Is Rangers Offense BACK, & Is it Sustainable?

Jacob deGrom had, arguably his best start since Tommy John surgery but that is not the story of the Rangers for now. The offense finally came to life.44JOIN THE DLLS DIEHARDS! https://www.alldlls.com/join-diehard📌 Subscribe for more Texas Rangers content!🔔 Turn on notifications so you never miss an update! #rangers  #mlb #baseball #texas An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/@DLLS_Sports ALL THINGS DLLS: WEBSITE:http://allDLLS.com/ BUY MERCH:http://DLLSLocker.com FOLLOW ON SOCIAL:Twitter: @DLLS_Sports // @dlls_rangersInstagram: @DLLS_Sports Become a DLLS Diehard and get access to premium content, our Discord channel, discounts on merch, and a free shirt! Sign up here: https://alldlls.com/join-diehard/ Gametime: Take the guesswork out of buying concert tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code DLLS for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: DLLS for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code DLLS. Restriction Indeed: Listeners of this show will get a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity - Just go to https://indeed.com/allcity right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Sleeper: If you think you have what it takes, download the Sleeper app and use the code DLLSRANGERS to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit! Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details. Currently operational in over 25 states. Check out Sleeper today! Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/dllsrangers to get 15% off your first order when you use DLLSRANGERS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Rugged Road: Reliable, durable, and built to be used– Rugged Road is your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code DLLS for 10% off! Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
We knew this storm was coming, not because of the weathermen,
but because lightning struck at Globe Life Field last night.
Hi there, and welcome into the DLLs Sports Studios. Welcome
to the DLLs Rangers Podcast. John Radigan here, Jeff Wilson there,
Elijah Smith doing this thing up. Primitively, it's not live,
so we don't get to chat with you because of

(00:22):
the weather here.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
But Jeff, the biggest.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Question I think is can lightning strike twice at Globe
Life Field.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Or hopefully more than twice. Yeah, you hope that they
saw the blueprint. I mean, they've known what it is,
they know what good baseball is, and they set these
goals out during the spring training. Hard to pitch too,
you know, bullies in the box. We can get your
good pitches past the baton to the next guy, keep

(00:51):
the line moving, those sort of baseball cliches, if you will,
And they did it last night. Now, the A's pitching
wasn't great, right, you know, so they took advantage of
a guy who really was overmatched, and so that's good.

(01:12):
But tonight it gets a little harder. I believe Severino
is pitching for the A's and he's pretty good and has.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Been good at times this year.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
So you know, momentum is only as good as the
next day starting pitcher. And there's another big baseballsm for you.
So I don't know, but the Rangers, I think the
last two games have done a better job not chasing pitches,
not all of them, but some of them. The bats
have been it seems a little longer, but you know,

(01:43):
I think that the biggest issue the Rangers have had
is that, you know, pitchers aren't afraid to pitch to
him right now, and so they can throw strikes, they
can throw quality pitches, and they also know, I don't
have to throw these guys' strikes right They're gonna go
ahead and chase it.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
So they have to be.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Harder to pitch to. And I think last night maybe
they saw it. Maybe it was just ourminder, you know,
the hitting meeting and the hitters meeting that the Rangers
had Monday, where they talked about the basics and talked
about getting back to what it is that they do.
Hopefully that was the results came last night and Jonaheim

(02:25):
said something. Jonaheim had a nice game, two for five,
a walk, he scored three times, and I asked him
about the meeting, and he said, it's just something that
I felt like had to be brought back up, you know,
getting back to their approach and their standards, just with
one month under our belts, just kind of going back
to what we want our identity to be. Obviously, you

(02:48):
don't want to have those hard conversations, but sometimes you've
just got to air it out. We're all growing up,
so we know what needs to be done. Obviously it
hasn't been good enough. So it sounds like it was
maybe a little contention at time, sure, or maybe these
guys who are the players and are supposed to listen
to their coaches, maybe the coaches had some stern words for.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Him, you know. And I don't know.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
When I talked to Donnie Ecker about the meeting, he
didn't describe it quite in those terms. He said, is
just resetting our goals and reminding the hitters and ourselves
what it is we wanted to do in spring training
and what we need to do. But you know, as
he said in that story I wrote, the chase rate
was abysmal. It was the worst in the major leagues,
and the Rangers had drawn the second fewest walks in

(03:33):
the major leagues. You're not going to win doing that.
You cannot. You cannot just hit. You have to have
he said, you have to have seven two hundred hitters
on the team if you want to win without walking.
So there it is, it's laid out, and the Rangers
know what they need to do. And last night might
have been might have been the start of something. But again,

(03:56):
the next day's starting pitcher will have a lot to
say about that.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
He will indeed their nod to the weather. It's sort
of an umbrella lead day because really on most days,
the lead story from that game would have been Jacob
de Gram's first win in two years, over two years
and his best pitching performance since Tommy John And we
will get to that momentarily. First a little bit more
on the offense and Jeff nine walks right after, you know,

(04:23):
Donnie was saying to you the day before, Look, it's
chase rate and its walks. We can't have this terrible
chase rate, and we gotta have walks. And then to
get a season high nine walks in the game yesterday
and in a couple in the first inning, right, I mean,
that had to that was that was progress. That had
to make Boach and Donnie for that matter, and really

(04:44):
the players too just feel like, okay, message landed and
it was received and now it's being implemented.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, you know, it was first inning, first two guys walked,
Holy holy crap, what's going on here? And then you know,
Jonah bounced out and uh Higashioka made an out uh.
And and so then another walk by a DoLS Garcia
or whoever, no Simeon, Simmy was Simon another guy who

(05:12):
doesn't walk necessarily a ton uh. And then Josh Young
comes up, bases loaded, two outs and he swings it
three pitches out of the strikes and strikes out. So
it kind of felt like, geez, here we go again,
because in the second inning they made a little more noise,
uh with with you know, getting the first two guys on.
Then Leoti beats out that that great bunch. It was

(05:32):
like it was like a wedg shot it went and
then it backed thatcked up.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, it was really good.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
And then you know a Doulas with the boneheaded running
play making the first out at home and and nothing
happened that inning, and then you get to the third
and more traffic and you get to two outs again
and then it's a lefty on lefty matchup, but Josh
Smith delivered, and so that was the first of four
two out RBI hits, right, that was big. You know,

(05:59):
those are those things missing, you know, those are backbreakers.
Two out RBI hits, got a pitcher, they just it.
It just has a huge effect. And then they got
a couple more, you know, Jake Berger and Leodi again.
Leoti hitting against left hander, smoked the ball, so good
things were happening. And then of course the six they
scored eight times, but they did it by taking walks,

(06:25):
not trying to do too much. You know, the Rangers
had what eighteen hits, right, I think twelve are singles.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, you know, and that's one of the things they
had talked about previously.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
It didn't have to be a double or a triple
or a homer.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
And when you when you're up with two outs, you know,
that's that's it. Marcus Simonson after the game, we would
take all singles. I was like, well, oh, I didn't
say this. I thought this, Well, you guys haven't been
doing that.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, and not even singles, I mean.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
So so you know it really it might have opened
some eyes and told some people, gosh, that's that's what
it is like burgers to our RBI hit. The ball
was off the plate, yes, but he didn't try to
pull it or do too much with it. He hit
it to right few he went with it was like
really good hitting. So again, it's the elements of a

(07:13):
good offense, and the Rangers have the potential to be
a great offense, right, It's just they have to be
of the same mindset, be in the same place, and
you pull in the same rope.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, And essentially Monday they heard the reminder, right, here's
the reminder, here's what we're trying to be as an offense.
And then on Tuesday they saw an example of the reminder,
which reinforces exactly what Donnie Ecker and the rest of
the coaches. And Donnie wasn't the only one in on
that hitters meeting. Boach did not divulge who else was,

(07:48):
but he said several of us were, so you know,
it was sort of a all leaders on deck kind
of a meeting. And whether or not, you know, it
got contentious, we don't know, but from based on Jonah
hims comments, it sounds like maybe it did. But maybe
some guys took it the wrong way. Yesterday reinforces that message,
which is fantastic. The interesting thing is in the first

(08:11):
basically couple of times through the order, eleven of eighteen reach, Yeah, okay,
eleven of eighteen reach in the first two times through
the order, and I think at that point it was
three to nothing, maybe four. I think it was three.
Are you kidding me? You've got to be more productive,
right than that? But and but when it got to four,

(08:34):
it was like, and I was, I was watching on TV.
David Murphy and Dave Raymond were like, Okay, now they've
got a big offense, because again four feels like an
offensive explosion.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Absolutely, and thank goodness, thank goodness.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
I mean, then they got off that two train, but
thank goodness, then they scored a lot more runs. It
really helped, you know. It was that it was just
sort of that you know, releasing of the water from
the dam that this group really needed.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
You know.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Halfway through, I was thinking, man, maybe they should save
some of these runs, but you know, go out and
get them. Make everybody feel good. And I tell you,
when Kyle Hagashioka got his double in the in the
night in the eighth inning, he was the only starter
that hadn't had a hit. Everybody cheered for Yeah, it
was it was a big deal. Eight guys had RBIs.
Jonah was the only one who didn't have an RBI,

(09:27):
but again he scored three times. It was just complete.
It was one through nine. The bottom of the order
did some great things. You know, Leode down there going
well three for four, I think.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Three for his first three. And it's it's it's.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Stuff like that that made the offense so good in
twenty three early and then in the playoffs again, guys
were just getting on base, passing the baton setting up
the top of the lineup by guys getting on from
the bottom. So it's stuff we've talked about for a
month now, John, and it hasn't happened but twice. And

(10:03):
really you could argue in the eight run game last
week at at Sacramento, there are four homers in that game. Yes, yeah, no,
you know one of them was a three run homer,
as I recall that Simeon hit. But you know this
is this is true, This was true. Get on, get over,
trust the next guy that he's going to do his job.

(10:25):
And by gum, they did so.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, and that's such a huge word, Jeff, And we
haven't mentioned it a lot.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Trust right now.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
It's big for hitters to trust the guy in front
of them and the guy that's coming up after them.
And and you're probably right, Uh, there gets to be
a defeatist attitude mentally among these guys where I mean,
it's not like you, as a hitter have done anything
to you know, lose my trust, but I you know,

(10:55):
based on the results I've seen, I can't trust that
you're going to get a hit either. So now I'm, yeah,
putting a little more pressure on myself to make sure
I get a hit. And that's never good either.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
And then you know you saw the Leote gaff on
the bases. Maybe that's trying to create too much and
do more than the needs to be done, you know.
And and maybe that comes from man, I don't know
if I should. I'm here at third base. How many
times have we had a runner a third and not scored. Well,
it happened Sunday and Leoti was an adults was a

(11:26):
main culprit for it. It's just, you know, they need
to know that they're good. And somebody asked Bruce Bochi
uh yesterday, you know he said the question was, you know,
track record aside, what is it that makes you trust
that these xcent can do it? And Bruce Bochy said, well,

(11:48):
track record is a huge part of it. Sure, it's
the track record. And you know they're going to get
Corey Seeger back this weekend. He swung a bat yesterday
and they anticipate that he will be in the line
up at some point this weekend when he's eligible. You
know why at Langford he was in the lead off
spot yesterday, but he you know, he got himself a double.

(12:10):
He hit the ball well, Markasimon hit the ball really
really well. Now I wonder if tonight, if with Severino
the right hand and going of Jock Peterson will be
back in the lineup, and if so, how how that
is going to get juggled. I wouldn't suspect though that Leoti,
based on his three hits, granted as a left handed hitter,

(12:32):
would would be in the lineup, just because Bruce Bochi,
as we know, likes to ride in the hot hand.
So maybe Higashioka sits though I'm caught yesterday, so I'm
not sure what they'll do. But Heck, you know what,
maybe Jock Peterson sits. Maybe Bruce Bochi says, I'm running
out the same guys. Sure, I know it's a different
guy throwing.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
But it worked yesterday. The guys did the job yesterday.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
It's interesting to see Jonah in that four spot, in
the batting and in the cleanup spot. And Boach has
talked about it multiple times, including Monday when we talked
to him. Just how happy he is with the production,
he says of his catchers, and really he's gotten a lot.
I mean, I think Kyle had a little bit of
a lull, but he's been hot lately, and you know,

(13:18):
with regard to him not being the last one to
get the hit. Dave Raymond was asking David Murphy about
that during the game last night, and Murph goes, man.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
There's always that one guy, you know, in a game
like this, there's always that one guy.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
And actually, I think Emily brought up the topic because
she said, do you feel good for the team or
bad for yourself? And David real honestly said a little
bit of both. But you know, you know, you're supposed
to feel good. We're winning, we're winning big, but you
still feel kind of bad because hey, I mean, I'm

(13:53):
the only guy that can't figure this pitch her out.
Everybody else is raking. So anyway, he Gotshioka was not
that guy yesterday nobody took an over.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
So yeah, and again they were all cheering for it,
the guys in the dugout, the mainly the pitchers there.
Who are the railbirds at the top of the dug Yeah,
they got a kick out of it, and I'm sure
I'm sure Kyle felt great. And it was a position
player hit it off of I think, but who cares? Yeah, no, no,

(14:25):
you know, Ron Washington was once asked, you know, what's
your approach against a position player? When a position player
comes in? He goes, I better get mine, you better
get your. You know, he said, you better get yours.
So you know, they count man their hits. They are
they still count as hits. And that's fantastic. The offense
was fantastic yesterday. Let's see if they continue can continue

(14:49):
that tonight. And also now we'll get to the other
lead story of this game, which was Jacob de Gram
really had a great outing last night, nearly hit that
one hundred mile per hour mark that Jeff's been asking
for We talk about that and more as we continue
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Speaker 2 (17:14):
Fantastic.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Jacob de Gram was way below one point five walks
last night.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Zero walks. That that was part of my winning sleeper
last night? Was it plays last night? What was his
What was the number it was? It was one point five? Okay, same, Yeah,
it was an easy it was an easy one.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, yeah, he didn't walk anybody struck out seven.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
That fastball topped.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
I saw Jeff at ninety nine point seven, so that's beautiful.
I think it was averaging ninety seven miles An. Yeah,
and he said afterwards, and I know you you chatted
with him that it's because of this mechanical thing that
he's been working on.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, It's it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
These guys, how much they work on it in an
experiment anker when they're not right. And Jacob found something
yesterday just throwing off a flat ground, you know, and
he said, boy, that really feels right. And sure enough
it was. And so the hope going forward is that
he's able to repeat it, because he said last night

(18:17):
was the first time he was able to command his
fastball and put it where he wanted it, and he
moved it. He had to move it around a lot
because the A's came out swinging. They were ambushing him.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
You know.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
He only threw seven pitches in the first inning, I
believe it was, but the A's had a base runner.
He fell behind three to one to Solder Strum before
getting him to bounce into a double play, so he
made a pitch, you know. So that means he's executing
his pitches. And when the fastball is there and then
the slider's there, the umpire gets a little strike happy

(18:51):
and might give him a little bit more off the
plate than normal, But you know, it's kind of crazy.
I was thinking about this last night. Jacob mcgram's misses
just aren't wild. No, it just seems like he's so
close to the plate that sometimes I wonder if those
guys are just guessing or if they're like a gosh,
I've called six in a row, A strike him mixing
a ball. I don't know, but it was efficient. He

(19:13):
could overpower A's hitters. There was one at bad against
shaling Eler's three heaters swung and missed all three of them.
But he also got some guys looking with sliders just
perfectly placed. So his best performance I believe. I feel
comfortable saying that only sixty five pitches and six innings.
He would have gone out for more had the Rangers

(19:34):
not scored the eight in the sixth. It was too
long of a wait. And again they are still aware
that Jacob mcgram is coming off with Tommy John surgery
and basically hasn't pitched in two years. Right, He also
hadn't won in two years. More than two years by
a few days. April twenty third, twenty twenty three, was

(19:54):
his last MLB victory. It was against the a's so,
I know, pitchers in the in the pitching win is
not as important statistically as it used to be. And really,
if you look at Jacob de Gram's career, he's been
he's been plagued by tremendous lack of run support. That

(20:16):
was a big theme with the Mets. But he still
wants You still want to win, he said, yeah, you
want to win. The team wins more important, but you
want to win. So good for good for Jacob on
many fronts.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
It really was.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
It was really fun to see him do that, and
that sixty five pitches was just amazing. And in a
way it worked out perfectly Jeff, for uh, you know,
for Boach and for Mike Maddocks, and because they want
to limit those innings. And the reality is, if the
Rangers hadn't had that big, long bottom of the sixth inning,
then you know, there's almost no way they would have

(20:49):
talked Jacob into sitting down at that point. Yet they
get to limit his pitches and his innings because you know,
there was a there was a real good reason to
do that, and of course he would understand that and
by that point he is probably cold, like not even
warmed up.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Anymore. It took so long.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Well, you know, at some point he's going to have
to start on four days rest. It'll be on the
next road trip. So they have the off day Monday,
so you limit him here, give him the off day
so he'll get the extra day's rest, so he'll he'll
have he'll be pretty fresh when he goes into next
week and has to make those those starts on normal rest.

(21:30):
Now there's the wild card of Kamara Rocker potentially getting
dropped back into the rotation at some point to again
give guys rest. They're in a pretty busy month with
only three off days. Rocker through yesterday didn't wasn't on
a mound or anything, but he threw for the first time.
Not sure, not sure he's going to make it back it.

(21:51):
You know, it seems like they might want to be
a little more cautious with that one. But whatever. At
some point though, they'll have six and then have to
make a decision. But they're trying to take care of
their guys when they can, and Degram is their guy.
I mean, I love Nathan Valdi, and Nathan Valde's a
bulldog and competes and.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Is very very good.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
But you know, if they're if both guys are right
and healthy, Jacob mcgram is a better pitcher.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Oh, there's just no doubt. No, even even at the age.
Of course, they're both somewhat advanced in age. But yeah,
even you know, you could compare him to you know,
young guys. I mean, you know, I don't know, you know,
I don't know how young you go or how good
you go. But there's not very many that you would say,
when he's at his best, even at this age, that
that is better than Jacob de gram. And you know,

(22:41):
we'll be watching it all season long to see how
that goes.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
You know.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
It's funny too. You were thinking about the mechanics you
said last night. I thought about it on the way
in today. I'm like, how does a guy know his
body and know like they're like he does this same
repeatable motion over and over again, and how does he
notice the thing that is, you know, plaguing him there?

(23:05):
And then I got thinking about it and literally and
I don't obviously I don't play golf every day. I
only play, you know, once a month these days, if
I'm lucky. But the last time I was out playing golf,
I recognize something I'm like, oh, oh, I'm not whatever
it was, I can't even remember at the moment, but
it clicked for me. Then I'm like, oh, geez, don't
forget about doing this. And then it clicked. So these

(23:27):
guys do this every day. I can I can kind
of get that. It's similar to you know, you knowing
your golf swing or you knowing you know, something like that.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Well, you know again, you know starting pictures they throw
every day.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, you know, they.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
May not get on a mound every day, but they're
not just sitting around waiting for their next turn. They're
busy throwing, trying things, getting feedback from other pictures, looking
at old videos and trying to get back.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
To where they are.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
And when they're at their best. And you know, we
talked to a lot of guys about that. You know,
Patrick Corbyn was was big on that, and you know
Jack Lyder has talked about on that in the past,
and it's it's crazy how they can get away from it.
But then they see it, you know, maybe they do

(24:25):
side by side things with videos and whatnot, and then
they go out and try it and it feels right
and it works. And you know, so if I practice
golf every day. I'd be a lot better, sure, of course.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah, if I went out and hit one hundred and
fifty balls, but I would I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't
know my swing and I can feel things, and it's
still I've played enough golf, but it's it's still just not.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
The same thing.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
And so and Jacob had said, you know, early early
on here, it's going to take some time. And I
think he finally realized that during a start against the
Mariners and spring training. You know, he wasn't throwing hard
because his mechanics are all out of whack. He gave
up a home run, walked a couple of guys, and
I think that's where it kind of dawned on him, like,
you know this, I need to give myself a little

(25:10):
grace period here. Well, I think I think he's found it.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
I really think that going forward, Jacob is going to
be in great shape. I just you know, if his
mechanics are right, then it's just gonna it's just going
to get better and better.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah, he was just dotting things just today and he
had I think after the Rangers had gotten it to
four nothing. You mentioned the seven pitch first inning. I
think he had a six pitch inning, whatever happening.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
That was.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Right after they got there, got it to four, I
was like, you know, strikeout, ground ball out, flyout, done.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah, see yea, yeah yeah. And if you're around the
if you're around the plate, the other team knows it.
The other team knows they're going to have to swing.
And if you throw, if you throw your pitch and
it's on the plate, whether you know, if you're a
head in the count, they really have to swing. And
then you know, the plate gets a little bit bigger
for him. They're like, all right, you know, I'm down

(26:05):
in the count and he can go a little bit
off and they're going to have to go off to protect.
So it's a it's a beautiful formula. I mean, it's
what every pitcher wants to do, but only an elite
few can do it as well as as Jacob. And honestly,
there might not be anybody who does it as well
as No, that's.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
The question, and that'll be And when you when you
think of the candidates, you know, you think of the
paul Skians of the world and the tech schoopls of
the world. Right, these young guys who have youth, right,
that sweet bird of youth on their side. But I
don't think with the lack of experience that they can
still do the things that Jacob de Gram can do,

(26:42):
and he kind of can do still it appears what
they can do with regard to that villoea and if
he's still got one hundred, which he and it is
crazy and it's just if.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
His mechanics are right and then the villa is gonna come. Yeah,
it's just crazy. It's fun to watch. I'm sure Chris
Young had fun watching that game last night and that
performance last night. He's an aficionado and a former major
league pitcher himself. He's expressed frustration for a couple of
weeks now about this offense, and he's he's that's not

(27:17):
a surprise that Chris Young is frustrated. And it's also
not a surprise that some of what happened with the
hitters meeting and a few other things happened because Chris
Young said, let's do this. We got to be better
at Yeah, he he you know, he's a former player,
so he carries a lot of weight. Now he is

(27:39):
a pitcher, so maybe he doesn't carry so much weight
with the hitters. Yeah, but he's also the one who
signed him. He's also the one who controls whether they're
on the you know, not not on the bench or not.
But he has great influence with the manager. Bruce Brochie
no doubt draws up the lineup. But Bruce Bochie open
minded listens the input from everybody. But you know, at

(28:00):
some point changes could be made personnel wise, you know,
and I think that it's been frustrating to watch a
doula scarcia in the last couple of seasons. I think
that's that's an area where the Rangers might be able
to do something.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
You know.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
You know, we we asked about Evan Carter yesterday. It's
still a couple of weeks away. You know, he is
playing better. He made a change to his swing that
takes pressure off the lower back and and he's playing
more regularly regularly. I believe he played him three straight
games on three straight days last week, which was something

(28:38):
he hadn't done before. So they're they're still trying to
figure it out what's the right amount of work. Uh
do you want Evan Carter up if he's not an
everyday player? Uh, that's that's a question I think they
have to have to consider is do you consider five
days a week regular enough? Maybe maybe you and then

(29:01):
you have you'll have options. You have a guy who
could obviously play center field, and Leo di Taveras can
play right field, Dustin Harris can play right field. Kevin
Plark can play right field. No, not right now because
he's got some back tightness. But the point is the
Rangers are are looking at their options and they it's
hard to ignore some guys who are in the minor

(29:22):
leagues just hitting the crap out of the ball.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
You know.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Bruce Bochi mentioned Justin Foscue and Blaine Kram. He's like,
you can't, you can't ignore what they're doing because it's
been so good. Foscu's on the forty man, he can
play first base. Well, Jake Berger isn't hitting, Maybe something
happens there. Blaine Krim, of course he's not on the
forty man, but as a first baseman. And I'm you know,

(29:46):
as we all know, I love Blaine Krim. I think
he deserves a chance. His track record speaks for itself.
He hits everywhere he's been in the minor league. You
look at his minor league numbers, and you'd be like,
why is this guy still in the minors?

Speaker 2 (29:59):
He just needs to chance.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, and the question, I'm rather that statement has been sent,
the statements suggesting if you guys don't get it done,
we have guys at the minor league level that we're
willing to try to take your position. So that doesn't
often happen. It had to happen the way this offense
was going. Hopefully it's the fire that the spark that

(30:22):
needed to light this offensive fire. All right, we got
more to talk about as we ponder some of the
injured pitchers and when they will come back, a faux
pas with the Golden Chicken, and where do the Rangers
rank with regard to team games against teams that are
five hundred or better. We've got all the answers and

(30:45):
more as we continue with the DLLs Rangers Podcast.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
John, I tell you what, and folks who are watching
or listening, we'll be honest. On our walk in to
the studio, our feet got wet, yep, really really wet.
I am currently sock and shoeless.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
John is down to his socks and I tell you what,
it's been a pleasure walking on these Empire Today floors
that we have here. I haven't stepped on anything. There's
not a nail out of place. There's not a dead
spot or a sticky spot or a spot that's coming up.
These floors are fantastic because Empire Today. We got a
foot because Empire Today is the leader in flooring, and

(31:32):
it's all they do.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
All right.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
You don't have to go to a big box store
and talk to the guy who just sold a construction
guy a box and nails. You know you are dealing
with flooring experts, carpet, tile whatever. They want you to
do it from your house. So schedule a free in
home estimate today. I'll show my foot and you will
get three hundred and fifty dollars off when you use

(31:54):
the code d LLS.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
I fear they may not believe us, Jeff, So hey,
I have to feed up there. My socks are a
little bit wet. Look at there's Jeff. I can't quite
reach it, can you? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Right there?

Speaker 1 (32:09):
But yeah, anyway, there we go. And our favorite event
of the weekend might be uh and I again, if
the Rangers are winning, they'll for sure be our fave,
but might be the lone Star Smokeout even if they
do win. Yeah, that Lone Star Smokeout looks to be phenomenal.
Fourteen barbecue competitors who are all trying to be the best.

(32:30):
And we talked to Eric Nadel about this yesterday. He's
done some of these barbecue competitions and and really found
some great places to get barbecue on the road in
the future. So if you're interested in that, another reason
to go to the Lone Star Smokeout country music, you
know Frosty Beverages and early Cinco de Mayow. It's Lone
Starsmokeout dot com. So let us start with these injured pictures. Joe,

(32:58):
I saw that somebody hit you up on tw Twitter
about Cody. Yeah, and I see that he's throwing from
ninety feet.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Now, yeah, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
We talked to all of them yesterday, well except for Kamar.
We talked to the guys who have been out an
extended time, so we let off. We actually we went
John Gray, Josh Spores, Cody Bradford, but we'll start with
Cody Bradford, as you mentioned, but the left hander who's
out with elbow inflammation, he is throwing at ninety feet.
He said that one of the tech pieces of technology

(33:30):
clocked him at ninety miles per hour just playing catch
or throwing off a flat ground. He said, in about
two weeks he's going to start throwing off speed pitches,
his change up and a slider and curveball, and then
he will advance if all goes well, to a mound,
which he hopes happens in three weeks, and then from

(33:52):
there it will take him some time to build up,
and he'll have to throw a series of bullpins and
then a live batting practice or two, and then they'll
send him out. So you know, it's not like his
returnment return is imminent. However, things are going very very well.
The same can be said for John Gray, who had
x X ray. He hoped his final X ray on

(34:12):
his broken right wrists yesterday. He was not wearing any
kind of support. He's been doing more stuff in the
weight room. But if that X ray came back clean,
he hadn't heard yet, then he is going to start
doing some froze. Some wrists froze like that is how
he demonstrated it. Do that for a few days, then

(34:34):
advance to throwing. He said he feels great and that
his body feels great, and he said that when he
comes back, he's going to be throwing one hundred miles
per hour. Nice, that's what he said. But again with him,
it'll it'll be a while. It'll be some of this stuff,
and then he has to get stretched out playing catch,
start spinning again, get on a mound. So I'm thinking

(34:55):
July middle July for guy's also break and then Josh
Spores in the same boat he is, he is going
to throw a bullpen session. I believe next week. He's
still throwing at a very reduced velocity. He said he's
only been clocked at eighty three.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yeah, but that a fourteen and under team is interested
in him right now.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Ye, so he's he's uh, but he feels great about
how his shoulder feels. He said that he's talked to
a lot of guys who's had the same stuff done,
including Kamar Rocker, which was interesting because you know the
story coming into the twenty twenty two draft that Scott
you know that there had been a procedure that came
out and Scott Bores said, oh, it was just a cleanup. Well,

(35:40):
Josh Bors, if it's just a cleanup, you're thinking, you know,
you're not going to miss that much time, right, Okay,
but you know Josh Bors is probably gonna end up
missing eight or nine months, Yeah, post surgery. So that
kind of that kind of shed a light that I
don't think Josh intended to shed, and that probably mister

(36:01):
Boris wishes hadn't been shed well. And it's on the
severity of Kamar's injury. But but now Josh said it wasn't.
It really was a cleanup. It had a there's a
bursa sack in there. I think they took down and
they had to sew up some things that were torn.
But nevertheless, I think anytime you deal with the shoulder,
I think pictures will tell you they would rather have

(36:23):
an elbow injury than a shoulder injury.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah. It's interesting too, because you know, when I was
looking at the reports from Josh Bors, I was like.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
I'm not even what what what was the surgery again?

Speaker 1 (36:33):
And then yeah, shoulder cleanup, and your first thought is
how could and he's still saying worst case scenario August first, right, right,
So I'm like, oh, my gosh, he had off season
surgery and he might not get back until the final
two months of the season. But to your point, shoulder
cleanup is not it's not I mean, it's not just

(36:55):
and it really like scope. Yeah, I was just gonna say,
it's not like elbow scope, where they pull a few
loose particles out of your elbow and two weeks later
you're fine, you know, And that's sort of the kind
of thing we're used to with a cleanup. But this
cleanup procedure is obviously much more uh, you know, invasive, clearly.
I mean, it has more like a spring cleaning than

(37:16):
just that clean Yeah, that's right, Like let's let's pick
up the house here for ten minutes.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
That's a cleanup.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
Yeah, you know, let's let's throw stuff away and go
through everybody's clean everything in the garage feels more like
what Josh and apparently Kamar might have had. So anyway,
positive news there. So what do you do when they
come back? Right, you're gonna have three guys who will
a have to come off the sixty day injured list.

(37:43):
So that'll create some some issues on the forty man,
But what are you going to do with them?

Speaker 2 (37:48):
All? You know?

Speaker 3 (37:49):
And this this, you know it it's worth wondering if
at that point whether he's throwing a hundred miles per hour,
especially if he's throwing a hundred miles per hour. If
if Gray doesn't finish the season as a reliever. Now
we are two or three months away from having to
consider that, and you never know what's going to happen

(38:09):
here in the next couple months with injuries and whatnot.
But Cody Bradford has worked as a reliever, and and Cody,
you know, he says that he is just here to
do whatever the team wants her to do. Josh, of course,
pitches leverage intings when he's right. So you're looking at
really fortifying the bullpen, which you know, at this rate,

(38:32):
with all these close games, these these guys who are
pitching in the high level of situations are going to
need some help. Sure, they're going to need somebody who
can to somebody else who can give him an extra
day off or something like that.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
So be it's treat to see.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Now, if everybody were to stay healthy and fresh and productive,
it's going to be hard to get them out of
the rotation.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
It is.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, Because I was thinking at first when you brought
up the Gray versus Bradford, I'm like, well, you know,
Bradford's lefty, So I might take that, But then what's
that You know you already have one now, but it wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Hurt to have two lefties.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
I suppose you break up the right he every have
one of the lefties go between all the right handed.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
I would think that, you know, Patrick Corbin could probably
move to the.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Bull also a candidate for that appende.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
But you know, if if Jack Lder hops hops on
back in there and is good better than he was Sunday,
I think he's going to pitch Friday. If he's good
and continues to be good, you know, you don't want
to move him to the bullpen. You want to see
that every five days. So but also at that point

(39:36):
of the year, guy, you know, starters will be tired too,
so you could you could really be create a unique
role for both Bradford and Gray.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's really exciting actually to think about.
But you don't want to get ahead of yourself because
we're still, like Jeff says, we're still looking at more
than two months away likely for for certainly for John
Gray and for Cody Bradford probably, So you know that's
but that's a good update, and it's a positive update.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
And we're glad to hear that.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
The Rangers had this golden chicket promotion, which, to be
honest with you, because we don't really buy tickets, I
really wasn't paying that close of attention to I saw
that it was there, and I saw it advertised quite
a bit, and I didn't really think about it much.
I thought it was a very creative name and a
play on the old uh you know, Willy Wonka and

(40:29):
the chocolate fact Charlie and the chocolate well.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
And the golden golden golden chick one of the Rangers
golden chick.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, real nice plan. Words, all that appreciated it all.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
What I didn't realize is you go there, you buy
a golden chicket, and then if the Rangers win the
game where your ticket was your chicket was, you get
to go the next day? Oh so they just send
you tickets for the next day. Nice, So the first
game and then if and then if they win the second.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Day, more for the third oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
And then if they win I mean, so if the Rangers,
if you know, the Rangers going a little ten game
win streak going, you're seeing a lot of base Yeah,
you're seeing a lot of Baseball. So anyway, the first
day of the Golden Chicken was Monday, and the Rangers lost.
They did, and good on Golden Chick and good on
the Rangers. They said, you know what, and they just

(41:19):
sent it. They didn't announce it. They just sent tickets
to everybody who was a part of that promotion for
the Tuesday game, and guess what they won.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
All those people are.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Going tonight too. So I love the I love the
response to that. You know, you want to do this
promotion and you don't want it to fail. I mean,
you want this today, fill the seats, you know, on
a weeknight, and b and there may be conditions. I
don't know that it'll go fifteen games, right, all of
a sudden, you're playing the Astros and people are like,

(41:52):
where's my free ticket? They keep winning. But anyway, so
I thought that was pretty interesting. And then we've got
to get this graphic profit about Jeff and I talked
about this.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
Jeff brought it up on Monday. He did the.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Math on the Rangers record and you know with teams
against five hundred, and you know, he brought up, they've
every team they've played except the Angels was over five
hundred and look at there. The Mets off to a
really good start. They've played twenty teams twenty games against

(42:28):
teams under five hundred. The Tigers off to a really
good start. They've played sixteen against teams that are under
five hundred. The ones you worry about a little bit
are teams that haven't done as well. Now again, the
Astros are coming around lately, but they've already played fifteen
games against teams that are under five hundred. And there

(42:49):
the Rangers are almost dead last the Cubs. According to
this graphic, the Cubs have had the toughest schedule for
the first month of the season major League Baseball, and
the Rangers the second most difficult schedule, having you know,
played only three teams that are three games that are
under five hundred.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Yeah, and uh you know, uh you you would sent
the tweet over to the profit and it had been
a retweet by Connor jeffers At writing for the Rangers,
a friend of mine, and I looked at his comments
and people didn't get it, and they're like, Oh, it's
just an excuse, blah blah blah, it's not an excu

(43:29):
What do what do teams about five hundred have really
good pitching, right, Okay, that's why they're above five hundred,
and so you can now, yes, the Rangers should beat
teams with good pitchers.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
They should beat good pitchers, and they you know they
well they're going to have to. You have to.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
That's something you have to do. But the fact of
the matter is that it it is significant. It is
it is not something to be ignored because it makes
a difference. Okay, look at the the Reds are above
five hundred. Okay, who is first on that list? The
Mets mell above five hundred. The Red Sox are now
above five hundred. Ok So, yes, the Guardians in that

(44:12):
Central division, you know, the Twins are actually below five hundred,
but they're playing better thanks their schedule. You know, you
have the White Sox in that division. And then you know,
you kind of look at who the Mets have played. Well,
I mean, the Marlins are in their division, right, the
Nationals are in the division. Nationals are better, but not

(44:33):
they're not going to be in the discussion for a
no layoff chase. You know, the Cubs, who have played
zero teams, they're actually winning their division. So that ought
to tell you something.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
How good.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
The Cubs are, but again, you know, they have the
Pirates in their division, and I don't know if they've
had a chance to play the Rockies yet, but everybody's
getting healthy against the Rockies.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Yeah, and that's the next home stand for the Rangers.
By the way, they get the Rockies for three on
the next next homestay, or make some hay there and
then the Astros. But Rockies for three, I'll give you,
I'll give you a little bit of a sort of
what the doctor ordered. Hopefully they won't need it at
that point, although the next road trip is a tough one.
It's in Boston and in Detroit, who, as we've mentioned,

(45:16):
are both teams above five hundred at this point.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
So more coming up.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
It's our cleanup segment as we get to some fun
stories regarding the Rangers and clean up the world of baseball.
Next it's the DLS Rangers Podcast.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
John, I don't feel so bad today wearing my DLS
sweatshirt or kind of sweatshirt because it is Chili Chili
err today and it's wet out there, so you've got
to have some coverage. So this hoodie, the hood's going
to go up when we walk out because it's it's
still raining. But I am representing two of our items
that stored at Allcitynetwork dot com. I'm wearing the red

(45:53):
shirt that you may see on the screen for the
Love of Texas, and I'm wearing the one of the
two have three hoodies. I'm wearing one of the two
hoodies I own that is the City of Dallas flag,
which is our DLS logo. So you go to storreot
allcityetwork dot com. You look at the variety of shirts,
not just Ranger shirts, but Cowboys, Stars, MAVs, them shirts, wings, TCU, SMU, Baylor,

(46:20):
University of Texas which I'll never buy. But they're great
items and really, as I like to say, they're a
unique way for you to show your spirit. You can't
get these at the gift shop at AT and T
Stadium or a Global Life field. These are unique items
and people understand who you're rooting for. So go to
stored at Allcity Network dot com.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, I was thinking after the show yesterday, I felt
bad that we didn't mention when Eric was here yesterday
that we have two shirts that are in homage to
his former partner in one of his great friends of
all time Mark Holts. Both Hello Win Column and it's
baseball time in Texas are Mark Holts sayings that have
been immortalized. They're at the ballpark and by Chuck Morgan,

(47:02):
but also on our shirts. And look at the Skippers
got He's wearing one right now. This is the Hello
Wind Column shirt that you could get for key free.
Keep your face out of his. You could get that
for free if yeah, gezel pizza that Skippers pissed at, Jeff, Now,
you could get that shirt for free if you become
a die hard. The deal may be over, but it's

(47:25):
still a hell of a deal. So die hard is
the thing to do, thing to become and we ask
you to go to all al alldls dot com slash
join to become a die hard. So this happened a
few days ago, and I forgot to bring it up
on one of our cleanup segments. Jeff, did you see
the Keith Jones the second home?

Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, for the Spartan Bergers, I did. I did.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
That's pretty neat. His dad was in the booth. His
dad was in the booth.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
And you know, I wish I didn't jot down the
name the guy made the play by play announcer or
Spartanburg made a great call and or for Hub City.
But his dad, Keith Jones' dad, Keith Jones, was in
the booth and as soon as he hit it, he goes,
that's gone. So what a thrill, and it was his

(48:18):
It was the first Grand Slam ever hit by Hub City.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Ian Unsworth is their media guy and radio guy and
John Moore and I have dealt with him a little
bit and getting to know him for the weekly show.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
But yeah, that's a cool story.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
And you know, Keith Jones was a ninth round pick
I think last year left handed hitter, advanced advanced guy,
so he should be having some success here. And really
when you look at that team, he's one of their
best hitters, you know, and it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool.
Spoiler alert. We're not trying to get him on this week.

(48:57):
We're trying to get on Dylan Dryly, who is the
second round pick class steer from Tennessee. But Keith I
saw him in passing a few times the spring training.
Very nice guy, so we'll put him on the list.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's the guy you need to talk to.
And if he's got any personality like his dad does.
Because then, needless to say, I mean, his dad went
on and on and he's thanking Ian and he's saying.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
You did great, this is great, this is perfect.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
You know, And understandably he was up there in the
booth being interviewed as as we will do on broadcasts occasionally,
and that was a really cool moment. And again there's
there's going to be a lot of history made at
this new Hub Hub City.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
Yeah, you know, reports are it's a great atmosphere, great ballpark.
I get that from Chris Young who went to their opener.
The crowd was into the game, the players seemed to
feed off of it. And it's going to be hard.
See why I said it's gonna be very hard for
right handed hitters to hit home runs. The part favors

(50:01):
left handers, but not the right handed hitter. Speaking of
the minor leagues, Blaine Krim has just hit a three
run homer for Round Rock. They're playing up there. Where
are they playing? They're playing in sugar Land right now. Okay,
so he he became the ninth player in Round our
history of two hundred rbi. He's been there too long, Yes,

(50:23):
So let's go, let's let's find a spot form.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
It may be time.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
And like you say, you know, Boach is finally on
board mentioning him as well as Justin Foscue, which he
should too. But you know, it may light that fire,
that proverbial fire that we set. We all believe Jake
Berger is going to hit.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
Yeah, and I thought he's I thought he's had a
good last week. Yeah, so I think that Jake bill
be just fine, but somebody else isn't. If you need
a d H. Blaine Kray might not be a bad option.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
And speaking of that, we were talking about Jack Peterson earlier.
He has been hitting the ball much better. Did it
the you know, really the the road trip, he was
hitting better. So now that there's not a lefty on
the mound, if he does start, it'll be interesting to
see how he does. And you know, if he can
continue that. Uh sometimes it's just that first one and

(51:23):
he got that and and then he had a couple
of hits on the Sunday game, So we'll see what
happens there. Did you see the cores your your Colorado company? Well,
oh yeah, originally uh Colorado company, and they had an
ad in on a right field one of those banners,
you know the change the electronic banners that change on

(51:46):
the outfield wall and show hey Otani hit a home run.
Now he hit a double off of that wall. And
when he did, the light in the corner went out.
So it was like there was a you know, the
the white banner that said Cores light, and and maybe

(52:08):
even part of the red from Cores was no longer illuminated.
Oh right, so there's this like it's like a toothless
person right like the thing and there's no tooth right here.
So like within twenty four hours, Cores made cans that
have that little tooth out, is that right? Yeah, and

(52:28):
they're selling those now, and uh, I just thought it
was a great And then and and they got they
got Otani too, which is gonna and gonna.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
I'm sure that wasn't cheap. Yeah, probably they got plenty
of money. But I thought that was awesome.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
So that's a collector's item if you're if you're a
fan of show Hey Otani, you've got to go find
yourself one of those Cores lights that's out there that
has the little the little corner where it says Cores Light.
It's blackened because uh, you know show Hey hit the scoreboard.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
Yeah, no, are the second third house I lived in
growing up.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Was was.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Three miles from the Cores Brewery and downwind from the
Uly in Golden. It was an apple Wood which is
it was it was a Golden mailing address, but the
area was called Applewood anyway downwind, so you could smell
the beer, and it's.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Not necessarily a pleasant smell.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
I was just about to say that I've been around,
I've been around breweries. I'm not sure that's a great
smell like beer. It wasn't every night, but it was
a lot of nights. But right now our favorite beer
here at d LS is bud Light. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Well they're helping they're helping out the stars and fans.
They're helping out the rangers here soon and.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
There it is there.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Look at that when when they do well done profit,
I'm going to make for everybody a lunch box which
is a bud Light, orange juice and amaretto.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Okay, and it's delicious, it's good.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
That's how we're gonna that's how we're going to welcome
butter butt Light to our to our show.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Yeah, I'll be all over that, and and I am
absolutely going to My son is a big course light guy,
so I'm gonna go try to find, uh, you know,
a twelve pack of those course lights with the with
the window out or the tooth out whatever. It is
so really good marketing. I thought on behalf of course Light.
And look, the reality is, if you can attach your

(54:25):
name in any way to show heyo tani, right, I
promise you there's people in Japan have never heard of
course Light and they're drinking it now right, Suddenly they're
having to go from Golden Colorado all the way to
Japan because it's a it's a brand.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Yeah that show if that's a poro out of there.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Yeah that's right. Who wants Saki give me a course light?
So really cool? Uh, well done guys. And then we've
got some really cool video too of uh every time
everything Paul's Skeens does to me, Jeff is great, like
he's just he gets it. I mean, uh when we've

(55:07):
talked about it, like you know, even his girlfriend is great,
you know, thumbs up. But the reality is, this appears
to be a super nice, super cool young man, and uh,
there's nobody who appreciates that bet more than the young
fella who was playing cats with him during BP.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Look at that, Look at that.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
He's out there now watch as Skeens see, Skeen's got
multiple balls so he doesn't need to work, so he's
got throws. This one, oh my gosh, goes over the
kid's head, and Skeen's like, hang on, I got another one.
I got another one. And look, you know, the kid
could probably keep him. But he's playing cats with Paul
Skeen's from the stands Jeff.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Kid's a little confused.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
It looks like he's got a Marlin's shirt and a
Cubs hat. But you know what, God bless him. Who
wouldn't who wouldn't you know, knock over his best friend
for this opportunity.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
I promise you what an awesome, awesome and the key
and I will say this, the one that was legit
too high. It's a small kid, but he was he
was catching the ball pretty well from Paul Ski.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Yeah. Sure, I think i'd panic a little bit. You
know what kind of movement it had on you? Yeah,
exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
So I love I love that sort of story and
and that sort of you know again it as we've
tried to do many, many times since we have the
blessing in the opportunity to get to know these people
who play the game that humanizes people. And he's just
a guy, you know. Not that long ago. Skemes was
there in the stands.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Right right, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
He grew up in El Toro, which is a yeah,
there's an Air Force base out there. He went to
the Air Force Academy. Uh was a was a pitcher
and a catcher there. I've had I have a scout
friend who said that if Paul Skeens had not pitched
and had just caught, he would have been a first
round pick, No kidding, great power, obviously.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
A big arm, a big guy.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
And then moved on to LSU and LSU said, nope,
you're just pitching. So turned out pretty well for him.
His girlfriend is the world famous, very flexible Livvy.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Dun, Livvy Dunn. Gosh, he's got a lot going for him.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
Well, and you know, he was speaking of the Al
Toro thing. We had the story a week or so
ago on the cleanup segment where it was his first
time to go play at the big A at Angel
Stadium and he was just excited, giddy, he'd watched so
many games there, and then he's like, I grew up
a Mike Trout fan, and after he threw a bullpen,

(57:48):
he bumps into Mike Trout out on the field and
he's like.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
Nervous, like you're Paul Skeene's kid. But there you go.
He's a down to earth, you know, real human.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Guy, raised right, obviously obvious, right, you can you can
just tell kids like that he was raised right, and
he's got he's got lots of personality, and he's got,
you know, silly talent, and especially if you're telling me
he could have been a first round pick as a catcher.

Speaker 3 (58:13):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's that's what. That's what let's scouting
buddy of mine said.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Amazing, yep, amazing.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
So Rangers tonight it is game three of a four
game series against the Oakland Athletics. And again, the winning
the four game series is always a very difficult thing
to do, especially Jeff, when you lose the first one.
But the Rangers have done that once already this year.

(58:41):
They lost an opening Day and then they won the
next three. So I'm saying there's a chance. I'm absolutely
saying there's a chance, especially given what the Rangers have
lined up as far as pitching goes. We mentioned Luis
Severino tonight for the A's, but Nathan Valdi's not a
bad counter.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
I've heard of him.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
Yeah, yeah, I think, uh, I think that's a that's
a good one.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
And you know, he's he's a competitor. We talked about
he he he wants to go do what Jacob de
Grom did and if not one of them, so it
could be it's gonna be a good chance for the
bullpen to catch up on rest too. You had the
blowout last night, Dane Dunning finished that one off first
career save. I don't know if I mentioned that earlier
or not. You know, one of those one of those

(59:28):
nine out saves that you just don't see very much anymore.
And then you know, with Mally going tomorrow, if he's
able to pitch deep into the game, it's gonna be
a real good opportunity for the the bullpen to get
a blow here that they that they really kind.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Of need, no doubt about it.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
And you know, obviously last night to Gram would have
gone into the seventh inning at least were it not
for that long offensive ending that the Rangers had tonight.
There's a chance that Ivaldi will go in the seventh,
go to the seventh inning, and won't that be nice?
I mean, just for a change to see the starters
in the seventh possibly even the eighth inning.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Jet Yeah, and you know, I don't know, you know,
I would expect that this is a close game.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
You know, again with.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
With with Louis Severino throwing four the Athletics.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
You know, he he.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Was okay last time, three runs and six inings against
the White Sox, so not necessarily the twenty seven Yankees there,
but you know he's he's throwing right now three point
four to nine e r a. So that's pretty good.
His whip is low, so he's not giving up a
lot of walks. It should be a decent test. Although

(01:00:48):
I say that he did walk three in his last start.
So maybe this is a chance for that new the
Rangers in this new mindset, or or reminded of what
they're supposed to be doing. Maybe this is a chance
for them to not budge. Yeah, those on those pitches
that move right off the plate.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Maybe not nine walks, but we'll take six. That will
take three four, But anyway, that's today. We're back tomorrow
with a postgame edition of the DLLs Rangers Podcast as
the Rangers and Athletics play game four of this four
game set tomorrow afternoon. We're coming on right after the game,
you know, somewhere between four and five o'clock is when

(01:01:29):
you'll see us tomorrow on the air talking to you,
and you'll be back. I'm sure of it by then,
and we'll be back for sure. And thanks for checking
this one out. We missed you today. We're sorry you
weren't in the chat. You know, the Internet bugaboo got
us and we will see you again tomorrow for another
edition of the DLS Rangers Podcast, Like the Man