Texas Rangers executive answers more questions about Victory+ deal | DLLS Rangers Podcast - Rangers Today

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:01):
Joy.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Joy is what baseball has brought so many of us
over the years, and right now, the joy is in
knowing that you will be able to see baseball Where
you ask, well, we've got answers. It's the DLLs Rangers podcast. Yeah,

(00:35):
we might even pluralize both game and TV games on
TVs all over the Metroplex, like sixteen and a half
million of them. We hope Rangers television contract and the
whole thing has come together, and one of the guys
who helped put it together is with us today. We've

(00:57):
got Jim Cochran. He's the executive vice president of the
team and the chief business officer of the team. It's
Jim with me, John Radagan, Jeff Wilson over there. We've
got the Queen in for the profit today. The profit's
a little under the weather, so Jeff and I will
be on our best behavior, not because of you, Jim,
but because of the Queen, because I tell you she'll

(01:17):
crack a whip on us. So anyway, man, it's great
to have you. We appreciate because I know you have
been busy, busy, busy getting this done.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, it's been real busy. I appreciate you guys having
me today, excited to be here and talk about this
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, so let's talk about Well, first, you know what
I want because a lot of our chatters and our
people who watch every day don't know much about you yet.
You've been with the team for twenty eight years, and
just give us a little thumbnail of your career and
your time with the Rangers.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah. I started as an intern in nineteen ninety seven
in selling partnerships, so all the signings, you see, the
name on the building, things like that. Moved up to
Chief Revenue Officer a few years ago. Oversaw all of
our revenue efforts, ticketing and things like that, and ownership
asked me if i'd take on additional responsibilities here as
we move into kind of this this new realm of
Rangers Baseball.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
That's uh, you might have the longest title in in
in the in the Rangers realm. I mean it's Executi,
Vice President and Chief Business Officer. I mean you can
shorten it EVP and CBO, but man, it's a mouthful.
But congratulations. I mean that's that's all these people want
to know, is how much money the Rangers have.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, we're working on getting as much of it as
we can. We like to provide c Y and Ross
with the resources to put a great team on the field,
and they've done so this offseason. We're excited about.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
It for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
So this process of getting this TV deal done there,
you know again, as you know, I was, you know,
knee deep in the Bally thing and as unhappy as
anyone right that nobody could see the games because all
the work we're doing is sort of going for not
if you will, but but obviously I had, you know,
a front row seat to all of that, and I

(03:01):
know the uncertainty for the team and the organization was
as frustrating as any part of it.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yes, yeah, no question. We go back eighteen twenty four months,
you know, uncertainty with the previous situation, and you know,
we sat down and started looking at it and saying,
you know, what do we want to do coming out
of this. We didn't know what, you know, what our
options would be, but we started looking at it, and
we had two guiding principles and they were, you know,
we've got to make sure that as many Rangers fans

(03:29):
as possible can see the games. And of course there's
a revenue component that we had to work on as well.
And so everything we did when we sat down and
started kind of making our decision as to how we
wanted to move forward was with those two principles in mind.
And you know, at some point in the process, our
principal owner Ray Davis said, hey, let's do this ourselves,
because it does provide us the certainty that you were

(03:50):
talking about now that we can control it, and it
gives us certainty into the future, and it allows us
to go do deals and sign free agents and things
along those lines. As you know, those are multi year agreements,
and we needed that certainty as we move forward. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
I was at the press conference yesterday and so are you,
And you know, Neil Leeman said, this isn't a celebration,
this is a you know, time to get the word out.
And then Dave Raymond said, well, I don't know, it
is kind of time to celebrate a little bit. I mean,
it's the culmination of a lot of work. But then

(04:24):
I talked to Angie Swint. She's like, I was like, Angie,
guys want you to take a week off? She goes, no,
Now the work starts, so what's next time? And you
have this thing but and Ray Davis said it too. Well,
now we've got to execute.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, and that's what it is. And you mentioned Angie Swint.
She's our senior vice president of broadcasting, and she's been
doing a lot of the work on this. Of course,
you guys know Rich Rise or SVP of communications now
and so they've been working on all this, working really
hard to put all of this together. So we're excited
about it. But but you know, Ray's riot. Now we
got to execute, and there's gonna be a lot of

(04:57):
eyes on us. We know that we're excited about it.
We got some some fun things planned for the broadcast
this year, and we've been working behind the scenes for
a while, so yesterday was a moment to kind of
tell everybody what's happening. Yeah, you know, we made the
victory announcement a couple of weeks ago, and then now
we were able to tell folks other ways to be
able to watch Rangers going forward. And I saw a
lot of comments people are excited about it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
So as you start to dive into this, and I
don't want to get too deep into the weeds of
sort of the production of the game, but the difference
here is previously an outside vendor Fox and then Bally
had produced the games, done all the technical things and
brought the whole broadcast together for you guys. Now, those
people all work for the Texas Rangers, and they work

(05:42):
you know, obviously they work with you and for you,
But a lot of them are the same people that
were with Bally. So can we expect the production right
because it is a slick looking broadcast, especially with Fox, right, ye?
Can we expect the production values to sort of be
the same?

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Is that the goal?

Speaker 2 (06:01):
We expect him to be better good? We expect to
provide some enhancements to the broadcast and maybe fans haven't
seen before, and we look forward to telling everybody about
that or showing everybody that is as we move forward.
But yeah, when we sat down, Angie and I sat
down with some others and said, if we're starting from scratch,
what does the broadcast look like? What should the one
of the best broadcasts in baseball be? And those are

(06:23):
the things that we started, you know, out to say, hey,
let's let's put this on broadcast.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
I think everybody was surprised when Elvis Andrews walked into
the room and said, hey, I'm doing the pregame show. Now,
he's not going to do a bunch of them, but
we all know Elvis talks, you know how popular he is.
It just seems like that's potentially something that fans will
love and in future seasons, as Elvis loves it, you

(06:52):
could be a regular guy.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, we wanted to reimagine the pre and post game
show and you know, make it something like you see
in some of these other places where people are tuning
in just for pregame shows, right, Yeah, and so we
wanted to do that a little bit too. And as
you mentioned, Elvis can talk. He's a fan favorite. People
are gonna love seeing him and you know, and so
we'll get him out there and see how it goes
with television and what he does there. But we're excited

(07:15):
about having him as part of what we're doing here.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
So let's take a look at the broadcast lineup and see,
you know, who's who and what's what. And again, I
think Jeff tweeted it out. Most of the faces are
familiar when you see you know, Eric Nadella if you remember,
you know, you don't see him on TV very often.
But Matt Hicks and Jared Sandler and of course Dave Raymond,
and you see Mike Bassett, our buddy who's been on here.

(07:38):
David Murphy is on there, there's Elvis, Emily Will take
a slightly lesser role by her own choice. And then
there's a new young sideline reporter named Laura Stickles. And
the word I hear on Laura Jim is that that
she basically blew everybody away in the interview process when
you guys talk to her.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, she's very personal. We're excited to have her joining.
She comes from the Boston area. She was doing Triple
A games for the Red Sox Triple A team and
Worster I've done some hockey as well. But we think
she's a great addition to what we're trying to accomplish
in our broadcast.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, we talked to her. The beat writers talk to
her for I don't know, five or ten minutes, and
she just it just seems like she's gonna have fun,
you know, but also you know she's preparing, she's going
to have to spring training, get to know the club
a little bit more. She's actually she told us, you
flew back to Boston last night, is packing today, driving

(08:33):
tomorrow and Saturday with her dad, who came in from California.
And she's already got a spot here in Dallas, so
I mean, you know, this is a full time commitment
for her. I mean, she's you know, she's talking one
hundred and twenty games' spend on what Emily wants to do.
But it's going to be a new face. But it
seems like she's gonna bring a not that Emily is
stale at all, but it seems like, you know, maybe

(08:55):
a fresh perspective that that a younger viewer would see
or something.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
She's she's very ambitious and we're excited to have her
as part of that. She's very prepared too, as you mentioned,
you know, she she does her homework, so we're excited
about that. She did me with a lot of us
in the front office, we were very impressed with her,
and I think the fans are gonna love getting to
knowwhere as well.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, no doubt. And I'll tell you this, And you know,
you guys obviously know Emily is a good friend of mine.
I know she's a good friend of both yours. There's
not a lot of you know, not many people from
whom Laura can learn that are better than Emily. Emily
is singular in the way that she approaches this sideline gig,
and all Laura has to do is kind of watch

(09:39):
her and replicate some of what she does to make
it a very unique Emily is just unique in the
way she does and has always approached this thing.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, and we're glad Emily is still part of the
broadcast and that Laura can learn from her as she
steps into this new role. And you know, we're gonna
utilize Emily in other ways as well, you know, with
sponsors and season ticket holders and people on those lines.
She's got such a connection to our fans and we
want to tap into that and continue to do so.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, she said. Laura said that she'd spoken to Emily
and Emily couldn't have been nicer and more willing to
help her out, which does not come as a surprise
for those of us who know Emily well. And Laura
also said John not to pat ourselves on the back
that she's been watching our show to help help learn her,
help learn the team.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Who doesn't right, everybody watches our show, so no, I'm
kidding about that. We want more people to I don't
know if I've mentioned you guys, yet we love you.
We want you to chat with us, keep the chat going.
We're gonna ask some questions that you have for Jim
coming up a little later on into program. And yeah,
like us and subscribe to us. That's always a big

(10:42):
deal too. So anyway, going back to this, Jim, as
far as the actual carriers for the games, the one
thing I know that I keep hearing from people in
the organization, and it's been out there officially as well
as unofficially. There's a lot of them now. But you
still hope for more, You're still working on more.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, no question. So when we set out to talk
about this and figure out how we wanted to do it,
we kind of viewed it as a three pronged approach.
So we made the announcement with Victory. Plus they've been
doing a great job with the stars Neil Grunninger at
a PMC and Jason Wallash who you know, they do
a great job over there, and so we're excited to
be with them. So that's the digital component that's new

(11:26):
for Rangers fans. And then of course the traditional cable
and satellite carriers. Direct TV has been a great partner
of the club for a long time and carry and
Rangers games and so DirecTV, DirecTV Stream Uverse and then
Spectrum are the ones that we announced yesterday. We are
still in negotiations with other cable and satellite providers and

(11:47):
we expect to announce those as we lead up to
opening day. And then of course the over the air games.
So we partnered with Nextstar. That's the CW thirty three
here in Dallas Fort Worth and they've got seventeen other
stations in our home television territory that they'll and then
we partnered with Gray to fill in the gaps there
as well. And so twenty six of the thirty one
meter markets in our five state region we'll carry the

(12:10):
fifteen over the air games. We're excited about that. So
free television and for those fans who maybe have another
carry and get the ESPN games, the Big Fox Games,
the FS one games, they'll be able to pick up
a few more Rangers games as part of that as well.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, and so kat, let's put up where you can
watch graphing in case our viewers out there want to
screenshot this. And no, that's basically everybody that Jim just mentioned.
With the three prongs. You've got the over the year
Channel thirty three, the streaming on Victory and where you
can find Victory, and then of course the current cable

(12:44):
and satellite providers, of which there could be more of
those coming in the time ahead.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
And John. One other thing here is that I think
there's some confusion amongst fans as to what is in
market and out of market. So just to describe what
our home television territory is, it is the entire state
of Texas, all of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and a slice
of eastern New Mexico. If you were in those areas,

(13:10):
Victory Plus is certainly your option. It's available there. I
know people have had questions too about well, all the
games be on Victory Plus. All of the locally produced
games will be on Victory Plus. That means one hundred
and fifty one hundred and fifty five games plus eight
spring training games potentially if they want to pick all
of those up as well, we'll be on there. They
will not have the national games. Okay, so that's where

(13:33):
everybody on Victory can go. You've seen the pricing out there.
It's one hundred hours for the full season. I think
with that number of games, it's sixty two cents a game.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
So it's you know, there's value there and what the
folks at Victory are doing. And then we mentioned the
traditional cable and satellite folks that'll have and we're going
to add some more there too. You know, we're probably
not gonna end up with everybody though, and that's okay,
that's why why we have the Victory deal. And you know,
some some carriers don't see the value our content. If
they don't, then we're probably not gonna have deals with Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Well, and then outside the area blackouts will apply, so
you just use the MLB app Is that?

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah? So we had somebody that said, hey, I live
in North Carolina, I'm a Rangers fan. How do I
watch the games? And MLB dot tv is your way
to do? Okay as it has been?

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah, okay, good.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
There's so many ways to watch it and so many
options and so many questions still, so we know you've
got some. We've still got some.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
That's why we asked Jim to come and join us
for the show. He was kind enough to do that.
More questions and certainly more answers from Jim coming as
we continue on the DLLs Rangers podcast.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
So the East West Shrine game, it's tonight, Yeah, tonight
at at and T Stadium. That did their their media
day yesterday at at Global Life Field. Tons of players
out there with kids who are beneficiaries of the work
that the Shriners do. I saw some Shriners dancing with
the fez bouncing around. Anyway, there's still a chance to

(14:59):
get tick. It's seven o'clock tonight. Tickets twenty dollars, all right,
and I think there's a by one get one situation
or buy two get one anyway, if you're looking for
a chance to see tomorrow's stars in the NFL right
now as they're sharpening their resumes for the NFL. These
great college players who are out there, the Sanders kids,

(15:21):
the quarterback from Syracuse who kind of helped them revitalize,
the transferred from Ohio State, all kinds of players. So
get out there. East West Shrinebol. Cowboys alumni from this game,
Brian Anger and Rico Dowdle, So get out there tonight.
East West Shrinebol.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Should be a great time in the great news is
you know, there's nothing like a sunny day and it's
starting to get sunny. After all that rain we had.
I was like, man, I'm never gonna need my Shady
rays again.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
But here I am.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
When I drive out of here, I'm gonna need the
Shady Rays. You can get a pair of these just
like these are like the ones you see on the
screen or any one of their other awesome styles, and
they're polarized and they're inexpensive. That's the greatest thing. You
don't have to bust the bank to get these Shady rays.
The other thing is I'm terrible on these, you know.
I'm always putting them like this, and then I bend
over and they fall out on the floor at home

(16:13):
depot and all those kinds of things. So they're almost indestructible.
I haven't been able to break them. I haven't been
able to lose them. And even if I do break them,
I just send them back to Shady Rais and they
give me some new ones. So they have a great
warranty and they'll repair them if they can. So anyway,
we're big fans of Shady Rais. Go to Shadyrais dot com,
use the code DLLs. You get thirty five percent off.

(16:35):
You're polarized sunglasses. All right, Jim Cochran is our guest.
He's the executive vice president and chief business Officer. I
do like CBO. You know, we've taken to call and
see why Pobo right, President of Business Operations. I mean,
we don't have time for these long titles, Jim, you
see what I'm saying. It's only an hour show. So anyway,

(17:00):
he's over a lot of things with the Texas Rangers,
but lately much of his time has been occupied in
putting together this TV deal because it is so important
obviously for the president Jim, and we've talked about that,
but for the future. But knowing TV and having been
around TV, like this regional sports network thing. First of all, man,

(17:23):
it was great when it started, right, I mean it
was crazy, the money was flowing. Everything was great. And
I suppose we always knew that at some point the
regional sport sports network concept would go away, but it
went so fast, right, I mean it was like they
pulled a plug.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
You know.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
So this network that you're doing, is it the thing
or or is there something else that could be the
thing for how Rangers fans will watch TV in the future.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, this is the thing for the next several years,
and of course, as you mentioned, it changed quickly, and
so we don't know what it looks like five ten
years down the road from now, but we're trying to
put ourselves in a position to be able to bring
the games to the fans. That was the goal number
one is get our games to as many fans as possible,
and you know, and then take care of the revenue
side as well.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, it seems like you guys are kind of guinea pigs.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, a little bit. There's a lot of eyes on
us right now, you know, and so we talk about
that a lot. But we also talk about internally that
there's not a bigger project that we're working on this
offseason than this one. Yeah, outside of course what c
Y and Ross are doing to improve the team, and
they were active and we're excited about.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
So is there any other team baseball team first that's
doing it the way you're doing their television the way
you're doing I.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Mean, there's teams that waded into these waters earlier. The
Cubs have Marquee, the Yankees have Yes Network, of course,
but since you know, kind of what happened with the
bankruptcy with Diamond Sports. We're the first team to come
out of it and doing that. And you know you've
seen other teams going in different directions as far as
how they want to handle their TV.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, yeah, and if have you have you talked to
anybody at the Mavericks, They kind of did a similar
thing over there.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, you know, the MAVs and the Stars were in
a very different situation than us because they had to
do it a lot quicker than right because just the
way the timing fell and where their seasons start and whatnot,
so they had to do a lot quicker. We certainly
kept eyes on what the MAVs were doing. We do
know some people over there, and some of your colleagues
went to work there, and we kept our eyes on that.
But but we decided what we wanted to do internally

(19:30):
and set out to accomplish that. We think we've we're
off to a good start. But you know, as Jeff mentioned,
we got to.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Execute all right questions, get your questions in. We already have. Shoot,
I don't know a ton we'll start. I think I
think a lot of the victory questions were answered when
you said the games are gonna be on victory all
the locally broadcast ones are gonna be.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
On victory and just as a quick aside to that.
So the point is we don't yet know how many
national games there will be, and that's the difference between
one d or one fifty five? Is it twelve am?
I right, it's seventeen seventeen.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
So there's of course national deals with with Roku and
Apple TV, and then of course the ESPN games, Big
Fox games, f S one games, TBS games, I believe. Yeah,
there's a number of ways we could get selected. Yeah,
you know, those schedules haven't come out yet or haven't
been announced yet, so we don't know exactly where.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
We're Okay, well, yeah, I mean I guess there's one
Sunday night game that's already ben it's like July sixth, that's.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Right at San Diego.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay. So the two main questions that
I think we've been getting all week are Hulu and
YouTube TV. What are the prospects for those those two outlets?

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, So I won't get into specifics on discussions with
the other carriers that we're talking to, right, We're talking
to everybody. We want to make the games as available
as possible. And you know, as I mentioned earlier, you
know we're not going to end up with deals with everybody. Yeah,
if we don't, and then victory is your option or
the over the air games or your option. And you know,
as always, we've got we've got a Hall of Famer

(21:06):
calin Radio, Eric Madell and Matt Hicks as well. So, uh,
there there are options. But again, if we don't have
a deal with a specific cable, satellite or MVPD provider,
it's it's because they didn't see value in our content.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
So so all right, so if people weren't on the
Spectrum U Verse DirecTV group, if they're not in that group,
should they immediately change everything or should they just have
a little patience here and wait to see what happens
with perhaps their provider.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, I have some patients with with your provider, and
and you know, we we'd have deals, We have negotiations
that are going on currently, and if we can get
those across the finish line, then we'll announce what those are.
And and you know, take it from them.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Your intel has, like the cable providers and the satellite
providers that you have, will most we talk about the
difference between the three million that we're able to get
the games under Bally and so forth and the sixteen
and a half million that are out there. Do most
of those sixteen and a half million have access to

(22:10):
the carriers that you have, They obviously all do to Victory,
But I mean those cable groups and those satellite groups.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Well, they all do to direct TV as far as
I have call.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, good point.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
I've been on DirecTV customers for a long time because
I like watching Rangers games. Yeah yeah, but yeah, again,
we're trying to meet our fans where they are right
and so you know, as we've seen, you know, cord
cutting and things along those lines, we're trying to make
that happen as well. But there are options for fans.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
It just really seems like the Victory, you know, if
it if it doesn't work out with the ones I mentioned,
Victory is just like it. It seems like just a
great option on an affordable option. I mean one hundred bucks.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah, and a lot of our fans already have the
app because they're watching Stars sure, and I know the
folks at Victory are working on some places where they're
maybe not available, you know, to solve that problem before
the baseball season starts as well.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, it's great, all right, I'm looking for more questions. Well,
you're not going to answer that one, okay, or that one. Okay, okay, okay, okay,
that's it. Yeah, the one hundred dollars is a big one.
So I just you know, as I keep looking at
this deal, and you can't make everybody happy, but it

(23:29):
seems like you're going to make ninety five percent of
people happy, or ninety percent of the people for the
fan base happy. It just seems like it's what you
said very at the very time, you know, one of
your missions, make sure the fans have the access. It
just seems like you guys probably aren't patting yourself in
your back yet, but it seems like this has been
a success.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah. I mean, so we're happy with what we've done
so far. We want to get additional deals done because
there there's even smaller cable outlets and you know, outer market.
I don't want to say out our market and other
states that we need to get deals done with as well,
some in Texas as well, and some of the big
ones that you've mentioned that we'll have conversations with all
of them, you know. And again, whether we can get
a deal done that remains to be seen, but we

(24:11):
do provide alternate options if we can't.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
So generally speaking, here's a question from from Harry. How
will the revenue gained helped help the on field products.
I'm sure that everybody gets a slice of the pie,
but when it comes to signing ball players, it seems
like a lot of this money will go toward that.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, and look, you know, the the TV business in baseball,
it's one of our larger revenue streams. That's why this
was important for us to try to create some certainty
for it going forward. And again, we want to we
want to keep that revenue stream where it was. We
can provide c Y and Ross with the resources they
need so that we can be competitive. But if you
you know, if you look at our payroll for this year,
it's very competitive in the American League. We're excited about

(24:55):
the squad that's been put together, and you know, we're
we're ready to get after it and get back to
winning baseball.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
So I don't know if you can answer this one,
but we know that you know, it was one hundred
and ten million dollars is ish that that Fox Valley
was contracted to pay you in rights fees every year.
So it seems logical to me. And I don't know
if you can answer that. You guys did the math
and said, well we can we can make that or

(25:22):
more a can you answer that be?

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Is that true?

Speaker 2 (25:26):
I'm not going to get into the financials of where
we are, but we're comfortable with the situation that we
put together here as far as you know, at least
for the next several years, and how we go about
doing this. We're happy with.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Where we end. I think I know the answer to this.
The streaming region and the cable satellite. The territory is
the same, correct, it's the same.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
So again, it's all of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
about ten counties in New Mexico the eastern eastern slicing.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, and it's pretty awesome really you get all of
Texas when there's another baseball team in Texas and you know, yeah,
I've actually talked to I talked to John Blake about
that a week or so ago. I said, we still
got the whole state. Like, yeah, I remember when there
was a line drawn at Temple and only north of
Temple got to see Ranger games, you know.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, and and our that that home television territory that
I just described is is defined by Major League Baseball,
right we don't Yeah, no, I know it. Yeah, you
know so. And we are the only professional team in
the state that has Texas.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
On our chest, so that's right. Yeah, we do represent
the whole state.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
That's it. Yeah. I think the answer to this is
a question from h Andrew. Will thee hundred dollars season
pass include any special content like behind the scenes and
insider Acxis it will?

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Right?

Speaker 3 (26:45):
There will be.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, So so it's you know, we're working on those
kind of things and making that available, that content available
to Victory, and it'll be up to them, you know,
where they put it. You know. I suppose some of
it could end up in front of the paywall, but
I assume I'm a'll land behind that too. But that's
you know, questions for those guys.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, you know, another question I had. This part surprised
me a little bit, and maybe this is something that
the Foxes and the Ballys of the world could have done.
But as I as I read the press release, it
said that there will you know, the Rangers channels will
come on that time for the pregame show and pretty
much go off after the pregame show. Now again, I

(27:26):
know from all my years at Fox and Valley we
had a whole day of programming to fill. So is
this new or is this something that had always been
available and Fox originally just chose not to do it
that way.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, so we're we won't be on twenty four to
seven to start with, right We'll be on for as
you mentioned, the pregame show, the game, and the postgame show.
And then as this evolves and we get we get
down the road, we'll see if there's additional content, If
the cable and satellite providers want to light us up
more often, then you know, those will be discussions we
have at that time. But right now, we want to
make sure that our focus is make sure fans can

(27:59):
watch the games.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Is that something they can happen in season? I mean,
could you like bring back Rangers Insider as just an example.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Well, there's going to be content that will provide and
we'll make it available the folks. We need to make
it available to and if they want to put it
out there, then there's opportunity for them to potentially do that. Uh,
and then we'll see if they if they want to
do that.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah, and then just as far as have the change
if I don't know if it's much of a change,
but Mike Bassett in there for one hundred games, David
Murphy uh, still involved in the broadcast, of course, Dave Raymond,
we mentioned all this already, but it it's.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
A nice uh.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
I think personally, I think when you start with Dave Raymond,
you have a guy who's really good at the chemistry
part of a broadcast booth. But but these are nice
broadcast booths that are full of knowledgeable and a very
communicative of former ballplayers.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, and and folks that all have a connection to
the Rangers are excited about being part of the club
and making our broad cast great. Uh. You know a
couple former players there on the analyst side that obviously
have insight into how the game's played and what they
did when they were you know, you know, playing baseball
and whatnot. But what we wanted to create here was
some consistency as well. Right, And you mentioned Laura being

(29:15):
the field reporter and the number game she's going to have.
We wanted when when our fans tune in every night,
we want them to know who's on the broadcast and
be comfortable with the people that they're listening to.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah, uh, it just seems like, again, this is fantastic.
I just think, yeah, after years of I mean we
had to switch to direct TV, yeah, when all of
it broke down. But you know, just hearing from people
like I haven't seen a Rangers game in a long time,
it's like, now they get to and it's a good team.

(29:46):
You guys just won a World Series without a lot
of the viewing audience. Obviously the PLAYFF games are all
national TV, but the one sixty two lean up to it,
they didn't see it. It seems like it seems like an
opportunity for you guys to also grow the fan base
a little bit or bring fans back come I have
been alienated.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah, you know, some of that started back in COVID too,
and access to the players and whatnot. And you know,
the team turned over a little bit at that time,
and then we added free agents as well, and so
you know, part of what we did want to do
is try to bring some of the personalities from the
players to the fans as part of the broadcast, and yeah,
and get our fan base back and involved. And one
thing we didn't mention is that we talked about this

(30:23):
at the President yesterday, but we're going to do something
unique with the pre and post game show and make
it a simulcast and Jared Sandler is going to quarterback.
That we're excited about it. We talked a little bit of,
you know, earlier in our show here about you know,
trying to get people to tune in for things like
that because we're gonna have some fun with it. We
mentioned Elvis being a part of it. We're gonna have
Jared quarterback that we're excited about that. He'll still have

(30:45):
involvement the radio broadcast as well. He'll still do a
handful of games on television when when Dave needs a break.
But we're excited that Jared's part of the part of
the crew too.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
Oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Fantastic. Glad you mentioned that. We appreciate so much you
coming in, Jim. It's been great chatting with you, great
having you and obviously we'll see you around the ballpark
and spring training and everywhere else.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, I appreciate you having me and look forward to
seeing you guys at the ballpark and getting our games
out to the fans.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, fantastic, Jim Cochran answering lots of your questions, hopefully
all of them. And we've got more to talk about
on this show as we and Jeff and I sort
of dissect all of this, get to our batting cleanup
segment as well. It's all next on the DLLs Rangers podcast.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Hey, John, why don't you take the first one?

Speaker 1 (31:29):
We'll do Yes, I will take the first one, which
is game Time, and we want you to be a
part of Game Time. It is such a great app.
It is really the perfect way for you to buy tickets.
You can get them for cheaper by using our code,
but you can also wait till the last minute and
using the game Time app you can get things for

(31:50):
as much as sixty percent off. So it's really a
wise deal to go get the game Time app and
get yourself tickets to any event Rangers games obviously coming up,
MAV's game Stars games, concerts. I think we saw that
the fort Worth Stock showIn Rodeo was on there. There's
all kinds of Tonight's East West Shrine game, right, super Bowl,

(32:11):
the Super Bowl if you got six grand for a ticket.
So there's a lot of different things that you can
do with this game Time app. We encourage you to
do that so that you can save some money and
you'll save ten dollars off your first purchase with the
DLLs code at the game time dot com.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Hey you haven't You have some of the ice shakers
right next to you, So why don't you shake those up?
Ice Shaker New a new new partner of ours. We
really appreciate it. The Gaunt and Gronkowski brothers. Rob what's
the other one's name, Rob's brother's name? Anyway, he was
a tied end too. I think he went to Arizona
as well. Anyway, these things are great. You know, if

(32:51):
you work out, you know you have these. You know
you want your protein shake, either beforehand or for recovery.
You have those plastic shakers like I have that didn't
cost much and you know you shake it up. Okay, great,
this thing's metal, all right, you can get it personalized.
It's only thirty five bucks. And uh, it's just the new,

(33:13):
the new way. And you can't drink those things warm.
Lord knows you gotta you gotta chug them and you
want them cold and ice Shaker is the way to
do it, So please avail yourselves to their discount. I
think that says twenty five percent off when he does
all City twenty five at ice shaker dot com.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, it's a wise choice. And you know they they
do have this agitator by the way in there. I
don't know if we showed you that, but there's a
little agitator too.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
But it doesn't bounce around, it doesn't make a noise.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
No, it's not like a it's not like a can
of spray paint making a noise with a ball, a
metal ball and a metal can. So anyway, that was great.
It was great having Jim cochran in here, and uh,
you know, just a wealth of information and obviously, uh
so much work has gone into the.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
Yeah you know, and yeah, I'm sure he's been busy.
Neil Leeman, who probably gives the high sign the thumbs
up or the thumbs down after consulting with Ray Davis.
But there's just so many people involved in this, and
you know Angie Swint, who took over for John Blake
as the head of broadcasting, and it's just, you know,

(34:22):
it's such a big deal to be able to broadcast
these game to everybody. And I think the thing to
stress from that conversation we had with Jim is that
other carriers and providers are coming. I saw somebody, you know,
he didn't answer the YouTube Hulu question, but we've kind
of had some intel on that, where YouTube TV doesn't

(34:47):
seem as likely because they really don't do regional sports,
and Hulu seems like there's a better chance. They're just
in a negotiation merger negotiation Fubo, so wait for that
to shake out. But it just seems like by opening
day there's an opportunity for others. You know, there's you know,

(35:10):
people have Dish TV still, all right, Dish TDV. I'm
sure the Rangers are talking to them or have talked
to them. Just a number of these these outlets, these providers,
whatever you want to call them. I don't know, there's
probably a technical term.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, And I'll say this, Dish TV is a little
bit like YouTube in that their interest has waned or
soured on the regional sports idea, right, so they don't
have very many of them. I'm sure the Rangers are
working it, but that may if you're a Dish person.
I had Dish for the longest day, and then when
they drop, you know, regional sports, that's when I switched

(35:48):
to direct TV. And now I've been with direct TV.
It's got to be probably twenty years now that I've
been with Direct TV. But you know, Dish got out
of that business. They just didn't. And I love the
way Jim said it, like, if we're not on a
station one of your favorites, it is probably because they
aren't interested in our content, right. It's it's not us, right,

(36:08):
it's them. They just and a YouTube TV is a
classic example. Look around. They've got very very few I
think a couple of regional sports things up in the Northeast,
but that's all they have throughout the entire country on
YouTube TV and Audish networks kind of the same way.
So you know, again I just me. I don't have

(36:29):
to be official, like Jim. They're clear of them. Who
to Hulu and Fubo are again probably soon going to
form a new company. Now the games haven't been on Hulu, right,
but they have been on Fubo. So if you have
Hulu and you know that, you figure that Fubo's coming over,
you might well get them I don't think that they're

(36:50):
going to come over and drop something like, you know,
regional sports from Fubo. Fubo's name. You know, they've made
their name in local sports.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
Okay, well good, some some questions that we didn't get
DRAMs asking Jim and and again, as he said, you know,
there's an opportunity for more programming down the line. The
priority has been get the games on pre and post
game game all that stuff. So you know, there have
been a lot of questions about minor league games, and uh,

(37:20):
I would think that that's a potential, although those are
tricky to do because a lot of times they're in
the they're in the same window, you know as a
as a Rangers game. Yes, you know, the same time
as when they start, you know, maybe one of those
crazy eleven am games where they you know, it's field
trip day or whatever out at Frisco. Uh, potentially if

(37:43):
the team's on the road. Maybe, I don't know, but
it seems like while there's an opportunity to do them,
it would have to be tape de lag. You may
have to expand your crew a little bit. So I
don't I don't know if those if those make a
ton of sense, but they have done them in the past.
They've they've had some Frisco games in the past.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
And and a magazine show that you know, encompasses all
of the minor league teams or even one for each team,
seems like a pretty logical choice as well.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
It sure does. And that yeah, that could be a
thirty minute show, you know, and absolutely you put it on,
do one.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Weekly, put it on a couple of times a month, whatever,
it would be sure.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah. And then yeah, my Steve, Steve Cook, who I
believe is the manager of the Bona Fide Suitors. He's
been in there. He's one of the guys who asked
about minor league games. He's asked some good questions. That
one that one that I thought was interesting. Does it
he was gonna ask Jim, is that do you think
minor league small market teams will start sharing equity in

(38:46):
their clubs to build payroll? That sounds that sounds interesting.
You know, there are on a lot of I think,
what are the Packers the only publicly traded yeah, pro franchise, Yeah,
I don't know. That seems like something that probably needs
to be explored, though. If you want to be good
at least, but I don't know if these owners want
to give up.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
I want to give up, yeah, I mean, you know,
like the Packers are owned by the group, right, not
by a person, and so the people that own these
other teams are like, huh, you know, I worked hard
to make these billions that allowed me to have enough
money to buy one of these things. I don't know

(39:26):
if I want to share that and and sell stock
to that. Although obviously all these same guys sell stock
to their companies, right, it helps not all of them,
but a lot of them, and it helps their companies
a lot because of what revenue. That's exactly what Jim
used to do. He was the chief revenue officer before
he got this big promotion.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
And some historic questions about historic games. Would they be available?
I don't know if they'd be available on Victory. Plus,
I think that would be something that the Rangers would
would do, and if Victory wanted to, I guess, but
it would have to be like a simulcast, and I
guess this is all simulcasting.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
But in a way, yeah, I think that maybe Victory
would enter into a situation where you'd pay, right, it's
not just going to be out there, but if you're interested,
you know, they can figure out through the library of
historic games. Okay, yeah, you want to watch this game
right now, well we'll put.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
It up for you.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, it's sort of by request. I don't I mean,
I know. That's one of the things that broadkid that
advertisers and broadcasters for that matter, love about victory as
a concept is it's so adaptable to the individual. Right,
we can give you whatever you want right now, and

(40:46):
you whatever you want. And somebody asked about this the
other day. Someday down the road, we could give you know,
somebody over here wants to broadcast with all of the
statistical information put on the screen at the same time,
and you might want the broadcast with none of that,
but with the ability to call for camera shots that

(41:09):
aren't available on the other broadcast. And I could see
those types of things being available, not anytime real soon,
but that's the future. That's what broadcasters are thinking about towards,
you know, what they could do in the future.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Yeah, and on the on the questions about historic games,
that could be another condensement to an hour and a
half broadcast window. And yes, they would have access to those,
especially the ones that they.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
And you know we used to do in the Fox days.
I think it was at either eleven am or noon
every day we did a recap of the previous nights Rangers.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
That just condensed it.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
And it was amazing because you'd think, oh, and we
do it. I think we did it in one hour,
and you'd think, oh, man, that they must not show anything.
We showed a lot. I mean, yeah, how much you
can cut out of a baseball game, we still got in.
It wasn't just like the highlights. It wasn't just like
the scoring plays. We showed the better part of every
inning of those games. So, yeah, that'd be something that'd

(42:13):
be how they do historic games.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
I think yeah. And then Steve Cook, can you watch
on a smartphone on the road and family watch at
home simultaneously and victory plus I don't know that question,
but I would think so.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
I would think so too. I mean, I think any
any app, the app that you have take, you know,
downloaded to any of your any of your devices, they'll
all get it at the same time. I'd be shocked
if that's not something that's possible. It does work with
the stars. Yeah, So yeah, we've got John sitting in

(42:49):
you know, filling in for the queen who's filling in
for the profit and he does our Stars show, and
of course they are on Victory Plus. So yes, the
answer is yes, you can do that because get his Stars.
People know that you can do that. So yeah, Dad,
you can be you know, you can be sitting somewhere
watching the Stars game on the road. Again, you've got
to be in the region, in the region. If you're

(43:10):
in the baseball region. You could be in your you know,
somewhere in Oklahoma doing business and the family could be home,
you know, watching the game on TV. But you could
also have your oldest one is out at a softball
game and wants to watch the you know, the game
on her phone, and she could do that too.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
Yeah, you know, Prophet and Queen. I was I've been
thinking about a nickname for John John Anderson.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
So you know there's a famous country singer, John Anderson. Yeah,
and he sings a song that's called the Black Sheep
of the Family, called John Black Sheep.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Like that giving the thumbs down. Okay, well, we may
have to look at the rest of the discology from
John Andrews Wild and Blue.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Was it Wild and Blue? But that's that's too much.
That's too much. Seminal Win, that's too much. Yeah, straight
to Keiling night. Wow.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
You know we could call him Tequila. Yeah, you're he
thumbs up on tequila. You're pretty familiar with the John
Andrews Library.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Yeah, So anyway, we're working. But you know, this is
I really love this show. I know I love the
one with Mark mckamore last week. I thought it was
a great date. The Dave Show was great. This is
this has been a really a good one too, because
it's like this guy can give the answers. Yes, so
I said, he's willing to give. Obviously, business negotiations, you

(44:30):
don't want to mess with those, but he's I thought.
The Another key point he made was don't go out
and rush and change your provider just yet. Give the
rangers a little more time and they might have some
They might have an announcement in the next two weeks.
The lawyers are just finishing up right now, so stay patient.

(44:51):
Maybe when it gets to middle March and then maybe
you want to not push the panic button, but consider
consider changing at.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Least know where it is exactly, have your finger near it.
We've got more coming. It's our cleanup segment coming up
as we continue to talk baseball, and there's some pretty
interesting nuggets in the batting cleanup segment coming next on
the DLS Rangers podcast. So you should become a diehard.
We think it's such a good thing to do. And

(45:20):
you know, even when Jim was here, he was talking
about things that will be behind the paywall, like that
has just become part of the vernacular of what we
say each and every day. We know there are things
behind the paywall. I saw where one of our competitors
for and again this is a competitor, the athletic that
doesn't have a Rangers beat writer in town, but one

(45:42):
of they were offering this very special deal of one
dollar per ten dollars per week. Was that what it was? Anyway,
I did the math and I was like, oh my gosh,
I was just like way cheaper than that. And we
are offering a local beat writer in every sport, and
that is you know, and sometimes multiple local beat writers

(46:04):
in every sport. So you need to get to the
die hard and become a die hard. It's not all
you get. You get a free T shirt. If you
become a die hard, you also get twenty percent off
our events. Don't forget February sixth coming up. I think
it's sold out, but there's a cosm event for the
Dallas Mavericks'll watch along. So there's so many things and
so many reasons to be.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
A die hard.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
We encourage you to do that today.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
I don't know why you wouldn't you know, just based
on what you said, if you're a sports fan in
this area, there's not a better value there really isn't.
You get all of our content and you get a
free shirt. Yeah, that's stored at all City innedwork dot com.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
Now this is a rare day. We're not wearing either
one of us either one.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Yeah, I am those sporting sporting a shirt from our
old sponsors Roback. Oh okay, it's called the Old Fashion,
and indeed it is. Oh an old fashion got the
on there and everything it's got, It's got it all,
but stored out. All City Network has it all too,
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(47:09):
favorite sport or just DLS gear because it's your favorite
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Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yeah, perfect, So, uh, time to clean things up. Let's
see what we got at the top of the list here.
Usually we try to make that one somewhat Ranger related. Uh,
actually Carlos Estevez today, and that is somewhat Rangers related
because the Rangers or any other team it appears, could
have had. Well, first of all, let's say where he

(47:37):
signed again. According to sources, he's gonna he's gonna be
in Surprise Arizona. Yes he is. He's going to be
in Surprise, Arizona. And he's gonna be with the Royals.
And this is not this is not standard typical mo
o for the Royals. You just don't see their name
with these free agents very often, right right and here.

(47:58):
But they had a good year last year, they really
rebounded from the previous year, and so they're trying to
bolster things up a little bit too. They signed Carlos
Estevez amazingly two years, twenty two million dollars.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
Gosh almighty. You know, that really seems like a heck
of a heck of a deal for them. And as
Chris Young will tell you, that World Series team in
twenty fifteen had a dynamite bullpen. They tried to invest
in the bullpen even last year. A couple of years
ago it didn't quite work out, you know, And and

(48:33):
you know they did sign a role as Chapman. Of
course that that year they were kind of built to lose,
which they ended up doing and trading him to the Rangers,
and I'm sure by design getting a prospect that they
really wanted. It was now a cy young contender, Nicole Reagan's.
But boy, if you know Yates at thirteen estimas at eleven,

(48:57):
it just seems like there would have been a deal
there for the Rangers to hole off. Now again, you know,
with the CBT and everything, not knowing that exact figure, gosh,
it sure would be. It'll it'll be interesting to see
what that number is on opening day when you know,
you I think USA today is the one who comes
out with the figures and just see if they could

(49:20):
have done it or not. And I don't know, I
don't know, but.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
I like as you've liked that, we both do. We
like you know, I would say after Tanner Scott was gone,
he was probably my favorite other option on the list
again in part and and maybe even you and I
were talking about it before the show, maybe even ahead
of Kirby Yates, who'd had such a great year here
last year. But this kid's thirty two as opposed to

(49:46):
thirty eight, right, so theoretically, I mean, not necessarily, but
THEO and he had a year almost as good as
as what Kirby Yates did, you.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
Know, And you look at the one thing I could
think of, is he he you know, I know he
finished last year at the Phillies, but he's called he
came up with the Angels and became a closer with
the Angels. So maybe there's some some fatigue, some familiarity
with him, and maybe you didn't want to invest in

(50:14):
a closer where there's you know, every team has seen him,
you know, I know that the Rangers, though some pretty big,
big guys with the team wanted Kirby Yates back. That
didn't happen. So again, it looks like, as Ross fencer
Maker said a couple of weeks ago, you know, the

(50:35):
Rangers bullpen is on the floor. They're they're yeah, they're
they're going with what they've got. And again, you can
you can make changes via trade during the season, especially
at the deadline when some guys will be available. Uh,
in all likelihood, So we'll see what happens. But with
with Chris Martin and then Josh Bors coming back and

(50:56):
a young guy like Mark Church kind of on the rise. Uh,
and a lot of people player or Jacob webfans, so
uh see see what happens here. But it looks like
for now, boring any any changes here in the last
and the next you probably go a month, still get
a good reliever over the next month and get him
ready for the regular season. Seems like the Rangers are

(51:18):
done with their bullpen.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
And one of the things that we talk about always
with let's say a position player. We've talked about it
with Jake Berger. Right, everybody including Jake and and everybody
in the organization realizes at this moment he would be,
you know, a step down defensively from what Nathaniel Lowe was.
But they also feel like he can get better, he

(51:40):
can learn right as Nathaniel low did. Same with a closer.
I mean, a closer can do the same thing. A
closer can you know, become if you will become a closer. Uh,
he's got the stuff, he's got the ability and some
you know, every closer at some point in their career

(52:02):
wasn't a closer. And so I think any one of
these guys has the you know, the ability in them
uh and and the stuff in them uh to become
that closer. We also talk all the time, Jeff about
how mental that role is. Right, dang, you're so close.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Now.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
I wanted to be closer, and I did as soon
as Jim left. But I don't know about you, and
Jim seems like a you know, great guy. Yeah, but
I don't like to sit in a seat that somebody's
just been sitting it.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
I wanted it to bring a little bit.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
I don't blame you, So I don't blame you a bit.
We're good to go, and.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
We we would just mess up this whole show we had.
We had the fob for the gate. Yeah, and beautiful,
it's beautiful. And they got to get out that you
can't get out of the gate without the fob, you know, yeah,
you gotta leave.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
But anyway, No, but I just think that I think
you can learn to be a closer, right, I mean,
any one of these guys, especially the young ones. You
know Robert Garcia, Now he's lefty, so yeah, and that
doesn't mean he can't be a closer.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
I mean one just one just got elected to the
Hall of Fame, but also a couple other guys signed
Tommy Tommy Kinley Detroit Tigers UH seven and a half million.
I thought that was another one that kind of kind
of might fit anyway. Bruce Basher Brasher Sorry, Bruce asks

(53:26):
is hail and in our eye this year? He sure
is intriguing arm, especially if he gets better shaped to
his slider. Yeah, Hale's is going to be uh. He
was one of the eleven internal invites to UH to camp,
So I'm gonna guess he's probably there right now. They
had a mini camp last week, and I bet he

(53:47):
uh just stayed out there. You know, they can live
for free in the village and then just work out
with the coaches who are there and have eyes on
them and you know, have some catchers and kind of
feel like it's official, and.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Have a little more time to play golf, right, a little.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
More time time. Yesterday I checked the weather, yes the yeah,
the weather. Yesterday's surprise was very unpleasant. Oh, this is
like mid fifties and rain kind of like here, I guess, yeah,
But I also continued to look, and it's going to
be like eighty at one point next week, so I
hope they save some of that for my arrival in
New Weeks eleven. Yeah, there have been some cold days

(54:28):
here the last couple of springs, So I do not
like the cold, especially in a place where it's not
supposed to be cold.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
That's right. I mean, of all things, you don't want
to go to Arizona, like i'd go home to Colorado.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Like we just went after Christmas, and it's totally a
mental thing. We went outside, it was like thirty degrees.
I was like, damn, this isn't bad. Yeah, yeah, and
I was all bundled up. I was like, hey, it's
okay out.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, thirty when you live there, Yeah, thirty's balmy, Yeah, right,
when you live in a colder climate like that. But yeah, anyway,
another thing to talk about the they've done some research
on the ballpark that's going to be the home of
the athletics, goodtter Sutter Health Park, Minor League park.

Speaker 3 (55:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
And you know, ostensibly you think, well, minor league park,
the ball, the ball's gonna fly out of there, you know,
not so much. The research they've done thus far shows
that it will play very similar. And this is interesting too,
because you know, the the Athletics old ballpark that had
four hundred and fifty different names. It was very close

(55:37):
to the water, which affects humidity and affects you know,
the chill in the air and all those things and
affects the ball. It's a much more dry climate out
there where Sacramento is, but they feel like atmospherically and
all those things, it's going to be. It's going to
play very similar to how the old ballpark played.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
That's interesting because typically hot and dry. Yeah, like like
Phoenix where the ball flies Phoenix, though, if I'm not mistaken,
Chase Field, I think that's what it's called now. Yeah,
Chase Field is the second highest ballpark in elevation in
the majors, is it really? Yeah? So you know, obviously

(56:16):
Corsa Field is up there, but I don't know much
about Sacramento. I think they're called the River.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Cats maybe, yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
But that's not important that. I found that pretty interesting.
You know, the Pacific Coast League is notorious for being
a high scorer, scoring hitters a league, and so that
kind of that kind of does surprise me a little
bit that that that's the case. The other thing, altitude
twenty six feet, that's the What that's the altitude in

(56:49):
Sacramento twenty six twenty six feet above sea level. Wow,
So maybe that has something to do with it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
The other thing about the Arizona hot dry thing, of course,
is how hard the infield gets, right, And it's already
hard in March, much less by the middle of summer
when that sun's been baking on it at one hundred
and twenty degrees every day. So it's not quite that
bad in Sacramento, but you might still get some of
that effect, which again affects the infielders and effects. I mean,

(57:18):
some of those balls that are hit in spring training
get on you're so fast because of that fast top.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
Mike Maddox calls it the concrete jungle because there are
a lot of balls that hit in front of home
plate and end up his doubles, you know, So that
goes into all the evaluation, you know, and fly balls
get lost in the sun there and fall for doubles
and end up leaning to a bunch of earned runs.
It's pretty crazy. Harry, are we going to see any
Tooto this spring? And what would it take for him
to make the team? He is going to be on

(57:45):
the fort he is on the forty man roster added
in November, So yes, he will be a big league
spring training. He will pitch. I don't expect him to
make the team. I think that it would take some injuries,
which are always possible, or him just being unbelievable and
they're being like, this has got to be a guy
in our bullpen. But I think they want to keep

(58:06):
him as a starter. You know, you got to have
that starter depth, that's starting depth, and you know, probably,
you know, maybe maybe a Jack Lighter Kamara Rocker doesn't
make the team and so there's some depth and Dane Aker,
who's going to be in camp depth. Toyoto would be
in that group as as well, Ryan Garcia, Mitch Bratt.

(58:31):
I think he may go back to Double A. You're
gonna Winston Santo's probably back at Double A. So that's
all part of the depth in case these guys, in
case there's an injury or two, and lord knows there
will be. So I would tap the brakes on him
making the opening to your roster. But I expect to
see him this season.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Yeah, And it's interesting when you say about talk about
keeping him a starter. I totally agree, and I think
Whenever Chris Young says to us, which he does often,
you can never have enough pitching. I really think what
he means is you can never have enough starting pitching, right,
because he's always referencing starters when he says that.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
You gotta do your clothes.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
Oh, you gotta just soft. Gosh, we gotta do the
soft clothes. This goes by quick. So hey, we love
you and we want you to keep checking us out
each and every day. We're here every day at noon
with the DLLs Rangers podcast, and we're here today at
one doing it.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
The last time we spoke to Chris, which wasn't that
long ago, he said, you need to have ten to
twelve starters every year, all right, So that gives you
five in the big league rotation, maybe two guys depend
you know, this year with the inning shortage, two starters

(59:47):
in the bullpens seven, So then you need five guys
at Triple A or Double A I suppose, So let's
say Lighter Tyoto, Ryan Garcia, Dane Acker, and a fifth
would be Santos Brage. Apologize anybody. I'm forgetting Ben Anderson,

(01:00:08):
who had a pretty decent year at Double A, brother
to Ian Anderson, who was a former high Braves draft
pick and I believe it's still with the Braves. So
you got the starters, but you're you're talking about guys
who aren't in the major So maybe Adrian Houser, who's
going to be a non roster invite in spring training,
who's been a pretty good starter at times in his career.

(01:00:31):
Maybe he's this year's Jose u Urina. You never know,
but if they want to protect the depth of their
injuries in spring training, you may see him make the
make the opening day roster and uh uh, you know,
an optional starting pitcher Cody Bradford, Kumar Rocker, Dane Dunning
in the minors to start. Speaking of Jose remains a

(01:00:55):
free agent, mains a free agent. Wow, and maybe you
know what, maybe that bodes well for the Rangers. I mean,
you know, and now maybe you can get him back
here at a cheaper price if you know. Yeah, the
market didn't really find him care about him actually, I
mean he had a rebound season. Now wasn't enough for
him to market himself as a starting pitcher. Again, I

(01:01:16):
don't know question, but he was definitely a valuable piece.
The Rangers got him on a minor league deal early
last offseason, and it turns into you know, a real
value play for them, A critical, critical guy who great shape. Yeah,
super nice guy, but yeah the power stuff over two

(01:01:36):
or three innings as opposed to six or seven might
might be the way teams see him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Yeah. So anyway, a little extra for you today. We
had to do that because you know, we had the
guest on, Jim Cockran. We thank him for coming in.
Ronda Burrows, we thank you. She says, I love this show,
such good info, and we love you too, Ron to
thank you for checking us out each and every day.
We're here every day at noon. Of course, this week
there's only one day left. That's tomorrow at noon. We

(01:02:02):
talk Rangers baseball on the DLS Rangers Podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
We all City like the Man

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Texas Rangers executive answers more questions about Victory+ deal | DLLS Rangers Podcast

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Texas Rangers executive answers more questions about Victory+ deal | DLLS Rangers Podcast