- 7 months ago
Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker joined the K&C Masterpiece before today’s series finale with the Yankees. Schumaker discussed the team’s current offensive slump, Evan Carter’s elite range in center field, the team’s mental toughness during a difficult schedule, and more.
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00:00We bring to you Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumacher. Good morning, sir.
00:06Good morning, guys. You know, on my drive in, I was listening to your show, which I normally do,
00:11and I was laughing because of the poll that you had with the who put soda in first or ice
00:17in first in the cup.
00:19And the other day, I had hot coffee at a bagel spot, and I was like, man, I need to
00:25get some ice in here.
00:25So I put it under the machine and put a little bit of ice, and the coffee splashed all over
00:31me.
00:31So I'm trying to figure out who puts in the soda first before the ice.
00:35So it was really funny on my drive in.
00:38I was always a bartender, so we always did, and waiter, I always did ice first
00:43because I didn't want it to splash all over the place.
00:45But now I fill up my coffee cup and drop a couple ice cubes in
00:48and make sure I have a paper towel to wipe the countertop.
00:51Okay, so as long as we're learning things about each other today,
00:56it is weather day here at Globe Life Field, so they're running experiments and different things,
01:01and there's a bunch of kids here.
01:02Did you ever have dreams of being a meteorologist,
01:06or was it always baseball all of the time growing up?
01:10Yeah, it was only baseball.
01:12It was 24-7, never a meteorologist, but I can definitely hear it in the background for sure.
01:18Well, I think, though, as baseball players, I mean, my highest level was high school,
01:22but as baseball players, we always thought we were kind of meteorologists
01:25because we were like, is it going to rain today or not?
01:27Or we'd have to draw the rain turtle if we needed to rain out.
01:29But we were always kind of judging, ah, it's going to go on,
01:32but that's why Skip made it further.
01:33He was focused on ball.
01:36Well, yeah, that is true.
01:38Minor leagues, for sure, was always the turtle.
01:40You're always waiting for that window, right?
01:42That's what I said, yeah.
01:44Absolutely.
01:44Now, outside of, I know I'm not breaking any news to you,
01:49but outside of Saturday's win against the A's,
01:52the team is hitting 159 in the last week with runners in scoring position,
01:56and even if you throw in that A's game, it's still only 204.
02:00Have you noticed anything, in particular maybe in this last week,
02:03that has led to some of these struggles?
02:05Because you guys have had plenty of situations with runners on in scoring position.
02:09It's just, you know, carrying it through.
02:13Yeah, for sure.
02:14I think, you know, we face some really tough pitching,
02:16and we're starting to get traffic on the bases and just can't get that hit.
02:21You know, we've had a couple guys that have been feeling really good at the plate lately.
02:24We've had some guys that are, you know, off to some sort of slow starts here and there.
02:30But, you know, you're right.
02:31We just haven't pushed through and got that two-out, you know, big RBI hit
02:37or even a crooked number, you know, that could really separate, you know,
02:41maybe even a one-run lead to a four-run lead where, you know,
02:44we can have a little bit of cushion even for our bullpen arms.
02:47So, it's definitely been, you know, frustrating for some of these guys.
02:51You can feel it a little bit.
02:53But, you know, like I said last night, there's only one way to do this thing,
02:56and it's to keep fighting through this.
02:59You know, somebody's going to do it,
03:02and I think it's just going to give a lot of guys just a sense of relief, you know,
03:05once we break through and push through and, you know, just play baseball again.
03:09But, yeah, it's definitely been, you know, we see the same thing you guys do,
03:13but hopefully today is the day that we kind of break through.
03:16You know, obviously Josh Young is one of those players that you're talking about
03:20that has just really been doing everything he can,
03:23looking good with the plate discipline,
03:24and I want to talk more about him in just a second.
03:27But you mentioned some of the guys who maybe early on have had some struggles.
03:30What kind of conversation, if any, do you have to have with Josh Smith
03:34after that second strikeout on a pitch clock violation this homestand?
03:41Yeah, that's a tough one when you're, you know, you do it once, you know,
03:45it happens, and you do it again, and it just probably shows that it's, you know,
03:49he's got some things that he's thinking about at the plate more than he's used to,
03:55and here comes the pitch clock, and then you get, you know, nailed again.
03:58So, yeah, it's, again, the frustration is definitely, you know, with Josh right now,
04:05and he wants to produce so bad for his team.
04:08He wants to be the guy that, you know, is, you know,
04:10hitting with runners in scoring position.
04:13He wants to get going himself just, you know, as a baseball player, as a hitter,
04:17he just wants to, you know, take over that position and be the guy.
04:21And you do feel for him because it happened again, and, you know, that part, you know,
04:26the first time is tough.
04:28The second time, you can tell things might be,
04:30he might be thinking a little bit too much at the plate right now.
04:33And so, you know, stuff like that just is a mental thing, not a physical thing,
04:37and that's when you know he's fighting through it.
04:40You know, you just brought up something that is really interesting to me in a game
04:43where there's so many numbers, so much studying, so much analytics.
04:47Can you ever be thinking too much, especially when you go up to that plate
04:50and you kind of want to be like, hey, don't think about it, just go up there?
04:53Don't think meat.
04:55Yeah, I think when you're struggling,
04:57you try to find different ways to break out of a funk, right?
05:00Like, is it game planning?
05:02Is it, you know, finding your swing?
05:04Is it not thinking too much?
05:05Is it you're not doing enough game planning?
05:08So you're trying to find different ways to, you know, still focus and compete.
05:12And I think at the end of the day, when you get into the batter's box,
05:15no matter how much stuff you do before the game,
05:20once you get in the game, it's just compete mode.
05:22And it's just all you can do right now is focus on me against you.
05:27How can I beat you?
05:28And that's it.
05:29And I think sometimes, and I was definitely at fault for this,
05:32is you're trying to do so many things and tinker, you know,
05:35either with your mechanics or you're trying to guess on what the guy is doing to you
05:39because you, you know, overdone the game planning.
05:41And then, oh, by the way, here comes 95 with, you know,
05:44maybe a little bit of a cut and you forget the compete part of it.
05:48So I think, you know, taking a deep breath
05:50and getting back to just competing when we're playing,
05:52I think that's going to be a big part of it as well.
05:54Well, and that affects, I mean, this kind of thing affects every single range of hitter too.
05:59Corey Seager's obviously one of our favorite hitters that we've gotten to watch here as Rangers fans,
06:03but he's not hitting the slider.
06:05And you mentioned this week that not pulling everything is going to be part of the breakout for him,
06:10you know, driving the opposite field because he can do that too.
06:13How do you work on that in batting drills though?
06:16And just kind of from the practice standpoint, is it just working on recognizing the slider and driving it?
06:22Or is there an approach of just getting that turned around in some other way
06:25or maybe even working on laying off of it?
06:27I'm just kind of curious how you work on that specifically, not at the plate during game.
06:33Yeah, I think there's different ways to do it.
06:34Everybody, you know, has an individual way of how they work and go about their day.
06:40You know, Corey is very regimented.
06:42I mean, he was here at 1030 right now.
06:45He's been in the cage area since 9 o'clock.
06:48I mean, so he is obsessed and disciplined, you know, with the hitting side of things.
06:54Just as a baseball player, he just wants to do everything he can to win.
06:58And so he is, you know, through video work and swing pass and timing and all of that stuff he
07:04is working on.
07:05As far as like, you know, pitch recognition, you know, we have different tools.
07:09The Traject Machine is fantastic where you are facing guys to your question.
07:14You're facing the guy's slider that night.
07:16You're facing every bullpen arm that comes in.
07:19You get to face, you know, their type of pitch characteristics.
07:22So you have an idea of what they're doing.
07:24And then you're always trying to work on your weaknesses.
07:26So you want to build on your strength but work on your weaknesses.
07:30And that's what our guys are committed to doing.
07:32And that's why I'm very confident that this will, you know, we're in a little bit of a funk.
07:36But it will break through just because, you know, hard work does equal good luck.
07:40And we're due for some good luck soon.
07:41Well, we take everything you say to heart, Skip, whenever we talk with you each week.
07:46And we appreciate your time.
07:47We want to make sure we're listening, too.
07:49And at the beginning of the season, you said you break it up into 30-game chunks.
07:53And I was just kind of curious.
07:54Let's take a – have you had the moment to say, okay, we've gotten 30 games into this thing.
07:59How would you assess the first 30?
08:03Yeah, I think in each department is how I assess it, right?
08:07So I think our starting pitching is, you know, pretty much exactly how we thought it would go,
08:12which we've had really good starting pitching.
08:15You know, we have Ivo going tonight.
08:16I still believe that he's going to be one of our best pitchers, you know, in the rotation.
08:21But, you know, Rocker has been unbelievable.
08:25DeGrom is healthy.
08:26Looks like, you know, Vincenzo DeGrom.
08:28Jack Leiter, it continues to impress me and takes the next step, even with, you know,
08:32kind of an injured ankle, kind of a scary situation there.
08:37So we've had some really good starting pitching.
08:40Our bullpen has been outstanding, which, you know, I really didn't know what roles each guy was going to go
08:45into.
08:46And they've outperformed, you know, many people's projections.
08:50The offense has been, you know, kind of up and down so far right now.
08:55There's some guys that we've got to figure out how to get going.
08:57That is part of our job.
08:59We've had a tough schedule, no doubt about it.
09:02But that's no excuse that, you know, I feel like we still should be above 500 currently just because of
09:08how good we are.
09:09But I do feel like, you know, we're just about to get going on the offensive side.
09:13I really do feel like we're going to break through.
09:15But that is definitely the one spot that we've got to continue to get better at.
09:19When you talk about getting the offense going, is that one of the things you were looking for with the
09:25Jock Peterson bunt in the eighth inning last night?
09:29Because y'all obviously started with two runners on, no outs again to kind of jump start and manufacture some
09:35of those runs.
09:35And obviously, what was only a two-run game at the time?
09:39Yeah, I mean, it's probably an unconventional way to do things with your, you know, cleanup hitter.
09:44And I totally understand, you know, what that looks like.
09:47Jock is a winning player.
09:48He was willing to do and wanted to do anything he could to help us get going.
09:53And sometimes you need these moments like, you know, a bunt where the guy made an excellent play and then
09:59one hopped it and it was a bang-bang play, the whole deal.
10:02And sometimes you need those moments to break through.
10:04It just didn't work yesterday.
10:06You know, he's been seeing the same thing, you know, we've been seeing.
10:09You know, we just haven't broke through with the runners and score position.
10:13Maybe this was the time, you know, to lay down a bunt, get him second, third, one out, not play
10:18for two hits, maybe play for one hit.
10:20The flip side of it is, you know, did I take the bat out of his hands?
10:24And does he hit a three-run home run there?
10:26So that's always things that, you know, I think about and I debate if something doesn't work, you know, what
10:33could I have done to, you know, help, you know, win a baseball game?
10:37And when that play doesn't work, then, yeah, I absolutely take ownership of that, of, man, what if I just,
10:44you know, let him swing the bat too?
10:45So, you know, two things there.
10:47It shows you what kind of player Jock is.
10:49He's all about winning, and I really appreciated that.
10:53The flip side of it is you do kind of question yourself when, you know, it doesn't work.
10:59So that part was tough for sure on my side of things, but I appreciated Jock on what he was
11:06willing to try to do to help us win a game.
11:08Sure.
11:08Skip, I want to make a new baseball sports drink called Bottom of the Ninth All Game.
11:13And see, like, that at bat last night by Josh Young was great.
11:18Like, the splitter stayed up.
11:19He kind of got on top of it but drove it really well.
11:22But then you also had the Jansen triple.
11:23Like, all those moments were really good.
11:26And I'm just kind of curious, do they have a – do you feel like maybe they have a different
11:30mindset earlier in the game than they do later whenever things tighten up?
11:35You know, it's a good question because, you know, we've tried to, you know, change our lineup construction a little
11:40bit based on let's try to figure out how to beat the starter.
11:44Because, you know, before when you're, you know, putting kind of a lineup together, you want to make it difficult
11:49on the opposing manager to, you know, what pocket are we going to use, you know, in this – for
11:54this reliever?
11:55If it's right, left, right, or left, right, left, or whatever it is.
11:58Well, how about we're going to try to, like, how do we beat the starter tonight and worry about the
12:03bullpen because we've been really good against bullpens late in games, to your point.
12:07So, just trying to figure out, you know, the best way to do that.
12:11Maybe stack – that's why I've been stacking lefties, you know, earlier and not having just right, left, right, or
12:17left, right, left, and just see what that looks like.
12:20So, we're trying to find different ways to beat the starter, and that's been kind of the adjustment we're doing,
12:26you know, the first month of the season.
12:28Well, you're welcome to label all the Gatorade bottles or whatever around there, bottom of the ninth all game.
12:34I'll let you have that one for free.
12:36So, it's perfect.
12:38That's nice.
12:38I like it.
12:39I was also kind of curious on DeGrom.
12:41He mentioned last night that Cam Schlittler was throwing the ball pretty well, and he was talking about matching that.
12:47And I was hoping you could kind of take me and us, our listeners, into the mindset of pitchers.
12:52I know it's a weird place to be, but, like, do they look at the opposing pitcher as competition?
12:57And I feel like golf might be the only other real sport that you kind of have the same thing
13:01where you can't change what they're doing.
13:03You just have to do what you do.
13:06Yes and no.
13:07So, I think when you know who you're facing, and that's why I think, you know, managers like to set
13:12up, you know, their ace against, you know, your ace against their ace.
13:15Yeah.
13:15Because you know that, like, it's going to be tough to score, you know, and get crooked numbers against aces.
13:22Cam was throwing 100 miles an hour with a really good slider and, you know, a pretty dang good curveball,
13:28and he's been doing it now for almost a full, you know, year and change plus playoffs, and it's been
13:33really, really good.
13:34So, we knew what we were up against.
13:36DeGrom knew what we were up against.
13:38And so, he was going to try to, you know, give us the best chance, and the best chance was
13:42not giving up more than one run, which he did.
13:45But, so, and so I do think that is a mindset when pitchers show up of like, okay, who do
13:51I have?
13:52And it's, you know, DeGrom is not going to not try to pitch any less than if it wasn't, you
13:57know, Cam, that's for sure.
13:59But I think he knew what was on the line here with a really good opposing pitcher.
14:04Like, I got to keep these guys in the game, do my part, give them a chance to win, which
14:08he did, and we just didn't, you know, push through at the end.
14:11How enjoyable, because he made another really impressive play yesterday, has it been seeing Evan Carter play defense in center
14:19field this year?
14:20I know he's got some looks at left field, especially in spring training, but it does feel like he's a
14:25natural in center.
14:27Yeah, he has stood out for me, you know, and I still believe Wyatt can play center field, don't get
14:32me wrong.
14:33That's just the luxury we have is having two center fielders out there.
14:36You know, you look at the Yankees right now, they have Bellinger, Judge, and Grisham.
14:39They've all played center field, and that's why they're, you know, really good elite defending outfield.
14:44And we feel like we have the same type of thing with Wyatt, Brandon, and Carter all being former center
14:50fielders,
14:51being able to run down some stuff in a pretty big outfield.
14:53But Evan Carter has definitely separated himself really in the league of, you know, the first steps, the route efficiency,
15:01the burst off the ball is, you know, Pete Crow Armstrong and Evan Carter right now.
15:08And that's how good he's been.
15:10It's been a joy to watch him and Jankowski work together.
15:13And then the last thing I had for you today, you mentioned Evo pitching today.
15:17He's given up nine home runs this year, only gave up 10 all last year.
15:21Is it strictly a matter of location?
15:23Because I feel like even Evo has said he's had too many pitches that were middle, middle, middle, middle, middle,
15:29middle.
15:30Yeah, 100%.
15:31I think you're right.
15:32I think it's been he's gotten ahead.
15:35He has stayed ahead, but he hasn't finished.
15:38And I think that's the one thing that I think you'll see different today in his work.
15:42I mean, this guy is diligent in his work, super disciplined like Corey Seager is.
15:47And he's going to figure out how to get him, you know, out of the middle of the plate.
15:51This team over there does not chase.
15:53So you have to throw inside the strike zone.
15:55But, you know, we like to call, you know, I've heard the, you know, hit the white line as much
15:59as you can, you know, in that box that you see on TV.
16:01And I think when Evo is good, it's at the bottom, at the white line or at the edges on
16:05the white line.
16:06And it's a lot of missed barrels and strikeouts.
16:10And I think, you know, hopefully you'll see that more of that today.
16:13Well, we appreciate the time as always.
16:15Best of luck today.
16:15And I hope you enjoyed the weather chatter in the background.
16:20Thanks, guys, for having me on.
16:21There you go.
16:22Let's go get one today, buddy.
16:23Let's go get one today.