[MUSIC PLAYING] It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Travis Shinkowski made the catch of the year Jack Liders back up in the big leagues. And after one start in AAA, Kumar Rocker might be joining him soon. Talk about all that and more on this episode of Lockdown Rangers. Let's get into it. [MUSIC PLAYING] You are Lockdown Rangers, your daily Texas Rangers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. [MUSIC PLAYING] You are locked onto the World Series Champion Texas Rangers. I'm Bryce Patrick, a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers fan covering this team for 11 seasons, including all six as the founder and host of this podcast. Thank you so much for making Lockdown Rangers your first listen every single day. If you're not already, you can follow me on Twitter @bricepattark, follow the show @LockdownRangers. Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube, where the best way you can help credit the show is to comment nearly any single thing below. Now, before we get into Kumar Rocker's dominant AAA debut, Jack Lider showing some mixed bag in his start back at the big league level. And Travis Jinkowski making one of the best catches I've ever seen, Texas Rangers player or anybody making baseball. Three episodes is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code LockdownMUB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, download Game Time today. What time is it? It's game time. And you know what time it is. It is time to give Travis Jinkowski some love. This man just made one of the greatest catches I have ever seen, albeit a game that didn't really matter against a team that's quite terrible. In the second game of a double header, in which there were dozens of people in attendance, but there were probably a lot more watching on the internet for Travis Jinkowski to rob a potential walk-off home run by Andrew Vaughn in the bottom of the ninth inning of the second game of the double header last night. I don't think a player has ever made more of an impact in a game without getting a single plate appearance. Heck, while only playing half an inning. That's all Travis Jinkowski did. He came in as a defensive replacement for Wyatt Langford in the bottom of the ninth inning, something that I really love about Bruce Bocey as a manager, that he's done since day one of this first regular season game with the Rangers, is that he comes from the National League and he, throughout that, has learned the value of defensive replacements. Even if it's just for one inning, two innings of work, he is always going to close the game out if his team is winning with that best defensive lineup out there. Now, the nice thing about his infield is that they're pretty much all pretty darn good defenders, if not Google of caliber, then at least above average, the weakest link is Corey Sigrid, he's a pretty good defensive shortstop. Now, maybe soon, that will end up being leading to a double score C and right field being replaced more often, but just getting that extra guy out there, 'cause you never know when it'll make the difference, and last night, it absolutely did. This was another rough, rough game for Andrew Chafeman, who just has not been good for the most part with the Rangers. He's had a couple of pretty decent outings, but for the most part, it has been deeply frustrating with Andrew Chafeman, and since the Rangers used their ideal seventh, eighth, and ninth inning guys, in the first game of this double header, you thought, oh boy, what are they gonna do with the bullpen for the second game? Especially with Jack Lider on the hill, and Jack Lider not having a history in his mainly career of going very deep into games. Get four innings out of him, you gotta give a huge shout out to Jose Irreña, going four innings as well, and four innings of shutout ball as well. But Travis Jankowski making that leaping grab, he has been the subject of my ire for, well, at times this season, not his own fault, but he's had a truly terrible offensive year. Outside of that bacon-saving home run, pinch hit home run in game one of the season, a couple of nice defensive plays here and there, 'cause El Plante will always make some nice defensive plays here and there, but this one is just special. You don't often see a walk-off home run robbed, and you don't see it robbed like that. I mean, he got all the way up there on the fence, half his torso, actually, most of his torso was up above the wall, it kind of reminds me in water polo, where the gold standard for water polo is getting all the way to your hips out of the water by treading water that well. That's a very, very difficult thing to do, and getting basically his hips to the top of the wall. I mean, most of his body is over that railing in the bullpen. And he barely gets his glove on the ball, it's so far out there, and it's so high up there, and Jankowski just gets his glove on it, keeps it in the glove, it kind of rattles around just a little bit in that glove, but I mean, the Gary Matthews Jr. catch is gotta be the best catch in Rangers franchise history. I mean, as my friend Brent Beelafelt told me last night when we were talking about the greatest catches in Rangers history, he said, Gary Matthews Jr.'s catches gotta be the best ever, because he turned into a full-on spider monkey to make that catch, and while that is true, and he ran up the wall and turned halfway back around, the timing to go get there, he had less time to get, it was more of a line drive home run that he robbed, and still got just about as high up there. Jankowski had a little bit more time to get there, it felt like that ball was in the air for forever, but that is, I mean, the last 20 years, I don't remember exactly when that Gary Matthews Jr. catch was, but maybe at least the last 10 years, 15 years, that is the best catch in Rangers franchise history. The only ones that are close are that Eli White 2022 home run robbery, I can't remember exactly who that one was against, but Eli White made some incredible catches, and then, well, last year, Travis Jankowski himself against the Seattle Mariners, making that play up against the fence in right center field, robbing a home run ball against the Mariners in the bullpen, I believe it was some time in June, and the Rangers needed every single one of those wins. I don't think that would have been a game tying, or go ahead, but it would have made things a lot closer in that game against the Mariners, but this one was just absolutely special, and I think that he needs a full one war bump on his season war numbers, I think his war is in the negatives right now, because offensively, he has been, well, quite bad, but still defensively, he's your fourth outfielder, him offensively being quite bad. Okay, it's negative 0.2 right now, and it is, according to baseball reference, he's a negative 0.2 war season. I'm assuming before this, it must have been negative 1.2, because that was a whole win. He stole a whole win with that catch, and it was absolutely sensational. I mean, a good game overall by the Rangers, a good game by Grant Anderson coming in, with the bases loaded after that, 'cause Chafen blocked a guy to load the bases, and then Grant Anderson comes in and gets the job done, gets out of it, the Rangers take the first two, I believe they have now won 10, or maybe it's 11 in a row, against the White Sox have a chance to lose just one game to the White Sox all season, and when, I believe the other 12, if my math is math-ing correctly, which it might not be. But just one of those moments and those highlights that you're sitting there, you're in late August, the Rangers are not mathematically eliminated just yet, but it feels pretty much eliminated. It was a frustrating game one with a lot of two plans. I mean, just an unreasonable number of two plans in such a short period that I feel like everyone just must have drank two bland juice heading into it. When you had Corey Seeker with a four hit day, and there was so much of nobody on base that he only got one RBI, ended up being the game winning RBI, but still not ideal for your guy who is one of the best hitters on the planet getting nobody on base in front of him, but just moments like that, games like that, just having those kind of special, experiencing it in real time, it's fun to watch the replays on social media and stuff, but experiencing it in real time, it's nice to have one of those moments late in the season that kind of reminds us sickos, 'cause if you're listening to this podcast on August 29th or 30th or whenever, at this point in the Rangers season, you also are a sicko that is watching too much baseball, whether your team is good or bad. Getting those moments kind of reminds us, okay, this is why I do this. This is why I like this work. Even when my team is frustrating and disappointing and having a season that is objectively very bad for what they were expected to do, there are still those moments like that that we get to enjoy and celebrate together, and hats off to you, Travis Czakowski. I'm giving you the full Robbie Grossman treatment of I will not say a bad thing about you the rest of this year. I will try to hold myself to that. But still, it wasn't just Travis Czakowski that was the hero in that when I talked about Jose Arreña, we'll get more into lighter in segment two, but Wyatt Langford having an incredible swing, right after two defensive misplays by the White Sox. It's just kind of an encapsulation, that whole game was kind of an encapsulation of what's been going wrong with the White Sox, a big three run homer by Wyatt Langford, who has not been having the best season, but again, was in college literally last year, and the fact that he's been about a league average player, a little bit around league average everyday regular at age 22 is frankly something that we should be giving him a lot more credit for, even though he hasn't been what we thought he would be after spring training, still a nice nice season coming up, we're gonna get into what Kamala Rocker did in his triple A start, why I'm encouraged by Jack Leiter's start, despite what he actually accomplished and more about his mentality, right after this word from our sponsors. This show is brought to you by Liquid IV. If you're taking in America's pastime, don't forget to hydrate with Liquid IV's Popsicle Firecracker flavor, a SureFire summer hit. 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Going to live events is the freaking best, especially when the live events are baseball games. If you want to get yourself to a baseball game, to a Rangers game this season, maybe to watch Jacob de Grom, maybe to see Jack Lider on a big league hell, there is no better place to go get your tickets than Game Time. It is the best way to get tickets and they've got a new feature called Game Time Picks that makes getting tickets to your favorite events even easier. Game Time Picks filters out the fluff and shows you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste your time searching through thousands of tickets. They've got all in pricing and you toggling this feature shows you the total upfront. So there are no surprise fees at checkout. They've also got the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% the difference. That is a kind of deal that you can trust and a very best way to get your tickets is at game time. So take the guest time out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app, create an account and use code locked on MOB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N MOB for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? It's game time. Shout out to the everyday. I'm making a lock down range of your first list and every single day, the Rangers take on the white socks. Today, one 10 p.m. central time first pitch is gonna be Nate Eivaldi versus Nick Nastrini on the other side for the white socks. So you can catch every pitch of the Hoenntown broadcast on SiriusXM. Just download the SXM and app and search Rangers. Now, last night we got to see Jack Lider back up in the big leagues after two absolutely phenomenal starts in AAA. After a couple of weeks off, he came back, Jack Lider did and looked absolutely magnificent, looked just overpowering against AAA hitters. The fastball velocity was way up. The velocity on everything was way up and for me, what was more important than that? Not that those two things, the velocity and the stuff being absolutely nasty weren't important, but the confidence, the freeness in his delivery and the just belief in himself of remembering, oh, oh, that's right, I'm Jack Lider. I'm that dude, I'm better than you and I know it and I'm gonna go out there and destroy you to whoever he is facing in the box. That's the kind of mentality you love to see in a young man on the hill. Now, guys show it in different ways. Some of them are more boisterous, some of them are more loud in your face and a little more visibly insane in the good way, like Max Scherzer. Some of them are more quiet and stoic and less emotional and more like a baseball throwing robot like Jacob Gromm when he's on the mound. And Jack is just a little bit more emotional, not quite the Scherzer level of emotional, but still he's got his emotions out there. He is a guy who thrives on that. He is a guy who has had some difficulties in his first couple of major league starts. And overall has pitched better than the numbers indicated in most of those starts. At least the first two is defense let him down a little bit. He also let himself down a little bit, getting too reliant on the fastball. And no matter what kind of big league lineup you're facing, whether it's the Detroit Tigers of early this year that were a terrible offense or whether it's the Chicago White Sox of now that are a historically terrible offense, big league hitters are really dang good. And don't get it twisted. This is a big league lineup. I know that people are wanting to go make these comparisons to, oh, well, Kamala Rocker did better against a AAA lineup in the Dodgers that was probably better than who Jack Lider was facing at the big league level in the White Sox. Stop that. Shop that right now. That is not the case. All of these, oh, well, would this AAA team, would this college team be better than the Chicago White Sox? No, no they wouldn't. These are still big league hitters. Luis Robert is a good big leaguer. Andrew Vaughn has got some big league potential to be a solid hitter. Same with Gavin Sheets, same with Andrew Ben and Tendi as frustrating as he has been for the contract he's getting. He's still a big league hitter, end of story. And also don't get it twisted that Jack Lider didn't deserve to be up at this point. He did. He earned that spot. He earned the right, the opportunity, to go up to the big leagues again, wash that taste out of his mouth of the first three starts he made in the big leagues that really just did not go his way. And maybe to stay up, we'll see exactly about that. His next trip through the rotation, because the Rangers had a double header and he was listed as the 27th player, he will get sent back down to the AAA roster. So the Rangers will retain that roster spot. Now, I'm not sure if they did that just because this was a one-off thing and Lider is gonna go back to AAA after this start. I don't think that's the case. I think it's more of a way to kind of game the system a little bit and not have to use one of the few times that you get to option Jack Lider down to the minor leagues without having to wait the certain number of days to call him back up. I think that's more of a case of what this was because what Lider showed, I know the numbers overall don't look super pretty of four innings, two walks, three runs, two of them were earned, but the four strikeouts and the ability to bounce back for him, that was the most impressive thing for me with Jack Lider. Because as a big leaguer, as the person on the earth, but especially as a big leaguer and a big leaguer, you are going to face some adversity. Sometimes your defense is gonna let you down. Sometimes you're gonna make a great, great pitch and a major league hitter is gonna turn on it and hit in the gap for a double or home run because big leaguers are really darn good. And how you respond to that, how you bounce back after that is a very, very important part of being a major league starting pitcher. And what he did in the third and fourth innings after having some of those base runners that maybe he shouldn't have had, one definitely shouldn't have had on a catcher's interference call from Carson Kelly. That really didn't help him. That was the one unearned run. And then one of his runs was scored when Josie Rainier was on the hill in relief of him 'cause he couldn't get an out in the fifth inning, but still bouncing back. And for me, the most important at bat, the most impressive played appearance, the most impressive battle that he had, came in the first inning. He leads off the game, gives up a walk to Nicki Lopez. Then Luis Robert reaches on catcher's interference. Then Andrew Ben and Tendi, not a great game plan in terms of just throwing the same pitch in the exact same spot. And he goes ball one, then foul pitch, fastball up in the zone. Then ball two with a change up that he just yanked. It was above the zone. Then pitch number four in two, one count, throws a 97.9 mile an hour four seamer, just absolutely dotted up and away that Ben and Tendi swings through. Great pitch, great sequencing to battle back after Hitter's count, worth the count back even. But then he goes back to the fastball again in a nearly identical location. And Andrew Ben and Tendi, while not a great big league header, is still a big league hitter. And he laced that thing into the gap for a two run double. You think, oh boy, not lighter again, not doing this again. But then he battles back and the next guy he faces is Andrew Vaughn, works a very, very long battle to get a strikeout, an eight pitch strikeout. And then Gavin Sheets, this is all with no outs. He gives up runs before he's given up any outs, getting that strikeout of Vaughn. And then the second strikeout of the inning was most impressive to me. Starts out against Gavin Sheets with a change up, swinging down below the zone. Okay, great. He's been a little reliant on his fastball. So the thing with Jack Lider is always throwing the non fastball pitches for called strikes early in how it counts, getting ahead. So then you can get the chase with the breaking stuff that is a little while they're a little more out of the zone and the fastballs up above the zone. Pitch number two, he's up 0-1, so already got a whiff. Change up again, catches Gavin Sheets off guard, called strike, a little bit of a gift pitch if Sheets was looking for it, he could crush it, but he didn't, called strike. Third pitch, slider down in the dirt, runner in scoring position strikes him out, then bounces back and gets a line out from Lynn and Sosa. Two Leodi in center field after an eight pitch battle, gets out of that inning without any more runs. Second inning works around a little bit of trouble, but doesn't allow a run, gets another strikeout of Nicki Lopez. Then third inning, fourth inning, just one single a piece, works through those innings without much trouble and bouncing back like that to get through four innings. Would have liked to see him finish out the fifth inning, 'cause if he ended up with five innings, if he got himself out of that jam with runners on first and second with no outs, then I would feel really, really good about Jack Lider's day. But overall, just seeing him bounce back and feel good about himself to end the day, maybe not great about himself, but good about himself, that would have been a little bit better, but we don't need to compare to my rocker and Jack Lider, 'cause they are their own people, they are teammates, you don't need to say one is better than the other, it doesn't matter, they are both Texas standard pitching prospects, and they could both be helpful members of the rotation, not just next year, but maybe even in September. We're talking about Kumar Rocker's amazing debut, and why I think he might just be ready for the big leagues right now, right after this riff from our sponsors. This show is brought to you by PriceBix. PriceBix is America's number one daily fantasy sports app, over five million active members. PriceBix is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps, on PriceBix, it is just you against the numbers. 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Now, Jack Ladder isn't the only former Vanderbilth, top three MLB draft picked by the Texas Rangers, pitching last night, who's also Kamala Rocker Knight. To be specific, Kamala Rockers' first start in AAA was the best pitching performance I have ever seen by a Texas Rangers pitching prospect ever. Bar none, no qualifiers, no nuts, no qualifiers, no nothing. This was straight up erotic levels of pitching dominance from Kamala Rocker. The final line was pretty incredible of five innings, just one hit, no walks, 10 strikeouts, but I feel like that doesn't do it justice of how much better he was than everybody that he faced. He threw 67 pitches, 44 of them were strikes, nine of them were looking, 15 strikes swinging. And the one hit he did allow was 101 mile an hour line drive. He got behind three and oh, to honestly the worst hitter in that Dodgers lineup, that Dodgers AAA lineup, I forget a baseball team, I think is technically their name, the Oklahoma City baseball team 'cause they're not the Dodgers right now. And he gave up 101 mile an hour line drive that hit off of, looked like his left forearm, deflected right to second base and the second baseman couldn't, didn't have enough time to make a play on the guy running to first base, a lead off single in the third inning. Traders came out to Kamala Rocker, he didn't even flinch, honestly, he had another moment like this in the start, the second start, the last start that I saw in Frisco, he had a line where he'd taken off. Basically, I think almost an identical part of his body where he still didn't even really flinch and looked fine, the trainer didn't even come out to him. And that one, this time he did rocker was smiling and threw a couple of warm up pitches that I'm fine. I'm actually more worried about the baseball, the damage that I did to it than it did to me. And all he did after that was just mow down hitters yet again. He had first pitch strikes to 11 of the hitters that he faced. I believe there were 16 of them, yes, 16 hitters, including the final seven batters that he faced. He only got into a three ball count two times. Yeah, that's right, two times, one of them was a single, one of them was later on in that inning. And he wasn't even in danger of really walking this guy, he battled back in those at bats pretty well. And he only had six two ball counts. Yeah, he is throwing that many strikes. I mean, he's just so much better than every double hitter he faced, including the Dodgers top prospect, Dalton rushing, who he made look absolutely abysmal. Andy Pajas, who has had a handful of played appearances in the big leagues and looked pretty good in stints while he did that with the Dodgers. And everybody else on this Dodgers roster, which there are six hitters in their triple A lineup with an OPS North of 800. And I just don't think there's much more for Camar Rocker to learn, because he is a future potential home-grown ace. That's what he is. The Rangers have not had that probably ever. Now, the definition of ace, according to Major League Baseball, not to Webster's Dictionary defines things, but according Major League Baseball, their definition of ace is a quote, "Ace" typically refers to a team's number one pitcher, though it can also be used to describe an elite pitcher in general. Therefore, a team with multiple elite pitchers is said to have more than one ace. Now, that's pretty wordy. My definition is a little bit simpler. For me, an ace is a pitcher that you feel good about starting Game 1 of a playoff series. That's it. That's what it comes down to. The Rangers have one of those. Actually, the Rangers have two of those on their Big League Club. One of them is rehabbing in AAA. One of them is healthy. Navy of all the is an ace, because if we saw what he did in the postseason, you feel good about him in Game 1 of a postseason series. The Rangers had him as their Game 1 starter in the World Series. They won the World Series, so therefore, you feel good about that. Jacob Grom, you feel pretty good about that guy as your Game 1 starter. Max Scherzer, that is much now in the past, yes, but Kamar Rocker could be that. And homegrown. And here, for at least six seasons, which could start now. I mean, this wasn't count as a full season. The Big League today came up right now, or even during September, but he is pretty much ready for Big League hitters right now. And I kind of thought that the first time that I saw him in AA. I really thought that the second time I saw him in AA. But the amount of homegrown aces in Major League Baseball, they're still with their teams is rare. I counted about 10 of them. They are, in my opinion, Paul Skeens, Tariq Scooble, Logan Webb, Fromer Valdez, Max Fried, Hunter Green, Joe Ryan, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, and lest we forget Clayton Kershaw, who is not on homegrown young ace contract, but still, those are a rarity in Major League Baseball. Now, I would hear arguments for probably three to five more guys, including a couple more in the Mariners' own rotation, but this is how rare that is. There are not that many guys with that type of potential, and Rocker is that. He's every bit that. The ceiling is higher than Jack Lighter, and that's fine, and that's not a dispersion on Jack Lighter. I think right now if most of these publications were re-ranking their top pitching prospects in baseball, Rocker might just be number one. I mean, his stuff is that special. It's probably three double-plus pitches, the four-seamer and the sinker. Those are two different pitches. He throws them differently. He commands them well. The velocity is elite. The swing and miss is elite. Those are two double-plus pitches, if not 80 great pitches. Kind of a borderline there. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, not towards 80. Then he's got the curveball. It is a curveball. He calls it a curveball. He grips it like a curveball. Statcast calls it a slider. Most people are trying to call it a slider. It's not, it's a curveball. Whatever it is, it's absolutely elite. It is, I would say, pretty clearly, an 80-grade pitch because he can throw it. Four strikes, four chases, it is dominant. Whether it's against double-A, triple-A, any kind of hitter in the entire world, they're going to have some problems with that pitch. Change-ups, pretty darn good. Could be commanded and refined a little bit more, but he hasn't needed it because he has those other three double-plus to 80-grade pitches. That could probably be a plus pitch in the future. If not double-plus, I don't know. Maybe I'm stretching it there. Haven't seen enough, but the shape of it is pretty darn good. And he's also the cutter that he hasn't even thrown because he hasn't freaking needed to because he is just that darn good. Now, are the Rangers going to call him up his next time through the rotation? It's possible. I don't think it's likely. If he goes out, he has another triple-A start and he does this again. I don't know how you really sit there and think, yeah, he can learn more from facing off and dominating triple-A hitters 'cause this is probably the best triple-A lineup that he's going to face. And he made them look like amateurs. He made them look terrible. He was just that darn good. And the only reason to not call him up is because the Rangers being precocious with his innings limits, he's probably only going to pitch about 50 innings this year 'cause he is still coming back from Tommy John surgery. But if they're doing that for Jacob Grum, who is still rehabbing and will rehab at the big league level, probably after one more rehab start in triple-A or double-A depending on whether it's Sunday or Tuesday, Kamala Rocker isn't rehabbing anything. They're just being cautious with his innings. That's why I throw out the stats at the years in a complex league this year because he was rehabbing there. Those weren't actual fully ready starts. So you throw out that and he's allowed one earned run in 24 and two thirds innings with I believe 30, something in the neighborhood of 32 strikeouts. And only a couple of base runners have even reached second base against him. Only one scored. I mean, he's just too dang good to keep dominating triple-A hitters. But I won't be mad if we don't see him in the big leagues yet. It wouldn't necessitate a 40-man roster spot. But this guy don't get it twisted. He's good enough to get good major league hitters out right now. And I don't think there's going to be any question in my mind that he is going to be in the Rangers rotation to start next year. 'Cause if you call him up right now, he's probably not going to be the Rangers' best starting pitcher. But second, third best at this present moment I don't think is off the table. Maybe he's probably gonna be worse than Eovaldi. Eovaldi is a darn good major league pitcher. Again, the jump between the triple-A and the majors has never been bigger in the 15 years that I've been, or the 10 years that I've been following minor league baseball. Bradford is pretty darn good right now. But if it's him over, you know, Andrew Heaney or John Gray starts or Dane Dunning starts, I think he's better than all of them right now. And that is an astounding developmental win for the Texas Rangers that most people didn't see coming. And, you know, not that Tommy John surgery is ever a good thing, it's not. But that time off for a mental physical reset has done him so much good to the point where he's looking better than he ever has. Looking like something the Rangers have never had, at least in my lifetime, of a homegrown freaking ace. And whether he comes up after his next turn through the rotation, or doesn't come up till next year, or even if he doesn't break camp with the team, that potential is still special and still, even with all the terrible things that have happened with the Rangers big league club this year. If Kumar Rocker turns into a homegrown ace, that is a net massive, the season in general becomes such a massive net positive just because of that one development. That's going to do it for today's show. Thank you all so much for listening and subscribing and until next time, don't forget to enjoy World Series Champion, Texas Rangers baseball. Hey, prime members, you can listen to this lock-down podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. 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