- 2 days ago
Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker joined the K&C Masterpiece before tonight's matchup against the Royals. Schumaker discussed the team's approach to managing player workloads, Josh Jung's refined mental approach, pushing past recent pitching struggles, and more.
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00:00it is texas rangers manager skip schumacher good afternoon sir hey guys how you guys doing
00:06man we're doing okay and i had a non-baseball question for you first i know the schedule
00:11doesn't really cross over but right next to y'all stadium the world cup is about to get
00:17underway are you a soccer guy are you pumped for the world cup or no time for things not related
00:23to baseball right now no i'm absolutely pumped up for the world cup my wife played soccer in
00:29college my 16 year old daughter plays soccer and travel sports in high school and everything else
00:35so i'm a big fan of soccer and looking forward to the event who do you have a favorite for
00:40this one
00:41you think the u.s has got it or i mean i a hundred percent i'm rooting for the u
00:47.s but i have a few
00:48guys in our clubhouse that are rooting for different teams obviously but uh we are i'm very pro uh u
00:54.s
00:54in this tournament my prediction by the way is that the 2031 fifa world cup women's final will
01:01be played at at&t stadium oh man that'd be amazing could you imagine yes yes absolutely i actually
01:09skip i'm pretty fascinated by what you just said when you have uh guys in the in the clubhouse that
01:14are you know they're interested in it too how do you kind of manage keeping them focused like how do
01:19you go through that you say look we can't watch this or what do you want to do things together
01:24as a team how do you manage that no i think it's part of the camaraderie just like when football's
01:29on during the season um you know with fantasy football and everything else i think there's
01:33it's just good you know back and forth and camaraderie and you know rooting for different
01:37teams at different times there's a lot of people that are uh on our staff or even players that are
01:42from different countries and have ties to you know different teams and root for different players
01:46from different countries or different sports and so i think it's always fun uh watching it you know
01:51in the clubhouse or off days and a lot of guys are going to try to go to the games
01:55on off days so i
01:56just think it's it's part of uh the culture and um and you know from guys with it that have
02:02been born
02:02in different countries so i think it's it's just a lot of fun you know seeing the the passion that
02:06guys have around here it did lead to an interesting uh scheduling quirk for y'all too because i know
02:12usually days off would be monday or thursday but y'all have that july 3rd friday off i'm assuming
02:18because of the world cup match yeah i think guys are are you know they're looking forward to seeing
02:25you know what the traffic looks like around a lot of a lot of players and and staff are uh
02:30live really
02:31close to the stadium um so they're trying to figure out exactly how to navigate this and there's also
02:36some uh guys that have families that are coming into town that you know maybe want to go to these
02:40games so the the tickets are pricey for sure but um you know while it's in town why not enjoy
02:46it
02:46now on the baseball front last night and then in the last evaldi start i was wondering if
02:53there was any commonalities you saw yesterday in the sixth inning and then going back to the last
02:58start in the seventh inning that led to of all these struggles of finishing it out an inning that
03:03he started in both of those starts yeah last night was challenging because he had 71 pitches going
03:10into the sixth inning um you know he didn't give up a hit till after the fourth inning so he
03:15we felt
03:15like he was really rolling uh not a ton of hard contact early on um and just felt like he
03:22was really
03:22in a groove and then you know even in that last inning that you know we ended up having to
03:26pull him out
03:27he was ahead of the count uh he was one two against garcia and two two against uh vinnie and
03:34so he was
03:34ahead of the count a lot of the times just had a little bit trouble you know putting him away
03:39you know with a
03:39high fastball to garcia that he ended up getting to and hitting it off the wall and right center and
03:44then vinnie obviously with a split that kind of caught more of the plate that he wanted so i think
03:49maybe just the execution and finishing the the uh the at-bat um last night is what kind of ended
03:56up
03:56costing him but i probably in st louis you know the pitch count might have gotten higher and um you
04:02know
04:02looking back on it maybe i've gotten another arm ready uh you know to go into the game but last
04:07night
04:08it just felt like it was his game and just kind of happened you know pretty quickly after you know
04:1271 pitches going into the sixth inning we felt like that was evo's game and unfortunately um you know
04:19looking looking at it a couple balls were hit harder um and you know kind of got away from him
04:25you know gosh probably 10 11 pitches in i feel like and i did i wish i kept better track
04:29of it last night
04:30skip but i feel like i saw the curveball as the first pitch a few more times than i usually
04:34do
04:34is that part of maybe scouting report and i know nate's always so detailed with everything or did
04:39he just feel comfortable with that and he's like this is what i'm going with right now
04:44yeah last night he was definitely more soft and hard it was more of a um you know trying to
04:49use the
04:50change up use the art not the change up the split uh in the curveball uh and really helping you
04:55know
04:55out the cutter because the cutter had you know gotten hit a little bit um you know the last couple
05:00starts so in the fastball so he was trying to maybe pitch a little bit backwards and and try
05:05to make the fastball and cutter play up a little bit based on you know getting it over with the
05:09curveball early and you know the split and then kind of finishing up um unfortunately that didn't
05:16work later but early on it was really working well for us because that is a team you know a
05:21lot of
05:21left-handed hitters uh that were are aggressive um so in you know his scouting report is so detailed he
05:28knows exactly you know what pitches that they struggle with and trying to expose that early
05:33on really really worked uh unfortunately the last thing did not is is jack hagley own kind of a nuisance
05:38right now yeah uh first of all it's a large human in that batter's box but uh but yeah really
05:47fun
05:47exciting young player uh that's going to be around in the league super talented and he hit a couple
05:53mistakes yesterday um you know obviously with the first home run um but then the the change up that
05:59was up and in the first pitch you know that beaks through mistake that you know left up over middle
06:05and kind of where jack likes to hit it and and he definitely hit it so yeah he hits the
06:09ball as hard
06:10as anybody you know we just got to execute a little bit better tonight last night it started the team's
06:15run of 23 games in 24 days was there anything else leading up to this stretch that you kind of
06:22tweaked like sitting seager on sunday or anything that y'all will do during this run to make sure
06:27everyone's feeling healthy still going strong all that good stuff yeah i think it's a combination of
06:32things uh especially with starting pitching you know we don't want to have guys go five innings
06:37our bullpen will get absolutely taxed so we do have to push you know the starting pitchers maybe a
06:43little bit more um to try to get that extra inning so we don't have to cover four innings you
06:48know each
06:49start um we do have to manage the workload there's no doubt about it uh with some of our big
06:54boys you
06:55know we will start having some guys off you know starting at you know tonight uh burger will be off
07:00tonight um but we'll have some guys that you know throughout this stretch that we will get off their
07:06feet to try to get through this you know long stretch and i think the tough tough part is we
07:11want
07:11to win these games right um with our big guys and we're obviously really good with when our bigger
07:16bigger names are in the lineup but it will test the bench in the depth of our bench and you
07:21know
07:21luckily nikki lopez has been really good since we signed him um zeke duran is no longer a bench
07:27player but he'll be playing more more uh different positions just because he's so talented in every
07:31spot he'll consistently be in the lineup but we will have to find ways to get him off his feet
07:36one of
07:37these days and jj is the same way so i think you know we don't want to run these guys
07:41into the ground
07:42but we also want to win every game we can so it's the fine line we don't want to give
07:45everybody a
07:46day off the same day but i think you'll see some guys off their feet in the next you know
07:50three weeks
07:51i want to piggyback on that just a little bit because this for me kevin this doesn't feel like
07:56the same team that we saw maybe about halfway through the beginning of this season it feels like
08:01a different team that's evolved a little bit and they started playing a different brand while seager
08:06and uh why it were out and it was it was starting to get exciting too and we're seeing that
08:11grow what
08:11is the next stage the next evolution for you that you want to see them turn into as a as
08:16an offense
08:18well my job and our staff job is to put guys in the best position position for them to succeed
08:24and
08:25you know if they're still uncomfortable doing certain things then we have to keep helping them
08:29feel comfortable doing it in games you know you can practice things all you want but until you do it
08:36in the game and and see you know turn into success during the game you just don't know if it's
08:40going
08:41to work or not in a player's mind uh seeing evan carter steal third base uh was big he's only
08:47done
08:47that twice now in the major leagues um that's a big deal and when you can get on base and
08:52you don't
08:52really slug well that's stolen base to second into third that is slug now right so it's just one or
08:59two pitches later and that created a big run at the time um can evan evan is a very dynamic
09:04player can
09:05we get him to be more comfortable bunting more i think that is going to be the next step in
09:09his
09:10game we have to remember he's 23 years old so he's still you know learning and it's up to us
09:14to keep
09:15teaching that um you know zeke duran's the same way can we he's a dynamic player so kind of using
09:21these guys talents um to be more dynamic um is is part of you know what our staff is trying
09:27to utilize
09:27and um it's still a work in progress no doubt about it but that's the fun part i'm glad i'm
09:32glad you
09:33brought up evan carter because last night in that game like yeah it was he's electric whenever he's
09:37on the bases but getting him there obviously is the thing that you're trying to figure out what to
09:41do the most and for josh young it just seemed like somewhere i know he's got the talent in him
09:46but
09:47somewhere it clicked are you expecting that it's just going to kind of click for evan or is there some
09:51some other way in the mindset you're working on i do think it's going to click um he's an extremely
09:57talented dynamic player that obviously is one of the the best defenders in center field and it's our
10:03job to continue helping him grow into you know an everyday major league player that's not only just
10:10major league average at the plate like he's going to be even you know above average at the plate and
10:15when you have an above average hitter at the plate that can steal bases and by the way run down
10:20everything
10:20in center field i think you know you have a really really nice you know all-star caliber player
10:26um we have to remember he was so good early on in his career that you just expect it to
10:32always
10:32look like that and that's not fair to the player um the big leagues is hard you have to adjust
10:36to
10:37you know when it adjusts to you and part of our job as a staff is to you know help
10:42him while the game
10:43is adjusting to him so um this game is tough i mean it is it's not easy and um there's
10:49a lot of guys
10:49that you know we're helping um to try to get to a spot where they're you know really really good
10:54and
10:54getting better every day and um evan's not the only one we're we're doing that with a lot of guys
10:59and uh just like you know with jj and he's gone off to this you know 850 ops start whatever
11:05it is now
11:05and um evan's going to continue to get better and i feel really good about what he where he's going
11:10to
11:10be by the end of the year you know since you mentioned josh young can you walk us through the
11:14consistent hitting and possibly mental approach josh young has had this season and much like we talked
11:22about with duran last week he should be an all-star too right i do think that you know jj
11:28started
11:29off in a lunch conversation i had with him in the off season at a barbecue spot um in dallas
11:34and he
11:35mentioned that he wanted to be a complete hitter again and not just this pull slide pull side slug
11:41hitter that maybe he got into uh you know kind of some nasty habits of just trying to create more
11:46than
11:46you know what he's capable of and jj's calling card has always been i i've been a really good
11:51hitter that also can slug it's not the other way around and some of these young hitters you know they
11:56they see what this you know the game kind of trended a few years ago of like just pull side
12:02launch and
12:02it kind of gets out of you know what these guys you know who they really are as hitters and
12:06jj
12:07um as you've seen uh is a really good hitter first and foremost two strikes he's just going the
12:13other way kind of old school choke up punch it the other way get the single you know the first
12:18two
12:18you know maybe try to you know hit a little bit harder in the gap the last one i'm just
12:22going to
12:22fight my butt off and try to get a base hit the other way for the team and he's he
12:27that's who he
12:27is you know it's a really good hitter that is using the whole field and not just trying to slug
12:33and so
12:34he's uh he's taken that on in spring training um he's been really good with our analytical department
12:40as far as the game planning and what to look for in different counts and then you know when
12:45when that doesn't happen as far as the game planning of what he thought was going to happen
12:49during the game he's really good at adjusting at bat to a bat and pivoting and i think those are
12:54the
12:54best players are the ones who can pivot pitch to pitch and not game to game and that's what he's
12:59been
13:00so good at this year now we're talking to skip schumacher right here on 105 through the fan you've
13:04talked about this plenty of times with us throughout the season i'm paraphrasing but
13:08being great in late innings is tremendous but let's not fall into those spots so often and
13:13since may 26 the team has outscored opponents 20 to 5 in the first inning how have y'all turned
13:20that
13:20specific aspect around and gotten off to those better offensive starts gosh i wish i could tell
13:27you that it was uh this genius message that i delivered and here we go but um but it has
13:34been a
13:35you know constant kind of message of we want to score first we're you know our record is going
13:39to be better if we score first we've said that in spring training because if our pitchers throw up
13:44a zero and we score first you know typically teams records in the major leagues are very very positive
13:50um and we're no different if we score four runs we're usually really really good and we don't lose
13:56too many leads so um you know that has been constant messaging but to tell you that you know we're
14:01doing
14:02something like game planning wise um i think maybe a little more aggressive uh early on in the game
14:07you know a lot of pitchers when they come out from the bullpen to start the game they don't know
14:12exactly how they're going to feel uh as far as you know can they spin the ball is there you
14:16know
14:16their change up their split working correctly they're really trying to establish their fastball early on
14:21um and it that's kind of why you're seeing a lot of uptick in first pitch home runs throughout the
14:26league unfortunately us included but you know guys are on the fastball early on um and so i think
14:33that's part of it if you know we're trying to be more aggressive and not just let guys get in
14:38a
14:38rhythm on the other side um so that that is definitely part of the deal and then uh skip you
14:43said and i'm going to go back this a lot you said chase winning you were talking about josh smith
14:48specifically when we talked to you at spring training but is getting to 500 something that can
14:54become too much of an obsession i'll be honest with you i was not thinking about let's get to 500
15:01yesterday i was trying to figure out how to win the first game of a series on the road after
15:05an
15:05off day you know that's on top of my mind that's it's it's you know the 500 is a is
15:10a good spot you
15:12know because you want to be above 500 at some point so you got to get to 500 um i
15:16get all of that and i
15:17know what the record is but i can promise you that yesterday you know our staff and the messaging was
15:23win the first game uh we had evil on the mound you felt really good about you know our matchups
15:29and you know unfortunately we just didn't win um but the first and foremost is as you guys know i'm
15:35i'm day to day trying to win the day and um and it starts again with today and it would
15:39have been
15:39nice obviously to get to 500 but um i was trying to you know really message let's win day one
15:45and
15:46then lastly jock peterson's career high in a single season for triples is three and he's already got
15:51two this year are we going to get to four you think well i think a lot of those triples
15:58are
15:58going to have to be played like you saw last night so uh no offense to jock but there's going
16:03to have
16:03to be a misread in right field or something uh for the ball to go all the way to the
16:08wall for him to
16:09get to third but i tell you what jock has been really really good not only against righties but
16:13against lefties um you know he's put together some really really good at bats against some tough
16:18left-handed pitching where it's been challenging to you know even pinch hit him lately so um there
16:24are going to be times where you still have to pinch hit foskey's been really good against left-handed
16:27pitching um but jock has been you know especially this last month so good against righties and lefties
16:33um that he's he's been really really huge for us at the top of the lineup appreciate the time as
16:39always good sir focusing day by day let's go get that win today sounds great thanks again guys
16:45thanks
16:45thanks
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