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00:00You can't see Masterpiece right here on 105 for the Fan. Right now, brought to you by Trajan Wealth and
00:04Tropical Smoothie Cafe.
00:06It is Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumacher. Good afternoon, sir.
00:12Good afternoon. How you guys doing?
00:13Man, five-game winning streak. You gotta be doing well.
00:16I know that you said after the win yesterday, you felt like maybe it was the team's most complete win.
00:23For people who might have missed what you said, what is it about last night's win that made you feel
00:28that way?
00:30Yeah, I thought overall it was just a very clean baseball game, fundamentally sound, found different ways to win games.
00:38Guys picked each other up. You know, we needed Evo to go at least six innings, if not seven.
00:43We had three or four guys down in the bullpen. Someone was going to have to go multiple innings, if
00:48not,
00:49and even have to come back into the game if they came in to pick kind of like a dirty
00:54inning.
00:55That happened. We had small ball. We had sacrifice flies. We had good base running. The defense was
01:03outstanding. So if we play like that, we're going to have a really good chance to win a lot of
01:08games.
01:08What have you thought, maybe in the last week, week and a half, how well y'all have executed some
01:13of those
01:14small ball aspects?
01:17Yeah, with the injuries and kind of the roster that we have right now, we have to find different
01:21ways to win. And, you know, the game, it kind of overcorrected a few years ago, in my opinion,
01:27of just this launch angle revolution of, you know, slug, slug, slug. And it's, that slug is great.
01:33I've said it before. I will take the three run home run any day of the week, but there's guys
01:38on the
01:38mound that throw 99 miles an hour with cut and sink and ride. And it's not easy to slug that
01:44for everybody.
01:44So there are guys that need to be able to, you know, lay down a bunch. There are guys that
01:49need
01:49to be able to hit and run and then run the base as well. You can also create slug by
01:54getting on base
01:55and stealing a base. That's a double one pitch later. So there's just different ways to figure
02:00out to score runs. And we've been doing that, you know, pretty well lately. I was kind of thinking
02:05this watching the last few nights, because you see guys go up in the, up to the plate and they,
02:09they kind of have to recognize that moment and recognize, I don't need this right now. I need this.
02:14And I was hearing Josh Young talk about his, his approach. And it's like the first two,
02:18I can be selfish, but the third one is definitely, I got to be, I got to be smarter with
02:22what I'm
02:23trying to accomplish there. And it looks like guys kind of do have that different mental approach
02:28to what the moment is calling for. Is that something you have to reteach in the game with
02:33your team or like the, the, the mental aspect of that? There is, there's teaching moments,
02:38every single game, there's constant conversations inside the dugout and inside the clubhouse.
02:43The next day, I don't like to talk to players after the game of, you should have done this.
02:48You should have done that. What are you thinking? The next day, you know, either over a coffee,
02:55over a lunch, you know, inside the stadium during the hitters meeting, there's always video and
03:00always conversations and talking points of, if this happens again, this is probably something we
03:06should think about. This is what you should learn from, you know, last night's game. So,
03:11you know, first and third situations, safety squeeze types of situations, how do you defend
03:15it? What if the infield is playing back and at first and third, are we just hitting and
03:19getting the ball? So there's a lot of different scenarios that, you know, it's there guys haven't
03:25seen all the time. So you just want to make sure that if it comes up again, you know, they
03:30are well aware and we're, we're buttoned up, you know, as the season progresses because
03:35we're, you know, we're 60 games in. So there's a hundred plus games still left or a hundred
03:39games left. And then hopefully, you know, more than that, obviously in, in October, but
03:44you know, we have to make sure that we get all the situational stuff, correct offensively
03:49and defensively. If we want to get to where we want to get to Kevin, a lot of times they
03:53would say that the analytics were the nerds of baseball, right? What he's describing for
03:57me is that that's what baseball, the fun seam head part of it. We're talking about these
04:02little moments that might pop up. Is there like a sense skip then of confidence? It's
04:05like coming for these players when they're, they're contributing these little things that
04:10consistently knowing that they have some players out, some of their top players are
04:14out, but they're gaining this confidence with each one of these at bats. Yeah, there's
04:19no doubt. I mean, there's, you know, the front office did a really good job of, of
04:23getting, you know, Nicky Lopez, look what he's done in the last four or five games to
04:27help us not only offensively, but defensively. And there's some guys that are
04:31playing now every day that, you know, aren't used to playing every day, um, that
04:35are really contributing. Zeke Duran has played as good of a shortstop as you can
04:40imagine in the major leagues, not just for us, but in the major leagues. And the
04:43metrics are even showing that, um, that he is elite at shortstop. Um, so there are
04:49guys playing, uh, you know, Higgy getting three hits yesterday was huge. So there's
04:52guys playing, um, you know, every day now that might've been, you know, off the bench
04:56or on another team that didn't get a ton of at bats that have really helped us win
04:59some games. Can you tell me a little more about Nicky Lopez? Because just kind of
05:04knowing how we've talked with you this season, you're always like, look, my
05:07background as a player, this, this, and Nicky Lopez seems like just the kind of
05:11player that you want to coach.
05:14He's a hard nose winning player. And what I mean by that is, um, he doesn't take a
05:19playoff. He is, he understands the game and his role. And sometimes you have to know
05:25who you are as a player. It's very, a lot of major leaguers are terrible self
05:30evaluators and that, but that's a good thing, right? And I've said it before.
05:34You have to be delusional in this game. You have to think that you are something
05:37that you're not a lot of times to be able to produce over one 62. Um, it's our job
05:42to help them understand what is needed of them every single day to help us win
05:47games. Nicky Lopez knows what he needs to do to help us win games. If it's getting a,
05:51getting a guy over bunting to get guys into scoring position, uh, you know,
05:56making sure that he's in the right position to turn the double play, whatever
05:59it is. Um, he knows his role and, um, it's, it's been a very good addition.
06:03Now I'm fascinated by the opposite spectrum of that of what about the players
06:07who are really good evaluators of themselves, especially when they're in a
06:12slump and maybe they listen to too much outside stuff about them being in a
06:16slump. Like how do the interactions with players like that go?
06:20Yeah. I, I always think that, you know, when you're in a slump, it's up to the
06:24coaching staff to remind, remind them how good they are. So it's, it's the
06:28reverse psychology. And I, Jerry Harrison told me years ago when I played with
06:32him in 2013, that, um, you know, when I go over 10, it just means I'm going to be
06:37really, really hot here in a minute and just wait, buckle up. So it is that type
06:41of mentality instead of thinking, Oh man, I, if I go over my next eight, it will be over
06:4618. Now, um, instead it's going to be, Oh man, I'm over 10. All that means is I'm
06:52about to get scorching hot. So you have to under, you have to get inside of the
06:55player's head and obviously help. There's something obviously going out, going on
06:58mechanically or, or plate discipline wise. That type of thing is also real and
07:04having honest conversations with them, but also reminding them, like you are a
07:08really good player. You're here for a reason and you do X, Y, and Z, and you'll be
07:11right back where you need to be. Is there any extra jolt or anything that
07:16comes from even when you're the road team, that ninth inning win, because you
07:20guys have really picked it up in the last week or so in the first inning, but the
07:24ninth inning is pretty consistently belong to y'all all season long. I would
07:30prefer to score in the first and not wait. Sure. Uh, so although the ninth
07:36thing is great, um, but I do really believe in scoring first, especially on the
07:40road, getting that momentum right away, putting the opposing team, you know, in
07:44a hole is always the goal on the road. And it's really the chase to four runs.
07:49If we score four runs, we're, we're, we have pretty dang good record. So how do
07:53we, how do we do that earlier on and not wait to the eighth and ninth inning?
07:57Because if we keep waiting in those back end relievers are just so good, it's
08:01just so challenging. But I tell you, we've done a really good job all year of
08:05fighting back and at least making a run at it. If not winning, you know, late in
08:08games and it's been impressive. Could you feel like a different charge then in
08:13the dugout throughout the Royal series? And to a certain extent, going back to
08:16the Astros series, when you guys were scoring early, specifically in the first
08:21inning, quite a bit. Absolutely. I mean, that's the whole goal is just to score
08:26early and, and to ride that momentum through nine innings. Um, if I knew exactly
08:31how to score early, I would do it every single time. I promise you, I think every
08:35manager is trying to figure out how to score, you know, the first couple runs
08:39and, and score first, um, jock hitting a home run or jock getting a double. I
08:44mean, that has been incredible the last, whatever it's been in May really, um, in
08:49now early part of June. But, um, I think the start of the top of the lineup is
08:53always the key. And then the, the, our pitchers throwing up a zero is, uh, is
08:58been huge as well, you know, early on in the game.
09:00Well, specifically for Jack Peterson, what is his offensive explosion meant? I feel
09:05like you were just kind of touching on that, but also do you feel like moving
09:09him to lead off sparked this offensive play?
09:12Yeah, a couple of things to that. Uh, Brandon Nimmo really carried us early on
09:16in the lead off spot. Um, and then we were struggling to score runs and I
09:21approached, uh, Brandon Nimmo after kind of talking, you know, with the coaching
09:24staff of, you know, how are we going to mix things up? You know, what, what are
09:27some ideas? And I went to Brandon and said, Hey, listen, we got to mix
09:30things up. What do you think? And when you have a, uh, I've said this before,
09:34a superstar player that is all in on whatever it takes to win, if it's moving
09:38him in the lineup from first to second to third or whatever it takes. And he's
09:42like, absolutely. I'm all in let's do it. Uh, that frees me up, you know,
09:46especially as a, as a, you know, kind of a rookie manager in the Texas
09:50organization. And with a guy that just got traded over, that's been pretty good
09:54in his career. When he says that, um, it goes a long way. So moving up jock. And,
09:59um, I think has been obviously enormous for him and for us, he gets on base at a
10:04high clip. He's back to who he was in, you know, Arizona before he got, um, you
10:09know, signed over here and he's slugging now leadoff doubles and home runs and
10:13walks and good base running. He even dropped, was about to drop a bunt in a
10:18couple of nights ago because the third baseman was so far back and that's who
10:23jock is. He's just a winning player. He reads the game. He slows things down and
10:27he's on a heater right now. And we're going to ride this thing as long as we
10:30can.
10:31It is. I'm just kind of curious. And I love the comment on Nemo. Uh, I really
10:35do. And you hear a guy be that open to it and it makes the conversation easier
10:39for you too. But with jock, is it more mental and he just kind of changed an
10:44approach or is it him just kind of finding more rhythm being up in that top of
10:49the order and having more at bats from the DH spot?
10:52I think it's a combination of, uh, some things. I think he was probably pissed
10:56off from what happened last year. Um, weren't we all? Yeah. Well, I mean, and
11:01that's fair, but it's, it's the player that, you know, really takes it. Right.
11:05I mean, it is, nobody feels worse than the player signing a two year deal and
11:09expected to, you know, really provide a lot of offense. And, you know, he got hurt
11:13as well and just never really came back from, from the injury like he wanted to.
11:17And so he was on, you know, kind of a mission to be back to, you know, who he
11:21really wanted to be and who he's been for the last 10 years of his career.
11:25And this is more like who he is than, you know, what he was, um, you know, last
11:29year. And I think that, um, you know, maybe he, he get the extra at bat was kind of
11:34my thought, um, at the top of the lineup, instead of hitting fifth or six against
11:38a righty, instead of flipping him out, you know, sometimes with two at bats, um, when
11:43a lefty came in and a lefty lane. And it wasn't, it just, I needed to
11:47get him more in a rhythm, uh, whether or not it, that's the case or not. I
11:51have no idea, but it's worked out.
11:53You know, you talked about Ezekiel Duran just a little bit ago, and you've
11:56talked to us in the past about his energy or the energy of Osuna and how
12:02that can kind of jumpstart like the clubhouse and the team on the field. How
12:05much has that made easier to see that energy go when you are winning? Cause I
12:10know there are some players who are like, Hey, I'm glad you're energetic, but if we
12:13lost, I don't want to hear it.
12:15Yeah. I mean, Zeke has been the same guy in spring training, um, the opening day
12:22to like when he's gosh, been on this pair that ever since he's kind of forced
12:28himself into the lineup. And I said this a few days ago as well. Like, I don't
12:31want the amount of work that he's putting in to get lost because he's
12:36provides energy. Um, he is playing multiple positions at an elite level, which is
12:42really hard to do. Um, and then also provide offense, right? Usually you get
12:47tired and you see some superstars in the league right now that the off that the
12:51offense is really struggling because of a position change. It's not easy because
12:55it's a lot of wear and tear in your body to learn shortstop play third every now
12:59and then play second. Oh, by the way, he threw out a guy in right field in
13:02Detroit. So like he's played all over the place and you're looking up and he's
13:07gotten, you know, close to an 800 or 800 OPS. Um, I don't know where we'd be
13:11without Zeke. Well, with all that in mind, we've been running this campaign for a
13:15couple of weeks. Ezekiel Duran is an all-star, right? I'm totally okay with
13:20that. Yeah. I think there's a couple, there's a couple guys that would, uh, you
13:24know, on my radar that could actually be on that team. And we'll be right there
13:27for the campaign for all of those guys. Absolutely. I was kind of curious, did
13:31you keep up with and what are your thoughts on the Seager-Lankford outings
13:34yesterday? And what are you kind of hoping to see here soon from them? Yeah, I
13:39was, uh, I just actually watched video of their bats and their defense. And I, uh,
13:45you know, checked in with both of them. Everyone feels great, which is good. That's
13:48always the concern the next day of how do you feel after a swing and miss? How do
13:52you feel after catching a ground ball? How do you feel running the bases? Uh,
13:56Langford ran like four miles to catch a ball, one of these, uh, you know, one of
14:01these plays and, um, it was a long fourth inning as well. Um, so making sure his body
14:06feels good. Seager's back feels good after catching a ground ball and, um,
14:10getting a base hit running the bases. So everything was checked at, uh, kind of
14:14check the box, so to speak. Um, and that's what we were looking for and, you
14:18know, we'll see what happens in the next couple of days.
14:20And then we kind of were talking about that tarps off environment. I think
14:24last week we had the discussion about it, Kevin, and we kind of saw it a couple
14:27nights ago, that, that kind of environment, what was the, when you were
14:31playing, what was the wildest place you ever walked into and saw something that
14:36you were like that right there can give me some energy to play in? Yeah. I mean,
14:41in my opinion, there's some, a couple of guys that probably should keep their
14:44shirts on and that tarps off thing, but, um, yeah, but I, um, but it's, it's
14:50great. It's good for the fan base. You know, I, I, you know, watched it, uh, when
14:53it happened in St. Louis for the first time, that's how Al Herbowski take off his
14:57shirt. And he was like, you know, waving this, the thing and, you know, and having a
15:01Bud, uh, Bud Light or whatever he was drinking. And so I think it's good for the
15:04game. It's kind of caught on, uh, you know, all over the place. I think we had it in
15:08Texas a few nights ago. So it was, you know, it's, it's fun for the game. It
15:12energizes the fan base. The craziest thing. I mean, I was in, I played in
15:16Venezuela, um, for winter ball and, you know, and in Cuba, um, for team USA. And I
15:23mean, I, you see some stuff that stands there that I'm not even sure I can, I can
15:27talk about, but, um, I, you know, I, I was, I hit a home run and I got
15:31batteries thrown at me. I got, uh, you know, uh, you know, apples thrown at me,
15:35whatever they're chucking. And, but I mean, that energizes all of us. Right. And
15:39I think it's just, uh, the passion that they have in internationally was so much
15:44fun. But I think the craziest thing with, you know, there, there's bands
15:47playing and you see in the WBC a little bit, there's, you know, bands playing
15:50and instruments and it's just a lot of passion. So the craziest stuff was
15:54definitely in, uh, in internationally. How awesome is Herbowski's, uh, mustache
16:00too? Oh, he's a legend, man. He is, he is, uh, you know, the, the mad Hungarian.
16:06They don't just hand out those nicknames, right? So, uh, he's, he's, uh, he's
16:11great. And, um, and, uh, and I, I've always had a good relationship with, with
16:15Al and, uh, he's a special man. So the last thing I have for you, I didn't know
16:18we'd have a natural transition, but when the tarps off shirt discussion, we heard
16:23about you giving one of your concert t-shirts to your buddy, the Cardinals
16:27manager. Do you have a handful of these shirts left? Do you have like a box of
16:31them at home? What's the story? Yeah. Well, first of all, I was a real
16:34surprise. There's, uh, extras left over. I mean, I'm just kidding. That's a good
16:38point. That's a good point. I'm totally kidding. Um, I, uh, yeah, I thought, you
16:43know, Ollie and I, we, we have a really special bond and, you know, quite honestly,
16:46he hired me as his bench coach and it propelled me to, you know, become a
16:50manager the following year. And I'm very grateful that he took a chance on me.
16:54And we got to watch Albert hit 700 home runs and Goldschmidt had a MVP year that
16:59year. And it was just a really great season. And, you know, ever since then we
17:03have sent over different things when each other comes into town. Um, and it's never
17:08really any good stuff. It's just kind of more prank type of stuff. And I thought,
17:12you know, what a time to have a concert shirt sent over, but didn't think he would
17:16wear it, uh, during batting practice. So, uh, good on him. And I regret sending
17:21that over after seeing him where, you know, during a batting practice.
17:25Well, if he could set one aside and autograph it for our charity show in
17:28November, we would love that. No, I'm in on that. That's no issue at all.
17:32Yeah, for sure. Thank you very much. Good, sir. Let's make it double sweeps
17:36today. Sounds great. Thanks guys. There you go. Skip Schumacher right here on
17:40105.3 The Fan.
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