- 2 hours ago
Texas Rangers insider Jared Sandler joined the K&C Masterpiece in studio to talk all things Rangers, including the team's hot start on the road to begin the season, if the improved plate discipline from the top of the lineup is sustainable, impact of Andrew McCutchen's veteran leadership in the clubhouse, and more!
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00:00what's up fellas happy home opener hey when the rangers start on the road you get two of these
00:04right you get to enjoy opening day on the road and then you get a second one i'm not saying
00:08i
00:08love it at the time i hate it but now that we're here i like it yeah it's it's kind
00:13of cool but
00:13it has the same feel i'll tell you this it's cool to it really does drive yeah no i think
00:18it does
00:18for sure it you drive up to the park the team's four and two they're playing well like and you've
00:23got that energy because on opening day it's like that we're all zero and zero type of thing well
00:28what about like if yeah they're starting to really feel good about coming off of down here i love that
00:32and it's on a friday and everybody's like we can drink early and we can start playing cornhole and
00:37apparently it's a holiday weekend i was told it's a good friday it's a let's make it a great friday
00:42okay
00:42let's do that now but why is it named good friday because isn't today the day that oh god yeah
00:47died
00:48yeah no absolutely but that was necessary part of the plan had to die to have the resurrection
00:53i just feel weird celebrating that that's that's fair don't put it on social media people will crush
00:59you okay no i'm just kidding so so you talked about it being four and two but the added element
01:05of not only do you have a winning record you beat what we think will be two good teams and
01:10you did so
01:11on the road which you let's just go back to last year excelling on the road not necessarily a big
01:17part
01:17of this team last year and and you did it by scoring some runs too yes you did we were
01:21just talking
01:22about that with uh with mike not that we wouldn't be happy but if you would have gotten a four
01:26and
01:27two with two just nails performances from avaldi and that five innings of no hit from gore and then
01:34one from de grom and you scored three runs in all the games i feel like we'd all be like
01:37hmm yeah no
01:39no i think 100 right like there even stretches last year when the rangers would you know win three
01:44out of four but we're waiting for the bats and they would win these games three to two and it's
01:47like
01:48okay that's great let's score some runs and they did that and they scored some runs like i think
01:52about saturday against the phillies and extra innings they scored runs against good pitching
01:56right good quality of bats it's early at six games i mean who knows but i do think that if
02:02this team
02:02can stay reasonably healthy uh this is a team that should be playing really competitive baseball
02:08in september not like last year where it was like really playing from behind to just keep the flame
02:14lit but like really being right in the thick of things is it sorry just real quick is it ridiculous
02:20i want to ask you this too to think that we're already to an important homestand for jock peterson
02:27with a bunch of right-handed pitchers coming up and his confidence issues maybe lingering over and him
02:33not getting it used a whole bunch early on or is that absurd because it's game seven both can i
02:39say
02:40okay sure i i think you know we always talk about like a a month right i think a month
02:46is probably
02:46fair um but what if andrew mccutcheon keeps sitting right you know but i listen i i do think it's
02:54important to you know identify that while jock is not you know winning fantasy baseball rotisserie leagues
03:02right now you know i do think the bat quality has been better he's had a couple walks uh you
03:07know he
03:07he had a good like what should have been a productive plate appearance on tuesday uh fly
03:14out that should have maybe led to an advancement of a runner danny jansen kind of made it not important
03:20anyway when he had a three-run home run but yeah i mean jock's obviously got to you know get
03:24some hits
03:25and start hitting for some power and and he knows that but i think it's a little too early uh
03:29to you
03:30know say hey job's on the line but i think that all sides understand the level of urgency here
03:36uh jared's answer while shorter than most of his answers are still very long and i forgot the
03:41question so i'll just move on to my question um the uh hey i had to do a three minute
03:46hit on on fox
03:47this morning and i always ask like how long man i kept those answers really tight you guys would
03:51have been really proud okay uh i was at a dinner with uh with jared and he uh was speaking
03:56and he was
03:56like i'm sorry that i've gone long cory knows i do this uh but oh if i had to take
04:01the over under
04:02yeah if you were singing the star spangled banner or anything else i was like i might hit the over
04:06you brought up mccutch and that was where i wanted to go how much did this clubhouse this group need
04:12his personality specifically yeah i've always loved him as a player and i've always loved who he is so
04:20i think i think that we'll look back if this team is successful and i think one of the threads
04:26will
04:27uh what do you what do you do with a thread you yarn it you sew it yeah so well
04:32whatever so into it
04:33yeah stitch i thought i i thought i was about to like go down a path that would sound intelligent
04:38but
04:38i'll just say knit and we'll allow uh is that andrew mccutcheon's presence on and off the field
04:47was additive right i don't think andrew mccutch i don't know i don't think that andrew mccutcheon is the
04:52the nathan avaldi type leader or the adrian beltray type leader there's a lot of different
04:57ways to lead but he's an adult in the room who has a lot of skins on the wall and
05:03i think there's
05:04a lot of these guys all playing understand how hard the game is and when they see a guy who's
05:10had
05:10the success that andrew mccutcheon has had there is an automatic level of respect and attention paid
05:16to that guy even if he is not the same player he once was and i think there's a lot
05:21of value there
05:22yeah hands on him i just keep talking about how fast his hands are when i watch him swing the
05:27bat i'm just like how did he turn on that and i'm just i'm just always shocked at how quickly
05:31he's
05:31able to turn on certain pitches and i think that anyone i don't know this to be true but i
05:36think if
05:36you took guys who have great plate discipline i would imagine most of them have have quick hands
05:42because it allows you to react and decide on a pitch even like a hair of a split of a
05:49split of a
05:51the discipline part of it yep the um did you think that first lasso celebration he did was
05:56kind of seductive too oh you know what did he get the hips in it i don't know he was
06:01he was slow
06:02jamming it a little bit yeah okay it was a little hot jared you can still do long answers i
06:08i it's
06:08perfectly no no i need to get better at it i want to work on like what do we think
06:12is like a sweet
06:13spot because i don't want to put you guys in a position tv is 30 seconds uh radio i think
06:18a minute
06:19and a half is perfectly acceptable i want to try i throughout the year i would like to try stick
06:24to
06:2490 seconds or less okay that's what really really good question you want to talk about requires a lot
06:29of detail then maybe i get a pass every once in a while i didn't hear what you said kevin
06:33that is a
06:34shame that was a quality joke i don't think you need to do it twice nope i don't okay so
06:38i think uh
06:40and i'm going to bring this up with with chris young later the jack lighters in my opinion this
06:45close it looks like he's just got to make a little tap and he's through uh on pace for 32
06:50and oh yeah
06:51exactly on pace for 32 and oh is what we're looking at right now kamar rocker how much of this
06:56extended
06:56amount of time that he has not gotten on the mound how much is that going to affect him and
07:01when do
07:01you think he gets that chance yeah you know and skip schumacher even said you know that's kind of
07:08tough spot for a young guy uh but you know that's what happens when you're on a team trying to
07:14win
07:14right you know when you're on a team that's not trying to win then you just you know the the
07:17i
07:18don't want to say the priority becomes uh the full now the priority is like let's what's best for
07:23these you know highly thought of the development yeah uh but i guess we'll see you know i thought
07:29mike brought up a great point i don't know if you asked him about it but you know in the
07:32event that
07:32kamar does pitch out of the bullpen in any capacity you know that's a new experience and there's
07:37some acclimation there obviously the intention right now is for him to be in the rotation
07:41uh but yeah i think that's you know unfortunate i think he's kind of collateral damage because of
07:46the the reshuffling of the deck that took place that's an interesting phrase did you feel at all
07:52like jacob latz's versatility punished him a little bit when it came to deciding starter number five yeah
07:58i think i think so i think there are two things one yes because we talk about the puzzle fitting
08:04together right and see why i said it's about roster building and that was the thing that i was like
08:08yeah uh the other thing with jacob though he does need to show the ability to consistently
08:16get through five innings and i don't mean just getting five fifteen outs i mean like
08:20hey the stuff still looks as good in the fifth as it did in the first and second uh or
08:26or good
08:26enough relative to whatever regression takes place over his fastball in that last start it went down to
08:3289 right so he was in the in the mid early 90s yeah so i think you know just that
08:38that's another
08:38thing that played a role but yeah i do think that all the puzzle pieces fitting together sometimes for
08:43a player uh it's not what's you know what they earned in a vacuum it's how it all makes sense
08:50with
08:50the group you've got now it's early we have to you know take all these numbers for what they're
08:57worth through just six games but the top four hitters in this team last year with an awful ops
09:03last year of 697 this year 847 and that's without wyatt langford popping off quite yet is that i'm not
09:11saying it has to be exactly 847 but do you think this like really strong top four is something that
09:18can stick this season i think so uh yes i do i i and you know jake berger i think
09:26is is due for a
09:27bounce back you know he played and in the moment when you're not achieving the way that you want to
09:33achieve individually as a team no one cares about excuses but now that we're months removed i mean
09:37he was playing it's tough for hitters to hit with a broken hand wrist thing right like that's not easy
09:43uh it's tough for hitters to hit when their wrist is healthy uh so he was he was playing through
09:48things trying to be on the field hopefully he can stay healthy and contribute in a way that is
09:54more commensurate with his production over the course of his career prior to last year like i think
09:59rangers fans who maybe don't follow baseball globally as much uh would be surprised to see you
10:07know jake berger over 162 game stretch prior to last year was like a 34 35 home run a year
10:12type guy
10:13right per 162 so uh yeah i mean i think that's uh um i think that's how you can keep
10:19up and
10:20obviously with nimmo langford seager i think there's less like oh i wonder if they can do it you know
10:25well i was talking with uh with jake at you're at the sandlot event down on the field and he
10:31talked a
10:31lot about being part of the community and how important community is to him do you think he kind
10:36also has this like i can't rope in and feel as as uh as ingratiated or ingrained in the community
10:44without being an effective player like that's part of my identity i think it's tough right i think it's
10:49tough uh especially when you're new uh to an organization new to a community absolutely i think
10:55that having some level of production is is helpful because then you know fans get a little more excited
11:00i think with jake you know i think jake's story is so much bigger than baseball obviously yeah and i
11:06think that whether he hits 500 home runs or no more home runs the rest of his career the impact
11:11he's
11:12had on on the down syndrome community is you know just untouchable right but like yeah i do think that
11:19it's a lot easier to get out and be even more present when you know that people aren't going to
11:27be
11:27like well maybe you should be focusing more on whatever you know like i think that whether it's
11:32fair or not these guys understand that those comments exist and i think it you know optically
11:36it's it's better when you're performing better i know the numbers say yes but does it look like the
11:43plate discipline is better in these first six games again numbers say yes but like watching does it look
11:49better yes and i was even looking kevin at like pitches per plate appearance in strikeouts for the
11:55rangers so like you know and they're kind of middle of the pack right it's not like they're
11:59but i just i feel like anecdotally there haven't been like the oh my god like well like no plan
12:07like
12:07what was going on there right um i just think that the at-bats have been more competitive uh yes
12:13there
12:13have been strikeouts but you've faced some pretty good pitching uh especially in philadelphia uh but i
12:19also think that situationally they've done a really nice job i think about that 10th inning in
12:23philadelphia i think about you know the first two games of the baltimore series just more productive
12:28outs which i think is a big part of it too i think you've seen multiple times where pitches lead
12:33two
12:33hits like you just watch you're you can kind of you kind of customize how you want an at-bat
12:37to look
12:38yeah and i've seen these guys a couple different times where i've been like oh he took that and
12:42that's going to set up oh and there it is and that's the pitch that he was waiting for because
12:46they
12:46were disciplined they weren't just expanding that that nitro zone if you will okay then the question i love
12:51that i hope we do that all year the question for both of y'all then is as you were
12:56just kind of
12:56referencing to doing the right thing or hitting the ball hard does not always result in what you
13:02wanted and vice versa did you think josh young's at-bats looked better on wednesday because he gets
13:08the hits but again that doesn't always tell the whole story so what i'd say his out his last at
13:13-bat i
13:13mean he he drove one to deep left center that was nice what i liked about the rbi single was
13:18that he got
13:19a he laid off pitches that we've seen him swing at leading up to that pitch got a change up
13:25off the
13:25like the outside corner or like outside part of the plate and instead of rolling over and pulling it
13:31and having a weak ground ball he went the other way he went to right field yes right uh for
13:35i mean
13:35that's that's been a point of conversation for him right you know some guys everyone's got strengths
13:40everyone you know has their bucket what they do but for josh you know he's a guy who he has
13:45success
13:46pulling the ball but teams can feast on that right because you know you start to see teams work him
13:52away teams have done two things they've worked him away uh and got him to you know it get try
13:57get him
13:58off balance weak contact pull side or they've thrown pitches like way off the plate inside and you know
14:03he's swung and then all of a sudden now that it makes it a lot tougher for him to lay
14:07off the
14:08you know the the pitch over the plate but above this you know just you kind of get in a
14:13spin cycle
14:13but i think what really impressed me about the rbi single was just where the pitch was thrown
14:18the pitch type and josh's ability to just go with the pitch not do anything too crazy the other thing
14:23i don't know if you're doing this or not are you keeping track of how guys do after a called
14:29ball
14:29or called strike with abs no that's a good question i i have i have not started tracking that i
14:34and i
14:34don't know if anybody will get him those numbers i feel like i'm way ahead of the game on this
14:38jerry and i
14:39really i need to know who to call and tell because i think there are going to be moments in
14:42games where
14:43you're like no don't worry he's good after this or man that's really going to mess with his with his
14:48head you're saying like when a call gets overturned how it impacts yeah or if they get one right if
14:53they get it right do they get hits if they get one right do they lighten up a little bit
14:57so it does
14:57flip to a ball yeah like all right yeah that'd be interesting you know one of the things that i
15:02want to track this year is how guys do in their third at bat after going over their first two
15:08i like
15:08that how how like skip made a comment about that during spring training i thought was really
15:13interesting about you know guys just being able to short memories not letting it bats or bad starts
15:19to games carry over you know that's really that's really fascinating because i feel like we've heard
15:23ad nauseum about well i'll determine how good this pitcher is when they make their way through the
15:28lineup for the third time but i haven't seen a whole lot of info the other way skip said he
15:34hasn't
15:34done a good job of setting his hitters up for success thus far in the abs i know this is
15:39a
15:40transition for everybody how fascinated are you going to be not only for the rangers but to see
15:45how other teams adapt differently to abs across the season well that's what one of the things that i
15:50think is most fascinating is that a lot of these rules have been filtered through and through and
15:55through and so you know most managers or teams have very similar philosophies but one of the things
16:02they're like not every team has the same chess pieces to play right so that's why some teams play
16:06small ball like aj hinch said it when he was in detroit he's like because is they platoon a lot
16:10they
16:11pinch hit a lot he said you know he kind of laughed when he was asked about it uh it
16:17was like are you
16:18kidding me i'd rather have like the same guys or just set the same lineup every day i don't want
16:21to
16:21have to do oh yeah but so a lot of a lot of baseball strategy i don't want to say
16:26is interesting
16:27because it definitely is and there's nuance and and i'm gonna make a board granularity to it oh but
16:33this is so new for everyone teams are all like how they communicate it how it's executed not just
16:38from a coaching level but from a player like there's just so much variance right now it's really
16:44really fascinating to me granularity is already a word jared is it really yeah uh the quality or
16:48condition of being granular so they use the word in the definition i feel so great right now look at
16:52jared he's like i am merriam webster and thank you very much obviously for the time by the way
17:00as an aside you look sharp as hell today thanks my one month this is a dave raymond thing we
17:04wear
17:04suits on opening day it's the one time a year if it was up to me i'd wear sweatpants and
17:08a hoodie
17:08but hey i'm a team player but hold on now if the rangers were to win eight to nothing no
17:14should
17:14you not wear a suit again tomorrow there's my suit my suit had zero to do with any pitching
17:20hitting or fielding all right hold on they went eight to nothing today and then lose four straight
17:24eight to nothing now that kevin said eight to nothing if if someone with the rangers came up
17:29to me and was like dude you're hosing us i would consider it okay okay all right we're gonna we're
17:36gonna keep tracking that let me just make this clear if someone gave me a hundred dollar bill
17:39today and the rangers won then i would say that maybe he needs to keep giving me a hundred dollar
17:43bills it depends on if it benefits me or not that's how this world works these days that is
17:48we'll track suit jared uh for the rest of the year man please that's what i want you to every
17:52morning of a rangers game uh statistics thank you very much as always guys sir
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