SportsDay Rangers, Episode 34: The one where Evan filibusters

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Well, the Rangers are in the middle of a nine-game west coast road trip.

As we tape this week's episode of Sports Day Rangers, I'm John Blake.

And as always, I'm Evan Grant. That's my only partner in-room.

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So the Rangers lost two out of three to the defending world series champion Dodgers

this past weekend. They're in the middle of a four-game series in Sacramento

against the athletics, the surprising athletics who are battling the Rangers

for first place in a strange division here early on, Evan.

And a lot of things have happened.

And we talk about the Rangers as we speak right now.

And they've got some bullpen issues as you're out there on the west coast.

Yeah. And as we speak, they were in the middle of trying to solve that.

But that's going to be a scramble all season, John.

You know, I just did a of Rangers YouTube.

And because all I do is various multimedia events and bullpen was a big topic.

And there are no, there were no real answers.

And even with whatever moves,

the Rangers end up making in the bullpen over the next day or so.

As we record this, it's going to be a scramble all season.

I think that is the underlying lesson from what we've learned

through spring training and the start of the regular season.

There wasn't a lot of money spent on relievers.

The foreign system is a little bit thin on upper level relievers right now.

There aren't a number of guys still available out there.

And so for a while, it's going to be a scramble.

You know, I think if this team is, if this team is good,

if this team gets through these first 40 games,

if they make a little bit of a run in May and into June,

I think Chris Young will be proactive in trying to go out and get,

you know, more leverage arms to fill out that bullpen.

But I don't think that's going to present itself as an option

until the middle of June at the earliest.

And then you say that.

But, you know, with the potential injuries to a couple of guys pending right now,

several guys have pitched great.

Jalen Beaks, Jacob, Juneus, Tyler Alexander, Cole Windus, to name a few.

But again, as you mentioned, it's just trying to find roles

and who's going to pitch those leverage innings late in games.

Absolutely.

And listen, I think they've been proactive on this front.

You know, you didn't, you didn't see Gipsy Mocker waste a lot of time

waiting for Robert Garcia or Chris Martin,

who appears to be injured at this point in time.

To work out their issues, he made changes at the back end of the bullpen.

And Jacob Blatz and Jake Juneus, Jacob Juneus,

have basically become the high leverage guys.

I thought the one really good outcome from Wednesday,

or from Tuesday, I should say, was that Robert Garcia came into a game

with a one run in one run situation.

The Rangers were down by a run,

but he pitched really effectively for an inning and two thirds.

The Rangers as Skip has said need to get Garcia back in the right direction

because he's got the best stuff right now in the bullpen.

All the metrics, all the analytics at the Ranger site,

have Garcia with the best metric out of work.

It's just a matter of executing.

You know, this is a guy who I think cares so much and tries so hard

that sometimes it speeds the game and his execution up on him.

And as we, uh, speaking of the starting pitching in the rotation,

you've got to have a night like Tuesday night when Mackenzie Gore is not at his best,

can't make it through the fifth inning or whatever.

That even taxes the bullpen more.

But let's talk about Gore a little bit because he's pitched really well

until Tuesday night in Oakland where he just didn't seem to have any command

or any idea of where the strike zone was and it was kind of perplexing.

But that's kind of his history, right, with the with the nationals.

Yeah, I mean, I don't have a great body of stuff to call back on,

but look, there are a number of walks in his in his history, right?

He's walked a number of hitters and he's gone through these periods where

he's kind of lost command of the strike zone and the thing that's going to

he's a number one talent.

The thing that's going to allow him to be a number one

is better being able to make adjustments when things go wrong.

After the game on Tuesday, when he was asked about, you know, what went wrong,

the answers were a little bit along the lines of not really sure, you know,

felt good, just couldn't really execute my pitches.

And you will have nights like that.

There are going to be nights where it's going to be a struggle.

And if the worst thing that happens is on a night when it's a struggle,

you get the game to the fifth inning and it's a one run game.

Your team is down by two.

You live with it, but on a team that has so little room for margin for error

and as important as McKenzie goers for this rotation,

you want to be able to see an ability to make that that adjustment quicker.

I think he walked four of six batters and went four batters and a six batter stretch

at one point last night.

He's going to have to be able to get it back in line a little bit more quickly.

I do think the presence of Avaldi into Graham and I'm sure he would,

he talked to them after last night and I'm sure there's some feedback.

I think this is one of those opportunities where those guys may be able to help him

come up with some mechanisms that help him get back on track more quickly.

And you mentioned that margin of error and the ranger scoring eight runs in the first game of

this series. A lot of it on Jake Berger's back there.

But then held the one run last night when Jeffrey Springs

fourth left-handed start of the rangers have seen this season.

Rangers are now one and three against lefties and I think you've talked about it's

still a very small sample size. But what have you kind of seen from the lineup so far

when it faces a southpaw?

Well, when they face the old port ciders, John, since we're going to dive into

old baseball jargon, the issue isn't the rangers left-handed hitters.

You know, they've got a great situation for platooning.

For most of their lefties, the two lefties who are going to play every day

are Brandon Nemo and Cory Seager. Nemo's hitting lefties just fine this year

and he's always had pretty neutral splits. Seager has had much more success

against right-handed pitchers. But his numbers against right-handed

pitchers are off the charts. His numbers against lefties are above average

for a left-handed hitter. He's off to a little bit of a slow start

against lefties this year. He's off to a little bit of a slow start

in general this year. But that's not the problem.

The issue has been some of these complimentary right-handed bats.

Josh Young is three for 16 against lefties this year.

He's got a 66 OPS against lefties since the start of 2024.

This is a guy who crushed lefties his rookie season.

Had a 9.95 OPS against lefties his rookie season.

And I think the Ranger expected that to continue and it's done nothing but leak

since. Why it Langford last year and really, you know,

in 2024 when he was a rookie and he was sitting lower in the lineup

when he faced lefties, particularly left-handed relievers,

it was a lower tier of left-handed relievers. It wasn't the prime guys

because those were being saved to face Seager in the middle.

And so his numbers against left-handed pitching

were high but mostly based on what he did against left-handed relievers in

24. It leaked a little bit last year and he's

over 16 against left-handed pitchers of any type to start this year.

Again, I think, you know, now he's going to face when he

faces left-handed starters. The Rangers have faced really good ones, right?

They face springs, Sanchez, Rodgers and Luzardo.

And listen, John, over the next three weeks,

they've probably got two dates with Max Fried.

They've got another date with Jeffrey Springs.

They've got a date with Terrick Scoobull and they probably got a date with

Framber Valdez. So it ain't going to get any easier against lefties.

But I also think the adjustment that Wyatt has right now is when he does face

left-handed relievers, he's also facing top-tier left-handed relievers because

they're coming in to get that that lane of Nimo,

now Wyatt and Cory. So he's getting the best left-hander any bullpen has to offer.

And we talked about the schedule and again, the Rangers at this point

you know, where they're 9 and 8 as we speak on this through a very tough 40-plus game stretch

to start the season that features, you know, the Rangers to this point.

Played 11 of their 17 games on the road.

The next road trip is another three-city jaunt, so to speak.

So they've just got to kind of tread water at this point in some respects in a division

that looks like, you know, at least early on here, you've got a couple of real discrepancies.

Houston can pound the ball. They can't pitch because of the injuries and Seattle is kind of

vice versa where they've got the strong pitching and their offense has been much, much worse

than the Rangers. So it's kind of a time over this first month and a half or so.

The Rangers just have to just have to kind of stay competitive.

Yes, and look, the fact that they're 9 and 8 after 17 games, John,

I wouldn't have expected them to be any better than that.

They have done what they need to do to this point.

The only, you say the only, if you're looking for the glass half empty perspective,

it is that since Seattle and Houston have struggled, you'd love to see the Rangers be able to capitalize

on that more. They haven't been able to face the astros yet. They don't get that until the middle

in the first series against Seattle. They did what they needed to do. They swept them.

They absolutely capitalize on it. So it's hard for me to find real fault with where the

Rangers are, but I think the reality, though, is we know what margin for error this team has.

And we know how hard this schedule is. And so you're trying to keep track of making sure that this team

stays on course to be able to navigate that and navigate the long term issues.

And again, we can talk about the lineup and what it has and hasn't done, but Brandon Nimo has

been everything you wanted at the top of the lineup. Absolutely. I mean, and I think,

look, is it bats? I've seen, I've seen much higher quality at bats this year. Now,

I think the Rangers can still improve some of their at bat quality, but I've seen more high

quality at bats this year than I recall seeing at any point in time last year. And I think that

starts with Nimo. You know, I made a point in a column that I wrote off of the first game

in Sacramento about the quality of a bat that Jake Berger took. And it was a small thing.

You know, he had homework in his first two at bats on Monday night. But the third time he came

up, the Rangers were having one of those innings that we saw all cute frequently last year where

pitcher would come back into the dugout. And before he could even catch his breath or think about

the next inning, he's back out on the mound. You know, it was a it was a five pitch inning at that

point in time. Berger took the first pitch, took his time around the plate, was very deliberate,

worked in eight pitch at bat before ending up grounding out. And I think that gave Nathan

of all the time to catch his breath. And Nathan likes to script out eight to ten,

which well pitches, you know, before he goes back on the mound, gave him time to think. And

Skip Schumacher made note of that. Other people made note of that. And the Rangers had addressed that

in a meeting in Los Angeles over the weekend that there had been a little bit of a prevalence

for these quick innings and and something that really kind of hurt them last year. And for me,

the message there was, look, they're aware of this. The coaching staff is aware of it. And the

players are trying to apply what the coaching staff is actually asking them to do. So I think

that was a real big win for this team on that front. I had to talk a little bit about defense has

been very strong for the most part. Wyatt Langford is back in the lineup as the DH last night,

assuming he'll be back in the outfield here in the next day or two, right? Just trying to be a

little bit careful with that. Yeah, I think, you know, my guess would be in the field here in

Sacramento looks beautiful. My 52nd ballpark in which I've ever covered a game. I'd like to point

out. Congratulations. You're 10 by me. That's okay. The field looks be the field looks beautiful.

But I also am just going to guess that the Rangers will probably give him through this series

before they get him out on the field on the grass playing the outfield to wait till they get

the Seattle. That would be my guess. I think, you know, the thing with Langford is you would just

like to see him be off to a little bit quicker start. This is a big year for Wyatt. You know,

this is a cornerstone franchise type talent. And he's made progress in each of his first two years.

I think the expectation is that Wyatt becomes an 800 OPS guy this year. He's, you know, he's off to

a little bit of a slow start on that front. So we'll see what happens here. Again,

big series in Seattle. Like you said, the Rangers took capitalized on it the first time when the

when the Mariners came into Arlington last week. And then the schedule, as we've talked about,

really doesn't get much easier here. You've got to play the Yankees coming up here. Yankees have

gotten off to a fast start. Pittsburgh to open the home stand next week has played well. So,

you've, and you've got to capitalize when you're at home as well. Absolutely, especially early,

the Rangers need to capitalize on their home games because that's what's going to keep

them afloat with such a heavy road schedule. You know, you can only hope to go 500 on the road in

best case scenario. And that would be a big improvement for the Rangers over the last couple of

years when they're at home in April and May. And through June, really, they really need to take

advantage of those games and make up and be successful. They can't allow home stands to get

frittered away. I think they did a good job after the Red series went awry of salvaging the

home stand by beating Seattle. And look, it may have just been a three in three home stand. But

you beat the team that you're you're going to be chasing this year or that you hope to supersede

in the American League West. So I thought that was a good finish to that home stand.

I feel like at the 10% mark of this season, I feel like it has gone about like I expected it would.

I do think the starting pitching has been even a little bit more impressive than I thought it would

be. I think the bullpen has struggled in the way that we thought, but we've seen some good

performances there in some uneven performances. The lineup is still kind of finding itself.

I do feel like I've seen better, more consistent approaches. It hasn't always produced results.

But I think overall, so if I'm grading this team after 10% of the way through the year,

I give them, you know, at least to be. I think it's been a very successful start to the season.

I think the messaging has been good. And I think that I think there is real buy in here.

Okay, speaking of rating, how would you rate Sacramento since this is your first time in there as a

major league ball writer? How would you rate Sacramento compared?

Certainly, I don't want to compare it to the Bay Area. So, but how would you how would you rate

Sacramento? Well, it's a it's a cool little town. And it still does feel more like the downtown still

feels a little bit more like a little town, even though you've got the very beautiful California

State Capitol right sitting there in the middle. And, you know, you've got a major league franchise

in the Sacramento Kings in downtown. And what really made it a big league town was on Monday,

Monday Night Raw was here ahead of WrestleMania. So all of the stars of the WWE had descended upon

up on town. So, um, listen, my, you know, my experience in most of these towns is maybe finding a

restaurant in the ballpark. And clearly, uh, Sutter Health Park is a minor league ballpark.

The A's have made the best of the situation there. And the one thing I wanted to see was how

enthusiastic fans would be at these games. And while they're only getting about 8,000 fans,

I do feel like people are are having a good experience here. And it's, you know,

it's a difficult situation because this is a transient team. They're not Sacramento's team.

They're not going to be Sacramento's team. They're not staying right. They're not even identified

as the Sacramento is. Um, so I do think fans are enjoying the amount of time you're all of that

said, I still think that major league baseball, you know, put themselves in this situation. They

should have been, they shouldn't have had to go this route. If they wanted to move the A's

to Vegas, they should have been more proactive in getting something done in Vegas, but there

would be a stadium ready. If they wanted to keep them in the Bay Area, they should have done

what they needed to do with Oakland or with one of the Bay Area communities to get something done.

It's just a shame for the A's organization that they're having to play in in lesser facilities

right now. Sacramento folks have done the best they can with it. But the A's have a good young

team. And they're going to be challenged by their situation here in Sacramento this year and

next year. Bottom line. And it's hard for the players as well because you're not getting the

big fan base. You're not getting the home crowd. And unlike Love Life field, which has become a

big home field advantage, at least from the crowd and the aesthetics and the noise.

You're never going to have that in Sacramento. But we hope you'll, uh, you'll enjoy the rest of

your time there. And then it's on to Seattle. Evan's getting a lot of mileage here in the first

couple months of the season. And he'll travel a lot all over the country. And when we come back,

we'll talk about the archives, our archives in Arlington segment this week, which will have a

presidential spin. We'll be right back. Well, normally we probably wouldn't have spent so much

time with Evan talking about his travels on the West Coast. You may have noticed that we had to

fill our buster a little this week because of, uh, of some technical difficulties that

precluded us having our guest. But Evan, you did a marvelous job.

Well, I'm, I'm very good when it comes to just like running my mouth. So it's one of the things

I do. Well, we'll call this the one where Evan Philobusters. And, uh, we should be back with our

rigorally programmed or rigorally scheduled guests next week. We apologize for not having

guests this week, but there was a lot to talk about, uh, at the 10% mark of the season. And, um,

when we come back, John, I expect to hear a little bit about some Ranger archives. Maybe it's

got a presidential bent to it. There's always the Ranger archives even when we can't get the guests.

I'm going all the way back, Evan. You know, I like anniversaries. So I'm going back 65 years.

To the start of the franchise in Washington DC in 1961. It was April 10, 1961. They played the

first game in franchise history. His old time baseball fans know that the senators, the original

senators who had been in Washington DC since 1901 moved to Minneapolis. The Griffith family

moved the team to Minneapolis after the 1960 season, seeking brighter pastors and more attendants.

So the American lead quickly to, uh, to, uh, to appease politicians, but an expansion team in

Washington, which, uh, over their 11 years, they weren't very good. But April 10, 1961 obviously

was a big day. First game in franchise history. It was at all Griffith Stadium. The only year,

the expansion senators played at Griffith Stadium in 1962. They moved into what was then RFC,

was then DC Stadium later became RFK Stadium. And finally has been torn down here mercifully in

the last year or so and a new stadium for the commanders will go up in its place. But the senators

lost that day to the Chicago White Sox 4 to 3. But the president, the 35th president of the United

States, John F. Kennedy throughout the first pitch that day, continuing a long legacy, uh,

in the nation's capital where Washington was always the first game of the season.

Changed a lot now with television obviously. The nationals don't get that moniker every year.

But Evan, going back to 1910, when William Howard Taft, a rather burly man, if people remember

throughout the first pitch, he was kind of the Rick Russell of presidential first pitch guys.

Yes, he was, but it was quite an event every year at, uh, at old Griffith Stadium and then at,

you know, DC Stadium, uh, when the president would come out and throw out the first pitch. And

Harry Truman, who was ambidextrous throughout different years with both hands, both, both, both,

arms, I should say, uh, and everyone should have taken a clue from Harry and every,

really, every president, uh, took part in this, uh, at times. I mean, FDR didn't go out every year,

obviously, during the war years, but he made his appearances. And when the nationals, uh,

of course, the senators, as we all know, moved to Texas after the 1971 season,

had one winning record in those 11 years under 10 Williams in 1969. Never drew more than 900,000.

It was not a, uh, an auspicious, uh, history there in Washington for the old expansion senators,

but opening day was always a big deal. And, uh, it's continued somewhat when the nationals

of home, George W. Bush, a familiar name to Ranger fans throughout the first pitch there in 2005.

And the last to do it was Barack Obama in 2010. But again, I, I think, I think baseball has lost

something with the tradition that they don't open the season anymore in Washington,

and Cincinnati, which you're familiar with, to some extent, the parade, the reds were always the

first game in the national league. And the, and the senators were always the first game in the

American league every year. And you know, I really did like the tradition, the first pitch with

the president threw it out in DC in the old days. They didn't go to the mound. They just kind of

heaved it from the presidential box. Um, and so it really wasn't a first pitch, it was just kind

of a toss. Um, a lot of years, all the players would gather around outside and try to catch it.

That, that became kind of a tradition there, too. And the two managers would be in the stands,

you know, next to the president, it would, they made for some pretty cool pictures.

You know, the first president was to throw out a pitch from the mound.

First president to throw out a pitch from the mound, I'm going to say it was Richard M. Nixon.

Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan. Right. And Riggley Field. He was the first one to do it. And, uh,

Ronald Reagan came to the Orioles opener after we had won the World Series in 1984. I think I've

told this story before. He did not throw out the first pitch. And I was not there. I was in Seattle

with the Georgetown Hoyas doing the national championship basketball game. And it was kind of chaos

on the field. But, but I've had the privilege to, you know, to be around several presidents

who threw out the first pitch for opening days. It was always a, going back to that, the franchise

in Washington. It was always, it was always a big deal. And a lot of years, that was the highlight

of the season, uh, for the senators. Although the team that moved to Minnesota became very good.

They became the twins, as I mentioned, and by 1965, they had won the American league pennant.

But left the very sad sack team in Washington. Uh, Frank Howard, of course, was by far their best

known player. Uh, Hondo had a lot of home run. Dick Bosman later in the Rangers pitching coach

was the top pitcher in expansion senator's history. But, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's a tradition

that that's kind of missed in baseball these days. John, as a presidential historian, um,

is it, is it a presidential of file? I don't know what, I don't know what the right term would be. But

as somebody who is very interested in presidential history and you do a lot of work at the, uh, George

W. Bush, uh, presidential library at the, on the SMU campus, what is your favorite all time

presidential first pitch? Cause I know you have these ranked probably. Uh, well, the Taft one was,

was, was, was because it started the tradition, right? I mean, William Howard Taft as we was, was

over 350 pounds at the time. They had to build like a special, I think they, uh, elevate or something

to get at the time, whatever a lift to get them up to the, to the seats, you know, so you would

throw out the first pitch. I think that was very special. Um, I mean, the ones I've been around,

I, I think, you know, like I said, I've been fortunate. George H. W. Bush threw one out actually

at Arlington Stadium, uh, in 1991. And, you know, we all know what Arlington Stadium was like.

But it gave the place a little bit of class on opening day, although the logistics were getting

ready for that first pitch in that stadium. You know, we're a little rough setting up a command

center. And it really wasn't a lot of places to do it. And, uh, but I, I think I would probably go

with that one because we could never get his son to throw out the first pitch while he was

president, uh, at our ballpark. But I think we've talked about it 2009, first year is out of office.

And again, I think, I think you would agree them, probably the most special first pitch we've

both been around by presidents was in 2010 at the World Series where 41, 43 throughout the first

pitch accompanied by his dad to the mound. I would Nolan Ryan driving the golf car. I'll never forget

that. That was a special moment. But I think the one presidential first pitch that, um, is

probably stuck in everybody's mind. The, the image is George W. Bush going to the mound during

the World Series in 2001 and delivering that first pitch in, in New York to future ranger Todd

Greene behind the plate. Right. Um, obviously there was a lot of patriotic, um, meaning behind that

being in New York a month and a half after September 11th, um, President Bush was that his

really at his best with his messaging at that point in time. And look, he went to the man and

delivered a strike. Well, the bulletproof fest start a very heavy bulletproof fest start from

the top of the mound. Yeah. So that one sticks out for me as a special image. Um, and I was there

for that one too, although we were getting we're in the process of hiring a new general manager,

but that's another story for another day. Well, your priorities weren't in line at that point in time,

but nevertheless, thank you for that page in presidential first pitch history. Um, and I'm going

to say that this will probably be the last archives that include a story from the non-Texas

days. Yes, it probably will, but I thought for for this week's episode, as I was looking back,

I wanted to remember those old senators and, uh, you know, we've had bad years come and go here

since the team has moved to Texas, but then you just think about the senators and you say no

year is too bad then. So, but anyway, that concludes this week's episode of sports day rangers,

and we'll see you next week, Evan. You know where you guys can follow us. You can follow me on

the Twitter at Evan underscore P underscore grant. I'm also on the blue sky at the same

handle, and you can find John on the X at Ranger Blake. And I will always be there for you all.

The Rangers, let's uh, let's get some wins this weekend in Seattle, Evan, and then we open a

home stand. So we'll see you all next week.