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May 15, 2025 11 mins
Winning the series over the Royals last night with a final score of 4-3, the Astros now move on to their interdivision rivalry now taking on the Texas Rangers for the next few days kicking off the 2025 Silver Boot Series. Following their annual battle for the Boot since joining the American League back in 2013, Rangers broadcaster Jared Sandler joins Dan and Cole sharing a few pointers to be mindful of this series along with  who will step up regarding some players not available for both clubs this first series go-round. 
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jared Sandler, who is part of the Rangers radio network,
joins us to preview the series. Jared appreciate the time
things have been going a little bit better for the
Rangers in terms of, you know, the production at the plate.
How much of a difference has Brett Boone made since
he's taken over that job.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I think playing the Rockies probably helps, right, They're awful.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I mean, I think he's helped a little bit, you know.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I think that just in general, it's tough to know
what a hitting coach, what impact the hitting coaches having
versus you know what some of these guys private swing
coaches are providing versus you know what the two guys
who remained on staff, Justin Veeley and Seth Connor have done.
But I think with Brett Boone, I don't know how

(00:51):
much he's getting in there and taking, you know, a
hard look at the mechanics. I think a lot of it's,
you know, between the ears, the mental side of things,
similar to what Edgar Martinez brought to the Mariners when
they brought him on in the middle of last season,
just trying to reset the you know, the approach.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
And I think a big thing that Brett Boon can
can bring is just simplifying things.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
You know, this is a very data heavy organization, and
I think the data plays a really big role. It's
it's helpful, but not every player needs to feel like
they're taking a Calculus test. And I think that, you know,
just simplifying things, synthesizing the message to players, tailoring it
to each players, you know, individually.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
I think he'll help in that regard for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Pitching wise, is it pretty much gone as you would
expect with the starting rotation?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh gosh, I mean I expected this rotation to be
really good, but you know, they've been statistically just I guess,
you know, e Er, they've been one of the best
rotations in Major League Baseball, you know, top three, top
five pretty much from the word goes. So, you know,
didn't expect Patrick Corbin to be as good as he's been,
especially coming off you know, a few really rough years.

(01:59):
Wasn't sure what you know we're gonna get from Tyler Mallley.
Figured he'd be good, but maybe not sub to e
Er a good and obviously that's that's gonna even out
at some point. But you know, with a Baldi, you
expect that you know, he's gonna post every five days
and give you more than just a chance to win.
Jack Lyder's been good and he'll pitch the final game

(02:20):
of this Syeries on Sunday, but then tonight. You know,
I think Jacob de Grom's was the X factor. You know,
I think there's a lot of confidence. Who's going to
be healthy.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
I think the.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Question was, you know what version of Jacob de Grom
were we going to get it?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
We're going to get a guy whose arrow is pointing down?
Are we going to get a guy who's rejuvenated.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
You know, coming off of you know, basically a year
and a half off with a fresh ucl and he's not.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
I don't know that he is like the most.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Dominant version of Jacob de Grom that we've seen, but
you know that's coming from such a high mountaintop that
even half a step down is still one of the
ten best pitchers in baseball.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
So this should be lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
I mean, you got a guy on the rise in
Hunter Brown, and then you got a guy in Jacob
deGrom who's I don't want to say he's on the
descent by any means, but you know, he's obviously in
the back nine of his career and has been the
top of the game for you know, for years.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Jared cole Thompson with you back to Jacob mcgrom, you
talk about his mechanics and his change and how he's
back to being kind of fully healthy. He's giving you
five innings the last two times out. Is that what
you can kind of expect at this point. Whenever he
takes the mound, You're not going to get a full game,
but you are going to be able to get him
in line to get the win, probably give up at
least one run, but he keeps pitches down low, gets

(03:37):
a couple of strikeouts, puts him in an advantage to
where as long as the bullpen doesn't find a way
to mess it up, they're guaranteed to win.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
I wish I could say they're guaranteed to win. Unfortunately,
with the way that the bats have been going, you know,
with these pitchers that have been given up. You know,
I think the Rangers rotations given up, you know, prior
to last night, had get up two or fewer runs
and like a fourteen now at sixteen or something like that.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
But Jacob mcgram, for whatever reason.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
I guess it's all the years in New York in
which he got no run support. Is like the one
guy who's gone run support. But I think that's that's
bring that up is in part why maybe he isn't
going seven innings even sometimes six.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
I think, you know, their goal is to have.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Him, you know, contributing to wins in April and May
and June, but also in August, September, and you know,
hopefully October. And you know, the reality is he's you know,
barely thrown innings the last two years. They don't have
to keep him on as tight of a leash as
say a Jack Yer or Kamar Rocker excuse me, who's.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
A younger pitcher.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
But I also don't think they feel like, you know,
they need to run him out there for one hundred
and eighty innings in the regular season.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
So like the other day, he I think two.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Starts ago, he was at six innings, sixty five pitches,
but the Rangers were up big and they pulled him.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Not because he couldn't keep going. He's you know, he's
gotten to ninety pitches.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
I wouldn't expect him to have any hundred pitch efforts
here in the first half of the season. But I
think they just are looking for any opportunity to conserve innings. Now,
I'll say this, guys, and we asked this question when
the Rangers played Seattle, and I think it's obviously relevant
tonight against Houston. Is there a little more incentive to
push him for that extra inning?

Speaker 3 (05:14):
And I think the answer is yes.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
I think you know, you don't push the foot on
the pedal hard against your you know, non divisional opponents
when you've got a big lead, so that you know,
maybe if it's a five run game in the sixth
inning and he's at seventy five pitches, you feel good
about him going out for the seventh just because he's
Jacob de Grom, and you know you're okay with that option.
So and the other thing specific to tonight, the Rangers

(05:37):
might be down two relievers. They've lost their closer and
their primary setup guy in two of the last three nights,
and we're not really sure the status of their health,
you know, in advance of tonight's game. But I think
with the Grom, yeah, I think you know, they'd like
to get six innings out of him most nights.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
But I think there's an opportunity to pull him early.
I think they will.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
He's also not putting guys away with the level of
dominance still way better than league average, but on the
same level of dominance. So we've seen his pitch count
go up a little bit as well because of that.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Again, he's heart Sandler TV Radio with the Rangers up
there in Arlington. You can find him on Twitter at
Jared Sandler. And you mentioned a little bit the bullpen.
I mean, is that something that has kind of started
to calm down in a good way for them as
of late, or is that still, you know, a part
of this team that once you start to turn to them,

(06:27):
you're kind of like, geez, I hope.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, that was kind of the feeling last year, And honestly,
in twenty twenty three, the bullpen outside of like two
guys wasn't that great for most of the regular season,
and then the team just got hot in the playoffs
and they scored so many runs that they weren't playing
in a lot of close games. Now this year it's
kind of been the opposite because they're not scoring a

(06:51):
lot of runs, they're playing a ton of close games,
and the bullpens acquitted themselves really nicely, probably you know,
similar to the Astros, and that there's some surprise guys.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
I'm gonna know Taylor Scott was.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Supposed to be a part of the solution, and you
know he was dfad didn't didn't pan out. But like
you know, the Astras, bullpen's been good, maybe better than
expected early performances from some individuals. And I think with
the Rangers bullpen, they're not sexy. It's not a bullpen
that is going to scare you. You're not going to
ever have the conversation gosh, you know, we got to
be ahead after six because don't get to seven, eight nine.

(07:24):
But the production has been there, and I think they've
also you know, they built a bullpen with more depth
and so you know, the middle innings the last two
years had just been hilatious for the Rangers. If they
had to go to the pen before the sixth inning,
they were gonna have a tough time winning unless they
had already built a big lead.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
That's not so much the case.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
And they've also got guys who just they seem to fit,
you know, someone like Kobe Milliner who you can use situationally,
you know, as supposed to just eight arms, right, So
it's not a dominant group by any means. But they've
done a really nice job when you factor in that
they've had to protect a lot of really close leads or.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
Tight ball games.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
You know, I give them a little extra juice for that,
but I wouldn't say that they're a bulletproof by any means.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
But yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
I mean the last couple of years, it's it's been
a feeding season for opposing teams against the Rangers bullten
and that hasn't been the case yet.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
You talked about it earlier in the show. When playing
the Rockies, it gives you an opportunity to kind of
get back on pace. But Josh Young has been phenomenal
this year three h two batting averages last fifteen games
for four home runs ten RBIs what have you noticed
about his played approach and him in that six hole
when runners aren't scoring position? How is he able to
drive the ball putting in play? And he's he going

(08:40):
to be a bad X factor for this matchup against
the Astros.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, I mean, you know they need everyone to kind
of step up a little bit with you know, Corey
seeger out and you know, obviously the Astros have a
guy and I know that he wasn't hitting the ball
well before he got hurt. And Jordan Alvarez, who you know,
my understanding is to likely be back this weekend. But
like Seer and Jordan Alvarez are you know, in a
unique class of hitter who just you know, one player

(09:06):
can only impact the game so much, you know, with
the way the sport works, but they they find ways
to exceed that, you know, the level of impact of
even a great player just with you know, the way
they produce of the plate. And so without those guys,
you need everyone to kind of step up a little bit.
And Josh Young's you know, kind of taken the range

(09:26):
here of late. I think what you know now, Josh
Young's really aggressive, and hitters who are really aggressive have
a tendency to be streaky, They are susceptible at times.
He has toned that down a little bit. We've seen
a little more patience, and that's a problem for this team.
You know, I think for the first five six weeks,
if the season ended at whatever point, they would have

(09:47):
had the highest swing rate in Major League history, you know,
like they were just swinging at everything.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
They have toned that down a bit.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
They have been a little uh, you know, a little
more patient, and I think Josh Young is kind of
in line with that. The thing that Josh does such
a good job of his he will hit to the situation.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
You know, we have so many guys these days.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
It's they go up there with one swing, one mindset.
And I'm not talking about the need to lay down
of buns. I'm not I'm not big let's give out,
give up outs for a bunt guy or anything, but
the ability to hit backside, you know, to go the
other way, to use the whole field and be willing
to play, like I said, to the situation a runner
at third and one out. You know, Josh Young's going

(10:25):
up there with the mindset, you know, talking about runners
in scoring position. He's going up with the mindset of
you know, what's the situation dictate?

Speaker 3 (10:32):
What is the situation asking of me?

Speaker 2 (10:34):
And I just don't know that there as many hitters
these days who have that mindset, or maybe it's just
that they don't have the ability with the back control
to operate like that is you know, when I was
growing up, for instance, and you know, even as recently
as probably fifteen twenty years ago. It's just a different game,
a different approach offensively, but Josh kind of has an
old school approach in that regard.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
He's shared.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Sandler again part of the Rangers radio network, also does
some TV covering the team up there in North Texas.
You can find him on Twitter at Jared Sandler. And
you're an sc guy too, So, Jared, I guess next
time these two teams meet up with Shawn's here, got
to get you on cuz, I mean, you know, of
course Sean being a Trojan himself, so I know he'll
appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, I'm surrounded by like too many Stanford.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
People with the Rangers.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Two of our broadcasts partners are Stanford guys or ones
that are Stanford galas Stanford guy, and so with Brett
Boone joining the Rangers, we.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Got a little more sc blood. So yeah, I'd love
to chat with Sean.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Our football program is an absolute mess, but hopefully we
can cheat a little bit better and get things turned around.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, here's here's hoping, right, Jared. I appreciate it, Tom Buddy,
I enjoyed the series, and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
See fellas
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