Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number sixty six of the Marine Layer Podcast.
Speaker 1: We have our reliever grades for the twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: season short episode today, but we will take a look
Speaker 1: at the Mariner's bullpen and see how they fared.
Speaker 2: This show is brought to you by Pigatcha's Pub eighty five.
Speaker 2: That's Pigotcha's Pub eighty five in Kirkland. It's east of
Speaker 2: four oh five. It's got some awesome food, including some
Speaker 2: great pizza. It's got great drinks. There's twenty two TVs
Speaker 2: in the place. So with sports going on, what do
Speaker 2: we say? October is the best sports month of the year.
Speaker 2: And that is a fact here on this podcast. So
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Speaker 1: Let's get it rolling, and we welcome you to this
Speaker 1: episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just
Speaker 1: Baseball Podcast network. Recording this episode here on Wednesday, October eleventh,
Speaker 1: when you're listening to this, LAO and I will be
Speaker 1: on vacation, so uh, don't hit us up. We're busy
Speaker 1: looking looking forward to this trip for sure, but before
Speaker 1: we get to that trip, had to make sure we
Speaker 1: had you guys covered and complete our twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: season grades for the Mariners, and today we will finish
Speaker 1: out on the bullpen. But first to start, I'm sure
Speaker 1: we're having a good time right now. Wonder exactly what
Speaker 1: we're doing.
Speaker 2: Well, by the time this is posted and released, we'll
Speaker 2: have seen the Rangers play at the garden, so we
Speaker 2: will have been to Madison Square Garden for the first
Speaker 2: time in our lives. I would say it was awesome.
Speaker 1: I've been there.
Speaker 2: No, this will come out Friday, We'll have been there Thursday. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so we'll have gone there. I've been there.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say i've been there before you said you
Speaker 1: haven't been.
Speaker 2: I have, Sorry, sorry, you have been. We're getting okay,
Speaker 2: Well I have not, so this will be the first
Speaker 2: for me. I'm looking forward to it, so it'll be
Speaker 2: my first time in the garden. TJ has been Go Rangers.
Speaker 2: Let's just put it out there. They won. They won.
Speaker 2: If we're wrong about this when this comes out, then oops,
Speaker 2: oh well, but we went to the Rangers game. We're
Speaker 2: going to say we had a blast. And I'm sure,
Speaker 2: like TJ said, when you're listening to this, we are
Speaker 2: having a good trip. See TV's in a grumpy mood.
Speaker 2: He's saying, don't hit us up. I'm gonna say on
Speaker 2: my end if you still want to talk Mariners, I'll
Speaker 2: be on my phone during the trip. If you really
Speaker 2: want to send us something or send me something, I'll
Speaker 2: answer it. I'll response, So hit us up if you want.
Speaker 2: Although we will be we will be enjoying our trip.
Speaker 1: Well, we might be a tad bit busy. I think
Speaker 1: there's one thing I could guarantee I'm doing by the
Speaker 1: time this podcast episode comes out in a little over
Speaker 1: a week, I'll be drinking dunkin Donuts, which is my
Speaker 1: happy place. I think I will be very what's what's
Speaker 1: the right word for it, contempt satisfied. I think I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be very satisfied with my presence on Friday morning
Speaker 1: when a lot of people are listen listening to this episode,
Speaker 1: because I'm gonna have dunk a Donuts in a New
Speaker 1: York City bagel, and there's nothing better than that. So
Speaker 1: that's my flex.
Speaker 2: What do I say, better than that awful establishment of Starbucks,
Speaker 2: which we boycott as we currently sit there's two things.
Speaker 2: We're boycotting Starbucks which always and we're probably sitting here
Speaker 2: boycotting the Alcs at the time of this podcast. Why
Speaker 2: I ain't watching Rangers Astros If we've been at a
Speaker 2: bar at this point and it's on my backs to it,
Speaker 2: I hain'te watch it.
Speaker 1: I love the stand Low, I love it. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna I'm not playing on watching it either. I haven't
Speaker 1: got to watch a ton of playoffs, but definitely not
Speaker 1: watching that one. It's no, I can't do it unless
Speaker 1: they fight. They almost fought this season that I would
Speaker 1: tune in to watch, but baseball wise, I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. Let's get to our reliever grades
Speaker 1: Lyle throughout the season. Mariner's bullpen another excellent season, and
Speaker 1: we'll start off what I think both you and I
Speaker 1: agree was the best reliever in this twenty twenty three season.
Speaker 1: Matt Brash, what's your grade?
Speaker 2: Matt Brash gets today. Look, his season was not perfect.
Speaker 2: He was a little bit up and down at times,
Speaker 2: as most relievers would be. But when you put up
Speaker 2: a two twenty seven FIP, when you put up nearly
Speaker 2: fourteen k's per nine, and when you rank fourth among
Speaker 2: all relievers in f war, that is an a Matt
Speaker 2: Brash did everything they could have expected of him and more.
Speaker 1: His expected numbers really jumped all across the board, which
Speaker 1: was nice. We saw his fastball get another gear this
Speaker 1: season as well, which is a nice development for him,
Speaker 1: even if the results really weren't there. His fastball wasn't
Speaker 1: a true outpitch. We've highlighted before how his fastball really
Speaker 1: isn't a true elite fastball, even though he throws it hard,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't have elite physical characteristics outside the velocity.
Speaker 1: His slider, though, I mean, really really pops some ridiculous
Speaker 1: numbers this season better than it was a season ago.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're talking about an expected sluggan of under
Speaker 1: two forty an elite x wOBA as well forty eight
Speaker 1: percent with rate on that slider this season and a
Speaker 1: forty four percent strikeout rate. He did get a little
Speaker 1: unlucky this season, really unlucky, especially early in the season.
Speaker 1: Finished the season with a batting average on balls and
Speaker 1: play of about three point eighty. But for a number
Speaker 1: one reliever in this bullpen, maybe you'd want to see
Speaker 1: his stats a little bit better, which is why he
Speaker 1: doesn't get an A plus. He just gets an A.
Speaker 1: The inconsistencies led to a little bit of an inflation
Speaker 1: of his era. At times you get a little bit wild.
Speaker 1: His strikeout rate dropped month by month as the season
Speaker 1: went along, which you'd want to say that see that
Speaker 1: stay plate towed. But in the end, he was the
Speaker 1: fourth best reliever in baseball by f war and you
Speaker 1: can't ask too much else of Matt Brash if that's
Speaker 1: the case.
Speaker 2: So your grade for him was an A, it was okay,
Speaker 2: So so a's across the board from Matt Brash. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he had a great year, super weird. I kind of
Speaker 2: remember this peer of time and I don't know may
Speaker 2: where there were some Mariner fans claiming he should, I
Speaker 2: don't know, be sent to Tacoma. Yeah, that was a
Speaker 2: real take from several fans across Twitter. It's kind of
Speaker 2: a good thing they didn't do that, because considering he
Speaker 2: was our best reliever, they needed it.
Speaker 1: That would have been a bit of a sticky situation
Speaker 1: for Scott Servis. There's one thing I think maybe he
Speaker 1: if he's really going to become an elite, elite, elite
Speaker 1: like Felix Batista level reliever, he was kind of pedestrian
Speaker 1: against lefties this season. Low. I mean, here are these
Speaker 1: numbers against lefties. His strikeout rate was barely above league
Speaker 1: average twenty five point four percent strikeout rate against lefties.
Speaker 1: His walk rate was nearly eleven percent. His FIP was
Speaker 1: two and a half runs higher against lefties than it
Speaker 1: was against righty's. And that all that was with a
Speaker 1: Babbitt that was actually lower against lefties than it was
Speaker 1: against righty's. Just like it doesn't feel quite as confident
Speaker 1: for a dominant reliever to actually not be dominant again,
Speaker 1: and some lefty c's facing that's probably because he doesn't
Speaker 1: have a pitch breaking away from lefties. He throws a
Speaker 1: slider in on their hands. He occasionally cork screw one
Speaker 1: like he did with Jose Ramirez. But when you rely
Speaker 1: on your fastball a little bit more against lefties and
Speaker 1: your slider is not quite as strikeout pitch against lefties
Speaker 1: as it is against righty's, that leads to some inconsistencies
Speaker 1: in his stats and eventually leads to smoutings like we've
Speaker 1: seen him have where he doesn't throw strikes or he
Speaker 1: gets hit around a little bit. So I'd say that's
Speaker 1: one thing that if Matt Brash is going to take
Speaker 1: that next step, that's what he's got to attack.
Speaker 2: I think that's all fair. I wonder if those numbers
Speaker 2: against lefties just kind of flatten out next year, in
Speaker 2: the sense of maybe they just correct themselves. Maybe not.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just lefties have a little bit of an
Speaker 2: edge on Brash, which is possible. But I also wouldn't
Speaker 2: be shocked if it just kind of gets more even
Speaker 2: here in twenty twenty four. But overall, like we've said
Speaker 2: about all the guys that we give a's to and
Speaker 2: still talk about the downsides with Hornett picking, we're talking
Speaker 2: about a guy that was objectively one of the five
Speaker 2: to ten best relievers in baseball. By again, by four
Speaker 2: he was fourth, case per nine were third among relievers.
Speaker 2: This guy's awesome, he is, and he's gonna beating this
Speaker 2: bullpen a long time. So look forward to seeing much
Speaker 2: more Matt Brash. Oh, by the way, Brent Rooker shout
Speaker 2: out for Matt Brash. So Brent, He's been way more
Speaker 2: active on Twitter recently, which is pretty cool, and I
Speaker 2: think he started to engage with a lot of fans.
Speaker 2: Seems like an awesome guy, by the way, Brent Rooker
Speaker 2: of the eighth and a couple of things he said
Speaker 2: this week, Well, he had three tweets that just warmed
Speaker 2: our hearts. Number one his favorite road ballparker, Timo will Park,
Speaker 2: he said in Seattle. He said, he loves it. There's
Speaker 2: number one. Number two. Somebody asked, what stats do you
Speaker 2: use to try to evaluate your game? He said, I
Speaker 2: like to use hard hit rate, Chase Ray, Walk Ray,
Speaker 2: like like all these baseball savant numbers. He said. I
Speaker 2: know a lot of people aren't gonna like to hear that,
Speaker 2: but it is very indicative of my game. And I said,
Speaker 2: howardy you, Brent Rooker. Stand out for the analytics nerds.
Speaker 1: Gonna say is like, these are the stats I can control,
Speaker 1: Which is the biggest point he tried to make.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is great. And number three the whole reason
Speaker 2: we bring this up. Somebody said, what's the toughest pitch
Speaker 2: you've Yeah, the toughest pitch you've had to face so
Speaker 2: far in your career or this season, he said, it's
Speaker 2: Matt Brash as sweeper. And he said, honestly, I couldn't
Speaker 2: even characterize it as that whatever that guy's throwing should
Speaker 2: be in a whole different stratosphere and a whole different
Speaker 2: stratosphere in terms of a category. So he's getting shout
Speaker 2: outs around the league. All we hear about Matt Brash
Speaker 2: is just how good his stuff is. So shout out
Speaker 2: to you, Matt Brash.
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Speaker 2: Okay, Andres Muno's Reliever Number two. What Great did you give.
Speaker 1: Him a minus. It was close that. When I think
Speaker 1: about this, it could have been worse and it could
Speaker 1: have been better, because if we are it depends how
Speaker 1: you depends how you're grading Andres Munhoz. I graded him
Speaker 1: in the looking not how he performed last season. I
Speaker 1: graded him how he stacked up in this bullpen this year, which,
Speaker 1: if you look at his overall numbers were good, his
Speaker 1: era was not right next to his expected era. He
Speaker 1: struck out thirty two percent of the batteries he faced,
Speaker 1: his FIP was too seven. Those are all things you
Speaker 1: love to see among relievers. With forty innings, twenty second,
Speaker 1: strike out rate eighteenth and fifth. So very good season
Speaker 1: for Andre's Munos. If you want to make a case
Speaker 1: that his grade should have been lower, it's the fact
Speaker 1: that he was as good as he was this year
Speaker 1: is significantly worse than he was last season. We came
Speaker 1: on this podcast and said at the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: our expectation for Andres Munos is for him to be
Speaker 1: a top five reliever in baseball. He wasn't a top
Speaker 1: five reliever in baseball. I don't really think he was
Speaker 1: close to a top five reliever in baseball this season,
Speaker 1: which stunk. He lost pretty much all effectiveness in his
Speaker 1: slider this season, and yet he's so talented that he
Speaker 1: still managed to put up an a minus season in
Speaker 1: our eyes, and the stats would reflect it as well.
Speaker 2: I also gave Munos an a minus. So we're two
Speaker 2: for two on similar grades here. And by the way,
Speaker 2: for those curious, TJ and I don't tell it. TJ
Speaker 2: and I do not tell each other what our grades
Speaker 2: are of each pitcher before we do these. We like
Speaker 2: it to be kind of a surprise on the show,
Speaker 2: so then we compare notes. But we are two for two.
Speaker 2: I think everything you've outlined is more than fair for
Speaker 2: why he gets a good grade. I think there's also
Speaker 2: a lot to be outlined, which you also talked about,
Speaker 2: for why he was not as good as he was
Speaker 2: a season ago. Along with I'll add one more thing
Speaker 2: that his walk rate was way up. He was walking
Speaker 2: away more guys this year than he was a season ago,
Speaker 2: so that didn't help him, and obviously that led to
Speaker 2: more traffic on the base pads. We saw Munho's get
Speaker 2: into a lot of close calls late in games this
Speaker 2: year when he was trying to close games out, and
Speaker 2: a couple of them he blew. A couple of them
Speaker 2: were just very very high pressure situations where it was
Speaker 2: right on the brink and he just barely found a
Speaker 2: way to notch out a save. But yeah, he just
Speaker 2: wasn't quite as crisp as he was last season, and
Speaker 2: part of that's because of the walks. Part of that
Speaker 2: was because the slider wasn't as effective, So you'd hope
Speaker 2: some of those things could kind of get fixed in
Speaker 2: the offseason too. Muno's's credit, however, he still pitched the
Speaker 2: way he did, which was very well considering he had
Speaker 2: essentially no spring training most of the first two months
Speaker 2: of the year. He pitched in the first couple series
Speaker 2: and then went on the il for about two months,
Speaker 2: and he didn't really get a shot to adjust to
Speaker 2: the pitch clock either, which I heard him say in
Speaker 2: an interview was a little bit of an adjustment, like
Speaker 2: imagine if you're Andre's Munoz. He didn't pitch a game
Speaker 2: in spring training, so never got to see the pitchclock there,
Speaker 2: pitched in a couple of big league games where he
Speaker 2: got a little bit of experience with it, and then
Speaker 2: between having the lingering foot injury, and also coming back
Speaker 2: and having to adjust to the pitch clock. Having the
Speaker 2: season he did, he deserves some credit for that, and
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be shocked if he totally flushes this next year.
Speaker 1: Just to put in context of what happened to his
Speaker 1: slider last year, his slider was one of the best
Speaker 1: pitches in baseball. It was a plus twenty run value
Speaker 1: on Baseball SABAN this season plus three. That's a major
Speaker 1: drop off for what we consider an elite elite pitch.
Speaker 1: If you look on another plus side, though, his fastball
Speaker 1: went from sub last year to actually plus this season.
Speaker 1: Improved his fastball with across the board with expected stats,
Speaker 1: expected batting average, expected slugging K percentage, and with percentage,
Speaker 1: and I think it paired really well with the sinker
Speaker 1: he added as well, started throwing that a little bit
Speaker 1: more to kind of offset the ineffectiveness of his slider
Speaker 1: this season. So an ideal world next year, he has
Speaker 1: that sinker, which graded out positively, he has the fastball,
Speaker 1: which was improving in twenty twenty three, and he has
Speaker 1: a slider that hopefully regains eighty percent of its twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two value. That would make Andres Munos that would
Speaker 1: vault him back into a top five reliever spot. But
Speaker 1: that's the level we hold andres Muno sat and when
Speaker 1: he doesn't hit it, he gets dinged for it because
Speaker 1: we know he's better than being outside the top five.
Speaker 2: Could you imagine if he has all three of those
Speaker 2: pitches working in full force next year, if his fastball
Speaker 2: stays as good, if his sinker's days as good, Andy
Speaker 2: gets his slider back, what does that Andre's Munyos look like.
Speaker 1: It eliminates most of the the damage risk against him,
Speaker 1: because if you throw that slider more, you might put
Speaker 1: a bat on it, but you're not doing any damage
Speaker 1: with that swing. If you're gonna have success against Munos,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be all luck based, because you know, when
Speaker 1: his slider's on, you're not hitting that. When he's pumping
Speaker 1: one oh one with that fastball and it said it's peak,
Speaker 1: you're it's really hard to barrel up one hundred and
Speaker 1: one mile an hour fastballs. And oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: when he's throwing a ninety eight mile an hour tailing
Speaker 1: sinker off the outside corner to the lefties, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you're really doing much damage with that either.
Speaker 1: What what do you plan on hitting.
Speaker 2: He would be one tough dude to hit, not that
Speaker 2: he's not already, but if he gets that slider back
Speaker 2: next year and get some of this command back a
Speaker 2: little bit, we're talking about a guy who can be
Speaker 2: the best reliever in baseball, the number one relieve in
Speaker 2: baseball if he does all those things, because he is
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Speaker 1: So justin Topa, Yeah, justin Topa. What's your grade?
Speaker 2: Topa gets an Ay. We're talking about a guy who
Speaker 2: started the year in the minor leagues and comes season's end,
Speaker 2: and there is a real argument, which we made on
Speaker 2: this podcast that he was the best reliever among Mariners
Speaker 2: bullpen arms this year. There's a fair argument for Brash.
Speaker 2: I think there's also a fair fair argument for Topa too.
Speaker 2: As a result, both those guys get A's two sixty
Speaker 2: one ERA. For Topa two ninety three XCRA got a
Speaker 2: ton of ground balls. That sinker was deadly. I mean,
Speaker 2: you want to talk about a guy that was like
Speaker 2: an earthworm in terms of not giving up any hard
Speaker 2: contact or anything in the air. Ninety fourth percentile and
Speaker 2: ground ball rate. He was also ninety seven percentile in
Speaker 2: barrel percentage. So nobody hit him hard, nobody put it
Speaker 2: in the air against him, and he had a two
Speaker 2: sixty one ERA for the year. What a guy the
Speaker 2: Mariners found in that Brewers trade. Yeah, he gets an A.
Speaker 1: I give him an A two. You get an A
Speaker 1: if you remember who they traded him, traded for him.
Speaker 2: Who the Mariners gave up, Yeah it was Joseph Fernandez.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, good, So you get an eight.
Speaker 2: Come on, I'm not a casual.
Speaker 1: When you can get this kind of production trading Joseph
Speaker 1: Hernandez Away, you're gonna take it. You're gonna take it
Speaker 1: any day of the week. Limiting damage. Not again, not
Speaker 1: an elite strikeout guy, but when you talk about getting
Speaker 1: soft contact and ground balls with the top tier of baseball,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what Justin Topa did. This bullpen outside
Speaker 1: of Matt Brash really became a sinker bullpen, limiting damage,
Speaker 1: limiting hard contact, limiting home runs, things that will crush
Speaker 1: you as a bullpen. And nobody epitomized that more than
Speaker 1: Justin Topa. When you scan, when I scan through these
Speaker 1: relievers when we're doing our grades. The Mariners like having
Speaker 1: guys who are just elite at something. All these guys
Speaker 1: are elite at something. For example, Justin Topa was elite
Speaker 1: at for his expected ra was elite, but he was
Speaker 1: also elite at limiting barrels. He was elite at generating
Speaker 1: ground balls. He was not elite at getting whips. He
Speaker 1: was not elite at getting chases. But that's fine because
Speaker 1: he had other elite traits. And when you mishmash all
Speaker 1: these mixed elite traits together it sometimes spits out a
Speaker 1: pretty good bullpen. And Justin Topol is just the start,
Speaker 1: as we'll get into the other guys of what a
Speaker 1: unique and good bullpen is from guys that were on
Speaker 1: the baseball scrap heat.
Speaker 2: It is interesting how this Mariner's bullpen has evolved, because
Speaker 2: three years in a row they've been a great bullpen.
Speaker 2: But you even look at the difference in arsenals between
Speaker 2: last year and this year. The twenty twenty two bullpen,
Speaker 2: they were so slider heavy. Munho's big slider, brash, big slider,
Speaker 2: Seawalt great slider. I mean these are all sweepers. I
Speaker 2: mean Seawalts especially was a sweeper. Penn Murphy big sweeper.
Speaker 2: All these guys in twenty twenty two were throwing at
Speaker 2: Matt besta big sweeper. But then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: you get to twenty twenty three and you look at
Speaker 2: Munho's a sinker, you look at Topa's sinker. You look
Speaker 2: at a bunch of these guys that, like you were mentioning,
Speaker 2: were sinker heavy. Yeah, to more ground balls, but they
Speaker 2: were just as effective, if not more effective. It's interesting
Speaker 2: how it's evolved, but it's evolved in a very good way.
Speaker 1: Now, Gabe Spire, well, now, if I'm talking about elite trades,
Speaker 1: he's got him too. But first, what's your grade for him?
Speaker 2: I gave Gabe Spire a B plus and it was close.
Speaker 2: I think the era for Spire as a whole at
Speaker 2: three seven nine knocked it down a little bit because
Speaker 2: that is that is higher than the guys we were
Speaker 2: giving a's and A minuses two along with the fact
Speaker 2: Spire didn't have a great September four fit the era
Speaker 2: in the month of September when they really needed them.
Speaker 2: But this is a guy that did a lot of
Speaker 2: things really well, and I'll let you get into that.
Speaker 1: I said elite traits, right, and we just highlighted Topa's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: Topa's elite traits. He's not elite at getting chases or whiffs.
Speaker 1: You know who was one hundred percentile and chase rate,
Speaker 1: Gabe Spire. You know who is seventy seventh percentile in
Speaker 1: whiff rate, Gabe Spire. What about strikeout rate? Eighty ninth percentile?
Speaker 1: What about on top walk rate? On top of that
Speaker 1: seventy two percent Gabe Spire led every pitcher in Baseball
Speaker 1: at a minimum of fifty innings pitched. In first pick
Speaker 1: strike percentage, I think it was a little over seventy
Speaker 1: six percent. Kirby, by the way, George Kirby, Shocker among
Speaker 1: all qualified pitchers, was first in that category as well.
Speaker 1: So talk about what made Gabe spire special. Throwing a
Speaker 1: ton of strikes, getting a ton of whiffs at a
Speaker 1: good rate, getting a lot of guys to chase, getting
Speaker 1: his strikeouts. I mean, you claim this guy off of Waivers,
Speaker 1: comes into your bullpen and strikes out twenty nine percent
Speaker 1: of his batters while walking just five percent. By the way,
Speaker 1: among relievers in strikeout minus walk rate, he was only
Speaker 1: behind Matt Brash and the Mariners bullpen, and he was
Speaker 1: thirteenth in baseball. That's another guy who you find traits
Speaker 1: that work in your bullpen and insert him in and
Speaker 1: he works out, and that's why he gets a B plus.
Speaker 2: For me, I would call Gabeespier the chase rate king
Speaker 2: a lot of this year because he was that one
Speaker 2: hundredth percentile. He got guys to chase pitches, which was awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Zra was a little high, but you know what, his
Speaker 2: x FIP was a lot better than his ra so
Speaker 2: some of the underlying numbers were better. And you mentioned it.
Speaker 2: He struck a bunch of guys out. The Mariners didn't
Speaker 2: have any lefties in the bullpen in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: and to start twenty twenty three on opening night, they
Speaker 2: didn't have any lefties either. Now they do. In fact,
Speaker 2: they've got two of them. Both of them are really effective,
Speaker 2: one of them being Gabe Spire, who got a ton
Speaker 2: of guys to swing and had a really, really good year.
Speaker 2: I mean, this feels like a profile that can sustain.
Speaker 1: Last thing on Spire for me finding something with Gabe Spire,
Speaker 1: not just some of the results he had, but his
Speaker 1: fastball ended up being sneaky good. I didn't even realize
Speaker 1: so good a fastballs this year. At the end, the
Speaker 1: results are a one twenty eight average against and a
Speaker 1: two thirty one slugging against. His heater that averaged ninety
Speaker 1: five miles an hour and was his primary strike, throwing
Speaker 1: pitch thirty five percent with rate on that pitch. Some
Speaker 1: elite traits right there.
Speaker 2: Really elite traits. Again. Another way, this bullpen's evolved. No
Speaker 2: lefties in twenty twenty two, they had two good ones
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three. Speaking a good lefties, let's get
Speaker 2: to the second South pond, this Marinus twelve pen. Taylor
Speaker 2: saw Sato too much, sauce. What do you got for?
Speaker 2: What do you got for Taylor's grade?
Speaker 1: He gets a B from me another guy. There's some
Speaker 1: elite traits here. Taylor saw Sato this season was elite
Speaker 1: at limiting hard contact ninety fourth percentile and average exit
Speaker 1: velocity of this season. Didn't allow barrels, didn't allowed hard
Speaker 1: hit baseballs, got a ton of ground balls, had good
Speaker 1: extension as well. Ended the season with a three to
Speaker 1: five nine ERA, probably a little high for a high
Speaker 1: end reliever. Only racked up point two fan grafts wins
Speaker 1: above replacement. They cleaned him off of waivers from the Mets. Again,
Speaker 1: when you can get results like this from waiver claims
Speaker 1: and they end up being a very crucial part of
Speaker 1: your bullpen and serving a role like Sausado did where
Speaker 1: he comes in, he limits hard contact and he gets
Speaker 1: a bunch of ground balls, and in the end, he
Speaker 1: was the sixth reliever in the bullpen this season. When
Speaker 1: Seawall was in it, he was the sixth guy. And
Speaker 1: you have a six guy generating all these ground balls
Speaker 1: and limiting all this hard contact and ends up working
Speaker 1: out pretty well and you earn yourself a good grade.
Speaker 2: I gave him a B plus, so I went a
Speaker 2: little bit higher. And some of his expected stats were
Speaker 2: not great, but you just look at his Baseball savon
Speaker 2: page and for some of the stuff you just outlined
Speaker 2: the way he wouldn't give up hard contact, the way
Speaker 2: he got so many groundballs, so impressive. Again, picked up
Speaker 2: from the Mets, started into Koma, him, Topa, and Spire
Speaker 2: all started the year in Tacoma, and all three of
Speaker 2: these guys became very valuable and reliable bullpen pieces. For Sasato, yeah,
Speaker 2: I gave him a B plus. I think he earned it.
Speaker 2: There was so much of his profile that played so
Speaker 2: well into the Mariner's strengths. Again, for a guy that
Speaker 2: got a lot of ground balls the way Topa did
Speaker 2: and limited hard contact benefit is huge for the Mariners.
Speaker 2: I think there's ways he can still get better. I think,
Speaker 2: similar to Andre's Muno, Sasato could cut his walks down
Speaker 2: a little bit, and that's something that maybe didn't give
Speaker 2: him the A grade or a minus grade is there
Speaker 2: would be some start outings here and there, I should
Speaker 2: say where Sasato would come in. He just wouldn't really
Speaker 2: have it with the command and sometimes Scott had to
Speaker 2: go out there and yank him early and leave traffic
Speaker 2: on the basis. But look, no reliever's perfect. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I think Salsato had a great year. Another guy with
Speaker 2: a profile that plays for a long period of times.
Speaker 2: So I think that people have got to be pretty
Speaker 2: happy with what he did this year.
Speaker 1: Before we get to our final reliever here in our
Speaker 1: reliever gradees. So let's hear from Simply Seattle. If you
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Speaker 1: Good friend of the podcast, happy to have simply seattle
Speaker 1: along for the ride. Okay, final reliever, Isaiah Campbell. What's
Speaker 1: your grade?
Speaker 2: Another'd B plus. I think there's things that Campbell can
Speaker 2: certainly work on, like some of these relievers. Another guy
Speaker 2: who probably walked a few too many batters, but there
Speaker 2: was a lot of things he did really well. For
Speaker 2: a guy that became very dependable as the year progressed,
Speaker 2: nobody really hit his slider very well. You're talking about
Speaker 2: a guy that gave up a one thirty seven batting
Speaker 2: average against that pitch, get a two to eighty three er.
Speaker 2: He was punching out ten batters per nine. That's a
Speaker 2: pretty good profile for a reliever. So for a guy
Speaker 2: that was making his inaugural season in the show and
Speaker 2: was called upon late and started to get a bigger
Speaker 2: and bigger role as time went on, I was pretty
Speaker 2: impressed with what Isaiah Campbell did.
Speaker 1: It was fun to see his slider really develop into
Speaker 1: maybe not an elite elite pitch, but he ended up
Speaker 1: with a plus six run value and hitters hit just
Speaker 1: one thirty seven and slugged one fifty seven on his slider.
Speaker 1: What I thought was interesting about the balance of it
Speaker 1: is that he didn't get a ton of whiffs on it.
Speaker 1: It was under thirty percent, and usually an elite slider
Speaker 1: you're looking at a Matt Brash level like forty eight percent.
Speaker 1: That was not Campbell's case, but he didn't let many
Speaker 1: guys reach by swinging at a slider. For guy who
Speaker 1: didn't have many expectations coming into this year, to come
Speaker 1: into this Mariner's bullpen and have a two eight three
Speaker 1: era and you know, just a third of fangrafts wins
Speaker 1: above a replacement, you'll take it. He's he is the
Speaker 1: last guy in the bullpen and probably the last guy
Speaker 1: in the bullpen next season as well. For however they
Speaker 1: add to this this bullpen. But you know, when you
Speaker 1: have you throw ninety five and you have ninety first
Speaker 1: percentile spin on your fastball and there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of growth in that profile as well, I think you'll
Speaker 1: take that alongside the slider, which got good results this year,
Speaker 1: and he got more consistent as the season came along.
Speaker 1: He had some outings where he looked really, really really
Speaker 1: good down the stretch, and a guy like the marriage
Speaker 1: could rely upon if they needed to in a higher
Speaker 1: leverage situation. So your grade for him was, Man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna roll with this B B.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you gave Campbell a bee, I gave him
Speaker 2: B plus. I don't think he's gonna be the last
Speaker 2: guy in the bullpen, by the way, because so just
Speaker 2: to be clear, we're highlighting the main six relievers that
Speaker 2: the Mariners use this year. There will be a few
Speaker 2: more guys in the bullpen than that we decided with this, okay,
Speaker 2: like Trent Thornton, Edward Bizardo, dominic Leone, even Devin sweet
Speaker 2: tyad Cock. Oh, he probably gets like a D really
Speaker 2: all right, maybe what are you giving him? Maybe higher? No?
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to give him a lower
Speaker 1: grade than that.
Speaker 2: No, I mean he's probably like he wasn't he wasn't
Speaker 2: very good. But I can't put him on the Colton
Speaker 2: Wong aj Pollock level quite.
Speaker 1: But well, the way you were talking sometimes close.
Speaker 2: I I thought Barroa should have been on the roster.
Speaker 2: But that's just me. Anyway, We're not gonna give every
Speaker 2: single reliever that pitched for the Mariners this year a
Speaker 2: grade like again, like even even though there was guys
Speaker 2: that ended the year on the team like the Thornton's
Speaker 2: or Bizardo's or the Devin Sweet or the ty Id
Speaker 2: Cocks that pitched in summer. Yeah, we're not gonna get
Speaker 2: all those guys a grade because these were the main six.
Speaker 2: So of the main six, would Campbell be the last?
Speaker 2: Probably at least right now. But I don't think he's
Speaker 2: gonna be the last guy in the bullpen next year
Speaker 2: unless they really go add some pieces that just blow
Speaker 2: you away. I think I'll have a decent role.
Speaker 1: Is if Burrow is in the bullpen, did you put
Speaker 1: Barrow over.
Speaker 2: Him, not to start, but maybe by by mid season? Yeah,
Speaker 2: or I mean depending how good on how good he looks. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that would leave somebody else. Maybe Campbell's not the
Speaker 2: last guy. Again, I think Campbell was pretty good and
Speaker 2: if he keeps going better, he might get used in
Speaker 2: higher leverage.
Speaker 1: Paul Sewald, by the way, got an A for me
Speaker 1: and he's doing great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he'd get an A form me too. Guy
Speaker 2: was striking out twelve for nine in Seattle and he
Speaker 2: had a sub three e er. He was he was awesome.
Speaker 2: We love Paul Seawold.
Speaker 1: Overall, though, good season for the Mariners bullpen and we
Speaker 1: think about these three contending seasons fifty four and a
Speaker 1: half percent, by the way, three different bullpens, three different structures,
Speaker 1: three different philosophies, three different groups of guys, and yet
Speaker 1: three three good results for the Mariners, three seasons in
Speaker 1: a row. And based off of this, we're gonna expect
Speaker 1: another good unit next season.
Speaker 2: Whoever they bring in before the start of next year,
Speaker 2: just pay attention because you never know who's gonna be
Speaker 2: a high leverage arm in this bullpen. I remember when
Speaker 2: the Mariners traded for Justin Topa. We talked about it
Speaker 2: here on the podcast. It was a story and we said,
Speaker 2: circle all these names, remember all these names, because you
Speaker 2: don't know which one of these guys is going to
Speaker 2: be a high leverage guy. Here we sit in October
Speaker 2: and we say, oh, yeah, Justin Topa, he might have
Speaker 2: been the Mariner's best reliever this year.
Speaker 1: Think about it, like Isaiah Campbell was the highest touted
Speaker 1: of any of these guys in this bullpen. Matt Brash,
Speaker 1: an unknown pitching prospect from Niagara Andres Munios was a
Speaker 1: throw in in the In the the Austin, Nola trade,
Speaker 1: Justin Topa traded for a minor league believer I think
Speaker 1: technically had his rookie eligibility last year at age twenty nine.
Speaker 1: Gabe Spier was claimed off of waivers. Taylor Sausato also
Speaker 1: claimed off of waivers, and Isaiah Campbell was a second
Speaker 1: round picker.
Speaker 2: See he was like a comp pick in the second
Speaker 2: round or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so he was the highest profile of all
Speaker 1: of them. It doesn't matter the profile. You find something
Speaker 1: you like. You find those elite traits like the Mariners
Speaker 1: have had, you stick them in the bullpen and good
Speaker 1: things happen.
Speaker 2: Keep it rolling. If the Mariners can keep putting out
Speaker 2: bullpens like this every year, they're gonna have an advantage
Speaker 2: a lot of the time. So keep it rolling. Nobody's
Speaker 2: complaining over here. Yeah, so short show today.
Speaker 1: Huh Yeah, I'm not complaining again. We're on vacation right now,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure. I'm sure we're having a blast. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys are having a blast while listening
Speaker 1: to this as well.
Speaker 2: That's our very short speak. Your mind is, we're on
Speaker 2: vacation and it's probably a bunch of fun. So there
Speaker 2: we go. We can. I'm sure we'll fill in more
Speaker 2: when We have our next speak your Mind when we're
Speaker 2: actually back from the trip and can recap what actually happened,
Speaker 2: rather than kind of guessing what happened while we're sitting here,
Speaker 2: but also half knowing because we have a bunch of
Speaker 2: stuff planned out. So yeah, that's our speak your Mind.
Speaker 2: We're enjoying vacation, and hopefully you guys are enjoying your
Speaker 2: time too, doing whatever might doing whatever you might be doing.
Speaker 2: So at that we'll just about wrap it up and
Speaker 2: we'll get back to our trip. I guess, so that
Speaker 2: wraps it up. That'll just about wrap up this edition
Speaker 2: of the Marine Layer podcast. You guys know the drill.
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Speaker 2: Layer pot that's TJ I'm Lyle. As always, we thank
Speaker 2: you guys for tuning in. Talk to you soon.