Um, what do you make of, uh, of their chances at this point, given that unlike some of these other teams, they're gonna play teams who these games really, really matter for the next couple weeks?

Yeah, and you know, looking at the, the Astros' schedule, 'cause obviously that's, you know, in a perfect world, that's, that's the Rangers' path to the postseason.

But you mentioned they don't hold the tiebreaker, so they're effectively three games back.

That's, that's tough to make up in, in such short time.

The Astros have a really tough schedule, but they've been winning games.

And, you know, we, we've talked a lot on the Rangers' side that they had this incredibly tough schedule for the first 40 games, and then it got easy.

But they weren't playing good baseball at the point when it got easy.

How has the Adam Macko side been, uh, for the Rangers?

Can I ask a question? Is Josh Young still a human that exists on this planet? Yeah.

Yeah, I think the hope is he goes on a rehab assignment early next week, and then maybe the Rangers can get him back shortly thereafter.

I guess the cap is tricky.

I don't know.

Ooh.

It just didn't – I guess it hasn't progressed the way that they had hoped.

I don't know that it's a Josh thing.

Is there anything you'd like to say about that whole situation going on in Fort

Right

... for their drafts and whatnot.

So I'm hoping it's not an issue.

Here, here's the big problem I see, and I, I love what, I, I, I appreciate what these conferences are doing.

Let's just say they didn't do that.

It sucks.

Like, it, it, there's nothing about a kid, uh, I guess they're not kids, uh, a guy going and playing in a preseason game or getting minutes or doing this or that and, like, being a professional athlete and then going back to college that is anything in line with the spirit of college athletics.

So let me hear if you have any, uh, picks coming your way, Jared, for college football this weekend.

baseball contracts have no trade clause? Like almost all of them, right?

Yeah, I don't know.

So there are a couple things here.

One, so Corey Seager has a partial no trade clause.

He's got eight teams on his list.

I mean, there are teams that just don't, by practice, give no trade clauses.

I think I could be wrong, but...

They can do that just if you look at how the cards are stacked with the bad teams that are in front of them.

At, at first it was, uh, you know, there was some confusion then, is it gonna be a really extreme pitcher's park? How's it playing these days?

Yeah, so in 2020, we all thought it was a pitcher's park, but what we forgot was the Rangers just were not very good that year.

So when the Range- or when this ballpark hosted the postseason and the Braves and Padres and Dodgers were hitting home runs left and right, right, we realized, no, you, you can't hit the ball out in this ballpark.

You know, in 2023, this was not a pitcher's park at all.

The Rangers had a really good lineup.

Their lineup has not been very good the last couple years, and so it's skewed a little more pitcher friendly.

That was the case at the beginning of the year.

What's he been like?

Then is it going to be a really extreme pitchers park? How's it playing these days?

Yeah, so in 2020, we all thought it was a pitchers park.

But what we forgot was the Rangers just were not very good that year.

So when the range or when this ballpark hosted the postseason, and the Braves and Padres and Dodgers were hitting home runs left and right.

We realized, no, you can't hit the ball out in this ballpark.

You know, in 2023, this was not a pitcher's park at all.

The Rangers had a really good lineup.

The guy who's here now, Skip Schumacher, great baseball reputation.

Go ahead.

I was going to say, I mean, the Dodgers.

Yeah.

And it's not like...

I think being a good owner in sports and say whatever we want about Cuban and how it's worked out since.

I remember like...

I was super young when Cuban bought the Mavs.

Yeah.

Do you feel that same way? Or are there things that like really bug you about the NFL game that you like absolutely need fixing? And if so, what would it be?

So I I'm intrigued by the four point field goal.

I think is, is interesting.

Um, I, I mean, like, I guess part of my question is like, do you want to bring the field goal back? Because one of the things that I think, um, I think Greg Olson was the first person like on air to really discuss this.

Not saying it's the first person to think about it, write about it, but with the change in touchback rule, where you start with the football now, uh, it encourages teams to go for it more because you're really only like three first downs away from being in field goal range with how good kickers are these days.

And I think, I mean, that's maddening maybe to like people a generation older than us because, you know, they don't like going for it on fourth down ever.

But like, I think that's more exciting.

So there's really, there's no need to do that.

Yeah.

Gonzaga, like, they went from being Cinderellas, like [laughs] like, they've got, like, really good players.

We, I think we really enjoy really good players.

And I think for this sport in America, which is not heavily followed, I think it was really important that the Mbappés, the, the Messis, the Kanes, the Yamals, like, th- that caliber of player was very present as the knockout rounds unfolded.

And so now here we are.

We just, you know, the elimination of Dembele and, and Mbappe, and, um, you know, y- you've got Kane and Messi, Jude Bellingham, who, you know, has always been a star but has really emerged this World Cup after having a disappointing World Cup four years ago.

Uh, you know, you, you had that star quality.

Come on.

I

get that people...

I think soccer is boring.

I understand there can be a 1-1 draw.

People don't like ties or a nil-nil draw, and you've got two teams in the group stage that are just kind of playing defensively because they don't need to expose themselves to a potential loss or whatever.

But I feel like we've gotten some exciting soccer so far.

And, yeah, it's not too dissimilar.

And I know there's other countries that are doing it, but I think of soccer more than anything as being a very European kind of thing.

What was your reaction to yesterday's ruling? Did you expect something like this? And how do you feel about the way college football has reacted to

it? I heard a pretty convincing response.

argument from Ari Temkin, our pal, who said that Brendan Sorsby is going to ultimately be eligible.

And he was explaining the nuts and bolts.

And I don't understand our legal system at all.

But so I guess I wasn't super surprised.

I'm also not surprised at the reaction by like the Big Ten saying, hey, we're just not going to play Texas Tech.

So I'll start with you, Jared, how do you feel about the stars moving to Plano, this development and what you see going on?

Jared is up.

Okay.

I'm gonna go with, uh ...

Well since ...

Mm.

Yeah, I think since South Africa was taken, I gotta stick with, uh, a little African blood.

I'll go Senegal.

[laughs] Uh, Jared.

So this, I think, is what our show is all about, texting with a friend about some ideas about the game, and then it's like, "Hey, you wanna hop on for 10 minutes and go over it?" So how you doing? And then within that, just lay out what we were texting about to everyone, and we'll kick around the ideas for fun.

Yeah.

What's up, fellas? Great seeing you guys.

Uh, so I, I just had somebody's like email thread talking about the game last night and, and one of the guys is like, "Hey, we gotta get rid of the intentional walk in baseball." And I, I wanna make something clear.

I...

It, it's given me something to think about, and it's not just last night.

I've had conversations about the intentional walk before.

Thank you.

What's the feeling around this Rangers team right now?

Oh, I think there's a lot of uncertainty still.

You know, they... yeah, they- they've won, they won both road series on their most recent road trip.

But they, you know, Pittsburgh and Baltimore and, you know, Pittsburgh obviously stinks.

And, uh, you know, Baltimore is struggling, right? Um, Baltimore kind of like the Rangers, probably should be better than they are when you look at their, their roster.

Um, but yeah, I mean, it's interesting.

The Rangers have shown some signs...

What's kind of the, your report card on him or, or the feel around some of the, the guys, uh, that you've heard or, or the, the vibe with him as a, as a new hitting coach?