Locked on Rangers Podcast: AL's best lineup, New York Yankees favored, which unhealthy rotation is healthiest
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00:00 The Rangers and Yankees, two historic slugging teams, which teams will have the better offense
00:07 in 2024?
00:08 Talk about all that and more on this crossover episode of Locked on Rangers.
00:12 Let's get into it.
00:15 You are locked on Rangers.
00:17 Your daily Texas Rangers podcast.
00:21 Part of the Locked on Podcast Network.
00:24 Your team every day.
00:28 You are locked on to the World Series champion Texas Rangers.
00:40 I'm Bryce Patrick, a creepily addicted Texas Rangers fan coming to this team for 10 seasons,
00:44 including all five as the founder and host of this podcast.
00:46 Thank you so much for making Locked on Rangers your first listen every single day.
00:49 If you're not already, you can follow me on Twitter @BrycePatrick.
00:51 You can follow the show @LockedOnRangers.
00:53 You can also follow my guests, Stacey and Steve.
01:01 Where can they find you and all of y'all's great work at Locked on Yankees?
01:05 Yeah, that's just follow the show.
01:07 I have abandoned my Twitter.
01:10 It is over, folks.
01:11 It is so over.
01:12 But yeah, follow the show and more so on the YouTube side.
01:16 We put out a lot of stuff on YouTube.
01:17 Yeah, they are crushing it on the YouTube side and on the podcast side.
01:20 Just in general, just like the Yankees have crushed this offseason.
01:23 Before you get into today's show, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel.
01:26 Click every moment more, new customers join today, and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if
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01:36 Now the Rangers have been a team that has had very loud offseasons the last couple of
01:40 years.
01:41 And this year, not so much.
01:42 It's been incredibly quiet.
01:43 But all the headlines have been taken by those New York Yankees leaning back into becoming
01:49 the villains they were laughed at, scoffed at, after an 82-80 horrible finish.
01:55 No team's ever had that bad of a season, ever, as it seemed the Yankees were having last
02:00 year.
02:01 But here they come, make a trade for Juan Soto, giving them, I would say, probably the
02:07 best top two batters of any lineup in Major League Baseball.
02:13 But the question behind that lineup is, who else is there in this Yankees lineup outside
02:19 of the great Juan Soto and Aaron Judge?
02:22 You have plenty of people.
02:25 There's a lot there.
02:27 Yeah, I think, Stacy, yeah, you're right there.
02:29 That's the first one that came to my head when he said that.
02:32 I was like, I mean, Glaber was one of the best offensive second basemen in baseball
02:37 last year.
02:38 Not to scoff at your one of the best offensive second basemen in baseball last year.
02:43 But yeah, Glaber, quietly, was, on the position player front, the best Yankee last year.
02:52 And no one seems to really care.
02:54 Yeah, like he was the most reliable, you know, he was around the longest.
02:59 He didn't take any extended IL trips.
03:02 And you know, I don't think he had any IL trips.
03:04 Yeah, no, I think he was the most healthy.
03:06 Yeah, he got scratched a couple times, but I don't think he ever actually had any IL
03:10 trips last year.
03:11 Yeah, like he was the guy last year, and he did fly under the radar.
03:17 Aside from him, well, all right.
03:21 We're going to have a healthy Anthony Rizzo.
03:25 And DJ LeMayhew turned things around the second half.
03:29 Sean Casey actually helped him out a little bit there when he was hitting coach.
03:33 And he rebounded very nicely.
03:35 And if the Yankees can get second half DJ LeMayhew, healthy Anthony Rizzo, Glaber Torres,
03:42 Judge Soto, and second year Anthony Volpe, maybe improving upon his rookie year.
03:49 That's a solid, that's a solid group right there.
03:52 You know, you didn't even bring up Alex Verdugo, Stacey.
03:55 Like I know, I think what you're looking at the Yankees, obviously, the sexy move is Juan
04:00 Soto.
04:01 Clearly, duh, we're all looking at that.
04:03 But when you're looking at just the overall improvement of the roster and where it stands
04:08 as the number one guys, your first options are much better than the first options they
04:14 had last year.
04:15 The depth is better.
04:17 I wouldn't say it's full fledged and no issues there whatsoever.
04:22 But I still think when you're looking at this roster overall, Stace, like the number one
04:27 choices, the regular starting guys are basically an improvement at every position.
04:32 At least that's what you're anticipating.
04:33 I forgot about Verdugo.
04:34 I'm so sorry, Alex Verdugo.
04:35 I honestly forgot about Alex Verdugo as well.
04:36 I mean, Glaber Torres is a guy that definitely sticks out to me.
04:42 Looking at some of his numbers from last year, I mean, under a hundred strikeouts playing
04:45 in all but four games last year and 800 OPS.
04:49 But everything that I see about him from Yankees fans that I know is usually just like hating
04:53 on Glaber Torres.
04:54 And I'm like, this guy seems like a really solid player on most teams.
04:57 I feel like he'd be very appreciated, like 25 home runs and 28 doubles as a second baseman
05:04 that plays like every single day.
05:06 That's a very valuable bat to have in your lineup for sure.
05:09 But I think that my question is about like comparing the Rangers depth and what made
05:14 their offense so successful last year in the postseason is the depth of like just one through
05:20 nine for sure is just like every single, there is not a, an easy out in the lineup, especially
05:26 now that Austin Hedges is elsewhere.
05:28 There's not going to be a single easy out in this lineup.
05:31 Your number nine hitter is probably going to be Lily Tavares who had a, you know, seven
05:36 33 OPS last year as an everyday starting center fielder, a guy who had, you know, has 2020
05:43 potential.
05:44 I mean, he's got a lot of raw power.
05:46 Doesn't always is incredibly streaky, but the guy who's projected to be their number
05:50 eight hitter in the lineup next year is Wyatt Langford, who's one of the top prospects in
05:55 all of baseball and projected to have a, uh, where we go around 800, eight 20, I think
05:59 OPS according to fan graphs.
06:03 And if you have that guy as your number eight hitter, I feel like you're in a pretty good
06:07 spot as a lineup.
06:09 Wouldn't you say
06:10 I'll take it.
06:12 Cause cause the Yankees don't really have that luxury right now because the eighth spot
06:16 in the lineup is in all likelihood a catcher, which you have Jose Trevino there right now.
06:22 And then it's a toss up.
06:23 I know locked on Yankees fans are going to start screaming at me again.
06:26 Uh, just like they probably, I didn't even look at the comments for our episode on Tuesday
06:30 because I know they were screaming about, uh, about this, but, uh, that catcher position
06:34 is going to be Jose Trevino with, I say Ben Rortvet backing up.
06:39 But, uh, a lot of people think that 22 games of a two 10 hitter or two 20 hitter or whatever
06:45 of Austin Wells proves it enough that he makes it out of camp.
06:48 But again, I digress that, uh, that's not necessarily the same situation that the Yankees
06:54 are in.
06:55 Yeah.
06:56 Former Granger.
06:57 Great.
06:58 Jose Trevino.
06:59 I mean, how has he hit with the Yankees?
07:00 He was very, he was a guy who was an incredible hitter in high school, like has like some
07:04 state records for like, uh, most like home runs, I think in a single season and a Texas
07:10 high school baseball, uh, season was, I think at least a one-time state champion, uh, and
07:15 then transitioned to catcher once he went to the minor leagues, is he still been hitting
07:19 kind of like he's swinging with a pool noodle with the Yankees as well?
07:23 What happened was, you know, he came to the Yankees, you know, unheralded, like suddenly
07:29 happened like right before the season started in 22.
07:31 Everyone's like, wait, what, what just happened?
07:33 And he was like a, a guy on fire, you know, making the all-star team and all this stuff.
07:37 And it was basically, he followed the same, uh, blueprint as the 2022 Yankees hot in the
07:44 first half and then nothing in the second half.
07:47 And that continued into 23 and then he injured himself and then he was out for, you know,
07:52 half the year.
07:53 So with his wrist, um, you know, hopefully he'll be healthy and if we can get, you know,
08:00 first half 22 Trevino, the one that hit a few walk-offs, not home runs, just, you know,
08:05 singles and stuff.
08:06 I mean, I'd be happy with that.
08:09 I think what we've kind of landed on a lot when we talk about the roster construction
08:13 right now about the Yankees is you don't need anything out of your catchers really like
08:19 when you're really looking up and down that lineup, if everybody's hitting the way they're
08:22 supposed to, which of course happens every season for every team, uh, then you don't
08:28 really need much out of your catcher.
08:30 You'll take what you can get when you're the Yankees Trevino is obviously there defensively.
08:35 That's what Higgie was there for defensively.
08:37 Um, that's what Ben Vette projects to be a little bit as well on Austin Wells.
08:42 That's kind of the flip side of that.
08:44 He's there on the offensive side of things as opposed to the defensive.
08:47 Yeah.
08:48 I mean, the Rangers were choosing between Jose Trevino and Jonah Heim before that 2020
08:53 was it was a 22 or 21 where, where the Rangers sent him there, I think it was before 22,
08:58 22.
08:59 Yeah.
09:00 And the Rangers picked Jonah high because there's offensive upside, obviously a lot
09:02 more power there and Jose Trevino, they were right there.
09:06 Like if, if not for that Yankees bump in voting, I think that Jonah Heim might be a two-time
09:11 all-star at this point and said, he is a one-time all-star, but I will take it.
09:15 Um, because the Rangers lineup, they are looking to get just any kind of bonus out of their
09:21 catcher right now.
09:22 And Jonah Heim is kind of providing them that bonus as a guy who's probably hitting seventh
09:26 or eighth in their lineup as a switch and catcher.
09:29 Who's hopefully going to finally hit 20 home runs this year.
09:31 If not for a wrist injury, he would have gotten that 20 home run plateau, which the Rangers
09:35 have not had a catcher who has hit 20 home runs in the hottest of minutes, I think since
09:39 2016.
09:40 Uh, it's, it's, it's been it.
09:45 Napoli did had like 30 home runs.
09:48 I think it is a Robinson Cherino's was the last one in 2016.
09:52 Um, which, uh, that is a name that is a blast from the past coming up.
09:56 We're going to look at the projections.
09:59 Should the rank, should the Yankees be favored to win the American league this year over
10:02 the reigning AL champion and world series champion, Texas Rangers.
10:06 We'll talk about that in just a second, right after this word from our sponsors.
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11:02 Now, it seems like every single projection for the standings for this year, whether it's
11:13 is it Petcoa, Patoka?
11:14 I swear.
11:15 Dakota Dakota.
11:16 That's what it is.
11:17 I read it as Petcoa when I first initially read it and it has stuck there ever since
11:22 and I have been maintaining that mistake for years and years to come.
11:26 Or whether it's fan graphs projections, they have the Yankees finishing atop the AL East
11:32 and as one of the best teams in the American league.
11:36 How confident are y'all that the Yankees can come out of the American league and get back
11:40 to the world series for the first time since what is it?
11:43 2009?
11:44 It's been so long.
11:45 I've just forgotten the Yankees actually used to win games.
11:48 All right.
11:50 Calm down over there.
11:52 Weird that you bring up Pocota Bryce.
11:54 Stacey, we just talked about this.
11:56 The other day on lockdown Yankees, I'm not putting so much stock into Pocota last season.
12:04 Pocota didn't have the Rangers making the postseason.
12:09 It had the Yankees nine games over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American league East.
12:15 So take all of those projections with like the largest grain of salt you can possibly
12:20 muster.
12:21 Yeah.
12:22 So with that being said, I don't have the Yankees as the favorite favorite in the American
12:28 league East.
12:29 Stacey, I know we've dabbled in this, but I don't think you have them either.
12:33 No, no, I don't think they're going to be bad.
12:36 I just think they're not going to be as far ahead of every other team as the projections
12:41 think they're going to be.
12:43 Yeah.
12:44 We, we have discussed the almighty Baltimore Orioles on a handful of occasions and I'm
12:49 sure we'll continue to discuss them throughout the season and with the addition of Corbin
12:54 Burns to that team and everybody who else is still waiting in Norfolk to add to that
13:00 roster and who's waiting in double a and single a and low a and all the way down to the complex
13:06 league like that system just keeps getting better seemingly weirdly enough.
13:10 And yeah, I, we are very much screaming to the heavens to not take the Baltimore Orioles
13:17 lightly because last season, I don't think I've seen a lot of those players now in the
13:22 majors.
13:23 It's home and triple a, I don't think this is a flash in the pan, man.
13:26 I think Baltimore is going to be pretty legit for a while now.
13:28 I like John Smoltz, the Baltimore Orioles, John Smoltz his favorite team.
13:32 I don't know if y'all remember of game three while the Rangers were stomping the Orioles
13:37 and what was a sweep.
13:38 The final three innings was John Smoltz giving this glowing eulogy about how actually the
13:42 Orioles are, you know, so set up for the future.
13:45 There's such a great team.
13:46 Everything's so amazing about the Orioles while they're getting canned in what is going
13:50 to be a sweep.
13:52 And so Rangers fans and myself have always, you know, held that over John Smoltz as the
13:56 Orioles or John Smoltz his favorite team.
13:58 I think it was just him hating on the Rangers.
14:00 It was just a lot of nonsense.
14:02 Even when the diamondbacks here, when the Rangers were like in any way, John Smoltz
14:05 was like, well, this diamondback team, you know, they've got a really bright future.
14:08 Everyone's like, all right, John Smoltz, can you just shut up for five minutes?
14:12 But I'm curious what, what is it that these projections are liking about the Yankees that
14:16 you guys are more skeptical of?
14:21 Because the injury stuff, right?
14:23 It's the, we're still, you know, a bit PTSD shell shocked from last season.
14:29 And it was checks watch right around this time last year that we started going, man,
14:36 a lot of these injuries are popping up and he's supposed to be back by now.
14:40 How long did they say, and Oh, wait a second.
14:44 Oh, it's the all-star break.
14:46 So yeah, I think that's, what's really driving us is like I mentioned a little bit, uh, Stacy,
14:51 I know you can go into this further of the depth is better.
14:55 I wouldn't say it's best, especially, I know we're going to get into this, the pitching
15:01 front, but especially on the rotation side, like one or two injuries and you're, you're
15:06 already going, Oh, like Luke Weaver and Clayton beater are now getting regular every five
15:12 days right now.
15:13 So it's, it's a little, a little touch and go when it comes to pitching and we both kind
15:17 of pontificated that, uh, that's a, there's a recurring word now, apparently on the show
15:22 pontificated that, uh, they might be if they're in the running slash near the running, uh,
15:28 making a move at the deadline for another arm.
15:30 Yeah.
15:31 Yeah.
15:32 I can totally see that happening.
15:33 But the thing you have to remember with the projections is they don't take injuries into
15:38 account, which is why the Yankees look so good last year, because if no one was injured
15:42 on the Yankees and maybe they had a couple of little injuries and you know, maybe some
15:45 guys made the IL that was going to be a really good team before those guys all got injured.
15:51 I mean, if you're starting the season with three fifths of your rotation on the IL, you're
15:55 not going to finish with a good year because you're going to start off slow.
15:59 So those that's why the projections are looking the way they're looking, because they're looking
16:03 at the roster, looking at how these guys have done and taking it that way.
16:07 Um, so again, they have a chance to do really well, but you know, there's a lot of luck
16:13 involved in that too, because you have to have guys doing the right thing at the right
16:17 time and not getting injured.
16:19 So especially like in this conversation, top of mind is Texas, right?
16:25 Like the, the, the rollercoaster II, 2023 that you went down, I mean, there were, we
16:31 were talking about you, like we were talking about you on locked on Yankees.
16:36 We barely see each other and we're going like, what in the world's going on in the AL West
16:40 and what's going on with the Texas Rangers.
16:42 Like you were so, I don't know if lucky is the right word, but for lack of a better word,
16:48 lucky that you're able to make it through that kind of stuff to where the Yankees were
16:53 on the complete opposite end of that, where it's like, okay, it's time for so-and-so
16:58 to step up.
16:59 And then they didn't like, that's the flip side of the coin is you got the guys stepping
17:04 up and the Yankees did not have that at all.
17:08 Yeah, it was the weirdest, like it's, it's hard to say like the rain years were lucky
17:12 when you get six starts of Jacob to Graham.
17:15 Like it's hard to say you had a good injury like season.
17:18 And especially when you missed like 40 games of your star shortstop and Corey Seager, but
17:22 they kind of did like, they got injuries obviously, but they had the depth to sustain it.
17:28 And the guys who stepped up to, you know, come in for those injuries, like Ezekiel Durant
17:33 was on fire for the first half of the year and the Rangers, yeah, you know, former, former
17:39 Yankee grade, him and Josh Smith, both stepping up for the Rangers where they needed the most.
17:45 Not so much Glenn auto that that ship has sailed, but Trevor Hover is still a way to
17:49 be the fourth impact of a trade that hurt my feelings so badly for my large adult son,
17:55 Joey Gallo.
17:56 So the Rangers had guys step up when other guys got healthy, they had injuries that healed
18:02 it exactly the right time because Nathan E of Aldi was an absolute dog on the mound for
18:08 the first half of the season when there was not a whole lot else in this rotation.
18:11 Jacob Graham went down.
18:13 I mean, Dunning was, was much better than expected in the first half.
18:16 John Gray was average.
18:17 He was average and people kind of forget that they also had Martine Perez in the rotation
18:24 that was not doing a whole lot there, but I mean, you have all these stepped up big
18:28 and then got hurt right after the all-star break and came back and made like two or three
18:32 rehab starts in the regular, in the majors down the stretch in the regular season where
18:37 he got crushed and everyone thought, Oh, this guy just sucks now.
18:40 And he was just rehabbing at the big league level in a pennant chase, which is very difficult
18:44 to do, but then was just immediate, immediately healthy by the time the playoffs rolled around
18:51 and he was his normal native all the playoff self, which is a very, very good starting
18:57 pitcher coming up.
18:58 We're gonna talk about these two rotations and native of all the, and how healthy can
19:02 these rotations be right after this word from our sponsors.
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20:11 Now, I don't know if y'all have seen that meme.
20:17 That's this, uh, this it's more of a cartoon that it has like a handsome person hitting
20:22 on a woman and it says, Oh, that's okay.
20:25 But then it's an ugly guy hitting on this woman.
20:27 And she says, she's calling HR.
20:29 And you know, I think of that meme when I think of these two starting pitching rotations,
20:33 especially with these projection systems, because both of these pitching staffs are
20:38 very injury prone.
20:40 The Rangers already have three guys that are going to be on the IL till about mid season.
20:44 But when these projection systems see the Yankees injured pitching staff, they think,
20:47 Oh, wow, that's so handsome.
20:49 But then when they look at the Rangers, they say, Oh no, I'm calling HR.
20:53 This is not okay.
20:54 Cause the Rangers have literally three starting pitchers that will be out until about mid
20:58 season.
20:59 Max Scherzer will be out until June after getting surgery on a herniated disc, which
21:04 I'm pretty sure is what he suffered in game three of the world series.
21:07 When he took that liner off the back off of an amazing play that Josh Young made to get
21:11 the Rangers out of that inning, a world series, the Rangers one in case people have forgotten,
21:17 just say it as many times as you can.
21:19 I have been saying it about 50 times an episode just to convince myself that it really happened
21:25 because I'm still not entirely sure that it did and that I didn't, you know, die in a
21:29 car accident on my way to game seven of the ALCS.
21:33 I'm still not sure that that didn't happen, but they also have Jacob to Graham, who's
21:36 going to be out until about August covering from Tommy John surgery.
21:40 And they also signed Tyler Malley, who is going to be out until about July is the expectation
21:45 who also had Tommy John surgery last year, but the rest of the Rangers pitching staff
21:50 as of right now, it looks like this as of opening day, Nathan Evaldi as your number
21:54 one, John Grazier, number two, Dane Dunning, Andrew Heaney.
21:57 And then it is going to be Cody Bradford, the youngster from Alito, Texas and a Baylor
22:04 as well.
22:05 But I'm curious when you look at this Yankee pitching staff, how much do you trust?
22:10 How many of these guys do you trust are going to be healthy to pitch you even 150 innings
22:14 this year?
22:15 Cole.
22:16 And somehow Clark Schmidt.
22:19 Yeah.
22:20 Cole and Schmidt, the one and the five bookends at the end.
22:25 Yeah.
22:26 Yeah.
22:27 Your, your meme is maybe perfect for your situation.
22:30 The meme that comes to mind when I think of the Yankees rotation is the dog and the house
22:35 on fire.
22:36 Yeah, this is fine.
22:37 This is fine.
22:38 Because, because like even looking at if it's fully healthy, there's still a like two, two
22:46 big, big question marks there.
22:49 And Carlos Rodan and Nestor Cortez, you have no clue right now what's going to happen when
22:55 they get on the mound with Carlos last season, dude, I don't know what in the world was going
23:01 on there.
23:02 But we have come to the conclusion.
23:05 We think it was completely injury dependent that it was messing with his delivery because
23:12 of the injuries that it was most notably the back that was not allowing him to finish fully.
23:18 So he wasn't snapping his pitches, which is relieving them over the plate a little bit
23:21 more.
23:22 But when it comes to Nestor Cortez, it's, it's the recovery stuff that has me losing
23:28 sleep overnight going like, is this dude going to not pitch his first game?
23:34 I don't worry.
23:35 I'm not worried about his first game.
23:36 I'm worried about a second, then his third, then his fourth, all the way up to 30.
23:41 If he can get there, like it's, it's, it's coin tossing a lot.
23:45 And the Yankees are putting a lot of faith in those guys.
23:47 Stacy, we just did it on Tuesday's episode that that's the number one thing that we're
23:51 looking out for this spring training is how our Carlos Rodan and Nestor Cortez feeling.
23:56 Yep.
23:57 Yeah.
23:58 And one of the things that I find interesting is, is Marcus Drummond as well.
24:02 Like he's only thrown about 130 innings under 140 the last couple of years when he was pretty
24:07 durable in 2019 and in 2021, he threw about 180 innings.
24:12 Those years had a couple of back-to-back 200 innings in 2016 and 17 with Toronto, but like
24:17 he hasn't thrown 150 innings since 2021.
24:21 And is that what you're expecting from him?
24:23 Are you thinking just last year, it was a little bit of injuries that kind of, you know,
24:28 bugged him in the second half of the season or what are the expectations for Marcus Drummond
24:32 this year?
24:33 Yeah, I think the injury affected him.
24:36 You know, and as long as he's coming in healthy, you know we were saying, we were also saying
24:41 this on Tuesday show that it's not a guarantee that the rotation is going to be Cole, Rodan,
24:48 Nestor, Stroman, Clark Schmidt.
24:51 We feel like maybe Stroman has the leg up on the three spot ahead of Nestor just because
24:55 of Nestor's issues that he had in 2023 and Stroman has more of a track record in the
25:02 starting rotation.
25:04 I'm actually not worried about Stroman.
25:07 I'm really not.
25:08 I think, I think he could be really good.
25:09 And he's also, the thing I like about it is they're not making him, like he's not expected
25:14 to be the ace on the team.
25:16 You know, he doesn't have to come out and be spectacular, but it'd be great if he did,
25:20 you know, that'd be a nice strong number three right there, especially with those question
25:25 marks we had just mentioned.
25:27 But I think the hip gave him a problem in the second half last year.
25:30 And if he's healthy, I think he should be fine.
25:32 Yeah.
25:33 Cause he was leading that rotation.
25:34 Yes, Kyle Hendricks, you could say, but he was really leading that rotation with the
25:38 injuries that they were dealing with in Chicago.
25:41 And you can pretty much see the, the, the similar path that the Cubs took in relative
25:49 correlation to his injury.
25:50 Like yes, they, they really, really fell apart there in September.
25:53 I mean, what, the end of August, they were in a playoff spot or, you know, within a half
25:57 a game or a game or so in Chicago.
25:59 So yeah, I'm, I'm right there with you.
26:01 So I'm not necessarily concerned about Marcus Stroman in the slightest.
26:06 I'm still keeping my eye on that too.
26:08 And that four in, in Rodon and, and Cortez, like everybody else, I feel at least at relative
26:14 ease.
26:15 But like you said, if he doesn't have to be the ACE, which is the case, then I, I will
26:19 take what you're going to get.
26:21 And what you're going to get is he could be a two somewhere.
26:25 He could totally be a two and you're asking him to be a three.
26:27 So I'm taking that any day.
26:30 I think that's pretty solid.
26:31 And I think one of the things about the depth of pitching staffs that often gets overlooked
26:35 is, is your depth past your number five starter, because almost no rotation in the history
26:41 of baseball has ever gone.
26:42 All right, we got our five starting rotation and they're all going to pitch every fifth
26:45 game and no one's going to get hurt at all.
26:48 And it's going to be amazing.
26:49 The Mariners were about as close as it was, as there is last year.
26:53 I think they're all of their top starting four were healthy basically all year long.
26:59 But how is the depth of this Yankees rotation behind it?
27:01 Because I know there was a lot of pitching depth given up in that one Soto trade, which
27:05 obviously you bring in one Soto in the Yankee stadium.
27:09 Like you're not going to be complaining too much about losing your number four or five
27:13 or whatever starter, but still it is something you have to look at.
27:16 Well, it wasn't just the one Soto thing, because if you recall the Yankees traded some depth
27:20 away during the trade deadline in 22.
27:25 Also there are a few guys that could have been people that were, or would have been,
27:30 you know, maybe impacting this season possibly at some point.
27:36 So yeah, the pitching depth, we've talked about that a lot on the show, right?
27:41 Steve or lack of lack thereof in, in some regard, a common phrase for locked on Yankees
27:49 fans that they'll hear me say is first call.
27:52 Who's the first call and the first call right now for the Yankees is Luke Weaver.
27:58 That's the first of all, because he signed a major league deal and he's going to be the
28:02 long man out of the pen in all likelihood.
28:05 If that first injury, who's your first call right now?
28:08 It's Luke Weaver.
28:10 Who's your second call Clayton beater.
28:16 So before the Stroman signing, we were freaked because Clayton beater may have projected.
28:23 That was also before weaver Clayton beater projected to be the five starter.
28:26 Yeah, beater got called up halfway through to triple a last year, struggled and then
28:31 leveled off.
28:32 So there are some serious glaring question marks that we're not taking lightly because
28:38 of again, the shell shock from a season ago that you know, that there is better depth.
28:43 At least there is Luke Weaver.
28:45 Now, at least there is a major league arm because last year there wasn't a major league
28:50 arm.
28:51 You immediately called Johnny Brito.
28:53 I was the Johnny Brito made it out of camp.
28:56 And look, I'm not trying to knock Johnny Brito.
28:58 I love the kid.
28:59 I think he's a great kid and a pretty good pitcher.
29:02 But for that to be the first guy right away, you're going, Oh, we might have a problem
29:07 here.
29:08 So at least Luke Weaver is there.
29:10 So that first injury doesn't sting as much.
29:12 He can hold down the fort for a little while because he did last season for a little bit.
29:16 But yeah, after that, you're kind of running off of faith for beater and then you're running
29:22 off of faith after that for Warren Tanner Tolley, you know, like there's Sean Boyle.
29:32 Like there's, I like these guys, triple a arms pitched pretty decently last year, but
29:37 for a major league club that is all in on 2024 let's, let's hope for the best.
29:45 I think when you're looking past that number five, but it feels like that's what the Yankees
29:49 are doing because it's always, if they're healthy, which that's never the case.
29:54 So I don't know why they keep banking on that whole, if they're healthy thing, which is
29:58 what we said earlier with, if the Yankees are either, well, not at the top of the division,
30:05 I think if they're right in there and they're close to, or it may be in a playoff spot,
30:10 but they just want to get over the top.
30:12 You're going to see a deal for the, for a starter, for someone who may be not, who maybe
30:16 wasn't moved before the season started, like Dylan sees something like that.
30:21 I feel like they would make that move.
30:23 Yeah, they would have to, because again, you don't have any guarantee for one Soto past
30:28 2024.
30:29 And if you don't go all in after going all in to get him, then why did you even do it?
30:34 Right.
30:35 Yeah, exactly.
30:36 And there is, there is no such thing as too much starting pitching.
30:39 I mean, the Rangers, I went and looked this up from the end of the 2022 season to the
30:45 trade deadline in 2023, the Rangers acquired seven starting pitchers, seven, which is insane.
30:55 And they had like three and a half healthy come the end of the world series.
31:00 Yeah.
31:01 You really need like eight major league starters.
31:03 That's what you really need.
31:05 Yup.
31:06 And right now the Rangers deaf behind Cody Bradford as the number five, even Cody Bradford
31:10 is the five.
31:11 I like him.
31:12 I think he'd be fine as your number five starter.
31:14 But when the depth behind him is like, they signed Jose Ureña as a, you know, depth,
31:22 like probably a triple a depth option, or maybe it's Owen white, who was kind of a disaster
31:26 last year.
31:28 Maybe it's Jack lighter who just barely got the triple A at the end of his second year
31:32 of basically two full years in double a, without showing a whole lot of progress.
31:36 Like there's, you're really hoping that you don't have any setbacks from anybody in your
31:40 starting rotation at the beginning of the year.
31:41 And you're hoping that all your guys that are coming off the IO do come off the IO when
31:45 they're supposed to.
31:46 Yeah, exactly.
31:47 And stay off the IO.
31:48 And are good.
31:49 Yeah.
31:50 And are good.
31:51 And one of them is going to be a 39.
31:55 Yeah.
31:56 39 this year.
31:57 One of them is going to be 35, 36 this year.
32:00 And you didn't sign Kershaw.
32:02 So no, that doesn't add to that list.
32:06 At least at least you don't have another IL prone coming back second half at the end of
32:09 his career.
32:10 You don't have another one.
32:11 Do you know how insane the Rangers IL rotation would be?
32:15 They would have four guys on there.
32:17 Their IL for the first half of the season, where they combined eight Cy Young awards.
32:23 So I don't think that was really an option with the state of the rotation right now,
32:27 but I think both these teams are in a really good spot for 2024, some good offenses, some
32:32 hopefully healthy pitching.
32:34 And who knows, we might see another Rangers Yankees ALCS moment.
32:38 Like the one I very much enjoyed back in 2010, but that's going to do it for today's show.
32:43 Thank you all so much for joining me.
32:44 Thank you all so much for listening.
32:46 And until next time, don't forget to enjoy world series champion, Texas Rangers baseball.
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