00:00How can you not be romantic about still having something that isn't dead yet?
00:04And that is a real cleanup hitter, Jake Berger, baby.
00:09Have it a year! Have a year, Jake!
00:12Corey Major's looking good. Best he's ever looked.
00:16Coming from Surprise, Arizona.
00:19He's tweeting me over almost every other Corey Major's at bat.
00:25He's just viewing it as his own after his scouting report of Jake in Surprise on your home of the
00:31Rangers.
00:31They get another win, 5-2 over Baltimore.
00:34Evan Carter with the double in the second inning.
00:37Nemo, RBI single.
00:39You see the big hammer?
00:40The big, what is that thing that he's swinging in the on-deck circle?
00:45I don't know what it's called.
00:46Sledgehammer.
00:48Nemo, RBI single, puts him up 2-1.
00:50Berger, RBI single, 3-1.
00:52Jock with the sack fly, 4-1 after two innings.
00:56And that was Evan Carter's second hit of the game.
00:59Jack Leiter did his thing.
01:01Really got locked in in the fourth inning.
01:04And then you get the bullpen.
01:07As Junis is forced to get a little bit of a break, I think, there at first base.
01:11Yeah, I think he did.
01:13Look, that is Junis, Beeks, close it out.
01:16It was a really nice play by both.
01:19By both him and Berger.
01:20Berger's standing in there.
01:21He has to go across the bag, get in harm's way, you know, with the runner.
01:28Hanging in there.
01:28You got 220 pounds barreling down at you at whatever speed that guy's running at.
01:33I mean, that's scary, right?
01:35But Berger had a day.
01:37He's having a season.
01:38I love the Jack Leiter went out for the sixth inning.
01:41That to me is a, this is my game mentality.
01:46And not everybody has that.
01:47A lot of pitchers now are like, look, I hit my pitch count.
01:50I'm not going to risk it.
01:52And then Jack, and his dad was like this.
01:54His dad would throw 140 pitches in a game.
01:58Did not care.
01:59Is that Jack or is that Skip?
02:01I mean, look, Skip has to allow it.
02:03But I think Jack has to talk him into it, too, at some point.
02:06Maybe not today, not yesterday.
02:08In today's baseball where it stands, is four innings of your bullpen normal or like a little
02:14bit too much?
02:15Because I was a little surprised he went back out there.
02:18But then I'm like, you don't want to use bullpen for 6, 7, 8, 9.
02:21But is that more the norm today?
02:23Or is that stretching a little bit where ideally you want 7, 8, 9?
02:27Ideally, you want your pitcher to go 6.
02:296, 4 is absolutely normal, though.
02:34Like, it happens all the time.
02:36And it really, I think it's a shame.
02:39Because, you know, if you want to go, like, what is the number one, just from a crowd perspective,
02:43the number one reason why somebody buys tickets day of is a good pitching matchup.
02:50Oh, DeGrom's on the hill today.
02:52Oh, it's DeGrom against Scooble?
02:56Let's go.
02:57No, right?
02:58Because you don't know who the, at the beginning of the year, when the Tigers come in here,
03:02I don't know when the Tigers come in here.
03:03Let's say it's July.
03:04You can't circle on the calendar, I'm going to buy tickets to this game, because you don't
03:08know who the pitching matchup's going to be.
03:09Oh, my.
03:10Brian brought us with the text message that Jake Berger will be on the G-Bag Nation today.
03:152.30.
03:16Hey, no Berger innuendo, dum-dums.
03:20Yeah.
03:20Brian, I know he'll stay out of it.
03:22But no Berger innuendo with Jake, who is also a burlesque man.
03:29Yeah.
03:29He is a burlesque.
03:30Burley.
03:32Burley.
03:32Burley.
03:32Burley.
03:33Burlesque is right there.
03:33That's burlesque, and she's not, she does not look like Jake Berger over there on the
03:37wall.
03:37There's a new girl tomorrow, by the way.
03:39April 1st.
03:40New girl tomorrow, Sean.
03:41That's right.
03:41Speaking of Burley, John Peterson off to a bad start.
03:44I'm just saying, I'm going to throw it out there, anybody on G-Bag who wants 50 bucks
03:49to ask the first three questions about brisket.
03:5450 per question.
03:56But let's see.
03:57So I said right there, is the cleanup hitter dead?
04:02And we don't have that right now.
04:04Right now, we've got Jake Berger, who's off to a great start.
04:07Over the first, you know, four games of the season, he's hitting .471, .500 on base, .882
04:13slugging percentage.
04:14And I noticed that if you go around the sport, the cleanup hitter is a dying breed.
04:21And that's kind of what it looks like.
04:23These teams have put in guys like Mason Wynn, who had nine home runs last year, and Pete
04:29Carl Armstrong, who had an on base less than .290, and Alex Baum, who had 11 home runs last
04:34year.
04:34And Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman had an OPS less than Marcus Simeon last year.
04:39And, you know, some of the reasons for that is that pitchers throw about to 21 hitters
04:43a game.
04:43And the theory is, is that after 18 hitters, they're already gassed.
04:46So you want your best hitters on those final three spots to be one, two, and three in the
04:50order.
04:50And the cleanup hitter was your power spot.
04:54Now it's not that anymore.
04:55It's a completely different type of spot in the order.
04:59And the Rangers are not going with that trend necessarily.
05:03Now, Jake Berger's not going to sit here and hit you 40 home runs.
05:06That's not who he is.
05:08I mean, he can hit home runs, but no one's expecting 45 out of Jake Berger.
05:12But they've got a lot of production out of the cleanup spot right now.
05:17And that's awesome.
05:18If he hits 40 home runs, will you get a Rangers jersey that says 40 Berger on it?
05:23Oh, baby.
05:24Oh, God.
05:25Oh, wow.
05:26That's good.
05:27Yes.
05:28All right.
05:28There.
05:28We got a commitment.
05:29Yes, I will.
05:32Look, that's all the good.
05:33By the way, are they doing that in high school baseball with the cleanup hitter as well?
05:37Are they changing things up?
05:39Were best hitters hitting second?
05:41No.
05:42No.
05:43I mean, I think with Luka's team, their best player hits leadoff.
05:48You know, so I guess maybe they are because they're putting their best hitter at the top.
05:53So, look, all that's good.
05:54Let's get that out of the way.
05:56There's some bad still.
05:57I got to get to my bad.
06:00I can't physically stand watching Josh Young hit.
06:06I can't look at it.
06:08I'm rage texting Sandler early in the game.
06:11Then I texted you guys with a later at bat.
06:14Then I put it on Twitter.
06:15I just can't.
06:15I couldn't hold back.
06:16Like, Bobby sent the perfect meme in Jif.
06:20Like, he may as well take that damn sledgehammer that Nimmo was swinging in the on-deck circle.
06:27Because that's what it looks like.
06:29Someone get him a smaller bat for God's sake.
06:31Try anything.
06:32I know we try to send him down to minors.
06:33I cannot stand watching.
06:36It's like having my kid try to pick up his bat and swing it.
06:40Josh Young with zeros across the board to start the season.
06:45Listen, 0 for 17.
06:470-0-0 average.
06:490-0-0 OPS.
06:51I can't take it.
06:53And I know a lot of people threw in Jock.
06:54I get it.
06:55But I don't have as much hope for Jock as I do Josh Young.
06:59I can't take watching him swing, flail over, how long it takes.
07:05What was the GIF, Bob?
07:07It was a big lumberjack swinging an axe.
07:09Yeah, I like it.
07:10That's Josh Young.
07:11Now, I will say.
07:12I can't stand it.
07:13Early on, it's not been the normal Josh Young of him just, like, ripping and missing.
07:18It's not like a high whiff rate.
07:20But that dude has one of the most, like, violent uppercut swings on the team.
07:29And I was looking at this last night.
07:30He's had 17 at-bats now.
07:32He has hit zero fly balls.
07:35There's not a single fly ball that he's hit so far this year.
07:38He's got a line out.
07:39In fact, in his 17 at-bats, he has one ball that's been hit in play and left the infield.
07:45Listen, I'm a big fan of what's going on with him right now.
07:48I mean, look, fly balls take too long.
07:50Ground balls are quicker.
07:51He's swinging and missing at three straight pitches.
07:53Those at-bats take no time.
07:55We're moving on to the next hitter.
07:56You know, the good news is you can move him in the lineup still.
07:58So you can move him down.
08:00You've still got a couple of spots to go.
08:02But he has one swing.
08:04He's hit the Joey Gallo part of his career where he has one swing,
08:09and it's that same looping swing, and there's a hole in that swing.
08:12There's a hole in the swing.
08:13It's like Mr. Baseball.
08:14Good movie, Peyton.
08:15You better go watch it.
08:16Tom Sillik, Mr. Baseball.
08:17Fantastic movie.
08:18The Rangers do have another problem with their offense.
08:22Even still, they are 18 runs over the last three games, six a game.
08:27They are striking out at a really high rate.
08:31A really high rate.
08:3211 more last night.
08:34They have 45 strikeouts through four games.
08:37Jake Berger, I think last night was the first time,
08:40like as good as he's been the first three games,
08:43every single one of his at-bats was a hit or strikeout for the first three games.
08:47He only got out with strikeouts the first three times.
08:49It's like the three true outcomes.
08:50That's what they're going with.
08:51But they are on pace.
08:54Again, 11 strikeouts per game.
08:58They are on pace to not break the single season record.
09:03Shatter the single season record.
09:06They're on pace right now to have 200 more strikeouts
09:09than any team in the history of the sport.
09:11What?
09:11Any team.
09:12No one's ever averaged 11 strikeouts per game.
09:15Does this seem like that when you're watching them?
09:17Or is it just different when they have the lead
09:19and it's affecting how you're viewing it?
09:21It's what you were talking about at the beginning of the season
09:24of like the teams that take more pitches.
09:26Like, for instance, Josh Young is still striking out a ton.
09:30Josh Young has struck out swinging, I think, twice.
09:34Seven overall.
09:34Yeah, it's a bunch of he's just taking pitches.
09:37Like they're taking a lot more strikes right now.
09:39Hey, guys, they don't even lead the league.
09:43They're not even bottom five.
09:45What?
09:45The Rangers have 45 strikeouts.
09:48The Tigers have 46.
09:50The White Sox have 53.
09:52The Mariners have 55.
09:54The Guards have 55.
09:56The Angels have 55.
09:58And the Athletics have 57 strikeouts in four games.
10:03Now, first week or two, first month of the season, advantage who?
10:07Pitchers.
10:07Not even close.
10:08First 30 games.
10:10Maybe not 30.
10:10Maybe a couple of weeks.
10:12Big-time advantage pitchers.
10:13You know, the hitters are still trying to get.
10:16It's cold a lot of places, too.
10:18Hitters hate hitting in the cold.
10:19And then, of course, like, you know, you're seeing pitchers sometimes for the first time.
10:24Pitchers have developed new pitches.
10:25Jack Leder, right?
10:25He's working on that cutter.
10:27That's something that a lot of these hitters haven't seen a whole lot of.
10:30So you've got pitchers working in new pitches.
10:32They're a little bit ahead.
10:33But, you know, to lose 33% of your outs without getting any runners on, any runners over, putting any
10:40ball in play.
10:41I know the nerds prefer strikeouts to groundouts, but those nerds have never had a man on second base with
10:47nobody out and a ground ball to the right side in a tie game in the seventh inning.
10:51All right?
10:51It matters.
10:52It helps.
10:53So I wish you could clean that up.
10:57Wish you could clean that up.
10:58But as it stands right now, that's not the case.
11:02Skip Schumacher had a quote during the offseason.
11:04He said that he wants the lineup to be a lineup of tough outs.
11:07That was just the most important thing to him.
11:09And he said the tougher the out you are, one through nine, the better off we're going to be in
11:12the long run.
11:13I don't like these huge gaps and being able to game plan against you.
11:16Like, there's one way to get you out, and you can't overcome it, and you go 0 for 4.
11:19I like baseball players.
11:20I like baseball players that can change the game a number of different ways.
11:24We're in an era now where, like, guys strike out a ton.
11:27So there's that aspect.
11:29I don't feel like they've been an easy out lineup, though, the first four games.
11:34So even though there's a bunch of strikeouts, it's like I don't feel like it's been easy to get them
11:38out every time.
11:38They're working out.
11:39Josh Young has been some of his strikeout.
11:41He's, like, worked seven, eight-pitch counts, and then he strikes out.
11:44Diamond Cavs on the home of the Rangers with Sean, RJ, and Bobby back together again, along with Pei-Pei
11:49back from Nashville.
11:51Allow me to go after Sports Illustrated here for where they have the Rangers rotation.
11:55Gentlemen.
11:55Ranked.
11:56They have the Rangers rotation as the sixth.
11:58That was, like, seven jobs ago.
11:59They have the sixth best rotation of the sport.
12:03It's top four at worst.
12:04I have no problem if they have Seattle ahead.
12:06I have no problem with the Dodgers ahead.
12:08By the end of the year, when Garrett Cole returns and Rodon, I have no problem.
12:13They put the Yankees ahead.
12:15But that's it.
12:16First of all, Detroit.
12:18They have Detroit.
12:18So they have the Rangers at sixth.
12:21At fifth is the Dodgers.
12:23I've got no problem with that.
12:24That's too low.
12:25At fourth is the Phillies.
12:26I don't really have a problem with that.
12:27When Nola is your three, that's not a big deal.
12:31So the Tigers, and I don't probably see it, like I said, but the Tigers at two and the
12:36Red Sox at three.
12:38Detroit outside of Scooble.
12:40You cannot have Fromber.
12:42He would not be the top two in this rotation.
12:45He might not be in the top three.
12:47And no one is scared of Jack Flaherty up there throwing 80 poo.
12:51Nobody is scared of that.
12:53And the Red Sox.
12:55I love Garrett Crochet.
12:56I love Ranger Suarez.
12:58Sonny Gray is a bum.
13:01He is a bum.
13:02He is going to get run out of Boston, just like he got run out of New York.
13:05He is a bum.
13:07He is soft.
13:07He can't handle it.
13:09I'm just glad they didn't put Toronto ahead, because Toronto, I would have lost my you-know-what.
13:14The dumbest signing of the offseason was them signing Dylan Cease to $210 million.
13:19That guy is lucky that Aaron Judge is in the sport, or he would be the biggest gag artist
13:24in Major League Baseball.
13:25The choke is on him.
13:27The choke's on Cease.
13:28He makes 33 starts a year.
13:29He's never sniffed 200 innings.
13:32He gets a drop of sweat in his brow, and he packs it in for the night, just like he
13:35did
13:35in the playoffs.
13:36He's a loser, just like Sonny Gray.
13:40The Rangers should not be any lower than fourth on this.
13:42If you want to, I could argue that he should be a third as well.
13:45Diamond Cavs here in the commercial-free expressway on DFW Sports Station.
13:50So, final thing.
13:52But to what extent do you look at that and go, Scooble is, a lot of people would argue, the
13:56best pitcher in baseball.
13:58Absolutely the best.
13:58So, if that's the case, then at what point do you say, you've got the best pitcher in
14:02baseball, and then some guys who are good, some guys who are decent.
14:05Does that trump having, like, three, what you feel are, like, three really good starters
14:10for Texas?
14:10If you've got the best guy, and then some guys who are decent.
14:13I think I would rather have three or four really good starters.
14:16Like, 8 out of 10s, then a 10 out of 10, a 7 out of 10, and two 5 out
14:23of 10s.
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