Episode #30 Keith Jones II

Jeff and John welcome Texas Rangers OF prospect Keith Jones II. He is having a good season at Hub City. The guys also talk about the big league team and go down in the bus leagues.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 4 (00:58):
Welcome to the DS Rangers Weekly podcast, now part of
the All City Network. Hit the subscribe button for YouTube,
and also become a DLS diehard at www dot all
DLS dot com. Now here's Jeff and John. Hey, everybody,
welcome to the DLS Rangers Weekly podcast. This is episode

(01:22):
number thirty. Today we've got another Hub City Spartanburger is
going to join us. Keith Jones the Second, not Junior
the Second. That's what he goes by. He's an outfielder.
He's from New Mexico State, where he was drafted out
of But he's got kind of a I can't wait
to talk to him about a couple of things. He
looks like coming out of high school. He first he
started off, he started off at Washington State, I think,

(01:43):
and yeah, but well we'll talk. He's actually and you
know what, he's kind of burst on. He's having a
good season. He's got five homers already. He's hitting close
to three hundred. We'll talk about that a little bit. First, guys,
hit that subscribe button down there below go to DLLs
the DLLs YouTube channel. Hit the subscribe button there. This
is always brought to you during the summer like this

(02:04):
brought to you by Triple A Round Rock, who's sponsoring
us right now and doing that, and we totally appreciate that.
I'm gonna be in the Austin area next week. I
may try to slide over. I don't know. We're gonna
figure out do some discussion there because Cat and I
have three days that we got to figure out what
to do while Kevin's doing his orientation stuff. Sorry about
the minor league Greek cap I have. Jeff's the only

(02:26):
one that knows this. I am. I've got the kid
graduating tomorrow, We've got family members coming in, in laws, everything,
So my days have been filled with every evening, I
like to sit down and watch all that, and I
can't because I'm just doing stuff. You know how it
is when you got kids doing that. Okay, but first
we got to talk about the big league staff, what's

(02:47):
going on in the big leagues, and I know you guys.
I've tried to jump in a little bit this week.
And hey, guys, by the way, if you're not a
if you're not a die hard, let me talk about
what being a diehard does. Now. First of all, Jeff's
a full time employee of DLLs, so he doesn't know
what the diehards get. I know, I do work with
them and I get stuff. But I signed up to

(03:07):
be a die hard. I got a T shirt, a
free T shirt and there what's the special to run?
It's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
Like is over now?

Speaker 6 (03:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (03:16):
Are they not doing the T shirt anymore?

Speaker 5 (03:19):
But well, I mean you get a free T shirt
when you become a die hard.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Yes, that was cool. Let me tell you what else
you get. You get this little box. It's this very
cool box. Your T shirt comes in. You get you know,
those little stickers of die Hard stickers. My back of
my laptops full of die Hard and of course Longhorned
stuff drive Jeff crazy, but I've got die Hard stuff
on there. You get this little card for your wallet.
You're a DLLs member for any events that DS does

(03:45):
if you get some discount on it and doing stuff
like that. It's pretty cool. It's like a little credit
card thing you put in your wallet. It's a pretty
neat little package just for signing up for all your
sports coverage. Mavericks, Cowboys, Rangers star By the way, who
want to know in the UH in the Western Conference
final right now? This is fantastic. Man. These guys are

(04:08):
going every night and you guys did yesterday you did
the uh the postgame show after the Rangers lost again. Uh, yes, yeah,
And it's time to It's time for me to to vent.
You know, I know that I'm the one that I
interact more with the fans than y'all. Not because you
don't interact. You just have so many followers it's hard

(04:28):
to keep up. I don't so I can interact. And
of course every fan we have that those ones that
are you know see why it needs to be fired.
But you needs to retire all that crap, which is
just ridiculous. But there is some there is some grip
grumblings out there, and I'm starting to semi get on
board on some of these grumblings. I've got opinions on it. Look,

(04:49):
Corey Seeger is the catalyst of the offense. Every time
he's in this offense, and every time he's going, this
offense does perform better. Just because this guy earns every
penny has I understand why the Rangers put him on
the IL and they're keeping him there. They got to
you would not want this happening in August, in September.
You want this to happen. Now, make him stay longer.

(05:10):
If you're going to take lumps, take him now. But
when a guy like that goes down on a World
Series contender, other players have to step up. That's just
the way championship teams do. And in this lineup there
are two guys right now who are failing. And I
hate that because I love these guys. But Marcus Simeon
and the Doli s Garcia have got to do more, period.

Speaker 5 (05:33):
And John Peterson too, I mean there's there's uh yeah,
I mean he was brought in as the big the
big gun this offseason, you free agent deal. He's making
a pretty hefty chunk of money, and you know he was,
he was the finishing piece, you know, And and he's
he's hitting one twenty seven. I think, right, you know,

(05:55):
Simmons under he might have gotten above one, Yes, I think,
you know, because he's got he's put together a little
hit streak here.

Speaker 6 (06:05):
But.

Speaker 5 (06:06):
It's it's not good enough. And Doulas was dropped the seventh.
Simmons already been moved out of the leadoff spot to fifth.
Uh you know, he probably shouldn't be the number five hitter,
but I don't know where you put him. And then Peterson,
you know, he's a strict platoon player, so that will
limit his exposure some. But you know he's he's just

(06:30):
hurting the hurting the ball club and and you can't
have those three bunch together, and I think that'll be
a It will be interesting to see what the lineup
looks like this weekend against the White Sox, against their
right handers, just to see, you know, who's who's batten four, five, six,
You know, is it is it going to be? Is

(06:50):
Peterson is still going to be there in the in
the middle of the lineup, you know, does he back
behind Berger? And you dropped Simmon the six? But then
you still have se seventh, So you've got the three
of them together, right, and you can't you can't have
three guys who aren't producing together. Yeah, the Rangers didn't
didn't score a ton obviously against the Yankees. Two runs

(07:12):
in the in the you know, in the bottom of
the knife to avoid shut out in the opener, three
solo hovers. Tuesday, ten hits, though you know, they left
the bases loaded in the sixth, especially glaring. And then yesterday,
uh got didn't get anything going at all, and you know,
just just couldn't do anything against a guy they made

(07:34):
him throw one hundred pitches, but uh Rodan, but they
never really threatened against them. So it's it's it's you
can say it's you can say it's a bad series.
I mean, the weather was cold, and we've seen the
Rangers play like crap in cold weather. But that's that's
not good enough. You know, it's it's time to get
these guys going and at some at some point, probably

(08:00):
not too far off, you know, some of these ads
are going to have to start losing playing time. It's
just yep, it's just you know, it's fifty one games
into the season and you know, to have three guys
in the lineup constantly making out some bad swing decisions,
whatever it is, it's it's gonna come to a head

(08:23):
at some point.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Well here's where I give the credit. So look where
I give the credit for professionalism or whatever. You and
I see these guys when we're around, when they're especially
when they're in town and we're there and we see them,
it's very easy to let offense carry over to defense.
And it hasn't for a Dolee and it hasn't for Marcus.
And they listen, I can't stress this enough. Marcus Simeon

(08:47):
is the hardest working guy on this team. He's the
first one out for infield. Of course, Seker doesn't take
infield with the team. Marcus Simmons the first one out
for infield. He's the last one off the field for infield.
He does not let his offensive woes. I think he
realizes they pay me a lot of money. I can't
be screwing up in the field too, and look at
what Adoles is down out in right field and doing that.

(09:09):
These guys are working their tails off, they're doing it.
It's just not happening. And so you know, I've heard
people say, well, what about moving sent me into the
nine spot. Well, he's three million a year. That's a
lot for the nine hole hitter. But he's also been
an incredible mind hole hitter with the speed he has
turning that line up over and maybe not having the
pressure of five, six or seven in there just to

(09:32):
get you know, instead of sending him to the minor leagues,
which they won't do and they can't do with him,
maybe the nine hole for a few days like that
reset they did with Berger just takes the pressure off
and he you know, because once these guys get going
they get going, and you know they don't go through prolonged.
You know, Burt, you know, Jock seemed to look like

(09:53):
he was trying to come out of it a little bit.
The swings have looked better and the bats have looked better.
Marcus look low. He's just sometime. I mean, I know
he's gotten the hits, he's got the blue pit, he's
got no slug right now. It just looks he looks
behind on pitches, and I think he's just up there.
And and I don't care what anyone says. You press

(10:15):
when you feel like you've got to do more than
you can do, you can press. And this is in
Brett Boone's fault. It's not it's not Seawise fault. It's
certainly not Boachie's fault. These got when coming into this
season after the offseason the Rangers had. Everybody thought the
Rangers upgraded their team immensely. The Burger trade, the Jock

(10:36):
Peterson signing addressed needs they had with hitting fastballs. They
re signed Evaldi, the rotation looked great. There were questions
about the bullpen, that they knew how Boachie did it.
Everyone either had the Rangers winning the West or at
least making a wild card. I don't know anybody nationally
that didn't have the Rangers at least in the.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
Playoffs period, right, yeah, no, And I mean I hear
everything you're saying, and it's not wrong. You know, you
kind of if if but the hard the hard work thing.
You know, Simeon is just believes in his routine so much,
but the routine that might need to change. The work

(11:18):
of the work that he's doing might need to change.
I really think he should take it. They should take
him out of the lineup for a day. I mean,
you know, let let Durand play second for a day,
you know, and maybe maybe do it. Maybe do it
around it, you know, and the day before and off
day day game, after a night game something like that,

(11:39):
get two for one, but you know, try to even
even on the range that'll have an off date till
what next next Thursday, I think, so maybe do it today,
you know, or maybe do it. Do it Sunday, you know,
because they fly home from Chicago and have to play
a day game Monday, So maybe do it. Then just
give him a day off and tell him don't do
any work, like don't even don't let him do any work,

(12:03):
just get his mind completely out of baseball mode or
as much as it can be. And uh you know,
see if that pays any difference. He's such a the
problem is all right, it's not a problem. But the
good thing is that they're good defenders. And you know
you've seen you've seen Adules in the last week basically
win a gold Glove. You know, he's just so good.

(12:26):
And when you're not scoring runs, you've got to save runs,
you know, you got to prevent them. And and those
guys will prevent the runs. Uh so I think they're
going to keep playing in the short term. But you know,
Peterson's the d h H. That's that seems like an
easy one to replace. You know, you can, you can

(12:46):
when Steeger comes back, which should be probably, I would,
I would suspect on the home stand. You think he'll
be back then, Well, I mean it's been more than
ten days and uh he he's he said, you know,
he ran on that last it was either the Saturday
or the Sunday. He ran for the first time and

(13:07):
hadn't hit yet. I asked him, you know, you don't
think it'll be the minimum and he said, no, he
thinks it'll be a little bit longer, but I think
on this homestand it's reasonable to think.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
That he'd be back by the end of it, at least.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
At some point during it. Yeah, and and and and
huge difference. But you know he's he only bats once,
you know, once once every every He can't occupy more
than one spot in the lineup, so you know the
rest of the lineup has to do which thing. And
and when he was back, it was it was brief,
but it was very very good and the offense was

(13:42):
was really good with him in it.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
He was productive.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
So you know, you gotta but you can't just put
all on Corey Segers shoulders because you know, these other
guys just have to have to get going. But you know,
so maybe Peterson is is the short term fall guy.
I mean, he's nothing and defensively, you know, and then
you know that definitely ensures that Josh Smith would be

(14:07):
in the lineup every day. He could d h R.
You know, you could go around and give these guys
d h ds. Okay, great, but something's gonna have to
change and and and okay, so let's let's try to
be positive. Marcus Simeon is on a little hitting streak,
and he's started to really hit the ball to right field.
He hasn't had a ton of hits the right field,

(14:28):
but a lot of his outs, some heart outs even
have been to right field. Peterson is drawing a lot
of walks, so that means that means he's seeing the
ball and recognizing the pitches. Now, they they've all had
some bad strikeouts here, chasing out of the zone. Those
three guys seem to be the ones who chase the most.

(14:49):
On the positive side, you know, Burger has been really
good since he came back. Josh Young, Josh Young has
been pretty good this month. Smith has little but has
been okay this month. Wyatt is Wyatt, you know, probably
about two fifty, but it's the ball hard. Sam Haggerty

(15:10):
has been a real pleasant surprise offensively, So I mean,
they're they're good. Joonah Him's been good.

Speaker 7 (15:16):
You know.

Speaker 5 (15:16):
So there are good things happening on the offense, but
they don't seem to happen at the same time or
in the right situation where they are happening. It's before
the three guys we've been discussing at length here come
up and kill the rally.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
So you know, it's that's off. Look my hats off.
Goes to see why in this situation. There are a
couple of signings that he put together that were under
the radar, nobody talked about him. One him was Patrick Corbyn,
who look what he's been for this team that some
people kind of scoffed at and said, oh boy, what
do we you know, what are we doing here? This

(15:53):
guy has been an unbelievable fifth starter for this team. Fantastic.
Sam Haggerty's another one. This is a guy came in
on a minor league deal. They wasted a forty man
spot in dfa'd someone to get him up here because
of what he was doing at Triple eight. And you know,
I don't care what you say. He looks good at
the plate. He just does. He looks comfortable, he looks
like you're seeing the ball well. He puts good swings together,

(16:15):
he doesn't waste at bats, and that's what Burger's doing
right now. You know, the other day Burger hit the
first home run and I tweeted out if he'd have
struck out there, it was still great at bat. He
worked that count full and fouled one off and I'm like,
if you're gonna go down, go down six or seven
pitches in make that guy throw you six or seven pitches. Well,

(16:36):
he got him and got the home run which was even,
which was great. But doing that is what you need
to do. A lot of these guys need to do.
And you know, you think back to your little league
days and you've got Henry that's playing ball and all
of that. Sometimes you're like, just you know what, go
up there and what you get a strike and make
them throw you a strike because these guys the Rangers
had lived by the ambush courty Seeker is the number

(16:57):
one guy on it. They will ambush you if you
I'm across that plate right off, but some a lot
of times if you're not barreling it though, we're seeing
three four, five pitch innings and you know that's not
good period and so but see why you have to
give him a little credit. He's the the scouting department
has done well finding guys to fill holes and Hagard

(17:20):
he may, you know, with with Carter down, this guy
may stick stick around when Carter comes back. I don't know.
I mean, he seems like an easy guy to let
go and do that, but man, he certainly looks good
out there.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
Well, they're not gonna let anybody go who's hitting the ball. Well,
that's that's for sure. And you know, so maybe that's
maybe that's the deadline for for a Doulas to keep going.
I don't know, you know, maybe maybe maybe when Carter
comes back, they'll have a choice. And I still, you know, Haggard,
he has played every day. He's he was a minor

(17:57):
league free agent this offseason for a reason exactly know,
but you know, just they just need guys that can
hit and and and Carter. Carter was not hitting above
two hundred when he was injured, but he had some
really good at bats and uh and and like the
front office people were very very encouraged by what they saw.

(18:20):
They saw the foundation that's gonna lead to him being successful.
So I think, I think, you know, that's another guy
who's gonna be coming back. I don't know, uh, you know,
they called it a Grade two quad strain. Usually that's
like four weeks, but then I think Bruce Bochi said,
you know, it'll be at least a couple of weeks, so,

(18:40):
you know, somewhere in the two to four range. I think, uh,
before he's back, and so we're we're approaching the end
of week one, so three more weeks is mid June
with without Carter maybe, So you know, it's it's it's
and then you're and then you're counting on a guy

(19:01):
who you know was hurt and has a back deal
that they're monitoring and things like that. So it's not
it's just this just isn't a good situation, and it's
it's something that's not easy to correct. You know, you
can't just go out there and pluck. You know, I
don't know a star player out of free agency. To
fix your team, you have to make these trades, and

(19:23):
you know, star players are gonna cost a lot, and
other teams at this point don't want to part with
any of their star players.

Speaker 7 (19:29):
You know.

Speaker 5 (19:30):
Really the only teams that are out of it are
the the Rockies and and the the White Sox, and
what do they have? They have nothing? So so you're
not you're not gonna go steal their star player. I
don't I don't want to, hear Luis Robert, he he
even he the other said, they said, I'm not doing
good enough, nobody's gonna want me, so it's just you

(19:53):
have to go with what you've got. Yeah, and uh,
even even even the minor leaguers aren't aren't gonna help
a ton. I don't think you could recall Playe Krim,
who's been hot again, you know, and Justin Foscu, who's
hit all season at Triple A, you know, but again
they play first base. Well, Jake Berger looks like he's

(20:13):
got that sewn up, so you're kind of limiting yourself
a little bit there, and then you have, you know,
everybody wants so sooner Wellson, it needs to play some
more Triple A. What about Walcott? I think Walcott's like
would have to be like an Evan Carter situation in
twenty three late in the year, either the offense is

(20:37):
just dead or somebody's injured and you need a spark
and maybe can do it if he's been great at
at Double A and then Triple A, even though Carter
is only in Triple A for a couple of weeks
to be fair, but.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
Carter was tearing up everything and Walcott has done well.
He is holding his own. He is a lot younger
than than Carter was at Double A and so right,
so he is doing fantastic. But you see this too,
what will walk called will be the start and shortstop
next year? It's like, no, he's not. This is maybe
a guy that doesn't make it to the big leagues

(21:12):
next year, who knows, but he's doing. He is everything
you want. His trajectory is fantastic. He does not look
lost at double A. He looks. You know, we'll talk
about that when we get to the minor league show.
But you know, if we're gonna get into what we're
doing big league stuff now, and we got to get
into another thing which is finally starting to rear its

(21:32):
ugly head. But it's not a huge issue. But that's
the bullpen with Martin down, and look right now, I
don't care. I know you guys are gonna throw a
fit about it. But your closer right now is Luke Jackson.
And I know that doesn't sit well. He is not
a true, true closer, but he's the guy right now
in leverage situations and bochee trusting right now. Look, these

(21:56):
guys aren't perfect. You know. They don't all come in
and do what what's his name did last year at
one point. Yeah, they don't all do that. But but
John I don't think Jackson was really what they thought
was going to be their closer all year. That's kind
of not how it works. You kind of let guys develop.
This bullpen may get a boost. Did you see where

(22:17):
Rockers going out tonight? Uh, he's pitching for double A.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
Yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't know that you
want to put Kamar Rocker in the bullpen. That's you know,
that's uh, that's asking him to do something he's never
done before. And you don't really need a long reliever
at this point. You need you need somebody who can
go out and work back to back days in the

(22:42):
eighth or ninth inning, you know, And I don't know
that Kumara is ready to do that. Plus you know
the Rangers do have you know, their their rotation has
been great, but yes, they're they're an injury away from
from some problems. So you want to preserve your starter.
You're starting and Rocker right now. You know, while he's rehabbing,

(23:06):
he'd be the sixth guy and a five man rotation.
I mean, he hasn't been better than the other five.
So what do you what do.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
You end that point? Does he end up? Do you
think back unless there's some injury knock on wood, God forbid,
He's probably goes to the round rock rotation for a
little bit while things short.

Speaker 5 (23:23):
It's it's it's certainly possible, and and it's it's it's
probably the prudent thing to do, because again, if you move,
you move Patrick Corban in the bullpen. He's not pitching
the ninth INNY. You know, you're you're you're not putting
him in the ninth INNY. So that's kind of where

(23:43):
the issue is right now. It's not, hey, we need
somebody to go out and get us two winnings in
the fifth and sixth. It's we need to go out
and get three outs in the eighth and right now,
you know, even even with Jackson healthy and Garcia healthy,
they're worn out. I mean, I you know, Garcia has
pitched a lot and it's kind of a an unsustainable pace.

(24:07):
So these guys have to be monitored. And then when
Chris Martin comes back, the Rangers are going to monitor him.
So I mean it's, you know, Josh Bores is too
far away, he's you know, he wants to pitch before
the All Star break. Maybe I don't know John Gray,
who I think is gonna end up in the bullpen.
I really do at this point with Bradford coming back

(24:28):
and Rocker coming back, but Bradford still probably not before
July first. I think that this is the opportunity, with
the shape the bullpens in to just say John, let's
get this bullpen thing and try. Plus you can get it.
You can't get him back sooner. You know, if you say, hey,

(24:48):
let's just get you stretched out to a couple of
needs and get you in there and yeah, and see
how it goes. You know, you can use John Gray
two or three times a week and I.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Think you would be Look, it's a whole different game.
But that guy could be your closer.

Speaker 5 (25:04):
And he could be a closer. I think he can.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
It's a whole different game. You've got to prepare for that.

Speaker 5 (25:10):
Yeah, so I but yeah, right now, I mean, Luke
Jackson looks to be the closer because they don't really
have another choice, you know, I think that, well, okay.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
They're just the same, right handed or left handed.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
I don't I don't. Yeah, I don't see a ton
of difference between him. You know, he's a little younger.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
He's definitely a leverage guy. Yeah he is.

Speaker 5 (25:32):
But you know, so who who with the who at
the minor league level could help. You know that you
you should watch Toyoto. I think Toyoto could quickly be somebody.
He's he's back from knee injury. He's got to throw strikes.
That's the deal with him. You know, if he's throwing strikes,
he's going to have a better opportunity to get up here.

(25:55):
And believe me, the Rangers are watching him. He's on
the forty man roster, and of the they saw what
they've seen the last year and then the spring training.
But you still have to you still have to throw
strikes up here, and you know you do you suddenly
want to front on a on a rookie. You know,
it worked for nephtally for leads, but that was that

(26:17):
was sixteen years ago and now, honestly it was a
different time. You know, baseball is just different than Toyoto.
I mean Toyota what he walked two had three walks
in three appearances, so you know the last one was
was a pretty sharp outing. So maybe maybe if he
has another good week, maybe after next week, he could

(26:40):
be a candidate. You may see cole Wynn have to
pitch in some situations where you may not want to
use it, but there just aren't a ton of answers
on hand for either the offense or the bullpen.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
And the guy that some people have said maybe this
is the guy that needs to close is not a closer,
and that's Hoby Milner. That's not a closer guy. That
guy is good at what he does. Let him come, boy,
he is. Look he he is fantastic at what he
does and it's why he makes a great living in
Major League baseball. But you cannot make him an everyday closer,

(27:17):
right That's that's that's the guy. You pick your spot,
you bring him in, and he hit, he he goes.
Maybe he ends an inning for you when someone there's
a little bit of traffic on base in the sixth
or seventh, or maybe he comes in and just gives
you the sixth or seventh. That's what he is. And
the you know, when you've got two left, he's coming up, lefty, righty, lefty,
let's do Milner. That little slur thing he throws that

(27:39):
I don't know what he calls that thing.

Speaker 5 (27:41):
It's a sweeper.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Sweeper, Yeah, that is a I don't know you. It's
why baseball is so amazing. Everybody knows the pitch he throws.
Best hitters in baseball know what this guy throws. They
know the scouting report, yet he has success with it.
So it is it does something that is confusing coming
out of the hand, and he's not throwing the ball

(28:04):
ninety five miles an out.

Speaker 5 (28:06):
Well, I mean, answer this, do you want Do you
want him to face Aaron Judge in the ninth inning
and one run game?

Speaker 7 (28:12):
No?

Speaker 5 (28:13):
All right, so he can't be your closer. I mean
I don't know. I don't know that you want anybody
to face Aaron Judge in the nineteen But you know,
let's let's let's let's rank him here. You know, where
where does Hobe willing to rank on that list?

Speaker 4 (28:27):
That's exactly.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
I mean, if it's not first, then he shouldn't be
your closer.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
Right exactly. And it's not first, no offense to it.
He's Yeah, by the way, what a great signing. That
guy's been lights out this year. He's kind of been
the Kirby Yates, only not as a closer. I mean, yeah,
they are not putting the bat on him, right, and
good for him. Yeah, fantastic. What a great guy too.
I talked to him all the time and in there nice,

(28:52):
super super nice guy is a long horn, so obviously
you know we talk a little bit since my boy
is going to be a long horn and I'm a
long run fan. Hey, look at I like Colby. He
does great at what he does. Don't tinker with what
it is. I've said all along. The closer is either
on another team like they did the year they went
to the World Series, and he'll be here eventually, or

(29:13):
someone like Toyoto or Hale's or something. Well, Hell's is
kind of falling a little bit, but somebody down there
with one of those high leverage arms is going to
figure it out. But you cannot walk people, and that's
what Tooto's dealing with right now. But one of those
guys can come up and be that leverage guy. Chris
Martin will come back eventually, I hope. So I mean this,

(29:36):
you know, this is unfortunate, what's happening. I just think
it's age gets to you. You and I see it too.
I mean, I mowed the lawn now and I'm almost
down for two hours. Used to I'd go out there
and mow four a day for money, you know. Yeah,
that's just the way age goes. Well, look, let's get uh,
let's get Keith Jones in here and talk to him,

(29:56):
and then after that, guy's we're going to go down
in the bus leagues. All right, guys enjoining us right
now from his home where the Hub City Spartanburgers are
right now, it's uh, it's Texas Rangers outfield prospect Keith
Jones the second. Where do you go about Keith? You

(30:17):
just go about Keith? What people call you?

Speaker 6 (30:19):
kJ? I like Deuce, I liked, Yeah, I get the ringer. Uh,
I get Junior every once in a while.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
I get the Second. I get it all, you know,
especially once people start to be my dad. So it
makes it a little easy for him.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
All right, Deuce, let's do it.

Speaker 6 (30:38):
Uh. What's uh so?

Speaker 5 (30:41):
Yeah, I mean you guys, it's it's kind of a
unique season for you. I mean it's your first full
professional season, but as you know, for Hub City it's
their first season in existence. Uh, what's it? What's it
been like? What's the atmosphere been like at game so far?

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (30:58):
In the infancy of this franchise.

Speaker 7 (31:01):
The atmosphere has been amazing. It's been crazy.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
I mean on our off nights we're still getting about
four thousand fans, So that's been super cool to experience.

Speaker 7 (31:11):
And see.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
The weekends.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
I mean we hit Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights and even Sundays,
it's it's full capacity.

Speaker 7 (31:18):
The Burnm is filled up. Really, the fans are pretty rowdy,
you know. It's it's they're all engaged. They're always cheering.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
They got they got a.

Speaker 7 (31:27):
Little trained Chew Chew celebration going on.

Speaker 6 (31:31):
You get the little the kids are in love with
since we.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Got Casey and the team, they're in love with the
let Casey cook. So there's a lot of burger stuff
going on.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
But man, it's it's amazing.

Speaker 7 (31:41):
It's been a fun atmosphere to play in with the
stadium and how the fans are on top of you.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
You know, it's small capacity, but it does almost feel
like you're in a you know, you're getting ready and prepared.

Speaker 7 (31:53):
For a big league game.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Just the way they're on top of you, the way
you can hear them, i mean they're screaming. Granted it's
not fifty thousand, it's gonna you know, bump up a
whole lot one day, but it is a really good environment.

Speaker 7 (32:04):
It's they're baseball fans.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
I think they've been missing baseball and they've they've embraced
us off embraced us a lot.

Speaker 5 (32:12):
So it's fifth third Park, the call fraction, which I
think is pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (32:17):
Well, what.

Speaker 5 (32:19):
The one thing I heard is that it's really it's
it's hard for right handed hitters to hit the ball out,
but lefty hitters. I'm not saying it's a piece of cake,
because you can tell me that for sure, but it
seems like it's a little more friendly for lefties.

Speaker 6 (32:35):
Yeah, it's definitely a little more friendly. It's a big ballpark.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
We got pretty close to glow black dimensions, so it
makes it a little difficult for rising and you get
the wind kind of blows in a little bit from
left from time to time. But then you get to
stream the debt stream going to right, you know. So
I'll take that anytime I can get it.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
Well, that's absolutely absolutely it's not your fault. So all right,
So so far this year two sixty eight thirty three, ohps,
you're getting on base a lot four twenty four OVP.
You only played a handful of games at the end
of last season. But did those games help get you
at least a taste, get your feet wet for what

(33:18):
you might expect this season.

Speaker 6 (33:20):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (33:20):
Absolutely, it was very beneficial.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Just those little handful of games. I'm the failure I
had in them, They actually made it a little you know,
one it made you a little motivated to get back
into it next year.

Speaker 7 (33:34):
But too it just you know, it showed me what
that grind.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Looks like, what it is to bounce back. You got
to be right back at it the next day.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
You know.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
That's the biggest jump college to hear. I would say,
it's just the fact that you're playing six games a
week and then it's not spaced out in between. You
got a new routine, your body doesn't feel perfect, and
it's a whole lot more games being played. But yeah,
they just goten prepared for what to expect, what to see.
Started to understand, you know, how staffs work on different teams,

(34:04):
seeing how they all you know, pitch what you're gonna
see week to week and how you adjust week to
week to that basis, And it got me a little
bit of an idea of just how I wanted to
prepare for this year when I got to the off season.

Speaker 5 (34:16):
All right, so you're you're thirty eight games in. How
are you feeling? How is the grind so far?

Speaker 6 (34:22):
It's a grind.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
I looked up and it's just like to be that
we're already forty games as the season. I mean, that's
I'm almost close to what I've played the last two
years at New Mexico State.

Speaker 7 (34:32):
So it's just like that's it's and I'm not even
halfway through yet, so right.

Speaker 6 (34:36):
That's the part that's new.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Learning my routine in the training room, learning my routine
on the field, and playing what gets me prepared. I'm
gonna give myself the time to do that. We've had
a little success this year with it, but yeah, it's
just been a big thing of trying to figure out
how I get prepared each day, day in day out.

Speaker 5 (34:59):
Got you no center feel for you? But left and right?
Do you like one more than the other? You've played
a lot more and right? Is that is that where you?

Speaker 2 (35:12):
I think I'm definitely a little more comfortable right right now,
just because we've been playing it a whole lot more.
But the goals give me as comfortable as possible to
where I'm able to be everywhere. You know, that's my
goal as well, being asked out there in whichever way
I can. So you're going to see me all over
the place, bouncing back and forth between the two. But yeah,
that's the goal.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
And then so you've you've shown some power, you've shown
some speed. You stole home, did you not?

Speaker 6 (35:39):
I did? I did? I did.

Speaker 5 (35:43):
That's pretty good. That's pretty dang good. So give give
your give us your own scouting report on you.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Oh oh, I'm gonna say I would say baseball player.
I would say he's gonna play, he's gonna play the game.
He's gonna decide. You know, there's gonna be times. I mean,
I can go off.

Speaker 7 (36:10):
How they're pitching me today. It's just like you when
the moment called what the moment calls for. He's gonna
try and get it done and do it.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
You know, it's you can attack me every which way,
but if you know if you come over that hard
to play that he can do some damage to it.
You want to execute on the pitching side. On the
defensive side, I would say kind of the same thing.

Speaker 7 (36:33):
You know, he's gonna he's gonna execute the plays.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Uh, probably gotta get him more aggressive on the defensive side.

Speaker 7 (36:39):
I would tell myself that, but uh.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah, it just is I would say, baseball player, he's
gonna he's gonna play the game.

Speaker 7 (36:47):
If you give him opportunities to make something happen, he's
gonna make that.

Speaker 5 (36:51):
Well I like that, Yeah, I like that. Uh so,
So I don't know. You go into this season, you know,
with seven games under your belt, are you a kind
of guy who likes to set goals where you want
to be at the end of the year or you
just getting by a day by day.

Speaker 7 (37:10):
No? No, absolutely, this one was a weird one.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
You know.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
It's it's like we said, like I said earlier, you
the amount of games are playing. I mean, I'm doubling,
almost tripling the amount of games I've ever played. So
it's especially if you count spring training and being on
the field, like you've never played baseball consistently like this
in your life, especially at this high level.

Speaker 7 (37:33):
So of course I set goals, you know, statistical.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Goals always, you know just where you would want to
see yourself and to get to and what you're striving for.
But mostly this year I'm giving myself the grace just
to understand what the process is.

Speaker 7 (37:50):
You know, it's the first year, you know, so how
does I don't know how my body is gonna feel
when I get to August. I don't know. I don't
know how it's going to feel.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
I don't know where my head is going to be
that when I get to July. You know, I gotta
you know, this game is hard, it's tough, it's defeating.
You know, you're gonna have the best week of your
life and be the best hitter in baseball one day
and then you're gonna turn around from the.

Speaker 7 (38:13):
Next week and you're not even gonna know if you
can touch a baseball.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
So it's just been I've been giving myself that greace
to just understand what this grind looks like so I
can keep learning and building going forward.

Speaker 5 (38:23):
Yeah, the game will humble you.

Speaker 7 (38:26):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
That is something that I was I learned very early
on as a beat writer, is that that's saying, you know,
don't get too high and because it's going to turn
around it smack in the face.

Speaker 6 (38:38):
Absolutely.

Speaker 7 (38:39):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
Yeah, you guys are playing pretty good ball right now,
you know, first place, and it seems like you guys
that are having a knack for coming back and winning games.
What's it like, you know some college aged kids, some
guys you were drafted with last year, what what what's
the chemistry like.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
I think that's our biggest asset. It's a very big
testament to all the people that we have in our
locker room.

Speaker 7 (39:07):
We don't have anybody that feels there above the team.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
We don't have anyone that is playing that game and
just super focused on themselves and getting to the next level.
I think each team knows that, or each person on
our team knows rather that if I'm my best and
play my best and contribute all that I can do
for the team, then that's only going to help me
in the long run. And I think we just I
think it's what you said. You have a lot of

(39:29):
college guys in here. You have, I mean three guys
who came from big name.

Speaker 7 (39:33):
Schools, a couple a couple of them got.

Speaker 6 (39:37):
All the way.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
You got Dylan who got all the way to the
national championship, won that last year.

Speaker 7 (39:41):
You got Casey who was at UNC.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
So you just have a lot of guys who have
that experience of being on teams that have competed and
went very far, and then it just it just helps
that when you come along and everyone understands that it
can mesh together and doesn't care about anything other than okay,
how do we compete and win? Because you know, you
could be focusing yourself doing bad and then you're you're
losing and it makes it way worse.

Speaker 7 (40:02):
But if you're winning, you can't complain at all. You
can you can figure out the struggle through that.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
So I think that's just the testament of our team
in our locker room where it's at.

Speaker 7 (40:10):
I mean, we have a bunch of good.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Guys in there, and no one is above it, no
one feels there above it. Everyone just wants to compete,
get after it, and win.

Speaker 5 (40:18):
That is a winning mentality that's gonna I mean, that's
that's just that's what it is. I mean, it's you
listen to successful teams and their players and what it's
what it takes do it, Do what the game asks
you to do. Absolutely sacrifice for the guy next to you,
trust that he's going to get the job done. I mean,
those are that's that's how you win. And so that's

(40:41):
that's the testament. Also, the the people the Rangers draft,
you know, they try to draft a bunch of solid
guys who pull them the stud of the rope. And
there's every time we have a guest on here like
you or we've had we had Dylan on earlier. Uh,
it's the same thing. Good people, good people win, that's
that's that's what christy Ung believes. And I don't know,

(41:03):
I've seen it too. You know, I've seen this rain,
I've seen this Rangers. I've seen this Rangers scene with
some weird, weird sons of bitches on the team. You know,
over my years there have been some strange, strange of
guys on this team and they haven't worked out. But
this group of guys from the big league side all
the way to to where you are and lower it's

(41:27):
the same. It's the same mentality. So that's a testament
to you. So anyway, our show, I do the baseball
stuff and I'm done with that, and then John gets
into the the fun stuff. So we're going to get
to know a little bit about Keith Jones.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
Let me tell you, and often just kind of piggyback
off where Jeff went. And it's very obvious with you
just talking to you here for the first few minutes
and all of that. This team goes out. It's not
you've got to be talented for this team to look
at you and draft you. Period. That's just you see
that up and down the league. But you've also got
to have a certain attitude and stuff, and it makes

(42:06):
it so easy to root for you guys. We have
not met a guy yet that we're like, holy crap,
what a he's a crap that dude is you're rooting
for you guys. I want to see Keith Jones, the
second junior deuce here. I want to see him busting
down people going why is he not up here yet?
He's at Triple A hitting five hundred. You know, that's
what we want to see for all of you guys

(42:27):
to know you're younger. We'll see it spring training. When
you get to that big league clubhouse and you guys
get in there, we're ready to come in with a
hug and say, dude, this is where we wanted to
see you. You know you, Keith, That's what we want
to do. You're from Brentwood, California. You went to Heritage
High School. Yes, okay, did you play any other sports
or we just baseball?

Speaker 7 (42:47):
Not just baseball, just baseball, a little bit of basketball.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
When I was younger, but when I got to high school,
you know, early on, I got the opportunity to just
kind of compete.

Speaker 7 (42:55):
When I got to it was just like.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
You know, we had a really good talented baseball crow
my heritage.

Speaker 7 (43:02):
During that year, there's a bunch of guys who have
came out of there.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
A couple of us now and professional baseball, and it
was just a team that was competitive and it was like, okay,
freshman year when.

Speaker 6 (43:14):
I started kind of you know, betting with the older guys.

Speaker 7 (43:17):
I was one of my best closest friends. He I
walked in the weight room one time and he was
just making fun of me.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
We still talk about it to this day because I
was just this little fourteen year old kid who could
not touch a weight.

Speaker 6 (43:28):
But uh, it was just it was there.

Speaker 7 (43:30):
It was like, okay, maybe this is where my focus.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
And then as that season went on and then going
into that summer.

Speaker 7 (43:36):
It was just like, okay, I actually really feel.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Like I'm pretty good at this and I can do
it for a long time, so let's focus on baseball.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
Hey, you're doing it at a professional level and that's
amazing to do that. Now, you when you left.

Speaker 5 (43:48):
Before we go out, hang on, hang on. So Brentwood, California. Uh,
brent would of course became infamous because of OJ Simpson.
But that's a different Brent.

Speaker 6 (44:00):
It's a different.

Speaker 5 (44:02):
You're like, you're like eight seven hours away from.

Speaker 6 (44:05):
That seven hours away.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
I'm up in the area, so I'm up into an anti.
I grew up in Oakland and then we moved to
Brentwood when I turned about about around the high school
time is when I moved out to Brentwood.

Speaker 5 (44:18):
Okay, yeah, Now Oaklands, Oakland, Man, that is a hell
of a baseball town. You're talking about guys.

Speaker 7 (44:24):
Oh yeah, oh yeah. My my love for it comes
from there, man, being agreement.

Speaker 6 (44:31):
Field, all of that.

Speaker 7 (44:32):
Man, growing up, the dudes I've played with.

Speaker 6 (44:34):
Man, it was the Little League days.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Being right on sixty six hours, right over there by
the stadium.

Speaker 7 (44:40):
Man, it useduld just be.

Speaker 6 (44:42):
It was electric. It was fun.

Speaker 7 (44:44):
I loved it, man. But it's where my love, my
love started real early for baseball.

Speaker 4 (44:49):
That's okay. Now out of high school, now you look,
the Rangers draft you out in New Mexico State. You
started out at Washington State.

Speaker 6 (44:56):
Right, yeah? Correct?

Speaker 4 (44:58):
How many How long were you watching the state for
two years? Two years and then you go on to
New Mexico State. Let me ask you this was there
any I mean, so Washington State you were being recruited
pretty heavily then if I mean go to Washington st.
I got to say heavily. But you you were on
some radars of some D one schools. Anybody else that
you considered or anybody else that was trying to get you.

Speaker 7 (45:19):
Yeah, I was looking like I had, like U DUB
was looking.

Speaker 6 (45:25):
A couple of the local.

Speaker 7 (45:26):
Schools like Santa Clara USF. I can't remember who else
I could be forgetting, but it was it was definitely
leaning towards, uh, a couple of the other PAC twelve schools.
I was still pitching at at that time, so there
was a couple of schools I was talking about for
throwing still, but yeah, it was mostly mostly U.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
DUB and Washington State were on only heavily just because
you know, offer package that they were telling me with
my schooling and all that, as well as just I was.

Speaker 7 (45:59):
You know, growing uh.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
You know, it was kind of where my little frustration
came with Cal because I always wanted to go to
Cal growing up, but you never really talked to them
but I always knew I wanted to play in the
Pac twelve.

Speaker 4 (46:09):
So yeah, you're a Pat twelve fan out there Washington
and watch the Steak both that absolutely doing that. So
let me ask you this, what what got you to
New Mexico State? Another who has produced some talent. Let's
be honest, it's come out of New Mexico State. What
got you there?

Speaker 6 (46:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (46:25):
When I you know, it was a couple of rough
years at Washington State.

Speaker 7 (46:29):
I felt it was best for me to get out
of there and transfer.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
So when I had entered the portal, I was playing
up in Portland with the Pickles for summer ball, and
I started off.

Speaker 7 (46:39):
I was having a really good summer there, and you know,
I'm talking to a couple of schools through the portal, not.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Really deciding, you know, here and there. You know, hearing
different things, talking to different coaches. But the hitting coach
at Mexico State was Brandon van Horn at the time.

Speaker 7 (46:57):
Our first conversation. Man, he called me a little immediately.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
First thing he told me, it was just like, hey,
I just want let you know, despite what you went
through last couple of years, you're a hitter. All the
video I've seen you can hit. You're a hitter and
you got a chance to do it, and you're gonna
have success no matter where you go if you get
the opportunity this year.

Speaker 7 (47:18):
And then from there, we just.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Had a great conversation on what our foundations of hitting were.

Speaker 7 (47:24):
They aligned a lot.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
As we talked more and more, we just realized that
I liked the plan he had for me, the conversation
we had, all of that, So it just was kind
of a no doubt in my brain that's where I
wanted to go because I just wanted to be with him,
and I want to be with somebody who actually fully
believed in me and was going to give me the opportunity.
So then we get to New Mexico State that first
year and then me and him, you know, we had a.

Speaker 6 (47:48):
Bit of success.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I struggled early on, but then we kind of figured
it out and then we had success going on through
that junior year, and then I kind of just took
off from there.

Speaker 4 (47:57):
Yeah, you're senior year, I mean fantastic. From there, that
was great. Now you're drafted. For those that don't know,
you're drafted in the ninth round by the Texas Rangers
out in New Mexico State. I still remember that because
you're trying to see who you guys are that they're
drafting as we're following the draft. So let me ask
you this. So you know, the usually the top fifteen
picks in the draft will go somewhere and they'll be

(48:19):
wherever the draft is, and they kind of do it
like the NFL, NBA, they'll do that guys like you
that you're not there wherever the draft is. How did
you find out that you were drafted? Who called you?
Were you watching it? What happened the day you were drafted?

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, so you know, there's a lot going on behind
the scenes. So you know, we knew I was going
to get my name called, and we had a pretty
strong feeling that it was going to be on day
two talking to my agent and everything at the time.

Speaker 7 (48:48):
So me and my family, you know, just to get away.
You know, we had junior year when we thought I
was going to get the call.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
I was like out working out and everything and was
at home and it just kind of didn't work out
because everyone's panicking and to figure out what to do,
and you know, we're not getting calls.

Speaker 6 (49:02):
You got a.

Speaker 7 (49:03):
Million people texting you so we kind of we went
to Palm Desert, Me.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
And some close friends, you know, some family friends, a
lot of people closest to me, my parents, a couple
of an uncles, and some little cousins and we just like.

Speaker 6 (49:20):
Left went to the pool.

Speaker 7 (49:22):
I had my phone over just so you know, I
was with the kids trying.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
To have fun, and you know, I got my little cousins.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Run around distracted me, and I got like my phone
on do not disturb, and just one person, just my
agent's phone.

Speaker 7 (49:35):
You know, just he he has the ability to call me.
He got the call that I'm jumping up out of
the pool.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
He's like, hey, like the Rangers, I want to take
you here, Like congratulations all that.

Speaker 6 (49:48):
So then my family was there. They pulled it up
on the screen.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Saw the name pop up, and you know, kind of
just celebrated right there at the pool.

Speaker 6 (49:54):
So it was super cool.

Speaker 7 (49:55):
We got to hang out the rest of the night,
eat food, everything.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
So just being around a bunch of love and people
that you know, have been there since day one.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
That's awesome. That's so much fun. We Jeff and I
talked about it all the time. You know, Jeff still
has a chance. He's got a twelve year old that
maybe he'll have that kid one day that becomes a
major leaguer. But when you guys make it to me,
it's like it's I tell people, that's as close as
I can get to a kid of mine making it
to the big leagues. I'm so stoked for you guys.

(50:23):
Jeff sees it. We're in that locker room giving you hugs,
so we're pulling for you. That's fantastic. I love these stories.
I love to hear how that happened. So now let's
go to some more fun stuff. Favorite food. What's your
favorite type of food?

Speaker 7 (50:37):
Man, that's a tough one. I eat a lot.

Speaker 6 (50:43):
Well, yeah, I'll try any and everything.

Speaker 7 (50:46):
I'm a foodie, kay man.

Speaker 6 (50:49):
Yeah, oh man. I love to cook. I love to
do it all.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
I got really into grilla this past off season. Nice grilling,
and I was on the smoker a lot.

Speaker 6 (50:58):
If I was a favorite.

Speaker 7 (51:03):
We're going type for just one type of one thing, Like, well.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
We're gonna get to one thing later, but what what
what type are You're like, you're like Italian food, You're
like you like.

Speaker 6 (51:14):
Magan. It's hard on me.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Because I continue to do you like it all but
recently I've been I've been a big barbecue guy.

Speaker 7 (51:22):
So I'm gonna go barbecue. Just like I said, I
got into grilling and and.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Smoking in the off season, so I'm gonna go barbecue.
I don't think anything beats just being out in the
sun and on the grill.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
No good barbecue joints there, and uh in Spartanburg.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
We got a couple people are people telling we gotta
go a little more down south, So I kind of
I'm kind of going off locals because some of the
stuff I've had, I thought.

Speaker 6 (51:47):
It was amazing to get.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
We got like smoking pits, that's kind of the spot
out here.

Speaker 6 (51:52):
But all the local.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
People are telling me like, nah, you gotta go down
more and it's gonna be a lot better.

Speaker 7 (51:57):
So we'll see.

Speaker 6 (51:58):
Hopefully we get to explore a little more eventually.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
But I'm you know, I'm excited to see, especially as
we have more tours summer.

Speaker 7 (52:04):
Maybe I'll get invited to somebody's house.

Speaker 5 (52:08):
No, there is there is Carolina barbecue, right, there's different.

Speaker 6 (52:13):
They got like that.

Speaker 7 (52:16):
It's like Carolina sauce or something like that.

Speaker 5 (52:18):
And I know they got sometimes they're like cubid a
little bit, but big, big with the pork. Carolina bar
is big with pork and like vinegary stuff.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
That.

Speaker 5 (52:33):
Yeah, I mean it's no, it's no Texas barbecue, but
you know it's it's pretty good. And then there's Kansas
City of course, and then like in Tennessee, like they
do just rubs, you know on their barbecue. I'm not
down with that one as much.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
I heard what the rubs really good?

Speaker 7 (52:52):
And then we you know, one of the team, Marcus.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Smith, he's from Kansas City, so he was he like
lives or dies by it. So he was like he
was talking track about when we get on the grill
this summer, what I got.

Speaker 5 (53:04):
Yeah, well he would know, he would know.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
So it's very rare that you guys have to do this,
or maybe a little more than me think, but there
are times when you do have to. You have to
pick fast food. You got to grab something, to hit
a drive through, do something. What's your favorite fast food?
What's your go to that you got to maybe back
home or out here?

Speaker 6 (53:22):
Oh no, I'm in the South.

Speaker 7 (53:24):
This cookout easily, that's an easy one.

Speaker 6 (53:26):
Cookout is the spot cookout?

Speaker 4 (53:30):
Is that a burger place? What is that?

Speaker 2 (53:31):
It's It's got everything you can think of. This is
where I get to have we say, big back activities.

Speaker 8 (53:37):
I get to I get to go out there and
they're like, what do you want on a burger tray
with corn dogs in case of he is and peach
cobbler shake like that that is like that is probably
my go.

Speaker 7 (53:51):
Too fast food spot.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
Now when I'm back home, got to go in and
out because I'm there, I'm not at home, but in
and out is probably the in and out and cookout
and brother two.

Speaker 6 (54:03):
Everything else I can do without.

Speaker 8 (54:05):
But if I can go get me a four y
four animal style, or I can go get me a
big double burger tray with a corn dog in the
case of in the shake.

Speaker 6 (54:13):
I'll be good.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
There you go. What is That's an in and out?

Speaker 6 (54:19):
I know, but what is it? What is patties? Four
pieces of cheese?

Speaker 4 (54:23):
Oh my.

Speaker 6 (54:26):
Baby, I like.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
And that animal style some of the greatest stuff.

Speaker 6 (54:32):
You ever had?

Speaker 4 (54:33):
A water burger Now that's the big Texas thing is
water burger.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
Uh patmel Fan. I had it at New Mexico.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
So you know, we had a couple of a couple
of nights out there, in and out, out, in and out,
I don't think anything.

Speaker 7 (54:47):
I don't care what anyone says. Nothing catches in and out.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
You know, some places might, some places might have a
better burger someplace. But I can go to in and
out with fifteen dollars and come out with all the
food I need.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
That's you know. Okay. So now now we go kind
of what you hinted that originally. If you're gonna get
a home cooked meal, either your mom or your grandma
or somebody, it's your birthday, it's your big day. They're
gonna make you your favorite home cooked meal. What is it?

(55:19):
And who cooks it?

Speaker 7 (55:22):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (55:24):
I gotta give two with it, both both by my mom.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Okay, but she.

Speaker 6 (55:30):
Does her gumbo.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Oh when we get to you know, around New Year's
even all that, you know show, because the crab is
on sell all that stuff, we'll do some.

Speaker 7 (55:38):
Gumbo and then the other. I gotta go with my
mom again.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
She started doing these braids short ribs a couple a
couple of years ago.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
And she keeps telling I tried to make them once.
I couldn't do it, and I just gave up.

Speaker 4 (55:55):
It was good.

Speaker 6 (55:56):
Everyone everyone said.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
It was good.

Speaker 6 (55:57):
They liked it.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
But it was nothing on her brand of mind. So
she goes raised short ribs. Sometimes she do greens with it.
Sometimes she do mac and cheese like but she or
sometimes she do like a dirty rice with it.

Speaker 7 (56:09):
So her braves short ribs. I go with those two.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Uh, I'll throw them just because I know Dad's gonna
listen later, so I'll throw on his salitude.

Speaker 6 (56:18):
He does a firehouse caesar.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
I'm getting close to him, but he still got the
he still got the cake with that one.

Speaker 5 (56:25):
So so how often is your your family able to
see it? Because your dad was in the booth for
one of your home runs this year, he was how
often are they able to get out there?

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Well, they're here this weekend, so people were, people were
finding out kind of how crazy of the family we are, especially.

Speaker 6 (56:43):
With my dad. So no, yeah, my dad he got.

Speaker 7 (56:47):
He got off work.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
He got back out here Tuesday, so he's been here
all week. I think my mom gets in either later
tonight or in the morning.

Speaker 8 (56:54):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
And they'll be here through about half the week next week,
and my dad will be here the whole the whole
two weeks. So yeah, he they're they're they're gonna follow
me around forever.

Speaker 5 (57:06):
I don't want to put any pressure on your mom,
but you may need to go to the grocery store
and get some ribs, so appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (57:14):
Whatever. Yeah, yeah, hey, Keith, what's your uh what's your socials?

Speaker 6 (57:20):
What?

Speaker 4 (57:20):
What at?

Speaker 6 (57:21):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (57:22):
Yeah, it's Keith dot Jones two on Instagram.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
And then I want to say it's Keith Underscore Jones
x two on Twitter.

Speaker 7 (57:32):
I can check that real quick.

Speaker 5 (57:34):
All right, Well, we're going to get this out to
the masses.

Speaker 7 (57:37):
Yeah, he Underscore Jones x two on Twitter.

Speaker 4 (57:41):
Yeah. I want to tag you when I get this out.
He'll be out in the next hour or so, and
I'll get you tagged and and tag New Mexico state
and stuff. Just let him see you. Uh, do that,
so the audio and video will be out. Okay, a
couple more than we'll get you out here. Spare time
if you're not playing baseball and it's your spare time,
do you play golf? Do you hunt fish? You like

(58:02):
to go pick up basketball? What's your spend time? Video games?
Some of them do that? What's your what? What are
you doing? You spend time.

Speaker 6 (58:08):
Fishing and bowling?

Speaker 4 (58:10):
Bowling? Mookie Mookie Betts is a big bowler. What's your
best game? What's the best score you ever had?

Speaker 7 (58:16):
I got a perfect game under Are you serious?

Speaker 6 (58:20):
Yeah? My first one last year? Yeah, so did you
get away?

Speaker 2 (58:25):
No, No, I wasn't in the league. It wasn't in
league player. I do want to do in the league
a game this year. I've been in the league.

Speaker 7 (58:29):
Since high school. But yeah, it was like I went
with a couple of friends before the season last year.
We hung we were just hanging out and both my
first one. So it's pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (58:40):
What's it? Okay?

Speaker 5 (58:41):
How how does how does that unfold?

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Like like like a perfect game in baseball?

Speaker 5 (58:47):
Win a perfect game, We'll be talks to him, your boys,
and you've got a perfect game goal.

Speaker 6 (58:55):
So it was actually funny.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
So like we're in we're in Opasso, uh, and we
were it was just a random night like everyone had
been you know, they knew I had my bowling balls
with me and we hadn't all off season yet, so
they're kind of just like, nah, we need to see
if you can actually bowl, like and it was just
a night we were trying to figure out something to do.

Speaker 6 (59:13):
So we drove all the way out there. We went
to like three different.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Bowling hours because for some reason, this one night everyone
decided the bowl.

Speaker 6 (59:21):
So like we.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Finally find the spot, we almost like got in trouble
because we found the one on the army base and
we were they were like, what are you doing over here?

Speaker 6 (59:29):
You can't here? So it was just a crazy night.

Speaker 7 (59:32):
Uh, And it took us like two hours to find
a find a lane.

Speaker 6 (59:36):
So then we finally get there.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
The first game, it was wrong, like I had a
bad first game, you know, uh, and not terrible, but
just bad for.

Speaker 7 (59:44):
What I feel. And they're like, oh, like you know
you did all right?

Speaker 2 (59:48):
You're doing the second game, I'm starting off and then
we get to like the fifth frame and I look
at it.

Speaker 7 (59:55):
I'm like, okay, all right, okay, keep going.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
But I can see a couple of my like the
three friends I was lit. Two of them are like already.

Speaker 6 (01:00:04):
Quiet, like just sitting down.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
I'm walking, and like after I bowled the sixth one,
I came and like I'm like, hey, like you can
still high five me, Like like you still gotta high
five me, but you do it, don't just you know,
go quiet and don't even talk to me.

Speaker 6 (01:00:20):
So then I bowled the seventh one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
I come back, and now we talk about the no
field no one of my friends. He goes, so, what
you think you're just gonna bowl a perfect game or
something like. He says it to me and my other
friend like literally just hauls off and punches him, and
he's just like like, bro, what are you doing?

Speaker 6 (01:00:42):
Like why would you say that out loud? He's like, bro,
I'm not gonna mess anything up.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
I Brooklyn.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
I don't know if you're familiar bowling up, but I
Brooklyn the next one. So that's when you like go
across the lane and you bowled in the opposite pocket.

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
So like I got scared.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
I got scared when I bowled it, and I was like,
oh shoot, I didn't get in my lane up.

Speaker 6 (01:01:00):
And then at.

Speaker 7 (01:01:01):
Brooklyn and I came back, I was just like wow.

Speaker 6 (01:01:04):
And he was just like, so you got some people.

Speaker 7 (01:01:06):
Some of the both and I like gonna say it's
not true. Three hundreds I did, oh.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
But Brooklyn it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
And he comes back He's like, see, nothing happen all that,
And then we finished up the game that tenth one.

Speaker 6 (01:01:19):
They were like, I can.

Speaker 7 (01:01:21):
Just still all the eyes on me and everything.

Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
I was just like, do not because at that time.
My dad.

Speaker 4 (01:01:26):
My dad he bowled a lot.

Speaker 7 (01:01:28):
Growing up and his best game was a two ninety eight.
So I always heard all this to ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Eight and I you know, I'd never touch it and
all that, so I didn't, I like, sit, my dad's
a video immediately.

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
I'm calling him. I'm like you said, I never taught it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
But man, it was just a super cool moment, and
I think it was just probably just it was one
of the coolest things I've.

Speaker 7 (01:01:45):
Done, and being with my friends about it, so it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Was just and they we'll always talk about and laughed
out like we were just talking.

Speaker 7 (01:01:51):
I'm actually playing one of my best friends in Rome.
He's here and we were like just talking about it
the other day. So you just.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
Answered the last question. And I always ask everybody and
he can't talk that, Jeff, he can't think we're gonna
We're gonna say it anyway, and then you're gonna get
to say the answer of I've actually bowled a perfect game.
I always asked this, and I'll just tell you some
of the other guy's answers so that you kind of
understand where we go with.

Speaker 5 (01:02:16):
Well, tell him what the question is.

Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
Yeah, Yeah, the question is always Hey, what is something
that nobody knows about? Keith Jones? The second? What is
something nobody knows? Now you're see why you're you know,
we've had sea while on here your your general manager.
He's a big true crime documentary guy. So when he
gets any spare time, he likes what true crime documentaries?
Blaine Krim what was Blaine Crim's thing?

Speaker 5 (01:02:38):
He was when he was five? He would he would
walk around the house naked.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
And hit matting practice. Yeah, stuff like that. We've Dylan
Dryling was a couple a couple of weeks ago. What
did he say he was? I don't remember what his
was like, Yeah, we had some Yeah he's.

Speaker 8 (01:03:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:00):
Him and Casey have a big on the wrong cause.

Speaker 7 (01:03:05):
Like they're rushing and Rain delays.

Speaker 6 (01:03:08):
To get back to those two.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
Okay, it's gonna be hard to top that, but I'm
going to ask the question, what is something that nobody
knows about Keith Jones the second?

Speaker 5 (01:03:19):
And we got the answer.

Speaker 7 (01:03:21):
But I'm an avid bowler and I've bowled a three hundred.

Speaker 6 (01:03:24):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:03:25):
There, it is a man. Now that we know that,
anything else you can think of, it might be kind
of cool. Off the top of your head.

Speaker 6 (01:03:31):
Oh, nothing like that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
I guess maybe like a dj' When I was younger,
I was like a little kid DJU.

Speaker 7 (01:03:39):
But I don't know if anything, I don't know if
anything can touch that one.

Speaker 6 (01:03:42):
You know, I'm like fishing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
I'm trying to get into hunting soon since I got
so many teammates and all that, getting back into golf,
since you know, every.

Speaker 7 (01:03:50):
Baseball player golf, so you gotta get.

Speaker 8 (01:03:52):
Back, gotta get back into that, you know, and that's
where business is done anyway, So.

Speaker 4 (01:03:59):
I feel so.

Speaker 5 (01:04:00):
But it's in a bowl with you now. Yeah, yeah,
the bowling, you just blew it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
I am deflated. I bowled the two twenty one time
and strutted around like nobody. That's good though, Yeah, and
I al i've ever had. But I know people don't.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
People don't realize the pros are still averaging between a
one ninety and two ten. Is just when they have
a really good game, they're they're in the two seventies
to eighties, two nineties and even three hundreds. But like
to do that because like, I don't think people understand
how hard it.

Speaker 7 (01:04:33):
Is to do that consistently, and then especially at.

Speaker 6 (01:04:35):
Their level, like you know, I can get into it.
But like with the oil patterns and all that. Yeah, right,
well do you got to do bowl?

Speaker 5 (01:04:42):
You do the two hands or you.

Speaker 6 (01:04:45):
No, I'm one handed. I have a traditional two fingers
and I don't do I don't do three fingers but
just two.

Speaker 7 (01:04:52):
And then yeah, yeah, do you have a spare ball?

Speaker 4 (01:04:56):
It's different from you.

Speaker 6 (01:04:58):
Yeap, he's got we got we got it.

Speaker 8 (01:05:01):
So people were laughing because they always ask how I
got into it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
But just in Brentwood, in our town, our school was
offered like a bowling class.

Speaker 6 (01:05:10):
So if you were a junior.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Well I got into my sophomore year or no, no, I
got into my junior year. But usually it's your senior
year they allow you to take this bowling class and
it's like in the morning and it's like a little
competition between.

Speaker 7 (01:05:22):
All the schools and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
But I got into it my junior year and you know,
just be and all my friends out there.

Speaker 6 (01:05:29):
We got the bowling alley. We all played baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
We all weren't really into golf yet, our dads were.
So it was just like it became a thing, like
Friday nights we went bowling, like Friday Saturday nights if
it was a random Tuesday and we all were hanging out, Hey, what.

Speaker 6 (01:05:45):
Y'all want to do? Went bowling.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
So it's just we all got super into it. Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:05:50):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
We used to have like we had like this competition
at the end of each semester between the schools. So
it was just it just it was like we all
played baseball, we all played or we all played a sport,
and then we all bowled.

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
So it just looks like you would.

Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
Go in there on Friday night, it would be like
all three high Like if you're an adult or you're
a young kid, you didn't want to be there because
that's where all high schoolers were.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
A man, you know, and that's gonna be fantastic one
day when you when you're married, you have kids and
all of that. Because my family, it's a thing we
still do and my youngest is graduating high school tomorrow,
but it's still a thing we do as a family.
Every once in a while, we'll break out there, let's
all go bowling, and you know, let's go do it
and congratulations on that.

Speaker 6 (01:06:32):
Getting them through high school is a big accomplishment.

Speaker 4 (01:06:34):
Yeah, he's heading the ut, believe it or not. Okay,
that's gonna be fun. But I've got family out in
New Mexico. Were real close, Uh buddy of my my
my uncle's like my best friend is only six years
older than me. But we've gone out to Las Crusis
and been out there. That's a beautiful area and that's
where New Mexico State is. Yeah, but that's a real

(01:06:54):
pretty area.

Speaker 6 (01:06:55):
Oh yeah, I love it. I loved it, man, it was.
It was amazing me.

Speaker 7 (01:06:58):
I always tell people, they all always ass.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Like I was, like, dude, I went from I don't
know if you'all familiar with Pullman, but I was like,
I went from one Walmart and one Safeway having three
Walmarts sprouts a bunch of Safeways, and a bunch of
more restaurants.

Speaker 7 (01:07:16):
I had two restaurants, So to me, I was on
cloud nine.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:07:22):
Oh yeah, absolutely it is. But yeah, I love I
loved cruises.

Speaker 7 (01:07:28):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:07:28):
It was beautiful.

Speaker 7 (01:07:30):
You got all the seasons.

Speaker 6 (01:07:31):
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
I mean, just the atmosphere, the people with such a
small like it's on a small scale, but it was.

Speaker 7 (01:07:37):
It was a true true college town field like cool.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
But I think you get a little caught up since
it's a bigger school, like it's still a small town.

Speaker 7 (01:07:47):
You know, people ride for it, but you know it's
more about more about football.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
There always living, but like, dude, just being in the
amount of people, like when we get out like opening weekend,
the amount of people would be there when we were
going good, the amount of people that would show op
and support.

Speaker 6 (01:08:01):
Uh going.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
I mean it was super cool last year just with
it being my lash and everything. I had a T
shirt selling and like when I looked up on a
senior day, like I got super emotional, like seeing all
the amount of people in my T shirt.

Speaker 7 (01:08:13):
It just kind of just like, man, like that's.

Speaker 6 (01:08:14):
Amazing, Like and like, and I knew most of the people.

Speaker 7 (01:08:17):
It wasn't like it was just there were people I
didn't know, but most of them I've.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
Had conversations with or at least they've sent me a
good luck you know, some some sort of that. Uh
So it was And then the amount of people in
love to I received when I went back. I got
to go back in the off season, and just the
amount of people who text me tell me they're proud
of me, and they're always following me.

Speaker 7 (01:08:35):
Man, It's it's amazing, so.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Fantastic, fantastic Jeff anything else before we get him out
of here.

Speaker 5 (01:08:42):
No, thank you for your time, man, and it's pleasure
talking to you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:46):
I can't make you understand. You understand how your your
schedules are. You're a pro baseball player, you have you
have that regiment every day to take time to do this.
Believe me when I tell you this, you will be
on again. We always follow up you guys.

Speaker 5 (01:08:59):
Back next week.

Speaker 6 (01:09:01):
This.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
Oh it's a big great Keith. Thank you so much.
We'll get this out. I appreciate it. Thank you so
much for coming on with us. Good luck the rest
of the season until we get you back on here
again to talk about some more fun stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
All right, sounds good, Thank you guys again, man, no
problem at all.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
All right, thanks. Let's Keith Jones. Guys. We're gonna go
down in the bus leagues right after this. All right,
but big thanks to Keith Jones for joining us. Right there, guys,
We're gonna go down in the bus leagues real quick
talk about every level and what's going on there. I
do want to highlight one guy and talk about what

(01:09:38):
he has done, who has just been fantastic. We're gonna
start out at Triple A the Round Rock Express. They
are twenty two and twenty six. Uh, they're in fourth
place right now. They have been struggling a little bit.
They're four and six in their last ten and they've
lost two. But you know, they're they are we're are

(01:10:00):
they at now? They're out of town right now, but
they're coming back here Charlotte. They're in Charlotte. But the
next week is Reno coming uh possibly.

Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:10:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:10:12):
It's kind of new this year that the Pacific Coast
League in the International League are having a little interleague action.
And I think I think, uh, I think Round Rocks
already played Toledo and now they're playing Charlotte. And Charlotte's
a good team. Charlotte's the White Sox. And you know,
the White Socks have really bolstered beefed up their their
farm system. So there's some good players there at Charlotte

(01:10:35):
for for the White Sox. But you know, I think
we saw Adrian Houser has left the organization. Uh so,
like who's your who's your guy? If you got to
go pick pick a starter, any starter, you got to
pick a starter, I would guess it's guess Dane Dunning
would be the guy. Though he's not on the forty man.

(01:10:55):
You know, Garabido pitched well his last time out, but
it's pretty much been not good for him. So I'm
not I'm not sure. You got to find a starter.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
I can't figure out how to be that's a.

Speaker 5 (01:11:09):
That's a tough one.

Speaker 7 (01:11:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
Yeah, that's your forty man spot for sure. That's gonna
come open eventually.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
It has it for almost a full year now.

Speaker 4 (01:11:20):
Well you know that I kept I kept wondering that
one year why Josh Bors wasn't getting DFA and you
couldn't figure it out? And I called it the h
I called it the DFA jiu jitsu that he was
pulling where he kept But but they saw something and
look where it turned out. This is the guy that
threw the most important pitch in Texas Rangers history and
got the most important out, and so credit to him.

(01:11:42):
Let's go down to double A Frisco. Frisco Rough Riders
are twenty four and seventeen. They're in first place. There
are four and six in their last ten and they
have won a couple of games. They've won a couple Obviously,
when you're going to go down to double A, Colled
Drake's been good that we've had on your right.

Speaker 5 (01:12:00):
Yeah, I tell you, I mean, honestly, if the Rangers
absolutely had to have a starting pitcher, I wouldn't be
surprised if he would be very heavily in the con conversation.
He's got strikeout stuff, he's big, he usually is is
throwing a lot of strikes. You know, I wouldn't be surprised.

(01:12:23):
And then and then another guy that Mitch Bratt just solid,
just solid, throws strikes, knows how to get outs. You know,
he had that experience at the World Baseball Classic. Yeah,
twenty three it was. But hey, you know what, he's
been battle tested. Yeah, he's not going to face a

(01:12:44):
better lineup. I can tell you that much. But you know, offensively,
we said we talked about Walcott. His average is slid
and his strikeouts are up a little bit. But he's
also starting to hit more more power, hit for more power.
So kind of seeing a little turbulence. He's nineteen years old.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
You know, but.

Speaker 5 (01:13:07):
The pieces are in place there. He's just got to
when when he matures as a as a player and
gets a little more discipline at the plate. He's got
twenty one walks that's second on the team. He's going
to be He's going to be a damn good a
damn good player. But one thing I would watch for
with him is if here, maybe in a couple of weeks,

(01:13:29):
he doesn't start to get some games in right field.
I just think that that's that's something to something to
keep an eye on, and.

Speaker 4 (01:13:36):
It happens, then you can start your talk about is
this a guy that ends up appear at some point?
Yet honestly, that means there when you're doing well, they
start finding a place for you.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
To play right right, And you know, Abby, your tez
has been really good lately.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
Yeah one player.

Speaker 5 (01:13:53):
Yeah, h a walk off grand slam in a game
last week. So you know he's uh, he's a he's
a character and he can play a little right field.
I'm not saying he's gonna he's gonna replace the double
scar Sea Mighty stretch, but he's a he's a little
more versatile than you think when you first put eyes.

Speaker 4 (01:14:11):
On Yeah, when you look at him, look, he's got
that he's got that power butt. That's what I call it.
Some of those guys with power have that big butt.
Think Cassesso and Prince fielder and those guys. That's kind
of the way the abbey comes across to me. He's
got that big butt that he puts into play. But
let me tell you what the guy when he barrows
a ball, man, it rockets off that barrel. Geez. Yeah, yeah,

(01:14:31):
he can hit a ball.

Speaker 5 (01:14:32):
He can do some damage.

Speaker 4 (01:14:33):
Yeah A hub City. Hub City's where there's a guy.
We got to talk about it, hub City, and we'll
do that in just the second. Hub City is twenty
two and twenty. They are also in first place, which
is fantastic for their inaugural season. This is the very
first year the Hub City Spartan Burgers. They are five
and five in their last ten and they've won two games.
And tonight tonight, this guy is going on the field

(01:14:58):
and this is uh uh, let's get him up here.

Speaker 6 (01:15:02):
There.

Speaker 4 (01:15:02):
He is David w And I say that wrong every
time I say it. I said it right this time
right now. So far this year he's two and zero
with a one point zero eight d r A. He's
got forty five strikeouts in thirty three and one third innings,
and he has got a zero point seven to two whip.
I mean, this guy has been lived up to the

(01:15:24):
hype that finsterer Maker talked about. Every year, finsterer Maker
will ask him who's who's the guy no one's talking
about this year, he said, David Dawlil. Last year it
was Mitch Bratt, who had we had kind of you know,
Rosario year before. That's right, a Rosario last year who
we didn't really know. And look what Rosario did. He

(01:15:45):
became a top one hundred player. David Leo's on his
way to being a top one hundred in Major League baseball.
There's just no doubt about it. His last outing, he
pitched seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. Again, this guy's
a stud man.

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
Uh well, he comes from a baseball family. But the
you know you mentioned the forty five strikeouts, he's got
six walks. That that's pretty that's pretty good stuff right there.
Uh And you know you throw what you you know,
you you you do what am I trying to say here,

(01:16:21):
do what you do best and be you know, excel
at that and and then let the rest of the
stuff fall into place. Develop it as you developed, and
you know, it's it's it's it's it's pretty good, you know, commanding,
knowing how to pitch, you know, and and you know

(01:16:43):
he's he is now just popping on the raid. He
is a little older, he's twenty two. I would I
wouldn't suspect though, that that he's going to be moving
up pretty quickly.

Speaker 6 (01:16:56):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:16:59):
He's doing Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:17:00):
It's not it's it's just been. It's it's like so
dominant that he needs another challenge. Maybe maybe the challenges Hey,
go ahead and go ahead and keep keep keep doing this.
If you can keep doing this, then maybe you'll get
moved up. But you know, his his splitters, his best
pitched fastball. It's not like a Rosario fastball. It's not

(01:17:23):
threatening one hundred miles an hour, but it's he commands it.
And and he's got he's got a four seamer and
a two seamer. So there's some there's some you know,
deception with the fastball, slider more of a sweeper, I guess, curveball,

(01:17:43):
but it's not it's not a power package. But it
looks like he knows how to pitch. And so he's
got a chance to be in the majors. Not this year, no,
but eventually, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:17:55):
He'll look he's gonna be if he keeps doing what
he's doing. Yes, he's gonna be a double A for
sure at some point this year. And that's a stop
down that I want to run out and see. This
is a kid that's just exceeding at every level. I mean, well,
when finser Maker brings him up to us and he's
doing what he's doing, I want to go see him
in person. And I can't wait. I need to get
out for us. I've been meaning to try to get

(01:18:15):
out to us. Go again. I'm dealing with all this
stuff with my son. After next week we'll be in Austin.
You'll get back to regular and then I'll prepare to
be an empty nesters when we sing off here in August.
Let's go down to Low A Hickory. They're twenty and
twenty one, they're in fourth place. They are five and
five in their last ten. They did win last night.

(01:18:37):
That still look that you know, this is this is
kind of where we always see the Low A team.
At some point the pictures are doing well, and then
the hitters aren't, and then the hitters are doing well
and the pictures aren't. I mean, it's it's just where
it's it's not about stats and it's not about where
they end up there. It's about get your innings, get
your work, do your stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:18:57):
Yeah yeah, and you know these are a lot of
young guys are are in hicker. There's just no other
way around it. Now they have they do have some
older college guys like Debrell Easily who keeps pitching. Well,
he's probably due for a for a promotion. But that's
where you also find Cayden Scarborough, who's uh, you know,

(01:19:18):
the young kid and kind of the hot hot name.
I guess it was in spring training this year. Still
still monitoring brock Porter, who's who's had a little bit
of a I think he's allowed to run and four
straight if I'm not mistaken, and uh, but the batting
average is still respectable. Still working as a reliever, looking

(01:19:41):
looking to see if that changes.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
What's the walk rockcut.

Speaker 5 (01:19:47):
It's it's he's had thirty one strikeouts in twenty four innings,
so you know that's okay. The velocity has picked back up. Walks,
he's he's walked thirteen. He's also hit seven, so he's
he's put some guys on base. But that's all right,
that's all right, created traffic. At least he's out there
and throwing and getting the fuel and trying to get

(01:20:09):
back on track. So that's that's good, and you know,
still somebody to watch still. You know, Ringers sunk a
lot of money into him, so they're they're not going
to give up on him anytime soon.

Speaker 4 (01:20:21):
Well, before we get out of here, we'll just kind
of recap where this minor league organization is right now.
They've got a couple that are graduating out. That's that's
Lighter and Rocker who are graduating out. They're not going
to be there much longer. Who were kind of at
the top. Walcott's the highest ranked one, and he's obviously
there's some these right now he's in the top ten
overall and maybe baseball there are some that project when

(01:20:41):
the guys ahead of him graduate up to the big
leagues and starting next year, he might be in the
one or two or three spot up there in all
of baseball, which is obvious. I think David dot Leo
is one that also has a good chance to jump
into into that top one hundred if he continues to
do what he's doing, especially up at the Double A level.
He continues to put up numbers close to what he's

(01:21:03):
doing a sub three e r A a lot of
strikeouts and and not a lot of watch. That's the
main thing. He's another guy in a pitching prospect. You
can see that that that that's going to do well.
Other than that top one hundred players, you got some
guys that need to step up a little bit. They're
not there. There's some very young guys that that are

(01:21:23):
the you know, you got Paulino and uh stuff like that,
but they're just they're not there. Is the Arizona Complex League?
Is anybody standing out there?

Speaker 7 (01:21:33):
Well?

Speaker 5 (01:21:34):
You know you mentioned Paulino Santana. He's actually hit a
couple of homers, which I think is more than he
hit last year. Yeah, you know, your friend, your Frank
Castillo is is really well thought of. He's back three
twenty seven, but he's still not generating a ton of power.
Power needs to come before he can be considered a
like top top flight guy. But he's probably a top

(01:21:57):
ten Rangers prospect right now. Uh, depending on depending on
who's doing the ranking. In Santana. You know, he's getting
on base, he's hitting fine. He's the guy to watch.
I mean, he was there big signee in twenty four.
So right, keep your eyes on him.

Speaker 4 (01:22:17):
All right, guys, that's the way we're gonna end it today.
A big thanks to Keith Jones the second for joining
us going down to the bust. Leaks for Keith, for Jeff,
for me, Thanks for being a part of this one.
Until next time, guys, we'll see at the yard.

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