Hope Springs Eternal… Until the Bullpen Warms Up | Mike Bacsik

You
Nobody would have thought that I would be the one.
Riner sports talk.
Baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball.
Oh, with the big mic.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Yeah.
We're going to lightning strike, boys.
What happened over there, Grego?
We had a little lightning strike right outside the window.
All right.
All right.
Here's a tip for all these Americana league teams.
Don't do it.
You said tip.
Yeah, tip.
It was a peak.
Keep jamming.
To take a colon.
Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off.
This is a little night or what?
Oh, somebody would hear that.
Oh, shit.
I'm back.
Really?
What?
All right.
Are you starting in with the stick, are you?
I don't think they heard it.
I heard it.
That's enough.
That's all that matters.
It was real, too.
It was.
Well, Hoi Hoi to one and all.
Oh, it is your dark companion.
Back once again today.
This is the 28th.
25th.
Oh, 25th?
Oh, man, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'm working ahead.
We've cleared Christmas by two months.
Yeah, we have.
That's good.
I didn't know if we would, but we've done it.
We're on our way.
We're going to make it.
Yes, and this is episode number 199.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa.
That's a lot less than 200.
Yeah.
It is that.
Well, hey there.
I would be Mike Reiner.
We're here inside the nurturing biosphere.
Ready to roll for another YDC.
If you were part of the live at five crew, howdy.
Glad to have you with us.
And today, because spring training is going on now.
And before long, they're going to be spring training games.
So it's time for us to all get our head right with ball.
And I can scarcely think of anybody better to lead us through this
in a very spring training way.
Not going to get carried away here or anything.
Not going to ask him for any kind of rash predictions or anything.
But we have with us, the guy that you see on Rangers TV,
part of that Rangers television network, the great Mike Basik.
Well, thank you for having me again.
This is number three for me.
Wow.
I call that my Dell Ellis episode.
Yes, it is your day of love.
Wow.
That's good.
I like having you on here.
Well, number 14 for the Mavs.
Traded him for a future referee.
That's right.
Well, yes, it's spring training.
He is not upon us.
But before we get into that, how's the offseason been for you?
Great.
But I'm ready for baseball.
Are you?
I am.
Yeah.
Football is done.
Mavericks are trying to get another top three or four pick.
And doing a good job of it.
The Olympic hockey match was unbelievable.
And now about a week from now, we get the World Baseball Classic.
So you jump from Olympics into this.
And so now you get Team USA, you know, playing some baseball.
I'm very excited about that.
And I just think that going back to 23, how excited.
Now I know it ends up being the Rangers World Series.
We didn't know that.
But how exciting that season to begin was just watching
World Baseball Classic.
And then you lead into a Ranger season, Ranger start off 40 and 20.
I'm hoping for similar results.
That would be cool.
Yeah.
That would be very cool.
So are you going to spring training or have you already been?
Or what's the situation?
I'm leaving on the 12th.
And then I'm coming back on the 17th.
So we're broadcasting the 14th, 16th, 18th.
18th and 20th out in surprise.
I have the games on the 14th and 16th.
David Murphy has the 18th and 20th.
Then Murf has the first game against Kansas City here in that exhibition game.
Yeah.
I have the day game because, and that'll be broadcast on victory in all year.
If you have victory on whatever it is, Fubo or whatever, you'll be able to see that.
And then right after that game, we get on the plane and go to Philadelphia for the start of the year.
Against the Phillies.
Yeah.
Nothing like an interleague matchup again to start a season off.
Yeah.
Gosh.
I really wish they wouldn't do that.
The schedules, the schedule, they got to work it that way.
If we're going to have interleague play, then yes, there will be interleague matches on opening day.
You can forget about any kind of usual rivalries or anything like that for the most part.
Which isn't a big deal anymore because you're not going to Philadelphia without a D.H.
That's true.
That used to be a lot different when you're like, oh, gosh, we're starting interleague.
And we got to have our pitchers hit the first three or four games of the year.
Like, this isn't going to be too fun with what lineup we think we have.
Yeah.
Yeah, we're finding a way to get your D.H. onto the field.
Yeah.
David Ortiz playing first base after 10 years of not doing it.
All the multiple changes.
And then your pitchers batting seventh and the seventh inning because of multiple changes.
Double switches.
Yeah.
You think spring trainings too long?
Yes, but not for the starting pitchers.
So for 80% of the team, yes, for your relief pitchers, for your position players, yes.
That's why it's changed a lot, let's say, from when my father played in the 70s
to even when I was playing in the 90s and 2000s, early 2000s is now they'll be like,
oh, why it went for doesn't really need to play the first four games of spring training.
Yeah, he really doesn't like there's plenty of it to get ready.
And most guys will say they need approximately 50 live at bats to be ready for the regular season.
And now because they do so much on the back field and they don't care about the defense.
So just be like, yeah, just have Nathan of all the throw, you know, 20 pitches and then sit down
throw another 15 pitches and sit down.
And let's just have the same three hitters.
Let's just have Nemo, Langford and Cory Seeger back there face them each inning.
And they'll get three bats back here on the back field.
Our pitcher will get three innings against major league hitters.
And then their day will be done.
We don't need to wait till one o'clock for the regular game for all that.
And those sessions is there a ramp up for the players or guys still, you know, ramping up
to regular season tempo and all that or how does that work?
It's a great question.
I think it's different for different guys.
Sure it is different for everybody.
You take a guy like, let's say Cole win.
He's going to be on the team, you know, versus let's say Nathan of Aldi.
You know, Nathan of Aldi might be like, hey, I'm going to throw four sliders in a row here.
I don't care who's up.
I'm just trying to see what's going to happen.
Cole win.
Maybe not the best example, but he might be like, you know what?
I kind of want that closers role.
And I'm going to go out here and it's going to be a little bit more competitive.
I'm going to put together a sequence that I think can get this hitter out rather than.
I'm just going to work on a certain pitch today or a certain location today.
And then sometimes you'll see hitters that won't swing.
And they're like, I just really want to track the ball today.
You know, like I got my swings in and batting practice maybe with two strikes.
You know, not that they won't take, they're not going to take a two strike approach.
Some guys in this situation where they would have a little bit of a different approach.
If it was a regular game and there was a real score and the result would matter.
Are they benefit from that?
Just tracking the ball?
I'm, I don't see how at times, but some guys will tell you, yeah, they do a good job.
In fact, I remember when I was with Dave Roberts in Cleveland.
And I just remember Dave doing it.
Other guys would do it is they would have these like tennis balls almost.
And they would have dots on them.
But the dots would be different colors.
And the dots would maybe have a number instead of just a dot.
And they would see after it was done.
So the person putting the ball into the machine could shoot it at like 95 miles an hour.
And then they would have to say the color.
And could they say the number of the ball?
Wow.
To try to, for their, for their tracking of their eyes without swinging.
Like, can you track it?
Can you track it well enough?
And then also, I'm not sure.
I think they might have been then telling if they could, you know, maneuver it a little bit to say if the ball was a strike or ball.
And then where it was a strike or where it was a ball.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen happen in spring training that you can tell us about?
Okay.
How about this?
In Winter Haven, Florida, I'm going back to Cleveland.
We were on the chain of lakes, which had quite a few alligators.
And so one time an alligator got close to where we would stretch.
And it wasn't a very big alligator.
And one of our strength and conditioning coaches decided, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to yank this gator out of like this sewer hole type of deal.
And then I'm going to jump on top of it, which he did.
God, it's like the crocodile hunter.
And then they used tape.
The tape you'd use on your wrist or ankles or whatever.
Tape the gator's mouth shut.
And then different guys took some like, hey, let me jump on the alligator and see what happens here.
It was a smaller alligator.
It wasn't, let's say, fully grown or like that scary.
I wanted to have no part of that.
But yeah, you guys are like, hey, I'm not jumping on a gator.
But they were like, it's mouth is definitely shut.
The mouth can do no damage to you.
I can still like tail whip you.
I think so.
Yeah, nobody got hurt.
If I was a gator with my mouth shut, I'd be whipping my tail everywhere.
I would like to make this also clear because I probably didn't make this clear.
They did not let the players do this.
They let the strength and conditioning coaches do this.
That is smart.
Yeah, that's protecting the investment.
Yeah, I feel like that's a pretty good story.
Also, I'd see Bartolo Cologne who refused to do conditioning, believe it or not.
What a shock.
Yeah, they would be like, hey, okay, fine.
You're not going to run.
You're going to get on this bike and you're going to ride around the complex for 30 minutes to an hour or whatever it was.
And he would stop on the minor league side and then just talk to all his friends for 20 minutes and get back on the bike,
finish up and go to the major league side.
He didn't do any cardio and they're like pretty much you're just like, so yes, you can get away with things.
As long as you are one of the best pitchers in baseball, they will let you do whatever you want,
but you just have to keep being really good at your sport.
Well, let's talk a little bit about this team and this spring training.
This seems like the main thing out there seems to be getting the culture in place.
I mean, more than any kind of position battle or anything like that.
I mean, it seems like they have a fairly good idea of who's going to do what.
So what they want to do is bring everybody together and it seems like that's what skips about, too.
Yeah, I think what was great about skip getting the job is one.
If he would have been, let's say, a free agent, free agent, he would have been the number one candidate for every opening.
That's how good of a managerial job he did in Miami.
Everybody was wanting to at least interview him.
And I think Chris Young saw that very quickly and said, I don't want you interviewing anywhere.
I want you to be this manager.
And he was around the team last year where obviously there's now been articles written about it.
There's been some interviews and spring training where there might have been some issues with the team and the cohesiveness of it.
It doesn't mean you're going to win because you love everybody on the team.
And it doesn't mean you're going to lose if you dislike everybody on the team.
But it wasn't issue.
And I think they've tried to correct it with some moves in the off season.
And now skip is trying his best to say, OK, this is a brand new season.
This is somewhat a brand new team.
Let's see if we can all be pulling in the same direction and have kind of a mantra about us that will be we have to be together as a team.
If we start becoming individuals, it definitely didn't work last year and it usually doesn't work.
For sure.
You know, he has been around here.
People lose sight of this, but he has been around the team for a few years in a different non on the field position.
But still he's a baseball guy and baseball guys are going to pay attention to baseball things.
And he was around and over that period of time it became more and more apparent that if there was going to be a change in manager this year that he would be the guy for sure.
And it really kind of had the look that that's why he was brought here all along.
I'm sure I don't know that for sure.
That would be a great question for let's say Chris Young.
But if you look realistically at Bruce Boche's age and he retired with San Francisco is probably favorite job, but he's just like physically I'm struggling to do this.
And so he takes some years off and he's like, you know what, I want to do this again.
See why I had a relationship with him got him out of retirement, but I'm sure as soon as he got him out of retirement see why was probably thinking I wonder how long physically he can do this.
And so when he saw that skip and Miami fell out of favor and that he was manager of the year in the National League in 2023 took a young team that nobody thought was any good.
And he made the playoffs and then in 24 because he lost the general manager.
I'm sorry I'm drawing a blanket was the woman general manager.
Yeah, Kim win or king.
Yeah, Kim.
Yes, that's it.
Is I think that he's like, wait.
There was an in G in there somewhere.
And is like, wait a second.
So she and I as the leadership group here ended up taking a team you thought had no chance to make the playoffs made the playoffs and you're getting rid of her.
Well, what's the point of being here at this point?
And so I think skip made the decision like I'm going to somewhat become a free agent.
The ranger said, don't become a free agent will pay you to be an advisor here.
And so he got to be around the team last year and the coaching staff and the front office and the minor league stuff.
So I think he's coming in with a major advantage to all other new managers as he was around the team last year for a year.
Even though he had no, he didn't manage at all.
He has an idea of the guys's personalities, the team personality and what needs to change for it to be secure in anything.
Yeah, because it needs to change.
And I think he's I think he's working on that.
And hopefully it will.
Did you guys see him around much last year?
Yes.
He's going to us to the Hoy Palloy, who just watched the games on TV.
He was a guy who was stuck way up in the front office.
Yeah.
And when the game started or let's say after batting practice, I think he made sure to as far as we could tell, get away.
Right.
Because it wasn't his team.
He was not a coach.
Yeah.
But well before while the guys were, let's say warming up, taking their infield practice, batting practice, he'd be in the dugout.
Not every game, not even more close to every game.
But he would be around here and there, sometimes on the road, sometimes at home.
Skip and I played together on the O6 Olympic qualifying team in Cuba.
So we are teammates for about a month.
So you got a little sense of the guy.
Yeah.
I love him.
I hate losing Bruce Bochi, because I love him too.
And I think he was a great manager.
Still could be a manager.
If somebody gave him the opportunity and he wanted to do it for a few more years, the rest of his life.
I do love Skip.
He comes from that cardinal way.
It is disciplined.
It is detailed.
But I know that he cares about people too.
And that's a major part of that job, especially 162 games.
And how much travel you have and how much you're around those guys.
I think he understands everything necessary to be a successful team.
And then to lead successfully from his seat.
Yeah.
Personality-wise, it seems like he does have a sense of humor too.
Was it a wane ride, I think, that he had a prank war with.
Yeah, you know what?
And like, their wives got involved too.
But like, he's got enough of a sense of humor where it sounds like, you know, he can keep up the intensity when it's needed.
But he's not going to necessarily be doing bits in the clubhouse.
Right.
He can keep it loose enough, too, where it's, you know, it's riding that line of discipline, but not just, you know, you have to do this by the book.
Yeah. And the thing about Skip when I was with him, I would say he was very serious.
So I was just with him for a month.
We didn't play years together, but I was like, no, he's a pretty serious guy.
But I mean, he's also kind.
He's not where you feel like cold sometimes.
You can be around a guy who's serious.
You're like, does he care about anybody here?
And it doesn't seem like he even likes being here.
That wasn't Skip at all.
But I wasn't a teammate of his like on the cardinals and other places that he went where you would get more of that personality.
Because I would have to tell when I was at the ticket early on, I'd have to tell some of the guys who didn't like Michael Young.
Because he would just answer kind of that how crash Davis taught Nuke LaLouche.
And you're just like, can you give us something Michael?
And I'm like, no, let me tell you something.
He has a personality.
He has a prankster side to him.
He has a leadership side to him.
He doesn't just give you stock answers when you're a teammate of his.
But it was tough because if you're just covering them from the outside,
you're like, gosh, he seems like just stock answers and really not much personality.
But that wasn't who Michael Young was.
And I'm sure with Skip, he has a lot more there than what I even saw for one month.
There are a lot of guys like that in baseball.
Who do have personality, but to get to it, you got to be around them.
And that is a scary part of the game is with how much exposure there is,
there has to be personality in your game because there's too many other avenues of entertainment
to lose part of your audience.
So I do think guys have to loosen up more these days.
For organizations and teammates to be okay with that because then it gives us the fans
more to latch on to than just the game.
You think that's going to start changing in baseball?
I'm afraid it's not.
That is not good.
No.
No, I think that guys need to understand.
I don't know.
I don't want to give this example that popped into my head because it would be bad.
But they have to be more accessible, be more of a person.
So we get that practical joking part of them.
We just get, we get more of them so that we are more connected to them.
Because when they're just somewhat more robotic in their answers,
we just don't see them as he's my favorite player.
Well, why is he favorite player?
Well, because he hits home runs and he drives and runs.
Well, there has to be more than that, usually especially in today's marketplace.
It seems like over the years in baseball, guys have really been told not to do that.
Yeah.
And is that, is that changing something, something wants, that I'm seeing,
some indefinable something wants, makes me want to think that that is starting to change a little bit?
I hope you're right.
It just seems like they maybe only do those mandatory things that they have to do.
And I get it like after the game, you're the player of the game.
Yeah.
Do the interview.
Hey, this happened.
So before the game tomorrow, just speak about this or that.
But it feels like they're more protected.
And they can control their own narrative a lot more.
Yeah.
Yeah.
With their own social media, with their own, they don't necessarily have blogs,
but they have their own social media presence that just isn't,
they don't need the TV as much.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I feel like, I don't know, I do go on YouTube and I watch podcasts.
I watch, you know, this...
Or Dark Companion.
Yeah.
But like...
Thank you.
But I look...
Some set lounge.
It's tough because those guys are like, well, I just, to groups part,
I just want to control it my way.
And sometimes that way doesn't give us an idea of, I really like this guy.
Yeah.
Or I want to root for this guy.
Where producers and stuff.
We're working, let's say, Ranger Sports Network.
We're working to show not only that these guys are good baseball players,
but here's who they are as people, and here's why you should root for them,
maybe even a little bit more.
Man, if you can get them to go along with that, that would go so far, I think.
I know.
I mean, that would be great.
I know.
Let's talk a little bit about the club that's going to be on the field right now.
Right now, there...
It doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of positional battles going on in spring training.
But, you know, injuries and who knows what all else can affect that.
But right now, and I don't know, it's very, very early,
but it seems like everybody's got a reasonable idea of who's going to do what
and what the plan is at this moment.
Is that accurate?
Yeah, I think besides maybe a few bullpen spots.
Yeah.
Maybe the 5th starter, but the 5th starter, I'll give you that in a second,
is the position players we all know, as long as everybody's healthy,
we know the starting nine guys being Jacques Peterson, the DH,
and your bench is really easy.
See, they're higging your chance, and one of them's catching one of them isn't.
They're going to share that role.
And then you have Ezekiel Durand, I think, is going to be on the team
as you're back up in fielder, second bay, short stop, and third.
Will it over the season?
What's that?
Will Durand over the season?
Yes.
I feel like that should be an easy yes.
That was crazy that he didn't.
And then you'll have Hauman, and you'll have Haggardy.
That's your four guys.
Sometimes we start talking when Freeman got hurt.
And I think Freeman's going to help out this team at some point.
There's going to be injuries.
But I was like, I don't think Cody can make the team he has options.
And I don't think I'd have to look this up.
I don't think Haggardy and Hauman, because of their age,
I don't think they have options left.
So you're not going to just lose those guys on March 22nd,
and be like, hey, we're going to go with the younger guy to back up.
And I'm not crazy about having younger guys back up,
because then it stops their development as an everyday player.
So if you think they're never going to be an everyday player,
then fine, have them on the bench early on in their career.
But that gives you your 13 position players.
That's it.
There's no other spots.
My sense of Haggardy and Hauman last year
is that those two are kind of the same player.
Is that inaccurate?
No, I think that's accurate.
But they both, their contributions will be in the Rangers every day lineup.
They'll have five left handed hitters.
And those guys are right handed hitters.
So they are win a left hand or pitches.
I think both of those guys will be in the starting lineup.
But will they be in left field?
And then Langford moves the center field for Evan Carter.
Well, one of them, D.H.
Because, you know, Jock Peterson's not good against lefties.
So I think there'll be different ways to use them.
And then Zeke might need to give, I don't know, let's say,
Seager a day off.
So then one of them pops into second base.
Yeah, they're similar.
But I think on this team, because you're lefty, heavy in your lineup
for your everyday lineup, those two guys win lefties pitch
or when lefties come in to relieve are going to need to be ready to pinch it.
So you're saying that's not such a bad thing on this team?
No, I think you have to have.
I mean, pretty much your bench has to be all righties.
I think that becomes tough for Pablo.
Oh, sorry.
Why don't we say that?
I always say Pablo.
But I'm sorry.
I'm a hundred.
Oh, a hundred.
Gosh.
I was like, why do I do that?
But I did that one time last year in a broadcast.
And I'm like, you moron.
But for Osuna, he's a left handed hitting out.
Well, if you have Nimo and Evan Carter already out there,
and I need to give maybe one of those guys a day off against lefties,
well, Osuna can't do that because he's a lefty.
So you're not really making your lineup strong against that starting pitcher.
So I think for Osuna, I think he's going to contribute.
There's going to be injuries.
But I think most likely, if you have a healthy team, he starts off in triple A
and then helps the team out as the season progresses.
What kind of year is this going to be for Evan Carter?
I mean, just in terms of where he is in his career right now.
Good question.
I just talked to Dave Raymond this morning.
And I think Dave had good information because he did go to spring early.
Jared Sandler was supposed to go, but congratulations to Jared Sandler and Emily.
Yes.
They had their first child.
So Jared could not go to spring training.
So Dave went for approximately four to five days to fill in to kind of do all the interviews.
He said, Evan Carter looked great.
He looked a little bit heavier like he's put on some some good man weights.
That's about 10 to 15 pounds heavier, about 190 right now.
So best shape of his life.
Yeah.
Everybody is right right now.
Everybody is is I just have high expectations for him.
I think he can get better against left handed pitching, but against right handed pitching.
Let's just focus on that.
I think he can be a 280 hitter.
I think he can get on base 33% of the time drawing walks because he does have a good eye.
I think there is power there.
Not a lot.
I'm not saying 30 home run power, but I think there's 15 maybe 20 home run power this year.
But the key to all of that will be can his back stay healthy?
Yes.
Because it's specific with him.
It's specifically the back.
I mean that guy got so much hype when he was on the way up.
Yeah.
And you know the injuries and other things have happened.
And for whatever reason he just hasn't turned out the way everybody was hoping.
And we were all told that he would, but it's a big year for him.
It is.
And here's the other thing too, which I think people don't understand well.
Let's think about Evan Carter.
He was a second round draft pick out of high school.
Obviously dominated high school baseball.
He goes to the minor leagues and you just mentioned it.
He did not have much struggle in the minor leagues.
He only struggle.
He had was back issues in the minor leagues.
He was good in the minor leagues.
He comes up to the big leagues and has an awesome September.
He has an awesome playoff run.
And then what happened in 24?
He's dealing with a back injury.
And he's dealing with for the first time in his life.
At just turning 21 years old.
He's dealing with, well this game isn't easy anymore.
They're getting me out at an 80% clip.
I'm struggling now to bat over 200.
What in the world is happening?
So I think you dealt with injury.
And then for the first time in his life, he dealt with adversity of failure.
And a lot of times that adversity of failure can lead to a little bit of a slump.
But the good big leaguers, they figure it out.
And I do think Evan Carter, if he can stay healthy, will figure that out.
So I do think he dealt with a little bit of mental part of his game in 24 and 25.
Where it's like, okay, this failure thing, how do we overcome that?
Because this is the first time I'm dealing with it on this baseball field.
Last year, we saw pitching from this thing.
Like we had never seen before and maybe even never dreamed possible.
I know I never imagined that we would see what we saw last year from this thing.
And you know, it looked strong this year, but pitching is a very year-to-year thing.
Yeah.
It doesn't take me to tell you that.
Yep.
So how do you see the bullpen shaping up?
That's really where the biggest pitching question lies.
I'm worried about it.
I think that you'd love to have your last three roles solidified going into spring training.
I know who my closer is and I know who my two main eighth inning guys are.
Now we'll one-pitch the seventh and one-pitch the eighth.
Who knows where we're at in the lineup and my match up there.
But I like having those three roles feel confident in.
And then the other five guys, all right, fill in where you get in.
You never know how season's going to go.
Stuff like that.
But the Rangers and look, they've done this for about a decade now.
And it's pretty amazing that they've won a World Series.
They've even, and you look at, let's say 2015 and 16, they went to the playoffs.
Without ever having a closer in spring training and having to change the closures during the season multiple times.
It's scary to do it that way, but they've done it that way for a decade.
And so it can be made to work.
Yes. And so they're doing it again.
They're hoping DS is going to be the closer.
I think they're hoping that Chris Martin can be one of those seventh and eighth inning guys.
I think they're hoping that Garcia, the left, you can be one of those seventh eighth inning guys.
And that Cole win who is young and promising can jump into one of those roles.
If needed, because Chris Martin, let's look at his career.
He's not the guy who usually stays healthy for 162.
And it's a tough job to stay healthy, especially when you get close to 40 years old in that job,
where you need to be ready every day to give your team an inning.
It's, it's scary, but last year it wasn't that bad.
Right? Sean Armstrong came out of nowhere.
Who would have ever thought he would be?
I'm just going to, let's say one of the 25 best relievers in baseball last year.
You know, I mean, I know that he wasn't the closer for most of the year,
but that dude was nails in every role you gave him.
That guy might have been one of the best 15 because he could do so many different things.
Yeah, and did him all well.
And man, I hated seeing him.
I know. I know. I wish we could have kept him because to your point, Mike,
he filled so many roles.
You need an opener today. He'll open and give you the first two innings.
You need a closer. He'll figure it out.
You need that sixth inning guy. He'll do it.
You want him to be ready in the eighth inning for the heart of the lineup?
He'll do it.
It was really, really good.
Yeah.
All right. Now, now starting pitching.
Okay.
That's exciting.
I'm going to ask you a question because I'm too young for this.
I'm still going to consider myself young for this.
I wonder this is when we look at Evaldy and DeGrom and what they were able to accomplish
with other guys.
What was it like when it was Bert Blile?
Sorry. Was it Gaylord Perry and Ferguson Jenkins together?
Was Blile Evan ever with those guys or no?
I don't think he was.
Okay.
But Fergie and Perry were definitely together.
Yeah. What was it like with those two guys together?
Well, the whole baseball scene around here was a lot different then than it is now back then.
It was just kind of looked as, you know, something to do.
Okay.
And the type of coverage it got wasn't anywhere near like it is now.
And the level of information about it all that's out there now was nothing like that.
But for those of us who did follow the game and those of us who were fans, those two going
back to back was really something special.
Really something extraordinary.
It had to be.
Yeah, it was.
It was.
At the time they were both like future Hall of Famers.
The thought did cross my mind.
Okay.
That we were watching a couple of down the road Hall of Famers back then.
It was pretty awesome.
Who did you like watching more out of those two?
Gaylord was the better show.
But the better craftsman was Fergie.
You know, if you appreciate the craft of pitching, as I know you do,
then you had to love Fergie.
Yeah.
Because everything was different.
Nothing ever looked exactly the same.
The location might be the same.
It may be looking the same on the way up there.
Wait a minute.
It took a little off of it this time.
Or the inverse could be through.
Yeah.
It's like, well, he's through that harder than he did last time.
Yeah.
What gives?
He just had so many tricks up his sleeve.
Yeah.
And was such a pitching artist.
That's awesome.
I mean, I, you know, it's stuff like that.
You kind of wish being a guy who loves baseball that you could be around for that.
But maybe 20, 30 years from now, I know it's a short amount of time.
And I know that Fergie and Gaylord weren't together for a long time with their Rangers.
But you could say, gosh, you know, for a two or three year period of Valdi and DeGrom were together.
Yeah.
And you're watching, to me, Valdi is a guy who, for me, calling the game from a pitching standpoint,
is tough because this is great.
He's so unpredictable.
Because right when you think he's going to the split, he has to be going to the split.
He'll throw a 95 mile an hour fastball by a guy.
And then you're like, oh, this is where he likes dropping in a breaking ball.
You know, and then he'll go to the split.
And he's so unpredictable.
And you can tell the hitters are like, I can't get a feel for what he's going to next.
Because he throws four pitches approximately all at around 25%.
And then he throws them in every situation.
And there's not much predictability with him where DeGrom, it's very predictable.
He pretty much lives on the outside corner against Rides all of the time with all of his pitches.
But he's so freaking good at it that it doesn't matter that you know,
somewhat the location of almost every pitch he's going to throw.
He still beats you with it.
Yeah, I can get away with it.
I don't know.
I love watching Valdi.
Yeah.
That guy, he is a, he is an artist when it comes to pitching, you know,
I hear so many Ranger fans tell me that they're his favorite Ranger now.
Now, I don't know if all time, but like current this team,
I think you'll run into a lot of Ranger fans that are like a Valdi's my guy.
Yeah, I think so too.
I think a lot of that.
And this is the case for me.
A lot of that is because he seems like he's such a good guy and such a good teammate.
Maybe a wonderful human being to be around.
From the standpoint of not being his teammate,
but doing the job I'm doing, he might be the best teammate I've ever seen.
I just, for a guy, let's say in spring training,
and he'll do it during the season two, he'll just help Camar,
as long as he's not throwing his pen and he doesn't have a job to do on another field,
he'll be like, I'll watch Rocker throw for 15 minutes and give feedback
to Rocker wants feedback.
And if he doesn't, I won't, but like he's just there for every pitcher
to help them out in any way possible.
And if you ask Jack Leiter, he'll tell you a lot of his turn around,
his success from 24 to 25 was a Valdi slash and a Grom,
really helping his growth.
Yes, he had Maddox, he had to obviously do it himself,
but he had a lot of help from those two veteran guys.
So I think when it comes to Mackenzie Gore coming over
and his success slash inconsistencies,
I think that he can be way more consistent with the Rangers
because of a Valdi and a Grom.
And I think that Rocker, if he can just stay healthy,
can figure out how to be a consistent big league pitcher,
but he has to stay healthy to figure out how to do it.
This is Mike Bassack.
You see him on Rangers TV.
You saw him last year.
You will see him this year.
You're seeing him right now on a little YDC.
And I want to get into the Rocker Leiter into the rotation
with you here in just a bit.
But before we do, and you can relax here for a couple of seconds
if you want to.
There you go.
There you go.
All right.
Before we do, it's time for the dreaded and feared mid-show read.
So don't relax too much.
Stolen water media.
That would be us is making a move.
Now, after two plus years, it's time to change.
And more to keep up with our growth and your growth with us.
So soon, our video, much like our audio,
is going to be broadcasted to a number of platforms.
Until this migration is complete,
you can continue to view all eight of our podcasts
on our Patreon pages.
You will also continue to get a maximum beer 30 sports
o'clock, the clubhouse,
Mack Engle, the Engle Langle,
just wondering with Norm Hitzkes,
Signal 51 Chronicles,
and the Sunset Soccer Club on the YouTube channel.
That's at Sunset Lounge DFW.
At Sunset Lounge DFW.
And now, you can also get current episodes
of your dark companion on the Mike Reiner
or your dark companion YouTube channel.
At the handle, at the old Grey Wolf 16.
You continue to support us.
In our success and stick with us as we make this move.
And as always, radus, debatus.
Leave us a review.
Wherever you get our episodes,
share us on your social media
and recommend us to your family and friends.
Thank you from all of us here at Stolenwater Media.
Is that all?
Got one more?
I'm seeing something else here,
but I don't think that's what I'm looking at.
Okay.
So we should do this.
That's all.
We should do this.
I don't know.
Okay.
This is going to be fun.
Something.
All right.
See if you can figure that out, Ashley.
In the meantime, I'll just talk to them about this.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
So now we know what we're doing.
We always do this.
All right.
Let's talk to you about pain and pain that you may be in.
Pain that you may be walking around with.
Pain that you would really, really like to get rid of,
but you haven't been able to figure out how.
Let me ask you.
Have you tried CBD?
No, I'm not recommending anything,
and I'm not going to send you into a situation where you're going to go into a head shop
and walk out with some zig-zags and incense and stuff like that,
but nothing for your pain.
No, with the CBD House of Healing, they got stuff for that.
Their owner is a registered nurse.
What you need to do is go in there, ask for some,
or tell her what's going on.
Chances are she's got something in there that can help you out.
I don't know if it'll get rid of it for you,
but it will make you feel better.
The reason I know this is because I've been down this road with her.
She has given me stuff that has worked for me.
If she'll do that for me, she will do it for you.
So you need to go by the CBD House of Healing.
They are located at Plano Road and Northwest Highway
and the northeast quadrant of that burgeoning intersection.
Stop by telling me heard about it from us.
Here on YDC and start your process of healing
at the CBD House of Healing.
Is it?
All right, Kim?
Yeah.
All right.
Good job.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
I felt like the CBD commercial needed
clubber laying Mr. T.
Pain in Rocky 3.
What's your prediction?
Pain.
All right, maybe we'll see if we can drop this in there next time.
All right.
We're going to talk about the back end of the rotation.
Lider and Kamar Rocker.
Two young guys.
One really took a big step forward last year.
The other, we're still kind of in a holding process,
waiting for him to come around.
I love the guy's stuff.
Yeah.
I think he's going to be a really, really good pitcher.
And I hope like hell that happens here.
You know, I hope so too.
You know, it's funny is if we were doing this last year,
which we did, we were talking about rockers the guy.
Yeah.
And boy, that lighter.
I don't know.
Like, I hope he figures it out.
And now we're in opposite, like one year later,
we're like, that lighter guy kind of figured it out.
That rocker guy.
We're a year down the road and we've seen what happened.
Yeah.
And so it just shows how things can change.
Man, I think if lighter can get better command of his fastball,
he might be an all star this year.
Like his stuff, if you, when you talk to the other teams
and you get to talk to your other coaches,
his fastball is one of the hardest fastballs in the game.
I mean, he's consistently 98 to about 100 miles an hour with it.
It's just that he'll have games.
And if you look at his, his walk numbers last year,
like that's too many walks for innings pitched.
And he can, he can get that done because it'll be really erratic.
Like, whoa, what just happened?
Where did it go?
A little bit.
I know we all know his son now, but a little bit like Bobby Witt.
Where you're like, dude, this is dominating.
And then you're like, whoa, what just happened?
Like, why are we not throwing strikes in this inning?
What's going on?
Or are you just through six shutout innings your game before?
And then the first inning, you've walked two or three guys in the first inning.
If he can settle down his walks and get more control,
I think lighter has that chance to take that step,
whereas ERA is high twos.
Yeah.
And, you know, if the winds are there,
if the team can score early runs,
and the bullpen can hold leads,
I think he could have that wind total where you could be like,
hey, I think he deserves one of those all-star spots.
He pretty much brought me around last year.
I was skeptical at first and his first few outings
were a little bit on the shaky side,
but he came along.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know what kind of guy he is.
Maybe I'm way off base here.
But it looked to me like the guy was putting in the work.
He is from what I've been told.
Nobody can outlift him with legs.
So when it's leg day, lighter wins.
Nobody on the team beats him in leg day.
I got him, though.
You got him, groups?
No.
What you squat in these days?
Five pounds.
I feel like such an old man.
I'm at the gym sometimes, and I will do squats,
but I have a bad back.
I'm going to make an excuse for myself.
Sometimes I'll just squat the bar.
And I'm like, people have to walk by and go,
hey, you're supposed to put weights on that thing.
And I'm like, it weighs enough.
I'm just, I'm doing the motion.
The motion is enough.
Hey, you're Mike Freakin-Basic.
Yeah.
And it's all about the motion of the ocean anyway.
True.
I can't look at you and say that.
But you're the great Mike Bassy.
Yeah.
You're swole, bro.
Yeah.
I used to throw 85 miles an hour.
Yeah, you did.
Yeah.
And everybody'd be like, how are you getting Major League hitters out?
And I'd be like, I don't know.
Every time I release the ball, I don't know why.
It doesn't say 93, but it's not.
I'm trying my best.
It was that your throwing just as hard as me, right?
Yeah.
And it's just not getting there.
Nobody is trying harder than me to throw it hard.
Yeah.
Hey, why don't you try throwing it 80 percent?
I'm like, do you know that 80 percent might not be 80 miles an hour for me?
You stinkin' guys are throwing it 80 percent at 94.
And they're like, hey, I just need a little bit more.
Let's 97 it here.
And I'm like, I'm doing the same thing as you're doing.
You're giving it all you got.
Yeah.
But I do lighter is a very hard work.
Or in fact, sometimes you might think, maybe you're overworking,
if that makes sense.
Like that might be part of this problem.
Like, I'm going to figure this out.
And you're like, at some point you kind of get diminishing returns
on now working past this point.
Yeah.
That's good to hear.
Yeah.
Because, you know, sometimes guys who are progeny,
they kind of think they got it made a little bit.
I can see that.
I can see that.
I would jack, the other thing that Jack has going for him is,
I don't know, I'm repeating myself, he has a Valdien de Grom.
Let's just go back to, let's just say it's 2021 or 2022.
I guess I'm trying to remember who you had.
You might have had like Lance Lynn.
That's a good example of like, but, you know, Mackenzie Gore for example,
he had nobody in Washington to rely on.
Like when things, hey, you can rely on stats.
You can rely on video and you can rely on your pitching coach.
You don't have anybody there who has 10 plus years in the big leagues
of ultimate success and where you want to be.
They're in a rebuilding stage.
So I think for lighter, it really helps.
And for rocker, it could help.
But he has to be in the big leagues for it to help.
Do you think that's going to happen on opening day?
I think it's between him and Jacob Lats.
I think if Lats doesn't make the starting rotation,
I think Lats is in the bullpen.
I think if rocker doesn't make the starting rotation, he's in triple A.
Yeah, yeah.
That's kind of the way I see it too.
And I want it to be that too.
People have said this about rocker to me.
Why don't you just make him a closer?
Because you know that big body, strong work, we're looking for a closer.
One, he doesn't hold on runners well.
I'm not saying you have to.
But that gets a little bit concerning with the way the rules are only two picks.
He does not have a good pick move.
He doesn't hold on runners well.
He takes a long time at times to get the ball to home plate.
So all of a sudden, that guy gets to second base as the tying run.
Because you can't hold them on.
That gets a little bit scary.
So.
I think he has the ability to strike out more guys than innings pitched.
But that hasn't been proven yet at the big league level.
So a lot of times as my closer one, I want him to just strike people out.
So if a guy does get on second or third, less than two outs fine.
Just strike out the next two guys and we're out of this situation anyways.
Just have stuff that is kind of unhittable.
He does have that in him.
He hasn't proven that he can consistently do that.
So for me, I want to keep developing him as a starter.
Right now as we sit here today, Mike, I don't know what his secondary pitch is.
He kept changing it.
I think it's a curve ball.
It's a slider.
It's a slurve.
You know, I'm like, you got to figure that out.
Before you can like consistently get big league hitters out,
you got to consistently know who you are.
That must drive pitching coaches crazy.
It has.
It has with with him because there's so much talent there.
And once again, he has from Vanderbilt.
He hasn't really been healthy.
He's fiddling around with different breaking balls trying to figure out what works.
And then by the time he might be getting an idea, he got hurt.
Yeah.
And so I was like, well, I'm not sure.
So now when I go back, was it the way I saw in the breaking ball that caused me to have a little bit of an injury?
Should I go back to the old one?
Should I try a different one?
And so that's the deal with with rocker is he needs to find this spring training is big for him.
What is your best secondary pitch that you can consistently throw
and consistently get some swings and misses on?
And then what's your third one?
Because right now, I think I'm confused with when I watched rocker last year.
Love him.
I think he's going to be really good.
But I don't know.
I cannot tell you this is his best second pitch.
This is his third pitch.
This is his fourth pitch.
Yeah.
By the way, thank you for invoking the name of one of my favorite Rangers from days gone by a minute ago.
Lance Lynn.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Boy, that guy was surly.
Yeah.
Man, he was.
Yeah.
But I'm on the mound.
I loved it.
Yeah.
He was like, I don't care if I give up 20 runs in the second inning.
Yeah.
I'll just go out there and throw three morning.
So my bullpen doesn't have to wear it.
All right.
I want to get into this.
It's been worn out.
I know we've gone over this before.
But let me just see where you are with it right now.
OK.
Do you have any further thoughts or any new thoughts on what happened to this team's offense last year?
Wow.
No.
Because I'll tell you this.
When I get to do the broadcast on March 14th and 16th.
From spring training.
I will not say the same thing that I said last year and Dave Raymond and Jared Sandler were right along with me.
We know the offense is going to be really good.
Like that's what we said every broadcast in spring training.
This is the one thing we know.
And you know what?
You were right.
Or we thought it was going to be good.
You were right about that.
By the time we got done with the first road trip.
We were starting to question, hey, is this a rut to start the year?
Or what's going on here?
Because this is not working out.
Now, the ranger started off.
I want to say last year eight and two or seven and three.
But it wasn't because of offense.
It was just because the pitching was outstanding.
And so.
And that hadn't dawned on us yet.
I look at it and I go, I don't know except.
I think guys started losing confidence.
They started trying things that they were uncomfortable with.
And they didn't become comfortable with them.
And then I think you didn't have cohesion in the lineup.
And I know you can just say put him here and him there and him there.
But you kind of do have a role in the lineup.
Cory Seeger swing whenever you want.
I don't care if there's a runner on third and less than two outs.
You're still trying to hit a home run.
I get it.
Like I get it.
You're that good.
Do it.
But I think for guys like Evan Carter and Josh Young.
And you know, for guys that were there last year, maybe a Jonah Heim.
Hey, what's your role in this offense?
And can you accomplish that role?
And the answer for most of them last year was no, we can't.
And so I hope it changes.
Here's my, it can't be that bad.
It can't be that bad again, right Mike?
You reassure me.
It can't be that bad.
All right.
I will reassure you.
It can't be that bad.
Yeah.
Only because I don't want it to be that bad.
Yeah.
I will reassure you of that.
It was the weirdest thing in the history of Rangers.
Yes, it was.
The first time ever we had the pitching and then the hitting wasn't there for kind of the first time in Rangers history.
Yeah.
It was a complete flip form.
Every team, everything we've ever known about this thing.
Raymond's better with this and Sandler is because I can't remember what they told me.
Every team since like 2000, except one.
And I think the Texas Rangers made the playoffs with the best ERA as a starting pitching staff.
It's almost impossible not to make the playoffs if you have the best ERA as a starting staff in baseball.
And their Rangers were able to not make the playoffs because their offense was that poor last year.
Who is the one guy on this team that's just flat out got to do more than last year?
No, that you just absolutely positively cannot have a run back from last year.
I'm going to go in a different route than you think I might go because I mean there's seven guys.
I think you can pick from.
I'm going to go with Cory Seeger.
Okay.
And here's why he only had like 50 something RBI's last year.
Now part of that was injury.
Well, we can't get injured.
And I get you're going to miss some time that we're going to need to give you days off.
I need him for 140 games because if I'm building this offense around him.
Now, maybe the offense needs to be built around why at Langford, if Cory Seeger is going to miss the amount of games that he misses.
But I need more from Cory Seeger.
And the part of it is is when he gets on a roll, it felt like last year if he got on a big roll, he'd get hurt.
Then because this is new baseball, we don't go down the minor leagues and try to get ready to come back to the big leagues.
We just go, oh, you're healthy.
Let's just put them in the major leagues.
We don't want to lose any of the bats that he could give us.
And then Seeger last year, I felt like would really struggle coming back from the injured list.
So you had to deal with seven to 10 games of us Cory Seeger.
That wasn't Cory Seeger.
And then he'd get his rhythm back.
And then you'd see that Cory Seeger again.
I don't think you can have that because this lineup is built around Cory Seeger.
So there's other guys, but I'm just going to throw out Cory Seeger because I'm interested to know your guy.
My guy is an X factor because this guy was not here last year.
This guy was the big offseason acquisition.
And I really don't have enough of a feel for this guy to know how he's going to fit in.
I'm very curious about Brandon Nemo.
I am too.
I mean, I think he's going to be the lead off hitter against Rides.
He might be the lead off hitter against lefties just because you're so lefty heavy.
Yeah.
I just, I don't know what you're going to get out of them, but I think it'll be pretty good.
It'll, because I love Marcus Semy.
I don't want to make this clear.
I love Marcus Semy.
How do I?
I think he's a great teammate.
I know that there were things said about him in the offseason.
I think he's a great person, a great teammate.
Things didn't work out here in the end.
I hope he has a lot of success there in New York, and I think he can.
But Brandon Nemo has to be better than Marcus Semyon's numbers last year.
And that's not a high bar.
No, it's not.
Is he a power guy or is he a gap hitter or a gap?
Okay.
Yeah.
I think also now, not that city field is like a great hitters park.
Yeah.
It's I would say fair at place fair.
I mean, last year, the Rangers Park just played as one of the best places to pitch and one of the worst places to hit.
So I do think Skip Schumacher going back to the start of kind of our conversation is,
I think it's good that he is a nationally guy and a guy that had a limited budget
that could not rely on home runs in Miami to win games.
Because I think in this park, I don't know if, especially what I think the lineup the Rangers have,
I don't know, you can't rely on homeers to win games here.
Yeah.
You got to rely on getting on base and you got to rely on getting extra base hits.
I mean, with this team, you got to know how to play the game that's on the field.
Yes.
You got to, you got, I use this example.
It was early when we played the Dodgers last year, but I use this example
because it was so impressive to me.
And I know he didn't have a good year.
Mookie Betts in the eighth inning gave himself up and hit a ground ball to second base to move a runner to third.
And it won the game.
Then I can't remember if it was Freeman or Muncie or whoever drove in the guy from third base.
And I'm like, the only reason that happened was because with nobody out in a runner on second in the eighth inning,
Mookie Betts said, I'm already getting paid.
Billions of dollars.
You know what the game ask of me right now?
To shoot the ball to the right side of the field so that guy can be on third.
The end of this at bat needs to have my guy on third base.
And if Mookie Betts will sacrifice himself like that,
can't some of you guys sacrifice yourself like that and just figure out how do I put the bat on the ball
and control the ball to the right side of the field so that we have the opportunity to win this game late.
With a new manager, you know what comes along with that?
New coaches.
Have you been around any of these guys yet or do you know them or have you run across them before in your baseball background?
Or do you have any thoughts on them?
Well, some of the guys got elevated, right?
So I was around them last year, but I would say not a lot.
Now the new hitting coach from Houston, I don't know him at all.
But I think yeah, yeah, I think Hixie might Hixie might know him.
And then Dave Raymond might know him from Houston Astro days.
So so they do have a relationship.
So what I do on those situations is I just getting those guys back pockets,
you know, during batting practice and early on and I kind of listen to them talk.
And then I introduce myself and then hope that, you know,
we create a bond and a friendship as a season progresses.
So what can we?
The viewing masses look forward to from the Ranger Sports Network this year.
Oh, good question.
Hopefully you enjoyed what we brought last year.
And I know I did as a season progresses and you're not winning.
It's always tougher to keep the audience, right?
It's just it is what it is.
Like I'll be honest like right now.
I'm not really watching the Mavericks at all.
Cooper Flag is hurting.
I don't care.
They're not really trying to win and I don't care to watch it.
He's not playing tonight either.
Yeah.
So I just I look at stuff like that and go, OK,
well, in those situations, it can be really tough to keep your audience
on a game-to-game basis.
But I think that Sandler, our producer, John Jigoo, for Rangers,
I always say I want to say the old Rangers live.
Oh, yeah.
But for Rangers, I think it's a game day.
Patrick's going to call me up our producer and be like, can you,
we're in year two, get this, get these names right.
And I'm like, Patrick, we'll take care of them.
Yeah.
But I do think that they try to put together really interesting pre and post game
stuff.
Post game stuff is a little bit more difficult because you're just you're
working off of the game that you had.
But I think that can be really fun.
So I would encourage people, hey, I know the game starts at 705 and I know
you might have dinner or you're kind of planning on that that first pitch
is going to be 705-ish.
But boy, if you can tune in a little bit earlier and catch some
of the pre game stuff, I think Sandler does a tremendous job.
He'll usually have on me or Eric Nadell or Hixie or Dave Raymond or Dave Murphy
and we're working to get you ready for the game and hopefully a fun,
entertaining way.
So I think that's the thing about what we're hoping to bring, Mike,
is the way that you started off sports talk radio in DFW.
That, yeah, we're going to talk sports.
But we're also going to have fun doing it.
I feel like that's Ranger Sports Network's goal, too, is hey,
there's a game and we got to be serious about this game and we have to respect the game.
But we can have a little bit of fun doing this, too.
While you're at it, let's have a little fun if we can.
Yeah.
Yeah, nothing wrong with that.
Yeah, that's fun.
That's right.
It's pretty awesome.
Um, we have your questions.
Oh, is that what you're telling me?
That's what I'm telling you.
Yeah, this never happens, Mike.
Okay, this is awesome.
Live viewers.
Okay.
We were taking questions on Facebook.
So make sure and watch us on Facebook.
Yeah.
Facebook.
You hear him?
Ron Gallagher asks, a serious question for Mike.
Yeah.
This guy used to crush watermelon, right?
Yes.
Over under Ranger's wins this year.
And do you think we can make the playoffs?
Okay.
So yes, they can make the playoffs.
Seattle is to me by far the favorite.
They finally overcame the 25 year kind of drought of making
the playoffs winning the division.
I don't count that 2020 year where it was 16 teams made it.
So yes, that happened.
But like they really won the division.
They really made a run.
Uh, it's going to be tough to win that division.
Seattle is very talented on paper.
Over under wins.
If I had to set the bar.
I would say the bar is 81.
Like that would, I think that would be a realistic.
I, I'm not checking Vegas odds or anything.
But I would say it's right around 500.
I think this team can go in multiple directions.
I will say it's going to be interesting.
And I pray this doesn't happen.
But if they're under 500 around the all star break.
Um, what will the organizations path be for the future?
Because then they have to start looking more at future.
And the possible.
I paid talking about this, but the possible lockout.
That's looming in 27 and the financial ramifications of that.
So I think for Ranger fans.
I'll put that number at 81 as an over under.
But the Rangers really need to get off to a pretty good start
for multiple reasons.
Skip Schumacher being that manager too.
And then I think the all star break being over 500 could really
help out the push.
Yeah.
Because we've seen Chris Young wants to push.
She does not want to sell at trade deadlines.
But I think with the future of baseball.
And where you're at age wise with Jacob DeGrom and Nathan Evaldi
and Corey Seeger at shortstop.
I think those could be tough questions at the break if you're not playing well.
So this might be viewed as a do it now or else year.
I think so.
I do too.
Do we have another one shooting?
We got a few more.
Oh, we do.
Hell yeah.
This is fun.
Michael Isbel.
Who is your favorite Rangers player of all time?
Of all time.
All time.
Mike, go first.
You go first.
I off the top of my head.
I'll answer.
But I'm not sure.
I go with Ruben Sierra.
Because that's just childhood.
I would fell in love with the Rangers in the mid late 80s.
And so I lean towards Ruben right now off the top of my head.
First guy to come to mind for me was Michael Young.
Okay.
Because he was such a gamer.
He was so into it.
He seemed like a guy that got along with everybody in the room.
Seems like a really, really great teammate.
And he was just a...
I don't know if he had just a whole world of natural ability.
Like some of these guys do.
But he made himself into a really, really good major league player.
I respect that.
Yeah.
Well, based off of that, that question, I have a present for you, Mike.
And these are baseball cards.
And I thought maybe you could pick one of these guys.
There's four cards here.
This is 1991 stadium club.
So this is like the first year of stadium club baseball.
And I wanted you to take a look at these four guys and tell me around 1991.
Do you have a fun story or interesting story about any of these guys?
Hell yeah.
Let's see.
I know you got to get your glasses on that.
The first card is not like it's a little bit of a distance shot.
So you're going to have to obviously read the name.
But I think it's a good Ranger name.
Oh, it is the best Ranger name.
Julio Franco.
Hell yeah.
The keeper of the big goal.
Okay.
We would go in the room before the game from time to time and even well before the game.
Before they started meetings or anything like that.
Well before the game.
He would have the big goal in place.
And he would wear it during the game.
And then after the game, you would see him getting out of his uniform.
And there it was.
The big goal.
Called him the keeper of the big goal.
All right.
But I loved it, man.
I got hit.
Yeah.
Oh, let's see.
Here is Ruben Sierra.
I didn't know there's going to be a question about Ruben Sierra.
But it's like, I got to bring out this now.
So what you sure do.
I would have loved to have seen what Ruben Sierra.
Could have been how he could have been.
What kind of player he could have been.
Had he not hit the weights so hard.
Because he started lifting weights when that became a thing in baseball.
And he put on a lot of weight.
I guess it was good weight.
But I would have loved to see what the lean live Ruben Sierra could have been.
Because he could move back then too.
I know.
I know.
He was a guy.
Wasn't he a 30-30 guy early in his career?
Yes, he was.
He was.
He absolutely was.
Okay.
Geno Patroly.
How about that name?
Oh, yeah.
Geno Patroly.
I didn't know him real well.
Okay.
But he was.
He was just a ball player who loved the game.
He would do anything for any time, for anybody at any time.
During the course of the game to help the team win.
If you needed him to go out there and try to play second base, hit it, done it.
And not have a second thought about it.
And when he was catching and doing that thing that he did, he did it hard.
He played hard.
Didn't have the most ability of anybody out there.
But man, he played hard.
Okay.
That was a good guy too.
Okay, good.
I got one more card and see if there's any stories here.
There's quite a few stories about this guy.
Oh, there are.
There are Kevin Brown.
Oh boy.
How about that present?
Huh?
It's just some 1991 stadium club.
Get your ready for baseball this year.
If this doesn't get my head right for baseball, I don't know what will.
Take you back into Arlington Stadium.
Yep.
Kevin Brown was, I believe, a number one.
First round pick.
I believe he went fourth overall or something like that.
He, for those who don't know, was a pitcher and a really, really, really good one.
He was also too smart for his own good.
I mean, he went to West Coast school that has high academics and everything like that.
And I don't know how, and into the academic scene, he was out there.
But you could tell that you were talking to a really, really intelligent guy.
Georgia Tech.
Oh, I thought it was a West Coast school.
Screw me.
It's West of the Atlantic Ocean.
It is West of the Atlantic Ocean.
That's what I meant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, if the East Coast of the United States could be the West Coast, it's West of the Atlantic, right?
It's all semantics anyway.
It is.
When people got to this land, they thought that was pretty West.
Right.
But with Kevin Brown, when you interviewed Kevin Brown, you never knew what you were going
to get.
If the game didn't go the way he wanted, the way he thought it should go, or the way
he wanted it to go, or he didn't do as well as he thought he should have done, then
man, you're going to get a real bona fide.
Stop down.
Hope to die.
Horses.
Talk to him any other time.
Smart, well spoken, a thinker.
He was just a joy to interview.
But you never knew from one time to the next what you were going to get, and you just had
to kind of know and understand that with him.
But I really liked having him here, and now looking back on it because I can't do that
now.
Looking back on it, I'm glad I had to deal with that with somebody during the course of
my time in the game, because it taught me how to.
Yeah.
Like the Kenny Lofton interview.
Yeah.
How to do that.
That was awesome.
I just brought up every now and then it brings me joy.
What are my finest moments?
What was it we're about as interested in this interview as you see?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you don't want to do the interview, don't do the interview, man.
You don't have to.
Yeah.
There are no guns here.
Unless you've got some stats in your locker.
But I don't have them.
I'm not making you do nothing.
Right.
Wow.
It was here to have fun with sports.
Yep.
Did you get to go to spring training when the Rangers were in Florida?
Yeah.
I think we went a couple times.
Okay.
But it was never as much fun as it was out in Arizona.
Yeah.
They got the spring training thing right.
I saw a picture.
I commented on X Twitter of No One Ryan.
I did it this morning.
I saw a picture of him in 1980 in spring training for the Houston Astros.
And you would have thought in the background is their spring training facility
like for their backfields.
It looked like a field that had been abandoned for five years.
And you're just like, what in the world is going on?
And my dad would tell me when they had spring training when he was with the Rangers in the 70s.
Some of their backfields, the grass was St. Augustine.
And so if you don't know grass, it's maybe what you have out in your yard right now.
The weed grass, like the vine grass.
And they're like, yeah, that's what we played baseball on in spring training.
And now the fields and the backfields, the minor league fields.
They're just so beautiful.
But that No One Ryan picture.
I was just like, can you believe they practiced on those?
They're like, yeah, let's go field some grounders there.
Yeah, someone replied to your post.
Not too far from Cape Canaveral.
If the fun fan was lucky, they could see a rocket launch in the distance.
Coco Florida was a little better than the team's first spring training location of Apache Junction.
Where most of the attendees were rattlesnakes.
That must be for the Astros, right?
For the Astros.
Yeah.
Yeah, we'll pull up that picture for you after the show.
Because it does look like there should just be a cow in the outfield.
Michael, this has been awesome, man.
Thank you for doing it.
Did you get more excited about the season?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
My head's right for ball now.
Yeah.
It's always so great right now because of the optimism.
Yeah.
I knew that talking to you would bring me around on it.
And it certainly has done that.
And we're going to do it this year, Mike.
We're going to play baseball.
We are going to play baseball.
I don't know if I can say that at this time next year.
But right now, I say, you're seeing it every time.
But right now, baseball is on.
All right.
Before we go away, they're telling me that I tell you about the Eric Nadal birthday benefit concert is what's up now.
This celebrates its 14th edition by featuring two of Eric's favorite bands.
Brooklyn-based Samy Ray and the friends and the Bay Area favorite Chuck profit and the Cumbia shoes.
The benefits supports the work of the Grand Halliburton Foundation.
That's a local nonprofit providing mental health education training and support to teens and families to learn more.
Visit grandhalliburton.org.
Sponsored tables and suites are available through Grand Halliburton Foundation.
Visit grandhalliburton.org slash Eric Nadal to learn more or to purchase a sponsorship.
Eric Nadal's birthday benefit presented by Haynes Boone and KXT.
91 7 FM featuring Samy Ray and the friends with special guest Chuck profit, Samy Ray and the friends Chuck profit.
It's Thursday, May 14th, 2026.
Doors open at 630, Showtime 730.
At the Longhorn Ballroom.
The fabled Longhorn Ballroom.
216 Corinth Street in Dallas 75207.
We will see you there.
Thanks to Ashley.
Thanks to Shubi.
Thanks to the great Mike Bassett for being with us today.
Thanks to all of you for being by the channel.
We do appreciate you.
Till next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Alright.
I don't think I can solve.
Your Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.
Thank you.