Locked On Rangers: Which starter moves to pen? Wyatt Langford concern, and Mariners offer AL West test.
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00:00The Rangers have a lot of quality starting pitchers on the IL, but who's going to be
00:03the first one out of the rotation once starters start to come off?
00:07We're going to talk about all that and more on this episode of Locked on Rangers.
00:09Let's get into it.
00:13You are Locked on Rangers, your daily Texas Rangers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast
00:20Network, your team every day.
00:34You are locked on to the World Series champion Texas Rangers.
00:37I'm Bryce Patrick, a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers fan, covering this team for
00:4011 seasons, including all six as the founder and host of this podcast.
00:44Thank y'all so much for making Locked on Rangers your first listen every single day.
00:47If you're not already, you can follow me on Twitter at Bryce Patrick.
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01:00Before we get into today's topics of who is going to be first into the pen, and also,
01:04is it time to start getting concerned about Wyatt Langford's home run drought?
01:07This episode is brought to you by Monopoly Go.
01:10I admit, I have a competitive side, and it is a big fan of Monopoly Go, the mobile hit
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01:16Join your friends and download Monopoly Go, now free on the App Store or Google Play.
01:21The idea for the first topic of today's show was brought to me by a follower on Twitter.
01:26I am so sorry.
01:27I'm forgetting who exactly it was I had this conversation with.
01:30I believe it was last night.
01:32I've done this show a couple of times, but looking a little bit more at who specifically
01:37is going to be first to move to the pen, who would be most effective there, especially
01:41after that outing from John Gray out of the bullpen this weekend?
01:47Andy Swain.
01:48That's who it was.
01:49Thank you, Andy Swain, on Twitter, who was asking about this last night and prompted
01:53me to think, okay, yeah, this would be a good topic for the show.
01:57Because the Rangers have a lot of guys on the I.L.
01:59They have a lot of guys coming off at different rates of the I.L.
02:02I added Michael Lorenzen to the rotation just last week.
02:06They are hopefully getting Cody Bradford back off the I.L. sometime next week is when he
02:11is eligible.
02:12I haven't heard anything about a rehab start, but probably won't hear anything about that
02:16until some point in this series against the Mariners when we start getting to hear a little
02:21bit of chat about that.
02:22Max Scherzer is starting his first rehab assignment on Wednesday, still TBD if that's in Round
02:28Rock or in Frisco.
02:29And then eventually, hopefully, you get the return of Mally and DeGrom.
02:35And at this point, you got five starters you feel pretty decent about.
02:40Plus, well, Jack Leiter is there lurking and could make a spot start if the Rangers need
02:45him to.
02:46Hopefully, he'll be prettier than his major league debut.
02:48But again, I think Leiter pitched a little bit better than those numbers would indicate.
02:52But right now, you got five guys in your rotation, and there are some question marks regarding
02:57some of them.
02:58But for the most part, the Rangers starters have been fairly solid.
03:02I mean, everybody outside of Andrew Heaney has an ERA under four.
03:06I mean, Dunning, I think, has been one of the worst starters of the group, but he's
03:11gone six innings pretty much every start out and has kept the Rangers in games by no means
03:17pitching them out of it.
03:19And John Gray, who had a rough first couple of starts, has looked fantastic his last few
03:23outings, especially that one out of the bullpen.
03:25And even Heaney, I think, is a little bit better than his numbers would indicate, having
03:29a 635 ERA in four starts and 17 innings.
03:34He looks solid against the Braves.
03:36Not the most spectacular outing, looked rough early, but got through five, gave up three
03:40runs against one of the better lineups we've seen in a long time.
03:42And so, there's not a whole lot of rush to shove anybody right into the bullpen thinking,
03:47oh god, this guy is terrible, the Rangers actually don't have any good starting pitching,
03:52and the Rangers need those injured reinforcements soon, like super soon.
03:58But you know, they're coming.
04:01They are coming off the I.L.
04:02Cody Bradford, a guy who most people didn't think would make the rotation, has been arguably,
04:07despite making just three starts, he's been the Rangers' best starter this season.
04:11And that 15-day I.L. stint is not ideal.
04:15Hopefully he comes back after, like right when he's ready to be activated.
04:20I think that is the initial thought with that lower back strain.
04:24But Scherzer's coming much sooner than anybody anticipated.
04:28Lorentzen has been solid if walking a tightrope his first couple of starts, and Iovaldi, great
04:35first couple of starts, a little bit shakier in the last few, but still solid atop that
04:40rotation.
04:41So, let's look at the Rangers' options.
04:43Now, when healthy, when healthy, again, the Rangers, if everybody on their 40-man roster
04:50was completely healthy, the Rangers would have nine different guys that you'd feel comfortable
04:55starting a regular season game.
04:57And in that order, in my order, for if everyone's fully healthy, fully, you know, themselves,
05:04the rotation would look like this.
05:05DeGrom, Scherzer, Nathan Iovaldi, Tyler Mallee, Cody Bradford, Michael Lorentzen, John Gray,
05:12Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning.
05:14That's nine guys.
05:15That's, that's solid.
05:16That's kind of akin to where the Rangers were last year.
05:21Now, before all of those trades, they, they had seven guys that I felt pretty confident
05:26in being able to start coming into camp, maybe eight, um, with, with Cole Reagans being
05:32the eighth one that, uh, did not get the chance to start, but that, that, that's a topic for
05:36a different day.
05:37But at right now, at present, you gotta look at who's the worst starter.
05:42That's probably the first thing the Rangers consider.
05:45Who is the guy who's put up the, you know, least impressive outings, the, does the least
05:51for the rotation or does the least to help out the bullpen and give you not the best
05:55chance to win.
05:57At this point, you got to say Andrew Heaney, but outside of a couple of really rough starts,
06:02which again will happen with Andrew Heaney, it's, it's been okay for him.
06:08And I think he plays up pretty well out of the pen, but you got, you got to also look
06:12at Dane Dunning who, again, not to trash on Dane Dunning, Rangers pitcher of the year
06:16last year, fantastic starting, fine, pretty good starting pitcher.
06:20I don't want to get too ahead of myself, uh, with, with Dane, but he's been, he's been
06:24fine this year, a 391 ERA and 23 innings going about six innings per start.
06:29But the walks have really concerned me with Dunning as well as the home runs.
06:34He's not giving up a whole lot of hits under six hits per nine, but two home runs per nine
06:37and 5.1 walks per nine that hasn't bit him just yet, but eventually it's gonna.
06:45Turns a lot of solo home runs into two run or three run or grand slams because you were
06:52not able to get guys out.
06:54And when you don't have the nastiest, you know, velocity, it's usually those guys are
07:00kind of, you know, weak ground ball, you know, soft contact, great command guys.
07:05That's what Cody Bradford is.
07:07That's what I love about Bradford is he's, you know, giving up half a home run per nine,
07:10which I don't think that's going to stick for the entirety of the season, but under
07:13one walk per night that I think it can stick because Bradford's command is elite, but Heaney,
07:19he's also not pitching you super deep into games, which is something that I really value
07:22in a starter.
07:23I think that gets overlooked a whole lot, especially in today's game where you've got
07:27guys like Jared Jones going out there on like a 50 pitch count and, and going three innings
07:33or Paul skeins, which I understand why the pirates are doing that with both of those
07:37guys specifically of, you know, working them up to, you know, getting ready to pitch every
07:41fifth day when they're used to pitching every seven days and being cautious with, you know,
07:47starters that throw a hundred.
07:49It makes sense, especially given where they are in their contention window.
07:52Um, but for the Rangers guys who pitch, you know, multiple innings, not having to use
07:57as much of this bullpen, which has been pretty good so far this year, especially Kirby Yates,
08:02who I talked a lot about in yesterday's show of him just being absolutely insanely good,
08:05which is such, such found money for the Rangers, but going deep into games, that's one of the
08:10things that I enjoy about Nathan Evaldi, what I value about Evaldi.
08:13It's one of the reasons why I like Dunning sticking in the starting rotation a little
08:17bit better than Heaney, um, because Dunning is usually going to go six innings.
08:23Sometimes they'll give you seven.
08:24Sometimes we'll have a blow up start and he'll give you four and two thirds or whatever,
08:27but that happens more often, more frequently for Heaney because he's not as economical
08:31with his pitch count.
08:32And also why I lean a little bit more towards John Gray over Heaney as well with the rins
08:38and he's still, you know, building up, but he went five shutout innings in his first
08:42start, uh, six innings with just the three run Homer in the first inning, uh, in his
08:46second start against the Braves, which going six, six innings, three earned runs against
08:52the Braves, a quality start.
08:53That is a difficult thing to do.
08:55And Lorenzen says that he is feeling like he has got his best stuff.
08:59And that is something that bodes very, very well for the Rangers.
09:03Him having his best stuff and looking like the best version of himself because he was
09:08definitely an afterthought.
09:09I mean, the Rangers signed him a week before a week before the opening day, and he's already
09:14here in the rotation, making a couple of starts and, and he's probably going to stick there
09:20at this point.
09:21We'll see.
09:22It's still very early.
09:23I mean, we've got five starts from, uh, from Nathan E of all the, we're, we're not even
09:28five times through the rotation.
09:29We've got three starts from Bradford, four from gray, four from Dunning, four from Heaney,
09:33just two from Lorenzen.
09:35So we still don't really know exactly what this rotation is looking like, but coming
09:38up, we're going to go through what at this point would be my ideal look for this pitching
09:42staff, which guys would be nastiest in the pen right after this for from our sponsors.
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13:32Going about 4-5 innings, usually only around 80 pitches is his ideal mark, and facing a
13:38lineup a third time through is not always the best for Andrew Heaney, so I think that
13:43his stuff would play up very, very well in a relief option.
13:47The Raiders don't have the most nasty, nasty lefties that would be very tough on lefties,
13:53and Heaney is very tough on lefties.
13:55With that fastball, with that slider, that combination in the pen would be a very, very
14:00helpful weapon for the Raiders, and I think that the velocity ticking up a little bit
14:04in the pen, which I think it would, he's already got a great spin rate on that fastball, but
14:08if he's got that and it's ticking up a little bit from where it is, I think that would be
14:13just such a devastating combination.
14:15And then John Gray is the obvious answer.
14:18I think of these starters, outside of those big three names that I mentioned, and I'll
14:23include Mally in those guys as well, I think Gray's got the highest ceiling as a starter.
14:29I mean, we've seen these two-month stretches, month-long stretches where John Gray just
14:33looks absolutely unbeatable, otherworldly, and then we'll have some stretches where he
14:38is just in a rough, rough way.
14:40But when he's been in the pen in the World Series, and in that one outing that we saw
14:46against the Braves, he's been absolutely electric.
14:50The slider is one of the best sliders in baseball, bar none.
14:55When he's just airing that thing out and the fastball velocity is ticking up a few ticks,
15:00which I think it would in the pen, he could be the Rangers' eighth inning guy.
15:05He could take over for Robertson in that role.
15:08I don't think anybody's supplanting Yates at this point with what he's done, but having
15:11another arm like that, who can also go multiple innings because he does have a starter's buildup,
15:17that is a huge potential weapon for the Rangers in the pen.
15:22At this point, I think that Dunning would probably be the first one to move into the
15:26bullpen.
15:27That would probably, I think, come when Cody Bradford gets off the I.L.
15:31Then whenever Scherzer gets off the I.L., I think that at this point, I'm leaning towards
15:35moving Heaney into the pen over Gray.
15:38Those would be the two.
15:39I think Lorenzen of this grouping would probably be one of the last ones because he was signed.
15:44I think given a little bit of some guarantees or wink-wink of you're probably going to be
15:49a starter as long as you're effective.
15:51Again, we're still not even a month into the season, so it's still very early, but my ideal
15:57playoff pitching staff looks like this.
15:59Starting rotation, Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi, and I think Tyler Malley.
16:06At that point, this is up in the air.
16:08Right now, I would lean towards Cody Bradford.
16:10Again, it's a tiny sample size, but it's some combination of those three for the number
16:15four starter of Malley, Lorenzen, and Cody Bradford as well.
16:20In the bullpen, your closer is going to be Kirby Yates until he does something horrendous.
16:24He's been unbelievably good this year, so I don't see any reason to move him out of
16:29that pen.
16:30Then your other leverage guys are going to be David Robertson, Josh Spors, and I'd say
16:35John Gray as well as Jacob Latz and Jose LeClerc.
16:38That's five guys, six guys, excuse me, including closer.
16:42That's six guys in high leverage that you feel pretty darn good about.
16:46Latz and LeClerc at this point are kind of up in the air, but I think by season's end,
16:50LeClerc will be back to close to his postseason form.
16:53I think once it becomes a postseason, he will find another gear and find that velo and be
16:58just absolutely nasty and devastating.
17:00Maybe not, but at this point, that's where I'm leaning.
17:03For your other medium leverage guys, you've got whichever one of those two of the grouping
17:08of three that I listed for the number four starter, either in Cody Bradford or Michael
17:12Lorenzen or Tyler Malley.
17:15I don't know what to expect from Malley at this point, usually guys command in year one
17:19after Tommy John surgery.
17:22It takes another year to get fully back to that.
17:25I don't think I've heard like any updates about Malley other than he's throwing something
17:30at some rate, which is less than I've heard about Jacob DeGrom, who is throwing from,
17:36I believe 60 feet now is at least throwing from 90 feet.
17:39He's throwing something somewhere in some way.
17:41So feeling better about, um, DeGrom returning in August than I am at this point of Malley
17:47returning in July.
17:48But again, Malley at this point feels like a super bonus, uh, whatever you get from him
17:53this year.
17:54It's, it's all almost entirely based on the value of what he will bring next year.
17:58But that's how I feel about this, uh, pitching staff.
18:01What I'd ideally like it to look like in the postseason.
18:04I mean, that's, that would look like an incredible staff.
18:08That would be one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.
18:11I mean, from the starting rotation, if your number four starter is Tyler Malley, who is
18:17a pretty good starter, that's your number four guy.
18:22Usually rotations don't run that deep in the playoffs.
18:24There's a reason why guys go with four man rotations or sometimes even three man rotations.
18:29It's because getting that many quality starting pitchers is very difficult.
18:33And if you get to the postseason, if it's a big, if at this point, still things are
18:38looking good.
18:39Um, especially cause things are creating for the Astros and the Rangers have a good chance
18:43to give himself a little distance in the AOS between who I think is the second best team
18:47at this point in the Seattle Mariners.
18:49Um, if you've got Nathan Eovaldi as your number three starter heading into the playoffs, that
18:56is just so great for this team.
19:00Not to mention how good the bullpen I think could be if all these guys are healthy again,
19:05big, if big qualifiers.
19:07And also if the lineup is hitting like we would expect it to be, which it hasn't done
19:12at this point this season, but I'm not particularly worried that it, that all of these, you know,
19:16all-star count for hitters are going to figure it out.
19:19I'm pretty sure they will.
19:20But I mean, given the concerns about this rotation heading into the year, what they've
19:25done so far this year, even though it hasn't been spectacular, I think it's really turned
19:31around some heads.
19:32I mean, there were like no questions about the Astros starting rotation and the depth
19:37there.
19:38And, uh, it's been pretty horrible for them so far.
19:41The Mariners starting rotation was not great for the first couple of weeks, but the last
19:4510 days it's been, uh, well, about as good as we'd expect, which is to say fantastic.
19:52But again, that was the biggest concern about this team.
19:54And so far it hasn't been the biggest concern to start the season, which is another reason
19:58why I'm feeling so good about the state of this team early on in the season.
20:01While they are weathering these challenges, hopefully the offense starts to heat up a
20:04little bit, but we'll talk a little bit more about someone in particular that I'm starting
20:08to get mildly concerned about, and that is Wyatt Langford.
20:12But we're going to talk about why concerns you should be, or should not be concerned
20:15about Wyatt Langford's home run drought right after this word from our sponsors.
20:23This episode is brought to you by Monopoly Co.
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21:16Now, the Rangers had two young rookies that were, you know, a top of the pile, just at
21:22the top of the of the cream of the crop of rookies coming into this season.
21:27Two co-favorites for a Rookie of the Year in Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter.
21:31Now, if you were to tell me that I'd be sitting here on April 23rd and one of these rookies
21:38had three home runs and one of them had zero, I would not have considered that.
21:43I would not have guessed.
21:46You could give me three guesses and I would not have said that Evan Carter was the one
21:50with three and Wyatt Langford was the one with zero.
21:52Langford led this team in the spring with six home runs.
21:56He was impacting the baseball.
21:57He was having great plate appearances.
21:59And so far to start his career, he's got a couple of doubles.
22:03He's got a triple, but he does not yet have a home run in 21 games and 93 plate appearances.
22:11Is it time to be concerned about the rookie?
22:14My first instinct is to say no.
22:17Major League Baseball is very hard.
22:19This kid is 22 years old and as of this point has 293 professional plate appearances.
22:27That's not even half a season of professional baseball.
22:31That's including all of his 200 plate appearances from last year.
22:34Yeah, 200 career minor league plate appearances.
22:37He breached the system.
22:38He should be here.
22:39He had an amazing spring training and he looked every bit the hyped prospect that he was,
22:46but so far it's been a little bit tough for him, but he's not the only one on a big homer drought.
22:51I mean, look at these other players that have not hit home runs yet this year.
22:55Julio Rodriguez, Alex Bregman, Jose Abreu, Nick Castellanos,
23:00Gleyber Torres, Spencer Torkelson, and also another very hype prospect in Colt Keith.
23:06Now, I think that there is something to the baseballs being unjuiced at this point.
23:13I mean, there's been home runs have been down for the majority of the season.
23:18This is a tweet from a ballparks pal.
23:20They said home runs are being hit at a just over 2.0 per game and down 15% from last year.
23:27A main reason appears to be that the ball isn't flying as far.
23:32Carry distance is on level with a notorious dead ball of April 2022.
23:36The expected home runs are down about 2% at this point this year, excuse me,
23:431% versus actual versus expected home runs this year.
23:47So the baseballs might be a little bit dead and we never know about that because Major League Baseball
23:53owns the manufacturing company that makes these baseballs and will juice them or de-juice them
23:58at their whims and then pretend like they aren't doing so.
24:01So that's kind of annoying that we don't really actually get that information.
24:04If they were juicing it or de-juicing, I wish they'd just say and be honest about it,
24:08but they will never do that because that's not who they are.
24:11So let's look at some of the numbers behind
24:15Wyatt Langford's approach in his swing and other things like that.
24:19His deserved home runs.
24:20This is according to baseball prospectus based on his batted ball data, how hard he's hitting
24:25baseballs, how far they are traveling at the angles he's hitting them at and dimensions of
24:32an average major league park.
24:34He's at 2.8 deserved home runs according to baseball prospectus.
24:40Now, why is that actual number zero?
24:44Well, let's look at his approach.
24:46He has always been praised as a guy with a great elite approach, does not swing at balls,
24:51does not chase pitches, knows what's a strike and what isn't.
24:54And so far this season, he has known quite a bit better than MLB umpires.
24:59There was obviously the infamous plate appearance with Angel Hernandez, where he had strike one,
25:05two, three, all significantly out of the zone, including, I believe it was strike three.
25:11That was the furthest pitched ever outside the zone called a strike, according to umpire
25:16auditor, which just, of course, I don't know why at this point Langford is getting so many
25:23calls outside the strike zone.
25:24This is a tweet from, um, where'd we go?
25:27Um, uh, from where, where are we?
25:31Uh, codify on April 19th.
25:34It said that white Langford had 15 out of zone pitches called strikes against him this year.
25:38That leads all MLB hitters.
25:40Now I went through and looked at his plate appearances from the series against the Braves
25:44game one and game two, no balls outside the strike zone called for strikes, but game three,
25:50a couple of pitches and, and they were pretty far out of the zone and they were first pitches
25:56of the at-bat first pitch already a pitch, two, three inches off the zone.
26:01It happened twice in that Sunday game where he started down Oh one versus one,
26:05Oh, which is a huge difference in hitter leverage.
26:08Um, and so now that is up to 17.
26:13Yeah.
26:1317 out of zone pitches by my count that have been called strikes against white Langford.
26:17And a lot of them have been those first pitches or pitches that should have been both for,
26:22or what they've been in leverage counts as well.
26:25And it forces him to expand his own.
26:27But so far he hasn't really done that so much.
26:31He's still walking at a, around league average rate.
26:34He's striking out a little bit less than league average.
26:37His chase rate and his whiff rate are both in the 74th percentile in baseball.
26:40So he still knows what to strike and what's not.
26:43But what is being, what is a striking?
26:46What's not has been a different for each major league umpire,
26:49which has been a little bit of a learning experience for him.
26:51But one thing that I am a little concerned about with white Langford
26:55is that he is not hitting fastballs.
26:56Well, that, that's something that's a little concerning for me
26:59because usually if you're struggling, it'll be, you know,
27:02seeing major league quality breaking stuff for the first time that,
27:05that can be difficult or major league off speed pitches.
27:08Usually those are difficult, but he has a negative three run value
27:11against four seamers at this point.
27:13He's hitting 130 and no extra base hits on that.
27:17A strikeout rate of 36 percent, a whiff rate of 27 percent on fastballs.
27:23Expected batting average is not, is not much better.
27:25It's expected batting average is 138 versus actual batting average of 130.
27:30That's really not that much better.
27:32And his expected slugging is at 220.
27:34So like it's not that much better.
27:38And I believe the reason for this is, is that he is not being as aggressive.
27:42He is being, he's not, he's doing the reverse Corey Seager.
27:46Now, Corey Seager is such an amazing hitter because,
27:49well, he's not being amazing so far this year, but last year in the post season,
27:53when Corey Seager is at his best, it's his selective aggression that sets him apart.
27:58And that's something that the Rangers did very, very well last year as a team
28:02was swinging at quality strikes, taking balls and
28:05taking strikes that they couldn't do anything with.
28:08So when you get a meatball, just punish it.
28:10And that's not what Wyatt Langford was doing early on his career.
28:13He was being very, very selective, taking a lot of pitches in the zone.
28:19And his zone contact rate was, was also pretty low.
28:23His own swing percentage was at 57.7 percent.
28:26So of balls that were in the strike zone, he was only swinging at 57.7 percent.
28:31That is much lower than everybody else, every other regular on this team,
28:36I should say.
28:37And his, his own contact rate was, was not, not great at 80.9 percent.
28:43Marcus Simeon is, is one of the better ones in baseball at 92.3 percent.
28:46That's, that's ideal around 85 to 90 percent is what you're looking for.
28:51Smith is around 90 percent.
28:52Louie Tavares is around 90 percent.
28:54Um, Corey Seager is at 90 percent.
28:57So that's more what you're looking for.
28:59He's not chasing at all.
29:01Wyatt Langford isn't, um, not at a much better rate than,
29:04than almost anybody else on the team outside of, well, of course,
29:08Evan Carter, his out of zone swing percentage is at 23 percent.
29:11But, uh, Langford's is at 28.6 percent.
29:15So he's doing a good job of not swinging at these bad pitches.
29:18But one thing I noticed that it was encouraging to me in this series against the Braves,
29:23I went through and looked at all the pitches that he swung at or didn't swing at in this series.
29:28And it was swinging at a much higher rate at pitches in the zone and quality strikes.
29:33Pitches that were, you know, about belt high or middle over the plate.
29:37He's swinging at more of those, which is an improvement and a switch that he made
29:41from early on this year.
29:42So I think eventually he's going to figure things out.
29:45He's just too talented not to.
29:47And again, he's 22 years old.
29:49And also the baseball is deadened a little bit.
29:51It seems like, and he's 22 years old.
29:55He's going to figure things out.
29:57Also the fact that he is like significantly faster than I think almost any of us anticipated,
30:01like 98th percentile sprint speed fast.
30:04That is something that is very fun and encouraging.
30:06So at this point, I'm not worried really at all at Wyatt Langford.
30:12If we get to mid-May, if the ball starts to be a little bit more juiced
30:16and we're at mid-May or really the end of May,
30:18and he still doesn't have a home run and he's still not impacting the baseball,
30:22then I might be a little concerned.
30:23But again, he's 22 years old.
30:25He's barely played five seconds of minor league baseball.
30:32And I think he's going to figure it out because he is too talented not to.
30:36Now, just real quickly before this Mariners series,
30:39the Rangers made a couple of roster moves on Monday without announcing anything.
30:43It was just on their transaction page.
30:45They activated Jonathan Hernandez from the IL,
30:48optioned Sam Huff and Owen White to AAA,
30:51which probably means that Jonah Heim is going to be off the bereavement list
30:56on Tuesday's game because I don't see the Rangers carrying just one catcher,
31:01even if for one game, because right now Kisner is the only catcher on the roster.
31:05I'm excited to have Hernandez back.
31:07He looked okay in his minor league outings.
31:09He's not walking the entire world, which is an improvement.
31:12And if you're mad about Owen White being sent down over Austin Pruitt, I get it.
31:16But at this point, honestly, Owen White is a worse pitcher than Austin Pruitt,
31:21which is not really a compliment to Pruitt.
31:23It's more of a comment on where White is.
31:26White has some, you know, things to work out still from last year.
31:30I've been really disappointed that he hasn't been able to figure it out
31:33this year and the stuff hasn't been anywhere where we would hope.
31:37But again, at this point, I don't think that Pruitt's going to be on this roster
31:42much longer once Josh Spores gets activated off the IL.
31:44This is a huge series for the Rangers against the Mariners to,
31:47you know, distance themselves a little bit from a Mariners team that is
31:51very much struggling to hit.
31:52Like I said, Julio Rodriguez still does not have a home run yet this year.
31:55Logan Gilbert versus Dane Dunning on Tuesday.
31:58Bryce Miller versus John Gray on Wednesday.
32:00And then Thursday, Luis Castillo versus Andrew Heaney.
32:03I'm really excited for this series.
32:04I think this is going to be another big test.
32:06I don't know why the Rangers had an awards thing,
32:10whatever kind of banquet on Monday, their first off day after 17 straight days.
32:14That felt like a real chance to just go home, rest, get right.
32:19Because you're back at it when you don't get two off days in a row
32:22in the season outside of, you know, the all-star break.
32:26But still a big series coming up.
32:29I'm really excited to hopefully see Wyatt Langford hit his first home run.
32:32But again, even if it doesn't happen, I am not concerned at this point.
32:36And I don't particularly think you should be either.
32:38That's going to do it for today's show.
32:39Thank you all so much for listening and subscribing.
32:42And until next time, don't forget to enjoy
32:44World Series champion Texas Rangers baseball.