Tony Beasley on his evolving role with the Rangers, Corey Seager and more

Rangers interim manager Tony Beasley joined the K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM] recently to talk about the ball club’s approach at the plate.

Here are some highlights, edited for clarity.

A few weeks ago, you were the third base coach and now you’re the manager. How much has your role changed?

Beasley: As a coach, we pay attention to what’s going on in the system but a lot of those conversations, they happen with the manager and the front office, maybe sometimes the hitting coaches or maybe the pitching coach if he’s a pitcher. A lot of times we’re not really in tune with the intricate factors of what we’re talking about and different scenarios but as a manager you are so it is different. Having privy to more information and more involved with the decision making and that discussion so I enjoy that though. It’s the fun part of the job to kind of be involved in those decisions and as a group we decide what’s best, what’s the best route to take for each individual player to help them have success and how it fits into the team.

Based on the numbers, it looks like the Rangers have the right shortstop this year. The numbers show that Corey Seager is hitting the best, he’s playing fantastic this year. You get to see him up close and personal and have seen him from afar, if there were one thing you would tell him to work on for the rest of this year or in the offseason, whether it’s on or off the field, being engaged with the team or something physically, what is something you’d like Seager to add to what he is as a baseball player?

Beasley: Corey Seager is a winning player and he wants to win, he has a strong desire to win. I just want Corey to be himself, and I always say that, ‘Be yourself because everyone else is taken.’ Just be the best version of himself and be a good teammate, which he is. You know, he’s been in the winning culture so to help our younger players to understand what it takes to win and how you should go about winning, and how we compete with a winning mindset. So Corey knows all that, he’s been there, done that so we just want him to continue to be himself and grow in that area.

Bubba Thompson has speed but his lead off to steal is two feet behind first base but he might be giving up a step by taking a lead that far behind the base. Is that something that you have to work with him on or is he uncomfortable maybe getting a straight line lead to second?

Beasley: It’s something that we’ve talked about. That’s something he’s been doing all year, he’s been very successful stealing bases so I wouldn’t want to force him to get in something that’s not the position that he’s been working with all year long, but we have talked about it. I saw it when he first came up because I was down that end of the dugout and he’s kind of deep and offline. Not necessarily a straight line to second base as well so he makes up for it with his speed. It is something we have talked about and we’ll probably tweak that as we go along but, you know, Bubba has a knack for stealing bases. He goes from zero to 60 in a flash so I don’t want to do anything that’s going to disrupt his mindset or his thought process, but he’s really good at stealing bases so I’d really just keep him comfortable with what he’s doing.

You’ve been in the game a long time, who’s the fastest guy that you’ve ever been around in the game of baseball?

Beasley: Andrew McCutchen was really fast on Pittsburgh. It was fun to watch him run the bases. There was a guy named Aaron Weston, he didn’t play in the Major Leagues, but he was a young kid that could really stride it out, he was tall with long legs. But Eli White and Bubba (Thompson), they top it off. I don’t think anyone stops those two guys from the guys I’ve seen over the past. I think Eli’s faster. If they had to run the 60, 40 or 30, Bubba would probably win because he gets the top speed really, really quick. I think we have maybe three guys that can match up against anybody in baseball with (Leody) Tavares, Eli and Bubba.

Click here to listen to the full interview.

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