Skip Schumaker Takes Over as Rangers Manager – What’s Next? | DLLS Rangers Podcast

Skip Schumaker Takes Over as Rangers Manager – What’s Next? | DLLS Rangers Podcast

So, the baseball manager has long been nicknamed the skipper or skip. Jared Michael Schumacher also has the nickname Skip. Coincidence? I think not. We’ll talk about it next. It’s the DLLS Rangers podcast. There he is, Skip the Skipper. And with the name like Skip and being a manager in Major League Baseball, I’m sure he’s heard that a zillion times. So, I will try to minimize the just tremendous temptation to play every skip little joke, skip to my Lou and all of that. I’ll minimize it. I really will try. Anyway, John Ratigan, Jeff Wilson, DLLS Sports Studios. It’s the DLLS Sports podcast, uh, Rangers Podcast to be specific. And the Queen Cat is actually standing right behind the camera tonight, uh, waving at us and, uh, we’re waving back. Hi, Cat. So anyway, uh we’re glad to have you in there, too. We already see you chatting. We were so glad to have you Friday night when we had the the um emergency podcast to announce this and and Mist is already in there with the uh Friday news dump. It it was an extremely strange time, Jeff, to to make that announcement. Yeah, very much. Um and um you know, I I wonder if um a national reporter was about to get the jump on him. might be and and that was and that was definitely a possibility. Um apparently that’s why um the Rangers announced the Deg Grom thing in 2022 when they did which I also believe was a Friday um at around the same time because I was on my way to a school festival. Okay. I had just gotten there and I so I walked up to my wife, looked at my text messages and I said, “All right, I’ll see you like guys later.” So, uh, and I was at baseball practice, uh, Friday night when the Rangers dropped that bomb on us. Yes, they did indeed. And it was actually our skipper and Cat who caught it. And, uh, we were all on board and quickly uh, Jeff from the baseball facility. That’s right. And me from the house. Uh, and we were all ready to go and and get that big announcement out there. Uh there is some thought to Chris Young’s sensitivity to doing these things on days when there are no playoff games, which would be what the commissioner prefers to have happen. But it it if that was the case, it does seem silly, right, to have done it at 9:00 or whatever it was at night as opposed to at that press conference earlier in the day. Yeah. Um and and may maybe the playoff thing had something to do with it because you know Chris Young who worked in the commissioner’s office is very sensitive to um the commissioner’s wishes and the commissioner’s probably top wish is don’t do anything to take a tension away from my playoffs. So I think I think that um that that also factored into it. That’s fine. you know, it’s done. And I’m glad, you know, I don’t I didn’t want a full-blown search. No, nobody wants one of those. Those are awful. And so, uh it’s good that he’s uh in the fold, Skip. And um we’ll at some point have a uh press conference introducing him. And you know, it’s an interesting thought again, same logic. Okay, there’s a game every day this week, at least one, as they try to of course spread out the American League and the National League Division Series. Uh so they don’t want, you know, they don’t want an empty night as we had on Friday. Um so there’s a game every day and and most nights. Um so maybe it’s between the DS and the CS. I haven’t looked at the schedule to see if maybe there’s a day in between there and and it might just be that, you know, CY has to call his buddy uh Manfred and say, “Hey, do you mind if I do this on a Wednesday morning or whatever?” So anyway, we’ll see what happens, but we know there will be an introductory press conference to introduce Skip Schumacher as the new manager of the Texas Rangers. You know a lot about him. We do, too. Uh he comes to us from Alysso, what is it? Aliso Viejo, California. Yeah. And uh you know he went to high school there. Went to a couple of different colleges. UC Santa Barbara for a while. I think he went to Lyola Maramount and played baseball there for a while. Ultimately gets drafted in the fifth round by the Cardinals where he played from ‘ 05 until 12. And I think it’s somewhat significant that he was brought up in that era. Jeff of the St. Louis Cardinals because um that’s where Lance Lynn came to us from that organization and he talked glowingly, lovingly, I mean unbelievably about and granted 11 was his first year, but that was still that same era of players. He talked about the Waywrights and and so many of the other guys in that organization who who taught him how to be a player, right? I think there was a real good group there that was fashioning future major league players slash leaders like Jumok. Well, and to answer my friend Rob’s uh uh comment of skip a fan of ceiling bases small ball or more station. Well, if you go back to the Cardinals teams he played for a they were managed by Tony LaRusa uh and and and the pitchers batted at the time. So there was a lot of small ball by virtue of just being in the National League. And um you know it’s not like Skip was a power hitter. Skip has 28 career home runs. Yeah. So Skip had a had a role uh down usually at the bottom of the order. Um so I I I do believe he he’s the kind of guy that is big in game sit into the game situation. Yeah. um in this era you need to steal bases just the way that uh you know it’s a little shorter and the bases are bigger and all that stuff and the success rate the Raiders are really good at sealing bases this season. Yeah. Um so I’m I’m thinking that will be Skip Shu Schumacher’s deal. Um you know kind of kind of going back to Ron Washington maybe a little bit you know aggression on the bases. I know. I know. There’s the era where you Well, I don’t know era. I mean, nobody likes to make out on the bases, you know, and and the the Moneyball A’s never sold bases, never bunded, and um you know, got him to the playoffs a couple times. Yeah. But it didn’t it didn’t get him home. So, uh we’ll see. We’ll see how it plays out. But it it’s my just what I’ve read about Skip and and you know know of him as a player and his background. thinking there will be some um it won’t just be guys going up there and trying to drive it over the fence and hit it into the alleys. Be do what the game asked you to do. Yes, exactly right. To answer some of the many questions about are we excited about Skip. Uh I I said it I summarized it after our our emergency pod the other night um for my wife and daughter who kind of were listening downstairs and they said, “So so what do you think about this?” And I said, “Well, I like the hire, but I hate the fire.” Yeah. Right. And so the fact that Bruce Bochi isn’t here, I still don’t like, right? But the fact that, you know, this is a guy that CY had targeted for, you know, over a year as like this could be our error parent. You know, this guy, he’s got it. He’s he thinks like we do. Da da da da. Right. there was a lot of vetting done before they hired him as a as a senior special assistant or whatever his role was. So to the extent that this is the guy they wanted and this is the guy they hired, good hire. Still don’t like the fact that they got rid of Bruce. Yeah. And that’s always going to be the the tough one to um the the putting the the square peg in a round hole situation. It doesn’t make a ton of sense and and um it maybe it will in time. Uh some things will come out more and more I guess but I I mean this is a m a mutual decision. Well, you know, I don’t think they were sitting at a table for hours trying to fix fix this one or make it work. seemed like the club knows what direction it’s going in and you know was like well we might be better off with a younger guy and and I don’t know I I don’t I don’t think it was mutual right I think that’s the I think there are a lot of ways you can go on that word um so anyway what whatever happened has happened uh it it’ll it’ll probably come out slowly but surely here in the coming weeks and months. But, uh, Skip Shoealker is the manager and look, I I have nothing against him. The times I’ve met him, he’s been great. Talked to him and, you know, we were able to talk TCU because that’s where his son is headed to play baseball. Um, and yeah, he was very successful in his first year with the the Nationals, you know, and and you know, or not the Nationals, the Marlins. And the the second year there was some transition in the front office. You know, Kim Kim Ing who was the general manager. She left and she had given him a a contract that had an option for 2025. Yeah. And then that the new people voided the option and then you know the team was was not very good. Um and then then I you know I don’t know if Skip just beat them to the punch and said I’m not coming back. you know, he told his team at the end of the year, he left because his father was ill, uh, didn’t manage the final two games and but told them when he left, I’m not coming back next year. And, you know, was honest and upfront about it and, uh, the players didn’t care for it. They wanted him to stay. So, that’s a ringing endorsement. You know, your players don’t want you to leave. Um, but it was a 100 loss team and um, amid dysfunction. the people I’ve talked to about it are like the Marlins were a disaster that year. Yeah. I’m not sure they’re any better now. Um but I don’t think that should be held against him. You know, it’s a question that probably has been answered and might be worth revisiting, but he made an decision that he found was the best for his career and, you know, one season later he’s now managing the Rangers. Yeah. Uh thank you, Mista, for the suggestion. And we will get Skip on the pod or at least we expect to. Uh we believe that on the day they have the press conference, we’ll have an opportunity to sit down with Skip. Uh whether it be something we put on tape and put on the show or whether it be something that is perhaps done live on the show, but one way or the other, we intend to have Skip on the podcast. And that’s awesome. I mean, so yeah, that’s a reason, one more reason. Somebody said we’ve got the whole off season and we do and there’s a lot more for all of us talk about, think about, worry about uh with regard to how this is going to play out now, right? Everything could be different. Lots of things will be the same. We know that. But but lots of things could be different, too. So, um, yeah, we’ll have time, uh, to to get to know Skip even better than we do because he wasn’t around just a ton, right? And he lived, you know, his per, you know, his offseason home is still out there in Southern California. I don’t know if it’s uh, I don’t know if it’s an old Aliso is what somebody said. I don’t know if it’s an old Aliso. Poor Aliso. Why they got to call Aliso old? But anyway, I don’t Maybe there’s a Noeo Luiso Aliso somewhere. Yeah. So, uh, and I don’t know if it’s in poor old Eliso, but it, uh, but anyway, he lives out there somewhere. And so, he was only coming into town, you know, somewhat sporadically, but but they, you know, they the, uh, you know, Cy and and Ross were asked about that on Friday, and they had no trouble at all, no, uh, you know, concerns about how often he was around and what he got to see and how much he learned about this team. That’s another thing that I think makes him a really good choice. Very seldom, you know, guys know a lot about other organizations and other teams when they’re going to come in and try to manage them or coach them. We remember Mike McCarthy had gotten his uh his little barn built in Green Bay where he could just get in there and work on football and study every team and all that kind of stuff, right? Those guys that want to get back into it, no doubt, uh will will do that kind of thing. However, nobody almost nobody’s in the organization for a year looking at it closely with the front office personnel dissecting what’s wrong and what needs to be done. But he comes in uh Schumacher does with eyes wide open. Yeah. Uh at one point uh Friday Friday gosh like a year ago. Uh Ross mentioned that we they talked to him frequently if not daily than than within you know no more than like a day went by that they didn’t seek his opinion skip’s opinion on something and um uh so there there’s um a familiarity working with him but also Skip you know visited some affiliates and watched the games and was in town occasionally um and so he knows what he’s doing. He’s worked with Chris Young um and knows a lot of the coaching staff and has observed them. Then he’s going to know what what needs to be done to fix the team. I’m assuming that he and Chrissy on the line on that philosophy very much. They’re uh you know playing days overlapped, you know, and ran similar similarly at the same era in the game. And so I’m sure that um and I’m they’re probably the same age. I don’t know. I haven’t done the the I haven’t looked, but I think Skip wouldn’t have taken this job if he didn’t feel good about it. Absolutely 100%. He would have had choices. He certainly could have had choices this year as there are quite a few openings. So, uh lots more coming up about Skip Schumacher and let’s talk about the change that’s already been made on the coaching staff. That’s coming next. It’s the DLLS Rangers podcast. And it’s football season. It is football season, Nicole. Quick to remind me uh that the Cowboys uh have lots of home games left. They’ve got another road game uh this week as they take on the Carolina Panthers. But after a big win yesterday, I’m sure that people are getting even a little bit more excited. You’ve got to get out there and check these Cowboys out. And there’s no better place to get your ticket for that than the Game Time app because that Game Time app. What you reaching for, Joe? Well, I’m reaching for the next segment. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. Okay. He’s your next commercial. Got it. Yep. So, but the Game Time app is great. You can just get on their app and you can find your seat and you can see what your your view will be like from the seat. And uh they guarantee it and they don’t have silly gross fees. So go to gametime.com, use the code DLLS, and get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. You won’t regret it. Uh reaching back there kind of stretched me out a little bit. Golly, not as flexing the shoulder now. Uh anyway, uh Branded Bills. Uh and there’s a reason I reached for that one. I’m wearing a Branded Bills hat on my head. And that’s one thing that Branded Bills wants you to know. Uh whether any style hat, snapback, truckers, fitteds, beanies, uh they have you covered. If you’re looking for some gear for your own brand, ding ding ding DLS was. And this is a DLS branded Bills hat. So, and we’ll talk about the hats here in a minute, but um they do all kinds of great things at Branded Bills. You can get hats for various states in the union. I’ve been looking at a lot of Colorado hats and Texas hats. Uh but they have a partnership with 40 colleges including your 4 in1 TCU Horn Frogs should be 5 and0. Uh but anyway uh head to branded billills.com and use the code BBDLs for 15% off your first order. There you go. Branded Bills is a great great cap and and a partner. Oh, it didn’t have to stand up. Oh, I already hurt this side. So I had to turn to this side. Had to go right. Yeah. Did you notice he was using Mando there too? He’s not pitting up. Um, so that’s but that’s an ad for a different day. Uh, so here we go. Uh, the the change changes have started. Uh, when we had the press conference with Chris Young and Ross Fster Maker on Friday, they kind of indicated that all the coaches were in good standing and and that perhaps all the coaches would be back. Now, no idea if uh you know, Skip came in immediately and made this change or if maybe this was something the brain trust, the whole brain trust was considering anyway and they just weren’t going to say it because maybe all the parties hadn’t been notified. But since Friday, at some point, Bobby Wilson uh has been relieved of his duties as the catching coach and coordinator. a little surprised by the move, Jeff, because he’s really regarded as just a a master of receiving and that’s so important at that catching position. Yeah, you know, he’s he’s he’s he was he is and was pretty close to Bruce Bochi and uh he also lives in Tampa. Y three daughters. Um and he’s had opportunities to go elsewhere uh in the recent past. And you know, Bobby, um, who played for the Rangers, well, he played for a lot of other teams. So, I I wouldn’t be surprised if he has another offer. Um, and, um, I don’t know, maybe maybe he and Bruce Bochi have something jinned up. I don’t, you know, but I’m just I’m just, um, spitballing on that one, but it’s unfortunate because I I love Bobby, good, a good guy, and again, a great catching guru. Uh, I do wonder, um, though if a the ABS is going to take the value away from pitch framing. Um, and and maybe the Rangers want to go a different don’t don’t feel that there needs to be an emphasis on that. And and maybe maybe Bobby’s wearing a little bit of the Jonah uh failure. Maybe. I I don’t know. But uh it it’s a shame because you know Bobby’s out there worked hard every day spoke a lot you know ask him a catching question blow your mind all the information he has and um so anywh who um there you go that’s that’s some interesting news and and Natalie has asked will Mike Maddox be back you should say that Natalie I asked Mike Maddox and uh he’s currently practicing golf so I’m planning to talk to him a little bit later. Um so he and Skip work together. Skip’s only year on the Cardinals coaching staff in 2022. He and Mike Maddox work together and Mike has told me that he uh definitely uh they got along and and he holds them in high high regard. Um so I think that if if Bruce Bochi was going to leave, which or not be back, that it would take a unique manager for Mike to continue um in his role. you know, he’s 63 and, you know, his daughter just had a grandbaby during spring training and um you know, he doesn’t need to do this anymore. He he wants to. So, I think that um there’s a good a good chance that this this comes to fruition, that indeed Mike Maddox will return. So, and to the point that a few people made uh in the last segment when you said maybe he and Boch have something together, a couple people in the chat earlier today were saying, you know, Bochi wasn’t fired and we believe that he was um maybe it was a kinder, gentler firing, but he wanted to come back. He wants to manage and now he’s not uh going to be managing in San Francisco. So, we thought maybe he didn’t want to manage here. He did want to manage there. He didn’t in large part cuz his wife doesn’t want to deal with that travel to Nashville to San Francisco anymore. They did it long enough. But if he does go somewhere else, I think that proves like, yeah, this guy still wanted to manage and you don’t want to go in to a new situation if you don’t have to. That said, CY kind of indicated, you know, very I’m reading between the lines here, but CY said, “We love Bruce Bochi. You know, we want we want everything great for him. I really hope he stays in the organization, but I think he’s going to have some better options.” So, I think CY already knows that there’s another possibility out there for Bruce Bochi. Yeah. and and you know um it you know it’s it’s it’s kind of semantics. You can play with it any way you want. The Rangers basically are choosing to not renew his Yeah. You know I mean you know that that which which is a gentler way of saying didn’t really we you know didn’t want him back. Yeah. or thanks for your time or you know cuz cuz you know they keep saying a new voice you know it’s like okay that that doesn’t sound like uh something that was mutual. I’m sure Bruce Bochi thinks his voice is just fine. Um, but you know, I I’m not here to make any assertions. Um, just reading between the lines like Don is, and we and we don’t know for sure what what has happened, but um I think that there’s you can dispute how mutual things just based on kind of some things that have been Sure. We’ve both heard it from plenty of people around there that uh that it’s you know it’s probably not as mutual uh you know like again I just we just know Bruce Bochi was very very interested in coming back and of course that would have meant in signing another contract and um I felt bad for him actually initially when I thought it was just going to be a no-brainer that he goes and works for Buster Posey and when that was quickly announced you know refuted by by Posey um who also offered Boch, you know, a place in the organization if he wanted it. Um that that was quickly refuted. I thought, man, I hope Boch still gets a chance just because I like him so much. And it was very clear that he wants to keep managing. And it was very clear that when he came back, he he realized then how much he didn’t like retirement. and and he said he had more fun in the three years here than he’s than he maybe ever had in the game. Yeah. And um it’s uh yeah, it’ll it’ll be interesting to talk to him here down the road and we tal I talked to him the night of and I don’t know that he wanted to get into any specifics and you know Chris Young said said Bruce Bruce Bochi wanted what’s best for the organization. I really think that Bruce Bochi probably thought, “Hey, I’m I’m best for I’m pretty good for the organization for the organization. I let him do a World Series two years ago.” Yeah. I I think I I don’t know. I talked out on this for now. Yeah. No, that’s fine. And that’s uh that’s plenty uh about that because you know who knows if we’ll ever get the full uh answer but you know everybody’s allowed to believe uh what they want to believe on that. And so obviously as we me as we keep mentioning uh we look forward now and we look forward to a guy who while he only has two years of managerial experience uh had great success uh taking a a Marlins team that was floundering and taking them to the playoffs in the first year. Uh but and they but they ran into the Dodgers in the first round. Phillies in the first round. Okay. So yeah, that’s I mean again these are this is a wild card team in 2023 or correct? Yeah. 23. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know and look the the Marlins weren’t bad this you know and I know uh Mista started off the uh show uh saying that the Rangers should go get Sandy Alcantara and all the you know some some other good young players from the Marlins. I don’t think the Marlins are looking to trade these guys. No. you know, no maybe Alcantara just because they need to get something for him before he goes anywhere, but I don’t think they’re going to want to trade, you know, Josh Sters, you know, or, you know, any of their young guys really. So, um, I don’t know that there’s a trade partner there. Maybe for Alcantara. It would be nice to get Liam Hicks back into the organization. You need need a catcher. Hey, hey, maybe they could get him back. But, uh, it’d be at a much higher price than they gave him up for, uh, Yose Sam, I think it was. It might that might have been the Was that the Yuseite Sam trade? That might have been the Sam trade or the Carson Kelly trade. One of the two, but it was same team. Anyway, um, so it’ll be we need this coaching staff to come together, you know, that’s the next thing. We Yeah, we can’t do anything with free agency until the World Series. World Series over. although the Rangers could resign some of their own guys who are headed to free agency. Um so we’ll just kind of get this thing settled out. Uh they need to hopefully hopefully it happens fast, you know, especially on the the pitching front with Maddox and Jordan Tees and and Dave Bush. Uh somebody was asking now the all about Sports Zone. Now that Bobby Wilson has been let go, who will take his spot? You know, it could be Brett Hayes just kind of transitioning from his role this year as like the quality coach, quality control coach to catching coordinator because Brett was a catcher, right? You know, that’s that’s the position he played when when he was a player. So, that that could be an easy kind of fix there. And he knows the catchers as they are now. Yeah, for sure. And and the thing you always have to remember about coaches too and Brett’s done a really good job and and so did Bobby and you would not consider either one of them great catchers during their career. But the interesting thing sometimes that type of player makes the best coach and often that great player does not make a great coach. Michael Jordan, Ted Williams, you know, Magic Johnson. I mean so many of them Yeah. George. Yeah. They just so many of us, you know, and Tom Grieve, my buddy Tom Grieve used to tell me, Ted Williams would say to them, “Well, just go out and hit it.” And and Ted Tom’s like, “We can’t. You can. We can’t.” You know, so uh it seems so easy to some of those great play I I’m trying to think is there is there a great player who ever became a great coach? I Larry Bird is a pretty good coach. Yeah, he wasn’t bad. That’s right. Now, was Billy Cunningham a good player? Uh he was a pretty he was a decent good player. I mean yeah he was a good player. Yeah he became Pat Riley was a great college player. Yeah he was he was a good NBA player. Yeah. Yeah. So Billy Cunningham was Russell I guess. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Although I think I don’t know how much coaching he did because those were pretty good teams. They were pretty good teams but still uh so yeah there’s a few from the NBA but it’s hard to think. Well, and I don’t know, did uh any of the great Mike Singleary, was he any good as a as a coach? Yeah. Any of the great Yankees from way back when become good managers? Billy Well, Billy Martin wasn’t a great player. Wasn’t a great player though. Yeah. So, anyway, Mattingly. Yeah. Okay. Matt. Okay. Mattingly, thank you to Yeah, that’s a good one. But he’s never won a World Series. Yeah. Okay. Very good. All right. So, anyway, uh that’s that. Uh and we we were talking the man, the plan, and the people. So, let’s get into a little bit more about the people, which includes players and assistant coaches next. It’s the DLLS Rangers podcast. John, I’ve once again, as happens every second segment of our of our show, been caught with my pants down as we go to the ad breaks, but I’ll do it first. It’s I have mine down, too. It’s the newsletter. Ah, the newsletter. Ali sent us a nice note in our chat the other day, our Slack, um that said, “Hey, thank you guys for for pumping up the newsletter. We’ve gotten a bunch of new, you know, subscribers to it.” And uh and so we encourage you if you haven’t to do so. Our newsletter is cool. It comes into your inbox, your in email inbox. And to be a member of our newsletter, a subscriber, all you have to do is go to our homepage, allddls.com. go down to the bottom, you’ll see the the box. And and what I love about our website, by the way, it takes a minute to get to the bottom, which shows how much stuff all our guys are contributing, right? You get all the way down to the bottom and there it says newsletter subscribe. It’s free. Ali writes it every day. He’s one of our cowboy writers and he just kind of gives you a thumbnail about what’s going on in the world of sports, our world of sports in particular, and our world here at DLLS. So, subscribe to our newsletter today. Uh, no props for this one because you guys are on the prop. It’s the supporters club of our YouTube channel and that’s what you’re watching this on. And I’ve seen a few of these pop up in the chat, the cool emojis that you get uh when you become a member of the supporters club or there’s two levels. There’s the $5 level and the $15 level. Um, it’s true sicko level stuff. So, it’s above Die Hard. You you become a sicko, which is higher higher than Die Hard, apparently. Yeah, big time. Okay. Uh, but we love our Die Hards. Uh, we’ll get to you guys in a minute uh about subscribing, but uh you’re going to get free behind the scen not, you’re going to get behind the scenes content as a member of the supporters club. And, uh, we’ll probably have one here in a in a couple days with me and John talking things out. So, do that today. Appreciate you. uh the the people are are going to change some uh we’ve already talked about the the Bobby Wilson change. Uh and again that could be truly that could be very mutual, right? Because again I don’t think CY was indicating in any way when we talked to him that there were u there were any changes coming on the coaching staff. But but the one area to again appease anybody who’s worried about Mike Maddox and first of all Jeff’s got such a great relationship with him that you know we’ll learn about it and he’ll talk to he’ll talk to Mad Dog. But uh the thing to to when when CY was mentioning the coaching staff, he singled out the three pitching coaches, Dave Bush, uh Jordan Tees, and of course Mike Maddox and said they did such a great job. I mean he was you know gesturing and emphasizing this is a a strength of our coaching. Correct. And um then he he went further to speak about you know what Mike does so well which is you know beyond the the X’s and O’s I guess you will technical side of pitching game planning is he builds these guys up and convinces them uh that that he is uh that they are the best pitchers in the world and that if they throw their pitches in the strike zone uh it’s going to work. And look, I’m not saying this year was a was a mly crew of relievers, but guys who bounced around, guys who needed a rebound year and uh guys who didn’t cost a lot of money, which tells you money where they were, right, relative to the the uh you know the how much they were wanted or pursued. Yeah. And so they have uh they did rebound. You know, the Rangers got from them what they were hoping to get from them. And uh a huge reason for that is is Mike Maddox. they, you know, and and you know, Mike believes in these guys, believes in them in a lot of situations. I mean, who would have ever thought based on what he did in 2024 that Hobie Milner would be pitching the eighth inning in tight games for the Rangers? And he was just out there, you know, in in June and July, Hobie Milner was the Rangers best reliever. And there’s just, you know, no way around it. And, uh, you know, Sean Armstrong finished the year, uh, so well, saving games. Uh, you know, there’s there’s a lot of that credit that needs to go to player, yes, but also Mike Maddox believing in them and making them believe in themselves. So, um, that’s got to be the priority. I, you know, just considering who Chris Young is, a former former major league pitcher, how much he values pitching, I can’t imagine that they’re not going to try their hardest to get Mike Maddox back. They will. I I totally believe that they will. and and the relationship, the past relationship, you know, the assistant coaches on a team are always, you know, pretty close to each other. Yeah. I mean, again, you talk about family, they’re with each other again from middle of February and until like in, you know, uh, if you make the playoffs or go to the World Series until the end of October, you know, it’s a long every day, travel together, eat lunch together on the road, eat their meals together at the ballpark. I mean, lots and lots of camaraderie. So, um, you know, if Mike had good feelings about, uh, Skip from from their one year together in St. Louis, that’s that’s just a really good thing. So, uh, that’s good. Those those coaches in in large part, I think, will stay intact. Someone’s asking about Boone. I really think I saw personally I saw CY and Brett having a couple of different heart-to-hearts uh in and around batting practice um right there at the very end, right at the tail end of the season. So, I mean, I think they’re uh very much on the same page and and uh in that same press conference, uh CY talked about how the offense really did improve and brought up the point that after June 1st, uh they were one of the top five offenses in the American League and no doubt in the context was giving credit to uh what Brett Boone was trying to do. He then went on to say, “Now these guys will have an off season to not only work on their swing, but to work on some of these other things that we’re asking them to do.” It surprises me as it might you a little bit that like that big league baseball players can’t just when you say, “Okay, the the goal now isn’t just to hit home runs. It’s to shorten up and, you know, and do the thing that get the ball out, slap the ball out to right field, whatever.” That they can’t just immediately do it. But they’re pretty good pitchers, too. So, it’s something I guess you have to work on and and that CY believes an off season full of concentrating on it will help this team achieve it to an even higher level next year. Yeah. U that’s that’s pretty funny you mentioned that yesterday watching my son play. He had a good weekend. Um he um I was late in the game like right the right right field was just wide open. I didn’t want to tell him, “Hey, hit it to right field because that’s just gonna screw with Yeah, sure. Sure. So, I didn’t. But you’re right. It’s like, boy, you sure would think that these talented guys could Yeah. could do those things. Um, but but they can’t. And so, we’re I think you’ll see the Rangers um just looking different next year. Some of that will be Brett Boone can get some credit for that. Um whether he’s back or not, he’s the one who kind of started it. put the wheels in motion. But back to our earlier point and Rob’s question, I think that that Skip Shoemarker, you know, probably made his living being able to do those things 100%. And so I I would expect that he uh would um hope that his players could do the Yeah. And if you look at Skip Schumacher’s Marlins 2023 team, that’s what they did. They had the lowest fly ball rate of any team in the majors, I think. And they were very good at just um manufacturing runs. And they’re so his thing isn’t about, you know, his philosophy is to hit line drives, right? And that’s funny cuz that’s Ron Washington’s too, right? If you just hit line drives and every once in a while you’ll run into one, it’ll go out of the park. But if you just keep hitting line drives into the big part of the field, guess what? they’re going to go to the wall and you’re going to score lots of runs and and that’s uh a philosophy that’s been lost a little bit of course with you know the advent and the insistence upon and the you know just the people love the launch angle and the exit velocity and all those kinds of things uh whatever you know let’s just let’s just get the ball into the outfield and land somewhere and and let’s see what happens so um but I definitely think it’s going to be a point of emphasis it’ll continue and I I honestly ly think Brett Boon will be back. Uh but you know, he also may have some other options that that’ll determine that. Well, I I think going back to the the park factor talk. Sure. If if if indeed Global Life Field is going to be a place where can’t slug, then you have to hit line. Yep. Just kind of have to change your approach and your personnel. you have to change your personnel because the Rangers had too many guys with these big big old swings and um you know I I just and you know these approaches aggressive super aggressive um so I I think that um that’ll be part of it now you can’t again with as Ross pointed out with the park factors different every year right they can’t sell they can’t buy in too much a one way, but I think they they recognize what we recognized a long time ago, and it’s that this lineup this this season had too many of the same guy. Too much too many aggressive hitters, too much swing and miss. Got to make contact. There were situations. And Brett Boon said it to me, all you know, all he had to do was breathe on the ball and it would have gotten a run home. Yep. And they didn’t breathe on it. They swung and missed. So, it’s just some things have to change. philosophically and the guys who showed they couldn’t do that. Some of them need to change. They do. They do. Those guys that that would only, you know, seem to have an ability to be that really long swing, um sometimes you have to shorten up sometimes, you know, like I remember thinking sometimes during um during um extra inning games, right? Like who the heck is punt, right? First of all, you don’t want Cory Seager bunting, right? Or, you know, and a few other guys. But then I’m looking at the lineup going, none of these guys are good at it. I like nobody’s going to come up here and bunt the runner from second to third. I really want that right now. Let’s get a runner at third with nobody out or one out. Especially, you know, if you Yeah. If you’re the visiting team, you do try to put up a crooked Sure. You’re the home team and you post a zero. Get the guy to third and hit a fly ball. Yep. Um all about all about Sport Zone on a heater today. Yeah. Uh if Simeon is he’s read an article if Simeon is going to stay, he has to make some hitting adjustments. I think he needs to make a hitting adjustment even if he doesn’t stay. It’s been two down years in a row. Um and so he needs to fix things. You know what what has worked for him in the past that he has stuck to the last two seasons. didn’t work real well. Uh it worked at times, but it wasn’t consistent enough. So, I think that um you will see Marcus making adjustments whether it’s for the Texas Ranger, St. Louis Cardinals, and I know throwing one out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I think he’s of that mindset, right? And I think he realizes it just like all of them do. And it’s not as easy, you know, to change, especially for him. We’ve seen it for two, three, three years now. uh we’ve seen that routine is routine, man. He does the same thing every day. And so there’s there’s a lot to change in in that process for him. And you know, it had always worked before. He’d always started slow. He’d always, you know, heated up and then generally stayed pretty hot. But even if he went into another slump, he just didn’t change things. And at the end of the year, you looked up and look at the numbers on the back of his baseball card, right? Yeah. He he had a couple, you know, not great seasons for the A’s, but you know, for the most part, he was a he was a good player. And then he had that great year with the Blue Jays there. And uh came here and um started slow in 22, 23, started fast, finished third in the MVP vote, but then the last two years it just hasn’t clicked. So, you know, and it’s okay to change you, but you have to recognize it. you know, you you can’t keep believing in your routine after two straight seasons. Yeah. And I some things have to change. And I’m I’m assuming that before their during their exit interview that that was addressed, of course. Yeah. you have to have you do have and you have to have those hard conversations uh with players in those exit interviews and and I’m sure those hard conversations are had um with the assumption that we’re all going to be back together again next year even if like in the case of CY who’s a part of the exit interviews he’s not sure they will be right and he has the control in the case of many of them but you have to you know you have to exit on a note of we need you to do this work to be better for us and then if CY is able to execute a few things like a trade for and and quickly though before I get to that I saw several people on Twitter this weekend saying I think that you know u Marcus Simeon will for sure be back based on what CY said about him. Well, there are those cases where you can’t trust what a guy in CY’s, you know, position. He’s not lying. the things he said are absolutely true. John Daniels talked to us at length about this when he was on. You know, you can’t lie and they all know that and some of them have tried, but you’ll be caught on that if you do. So, he’s not lying. But what he’s saying, while true, isn’t necessarily an endorsement for Marcus Simeon. Uh it may be a sales pitch for Marcus Simeon, right? And and other teams hear him say it, too. and then he’d have an opportunity to maybe pull the trigger on a trade and save some money uh as it pertains to the CBT. Look, the the guy is um I mean, he’s a former all-star. He’s a highly respected player in the in the game, third in the MVP. uh you know, a person who know plays hard and and uh community a community guy, a family man, a lot of great things and characteristics. Um but you need him to produce. Yep. And so yeah, you know, I I think that that they’ll look at moving anybody. Yes. Probably not W link, but nope. Anybody just because that’s kind of You got to look at any avenue to make your team better. Yep. And if they find the right deal, then then I would it wouldn’t surprise me. No, it wouldn’t me either. Uh somebody we were just talking about this the other day. Somebody told you nobody’s untouchable. Yeah. Nolan Ryan, Josh Hamilton. That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, we’ll find that out. uh if if there are in fact untouchables, but uh Wyatt Langford to your point uh and uh and the two top pitchers um you know, Evaldi and Deg Grom, I don’t I don’t think they’re touchable in the Rangers organization, but probably everybody else is. And we’ve got, as somebody said earlier in the chat, the whole off season to talk about those things, which is awesome. Uh as you guys know, we’re here every single day during the week uh from at 1:00 uh almost every day. So, uh we’re thrilled to be here. We got lots more to talk about. It’s our cleanup segment next. Lots of playoff talk to discuss and uh and we’ll see maybe a few more of these questions and thoughts that you have about the changing Texas Rangers next on the DLLS Rangers podcast. So, uh you know about our sale, right? Our our dieh hard sale. You have got to take advantage now. You want one of those sweet hats like Jeff has, which I just think are so cool, right? $59 for a year and you get that hat. And I I’m not going to lie, we were doing we’ve been doing the branded Bills uh you know, Reed, they’re they’re a partner of ours. We’ve been doing it for a while and not being much of a hatw wearer because of my size 32 head. Um I didn’t realize what a damn nice hat that is. That’s a good quality hat. the damn fine hat. The damn fine hat. And so get get the hat and the Die Hard subscription for $59. It’s 60 bucks and you get all the content that we provide. Jeff, and all of our writers. We have a new Mavs writer, Ron, uh coming over from the Dallas Morning News. Uh we’ve got the Stars and the Cowboys covered as well. So we have so much available for you through our Die Hard membership. We just really want you to realize uh that that’s that’s the that’s the crux of this thing. We’re here to, you know, break stories, tell you stories, be there when the big story breaks, like we were Friday night when the when the announcement came that there was a new manager. So anyway, become a diehard today. Yeah. And uh you know uh when you’re a die hard, you get 20% off of our merchandise, which you can get at store.allcityetwork.com. There’s the Dallas collection, which John and I are not representing today. We’re going with OG shirts here. Um, I almost wore that one today, but I thought, God, I know he might wear it. So, I went with the Die Hard Ranger shirt here, but uh they’re just comfortable. They fit well. Uh, I’ve actually worked out in one of them uh previously, and it was it was a good workout shirt. Um, and again, you get 20% off as a diehard at store.allcityetwork.com. Yeah. Uh, so just you know what? For some reason that Mavs one down in the lower left of the screen. Yeah, that just caught my eye. I think that I may have to go make it 17 shirt. I like that shirt. Uh, and it reminds me of old Don Carter. That’s what I was just thinking. Cowboy hat. Yeah, Don Carter. God rest his soul. Uh, okay. So, cleanup segment. Man, I I just it was such a fun weekend of baseball, particularly uh Friday night for me. We’ll get to that in just a second cuz as you know, as you remember, if you’re a longtime member and viewer of the show, I am uh I grew up in Detroit, so I’m a Tigers fan. So, it’s uh it’s fun for me at this moment not to have any split allegiances because the uh the Rangers aren’t in it. Um but, uh before we get to that Tigers Mariners series, how about the Blue Jay? Holy moly. 15 or more hits in each of the games against the Yankee. Just I mean, again, this is not a team that throughout the year, Jeff, we saw them a couple of times and we thought, yeah, I mean, they’re good. They’re stationto station. They play baseball. They do they’re hitting three, four home runs a game all of a sudden, you know. Yeah. Um, a couple things I found interesting about uh that that at least game one. I don’t I don’t even know about yesterday. Uh, the roof was open. Yes. at at uh the Skydome Rogers Center. And I just remember in 2015 how pissed off Toronto fans were that the that the roof was closed for the the games against the Rangers. I mean, they were howling about it. They were so mad. Yeah. And um I don’t know, maybe it was just a nice sunny day in Toronto. It was weird. I actually went to the guy. I was working for Bali at the time and I went to the guy or it might have still been Fox and I went to the guy in the roof opening room and said, “Why, you know, I’m with Fox, you know, why isn’t the roof open?” And he told me there is a very limited temperature range during which the roof can be open. Not about the comfort of the fans, literally about the mechanics of the roof. Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah. And so if it was too hot, the roof wouldn’t open for whatever reason. And if it’s too cold, the roof wouldn’t open. So it had to be between like 58 and 71. What is that in Celsius? Yeah. Hell, I don’t even know. I think you double it and add 32 or something like that. 1.8 plus 32. Anyway, so uh Yeah. And he probably did give it to me in Celsius, you know. It’s got to be between 11. 11 and 13. Yeah. you know. So anyway, those poor. So that was but but but you and I have both been there when that roof’s open. It can be very very nice. Oh my god. And the ball carries a little just a little bit more spectacular when that roof is open and pretty much I don’t know like a it’s pretty much like the uh the raise place with a hotel. I mean they’re that well now they have they have upgraded it recently. Um uh they they’ve made some changes in the outfield. Um uh and they moved the press box of course to the left field corner which is a a boo for them but uh it’s a nice press box out there six or seven miles to get to the clubhouse. Not important. Uh but what is important is what they’re doing to the Yankees and uh it was you know a good offensive team. They’re really hard to strike out. Imagine that. Imagine that working in today’s era. And um so yeah, I mean they they’ve got this thing under control. Trey Yusich yesterday gets out there five and a third no hit uh in like his his what for sure his first postseason start and but like his third or fourth major league start a rookie that poised against the Yankees in a playoff game. I mean that was fantastic. You had Vlad hitting the first ever grand slam in the postseason in the in the uh Blue Jays organization. Uh, and again, they had some pretty good runs in the 90s and some pretty good hitters. Oh, yeah. Uh, so, um, he had the first of those. That was really cool. And like I say, 15 hits and and doubledigit runs each day. The Yankees made that big run later in like in the sixth and seventh inning got to seven runs. And, you know, other times you might be, oh shoot, here come the Yankees. It’s like, yeah, we ain’t got to worry. We still got a we still got a huge lead. So, it’s kind of like game four of the 23 World Series. Yes, Raiders sprinted out to the huge lead. Yeah, Diamondbacks made some noise late and everyone’s like, “Oh, Diamondback’s bats just woke up.” Well, Nathan Evaldi uh quieted them. Yeah, he put him back to sleep. Yeah. Tigers in Seattle. Really cool game on Saturday. Maybe my favorite part of it was extra innings and no ghost run. Yeah, man. That was cool. Not in the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah. Not in the playoffs. No Ghost Runner. Man, I was so into the extra innings, especially obviously since the Tigers ended up pulling it pulling it off. But, um, really cool. You know, they face George Kirby, who’s we know, we see him a lot. I mean, he’s hard to hit good and he’s very good. and um and they you know the Tigers had come through a a wild card series so they’d used their pitchers throw the three-game wildard series no less. So they’re down to you know the drags of their of their pitching rotation where a rookie themselves and I’ll be ded if the kid didn’t go toe-to-toe with uh with Kirby and Harry Carpenter has six either five or six hits against George Kirby. All home runs. That’s nuts. All home runs. Nobody hits home runs off George Kirby except Carrie Carpenter. So, he did it again that night. That was cool. And uh the and the Tigers, I think, stole one. And that’s, as we all know, in a playoff series like that, you’re just trying to steal back steal that one and you essentially now have homefield advantage. Yeah. Yeah. And the ne the next three are in Detroit. Um so, we we’ll see. Yeah. It’s it’s it’s going to be a good series. Yeah. Um, so, uh, since Rob, my buddy from TCU, is, uh, asking questions. He asked, “How hard is it to get major league hitters to listen to the major league hitting coach and not their personal hitting coach?” And boy, that was a big sticking point of mine early in the season. It was. Yeah. Because, uh, you know, Don Donnie Eker is is was and then Brett Boon also dealing with multiple players who had their own hitting coach. And the problem I think with the personal hitting coaches is they only work on the swing. They they teach the mechanics of the swing. Now, they’ll communicate with the major league hitting coaches and and all that. Make sure everybody’s on the same page, but what what the the problem is and what the Rangers believe that these personal hitting coaches, and this is not just a Rangers problem, it’s baseball wide, they don’t teach approach. And so I I think that’s kind of where things can get lost is like I’m listening to my hitting coach. Okay. But you need to, you know, understand the uh the situational hitting component and maybe that’s where these guys only work on one swing as as Chris Young was saying the other the other day, whereas they need to have the ability to shorten up or go the other way, do do certain things whenever the game asks them to do. So I think that’s kind of a a potential issue going forward in in today’s game. It is it’s a big conundrum for all of these teams because you know I swear when Seager came in three years ago in 2022 having his own hitting coach it seemed like what the heck’s going on here now it seems like everybody has Yeah. And then you like uh Jo Peterson has his own hitting coach. I’m sure Marlon Bird doesn’t want us advertising that, but but Marlon Bird is Jock Peterson, you know. And then Adulles Garcia’s hitting coach was was was Bobby Whit Jr.’s hitting coach. Um Bobby Whit who had the most hits right in the American League. Yeah. So I don’t know. Sometimes I think the player might have something to do with it, too. And Mark did point out accurately the next two games are in Detroit. Yeah, I was thinking this was best of best of seven, but it’s best of five. 221. So, uh, but hopefully effective they won’t need to go back to Seattle. And I will say this, too, on a quick note, you and if you’ve watched a lot, you know I said, you know, even though the Tigers are in there, I’m kind of rooting for Seattle. I’d like to see them win their first No, I don’t. I’m not. I could care less if they win their first world. Look, my my allegiances have come back out. I’m not rooting for Seattle. Not not that it has much to do with the Rangers Mariners rivalry with, you know, as it currently exists or anything, just that, you know, I don’t want the Mariners to beat the Tigers. So, uh, that’s the that’s the fun part about the postseason. And I saw somebody in there, you know, if the Rangers had even an average, uh, offense, you know, if the lineup was even average, um, the Rangers would be in this right now. And that’s true, but as we’ve talked, I mean, especially when you go back and look at it, if the Rangers had a closer, they’d probably be in the playoffs despite the offense, right? So, there’s a lot of things you could point to uh over the course of 162 game season that derailed them. The interesting part about it is uh for sure today, if the Rangers were in the playoffs, Bruce Bochi would still be the manager. And you do wonder what if they’d made a little playoff run but not won the World Series, would this change still have been made? Would have been harder to do. Yeah. Would have been much less popular. Um but anyway, we’re never going to find out. Yeah. And you know, if Yeah. If they had gone um through the wild card round and been bounced. Yeah. Probably the change happens. Yeah. They advance, it gets harder to do. If they advance, it gets really hard to do. If they advance and win at all to impossible chance but u it’s but at that point then maybe he’s like you know what I want my World Series. Yeah. So long guys might have Yeah. might have been his Yeah. bold decision and um then it would have been you know mutual because Chris Young said well whatever Bruce Bochi wants to do he’s going to get to do. Sure. Yep. Okay. Yep. Not quite. All right. Uh okay. So that’s that. Uh a fun show today. We appreciate you as always. is very active in the chat. Uh we’re here again tomorrow at 1:00. One day this week when they have if and when they have the press conference, we may have to alter the time slightly, but our plan right now is to be with you uh at 1:00 every day this week talking baseball and talking Rangers on the DLLS Rangers podcast.

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The Texas Rangers didn’t waste any time naming their next manager — Skip Schumaker is officially taking over. After Bruce Bochy led the team to its first World Series title just two years ago, Schumaker steps in with big expectations and plenty of challenges ahead. Having spent the last year inside the organization, he knows what he’s walking into. We break down the hire, the plan, and what it means for the future of Rangers baseball.

00:00 Intro
01:30 Skip Schumaker announced Friday as Rangers new manager
18:00 Personnel changes. What is the new plan?
32:00 The People: who will be there/who won’t?
49:00 Batting cleanup

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