00:00How can you not be romantic about moving up seven spots in the latest power rankings?
00:06Six.
00:07Six, seven.
00:07All right, very good.
00:08Six, seven.
00:09CBN, I got a question, though, about MLB's season so far we will get to in a second.
00:14But the latest power rankings came out.
00:16I was wondering, I was like, you know, how are they going to look at the Rangers last week?
00:19You know, the offense was decent when it was at home.
00:21You know, it had a blip.
00:23It had a blip for a game in the game they got shut out.
00:27But they have moved up to the 13th.
00:31The longest write-up of any of the teams was what the Rangers had in its up seven spots, almost
00:40to 500, one game under.
00:43DeGrom, 100 and 101st wins last week, which got this writer thinking, has there ever been a pitcher cost so
00:54many wins in their career by their teammates?
00:56So he had, obviously, Jake DeGrom is the pitcher of the generation.
01:02Him or Kershaw?
01:03Kershaw, because Kershaw was available more.
01:06Available more.
01:07Maybe DeGrom was more dominant, although Kershaw's dominance was unreal.
01:11But, remember, in 2018, he had a 1-7-0 ERA in 217 innings, and he only won 10 games
01:19that year.
01:20He won 10 games in 200 innings in 32 starts with a 1-7-0 ERA.
01:29In 2019, he had a 2-4-3 ERA in 32 starts, and he only won 11 games.
01:36And that's why you're sitting here wondering, how the hell was Jake DeGrom only getting to 100 and 101 wins?
01:41It's because, arguably, the pitcher who has been cost more wins by his teammates than anyone else in the history
01:51of the sport.
01:52Yeah, I remember Felix lost a lot.
01:56Grinkey, early on, lost a lot that he shouldn't have.
02:00I remember Cliff Lee would lose games he shouldn't have lost, like, specifically when he was in Seattle and then
02:05in Texas a little bit.
02:06But I don't think of DeGrom that way, because I think of DeGrom's health costing him more than anything.
02:13Skeens?
02:14Oh, Skeens, Skeens.
02:15Skeens, Skeens, yeah.
02:17This is another one.
02:18He's got 101 wins.
02:20How many no decisions does he have?
02:25Probably, I don't know.
02:26We'll say it's 160.
02:29It's low.
02:30It's 91.
02:31He almost has as many no decisions as wins.
02:34I mean, the bullpen holds half of those.
02:37We're talking about a guy who's got 150-plus wins.
02:39Now, the win stat doesn't really matter anymore.
02:41People don't look at pitcher wins like that.
02:43They're still looking at Jake DeGrom as one of the great pitchers of all time,
02:45even though he barely gets double-digit wins ever in his career.
02:50And Skeens is actually on pace to have the most wins of his career with an ERA that is a
02:55full run worse than what he's ever put up.
02:59He's at a .309.
03:01He's got six wins.
03:02His highest win totals have been 11-10.
03:06That's why they're saying the win thing doesn't matter, because he's having a much worse ERA year,
03:12but the win totals are piling up.
03:14But Skeens has nine starts in his career where he allowed no runs and didn't win the game.
03:18Wow.
03:19Is this a good thing?
03:20Speaking of DeGrom, Jim Bowden says that he will be, right now, he has him as the only Ranger that
03:25makes the All-Star team.
03:28Jim has...
03:29Jared Sandler would say Zeke.
03:30He did say Zeke has a shot at the second-base spot.
03:34He's given it to Jazz Chisholm.
03:37Now, Durant's having a much better year than Jazz.
03:38Jazz started out as hot as ice.
03:42But he's kind of come on of late.
03:43And he started to put on Stanton's pants.
03:44And all of a sudden, he could hit.
03:45He put on Stanton's pants, and he's now using Judge's bat.
03:49He doesn't use any of his own stuff.
03:53So he's come on of late.
03:54But Zeke has had a better year throughout the season.
03:58Much better.
03:59The problem is Zeke's not going to win the fan vote.
04:01And that's just the reality of it.
04:02I mean, it is a popularity contest.
04:04I think the players know that.
04:04And Chisholm's, like, OPS is under 700.
04:07He's not having a very good year at all.
04:10At all.
04:10He's not enough power numbers.
04:12He went, like, a month without hitting his first home run.
04:15But I can see Zeke getting some player votes.
04:18And that'll get him on the roster as a reserve, maybe.
04:20But right now, he's just got it with Jake DeGrom.
04:25I saw this.
04:27And tell me if this is a good thing or not.
04:3027 of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball right now are within five and a half games of a
04:35playoff spot.
04:37Kind of jumbled.
04:38There's nobody really separated.
04:40Dodgers are obviously the Dodgers.
04:41But nobody's really separating.
04:43So we are 40% through the MLB season.
04:46Which is the equivalent of between, like, week seven or week eight.
04:50And, you know, like, so week eight this year, the Jets are 1-7.
04:53Cleveland was 2-6.
04:54Tennessee was 1-7.
04:55The Giants were 2-6.
04:56New Orleans was 1-7.
04:57Arizona was 2-5.
04:58New Orleans really came on.
05:00They were effectively out of it.
05:02But is it a good thing?
05:04Or is this showing that, like, it's very bland and boring and mediocre?
05:09Yeah.
05:09It's bland and boring right now.
05:11It can end up being a great thing because it'll be fun with everyone jumbled up.
05:16Come September, if everybody's within five games, yeah.
05:18Yeah, like, it's good.
05:19I mean, I think the Rangers are a good example of this.
05:22Like, it's good that the Rangers can still be buyers.
05:26And it's good that the Rangers are where they are in the division.
05:30But I don't watch the Rangers and think that I'm enjoying high-quality, fun baseball right now.
05:37So, right now, bad and boring, eventually fun and entertaining, maybe starting with the trade deadline.
05:47Yeah.
05:48Split answer for me.
05:50Yeah, there's a problem with, like, right now I don't feel like...
05:55Like, if the Rangers, if we said the Rangers are first place in the West, we would all poo-poo
05:59that.
06:00Yeah, nobody would, it would be, like, talking about the NFC South or something.
06:04Like, it's not something that's super impressive.
06:06Or midday ratings.
06:09I think there's the, just in general, like, Major League Baseball right now, like, there's not, like, a big entertaining,
06:17like, there's not a lot of entertaining teams at all.
06:19Like, I don't think a lot of the teams are, like, super entertaining to watch.
06:21Like, we've talked about this before, those teams that, like, when you first got here, those Rangers teams, even when
06:27they fell short of the list, those were exciting players across, like, Hamilton was here, Adrian Belcher, you had Mike
06:34Napoli.
06:35Like, there were all these players that were just fun personalities, fun players to watch.
06:39They played their asses off.
06:40I don't know that there's a lot of teams that, like, remind me of those kind of teams that I
06:44watched growing up.
06:44Yeah, so let's go back to, like, 03, 04.
06:4704, you know, and this is back in the day, I was going to a lot of these games, you
06:52were stringing, you were stringers getting audio.
06:55Yeah.
06:55And, you know, you're sitting up in the press box, and there were these four-and-a-half-hour games,
06:59and, yeah, they were fun.
07:02It was 9-8.
07:04It's maddening, but you'd always rather, like, the fun 9-8 than the boring 1-0, unless the pitchers are
07:11great, if it's a bad offense.
07:13But that brings us to the trade deadline and what the team does, and you mentioned score some runs.
07:17And Jeff Passan has the tiers of where each team is, and he puts the Rangers in the, you know,
07:22that could acquire, you know, somebody, but there's issues there.
07:27And he's actually doing this where he's saying each team is going to unload somebody and buy somebody.
07:33So the player that he said, if they were to unload someone, it could be, and he threw Jock Peterson
07:40in there, which, from a contract standpoint, that would make sense, right?
07:47Because you're going to get rid of somebody who is...
07:48Yeah, if you're selling.
07:49If you're selling.
07:50If, obviously, you're going to go for it, probably not.
07:52You wouldn't want to do that, unless they're buying and selling, and in which case, you could get somebody on
07:57an expiring deal.
07:59Or if they think this is fluky, and they think we should do this now before people realize he can't
08:04hit still.
08:05And the one guy they went and they got was an interesting name that is kind of somebody that everybody
08:11knows, and you either love him or you hate him.
08:13And, by the way, this is about Jock's career.
08:15Mm-hmm.
08:16Yeah.
08:16Like, last year, the stats would say last year was the fluke.
08:20He's a career .237 hitter, and he's been playing since 2014.
08:26Well, this year, he's hitting .238.
08:29His max power was 25 home runs.
08:32He's kind of come back down to 15 and 18, maybe 23.
08:38He's on pace for about 20 home runs.
08:42So, this is kind of what Jock has been.
08:45And the one guy he says that they would go or maybe get, and this would fly in the face
08:51of Zeke Duran, and that is a second baseman, Louis Arise.
08:56Now, Arise is a...
08:58Arise will hit .400, and that will also be his slugging.
09:01Right.
09:01And is on base.
09:02Yep.
09:03That guy doesn't walk.
09:04He doesn't hit home runs.
09:06He doesn't steal bases.
09:07And historically, he's been pretty...
09:10Average would be kind of high in terms of his fielding.
09:15He has not been a great feeder.
09:18Like, think early career Ian Kinsler with less range.
09:24That's the kind of second baseman he has been.
09:26And at the plate...
09:27He is having a good year, stats-wise, in the field this year.
09:30But historically, he's been bad.
09:32And at the plate, he is Juan Pierre if Juan Pierre couldn't run.
09:35Right.
09:35Juan Pierre.
09:36If Juan Pierre couldn't run.
09:37He's a singles hitter.
09:38He is a singles hitter who does not hit home runs, and he does not walk.
09:45Like, that's it.
09:46Like, he just...
09:47Now, he would cut into the strikeout rate.
09:49He does not strike out.
09:50Right.
09:51He is really good at putting the ball in play.
09:55He won three straight batting titles.
09:56Yep.
09:56That's good.
09:57There's value in that.
09:58I think in the playoffs...
09:59Juan Pierre won three...
09:59No, no, no.
10:00We're talking about Louis Arise.
10:01Oh, how was I?
10:02I think he won three batting titles with three different teams.
10:04Is that right?
10:05Was he with three different teams?
10:06Yes, he was.
10:07That's pretty remarkable.
10:08Yeah, Twins, Miami...
10:10Tell us how much they valued it.
10:11Exactly.
10:12Nobody values it.
10:13They keep signing him to these one-year deals.
10:15I think the Giants gave him a multi-year deal.
10:19But, you know, he doesn't strike out.
10:21You could maybe throw him at first base if you want to.
10:24But that's a guy that they mentioned as a possibility.
10:27But then again, if you get him, you're going to sit Durant.
10:32And how did they move up in the power rankings?
10:35Both you and Bobby had this.
10:36What was the leap?
10:38Seven spots.
10:39Seven spots.
10:39Seven spots from 20 to 13 with CBS.
10:42And so, that's their...
10:43Look, they're buying in.
10:45They're believing.
10:45They've had a good couple series, a good couple runs.
10:48The thing that's a little bit encouraging is the way that they've done it.
10:52It's just for me.
10:52They're winning games late now.
10:54And they have a special guest in their front office booth to attend games to prove to be the Magic
11:02Rabbit's foot, as Chris Young told G-Bag.
11:04Really funny story.
11:05On Friday night, we had a visitor to our suite who came in.
11:10We were losing the game 2-0.
11:12And I think it was the fifth inning.
11:13And he pops in.
11:14Maybe in the sixth inning.
11:15I can't remember which inning.
11:16We kind of had the outburst for the runs.
11:18He pops in our suite.
11:19And it was Tony Romo.
11:20And Tony was at the game with his family.
11:22I invited him over to come sit with us and just see kind of what goes on in the Baseball
11:25Ops suite.
11:26He walks in.
11:27We make some introductions.
11:29And Higashioka immediately homers.
11:31Wyatt Dumbled.
11:32Eager homers.
11:32And the group was going nuts saying, you know, Tony, you've got a permanent spot in our Baseball Ops suite.
11:38So, Tony brought us good luck on Friday night.
11:40We're very grateful for his support.
11:42He's been a big Ranger supporter.
11:44And to have him at the game and to have him kind of high-fiving with our group was a
11:47special moment.
11:48We got a good photo after the game.
11:50And I'm really grateful for him to stop by and bring us some good luck Friday.
11:53Well, there it is.
11:54Cool story.
11:55With Romo popping on by.
11:56Diamond Cavs.
11:57On your home of the Rangers, Spittle just said, why are we mentioning Lats as an all-star?
12:041-8-6-ERA.
12:06Nine saves.
12:07Might make it as a reserve.
12:08Hashtag baseball sparrow.
12:12I don't know how they do the closers.
12:15I assume that's player.
12:17They picked the best one.
12:17Player votes.
12:19Yeah, I wonder if it's just...
12:21I don't know.
12:22What's his innings like?
12:23Because the nine saves is obviously not way near the top.
12:26But that's why I would wonder if he's just like...
12:28Is it just his innings-wise lower than other guys?
12:30Well, he definitely would be, I think.
12:32Because, I mean...
12:32The league leader's Cade Smith with 21.
12:35Yeah, he just got such a late start.
12:37Right?
12:38He wasn't the closer until, what, May?
12:40Yeah.
12:41Gosh, his whip is 0-6-2.
12:44Lats?
12:44Yeah.
12:45Oh, he's good.
12:47He's definitely a good pitcher.
12:48Lats has 29 innings pitch.
12:50Cade Smith has 30.
12:51Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
12:52I don't know how he compares to the rest of the league.
12:54Well, but Lats has started some games.
12:57He has pitched long relief.
12:58He just got such a late start in the closer role.
13:01Well, I don't know how he compares to the rest of the league, but I don't know how he compares
13:01to the rest of the league.
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