- 17 hours ago
Jared Sandler joined Shan, RJ and Bobby from Spring Training to discuss the Texas Rangers’ outlook, including early offensive improvements and lineup changes. He also talked about expectations for young players, bullpen questions, how the rotation could shape up behind Nathan Eovaldi on Opening Day, and more.
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00:00and jared sandler live in surprise on the dnm leasing hotline here on dfw sports station good
00:05morning brother how are you good morning guys i'm great how are you guys doing well uh where are you
00:11with the uh the the early fathering i can't keep track when you're in the metroplex or back in
00:16arizona and how old is the baby girl all right well where yeah are you in trouble i'm standing
00:23outside the the gym that i go to uh in surprise i'm actually near the sonic drive-in uh and
00:30i guess
00:30uh yeah someone uh someone broke a law yeah give me the top two crimes or what uh an ambulance
00:36out
00:37there it's it's surprise yeah uh it's gonna be uh yeah a heart attack is the someone slashed a
00:43wheelchair no they they uh they unplugged your your little scooter they took the battery out of
00:49your scooter they stole the copper that's right you uh you all in on the wbc not really i mean
00:56i
00:56watched i was all in last night but um i mean hey it's tough the u.s clearly doesn't care
01:02as much
01:02as some of these other countries so why should i care as much as you know like it's uh and
01:07and
01:07the the talent is so are you talking about the u.s players or the u.s fan base uh
01:13maybe both i i don't
01:15you know maybe both listen there's nothing wrong with it uh it's not that they don't care but you
01:21just look at the passion and the energy that some of these other countries demonstrate and some of
01:26the things they say i mean that the players from the dominican uh julio rodriguez said you know i i
01:32want this as much as i'd like to win a world series and albert pool holes who has won a
01:35world series
01:36their manager said that and and these are words right but he said uh you know this would be the
01:41you
01:42know the greatest accomplishment of my career i i i don't know like and i i'm okay with some of
01:48the u.s players not uh not not feeling that way uh you know if if nathan avaldi was there
01:53and he
01:54said i want this more than i want to win another world series i'd be like that's great i i
01:57kind of
01:58would like another world series but i'm obviously not you know i'm not playing that but i i watched
02:03last night i think it's a great tournament it's unfortunately there's just not a great time for
02:08this tournament to take place to get the full experience where paul schemes can go seven or
02:13eight innings instead of being capped and all that stuff but that was such a fun game last night i
02:18hate
02:18that it ended on a a horrible strike three call but that was a really fun game to watch i
02:23know
02:23aaron aaron judge said yeah last night this is the crowd was much better than the world series
02:29what were the what was the reaction the players had to the whole cal raleigh handshake handshake gate
02:36yeah i so i'll tell you rj i think you said last week i was listening that cal raleigh cost
02:41the
02:42mariners right uh i i would say randy rosarena like if you want to blame someone i blame randy
02:47rosarena because why are you going to the media with that if you've got an issue with what cal raleigh
02:52did why are you making a deal of it just handle it privately like that randy rosarena is a fun
02:59player
02:59he's a good player i don't know that i'd say he's a great player he's a good player uh there's
03:03a
03:03reason that the cardinals moved on from him before he became randy rosarena and there's a reason the
03:08raids weren't upset to move on from him either i i i think that some players probably had a little
03:13bit of an eye roll with cal raleigh uh not doing that just because during the regular season it
03:19happens all the time now it might not be a full dap it might just be you know the bat
03:23tap to the
03:24shin guard or some sort of uh non uh you know some sort of verbal acknowledgement that we might not
03:30be
03:30able to see uh i just think that to be honest with you a lot of the players thought it
03:35was odd
03:36that a teammate would go to the media to bash a teammate over that and i don't know that it's
03:41going to have any sort of a ripple effect in in the season for the mariners but if there is
03:46that's
03:46on randy rosarena more than it's on cal raleigh i i i don't i don't blame cal raleigh for being
03:52dialed
03:52in now he probably could have just been like hey or said something to him or whatever uh but yeah
03:58i randy
03:58rosarena go into the media and make it a deal of it that that to me was uh that that
04:02was the
04:03biggest red card violation the whole thing jared sandler from surprise here on the home of the
04:07rangers 105 through the fan what are the top spring training storylines that have jumped out to you so
04:11far well you know the biggest issue for the rangers the last two years their lineup and and specifically
04:18maybe lack of approach lack of plate discipline not necessarily doing what the game tells you to do
04:24playing situationally uh and so that's been a big point of emphasis now again you guys have heard
04:30me say this a thousand times i have zero clue how to uh translate what we see in spring training
04:36into
04:36the regular season because there is there is zero evidence uh that suggests that any of these things
04:41really have a guaranteed correlation but you'd much rather see positive results than negative results
04:47and the rangers going into yesterday's game led major league baseball uh in walks and you know
04:53they've been one of the top offensive teams and it's clear that situationally uh while you're not
04:58seeing things like moving guys over with the same intent that you might in the regular season and
05:03bunting and whatnot the rangers are just more locked in on having an approach i also think that
05:08you know some of the additions they made help reshape the identity of this lineup because
05:13you don't have as much aggression you still have some guys like jake berger and corey seager who
05:18are very aggressive swingers but you balance that out with brandon nimmo and danny jansen and maybe
05:23andrew mccutcheon guys who see pitches guys who will draw walks and it just seems like this lineup
05:28has a much different identity i know that that people wanted the rangers to sign kyle tucker or at you
05:33know that the best hitters out there the rangers probably would love that uh it's clear now that they
05:38were working with a certain amount of financial resources and how to do what you know whatever
05:43they could with that you don't leave 50 million dollars of potential free agency money unspent
05:48and what they did was they made a huge upgrade from jonah heim to danny jansen they made a huge
05:53upgrade from adolis garcia to brandon nimmo those guys were each about 30 to 40 percent better
05:58offensively last year than the guys they're replacing it's not going to be a high bar to clear for whoever
06:05takes over at second base if it's josh smith or if he ends up bouncing around to exceed what
06:10marcus simeon did offensively and now if you get just a little bit better production from jake berger
06:15and josh young and jock peterson you know maybe this lineup has a little bit of a different look to
06:19it but it's got to start with them having an approach and having much better plate discipline
06:24which was just something we haven't seen the last two years are they just as simple as just not
06:28chasing pitches out of the zone are you i mean that that's one that's one part of it yeah i
06:34mean
06:34if you were to try and simplify it i i would that that would be the the way to do
06:37it i also think
06:38though that you know they're going up there uh with a runner at third and one out listen if you
06:46want to if you want to take your your a cut your best cut on an oh pitch fine do
06:51it but when you're
06:51down oh two you got to change your approach you got to realize hey uh i i you know i
06:56got to do
06:57whatever i can to get this guy in things like that understanding uh and and also knowing you know
07:02is it a one run game is it a seven run game are we facing karek skuble and we just
07:06need to scratch
07:07out whatever run we can do we have a pitcher on the ropes and we don't need to let him
07:11off the hook
07:12with a three five pitch inning right like that's the other thing too you know when when you got a
07:17guy like he has he labored the inning before you got his pitch count up you got it you're one
07:21inning
07:22away from getting to the bullpen and getting this really good pitcher out there too many times last
07:26year the rangers would go up with such an aggressive approach that pitcher would have a five six pitch
07:31inning and it gives him another inning that's another inning of facing a really good pitcher
07:36as opposed to getting into the bullpen earlier it also hurts your pitcher because that pitcher
07:40probably just worked a standard length inning maybe a long inning he only has a five pitch inning to
07:45catch his breath it just it all kind of comes together but if you were to boil it down to
07:49one
07:49thing yeah i think balls and strikes plate discipline that's got to improve in a big way
07:55jared sandler joining us here on 105 through the fan jared so you know we always talk about this
07:59whenever there are changes of you know any major coaching aspect of any sports team that we talk
08:05about but you know you talk about plate approach being different i know that uh skip schumacher
08:10talked about when he got hired about how much he doesn't like you know pitchers like i don't like
08:14pitchers who give up free bases i want my guys to get walks uh you know aggressive baser and all
08:18that what are you think the things we're going to notice most about this rangers team that you go
08:23okay that's a philosophical shift from bocce to schumacher well i'll tell you this and i don't
08:29mean this is a slight at all against bruce bocce uh because when you win a world series with a
08:34group
08:34of players i think you give them a leash that uh maybe you know a new manager doesn't feel as
08:41inclined to give them because he wasn't a part of that you know these guys didn't win skip schumacher
08:46world series uh and i don't know if this is a philosophical thing bobby but you know we we talked
08:51last year about accountability and i just think that you know there there is going to be an
08:57understanding that you know we'll give guys a leash we don't want guys walking on eggshells don't want
09:02guys feeling like if they have a bad week they're cooked but i think eventually there's going to be
09:06a point where hey if you're not doing what what we need you to do then that's fine i'm just
09:11not
09:11going to write your name in the lineup uh or i'm going to give you some time off to try
09:16and figure
09:16it out right again it's always a balance because you don't want to create an environment
09:20uh where players start playing scared for their jobs because you know they know that they're on a
09:26you know thin ice but i do think that there's a degree of accountability that we'll see at least
09:31that's what i hope and that's what you know skip schumacher has said uh and i think that that's
09:36important i think you know job competition is important and sometimes you create that because
09:41you got three guys fighting for one spot sometimes you create that because uh even if your backup isn't
09:47a guy you think threatens you you know think of last september it's not like anyone was thinking
09:52that cody freeman was gonna you know take over for marcus simeon necessarily but you better believe
09:57that when a guy's not playing whether he's hurt or getting benched or whatever and the guy in there
10:01is starting to produce that lights a fire under people's asses right and so i just think you can
10:07create job competition through accountability and i think that you're going to see or at least i i believe
10:13that they're going to try and uh create a little more accountability uh if guys aren't doing what
10:19they're supposed to be doing jared you know we talked a little bit already about how offense has
10:24been good during spring training and you can't always project that out whether somebody's been
10:28good or bad it doesn't always project out well to the to the regular season with that being said
10:33still how how concerning is it i guess that that jock peterson who they're really counting on to like
10:40hey we need you to bounce back a little bit has struggled a little bit this spring yeah not
10:45bobby it's just tough for me to be concerned about that because i'm so conditioned that just i don't
10:51want to say none of it matters it matters but there there are a million examples of guys who suck
10:57in
10:57spring training and then they're great in the regular season or vice versa you know and i just said
11:01that like hey they're drawing all these walks i i want to make it very clear i'm not playing both
11:05sides
11:06i say that with the caveat of like i don't know if that's going to translate but it's better than
11:11you know them going up there and and not drawing walks and not showing any play discipline but it's
11:15no there's no guarantee that it translates beyond the fact that you do have some guys in your roster
11:20who have a track record of being that type of a hitter but you know rugnett odore looked great in
11:26spring training for several years and you guys know that he was like my wubby i love you and it
11:30just
11:30never and never quite materialized i'd say this bobby the reason i wouldn't be super concerned is
11:36because you know i think if jock peterson has a rough uh you know three four weeks to start the
11:40season you know i just talked about accountability i don't know that you're going to be running him
11:44out there like you did last year because he's also on the last year of his deal perhaps and so
11:49you know
11:50with with jock last year you know understood why you had to keep doing it and you didn't really have
11:54a lot of great options you know to begin with i just go that there is a level of confidence
11:59that you
11:59know he's in a lot better shape and uh and that you know once this season gets going he's going
12:04to be in a
12:05uh you know a much different position he's a veteran and he's not competing for a job i know
12:10that might upset some people that think that well he should be because of you know how bad he was
12:14last year but i think that sometimes veterans especially veterans who know that they've got a
12:19role and they're comfortable with their role um but you know they're not they're not going to be
12:24the guys that you worry about if numbers aren't there it's maybe guys who you feel like they are
12:28competing for jobs that uh you would be a little more concerned about jared sandler rangers insider
12:32joining us from surprise on the home of the rangers here on sean and rj 105 through the fan
12:36so much of the season feels like it's going to be offensively on you know these kids got to take
12:42the leap right uh evan carter and and wyatt and and josh young through his struggles so where are we
12:49with the young offensive players and your feeling about what could happen with them this year yeah well
12:56let's let's identify two of them and and specifically uh you know talk about what you know
13:01what the rangers need out of them with evan carter the rangers just need him to be you know competitive
13:06against left-handed pitching you know i think that that skip schumacher would love to be able to write
13:10evan carter's name in the lineup against lefties and righties but he's got to earn that uh and you
13:15know i don't think that he needs to be as good against righties his uh you know as good against
13:20lefties as he is against righties but what he's got to be able to do something right whether it's
13:24sell out for power and just be a higher slug lower on base guy or take more of his identity
13:30against righties and amplify it and just be someone who tries to get the four balls before three strikes
13:34and i'm not saying you go up there looking for a walk but you go up there with you know
13:38even more
13:39of a uh you know an intense focus on finding your pitch and at least if you're hitting ninth in
13:44the
13:44order being a pain in the ass for the other pitcher not being an easy out he's got to be
13:49able to do
13:49something like that and with josh young they really need him to hit left-handed pitching
13:54uh it's the flip side here the rangers right now you look at some of the pakoda projections and
13:59whatnot and forget the projections just look at their lineup they are built to crush right-handed
14:04pitching they are a very lefty heavy team they got righties who can hit righties than lefties
14:09like jock peterson and josh smith and evan carter who you know are much more favorable against righties
14:15than lefties the question is how are they going to hit lefties well you got white langford and then
14:20you got nimmo and seager who can hit lefties but who's that other right-handed bat who's going to
14:25make decisions tough for an opposing manager it's not just about when you face the left-handed
14:29starter it's hey i got two nasty lefties in the bullpen who are great at getting lefties out but
14:34maybe not as good against righties uh who are the right-handed hitters who are going to make that
14:39decision tough for the opposing manager right now i think that's a big question mark for the
14:44rangers how are they going to be able to hit lefties and they're going to they're going to
14:47get tested early because through the first three games they're going to play against philadelphia
14:51will be against christopher sanchez and jesus lizardo and those are two very lefties and then
14:56again it's not just about lefty starters it's lefty relievers too in game six seventh eighth inning
15:02matching up you want to be able to protect your hitters you need another right-handed bat other than
15:07white langford who's going to force a manager to think twice or if he doesn't you know alter his
15:12his decision going to make them pay for bringing in the lefty to face that one lefty who's sandwiched
15:18by two righties the cowboys defense just has to give a little bit to the offense to make them
15:24a really really good team the rangers offense just has to give a little to this pitching staff
15:30to make them a good team which one do you have more confidence and faith in the rangers over the
15:36cowboys defense after getting your guy for sean gary yeah i i i think i mean i do think that
15:42you know the cowboys are in a decent position to to do something with all these draft picks and whatnot
15:48and they're the two draft picks in the first round but i i think i have more confidence in the
15:52rangers
15:53offense just simply because they have more guys who have done it before i you know i i don't know
15:58correct me if i'm wrong but uh it's not like the cowboys defense is littered with guys who just had
16:02down years uh with great track records uh so um you know i think i have more confidence for that
16:08reason i like the the moves that the rangers made offensively yes again would have loved for them to
16:13have gotten kyle tucker or just you know name a great offensive player a really good offensive player
16:18but you know it seems like they did the best that they could with whatever you know money they had
16:23uh and they did make upgrades not just in in position but like in in style and identity uh so
16:29i think i i like that the question i have guys is just the bullpen and it i think it
16:35will sort
16:35itself out but it might take some time figuring out who's best fit for what role and you know it's
16:41tough when you don't have that nailed lockdown closer you know is it going to be robert garcia
16:46is it going to be chris martin well tougher to be chris martin if you can't pitch back-to-back
16:50days i think
16:50the rangers would like to protect him by avoiding that so you know is robert garcia ready to take a
16:55step
16:55forward and be this team's closer we'll have to find out i think the rangers have some options to
17:00have a you know a good middle relief and maybe set up core but you still need that guy to
17:05be able to
17:05lock down the ninth inning and that's a question mark i think that a lot of people have sandler we
17:09know nate's on the mound for uh opening day how are you setting up uh obviously it's grom next but
17:15how are you setting up three through five and that is that changing when everybody is healthy and
17:20available so here when are you talking about like cody bradford and jordan montgomery sure yeah
17:27yeah i mean it it could but you know that that we're looking around the all-star break so if
17:32the
17:32rangers are all you know they're healthy one through five in their rotation at that point
17:36you know then that's just that that would be an amazing problem um you know i think with bradford
17:42and montgomery you're probably easing them back in i wouldn't be surprised if bradford starts in a
17:46you know multi-inning relief type role uh you know we'll see with jordan montgomery because
17:51obviously you know we love monty and the last time he wore a rangers uniform he was great but he
17:54hasn't been great since now you know maybe he comes back healthy rejuvenated i know he's he's pumped
17:59to be back here and and you know there's a lot to be said about you know just being happy
18:03where you
18:04are uh but yeah i think that you go i mean mckenzie gore and nrj remember how how a team
18:11structures
18:11their rotation two through five isn't necessarily you know how they they rank them but if you were
18:17to do it in that way then you know gore three lighter four and i think jacob latz is is
18:22you know
18:23the lead dog for five signing jalen beaks i think gives them a little more flexibility to have last
18:28in the rotation by adding a lefty to the bullpen uh you know and i think that kamar rocker starting
18:34the year in triple a is not a bad thing when you consider he's thrown 44 you know career innings
18:40in the minor leagues in double a and triple a combined uh you know in no in no world would
18:45we look at anyone and say hey he's got 44 innings in double a and triple a he's ready to
18:49be a major
18:49league pitcher now he's 26 years old uh we obviously you know would love for him to be uh you
18:54know a
18:55forward in this rotation but he's not there yet and that's okay and thankfully they've got a great
18:59rotation so it doesn't feel like it's a huge miss right now uh you know that he's not there but
19:04you
19:04get him started in triple a and then you bring him up whenever there's a need uh that's my guess
19:08on how
19:09we'll play out but uh you know they might look at kamar rocker and say hey we we need to
19:13see what
19:13he can do and uh you know maybe they feel like jacob blatz fits better in the bullpen right now
19:17big picture but i think jacob blatz is probably the lead dog to be the fifth starter who is your
19:22ncaa
19:22champion and what is your hot tip for everybody's bracket well i i like santa clara uh winning their
19:29first round matchup i like uh i like st john's i don't think you know kansas is a weird kind
19:34of
19:34and i love cam i'm a big kansas basketball fan one of my brothers went to kansas but they're just
19:39kind of weird and broken uh i i like st john's they're playing some really good basketball uh i
19:46trust uh i i trust the mob leader uh you know on the on the sideline um i i do
19:52wonder though is this
19:53the first time since 97 that a west coast team wins the title you know arizona i don't think has
19:59advanced beyond the sweet 16 in almost a decade or a little over a decade but uh that's a really
20:04good team uh koa pizza a stud uh i like tommy lloyd so is this year that arizona gets to
20:10the
20:10uh you know gets to the promised land it's crazy a west coast team hasn't won and uh you know
20:16and
20:16and uh maybe payton payton i don't know when payton was born but basically payton russell's lifetime
20:22so i like arizona i mean duke duke's got some injury issues that you know i think can maybe uh
20:28they
20:28can buy some time by getting out of the first week but i do like duke that's a tough bracket
20:32i mean
20:32there's a lot of there's a lot of really good programs in that you know in that draw in that
20:37region uh but i like arizona what are you guys thinking who's y'all's early pick uh you're right
20:42duke has got a tough bracket all those hall of fame coaches we we can't spoil our brackets jared that
20:48that's gonna that'll give away our content later in the week i haven't gotten past that for the only
20:53fan subscribers yeah yeah the only one i have so far 99 is i put houston in my final four
20:58that's the
20:58only one i have completed so far hey i think you said florida florida's fun to watch but i think
21:03houston like if florida and houston match up that's uh i'm taking houston florida's not a great three
21:08point shooting team and uh houston the way they they pressure the ball makes life miserable for
21:14opponents i do like houston still thank you brother congrats on the little one see you when you get back
21:19see you fell
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