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  • 14 hours ago
The K&C Masterpiece took an in-depth look at the Rangers' downward spiral, following their rough outing in Colorado. They shared the news of the Rangers' strategy today for their starting pitchers, Corey Seager's IL stint, the debate over selling off stars to save the farm system, and more.
Transcript
00:00Did you kind of, sort of, maybe just a little bit, think that the Rangers were going to make this
00:08the most epic sports night of all time
00:11and come back and win this game against a crappy team?
00:17They tricked me, yeah, and that was the frustrating part.
00:20I understand kind of how it all happened, though.
00:23It makes sense whenever your starting pitcher just has to leave the game.
00:28After the first inning, you're like, hold on, what happened?
00:31And now you've got to go in there and do some stuff, even if it's the Rockies.
00:34You'd hope to have the Jacob Latz moment or the emergency starter where Jakub Yunus goes out there and does
00:41his thing.
00:42He's kidding G-bag.
00:44And also, even if he did not leave with an injury, did it not appear as though Mackenzie Gore was
00:50in for a rough evening?
00:52Yeah, yeah, and you think this was not an injury?
00:56I felt like they were like, no, it is.
00:59I'm just saying.
01:00Fastball's down.
01:00It looked like he was in for a tough night either way, and then with his defense.
01:04Well, and I'll get to that in a sec, too.
01:06You brought up the idea that you saw the polar opposites of Mackenzie Gore in the last two starts,
01:14and that he was the greatest pitcher on the planet.
01:16Right.
01:17And then the next one, you're like, what happened to that guy?
01:20And sometimes that is the roller coaster, I guess, of him, because think about his season last year,
01:25where he was really good for a half and then not.
01:28Yeah.
01:28So that was tough last night on them.
01:30But again, it's Colorado.
01:34And they suck.
01:35You, but then again, hold on, do they?
01:37Yes.
01:38They had 18 wins going into last night.
01:40Yeah, and 29 losses.
01:43Hey, you can draw your own conclusions.
01:47Colorado is a crap team right now.
01:49So what are you saying?
01:50Well.
01:51Are you just saying I draw my own conclusions and you're not going to say it?
01:54I will say yesterday was a crap game.
01:56That was.
01:57How about that?
01:59Justin Foscue was the greatest hitter on the planet yesterday, though.
02:02I have to admit I am rooting for him.
02:05I'll take more Justin Foscue.
02:06But you can't have the type of mind-numbing errors that they had yesterday.
02:13And that made it even more brutal that this team is not playing clean baseball in the field.
02:23And then they're, like, you've brought it up many times.
02:25Hey, Corey, if they're going to have these close of a games, they can't do that.
02:30Yes, that's correct.
02:32Obviously, their offense has to be better.
02:34But they have to be a clean defensive team when you don't have an all-star player like Corey Seager
02:41in the field.
02:42That's one miss.
02:43And then the rest of the guys are struggling there, too.
02:47Yeah, I'm trying to find the specific way that I had phrased it in my notes.
02:52But I'm pretty sure two weeks ago when we talked with Skip Schumacher,
02:57that was one of the things that I had in my notes, is how just frustrating is it when you
03:05lose the game
03:06or you fall behind in a game in defense is one of the primary reasons.
03:11Oh, yeah, that's a good question.
03:13And you've seen it just too many times this year for a team that, like you just said,
03:19like we've said in the past, they don't have it like that.
03:22They can't overcome that.
03:23Yeah, and Ezekiel Duran struggled in the field but was able to put some hits and runs on the board
03:29yesterday.
03:29That's a good thing.
03:30If you're going to do it, make up for it a little bit.
03:33But you can't make those whenever the rest of the team hits the way that it does.
03:37But, Kevin, last year, that was a credit to this team.
03:41That was the one thing you said was a sterling thing.
03:45Seager had maybe his best defensive season ever.
03:48I realized how it played out.
03:51But I'm just saying, like, ignore the numbers.
03:53Just watching it.
03:54It might have been his best defensive season.
03:55Adolis, he was back to 2023 defensive form.
03:59Simeon was a great defensive player anyway.
04:02But I think that was the thing was we kept – I asked Boach maybe four times that year,
04:06where does that credit go to?
04:07And he was like, look, my coaching staff works their butts off.
04:11And they make sure that they get their work done when they're doing their defensive work out there.
04:17But guess what?
04:17It's not just them telling the players they have to.
04:20The players are pulling the coaches out there to make sure it's happening.
04:23So, like, at some point, I don't know where it lands.
04:26You've got to figure out what you're doing offensively.
04:29But also, at the same time, you've got to get that same defensive work in
04:32and figure out what it was to get back to that level.
04:35Maybe it is you just don't have that level of player in the field either.
04:39Yeah, I mean, we can go around the field if you want.
04:43Evan Carter is a fantastic defensive center fielder.
04:46I can't hit right now for –
04:50It's a struggle, dude.
04:51Yeah.
04:52It's a struggle for sure.
04:53And look, we were going to talk about it today.
04:55We'll actually probably go ahead and kick it down to tomorrow.
04:59But the overall numbers are really covering up how much Young and Nimmo have been struggling to.
05:05Probable starter for tonight's game is Tyler Alexander.
05:09Oh.
05:10According to Rangers PR.
05:12Okay.
05:13Interesting.
05:14Interesting.
05:15So.
05:17All right.
05:18We're going to be just fine, Kevin.
05:21Not – what happened to Rocker?
05:23I don't know.
05:25Texas Rangers PR retweeted by Sean McFarlane.
05:29Okay.
05:30All right.
05:30Maybe I – sorry.
05:32I'm just, like, drawing a blank.
05:33Give me a second.
05:33Maybe I just missed something.
05:35Yeah.
05:35Maybe I just totally missed something.
05:37All right.
05:38Well, to go along with all of this, Corey Seager has been put on the 10-day injured list, which
05:44we talked about this yesterday.
05:46It feels like that's the path that you go down so often where it's like, yeah, no, I'm doing okay.
05:52I'll probably be fine, blah, blah, blah, injured list.
05:55And I know the positive could be, yeah, well, it was injured list going retroactively back to the 15th.
06:02So, hopefully, he'll be back and ready to go by the start of the homestand at the start of next
06:08week.
06:08And I hope that is also the case.
06:10But, unfortunately, sometimes you feel like these things get a little bit worse, take a little bit longer.
06:16Michael Hellman will be in his stead.
06:19Sounds like Rocker will still pitch, according to Kennedy Landry.
06:23However, Tyler Alexander will be the opener.
06:26Okay.
06:27For Kamar Rocker.
06:28Interesting.
06:28Because Kamar Rocker has an 11.25 ERA in the first inning this season.
06:34So, they're like, you know what?
06:35What if we change that up a little bit tonight?
06:36We can't get jumped on early.
06:38Yeah.
06:38So, maybe in the first inning, you go out there and shut it down.
06:41And he'll take the rest of them.
06:42I hope that works.
06:44Yeah.
06:44I hope it's not just a first inning thing for him.
06:46I hope it's a, like, hey, you know what?
06:49In second innings, he's the best.
06:51I mean, look.
06:52Honestly, that makes sense.
06:54Does that bring about other concerns that you have about somebody who took, what, third overall?
06:59And I realize it's the package deal and everything.
07:01But if it works, hey.
07:03All right.
07:03In eight innings, he's given up ten earned runs.
07:08He's got 11.25 in the first inning.
07:10Okay.
07:10Eight first innings.
07:11Gotcha.
07:12Eight second innings, four earned runs.
07:15Okay.
07:16Seven third innings, zero earned runs.
07:19So, let's start him in the third, is what I'm saying.
07:22But my question here is, is that not a little bit about, like, the first part of the offense?
07:27You not being good at, like, maybe it's a second inning thing.
07:32Maybe.
07:32But it feels like that's your pitcher just not having the plan dialed in to start.
07:38And I don't know if that changes if you start him in the second inning.
07:41And that's weird, because you can't just say that's when he gets the back third of the lineup.
07:46Because if he's giving up that many runs in the first and even to the third and the second,
07:51by the time he gets to the third, he should be back to those brutal hitters that roughed him up
07:57the first go-around.
07:58That is fascinating.
07:59But when you're in the place that this team currently is, aren't you in try-anything mode?
08:06Yeah.
08:07I get it.
08:09Somebody said tank mode.
08:11I think it's try-anything right now.
08:13And Skip Schumacher doesn't look like he...
08:15First off, what are you tanking for?
08:17Okay.
08:18I'm going to say this now.
08:22I don't disagree with anything that y'all are saying.
08:27All right?
08:28So we can just run through these techs, like you just said.
08:31In trouble.
08:33Another 2-1-4.
08:34This Rangers team is done for the year.
08:38And it goes on and on.
08:39And you see a lot of those.
08:40I am not disputing any of those things.
08:43I think, and maybe we'll pick this back up tomorrow then,
08:46I think it would be a great idea for the big picture of things to look at what you could
08:54really move.
08:56Would you really want to move Corey Seager?
09:00Because if we get the money off the books to a certain extent, then you'll probably have to eat some
09:03of that.
09:04And you want to move him out before he has a cross-the-board, no trade clause, and you still
09:11think you could get something for him.
09:12Or it can be about whoever you want and replenish the farm system, which is in a bad way, and
09:19ride out this season.
09:21I understand the logic in the big picture of all of that.
09:24Here's why it's not going to happen for a while.
09:28If the season ended right now, the Texas Rangers are in the playoffs.
09:32That sounds insane, right?
09:35That makes sense.
09:36It doesn't.
09:36And it sounds like I'm just randomly saying things that don't actually.
09:41Yeah, that's fair.
09:42Because you're like, no, this team is three games below .500, and I've seen them play, and they're not good
09:47at baseball right now.
09:49And they're especially not good at hitting.
09:51All of those things are fair.
09:52But they're one game out of first place in a garbage division this year, all right?
09:59And also, you would be a wild card team if the season ended today.
10:04So if you want them to tank it out, to sell, sell, sell, I don't disagree with that logic.
10:10You're not getting it for at least a month or so.
10:14I think maybe at the beginning of July.
10:17Best case scenario, end of June.
10:19Because it makes no sense.
10:20It's how are you – think about it if you're CY.
10:23Maybe you think the owner doesn't care.
10:25But let's go off the assumption that he does care about how this team finishes.
10:29If you're Chris Young and you go into sell mode, and what do you say when you go to the
10:34owner who was like,
10:36hey, we're about to be – we would be in the playoffs right now.
10:39Why are you getting rid of all of these players?
10:42And you're like, well, we need to rebuild.
10:43And he's like, and then you'll be back when you need my money again.
10:46But I see you sending Corey Seager out the door and we're footing half that bill.
10:51How does that make sense?
10:54Yeah, unless you had told him a plan earlier.
10:57You were like, hey, if this doesn't work, we're going to need to do this.
11:00Like, here are our options.
11:02But I'm not going to – honestly, I'm not going to go sell to my boss the plan that is
11:08for a backup for failure before it starts to fail.
11:11Right.
11:12You know, like, I just don't want to – unless I want him to be prepared.
11:14Look, this thing – if you're not going to give me this money, we're going to have to patch this
11:19thing together.
11:19But this could be an option here.
11:22So you're saying, Kevin, to the public – your message to the public right now is endure a month more
11:29of hoping that they can turn this around?
11:32And then we can revisit this conversation.
11:34Okay.
11:34That's fair.
11:35Because otherwise, I think – otherwise it's –
11:37I don't think that's unfair at all.
11:38Yeah.
11:39And otherwise, it's a Jerry shouldn't be the GM conversation, right?
11:42Which you can't do anything about.
11:43Where you're like, rock on, man.
11:45Nothing's going to change.
11:46And so it's the same thing.
11:48For the next month of baseball, I don't think they're going to do anything to sell, and then we'll see.
11:55Well, I would say during the level of concern today, you're going to have to answer a level of concern
12:04question about this team.
12:05Oh, okay.
12:05Be ready.
12:06And yeah, from the 214 and the 817, hey, last time we were a wildcard team, we won the World
12:11Series.
12:11True.
12:12Now, if you want –
12:13Every time we were a wildcard team, we've won the World Series, right?
12:17I do not –
12:18The answer's no, Kevin.
12:19I was going to say, I do not believe that's accurate.
12:21The answer's no.
12:22And if you wanted to go apples and apples, that team started 40-20.
12:25This team is 22-25.
12:27We could end 40-20.
12:29Hey, that's true.
12:31And in this division, that probably means you win the division by 12 games.
12:35Yeah.
12:35Because this division is the worst.
12:37Stinks.
12:37And so take that for whatever you will.
12:40Maybe it's a positive because you get into the playoffs, right?
12:43Or maybe it's a negative because it gives you false hope.
12:47Is the division leaders in four of the six divisions have records that are at least 10 games above 500.
12:56At least.
12:58Which would already put the Rangers six and a half back.
13:00But then you have the AL Central and then you have the AL West, which is clearly the worst division
13:05in baseball.
13:06You're the worst division in baseball.
13:07Maybe that gets you into the playoffs.
13:08Maybe it doesn't.
13:09Or maybe it prolongs your hope to the point where you can't really regroup and restock the farm system by
13:16selling like you probably should have.
13:17I'm just telling you, you're going to have to wait a month or so.
13:20I'm sorry.
13:21But to the 601, that's the way baseball go.
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