GBag Nation
Chris Young on Eovaldi's future, extension, Rocker's MLB debut
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(upbeat music) - Yeah, buddy, it's time now for the Chris Young Show here on your home of the Rangers 105 through the fan that's brought you by Tylock, George. I care. Segments presented by the Franckles, Life's Unpredictable Accidents happen if you were a loved one's in an accident due to somebody's negligence. Call the Franckles for a free consultation. 2, 1, 4, or 8, 1, 7, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3. Go to Francklefirm.com. It's also brought you by cars for kids. Donate today at carsforkids.org. A lot to talk about with this baseball team. And Rangers host in the Blue Jays tonight. 6.30 pregame is C-Y joins us now here in the nation. Good afternoon, sir. How the heck are you? - Hey guys, I'm well, how are you all? - Well, we're doing great, a lot to talk about, but first up, how was your trip to Japan, man? - It was a great trip. It was a quick trip. I flew over Saturday and I came back yesterday. So I'm sorry, flew over Friday and came back yesterday. So I'm not sure which time zone I'm in right now, but nonetheless happy to be back. But it was a wonderful trip. - Yeah, I can imagine the turnaround with the time zone changes and all that, just wreaking havoc. What do you think of the 22-year-old Roki Sasaki, or how much can you talk about this right now? - Yeah, I really can't. Just I'll say that it was a great beginning over there and seeing a game and spending time with our Japanese scouts who do a tremendous job and very excited about our Japanese and pack room operations. And there's a lot of talent over there and I enjoyed going over there. - Hey Chris, I hope this is not too probing of a question, but for players like that, is it more about being seen over there than the evaluation of the prospect? That if they post and all that stuff, I was trying to kind of get an idea about that stuff. - Well, the purpose of the trip was not simply a scouting trip. There were a lot of different things. It was to spend time with our own scouts to have meetings with different people connected to Japanese baseball and really, you know, establish, continue to establish a presence in Japan in terms of the Texas Rangers have a good track record of relationships over there and I think those have served the organization well, especially when Darvish wanted to come over and we wanna make sure that we continue to develop those relationships and be in a good position for, you know, the next crop of Japanese talent that comes out. - Well, I'm glad we don't have to ask you awkward questions about your contract future anymore. Chris, congrats on that. - I appreciate it guys. I'm happy that it's behind us. I'm looking forward to the future here and really excited for what we have to build upon. You know, obviously this year has not gone the way we wanted. That said, I'm very confident and extremely motivated to get back to what I believe this team can be. This organization should be and most importantly, what our fans deserve. So there's a lot of work ahead. I wanna see a strong finish here these last couple of weeks and then we'll, you know, we'll turn the page on 2024 and regroup and be ready for 2025. - We'll see why I do have one uncomfortable question. Is this possibly Nathan of all these last homes start as a member of the Rangers? - Well, you know, certainly that possibly exists and I can't deny that. He's not under contract for next year. That said, you know, we love the player and I think we would be very interested in finding a way to get Nate back, but I understand that, you know, things happen. And so I don't take for granted that it could be his last start. I hope it's not, but the reality is that he is not under contract for next year. You know, and we'll see how that plays out, but I would love certainly to have him back. - We got to chat with Camar Rocker earlier and that was awesome. It was great seeing him out there making his debut. I know you were in Japan, but overall, your thoughts on him and the grand being back in and what the organization felt about their starts. - Yeah, I did get to see Camar on Thursday before flying over to Japan on Friday. I had to miss Jacob's start, but I was actually able to watch it on the flight, which was amazing. And so it was just so fun seeing both those guys pitch back-to-back nights. They're both so talented and especially for Camar to see his debut, it was really special. The first two guys get on base. He's a second and third, no outs. And he navigates it, gets out of it without giving up a run. And, you know, really just, he pitched so well and it was so exciting to see. I think it's great for his future, for the future of the Rangers. And then obviously to follow that up the next night with Jacob Bagram, who has been the best pitcher in the world at certain times when he's healthy. And Jacob looked like he had to skip the beat. I know he wasn't perfectly satisfied with his performance, but I was so happy for Jacob to be back out there and really what it means to our fans and in our 2025 season. So I thought to some degree it was a glimpse the next year. I'm excited for both those players and looking forward to watching their next couple of starts here before the season winds down. - Jack Lider to the bullpen. I saw Boji talking about that. Can you just give us the kind of the thinking and putting Lider more in the bullpen perhaps for the rest of the season? - Well, obviously we'd love to have Jack in the rotation. We have a surplus of starters right now. And so the easiest thing to do was to slide Jack to the pin to piggyback Max. His Max came back off the IL. And as it turns out, the two of them split the game and it was fun seeing both those guys back out there and pitching well. So, you know, really happy with Jack's performance. I thought he pitched great. He handled, you know, the change in role very, very well. And ultimately, I think that'll serve him well too, moving forward, understanding that, you know, he's versatile and capable of doing different things. But, you know, we see Jack as a starting pitcher long term and not something that we want to get used to. But that said, where we are right now, that's what we had to do. - Rangers, general manager, Chris Young here with you on your home of the champs 105-3, the fan. Okay, so we're talking a lot about pitching and it's really exciting. But with the way the offense went, my question is, is starting pitching the type of priority as you look forward to the winter, or is it getting those 200-plus runs back? - Well, it's both. We're going to need both. And, you know, the best teams in baseball right now, they score runs and they pitch. And so we've got to be able to do both. And we need to be probably elite in one of those areas. And I think last year, we were very elite offensively. And I think that's, we're capable of doing that. The additions may be internal additions as much as they are from the external additions in terms of improving our offense. And I think I say that, meaning getting Josh Young for a full season, getting Evan Carter for a full season, having Adolas Garcia and Jonah Heim bounce back and play like they're capable. And really, if those things happen, then I think we're in a much better position to be a better offensive team. I can't imagine that we would struggle if those guys are performing at their custom level, that we would struggle to the degree we have this year. So I think that's a huge part of it. Now with that, we are always going to look for ways to improve our club any way we can. And adding to our offense will be something that we look into this offseason. So in what form that happens, I can't necessarily predict at this point, but it's our jobs as a front office to continue to improve and find any way we can to make the club better and give the team a chance to win a championship again next year. - You mentioned the health of a lot of your offensive catalysts there and maybe a dip in production. When you go and evaluate that, how do you judge if that was just player base, dip in production or if it was maybe instruction based? - Well, I think it's a tough thing to evaluate, but ultimately we have to figure out what the root cause was. And I think that sometimes guys just have bad years and I experienced that as a player, I understand it. Now what we want to see is that the player is motivated from that bad year and that they understand what went wrong and how we're going to correct it moving forward. And then collectively we look at our philosophy and our instruction to make sure that that's in line with what the player needs to set the player up for success. So it's both and we can't shift blame to anyone spot in terms of the players or the staff. It's collective. We've all failed to some degree this year and it's our jobs to self reflect and find solutions and ways we're going to bounce back. And it's up for the players to go work hard and commit to a plan and show up in really good shape and motivated and I'm confident that's going to happen. - You talk about internal improvement. Might that include the now reigning Texas league player of the week? Is it Abi Ortiz hit 524 with four bombs and five games? What can you tell us about the ref rider? - Yeah, he's, you know, actually he's, it's great to see him finish strong. He's had a little bit of a down season. I think double A has been a little bit of an adjustment for him, but he's now at the end of the season and he seems to be figuring it out. You know, he was a minor league player the year last year had a tremendous year in Hickory. And you know, and as with most players, they go to double A and they see a level of talent. They quite haven't quite seen yet. And there's an adjustment period. And Abi went through that this year, but he's finishing strong. He's very talented. He's got a mince power and is a really, really hardworking kid. Good guy, always happy and, you know, excited about the progress he's made here at the end of the season and looking forward for him having a good off season as well. - Thank you so much for your time, sir. Give these Blue Jays hell we'll be pulling for you. - Thank you guys, good chatting with you. - There he goes, Rangers GM Christian. Mostly Mondays at 4.20, but he was traveling there. - Hey, Mike Valenti here, host a cash to ticket alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcasts claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcasts that claim they hit 80% of the games? When really, they just lose like most of us. Think cash to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent. We're having a hell of a good time with it. And we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to Cash to Ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music)