The Sweet Spot - Evan Grant on Ranger Opening Day

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But many thoughts shared by our good friend who's joining us right now on the Diamond Factory Ticket Hotline.

It is Texas Rangers beat rider and our good pal Evan Grant joining us live from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

Evan, thanks for the time today.

I know you're very busy, sir.

I've never too busy for you guys.

Well, we appreciate that.

I know you and Sean have been cranking out a lot of content on the morning news side.

I want to direct everybody to what you wrote yesterday.

And I thought it was pretty intriguing because if you simply look at the schedule,

the first 40 games of the season seem a little daunting.

And it starts with a playoff caliber team.

Maybe a championship caliber team in the Phillies today.

Yeah.

And it wasn't a sentiment that was shared by everybody.

Since I got an email from a reader this morning saying that this was the riveting kind of journalism that he pays to the morning news every day.

What team won't have 40 important games to start the year?

And look, the larger point is, yeah, the first 40 games are important for anybody.

But I think the first 40 games for this team was what they're trying to accomplish.

And the challenge that goes with your schedule, I think is a significant one.

We can talk about the winning percentage and the caliber of pictures that they will face and the opponents that they will face.

We can talk about what the Rangers are trying to accomplish offensively this year and how that is such a big focus.

And I think when you put all of that together, you know, if the Rangers can get through this first 40 game schedule, the first 40 game stretch that goes through the Cubs series in the second week of May,

they'll be in a much better position to really kind of surge over the final three quarters of the season.

They'll have a home road advantage.

Certainly the caliber of opponents because you'll have the Phillies and the Dodgers and the Yankees.

You'll be done with all three of those teams.

Those will be off the board and really, you know, the home road split grows significantly in the second half of the year because the Rangers do have a pretty heavy road schedule in May and June.

Is that based because of is is a lot of that because of the World Cup, you think the scheduling?

Yeah, I, you know, the funny thing that I don't know quite as well is like if there are other cities where the World Cup is going to so impact scheduling as it will in Arlington.

I would imagine Kansas City probably spaces some of the same challenges.

But there are other places where you're going to have World Cup games and the baseball stadium isn't right next door.

You can probably manage a little bit better, but it's definitely going to cause an issue for the Rangers.

And there's some weird and wacky off days in June and early July.

Evan Gran of the morning news joining us live from Philadelphia is the rainy for the Phillies and game one of 162 later this afternoon.

And you mentioned in that piece you wrote yesterday, how after 40 games this club was so bad offensively they fired their hitting coach.

They brought in a boon. And now they have a different group of lieutenants under a new manager.

And I'm just curious your thoughts on what you've seen in person over the duration of the spring as far as just philosophy and approach with a Justin Ville and an Alex Entrone leading things up on the hitting side.

Well, and look, let's not let's not dismiss the change in personnel on the player side, too.

Because with Brandon MMO, you've clearly got a much more discerning hitter than Adolis Garcia, who we will see this afternoon.

Obviously, I saw him on the field earlier.

And, you know, I think also with with Josh Smith, you'll have a guy who's more of an on base guy than.

The market simian was a second base, just the personnel plays a role here.

But also what I saw this spring was when you look at the metrics that I think or tend to long term success things like chase rate,

things like punishing fastballs that are in the zone.

Those, those numbers were significantly up over last year's numbers.

The walk numbers, yeah, maybe you were facing some subpar pitching and spring training, you know, with a lot of teams missing guys do the WBC.

But certainly the walk rate was way, way up over last year.

And I think all the things that we all consider building blocks of a team centric offensive approach all seemed to be there.

They chased less, they did more, more damage on balls that were in the strike zone.

And they were more willing to take walks.

The lineup, the Rangers are putting out today against a Christopher Sanchez, the lefty.

Some notables here, hitting fifth, you have Andrew McCutchen at DH and then ninth and left field Sam Hagrid.

Do you, do you imagine this will be the typical lineup the that skip puts out against lefties early on?

Well, I, you know, I think I went to skip today and I said listen, as far as Evan Carter situation is concerned, I know you guys talk about him facing lefties this year.

But can we just like for definition purposes, can we kind of like approach this if the lefty starter finished in the top 10 of the saw young voting last year?

Is that probably a day the Carter is going to get off and he, he kind of agreed and laughed and so you know they've got two of those guys.

Sanchez was the NL saw young runner up.

Last year in Jesus, Lazardo, who was supposed to start on Sunday was, I think, finished six in the, in the NL voting.

So, you know, though in general against elite lefties, you're going to have to give Carter some days off anyway, both, you know, to maintain health and just general welfare.

And if you're going to sit him against lefties, you're going to sit him against the tougher lefties and try and put him in against guys who aren't considered as elite or have such dominant stuff.

So I do think that, you know, what you'll look for over the early part of the year, if you're going to really want to apply general rule is if a lefty pitches in the first or second spot in an opponent's rotation, probably that today that Carter gets off if he's a three four or five, maybe he's going to start that day.

Evan McCutcheon batting fifth today, D Hing, it's cool. It's a cool story just to, you know, he landed here mid spring. He hit the ball very hard.

Mark can also had a really good spring at the plate is just the intangibles of just the, I mean, maybe the name recognition or just the, the room type of guy he is, it was that the deciding factor in keeping him over can.

I mean, I don't want any of this to come across as like a negative on Canada, but I think that can I had a really good spring and really had a good place in the clubhouse.

But I do think, you know, for what the Rangers are trying to accomplish.

McCutcheon does bring a little bit more edge and is and, you know, announced the world that he does have this kind of chip on his shoulder.

And the good news for the Rangers is that they were able to convince Canada stay in the organization.

And they worked out a situation for him. He's going to stay in Arizona where he lives. He's going to play an extended spring games for the time being.

And the Rangers will monitor the situation. And if they have a need for them, they're going to call them up. If he has a majorly job, then he'll go take a majorly job somewhere.

But they've been able to convince Canada to stay with him. And I think that's the best situation for all parties.

We're McCutcheon in fits in this lineup right now, and it is, it is a great story. And I think that, you know, what I saw for a catch what we all heard from him all spring was a really passionate guy about wanting to prove himself right more than proving other teams wrong.

And that is that he is still able to play and contribute. And like he said to us this morning, I'm going to get every bit of ink out of this that I possibly can until there's none left and he meant his blood, right?

He's putting his blood and sweat into this. And when that pen runs dry, he'll walk away, but he thinks there's still something left in there.

This is Evan Grant, the one true Evan joining us from the Dallas morning news.

I'm curious how much change skip will make to one through nine in the lineup if there is struggles. It felt like with Bo Chi, he was reluctant at times to move people around.

Mark Asimian being one of those. Do you think he will tinker with, you know, the lineup one through nine if a player is struggling and drop him down?

Oh, I think, you know, certainly, I'd go, you know, five through nine to start the year. I think there will be more, more willingness to not to tinker with the lineup based on hot hands and so forth.

And what you, and what you have, I also think that look, you know, he's given Jake burger to clean up spot to start the year, but part of that is that Jake had a good spring.

Part of it is trying to build his confidence up, but I would think that outside of one, two, three, you know, there could be any.

Any place in the lineup, the Rangers could have some movement and could tweak as the season goes on. I don't, I don't think this is a manager who's going to have an itchy trigger finger, but I also don't think he's going to be slow to react.

Evan, I think the great hope for all fans is just looking at this rotation one through five and understanding the depth you have, you know, with be it.

Cody Bradford, Jordan Montgomery, whoever, you know, has to fill in a spot later in the year that you feel good about that.

I guess the great unknowns, the bullpen and last year they had to build it on the fly. It worked out okay outside of blowing saves. What do you make of this makeup right now?

Who do you see getting the ball the ninth inning to start? I'm just curious you're taking on the bullpen at large.

Well, I think it'll be interesting today to see if the Rangers have a lead going to the ninth inning.

I think it, I think that will depend on who the Rangers are facing, right? You've got, you've got an affiliate lineup, you've got.

Shorber and Harper hitting back to back, right? So you got two lefties.

Well, Harper's a switch. I mean, you know, Harper's a lefty. Obviously, I've forgotten all my batting chances, but you've got two lefties back to back.

And so if those guys are due up, it would not surprise me to see Robert Garcia get the ninth inning.

Other than that, I think Chris Martin would get the first chance, but I think the big hang up with Chris Martin is this.

I don't know how sure the Rangers feel that you'll be able to close on back to back days regularly.

And that's something you'd really like to have in a closer is that kind of reliability. That makes it much more challenging.

And so we don't have, we won't have the ability to really feel that out early on in the season, because there's a number of off days.

I think the way the Rangers will approach us is if they have lanes that favor a lefty and Robert Garcia is doing the job and pitching well, he will get those opportunities.

Otherwise, they will go to Chris Martin, unless they need to give him a day off, and then it will evolve from there.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that you see Jake Latt get some save opportunities for maybe even cold win.

I think it is very much open. And as we all sit here and try and break down what could happen with the scene.

If this team is going to contend, I do think that come the trade deadline.

They're going to be in the market for for a reliever of some time.

If you had to bet, who would you say is going to be the first Ranger to use an ABS challenge?

I think that if, if anything, we have, I talked to Josh about this today, he said, yeah, I don't think I'm allowed to use it. He went over three and spring training.

It's going to be interesting, because I know, you know, in talking to skip a little bit again today, he emphasized, you know, wanting to hold it for leverage.

He also said that leverage could come early.

It's going to be a mix of things, but I think that the chalk would probably be given this lineup, you know, with no even quarter in it.

My guess, let's go with why it Langford in his second or third at bat.

Okay, so we saw the video where everybody's talking crap about Josh Smith being bad at challenges.

I think Dave Raymond on the broadcast a couple nights ago was, you know, just kind of making fun and laughing about it.

But seriously, are they going to tell him not to do it because he's been bad at it?

Like if there's one that's obvious, you would think he would have that every player would have the green light to use one if they have the two challenges.

Yeah, I don't think there's going to be a strength, you know, do not ever use the challenge sign put on anybody.

I think Josh knows that he can be a little bit emotional with his reactions to ball to calls.

But I think the overriding theme that any kind of strategy is going to be, let's make sure we're using these challenges in the right situation.

So, count with nobody on base, probably not a great, probably not a great time to challenge a three to count, you know, with with with runners on base in a close game.

Yeah, we might want to we might want to use it no matter who the guy is.

So I do think Josh will probably be a little bit more reticent than some other guys.

He laughed with, you know, is a good sport, but he also knows that he could be a little bit too emotional and reacting.

And I think that the guys that that will challenge more often will be the guys who really really have a good grasp of the strikes him.

So Langford Carter, haggity, I think that's what you'll see more often than not will be those guys challenging.

I will the one thing I did mention on the on I think on the morning news is Rangers podcast or the Ranger or the morning news is podcast in general was, you know, Josh young had an awful lot of called thirds against him last year on pitches that were out of the zone.

It was the highest total on the team. So I wouldn't be surprised for him early on to try and exercise a couple of challenges on two strike pitches that are close.

Well, Evan, the journey begins in just over an hour in Philadelphia.

Congratulations on season 30 at the helm of the Rangers beat. You've been doing awesome work and let's make it 30 more. How about it?

Well, I don't know that we'll have 30 more, but let's let's get through this season and we'll go from there.

Thanks. Thanks guys for having me on. You know, I know how much you love baseball and love talking to sport.

And really, there is nothing like opening day for just having a great feel about baseball season, no matter what your team looks like or what the hopes are.

It's just a great day in America. It sure is. All right, Evan. We'll talk to you soon, my friend.

I'm Adam Devine, Chief fundraiser for Children's Miracle Network.

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