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Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. Welcome into another edition of Crush City Territory.

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Speaker 1: M Chandler Roam joined by Tyler Stafford and Happy offseason.

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Speaker 1: Earlier than perhaps any of you can ever remember, an

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Speaker 1: off season occurring for the Houston Astros, who ended their

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Speaker 1: eight consecutive seasons of playing postseason baseball. On Saturday night

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Speaker 1: in Anaheim, in a very odd setting, Cjkaphis of the

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Speaker 1: Cleveland Guardians got hit by a pitch with the bateses

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Speaker 1: loaded to eliminate the Astros, and then I don't want,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to speculate on how it on how

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Speaker 1: it trickled out to the dugout, But I did have

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Speaker 1: my binoculars on that. We all did. We had our

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Speaker 1: binoculars on the dugout right when, right like about thirty

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Speaker 1: seconds after the hit by pitch, and I saw Carlos

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Speaker 1: Correa come up from a bunch of guys were on

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Speaker 1: the railing. I saw Carlos Corea come up onto the

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Speaker 1: railing and tell the coaches something. I presume he told

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Speaker 1: them that that Cleveland had won the game. A lot

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Speaker 1: of guys then got off of the railing kind of

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Speaker 1: sat on the bench. You could tell it was a

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Speaker 1: It was a visceral deflation of the dugout, and then

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Speaker 1: Joe Aspata in turn pulled Jose Al tuve he Stak

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Speaker 1: Paradis and Carlos Korea from the game, and that was

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Speaker 1: the end effectively of the twenty twenty five Astro season.

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Speaker 1: They did play Saturday and Sunday, won both games to

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Speaker 1: finish a season that Tyler, I'm still struggling with how

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Speaker 1: to like to talk about this season. I kept writing.

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Speaker 1: I used the word star crossed probably more than I

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Speaker 1: ever have in my career, just describing this season, just

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Speaker 1: given everything that happened to this team injury wise, I

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Speaker 1: use the word snake bit a little bit because it

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Speaker 1: just seemed like every time something was going right for them,

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Speaker 1: another injury happened or another just awful instance happened. But

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Speaker 1: I think it'd be misguided to blame this entire season

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Speaker 1: on injuries. Don't get me wrong. Injuries derailed this team

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Speaker 1: to a point that few other Major league teams have

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Speaker 1: ever had to endure. We talked about it a little

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Speaker 1: bit on here. I think both baseball perspectives and fangrafts

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Speaker 1: did then an accumulation of how much potential War was

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Speaker 1: lost to injuries this season, and the Astros were a

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Speaker 1: top both lists, if you believe fang if not. If

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Speaker 1: you believe it fangrafts, his study said the Astros lost

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Speaker 1: about seventeen point six potential war on the injury list.

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Speaker 1: There is no denying that injuries just crippled this team.

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Speaker 1: But I think to say that this was just an

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Speaker 1: injury played season and a one off is a little

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Speaker 1: bit misguided. But Tyler, how will you remember the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five Astros?

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Speaker 2: So I would agree with you if they had missed

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Speaker 2: the playoffs by nine games, you know, if they had

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Speaker 2: just cratered to a point, you know, if they weren't

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Speaker 2: even a five or baseball team or whatever. I think

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Speaker 2: you could look at that and say, Okay, yeah, injuries

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Speaker 2: are a part of it, but that's not everything. Like

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Speaker 2: every team is hurt, you know, Like the Astros are

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Speaker 2: not special and that they had players get injured. They

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Speaker 2: are special in the number of players that they got

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Speaker 2: injured and the core of the team that was injured

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Speaker 2: for most of the year. But I mean, the fact

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Speaker 2: of the matter is that they tied two other teams

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Speaker 2: to make the playoffs. They just didn't have the tiebreaker

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Speaker 2: over them. They you know, they missed the playoffs by

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Speaker 2: a win, Yes, essentially, And so I think I think

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Speaker 2: it is certainly fair to say injuries played a large

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Speaker 2: role in that. I mean, you could eat like you

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Speaker 2: can easily say, at at any point in the A's

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Speaker 2: or Angels series of the last week, if your Don

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Speaker 2: Alvarez is playing, if they might win one of those

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Speaker 2: games and be in the playoffs, and then you just

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Speaker 2: go like, okay, well see what happenapons from there. So

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Speaker 2: I think it is a fair looking back at the

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Speaker 2: season to say like injuries played a humongous role in this.

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Speaker 2: Now they you know, had a lot of other issues

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Speaker 2: as well. That is certainly the case. But yeah, I

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Speaker 2: think when you look back at this season, injuries are

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Speaker 2: going to be the first thing that you think of

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Speaker 2: when you think of this season. I'd like to read

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Speaker 2: you off real quick. On Baseball Reference. They you can

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Speaker 2: sort by innings played on the on the team page. Here,

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Speaker 2: I'd like to read off the five astros who played

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Speaker 2: the most innings in the field for them this year.

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Speaker 2: It was Christian Walker far and away the most, Cam Smith,

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Speaker 2: Jeremy Paanya, Jiner Diaz, Mauricio Dubon to some of those

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Speaker 2: guys you would have been okay with thinking like okay

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Speaker 2: those you know, Diaz and Walker. That was another issue

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Speaker 2: of this year is that two of the guys that

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Speaker 2: didn't get hurt and that you were relying on just

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Speaker 2: weren't good. But when Cam Smith and Listen as the

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Speaker 2: number one Cam Smith supporter, it's even difficult for me

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Speaker 2: to say when Cam Smith is the guy that played

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Speaker 2: the second most innings on your team this year, something

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Speaker 2: happened over the course of the season. I mean, Mauricio

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Speaker 2: Dubon again was above even Altuve, but you know it's there.

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Speaker 2: There was a lot that happened this year. And so

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Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, when you look back at this year,

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Speaker 2: I think even before the season, everyone would have agreed,

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Speaker 2: this is not a anywhere near the caliber of the

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Speaker 2: team that you would have expected going you know, over

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Speaker 2: the last ten years, Like this is clearly the worst

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Speaker 2: of the last ten years of Astros teams going into

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Speaker 2: this season. And I think even before the year we

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Speaker 2: said like eighty six eighty seven wins, like that's where

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Speaker 2: they ended up. So in a way, you could say,

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Speaker 2: like the other guys, maybe even overperformed because they did

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Speaker 2: have so many injuries from the guys that they were

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Speaker 2: expecting to perform and they didn't. So maybe they were

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Speaker 2: even a little bit better than you would have expected

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Speaker 2: given that they had so many injuries. But I mean,

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Speaker 2: more or less, this is where you would have thought

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Speaker 2: the Astros would have ended up before the season. And

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Speaker 2: now the issue is this was kind of your last

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Speaker 2: shot of you know, you still got fromber, You've got

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Speaker 2: you know, obviously you're gonna have al tuo A for

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Speaker 2: a while now, but you know, this was everyone knew

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Speaker 2: this was coming to the downside of a golden era,

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Speaker 2: and I think it is fair to say that even

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Speaker 2: if the Astros go back to the playoffs next year,

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Speaker 2: the golden era will be defined as ending this season,

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Speaker 2: you know, no matter what happens next year.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to say maybe like where the franchise

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Speaker 1: is and where the organization is for for you know,

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Speaker 1: the next segment, because I think for we're not very

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Speaker 1: organized on this show. In case you guys haven't noticed

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Speaker 1: after one hundred and something episodes, we did want to

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Speaker 1: kind of do it as talk about the twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: five Astros and then talk about maybe the full franchise,

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Speaker 1: like where this leaves them in their life cycle.

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Speaker 2: To be fair, you literally told me that before we

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Speaker 2: started recording, and I went off on my own brant.

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Speaker 2: So I don't know that it's organization as much as

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Speaker 2: I just ignored you.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I mean it's it's both. You know, you met.

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Speaker 1: You listed off all those guys that played all those things.

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Speaker 1: That does not count Jose Altuve, who DHD for substantial

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Speaker 1: amount of time this year, which is probably what he

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Speaker 1: needed to do just given his age. But also when

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Speaker 1: you're playing a thirty five year old player one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty five games in a season, I don't care

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Speaker 1: if he's just daching, that's probably not the recipe to go.

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Speaker 1: I had this statistic in a story I wrote on

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Speaker 1: Sunday after the they were eliminated on Saturday, that the

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Speaker 1: Ashers had eight players on their season opening payroll that

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Speaker 1: made more than ten million dollars. And let me remember

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Speaker 1: them off the top of my head. It was Jose

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Speaker 1: al Tuve, Christian Walker from ber Valdez. Rafael Montero shout out,

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Speaker 1: he's going to the playoffs. How about that? Good for raf?

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Speaker 2: Is he? Where is he now? Tigers, Troit Tigers.

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Speaker 1: Baby, good for him, he's going to the playoffs. Josh Hater,

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Speaker 1: Lance McCullers, Junior Jordan Alvarez, and Christian Hobbier.

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Speaker 2: So where Jose.

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Speaker 1: He counts to? But I didn't put him in this exercise. Montero. Actually,

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Speaker 1: did you know thorow a pitch for this team this year?

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Speaker 1: So he does kind of count a brave You made

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Speaker 1: nineteen and a half million to cit Hem Miami somewhere.

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Speaker 1: Those eight guys that I just listed, they combined for

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Speaker 1: six point six war according to Baseball Reference. From Erveldez

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Speaker 1: was responsible for three point nine of that. And I

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Speaker 1: don't need to tell you how Fromberval does his last

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Speaker 1: two months went. That is one issue that the guys

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Speaker 1: that they paid handsomely to perform and the guys that

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Speaker 1: just buy their salary and it doesn't. That's not how

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Speaker 1: this works all the time. It's not just you get

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Speaker 1: paid a lot of money and automatically you have to

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Speaker 1: carry the team, like guys come out of nowhere. You

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Speaker 1: can have rookies come up and do well. Jeremy Panna

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Speaker 1: didn't make ten million dollars this year, but he was

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Speaker 1: the best player on the team. But when you have

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Speaker 1: that much money invested in all of those guys and

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Speaker 1: not all of it was sheer lack of production. Jordan

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Speaker 1: Alvarez was one of those guys who played forty eight

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Speaker 1: games all year. Lance mccullors was one of those guys

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Speaker 1: had forced in it's on the injured list. Christian Xavier

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Speaker 1: was one of those guys, was recovering from Tommy John

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Speaker 1: for the first half of the year. Didn't get back

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Speaker 1: until July. But when you have that much money and

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Speaker 1: you're not the Mets, you're not the Yankees, you're not

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Speaker 1: the Dodgers, like.

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Speaker 2: The famous playoff making Mets.

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Speaker 1: Well yeah, but you're not those teams to where money

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Speaker 1: is no issue. Like we've talked about this ad nauseam,

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Speaker 1: Jim Crane spends money. It is factually inaccurate to say

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Speaker 1: that he does not spend money. However, he's not going

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Speaker 1: to go spend money like the Yankees, like the Dodgers,

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Speaker 1: like these teams that are giving out seven hundred million

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Speaker 1: dollar deals. So when you are constrained like that, it

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Speaker 1: puts a lot of pressure on the guys that you

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Speaker 1: do choose to spend a lot of money on your payroll.

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Speaker 1: They've got to perform and they've got to produce, and

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Speaker 1: if they don't, that trickles down to the depth of

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Speaker 1: your organization. That trickles down to the pre guys and

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Speaker 1: the guys in ARB. Some of them performed very well.

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Speaker 1: Hunter Brown's going to finish in the top three or

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Speaker 1: four Cy Young voting and he is about to enter

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Speaker 1: his first year of arbitration eligibility. He made the league

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Speaker 1: minimum this year. Jeremy Penia just finished his first year

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Speaker 1: of arbitration eligibility. He is going to appear on some

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Speaker 1: al MVP ballants. They helped, but you saw that there

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Speaker 1: were there was just not enough production from the complimentary

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Speaker 1: pieces on the team just to be able to support

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Speaker 1: what they didn't get from the high priced premium talent.

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Speaker 1: And I think that really really sunk them. That really hurt,

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Speaker 1: and it really started to call into question a little

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Speaker 1: bit just their their lack of organizational depth. And I

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Speaker 1: think another thing that as we've been talking about the

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Speaker 1: trade deadline, and we were talking about you know, we focused,

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Speaker 1: we were right to obviously say that the trade deadline

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Speaker 1: did not age well and that no, let's no uh,

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Speaker 1: it's no secret. But I thought about it another way

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Speaker 1: this weekend. According to outside projections and according to outside

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Speaker 1: lists and things, the Asher's two best prospects are a

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Speaker 1: left handed hitting outfielder named Jacob Melton and a second

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Speaker 1: baseman named Bryce Matthews. They are their two best position

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Speaker 1: player prospects. Dana Brown at the trade deadline went and

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Speaker 1: acquired a left handed hitting outfielder from the Miami Marlins

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Speaker 1: and ramon Arius from the Orioles who came here and

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Speaker 1: played primarily second base before they stopped playing him late

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Speaker 1: in the season. The fact and I'm not putting this

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Speaker 1: on Bryce Matthews and Jacob Melton, but the fact that

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Speaker 1: those two guys are considered the two best prospects in

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Speaker 1: the organization and you had to go essentially go acquire

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Speaker 1: their doppelgame from other teams and give up They didn't

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Speaker 1: give up a ton of prospect capital, but they gave

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Speaker 1: up stuff to get them. And those guys have multiple

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Speaker 1: years of team control left. What does that say about

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Speaker 1: the maybe the state of everything behind the major league team?

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Speaker 1: To me, it does not speak well. And it all

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Speaker 1: comes back to when you've got those high, highly paid

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Speaker 1: guys like we just talked about that did not perform

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Speaker 1: or were injured, or some combination of both. You need

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Speaker 1: your organizational depth to shine through, and I think, if anything,

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Speaker 1: what this season showed is that their organizational depth from

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Speaker 1: top to bottom is not where it needs to be

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Speaker 1: to sustain what happened this season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, correct, I mean there's nobody in the system that

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Speaker 2: you're looking at and going, oh, you can build around

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Speaker 2: this guy, which is you know what the Astros have

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Speaker 2: done for the last ten years. You bring up Korea,

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Speaker 2: you bring up Springer, you bring up Bragman Tucker. You know,

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Speaker 2: you have these guys that are in the farm system

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Speaker 2: and you're just waiting for the next wave of guys

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Speaker 2: to come up and sustain the success that you're in.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, the Astros don't have that right now. Both

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Speaker 2: of those guys may be good major league players. They

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Speaker 2: might have one or two really good years at some point.

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Speaker 2: You know that that's certainly a possibility, But none of

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Speaker 2: them are in the same stratosphere as those four guys

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Speaker 2: that I just mentioned. They are not franchise altering players,

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Speaker 2: or at the very least, they have not shown anything

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Speaker 2: resembling that to this point, as evidenced by the fact

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Speaker 2: that Zach Cole came up and you know was Tea. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: finished with the higher war than Christian Walker. Fun fact.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, now granted Game one sixty two, Bryce Matthews

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Speaker 2: at a home run, So leave it on a good

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Speaker 2: note coming back next season for that. But yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 2: the Ashers just don't have that next wave of talent coming.

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Speaker 2: And I think they know that, and I think every

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Speaker 2: other team knows that as well, which is why, you know,

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Speaker 2: which is why I think they went out and got

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Speaker 2: guys like Casus Sanchez this season, because I think they

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Speaker 2: correctly identified by the time Melton and Matthews are hopefully

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Speaker 2: good core tenants of a team, the team that you

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Speaker 2: have now is going to be aged out, So like this,

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Speaker 2: this might be your last real shot, so go and

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Speaker 2: get some pieces here. And yeah, I mean, I think

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Speaker 2: as we talked about the Tucker trade, tried to address that,

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Speaker 2: realizing that Tucker was not going to resign, this was

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Speaker 2: your chance to get some good pieces here. At some

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Speaker 2: point we could certainly, you know, open up a wound

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Speaker 2: of looking at Fromber's trade value at the deadline. Again,

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Speaker 2: that's all on hindsight. In the moment, there was no

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Speaker 2: scenario where the Astros were trading him, but he certainly

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Speaker 2: would have garnered a lot to help the farm system

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Speaker 2: moving forward. They didn't do that. I still think that

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Speaker 2: was one the correct decision. I mean, imagine, even as

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Speaker 2: bad as Romber looked for the last two months, if

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Speaker 2: they were starting a wild card series, you know, this weekend,

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Speaker 2: and it was Hunter Brown and Jason Alexander as your

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Speaker 2: game two start, I don't think you would have been

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Speaker 2: too excited about that either. So yeah, I mean, they

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Speaker 2: they just don't have that next wave coming up. I'm

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Speaker 2: I'm writing the comments for the Baseball Perspectives annual this year,

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Speaker 2: and uh yeah, there's there's there's not a lot down

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Speaker 2: there to get too excited about.

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Speaker 1: Are you you you mentioned it a little bit earlier.

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Speaker 1: Is it more encouraging or is it more frustrating that

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Speaker 1: everything we just talked about, what the twenty twenty five

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Speaker 1: team went through, all the injuries, all the adversity, that

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Speaker 1: they still won eighty seven games and like they still

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Speaker 1: if you know, if they beat the Tigers once, like if.

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Speaker 2: They if you don't beat the Rockies once.

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Speaker 1: Or yeah, but like I mean, I'm thinking like something

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Speaker 1: more visceral, like the Hunter Brown's Trek schoobl duel in

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Speaker 1: Camerica Park in August when Caleb Ort walked in the

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Speaker 1: winning run in the tenth inning, Like, if they find

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Speaker 1: a way to win that game, they're in the playoffs.

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Speaker 1: Like if they if I'm let me think, if remember

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Speaker 1: the game in Chicago it was mcculler's return that like

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Speaker 1: got banged after six innings because it was raining, Like

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Speaker 1: if they finished those three innings against one of the

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Speaker 1: worst teams in baseball, you think they may find a

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Speaker 1: way to come back and win that game.

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Speaker 2: Like they don't get swept by the Guardians after the

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Speaker 2: Dodgers series, you know, in any of those.

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Speaker 1: Right, Like there's so many different just like what like

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Speaker 1: when you lose by a game and Christian Walker and

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Speaker 1: actually Lancel Colors said this today after the game. It

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Speaker 1: really does put a whole new meaning on it. I'm

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Speaker 1: guilty of this too. I think there's some people in baseball,

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Speaker 1: like in clubhouses that are guilty of this too. Like

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Speaker 1: when you lose a game in May, or when you

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Speaker 1: lose a game in June, you're like like who cares, Like, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: like we did. We didn't have a reliever today, Like

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Speaker 1: we weren't going to burn up the bullpen today just

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Speaker 1: to try to win this game. Those games matter, those

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Speaker 1: games can come back to bite you. And the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five Astros got a they got a sobering look

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Speaker 1: at that that you know, you're you're looking at one

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Speaker 1: one random win in April or May. You can go

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Speaker 1: find whatever game you think adequately addresses it. But one

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Speaker 1: win somewhere else, And we're having a different conversation around

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Speaker 1: But do we feel any different, like if this team,

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Speaker 1: Like if this team did somehow sneak in and I'm

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Speaker 1: on a plane the Cleveland or Detroit right now, Like,

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Speaker 1: do we feel any different about how this season went?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, if you make the playoffs, this season was a success.

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Speaker 2: I mean that's that's how baseball works. It's very hard

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Speaker 2: to make the playoffs. Again, the Mets spent a billion

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Speaker 2: dollars and choked their way out of the playoffs. Like,

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Speaker 2: making the playoffs is really hard. The Istros were very

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Speaker 2: close to it. I think it does speak to some

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Speaker 2: sauce in the organization that you know, they were able

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Speaker 2: to sustain these injuries that they despite not having top

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Speaker 2: level talent, do seem to have just a carousel of

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Speaker 2: faceless guys who are able to just come up and

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Speaker 2: provide something. You know. I think that speaks to the

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Speaker 2: player development that is in the system and their ability

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Speaker 2: to get the most out of I mean, again, one

337
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Speaker 2: hundred Browns, a fifth round draft pick, Like, you know,

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Speaker 2: they are able to squeeze the most out of the

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Speaker 2: talent that they do have. But yeah, I mean, if

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Speaker 2: they're in the playoffs, it's a successful season. Like yeah,

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Speaker 2: you you know, you're probably not gonna make it very

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Speaker 2: far in the playoffs, but you made the playoffs, and

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Speaker 2: you take your shot. Because as we said, even right now,

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Speaker 2: I still think the Astros have a chance in a

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Speaker 2: five game series against any of the teams in the

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Speaker 2: in the AL playoffs. Like they're not like we said,

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Speaker 2: they didn't win seventy two games this year, were still

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Speaker 2: a good baseball team. They were right there. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's frustrating that they didn't make it. But I mean,

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Speaker 2: as we saw for the last three months, like this

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Speaker 2: is not this is not anywhere near the caliber of

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Speaker 2: team that they have had recently. But that caliber of

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Speaker 2: team doesn't exist and I don't think will exist in

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Speaker 2: the modern way baseball is done. Like I just I

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Speaker 2: don't think that you will see a run like you

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Speaker 2: saw with the Astros from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty three. Like,

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Speaker 2: I don't think that six year run will be touched

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Speaker 2: for a very long time in baseball, just because of

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Speaker 2: how difficult it is to win that much be in

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Speaker 2: a division that bad hit on that many top end

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Speaker 2: players sign the right guy. Like, that's just that is

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Speaker 2: very very difficult to do, and so holding them to

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Speaker 2: that standard is obviously unrealistic. No other team can do that,

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Speaker 2: and the Asterers weren't na able to sustain that forever.

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Speaker 2: That's not a failure of the organization. And if anything,

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Speaker 2: like I said, winning eighty seven games this year after

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Speaker 2: losing Bragman Tucker, basically playing a whole year without jord On,

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Speaker 2: you know, like it's impressive that they were still the

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Speaker 2: seventh best team in the American League despite playing with

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Speaker 2: essentially jose Al Tuve. Jammy Penney had a great year,

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Speaker 2: Hunter Brown had a great year. But outside of that,

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Speaker 2: like it's just a bunch of dudes, like just guys

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Speaker 2: out there, and that you know, it's impressive that they

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Speaker 2: made it as far as they did. Doesn't make any

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Speaker 2: less annoying that they're not playing in October. I don't

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Speaker 2: know what I'm supposed to do. I googled the other day,

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Speaker 2: what do you do in Houston in October? I think

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Speaker 2: I've maybe I've told this before, but my wife and

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Speaker 2: I got married in September of twenty fifteen, So outside

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Speaker 2: of twenty sixteen, this is the first year. We've moved

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Speaker 2: three times, we've had three kids, you know, and this

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Speaker 2: is like the first year that there's not Astros baseball

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Speaker 2: in October. I think I've told you too. But my

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Speaker 2: groom's cake for my September twenty fifteen wedding said twenty

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Speaker 2: seventeen World Series champion on it. It was an Astro's cake,

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Speaker 2: and I had to clarify that several times with the

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Speaker 2: cake maker of yes, I do mean twenty seventeen, and

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Speaker 2: so that was that was cool. But yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's been a decade of the Astros being one of,

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Speaker 2: if not the best teams in baseball every single year.

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Speaker 2: It was a given that that was going to happen.

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Speaker 2: And that's just not sustainable. The Yankees having won World

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Speaker 2: Series and almost thirty years, you know, like it is

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Speaker 2: really really hard to do what the Asters just did,

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Speaker 2: and we'll.

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Speaker 1: Talk about whether this does signal the end of that run.

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Speaker 1: So I asked it before the break, where is the

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Speaker 1: where is the franchise? Because we just talked about this team, right,

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Speaker 1: and you know, the injuries and the underperformance from guys

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Speaker 1: that they needed to perform well, and kind of you're

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Speaker 1: starting to see. I don't want to say cracks in

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Speaker 1: the foundation. I don't think that's completely accurate, but you're

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Speaker 1: starting to see. And we did the math, but we

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Speaker 1: didn't do the math. I found a site that did

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Speaker 1: the math for us. We did the math before the show.

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Speaker 1: The Astros average age of their position players this season

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Speaker 1: was twenty eight point nine years old. That is the

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Speaker 1: fifth oldest lineup in baseball, the sixth excuse me, the

431
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,760
Speaker 1: five older ones or the Rangers, the Pirates, the Padres,

432
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 1: the Phillies, and the Dodgers. The pitching is right at

433
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 1: league average. They're an average of about twenty nine point

434
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:20,320
Speaker 1: two years old, which is right at league average. This

435
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,399
Speaker 1: is a core that is aging Josel Tuve is not

436
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 1: getting any younger. Carlos Korea now in the fold is

437
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,400
Speaker 1: good about to turn thirty two. Christian Walker will turn

438
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: thirty five in March. You know, this is they are.

439
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,199
Speaker 1: They are getting older, and as we talked about, there

440
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: are no real as we sit here, there are no

441
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 1: real youngsters in the pipeline that you look at, and

442
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 1: it's like we can bring the young kids up and

443
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,159
Speaker 1: kind of phase these guys out, and not that they

444
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 1: can phase some of these older guys out, just given

445
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:56,119
Speaker 1: the contracts are on and things of that nature. So

446
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 1: where is it? Where? Where is the frameranchise?

447
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 4: Now?

448
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 1: Is the Golden era? I think we've we've kind of

449
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:07,679
Speaker 1: danced around it. But I think from now on when

450
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:09,679
Speaker 1: people do talk about the Golden Era, it will have

451
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 1: ended in twenty twenty four. But that's not to say

452
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,880
Speaker 1: that they that they're going to tear it down and rebuild.

453
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,120
Speaker 1: It's not this. I don't think Jim Crane would ever

454
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,479
Speaker 1: do that as long as he is in control of things.

455
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:24,720
Speaker 1: But where are they? Where is this franchise now? After

456
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:25,199
Speaker 1: this season?

457
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:32,719
Speaker 2: The franchise is in whatever is currently hurting Jordan and

458
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 2: the right arm of Hunter Brown, the Astros will go

459
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:39,879
Speaker 2: as far as those two guys can carry them next year. Obviously,

460
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 2: if Pain you can come back and recreate that success,

461
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,480
Speaker 2: you know that they still have a runway of a

462
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 2: couple of years before they just you know, fall off

463
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:53,440
Speaker 2: the tracks. Like obviously, if in the next five years

464
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 2: they don't have any prospect come up and you know,

465
00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:00,360
Speaker 2: be able to replace any of these guys, are gonna

466
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:02,400
Speaker 2: be in a lot of trouble. But so would literally

467
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 2: every baseball team if you just said you don't have

468
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:07,119
Speaker 2: any new guys for the next five years and you

469
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:10,359
Speaker 2: just watch this team age. You know, if if you're

470
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:12,679
Speaker 2: on plays a full season and has a five win season,

471
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 2: if Hunter Brown can continue this success next year, if

472
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:19,880
Speaker 2: Jeremy Penia can you know, repeat the success, if Jake

473
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,679
Speaker 2: Myers can be this good over a whole season, you know,

474
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:29,439
Speaker 2: the ash of still will very easily be you know,

475
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,359
Speaker 2: in the in the conversation for the division and certainly

476
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 2: a playoff spot next year, and even well theoretically if

477
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 2: there's a baseball season the year after, but certainly next

478
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 2: year they will they will be fine. But yeah, they're

479
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 2: they're gonna have to find young talent and they they

480
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 2: don't haven't currently, you know, but nobody thought Jeremy Paanya

481
00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 2: was going to be this good either, you know, like that,

482
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 2: those things happen and the Astros have been able to

483
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 2: make it happen. And I don't think you're at the

484
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 2: point now where you can definitively say, like, you know,

485
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,920
Speaker 2: they don't have the ability to do that again. I

486
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,560
Speaker 2: mean again, we've talked about a ton like Hunter Brown,

487
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 2: from Er, Christian Javier Renel Black, like all of these

488
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 2: guys came out of nowhere. We're unheralded prospects for the

489
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:33,320
Speaker 2: most part and have become you know, all stars like that.

490
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 2: That's that is not something to just throw away, and

491
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 2: it's not something that you would assume the Astros have

492
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 2: lost the ability to do. But there is pressure on

493
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 2: them to do it quickly because then you're going to

494
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 2: run into the risk of, thank goodness, you run around

495
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 2: for this. But they're like two thousand and seven, two

496
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 2: thousand and eight Astros teams that were all just thirty

497
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 2: five years old, and the remnants of the last good

498
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 2: era of the Astros team they just didn't have anybody

499
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,200
Speaker 2: else come up after that two thousand and five World

500
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 2: Series appearance. You know, they certainly run the risk of

501
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 2: very quickly this this getting ugly if they can't find

502
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,360
Speaker 2: young talent to supplement the core that they do have

503
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 2: locked in for the next four or five years. But

504
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 2: they're not there yet. You know, I don't think this

505
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 2: is a team that you look at like you said,

506
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 2: this is nowhere near a conversation where you say, like

507
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 2: should they blow it up and start over or whatever.

508
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,240
Speaker 2: I mean, there's no.

509
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 1: They just want to They just want eighty seven games

510
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: and finish like one game away from going to the

511
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 1: playoffs with a historic amount of injuries. Like correct, this

512
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 1: is not the time to blow it up. But they're

513
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 1: on the clock is ticking. Yeah, you have to two

514
00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:03,080
Speaker 1: more years of Jeremy Pina under arbitrent, like he he

515
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: there's two more years before he's going to free agency.

516
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:06,960
Speaker 1: And let me tell you he's going to free agency.

517
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 1: He hired Scott Boris as his agent. That is never

518
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,080
Speaker 1: usually a sign that he's going to sign an extension.

519
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: He's going to free agency. Hunter Brown's got three more

520
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: years and then you know with Hunter it's different. He's

521
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:21,720
Speaker 1: a pitcher. He I mean, he can impact a lot,

522
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:23,680
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, Like you're seeing what Trek Scooble

523
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 1: does for the Tigers, Like if he keeps this up,

524
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,000
Speaker 1: like he can have a Schooble like effect, but he

525
00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:32,320
Speaker 1: only pitches every five days, like he's not an everyday

526
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: position player. You know, I think what they I think

527
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:41,959
Speaker 1: the number one priority they've got to fix Cam Smith.

528
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 1: I don't know if fix is probably a strong word,

529
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,480
Speaker 1: but they need him to be what he was in

530
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: spring training and then for a little bit of you know,

531
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: up up until maybe June thirtieth, like they need more

532
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:58,480
Speaker 1: of that. I'm not saying he needs to go win

533
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,280
Speaker 1: the MVP. That would be would be advantageous for the

534
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 1: Ashros if he did that, but they need him to

535
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 1: embody that aircraft carrier persona that Dana Brown, that Dana

536
00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 1: Brown bestowed on him, Like they need him to be

537
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: that guy. And I'm not saying that one thing is

538
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 1: going to turn it around, but that'll buy them some

539
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 1: time because you know, player development is not something that

540
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 1: just happens overnight, Like you don't just drop a prospect

541
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 1: into the in the big league camp next year and

542
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: just out of nowhere, they're gonna be carrying the franchise.

543
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 2: You mentioned Zach Cole.

544
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:40,640
Speaker 1: I mean maybe, but but okay, so here's the other thing.

545
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: And and it gets a little bit, you know, conflated

546
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:47,120
Speaker 1: when you when when we start talking, when fans start

547
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:50,280
Speaker 1: talking about these guys that come up. Zach Cole is

548
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 1: twenty five.

549
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 2: Years Yeah, he's old.

550
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 1: Jacob Melton is also twenty five years old. Like it's

551
00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 1: like camp Smith. It's different with camp Smith. Like camp

552
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,440
Speaker 1: Smith is twenty two years old. He is a for

553
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 1: lack of a better word, he's a child. Like in

554
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 1: baseball terms, he is a child. So he has more

555
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: maturing to do. He is and he is very much

556
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 1: like can be molded and improve and develop. Bryce Matthews

557
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:20,120
Speaker 1: is twenty three. He again there's there's a little more

558
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 1: time for Bryce Matthews. But like we're talking, like everyone's

559
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 1: like they see Zach Cole do what he did last

560
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 1: two weeks since all like he's the he's the tenth pole,

561
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:30,240
Speaker 1: He's the future of the frond. Like guys, he is

562
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: twenty five years old and literally came out of nowhere

563
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 1: and was in double A three weeks ago and just

564
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 1: got on an unreal heater for those waiting for and

565
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 1: again I don't want this. I hate that. This is

566
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: like we're saying all these prospects names that like literally

567
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with this season, but like it's

568
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: just the symptom of where they are as a franchise,

569
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: like they have got to and I don't know if

570
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 1: that is having some more difficult trades this offseason, Like

571
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's Dana's got to go out

572
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: and find prospects elsewhere to get them in. And maybe

573
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,520
Speaker 1: it's not prospects. Maybe you go find some zero to

574
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: three guys on other teams and you do a big

575
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:11,720
Speaker 1: leaguer for big leaguer swap where you just get younger,

576
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 1: you get younger, you get a little more energy, a

577
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: little more athleticism. That's what they want. That was the

578
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,400
Speaker 1: whole we talked about that ad nauseum in spring training,

579
00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:21,839
Speaker 1: right when when we were debating whether camp Smith should

580
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:23,400
Speaker 1: make the team or not. It was one of these,

581
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 1: you know, he's gonna bring that energy in, that fire

582
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:28,879
Speaker 1: and that athleticism that just that just hasn't been there

583
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: for a while. You know, maybe it's that, but this

584
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 1: is not something that they're going to snap their fingers

585
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 1: and next year we're going to walk into the clubhouse

586
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 1: in West Palm Beach and there's gonna be four to

587
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:42,319
Speaker 1: twenty one year olds like raring to go to be

588
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:46,200
Speaker 1: the next core of the Astros. Like there's some guys

589
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,040
Speaker 1: that have to take steps forward. There's gonna be some

590
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:51,200
Speaker 1: decisions that have to be made this offseason too, And

591
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:55,400
Speaker 1: you know, looking at where they are and the decisions

592
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:59,399
Speaker 1: they'll have to make, you know they've got a glut

593
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 1: of infielder. With Carlos Korea now playing third base, Estoc

594
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,760
Speaker 1: Paradis doesn't have anywhere to play. I think Estoc Paradis

595
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 1: won over, not that he needed to win anybody over,

596
00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:12,239
Speaker 1: Like what he did the last two weeks of the

597
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:16,840
Speaker 1: season is nothing short of like remarkable, playing clearly like

598
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: just in pain. Jose Al two v two. Jose Al two.

599
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 1: Bay's foot is messed up like I would not I'm

600
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 1: not going to speculate whether he's gonna need an off

601
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: season procedure or not, but it would not surprise me

602
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:29,040
Speaker 1: at all if he's got to do something with his

603
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 1: foot in the offseason. So those two guys are a

604
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: lot of credit for playing through it. But anyway, you know,

605
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: Estoc Paratas is nowhere to play next year, and Christian

606
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:41,440
Speaker 1: Walker's at first base, Like you know, the the convenient

607
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,880
Speaker 1: narrative says, oh Trey Christian Walker, Like you can just

608
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:46,960
Speaker 1: slide e Stock Parades the first base and you got it,

609
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 1: But would you get more for Estock Parade, Like could

610
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 1: you get something that would impact, like your long term

611
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 1: view of the franchise more for Estoc Paradis? Like these

612
00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:58,560
Speaker 1: are the decisions they're gonna have to make, Like do

613
00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,839
Speaker 1: they entertain trading Jeremy Pain yet? Like I know he's

614
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:04,279
Speaker 1: got two years left and Tucker only had one, But

615
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 1: you opened up Pandora's box last year when you traded,

616
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:11,800
Speaker 1: When you traded, uh, Kyle Tucker, you have now said

617
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 1: that if we don't think we can resign this guy,

618
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:18,399
Speaker 1: then we need to trade to supplement our farm system

619
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 1: and to get our farm system better. And I wonder

620
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:23,520
Speaker 1: if they consider that. I don't think that happens, but

621
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:27,000
Speaker 1: it's going to create this offseason some very interesting decisions

622
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,279
Speaker 1: because the one thing that and again I wasn't and

623
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 1: you can correct me if I'm wrong about this, on

624
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: those six, seven, eight teams where you know the Corps

625
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,440
Speaker 1: was aging and there wasn't much in the farm. Which

626
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:40,279
Speaker 1: you start doing at that point is you just start

627
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,840
Speaker 1: trying to throw money at the problem. You start trying

628
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 1: to throw money. And you have seen that this team

629
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 1: has not distinguished itself in the way it spends its money.

630
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,440
Speaker 1: They spend money like they do spend money, but the

631
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,279
Speaker 1: players that they have chosen to invest in, especially from

632
00:36:56,320 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 1: outside the organization, it has not gone well. And was

633
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: it like that in six and o seven where they

634
00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:04,920
Speaker 1: just were throwing money at the problem and just hoping

635
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: to plug the holes with guys that they got in

636
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:10,839
Speaker 1: free agency, and you know it just didn't turn out.

637
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 1: Am I on the right track here?

638
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well yeah, and they kept trying to just get back,

639
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 2: you know, so it was like, oh, well, you know,

640
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 2: trade whoever you know, you'll you'll mortgage the future to train,

641
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:27,680
Speaker 2: and the Astros of the current era will not do that.

642
00:37:27,719 --> 00:37:30,360
Speaker 2: I mean, we saw it this year that the Astros

643
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:34,920
Speaker 2: could have easily mortgaged the future to try to get

644
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 2: some I mean, you know, like we said, you never

645
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:39,760
Speaker 2: know who's available, but the Ashra certainly could have traded

646
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 2: any top prospect this year to try to make it

647
00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 2: two games further. And you could argue maybe that would

648
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:52,560
Speaker 2: have been nice to get two more wins this season,

649
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 2: but they did not do anything to that effect. But yeah,

650
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 2: I mean in in those years right after and again

651
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 2: like they were find Like the two thousand and eight

652
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:09,279
Speaker 2: Astros won eighty six games, they finished third in the

653
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 2: Central but you know they were led by thirty nine

654
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:18,520
Speaker 2: year old Brad Ostmas, thirty two year old Berkman. Jeff

655
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:21,319
Speaker 2: Blum was on that team at thirty five. You know,

656
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:28,799
Speaker 2: they had a lot of older guys. And yeah, I mean,

657
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,399
Speaker 2: I don't think the way that the Ashros are run

658
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:37,920
Speaker 2: under Jim Crane that you will see the desperation to

659
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:43,360
Speaker 2: mortgage the future to try to win one more year.

660
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 2: I think Crane correctly, I identifies that just making it

661
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:52,879
Speaker 2: every year and having a competitive team is better than

662
00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:55,759
Speaker 2: trying to go all in in one year and hope

663
00:38:55,760 --> 00:39:00,239
Speaker 2: for the best. And we've seen that. You know, again,

664
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:04,160
Speaker 2: like the twenty nineteen Ashtros are probably one of the

665
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:06,959
Speaker 2: best teams of all time. They didn't win, but the

666
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,439
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three team did, which was objectively not as

667
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:12,839
Speaker 2: good as that team. You just have to get in

668
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 2: and see what happens. And again they were one win

669
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:20,360
Speaker 2: away this year from getting in and seeing what happens.

670
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,400
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean the state of the franchise. Again,

671
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 2: it is not dire by any means, but it's without

672
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:34,480
Speaker 2: things going well in the next two years, it gets

673
00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:39,120
Speaker 2: to that dire point. And so to your point, they

674
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:42,359
Speaker 2: need to hit on free agents. They have not done that.

675
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:48,240
Speaker 2: They have not done well at signing big name free agents.

676
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:52,000
Speaker 2: You know, They've They've gotten some depth guys that have

677
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:55,920
Speaker 2: been helpful for them, made some great waiver claims. You know,

678
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 2: most of the bullpen this year were just scrap heap

679
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:05,440
Speaker 2: guys that performed really well. But you can see that

680
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:10,360
Speaker 2: just one bad free agent signing can really alter your franchise. Like,

681
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:13,000
Speaker 2: now you're in a position, like you said in the

682
00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 2: off season, where you have to entertain should you trade

683
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 2: Estoc Paratees because now you've got Korea and Christian Walker

684
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:25,840
Speaker 2: locked up on big contracts, and even though Parates is

685
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 2: clearly better, you know, what are you going to do?

686
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,279
Speaker 2: You've already paid Christian Walker all this money.

687
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:35,920
Speaker 1: And you're not so offloading the whole contract. He did not.

688
00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:38,279
Speaker 1: He was better in the second half, but like you're not,

689
00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:40,719
Speaker 1: there's no team that's going to take on all forty

690
00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:41,799
Speaker 1: million dollars in that deal.

691
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 2: No, uh yeah, I mean that that's certainly not going

692
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:51,120
Speaker 2: to happen. I did want to bring up on the

693
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:57,000
Speaker 2: Zach Cole discussion just for context. So he'll it'll technically

694
00:40:57,120 --> 00:40:59,399
Speaker 2: his age twenty five season next year, but he'll turn

695
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:04,279
Speaker 2: twenty six September. Carlos Korea's last season with the Astros,

696
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:07,680
Speaker 2: he was twenty six, So just to kind of give

697
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 2: you an idea of where he's at prospect age wise,

698
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:14,240
Speaker 2: that that should get that should give you a clue

699
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:19,520
Speaker 2: of where he's at. Yeah, yeah, it's no offense. I mean,

700
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:23,720
Speaker 2: the great end of the year. Awesome, glad he's doing it.

701
00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 2: To your point for fans who are looking at this

702
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:30,239
Speaker 2: as like the next guy, like Korea was already signing

703
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:34,440
Speaker 2: free agent contracts at that point. Now he was also

704
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:37,080
Speaker 2: a freak who came up super young and was very

705
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:42,120
Speaker 2: good immediately. That's not normal. But yeah, the Astros don't

706
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,480
Speaker 2: have a twenty year old in their system that you're

707
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:48,480
Speaker 2: circling as like, as soon as he's ready, this is

708
00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 2: the guy that's that's gonna come up. You know, maybe

709
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:55,919
Speaker 2: maybe they find one next year. It happens every year

710
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:58,799
Speaker 2: that that guys just get helium, you know, and they

711
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 2: just turn and into these great players all of a

712
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 2: sudden and something clicks and they're and they're able to

713
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,360
Speaker 2: to find success. And we saw it all throughout the

714
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,040
Speaker 2: year this year as well. I mean aj blue Ball,

715
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 2: like you know, he was a top ish prospect, but

716
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 2: he was he was nowhere near the top prospect in

717
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,319
Speaker 2: the Astro system, and he was phenomenal uh for the Astros.

718
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:27,920
Speaker 2: So you know, those those things canna happen, and it

719
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:30,520
Speaker 2: will happen next year. There will be guys that we've

720
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:33,359
Speaker 2: never heard of and we will not talk about until

721
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:35,799
Speaker 2: a week before they're called up, and they'll come up

722
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:40,319
Speaker 2: and perform way better than anyone would have expected. That

723
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:44,399
Speaker 2: happens every year, but it's tough to rely on that

724
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:48,440
Speaker 2: happening every year and to build your team around hoping

725
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:51,239
Speaker 2: that that will happen. It's nice to have the the

726
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 2: cornerstone guys that you can really hang your hat on

727
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:58,520
Speaker 2: them being great players.

728
00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: I wonder Ifu'll be managing the next next year and

729
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:06,040
Speaker 1: that group of players, we'll talk about whether there will

730
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:08,480
Speaker 1: be a new face managing that team right after another

731
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:11,000
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732
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,360
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733
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734
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735
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736
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738
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739
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:32,560
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740
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741
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742
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,640
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743
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744
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752
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754
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Speaker 2: Do you think Jim cran has offered Justin Verlander a

755
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:17,799
Speaker 2: contract yet? A lot?

756
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:23,719
Speaker 1: That's if if I would never bet on baseball, but

757
00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: if I could bet on anything, I bet that.

758
00:44:26,719 --> 00:44:30,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, that it would have been nice to have had over

759
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 2: the last couple of months. It is good for him,

760
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 2: that's so they have.

761
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,520
Speaker 1: They have two starters in their twenty twenty six rotation.

762
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:41,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope Verlander pitches until twenty thirty five. I

763
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:45,839
Speaker 2: hope he just does this forever. Good for him. But yeah, yeah,

764
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:48,200
Speaker 2: that's a future Astro if I've ever seen one that.

765
00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say it's a lock, but that

766
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:53,440
Speaker 1: would be That will be the least surprising news in

767
00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:57,080
Speaker 1: the world. When Ben Verlander one day in December tweets

768
00:44:57,080 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: out that Justin Verlanders a member of the Astros.

769
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 2: Why wait, see is over and give him a contract? Now?

770
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 2: What are we doing?

771
00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:04,480
Speaker 1: We asked to wait, he's not a free agent officially

772
00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:08,000
Speaker 1: until five days after the World Series. Well, he's got

773
00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:09,800
Speaker 1: to be patient, but you can you can kind of

774
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:12,520
Speaker 1: wink at one now if you want. I'm sure I

775
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:16,839
Speaker 1: would not be stunned if that has happened already. Jim

776
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:20,640
Speaker 1: Crane has other pressing matters to attend to. Maybe we

777
00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:23,080
Speaker 1: buried the lead here because I think this is something

778
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:26,319
Speaker 1: that people that are listening to this now will want

779
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:29,040
Speaker 1: to have a lot of have a lot of thoughts

780
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 1: about Joe a Spot. His job status has has recently

781
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:38,000
Speaker 1: become a in question. I think it's fair to say

782
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:41,200
Speaker 1: that it's certainly not a slam dunk that he is

783
00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:46,040
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty six. The three Beat writers, myself,

784
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:49,160
Speaker 1: Brian McTaggert and Matt Kalahara talked to Dana Brown today

785
00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: in Anaheim before the game. I asked him, just straight

786
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:55,920
Speaker 1: up twice, will Joe a Spot to be your manager

787
00:45:55,960 --> 00:46:00,799
Speaker 1: next year? There was no yes given. There also wasn't

788
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:04,560
Speaker 1: a no given. There was no definitive answer all Joe.

789
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:08,240
Speaker 1: All Dana would say was that Joe is under contract

790
00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:13,200
Speaker 1: next year, So he is under contract. He praised him for,

791
00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 1: as Dana put it, doing a good job and press

792
00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:19,960
Speaker 1: pushing all the right buttons. H Dana made it a

793
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:23,400
Speaker 1: point numerous times to say that injuries were the reason

794
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:25,680
Speaker 1: that the Astros did not make the postseason. He certainly

795
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:28,320
Speaker 1: did not want to blame this on Joe a Spot,

796
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:31,439
Speaker 1: and I think any rational person that watched this team

797
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:35,560
Speaker 1: this year, you cannot blame them not know he was.

798
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:39,480
Speaker 2: The manager of the Year in July, like unequivocally the

799
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:42,520
Speaker 2: best manager in baseball in July. It's it's yeah, it

800
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:46,600
Speaker 2: would be silly to blame everything on him.

801
00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:50,480
Speaker 1: But when when you get the big chair, when you

802
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:52,319
Speaker 1: get the we don't know what his paycheck is, but

803
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 1: I assume it's bigger than mine. When you get the

804
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:57,640
Speaker 1: big paycheck, when you get the big chair, and when

805
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:00,759
Speaker 1: things don't go well, it falls back on you. This

806
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 1: is part of the title. This is part of having

807
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:08,439
Speaker 1: the title. I I think anyone right now, as we're

808
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:11,600
Speaker 1: doing this on Sunday night at eight fifty two pm

809
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 1: Central Time, I think if anyone right now tells you

810
00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:18,680
Speaker 1: they know definitively what's going to happen there, they're out

811
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:21,839
Speaker 1: of their mind. I think there's one person that knows,

812
00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:24,360
Speaker 1: and it's Jim Crean, the owner of the Astros. I

813
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,560
Speaker 1: think this is his decision. I think, you know. The

814
00:47:27,600 --> 00:47:31,960
Speaker 1: way Dana addressed the questions today, he certainly talked like

815
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:37,680
Speaker 1: someone that he talked like someone that was certainly not

816
00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:40,399
Speaker 1: going to blame Joe for this, but he also talked

817
00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:43,080
Speaker 1: like someone that knew that he had to go get

818
00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:45,640
Speaker 1: the okay first, that he had to they had to

819
00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:49,040
Speaker 1: get back to Houston on late Sunday night early Monday morning.

820
00:47:49,520 --> 00:47:52,640
Speaker 1: I don't know when they're going to meet. For what

821
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:56,960
Speaker 1: it's worth, the Astros have announced that this is from

822
00:47:57,040 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 1: the Astros that they announced that Dana Brown and Joe

823
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 1: Spott will meet with the media on Tuesday. That is

824
00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:05,759
Speaker 1: normal standard operating procede draft of the season. It's called

825
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:09,399
Speaker 1: a post mortem. So the ashers have said that both

826
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:12,200
Speaker 1: of those guys will be available on Tuesday. I don't

827
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:14,440
Speaker 1: think that means much. I think that that was just

828
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:17,000
Speaker 1: something that the media members could put in their calendar

829
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:20,320
Speaker 1: to set aside some time for when it's going to happen.

830
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 1: I don't know if I knew. I tell you, I

831
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know how this is going to go.

832
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:32,680
Speaker 1: What I'm about to say is my opinion. I want

833
00:48:32,719 --> 00:48:37,680
Speaker 1: to make that very clear. I watched in person. I

834
00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:40,000
Speaker 1: watched over one hundred and thirty games his team played

835
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 1: this year. I watched from Afar about one hundred and

836
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:46,279
Speaker 1: fifty one of the one hundred and sixty two. I

837
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:49,080
Speaker 1: did not think this team was poorly managed. When I

838
00:48:49,160 --> 00:48:50,880
Speaker 1: watched this team, I did not think this was a

839
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:55,799
Speaker 1: poorly managed team on the field. Joe's not perfect his

840
00:48:55,880 --> 00:49:02,920
Speaker 1: bullpen management, not just maybe like in game management. The

841
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:04,759
Speaker 1: way he warms up his relievers. There's a lot of

842
00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:07,800
Speaker 1: double barrel action in his bullpen. He gets his believers

843
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:11,080
Speaker 1: up a lot. Like to me, it's different than what

844
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:13,319
Speaker 1: I've seen, Like, it's not what aj Hinch did, it's

845
00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:15,319
Speaker 1: not what Dusty Baker did, It's not what I've seen

846
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:17,840
Speaker 1: other managers do. So it's just different. He does it

847
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:21,800
Speaker 1: a little bit different. I'm not sitting here saying Joe's perfect.

848
00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:26,799
Speaker 1: I'm also I also think we as fans and reporters,

849
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:33,040
Speaker 1: we really don't know what a manager does because the

850
00:49:33,239 --> 00:49:36,719
Speaker 1: most important part for a baseball manager is inside the

851
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,399
Speaker 1: clubhouse where we don't even see what I'm in there

852
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:41,799
Speaker 1: an hour a day and I don't see half of

853
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:45,960
Speaker 1: what goes on in there behind closed doors. That that

854
00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:48,759
Speaker 1: is the mark of a manager, is keeping the thing

855
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:52,160
Speaker 1: together when Blank is hitting the fan. And I think

856
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:55,600
Speaker 1: before these last couple weeks in September, Joe did an

857
00:49:55,640 --> 00:50:00,319
Speaker 1: admirable job of keeping this thing together because and even

858
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:02,080
Speaker 1: look back to last year when they started twelve and

859
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:04,960
Speaker 1: twenty four and everyone was healthy. The fact that he

860
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:07,320
Speaker 1: kept that together in his first year as a manager

861
00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:11,799
Speaker 1: speaks volumes to what he's able to do. What that

862
00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:15,720
Speaker 1: will mean going forward, I do not know, But Tyler,

863
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 1: I struggle if if it happens that, you know, Joe

864
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:23,040
Speaker 1: does not manage the team next year for whatever reason,

865
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:26,600
Speaker 1: I'd find it hard to believe that it would be anything.

866
00:50:26,719 --> 00:50:30,680
Speaker 1: But they needed a fall guy, They needed a scapegoat

867
00:50:30,719 --> 00:50:34,759
Speaker 1: for a team that ended effectively a golden era, and

868
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:37,520
Speaker 1: when you're the manager, it kind of falls back on you.

869
00:50:38,239 --> 00:50:41,840
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, I think I mean there will certainly be

870
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:47,640
Speaker 2: some changes. Yeah, no, yeah, let that's gonna happen.

871
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:51,759
Speaker 1: There will be changes. Do not don't misunderstand me. Joe

872
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:53,720
Speaker 1: may come back next year, but there will be changes.

873
00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:54,680
Speaker 1: Don't misunderstand that.

874
00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:59,640
Speaker 2: I agree with you. That is very difficult to judge

875
00:51:00,880 --> 00:51:03,719
Speaker 2: a manager because so much of their job is how

876
00:51:03,760 --> 00:51:08,239
Speaker 2: to handle the clubhouse. My one point to that would

877
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:15,160
Speaker 2: be Dash just had a very public clubhouse issue arise

878
00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:21,239
Speaker 2: a month ago with Fromber and the fact that that

879
00:51:21,320 --> 00:51:26,520
Speaker 2: did not blow up and that the team didn't quit,

880
00:51:26,800 --> 00:51:30,760
Speaker 2: and that there wasn't a bunch of leaks coming out,

881
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:35,000
Speaker 2: you know, for the next month of infighting and all

882
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:38,560
Speaker 2: this stuff, Like, I think that speaks to doing a

883
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:42,120
Speaker 2: good job managing a clubhouse. Like there are not a

884
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:43,600
Speaker 2: lot of people that I think would be able to

885
00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:48,880
Speaker 2: navigate that situation as well as it was handled. I

886
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:51,719
Speaker 2: have no idea how much of that you can give

887
00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:54,120
Speaker 2: credit to a spota, how much of it is just

888
00:51:54,840 --> 00:51:57,879
Speaker 2: the internal strip Like, I don't know, but I think

889
00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:00,360
Speaker 2: it is fair to point out that like that is

890
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:04,879
Speaker 2: a very clear landmine for a manager, and I thought

891
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:08,759
Speaker 2: that he navigated it really well with a with an

892
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:12,759
Speaker 2: impending free agent pitcher who could have just quit on

893
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:15,120
Speaker 2: the team and every you know, like that that could

894
00:52:15,120 --> 00:52:20,040
Speaker 2: have turned ugly really fast, And the fact that it didn't,

895
00:52:20,280 --> 00:52:25,919
Speaker 2: I think at least speaks to competency from from him

896
00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:30,560
Speaker 2: and being able to navigate that situation. Now again, when

897
00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:35,320
Speaker 2: you when you lose out after having ninety five percent

898
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:38,840
Speaker 2: playoff odds, you know, like all of those things are true,

899
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:41,759
Speaker 2: but at the same time, like if the Ashers won

900
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 2: one more game and the Tigers have the most embarrassing

901
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:51,719
Speaker 2: collapse in baseball history and missed the playoffs, do you

902
00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:54,280
Speaker 2: think aj Hinch is a worse manager than you did

903
00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:58,280
Speaker 2: when the year started? No, you know, like that's still

904
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:02,399
Speaker 2: a good you know, Like, so it's difficult to even

905
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:07,919
Speaker 2: assign blame for a season based on that because again,

906
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:13,920
Speaker 2: like the aj Hinch missed being the talk of baseball

907
00:53:14,440 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 2: by one game, and I don't think that that's his fault,

908
00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:20,360
Speaker 2: you know, I think he's a very good manager. I

909
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 2: think everybody else agrees with that. But that doesn't change

910
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:26,640
Speaker 2: that if you blow a fifteen and a half game

911
00:53:26,760 --> 00:53:30,799
Speaker 2: lead like they did and miss the playoffs entirely, you're

912
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:33,920
Speaker 2: going to be blamed for that. And I don't think

913
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:37,160
Speaker 2: that that's necessarily true or fair. And I think the

914
00:53:37,239 --> 00:53:40,759
Speaker 2: same is true of a spata. You know, you're just

915
00:53:40,840 --> 00:53:43,799
Speaker 2: kind of dealt the cards that you have, and that's

916
00:53:44,040 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 2: that's what happened this year. But I think the Fromber

917
00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:53,520
Speaker 2: situation is more indicative of how you are as a

918
00:53:53,560 --> 00:53:57,400
Speaker 2: manager than basically anything that plays out on the field.

919
00:53:58,200 --> 00:54:00,839
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I also agree with with how

920
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:04,480
Speaker 1: the JOSEA. Brady situation was handled last year. It was

921
00:54:04,600 --> 00:54:11,920
Speaker 1: done with tact and in in a way that, especially

922
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:14,400
Speaker 1: for a first year manager at the time. He had

923
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:16,680
Speaker 1: been on the job for two months when it really

924
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:20,640
Speaker 1: really started to spiral. He was able to do two

925
00:54:20,719 --> 00:54:25,000
Speaker 1: things simultaneously. He was able to not bury the guy.

926
00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:27,960
Speaker 1: He was able to you know, he has to. One

927
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:31,279
Speaker 1: thing about a manager is they talk a lot. They

928
00:54:31,320 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 1: talk a lot into cameras a lot about these guys,

929
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:37,239
Speaker 1: and it is Believe me, as someone that has been

930
00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:40,400
Speaker 1: podcasting now for a while, it's really hard to choose

931
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:43,239
Speaker 1: your words carefully when you talk as much as you

932
00:54:43,280 --> 00:54:46,400
Speaker 1: know I do, and you do tyler into this microphone,

933
00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:47,880
Speaker 1: when you know a lot of people are gonna listen.

934
00:54:48,360 --> 00:54:50,480
Speaker 1: It's got to be really hard for Joe to to

935
00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:54,440
Speaker 1: and any manager to do that when you understanding you

936
00:54:54,560 --> 00:54:57,600
Speaker 1: got twenty eight guys in the clubhouse, plus nine coaches,

937
00:54:57,680 --> 00:54:59,880
Speaker 1: plus the GM plus the owner that are gonna be

938
00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:03,439
Speaker 1: sing to everything you say. He did a very good

939
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:07,120
Speaker 1: job in that situation of not bearing the guy publicly,

940
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:09,960
Speaker 1: of saying we want to stand behind him, like he's

941
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:12,480
Speaker 1: working hard. And I know fans hate to hear that stuff.

942
00:55:12,520 --> 00:55:15,640
Speaker 1: I know they hate to hear like we think he's

943
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:17,839
Speaker 1: coming out of it, like we're gonna give him some time,

944
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:20,359
Speaker 1: we believe in him. I get it. But it's that's

945
00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:22,440
Speaker 1: part of the job. But you know what he also did.

946
00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:24,680
Speaker 1: He also kept moving him down the lineup. He also

947
00:55:24,800 --> 00:55:28,320
Speaker 1: kept sitting him. He also kept you know, you know,

948
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:33,160
Speaker 1: he removed him as an everyday player essentially while he

949
00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:36,680
Speaker 1: was still give like going out and portraying him in

950
00:55:36,719 --> 00:55:40,439
Speaker 1: a good light publicly when everyone around him knew that

951
00:55:40,719 --> 00:55:43,879
Speaker 1: this was not going well. So I think that's another

952
00:55:43,880 --> 00:55:46,000
Speaker 1: feather in his cap too, that he handled that so well.

953
00:55:47,560 --> 00:55:51,719
Speaker 1: Contrary to what fans and my mentions and on the

954
00:55:51,719 --> 00:55:54,720
Speaker 1: comments and my stories think, like a poorly managed team

955
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:57,080
Speaker 1: is not a team that like goes on a losing streak,

956
00:55:57,520 --> 00:56:02,120
Speaker 1: like like losing streaks happened the sport, Like Dave Roberts

957
00:56:02,160 --> 00:56:05,320
Speaker 1: is considered one of the better managers in recent memory,

958
00:56:05,360 --> 00:56:07,200
Speaker 1: and the Dodgers go on losing streets all the time.

959
00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:11,560
Speaker 1: Aj Hinch, if you pulled one hundred people in baseball,

960
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:16,120
Speaker 1: I would bet seventy of them would say aj Hinch

961
00:56:16,239 --> 00:56:19,719
Speaker 1: right now is the best active manager in baseball. And

962
00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:22,000
Speaker 1: his team just blew a fifteen and a half game

963
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:24,680
Speaker 1: lead division a fifteen and a half game division lead

964
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:28,160
Speaker 1: to a Guardians team that is awful. That is not

965
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:32,479
Speaker 1: a good team. It is Jose Ramirez and no one else.

966
00:56:32,560 --> 00:56:34,480
Speaker 1: That team is not good. But they got on a

967
00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:37,760
Speaker 1: heater and they ran down the Tigers. That the worst

968
00:56:37,800 --> 00:56:42,600
Speaker 1: collapse in like is not hyperbole, the worst in baseball history.

969
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:47,560
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean they're poorly managed. Just because the Astros

970
00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:51,440
Speaker 1: did not make the playoffs this season, that doesn't mean

971
00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:54,680
Speaker 1: they're poorly managed. I did not when I watched this

972
00:56:54,719 --> 00:56:56,439
Speaker 1: team play. I did not see a poorly managed team.

973
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:58,120
Speaker 1: I did not see a team kicking the ball around.

974
00:56:58,760 --> 00:57:01,839
Speaker 1: I did not see a team that lacked fundamentals. Were

975
00:57:01,840 --> 00:57:04,239
Speaker 1: there times on the base when were there times when

976
00:57:04,239 --> 00:57:06,960
Speaker 1: they were fundamental lapses? Sure, but if you watch another

977
00:57:07,000 --> 00:57:08,839
Speaker 1: team for one hundred and fifty hundred and sixty games,

978
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:12,000
Speaker 1: there's gonna be fundamental lapses every now and then. What

979
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:14,600
Speaker 1: I did see in Sacramento, I did see, you know,

980
00:57:14,760 --> 00:57:17,320
Speaker 1: guys busting it down the line to try to beat

981
00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:20,520
Speaker 1: out double play balls in a series that they knew

982
00:57:20,560 --> 00:57:22,880
Speaker 1: the season was slipping through their hands. They're still out

983
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:26,320
Speaker 1: there busting it down the line. I did see guys

984
00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:32,040
Speaker 1: diving for like. Effort was never an issue. So I

985
00:57:32,120 --> 00:57:38,240
Speaker 1: from an on field perspective, I can't rationalize moving on

986
00:57:38,360 --> 00:57:40,880
Speaker 1: from Joe Aspata just because from what I saw from

987
00:57:40,920 --> 00:57:42,880
Speaker 1: an on field perspective, I did not see a Portland

988
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:44,760
Speaker 1: managed team. I do not think this team missed the

989
00:57:44,760 --> 00:57:49,040
Speaker 1: playoffs because they had a bad manager. But at the

990
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:53,200
Speaker 1: end of the day, it's Jim Crane, guy fired a

991
00:57:53,280 --> 00:57:55,960
Speaker 1: GM after he won a World Series. Like he is,

992
00:57:56,200 --> 00:57:59,480
Speaker 1: He's unpredictable, he is an aggressive owner. He is a

993
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:02,760
Speaker 1: guy that it expects a lot out of people, and

994
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 1: this was the sort of ending to a season that

995
00:58:07,960 --> 00:58:11,200
Speaker 1: is not going to sit well with him. And I

996
00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:13,760
Speaker 1: don't know what to expect. I just said he's unpredictable.

997
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:15,800
Speaker 1: I have no idea what to it. It would not surprise

998
00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:20,520
Speaker 1: me either way, but just as I viewed it, I didn't.

999
00:58:20,600 --> 00:58:24,240
Speaker 1: I do not think the team had a managerial problem,

1000
00:58:24,680 --> 00:58:27,280
Speaker 1: but that it doesn't really matter what I think.

1001
00:58:28,680 --> 00:58:30,000
Speaker 2: He's not calling to ask you.

1002
00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:33,160
Speaker 1: Oh no, I'm gonna put it in a request. See

1003
00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:33,920
Speaker 1: if I'll come on the pod.

1004
00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:35,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, there we go.

1005
00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:36,640
Speaker 1: I'm sure they'll I'm sure they'll get right back to

1006
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:41,120
Speaker 1: me on that one. We as we alluded to it.

1007
00:58:41,200 --> 00:58:43,880
Speaker 1: I do think some changes are coming. Dana Brown, as

1008
00:58:43,920 --> 00:58:47,080
Speaker 1: part of that interview today Dana Brown. I got, let

1009
00:58:47,120 --> 00:58:49,640
Speaker 1: me get the direct quote, so I don't miss quote him.

1010
00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:52,640
Speaker 1: That would be bad on my part. You know, Dana

1011
00:58:52,680 --> 00:58:55,240
Speaker 1: Brown did say that they are going to do a

1012
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:59,880
Speaker 1: quote complete look at all of our operations this offseason.

1013
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:01,760
Speaker 2: That's good.

1014
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:05,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, he brought up, unprompted that he was mad about

1015
00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:09,840
Speaker 1: the injuries. He did say that, Yeah, he did. He

1016
00:59:09,880 --> 00:59:12,280
Speaker 1: did say, like there's no one thing to blame, and

1017
00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:15,600
Speaker 1: like we talked about, like jord And Alvarez stepping awkwardly

1018
00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:18,240
Speaker 1: on home plate is not the athletic well, not the

1019
00:59:18,280 --> 00:59:22,840
Speaker 1: athletic trainer's fault, thank you. Jeremy Paanea getting hit by

1020
00:59:22,880 --> 00:59:25,120
Speaker 1: a pitch and breaking his left rib is not the

1021
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:29,600
Speaker 1: athletic trainer's fault. You know. Spencer Arraghetty getting his thumb

1022
00:59:29,600 --> 00:59:32,080
Speaker 1: broken by a batting practice fly ball is not the

1023
00:59:32,080 --> 00:59:34,880
Speaker 1: strength of conditioning staff's fault or Houston methodists fault. Like

1024
00:59:35,200 --> 00:59:38,040
Speaker 1: some of these were flukes. They just had some terrible luck.

1025
00:59:38,120 --> 00:59:41,320
Speaker 1: But it's pretty obvious that that they need to look

1026
00:59:41,400 --> 00:59:43,440
Speaker 1: into what's going on here. And I'm not saying that

1027
00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:46,120
Speaker 1: that means things are gonna Personnel is going to change.

1028
00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:49,040
Speaker 1: Maybe they changed some methods, maybe they change how like

1029
00:59:50,000 --> 00:59:53,280
Speaker 1: some how they do things. But and then you know,

1030
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:57,200
Speaker 1: I think they do need to do a pretty thorough

1031
00:59:57,400 --> 01:00:00,640
Speaker 1: evaluation of the offense and the lineup up and just

1032
01:00:01,240 --> 01:00:04,120
Speaker 1: where that is. And I wrote and this is probably

1033
01:00:04,120 --> 01:00:06,560
Speaker 1: something for another podcast, but I wrote a little bit

1034
01:00:06,600 --> 01:00:10,280
Speaker 1: about it today and we've talked about it, like, I'm

1035
01:00:10,320 --> 01:00:13,760
Speaker 1: sure that they will do a pretty thorough analysis of

1036
01:00:13,800 --> 01:00:17,200
Speaker 1: Troy Snicker and Alex Centrome, the two hitting coaches. I

1037
01:00:17,240 --> 01:00:18,760
Speaker 1: don't need. I don't think I need to remind people

1038
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:21,880
Speaker 1: who they are. But at the end of the day,

1039
01:00:22,040 --> 01:00:25,440
Speaker 1: like it made, what Dana has to ask himself is like,

1040
01:00:25,560 --> 01:00:28,480
Speaker 1: is this a personnel issue? Is this like the type

1041
01:00:28,560 --> 01:00:31,400
Speaker 1: of hitters we employ have do they all have the

1042
01:00:31,440 --> 01:00:34,280
Speaker 1: same offensive profile? And do we have to make this

1043
01:00:34,480 --> 01:00:38,040
Speaker 1: roster over from a personnel standpoint or is it a

1044
01:00:38,160 --> 01:00:41,320
Speaker 1: messaging and a philosophy problem. If it's the latter. If

1045
01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:43,840
Speaker 1: it's the messaging and a philosophy problem, then I think

1046
01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:46,400
Speaker 1: you can see changes on that on within that. But

1047
01:00:47,280 --> 01:00:49,800
Speaker 1: if but it's all up to you know, the Baseball

1048
01:00:49,840 --> 01:00:52,760
Speaker 1: operation staff to decide. Is this a personnel issue? Is

1049
01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:54,920
Speaker 1: this something that we've got to go get some different

1050
01:00:54,960 --> 01:00:58,080
Speaker 1: type of offensive profiles or do they think a new

1051
01:00:58,160 --> 01:00:59,920
Speaker 1: voice would help. I don't know what the answer that.

1052
01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:07,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we shall see. Uh, we're not going anywhere. No,

1053
01:01:08,080 --> 01:01:10,640
Speaker 2: In case you were wondering, I saw I saw some

1054
01:01:10,640 --> 01:01:13,320
Speaker 2: some messages of like, I hope you bring this back

1055
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:17,240
Speaker 2: next season, buddy. We're gonna be doing this, uh for

1056
01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:21,520
Speaker 2: the next six months. Uh, just into the void. But

1057
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:23,360
Speaker 2: you know there's gonna be a million things to talk about.

1058
01:01:23,400 --> 01:01:26,840
Speaker 2: We started this thing in what November, December last year

1059
01:01:26,880 --> 01:01:29,280
Speaker 2: and immediately hit the ground run in with like three

1060
01:01:29,280 --> 01:01:32,680
Speaker 2: emergency pods because they kept trading people and signing people.

1061
01:01:32,760 --> 01:01:35,680
Speaker 2: And so, yeah, we're not going anywhere. We're still doing

1062
01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:38,800
Speaker 2: this podcast. What's what's the schedule look like? Chandler, Yeah,

1063
01:01:38,840 --> 01:01:41,240
Speaker 2: well we we did it. I mean, I don't know

1064
01:01:41,240 --> 01:01:43,600
Speaker 2: if you guys kept up with the cycle. We did

1065
01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:45,840
Speaker 2: it three days a week during the season. We'll go

1066
01:01:45,920 --> 01:01:47,840
Speaker 2: down to two days a week in the in the

1067
01:01:47,880 --> 01:01:52,040
Speaker 2: off season. Obviously that will change if and when guys

1068
01:01:52,080 --> 01:01:55,280
Speaker 2: get signed, traded, fired, hired, who knows, who knows what

1069
01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:59,760
Speaker 2: could happen as news develops. We will react accordingly. But

1070
01:02:01,320 --> 01:02:02,880
Speaker 2: normal weeks will.

1071
01:02:02,720 --> 01:02:06,160
Speaker 1: Have two a week and we'll try again for the

1072
01:02:06,200 --> 01:02:08,560
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. We'll have no shortage of things

1073
01:02:08,600 --> 01:02:13,360
Speaker 1: to talk about, but as things kind of gradually slow

1074
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:15,480
Speaker 1: down a little bit, let us know. If you guys

1075
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:19,080
Speaker 1: have some people you want to hear from. Jim Crane

1076
01:02:19,120 --> 01:02:21,800
Speaker 1: not included because I don't think they'll answer my requests

1077
01:02:21,840 --> 01:02:23,720
Speaker 1: on that. If you guys have people want to hear from,

1078
01:02:23,840 --> 01:02:25,520
Speaker 1: or things you want us to talk about, let us know.

1079
01:02:25,600 --> 01:02:29,200
Speaker 1: Because the games are over so we can't really rely

1080
01:02:29,280 --> 01:02:32,920
Speaker 1: on that anymore, but we will continue to do everything

1081
01:02:32,920 --> 01:02:36,280
Speaker 1: we can to keep you guys informed. And until then,

1082
01:02:36,360 --> 01:02:38,800
Speaker 1: you can follow me on X at Chandler Underscore Room.

1083
01:02:38,840 --> 01:02:41,600
Speaker 1: You can follow Tyler at Tyler C. Stafford. Please, as always,

1084
01:02:41,640 --> 01:02:44,520
Speaker 1: rate and review us on Apple and Spotify. You can

1085
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:47,440
Speaker 1: subscribe to the Christianity Territory YouTube channel where you can

1086
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:49,920
Speaker 1: get notified every time we post a new podcast. As

1087
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:53,040
Speaker 1: I mentioned, they're going to do the Ashers will do

1088
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:57,240
Speaker 1: their post mortem press conference on Tuesday. Tyler, this is

1089
01:02:57,280 --> 01:02:59,400
Speaker 1: saving me a text to you. We may do something

1090
01:02:59,400 --> 01:03:02,720
Speaker 1: Tuesday night or Wednesday morning to kind of recap that

1091
01:03:03,280 --> 01:03:06,560
Speaker 1: here with Joe and Dana if they both appear there,

1092
01:03:06,920 --> 01:03:09,760
Speaker 1: what they have to say and uh so that be

1093
01:03:09,800 --> 01:03:12,480
Speaker 1: on the lookout for that maybe Tuesday night or Wednesday morning,

1094
01:03:12,480 --> 01:03:14,600
Speaker 1: but until then, we will talk to you guys later.

1095
01:03:14,600 --> 01:03:18,040
Speaker 1: And again, thank you guys so much for staying with

1096
01:03:18,120 --> 01:03:20,880
Speaker 1: us this whole season. It has been really, really fun.

1097
01:03:21,200 --> 01:03:23,920
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's been entertaining. It's been a

1098
01:03:24,200 --> 01:03:26,640
Speaker 1: fun new challenge for me to get on here and

1099
01:03:26,680 --> 01:03:29,440
Speaker 1: do this. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not the

1100
01:03:29,800 --> 01:03:32,680
Speaker 1: not the most social butterfly, and I'm not the I'm

1101
01:03:32,760 --> 01:03:36,040
Speaker 1: not the most uh not the most suave like social person,

1102
01:03:36,120 --> 01:03:38,360
Speaker 1: but it's been fun to talking to my computer for

1103
01:03:38,640 --> 01:03:40,240
Speaker 1: you know, six months and try to act like I

1104
01:03:40,280 --> 01:03:42,360
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. And Tyler's been pretty good

1105
01:03:42,360 --> 01:03:42,640
Speaker 1: at it.

1106
01:03:43,520 --> 01:03:45,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a it's been a lot of fun.

1107
01:03:45,480 --> 01:03:49,600
Speaker 2: I've enjoyed all of this. I'm not even it's been

1108
01:03:49,640 --> 01:03:52,600
Speaker 2: so good that we've gone an hour and I'm not

1109
01:03:52,720 --> 01:03:55,760
Speaker 2: even gonna ask you how your college football team did

1110
01:03:56,080 --> 01:03:59,040
Speaker 2: uh this weekend. I'll spare you that for one episode.

1111
01:03:59,080 --> 01:04:02,000
Speaker 2: Maybe uh, maybe on a slower day we can discuss that.

1112
01:04:03,040 --> 01:04:06,000
Speaker 2: But yeah, thank you guys for listening. It's been a

1113
01:04:06,040 --> 01:04:09,280
Speaker 2: ton of fun. We're not going anywhere. We're gonna keep chatting.

1114
01:04:09,640 --> 01:04:15,240
Speaker 2: Uh so, yeah, we'll see y'all soon. The Zoo Boo

1115
01:04:15,600 --> 01:04:19,680
Speaker 2: is open through October thirty first, uh so so maybe

1116
01:04:19,720 --> 01:04:21,280
Speaker 2: we'll see you there. Bye.

1117
01:04:22,360 --> 01:04:48,760
Speaker 1: Brian Kelly contributed to killing a Kid. Bye,