June 6, 2025 • 39 mins
On this edition of the Crawford Boxcast presented by Karbach Brewing and the Crawford Bock, Chris Gordy and Ross Villarreal talk about the Astros' successful week, finishing with a series win up in Pittsburgh that was delayed by weather. In addition, they discuss how good Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown have been, the first hiccup of the season from the bullpen in the Rays series, the callup of Jacob Melton - and should the Astros make a trade at the deadline?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Astros fans, cheers Luckey, Welcome to the Crawford Box Casts,
proudly for you by Crawford Bach from Carmack Brewy. You're
getting there, Oh my godness, the Crawford Box Cast starts
now here we go. Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Viail.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And it is an all new edition of the Crawford
box Cast, presented by Carbach Brewing and the Crawford Bach
The taste that goes great with an Astros victory. And
boy did we get an Astros victory late Thursday night,
as the Astros took two out of three against the
Pittsburgh Pirates, albeit uh in a game that maybe almost
(00:56):
didn't take place with the rain and whatnot. But as
out in Cleveland getting ready for a three game set
against the Guardians before they come back home for series
against the White Sox in the series against the Twins.
But this past week a lot of good for the Astros.
We know they finished off last week taking three out
of four against home against Seattle at home. I think
(01:16):
last week talked Ross was right before that series started
and I kept saying, oh take us, I'll take a split,
I'll take a split, and you said, well, you already
won game one, Yes, sir, you can, you can win
three out of four. Sure enough did they. They went
on for the mini two games sweep over the A's.
The series against the Rays was not looking good. Two
games with the bullpen absolutely imploded, but two gems from
(01:39):
from berveld as an Hunter Brown that led to wins.
So you split that four gamer and then this quick
three gamer up in Pittsburgh where you won two out
of three, ironically won the game against the elite Paul
Skeins lost to Burrows on.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Wednesday, Make Burrows.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And then that brings us to Thursday night, where the
game we knew was gonna go in a rain delay.
I'd kind of heard rumblings that they had some rain
in the area. The crazy thing over Ross is apparently
when they have weather systems coming in a lot of
them dissipate over those West Virginia Mountains, you don't really
know until it reaches Pittsburgh what it's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So a lot of times the MLB officials will just
play it safe and go, well, let's wait and see
what happens. And there were a lot of Astros fans
that made this road trip, and they were tweeting on
pictures like it's not even raining, what do we do it?
Why are we waiting three hours to play? And but
you knew, as and Adam Westerer kind of talked about
this yesterday on the air, you knew they had to
get it in because neither of these teams play each
(02:34):
other again in the rest of the year. There's no
like off days that coincide. There's no trip where you know,
the the Pirates are at Arlington, the Astros have an
off day, you know, like there was nothing that crossed over.
So it's like they had to get this one in.
Dana Brown went out there, got all feisty with the
getting with the Pirates folks. But you know what, ross
I say, good on the Pirates for finally getting this
(02:56):
one in because the Astros spent that ass.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, glad they got it in and eventually took some time.
I didn't know we needed a degree in Appalachian meteorology
to get far. He talked about it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Robert Fordy even called him the who's the guy who
does the weather on the Today Show? The autrob Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It was like it is ridiculous, but hey, as you mentioned,
got it done a couple of things fromber as you mentioned,
has been good. Talked about it last week and you'd
pointed it out like, hey, he only had one really
bad blow up game and a couple of other bad games,
but he has really been nails, really rounding into form.
Right now. You probably have Robert who's finished top ten
in the cy Young the last three years. He's looking
(03:36):
like he's right on track for that Hunter Brown looking
like at least a top three finish. So good to
see him continue to pitch well, even though we do
have to throw in the qualifier that Hey it was
against the Pirates who are terrible, but still got the
job done. He had seven innings to run ball with
eleven strikeouts. That's great. And then finally, not finally, but
he's seen a little bit more signs of life, even
(03:58):
with jord On Alvarez, continue about be out, even with
Christian Walker and your Dias struggling some some pop in
the bats or some other guys including Easok Paratus.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, and you mentioned Fromborough, look look at what he
did in the month of May. I'm surprised. I assume
he didn't win Pitcher of the Month, but he should
have absolutely been a finalist in the month of May,
ross he made six starts, went four and one, record
wise with a four to thirty nine ERA. I'm sorry
two thirty sixty. Sorry reather on number two thirty six
e R. I mean that is among the best in
(04:30):
the American League, the best in baseball. So I'm sure
look other guys like Tark school boys, those guys, I'm
sure there were other guys who were better. But you know,
certainly Hunter Brown and from Bert Valdez. For all the
pitching staff issues this team has had, those two guys
have been ace one A and one B this season.
(04:50):
They have been phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, it's been great, and it's been much needed because
of course, you know, we've been talking at nauseum now
since it's happened with the re Blanco and the Wesnsky injuries,
and Ryan Gusto continues to be like, I don't know
how much long heat No longer he's gonna be in
the rotation. You got Colton Gordon going tonight, so we'll
see what happens there. But you want to, well, you
(05:14):
want to have those two guys at the top of
the rotation to solidify, and it gives him a little
bit more pressure in a way because of the uncertainty.
Although you've gotten back to back quality starts at Atlansa
Colors Junior, hopefully he can kind of get into the
circle of trust. We can talk about that later on.
But those two guys, the pressure is on. They need
to perform because if they have the random stray off
(05:35):
game like Hunter Brown did in Tampa, like like Fromber
has had a game here or there, then it kind
of throws you that much more off for a possible
losing streak because of so many question marks. So those
guys need to be that a one ace and for
the most part they have been when they've gone out there.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, and then Hunter Brown, I mean again, he has
just continued to be steady outside of one stupid outing
at a Mickey Mouse Ballpark in Tampa. Thunder Brown's been
lights out and he ranks among American League pitchers ross
tied for first and wins second. It hits per nine
fourth in the ERA at one eighty three, and that
tells you how good three other guys are doing. If
(06:13):
he's fourth and with a one eighty three ERA, Yeah,
tied for fourth in strikeouts fifth and whip and eighth
in strikeouts per nine. He has been outstanding. And certainly,
you know, somebody asked me, oh, you think Hunter Brown's
going to be an All Star this year? Said all
Star like he's in CY Young candidacy in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, And it's also important because they would get he
needs to finish top three in the CY Young to
get the what is it they call it the the
Young Player Compensatory pick or something like that. If he
if he's able to keep this up, that would be
huge for the Astros because they would be able to
(06:52):
get that compensatory pick for Hunter Brown finishing top three
in the American League CY Young.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
We we should mention as far as pitching goes before
we move on to the bats. Lance mccullors man, I
just for him to out battle Paul Skeens the other night,
and Skeens has been outstanding this year. He's just had
lack of run support. But you know, basically mccullor's besting him,
going six shutout innings against him with seven strikeouts. That
(07:19):
was vintage Lance mccullors junior. And here we are really
the last four outings ross his his pitch count has
climbed and climbed. He's now gone back to back starts
with six completings. That's about what we wanted to get
him with. And look at the strikeout total seven last
time out twelve eight against Seattle on twelve against the A's.
I mean he he has been looking more and more
(07:41):
like himself. And again I keep hesitating because they don't
want to jinx anything, but man, this is this is
awesome that you're getting. We thought maybe there's a chance
he gets back and looks like his old self. I
think he's exceeded a lot of people's expectations.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, and ours included especially where we were. It was
May tenth when he had disaster start against the Cincinnati
Reds and one of you know, our fellow media members
who covers the team more closely there every day and
stuff like that, texted him and said, hey, how how
much longer do you think Lance mccullors Junior gets And
this person said three starts like it was a short leash.
(08:18):
We were thinking with how bad of a disaster it was,
and thinking, is this guy gonna be able to get outs?
Are they gonna have to be looking elsewhere so for
him to bounce back from that disaster the way that
he has, and like you said, racking basically looking like
vintage mccolors. Velocity is down a tick for sure, a
little bit different of the way that he's pitching, but
(08:40):
the stuff is still really good. A lot of swing
and miss, a lot of walks here and there as well,
racking up some of the pitch cowns, like you said,
but one hundred and two and ninety six pitches in
the last two times out much needed because of the injuries.
It's it's been great, and it's been a fascinating story
and journey this entire time. Like it, it's almost like
(09:00):
a book needs to be written about this. If he
can keep this up.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, you said the walks. He had three walks against
Chicago's first start back, three against Cincinnati, three against Seattle,
but just one against the Rangers in Arlington, just one
against the A's and just one against Pittsburgh. That is
getting it done. That's attacking the strike zone and get
getting guys to swing, and so yeah, I'm just so
encouraged by it. Again, he's got to keep this up.
(09:24):
And really, I mean, he's been elevated to be your
number three. We were saying, in a perfect world, though
mccollos is slid it as your five and whatever he
gives you great. But with Hayden was Nesky going down,
You're like, Okay, no big deal. But Spencer Rogetty has
broken thumb. He will come back at some point. But
then the news of Renel Blanco and we should pass
along the Astros sending out a note that Renel Blanco
will undergo the Tommy John surgery today today. He was
(09:47):
placed on the injury list back on May twenty second.
But so you think about it, the recovery time is
what twelve to eighteen months, twelve sometimes eighteen to twenty
now for some guys in two.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Years for Luiscar see him, I mean June of June
of twenty twenty three for him.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No offense to run on Blanco. But he's on the
upside of thirty, right.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, I think he's thirty thirty one. You're looking late Bloomer.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You're looking at is June twenty twenty five. You're looking
at at best sometime next summer, at best.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
At best the end of next year, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
What it's probably, let's be real, based on what's happened
with these past year guys. It'll probably be that thing
where they go, they get a brown next year will
go yeah, maybe it's September sometimes, and then we'll get
to September and he won't be anything, and he'll go
probably the start of twenty twenty seven. Yeah, I mean,
that's insane to think about.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, it's unfortunately, it has been a lot of setbacks,
and you'll be in your forties, by the way, No,
I am forty now actually, So.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
It's just it's wild to think about how many good
arms are us that they've lost. I mean, has somebody
asking me the other day about, you know, why won't
they play pay fromber? They don't pay good pictures and
all this, I say, excuse me, do you remember Christian
Hovey They went, No, actually I don't. I forgot about him.
He's one of the highest paid pictures they've ever had
in the organization. It's just we haven't seen him in
a year. I mean, it's since been that long since Hey.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
We've never heard anything about them approaching FROMBER. I think
maybe because he is longer, longer in the tooth. He's
what thirty one, thirty two years old by the time
he hits free agency, and the reality is we keep
coming to this road and these forks in the road,
and Jim Crane does not want to hand out the
long term, big money contracts, especially to a guy that's
(11:23):
on the wrong side at thirty like fromber Valdes.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And let's be real, Fromber's been awesome this year. He's
had awesome years past. He's also had roller coaster months
where he is up and down and the downs are like, Fromber,
what is going on. We've seen times where he's gone
off script, does his own thing. I mean, you know,
so there are times where there is some bad. Overall,
he's been very, very good. But I'm just saying, like
(11:47):
all that needs to be considered too. Where the age
and you know what if this guy just falls off
a cliff the minute you give him that big fact hug.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And he's had a couple of bad starts in the playoffs.
I mean in twenty twenty one, he had a couple
of bad starts, but then he came back and it
was like was it against the Red Sox he had
like eight innings a shutout or one run ball or
something like that. But in the twenty twenty two playoffs,
he was good. But I believe I'd have to look
it up. But the last two times he came out
of the playoffs in twenty four and twenty three, he
(12:14):
wasn't very good or very reliable. Certainly, I'm pretty sure
he had a bad start.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Like the Tigers, he was okay, they just got no
run support. Remember they couldn't they couldn't score any runs.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I don't have to go game by game line.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
There was the reason why the phrase good from Er
bad fromber came out. I mean the fan base was
using that because there were times or he was just
not good.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
But the last three years you finished top ten in
the SYE. Young are going to do it again, So
you're one of the top ten pitchers in your league.
That's gonna be pretty good. Yeah. Last year, four and
a third three earns runs, giving up seven hits, but
they lose a couple of walks. It was they lost
the game three to one.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, see if he gets run support, we don't even
say anything that's true.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yea, they could have short some stuff. I think that
was against Schoobole, right, and then not good in the Yeah,
he was terrible in twenty three playoffs. Oh my god.
And he only went twelve starts in three different games.
I'm sorry, twelve innings in three different starts. That was
against what Seattle great in twent twos bad in twenty
(13:11):
one despite the yeah, the Boston it was eight in
ings of one run ball. So mixed bag, Yeah, real
mixed bag.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
We should mention it to Colton Gordon making his fifth
major league start tonight. In his previous four starts this year,
he's basically going five innings of three run ball. I mean,
that's the best day. That's the best you could ask
out of your number five guy. Yeah, like that's giving
you a chance to win, you know, And honestly, I
think I want to say it was the first three
outings he got the ball, that's was won. All three
(13:41):
of those games he didn't get to win, but they
won those games's And again, that's all you can ask
for is to go out there and do your thing.
Let's touch have a bullpen a little bit. The first
kind of hiccup we saw out of this bullpen, and
really it was just two guys. It was Brian King
Thursday night against Seattle or No Tampa, where he just
(14:02):
did not have it at all got dinged for what
five runs. It was amazing because his cra was like
around one and it absolutely got dinged in that start
or that outing, and then kayleb board in the other
one he got knocked around by the Rays. And then
Force Whitley came in after about those guys in both
those games after it was already out of hand and
made it really out of hand. Force Whitley just was
(14:24):
gone awful. And so it's amazing Ross. They came into
that series against Tampa with the second best bullpen numbers
in terms of VRA. They dropped to ninth after that series. Now,
the good news was you got absolute gems from Fromper
and Hudter Brown and that's what helped you split the
series two and two.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
But it was just it was the first.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Hiccup we saw. But the good news was on Sunday
Brian King came back out and he was good. So
and he's been good since then, So I think that
was just everybody's entitled to their one hiccup. I mean, shoot,
even marioo Rivera had an occasional hook hiccup, but Brian
King was really he's been really good over Caleb Barts
kind of he's your what fourth or fifth best reliever.
(15:03):
I mean, he's not even You're not relying on him
in Forrus.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Is basically your mop up guy at this point, and honestly.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
He's nearing the end.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
He's I think you could be right. The reason he's
on this team is because of his age. He has
no I believe he has no option left yet.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So if they decide to move on from him, he
will not be a Houston ast anymore. And I do
think somebody would pick him up because they would say, oh,
let's give this kid a chance that you know, former
top prospect and all this. But yeaheah, I just but overall,
I mean Brian, I can't say enough about Brian and
Bray you and then Josh hater Ross is a perfect
sixteen for sixteen and save opportunities this season, has the most,
(15:39):
has the most saves without a blown save in the majors.
He has the second most saves in franchise history without
a blown save to begin a season, behind only Dave
Smith back in nineteen eighty nine, who converted twenty one
saves to start that season, So five more saves without
a blown one and he's gonna tie Dave Smith's all
time record in franchise history. Great.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Before the season, I kind of, I don't want to
say it was like a bold prediction, but I thought
he could be on tap for forty saves, just because
of the nature of this offense, because of you're gonna
be a lot of close games, good pitching, not great hitting,
You're gonna need a guy like him. And so at
this point, would you say it was sixteen saves, sixteen
for sixteen, sixteen for sixteen with saves for him, and
(16:23):
this team has won thirty four games, then you add
in that win that he has, so seventeen of your
thirty four wins, that's half of them. He's been a factor.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah. I mean, look everybody. There were some people who
criticized the deal when they handed it out, because remember
they're like, oh, you got Ryde Presley, Why do you
need to go pay this guy? Look at where Presley
is and look at where Josh Hader is. This is
the best, one of the best closers in baseball, if
not the best. He takes a ton of money, but
he's worth every penny. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And it was a rocky start last year and people
were upset, But what was like the first twenty nine
and twenty nine save opportunities didn't he? Wait, you said,
what was the Dave Smith?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Smith made twenty He converted twenty one saves without a
blown save to start that season.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I thought he did it last year, didn't he? I
thought he converted his first twenty nine last year.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
This is to start a season, so hater, Oh he
started back. Yeah, then went on, Okay, I got you,
so so yeah, so that again. Baseball's quirky with those
kind of things. My favorite used to be like it
was like Andy Pettitt is undefeated in day games on
a Thursday. I'm like, okay, that's really getting uh cherry
picking your stats. But overall, bullpen's been good. Overall, feel
(17:32):
good about the bullpen any more. Thoughts on pitching before
we moved to hitting.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Nah, I think I'm good. Yeah. You mentioned ninth and
R at team ERA with the I think that's where
they are, right, Yeah, if you know, it's still not actually,
but if you go to like some other metrics, like
I like a field independent pitching, they're sixth. So you
go to some other stuff, ERA doesn't always tell the story.
So yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
But again, like that game against the Rays, Brian King
gives up the five runs. If Whitley throws shutout innings
does it doesn't make any difference us or the right.
But it adds to that number and lower and raises
that era number because Forest gives him more runs. But
at the end of the day, you won't come back
to win that game anyway. So to me, you lose
seven to one or eleven to one, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Hey, you know who's a good piece of the bullpen,
says ourselves.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Are Yeah, he's the one guy with a zero point
zero e ra on this on this pitching staff, as
well as who is the guy who came up Brandon Walter.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yes, he threw five.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Shout out of things in a start. That guy back.
He's been pitching well in sugar Lands.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
How long do you think Ryan Gusto is in the rotation?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I think he gets one more outing and if he
cannot push it to he's got to give you five.
I'm sorry, you got to get into the fifth inning.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
He's been good out of the bullpen, he is.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I think you slide him back to the pen. I
think you say bye bye to force Whitley, and I
think you bring back either Brandon Walter, AJ Blue Baw
or the guy and you'd have to make a roster
spot form. But the guy knocking on the door just
one what minor league pitcher of the month, Miguel who's pitching?
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Ver If you're DFAG Whitley, that would make sense.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You could do that. We'll see what Dana Brown does.
But he is shown he is not afraid to call
guys up and give them an opportunity to aggressive.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well they need to be, they've had a lot of injuries.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Let's talk hitting. We got to see the debut of
the astros number two prospect. Yes, Jacob Melton gets to
call up, gets a hit in his big league debut
on Sunday, and then had a couple of nice hits
in the game against the Pittsburgh last night. I thought
that that was really good in that Eastak Prarie hits
the home run, you're up on nothing, Cam Smith comes
(19:28):
up with an RBI single and then right after him,
Jacob Melton with a two RBI single. Like to me,
the two young guys, the two rookies going out there
that are playing the outfield for you. They've been great
defensively so far, and they're giving you something at the plate.
I know Cam Smith had kind of cooled off there
for a little bit, but hopefully he starts heating up
a little bit more. But just kind of like, you know,
(19:50):
anything you're getting out of those two guys right now,
and to me, you're you're batting them down in the
bottom three holes, so like you know, you're not really
asking him to do a ton, but anything you're getting
from them right now is a plut.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah. And Jacob Melton, I mean, look, even though he's
the Ashos number two prospect, it's and I think he
was like eighty eighth on somebody's list a couple of
years ago or something like that. Like he's kind of
flirted with top hundred.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
But kind of an.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Outfield athlete fast he's stealing. He's stealing like thirty bases
or whatever a year down there in the minors. But
not necessarily expecting a whole lot of it as BA.
But it looks nice when you see it in the
lineup card and you see Melton, Myers and Smith out
there and right field with al two of Adhing yesterday
and the day before at second base. It's like everything
(20:33):
that gets hit out there is gonna be caught. Yeah,
so that's a good feeling that you haven't really had
back until maybe what it was like Reddick and Marisnik
and Brantley or something out there. Yeah, Springer in that
mix as well. You haven't had this athletic of and
good of an outfield in a long time. So at
least she kind of feels secure in that.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And that's you know again, like this gives you a
little bit of flexibility to just kind of fast forwarding
and look into spring training twenty twenty six. You still
have years of team control on Chaz McCormick and Jake Myers.
You can kind of just if I'm Dani Brown, you
roll them all on and go may the best man win.
And if Jacob Melton takes that next step and is
the development, you could say farewell to one of those guys, tradeable,
(21:14):
you know what I mean? Like, I think it gives
you some options. Look, nobody's gonna confuse any of them
would be All Stars next year, but just like can
use some options that if Melton emerges at cam Smith emerges,
you know, continues to progress and you go, holy crap,
we got two studs here, you could say, by Boddy,
Jake Myers, Chas McCormick.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, it'll be interesting though the way things get configured
because the Astros in a way kind of with the
philosophies that they set over the offseason in spring training,
pigeonholed them themselves and kind of limited their flexibility saying hey,
and a spot of even saying it before what either
yesterday day's yesterday's game or the day before that. He
(21:51):
still wants to put l TV out and left a
bunch with mixing him in DH and second base. But
when Jordon comes back and he's holding down the DH spot,
that's one last spot you can put him. You still
want to get Dubon out there. Who knows if Bryce
Matthews is going to factor in at some point, you
want to put him in second base. Hit Wick comes
up with the club as well.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I was gonna say, what have you made of we've
seen more Altuve at second lately? Are they maybe thinking
of putting him there a little bit more than originally thought?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I don't know. A Spota says no, but if we
look at what's happening, it has been yes. But that's
also because you want to get Jacob Melton, some looks
you want to get. You want to keep Jake Myers.
You talked about, Hey, you guys, it's going to be
the hot hand. Jake Myers has been that hot hand.
He's cooled off since, but it was going to be.
Maybe we were seeing Chas McCormick a little bit of
this season, but see a couple of good out like
(22:38):
outs balls would have been out. He's hit well, so
I think he's still feeling it. I think so too,
And it's it's still looks like I don't think the
guy's going to be an All Star at the plate
or anything like that, but at least viable to be
in your seven eight nine spot in the lineup. Unfortunately
at a necessity he's been up as like as high
as five six depending on the day. But if he
can continue to do that, where Jake Myers is kind
(23:00):
of winning that spot over at least before he got
injured Chas McCormick, and we'll see what happens with Jacob Melton.
It's gonna be you got a logjam out there, and
unfortunately it's a logjam of guys who haven't really set
themselves apart as as you know, no doubt about it.
Every day I have to keep this guy in the lineup.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Meyer still statistically one of your better hitters, batting two
eighty seven on this team. It was at around three
hundred last time we talked, so it's probably.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Not gonna hit I mean, he's like a career two
to thirty guys, so he's probably not gonna hit three
hundred this year. That'd be amazing if he did, yeah,
but unlikely.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Let's talk about a guy who will likely find his
way on his first All Star ballot there, you know,
first All Star game this year, and that is your
leadoff man, shortstop Jeremy Panye, who is on an eleven
game hitting streak, batting four to thirty two in that stretch,
nine runs, four doubles, three homers, six runs batted in,
five stolen bases, and an eleven ninety five ops in
(23:52):
that stretch. It's his second ten or more game hit
streak this season, and it joins of career high fourteen
game hits he had back in April. Since they moved
him to that leadoff spot ross on April twenty seventh,
he has batted three sixty six nine to eighty seven
ops in that stretch. That is just that's getting it done.
(24:13):
I mean, Jeremy Penya has been outstanding. We made a
bet before the season. I thought he was gonna have
a night shoot.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, we did twenty and a half home runs I think,
which he's pacing in front of.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
He's pacing in front of right now. He's just been
outstanding and man again brings up the conversations of you know,
pay the man. Do you consider getting ahead of this
thing and rewarding him with a contract now, But Peyya
has been awesome in that leadoff spot.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, he's been really good. And that was kind of
one of the reasons I made that better because you know,
last year we were at spring training and he's like,
you know, I've changed my approach. I've quieted my leg kick,
and I know that he's got a great work ethic.
He works hard, he lives in breeds baseball, and I
was buying in more last year on the Matt tim
Show with Ross, we do a segment called gut Feelings,
(24:57):
and I was like, he's gonna have the best offensive
year of his career. Didn't happen. It was one year late.
So basically I was a year early on that, and
you heard the same things this offseason. I've been working
my approach to play blah blahlah blah, and it's like, Okay,
not often that a guy has a big leap forward
and breakout season at age twenty seven, So I was
definitely skeptical that he would. I wasn't skeptical that he
(25:21):
would improve, but to make the big leap that he
has that we've seen from him so far to where
we're talking about him as an All Star, it's been
very impressive. I hope it's here to stay, and it's
we're through obviously at least a third of the season
now at this point, over a third of the season,
so I hope it continues. It's been fantastic to see
and he has really been thriving in that leadoff spot.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
One more wrinkle I want to add here, and that's
just been very unique with this team. One, they have
scored nearly half of their runs the season ross with
two outs. They've scored one hundred and fifteen of their
two hundred fifty runs. That's forty six percent with two outs.
Forty three of their last seventy six runs scored. I've
come with two outs in an that is getting it done.
(26:01):
That is I mean, you know, it's one thing to
get a leadoff man on your put them over or
whatever however your manufacture runs. But the Astro's timely hitting
has been the biggest problem with this team the last
couple of years. And doing it with two outs that
is quite the contrast to what they've been the last years.
They've been a good offensive team, but just a team
that has struggled with two outs. This team is doing
(26:22):
it with yea.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yeah, it's I mean, I would call it probably just
a little bit of a quirk in one of those
things that happens over a baseball season. I don't know
that it's like some kind of magic spell gets put
on when they have two outs. But it's great. It's good.
I mean, hey, anytime you can get some runs manufacturing
get him in. Especially as you said, we've been frustrated
with two outs and getting guys on running, getting guys
(26:44):
runs in and driven in with the base runn of
guys on base, it's been terrible. And so now seeing
it this year, it's encouraging and you kind of never
feel like they're counting on and you're getting production from
you know, random guys. I mean, Jacob Melton did come
up big a couple of times, hitting it opposite way.
I think he hit a ball hit over one hundred
and five miles an hour yesterday as well. So you're
(27:04):
getting it from all over the place and it's been
fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
The other wrinkle here is the Astros have eighteen come
from behind wins this season. That ranks tied for the
most wins the American League with the Twins, including last
night's win at Pittsburgh. Five of the Astros last night
wins have come and come back fashion. So that's another
thing too. You like the pedigree of that for a
team that you know you foresee them making the postseason.
(27:31):
You know that that's the pedigree of a good team
that knows how to they're they're never out. You know
that they always have a chance to come back. And
you know, again that's that's a really good stat on
this team this year.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, you've look, this is a team of professionals and
a lot of these guys. Look, there are some young
guys injected in this lineup, but you know, the the
jose L two Ves and now Jeremy Pania, who's kind
of taken over the reins, is one of those guys.
It's kind of be a part of this astro winning culture.
They're just they just fight, man, They're just professionals, and
(28:05):
it's great to see. You wish a couple of the
other guys would wake up. We haven't talked much about
Christian Walker, you Iron Diez, those types of guys. You
need Jordan Alvarez back as well. But at least you
are getting something, and you know, not even just staying afloat.
I mean, you're a game and a half of first place.
With all this complaining we've done about guys who are
holes in the lineup, about the starting pitching and trying
(28:26):
to hold the glue together, the couple of blow ups
we mentioned in the bullpen. You're thirty four and twenty
eight in yere in first place.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
The one more player related issue we didn't even bring up.
We found out since we last talked clarity on the
gyrd On Alvarez situation and that he did indeed have
a fracture in there, that they did not see it
on the initial imaging. But now that we've got that
out of the way, Dana Brown said last Sunday he
was about sixty percent healed from it.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Okay, what percent is he this week?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
I would say he's close to seventy twenty five. I mean,
you know, but what's the healing rate on that thing?
But yeah, I mean again it's we know he'll be
shut down for a couple of weeks, but hopefully, you know,
get some good news here and when he's when that
thing's healed and he's ready to go, they'll throw him
right back in there in the lineup. And maybe that
is too a thing ross that his slow start to
the season maybe was part of that. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I didn't think it did factor, And it just seemed
like they kind of at first they were trying to
say that no, it was something that new that popped
up in in spring training, but then further later on
it kind of got out that, yeah, he had been
trying to play a little bit through this, and they
even mentioned that that they probably mishandled this injury and
should have shut him down sooner.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
It's even wilder to know a guy like had a
broken hand and still could hit home runs, Like, I
don't know, it's not so when that happens. But all
that said, Ross, shout out to the Baltimore Orioles who
just swept the Seattle Mariners.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Appreciate you, murder And as.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
The Astros take two out of three against Pittsburgh, the
Astros remain in first place, a game and a half
up now in the American Leagueless. That's got to be
their biggest lead they've had all season, as they've been
chasing all season and getting that first place. But Seattle
at one and a half, the Rangers have lost what
six of their last ten, three in a row, so
(30:07):
they're five and a half back. The Angels kind of
sticking around there, they're five and a half back, and
then the Low Liais have lost nine of their last
ten and they are eleven games back in the AL West.
So you're right where you want to be again. You know,
well the Seattle will you go on a streak of
losing a couple of games and Seattle jump you again.
Probably gonna happen again at some point in this summer.
(30:29):
But the larger picture here also want to bring up
is two of your next three series are against the
two teams right behind you in the American League standings.
You're in Cleveland this weekend against the Guardians, and then
next weekend the Twins come to town. Those two teams
are right there with you. The Twins are tied with
you in the ALE standings right down thirty four and
(30:51):
twenty eight, and the Guardians are just a half game
back of you both. So I just say that to
say tie breakers could come into play at the end
of the year. It'd be nice to take to win
the series against the Guardians and win the series against
the Twins.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah, that'd be cool if you are going to factor
into that, which I don't necessarily know that that's gonna happen.
I still have them winning the division, but we could
see anything gonna happen. Every game important. And also, Gordy,
did you know Astros remaining schedule one hundred games left
opponents strength of schedule in terms of win percentage, they
are thirtieth out of thirty. Mean they have the weakest
(31:25):
easy schedule remaining, right, Well, I mean, look White the
Rockies eleven more with the A's.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, you get the after this tough series against the Guardians,
you get three against the White Sox at Dykin Park,
where you've won a lot a week later, you go
off for four in Sacramento. Sacramento A's yeah, oh, Cremento. Yeah.
The only thing I keep looking at as that stretch
before the All Star Game where it's Phillies Cubs, Rockies.
(31:52):
Will be a nice break, yeah, but then it's at
the Dodgers for three, home for three against Cleveland, home
for three against the Rangers. That two week stretch is
kind of a just play five hundred ball, like if
you could just be five hundred in that stretch because
there are some big pitfalls there where you could get
swept by the Dodgers, you get swept by the Cubs.
I mean there's some dangerous games in there.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
So yeah, key, there will be What the state of
the rotation is, yes.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yes, and again why fromber and Hunter Brown? I would
put them in bubble wrap when they're not pitching. Just
be like, guys, I need you to do everything you
can to stay healthy. But encouraged by mccollors. We'll see
what Colden Gordon does tonight. Ryan Gusto, you're kind of
on life support right now. We'd like to see you
go a little bit further. But some good options down low.
Last thing are ass people have been bringing up trade
(32:39):
deadline already. I just kind of shut it down because
I've said, look, you've depleted your farm system in recent
years making trades and all this. Dana Brown was brought
in to build this thing back. You've worked hard to
bring it back. And even that said, you still made
a deadline trade last year, getting Kakuchi and giving up
low Berfito and some of these other arms. I just
I'd rather just stand pat. I'd rather what you have.
(33:01):
You know, I get if you have another starting pitching injury,
you may have to go make a big trade, But
I'd rather just stay pat with what they have right now.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I would say they probably don't have much of a choice.
I mean, as you mentioned, the resources are limited. You
have some guys as you can throw out there and
kind of hold the glue together, hopefully with your with
the bullpen and the state that it is. And the
bottom line is you have a limited amount of sellers
at this point, and teams are gonna wait until that
(33:32):
market grows and gets a little bit more robust towards
the end of July. So even if Dana Brown said, hey,
today I'm gonna make a trade, it probably couldn't happen.
So he's gotta wait. You gotta hope Raghetti gets back,
even though that's probably gonna be close to the deadline
at that point. Hope mccullors still can hold up his
end of the deal and do what he's been doing
when he's going out on the mound. But yeah, I
(33:52):
don't know that I want them to stay pat. I
just don't think they have much of a choice.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
The question is who wants what you got? I mean,
I love talking to Astros fans where they go. So
trade McCormick. Who the hell wants hurt injured Chas McCormick,
even if he gets started healthy, What what trade value
does that have? I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
People are like, yeah, this guy sucks, get rid of him.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Trade him.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Well, if he sucks and you want to get rid
of him, everybody else knows that.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
To the other one, we need to bring up. Somebody
brought up last week. Trade fromber. I mean, if he's
gonna leave anyway, get something for him. He's one of
the best pitchers on your team, on a team already
devoided pitching, So you're just gonna give up throwing the
towel on this year, that's what you would be doing,
and trading a Fromber.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, they're trying to toe the line of building for
the future and winning.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Now.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Part of that was trading away Kyle Tucker, but that
helped you right now, you suck. Paratus has been one
of your best hitters. Cam Smith still developing, but you're
you're you have high hopes for him in the future.
And Wesnsky unfortunately had Tommy John surgery, but you're also
keeping Fromber. The only way they trade him in my opinion,
by the deadline is if they are there just way
out of it, which I don't expect to happen.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
So as we as we wrap up here, one of
my you guys, make sure you get a you know,
lo it up on ice cold Crawford bock from our
friends at Carbock Brewing. We were out there at Carbok
just last.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Week and be there in a couple of weeks. Correct,
We'll be there.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Again at the end of the month after that Phillies
Day game. And I gotta say, probably one of the
more underrated food there at Carbock from in the restaurant
burger fish and chips. Whatever you're getting inside the restaurant,
and then outside outside on the in the beer garden.
They got the covered patty out there with massive fans.
By the way, I know it's getting hot out there,
but they got the I mean, industrial sized fans blowing
(35:32):
on you on every picnic table out there. But then
you walk right inside in the new pizza and pints,
and it's air conditioning there and wood fired pizza, and
you've you've tried their pizzas, right they they have got some.
They've got one. It's like a honey pepperoni with a
slight spice to it. It's so good. The mazzarella sticks,
I think, are awesome cheese sticks, whatever you want to
(35:52):
call them. They're I mean, that's a meal within itself.
But some great options over there at Carbock Brewing. But
make sure you, guys, when you're watching Astros baseball, when
you're listening to Astros baseball, you're doing sold with an
ice cool Crawford Bach from our friends at Carbock Brewing.
As we wrap up here Ross and we look ahead
to the Astros coming back home. It was kind of interesting.
(36:14):
He made a big announcement yesterday that jose L Tuvey,
now a spokesman for dyke in air conditioning. Did you
see the picture they tweeted out with that.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah, it was him standing next to an air conditioning unit.
I mean that's fine. What else are you gonna do?
Put him in an abominable snowman suit.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I mean the unit was about as big as LTWOVA.
So it was just kind of funny to have him
as the endorser for the new endorsement at the ball.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Hey, it makes sense. The most air conditioned city in
the world, according to a study done by dyke In,
was Houston, Texas. Movie that's what they did in the
marketing department.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
It probably makes sense. I mean, in the summer months,
you can't even open a window in your mouth, there's
no breeze blown.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
No, you need it a c it's hot. It's too hot.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
I felt that yesterday. Yesterday when I walked in car
in the morning. It was the first morning I felt
a little that humidity, and I went, oh, no, it's here,
Oh it's here.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
It's here, and it's gonna stay untill about November.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Although I did say there's a front coming through next
week and it's a high of eighty three.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Did see that?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
So those two days with no humidity. You stand in
the shade, you're fine. Yeah, it's not bad. It's it's
when the humidity gets you. You can't outrun it even
in the shade. You feel it.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Houston, Texas.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
So regardless, somebody asked why the Astros tweet out roof
closed today, Like, don't even why you even had that.
It's never open.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
It's what we do the roof report on the on
Deck show. When's what, guys, it's closed.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
When is the last time they opened the roof?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Probably World Series twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
It feels like it has been a long time since
it was ever since it was open for a game.
But hey, that's what callers is back, so they're definitely
not going to be opening it. He hates it open.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
So yeah, the players don't like it because they don't
like the wind factors that can can can mess with
them and drop fly balls and stuff like that. They
liked the noise and they liked it. It eliminates some
of the luck factor with wind and breezes blowing and
circle swirling around.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I would get it, I will say. In closing two,
shout out to the Astros fans that made this road trip.
There was a lot of fans there in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
A lot of drunkards out there, and I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
One of them called me on the post game last
week said who and his wife were going and then
they were driving up to Cleveland for the series because
it's drivable. It's like and a half hours, Yeah, something
like that. So yeah, so kind of cool that you
can make and you can make a whole weekend out
of it. You go see the Hall of Fame, NFL
Hall of Fame Museum, Canton, the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame Museum. So it's kind of a cool trip
to make in the summer to go see those places.
(38:36):
But I gotta I gotta knock off the Pittsburgh Ballpark
off Betiful, off my bucket list. Everybody just raved about it.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
So yeah, it's so great. There's like nine thousand people
there every game.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Well, if they could win games with schemes, maybe they
could get back to the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
They even had under sixteen thousand for schemes, which surprised me.
Maybe it was like fifteen nine eighty one or something.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Maybe in five or six years we could have an
astros Pirates World Series and I'll get on up there,
get crazy for ross Very. I'm Chris Gordon. This has
been the Crawford Box Cast, presented by Carbox Brewing and
the Crawford Bock. Load up on the Crawford Bach while
you watch and listen to your Houston astros
Astros fans, cheers Luckey, Welcome to the Crawford Box Casts,
proudly for you by Crawford Bach from Carmack Brewy. You're
getting there, Oh my godness, the Crawford Box Cast starts
now here we go. Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Viail.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And it is an all new edition of the Crawford
box Cast, presented by Carbach Brewing and the Crawford Bach
The taste that goes great with an Astros victory. And
boy did we get an Astros victory late Thursday night,
as the Astros took two out of three against the
Pittsburgh Pirates, albeit uh in a game that maybe almost
(00:56):
didn't take place with the rain and whatnot. But as
out in Cleveland getting ready for a three game set
against the Guardians before they come back home for series
against the White Sox in the series against the Twins.
But this past week a lot of good for the Astros.
We know they finished off last week taking three out
of four against home against Seattle at home. I think
(01:16):
last week talked Ross was right before that series started
and I kept saying, oh take us, I'll take a split,
I'll take a split, and you said, well, you already
won game one, Yes, sir, you can, you can win
three out of four. Sure enough did they. They went
on for the mini two games sweep over the A's.
The series against the Rays was not looking good. Two
games with the bullpen absolutely imploded, but two gems from
(01:39):
from berveld as an Hunter Brown that led to wins.
So you split that four gamer and then this quick
three gamer up in Pittsburgh where you won two out
of three, ironically won the game against the elite Paul
Skeins lost to Burrows on.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Wednesday, Make Burrows.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And then that brings us to Thursday night, where the
game we knew was gonna go in a rain delay.
I'd kind of heard rumblings that they had some rain
in the area. The crazy thing over Ross is apparently
when they have weather systems coming in a lot of
them dissipate over those West Virginia Mountains, you don't really
know until it reaches Pittsburgh what it's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So a lot of times the MLB officials will just
play it safe and go, well, let's wait and see
what happens. And there were a lot of Astros fans
that made this road trip, and they were tweeting on
pictures like it's not even raining, what do we do it?
Why are we waiting three hours to play? And but
you knew, as and Adam Westerer kind of talked about
this yesterday on the air, you knew they had to
get it in because neither of these teams play each
(02:34):
other again in the rest of the year. There's no
like off days that coincide. There's no trip where you know,
the the Pirates are at Arlington, the Astros have an
off day, you know, like there was nothing that crossed over.
So it's like they had to get this one in.
Dana Brown went out there, got all feisty with the
getting with the Pirates folks. But you know what, ross
I say, good on the Pirates for finally getting this
(02:56):
one in because the Astros spent that ass.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, glad they got it in and eventually took some time.
I didn't know we needed a degree in Appalachian meteorology
to get far. He talked about it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Robert Fordy even called him the who's the guy who
does the weather on the Today Show? The autrob Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It was like it is ridiculous, but hey, as you mentioned,
got it done a couple of things fromber as you mentioned,
has been good. Talked about it last week and you'd
pointed it out like, hey, he only had one really
bad blow up game and a couple of other bad games,
but he has really been nails, really rounding into form.
Right now. You probably have Robert who's finished top ten
in the cy Young the last three years. He's looking
(03:36):
like he's right on track for that Hunter Brown looking
like at least a top three finish. So good to
see him continue to pitch well, even though we do
have to throw in the qualifier that Hey it was
against the Pirates who are terrible, but still got the
job done. He had seven innings to run ball with
eleven strikeouts. That's great. And then finally, not finally, but
he's seen a little bit more signs of life, even
(03:58):
with jord On Alvarez, continue about be out, even with
Christian Walker and your Dias struggling some some pop in
the bats or some other guys including Easok Paratus.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, and you mentioned Fromborough, look look at what he
did in the month of May. I'm surprised. I assume
he didn't win Pitcher of the Month, but he should
have absolutely been a finalist in the month of May,
ross he made six starts, went four and one, record
wise with a four to thirty nine ERA. I'm sorry
two thirty sixty. Sorry reather on number two thirty six
e R. I mean that is among the best in
(04:30):
the American League, the best in baseball. So I'm sure
look other guys like Tark school boys, those guys, I'm
sure there were other guys who were better. But you know,
certainly Hunter Brown and from Bert Valdez. For all the
pitching staff issues this team has had, those two guys
have been ace one A and one B this season.
(04:50):
They have been phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, it's been great, and it's been much needed because
of course, you know, we've been talking at nauseum now
since it's happened with the re Blanco and the Wesnsky injuries,
and Ryan Gusto continues to be like, I don't know
how much long heat No longer he's gonna be in
the rotation. You got Colton Gordon going tonight, so we'll
see what happens there. But you want to, well, you
(05:14):
want to have those two guys at the top of
the rotation to solidify, and it gives him a little
bit more pressure in a way because of the uncertainty.
Although you've gotten back to back quality starts at Atlansa
Colors Junior, hopefully he can kind of get into the
circle of trust. We can talk about that later on.
But those two guys, the pressure is on. They need
to perform because if they have the random stray off
(05:35):
game like Hunter Brown did in Tampa, like like Fromber
has had a game here or there, then it kind
of throws you that much more off for a possible
losing streak because of so many question marks. So those
guys need to be that a one ace and for
the most part they have been when they've gone out there.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, and then Hunter Brown, I mean again, he has
just continued to be steady outside of one stupid outing
at a Mickey Mouse Ballpark in Tampa. Thunder Brown's been
lights out and he ranks among American League pitchers ross
tied for first and wins second. It hits per nine
fourth in the ERA at one eighty three, and that
tells you how good three other guys are doing. If
(06:13):
he's fourth and with a one eighty three ERA, Yeah,
tied for fourth in strikeouts fifth and whip and eighth
in strikeouts per nine. He has been outstanding. And certainly,
you know, somebody asked me, oh, you think Hunter Brown's
going to be an All Star this year? Said all
Star like he's in CY Young candidacy in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, And it's also important because they would get he
needs to finish top three in the CY Young to
get the what is it they call it the the
Young Player Compensatory pick or something like that. If he
if he's able to keep this up, that would be
huge for the Astros because they would be able to
(06:52):
get that compensatory pick for Hunter Brown finishing top three
in the American League CY Young.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
We we should mention as far as pitching goes before
we move on to the bats. Lance mccullors man, I
just for him to out battle Paul Skeens the other night,
and Skeens has been outstanding this year. He's just had
lack of run support. But you know, basically mccullor's besting him,
going six shutout innings against him with seven strikeouts. That
(07:19):
was vintage Lance mccullors junior. And here we are really
the last four outings ross his his pitch count has
climbed and climbed. He's now gone back to back starts
with six completings. That's about what we wanted to get
him with. And look at the strikeout total seven last
time out twelve eight against Seattle on twelve against the A's.
I mean he he has been looking more and more
(07:41):
like himself. And again I keep hesitating because they don't
want to jinx anything, but man, this is this is
awesome that you're getting. We thought maybe there's a chance
he gets back and looks like his old self. I
think he's exceeded a lot of people's expectations.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, and ours included especially where we were. It was
May tenth when he had disaster start against the Cincinnati
Reds and one of you know, our fellow media members
who covers the team more closely there every day and
stuff like that, texted him and said, hey, how how
much longer do you think Lance mccullors Junior gets And
this person said three starts like it was a short leash.
(08:18):
We were thinking with how bad of a disaster it was,
and thinking, is this guy gonna be able to get outs?
Are they gonna have to be looking elsewhere so for
him to bounce back from that disaster the way that
he has, and like you said, racking basically looking like
vintage mccolors. Velocity is down a tick for sure, a
little bit different of the way that he's pitching, but
(08:40):
the stuff is still really good. A lot of swing
and miss, a lot of walks here and there as well,
racking up some of the pitch cowns, like you said,
but one hundred and two and ninety six pitches in
the last two times out much needed because of the injuries.
It's it's been great, and it's been a fascinating story
and journey this entire time. Like it, it's almost like
(09:00):
a book needs to be written about this. If he
can keep this up.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, you said the walks. He had three walks against
Chicago's first start back, three against Cincinnati, three against Seattle,
but just one against the Rangers in Arlington, just one
against the A's and just one against Pittsburgh. That is
getting it done. That's attacking the strike zone and get
getting guys to swing, and so yeah, I'm just so
encouraged by it. Again, he's got to keep this up.
(09:24):
And really, I mean, he's been elevated to be your
number three. We were saying, in a perfect world, though
mccollos is slid it as your five and whatever he
gives you great. But with Hayden was Nesky going down,
You're like, Okay, no big deal. But Spencer Rogetty has
broken thumb. He will come back at some point. But
then the news of Renel Blanco and we should pass
along the Astros sending out a note that Renel Blanco
will undergo the Tommy John surgery today today. He was
(09:47):
placed on the injury list back on May twenty second.
But so you think about it, the recovery time is
what twelve to eighteen months, twelve sometimes eighteen to twenty
now for some guys in two.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Years for Luiscar see him, I mean June of June
of twenty twenty three for him.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No offense to run on Blanco. But he's on the
upside of thirty, right.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, I think he's thirty thirty one. You're looking late Bloomer.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You're looking at is June twenty twenty five. You're looking
at at best sometime next summer, at best.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
At best the end of next year, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
What it's probably, let's be real, based on what's happened
with these past year guys. It'll probably be that thing
where they go, they get a brown next year will
go yeah, maybe it's September sometimes, and then we'll get
to September and he won't be anything, and he'll go
probably the start of twenty twenty seven. Yeah, I mean,
that's insane to think about.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, it's unfortunately, it has been a lot of setbacks,
and you'll be in your forties, by the way, No,
I am forty now actually, So.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
It's just it's wild to think about how many good
arms are us that they've lost. I mean, has somebody
asking me the other day about, you know, why won't
they play pay fromber? They don't pay good pictures and
all this, I say, excuse me, do you remember Christian
Hovey They went, No, actually I don't. I forgot about him.
He's one of the highest paid pictures they've ever had
in the organization. It's just we haven't seen him in
a year. I mean, it's since been that long since Hey.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
We've never heard anything about them approaching FROMBER. I think
maybe because he is longer, longer in the tooth. He's
what thirty one, thirty two years old by the time
he hits free agency, and the reality is we keep
coming to this road and these forks in the road,
and Jim Crane does not want to hand out the
long term, big money contracts, especially to a guy that's
(11:23):
on the wrong side at thirty like fromber Valdes.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And let's be real, Fromber's been awesome this year. He's
had awesome years past. He's also had roller coaster months
where he is up and down and the downs are like, Fromber,
what is going on. We've seen times where he's gone
off script, does his own thing. I mean, you know,
so there are times where there is some bad. Overall,
he's been very, very good. But I'm just saying, like
(11:47):
all that needs to be considered too. Where the age
and you know what if this guy just falls off
a cliff the minute you give him that big fact hug.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And he's had a couple of bad starts in the playoffs.
I mean in twenty twenty one, he had a couple
of bad starts, but then he came back and it
was like was it against the Red Sox he had
like eight innings a shutout or one run ball or
something like that. But in the twenty twenty two playoffs,
he was good. But I believe I'd have to look
it up. But the last two times he came out
of the playoffs in twenty four and twenty three, he
(12:14):
wasn't very good or very reliable. Certainly, I'm pretty sure
he had a bad start.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Like the Tigers, he was okay, they just got no
run support. Remember they couldn't they couldn't score any runs.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I don't have to go game by game line.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
There was the reason why the phrase good from Er
bad fromber came out. I mean the fan base was
using that because there were times or he was just
not good.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
But the last three years you finished top ten in
the SYE. Young are going to do it again, So
you're one of the top ten pitchers in your league.
That's gonna be pretty good. Yeah. Last year, four and
a third three earns runs, giving up seven hits, but
they lose a couple of walks. It was they lost
the game three to one.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, see if he gets run support, we don't even
say anything that's true.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yea, they could have short some stuff. I think that
was against Schoobole, right, and then not good in the Yeah,
he was terrible in twenty three playoffs. Oh my god.
And he only went twelve starts in three different games.
I'm sorry, twelve innings in three different starts. That was
against what Seattle great in twent twos bad in twenty
(13:11):
one despite the yeah, the Boston it was eight in
ings of one run ball. So mixed bag, Yeah, real
mixed bag.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
We should mention it to Colton Gordon making his fifth
major league start tonight. In his previous four starts this year,
he's basically going five innings of three run ball. I mean,
that's the best day. That's the best you could ask
out of your number five guy. Yeah, like that's giving
you a chance to win, you know, And honestly, I
think I want to say it was the first three
outings he got the ball, that's was won. All three
(13:41):
of those games he didn't get to win, but they
won those games's And again, that's all you can ask
for is to go out there and do your thing.
Let's touch have a bullpen a little bit. The first
kind of hiccup we saw out of this bullpen, and
really it was just two guys. It was Brian King
Thursday night against Seattle or No Tampa, where he just
(14:02):
did not have it at all got dinged for what
five runs. It was amazing because his cra was like
around one and it absolutely got dinged in that start
or that outing, and then kayleb board in the other
one he got knocked around by the Rays. And then
Force Whitley came in after about those guys in both
those games after it was already out of hand and
made it really out of hand. Force Whitley just was
(14:24):
gone awful. And so it's amazing Ross. They came into
that series against Tampa with the second best bullpen numbers
in terms of VRA. They dropped to ninth after that series. Now,
the good news was you got absolute gems from Fromper
and Hudter Brown and that's what helped you split the
series two and two.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
But it was just it was the first.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Hiccup we saw. But the good news was on Sunday
Brian King came back out and he was good. So
and he's been good since then, So I think that
was just everybody's entitled to their one hiccup. I mean, shoot,
even marioo Rivera had an occasional hook hiccup, but Brian
King was really he's been really good over Caleb Barts
kind of he's your what fourth or fifth best reliever.
(15:03):
I mean, he's not even You're not relying on him
in Forrus.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Is basically your mop up guy at this point, and honestly.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
He's nearing the end.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
He's I think you could be right. The reason he's
on this team is because of his age. He has
no I believe he has no option left yet.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So if they decide to move on from him, he
will not be a Houston ast anymore. And I do
think somebody would pick him up because they would say, oh,
let's give this kid a chance that you know, former
top prospect and all this. But yeaheah, I just but overall,
I mean Brian, I can't say enough about Brian and
Bray you and then Josh hater Ross is a perfect
sixteen for sixteen and save opportunities this season, has the most,
(15:39):
has the most saves without a blown save in the majors.
He has the second most saves in franchise history without
a blown save to begin a season, behind only Dave
Smith back in nineteen eighty nine, who converted twenty one
saves to start that season, So five more saves without
a blown one and he's gonna tie Dave Smith's all
time record in franchise history. Great.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Before the season, I kind of, I don't want to
say it was like a bold prediction, but I thought
he could be on tap for forty saves, just because
of the nature of this offense, because of you're gonna
be a lot of close games, good pitching, not great hitting,
You're gonna need a guy like him. And so at
this point, would you say it was sixteen saves, sixteen
for sixteen, sixteen for sixteen with saves for him, and
(16:23):
this team has won thirty four games, then you add
in that win that he has, so seventeen of your
thirty four wins, that's half of them. He's been a factor.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah. I mean, look everybody. There were some people who
criticized the deal when they handed it out, because remember
they're like, oh, you got Ryde Presley, Why do you
need to go pay this guy? Look at where Presley
is and look at where Josh Hader is. This is
the best, one of the best closers in baseball, if
not the best. He takes a ton of money, but
he's worth every penny. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And it was a rocky start last year and people
were upset, But what was like the first twenty nine
and twenty nine save opportunities didn't he? Wait, you said,
what was the Dave Smith?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Smith made twenty He converted twenty one saves without a
blown save to start that season.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I thought he did it last year, didn't he? I
thought he converted his first twenty nine last year.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
This is to start a season, so hater, Oh he
started back. Yeah, then went on, Okay, I got you,
so so yeah, so that again. Baseball's quirky with those
kind of things. My favorite used to be like it
was like Andy Pettitt is undefeated in day games on
a Thursday. I'm like, okay, that's really getting uh cherry
picking your stats. But overall, bullpen's been good. Overall, feel
(17:32):
good about the bullpen any more. Thoughts on pitching before
we moved to hitting.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Nah, I think I'm good. Yeah. You mentioned ninth and
R at team ERA with the I think that's where
they are, right, Yeah, if you know, it's still not actually,
but if you go to like some other metrics, like
I like a field independent pitching, they're sixth. So you
go to some other stuff, ERA doesn't always tell the story.
So yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
But again, like that game against the Rays, Brian King
gives up the five runs. If Whitley throws shutout innings
does it doesn't make any difference us or the right.
But it adds to that number and lower and raises
that era number because Forest gives him more runs. But
at the end of the day, you won't come back
to win that game anyway. So to me, you lose
seven to one or eleven to one, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Hey, you know who's a good piece of the bullpen,
says ourselves.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Are Yeah, he's the one guy with a zero point
zero e ra on this on this pitching staff, as
well as who is the guy who came up Brandon Walter.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yes, he threw five.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Shout out of things in a start. That guy back.
He's been pitching well in sugar Lands.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
How long do you think Ryan Gusto is in the rotation?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I think he gets one more outing and if he
cannot push it to he's got to give you five.
I'm sorry, you got to get into the fifth inning.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
He's been good out of the bullpen, he is.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I think you slide him back to the pen. I
think you say bye bye to force Whitley, and I
think you bring back either Brandon Walter, AJ Blue Baw
or the guy and you'd have to make a roster
spot form. But the guy knocking on the door just
one what minor league pitcher of the month, Miguel who's pitching?
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Ver If you're DFAG Whitley, that would make sense.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You could do that. We'll see what Dana Brown does.
But he is shown he is not afraid to call
guys up and give them an opportunity to aggressive.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well they need to be, they've had a lot of injuries.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Let's talk hitting. We got to see the debut of
the astros number two prospect. Yes, Jacob Melton gets to
call up, gets a hit in his big league debut
on Sunday, and then had a couple of nice hits
in the game against the Pittsburgh last night. I thought
that that was really good in that Eastak Prarie hits
the home run, you're up on nothing, Cam Smith comes
(19:28):
up with an RBI single and then right after him,
Jacob Melton with a two RBI single. Like to me,
the two young guys, the two rookies going out there
that are playing the outfield for you. They've been great
defensively so far, and they're giving you something at the plate.
I know Cam Smith had kind of cooled off there
for a little bit, but hopefully he starts heating up
a little bit more. But just kind of like, you know,
(19:50):
anything you're getting out of those two guys right now,
and to me, you're you're batting them down in the
bottom three holes, so like you know, you're not really
asking him to do a ton, but anything you're getting
from them right now is a plut.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah. And Jacob Melton, I mean, look, even though he's
the Ashos number two prospect, it's and I think he
was like eighty eighth on somebody's list a couple of
years ago or something like that. Like he's kind of
flirted with top hundred.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
But kind of an.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Outfield athlete fast he's stealing. He's stealing like thirty bases
or whatever a year down there in the minors. But
not necessarily expecting a whole lot of it as BA.
But it looks nice when you see it in the
lineup card and you see Melton, Myers and Smith out
there and right field with al two of Adhing yesterday
and the day before at second base. It's like everything
(20:33):
that gets hit out there is gonna be caught. Yeah,
so that's a good feeling that you haven't really had
back until maybe what it was like Reddick and Marisnik
and Brantley or something out there. Yeah, Springer in that
mix as well. You haven't had this athletic of and
good of an outfield in a long time. So at
least she kind of feels secure in that.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And that's you know again, like this gives you a
little bit of flexibility to just kind of fast forwarding
and look into spring training twenty twenty six. You still
have years of team control on Chaz McCormick and Jake Myers.
You can kind of just if I'm Dani Brown, you
roll them all on and go may the best man win.
And if Jacob Melton takes that next step and is
the development, you could say farewell to one of those guys, tradeable,
(21:14):
you know what I mean? Like, I think it gives
you some options. Look, nobody's gonna confuse any of them
would be All Stars next year, but just like can
use some options that if Melton emerges at cam Smith emerges,
you know, continues to progress and you go, holy crap,
we got two studs here, you could say, by Boddy,
Jake Myers, Chas McCormick.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, it'll be interesting though the way things get configured
because the Astros in a way kind of with the
philosophies that they set over the offseason in spring training,
pigeonholed them themselves and kind of limited their flexibility saying hey,
and a spot of even saying it before what either
yesterday day's yesterday's game or the day before that. He
(21:51):
still wants to put l TV out and left a
bunch with mixing him in DH and second base. But
when Jordon comes back and he's holding down the DH spot,
that's one last spot you can put him. You still
want to get Dubon out there. Who knows if Bryce
Matthews is going to factor in at some point, you
want to put him in second base. Hit Wick comes
up with the club as well.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I was gonna say, what have you made of we've
seen more Altuve at second lately? Are they maybe thinking
of putting him there a little bit more than originally thought?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I don't know. A Spota says no, but if we
look at what's happening, it has been yes. But that's
also because you want to get Jacob Melton, some looks
you want to get. You want to keep Jake Myers.
You talked about, Hey, you guys, it's going to be
the hot hand. Jake Myers has been that hot hand.
He's cooled off since, but it was going to be.
Maybe we were seeing Chas McCormick a little bit of
this season, but see a couple of good out like
(22:38):
outs balls would have been out. He's hit well, so
I think he's still feeling it. I think so too,
And it's it's still looks like I don't think the
guy's going to be an All Star at the plate
or anything like that, but at least viable to be
in your seven eight nine spot in the lineup. Unfortunately
at a necessity he's been up as like as high
as five six depending on the day. But if he
can continue to do that, where Jake Myers is kind
(23:00):
of winning that spot over at least before he got
injured Chas McCormick, and we'll see what happens with Jacob Melton.
It's gonna be you got a logjam out there, and
unfortunately it's a logjam of guys who haven't really set
themselves apart as as you know, no doubt about it.
Every day I have to keep this guy in the lineup.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Meyer still statistically one of your better hitters, batting two
eighty seven on this team. It was at around three
hundred last time we talked, so it's probably.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Not gonna hit I mean, he's like a career two
to thirty guys, so he's probably not gonna hit three
hundred this year. That'd be amazing if he did, yeah,
but unlikely.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Let's talk about a guy who will likely find his
way on his first All Star ballot there, you know,
first All Star game this year, and that is your
leadoff man, shortstop Jeremy Panye, who is on an eleven
game hitting streak, batting four to thirty two in that stretch,
nine runs, four doubles, three homers, six runs batted in,
five stolen bases, and an eleven ninety five ops in
(23:52):
that stretch. It's his second ten or more game hit
streak this season, and it joins of career high fourteen
game hits he had back in April. Since they moved
him to that leadoff spot ross on April twenty seventh,
he has batted three sixty six nine to eighty seven
ops in that stretch. That is just that's getting it done.
(24:13):
I mean, Jeremy Penya has been outstanding. We made a
bet before the season. I thought he was gonna have
a night shoot.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, we did twenty and a half home runs I think,
which he's pacing in front of.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
He's pacing in front of right now. He's just been
outstanding and man again brings up the conversations of you know,
pay the man. Do you consider getting ahead of this
thing and rewarding him with a contract now, But Peyya
has been awesome in that leadoff spot.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, he's been really good. And that was kind of
one of the reasons I made that better because you know,
last year we were at spring training and he's like,
you know, I've changed my approach. I've quieted my leg kick,
and I know that he's got a great work ethic.
He works hard, he lives in breeds baseball, and I
was buying in more last year on the Matt tim
Show with Ross, we do a segment called gut Feelings,
(24:57):
and I was like, he's gonna have the best offensive
year of his career. Didn't happen. It was one year late.
So basically I was a year early on that, and
you heard the same things this offseason. I've been working
my approach to play blah blahlah blah, and it's like, Okay,
not often that a guy has a big leap forward
and breakout season at age twenty seven, So I was
definitely skeptical that he would. I wasn't skeptical that he
(25:21):
would improve, but to make the big leap that he
has that we've seen from him so far to where
we're talking about him as an All Star, it's been
very impressive. I hope it's here to stay, and it's
we're through obviously at least a third of the season
now at this point, over a third of the season,
so I hope it continues. It's been fantastic to see
and he has really been thriving in that leadoff spot.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
One more wrinkle I want to add here, and that's
just been very unique with this team. One, they have
scored nearly half of their runs the season ross with
two outs. They've scored one hundred and fifteen of their
two hundred fifty runs. That's forty six percent with two outs.
Forty three of their last seventy six runs scored. I've
come with two outs in an that is getting it done.
(26:01):
That is I mean, you know, it's one thing to
get a leadoff man on your put them over or
whatever however your manufacture runs. But the Astro's timely hitting
has been the biggest problem with this team the last
couple of years. And doing it with two outs that
is quite the contrast to what they've been the last years.
They've been a good offensive team, but just a team
that has struggled with two outs. This team is doing
(26:22):
it with yea.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yeah, it's I mean, I would call it probably just
a little bit of a quirk in one of those
things that happens over a baseball season. I don't know
that it's like some kind of magic spell gets put
on when they have two outs. But it's great. It's good.
I mean, hey, anytime you can get some runs manufacturing
get him in. Especially as you said, we've been frustrated
with two outs and getting guys on running, getting guys
(26:44):
runs in and driven in with the base runn of
guys on base, it's been terrible. And so now seeing
it this year, it's encouraging and you kind of never
feel like they're counting on and you're getting production from
you know, random guys. I mean, Jacob Melton did come
up big a couple of times, hitting it opposite way.
I think he hit a ball hit over one hundred
and five miles an hour yesterday as well. So you're
(27:04):
getting it from all over the place and it's been
fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
The other wrinkle here is the Astros have eighteen come
from behind wins this season. That ranks tied for the
most wins the American League with the Twins, including last
night's win at Pittsburgh. Five of the Astros last night
wins have come and come back fashion. So that's another
thing too. You like the pedigree of that for a
team that you know you foresee them making the postseason.
(27:31):
You know that that's the pedigree of a good team
that knows how to they're they're never out. You know
that they always have a chance to come back. And
you know, again that's that's a really good stat on
this team this year.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, you've look, this is a team of professionals and
a lot of these guys. Look, there are some young
guys injected in this lineup, but you know, the the
jose L two Ves and now Jeremy Pania, who's kind
of taken over the reins, is one of those guys.
It's kind of be a part of this astro winning culture.
They're just they just fight, man, They're just professionals, and
(28:05):
it's great to see. You wish a couple of the
other guys would wake up. We haven't talked much about
Christian Walker, you Iron Diez, those types of guys. You
need Jordan Alvarez back as well. But at least you
are getting something, and you know, not even just staying afloat.
I mean, you're a game and a half of first place.
With all this complaining we've done about guys who are
holes in the lineup, about the starting pitching and trying
(28:26):
to hold the glue together, the couple of blow ups
we mentioned in the bullpen. You're thirty four and twenty
eight in yere in first place.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
The one more player related issue we didn't even bring up.
We found out since we last talked clarity on the
gyrd On Alvarez situation and that he did indeed have
a fracture in there, that they did not see it
on the initial imaging. But now that we've got that
out of the way, Dana Brown said last Sunday he
was about sixty percent healed from it.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Okay, what percent is he this week?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
I would say he's close to seventy twenty five. I mean,
you know, but what's the healing rate on that thing?
But yeah, I mean again it's we know he'll be
shut down for a couple of weeks, but hopefully, you know,
get some good news here and when he's when that
thing's healed and he's ready to go, they'll throw him
right back in there in the lineup. And maybe that
is too a thing ross that his slow start to
the season maybe was part of that. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I didn't think it did factor, And it just seemed
like they kind of at first they were trying to
say that no, it was something that new that popped
up in in spring training, but then further later on
it kind of got out that, yeah, he had been
trying to play a little bit through this, and they
even mentioned that that they probably mishandled this injury and
should have shut him down sooner.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
It's even wilder to know a guy like had a
broken hand and still could hit home runs, Like, I
don't know, it's not so when that happens. But all
that said, Ross, shout out to the Baltimore Orioles who
just swept the Seattle Mariners.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Appreciate you, murder And as.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
The Astros take two out of three against Pittsburgh, the
Astros remain in first place, a game and a half
up now in the American Leagueless. That's got to be
their biggest lead they've had all season, as they've been
chasing all season and getting that first place. But Seattle
at one and a half, the Rangers have lost what
six of their last ten, three in a row, so
(30:07):
they're five and a half back. The Angels kind of
sticking around there, they're five and a half back, and
then the Low Liais have lost nine of their last
ten and they are eleven games back in the AL West.
So you're right where you want to be again. You know,
well the Seattle will you go on a streak of
losing a couple of games and Seattle jump you again.
Probably gonna happen again at some point in this summer.
(30:29):
But the larger picture here also want to bring up
is two of your next three series are against the
two teams right behind you in the American League standings.
You're in Cleveland this weekend against the Guardians, and then
next weekend the Twins come to town. Those two teams
are right there with you. The Twins are tied with
you in the ALE standings right down thirty four and
(30:51):
twenty eight, and the Guardians are just a half game
back of you both. So I just say that to
say tie breakers could come into play at the end
of the year. It'd be nice to take to win
the series against the Guardians and win the series against
the Twins.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah, that'd be cool if you are going to factor
into that, which I don't necessarily know that that's gonna happen.
I still have them winning the division, but we could
see anything gonna happen. Every game important. And also, Gordy,
did you know Astros remaining schedule one hundred games left
opponents strength of schedule in terms of win percentage, they
are thirtieth out of thirty. Mean they have the weakest
(31:25):
easy schedule remaining, right, Well, I mean, look White the
Rockies eleven more with the A's.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, you get the after this tough series against the Guardians,
you get three against the White Sox at Dykin Park,
where you've won a lot a week later, you go
off for four in Sacramento. Sacramento A's yeah, oh, Cremento. Yeah.
The only thing I keep looking at as that stretch
before the All Star Game where it's Phillies Cubs, Rockies.
(31:52):
Will be a nice break, yeah, but then it's at
the Dodgers for three, home for three against Cleveland, home
for three against the Rangers. That two week stretch is
kind of a just play five hundred ball, like if
you could just be five hundred in that stretch because
there are some big pitfalls there where you could get
swept by the Dodgers, you get swept by the Cubs.
I mean there's some dangerous games in there.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
So yeah, key, there will be What the state of
the rotation is, yes.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yes, and again why fromber and Hunter Brown? I would
put them in bubble wrap when they're not pitching. Just
be like, guys, I need you to do everything you
can to stay healthy. But encouraged by mccollors. We'll see
what Colden Gordon does tonight. Ryan Gusto, you're kind of
on life support right now. We'd like to see you
go a little bit further. But some good options down low.
Last thing are ass people have been bringing up trade
(32:39):
deadline already. I just kind of shut it down because
I've said, look, you've depleted your farm system in recent
years making trades and all this. Dana Brown was brought
in to build this thing back. You've worked hard to
bring it back. And even that said, you still made
a deadline trade last year, getting Kakuchi and giving up
low Berfito and some of these other arms. I just
I'd rather just stand pat. I'd rather what you have.
(33:01):
You know, I get if you have another starting pitching injury,
you may have to go make a big trade, But
I'd rather just stay pat with what they have right now.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I would say they probably don't have much of a choice.
I mean, as you mentioned, the resources are limited. You
have some guys as you can throw out there and
kind of hold the glue together, hopefully with your with
the bullpen and the state that it is. And the
bottom line is you have a limited amount of sellers
at this point, and teams are gonna wait until that
(33:32):
market grows and gets a little bit more robust towards
the end of July. So even if Dana Brown said, hey,
today I'm gonna make a trade, it probably couldn't happen.
So he's gotta wait. You gotta hope Raghetti gets back,
even though that's probably gonna be close to the deadline
at that point. Hope mccullors still can hold up his
end of the deal and do what he's been doing
when he's going out on the mound. But yeah, I
(33:52):
don't know that I want them to stay pat. I
just don't think they have much of a choice.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
The question is who wants what you got? I mean,
I love talking to Astros fans where they go. So
trade McCormick. Who the hell wants hurt injured Chas McCormick,
even if he gets started healthy, What what trade value
does that have? I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
People are like, yeah, this guy sucks, get rid of him.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Trade him.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Well, if he sucks and you want to get rid
of him, everybody else knows that.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
To the other one, we need to bring up. Somebody
brought up last week. Trade fromber. I mean, if he's
gonna leave anyway, get something for him. He's one of
the best pitchers on your team, on a team already
devoided pitching, So you're just gonna give up throwing the
towel on this year, that's what you would be doing,
and trading a Fromber.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, they're trying to toe the line of building for
the future and winning.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Now.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Part of that was trading away Kyle Tucker, but that
helped you right now, you suck. Paratus has been one
of your best hitters. Cam Smith still developing, but you're
you're you have high hopes for him in the future.
And Wesnsky unfortunately had Tommy John surgery, but you're also
keeping Fromber. The only way they trade him in my opinion,
by the deadline is if they are there just way
out of it, which I don't expect to happen.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
So as we as we wrap up here, one of
my you guys, make sure you get a you know,
lo it up on ice cold Crawford bock from our
friends at Carbock Brewing. We were out there at Carbok
just last.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Week and be there in a couple of weeks. Correct,
We'll be there.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Again at the end of the month after that Phillies
Day game. And I gotta say, probably one of the
more underrated food there at Carbock from in the restaurant
burger fish and chips. Whatever you're getting inside the restaurant,
and then outside outside on the in the beer garden.
They got the covered patty out there with massive fans.
By the way, I know it's getting hot out there,
but they got the I mean, industrial sized fans blowing
(35:32):
on you on every picnic table out there. But then
you walk right inside in the new pizza and pints,
and it's air conditioning there and wood fired pizza, and
you've you've tried their pizzas, right they they have got some.
They've got one. It's like a honey pepperoni with a
slight spice to it. It's so good. The mazzarella sticks,
I think, are awesome cheese sticks, whatever you want to
(35:52):
call them. They're I mean, that's a meal within itself.
But some great options over there at Carbock Brewing. But
make sure you, guys, when you're watching Astros baseball, when
you're listening to Astros baseball, you're doing sold with an
ice cool Crawford Bach from our friends at Carbock Brewing.
As we wrap up here Ross and we look ahead
to the Astros coming back home. It was kind of interesting.
(36:14):
He made a big announcement yesterday that jose L Tuvey,
now a spokesman for dyke in air conditioning. Did you
see the picture they tweeted out with that.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah, it was him standing next to an air conditioning unit.
I mean that's fine. What else are you gonna do?
Put him in an abominable snowman suit.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I mean the unit was about as big as LTWOVA.
So it was just kind of funny to have him
as the endorser for the new endorsement at the ball.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Hey, it makes sense. The most air conditioned city in
the world, according to a study done by dyke In,
was Houston, Texas. Movie that's what they did in the
marketing department.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
It probably makes sense. I mean, in the summer months,
you can't even open a window in your mouth, there's
no breeze blown.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
No, you need it a c it's hot. It's too hot.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
I felt that yesterday. Yesterday when I walked in car
in the morning. It was the first morning I felt
a little that humidity, and I went, oh, no, it's here,
Oh it's here.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
It's here, and it's gonna stay untill about November.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Although I did say there's a front coming through next
week and it's a high of eighty three.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Did see that?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
So those two days with no humidity. You stand in
the shade, you're fine. Yeah, it's not bad. It's it's
when the humidity gets you. You can't outrun it even
in the shade. You feel it.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Houston, Texas.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
So regardless, somebody asked why the Astros tweet out roof
closed today, Like, don't even why you even had that.
It's never open.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
It's what we do the roof report on the on
Deck show. When's what, guys, it's closed.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
When is the last time they opened the roof?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Probably World Series twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
It feels like it has been a long time since
it was ever since it was open for a game.
But hey, that's what callers is back, so they're definitely
not going to be opening it. He hates it open.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
So yeah, the players don't like it because they don't
like the wind factors that can can can mess with
them and drop fly balls and stuff like that. They
liked the noise and they liked it. It eliminates some
of the luck factor with wind and breezes blowing and
circle swirling around.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I would get it, I will say. In closing two,
shout out to the Astros fans that made this road trip.
There was a lot of fans there in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
A lot of drunkards out there, and I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
One of them called me on the post game last
week said who and his wife were going and then
they were driving up to Cleveland for the series because
it's drivable. It's like and a half hours, Yeah, something
like that. So yeah, so kind of cool that you
can make and you can make a whole weekend out
of it. You go see the Hall of Fame, NFL
Hall of Fame Museum, Canton, the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame Museum. So it's kind of a cool trip
to make in the summer to go see those places.
(38:36):
But I gotta I gotta knock off the Pittsburgh Ballpark
off Betiful, off my bucket list. Everybody just raved about it.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
So yeah, it's so great. There's like nine thousand people
there every game.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Well, if they could win games with schemes, maybe they
could get back to the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
They even had under sixteen thousand for schemes, which surprised me.
Maybe it was like fifteen nine eighty one or something.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Maybe in five or six years we could have an
astros Pirates World Series and I'll get on up there,
get crazy for ross Very. I'm Chris Gordon. This has
been the Crawford Box Cast, presented by Carbox Brewing and
the Crawford Bock. Load up on the Crawford Bach while
you watch and listen to your Houston astros
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