Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / New-Look Rangers | Kennedi Landry | Ep 215

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New-Look Rangers | Kennedi Landry | Ep 215 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Speaker 1: Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it.Speaker 2: We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little light right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams. Don't do it. Wait. You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay.Speaker 1: The p.Speaker 2: I wouldSpeaker 1: keep jamming.Speaker 2: The ticket colon, nothingSpeaker 1: but a big Gen X jerk off the second. Is this a cool night or what? I know somebody would hear that go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. Man, I gotta write two checks tonight. That's not funny. How long has it been since you wrote a check, Shupi?Speaker 2: I wrote one fairly recently, probably in the last couple months. But before that DoSpeaker 1: have a checkbook and everything?Speaker 2: I have a checkbook, but it's an address that's about four residences old now.Speaker 1: So just crossed you write a check, do you cross all that stuff out and writeSpeaker 2: in I don't the you have to write in the new, but I still do just to be safe.Speaker 1: You have a good enough penmanship to do that?Speaker 2: Oh, my penmanship sucks. That's kind of another thing that's gone downhill. It was never good. Actually, my penmanship is basically the same, but it definitely hasn't improved in any sort since third grade, I'd say.Speaker 1: When's the last time you wrote a check?Speaker 3: Well, it was recently. And then before that, it had been since high school.Speaker 2: High school? Oh Which my was not long ago for her.Speaker 3: Well, I guess it wasn't that. I know ten years.Speaker 1: Ten years is a long time to go without writing a check.Speaker 3: I don't own a checkbook, unlike groups. SoSpeaker 1: You have no checkbook.Speaker 3: No. I don't know if I'veSpeaker 1: ever If I didn'tSpeaker 3: I don't know if I've ever owned a checkbook.Speaker 1: If I didn't have a checkbook, I would be I'd feel like I was walking through this worldSpeaker 3: naked. Like, what do you write checks for?Speaker 1: I don't use it that much. It's just the principle of theSpeaker 3: thing. Okay.Speaker 1: It's, it puts me in my comfort zone to know that I have it, And I can go in there and write a check for humongous amounts of money if I want to, assuming, of course, that I have that. What'd do?Speaker 3: Think we might be in different tax brackets. Maybe that's why I don't need a checkbook. Journalist salary, you know? SoSpeaker 1: I don't know. I I just I'm having a hard time getting my head around the idea that somebody out there does not have a checkbook because I automatically assume everybody does. Do you, Yvonne? Nope. You got no checkbook either? Oh, man. I am in the wrong place today. Alright. Hi, everybody. This is YDC back at you again with me Mhmm. In the wrong place today. And we have Shoopee. We have Yvonne in here today, and we also have Kennedy Landry. Yay. You'll find her work on mlb.com because for them and in that space, out there in cyberspace or whatever the hell they call it these days. Is it cyberspace?Speaker 3: Inter interwebs, whatever you wanna call it.Speaker 1: She does it for mlb.com. And, we're gonna talk a little rangers with her. We're gonna also find out a little bit more about how somebody like her wound up doing something like that. First of all, how are you today?Speaker 3: I'm good. I just got back from a long West Coast swing with the rangers. So happy to be back in Dallas and getting back for this home stand.Speaker 1: Well, thank you for doing this. Nora, I think if I went on the road with the Rangers, when I get back, probably day one would be to just decompress and, get my head back together again. But you're young, you don't have to do that.Speaker 3: No, we bounce back quick.Speaker 2: She did leave open the possibility that it might be a little touch and go today. I had a red eye. I had aSpeaker 3: red eye back, I had got a nap in so I could be well rested for a fun conversation with you guys.Speaker 1: Well, alright then.Speaker 2: And I think we'll have that.Speaker 1: I think we will. Where are you from?Speaker 3: New Orleans. Hoodad? I have the shirt onSpeaker 1: Oh, right yeah, you do.Speaker 3: You do. So New Orleans, Louisiana. I went to LSU. I think if anybody follows me on Twitter, they they know that. And, yeah, the greatest city in the world in my personal opinion.Speaker 1: What got a girl like you into a game like baseball?Speaker 3: I played softball. That's really, what it comes down to. I played a lot of sports growing up. We come from a big sports family, in in New Orleans. My mom's family is from Mississippi. We just LSU, Saints. I think I came out the womb with an LSU jersey on, to be honest. We have my dad has a Saints themed pool table in our house. Just all all of it. Every all the LSU sports. Even, obviously, baseball is a tremendous program at LSU. Skip Burtman built that up in the nineties. But softball, gymnastics, women's basketball, everything at LSU is great. So but I I really was good at softball in high school, played a lot of travel ball, just really loved baseball and softball. So I could have been cover I covered a lot of things in college. Could have gone on down a number of different paths, but I I really enjoyed covering baseball the most.Speaker 1: So baseball is like your would you say it's your favorite sport?Speaker 3: It's my favorite to cover. I don't know if it's my not my favorite to watch as a fan maybe, but I I felt like it it's like the real it's real touchpoint of journalism, in my opinion. It lends itself best to kind of storytelling that I really enjoyed a lot. Yeah. So I I love, obviously, going to football games, going to Saints games, going to LSU games. But I I loved sitting in a press box covering baseball games and watching that play out from more of a journalistic perspective than a fan perspective.Speaker 2: Were there any MLB teams that you followed growing up, or was it just kind of all over? I'm I'm not sure with Louisiana if if the rangers are kind of your territory or It was a little bit ofSpeaker 1: the Astros are?Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people in New Orleans are Astros fans or Braves fans. My favorite player growing up was Jorge Posada. Nice. Just the the first MLB game I went to was Yankees Rays at The Trop because I had a softball tournament in Orlando. And I saw a switch hitting catcher, and I thought he was just so cool.Speaker 2: And he didn't wear batting gloves.Speaker 3: Yeah. I did like, I thought everything about him was so cool. So I was, like, I was probably, like, nine or 10 at that point. I'd only ever been to minor league games, New Orleans Zephyrs or LSU games to that point. So that was my first time seeing any Major League Baseball players. So I really latched on to Jorge Posada and just basically watched the Yankees to that point.Speaker 2: Mhmm.Speaker 3: And basically until he retired. But I didn't really have a specific, like, team. Okay. I liked a lot of different players. Alex Bregman, I know that we don't like to talk about that here in the Rangers, but just when he was at LSU I,Speaker 1: for one, love Alex Bregman. I would take Alex Bregman on my team anytime, any place.Speaker 3: I I mean, I loved him when he was at LSU, you know, going to Houston. That was easy team to watch early in his career, being in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. So I I really followed a lot of players through, you know, that part of my my life.Speaker 2: So I guess what TV territory was Baton Rouge for it? Like, which team was, I guess, most Rangers territory. Okay. Was Rangers territory.Speaker 3: Yeah. I actually I think the twenty seventeen Rangers, I watched a lot of the twenty seventeen Rangers. Sorry. I was a bartender at a golf course that summer, and the Rangers were just on literally all the time. Yeah. So I the whatever was going on with that 2017 team, I was really locked in on. That's probably the most Rangers I ever watched until I got here. But that is the the Fox Sports at that time territory. NowSpeaker 1: I'm really interested when somebody in your demographic is involved in baseball because most of you are not. You know? Most people in your demographic like football or basketballSpeaker 2: Sure.Speaker 1: Much better than baseball. What about baseball got you into it? Was it just the fact that it was around more for you than any of the others, or or what was it exactly?Speaker 3: Do you I I mean, I I literally, I played softball, and I was just around the sport, in every kind of aspect. So I I played softball my entire life. I played travel ball. I played high school ball. I went to an all girls school, so we didn't have a baseball team. But all of the all boys schools would, you know, go to their baseball games and all of that. I just loved being around baseball. It was the sport I was best at, and so maybe that's a little selfish of me because that's how I kinda got more into softball than, say, basketball or or football or whatever. So, I mean, I I'm an equal opportunity sports person. I love I love sports. I'll watch literally anything. Again, when you go to a school like LSU, it's really easy to do that because every every team is usually competing at at some type of level. So I I just really enjoyed all aspects of baseball and being able to, you know, the summers and the the beauty of everything. And again, the storytelling part of it was was huge for me by the time I got into college. Yeah. And being able to to write and read more about baseball. I think I I joke all the time. I was only ever really good at two things, and that was base like softball and writing. So being able to, once, you know, I got to college when I wasn't playing softball anymore, to write about softball and write about baseball was a lot of fun to me.Speaker 1: That's pretty interesting. Like I say, your demographic, it doesn't usually roll out that way. Now my daughter is probably she's a little older than you, but she was brought up in a baseball house too. And she is a I mean, she likes them all, but she's definitely a baseball girl. But when it comes to covering it, did you set out to cover baseball, or is that just where you wound up? Or how'd that come about?Speaker 3: I I really did think for a lot of college that I was gonna end up doing football. And I I think because, you know, I started covering LSU football in my sophomore year, which would have been twenty seventeen. And then the last two years were the two Joe Burrow seasons, which was obviously a magical magical time out in Baton Rouge. So I I did a lot of football coverage in college, and then I did a lot a lot of softball coverage too. So I I I thought I was gonna do more football. I kind of wanted to do more football at a time, and then I started doing more baseball in 2019, 2020. And I just I loved covering baseball so much more. Again, I think the the game breathes in a different way than football. You to watch it all kind of unfold in front of you and, you know, the way it turns on a dime sometime. Mhmm. I have a I have a document now that's called the lead graveyard, which is anytime the Rangers blow a save that ruins all of my copy, I throw it all in this document. So by the end of the season every year, it's like thousands and thousands of words that nobody will ever get to see. But I think that's that's the beauty of baseball and how things can turn overturn or unfold in front of you that I really enjoy.Speaker 2: And I would think as a young writer that having baseball, so many games and all that, you get a lot more reps than something like football or even basketball. Yeah. Know, that's a lot more games.Speaker 3: And I I was honestly, like, full disclosure, I was really bad at covering basketball. I was just, like, not I I I know basketball really well. I played basketball in high school. But something about covering basketball, I I don't know if it maybe was moving too fast for me or I was really bad at picking out the storyline in basketball for some reason. So so I really just gravitated a lot more to the slower pace of baseball and how that how the game unfolds.Speaker 2: A little more linear. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.Speaker 1: Again, that's that's unusual for your demographic. Alright. Well, let's turn our attention now to that which you are covering presently, that being the Texas baseball rangers. Now have you figured out or have you formed any thoughts yet on what this team is? Because I am having a real hard time doing that. And I know it's it's very, very early and and but usually I have some idea by now.Speaker 3: Sure.Speaker 1: And right now, I just don't. I I don't know if this is good, if it's gonna fall apart at the end, if it's just gonna be mediocre all year. And there there are so many new guys here now. You know? The the whole the whole chemistry and the whole face of the team has changed so much Yeah. Absolutely. Year. You know? We got a new manager. Let let's start with the new manager. What do you think about Skip?Speaker 3: I like Skip a lot. I think I don't know if I've ever covered a guy that has come with such a universal, like, satisfaction before I've talked to him. I was in New York the weekend the the Rangers announced the hire. I was assisting on the ALDS coverage between the Yankees and and Jays, and so many people within all of both of those organizations and the league came up to me and said, congrats on Skip. And, like, I did something to hire Skip. Yeah. But everybody was like, you're gonna love covering him. You're gonna love interacting with him. He's he's you're gonna be great.Speaker 1: He does seem to be incredibly well thought of by just about everybody.Speaker 3: Yes. I was like and, again, that's coming from we we covered Bruce Bochy for three years. Yeah. People love Bruce Bochy. I don't think it was quite even the same where everybody was like, Skip is so great. And I I think I think a lot of Skip obviously, we're only 21 games in, I think, or 22, Eleven eleven record right now. But the way at least he has interacted with us has been kind of phenomenal. He's very blunt, and he's very honest, which is something you only thing you can ask for sometimes in our position. And he's very thoughtful in that he he will talk you through his thought process postgame of you know, I I think back to one of those games in Oakland where he said, before any questions, like, this one's on me because I made the wrong decision to not walk Shane Shay Langelirs in that in that situation. You know, not every manager will just come out and be like, hey, that was strategic. It was my fault. I shouldn't have put the guys in that situation.Speaker 1: Well, I've never heard of that. I'll tell you.Speaker 3: So I think, you know, first foot before, you know, even getting into what this team is going to look like come October or September, I think Skip is really is a good guy for this iteration of the team and what it will look like, you know, in '26, '27, '28, whenever.Speaker 1: Now I think, and this is just my opinion, they've never owned up to this. I don't know if they ever would. Have nothing to base it on whatsoever. But I think they brought him here with the idea that somehow he was gonna be the next guy one way or the other. I mean, they weren't gonna do anything with Bruce. They're gonna let Bruce make his own call, you know, out of respect as much as anything else, and that's fine. But I think when they had a chance to bring Skip here, they did so with the understanding that when the time comes, you'll be next.Speaker 2: They at least wouldn't have been mad if it happened. You can tell that.Speaker 1: Yeah.Speaker 3: Yeah. I I think, you know, when you have a guy of Skip's caliber who who has won a manager of the year, he's well respected, and he, you know, didn't have a job last year. When you have the opportunity to bring that kind of guy into your organization in whatever capacity, you obviously have to do it. And I know the the title was special adviser to the general manager. Sometimes those things are made up and, you know, guys are just floating, whatever, getting a paycheck. Skip was, like, doing real work. He was going, you know, he was seeing guys in the minors. He was in Arizona. He was in Frisco. He was in Round Rock. Like, he he was not just collecting a paycheck. He was learning about some of these guys. Even, like, Gavin Collier just got called up the other day, and Skip was like, was impressed with him when I saw him in Frisco last year. And it's like, how there's not many guys who have that kind of title who can, you know, go through and name a lot of the minor leaguers throughout this system.Speaker 1: So you would see him aroundSpeaker 3: Yeah. A He was he was around. He would, you know, he would come and be in Arlington once a month or so, but he was doing an actual job in that front office, and I think that only him now that he's the manager. He has a good understanding of the organization as a whole, not just the big league club.Speaker 1: Yeah. He he seems like a really, really good guy. YouSpeaker 3: know? Obviously, we only know them so well.Speaker 1: Yeah. Right.Speaker 3: But we we, as the media, the beat, we talk to the manager of the Texas Rangers twice aSpeaker 2: day every day for two hundred days a year.Speaker 3: So as much as I can glean from that, I believe, yes, he is a good guy.Speaker 2: And he at least set up a pretty good, welcoming Matt for himself with the was it Carter Baumler? You know, just telling him, hey. You're making the big league roster on the mound in a game. It was an exhibition game, but still, like,Speaker 3: that's aSpeaker 2: hell move. I've never heard of that before.Speaker 3: Yeah. I I think you can tell the players really do, like, respect him too. He's a obviously, he's a young guy. He's not even that far removed from his playing career, but everybody in that clubhouse has a a real respect for him and how he is running the show at this point.Speaker 1: Is this thing any good?Speaker 3: I don't know. I do think, at the very least, it's gonna be more fun than last year.Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't I mean, I I don't think it's terrible.Speaker 3: No. No. No. No. I think the eleven and eleven right now record right now is really a good illustration of what this first couple of weeks has looked like. I don't think this is the final form of this team. I do think they will be better because if you look at some of the things that have played out, Nathan Ivaldi does not look like himself right now. He seems to be fighting himself a lot, and I think he's admitted to that. Jacob deGrom has not looked like he did last year, and I I don't Jacob deGrom is Jacob deGrom, and I know a lot of people are gonna be like, oh, he's always hurt, this, that, the other. I think Jacob deGrom, when he's on the mound, is still one of the best pictures in the world, and we saw that last year. And I think you're gonna have the growing pains, obviously, with, Kamar and Jack. And and Mackenzie Gore obviously did not have his best day yesterday, but he's still an all star pitcher. I think looking at those five, I don't I think those five in the rotation are gonna be better than what they've shown so far.Speaker 1: It has the makings of alright. I'm going on on a little bit of a limb here because I haven't really given this the type of thought that I should.Speaker 2: Don't be scared.Speaker 1: Probably will.Speaker 2: Okay. Let it out.Speaker 1: But this has the makings of the best five man rotation the rangers have ever had.Speaker 2: Pretty tough to argue. Yeah. You know?Speaker 3: I I mean, last year was the best rotation in in franchise history, and that is along with Kumar who was really struggling and Patrick Corbin who's 40. Not sorry. Sorry. I I do think this rotation has the makings of what could be one of the best in franchise history, whether that comes to fruition, obviously.Speaker 1: No, there's a lot of ball to be played for sure.Speaker 2: And you still have Jake Latts kind of floating around Jake LattsSpeaker 3: kicking means ass. That guy. Pitcher of seven total innings at Louisiana State University, by the Oh. HowSpeaker 2: long was he in college? WasSpeaker 3: he SoSpeaker 2: He was aSpeaker 3: He went to Kent State. He transferred from LSU to Kent State, got hurt. And then because of the transfer rules back then, he couldn't pitch. So I did I had a conversation with scouting director, Kit Fagg, a couple years ago about this. He said, yeah, we saw him throw in a bunch of exhibitions and live BPs before they drafted him, I think, the sixth round that year. So that was real a real good find when you think about it by the the amateur scouting department, which I know gets a lot of a flack from the fans on the internet for some of their picks over the last decades. But I I think Jake Latts has been one of the best picks they've made, especially considering how few NANs he threw in college and his development over the last few years. You know? When he moved from starter to reliever in '23, you know, stretched out last year in that swing man role. He was the MVP of the pitching staff last year. And then not getting the rotation spot this year and becoming their most valuable high leverage arm at this point. I mean, I think there's a lot to be said about how he's handled everything the Rangers have thrown at him and how much he's willing to to do to help the team win.Speaker 1: Yeah. And the fact that I mean, on most teams, he probably would be in the rotation anyway.Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. I think there are a number of teams in the league. I think he he would be in the a fourth or fifth man.Speaker 2: And he's pitching like he's trying to prove that too.Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely.Speaker 2: Badass.Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Props to him, man.Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, out there in ranger fandom, there's always something to bitch about. If there's nothing there, they'll make something up. And right now, they have their eyes on the rest of the bullpen other than him. What are your thoughts on how they've performed so far? Where do you see this going? Do you see this as a likely place for them to add somebody or if they're going to down the road? Because I certainly do.Speaker 3: Yeah. I think honestly, I think this bullpen has looked really good except in leverage spots, which I know Yeah.Speaker 1: That kinda matters aSpeaker 3: little bit. I I recognize that. But you look at how some of these guys, like last year, obviously, the the the bullpen was really good. It was had a top three rotation in baseball, but I think 17 blown saves, if I remember correctly. So I think Chris Young tried to replicate that in situation from last year. He, you know, built it kind of cheap, got guys that they thought they could get the best out of. You look at last year, the Sean Armstrongs, the Hobie Millionaires, the Phil Matons, and how that that bullpen was built. It was low ERA with a high blown safe percentage. And I think that's exactly what we're looking at right now. These these guys, Jaylen Beak's, Jacob Jacob Junis, like, all of these guys, veteran arms that they got this offseason have been really good, but they can't close games.Speaker 1: Yeah. It's like it's like they're just kinda fumbling around out there looking for somebody to grab onto the closure role and not let it go to establish himself.Speaker 3: I think I and I think that's exact they wanted somebody to grab ahold of it, and they just haven't had that the last two years. Obviously, you had, what, Kirby Yates in '24. You had guys grab ahold of it in the post season in '23 with Leclerc and Spors and Yeah. Chapman, to an extent, who is kind of fumbling around for a bit there. But there haven't been anybody there hasn't been anybody in these last two years that has really grabbed onto the role and not letSpeaker 2: it go. And for the record, 29 blown blown savesSpeaker 3: last Oh, that's so much more than I that was so much more Yeah. Than ISpeaker 2: So Angels had 34, Diamondbacks, Rays, and Rangers all had 29. Not good. It's not what you want.Speaker 3: Especially when you look at how that division played out. That's a lot of that's a lot of games that could have gone that way.Speaker 1: So who do you see as presently constituted being able to take over the closer role, if in fact you do see anybody at all like that?Speaker 3: Yeah. I I think the real hope is has to be being in position to buy at the deadline and getting a closer at the deadline. You know, I I think there again, there are some really good arms out there. But sometimes you just need a guy to come out and, like, hammer a 100. Like, I think that goes a long way with a bullpen. Yeah.Speaker 2: And ISpeaker 3: think that we had this conversation with Skip a couple of days ago about Gavin Collier. And obviously, he's a he's 25. He just made his MLB debut. He's not gonna be crowned the the closer right out of the gate here, but that he's the guy a guy with that type of stuff can be a closer in theSpeaker 2: big leagues.Speaker 3: Yeah. Should be a closer in the big leagues. Yeah. So I think you might have to, you know, go outside the organization. Maybe you hope a guy like Emiliano Teodo puts it together and is healthy enough to, you know, start firing 100 mile an hour sinkers again. And and which is obviously a a tall ask to this point. But I I think there are some options within the organization, but I think the best shot at a lockdown closer might have to come externally. Mhmm.Speaker 1: That could be difficult. Ownership sort of they didn't like that idea before the season started.Speaker 2: Would've been nice if they did.Speaker 3: We wouldn't we wouldn't be having this conversation if No. They did.Speaker 1: So No. We probably wouldn't. What about the offense?Speaker 3: I think this nobody wants to hear, like, silver linings or, you know, moral wins or whatever. I think thisSpeaker 1: Oh, and here we're all about silver linings and moral wins.Speaker 3: I I do think this offense is miles and miles better than last year's. And I know they just had a really tough weekend in Seattle. There is some bad voodoo going on in that ballpark with this team, so I'm not even gonna look at that. But I do think this offense is, like, they're getting on base at higher clip than last year. They're just hitting the ball better than last year. I think there's a real issue with runners in scoring position that we really saw this week in in Seattle. I think they left 30 plus runners over the three games on base.Speaker 1: That's a ton.Speaker 3: But it's better than not leaving any runners on base and not having anybody on base to leave there, which is what they did last year. They were not getting on base, and they weren't they weren't stranding runners because there weren't any runners. So I do think this team already is a step above of the twenty twenty five offense because of the sheer fact that they're getting guys on base, and they are putting themselves in the position to drive in runs. Now, obviously, they need to drive in those runs, but they're just a step further than they were last year already. And a guy like Brandon Nimmo at the top of the lineup has been setting the tone, has been phenomenal. I think he's hitting three ten, I think, at at this point. He's just he's really done wonders for the top part of this lineup.Speaker 1: He's already my favorite ranger this year.Speaker 3: He's great. I mean, he's he's a yapper. He will talk your ear off, and I love it. He is an absolute revelation in this clubhouse.Speaker 1: What about the chemistry and the vibe around the thing? Because over the last couple of years, that's kind of been the elephant in the room that people out there don't really care to talk about too much.Speaker 3: Sure.Speaker 1: But, you know, being in that room, I know knowing how these things work, knowing how big of a factor chemistry is within any kind of organization or anything like that, something was amiss last year.Speaker 3: Sure.Speaker 2: Business like business like was probably the most positive way to put it.Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it was I think it was business like, and that works when you're winning. It it was it it wasn't any different than 2023, and I think that's what gets lost in the shuffle is that this team over those the Bruce Bochy era, I should say, was a very businesslike, just go about your business kind of team, kind of clubhouse. That only goes insofar as you keep keep winning baseball games. And I think, obviously, the the senior and Simeon of it all is just, again, two guys who went about their business two different ways.Speaker 2: Mhmm.Speaker 3: And, again, that worked when it worked, but when the team was not winning and when Corey wasn't on the field as much as he would have liked or the organization would have liked, that just stopped working. And these two guys just I don't I don't think it was toxic. I know that word was being floated by the the New York media after Simeon got to New York. But I just think it couldn't be toxic because they they just didn't talk much. I think they were just two guys who were teammates, and that was fine, and it just was wasn't working anymore.Speaker 1: The crazy thing about that is when you have a situation like that, when you're winning and the team's playing well and everything like that, nobody talks about it. Nobody notices. It's no big deal. When things go amiss, it's a real big deal.Speaker 3: Yeah. Exactly.Speaker 1: And nobody knows what to do about it, what to think about it. And it didn't seem like there was anybody in that room last year that could step to the fore and and, you know, try to talk to everybody and bring everybody together.Speaker 2: I think they kinda hoped for that with Jock, but he just never hid enough to be seen as a a factor that way.Speaker 3: Right. I think this was a lot a team of a lot of guys that were lead by example guys. And I think that is good. I think you can lead by example. But to your point, Joc was brought in to be a a leader of personality. And when you're when you're hitting one eighty four, like, you just can't you just can't be that like you would want to be. And I think that's what real Nimmo brings. I I know there were also reports out of New York that Nimmo maybe tried too hard to lead sometimes in Queens. And I think that's exactly what the Rangers needed. And I think he's already done wonders in terms of leading in this clubhouse, being a a vocal leader and being a a lead by example guy. Yeah. Just in terms of the at bats that he's taking. I think he's really huge for for Langford and Carter to have a guy in the outfield who plays really good defense. He plays hard. He runs hard. He has good at bats against lefties and righties, especially in terms a guy like Evan Carter, and just bringing energy every day. He's the kind of guy who loves coming to the ballpark, is really excited to to grind every day. He grind out at bats, grind in the outfield, hustles everywhere. Those are a lot of cliches, but that's really what Brandon Nimmo is like. And I think that's huge for this organization.Speaker 2: And it says a lot about him that he came in so easily to this clubhouse where, what was it, Corey Seger's first at bat, he walked in spring training and, you know, ran down to first base. I don't think he's done it since, but I think it at least shows just how much Nimmo's personality was already kinda starting to permeate and Seager's like, okay. I've got someone that'll kinda be the voice to my example.Speaker 3: Exactly.Speaker 1: Well, he seems like, number one, a great guy. Seems like he takes very tough at bats. And it seems like he he really wants to be that guy.Speaker 3: Yes.Speaker 1: Absolutely. And and and you know what? Good interview too.Speaker 3: Again, he's a yapper. Yeah. Like, I I think the the Zoom, the day after he got traded, I think Sean McFarlane asked the question, like, what is what have the last twenty four hours been like for you? Branding Nemo gave a twelve minute answer to one question, and we were like, oh my god. Who is this guy? Like, great, great interview.Speaker 2: Just like there's a RSN interview that's running before a few of the rangers games so far at home, and you can tell that their editors were struggling just to getSpeaker 3: that down to six and aSpeaker 2: half minutes because it was a lot.Speaker 1: Alright. This is Kennedy Landry, and she covers the rangers for mlb.com. We'll have more with Kennedy in just a second. Meantime, you can just chill out there for a second and relax a little bit if you want.Speaker 2: Grab a donut if you'd Yeah.Speaker 3: Grab a donut.Speaker 1: Yeah. Go grab a donut. Grab whatever. And just chill for a bit because right now, for us, it's time for that dreaded and feared mid show read. Alright. What do we have here today, Shoopi?Speaker 2: Well, we probably have the CBD House of Healing.Speaker 1: Okay. Let's do that then.Speaker 2: Yeah.Speaker 1: Let me tell you about the CBD House of Healing. Now I would hold up the Sav Stick from the CBD House of Healing that I've been using, but, it is not in here today. And the reason it's not in here today is because I brought it back into quarters because I've been using it myself here lately. I've got all kinds of weird things going sciatica type things going on here. And, I'm in a lot of pain. I hurt. And you know what I'm finding out? The salve stick from the CBD house of healing makes it better. It doesn't get rid of anything, but at least I can get around, do what I gotta do, do what I need to do without being in excruciating pain like I would be if I didn't have it. Now, if this sounds like something you need, what you need to do is get over there to the CBD House of Healing, check it out for yourself. The CBD House of Healing is located at Northwest Highway in Plano Road in the Northeast quadrant at that burgeoning intersection. You need to stop by there, see what else they've got. Whatever might be wrong with you, chances are they've got something for it. They approach everything from a medicinal standpoint over there. Their owner is also a registered nurse, and she doesn't screw around with this stuff. If you go in there and tell them you got something wrong, then she's going to do everything she can to get you better. Find something that will get you better. It works for me. I think it will for you too. So let them know that you heard about it from us here at YDC and go to the CBD House of Healing and get your head right and everything else right again. What else we got?Speaker 2: Well, I think it works out pretty well with Kennedy here that we could maybe talk about the Eric Nadel birthday benefit. If you've got any of that info, I can give you the bullet points if you'd like. I won't do it as professionally as you do.Speaker 1: Okay. Give us the bullet points on the Eric Nadel birthday benefit.Speaker 2: May 14. Yes. Eric Nadel's birthday bash. Yes. Longhorn Ballroom.Speaker 1: Oh, the Longhorn Ballroom. The greatness of the Longhorn Ballroom.Speaker 2: Doors, 06:30. Show, 07:30. Say more, Shoopy. Don't going somewhere.Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been to the Longhorn Ballroom yet, but if you haven't, it's worth it just to go over there and take a look around. You'll find yourself wandering around, looking at all the looking at all the amazing memorabilia they have there and thinking about all the great music that has gone on inside that place. It is just incredible what they've done, and there could not be a better place for the Eric Nadel birthday bash.Speaker 2: And you know who you get to see?Speaker 1: Who do you get to see?Speaker 2: Sammy Ray and the friends with Chuck Chuck Prophet and his Cumbia shoes.Speaker 1: Alright. Two very eclectic bands Mhmm. The kind that Eric likes. Eric doesn't work in the mainstream when it comes to music at all. Mm-mm. He's always on the prowl looking for something new, looking for something different, looking for something that nobody knows about, and he loves telling people about music he's heard. He absolutely loves that. And it's a great opportunity for him to put something in front of all of us that we probably don't know about, but he does. And it will be good. It will be fun. It will be beneficiary. And, you need to get over there at the Longhorn Ballroom. What's that date again, Shuby?Speaker 2: That'll be May 14, and it's presented by Haynes Boone, and the media sponsor is KXT ninety one seven FM, benefiting the Grant Halliburton Foundation.Speaker 1: Yes. Go to granthalliburton..org for more on or is it Grant Halliburton Foundation or what?Speaker 2: Granthalliburton.org/ericnadel for tickets.Speaker 1: Alright. There you go. That's where you get tickets.Speaker 2: That was professional.Speaker 1: That was professional, more or less. It's not what we thrive on around here, but get close maybe.Speaker 2: They got their lovin'.Speaker 1: Yeah. They did.Speaker 2: Did. More than they want. You're a hall of famer.Speaker 1: Alright. Now let's get back into this with Kennedy Landry because I wanna find out what got you into baseball because it's kind of, I don't know. Whenever I find a woman covering baseball, I always wonder what got her into this. Usually, I find that it's somebody in her family or, you know, somebody she knew or something like that. My daughter says that she is a baseball girl, and she is. You know, she's pretty well into it, and she got it all from me. What where did you get it from?Speaker 3: I'd say a a bit of my dad, but also just playing the sport. I'm I'm an only child, so my dad just we did all the sports. And my dad grew up a Pittsburgh Pirates fan during We Are Family era. His favorite player is Roberto Clemente. So just I love the history of baseball too. I I think you can never stop learning about baseball just because there's so many years of it. Just even so much more than any other American sport. So the history of it on top of being able to to play softball all my life and being around my dad and just my honestly, my mom watches a a lot of sports with us too. Yeah. So so that's big and just being able to it's a big family thing for us. So that's really where it came from.Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite baseball player of all time?Speaker 3: Jorge Posada.Speaker 2: There you go.Speaker 3: Yeah. Just like I love Bruce Vocci used he thought I was a catcher because all of my favorite players have always been catchers. So, like, Posada, like, Pudge, just all of them. All to be honest. Like, Melina all the Melinas. Shout out to Benjie Melina Cycle. I just love catchers for for some reason. So yeah.Speaker 1: To me, it is the most difficult position in organized team sports in this great land of ours to play.Speaker 3: Yeah. Being able to handle a pitching staff, all the different types of pitchers, especially these days, there's so many different pitches. Yeah. And being able to handle all of that on top of being a hitter as well, I think it's more difficult than fans will ever get a give it credit for.Speaker 1: You've got to know every pitcher on your staff, and there are usually 12, sometimes more, sometimes thirteen, fourteen or so. You gotta know every guy on your staff. You gotta know what he's good at. You gotta know what he's not good at. When he's out there, he's having trouble. You gotta be able to tell him something. Gotta be able to go out there and tell him what you think might be wrong even if you don't know for sure. Gotta be able to tell that guy something. You gotta be able to get inside his head and help him through this tough time. And you gotta be able to know right from the start what's working, what's not working, what he's good at tonight, what he's got tonight, what he doesn't have tonight. There's just a lot of the mental aspect, and that doesn't even take into account the fact that you've gotta control the running game as well. You gotta control base stealers. You gotta go out there and set the defense. You gotta be on the same page as a manager. You gotta look into the dugout, get the signs from him, go out there, and then do this and all that stuff, and let those guys knowSpeaker 3: pitchcom now, pitch calm now.Speaker 2: That is true.Speaker 1: Oh yeah, pitch calm now.Speaker 2: On top of that, you've got be able to doSpeaker 1: all that and as if that's not enough, you probably should be able to contribute at least a little bit on offense. Yeah, just a little.Speaker 2: Even though your fingers and knees and all that probably are not feeling anywhere close to 100% on Yeah. Any givenSpeaker 1: Even though you probably, you might have had a really nasty collision with a guy coming in sliding into home, and then come to find out you're leading off the next inning. Mhmm. Not fun. No. Not fun. Mm-mm. It's tough. There's more going on there than anybody realizes.Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely.Speaker 1: Yeah. I like catchers too. Yeah.Speaker 2: Y'all getSpeaker 1: your ballpark that you go to?Speaker 3: You know, like, the old ballparks are great. They're not great for working because obviously they they were built in nineteen o four or whatever. So, like, Wrigley and Fenway are just, like, the history of those places is so great.Speaker 1: Mhmm.Speaker 3: Just being out there and being on the ballpark on the field at the ballpark is so beautiful. I love all the ballparks with a view. So you get Oracle or you get PNC in Pittsburgh.Speaker 2: There we go.Speaker 3: Those are, like, phenomenal.Speaker 1: That's my favorite.Speaker 3: Yeah. And it's sneaky. I love San Diego. That was a I love that one so much more than I expected. Just being we were there for the July 4 last year, and just the vibes and the energy in that place were, like, amazing.Speaker 1: I've never been there yet.Speaker 2: It's beautiful from what I've been told. My parents went there probably about ten years ago. They loved it and for what it's worth, like I know the DJ out there is our buddy DJ EJ, who also does the cowboys games and, you know, so he definitely has that place rocking and their game presentation staff seems to be pretty on top of things.Speaker 3: Definitely.Speaker 1: Are there any of the old ballparks that you really wish you would have been around to go to? Because I got about a million of those.Speaker 3: I mean, I get the old Yankee Stadium is, like, the the obvious answer.Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.Speaker 3: I just feel like I I the new Yankee Stadium is a it's a great ballpark, but obviously, it just doesn't have the history or the the ghosts of the old place.Speaker 1: Man, would've I so wish I would've gone to Yankee Stadium Senior.Speaker 2: I can't believe you never did.Speaker 1: I never did. I went to Yankee Stadium the second.Speaker 2: That's right.Speaker 1: Or Yankee Stadium Junior and Yankee Stadium the third, but never Senior.Speaker 2: Okay.Speaker 3: Okay.Speaker 1: You like Dodger Stadium?Speaker 3: I do like Dodger Stadium, actually. It's a again, bad place to work from. Just the clubhouse is a million miles away, nobody cares about that. But the ballpark is beautiful out in Chavez Ravine and just again, all those old ballparks are really cool to be at. And I know Dodger Stadium is not as old as Wrigley or Fenway, but it's still it has that kind of vibe.Speaker 1: Yeah. It does have that kind of vibe. Let me see. Who's your favorite player that you've ever covered?Speaker 3: See, I've only had these, what, say this is my sixth year with the rangers. So it's it's a very small pool, to be honest.Speaker 1: That's not that small.Speaker 3: Not that small. Let's see. I'm trying to think. Who has been my favorite player to cover? Honestly, I love talking to he's not a player, but being able to talk to Bruce Bochy every day was Yeah. Like phenomenal. Just hearing stories from him. We used to joke story time with Boach when the recorders went off and you just start shooting shit. Just being able to hear all the stories about when he was with the '70s Astros or you know, when he was managing the the Padres in the nineties, or, you know, all these things. Just it was really an honor to be able to to cover a hall of famer like him, and be able to hear all the stories about everything that he he was able to do within his career.Speaker 2: And he's a former catcher.Speaker 3: And a former catcher. There we go.Speaker 1: Boy, bet getting boats going with all the recorders turned off was, I bet that was just electric.Speaker 3: It was it was kinda like, you know, when somebody asks a question in grammar school and it gets the teacher off topic. That's kinda what it was like.Speaker 2: Yeah. How about I feel like Hedgie. You might have had fun with him.Speaker 3: Oh, he's a That'sSpeaker 2: another catcher.Speaker 3: Good pull. Oh, 23 rangers, Brad Miller.Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.Speaker 3: Great, great hang. Like, he was just so much fun. And in the Austin Hedges, like, vibes guy kind of kind of energy, he was just great to, for our purposes, again, for the media, that was just, like, always was very honest and had would give you real quotes, but still was energetic and fun and was really a big part of that team when you look back about how he was getting kept the vibes going again. That's that's a real thing in a clubhouse throughout January.Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. I mean, if the if that's not there, then you got a real problem.Speaker 3: Right.Speaker 1: You got a team that's probably going nowhere. What about guys on other teams? Are you around them that much, or are you pretty ranger centric? OrSpeaker 3: It's I I'm only rangers until the postseason. If the rangers aren't in the postseason, I get assigned a random team to just be with. So typically, that's been Astros just because it's easiest. They like to put us in a divisional opponent. So it's typically Astros. Like I said, I did Yankees, Blue Jays last year. I did Guardians, Tigers the year before. So I'm around other teams a little bit, but not in to a dramatic degree. Vinny Pascuentino is a really fun guy to chat with from the Royal Royal's first baseman. George Springer was has been really great in my my experience both with the with the Astros and the and the Blue Jays. Just a lot of fun. And, again, it it comes back to what we want as reporters, but very honest about, you know, his evaluations of himself andSpeaker 1: team. Sure.Speaker 3: He's been a really good one. I'm trying to think who else has been I mean, like, I mentioned Bregman, but he's another player who's always been really good with the with the media Yeah. With how he interacts with the media and things like that.Speaker 1: I bring this up because there was a time when I was first breaking into the game where a lot of baseball players were difficult. Difficult.Speaker 3: Some of them still are.Speaker 1: I mean I'm sure I'm sure that some of them indeed still are, but now it's that that that's all that seems to have changed a little bit. You know, for the most part, football players and basketball players that have been around have not been difficult, at least not in the same way that baseball players can be. And hockey players are great all the way around. You know, they got the Canadian thing happening and all that.Speaker 3: Obviously.Speaker 1: But baseball players, you know, sometimes they they could be a little edgy, and you'd go into the room knowing that, you know, things might not go real well in here tonight. But still you go in there and you, know, try to get what you need to get and and, you know, not not piss anybody off in the process too much.Speaker 3: Yeah. I think a lot of that, I guess, quote, unquote, animosity really can come from the fact that we see these guys so much.Speaker 2: Like, I think he 62 games plus spring training.Speaker 3: We see our players more than probably any other sport, at least of the big four. Again, it the close open twice a day every day for two hundred days a year. So there are times when I'm like, don't wanna see you either. I don'tSpeaker 2: wanna talkSpeaker 3: to you either. Neither of us wants to be here, but I have to ask the questions. You don't have to answer them, but but that's how it goes.Speaker 1: Yeah. You don't have to answer them, but I'm still gonna ask them. Right.Speaker 3: I have to.Speaker 1: Like, itSpeaker 3: should've been your right to say, like, I don't wanna ask that and or whatever. And, you know, sometimes you get those and sometimes you get a ho answer that's just like, I don't know.Speaker 1: Who's particularly good on this bunch?Speaker 3: This obviously, Brandon Nimmo, as we've said as we've said a lot. Evan Carter, great, great guy to chat with. Obviously, he's incredibly smart, just really well spoken, and he knows a lot about about baseball and about what he wants to do. Even, you know, when you talk to him about the lefty thing that, you know, has been a a talking point for all these years, but he's really know he knows it's an issue. He knows that he wants to fix it, and he he's really intelligent about being able to talk to you about how he's going about trying to to do things, or get things done, or fix things, and all of that. And and kind of in the same way, Cody Bradford, another just really smart guy. He was a valedictorian of his high school class, went to Baylor, and he's just so like, he Cody Bradford, I think, is gonna be like a pitching coach one day. Like, he's just so intelligent about pitching and how he wants to pitch, and I think you can you can see that. He's a guy with, like, a, you know, 92 mile an hour fastball, but he's got the pitch ability, and he knows how to get through each at bat with the stuff that he has. And that's been really fun to talk to him when he's been healthy about those kind of things.Speaker 1: Is he ever gonna get right?Speaker 3: I think he is. I think you know what? Tommy John or or the brace, it's it's obviously a difficult thing to come back from. But I I think you'll we'll see him sometime this year, probably, you know, late May, early June, and and getting I think he'll be a real asset for this team when he gets back.Speaker 1: I remember when he got hurt before I think that was, what, two years ago, I think. Before he got hurt, he made a couple of starts for him, and those were among the best starts that any Ranger pitcher turned in that year.Speaker 3: Yeah. I think he went on the IO with, like, a one one seven ERA thatSpeaker 1: year. Was crazy. Those starts. I thought, oh, man. This guy is gonna be great. And then he gets hurt. We've not seen him since, and I just keep waiting for him. You know? I I mean, I'm really anxious about this. I really want him to come back.Speaker 3: He he's the kind of guy that you really want to succeed too. Like, you want to see him healthy and good again.Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned him. Yeah. He's I'm I'm I'mSpeaker 3: DFW kid too, grew up a rangers fan.Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm really waiting I'm really waiting on him. I hope it works out for him because, like I say, those games were really good, and I thought they had something that had a chance to be something really special. What is this brace thing that he's got going on?Speaker 2: Well, ISpeaker 3: guess it's like a a partial Tommy John. So you either get the full, like, reconstruction or partial reconstruction, so you got the partial.Speaker 1: Oh, you got braces just something that that that they call it or what?Speaker 3: Yeah. I I don't know. I don't I'm not Keith Meister. I don't know exactly.Speaker 2: But Reinforces repaired ligaments using anthra Arthrex fiber tape sutures and swivel lock anchors. I guess rather than using a tendon or ligament or whatever, I'm not a doctor either. I gotSpeaker 3: a C in high school of anatomy. SoSpeaker 1: they mentioned anchors in there. That can't be too good.Speaker 2: It's not ideal.Speaker 1: No. It's not ideal.Speaker 2: You probably don't want that surgery if you don't have to have it. No. Well,Speaker 1: it's really been nice having you in here with us today.Speaker 3: I'm so glad to be here, this is fun. Yeah.Speaker 1: You keep doing what you're doing, you're doing good work here.Speaker 3: Mhmm. Respect the woman.Speaker 1: Respect respect the woman that likes the game of baseball.Speaker 3: Yeah. I love it.Speaker 1: Alright. She is Kennedy Landry. Check her out on mlb.com. That is it for little YDC four today. Thank you very much for watching. Remember, we need something from you here. We need you to get us out there. We need you to put us up on your social media. Tell your friends about us. Get more people into this thing. It's like one of those mo better things that we hear so much about. The mo the better. So do that for us. We'll keep doing this for you. Thanks for watching. Bye.Speaker 2: Alright. I'm gonna go take your pants off.Speaker 1: You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.