00:00How can you not be romantic about getting your shortstop back?
00:05Corey Seager returned to the lineup over the weekend.
00:08Six.
00:10He went the 0 for 29.
00:12Yeah, he went with the home run.
00:15Went 1 for 4 on Friday and 1 for 4 on Saturday.
00:19I think most importantly is he just had the one strikeout in the 8 at-bats over the weekend.
00:25That is one of the things that had really plagued him throughout the year is swings and misses.
00:32And for him to just strike out the one time in the 8 at-bats, it's a pretty decent sign.
00:38Because when you factor in that in his previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, previous 10
00:46games,
00:47he had only gone one game without a strikeout.
00:51Only gone one.
00:52And he had multiple strikeouts in 5 of those 10.
00:57Multiple strikeout games in 5 of those 10.
01:00So that, to me, was one of the good signs over the weekend.
01:04I mean, it's just 2 for 8.
01:05It's not great.
01:06It's enough to raise his average because his average was that low.
01:09But either way, getting Corey Seager back is always a good thing.
01:14Ask the question, Bob.
01:16So, as you look at the offense, and Josh Young has managed to maintain a little bit,
01:22and Zeke Duran has been able to maintain, and Jock Peterson has come on a little stronger,
01:26even though he's coming off of an 0 for whatever yesterday,
01:31that's three guys who have relatively settled down into some level of consistency.
01:36Seager and Lankford get back, which is what Chris Young kept pushing,
01:38and immediately you get the impact of why Lankford reaches base all three games.
01:43He hits a home run in one.
01:44He had the double that then set up the Seager home run to go ahead on Friday.
01:47Is there hope for this offense if those three are going to be stable
01:51and Seager and Lankford come back as the guys we think they are?
01:55I mean, if...
01:56And, of course, they turn up the air conditioner, Chubb.
01:59Absolutely.
01:59Well, they...
02:00They'll turn it down.
02:01Yeah.
02:02Yeah, does it turn it down?
02:03You said they wanted to make it hotter.
02:05They want to make it hotter so that they turn it...
02:07They turn the AC down, makes...
02:08So I just think of the AC as the temperature control, like the thermostat.
02:11I should say turn the thermostat up.
02:13Yeah, you said it wrong.
02:13Yeah.
02:15I was right about the Spurs.
02:17If everybody stays stable...
02:18Not in the West Finals.
02:20If everybody stays stable and you've got to figure out...
02:23I mean, look, Wyatt and Seager can't be doing what they've done all year.
02:27You know, they have to be better.
02:29Or healthy.
02:30How about that?
02:30Let me ask...
02:33Let's make it a fill-in-the-blank.
02:35The offense make you hopeful for what?
02:39That they can be good enough to couple with the pitching and actually do something in the postseason.
02:45Or that they do good enough to make it worth your while to make a deal in July.
02:50Okay.
02:51First answer, no, in terms of doing damage in the postseason.
02:57I do think because the West is the tightest division in baseball, and this offense has been playing better as
03:04of late, that they will look to be buyers.
03:07Yeah, I think they're going to look to be buyers.
03:09They're not going to...
03:10Nobody's going to run and hide in this division.
03:12They're going to be close enough.
03:14And they're going to look at the pitching staff and say, this pitching staff, if given an opportunity in a
03:19seven-game series, is going to be difficult for another team to deal with.
03:24I don't disagree with that premise that it's going to be a difficult staff.
03:29Their biggest issue is going to be make of the postseason.
03:32Their staff is not as good as it was last year.
03:34No, it's not.
03:35I totally agree.
03:35No, it's not.
03:36Not even close.
03:36Rocker, we just talked about the back-to-back games from DeGrom.
03:40Rocker has a 1-8-8 in his last five starts and a rotation-best 3-5-4 this season.
03:48This was before yesterday's game.
03:50He had six innings of two-run ball against the Guardians.
03:54If you take Jack Leiter's fifth inning, if you remove the fifth inning of all Jack Leiter's starts, his numbers
04:00look a lot better.
04:01He's a fantastic four-inning guy.
04:04He's got an 11-1-2 ERA in the fifth innings of games this year and a 3-5-6
04:10in all the others.
04:11Sean McFarlane with that stat.
04:13Opponents hitting 3-0-4 against him the second time through the order prior to his last start.
04:19I was going to say, so that's what that is.
04:21You get the Rangers' first inning out and Jack's fifth inning out because the Rangers have allowed 20 first-inning
04:28home runs this season now,
04:29seven more than the second-worst team in the first.
04:33They have some weird splits this year as a team, like some stuff that we were talking about this while
04:37you were out.
04:38Did you know that in Major League Baseball, you're under one ground into double play game.
04:44Teams ground into a double play less than one time per game overall over the course of history, over the
04:48course of season.
04:48Which surprised me.
04:49I thought it was at least one again.
04:50Texas is the only team in baseball, by far, that is averaging more than a double play grounded into per
04:57game at home.
04:58They do it all the time.
04:59Like, all these outs they make on the base paths consistently are infuriating.
05:04You mentioned DeGrom in his last two starts.
05:06Well, let's back it up to one more.
05:08In his last three starts, so in his prior starts, he had thrown 22 and a third and allowed 16
05:14runs.
05:14In his four starts prior to the Houston one.
05:17In the last three, 17 innings, two runs.
05:22Really, really kind of turning the corner after whatever the issue was going on until about May 22nd against the
05:31Angels when he allowed six runs in three innings.
05:34Is that shoe going to drop, though?
05:35Like, I mean, it's not been, it's not like when you look at some of the peripherals, it's not like
05:38he's getting, like, a ton of swing and missed stuff.
05:40He's still walking, guys.
05:41Like, is that just, is that, are we going to look back at it and be like, that was, he
05:44was lucking out on bailing out of some jams, but that's not sustainable?
05:49I don't know.
05:49I mean, it's a 14 to three strikeout to walk ratio in his last two starts.
05:54You know, so that's, you know, that's what, seven to one.
05:56It's almost seven to one.
05:58You know, six to one.
05:59That's pretty decent.
06:02You said he's 14 to three strikeouts to walks?
06:06In his last two starts.
06:07DeGrom?
06:08Oh, DeGrom.
06:09Okay, yeah, yeah.
06:09Playoffs start tomorrow.
06:10Who's your game one starter?
06:12DeGrom.
06:12DeGrom.
06:13Okay.
06:15Unless it's the Astros or the Yankees, then it's Evaldi.
06:17Right.
06:18Yes.
06:20Yeah, because, I mean, and also, you would have to match it up with who you're going to go against
06:24in terms of the other pitcher, I think.
06:25Oh, I'm just saying, like, who do you trust as your playoff face?
06:28I would do DeGrom, and then I would do, obviously, Evaldi.
06:33You know, from there, you're going to have a question because let's say it's a 2-3-2 format, right?
06:39Which would be, now, it wouldn't be in the first series, but let's say it's the ALCS, right?
06:44And it's 2-3-2.
06:46Do you want Jack Leiter starting Game 3 knowing you can't expect more than four innings out of him without
06:52blowing up?
06:53Which means, in the first of three games in a row, you're going to damage your bullpen.
06:58Right.
06:59Like, that's going to be the question with what happens.
07:02Well, the third of three games in a row, you're going to damage your bullpen.
07:06Well, if he's Game 3.
07:08But, you have two games, then a day off, and then three straight, and then a day off.
07:12So, he'd be the Game 1, and he'd be the Game 3.
07:14Who's your Game 3 starter?
07:16That's the question.
07:17I mean, it was about, you know, Leiter.
07:19I don't know.
07:20The way he's going right now, it might be Rocker.
07:23The way he's throwing it right now.
07:26So, Leiter is the one who I feel like, there's obviously some up and down and stuff,
07:32but I feel like there have been more times than not when I've watched him this season,
07:34I've been like, I feel okay about him.
07:36Like, for the most part.
07:38If you have to go into the bullpen early, that is standard, too, in the MLB postseason.
07:43Yeah, it is.
07:43You usually carry more pitchers than you do during the regular season,
07:46and teams will dip into that bullpen fast.
07:50And so, I mean, if you get four innings out of them,
07:52I don't know that that's even totally unusual for what we see in the postseason,
07:58especially if you're old Kevin Cash and you're taking your pitchers out.
08:02Diamond Cavs on your home of the Rangers here on 105.3 The Fan.
08:06Off today.
08:07Back tomorrow.
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