Latest / Foul Territory / Old School v. New School debate sparked by Rangers hiring Bret Boone

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Old School v. New School debate sparked by Rangers hiring Bret Boone · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: When the game asked you to do something, you do it.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: And I think that's a big part of what the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Rangers hope Brett Boone's messaging can can get across to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: these players.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Dallas Morning News beat writer Evin Grant with us right
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: now talking Rangers ball, leading FT in writer appearances. Evan,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: great to have you on. I mean, this is good timing.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Here with you guys, except for AJ, who didn't offer
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to buy me any food in San Francisco. But that's
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: all right. Listen, it's been a week here.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: You weren't there either, Evan.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: You weren't there either. It's like Boston, you weren't there.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: So how do you even know? If I was there, I.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Might have done it.
• 0:40
  Speaker 5: I might not even have been there.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I saw you in the clubhouse and I said, Aj,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: is this the first time you've ever done a game
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: with two teams that got rid of you? And you
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: said no, I've done plenty of those games before.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: That's true, good lie. That's how memorable you are, Evan
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: to me.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: At least we want to talk about this Rangers offense
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a little bit.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Boone specifically, I want to start there. We'll do
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the rest. But how shocked, were you when you saw
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: that he was going to be the guy to try
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: and lead the offense back here?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, when when they decided they were going
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to change off of Donnie Ecker, the first thing I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: started looking for was obviously major league hitting coaches with experience,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: who had big league playing experience, because I thought one
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: thing that the Rangers were gonna want was an experienced
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: big league voice in the in the clubhouse. And I
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: looked up some guys and guys that had connections with
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: either Bruce Bochi or Chris Young, and there's a lot
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of them, but Brett Boone didn't cross my mind, just
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: because Brett has never coached. That said, you know, when
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: you look at all the boxes that I think the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Rangers wanted to check here, an experienced major league player,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a guy who brings a little bit of an edge,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a guy who does have some kind of connection to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Bochie and and Chris Uh. Brett checks all of those.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: And he happened to have a really happenstance kind of
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: meeting at a uc usc Us UCLA baseball game with
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Michael Young over the weekend and they were just talking
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: baseball and we weren't doing a job interview or anything
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: like that. But you know, Brett said, hey, make make
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: sure the boat and see why I know that I'm
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: thinking about him and that you know, good luck for
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: you to you guys. The rest of the way, Michael
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: gave the greetings and it certainly got Chris Young's mind moving.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And next thing, you know, twenty four hours later, they've
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: got Brett Boone on staff.
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: Hey, I want to talk about the you know, you
• 2:35
  Speaker 6: go back to the World Series and I'm looking at
• 2:37
  Speaker 6: the roster at Duley's Garcia. Having Carter was you know,
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: was a huge spark. You know, Robbie Grossman had a
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: little bit of edge. Veteran guy, Alstin Hedges. We know
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: what type of clubhouse guy he is.
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: Nathaniel Lowe the last couple of years.
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: You know, you could talk about injuries, you can talk
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: about you know, you know, lack of this and that.
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: But when I watch even right now, I see a
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: lack of fire and I and I you know, when
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: I watched this team, it's like, you know, we know
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: Corey Seer is a naturally laid back guy. Mark you
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: Seema kind of similar as well. You know, you probably
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: gonna have a little bit of the language trans barrier
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: when you talk about a dolees like, I just wonder,
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: you know, sometimes it isn't the performance, but.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: Who's the who's the guy, who's the heartbeat?
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: What you know? Do have they lost that fire in
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: your eyes?
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Hey, Kim, I think you raise a great point, right.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I think when a team is winning in scoring runs
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: and they're all business like the Rangers were in twenty
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: twenty three, that's the compliment. Hey, this team is all business,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low when you're
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: not scoring runs, and you don't see that kind of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: emotional flare. Uh, it does raise that question do they
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: lack fire? Do they lack edge? And I do think
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: internally the Rangers thought that this is a team, not
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: that it's a dull team in any way, not that
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: it's not dedicated or that it doesn't try. But I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: do think that they felt like there was a little
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: bit of edge missing in the clubhouse. Some of that
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: was because some of the guys, the younger players that
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: have that ability to bring edge don't have a ton
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: of experience yet. Some of that is because guys who
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: do have the ability to bring the edge on the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: field like Garcia, you know, are struggling, and so I
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: think in Brett Boone, they get a guy. Look, we
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: all know who Brett Boone is, and I think one
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: thing that Brett said yesterday in his introduction to the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: team that look, I'm I'm in listen mode right now,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: which is not my four K. Brett's a cocky guy.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: He has a lot of opinions. He's got opinions that
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: he shared on his podcast.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: But I think it's.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Really important for him to come in be willing to
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: listen to these guys talk baseball with them. I think
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: he and Jack Peterson immediately bonded, and I think that
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: element of it really helps inside the clubhouse. And eventually,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I think Brett's gonna be the guy if somebody needs
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: to challenge a hitter. I think Brett's gonna be more
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: than willing to do that when need be. But right now,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: it's important to gain these guys trust. You get immediate
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: cachet with your experience, but you've also got to get
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the trust that these guys feel like, Okay, this new guy,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: we don't know him very well, but we trust him
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: all right.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Evan a loss this some ma of these guys know
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: who Brett Boone is.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It's a good question, AJ. You know, because I'm not
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: in Boston, so I didn't ask these guys if they
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: know who Brett Wood.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: That's a great question. That's a great point. That's why
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: you get the boots.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: On the ground.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I'll be in Detroit, AJ, I'm a warrior man. I'll
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: be in Detroit. I think the I think these guys
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: know who Brett is.
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: I don't.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Obviously none of them played against Brett Boone, but they
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: know what his reputation was, and some of them have
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: listened to the podcast. And you walk in and you're
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: a three time All Star, a two time Silver Slugger,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: a two time top ten finisher in MVP voting, and
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: people will look at your Baseball reference page, they'll look
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: it up. They'll know who Brett Boone is if they
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: didn't know who he was.
• 6:00
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• 7:01
  Speaker 4: Now let me ask you this question. Is this a switch?
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: Is this a shift in thinking from teams? We've seen
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: it at Chris Young, Craig Breslo, Buster Posey players getting
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: more active roles. Remember because for the last about seven
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: eight nine years we've gone away from players, and we're like, oh, analytics, analytics, analytics,
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: And now it's kind of shifting a little bit back
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: to where, hey, we not only do we need the analytics,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: but we need somebody that actually stood in the box
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: or on the mound and can relate the analytics to players,
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: because I can get a guy that graduated college to
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: give me numbers, but they can't tell me how to
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: use them as a player. And I'm going, if I'm
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: a player, I'm going, man, I really need somebody that
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: can translate this for me.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think I'm really going to regret my
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: saying this, AJ, but you pretty much nailed it there.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I think that you've got to have a balance. You know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the analytics are more advanced than ever before the art
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of hitting is more difficult than it ever before than
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: it has ever been before. Pitchers control all the action,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: and with pitch design and more spin and more velocity,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: they've got a bigger edge than they've ever had. And
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: so the best thing that a hitter can do going
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: to the plate is have as few thoughts as possible.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And I do think that sometimes with analytics, and this
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: is not to say this is not a criticism of
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Donnie Ecker individually or anybody on the Rangers staff. But
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I do think that sometimes you know, when you've got
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: such a heavy approach on analytics, some of the other
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: things get a little bit either overlooked or you put
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: too many thoughts in your guy's head going to the plate.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: And I think that with Brent coming in here, you
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: know you've got to guys. They've kept the majority of
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the hitting staff together, justin Veeley, who is a big
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: biomechanics guy and a big analytics guy, and Seth Connor,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: who is similar. They've kept the staff together pretty much.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: But I think they felt like they needed a little
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: bit of a countermeasure of a guy who had big
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: league experience, who has lived through those situations and who
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: can speak kind of at a level that hitters need
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to understand in game. Let me just look to say
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: this about the Rangers, right, you look at the top
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: of the organization, Chris Young fourteen years in the big
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: leagues as a pitcher. He lived everything that a pitcher
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: could do. He's a very smart guy. He's an IVY
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: League graduate. He is big into analytics, but he's also
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: lived the life of a pro baseball player. You look
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: at Mike Maddox, who heads up the pitching staff, and
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: you've got a guy in Dave Bush, it's very big
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: on pitch design, and who also pitched in the big leagues.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: And you've got a guy in Jordan Tiegs who worked
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: with their young pitchers. And there's a good mesh of
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: different philosophies there. And I think sometimes in this game
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: we tend to go too hard to one direction, and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: then of course the pendulum swings back the other way.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: And I think what we're seeing with the Rangers move
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: is that they feel like they've got really good information,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: but they also need some real life experience in a
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: little bit more edge. And if you're gonna ask players
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: to have edge, who better to do it than somebody
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: who has actually been in the big leagues and played
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: with an edge.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Booney Brett Boone played with an edge. No way, I
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: don't remember that. I barely I don't remember who he was, Evan,
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: I barely played against him. Uh well, that thing is
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: one of the podcast was here.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: I've been on his podcast. I've done this podcast. It
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: took it was like a two hour interview. It was unbelievable.
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: I love.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: I listen, I've known I've known Boon, I've known Brett
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: for twenty plus years. So I love Brett. I saw
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: him this year in San Diego. He's awesome. He's one
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: of my favorite people. He makes me laugh every time
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: I see him. So I love Brett. Also, I just
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: want you said this, and I just want to go
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: with this before I get into my next part on this.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Just because you go to an IVY League school, Evan,
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: it doesn't make you smart. Okay, I'm just gonna say that.
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: You know you said that. It doesn't make you smart.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Just it's cool you got a degree.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Awesome. I don't. But all right now you know I'm right.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: I've made you speak that guy.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: All right for you today and I'm not bringing it in.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: National champions What can I say? Basketball school swish?
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: All right?
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: So you mentioned something though about the hitting side and
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Brett Boone and how it's kind of switched over. Here's
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: my question, and I ask people this all the time.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: What's more important when you get to the major leagues.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: You usually have pretty good mechanics of your swing, right,
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: And I think Cam would agree with me on this.
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: Is it more important to have a guy talk to
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: you about approach, meaning this guy throws these pitches, how
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: are we going to combat it? Or is it better
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: to have a guy that can tell you where to
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: hold your hands? Cause to me, like I could figure
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: this stuff out where to go with my hands, I
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: needed a guy that we could talk about approach and hey,
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna this is the pitch I need to look for,
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: and this is how I can hit this pitch with
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: my swing. To me, that was a more important factor.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: I think Cam would agree, but I don't know absolutely.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Here's here's the one thing I would say to both
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of you guys on that, and that is look, and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I don't want to make anybody feel like they're old,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: but you look at this generation of players and they
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: have spent so much time with individual hitting coaches and gurus,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and that they look to those guys often for answers
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: on everything. So I do think that it's become kind
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: of a necessary part of the game and that that's
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the way that a younger player now kind of communicates.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: But I also think what's gotten negated is and look,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Brett's a great example of this. Who was Brett's mentor
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: as a hitter in a lot of ways. Edgar Martinez.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Edgar was a great hitter, and Edgar was also an
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: unselfish hitter who knew if a runner needed to be moved,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: he was going to move a runner. It didn't mean
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: he was going to give himself up, but he was
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: going to do what he needed to do in that
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: back to make sure that a runner at least moved.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: That he was going to optimize the ability to keep
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the run scoring opportunity in place. And I think that's
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: something that the Rangers have not done very will the
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: last two years, is that they have spent a lot
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of time trying to build a slugging team. And look,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Bruce Bochi and Chris Young talked about slugging day in
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and day out in spring training, and I think the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: real world application is sometimes you're gonna have to when
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: your slugger's going to slump, if they're not really disciplined
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: hitters at the plate, you're gonna have to find other
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: ways to score runs. And when the game asks you.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Ron Washington used to say this all the time. He
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: probably said it to you aj. You know, when the
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: game asks you to do something, you do it. And
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I think that's a big part of what the Rangers
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: hope Brett Boone's messaging can can get across to these
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: these players.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but haven't we lost that? Haven't we lost that?
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: I'll ask Cam too, I'll bring Cam in on this.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Haven't we lost that?
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: Though?
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: Because my kids in high school, Okay, my son's in
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: high school, and I have that conversation with them all
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: the time. Senior in high school, you play to the scoreboard.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: The scoreboard tells you what your about needs to be.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: I need to get on base, I need to try
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: to drive the guy in. I need to get the
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: guy from second to third with no outs, get him
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: to third went out, so the guy behind me can
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: drive him in.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Right. But with the analytics, and again I believe in analytics.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: I don't want people to think I don't believe in analytics.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: But what I'm saying is there's a time in a
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: place to where you know what paulk and Erico is
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: one of the best hitters I ever played with, and
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: he had a bats where he totally gave himself up
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: guy on second, no out's late in the game, and
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: you could see it. He just hit a weak round
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: ball a second the guy run the third next guy
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: drove him in. We win the game by a run.
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: He would do it right, but he also hit four
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: hundred plus homers and was one of the best hitters
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: I ever seen. But there's a time in a place.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: We had this conversation earlier, Evan, Joey Vado, and Wan Sota.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: We're talking about how many walks they have. Right, there's
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: a time for those guys. There's a runner on third
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: and one out. I want one Soto's bat the ball
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: skills to put the bat on the ball and drive
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: the guy in right instead of being like, oh, it's
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: a half inch outside. I can't swing at that because
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: I mu't walk, but I'll make it out because I
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: hit a you know, a ground ball a second.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: And drive the run in.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: To me, there has to be a combination of the
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: analytics and the hitting. And that's why I'm for the
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: sh shift of former players.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: Coming in and explaining.
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: And I don't want to cut Evan off, but I
• 15:04
  Speaker 6: want to add on to that point, AJ, because you're
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: absolutely right. And what's happened is when we say analytics,
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: guys like myself, guys like AJ, analytics is only information
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: for all the people out there who hear the words
• 15:17
  Speaker 6: analytics and they think it's like some intricate being or theme.
• 15:22
  Speaker 6: It's just information. And what AJ is saying is you
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: can have your hands here or your hands there, or
• 15:28
  Speaker 6: your foot here or your foot there, but at the
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: end of the day, you have to have a plan.
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: The way you set up isn't gonna get you a hit.
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: If you don't have a great plan, if you don't
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: know what you do well, if you you know, can't
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: move the ball right. What I love about what AJ
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: said is me and AJ we're both We are both
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: in heart places now raising young men who love the game,
• 15:48
  Speaker 6: and we get caught up in a hard place where
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: we want to teach them. You learn how to hit,
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: you'll slug later, right, become a good hitter. First word,
• 15:55
  Speaker 6: now it's backwards. It slug slug, slug, fluck slug. So
• 15:57
  Speaker 6: you have this generation and even now this window of
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: younger guys, even guys in the game, that it's they
• 16:02
  Speaker 6: got told it was okay to swing and miss, and
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: it's good until your team starts losing, until you can't
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: manufacture runs, until you don't know now, then all of
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: a sudden, it's a problem. So you know, for me,
• 16:14
  Speaker 6: I think this move, this move to bring Boone in was,
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: like you said, Evan, let's go get some guy who's
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: done it, who has experience, who can maybe give us
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: a better approach, because hey, like I can guarantee you
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: they didn't win that World Series. So y'all for analytic information,
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: it was guys going out there competing having a team approach.
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna be a bastard in the box.
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna do whatever I can to have a long
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: quality at bad, to try to get into the bullpen,
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: to try to make this really tough throughout a series.
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: And those are the things that are being lost in
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: the game, you know what I mean.
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: So I love what both of you guys are saying,
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: and I love and that's why I continue to say.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: I love what the Rangers are doing.
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: And I love guys like Chris Young, the Buster posies
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: who are now getting these opportunities, who have been in
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: these these moments in the and are these players shoes
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: and really knows that it's bigger than just spat speed
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: and launch angle and all.
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: This other crap that doesn't win you baseball games. So
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: I love what they're.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Doing and Karen, I gotta agree with both you guys
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: on this and and the way it was both has
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: been best explained to me is is look at the
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: greater environment now right, look at YouTube or look at
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: social media, and how many guys are out there touting
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: swing swing, swing swing, and it's all about individual swings.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: It's about getting off your best swing. Yeah, that's great,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: But what I've seen from the Rangers really going back
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: almost a decade now, is I've seen guys swings be
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: very much on one plane and they can't adjust the
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: way it feels to me, and I don't want to
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: make myself sound like, you know, old crotchety guy, but
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: it feels like players swings have not been quite as
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: adjustable or flexible to the moment as they once were.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the kind of thing we're talking
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: about here. Is analytics and metrics and process stats. They
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: are all important tools, but you also have to be
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: self aware, and there is not as much attention spent
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: on self awareness and discipline as that's not considered a
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: tool as raw power is considered a tool.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Evan, let me ask you this and Cam.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: Can we bring in Cam again on this too, because
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: I know Cam coaches young kids and he has a team.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: Here's my thing, Cam, again, I have a senior in
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: high school. We have kids on our team that could
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: be drafted and possibly signed. We have scouts in every
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: single game, and I know some of them and I
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: talk to some of them. The number one thing that
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: a lot of the scouts want to see out of
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: high school hitters is what you just said, evan adjustability,
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: like not a one plane swing.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: The guys who get drafted high can use their hands
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: and make an adjustment to where like, oh I'm a
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: little bit fooled. Oh I can flip the ball here,
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: I can foul it off and live to fight another pitch.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: So to me, what you're talking about is one of
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: the most important things.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Is that what they want to see, though, I mean
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: my question the things that I keep hearing about, you
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: know when scattering reports that I read are all about
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: raw tools. Raw you know, his hit tool or his
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: raw power tool. And I do think that it is
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: important that guys get a better grasp of both discipline,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: approach at the plate and situational awareness.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Agreed.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: Agreed, you got to be able to do all of this.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: But the guys, I know this. The guys listen. You
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: can have raw power, but you can be pitched to right.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: But if you have adjustability, if you have both, then
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: you're stut right. But if you have adjustability, you can
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: get hits. You can figure out a way to get
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: hits right. But if you're a one plane guy, you're
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: so pitchable, you're so yeah, you can go on VP
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: and hit a million home runs because you the BP
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: pitchers like here, it is fifty miles an hour, right
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: down the.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Middle, whack whack, whack right. But then when the game
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: they don't throw like that, so you have to be
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: able to use your hands.
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: So anyway, sorry, Scott, you're right now, and a yeah,
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: go ahead, Yeah, go ahead, Scott.
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: I'm good. We can talk about it. You know you're good. Good,
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: But you guys are right.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: It's awesome, ft fam, We're excited to introduce you to
• 20:20
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• 20:22
  Speaker 2: the back of every product. Krats, what are you rocking
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: for us?
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: I'm rocking the polo. Never feel like a T shirt
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: until now. Out on the course, I'm gonna stay cool
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: and as much as I sweat, I won't be wet.
• 20:35
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• 20:44
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• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the code foul. Just finished with this just player personnel
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: I got too, so we can double up here on
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: our way out. Evan One is the status of Evan
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Carter in terms of his development and trying to get
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: him back to any slice of what he was when
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: he was insanely good in his rookie little run in
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and if he's able to hit breaking
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: balls consistently, stuff like that. And then part two is
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Leoti Taveries going to burn the Rangers in some important
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: divisional games.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: It's entirely possible, you know. I mean, that's the risk
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: that when you say we're going to move on from somebody,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: that's the risk you take. But let me start with
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Liodi and then move over to Evan on Leodi Tavers.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: He has had eighteen hundred plus played appearances for the
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Rangers over the last five years. He had a spike
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, but largely largely he has been
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: what he has been, and I think that you can
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: bet that Leodi is going to have a good year
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: at some point in time, a good start to finish year.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: But if you're the Rangers, you can't say you haven't
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: given him a fair opportunity. And with the fact that
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Evan Carter does now appear ready to be to kind
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: of re establish himself as a big league player, and
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the idea that Alejandro Osuna has really kind of zipped
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: up the Rangers prospect chart as a guy that everybody
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I've talked to inside the organization and outside loves why
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: because he plays hard, because he has situational awareness to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: go with his skills. I think that the Rangers made
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: that move. They tried to get something in return for
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Tavers and they couldn't. They know they're in a little
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: bit of a financial bind where the luxury threshold is concerned,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: and by getting somebody to take him off their hands,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: that saves them about three million dollars going forward, which
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: gives them a little bit more wiggle room come the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: trade deadline. Could he burn them in a divisional game, absolutely,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: But I will say this, I don't see Leode going
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: in and playing center field in Seattle, there's a pretty
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: good center fielder in front of him there, so I
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: think he's going to be more of a fourth outfielder there.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: In that situation.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: As far as Evan is concerned, he didn't get many
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: at bats last year and the back issue, which is
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: a chronic issue, was something that he had to get
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: more comfortable with. The Rangers went to him and when
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: they sent him down this year, they talked about opening
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: his stands up a little bit more. And now we're
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: talking about biomechanics and all that, but it's necessary in
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: this situation to open his stands up a little bit
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: more and that it would take a little bit of
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: pressure off of his back. It took some time for
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: him to get accustomed to that. But what we've seen
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: over the last three weeks is the Evan Carter that
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the Rangers saw in twenty twenty three and in the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: postseason in twenty twenty three. Very disciplined at the plate.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I think he had seven extra base hits in his
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: final fifty plate appearances at TRIPAA, and last night he
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: certainly looked like he could run. Had two hits, one
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of them was really soft, but his speed is a
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: weapon that can turn softly hit balls into hits. So
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I think that the Rangers had hoped at the start
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: of the season that Evan Carter would be their center fielder.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: That did not take place based on spring training, But
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I think they are ready to turn it over to him,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and I don't think that you can say they sold
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: themselves short in terms of an audition for Leonti tavers Oky.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: That's great insight, having good good combo there is.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: You have a podcast. You have a podcast like when
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: does this world come to? Like you and John Blake.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: You guys are gonna talk Georgetown hoops from the eighties,
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: like Hoya paranoia or what.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Well there. I'm sure there will be some references to that,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: but listen. John Blake is a legend in the baseball industry,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: has worked in Major League Baseball for forty seven years,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: spent forty years as the Rangers communications are and prs are,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and he even found a way to get along with
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: you AJ. So he and I got together and we
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: talked about this organization and the idea that we could
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: bring some of my knowledge or my quote unquote in
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: site into the current team and along with some insight
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: into a very colorful history of the Rangers organization. And
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: we're going to start our little podcast experiment next week.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Michael Young is going to be the first guest, and
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: before the end of the year, maybe we'll even talk
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to some wayward Texas Rangers catchers.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: No, nope, nope, don't make the cut.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Rangers catchers.
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: That's really rare.
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: Giovanni Sodo, Yes, perfect.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: We'll go with Giovanni Soda.
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: There you go, there you go.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: All right, right out of time, Evan, this was awesome,
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: really good combo. Good luck with the pod obviously, let
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: us know when it's happening and we'll tune in.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, thank you, and it's always great being
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: with you. Appreciate it.