Locked On Rangers: Wyatt Langford turning heads early in the spring, Evan Carter unfazed by pitch to forearm and Marcus Semien remains club's steady force atop the lineup.
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00:00 This spring training, all eyes are on top prospect Wyatt Lankford, including one of the Rangers'
00:04 coaches who said he's the best player on the field. The answer is to who said it,
00:08 may surprise you. Talk about all that and more on this episode of Locked on Rangers.
00:11 Let's get into it.
00:12 You are Locked on Rangers. Your daily Texas Rangers podcast.
00:20 Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team, every day.
00:26 You are Locked on to the World Series Champion Texas Rangers. I'm Bryce Patrick,
00:40 a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers fan covering this team for 10 seasons, including all five as
00:44 the founder and host of this podcast. Thank you all so much for making Locked on Rangers your
00:49 first listen every single day. If you're not already, you can follow me on Twitter @BrycePatrick.
00:53 You can follow the show @LockedOnRangers. Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform
00:57 and on YouTube. The best way you can help grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below.
01:02 Now, before I get into this massive feature by Jeff Passan on the Rangers,
01:06 top prospect Wyatt Lankford, today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Make every moment more.
01:11 New customers join today and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins.
01:17 Just visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn to get started. Now, I know many of you, like me,
01:23 in this Rangers spring training, the only real position battle in the positional group is who's
01:30 going to get the opening day D8 spot. And the top questions, the top prospects in that order are
01:36 between Wyatt Lankford, Justin Foscue, and Ezekiel Duran. And I don't know about y'all,
01:44 but I felt very, very confident that Lankford was going to win this job at a camp. Not only
01:49 because he is the Rangers top prospect, because of the things that he does on the baseball field,
01:54 the type of player that he is, and how highly the Rangers think of him. Now, I remember last
02:00 year when Adolphe Garcia got hurt the first time with that knee injury. I, like probably several
02:07 of you, and even talking with some of my friends who cover prospects and have covered prospects
02:11 for a long time, we thought, you know, it might be insane, but maybe Wyatt Lankford is the player
02:20 the Rangers should call up to replace Adolphe Garcia in this lineup, to give the Rangers some
02:25 extra kick. Just to have him in that lineup, because his bat is so good, because of the things
02:30 he's doing, and the minors are so good. The way he is putting together at bat, the swing decisions
02:35 he's making, the batted ball data, everything about what he was doing, not just the raw numbers
02:41 being so impressive, but the player being so impressive at such a young age, at such a stage
02:48 in his development, that there was a real question among prospect heads, at least, that thought,
02:55 "Okay, maybe Wyatt Lankford, even though he's got 200 minor league plate appearances, or I think
03:02 even fewer at the time, maybe this is the time for him to come up and make his big league debut and
03:06 make an impact." But the Rangers decided to go with Evan Carter, a little bit more polished,
03:10 a little bit closer to the big leagues at that point. I don't think Wyatt Lankford had made his
03:14 jump to AAA at that point yet, was about a week or not very long away from making his AAA debut.
03:23 But the Rangers went with Evan Carter, filling him beautifully, and was amazing down the stretch,
03:28 and was an integral part of the Rangers winning World Series. And Wyatt Lankford was hanging
03:34 around. There was a lot of talk amongst Rangers beat writers that even considering calling up
03:40 Lankford was foolish. There's no way the Rangers would do it. There's no way. He's not even taking
03:45 live at bats right now. He's definitely in Florida. And I protested at the time. I said,
03:50 "There's no way this guy with this much potential, with this highly touted, that has been this good
03:57 and is this close to the big leagues, has just been sent home for the year." When the Rangers
04:02 are on this run through the postseason, I thought there's no way they aren't having this kid at
04:07 least in their traveling crew, at least around the team. He may be hidden off to the side so that
04:13 media can't see that he is there. But I thought there's no way they aren't keeping this kid around
04:17 to learn from the big league vets, see what this experience is like through a postseason run,
04:23 and to learn from it. Because that's an invaluable experience to have for one of your top prospects.
04:29 And I kept on being laughed off and scoffed at. And when Chris Young was asked about it in a
04:33 press conference of if they considered Wyatt Lankford in the World Series, calling him up
04:40 after the last Adolescorsi injury, the oblique injury, that ended up sidelining him before game
04:47 three, or game four and game five of the World Series, which the Rangers won. And he was asked
04:52 if Wyatt Lankford was considered as a replacement. And he just kind of laughed and said, "Oh no,
04:58 no, we're not. We're not considering that." But then here we are, February 27th, and Jeff
05:03 Passan releases this wonderful article. And there were so many quotes from it that are so revealing,
05:10 the main of which is one Rangers coach calling it Wyatt Lankford, the best player on the field.
05:15 That was Mike Mannix, the pitching coach. He's seen some players. He knows what the best player
05:22 on the field looks like. And saying that Wyatt Lankford was the best player on the field,
05:27 with the players that were on the field at the time, is an insanely high compliment.
05:33 Corey Seager might not have been, he was not playing at the time. Josh Young had played a
05:38 little bit. Adolescorsia was there. Marcus Simeon, the guy who finished third in MVP voting, was
05:45 there. But no, Mannix said, "This kid Wyatt Lankford, this is the best player on the field."
05:55 That is an enormous compliment to Wyatt Lankford, the player he is. And with someone of that caliber
06:01 of experience, having that high a praise for a kid this young, I mean, this is why all of us
06:08 prospect heads, myself including, and a lot of Rangers fans who follow prospects are going nuts
06:13 over this kid. Saying the sky is below the limit. The sky is the floor. The ceiling for this kid is
06:22 in another universe, another stratosphere, another alternate reality. That's how high the ceiling is
06:30 on this Wyatt Lankford kid. And I understand Rangers fans and more casual fans that don't
06:36 follow prospects as closely have seen the last many, many years of Rangers prospects come and go
06:42 and have expectations very unfulfilled. They've seen the likes of Jerxin Profar, who was touted
06:49 as the number one prospect in all of baseball. And we all saw how that worked out. We saw Noah
06:54 Mazora. We saw Joey Gallo. We saw Jorge Alfaro, Louis Brinson. These guys who were thought of as
07:00 the next wave of these guys are going to be so incredibly good. And we saw them not work out.
07:06 We saw the same thing with Rugnetto Dorr. And we thought we might be seeing the same thing with
07:11 Josh Young and Evan Carter, but no. It seems like the tables have turned a little bit and the Raiders
07:17 are actually developing young talent. They are developing young hitters. They are developing
07:24 these young prospects that are not only living up to the hype, but exceeding the hype. And the
07:29 expectations were pretty high for Josh Young. And all he did in his first year was start the
07:34 All-Star Game for the American League, win the Rangers a World Series as an integral part of
07:40 that lineup and make incredible progress on his defense. Oh, and that Evan Carter kid,
07:45 all he did was come up in the middle of a pennant race, hit third in the World Series,
07:49 and helped the Rangers win their first ever championship. Oh, and he just turned 21,
07:53 like two weeks before he got called up to the big leagues. Things are changing around this
07:59 Rangers team. And Wyatt Langford is going to be a big part of why things are changing.
08:03 And like I said, that the Rangers were definitely considering having this kid around. All these
08:08 quotes in this Jeff Passan article, they are very adamant about how, "Oh yeah, nope, actually,
08:13 by the way, Wyatt Langford was definitely in that traveling party. He was taking at-bats off of Max
08:18 Scherzer to get him ready when he was coming back from his injury. And he took Max Scherzer deep."
08:23 And he was, apparently, the word was flabbergasting onlookers. They were flabbergasted.
08:30 These are people who do not flabbergast easily. But Wyatt Langford had their jaws on the floor
08:36 with the things he was doing at his age, a guy who had just turned 22, a little older than
08:42 the young, the young save, little savior in Evan Carter. But he was putting on massive displays
08:49 in batting practice against future hall of famers, against other big league caliber players,
08:56 and just stunning the onlookers. And I like having this vindication that, you know, my
09:04 wild projection of saying that there's no way they aren't at least considering Langford coming up to
09:09 the big leagues and making his debut. Granted, it would be kind of insane and unprecedented to have
09:14 a kid come up, make his major league debut. It would have been in game four of the World Series.
09:19 That would have been a little nuts, but the kid is fearless. He just destroyed college baseball
09:27 and did it on the big stage of college baseball, was a win away from a college World Series
09:32 championship. And, you know, he just did it in the minors for, you know, a month, two months,
09:40 however long it was, 200 plate appearances in the minors. And he destroyed every level of the minor
09:47 leagues. This kid is an unprecedented specimen of physicality, of hitting acumen, of hype around a
09:57 prospect that does not affect him at all. I mean, everybody in Rangers camp is there. For the most
10:04 part, a lot of them are there to see him, to see what can this kid do? How good is this kid really?
10:09 And even though the results on the field in spring training games, which again, don't amount to all
10:16 that much, haven't been insanely impressive. It's still a monument, a testament to how good this kid
10:23 is that he keeps turning heads and keeps getting compliments, like being the best player on the
10:29 field by a guy who has been around the big leagues for many, many decades in Mike Maddox.
10:36 Coming up, we're going to talk about why it makes the most sense for him to make the opening day
10:39 roster over some of the Rangers, other options, a little bit of an update on Evan Carter's injury,
10:43 and the importance and consistency of Marcus Simeon, right after this word from our sponsors.
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11:46 Shout out to the everydayers for making Lockdown Rangers your first listen every single day. On
11:49 tomorrow's show, I'll be back and talking about how Corey Seager's runner-up to the MVP finish
11:53 and World Series MVP season are just the start of what the Rangers superstar is going to do in Texas.
11:59 Now, we're just talking about how important Wyatt Langford is and why he is so incredibly good. And
12:06 the quotes were just gleaming, beaming praise about this kid. And one of the ones that really
12:12 stuck out to me was from Texas bench coach Donnie Ecker/offensive coordinator. This is in Jeff
12:18 Passon's article on ESPN.com. He said, "He was right there in the conversation. And if he did
12:24 play, he was going right in the three hole." Which, oh my gosh, just gave me chills reading this
12:31 article about just beaming praise about the Rangers' top prospect. I mean, a team coming
12:36 off a World Series championship, everything is going their way. The off season wasn't quite as
12:41 splashy as you'd want, but I mean, you got Evan Carter for a full season this year and you got
12:45 Wyatt Langford who has not made a major league debut yet coming into an offense that was, I'd
12:51 say pretty unquestionably the best in the American league last year. And it's just getting better.
12:58 And they add this kid and talk about him hitting in the three hole in the World Series. I mean,
13:03 that would have been nice, but it's also again, nice for that validation of my claims saying
13:08 they're definitely at least considering Wyatt Langford that had to be foolish not to
13:12 being laughed off during the World Series run being brought to fruition pretty clearly that,
13:17 yeah, that actually was what we were considering, but we just didn't want to tip our hand, which
13:22 it's kind of how I felt like that was happening at the time. But the other reason that I think
13:27 that Wyatt Langford, the main reason besides him just being absolutely amazing, astounding,
13:31 maybe the best player in the Rangers camp right now, according to Mike Mannix,
13:36 the reason that I think he's going to make the opening day roster is not because he's hitting
13:41 zero in major league spring training games. As of this recording, he is in the lineup for
13:46 today's game Tuesday, as you are listening to this, and he might've already gotten his first
13:52 spring training hit, but because the Rangers would be incentivized to keep players who might win
13:59 rookie of the year on their roster on opening day, because of last year, mainly for the most part,
14:07 I will say my stance on individual awards is that they are not that important.
14:11 They are a little overrated. They don't matter as much as team success. I mean, would you have
14:17 rather have Corey Seager won the American League regular season MVP or the World Series MVP?
14:24 I guarantee you Corey Seager, everybody on that team, and pretty much every Rangers fan out there
14:29 would say, yeah, I'd rather him win the World Series MVP because that means we won the World
14:32 Series as a team, as opposed to watching one good regular season for Corey Seager.
14:37 But my one exception, which started last year, and because of a new CBA rule is the reason it's my
14:45 exception, is the rookie of the year. That is the one award that I care very strongly about and why
14:55 I am still so upset that Josh Young did not finish third in rookie of the year voting,
15:00 because it actually matters. It actually matters on the field, not just for the longterm for a
15:08 player's, you know, Cooperstown induction, having more awards is makes that case easier, but because
15:15 as of last year with the new CBA, teams are incentivized to have their top prospects on
15:22 their opening day roster from day one, from opening day and throughout the regular season.
15:28 Because if they have those top prospects on their roster from opening day all the way through the
15:34 season and they win rookie of the year or they finish top three in rookie of the year, there are
15:39 incentives for that team. There are prizes basically for that team. There are draft picks,
15:47 draft compensation, things that help you make your team better for the long haul.
15:50 And when your team is winning a whole lot, like the Rangers did last year, and like they hope to
15:56 do four years and years to come, getting high draft picks is a difficult thing to do. And if
16:03 you're good at developing young talent, if you have these rookies that are very, very good, and
16:10 there is a spot for them on your roster to play consistently, or at least to be on your opening
16:16 day roster, then you are very highly incentivized to get that person on your roster from day one.
16:23 That's what happened with Gunnar Henderson last year, when he won AL rookie of the year.
16:27 That's what happened with Corbin Carroll last year when he won NL rookie of the year.
16:31 And both of those teams got very high picks in the thirties of the draft range of, of,
16:38 of the first round of the draft because they had the rookie of the year because of the qualifications.
16:44 Now it's not just anybody wins rookie of the year. You get a first round pick. That's not how it
16:48 works. They have to be on the, on the, on the opening day roster, on the roster for a certain
16:54 number of days. They also have to be a top 100 prospect on two of three lists. Those three lists
17:01 are from MLB.com, from Baseball America, and from ESPN. And as you all know, both Evan Carter
17:09 and White Langford are among the top 100 prospects on all of those lists. And I believe they are all
17:15 top 10 prospects on all of those lists. No, the top 10 overall doesn't matter. It just matters
17:21 if they're on the top 100, which those guys are. And so if the Rangers decide that White Langford
17:29 doesn't need to be on the opening day roster, if he isn't ready, even though they were considering
17:33 adding him in the world series last year, and now they have a DH spot open that they did not last
17:38 year in the world series, they had Mitch Garver. Thank you very much, Mitch Garver for the
17:42 championship. Um, but also thank you for opening that spot up for White Langford. So as much as I
17:49 like Justin Foscue, and I think he's very good, I think Foscue is going to be a very good major
17:54 leaguer. But let's look at the best stint of his minor league career of Justin Foscue's minor league
18:00 career. It's pretty unquestionably the 33 games that he played in Hickory, his first year of
18:06 professional baseball, 150 played appearances there, he went nuclear, absolutely nuclear with
18:12 the power numbers, 14 home runs, a slash line of 296, 407, 736. That is an 1143 OPS in 150 played
18:22 appearances. It's probably a little advanced for that level, but still, that is a very, very good
18:27 season. Now let's look at White Langford's overall numbers from minors last year. That was a, what
18:33 would we say, 1143 OPS in 150 played appearances for Foscue, his best singular stint at one place.
18:41 Now let's look at the minors, 200 played appearances for White Langford, an 1157 OPS for the full year
18:49 in the minors. By full year, I mean 44 games. That is higher than Justin Foscue's highest, best
18:59 month and a half long stretch. I don't say that to diminish Justin Foscue by any means. He is a very
19:08 valuable player. He walks at an elite rate. He's got some pop. He is very streaky with that power,
19:13 but when it comes, when the home runs come, they come in bunches. But Langford's overall numbers
19:18 that season, it's not just the county stats. That's one of the things that Chris Young talked
19:23 about in this article, and one of the things that he praised Langford for is it's not just what the
19:28 stat sheet says. I mean, the stat sheet's incredibly impressive, hitting 360 with an on-base of 480
19:32 and slugging 677 in 44 games. That's very, very impressive. But the underlying data, how hard he's
19:41 hitting the ball, the decisions he's making on the pitches that he swings at and the ones that he
19:45 takes, those are all even better. Do you understand why I'm so insanely high on this kid? Why I think
19:53 he has the highest ceiling of any prospect in the Rangers system, even if he just ends up as a left
20:00 fielder? The offensive ceiling for this kid is absolutely astronomically high, higher than the
20:07 Rangers may have ever had in a prospect. Granted, yeah, no, I feel pretty confident saying that.
20:15 Maybe, maybe Pudge Rodriguez's ceiling was a little bit higher. Maybe there's a few other
20:18 guys from the nineties that had a little bit higher offensive ceiling, but I mean, given,
20:22 given where the offensive game is now, the OPS plus numbers that I think he's going to put up
20:27 compared to how the league is offensively now than it was back in the steroid era when the Rangers
20:31 had so many young hitters that were so very, very good in the late eighties or late nineties and
20:38 early two thousands, I think that he's going to be right up there for the best hitting prospect
20:43 the Rangers have ever had. Overall numbers, I'm not saying he's going to put up Pudge Rodriguez
20:47 numbers. That, that is something that I don't know that anybody's going to do because being a
20:54 19 year old catcher, who's, you know, the best defensive catcher in the game and also maybe the
21:00 best offensive catcher in the game for about a decade and wins an MVP. That's a hard thing to,
21:05 to replicate, but I think Wyatt Langford is going to be an absolute stud. These compliments coming
21:12 from all kinds of different places, including Bruce Bochy's incredibly high praise and just
21:15 the entire, entire feature being written by the premier baseball writer in the country,
21:21 all about you before you've even made your major league debut. And it's not phasing Wyatt Langford
21:26 at all. He's just going out there hitting tanks, playing some defense in the outfield and trying
21:31 to learn every single day from all those big leagues studs around him. He is going to join
21:36 them. I am certain on the opening day roster, and I cannot wait to see what this kid is going to do
21:42 this year because man, the sky is the floor for this kid. And I cannot wait to see him break into
21:49 the stratosphere. Coming up, we're going to talk about a positive development from Evan Carter on
21:54 his day off after suffering a hit by pitch and why Marcus Simeon is so incredibly important to this
22:01 team. Right after this word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel.
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22:19 wins. You've got all kinds of major league baseball odds. I've been talking all about
22:23 how great Wyatt Langford is and how the Rangers are incentivized to keep him on the opening day
22:27 roster so he can potentially win AL Rookie of the Year. Right now, according to FanDuel,
22:31 he is plus 700, the third best odds for AL Rookie of the Year behind only Jackson Holiday and Evan
22:38 Carter, who's at plus 280, the odds on favorite to win American League Rookie of the Year. If
22:43 you wanted to think that the Rangers player is going to win American League MVP as well,
22:48 well, Corey Seager is at plus 850, the third favorite in betting odds according to FanDuel.
22:54 So go check it out. Make your first bet. Go join FanDuel.com/LockedOn and shoot your shot.
23:00 FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA.
23:02 Shout out to the NBA's picking Locked On Rangers. You first listen every single day.
23:09 On Thursday's show, I'll be back and talking about why last year was just a start for Josh Young,
23:14 and I think he is going to get even better after an all-star season in his rookie year.
23:18 Now, the Rangers got some positive news on Evan Carter after leaving Sunday's game after a hit by
23:25 pitch from a lefty on the Giants. Kyle Harrison, I believe it was, he hit him with some velocity in
23:31 the forearm, got taken out of the game, and within five minutes, the Rangers thankfully knew that
23:35 there was no broken bones on that arm, just a bruise. He was considered day-to-day. He played
23:41 on Monday in a spring training game, in Backfield's game, and went up against old buddy John Gray,
23:48 and ground out to first base the first time, or to the right side of the infield, I believe,
23:52 was the second baseman, actually, that he grounded out to in his first plate appearance.
23:56 And then, in his second plate appearance, thought, "Ah, actually, I'm feeling fine."
24:01 Worked a 3-1 count, hit an absolute monster shot to center field, a home run off of John Gray,
24:06 the only runs that John Gray allowed in that spring training outing on the backfields. So,
24:12 seems like Evan Carter's doing just fine. He's in the lineup for today's game, Tuesday,
24:16 as you're listening to this. And I think everything was maybe a little overblown with
24:20 the young little savior of his injury concerns. I mean, last year, I talked about it on yesterday's
24:27 episode that there were concerns about when he got hit by a pitch a couple of times that it sapped
24:31 his power in last year during the minor leagues, and he had to take a little bit of time off on
24:36 the injured list to kind of recuperate from that because it was basically a month where he was just
24:41 not able to get any juice on those pitches. But hey, seems like he has bulked up, added a little
24:46 bit of weight. And so, when he gets plunked in the arm or wherever, because that's part of Major
24:50 League Baseball, that's what happens, it's not as big a deal. That is a good sign for him and for
24:54 the Rangers that he is feeling good and back in this lineup on Tuesday. Now, the Rangers played
24:59 a spring training game against the White Sox yesterday, and there was not a whole lot of
25:03 memorable developments from this game. We did see a typically kind of erratic game from Colwyn. I was
25:10 really looking forward to seeing what he was going to do after a stint in Puerto Rico in the Winter
25:15 League where he looked much better, much more confident. The walk rates weren't insane off the
25:20 charts like they had been the last couple of years in AAA. This year, this early spring training
25:25 performance was not the case, ending in two thirds, a couple of hits, a walk and earned run,
25:30 and a hit by pitch, and a strikeout. That is kind of the Colwyn experience. Did get to see a couple
25:36 innings from Zach Kent where he looked pretty good. Deo Castillo looked very good as well,
25:40 as did Grant Wolfram. Mark Church was up to 97 with his fastball. That's a very nice development.
25:46 Also didn't walk anybody in his one inning of work. That's also a nice development. Church has
25:50 probably got the nastiest slider of any Rangers pitcher in the minor leagues, and could be a very
25:56 helpful addition to the back end of this bullpen. But he's got to work on those walk numbers,
26:00 got to stay in the zone, and having that swing and miss pitch of that slider, having a fastball
26:05 that goes up to 97, that's a helpful development for him. Also saw a nice inning from Burling
26:09 Mare and from Daniel Robert as well. Hitters, this was honestly, it looked like about the weakest
26:16 slider that the Rangers could trot out there for any spring training game. But hey, they got the
26:20 job done. A very important Cactus League win. Rangers are 2-1-1 in Cactus League play. Still
26:27 have a chance for that championship in Cactus League, which I know they are just dying for.
26:32 You get one championship and you always want more. So why not start off the year with a spring
26:39 training championship and finish it off with a World Series championship. Not a whole lot of
26:44 developments from there, including just one interesting note, just seeing a triple from
26:49 Sam Hoffman. A couple of really good at bats from Justin Foscue. He's been doing very, very well.
26:53 I know it did sound like I was trying to besmirch Mr. Foscue earlier on this episode. That is not
26:59 the case. Foscue has been very good in his eight games. Only eight at bats so far, but he's got
27:03 three hits, including a well-stunk double and a walk as well. A 944 OPS, which means everything
27:10 in the world in spring training. But no, his at bats have been pretty good. Has struck out half
27:14 in half of his at bats though, four strikeouts in eight at bats. Not something that you are typically
27:19 seeing from Foscue. Had more walks than strikeouts for the year last year in AAA. I'm still very high
27:24 on this kid. I think it could be a very helpful major league addition for somebody, but I think
27:30 a lot of the Rangers lineup is spoken for. And I think he will probably start this year at AAA,
27:34 despite being a very good capable and guy capable of hitting major league pitching at this point.
27:40 But I also want to talk about Marcus Simeon, his importance to this team. I mean, the value
27:45 this guy provides every single year, year in, year out, finishing with a 7.4 baseball reference
27:51 for season last year, starting all 162 games plus all 17 in the playoffs, setting a record for the
27:57 most played appearances that any player has ever had in the regular season and post season combined.
28:04 That is a level of durability that is just frankly unmatched, unprecedented, and very
28:13 difficult to replicate ever. Not to mention that it wasn't just by some young spring chicken who's
28:20 able to heal very, very easily, able to overcome any kind of hit by pitch, any kind of little
28:27 ding up, whatever bruises and bumps that major league players get along the way.
28:34 This is a guy who's age 32 season, and he put together 162 games after 161 last year and 162
28:41 the year before, and then 162 in the last full season of 2019. The guy has just been the Ironman
28:49 of all Ironmen leading off for this team, putting in the work day in, day out. And again, the
28:56 numbers, they might not jump off the pages, the flashiest, most outstanding, amazing player ever,
29:02 but the consistency of day in, day out, knowing what you're getting from your leadoff guy,
29:06 knowing what you're getting of a guy who is going to play second base every inning, every day,
29:11 every game, you are never going to have to think about it. You are never going to have to think
29:14 about who's going one, two in your lineup when you have Corey Seager and Marcus Simeon. And he is
29:19 maybe the most well-rounded player in major league baseball. The catch-all metrics of batting value,
29:25 base runner value, fielding value, all those for him last year. Batter value, 95th percentile. He's
29:32 in the top five most valuable offensive players. Base running value, 74th percentile, nearly the
29:38 top quarter of the league. And that was his lowest of these big three. And then fielding value,
29:43 93rd percentile. So he's in the top 7% of players defensively in baseball, the top 5% of baseball
29:50 players offensively. And all he does is just put together solid, consistent seasons, putting
29:56 together a nearly career high on base percentage, not quite the highest OBP of his career, but the
30:01 second highest, the only higher OBP he had was back in 2019. The first time he finished top three
30:07 in MVP voting, that was a 369 on base percentage. This year, bumped up that walk rate significantly
30:13 from last year, had a 348 on base percentage as the Rangers' everyday leadoff player, a 122 OPS+,
30:21 which was the third highest of his career. When he bumped that walk rate up significantly, it was
30:25 one of the things he didn't do very well last year as a leadoff guy. You wanted to see that walk rate
30:30 be a little bit higher. The major league average walk rate is 8.4%. Last year, he was at 7.3%,
30:36 or excuse me, 2022, he was at 7.3%. And then this past year, 9.6%, much higher than the major league
30:45 average and much more where you would want your everyday second baseman to be in. He's also not
30:50 striking out a lot. That's one of the best things that he did offensively. His chase rate was in the
30:54 top 12% of baseball, so he's not expanding the zone. He's not chasing off some bad pitches. He's
30:59 making pitchers beat him in the zone. His swing and miss rate, top 10% of baseball. His actual
31:05 strikeout rate, top 9% of baseball. And the walk rate jumped up to the 64th percentile.
31:09 Now the average exit velocity, barrel percentage, hard hit percentage, he's not hitting the ball
31:13 nearly as hard as you would think a guy putting up these offensive numbers are doing. But what
31:18 he's doing is he's making pitchers give him pitches that he can handle. He knows the pitches
31:22 that he can handle. He knows how to foul off pitches that he can't handle. And he is working
31:26 these long at bats, which is what you want from your leadoff guy, the everyday consistency,
31:31 which is why I don't think the Reindeers are going to move him off the leadoff position
31:35 until someone forces them to, or until he loses it. And I don't think that he is going to lose
31:40 that leadoff position this year, or maybe even next year. I think Evan Carter or Wyatt Langford
31:46 could be an exceptional leadoff batter. But as long as you've got Marcus Simeon, that steady
31:51 veteran, who's going to play 162 games every year until you force him to sit one, that is
31:58 a extremely valuable player to have at the top of your lineup and the way he's aging.
32:03 And he has been more durable than Adrian Beltre has in his final seasons. The 7.3 war season is,
32:11 excuse me, it was 7.4 war season was higher than any war season that Adrian Beltre had as a member
32:20 of the Texas Rangers. Let that sink in for a second. Last year's total baseball reference
32:25 war for Marcus Simeon was better than any year Adrian Beltre had with the Rangers.
32:30 That's nuts. That's absolutely bonkers, the level of production that he is putting up
32:36 at that level and that number three MVP finish. That's as high as Adrian Beltre finished in 2012,
32:42 which was his best season with the Rangers and all-star season and a 7.2 baseball reference
32:47 war season. Marcus Simeon is doing Adrian Beltre things. And I think we need to appreciate him for
32:53 it because he is one of the underrated superstars of this game. And if Rangers fans don't appreciate
32:58 him, then how are other teams going to know how good this superstar at second base is for your
33:03 Texas Rangers? Now that's going to do it for today's show. Thank you all so much for listening
33:06 and subscribing. And until next time, don't forget to enjoy World Series Champion, Texas Rangers
33:11 baseball.