00:00Who has been the Rangers' number one early difference maker?
00:05877-881-1053, Franklin Franklin, injury attorney, text line, or the Twitch, or the YouTube, Corey Majors.
00:12I am going to start with you.
00:15I mean, I think it's, I think it's Nemo.
00:20He has the most of a lot of the things that I need.
00:23Alec, give me cut number four, because I anticipated that that might be the case.
00:30Ooh, back to the set.
00:31Here's the pitch.
00:33Nemo hits a slow ground ball to first base.
00:34Joe has it.
00:35He's coming home, and it's off the glove of Garver.
00:38To the backstop it goes.
00:39Here comes Smith, and he scores.
00:42Two runs home on the play on a throwing error by Connor Joe, who threw it over Mitch Garver at
00:48home.
00:49That is, that's one of the dudes right there that, like, he's hitting 340.
00:54He's got a 9.04 OPS.
00:55He's leading as far as hitters go, and getting on base and doing things.
01:00I'd like to see more runs from him, but that's up to the other dudes.
01:05Like, that's up to the guys that are behind him to drive him in.
01:08And when he gets to third base, know that he can't just be standing there at the end of his
01:13year at bat.
01:15So, finding ways to get him driven in is the most important thing.
01:19And being the leadoff hitter, he's doing what I want from him.
01:24So, I'm going to say Nemo.
01:26I have a couple other people, though.
01:28But I'll wait.
01:28From the 6-8-2, I feel like everyone is going to say Nemo is the difference maker.
01:34So, I'm going to go different and say Ezekiel Duran is the early difference maker on offense and defense.
01:43That's interesting because that's somebody, especially when we talked to him this last Wednesday,
01:48that Skip Schumacher was effusive with his praise for Ezekiel Duran.
01:53So, I get what that person is saying.
01:56I am going to look up, is that with an E?
01:58It is.
01:59He gave him a lot of praise, if that works better.
02:04That works.
02:05All right.
02:07Alec, who do you think has been the Rangers' number one early difference maker?
02:14I'm going to go to the pitching side of things.
02:18I think Mackenzie Gore has been the biggest difference maker so far, just because...
02:23You know what's a good sign?
02:24Real quick, Alec.
02:25When you said you're going to go to the pitching side, I immediately thought of three people...
02:30Yes.
02:30...that I thought it could be.
02:31And our three people might not be the same.
02:33I bet they aren't.
02:34Okay.
02:34Or maybe they are.
02:36Well, we'll find out.
02:38We'll let Alec go first.
02:40All right.
02:40Fine.
02:41He picked one.
02:42That's one of them.
02:43He's on my list.
02:44Me too.
02:45You just made the list.
02:46He brought that back.
02:48He did.
02:49For Mackenzie Gore, I think it's a pretty simple reason for me.
02:52He wasn't supposed to be here just a couple months ago.
02:55He was not on this team, but the team goes out and makes a big move to acquire him.
03:00And, you know, you see the number of prospects given up, and you're kind of like, oh.
03:03But then you see the quality, and you're like, oh, this could actually be really cool.
03:07You look at some of the numbers that suggested the same thing about Patrick Corbin last year,
03:11that he just had really bad defense behind him that kind of reduced some of the impactful numbers in his
03:18box scores and everything.
03:20So, going into the season, I knew that he had the potential, but I didn't think he was going to
03:25be as dominant as he was to start the season.
03:28I thought you were going to see him kind of ease his way back into that, okay, Mackenzie Gore's back
03:32kind of thing.
03:33No, he started the season by striking everybody out and consistently getting out.
03:38And he looks fantastic doing it.
03:41He looks calm.
03:42He looks like he's adapted to his new home.
03:45Everything that I could have asked him to do, he's done, and then some.
03:49Yeah.
03:49We talked about the set the other day.
03:5325 strikeouts, I believe, against 9 hits.
03:56First Rangers pitcher in his first three games to have 25-plus strikeouts and 10 or fewer hits, which is
04:03obviously incredible.
04:05All right.
04:05Who's next on your pitching list, then?
04:08Well, this is a weird list, dude.
04:10Lats is definitely there.
04:11Jacob Lats is a great answer.
04:17From the 9-4-0, it's Lats.
04:19From the 9-7-2, I think it's Jacob Lats.
04:22Jacob Lats has held hitters to 0 for 28 to start the season.
04:28That is the longest start by a Rangers pitcher ever, surpassing Hugh Darvish.
04:35And it's been incredible.
04:37And it's been in different ways, because one of them was, hey, I know we're just starting the season, but
04:43we need a spot star from you.
04:45Okay.
04:45No problem.
04:46And then otherwise, it's been holding it down in the bullpen or literally getting holds.
04:52Whatever.
04:52He is your Swiss Army knife of pitching awesomeness.
04:56And I would certainly listen to that as an answer.
05:04I have, I want to say one person so badly.
05:09Okay.
05:10But he has another start that I need to get done.
05:14But Jack Leiter only has two walks in two games.
05:18I think it's Jakob Yunus, Kevin.
05:20No.
05:20By the way, GBag, we're just having fun with that.
05:24Jacob Yunus has two saves, two holds, and has given you the hope that you have a closer.
05:31And so, like, again, we need to see this over the season.
05:35But he stepped into the role and said, you need these two, you want me to win these two games
05:41for you at the end?
05:42I got you.
05:43Yeah.
05:43And so, I think that's a huge difference because we, how many of these other games have gone sour because
05:49we didn't have him to be that person.
05:51So, I'm going to go with Yunus right now.
05:54The zero ERA guy, just like Lats, by the way.
05:57But I still can't turn away from both Lats and Leiter two walks.
06:03So, man, you know what I love about that is Yunus wasn't in the three that I immediately thought of.
06:11But I think we can all agree you could easily see him move into that category.
06:15But you mentioned the person that I'm going to go with.
06:19It is Jack Leiter.
06:22Right now, his ERA, or his ex-ERA, if you really want to go to the next level of statistics,
06:29is in the top 16% of baseball.
06:34His chase rate, 34.3%.
06:37That means getting hitters to, obviously, chase a pitch, especially outside of the strike zone.
06:42That means that your command of your fastball is getting players off balance and not knowing what to expect.
06:50That is in the top 23% of baseball.
06:54But this is the number.
06:57Well, I guess there's two of them.
06:58The 17 to 2 strikeout to walk ratio.
07:01Look, we talked about it.
07:03Two games.
07:03Yeah, for sure.
07:04For sure.
07:04Let's see if he does this in a third game and he can match Gore's 25 strikeouts and five walks.
07:09And that's one of the things that we said.
07:11Gore is going to need to do this.
07:12Rocker is going to need to do this.
07:14Jack Leiter is going to need to do this.
07:15You look at the middle and back half of this rotation.
07:18If they can control the walks, this pitching staff has a chance to be absolutely astonishing yet again.
07:25But for Jack Leiter, 45.3% whiff rate.
07:29That is in the 99th percentile of Major League Baseball.
07:34So, the top 1% of Major League Baseball is the swing and misses that he is getting.
07:42And look, we just said it in, I think it might have been his last start, if not his first
07:47start.
07:47He had a career high in swings and misses.
07:50And I think we both feel confident that career high is not going to make it.
07:54Like, through a couple of months.
07:56Yeah.
08:00Hopefully, though.
08:01No, I hope it is not.
08:03Oh.
08:04How fun is it that tonight's game has Rocker against the Dodgers?
08:09Tomorrow's game has Leiter against the Dodgers.
08:12Now, I think Sean said this morning they have like a 74% win chance the Dodgers do against Rocker
08:18tonight.
08:19But, man, let's say he goes out there against Blasnow.
08:22That's right.
08:22Steps out there and looks, and he like lives up to the moment.
08:27Dude, how strongly are you going to feel about this pitching staff if that's the case?
08:34That Leiter and Rocker, I mean, I feel like we're going to get a good game from DeGrom on Sunday.
08:40But like, you know, we kind of know what we'll get out of that.
08:43But if you have that young group with Gore, maybe it's Teagues.
08:48Maybe that's what the difference maker is, is that our pitching coach is putting a great plan out there for
08:55these guys.
08:55They're attacking the strike zone and not giving up walks.
09:00Because if you don't attack the strike zone, then you're going to give up walks.
09:03What was it they said about Leiter?
09:06He'd been nibbling, and every time he tried to nibble, that's when he missed the most and gave up those
09:12extra pitches he didn't need to.
09:13Just go out the strike zone with your stuff.
09:15Don't nibble.
09:16And so that's what they've been doing.
09:18So maybe that's the difference maker right now.
09:20So there's a whole lot of feedback here.
09:23One person brought up Lats needs to be the closer.
09:26I think Lats will close some games this year, but I do not believe he would be your closer.
09:34They just seem to love his versatility way too much.
09:38And then another person said they just ordered their Jacob Lats City Connect jersey.
09:42That's freaking cool.
09:44And then I guess this is fair.
09:46I hadn't considered it like this.
09:47They have a Lats.
09:48That's awesome.
09:49It just seems like...
09:50And if they don't, maybe they just design their own.
09:53Yeah, you can get those made out at the stadium too.
09:55Because they had Hurtado when I saw.
09:56Heck yeah.
09:56But from the 4-3-2, I hadn't considered it this way, but this is fair.
10:01It's got to be Jock Peterson, but in a bad and different way.
10:04He's been awful to start the season.
10:08I mean, look, he has two games where you're like, okay, good job.
10:12And I know the Rangers are very high on his ancillary numbers, showing that he's about
10:19to break through.
10:21And we all hope that is the case, because you need that to be the case to have a better
10:27lineup.
10:27Because let's face it, we're all pumped.
10:29The Rangers are in first place.
10:31They're 7-5.
10:32Their offense has not been particularly great.
10:35Good text here.
10:35Schumacher is making the difference.
10:37His usage of the entire lineup.
10:39Yeah.
10:40Just being like, you know what, I'm going to keep this rotation, Jock.
10:42I understand.
10:43I need to get McCutcheon some swings, but I'm going to keep putting you out there.
10:47We're using everybody.
10:48And even in moments, whenever there's a big moment, I'm using the matchup.
10:53So McCutcheon, you will get your opportunity.
10:55But when you're keeping guys engaged, that definitely is a significant deal.
11:00If you have dudes just sitting on the bench being like, why am I even here today?
11:03Right.
11:04Then it's a waste of their time.
11:05And you want to make sure you avoid that with Andrew McCutcheon.
11:08I know some people are bothered that he hasn't gotten more play thus far, especially in place of Jock Peterson.
11:16But I did see somebody go, hey, McCutcheon is the difference maker.
11:20He just still needs way more at-bats.
11:22And then if, from the 8-1-7, if Josh Smith returns to form, we will win 90 games.
11:29It does.
11:29Josh Smith has had a very complex and quiet start to the season.
11:34Yeah, he's an example right now of, that dude was torching spring training.
11:39He was.
11:39And I was like, oh my, if this is the case, we love Simeon for the World Series, but okay,
11:46we're good.
11:47And even that one, like he's at 143 right now, Kevin.
11:52Ooh.
11:52So, he's got five total bases.
11:56Five total bases for Josh Smith is not what we need from him.
12:00That's bad.
12:01And I was very frustrated driving home the other day and hearing...
12:04Just to put it in perspective, Brandon Nimmo has 23.
12:07Yeah.
12:07And there's...
12:09So does Berger.
12:10Okay, let's put it in perspective.
12:12Josh Young has six total bases.
12:14Oh, and he's not...
12:17Hasn't been playing.
12:18Yeah.
12:18So, like the...
12:21There was a moment, I was listening, and it sounded like Nadal was like, this one's gone, baby.
12:26And then it was caught at the wall.
12:28And I was like...
12:29Or maybe it was Hixie.
12:30It just...
12:31It felt like that's what Josh Smith's going through right now.
12:33I feel like I got one.
12:35It's not enough.
12:36And just seeing...
12:38We watched him in spring training.
12:39We were like, dude, two home runs right off the bat?
12:41Let's go.
12:42And he just has not picked it up since then.
12:45I hope he finds it, because you need Josh Smith in this lineup to be on base producing.
12:51You definitely need that, because he's in a spot in the order where it re-livens up.
12:57Yeah.
12:57Like, you get to back down to him.
12:59You don't need an out.
13:00You need the dude to be on base somehow, because he's a hustle guy.
13:03And then that livens up the opportunities for guys like Evan Carter to get on base, put more
13:08pressure on there, two runners on.
13:10And now you've got Nimmo coming back up with runners in scoring position.
13:13One potentially positive thing about the runners in scoring position, I think it was Jared
13:17who trotted out the stat, which I thought was really interesting.
13:20Corey Seager had two sack flies in 2024.
13:24Two in 2025.
13:25He already has two this season.
13:27Good.
13:28Nice.
13:28And part of the reason...
13:30Yeah, kind of.
13:31Like, you'd love...
13:32It feels like there was a time when there was a home run, yeah.
13:34But, it's part of the reason is he has not gotten a ton of opportunities with runners
13:40in scoring position.
13:41So, early on, it feels like that could potentially be a positive change.
13:45And then the other person, I haven't seen anybody put it, but if you're going to go after
13:48some people, it's Wyatt Lankford.
13:50Or 56 OPS, bro.
13:52Yeah, Wyatt Lankford is on that list as well.
13:56And you need to see him step up.
13:58And that's what I think is a positive.
14:00He's got a negative war.
14:00Does he really?
14:01That's weird.
14:02Negative 0.1, but even still.
14:04But still, yeah, that's weird.
14:05But I think that's oddly could be a positive, right?
14:08Is Jock Peterson not producing so far?
14:11Neither is Josh Smith.
14:13Neither is Wyatt Lankford.
14:14But you're still 7-5.
14:17And so, I think that is something that is potentially...
14:20Because you're pitching.
14:21Yeah.
14:21Yeah, for sure.
14:22Your pitching is giving you the chance.
14:24You're coming through getting just enough runs.
14:27You don't want to be that team, though.
14:29Like, you don't want to be the team that's like,
14:30we're just figuring it out.
14:32You want to be the team that's going,
14:34hey, our pitching is going to go out there
14:36and put zeros on the board,
14:37and we're putting up crooked numbers.
14:39Right.
14:39Good luck.
14:40And by the way, I know people are curious about this comp.
14:44Marcus Simeon so far, 213 batting average.
14:47Although he does have six RBIs and an OPS of 602.
14:512.
14:524.
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