00:00Quick note on the Rangers. Keith Law put out his new top 50 prospects for the Athletics.
00:07Sebastian Walcott started preseason ranked 16th. He is now 15th on the list with that list,
00:15just like MLB.com's list, being topped by Jesus Made, or if you prefer, Jesus Made.
00:22That's right.
00:23But it is Jesus Made. And so just wanted to throw that out there.
00:26Now, got a question for y'all about some MLB players that have been studs.
00:35Reality.
00:36Over the year.
00:37No, wrong.
00:38That is not what we're doing.
00:40This is going to be more simplistic.
00:42Oh.
00:43Do you kind of feel like maybe these players are done being great?
00:49Let's start with Manny Machado.
00:52Manny Machado. Seven time All-Star. Top four in MVP voting. Four times. And still, even last year,
01:02playing almost every single game, putting up some very solid numbers so far this year. He's still
01:08out there and he's still playing. He has a negative .5 war and is hitting 169 with a 603 OPS.
01:17He is
01:17about to turn 34. Do you think Manny Machado is done being really good?
01:27I've thought this a couple of times with him.
01:30Oh, yeah.
01:31And then, kind of like Matt Stafford, he just says, no, I'm going to go ahead and be Manny Machado
01:36again.
01:38This time, it's kind of hard to deny, but at the same time, the Padres just have a few
01:43offensive bats that just haven't figured it out this season.
01:48Fernando Tatis, perhaps leading the way.
01:52Yes. So, I don't know if maybe there's a systematic top-down kind of issue that's going on. They've had
01:59some turnover in terms of managerial status and whatnot. I mean, they're not afraid to make
02:05massive moves. That's why they have so much star power, but for Machado, I don't really see
02:10anything that shows he's trending in the right direction either. Even his recent game splits
02:18are not good. So, I think he might just be hitting that wrong side of 30 conversation.
02:24I think I'm with you on that. I believe the same thing about this next fellow. Four-time
02:28all-star, three-time silver slugger, and 2017 World Series MVP for a fake title, George
02:35Springer. Currently, even though he was really good last year, he is currently hitting 211 with
02:44a 657 OPS. He will turn 37 in September. Is this the end of the road for George Springer?
02:56I think it might be because we're already getting to the point with him where he's a
03:02healthy scratch in the lineup. Literally just a day ago, removed from the lineup, asked the
03:10manager why, said he needed a breather. And that's not a physical one either. That's one
03:15of those like, he's kind of struggling along here. Again, the legend of him that lives in
03:23Houston, it's going to live forever. But he's lived past that. He's seen better days
03:30for sure, which sucks because I was excited when he left Houston because I wanted to see
03:35if he could continue on that legacy. It's just like, if Jordan Alvarez, if for whatever
03:40dumb reason the Astros ever let him go, I'm going to be excited because I want to see if
03:45he just continues to be that monster going forward and then I can have a reason to kind of like
03:50him. George Springer has not done that for me. The change of scenery has not been good
03:55for him. He's been banged up too with the Blue Jays. He's had a little bit of an injury
04:00bug here and there. He doesn't play enough anymore to get that level of consistency that
04:07I'm used to from him. Again, even some of the advanced numbers just say that it's not
04:14one of those words like, oh, he's just unlucky right now. He's in the ball hard. He's not.
04:18He's not really doing anything well. Five-time All-Star AL MVP runner-up in 2023 and two-time
04:27World Series MVP number five for your Texas Rangers, Corey Seager. Corey Seager as having
04:38by far the worst start to his career and I know he's out right now. I wonder if we're still
04:44a couple of weeks away on that front. 179 at batting average, 638 OPS because even in
04:51the years when he had been injured, like you look at last year, is he still able to put
04:58up a war of about six and an OPS of 860. Those are down dramatically. Is this the end of
05:07the
05:07road of greatness for Corey Seager? I'm not saying he'll be out of Major League Baseball
05:11or anything crazy like this, but is this the end of greatness for Corey Seager?
05:17I hope not. Just because history will tell you he has this weird trend of small injury
05:26turns into extended stint on the IL, turns into he comes back and he's got everything figured
05:32out again. Right. And when it's on, it's horrifying for opponents. Exactly. So baseball is a game
05:39of trends. Yep. So I would like to follow, it's hard for me to, but I would like to follow
05:44the trends here and say that he is going to make good use of this time away from the lineup,
05:50identify some things that maybe weren't working for him. We know how robotic and just scientific
05:56he is when it comes to his mechanics, his swing, everything involved in playing the game.
06:03I just hope that he is doing that. He is taking this time away to really evaluate one, get healthy,
06:10but to evaluate what wasn't working. And maybe he does come back score shirth because he's done it
06:15before. So I don't want to act like he's not capable of doing it again, but I'm inching closer
06:21towards that point. This is really depressing too, from the 575. What's even crazy is with
06:26Machado and Springer being so bad, they might still be one of the best bats on this team.
06:32That is... One man's trash is another man's treasure. Yeah. I'd take it. That does really
06:38bum me out. Now, we're not just going safe here. We're going to throw out some names that
06:45might make you pause. Oh no. Mookie Betts. Whoa. Eight time All-Star. 2018 AL MVP. 2023 NL MVP.
06:55runner up. And man, who once he was moved to the number four spot, hit two home runs just
07:03two games ago. But you look at it and man, oh man, is he struggling this year. 182 batting
07:12average. 649 OPS. Now, I realize that injuries have come into play with all of that. And I understand
07:22that, but those are still some staggeringly low numbers for somebody who has at least
07:26been like a pretty good, even hitter for average, for pretty good to very good for a good chunk
07:34of his career. He turns 34 in October. Is this the end of Mookie Betts being great?
07:44This is tough. It's tough to bet against him, but at the same time, injuries have plagued
07:51him on top of the fact that he's probably, even in the four spot, he's probably seeing
07:58a lot more difficult pitching than he's used to because his lineup is so stacked. Sure. So
08:05just because of the concept of lineup protection and whatnot, the different scouting reports from
08:10team to team, I feel like even at the four spot, he might just be seeing better pitches
08:16for the pitcher, for the defense specifically. So it's almost like having really good teammates
08:23sandwiching you in the lineup is not a good thing for him right now. At this point in his
08:28career, if you even wound back maybe even two years ago, I'd probably be like, that's a ridiculous
08:34statement. And he's going to figure it out at some point. But again, he went into play
08:41on Tuesday with an OPS under 600. Like it just hasn't. And he had a great game. He did have
08:47a great game. So maybe the lineup change is what he needed. I still think he's going to
08:51see really good pitching there. I also just remembered he's in year 13. So I'm going to
08:59say yes. I'm going to say yes, just because the numbers are getting to me in this sense.
09:04Like the, some of the other names you gave me, I'm like, I'm not going to let it get
09:07to me. He's been doing this at a stupidly high level for 13 years. No brainer. Hall of
09:13Famer. Oh, 100%. It feels like he was just, he was the hotshot, you know, like third year
09:19player in Boston just a few years ago. Now I might be exaggerating the word great for these
09:25next two. And I will accept that. But somebody texted in. So I added another person from the
09:31817. What about Adolis? How's he doing? Did we make a mistake? I mean, defensively,
09:37this team has been atrocious. So you could make that argument. Probably. Yes. But Adolis
09:42Garcia this year, in case you're wondering what you missed out on, what you lost, he's hitting 201
09:47with a 599 OPS. He currently has a negative 0.4 war, which means he's worse than just
09:55your average run of the mill replacement player. He has four home runs to go along
10:00with 15 RBIs and he has 65 strikeouts. His on-base percentage is 287. So he's pretty
10:07much clunking along at even a little bit of a lower rate than he had been in his last
10:12two years with the Rangers. So I would say definitively on that, no, you did not make a
10:17mistake unless you want to so full solely focus on defense. But I want to throw another
10:22one out at you. Again, you might be bending the use of the word great. He was fourth in
10:27Cy Young voting two years ago at the age of 26 and Rangers fans thought the sky was falling.
10:35Cole Regans, is he not going to be particularly great anymore? Let's take a look at what happened.
10:44Like I said, fourth in Cy Young two years ago. Since then, last year, although injury problems
10:49have popped up as well, 4.67 ERA this year in eight starts, 4.84 ERA, and he is hurt
11:00again.
11:00Is it possible that that 2024 season, no matter how spectacular, made a lot of Rangers fans worry
11:07for nothing?
11:08Yeah, this is interesting because this is case of young pitcher dealing, dealing, dealing,
11:14elbow blows out. What happens now? He was shut down over the weekend in his rehab. He was placed
11:22on the aisle back in May, early May, I should say. Yeah, this is odd. He's not going to be
11:30pitching
11:30for a few days. Elbow stiffness is not something you'll love to hear in this process. He hasn't
11:36pitched since the beginning of the month. Yeah, that's all signs are pointing towards. I should
11:42not have any firm stance on him right now because I don't know if he's going to be able to
11:46continue
11:46doing this at a consistent rate, just in general, good, bad, or indifferent. I don't know if he's
11:51going to be available. Now, ultimately, whenever you first deal him and he is a Cy Young contender,
11:57you're like, holy crap. And we might not be good at this development thing. Well, and the only reason
12:02I didn't care, and that is very fair, obviously, I agree with that. The only reason I didn't
12:07care is the trade helped facilitate the pieces that got you the World Series, but I'm with
12:11you on the development part. I don't think you can make a really strong argument that
12:15they're good at development. I will say, in that rehab outing that set him back over
12:21the weekend, he was really, really good. His fastball velo was back to his average, so
12:26he was looking good, and he's only 28. So this one, even though it's fun to think about,
12:33I think we're going to get back to the point at, it might not even be this season. It could
12:38be next season where you're like, remember when we traded that guy? Whoops. You know,
12:43it's all worth it. Like you said, whenever you sell out for a championship and it works,
12:48everything is worth it. So I'm not mad at it, but I do think his stuff is good enough
12:53to where at some point, I am going to bring that up again. Like, he was on this
12:57team at one point. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Try not to think across other sports,
13:03especially basketball, people that used to be on this team, by the way, or our
13:07teams. By the way, a couple of other notes for you. Yannick Sinner, the number
13:11one tennis player, he was one game away from advancing in the second round of the
13:17French Open. Then he fell apart. I know a lot of people are bringing up the heat,
13:22and he ended up losing in five sets today. And then a positive note. Felt like he
13:27needed something positive here. The Dallas Wings, they get after it again
13:32tonight. They're hosting Las Vegas. Then they'll host Seattle on Monday. But once
13:37they get back out on the road, they were 4-18 on the road last year. So far this
13:43year, they're 3-1. So they're already one win away from matching their road record,
13:49which obviously was awful next year. So another sign of a step in the right
13:54direction. And I believe ESPN had them at number five in their power ranking.
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