00:00How can you not be romantic about romanticizing last year in the baseball world and the offense that the Texas
00:08Rangers have?
00:08What have I told you here on Diamond Cavs?
00:11I think this is your fifth attempt at doing this.
00:13What, the offense?
00:15Making us feel better.
00:15Yeah.
00:16What have I told you?
00:17If the Rangers' offense was not bad, it was unlucky.
00:21What have I told you that?
00:23This is from ESPN.
00:25They did their preseason because the baseball season starts today, Peyton.
00:28It starts tonight.
00:30They did a preseason projected win totals, playoff odds, World Series chances, and power rankings.
00:38And the Rangers come in.
00:39This is higher than I've seen them anywhere else.
00:41Most of the places I've seen them, 17, 18.
00:44ESPN has them at number 14.
00:46They have them at number 14, a projected record of 83 and 79.
00:5040% chance to make the playoffs, 2% chance to win the World Series.
00:55And one thing they said the thing we'll be talking about most this season is Wyatt Lankford taking another leap.
01:00And, obviously, the write-up is he made the opening day roster in 24, bet to much fanfare, less than
01:07a year after getting drafted with the fourth spot.
01:09The left fielder was better last year, 22 homers, 22 steals, a 5.6 war in 134 games.
01:16At just 24, a five-tool skill set.
01:20There's room for improvement.
01:21In his third season, spring training production can be fool's gold, but he has crushed pitching in the Cactus League.
01:30One bold prediction, they say.
01:32A little worrisome.
01:34A little worrisome.
01:35I talked about this yesterday with McCutcheon.
01:37Every single hype preview is focused on one guy.
01:42It's all one guy.
01:42It's all Wyatt Lankford.
01:44It's all Wyatt Lankford.
01:45That part's good, but, man, you'd like to be able to talk about two or three other things.
01:49Yeah.
01:50I was seeing some Jake Berger.
01:52Uh-huh.
01:52Peterson.
01:53A little bit of Jack Leiter.
01:54Yep.
01:55Uh, Jock?
01:58Peterson?
01:58Maybe a little bit, yeah.
02:00Oh, he looks in better shape.
02:02Oh, my God.
02:02He's in better shape.
02:03I don't know if I like that one.
02:04Throw that into the McCutcheon category.
02:06Like, if we're that excited about Jock Peterson, come on.
02:08That's it.
02:09Look, they're going to be, it's pretty simple.
02:13I assume Wyatt Lankford's going to take a leap.
02:15I assume Corey Seager's going to be great when he's out there.
02:18It all comes down to young Carter.
02:21Are they healthy, and can they play?
02:24Like, can they recreate 2023 and stay healthy?
02:28I expect the pitching to be pretty damn good.
02:31I expect the pitching to be a top 10 rotation of the sport.
02:34Top five.
02:36If it's not, if it's not a top five rotation, you're going to struggle.
02:40Yeah.
02:41You're going to struggle.
02:41It's as simple as that.
02:43We'll get to how the offense was better, but let me tell you this.
02:47The bold prediction, last time they had two pitchers make the All-Star team was 2013.
02:512013, Darvish and Joe Nathan.
02:54This year, they expect Evaldi and DeGrom to be selected, and they both finish with ERAs in the twos.
03:02That would be awesome.
03:04Keeping the Rangers in the AL West race into the final week of the regular season.
03:08Okay.
03:09There's the bold prediction.
03:10ERA in the twos, not that bold.
03:12If, like, expectations of baseball to me is always odd, because it's such a long season.
03:20Like, a team like this, it's like, I need to be playing meaningful baseball in September.
03:27Meaningful baseball in September.
03:28A chance at a wild card.
03:30You're going to get unlucky.
03:31You're going to win some games.
03:32You should lose.
03:33You're going to lose some games.
03:34You should win.
03:34It's just make sure that that number is on the right side of the positive.
03:39What they can control, you know, obviously, is they can't control health.
03:44They can't control health.
03:45They can control basically their pitching staff, and that's it.
03:48But they can't even control health on that one either.
03:50Brett Boone, former Rangers hitting coach, joins us at 9 o'clock this morning, and he'll be joining us throughout
03:56the year.
03:57And on Zoom, we'll see his face.
03:59His pretty little face.
04:00It's 7 a.m.
04:00It'll be 9 a.m.
04:01Our time, 7 a.m.
04:02They say Skip Schumacher is the most likely award winner as AL Manager of the Year.
04:09What?
04:11Of everybody on the organization, the most likely award winner that the Rangers have is Skip Schumacher.
04:18Not that he's going to win it.
04:19Not that he's going to win, but if the Rangers have an award winner, it's most likely to be Schumacher.
04:24All right.
04:25Because other candidates, Wyatt MVP, Cy Young.
04:32The Wyatt MVP problem is Bobby Jr. and Aaron Judge.
04:38Yeah.
04:39Aaron seems to just be on cruise control right now, and Bobby has been knocking on the door.
04:43Do they do a baseball most improved?
04:45Do we have that like we do in the NFL?
04:47I don't really remember hearing that.
04:49I don't know.
04:49I don't know if they do or not.
04:51Because that would be the most likely award for one of these bounce backs, hopefully.
04:55I mean, it could be Berger, Peterson, Young, Carter.
04:58I mean, any one of those guys, right?
05:00You know, they could have that.
05:01Maybe they have a utility man of the year, and Josh Smith gets it.
05:05But one thing they say in this, the Rangers are a sleeper team.
05:08They do not have an official most improved player.
05:10The Rangers put up a run differential of a 90-win team last year, despite being 81-81.
05:19They retooled the offensive attack.
05:21If they challenge for the West title, Schumacher's going to get a lot of credit.
05:24So I went and looked.
05:26You know, they had a bullpen that was near the top of the league, AL, in ERA.
05:32The Rangers scored 500 runs in their 81 wins.
05:40They scored less than 200 runs in their 81 losses.
05:45And I was like, that seems high.
05:49That seems like a really, really, really, really, really big differential.
05:53Yeah.
05:53Of the 700 runs you score, and you had the same amount of wins and losses, you scored
05:58two and a half times the amount of runs.
06:00Because this isn't garbage time in football.
06:02No.
06:03This isn't last four minutes, just go up and down the field when you're getting blown out.
06:08Imagine the Cowboys averaging 20 points a game in their losses and 30 in their wins.
06:16Or actually, 35 in their wins.
06:18That's what it would be.
06:18So basically, they're home and road.
06:20Right.
06:20It would be 35 in their wins and 20 in their losses.
06:23That's how you get to be a 500 team.
06:25That's how the Cowboys were 7-9-1.
06:28Right?
06:28They played well at home.
06:29They didn't play well on the road.
06:30They scored a lot in their wins.
06:31They didn't score in their losses.
06:33But to score 500 runs in their wins and less than 200 in your losses, and, you know, maybe
06:39I went through all the teams.
06:40This would be normal.
06:41But every other team that I found that had a split similar to that, where they're scoring
06:47two and a half times the amount of runs in their wins versus losses, they all won 90 games.
06:52Okay.
06:52They all won 90 games.
06:54This was all or nothing.
06:55And that has to change.
06:57But the Rangers also are higher on this than I've seen them anywhere else.
07:01They've got them as the 8th best American League team.
07:0490 games, by the way, with Seattle winning the West.
07:07Yeah.
07:07With exactly 90 games.
07:08You win 90 games, you're making the postseason.
07:11You're either going to win the division or you're going to get in the wild card.
07:13But the team's ahead of them, and they've got to get into the top, what, six?
07:18They've got Baltimore ahead of them, and they've got Houston.
07:20I don't trust Baltimore.
07:22I think Houston's on the downward spiral.
07:24I don't trust Houston.
07:25Honestly, I don't love the Red Sox like everybody else does.
07:29Their top-end rotation's really good.
07:31Roman Anthony's a superstar.
07:33Outside of Duran, I don't love their lineup.
07:35But are you believe, this is a classic case of a segment we used to call eyes versus calculator.
07:42Because you can give me all the run differential stuff, and it is nice to hear that every other team
07:51has won 90 games.
07:52That tells me they did get unlucky by nine losses, but my eyes sees the lineup, looks at the numbers,
08:00knows the names, and I'm not buying into it.
08:03The reason I'm not buying into it.
08:05I want to buy into it, but I'm not.
08:06Yeah, I am taking the approach of, like.
08:11It can't be worse.
08:12Well, it can't be worse.
08:13You can't have a worse year for Young and Carter and Jock.
08:17I'm taking the approach of, like, sooner or later, these guys are going to get healthy.
08:23They're not going to just sit there and miss.
08:27Yeah, four guys miss 40 games each.
08:30And that's sooner or later.
08:32But, Choppy, here's the problem.
08:33It happened in 2023, by the way, where they got healthy.
08:35Here's the problem.
08:39If Evan Carter and Josh Young both play 145 games, I'm still not to the point.
08:46That you think they're going to be good.
08:47That I know that they're definitely good.
08:49I get it.
08:50I mean, Carter, when he first came up, Young has had his moments where I was getting ready to believe.
08:56Yeah, I get you.
08:57Defensively and offensively.
08:58But, okay, it's not like saying, let's make sure Grant Hill, let's make sure Trout is healthy.
09:05If Trout's healthy, we're good.
09:06Yeah.
09:07If these guys are healthy, I still don't know.
09:09Right.
09:09I get it.
09:10And that's something they're going to have to overcome because they're going to have to progress.
09:14The one thing about that that gives me a little bit of hope is that when you're up and down,
09:23when you're healthy, then healthy and hurt, you can't really get into a groove.
09:28And maybe if you're able to stay healthy for an entire year, you could find a way to get into
09:33a groove.
09:33It's really hard to get better when you're sitting on the bench.
09:36It's really hard for Josh Young to improve as a player when he's playing 30 games and he's out for
09:4220.
09:43Right.
09:43It's really, really hard.
09:44So that's the hope.
09:46And it's hopium.
09:48It is.
09:49We're drunk on hopium right now.
09:52But that's where the Rangers sit.
09:54We've got some ABS.
09:58So Netflix tonight.
10:00Major League Baseball starts.
10:01Let me give you my Bonds clip.
10:03All right.
10:03We can get to more Diamond Caps throughout the show.
10:05Brett Boone at 9 o'clock.
10:07So this is going to be Barry Bonds added to the coverage.
10:11It's Yankees and Giants.
10:13It's a standalone game.
10:15Video goes along even better than this, but I just nerded up over this.
10:19I think you will as well.
10:20And hopefully the Tolos do.
10:21Hopefully Barry Bonds can add some of this.
10:24This is some random clips that have been leaking out on the Internet of Barry getting the iPad
10:30and recalling some of his matchups.
10:33Here's one of the all-time ones.
10:36Maddox versus Bonds.
10:38Ooh, jam.
10:39Fastball.
10:40What was that?
10:4192.
10:42Pretty good cutter that beat him.
10:44I'm feeling okay about throwing that pitch.
10:47So he's going to try to float a changeup or something.
10:49That little floater away.
10:51Because he thinks I'm going to speed up because they jammed me.
10:54The cutter beat him.
10:56So I thought he would speed up.
10:57I threw a changeup and he spit on it.
11:00Yeah, it's his changeup.
11:03I mean, that's a pretty good changeup right there.
11:05And it was an easy take for him.
11:07I didn't even try.
11:08I just knew it.
11:10And now we're playing chess.
11:12He knows he can't beat me inside.
11:15Experience has taught me that he's probably looking in.
11:18Back then, I didn't know it.
11:19And most of the time, I was always waiting for that 92 and back over the plate so I could
11:25catch him.
11:26And I'm just praying for it.
11:29Bonds hits one high to right field and deep.
11:32And there it goes.
11:34Can't come in the well twice, buddy.
11:36You just can't do it.
11:38And Greg knows because I always have this saying, you cannot come in the penthouse without an invite.
11:43So that is maybe the greatest thinker of all time on the mound versus the brilliance of Barry at the
11:50plate.
11:51I've seen that video.
11:52I love it.
11:53It is one of my all time.
11:54It's like watching him talk hitting, you know, just changing the, you know, he said that he always had this
12:02phrase, like, you know, somebody is catching that 100-mile-an-hour pitch.
12:06Right?
12:07There's a guy back there catching it.
12:08And he goes, he's using a mitt.
12:10I just replaced the bat with the glove.
12:12Like, I just, or a glove with the bat.
12:13And I'm just trying to catch the baseball.
12:15Because you got all the cheating and the body and the steroids and all that.
12:20But when you listen to Barry talk and he's not a jackass like he was when he played, then you
12:26remember his dad and Willie and all the technical stuff that he knows and puts on display when he discusses
12:36it.
12:36All right.
12:37So we got a wrinkle this year, the ABS, the Automated Ball Strike Challenge System.
12:41So there's a video that's out there about Kevin Biggio.
12:47And in this clip, the pitch comes in.
12:51It's a 3-2 pitch.
12:52It's a little bit low.
12:53He thinks it's a little bit low, I should say.
12:56And he kind of swings his bat like he's going to throw it to the dugout to walk.
13:00Well, the umpire calls it a strike.
13:03But as the umpire calls it a strike, he's swinging his bat.
13:05He's throwing his bat.
13:06And then he challenges.
13:07He puts his hand on his head.
13:08The umpire says, nope.
13:10Too late.
13:11So I'm thinking to myself, wait a minute.
13:13What do you mean too late?
13:13How many seconds should go by before you should be able to challenge a strike?
13:183, 4, 5, 10?
13:20Not zero.
13:21No.
13:22Like, they're basically saying that the second the umpire calls the pitch, you've got to tap your head.
13:28You can't move.
13:29You can't leave the box.
13:30You can't do anything.
13:31You can't start your jog to first.
13:33You're saying how long should it take from the batter to challenge it?
13:36Yeah.
13:37The batter?
13:38Oh, less than three.
13:39Yeah, the batter takes the pitch.
13:40Yeah.
13:41The umpire calls strike.
13:42Yeah.
13:43Three seconds.
13:44I would think that sounds fair.
13:46But if you take the pitch, and it's a 3-2 pitch or a 3-1 pitch or whatever, and
13:51you start your trot to first, and the umpire calls it a strike, too late.
13:56You're out of the box or whatever.
13:57It's too late.
13:58And it's like, man, this is going to cause a problem.
14:01Because you've got guys who are going to be tapping, and it's up to the discretion of the umpire when
14:06they allow a challenge.
14:07I mean, you should be able to challenge a pitch until then, you know, a couple of seconds.
14:10Diamond Cavs on the home of the Rangers.
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