Texas Rangers rookie Jack Leiter gets lit up again, showing he's not quite ready for MLB

Intro the Rangers sent Jack ligher to the hill to make his home debut and well it went about as badly as his first two major league starts talk about why that was all that and more on this episode of Locked on Rangers let's get into it you are locked on Rangers your daily Texas Rangers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] Show Open you are locked on to the World Series champion Texas Rangers I'm Bryce Patrick a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers Fan covering this team for 11 seasons including all six as the founder and host of this podcast thank you all so much for making lockdown Rangers your first listen every single day if you're not already you can follow me on Twitter at Bry Patrick you can follow the show at lockon Rangers Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube where the best way you can help grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below now before we get into Jack lighter's rough start just the unending Terror of believing in a pitching Prospect and of course more injury Updates this episode is brought to you by eBay motors from breaks to exhaust kits and Beyond eBay Motors has over 122 Million Parts to keep your ride or die alive with all the parts you need the prices you want it's easy to bring home a win keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com El items only exclusion Supply eBay guaranteed fit only available to us customers now the Rangers headed into this game against the Guardians with a season long four Replica Ring Night game losing streak it was Cory Seager replica World Series ring night it was a day where Jack lighter was going to be on the hill it was a day where they would be wearing their beautiful gold trim World Series champion uniforms the roof was open Jack lighter was there to make his home debut and well after the 17 hours that some people wait in line to get their replica World Series rings uh it it did not go particularly well Jack Leiter fory your fighting defending World Series champion Texas Rangers a rough start for Jack ligher just an inning and two3 the walk problems for Beck he didn't give up multiple home runs in this one uh he only gave up the one but six earned runs three hits three walks one strike out and an inning in 2/3 and the Rangers were already out of it by the time the game had really begun in Earnest now this was the worst start of Jack lighter's short major league baseball career it was the first loss that he's ever suffered because despite giving up a decent chunk of runs in his first two starts and some of you might blame the defense for the first one and some people still found a way to blame the defense for the second one where Jack lider was giving up a lot of hard contact but there is no way to blame the defense for the three walks the two hit back batsman and really almost any of these six earned runs that put the Rangers deep deep in the hole before the game really even had a chance to get going this was rough and it tells us Not the first choice well not much about Jack glider that we didn't already know Jack lighter's not ready to start the big league level the Rangers knew that Jack ligher probably knew that maybe he didn't but that's fine at this point it's been pretty evident and this is not the first choice the Rangers wanted this is not the opportunity the Rangers Wanted jack ligher to be making his home debut this is not the time of year that the Rangers Wanted jack lighter in the big leagues it was this again insane rash of injuries on top of the already deeply injured starting rotation the Rangers had that forced this situation to happen ideally Jack ligher would have had about three to four months in Triple A doing well thriving working on all the things that he needed to work on to be ready to face big league hitters before he came up and made his big league debut at all let alone as an emergency start in Detroit where the Rangers just needed a body ideally the Rangers would have had other just a bodies for for a spot start in that situation but that wasn't the case ideally they would have had somebody else to come up for the double header that would be ready ideally Owen white wouldn't have fallen off a cliff the last two years but that's not what happened so Jack ligher got another start and then ideally danne Dunning wouldn't have also gotten hurt and the Rangers wouldn't need Jack lighter for this game but alas that's not where we are so after this game some of you might be jumping off the Jack ligher bandwagon I am not I am still wearing my my VY Boy shirt uh shout out HomeField apparel that I I bought at after the Rangers drafted Jack ligher even though I wanted to hit her um but it's fine because I'm a Believer in Jack lighter I'm a Believer in the other Vandy poy in Kumar rocker I'm a Believer in the fact that maybe eventually by the time I die the Rangers will have a good not just competent but good homegrown starting pitcher now I tweeted that out last night that I I was it was safer to just not hope that that was me and the misery of just another rough Jack lighter start and some of you jumped in to say well that there have been other Rangers pitching prospects that have been you know okay starting pitchers in your lifetime there was CJ Wilson There Was You know there was also Derek Holland there was some other guys Martine Perez a homegrown starting pitching prospect that ended up being okay and yeah I I meant more moving forward because it feels almost like the cost of That World Series was any hope and any preaching Prospect for the rest of time and that's definitely me being uh very dramatic which is kind of my my personality is being a smid dramatic like I don't know if you remember me saying that the Rangers winning the World Series was the greatest event to happen in the human history um well no that was just me being accurate not dramatic but some of you might think it's dramatic but still this was not anything that we didn't No such thing as a pitching prospect already know this was a rough start it was hard to watch and seeing Jack ligher get into those O2 counts and you know have a generous Z and still not be able to put this offense weight this is not a bad Guardians offense this is an offense that is much better than we anticipated I I thought that the Guardians offense would be terrible this year but it hasn't been so Ramirez is a good hitter Josh Naylor is a very good hitter they have other good hitters in this lineup and Jack ligher just was not able to give the Rangers the length that they hoped for they they did get some good signs out of their Bullpen I'll talk more about that later on in the show and they did end up throwing Kirby H for the first time in basically a week because the Rangers have been on this now five-game losing streak but there is no such thing as a pitching Prospect doesn't matter how much pedigree you have it doesn't matter how polished you are coming out of the draft whether it's out of high school God forbid out of high school or even out of college even Paul skes it took him felt like longer to get to the big leagues than we anticipated his first start started off amazing but even Paul SK didn't make it five innings and ended up allowing three runs in his big league debut which was against the Cubs which is a de decent off offense but but still still there is no such thing as a pitching Prospect there's just not and it almost makes it harder for me to Hope on the guys that are in the system I mean the Rangers have had you know big setbacks with Jack lighter coming up and not looking great I still think he is making progress I still think he is about where I expected him to be on the year I'm still thinking that eventually he's going to be a decent major league baseball starting pitcher I'm still hopeful on Kumar rocker who is set to come back from UCL repair surgery in July we'll we'll see what happens with that but Brock Porter is in a rough way he made three starts for highy and just could not find the strike zone and his velocity was way way down and the Rangers sent him to the airone complex League where they are claiming that he is throwing in the upper 90s but they have quite a history of claiming pitching prospects doing certain things in in the Arizon complex League where when they're not in season when nobody can really watch them they history of that so I'll believe that he's chucking gas in the upper 90s and finding the strike zone with more regularity when I see it but there are some guys that are starting pitching prospects that have been doing well for the Rangers this year and I shudder to even look at them for fear of cursing them with my hope because it felt like that for the entirety of the time that I have been following pitching prospects it's been since 2014 in Ern that I really started going deep dive on the Rangers farm system there have been so many guys that I had hoped for I mean guys like Ariel herado who apparently is is doing pretty well in Asia guys like Michael matuella who um the Rangers got into the third round out of Duke that was eventually was at one point a first round talent but injuries just kind of derailed that there was Cole Reagan who we don't have to discuss any more than we already have there was Cole win who was amazing all the way up to dou and then just out of nowhere just something happened and it was not good and for years we didn't know what it was the same thing with Owen white a guy with a lot of Hope on him and then a neck injury sa some of his velocity and then here we are two years later and it felt like the same thing that happened with Cole wi just out of nowhere it's like okay I guess this guy's just suddenly became not good anymore and I don't know what happened and I don't want that to happen to Jack ligher thankfully there hasn't been some big injury that's you know sapped his stuff his stuff is still there it is a lot about the mental makeup with Jack ligher which I said after his last couple starts was impressive and after that big feature that Sean McFarland did in the Dallas Morning News kind of showed that he's got a bigger picture mindset which you absolutely need when you're at that point in your career like Jack lighter is and so I do want to talk a little bit about the pitching prospects that have done well but just taking a deep breath taking a step back and seeing that all right this has been a rough start to the season it's been a rough start to Jack lighter's career but it's not really telling us something we all didn't already know because these gosh darn injuries just keep on coming but hey there's a little bit of Hope for some good injury news the Rangers have gotten the last couple days we're talk about that and more right after this word from our sponsors this episode is brought to you Sponsor by eBay Motors passion drive and patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and leveled up to Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kitss LED headlights and more whether into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die you'll always find the exactly what you're looking for and with eBay guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back because with eBay Motors you're burning rubber not cash with all the parts you need at the prices you want it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusion Supply e guaranteed fit only available to us customers now we come to everyone's favorite portion of the show who's hurt now I I feel like this show this year Whos hurt should be titled not locked on Texas Rangers but locked on which Texas Rangers is hurt now and how bad the other hurt and who else is is getting hurt now because there have been so many injuries and so many things to update I talked about in my bold predictions segment uh at the beginning of the Season actually before the season my season preview my bold prediction was that the Rangers MVP won't be Marcus Simon it won't be Cory Seager it will be the entire medical staff of this Texas Rangers team because the entire the entire premise of this whole season the whole big picture idea was wait till those big guns in the rotation get healthy and getting those guys healthy is in part the the job of the medical staff there is only so much they can do in terms of these injuries and you know none of the injuries that have happened are the fault of the training staff or the medical team they have just been a lot of sheer dumb bad luck but Matt Lucero credit to him the Rangers trainer um just working his absolute tail off to get all of these 87 guys that are hurt healthy there's not 87 I believe there's 13 that are on the iio at this point but Injury updates we did get a great update from Josh Young exactly six weeks after surgery to repair his fractured wrist he passed his big checkup the six we point was always going to be a big milestone for Josh Young he passed his checkup and everything looked good the follow-up exam he played catch with infield coordinator Cory Ragsdale um took some ground balls as well was the first time he'd done that since the surgery six weeks earlier so that was some great news um he is on Pace for a mid June return just earlier this week it was looking like a mid to late June return again we weren't really going to be entirely sure until we got this checkup update so the Rangers mid June schedule they've got a six game Road Trip starting the 11th three games in La against the Dodgers and then three games on the road against the Mariners and then they have a home stand from the 17th to the 23rd against the Mets and the Royals I think that home stand is a more likely time for Josh J to come back so hoping for around then if he can get back a little earlier that would be nice but again we don't want this injury to get exacerbated or him to come back and get worse so just a healthy return for my large adult son Joshua Ryan young who is having an incredible start to the year and is has been incredible against lepant pitching which is something that the Rangers could very much use so Josh Young get well soon my son and this is a great update for him they also got an update on Evan Carter who had a cortisol ctis Z shot in his back to alleviate some inflammation they did an MRI just revealed inflammation he had a stress fracture in his back in 2021 that caused him to miss the vast majority of his first professional season only played 32 games that year so the Rangers wanted to be extra cautious to make sure that that didn't happen again because they cannot afford to lose Evan Carter for an extended stretch this season and so he was feeling better he could return to the lineup on Friday and there was nothing worse it looks like he's going to avoid an ilil stint which is good because there have been just so many roster moves for the Rangers there's it's just it's gotten insane at this point and the Rangers could just use him back in the lineup as soon as possible thankfully no horrible update on that and you're hoping that the young the little savior the 21y old who has apparently the back of me a 30-year-old um is back in the lineup on Friday and feeling tip top shape and hopefully also starting to hit some Lefty but we'll we'll settle for getting back in the lineup first the Raiders also got an update on Dane Dunning he threw a Dane Dunning update bullpen off a mound which is great news which means he could be back when his iil stint is up that would be on Monday May 20th he is going to throw a couple more bullpens one of them on Friday one of them on Sunday and if those go well then he will be cleared to rejoin the rotation and that would be his first start would probably be May 21st in Philadelphia against the Phillies the Rangers after this game against Cleveland have an off day they actually have four off days the rest of this month in a basically two week stretch they have an off day the 16th the 20th 27th and the 30th and why that's important is because Jack lighter is going to get sent down he has not going to make another start he will be back in triaa maybe for the rest of this whole season um maybe he he does well for the rest of the time that he is sent back to Triple A works on the things he needs to work on gets that command a little bit commander and is able to get more chases and do all the things that he knows that he needs to do to get better to be a good Major League starter and then then if there is a spot Force his way into the big league rotation as opposed to being forced into to the big league rotation because everybody and their mother that is in the rotation is getting hurt that is a good sign having these off days it means the rang can go with a fourman rotation for the moment they have two more guys on the aisle that are supposed to come back in late May and eovaldi and Bradford but if you add one of these guys you have the starting rotation of John Gray you also have Andrew Heeney you also have Dane Dunning and then you can have Jose Ura as your fourth actually Loren Lorenzen excuse me Lorenzen as your fourth you can go back to a fourman rotation for the next couple of weeks you can throw Jose ARA as your long man which is where the Rangers preferred him to be and you can wait for these starting pitchers to come back and then you can start to make some of those decisions on who's going to the bullpen who's staying in the rotation and you're not going to be forced to call up guys from trip way that aren't quite ready to make these spot starts and put yourself in a much better situation it seems like the Rangers are almost on the home stretch with these injuries speaking of stretch the guy who was stretching out hopefully stretching out an infield single and then pull a hamst streak Wyatt Langford he has made some impressive recoveries Chris Young on the radio yesterday was talking about why Langford and his recovery and this was his quote he said quote he's doing really well maybe even a little ahead of schedule he's resuming baseball activities we're going to start getting him some live pitching still not going to play defense or run the bases yet he's progressing very well now we can get the backat going and build from there my hope is that by the end of the week or early next week he's resumed running full speed and we'll see where things are in terms of a rehab assignment end quote that is a positive update for what who is considered to be one of the Rangers top prosp actually is is pretty universally the Rangers top prospect at this moment because he still has Prospect eligibility unlike Evan Carter so he is pretty universally the Rangers top Prospect in their system and if he is resuming running 100% full speed by the end of the week hopefully that means a rehab assignment is on the way maybe next week I don't think it would be too lengthy a rehab assignment because really once he's he's getting back into the swing of things just maybe a two to three to four games we'll see so maybe by the end of May if he's looking like he's ahead of schedule we'll see it's all about how he starts to heal how he looks when he is resumed the baseball activities he's already started hitting as of Saturday running 85 to 90% speed where he's at right now so still not fully testing that hamstring but if he's getting back and facing live pitching and facing live pitching off a mount that is a good thing for white Langford getting him back in this lineup to hopefully see fewer Robbie Crossman at bats and maybe a little bit less of seek Duran in the Outfield not that I don't think Zeke Duran could play The Outfield but seeing him more as a DH and come in help Mash against the lefties and so we see again less of Robbie grman which was the whole point of this trade is that white leford was on the I and I already talked about that yesterday we don't need have to go back into that but some good positive updates on the 18 million Rangers that are hurt coming up we're going to talk a little bit about the rest of these pitching prospects why it's so hard and some signs of life from this offense as well as some improvements on the B side of this Bullpen that I just trashed yesterday right after this word from our sponsors this set is brought to you by prize picks it is the best time in sports baseball is in full season we are Prize Picks in the playoffs for the NBA and NHL and priz piix is here to help you get in on the action it is so easy to play it's is the number one fantasy sports app you can get on the action all kinds of different sports by picking more or less on your favorite stats from your favorite Stars if you want to go tonight and go a a trifecta of DFW Sports if you wanted to go more or less on goals from Jason Robertson or actually Wyatt Johnson is probably a better play because he's just scoring so many goals if you want to go with more or less on the points from PJ Washington who's had an amazing Series against Oklahoma City Thunder if you want to go more or less on home runs by Cory Seager if you wanted to go Homer in back-to-back games then check it out on priz pick the best way to get on the action on Sports in more than 30 States across the country including California Texas and Georgia so download the price fix app today and use code lockdown MLB for a first deposit match up to $100 Again download the app today use code lockon MLB for a first deposit match up to $100 prize picks pick more pick less it's that easy now the Rangers pitching prospects Pitching Prospects as a whole have not been doing the best this year at least talking about the top end there's been some positives for Jack wider in triple there's no doubt about about that and hopefully we'll get more positives so he'll be actually ready the next time he makes a big league start and Kumar rocker is progressing well recovering from his UCL repair surgery it's I already talked about Brock Porter being in a roughway but there are some other guys who have done well this season in terms of pitching prospects and the number one guy who has been the best pitcher in the Rangers system so far at least had the best results it is of course Winston Santos who continues to absolutely crush it in high a hickory the 22-year-old starting pitcher has made six starts so far this year 32 Innings 45 strikeouts just 11 walks only one home run and a 141 ra the guy has been nasty he has been dominant and consistent he has not had any really bad starts he's allowed two runs at most in his starts he had one one start first start of the year he allowed one run in five innings then five and two third shot Innings then five shot of innings with just one hit two walks and 12 strikeouts his best start of the year then five innings one hit no runs six in the two thir six in the third Innings two earned runs five innings two earn runs that was his last start which was I believe four days ago so hopefully this weekend we'll see another Winston Santos start but a good start to the year from him as well as from Emiliano toyoto I talked a little bit about him on yesterday's show I saw him in person a coup weeks back and he looked fantastic had his best start of the year on Saturday for Frisco and he looks legit as a starting pitcher and that is a great sign for him even though most people thought he would end up in the bullpen just because they see Guy throw 100 guy reliever not necessarily the case see Paul skin see Jacob De Grom see Hunter Green there there are some that do it but speaking of relief prospects that throw hard seems like inan Kelly at some point probably in the near future maybe even as soon as today we I'm anticipating he will make his big league debut why because he is the only pitcher on the Rangers 40 man roster who is not in the big leagues or hurt that's it it's just him so if the Rangers are going to send down Jack lighter probably today maybe as soon as I upload this podcast that n Kelly is the only pitcher they could call up that would not necessitate a 40 man roster move because they can't call Owen white back up because they just sent him back down unless they put jack ligher on the iil which I don't think they're going to do so it would leave the door open for Antoine Kelly to make his big league debut the Rangers could use a little bit of help in their pin but I say that after the bullpen had a fantastic day the only concern with Antoine Kelly is that the walks have been back the last couple of outings he hasn't pitched since the 10th of May he's only made six appearances this year and there have been at least 3 days in between all of his appearances so we'll see he walked a couple and allowed a couple of earn runs in his last start and the or outing I should say he's not a starter um went ining in two thirds and allowed two runs two hits two walks as well as two strikeouts so we'll see if we get to watch him make his big league debut at some point this year he's Lefty who throws hard hasn't always had the best idea of where it's going but I think there there's definitely some potential for a nasty backend reliever there but the B side of this Bullpen stepping up in a huge way keeping this team in it yesterday after literally a day before I said okay I don't really know about the depth of this Bullpen with all these injuries forcing guys up to the big leagues guys like you know Jonathan Hernandez and yer Rodriguez I I named specifically as guys who I wasn't quite sure if they could hack it as consistent Major League reliever I also you know denigrated the good name of Grant Anderson and all those guys did was be fantastic in this game Jonathan Hernandez just one walk and two in a third Innings couple of strikeouts no runs coming in in relief of Jack lighter providing some length in a big big way and then Yer Rodriguez four perfect Innings didn't have any strikeouts but he didn't need to he gave the Rangers some length let this offense chip chip away at the Guardians pitching staff get them back in this game Kirby Yates comes in because he hasn't pitched in a week 16 pitches allows a double with a walk and gets one out and then Grant Anderson comes in and eventually closes the door after that sack fly and I got to say these guys have got it in them it is just like with every reliever about the consistency of them being the best versions of themselves Yer Hernandez Anderson all those guys can get big league hitters out but they can also at times get lit up by Big League hitters but again when these starters hopefully start to come off the iil and you start to rearrange your bullpen in your rotation and you take guys who have been starting and starting well and put them in the bullpen then it makes your Bullpen better and gives you more depth and more options and if one of those guys does get hurt and then you need to call up a Jonathan Hernandez or Y Rodriguez or gr Anderson to move things around then you can do so and it makes Home Runs you better as a team but the offense like I said chip chip chipping away big night for the Home Run ball for your fighting Texas Rangers three home runs unfortunately all of them were solo home runs but if I could pick three guys in this lineup last night who I thought needed a home run most well I might have might have switched one up I might I might have taken Cory seagar and given it to Zeke Durant so he could have his first on the year um but that's not how that works but those three solo home runs by guys who really really needed it the two three and four hitters in your line who have been well not in the roughest of ways outside of Adas Garcia who's been in a rough way couple X Bas hits for him that he really sorely needed Cory Seager mashes A Line Drive Homer 107 miles hour off the bat excuse me 10 19.1 miles an hour off the bat on an 02 pitch he is starting to look like he is breaking out he reached base twice in this one Nathaniel low who only had one home run on the season heading into this game slugs his second one an ambush fast ball up and in that was not the highest velocity but he turns on it and sneaks it over the corner of the fence in right field for a home run actually all these home runs were not you know Cory seagar was hit a bazillion miles an hour but they weren't exactly the highest expected batting average home runs not even the highest expected batting average in this game Low's home run had an expected batting average 430 was only Homer in one more than half the parks um in this one they also had the home run by Adas Garcia that had a 230 expected batting average he kind of snuck that one over not even a hard hit ball 94.7 miles hour off the bat only a 230 expected batting average still a home run still a home run and that is what matters the most is that it was a home run and uh of course we had Cory seagar which is all the way down there on the Home Run expected batting average okay 860 I don't know why that one uh was being so far down here on this one 24 out of 30 Parks so none of these were Homer in all 30 Parks but it did not matter getting the Home Run ball getting the extra base hits as well they got a double from Adas Garcia so a multi- extra base hit day for Garcia who hadn't homered since April 28th against the Reds it had been a long stretch for him without a home run not a whole lot of extrap hits to speak of either and of course Travis Janowski just about a couple feet shy of a home run gets a double his second of the season so just getting this team to get some extra base hits is good it is the one thing they have not done particularly well this season they had hit well with Runners and scoring position and they had hit very very well with Runners scoring position and two outs but the risp offense is a thing that fluctuates quite a bit when you are living and dying by the single and in this one the rang were 0 for three with run just cor position with two outs one of those happened to come with the bases loaded and was not the best at bat Marcus Simeon had an that bat that was uncharacteristic of him not swinging all these pitches that were outside the strike zone with a runner and scoring position he's been great in the clutch this year as has this entire Rangers offense this is more of a day where you kind of Chuck it up to okay well the home runs got going Jack lier got this team out of it before they could really even blink but if the bats start hitting the home run and keep hitting with runers in scoring position as a general rule and you know working walks which they did in this one five walks for them in this one then eventually this team will start to get going big picture you look at the you look at the record the Rangers are still 500 they weren't below 500 at any point last year if they lose this one tonight and get swept and get swept in back-to-back series they will be below 500 for the first time this year something they didn't do all of last year so you're hoping you're hoping just just end that streak get this offense right get a big start from of course John Gray on the hill you have your Ace on the hill your Ace for right now so just get this win head into the off day hopefully get Dane Dunning back in your rotation after this next series start to get guys off this iil and just peace meal some things together the Rangers feel like they're in an incredibly rough way it was a hard day for Jack ligher but take your head and look at the big picture we're still not even month and a half we're about a month and a half into the season this team is still 500 still doing all right and things are only looking up very hopefully for for definitely for your Texas Rangers but hopefully also for young Mr Jack lighter that's going to do it for today's show thank you all so much for listening and subscribing and until next time don't forget to enjoy World Series champion Texas Rangers bball