Rick Rizzs: Kyle Seager having a Gold Glove-caliber season for Mariners
Jun 27, 2018, 10:50 AM | Updated: 11:06 am
Rick Rizzs said Kyle Seager is playing better defense than when he won a Gold Glove. (AP)
(AP)
With the Mariners in the midst of a four-game series against the Orioles, play-by-play broadcaster Rick Rizzs called in from Baltimore to talk all things baseball with Dave Wyman and Jim Moore (filling in for Brock and Salk).
In one of his more interesting statements, Rizzs mounted a defense of Kyle Seager – specifically on defense. Despite the criticism the M’s veteran has faced for his batting average this season, said Rizzs, the third baseman is having some of the best defensive performances of his career.
“You know, at the end of the year he’s going to have his .250 or whatever it is average,” Rizzs said. “(But) he’s beyond the pace to hit the 27 home runs he had last year, he’s beyond the pace of his 88 RBIs last year. So he’s gonna do some damage. And then his defense at third base – I’ll tell you what, watching him on a day-to-day basis, I think he should win his second Gold Glove. I know there’s some really good third basemen in this league … but I don’t think anybody has played third base any better than Kyle Seager. I think he’s playing third base better this year than the year he actually won his first Gold Glove. That play to his right, I don’t think anybody makes that play better than Kyle.”
The 30-year-old Seager is batting .225 with 14 home runs and 47 RBIs. On Tuesday, Seager drove in all three Mariners runs (two of which put Seattle ahead in the eighth inning), going 2 for 4 with a homer in the 3-2 win over the Orioles.
Rizzs also explained why Mariners fans should feel good about the team’s East Coast road trip (despite series losses against the Yankees and Red Sox) and named his midseason MVP for the team. Listen to the full interview embedded above, or hear that interview and more on the Brock and Salk podcast page.
