Speaker 1: I think the Rangers feel pretty positive about where their
Speaker 1: young pictures are going. There are some things that still
Speaker 1: need to be addressed, but they've contributed to the Rangers.
Speaker 1: Fourteen eleven starts.
Speaker 2: We are back with our friend Evan Grant, who does
Speaker 2: a tremendous job covering the Texas Rangers for the Dallas
Speaker 2: Morning News. Evan is there all of the time, knows
Speaker 2: everything about this club. Great to be with you, my friend.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us on foul Territory. First of all,
Speaker 2: before we get into it, you are a barbecue officionado.
Speaker 2: This is what I've learned about you. Is there a
Speaker 2: spot that it is like an.
Speaker 3: Absolute must go?
Speaker 4: To?
Speaker 2: Tell me all the things?
Speaker 1: Evan, Well, in Look, it's Texas. You kind of have
Speaker 1: to eat barbecue where they kick you out of the state.
Speaker 1: So I've learned to love it. I don't know that
Speaker 1: I'm an aficionado. I just like food because you don't
Speaker 1: get this body without liking food. So in Dallas, Look,
Speaker 1: we've got a pretty good bubbling barbecue spot scene. I
Speaker 1: can't say enough about Tory Hunter's place Tender. He's got
Speaker 1: several locations. We saw Tory just last week when the
Speaker 1: Angels were in town and I was raving to him
Speaker 1: about the stuff there. It's it's really really good. But
Speaker 1: there is a place in Arlington that's the official barbecue
Speaker 1: spot of the Rangers for Title Barbecue. They're actually in
Speaker 1: Globe Life Field. I think even persnicketty aj Perzinski enjoyed
Speaker 1: their food this year at the ballpark. They're doing wings,
Speaker 1: they're doing they're Berea tacos and Casadilla's and they are
Speaker 1: doing a giant stuff baked potatoes. So if you hit
Speaker 1: those two, you're going too for the one other I'll
Speaker 1: mention is Tim Barbecue in Dallas and in Fort Worth.
Speaker 1: They've got this bacon burn in thing that is just
Speaker 1: it's insane.
Speaker 4: There's there's no like AJ's not on here, So nobody's
Speaker 4: gonna be asking you for free food every time you
Speaker 4: come on. Ajay's like, Evan, why are you gonna get
Speaker 4: me this? When are you gonna buy me that? So
Speaker 4: nobody's asking for anything today.
Speaker 1: Does that make me special?
Speaker 4: Though? Eric?
Speaker 1: I mean, because he asks everybody for free food and
Speaker 1: free stuff.
Speaker 4: Right everybody. He's always asking. Susan Sluster was just on
Speaker 4: the other day, when are you gonna get me the garlic, nacho,
Speaker 4: truffle fries, whatever, like he's always he's always looking for
Speaker 4: a handout. So he's not that boogie. He's just looking
Speaker 4: for free. Free ninety nine is his price.
Speaker 1: That makes me special?
Speaker 4: Okay, but you are special. Tell me what's special about
Speaker 4: the Rangers. They're fourteen and eleven right now, but they're
Speaker 4: tied for first place. Did they feel like or does
Speaker 4: it does it look like they're playing good enough baseball
Speaker 4: right now to be ahead of everybody else in this division?
Speaker 4: And do they look up and say, whoa, the Mariners
Speaker 4: and that pitching staff and their brutal lineup are keeping
Speaker 4: up with us. We need to change something, or does
Speaker 4: it feel like, okay, oh, team for playing well?
Speaker 1: Well. I think you saw in this past week some
Speaker 1: of the Rangers perspective in that their lineup hasn't been
Speaker 1: hitting on all cylinders and they think this lineup is
Speaker 1: going to slug and is going to score a lot
Speaker 1: of runs. But for the first month a lot of
Speaker 1: the same problems that existed last year have have existed.
Speaker 1: So Bruce Bochi shook things up when they went to Sacramento,
Speaker 1: took Marcus Simeon out of the leadoff spot and put
Speaker 1: him in more of a run producing spot, put Josh
Speaker 1: Smith in the leadoff spot, and moved Wyatt Langford up
Speaker 1: to the number two spot. And what the Rangers tried
Speaker 1: to do and it lasted all of about seven innings
Speaker 1: before Corey Seeger pulled up with a bad hamstring was
Speaker 1: get their their their top on base guys into the
Speaker 1: top spots in the order so that the guys who
Speaker 1: were sluggers and maybe not as maybe not indiscriminate swingers
Speaker 1: could get more pitches to hit. And it did pay
Speaker 1: off against Sacramento. Whether or not that had anything to
Speaker 1: do with the ballpark and how the carries there, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but they scored a season high eight runs
Speaker 1: the first night Corey pulled up with a hamstring injury,
Speaker 1: and so now they're back to kind of scrambling for
Speaker 1: runs again.
Speaker 4: Hey, I want to stay there.
Speaker 5: We talk about scrambling for runs in the midst of that.
Speaker 5: I think they're still in a good place right struggling
Speaker 5: for runs, but you're still at the top of your division.
Speaker 5: Have we talked about how good White Langford has been
Speaker 5: going back to the end of last year in company
Speaker 5: right like this has been one of my guys going
Speaker 5: back to last year. I thought it'd be the Rookie
Speaker 5: of the Year, and he went through his early season
Speaker 5: woes but started towards and he started to figure out
Speaker 5: right the wood the whole big league adjustment. Are we
Speaker 5: talking about how good this guy has been and how
Speaker 5: good he possibly could be?
Speaker 1: Well, two things, Cam, I think to your point, I
Speaker 1: think from the Rangers' perspective, what's very encouraging is that
Speaker 1: they are fourteen to eleven and they haven't hit right,
Speaker 1: they haven't scored a ton of runs, and they've still
Speaker 1: found ways to win. And that, enlarge part is testament
Speaker 1: to the starting pitching they've gotten, which has been better
Speaker 1: than exp and the restructured bullpen that Chris Young made
Speaker 1: over the offseason. It's been pretty much airtight. As far
Speaker 1: as Wyatt Langford goes, I think you hit it right
Speaker 1: on the head there. I'm planning as soon as we
Speaker 1: get off of this, I wanted to do a little
Speaker 1: bit of research today, but I want to look at
Speaker 1: Wyatt compared to the other guys who got Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year votes in both the American and National League
Speaker 1: among position players, and how they did from the second
Speaker 1: half of last season going forward, and Wyatt is going
Speaker 1: to rank very, very highly there. He has made the
Speaker 1: kind of typical upward assent that you would like to
Speaker 1: see in a superstar. There's been no real ups and downs.
Speaker 1: He did struggle a little bit out of the gate
Speaker 1: last year, and I think that was largely due to
Speaker 1: kind of getting his swing a little bit too much uphill,
Speaker 1: but they made that adjustment. He came back from an
Speaker 1: il stint and since then he's been he's been a
Speaker 1: really good baseball player, a really dangerous hitter.
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Speaker 2: I want to ask you, Evan about Jock Peterson and
Speaker 2: it gives me, it just hurts my heart to see
Speaker 2: the struggles that Jock has gone through. Obviously, he finally
Speaker 2: busted out of that oh for forty one or whatever
Speaker 2: the heck it was. But then we were just all
Speaker 2: waiting and anticipating if the call was going to be overturned.
Speaker 2: What are you noticing from his swings? How does he
Speaker 2: I mean, you know that helps obviously, but how does
Speaker 2: he get out of this and get back to the
Speaker 2: guy that they signed to be in with.
Speaker 1: Look, I think the one thing that really works well
Speaker 1: for Jock here is his personality. You know, he's not
Speaker 1: going to let himself get too down. He comes to
Speaker 1: the ballpark with a great attitude every day. He is
Speaker 1: an upbeat guy. I do think he's probably feeling a
Speaker 1: little bit of pressure because you come here, you sign
Speaker 1: a big contract, You're supposed to slug against right handed pitching,
Speaker 1: and to this point you haven't. And it's frustrating, there's
Speaker 1: no way around it. It's frustrating when you look up
Speaker 1: at the screen and you see your batting average is,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty eight or sixty. On the subject of
Speaker 1: what he needs to do better, the only thing that
Speaker 1: I can kind of assess is it certainly looks to
Speaker 1: me like he's a little bit more crouched over at
Speaker 1: the plate. And he did say something early this season
Speaker 1: that he felt restricted in his swing, and he just
Speaker 1: hasn't seemed to been able to get out of that
Speaker 1: area where he just is restricted in his swing. And
Speaker 1: I think that's one thing the Rangers have been working on,
Speaker 1: is to try and get him a little bit more
Speaker 1: upright and let him just kind of let loose a
Speaker 1: little bit. But it's it's looked on occasion like he's
Speaker 1: uncomfortable at the plate swinging.
Speaker 5: You talk about okay struggles, not struggling. Jacob deGrom past
Speaker 5: injury history, we've seen it. But he looked good last night.
Speaker 5: Nathany Valdi gets his first complete game. But Kumar Rocker
Speaker 5: going to the il. Where are they in the midst
Speaker 5: of all of this going on as far as trying
Speaker 5: to find a guy who can get them some innings?
Speaker 5: What is that looking like moving forward?
Speaker 1: As in that well, look, Cam, I think that at
Speaker 1: the end of spring when they signed Patrick Corbin, I
Speaker 1: think that was a really good depth move. They're not
Speaker 1: looking for Patrick Corbyn to go out and win win
Speaker 1: fifteen games. They're not looking for him to pitch two
Speaker 1: hundred innings. They're looking for him to go out there
Speaker 1: and give them five innings per start. As far as
Speaker 1: the Rocker situation goes, you know, you look at this
Speaker 1: team going into the year and when they had the
Speaker 1: injuries that they had to John Gray and Cody Bradford,
Speaker 1: and now you've got to push two rookies into the rotation,
Speaker 1: two guys who don't have a ton of major league experience.
Speaker 1: For them to get through the stretch in the position
Speaker 1: that they're in, I think has been overall a positive.
Speaker 1: I do think with Kamara Rocker, the biggest issue for
Speaker 1: him right now is as works back from this shoulder
Speaker 1: impingement and hopefully it's just a minor issue. He's really
Speaker 1: got to get to a point where he is comfortable
Speaker 1: and confident in a third pitch. I think it's been
Speaker 1: a little bit too predictable for hitters. I think too
Speaker 1: off in fastball counts. He's had to throw fastballs and
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to get it by hitters, and so
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be the big project for him.
Speaker 1: All of this gets said, I don't think we've said enough.
Speaker 1: Jack Lder should be back this weekend, but he's been
Speaker 1: really impressive in his two starts before he had the
Speaker 1: blister issue. It's been a real step in the right direction.
Speaker 1: So I think the Rangers feel pretty positive about where
Speaker 1: their young pitchers are going. There are some things that
Speaker 1: still need to be addressed, but they've contributed to the
Speaker 1: Rangers fourteen to eleven starts. Rockers had five starts right.
Speaker 1: Three have been not great, two have been really good.
Speaker 1: So even when he hasn't been consistent, there have been
Speaker 1: a couple of good starts in there that have allowed
Speaker 1: the Rangers to stay keep their head above water.
Speaker 4: All right. Now, the person on the roster that I
Speaker 4: don't think you said his name. You're going through everything
Speaker 4: when you talked about Corey Seeger, I might have missed it.
Speaker 4: He has the blandest name, and yet the last two
Speaker 4: years he's been the guy that has just stepped up
Speaker 4: and done whatever's done. And he's hitting three thirty three
Speaker 4: and I think he has like fifty summer beats. Josh
Speaker 4: Smith super bland name and he's becoming a superstar. But
Speaker 4: will the Rangers allow him to become a superstar and
Speaker 4: play enough because there's other names that have been higher
Speaker 4: and bigger players and he just keeps producing.
Speaker 1: Well, Kratzy, I will correct you. I did say that
Speaker 1: he is hitting leadoff right now. That was the one
Speaker 1: thing I did say about it.
Speaker 4: I thought you could say it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, Josh's name gets overlooked a lot
Speaker 1: of times. What I will say about this is, look,
Speaker 1: he's already started at six different positions on the field
Speaker 1: this year. He is a and I think this almost
Speaker 1: diminishes him a little bit when you call him a
Speaker 1: super utility player. But he's got the ability to play
Speaker 1: anywhere on the field and do better than adequately there,
Speaker 1: and that's incredibly valuable. It's also valuable to getting him
Speaker 1: enough playing time because, as you said, the Ringers have
Speaker 1: a lot of guys who are kind of entrenched in
Speaker 1: their positions. But to this point there's been plenty of
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to play. Josh Young went out for
Speaker 1: ten days with a neck issue. He was the everyday
Speaker 1: third baseman. Wyatt Langford went out with an oblique issue,
Speaker 1: he was the everyday left fielder. Corey Seeger is now out.
Speaker 1: He's going to be the everyday shortstop, and I think
Speaker 1: before it's all over with, he could get more of
Speaker 1: a look in center field because I think the Rangers
Speaker 1: are going to have to consider what they do with
Speaker 1: Leodi taveris there. It's just not been a good start
Speaker 1: to the year for him, and Leodi has now had
Speaker 1: five years out there and it's just not making a
Speaker 1: big step forward. So I think that there are challenges
Speaker 1: to getting him every day playing time, but so far
Speaker 1: the Rangers have found that and they will continue to
Speaker 1: make efforts to get him in the lineup. Bruce Bochie
Speaker 1: does not, in any way, shape or form diminish the
Speaker 1: value that Josh Smith has brought to this club. Is
Speaker 1: that bats have been probably the best and most consistent
Speaker 1: from the start of the year for this team.
Speaker 4: Evan.
Speaker 2: The reason Aj Pierzinski is not on the show today
Speaker 2: is because he's going to San Francisco to bother you
Speaker 2: and do the Giants Rangers game. So be on the
Speaker 2: lookout for Aj asking for free stuff from you. But
Speaker 2: speaking of the upcoming Giant series, this is a good team,
Speaker 2: probably a better team than a lot of us gave
Speaker 2: credit to. How can the Giants, in your opinion, or
Speaker 2: how can the Rangers in your opinion, be effective against
Speaker 2: San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Look, I think the biggest thing Alana is right now
Speaker 1: the process offensively has got to continue to improve. I
Speaker 1: think when the first night I can't stop myself from
Speaker 1: saint open. The first night in Sacramento, we saw a
Speaker 1: team that stopped swinging indiscriminately, took some more pitches. To
Speaker 1: Eric's point, Josh Smith in the first spot in the lead,
Speaker 1: first game, in the leadoff spot, takes a leadoff walk,
Speaker 1: their second leadoff walk of the year to start off
Speaker 1: a game, ends up with a two run inning because
Speaker 1: they've got guys on base. They're getting better pitches to hit.
Speaker 1: When I looked at the stats, earlier this week. This
Speaker 1: team led the major leagues in swing percentage and was
Speaker 1: last in walk percentage. And when you do that, you
Speaker 1: better be putting balls in play and hitting the ball hard.
Speaker 1: And the Rangers just haven't done that yet. So I
Speaker 1: think they've got to be a little bit more patient
Speaker 1: at the plate and work through that. That would be,
Speaker 1: for me, their number one project going into this Giant Series.
Speaker 4: All right, Evan, we have to rid off stats for
Speaker 4: players all the time. We're going to read off an
Speaker 4: awesome stat for you. You are now a league leader
Speaker 4: in foul territory. We've had five hundred and nine reporter
Speaker 4: guests that besides Ken Rosenthal, five hundred and nine reporter
Speaker 4: guest spots. You have twelve of them. You have twelve
Speaker 4: of them. You are two ahead of Britt Geroli and
Speaker 4: one ahead of C. Trent Rosecrants. So just we want
Speaker 4: to keep you hungry. We got to make sure we
Speaker 4: know you know who is in second and third place.
Speaker 4: So you ready, But we appreciate you here at the
Speaker 4: FT Network.
Speaker 1: Well, look, I don't want to say anything, but if
Speaker 1: anything bad happens to Britt or C. Trent, don't look.
Speaker 1: Don't looking for me it's great to be especially great
Speaker 1: with no Aj here, so it's it's like actually talking
Speaker 1: ball and not my gluttony.
Speaker 4: Not me for this weekend. When he when he, when
Speaker 4: he sees you this weekend, that'll be. It'll ruin your
Speaker 4: weekend in San Francisco. Normally it's cold in San Francisco.
Speaker 4: It's just gonna be cold all weekend for you. So sorry.
Speaker 1: At least here will be hot air to go around,
Speaker 1: so that'll be there.
Speaker 4: You go, there, you go, Evan.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you very much, even though Cam and Eric
Speaker 2: disagree with your barbecue choices. Cam says it's all about
Speaker 2: North Carolina. Eric says, it doesn't matter. You got to
Speaker 2: do it at home.
Speaker 1: I don't care.
Speaker 4: I just like to eat.
Speaker 2: We love you, my friend.
Speaker 1: Thanks for being on piece. Another time. Cam and I'll
Speaker 1: get into the whole North Carolina versus Texas. Yeah we will, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we will take care of y'all.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm