Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Waken Jake Breaking News. Christian Walker
Speaker 1: signs with the Houston Astros. We were in the office
Speaker 1: obviously December twentieth. It doesn't stop. You might have quit
Speaker 1: on your job three weeks ago. We just mentally have,
Speaker 1: but physically we're here and Christian Walker has signed with
Speaker 1: the Houston Astros. And hey, you know, as far as
Speaker 1: signings go this offseason, not the A tier but the
Speaker 1: B tier. And you know, I think me and BBD
Speaker 1: had a moment one of a Waken Jake kind of
Speaker 1: breaking news episode that popped was Jose Abreu signing an
Speaker 1: eerily similar contract about two years ago to those same
Speaker 1: Houston Astros. So the early report is it's Christian Walker
Speaker 1: for three years, twenty million a year, quick mass as
Speaker 1: sixty million beebs is a little hot to trot. Thinks
Speaker 1: there should be some player vesting stuff. Where there were
Speaker 1: rumors of a fourth year.
Speaker 2: Heard about a fourth year, heard about not a fourth year.
Speaker 2: His numbers were higher and some prior rumors those are
Speaker 2: just rumors. But I think the three for sixty number
Speaker 2: being on the lower end of what people thought he
Speaker 2: might be getting, there's some avenue for something Christian Walker
Speaker 2: is very good.
Speaker 1: Christian Walker. His best season was twenty twenty two five war,
Speaker 1: which from the first base position, that's that's pretty diesel.
Speaker 1: He had a one twenty five ops plus thirty six homers.
Speaker 1: Followed up the next year with thirty three homers. The
Speaker 1: overall war went down, which is kind of funny because
Speaker 1: a lot of the hitting stats actually ticked up a
Speaker 1: little bit. And then last year in one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty games, he was on a very similar pace. If
Speaker 1: you look at any of the first base defensive analytics,
Speaker 1: which are a little sketch, we still don't have that
Speaker 1: figured out perfectly, but if you look at the top
Speaker 1: of the leaderboards, you do see the best defensive first
Speaker 1: basement to the eye test, and Christian Walker blows like
Speaker 1: everyone out of the water. So with that, Houston has
Speaker 1: now started a pretty interesting off season. The Kyle Tucker trade,
Speaker 1: which again that's one of the best players in the
Speaker 1: American League. He is now a Chicago cub. Esach Prette
Speaker 1: has come over and we talked about that. He's twenty
Speaker 1: five ESAC big time pull hitter. Like if there's a
Speaker 1: place where he should click, it would be Houston. There
Speaker 1: are some rumors he was going to play first base.
Speaker 1: He's now their third baseman. We'll see what they do
Speaker 1: with the DH position. I do have some thoughts on that.
Speaker 1: Right now, they would have Jordan penciled at DH. Jordan
Speaker 1: can play a little more left field than I think
Speaker 1: our brains think, especially with the Crawford boxes out there.
Speaker 1: His straight line speed is good. He's like a tight end.
Speaker 1: But the rest of the Astros outfield is still Chas McCormick,
Speaker 1: Jake Myers, and Taylor Tremmel. We've seen them like Chas
Speaker 1: McCormick and Jake Myers at different times. Marisa dubont is
Speaker 1: still on the team. Love saying that they are missing
Speaker 1: a lefty right now, and I'm wondering what their next
Speaker 1: move is going to be because I have been on
Speaker 1: a hunt for lefties for my Yankees throughout this entire offseason.
Speaker 1: So I can tell you a little bit of what's
Speaker 1: out there. Brandon Lowe again, they kind of they have
Speaker 1: second base and they have DH. Brandon Lowe's played a
Speaker 1: little bit of outfield. I don't know, it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like a perfect fit. But if he went to Houston,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, Okay, that guy could trend back up
Speaker 1: to forty ish homers if he's healthy for a full year.
Speaker 1: Asterisk Jack Peterson Young Jock is looking for a home.
Speaker 1: And if you can have Jordan and Jock survive in
Speaker 1: left field, and you could have the other one DH,
Speaker 1: you then have a lineup that is pretty mean one
Speaker 1: through seven. If that example happened, they could go Altuve
Speaker 1: or done on Perette's Jock, Christian Walker, Yiner Diaz, Jeremy Pana.
Speaker 1: So I'm expecting them to add an impact lefty bat.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm trying to think who else, who else
Speaker 1: is out there? Because we've done this game a lot,
Speaker 1: there's not a ton like.
Speaker 2: A lot of obvious guys.
Speaker 1: Not growing on trees. I think the bigger thing because
Speaker 1: I would be very surprised it felt like there was
Speaker 1: still an Alex Bregman window open to come home. With
Speaker 1: Esac going to first and Alex Bragman staying at third,
Speaker 1: it feels like that's closed. I mean, the only option
Speaker 1: there would be Jordan is an everyday left fielder, Perette's
Speaker 1: DHS and you put Bragman at third. But I don't
Speaker 1: think they're gonna do that because they also need Lefties.
Speaker 1: So it now it kind of officially feels like the
Speaker 1: Alex Bregman era is over in Houston, which, uh surprise
Speaker 1: and not surprising hits both sides of it, Like they
Speaker 1: were still talking, but he wanted the six years, but
Speaker 1: it seemed like they were ready to move on. But
Speaker 1: then where was the interest? Everywhere? Everywhere else? They had
Speaker 1: a pretty good offer in on him. You have to
Speaker 1: think the twenty mil to Christian Walker ends that. I'll
Speaker 1: be honest, I'm you're not going to get a good
Speaker 1: hot take out of me on Christian Walker. I was
Speaker 1: nervous for the Yankees to sign him just because of
Speaker 1: the age. He's going to turn thirty four for opening
Speaker 1: Day and the Yankees have just seen father time struggle
Speaker 1: recently between Rizzo, which you know ended up being a
Speaker 1: really weird one when you do the concussion and everything
Speaker 1: all in Josh Donaldson, didn't it look great. DJ Lemayhew
Speaker 1: has had a couple injuries and he's fallen off a
Speaker 1: cliff that that could not be Christian Walker. Christian Walker
Speaker 1: could put together three great years and again that Houston
Speaker 1: Ballpark ten to help hitters. I do want to look
Speaker 1: at the Christian Walker spray chart, because for all how
Speaker 1: much I've talked about him, I haven't truly seen he
Speaker 1: pulls it. His homers are pull side, he pulls it,
Speaker 1: so that'll work out for him. The baseball Savant's pretty
Speaker 1: that if you're Houston, if you get two years of
Speaker 1: good Christian Walker, that would be a win. And I
Speaker 1: think that's the interesting thing, Like next year you should
Speaker 1: have very high expectations for Christian Walker offensively and defensively,
Speaker 1: and then we'll see what goes on from there. So
Speaker 1: for Houston, they are going to be in the lefty
Speaker 1: great game. And I wonder what else they have lined
Speaker 1: up or that they'd be willing to move or you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's that, I don't want to say
Speaker 1: second tier of players, but like Saint Louis, who they
Speaker 1: had a trade for Nolan Aaronato, so it seems like
Speaker 1: that's out. Also, you know, well a Brendan Donovan Alec
Speaker 1: Burlson type. Could they try to tap into someone like
Speaker 1: that and get new life in Houston. But I'd have
Speaker 1: to think they are in the lefty market. The Yankees
Speaker 1: are slightly in the lefty market. Every team lefties are good.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of right handed pitching lefties are good.
Speaker 1: Our Yankees forgot that for a year. Yeah, hate it,
Speaker 1: hate it done. Now the first base market. Goldschmidt, Carlos Santana,
Speaker 1: how do you like you're old in the morning. We've
Speaker 1: got the former MVP righty big second half mashed lefties
Speaker 1: last year, and Paul Goldschmidt played every day for the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: I think if he plays a little less he should
Speaker 1: be good. Carlos Santana, I mean, is entering ageless wonder territory.
Speaker 1: He had like his one of his best seasons since
Speaker 1: he was like a young kid studed for Cleveland and
Speaker 1: also grades out fantastic defensively, has a good eye, switch hitter,
Speaker 1: mash lefties. It feels like those guys. He's made this joke,
Speaker 1: and we've been kind of making this joke. But it
Speaker 1: feels like the Yankees are gonna throw ten mil at
Speaker 1: one of them and see which one signs first the
Speaker 1: other one. You know, there's been a lot of Washington
Speaker 1: National rumors that they want to secure up their first
Speaker 1: base position. Is that Pete the Meat? Is that one
Speaker 1: of the veterans I did, like I think Trevor said
Speaker 1: it on a talk in baseball that he was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: you've got all these kids in Washington bringing Carlos Santana
Speaker 1: for a year, like he is one of the true
Speaker 1: leaders in baseball, especially for the Latin ball players, but
Speaker 1: for any ballplayer. I mean, he's coming up on forty
Speaker 1: and he's still doing the damn thing switch hitting puts
Speaker 1: in the work. Clearly that I like that fit, I guess.
Speaker 1: And you know what, Biebs, I'm I need to take
Speaker 1: a step back because I forgot with my Yankee goggles
Speaker 1: on that the Yankees put together one of the worst
Speaker 1: defensive innings in baseball history. So we had to rule
Speaker 1: out guys. I forgot about Anthony Santander. I would love
Speaker 1: him in Houston. Him or Profar. That was the other
Speaker 1: one that nobody knows where teams are at. With Profar,
Speaker 1: he had one of the best seasons of all the
Speaker 1: free agents. It's just such an outlier that a team
Speaker 1: is gonna go for him. And yes, I mean who
Speaker 1: if Houston if they go for Santan Dare, that lineup
Speaker 1: is disgusting. And the other weird thing with Houston that
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see if it transfers into next year.
Speaker 1: They didn't take pitches at all. I think they were
Speaker 1: the least pitches seen. Alex Bregman's obp was down. Al
Speaker 1: Twuoveys notorious for attacking the ball. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: wonder you know Santander is not an on base that
Speaker 1: if Houston doesn't really care about that, and they can
Speaker 1: put him in left field and have him and rode
Speaker 1: On or him and Jordan that's funny. Uh. If they
Speaker 1: can have them switch out in left field. That's kind
Speaker 1: of what they used to do with Michael Brantley. It
Speaker 1: was kind of like, Hey, Brandley or Erodon, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get a couple games and left you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: couple of games. Dhing that my god. If they could
Speaker 1: add Santander, who that is a big boy lineup. And
Speaker 1: I think Houston is coming back and wants to come back.
Speaker 1: They kind of had a weird year last year. They
Speaker 1: got eliminated by the Tigers. They kind of hobbled into
Speaker 1: the division. Framber Hunter Brown put together more of a
Speaker 1: season than I remembered. Ronel Blanco put together a massive season.
Speaker 1: Spencer Arraghetti down the stretch was great. Luis Garcia should
Speaker 1: be back next year. They have some of the pitching
Speaker 1: options that I guess in the Al West. If you
Speaker 1: had to make me pick today, well, if I had
Speaker 1: to pick today, I'd still pick Texas. I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna have a bounce back year if they signed Santan
Speaker 1: Dare And it's so dumb because one player doesn't change
Speaker 1: a team's outlook as much as we like to think.
Speaker 1: But they had a Christian Walker today and if they
Speaker 1: you know, in that fake world, I'm adding Santander or
Speaker 1: Jock Peterson or one of those guys that they've proven
Speaker 1: what level they can hit at that Houston would be
Speaker 1: a wagon and I'm a hitting guy and Seattle can't hit.
Speaker 1: Texas should bounce back. They have hitters and young guys
Speaker 1: that if one or two of them click, they should
Speaker 1: be back. That. Yeah, I I like the signing for Houston.
Speaker 1: It's definitely that second year is kind of the pivot
Speaker 1: year for me. You're expecting Christian Walker to be great
Speaker 1: this year. You're expecting Christian Walker to be good last year.
Speaker 1: You know there's a risk that final year playing the
Speaker 1: odds games with Baseball, father time and injuries, that something
Speaker 1: can happen there. I mean, we just saw you know,
Speaker 1: look at Paul Goldschmith's last three years like there was
Speaker 1: a bit of a decline. DJ I can't even talk
Speaker 1: about it. Good for Houston. They are active and they
Speaker 1: should continue to be active, and they've got a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways they can go, as long as it's
Speaker 1: lefty or switch hitting. And just said that those options
Speaker 1: are out there. And then yeah, I guess closing this
Speaker 1: one off for free agency in first base, still interested
Speaker 1: to see what happens with Pete Man. You are the
Speaker 1: Nats gonna push that button put the money in? Are
Speaker 1: the Mets just like, No, We're we like Pete, We
Speaker 1: got Soto, like, let's go hit or the secret third option?
Speaker 1: Who knows the John Hayman mystery team, Well, Seattle pony
Speaker 1: up the money? Is there another? I mean, the Yankees
Speaker 1: are out. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker 2: It feels like if the Yankees ever became a real
Speaker 2: real option for that, the Mets would rightfully step in
Speaker 2: and correct that. Yeah, maybe that's too much vibes based analysis.
Speaker 1: But so we are getting to an interesting spot and
Speaker 1: free agency where impact hitters remaining Alex Bragman, yep, Pete Alonzo, sure,
Speaker 1: tay Oscar, yes, Santander yep. After that, man, you've got
Speaker 1: a bucket of Profar, Glaber and Hassan Kim. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then I would put Jock in there. I've been a
Speaker 1: staunch Jack Peterson guy only because he rakes every year.
Speaker 1: So even if that's everyone all in, like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to be shots fired at Paul Goldschmidt, but I
Speaker 1: don't think he carries the weight of and hopefully I'm
Speaker 1: wrong if he signs with the Yankees. But you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think Paul Goldschmidt's hitting third or fourth days
Speaker 1: are still there. I think he can be a nice
Speaker 1: piece from the five to six hole.
Speaker 2: Like him in pro like. Whoever team gets him, I
Speaker 2: don't think is signing him to be some sort of
Speaker 2: like savior.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a chance that prof is.
Speaker 2: They have those kinds of ceilings on them, the chance
Speaker 2: that Profar is I just I don't know.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows. He's He is very classic the Jaki. If
Speaker 1: he signs with a good team, you're gonna be like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I love that Profar. If he signs with
Speaker 1: a bad team, you're gonna be like it was. It's
Speaker 1: a pleasure, pleasure to see you, Jerkson. Congrats on the
Speaker 1: deal Seattle. Please don't we've seen that too many times.
Speaker 1: Please do not so Hey, a little smoke out of
Speaker 1: Houston in this hot stove. I think the biggest takeaways
Speaker 1: first baseman market starts to thin a little bit, although
Speaker 1: there's still options in the free agent pool, and there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of trade options, so maybe not right. Alex
Speaker 1: Bregman needs a home. What was that?
Speaker 2: I've been saying this a lot, but listening to Joel
Speaker 2: Sherman and yeah, talking it's all from one episode I
Speaker 2: listened to the he mentioned it like, yeah, first base
Speaker 2: is kind of they can afford to talking about the Yankees,
Speaker 2: you can afford to bargain shop a little bit. And
Speaker 2: then during the season, any team that falls out of contention,
Speaker 2: their first baseman becomes available. That's the rules of baseball.
Speaker 2: And that made me laugh.
Speaker 1: It's becoming a Joel Shermand. We may have to reach
Speaker 1: out soon. Hey, I think that was a quick hitter
Speaker 1: before the football and the holidays, and we'll see if
Speaker 1: there's any other baseball news there is there anything else
Speaker 1: that needs to be said.
Speaker 2: I'm not seeing any new news Max Kepler to the Phillies.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: Nice, Maybe it doesn't not make sense.
Speaker 1: Maybe a change of scenery and a nice hitters ballpark
Speaker 1: will do Max well. But yeah, I mean he's currently
Speaker 1: no offense to Max Kepler. Where do they slot him him?
Speaker 1: They have him slotted in six. Okay, I still want
Speaker 1: to see. Are the Phillies gonna flip bomb? And then
Speaker 1: they signed Bragman like they haven't yet.
Speaker 2: There's a the move of the offseason that they've got
Speaker 2: to pull off. The Phillies are good.
Speaker 1: Ye braves, where are you? I'm not gonna do my
Speaker 1: every team thing again because I'm gonna head to the
Speaker 1: bathroom and get ready for the holidays. So thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Make sure you subscribed. If there's any good, juicy news,
Speaker 1: we might set up the zoom and do something quick.
Speaker 1: We'll see otherwise, I mean, do we shout out Uncle Dan?
Speaker 2: We can jake his production of Den Patrick Productions, jen
Speaker 2: Boy Media and Workhouse Media.