he'll be ready to go and they'll give him a shot there. But there might just not be an opportunity for him to play at the big league level this year. Maybe there is.

Who knows? Again, it's only May 8th. But right now, I don't think you're, I don't think you're calling him up anytime soon. But, you know, again, if we stick with the June-July timeline, could he be ready to go by then if he has, you know, a month like he's having right now? Sure, he could be. But is there going to be an opening? Is there going to be an opportunity to get him playing time?

Because J.P. Crawford has been so good. And what the Mariners are running out there at second base right now, it's pretty solid. Like, you don't feel the need to push second base because you're getting Leo Rivas and you're getting, you know,

Dylan Moore. And that's probably the only way that you're getting Hore Palanco on the field right now. Right. And yeah, and Ben Williamson has kind of stabilized third base, although they could get to a point where the bat is, troublesome enough that the Mariners are like,

maybe Cole Young can play some third. And until we see Young actually take reps at third base, which by the way, could Cole Young play third base? Yes. It would probably be more so, though, that Young would play second and Dima would play third, right? Well, yeah, but also Polo is going to have to play some second. Well, Polo and then Rivas, yeah, yeah.

Right. And so, again, Young can play shortstop. His best spot is going to be second base, but if you can play second base, if you could play shortstop, you could play at least a decent third. And so, yeah, my only question is,

is I don't think the development is taking a step back. I'm actually really encouraged by what we've seen so far because, again, if he was running like 27% strikeout rates and he was chasing and,

yeah, doing some uncharacteristic stuff. Yeah. Right. And he's not. This is who Cole Young is. He's going to hit the ball up the middle. He's going to hit the gaps.

He's got some pole power. And he's just going to be kind of like, average to above average across the board and that is going to kind of almost boringly compile itself into him being a three win second baseman or maybe the power goes right a little bit maybe he you know bumps up one of his grades half a tick and all of a sudden he's Nico Horner like that's who he is he was never going to be Corey Seeger right he's he's just going to be Adam Frazier and not Mariners Adam Frazier

Pittsburgh Pirates, Adam Frazier. And, you know, maybe he's Neil Walker. Maybe he's like that. Maybe he's Todd Frazier, or not Todd Frazier. Second Baseman. Ah, played for like Todd Walker. Like, maybe that's who he is. And so, yeah, to me, like, nothing that he's done this year or hasn't done

makes me think that his profile was wrong or that he can't handle AAA pitching. He is handling it right now. And he's, you know, after a month of, of, you know, kind of surviving, and now he's starting to make some strides, and he's thriving, and he's starting to elevate the ball, which is kind of the last step here. So my only question about Cole Young is it's not, can he help you at some point this year? It's, we'll even have the opportunity to help you at some point this year. Yeah.

I guess we'll see. Again, it's only May. So plenty of time for an opportunity to arise. Yeah, a lot can happen. I wanted to also quickly talk about Harry Ford here. Still not slugging, really. I mean, he's finally got his slug over 300, which is not good. But he's still getting on base like a maniac right now.

Same exact walk percentage as his K rate, 20.9% both categories. But right now he's slashing 235, 400, 306, 102 WRC plus. I mean, he's handling himself fine, but yeah, the power output is not where you would hope it would be, especially with him playing in the PCL. Um, yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know, it is also worth noting that he is also young for AAA and this is his first crack at it. So he's only been there a month.

So yeah, pretty much all the stuff that applies to Cole Young also applies to Harry Ford. It's just now we're starting to see the power from young and we still haven't seen it from Ford. Um, and oh, by the way, uh, a lot of people clamoring for Tyler Locklear to get called up while the numbers are pretty good. Uh, the underlying. stuff not so great 19th percentile and chase percentage 23rd percentile and swinging strike rate 40th percentile and whiff

so yeah he's he's expanding the zone he's chasing and that's not going to fly for the Mariners so yeah Locklear the average is great and he's got 12 doubles or might have more now at this point

but he is expanding the zone and he is swinging missing way too much for the type of hitter that he has to be to succeed at the big league level. So there might actually be a legitimate reason why the Mariners aren't calling up Thai Locklear because there are some things that he still needs to work on. And there's some like your chase rates and your swinging strike rates and your whiff rates, they typically don't go down when you get to the big leagues. Yeah.

And Locklear is what, 25 right now? 24, I believe. Yeah. He's a 24 year old getting his second cracket. double a so pretty big difference between his uh numbers and what young and ford are doing so you just keep that of mind why isn't lockler up you should be up for salano maybe i'm not saying you're wrong but there are some concerning trends here in lockler's profile that might be the reason why he hasn't been called up yet yeah um prospect savon is about eight plate appearances behind

right now on where Harry Ford is. But his percentile rankings actually pretty solid in terms of the hard hit. 84th percentile in exit velocity, average exa velocity, average of 92 miles per hour. 70th percentile and hard hit rate, 44.8 percent. He's not barreling up the ball that much, though. He's also not making a ton of contact on pitches inside the strike zone,

37th percentile in zone contact rate at the moment. but maybe that's a sign that more power output is to come here for Harry. Maybe we see him just explode here in the next few weeks. Sure. By the side note on, he said Harry Ford's exit Velo was 92. Yeah. Average XVilo.

Locklear's at 88 and a half. There's some legitimate concern. I don't know about concern, but there are legitimate reasons why he's not up yeah why the marriage might look at him and be like not yet yeah but also donovan salano but also if you're going to call up tyler lockler you need to play now because you're not starting them over rowdy to les right now right and yeah and rowdy's rowdy's been really good the last three weeks so yeah and you still need the dh for you know for polanco and for randy and so garter yeah there there are some

legitimate reasons why if Blockler's not up it's not just because oh they don't want to waste the three million dollars on Solano that might be part of it but that's not the whole reason so yeah so this is all to say though on on Harry Ford and Cole Young that while the the stats don't look that great there are some things that they're doing actually really well there are some positive science here and those overall numbers might see an increase with the process for both of these guys at the plate right now So we'll keep an eye on it. But that's going to do it for our show.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mears podcast. For Colby, Pat, Node, I'm Tadigazales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Tad11. That's C-PAT-11. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Merrors.

You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Merrars. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.