June 3, 2025 • 59 mins
Overall the numbers are not great on the road for the Texas Rangers. But a long trip may be just what the doctor ordered for an ailing offense on the road to recovery. 📌 Subscribe for more Texas Rangers content!🔔 Turn on notifications so you never miss an update! #rangers #mlb #baseball #texas An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/@DLLS_Sports ALL THINGS DLLS: WEBSITE:http://allDLLS.com/ BUY MERCH:http://DLLSLocker.com FOLLOW ON SOCIAL:Twitter: @DLLS_Sports // @dlls_rangersInstagram: @DLLS_Sports Become a DLLS Diehard and get access to premium content, our Discord channel, discounts on merch, and a free shirt! Sign up here: https://alldlls.com/join-diehard/ Gametime: Take the guesswork out of buying concert tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code DLLS for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: DLLS for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code DLLS. Restriction Indeed: Listeners of this show will get a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity - Just go to https://indeed.com/allcity right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Sleeper: If you think you have what it takes, download the Sleeper app and use the code DLLSRANGERS to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit! Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details. Currently operational in over 25 states. Check out Sleeper today! Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/dllsrangers to get 15% off your first order when you use DLLSRANGERS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Rugged Road: Reliable, durable, and built to be used– Rugged Road is your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code DLLS for 10% off! Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is going to be a great day in what
ways you ask, Well, let me count the ways. Baseball, beer,
ice cream, and Hooters. If that doesn't make you stick
around for the next hour, I don't know what the
hell's wrong with you. The DLLs Rangers Podcast starts now.
(00:21):
Sometimes these long road trips are nothing but good for
a team, and we'll hope that's the case for the Rangers.
It's their first three city trip of the season and
it starts tonight in Tampa. They were there yesterday too,
but first game of the road trip is tonight in Tampa.
Hi there, Welcome into the DLLs Sports Studios. It's the
(00:41):
DLLs Rangers Podcast. John Radigan, Jeff Wilson, the extremely busy
profit over there. But we got things rolling here as
he's gotten everything done in record time, and it's a
very very big day around here. And I don't know
if you guys noticed it, but walking across the street
from the parking garage today, I saw a sign that
(01:04):
just made me smile, and it put a spring in
my step. Our next door neighbor has a sign that
says now hiring. Oh. Our next door neighbor is Hooters.
So I'm just saying this is a big they're hiring
fellas need not apply. No, Ye, well, I don't know.
(01:25):
I mean, I don't know if you're allowed to do that,
but I will say this, they probably wouldn't get the job.
And secondly, I guess they had a fire before we
moved in here. Yeah, it's been about a year and
here they go. They're almost open again. So at this stage,
to be honest, I'd be more excited about the beer
and the wings than the Hooters. But that's you know,
(01:47):
but if they come with the dinner, you know, what
the heck? Yeah? You know?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And apparently this is like one of the best hooters,
most successful hooters around.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Oh is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
And you know, with Hooters and having some financial difficulties,
for them to go ahead and finish the renovations and
open this bad boy up, they're gonna get a lot
of business from us.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I know that, no doubt. There's no doubt, especially on
those nights like Thursday, when we will be you know,
here late with you won't be open yet because they
haven't hired anybody yet, but we'll be ready. And yeah,
we talk about beer later because we've got that. As
an advertiser, and we talk about desserts later because we've
got that as an advertiser too. But in the meantime
(02:31):
we talk baseball. And one of the things I said
Jeff in writing the descriptions of the show, the Rangers
are on the road to recovery. And let's just you
see what I did there. Yeah, let's just hope that's true. Right,
it appeared to be true at the end of the
home stand. Let's hope again from an offensive perspective, this
(02:53):
team is recovering.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, and part of the recovery needs to be playing
better on the road. Yeah, they're nine and eighteen, and
if you are very any good at math, you know
that's a three thirty three winning percentage.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's not good.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, So they have nine games to get it straightened out.
They're playing the Rays, who you know, are kind of
like the Rays, they're just kind of middling around. Not
a bad team, not a great team. And then you
have a trip to Washington, who the Nationals have good
young talent, but they're not quite there yet.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's a bad team.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
And then they go on to the Twins, who played
really well in May. So this is a chance, this
is the Rangers are going Evan carter back Kamar Rocker
is going to pitch tomorrow instead of Nathan Ovaldi. And
you expect that Chris Martin is going to be back
here pretty soon after he threw live batting practice Sunday
morning at the ballpark. So things are trending upwards again.
(03:45):
Nineteen runs in their last two wins. Some perhaps realization
that hey, it's okay to hit a sacrifice fly, it's
okay to put down a bunt, it's okay to put
the ball in play because sometimes the other team is
going to screw it up. So they're just a little
I just think that the Sunday, the Sunday win, and
I again, I said I was gonna write this yesterday
(04:07):
and I'm working on it. Is a get embodymit of
what the Rangers can do and need to do. And
I think that's what Brett Boone wants the team to do.
So anyway, we'll see what happens. You know, it's it's
it's supposed to be a little bit wet in Tampa.
Hopefully the rain clears out before game time tomorrow. Might
be dodging some rain bullets. Remember this game will be
(04:30):
played at a minor League Field, Legends Field or George
Seinbrenner Field and the legend Stateum, I don't know what
the hell they're calling it, but not the trap. Where
as bad as the trap was in some people's minds,
at least a new year playing every day because of
the roof, which now no longer exists. So anyway, we'll
see what happens. I'm looking forward to watching the game tonight.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah. So it'll be the fifty third stadium in which
the Texas Rangers organization has ever played. Okay, they've added
too obviously this year, the one Sutter Park or whatever
we call it in Stutter Sutter. It's not Stutter, I
think it's Sutter, so Sutter Sutler. Yeah. I don't think
they're celebrating stuttering. No, well, maybe they are, I don't know,
(05:13):
or maybe they're curing it. In any event, you got
that one, the one in Sacramento, and you got this
one in Tampa proper as opposed to Tampa Saint Pete area, which,
of course the traps in Saint Pete. So they only
they only went to three brand new stadiums in the
last ten years. Right in the previous ten there were
(05:34):
only three new stadiums visited by this organization this year,
there's already been two. Of course, there was a lot
of that going on in the nineties and so forth,
when there were all those new stadiums being built. But
now everybody's pretty happy with their stadium. And I guess
one of the three in the previous ten would have
been Globalife Field. Yeah, it would have.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Been there in twenty twenty opening day, which that year
was in late June, as I recall, maybe it's July.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I think it was July. I think I got into
July July twentieth.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Any event, Yeah, you know, and and I don't know
the next time there's.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Going to be a new one.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Now, I guess Las Vegas is the one on the
on the docket, But if the Rays end up having
to move, that'll be another new one. That'll be another
new one. So we'll we'll stand by. But this will
be uh professional baseball in a minor league stable.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It will, and it is what it is in that regard.
The good news for the Rangers is that the starting
rotation is so spectacular that two eighty ERA is not
only a franchise record for the lowest era by the
rotation at this point in the season, which is to say,
sixty games in, it's also number one in Major League
(06:54):
Baseball this year. The previous low for the Rangers prior
to this season, you might remember twenty twenty three, pretty
good year, believe it or not, that rotation Jeff with
only a partial use of Jacob de Gram and all
that other stuff. In twenty three, that rotation had a
three to one nine ERA after sixty games. But as
(07:18):
we remember, they had a forty and twenty record. They
were hitting the ball that year two years in a row.
Now it's twenty nine and thirty one, and so obviously
the goal becomes starting with this road trip, to make
sure the rest of this season does not go like
the rest of last season did.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Agreed, And you know, the twenty three club of Valdi
was very good. Dan Dunning was the pleasant surprise. I
thought John Gray was making a case to be an
All Star. It kind of fell apart a little bit
for him in June, but you know, it was a
it was a very serviceable rotation. And this is this
(08:01):
is remarkable. Yeah, and you know it's it's uh, you know,
taking a little hit here with with de Gram I'm
sorry with a Vauldi going to the injured list. Rocker though,
and his two rehab starts only seven innings, but I
think he only allowed two hits, and so he feels good,
(08:21):
feels like as you know he was telling us on Sunday,
and his deliveries and his arm and his delivery and mechanics,
they're all synced up, something that he had been fighting
really since he got to spring training. And so we'll
see how that goes tomorrow. He obviously pitches very very
well in minor league ballparks, so we'll see what happens.
(08:43):
But that'll be interesting. One lighter Malley Tonight, Rocker Lighter,
and we'll see how it turns out.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, we'll look forward to it. And the Rangers rotation
has allowed two runs are less than six straight games.
That is the record or a second best in their
franchise history. But more importantly, the rotation has allowed three
or less than twenty two straight games. That's unbelievable that
I'm twenty two straight is a franchise record, and it's
(09:12):
it's just unbelievable that they have done that. And it's
also unbelievable that in spite of that they figured out
a way to be two games under five hundred. Now
that said, if it weren't for that rotation, good god,
they'd be flirting with the White Sox right now. Joe.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, I don't think they'd be Rockies bad, but they
might be down there with the White Sox days. And so, yeah,
you hope that what you sell over the weekend was
the start of the offensive turnaround. And you know, if
you break the season down into into thirds, and I
know sixty plus sixty plus sixty is more than one
hundred and sixty two, but you get the point. You
(09:49):
know you're gonna have sixty good, sixty bad, and sixty
where you try to survive it. Right, the Rangers are
hoping that the sixty they just completed were they're bad sixty.
So we'll see how it plays out. I still like
the team, especially if they start to hit. They start
to hit, they're a contender because it's wide open in
(10:11):
the American League.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, it really is. And so yeah, there's a lot
to be excited about with regard to this road trip,
especially when you consider the fact that the Rangers swept
the Rays earlier this season, and the Rangers have a
season or rather a franchise long seven game winning streak
against this Tampa team dating back to last year. Jaff.
(10:33):
So when you look at those numbers, you feel fairly
good just about again matchups. Now, you could also say
seven in a row crap the Raiser do right, But
I feel like based on matchups earlier this season, especially
when the Rangers swept the Rays at home, makes you
feel kind of good about the way things match up tonight.
It does.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
You know, Drew Rasmusen's a really good underrated pitcher. He's
going to start for the race tonight and have shame
as who feels like has been a young prospect forever
he hadn't had the injury. He's going to go tomorrow
and then the Wednesday game, Ryan Pepiot, I think, is
how you say it? You know some guy you really
don't know a lot about. He's got a three twenty
(11:15):
one era, so I would expect some low scoring games here.
And John Daniels talked to him a few weeks ago
about about the ballpark too, and he was one of
the you know as his role special assistant helping the
transition to the Steinbrenner Field, and he's you know, he
gave some pretty good insight about park factors. It really depends,
(11:37):
you know, if the wind is blowing in from left field,
it's going to be a low scoring game. Blown out pitchers,
you know, duck and cover. But with the Rays again,
the young third baseman, Junior Camerrero, I think it's something
like that. He is a nice player, and.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
You know what, he tied for American League Player of
the Week this past week. He had like thirteen RBI
in seven games.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And Nate Lowe's brother, Josh Lowe is good against right handers.
Brandon Law which is spelled all the same.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah. Yeah, it was a.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Good player earlier in the month, and he's kind of
a veteran guy. But you just don't see a ton
of names that stick out. They sent the speedster down, Chandler,
Simpson Chandler, so anyway, he's down. But they don't have
a ton of big names in the lineup. But they
still managed to be competitive.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
It was pretty interesting that they sent the kid down.
He was I think he was hitting like two eighty
five or something, still on all kinds of bases, making
stuff happen. On the basis that said, you know, they're
known as an organization that does a good job developing players,
and the best thing for a young guy like him
really is to go to the minor leagues and get
better and get more seasoned and get more at bats.
(12:55):
So to not stop playing, to keep playing, that's right, Yeah,
don't be on the bench. Don't be a guy who
is wondering when your next opportunity might come. So anyway,
it's a pretty good matchup. Tonight, we want to talk
more about the starting pitching and some of the amazing
things that they have done already this season. That is
(13:16):
coming up. Also, we will get to our cleanup segment,
which has just chock full of fun stuff tonight. But
that's all coming up on the DLLs Rangers podcast. Ah,
but first the ice cream thanks to our brand new sponsor,
Wendy's and their brand new item, the Frosty Fusion. Now,
(13:40):
the Frosty Fusion is something that is basically a swirl. Right.
You can put carmel into your chocolate or vanilla, you
can put brownie bites, you can put strawberry in there.
What I've chosen though, is the frosty Fusion that is
slightly thoroughly blended through and I've got the caramel crunch
(14:04):
in my Frosty Fusion. That is fantastic. What do you
have in yours, Jeff?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
It's chocolate ice cream with some chocolate sauce and Oreos,
which I can tend. Oreos are the number one mixing
item when it comes to ice cream any kind. And
I think this, I don't think this one's This is
the Oreo Brownie Frosty.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
It's pretty good. I'm just gonna tell you right now.
It's pretty good. So Frosty Fusion, you've got to get
one wherever they are sold. It is a limited time
and it is participating Wendy's, and it may vary as
well as the hours may vary by location. But it
does beg the question, does ice cream, Jeff, go with beer.
(14:50):
We're about to find out. I was about to say,
we got the best boss in town. Here's the skipper
helping us find out because there's our bud light. Nah.
I love ice beer and cookies, Jeff. Let's see how
it goes with ice cream. Come on, bud Light. Such
drink ability, it's smooth. I always love the barley and
(15:12):
the hops that they use over there at Anheuser Bush
and it's just such a great summertime drink bud Light.
We're thrilled to have these two as two of our
many sponsors. But I'll tell you what, as long as
there's a freezer full of the frosties up there and
a fridge full of the bud like this may become
(15:34):
a staple on the show. Jeff. I'm fine with that.
I'm fine with that. Yes, drink responsibly, Yeah, we do.
Twenty one and older, please drink responsibly. An Heiser Busch,
Saint Louis, Missouri. All right, So we're going to keep
nibbling as the other one talks, right, So we'll be
hoping each other goes on long and drinking, hoping each
other goes on long diatribes here, which we will. But
(15:57):
I want to get into this starting rotation just a
little bit more because the other thing that I didn't mention,
I thought I read it wrong. I was reading the
postgame notes that they send out after the game on Sunday,
and I was just glancing through there and they said
that the Rangers starting rotation has allowed three runs or less.
(16:19):
We mentioned the twenty two in a row they've allowed
three runs or less. Jeff in fifty four of the
sixty games. I thought, there's no way there's no fifty
four out of sixty. That means there's only six. Now
we know the Rangers have lost thirty one games, so
I'm like, come on, that can't look at this. Nathan
(16:40):
Evaldi twelve out of twelve, Tyler Mallley twelve out of twelve,
Patrick Corbyn ten out of ten, Jacob de Grom eleven
out of twen. What the hell's wrong with you? Eleven
out of twelve? I should say, Jack lighter, young guy
and still has done it seven out of nine. And
it felt like Kamar Rocker wasn't that great in his
first little run through the era would indicate he wasn't.
(17:01):
And yet look at there, three out of five.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, though those numbers are staggering, they really are. And
I think the biggest surprises is Patrick Corman.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
I mean, this guy had a six, five, seven, probably
at times a massive era at various points over the
past five seasons, and my god, he's been terrific.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Now they have they.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Seem to have found the magic, magical formula. You know,
they don't let him go through the lineup a third time,
and that's fine. Yeah, but the point is he's keeping
him in the games, and you know, when he leaves
and he's given up two runs, let's say in four
and two thirds or five and a third, that's fantastic.
It is, I mean, and he truly is their number
(17:49):
five starter. Yeah. This isn't Patrick Corman that helped the
Nationals win the World Series in twenty nineteen then signed
the lucrative extension.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
This is.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
A guy who seems like he got a second chance.
You know, he was out there in free agency for
so long. Honestly, I don't I don't know that anybody
was about to sign him and then and then Gray
and Bradford got hurt. Ranger scout saw something last year
in his second half where he was using a different
(18:20):
pitch mix that would work, and by got the right
and then the change in scenery, getting away from all
those losses to a team rich in talent and Laila,
you've got a brand new man. So hats off to him.
Now his next start is going to be against his
against the next Yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
So that'll be like that. That's a nice subplot, jucy.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, it could be a could be a sports hate
type of thing as a term Mike Napoli first used it.
In fact, I think he might be the only person
I've ever heard use it. But it was twenty ten.
He'd been acquired by the by the Rangers after he
had been traded to the Blue Jays and spring training
we're talking to him, Hey, facing the Angels, that have any.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, and he'd been eight or ten years with it'd
only been with the Angels until the brief trade do
the blue Jays.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
And then he said, oh yeah, there's gonna be some
good sports hate going And you know, it was a
real thing with him. He owned the Angels, he did,
and I kind of I believe in it. And you
see it. You see guys who have big games against
their former team. So, Nathaniel Low, if you're not careful,
Rangers might have a big weekend on you.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You know there could be some sports hate coming up
out of Patrick Corbyn too, So we'll see how that
turns out. But again, gosh, you know, never seen pitching
like this.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
No, and never have And in fact, so of course
you'd go the cynic among us would go, well, yeah,
I mean, so starting rotation has been great, but they've
lost thirty one games, so obviously freaking bullpen. I mean
they've blown it often. No, No, if you look at
the overall, not just the rotation, the pitching staff. Excuse me,
(20:07):
ERA three ten best in the American League, three point
one zero. It's best in the American League. It's third
best in all of baseball. Only the Mets and the
Giants have better team eras. So you know, it all
points back to the same thing. And god knows, we've
talked about it a million times, and we'll probably get
(20:28):
into it a little bit more here later in the show,
but it points back to the problem, which is the offense,
but the bullpen, which was cobbled together and questioned in
so many ways. Jeff and now has gone through its
share of maybe fatigue and for sure injury. Still doing fine. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I was on a radio show with ESPN and Waco
my friend Ward Whites, and he asked about the bullpen,
and they're kind of hanging on right now. It's kind
of agreed, just kind of trying to survive, you know,
and Chris Martin coming back is going to be a
big deal, and then you kind of look ahead and
you know, Josh Spores coming back should help John Gray
(21:10):
potentially coming back as a reliever would be massive of
this team. And then the trade deadline comes along, and
I don't know, there's gonna be thousands of relievers available.
Some of them aren't going to be the big names,
you know, the closers or whatever. For these teams that
have fallen out of contention, there's going to be some
big names set up, guys, guys who are just going
to be coming there and be good, kind of like
(21:31):
a Sam Dyson, you know, you'd never really heard of
Sam Dyson and Jake Deekman for that, for that in
that vein kind of throwins if you will, or the
Dyson trade was one for a couple of prospects. But
point being, there are guys out there who scouts see
and who are just really really good, and you could
see the Rangers adding there potentially. But right now, you know,
(21:54):
Robert Garcia has been doing fine, he really has. Luke
Jackson had the hiccup, but he's been okay. The last out,
Hobie Milner continues to amaze amaze, and uh, you know,
Armstrong has gotten better. I know he had that rough
one on the last home stand, but Seawn Armstrong has
been pretty steady.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, for most of the he's been pretty steady. The
one up and down guy's been Webb. I think, right,
you know.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Right, and you know, so we'll we'll see what happens there.
And the Rangers aren't any position to be shedding guys.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
No.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
And then somebody asked in the chat about Cody Hewer,
who has no Hoyer?
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Is yeah, pr, PR, soother thing? It's Hoyer right, well,
and Mike Maddox was pronouncing it incorrect. Oh wow, okay, yeah, no,
PR says it's Hoyer. Okay, well, whatever his name is,
and it is Cody with an I. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
You know, he was a he was once a you
can do a search, you know, he was a He
was going to be the Cubs closer of the future
and then his arm got wrecked and it's been a
long road back. The Rangers signed him in twenty three knowing,
you know, he was hurt, would need to recover. He
pitched last year in Triple A, had an awful spring
(23:04):
He was just not competitive in spring training this year.
But he's been really really good at Round Rock. Uh,
you know, following in the steps of cole Win, Luis
Curvello has been has been really really good too. He
might be the next guy who gets gets the call
from from the minor leagues to get a shot at
the bullpen.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
He uh Hoyer, Hoyer, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I've been struggling with it too. The arm angles a
little different. He's got really long arms, so he's gonna
have good, good reach, and then that'll help make his
fastball play a little bit better.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I don't know that he's going to be uh thrust
into the eighth inning with a lead, uh, but you know,
the Rangers need an arm and he was the next
man up.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
It's gonna be fun to see how this pitching staff
continues to perform. Because again, and we think Chris Martin's
back soon.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yes, yeah, well he threw the live batting practice sun day,
so and you know, and all the conversations I've had
with him.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
He's like, yeah, you know, I'm chopping at the bit.
I'm ready to go.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I don't want to go and a reab assignment and
don't I just need the minimum days? You know, I
think he would like his arm to make that popping
noise while warming up. Maybe it happened the other day
during VP. They don't let us watch so he can
just get used to it.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
So, but he's going to get big outs. I think
Arcia will remain the closer. I think Martin then, you know,
he's so good in that role that but it's just
going to be the eighth You're not going to see
him come in in the seventh to get the last
out and then rest and then come back out. The
Rangers are going to try to be acutely aware of
(24:42):
this guy who in a matter of days turns thirty nine.
So uh and and when he's when he's on, he's
still very very good. I wish he's struck out guys
a little bit more frequently, but he's always around the plate,
generates a lot of weak contact, and he's a veteran,
so that's toa that's gonna help knows how.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
To pitch, no doubt about it. Yeah. He also it's
interesting to when we talked to him the other day,
I brought up, hey, you know, three days in a row,
and he's like, well, I want three days in a row.
But you know, they probably realize that that may not
be the best recipe for a guy who's about to
be thirty nine years old. So they are, you know,
(25:23):
they're massaging. It'll be interesting to see too because Nathan
Valdi is now on the injured list. But again, it's
so nice because there is sort of built in depth
with these guys coming back off the injured list in
this case. And someone in the chat was saying they
were too excited about seeing Kumar Rocker.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, you know, he We got to keep in mind,
I know, Kumar Rocker has been a name probably since
twenty eighteen, you know, when he was his last year
of high school, I think was eighteen, and he was
so good for Vanderbilt. Nineteen twenty was the issue of
the COVID stuff, so nobody really pitched in twenty one.
(26:02):
That's kind of where the drama begins with the supposed
shoulder injury. The Mets didn't sign him, he had you know,
he had a clean up or a procedure of some
sort and then had to fight back independent ball all
that stuff, and then the Rangers signed him surprisingly third overall.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Then he blew out his elbow. So you know, this
is a guy who hasn't had a.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Complete body of work for a long time, and his
first off season healthy as a major leaguer, he went
about it the wrong way. And he didn't come flat
out and say.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
That, but.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
He said, look, I'm it's my first it was my
first off season, you know. And and so he realizes
that he made a mistake. It takes a lot longer,
he said. He now he now realizes to get everything
lined up. So a learning lesson, a tough learning lesson.
But I think the you know, the time off served
him well. He really never had to be shut down
for a long time from throwing, so that's good. And
(26:59):
he had a chance to work on stuff. And and
if everything is dialed in and synked in like it
was last year and he was tearing up the minor
leagues and earned the promotion, you're going to see.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
A better Kamar Rocker.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
The issue now is though that for these next what's today,
for these next ten days until of all these back,
the Rangers don't really have any rotation depth. No, that's it,
And they didn't really have any before before Rocker came back. Yeah,
you know, so, Uh, Dane Dunning pitched well his last
time at Triple A. He's probably the leading guy if
(27:30):
something were to happen, which of course it's a matter
of if not when with starting pitchers. And that's not
a shot at Jacob de Grom or anybody who might's
dealt with a lot of injuries. It's just baseball, you know,
these guys. These guys get hurt and in a variety
of ways. The Yankees closer got hurt warming up the
other day, so it's going to miss four to six weeks.
(27:52):
The hams Erring injury, but the rotation phenomenal. If this
offense had produced at all, the Rangers would be running
away with the West. But that's where that's where we are.
That's where we are.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
That is why we get to the road to recovery. Next.
The Rangers hope that the offense is on said road
to recovery. We talk about that and the rest of
this series, and a little bit more about the road
trip as we continue. It's the DLLs Rangers Podcast.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
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Speaker 1 (29:26):
Cot myself all ready for work today and I was
good to go. And she had to do a couple
of little things. Check the thermostat, you know, put some
chemicals in the pool, very small, little sure, not a bit,
you know, I'm done with those. I'm sweating. I'm just
because you know why it's so humid out there right now,
we've got storms coming in tonight, humidities up. I'm like,
(29:46):
I can't go to work like this. But don't forget.
I got the Mandol wipes. So I wiped everything down,
a boy, I mean everything. I'd be delightful, don't I Yeah, yeah,
I wiped everything down just to sure that there was
no aroma, negative aroma emanating from this body. And there isn't,
in fact, only as Jeff just indicated, a positive aroma.
(30:10):
Mando's fantastic and no matter the time of the year,
but especially this time of year when these humid days
caused us to sweat a bit more than normal. So
go to Mando dot com, use the codedlls. Get five
dollars off your starter pack at Mando. Okay, so can
(30:30):
we get this offense right? They appeared to have made steps,
right strides maybe even maybe the weekend was more than
baby steps in that the Friday game showed a little
bit of everything, Jeff offensively, and this Sunday game showed
those things that you mentioned briefly earlier. But those things
(30:52):
like sackflies. It's only the third time I think this
year that they scored three runs in a game on outs.
They had two sackflies, and they had the one. It
was technically the Haggarty sacrifice bunt, suicide squeeze, whatever you
want to call it. He was out, but the runner
was safe at home. So to have scored three runs
(31:13):
on outs doesn't seem like a huge deal because, you know, again,
for years, it seemed to me like every winning run
in a game was a sackfly. It's a pretty especially
when you're doing highlights on TV like I was for
all those years, and I'm like, oh, wow, how the
Rangers win, you know whatever, sackfly? Oh, for God's sake,
that's not very exciting, you know. But anyway, they got
(31:36):
three sacrifices, on being a bunt, two being traditional sackflies.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
The other night, look, Michael Young won the two thousand
and eight All Star Game for the Facility for the
American League with a sacrifice fly in extra Indians. I mean,
it used to be commonplace. It used to be like
I always thought when David Murphy came up with a
runner at third in less than two outs that he
was coming.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
I knew that the guy was going to score on
a sacrifice fly.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
And then and then you kind of transition to Joey Gallo,
who like went four seasons without a sacrifice fly. Yeah,
just just crazy things like that. And you know, I
talked to Brett Moon after the game Sunday because I
was thinking very good timing by the way to catch
him in the hallway. But you know, he he was
talking about sacrifice flys are such a big deal and
(32:25):
that they do so much for a team, and uh,
you know he said, he said, I love that execution.
That's what builds and you can manufacture runs like that.
That's how you get through the lean times because you're
not going to hit all the time when you're going
through those lean ones. If you execute, that's how you
win games. You watch and then he was like, you
(32:47):
watch Saint Louis in game two that first those either
first or the second round they scored. It was a
heads up base running movie. Yeah, ball in the dirt.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Wilson Contreres went to second, they moved him over, he scored. YEP.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I mean it's just you know, when when you're not
going to score a lot of runs, you got to
do those things. So I think I think that is.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Ideal. What did Sunday putting the ball play? The long ball?
Was there? I mean it finished off the scoring. It
was in the eighth inning when the game was pretty
much in.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Uh decided, but still nice to see, you know. And
you can you can tell that the Rangers, I really,
I really thought after the game, we're talking about the
little things and a bunch of little things equal some
big things. Yeah, they do, and they're just part of
the game again. And you can so many, so many
(33:40):
of those one run games that the Rangers were on
the wrong end of. You know, how many times were
we talking about bases loaded with nobody out and they
couldn't get anybody home. Bases loaded with nobody out.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
There's at least three instances of that that I can
think of off the top of my head that happened
to the Rangers this season. That's in that's in mentionable. Yeah,
you know.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
And really there was a point last season when like
they were just embarrassingly dreadful with like the bases loaded.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah you know, and and and.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Those are the situations where you just you got to
put the bat on the ball, as they're saying in
the chat, just make contact even and this isn't bases loaded,
no outs and you hit the ball of the short
stuff well, they're going to try to turn two and
that sucks getting two outs, right, scoring a run, you know,
just just put the ball. It's better than not scoring
at all. And and you saw it the other night,
(34:33):
for the other afternoon, the first two guys get on
to start the game for the Rangers, and it was strikeout, strikeout,
pop out. You know, come on, you gotta you gotta
execute in those situations. And yes, it was Corey Seger
who was the third batter. And you're not gonna ask
Corey Seger to you know, move them too much now.
And a lot of it does depend on where you
are at the lineup and what those guys are paid
(34:54):
and asked to do. But the point being, there are
ways to get runs without getting a base hit or
getting the double or hitting a home run.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Yeah, and you know, Marcus Simeon set after the game,
you know, on Sunday, I don't really like to give
it bats away, you know, give a way out, giveaway outs,
And that is that is the way I think even
even his generation of player, which is significantly earlier generation
(35:25):
than the youngest guys today, but I think from his
on that's sort of the way they've been trained which
is contrary to what Brett Boone has done and is advocating.
And what you know, Bruce Bochie saw teams do for
years and years and years, and so you know, maybe
this shift in mindset. Yeah, I suppose there's probably a
(35:48):
stigma in their minds a little bit, Jeff, where well,
we don't need to hit a sack fly because we
got power. We don't need to do that. We're good hitters. Right. Well,
you guess what, sometimes they're really good pitchers too. Get
the ball in the damn Aaron, get it out there
and then drive the run in.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, you know, and the ballpark factors are down this
year at Global Life Field. I mean, it's it's harder.
It's been harder to hit home runs. But I wonder
if that's because the Rangers, so the offense and their
pitching has been so good, you know, I wonder if
that has had anything to do with it. Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Marcus has said he doesn't like to give it out away, sacrificing,
but if it's if it means adding a run to
make it a little bit easier for the closer, or
if it means building a cushion, and then you know,
given given a team, the ability to put the game
away late, do it, you know, be a well rounded offense.
And you know, Marcus at this point can't really pick
(36:46):
and choose. He can't be greedy, no, you know. And
if if he needs a hit a ground or up
the middle to get a run home, then you know, Marcus,
let's go ahead and do that. But you know, again,
he had a great weekend. You hope that's the turnaround
that he's been trying to, uh to get and but
he's he's if he's on the right track, that's good.
And then I've seen mister asking about us a Doula
(37:08):
is going to.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Be back this week? Uh?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
In theory, yes, I mean he's not. He's not on
the injured list, or he hasn't used his last option
to the minors, which is possible. He could be sent
to the minor leagues. He doesn't quite have the service
time to refuse an option. So anyway, if he but
you know, the Rangers want him to work on some
swing changes, very clearly. They want him to work on
(37:33):
some approach changes. And you know, you gotta you gotta
test the waters with them. I think, you know, when
when there's a situation where there's a left handed batter
or a left handed picture. I'm sorry you you'll you'll
see Garcia and and you might see him against the
right hander. Just you know, get him back out there
(37:54):
to feel good about himself, but also just see where
he's at, see how these swing changes feel, because you
can't you can't replicate them for sure until you see
it against live pitching.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
In a game.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
You can hit off the machine or hit off a
tee or you know, a coach's arm all you want,
but until you're out there looking at nasty stuff and
in a game that matters and how you're going to react,
you know, and if you can execute the swing changes,
he needs to see it. And maybe it's just like
(38:28):
one game he goes over four and it's like, well
that didn't work, or back to the drawing board.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
But I don't think I don't think he's going to
be an everyday player until those swing changes are take hold.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, and with the return of Evan Carter, they will
have the flexibility to allow for if you call it
a platoon situation, I suppose that's what you know. Adult
is could be part of a platoon in right field
in any event, I agree with you, Jeff. I just
think until he looks like Aduley Scarcia of twenty twenty three,
(39:06):
the leash is fairly short. And it should be because
those those non competitive at bats, for lack of a
better word, those where where he chases so badly. He
was chasing, you know, not quite but almost half of
his pitches, he was chasing forty plus forty one, forty
two percent. When you're chasing that many, those at bats
(39:28):
become somewhat non competitive and they become demoralizing for a team.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, and and my point, I think I mentioned this recently.
He should know by now how they're trying to get
him out. Yes, it's it's this. It has been the
same recipe since twenty twenty one, and he just can't
help himself. He's hitting one fifty five in his last
(39:53):
twenty games. He did, you know, have the big hit
against the White Sox to avoid the embarrassment of being
swept them. But it's it just hasn't been good and
it and it needs to be better. Mister is asking
who who then would be in right field if it's
(40:13):
not Garcia, Well, you know, Evan Carter is going to
be back in center fields. That pushes that pushes old
Wyatt Langford over to the left, and then I think
you have your choice between Haggarty and Osuna and and
against a lefty it will be different because if you,
in theory, have a Doles back in right field, uh
and have Carter and no Sooner on the bench, and
(40:35):
that gives Haggarty the chance to either play center or left.
I just, I just they have options, and right now
their outfield options appear to be well, they're not. They're
not appear to be They're better than adulest Garcia, at
least offensively. I don't want to take away from Adults' defense,
because he's been very, very good defensively, but I think
(40:57):
that there are opportunities for the Rangers to attempt to
rectify their offense without a Doulas in it.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah, and to answer that miss to Sam starting in
right field the majority of the week. Then we're only
assuming that Adulas will be back sooner rather than later.
We still haven't been given a plan for how they
will enter him back into you know, into even activity
right They want to make sure ideally that he's right now. Again,
(41:29):
you can't go too long down a man. So it's
probably going to happen soon, I would think, probably in
this Tampa series. But there's they're leaving the options I
think open that it that it might take a little long.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Well, and you know you saw the the DFA of
Tucker Barnhardt. Yeah, because if you're going to be playing
theoretically a man down with a doulas working on things,
you've got to have more flexibility than a catcher and
two other guys on the bench.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
So there there is that, And so I don't but yeah,
you know, Bruce Bochi was going to talk to a
doulas after the game or before the game Sunday, after
he talked to us. Nothing, nothing came out of the
meeting to the media. So I don't know where things stand.
(42:19):
But I do think that, you know, Bruce has a way.
I mean, he's a guy who had to manage Barry Bonds, Yeah,
and had a way of getting Barry Bonds to pinch
it on days he wanted off and things like that.
You know, I'm sure Boach had a way of talking
to Adulus and I evern know, Hey, this is what
we think, this is what what we want you to
do we know you can do this. You've carried our
(42:42):
team in the past. We got to get you back
to that guy.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Yep. So that's the goal. That's what they're trying to do,
and we'll keep our fingers crossed. That is what they do.
In the meantime, they'll figure it out with or without adulties.
Coming up, it's our cleanup segment. A lot of fun
to talk of, including believe it or not, maybe the
first time on the program. Some softball. That's next on
the DLS Rangers Podcast. Ah, but we got merch Jeff.
(43:12):
Oh yeah, we're merched up. We're not at the ballpark today.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
So John is modeling the DLS shirt that I almost
wore a day but and I was like, I was like,
I know he doesn't have this red shirt, so I'm
going to go if the red I didn't think you
had this one, I've got it so I could wear
that tomorrow. So anyway, look, go to storedout alcitynetwork dot com.
Check out all of our shirts, not just the Ranger shirts.
(43:36):
You know, if you get some ice cream on your shirt,
like John's about to, you need another one. You need
another one right there. So again, I have fifteen shirts,
two sweatshirts. We will be adding another Ranger shirt once
it's made available, and again when the hats come out,
I'm going to go crazy. So it's quality stuff. We
(43:59):
would we beware of these. They were itchy and scratchy.
You know, I've done just about every activity in these
shirts that you can imagine. So again, go to sort
out Allcitynetwork dot com get a shirt, or.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Go ahead and go to All City Network as slash
join and are all d lls? Is that all the
d lls slash join d ls dot com slash joint
or or just use the QR code get yourself a
free shirt by becoming a die hard. I really think
that you will appreciate this die hard membership because we're
(44:37):
just you know, we have better writers with its veteran
experience than anybody else that's out there with a with
a as sort of a cadre of writers, and there's
not that many anyway, obviously the athletics out there, but
they don't even cover the Rangers for example, right, they've
got writers on other beats, and you've got the Dallas
newspaper and they do a fine job, but they're a
(44:59):
heck of a lot more expensive than seventy nine ninety nine,
and they don't give you a free shirt. So I
encourage you to become a die hard today. You won't
regret it, all right, So let's get to this. Let's
get to this this cleanup segment. First of all, did
you see the Tigers circus catch last night? I did
(45:23):
not see. Okay, you got to look this one up
because the Rangers had one earlier this season, one of those,
and it was against them. If I'm not mistaken, somebody
in right field pops out of his glove and there's
a center fielder right there to catch it. What game
was that? Do you remember that one? Remember? Anyway? In
the Tiger game yesterday, the catcher, who is Dylan Dingler, was,
(45:45):
you know, charging over for a I'll follow pop up
right in front of the third base dugout and he
gets his glove out there in time, and the ball
just hits it and bounces off, and Zach McKinstry, the
third baseman, is coming over to help with this if
he can. Yeah, and I'll be dying if the ball
pops off. The glove of Dingler hits McKinstry in the
(46:06):
lower leg and he puts his glove down and catches it,
and it's like, hey, look what ima, I promise you
he wasn't looking at the ball, He had no idea
it was there. We had a good reaction, got his
glove down, caught the ball.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, there's two plays I can think of like that.
There was a the Pete Rose Bob Boone play. It
might have boy, it might have been I don't recall.
It might have been during their eighty playoff run. And
then and then tom Brookins Tigers Tom Brookns Mike Keith
had a similar play that is part of the blooper
(46:41):
reel in Naked Gun. Oh no kidding, Yeah, yeah, including
the you know, they have some real ones. And then
they have you know, the guy's head popping off when
he tries to get the ball and the tiger attacking
the the base runner a second car hitting the Yeah,
those are a little more extreme.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Yeah, yeah, a little more extreme. That's a funny movie.
So that was really cool. I loved saying that. How
about the La Angels of Anaheim last night in Fenway Park,
Jeff Fenway Park's been there since nineteen twelve, and no
visiting team has ever done what the Angels did in
(47:21):
the top of the first innings. Very surprising. I was shocked,
especially at that ballpark. Yeah, no visiting team has ever
hit three home runs in the first inning, and the
Dead Gum Angels did that last night with including a
four hundred and fifty four foot bomb by Mike Trout. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Mike Trout has been sizzling hot since he came off
the aisle. And he said last night to reporters that
he used his time recovering from his knee injury to
reset his swing. Well, guess what Bruce Bochi the other
day said, you know, while Jock's on the ail, it's
going to give him a chance to reset his swing.
Kumar Rocker used the il time to reset his body
(48:03):
and get everything in tuned. You hope that all players
take advantage of the time. You don't just have to
recover from being injured.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
You get to work on things. Sure.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Yeah, and if Mike Trout's going for the Angels, that's great.
You know, I mean, he was a he is a
shoeing Hall of Famer. Oh yeah, No, he's a shoeing
first ballot Hall of Famer. But we were talking Mike Trout.
Let's say after twenty fourteen, even a little later twenty nineteen,
being one of the best players ever ever, a top ten.
(48:35):
He's really really good and if he's back, it's great
for baseball. I don't care if he's in the Rangers
division or not. Great Mike Trout is a great thing. Yeah,
there is no doubt about that. And you know, Wash
said it way back at the winter meetings that you know,
if Mike Trout is healthy, which at the time Wash
(48:56):
thought he was, he may not have been fully but
now he appears to be. He said, he's still one
of the top you know, twenty five players in the
game or something along those and he definitely definitely is
maybe even higher than that on the list Mike Trout.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Uh see. And you know what, I'm again, we're always
happy for Wash when his team's not beating the Rangers
and uh they're they're putting them again. Nobody in the
American League West is putting any distance between anybody, really,
but you know, they've I think they've got three games
on the uh on the Athletics now, I mean that
that we thought the Angels, especially with what the Athletics
did in the off season, which was more than they've
(49:34):
done in a long long time. I thought, yeah, well,
it's probably gonna be the Angels down at the bottom.
Well it looks like a wash and and those Angels
might have something to say about not being at the bottom.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
They made some additions that would make them or that's
that's feasible, whereas the a'ser kind of relying on young
talent that goes through ups and downs. But the Rangers
are a couple of games ahead of the Angels. We'll see,
We'll see how long it lasts. You know, when when
the Angels came to town, they were they were I
think they were above five hundred at the time, and
(50:04):
also saying that everybody's very very excited about the start,
and was just like, you know, this was August, I'd
be excited.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, but it's April. It's early, man. So yeah, And
then didn't the Rangers take three out of four? I
think I think they swept them, maybe a sweep. Yeah, Okay,
so there you go. That was that, and uh, you know,
but interesting though that since nineteen twelve, no visiting team
has hit three bombs in the first inning. Got a
Jose you Arena update, renaa, thank you. He's with the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Now, Yeah, you know, the Dodgers have a ton of injuries,
Holy moly. And you know what, if you've paid attention
to the Dodgers in the past, while they're signing all
these guys in the off season and all that stuff,
if you knew one of their one of their pitfalls
the fast past few seasons has been pitching injuries, and
(50:55):
they are they're going through it again. Uh Urania was
so valuable to the Rangers. I was really disappointed they
didn't resign him, give him an opportunity to do something
with this club. They could use him right now, I
really think. But he's been bouncing around what he started
with the Mets, then went to the Blue Jays, and
now he's with the Dodgers. So he's made a big
(51:15):
apple to Canada to Hollywood. Yeah, out a journey. I
like him, I do, And he was a good guy.
He worked so hard between starts. Nobody works harder or
outings whatever. He is a workout machine. He's built like it,
and I really liked him.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Yeah, we'll hope good things for him with that Dodgers organization.
Pretty tough, you know though. He felt like he resurrected
his career with that great season with the Rangers last year,
and now he's been with three different organizations. I think
the Blue Jays just let him go. Yeah, so interesting
how it goes for certain guys, and especially I guess
(51:55):
when you get a little bit later on in your career.
The Mariners are going to retire number fifty one. Yeah, yeah,
I'm shocked that it hasn't been done with it left,
that's the thing. So why wouldn't Randy Johnson's number have
been retired well before such time as when you would
consider retiring a guys player or your number, because he
(52:18):
was still playing at the time for another club. Each
euro came in and said, can I wear fifty one?
And Randy Johnson gave his blessing? He gave his blessing,
so that happened. But so so who is it retired for?
I mean, because again you'd say, well, it's Ratten, but
because Johnson gave his blessing, it's they can make the case,
(52:42):
which they are, that they're retiring it for Randy Johnson,
but it's being retired for both guys.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
Well they can, Yeah, they can slap both names underneath it. Yeah, absolutely,
and as Michael Younges astutey pointed out when they retired
his ten Jim Sunberg was a really good No, that's right.
He did it for the Rangers. He was in their
Hall of Fame. Yeah, he was a hell of a
catcher at a time where guys caught on one hundred
and sixty games a year and for him to do
(53:10):
that in the Arlington heat right that old ballpark, and
he was a Gold Glove winner.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
I mean he was stinking great. One of the World
Series now with the Rangers obviously, yeah, the Royals, Yeah,
so good for him.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
I remember talking to him in the twenty eleven World Series.
You know the way that the Royals won Game six
a walk off. You know they had the blown call involved, Okay,
they took advantage of it, ended up winning that game.
And then the Cardinals came out the next sign and
just laid a sticking egg and and Sonny said in
two thousand and eighty five, we knew we had it
(53:51):
one and Ada and his concern about Game seven for
the Rangers was can our boys recover? And it started out, well,
it did, and then kind of yeah, it seemed like
they had recovered. Well, I remember Mark macklamore telling me
after Game sixer is no way they're winning tomorrow, and
I'm like, they might, they might, And then they came
(54:13):
out and I'm like, there you go, Mac, there you're
going in.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
Yeah, yep, he had the last laugh and say on that.
So anyway, yeah, that's that story. Now, how about this.
There's this AUSL, which is Athletes United Sports League, which
is a softball league that Major League Baseball has bought into.
They bought twenty percent of the league. And we're actually
(54:38):
excited about this. We're going to try to get a
couple of guests on from softball. But I got to
be honest with you, so and that happened last week.
And there's a lot of people in Major League Baseball
who are extremely excited about this and should be. And
I love the fact that maybe this will give gals
a chance to make some real money playing softball. But
to be honest, even at the college level, I have
(55:00):
not watched a lot of softball over the years, Jeff,
and certainly not recently, to the point that there was
not much on last night. So I'd flipping around and
I found the Texas Tech OHU game. Now, oh you
has a home field advantage every year at the Women's
College World Series because they the Omaha of the Women's
(55:21):
College World Series is Oklahoma City, you know, just twenty
miles up the road from Norman. So it's a real
home field advantage. The other teams talk about it often. Oh,
you had won four straight national championships women's softball. But
here's the thing I didn't know till last night when
I was watching that game. The pitchers wear masks. Oh yeah,
(55:41):
oh yeah. Have they done that for a long time
they have? Wow, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (55:46):
I don't know if it's required now. Well, I want
to keep like helmets in hockey. But yeah, you don't
see a picture without a mask.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Well, and that's not much distance between. I mean that's
not sixty feet six inches, which even that isn't far.
And as we know, sometimes but they'll they'll hit that
ball hard. Anyway, What a game this was? So? Oh
you again, down to their last at bat, they got
to run around in the ninth inning, they're down to
their ninth place hitter is at the plate, and I
(56:16):
wish I remember her name, but I don't. But she
gets up there, ninth place hitter, She gets up there
and with two strikes, doesn't she jack a two run
bomb out into right field and send the place into hysteria.
The Sooners have tied the game. And yes, I mean,
as you're watching that game, you're thinking, there is no
(56:36):
way Texas Tech is going to win this game. Now,
this is OU just showing unbelievable dominance. And I'll be
darned if you know Tech, because again, it feels like
a home game for OU, but Tech was the home
team in this game. They come up in the bottom half,
get a run around, she gets over to third and
a sackfly brings her home. And the slide that this
(56:58):
young lady made was unbelievable, and she's quick and she
got in there because it was a fairly shallow flyball
to right field, and she scored and it was really cool.
I mean it was it was like up off the
couch exciting kind of stuff. Not that I'm a fan
of either, really, I'm not a huge Tech fan, although
my son in law went there. But I thought it
(57:19):
was pretty cool, pretty dramatic, exciting finish.
Speaker 2 (57:22):
The most excited person in Texas about professional softball is
my daughter. She's ten, all right, she doesn't quite understand things,
but she knows that she wants to play professional softball
for her job. And so I sent the press release
to her or to my wife, who then showed it
to her last week. And Molly is now convinced that
(57:44):
she's she's gonna have a tough decision either OEU or
going pro okay right out of high school. So she
is fired up.
Speaker 1 (57:52):
I hope, so I hope that happens exactly as she
sees it. And yeah, so it's Texas Tech and Tech
Jeff in Oklahoma City for the national championship and women's softball.
And again, never to take anything away from the great
program at Texas, but the Texas Tech team did beat
(58:14):
them earlier this season when they played. So let's just
see what happens in the in the world series here.
Speaker 2 (58:20):
Yeah, I think it's best of three, so there'll be
some some good softball being played.
Speaker 1 (58:25):
Yeah, I think there will be. So anyway, that's exciting.
And we will, as we say, we're going to try to,
you know, get you more information and maybe even a
guest or two on with regard to this a U
s L that there's one thing we know, if that happens,
Molly will be by the channel. She will be, she
will be. Yeah, and I say we I say we
(58:46):
get Kat Austerman. Let's do it. Yeah, that's great Texas,
Texas goal, great talker, and she really was in many ways.
You know, she was one of the pioneers of the
women's game, taking and making any of the big strides
that it has. Good. We'll work on Kat Osterman. We
appreciate you hanging out with us today. We have just
(59:07):
about finished our frost Seas and needless to say, have
finished our beer. They go well together, they go very
well together. So what a day it's been. Thanks for
joining us. See again tomorrow at one o'clock for another
edition of the DLLs Rangers podcast. It's all silly like
(59:28):
the Man.
This is going to be a great day in what
ways you ask, Well, let me count the ways. Baseball, beer,
ice cream, and Hooters. If that doesn't make you stick
around for the next hour, I don't know what the
hell's wrong with you. The DLLs Rangers Podcast starts now.
(00:21):
Sometimes these long road trips are nothing but good for
a team, and we'll hope that's the case for the Rangers.
It's their first three city trip of the season and
it starts tonight in Tampa. They were there yesterday too,
but first game of the road trip is tonight in Tampa.
Hi there, Welcome into the DLLs Sports Studios. It's the
(00:41):
DLLs Rangers Podcast. John Radigan, Jeff Wilson, the extremely busy
profit over there. But we got things rolling here as
he's gotten everything done in record time, and it's a
very very big day around here. And I don't know
if you guys noticed it, but walking across the street
from the parking garage today, I saw a sign that
(01:04):
just made me smile, and it put a spring in
my step. Our next door neighbor has a sign that
says now hiring. Oh. Our next door neighbor is Hooters.
So I'm just saying this is a big they're hiring
fellas need not apply. No, Ye, well, I don't know.
(01:25):
I mean, I don't know if you're allowed to do that,
but I will say this, they probably wouldn't get the job.
And secondly, I guess they had a fire before we
moved in here. Yeah, it's been about a year and
here they go. They're almost open again. So at this stage,
to be honest, I'd be more excited about the beer
and the wings than the Hooters. But that's you know,
(01:47):
but if they come with the dinner, you know, what
the heck? Yeah? You know?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And apparently this is like one of the best hooters,
most successful hooters around.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Oh is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
And you know, with Hooters and having some financial difficulties,
for them to go ahead and finish the renovations and
open this bad boy up, they're gonna get a lot
of business from us.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I know that, no doubt. There's no doubt, especially on
those nights like Thursday, when we will be you know,
here late with you won't be open yet because they
haven't hired anybody yet, but we'll be ready. And yeah,
we talk about beer later because we've got that. As
an advertiser, and we talk about desserts later because we've
got that as an advertiser too. But in the meantime
(02:31):
we talk baseball. And one of the things I said
Jeff in writing the descriptions of the show, the Rangers
are on the road to recovery. And let's just you
see what I did there. Yeah, let's just hope that's true. Right,
it appeared to be true at the end of the
home stand. Let's hope again from an offensive perspective, this
(02:53):
team is recovering.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, and part of the recovery needs to be playing
better on the road. Yeah, they're nine and eighteen, and
if you are very any good at math, you know
that's a three thirty three winning percentage.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's not good.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, So they have nine games to get it straightened out.
They're playing the Rays, who you know, are kind of
like the Rays, they're just kind of middling around. Not
a bad team, not a great team. And then you
have a trip to Washington, who the Nationals have good
young talent, but they're not quite there yet.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's a bad team.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
And then they go on to the Twins, who played
really well in May. So this is a chance, this
is the Rangers are going Evan carter back Kamar Rocker
is going to pitch tomorrow instead of Nathan Ovaldi. And
you expect that Chris Martin is going to be back
here pretty soon after he threw live batting practice Sunday
morning at the ballpark. So things are trending upwards again.
(03:45):
Nineteen runs in their last two wins. Some perhaps realization
that hey, it's okay to hit a sacrifice fly, it's
okay to put down a bunt, it's okay to put
the ball in play because sometimes the other team is
going to screw it up. So they're just a little
I just think that the Sunday, the Sunday win, and
I again, I said I was gonna write this yesterday
(04:07):
and I'm working on it. Is a get embodymit of
what the Rangers can do and need to do. And
I think that's what Brett Boone wants the team to do.
So anyway, we'll see what happens. You know, it's it's
it's supposed to be a little bit wet in Tampa.
Hopefully the rain clears out before game time tomorrow. Might
be dodging some rain bullets. Remember this game will be
(04:30):
played at a minor League Field, Legends Field or George
Seinbrenner Field and the legend Stateum, I don't know what
the hell they're calling it, but not the trap. Where
as bad as the trap was in some people's minds,
at least a new year playing every day because of
the roof, which now no longer exists. So anyway, we'll
see what happens. I'm looking forward to watching the game tonight.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah. So it'll be the fifty third stadium in which
the Texas Rangers organization has ever played. Okay, they've added
too obviously this year, the one Sutter Park or whatever
we call it in Stutter Sutter. It's not Stutter, I
think it's Sutter, so Sutter Sutler. Yeah. I don't think
they're celebrating stuttering. No, well, maybe they are, I don't know,
(05:13):
or maybe they're curing it. In any event, you got
that one, the one in Sacramento, and you got this
one in Tampa proper as opposed to Tampa Saint Pete area, which,
of course the traps in Saint Pete. So they only
they only went to three brand new stadiums in the
last ten years. Right in the previous ten there were
(05:34):
only three new stadiums visited by this organization this year,
there's already been two. Of course, there was a lot
of that going on in the nineties and so forth,
when there were all those new stadiums being built. But
now everybody's pretty happy with their stadium. And I guess
one of the three in the previous ten would have
been Globalife Field. Yeah, it would have.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Been there in twenty twenty opening day, which that year
was in late June, as I recall, maybe it's July.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I think it was July. I think I got into
July July twentieth.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Any event, Yeah, you know, and and I don't know
the next time there's.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Going to be a new one.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Now, I guess Las Vegas is the one on the
on the docket, But if the Rays end up having
to move, that'll be another new one. That'll be another
new one. So we'll we'll stand by. But this will
be uh professional baseball in a minor league stable.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It will, and it is what it is in that regard.
The good news for the Rangers is that the starting
rotation is so spectacular that two eighty ERA is not
only a franchise record for the lowest era by the
rotation at this point in the season, which is to say,
sixty games in, it's also number one in Major League
(06:54):
Baseball this year. The previous low for the Rangers prior
to this season, you might remember twenty twenty three, pretty
good year, believe it or not, that rotation Jeff with
only a partial use of Jacob de Gram and all
that other stuff. In twenty three, that rotation had a
three to one nine ERA after sixty games. But as
(07:18):
we remember, they had a forty and twenty record. They
were hitting the ball that year two years in a row.
Now it's twenty nine and thirty one, and so obviously
the goal becomes starting with this road trip, to make
sure the rest of this season does not go like
the rest of last season did.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Agreed, And you know, the twenty three club of Valdi
was very good. Dan Dunning was the pleasant surprise. I
thought John Gray was making a case to be an
All Star. It kind of fell apart a little bit
for him in June, but you know, it was a
it was a very serviceable rotation. And this is this
(08:01):
is remarkable. Yeah, and you know it's it's uh, you know,
taking a little hit here with with de Gram I'm
sorry with a Vauldi going to the injured list. Rocker though,
and his two rehab starts only seven innings, but I
think he only allowed two hits, and so he feels good,
(08:21):
feels like as you know he was telling us on Sunday,
and his deliveries and his arm and his delivery and mechanics,
they're all synced up, something that he had been fighting
really since he got to spring training. And so we'll
see how that goes tomorrow. He obviously pitches very very
well in minor league ballparks, so we'll see what happens.
(08:43):
But that'll be interesting. One lighter Malley Tonight, Rocker Lighter,
and we'll see how it turns out.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, we'll look forward to it. And the Rangers rotation
has allowed two runs are less than six straight games.
That is the record or a second best in their
franchise history. But more importantly, the rotation has allowed three
or less than twenty two straight games. That's unbelievable that
I'm twenty two straight is a franchise record, and it's
(09:12):
it's just unbelievable that they have done that. And it's
also unbelievable that in spite of that they figured out
a way to be two games under five hundred. Now
that said, if it weren't for that rotation, good god,
they'd be flirting with the White Sox right now. Joe.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, I don't think they'd be Rockies bad, but they
might be down there with the White Sox days. And so, yeah,
you hope that what you sell over the weekend was
the start of the offensive turnaround. And you know, if
you break the season down into into thirds, and I
know sixty plus sixty plus sixty is more than one
hundred and sixty two, but you get the point. You
(09:49):
know you're gonna have sixty good, sixty bad, and sixty
where you try to survive it. Right, the Rangers are
hoping that the sixty they just completed were they're bad sixty.
So we'll see how it plays out. I still like
the team, especially if they start to hit. They start
to hit, they're a contender because it's wide open in
(10:11):
the American League.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, it really is. And so yeah, there's a lot
to be excited about with regard to this road trip,
especially when you consider the fact that the Rangers swept
the Rays earlier this season, and the Rangers have a
season or rather a franchise long seven game winning streak
against this Tampa team dating back to last year. Jaff.
(10:33):
So when you look at those numbers, you feel fairly
good just about again matchups. Now, you could also say
seven in a row crap the Raiser do right, But
I feel like based on matchups earlier this season, especially
when the Rangers swept the Rays at home, makes you
feel kind of good about the way things match up tonight.
It does.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
You know, Drew Rasmusen's a really good underrated pitcher. He's
going to start for the race tonight and have shame
as who feels like has been a young prospect forever
he hadn't had the injury. He's going to go tomorrow
and then the Wednesday game, Ryan Pepiot, I think, is
how you say it? You know some guy you really
don't know a lot about. He's got a three twenty
(11:15):
one era, so I would expect some low scoring games here.
And John Daniels talked to him a few weeks ago
about about the ballpark too, and he was one of
the you know as his role special assistant helping the
transition to the Steinbrenner Field, and he's you know, he
gave some pretty good insight about park factors. It really depends,
(11:37):
you know, if the wind is blowing in from left field,
it's going to be a low scoring game. Blown out pitchers,
you know, duck and cover. But with the Rays again,
the young third baseman, Junior Camerrero, I think it's something
like that. He is a nice player, and.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
You know what, he tied for American League Player of
the Week this past week. He had like thirteen RBI
in seven games.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And Nate Lowe's brother, Josh Lowe is good against right handers.
Brandon Law which is spelled all the same.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah. Yeah, it was a.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Good player earlier in the month, and he's kind of
a veteran guy. But you just don't see a ton
of names that stick out. They sent the speedster down, Chandler,
Simpson Chandler, so anyway, he's down. But they don't have
a ton of big names in the lineup. But they
still managed to be competitive.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
It was pretty interesting that they sent the kid down.
He was I think he was hitting like two eighty
five or something, still on all kinds of bases, making
stuff happen. On the basis that said, you know, they're
known as an organization that does a good job developing players,
and the best thing for a young guy like him
really is to go to the minor leagues and get
better and get more seasoned and get more at bats.
(12:55):
So to not stop playing, to keep playing, that's right, Yeah,
don't be on the bench. Don't be a guy who
is wondering when your next opportunity might come. So anyway,
it's a pretty good matchup. Tonight, we want to talk
more about the starting pitching and some of the amazing
things that they have done already this season. That is
(13:16):
coming up. Also, we will get to our cleanup segment,
which has just chock full of fun stuff tonight. But
that's all coming up on the DLLs Rangers podcast. Ah,
but first the ice cream thanks to our brand new sponsor,
Wendy's and their brand new item, the Frosty Fusion. Now,
(13:40):
the Frosty Fusion is something that is basically a swirl. Right.
You can put carmel into your chocolate or vanilla, you
can put brownie bites, you can put strawberry in there.
What I've chosen though, is the frosty Fusion that is
slightly thoroughly blended through and I've got the caramel crunch
(14:04):
in my Frosty Fusion. That is fantastic. What do you
have in yours, Jeff?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
It's chocolate ice cream with some chocolate sauce and Oreos,
which I can tend. Oreos are the number one mixing
item when it comes to ice cream any kind. And
I think this, I don't think this one's This is
the Oreo Brownie Frosty.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
It's pretty good. I'm just gonna tell you right now.
It's pretty good. So Frosty Fusion, you've got to get
one wherever they are sold. It is a limited time
and it is participating Wendy's, and it may vary as
well as the hours may vary by location. But it
does beg the question, does ice cream, Jeff, go with beer.
(14:50):
We're about to find out. I was about to say,
we got the best boss in town. Here's the skipper
helping us find out because there's our bud light. Nah.
I love ice beer and cookies, Jeff. Let's see how
it goes with ice cream. Come on, bud Light. Such
drink ability, it's smooth. I always love the barley and
(15:12):
the hops that they use over there at Anheuser Bush
and it's just such a great summertime drink bud Light.
We're thrilled to have these two as two of our
many sponsors. But I'll tell you what, as long as
there's a freezer full of the frosties up there and
a fridge full of the bud like this may become
(15:34):
a staple on the show. Jeff. I'm fine with that.
I'm fine with that. Yes, drink responsibly, Yeah, we do.
Twenty one and older, please drink responsibly. An Heiser Busch,
Saint Louis, Missouri. All right, So we're going to keep
nibbling as the other one talks, right, So we'll be
hoping each other goes on long and drinking, hoping each
other goes on long diatribes here, which we will. But
(15:57):
I want to get into this starting rotation just a
little bit more because the other thing that I didn't mention,
I thought I read it wrong. I was reading the
postgame notes that they send out after the game on Sunday,
and I was just glancing through there and they said
that the Rangers starting rotation has allowed three runs or less.
(16:19):
We mentioned the twenty two in a row they've allowed
three runs or less. Jeff in fifty four of the
sixty games. I thought, there's no way there's no fifty
four out of sixty. That means there's only six. Now
we know the Rangers have lost thirty one games, so
I'm like, come on, that can't look at this. Nathan
(16:40):
Evaldi twelve out of twelve, Tyler Mallley twelve out of twelve,
Patrick Corbyn ten out of ten, Jacob de Grom eleven
out of twen. What the hell's wrong with you? Eleven
out of twelve? I should say, Jack lighter, young guy
and still has done it seven out of nine. And
it felt like Kamar Rocker wasn't that great in his
first little run through the era would indicate he wasn't.
(17:01):
And yet look at there, three out of five.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, though those numbers are staggering, they really are. And
I think the biggest surprises is Patrick Corman.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
I mean, this guy had a six, five, seven, probably
at times a massive era at various points over the
past five seasons, and my god, he's been terrific.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Now they have they.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Seem to have found the magic, magical formula. You know,
they don't let him go through the lineup a third time,
and that's fine. Yeah, but the point is he's keeping
him in the games, and you know, when he leaves
and he's given up two runs, let's say in four
and two thirds or five and a third, that's fantastic.
It is, I mean, and he truly is their number
(17:49):
five starter. Yeah. This isn't Patrick Corman that helped the
Nationals win the World Series in twenty nineteen then signed
the lucrative extension.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
This is.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
A guy who seems like he got a second chance.
You know, he was out there in free agency for
so long. Honestly, I don't I don't know that anybody
was about to sign him and then and then Gray
and Bradford got hurt. Ranger scout saw something last year
in his second half where he was using a different
(18:20):
pitch mix that would work, and by got the right
and then the change in scenery, getting away from all
those losses to a team rich in talent and Laila,
you've got a brand new man. So hats off to him.
Now his next start is going to be against his
against the next Yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
So that'll be like that. That's a nice subplot, jucy.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, it could be a could be a sports hate
type of thing as a term Mike Napoli first used it.
In fact, I think he might be the only person
I've ever heard use it. But it was twenty ten.
He'd been acquired by the by the Rangers after he
had been traded to the Blue Jays and spring training
we're talking to him, Hey, facing the Angels, that have any.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, and he'd been eight or ten years with it'd
only been with the Angels until the brief trade do
the blue Jays.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
And then he said, oh yeah, there's gonna be some
good sports hate going And you know, it was a
real thing with him. He owned the Angels, he did,
and I kind of I believe in it. And you
see it. You see guys who have big games against
their former team. So, Nathaniel Low, if you're not careful,
Rangers might have a big weekend on you.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You know there could be some sports hate coming up
out of Patrick Corbyn too, So we'll see how that
turns out. But again, gosh, you know, never seen pitching
like this.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
No, and never have And in fact, so of course
you'd go the cynic among us would go, well, yeah,
I mean, so starting rotation has been great, but they've
lost thirty one games, so obviously freaking bullpen. I mean
they've blown it often. No, No, if you look at
the overall, not just the rotation, the pitching staff. Excuse me,
(20:07):
ERA three ten best in the American League, three point
one zero. It's best in the American League. It's third
best in all of baseball. Only the Mets and the
Giants have better team eras. So you know, it all
points back to the same thing. And god knows, we've
talked about it a million times, and we'll probably get
(20:28):
into it a little bit more here later in the show,
but it points back to the problem, which is the offense,
but the bullpen, which was cobbled together and questioned in
so many ways. Jeff and now has gone through its
share of maybe fatigue and for sure injury. Still doing fine. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I was on a radio show with ESPN and Waco
my friend Ward Whites, and he asked about the bullpen,
and they're kind of hanging on right now. It's kind
of agreed, just kind of trying to survive, you know,
and Chris Martin coming back is going to be a
big deal, and then you kind of look ahead and
you know, Josh Spores coming back should help John Gray
(21:10):
potentially coming back as a reliever would be massive of
this team. And then the trade deadline comes along, and
I don't know, there's gonna be thousands of relievers available.
Some of them aren't going to be the big names,
you know, the closers or whatever. For these teams that
have fallen out of contention, there's going to be some
big names set up, guys, guys who are just going
to be coming there and be good, kind of like
(21:31):
a Sam Dyson, you know, you'd never really heard of
Sam Dyson and Jake Deekman for that, for that in
that vein kind of throwins if you will, or the
Dyson trade was one for a couple of prospects. But
point being, there are guys out there who scouts see
and who are just really really good, and you could
see the Rangers adding there potentially. But right now, you know,
(21:54):
Robert Garcia has been doing fine, he really has. Luke
Jackson had the hiccup, but he's been okay. The last out,
Hobie Milner continues to amaze amaze, and uh, you know,
Armstrong has gotten better. I know he had that rough
one on the last home stand, but Seawn Armstrong has
been pretty steady.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, for most of the he's been pretty steady. The
one up and down guy's been Webb. I think, right,
you know.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Right, and you know, so we'll we'll see what happens there.
And the Rangers aren't any position to be shedding guys.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
No.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
And then somebody asked in the chat about Cody Hewer,
who has no Hoyer?
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Is yeah, pr, PR, soother thing? It's Hoyer right, well,
and Mike Maddox was pronouncing it incorrect. Oh wow, okay, yeah, no,
PR says it's Hoyer. Okay, well, whatever his name is,
and it is Cody with an I. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
You know, he was a he was once a you
can do a search, you know, he was a He
was going to be the Cubs closer of the future
and then his arm got wrecked and it's been a
long road back. The Rangers signed him in twenty three knowing,
you know, he was hurt, would need to recover. He
pitched last year in Triple A, had an awful spring
(23:04):
He was just not competitive in spring training this year.
But he's been really really good at Round Rock. Uh,
you know, following in the steps of cole Win, Luis
Curvello has been has been really really good too. He
might be the next guy who gets gets the call
from from the minor leagues to get a shot at
the bullpen.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
He uh Hoyer, Hoyer, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I've been struggling with it too. The arm angles a
little different. He's got really long arms, so he's gonna
have good, good reach, and then that'll help make his
fastball play a little bit better.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I don't know that he's going to be uh thrust
into the eighth inning with a lead, uh, but you know,
the Rangers need an arm and he was the next
man up.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
It's gonna be fun to see how this pitching staff
continues to perform. Because again, and we think Chris Martin's
back soon.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yes, yeah, well he threw the live batting practice sun day,
so and you know, and all the conversations I've had
with him.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
He's like, yeah, you know, I'm chopping at the bit.
I'm ready to go.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I don't want to go and a reab assignment and
don't I just need the minimum days? You know, I
think he would like his arm to make that popping
noise while warming up. Maybe it happened the other day
during VP. They don't let us watch so he can
just get used to it.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
So, but he's going to get big outs. I think
Arcia will remain the closer. I think Martin then, you know,
he's so good in that role that but it's just
going to be the eighth You're not going to see
him come in in the seventh to get the last
out and then rest and then come back out. The
Rangers are going to try to be acutely aware of
(24:42):
this guy who in a matter of days turns thirty nine.
So uh and and when he's when he's on, he's
still very very good. I wish he's struck out guys
a little bit more frequently, but he's always around the plate,
generates a lot of weak contact, and he's a veteran,
so that's toa that's gonna help knows how.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
To pitch, no doubt about it. Yeah. He also it's
interesting to when we talked to him the other day,
I brought up, hey, you know, three days in a row,
and he's like, well, I want three days in a row.
But you know, they probably realize that that may not
be the best recipe for a guy who's about to
be thirty nine years old. So they are, you know,
(25:23):
they're massaging. It'll be interesting to see too because Nathan
Valdi is now on the injured list. But again, it's
so nice because there is sort of built in depth
with these guys coming back off the injured list in
this case. And someone in the chat was saying they
were too excited about seeing Kumar Rocker.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, you know, he We got to keep in mind,
I know, Kumar Rocker has been a name probably since
twenty eighteen, you know, when he was his last year
of high school, I think was eighteen, and he was
so good for Vanderbilt. Nineteen twenty was the issue of
the COVID stuff, so nobody really pitched in twenty one.
(26:02):
That's kind of where the drama begins with the supposed
shoulder injury. The Mets didn't sign him, he had you know,
he had a clean up or a procedure of some
sort and then had to fight back independent ball all
that stuff, and then the Rangers signed him surprisingly third overall.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Then he blew out his elbow. So you know, this
is a guy who hasn't had a.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Complete body of work for a long time, and his
first off season healthy as a major leaguer, he went
about it the wrong way. And he didn't come flat
out and say.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
That, but.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
He said, look, I'm it's my first it was my
first off season, you know. And and so he realizes
that he made a mistake. It takes a lot longer,
he said. He now he now realizes to get everything
lined up. So a learning lesson, a tough learning lesson.
But I think the you know, the time off served
him well. He really never had to be shut down
for a long time from throwing, so that's good. And
(26:59):
he had a chance to work on stuff. And and
if everything is dialed in and synked in like it
was last year and he was tearing up the minor
leagues and earned the promotion, you're going to see.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
A better Kamar Rocker.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
The issue now is though that for these next what's today,
for these next ten days until of all these back,
the Rangers don't really have any rotation depth. No, that's it,
And they didn't really have any before before Rocker came back. Yeah,
you know, so, Uh, Dane Dunning pitched well his last
time at Triple A. He's probably the leading guy if
(27:30):
something were to happen, which of course it's a matter
of if not when with starting pitchers. And that's not
a shot at Jacob de Grom or anybody who might's
dealt with a lot of injuries. It's just baseball, you know,
these guys. These guys get hurt and in a variety
of ways. The Yankees closer got hurt warming up the
other day, so it's going to miss four to six weeks.
(27:52):
The hams Erring injury, but the rotation phenomenal. If this
offense had produced at all, the Rangers would be running
away with the West. But that's where that's where we are.
That's where we are.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
That is why we get to the road to recovery. Next.
The Rangers hope that the offense is on said road
to recovery. We talk about that and the rest of
this series, and a little bit more about the road
trip as we continue. It's the DLLs Rangers Podcast.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
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Speaker 1 (29:26):
Cot myself all ready for work today and I was
good to go. And she had to do a couple
of little things. Check the thermostat, you know, put some
chemicals in the pool, very small, little sure, not a bit,
you know, I'm done with those. I'm sweating. I'm just
because you know why it's so humid out there right now,
we've got storms coming in tonight, humidities up. I'm like,
(29:46):
I can't go to work like this. But don't forget.
I got the Mandol wipes. So I wiped everything down,
a boy, I mean everything. I'd be delightful, don't I Yeah, yeah,
I wiped everything down just to sure that there was
no aroma, negative aroma emanating from this body. And there isn't,
in fact, only as Jeff just indicated, a positive aroma.
(30:10):
Mando's fantastic and no matter the time of the year,
but especially this time of year when these humid days
caused us to sweat a bit more than normal. So
go to Mando dot com, use the codedlls. Get five
dollars off your starter pack at Mando. Okay, so can
(30:30):
we get this offense right? They appeared to have made steps,
right strides maybe even maybe the weekend was more than
baby steps in that the Friday game showed a little
bit of everything, Jeff offensively, and this Sunday game showed
those things that you mentioned briefly earlier. But those things
(30:52):
like sackflies. It's only the third time I think this
year that they scored three runs in a game on outs.
They had two sackflies, and they had the one. It
was technically the Haggarty sacrifice bunt, suicide squeeze, whatever you
want to call it. He was out, but the runner
was safe at home. So to have scored three runs
(31:13):
on outs doesn't seem like a huge deal because, you know, again,
for years, it seemed to me like every winning run
in a game was a sackfly. It's a pretty especially
when you're doing highlights on TV like I was for
all those years, and I'm like, oh, wow, how the
Rangers win, you know whatever, sackfly? Oh, for God's sake,
that's not very exciting, you know. But anyway, they got
(31:36):
three sacrifices, on being a bunt, two being traditional sackflies.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
The other night, look, Michael Young won the two thousand
and eight All Star Game for the Facility for the
American League with a sacrifice fly in extra Indians. I mean,
it used to be commonplace. It used to be like
I always thought when David Murphy came up with a
runner at third in less than two outs that he
was coming.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
I knew that the guy was going to score on
a sacrifice fly.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
And then and then you kind of transition to Joey Gallo,
who like went four seasons without a sacrifice fly. Yeah,
just just crazy things like that. And you know, I
talked to Brett Moon after the game Sunday because I
was thinking very good timing by the way to catch
him in the hallway. But you know, he he was
talking about sacrifice flys are such a big deal and
(32:25):
that they do so much for a team, and uh,
you know he said, he said, I love that execution.
That's what builds and you can manufacture runs like that.
That's how you get through the lean times because you're
not going to hit all the time when you're going
through those lean ones. If you execute, that's how you
win games. You watch and then he was like, you
(32:47):
watch Saint Louis in game two that first those either
first or the second round they scored. It was a
heads up base running movie. Yeah, ball in the dirt.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Wilson Contreres went to second, they moved him over, he scored. YEP.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I mean it's just you know, when when you're not
going to score a lot of runs, you got to
do those things. So I think I think that is.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Ideal. What did Sunday putting the ball play? The long ball?
Was there? I mean it finished off the scoring. It
was in the eighth inning when the game was pretty
much in.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Uh decided, but still nice to see, you know. And
you can you can tell that the Rangers, I really,
I really thought after the game, we're talking about the
little things and a bunch of little things equal some
big things. Yeah, they do, and they're just part of
the game again. And you can so many, so many
(33:40):
of those one run games that the Rangers were on
the wrong end of. You know, how many times were
we talking about bases loaded with nobody out and they
couldn't get anybody home. Bases loaded with nobody out.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
There's at least three instances of that that I can
think of off the top of my head that happened
to the Rangers this season. That's in that's in mentionable. Yeah,
you know.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
And really there was a point last season when like
they were just embarrassingly dreadful with like the bases loaded.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah you know, and and and.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Those are the situations where you just you got to
put the bat on the ball, as they're saying in
the chat, just make contact even and this isn't bases loaded,
no outs and you hit the ball of the short
stuff well, they're going to try to turn two and
that sucks getting two outs, right, scoring a run, you know,
just just put the ball. It's better than not scoring
at all. And and you saw it the other night,
(34:33):
for the other afternoon, the first two guys get on
to start the game for the Rangers, and it was strikeout, strikeout,
pop out. You know, come on, you gotta you gotta
execute in those situations. And yes, it was Corey Seger
who was the third batter. And you're not gonna ask
Corey Seger to you know, move them too much now.
And a lot of it does depend on where you
are at the lineup and what those guys are paid
(34:54):
and asked to do. But the point being, there are
ways to get runs without getting a base hit or
getting the double or hitting a home run.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Yeah, and you know, Marcus Simeon set after the game,
you know, on Sunday, I don't really like to give
it bats away, you know, give a way out, giveaway outs,
And that is that is the way I think even
even his generation of player, which is significantly earlier generation
(35:25):
than the youngest guys today, but I think from his
on that's sort of the way they've been trained which
is contrary to what Brett Boone has done and is advocating.
And what you know, Bruce Bochie saw teams do for
years and years and years, and so you know, maybe
this shift in mindset. Yeah, I suppose there's probably a
(35:48):
stigma in their minds a little bit, Jeff, where well,
we don't need to hit a sack fly because we
got power. We don't need to do that. We're good hitters. Right. Well,
you guess what, sometimes they're really good pitchers too. Get
the ball in the damn Aaron, get it out there
and then drive the run in.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, you know, and the ballpark factors are down this
year at Global Life Field. I mean, it's it's harder.
It's been harder to hit home runs. But I wonder
if that's because the Rangers, so the offense and their
pitching has been so good, you know, I wonder if
that has had anything to do with it. Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Marcus has said he doesn't like to give it out away, sacrificing,
but if it's if it means adding a run to
make it a little bit easier for the closer, or
if it means building a cushion, and then you know,
given given a team, the ability to put the game
away late, do it, you know, be a well rounded offense.
And you know, Marcus at this point can't really pick
(36:46):
and choose. He can't be greedy, no, you know. And
if if he needs a hit a ground or up
the middle to get a run home, then you know, Marcus,
let's go ahead and do that. But you know, again,
he had a great weekend. You hope that's the turnaround
that he's been trying to, uh to get and but
he's he's if he's on the right track, that's good.
And then I've seen mister asking about us a Doula
(37:08):
is going to.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Be back this week? Uh?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
In theory, yes, I mean he's not. He's not on
the injured list, or he hasn't used his last option
to the minors, which is possible. He could be sent
to the minor leagues. He doesn't quite have the service
time to refuse an option. So anyway, if he but
you know, the Rangers want him to work on some
swing changes, very clearly. They want him to work on
(37:33):
some approach changes. And you know, you gotta you gotta
test the waters with them. I think, you know, when
when there's a situation where there's a left handed batter
or a left handed picture. I'm sorry you you'll you'll
see Garcia and and you might see him against the
right hander. Just you know, get him back out there
(37:54):
to feel good about himself, but also just see where
he's at, see how these swing changes feel, because you
can't you can't replicate them for sure until you see
it against live pitching.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
In a game.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
You can hit off the machine or hit off a
tee or you know, a coach's arm all you want,
but until you're out there looking at nasty stuff and
in a game that matters and how you're going to react,
you know, and if you can execute the swing changes,
he needs to see it. And maybe it's just like
(38:28):
one game he goes over four and it's like, well
that didn't work, or back to the drawing board.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
But I don't think I don't think he's going to
be an everyday player until those swing changes are take hold.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, and with the return of Evan Carter, they will
have the flexibility to allow for if you call it
a platoon situation, I suppose that's what you know. Adult
is could be part of a platoon in right field
in any event, I agree with you, Jeff. I just
think until he looks like Aduley Scarcia of twenty twenty three,
(39:06):
the leash is fairly short. And it should be because
those those non competitive at bats, for lack of a
better word, those where where he chases so badly. He
was chasing, you know, not quite but almost half of
his pitches, he was chasing forty plus forty one, forty
two percent. When you're chasing that many, those at bats
(39:28):
become somewhat non competitive and they become demoralizing for a team.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, and and my point, I think I mentioned this recently.
He should know by now how they're trying to get
him out. Yes, it's it's this. It has been the
same recipe since twenty twenty one, and he just can't
help himself. He's hitting one fifty five in his last
(39:53):
twenty games. He did, you know, have the big hit
against the White Sox to avoid the embarrassment of being
swept them. But it's it just hasn't been good and
it and it needs to be better. Mister is asking
who who then would be in right field if it's
(40:13):
not Garcia, Well, you know, Evan Carter is going to
be back in center fields. That pushes that pushes old
Wyatt Langford over to the left, and then I think
you have your choice between Haggarty and Osuna and and
against a lefty it will be different because if you,
in theory, have a Doles back in right field, uh
and have Carter and no Sooner on the bench, and
(40:35):
that gives Haggarty the chance to either play center or left.
I just, I just they have options, and right now
their outfield options appear to be well, they're not. They're
not appear to be They're better than adulest Garcia, at
least offensively. I don't want to take away from Adults' defense,
because he's been very, very good defensively, but I think
(40:57):
that there are opportunities for the Rangers to attempt to
rectify their offense without a Doulas in it.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah, and to answer that miss to Sam starting in
right field the majority of the week. Then we're only
assuming that Adulas will be back sooner rather than later.
We still haven't been given a plan for how they
will enter him back into you know, into even activity
right They want to make sure ideally that he's right now. Again,
(41:29):
you can't go too long down a man. So it's
probably going to happen soon, I would think, probably in
this Tampa series. But there's they're leaving the options I
think open that it that it might take a little long.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Well, and you know you saw the the DFA of
Tucker Barnhardt. Yeah, because if you're going to be playing
theoretically a man down with a doulas working on things,
you've got to have more flexibility than a catcher and
two other guys on the bench.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
So there there is that, And so I don't but yeah,
you know, Bruce Bochi was going to talk to a
doulas after the game or before the game Sunday, after
he talked to us. Nothing, nothing came out of the
meeting to the media. So I don't know where things stand.
(42:19):
But I do think that, you know, Bruce has a way.
I mean, he's a guy who had to manage Barry Bonds, Yeah,
and had a way of getting Barry Bonds to pinch
it on days he wanted off and things like that.
You know, I'm sure Boach had a way of talking
to Adulus and I evern know, Hey, this is what
we think, this is what what we want you to
do we know you can do this. You've carried our
(42:42):
team in the past. We got to get you back
to that guy.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Yep. So that's the goal. That's what they're trying to do,
and we'll keep our fingers crossed. That is what they do.
In the meantime, they'll figure it out with or without adulties.
Coming up, it's our cleanup segment. A lot of fun
to talk of, including believe it or not, maybe the
first time on the program. Some softball. That's next on
the DLS Rangers Podcast. Ah, but we got merch Jeff.
(43:12):
Oh yeah, we're merched up. We're not at the ballpark today.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
So John is modeling the DLS shirt that I almost
wore a day but and I was like, I was like,
I know he doesn't have this red shirt, so I'm
going to go if the red I didn't think you
had this one, I've got it so I could wear
that tomorrow. So anyway, look, go to storedout alcitynetwork dot com.
Check out all of our shirts, not just the Ranger shirts.
(43:36):
You know, if you get some ice cream on your shirt,
like John's about to, you need another one. You need
another one right there. So again, I have fifteen shirts,
two sweatshirts. We will be adding another Ranger shirt once
it's made available, and again when the hats come out,
I'm going to go crazy. So it's quality stuff. We
(43:59):
would we beware of these. They were itchy and scratchy.
You know, I've done just about every activity in these
shirts that you can imagine. So again, go to sort
out Allcitynetwork dot com get a shirt, or.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Go ahead and go to All City Network as slash
join and are all d lls? Is that all the
d lls slash join d ls dot com slash joint
or or just use the QR code get yourself a
free shirt by becoming a die hard. I really think
that you will appreciate this die hard membership because we're
(44:37):
just you know, we have better writers with its veteran
experience than anybody else that's out there with a with
a as sort of a cadre of writers, and there's
not that many anyway, obviously the athletics out there, but
they don't even cover the Rangers for example, right, they've
got writers on other beats, and you've got the Dallas
newspaper and they do a fine job, but they're a
(44:59):
heck of a lot more expensive than seventy nine ninety nine,
and they don't give you a free shirt. So I
encourage you to become a die hard today. You won't
regret it, all right, So let's get to this. Let's
get to this this cleanup segment. First of all, did
you see the Tigers circus catch last night? I did
(45:23):
not see. Okay, you got to look this one up
because the Rangers had one earlier this season, one of those,
and it was against them. If I'm not mistaken, somebody
in right field pops out of his glove and there's
a center fielder right there to catch it. What game
was that? Do you remember that one? Remember? Anyway? In
the Tiger game yesterday, the catcher, who is Dylan Dingler, was,
(45:45):
you know, charging over for a I'll follow pop up
right in front of the third base dugout and he
gets his glove out there in time, and the ball
just hits it and bounces off, and Zach McKinstry, the
third baseman, is coming over to help with this if
he can. Yeah, and I'll be dying if the ball
pops off. The glove of Dingler hits McKinstry in the
(46:06):
lower leg and he puts his glove down and catches it,
and it's like, hey, look what ima, I promise you
he wasn't looking at the ball, He had no idea
it was there. We had a good reaction, got his
glove down, caught the ball.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, there's two plays I can think of like that.
There was a the Pete Rose Bob Boone play. It
might have boy, it might have been I don't recall.
It might have been during their eighty playoff run. And
then and then tom Brookins Tigers Tom Brookns Mike Keith
had a similar play that is part of the blooper
(46:41):
reel in Naked Gun. Oh no kidding, Yeah, yeah, including
the you know, they have some real ones. And then
they have you know, the guy's head popping off when
he tries to get the ball and the tiger attacking
the the base runner a second car hitting the Yeah,
those are a little more extreme.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Yeah, yeah, a little more extreme. That's a funny movie.
So that was really cool. I loved saying that. How
about the La Angels of Anaheim last night in Fenway Park,
Jeff Fenway Park's been there since nineteen twelve, and no
visiting team has ever done what the Angels did in
(47:21):
the top of the first innings. Very surprising. I was shocked,
especially at that ballpark. Yeah, no visiting team has ever
hit three home runs in the first inning, and the
Dead Gum Angels did that last night with including a
four hundred and fifty four foot bomb by Mike Trout. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Mike Trout has been sizzling hot since he came off
the aisle. And he said last night to reporters that
he used his time recovering from his knee injury to
reset his swing. Well, guess what Bruce Bochi the other
day said, you know, while Jock's on the ail, it's
going to give him a chance to reset his swing.
Kumar Rocker used the il time to reset his body
(48:03):
and get everything in tuned. You hope that all players
take advantage of the time. You don't just have to
recover from being injured.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
You get to work on things. Sure.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Yeah, and if Mike Trout's going for the Angels, that's great.
You know, I mean, he was a he is a
shoeing Hall of Famer. Oh yeah, No, he's a shoeing
first ballot Hall of Famer. But we were talking Mike Trout.
Let's say after twenty fourteen, even a little later twenty nineteen,
being one of the best players ever ever, a top ten.
(48:35):
He's really really good and if he's back, it's great
for baseball. I don't care if he's in the Rangers
division or not. Great Mike Trout is a great thing. Yeah,
there is no doubt about that. And you know, Wash
said it way back at the winter meetings that you know,
if Mike Trout is healthy, which at the time Wash
(48:56):
thought he was, he may not have been fully but
now he appears to be. He said, he's still one
of the top you know, twenty five players in the
game or something along those and he definitely definitely is
maybe even higher than that on the list Mike Trout.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Uh see. And you know what, I'm again, we're always
happy for Wash when his team's not beating the Rangers
and uh they're they're putting them again. Nobody in the
American League West is putting any distance between anybody, really,
but you know, they've I think they've got three games
on the uh on the Athletics now, I mean that
that we thought the Angels, especially with what the Athletics
did in the off season, which was more than they've
(49:34):
done in a long long time. I thought, yeah, well,
it's probably gonna be the Angels down at the bottom.
Well it looks like a wash and and those Angels
might have something to say about not being at the bottom.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
They made some additions that would make them or that's
that's feasible, whereas the a'ser kind of relying on young
talent that goes through ups and downs. But the Rangers
are a couple of games ahead of the Angels. We'll see,
We'll see how long it lasts. You know, when when
the Angels came to town, they were they were I
think they were above five hundred at the time, and
(50:04):
also saying that everybody's very very excited about the start,
and was just like, you know, this was August, I'd
be excited.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, but it's April. It's early, man. So yeah, And
then didn't the Rangers take three out of four? I
think I think they swept them, maybe a sweep. Yeah, Okay,
so there you go. That was that, and uh, you know,
but interesting though that since nineteen twelve, no visiting team
has hit three bombs in the first inning. Got a
Jose you Arena update, renaa, thank you. He's with the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Now, Yeah, you know, the Dodgers have a ton of injuries,
Holy moly. And you know what, if you've paid attention
to the Dodgers in the past, while they're signing all
these guys in the off season and all that stuff,
if you knew one of their one of their pitfalls
the fast past few seasons has been pitching injuries, and
(50:55):
they are they're going through it again. Uh Urania was
so valuable to the Rangers. I was really disappointed they
didn't resign him, give him an opportunity to do something
with this club. They could use him right now, I
really think. But he's been bouncing around what he started
with the Mets, then went to the Blue Jays, and
now he's with the Dodgers. So he's made a big
(51:15):
apple to Canada to Hollywood. Yeah, out a journey. I
like him, I do, And he was a good guy.
He worked so hard between starts. Nobody works harder or
outings whatever. He is a workout machine. He's built like it,
and I really liked him.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Yeah, we'll hope good things for him with that Dodgers organization.
Pretty tough, you know though. He felt like he resurrected
his career with that great season with the Rangers last year,
and now he's been with three different organizations. I think
the Blue Jays just let him go. Yeah, so interesting
how it goes for certain guys, and especially I guess
(51:55):
when you get a little bit later on in your career.
The Mariners are going to retire number fifty one. Yeah, yeah,
I'm shocked that it hasn't been done with it left,
that's the thing. So why wouldn't Randy Johnson's number have
been retired well before such time as when you would
consider retiring a guys player or your number, because he
(52:18):
was still playing at the time for another club. Each
euro came in and said, can I wear fifty one?
And Randy Johnson gave his blessing? He gave his blessing,
so that happened. But so so who is it retired for?
I mean, because again you'd say, well, it's Ratten, but
because Johnson gave his blessing, it's they can make the case,
(52:42):
which they are, that they're retiring it for Randy Johnson,
but it's being retired for both guys.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
Well they can, Yeah, they can slap both names underneath it. Yeah, absolutely,
and as Michael Younges astutey pointed out when they retired
his ten Jim Sunberg was a really good No, that's right.
He did it for the Rangers. He was in their
Hall of Fame. Yeah, he was a hell of a
catcher at a time where guys caught on one hundred
and sixty games a year and for him to do
(53:10):
that in the Arlington heat right that old ballpark, and
he was a Gold Glove winner.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
I mean he was stinking great. One of the World
Series now with the Rangers obviously, yeah, the Royals, Yeah,
so good for him.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
I remember talking to him in the twenty eleven World Series.
You know the way that the Royals won Game six
a walk off. You know they had the blown call involved, Okay,
they took advantage of it, ended up winning that game.
And then the Cardinals came out the next sign and
just laid a sticking egg and and Sonny said in
two thousand and eighty five, we knew we had it
(53:51):
one and Ada and his concern about Game seven for
the Rangers was can our boys recover? And it started out, well,
it did, and then kind of yeah, it seemed like
they had recovered. Well, I remember Mark macklamore telling me
after Game sixer is no way they're winning tomorrow, and
I'm like, they might, they might, And then they came
(54:13):
out and I'm like, there you go, Mac, there you're
going in.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
Yeah, yep, he had the last laugh and say on that.
So anyway, yeah, that's that story. Now, how about this.
There's this AUSL, which is Athletes United Sports League, which
is a softball league that Major League Baseball has bought into.
They bought twenty percent of the league. And we're actually
(54:38):
excited about this. We're going to try to get a
couple of guests on from softball. But I got to
be honest with you, so and that happened last week.
And there's a lot of people in Major League Baseball
who are extremely excited about this and should be. And
I love the fact that maybe this will give gals
a chance to make some real money playing softball. But
to be honest, even at the college level, I have
(55:00):
not watched a lot of softball over the years, Jeff,
and certainly not recently, to the point that there was
not much on last night. So I'd flipping around and
I found the Texas Tech OHU game. Now, oh you
has a home field advantage every year at the Women's
College World Series because they the Omaha of the Women's
(55:21):
College World Series is Oklahoma City, you know, just twenty
miles up the road from Norman. So it's a real
home field advantage. The other teams talk about it often. Oh,
you had won four straight national championships women's softball. But
here's the thing I didn't know till last night when
I was watching that game. The pitchers wear masks. Oh yeah,
(55:41):
oh yeah. Have they done that for a long time
they have? Wow, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (55:46):
I don't know if it's required now. Well, I want
to keep like helmets in hockey. But yeah, you don't
see a picture without a mask.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Well, and that's not much distance between. I mean that's
not sixty feet six inches, which even that isn't far.
And as we know, sometimes but they'll they'll hit that
ball hard. Anyway, What a game this was? So? Oh
you again, down to their last at bat, they got
to run around in the ninth inning, they're down to
their ninth place hitter is at the plate, and I
(56:16):
wish I remember her name, but I don't. But she
gets up there, ninth place hitter, She gets up there
and with two strikes, doesn't she jack a two run
bomb out into right field and send the place into hysteria.
The Sooners have tied the game. And yes, I mean,
as you're watching that game, you're thinking, there is no
(56:36):
way Texas Tech is going to win this game. Now,
this is OU just showing unbelievable dominance. And I'll be
darned if you know Tech, because again, it feels like
a home game for OU, but Tech was the home
team in this game. They come up in the bottom half,
get a run around, she gets over to third and
a sackfly brings her home. And the slide that this
(56:58):
young lady made was unbelievable, and she's quick and she
got in there because it was a fairly shallow flyball
to right field, and she scored and it was really cool.
I mean it was it was like up off the
couch exciting kind of stuff. Not that I'm a fan
of either, really, I'm not a huge Tech fan, although
my son in law went there. But I thought it
(57:19):
was pretty cool, pretty dramatic, exciting finish.
Speaker 2 (57:22):
The most excited person in Texas about professional softball is
my daughter. She's ten, all right, she doesn't quite understand things,
but she knows that she wants to play professional softball
for her job. And so I sent the press release
to her or to my wife, who then showed it
to her last week. And Molly is now convinced that
(57:44):
she's she's gonna have a tough decision either OEU or
going pro okay right out of high school. So she
is fired up.
Speaker 1 (57:52):
I hope, so I hope that happens exactly as she
sees it. And yeah, so it's Texas Tech and Tech
Jeff in Oklahoma City for the national championship and women's softball.
And again, never to take anything away from the great
program at Texas, but the Texas Tech team did beat
(58:14):
them earlier this season when they played. So let's just
see what happens in the in the world series here.
Speaker 2 (58:20):
Yeah, I think it's best of three, so there'll be
some some good softball being played.
Speaker 1 (58:25):
Yeah, I think there will be. So anyway, that's exciting.
And we will, as we say, we're going to try to,
you know, get you more information and maybe even a
guest or two on with regard to this a U
s L that there's one thing we know, if that happens,
Molly will be by the channel. She will be, she
will be. Yeah, and I say we I say we
(58:46):
get Kat Austerman. Let's do it. Yeah, that's great Texas,
Texas goal, great talker, and she really was in many ways.
You know, she was one of the pioneers of the
women's game, taking and making any of the big strides
that it has. Good. We'll work on Kat Osterman. We
appreciate you hanging out with us today. We have just
(59:07):
about finished our frost Seas and needless to say, have
finished our beer. They go well together, they go very
well together. So what a day it's been. Thanks for
joining us. See again tomorrow at one o'clock for another
edition of the DLLs Rangers podcast. It's all silly like
(59:28):
the Man.
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