Locked On Rangers Podcast: Rangers not budging on offer, what we learned from spring training Week 1, MLB's new uniforms are a disaster.
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00:00 Less than four months removed from winning the first World Series
00:03 in franchise history, it seems like Chris Young is expecting
00:06 Rangers fans lower their expectations.
00:08 All because ownership is tightening the purse strings.
00:11 On today's show, I'm talking about why ownership doesn't deserve
00:13 the benefit of the doubt after the last couple years
00:15 of tightening those purse strings.
00:17 And what we've learned from the first week of spring training.
00:19 All that and more on this episode of Locked on Rangers.
00:21 Let's get into it.
00:22 You are locked on Rangers.
00:27 Your daily Texas Rangers podcast.
00:30 Part of the Locked On podcast network.
00:33 Your team, every day.
00:36 You are locked on to the World Series champion, Texas Rangers.
00:49 I'm Bryce Patrick, a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers fan
00:52 covering this team for 10 seasons, including all five as the founder
00:55 and host of this podcast.
00:57 Thank you all so much for making Locked on Rangers your first listen
00:59 every single day.
01:00 If you're not already, you can follow me on Twitter @BrycePatrick.
01:02 You can follow the show @LockedOnRangers.
01:05 Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube.
01:08 Where the best way you can help grow the show
01:09 is to comment nearly any single thing below.
01:12 Now, before we get into the Rangers' recent history of
01:15 cheaping out on the purse strings, a little bit about what we've learned
01:18 from spring training so far, and a little bit about a
01:22 wild and wacky uniform debacle across Major League Baseball.
01:26 This episode is brought to you by FanDuel.
01:28 Make every moment more.
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01:39 Now, it seems like the Rangers are not going to bring back Jordan Montgomery.
01:45 I keep going back and forth of whether this is going to happen,
01:47 whether it's not going to happen.
01:48 It felt like an eventuality at the start of this offseason.
01:52 And at this point, it's dragged on so long that
01:55 I don't feel like there's almost any way that it is going to happen.
01:58 I would be thrilled to be wrong.
02:00 Absolutely over the moon to be proven wrong.
02:04 And to have Jordan Montgomery back with the Texas Rangers in any capacity,
02:10 whether it's a short-term deal, whether it's a long-term deal,
02:13 whether it's a deal that feels like a bit of an overpay.
02:18 At this point, it just has made too much sense for the entirety of this offseason
02:22 to not happen, and yet here we are on the day of the first spring training game
02:29 and no one signed Jordan Montgomery.
02:32 It is honestly baffling to me with the amount of pitchers that have signed
02:37 and the level of deals that have been signed
02:40 that Jordan Montgomery is somehow still on the market.
02:44 And my comments about the Rangers lowering expectations,
02:47 that comes directly from Ken Rosenthal on Twitter yesterday
02:51 when he was talking on foul territory, or fair territory,
02:54 I can't remember which one it is.
02:55 One of the territories of his podcast, he was saying that it seems like
03:00 Chris Young is almost cautioning Rangers fans to lower expectations
03:05 because it seems like they have a set offer on what they are willing to offer
03:09 Jordan Montgomery, and they are not going to budge from that number.
03:15 Which, I don't know what that number is.
03:18 If I knew what that number was, I'd be able to feel more strongly one way or the other.
03:23 But it feels like around five years is what some of the reporting has been,
03:28 and around at least the $100 million mark.
03:32 And if it's just five years, $100 million, that the Rangers won't hit,
03:38 then that feels bonkers to me.
03:41 But I understand not wanting to pay everybody.
03:45 I'm not asking for this ownership group to turn into the Dodgers,
03:49 to go sign Shohei Otani for $700 million,
03:52 and then follow it up with Yoshinobu Yamamoto with the most expensive
03:56 free agent pitching contract in the history of Major League Baseball,
04:00 and then go drop in Teoscar Hernandez for $20 million for a year,
04:06 and then go trade for and extend Tyler Glassdale.
04:10 That's not what I'm asking from this ownership group.
04:13 I'm simply asking to keep that payroll in at least the top 10, if not the top five,
04:20 because that's where this team should be in this competitive window.
04:26 Now, staying in the luxury tax every single year is not feasible,
04:30 and jumping into the co-in zone is very difficult for most owners.
04:35 They could all do it, but they're not going to.
04:39 And that's not the worst thing in the world.
04:42 I'm not asking for this team to suddenly turn into the Mets,
04:45 where you go sign every free agent for oodles and oodles of money,
04:50 and extend everybody for lots and lots of money.
04:53 But just stay in the zone of where you should be,
04:59 because this is a competitive team at the peak of your competitive window,
05:03 and you've already got a lot of money tied up in those big three free agent signings,
05:08 in DeGrom, Simeon, and Seager.
05:12 So you are committed to paying a lot of money to those three guys
05:16 for at least the next four seasons for DeGrom,
05:21 at least the next five seasons, maybe it's,
05:26 I think it's five seasons left on Simeon's contract,
05:29 and another eight seasons left on Seager's contract.
05:33 So at this point, it's already a sunk cost that you're going to be a team
05:37 that is spending a lot of money on those players.
05:41 The amount that you're spending on other players as, you know,
05:45 ancillary pieces kind of depends.
05:49 But eventually, the way these ten-year, eight-year, seven-year,
05:54 even sometimes five-year contracts go in free agency,
05:58 is by the back end, by those final years,
06:01 those contracts are going to look ugly.
06:04 Chances are, at age 38,
06:08 Corey Seager is probably not going to be a player whose war
06:12 is equivalent to someone who's making,
06:15 who should be making $32.5 million,
06:18 or whatever it is in the final year of that deal.
06:21 By the time Marcus Simeon's 38,
06:23 actually I think he might age a little bit better at the age of 38
06:27 than Corey Seager, because of how well he takes care of body,
06:31 and he might end up aging almost like Adrian Beltre,
06:33 not quite that level, but still,
06:35 I don't think he's going to be a 7.5 war player at age 37, 38.
06:41 That'd be magnificent, but that's probably not going to happen.
06:45 So by tightening the purse strings in these years,
06:50 in this is your championship window years,
06:52 this is when you're supposed to be winning.
06:54 This is why you've got those big contracts,
06:56 why you've still got Max Scherzer,
06:57 you've still got Nathan Evaldi, you've still got Jacob Uram,
07:01 theoretically you can have him for a post-season run,
07:03 which means you have a chance at a championship,
07:05 as well as with this lineup being insane,
07:09 you might as well go for it,
07:11 because you're already in the tax,
07:12 so why not go just a little bit further in the tax?
07:16 And let's look where this payroll has been
07:19 for the last couple years,
07:20 because when Ray Davis first took over back in,
07:22 I believe 2011 was his first year as owner of the Rangers,
07:27 through that time where the Rangers were
07:30 a very, very prominent force,
07:32 one of the best teams in baseball from 2010 to 2016,
07:36 their payroll was up commensurate with where they should be.
07:39 They're a winning team, they're a well-run team,
07:42 and they were a team in a big market.
07:44 All of that is still true right now.
07:48 This is still a well-run team,
07:49 this is a team that does not spend
07:51 free agency dollars willy-nilly,
07:54 they've got a young, cheap, controllable core,
07:56 like they did back in 2010,
07:58 like they thought they had in 2015 and '16,
08:00 which didn't quite work out the way they thought,
08:02 but they've definitely got a young, cheap,
08:04 controllable core now, with Langford, Carter,
08:07 and Josh Young, all still pre-arbitration players
08:10 that are, I'm pretty darn sure, at least all-star caliber.
08:14 But this is where this payroll has been
08:17 in the last couple years,
08:18 because I've seen a lot of talk about how,
08:19 oh, the Rangers are taking their payroll
08:21 to unprecedented heights this year.
08:24 Well, that's not true.
08:25 That's not true in terms of the rankings
08:27 and in terms of the overall dollars at this point,
08:29 at least according to SpotTrack's numbers.
08:32 Right now, the Rangers' payroll sits at $216 million,
08:36 which is the seventh highest payroll
08:39 in Major League Baseball.
08:41 That's fine.
08:42 That's a solid, serviceable, acceptable number.
08:46 As long as this team is in the top 10,
08:48 that is where they should be,
08:49 especially during this competitive window.
08:52 You have got to keep your payroll in the top 10.
08:55 You are in too big of a market,
08:56 you are too good of a team,
08:58 you have too wide of a spread to not be in that top 10,
09:03 especially when you are in the middle
09:06 of your competitive window.
09:07 Last year, that payroll was all the way up to $251 million,
09:11 which had them as the fourth highest payroll
09:14 in Major League Baseball.
09:15 Now, $251 million is a lot more than $216 million.
09:20 Last time I did the math,
09:22 I'm pretty sure 251 is bigger than 216,
09:27 which means that the payroll this year
09:28 is not at unprecedented heights.
09:30 And even if they signed Jordan Montgomery
09:33 to say some crazy deal,
09:34 say he's making $30 million a year,
09:37 that payroll is still smaller this year
09:40 than it was last year.
09:41 Now, let's look back at 2022,
09:44 when the payroll jumped up tremendously
09:46 because they signed all those two,
09:49 two big free agent money market signings,
09:52 $150 million, 15th in the league,
09:57 which was below league average,
09:59 at $150 million even,
10:01 that was below league average payroll.
10:03 Then you look at 2021,
10:06 a team that had year two of the new stadium.
10:09 It was the roughest year of this team,
10:12 the main teardown,
10:14 this is gonna be a bad team year,
10:16 of the rebuild,
10:18 the one year of the full-on, true-on rebuild intentionally,
10:22 $96 million payroll, $96 million.
10:26 That was 20th,
10:28 that's near the bottom third of the league
10:31 as one of the top, at least top five,
10:33 if not top three biggest media markets.
10:37 I mean, it's New York, it's LA,
10:39 and with the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
10:42 and how far the TV contract extends,
10:45 they might be bigger than Chicago's media market.
10:48 Not entirely sure.
10:50 They might be bigger than that though.
10:52 I'm pretty sure they're bigger than Houston,
10:53 which I mean, I think at worst,
10:55 this team, the DFW, is the fifth biggest media market.
10:59 So coming up, we're gonna look at the rest of these years
11:01 and why it's still a trend that the Rangers need to continue,
11:05 why they need to bend on what they're willing
11:08 to give Jordan Montgomery,
11:09 and a little bit about what we've learned
11:11 from this first week of spring training.
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12:29 Shout out to the editors for making Lockdown Rangers
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12:37 We'll be back later
12:38 after the Rangers' first spring training game
12:40 to talk about what we learned
12:41 from that first spring training game.
12:43 It is here, we finally made it
12:45 to the day of that first spring training game.
12:47 And now, I did want to make one last point
12:49 about the Rangers and their money issues.
12:52 Not issues, whatever is going on there.
12:55 Because I understand a little bit,
12:57 slightly understanding of this Rangers team being cautious,
13:02 being very cautious about what they're going to do
13:07 with this updated TV contract situation.
13:11 It is where they get most of their money.
13:12 It is where they get most of their revenue.
13:14 Usually $111 million was the guarantee in the deal
13:18 which that they signed back in 2010, 2011.
13:22 Whenever that was, it was about $111 million a year.
13:26 And it was supposed to go through, I believe, 2032.
13:29 Or it was a long time.
13:31 And it was supposed to keep going for several more years.
13:35 And we'll see if the Rangers end up
13:37 sticking with Bally next year.
13:39 They're getting not nearly as much
13:41 as they expected this year.
13:43 But acting like they're going to get zero money
13:45 from this new TV revenue deal,
13:47 whatever is going on with this new TV revenue.
13:51 Whether they go with just Major League Baseball
13:53 hosting their games,
13:54 whether they go through some other regional sports network,
13:58 whether they want to partner with NBC
14:01 to put it NBC Sports here, or AT&T Sports,
14:05 or whatever one of the many different options
14:09 that there are for the Rangers to go with next year.
14:13 I feel like just acting, they're acting like
14:15 this is going to be no revenue for them.
14:18 Or it's going to be like half the revenue
14:20 that they were getting.
14:21 And I just feel like that's absolutely ridiculous,
14:24 absolutely ludicrous,
14:25 because while there's not as much money in cable TV now
14:29 as there was back in 2011 or 2010,
14:32 just the 2010s in general, when these deals were signed,
14:35 there's still plenty of money there.
14:37 And there's still plenty of people that are willing to pay.
14:40 And if you can make it easier for them
14:41 to access this content,
14:43 I can't imagine Major League Baseball would make it
14:46 so that the teams are making less money
14:49 when more people are viewing their product.
14:51 That just does not make any business sense.
14:53 But back to the points about the payroll,
14:56 back in 2023, that was the first time
14:58 that this team had been top 10 in payroll since 2017,
15:02 which was the year that the playoff drought started.
15:07 You notice a trend?
15:08 All of these middle road to middle,
15:13 bottom third of the league in payroll
15:17 with this team missing the playoffs?
15:20 It's not completely unrelated.
15:23 It's not the only thing.
15:24 It's not just spend money,
15:25 you're guaranteed to have a good team.
15:27 Obviously you had to spend well and spend smartly,
15:30 but that's what this Rangers team did
15:31 to win the World Series.
15:33 They identified a gap in what the league
15:37 thought was valuable.
15:41 The teams around Major League Baseball
15:43 were not spending on good players in free agency.
15:46 They were hesitant to hand out these big contracts
15:49 and the Rangers saw that as a market inefficiency
15:52 and they pounced on it,
15:53 which is why they won the World Series
15:55 just two years after losing a hundred games
16:00 because they said, "Oh, no one's gonna pay Corey Seager
16:03 to be on their baseball team for 10 years,
16:06 325 million, done.
16:08 Oh, y'all think this guy who just finished third
16:09 in MVP voting, Marcus Simeon,
16:10 won a gold glove and a silver slugger
16:12 in his first year at a new position,
16:14 y'all think he's not worth the free agent money?
16:17 Okay, well, we do.
16:18 So here's a big old chunk of change, Marcus Simeon.
16:22 Oh, y'all think this Jacob DeGrom guy
16:24 isn't gonna be worth the money?
16:26 Well, we're gonna take a risk.
16:28 It didn't quite work out.
16:29 We're gonna sign about a hundred other pitchers
16:31 to back that up because the rest of these pitchers
16:34 are not going signed at all.
16:37 So we're gonna take that risk
16:39 and we are going to go and pounce in free agency.
16:42 And if they don't pounce next year,
16:46 I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt
16:47 for this one year.
16:49 I'm cautious in giving them the benefit of the doubt
16:52 for this one year,
16:53 only because there was a World Series Championship
16:56 for my favorite team for the first time ever
16:58 just a few months ago.
16:59 But if the same thing happens next year,
17:02 if they're still pointing to,
17:04 "Oh, well, we don't know what's gonna happen
17:05 with the TV contract.
17:06 Oh, we're not sure if we're gonna make any money at all.
17:09 Oh, us poor billionaire owners
17:10 who make insane amounts of money off of Major League Baseball.
17:14 We're not so sure how much we're gonna make off of this."
17:17 Not to mention the profits they already had
17:19 from that massive TV deal.
17:21 And from all of those years,
17:23 while the Rangers were bad to mediocre to bad again,
17:27 where they were not paying what their payroll
17:30 probably should have been for a team with this size market,
17:33 this size media market.
17:36 They're not, if they're not gonna invest that,
17:38 then what the heck are we doing?
17:40 Owning a baseball team, Mr. Ray Davis.
17:43 What is the point of those billions of dollars?
17:45 Are you gonna buy an extra luxury yacht
17:47 that you're gonna take the rest of us on?
17:49 'Cause I'd rather you spend that money
17:50 on something for the community,
17:53 for North Texas, for Texas in general,
17:56 and parts of New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma,
18:01 and wherever else Texas Rangers fans happen to be.
18:05 That's the whole point of being a Rangers,
18:07 the whole point of being an owner,
18:08 is to unload that piggy bank for some good baseball players
18:13 to show off your fancy baseball franchise
18:15 that is winning games.
18:17 Because I don't know about you, Mr. Ray Davis,
18:20 but I like my team winning games a whole lot more
18:23 than being mediocre to bad to embarrassing
18:26 that they were for the last half decade
18:28 before this past season.
18:29 Now coming up, we're gonna look at what you should look for,
18:32 the important things to watch for
18:33 in a major league spring training game/games,
18:37 and a little bit of talk about the talk of the town
18:39 in spring training,
18:40 which are these hilariously bad uniforms.
18:44 But I have to swear from our sponsors.
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19:09 Evan Carter is the favorite to win
19:11 American League Rookie of the Year.
19:13 Or if you're thinking, you know, actually,
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19:17 the American League Rookie of the Year.
19:18 He is the third favorite.
19:20 In between them, of course, is the shortstop prospect,
19:23 Jackson Holliday for the Baltimore Oils.
19:26 I think the Rangers have a pretty good shot
19:27 at winning American League Rookie of the Year.
19:29 It's going to be an interesting race,
19:30 especially with two of the top three guys
19:32 on these Rangers squad,
19:34 these reigning Rangers World Series squad,
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19:51 Shout out to the avid avidators
19:56 for making Locked On Rangers your first listen
19:57 every single day back on Monday
19:59 to talk about what happened in this week in games
20:01 and maybe some news and notes from around
20:04 what is happening around Major League Baseball
20:05 if we get some any interesting news happening this weekend.
20:09 Like, maybe a Jordan Montgomery signing with the Rangers.
20:13 I digress.
20:14 Anyway, Rangers' first spring training game is here.
20:18 We finally made it.
20:19 It is today, this afternoon,
20:21 if you're listening to this in the morning,
20:23 or it already happened if you're listening to this at night.
20:26 We have finally made it to the first spring training game,
20:29 the most important game of the season.
20:31 So much to be learned, so much to be gleaned,
20:33 so many things happening, all of them very important.
20:37 Well, actually, I kinda lied about that.
20:40 It is the first spring training game,
20:42 and there's not a whole lot that can be gleaned
20:44 from those first spring training games
20:46 other than, okay, this guy's here, this guy's here.
20:50 First looks at new guys in uniform,
20:53 hopefully a first look at Wyatt Langford
20:55 in a Texas Rangers uniform in an actual game,
20:59 except by look, I mean listen,
21:02 because there is no TV broadcast for this game,
21:04 but at least there is a radio broadcast.
21:08 Now, there'll be a few pitchers pitching in this game,
21:10 mostly just one inning,
21:11 because that's how these first spring training games go.
21:15 There's not a whole lot of innings to be pitched early on.
21:18 Pitchers are still building back up,
21:20 and since there's not a whole lot of data on these guys,
21:24 or in any of these spring training games,
21:26 which I find very frustrating,
21:28 because the main thing that I look for
21:30 in a spring training game
21:32 is what's up with the starting pitchers and their velocity?
21:36 How much are they getting built back up?
21:38 How close are they to being
21:40 about where they should be on the radar gun?
21:42 That's when you're starting to know,
21:43 okay, these guys are starting to feel
21:46 more like they are in mid-season form
21:49 of kind of just scouting a little bit by the radar gun.
21:53 And unfortunately, in these spring training stadiums,
21:57 which I don't really understand
21:59 why this hasn't happened at this point,
22:01 I don't understand why there's not every game,
22:03 every spring training game televised,
22:05 or at least have a radio broadcast for it.
22:08 Why all of these spring training facilities
22:10 don't have the StatCast pitch tracker data
22:15 so I can get on game day on MLB app
22:18 and track every single pitch,
22:19 and at least have the velocities.
22:22 You just kind of have to rely on
22:23 what the beat riders are tweeting.
22:25 You gotta kind of hope
22:26 that there are enough media members there,
22:28 and enough of them are looking at the radar gun
22:30 at the right time to see,
22:32 all right, how close to getting built up are these guys?
22:35 What kind of pitches are they throwing?
22:38 And with Dane Dunning starting this game,
22:40 I think the main thing I'm looking for with Dane Dunning
22:43 is that he is throwing a new pitch.
22:46 He is throwing, I believe it is a splitter,
22:48 as he is calling it,
22:50 and he is hoping to use it a little bit more effectively
22:52 against lefties.
22:54 That was one of the things that caught up to him
22:55 later on in the year when he was starting
22:57 to get hit a little bit harder.
22:58 He was not able to be as effective
23:00 against left-handed hitters
23:03 as he was earlier on in the season.
23:06 Now I believe Dane Dunning already has a changeup,
23:08 a circle changeup,
23:10 so adding a splitter onto that,
23:11 I'm not sure if that's going to replace his changeup,
23:13 'cause usually you use that against off-handed players,
23:16 against, as a righty, you deal that against lefties
23:18 to keep them off balance,
23:20 but he's already got a sinker that moves away
23:21 from left-handed hitters.
23:23 He's also got that four-seam fastball.
23:25 I mean, he's got a lot of pitches.
23:26 He's got six pitches at this point.
23:28 I think the splitter,
23:30 if he doesn't show the circle change,
23:33 then that's a seventh pitch,
23:35 and that is a very, very crafty guy.
23:37 We'll see several pitchers in this game,
23:39 starting with Dane Dunning.
23:41 We might get two innings worth of Cody Bradford.
23:44 Shout out to Cody Bradford, World Series champion.
23:46 Happy belated birthday to Cody Bradford,
23:48 whose birthday was this week.
23:50 We'll also see lefty Danny Duffy,
23:52 who is back with the Reinders on a minor league deal
23:54 after basically rehabbing all season last year.
23:58 He pitched a little bit in winter ball this past winter,
24:01 and he was building back up to be
24:03 just a bullpen arm last year
24:05 after missing most of the last two seasons.
24:08 He is back to being a starter.
24:09 Hopefully some starter depth.
24:11 We'll see what's happening there.
24:13 We'll also see a little bit of Jack Leiter.
24:15 We'll see a little bit of Antoine Kelly for an inning,
24:17 Mark Church, Zach Kent, and Yair Rodriguez.
24:21 That is the plan for now.
24:24 Nathan Evaldi is going to be, I think, Saturday
24:28 is when we'll see him for the first time.
24:30 And I will be all eyes and ears on Nathan Evaldi,
24:34 just making sure that he gets through this spring
24:37 not only just healthy, but also fully ready for opening day
24:41 is pretty much the most important thing,
24:44 I think, that I'm gonna be looking for
24:46 at all this entire spring training, is just,
24:48 all right, how's Nathan Evaldi feeling?
24:51 How's the elbow?
24:52 How's the shoulder?
24:53 How's the everything?
24:54 What's the velocity look like?
24:55 What does the stuff look like?
24:57 Is he feeling good?
24:57 Is he feeling like he is hitting his spots?
25:00 Is everything going right for Nathan Evaldi?
25:03 Same thing can be said for all the other starting pitchers.
25:06 Outside of Dunning and Bradford,
25:09 I'm not worried about them being healthy come opening day.
25:12 I'm not really worried about their velocity being
25:15 so much where we're hoping it to be.
25:19 But with Evaldi, we saw when he was hurt at times last year
25:22 and when the velocity was down,
25:25 it made a big difference in his effectiveness.
25:28 'Cause when Nate Evaldi is sitting 91 to 95,
25:32 he's a little bit more hittable than when he's 93 to 97
25:37 like he was at the playoffs.
25:39 It just makes a big, big difference in his repertoire
25:42 and how it plays off of everything else.
25:45 That fastball was very, very good.
25:46 So is the splitter and the curve ball
25:48 and a little bit the cutter as well.
25:50 But if that fastball is a lot slower
25:54 and everything else is coming out of the hand a lot slower
25:56 and it's much more difficult for Evaldi to be effective.
26:00 So mainly the goal is just can everybody stay healthy
26:03 on the pitching side and get to opening day ready,
26:07 fully healthy, or at least like 85% of themselves.
26:10 Just healthy mainly.
26:12 That's the first and foremost focus
26:13 because of the lack of depth in the starting rotation
26:15 behind starter number five and Cody Bradford.
26:19 Just get those guys healthy
26:20 and up to like 85, 95, 90% game effectiveness
26:25 from opening day.
26:28 Usually it takes a couple of turns through the rotation
26:30 for the starting pitchers to be fully
26:32 at peak mid-season form because it just takes a while
26:36 for those guys to get all the way ramped up.
26:38 But on the hitting side,
26:40 there's not always a whole lot you can learn
26:41 from these hitters in spring training.
26:44 The main thing you kind of look for,
26:46 or at least that I was looking for last off season
26:48 or last spring training I should say,
26:50 is Adolphe Garcia talking a lot about how he is working
26:53 on being more patient in the approach.
26:56 Changes to the approach,
26:58 those are things that you can see a little bit more
26:59 in spring training on the hitters.
27:01 Usually those kind of manifest themselves
27:04 pretty well in spring training.
27:06 We saw a lot more walks from Adolphe Garcia
27:08 in spring training last year.
27:11 That was a great sign and it ended up paying dividends
27:14 in the regular season.
27:16 It doesn't always happen like that
27:17 because I remember almost every spring training
27:20 we'd hear from Rugnato Dorr that this is the year
27:22 that Rugnato Dorr is gonna be a lot more patient.
27:24 He's hitting very well in spring training,
27:26 he's working more walks,
27:27 he's not chasing out of the strike zone
27:29 and just selling out for power.
27:31 And then every regular season we'd say,
27:34 oh, nope, Rugnato Dorr's back to his Rugnato Dorr self.
27:37 But last year with Adolphe Garcia's changes,
27:40 we saw that implemented in spring training
27:43 and really show up in a big way
27:45 for that breakout season last year.
27:47 We saw how incredibly good he was during the regular season
27:49 and how in the postseason it just took it
27:52 to a whole new level.
27:54 I'm gonna be watching really closely on Ezekiel Duran,
27:56 what he's doing in spring training this year,
28:00 especially since he's gonna be playing a lot of shortstop
28:03 and probably a lot of third base as well
28:04 with Josh Young still out for a few more weeks
28:07 and with Corey Seager missing most of spring training.
28:10 We're looking at him and Josh Smith
28:12 seeing what they're doing.
28:14 And well, obviously I think we're all gonna be very eager
28:18 to see what Wyatt Langford does in spring training.
28:22 I feel like this is going to unfairly make or break
28:26 whether he makes the opening day roster.
28:28 I don't think that that is a guaranteed thing at this point.
28:31 I feel like 95% confident he is going to be
28:35 at least having an opening day roster spot,
28:38 if not an everyday spot in the lineup,
28:42 which I feel like if he's not gonna be everyday
28:44 in the lineup in the big league level,
28:45 then he's going to be back down at AAA
28:47 just getting those reps because he's too talented a player
28:50 to not be giving him everyday reps.
28:52 He is still very young, still has a decent amount to prove,
28:57 but I'm excited to see him hit some dingers
28:58 off big league pitchers in spring training
29:01 'cause I anticipate we're gonna see at least one or two
29:04 or at least some very well-stung balls from his bat
29:08 because that dude can absolutely mash.
29:12 I'll also be looking at what he looks like defensively
29:15 in the outfield.
29:17 He's still relatively new to the outfield.
29:21 He did play a couple years at Florida
29:23 in the outfield primarily,
29:24 played almost exclusively left field
29:27 in the minor leagues last year.
29:30 He's still trying to learn the position.
29:31 He's very athletic,
29:32 but his routes are still a little bit erratic,
29:35 and you can kind of tell a little bit more
29:36 about an outfielder's defensive chops
29:41 from watching them in spring training.
29:42 That is a thing that is going to carry over.
29:44 That is a thing that is an important storyline
29:46 for not only spring training,
29:48 but also for white lane for his development in general
29:51 and how high his ceiling can be.
29:53 I'm in the camp that thinks he could be a decent
29:57 to very good defensive left fielder,
30:00 and I'm also in the camp that thinks
30:02 his bat's so stinking good,
30:03 it doesn't freaking matter if he is a tomato out there
30:07 in the outfield,
30:08 which he's not going to be.
30:09 He's too athletic to be just absolutely horrendous
30:12 in the outfield.
30:13 Yeah, the routes are a little bit raw at this point.
30:16 The arm isn't at Dolos Garcia level.
30:18 That's fine.
30:19 It doesn't need to be.
30:21 The routes don't need to be elite crisp
30:24 because he is still in left field,
30:26 which is probably the least important
30:29 defensive position in baseball.
30:33 I mean, it is probably the fewest outs.
30:34 It is not a position where you stick,
30:36 oh yeah, that guy's got a premium glove in left field.
30:38 I mean, you can count on like one hand
30:41 the amount of times you hear that.
30:42 The only time I remember hearing that really
30:44 was when Josh Hamilton was playing left field
30:46 because of Julio Borbon or whoever it was in center field
30:51 at the time that was taking over for Josh Hamilton,
30:55 pushing him to left field.
30:58 So those are the things I'm looking for
31:00 in this spring training game one.
31:02 I am so excited to just have baseball back,
31:04 having baseball on my television this afternoon,
31:07 just watching the Dodgers drop an eight spot on the Padres
31:11 and having the broadcast talk about how, oh yeah,
31:13 guys remember the last baseball game that was played?
31:15 It was when the Rangers won the World Series,
31:17 getting multiple Rangers World Series mentions
31:19 on a Dodgers-Padres spring training broadcast.
31:23 It's just absolutely delightful.
31:26 Spring training is back.
31:27 Games are back.
31:28 We finally made it.
31:29 And hopefully by the time I talk to y'all next,
31:32 we'll have some positive news
31:34 about a wonderful opening spring training game.
31:38 That's gonna do it for today's show.
31:39 Thank y'all so much for listening and subscribing.
31:41 And until next time,
31:42 don't forget to enjoy World Series champion
31:44 Texas Rangers baseball.
31:46 (basketball bouncing)
31:49 [ Silence ]