You're listening to the downbeat on ninety seven to one The Freak. All right,
h thirty minutes scuttle butt. Arlington should be prepared for the World Series.
They have a lot of big events, but there's something they're missing.
If that is at seven thirty, that's one good tease. Eight o'clock goes
Pepper Pavilion three, scorching hot predictions for Cowboys Rams Sunday at noon. We
won't forget about the Cowboys, the four and two Cowboys right in the thick
of it. In the NFC Ding Goods Morning News eight thirty, you have
the latest on the Shooter in main end. Much more as we will continue
to have a bit of a World Series primer this morning here on ninety seven
to one The Freak. We also have a mosquito on the Hulk on the
Bit and Skin Show a little bit later ten am to two with Mike the
Mosquito Mescato is this week's celebrity guests on Picks with Glenn's and then also,
um no, I don't know if anything else we can warm up, Oh
right, we can whack them mole just kind of changing it. Yeah like
that, I don't know. Fresh let's just do the intro for this segment.
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graduation, Steve will sing about you. Uh so, Rangers divingbacks obviously
Game one tonight. I got a lot of crap here, Danny get some
things, some hidden information. Mike, you get some stuff. We all
got a bunch of craps. So let's just start shooting here. First of
all, how do we get here? How when you think of how this
team was built, there's a bunch of things that have to fall in line
if you're gonna do especially if the Rangers have done full rebuild. I think
it's important. If you're gonna do a rebuild and blow it up, you
might as well just go ahead and bite the bullet and tear it down with
the studs. Did y'all know that the longest tenured Texas Ranger is Jose le
Clerk, Yeah, twenty five year old. Your second longest tenured Texas Ranger
is Leote Taveres, who is just now this year, not a prospect anymore.
Oh, he's the one of those twenty five Sorry, yeah, he's
twenty five. And they tried to start him in center field last year.
He didn't hit well in the beginning, and there was like, let's let
him develop a little bit more. We're not ready to win this year anyways.
And then he was awesome all year long. Incredible. It's weird that
the longest tenured is jose Le Clerk and he looks the youngest. He looks
the most baby faced. Step two draft an All Star that works. Josh
Young eighth overall pick in twenty nineteen. The history of Texas Rangers first round
pick since the year two thousand. It's a way worse hit rate than the
NBA one ones that we talked about. Yet, good God, is it
horrible. It's so bad, But there are some instrumental things that help.
I'll be real quick here march to Sheriff two thousand and one. Good led
you to your World Series ten years later, No doubt right, that was
a haul that they got for him. Here is where it gets bad.
Oh two, Drew Meyer, Oh three, John Danks, Oh four,
Thomas Diamond, Eric Hurley, and that too. Oh five, John Mayberry
Junior O six, Casey Kiker. None of those guys gave you anything except
maybe John Danks, who you were able to trade for a prospect, but
nothing good. T thousand and seven, Blake Bevin helped you get Chris Cliff
Lee, so you go, okay, great succuss, Julio Borbone who played
on the twenty ten World Series team, chocolate E Tiro Judge chocolate E Tirou
Uh, Tommy Hunter who game Tommy Hunter. And then you had Neil Ramirez
and that Dregg who helped you get Matt Garza in twenty thirteen, so they
kind of had some action there. Justin smoke in two thousand and eight helped
you get Cliff Lee, so success there. Tw thousand and nine they had
a number fourteen pick Matt Perk who didn't sign the TCU kid. Twenty ten,
Jake Skull, Kellen Deglan, Mike Olt and Luke Jackson nothing. Those
are all first rounders, yes, because they had a bunch of com picks.
Twenty eleven Kevin, Matthew Zach Coone nothing, twenty twelve Joe gallow and
then Louis Prince and Louis Princeton helped you get Jonathan Lacroix and Jeremy Jefferies.
So the twenty sixteen playoff run, get help there? Twenty thirteen Chee Cheekin
Zales and Travis de Merritt nothing, twenty fourteen, Louis Ortiz nothing. Twenty
fifteen. Dylan Tate, he was the number four pick of the draft.
You actually traded him for Carlos Beltron to help you in the twenty sixteen playoffs?
Some maybe the girl porn man? Which one of Dylan Tate? Yeah,
I'd press play? Twenty sixteen. Cole Reagan's I think a JJ's face.
She made stinky face thinking about you pressing play and what would happen afterwards?
Let Kevin go Ov shake that tiny d Is that you giving yourself to
encouragement? Yeah? Dylan myself sinks broken? What is she gonna do?
Yep? How did Dylanate get her head stuck into another washing machine? Why?
Common problem? Why is this happening so often? Too early? I'm
stuck? I agree, get stuck in a washing machine. It's way too
early for Dylan Tate to go answer the door and pay for the pizza.
Twenty sixteen. Cole reagans that got you, of course, Chapman, Right,
Yeah, who was you know? Is it wal As Chapman twenty seventeen,
You got Bubba Thompson twenty eighteen, cole Win Triple A trying to figure
out twenty nineteen Josh Young and we still don't have any idea twenty twenty one,
Jack Lder twenty two, Kumar Rocker will ever give us anything? It's
weird. In the year or two after the draft, you're like, all
right, dude, just wait. Rocker is gonna be amazing, you know,
Jack Lder of course counting on them, and then they just slowly their
names fade away into the oblivion of most of those you just name. It's
amazing. I remember being in the height of my baseball nerddom. It was
probably in the mid nineties that I started subscribing to a publication called I think
it's called Baseball America, which focuses on minor league players, because I thought,
I need to know who these kids are coming up when the draft comes
around. I want to have these guys scouted and know, you know a
lot about these players, and man, in baseball, it doesn't freaking matter.
It's so hard to figure out, man, It's impossible, especially pictures
too. You know, it's like playing roulette, But I imagine our success,
that's right. What you just illustrated is probably close to every teams though,
right. I don't know. Do you think that's an outstanding of a
poor track record a first round pick making it or impacting the big league club
in any way? Yeah? I bet that's about right. Yeah, it's
hard in baseball, man, as hard on you as like one or two
of those to hit to help get you a Cliff Lee trade. Now,
an you think that way rather than the guys you're drafting helping you this year's
first round pick. Why at Lengther though, is probably your starting left fielder
next year? And then figure out what happens with Evan, Carter, Leoti,
and Adulis because that's gonna be a bit of a log jam. They
look like they're in good shape, man, for a while, as young
as they are. But we said that in twenty ten, and they were
twenty twelve and twenty thirteen. Teams might have been just as good as twenty
ten and twenty eleven, maybe better even, and just didn't get it done
in the playoffs, didn't finish the deal there to start a new window.
Here we go and the twenty fourteen if they didn't have injury chaos, I
think they would have been fine, because they went to the playoffs in twenty
fifteen to twenty sixteen, and people forget that. Maybe the twenty fourteen was
like a terrible year and wash was out and there's a lot of things that
happened, but the window was still open for success for six seven years and
then they finally had to rip it off. The other thing, you have
to make the most of the bargain. Ben adlst Garcia, who they I
think it's wild that we're playing the divingbacks. The Rangers acquired Garcia for cash
from the Cardinals in twenty nineteen, not cash de roy cash of money.
He was designated for assignment from the Cardinals to make room for a picture named
Kwang Young Kim Okay. So then he gets here and then in February twenty
twenty one, they're like, he's not gonna make the team, and they
defa'd him and no one took him, and he ends up getting called up.
But any other MOLB team could have got into Delis Garcia for free basically,
and he was and didn't wasn't he good like rate when he got time,
when he finally got here, he was good fourth and the rookie of
the year, I think, and in twenty one. And that's the whole
thing is it's weird free agent until twenty twenty eight or something because he's still
a baby, even though he's a little bit older for you know, his
age to finally get here. It was he strikeout man, strikeout man,
wild ass, strikeout man, chase guy, for sure, because it's the
same. It's the Nelson Cruise story all over again. It really is.
Yeah, but just looking at Garcia, I don't know how you can't be
like, well, let's maybe give him a shot. Yeah, I mean
just as a mountain, especially when he looks like AI created baseball player.
Like he doesn't perfect, he doesn't look like he's ever been DFA right,
Yeah, Like, grab your little bag and head out of the facility.
We don't have enough room for you. We need to make room for a
from middle reliever. You see these seventy five lockers we have, we don't
have turned in your books, and that giant sulks out of the building,
Like, I don't know, I feel like the leash on that dude would
be real long to see what he's capable of. And as soon as they
put him in, he has a thirty home run. And if you're gonna
rebuild it, you're gonna make lots of trades. Lanceleyn traded to the White
Suckx for Dane Dunning. They traded for Nathaniel Lowe. Two months later they
acquired Josh Bores. Then they traded Joey Gallo for Ezekiel Durant and Josh Smith,
who helped us this year. And then February twenty twenty one, they
traded Elvis to Oakland and a cash switch off for Chris Davis. But you're
throwing there was Jonaheim, your everyday catcher. Then they went all in with
Simeon Seeger John Gray, knowing they may not be ready to win in twenty
twenty two, but they had to go ahead and do it, spending five
hundred million dollars in a couple hours. And then that kind of set everything
up. And then I think it's like ours, I mean, is that
same day or no, it was two day forty eight hours. Really do
it within two days? Really? And if you think about it, two
the big splash of the trade dead line was Max Scherzer. Jordan Montgomery is
the guy you got. The big splash in the off season was Jacob de
Gram. But Nathany Evaldi. I mean those are your one two punts.
That's the funny thing. It's like luck there too. You know, in
a perfect world, if all all pitchers were healthy right now, Ivaldi and
MANI would be your three and four. Yeah. And now there you're one
and two and Sure's your three yeah yeah, And you know that's a they're
in the World Series with that man, that's the thing that's mind blowing down
and they should not be here. And we have pretty much max confidence in
Evaldi right now. Like if you had a one game the Rangers asses on
the line, we would pick Ivaldi to start it right, yeah, and
then Montgomery to come off away over Sureser. Yeah yeah. Oh. I
thinks is the wild card of the series once again. Yeah, can you
get anything out of him? And hasn't provided much confidence that you know he's
gonna have the Sureser game, but encouraging. It's encouraging that in Game seven
they got just enough out of him. He got a couple of little jam
yes, he got out of jams, minimized whatever he improved from his last
start, right, Yeah, and if so, the way this is working
though, the way the Rangers are gonna attack this with Evoldi going tonight,
the Diamondbacks are going with who has been their third best pitcher but was their
ace and the All Star Game starter in the National League, Zach Gallen.
So he's been their third best, their hottest arm is will go against Surezer
for Game three. It looks like so Zach Gallen is uh and Danny's got
a little bit on Zach Gallen, who's the was the ace for the Diamondbacks
all year long, but he's struggled a little bit in the playoffs. Yeah,
I've got it. I've got some uh little known facts you know about
some of these players that you're mentioning as we kind of get to know the
Diamondbacks a little back. You mentioned Zach Gallon. Not a lot of people
know this, but in college in North Carolina, he minored in jazz studies
and hosted his own overnight music program called Creamy Gallons of Jazz. Wow,
that's all. That's great. God, we should try to find it.
I've not heard that anywhere else. That's why you need to listen to the
downbeat every day at six am. Creamy gallons of Jazz. I we should
find some audio of that. I have a jazz podcast you've been working on
k T. Yeah, I think that name is is available now that he's
gone in a different direction with his career. I could just see Norm doing
it and just wasn't enough gallons of gas last night. It's all right there
for you, So I know. I didn't know that. That's that's interesting.
Yeah, North Carolina guy. Is that all you had on had on
him? No? No, that's that's all I had on him. I
got some stuff on the other places to the bullpen. But the other starter
or too, Merril Kelly, and he's been their most successful starter d in
the postseason. He's given him only five runs and seventeen innings. Merrill Kelly
looks just like Meryl Hodge, very strange. Now in the bullpen, they
have a guy who's closing for them, Paul sea Wald six for six and
save opportunities, has not given up a run in eight innings. So if
you get to a part of the game when sea Wald comes in, you're
screwed. Yeah, I have a little something on Seawald too. Not many
people know this, but as a hobby, Paul Seawald in his free time
he plays rhythm guitar in a Southern rock cover band called Molly Hatchet Wound.
Huh that's something. Gosh, how does he have time to do that in
the office? Yeah, you know, I mean, look, these guys
like to have fun. That's yeah, yeah, just no, he won't
be performing at Jay Gilligans tonight. Maybe he gets to play at Innings Fest
and at spring training. Possibly he got it to the bats. Look,
Ranger have lived off home runs. Diamondbacks are manufacturing runs, and they steal
a lot. Is a big series for Jonahan behind the play and the Rangers
pictures holding runners. They have a ton of stolen bases. Rangers had five
games this postseason where they scored seven or more runs. In fact, postseason
run total seventy one for the Rangers, fifty one for the Diamondbacks. That's
what they do. Pretty big discrepants. It's starting to kind of look like
their regular season now, you know, as these sample sizes get larger in
the playoffs, it's like, yeah, this is pretty reflective of what they
do. But Arizona had the second highest postseason batting average after the seventh inning.
So clutch situations team, No moment too big, And they've got a
little good veteran leadership out of Tommy Fam. Tommy Fam known for his fantasy
football slap with Jock Peterson a few years ago. And Tommy Fam plays.
He probably won't start every game, but he plays, and he's a kind
of one of the leaders of the team. Then you have something on Tommy.
Yeah, Tommy Fam, it's funny you brought him up. He is
also the opted brother of Dallas Ebola survivor Nina Fan and in fact fostered her
dog, Bentley while she was recovering from the deadly virus in twenty fourteen.
Wow. Yeah, something you might not have known. And so it's a
bit of a homecoming of sorts for him. Yeah, and he's staying with
Nina while he's in town. I'm sure she's doing really well, by the
way, if anybody was wondering, Yeah, yeah, good. They also
have Christian Walker, who he was a bit of a journeyman, but he
you know, he's he's a long ball threat. And danid you you had
some stuff on Christian Walker too. He's a sneeze. Yes, Christian Walker.
Wow, what story with this guy? You guys are gonna believe it.
For his senior science project in high school, he invented a prototype high
speed motorcycle that could reach top speeds of upwards of three hundred miles per all.
Yeah. Unfortunately, his dreams were shattered when he lost his left leg
when he launched his bike through the storefront of a five Guys Burgers in Pennsylvania.
He is the only pitcher in the history of the major leagues to successively
play with a prosthetic leg. Whoa he has one leg. Yeah, he's
thirty two. And that's the thing about him, a little bit of the
late bloomer because he had to rehabilitate his leg, the leg, so that
was an important thing. And then also as long as we're talking about the
Diamondbacks offense, when you talk about Perdomo, I mean, Perdomo is a
name that I think is going to be a household name by the end of
the week. Yeah, he's huge. I had a little something on him
too. Back in twenty twenty one, while dining at an upscale sushi sushi
restaurant in his native hometown of Santo Domingo, the Dominican. He jumped into
action and performed the heimlich maneuver on a desperate Cardi b who was apparently choking
on an eel roll. Yeah, saved her life, which is why I
thought that story, you know, would have gotten more national attention this week.
A lot of people were just hearing about it first. Now he's a
clutch performer. Yeah. Both teams have narrowed their circle of trust in the
bullpen. Obviously, us it's Luclerk Chapman's bores and trust is a bit of
a jump there. But and then for the Diving Backs it's Paul Seawaald who
we mentioned, Kevin Ginkel, Ryan Thompson. Any innings not pitched by those
six players will lead to excessive heart palpitations and nail biting. For both teams,
their middle release is not good, but their last three relievers are good.
Our middle relief is dog Gass, as we know, didn't say what
the Diamondbacks A lot of people picking the Rangers, and Rangers won six more
games in the regular season. They beat the Brewers, who everyone thought had
better pitching than them. They beat the Dodgers, who won the NL West
by sixteen games over them in the regular season, and then they beat the
Phillies, who were coming off a heater after beating the MLB best braves.
The Diamondbacks have up to every stinking challenge you can imagine, and they have
every right to be quote this f and team like everyone thinks we are.
Yeah, and that is something that makes me nervous. And that's why you're
not gonna hear me go I think the Rangers are gonna win. I'm not
doing any of that because God knows at this point, seven game series baseball.
I've been say it the whole time, right, some MIC's been trying
to preach to us. The season's not over. It's baseball. Crazy crap
can happen. Yeah, I'm optimistic only because the potential of the Ranger power
might be the tipping point of this. And like, it's not like the
Diamondbacks are so dominant if really anything, including starting pitching. I mean,
the back half of the bullpen is way way better than ours. Good defense
too, They're very good defensive team. Good defense, which is such a
weird one in baseball, but that obviously matters a ton stolen bases matter a
ton moving runners is what they do. But yeah, I mean, I
guess they're not scared now, but they are a really really good all around
team. And the Astros are scary. Yeah, the Astros are way more
scary. And I'd really be playing the diaving Necks than the Braves or the
Phillies probably, but it we need to get something out of Surezer or Heeny
if they're gonna you know that, because they're getting something out of that fat
guy. The pictures have fat. You know one thing about fat fod fo.
Yeah, he finished dead last in his season of Is it cake really?
When he was on there? Yeah, he did last. No attention
to detail, he cannot, I think his teaching something. He can't even
determine what is and what is not cake? Now, what a goober.
So I wouldn't worry about him. It's just rubber they're cutting through. It's
cake. That's clearly a real fire hydrant. He might have been the guy
that designed the Mexican extraterrestrial what remember, No, Yeah, when Mexico extraterrestrial,
Yeah, looked like the Aliens in a box. Yeah. Yeah,
he just did a poor job on the cake. So I don't think we
have to sweat ham. I've never seen two blanker stairs in my life that
like, Now, what's he saying? Called back to a month ago?
Oh god, I don't really remember what happened yesterday. Okay, coming up
next why Arlington. It's sort of ready, but the one thing that they're
lacking and not quite ready for when it comes to the World Series next on
ninety seven won the free