Latest / Foul Territory / Evan Grant’s Rangers checkup

Transcript

Evan Grant’s Rangers checkup · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I think the Rangers feel pretty positive about where their
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: young pictures are going. There are some things that still
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: need to be addressed, but they've contributed to the Rangers.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Fourteen eleven starts.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: We are back with our friend Evan Grant, who does
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: a tremendous job covering the Texas Rangers for the Dallas
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Morning News. Evan is there all of the time, knows
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: everything about this club. Great to be with you, my friend.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us on foul Territory. First of all,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: before we get into it, you are a barbecue officionado.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: This is what I've learned about you. Is there a
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: spot that it is like an.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Absolute must go?
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: To?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Tell me all the things?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Evan, Well, in Look, it's Texas. You kind of have
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to eat barbecue where they kick you out of the state.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: So I've learned to love it. I don't know that
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I'm an aficionado. I just like food because you don't
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: get this body without liking food. So in Dallas, Look,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: we've got a pretty good bubbling barbecue spot scene. I
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: can't say enough about Tory Hunter's place Tender. He's got
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: several locations. We saw Tory just last week when the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Angels were in town and I was raving to him
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: about the stuff there. It's it's really really good. But
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: there is a place in Arlington that's the official barbecue
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: spot of the Rangers for Title Barbecue. They're actually in
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Globe Life Field. I think even persnicketty aj Perzinski enjoyed
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: their food this year at the ballpark. They're doing wings,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: they're doing they're Berea tacos and Casadilla's and they are
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: doing a giant stuff baked potatoes. So if you hit
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: those two, you're going too for the one other I'll
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: mention is Tim Barbecue in Dallas and in Fort Worth.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: They've got this bacon burn in thing that is just
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: it's insane.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: There's there's no like AJ's not on here, So nobody's
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: gonna be asking you for free food every time you
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: come on. Ajay's like, Evan, why are you gonna get
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: me this? When are you gonna buy me that? So
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: nobody's asking for anything today.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Does that make me special?
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: Though? Eric?
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, because he asks everybody for free food and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: free stuff.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Right everybody. He's always asking. Susan Sluster was just on
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: the other day, when are you gonna get me the garlic, nacho,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: truffle fries, whatever, like he's always he's always looking for
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: a handout. So he's not that boogie. He's just looking
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: for free. Free ninety nine is his price.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: That makes me special?
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Okay, but you are special. Tell me what's special about
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: the Rangers. They're fourteen and eleven right now, but they're
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: tied for first place. Did they feel like or does
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: it does it look like they're playing good enough baseball
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: right now to be ahead of everybody else in this division?
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: And do they look up and say, whoa, the Mariners
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: and that pitching staff and their brutal lineup are keeping
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: up with us. We need to change something, or does
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: it feel like, okay, oh, team for playing well?
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Well. I think you saw in this past week some
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of the Rangers perspective in that their lineup hasn't been
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: hitting on all cylinders and they think this lineup is
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: going to slug and is going to score a lot
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: of runs. But for the first month a lot of
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the same problems that existed last year have have existed.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: So Bruce Bochi shook things up when they went to Sacramento,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: took Marcus Simeon out of the leadoff spot and put
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: him in more of a run producing spot, put Josh
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Smith in the leadoff spot, and moved Wyatt Langford up
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: to the number two spot. And what the Rangers tried
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: to do and it lasted all of about seven innings
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: before Corey Seeger pulled up with a bad hamstring was
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: get their their their top on base guys into the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: top spots in the order so that the guys who
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: were sluggers and maybe not as maybe not indiscriminate swingers
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: could get more pitches to hit. And it did pay
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: off against Sacramento. Whether or not that had anything to
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: do with the ballpark and how the carries there, I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: don't know, but they scored a season high eight runs
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the first night Corey pulled up with a hamstring injury,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and so now they're back to kind of scrambling for
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: runs again.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Hey, I want to stay there.
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: We talk about scrambling for runs in the midst of that.
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: I think they're still in a good place right struggling
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: for runs, but you're still at the top of your division.
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: Have we talked about how good White Langford has been
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: going back to the end of last year in company
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: right like this has been one of my guys going
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: back to last year. I thought it'd be the Rookie
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: of the Year, and he went through his early season
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: woes but started towards and he started to figure out
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: right the wood the whole big league adjustment. Are we
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: talking about how good this guy has been and how
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: good he possibly could be?
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Well, two things, Cam, I think to your point, I
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: think from the Rangers' perspective, what's very encouraging is that
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: they are fourteen to eleven and they haven't hit right,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: they haven't scored a ton of runs, and they've still
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: found ways to win. And that, enlarge part is testament
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to the starting pitching they've gotten, which has been better
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: than exp and the restructured bullpen that Chris Young made
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: over the offseason. It's been pretty much airtight. As far
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: as Wyatt Langford goes, I think you hit it right
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: on the head there. I'm planning as soon as we
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: get off of this, I wanted to do a little
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: bit of research today, but I want to look at
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Wyatt compared to the other guys who got Rookie of
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the Year votes in both the American and National League
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: among position players, and how they did from the second
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: half of last season going forward, and Wyatt is going
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to rank very, very highly there. He has made the
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: kind of typical upward assent that you would like to
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: see in a superstar. There's been no real ups and downs.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: He did struggle a little bit out of the gate
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: last year, and I think that was largely due to
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: kind of getting his swing a little bit too much uphill,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: but they made that adjustment. He came back from an
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: il stint and since then he's been he's been a
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: really good baseball player, a really dangerous hitter.
• 5:58
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• 6:00
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• 7:00
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you, Evan about Jock Peterson and
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: it gives me, it just hurts my heart to see
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: the struggles that Jock has gone through. Obviously, he finally
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: busted out of that oh for forty one or whatever
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: the heck it was. But then we were just all
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: waiting and anticipating if the call was going to be overturned.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: What are you noticing from his swings? How does he
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know that helps obviously, but how does
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: he get out of this and get back to the
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: guy that they signed to be in with.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Look, I think the one thing that really works well
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: for Jock here is his personality. You know, he's not
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: going to let himself get too down. He comes to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the ballpark with a great attitude every day. He is
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: an upbeat guy. I do think he's probably feeling a
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: little bit of pressure because you come here, you sign
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a big contract, You're supposed to slug against right handed pitching,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and to this point you haven't. And it's frustrating, there's
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: no way around it. It's frustrating when you look up
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: at the screen and you see your batting average is,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: you know, fifty eight or sixty. On the subject of
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: what he needs to do better, the only thing that
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I can kind of assess is it certainly looks to
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: me like he's a little bit more crouched over at
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: the plate. And he did say something early this season
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: that he felt restricted in his swing, and he just
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: hasn't seemed to been able to get out of that
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: area where he just is restricted in his swing. And
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I think that's one thing the Rangers have been working on,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: is to try and get him a little bit more
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: upright and let him just kind of let loose a
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: little bit. But it's it's looked on occasion like he's
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable at the plate swinging.
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: You talk about okay struggles, not struggling. Jacob deGrom past
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: injury history, we've seen it. But he looked good last night.
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: Nathany Valdi gets his first complete game. But Kumar Rocker
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: going to the il. Where are they in the midst
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: of all of this going on as far as trying
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: to find a guy who can get them some innings?
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: What is that looking like moving forward?
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: As in that well, look, Cam, I think that at
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the end of spring when they signed Patrick Corbin, I
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: think that was a really good depth move. They're not
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: looking for Patrick Corbyn to go out and win win
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: fifteen games. They're not looking for him to pitch two
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: hundred innings. They're looking for him to go out there
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: and give them five innings per start. As far as
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the Rocker situation goes, you know, you look at this
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: team going into the year and when they had the
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: injuries that they had to John Gray and Cody Bradford,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and now you've got to push two rookies into the rotation,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: two guys who don't have a ton of major league experience.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: For them to get through the stretch in the position
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: that they're in, I think has been overall a positive.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I do think with Kamara Rocker, the biggest issue for
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: him right now is as works back from this shoulder
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: impingement and hopefully it's just a minor issue. He's really
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: got to get to a point where he is comfortable
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and confident in a third pitch. I think it's been
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a little bit too predictable for hitters. I think too
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: off in fastball counts. He's had to throw fastballs and
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: hasn't been able to get it by hitters, and so
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I think that's going to be the big project for him.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: All of this gets said, I don't think we've said enough.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Jack Lder should be back this weekend, but he's been
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: really impressive in his two starts before he had the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: blister issue. It's been a real step in the right direction.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: So I think the Rangers feel pretty positive about where
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: their young pitchers are going. There are some things that
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: still need to be addressed, but they've contributed to the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Rangers fourteen to eleven starts. Rockers had five starts right.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Three have been not great, two have been really good.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: So even when he hasn't been consistent, there have been
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: a couple of good starts in there that have allowed
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the Rangers to stay keep their head above water.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: All right. Now, the person on the roster that I
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: don't think you said his name. You're going through everything
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: when you talked about Corey Seeger, I might have missed it.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: He has the blandest name, and yet the last two
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: years he's been the guy that has just stepped up
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: and done whatever's done. And he's hitting three thirty three
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: and I think he has like fifty summer beats. Josh
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: Smith super bland name and he's becoming a superstar. But
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: will the Rangers allow him to become a superstar and
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: play enough because there's other names that have been higher
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: and bigger players and he just keeps producing.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Well, Kratzy, I will correct you. I did say that
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: he is hitting leadoff right now. That was the one
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: thing I did say about it.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: I thought you could say it.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, Josh's name gets overlooked a lot
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: of times. What I will say about this is, look,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: he's already started at six different positions on the field
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: this year. He is a and I think this almost
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: diminishes him a little bit when you call him a
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: super utility player. But he's got the ability to play
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: anywhere on the field and do better than adequately there,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and that's incredibly valuable. It's also valuable to getting him
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: enough playing time because, as you said, the Ringers have
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys who are kind of entrenched in
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: their positions. But to this point there's been plenty of
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: opportunity for him to play. Josh Young went out for
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: ten days with a neck issue. He was the everyday
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: third baseman. Wyatt Langford went out with an oblique issue,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: he was the everyday left fielder. Corey Seeger is now out.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: He's going to be the everyday shortstop, and I think
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: before it's all over with, he could get more of
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: a look in center field because I think the Rangers
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: are going to have to consider what they do with
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Leodi taveris there. It's just not been a good start
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to the year for him, and Leodi has now had
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: five years out there and it's just not making a
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: big step forward. So I think that there are challenges
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: to getting him every day playing time, but so far
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the Rangers have found that and they will continue to
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: make efforts to get him in the lineup. Bruce Bochie
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: does not, in any way, shape or form diminish the
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: value that Josh Smith has brought to this club. Is
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: that bats have been probably the best and most consistent
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: from the start of the year for this team.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Evan.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: The reason Aj Pierzinski is not on the show today
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: is because he's going to San Francisco to bother you
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: and do the Giants Rangers game. So be on the
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: lookout for Aj asking for free stuff from you. But
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: speaking of the upcoming Giant series, this is a good team,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: probably a better team than a lot of us gave
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: credit to. How can the Giants, in your opinion, or
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: how can the Rangers in your opinion, be effective against
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: San Francisco.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Look, I think the biggest thing Alana is right now
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the process offensively has got to continue to improve. I
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: think when the first night I can't stop myself from
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: saint open. The first night in Sacramento, we saw a
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: team that stopped swinging indiscriminately, took some more pitches. To
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Eric's point, Josh Smith in the first spot in the lead,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: first game, in the leadoff spot, takes a leadoff walk,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: their second leadoff walk of the year to start off
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: a game, ends up with a two run inning because
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: they've got guys on base. They're getting better pitches to hit.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: When I looked at the stats, earlier this week. This
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: team led the major leagues in swing percentage and was
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: last in walk percentage. And when you do that, you
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: better be putting balls in play and hitting the ball hard.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And the Rangers just haven't done that yet. So I
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: think they've got to be a little bit more patient
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: at the plate and work through that. That would be,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: for me, their number one project going into this Giant Series.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: All right, Evan, we have to rid off stats for
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: players all the time. We're going to read off an
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: awesome stat for you. You are now a league leader
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: in foul territory. We've had five hundred and nine reporter
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: guests that besides Ken Rosenthal, five hundred and nine reporter
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: guest spots. You have twelve of them. You have twelve
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: of them. You are two ahead of Britt Geroli and
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: one ahead of C. Trent Rosecrants. So just we want
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: to keep you hungry. We got to make sure we
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: know you know who is in second and third place.
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: So you ready, But we appreciate you here at the
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: FT Network.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Well, look, I don't want to say anything, but if
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: anything bad happens to Britt or C. Trent, don't look.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Don't looking for me it's great to be especially great
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: with no Aj here, so it's it's like actually talking
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: ball and not my gluttony.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: Not me for this weekend. When he when he, when
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: he sees you this weekend, that'll be. It'll ruin your
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: weekend in San Francisco. Normally it's cold in San Francisco.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: It's just gonna be cold all weekend for you. So sorry.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: At least here will be hot air to go around,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: so that'll be there.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: You go, there, you go, Evan.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you very much, even though Cam and Eric
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: disagree with your barbecue choices. Cam says it's all about
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: North Carolina. Eric says, it doesn't matter. You got to
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: do it at home.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I don't care.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: I just like to eat.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: We love you, my friend.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being on piece. Another time. Cam and I'll
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: get into the whole North Carolina versus Texas. Yeah we will, Yeah,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: we will take care of y'all.
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: Mm hmm