San Diego Padres News & Mailbag: Merrill's Heroics, Musgrove is BACK, Lefty Problems

on this week's Monday mailbag episode the S Padre split their weekend series with the New York Mets thanks to some pretty stellar Bullpen pitching at times the offense coming through at points especially in the case of Jackson Merill the vibe God uh whether or not he is officially you got to give him Rookie of the Year going to dive into all of that as well as of course some of your mailbag questions so let's get to it you are locked on Padres your daily San Diego Padres podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team Every Day greetings ladies and gentlemen and welcome to an edition of lockdown P's podcast which is part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day for Monday August 26th as always I your host with sometimes occasionally but certainly not always the most Javier Reyes you may be familiar with my other baseball related work over at just baseball to which I am rocking a hoodie for go check them out great website I recently wrote about the Tampa Bay Rays and the fallacy of why their way of building uh just gets a little bit overhyped by media especially uh so go check that out but I also write about General baseball and host another podcast called baseball versus the world which I'm slowly ramping up the schedule we're going to be doing a fictional uh Fantasy Draft uh suit for fictional baseball players so that should be a lot of fun and of course follow me on Twitter the best handle in the game at jaeno j a v i i p n o today's episode guys are recapping this weekend series and I don't have like a ton of observations because all in all this was a very not competitive series for the most part all right okay Sunday's game was very competitive and what I mean by competitive is the series was split 2 two but an individual basis three of the four games were very much like either one team or the other team basically nothing in between but uh yeah I think that there was a lot of you know cool stuff that we saw uh this weekend for the most part nothing particularly new with the exception of one person that we're going to talk about in the next segment and that is Mr katai Java Joe uh so we're going to be talking about him but for the most part it's kind of s old Padre's Vibes they won the way that we used to them wooding which is clutch hitting and just Immaculate Vibes overall and some really good Bullpen performances and speaking of Bullpen performances let's start with yesterday's game Padre's win and therefore tie the series 2 two um after winning this one 3-2 uh first of all Martin Perez uh I talked about after his last start that I still thought that his little L sanity run might not totally come to an end because I thought that in Minnesota um in that game they basically just made one meatball mistake to Ryan Jeffers and other than that he looked okay in this game three and two3 one earned run on four hits three walks which was unfortunate and one strikeout did not look all that great uh let's just be honest he didn't look very good in this one um but it's okay uh all in all I still think that he can be a valuable piece in the regular season to helping this Padre's team accumulate as many wins as possible espe especially with the regression of Matt Waldren who was optioned by the way and that happened after I recorded Friday's show by the way so he was optioned down but with the return of Joe Musgrove with the potential soon return of UD darish who of course uh it was announced he's off the restricted list he's still on the is he's still got to ramp up but that's great we love to see that so just a lot of good news updates I think from this weekend for this team um but yeah all in all uh was not very impressed with what Martine Perez did but I think that one thing that's been clear so far as he has been a little bit more reliable uh as this backend guy that can give you a few Innings the problem is that his Innings have actually gone down uh for a while now you know what I mean he started off first start um with the Padres he went six Innings and then he went seven then he went five and a third then four and 2/3 then three and 2/3 he just really labored through this one 79 pitches across this one uh it was not his best um appearance yes it is a very capable and very good Mets lineup as we saw through a lot of this weekend but all in all I was just like okay he did the job he went in if the Padres are put in a position where they have to do a bullpen game Perez is the type of guy that you want to do that with where it's like okay let's say CE and King and Musgrove and potentially Dar to see if they all had a great start and you're like we can afford to do a bullpen game today I feel pretty good about Perez down this stretch accumulating wins again I don't think he's going to be a major factor come playoff time assuming the potes make the playoffs but just for accumulating those wins it's players like this that can help you out just a Teensy little bit especially since since it basically didn't cost anything to acquire him so going to be curious to see how his next start goes um but I am also really fascinated by the fact that they sent down matt Waldren uh and Martin Perez and is just hanging out here so while I really love Waldren I think that he was such a delight for most of this year he has really hit a wall lately so I understand it but even still I'm a little bit surprised I guess that they're basically weighing that Waldron's upside which he showed you know throughout months like in June especially that they're like you know what that's all good but walren when he's bad is doing what he did in those past few starts so I got um someone uh just a friend of mine not none of you guys uh in a mailbag just like ask me like why did they send down Waldren and keep PR and I think that's what it is that Waldron has just looked like he's he's his downside is eight runs Perez's downside is might be might be what we saw here where it's like three Innings but he's not going to get you absolutely just bombarded and that they can rely on their Bullpen throughout as they did in this game with Brian hoen coming in he's been amazing as a padre one and a third in this one he does AOW two hits but no runs and four strikeouts Jeremiah Estrada comes in and looks looked about as sharp as he has in a little bit by the way because he's been very like he's a solid reliever with good stuff and could potenti could potentially get better down the way but he's just solid he's not all that much of a a superstar the way that he looked when he first started off but one inning two strikeouts no walks no hits that was great Jason Adam does give up an earned run in this one unfortunately uh to F boy Mark Vientos home run who's been one of the Met's best players right like this guy's been an absolute Beast we talked about this with Ryan finlin on Friday's episode just how stacked I think um the Mets lineup has been of late and especially with the edition of Vientos who's just a power Superstar right but other than that um Jamie Martinez also hit a home run that was off of Perez in the fourth inning um but other than that uh just kind of okay for the Po's Bullpen Tanner Scott comes in totally redeems himself from the last outing one inning two strikeouts great stuff and then Robert Suarez does end up getting the clothes and why does he get the clothes because ladies and gentlemen you might have heard it was yesterday's game was a pretty good I'm not going to say microcosm of the whole season only because the Padre's Bullpen has not been very good for the majority of the season but it was a great microcosm of the Padre's offense every time you watch this game all year it doesn't surprise anyone we've talked about this all season long you never feel like they're out of it and especially against a Mets team that only had a 2-1 Le two two lead and also their Bullpen isn't all that sharp yes Edwin Diaz is great but it's only theoretical this year he has had a little bit of a a fall back a fall from grace um from what he was before he'd been good lately don't get me wrong um but all in all he hasn't been as sharp as I think he was a couple years ago um especially after that injurying the World Baseball Classic so I'm not freaking out about it but it was still really cool jerks and profar is the hero off of Jose buto uh hitting a two-run shot allowing Mason McCoy to also score by the way shout out Mason McCoy new player Drew walk he he started off okay kind of intrigued never heard of this guy in my life might have to ask my guy armm Leon uh for a future episode uh Prospect Guru might have to ask him about him but um jerx and profar again has just been otherworldly the Ops leaders in high leverage situations this year he's like up there by like 300 point points has a lead um he's just been I don't know and that's why I think that this this game was such a microcosm of the Padre's offense and it's because of three people I think this year I think it's three maybe four if you count higgy but salano jerks and profar and then Jackson Merl getting offense from places that were not a guarantee or even places where you were like all right if they don't contribute I get it we're not supposed to expect all that much out of them um necessarily Merill being a rookie profar being like the worst qualified player in baseball last year and what do they do uh proar tying the game in the bottom of the eighth inning I was actually watching the SNY broadcast which makes Shock you guys but only because I was using Amazon for something else or vice versa sorry someone else was using Amazon so I couldn't use my I couldn't access my MLB stream that way so we just used the SNY broadcast I am on the east coast and they were just stone cold quiet you know what I mean like that you get that a lot and a lot of teams have felt that this year dealing with these two jokers and Jack Sam marrow walking it off of Diaz after Jay konorth gets struck out did not matter he hits it down the right field line very similar to the Mason Miller um walk-off from a few months ago that's kind of the situation here Merill has been an absolute stud to a degree that I don't think anyone can ever project for uh yes he has some flaws in his game yes I'd love if he drew some more walks that way he can be a little bit more of a menace on the base paths right would I like that sure but his ability to tap into more power as the season has gone on has been the stuff of Legend and again I cannot emphasize enough guys WRC plus with runners in high leverage situations this year jerx and pro far is first with a 360 and the second closest is 321 just it doesn't make any sense Jackson M for what it's worth is 17th he's been climbing up there especially over these last few weeks and we're going to talk a little bit more about that and the rest of the weekend series which frankly was not nearly as interesting as yesterday's game but we're still going to do it cuz this is locked on Padre's BAS but first I need to take a minute to talk to you about one of our sponsors and that is the good and fine and I'm sure very handsome and lovely folks over at supply house here's the thing folks when you need to get supplies for all the skilled trades This Is The Place To Go thousands of parts from hundreds of Brands and just a couple clicks at supplyhouse.com supplyhouse.com gives you 247 access to a huge selection of Plumbing HVAC and electrical supplies with fast delivery anywhere in the us of a coast to coast whatever you want need help with an order too don't worry they have industry leading service and advice folks to help you you know give you the support team that that you need in order to get whatever kind of Parts you want which is helpful especially for dumb people like me real person every time by the way so go check that out and great news for plumbers technicians and contractors being a pro has its perks trade industry professionals can join their free trade master program for free shipping and serious discounts on every every order over 100,000 Pros already trust the trade master program at supply house to deliver results apply for your membership today and get a Competitive Edge when you're shopping all those goody goodies Folks at supplyhouse.com sltm real people real service with supply house go check it out and just like that folks we are back here on the lockdown P's podcast thriving and vibing as always some more Jackson Merill love Jackson Merill this just tweet from AJ caval in 14 plate appearances with the Padre's tied or trailing by a run in the ninth inning Jackson Merill is hitting 583 with a walk and five home runs whether they're tied or they're behind and the five home runs are off of Mason Miller Blake tryan David Bednar George Serano and Edwin Diaz those are some pretty Elite company especially in the case of the first two uh tryan has been good for a long time I mean Padre's fans know this he's been really unfortunately very good uh despite being a little bit of a a wild boy I think online um he's been very good and Mason Miller as you know I mean Jackson Barrel hit the walk-off home run off of Mason Miller and then I swear he headed to the iil like three days after that like it was like he broke him completely broke him um Edwin Diaz still an elite you know kind of player but not having his Elite season because I think he's working back from that injury last year um and then George San's okay and David bedar usually a very good player I don't know what happened to David bedar David bedar was like one of the more consistent closers in all of baseball for a little bit but he's been um quite bad lately so don't get me wrong uh yeah he's got a a 5.56 ER hold on I'm sorry just a quick tangent what the heck happened to this guy two ER last year 261 year before 223 the year before and now he's a 5.56 I bring this up also to relate to the Padre's this is why I don't like bull Peds guys and no there was nothing in at least in FIP field independent pitching xfip that suggested that berar was due for the regression he also struck out a lot of batters I don't know what happened strikeout rate went down walk crate went down I'm just throwing it out there just a tiny bit when you guys get on me for not being a big believer in bullpen he's a good example of why I'm not crazy about Bullpen because that guy was Elite um so Jackson Merill again just 583 in the ninth with the five home runs is genuinely absurd but that's not all from at just baseball media in the ninth inning in general this year he is 11 for 32 which is good for a 1202 Ops he has five home runs and he has two of those being walk-off home runs he's been amazing and by the way over these last like it feels like three weeks it feels like this has been the Merill man this month like it really has been um over those last you know few weeks he's also had just some like triples that came up big like that's not counting some of the other high leverage situations he's been in he's been going up those leaderboards maybe he'll be right there next to proar by the end of the year but it doesn't count the the game saving catch that he made a few weeks ago remember that thing like that could have gotten out of control they were only up by one run Robert sorz already gave up one run so that was a great play he's been doing everything on a level like whether it just be getting base hits whether it be whatever the Padre's need he just seems to step up and yes it makes you wonder is he Rookie of the Year we're going to talk about that a little bit later in the question segment but first let's keep recapping the other two games that happened um Saturday's game did not go the 's way I actually didn't get to watch this one in full I only got to watch the uh the Highlight you know kind of game recap um because I was at my friend's engagement party so forgive me folks that's what I was doing I might have mentioned this on the episode last week too that I wouldn't be able to see this one live but this one not much to discuss oh and by the way forgot to mention the only bad thing about the Padre's this weekend that was disastrous is the fact that they couldn't hit Jose canana that's worth bringing up six and a third for him that they did not score their runs yesterday off of him and he is a lefty that that has been an issue for the Padre's and the reason why it's not like they bring in David Price and his prime I don't know why that's the first one I thought of it's not like there have been amazing starters they've made pretty mediocre lefties look pretty good all year long so that is something I'm looking out for especially come playoffs they got to be careful for that and it's pretty frustrating considering that outside Jake cronenworth and Luis arise most of the and Jackson M cuz he's a young it's whatever you're forgiven sir um outside those guys the lineup has a history of doing well against lefties so it's really frustrating that they hav him in this year but anyway um in Saturday's game not much to discuss here other than the fact that the Padres simply did not score Michael King in this game five innings but only he gave up five runs but only one of them earned so don't worry his erra and top five sa young finish is still in play strike out seven walk Three just a little bit of an up and down start I think for him which is fine I just think that every time Michael King has a less than Stellar start it makes me like him more because the bad version of him is stuff like this where it's like okay but Manny Machado made a throwing error and all that stuff so to me and Luis arise by the way shocker that Louis rise made an error this is a problem guys they really this is why I don't like putting him at first base it's it's it's really rough the Luis AR thing he's not a good Defender that's why he's in my opinion can be overrated if he could play defense that'd be great but anyway um in this game overall the pow just could not hit against David Peterson who's been pretty good for the Mets lately um but even still uh it's still unfortunate that they were not able to bounce back and why is it that they could hit David Peterson he's a lefty he goes seven and a third in this one walking two striking out only two it's not like his stuff was unhitable Padre just can't seem to hit lefties this year so that is a troubling uh development and then you know uh yukim Matsui gives up a run of course uh and then Logan Gillespie gives up a run as well uh over two innings but whatever it's fine I imagine he might get sent down at some point to make room for darish something like that um Francisco Lor two home runs including a Grand Slam in this one again because of the the errors it didn't count towards uh King's ra so if you're someone for whatever reason you're hoping for him to get the saong don't worry or not the saong the top finish in saang voting it looks like it's SK and Wheeler uh I believe right now at the top of the odds someone on the Phillies uh so whatever it happens hey if if King were to just go crazy for the end of the season not in it's not impossible that he wins the song it's not impossible very unlikely but not impossible just keep that in mind folks for something just for a selfish like award thing just keep it in mind anyway two home runs for Francisco Lindor you guys all know how I feel about Lindor he's amazing um a solo shot and the Grand Slam basically that summarizes everything from Saturday's game uh and Lindor is a beast and he might win the MVP uh and then Friday's game the Padre's completely dominated this is what I was talking about when I said that this is a very uncompetitive uh series cuz the Thursday game yes you did have another Jackson Marrow home run which was lovely but for the most part it was late in the game they had already gotten bombarded by that point with um Logan Gillespie getting absolutely shafted um in that one and the Padres just could not hit Luis 7 Rino but um in Friday's game very much bounce back for the Padres Mr Joe Musgrove seven Innings no walks no runs only one hit nine strikeouts this was the game that I told y'all on Friday I was most looking forward to and he came through now here's the thing I I know that there's like a greater than 0% not not significant hold on that was a double negative give me a second a significant amount of Mets fans that genuinely like hate this guy my friend that I know that's a Mets fan he hates him but in a stop doing well against us way Mets fans and and this also is perpetrated this is why media can be frustrating by the whole cheating thing and I just want to address that really quickly first of all I love that he went back and just is dominating against them right absolutely awesome not only is that huge for the Padres velocity all that sort of stuff he looked so so good he had a perfect game going through like what was it like five innings or four and a third I forgot exactly and the fact that the the perfect game got broken up and he's still you know and I put stock into that sometimes because everybody wants to throw perfect game that'd be awesome but for him to do that and just get hit or whatever allow that one hit and still stay in the zone just impressive stuff from our guy Joe musker kotai Joe Java Joe whichever one you want to call him uh just amazing stuff against the Mets and Paul Blackburn gets absolutely destroyed in this one five earned runs on 10 hits he did not last very long and we talked about him on Friday being a guy who'd really been developing but musve looked really good um the velocity was up especially on a sweeper by 1.3 miles per hour love to see that not a ton of whiffs but he's never been necessarily a ton of whiffs guys he's just a a guy who toys with you and I loved seeing the way he was performing and the SNY broadcast like last year when they you know Buck show Walter was clearly doing some gamesmanship and just trying to throw the Padre's off their game because they were about to lose and it was going to be a huge disaster for a team that had such an amazing season won a 100 games blew it a little bit at the end and lost the division but um you know he was just trying whatever Manny's laughing at it because he's like okay I know Buck you know I used to be a player for him and I know what he's trying to pull right now but then the SNY broadcast and a lot of Mets fans ran with it I'm talking about like some social media influencer people like giraff neck Mark you know what I mean if you guys know who that is that little fool uh who just doesn't know anything frankly when it comes to this stuff um and some other things too go look up his opinions on Justin Herbert but I think that uh like he was perpetuating that myth too there's a lot of Mets fans that have run with this and that's what's frustrating in the SNY broadcast after that game like professional people journalist media uh not even journalists in this case just or maybe a couple of them were I don't remember I don't know lot about the SNY broadcast but they were perpetuating this thing too and I was like okay let let me get this straight the umpires checked him right they checked his ear oh his ear was shining okay so what okay really that's what we're doing now one of the problems with baseball is people don't understand the idea of players that just get better because their little numbers on a spreadsheet or their fan graphs leaderboards did not project a player to get better it's what happened last year it's like oh well musk's velocity is up it's like yeah because this game matters so he's more and more going all out they can't comprehend that that's one of the my biggest biggest issues with analytical people as I get on this rant right now is that they they're so shocked when their numbers don't necessarily play out the way that they were I'm like well yeah welcome to real life sorry we don't have an algorithm that determines How the Universe Works yet so it's that always drives me nuts and they're like how could he possibly be pitching better in a playoff series oh I don't know maybe because it's a playoff series you know what I mean maybe he's willing to throw harder and he's into and he's locked in Andrew McCutchen came out during that broadcast or that game I should say uh and mentioned he's like yeah I think that what he's using is this thing that like makes your ear feel like it's on fire and he's like I don't know why he's doing that it doesn't give you an advantage the only thing I understand is it helps you lock in maybe like he he personally musker of likes that so that's another thing in favor of it they checked him there was no issue and then also just like 3 days before that series started uh between the Mets and Padres muskar was talking about how he didn't feel like like 2017 when he was with the Astros he he didn't feel all that proud of it he's like I want to go out and like win a not a real Championship I don't know if he Ed that word but he did take a little bit of a shot that he's like it doesn't feel the same right you think that he would do that and then on National Television cheat so blatantly like that it's just absolutely ridiculous and it's really frustrating that the Mets C met some of the Mets fans including influencers with big followings including the SNY people um after the game are running with this myth because your team got beat and he almost nearly got you with a perfect game the next start so Joe Musgrove we love you you rock Mets fans you stink if you believe in this BS but of course folks we're not done with today's episode we then have to of course wait into all your guys's crazy mailbag questions so we're going to talk about that especially when it comes to Jackson Merl's Rookie of the Year candidacy but first let me just take a second to talk to you guys about FanDuel you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel America's number one sports book well we have something a little bit different from you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers get can bet $5 and get a 3-we free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV check that out isn't that sick then with a YouTube TV base plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game for the NFL if you're all locked in on the football don't worry you can check it out they're really good for you all you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel any any time just visit fanduel.com lockon to download America's number one sports book FanDuel check it out we love you and just like that everybody we are back thriving and vibing as always into the mailbag segment of this podcast let us begin because you guys sent me your comments you sent me your questions and of course you know me they must be answered no no request goes unanswered in the Kingdom of Mr Reyes Let Me Tell You Folks um but anyway uh it all seriousness guys thank you for sending in your questions as always remember you can hit me up at haveno j a v i i p n o usually every Sunday night or so I also put out like one final request on the lock on potes account you can reply to that tweet DM whatever just reach out to me and say mailbag basically that's the number one requirement that that's what I would say but let us begin with some of the DMS that I got first and foremost one of my longtime listeners Mr rahama muray says question for Monday's show if the pyres resign jerks and profile for next season what is a reasonable contract I'm thinking 30 million for three years question mark he says also is Mike schil the NL manager of the year or is there someone else who is more deserving first of all I haven't even thought about I give you credit there I haven't even thought about the Mike schil thing like seriously I haven't even thought about that if I I feel like the manager is the one thing in baseball that is very heavily predicated on like a narrative thing I think it's probably the Brewers guy personally I think I don't feel great about that but who is the Brewers manager anyway let me look that up Brewers manager let me see uh Pat Murphy I I could see it I could see it being Mike schil because you know them losing Wan SoDo them going out and having to trade him away and put this thing together and bouncing back and on a level of not just winning more games but basically completely undoing what you did last year which is being horrific in the clutch like historically bad we talked about that in the offseason one of the lowest clutch ratings of any team since I was born and they're the only team not to make the playoffs like it's just unbelievably bad the reversal of Fortune in that specific area that could speak towards it it could speak towards hey shill look at him people might bring up uh hey remember when he went on that run with the Cardinals maybe this is just what he does teams love going on winning streaks I could see that a little bit but there's just as much unfortunately in favor of the Brewers who traded away their best player this off season didn't really sign anybody and that's it they basically had the same roster with the exception of you know they brought in like ree Hoskins but when you look at their overall roster they don't have nearly the same Superstar talent in theory uh that someone like the Padre's uh a team like the Padre's does right so that is a really important aspect of this so to me I think it's between those two I haven't checked the odds or anything on FanDuel or anything like that but I could see that I really could now don't get me wrong the Brewers have a solid roster it's a good team let me be very clear the problem is that they have a lot of players that like I just know aren't going to do well in the playoffs outside your William contas and Christian Yelich who's out for the season by the way the lad so to me I see that happening I think it's the Brewers I do I do but it is going to be close and we never know they might even throw it to the Phillies manager right I could totally see that too um but all in all I think it does depend Dbacks could see Dbacks too so I'd say Dbacks Padre's Brewers for at the moment how I'm feeling in terms of manager of the year but we'll have to see we'll have to see and the other part sir of your question that I thought was Excellence jerks and profar um I said this a lot he reminds me a lot of the situation with Cody Bellinger where Cody Bellinger was an MVP he was a rookie of the year but then he went through a three-year stretch where he simply could not hit anymore so and then all of a sudden he gets traded or signed by the Cubs for nothing last year and has a great season 4.4 F4 unfortunately he bounced backwards uh as everybody expected and has not been nearly as good this year as everybody had kind of predicted but that's a little bit the vibe of profar where like Cody bager could not hit he was like a one- win player for three straight years and then all of a sudden he was a four- win player jerks and profar is like that except he's never been an MVP rookie of the year and then all of a sudden here he comes and he's great I think that it's possible you get a deal like that I could actually see the end sum being greater but with some player options or Club options I could see that potentially occurring all I know is I think he clearly wants to say with the Padres they love him and he loves them right this is a real thing we keep seeing that he does better with them so I don't know this is a great question though I don't think that it'll be as much as Cody Binger because he has never been this good before but I think a 3 years 30 3 years 45 maybe 3 years 45 maybe one of those years being an option I could see something along that angle but all I know is I'd really love to keep it because first of all there's more than just luck here this is not just he's having a Cody Bellinger season just to give you an idea last year he had a weighted on base of 370 and an expected weighted on base of just 327 that was one of the greatest like discrepancies of any player in all of Major League Baseball so far this year for jerks and profar that has not been the case again I could give you the the breakdown of why he hasn't been nearly as bad in that regard but 375 weighted on base 367 expected weight on base it does not seem as luck based as Cody Ballinger last year and more importantly we've seen like a lot of different changes he's made so in my opinion yes the high leverage thing has been unbelievable I don't know if that's going to replicate but I do think he has figured out something with hitting so I could see that happening and the last part of your question uh also is there anybody better at walk-off calls the dot orelo me personally no I don't see it right now we've had some good ones I think Joe Buck has been great at this before and we'll see you tomorrow night like coming up with different sort of ways and ideas I think Joe Buck is still one of the best in the business at all that but in terms of right now you know I grew up with a little bit of Michael K he's not the same anymore with the walk-offs I think back in the day he was pretty good but he does bring the energy um you know Kevin Brown there there's a lot of different broadcasters out there but I don't think so man you know why cuz orilla really sounds like he's losing it that that's why I think that he's a little bit better Controlled Chaos Mr Donell so great question sir next coming up from another longtime listener Cass he says hopefully I'm not late with the question but just wondering if you could sign two of the new guys we got either Bullpen or pitching or batting who would you sign for a long-term deal and why them also Jackson Rookie of the Year had to sneak that in there stay faithful love the PO and go padr um if I had to I would of course keep the pictures I'd rather keep a Dylan CE or a Michael King um that's just what I'd rather do I do not like signing relievers long I'm sorry and by the way we already have one that's signed to a decent contract first of all they have Wy Peralta he was being designated for I like that the fighters are like let's just ignore that we did that real quick you know I mean like let's just get all these Bullpen guys and let's just hope nobody remembers that we gave W Peralta that weird contract um I'd rather keep one of Dylan CE and Michael King and then probably Jackson Merill right like that that's who I'd rather keep I just don't like extending from levers I'm sorry I think you can find them in certain areas you still have Suarez you have Estrada you have your Jacobs right they have some in-house additions that can make this team even better so for me it's none of the bullpen arms as much as I think they're solid and by the way some of them they will be keeping Brian hoing is under contract for next year Jason Adam is under contract so yeah my thing is yeah I'm totally down with letting a Tanner Scott leave totally down with that totally cool we will be okay but that's just me and then of course Maro rookie of the year yeah I mean what can I say at this point you guys know how I feel about this uh then from this is fr on Twitter got two for yve between proar Merill and soon to return fernandoo the pods have got to have the swaggiest Outfield in baseball right and then number two is can't be on the roster next season at this point the hive has lost all of its momentum the latter question I will say might depend a little bit on if any Prospect um moves happen I don't think Salas is even remotely close to ready so I still think you might see um Louis campy on especially because higashioka I believe I'm going to check this again is a free agent after this year so unfortunately because of just factor of control campan is probably on the roster next year at least that's what I see because unless there's a great catcher that they sign in free agency or even just a backup one he's probably going to play in some regard and maybe they're going to hope that they can uh yeah um higgy's a free agent after this year so that's what I see happening and hopefully they can find a decent backup until Salis is ready so I do see him staying unfortunately yes the hive has been on uh life support for a long time and then lastly P Pro Merill and soon to return Fernando the pods got to have the Swagg is Outfield I think so I know the Phillies are up there I know the Dodgers were up there because they had bets James outman was really good for them last year but he has not been this year I don't know man it's tough but the other problem is cuz my other reaction was well the Yankees they've got stto and judge but then the third Outfield there is a lot more questionable sometimes and it seems like jazz chisolm is playing third base for them so I don't think think if Jazz was playing in the outfield for them then I think they would be the one with the swaggiest potential Outfield uh I haven't been following enough but that's the another team for competition but yeah man let's ride with it we got a rookie of the year we got tatis and we got the Vibes King in profar what's better than that who's got it better than us um next questions though are from YouTube thank you though FAS for um sending in as always guys of course send it out to me um at Pablo Perez says I hope San Diego doesn't experience what happened two years ago that the team fell in the final part season did not enter the playoffs agreed but when that happened uh it the the fallof happened earlier you know what I mean it did happen earlier and they've still been winning series and there's been no sign that they're going to fall apart at least so far I think that that would it would take a lot for them to follow the playoffs and this weekend you saw they still managed to keep in you know in the front seat right they still our 74 wins they're four ahead of the Braves who the third wild card and then five or I'm sorry six ahead of the p uh the Mets who are on the outside looking in so again it would it would require a lot you would need sweeps as long as the PES keep playing consistently it does not have that same Vibe as last year or two years ago I should say I just think that the the downturn happened a lot sooner before this remember when we were freaking out about them not getting sherzer exactly and they were we were already freaking back at the deadline and now we're almost in September so I don't see that but still I understand why you're freaking out um at Travis Meers 4946 says I feel like when they do the blackout with Suarez it adds a little bit of an intimidation Factor behind him like with Trevor Hoffman and Hell's Bells everyone kind of knows it's over when you hear it I agree man and again I'm still in favor of let's make it as theatrical and re ridiculous uh as possible for every closer but far as yeah it is intimidating that song plays I'm not going to sing in Spanish right now but uh just really good stuff and there is an intimidation Factor especially when you know the guy's good uh so shouts to Robert Suarez one of my ex- factors heading into the season and then last ly at lfgd Padres says hopefully you have got off the SK bandwagon and are finally accepting that Merill is Rookie of the Year as a Padre's podcast you would think you would be on team Merill screw objectivity I need more Merl madness he just walked it off again against the Mets and profar guys who W home run tie of the game I think that it's now been such a run for him that one of the reasons why following the I think the series before Miami I'm blanking out who it was it's just that every player can get hot at points right I think everybody knows that this is baseball but now it keeps going which is why it makes me think this is not just H him having a hot stretch it's him having figured something out he's elevating the ball more he's hitting the ball hard he's getting on base a lot and by the way made a little bit of a mistake in Sunday's game getting tagged out uh trying to steal second base door made a good play too but you know that was like oh no and then he redeemed himself immediately I think he's got that going for him in terms of the stats the WRC plus the way he's like top 20 in F4 right now that's amazing he deserves so so much credit and also the fact that he's been doing all these walk-off wins combined with the fact that he's he's the war leader on this team guys he's a rookie he's 21 years old right and what I love about him is hey you want to go by weighted on base which I like doing 343 and he's got an expected of 365 he's been on such a hot stretch that I'm actually wondering if this is just the new Merill he's going to have 20 plus home runs he might even had finished with 25 he gets the bat on the ball more than anybody and what's more memorable that's the thing is memorable all these walk-offs all these ninth inning heroics that's got to contribute to something I like it when we're doing Awards and the story and the vibe is at least a little bit a part of it and for me skin is still in the race like let me be very clear we still have a month left this this is the a really really shockingly close uh Rookie of the Year race but paulski is still amazing guys he's still amazing and the stuff that he's doing is a little bit more rare uh for a rookie than what Jackson Merill is doing however it's because of those walk-offs and it's because narratively I think it means a lot that they needed him to come in and play center field which was not his position and he came in and played it great that has to matter I I just I'm sorry it has to matter we have to take things like that into account I don't care about the stats sometimes so it's still very close to me but I think Merill has to be in the lead and by the way according to all the betting sites he is number one in odds right now so we'll see we'll see again it's really important 2.16 ra and the other thing about this is that he might get shut down it's not impossible so we might not even need to worry about that but I agree with everybody where it's like this guy didn't start most of the Season by the way blame the pirates for that because they were trying to time service manipulate probably so do we really want to reward that no as opposed to the P who said go out there play center field for us and be awesome I love that he's an alpha on a team with tatis and Manny and Bogarts and even profar with Musgrove and darish and King and CE all these Alpha personalities and Alpha players just in terms of production and he's the one that seems to have the biggest heart on the team the biggest oomph factor I just think that I love taking that stuff into account so for me I am firmly on the Merill bandwagon I'm just saying it's been a hot stretch and if he has a bad September and skem his lights out and wins the sa Young Let's Not freak out you know what I mean it's not like this is an impossibly easy decision you know what I mean I don't like it I don't like that all Padre's fans who definitely aren't biased uh just keep coming at me like it's obviously Merill guys there's nothing obvious about anything that's not how this works that's the beauty of sports is we can debate we have conversations and we have everyone has valid points I talked about last week the difference is he keeps it up but I talked about last week his Ops plus would be like the third lowest for the Rookie of the Year and like the last 20 you know and an extended prolonged amount of time so again we'll see but right now he's elevating to another level it doesn't look like this is just a mirage but that's just me folks and of course you know we're going to keep talking about Merill we might even talk about it later this week when arm Leighton joins the podcast to talk about the state of the Padre's farm system with their prospects which M Ethan with Mr Ethan Salis that goes to your question sir from before about you know his Camp going be on the team we might wait into that we'll talk about Jack samiro all that sort of stuff and we will continue to enjoy the Good Vibes good folks you know what we do out here and with that all being said that about does it for today's edition of the lockdown Padre's podcast the only pod that may be better than the PO Drees themselves remember to follow me on Twitter haveno j a v iip p n o or at alonis score padr for updates on the show and until that next time stay safe and of course stay faithful my PR faithful homies take care