00:00I want to talk about Josh Young.
00:02Josh Young, the third baseman for the Texas Rangers,
00:06has quietly, very, very quietly,
00:08been one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball this year.
00:12The 28-year-old through 60 games is hitting .313 with an .855 OPS.
00:17He's got 16 doubles, eight homers.
00:20He's driven in 29.
00:21It's a .150 OPS plus.
00:24And Young, he's only punching out 15% of the time.
00:29Josh Young has been kind of a fire starter for this Rangers offense
00:33who has won seven of the last 10,
00:35and Texas is starting to swing it for the first time
00:38since they won it all in 2023.
00:40The last couple of years,
00:41our conversation around the Texas Rangers is they're pitching.
00:45They can pitch.
00:46They can pitch.
00:47But can they hit?
00:49The answer has been a resounding no the last couple of years.
00:52It seems like they're starting to swing it a little bit, dude.
00:55It's not just Josh Young.
00:56It's Ezekiel Duran, too.
00:58They have other bigger names in that lineup.
01:00Where's your level of excitement, not just for Young,
01:03and you can start there, but with Texas as a whole?
01:05I'm starting to see Peter's vision a little bit, too.
01:09He kind of made that call for them to potentially win the vision.
01:12I still think now the Mariners are going to start to pick up, too,
01:15and we got Cal on rehab, and they're starting to play a much better ball.
01:19But at the same time, I mean, this is a really interesting Rangers team
01:24that I think is getting stronger offensively, as you mentioned.
01:27Seeing Seager start to put some better swings on balls.
01:30Wyatt Lankford is back and has immediately started to make an impact.
01:33And that's the huge X factor for me.
01:35I think it's Young and it's Lankford.
01:37But Lankford is so dynamic that to be able to add him to the fold as well
01:41is really exciting.
01:42I think in the past it was like Lankford needs to look like perennial all-star
01:46Lankford in terms of the upside that we've always talked about with him.
01:49Now with the way that Josh Young is performing and some of these other
01:51complementary pieces you mentioned, they just need Wyatt Lankford to be solid
01:55and healthy.
01:57And that's what he's been there, too.
01:59But Josh Young looks like the guy that was the eighth overall pick
02:04and one of the top prospects in the game.
02:06The guy that came up in the big leagues and you immediately could see
02:09that this is a good balance of hitting power.
02:11I don't think anything jumps off the page, but you're going to be hard-pressed
02:15to find a clear-cut deficiency.
02:17But all of a sudden, the last couple of years, I know injuries played a part
02:21in it.
02:21It was just a little bit of a seesaw.
02:22And he just looks like he's back to that guy again, that blend of hit and
02:26power that is so impressive.
02:28And I think it's really showing in terms of the hit.
02:31He's cut his strikeout rate from 25% last year to 15% this year.
02:38And, I mean, 26% in his big league career, he's almost halved that.
02:43That is something clearly, clearly, clearly has clicked for him, and he's making more
02:48contact than ever.
02:48And I think that's also allowing that pop to shine through a little bit, too.
02:53He's always been an unorthodox setup guy, kind of an unorthodox swinger, right?
02:59Is it fair to say it's a flat bat path for him, yet it was a lot of punch-outs?
03:06Like, that really doesn't make sense, because the flat bat path would result in a lower K-rate,
03:11but he was the guy that struck out a lot.
03:13He was always really hard to wrap my brain around.
03:15A hundred percent.
03:16And I think you just ended up just looking at the overall numbers and saying, hey, he's
03:19producing, right?
03:20But, yeah, I think the flatter path, you could see that kind of result in him swinging over
03:23spin and sharper stuff.
03:25And now, all of a sudden, like, I think that's the biggest thing, is he's staying through,
03:30he's staying in the zone longer, and you're seeing him just demolish secondaries.
03:34I mean, when you look at some of the struggles before, there was a lot of whiff against those
03:37secondaries, especially spin in 2024.
03:40It was a 43% whiff rate against breaking balls.
03:44Last year, it looked like it was a step in the right direction, but this year, pulverizing
03:48heaters, but then again, breaking balls, only a 22% whiff rate, and against off-speed, he's
03:54hitting 417.
03:55I know it's a small sample size, but 10 for 24, three doubles, you're going to take
03:59that any day of the week.
04:00So it seems like he's found a little bit more of that balance, too, to where, I mean, he's
04:05crushing fastballs, but he has enough depth, too, to be able to handle the spin.
04:09He's recognizing it as well as ever, and I think he's just really coming into his own
04:13at 28 years old, which is huge for this Rangers team.
04:17So this is a Ranger team that is sporting Josh Young and his 140 WRC+.
04:24Ezekiel Duran through 200 plate appearances at a 125 WRC+.
04:29Shout out Ezekiel Duran, who's having a bit of a breakout season for him.
04:33Jock Peterson needed a bounce back, and he's bouncing back right now.
04:36Eight homers, and he's got a 121 WRC+.
04:38Jake Berger has been relative to league average slightly below, but he does have 10 homers this
04:44year.
04:44Seager missed some time, but in 44 games, he has eight homers.
04:47He's just striking out a decent bit, and it's an 81 WRC+.
04:51But mind you, this is also the team that runs out of starting rotation of DeGrom,
04:56Evaldi, Gore, Rocker, and Leiter.
05:00And Rocker's been throwing the ball a little bit better.
05:02Leiter is kind of in the run to the litter, but there's so much to love about Jack Leiter.
05:06I mean, dude, like, it's kind of easy to get, not reckless with Texas, but see them
05:12as that other big threat in the American League West.
05:16And the AL West started so, so, so poorly.
05:19And you mentioned the Mariners.
05:20It feels like they're trying to become that final form of the Mariners, and pitching is
05:25getting there right now.
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