The Dumb Zone FREE - DZ 7-23-25 PREVIEW | Jared Sandler, Micah and Trayvon meet the media and further ATV misadventures

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Hear the whole episode by subscribing on Substack or Patreon.Jared Sandler joins for his weekly segment. TC fills in for Dan. Caitlyn Jenner loses a partner. Micah and Trayvon hold a "best friends" press conference for the training camp media. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hey now! What you are about to hear is a free preview of one of this week's premium episodes of The Dumb Zone. If you would like to hear this program in full, along with the full archive... Ah, shit. If you would like to hear this program in full, with the archive of all of our past episodes, you can subscribe at DumbZone.com. What's going on, Jared? Did you decorate your office? What's up, guys? What's up?

He's at the park. Okay. Oh yeah, I'm at the ballpark. It actually looks very similar to your stock trading office or whatever you do, just more decorating. Where I've got a Corey Seeger jersey and a

dumb zone calendar is my only decorations what time do you show up for a 705 so typically I'll show up about one o'clock but Dave Raymond and I are recording the award-winning and not to compete in any way shape or form with the dumb zone but the award- podcast, Still Talking Rangers. And we've had Corey Seger on last episode, I think with Sam Haggerty, Jack Lider. We have some great conversations. And today we are talking to former Ranger

and current Rangers coach, Bobby Wilson. So I had to get here a little earlier for that. Yeah, no, I think if you're not competing with us, might start with, we've been having you on for three months and this is the first time you've mentioned that you have a podcast people could listen to to cover the Rangers. Yeah.

Including me, one of your very good friends who at the start of every Ranger season has said, can you tell me the Rangers podcast I need to make sure I listen to? Are there any specific ones? Come on. Give me some. So a couple of things.

One, we were in the middle, I remember when you asked and we were in a legal discussion about the names. Apparently when you have a podcast that is, I guess, hosted by a major league baseball team, it's a lot more difficult to come up with a name that the legal department will approve. But the other thing is, this is more of like an interviewee type podcast, whereas I know you were looking more for like, hey, here's what's happening. Let's break this crap down. Good, bad and different. And so that's why I probably didn't offer up a shameless buck.

But Cory Seeger sitting down to talk to someone I respect talking baseball, I would be in on that. So we do wanna talk some Cory Seeger today, but before we do that, let's set the table. Dan is not here to harass you about trivia. The floor is yours. Blake, do we need to add anything here? Do you wanna say we're doing it in the chat

on the Patreon YouTube? How would you like to execute this? How about email us? Okay. Because I'm not monitoring the chat today, I'm playing host. Give the address. Email us with the correct answer

at thedumbzoneatgmail.com. Thedumbzoneatgmailcom. Here is today's trivia. All right, seven pitchers in Major League history with at least 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks. Let's say you gotta name five to win. Okay. I know Nolan's not in there. No.

Nolan is not in there. And I'll give you a hint. There are a few guys on the list who, when they retire, might not be on the list. So. Interesting. Well, the ups and downs, we're at a brief up here. It's been a fun, fun little couple weeks.

It's, look, if you can look at the standings and look at the third wild card and see a number two or smaller, it feels like you have a chance. And I think that probably starts with thinking that if you get in a short series, you've got the best pitcher in the playoffs at that point. Just kind of put in context for for the year that DeGrom is

having because I heard Bochy talking about him last night. He used the word fun. It is fun. Watching what he did last night is just fun. Yeah. And what he did last night, and I know the athletics aren't good, but it's not because of their lineup. They've got a really good lineup. They're kind of like 90s ranger, 90s, early 2000s Rangers light other than the playoff teams the Rangers had in the 90s for those three years, but like lineups that could hit the crap out of the ball, but they weren't going to pitch their offenses. And as like prolific as the early 2000s Rangers offenses, but and maybe their pitching isn't as bad. prolific is the early 2000s Rangers offenses, but, uh, and maybe their pitching isn't as

bad. Uh, but suffice it to say, like getting through that lineup is, is not easy. And he had one of the best swing and miss performances of his career. He got 28 swings and misses last night, which, um, that's the second most in a, in a start by a big leaguer this year. What did scoob will have the other most in Not 28. Scoobl has the most in a start this year. He had 32 back in May. I can quickly look to see what he had the other night, but I don't even know if he got to 20. It just felt like there were so many big ones and Adolis just can't. That's a tough watch. It's like watching the Discovery Channel when Adolis gets up there against a guy like that. Sorry to side read. That was just the...

No, no, no. I was just like... So, like, you could have... So, DeGrom at 28, you could have 14, and that's pretty good. I mean, if you get 14 swings and misses, we feel pretty good about it, right? So, yeah. I mean, he's been unreal. He's been exactly what you'd expect. One of the best pitchers in baseball, you can slice it up with a lot of different metrics, both the standard ones, the advanced ones. And it almost in a weird way seems like he's only getting better as he gets further

and further removed from Tommy John and gets more and more comfortable with where he's at at this point in his career and with his health. Uh, but I mean, it'd probably be tough to say like right now today, he deserves the Cy Young over Terrick Scoobel. If you just look at some of the numbers, but he's not far behind. I mean, it, it, Terrick Scoobel is maybe a step ahead of Jacob DeGraw, but, but not much more than that.

And the fact he's made 20 starts, he leads the team in starts, he hasn't missed the starts. I think that was the big question in one of the big conversations was, what was that gonna look like? Is it just gonna be Jacob deGrom, but for 20 starts all year, or is he gonna be on and off the IL and knock on wood?

I mean, he's been healthy and made every start so far this year. Is Roddy Tellez about to be the new fan favorite? Dude. Well, big guys always have a chance, right? I mean, I don't know. We'll see. I'm curious what they do with it because when Jake Berger comes back, they got to create a roster spot. And the question is now, are you going to turn Rowdy to lessen Jake Berger into a platoon combo at first? Do you have space on the roster to have those two guys? And, and are you going to now make

Jake Berger kind of a lefty only guy? And the Rangers let's make no mistake about it, as good as their offense has been over the last six, seven weeks now, they absolutely need to improve their options against lefties. You know, the lineup that they threw out there against Tarek Skubal on Sunday is just not a lineup that's going to cut it in the playoffs. Like I, I get why they did that because those are their options they have right now. But, you know, unfortunately you're not getting much out of Ezekiel Duran and, you know, Justin Foskey was sent down because you just weren't really getting anything out of him again, unfortunately. But that's something I think they're gonna try

and address at the deadline. But when Jake Berger comes back, is that gonna be their first base situation? Talez against Righties and Berger against Lefties? I think Talez has a chance to earn that. They need power, he brings it. Jake Berger can bring that as well, but maybe they can get a little more on base out of Talez.

I guess we'll have to wait and see. Because it's funny how you're, or at least for a fan, your first impression sticks with you because I remember a couple years ago, it was Grant Anderson is about to save the Rangers bullpen because he had that amazing start, and Tlez homering in his first game, it's finally somebody that can bring some pop to the lineup.

But you mentioned something I think you were talking about a couple weeks ago about he hit a ball at Globe Life that measuring should have gone out but didn't. And you'd mention that the ball is not flying at Globe Life. And so I wanted to look up the park factor for Globe Life. And going back to the temple, it was always a top five ballpark. I know I remember hitters loved the Jetstream. And even when the new place temple, it was always a top five ballpark. I know I remember hitters love the jet stream. And even when the the new place opened, it was average. And then in twenty twenty three, it was top five. Now it's dead last.

How do you explain like, I understand like a little bit of variance from here to there, but not I believe they were fourth in twenty twenty three to dead last this year. I don't understand how you can explain that. So I want to start with twenty in 2023 to dead last this year. I don't understand how you can explain that. So I want to start with 2020 because I kind of think that's sort of funny. You know, it's a small sample size. And what do we remember about 2020?

The Rangers were awful, right? Like they just weren't good. And so I think the park was perceived to be a pitcher's park because the Rangers just couldn't hit. And so the one team that, you know, was a constant for the 30 home games, wasn't really going to do much offensively. And then when the playoffs came here and you actually had like good lineups and they were hitting the ball all over the place, it was like, Oh, well, maybe this isn't such a pitcher's friend, a pitcher friendly park. And then, yeah, as

you mentioned Blake, like 2023, it wasn't that way. And that lineup mashed and they made this park look small at times. I don't know what to make of the 2025 situation because this is a good lineup. And I know they got off to a rough start, but now they are starting to hit. And the other thing is this isn't a 60 game sample size,

like in 30 game, really 30 home games in 2020. And you look at other teams around the league and how they perform here versus other parts. And it's not a Rangers thing. This is clearly a ballpark thing. And I've talked to people about it. Some people, you know, mentioned the baseballs, but the baseballs are the baseballs, you know, all over. I mean, you know, people have talked about how baseballs, but the baseballs are the baseballs all over.

People have talked about how baseballs are different. Each one is hand sewn or whatever, but that's not going to create such a separation for one park versus another. It's not like there's the DFW hand sewing representative and the Denver. I've heard people talk about certain doors being opened at certain times and the weather and concrete settling. I have no idea. I literally have no idea and I know it's baffled a lot of people.

But yeah, the ball is not carrying here. I wish I had a better answer as to why. But you know, the example you used just to kind of bring it back to the forefront, I don't remember the specific numbers, but I think the baseball that Alejandro Suna hit with those parameters or within a tight range of those parameters with launch angle and edge velocity is a home run or was a home run at that point about 70% of the time at the 29 other ballparks other than Globe Life Field, but at Globe Life Field that had been a home run about 11% of the time. And that is a very significant difference. And the players know it, the players have talked about it, players on the

Rangers and around the league. It's not an excuse as to why the Rangers struggled offensively to begin the year, at least not, you know, a valid prevailing excuse. Maybe it's the difference between a few balls leaving the yard versus being fly outs and that totally changes the complexion of the score for a given game. But yeah, it's something. It's tough to pinpoint what it is. They should call the Mythbusters guys.

See if they can get to the bottom of this. If only we could call the Sports Science guy. Oh. Oh wow. He went there. Oh, that's too far, huh? He went there. Did you make a Chris? Do you make a Chris Martin joke? Yeah, you get I I

Made a joke on Twitter It was like a really forced joke about how the only people exposed that night or the Tigers back to whatever Did you are your door bro? Like you being a norm intern so perfect good grief Well, I you know, it's funny. I look at you and hey TC I see TC and how my life could have been so much different if I you know, instead of you know My my face nestling up in norms belly You know, I was just locked in an archive room Yeah, how my life would have been so much different as a bad intern, bad radio intern.

To each their own. I actually do, I make a Mythbusters reference because I'm respectful. Blake on the other hand, I do wonder how teams troubleshoot something like that. Like I would imagine they actually do bring in engineering consulting firms to try to figure it out. I don't know if you just have a machine launching balls

because you need to control, right? So it really can't be a person. If you find anything out about that, like what they're doing to address it, what you can share, I'd love to know. No, yeah, I mean, I'll say this. I know they definitely are looking into it. And it's a delicate subject, right?

Cause you don't wanna, you don't wanna, I don't know that any ballpark wants to be on either end of the spectrum. Right. Of like, this is the most hitter friendly or the most pitcher friendly. And if you are, you want it to be like an obvious, explained, obvious explanation, like the elevation or or hey, we're just in a windy part

of the way this is positioned, that's one thing. But even with the explanation, Jake, you can cite the Heat, or you can cite just the way the ball flew, but it was tough for the Rangers to recruit pitchers to come to Texas willingly when they played across the street, and I'm sure the Heat had some factor, but I also know that the reputation of the ballpark had another, you know, it played another role.

And remember, like you Darvish didn't choose the Rangers. They won the posting system. So like the biggest name pitcher who chose the Rangers, I guess, was Kevin Millwood. I mean, I don't know, maybe Lance Lynn, but Lance Lynn wasn't coming off a great year and the Rangers probably paid him a little bit more than, you know, what was out there. Maybe he just didn't. I mean, Lance kind of had the personality like, F it. I don't care. I'm just going to, you know, go and pitch. He cared about winning. He didn't care about some of those extracurricular factors, But yeah, I think it's a delicate subject for

the Rangers because they don't want to all of a sudden develop this reputation like, oh my gosh, global life field is where fly balls go to die. And so the fact that this is just like a few month thing, you know, I think helps. And I think that they are, I don't know what they're doing, but I imagine they are looking into why the ball is not playing more neutrally compared to how it plays around the league.