Progress Report For The Rangers After Their Brutal 40-Game Start | K&C Masterpiece

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]All right. So, we have talked about this a lot. We talked about it before the season started. We've talked about it throughout the first month and a half or so that this first 40 games was always going to be brutal for the Texas Rangers just in terms of like what the schedule looked like. So, for example, and it turned out the schedule held about how we thought. Uh the Rangers first 40 games, 27 of them have been against teams that are currently have a [clears throat] winning record.

[00:00:34]So, a little bit like right at the edge of 2/3 of their games have been against teams with a winning record. And so, on the flip side, I have positive news for you going forward. That was the highest composite winning percentage in all of Major League Baseball. The teams that the Rangers have played the rest of the way, per Elias Sports Bureau, the opponent win percentage is.471.

[00:01:00]That is the lowest in Major League Baseball, which is a pretty shocking dynamic of first quarter of the season, absolute best. Last three quarters, the composite record right now is the worst in baseball.

[00:01:15]The Yes.

[00:01:17]>> Although, some of those teams obviously could change their fortunes clearly along the way.

[00:01:21]>> went to our power rankings guru, Kevin, okay, regarding strength of schedule played and strength of schedule in the future. And yes, the Rangers had the hardest schedule to start the season and currently have the easiest schedule to finish out the season. And that being said, guess who's next on the on most difficult schedule Who's that?

[00:01:40]>> so far? Arizona.

[00:01:42]Oh, and so you >> they that bad or are they exactly where you are and maybe their schedule's been really tough?

[00:01:48]>> their record's either the same or like half a game off.

[00:01:51]>> and 20. I mean, you >> Okay. And so, whenever people say, cuz you've I'm I'm sure you've seen this a lot. We've gotten this text a lot, Franklin. Franklin injury attorney text line 877-881-1053 is should the Rangers be ready to give up? Should the Rangers be looking to sell? I'm not here to tell you that they've looked like world beaters along the way cuz they certainly have not.

[00:02:13]But, you factor that into your thinking, do you not? Like, I was honestly hoping they could be at least 20 and 20 at this point. They fell one win short of making that happen.

[00:02:25]>> But, they're not too far off of what I thought could be the pace now.

[00:02:28]>> Um Yes, that makes that makes a lot of sense.

[00:02:32]The thing I just don't know yet because I I've said this this is what's going to happen. The schedule's going to get a little easier and then you're going to convince yourself by trade deadline that you're a contender, but because nobody in your division is good.

[00:02:47]And so that like that's going to be another factor in this. I'll go look in I'll go look at that strength of schedule part again also on the opponents in the AL West cuz maybe that'll factor in as well. But, the the um I I won't be fooled by okay, the the difficult schedule said that you weren't good. Right.

[00:03:08]>> You were you were a middle team. Right.

[00:03:11]>> And then the easy schedule says you're good and you start believing you're better than you are and then you get into the playoffs. Not that I don't care. I want to be in the playoffs. I don't care if I get smoked in the playoffs. I'd rather be there than not.

[00:03:23]But, I don't want to be fooled that I might be a better team. That that is the the thing about this, Kevin, is I think that the next 10 games you could still be a.500-ish team and not go on a 10-game win streak. I don't know that that's what this team is.

[00:03:38]Yeah. And that would be really concerning to me because you're looking at I mean, you're looking at you have a series against the Astros.

[00:03:52]The Astros are terrible this season, so are the Rockies. Those two teams have a combined 32 and 50 record.

[00:04:00]So, yeah, the rest of the month. Arizona, they're not good, but then again, they're in the exact same spot as you.

[00:04:07]So, I'm not here to argue that we have been good whatsoever. But, you also play the Angels, who are also 16 and 25. You finish up the month against the Royals, who they have a sub 500 record as well.

[00:04:23]So, take a look at the rest of the month. Right now, though it could change cuz the Diamondbacks are close, and then the Royals are close. You do not have another game the rest of the month against a team that is above 500.

[00:04:39]>> Yeah. Yeah, you're right about that. And so, that's my concern, Corey. To your point, if you don't take advantage of that, then do I have to kind of accept, kind of like what you were saying, is like maybe they're just a 500 team, schedule be damned. And I'm I'm hoping that's not the case, but I can't rule that out.

[00:04:58]>> Cuz cuz what's going to happen if let's say somebody said our the offense just flat stinks.

[00:05:03]If you now you liven up on offense against bad against bad teams, does that mean to you, oh, the offense is fine, or no, we still need to add to this? What would you What would that tell you, Kevin?

[00:05:16]Because I think if with Chris Young, he'd go, well, he'd you know, kind of look at it and say, look, I know I need something, but I can't get it. And I'm going to have to convince everybody that this is good. Like, what what we're doing is good, but I still need to be able to add a piece, and then or maybe it's the cure-all. Maybe it's the confidence, and that's all they need.

[00:05:33]They start getting those swings in, start believing that they're that good, and they get they get all the mechanics back in place. I [snorts] To your point, I am worried that the time comes and you show those flashes to get the thing, and your owner's like Yeah, I think we're okay. The uh But if you don't show those things, obviously you're not going to get >> Oh, yeah. And and you then you start having other conversations that nobody around here really wants to have right now. I will say this, Kevin, the Rangers having the easiest continued strength of schedule, the Athletics have the fourth easiest. Okay.

[00:06:07]>> And the Mariners have the fifth easiest.

[00:06:09]Okay.

[00:06:09]>> doesn't feel like there's any like true advantage here.

[00:06:13]>> you.

[00:06:13]>> It's as it's It's It's even that that narrow of a margin. So, you are going to have to continue contending and competing the way you have, but you're going to have to find be on the other side of the positive side a little more often. There are 19 games the rest of this month. So, 19 games in 21 days. Mhm. Is it 12 and seven? Like I mean, if you can go 19 and 0, great. But what's a realistic record that you feel like you need to finish out this month at in those 19 games to be like "Okay, maybe it was just kind of the schedule that was crushing us down and we're able to expand it out a little bit."

[00:06:56]>> 12 and seven was popping up.

[00:06:57]>> 12 and seven, I feel like should be the baseline. Like Like if I go 12 and seven, I'll be like, I should have gone 12 and seven.

[00:07:04]>> Okay.

[00:07:04]>> going to change my mind about what the team, I'm going to need to see about 15 wins out of this team. I a a Like this pitching is too good. Sure.

[00:07:13]>> Uh the bats are going to be the thing that changes my mind. And if they're not scoring, if they don't score, let's see, uh more than two or three Where are they we at right now with runs per game? I feel like they're a three to four runs per game and I feel like you should be 4.7. Uh you know, you're going to be one of those contending teams. So, uh I feel like that's that's where I kind of feel on this team is I need more of that. But yeah, I need 15 wins out of this team in the next 19 games to be like, "Okay, this is changing my mind."

[00:07:40]>> Okay.

[00:07:41]>> Otherwise, you're doing what you should do against bad teams.

[00:07:43]>> Okay. All right. Now, somebody said don't forget the Angels owned us last year. Uh my counter to that would be don't forget Seattle has owned you for some time and that has not been how the beginning of the season has played out against Seattle. So, I'm not going to I'm not going to say that I think that's going to be the case whatsoever. But yeah, Colorado, the Astros, and the Angels right now. All three of those teams are 16 and 25.

[00:08:10]>> Okay.

[00:08:11]>> You have four series in a row against them. So, I'm isolating the May the 15th through May the 28th for you. That is four straight season uh series cuz you play the Astros twice, once here, once on the road, that you have against teams that right now are a combined 48 and 75.

[00:08:30]>> Mhm. So, that is staggeringly terrible.

[00:08:33]So, you know what? I'm I might kind of get where you're coming from at 15 and four.

[00:08:38]>> The four the 469 Chris Young would just trade for another pitcher.

[00:08:42]That [laughter] man, watching the Bobby meltdown on that would be something. I do I will say this, look, I I completely understand wanting to add a bat. It is weird though that we went from our entire lives as Ranger fans, Kevin. You've been a Ranger fan since you can remember what a baseball bat looked like.

[00:09:00]>> True. And our entire lives we've been like, if we could just have three good pitchers. Oh, yeah.

[00:09:06]>> are like, let's have more. Let's have as many good pitchers as we can get. And we're like complaining about it. And like >> [laughter] >> yeah, like That's not That's not what I'm used to. Even this year, Lats against Rocker. It was weird if you're a long time Rangers fan to be like, hold on, somebody has to win this job?

[00:09:23]It's not Well, obviously Lats and Rocker will both be able to be starters. Could we find another one off of these like non uh major league invitees?

[00:09:33]>> Yeah. And so, Can we get Tanner Scheppers to get out there and start in our first game, please. So, that is a weird thing. By the way, I do have a pitching update for you, and it's not great. Update. Josh Sborz. So, I had never I don't think I'd heard of this term, or at least it described like this. Josh Sborz has been deactivated from his assignment at Triple-A Round Rock to go through a mechanical maintenance program designed to allow him to better retain velocity with less wear on his arm. So, here's the issue.

[00:10:08]When you go all the way back to the shoulder surgery at the end of 2024, his velocity 94-95 mph, just a little bit below where he'd been after the uh or before the injury. But, the issue that he's run into is, especially coming out of the bullpen, if he had to throw on back-to-back days, there was a significant dip in velocity.

[00:10:30]Okay. And so, I I realize not all your bullpen pitchers are going to be available every single day, but it's probably not a great idea to have a bullpen pitcher up that you're like, "Well, he cannot pitch back-to-back days under any scenario."

[00:10:43]Yeah, well, I mean, was was Chapman like that where you didn't want to pitch him on back-to-back days because >> want to, but you could?

[00:10:52]>> seemed like anytime you did, you were like, "Okay, that was a wasted inning."

[00:10:57]But, this is I'm I don't know what the mechanics of it like they're going to change his mechanics or weak though?

[00:11:05]>> Yeah, I don't know exactly what they're going to do here, but this is important, man. Yeah. And I don't know, man. Maybe Sborz never never finds it again.

[00:11:14]I mean, you can't rule that out right now for sure. Maybe that's the the what ends up happening. He'll always live in infamy in Texas Rangers lore, though.

[00:11:22]You know, like he'll always have that.

[00:11:24]And that's why I think a lot of us want to continue giving this dude as many opportunities as possible to come back and be that guy again because that was a glorious moment and love to see you have a career here and end it in a good way.

[00:11:36]And then just keep an eye out on Jake Burger. Could be back in the lineup today. I don't know if that's been released yet. But he sat the last couple of days. He was hitting 130 with an OPS of 366 over his last 18 games. That gave Fosky the opportunity on Saturday and obviously he hit a home run, but Burger's OPS has fallen to 604 for the season. And you think about it, what's crazy is dude, he was the guy at the start of the season. Him and Jake Burger have gone in complete opposite directions. Did I just say him and Jake Burger? Him and Josh Young. Sorry. That would be confusing otherwise. Him and Josh Young have gone completely opposite directions. Josh Young started the season, looked lost at the plate. Now is clearly your best hitter. Whereas Jake Burger started out like a house of fire and now just has been awful of late. No no lineup for today as of yet, Kelly.

[00:12:33]>> Okay. All right. I cuz I'm curious to see if he goes back in today.

[00:12:37]>> an eye out if they're going to wait.