July 24, 2024 • 16 mins
Texas Rangers Radio Broadcaster Jared Sandler joins the program to talk about the defending World Champions as the MLB season enters the second half. Craig and Jared talk about the Rangers season so far, what to expect at the trade deadline, and if they can make a second half run despite trailing the Mariners and Astros in the AL West.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Our first guest at the show thisafternoon is considerably younger than me. He
probably has much more acquired musical tastethan just having some yacht rock. But
Jared Sandler or the Rangers Radio Networkjoins us on the hot line, and
we're very pleased to have him witha Are you, in any way,
shape or form enamored with any aspectof the yacht rock world? Jared?
(00:23):
I think it was like a yearago. I wasn't even sure what yacht
rock was. Like. I listenedto yacht rock, but I didn't know
like Steely Dan's yacht rock, right, I believe most of their catalog is
yeah, uh huh Okay, Iwould say yeah. I wouldn't say I
could properly delineate between yacht rock andmaybe a similar but not not aligned genre.
(00:48):
But I do find that when Iam told that a song is a
yacht rock song, that I doenjoy it. Okay, all right,
I like that that makes sense?Yes, absolutely, all right? Makes
sense of this to me. Youcan tell me which is the more eye
popping result or fact that came outof last night. One that John Gray
(01:11):
has an outstanding effort on the mound. After he had some struggles and it
had been down for a little bit. Two that Jonathan Ornellis had just still
an eye popping for I couln't believeit when I have watched it at the
time to help him finish out hisouting or three, and you tweeted this
or it went out on X that. Now it's three straight one run victories
(01:36):
for the Rangers and the first timethey've done that in seven years, and
in what the exact same dates onthe calendar, July twenty first through the
twenty third. Yeah, that's kindof bizarre. That's a little scary.
I don't I'm not really big inlike the astrological signs and the moon and
(01:57):
stuff like that, but that's somethinglike that. When the last time the
Rangers won three straight games all byone run was seven years. It's one
thing when something happened seven years toa date or however many years to a
date, But when it's x amountof years to a series of three consecutive
dates, I mean, that's likethat to me is bizarre. But I
(02:19):
think from a baseball standpoint, JonathanOrnellis's play was I mean, that was
that was special. You know,we've seen John Gray. I think it
was important for John Gray to havethat outing because he has struggled. He's
been inconsistent here lately. But we'veseen him do that, like we've seen
John Gray get into All Star typeform where he is really tough to hit.
But that play from Jonathan ornellis youjust you know, you could go
(02:39):
a whole season without playing a sceneof play like that at short And you
know that's his calling card right now, is his ability to make plays defensively
while he continues to grow as ahitter, and you know, that's the
type of play that you never know, does that give him some confidence,
make him feel a little bit morelike he belongs as he's trying to figure
out his place at the big leaguelevel, and you know, maybe that
(02:59):
care he's into, you know,his next series of adapts whenever those are
all right. The other thing Iwas going to ask you with regard to
tweets or if folks would say putout on X however they want to turn
that When Corey Seeker pinch hit,I was wondering myself at the time he
walked to the play. I thought, when's the last time I've seen him
pinch hit? And of course,I'm also very much a Dodger fan,
(03:19):
and I didn't remember him pinch hittingas a Dodger. And then you you
tweeted out the pinch hitting for thefirst time ever as a ranger, I
believe, and then you went onto say the last time he played in
a game in which he did notstart with September ninth of twenty twenty one.
Did he pinch hit in that gameor went in defensively, I guess,
and then later hit, but itwas it the first time he'd ever
pinch hit as a ranger. Wewere able to get the fact on that.
(03:42):
Yeah, no' that's the first timehe pinch hit as a ranger,
first time he's played in a gamein which he did not start as a
ranger. And you know, Ithink for Corey at this stage in his
career, you know, he's playedthrough a lot, right you know,
I think, I guess I wouldjust say that I don't think. I
don't think people myself included, realizethe extent to which he played through stuff
(04:06):
last year in the playoffs. AndI don't know that anyone truly knows the
extent to which he's playing through stuffright now. With the surgery that took
place later in the offseason, andhe doesn't show a ton of emotion,
right, And so I think sometimespeople take that as apathy in difference,
and that's just not how this guy'swired. And I'm glad he had those
(04:28):
moments in the postseason last year whichhe did show emotion, because hopefully that
was a little bit of a lookinto you know, what makes him tick,
and you know that the emotion,the fire is there. This guy
plays through a ton and maybe it'snot advertised, he's certainly not going to
be the guy to advertise it.And so when he gets a day off,
he didn't get a day off,and they tell him, hey,
(04:48):
you don't even bother, like,don't you just you take the day off,
don't go through the routine of tryingto get your body ready for a
game. Just take the day off. And so I think, given that,
you know, his body probably coulduse that. With the Rangers not
having an off day until August first, and given the fact that you know
(05:10):
he you know he is gonna beexpected to hopefully play in meaningful games over
the last couple of months, theythought, hey, last night, it's
an opportunity uh, let's let's givehim the night off. But there obviously
was a conversation where Corey said,okay, but I'm available because the game
might mean something and and sorry,let me rephrase, the game didn't mean
something. There might be a momentthat's critical where I might be, you
(05:34):
know, the sensical option. AndI think the Rangers, probably, whether
they'd admit it or not, thefact that it was the White Sox made
it a little bit easier to givehim a night off against them instead of
say the Blue Jays or the Orioles. You know, the series before,
and it just so happened it endedup being another close game, and so
Corey made himself available because he recognizesthe significance of these games. And you
(05:57):
know, hopefully, I imagine he'llbe back in the lineup in normal starting
role tonight. But the one thingthat you know, sometimes people ask if
you could share something about filling theblank person that maybe isn't talked about enough.
I think one of the first thingsI would think of when it comes
to Corey is that this guy isfar tougher and plays through far more than
I think. Maybe I don't knowabout Dodgers fans, but I think Rangers
(06:18):
fans even realize. Yeah, Ithink they would agree with you as well.
Visiting with Jared Sandler Texas Rangers Radioor if we're being actual, really
official, the Louisiana Hotsau's Texas RangersRadio net and he joins us. Now
one other question, want toss andI don't want to go back to the
importance of the winning thing here asit relates to what we're coming up on
(06:38):
with this trade deadline. But when'sthe last time you saw a Ranger steel
home. Well, it's always earlierthis year, that's right. I yeah,
but it's the first time since Settingtwenty one that the Rangers have done
it multiple times in a year now. I don't know, Craig to answer
your question. I think it's happenedonce. I want to say it might
(06:59):
have been Leonis Martine. I couldtotally be making it up where a Ranger
had like maybe it was Elvis,where a Ranger had a true steal of
home, like not a double steal, but a true proper steel of home.
Not that there's anything that should bediscredited about what Josh Smith did yesterday,
but you know this isn't Benny thejet Rodriguez at the end of the
(07:19):
sandlot, you know, creeping downthe line. But you know that the
Rangers obviously saw an opportunity. AndI'll tell you what, Craig, that
that's why the White Sox are twentyseven and seventy six. They they botched
that so poorly, and you know, open the door for Josh Smidt to
steal home. You got Garrett Crocheton the mound. You know how good
(07:42):
this guy is. Worst case,you just let a Dollies take second.
You trust that you're all star starterwho doesn't give up many hits, which
strikes a ton of guys out.It's going to be able to get the
out of the plate. And youknow, they gave the Rangers an opportunity
to get that second run in theinning, and the Rangers, you know,
were aggressive and we're able to takeadvantage of it. And hey,
who knows how the rest of thegame plays out. If that doesn't happen,
(08:03):
maybe the Rangers go on and winby twelve, and because they still
home the Domino effect and the wayit all works out, they only end
up winning by one. I don'tknow, But at the end of the
day, the Rangers won by therun, and that kind of that run
sort of stands out more so thanthe insurance run they got in the eighth,
no doubt about it. Okay,I wanted to jump to this other
topic and it was something I sawyou tweeting about, and a lot of
(08:26):
folks have really opined about this thisseason. To me, this season seems
to have more conversation about who isa buyer and who is a seller as
we approached the trade deadline than Ican ever remember, and some of it's
just based on I guess watching theamount of games that I've watched. There
(08:48):
was extensive conversation when I was slippingover the later game the Giants and Dodgers
last night about where the Giants werewith this only four games out of the
wildcard and where other team are,and I would imagine, I guess with
the added wild cards, it probablydoes extrapolate the conversation out a little more.
But you would also tweeted out somethingabout for those who are wondering whether
(09:11):
the Rangers or buyers or sellers,look at how hard these guys are playing
and doing all that sort of stuff, what's your understanding of what the air
seems to be around this ball club, especially since they now have flipped the
script again of late and one threein a row by one run each.
Yeah, it's funny. I think. I think a lot of times athletes
insulate themselves from you know, theoutside chatter, and that's what is the
(09:35):
best course of action for them,right, Like, there's no reason why
they need to be caught up inthe daily discussions we have about things,
you know, in any sport.But these guys are also human, and
these guys are baseball fans, andsome of them go home and watch MLB
Network and some of them listen toserious XM MLB radio, you know,
on their way to the ballpark,and they're TVs on in the clubhouse,
(09:56):
and it's just it's impossible for theseguys to not know that it's a possibility
that the Rangers buy. The Rangerssell because there are people like us who
will talk about it, and they'realso not silly even if they didn't watch
to know and see. Well,teams that are under five hundred typically aren't
big buyers. But hey, onthe flip side of the Rangers are now
only three games out of the division, So teams that are three games out
(10:20):
of the division typically do buy andtry and make a push. And so
I think that the Rangers are awarethat, you know, the whole narrative
of hey, it's a long season, plenty of time to ride the ship,
that ship pass that that ship sailedyou know a bit ago, and
with the trade deadline presenting, youknow, a backstop for some of these
decisions, you know, I thinkthey're aware that winning these games now are
(10:43):
significant to try and give the frontoffice a reason to buy. So as
much as they try and do thewhole hey, I just got to focus
on winning each game, and Ithink they do try and do that.
But I also think that these guyswould be lying to you. I know
they would be blind you, andmost of them wouldn't even kempt to lie
if they told you that they weren'treally aware of what the conversation was.
(11:03):
And they I didn't even know thetrade deadline was a week away, or
I didn't know that, you know, we might sell her by Because these
guys are also of agent, andso you know, let's take Nathan and
Baldi. I'm sure his agent hassaid, or he's maybe asked his agent,
what are you hearing? Is therea chance they get traded, and
Nathan might talk to his locker maidand say, oh, you know,
there's a chance it's just this stuff. You can't keep that out. And
(11:26):
so these guys are aware, andare they trying harder to win? I
don't. I don't know that that'sfair. I think these guys bust their
ass every single game, but Ithink they are aware that, you know,
the margin for error and the urgencyhas got to be there because of
the time of the season. Jaredwould would it be safe to say also
that the front office, which hasto consider all these things about whether they
(11:48):
are buying or selling, is alsolistening very closely to Bruce Boche, listening
very closely to the to the guysdown in the clubhouse as well as them
up in the front office about wherethey need to go with this one way
or the other. Yeah, thatthat's a great question. And I think
a guy like Bruce Bochi is probablygoing to have more clout in those conversations
(12:11):
than say a first year manager mightwho hasn't you know, been around the
block, right, And it dependson the relationship with the front office.
I think that in a healthy situation, you absolutely need collaboration from the manager.
You need a manager whose opinion youcan trust, and that it's not
you know, it's like you aska picture whether or not he's got enough
juice left to face that one extrabatter. You know, that's tough.
(12:33):
Do you want the pitcher who's gonnatell you know? Or do you want
the picture you know, who's gonnatell you yes even if the answer is
no because they got that dog inthem. Or do you want the honesty
so they don't compromise, you know, the ability to win the game.
That's a tough one, right,But I think that Bruce Bochi probably looks
around and recognizes that this team haslooked flat for most of the season,
but that also they're starting to playwell. Forget forget the White Sox,
(12:56):
right. I know some people wantto discredit these two wins because it's the
White Sox. That's fine. Iget that the Rangers, I think of
one ten of the last fourteen,eleven in the last fifteen something like that,
and they're going to get healthier,So I think it is. I
don't want to say it's ever easyto be a GM, but when you're
the White Sox, it's very clearwhat Chris gets needs to do their GM.
That's sell and try and get asmuch as he can for the resources
(13:18):
they have available. When you areMichaelias and you're the Baltimoreials, it is
very clear what you need to do. You are going to buy, and
you might have to make some toughdecisions on prospects you do or do not
give up, but you know thatyou are absolutely going to try and make
your team better for this year.If you're Chris Young, I think this
is a tough one because if youbuy and you don't make the playoffs and
(13:39):
you give up on the opportunity tomaybe help your your organization's health long term,
you might kick yourself. But youalso might kick yourself if you decide
to sell. And then you know, Josh Young and Evan Carter come back
and they start hitting well, butyour bullpen just isn't as strong as it
was because you traded away Yates andRobertson. And now you're left wondering what
if? Because we know that thisis not the NBA, and if you're
(14:01):
the eight seed in the NBA,what does that really mean? Right?
You lose the chance of the lotterypick and you're going to get bounced in
the first round. Maybe you wina game in that series, right,
Very rarely do you have the Warriorsbeating the Mavericks in the first round.
But in baseball, I mean,it happened all the time. And there's
a lot of narratives out there thatsuggest that if you don't win your division,
(14:22):
you might even have an advantage inthe playoffs if you get to play
in the wildcard round, because youdon't have to sit and wait. So
this team's got pitching, Craig,and that's the unique thing for a team
that's forty nine and fifty two.They've got pitching, and they've got more
pitching coming with guys like Tyler Mallleyand Cody Bradford set to return soon and
then Jacob Degram about a month behind. So this is absolutely a team where
(14:45):
you don't have to squint. Youjust open your eyes and see a team
that could make a run in theplayoffs. And I think that that potential
impossibility can either be their reality ora big keys. And Chris Young's got
to figure out, you know whatroad he wants to take. He's Jared
Sandler, the Texas Rangers Radio Network, Great stuff as always, Hey,
I appreciate you taking the time todo this, and I hope everything goes
(15:09):
well the broadcast tonight with the WhiteSox, and we'll check back in as
the season progresses a little later.But thank you so much, Jared.
I do appreciate it. Hey,Craig, thanks so much for having me.
You bet. That's Jared Sandler ofthe Louisiana Hot Sauce Texas Rangers Radio
Network. By the way, you'relike Louisiana Hot Sauce area. Can don't
think I've ever tried it, reallysprinkle a little bit on a hot dog
(15:31):
or you know, something like that, a fridge price, something like that.
All right, coming up next andthat some real interesting stuff there from
Jared about you know that that wholedichotomy of buying versus selling. It's a
it's a gray area and a slidingscale and all of those other things that
you want to call it. ButI've heard so much about it and read
(15:54):
more about it, I think thisyear than I can ever remember, and
I think the wild Cards and thesehotly contested postseason races have a lot to
do with that. Up next,Inconceivable here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under
the zone in the IR Radio app
Our first guest at the show thisafternoon is considerably younger than me. He
probably has much more acquired musical tastethan just having some yacht rock. But
Jared Sandler or the Rangers Radio Networkjoins us on the hot line, and
we're very pleased to have him witha Are you, in any way,
shape or form enamored with any aspectof the yacht rock world? Jared?
(00:23):
I think it was like a yearago. I wasn't even sure what yacht
rock was. Like. I listenedto yacht rock, but I didn't know
like Steely Dan's yacht rock, right, I believe most of their catalog is
yeah, uh huh Okay, Iwould say yeah. I wouldn't say I
could properly delineate between yacht rock andmaybe a similar but not not aligned genre.
(00:48):
But I do find that when Iam told that a song is a
yacht rock song, that I doenjoy it. Okay, all right,
I like that that makes sense?Yes, absolutely, all right? Makes
sense of this to me. Youcan tell me which is the more eye
popping result or fact that came outof last night. One that John Gray
(01:11):
has an outstanding effort on the mound. After he had some struggles and it
had been down for a little bit. Two that Jonathan Ornellis had just still
an eye popping for I couln't believeit when I have watched it at the
time to help him finish out hisouting or three, and you tweeted this
or it went out on X that. Now it's three straight one run victories
(01:36):
for the Rangers and the first timethey've done that in seven years, and
in what the exact same dates onthe calendar, July twenty first through the
twenty third. Yeah, that's kindof bizarre. That's a little scary.
I don't I'm not really big inlike the astrological signs and the moon and
(01:57):
stuff like that, but that's somethinglike that. When the last time the
Rangers won three straight games all byone run was seven years. It's one
thing when something happened seven years toa date or however many years to a
date, But when it's x amountof years to a series of three consecutive
dates, I mean, that's likethat to me is bizarre. But I
(02:19):
think from a baseball standpoint, JonathanOrnellis's play was I mean, that was
that was special. You know,we've seen John Gray. I think it
was important for John Gray to havethat outing because he has struggled. He's
been inconsistent here lately. But we'veseen him do that, like we've seen
John Gray get into All Star typeform where he is really tough to hit.
But that play from Jonathan ornellis youjust you know, you could go
(02:39):
a whole season without playing a sceneof play like that at short And you
know that's his calling card right now, is his ability to make plays defensively
while he continues to grow as ahitter, and you know, that's the
type of play that you never know, does that give him some confidence,
make him feel a little bit morelike he belongs as he's trying to figure
out his place at the big leaguelevel, and you know, maybe that
(02:59):
care he's into, you know,his next series of adapts whenever those are
all right. The other thing Iwas going to ask you with regard to
tweets or if folks would say putout on X however they want to turn
that When Corey Seeker pinch hit,I was wondering myself at the time he
walked to the play. I thought, when's the last time I've seen him
pinch hit? And of course,I'm also very much a Dodger fan,
(03:19):
and I didn't remember him pinch hittingas a Dodger. And then you you
tweeted out the pinch hitting for thefirst time ever as a ranger, I
believe, and then you went onto say the last time he played in
a game in which he did notstart with September ninth of twenty twenty one.
Did he pinch hit in that gameor went in defensively, I guess,
and then later hit, but itwas it the first time he'd ever
pinch hit as a ranger. Wewere able to get the fact on that.
(03:42):
Yeah, no' that's the first timehe pinch hit as a ranger,
first time he's played in a gamein which he did not start as a
ranger. And you know, Ithink for Corey at this stage in his
career, you know, he's playedthrough a lot, right you know,
I think, I guess I wouldjust say that I don't think. I
don't think people myself included, realizethe extent to which he played through stuff
(04:06):
last year in the playoffs. AndI don't know that anyone truly knows the
extent to which he's playing through stuffright now. With the surgery that took
place later in the offseason, andhe doesn't show a ton of emotion,
right, And so I think sometimespeople take that as apathy in difference,
and that's just not how this guy'swired. And I'm glad he had those
(04:28):
moments in the postseason last year whichhe did show emotion, because hopefully that
was a little bit of a lookinto you know, what makes him tick,
and you know that the emotion,the fire is there. This guy
plays through a ton and maybe it'snot advertised, he's certainly not going to
be the guy to advertise it.And so when he gets a day off,
he didn't get a day off,and they tell him, hey,
(04:48):
you don't even bother, like,don't you just you take the day off,
don't go through the routine of tryingto get your body ready for a
game. Just take the day off. And so I think, given that,
you know, his body probably coulduse that. With the Rangers not
having an off day until August first, and given the fact that you know
(05:10):
he you know he is gonna beexpected to hopefully play in meaningful games over
the last couple of months, theythought, hey, last night, it's
an opportunity uh, let's let's givehim the night off. But there obviously
was a conversation where Corey said,okay, but I'm available because the game
might mean something and and sorry,let me rephrase, the game didn't mean
something. There might be a momentthat's critical where I might be, you
(05:34):
know, the sensical option. AndI think the Rangers, probably, whether
they'd admit it or not, thefact that it was the White Sox made
it a little bit easier to givehim a night off against them instead of
say the Blue Jays or the Orioles. You know, the series before,
and it just so happened it endedup being another close game, and so
Corey made himself available because he recognizesthe significance of these games. And you
(05:57):
know, hopefully, I imagine he'llbe back in the lineup in normal starting
role tonight. But the one thingthat you know, sometimes people ask if
you could share something about filling theblank person that maybe isn't talked about enough.
I think one of the first thingsI would think of when it comes
to Corey is that this guy isfar tougher and plays through far more than
I think. Maybe I don't knowabout Dodgers fans, but I think Rangers
(06:18):
fans even realize. Yeah, Ithink they would agree with you as well.
Visiting with Jared Sandler Texas Rangers Radioor if we're being actual, really
official, the Louisiana Hotsau's Texas RangersRadio net and he joins us. Now
one other question, want toss andI don't want to go back to the
importance of the winning thing here asit relates to what we're coming up on
(06:38):
with this trade deadline. But when'sthe last time you saw a Ranger steel
home. Well, it's always earlierthis year, that's right. I yeah,
but it's the first time since Settingtwenty one that the Rangers have done
it multiple times in a year now. I don't know, Craig to answer
your question. I think it's happenedonce. I want to say it might
(06:59):
have been Leonis Martine. I couldtotally be making it up where a Ranger
had like maybe it was Elvis,where a Ranger had a true steal of
home, like not a double steal, but a true proper steel of home.
Not that there's anything that should bediscredited about what Josh Smith did yesterday,
but you know this isn't Benny thejet Rodriguez at the end of the
(07:19):
sandlot, you know, creeping downthe line. But you know that the
Rangers obviously saw an opportunity. AndI'll tell you what, Craig, that
that's why the White Sox are twentyseven and seventy six. They they botched
that so poorly, and you know, open the door for Josh Smidt to
steal home. You got Garrett Crocheton the mound. You know how good
(07:42):
this guy is. Worst case,you just let a Dollies take second.
You trust that you're all star starterwho doesn't give up many hits, which
strikes a ton of guys out.It's going to be able to get the
out of the plate. And youknow, they gave the Rangers an opportunity
to get that second run in theinning, and the Rangers, you know,
were aggressive and we're able to takeadvantage of it. And hey,
who knows how the rest of thegame plays out. If that doesn't happen,
(08:03):
maybe the Rangers go on and winby twelve, and because they still
home the Domino effect and the wayit all works out, they only end
up winning by one. I don'tknow, But at the end of the
day, the Rangers won by therun, and that kind of that run
sort of stands out more so thanthe insurance run they got in the eighth,
no doubt about it. Okay,I wanted to jump to this other
topic and it was something I sawyou tweeting about, and a lot of
(08:26):
folks have really opined about this thisseason. To me, this season seems
to have more conversation about who isa buyer and who is a seller as
we approached the trade deadline than Ican ever remember, and some of it's
just based on I guess watching theamount of games that I've watched. There
(08:48):
was extensive conversation when I was slippingover the later game the Giants and Dodgers
last night about where the Giants werewith this only four games out of the
wildcard and where other team are,and I would imagine, I guess with
the added wild cards, it probablydoes extrapolate the conversation out a little more.
But you would also tweeted out somethingabout for those who are wondering whether
(09:11):
the Rangers or buyers or sellers,look at how hard these guys are playing
and doing all that sort of stuff, what's your understanding of what the air
seems to be around this ball club, especially since they now have flipped the
script again of late and one threein a row by one run each.
Yeah, it's funny. I think. I think a lot of times athletes
insulate themselves from you know, theoutside chatter, and that's what is the
(09:35):
best course of action for them,right, Like, there's no reason why
they need to be caught up inthe daily discussions we have about things,
you know, in any sport.But these guys are also human, and
these guys are baseball fans, andsome of them go home and watch MLB
Network and some of them listen toserious XM MLB radio, you know,
on their way to the ballpark,and they're TVs on in the clubhouse,
(09:56):
and it's just it's impossible for theseguys to not know that it's a possibility
that the Rangers buy. The Rangerssell because there are people like us who
will talk about it, and they'realso not silly even if they didn't watch
to know and see. Well,teams that are under five hundred typically aren't
big buyers. But hey, onthe flip side of the Rangers are now
only three games out of the division, So teams that are three games out
(10:20):
of the division typically do buy andtry and make a push. And so
I think that the Rangers are awarethat, you know, the whole narrative
of hey, it's a long season, plenty of time to ride the ship,
that ship pass that that ship sailedyou know a bit ago, and
with the trade deadline presenting, youknow, a backstop for some of these
decisions, you know, I thinkthey're aware that winning these games now are
(10:43):
significant to try and give the frontoffice a reason to buy. So as
much as they try and do thewhole hey, I just got to focus
on winning each game, and Ithink they do try and do that.
But I also think that these guyswould be lying to you. I know
they would be blind you, andmost of them wouldn't even kempt to lie
if they told you that they weren'treally aware of what the conversation was.
(11:03):
And they I didn't even know thetrade deadline was a week away, or
I didn't know that, you know, we might sell her by Because these
guys are also of agent, andso you know, let's take Nathan and
Baldi. I'm sure his agent hassaid, or he's maybe asked his agent,
what are you hearing? Is therea chance they get traded, and
Nathan might talk to his locker maidand say, oh, you know,
there's a chance it's just this stuff. You can't keep that out. And
(11:26):
so these guys are aware, andare they trying harder to win? I
don't. I don't know that that'sfair. I think these guys bust their
ass every single game, but Ithink they are aware that, you know,
the margin for error and the urgencyhas got to be there because of
the time of the season. Jaredwould would it be safe to say also
that the front office, which hasto consider all these things about whether they
(11:48):
are buying or selling, is alsolistening very closely to Bruce Boche, listening
very closely to the to the guysdown in the clubhouse as well as them
up in the front office about wherethey need to go with this one way
or the other. Yeah, thatthat's a great question. And I think
a guy like Bruce Bochi is probablygoing to have more clout in those conversations
(12:11):
than say a first year manager mightwho hasn't you know, been around the
block, right, And it dependson the relationship with the front office.
I think that in a healthy situation, you absolutely need collaboration from the manager.
You need a manager whose opinion youcan trust, and that it's not
you know, it's like you aska picture whether or not he's got enough
juice left to face that one extrabatter. You know, that's tough.
(12:33):
Do you want the pitcher who's gonnatell you know? Or do you want
the picture you know, who's gonnatell you yes even if the answer is
no because they got that dog inthem. Or do you want the honesty
so they don't compromise, you know, the ability to win the game.
That's a tough one, right,But I think that Bruce Bochi probably looks
around and recognizes that this team haslooked flat for most of the season,
but that also they're starting to playwell. Forget forget the White Sox,
(12:56):
right. I know some people wantto discredit these two wins because it's the
White Sox. That's fine. Iget that the Rangers, I think of
one ten of the last fourteen,eleven in the last fifteen something like that,
and they're going to get healthier,So I think it is. I
don't want to say it's ever easyto be a GM, but when you're
the White Sox, it's very clearwhat Chris gets needs to do their GM.
That's sell and try and get asmuch as he can for the resources
(13:18):
they have available. When you areMichaelias and you're the Baltimoreials, it is
very clear what you need to do. You are going to buy, and
you might have to make some toughdecisions on prospects you do or do not
give up, but you know thatyou are absolutely going to try and make
your team better for this year.If you're Chris Young, I think this
is a tough one because if youbuy and you don't make the playoffs and
(13:39):
you give up on the opportunity tomaybe help your your organization's health long term,
you might kick yourself. But youalso might kick yourself if you decide
to sell. And then you know, Josh Young and Evan Carter come back
and they start hitting well, butyour bullpen just isn't as strong as it
was because you traded away Yates andRobertson. And now you're left wondering what
if? Because we know that thisis not the NBA, and if you're
(14:01):
the eight seed in the NBA,what does that really mean? Right?
You lose the chance of the lotterypick and you're going to get bounced in
the first round. Maybe you wina game in that series, right,
Very rarely do you have the Warriorsbeating the Mavericks in the first round.
But in baseball, I mean,it happened all the time. And there's
a lot of narratives out there thatsuggest that if you don't win your division,
(14:22):
you might even have an advantage inthe playoffs if you get to play
in the wildcard round, because youdon't have to sit and wait. So
this team's got pitching, Craig,and that's the unique thing for a team
that's forty nine and fifty two.They've got pitching, and they've got more
pitching coming with guys like Tyler Mallleyand Cody Bradford set to return soon and
then Jacob Degram about a month behind. So this is absolutely a team where
(14:45):
you don't have to squint. Youjust open your eyes and see a team
that could make a run in theplayoffs. And I think that that potential
impossibility can either be their reality ora big keys. And Chris Young's got
to figure out, you know whatroad he wants to take. He's Jared
Sandler, the Texas Rangers Radio Network, Great stuff as always, Hey,
I appreciate you taking the time todo this, and I hope everything goes
(15:09):
well the broadcast tonight with the WhiteSox, and we'll check back in as
the season progresses a little later.But thank you so much, Jared.
I do appreciate it. Hey,Craig, thanks so much for having me.
You bet. That's Jared Sandler ofthe Louisiana Hot Sauce Texas Rangers Radio
Network. By the way, you'relike Louisiana Hot Sauce area. Can don't
think I've ever tried it, reallysprinkle a little bit on a hot dog
(15:31):
or you know, something like that, a fridge price, something like that.
All right, coming up next andthat some real interesting stuff there from
Jared about you know that that wholedichotomy of buying versus selling. It's a
it's a gray area and a slidingscale and all of those other things that
you want to call it. ButI've heard so much about it and read
(15:54):
more about it, I think thisyear than I can ever remember, and
I think the wild Cards and thesehotly contested postseason races have a lot to
do with that. Up next,Inconceivable here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under
the zone in the IR Radio app
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