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September used to mean that half the farm
system would show up.
But tomorrow, Texas gets just two additional roster
spots.
And somehow, five or six guys have a
legitimate case for them.
The two that they choose will tell us
a lot about what the Rangers think they
need over the next 25 games.
Hi and welcome to another edition of Right
on Rangers with Austin Beckman, where we cover
everything Texas sports, but we put a huge
emphasis, of course, on the Rangers during the
MLB season, and we thank you for choosing
Right on Rangers for all of your Texas
Rangers content.
Drop a comment, drop a question, we'd love
to hear from you.
It's why I started this in the first
place, wanting to connect with fans of the
greatest baseball team in the major leagues, the
Texas Rangers.
Record might not be showing that right now,
but we love them.
We love them.
And the calendar is now turning to September,
and we love this time of year as
well.
Rosters are expanding, we have got playoff baseball
right around the corner, and we're hopeful that
the Rangers can figure out a way.
That last week of baseball was not super
encouraging towards that sentiment, but nevertheless, we are
going to be supporting this team until the
bitter end.
Until they are mathematically eliminated, I'm going to
be bringing you the same content every day.
We're in a playoff race, man.
And I am looking forward to seeing how
Texas fares over the next few weeks.
They've got every opportunity to win in front
of them.
Let's see if they can do it.
Now, let's talk roster expansion.
Look, September isn't the good old days where,
you know, half the farm system suddenly shows
up.
We talked about that in the opener.
Texas is going to get a couple additional
roster spots here, and just kind of lay
the land real quick.
Rangers are 67 and 70.
They are two games behind Houston.
They have 25 games left in the season.
This is still a playoff race, man.
September can't just become developmental baseball.
The timing really is fascinating for a few
different reasons.
Several guys are making noise at once down
on the farm.
Dylan Dreiling, I think we have to start
with him.
21 game hitting streak.
Sebastian Walcott just had another monster week.
Gavin Collyer has been excellent at Triple-A.
And Teodo, of course, we know has electric
stuff.
And how could I not mention my guy,
Alejandro Osuna.
He's got major league experience, and he's been
hitting well down at Triple-A also.
Look, these players offer completely different kinds of
help.
You've got players that can offer you some
current production.
I put Osuna in that category.
You've got guys that have an extremely high
upside.
I think you'd easily gravitate towards Walcott in
that department.
Major league readiness, bullpen stuff, the safest usable
depth.
There's so many different directions here.
There's more legitimate candidates though than available spots,
sadly.
So these choices are going to tell you
something about what the Rangers really believe that
they need down this final home stretch to
October.
Depending on which two you choose, you are
basically telling us, the Rangers are telling us,
what they think September should really be about.
I don't think there's an obvious answer, by
the way.
I do think it's a lot of fun
to talk about.
And I do think I would be remiss
to not mention you've got a couple of
guys that are injured that will be coming
back that could potentially further complicate things here,
right?
So first of all, let's do a little
update.
Josh Jung.
The two guys, by the way, Josh Jung,
Nathan Eovaldi, right?
Let's start with Jung.
Jung is progressing, but there hasn't been a
confirmed full-speed sprinting or base running milestone.
He's been jogging, doing some defensive work, getting
engaged while the calf continues to heal.
Jung definitely is going to matter later on.
You're hopeful that you can get him back
for maybe the last couple weeks.
I think they're probably hoping the same thing
with Eovaldi.
Maybe mid-September, you can get them a
couple of weeks of game action.
You can get Eovaldi a couple of starts
before a hypothetical October run.
Yeah, it definitely is going to create a
playing time squeeze that I think will be
fascinating.
But right now, I don't think Josh Jung
is going to be factoring into that September
1st map at all.
I would be surprised if he is even
back by mid-September.
I think he might be a final week
of the season candidate because at this point,
you're not even sprinting yet.
You're not even having gone on a rehab
assignment yet.
I am not counting on Josh Jung to
factor into this month of September a whole
lot.
Maybe at the very end.
And you just hope that he has an
opportunity to help this team push them over
the top when he does come back.
Now, Nathan Eovaldi, he has resumed playing catch.
That's a good sign.
The latest update still had him roughly 10
to 12 days away from even getting back
on a mound.
He's moving forward, but not in immediate reinforcement
either.
Like I said, I think they'd be fortunate
to get Evo back by mid-September.
I think you're hoping maybe you can get
one or two starts late September with Eovaldi
kind of as tune-ups for the playoffs.
And then you've got Jack Leiter, right?
Jack Leiter's rehab took a turn for the
worst.
Bicep soreness.
Maybe I'm getting a little dramatic here, but
just not what you want to hear.
He's coming back from an ankle injury after
slip-sliding around on that on-deck circle.
It's just not what you want to hear.
Jack is definitely not going to be back
in the starting rotation.
They have already talked about bringing him back
in a bullpen role.
Clearly that experiment's temporarily on hold.
But I like the concept of Jack coming
back to help the team.
I'm not sure if the bullpen is the
best place.
We were talking about on the live show
yesterday after the win over the Brewers, which
was great, by the way.
Loved that we were able to salvage a
game in that series.
A sweep looked very likely.
Thank goodness for Ezequiel Duran, am I right?
But I think Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter,
not my favorite choices for the pen.
It's been a very sexy option.
A very sexy alternative to get those guys
out in the pen where the swing and
miss stuff can play.
The biggest thing though that scares me with
both Leiter and Rocker out in the pen
is the fact that they do not throw
enough strikes.
You do not have consistent strike throwers in
Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker.
Feels like Kumar a little worse in that
department than Jack, but it does not matter
if you've got swing and miss if you
cannot throw strikes in high leverage moments.
And I think you have to look down
on the farm.
We're going to talk about Emiliano Teodo and
the Rangers have a few other players like
this.
We're going to talk about Gavin Collyer as
well.
Both those two names struggled to throw strikes.
And when you walk guys at the major
league level, you can not get away with
it like you can in AAA, man.
In AAA, if you walk one or two,
you got the filthy stuff, you can get
some swing and miss and you can get
out of a jam.
It's a lot harder to do that at
the major league level.
Most teams are going to punish you when
you give them free passes, especially multiple free
passes.
So some of the reinforcements that Texas hoped
might arrive naturally.
And didn't we get that spiel quite a
bit from CY?
You know, the cavalry is coming.
The injured list cavalry is on the way,
baby.
Just as good as a trade deadline acquisition.
Now, I know that he was referring mainly
to Cody Bradford and Jordan Montgomery.
Cody Bradford's been solid.
Monty, I think, has been a little bit
uneven.
But look, the September roster decision made even
more meaningful considering the news that I just
shared, those injury updates.
So let's break down the two spots, right?
What the two spots actually mean here.
Active roster is going to go from 26
to 28.
Maximum of 14 pitchers.
That's important.
So Texas can add a pitcher and a
position player.
Or it could use both additional spots on
position players.
The rules do not guarantee one of each,
right?
So think about this.
Osuna, Cauley, Collyer, Teodo already on the 40
-man roster.
Walcott and Dreiling are not on the 40
-man.
And these are all the names that I
think have been gathering steam.
And by the way, just for the record,
if you're like right now listening, Dreiling, what
are we talking about?
Dreiling?
I mean, dude has been pretty solid over
the last month.
I do think he is a very, very
distant dark horse to be added to the
40-man and called up to the big
leagues.
But I don't think it's as crazy of
a notion as you think.
Nevertheless, I acknowledge Dreiling is probably one of
the, I would say, lowest bets, lowest chances
to end up making the 40-man and
to get called up in the September 1st
call-ups.
Look, Walcott or Dreiling clearly would have to
be selected.
That doesn't automatically mean somebody has to be
DFA'd because Texas does have some existing roster
flexibility.
Real difference though between easiest roster move and
most aggressive baseball move.
So let's get into the candidate board here
a little bit.
What I'm going to do is I'm going
to offer up the potential.
I'm going to offer up the candidates.
And then at the end of the show,
we will make our verdict here.
So let's make a case for every single
one of these players, both kind of like
for and against, if you will.
Osuna, let's start with him, of course.
And I will fully admit there is a
little bit of bias here, but I have
said over the last five months of baseball,
man, yes, we all have the players that
we love, myself included, but I'm eyes wide
open with Alejandro.
I do think though, objectively, he's probably the
cleanest position player option.
He's already on the 40-man, already has
major league experience, gives Texas another left-handed
bat.
He really doesn't need every day playing time
either for the move to make sense.
I've always talked about the Bruce Bochy quote
that I really latched onto last year.
And it was in regards to Osuna because
he was being asked, Bruce Bochy was, you
know, is it better for guys like Osuna
to be playing every day down at AAA
developing or, you know, is there value to
staying up at the major league level?
And, you know, I think he acknowledged, hey,
playing every day down at AAA could definitely
be helpful, but he made a really strong
case that I've always had stick with me.
He just said, you know what?
When you're up at the major league level,
you're getting to see the best.
You're getting to learn from the best.
And in a lot of cases, you're getting
to face the best.
There's some games that go on throughout the
course of a week.
You do get time against major league pitching
experience, right?
And so I do feel, and I've said
this many times about Osuna, I don't know
that he has a lot to prove in
AAA anymore.
And I do think that some of the
intangibles, the leadership, and by the way, I
know maybe leadership feels weird to say about
Osuna, but that guy I do feel like
during games in the clubhouse is a positive
presence.
Maybe he's not the vocal Adrian Beltre leader,
but I do think the team gets a
lot of energy from guys like him.
I said maybe about a week ago, it
has felt a little flatter since he left.
Take that for what you will.
It's just eye test.
It's just my opinion.
But I feel like getting Osuna back would
be a huge plus for this team.
Now let's go to Gavin Collyer.
He's probably done the most to earn another
pitching opportunity.
He is 5-0 with a 2.54 ERA
and 39 strikeouts in 28 and a third
AAA innings.
Keep moving on down the list.
Emiliano Teodo.
He's a completely different pitching argument.
The stuff is always gonna jump off the
page with Teodo, right?
69 strikeouts in 54 innings.
But you know what might be jumping out
a little bit more is the 43 walks
in those 54 innings.
This dude basically walks a batter an inning.
Not the best scenario if you're looking to
win some close games at the end of
September and October.
I digress.
Dylan Dreiling.
He has a full season performance case.
You look at the numbers that he has
been putting up and the current heater that
he is on, 21 game hitting streak and
.315 average, .385 OBP, .912 OPS.
He's got 21 bombs, 78 RBI.
And again, this is the full season performance
case.
Dreiling has had an incredible year down in
the minors and I think there's a lot
to be excited about with him.
As I said, probably a low chance that
he gets the call, gets added to the
40, gets the call.
But man, the season that he's had, I
think has got to have you perking up
a little bit, especially considering some of the
up and down play that we have got
from the outfield.
I think Evan Carter comes to mind.
I know Wyatt Langford, the injuries and then
the subsequent dip in production.
I think Wyatt is obviously going to be
a guy that is going to be a
long-term fixture for this team for a
while, for at least a few more years.
I don't think anybody in the organization has
given up on him.
I know some fans maybe in their frustrating
moments and their frustration feel like maybe the
team should consider moving on from him, the
injuries, all that kind of stuff.
I think Wyatt's got too much potential to
move on at this point.
Brandon Nimmo is going to be an interesting
case, but I do think that things may
open up in the outfield.
Maybe not this year, but in the years
to come in 27 and 28 especially.
Sebastian Walcott, he has the highest ceiling of
anybody in this conversation.
I don't think that that's rocket science here.
He just finished a nine hit, two homer
week, ripped up 115 mile an hour single
yesterday before he homered again.
Sebastian Walcott has got the attention of a
lot of people.
I do think that while he might not
be the most probable candidate and I do
think if you're looking for that spark, that
2023 Evan Carter spark, this guy makes you
dream the most about replicating that.
Is it going to happen?
I don't know.
Double A to the majors, it's not unprecedented,
but it's not easy.
And so Walcott, pretty green, not really playing
the field yet either, but that bat, that
bat does have you dreaming of something that
Evan Carter did in 23, which is give
this team a massive injection in the arm
on their way to their first World Series
Championship.
Cam Cauley, let's talk Cam.
You guys know behind Alejandro Osuna, Cam Cauley
is probably my second favorite of all these
guys.
And look, I know we haven't really had
a fair shot with some of these dudes,
but I am probably the president, co-president,
vice president.
I'm some kind of administrator when it comes
to the Cam Cauley and the Alejandro Osuna
fan club.
I just am.
Look, he's already on the 40 man.
We know that Cam Cauley already got some
major league experience.
And at this point, he could easily slide
back in as a defensive replacement late in
games, a guy that could be running on
the base paths for you needing a steal,
needing to go first to home on a
ball in the gap.
Cam Cauley, I think will absolutely be considered
for one of these spots.
Now, let's get into more specific debates here.
I do think you gotta consider the pairing,
right?
Like if you have one guy go up,
how does that leave you with another position?
Like if you call up a pitcher, you're
gonna go position player, or I mean, you
could call up multiple position players.
So I've got a couple of pairings that
I wanna throw before you wanna break down.
And then after that, like I said, we'll
come to a verdict here.
So let's start with Osuna and Collyer.
That to me feels probably like the cleanest,
most practical.
You've got Osuna, a guy who started a
lot of games this year.
Gavin Collyer had a number of big moments
in the spring, came into the season really
on a pretty good note as well.
Started faltering a little bit.
One position player, right?
One pitcher, they're both already on the 40
man.
Both have major league experience.
You don't have to have any kind of
developmental plan with them.
I already mentioned Gavin Collyer's performed well enough
at AAA.
I think another opportunity does feel earned at
this point rather than being gifted.
Osuna, going to him.
Again, left-handed bat, useful bat.
Yeah, it doesn't have a lot of slug.
He's hit one home run this year.
Whatever, we just played a game.
We just played a three game set against
the best team in baseball that has hit
the fewest home runs in baseball.
Don't know if that changed with the output
on Saturday, but I think Milwaukee is a
great reality check for anybody that continues to
harp on the lack of slug with players
like Osuna.
And you have winning baseball players and you
have the opposite of that.
Whatever term you want to throw in there.
I do believe Osuna's a winning ball player.
I know people like to hate on the
defense.
They like to hate on the lack of
pop, but you know what?
Give Osuna time to develop.
Give Osuna a little bit of runway.
And I think he's shown you that he
will improve.
He'll work hard.
And I do think before the demotion, we
were seeing some positive strides.
If you were worried about the glove, how
can you not think about the play that
he made in Houston saving the home run?
I know he didn't get the out, but
preventing a home run, diving, leaping up into
the right field, first row there, and reeling
that one back in, almost probably the catch
of the year.
And I know Brandon Nimmo had a great
one in Chicago.
I think that Osuna one probably beats it
out just because Alejandro was, I don't know
if it was a dead sprint, but he
was going pretty much full speed in that
leap.
I think Osuna, if given more of a
long-term opportunity, can continue to get better
and better.
And continuing on, the hesitation here, like, let's
go push back.
And I said, I'll do this for every
pairing that I bring up here.
I'll give you the good stuff.
I'll give you the pushback.
This might be the lowest ceiling choice, Osuna
Collyer.
Texas would essentially be choosing certainty and roster
convenience over the possibility that somebody younger changes
the feel of the club.
I think that is legitimately the negative here.
You just really don't know if you're going
to get a whole lot more than what
you got out of both of those players
when they were actually on the team.
Could they fortify?
Could they give you a little bit of
depth?
Absolutely.
And I do think that they might be
a little bit less volatile than some of
the other options.
But I do think the potential for the
lowest ceiling option could fall on them at
the end of the day.
Now, continuing on, let's just go Dark Horse
here.
Let's go crazy Dark Horse.
Dylan Dreiling and Gavin Collyer.
I think this might be the purest reward,
the performance pairing.
Both these guys have performed down in the
minor leagues, right?
You've got the upper level hitter and pitcher
who have really done a lot.
I think this season to force the issue,
at least to force a promotion.
And Dreiling's 21 game hitting streak, of course,
is impressive.
But the bigger argument is that the whole
season supports Dreiling at least at minimum getting
promoted, but possibly getting an opportunity at the
major league level.
This isn't a guy who suddenly got hot
for four days or even for 21 days.
Dylan Dreiling has been doing this all season
long and he's also 23 years old.
He's young and the developmental argument against moving
him aggressively, I think is a little bit
different than maybe moving a 20-year-old
Sebastian Walcott up to the big leagues.
23 is clearly still young and a lot
of guys are still in the developmental phase
there.
But I think Dreiling is making it very
hard to ignore with what he is doing.
And I think it goes without saying, the
obvious risk with Dreiling is that he hasn't
even played AAA baseball.
Texas would be asking him to skip an
entire level and immediately face MLB pitching in
September games.
I will say this though, and this was
on Kevin Pillar's pod that he does.
I mentioned this on the live show that
I did after the game on Sunday.
What many major leaguers will tell you is
that the stuff at AA is very, very
good.
It's just not polished.
When you go to AAA, the stuff is
still the same, but it's a little bit
more polished.
And so for me, I don't think that
Dreiling makes the leap and it's like some
overwhelming crazy thing.
In fact, the guys on the pod basically
said, you can definitely make the jump from
AA into the major leagues.
And there's been a number of cases of
that.
So I don't think it's unprecedented and I
would push back against anyone that says, man,
you can't go to the major leagues without
doing AAA.
I would really push back on the notion
that you have to play AAA before you
can go to the show.
And Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter, I think are
great examples.
Didn't play really any, hardly any AAA baseball.
And maybe you can push back.
Maybe the rebuttal is, well, look at what
they're doing this season.
It's not all star level, but nevertheless, I
mean, I don't know if you would really
make the argument that Wyatt Langford is totally
overwhelmed.
I think Evan and what he did in
the post season definitely shows you that you
can make a run.
And now I think the league did adjust
a little bit to Evan Carter.
And I think that's pretty obvious, but I
mean, Evan didn't play a lot of AAA
baseball and made an instant impact.
It is possible.
Now, Walcott and Collyer.
Collyer, by the way, I just feel like
as you look at the options, I think
he is going to be the most likely
to get the call up.
I don't really see a lot of other
options.
Ahlstrom, I think could potentially be one, but
at the same time, you just demoted him.
He's been struggling a little bit.
That could be a guy.
And Ahlstrom is going to come up a
little bit later on in the conversation.
Now, what about Walcott?
Texas believes that Walcott can actually help the
major league lineup right now.
I think there's a legitimate argument that talent
eventually has to trump like the normal minor
league staircase, right?
And we were just talking about that with
Dreiling.
But Walcott has had a bit of a
disrupted year.
He's barely crossed 100 at bats this season
and he's still working back from that elbow
issue, right?
Hasn't really played the field a whole lot.
So you would really be asking him to
get back in tune with the glove on
the fly at the major league level.
You know, the biggest question with Walcott, and
it's incredibly simple and kind of odd considering
the state of the offense.
But the question is, where are the at
bats going to come from?
You know, like a Joc Pederson injury, which
obviously I'm not wishing upon anyone would never
do that, but I'm just musing.
It feels like if Joc did go down,
that might be an obvious lane.
You know, Josh Jung being out, I think
does make a difference as well.
But I do think the Rangers are counting
on having, having him later in the season.
And then I do think you might see
him slot in somewhere in the infield, maybe
in the outfield.
But again, you have such a big question
mark when it comes to his ability to
play the field.
It's not something that he's really done a
whole lot.
But wanting to see Walcott in the bigs
is easy, man.
He's having an incredible season with the bat
down in the minor leagues.
It's just the major league plan and what
it would look like that I think presents
the harder question.
Look, if Texas calls him up, you gotta
play him.
There's zero question about that.
If you call up a top prospect, you
don't call him up to be depth.
You gotta play him.
You can't bring your number one guy to
Arlington so he can watch everybody else hit.
And that does nothing, absolutely nothing for me.
Osuna and Teodo.
Let's talk about this pairing.
You got a safe bat.
You got an upside bullpen gamble.
Teodo definitely has major league stuff.
But the walks have really, really plagued him.
He could be that late inning guy, man.
I think so many of us dreamed of
that even last year in spring training when
he was getting to close games and really
having a good run of success in surprise.
But the 43 walks in 54 innings, just
impossible to ignore.
It feels disingenuous for me to argue Teodo
talking about Rocker and Leiter, not being able
to throw strikes enough.
Honestly, Gavin Collyer, as we already talked about,
has a similar issue.
I don't think there's really a lot of
safe bets down at AAA right now with
the arms.
Robby Ahlstrom, I'm a big fan, but he
faltered a little bit after the All-Star
break, right?
And that definitely led to his demotion.
I think Collyer and Teodo are probably the
only other two options that you're really interested
in.
And I don't know that you feel great
about any of them, if I'm being totally
honest.
But I feel like eventually, if they do
decide to go multiple arms, you go back
to Collyer and you hope that he can
right the ship with the lack of control
and can be a consistent strike thrower for
you.
If they wanted to get wild, absolutely wild,
Walcott and Dreiling, that would be a wild
call-up.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
I would not be mad if they called
up both those guys.
I wouldn't.
I'm not even gonna sit here and pretend
otherwise.
If I got the notification on my phone,
Walcott, Dreiling getting the call, I'd be excited.
Clearly, I'm hoping that you're gonna give them
a lot of playing time.
I'm not hoping that you're gonna bring up
Dreiling or Walcott to sit the bench.
We just talked about that.
But I would not be mad in the
slightest if they called up those two players.
I think it'd be exciting.
I think it would be a little bit
of an injection of energy.
The only thing you worry about a little
bit is are those guys gonna be able
to come up and kind of just be
themselves or are they gonna get swallowed up
by the vibes going on right now in
the clubhouse, whatever they may be.
And who really knows?
There's not a lot of people that are
privy to what really goes on.
Inside the Rangers clubhouse.
And I'll just say from the outside looking
in, I do think a concern you have
is, you know, they come up and you
start the clock on them.
They kind of get mired down with the
struggles of everybody else and they're not really
given that opportunity to rise above.
If you call these guys up, man, let
them be themselves.
Let them show out.
Let them have a little fun out there.
And I love that Osuna and other players
like Freeman have added that flavor into the
mix.
I just hope if you did call up
the young guys, just let them be them.
Let them do their thing.
Let them have some fun up there.
See if they can give you a spark.
And I wouldn't be mad at it if
you gave them the call of the show.
I would not be mad at it.
Probably the least likely one to pop out
of all the options, but I wouldn't be
upset.
Now, let's land this thing, man.
Let's land this thing.
Final verdict.
At this point, the choice really comes down
to who's going to help Texas right now.
Who could actually get meaningful usage and how
much risk is worth accepting with 25 games
left.
Texas is still chasing October.
I know that some of you guys are
really skeptical about if they're actually going to
be able to make it or not.
They're still in the hunt, man.
I'm not giving up on them.
I would call up Osuna and I would
probably call up Gavin Collyer at this point.
I think those are the most sensible options.
Yes, I did say lowest ceiling, but I
do think considering the alternatives, I just don't
know if there is going to be a
plentiful amount of at-bats for guys like
Walcott and Dreiling to really get an opportunity
without doing something drastic.
Now, you could still call up Walcott.
You could still do that in September.
I just don't know for the purposes of
the September 1st call up if you need
to go Walcott immediately.
Evan Carter, I think, was called up on
September 8th.
I mean, you can still make moves to
get Walcott up to the bigs if you
wanted.
Maybe that'll still happen.
Maybe that will still be a thing.
But I think for the purposes of September
1st, you go with Osuna, you go with
Collyer, you go with the safer options, and
then you watch and wait.
You see what happens over the next week
or so.
You see where you're at in the standings,
and that might allow you to make some
other decisions.
Now, last thing we want to do before
we sign off here, little A's preview for
you, right?
We did a little bit of this as
we signed off on the live show yesterday,
but let's talk.
A's coming to town.
By the way, Texas, much better team at
Globe Life than on the road, right?
Much, much better team.
They think they are six or seven games
above 500 when they play at home in
Arlington, about nine games under 500 when they
play on the road.
Texas, too, just saw this club about two
weeks ago and lost two of three.
So I don't think there's any temptation to
treat the A's like three automatic wins, but
honestly, that is what the Rangers need.
I think they do need to sweep this
series.
You've got a tough series coming up with
the Rays this weekend.
A sweep would be ideal here.
And I don't throw that out there very
often.
There's not many series I'm touting.
Man, this has to be a sweep.
Now, it's hard to do that, but you've
got so few games left and you're playing
one of the worst teams in the game.
A sweep would be the most ideal scenario
here.
And with this little left, I do think
it feels like something you have to do.
Minimum is two out of three.
If you lose this series, I guess maybe
you can get lucky with the standings with
other teams losing around you, but that would
just not be good.
By the way, matchups are deGrom against Gage
Jump, MacKenzie Gore against J.T. Ginn, Cody Bradford
against Jacob Lopez.
So you've got some familiar arms that the
Rangers have faced before.
Gore Ginn is basically a direct rematch from
the previous series.
We also just saw Lopez with Bradford starting
the finale.
So the Rangers have recent information on every
arm that they're likely to see in this
series.
There's not a mystery opponent here, right?
A's are also entering this series, it's worth
saying, badly depleted, right?
They don't have Jacob Wilson, no Nick Kurtz,
no Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom done for the
season.
Shea Langeliers remains sidelined.
You've got a massively depleted athletics team.
That doesn't make the sweep automatic.
I'm gonna say that again.
Like, I'm not taking anything for granted here.
Texas already learned that lesson the hard way
two weeks ago.
You feel like you're going into Sacramento with
a great opportunity.
You got some guys lined up and you
have a really, really bad outcome.
For a team sitting two games out entering
September, winning this series, for me, is the
minimum acceptable result.
I think a sweep would go a long
way.
You got to at least win this series.
You got to take two out of three
here.
These three games, big picture here, begin a
seven-game homestand.
Schedule gets considerably tougher immediately after the A's.
They got four against Tampa Bay.
No off day.
Another reason why a little bit harder on
Kumar Rocker yesterday in the aftermath of the
Rangers' 7-4 win, you have seven games
in a row coming up here.
You really wanted to have this bullpen be
a little fresher going into this week.
I think maybe you're hoping you can get
out to some big leads against the A's
and not have to tax everybody, but this
is going to be a long week of
baseball and an important week of baseball.
The Rays enter the week with the best
record in the American League.
So look, you played the best NL team.
Now you got to play the best AL
team later this week.
And that's what makes the three games against
the A's so important, right?
Texas has an opportunity to bank wins before
the degree of difficulty really changes.
And I mean really changes this coming weekend.
Look, there are only 25 games left.
The Rangers are close enough that every good
stretch matters, but there's also fewer and fewer
places left to recover from a bad one.
A sweep out in LA in May comes
to mind.
September is going to give the Rangers a
couple of extra roster spots, right?
But unfortunately, it can't give them any extra
games.
Got to figure it out.
Got to produce, especially in front of the
home crowd, where the Rangers have been good
this year and we hope it continues.
And we keep going.
We will be live after the game on
Monday night.
We hope you'll join us.
Eighth, ninth inning is typically the time that
we go on.
We will be doing our in-game and
post-game shows pretty much throughout the week.
Not sure how many straight up traditional podcasts
we'll do, but we always convert every live
show into podcast format.
So anyone that prefers audio only always has
an opportunity to catch up.
And if you ever miss the show, you
know that you've got YouTube and Facebook for
video.
And of course, you've got all the major
podcasting apps, including Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio.
So thank you in advance for following us
on those and continuing to support Right on
Rangers in all the ways that you do.
Hope you have a blessed week ahead.
And as I always say to end every
show, God bless and go Rangers.