Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back here On a Friday edition of The Craig Way Show.
Jay Krtman in for Craig as he flies out to Gainesville,
and I want to welcome Garrett Green to the show.
He is a former Longcorn and the voice of the
Sugarland Space Cowboys. Although, Garrett, this year, that means that
you saw so many of the Houston astros.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I mean, can you ever.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Remember so many injuries forcing this many call ups in
a year?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks for coming on, Yeah, no, happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
This was by far and away, I think the most
major league rehabs, certainly in my three seasons here without
a question here with Sugarland. But you typically don't see
that many rehab assignments. I think the final number for US,
I just talied it up was I think twenty three
different major league rehab assignments this year. So there were
(00:50):
quite a few guys who came through. And yeah, there
was a point where our starting rotation for a series
was Luis Garcia, JP Franz, Spencer Getty and Christian Javier
for a four day run, and Jeremy Pania was with
us for a couple of days in that stretch as well.
So not something you ever want. It's kind of a
(01:10):
fun experience to see those guys and the miners. I'm
always gonna remember getting to see Justin Verlander pitch here
a couple of times in twenty twenty four. But yeah,
you don't want that many injuries. And I certainly think
that kneecapped the Astros a little bit this year.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, Garrett, and at one point this year you got
a major league call up. But I was thinking to myself, Hey,
he's seen all these players already.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
They started the year in sugar Land.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I don't think there's a team in baseball that could
have survived the amount of injuries the Astros did. But
after a second half like that, what do you think
the offseason priorities look like for Houston.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
There's a lot of different things that they're gonna need
to assess and figure out. Obviously getting healthy is gonna
be the big one. But I don't think that you
can rely on saying, well, Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesnevsky
and maybe Brandon Walter are going to come back, because
I think that people have this misconception of how long
(02:03):
a Tommy John surgery, which is that ucl reconstructive surgery
takes to come back from, and I think there are
a few guys who have returned on a quicker timeline,
so maybe that is that's warped that perception. But the
recovery process for that is gonna be somewhere between twelve
to fourteen months, normally twelve to fifteen months, and so
I think that banking on those guys coming back is
(02:25):
not maybe your best idea. So starting pitching is gonna
have to be something they're gonna look at to figure
out what they're gonna do. They already know that they're
not gonna have Luis Garci. It was just announced today
that he had surgery and his flex are cleaned up,
so he's not going to be available to come back either.
So I think they're gonna have to go and find
some starting pitching. They have some good starters here in
the minor leagues that I certainly think they could draw on,
(02:47):
which they did very well with this season. But I
think that going on adding another arm, because you're probably
gonna lose from or Valdez, is gonna be big. And
then they just need to assess and figure out what
they're doing offensively and what they want to do from
a position player perspective, and they're probably gonna have to
rebuild a little bit in their bullpen. But losing Josh Hater,
I think that was the blow that was just the
(03:09):
one they couldn't absorb offensively. They probably couldn't absorb a
few of those, but they were able to patch it
together for a while. I think that losing Hater ended
up being that one guy that ended up being a
bridge too far for them.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, we saw that bear out kind of hitting that
critical mass of injuries with that bullpen unable to hang
on to some key games late for the Astros. All right,
So MLB Wildcard Series are in the books. You were
back from your postseason vacation able to take in the
action last night. You know, it's year four of this
new expanded playoff format with the you know, the three
(03:45):
game Wildcard series.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Where do you come down on it.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Do you think that it's been a successful new piece
of the MLB postseason?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I think so, And I think that this is the
first year that it lived up to I think what
Major League Baseball was probably looking for. The Yankees end
up bucking trend. They become the first team that loses
game one and then ends up winning the series. The
Brewers almost did it last year until Pete Alonso happened
to them laid on, so that was It creates urgency
(04:12):
and it gives teams an opportunity, but certainly if you
win game one, that puts you in an ideal spot.
I think that a one game wild card is still
too short of a series. I think with baseball, with
how mercurial it can be and how it's so much
can can change on a dime so quickly, that leaving
it to a one game wildcard not my favorite thing
(04:35):
in the world.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And I think it.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Also does incentivize you to get one of those top
two seeds, because if you're the Brewers, if you're the Phillies,
if you're the Mariners. How wild is it that the
Mariners ended up getting a buy and didn't end up
having to play in that three game series. You know,
the Tigers looked like they were going to be sitting
with their feed up this last week and they had
to fight and claw their way to get through Cleveland
(04:57):
after they lost the division. So I think it creates
the proper amount of urgency for what you won. For baseball,
I'm a big fan of it unless your team is
playing in it.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
And then I think that.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
There's maybe the Dodgers because they were playing a kind
of a Reds team that you felt like, boy, if
the Reds would have upset the Dodgers, that would have
been one of the bigger upsets in postseason history, probably
even with how the Dodgers did this year. But everybody
else that was a white knuckle series for every other
team that's out there. But I think that's kind of
(05:29):
the drama you won, and it creates excitement here in
this kind of spot where like college football wasn't going
over the course of the week, you didn't really have
the NFL to compete with, and I think it created a.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Good spotlight for baseball.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, I'm with you on those TV windows, although I
know Craig Way, our Dodger fan host of this show,
currently on his way to Gainesville, was happy that his
team could put their feet up last night and prepare
for the Philadelphia Phillies. We'll get to those division series
in a minute. I want to talk about the Cubs
beating the pod It's one of those series that definitely
could have gone either way. Really quiet series from some
(06:05):
of the Padres' biggest bats. Did this result kind of
surprise you for San Diego after pushing so many chips
in on the season.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
You know, I think that it's there's there's definitely two
sides to this. So first of all, this is now
back to back playoff series that the Padres have failed
to score. And they they have all these star stud
of names in their line up. They have Luisa Riaz
who's a batting champion. They have Manny Machada, they have
Fernando Tattis Junior, They've got Sander Bogart's, They've got Jackson
(06:33):
Merril Loose, one of the great young up and coming stars.
Like they have all of these offensive pieces. But remember
they pushed the Dodgers to the brink last year. They
had they had them down to one. All they had
to do was win one game last year and they
end up getting shut out in both of them last season.
And then you know, they get one run in the
ninth inning yesterday to make it interesting. Because the back
(06:55):
end of the Cubs bullpen is still a little fraud,
I think that it's surprising that they didn't make a
deeper run because certainly there were points and times this
year where they looked like the most dangerous team, and
I really thought that the back end of their bullpen,
if they could have gotten out of a three game
series and had enough offense, their bullpen was probably the
(07:18):
most dangerous one in baseball. They had it to where
all you had to do was get five out of
your starter and then you can turn it over to
a lot of flame throwing righthanders, even losing you know,
Jason Adam earlier in the season after the trade deadline.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So that is where it is surprising.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
The other side of it, though, is that I think
a lot of people just forgot about the Cubs, and
it's because the Brewers went on this incredible winning streak.
The Cubs are the second best record in the National
League for a little while there, and they lost like
fifteen games in total standings in the division. So I
think that because the Brewers just ran away and hid
with the division, a lot of people kind of forgot
(07:54):
about Chicago and that this was a team that you
put them in any other division outside of the ninety seven,
when Brewers probably win the division if they're in any
other spot. And so, but the question for them was
could they get their bats rolling and get the core.
Armstrong really scuffled in the second half. He had some
good moments of the postseason. I just still don't know
(08:15):
what their bullpen is gonna do. I think though, that
for the Padres, it's an exceptionally disappointing season for them
because they really did feel like, well, we were just
right there on the edge last year of beating the
World Series champions, and we went in and got a
couple of really good pieces at the deadline, but offensively
they just couldn't piece it together.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, certainly one of those head scratchers for the Padres
lineup throughout that series. And while while we're on that
short series for a minute, the controversy last night, the
tying run, of course, would have been Xander Bogarts had
ball four correctly been called rather than strike three. And
next year we'll see the automatic balls and strikes, the
(08:55):
challenge system coming to Major League Baseball. I'm sure you'll
get asked this a lot leading up to the season.
You've seen it now for a couple of years now.
In Sugarland Triple A affiliate of the Houston Astros, we're
talking to their broadcaster right now, Garrett Green, what can
fans expect from this challenge system next year? And are
you excited to see it in the majors?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Everyone should be exceptionally excited, exceptionally excited about it. It
takes so much less time. And I think that, honestly,
what we ran into a triple a a little bit
is that the reviews almost happened too quickly. The best
thing they did was last season they put a mic
on the umpire and so the umpire could turn around
and say the batter or the pitcher or the catcher
(09:35):
is challenging, so you also know what which team is challenging.
But the internal system, unless it's going to be different
in the major leagues, you only have twenty seconds from
the time the pitch crosses home until it can pop
up on the video board. So there's a very small
frame of time for you to be able to get
that animation up there. It speeds the game up, and
(09:57):
it gets calls right, and it's you know, I think
that also it can give umpires a little bit of
an adjustment as well. They can see and you know, hey,
if early on in a game there's some borderline calls,
guys tap their helmet, they challenge, they lose, everybody moves on,
and it goes on its merried way. I think that
people are gonna love ABS. What they're not gonna love
(10:19):
about it is whenever they're pitches that are right on
the borderline edge, and a pitch just the tiniest bit
of a baseball touches the edge of the zone and
it goes from you know, ball three to strike three,
or it misses the outer edge of the zone and
the animation looks like it just doesn't round the ball
off all the way. And so you're like, how is
that possible that it should be a strike? It should
(10:40):
be right on the edge because there's no buffer zone
for it. It's a it's a perfectly you know, straight
edged box. The last thing I'm gonna say about it, though,
everyone who says why not just do full automatic balls
and strikes clearly never sat through a triple A game
with a full ABS zone.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It is brutal. The human element is.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Still well because, especially if you get into position players
pitching an ephis pitch or a forty nine mile an
hour lob, it could end up coming right over the
middle of the plate. It doesn't get tracked the same way,
And there are games where if it's twelve to three
and it's the eighth inning, if the umpire calls a
pitch that's two inches off the outer zone to ring
(11:23):
a guy up and move the game along, I've got
no problem with that, and I don't even think that
players mostly have a problem with that. So when you
get into those situations with a fully abs zone, it
it just it actually that does lengthen the game. So
I know there are a lot of people say, we'll
just got a full robot umpires unless you sat through
and watched it for the entirety of like to it
(11:46):
used to be Tuesday through Thursday in twenty twenty three
in the first half of twenty twenty four where full
ABS zone games. Those games were brutal. So I think
that they found the happy medium. That's why they bait
attested it in the Miners challenge system can overturn calls
like that. I love the fact that they're going to
give one to the guys an extra innings, because that's
not something we do here in the Miners. If you
(12:09):
burn up your challenges in regulation, you're just out.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
That's the way that it is.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I always like how they can help the umpire too
kind of find the edge early in the game. But
interesting stuff there on the challenge system, and I'm excited
to see it implemented next year, all the different strategies
of it. And I like your point there about keeping
the getaway call alive. So looking looking ahead to these
division series, I mean, there's one that jumps out to
(12:33):
me right away. It's the star power between the Dodgers
and the Phillies. And they've somehow avoided each other in
the postseason since two thousand and nine. So these current
cores as we know them have yet to face off
in a playoff series. We only get this for a
best of five. Who do you favor in that one?
And what do you see as the separators between those
(12:55):
two teams?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You know, I know that they didn't.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
He didn't end up biting them, And the Dodgers look
great offensively, They're gonna face a lot better pitching from
the Phillies. The Phillies are lined up the way they
want to be. Now the Dodgers don't have anything to
step out like. They get to throw johey Atani in
Game number one. Of course that's a great setup for them.
But I think that they're about to see a lot
better pitching than they saw with the Reds, and the
Dodger bullpen is still just a gigantic question mark. There's
(13:24):
not really you can ask Craig about this. Does Greg
trust anyone who's in the back end of that bullpen?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
No, he does, I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I know that Blake Trina kind of got it together
a little bit later, but they even almost found a
way to let Cincinnati get back into a couple of
the games the Reds.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Had no business being in.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And this is a Phillies lineup that is dangerous and
has a lot of really good hitters in it. So
I think you're gonna see the Dodgers' offensive numbers bumped
down a little bit, and obviously the Phillies are gonna
be a better hitting team. So I think that this
is where if the Dodgers can get past the philm
and their bullpen looks the way that they want it to,
(14:04):
then I think you absolutely can put them in. Is
probably the favorite to win the World Series again, but
I think that the Dodgers' bullpen is the deciding factor
because the Phillies went out of the deadline and they
went and got one of the best closers in baseball
in Joan Durron. They signed David Robertson, who's coming and
pitched well for them. They have some good guys on
the back end of their bullpen. So I think that
that's the tail of the tape, is what does the
(14:26):
Dodgers bullpen look like? Because I think that's going to
be the separator in that in that division series, which
again I'd love for it to be seven games, but
even the urgency it creates with a five game set
is just remarkable.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, that gets the six thirty Eastern time slot Saturday night.
The late matchup will be out in Seattle, where the
Mariners will host the Tigers. They stopped their skid, cooled
off the red hot Cleveland Guardians. What are the chances
they can do it again against the best team over
the last month, the Seattle Mariners.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Yeah, the I mean the Mariners have to win the
the two games at Team Mobile Park.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
That is the big thing. And they've been fantastic at home.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
That has been kind of their secret sauce that I
don't know if that's something that I got talked about
a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Was that?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, they won some road games, and obviously coming to
Houston and sweeping the Astros was gigantic, but they really
got to finish out their season at home, which is
where they have excelled this year. So if you are
the Tigers, if you can walk into if you can
walk into Seattle and come out with a win, which
I think that they'll probably line up to where Schooble's
(15:32):
probably gonna go Game two for them, So that gives
them as good of a chance as any. But certainly,
I mean there's a reason that if you pay attention
to betting lines, I think the Mariners ended up being
the betting favorite to come out of the American League.
Auhaneo Suarez has started hitting again. Obviously, cal Rale had
the best season of catchers ever had offensively, Julio Rodriguez
(15:53):
had a pretty good second half. Josh Naylor has been
a gigantic boon that I don't know if enough people
are talking about. And then they their bullpen in the
middle innings is not as solid as most people would
want it to be, but they do have guys who
can spin it out there and then they can hand
the ball to a great closer at the very end
of it.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
So the Tigers.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
I think if they walk out with a split and
go back to Detroit, where they haven't been for a while, right,
and get back to Detroit and get the Mariners out
of their familiar element, then they'll have a chance to
go pitching chaos. But I also just don't know if
the Tigers can score enough runs to win that series,
and that I think. I think that series probably sets
(16:32):
up to be another low scoring affair.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And you said pitching chaos on the Tigers side, I
think if the Yankees are forced into that situation, they'll
be three and out against the Toronto Blue Jays. But
if they get starting pitching like they did against Boston
in that wild Card series, can they upend the top
seed in Toronto?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
And I mean obviously the game one starter is going
to be the question for them, But then they should
be able to roll back into what they did in
the wildcard rounds. They should be able to turn around
Max Freed, who obviously was fantastic, and then he can
go to Rodona and now all of a.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Sudden, like Cam Schlittler come on down.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
How can you not feel great about throwing that guy
in Game number four? Probably if it lines upright for
him to go so now all of a sudden it
becomes a strength. Yet again, the question with the Yankees
is what's their bullpen gonna do. Devin Williams was a
lot better down the stretch, and I think that the
maybe if the Yankees can accomplish what they want to
(17:28):
this year, the most underrated trade of the deadline is
gonna be them getting David Bednar because of all the
chaos they've had and how bad the back end of
their bullpen has been at points this year. Bennar went
seven for seven and saved chances down the stretch for
them in September. He was a little rocky whenever he
first joined the team, but other than that, he had
(17:50):
a sub to Eer Ray and he's really steady the ship.
There's a reason he threw an all three games in
the wildcard round for them. So I think they've got
a chance. But I went on Toronto either, that's a
team that they're incredibly deep. They pushed a guy like
Eric Lower, who had a fantastic year into their bullpen.
They've got some good front end starters. Question is just
(18:11):
gonna be Hoffman their closer. He is home run. Let's say,
snake a bitten this year. Yeah, and so that obviously
that's what the Yankees want to do. But if you
can keep them in the ballpark, I think a lot
of people might be looking past the Blue Jays, but
the Yankees, they have to feel very good about their
starting rotation now heading into that series north of the border.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
We breezed by the Brewers and we only have a
couple minutes left. But maybe that's just the way Milwaukee
likes it, just quietly winning, playing the game the right way.
I don't really see a clear weakness for Pat Murphy's team,
and yet we're not really talking about him.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
The absolute most disrespected team in baseball. Ninety seven wins,
most wins in franchise history. Everyone says, well, it's not sustainable. Well,
you know it's not gonna work. Well, they beat everybody
this year. For people who might not know, I worked
in the Brewers organization for seven seasons, so I had
(19:06):
Salfrelick in double A and Abner Uribe and Bryce Terrang
and a bunch of these guys you see contributing to
the Brewers. I think it is very good for them
that they stayed out of that three game wild card,
because that is what has bit them over the last
couple of seasons.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
They get to be at home.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
It's a nightmare scenario if you're the Brewers to maybe
lose to the Cubs. But I think that the only
question for them is they did lose a couple of
arms out of the back end of their bullpen, and
they don't know what to do with Jacob Mizarowski because
obviously they're one hundred and one throwing, you know, right
hander who's a rookie this season. But I think that
the style of play they have, the aggressiveness that they have,
(19:46):
is going to play in October. They just they I
think also if they can get out of this divisional series,
that will lift a weight off of their shoulder, because remember,
the Brewers have not won a playoff series since twenty
eighteen when they went onto the NLCS. They haven't won
a series ever since then. But it looks like they've
(20:07):
got a group to be able to do it, and
I think that there will just be an exhale, especially
if they can knock off a division.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Rival in the Chicago Cups. Garrett gotta let you go.
But first two predictions.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
First, the World Series winner and second a Longhorns Gators prediction.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
World Series.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say the Brewers beat the
Blue Jays.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Now we'll get young wow chalk. I say that.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, Well, there's a reason that they're the top teams
in there. But I think that I like the Brewers
to make it and I'd love to see them be
able to win it this season. Longhorns and Gators prediction
for the weekend. Come out with a win. You're going
on the road in the SEC. That's all that you
can hope for. As I have jokingly said to people,
(20:56):
this is me as an unaffiliated fan of the team.
The best case scenario for the Longhorns this weekend, like
the absolute A one top best is that you play
so well the billionaipier gets fired. I think that that
would be if you could put the nail in the coffin.
For the Gators, that's what's gonna be the pinnacle of success. Honestly, though,
(21:18):
go and win. That's going on the road and winning
in the SEC is all that matters. It doesn't matter
what the final score is. Just go in there and
get a victory and get out so you can head
to red River.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
He's optimistic, and he's Garrett Green, the voice of the
sugar Land Space Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Garrett, have a great weekend. Thanks for joining us. Thanks
shake appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
We'll be right back with some audio from Coach Sark
on Sports Radio A and thirteen hundred The Zone