Speaker 1: And the Roma hustling yesterday just typing away, typing away,
Speaker 1: the Houston astros were making moves, making headlines, and he
Speaker 1: covers them for The Athletic, along with Crush City Territory,
Speaker 1: which you should check out, subscribe to it on YouTube
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. I want to start
Speaker 1: this way, Chandler, the headliner astro's Trade Deadline takeaways. You
Speaker 1: wrote Jim Crane cements his title as Baseball's most aggressive owner.
Speaker 1: Can you elaborate on that one?
Speaker 2: If I want to give a shout out to Tyler
Speaker 2: Stafford and Josh Reddick who ran Crush City Territory today solo.
Speaker 2: Excellent job by both of them. Please go rate, review,
Speaker 2: please like and watch that they did a great job. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's difficult to call Jim Crane anything else other than
Speaker 2: the most aggressive. Notice I said most aggressive owner at
Speaker 2: the trade deadline. You know, look aj Preller, very Depoto.
Speaker 2: They obviously get their flowers as guys that wheel undeal
Speaker 2: a bunch, but no owner is quite like Jim Crane,
Speaker 2: a guy that when he has somebody that he wants,
Speaker 2: when he has identified players as I want this guy
Speaker 2: nine times out of ten. The Astros get them. You know,
Speaker 2: you look at Justin Verlander in twenty seventeen. Again in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. We had Jeff Luno on Crush City
Speaker 2: Territory a couple of weeks ago, and he basically said
Speaker 2: that Jim Crane was a huge factor in getting Zach
Speaker 2: Grinkey in twenty nineteen. Remember too that the Astros had
Speaker 2: a deal agreed upon to acquire Bryce Harper from the
Speaker 2: Nationals in twenty eighteen that was nixed by Nationals ownership.
Speaker 2: And then also bear in mind that at the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three deadline, Jim Crane came out and said, we
Speaker 2: tried to acquire two players from the Padres. It was
Speaker 2: Blake Snell and Josh Hater. They couldn't get on the
Speaker 2: same page. Ended up pivoting to Verlander. Boo did Jim
Speaker 2: Crane and Dana Brown sign the next winner Josh Hater.
Speaker 2: So look, if if Jim Crane sees that the Astros
Speaker 2: his team has a legitimate shot at a chanceampionship, he
Speaker 2: breaks all precedent. He kind of loosens his restrictions if
Speaker 2: you will, on money and see and the luxury tax,
Speaker 2: things of that nature. And he goes for it, and
Speaker 2: you have to commend him for that as an owner
Speaker 2: that is disaggressive, as an owner that prioritizes winning this much,
Speaker 2: and an owner that sometimes just says, you know what,
Speaker 2: through it, We're going for it, We're going all in,
Speaker 2: We're pushing our chips all and that's what this team did.
Speaker 2: That's what he did. At the deadline. The Ashers needed
Speaker 2: a jolt, They needed some energy in their clubhouse. They
Speaker 2: lost twelve of nineteen going into the deadline. Their lineup
Speaker 2: has just been ravaged by injury. And you know, there
Speaker 2: were other hitters out there that maybe made more fiscal sense.
Speaker 2: There were hitters out there that maybe fit the lineup
Speaker 2: a little bit better. But no one has the pachet,
Speaker 2: no one has the star power, and no one can
Speaker 2: bring a jolt to the city of Houston and the
Speaker 2: Asher's Clubhouse like Carlos Korean.
Speaker 3: Well that's my next question. Jim Craig just love stars,
Speaker 3: doesn't he He loves stars. Carlos Korea is a star. And
Speaker 3: we had Bob Nightingale earlier who said this was an
Speaker 3: owner to oh, this was a poll out, and Jim
Speaker 3: Crane Trade GMS be damned, this was a pollout. And
Speaker 3: Jim Crane trade that was done between the two involving
Speaker 3: all the money. So how much of that is true?
Speaker 3: And why does Jim Crane love stars so much? I mean,
Speaker 3: it's amazing he loves collecting him.
Speaker 2: I mean, you'd have to ask Jim why he loves
Speaker 2: stars so much. But I think I think a little
Speaker 2: bit of it is, you know, stars are more you know,
Speaker 2: there's a little more assurance there. There's a little more
Speaker 2: guarantee that these stars are going to come in and
Speaker 2: perform well. You know, you don't know how getting a
Speaker 2: guy from maybe an uneasy situation or a guy that's
Speaker 2: never been in the spotlight, a guy that's never been
Speaker 2: in kind of the pressure cooker that is when you
Speaker 2: come into an Astros clubhouse that expects to contend for
Speaker 2: the World Series every years. There's a lot of pressure there,
Speaker 2: and you know, there's people that are meant to handle that.
Speaker 2: There's people that, you know, as Dana Brown likes to say,
Speaker 2: have the stomach for it. Carlos Korea is certainly one
Speaker 2: of those guys. Justin Berlander as we know as one
Speaker 2: of those guys. Bryce Harper would have been and still
Speaker 2: is in twenty eighteen, Zach Grinkey got them to within
Speaker 2: I believe, eight outs of a world series in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: so that's part of it. You know, Look, Jim Crane
Speaker 2: had a huge hand in this. Dan Hayes and I
Speaker 2: at the Athletic, you know, when this started the summer
Speaker 2: on Wednesday, you know, we wrote a story that basically said, look,
Speaker 2: there were sources from both the Twin side and the
Speaker 2: Astros side that were really downplaying this as a possibility.
Speaker 2: You know, it could happen, but it's very, very unlikely
Speaker 2: to happen. But every Astros person that I kept talking
Speaker 2: to there was just kind of this inherent understanding with them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: They would they would say everything, and they'd be like,
Speaker 2: but you know, Gim's involved, and Jim is usually when
Speaker 2: Jim Crane has his eyes on something, nine times out
Speaker 2: of ten he gets it. And I trust Bob implicitly.
Speaker 2: I do believe that it was a lot of you know,
Speaker 2: Jim Crane to the pole ads there in Minnesota. I
Speaker 2: think that is true. And that is the case because
Speaker 2: with the amount of money you're talking about here, with
Speaker 2: the amount of money that the Twins are paying, with
Speaker 2: the amount of money that the ashers are taking on.
Speaker 2: That's an ownership level decision. That would have been the
Speaker 2: case in twenty nine, twenty eight. Other teams too, like
Speaker 2: ownership would have had to get involved. So, but make
Speaker 2: no mistake this, Jim Crane's influence in this deal was massive.
Speaker 4: We're used was jolt that Carlos Correa is gonna bring
Speaker 4: to this team. You look at these stats right now.
Speaker 4: Is there gonna be a jolt? I get it. You
Speaker 4: can have clubhouse guys, but you know what clubhouse guys
Speaker 4: get paid. They get paid what I got paid. It's
Speaker 4: a it's a half a year thing. It's a you
Speaker 4: know it's under You don't have two commas in your paychecks.
Speaker 4: Jim Crane's a very successful businessman, and successful businessmen do
Speaker 4: not waste their money. Is there a chance they see
Speaker 4: something that maybe could be unlocked, especially with moving to
Speaker 4: third base and maybe getting him off his feet. I'm
Speaker 4: assuming they know what his foot injury was. Is there
Speaker 4: something there or is it just a complete roll of
Speaker 4: the dice for seventy some million dollars.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, Kratz, you've shared a clubhouse with Korea.
Speaker 2: You know the influence and the impact just his presence
Speaker 2: has like sometimes he doesn't even need to speak, it's
Speaker 2: just his his aura and his being there. It just
Speaker 2: kind of alters the way a clubhouse functions. You know,
Speaker 2: he's a guy that can team with Jose Altuve and
Speaker 2: really be, you know, the leaders of this clubhouse. When
Speaker 2: he left in twenty twenty one, he was the unquestioned
Speaker 2: leader of the Astros clubhouse vocally, presence wise. Sometimes he
Speaker 2: didn't even need to speak, but a lot of times
Speaker 2: he did use his words and was the leader. So
Speaker 2: that'll help, you know. I do worry, not worry. Worry's
Speaker 2: probably the wrong word. I do find it fascinating to
Speaker 2: look at his stats because, look, this isn't the same
Speaker 2: Carlos Korea that left here in twenty twenty one. I
Speaker 2: believe he was worth ten point four war in his
Speaker 2: Minnesota Twins tenure. He had two separate seasons with the
Speaker 2: Astros worth seven war. This is the player that has
Speaker 2: on paper declined. I have not watched Carlos play a
Speaker 2: bunch since he left, so I can't tell you specifically.
Speaker 2: It's this, this, and this. Some of that has been
Speaker 2: injury related. He had the oblique issue earlier in his
Speaker 2: Twins career. He's had some foot issues, he had some
Speaker 2: planner fasciitis issues. Part of it is he's got to
Speaker 2: stay on the field. Part of it too, You know,
Speaker 2: I have no doubts that he'll transition to third base
Speaker 2: and be absolutely excellent there. The one thing that has
Speaker 2: never fallen off as his defense, Like he's one of
Speaker 2: the better defensive shortstops I've ever seen. I think that'll
Speaker 2: be a seamless kind of transition him going to third base,
Speaker 2: and who knows, maybe there's something there like there was
Speaker 2: with jose Al Tuove when Josel Tuove moved a left
Speaker 2: field in spring training. I think I've told you guys
Speaker 2: before that this is the most engaged and the most
Speaker 2: like happy and energetic I've ever seen Josel Tuba in
Speaker 2: the eight years I've covered, and that position switch kind
Speaker 2: of energized him. Maybe that can be the case for
Speaker 2: Korean even though it's only moving over a few feet
Speaker 2: on the left side of the field, Maybe that can
Speaker 2: be the case. He has he has said that he
Speaker 2: want he wanted to play third base. He has he
Speaker 2: had talked to the Twins about doing that, but the
Speaker 2: roster construction just never lent itself to playing third base.
Speaker 2: So third base is not the worry for me. What
Speaker 2: I would worry about a little bit is the offensive numbers.
Speaker 2: The slug has not been there recently, you know, you
Speaker 2: look at he's been susceptible to sliders. The batting average
Speaker 2: is still he's round, still round, a two sixty two
Speaker 2: seventy hitter, but just has not provided the thump that
Speaker 2: they need. But if this lineup gets at full strength,
Speaker 2: then you have Jeremy Pana and Jordan Alvarez back and
Speaker 2: joseel tub who's having a nice year, and then Jake
Speaker 2: Myers who's hitting three hundred if he can come back.
Speaker 2: You look at it, and he doesn't really have to
Speaker 2: be this one thousand ops guy that's going to carry
Speaker 2: the lineup. He'll be surrounded by some pretty good pieces there.
Speaker 2: But that's a big if. If the Astros get back
Speaker 2: to full strength.
Speaker 4: All right, not to discourage or to say what you
Speaker 4: said was wrong, but a minus two who outs above
Speaker 4: average maybe as fielding range is men third base increases that.
Speaker 4: I get what you're saying. The aura, the aura factory.
Speaker 4: It makes my kids cringe when I say that, But
Speaker 4: you're in Fenway. Right now, the two teams are gonna
Speaker 4: play against each other that that did not do anything
Speaker 4: to take care of their starting pitching needs. Who's in
Speaker 4: a worse spot, the Astros or the Red Sox with
Speaker 4: their starting pitching? And where are the Astros at what
Speaker 4: they're starting pitching because they didn't get ceased, they thought
Speaker 4: that was gonna get pushed across the finish line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as far as the Astros go, they're gonna have
Speaker 2: to hope and pray that Christian Javier and JP Frantz
Speaker 2: and Spencer Aarraghetti and Luis Garcia they come back. And look,
Speaker 2: it seems now they are going to get all four
Speaker 2: of those guys back. They are going to activate them
Speaker 2: off the injured list at some point and they're going
Speaker 2: to be on a major league mound. The question is
Speaker 2: their efficiency. You know, Christian Haavier hasn't pitched a major
Speaker 2: league game in thirteen months, Luis Garcia hasn't pitched a
Speaker 2: major league game in twenty seven months. Spencer Araghetti is
Speaker 2: probably the more sure thing out of this, uh, these
Speaker 2: four guys, because he did pitch some this season and
Speaker 2: he's not coming back from you know, reconstructive elbow surgery
Speaker 2: or a long thing. He just broke his thumb on
Speaker 2: his right hand. Not that that's a nothing injury, but
Speaker 2: certainly not to the level that Javier France and Garcia
Speaker 2: have been through. So they've looked okay, most of them
Speaker 2: have looked okay in their minor league rehab starts. But
Speaker 2: you know, it's a different animal at the big league level,
Speaker 2: and they're gonna have to roll the dice here that
Speaker 2: these guys are ready to get out at the big
Speaker 2: league level. You know, Dana Brown was asked yesterday why
Speaker 2: they didn't acquire pitching, and it was the answer was
Speaker 2: pretty simple. The prices were just too high in lieu
Speaker 2: of trading away some of either the one zero to
Speaker 2: three controllable talent they have or some of their precious
Speaker 2: few top prospects. You know, Jim Crain decided to take
Speaker 2: on the month, take on Carlos Carea's money, and that
Speaker 2: allowed them to keep a lot of their controllable talent
Speaker 2: and their prospects in the system. You know, they were
Speaker 2: very hard after Dylan ceased. Dylan Cease was their primary
Speaker 2: target throughout this deadline until the Carlos Correa stuff really
Speaker 2: started to pop up. So the fact that they went
Speaker 2: so hard after dylan cease does kind of reaffirm that
Speaker 2: there is at least some worry about what these injured
Speaker 2: guys are going to come back and provide. But look,
Speaker 2: they're in a good spot with the top two guys
Speaker 2: in their rotation. Hunter Brown's going tonight and he hasn't
Speaker 2: been as dominant in his last four or five starts.
Speaker 2: I think tonight is a pretty crucial start for him,
Speaker 2: just to see if he can get back on track
Speaker 2: and get deeper into the games. Pitch efficiency has been
Speaker 2: a problem for him lately. Froberveldez has been incredible the
Speaker 2: last two or three months. You know, you kind of
Speaker 2: pencil him in as a guy you know you're going
Speaker 2: to get six or seven innings out of every time
Speaker 2: they go out there. They feel comfortable with those two guys.
Speaker 2: They feel comfortable set up man Brian A.
Speaker 4: Bray.
Speaker 2: Obviously John at the back end has done great work,
Speaker 2: but everything behind that there's a lot of question marks.
Speaker 2: And it's proof that with how hard they were pushing
Speaker 2: for Dylan Cees that they know that this could go
Speaker 2: awry a little bit. Not saying it will, but they're
Speaker 2: putting a lot of confidence and some injured guys that
Speaker 2: have not been on a major league mound in a
Speaker 2: while to come back in a pressure filled situation in
Speaker 2: a race for the division and get out and get
Speaker 2: them deep into games. And that's a dangerous gamble to wage.
Speaker 1: Chandler last one. Let's grade it. Just give us a
Speaker 1: grade for their trade deadline? Did you do one for
Speaker 1: the athletic.
Speaker 2: I didn't do one myself. I probably give them a
Speaker 2: B plus. You know that look they had. We haven't
Speaker 2: talked about Haesue Sanchez yet. I think that's probably the
Speaker 2: biggest acquisite. Like obviously Carlos Carea is Carlos Carea We're
Speaker 2: gonna put into the side for a minute, but functionally
Speaker 2: for their roster, getting Hayesue Sanchez was massive. This is
Speaker 2: this is a lineup that has taken the fewest at
Speaker 2: bats against left handed pitching all season. This is a
Speaker 2: lineup that is very, very right handled. He sus Sanchez
Speaker 2: comes in and he has like something like an eight
Speaker 2: to fourteen ops against right handed pitching. Left he hits
Speaker 2: left handed, will bring balance to their lineup while your
Speaker 2: and Alvarez is out, will continue to bring it. Once
Speaker 2: he's back, and I think more importantly, they can spell
Speaker 2: Cam Smith now on right field because as we've watched
Speaker 2: Cam Smith really since the All Star break, it looks
Speaker 2: like the rookie wall is approaching for him. If he's
Speaker 2: not hit it already, he's coming dangerously close to hitting it.
Speaker 2: He's up toward a workload in a threshold that he's
Speaker 2: never played before. He's never played this much. So they
Speaker 2: can now maybe put him in a semi platoon situation.
Speaker 2: Start Sanchez against a bunch of right handed pitching, bring
Speaker 2: Cam back against some lefties. I don't think it's going
Speaker 2: to be a strict platoon in that way, but this
Speaker 2: will help Cam Smith out a bunch. It will help,
Speaker 2: you know, managers, not avoid managers just unleashing all their
Speaker 2: right handed hitter, all their right handed pitching on this
Speaker 2: all right handed lineup. It'll give them some second thoughts
Speaker 2: as to how they deploy their pitching staff. But you know,
Speaker 2: I think that was a pickup that went under the
Speaker 2: radar because of what happened with Korea. But I do
Speaker 2: think because they didn't address the rotation or the bullpen,
Speaker 2: because they didn't get at least some pitching help. I
Speaker 2: would have to give it a B plus, but all
Speaker 2: in all, a good deadline for Dana Brown the Astros.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you, good stuff. Chandler, thanks for the
Speaker 1: time and what a day, What a day. It was
Speaker 1: fun to watch it, cover it on Twitter and in
Speaker 1: the Athletic. Thanks man. And then of course yeah it's problem. Tyler,
Speaker 1: Stafford and Josh Reddick on the way out here on
Speaker 1: Chush Citty Territory taking over. That's Chandler room. You can
Speaker 1: catch him Reddick sometimes, Stafford all the time. Part of
Speaker 1: the FT Network. Check them out YouTube wherever you get
Speaker 1: your pods. They're great and sort the astros this year
Speaker 1: and every year for the past decade.