Speaker 1: Josh Smith from The Rangers joining us right now on FT. Josh,
Speaker 1: great to have you on the show. Welcome first off,
Speaker 1: how you doing.
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 3: Guys?
Speaker 4: I appreciate you all for having me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1: And you do have a lot to live up to
Speaker 1: here for the next tenish minutes, because your teammate Rowdy
Speaker 1: Telez comes on this show somewhat frequently and we're like, hey,
Speaker 1: give us the name for the Rangers that we need
Speaker 1: to bring on the show. And he didn't really hesitate.
Speaker 1: He was like Josh Smith, Josh Smith, the guy. So
Speaker 1: why do you think he said that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, I would probably say I got to keep
Speaker 4: it a little bit more professional on here since we
Speaker 4: are live and on television, but in the locker room
Speaker 4: it's a little bit unfiltered. So I'd say that's probably
Speaker 4: why Rowdy had me as the first option.
Speaker 2: Unfiltered in what way? Like we just showed a highlight
Speaker 2: of Troy Gilbert, Like that's pretty unfiltered and like out
Speaker 2: there maybe borderline like r rated or what's the unfiltered
Speaker 2: part of it? And have you always been that way
Speaker 2: even as a rookie? Uh?
Speaker 4: I mean I would say I definitely probably just tried.
Speaker 4: I talk a lot of snack in the locker room
Speaker 4: to anybody and everybody, especially rowdy. He's one of my
Speaker 4: favorites to uh, to mess with. But I would say
Speaker 4: my first year, uh, in the big leagues, no, I
Speaker 4: was super quiet. I was like I was in college.
Speaker 4: I was always kind of kind of loud and obnoxious.
Speaker 4: But uh, but for a rookie year, super quiet didn't
Speaker 4: really talk much. And then I hit like one sixty
Speaker 4: and it was just miserable and I had no fun.
Speaker 4: And then I got sent down so called back up.
Speaker 4: And in twenty twenty three, I would say we kinda
Speaker 4: I kind of opened up a little bit more and
Speaker 4: we won the World Series, and so I just kind
Speaker 4: of kept it going and kind of just talk smacked everybody.
Speaker 3: I like that yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what I said. Did I say. I
Speaker 2: didn't say Drew Gilbert.
Speaker 3: No, you said try that was fine?
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I didn't. I didn't get the
Speaker 4: reference there, but I went along, like I knew you
Speaker 4: were talking about. But I've seen some I've seen some
Speaker 4: clips of that guy. I wouldn't say I'm quite like that.
Speaker 4: He seems pretty uh. He seems pretty funny out there
Speaker 4: in the locker room, I give guys a hard time,
Speaker 4: but on the field, I really feel like I probably
Speaker 4: don't show a ton of emotion, which, yeah, I play
Speaker 4: a lot different than I act in the locker room.
Speaker 2: I feel like, we know Rowdy loves loves the fact
Speaker 2: that you know your your stick, all the stuff you're
Speaker 2: getting on him. Who hates it? Who's the guy that
Speaker 2: you're like going around and just like, I'm not talking
Speaker 2: about somebody on a start day and then other days,
Speaker 2: but who's like I'm not I'm not feeling you. I'm
Speaker 2: not feeling this many.
Speaker 4: My favorite person, I don't know whether he likes it
Speaker 4: or loves it, but my favorite person will give a
Speaker 4: hard time to a sion just because he is so.
Speaker 4: He's pretty serious. I feel he's a great locker room guy.
Speaker 4: But he's just serious and uh, Rowdy too. We kinda
Speaker 4: we really get onto Marcus just to kind of give
Speaker 4: him a hard time and he gets a little sensitive
Speaker 4: with it sometimes, but he gives it back every now
Speaker 4: and then. But he's a fun He's a fun one
Speaker 4: for me to mess with, just because he's a he's
Speaker 4: an older salty dog he's been in the league for forever,
Speaker 4: and he's he's really fun to mess with, all right, So.
Speaker 3: Let's get to the team here, Josh.
Speaker 1: What's it like to kind of, I mean, you're not
Speaker 1: going to say this, obviously, but for the general public
Speaker 1: to think it's not the year for the Rangers maybe
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago and then things have resurfaced here
Speaker 1: where your team is just a couple of games out
Speaker 1: in the lost column of the playoff spot. So what's
Speaker 1: that been like to feel like publicly the team came
Speaker 1: back to life in terms of being in the playoff mix.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I'm kind of right there with the public.
Speaker 4: If you'd told me two weeks ago would be a
Speaker 4: game out, I've been like, I don't know, you're kinda
Speaker 4: kind of overthinking it there, but yeah, I mean we've dude,
Speaker 4: we've just kind of gotten hot at the right time.
Speaker 4: We're playing with with so many guys down Seeger Simeon, Ebo,
Speaker 4: all those guys, and uh, I don't know, I just
Speaker 4: feel like we're playing with with nothing to lose, really
Speaker 4: is what it feels like. And I mean, we're obviously
Speaker 4: in a wild quarter race, but in my opinion, we're
Speaker 4: kind of in the division too, so we uh, we
Speaker 4: don't have a ton of time, but I think we've
Speaker 4: put ourselves in a pretty good spot.
Speaker 2: So all right. David Murphy, one of the TV guys
Speaker 2: for the Rangers, coined coined the phrase the Little Rascals
Speaker 2: for the four rookies that are now playing. Do you
Speaker 2: feel like that's a decent nickname for those four guys
Speaker 2: to get the name the Little Rascals? But also what
Speaker 2: is it that they bring that Oh wait, wasn't around before?
Speaker 2: Or why is it successful? Are they better than Corey
Speaker 2: Seeger and Marcus Simeon. I'll answer for you. I don't
Speaker 2: think so, but they're winning and it's working.
Speaker 4: So what we're talking about Cody Freeman, Hellman Ozona and
Speaker 4: who else?
Speaker 2: Uh I forget the fourth one?
Speaker 4: Okay, So yeah, I mean yeah, I mean definitely doing
Speaker 4: it differently. I think Helmet had five five RBIs for
Speaker 4: us last night. Yeah. I think they just kind of
Speaker 4: bring a a different energy. I'm not saying they're better
Speaker 4: or worse than those guys, but it's it's just a
Speaker 4: different energy. They're young guys excited to get the opportunity
Speaker 4: and taking advantage of it. Uh. Cody Freeman. I honestly
Speaker 4: see a lot of myself and Cody Freeman in the
Speaker 4: locker room. Especially. He's he's pretty funny. I'm not calling
Speaker 4: myself funny, but he's just kind of talking smack in
Speaker 4: the locker room. He's kind of a it's just a
Speaker 4: high energy guys. He's been awesome for us. I think
Speaker 4: he's gonna have a really good career. Hellman has been great.
Speaker 4: Like I said, Ozuna has done his part. But yeah, no,
Speaker 4: they they definitely bring a different energy to us. Playing
Speaker 4: with a little bit more motion on the field is
Speaker 4: something we've probably lacked this whole year, besides Jack Peterson,
Speaker 4: who gets after a little bit on the field. But yeah,
Speaker 4: those guys are They're a lot of fun to be around.
Speaker 2: Josh, I want you pay attention to the schedule and
Speaker 2: who you guys play. I know you're gonna say it's
Speaker 2: one day at a time. You guys, you have Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: then you got the Mets, then you go to Houston,
Speaker 2: and then you kind of end with the chance to
Speaker 2: do some damage. Are you just trying to survive these
Speaker 2: next eight games and then say, hey we got Miami,
Speaker 2: Minnesota and Cleveland to end it and we can make
Speaker 2: a little run there or try to.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean we it's definitely we got some some
Speaker 4: some tough guys ahead of us. But we're kind of
Speaker 4: I mean, dude, we were so out of it. Like
Speaker 4: two weeks ago, we were like kind of joking, We're
Speaker 4: just like, hey, we kind of kind of win every
Speaker 4: game from here on out. And I think it was
Speaker 4: like twenty four or more or something like that at
Speaker 4: the point of what we like when we mentioned it,
Speaker 4: and it's like, we're actually pretty pretty close to achieving.
Speaker 4: Then now if we just kind of keep up this
Speaker 4: pace and so like it, like I said, just kind
Speaker 4: of started as nothing to lose, and then we kept
Speaker 4: winning some games, winning some games, and then I mean
Speaker 4: last night we went out and beat a pretty good
Speaker 4: Milwaukee Brewers team, and yeah, I don't know, we're just,
Speaker 4: like you said, kind of taking it one game at
Speaker 4: a time, cliche. But yeah, you got to survive these
Speaker 4: next couple and then we get Houston again, so you
Speaker 4: got a chance to hopefully make up some ground on them.
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's been fun.
Speaker 2: You said about two weeks ago you were thinking that
Speaker 2: you were thinking like, oh man, you know, maybe maybe
Speaker 2: we wouldn't be. What time or how long ago did
Speaker 2: you start looking at the scoreboard start looking at the
Speaker 2: fact that the Mariners kept losing on their East Coast
Speaker 2: road trip. I assume you're watching every day.
Speaker 4: Now, I mean at this point, yeah, but I would
Speaker 4: say about a week, week and a half ago, week
Speaker 4: and a half, two weeks ago, whatever it was, I
Speaker 4: don't even know. I feel like we were out of
Speaker 4: the I feel like I felt like we were out.
Speaker 4: I think we were like five or six games back,
Speaker 4: and then I don't check the standings every day, but
Speaker 4: I looked and I was like, we're two bad. It's
Speaker 4: kind of as definitely do it now, and it's I
Speaker 4: guess we just kind of got hot and and some
Speaker 4: teams in front of us were kind of playing playing
Speaker 4: bad bass, so I guess, and I mean, I guess
Speaker 4: we just made up some ground. But it kind of
Speaker 4: happened like it wasn't like I was following it happening,
Speaker 4: and just I looked and I was like, hey, we're
Speaker 4: we kind of got to shut at this thing.
Speaker 1: We are longtime fans of Omaha Steaks, and I am
Speaker 1: drooling looking at the website right now featuring USDA certified
Speaker 1: Tender Steaks and also during their Red Hot Sale event
Speaker 1: going on right now this fall fifty percent off site
Speaker 1: wide at Omaha Steaks dot com, plus for the ftfam
Speaker 1: an extra thirty five dollars off with promo code foul
Speaker 1: at checkout. You've been a big fan of Omaha Steaks
Speaker 1: since your early days as a prep.
Speaker 2: It brings me back to my a ball low a
Speaker 2: ball days because we used to survive on this to
Speaker 2: get a big order at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 2: cook them on our little electric grill. Can of peas,
Speaker 2: so mac and cheese. That was dinner for four. We
Speaker 2: survived off Omaha Steaks. It still has a special place
Speaker 2: in my heart.
Speaker 3: You thrived well. You guys ate like kings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's specially well. Get fired up for fall grilling
Speaker 1: with Omaha Steaks. Visit Omaha Steaks dot com for fifty
Speaker 1: percent off site wide during the Red Hot Sale event
Speaker 1: and for an extra thirty five bucks off promo code
Speaker 1: foul a checkout. Fifty percent off at Omaha Steaks dot
Speaker 1: com and an extra thirty five dollars off with promo
Speaker 1: code foul a checkout see site for details.
Speaker 3: Dig in Hey, Josh.
Speaker 1: Another surprising stat I learned yesterday while watching the game.
Speaker 1: Your team was one of three remaining that hadn't hit
Speaker 1: a Grand Slam yet this year? So how cool was
Speaker 1: that for Helman? But also for the team. Did the
Speaker 1: team know about that?
Speaker 4: Honestly, I don't even know if I didn't. I guess
Speaker 4: now that you say, yeah, I didn't even know he
Speaker 4: didn't have a Grand Slam, But yeah, no, that was huge,
Speaker 4: especially for Helman to do that in that situation against
Speaker 4: a really good team was sweet. But but man, our
Speaker 4: ballpark has been I'm not making excuses for lack of
Speaker 4: home runs, but like it's just kind of not that
Speaker 4: rising that we haven't hit one, just because I feel
Speaker 4: like the ball hasn't really been flying all that crazy
Speaker 4: out of our park, so I guess it gives us
Speaker 4: less of a chance.
Speaker 2: Do you guys notice that? Did you notice that? Like
Speaker 2: coming back from spring training? Like something changed because we
Speaker 2: talked about it on here. How it's now the number one,
Speaker 2: number one pitcher's park in the league, which I didn't
Speaker 2: see coming before.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's uh. I remember my first couple of years here,
Speaker 4: it was pretty true. I wouldn't say it was a
Speaker 4: like boombox or anything. But it was if you got
Speaker 4: a ball I was going. Now it's if you hit
Speaker 4: a ball to center field. I mean I think Yellow
Speaker 4: hit one at like one oh four to left center
Speaker 4: last night and it didn't even make it to the track.
Speaker 4: He had another one at one o six didn't like
Speaker 4: barely made it to the train. I don't know. It's
Speaker 4: I don't really know what's going on there. But if
Speaker 4: you get it down the lines, it's pretty good. But
Speaker 4: I mean if you you got to really get one
Speaker 4: to center field to get it out, I mean it's
Speaker 4: I don't know why. It's something's a little a little
Speaker 4: different this year than your spast.
Speaker 2: Did you notice in BP, Like, do you guys talk
Speaker 2: about it in BP or is it like the culmination
Speaker 2: of a lot of games where you're like, wow, man,
Speaker 2: it is just not carrying.
Speaker 4: No, it's it's both. For sure. BP is a little
Speaker 4: bit demoralizing when you hit on the field. I mean
Speaker 4: I went out and hit early the other day with
Speaker 4: a light beat and I was struggling to get it
Speaker 4: out on a BP heater. But it's definitely it's different.
Speaker 4: But I mean I think that's kind of a little
Speaker 4: bit of a home field advantage for us, especially with
Speaker 4: our pitching staff and the way they've been doing it,
Speaker 4: and I mean with us not putting up a ton
Speaker 4: of runs consistently, it's I mean, in my opinion, it
Speaker 4: kind of gives us a little bit of an inch.
Speaker 1: Josh, what was it like last year coming off of
Speaker 1: the World Series? Now we're two years removed, it was
Speaker 1: an awesome twenty twenty three. You guys lost the division
Speaker 1: in the final week. It ended up work now great
Speaker 1: that wild Guard schedule in the momentum was awesome.
Speaker 3: So what was that like?
Speaker 1: What do you remember from it in terms of just
Speaker 1: taking momentum despite what the season looked like. And then
Speaker 1: part two here is the classic World Series hangover question
Speaker 1: And if you felt like it was real?
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. In twenty twenty three, we got hot at
Speaker 4: the right time. I think we we thought we knew
Speaker 4: we were good. And if you asked, probably our ownership
Speaker 4: they year two, after getting all those guys the de Grams,
Speaker 4: Evos Seeger Simeons. Year two, I guarantee you they wouldn't
Speaker 4: have been like, hey, we're gonna win the World Series
Speaker 4: this year probably would have been twenty twenty four was
Speaker 4: more of their goal. But yeah, we got hot in
Speaker 4: twenty three. We were a good team. We weren't great.
Speaker 4: I don't remember how many wins we have, but we
Speaker 4: didn't dominate the regular season. But we just got hot
Speaker 4: at the right time, made a run and then and
Speaker 4: twenty two four. It is a little blurry, honestly. I
Speaker 4: know that's only a year ago, but I feel like
Speaker 4: I do remember if kind of Oh, yeah, Josh Young
Speaker 4: got hurt, and I mean when you lose a rookie
Speaker 4: All star guy at third base is going to hit
Speaker 4: in the middle of your lineup, I think, like four
Speaker 4: or five games in that definitely takes a toll on you,
Speaker 4: especially when he was kind of we I mean, we
Speaker 4: expect a lot of Josh and he expects a lot
Speaker 4: of himself, but he was gonna kind of be our
Speaker 4: guy in the middle of the order, and he went
Speaker 4: down pretty early, and then it was kind of just
Speaker 4: like you said, just a hangover. I mean, guys were
Speaker 4: probably dragging a little bit. I mean I went and
Speaker 4: played in the dr for eleven whole days and just
Speaker 4: like just a short offseason, and yeah, it definitely it
Speaker 4: caught up to us. But we need to kind of
Speaker 4: need to move on past that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but then you stepped up and won the
Speaker 2: Silver Slugger, so that worked out for you. Maybe you
Speaker 2: should go back to dr for eleven games and you'll
Speaker 2: win a silver slug Where did you display your silver Slugger?
Speaker 4: Apt Oh my gosh, dude, I have such a tiny
Speaker 4: house here in Dallas that it's in my closet right now,
Speaker 4: next to all my wife's purses. So yeah, I don't
Speaker 4: really have any display on it yet. Maybe maybe we
Speaker 4: get a bigger house, we'll be able to fit it
Speaker 4: in there.
Speaker 2: So you're ever going to catch a game? I look
Speaker 2: at I'm looking at your Baseball reference and there's no
Speaker 2: sea by anything play every single position. And you're on
Speaker 2: a show with two catchers. Are you ever going to
Speaker 2: catch a game in the show?
Speaker 4: I hope not. Honestly, I don't ever want to experience
Speaker 4: what you guys had to experience. We would be we'd
Speaker 4: be in trouble. If I'm catching a game, I don't
Speaker 4: I don't ever want to have to pitch, or I
Speaker 4: don't ever want to have to catch. Those are two
Speaker 4: positions I'm fine with never playing. You haven't pitched, no, surprisingly,
Speaker 4: not being a utility guy coming off the bench every
Speaker 4: now and then. You would think you would, but no,
Speaker 4: I have not yet. But it's almost a goal of
Speaker 4: mine to never have to pitch.
Speaker 3: So if they asked you, what would you say?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean if they asked me, it definitely would.
Speaker 2: But would you lob it or would you or would
Speaker 2: you get after it a little bit?
Speaker 4: I'm going with the probably like a lab approach. I
Speaker 4: just like me hitting off of position players. It's a
Speaker 4: little bit easier to hit when they're kind of like
Speaker 4: throwing you VP heaters in there as opposed to like softball,
Speaker 4: the high kind of slow ones. I think you're harder.
Speaker 2: That's fair. I like that takes sense. Hey, before you go, Josh,
Speaker 2: he's the best utility guy from LSU. You font No Tario,
Speaker 2: who's the best one from Baton Rouge and LSU? Which
Speaker 2: one's I know? Fontdo's got the best parking spot LSU
Speaker 2: football game, so he might win.
Speaker 4: I can't give Trio any credit. I'm not going to
Speaker 4: give Trio any credit, although him and fun overstudsh my gosh.
Speaker 4: I mean, you guys are forgetting the Mayhew. The Mayhew's
Speaker 4: a stud too. He was he was. Mayhew was my
Speaker 4: guy when I was when I was I'm gonna go
Speaker 4: with the Mayhew just for for me. That's that was
Speaker 4: my guy growing up. I loved watching him, No.
Speaker 2: He said, he said, utility guys, the Mayhew. If le
Speaker 2: Mayhew's your guy, and you're talking about how boring Seeger
Speaker 2: and Simeon are, you must love being around dudes who
Speaker 2: are just boring baseball nuts. But what's the deal with
Speaker 2: fun No fun o, Tario, and you can lsu get
Speaker 2: somebody over five foot ten to play utility a utility position.
Speaker 4: I think it's just the requirement at this point. Man.
Speaker 4: It's uh, they I don't know. Five ten is a stretch. Honestly.
Speaker 4: I did the little laser thing at the beginning of
Speaker 4: the season for the strike zone or whatever, and they
Speaker 4: gave me five eight and a half. So five ten
Speaker 4: a push that I kind of wish I would take.
Speaker 4: But no, not even five ten. And I don't think
Speaker 4: tyry On Funo or either not even close.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's the thing where you you want to
Speaker 1: be smaller, right, didn't we talk about that at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year. You don't want to It's it's
Speaker 1: kind of the balance of you want to sound good
Speaker 1: on paper, but you also want.
Speaker 3: To shrink and kind of right. That was for the
Speaker 3: the ABS.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, for the a bs. So all these big
Speaker 4: guys are kind of getting the brunt end of it
Speaker 4: instead of a small guys or kind of have a
Speaker 4: little advantage.
Speaker 2: So I did you slouts when you did it?
Speaker 4: No, dude, I was standing up as straight as I could.
Speaker 4: Five eight and a half that's a h that's a
Speaker 4: tough look. So I was trying to get to at
Speaker 4: least five nine.
Speaker 1: Well, you round up obviously. I mean people on dating
Speaker 1: profiles round up like two and a half inches. You
Speaker 1: can at least round up half an inch to five.
Speaker 4: I think. I think that's the worst type of human
Speaker 4: being actually, is someone who rounds up their height. I
Speaker 4: want you to tell me exactly what you are, like,
Speaker 4: don't lie about your height. If you lie about your height,
Speaker 4: you have a little bit of insecurity to you that
Speaker 4: that makes me not trust you as much as as
Speaker 4: another person who tells me exactly how tall they are.
Speaker 3: Wait, but if you're five so, well it's the line
Speaker 3: you have to do.
Speaker 2: Have these.
Speaker 4: I mean, dude, five eight and a half is a
Speaker 4: lot different than five to nine in my opinion.
Speaker 3: So yeah, say with your test, do you agree?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't have that problem. I mean I'm six
Speaker 2: three and a half and people ask me and I
Speaker 2: say six three six four. I don't know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you could say six three six, But when you're
Speaker 4: six three six four, it's not a I mean, that's
Speaker 4: those are both pretty good. When you're five eight, five ten,
Speaker 4: that's a big five to eleven. That's a big difference.
Speaker 3: So okay, there you go.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people don't to switch their profiles
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Nobody can switch your baseball reference page. And we joke
Speaker 2: on the show, but it's kind of serious. We talk
Speaker 2: about ft magic. The last two guys that have come
Speaker 2: on that have been one home run behind me in
Speaker 2: my career end up getting a home run pretty soon afterwards.
Speaker 2: So enjoy your home run when you cross home plate.
Speaker 2: Just remember you tied one of the all time great
Speaker 2: four A players with thirty.
Speaker 4: One home Need it, man, It's been about a month
Speaker 4: and a half now since my last one, so I
Speaker 4: could really use one.
Speaker 2: It's coming.
Speaker 1: Good luck there you will now you know you got
Speaker 1: a pass Crafts, so that makes sense. Josh, this was
Speaker 1: awesome man. Yeah, it totally lived up to it. This
Speaker 1: was really fun. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for swinging by,
Speaker 1: and good luck the rest of the way here. We're
Speaker 1: following closely.
Speaker 4: All right, guys, I appreciate it. Thank you,