Episode #37 Kip Fagg

Rangers senior director of amateur scoutign joins Jeff and John to talk about the draft.Jeff and John also talk about the big league club and go down in the bus leagues. 

Episode Transcript

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Speaker 4 (00:15):
Welcome to the ds Rangers Weekly Podcast, now part of
the Allcity 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. Hello mind I
Welcome to the DLS Rangers Weekly Podcast. Is episode number

(00:38):
thirty seven and today Texas Rangers vice President of Amateur Scouting.
Right is that his title? Now it's all fancy and
all of that. Kip Thag's gonna join us. He was
a party. He was the one that led the draft
that just happened a couple of days ago. So it's
fun every year to have Kip on and talk about
the draft picks that have come up. Watch behind it

(01:00):
where they go and of course my famous question every year,
who's the guy passed round ten?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
The Senior Director of Amateur Scouts Senior.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Director of Amateur Scouting Kip Fax, joining us to give
them too much credit, No, not too much. Always fun
to have Kip on. I love talking about these draft
draft picks and some fun stories he always tells us. First,
we're going to talk about the big league club who
were on the much much, much needed All Star break.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, you know, the bullpen really needed it. I don't
know that the hitters needed.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
It, but yeah, the hitters were on a roll.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, the bullpen needed needed the break because really, since
those xt ra inning games at the start of the month,
they've just been.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
They've been taxed. Man, good lord.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
And it's all of them too. It's not just like
the guys at the at the back end like it
was early on. It was it was all of them,
and so yeah, they needed the break. I think, you know,
as as the trade deadline appro approaches, I think there
will be reinforcements brought in.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah, we're gonna talk about that in the minute too.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
The Rangers are going to contend they can't have they
can't have these guys wearing down because you know, they're
not really well, they're good guys, they're not really guys
who have a history of working day after day after
day after day. So you know, some of these guys
are going to need a break. But yeah, and some

(02:26):
of these guys got out of town. Some of them
stayed in town because the Rangers have been out of
town for yeah, you know, ten days, so they wanted
to uh like Marcus Simeon for instance, didn't didn't go anywhere.
He wanted to be at home for a little while.
Jacob Latz, I know, was was just going to hang
out here. Some guys did get away. Josh Smith, my

(02:47):
wife pointed out to me on his wife's TikTok that
Josh Smith is somewhere out of town.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
But they had a beach or something.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I probably, you know, maybe maybe it's an all Star
break slash baby moon. Have you heard of baby moons?
Take a little trip before the baby's born.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Sure, and they should you And I know it's gonna
be busy, busy comes September when those babies get here. Hey, listen, guys,
real quick. Big thanks to the Round Rock Express who
do this and sponsor this forest hit that subscribe button
down below. Hit this a subscribe button for DLLs sports
too on the YouTube channel. You guys daily are coming
up with Jeff and them. Of course, next week's kind

(03:25):
of a vacation.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
Yeah, I get to go on vacation.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
I'm heading out of town too, so next week there
won't be a show. But we had to get the
kip to get kip on here before going out and
hit those lock buttons down below. You know, speaking of
the big league club, you don't look at Yes, the
bullpen had its issues, there were things going on, but
that there couldn't That is a great way to end
an All Star Break win two out of three from Houston. Really, basically,

(03:50):
I don't care what anyone says. They outplayed and looked
better than Houston the whole series they did.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
And I thought, I thought, you know that that entire
road trip, it was uh what was it nine games
or was it was ten games? They could have gone
nine and one. Yeah, really the Sunday game in San
Diego is the only one that didn't look got away
from here, and you know, those those Angels losses sucked,
But this team's playing pretty well. I know, the you

(04:17):
know the one Angels game the second the second loss,
the defense wasn't great and and you know, Luke Jackson
was terrible, but that was the exception. And and when
you look at these games since you know, the Rangers
got shut out that first day in Baltimore like six
nothing or seven, and and anyway, from that next day

(04:38):
on that was June twenty fourth, Rangers have been really,
really good. They've been above five hundred. They've had the
second most runs per game in baseball, you saw, and
the starters be good most of the time, the bullpen
be good most of the time, you know, and and
don't let the x RA any losses stunk. But again,

(05:01):
well we're just talking about these guys were tired, and
you know, you could just tell they didn't have zip
on their pitches. And uh, anyway, they're playing well. And
I think that's that's all Chris Young wanted to see.
We asked him, it's probably been a couple of weeks. Now,
what's the cutoff line for buying or selling? How many
games back? He goes, I'm gonna be looking at how

(05:22):
they're playing, and it's hard to argue with the way
they're playing. They're showing some resiliency that they hadn't shown
all season, you know, staying in games, getting back into
games late, you know, not beating beating the starters they're
supposed to beat, and even finding a way to beat
some good ones like they did with with Hunter Brown.

(05:42):
So you know, I think this team is playing the
best it's played all year. Would would they have preferred
to keep going?

Speaker 5 (05:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Maybe I think they all wanted to break.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
They need they need one, and I don't care if
they come out a little slow coming out. They needed
a break, dude, they need to get this thing well.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I mean, they open with the Tigers at home, though
you know it's Tigers, A's Braves at home. Then a
big road trip over the all, you know, kind of
leading up to and after the trade deadline, to Anaheim
and Seattle where it's really tough for the Rangers to
win for whatever reason. But they've got a chance here
to to you know, be in it. Their second there's there,

(06:25):
the second team out of the wild card right now. Yeah,
and only three and a half games, yep, and playing Seattle,
So I mean it's it's it's all right there, Yep,
it really is. And these guys are confident that they're
going to be fine. You know, there's a lot of
evidence that suggests they won't. And I get that, and uh,
you know, not trying to paint a rosy picture here.
It's been a rough first ninety seven games, but uh,

(06:48):
if if you if you focus in and narrow narrow
it down to the last month and a half, team's
not bad. So I expect that Chris Young is going
to make moves. Yeah, you know, I think, and there
are some ways to go about it. I don't think
he's gonna sell I mean maybe if the Rangers open
up and go, oh for ten lose ten straight, Yeah,

(07:11):
maybe that's a little different. But I think that they
may have to get creative because we aren't sure where
everything stands with the luxury tax. But I think additions
will be made. I wouldn't be surprised if they try
to pull off trades that help this year's team and
then the twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seventeens too,

(07:33):
because you know, you look at the rotation. Mally who
is hurt, Gray who is hurt, and Corbin are all
free agents after the year, right, So you got it,
you're gonna have to fill in some spots and hey
do it now?

Speaker 4 (07:48):
Do any of those guys qualify for a qualifying offer?
And if so, do you think they'll give anyone Gray? Maybe?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
I know, I don't think Gray. Gray has never been
made the qualifying offer, which means they would they could
Bally has never been It's never been offered, so they
they would qualify for it, but would they they would
probably take it?

Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
I don't know that the Rangers would want to pay
either of them twenty one million next year. Although one
year deals. Everybody likes a one year deal. Sure, but
if you can take that money or save and that's
thirty and a half million right there, plus the bull
the one year pull the bullpen guys who aren't going
to be back, right basically half the bullpen, if not

(08:29):
more than half the bullpen, it's probably another ten million.
Then if he doesn't come back, bulls, if they cut
bait on him. So you're talking potentially, you know, somewhere
in the fifties million, you know, money freed up to
go sign Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
That's what I've said. That solves your rat Field situation
right there.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
That solves it.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
Go get Kyle Tucker and then uh and then bring
back you know they I was such a big fan
of Jankowski and what he did those two years, and
right now it's it's Haggarty. I mean Haggarty. He's different though,
he's different than he He sparks stuff when he comes
in the game.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, Haggard's Haggard. He's uh, but let's let's be a
fun guy. But he's not a he's not gonna play
every day, and he's a guy you want on your
bench if you're a good team. He's a guy you
want on your team. Absolutely, stuff, even if it's in
a you know, in the playoffs or in a key
series where he's probably not going to start, he can.

(09:27):
He can go out there and steal your base late.
He can. He can play defense for you if if
you have any defensive concerns.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
That's good at bats.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, he's he's not bad. He's a switch hitter, so
he is out of options though, so you know, so
you know, when when it comes time.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
He's likely here for the remainder of the year, unless oh.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
I can't I can't imagine they would do anything with him. Uh,
but if he's on the forty man at the end
of the year, and great, you know he's coming back,
and and that'd be a I think that'd be a
good deal. He'll be he's still arbitration eligible, so you know,
he would be in his maybe second year of arbitration.
Not sure, but I'm not gonna cost you much. No,

(10:10):
And again, it's a guy you want.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Yeah, and I my wife loves him, Jesus thinks that.
And it's because every time he seems like he's she
seems I swear, she says, every time I've ever seen
him bat, he's on base every single time. And that's
because she walks away that you know, that second at
bat when he flies out or whatever. But I'm like,
you know what, he's a nice guy. He's a really
good kid. I really like him. So and what you know,

(10:35):
give c Wes some credit. He finds these guys. Of course,
every team goes through this. But you hit, you hit
on the guy, and you ride that guy till he's
no longer producing for you. That's a guy you can
ride and he can fill in if he needs to,
if you need starting four or five days in a row,
if somebody needs to take a rest or do whatever,
and you don't fall off that much. But you ride
those guys and they've done it with Patrick Corbyn, who

(10:59):
they hit on unbelievable, Oh my god, and such a
good he's a good dad all of that.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
Yeah. Good.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
I mean, he's just I just really like Hi. Yeah,
he's a good guy. I always see you talking to
him when we're in the clubhouse. He's a he's a
very very nice he seems to be a very nice
guy and and doing all of that. But you know,
so if if they go what they're gonna look at, look,
and people keep forgetting about this about well we need
a bat, we got to get a bat. Sure, I
mean I agree that they could possibly look to get
a bat. But you know, Jock Pearson's coming back. And

(11:27):
I know he sucked. God, he sucked at the beginning
of the year, but he was kind of coming out
of that well, yes, and remember spring training he was
pretty good.

Speaker 5 (11:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
I think that, you know, getting healthy and all that stuff,
and that's true. But he's gonna be able. He's gonna
be able to work on his swing and try to
figure out He's had five six weeks now to figure
out what the heck went wrong.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
And he.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Has his personal hitting coach, Marlon byrdmember him. Yeah, that's
Ranger's outfielder who became famous and infamous later for things
after his Rangers time. But so hopefully they've put their
heads together with Brett Boone and Justin Veeley and figuring

(12:15):
out a plan of attack here to get Jock back
to being productive. Because if he's productive, that's a good bat,
that's a big left handed bat. You're adding eve to
the lineup.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Thin he could be bat in seventh or eighth in
your lineup down there with the potential any time to
go yard.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, but I think they would put him into the
you know the well they manipulate the five range to
kind of split up the right handed bats. Sure, so
we'll see what happens with him, but it's still a
it's still a post deadline arrival for him.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
You think there's a move when they come back, you
think win comes back.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
I do, I do. I think that's a possibility for sure.
He served his fifteen days.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
He's been amazing at Triple A.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Still hasn't allowed and earned a run down there this year.
And I think he's up to about twenty eight or
thirty innings. So that's going well.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
No, no, no offense to to Kayleb Bosley, right, It's
just that Kayleb Bosley has options too, and that's a
better I mean, co Win's a better arm period. I mean, no,
no offense. I like Caleb Bosley's a very nice guy too,
but co Win first round pick is just a better. Yeah,
it's got it's got a more live arm.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, and he can be he's you can use
him in winning situations.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
A leverage guy, sure with with without a doubt. So
if they look so so obviously you would imagine if
Chris Young's going to do anything, he's going to be
looking at some sort of a bullpen arm somewhere. Yeah.
Maybe a starter, I mean, look not a not a
top line starter unless the price is right. But I

(13:48):
mean there may be somebody that could they could look
at and getting there And you say no rentals, I
try to say, usually they're not looking at rentals. I
mean there are some very cheap rentals they could probably get.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
Well.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
I think I think their payroll situation, rentals are a
good bet. You know, again, they'll have to get creative,
they'll have to have salary for salary if they want
to get a starter who was controllable and can can
serve you well the next couple of seasons.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Okay, So if if they if you think that they're
going to look bad at all? Are you looking? It's
a d H position, right, well, sort of a d
H maybe a right hander.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
You know, the left handed. They need a left handed bat,
and Peterson's gonna is going to be that right you know,
and a right right handed bat. You know, they still
struggle against lefties. You know, we just talked about Haggard.
He's batt in three thirty three against against lefties. So
that's good. But you know, do you want to keep

(14:47):
having I'm a Nagoshayoka in the same lineup?

Speaker 5 (14:51):
Now?

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Could you do better with a part time right right
handed hitter who hits lefties? And the answer is probably yes, right,
So who is that guy?

Speaker 5 (15:01):
You know?

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Probably? You know you think about who they are are
they're the lefty the lefties who sit a lot against
sit a lot against uh left handers. You're thinking Smith
and Carter and Carter, Well, you know Haggard he can
play for for Carter and and you know, let's not

(15:23):
forget about Josh Young bat who in theory is gonna
come back and and be better. So do you write
out josh Smith there at that third? I think I
think maybe you do. But again, you know, josh a
hasn't played very much because they keep getting rained out,

(15:44):
our friends around Rock keep getting rained out, and then
he hasn't played particularly well or hit particularly well. Now
I haven't seen exit velocities or things like that or
could be bad luck. Could but you know, it looks
like he still has some work to do, So maybe
do maybe you go find a veteran guy who's a
rental who could fill in for you, fill a good

(16:07):
bench spot too. You know, I think Ezekiel Duran probably
you could upgrade that. I mean, we love Zeke, but
you know Zeke's Zeke is handy though, because without young
he can play third, and and so there's that's probably

(16:28):
why he's still in the roster, you know.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
Yeah, So maybe a foscue who could maybe play third.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
It's I don't think it's viable. I'm telling you, our
guy Cody Freeman really deserves a chance here.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
He forgot about him.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
He's continued tostic and so anyway, we'll see how all
that works out. But again the starting pitching. I wouldn't
rule that one out. It would have to be but
like I said, have to be creative. Do you have
to find a way to shift the money around or
get the other team to eat a lot of salary
and to do that you up the prospects who that

(17:06):
you're gonna lose.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
So probably somebody big league ready, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, you know, maybe that Maybe maybe somebody wants an
Ezekiel Duran. They're you know, these teams that are rebuilding.
Could they use Zeke Duran?

Speaker 4 (17:20):
Probably?

Speaker 2 (17:20):
You know, I haven't really studied like the Pirates roster
or the White Sox. Not that the White Sox astrail
have a starter to to send the Rangers, although they
did have Adrian Hauser, you know, the Rangers did and
and Houser has been great for the White Sox. Anyway,
my point being is, don't rule out a rotation situation,

(17:43):
but definitely relievers. Maybe go get a closer, Definitely guys
who who are more strikeout capable, if you will, than
what the Rangers have now. Because you know the difference
between this bullpen this year and the last last year's
bullpen is last year's bullpen struck out a lot of guys,

(18:04):
but also we shoot a lot of walks. Sure, this
year's bullpen doesn't strike out a lot of guys, but
doesn't issue very many walks, you know, And we might
as well address this now. David Robertson is working out
for teams and he's throwing. You know, the Rangers when
they talked to him in the offseason after he turned
down their seven million dollar I can think it was

(18:26):
a mutual option, maybe as a player option. Whatever, he
turned it down. I wonder if he hey regrets that
now because nobody signed him for the money he wanted
at age forty.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
Right, which was probably somewhere around ten at least.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah, and then but what's what's he going to want
to sign for? It's two months, you know, how much
are you going to pay him? And of course he
doesn't just want to go to a semi contender. He
probably wants to go to a real contender. Sure, and
the Rangers right now aren't necessarily.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
They're on that. Yeah, they're they're on the they're on
the bubble to say.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
That's why you hear The New York Post wrote a
story that the Mets and Yankees are interested, and he
lives in Providence, you know, which is right down the
right up the road from New York. So it would
make a lot of sense in New York teams, but.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
Providence, Rhea, Rhode Island.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, So just kind of something else to look out
for when we're when we're approaching the trade deadline. But
I do think the bullpen gets addressed.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
So they're gonna obviously we think they'll be They'll be active,
but not as active as Ranger fans are gonna want.
They're not going to be in on every deal you
see that's going Because I still say this, I don't
care what anyone says. They have a decent roster. They
have an underperforming roster is what they have more than anything,
and so that that's the worst of it. The starting rotation,

(19:50):
good lord, I mean you've got four guys controllable in
this rotation right now who are under control through next year,
who have all looked amazing. Yes you can look at
Kmar and yes you can look at Jack. They have
their hiccups as they're going along, like any young starter does,
like any starter does. Jacob de Grim's gone out and
giving up four runs. You know, I don't think he's

(20:11):
done it. Yeah, he's done it once this year. But
I mean, but every starter has one of those where
they go out and nothing seems to work and they're
doing that, and you know, I still put the blame
on it. It was kind of people. You know, I
got mad at Garcia the other night when Garcia walked
the two guys. That was just, oh my gosh, you
just could not do that. Walk the bases loaded with
after they had taken the lead in the extra innings,

(20:33):
and then when it came back to it, I said,
you know what, this is still all falls on the offense.
I don't care how good the offense has been. Right now,
the way this offense performed earlier, this bullpen has gassed
and and he's just gassed, and you can't you're asking
him to go out and do more. And of course
he's not going to say no, coach, you know, I
don't think I can go skip. He's gonna say, yeah,
I'll go out and get you another out. And then

(20:54):
he just can't get the ball over the plate. He's
just gassed. He's he's trying to be creative, he's trying
to get one to roll over. He doesn't want a
guy to go to third guys trying to bunt. He
couldn't throw a strike. I mean it just and I
was mad at him in the emotional point of the
And when I thought back, I was like, I'm not
gonna blame this on Garcina. He has been good this year.
Every one of those bullpen guys have had complete floods

(21:16):
where they've gone out and just looked ridiculous. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
A lot of it too, is the is the usage
and who was available and who wasn't.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
No lats and we didn't know that lats wasn't available
and arms weren't available, so I and we didn't know
that till after the game.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Well, and you could have, like, you know, this spot
where Luke Jackson pitched, it would usually have been an armstrong. Sure,
so you know who's been good. You can kind of
put things together. So anyway, Yeah, that's.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
You know, because everyone thought Boat he was too old
and why is he still managing and all those stupid
moves he made in that game. Obviously, you know the
the eye roll. I'm I think I've strained my eye
sockets from rolling them at some of the comments that
go out there. But you know what That's why Jeff
and I do this. You guys can make your comments
and I'll clash with you for sure and say you look,

(22:03):
you sound dumb. You can tell me I sound dumb.
I don't care. Never hurts, it rolls off my back.
It never, it never matters. But hey, look right now,
you got to feel somewhat confident coming out of this
break that this team might can push something together. Everybody,
remember you got it for you know, I saw a
deal on the same date from twenty twenty three to
the same date it was this year, the same record.

(22:26):
In twenty they had the same exact record. The difference
was the Rangers won in twenty twenty three. They want
they were a wild card team, but they basically became
a playoff team the first half of the year. They
were amazing when they first started in twenty twenty three,
and what they did and then played sub five hundred
ball at the rest of the way and ended up
scooting in and then got hot at the right time.

(22:46):
That was twenty twenty three. Now would be a time
if you can get hot the second half and kind
of reverse that you still can get I mean, look,
you're right in that wildcard high. I don't care what
anyone says. And the thing about it is, this team
is talented enough that they you can see that this
team is talented enough to do that. You're not going, Wow,

(23:07):
we're only three and a half games out. If we
went and got a bat, if we went and this
team's got the people right now to do that without
making a move. Yeah, if they get going, if they
get going, if they get going, they gotta get going. Though, Guys,
let's say, look, let's get Kip in here. Yep, we're
gonna get Kipp in here. We gotta talk about this draft.
That's gonna be a lot of fun, guys. Kip facts
coming up right after this. Guys. Enjoining us right now

(23:37):
from his home as as Senior Director of Amateur Scouting,
Kip Fang. We love having Kip on every year to
talk about this draft that just happened a couple of
days ago. Kip, what's up, sir Ah?

Speaker 5 (23:47):
Just recovering here a little bit after the the long
few days we had in there. But no, it's good, good,
excited about the new group we have.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
It was was Tuesday. Did it take you back to
the forty round draft?

Speaker 5 (24:02):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (24:02):
The in the marathon last day. Uh, are you more
worn out than you've been?

Speaker 5 (24:08):
Actually, it actually didn't turn out to be as long
as I kind of envisioned it, never not doing this
format in a twenty round draft. Actually I thought it
went pretty smooth. So now, probably some of those days
back in the day, uh, when we did you know,
like fifty rounds and all that, it was like, Now
those days were longer for sure.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
All Right, Well, I'm glad you're you're recovering. You deserve
a little break, not a big break. You got you
got you got guys to look out on the summer circuit. Right,
But and and this is this is the third conference
call that I've had with you in four in uh
in a month. So some of this, some of these

(24:46):
you've broken down with me, and uh Kennedy and and
uh your favorite guy. But but there are some guys
that we haven't asked, but we should ask about, you know,
the top guys. So so let me let me those
you haven't heard you talk.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
Yeah, but let me get my two cents on why
I'm such a huge fan of Gavin. How do you
say it, Gavin Feene? How you say his name? My son?
My son? Heads off to UT this fall. I'm a
big UT guy. I didn't go there. I love UT.
Now my son heads there in the fall. And if
if you're going to take away one of our top recruits,
that that I was excited to see. No better team

(25:21):
to go to than my than my hometown Texas Rangers.
That's totally great. Tell me about him. I mean, this
kid has obviously been on everyone's radar. Certainly seems like
he was one of the best bats there was talking
from a high school kid.

Speaker 5 (25:36):
Yeah, I'm very excited to bring Gavin to the full Now.
We extensive history here, you know, going way back our area.
Guy Steve Flores actually lives about two doors down from
Gavin Fine, and so he's known the kid since he
was young. Obviously that he had an older brother who
signed with Oakland last year. I was a catcher and

(25:56):
I think believe seventh through und sixth rounds something like that.
I believe the year before. And you know, so we've
we've seen Gavin a lot through the years, and obviously
was Steve's close connection with the family and and and
and the kid also, but like then him getting out
on the circuit, what he did last summer, was was
pretty special, you know, probably one of the better bats,
probably the you know, the top few bats of this

(26:18):
draft class in my mind personally. And you know, we
see it kind of as a you know, power hit combo. Uh,
you know, it's a good at bat. The kids strong,
he's got, He's still got some upside left to him.
So you know, we're really excited about Gavin.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
When I was stuck in traffic in Huntsville for a
wreck Sunday, when we were when we were talking about
Gavin in the selection, Uh, you said he had some
of the best exit velocities out there. Uh yeah, we
all know the big the shortstops and went ahead of
them specifically Holiday and and Will. It's the first picks.

(26:55):
But how did how did his Gavin's numbers compare with
those guys at the maybe the.

Speaker 5 (27:03):
Data sorry that data wise, he was right up there
with anybody in this draft, you know, as far as
like the X of velos and the things we look
at on a hitter's end, but obviously just more too
than that. It's a process we go through and that's
a that's a big part. But it's like the scouting
piece along with the makeup piece and and all the
work we do on on on putting these guys in

(27:23):
order and take and I'm Gavin was up there with
the you know, the top tier of the draft.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yeah, that's it. I know that way had talk. There's
all to talk about. You guys are now being a
college draft first round team, so it's nice to see
you dip back into the prepper ranks. But everybody is
a temper of their expectations. This isn't why at Lankford
a Polish college hitter. This is a guy who has

(27:49):
a lot to learn. So you know, I know you
guys want to get him out this year in some
way some form. What what does it look like his
road to his first game from between now and whenever
that happens.

Speaker 5 (28:07):
Obviously you can get out to Arizona here shortly, probably
next week at some point, and and you know, getting
the onboarding process we do on on the development side,
and and you know he hadn't played in a game
in a while, so you know, health is gonna be
a big part of this, right, So we're not gonna
just go throw him in a game when you know
he's not ready to play. So obviously there's gonna be
a lot of you know, uh prep time in Arizona here,

(28:30):
and we'll see we might have a chance to get
out there play a little bit here towards the end,
you know, but I think he's gonna dictate that and
tell us and and you know, we're not gonna do
it if we don't think the guys, you know, get
a chance to hurt himself or something. So you know,
even if he doesn't go out this spring or this summer,
excuse me, I mean, we're still got to development plan
moving forward and get this guy out there for twenty

(28:50):
six also, so yeah, okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
And then first day guy A J. Russell Tennessee, who
you guys are gushing of you think that you this
might be a real big steal for you guys.

Speaker 5 (29:05):
Yeah, very excited about AJ. I mean, I'm trying to
think I'll probably get the dates screwed up. But when
he when he threw at our stadium when Tennis was
there in that early two years ago, I believe and
that night he started at our stadium, he would have
gone top five in that draft. And so you know,

(29:28):
obviously had Tommy John and he was just coming back
this year. We got looks at him, wasn't the same
guy we saw. No, But I mean most guys that
come back in the timeframe he had from Tommy John
aren't showing, you know, that level of you know, getting
back to where they were before. But now we we
feel like we got probably the best arm in this draft.
You know, if he was healthy, you know, there's there's

(29:49):
probably no chance we would have even had access to
him where we got him. So no, we're really excited
about aj great kid. Uh, it's it's a great story too.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
I've well, I've read the you know, Scattery reports on him.
The fastball, while it's not ninety eight one hundred, it's
like really hard to hit. What are the characteristics of it?

Speaker 5 (30:13):
Yeah, it's a big spin right fastball. It's got hop
to it, and you know, you get thrown up. He
is almost like a two way basketball. He can go
down on the zone also and and and also right
it up top. So not a lot of guys can
do that. Ages possesses that. So yeah, it's it's a
special kid too, And that's that's a big part of
it also and and but man, this is a talented,

(30:36):
talented righthander.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
What what makes him a special kid? Because you guys
put prioritized makeup in a lot of cases. You know,
if if over over a more talented guy, if the
makeup's better. So what what's his what makes him stand
out on that?

Speaker 5 (30:52):
I mean, he came from a military background, moved around
a lot when he was a younger kid, and had
to assimilate himself into a lot of different you know,
schools and that, and just like the person and how
he interacts, and he's a leader and he leads a
lot by example. But there's some inner drive here, a
big inner drive, and it's like it's it's it's pretty

(31:12):
special what you're gonna see here. So I'm more so
excited about this. And obviously you know we're gonna you know,
take it easy with him because he probably came back
probably a little sooner than then we would have done
it if he was in the ranger. I mean, they
do it differently when the guys are in college. I
get that, but he would have probably not pitched as
much as he did if you would have been in
a ranging uniform. So we're gonna assess that and figure

(31:33):
out what the best plan is for him moving forward,
and hopefully, you know, it's you know, get ready for
twenty six and get out there and pitching, and he
should be like a normal Tommy John guy, fully recovered
by spring training. So we're excited about like what we're
gonna see from him on the field and off the field.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, And I wrote it and it's been written. You know,
you guys drafted some Tommy John guys. You know, McConaughey
from Nebraska, been been Abel from TCU and McKinney and
then said the eighteenth rounder from Illinois, and and we
talked about it with Ross and with you. You guys

(32:12):
really believe in your system in place so and and
that you feel like these guys will be better on
the on the back side of this thing. But is
there also value in like, hey, they already had their
Tommy John, so we're good.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
Well, I mean, I guess, I mean, you know, just
the numbers of the numbers of players or pitchers actually
they are having Tommy John is uh, there's you know,
you don't want to bring Keith Meister on the on
the show and he can talk to you about.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
It, but we have we've had a.

Speaker 5 (32:45):
Very fascinating Yeah, he's got some thoughts on that and obviously,
and and but that being said, like, yeah, I think
that maybe there's some value, but I mean, I don't know.
It's more like an opportunity to you know, where we
feel like we're at the forefront of the rehab process.
But with Keith Comstock and all the all the resources

(33:07):
and people have on that end, that guys do come
out better on the other end. And so it's it's
just a time element kind of thing. And you know,
when they come out, we feel like we get pictures
that we probably wouldn't have access to in the rounds
we got them because they were injured. So and then
when they get healthy, they're like back in normal and
they're saying, oh wow, you got that guy in the

(33:27):
fourth round or the eighteenth round or whatever it is, right,
So it's just a better value.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, And I think I think it's
a smart strategy. I mean, it's if you want, if
you are trying to you know, game the system, if
you will, in which everybody's trying to get an advantage,
this is one way to do it.

Speaker 5 (33:47):
So I think the biggest part though, our advantage is
is what we do with our rehab guys though too
it's like if I didn't have confidence and what I
know that are going to go through with that process. Yeah,
I don't know if i'd be that that convicted take
this kind of player, right, if that makes sense? And
so the group we have in place and what we
do with these with these players, man, it's like a

(34:10):
special deal. So that's what gives us confidence to take
guys like this.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Okay, you guys didn't take a ton of position players.
It was it slanted toward the pitching side. But you
did take a two way player. Yeah, who you know.
I looked on the map when you said he's from
Evan Carter Territory. They're like down the street from each other.
They're hometowns and they and and if I'm not mistaken,

(34:36):
Josh Owens is his high school team played at evans Field. Yeah,
so what and and then there's so there's the natural
comps there. But you said you also said this is
a legit two way guy. What what do we like
about him? On each side? Of on each side? Each side?

Speaker 5 (34:54):
Yeah? Yeah, First of all, there might be something in
the water up there, Tennessee. I don't know. Danny Danny
Clark are former minor league pitching coordinated lives up in
that area too, so he knows a lot of these
people and and you know he's alerted a lot of
players up there through the years, and Evan being one
of them. But yeah, he's known Josh in the family

(35:15):
for years and years and years. So yeah, it's a
special kid, first of all. I mean, that's that's the
one first thing I want to say. And secondly, like
it's a legit, like he played shorts up in high
school team. I mean, he's gonna play some shorts up
when he gets out with us, and we're going to
try to you know. Uh, use the I can't say
the Korean player we signed his name can't pronounce it right.

(35:37):
I probably should, but that's the same issue with Yes,
thank Kim, and so uh it would be similar to
that plan for him, and you know, and why not
try it? You know, I know that not many guys
can do it, and at some point maybe one side
will tell you over the other side that's what he's

(35:59):
got to do. But I mean the kid kind of
sold me. Actually, he said, you know, I feel good
at both. I love doing both. Why wouldn't you let
me do both? You know, he's a legit prospect on
both sides of the ball. So I mean that was
our our thinking, like, oh all right, I mean you
think this kid is like a special makeup kid too
from you know, like a great family. And we're saying, well,

(36:20):
why would why would we limit it? You know, because
the kid wants to do it. He did it in
the he went to the Draft League from the end
of his high school season to the draft and went
and his dad was coaching team up there, and I
can't think of it. It was an Elizabeth and I believe,
and he pitched and hit on that and did well
so against college kids like twenty three year olds and
and so like, I don't want to limit this kid.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
What we're saying, why, Yeah, No, there's no need to.
I mean with Otani and what And nobody's trying to
say this is Otani. But what I'm saying is if
the guy can hit his way and hit good and
he's a good pitcher, that's a great tool in the toolbox.
I don't care who you are.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Well on with the rule. I know we're getting way
far ahead of ourselves, yes, but Rodgers having an inherent advantage.
I know they're really good. Yes, but when the pitcher
leaves the game, he should have to leave the game.
Now that he doesn't have to, you might as well
give it a shot.

Speaker 4 (37:15):
Absolutely, that's just me.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Maybe maybe I'm a little bitter. Maybe that's the old
man in me coming out, Kip, I don't know, Hey,
we didn't. We didn't ask you a lot about the
position players you drafted. We being the beat guys. Uh,
seems like this Paxton clean uh kind of went a
little later that maybe people thought, what do we know
about him? From penn State? Not exactly a baseball powerhouse?

Speaker 4 (37:42):
Is that that's you originally?

Speaker 5 (37:44):
Packing Kling, I saw him in high school? Is Pennsylvania?
Kid was a name going into the year. Uh, And
you know, we all scouted him. I think most teams
would have seen Packed in high school. He's on the
circuit that summer. What plus you uh decided to like,
you know, the the take, the ask was a little
bit high in high school. And you know, obviously the

(38:05):
draft told him they weren't going to give it to him.
So he went to college and and spent two years
at LSU. And then after the two years at LSU,
he had a really good freshman year and kind of okay,
sophomore year there at LSU, then ended up going to
Penn State and kind of took off. So, I mean,
it's a powerful kid, it's a it's a plus runner

(38:25):
center field, really good instincts in Now, this guy can
really play center field, and you know he's got power
and so you know, the chase gets a little tough
at times, but you know, we feel we can reel
it in and you know, we got a guy that, like,
for one, we know he can really play center field,
he's got power as a great kid, and and we'll
see we get a little more out of the hit
to him and might have something really special with her.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, that's interesting that transfers. You know, these kids play
for th for schools now, it's crazy.

Speaker 5 (38:59):
I mean, I mean to that point, we used to
like at Scouts and I think you know, within industry
we would if a guy is like Liam Doyle was
at three schools in three different years. Yeah, you know,
and and to me when Liam Doyle explained you know
why it was and made sense to me and it's
what you do nowadays. But like back in the day,
that was like a big red flag if a guy

(39:20):
went to multiple schools right now, it's not as much
because with NIL, with you know, the transfer just kind
of like free agency almost, it's not that big of
a red flag, you know, if the kid's got a reason, right.

Speaker 4 (39:34):
So well, I mean think about it. Think think of
a kid like that and going you know, look, I
have every confident in the world at that LSU that
I should have hit in the three hole and hit
every day and all of that. But I can go
to Penn State and get all my AB's I want
work on everything and and know for sure I'm gonna
be hitting at at that lineup doing what I want.

(39:54):
You know, it's close to home. I mean what I mean,
I'm sorry. I mean that's and you know you're back
close to the f you know you're gonna do it. Yeah,
it's not like it used to be. You know, it's
not like LSU ran him off. I mean that's usually
I mean, that's still the case in some cases.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
But you know, baseball scholarships as they are. Yeah, it's
NIL money. Everybody's like, oh, he's getting this much in NIL.
He's probably paying off the balance of his tuition with it, too. Sure,
so it sound like you know they might be making
more than they have been, but.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
But keeps right. I mean there's a it's a whole
new outlook, even for me from football and everything. When
it comes down to uh to transfer. Now, I'm glad
they allow him to transfer and go ahead and immediately play.
I mean, coaches can leave right away. I mean, why
wouldn't you go somewhere else if you wanted to. So
I don't have an issue with it anymore. I mean,
you're gonna know the background if there was a off
the field issue that causes transfer, you guys are already going.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
To know that you're not gonna take them.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
Yeah, So I think it's all it's like, it's just
a different you know, day and age with the way
the system set up in college athletics period. So you know,
you just deal with it. And then it's like, like
I said, it used to be kind of some of
those were red flags. Now there's they aren't red flags anymore. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Yeah, And I'll ask you maybe one more, one or
two more. Jacob Johnson, Yeah, the eleventh rounder. I love
the name of his junior college, Pearl River. It's another
another guy who was hurt in twenty three or twenty
four hitting pitches senior season of high school. What do

(41:32):
we like about him?

Speaker 5 (41:34):
We see tons of upside here. You know, it's a
you know, it's we've had a lot of success in
that arena of the junior college pitchers, especially cool. Drake's
a guy you know, knocking on the door right now
from Walter State and right a few others, but he
kind of fits into that mold. It's the projectable, you know,
has really good traits with his with his pitches and

(41:56):
their strikes here, and you know, we got a chance
to you know, I think Gill a little better than
than a normal eleventh rounder and uh you know, uh
just like big upside here and love the kid too,
So we're excited about it. Jacob.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
You know, you mentioned Walter State and two rounds later
you took Aiden Robertson, Cole Drake, Bret Martin. What is
Walter State a premier j C program?

Speaker 5 (42:24):
Yeah, they did a really good job. They go you know,
they go to Grand Junction almost you know, it seems
like all the time they were there again this year.
So and Aiden was part of that team. So yeah,
excited about Aiden too. Yeah him in the.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
Full Let me get my question the go ahead, because
this is my one. I asked Kip every year, and
I love asking this question so everyone knows. After the
tenth round you get down into the down into there,
who are the guys whether you look. I know, Tip
Back thinks every one of these guys, he's got twenty
guys that he drafted that he sees playing Major League
Baseball or you were never going to take them. So

(42:59):
I know that that it's hard to choose one. But
I love sitting hearing the guy that you're like, you
know what, watch this guy. This might be a guy
if he hits like we think this guy will could
be a top one hundred prospect in the next year
or two. And obviously knocking on the door, who's somebody
nobody's really talking about that you're super excited about.

Speaker 5 (43:17):
I don't want to put like borders too much on
these guys, but I asked that question every year, and
I don't know if he's gonna be a top you know,
prospect in a year or so, but I mean, it's
no Franklin. We took in the seventeenth round high school
catcher the TXL Academy in Florida. This kid take a
look at it. You just watch this kid. He's gonna

(43:37):
be all right. It's it's probably a little better than
more we took him high school. Catching is a long route, right,
So these guys get beat up and we do a
really good job with catching. But this kid's gonna open
some eyes and open eyes.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
So the draft pool money is for the first ten picks.
What are the rules thereafter as far as if you
have any limits on how to sign these guys.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
Yes, so you have a pool of money in the
top ten rounds and you know, with not hard slots
but soft slots on every pick. Right, So so if
you spend less than your allotted pool in the top
ten rounds, you can take that post ten. And if
you spend all your money within the top ten rounds,

(44:25):
you can't spend anything. You got one hundred and fifty
one thousand dollars capped of every player after post ten, right,
And so if you have money leftover, you can pay
a guy more add onto the one fifty basically what
you have left over from the pool.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Okay, Okay, that's that clarifies it easily explainable, Thank you
very much. And so you know, I know the draft
ended two days ago. But you know, when we talked
to Owen, I'm going to get his name pronounced correctly.
Prosy proach, he said, Brooke with the p ad s

(45:03):
c H. So proos prooks. Okay, that's what he said.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
Anyway, get out a.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
Duke, okay, he said, he said, I said, what's what's
your plan? He goes, well, we're gonna go to Arizona
and take my physical and sign a contract and get going.
So we should start seeing some sign the signings here
in the next few days. Yes, yes, correct, And and
you know, I know you you take these guys to

(45:29):
sign them all and you did a great job last
year seventeen for twenty, are you looking at the same
success rate or are you hoping to until you get
it higher?

Speaker 5 (45:40):
We'll see. I mean there's still some things that I
don't want to talk about than the end, but I
think we're we're gonna we're gonna be close to that, yes.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Okay, right, yeah, right. And then also after the twentieth round,
there's the undrafted, uh free agents. I saw you signed
one from cal Paly calling as a catcher. Yeah, how many?
How many are you looking at signing? Have you signed
additional ones?

Speaker 5 (46:06):
I think that we're gonna works in the coup. I
don't want to talk about, but yeah, there could be
there could be a couple more non drafted free agents
on you, okay.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
And then and this was a question that somebody had
on on Twitter. So you add these players to your pool,
that's probably not good news for some guys who are
already in the organization. Is it is it a one
for one? Do you have to for if let's say
you signed fifteen guys, do you have to find fifteen
guys to release or trade or how does that?

Speaker 5 (46:35):
It's it's not a one for one okay by any means.
But yeah, there's some decisions that have to be made,
for sure, and that's probably a downside of the number
of restrictions they are in the minor leagues now. And
you know, it's not great. It's not like the olden
days where you didn't have any of those and you
sign anybody, but you have to you have to think

(46:55):
about that a little bit when you sign guys. So
you know, we have certain needs sometimes to especially in
the lower minor leagues, that factor into that. So but yeah,
the decisions are not easy either. So but yeah, you
have to think about that a little bit more thing
you used to have to.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
Okay, that's reality. Yeah, that's reality. You know what, you
play your way to stay if it happens, and that's
the sad, but that's the business they chose getting into that.
And we're rooting for all of them. I always are.
We meet all these minor league kids, we love them.
We want every one of them at the big league level.
And there's too many to count that you you know
that we want to see knocking on the door and
there's just not room because of how good they are.

(47:29):
But that's the reality of the sport. There's some guys
that just don't ever.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
It's every sport.

Speaker 4 (47:34):
Yeah, they just don't bossom. This is always fun. I
love having you on every year. Like I always say,
I'm I'm a want to be old Scouts. What I'd
love to I think if i'd have gone back, i'd
be knocking on your door if we weren't the same age,
probably going hey, send me somewhere. I want to do this.
I was never talented enough, but I think I can
pick out the talent. That's just what I would like

(47:56):
to think I could do. But it's so fun to
have you on this time? Anything else?

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Kip? How many Marriott points do you have?

Speaker 5 (48:05):
I don't want to watch spends, so I probably don't
have as many as I could have through them.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
We're out of airline miles too.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
That's guts you taking your trips.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
That we're out of miles.

Speaker 5 (48:22):
You just.

Speaker 4 (48:25):
Well listen, Kip. We appreciate it every year. I know
that you're enjoying a day off here. You're probably not
even you're probably I heard those ideas, quasi idea. You're
getting ready to go back to it. It's always fun
for you to stop down and talk to us. For me,
it's great. I love it. I'm okay, We're okay. We'll
see you out and around there. I know that we
always usually catch you around spring or something like.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
That in a couple of weeks and all these guys
start signing.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
That's right. Absolutely, thanks Kip. Hey, guys, that's Kip thag.
Thanks for joining us. Right after this, we're gonna go
down in the bus leagues at the big Thanks to
Kip fab for join us, which is always fun. I
love Kit, I love Kip. He's so much fun to
talk to. I love that question every year, so we've

(49:08):
got our list of who to look for now the catcher,
frank Noah Franklin, the catcher, the hig School catcher. We're
gonna watch that. He's gonna be climbing up and that
might be somebody down this line we may want to
try to get on. There's the guy. We'll get on eventually.
Let's go down to the Bust League though, let's talk
about it.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
We need to think round Rock again because we're about
to talk about them. But there are guys they sponsor
this show and make make a lot of this possible.
So thanks again to round Rock and Chris and well
I as well. Think the guy at the top. I'm
not sure he knows that they sponsor us, but Nolan
thinks anyway.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
Yeah, and we've we enjoy sitting around with those guys
that really took care of us last year, and we
got to get another tree down. Okay, let's go to the
trip away round Rock. Speaking of them, they're in third
place right now in the second half. You know, they
split these up by halves and making the playoffs. They're
eight and seven right now, they're five and five in
their last ten and they've won their last two games,
right good. Cody Freeman still our guy there that we

(50:05):
that we left. Blane Krim is knocking the cover.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Off the ball, still Blane Krim. You know, you look
at the you look at their top four guys and
home runs Blaine crim okay on the forty man, Cody
Freeman not on the forty man, Justin Fosky forty man.
Dustin Harris, who was really picked it up. Yeah, Dustin
has figured something out. We're glad to see it. His
average was wallowing down there in the two hundreds. He's

(50:28):
now got his ops up to seven fifty two, which,
again in that league probably isn't great, but from where
he was, very very good, So good good for him,
you know. And and then two guys who've been in
the system for a long time, Kellen Strom and Trevor
Harver h they're just having putting together nice little seasons.
I'm not saying they're gonna be in the major leagues,

(50:48):
but they're they're they're ball on base and they're they're
doing stuff, so good for them. Trevor was in big
league camp this year. But again, the guy down there
that is the focal point is uh. The third is
Josh Young, so twenty three at bats, He's five for
twenty three, which computes to two seventeen. He struck out

(51:11):
a few doubles, five strikeouts, one walk.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
So the things'll he'll get it.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Wait this, he's gonna he's gonna get it. It's just
it may not happen as soon as he would.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
Like, you know what. That's why you're there. Get there,
get rolling, get it going, and get back.

Speaker 5 (51:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
On the pitching side, I mean, our guy Cole Wins
made the main one there that we who may not
be there by the time this all starts back up.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Yeah, Cody, uh and I was I always screw up
Cody's pronunciation on Huer or Hower or whatever it is.
He was the Rangers reliever of the month for June,
and he's he's another guy who's on the forty man
and somebody to you know, somebody to watch. And Dane
Dunning's back down there and he's been throwing the ball better. Yeah,
they did okay at the big big that's been up.

(51:55):
So yeah, that's you know, expect to expect to see
Dane and Cody. Although we you know there are some
there are some upcoming sixty man moves that have to come,
so yep, yeah, I'm not I'm not going to speculate
on those.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
But anyway, there's there's definitely some guys that are on
this forty man who are not going to be there
probably in the next few weeks, that's for sure. Let's
go to Triple A. I mean in Double A the
Frisco rough Riders here locally. If you guys haven't gone
out to see them, you need to. They're in third
place right now. They're seven and eleven in the second half.
They have not hit well, I don't think the four
and six in their last ten, and they did win yesterday.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
For their last game, their last game. Everybody's on break
right now, all these full season guys. You know, it's
the usual suspects that we always seem to talk about.
Sebastian Walcott finally hit a homer. He had been in
a little bit of a drought, and then he went
to the futures game where he started at third and
was miked up. So that's kind of fun for him. Yeah,
you know, it's it's kind of strange that they've their

(52:53):
bats have gone cold, because this is the time when
in the Texas League when the bats start heating ups
start to heat up, Mitch Bratt continues to be the
guy there. I don't I don't. I don't know that
a promotion is imminent, but it's gonna happen before the year.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
He needs.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
Envision scenario in which that doesn't happen as long as
he's healthy, which sure as hell seems to be.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
David.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
You know an another guy who has been in the
organization for a while, Larson Kendridge. He's in Double A.
He's pitching pretty well out of the bullpen, you know,
and and he he came to the Globalife field and
through live banting practice I think for Seeger when Segar

(53:39):
was coming off the injured list. So I think that's
kind of an interesting one to watch, just you know,
he's been around and then you know, if you if
you want to talk on the prospect front, I would
think that David David Leo.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
Yeah, what's his numbers since he's been there.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
He's only he's made three starts on one, two oh
three or still still throwing a bunch of strikes, which
which some of these guys struggle to.

Speaker 4 (54:06):
Do once they get here.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Yeah, once they get here, because.

Speaker 4 (54:10):
These guys are more patient here, they don't swing. There's
not a lot of chase.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
It is different.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Yeah, at the double A level and higher there's not
as much chase, I mean each level up. Obviously they're
more talented. And what gets you to double A and
triple A more patients at the plate and taking your
pitches to hit. You know, these young kids that come out,
they're ready to hit everything that comes their way and
having to learn that discipline. Let's go down to the
Hub City Spartanburgers. You know, both the low A teams

(54:36):
or both the the the A teams, you got high
end low A are doing well. The hub City Spartanburgers
are in first place in the second half. They're thirteen
and eight, eight and two in their last ten and
they have won one So hub City in their inaugural season.
They're they're.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Hey, yeah, yeah, they're they're they're it's a tightly it
was a tightly bunched first half in their in their division.
But yeah, they seem to finish pretty well there down
the going into the.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
Break, you know.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
And the bats when we've talked about them all year,
you know, and Glider figureouh, he's gotten his average up
above two hundred, which is significant, right, He's he is,
He's a legit power guy from the left side. He's
at fifteen home runs. He needs to cut down the strikeouts.

(55:29):
It's it's a lot of strikeouts ninety three and two
hundred and seventy eight of bats. So quick math tells
me that's thirty three percent. But some some other guys
who are starting to come around. Anthony gudierres he's starting
to do a little bit. Hit a home run yet,
he has two home runs this year. He's not striking
out much. He steals bases, he can run. He's a

(55:50):
really good center fielder. So hopefully it's it's coming together
after you know, two injury interrupted seasons. Malcolm Moore is back,
and he was he was starting to pick it up
a little bit at the plate after his injury.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
So I saw where Driling hit a home round the
other day too.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Yeah, And and Casey Cook is getting there, slowly but surely.
So you know, these guys are the first full season
of the roommates, Trialing and Cook, and so I'm sure
they're helping each other out, pushing each other.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
Yeah, all right, let's go down to the low lay
the Hickory Crawdads also in first place. They are sixteen
and five, eight and two in their last ten again
and they've lost one. They lost their last game. But
another team up there in first place sixteen and five.
They look good.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Yeah, and that's good. And the big the bigger story
I think is on the pitching side with Caden Scarborough
who he's had three straight scoreless outings covering just over
fifteen innings, so a little more than five a pop.
You know, this is the kid, the sixth rounder from
a couple of years ago, big and lanky and froze

(57:02):
it hard and all all those things that that scouts love.
Seventy two strikeouts and fifty four innings, that's that's pretty outstanding.
And so he then it seems like he's starting to
come around. I don't know that they're going to promote him.
Uh yeah, I think that, you know, they they show
a lot of patients with these guys. Maybe his last

(57:25):
start of the year or something like that. I would
think that some older guys will end up getting promoted
before him. Uh you know, maybe the ishmael A Grada
and and you know Dalton Pence I've heard was supposed
to get bumped up. Uh, he had to miss a
little time for I think I think it was a

(57:46):
family thing, like a funeral or something. Yeah, Enrique Sagara
is another guy who's a little older. Jabro easily was
a college guy from Kansas. I think he was a
free agent signing last year and he's doing fine. So
we'll we'll see where they all end up. But some
some interesting names down there on the pitching side and

(58:08):
the hitting side. You know, it's still our guy Max
and Martin doing doing good things. Jeremy Cabrera has started
to pick it up a little bit, but it's it's
this is the pitch. Pitching wins. Uh is why this
team is winning.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
All right, Let's go to the Arizona Complex League. They're
in Arizona where actually, uh, their starting pitcher the other
day has some major league experience a little bit.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
John Gray. John Gray got he got rained out Saturday
night from his rehab start on his Sunday night, one
of those nights Saturday, he was supposed to rehab round Rock.
So they put him on a plane and send him
to uh Arizona, where he pitched. I don't know he did,
you know, I'm assuming he I'm I'm assuming a that

(58:56):
he did really well, and then I'm assuming that B.
They completely the batters had no approach against him, swinging
at every first pitch. Sure, just really making life difficult
for him.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
Sure he wasn't getting his work in because everybody was
excited to play against.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
On the rehab front, these days, it's more about you know,
getting up ups as they like to call it, getting
up you know, and that's a big deal. You know,
you want you want to accumulate, accumulate pitches. So he pitched,
He did pitch three innings, He allowed six hits. So
these guys are just up there, Hacket, Yeah, no question

(59:39):
about it. He only threw thirty nine pitches, Okay, So
that tells you what you need to know. And why
why these guys, like, especially in spring training, they don't
really love throwing in minor league games, right because you
know they may they may have to, you know, get
three outs and ten pitches and then have to stay
out there and face two more batters.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
Sure, it's it's it's because they want to see him
good enough. And and if you ever go to spring train
and go back there, guys they're going they call him
up downs where they want him to go sit down
like they were coming in for Battie and then having
to go back out. But by the way, they're in
first place in the ACL. They're thirty and twenty three,
seven and three in their last ten and they've won
their last three and their their big hitter got moved

(01:00:19):
up to low A, which was fitz slash Gerald. That's right,
who is kind of it has been okay, okay, but
he was really hot when he was at a clus
a high school kid.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Yeah, and and I think I think ye again again
the guys same time last week. You know that Duerd Tovar.
I really need to dig into him and figure out
a little bit more about him. But you know, Paulino
Santana is getting at bats and claimer Lamos has rebounded
a little bit here. So there are some names down there,

(01:00:53):
Braylan Morrell who continues to come back from his leg
injury from late last year. So they're you know, they're
they're just trucking right along and they're and this team's
always good. Yeah, you know, this team is always.

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
Yeah they wanted a few years ago or unless.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
They're they always seem to be in the playoffs or
something like that. And you know the pictures I don't
know a ton about honestly, because you know, the Rangers
don't spend a ton of money internationally on their pictures
with the bonus point almost the position players. So they'll
sign a bunch of pictures for you know, five, ten,

(01:01:33):
twenty thousand. You know, heyesuss La Falaise, however, has been
really really good for him down there. I believe he's ven.
I can't, I can't remember.

Speaker 4 (01:01:43):
Anyway, Well, let's go to the DSL. Speaking of that,
we were right. And actually my daughter who just flew
back from the Dominican she went there with their boyfriend
on a trip. Got back last night. I had the
grand dog, so I know exactly when she arrives and
when she goes, having the great fact she's about to
keep the dogs while head out of town. The Dominican
Summer League. There's two teams there, and the hottest team

(01:02:04):
and all of Ranger organization from top to bottom, is
the third place red team in the DSL. They're twenty
two and ten. They're in third place, but they are
nine and one in their last ten and they won
five in a row.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
And third place. That's pretty pretty good the little division there.

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
Yeah, and nine and one in their last ten and
winning five in a row. This is this is the
team with the more talent, even though they try to
tell you it's not, and they're they're on a little
hot streak.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
They are. And Marco Argudin, who was from Cuba and
signed in February, he was the player of the Week
for the second time this season. This is what he
did last week that in five twenty six with a
fifteen to twenty OPS in five games. That's pretty good
for the season. He is batting four fifteen with a

(01:02:54):
five to nineteen on base percentage eleven two ops. He's older,
he has more experience. He should be doing this. I
would suspect that his time in the Dominican is almost up,
unless they're concerned about a cultural thing, you know, and

(01:03:16):
moving him around because you know, he's from Cuba, so
he had to defect. He'd defected to Mexico, then you
go to the Dominican and then you're coming to I'm
assuming that he spent some time in possibly in Arizona
right after he signed, and then going to get him
back to the Dominican. I don't know, but he's too
much for this league. Yeah, and honestly so is a

(01:03:38):
Lorki Rodriguez, who was the headliner of the international class.
He's batting three twenty four, hitting some home runs. He
leads that team with four homers more walks than strikeouts
twenty six to twenty two, which is pretty darn good
for a seventeen year old. So you know the problem

(01:03:59):
with the com Plex League and the Dominican League not
starting up at the same time, that there's not as
much opportunity to get the Dominican leaguing kids to Arizona
to play a little bit. They've done it in the past,
your Frank Castillo. Last year's the climber Lamos were the

(01:04:20):
ones off the top of my head that I remember,
and they try to do it every year, but it's
it's not as easy. So I would suspect that if
if these guys the Rangers feel like they need to
get moving, some guys moving, it's going to happen pretty
soon and the.

Speaker 4 (01:04:37):
Blue team will finish off with them. They're in the
last place in their division, they're in seventh, they're nine
and twenty three, they are five and five, all right,
Blue te but they yeah, look, these are the you know,
they they tell you they're going to try to split
it up, they're going to try to make it even.
And you said it was obvious this.

Speaker 5 (01:04:53):
Year, they didn't even.

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
They didn't even hide the fat.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Even try to pretend these teams are not equal talent.

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
Right, But you know what, these kids are playing professionally
and they're getting to play, and this is a place
to shine. I say it every week.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
And I think David Ortiz Junior is on that team.
He's struggling. He's ben seventy eight yep, but he gets
on bass. Yeah, he doesn't get on bass. So maybe
the Ortiz name is carrying some playing some advantages for him.

Speaker 4 (01:05:21):
Well, hopefully he'll turn into dad at some point or
something close to dad. So he's young, so we'll luck Yeah,
no kidding, we'll see what's happening. Look, guys, I think
that's about it. As we widen this thing down.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Anything in that's good for me.

Speaker 4 (01:05:34):
Yeah, Look, if it was a long one, Kip fag
always great to have him on. Look, next week, Jeff
and I are both going to be out. I'll be
back in town Thursday, but you're gonna be out of town.
All next week on a vacation with the family. We'll
pick it up the week after that Trade deadline week,
Trade deadline week, and we'll really have some trade deadline
stuff we want to talk about. Okay, guys, that's it

(01:05:55):
for Kip Fag Jeff Wilson, I'm John Moore. Thanks for
listening to this one until week after next guys, will
see at the yard.

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