Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 days ago
The K&C Masterpiece broke down the Rangers recent skid and questioned if the club has officially hit rock bottom. They discussed the most pressing concerns, from the string of losses to the massive production gap left by injuries, and more.
Transcript
00:00is this rock bottom for the rangers yes next segment see because i think what i'm worried
00:07about is it's not oh no it's gonna get worse okay okay and and what happens at complete rock bottom
00:17too is another question because at complete rock bottom doesn't it feel like you move on from
00:22people very quickly and then my insane question for some rangers fans would be do you want it
00:28to get to rock bottom so you see the clear indication of where you should go with this
00:34franchise you know what i'm saying like i would much rather than just start winning yeah yeah i
00:40think i don't think any rate any fan of a team really ever wants the rock bottom to ever expose
00:46itself even if you really don't otherwise you're gonna just piddle along at the stupid middle ground
00:53where you don't re boot your your minor league franchise because we can't draft anybody even
01:00though we knew this season for the mavericks was what it was it wasn't enjoyable see i i think it
01:08kind of was because you got to see that you've got the piece i understand again that part of it
01:14the game stunk sure like that was sometimes so okay when when cooper flag goes out there and
01:21screws us out of a number eight or whatever pick because he had to go score 51 points or
01:26and 45 in consecutive nights and one of them was against the lakers that one really screwed us over
01:31uh yeah uh i don't think you want to see you ignore it most of the time you like the
01:39rangers
01:39understand that too in history we'd be like okay if we could just get to cowboys how many times do
01:46we discuss that and it got to a point where you're like all right man i'm with this team all
01:51the way
01:51you'd much rather have them with you being close enough but what you saw this weekend shows how
01:59inept you are it was pathetic and that's that's where that's where i don't want to see it because
02:05kevin that's what i would be watching for the rest of the season if we said that we're at that
02:10point
02:11and we're ready to start shelling things away and i don't think anybody in the front office would be
02:16willing to go through that because their job their their livelihood their reason for being in this
02:23is because they want to tell their boss i can field a competitive team and go out there and be
02:28competitive right but also if i'm not getting the money to go make myself even more than competitive
02:33then this is what we're going to get so i get why everyone would think it's rock bottom your last
02:41two games you're three for 55 that's a 0 55 batting average you have 20 strikeouts but you got three
02:50one run that is true you got three walks in the first inning yesterday and couldn't score a run
02:59jake berger has struck out with the bases loaded three times in the last two games against the
03:05angels including one time that was a tie in the ninth inning so i get all those reasons why it
03:14looks
03:15like you have hit rock bottom but i don't think you have and i get that a no hitter feels
03:25like rock
03:25bottom yes but there are so many pitcher rather than multiple well yes i'm just gonna go with i
03:33mean that would be bad a perfect game against you by one pitcher rather than multiples and it could
03:37be against the freaking astros again but there are so many like ancillary statistics that have me worried
03:43about this so here's the seemingly positive thing the rangers do great like better than the average in
03:52major league baseball in hitters counts like 2031 but they rank with the fourth fewest played
03:59appearances in hitters counts okay so you're like hey you're really good at this thing but you don't
04:04get to do it very often you lost six of nine games to the teams that had the three worst
04:10records in
04:11baseball when that run began you got swept by an angels team that had been one in nine in their
04:18previous 10 games you got no hit yesterday by a starter who had an eight plus era going into it
04:25now when you put the ball in play on the very first pitch mlb average 330 batting average 552 slugging
04:34rangers 273 and 476 that is second to worst and seventh worst that's poor contact exactly and the
04:45rangers have think about it it's poor contact but hopefully you're like well at least that probably
04:50doesn't happen a lot but it does does they have the eighth most at bats that have ended after the
04:55first pitch nice and i just told you they have the second worst batting average in major league
05:01baseball off the first pitch so that's really really terrible then just go back to i believe
05:09is saturday's game the rangers loaded the bases three different times and scored none of those
05:15times they were 0 for 4 with the bases loaded in three of those situations they struck out and left
05:2311 men on base so this has happened again and again and again and then there's this that's a but
05:28by the
05:29way that is about as deflating as it gets whenever you your group that got it on base before that
05:36whatever work they did to get on base whether it was cracking a single through the other side of
05:41the infield a dribbler that got them there a sack whatever it was it puts them in position to change
05:47the game and then you get up there and you're like okay i'm just gonna swing away at stuff like
05:53that's
05:53what then by the way that's what was happening he was chasing stuff these guys were chasing they weren't
05:59having feeling good at bats and that's where we saw the other day against the rockies and i know it's
06:04the rockies but you did all the little things right to get yourself in position to win that game
06:09and here you are and it's just a deflating thing to go back out in the field and be like
06:13now i got
06:13to get runners back on base to do that all over again just to to have that failure happen it's
06:19not
06:19it's not a positive spin at the moment but at least you have the pitching right and this is the
06:25thing that is no no no terrifying to me so let's go back to that angel series again because make
06:31no
06:31mistake the angels are awful and they swept you so to start that game you had jacob de grom and
06:41nathan avaldi and you lost both of those games it was the first time in three plus seasons as
06:52teammates that the two pitch on back-to-back days and both of them were tagged with the loss and
06:59only
06:59the second time the rangers have lost back-to-back games in which those two had started but the other
07:05time not both the starters got the loss so is the first time de grom throws avaldi throws or vice
07:12versa back-to-back and you lost both of the games so even the one thing that you could like
07:17default
07:18depend on is not there the last go around either so what i'm really worried about is that it gets
07:26worse from here although i know saying that it's going to get worse right after you got no hit
07:31seems kind of absurd well i mean you could get no hit twice and would you rule that out at
07:37this point
07:38no honestly you can't because you look they just got one you look at the scores of these games and
07:44you're just like oh my gosh like that's the the times that they put out no output run run wise
07:50then you watch the game and you saw chases you saw just not unlucky stuff happening
07:58looking like you're outmatched and somebody said whatever happened that nitro hitting philosophy
08:04the philosophy can be there and in spring training again we always do say do not like completely read
08:12into that hopefully what you taught in that time period during spring training is the same philosophy
08:18you have the entire season but it does take the talent and discipline to be able to pull off this
08:25philosophy as well forcing pitchers to pitch to you is something that you whenever you see the pitch
08:31you recognize that you drive it but other than that you're like i'm not going outside of zone right now
08:37they are chasing like crazy yes and that was they had gone against the grain early in the season
08:43against that from the 214 i think i know the answer to this why are people saying that cy sucks
08:49on the youtube twitch and on twitter he couldn't afford to redo the bullpen and the hitters with our
08:56with the cheap owner ray davis i think i don't agree with this logic but i believe the people who
09:04feel
09:05that way think that chris young won because of remnants of the jd era okay and when forced to do
09:13it
09:13himself he has not been able to succeed i think that completely ignores like bringing in the new
09:18manager to help jump start kind of that entire season but like that's probably a discussion for
09:23another day but the people who think that believe well that he was successful because of jd and now
09:29that jd is like drift away with his moves and everything he can't succeed i mean i do not agree
09:34with that's that's one that's one i don't think a wrong idea considering what we've seen on lots of
09:40whether social media or whatever messages sent directly to us right that's definitely one i think
09:46the other thing too is a lot of times when you're trying to figure out what's wrong fingers start
09:52getting pointed that's a great point and then where do you start with the pointing of the finger you
09:58start with leadership right and so you know we discuss this regarding the mavericks a lot whenever
10:03things are going on you go all the way up to mark cuban and say obviously that's where that starts
10:08and chris young is where kind of that starts for the leadership of this if this is the organization
10:14and they are in this direction what is their direction does he does he always have a all right
10:20here's the plan we're going forward with it win lose or draw or it is a hey here's the direction
10:26we're going and then next week it's going to be a different direction just because the results
10:30aren't what we asked for and i wonder if that's where chris young is if he shifts a little bit
10:35back and forth but then you take that you will then take that up to the next right place of
10:39leadership and that is ray davis and his willingness to be a big market team and or unwillingness to be
10:46a big market team so i think that's where you start with that that's why the manager starts catching
10:50strays too right because he's the leadership of this and then ultimately could it just be
10:55maybe it is the team and the group they've collected is not good now i joke with you before the
11:01show
11:01we had talked last week is we're going to wait a month until you have any real discussions about
11:07hey it's time to trade this person that person any other person and i joked with you i was like
11:11maybe we need to accelerate that timeline again it's not gonna it didn't feel like a joke when you
11:16said okay yeah i'm not lying no no because of how bad things were last night i was like i
11:21don't know
11:22if he's joking but think about this it's not gonna happen and here's why it's not gonna happen
11:28all right i i'm gonna lay this out as clear as i can from the perspective of what i believe
11:33the
11:33rangers are thinking and then some of the facts in front of us okay do i think actually let's just
11:39real quick alec you and cory do you think this team looks anything like a playoff team no not
11:48whatsoever neither do i so playoff team can i feel like has at least three spots in its lineup that
11:56you're like scared of okay and there's there's maybe one infrequently in this lineup yeah and i
12:04need to i'm gonna go back and double check where the record is but we started this run of just
12:11awful teams and they're three and seven so far in that run and you thrown out like i would like
12:19to
12:19see him go you know 14 and 4 whatever like something really impressive and they're they're not close
12:25yeah they're not even mediocre yeah so like i'm with you i agree there's no part of me that
12:30believes this is a playoff team i will tell you how i think the rangers are observing it and why
12:35you're still a good month away from doing anything about it right now the rangers are a game and a
12:41half
12:42out of first place and i excuse me out of the playoffs there are two and a half games out
12:47of first place
12:47in their god off division and i also think the front office would argue we're having to do this
12:55of course we're struggling offensively we don't have our best two hitters now do i think that ignores
13:00the reality of what cory seager was actually doing while he was here and unfortunately wyatt
13:05langford has been getting hurt in his tenure with the rangers yes yes i do but i think they would
13:12tell you why in the world would we just sell when we're only a game and a half out of
13:18the playoffs
13:18and our two best hitters are missing you're right i i don't love that argument but i bet that's what
13:24it is i would if you know if i put this team together let's say kevin you put this team
13:28together
13:28and this is what you have how much of what wyatt langford and cory seager would you say would be
13:35the percentage of how important they are to their to the hitting lineup before the season total i would
13:42have said 40 that's a big number yes that's a gigantic number and i was i was thinking right
13:49there at that number two and then if i can get some contribution from the rest of it so why
13:53would i
13:54change my mind in the middle of the season when i'm not doing well and the and they are out
14:02right i
14:02wouldn't change my mind i would say all right we're still close like you just pointed out i would say
14:08we're still close and we'll see what happens when these guys come back and kevin the pitch to front
14:15office of why you're not going to change the team much is probably that too you know we guys we
14:20all
14:20we got to do is get these two guys back not i'm saying it's going to be the the the
14:24fix for everything
14:25yeah but i absolutely would say this is what we thought before the season and look at where we are
14:30right now and that's that's why you have to balance out like what we're saying right now versus
14:34what management thinks because i've talked about it many times hell we even had the back and forth
14:39with jerry on air he's like would you ever rather us not won those games yes that is correct and
14:44so
14:44it's the same thing like we've talked with skip schumacher multiple times and he's like well we'd
14:49all agree that the lineup is better with cory seager in it and if he says he's good to go
14:53then he's good
14:54to go and i understand all of that but like that doesn't fix the lineup right now you would need
15:00absolute 2023 world series cory seager probably world series evan carter and top notch reach all
15:08future potential wyatt langford to fix this lineup and like what is your faith that any of those three
15:16happen let alone all three of them like 0.01 part of me also believes
15:24if i can get them to scrape out a couple wins when they're back and start gaining that confidence
15:33then we can be that playoff team if you're just scraping by the rest of the way you're not going
15:38to become that playoff team right but it doesn't feel like if i could just get them to scrape get
15:43me
15:43just scrappily get a couple wins and then maybe gain that confidence back and now we have hot cory
15:49seager i don't know if it's ever going to happen i was the one that brought the his age and
15:53looking
15:53at these stats up i brought that up recently i don't know i mean the body's already been worn
15:58out a lot in his career off of injuries alone but i can see the optimistic side from anybody who's
16:06trying to sell that i'm trying to win with this group right now and i don't have a lot of
16:10other
16:11options of making anything happen to get wins and and you brought up this point early in the segment
16:16that makes more sense and it's more fun to sell right like hey if they get back and start rocking
16:23and rolling we're good to go imagine my cell you know what we really need to do i need you
16:29to trade
16:29and i just list off at least five people i could probably list off more and then man i'm telling
16:36you
16:36come 2029 we're going to be loaded that team's going to be awesome like that is a terrible thing
16:44boss i'm gonna need some money to do that yeah they're like that's a terribly soul crushing
16:50thing to pitch for all rangers fans us included yeah
Comments

Recommended