00:00Got a little uncomfortable in the ninth inning. 7-1 turned into 7-4. They had to burn lats up,
00:06but the Rangers get the win to even up their series with Arizona.
00:09And joining us right now on the FanCamp Twitch and YouTube is our boy, former Rangers hitting coach, Brett Boone,
00:16host of the Brett Boone podcast.
00:18And he is brought to you by Grainger. For the ones who get it done, Grainger offers the professional-grade
00:22products you need, delivered when and where you need them.
00:25Call, click Grainger.com or just stop by. Good morning. How are you? Hair's looking fantastic.
00:29Good morning, guys. Oh, isn't it wonderful? It's flow. That's what the kids call it. They call it flow.
00:35Do you wash your hair every day?
00:38I do.
00:39Okay.
00:40Well, you gave a wrinkled eyebrow here on that one.
00:43I try to tell. I got a lot of women in my house.
00:48Oh.
00:48A lot of girls. And they're always talking about hair.
00:53And I said, do you realize with men, men are different, especially when you get a little bit older.
00:57Where if you grow out your hair, it's kind of like a badge of honor.
01:00Like, do you realize how many stages I fought through to get to this?
01:04It's been months and months.
01:06Yet, we get up every morning and it's just a pain in the neck and we hate it.
01:10But you kind of rock it because, hey, your hair's growing low.
01:12Yeah. Look at my hair grow.
01:14I'm at that point. I'm sick of it.
01:16I want to cut it off, so we're going to go back to the normal, you know, high and tight,
01:23look like a gentleman.
01:25The problem is, is this.
01:26I called Supercuts and my girl that's been cutting my hair for years.
01:30Yeah, I love Supercuts.
01:32I love Supercuts.
01:33I called and I said, it's Sade.
01:36And, you know, I'd like to get a haircut.
01:37They're like, oh, Brett, sorry.
01:39Sade retired.
01:40I don't know what to do now.
01:41It might keep growing.
01:45You are making RJ and Bobby upset because they're the two bald ones that go without.
01:51I wear, I have tremendous hair, but at four in the morning, I don't want to do it up, right?
01:57I want to put the hat on.
01:59Yeah.
02:00Long hair is good for hats, too.
02:03But Choppy feels like you're kind of spitting in the bald people's face by letting that go to waste by
02:08shaving it.
02:08Right.
02:08This would be like wearing glasses without lenses in them.
02:11The problem is the bald guys, and I got bald buddies, and it's kind of a cool look, too.
02:16And today, it's kind of chic.
02:18You grow the facial hair, the bald dome.
02:20If you've got a good-shaped head, you can pull it off.
02:23So I think it's the reverse look.
02:26Brett, you dissected Josh Young's turnaround the last time you were on.
02:31Tell us what you're seeing.
02:32I know what you're going to say already.
02:33He's Corey Seeger.
02:34He's a stud.
02:35He's going to get going.
02:36But tell us what you're seeing with Corey Seeger's struggles.
02:41Corey, he's just – you know, I – when I watch the broadcast, I hear, oh, we've never seen Corey
02:47go through this.
02:48Well, last year when I got there, in the first week we went to Detroit, Corey hit two home runs
02:55that day.
02:55I think Scoobal was pitching.
02:57And the next day he went on the IL, and he missed, I forget at the time, three or four
03:03weeks.
03:03And I've seen Corey Seeger over the years and, you know, winning World Series MVPs.
03:08So I know the level of hitter that he is.
03:11He's an elite guy.
03:12And he came back, and for about six weeks, he was about as bad as Corey Seeger could be.
03:18I remember going, when's he going to get it going?
03:21You know, because Corey kind of has his own program.
03:22Yeah.
03:23He's kind of in a world of his own.
03:25He's got his own guys.
03:26He's very regimented, and he knows what he needs to do, and he just kind of doesn't waver from that,
03:32which I understand as a veteran player when you've had a lot of success,
03:35you don't want to get out of what you've done, and you just trust the process.
03:39Well, I think he's in that same thing right now, and he's trusting – when he gets off, he just
03:44– he's in between everything.
03:47He's not getting on the heater.
03:48He's in front of the breaking ball, and I see that.
03:51And I don't know.
03:53At this point, I'm kind of watching him.
03:54I know he's going to come out of it, but it's like this team, to be what it needs to
03:58be to be a playoff contender,
04:00you've got to have Corey Seeger in the middle of that lineup.
04:02Nimmo at the top's been, I think, beyond what they expected.
04:07I mean, it's like he got a new lease on life coming to Texas.
04:10The way he – he just has an energy at the top of the lineup.
04:13It seems like every time I turn the game on, Nimmo's on first base.
04:16It seems like he leads off to the base hit, and that's big in a lineup,
04:20especially when you've been struggling consistently for that offense to know,
04:23hey, the guy at the top gets it going and starts off the game by getting on base.
04:27I mean, that's a big lift.
04:29Now you've got to start taking advantage of that.
04:31I see some of the –
04:32some of the guys that's like, I'm actually confused watching this team.
04:36It's like, Durant, could he have a bigger turnaround than he has?
04:40It's been unbelievable.
04:42One of the best guys I've ever been around as far as attitude coming to the ballpark,
04:47good times, bad times.
04:49I've never seen anything like it.
04:51And I talked to Zeke last year.
04:53I mean, he just 0 for 4, made an error, made a base running blunder.
04:57And I'd look at him and I'd say, Zeke, how do you do it?
05:01And he goes, what are you talking about?
05:02I said, how do you come to the ballpark with this good of an attitude every day
05:05when you're going through what you're going through?
05:07And he'd just look at me and say, booty, I trusted in the Lord
05:10and have a smile on his face and say, know what I'm saying?
05:14And I said, I can't believe you're a better man than me
05:19because I've never seen anybody go through adversity like Durant did a year ago
05:24and to come to the ballpark with a better attitude.
05:27And I'm talking every day.
05:28There's not one day last year that I was with Zeke
05:32that he came to the ballpark frowning or pouting, never not once.
05:36So to see him doing what he's doing, I think everybody is not only proud of him,
05:41but so happy for him because of what he brings to the game, good, bad, indifferent.
05:46Berger, he's had his struggles.
05:48They sit him down.
05:49He got three hits last night.
05:50It was really good to see Gore because he's had a couple rough outings
05:53to come out last night and shut him down the way he did.
05:57A lot of positive things.
05:59The one positive thing I would say about this team is they're in a not very good division.
06:06Right now they're definitely better.
06:07But this division is very gettable this year.
06:10Seattle's not playing up to what everybody thought they were going to be.
06:15So it's wide open.
06:16And that's the one positive to this point is this division's wide open.
06:22Booney, when it comes to, you know, like talking about Seager
06:25and it comes to that situation, it does seem like he's swinging and missing
06:29at a lot of pitches, especially ones that are on the outer half of the plate,
06:33just swinging through them.
06:34His whiff rate is a lot higher, swing and miss rate a lot higher this year
06:38than previous years.
06:38When as a hitter do you know or you start to think that it's something more
06:43than a slump?
06:47At the end of my career, I knew that.
06:49I knew my legs were going.
06:50I don't think Corey's at that point.
06:52You know, he's not at that point where his legs are gone or you're getting to that age
06:56where, oh, everything's downhill from here.
06:58I think his is strictly mechanical.
07:01His strictly mechanical.
07:02And, yeah, you're not used to seeing that established of a hitter swing and miss
07:08as much as he has.
07:09I mean, not even foul balls off.
07:11That's the weird thing for me.
07:13You know, I wasn't the level of hitter throughout my career that Corey Seager was,
07:18but I didn't swing and miss pitches like that.
07:20And I watch him and I go, wow.
07:22But I watched it a year ago.
07:24And people don't forget, don't remember, I don't think, because he came off the I.L.
07:30And, I mean, it was at least a month where he was hitting at a 140 clip.
07:34And I'm going, when's he going to get hot?
07:36When's he going to get hot?
07:37We need him to get hot.
07:38So all you can do is kind of let his process play out,
07:41and it either is going to come back or it's not.
07:43It's not going to – I'll tell you what.
07:44It's not going to be at the level it's at right now for the rest of the season.
07:48I don't care.
07:49He could have his worst year of all time.
07:50He's not going to hit 184.
07:52It's not possible with that skill set.
07:55But, yeah, sooner than later, we'd like to see it get done.
07:59Brett Boone, former Rangers hitting coach here on The Fan.
08:01Can you talk to us a little bit about Seager's process
08:05and how unique or rare it is?
08:07Because a lot has been made over is there isolation from the rest of the team
08:14or running his own program?
08:16You know, in New England, Belichick would have a problem with Tom Brady
08:19and his own conditioning type thing.
08:21Does it cause any discomfort or any type of situation, Brett?
08:25And then, I mean, because what can you really say to him
08:29if he's doing his own thing in his own program?
08:33I think, you know, it's a status thing in this game.
08:36And, I mean, once you earn the right to kind of do what you want
08:40and, you know, through your work, through your, you know, look –
08:45through your body of work, people tend to leave you alone.
08:49And, hey, been there, done that, he's done that before.
08:52Corey is no different.
08:53He interacts with his teammates.
08:56A lot of guys, he jokes around with him.
08:59He comes into the cage.
09:00He has a good time.
09:01So, yeah, he has a good rapport with his teammates.
09:04He's just – he has a set time.
09:07He comes into the cage.
09:08It's a set routine.
09:10Takes about 15 minutes.
09:12He's in.
09:12He's out.
09:13And then, yeah, he interacts with his teammates like anybody else.
09:17I mean, he's well-liked in the clubhouse.
09:19He's very quiet, close to the vest.
09:22He doesn't say much.
09:23I mean, he's different.
09:24He's definitely different.
09:25But I don't say different in a negative way.
09:27He gets along with his teammates great.
09:29Very regimented approach.
09:31Actually, from the standpoint of how you prepare for a big league game day in and day out,
09:38Corey's got one of the best routines I've ever seen.
09:40He sits there and he hits slow breaking balls every day.
09:43He never turns that machine up.
09:44He never cranks up the velocity.
09:46And that's all we talk about today is velocity.
09:48Well, that's not how you get ready as a big league hitter, hitting off velocity.
09:53That'll wear you out.
09:54That's like going to the driving range before Sunday on the PGA Tour and just seeing how far I can
10:01hit my driver.
10:02That's not what the real guys do.
10:04They go out there and they go through a routine.
10:06That's what Corey does.
10:07He sets it on about 65 miles an hour.
10:10It's a big loop and curveball.
10:11He sits there and he gets his swing to hit him into the upper left part of the cage.
10:16And that means when he does that, his swing's on time.
10:19He gets his body in position to hit, which is how you prepare to hit in the big leagues.
10:23And he's done it a lot of times.
10:25So I really am a fan of how he prepares for the game.
10:30Just right now, he's off.
10:32Brett, you know, you talk about preparation.
10:34And Brett Boone joining us here on 105 Through the Fan.
10:36You talk about the preparation.
10:37I know there's always been a lot of chatter coming out of Arlington about how Josh Young is one of
10:43the best at preparing and the work that he puts in.
10:46Why do you think that preparation has actually sort of matured into the kind of results we've seen this year
10:53where ever since that spell to start the season where he couldn't get a hit?
10:56I mean, he's hitting essentially 340 the last month and a half or so.
11:00It seems like Josh gets a hit or two every night.
11:02And it all comes down to one thing.
11:04Like, he's not going forward.
11:06He's not getting on his front side, which he did all last year.
11:10And I try to tell him, Josh, getting that little base hit when you bring your hands inside, get jammed
11:15a little bit and get a base hit up the middle.
11:17That's what great hitters do.
11:18Live the other way.
11:19That's where all the money is.
11:21The other side of the field.
11:22The pull, you know, when we get a little pull happy, pull in the air, the new metrics of this,
11:27they're nonsense.
11:29It's stay through the ball.
11:31Pull is just a reaction.
11:32Anytime you see a hitter take a fastball in and yank it down the left field line, that's positive.
11:38That's a result.
11:39But that's not the process of how good hitters or elite hitters think.
11:45You think pull, you're done.
11:46That gets you off every other pitch.
11:48And I kept on him last year and he would get jammed and get jammed and get jammed.
11:52I'd say, you got to start going down and stay.
11:55Right now, he's picking up his foot and setting it straight down.
11:58That allows him to see pitches better than he saw them all last year.
12:02That's the key to being a hitter at the big league level.
12:04The guys that see the pitches, because the first thing you do when a right-hander swings at a breaking
12:10ball in the other batter's box, what does everybody say in the booth?
12:12First thing the guys in the booth say, well, he's trying to pull everything.
12:16Well, it's nonsense.
12:16It's not that he's trying to pull everything.
12:18It's that he thought it was a fastball and it was a breaking ball and his hips are gone and
12:22he's out.
12:23It's not because he's trying to pull it.
12:24No good hitter ever tries to pull everything.
12:27But it's an easy phrase and it drives me crazy.
12:30It's nails on a chalkboard.
12:32But he's just picking up his foot, setting it down.
12:36He's seeing pitches.
12:37He's recognizing.
12:37He's having great at bats.
12:39His plate discipline is 180 degrees from a year ago.
12:43And I'm happy for him.
12:44And hopefully he can keep this up.
12:46He's hitting 320.
12:47And his ABs are just so good because he's seeing the ball.
12:51Very impressive you didn't make the 360 mistake.
12:54Many do that instead of the 180.
12:55Well done.
12:56Hey.
12:59Booney, before we let you go, Cal Raleigh, your boy, breaking out of a slump, showering in his full uniform.
13:06What was your get out of a slump?
13:08Did you wear a thong?
13:09What was your thing that you did?
13:11I did whatever I needed to do.
13:13Yeah, I'm not shy enough to say I didn't put on a thong.
13:19I did.
13:20Oh, man.
13:21You know, you can't really.
13:22It's not for air, some of the things I did to get out of a slump.
13:27Baseball players are baseball players.
13:29You'll do what it takes.
13:31Yeah, Raleigh went 0 for 36.
13:32That's tough to do.
13:34It's harder to go 0 for 36 than it is to go 20 for 36.
13:39So I was happy to see that for him.
13:41I like Raleigh.
13:42I think he's the rock of that Seattle team.
13:45And, yeah, he's another guy.
13:47You know, off to a horrendous start.
13:49Had a terrible WBC.
13:51Got off to a rough start.
13:52I think he's got seven or eight homers.
13:54But from an average standpoint, he's hitting 160.
13:56So from a personal standpoint and knowing Cal a little bit, I was happy to see him get out of
14:02it.
14:03Because when you're going through something like that, it seems like it's you against the world.
14:06And it's part of the deal.
14:08It's part of what we sign up for.
14:10Being a player, making a ton of money.
14:12Hey, you've got to be able to handle the criticism with the praise.
14:15Hey, the mechanical answers.
14:17I'm already getting text messages.
14:19Absolutely fantastic.
14:20Thank you so much for the insight.
14:21We'll do it again.
14:23Thanks, guys.
14:24That was great stuff.
14:25Brett Boone.
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