Episode #31 Mitch Bratt

Texas Rangers LHP Mitch Bratt joins Jeff and John on the weekly show. They discus his season and his being bummed about Stars losing playoffs. Jeff and John also talk big league and minor league stuff.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the DLS 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
DLLs dot com. Now here's Jeff and John. Everybody, Welcome
to the DLLs Rangers Weekly Podcast. This is episode number

(00:23):
thirty one. Today Texas Rangers Prospect left hand picture prospect.
Mitch Bratt's gonna be joining us. He'll come on here
in a little bit, But in the meantime, Jeff and
I are gonna talk to some of the Rangers stuff.
We'll go down in the bus leagues later and we'll
talk about that later on. Hey, hit the subscribe button
down there, go over to DLS the YouTube channel and

(00:45):
hit that subscribe button. Also hit the like button. It
only helps our channel, that channel, every channel. A lot
of stuff going on over there. The Stars just got
eliminated last night. They did a postgame. I'm sure those
guys are gonna be hitting at the next few days
talking about free agency and stuff like that. That's gonna
happen for the end of year for the Stars. Cowboys
are ramping up, probably getting ready for that. Of course,

(01:06):
Rangers are playing right now and Jeff, they can't hit.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
No same story, except it seems I don't know, it
feels like it's kind of gotten a little worse. You know,
I thought the game Wednesday, when they got one hit
to start the game and then the next twenty seven guys,
well not twenty seven in a row, but they didn't
get to hit the rest of the way. It's basically
basically being no hit. I thought that was rock Bob,

(01:31):
you hope it is if you're the Rangers. Now they
get to take that, you know, bad feeling into the
off day yesterday, where hopefully though they were able to
get away from baseball and just clear their heads and
you know, or or have a come to Jesus meeting
with themselves and be like, you know, why am I

(01:52):
this bad? It's you know, it's it's not just you know,
it's getting national attention. Ken Rosenthal wrote about it today,
and yep, you know, there's there's a lot of expectations
that aren't being met. But you know, this team is
the belief is they're still gonna hit. I just you know,

(02:13):
said that last year and it never really happened. So yeah,
it can't it can't be this bad. Though it just can't.
But I'm not I'm not sure it's ever going to
be a great offense.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
I know I can't figure this out. A Dolee is
swinging crazy. I mean, that guy needs he may need to.
That's the one guy. I mean, Simeon is going nowhere,
let's be honest. And his defense and both Adlic's defense
is stillar to what he's doing out there. But you
know what you said yesterday, so well, so everybody that knows.
I've been out of town. Kevin when's doing his orientation

(02:44):
at UT we were heading back yesterday. I pulled up
y'all's episode from yesterday. It was a great to listen
to it, to get to listen to it live and
listen to it after you guys were done. It was fantastic,
And there were some things I wanted to hit on.
I wish I could have jumped in and hit some
questions there while you guys were going. I just didn't
have a chance to. But you know, A Doley's Simeon
isn't going anywhere. He's a stellar defender, He's not going anywhere.

(03:06):
He's owed too much money, He's not tradable. The way
he's hitting right now, unless the Rangers are gonna eat
a lot of that contract, which means they're not going
to get enough in return in that and that this
isn't a rebuild. They don't. They're built to win now, honestly,
that that's the way this is. And I just think
eventually I thought moving him down to eight or nine

(03:29):
cent Marcus was probably good. That's not a bad guy
to roll. You know, you don't want him making twenty
five million a year, hitt night, but you know, to
getting going down at the bottom of that lineup to
roll into the top of that lineup, this could be something.
And his defense has been great. Adole's defense is good.
His arm you can't argue with. But the bad is horrible.

(03:50):
I mean, he looks worse than Marcus. I mean he
is swinging at stuff that I would swing at, getting
up there getting cooled. I mean, I mean that it's bad.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, yeah, it is. And you know he's he's gonna
go into arbitration his last year of arbitration next year.
And you know the Arrangers aren't going to give him
twelve thirteen million dollars just because he's a good defensive player.
I mean, this is this offense it's it's just not
in a great place obviously. I mean, he, like you said,

(04:20):
he's swinging at pitches. You know that the that bat
the other night, in the seventh, I think it was,
he gets ahead three to zero on the count, takes
a slider for a strike, which is actually a good
hitting decision, and then swings it two sliders off the plate,
and each one got further off the plate. I don't
under I guess, I guess I don't understand. And maybe

(04:42):
this is because I'm not a baseball player, but how
do you not understand at this point what they're trying.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
To do to you?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know, they're they're not they're not going to throw
you a strike, a fat, a straight pitch for a strike,
and if if it's gonna you know, they're going to
try to get you to swing off the play at
a slider, which he pretty much does. Only six players
in baseball chase more than a Doulas Garcia.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
And that's not good.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
That's not that's not gonna that's not gonna get you
a lot of hits. So I think that that's the one,
like you said, John, that if the Rangers are going
to make a change, it would be with him. I
just yeah, Now, you know, when Evan Carter comes back,
and the Rangers still believe in Evan Carter. They liked
what he did even though the results weren't necessarily there

(05:30):
before he was injured. You know, and if Osuna continues
to play well, I mean, you know, you're going to
have a real case to not play a doles every day.
And you know if it, if it continues to to
get worse or not get any better, then you've got
to start thinking, well, you know, we got this young

(05:52):
hotshot down there at double A who was nineteen. He's
really really good play shortstop, but you know, the Rangers
have a short stop if he ever, if he starts
getting reps in right field, if I'm a Billis Carcia,
that's when I start to worry. I would absolutely, But
I think that you know, right right now, I think

(06:15):
he has a little more time to figure something out.
And and I think also, you know, it's it's about
the four week mark. Bret Boone hits four weeks on
the job on Tuesday. I think it's I think the
the grace period might be over. It might be time
for him to go on there and start to be
a little more forcible. He doesn't want to do that.

(06:36):
You know, he's he got dropped in the middle of
the season. Guys struggling. He's trying to get to know
him and give him a little piece of advice here
and there, more approach type stuff. But I think at
some point here in the next week, if this continues,
there might be there might be a come to Jesus
meeting with the hidden coach.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah and and yeah with I don't put this on
Boon at all. I mean, he's got it's hard to
drop in in the first three weeks and just tell
everybody you're gonna do it my way. This is how
we're gonna start doing it. I thought, you know, look,
I've coached. I played ball all through high school, played
two weeks of college ball. Like I said, it was
always fun, but I coached it. I start thinking of

(07:17):
what would you what's something you could do. It's never
the greatest hitter, but when you're not scoring at the
pace that this team isn't scoring, they've been shut out.
What you said seven times.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Or eight seven times?

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Shut out? In my opinion, if you ever get a
guy on base to second base with two with no
outs unless you're Corey Seeger or maybe unless you're Corey
Seeger or or Watt Langford. But I don't care who
you are. You move him over to third and set
it up to manufacture a run period. The only people

(07:49):
that don't do that is Corey Seeger and and uh
and Whyitt Langford. Other than that, I need to see
you start laying down a bunch or you know what,
we suck right now. If you don't swing to you
get two strikes. Even if you get behind and you're
out on three strikes, make the guy throw you three
two strikes. It sucks. I don't know what to tell them,
but at some point they gotta see more pitches. That's

(08:11):
the frustrating thing, Jeff. It's so frustrating to see Mally
labor like you said, and then there's five pitches and
he's back out there. That's ridiculous. I mean, you guys
have got to go up and see some pitches. I know,
you get behind, that doesn't help your average. Nothing's helping
your average right now. I mean, you got to see more.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I think you know this is a pretty old, tried
and truth strategy. When you get behind, take a strike,
you know, you don't don't swing the bat until you
are until the pitcher throws a strike. You need base
runners at that point, you know. And and you know,
there's there is the theory and it's a pretty solid

(08:51):
theory that the best pitch you're going to see you
might be the first pitch and you got to be
ready for it. But just because it's a strike, it
may not be a strike that you're able to do
anything we have. You don't have to swing at it,
you know. And but the I think, you know, when
when they get to the end of the season, Now
things could turn around, of course, but if if the

(09:13):
offense improves and is just mediocre, they're gonna start they're
gonna start looking at the roster construction. They have a
lot of guys who just who just aren't patient hitters.
They're they're aggressive and they go up there looking to swing,
you know, and and and that's not a bad thing necessarily,

(09:36):
but you can't have nine guys who do that, you know.
And and so uh that's where Evan Carter might come in,
That's where Osuna can come in. Uh, you know, he
seemed Peterson. Peterson was doing a good job drawn walks sure.
I mean, Simbion is the team leader and walks exactly
with twenty two.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
But it's why he gets a grace period with me
right now. I mean, then, I know that guys druggling.
I've seen Barrel a couple he seems a little bit behind,
but he's up there taking walks. He's up there trying
to work account Adoles is lost.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah. Yeah, And and you know you've seen Burger be better.
I think he belongs to lower in the order though, And.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, you can't depend on him four and five, I
don't think so.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah. I think I think since he's moved up in
the order, it hasn't gone necessarily great. You know, you're
okay with with one, two, Really one through four, you're
okay with assuming Young is the number four hitter. And
then the other day was so soon a bat in fifth?
And I'm to tell you where this this thing's at

(10:40):
right now? You have a guy walked, Yeah, but you
have a guy who has forty a bats at that. Yeah,
and it was his fourth big league game and he's
hitting fourth so or fifth rather, uh so that kind
of tells you where they're at. You know, him is
an aggressive hitter. So anyway, the offense is a mess.

(11:02):
And you know, and you don't have to take a
guy who strikes out one hundred and twenty five times
a year and tell him to strike out only fifty
times a year. But he if he strikes out one
hundred and fifteen times a year, well there's ten at
bats in which something could happened, right, yeah, and the
ball was for the ball was put in play. And

(11:23):
the same thing with you know, a guy who walks
thirty times a year, Well he's not going to walk
one hundred times a year, but maybe he could walk
forty times a year.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
And that's ten extra base runners. So you know, if
and if you get three or four guys who can
do that, you know, or two or three guys you
can do that, it's just that many more base runners.
So look, you're not going to overhaul swings at this point.
You know, they work the whole offseason and all the
spring training. This is what they're going to battle with.
You can make minor tweaks, I think, but you can't

(11:54):
reinvent the wheel during the season. But it you know,
this is what this is who they are, Chris Young
said last week, and he said it in the off season.
The best way for the Rangers to improve is for
them to get the most out of the guys on
the roster. Yeah, and you know, it's the same guys
that were around in twenty three. You know, that's that's

(12:14):
just that's the that's the kicker of it all. It's
the same guys minus a couple bats like Mitch Garvern
and Nathaniel Low. But so that I and I think
that's what adds to the rain the front office is
frustration and the coaching set frustration. It's the same guys.
What's happened and why with this team of you know,

(12:38):
pro scouts and analytics department and all of that have
haven't they've been able to figure it out?

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, and you know you start thinking, here's here's a
process you can go through. Okay, let's say everyone on
this team is completely one healthy right now, everybody, but
they're still performing like they were. If you have a
right hander on the mound, let's be honest, your outfield
is going to be Osuna, Langford Carter. They're just going
away around it. However you put it. You know what Peterson,

(13:09):
your DH you know what I mean, because he puts
together at bats, a Doley sitting there, the problem is
a Dolee sitting hitting left handers well either. So when
you're facing a lefty or a good lefty, what's the alternative?
You know, So maybe maybe you still put Carter out
there if his numbers are better than what a dolcies
are against lefties. There's a point where maybe a Doleese

(13:29):
is relegated to a maybe a d H spot as
right hander or whatever, and it's sent eventually, you know,
what's his deal? Now? He still has options, but he's
got enough service time.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
You kind of know they could they could option him.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
But I just like you said, he's fragile.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, he could be that. You know, I don't know
if that's the best for him between the years and
and so I don't think it would be a wake
up call. If it would be, you know, it would
depress him.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, it would take him down and then.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Wake him up. So I think that, you know, the
next move is kind of I think where you're where
you were headed. You know, you would probably play against
left handers and you wouldn't date him. His defense is
too good.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
So yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
But you know.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Peterson, Yeah, probably you play him just because you need
a left handed bat, but.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
He's putting together good at bats. I don't care what no.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
With with Seeger kind of balky, bulky b a l
k y with the hamstring and wanting to protect him. Well,
I mean, you have a d h right there. You know,
you know that's true, and so your your bench could be,
you know, getting what Peterson's making sixteen million this year,

(14:50):
if you include a signing bonus or eighteen and Doles
is making nine, you could have you know, nearly thirty
million dollars on the bench, you know, and Simeon's just
gonna play. That's just that's just the way it is now.
I do think that, I do think though that a
day off before and before and off day, or maybe

(15:11):
just a weekend off would help mark you sing, I think,
and I don't know that.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, you've got that solution with Josh Smith could play
second base when Corey's out in the field, and especially
against a right hander, but in all left handed line
up up there except for for Josh Young, who deserves
to be in that lineup every day, and then catching,
that's kind of a wash. You've got a rowdy lefty
thing you could do there. Honestly, they're they're having to

(15:38):
use Higgy and and Jonah as d h is right now.
But like you were saying yesterday, maybe this is you
know who, when when all is said and done, who's
the odd man out when we get Carter back. Maybe
it is time that that that Barnhart has gone. I
don't know, maybe it's the time for Ezekiel. Like you said,
I hadn't played. Yeah, it's a crazy but they got

(16:02):
to do something, you know, And I hope I tweeted
out yesterday and then I heard y'all say it, so
I felt vindicated. I hope Bruce Bochie said, don't you
freaking dare come up to the stadium tomorrow. It is
a day off. Do something. I mean, go lay by
a pool, go hit golf balls, just what you said.
Go take your family to six Flags, go do something.

(16:23):
Get the hell away from this place.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, you know, it's that's kind of the point where
they're at now. It's like, well, gosh, isn't mental and
and I'm sure some of it is. And you know
there's no you know, call u the like in the
natural one. They're bring in the psychologists to talk to
the team, you know, and uh, you know, I don't

(16:45):
think we're to that point yet, but they they're, they're
they're just in trouble. And you look again, I see
the numbers that everybody else sees and is clinging to
at this point. But I mean, you need to more
more accurately look at numbers of the last two years
and realize that there's a problem somewhere.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
And look this, y'all talked about it yesterday, you and
John did. The pitching staff obviously has room to regress
a little bit, but even like you said, a run
more per pitcher is still way. I mean, that's amazing.
But they've also I don't think everyone's you know, I'm
the one that interacts more with with fans out there

(17:24):
than anybody. But the thing is, go get a stop
down closer. We don't have a closer I think in
this organization. With who they've got coming back, y'all talked
about it, Bradford Gray, those are two options right there
that could step in and help in the bullpen. Chris
Martin comes back. Look, they've got some guys I think
that can help in that back in or leverage or

(17:47):
whoever to do that it's not. Maybe at the trade
deadline that might be a way to go if you
could get one, but nobody parts with people, and people
are stingy with their prospects, and so it's not that
easy of a fix. Like everybody just thinks. We still
got to watch Toyoto and we'll talk about him in
the minor league segment, see how he's doing now that

(18:07):
he's playing again. But I think John Gray and uh
and and and Cody Bradford coming back helps one way
or the other.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Uh, yeah, one hundred percent. And I do think that
Rocker Rott Rocker, who pitched well last night, I do
think that that it's a They haven't said anything to
him yet, but I think it's a foregone conclusion that
John Gray is coming back as a reliever. It gets
him back sooner. And he even said the other day

(18:38):
talking to me and Radigan that he's he would love
that get back as soon as he can and just
start pitching.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Start.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
So I think that there will definitely be uh that
will be an easy conversation to have. You know, he'll
have to learn how to be a reliever and you know,
the the you know, the the not the indecision the
certainty of not knowing if you're going to pitch that day,
you know, but you've got to stay ready. You know,
there's a little stress involved with that. But that he's

(19:07):
that he's not used to. You know, there are days
where as a starter, he knows I've got the day
off pretty much. So anyway, there will be some minor adjustments,
but that's that's gonna happen. The Rocker thing that was
noted by my friend Bob Nightingale. Chris Young blew that up.

(19:27):
And Rocker is not going to be the closer. I mean,
he's already did over four innings last night he four
no hit Indians with one walk and five strikeouts. I
don't I don't think, uh, you're going to turn that
into a bullpen arm, not yet. And and plus you know, well,
you know they're kind of dealing with something right now

(19:47):
with of all these little triceps deal. They have no
they have no starting depth. With Bradford and Gray and
Rocker on the the injured list, and with Adrian Houser
now doing good things that the White Sox. You know,
who are you gonna call up to start? It'd probably
be Dane Dunny. Well then you've got to make a
forty a man move, yeah, or you know Garabudo who's

(20:08):
starting tonight. Well, guess what, I don't know if you
want Garrison Garabudo in his ad r A making a
spot start. So then you've got to go with with
lats And and Bosley. Okay, well they're gonna throw three
eatings apiece. Okay, well you got to go get an
arm the next day. It's it's not a good solution here.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
And then they're down for ten days unless there's an injury.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
So you aren't going to you know, they and they
don't want to rush rock or back because you know
he is part of he's young and fragile and all
that stuff, but he's also you know, they need him
stretched out to start. So it's it's a heck of
a situation with this team right now. I'm not too
concerned about the closer thing. Arcie has been fine, you know,

(20:51):
and when it's when it's a zero zero game, there's
no margin for air and a reliever is gonna end
up getting a loss. I mean, that's that's just the
way it is. You know, Jacob Webb was that guy
the other night, and you know it's just don't blame
the bullpen here. It's it's not the bullpen's fault. Everything fault.
Every everything is on the offense, the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
And and and you've got to think and and and
I say this, it is contagious. If if the offense,
if one or two people get going, I think it
can stretch to three or four. And then if three
or four really get going, then that can stretch out
to six or seven. It's it's very rare you have
all nine going all the time. That can happen. Don't
get me wrong, but but you know, but you can

(21:38):
work around that. When you only have six people going,
you know you can work around that. Just get good
at bads, move people around. There's ways to generate in
this in what they're doing right now, they've got to
generate runs. You can't be waiting on the long ball.
You've got to move people around. You've got to do
what's there to try to do it. I have I
have more respect for that, don't. You can't strike out

(22:02):
with less than two outs and a gallon third. You
can't strike put it somewhere. If you flare out to
the second basement or the shortstop and you don't get
them in that. I can swallow that more than you
up there flailing at something or watching one go right
down the middle and not putting a swing on it.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's the issue. They do watch a lot of strikes too,
so that's I know a lot of All Right, we've
talked this one out. We gotta we gotta get Mitch
Bratton here.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yep, let's get mentioned here right after this, guys. Then
we'll go down on the bus leagues after that. All right, guys,
enjoining us right now from Amarillo, Texas where the Frisco
rough Riders taking on the Amarillo sod Poodles. And if
you don't know what that is, that's like a one

(22:48):
of those things.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
They're like a little prairie dog.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
Prairie dogs. It's Christmas Rangers. Left hand picture Mitch Bratt. Mitch,
what's going on, buddy?

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Not much, not much going on here in all just
to be healthy.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
I got I got an Amarillo story I gotta tell
real quick. That's gonna drive me crazy, because you can
laugh at this as much as I laugh at it.
My son had a competition there a couple of years ago.
There is nothing to do, and we literally stayed right
by the stadium that was there. He was in a
robotics thing. But this hotel we went to for some
reason had this ruined. My wife loved, and she declared

(23:25):
to me, this is the greatest hotel we've ever stayed in.
And I still know you were not ever allowed to
say still we've ever stayed in was in freaking Amarillo, Texas.
It's not left that because that's the very much. I mean,
there's not much to do then.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
No, not to knock Amarillo or if anybody listening from there,
but there's really not much to do here.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
There is. Has anybody on the team tried to eat
the h the seventy two ounce state?

Speaker 3 (23:55):
We talked about it not too long ago.

Speaker 4 (23:56):
Actually, every time my uncle might uncle actually used to
be a barbecue judge down in Texas, so he would
always tell me. He's like, you know, you got to
get there. I'm like, I can't finish that thing. That's
a little too big.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah it is. I think you have to eat the
sides too. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
You got to get the potato and a solid chance.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah yeah, okay, Well, Mitch, you said you're healthy, so
that's fantastic. And and it's showing you're three and one
with a one ninety four era, and and you're doing
Mitch Bratt things. You're you're not walking a lot of guys,
which you know is something you've never done. That's that's that's.

(24:36):
I remember when you were drafting, we're talking about the
draft class, and that was the thing they said about
your premium strike thrower. So is it just is everything
as good as the numbers look?

Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (24:49):
I mean mechanically, everything seems to be clicking pretty well.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Some adjustments I've made in the off season.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
I was fortunate enough to work with Jordan Tiegs quite
a bit in the off season, send them video back
and forth, and uh, we were able to kind of
hone in on some things that I got away from
last season. So being able to move a little bit
smoother down the mound, be a little bit more efficient, listen,
some minor tweaking changes here and there, and then honestly,
everything has been clicking so far, so trying to trying

(25:16):
to keep it going.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Are you still able to talk to Jordan even though
he's now up with the big league.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
Yeah, you know, when he got promoted, I texted him,
was like, Hey, can I still talk to you?

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Are you in a big league?

Speaker 4 (25:29):
He was like, no, I mean we're both being Canadian
and it's it's funny. You know, we have a good
connection and they date back all the way back to
when he was in Indiana State recruiting me, so it
goes back a long ways. But you know, teams and
I have a good connection, and whenever I got certain
questions and things, all were trying to buy him as well.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
So so how close to his hometown are are you?
I know he lives in Arizona now, but I say, yeah,
how far apart?

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Like a hour and a half. Okay, so nothing too crazy. Yeah,
maybe when he comes.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
I don't know if he's gonna come on this off
season or not, but it'd be great to see him
if if he does.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, yeah, maybe go catch a leaf skin.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Yeah, well, I'm the start spanning. I'm not too happy
about last night.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
So okay, all right, good, all right. Now they're gonna
get into some hockey talk a little later. But uh
uh so, you know this rotation of Frisco this year
has has you a left hander and then cold Drake
kind of a different left hander, you know, oh, taller,

(26:41):
maybe throws a little bit harder. What what are you
guys able to do?

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Information wise? Is there still something that you guys can
can share and and and talk baseball even though you're
like totally different, not totally different, but different left handers.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
I mean him being my roomate on the road, it's
pretty funny. So we're able to kind of go back
and forth with different things. And it's nice kind of
seeing him throw earlier in the weeks and he'll go
on Wednesdays and I'll go on Saturdays, so I'm able
to get a feel for some of the hitters from
a different point of view from him being left handed.
Of course, yeah, obviously you mentioned we do throw a

(27:21):
little bit different, different metrics on different pitches, throw different pitches,
but at the end of the day, lefties are obviously
different and funky, but we're all kind of similar in
some way. So some of the swings he's able to
get off some different pitch characteristics that he throws, I
kind of keep in the back of my mind of like, Okay,
this hitter swung in this on his change up pretty bad,

(27:43):
So I'm going to keep that in the back of
my mind. And then just talking to him at the
end of the ending, seeing how things went. And it's
also friendly competition.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Like the other week we were talking and he's like, man.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
I just can't As early in the season he's like, man,
I can't get into the fifth inning. I'm like, well,
you're striking out eight kind of game.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
So that was pretty funny. But next that and I
think he went six and he came up to me.
It was like, see, is that how it's done. I'm like, yeah,
that's it.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
That's easy. I said, you just got to be a
little a little more what a chemic Costser said strikeouts
are fascists or whatever whatever he said during his rant
and Bull Durham, you know it's not it's not democratic,
and so yeah, you got to keep everybody involved. But
you get you get plenty of strikeouts. What what what

(28:34):
is the the white of your best strikeout pitch right now?
Because sometimes it changes from your video.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
Right I'd say the fastball right now has been the best,
the best offering for a strikeout, just being able to
set it up later in counts, being able to We
were talking about throwing.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
How like how not often am I able to throw
a fastball until I get to two strikes. Uh, so
that was a big one. And then we have something
going to talk about like l v.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
A, so it's location value added, so it's pretty much
your heat map of the strike zone and then darker
red is the better and you want.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
To stay out of the light.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
So at the end of each or at the end
of each game, we get our reports back and it
shows where our l b A was for that day.
And being able to throw fastballs up which is kind
of my bread and butter and strength and then go
up and in a little bit more for swinging. This
just an uncomfortable angle, especially from my slot to right
handed hitters, So that's kind of been the go to

(29:33):
when things are going well. And just yeah, mostly the
fastball change up the back to recutter as well.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Okay, so you're you're you're in your second to go
round at Frisco. Although you started uh hickory last year,
what's uh, what's different this time around? I mean it
seems like there is an adjustment. You gotta you gotta
be able to adjust to the new level. How did
you handle that last year or what did you learn
last year that you've brought in this year?

Speaker 4 (30:04):
Just being a little bit more fun with your pitcheons
and the hitter's abilities to take pigeons that you get
swings in at the lower levels especially, and then going
into this year, I think the biggest adjustment was just
knowing that I've been at.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
This level before, knowing my stuff plays, and then.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
Just trusting it even more. To be honest, there wasn't
really too much of a change. It's just kind of
go out there, be the attacker and throw.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
The first punch.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah. We talked earlier before you
hopped on here about the hitting woes of the Rangers.
But you know, pitchers, in my opinion, always have the advantage.
I mean, how many guys back three hundred these days?
Not very many. You know, you're going to get them out,

(30:50):
you know, seventy eighty ninety percent of the time, honestly,
And it's offense is so much harder this year, that's
what everybody says, or not this year here, but the
last few years with pitch shapes and all that stuff
and the advances there. But even then, as long as
you attacked. We look at Mark Burley, you're a left hander,

(31:11):
Mark Burley, All right? How about that guy? You know,
he didn't he could really break a pane of glass.
But he worked fast and he threw strikes. This guy
had a no hitter and he no hit the Rangers
and then he threw a perfect game.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
You know.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
I mean it just seems like what you just said,
beyond the attack is critical to everybody.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
That's that point. Yeah, And that's something we prioritize here
is just strike one.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Like look at the numbers from one guy get a
head on one compared to when they fall behind one.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah. I don't know if you remember Mark Burley when
he pitched for the Blue Jays. There was a deal
where he couldn't get his dogs into the country. There
was something and it was like a big deal to him.
But you know, you and your you Canadians, those crazy,

(32:00):
those crazy border policies.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Jeez.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
So things are going so great, and you know where
Frisco was located and how close it is the globalife field.
And I asked this of everybody who plays for Frisco,
how do you not look look thirty minutes south? How
do you keep your eyes on the on the current price?

Speaker 3 (32:24):
Right? Well, it's kind of funny, is we went. There's
a few of us who went through a lab.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
It was last week in Arlington in their little tunnel there,
and we weren't able to throw in the field in
Arlington because the one of the college tournads was going on,
so we had to go outside and throwing a patch
of grass and are.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
So I mean, don't get me wrong, it was a
great experience and it's all fun.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
But it's it's so funny because when I was in
Hickory and down east there before that, it's always like
you always.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Have to fly to go to Arlington to throw this lab.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
And when I got there and there was only a
thirty minute drive, it kind of caught me off guard.
It's like, dang, I guess I am this close. Like
you never really put too and two together. But I mean,
the perfect example of what you just said is Alejandro Sooner.
I mean, was that a month ago he was with
us here in Frisco and that was reason for the
big league team.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
So it's it's cool to see how fast it can
happen and just try to kind of stay in the
moment and go.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Date by that.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Stay in the moment, that's the key. You can't get
too far ahead. But I do wonder when you get
that opportunity or when you're put in a new environment,
how how much do you draw on your World Baseball
Classic experience and how much does that that moment in

(33:48):
time does it? Does it help you? Now? How much?
How much does it help?

Speaker 4 (33:53):
I'd say homously, I mean going from that experience where
your face seeing one of the best lineups of all
time with north of thirty thousand people in the crowd
jury against you in their own home.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Country, right, you know, you know things aren't aren't set
up for great.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
Success, But I mean, I'm very thankful for the opportunity
being able to learn all the things I did from
the veterans on that team, Canada team. I mean if
you guys on that team were drafted before I was.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Even born, So that was a funny pobic that came up.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
But just just being able to be in that environment,
play with the Tyler O'Neil, Freddie Freeman, Calculantroll, like some
some pretty big names we've stuck around in the show
for some time.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Hearing them get me some guidance and some other things.
It was pretty cool to have. And then going into
the season last year.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
Or whatever they end this year, it's like, you don't
have to play that as much pressure on yourself to
have success.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
You know.

Speaker 4 (34:50):
I found, especially this year, having a better time out there,
having more fun led to more success and not having
to be so hard on myself to be perfect in
every pitch.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
So that was kind of the biggest thing that I
took from that experience. And obviously things didn't go my
way and kind of hit around a little bit.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
But being able to learn from those experiences hopefully represent
Canada next year in twenty Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
I was gonna ask, yeah, coming up, that was my
first question.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Has Team Canada reached down?

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (35:22):
No, not yet yet. We had a Team Canada banquet
every year at the end of December in Toronto, and
being able to talk to any way, uh and a
few the other names back home.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
In Canada Baseball.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
They were like, you know, you're gonna be a big
part of this team, so hopefully looking forward to it,
getting the official call and going going from there.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
That's awesome. Yeah, I mean I was just thinking about
that the World w PC's next year.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Man, Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Time flies, it does it does? You're gonna be a
You're gonna be a ripe. What twenty two next year
where they play that's right, yeah, Holy Town. So uh
all right, well you know how we do this, John,
I'll start asking you some questions now because I've I've
talked out the baseball part, but we did need to
get into the Stars. This hockey stuff.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Oh boy, yeah, that was another one. So let me
ask you this. Did you grow up a hockey fan?

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Who before the Stars?

Speaker 3 (36:19):
It's honestly always been the Stars. Uh So my dad
grew up a goalie and he was a big fan
of that belfour.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
So when they were uh in Minnesota, and he followed
the team to Dallas, and I mean from his my
first memories of being a Stars fan is going to
Montreal and watching them play there, and going to Toronto
when they do play in Toronto every other year almost
and and going there, so it's it's pretty special.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Wow, that's interesting. Note that you and now they're down
the road, so you're never hitting that off that's the problem.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
I Mean the good thing was is we play the
Tuesday or Wednesday day games, the kids games, right, and
just so happened to be playing the playoff games at
that time.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
It was like perfect. So I was able to get
get to two.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Playoff games and one regular shooting game. And I'm three,
and now when they when they playing.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Well, now that they know this, to make sure we
did it to the Stars, people.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Rangers, and Frisco to have day games.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
So your dad was a goalie? Where how was it?
I don't know what hockey works there? Was it junior
hockey or high school? Or how far did he go
with this goalie stuff?

Speaker 4 (37:33):
I think I think, I mean, he was a good goalie.
He always he says he was a good goalie, but
I'm not entirely sure how far he went. I mean,
when I was younger, I remember going to the rank
and him playing men's league and sit on the bench
having a having a juice box and a snack.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
And all that fun stuff. But I mean did he
put you on? Yes he did.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yes, you played a little right.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
Yeah, especially in the winter.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
I mean when I was I was playing baseball and
basketball pretty much, yea every other season. And pond hockey
is a big thing where I'm from. I got a
massive ring or a massive pond right behind my house
that all my buddies and I would go hang out
and bring a shovel, bring lunch and You're out there
all day.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
So good.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
So what what does it freeze over? When does the
lake first, the pond first freeze over? Where I would say, see.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
Middle of January, So when I officially go out for
spring training and stuff, which is usually a little bit sooner. Yeah,
that's when it freaze over. So the timing isn't isn't ideal?
I like, I got on one time before.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
Before I left for spring training.

Speaker 4 (38:38):
This year, it was a little a.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Little sketchy out of the ice, so I stayed close
to the shore. But no, it was fun. That was
a good time out there.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yeah. So what's the last who's the last Canadian team
to win the Stanley Cup?

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Oh? Boy, that I don't know it either.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
It's been a while. It's been a really long time,
is it, I believes, I mean terrible sixty seven.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
It's been a while.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
The Canadians in nineteen ninety three, the Canadians. Wow, So
that would have been uh, that would have been past
would have been Patrick Wall would have been on that team,
right right?

Speaker 3 (39:19):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (39:20):
And Gretzky might have been on the Kings. I don't know.
I don't know. We'd have to well, but anyway.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Edmonton run that was the eighties.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
Oh yeah, that was the eighties.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Okay, early early, I mean they won, they won five
or six in the eighties. I think, yeah, maybe maybe
it was five because I mean Gretzky and Curry and
you're the goalie talk Grant Feur, you can't you can't
go without him, and yeah, anyway, those were Yeah, those
were good teams. Now you said basketball, you know, I

(39:53):
mean the raining the reigning NBA MVP is Canadian.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
Yeah, oh yeah, I haven't been following basketball as much
I would have liked, but yeah, pretty pretty cool, pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yeah yeah, I mean he's he's pretty damn good.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Pretty good.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Yeah, yeah, who is this? I don't follow s g
A Shake, Gilgess Alexander. He just got he just got
selected as the m v P M. He's the uh yeah,
he's the ok N just started playing an ad for me,

(40:32):
thanks guys. Uh yeah, he uh he uh yeah, he's
the Oklahoma City's best player. And uh I don't I
do not remember him. God damn this thing. Pardon my language.
I'm just gonna close this window. Yes, being trying to

(40:52):
pimp videos, make money, get cheap views. Anyway, Uh yeah,
he's he's great, he's a guard. I don't remember him
at all at Kentucky. I think he was just one
and done. But now he's the Now he's the m
v P and they're going to the finals.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah. Kid that graduated high school with my with my
son plays for Oklahoma City to caseon Wallace, Kentucky. My
son didn't play basketball. Don't any wrong? All right, I'm
getting back to me real quick. I know this is
about a loaded question because there's someone back behind you there.
But you know, you guys spend a lot of time together,

(41:27):
starting from when you're in the minor leagues moving up.
Is there a guy who's your best who's your best
friend on the team? Is it Cole or do you
you know that's a tough question.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
I'd say there's a group of us that are pretty close.
I mean Cole, Skyler Hales, and Josh Stephen. We kind
of all do a lot of things together. So I
mean it's going up for breakfast on the road or whatever.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
It may be.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Well, speaking of, if you guys get a day off,
what's the way that you guys like to spend time
on your day off? Think? Do you play golf? Do
y'all like to see sides. What do you guys do?

Speaker 4 (41:59):
If if you asked me this question last year, I
probably would have said golf. I recently broke my driver, so.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
I'm good there.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
Yeah. Luckily Frisco has a connection with the indoor golf
place into a golf simulator, so we've been.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
Going there and two drivers were broken that day, so
that's no good. But I like cooking. I enjoy making food,
especially on the off day. Only do a little bit
more time.

Speaker 4 (42:23):
I'll kind of dive deep into making some things like
I think last week I made some beat short rib
so just and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
Nothing, nothing too crazy to enjoy the off day, just
kind of hang out you getting.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
You getting players over to enjoy it with yea and
cooked the group.

Speaker 4 (42:41):
Luckily, some of my roommates were home, so they all
came down when they could smell it and they're.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
Like, what are you making over there? And sure, I
let them have a little bit of it.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
So let me ask you this a being in the
Metroplex now for a little while, have you found any
little uh mom and pop places around Frisco that you've
led to go get a meal or something that's probably
not a big chain thing.

Speaker 4 (43:03):
I mean, there are so many restaurants in Frisco that
I mean, I don't know exactly. I can't pinpoint a
few of them. But my girlfriend was in town two
weeks ago.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
We went to a farmer's market and they had a
bunch of good uh like beef options there and get
some good meat. So I was able to stalk out there.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Okay, all right, so uh is there? Now? Let me
ask you this. So you guys travel a lot, and
I always are you a movie or a book guy?
You like to watch movie TV shows? Or do you
read books? What do you like to do in your
spare time?

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Movies and TV shows? For sure? I couldn't tell you
the last time I read a book. Okay, it's probably
isn't a good thing.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
But hey, you're right there with me. I need to
read more books and I don't. My wife reads enough
for the entire world. So that that doesn't happen. Anything,
you're you're you're anything right now that you're streaming or
you're you know, your binge watching, anything.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
Like that we need to know about recently, I said, yesterday,
I just started Sopranos. So for a while, she's like,
you gotta watch it. You got to watch it, so
sure enough finally finally started it.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
I started rewatching it because I hadn't watched it. It's
it's so good.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
How many episodes are you one?

Speaker 3 (44:20):
I this morning?

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah okay, yeah, no, yeah, fresh it picks up. But
this is when you this is when you get to
know all the characters. This is yeah, this is pretty important.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Right.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Talking the in the CLUBOU was the other day of
like different TV shows, and I brought up Lost.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
I don't know if either of you've seen Lost. That's
the same TV show of all time.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Okay, it was weird. A lot of people who did like.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Yeah, yeah, Breaking Bad, prison Break. I mean I've seen
quite a few.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, The Wire. You got to watch The Wire.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
Okay, Yeah, that's a great one. That made me my
favorite of all times.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
A good show.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
It's caught me off guard to how good it was.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
Fantastic.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
It was really good. You know what, Look, we've had
you on here a while. We're getting that over an hour, Jeff,
anything else you want to get to him?

Speaker 2 (45:14):
No, but you know, continued success. You're our favorite Canadian
and uh you know, no, no, no offensive Jordan T.
But you're number one on our Canada list.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
I still remember the first time I mentioned during instructs
right after you were drafted. It was windy. I had
a tape recorder. I couldn't really hear what you were
saying on the tape. I'm not saying I made up quotes, Mitch,
but I just remember it very distinctly. And then, Uh,
you know, you've been a good guy and always always
accommodate our our requests to appear. So you've earned that

(45:47):
number one Canadian and a knock and.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
And and and a and a pat on the back
for you is the guys that we invite on here
and repeatedly or whoever. Those guys have to keep performing.
You can off the list. Mitch hasn't fallen off the list.
We're proud of you. We love to see it.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Jeff and I talk about it all the time when
you guys make it up, and we always assume you're
going to because the way you're playing right now, it's
fun to see in the big league locker room. It's
a little different for us because we've known you when
you started, and so some of the beat writers you're
gonna meet, they haven't really They probably talked to you
a little bit maybe, but not a lot. We've seen
you a lot, and you know, we need to get

(46:26):
out to Frisco. I've meant to I haven't had a
chance to shoar. I've got a son that just graduated
high school. He's going off to college this thing. So
we've been doing a lot of stuff and I haven't
had a chance. Gonna make it out there, and what
I do, I'll jump down there and say hello and
definitely but no, not this yea, I will not see
you at the ballgame, thistery.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Next.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
So much for coming on, buddy. We really appreciate it.
Good luck, keep doing what you're doing. We're gonna see
when you get back here. Uh, Jeff, that's it for him.
We're gonna go down in the bus leagues after that.
Mitch Bratt, thanks a lot, Bud.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
Thanks having me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
All right, we'll see Yea's.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
See all right, guys, A big thanks to Mitch Bratt
for coming on with us. Another name to watch, by
the way, you touched on that. This is a guy
with what is her one point nine eighty ra right
now at double A. I mean, this is a guy
that's it's good. Yeah, it's good. Anyway, let's go. We're

(47:25):
gonna we're gonna go down in the bus leagues. We're
gonna talk about the minor league affiliates at every level
where they're standing right now. We'll talk about a couple
of guys at each one, and that's gonna start out
with Triple A Round Rock. What are they doing right now?

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Well, they're they're twenty six and twenty eight. It's kind
of interesting looking at the Pacific Coast League. There's only
three teams above five hundred, so Round Rock is not
one of them, two games under, seven and a half
games behind the Oklahoma City come it's the Dodgers affiliate.
But Round Rock is six and four in the last ten.
They're playing there at home where they're fifteen and twelve,

(47:57):
so that that might have a little something with it
down there. You know, Rocker had the great start last
night on the Rehouse the game they won. I tell you,
I'll tell you, I'll give it. You know, if somebody
wants a name, who could I don't know if he
could spark the offense, but it's a fresh name. It's
it's Cody Freeman, who's been fantastic.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
Yeah, he's just been great. He's hitting the ball out
of the ballpark. He's he's driving in runs. He's playing shortstop.
That's critical. But you look at him, he's been in
two ninety five. Uh, his walks and strikeouts are pretty
much even. You know, he's not gonna hit hit you
a ton of home runs, but he does have fourteen doubles.

(48:39):
So that's that's that's interesting. Yeah, he did, he did,
and and he was in big league spring training this year,
so that's something. You know, let's just let's not go
too crazy, but let's look at that one. And then
Marcus Smith is an interesting one because you know he
was so he's forgot gotten. Yeah, he was the guy

(49:01):
in the Mike Minor trade. You know, he was the
big one the third round. Yeah, and Dustin Harris is
the throw in and so he's he's really had trouble
striking out. He's just had too many strikeouts. He's kind
of got got that rained in a little bit here.

(49:22):
He's got fifty six at bats with Round Rock and
he's batt in three oh four and has a one
point nine to eight oh ps. So that's intriguing. Uh,
he's super athletic and steal bases, but you know, you
got to see a lot more of it before he's
a major an option for the major leagues. Yeah, in
my and then and then Toyota. You know, we didn't
need to talk about Toyoto. Yes, absolutely, what the walks

(49:45):
are are a little bit of an issue. I asked
Chris Young about it, and and Chris Young said that
the the A B S, the you know, the automated
balls and strikes is an issue for some pictures. I
think it's an issue for Toyoto because hitters don't have chase,
So now he's having to be really good in the
strike zone. And you know these veteran hitters down there

(50:08):
are you know, they're making them work, they're making them
earn it. But as soon as he can throw more
strikes with all of his pitches, he'll be in the
major leagues. I really believe that.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, And that's a that's a high leverage guy. Eventually,
He's not going to start that way obviously when he
gets here, they're not going to do that, but that
that can be a guy that can turn into a
high leverage guy, especially with the way that arm boy
that he's got a rocket on that right shoulder. He
sure he's throwing. How about Frisco. Let's go down to
double a Frisco.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah, they're still in first place in the South Division,
but it's only half a game over Midland twenty eight
and nineteen six and four in the last ten they
won last night. They're playing the at Ammarillo where the
ball flies. Bad things usually happen to pitchers, as we
kind of talked about with Mitch there. But this is

(51:00):
a good team. It's the Rangers' best, best affiliate. Lots
of talent brats there, so Bash and Walcott you might
have heard of. And then but there are some other guys.
Abby Ortiz, who's you know, hitting home runs. He's in
a better spot than he was last year, still only

(51:21):
hitting two forty four, but as ops to seven sixty Walcott,
whose average has gone up since our last show. He
is hitting for more power, which is very very good.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
And then right now, what how man home runs?

Speaker 3 (51:36):
Does he have?

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Six? Six or seven?

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, I'll tell you who's coming on? Aaron, Yes, he
is just gone up. He's he's doing errands of all
the things. Four thirty on on the on base percentage.
His average is up to sixty. And this is a
guy who is right around two hundred or below it
pretty much all last season and even the season before that.

(52:02):
So that is a that is a really good sign.
I mean, he was a second round pick in the
twelve in twenty one, so that's a good one. And
then another guy who I didn't know a lot about
and still doing as Luis my asis. He's leading the team.
Him and Ortiz have seven home runs. He's got an
eight sixty ops is. He's a big guy. He signed

(52:26):
him was signed by the White Sox and he signed
for like four hundred thousand, so you know, pretty good
bonus for him.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
He became a minor league free agent last year, signed
with the Rangers, and resigned with them again this year.
So probably a little bit old to be at Double A,
but he you know, everybody takes their own path, as
I always say. And he's playing pretty well right now.
And then and then the pitching we're talking about Mitch,
So everything's good.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
We just had Mitch on I mean, yeah, yeah, there's
some there's some good good arms there, without a doubt,
and granted is not grant, but Anderson's pitching to night
Ben Anderson.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Yeah, he's he's just kind of a lefty veteran.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
You know.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
His brother is Ian Anderson, who was the first round
pick of the Braves has been bouncing around the waiver wire. Anyway,
there we go.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
All right, let's go to High A, which is the
hub City Spartan Burgers, and they've got their ace going tonight.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Oh yeah, you're guy, David David Leo hub City twenty five,
twenty three, six and four of the last ten. Their
second place behind Bowling Green, which is the rai's affiliate.
You know, they're they're I mean, they're twenty five and
twenty three. They're pretty much even across the board, home
and road and all of that stuff. Kind of kind

(53:42):
of interesting to see there. You know, we we have,
we've made some friends with hub City this year. John
with with our guests with with dry Ling, Keith Jones.
Last week was a hoot. Last week. Uh, and they're
they're all kind of still struggling a little bit, you know.

(54:05):
It just it just seems like offense sometimes doesn't doesn't
do well in this league. It seems like it's a
pitcher friendly league. In the South Atlantic League. You know
you have Anthony Gudier's no home runs, He's in two fifty.
That's a little disappointing. I think the Rangers were hopeful
that the healthy Gudiers might take off this the season.

(54:28):
He's so might it's it's early. But the lighter Figuerreo
is a guy who's been hitting a lot of home runs.
He seems to have found his power stroke. Third baseman
can play a little second left handed hitter right. The
Rangers definitely like him. But yeah, Dryling got to keep
an eye on Casey Cook. Still still scuffling down there

(54:51):
below two hundred. But he was a third round pick last.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Year, so I don't know that there's is he the
North Carolina kid?

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Yeah? For North Carolina. I don't think there's any any
any panic buttons being pushed quite yet with him.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
No, it's an adjustment your first full pro year. They
you know, you see this and some of them take
off like a bat out of hell, and some of
them take a year to get rolling. And you know, uh,
Malcolm Moore, you know that's that's a guy that that
on the off.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
He should be getting healthy, his hand should be you know,
it's it's it's been it's I mean, he broke it
the first week of the season, so right, it should
be it should be about he should be close to
turning returning. That's something I got to ask about.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
But yeah, last year his first pro at the end,
he just didn't he was stellar. But it's like they're
not worried about that. Get your get your advats, get
your abs, playing the heat there and uh and get
it rolling.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
So yeah, but you're double Leo three and oh ninety two.
We are a fifty five strikeout seven walks Leandro Lopez
through well the other night. Yeah, uh, you know they
have they have some arms sound there, William bore me, uh,
working just as a reliever but getting multiple innings every time.

(56:11):
Jose Gonzalez is a heck of a good picture. So
there are a lot of guys down there to keep
keep watching on the pitching side.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
Yeah, and Don Leo is the one to watch for
me because he's legitimately someone that might pop their way
into every list top one hundred. That's a guy that
I mean, I mean, you know, every year Finsterer Maker
says watch this guy, and and he's been dead on
uh yeah, Alejandro is uh, uh, what's Uh, losing my

(56:43):
mind here last year with TJ now Rosario and he
he came out of nowhere. I kind of remembered Hi
getting drafted, but boy, he was just stellar last year.
And then they talked about David Leo. They talked about
the year before that. Remember is Mitch Bratt who had
kind of calmed down and they bring him back and
then he said, watch for him. He's looking good at

(57:04):
what he's doing. And then he had a good year
and look him this year doing it again. So that
that's the fun one to watch. But now let's go
down the low way. Uh, let's go down to the
Hickory crowdeds right now? What's going on in then?

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Well, you know it's kind of kind of it's always
up and down with these these uh these low eight teams.
And you know, I think they're they're they're better than
last year. Yeah, but the and and they are a
good they are a decent team. This year they're one
game above five hundred, twenty four and twenty.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Three about above five hundred.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Last year, they've they've won a couple in a row.
You know, they're they're in fourth place though, But it's
all it's all real tight. They're two games back of Kannapolis, right,
so it's it's it's pretty tight in there. But yeah,
you know they're they're holding they're hanging around Max and Martin,
who we had on the show. Still their best offensive player.

(57:58):
You know, he's he's hit a couple more home runs.
He does have nineteen extra base hits, which is good,
but yeah, it's kind of weird. You look at he
has a seven forty five ops and that that leads
the team. So that's that's kind of tells you where
these guys are. They're young kids, they don't you know,
they're adjusting. They're just learning the first full season with

(58:20):
an affiliated club in a lot of cases. So it's
it's up and down and going to well there you go.
You know, they have they do have young pitching names
to watch, Scarborough being one of them, and you know,
as you expect. I mean, you know, it's his first
full season. It's the era is four and a half,
you know, and but he's doing the right things. He's

(58:41):
not walking a lot of guys keeping the ball in
the ballpark for the most part. You know, I'm still
still watching brock Porter. You know, we've got to save
he's two and all off a three thirty three e
r A Gabrell easily, the college kid from Kansas who
is part of the no hitter earlier this year. Thomas Ireland,

(59:01):
who's been up. He threw live batting practice for Corey
Seeger the first time around. He's done that a couple
of times here the last couple of years, just to
come in, drop him in for a day. I don't
know what kind of money you make. And then our
buddy Luke Savage is having a pretty good year. He's yeah,
sixty one eleven games. It's only fourteen innings, but he
has four saves, TCU in the house and just a

(59:24):
great guy with his charity. And somebody roots for somebody
who root for Yeah?

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Absolutely? What about those on a complex league? So they're
going full swing now? Understanding they are?

Speaker 2 (59:38):
They are? Yeah, there are a couple There are a
couple of guys the team. You know, there are so
many teams down there. The Rangers are. They're twelve and seven.
They're tied for first in the Complex West League. All right,
Complex West League. They've won three in a row. It
is interesting, Uh, a guy, you know that's it's a

(59:59):
roster that filled with some some really good young Latin players.
But Devin Fitzgerald, all right, he was the fifth round
pick last year from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, which
unfortunately is known for, you know, one of the mass shootings.
They're probably about ten years ago now. Anyway, he's doing fantastic.

(01:00:20):
He's been three forty five five home runs, which leads
the team and is he's I think he's tied for
first in the league with with with those five home runs.
So he is doing spectacular for a nineteen year old.
And you kind of, hey, you know, you kind of
feel excited about it about it. He's five foot ten, so, uh,

(01:00:42):
he's generating some power somewhere, and you know, that's that's
that's that's pretty cool to see what he's a he's
a shortstop. Okay, he's athletics second base shortstop. Yeah. But
then you know the rest of the team, they're the
name who you remember from the Complex League last year,
Paulino Santana a couple home runs, I think he had

(01:01:06):
two at this at this point last week as well.
Climber Lamos, big first baseman, uh bat in three nineteen uh,
you know, and then of course he always got a
chick in on your Frank Castillo, who is a hitting machine.
All right, let's let's just be honest. He's Batten three
twenty nine, three eighty six on base. He still doesn't

(01:01:27):
have any home runs. He's a shortstop. He's he's tall
and skinny. He's probably on some muscle and the power
is gonna be there. I don't think it's ever gonna
be like, oh my god, he's gonna hit forty all runs.
He's not gonna do that, but uh, there there is
some power in there for.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
Him to.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
Find. Brayln Morell is back. You know, he got hurt
at the end of last year, so that's a good
sign that he's he's playing Rashaan Pinder, who was part
of the class two years ago. I believe outfielder who's
you know, another guy who needs to show a little
more power. But again, these guys are really really young.

(01:02:07):
On the pitching side, it's worth noting that Mark Church
is down there kicking ass and taking names. So he's
another name to keep an eye on, and he gets
healthy when he gets up back up to triple A.
Let's not forget about old uh Mark Church or or
our our good, our good buddy Mark Church and you

(01:02:27):
know he made nobody day Ross. You know, let's not
forget about that. He had such a great spring and
and now.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
He just needs to get back to what was his
deal this time? Was it the shoulder again or.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
Man, John, I don't remember it was. We'll find out
it was a ladder something I don't recall.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
That's what That's what it was.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
It wasn't as bad as last year's. Obviously, he's back
and pitching.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
So and the DSL have they not started yet.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Or not yet? I have not started yet, so that's
got a little bit longer on them. You know, the
season don't start an end at the same time anymore.
That that changed last year, I believe. So there you go.
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna both be out there tonight
for any of y'all going out, you know, hit us up,
DMUs I'm one that for sure can try to say
hello or do something like that. Come on and see you.
Jeff's usually got He's working his butt off as we go,
and I'm just trying to edit stuff and get it out.
But guys, we're gonna have a like John Radagan said,
we're gonna try to get some stuff out this weekend

(01:03:30):
on the channel, even though they're not going again to
you guys, are going Sunday on the post game, Yes, sir,
after that last one. But hey, guys, we're gonna wind
this one down a bit. Big thanks to Mitch Bratt
for coming on here with us. For Mitch Bratt and
Jeff Wilson, I'm John Moore. Until next week, guys, we
will see at the yard.