Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 87 | Seattle Mariners | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: February 18, 2020

The Seattle Mariners have always confused Jomboy. Are they rebuilding? Are they trying to win? Are they signing everyone and then trading everyone? It feels like they may finally have a plan. The boys discuss it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 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.

It's another team profile and projection. And today we are doing the M's. Your Seattle Mariners ranked by the listeners as the sixth worst team in Major League Baseball going into the season, Jake. They went 68 and 94 last year. And I've never been able to know what the Mariners are doing. I think we're in a two-year schedule now. I think they've said like, you know what, let's not try this year and build for a couple years out. But I never know, you know.

Yeah, I mean, they, I mean, it's crazy to think that each hero and Felix Hernandez technically played for this team last year. And it seems like those guys haven't been good for five to ten years. But yeah, I mean, the Mariners, yeah, they gave it a college. try for a little bit and you're right they half-assed it i mean they're very clearly in a rebuild now and i'll say this do i think this is a good baseball team no do i think there's a lot of young fun guys yes if you're a mariners fan you could get behind this like this is we've got a lot of young guys and we're going to find out if they're really good this year between mal i mean i'll i'll mean i'll be know start burning through a chunk of the lineup but malick smith shed long um their

catchers were fun last year between Murphy and Narvaez, but Murphy's there. Kyle Lewis, J.P. Crawford, Evan White, Jake Fraley, Braden Bishop. I mean, there are a lot of young guys, and Jim, I know we've been using this fan graph side a lot to track things. I mean, look at that top prospect area. We've got three guys who are on the MLB4, if you count Evan White, you know, with the potential of Kellanick maybe getting the call. You've got half of their top 10 prospects looking like they could play major league baseball this year. So that's a lot of fun. Where's the top prospect section?

On that, it's on the right middle there. You know what I'm right above the lineup? Hmm. So sad. Okay. Can't find it. Sad times happened this episode. God.

My God. What are you seeing with the nurse? Well, I wanted to tell the people who they lost. names that I kind of knew from last year that are gone. Keon Broxton. He's gone. Felix Hernandez. Gone.

Tim Beckham. Gone. Domingo Santana. Gone. Wade Lebronk. The famous Wade LeBlanc. Gone. Yeah.

Omar Narvaez. Gone. And he was good last year. He was their best offensive hitter? He was really good. Narvaez. 22 homers. They traded him for, what was the Narvaeath trade?

They traded him to the Brew crew. Yeah, he had a 120 OPS. And he was traded by the Seattle Mariners to the Milwaukee Brewers for Adam a Hill and a 2020 supplemental second round pick. Adam Chill. So they got rid of him and that's kind of, you know, you traded your best offensive player. One, your best offensive player was your catcher.

That's a sign of like, you know, that's not great. in this day and age baseball. Two, you traded him away for prospects. So I don't think they're trying to win this year. That's just some detective work. Yeah, I think they're on the two-year-away plan. This year is a big, like, let's find out who's actually got potential. They signed a bunch of really weird one-year contracts, Jake.

Can we talk about this? They signed Yashis. Yashi Hiraano to a one-year deal. Carl Edwards Jr. to a one-year deal. Patrick Wisdom to a one-year deal. Dustin Garneau to a one-year deal. Kendall Graven to a one-year deal. They traded for Adam Hill and Nestor Cortez Jr.

And they claimed Jose Siri, Sam Haggarty, and a bunch of other guys off of waivers. They just added bodies. They were like, hey, who's the cheap body? We can come fill up some innings and some plate appearances for us. Just added a ton of bodies. Yeah, and I mean, Harano, this website currently has him listed as their closer,

and that scares me a little because he was okay for the Diamondbacks last year. Carl Edwards Jr., I mean, that's kind of a fun one. If they can find his form again, you flip him for something. And I actually like the Kendall Graveman signing. He's coming off a big injury, but when you look at his career numbers versus what some of the other free agent pitchers got this year, If they can, if he's healthy and he, he can figure it out a little bit. There's something there.

But yeah, I, I mean, Marco Gonzalez, Yusai Kikuchi, that Uki Kukuchi, Justice Sheffield, the three lefties at the top of that rotation. They're hoping Justice Sheffield can figure it out. He was the big piece they got from the James Paxton trade. Kikuchi's second year, Marco Gonzalez has been pretty good, and they just gave him an extension. But yeah, for me, it's all in this last. lineup, which, which young guys can take the leap? J.P. Crawford was the, the big piece they got in

the Philadelphia trade. He's a young, very talented shortstop, but kind of didn't put it all together. And if you remember, Jim, Evan White's the first baseman who they gave the MLB contract to, so they don't have to do the arbitration dance. So hopefully, hopefully they've got something there. But yeah, I mean, Evan White, J.P. Crawford, Kyle Lewis, he's the guy that went on the Homer streak for them last year. He was balling out. That was pretty cool. Shed Long and Malick Smith, you're hoping that you can come into 2021 saying like three of those guys are quality ball players. Yeah, but like, but then what? And then next year, you're hoping to find three more guys that are quality ball players. and then you can kind of actually make some moves on it.

Is Tom Murphy the everyday catcher? Yeah, so he's the reason they moved Narvae. Their catchers balled out last year. Tom Murphy has 8-58 OPS, 18 homers in 75 games. So that let them move on from Narvaez. He also has no options. So he's their catcher. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, he's their dude. And yeah, man, I think this this is a two, three year plan. I think their front office has said that at this point. Because think about that, Narvaez, he was 27 last year. He had a really nice season. They traded him for a pitcher in high A. I mean, that means that you're not looking for that guy to hit the major leagues, two years at the best.

So, yeah, we're still in the rebuild. We're finding out who can play. and then hopefully 2022, 2023, you can make some free agent moves to make this a good ball team. But yeah, we're a while away from that. They love trades. The Mariners are the biggest trade.

What's the general matter's name? DePoto. Loves a good trade, Jake. I'm not seeing many trade candidates on this team. He kind of like, you know, traded away. Like on the major league side, always prospects to be traded. got Herano, who will be a free agent in 2021.

Gravenman, they have a club option attached to 2021. So they can easily trade him if he's good, if he, like, really turns it around. Everyone else, though, like. Yeah, I think Kyle Seeger, he's, he's kind of getting paid. Take on a lot of money if you pay for him, yeah. Yeah, and, you know, the Mariners might eat some to get, to get a little more back. If he does put, put a season together for them. but yeah, when he's right, I mean, he's a pretty talented third baseman.

But yeah, I mean, Vogelback, maybe if you can move him. But yeah, I mean, Seeger Vogelback in the lineup is about it. And then, yeah, you had the pitchers there, Graveman, or I guess anyone in the bullpen that can help a contender that they'll pay for. But, oh, also Mitch Hanigur got hurt before the season. He's a solid guy. That was a weird injury. We'll see if he comes back. But yeah, man, I don't know.

You're excited about the young field players on this team. And you're hoping Justice Sheffield can figure it out. Yeah, that's one of the big ones for them. Like if he can turn into something that looks good, that would be worthwhile. But he... Got any experts we could call on the Mariners? We can also, dude, Justice Sheffield's peripherals and stuff, like, aren't good. Yeah, it's young.

Fastball velocity is 48. No, but like raw talent stuff is 48%. Sure. His fastball spin is in the 0%. Zero. It means it's like the world. You can only go up from that. We do have Jordan from Sessna's family barbecue.

We called Jake from Sassaf's family barbecue. If he doesn't pick up, is Jake our clear favorite? I guess so. I'm calling him now. We're going to find out what he thinks about all these Ms. Freak out if he doesn't pick up. I feel like you're rooting for him not to. Hello.

Hello. Hey, this is Mr. Boy? This is Mr. Boy. You are on talking baseball, and we are previewing the Seattle Mariners. That's my favorite team. We just need to know who, which prospects are you most excited for? Oh, man. Okay, definitely, obviously, Derek Telnick, but that's kind of like mainstream, of course. He's going to torture the Mets for the next 25 years. But I have to go with Julio Rodriguez because he made it to high A last year as a 19-year-old.

The only other 19-year-old that did that was Wanda Franco. And I think Julio could totally be the best prospect of baseball at this time next year if he isn't already magically in the big leagues. And then the other guy, I would say, is George Kirby, who was their first. Trump pick last year who did not walk anybody in his professional debut and only walks like five guys in his junior season at Elon and I'm curious to see how long he can go as a professional pitcher without walking someone because that is cool also he throws really hard and it's really good wow there you go mr boy insightful who are they going to trade this year we were looking and there's not many options that they can trade anymore in the big yes yes so they are desperately trying to trade gordon uh it probably isn't going to happen until just

July, if at all, because he's making a lot of money for a guy that doesn't really hit at all. And they're not really going to showcase him because they're going to let Shed Long be the starter at second, which is fine. I support that. But D. Gordon is really the answer. And then probably some of the relievers that they just signed, or even maybe starters, like they just signed Yosh Tisaharano for a year. Like, if he's good, he might be the closer in the first half. You might just trade him. Like, they managed to trade Hunter Strickland. Right? I mean, If they were able to trade 100 trick, then they should be able to trade Heronovia

as a good first half. So I would look forward to the bullpen relievers if they're any good in terms of good potos next move. Or in Kyle's bigger, maybe, but I would guess the relievers. Is their bullpen just awful? Jake wants to know he asked, is the Mariners bullpen just awful this year? It certainly could be.

It was really bad last year, just the parade of people you've never heard of, which I enjoy just for the exercise of, like, learning all these names. But, yeah, there's definitely some potential for real. I have no clue who will be closing games. They find Carl Edwards Jr. which is kind of exciting.

He was a disaster in 2019, but was really good just two years ago. So there's, like, some upside there. But, oh, yeah, I mean, projecting-wise, there's no reason not to assume that they will be not one of the five-force bullpens right now. So, yeah, it'll be pretty bad. Last year they had Cody Gehrin, who did the toe tap. They got rid of them. Now they're bringing another toe-tapper in,

Edwards so that'll be fun that's true that's true oh man year and uh bless his soul don't won't miss watching him pitch got to say thank you very much you got it man see yeah those guys are wealth of knowledge about their teams love their teams love baseball they love baseball I love baseball love baseball anything else you got did he kind of wrap it all up for us

he did really good And he named guys we weren't going to mention. So that was perfect. And D Gordon's on the block. So good job, Jordan. Yeah. Do you have an over-under? The over-under's high, Jake.

It's 88 and a half. See, that's a lie. That's a lie. That's not a lie. That's what they have. 88 and a half wins. Yes. I mean, that's an error.

And I have to tell you that. I'll Google it. Sorry. You have to know that right. That's what's on the Google sheet that's been prepped for us. Right. But you have a human brain, so you also know that's not right. Okay.

Let me find it. Here it is. Like maybe 68. Yeah. I don't know where Spencer's been getting his over-unders from then. It's 69 and a half. Okay. So, yeah, it's supposed to be 68.

Hold on. What are the teams we did already? Let's just make sure because the pirates we thought was like, crazy high when we did it. This has the Pirates at 71. Yeah, and this has the Pirates at 71, so that's fine. Yeah, we like the Pirates. And the Royals last episode was like 65 and they have at 65.

Okay. So this has the Mariners at 69 and a half. They're going up against the Astros, the Angels who have a nice lineup now, the A's who are still a good lineup. I mean, it's under, man. I mean, Texas got a lot better. Houston's still going to be really good. The Angels got a lot better.

That seems like an under. Just ride and chalk. I'm going under with you, Jake. And our fun fact of the day is that Kyle Seeger grew up a Yankees fan and idolized Derek Jeter. How about that? Didn't we all? See you later.

Whoa. See you later. Thanks for hanging out with us. Go M's. Goodbye.