What happened to the Texas Rangers, mega mopportunity preview | Baseball Bar-B-Cast | Yahoo Sports
[Music] hello and welcome to baseball barcast the only baseball podcast in the world spending months covering the 55th pick in the MLB draft Kennedy Landry is my co-host today Kennedy Welcome to our Friday edition of baseball Barber cast I know you listen sometimes and it’s it’s great to have you on us I’m a huge fan of the podcast as Jordan knows I’m excited to be here uh and pretending to be Jake mince on a Friday afternoon morning ple please please do not pretend to be jman’s I need that is the opposite of what I need from you on this episode I know there’s a lot of people right here want to know what we think about bronny James the 55th pick I’m I’m just not I don’t care but I will say you know I was looking 55th overall picks is that do we have a history of those in the baseball draft that are interesting and one of them Owen white Owen white a a Rangers who’s somewhere on the Rangers pitching depth chart not a lot of as much attention on ESPN for Owen white tell the best yeah yeah no I know maybe maybe once maybe later in the season if he comes up you know back up and you know makes some strong outings maybe we can get Stephen A you know given some impassionate opinions about that 55th overall pick but no we have no bronnie James opinions and we certainly aren’t going to talk about the other thing that was on television last night uh we are going to talk about the Rangers of Texas Kennedy I am usually um reluctant to go you know we obviously we love having guess on but because we pride ourselves on covering the entire league we don’t usually like to go too hard on one team but hey this team just won the World Series and you’re my friend so and Jake minz is biking in Vermont so it all the stars have aligned and have have given us this opportunity to talk about the Texas Rangers who lost once again last night at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles uh it it felt like a situation where the Orioles were like all right remember the last time the Rangers were here yeah we’re not going to let that happen again so all of the runs they did not score against Texas last October were just an absolute barrage last night I know you are not covering this series in Baltimore right now but first half of the show is just going to be kind of talking about this this situation in Texas and by that I mean the the defending world champions are not are not very good so let’s zoom out a little bit Kennedy as you are covering this team on a regular basis what how how do how do we get here roughly if you had to you know give me the elevator pitch or I guess the opposite of a pitch because it is not something we are necessarily you know trying to to be excited about um how did we get to this point where where the defending World Series champions are 37 and 44 and with their their playoff odds kind of perilously slipping away you know big picture how to yeah I think ining spring training they have all these starting pitchers Max sherzer Jacob Gro Tyler Mai you know on the iil the kind of sentiment around the team was that hey they make it to the trade deadline uh around 500 closer to 500 than they are right now then hey they have a chance to win because this offense is really good they added some guys in the back end of the bullpen David Roberts and Kirby Yates um and you know you get Jacob deg gr back at the at the trade deadline in theory they in theory win the trade deadline getting three Elite starting pitchers back um and basically the starting pitching despite what happened last night in Baltimore has not been the issue uh with the scene starting pitching has actually quite frankly been pretty good even if now that they’ve had even more injuries everybody not named Andrew Heeney has been on the injured list at some point um which is actually an insane issue to have but um I think at one point they had eight starting pitchers on the injured list um so that’s that’s a that’s an issue in and of itself but this offense has severely regressed everybody’s slugging Ops batting average is down from 2020 uh 2023 whether that’s you know ad dois Garcia not hitting a home run for a month Nathaniel low not being able to hit a fast ball which was also an issue last year uh got buried in the depth because everybody else was firing on all cylinders um and Rangers Twitter likes to call out leoi Taris but that’s the N hole hitter and he’s just doing whatever he’s doing um and it just is you know it’s Amplified when everybody else is struggling as well I think Marcus Simeon entered last night on a two for 41 uh slump Cory Seager you know got off to a slow start was on heater for a bit and has slowed down a bit now he’s back cold again right so all of these things kind of have materialized into a 37 and 41 44 record um as as you can see yeah yeah and so you know you mentioned a lot of things on there that I want to hit on and the point I’ve made to you I’ve gone on podcast for other teams where it’s like oh man our team can’t hit what the heck’s going on and you know I I I am quick to remind a lot of people and we’ve said this on the show like hitting’s really hard in general hitting right now is harder than it’s ever been every every lineup up even the good ones ex really except for the Orioles like the Orioles are like the one team that has been like exempt from this and the one guy who sucked for them has been Cedric Mullins who’s now been on fire the last you know week so you know there’s very few teams that actually have consistent production up and down the lineup but when we’re talking about Texas this was a team that was so good particularly in the second half of last year and then obviously you know in the postseason that it felt like even if you have some amount of regression when you consider what they are adding and I want to get to some of those younger players too because I think that’s one of the most interesting things about this team it’s just hard to believe that that this amount that they could take this much of a collective step back but also when you if you tell me that if you told me that that was going to happen I would say yeah then then this isn’t a very good team because the pit the depth on the the depth on the mound is while it has kind of stepped up and some of the guys that they have added have been everything you could have possibly hoped right look what Michael Lorenzen has given them look how amazing Kirby Yates has been as a reliever David Robertson was outstanding for at least the first you know month and a half or so but everything after that is just really really really dire and and they just that that’s my view of it on it so before I get to some of the young guys because I really want to ask about why Langford and Evan Carter and kind of where they are now compared to the beginning of the season of those hitters is there are there ones that were maybe more concerned about or less concerned about they ones where it’s like oh they’re just you know they’re hit the ball hard they’re getting un lucky or they’re like this is notably different you mentioned Nathaniel low you know having issues hitting fast balls we were previewing the Homer Derby the other day and we were like oh Nathaniel L he’d be a good home was like wait a minute he has three home runs or two home runs at the time he does take electric DP though I will say he’s a great so that’s that’s so validating and and I know if he ends up being we can maybe we can talk about the Derby in a second but of those of those hitters like we’re Jonah heim’s another one right an All-Star last year now a catchers I’m never going to blame too much for having their offense kind of fluctuate but of those main core pieces are there ones we’re more optimistic about more concerned about from your persp yeah I think you know whatever goes on with Corey and Marcus is Corey and Marcus they’re going to they’re going to be fine no matter what um so I think those two guys at the top of the lineup I don’t think anybody’s worried about even when Cory seager’s going through a cold spell you’re like whatever he’s going to Rattle off like 10 home runs in five games at some point probably um it does feel he just did it earlier this season so I’m sure I think Nathaniel low is probably the biggest one when you look at that he had again he had struggles hitting fast balls last year it just wasn’t Amplified because everybody else was firing on all cylinders around him uh he won a silver slug or two years ago the only year of his professional career that he has hit the fastball well um but you can tell anything that’s above 94 miles hour he’s he’s late on it he has a lot of even a lot of his hits are opposite field hits he’s late on them he slaps them the other way so I I think that’s obviously a big issue um and AD dois Garcia I think he had a career year last year he went you know Lin sanity run in the postseason um and you know he was phenomenal but then he was awesome in April too that’s that’s the that’s why I wanted to follow up about him because he seemed to be carrying that over into April and then since then it’s just been I know he I think he homered last night but it’s I don’t know what changed I don’t know if they start attack him differently but maybe you can yeah I think I think it’s a little bit of everything he’s he has been a streaky hitter in in the past and so you know when he was going through that slump in may we were like it’s like the time when idoli slumps that’s what happens and then it you know carries over into June and then he doesn’t Homer for a month and you’re like oh he’s not like seeing anything like you know Bruce she tried to you know switch up the lineup a little bit put him in three hole put him in the five hole um but there’s not much else he can do in the whole lineup is struggling as well so you know flipping to do Garcia and Jonah H is not going to do anything um so I think you know that he’s been working a lot with hitting coaches on kind of his batting stance or you know how he [ __ ] the bat um and things like that so he’s also he can’t hit a fastball nobody on this team can hit a fastball right now but it’s but Adis Garcia was one of the best fastball hitters on this team when he when he’s good and he’s Square Bears up a pitch you know a hanging slider or fast ball in the middle of the pl and he just drives it and that’s what he’s really not been doing he he’s not punishing those pitcher mistakes that he typically does when he’s going right so I want to well we have to get back to the pitching in a second but let’s let’s two more things on the offense so let’s let’s stick mildly negative maybe positive we’ll see one of the reasons I was so excited like oh my gosh this Rangers lineup was amazing last year and last year they had one month of Evan Carter and zero months of why lford oh my gosh you’re going to add two Rookie of the Year candidates this is unbelievable now I have been on records since the second the World Series ended being like we gotta chill with the Evan Carter hype like this dude is very very talented but like we and what he just did is unbelievable and you’ll never be able to take that away from him and it’s still an all-time draft pick and like the Rangers deserve all the credit and he’s he is a I think he’s a good Major League player but there were there were concerns about him eating lefties which I remember when I saw you in Spring like that was what being talking about and evans’s like oh well I understood his perspective of well you know you can’t really judge me I haven’t even had the opportunity to try which was both part of the problem and also a totally fair retort however I know he’s injured right now it was very very apparent that was still an issue but forget that he wasn’t really exactly hitting right-handers either to the degree that we expected whyatt lankford’s someone who we really excited about he makes the team out of Camp he’s getting these horrible called you know called strike calls over the first couple months and he’s had this tough Zone but he also wasn’t really making an impact he gets hurt now he comes back and we’re starting to see it from him so when you what what have you seen from both of those guys and also I guess where we’re at with Evan Carter in terms of of his injury and is it true that lford really seems to be kind of figuring it out yeah I think Evan Carter everything you say is correct I mean you know I think he got obviously off to this great start and he looks great he doesn’t really face lefties in the in the postseason so you know he’s hitting 300 with a 900 Ops and all of those games and um I I truthfully believe this and I don’t want to say this this is a copout I mean he’s got a back injury right now he’s got um so and I think maybe I don’t he’ll probably he will never say this but you know he didn’t look right in the Box for you know the first month and a half that he was playing uh he was facing lefties he was fa facing righties he had a about a week wi the team I think we were in Atlanta uh that he looked like he was you know finally getting back to to what he could do and he looked comfortable in the box and it’s kind of been downhill ever since and I think you know this is a kid he’s 21 he’s now had two major back injuries he missed a lot of time in 2021 when he was in a ball um forgot about that a lot of people forgot about that and I think um I think you Bo kind of alluded to this that like you know he’s a young guy he wants to play he’s not being as probably crystal clear with the training staff as he could at some point when he’s like yeah yeah I’m fine I can play I can play I can play uh when quite frankly he probably should have been shut down a little bit earlier um you know he did get a few days off um coming out of that that um really long road trip in Oakland and Colorado um he got a few days off at the end of that road trip and ENT that next home stand and then they brought him back um and you know he was still still sore still didn’t get better and then they ultimately have to iil him and I think if you just look at the the process of events that’s clear I don’t think he was right early this season and that’s why he he wasn’t um hitting as well as he should have and I you know he’s going to he’s going to say that’s not an excuse he needs to play better blah blah blah blah blah uh yeah that’s that’s baseball players they’ll say that and that’s fine and like I I appreciate it to some degree but it’s also like dude it’s it’s fine like cuz it yeah well and not only that it’s so interesting because like the psychology of it is guys want to say tough through it I can’t I can’t excuse you know guys play through this stuff all the time blah blah blah blah and it’s like okay that’s fine but like I would rather you be hurt you know like I from from the like I’m looking at this at this stretch here where okay so he homers on May 4th his gets his Ops back to 800 and then he goes to for 38 right and then he goes on the you know I I want you to be injured because like I don’t want to think like that you just forgot how to hit that doesn’t that doesn’t that doesn’t make me feel any better so that is a very interesting point about that and yeah back your inj injuries are obviously scary and we hope that that that doesn’t you know haunt him the rest of his career so hopefully we’ll I mean I guess you can give us a quick are we any sort of timeline on on him coming back anytime soon then I want to get I think he should be going to Arizona this week and hopefully being able to swing a bat um soon soon after that then they’ll begin his progression so that’s where we’re at and you know hopefully to see him soon yes okay so then Langford quickly right so he as I mentioned everyone kind of noticed it it’s happened with other young players in the league where umps are just having a grand old time call and strike three on this nice young man it was it was absolutely impacting his numbers and and his performance but also like that’s that is a situation where like listen I I I can’t say that’s the only reason he was struggling you know there there was clearly some some timing stuff he was having trouble elevating the ball fact that he didn’t hit a home run over the fence until a few weeks ago is pretty amazing so what did you see from lenford at the beginning and then then where we’re at with him yeah I think you know again he won’t say this but I think the the shutdown when he kind of pulled his hammy in in Kansas city was good for him he was able to kind of reset take a step back look at his swing look at what he was doing um and you’re absolutely right he he was hitting the ball really hard in into the ground uh that’s why he he was not elev the ball well it was not getting over the fence um for obvious reasons he every hit was about 110 mph out or an infield single for for a long stretch there that’s what it felt like for us um and you know then he gets shut down he comes back he he’s got two homers in the last two weeks he’s uh uh he’s elevating the ball a little bit more he’s got a I think like three doubles and three triples since coming off the injured list is what I I saw the other day um and he just looks like he he feels so much better at the plate he said you know him and the hitting coaches took a look at some film when he was injured um you know kind of made his swing a little bit more like it was was when he was at Florida obviously one of the the greatest college baseball players we’ve ever seen um and that’s that’s quite simply what it has been uh and he’s he’s looked really good he’s looked like an Al Rookie of the Year candidate now yeah finally and it is funny that he was having that trouble elevating the ball because you know last year when we were debating him and Dylan Cruz um a lot of it was part of the reason why a lot of people were and listen this is these are all samples and it’s early in both their careers so you know I don’t want to make two grand judgments but it was interesting because last year was like okay both of these guys hit the ball really hard but like Cruz is on he’s getting a lot of grounders and like why lford can can Elevate this thing right he’s he’s elevating and celebrating a lot more more frequently than Dylan Cruz is and so I we saw at the end of The College World Series last year is unbelievable the kinds of home runs he was capable of hitting and that grand slam he hit I said this on the show when happened that grand slim he had recently I was like oh that’s why I like that is that that dude um let’s just get this out of the way quickly Home Run Derby for the for the Rangers do we think we’re going to end up with ad does do we think has there been any chatter about this if we assume there’s going to be a home a HomeTown uh I guess Corey only likes to do it if he is named an Allstar so I don’t think okay oh okay but he has done it twice but that’s true if he if he ends up the allstar we’re going to get to the all stars in a second it’s a very important name we’re about to get to but um okay so you think maybe Seager he somehow named an allar maybe I could also do it I think he really enjoyed it we did it last year uh yeah obviously Hometown fans love him and if he’s a he’s right physically I wouldn’t be shocked to that yeah and it’s one of those things where it’s like hey man like oh we don’t want him to mess up a swing it’s like no we needed to be hitting more home run so maybe this maybe this will this will help because I mentioned because Langford would be cool but there’s no way he’s going there’s no shot that he no he would turn it down I feel like so fast at least at this point maybe in the future we’ll we’ll see him um okay let’s before we finish on on the pitchers and then we take a break uh we got to talk about Josh Smith um this is someone that we have like alluded to on our show here and there but me and you have been talking about Josh Smith for a while now this is someone who they acquired in the Joey Gallow trade this is someone who uh attended Louisiana State University so that’s important to you okay for those of you my pillow who don’t know those you who don’t know Kennedy recording this podcast from her from her home in Louisiana um where of course you you did go to school so a lot of LSU Pride so Josh Smith before this season it was like you know what great guy to have around you know good utility player utility infielder pinch Runner I believe in the postseason last year he pinch ran twice I think that was it obviously did not get an that bat nice nice 26th man who went to LSU can come in you know get a bunt down maybe he can even really really really steal bases right but he’s he can play a few positions defensively and he cannot completely embarrass himself in a pin [ __ ] situation right that was kind of the role of Josh Smith Charlie cson es before this Charlie cson but hits left-handed okay that was Josh Smith now yeah you know he was a second round pick like there was there’s a reason it’s not like he was a total Anonymous guy great college player obviously but that’s that was Josh Smith now Josh Smith is has an 858 Ops which is the best on the team the reason he is playing every day is because Josh Young got injured again very early in the season and so he has essentially been there everyday third baseman the season and that again the fact that it was like okay Josh Smith if you could just come in and not suck that would be great instead he has literally been their best player it is one of the more astonishing breakouts we’ve seen Kennedy I know we’ve texted about this a lot but truly we haven’t talked about it in a serious manner what is happening who how has this happened for him and I know he’s leading the league and hit by pitches so that inflates his OBP a bit but like he’s raking he’s just a good hitter what is going on here yeah I mean I I I’m as shocked as anybody actually I mean I cover I covered him in college we were in college at the same time um and I I was like you know this kid he’s great I mean he was on the 17 LSU College World Series team that lost to Florida in the final uh and then you know he was he down with a back injury sophomore year came back junior year looked phenomenal gets second drafted in the second round by the Yankees and then you know good minor league player gets caught up and kind of whatever um and he just spent this offseason like I’m G to be better like that’s more or less what he did he’s like I’m going to be better he went down to the Dominican winter league wanted to play every day they weren’t letting him play every day so he just came home um and he he worked out at glob light field it’s so funny it’s so funny in retrospect because he is the perfect player to go down to Le Dome and like get playing time like he I would expect him to just dominate yeah there and they didn’t let him but that’s oh they he had a bad five games and they’re like sorry you can’t basically so he he came back started working with the hitting coaches Seth Connor lives here in the off season and he was he just basically tweaked his wing a little bit I think Travis Janowski described it as him just actually understanding hitting now uh you know he used you know you go up you’re always good at baseball you and you always hit and now he has like a better understanding of hitting his uh I tweeted a video a couple months back of you know how his swing is different this year than it was last year his um his front foot is a little back uh it’s a little more squared up and it just kind of allows him to to square up balls more often I mean it’s it’s insane like I I quite frankly I can’t believe it he’s got a career high in homers already he leads his team in B4 F4 and on base and slug everything everything it’s just he’s just their best player he was only was exclusively a pinch Runner of the postseason even though he couldn’t steal a base and now he is uh now he is their best player it is it’s just and and by the way he I mean he is their most deserving Allstar there’s no way around it like I don’t know if he’s actually going to get it I think it would be awesome I think like this very well could be his only chance to do it because even in a year where he’s doing this on a team that this stars are performing like stars like it’s probably not possible you know the underlying stuff has improved a little bit but it’s not like he’s suddenly you know hitting the ball one you know like he’s he’s you know like yeah the babip is definitely very high but like there are marks of of a legitimately good hitter here and it is it is just an an amazing an amazing thing he’s hitting 323 against lefties which should not really be be possible um so there’s just so much about a season that is completely unbelievable but but you know what like that’s kind of as you mentioned like if there was something you were going to kind of count on from Josh Smith the proverbial you know grinder type it was that he was going to you know get the most out of out of his game and apparently there was more in there than we uh ever could have imagined so shouts out to him a a legend of Baton Rouge through and through I know for you it really go Tigers I guess something to behold go Tigers so good for Josh Smith all right our last Rangers topic um is kind of what we started with just give the people the general update on the timelines for these pitchers I know Scherzer is supposed to pitch tonight he looked amazing in his comeback and then there’s already like oh is he already feeling some soreness again like we’re just going to be doing that with SH for the rest of his career so that that is like obviously hope for the best if he’s pitching great where are we at with deg gram and Mali as is there any sort of expectation also Cody Bradford who’s you know was an important part of them last year he’s he’s Josh spores of course you know postseason hero when can we expect to see some of these guys is there more optimism less optimism um mov uh Josh spores should be back soon he’s on a rehab assignment with Round Rock right now so I’ll start with him just because you know he less severe injury than all of them he’ll be back soon um Cody Bradford I believe should be on his way to Arizona this weekend as along with Evan Carter to hopefully get off a mound I do not believe he’s going to be a starter when and if he gets back uh just in terms of buildup you know they want him back as soon as possible you know you know two three ining stins in the in the bullpen let that work um and degam and Mali obviously the big guys Mali started facing hitters in live BPS he’s building up the the hope is that he’ll be back a little bit after the allar game between the All-Star Game and trade trade deadline um he’s looking good as far as um we know watched him do live BP a couple weeks ago when he first uh started throwing off the mound so he looks good uh deg Gro has been throwing his bullpens throwing his sides uh he is on track everything is going well as far as we know uh eying the eyeing the return right after the trade deadline that’s what we’re looking at there with deg Gro and no setbacks as of now as of Friday 28 okay so let me just say before we send a break here what I just did there for for those of you who wonder what it is to do are jobs but really what it is to do Kennedy’s job because when I go to the ballpark and I you know I’m lucky enough to to cover these teams and sitting on the manager crumbs most of it before pregame is just tell us who’s hurt and how they’re doing that’s like that is really what is being asked about now I never ask those questions because it doesn’t really matter to me who’s who’s injured on a regular basis right but it’s so funny it makes me laugh every time where it’s just like all right how’s how’s he doing and then they say oh he’s doing baseball so I wanted to I wanted to have you get to be Bruce Boi there and Kennedy you absolutely nailed it you have been waiting for that moment and and you crushed it you you told me you told me no sent backs you told me baseball activities you told me you know always heading to Arizona he’s got this re you what you missed there was you needed to have a moment of like kind of lack of of full confidence that something is happening like you have to be like I I think he’s starting on Sunday in Round Rock that would be it like like Dave Roberts I remember when he was being asked about all Dodgers injuries he was being asked about someone he’s like I’m pretty sure he’s supposed to play I think he’s gonna DH on Monday but like that was like off by a day like he was a little bit wrong you know these managers how are they supposed to keep track of the injuries for all these guys some some of the managers are more on top of it than others um and it is but it’s just it’s just so funny like honestly like the best part two is some managers will just do it before anybody even asks they’re just like all right off the top this guy’s feeling this and this guy had some soreness and blah blah blah blah blah and then you actually get to the baseball question so that was just nice that was nice to to get to ask those questions would never have been injured if we didn’t ask I’m gonna tell you that right now that’s that’s a that’s a great Point all right Kennedy that was a wonderful 25 minutes on the Texas Rangers we’re going to take a break and when we return it is Friday and Kennedy will join us for a special edition of The Good The Bad and The ugla and welcome back to baseball Barber cast this is Jordan Schusterman joined by our special co-host Kennedy Landry Rangers beatwriter for mlb.com now Kennedy you are a listener to this show which I really appreciate I am you know what we do on Fridays it is the good the bad the ugla something good something bad something Dan ugla from the past week I have given you some homework to bring some good some bad and some ugla I might loan you some ugla later on that’s fine nothing wrong with that um Let’s do let’s start with some good I understand you have some some Rangers related good and some Rangers related bad and maybe some Rangers related ugly we’ll see but I’ll let you start what’s what’s your you’re good this week yeah my good we we briefly mentioned Max Sherer earlier but him coming out of uh his long and intensive rehab to throw five shutout Innings uh to close out a sweep of the Royals at home uh he was perfect through four and I had a moment sitting there I was like is he going to throw a perfect game and then like retire after this like that I sat there and was like oh this is H this is going to happen so funny and you know he ended up you know he was done after five it was his first start out of rehab obviously so they you know once he gave up a hit they were like yeah you’re done you’re out of here old man but you know I I had a second of contemplation in in my mind where I was like I’m G to have to write this story today like oh my God like uh he was he was very efficient he was very very uh impressively um good I know and by the way yeah I mean Rangers were feeling good a few days ago after sweeping the Royals and then now it’s kind of gone back in the other direction um since then but but uh but sherzer you know obviously he is um he’s an experience which I’m sure we’ll maybe get to here in a second as well all right my good this week is another pitcher in Texas it’s Hunter Brown Hunter Brown this is a little bit of me being like I’m not a total idiot because I could not have been more in on Hunter Brown I thought this guy was just the next awesome Astros pitcher I was buying I thought the stuff was all the way there I think last year the EA wasn’t great but the strikeouts like coming off of 22 I was like this guy’s just going to be fantastic and for him to make 30 starts last year and just like strikeouts were there everything else was bad I was like all right maybe I was wrong and then this year it was getting even worse I mean he had like a 10 in April and I was like what is happening like this guy this stuff still looks good and he just sucks like what is happening here he added a sinker and oh my god he has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the last month and a half and that’s a huge deal right Houston’s just been so desperate for pitching and they’ve CL clawed their way kind of back into the mix here and Hunter Brown’s been a huge part of it he’s won his last four starts dominated the Rockies um I mean granted his last four starts have been Angels Tigers white sock Rockies so like that’s a nice little run it’s a nice little run but the fact that there is something tangibly different with him adding a sinker because his stuff was already a lot kind of like Tyler glass now and glass now also adding a sinker this year super interesting but hunter Brown is like when he I just was such a Believer and I thought I was an idiot and so it’s nice that he’s kind of making me look slightly less of an idiot so Hunter Brown is my good this week and really my good for the last last last month but let’s see him do it against some better teams Astros are inevitable though Kennedy yeah I know I know I will say I mean if it wasn’t already obvious I certainly much more um intimidated by them than than the Rangers at this point as far as you know who’s who’s chasing down the r uh the Mariners but anyway uh let’s go to our bad what is your bad this weekend so my bad is also the existence of Max sherzer um and every time I talk to him respectfully um every time I talk to him I kind of feel a little bit worse um because he’s he’s talking about the anatomy and physiology of his arm and he’s like yeah you know it’s it’s the radial nerve Kennedy it’s the radial nerve and I’m just like okay okay I just like like oh yes like you’re like listen I this isn’t what I prepared to like correct um and and you know the Mets were in town last week they they took two or three from the Rangers you know obviously everybody wants to talk to Max sherzer and I forgot who but one of the Mets beat reporters was like you know are you contemplating like retirement basically um and he because he was like my heart is still in this obviously and he was it’s like well it’s my body it’s up to my body and I’m just like like I I feel a sense of existential dread every time I talk to Max sherzer about um the the longevity of his career cuz he’s like you know again it’s it’s the radial nerve it’s nerve damage I I can’t I we don’t know like okay okay Max the the thing is like I totally this is totally legitimate bad the thing that I like about it is like honestly in contrast with the Grom 2 now I there’s no right way to handle these things like these are delicate things because it is it is literally their careers and it is also like physical pain that these people are dealing with on a regular basis right um at the same time like I do appreciate how just aggressively transparent Max Jer is about all of it now it’s a little jarring but like he ain’t ducking around and just being like yeah we’ll see we’ll see he’s like I like here’s what is hurting here’s the problem I’m doing my best to manage it sometimes it’s terrible and I can’t get out of bed and sometimes I am perfect through four Innings and that’s just going to be how we’re going to do it now it is still relevant and important because he’s making whatever $40 million and like he’s still a future Hall of Famer and he’s important to this team but that’s just kind of that’s it’s just like so aggressively like this is the deal and we’re GNA we are going to do our best like and it’s I can understand for you though just being like man how am I supposed to deal with this he’s like so honest sometimes I’m just like okay all right um like are you just gonna start on Friday bro like come on yeah like right every start is every start is is an event for a completely different reason than we really thought um so we’ll see again I believe he is slated to start tonight uh at Baltimore and we will we will see how that goes as we as we always will but it’s also a reminder of like why those other guys coming back is so important right and why like they they can’t have enough pitching depth now obviously they’re going to have to start hitting if they’re actually going to be good but um yeah sherzer is that is that is understandably exhausting um my bad this week uh because we aren’t going to get to do this very often is the New York Yankees this team sucks listen uh they’re they’re they’re a good team I’m not too worried about him but uh there are only two teams in baseball that have lost eight of their last 10 and one of them is the Colorado Rockies who are just the epitome of uh irrelevant and bad baseball and then the other one is the Yankees who have lost eight of their last 10 they um have now squandered their division lead uh which is now they’re now tied with the I guess they are like virtually tied with the Orioles um now they got fortunate the Orioles you know had a bit of bit of a scuffle before the last couple days but uh this is they’re going to be they’re going to be sweating this out here this is going to be an interesting division race which I’m I’m very excited to see but yeah how often do you get to say that the Yankees are bad you don’t you don’t that’s you got to take advantage of those opportunities so I’m just gonna do it and Yankees fans will agree with me they they’ll actually say you’re not going hard enough this is the worst team I’ve ever seen and I’d say you still have Aaron judge Juan sto so I don’t really want to hear it uh but this is this is really going to be interesting especially with Alex Cory I appreciate Alex cor being like he said it he shouted him out everyone’s like oh you know how confident are you thir Wild Car whatever he’s like let’s get greedy like forget the third R card like that other team’s not playing very well not that other team hell yeah I was like oh I don’t know if that was exact words but he basically like kind of referred to the Yankees he’s like there’s another team that’s not playing very well right now I was like I don’t think he’s talking about the white socks I would hasard guess no who could he be referring to so anyway uh Yankees are bad hahaa all right uh let’s go to the ugler we we talked about some possible ugas before we started recording and this ugly I think could qualify as a good but um do you want to do you want to to talk about what happened in the in the white sock Dugout uh with shotani this week because this was almost very bad and definitely very good and you add that up and I think you get an ugla so uh what happened here yeah I think the bat boy has hands and the bad boy has hands worthy of $700 million basically um Bas deferred sure deferred he’ll he’ll get it in 2045 he should no he should get it right now this this bad boy I believe uh Javier Herrera who this is okay so basically what happens there’s a there’s a foul ball um Kik Hernandez f ball and Otani is standing there and uh I I mean it’s not even that like he stopped the ball he caught it I me the dude just dud just snagged it bare hand like yeah bare hand bare hand watching this clip which I think a lot of people have seen you know 500 times by now there’s so many amazing Parts about it what when you watch this clip what is your what is your favorite part also by the way it’s also a while because the ball the batted ball was like a check swing grounder so while it clearly had some real exit velocity it was kind of I think the the camera angle makes it just look like it’s a line drive which it technically wasn’t really so that’s one thing to to keep in mind but still unbelievable catch so when you watch this clip what is uh what is your favorite what is your favorite part of of the clip because I have like five I think everybody’s reaction everybody’s just like oh like like mouth wide was like oh my God then then the bad boy handing it just casually to somebody behind him just like yeah I did that like so casual didn’t to say sh otani’s life and face yeah I don’t know who he gave that ball to but that ball like belongs in the Hall of Fame send it to Cooperstown bro like yeah I mean that is and otani’s like oh thanks but will iron’s face otani’s uh interpreter now just in complete one of the funniest things I’ve that is so funny and I will also say too the last part about this that I that I’m I’m kind of curious about so bad boys and you can probably speak on this you know it’s some places this was on the road this was in Chicago oftentimes bad boys for both teams are just provided by the home team right so I don’t I don’t think like they refer to this guy Javier Herrera as the Dodgers bad boy I don’t know if he works for the white socks or if he’s a because you know sometimes they have traveling guys but I’m pretty sure he I would assume he works for the white socks um because if he worked for the Dodgers then then you can start making jokes about how just like the Dodgers are the you know the best at everything I just think back to I just think back to 2020 Chico I don’t know if you remember Chico the uh their longtime Clubby who was playing The Outfield during the summer camp games yes I do remember this and he was like throwing guys out and everything I saw Chico still travels with the team because again he’s worked for them forever I saw him um when I saw the Dodgers in Pittsburgh and I was like oh my God that’s chica I was like I was Star Struck like oh my God it’s their best player right there so anyway I don’t know if Javier Herrera actually works with Dodgers of the white socks but either way he deserves a presidential medal of freedom or something he uh he’s just I just unbelievable um so anyway uh that is definitely ugler uh my ugler though is the play that happened in Anaheim okay first and second two outs Max Schuman don’t worry about it he’s on the ace hits a double to the Gap and uh the a space Runners Armando Alvarez who surely everyone has heard of Kyle mccan who surely everybody else is also heard of they come around to score now Armando Alvarez scores Kyle mccan um kind of stumbled now he’s he’s clearly safe there’s no throw to home but he stumbles past home plate it’s very awkward and what he quickly realizes is I missed home and what Armando Alvarez who’s standing there waiting for him at home also realizes hey dude you missed home and because his momentum carries him past home plate Armando Alvarez basically grabs Kyle mccan and says hey dude you got to go back and touch home bad news for everybody involved here except apparently the Angels uh this is not [Music] allowed and so there is a rule that you cannot if at any point you basically cannot have another base runner if it is involved around home plate interfere in any way positively or negatively you will be called out and so what happens here by Armand Alvarez pushing K McAn back to home plate he is automatically called out and shouts out to the Umpire here who was all on top of it um this is one of the most embarrassing things I think other seen in M leue baseball game uh it already was like kaken kind of stumbling past home was bad enough right like that was kind of a tough look but then for R Alvarez be like hey dude you got to go back um and then be called out it’s just I mean it’s one of the funniest and most embarrassing things I’ve ever seen have you ever seen anything like this no this is something that like I cover I’ve covered a lot of high school baseball in my time um and and it feels like something that happened in a high school baseball game and like and then the some coach like kicks a bucket well but okay I’m glad so here’s the thing I’m glad you mentioned in the high school or just Youth Level Baseball because two things on this first of all if you haven’t seen the clip watch it on the a broadcast because Dallas Braden realizing what has happened here and just kind of admitting like a a just a defeated oh no is one of the funniest things I’ve seen all season so that’s the first thing I’ll say second thing as you mentioned um oh it’s this something you’d see in a high school game this is something that I have seen I remember this happened to me I don’t think it was me or if it was like uh like a little league game that my brother was playing in but a version of this that is a similar rule is that the base coaches cannot touch the base runners right right and I think this actually has happened by accident in MLB at some point with third base coaches guys Runing through whatever but I remember seeing this in a little league game where essentially a coach was pushing the base runner like basically like Runner rounding third was not scooting you know fast enough and so it was like all right give you a little nudge well guess what that’s not allowed um it’s also one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen so I don’t really remember exactly the sequence but I’ve definitely seen that with my owns and then the last thing that I have to say something that we’ve kind of talked about before on here how does the how do these things only happen to the worst teams like I just not that bad teams not that good teams don’t make mistakes but it is amazing that like the plays that you’ve never seen before or like defensive disasters or base running blunders or just like completely inconceivable errors only happens to the teams in baseball like it is really it is really remarkable that that is kind of how this works I don’t know if like you saw this with the Rangers when they were like truly awful um versions of that but like it’s really amazing that like this would happen to right and listen God bless these players I know they’re trying their best it’s not like they are that much worse or that much less competent but it just always seems to happen to these teams and I always I always Marvel at that because man oh man but what a what a moment what a moment this is truly one of the funniest plays of the year yeah I am I’m wearing an Oakland A’s giveaway t-shirt actually at the moment oh nice Robson oh wow okay so did you get that when you were in they they they give out right people in the Press Box normally get get uh some swag when I was in Boston earlier um this week I got they were giving out Boston bucket hats I donated mine I also got an Oakland I also did get an Oakland bucket when we were that buck I am a bucket guy definitely not a Boston bucket hat guy yeah so that’s I’m Pro bucket hat but I don’t think I was going to wear that one so um but uh that’s so that’s a good one so shouts out to the A’s listen we’re rooting for you but uh man oh man that is just one of the most goofiest thing we we’ve ever seen um all right Kenny let’s let’s end this podcast one final topic is just looking at it to the weekend as you know we like to track the the mops the opportunities the four game series opportunties six six four game series going on this weekend including involving your Texas Rangers or not your Texas Rangers the Texas Rangers who you cover that’s probably more accurate they did lose the first game so they are already at at mop risk if they can continue to play like crap but maybe ma Sher will throw a perfect game tonight and then retire and prevent them from mopping the other six game series we had the Marlins and Philadelphia the Yankees in Toronto Reds in St Louis Guardians in Kansas City and tigers in Anaheim and then the only other two other series that I wanted to mention there are a few others Mets at Astros that’s interesting because the Mets are obviously feeling themselves Astros are certainly playing well so that’s some nice little spicy inter league action um twins at Mariners two teams that are it’s like how good are these teams really even though their records are pretty good um and I think that this is a situation where maybe the tiebreaker comes into play right head-to-head maybe is going to matter in the postseason at some point later on um in terms of seating and whatnot so that’s definitely a series to watch Padre at Red Sox is another one two teams that have certainly been playing better lately that’s a good one and then as we a good place to end uh Pirates at Braves Paul skines LSU icon at least one season but boy was one hell of a season it was Paulk will face the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta on Saturday I’m obviously very very excited for that I’m attending uh one of my college roommates weddings on Saturday afternoon so might have to figure out you know work work around we’ll get the phone phone under the yeah phone under the table and make sure we watch skes against the Braves uh sorry Connor I have to watch SK um anyway that is that is um let’s you know that’s a good note to end on Kennedy Before We Say Goodbye again LSU grad like what has it been like watching this the Paul experience after seeing what he did in LSU last the guyy is phenomenal it’s amazing to watch like I I I don’t like to like I’ve lost a lot of my baseball like f like pure baseball fandom obviously working this job but watching paules is just like electric like so I I just want to say like and this is not I don’t like have you seen him in person yet like I realize you probably I have not no oh my god well I hope I don’t know if the do they play I guess they must right after the allstar break I believe they play in Texas okay in Texas for three games in the middle of August so I hope just for you Derek Shelton please line up your rotation so that Kennedy can watch Paul SK face the Rangers in person because if anybody deserves it it is her it is an absolute treat I if if you if he is within 500 miles of you at any point people go check it out it is a delight and especially if you’re anywhere near Pittsburg like go see him pitch at home that is very cool but it’s also been cool to see him um on the road uh Kenedy Landry you have more than fulfilled your obligation here as the guest co-host of baseball Barber cast thank you so much I hope it was not too much of a drag on the start of your Friday morning any any final I mean go reader mlb.com rangers.com anything else you want to you want to plug oh yeah no follow me on Twitter I dropped my letter box on the radio a couple weeks ago so yeah follow me on letter box too if you’d like um but yeah yeah follow me on Twitter Atkin Landry m.com Rangers and you got me right there not this weekend though hit me hit me up on Monday not yeah yes well on Monday if if the Rangers get mopped I’m sure Kennedy will have her her even this is the thing even if Kennedy’s not there her mention are infuego uh so good luck with that thank you so much again this was this was a delight thank you to Andrew hars for producing you can email us at baseball barcast gmail.com Jake Mintz will be back on Monday uh everyone have a good weekend and we’ll talk to you soon [Music]
In 2023, the Texas Rangers rode their wave of momentum and turned it into the club’s first ever World Series title after defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks. However, this season has proven to be a bit more of a challenge.
Jordan Shusterman is joined by MLB.com Rangers beat reporter Kennedi Landry as they examine where things have gone wrong for the defending champs of baseball, as well as talk about the case for Josh Smith to make the American League All-Star Game squad and if rookie Wyatt Langford has turned course for the better following his injury earlier in the season.
Also on this episode of the Baseball Bar-B-Cast, Jordan and Kennedi make their picks for this week’s The Good, The Bad and The Uggla, which includes a bat boy saving Shohei Ohtani from a foul ball, a rather unfortunate play at the plate involving the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees being in a really rough stretch currently. They then preview the weekend slate of games which includes a whopping six mopportunities.
0:00 – Introduction
2:25 – How did we get to this point for the Rangers?
17:08 – We have to talk about Josh Smith
22:33 – Injury timelines for returning pitchers
26:39 – The Good
29:56 – The Bad
34:20 – The Uggla
42:50 – Mopportunity weekend preview
#mlb #baseball #texasrangers #wyattlangford #shoheiohtani #newyorkyankees
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