00:00This is your home for Rangers baseball and Brett Boone, former Rangers hitting coach,
00:05of course, dominating the Odyssey podcast scene.
00:08I'm hearing promos and commercials read by Mr. Hollywood Brett Boone,
00:13and he is brought to you by Granger for the ones who get it done here on
00:17Shauna and RJ 105.3 The Fan.
00:20Brett, what are you seeing early on with the Texas Rangers?
00:23Best start since 2012, 8-3 yesterday over Baltimore, fourth straight win.
00:31No, I've been watching it, and obviously I have a little bit of a bias just by working with those
00:38guys.
00:39The majority of that roster was intact a year ago, and I really want these hitters, especially the hitters.
00:45I love my pitchers over there in Texas, but I'm really excited when they do well.
00:51So it's great to see them get off to the start, 4-1, and I'll try to keep my bias
00:55out of it as much as I can.
00:56And what I love that I'm seeing, I love at the top of the order, there's something Nimmo's bringing to
01:02that lineup
01:02that I think's in a real positive way.
01:04Obviously, McCutcheon with two big at-bats early for him coming out of left field, you know, a late signing.
01:12He's getting on in years.
01:14He's had an unbelievable career, but what he's contributed already has been a real positive thing.
01:20Jansen hitting a home run yesterday.
01:21You're getting it from everywhere.
01:22It's good to see Berger come back.
01:24He was beat up and banged up last year.
01:26He had the hand thing at the end where he was day-to-day.
01:30To see him healthy, swinging the bat, he's got a couple homers early.
01:34Seager's going to be Seager.
01:35You just got to keep him on the field.
01:36You keep Ford Seager on the field, he's in that MVP category.
01:40He's in that MVP talk.
01:42So I see nothing but positive things.
01:45You know, Latt's coming, getting called to duty with DeGrom not being able to go for his first start,
01:51giving you a great start there.
01:53Gore looked great.
01:55Leiter looks like Leiter.
01:56I think he's going to get better and better as it goes on.
01:59The two guys that are the most established, Vivaldi and DeGrom, had the two roughest starts.
02:07But I don't worry about them.
02:08I worry about them being healthy.
02:10If they're healthy, they're going to be good.
02:12This Texas Rangers pitchy set, we know they can pitch.
02:17The bullpen's a little bit of a question mark.
02:19That'll work its way out as the season goes on.
02:22But through the lineup, what I've seen so far, real positive.
02:26Great start, 4-1.
02:28But then again, we're five games in.
02:30So I don't want to get ahead of ourselves.
02:32But what I see so far, it looks great.
02:35It looks great.
02:35And I'm happy to see my guys swinging the bats early.
02:38Booney, and obviously, Nimmo, you mentioned him at the top.
02:41But one of the things for me, the bottom of the order, Carter and Higgy, or Carter and Duran,
02:48how important is the bottom of the order to really making an offense special,
02:53turning that lineup over, getting on base for the guys at the top?
02:58Oh, I think that's huge.
02:59You know, Duran, I sent him a text yesterday.
03:02He hit a homer.
03:03I know he hasn't hit a homer.
03:04It's 2024, and he loves his homer.
03:08But that's awesome to see.
03:10You know, it's stuff like that.
03:12It's Evan Carter.
03:13He's down at the bottom of the lineup.
03:15You know, we talked about it last week.
03:17I told Evan from the day I met him.
03:19I said, you're a left-handed Trey Turner, skill set-wise.
03:25You've got that type of ability.
03:27He's still young, still developing.
03:29Obviously, he came on the scene in that World Series year and was a huge, huge factor.
03:34Been banged up with injuries to keep him healthy.
03:37It's just, you know, to see Higgy swinging the bat, got a couple big hits early.
03:41It's just kind of clicking right now on all cylinders for these guys.
03:46Yeah, the top, obviously the most important.
03:49Wyatt hasn't gotten it going yet, but he had a great spring.
03:52Wyatt's going to get it going.
03:54Jock Peterson.
03:55You know, I love Jock, but he's off to a tough start again.
03:59It's tough when you have that type of year that he did a year ago.
04:04And, man, you feel – I've been there.
04:07And I feel like you put the pressure of the world on you to, all right, I had a bad
04:13year last year.
04:13It's over with.
04:14Let's put it in the river, but let's get off to a hot start.
04:16And sometimes you can press too much coming out of the chute,
04:20and that's maybe what Jock's doing early.
04:22But hopefully he gets it going for this team as well.
04:25Brett Boone joining us here on 105 Through the Fan.
04:27You know, Brett, you talk about Jock there.
04:29We were also, you know, having our own frustrations last year
04:32and into this season so far with Josh Young.
04:36And he's somebody who has shown so much promise at times,
04:39and yet it's frustrating to watch him struggle where it's like,
04:43man, we know you've got this skill set within you.
04:46So far, 0 for 17 to start the season, but his whiff rate's lower.
04:49He's making contact.
04:51He's driving deeper in accounts.
04:52Is that something where you're like, okay, there's some positive indicators
04:54that it could come around, or are there bigger things that you think
04:57still need to be fixed there?
04:59I'll tell you what.
04:59If I'm 0 for 17, there's no positives.
05:04The whiff rate's down great.
05:08Feels broken, Brett.
05:09Feels broken, man.
05:11He is a talented kid.
05:16He's got some things in his swing where we've tried to work on it last year,
05:22and it's like that front, that move just goes forward.
05:28It doesn't – you've got to – it's tough for me to explain right now.
05:32When he gets it right and he gets that load right and that kick on time,
05:37he's a good player.
05:38Great breaking ball hitter, can handle any heater, but when he does it
05:42and he goes forward, he cuts himself off and he just jams himself.
05:47I'm seeing that early out of him, that move.
05:50And it's a combination – I've done it, believe me – where it's kind of an anxious move.
05:55It's like, I want to get things going, and you overdo it.
06:00It's going to – it's tough.
06:02I watch him, and I know it's in there, and I know what he's capable of,
06:06but when he makes that move and it's a forward move, I always used to tell him,
06:09let's go down.
06:11Let's go down into the ground, not forward with that big stride.
06:16Easier said than done.
06:18Everybody's quirky.
06:19Everybody's got their own setup, and everybody gets their load set a certain way.
06:23But if you load and that first move is forward,
06:26and that's what a lot of big leaguers get into.
06:29I did it throughout my whole career.
06:31I'd be time to time where I'm going forward, I'm going forward.
06:33I've got to go down into the ground.
06:34So it's early, I know.
06:37I see the frustration you guys are seeing.
06:40He's got it wrecked.
06:41It's in there.
06:42The ability's in there.
06:44He's done it before.
06:46But, man, I could imagine what he's going through right now
06:50because he wants it to be good so much, and it's not clicking early.
06:54And you start to feel the pressure.
06:56As much as everybody always says, oh, we're four games in, we're five games in.
07:00Yeah, I can sit back, and I know because of the season,
07:04because of the experiences I've had, yeah, it is early.
07:07It's ridiculous.
07:09But I'll tell you, coming off a tough year, as a player,
07:13you put it on yourself to get off to a hot start.
07:16And as you don't get off to a hot start, the pressure mounts in your mind,
07:20and you need to be able to separate that and say, take a step back and go,
07:24yeah, I am only four or five days in.
07:26I've been around long enough to know that this will pass.
07:30But as players, we have a tendency to, man, I want to do it now.
07:33I want to do it now.
07:34I need to do it now because of last year, and everybody's talking about it
07:37and this and that, and it's something we go through mentally as a hitter.
07:42Odyssey Baseball Insider, Brett Boone, joining us, brought to you by Grainger.
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07:52Your review of the ABS system so far.
07:57Really interesting.
07:59Another thing that I thought I'd never prove of.
08:02No, stay out of the game.
08:04Look at these umpires.
08:05I'm kind of enjoying it.
08:06I'm enjoying it because I think it's just another strategic thing that you need to work out.
08:15I don't think it's easy.
08:16You know, I'm thinking if I'm managing this team, a big league team right now,
08:20and I'm going into spring training, what is my, when I sit the guys down
08:24and we have this talk about the ABS, what do I say?
08:27Do I say there's a pecking order and, okay, you're not allowed to challenge.
08:32You can, you can't.
08:34Well, first of all, I think you take it out of the pitcher's hands
08:37because that's an emotional, that's an emotional situation.
08:41You can get caught up in the moment.
08:42I think you leave it to the catchers.
08:44I think they've, all the games I've watched so far across baseball,
08:47I think the catchers do the best job percentage-wise.
08:50I don't know if that's, if that, if that's the truth yet, but that's what,
08:54that's what I feel.
08:55You leave it mainly to the catchers.
08:58Then it's like, okay, who do I let do it?
09:01You know, do I let a Corey Seager, who's got, you know, has proved over time,
09:06over a decade, hey, I've got a pretty darn good eye here at the plate.
09:09So, Corey has preference like he can challenge.
09:13Is it the situation of the game?
09:16Is it late?
09:17Is it, because you don't want to, in the second inning with two outs,
09:22nobody on, in an 0-2 count on a close pitch, you don't,
09:26do you want to challenge right there?
09:27Well, it depends who's challenging.
09:29Because as a hitter, I get emotional.
09:31And the first thing I do, it's my at-bat.
09:34I'm not thinking straight when I'm in that batter's box sometimes.
09:37And if I, if I just gut react to a pitch, go, no, that's not even close.
09:42Boom, boom, boom.
09:44And I'm wrong.
09:45We lose a challenge right here.
09:47So, it's really interesting to me, strategic-wise.
09:49I think as this goes on and players get used to it,
09:52I think they're going to really find their niche and when to do it and when not to do it.
09:58I think right now it's kind of a feeling-out process for everybody.
10:01The thing about it is everybody's on an equal playing field.
10:04But it's really interesting to me how they go about, how do they determine,
10:08who does it, when, are the guys talking between innings?
10:11I'm sure they are.
10:12You know, do you get to the eighth inning in a close game, go, hey, we've got two challenges left.
10:16Let's be real smart on when we use them.
10:20Yeah.
10:20If the bases are loaded or we've got two runners on and a big pitch in a big situation,
10:24that might be a challenge point where, like I said, early in the game, nobody on base,
10:29not a big situation in a 1-1 count.
10:31Maybe we don't challenge.
10:32So, interesting, but I think it adds another element because this game is about what?
10:37Everything is about one thing, and that's the fans.
10:40And that's people putting butts in the seats and getting people talking about this great game of baseball.
10:45And I think this is one more thing that fans could grab onto because it's some more intrigue during the
10:50game.
10:50Oh, another challenge.
10:51Let's see if he's right.
10:52It's, you know, the music plays and it's doo-doo-doo-doo.
10:55He was right or he was wrong.
10:57So, I think –
10:58It's a great presentation, too.
11:00It's drama.
11:01It really is.
11:01It's drama.
11:02It really is, and I think that's what it's about.
11:04And the farther – you know, the farther I get away from being a player,
11:09the more open-minded I am to all these things.
11:12And in the back of my mind, I always think, first and foremost, will the fans like it?
11:18Because that's the most important thing, and I think they do.
11:20So, did you know – like, how good was your – did you know when a pitch is a half
11:24inch off the plate
11:25that it's definitely a ball?
11:26Like, you've got to have the confidence to know that, right?
11:30Absolutely.
11:31And these players, these hitters know.
11:33They're really good within an inch.
11:37Here's the only difference.
11:39I knew when I was going good, when I was locked in, I could tell you for sure 100 –
11:44not 100, but 99.9, whether that was a ball or that was a strike.
11:47Now, when I was struggling a little bit and my left – I called it my left eye would leak.
11:53And by a centimeter, it would just slightly pull to the third base side.
11:59When I was doing that, I kind of got fooled on the outside pitch.
12:03It felt like it was farther away than it really was.
12:06But I knew when I was locked in and seeing it good and swinging the bat good,
12:09I was pretty darn accurate exactly what was a ball and what was a strike.
12:13You've got to – but if you talk about that, you've got to talk about something different.
12:16The umpires back then, it wasn't – we didn't have the box.
12:20There wasn't all this scrutiny.
12:22There wasn't all this technology.
12:23So basically, it was before the game, the hitters go, all right, who's behind the plate tonight?
12:28X is behind the plate tonight.
12:29Oh, he's a pitcher's ump.
12:31So it's going to be a big zone, we know.
12:34The great umpires throughout history until modern day had their own strike zone.
12:40And what they did is they would establish that strike zone in the first inning.
12:45And it would be, okay, you know, I'd take a pitch and he'd say,
12:48that's going to be a strike today, Booney.
12:50Okay, it might be an inch off the plate away.
12:53Well, the great ones, if they were given an inch off the plate away,
12:55I knew I was getting the inside corner.
12:58So that was going to be a ball.
12:59And the great ones stuck to it and were as consistent as they could be.
13:02So we had to adjust game to game depending on who was behind the plate.
13:06It was roughly the same strike zone, but everybody had their individual ones.
13:11The good ones would establish it early, and we knew what was a strike.
13:14I knew late in the game with a particular umpire, that ball right on the corner away.
13:18I got to be careful with that because he's calling that a strike,
13:21and he's been consistently doing it all game.
13:24So it was fine, and the good ones were really good.
13:27Now with the technology, the scrutiny, if I have to listen to commentators one more time
13:32talk about that one ball that hit the corner of the box.
13:37And that's all we talk about for the inning.
13:39So I think that's the reason for the change.
13:42Excuse me, that's the reason for the challenge.
13:44I think that's the reason going forward that you're going to just have a straight.
13:49There's no challenge.
13:50It's just the computer's going to do it.
13:51As long as the computer's good and accurate and can track L2V perfect
13:56like they can Aaron Judge, I think it's the way of the future.
14:00And the thing for hitters is, at least I know it's the same umpire every single night,
14:05and I know it's going to be consistent.
14:07I think that's a positive thing for the hitter.
14:09Incredible stuff as always, man.
14:11Thank you so much for the insight.
14:12Until next time.
14:13All right, guys.
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