The Dumb Zone FREE - The Shedeur slide in the draft and Jared Sandler on the Rangers offensive struggles | DZ 4-29-25 PREVIEW

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

Hear the entire episode of The Dumb Zone by subscribing to the show at DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneWe have on Jared Sandler, broadcaster for the Texas Rangers, to talk about the offensive woes of the RangersAlso on the episode, we discuss the slide of Shedeur Sanders in the draft, the best hockey bit we've seen in some time, and is dodgeball making a comeback? ★ 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. Ronald Leary, 36. Fun guy. He was fun. What, did he make a ton of money in Jacksonville?

That sounds right. Nico Kappenon, 47. Dan. Denver. For Ron Leary. God Shamgod, 49. Four for 36 is not bad. Good for Ron Leary. Jay Cutler is 42. When we booking Joe Looney? I'm working on it. Okay. Andre Agassi is 55. Can I tell you a

funny Jay Cutler story? It's not funny at all. Don't know why I said that. I'd like to hear it. So when I used to board up overnight at the ticket, sometimes I would do like 6 to midnight, and TC would do midnight to 6, or I would do whatever. We would change shifts in the middle of the night. And sometimes they would have him over running the board for 93.3 for whatever they had going on while I was at the ticket.

We'd become friends, and I was like, hey, one night, I didn't have the heart to ask. I couldn't ask him, like a date. We talked become friends and I was like, hey, one night I didn't have the heart to ask, I couldn't ask him. Like a date. We talked for like 45 minutes on each side of our shift at midnight and I just like couldn't ask him. I was like, I want to start a podcast with this guy. I couldn't ask him. The next time we had the same situation, I went into the I-93 studios and he was a big Bears fan. This is off-season NFL and they had just acquired Jay Cutler and he was watching the Broncos entire season the year before and I was like I'm in love with this man. Let's do the show. I was ending it. What? I told you. Play the hold music. Oh, you should have done the hold music. I'm

not good at this. The fact that he was like, hey, Jay Cutler's such a big deal, better go watch all of his 2008, was very, very endearing to me. I'm like, that's what I would do. This is my best friend. Justin Thomas is 32. Coke? Or was that just... Will we see JT this weekend? I don't think so. Oh.

Willie Nelson is 92. How? Because pot is good for longevity. Is pot the best drug for longevity? Stay tuned for another two minutes. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 71. Holds his girlfriend. She's in high school.

Didn't he go to like her prom or something? He's not McLaren. Daniel Day-Lewis is 68. Michelle Pfeiffer is 67. Eve Plum is 67. Jan Brady, the best Brady. Is that wrong for me to say that? Because when I was thinking that she was certainly underage, but I was thinking that she was certainly underage, but I was well underage as well. No, you're fine. And so that was my... That's totally fine.

Okay. But when I think of her, I don't think of her as the 67 year old. I think of her as that... It's kind of like if you think of your high school girlfriend right now, you're You're both 16 and hammering away. Is that wrong for you now at your age to think of her in a loving type of way? Because you're thinking of her when she was 16. But you were 16 too. I know, but you're probably not thinking about you being 16 though. So it's weird. I'm forever 16. Uma Thurman is 55. Master P is 55. Ricky Williams.

Ricky Williams Agent. Toronto Raptor too. Mark Stanley is 37. That is Gren in Game of Thrones. 37 that is Gren in Game of Thrones Nora Dunn is 73 and our birthday of the day Crystal Hefner is 39. Oh she married Hugh Hefner when she was 26 It was Hugh Hefner's last wife. How old was Hugh Hefner? She was 26. He was... I'll go... 78. Give it a Belichick. 86. He beat Belichick by 10 years. So Belichick's next girlfriend is currently 14 years old. Born on the stay now dead, Dale Earnhardt, Timothy Treadwell, and Bernie Madoff. Dead on the stay, still dead, Alfred Hitchcock, Mike Shannon. You know who that is, Jared?

Of course, from Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis, former Major Leaguer and dead voice of the Cardinals. That's right, long time voice of the Cardinals. That's another way to put it, Dan. Dead voice. Yeah. Well, you know Jared, work in blue. And then the question, you remember two minutes ago,

is pot the best drug for longevity? As Willie Nelson is 92. Died on this day in 2008, Albert Hoffman. He invented LSD and was really on board with it. Died at the age of 102. Whoa. Hell yeah. That was today in history.

Oh, good. He was big into mushrooms too. So I'm just tagging years on to the end of this bad boy day by day. There you go. All right. Got a thing? There you go. All right. Go thing. Super smart African American man. You are an incredible baseball fan.

Here he is folks. The Jared Sandler program. The Sandlot.org. Go check out Jared's charity. His charity. His charity. So Rangers take a loss last night. Was it two one? Two one. Nobody knows. In my head, I was like, man, it feels like this team has squandered a bunch of good pitching opportunities. And I went and looked, and they're actually nine and two in games where they've allowed two runs or less,

yesterday being one of those two losses. But in games where they've allowed three runs or less, they're 13 and six, which is one of the worst winning percentages in baseball. So I wasn't that far off, I guess. And really, man, it was bad last time we talked and it really hasn't gotten better. It's it's Wyatt and a bunch of guys on offense. Yeah. So last six games, they've allowed 17 runs.

That's a little bit less than three runs per game. I know that's complicated math. They're one in five in that stretch. Right. So, um, they're, yeah, they're, they're really, they're in a tough way right now. Uh, and you're right. It's Wyatt and, uh, you know, maybe this game, fill in the blank player has a good game. And then the next game it's one other guy but you need more than that and here's the challenge you know Sunday they lost they scored two runs they had 10 hits right it's it's it's tough to only score two runs on 10 hits unless you're just like constantly making outs on the bases which they weren't doing uh but you know they're not walking either um yesterday Josh Young drew a walk and it ended a streak of 20 straight innings without drawing

a walk. And so they're not supplementing the base runners they're getting with hits, with walks. And while it's not like they don't slug, if you're not going to walk, you've really got to slug a lot to kind of make up for that. But you know, they're, they've hit 30 home runs, 22 of them are solo home runs. And you know, that last game they lost in Sacramento when they had three home runs in one inning, they were all solo home runs and they ended up losing the game four to three. So, um, you know, it, it's, it's not just one thing and

it's obviously not just one person. Uh, but yeah, they really need Corey Seeger back. Here's the wacky thing too, Jake. I know you love, you know, these numbers baseball prospectus has their own version of a stack called weighted runs created plus. I'm not going to break down the meaning of it and bog people down, but it, I'll just say that it's, it's a metric that front office is definitely using consider when evaluating players and baseball prospectus has their own little tweak on the formula.

The Rangers are the only team in major league baseball to have two guys in the top 15, Corey Seeger and white Langford. But they also are last and run scored because they haven't had those guys healthy at the same time. And they really haven't gotten enough consistently from some of the other guys in their lineup. So there's potential obviously for this lineup to grow, but right now they're really in a tough way for sure.

I think the last time we talked we were kind of begging Bochy to switch up the lineup, move Simeon down, and it seems like since we had that conversation we haven't seen the same lineup twice. Now Seeger's been out, some guys have been out, but it seems like since we had that conversation we haven't seen the same lineup twice now see here's been out some guys have been out But it seems like they just haven't found that right nine fit yet Yeah, you know it's gonna switch lefty righty obviously, but yeah, I mean you're right Blake and they made the switch right Marcus

Simeon is hit fifth starting with last Tuesday when they opened their series in Sacramento and starting with last Tuesday when they opened their series in Sacramento and you've seen Josh Smith lead off against righties. You've seen Kevin Pilar lead off against lefties yesterday. Cal Higashioka hit second. You know, it's a pretty valuable spot in the lineup. We saw a Dolis Garcia hit seventh. And I just think a lot of it's a product of, you know, you're trying to figure out ways to get certain guys going. And you're also trying to put guys in different spots because they're not going well. And, uh, you know, you're, you're trying to figure out ways to get certain guys going. And you're also trying to put guys in different spots because they're not going well. And, uh, you know, it's one thing if you've got one or two guys who are struggling, but

it's, it's more than just that, you know, they've got a number of guys who they expected to be middle of the order producers who are struggling. And then another guy in Cory Seeger, who's not available right now, hopefully will be, uh, you know, towards the end of the week, early next week. But, um, yeah, I mean, it, it's tough. It's kind of like, you know, I, a lot of people like to criticize a manager when, uh, the bullpen is struggling and, and say that, you know, they don't know how to manage the bullpen, but it's like, you know, how can a manager manage a bullpen when, you know, he's, he's getting dealt two, seven

off suit. Uh, well, it's similar to a lineup, you know, I oh, you know Bochy needs to do this Bochy needs to do that Well, it's tough because the the hand that he's currently dealt is is a really tough hand to work with You know being the way guys are performing right now. And so he's trying to figure it out and it's a balance I think as well between not knee-jerking not sending a message of panic SOS And it's a balance, I think, as well, between not knee jerking, not sending a message of panic SOS, especially with veterans, but also realizing you can't just keep running the same thing out there if it's not working. And, uh, obviously so far it, it hasn't been working. And, uh, you know, this is a very aggressive lineup, so maybe it's

going to be a volatile lineup. That's very streaky. Their swing rate is, is the highest in major league baseball. Uh, they are chasing a lot and. You know, you're not going to totally change the identity of these guys, but incremental gains, right? All right, this is gonna be a lineup that's gonna chase, but maybe they can dial it back a little bit. This is a lineup that's gonna swing.

Maybe they can dial it back a little bit. And the one guy I keep thinking about who can help not totally balance it, but who, whose profile fits on the other end of the spectrum is Evan Carter. You know, he's a guy who will take a lot of pitches. He will see a lot of pitches. He will draw walks. Uh, he, you know, has been taking up a little bit in AAA. They obviously want to make sure everything's good with the back, uh, as well as the bat. And uh, but you know, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Evan Carter sometime soon, just because his skillset, his profile fits very much what this team needs. And, uh, you know,

unfortunately, Laody Tavares hasn't really seized the, you know, the, the, the second life in center field. And, you know, I think there could be an opportunity for Evan to find his way back. So I thought I saw a thing last week that said that they fired their hitting coach. But is that just- Yeah, that was a fake. Yeah, that was a fake, fake tweet. I saw that as well. MLB Facts, F-A-X, I think tweeted that. I don't remember, but yeah, they have not. Donnie Ecker is the, I think his title is offensive coordinator and you're starting to see you know that title around other teams and Justin Veley was just brought in

coming from the Giants and he worked with Donnie in San Francisco and and guys you know it's a tough one Mike Bastic always shared a story that you know I think perfectly illustrates how difficult it is to know is this coaching is this coaching, is it playing? Uh, and Bassick was talking about Rudy Jaramillo, who, you know, is the, the Rangers hitting coach back in, you know, the, the, the nineties and early two thousands, he was seen as the greatest, you know, hitting coach in the game. Like Leo Mazzoni was thought of as the best pitching coach in the game. He had Glavine small, it's Maddox, Avery Millwood, you know, just a run of pitchers. Well, uh, Rudy Jaramillo had some great hitters as well and basic, you know, I think it shared a story before where Rudy Jaramillo

You know was top step of the dugout Juan Gonzalez was on deck and he said, you know Juan Hey, they're gonna throw you a first pitch breaking ball to try get you to chase lay off and what? You know got it. You got it. I'm on it. 30 seconds later, Juan Gonzalez gets in the box. What happens first pitch breaking ball in the dirt. He swings and misses. And you know, the instruction that was, was given to him, you know, just went out the door, right? Uh, and so it's always tough to know the difference between what's being coached

and you know, what's being executed. Um, but yeah, no, no changes were made. But you know, I'm starting to see a lot of that stuff on Twitter and suggestions from folks. And I understand the frustration, but it's, you know, it's always tough to interpret that sort of thing.