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ESPN released its Top 100 MLB players for 2026, and the GBAG Nation reacted to how many Rangers cracked the list and where they landed. They also discussed season projections, injury concerns, breakout potential, the overall Top 10, and even weighed in on a viral Team USA motivational speech making the rounds online.

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00:00Let's do it. So ESPN today released their top 100 players for 2026.
00:05They went ahead and had their experts, Jeff Bassett, Alden Gonzalez, Buster Olney, Jesse Rogers, among others,
00:12go ahead and help out with these rankings.
00:14Now, how many Texas Rangers players do you think were able to crack the ESPN top 100?
00:20Four.
00:21I'm going to go four.
00:22Four's a good guess. Very strong.
00:24Seager, DeGrom, Ivaldi.
00:26Seager, DeGrom, Ivaldi are all on it.
00:28Bang, bang.
00:29And Wyatt.
00:30Crushed it.
00:30Wyatt Lankford coming in at 39 on the list was your highest ranger.
00:34Wow.
00:35Corey Seager is at 41, which was a drop for him.
00:39Jacob DeGrom at 64 on the list.
00:43And Nathan Ivaldi, in my opinion, continues to be the most underrated pitcher in all of Major League Baseball.
00:50Yes.
00:50As he was at 99.
00:52That's crazy.
00:53I mean, Nathan Ivaldi was flirting with the Cy Young and the best ERA in baseball last year
00:58before they shut him down.
01:01Every year you look at these lists and he's just criminally underrated.
01:05Evo should be so much higher on these.
01:08There's arguably not a better big game pitcher that you would feel better about going on the bump than Evo.
01:14So you've got four Rangers on here, but it's always like looking at how low Nathan Ivaldi is on these.
01:21I'm just like, what are we doing?
01:23The season prediction for Evo.
01:25Well, I would say, though, that Corey Seager should be ahead of Wyatt Langford.
01:30That's the other inconsistency here.
01:33Flip him.
01:33Yeah, it was the injuries, really, that did it, the missed time last year.
01:37I'll go through.
01:37They do season predictions for everybody.
01:40With Evo, they said, he earned Cy Young votes by posting that 2-9 ERA over 30 starts.
01:45He surpasses 150 innings for the fifth time, says Andrew Carabell.
01:50That would be great news for the Rangers if he was able to do that.
01:54For Mr. Corey Seager, when you look at him, it is certainly the injuries.
02:01Can he stay healthy for the Texas Rangers?
02:04That's the big question mark and one that I'm sure CY is also looking at.
02:08It's all in store for Seager in terms of game play,
02:11but there's little doubt that 120-plus games of him should mean a better batting average
02:15and a return to the 30-homer plateau.
02:17They're predicting 31 home runs for one Corey Seager.
02:21And then for Wyatt, all-star.
02:24Langford was one of 24 players to compile both 20 homers, 20 stolen bases last year.
02:28He's going to eclipse the 30-30 club is their prediction for him this year,
02:33which would be huge for Wyatt.
02:35That would be a massive jump for him going into this season for Texas.
02:39Yeah, played 134 games last year, OPS around 776.
02:45He's definitely one of the better players in baseball, but I don't know.
02:50I think a lot of people are projecting or assuming, like, if this was future rankings,
02:54sure, put Wyatt Langford up there.
02:56Is that ball gone?
02:58Kamar Rocker just gave up the long ball?
03:00Oh, it's off the pole?
03:01Yeah, hit the pole.
03:03That counts as a double?
03:04That counts.
03:06Oh, bomb.
03:07Yeah.
03:07Okay.
03:08If it hits off that foul pole, that counts as inside the park.
03:12So that would be 6-2.
03:13That was a single solo bombski.
03:16So, yeah, Kamar Rocker now and Jacob DeGrom both each giving off solo home runs.
03:21I went 10-2.
03:23What was your score prediction, Brian?
03:2512-1?
03:2612-1.
03:27Yeah, I'm out.
03:28I'm out.
03:29I'm out.
03:29Hey, they might still put up 12.
03:30Rangers still up 6-2.
03:32They put up five runs in that third inning.
03:34That was a nice crooked inning for the Rangers.
03:37Your top ten players they have on ESPN's top 100.
03:39Major League Baseball players entering the season.
03:42Number 10 was Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves.
03:44Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners at 9.
03:47Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox coming in at 8.
03:50Cal Raleigh, big dumper of the Mariners at 7.
03:54Also of Team USA here in the World Baseball Classic.
03:57Along with Paul Skeens of the Pirates coming in at 6.
04:00Juan Soto of the Mets at 5.
04:02Terrick Scuble of the Tigers at 4.
04:05Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals.
04:07Texas' own coming in at 3.
04:09Aaron Judge, number 2 of the Yankees.
04:12And number 1, no surprise, Shohei Ohtani.
04:15But let's stay with Aaron Judge.
04:18And fellas, have you heard the viral Aaron Judge pregame speech?
04:23Yeah.
04:23Yeah.
04:24And I mean, to be fair, was it really a pregame?
04:27It was like they're about to take the field?
04:29It looked like they were in like some...
04:30It wasn't a pregame speech.
04:32It was more of just like he's the one that they chose to give a motivational speech as
04:36the team all got together before they started really practicing.
04:40Okay.
04:40This is the first Team USA team gathering.
04:42Like it's their get-together, and he's the one that they chose to go up there and give their speech.
04:47So he's like Uncle Sam.
04:48Essentially.
04:49Now, if you missed it, here is Aaron Judge.
04:51You sacrifice for your family at home.
04:54You sacrifice for your country.
04:56And you sacrifice for the brothers in the trenches with you every single day.
05:01And that's what they want us to do, fellas.
05:03You know, we're down.
05:04We're beat up a little bit, man.
05:06You know, lean into each other, man.
05:07We're going to lay it out of the line.
05:09If we do that, we're bringing it up home, man.
05:11I'm telling you.
05:13Yeah.
05:14So you had people just clowning him all over Twitter.
05:16Got me ready to run through a wet paper towel.
05:19Just all kinds of jokes.
05:21Not everyone is a good hype man, and that's okay.
05:24Some people just put snoring and sleep face emojis out there.
05:28Did they want him to channel like Al Pacino on any given Sunday?
05:31Like what were they looking for here?
05:32I would think they were thinking Herb Brooks.
05:33Thinking a little Herb Brooks?
05:34Okay, yeah, fair enough.
05:35We just won the hockey goal.
05:37That's in the height of competition.
05:39That's in the middle of, like you are in the trenches of competition at that point.
05:44This is like we're all sitting around, and we're still like stretching out
05:48to make sure that we're healthy for the run we're about to go on.
05:52It was just weird.
05:53Like I wonder why he said we got a sacrifice and we're beaten down.
05:57It's like does this suck for them?
06:00Are they there like, wow, I can't believe we got to do this, man.
06:02Like if you're not fired up to go put on the red, white, and blue
06:05and play in the World Baseball Classic.
06:06Yeah, like I can find somebody else to go do this.
06:09That's weird, you know.
06:11I don't know.
06:12Maybe they don't want to be there.
06:13Yeah, I mean, I think just body clock-wise, you're not used to really getting
06:17into the deep competitive spirit in early March, right?
06:22So that might be a little bit of a part of it,
06:24but I'm sure a lot of those guys are pretty fired up.
06:25And they're part of the bracket in Houston.
06:28Oh, yeah, that'll bring you down.
06:30I can understand that.
06:30I have to bring you down.
06:31They're just dealing with swamp ass.
06:34Everybody's having a hard time locking in here.
06:37Sweaty traffic is what they're dealing with right now.
06:39Yeah, I mean, he was discussing like the sacrifice they're going to put out
06:43there for each other.
06:43I understand that part of it, but it's a motivational speech.
06:47You got to give some energy here.
06:49I got you.
06:49You can't just be like, we're ho-humming this.
06:52Very melancholy.
06:53It was just, yeah, it was just very like run-of-the-mill like we're talking
06:56to each other right now.
06:57Like let's have fun and play together.
06:58Yeah, like give me a little something.
07:00Give me a little bit, like what does it mean to you?
07:01Why don't you show a little bit of energy here?
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