00:00How can you not be romantic about more of the same?
00:04It is Diamond Cavs here on 105.3 The Fan.
00:07We have seen this act before.
00:09Now, it's not really a massive deal, right?
00:12Not a massive deal because we are, let's see, it's March 2nd.
00:15But Josh Young will be shut down for about 10 days.
00:21Maybe more, maybe a little less.
00:23But they're going to, I wouldn't say a little less.
00:25They're going to keep it at least 10 days.
00:26But he has got an adductor strain.
00:29Now, that is the inside of the thigh.
00:32It's commonly thought of as the groin area, but it just goes all the way down towards your knee.
00:37It's that machine in the gym where the girls have their legs spread wide apart and then close it.
00:43And then wide and close it.
00:44And all these gyms started to have to point that machine at the wall.
00:48No.
00:48Because creepy men were just walking by looking to get a glimpse.
00:51They seriously changed the positioning of the equipment?
00:53Yeah, they just point these things.
00:55A lot of gyms just point, when they set the gym up, they just put them pointed towards the wall.
00:59So, reverse abductor.
01:00So, nobody's sitting there looking.
01:02Because, you know, a girl's sitting there and all of a sudden her pants split.
01:05Yeah.
01:05And then you've got a whole different problem going on there.
01:09Look, it's just not encouraging.
01:10I'll take a little sip.
01:12I know you will, Peyton.
01:13I know you will.
01:14It's just not encouraging.
01:15It's not fun.
01:16It's not exciting at all.
01:18Justin Foscue.
01:20We had the Walcott news last week as well.
01:24Yeah.
01:24He's with his elbow injury that knocks him out for a while.
01:27And then Walcott's already somebody who was, you know, when you look at these new rankings
01:32from fan graphs and Baseball America and stuff like that, he already was kind of taking some
01:36hits as a ascending prospect for them recently.
01:40And so, no, it's just, it's bad luck.
01:42Now, I'm a little surprised Josh actually, I mean, I kind of gave it away.
01:46Give me the games played.
01:48Are you already looking?
01:49No, I'm not looking.
01:50So, what, he got sent down at one point last year, didn't he?
01:53Yeah.
01:53So, I don't know, 115.
01:57131.
01:58I thought it was going to be 115 or even lower.
02:02Yeah.
02:02So, he missed 31 games.
02:04Okay.
02:05You know, look, it just.
02:06Corey Seager would kill for that.
02:07Yeah.
02:07It's precautionary right now with Josh.
02:10These days can linger.
02:11That's why they want to get rid of this thing now.
02:14Because you get those little muscle pulls and they could linger all year when you get
02:19them early on.
02:19I want them to be good.
02:22I really want them to be good so bad.
02:24And I want Josh Young to be good so bad because I've seen it.
02:27And I recognize the, because you've seen it once, believing, hey, we can get that regularly.
02:35But this is why it's so dangerous to bank on.
02:39Evan Carter's going to be better.
02:40Josh Young is going to be better.
02:41It's like, yeah, even if they are, there's no guarantee those guys are going to be healthy
02:44ever.
02:45Right.
02:45And unfortunately for Josh is, yeah, it's just precautionary.
02:51And it is early.
02:52And there's plenty of time.
02:53He really has kind of lost the benefit of the doubt.
02:56Yeah.
02:57But, you know, Seager has, too.
02:58And DeGrom did, too.
02:59And DeGrom had a great year last year.
03:01He didn't, I mean, he pitched, I mean, he had more innings than he had pitched, you know,
03:05since pre-pandemic.
03:07You know, he had a great year, but, you know, you lose a little bit of benefit of the doubt
03:12when it comes to that.
03:13So, on the field, they win.
03:14They have an explosion yesterday.
03:16Nine runs.
03:17Nine fours to victory.
03:20But, prior to that, their 10 games, their first 10 games in spring training, they were
03:25five and five.
03:27You know, they had run differentials plus three.
03:30They were 11th out of 15 Cactus League teams in terms of runs scored.
03:35It gets worse.
03:36They've also had played the most games in Cactus League play.
03:39So, they had the most games played, yet they were still 11th out of 15 in terms of run score.
03:44They were tied with one of the team in terms of having 10 games.
03:47The freaking Royals, who share a stadium with them.
03:53The Rangers in 10 games had scored 48 runs.
03:56The Royals in 8 had scored 64.
03:58I mean, just wrecking shop all over the place.
04:02None of this matters, of course.
04:03I thought I would just check in on it.
04:05And, you know, I mean, Seager has played in less than half their games.
04:08Same for Wyatt.
04:09Same for Josh Smith.
04:11You know, Nimmo hadn't even played.
04:12So, as of Saturday, hadn't even played yet.
04:15So, never want to look at spring training stats, but just wanted to do a little quick check-in.
04:19Is there anything more seemingly reliable in terms of spring training or training camp or exhibition games or whatever?
04:27Is there anyone that seems more consistently reliable of just reverse what it is in the spring or in the
04:33exhibition games?
04:34And that's more what they'll...
04:35Because great hitters, it seems like, are always awful in exhibition games.
04:39And then it's like, ah, Rookie's hitting 600 in the spring.
04:43What a monster season.
04:44Joey Gallo, the strikeout issues are gone.
04:46And then it's like, oh, wait, nope, here it is.
04:48All right, makes sense.
04:49From the 817, does Josh Young work out at the 49ers facility in the offseason with the electromagnetic pulse thing
04:54right next to it?
04:55This was posted over the weekend about baseball spending.
05:00The Rangers spent a grand total of $25 million this offseason.
05:04Bobby, you can sit this one out here for a second.
05:07$25 million.
05:08I've been good.
05:09And, you know, that was a little disappointing to look at that and see where they are.
05:13You know, because you missed the playoffs the last two years and you are 22nd in offseason spending.
05:19And it gets worse.
05:20So, again, $25 million.
05:23The Rays spent $38 million this offseason.
05:26The Reds spent $50 million.
05:29The Pirates, who are going nowhere in a hurry, spent $51 million.
05:34They doubled you up.
05:36Doubled you up.
05:37The Rockies, who are the worst team, maybe in professional sports.
05:43There might not be a worse team.
05:45Spent $21 million this offseason.
05:46You spent $25 million.
05:47It's a little disappointing.
05:50So, as much as Chris Young has gotten criticism from me over the last few months, I've never met anybody
05:57who's scared to spend someone else's money.
05:59So, that just tells me that Ray Davis is not willing to spend.
06:02And if that's the case, well, then that's a Ray Davis problem.
06:05Yeah, and, you know, he is, I mean, he's mid-pack in terms of, they did another mock-up of
06:10how much each owner is worth.
06:14Like, Steve Cohen's worth $23 billion, right?
06:16And the Blue Jays are owned by a conglomerate.
06:19They're owned, and their owner's worth $19 billion, right?
06:22Well, I mean, the Rangers are mid-packed, they're 14th, you know, $3.8 billion, and then you get your
06:27guys down near the bottom who are, you know, worth less than $2 billion.
06:30But it is disappointing, especially when you miss the playoffs the last two years after a World Series.
06:35They're not spending a ton.
06:36They've shown they will spend.
06:38Yeah.
06:38Right?
06:38They will.
06:39They signed Seager.
06:40They signed Simeon.
06:41They signed DeGrom.
06:42They brought in Ivaldi.
06:43They've re-signed Ivaldi.
06:45They've shown they will spend.
06:47But it's like, all right, we'll spend, take a couple years off, get that money back, and then spend again.
06:52So, if they don't spend next year...
06:54You know who that sounds like?
06:56What, Jerry?
06:56Sounds like the old Marlins.
06:58Oh, well, yeah, yeah.
07:00You spend and reset, spend and reset.
07:0297 and then 03.
07:03You know, you got a six-year gap, and they were bad, bad in between.
07:07And 97 and 03, they spent on players outside.
07:10Like, they actually did spend money.
07:12Rangers spring training coverage and surprise this week with KNC and GBag, brought to you by Mercedes-Benz Aplano,
07:18the on-time experts, and Best Buy windows and siding.
07:21Buster only finished up his top ten at each position.
07:24And it is official, the Rangers and the Oakland A's are not as similar as we thought,
07:30because they're not similar at all, because the A's have basically doubled them up.
07:34They're behind the A's.
07:35The A's had five players make either the top ten or the honorable mention at each position group.
07:41The Rangers had three.
07:43Seager and DeGrom making the top ten at their position.
07:45DeGrom number ten, Seager mid-pack.
07:47And then Wyatt made honorable mention.
07:49They had him listed as a corner outfielder, which, I mean,
07:52he'll probably wind up playing more games at center than corner, maybe.
07:56At least that's what he was tracking with.
07:59But they had him at the corner.
08:01The A's had three guys in the top ten, two more make honorable mention.
08:05It's just a little bit, a little embarrassing.
08:08The Oakland A's, the Oakland freaking A's, were that highly thought of.
08:12And they are.
08:12He did play 45 games in center last year.
08:16He played 104 and left.
08:17So I'm guessing they're just measuring him based off where he was last year.
08:21All right, Jake DeGrom, is he going to benefit from the new automated strike zone?
08:24History says yes.
08:25So I don't know if you saw this over the weekend.
08:28There was a pitcher.
08:29I think he played, I think he was a Red Sox pitcher.
08:33He did the whole tap on the head.
08:35So what you do is you tap on the head, right?
08:36Tap on the head.
08:37That means you want the review.
08:38Well, the pitcher throws the ball, taps on the head, and the catcher's like, no.
08:43No.
08:43Catcher knew it was a ball.
08:44No, no, no, no.
08:45But the pitcher already tapped, so they go to the review.
08:48And we're going to see this.
08:49We're going to see pitchers who want that call, and they're going to tap on the head.
08:52And the catcher is going to have to be like, no, no, no, no, don't do that.
08:56But Jake throws 23% of fastballs up in the zone, right?
09:0223%.
09:02And his command on those pitches is above league average.
09:07But because of the human element, he misses a lot of those pitches.
09:13They don't get counted as strikes at the rate they should.
09:18Tom Greve used to talk about this.
09:19He said that the highest strike was the most inconsistently awarded strike in baseball.
09:25The Ups just don't like calling it.
09:27Right.
09:29And there's a way they're going to do this now where, by the way, all these players' heights
09:35are getting exposed because these players are listed at one height.
09:39But when they walk in to the batter's box, the ABS system lists them at another height.
09:44So, yeah, the guys were like listening.
09:464-0-2-0.
09:46The guys listed at like 6-1.
09:48Now they're really there, they're like, oh, no, you're actually like 5-10.
09:51But, anyway, they're going to measure it as you walk into the box, not how you take your stance.
09:56So, it's going to be a little bit different.
09:59So, Jake might actually get the benefit of these high strike calls.
10:03And we'll see.
10:04Like, does this mean that if you're Jake DeGrom, you're going to throw even more, a higher percentage
10:10of high fastballs than you did previously?
10:11I'm more interested in this balls and strikes and the way it's being telecast.
10:16Is that true?
10:17I don't believe.
10:18Yeah.
10:19What is that?
10:20No way.
10:21For game presentation, watching on TV?
10:23So, what they were going to do is the box that's there, usually it has a dot and it tells
10:30you where,
10:31whether it's a strike or not.
10:33You know, my understanding is, is that they're not going to tell you whether it's a strike or not.
10:38The box is still going to be there.
10:40Okay.
10:40You'll still see where the ball goes, but you might not have the dot.
10:44But we're getting ball strikes, count outs, all that.
10:47Still, this is just talking about where the ball's going to end up in the strike zone.
10:51Yeah.
10:52So, K-zone, right?
10:53K-zone thing.
10:55You know how to light up?
10:56It'll light up with a solid dot if it's a strike and an open dot if it's not.
11:00I think the dot's going away.
11:02My understanding is that the dot is going away.
11:04So, you'll just see where the baseball actually lands relative to the overlay on the screen,
11:09but it's not going to illuminate where it ended up.
11:12That's how they don't want the umpire getting exposed and called out so frequently.
11:16Maybe.
11:17Create drama with the reviews or something.
11:21Yeah.
11:23I'm way in the minority.
11:24I always hated the overlay over the actual plate.
11:27I always liked the old school win where they would have it off to the right side of the screen.
11:32The right side of the screen?
11:33Like Fox tracks, how they used to have it off to the side.
11:35They used to keep the track.
11:37I way preferred that actually over the screen.
11:40I like it.
11:40I mean, I don't mind.
11:41I mean, I like to see where the pitch comes in and as it's coming in, where and whether or
11:45not it's a strike.
11:46But, you know, our entire viewpoint on what a strike is has to change now because it's gone from a
11:51two-dimensional strike zone to a four.
11:54Because you're going to see balls that just clip the very front of the plate.
11:58I think we're going to get too technical with some of this.
12:00I mean, I was seeing some pitches that were called strikes or balls.
12:04I was like, wait, there's no way.
12:06There's no way that's a strike.
12:08That's not a strike in anything I've ever seen before.
12:12And this is the whole thing in basketball, and I can't remember if it was Bill Simmons or whatever, talking
12:17about it, where, you know, when a ball hits, when you get a ball knocked out of your hands and
12:22it goes out of bounds, who's that always been out on?
12:25It's always been out of bounds on the guy who knocked it out of your hands.
12:28But if you slow it down to replay, it probably is kind of going off your hand at the very
12:34end.
12:35And that just doesn't make any sense.
12:36There's Diamond Cavs.
12:37Diamond Cavs on the home of the Rangers.
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