Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 16 hours ago
RJ Choppy opened up some Diamond Calves and recapped the Rangers' frustrating series loss in Colorado. They revisited the MacKenzie Gore trade amid his recent struggles on the mound and discussed the major blow of Corey Seager heading to the IL with back inflammation, and more.
Transcript
00:00How can you not be romantic about a gritty, gutty, one-run loss to the Rockies?
00:07I can easily be not romantic about it because I was not paying attention.
00:11Just positivity here. That's all we're doing. We're doing positivity, you know.
00:14Spurs, Thunder, Wings, Game 7 NHL.
00:19Putting the Rangers on that back burner.
00:21Oh, man. Behind the Wings.
00:24Well, box score watching. Box score watching. I was not watching the Wings.
00:28I was looking for AZ Fudd highlights.
00:31Don't let him lie to you. He was watching the Wings.
00:34I did not know where to find them.
00:37But no, I'm not going to sit there with all those other options and have the Rangers above them.
00:42Not right now.
00:43So this was bad for a lot of reasons.
00:46One, you lose to a Rockies team that was coming into the game, doesn't even have 10 wins at home.
00:52One of the only teams you felt like was definitely worse than you.
00:56Yeah, like I'd never go into a series thinking I have to sweep the series.
01:00I mean, you are 500.
01:01You're not a bottom three team.
01:03No, but it's one of those teams like with your offense, you're still confident you would beat them.
01:07You feel like you're going to beat them every time you go out there.
01:10Whereas other days, you're like, I don't know if we're going to score today.
01:12Actually, it is interesting that I was looking at the worst teams in baseball.
01:18And the worst teams, win-wise, have 17 and 19 wins.
01:23And the Rangers are there with 22.
01:25Right.
01:25You're right.
01:25We're still...
01:26So there isn't someone that's just stinking.
01:29Right.
01:29We're only 46, 47 games in, depending on who you are.
01:33Yeah.
01:33So it's not like you've got a lot of separation.
01:37Right?
01:38It's not like you've got a lot of separation yet around the schedule.
01:42So that's why you're going to see teams.
01:44Now, there are some teams like, you know, Tampa's got 31 wins.
01:49Atlanta's got 32 wins.
01:50So we have teams out there that have quite a bit of victories.
01:54But, you know, we still are a jumbled mess.
01:56But this thing was all about, you know, two things, really.
02:00One.
02:00Two things.
02:01McKenzie Gore leaving early.
02:05He...
02:05Man, Ranger fans took to Twitter to complain and crush the trade.
02:09Like, they wanted CY blood...
02:12Oh, no.
02:13...for the trade.
02:14No, absolutely not.
02:15There's nothing wrong with this.
02:16This has been a really nice trade.
02:19What's his ERA?
02:21It's a 4-7-8 now.
02:22But, I mean, the one run and...
02:24Two runs and one inning didn't help.
02:26I have to go see what it was before then.
02:29But there's nothing wrong with...
02:29McKenzie, for a guy who's near the back end of your rotation,
02:34who would be the No. 4 starter in a playoff series...
02:40I want to see if the fan text agrees.
02:42I'm just curious.
02:42This is not bad.
02:43It was 4-5-0 going into yesterday, by the way.
02:45Which, by the way, 4-5-0 means you have a quality start every game.
02:504-5-0 is six innings, three runs, which is the quality start stat.
02:53You think he's had a quality start every game?
02:55I don't think he's had a quality start every game,
02:57but I'm saying if you extrapolate it out to an entire season,
02:59a 4-5-0 ERA is like the baseline.
03:02Like, that's...
03:04You're not top of the rotation.
03:06We're not asking him to be top of the rotation.
03:08We got DeGrom and Evaldi, and hopefully later, which is all...
03:12But I'm expecting him, I mean, to be my possible three,
03:17like, locked into that.
03:20Well, Jack's the three, right?
03:22You know, and now, obviously, if the other guys get hurt,
03:24you're going to need somebody to fill in.
03:26Fire Chris Young on Twitter.
03:29Recap the trade breakdown, Mackenzie Gore.
03:31The Nationals got Gavin...
03:35Is it Fien who was?
03:36Gavin Fien.
03:37Now Washington's No. 5 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.
03:41Alejandro Rosario, No. 11.
03:44Devin Fitzgerald, No. 12.
03:47Jeremy Cabrera, No. 17.
03:48And then Ortiz, No. 24.
03:51Oh, so nobody in Major League Baseball.
03:53He has a 6-1-1 ERA over the last six starts.
03:58That's enough of a sample.
03:59That's enough of a sample.
04:00There's no doubt about it.
04:01That's enough of a sample.
04:02And you wonder, because he is hurt now, with the lat,
04:05or with the, I guess it's more shoulder blade-ish.
04:08Screw you, Jared. Goodbye.
04:09And by the way, they said it did not happen on the diving attempt.
04:12Which you don't see pitchers make a whole lot of diving attempts,
04:15but there was a squibber down the third baseline
04:17that he made a diving attempt for,
04:19and they said that's not when he hurt it.
04:20He was already wild.
04:22They were already down 2-0 at that point.
04:24He couldn't find the plate to begin with.
04:27So that's bad.
04:29That's bad.
04:31Offensively, they were pretty bad in this one until the middle innings.
04:35You know, they scratched across a couple of runs in the 5th and 6th
04:38and bust out for 3 in the 8th to make this a one-run game
04:41where they had the tying go-ahead runners at the plate
04:47in Higgy and Carter.
04:50And nothing.
04:51They weren't able to get either one of those runs home.
04:54Which stinks.
04:55You know, they didn't...
04:5838 degrees right now.
04:59You mentioned it.
04:59It was cold yesterday.
05:00It was rainy.
05:01It was cold.
05:02It was a tough place to play.
05:04They've got to win these next two, though.
05:05Like, it's...
05:06You go in to play Colorado,
05:08I'm not ever thinking that a team should have to sweep.
05:11I don't even think the Dodgers should expect to sweep Colorado.
05:16Sweeping a team is difficult.
05:18But if you're going to make a postseason run
05:21or you're going to have any question
05:22about whether or not you need to be buyers of the deadline,
05:26losing 2 of 3 to Colorado is a terrible start.
05:30I was just looking over his pitch log yesterday,
05:33like trying to see the actual individual pitches he threw Mackenzie Gore.
05:37And he has thrown this season by far his most common pitch
05:41is the four-seam fastball.
05:42That's like what he generally is throwing most of the time.
05:45It's like half of his pitches are the four-seam fastball.
05:47Yesterday, it was 11 of his first 16 pitches.
05:50His final 12 pitches, he did not throw a single four-seam fastball.
05:54Like, that had to have been right around there
05:55after he walked the back-to-back guys.
05:57He had to know something's off.
05:58Yeah, I don't have it.
05:59Because he went like curve, slider, curve, slider.
06:01That's all he threw the rest of the way.
06:02I mean, I assume he could tell if his velocity is down
06:05a handful of miles an hour.
06:06Like, does he not have a radar gun?
06:07Oh, he could see it anyway.
06:08The guns are all over the...
06:09The mile an hour is all over the stadium.
06:11So he'd be able to see what his velocity was at.
06:14He would know if it was down or not.
06:16Corey Seager.
06:18Before the game, moved to the injured list.
06:21Did the back spasm?
06:22Sat him out a couple of games.
06:24So now we're looking at a minimum.
06:26It was probably retroactive,
06:27but we're looking at about a week and a half more
06:30for Corey Seager to be out.
06:31Chris Young updating it on GBag.
06:35Yeah, Corey saw our back specialist this morning
06:38and confirmed that he's dealing with a little bit of inflammation
06:42in his lower back.
06:43You know, he's missed the last four days with this.
06:48And, you know, we decided that we're going to put him on the I.L.
06:51We feel like he's so important to our season.
06:54We need to get him right.
06:55We need to get him feeling better.
06:56And we are going to I.L. him with the idea that he'll be back
07:00the first game at home against Houston
07:02by the first day he's eligible to return.
07:04It's nothing that's overly concerning in terms of the diagnosis
07:08or the prognosis, but prudent that we put him on the I.L.
07:12to make sure we get this right.
07:13We don't want to rush it.
07:14We want to make sure that he's 100 percent.
07:16And he's just too valuable and important to the rest of our season.
07:19So not great news, but nonetheless, I think the right course of action.
07:24And, you know, our anticipation is this will give him a chance
07:27to reset mentally.
07:28He's certainly pressing in terms of the offensive performance.
07:32And, you know, if we just get the good version of Corey Seager
07:35coming out of this, we'll be in a good spot.
07:38Throwing out the certainly pressing.
07:41Like, that's not just a – that's C-Wide talking,
07:44not just about the injury then.
07:45Yeah, I wish that Skip – not I wish that he had –
07:49you've got to say the truth.
07:50I wish I had heard from Schumacher that this started before last Saturday,
07:54and that would have put in my mind this is the cause of the struggles.
07:58But when he said it just kicked up on Saturday, I'm like, damn.
08:01It was something else.
08:03Yeah, because, I mean, he was in at 0 for 27,
08:05which that means that we are talking about this thing would have started
08:10nine, ten days prior to that, because that's about 27 at-bats.
08:14The way this team hits, you only get three at-bats a game.
08:17So that would have been about nine games.
08:19And, you know, you're not playing necessarily every day,
08:21so it might have been ten days prior.
08:23That's going on three weeks then almost, or two and a half weeks of how long
08:28this would have been lingering.
08:29And that's about how long these back injuries – if you get, like,
08:33an inflammation, it takes about seven to ten days to heal anyway.
08:37So we'll see him.
08:39We'll see him before Memorial Day or before the end of May, I should say,
08:43not Memorial Day necessarily.
08:44There's so many odd things that, like, this is probably a Sandler or a Bassett
08:49question, but, like, when you go look through, for instance, his advance numbers
08:54and different things like that, and they'll start, like, showing you his bat
08:56tracking or his stance or whatever else.
08:58Like, I always look at it and go, like, all right, why is his stance, like,
09:01the distance between his feet, why is he, like, significantly wider in his stance
09:04now than he was four years ago?
09:06Like, and why is it increasing every year at the same time that he seems to be
09:10having issues increasing every – like, is there just something that he's not
09:12comfortable with at the plate and he's changing up his stance and he's, like,
09:15tweaking some things or should he be going back to some of the stuff he was doing
09:18a few years ago?
09:19Because it's very – almost every metric they have looks different this year
09:24compared to the last three.
09:25What I asked Brett Boone last Wednesday, well, was – so, like, how does the Rangers'
09:32current hitting coaches address this with him?
09:37Well, they don't.
09:38You know what I mean?
09:39Like, how do you – he's got his own team and he does his own thing.
09:42So, does that mean, like, don't come around me, like, off limits?
09:45Like, I got the ropes up at the VIP.
09:50Like, go talk to them.
09:52Don't come – like, how do you address it?
09:54Do you go, Corey, I know that this is what your team is saying.
09:57This is what we're seeing.
09:59Like, does that interaction occur with him?
10:00I'm genuinely wondering.
10:01Yeah, it's – I do want – I don't know how it works at the major league level,
10:04obviously, because it's a tug of worry about the youth level because a lot of
10:08these kids – you know, my kid, they have their own – you know, my kid's got
10:11his own pitching coach.
10:12Whoa!
10:14And his own hitting coach.
10:16And when you have your other coaches that – and because you don't – what you
10:22don't want is you don't want this coach telling you to do one thing.
10:25Right.
10:25And then this coach telling you to do another thing.
10:27Yeah.
10:27And they don't marry.
10:28They're not – you know, they're not, you know, connected to each other.
10:33So you don't want that.
10:34It's going to throw you off.
10:36And, like, I doubt – obviously, the Rangers probably know this.
10:39Do they feel comfortable enough to coach them and adjust them?
10:42Or you're just like, hey, Corey, maybe today you might want to think about this.
10:47Yeah.
10:47This is what our video – can you do a video session with Corey Seager?
10:51And I know – I'm not trying to make it seem like he's T.O.
10:55and just, you know, doing his own thing in the corner of a locker room.
10:58No, but is he digs?
11:00Like, is he digs?
11:00Is he somebody who just – he's got his own view on what his medical should be and
11:03how his – like, hey, I'm playing for you and, like, I play within your scheme or
11:07whatever and I play within your vision.
11:08But I – in terms of how I handle me and get myself ready, I've got my own team that
11:15handles that and you guys aren't going to get in the way of that.
11:16My assumption is his hitting coach deals directly with the Rangers hitting coach at times.
11:26Because, you know, organizations have a philosophy on how they want to approach the game.
11:31I mean, did Alex Guerrero?
11:33Right.
11:34Did he talk with New England's people?
11:35I don't think so.
11:36Now, that was – was that – but that was more training.
11:40So what?
11:40It's the same thing.
11:42Yeah, it's the same thing, wouldn't it be?
11:43Well, it's like his own training program and this is Corey's own hitting program.
11:47Right, but I'm talking about the philosophical way they want to hit.
11:50Like, some teams are more, like, pull heavy or we want to do this.
11:52You know, we want to swing.
11:54You know, we want to – we want more home runs.
11:56We want more contact.
11:57You know, each team has their own philosophy.
11:59I mean, imagine if, like – imagine if the Mavericks had to go through Holger to talk to
12:04Dirk or if, like – or Dak works with John Beck at 3DQB.
12:08Imagine if, like, the Cowboys, if they wanted anything mechanically, well, you go through
12:11John.
12:11You know, don't come talk to me.
12:12Like, almost like it's an agent representation, which I don't know if that's what Seager does.
12:16I don't know.
12:16But if that's the case, that seems like a problem.
12:18I'm not trying to tiptoe.
12:20Sometimes on the show, we say things and we're like, we're hearing this.
12:23This is really true.
12:24If we just can't come out and say it.
12:25I'm genuinely wondering.
12:26Yeah.
12:26So, I'll expect to say on their phone call here in the break.
12:29Very good.
12:30Real quick, are the Rangers a little too conservative in their challenge system?
12:35They have the second-best challenge percentage from hitters in Major League Baseball.
12:38Only Kansas City has a higher percentage of their challenges being correct from the hitters.
12:43That said, none of their catchers are in the top 20, nor are any of their pitchers.
12:48So, they're losing out on strikes while on defense a little bit.
12:52And, you know, yeah, they do platoon catchers a lot, but sort of a lot like Minnesota and Miami.
12:56Both have both of their catchers on this list in the top 20 in terms of challenges.
13:02And we have two of the, you know, two catchers that have a pretty good percentage of getting those calls
13:10corrected.
13:12Jansen has done a great job of winning these challenges.
13:15And I don't know they're taking advantage of it enough.
13:18And maybe it's just that they haven't had the opportunity where their obvious misses.
13:22That totally plays into it, too.
13:24But, I don't know.
13:25I just love them to keep an eye on.
13:28I wonder, like, I'm sure somebody's going to start tracking this stat.
13:31The times you don't challenge and you would have gotten it overturned or whatever else.
13:35And, like, how often that directly leads to runs or an inning being extended.
13:38And how many games do you need to really worry about that?
13:41Only 47 games in.
13:43You know, do you wait 100?
13:45Diamond Cavs on your home for Rangers baseball.
Comments

Recommended