00:00We bring to you Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumacher. Good morning, sir, and happy home
00:06opener. Good morning, guys. How are you guys doing? Man, we're doing fantastic. How could you not be
00:11here at the ballpark? And I know the home opener is always a big deal and winning a series is
00:18always a good thing, but how big of a deal is it to start a season with back-to-back
00:22road series
00:23wins, which in the history of the Texas Rangers has been a rarity? It's always good to win. It's
00:29always good to win on the road as well. I love playing on the road to open a season, get
00:34the
00:35guys together. They bond quicker being in a hotel. I think there's a lot of value opening on the road
00:42and then obviously winning helps. We've played two really good teams and just happy to come back to
00:48Texas 4-2. I still get jitters Skip every time we do a show like this. Every time we do
00:55a show,
00:55I feel like I get a little nervous flutter going on. Do you have some nerves opening this thing up
00:59in front of your crowd? I guess a little bit. I mean, if you don't have nerves, you don't care,
01:05right? That's like the old saying, but I do feel very confident and prepared and I think the guys
01:11are ready to roll. It's a veteran clubhouse, but I will tell you that they're excited. New season,
01:19a lot of new faces as well, but I think they're excited to play in front of their own crowd
01:24and
01:24not a hostile crowd like we were just in. Yeah, for sure. I like what you said about the
01:29veteran clubhouse because when it comes to that and your style of management, does Skip Schumacher
01:35have to talk a little more to younger players and with older players? He's like, I can trust them
01:41to go do their jobs? Well, I think communication is key in this seat. I never stop communicating,
01:47whether it's the future Hall of Famers that we have on our roster or the guys that are just
01:52breaking in like a Carter Bomler. So I think it's different in who you talk to and how you
01:59communicate, but I don't feel like you ever stop communicating. I do think that the last thing I
02:05want to be is a headline, so I don't want to be that in this seat, but I do feel
02:11like it's all
02:12about the players and the communication. It never stops. Man, I'm really fascinated, especially when
02:18you brought up Hall of Famers. Do you have any players who you want to tell us, like Corey Seager,
02:23who are like, I like playing on the road. I like it when I get booed. I'll show them.
02:27There are guys that enjoy the road more than sometimes because of the added motivation.
02:34You know, the Philly fans are always on top of you when you're on the on-deck circle or playing
02:40right field like, you know, Nimmo was, right? So like, it doesn't matter. You know, I think,
02:46you know, some of these guys kind of enjoy the hostile environments because it feels like a
02:50playoff atmosphere right out of the gate. And that's what I love about, you know, opening up
02:55in Philly. It felt like a playoff atmosphere in which, you know, a lot of our guys thrive in.
03:00You talked about Corey Seager, you know, a minute ago, 20 seconds ago. He's pretty good in the
03:05postseason, right? So I think that's why he thrives in those environments. And hopefully we can get
03:11that type of atmosphere here at home. I know since it's early in the season, these numbers can
03:15obviously swing pretty wildly, but 3.95 pitches per plate appearance thus far. What are your early
03:22thoughts on the team's plate discipline, which we know has been a staple of what you've discussed
03:27with the team? Yeah, we're trying to make it a point of emphasis. We're trying to scare guys
03:32outside the zone. And if you throw inside the strike zone, you know, there's going to be,
03:36you know, we're ready to go and ready to be on the attack. And I think the really good teams
03:40throughout the, you know, last whatever, 10 years of me being a coach and watching this thing is
03:46the really good teams do damage inside the strike zone and make you pay when you throw inside the
03:52strike zone. You know, we're trying to be that team. It's six games in. So, you know, it's a good
03:57start. You know, let's see where we're at after game 50, right? And hopefully
04:02we're still doing the same thing, but you know, it's, it's really good to watch these guys work
04:07and prepare in spring training. It's translated into the season so far. And by the way, we faced
04:13some really good arms. So it was a really good test to see if this thing was going to work
04:18and so far so good. But again, this is a marathon season, but I'd rather be starting out like this
04:24than not. Right. So it's, it's been a good, good way to start. Yeah, absolutely. And I know
04:28the idea is you got to take it game by game. I think we all understand that. But when you
04:33just mentioned like, Hey, what is it going to look like after 50 games? Are there certain
04:37marks in the season where you kind of can look at the bigger sample size and you're like,
04:42all right, in this chunk of 30 games or this chunk of 40 games, like, do you break that up,
04:46the season up at all that way?
04:49I do. I, I, I, but I break it up in 30 game chunks. So that's when I have, you
04:53know, like
04:53my, my staff meetings, um, uh, just making sure that we're on everything and nothing's
05:00missed, you know, what, you know, who's struggling, who's not struggling. How do we keep them
05:04hot? Um, you know, what are the tendencies? What, you know, it's kind of analytic meetings
05:09and trying to figure out what they're seeing, because when you're in the fight, uh, in the
05:13dugout and just trying to win every single day, you, you do miss certain details. And,
05:18um, and there might be some underlying numbers where if a guy is struggling, you can just tell
05:23them, Hey, you just keep doing the same thing and it's going to turn just, you know, just,
05:27you just keep doing the same thing where there's other guys who are, are hot where you're like,
05:31Oh man, you know, this, this, this might turn the other way too, but we got to figure this
05:36thing out, you know, pretty quick. So I think, uh, 30 game chunks is a good, um, marker to,
05:41to figure out, you know, what's going good and what's going bad.
05:44I like you talking about, uh, hot hitters. And, and when it comes to, uh, I remember
05:48Wash used to say with Nelson Cruz, when he's hitting doubles into the gaps, that's when you
05:53know that Nelson Cruz is in his zone right now. How do you see when you see guys, how do
05:57you know
05:58and recognize they're in, they're in their place right now? It feels like Berger was in it to start
06:02the season. Yeah. I think, you know, you see if guys are, um, hitting the ball hard, number one,
06:08uh, number two, the, the, uh, strike zone judgment, you know, what we've talked about,
06:13are they chasing, are they chasing hits? Are they chasing numbers or are they consumed with
06:19their process? And if I'm, I'm more, I'm watching guys and consumed with their process and not panic
06:25because of an over four over eight, um, and just see what the at bats look like. And that's,
06:30by the way, that's out of the bullpen. That's our starting rotation. That's defensively as well,
06:35you know, just kind of all watching everyone's processes. And maybe we can make, you know,
06:40certain tweaks here and there to make sure that, you know, we don't go in these peaks and valleys
06:44and make sure we're as consistent of a, of a baseball team as we can be. Um, so as far
06:48as the
06:49hitting side, um, hitting is hard, right? Like really, really hard. And we're going to face some
06:53guys that are not easy to face. And if we win, you know, one or two, nothing, that'd be, that'd
06:58be
06:58great. But, um, I do feel like just watching these guys process more than anything is going to be the
07:04separator. Rangers manager, Skip Schumacher, join us here on the KNC masterpiece. You're home of the
07:08Texas Rangers, one Oh five three, the fan. Uh, I see, uh, Jack Peterson in the DH role today. Uh,
07:14Andrew McCutcheon has been giving us some, some great stuff. We've really enjoyed what we see in
07:18the dugout. Uh, we hear about in the clubhouse too. Uh, but with Jack Peterson, as you talk about
07:23the confidence part of him, where do you feel his confidence is and how do you work him back to
07:28being that superior hitter? Yeah, we're going to need Jack to be good, right? We're going to need a lot
07:33of these guys to be good. If we're going to want to go to where we want to be, uh,
07:36want to get to.
07:37Um, so I, I think in six games, yeah, there's guys that have not started off where they, you know,
07:44they would love to all be hot right now. Right. That's just not the reality. If you look around
07:47the league, there's some really good players that just have not started out hot at all and have
07:52gotten or started out cold. Um, the good news is we've had some other guys pick up the slack
07:58to when they do get hot. We're going to be, you know, hopefully, um, running on all cylinders.
08:04And I, I do feel like Jack is close. Um, and the good news is Kutch has picked him up
08:10since he has
08:10not been, you know, off to a hot start, so to speak. Um, just like Duran has picked up, uh,
08:16JJ,
08:17you know, because he hasn't, you know, got off to a hot start. Um, so we'll need all these guys.
08:21Uh,
08:22that's why the bench is super valuable. And, you know, we have a, you know, probably six righties
08:26on this homestand. So, you know, looking forward to, to Jock, to get going, you know, on this
08:31homestand, because this is where he should, you know, get hot again with the six righty starters,
08:35potentially, uh, with Seattle and in Cincinnati. Yeah. We're open for that too. Skip, something
08:40happened in Baltimore that kind of, I was very curious from your perspective, how you might
08:45handle this down the road. Jack Leiter strikes somebody out. Uh, I think it was Hauser, uh,
08:50Couser, uh, strikes him out. And then they say, hold on, no, that wasn't a strikeout. And then he gives
08:55up
08:56a couple of hits and that inning kind of changed on him. How do you, how do you manage that?
09:00Because
09:01you get this exhilaration, this adrenaline from the strikeout, and then all of a sudden you,
09:05your psychology kind of changes. What's your, your feeling with that? You're talking about the ABS?
09:10Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. It's something that we're all working through. Uh, you know,
09:16I saw the other night, you know, just watching the highlights of a, a guy that, uh, struck out,
09:21um, and then ended up walking the next at bat as well. And so it's the same thing. Um, and
09:27then
09:27the, the inning got out of, out of hand. It's the same thing with us. We're all learning and trying
09:32to figure out on the offensive side, when to challenge, when not to challenge. I have not
09:36done a very good job of, of helping these guys and, and letting them know when that, uh, the right
09:41time to challenge is because at the beginning of the spring training, we said, do it only in leverage.
09:46Yeah. Well, there's not too many leveraged, uh, counts quite honestly. Um, you know, early in the
09:50game or, or, uh, leverage situations early in the game, they happen later. So now we've kind of
09:57pivoted to, you know, we trust our guys to, you know, make decisions. And then, uh, hopefully,
10:02you know, we have one left towards the end of the game for leverage, uh, as far as Jack and
10:06it's,
10:07uh, you know, these guys that are, you know, have the counts turned or, you know, walk into a
10:11strikeout or an out or whatever it is. Uh, I think it's all learning, uh, experience.
10:15It doesn't matter if it's a veteran or a guy like Jack. Um, but I think he'll get
10:19through it and, and we'll all get through it is more, the more we see the ABS thing
10:23work throughout the course of the year. Is your team also going to be keeping
10:27individual statistics on ABS challenges, much like there would be stats for any other
10:33number of things with the club? Yeah, I think, you know, there's numbers for
10:37everything right now, right? I mean, it's crazy. So, um, yeah, we have all the minor league
10:42stats from last year, uh, us and in the league, we have all the stats, uh, right now with each
10:48team, righties, lefties, high VLO, we have, uh, you know, whatever horizontal, you know,
10:54whatever the umpire is, uh, their hot zones, we have catchers, hot zones, and then we have
10:59our own, uh, you know, where are we good at? Are we good at the edges? Are we good at
11:03top?
11:04Are we good at the bottom? You know, that's when you will know whether or not you're right
11:08or not to challenge. Some guys don't, don't know what the inside part of the plate is.
11:12Some guys are really good on the outside part of the plate of knowing where the zone is.
11:15So giving them the ability to challenge because of where they feel comfortable
11:19in challenging because of their hot zones is crucial. And so we're, we're working through
11:24all that. It's new to everybody. Um, Oh, by the way, you got to hit 97, right? So with
11:29good slider, uh, Oh, and by the way, you have to remember to do it or not to do it.
11:33Uh, you
11:34know, so there's a lot going on. Um, and so we're, again, we're just trying to, to figure
11:38this thing out as we go. Well, we appreciate the time very much. Busy day. Best of luck
11:43today. And best of luck in these two home series. Appreciate you guys. Thanks for having
11:46me on. Absolutely. There you go. Texas Rangers manager, Skip Schumacher.
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