August 1, 2024 • 32 mins
Gordy and Ross discuss the latest on the Houston Astros following the MLB Trade Deadline, and assess the acquisition of starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi along with reliever Caleb Ferguson. It's obvious they paid a high price in giving up prospects Jake Bloss, Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner, but was this the move win NOW?
The guys also bid farewell to Rafael Montero who was DFA'd, making the Montero & Jose Abreu signings of last offseason really turn out to be fat duds on the resume of Jeff Bagwell as an interim GM. They also discuss the injuries to Kyle Tucker, Justin Verlander and Luis Garcia and if this team overcome some hurdles to still win the division and make it back to the postseason.
The guys also bid farewell to Rafael Montero who was DFA'd, making the Montero & Jose Abreu signings of last offseason really turn out to be fat duds on the resume of Jeff Bagwell as an interim GM. They also discuss the injuries to Kyle Tucker, Justin Verlander and Luis Garcia and if this team overcome some hurdles to still win the division and make it back to the postseason.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Astros fans cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Wacky Lackey, Welcome to the Crawford Box Cast as proud
leapord for you by Crawford Bach from Carbak Brewing.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You're getting bear.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh my godness, the Crawford Box Cast starts now here
we go.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Via Reale and it.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Is an all new edition of the Crawford box Cast,
presented by Carbach Brewing and the Crawford Bach. And it
was nice to be out at the ballpark a couple
of days this past week with the Astros back on
the homestand and enjoy and I school Crawford Bach from
our friends at Carbuck brewing'd right here in Houston, Texas.
It's a home run every time with the Crawford Bach
(00:55):
and Astros were hoping they could have gotten a home
run every time as a went on a three game
losing skid, but they were able to salvage and avoid
a sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates and
win Wednesday Nights game five to four. And here we
are the Astros sitting back at fifty six and fifty two,
back tied in first place in the Aos with the
(01:17):
Seattle Mariners, and they will prepare for the Tampa Bay
Rays coming in this weekend. But we have made it
through the trade deadline. The Astros make a couple of
moves and we will react to that and talk all
about it. I'm Chris Gordy, welcoming in our guy ross
viiel As ross Man. It was all this build up
(01:39):
for the big trade deadline. But I had a friend
who's kind of a casual baseball fan say to me
the other day, I mean, it wasn't really like. There
was some some names moved around, but it wasn't like,
you know, there was no Justin Verlander in this trade deadline.
There was no Garrett Coles, Zach Granky, you know, monster move.
It was some decent names, but there really wasn't like
(02:01):
a huge headliner of the piece that got moved at
the deadline.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, it's definitely been like that. Now, when you have
the injection of the extra wild card, you have more
teams that are gonna be buyers. And you know, initially
I was resistant to the extra wildcard. You dilute the playoffs,
blah blah blah. You don't have his strong teams coming in.
But what happens is you have teams keeping their players.
That means you have more fan bases invested, you have
more teams invested in getting into the playoffs, and that
(02:26):
also means you're gonna have a less pop during a
trade deadline where basically the only teams that are really
really out of it are the Chicago White Soxes of
the world, the Colorado Rockies and those types of teams,
the Marlins Nationals, But for the most part, you have
teams that think they can stay in it, so they're
gonna keep their players, So you're gonna have somewhat of
(02:47):
a diluted trade deadline, and then it's gonna be a
seller's market. And I think that's what you end up with.
What we happened happened here in Houston, where while it
was an overpay for Yousai Kakouch, that's somewhat of what
the market dictated. And that's what happened here in Houston
is the Dana Brown and the Astros. I think we're
(03:09):
a bit of a victim of a seller's market. Wanting
to improve the team for this year, wanting to hold
the glue together to win the American League West and
and doing what it takes at all costs, and that's
what Dana Brown did.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, and so let's get into a thick of it.
The Astros do acquire you say, Kakuchi from the Toronto
Blue Jays. He was a name that had been bandied
about that the Astros had had an eye on. We
know they were in on Jack Flaherty, who you know,
it was obviously a big name talked about, but you
know some of the other ones, Tark Schooble was a
name that was floated out there. He ultimately did not
(03:44):
get moved.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know a lot of like Snell, Garrett Crochet, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
The White Sox guys. So you know, it was just
kind of interesting how it transpired. And I have seen
since the move Ross that it's come out that the
the was it the Red Sox or Tampa. But one
of those teams had called about Cocut. There was a
couple of teams that called and we're very much trying
to make a move for Kakuchin. So it wasn't like
the Astros just went, ah, we need somebody, let's go
(04:09):
get this guy. No, he was a guy that had
had an eye on and a guy that other teams
had tried to acquire. Before we talk about you say,
let's talk about what they gave up. You mentioned, Yes,
I think everybody Astros, even the most orange and blue
Astros colored rose glasses, could say it was a you
gave up a lot. It was a lopside of trade
(04:29):
for a rental. But giving up Joey Lo Praffdo, giving
up Jake Bloss, and giving up Will Wagner. I think
we were all kind of shocked by how much they
ended up having to give up.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, it started with Jake Bloss, and even then, even
when that's what it was, and to me, he's the headliner.
To me, he's the guy that has the most potential
to be not really even an everyday major league baseball player,
but even maybe then some and be I don't think
he's gonna be an ace or anything like that, but
a major league contributor for several years, which has value
and does have value to the Toronto Blue Jays. So
(05:01):
it first came out that it was Jake Bloss, and
it was like, Okay, you know, we get it. It's
yuse Kakuchi. And you look at his numbers four to
seventy two career era four to seventy five era on
the season, but you can kind of stomach it. Then
it came out later. I think it was Chann maybe
Chandlerome was one of the first ones to put it
out there. It's gonna be two more prospects. And then
you're like, uh, excuse me. And then it's Joey lo Berfeto.
(05:24):
We love him.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
He cooks, he makes paiea for the team, he makes
spectacular catches out in the field. And then Will Wagner,
the son of Billy Wagner, Oh my god, I can't
believe this. And I think with a lot of people,
my initial reaction was, oh, my goodness, what a steep
steep overpay. But then you have a minute to calm down,
you have a minute to think about it.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Okay. Jake Bloss according to people who follow prospects, think
he's basically gonna be a fourth, fifth starter. Joey Loperfido
is twenty five years old, strikes out thirty six percent
of the time, and is kind of a fourth outfielder
right now now for the Astros. And Will Wagner is
twenty six in Triple A and doesn't have a whole
lot of pop in his bat So when you add
(06:06):
it all up, it's three guys that you don't think
are going to be future All Stars or Hall of
Famers or anything like that. But when you stack it
one on top of the other, it still adds up
to an overpay. But at the end of the day,
it doesn't matter. You know where a couple of days
removed from it. It has to be yuse Kakuchi who's
on the mountain tomorrow for the Houston Astros. He has
(06:28):
to perform. The other guys are gone. It is what
it is. It was an overpay, but you did what
you thought you had to do with all the question
marks in the rotation. No guarantee. I mean, could you
really tell me you're going to one hundred percent bank
on Justin Verlander forty one years old, twice on the
IL already this season, coming here and holding things down
and then also being durable and you can count on
(06:48):
him for the playoffs. I don't know about that. Luis
Garcia in his rehab, he's ahead of schedule from Tommy
John and he's already been shut down once. We don't
know if we can count on him. And Jake bloss
Bless his heart, he got called U from double and
he was he was tasked with something that's going to
be very difficult, skipping triple A except for that rehab
starting getting hurt. He if if he went over four innings,
(07:08):
it was going to be a shock, So you had
to do something. And like you said, other teams are
in on a U se Kakuci. The Astros thinks they
can get him here, tinker with his repertoire and get
him back to what he was earlier on in this season.
He was very good as a pitcher last year, very
good first fourteen starts of this season with an e
er un or three. So they're hoping they're getting that
(07:29):
usee Kakuci. It is just a rental. It was an overpay.
But if if we're if we're going to make the
playoffs and the Astros can make them, hey we're not
going to be crying over the spilled milk of Joey Loperfido,
Jake Bloss and Will Wagner.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, it's it's going to be interesting. And by the way,
I had heard from multiple sources that you know, leading
up to the trade deadline that aj Blueball was a
guy that the Astros or Dana Brown did not want
to trade. He is still considered, uh, you know, even
with Jake Boss being up at the big league level,
blue Ball was good Saider their highest ranked pitching prospect
(08:03):
according to the MLB Rankings. Now, there were some other ones.
I think Fan Grafts may have had Bloss ahead of
him whatever, I.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Just know, Yeah, they stuck him in their top one
hundred pre deadline, they had him at ninety two overall.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, I just know Dana Brown loves aj Blueball. He's
mentioned in multiple times in recent weeks that he's just
a phone call away and they did not want to
give him up. The other ones, I know, Zach Dezenzo
they look at as absolute insurance for Alex Bregman leaving
this offseason. Will Zach Dezenzo be the starting third baseman
next year for the Astros? I don't know, but that
at least is still on the table and they didn't
(08:34):
want to give him up. Jacob Melton is their top
outfield prospect and according to multiple people, depending on who
you talked to, people think he projects higher than Joey Loperfito.
I think the thing was with Loperfido though Ross he
came on in spring training. He nearly made the team
out of spring training, didn't make it, and then went
down to Triple A and was just crushing bombs. And
(08:56):
while the while Astros fans watched Jose Bray with withff
at base fans just became infatuated with we've got this
kid in Triple A who's crushing, bring him up and
just plug him at first and let's solve our issues there.
They never really did that. They brought him up as
an outfielder. They still thought he projected as an outfielder,
and people I've talked to Ross said they still think
(09:17):
that the ultimate upside for low ber Fido is he's
a fourth outfielder that maybe he's probably he could be
a starting outfielder on a bad team, but on a
good team, he's what Jake Marisnik was, the fourth outfielder
who comes in, you know it can be a defensive guy,
can start two three times a week, kind of that role.
So I say all that to say they still have
(09:38):
some really good pieces at the top his farm system. Oh.
Bryce Matthews was the other one that they had no
interest in trading. He's their first round pick from two
years ago. So you know, they they gave up prospects.
But at the end of the day, if we go
back to where these guys were pre season, they weren't,
you know, really in your top ten of prospects that
maybe Bloss was nine, but I think lo and certainly
(10:00):
Will Wagner, I mean, they like him obviously, the son
of Billy Wagner, but I don't know if they ever
really thought, you know, that he was going to translate here.
In fact, Chandler wrote a written a couple of pieces
about if Alex Bragman left that perhaps they could just
have an open competition the spring between Will Wagner and
Zach Dezenzel. But it was never really thought, oh, Will
Wagner is the future at a spot on this club,
(10:22):
especially when you got you know, you got Josel Tive
holding down, second, you got Jeremy Panya. So anyway, look again,
I get fans got emotionally attached to Librafedo. And he
was a good kid too. I mean I interviewed him
a handful of times, was very nice every time I
asked him for anything. Really good kid, and again you
wish him the best of luck. But the reality was
(10:43):
this to get Kokuchi the Astros. Were those three guys
gonna help the Astros win right now? Or is Kakuchi
gonna give this team a better chance at winning right now?
And the answer is Kokuchi gives you the better chance
to win right now. So that's why you give up
those prospects.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, I think that's a great point by you. It's
it's not only it's what you gave away, but it's
what you have to replace what you gave away. And
those names you mentioned, Zach Zenzo right now, he's hitting
four point fifty in Triple A very very small sample size,
but he's hit three home runs in seven games. Will
Wagner hit five home runs all season long at Triple A.
So you have Zach Dezenzo. Still, you have a pedro
(11:23):
Leon who's called up. Now, how much worse is pedro
Leon gonna be than Joey loperfdo we have to think
about that? It's about not only who is going out,
it's about the guys who are replacing the guys that
you sent out. And you can find guys in the system,
the Bryce Matthews, Zack Deznzo's who are thought of more
highly than Will Wagner. You can find somebody that's gonna
be at least as close to Joey Loperfido in some
(11:47):
time for Trey Cabage or a Chas McCormick or Pedro
Leon and those guys. And then as you mentioned Jake Blass,
and you've got blue Ball, and you say, Kakuchi is
somebody that you're gonna have up here now and when
everybody's health in the next coming years, talking about a
Christian Xavier Jose Arachidi and you know you're well, Kokuchi
and Verlander are going to walk, but we'll see what
(12:08):
happens as far as those guys. Then yeah, then you
have the blue Balls and hopefully some other guys that
can step up as far as pitching to where the
sting of losing bloss might not be that much. And
then the same thing for Will Wagner and Joey Loberfito,
because you have some guys who can kind of fill
those shoes or take those spots. As far as the
contingency plans, not only for the rest of this year,
(12:29):
but for the future as.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Well, well, I'll tell you I still think we haven't
closed the door yet on blue Ball getting a start
this year. I think he very well may because of this,
trying to balance out getting Verlander back, hopefully in the
next four to five weeks, getting Luis Scarcia back hopefully
in the next four to five weeks, but also managing
the workload of what Spencer Araghetti has done all since
(12:51):
in Hudder Brown, Ronel Blanco, You're gonna need to give
those guys a day off. You're gonna need to do
the quote unquote skip a start.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Just to gay they want to go to a six
man mentioned that a bunch.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, just to keep the workload off. But let's talk
about the immediacy. We will see the left hander, you say,
Kakuchi make his astro's debut Friday night against Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Please don't get shelled. Please don't get show.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I'm interesting. He gets to see a team that, uh,
he's you know, you would think is familiar with. He's
been pitching for Toronto. But I'm looking at his workload
this year and he only faced Tampa once, Right, Is
that what you're seeing from.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I don't have his numbers in front of me, but
we can pull it up and then we can pay back.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Over March thirtieth, he played in Tampa that was a
season debut, went four to third, gave up three runs
off six hits with three walks, and.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Forced very blue bosh Yeah, I mean blue bloss ish.
Excuse me.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, that's definitely a Jake bloss stat line.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
But you're hoping for better than that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
But yeah, it was just funny because the trigger in
my mind, I'm like, oh, he's going to gainst Tampa.
Surely he's seen them a ton. It's like, yeah, well
they only faced once this year. But I mean, let's
be real, the numbers in April were outstanding. He was
one of the best pitchers all of baseball in April,
where he made five starts heading the era of two
forty five, picked up two wins in those starts. The
(14:08):
the Blue Jays won three of those five starts. And
look at the teams he faced that month. Ross It
was the Yankees twice, once at home, once a Yankee Stadium.
It was the Seattle Mariners, who as we know, started
the season pretty hot. It was at Kansas City, the
Royals have been a transcendent, really good team this year,
and home against the Dodgers. Those are the five teams
(14:30):
he faced, and he came out of that with a
two forty five VRA. Fast forward to June and July,
where he's been pretty abysmal the last eight starts, where
the era is upwards of what seven ish six is?
Seven ish? Uh? And then you look at some of
the teams he faced, Detroit, San Francisco, Cleveland. Yeah, I
(14:51):
guess you know, Boston and Texas and the Astros in there.
But I mean even against the Astros, he went five
and two thirds of two run ball. So he just
did pretty well against the Astros back on July third.
But you know, I've asked multiple people, what is it?
Why was he so good earlier this season and so
not good in recent weeks, And it says a combination
(15:12):
of things. The metrics say, you know, bat luck. He's
still got the strikeout stuff. He's cleaned up the walks.
The walks were a big problem a couple of years
ago in his career. He's cleaned that up.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
But he's got his yeah, great straight strikeout to walk
ratio this year.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah, But it's just, you know, he's given up hits.
I mean every time out five six, six, five eight.
I mean, teams are finding ways to hit off of him,
and those hits are leading to runs. Seven runs against
the Diamondbacks, five runs against the Rangers last time out.
So you just wonder how much being on a contender
now with raised expectations, does he rise to the occasion
(15:50):
or does he falter? Does the pressure get to him.
It's gonna be very interesting to see how this plays out.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, he's gonna be under a lot of pressure. But
I mean, if the Astros think they can fix him,
and we know they've worked their voo magic with any
number of pitchers that we can reel off the list
of over the last several years, and they think they
can do that with Yusai Kakuchi. And yeah, he has
had some bad luck in terms of batting average and
balls in play, but a lot of that those elevated
numbers are because the contact has been hard. In breaking news,
(16:16):
you give it more hard hit contact, there's going to
be more batting at higher batting averages and balls and play.
So we'll see. They like his stuff. There's some metric
that I've never even really heard of until recently. Stuff.
Plus they like his fastball, his slider, change up, all that,
like he can get some swings and misses he can
be effective. They're going to tinker with his pitch mix,
and like I said, the voodoo magic and with the
(16:38):
pitchers the astros have worked here, you're hoping that it happens,
will usea Kakuchi. And really, when I think about that,
and I think about you know, we look at his
career numbers, they're not great, but the last couple of
years is what we're really focused on. He's been a
lot better. And you look at a number like field
independent pitching, he's been very good. Where the era can
be somewhat misleading depending on how things happen as far
as luck. So the the FIP numbers are good. The
(17:01):
stuff is supposed to play, and he's supposed to be effective,
and he's supposed to give you some quality starts down
the stretch with the ashros desperately need.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, and so we will see how he responds. I
brought this up before. Sometimes guys get with a contender
and they perform better. Look at Charlie Morton when he
became an astro, he pitched some of the best best
years of his life here justin Verlander. When he came
over from Detroit in seventeen, he had an e RA
around three sixty three seventy he came to Houston. The
ARA was what like one. I mean he was like
(17:32):
he was. He went five to oh with an ERA
of like one point five. I mean he got he
became Superman. And not saying Yseekakuchi's gonna do that, but
does he get better here? Time will tell Garrett.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Cole as well. You can put on that list. It wasn't.
I mean, he was a good pitcher with the Pirates,
but he became an all world ace with the Houston Astros.
And let's be real.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Two of expectations, this rotation is still led by rodel
Blanco from ber Valdez Hunter Brown with how he's pitched
the last two to three months, that's still won two three.
You say, Kakuci, you're asking him to be four or
five justin Verlander, like we keep saying, expected back sometime
so and then you know, whatever you get out of
(18:10):
Luis Garcia is lan yap at that point, and you
still have Spencer Arraghetti, who's fine, you know again, decent five.
You don't need your four and five to be cy
young candidates. It'd be great if they are. I think
we all got spoiled by the Astros when they had
the rotation of Verlander Cole Granki, I mean, you know,
and then you had Fromber and Arkati and Garcia and
Hovey are coming behind those guys, So that was as
(18:32):
good as it gets. That's how the Astros won the
World Series in twenty twenty two. They didn't even go
to guys like Urkiti, they didn't even need them because
the starting staff was so strong. So again, I think
we just temper those expectations to say, can Kukucci give
you a chance to win? But to me, Ross this
season comes down to how this roster is built. This
roster goes by how the offense goes. They're not losing
(18:54):
a bunch of games nine to seven. When they lose games,
they're losing them because the offense gives them two runs.
And we just saw that this past week against the Pirates.
You score two, you ain't winning games two to one anymore.
That just ain't happening. You gotta score runs to win games.
And when the Astros hit four, five, six runs, more
often than not, they win those games. When they don't,
(19:14):
they lose. And so that's where I say, Kakuchi you
give us six innings of three runs, four runs, you
know that should be good enough for the offense to
pick carry this team and answer and win some games
seven to four.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, that's what it's gonna take. It's obviously breaking news.
You need pitching and you need hitting and defense would
help as well, but you need to get Kyle Tucker back.
And they did a really good job of holding on
and going on a big winning run without him, but
also something that felt like it wasn't extremely sustainable, and
I think that's what we're seeing now. They've lost six
of their last ten games, have the Astros and thankfully
(19:51):
getting a big home run from Ratio du Bond yesterday
at a bunch of gifts from O'Neal Cruz or talking
about them losing out being on a four game losing
streak in losing seven of the last ten. So you're
gonna need Kyle Tucker to be back. You're gonna need
the ups and downs of Alex Bregman this year. And
it feels like a number of times we've been like, ah,
this is Bregman back, baby, he's back. Well, then he's
(20:12):
back to being not good. So he was great down
the stretch last year, Alex Bregman is gonna need to
do that here. Jan your Diaz has heated up significantly,
so you're gonna need that to continue. And they're gonna
need your big boppers to do their thing, the Kyle
Tuckers and Jordan Alvarezes and the Jose al Tuoves. If
you are gonna not even talk about getting to a
World Series, talk about winning the American League West, because
(20:34):
the Mariners have made a couple of moves, they still
have excellent pitching. They've hit a huge swoon ear, but
it's not like the Astros are up four to five
games and they're just gonna waltz into winning the American
League West. So you absolutely need the hitting. And the
good news is there at least is you have guys
with track records. They just need to hit like themselves.
And I felt like we said that a lot at
(20:55):
the beginning of the year when they were scuffling, and
they've gotten a lot better. But it feels like you're
kind of hitting this dog days of summer, the calendar
turning to August, that type of swoon. They're gonna have
to get over it quickly because you've got some taxed
arms in the bullpen. We still have question marks with
the rotation, and you're definitely gonna need to start scoring
some runs and you're gonna need your your heavy hitters
(21:18):
to hit like their track record has shown over the years.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
We did get an update, or not really an update,
but you guys had Brian McTaggart on the show on
Matt Thomas Show on Thursday, and he said, it does
not feel like we're even close to Kyle Tucker having
a rehab start. So that just feels what is going on.
I mean, we've all had many of us have had
a bone bruise, many of us have had broken limbs.
(21:44):
What is this. Broken limbs usually have healed by now.
Bone bruises have usually healed by now. I mean, it's
very strange that even if this thing were a hairline fracture,
you would think we were getting, oh, you know what,
this thing's starting to heal up now. You know, whatever
it is, We're still not seeing him take a ton
of baseball activity with So that that's the scary part
(22:05):
is man. You know, we've made it through this far
without Kyle Tucker, but can we get him back police?
And that's where you really look at the Astros. They
came really close to adding Yondi Diaz from the Tampa
Bay Race, but they couldn't pull off the trade. You
had no bat So this team will rely on John
Singleton at first base the majority of the rest, you know,
the rest of the season. This team will lean on
(22:25):
guys like Jake Myers and yes, still Chas McCormick to
play a ton of outfield in the absence of Kyle Tucker. Well,
we see who's our guy that they brought up, the
legend that's been hanging around in Triple A for the
last couple of seasons, pedro Leone. Will we see him
in a game?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
He exists, he's real. There was pictures of him. He's
in an Astros uniform.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
It just feels so strange, though, like they call a
guy up and then he just sits there and they
don't play him, and you just I get that they
trust the the other guys, but man, you know they
did it with low Brafito. They brought him up and
he sat there for a week and didn't even play.
And it's like, why even have this guy up at
the big league roster if you're not gonna at least
play him occasionally, so that will be interesting to see
real quick. Do what our mind folks that there are
(23:10):
friends at Carbock Brewing. Of course they make the Crawford Bock.
They're gonna be having an Astros watch party on Monday
for the Astros Rangers game. It is an away game.
The Astros will be in Arlington, but they're having a
watch party at the at Carbock Brewing and they're gonna
have a ton of folks in the house. Orbit is
going to be there, The Shooting Stars are gonna be there.
(23:30):
They're gonna have exclusive swag from the Astros. They're gonna
have beer specials, they're gonna have ballpark food, tons of
stuff going on out at the beer garden at Carbock Brewery.
That is this Monday, August fifth, starting at six pm.
So make sure you guys get over there and check
it out, and of course take some pictures with Orbit
or whatever you want to do while you're out there.
(23:50):
But Carbok will have all the fun going on. Of course,
he'll be serving the Crawford box, so it'll feel like
you're at the ballpark cheering them on. One other piece
that we didn't touch on Ross, we talked all about
yuse Kakucci. Their other addition a reliever by the name
of Caleb Ferguson. He is a lefty, and yes, if
we just look at numbers, ERA is high five thirteen
(24:11):
ERA coming over from the New York Yankees. But when
you start to really dissect the game, OG it starts
to look a lot like Ryan Presley, Like he's had
some really good stretches. He's had some games that didn't
go his way. But to me, there's more good here
than bad. I just look at this as a nice
addition to the bullpen. And this coincides ross with I
(24:34):
think the big the end of an error, Rafael Montero
getting dfaid on Wednesday. It was a little surprising because
he had he had another year and a half left
on his deal. And now we look back to the
offseason of Jeff Bagwell interim GM as an absolute disaster
when it comes to signing Rafael Montero and Jose Abrau,
(24:56):
both those contracts still on the books for major money
next year and both those guys no longer in the system.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, rip to Rafael Montaro. Okay, he's not dead. He's
probably gonna clear waivers they are going to try to
assign him to Triple A sugar Land and see if
he can get right. But a career year in twenty
twenty two. Will always remember how nails he was out
of nowhere. We thought we was a throw in in
the Kendall Graveman trade that they made when they sent
out Abraham Toro to the Seattle Mariners, and everybody just
(25:23):
crossed dugouts because they were playing a series there. Astro
swept that series by the way and left with their closer.
That was awesome. But anyways, Rafael Montaro part of that deal.
Great in twenty twenty two era of under two. In
the twenty twenty two postseason run, had came up with
some big outs in the World Series. Not his fault.
He got a massive overpay of a thirty four and
a half million dollar contract, hasn't lived up to it.
(25:46):
And now, yeah, you mentioned Caleb Ferguson in the full.
Brian King's been very good. We know what Taylor Scott's
been able to do this year. It's just a matter
of Seth Martinez getting Havy being excellent this year and
he has having to get sent down as a corresponding move.
With all these guys coming in and so that it
definitely means if there ain't room for Seth Martinez, there
ain't room for Rafio Montero, So, uh yeah, he's gone unfortunate.
(26:10):
And then on on Caleb Ferguson. I am encouraged by
looking at the career numbers. The whip is a little
bit high, but you're not going to necessarily need him
seven eight nine consistently. So if he can just pitch
around where he has at his for his career, and uh,
I just had it in front of you at three
point six six ERA for his career, three point eight
(26:30):
five field independent pitching, which is pretty solid. Keep that
under four for a reliever, that's good.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
So and those five seasons with the Dodgers, and all
those years the Dodgers, I mean you know they were
he was on the World Series team. I mean they
they you know, he had a what a two eighty
nine ERA that year. He had a one eighty two
ERA in thirty seven games played in twenty twenty two,
the best season of his career. So it's a guy
who's been in high leverage spots against you know, good
competition on a good team. It's not like he's coming
(26:59):
over from I don't know, a bad team like the
A's and never you know, this is all gonna be
new to him. He's he's used to this, so it
will be fascinating to see, you know, how he performs.
And again they just they needed more bodies, they needed
more arms. But we do say farewell to Jose braw
and Raphael Montero officially. And my buddy texted me and said,
(27:21):
you know, why do you care? It's not your money.
I said yes, but think of it this way. Jim
Crane is now in the whole thirty million next year
to pay two guys who are no longer here. It's
not exactly like he's gonna go, well, let's just spend
another thirty million and go way over the luxury tax.
They're going to account for that and say, yeah, maybe
we tighten the belt a little bit next year and
spending now again, Verlander's money will come off the books.
(27:42):
We'll see what they do there. But just keep that
in mind, Astros fan. So when you're going, why aren't
we signing this guy and that guy and that guy?
You do have to put thirty million on the books
next year for two players that won't even play here anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Absolutely, the fiduciary resources are finite. So unfortunately, yeah, it's
not our money, it's but this is also it's it's
not like a league where there there isn't a salary cap,
but the luxury tax and certainly the second threshold effectively
a salary cap for the Houston Astros, something that they're
really trying to stay away from.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, and look, it's it's one thing to be Jim
Crane's been all in and so I think, you know,
we get a little when people start penny pinching or
looking at his pocketbook, go and spend more and all this.
It's easy to say when it's not your money. But
he has absolutely spent a ton of money. I mean
the Asters have had one of the higher pay rolls
in baseball the last couple of years. You know, they
were a little bit more conservative in the years when
(28:37):
they were rebuilding, but they had a lot of young, youthful,
cheap talent coming through the farm system where they didn't
need to spend. But I expect again, Jim Crane wants
this team to be competitive. Put it this way, they are.
Jim Crane makes a lot more money when they make
the playoffs. So he wants to be a playoff team
every year, and they're gonna do what they need to
(28:58):
do be a playoff team. Now, you know, are we
still in a window of winning World Series? That'd be
the expectation every year. Look, I say, let's get as
Dana Brown said to Sean Salisbury the other day, Look,
that's the ultimate goal for everybody. But we also got
to set our sights on. We gotta win our division,
then we gotta win the Al Pennant. Like, let's take
(29:18):
this thing step by step. You know. In Kansas City
and NFL, yes they could say every year super Bowl,
super Bowl, super Bowl. But for other teams it should
be hey, man, let's win this division first. If you're
the Houston Texans, let's win the division first. Hey, maybe
we can win the AFC this year. That would be great. Like,
it's gotta be some baby steps here we first start going.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Not baby steps. It's not the ash. I mean, Jim
Krane has said the window will stay open as long
as I'm here. The World Series is the expectation.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
It's a different team. It's a different team than what
you and injury is a big part of it. I
had that conversation with somebody too. Think of the difference
on this team if they had Christian Christian Javier's pitcher
really well this year, if he doesn't have the Tommy
John and if they ended up getting or Katie back,
and if they ended up not losing JP. It's like
this team you probably wouldn't have needed to make.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
You say, Kakuchi LANs mcculors is in jesuits. I mean,
we were talking about June July for him in the
off season August, and he's not throwing.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Seventeen million a year for the next couple of years
and he still has not contributed to your team. So look,
it's a bit of bad luck on that. On that front,
you do knock on wood because the Askers did have
I mean, how crazy is that twenty two team? Really
all you lost was Michael Brantley down the stretch. Everybody
else was healthy.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, health matters.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
That doesn't happen very often. You're always gonna have injuries,
and it's almost like it caught up with them this year.
But look, hey, all you want to do is be
in the thick of it, and the Asters are absolutely
still in the thick of it. Thank god the Seatlean
Mariners have stumbled like they have. But let's get this
thing back right. It's a tough schedule coming up these
next couple of weeks. We mentioned Tampa Bay coming in,
(30:47):
and yes, while they were technically sellers at the deadline,
still a pretty talented team, still got some good pieces there.
So they're gonna come in. They're gonna be hard. It's
gonna be hard up in Arlington playing the Rangers because
they're not going away. It's gonna be hard going up
in Boston. The Red Sox were not supposed to be
a playoff team this year, and yet they are. They're
right there in the thick of the wild card hunt,
and they gotta go to Tampa. Then finally we get
(31:09):
the freaking White Sox. But then again it's Boston and
Baltimore and up to Philly and Kansas City. So this
stretch of July and August, there's no real break here.
I mean, you wish you had a stretch where you
were playing White Sox, A's Cardinals. You know, it's like,
you don't get that on the schedule. Now you're in
a tougher part of the schedule, but all you can
do is hope to take two out of three to
(31:30):
two out of three, and let's just put some series
wins together. But hopefully while you guys are listening on
Sports Talk seven ninety or watching on Space City Home
Network or at the ballpark, you're doing so with an
ice called Crawford Bock from our friends at car Bock Brewing,
And want to remind you guys again, Monday night they're
doing that watch party over at car Back in the
(31:51):
Beer Garden presented by Carbock Brewing with the Houston Astros
folks in town with Orbit and the Shooting Stars and
swag and beer specials and all park food. Come on
over there starting at six pm on Monday, August fifth
for an Astros Rangers watch party with Carbock Brewing, and
of course you can get the tasty Crawford Bach while
(32:11):
you were there. Ross any closing thoughts before we close
things out.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Here, like you said, down down the stretch, we go
a couple of months left. You can stop crying over
Joey lo Berfito and all those guys. They're gone.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
It is what it is.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Let's go, you say, Kakuchi, and let's go win some
ball games.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, that's that's where we are now, and let's hope
some good news here real soon on Kyle Tucker, Justin Ferlander,
and Luis Garcia. We shall see for Ross Vireal, I'm
Chris Gordy. This has been the Crawford Box Cast, presented
by CARBONK Brewing and the Crawford boch
Astros fans cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Wacky Lackey, Welcome to the Crawford Box Cast as proud
leapord for you by Crawford Bach from Carbak Brewing.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You're getting bear.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh my godness, the Crawford Box Cast starts now here
we go.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Via Reale and it.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Is an all new edition of the Crawford box Cast,
presented by Carbach Brewing and the Crawford Bach. And it
was nice to be out at the ballpark a couple
of days this past week with the Astros back on
the homestand and enjoy and I school Crawford Bach from
our friends at Carbuck brewing'd right here in Houston, Texas.
It's a home run every time with the Crawford Bach
(00:55):
and Astros were hoping they could have gotten a home
run every time as a went on a three game
losing skid, but they were able to salvage and avoid
a sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates and
win Wednesday Nights game five to four. And here we
are the Astros sitting back at fifty six and fifty two,
back tied in first place in the Aos with the
(01:17):
Seattle Mariners, and they will prepare for the Tampa Bay
Rays coming in this weekend. But we have made it
through the trade deadline. The Astros make a couple of
moves and we will react to that and talk all
about it. I'm Chris Gordy, welcoming in our guy ross
viiel As ross Man. It was all this build up
(01:39):
for the big trade deadline. But I had a friend
who's kind of a casual baseball fan say to me
the other day, I mean, it wasn't really like. There
was some some names moved around, but it wasn't like,
you know, there was no Justin Verlander in this trade deadline.
There was no Garrett Coles, Zach Granky, you know, monster move.
It was some decent names, but there really wasn't like
(02:01):
a huge headliner of the piece that got moved at
the deadline.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, it's definitely been like that. Now, when you have
the injection of the extra wild card, you have more
teams that are gonna be buyers. And you know, initially
I was resistant to the extra wildcard. You dilute the playoffs,
blah blah blah. You don't have his strong teams coming in.
But what happens is you have teams keeping their players.
That means you have more fan bases invested, you have
more teams invested in getting into the playoffs, and that
(02:26):
also means you're gonna have a less pop during a
trade deadline where basically the only teams that are really
really out of it are the Chicago White Soxes of
the world, the Colorado Rockies and those types of teams,
the Marlins Nationals, But for the most part, you have
teams that think they can stay in it, so they're
gonna keep their players, So you're gonna have somewhat of
(02:47):
a diluted trade deadline, and then it's gonna be a
seller's market. And I think that's what you end up with.
What we happened happened here in Houston, where while it
was an overpay for Yousai Kakouch, that's somewhat of what
the market dictated. And that's what happened here in Houston
is the Dana Brown and the Astros. I think we're
(03:09):
a bit of a victim of a seller's market. Wanting
to improve the team for this year, wanting to hold
the glue together to win the American League West and
and doing what it takes at all costs, and that's
what Dana Brown did.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, and so let's get into a thick of it.
The Astros do acquire you say, Kakuchi from the Toronto
Blue Jays. He was a name that had been bandied
about that the Astros had had an eye on. We
know they were in on Jack Flaherty, who you know,
it was obviously a big name talked about, but you
know some of the other ones, Tark Schooble was a
name that was floated out there. He ultimately did not
(03:44):
get moved.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know a lot of like Snell, Garrett Crochet, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
The White Sox guys. So you know, it was just
kind of interesting how it transpired. And I have seen
since the move Ross that it's come out that the
the was it the Red Sox or Tampa. But one
of those teams had called about Cocut. There was a
couple of teams that called and we're very much trying
to make a move for Kakuchin. So it wasn't like
the Astros just went, ah, we need somebody, let's go
(04:09):
get this guy. No, he was a guy that had
had an eye on and a guy that other teams
had tried to acquire. Before we talk about you say,
let's talk about what they gave up. You mentioned, Yes,
I think everybody Astros, even the most orange and blue
Astros colored rose glasses, could say it was a you
gave up a lot. It was a lopside of trade
(04:29):
for a rental. But giving up Joey Lo Praffdo, giving
up Jake Bloss, and giving up Will Wagner. I think
we were all kind of shocked by how much they
ended up having to give up.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, it started with Jake Bloss, and even then, even
when that's what it was, and to me, he's the headliner.
To me, he's the guy that has the most potential
to be not really even an everyday major league baseball player,
but even maybe then some and be I don't think
he's gonna be an ace or anything like that, but
a major league contributor for several years, which has value
and does have value to the Toronto Blue Jays. So
(05:01):
it first came out that it was Jake Bloss, and
it was like, Okay, you know, we get it. It's
yuse Kakuchi. And you look at his numbers four to
seventy two career era four to seventy five era on
the season, but you can kind of stomach it. Then
it came out later. I think it was Chann maybe
Chandlerome was one of the first ones to put it
out there. It's gonna be two more prospects. And then
you're like, uh, excuse me. And then it's Joey lo Berfeto.
(05:24):
We love him.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
He cooks, he makes paiea for the team, he makes
spectacular catches out in the field. And then Will Wagner,
the son of Billy Wagner, Oh my god, I can't
believe this. And I think with a lot of people,
my initial reaction was, oh, my goodness, what a steep
steep overpay. But then you have a minute to calm down,
you have a minute to think about it.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Okay. Jake Bloss according to people who follow prospects, think
he's basically gonna be a fourth, fifth starter. Joey Loperfido
is twenty five years old, strikes out thirty six percent
of the time, and is kind of a fourth outfielder
right now now for the Astros. And Will Wagner is
twenty six in Triple A and doesn't have a whole
lot of pop in his bat So when you add
(06:06):
it all up, it's three guys that you don't think
are going to be future All Stars or Hall of
Famers or anything like that. But when you stack it
one on top of the other, it still adds up
to an overpay. But at the end of the day,
it doesn't matter. You know where a couple of days
removed from it. It has to be yuse Kakuchi who's
on the mountain tomorrow for the Houston Astros. He has
(06:28):
to perform. The other guys are gone. It is what
it is. It was an overpay, but you did what
you thought you had to do with all the question
marks in the rotation. No guarantee. I mean, could you
really tell me you're going to one hundred percent bank
on Justin Verlander forty one years old, twice on the
IL already this season, coming here and holding things down
and then also being durable and you can count on
(06:48):
him for the playoffs. I don't know about that. Luis
Garcia in his rehab, he's ahead of schedule from Tommy
John and he's already been shut down once. We don't
know if we can count on him. And Jake bloss
Bless his heart, he got called U from double and
he was he was tasked with something that's going to
be very difficult, skipping triple A except for that rehab
starting getting hurt. He if if he went over four innings,
(07:08):
it was going to be a shock, So you had
to do something. And like you said, other teams are
in on a U se Kakuci. The Astros thinks they
can get him here, tinker with his repertoire and get
him back to what he was earlier on in this season.
He was very good as a pitcher last year, very
good first fourteen starts of this season with an e
er un or three. So they're hoping they're getting that
(07:29):
usee Kakuci. It is just a rental. It was an overpay.
But if if we're if we're going to make the
playoffs and the Astros can make them, hey we're not
going to be crying over the spilled milk of Joey Loperfido,
Jake Bloss and Will Wagner.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, it's it's going to be interesting. And by the way,
I had heard from multiple sources that you know, leading
up to the trade deadline that aj Blueball was a
guy that the Astros or Dana Brown did not want
to trade. He is still considered, uh, you know, even
with Jake Boss being up at the big league level,
blue Ball was good Saider their highest ranked pitching prospect
(08:03):
according to the MLB Rankings. Now, there were some other ones.
I think Fan Grafts may have had Bloss ahead of
him whatever, I.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Just know, Yeah, they stuck him in their top one
hundred pre deadline, they had him at ninety two overall.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, I just know Dana Brown loves aj Blueball. He's
mentioned in multiple times in recent weeks that he's just
a phone call away and they did not want to
give him up. The other ones, I know, Zach Dezenzo
they look at as absolute insurance for Alex Bregman leaving
this offseason. Will Zach Dezenzo be the starting third baseman
next year for the Astros? I don't know, but that
at least is still on the table and they didn't
(08:34):
want to give him up. Jacob Melton is their top
outfield prospect and according to multiple people, depending on who
you talked to, people think he projects higher than Joey Loperfito.
I think the thing was with Loperfido though Ross he
came on in spring training. He nearly made the team
out of spring training, didn't make it, and then went
down to Triple A and was just crushing bombs. And
(08:56):
while the while Astros fans watched Jose Bray with withff
at base fans just became infatuated with we've got this
kid in Triple A who's crushing, bring him up and
just plug him at first and let's solve our issues there.
They never really did that. They brought him up as
an outfielder. They still thought he projected as an outfielder,
and people I've talked to Ross said they still think
(09:17):
that the ultimate upside for low ber Fido is he's
a fourth outfielder that maybe he's probably he could be
a starting outfielder on a bad team, but on a
good team, he's what Jake Marisnik was, the fourth outfielder
who comes in, you know it can be a defensive guy,
can start two three times a week, kind of that role.
So I say all that to say they still have
(09:38):
some really good pieces at the top his farm system. Oh.
Bryce Matthews was the other one that they had no
interest in trading. He's their first round pick from two
years ago. So you know, they they gave up prospects.
But at the end of the day, if we go
back to where these guys were pre season, they weren't,
you know, really in your top ten of prospects that
maybe Bloss was nine, but I think lo and certainly
(10:00):
Will Wagner, I mean, they like him obviously, the son
of Billy Wagner, but I don't know if they ever
really thought, you know, that he was going to translate here.
In fact, Chandler wrote a written a couple of pieces
about if Alex Bragman left that perhaps they could just
have an open competition the spring between Will Wagner and
Zach Dezenzel. But it was never really thought, oh, Will
Wagner is the future at a spot on this club,
(10:22):
especially when you got you know, you got Josel Tive
holding down, second, you got Jeremy Panya. So anyway, look again,
I get fans got emotionally attached to Librafedo. And he
was a good kid too. I mean I interviewed him
a handful of times, was very nice every time I
asked him for anything. Really good kid, and again you
wish him the best of luck. But the reality was
(10:43):
this to get Kokuchi the Astros. Were those three guys
gonna help the Astros win right now? Or is Kakuchi
gonna give this team a better chance at winning right now?
And the answer is Kokuchi gives you the better chance
to win right now. So that's why you give up
those prospects.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, I think that's a great point by you. It's
it's not only it's what you gave away, but it's
what you have to replace what you gave away. And
those names you mentioned, Zach Zenzo right now, he's hitting
four point fifty in Triple A very very small sample size,
but he's hit three home runs in seven games. Will
Wagner hit five home runs all season long at Triple A.
So you have Zach Dezenzo. Still, you have a pedro
(11:23):
Leon who's called up. Now, how much worse is pedro
Leon gonna be than Joey loperfdo we have to think
about that? It's about not only who is going out,
it's about the guys who are replacing the guys that
you sent out. And you can find guys in the system,
the Bryce Matthews, Zack Deznzo's who are thought of more
highly than Will Wagner. You can find somebody that's gonna
be at least as close to Joey Loperfido in some
(11:47):
time for Trey Cabage or a Chas McCormick or Pedro
Leon and those guys. And then as you mentioned Jake Blass,
and you've got blue Ball, and you say, Kakuchi is
somebody that you're gonna have up here now and when
everybody's health in the next coming years, talking about a
Christian Xavier Jose Arachidi and you know you're well, Kokuchi
and Verlander are going to walk, but we'll see what
(12:08):
happens as far as those guys. Then yeah, then you
have the blue Balls and hopefully some other guys that
can step up as far as pitching to where the
sting of losing bloss might not be that much. And
then the same thing for Will Wagner and Joey Loberfito,
because you have some guys who can kind of fill
those shoes or take those spots. As far as the
contingency plans, not only for the rest of this year,
(12:29):
but for the future as.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Well, well, I'll tell you I still think we haven't
closed the door yet on blue Ball getting a start
this year. I think he very well may because of this,
trying to balance out getting Verlander back, hopefully in the
next four to five weeks, getting Luis Scarcia back hopefully
in the next four to five weeks, but also managing
the workload of what Spencer Araghetti has done all since
(12:51):
in Hudder Brown, Ronel Blanco, You're gonna need to give
those guys a day off. You're gonna need to do
the quote unquote skip a start.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Just to gay they want to go to a six
man mentioned that a bunch.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, just to keep the workload off. But let's talk
about the immediacy. We will see the left hander, you say,
Kakuchi make his astro's debut Friday night against Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Please don't get shelled. Please don't get show.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I'm interesting. He gets to see a team that, uh,
he's you know, you would think is familiar with. He's
been pitching for Toronto. But I'm looking at his workload
this year and he only faced Tampa once, Right, Is
that what you're seeing from.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I don't have his numbers in front of me, but
we can pull it up and then we can pay back.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Over March thirtieth, he played in Tampa that was a
season debut, went four to third, gave up three runs
off six hits with three walks, and.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Forced very blue bosh Yeah, I mean blue bloss ish.
Excuse me.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, that's definitely a Jake bloss stat line.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
But you're hoping for better than that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
But yeah, it was just funny because the trigger in
my mind, I'm like, oh, he's going to gainst Tampa.
Surely he's seen them a ton. It's like, yeah, well
they only faced once this year. But I mean, let's
be real, the numbers in April were outstanding. He was
one of the best pitchers all of baseball in April,
where he made five starts heading the era of two
forty five, picked up two wins in those starts. The
(14:08):
the Blue Jays won three of those five starts. And
look at the teams he faced that month. Ross It
was the Yankees twice, once at home, once a Yankee Stadium.
It was the Seattle Mariners, who as we know, started
the season pretty hot. It was at Kansas City, the
Royals have been a transcendent, really good team this year,
and home against the Dodgers. Those are the five teams
(14:30):
he faced, and he came out of that with a
two forty five VRA. Fast forward to June and July,
where he's been pretty abysmal the last eight starts, where
the era is upwards of what seven ish six is?
Seven ish? Uh? And then you look at some of
the teams he faced, Detroit, San Francisco, Cleveland. Yeah, I
(14:51):
guess you know, Boston and Texas and the Astros in there.
But I mean even against the Astros, he went five
and two thirds of two run ball. So he just
did pretty well against the Astros back on July third.
But you know, I've asked multiple people, what is it?
Why was he so good earlier this season and so
not good in recent weeks, And it says a combination
(15:12):
of things. The metrics say, you know, bat luck. He's
still got the strikeout stuff. He's cleaned up the walks.
The walks were a big problem a couple of years
ago in his career. He's cleaned that up.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
But he's got his yeah, great straight strikeout to walk
ratio this year.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah, But it's just, you know, he's given up hits.
I mean every time out five six, six, five eight.
I mean, teams are finding ways to hit off of him,
and those hits are leading to runs. Seven runs against
the Diamondbacks, five runs against the Rangers last time out.
So you just wonder how much being on a contender
now with raised expectations, does he rise to the occasion
(15:50):
or does he falter? Does the pressure get to him.
It's gonna be very interesting to see how this plays out.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, he's gonna be under a lot of pressure. But
I mean, if the Astros think they can fix him,
and we know they've worked their voo magic with any
number of pitchers that we can reel off the list
of over the last several years, and they think they
can do that with Yusai Kakuchi. And yeah, he has
had some bad luck in terms of batting average and
balls in play, but a lot of that those elevated
numbers are because the contact has been hard. In breaking news,
(16:16):
you give it more hard hit contact, there's going to
be more batting at higher batting averages and balls and play.
So we'll see. They like his stuff. There's some metric
that I've never even really heard of until recently. Stuff.
Plus they like his fastball, his slider, change up, all that,
like he can get some swings and misses he can
be effective. They're going to tinker with his pitch mix,
and like I said, the voodoo magic and with the
(16:38):
pitchers the astros have worked here, you're hoping that it happens,
will usea Kakuchi. And really, when I think about that,
and I think about you know, we look at his
career numbers, they're not great, but the last couple of
years is what we're really focused on. He's been a
lot better. And you look at a number like field
independent pitching, he's been very good. Where the era can
be somewhat misleading depending on how things happen as far
as luck. So the the FIP numbers are good. The
(17:01):
stuff is supposed to play, and he's supposed to be effective,
and he's supposed to give you some quality starts down
the stretch with the ashros desperately need.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, and so we will see how he responds. I
brought this up before. Sometimes guys get with a contender
and they perform better. Look at Charlie Morton when he
became an astro, he pitched some of the best best
years of his life here justin Verlander. When he came
over from Detroit in seventeen, he had an e RA
around three sixty three seventy he came to Houston. The
ARA was what like one. I mean he was like
(17:32):
he was. He went five to oh with an ERA
of like one point five. I mean he got he
became Superman. And not saying Yseekakuchi's gonna do that, but
does he get better here? Time will tell Garrett.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Cole as well. You can put on that list. It wasn't.
I mean, he was a good pitcher with the Pirates,
but he became an all world ace with the Houston Astros.
And let's be real.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Two of expectations, this rotation is still led by rodel
Blanco from ber Valdez Hunter Brown with how he's pitched
the last two to three months, that's still won two three.
You say, Kakuci, you're asking him to be four or
five justin Verlander, like we keep saying, expected back sometime
so and then you know, whatever you get out of
(18:10):
Luis Garcia is lan yap at that point, and you
still have Spencer Arraghetti, who's fine, you know again, decent five.
You don't need your four and five to be cy
young candidates. It'd be great if they are. I think
we all got spoiled by the Astros when they had
the rotation of Verlander Cole Granki, I mean, you know,
and then you had Fromber and Arkati and Garcia and
Hovey are coming behind those guys, So that was as
(18:32):
good as it gets. That's how the Astros won the
World Series in twenty twenty two. They didn't even go
to guys like Urkiti, they didn't even need them because
the starting staff was so strong. So again, I think
we just temper those expectations to say, can Kukucci give
you a chance to win? But to me, Ross this
season comes down to how this roster is built. This
roster goes by how the offense goes. They're not losing
(18:54):
a bunch of games nine to seven. When they lose games,
they're losing them because the offense gives them two runs.
And we just saw that this past week against the Pirates.
You score two, you ain't winning games two to one anymore.
That just ain't happening. You gotta score runs to win games.
And when the Astros hit four, five, six runs, more
often than not, they win those games. When they don't,
(19:14):
they lose. And so that's where I say, Kakuchi you
give us six innings of three runs, four runs, you
know that should be good enough for the offense to
pick carry this team and answer and win some games
seven to four.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, that's what it's gonna take. It's obviously breaking news.
You need pitching and you need hitting and defense would
help as well, but you need to get Kyle Tucker back.
And they did a really good job of holding on
and going on a big winning run without him, but
also something that felt like it wasn't extremely sustainable, and
I think that's what we're seeing now. They've lost six
of their last ten games, have the Astros and thankfully
(19:51):
getting a big home run from Ratio du Bond yesterday
at a bunch of gifts from O'Neal Cruz or talking
about them losing out being on a four game losing
streak in losing seven of the last ten. So you're
gonna need Kyle Tucker to be back. You're gonna need
the ups and downs of Alex Bregman this year. And
it feels like a number of times we've been like, ah,
this is Bregman back, baby, he's back. Well, then he's
(20:12):
back to being not good. So he was great down
the stretch last year, Alex Bregman is gonna need to
do that here. Jan your Diaz has heated up significantly,
so you're gonna need that to continue. And they're gonna
need your big boppers to do their thing, the Kyle
Tuckers and Jordan Alvarezes and the Jose al Tuoves. If
you are gonna not even talk about getting to a
World Series, talk about winning the American League West, because
(20:34):
the Mariners have made a couple of moves, they still
have excellent pitching. They've hit a huge swoon ear, but
it's not like the Astros are up four to five
games and they're just gonna waltz into winning the American
League West. So you absolutely need the hitting. And the
good news is there at least is you have guys
with track records. They just need to hit like themselves.
And I felt like we said that a lot at
(20:55):
the beginning of the year when they were scuffling, and
they've gotten a lot better. But it feels like you're
kind of hitting this dog days of summer, the calendar
turning to August, that type of swoon. They're gonna have
to get over it quickly because you've got some taxed
arms in the bullpen. We still have question marks with
the rotation, and you're definitely gonna need to start scoring
some runs and you're gonna need your your heavy hitters
(21:18):
to hit like their track record has shown over the years.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
We did get an update, or not really an update,
but you guys had Brian McTaggart on the show on
Matt Thomas Show on Thursday, and he said, it does
not feel like we're even close to Kyle Tucker having
a rehab start. So that just feels what is going on.
I mean, we've all had many of us have had
a bone bruise, many of us have had broken limbs.
(21:44):
What is this. Broken limbs usually have healed by now.
Bone bruises have usually healed by now. I mean, it's
very strange that even if this thing were a hairline fracture,
you would think we were getting, oh, you know what,
this thing's starting to heal up now. You know, whatever
it is, We're still not seeing him take a ton
of baseball activity with So that that's the scary part
(22:05):
is man. You know, we've made it through this far
without Kyle Tucker, but can we get him back police?
And that's where you really look at the Astros. They
came really close to adding Yondi Diaz from the Tampa
Bay Race, but they couldn't pull off the trade. You
had no bat So this team will rely on John
Singleton at first base the majority of the rest, you know,
the rest of the season. This team will lean on
(22:25):
guys like Jake Myers and yes, still Chas McCormick to
play a ton of outfield in the absence of Kyle Tucker. Well,
we see who's our guy that they brought up, the
legend that's been hanging around in Triple A for the
last couple of seasons, pedro Leone. Will we see him
in a game?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
He exists, he's real. There was pictures of him. He's
in an Astros uniform.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
It just feels so strange, though, like they call a
guy up and then he just sits there and they
don't play him, and you just I get that they
trust the the other guys, but man, you know they
did it with low Brafito. They brought him up and
he sat there for a week and didn't even play.
And it's like, why even have this guy up at
the big league roster if you're not gonna at least
play him occasionally, so that will be interesting to see
real quick. Do what our mind folks that there are
(23:10):
friends at Carbock Brewing. Of course they make the Crawford Bock.
They're gonna be having an Astros watch party on Monday
for the Astros Rangers game. It is an away game.
The Astros will be in Arlington, but they're having a
watch party at the at Carbock Brewing and they're gonna
have a ton of folks in the house. Orbit is
going to be there, The Shooting Stars are gonna be there.
(23:30):
They're gonna have exclusive swag from the Astros. They're gonna
have beer specials, they're gonna have ballpark food, tons of
stuff going on out at the beer garden at Carbock Brewery.
That is this Monday, August fifth, starting at six pm.
So make sure you guys get over there and check
it out, and of course take some pictures with Orbit
or whatever you want to do while you're out there.
(23:50):
But Carbok will have all the fun going on. Of course,
he'll be serving the Crawford box, so it'll feel like
you're at the ballpark cheering them on. One other piece
that we didn't touch on Ross, we talked all about
yuse Kakucci. Their other addition a reliever by the name
of Caleb Ferguson. He is a lefty, and yes, if
we just look at numbers, ERA is high five thirteen
(24:11):
ERA coming over from the New York Yankees. But when
you start to really dissect the game, OG it starts
to look a lot like Ryan Presley, Like he's had
some really good stretches. He's had some games that didn't
go his way. But to me, there's more good here
than bad. I just look at this as a nice
addition to the bullpen. And this coincides ross with I
(24:34):
think the big the end of an error, Rafael Montero
getting dfaid on Wednesday. It was a little surprising because
he had he had another year and a half left
on his deal. And now we look back to the
offseason of Jeff Bagwell interim GM as an absolute disaster
when it comes to signing Rafael Montero and Jose Abrau,
(24:56):
both those contracts still on the books for major money
next year and both those guys no longer in the system.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, rip to Rafael Montaro. Okay, he's not dead. He's
probably gonna clear waivers they are going to try to
assign him to Triple A sugar Land and see if
he can get right. But a career year in twenty
twenty two. Will always remember how nails he was out
of nowhere. We thought we was a throw in in
the Kendall Graveman trade that they made when they sent
out Abraham Toro to the Seattle Mariners, and everybody just
(25:23):
crossed dugouts because they were playing a series there. Astro
swept that series by the way and left with their closer.
That was awesome. But anyways, Rafael Montaro part of that deal.
Great in twenty twenty two era of under two. In
the twenty twenty two postseason run, had came up with
some big outs in the World Series. Not his fault.
He got a massive overpay of a thirty four and
a half million dollar contract, hasn't lived up to it.
(25:46):
And now, yeah, you mentioned Caleb Ferguson in the full.
Brian King's been very good. We know what Taylor Scott's
been able to do this year. It's just a matter
of Seth Martinez getting Havy being excellent this year and
he has having to get sent down as a corresponding move.
With all these guys coming in and so that it
definitely means if there ain't room for Seth Martinez, there
ain't room for Rafio Montero, So, uh yeah, he's gone unfortunate.
(26:10):
And then on on Caleb Ferguson. I am encouraged by
looking at the career numbers. The whip is a little
bit high, but you're not going to necessarily need him
seven eight nine consistently. So if he can just pitch
around where he has at his for his career, and uh,
I just had it in front of you at three
point six six ERA for his career, three point eight
(26:30):
five field independent pitching, which is pretty solid. Keep that
under four for a reliever, that's good.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
So and those five seasons with the Dodgers, and all
those years the Dodgers, I mean you know they were
he was on the World Series team. I mean they
they you know, he had a what a two eighty
nine ERA that year. He had a one eighty two
ERA in thirty seven games played in twenty twenty two,
the best season of his career. So it's a guy
who's been in high leverage spots against you know, good
competition on a good team. It's not like he's coming
(26:59):
over from I don't know, a bad team like the
A's and never you know, this is all gonna be
new to him. He's he's used to this, so it
will be fascinating to see, you know, how he performs.
And again they just they needed more bodies, they needed
more arms. But we do say farewell to Jose braw
and Raphael Montero officially. And my buddy texted me and said,
(27:21):
you know, why do you care? It's not your money.
I said yes, but think of it this way. Jim
Crane is now in the whole thirty million next year
to pay two guys who are no longer here. It's
not exactly like he's gonna go, well, let's just spend
another thirty million and go way over the luxury tax.
They're going to account for that and say, yeah, maybe
we tighten the belt a little bit next year and
spending now again, Verlander's money will come off the books.
(27:42):
We'll see what they do there. But just keep that
in mind, Astros fan. So when you're going, why aren't
we signing this guy and that guy and that guy?
You do have to put thirty million on the books
next year for two players that won't even play here anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Absolutely, the fiduciary resources are finite. So unfortunately, yeah, it's
not our money, it's but this is also it's it's
not like a league where there there isn't a salary cap,
but the luxury tax and certainly the second threshold effectively
a salary cap for the Houston Astros, something that they're
really trying to stay away from.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, and look, it's it's one thing to be Jim
Crane's been all in and so I think, you know,
we get a little when people start penny pinching or
looking at his pocketbook, go and spend more and all this.
It's easy to say when it's not your money. But
he has absolutely spent a ton of money. I mean
the Asters have had one of the higher pay rolls
in baseball the last couple of years. You know, they
were a little bit more conservative in the years when
(28:37):
they were rebuilding, but they had a lot of young, youthful,
cheap talent coming through the farm system where they didn't
need to spend. But I expect again, Jim Crane wants
this team to be competitive. Put it this way, they are.
Jim Crane makes a lot more money when they make
the playoffs. So he wants to be a playoff team
every year, and they're gonna do what they need to
(28:58):
do be a playoff team. Now, you know, are we
still in a window of winning World Series? That'd be
the expectation every year. Look, I say, let's get as
Dana Brown said to Sean Salisbury the other day, Look,
that's the ultimate goal for everybody. But we also got
to set our sights on. We gotta win our division,
then we gotta win the Al Pennant. Like, let's take
(29:18):
this thing step by step. You know. In Kansas City
and NFL, yes they could say every year super Bowl,
super Bowl, super Bowl. But for other teams it should
be hey, man, let's win this division first. If you're
the Houston Texans, let's win the division first. Hey, maybe
we can win the AFC this year. That would be great. Like,
it's gotta be some baby steps here we first start going.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Not baby steps. It's not the ash. I mean, Jim
Krane has said the window will stay open as long
as I'm here. The World Series is the expectation.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
It's a different team. It's a different team than what
you and injury is a big part of it. I
had that conversation with somebody too. Think of the difference
on this team if they had Christian Christian Javier's pitcher
really well this year, if he doesn't have the Tommy
John and if they ended up getting or Katie back,
and if they ended up not losing JP. It's like
this team you probably wouldn't have needed to make.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
You say, Kakuchi LANs mcculors is in jesuits. I mean,
we were talking about June July for him in the
off season August, and he's not throwing.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Seventeen million a year for the next couple of years
and he still has not contributed to your team. So look,
it's a bit of bad luck on that. On that front,
you do knock on wood because the Askers did have
I mean, how crazy is that twenty two team? Really
all you lost was Michael Brantley down the stretch. Everybody
else was healthy.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, health matters.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
That doesn't happen very often. You're always gonna have injuries,
and it's almost like it caught up with them this year.
But look, hey, all you want to do is be
in the thick of it, and the Asters are absolutely
still in the thick of it. Thank god the Seatlean
Mariners have stumbled like they have. But let's get this
thing back right. It's a tough schedule coming up these
next couple of weeks. We mentioned Tampa Bay coming in,
(30:47):
and yes, while they were technically sellers at the deadline,
still a pretty talented team, still got some good pieces there.
So they're gonna come in. They're gonna be hard. It's
gonna be hard up in Arlington playing the Rangers because
they're not going away. It's gonna be hard going up
in Boston. The Red Sox were not supposed to be
a playoff team this year, and yet they are. They're
right there in the thick of the wild card hunt,
and they gotta go to Tampa. Then finally we get
(31:09):
the freaking White Sox. But then again it's Boston and
Baltimore and up to Philly and Kansas City. So this
stretch of July and August, there's no real break here.
I mean, you wish you had a stretch where you
were playing White Sox, A's Cardinals. You know, it's like,
you don't get that on the schedule. Now you're in
a tougher part of the schedule, but all you can
do is hope to take two out of three to
(31:30):
two out of three, and let's just put some series
wins together. But hopefully while you guys are listening on
Sports Talk seven ninety or watching on Space City Home
Network or at the ballpark, you're doing so with an
ice called Crawford Bock from our friends at car Bock Brewing,
And want to remind you guys again, Monday night they're
doing that watch party over at car Back in the
(31:51):
Beer Garden presented by Carbock Brewing with the Houston Astros
folks in town with Orbit and the Shooting Stars and
swag and beer specials and all park food. Come on
over there starting at six pm on Monday, August fifth
for an Astros Rangers watch party with Carbock Brewing, and
of course you can get the tasty Crawford Bach while
(32:11):
you were there. Ross any closing thoughts before we close
things out.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Here, like you said, down down the stretch, we go
a couple of months left. You can stop crying over
Joey lo Berfito and all those guys. They're gone.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
It is what it is.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Let's go, you say, Kakuchi, and let's go win some
ball games.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, that's that's where we are now, and let's hope
some good news here real soon on Kyle Tucker, Justin Ferlander,
and Luis Garcia. We shall see for Ross Vireal, I'm
Chris Gordy. This has been the Crawford Box Cast, presented
by CARBONK Brewing and the Crawford boch
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