GBag Nation
5th hour of the G-Bag Nation: Around the Bases; Texas Rangers Insider Jared Sandler joins the Nation to preview Angles vs Rangers
This podcast is brought to you by Men's T clinic. Men's T clinic is the team I trust with my total wellness optimization. And so should you five DFW locations with North Frisco, El Dorado Parkway at Dallas North Tolway. Now open call 972 go men's T or visit men's T clinic dot com. Yeah, buddy. It's our five of the G back nation on 105 three. The fan will get to around the bases and some Jared Sandler here in just a minute. Stephen Jones is on San Antonio radio this evening. The San Antonio sports star. And he'll be on, of course, with us, you know, on Mondays and Fridays and KMC masterpiece and us and Stephen and Jerry are so good. But you know, you have tomorrow. Yeah, we have tomorrow. Yeah, we have Stephen tomorrow. And you know, we'll maybe follow up with him on this. But people are trying to interpret. Why did Stephen Jones answer this question about the Dak press got negotiations so close to his vest? Here's the cut. Stephen, appreciate you jumping on with us today. A lot of talk, obviously, about the contract for Dak Press. Got to go back to when we were talking in Oxnard. How close are we, Stephen? You know, my normal line is just don't know that you never know until they're done. And I really don't want to comment at all about then. Well, I tell you, Stephen, it was interesting today because Mike McCarthy walks out of the star with a big smile on his face, Dak had a big smile on his face. I'm assuming that's either you're close or we're getting close to some real football. I think they're ready for some football. And we'll see about the the contract. We're hard at it. And, you know, trying to get something done. Well, I'm I'm I'm kind of hoping you'd help us break some news here. Having some fun down there, San Antonio radio. How do you interpret that, Brian? Yeah, I think the fact that Stephen, Stephen will usually give you some type of comment. If he I kind of read is if he's close, he's not going to say anything. So, you know, this is I think me, I and then things gone like a roller coaster ride. It's been up and down. You know, Dak, does he want it? Does he doesn't team want it? You know, do they want who does? Who knows? But I think the fact that Stephen really doesn't want to comment about it right now might be a really good sign for you. That's my recollection as well. You know, okay, we've given them an offer. Let's see what they say. Yeah. And he doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize because, you know, these the Joneses are on a lot of media. They're going to be on those platforms tomorrow with us as well. So, you know, same questions will be asked and and, you know, I think Stephen just doesn't the other sides listening to what you're saying to. Oh, yeah. And so I think that that he's Stevens being very, very conscious of that. And it, you know, there could be this could be a pretty good sign for you if he doesn't want to don't comment about it. When negotiations are close, this is the kind of Stephen Jones answer you get. Yeah, you don't. He just yeah, when they're much farther off, he'll at least pontificate a little bit out and give you something and some belief in the player type of answer. But that's where we are tonight. If the reports are to be believed, it's just a matter of years and not APY that's keeping them apart. So I think we'll get something probably tomorrow, probably tomorrow afternoon, we'll be talking about it here in the G back nation. That's my call. Here's Wollchuck with your proper round tripper brought you by Uber Eats. Thank you very much. We've got ESPN. They've got the most talent, talented course in Major League Baseball. They're ranked all 30. And this is written by Kylie McDaniel. He does an excellent job as their ESPN MLB insiders. The third time that he's done this list. So he says to make it easier to see which team has more talent. He splits players into three tiers. You've got elite, which is players with five or more war, which is wins above replacement or MVP candidates. You've got plus players, which are three to five war types, which is three to five wins above replacement, and then solid players, which are your valuable role players, your low end starters and your pitching rotation. So number one, he's got the Dodgers. The Dodgers were ranked second last year, third the year before the Braves ranked number one in this list. The previous two years they dropped to two and the Orioles round out the top three. There are a couple of teams in the ALS that are in the top 10. Let's go Rangers. War, Daddies. Oh, Mariners are at four. Mariners last year were at three. They drop a spot elite. He's got Julio Rodriguez. Plus players. He's got Cal Raleigh, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, JP Crawford, Randy Rose Arena, who they just traded for in Luis Castillo. And then a plethora of solid players. Then you've got the Astros at seven. He's got your on Alvarez is their only elite player. Jose Altuve, Hunter Brown, Jeremy Peña, and Josh Hader in their plus category. The solid not to go through all of them, but he's got Ronald Blanco, Spencer Eric Getty who got blasted last night. And then some of their pitchers like Christian Javier and Luis Garcia are listed on here. You gotta go down to the middle of the pack. Texas Rangers coming at number 15. And it's a big drop off from a year ago. They were 14 in 2022. They moved up to number four on Kylie McDaniel's list last year. They've dropped to 15. He's got Corey Seger is the only elite player, only plus players. He's got Simeon and DeGrom. DeGrom is not even in the elite category. Solid. He's got Wyatt, Evan Carter, Adoli Scarcea, Kamar Rocker, young Josh Smith, Cody Bradford, who's pitching tonight, Jonah Haim, and he does have Jack Leiter listed in this category. Kyle McDaniel writes, it has been a tough year for the defending champs. Carter and young have struggled because injuries. Garcia and Haim have had down years and the Scherzer deal didn't go as expected. Langford hasn't quite figured it out yet after being rushed to the majors, but I think he's going to be fine. Oh, he just figured it out now, Kylie. Uh huh. On the bright side of a paper. Rocker and Leiter are showing signs they both could reach their potential as former top five picks and could possibly be in the Big League rotation together next season. Uh, so look, I think that the, the Rangers are getting shafted on this a little bit. I mean, I think when you're talking big picture, I think the Rangers futures are looking a little bit brighter, you know, five years from now than the Astros is I get right now. The Astros are going to do it again. They're probably going to win this ALS unless they just completely paid down their leg, which we're hoping for in the M's got you, but they've lost the Reds today. One nothing. That's great. I mean, the Reds been kicking their butt. Mm hmm. But I think the Rangers should drop in the middle of the pack here in, in, I mean, they're, they've been dropping in all categories. It's a reflection on the, the, the performance, the underperformance this year, but I think this gets corrected next year and the playoffs are right bad. The, the Rangers are right back in the postseason. I hope so. You know, we, we got to build a bullpen again. Um, you know, we might have a, an owner and, you know, I think if you look at the last two years outside of the world series run, the team's under 500, you know, so middle of the pack kind of makes sense to me. I think it's going to be a huge year, a huge spring for a Dolly Scarcea for Jonah Heim and for Evan Carter, you know, you get those three guys turned around. I think everybody else is going to be, you know, solid and, and who they are, but you just had so many down years. I think Simeon bounces back. I think Wyatt Langford is on his way to being a perennial All-Star grade. Um, and you, you have enough starting pitching now. We're just back to bullpen, but I, I think it's, I think it's fair right now to kind of rank this organization or this roster collectively about middle of the pack. Just, and it's a big challenge for, for CY and Bochi to turn this into a perennial winner. And I, like, I would agree with that if you didn't have the Mariners up at four, like the Mariners on paper look really good, but the Mariners on the diamond have not lived up to those expectations. They made the playoffs a couple of years ago, they just fired the manager and things have gotten worse at first for them. Yeah. So I don't get like, if, if that's the line of thinking, that is reasonable, but I don't know that Kylie McDaniel's thinking like that. If you're going to put the Mariners at four, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. That doesn't line up. No, no, we're, we're very close to the Mariners, which I'm not bragging about, but I'm just saying he, come on, I've elevated them. Shout shout out to Shotei Menaga and the Cubs. They threw, he threw seven shutout innings and the bullpen came in completed a combined no-no last night. First time since 72, I believe. All right. Well, it's time for Jared's uh, Rangers preview. We'll step aside, come back, except for the pregame show next, it's the G back nation on your home of the champs. Shoot you. Welcome back nation. It's time now for Jared's Rangers preview brought to you by Blue Nail Roofing segment is presented by the Frankel's life's unpredictable accidents happen. If you were a loved one is in an accident due to somebody's negligence, call the Frankel's for a free consultation two one four or eight one seven three three three three three three three go to Frankel from calm. It's a brought to you by cars for kids. Donate today at cars for kids.org. Please do join us tomorrow. We have a remote on lemon at the Buffalo Wild Wings looking forward to that. Stephen Jones is going to join us. We'll be talking Cowboys with Steve at three as a Jared Sandler joins you now here in the nation. Jared, how are you? What's up buddy is getting back to 500 a doable goal here for this team. We're playing good baseball. Aren't we what winners of seven of nine now? Yeah, seven and nine. Yeah, I think it's realistic. I mean, you know, the Angels. I got to watch what I say here, but the Angels are not a very good team. So they're certainly winnable games there. And, you know, that's one of the shames of it all as we talked about, you know, the tough schedule, but how it opened up in September and is a little bit more manageable. And it certainly is. But yeah, I think getting back to 500's realistic and I don't know if they will get there obviously. But, you know, the crazy thing is, I mean, they win tonight. They're seven and a half back. And that's that's definitely not an easy hill to climb. But, you know, if they're a good weekend away and continued Astro slide away to making this thing maybe a conversation again. Maybe, maybe Brodice's question about Janko's catch being the turning point of season was actually, you know, he knew it was ahead of time. Brodice is wise. And he obviously bo knows Brodice knows. So if we if we find ourselves in a playoff hunt with this ball club over the final week, then Brodice will have been a true suits air. Well, we got the clutch gene offensively from bang bang. We got the defensive clutch gene moment last night center field Wyatt Langford collision course. Yeah, I think, listen, he's obviously got the athleticism to do it. And, you know, his arms actually better than I think people expected. But, you know, teams don't seem to care as much about having a great arm and center as they used to. It's more about the range and he's got the ability to check that box in a big way. I guess the only question is, you know, this is a turf field center field in general, no matter the surface is taxing. What is his best attribute is best attribute is his bat. And I almost wonder like thinking just conceptually on team building. If, you know, I want my center fielder to maybe be more of a center fielder first type who is obviously able to to produce offensively, but not someone whose best asset is the bat, just because that can be such a physically taxing position. With that said, at age 22, 23, 24, if you see white Langford in center, I mean, not a big deal at all. His body should hopefully be able to withstand it here in his early 20s. How's the Elvis vibes been like out there? No one's really said much about it. I mean, you know, that's going to go down tomorrow. I think people are are excited. But to be honest with you, I really haven't heard a whole lot about Elvis in terms of chatter today. But I think people are just generally excited that he's going to come back, retires a ranger and then we'll take the next steps beyond that. Cody Bradford gets the start. I know we've had plenty of rotation conversation this week, but like Cody's been awesome. Where do you think he kind of fits in if he's able to kind of hit his peak in a rotation? Yeah, I mean, listen, I'll say this. I think he's definitely when you go into the off season, like to me, it's not. Oh, is he a long reliever in the bullpen or the rotation? Like, I want this guy starting. I don't care that in throw 96 miles an hour. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, he's getting the job done. Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know, you know, he's, he, I think mid rotation, whatever that might mean to people. I don't know that I look at Cody Bradford and think this guy's going to be a staff ace. But again, I don't know that, you know, there's any reason to put a ceiling on a guy that, you know, continues to get better with more time and, you know, has the work ethic and the, the IQ to, you know, continue to grow everything good with our guy Ron after a down year. They're not talking about it being on the hot seat already. Are they? Yeah, I don't think so. As long as Perry Manassian remains their GM. But gosh, that's tough. And I don't know that it's going to get any better for him over there. Right on. Hey, what, what, when, when White Langford homers, what's the bang bang? Like, how do, how do we execute this? How do you guys envision this? There's a long fly ball, a deep left field, the left fielder back. It is gone. Bang, bang. Okay. All right, we can do that. Let's see if he goes yard tonight and any yard tonight. Two, three or six or seven. He's on fire. He does innings, right? Two, three, six or seven? Two, three, six, seven. Let's do it. Thanks, buddy. See if else. There he goes. He's at Jared Sandler on eggs. They must follow for Rangers fans everywhere. Thanks to Lucius Alexander and the Pimp Cup of their master control, four and a half hours flawless radio producing, engineering and hosting. Thanks to Carter Freeman coordinate in your video. You can watch us at one oh five through the fan.com Twitch and on YouTube, of course, thanks to Wulchuck and she'll follow your nose, bleed brothers every afternoon here with us in the G back nation and Brian Broadus, former cowboy scout back tomorrow at two o'clock. We're live at Buffalo wild wings on lemon. Steven Jones joins us at three o'clock till tomorrow at two, you're going home with the nation at ease.