June 6, 2024 • 43 mins
Chris Gordy and Ross Villareal do a live version of this week's Crawford Boxcast. They react to the 3-3 homestand the team had against the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals. They talk about the news that came down this week, in regards to Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy. The curious case of what to do with Jose Abreu continues. They preview the upcoming road trip to take on the Los Angeles Angels and then the San Francisco Giants. They also talk about what to expect with the lineup, if they have to go without either Alex Bregman or Kyle Tucker for more games.
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(00:09):
Astros fans cheers, Fucky, Lucky, Welcome to the Crawford Box Cast.
Here's Astros crowd leadbord for you byCrawford Bach from Carbach Brewing. You're getting
da bear. Oh my godness,the Crawford Box Cast starts now here we
go. Here's Chris Gordy and RossViarel and it is a live edition of
(00:37):
the Crawford Box Cast. Here onSports Talk seven ninety Chris Gordy, Ross
Viial with you, and this isthe Crawford Box Cast, presented by Carbak
Brewing and the Crawford Bach. Anduh, it was fun to be at
a minute made on this home standand see a lot of folks drinking a
lot of Crawford Bach. But unfortunatelyAstro is only able to go three and
three on the home stand. Youwere kind of hoping they could, uh,
(00:59):
you know, take two, threeto two out of three or maybe
even you know, split with theCardinals and you know, have it be
a winning home stand. But look, three and three you'll take because you
didn't lose any ground, you didn'tgain any ground. But this month of
June a lot of winnable opponents onthe schedule, and certainly you would expect
the Astros almost have to have awinning month this year in June and ross
(01:22):
it. It's been an interesting week. A lot of stuff going on with
the Astros injuries and finding out newson hose Rikidi and Christian Javier, with
both not only their seasons being done, but Tommy John expected for both.
So we're talking about mid season returnat best for next season. What do
you make of all the injuries.Yeah, it just continues to pile up,
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and of course it's something that we'veseen league wide as far as Tommy
John surgeries and pitching injuries, andfor whatever reason that you want to attribute
to pitch clock or just the thepitching stab, falling in love with spin
and velocity, or whatever you wantto call it, the bottom line is
the Astros are down two of theirstarting pitchers four is it correct in twenty
(02:08):
twenty two, Garcia, McCullers,Javier Orkedi all in that rotation, So
four of those guys basically all missingsignificant time catching up with the Astros now
holding out all hope because of theway that the Astros do things with injuries
that they're not going to unless theabsolute last second, and even then they
(02:30):
didn't want to say Tommy John andthe release just saying elbow surgery. But
they're gone for the season. Andnow the five guys you have going right
now, you can ill afford anotherinjury or you're gonna have to dip back
into the minor league pool or tradefor somebody or something. This rotation right
now is taped together. Please assoon as possible, Luis Garcia and lancepe
(02:52):
Colors Junior hopefully can provide some relief. Yeah, And the good news on
that, you know, Luis Garciathrough twenty pitch his last Friday, he
is progressing very well. And youknow, the target deadline of the the
All Star break has kind of beenthe deadline for him. And you know,
I'm hearing some reports recently that maybehe comes back, you know,
(03:12):
a couple of days before the AllStar Break is a possibility. So,
you know, just a lot onthe table. But that's good news there.
Luis Garcia was a very good pitcherwhen he was healthy, and so
you expect, you know, expecthim to get back at some point.
And then the other part is Joseri Keaty or arm sorry Lance mccullors,
in that you know, he's aguy that's become a dirty word. I
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guess around here, it's like yousay Lance mc colors and people instantly just
roll their oh yeah, let meknow when he's back. But the reality
is if he can come back insome capacity and help this team at some
point, that will be helpful.I do want to dive into a little
bit on Dana Brown's comments this week, because you know, Sewn Salisbury asked
him, is this pitching staff onethrough five right now? Is this good
(03:58):
enough to win a World Series?And you know, first off, what
do you want the GM to say. He's not gonna say, oh,
well, hell no, I mean, god forbid, I mean they better
get better. You know, likehe's gonna say, yes, we believe
in these guys. And look,any rotation that starts with Justin Verlander and
Fromberveldez at one and two. Iget it fromber was not great last postseason,
but overall he's been one of thebest pitchers in baseball the last five
(04:18):
years. So like we got togive him track record there. But like
starting with those two guys is betterthan some other teams in baseball, So
like I'll take those two guys onetwo. Ronel Blanco's been okay his last
two starts. You don't have tobe in dominant for the first month and
a half of the season, butlike, that's a pretty solid option at
three. And then the other twoguys have been really good as of late.
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Spencer Arraghetti and Hunter Brown have beenmuch improved from where they were a
month ago. So one through fiveright now, yes, this is good
enough. You can go into thepostseason. And by the way, as
somebody point out yesterday, like youdon't even really use your fifth starter in
the playoffs. It's you know,it's that's besides the point. But yeah,
if they I can say healthy,like this is fine one through five,
and then you added Garcia mccullors.But ross, the biggest concern is
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keeping these five guys healthy for thenext six weeks till you get to the
All Star break. Yeah, that'sthe thing. It's like you just you
can't afford another injury. And it'sit's like I am just my concern,
my worry, my anxiousness. It'slike it's as heightened as it's been all
season. I've always kind of beenjust kicking my feet up, like,
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eh, they'll turn it on atsome point they'll get it into gear.
At some point they've been snake bitbad luck runners in scoring position. But
now, I mean, I don'tknow if it's exactly alarm bell sounding,
but you've got under one hundred gamesto go. You just lost Javier and
her keat each Tommy John surgery,and I am concerned, and I am
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I mean, they can be fine, and yeah, you can get into
the playoffs. And if that isyour rotation, that's good. But it's
not as good as the Mariner's rotation. It's not as good. Especially if
Garrett Cole comes back and he's effective, You're probably not as good as the
Yankees and what they have going on. So uh, yeah, it's gonna
be tough in the playoffs. Andobviously we'll come to that bridge when we
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cross it, they might not evenget into the playoffs. But Javier,
to me was kind of one ofthose X factors where it's like he was
dominant at least his first couple ofstarts in the playoffs last year. He
was great. Of course in twentytwenty two when they won the World Series.
Like you need Christian Javier Jose erKhidi. He's a four or five
guy. I mean, you're gonnamiss him and all that type of stuff,
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but it doesn't really have a hugeimpact to the bottom line of the
playoffs, even though that's when he'sbeen really good. But I was wouldn't
say I've been counting on him.But yeah, depending on what happens from
here or if a deal is madeor what I like, even if they
get into the playoffs, they're gonnahave to hit a lot of run hit
a lot of home runs and startedhitting with runners in scoring position and all
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that type of stuff. Because Ido have some question marks about this rotation
long term, and guys like ReneweBlanco, Spencer Arraghetti and even a Brown
who broke down last year. You'rewondering how many innings they can give you
and how you can keep putting themout there every fifth day when their arms
aren't maybe necessarily built up for that. Yeah, it's it's gonna be interesting.
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It's funny you mentioned Seattle in theplayoffs. The stark reality is ross
only one team from the ALS isgetting the playoff, like the rest of
the AL East, even the ALCentral. Right now, you know,
Detroit's still hanging around at five hundred, but the Twins are doing really well.
The you know, the Royals areactually you know, they're well above
five hundred still, the Guardians aredoing well, and then of course the
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the Orioles, the Yankees, youknow, Red Sox have come back down
to Earth. Blue Jays and Raysare struggling. But the Rays have been
much better as of late. Butthe point being, like, you know,
you may not have to worry aboutSeattle in the postseason, but you
know, it's crazy, Ross,I was just looking ahead at the schedule,
like the down the stretch of theseason, and like on the backstretch,
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the Ascers get the Rays, I'msorry, they get the Reds,
they get the A's, they getthe Angels twice in a three gamer and
a four gamer. They get theGuardians to finish off the season. But
do you know their second to lastseries of the season is a three game
set against Seattle at Minute May Park. I mean remember last season, like
the end of last year, wherethe Askers had to go basically had to
(08:16):
go into Seattle and win to punchtheir ticket and win the division, And
like how crazy is that? Likeit flips this year you get the Mariners
at home. But I just thinkon September twenty third, twenty fourth,
twenty fifth. That might be aplaying game that that series might be for
the Al West, and it mightcome down to percentage points or whatever.
But like and head to head tiebreakers and all that. But like,
(08:39):
I just it's funny. I lookat that as almost like a playoff precursor.
If the askers take care of businessof that, they could punch their
ticket and we'll cross that bridge whenwe get there. Obviously a lot of
room that you know, they've theydug themselves this big hole. They've got
to dig their way out of it. But again, like focusing on the
positives, how can you not behappy with the latest from Hunter Brown and
(09:00):
Spencer Araghetty. I mean, boththese guys light years different from where they
were just a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it's that's definitely much needed.
I mean, it's funny how throughoutthis run there have been like these
things here and there that have beenvery timely that at the right time,
the hitting starts up at the righttime, you get somebody coming back from
(09:20):
injury, or somebody pitching very welland right now at the right time.
First of all, Renel Blanco doingwhat he's done all season, even though
he's giving up four runs in eachof his last couple of starts. But
yeah, you're absolutely right, likeHannor Brown and Spencer Arraghetty rounding into form
three straight starts, quality starts,I believe from Hunter Brown, Spencer Araghetty's
looking a lot better. Like thisis exactly what you need if you are
going to catch the Seattle Mariners.Those guys have to keep doing what they're
(09:43):
doing and you just have to keepthis rotation duct taped together and hang on
for dear life, because I meanit's there just literally no other way if
you if you have another injury oror a couple of injuries, and you're
going into the them dipping into theminor league pool again. And I'm probably
pretty much ready to chalk this thingand say that the playoff hopes are over
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for the Astros. Yeah, andthe tough situation you're in, I mean,
you're up against that second luxury tax, and you know you did it
to go get Josh Hater and he'sbeen awesome as of late, and you're
happy to have him, but itdoes put you in a bund where it's
it's hard to add any more payroll. Really it's hard to you know,
I know everybody wants to go justgo, just go add an arm,
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Let's just go trade for a guy, Let's go get a guy. And
it's like, guys, what dothe astros have in the farm? Say
like, what's attractive in a trade? And I love you know, this
is one of my favorite conversations becauseyou know, back on the in the
day, on the video games likeplaying Madden and stuff, when you try
to make a trade, it wouldthe computer would shut you down and go,
this is an unfair trade? Doyou want to force the trade?
And I feel like that's where alot of fans go, like, y'all,
(10:50):
you had a caller yesterday in theNightcap who's like, trade Chas McCormick
for the for the a's closed.Stop trying to like, you can't sell
your trash likes good as Bregnan's beenthe past week, he's still batting like
two to oh something like it stillis who's gonna overpay for a Bregman?
So there's playing discussion to get intoare there trades to be made? We'll
we'll get into that. Uh.And of course your phone calls are welcome.
(11:13):
It's seven one three two on twofive seven ninety seven one three two
on two five seven ninety It's alive edition of the Crawford Box gast presented
by Carbock Brewing. He is RossVreel. I'm Chris Gordy. A quick
break back right after this. Butthis is the Crawford Box Gas presented by
Carbock Brewing and the Crawford Bock ChrisGordy here with you, Ross Viiel as
well as we're talking all things AstrosA full hour tonight, all the way
(11:33):
until seven. It is an offnight for your astros after the afternoon loss
to the Cardinals yesterday. They didtake two out of three in the series.
Ross always thinks to lose the lastgame of a series when you win
the first two games, because italways leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Like it's always better to me tolose the first game of a series
and then come back and win thenext two, because then you feel like,
(11:54):
man, I'm on a two gamewin streak, We've won this series.
We're feeling good. Instead, youcome out with the dead dud yesterday
and nobody feels good. Yeah hit's like you hopefully no fans brought brooms
to the stadium yesterday and then theydidn't get able to bring them out.
Definitely feels like a bit of abitter taste, but you'll take two out
of three obviously, especially after whathappened in the Minnesota twins and years is
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you're not it's not gonna all happenall at once. They were twelve games
under five hundred. Now you're onlyseven games under five hundred. So hopefully
they can continue to improve from thatstandpoint, but it's, uh, it's
getting late early. You got ninetynine games left, you're seven back,
you have all these injuries. Itjust feels like the margin for Eric It's
continues to get thinner and thinner asthe season wears along. Still a lot
(12:39):
of baseball left, but I'm definitelyworried. Yeah, And the funny thing
is they have They only have twosweeps on the season, and one of
those was a two gamer in MexicoCity against Colorado. I don't even know
if you know the Rockies. Itdidn't count. And that's been a debate
for years. Do you even counta two gamer as a series? Like
I it shouldn't be. It's ona series, it's two games, but
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nonetheless they are going to have toput together. I mean, just look
at the schedule the next couple weeksin LA against the Angels in San fran
against the Giants, home against Detroitat the Chicago White Sox. I mean,
these are lowly opponents you should beable to beat if you're good.
It's just, you know, itfeels like every week we're saying ross,
well, the real astros please standup. We don't know who the real
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astros are this year, and it'sstill got a lot of us just scratching
our heads and saying, like,what's changed, what's different? It's mostly
the same casting crew from last year. Yeah, you lose Dusty Baker,
but you promote within and everybody elsejust moves up. As Joe spout that
bad at managing the day to day, and I know some people have been
critical of him, I think he'sactually done a pretty good job with a
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lot of the day to day decisions. Only a few moves he's made here
and there where you scratch your head, like, for instance, pinch hitting
Jose Abray the other night. Thatone was odd, but we went with
the right hander against the lefty insteadof the lefty John Singleton. It makes
it. There's some logic there thatthat I can wrap my head around.
I know a lot of fans wantJose bra You punted off the team immediately,
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but he was he was with theplatoon matchup. Well, I'm I'm
a right hander. I could havepinched it for you. Yeah. The
probably would have been the same result. Three pitches and striking out. That's
I mean, definitely hurts. Itwas such a disaster at bad Not like
it was completely unexpected, of course, but I was like, oh God,
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please, can he at least putthe ball in play? And he
did not. I've come around tothe Wexler approach on this, like just
stop talking about him, because thisthing is going to work itself out if
Jose Bray keeps going down the pathhe's on of not hitting, not doing
very much on the baseball field,like they're gonna come to a crossroads where
they're just gonna go, all right, enough's enough. You're doing nothing to
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help this team, and we're gonna, you know, buy you out and
give you the the big fat paycheck of nineteen million next year. And
however, much of the nineteen millionthis year. That's still to him and
say, sayonara, and you know, I do like it what they did
this past week sending Joey low Perfitoback down to Triple A. And at
least for a couple of games hewas alternating. He would play at first
base one day, playing center fieldthe next, and so on and so
(15:13):
forth. Now I believe the lastcouple of games at Triple A he has
played back at center. So Idon't know why they've slowed that down,
but to me, that's a greatsolution in that if you end up having
to blow up the Jose Bray thing, you can ride with a platoon of
Singleton and low Perfito the rest ofthe season. And I just wonder,
Russ, like, I get maybethey're like, oh, low Praffito,
we envisioned him as a good centerfielder, and I get that, but
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also like, to a certain extent, shouldn't low Perffito's attitude be, Hey,
I just want to get to thebigs, whatever it takes. I'll
play whatever position you want. Yeah, I think I think so. But
also I mean, if they ifthey only like feel comfort, they only
like playing him in the outfield,they only feel comfortable playing him in the
outfield, and then you know McCormickhad just come back from his injury.
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Jake Myers had been hitting hot,but of course has cooled significantly since Maricio
Dubon. Even though I'm not withthose who say think he's the savior of
the team. He's a hit,slap singles and plays good defense all over
the place, including at third basewhen he filled in for Alex Bregman,
making good plays over there. Butit's kind of a log jam, and
(16:19):
it's just a it's unfortunate because it'sa numbers game, and you're like,
what do you mean just putting Josebray you and John Singleton off the team.
But like you said, they're gonnagive JOSEA. Brayew every chance.
How much longer, I don't know. It feels like a couple of more
weeks at best. He did hita home run, but still over all
the adbats have not been good.He hasn't looked very competitive. The numbers
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are still terrible and would be evenmuch worse if it weren't for that home
run, which I think it wasa home run in like nineteen out of
thirty ballparks, so it wasn't likehe really really mashed the heck out of
a baseball, and then everything elsehas just been soft grounders and bad strikeouts.
Yeah, and so again I'm we'realmost done talking about him. Now.
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Look if he's gonna play and he'sgonna come up to bat in some
big positions and strikes out and doesn'tdo anything, we'll have to talk about
him. But yeah, it's almostlike let him just keep going up there,
whiffing, going over and then eventually, like what two three more weeks
of this, they'll have to makea move and be like it's not working,
this whole sending him down to Floridato fix his swing. It it's
(17:26):
not fixed. You get a homerun, great, but like that's it,
Like he doesn't have much to showfor it. So, uh,
we'll see what happens there. Bythe way, if you guys want to
get in seven one three two onetwo five seven ninety seven one three two
on two five seven ninety Uh,Mark, I was about to come to
you. If you want to giveus a shout back, we'll get you
on. But yeah, it's it'sjust very interesting and how they're going to
handle this thing. And I know, a lot of people are yelling,
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you know, let's be sellers,let's rebuild, let's let's move some pieces,
And I just don't know ross likewhat you currently have on the roster,
you know what, like how muchthat would attract other teams. Like
again, Alex Bregman I said,it's been hot as of ladies, hit
what five home runs in his lastseven games or something like that, yet
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he's still not hitting great, youknow. So it's like, and he's
and he's under contract for the restof the season, but what are you
gonna get for that? And itmade me go back and look at some
of the past trades the Astros madewhen they were buyers, and it's kind
of fascinating, you go. Iwent back and look at the Arizona Diamondbacks
when the Asters traded at the deadlinefor Zach Grenk and they gave up some
(18:32):
pieces like Seth Beer and Corbyn Martinand all this, and I'm looking and
I think, not one of thoseguys is still a part of the Diamondbacks.
Some of them are playing the bigs, but they're all on different teams
now, and so it's just kindof interesting, like, dude, like
training for it's so it's so riskyin baseball because the word prospect is just
that it's a prospect. They're abusts all the time, guys who don't
(18:55):
pan out, and the askers havehad a huge success rate on guys acquired
over the years, right like,you're you're not Alvarez, jannar Diez.
You know, Raphael Montero overall hasbeen a nice throw in in the Kendall
Graveman trade. You know, there'sjust been guys that they've hit on a
lot of prospects. But man,like, it's risky. It's very risky.
(19:18):
If you think we're just gonna tradeBregman and get some prospects on top
of it, you create a bighole for yourself at third base. Everybody
who tells me trade Bregman, Isay, well, who's gonna be you
every day third baseman? And whenI say Marisio Dubona, say well,
great, now who's your everyday platoonutility man? You don't have me cassing
you? Yeah? No, Imean, great, Cassinger. We have
a team play baseball. Overall,We'll see at that point, it wouldn't
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matter who your every day third basementis. If you are selling to me,
of all the possible scenarios of beingbuyers, being sellers, full on
sell off. I don't think Tuckerand Alvarez, I'm sorry, Tucker and
Valdez are going anywhere. But ifyou come towards the trade deadline and you're
like ten twelve games out, thenyeah, it would be prudent to sell,
and you would whatever you can getfor Alex Bregman. I don't know
(20:00):
if you're gonna get a ton ofvalue. I don't know what you're gonna
get as far as a prospect package. You would wait until the absolute last
moment. You would take what youcan get for Bregman. You would take
what you can get for Ryan Presley. And you say it's a sunk season,
Well, I say, at aboy, and we'll go get him
next year. That's what the scenariowould be. What was the Braves twenty
nineteen. How many games were theyback at the break? Weren't they like?
(20:23):
It was like they were way outof it and then they got hot
twenty one when they beat the Astrosin twenty one? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, twenty one. I don'tremember. I can go look, but
they were forty four and forty fivegoing into the break, and Dana Brown
was a part of that regime.If this team is still just a couple
of games full of five hundred atthe All Star break, they are like
(20:44):
data, they're gonna go for it. And also the other side of Russes,
how do you sell that to yourother stars? How do you go
to hose Ael TUBINGA look, Ose, I know we've got a great run,
man, but we gotta blow thisthing up. We're gonna trade Breggy
and you know we're just it's saying, you don't have to sell it to
him. Yeah, he's gonna lookat you. You're go, dude,
let's strangers some wins. We thinkwe could still make the playoffs. Yeah,
it turns it. It would bethe scenario, like I said,
(21:06):
if they're ten twelve back and weare into all I mean, you're at
that point in the deadline, you'recoming into August, and it looks like
it's not happening. Yeah. Idon't envision that scenario. I think they're
still gonna win games, of course, pending health of I mean, you've
been missing Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman, but of course all the pitchers as
well, and what happens there andmaybe you can just glue this thing together
(21:30):
and the Cavarry will come with LuisGarcia and then five weeks behind, says
Brian McTaggert, who we'll hear fromis Lance mccullors junior. So, uh,
and you're not winning these games thatyou have in front of you.
Yeah, you want a series againstSaint Louis Cardinals, that's cool, But
you lost a series against Twins.You got crushed against the Mariners head to
(21:51):
head. So you need to startwinning some games. And if you don't,
the prudent smart thing to do wouldbe to flip at minimum Bregmant and
Pressley. That's what would be myprediction is who they would explore offers for
and that. But that would bea scenario. Yeah, who's taking Presley?
You tell what you can get.He's a free agent. I mean
he's if you look at his he'shad very bad luck. If you look
(22:14):
at his field independent pitching numbers andall that type of stuff, he's he's
been somewhat of a victim of badluck. I know that the fan base
likes to dump on any reliever thathas had a couple of bad outings or
whatever. I still think he canbe an effective guy. I think he
will continue to round in a formwe will see once again. You we
are in June sixth we're talking aboutJuly thirtieth, so we're gonna get it.
Least. I don't know. Tenparents ten appearances are more from Brian
(22:36):
Presley. Yeah. If his eraballoons to like eight eight and a half
and he has no value, itis what it is. Yeah, let's
get to Brian in here real quickbefore we grab our expert. Brian,
what's up man? Welcome in,Hey, guys, Thanks for letting men.
You know what it is, guys, and we've been spoiled for so
many years that remains. We cannotwin without starting pitching. You name a
team that's went deep in the playoffs, shaven one significant games there in a
(22:59):
regular season without deep starting pitching.And let's not forget how many blown say
that we had this year on guysthat we count on for years. And
I get it right, everybody wantsto blow it up. You know it's
a fire sale. No, that'snot the deal. All these teams,
Braves, you got, Dodgers,they're all competing every year they've had injuries.
(23:21):
It's gonna be all right. We'regonna come out of this. Just
have faith. Man. You knowwhat, I thought about calling up JOBU
and firing up the thing, getsome live chickens and some chickens with their
knees. But I think we needto settle down and get some swag back
in here. Man. Everybody needsto be accountable. It's that team effort.
Thanks guys, Thanks Brian appreciated.Well you think Ross, we need
(23:42):
some swag in this house. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.
I don't know what we can doto get it get all fired up.
I think, what does a peopleneed to spot it to get ejected
and all that type of stuff.Let's do it. Whatever it's gonna take,
let's go. I think next timeat the ballpark and I talked to
Joe Spot, I'm gonna go.Hey, man, remember before the season,
you were like, oh, I'mprobably gonna get ejected a ton,
and then the one time you gotejected, you were like, hello,
(24:04):
sir, mister, to eject me. Maybe, like I want you yelling.
I want old Tony Lewis, Iwant you throwing a base, Like,
let's get some but that's where peopleare like, you know, I've
heard people like, where's the firein this team? I think what makes
them so great is that this teamdoes like when when we're in the clubhouse
(24:26):
and around this team still you neverknow if they were on a five game
win streak or a five game losingstreak. That's what's made them so great
is they are even keeled, thatthey're not over emotional, that they don't
freak out at the first sign oftrouble. But you're right, you get
to a certain point this season,Russell, were you just gotta like you
guys start winning, Like where arethe wins? We got to start putting
to go some wins. So,uh, we'll get back to your phone
(24:47):
call Steve, I see you,will get to you next. This is
a live edition of the Crawford BoxCast on Sports Talk seven ninety nice stream
talking about frog baseball, Strike one. Hey you dummies. Listen to Astros
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(25:08):
Just take some things. It kindof is super tender and sore, and
I want to just double check everythingchecked out good. So here ready to
go on here, ready to go? On. That was Alex Bregman talking
with the media after his He wasa late scratch in the game on yesterday.
He was was any initial lineup andthen took some swings pre game and
(25:33):
wasn't feeling great and so they scratchedhim. But you know it's crazy,
ros like Bregman was slow there toget going. But the last couple of
weeks he's been really good. Andyou take him out of lineup and Kyle
Tucker getting hit on the shin wherehe's out, it was noticeable not having
those two bats in the lineup yesterday. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean,
as president of the Jake Myers fanClub, I do love him unconditionally.
(25:56):
But also he's not a clean uphitter. He's been clean up the last
couple of days and the last tengames for Alex Bregman. I'll try to
pull it up again. Yeah,he's been incredible. Uh thirty nine at
bats, fourteen hits, eight runs, batted in five home runs, hitting
three point fifty nine over that stretch. So he's turning it on. We
(26:18):
know he's a slow starter. Atleast the numbers are getting to somewhat respectability
and hopefully going up and then ofcourse he gets his hiccup. It sounds
like he'll be fine and good togo tomorrow. Can I be real with
the Kyle Tucker thing, you know, like it was it looked really bad,
right, I mean, like hetook that ball on the shin.
He was down for a while,he couldn't walk, he was limping.
And then they come out after thegame, but like, yeah, you
(26:40):
know, he was on crutches,but he's moving around really well and all
this and and then people are like, oh, he could be back by
Friday. I'm like Friday, Likeno, like he's he's on crutches.
Yeah, So I don't know.There there was there was a report yesterday
I think said well, I don'tknow if he's gonna be back by Friday.
I would not expect that, Likete'll talk to take his time.
I'm sure that thing is like swollenup like a like an apple. We'll
(27:04):
be okay, you know, we'llhave to get by without him now.
Unfortunately, he is your MVP calibercandidate this season, and so you know,
again, not having his bat hurts, But dude, it's freaking angels
good. You should be able towith the rest of your court with jose
al Tuvey and Jordan Alvarez and allthese different people, like you should be
good enough to go take two outof three against the Angels, specifically with
(27:29):
Frober Hunter Brown and Justin Ver lateron the Mountain. Yeah, I mean
it does exactly. You've got thewhatever it is, whatever you talk about
in the last series, you lostagainst him. It doesn't matter. You
need to get it done. Itdoesn't matter that you're on the road and
all that type of stuff. MissingKyle Tucker definitely will hurt, but you're
getting Alex Bregman back, and hopefullyby the end of the series Kyle Tucker
(27:52):
can be back. And he gothit on the same place he got hit,
like I think it was Saturday.He took one off the shin basically
in the same spot, and Ithink that's what made this one much worse.
He was probably playing with big bruisealready on his shin and this one
just made it that much worse.So I don't know how long he's gonna
be out, but hopefully hopefully hecan get off soon. By the way,
mentioned the Braves a few minutes ago. I just saw they were getting
(28:14):
no hit through five innings. Currentlythe Atlanta Braves. So keep an eye
on that. One seven one sevenninety is the phone number. Let's get
back to the phone. Steve outin Huffman wants to get in. Steve,
what's up. Well, every timeI think about Jim Crane, I
think about that. All that iswhat's the definition of insanity? Doing the
same thing over and over again expectinga different result. Jose Bray you and
(28:38):
I don't know who's calling the shotsdown there. I mean, I think
Crane is. I think he's runningthe team. He's got an ego as
big as China, and uh,he's gonna try to force feed Jose A
bray you down everybody's throat, youknow, to prove he's right. And
in the meantime we keep losing volumes. Now here's what we needed to do.
(29:00):
I'm not the world's expert, butyou you've heard of the old adage
length in the lineup, make itas quality as possible. That guy comes
up with anybody on base, Iwant to throw up because I know it's
gonna happen. So what they needto do is they need if they have
to. And I know he's nota first baseman, but he hits.
(29:21):
You need to get as many productivebats in that lineup as possible, even
if you've got to play dub Onat first base, Cartini and Diaz they
can alternate catch her, designated hither and and let you know, Alvarez
is going to play left field,Meyer center field. Fine, and then
I guess until Kyle comes back,Cabbage is on the roster. Now I
(29:42):
understand, and god, I feelsorry for him. He had a home
run. He'll probably earn a tripback to Sugarland. You know, I
don't know that. This team frustratesme. And then they say, yes,
but we're going to catch up.We're going to catch up. Well,
you know what, the more thatyou keep playing, you know,
these weird lineups with the braid inthere and trying the bat boy, these
(30:06):
valuable games keep ticking off the schedule. And the thing that's even more frustrating,
as we all know, they're ina lousy division that can be had,
you know, if they if theywould just put more bats in that
lineup. But like I said,I don't know it's calling the shots.
I'm just getting a suspicion that Craneis And if that's the case, well,
(30:26):
but Steve. Every decision Crane's madesince he's been since he's on the
team. Look, Astro's true offalse have had their greatest run since he's
on the team. Right, Yeah, Look, he was on the team
at the time that he's let go. He lets contracts walk because he says,
I don't do the big contract.Well to have Springer here now no
(30:48):
playing center field? How about Springeris not helping the Toronto Blue Jays and
they're paying them a fortunate That doesn'tmean but one doesn't mean that he's not
going to equal the other. Thatguy could come back here and be the
guy that we always knew. Maybefor whatever reason, it isn't working at
tround. Doesn't mean the baseball skillshave gone south. Well, things aren't
(31:10):
working out. George Springer is hittingtwo ten right now for the for the
Blue Jays. Well, you knowwhat, I've seen guys that have that
have hit below the Mendoza line,and when they're traded to another team,
change the scenery whatever, they catchfire. You know JD. Martinez,
remember when we had him here asa kid and he only became one of
the belot major league players after heleft here. Yeah, he was and
(31:33):
they give him. They give himway more than reason. Dubon, by
the way, has been in theAstros last seven games in the lineup,
he is five. He's hitting twohundred with five singles, no extra basis,
Like I just I'm all for thelineup, I'm all for solutions,
I'm all for opinions and all that. But let's also we're gonna take shots
(31:57):
of Jim Cray. Have you notenjoyed the last nine years of like they've
made some tough decisions. Yes they'renot going to hit on all of them,
but overall, can you argue withthe results, like this is the
first year that they're not living upto you know, expectations or whatever.
Like I understand last year they theystumbled a little bit, but at the
end of the day the results,they were still back in the ALCS again
(32:20):
for whatever it was, seven toeight years, whatever it's been. And
and we're an eyelash away from youknow, a couple hits here from getting
you know, win one more gameand you're back in the World Series again.
Last year, so again, likeyou've been having a lot of that
credit goes to Jeff Luno, andI think it is fair to question the
direction of the franchise with letting,the letting of James Click Go, the
(32:42):
getting rid of guys who are analyticsdriven and going with a baseball guy,
and having Jeff Bagwell have the closeear and him telling you that you know
in all reports or whatever you wantto say, we don't know for a
one hundred percent in fact, butfeels like that. That's what it is,
is Jeff Bagwell saying let's get Josehbray you and sign afi Al Montero
to this big deal before they hiredDana Brown. Now we do say we
(33:04):
have to put a disclaimer. TheMontero deal is looking pretty good right now.
He's been looking over was a disasterlast year and he's been good this
year. Yeah, and the Abrat You' signing at the time, we
were all excited. It's just ithasn't worked out. So again, yes,
I mean, whether it's Jeff Bagelor whatever, it's it's and again,
like we have the Asters have hada phenomenal hit rate on free agent
(33:29):
signings, trades and everything. Likethey have hit on more things than they've
not, so that way more thanthe average team. Go lass the Yankees
about all their big name free agentsthey've signed for the past decade, they've
all been big fat duds. Finallywon soda. Garrettle come back. Garrett
Cole has been good and then ofcourse now he's been hurt this year,
(33:49):
right, but they've they've how closerhave they gotten to winning a World Series
since they've signed Garrett Cole? Imean, it hasn't worked out, But
you know, Soto is the oneguy I think of that's like lived up
to the hype that they said,you know, or made a big trade
for and you know, we're probablygonna spend a ton of money on But
you know, again there's the hitrate for the Astros has been phenomenal.
It's their first year where things arenot going well, and I understand people
(34:12):
are frustrated, and everybody's frustrated,but how do they get out of this?
We'll discuss a little bit more afterthis, we'll grab our last break.
We'll come back. Sheena and Mikewill get to you guys on the
phone lines. This is a liveedition of Crawford box Cast presented by Carbuck
Brewing. All Right, final segmenthere in the live edition of the Crawford
box Cast, presented by car BockBrewing and the Crawford Bach. Hopefully you
guys are stocked up on plenty ofCrawford Boch for the weekend of watching or
(34:36):
listening to Astros baseball. It isa home run every time and Ross the
no hitter is no more for AtlantaOrlando Rcia has broken it up. Mitchell
Parker, that guy who threw sevenshutout innings against the Astros a couple of
weeks ago for the Nationals. Heis he had the no hitter going through
five and it gets broken up inthe sixth. So shame for that.
(34:59):
Always like streaty to be made,but uh, let's get a couple of
you guys on the fall lines.You want to get in here. Talks
to Mastros before we wrap things up. Talk to Sena out in Sugar line,
Shina, welcome in. Ay,Yes, good evening, so more
so replying to the last caller.A couple of things. And this has
been a lot of people that I'veheard lately. I don't understand when first
base became the easiest position to playon the field where anybody can play it.
(35:22):
Du Bond's played I think two gamesthere, so putting him as your
full time first baseman, just toget his bat in the lineup. I
mean, I it's just anybody's likeJordan can play first base, Dubond can
play first base, Love Berffedo.I just don't understand why it became the
easiest position to play. But moreso, I wanted to mention with the
previous caller mentioning the long term contractsand how Crane win go for these long
(35:45):
term contracts to keep Korea or Springer, you know who? Which teams do
go for the long term contracts?The Angels, the Mets. Frankly,
we haven't. We don't have agreat record this season, but we're doing
I'm better than the Angels, SoI don't think that's the answer here.
I mean, definitely need to getour bats going, need to. You
(36:07):
know, we've been hitting, we'rejust not manufacturing runs. Whether that needs
to change with getting a little smallball in. We had the same amount
of hits yesterday as the Cardinals.It's just they, you know, were
able to manufacture runs from those hits. They use the bunt, they use
sacrifice flies and different methods to getthose runs across the plate. So I'm
not sure, you know, ifthat's something needs to be looking to.
(36:28):
But I don't think long term contractsare the answer for this team. I
don't think just throwing anybody at firstbase as the full time first baseman is
the answer either. I got you, Shena, thanks for the call,
appreciate it. Yeah, I'll justsee Sena. The long term contracts are
the one thing. It's like everybodygets hung up on them, and Ross,
we're so quick when when Tucker Homer'sand back to back games, what
(36:49):
are we all yelling pay the man, pay the man. People are doing
that with Bregman a year, twoyears ago. And you know I've heard
zero pay the man for Bregman thisyear. So I think change is very
quickly. But what's so funny iswe brought up to Montero and the Bray
you contracts. You know, it'sso awesome about those contracts. Yes they're
high dollar, but they both comeoff the books after next year. Like
it's so if you do sign aguy like that and it's a and it
(37:13):
turns out to be a bust,you can get out of it. It
doesn't I mean, you still gotto pay him one hundred percent guaranteed money.
But it's not it's not like we'relooking at God, we gotta pay
a bray you the next eight yearson, you know, on a deal.
Like when one of those deal's backfires, there's no getting out of it.
You know, look at look atthe weird awkwardness that La had to
do with Albert Poole's when they givehim that deal. But you know,
(37:34):
we'll see if some of these workout. But overall, a lot of
these eight, nine and ten yeardeals were us. I just don't know
if it they're gonna pay out.I mean, the Otani one and the
Mike Trout are probably gonna work out. But even as great as Trout's been,
he's hurt almost every year, andhe's not getting the Angels to the
playoffs. I mean, even withOtani and Trout, they couldn't make the
playoffs. So it's there's that factor. And then the first base thing,
(37:55):
if you want to address that,I mean, in Beer league softball,
your buddy, who's the worst player, where you always stick him at first
base? It's it's it's presumed bymany to be the easiest position. But
yes, in the big league youstill got to be pretty damn good.
Yeah, And there's a lot ofnuance as well. I mean, it's
clear they didn't want to put youon your ideas there last year. They
don't want to put Dubond there muchthis year. They've never moved yard on
(38:17):
Alvarez over there. They'd want toput low Berfito over there. So I
mean, clearly this organization puts ahigh amount of esteem and what it takes
to play defensively first base. Yeahand right wrong or are different. You
can disagree with that, and that'sfine too. Let's get Rich in here
before we wrap things up. Rich, what's up? Okay, you get
(38:40):
a piece of paper, write thisdown. Here's the trade. Okay,
I'm ready, I'm ready. Iremember the Mets, the Mets and the
White Sox and the Astros. TheAstros did not pay a dime for Vertlander
fifty million dollars. They can eata Berno's contract because they're getting free money
for Verlander this year with the fiftymillion over last year and this year.
(39:01):
Part of that it's not completely coveredand it's still counting the tacks. It
still counts. Okay, well,okay, hey, okay, well but
most of it, okay, Sonow listen to this Jose Bray goes back
to the White Sox and retires whateverhe wants to do. Who cares something
to them? They also trade likewe did that we got grave men.
(39:22):
You actually think no one's investigated ifhe was damaged goods when we got him.
Not saying that's an excuse, butlook into it. Corey Lee comes
back to the Astro, just likePaul Donado did, just like Berlander did.
We get Corey Lee and Crotchet.Crotchet has been incredible this year,
especially against wirstplace teams. If youlook at his numbers, Crotch It and
Corey Lee. You get rid ofJake. I love Jake for four years.
(39:45):
What's he done a couple of weeks, one month and four years?
Chase still tradeable. Now he's losingvalue. But you get Corey, you
get Crotchet, You give him aBray, you eat the contract you get,
you give him McCormick, you givehim myer and you're probably throw in
uh. You might throw in Pressmanbecause he has an option for next year
to stay with the club or not. He's thirty six years old. Bradia
(40:07):
goes to the eighth inning. Monterragoes to the seventh penny and let me
know what you think about that,because I think it can work. Take
care. Yeah, I mean youput no prospects in there that the White
Sox are in rebuilt mode. Theywould like some double and triple A players,
not you know, was up oldguys at the league level. So
(40:31):
that's is it crotch it or crochet? I see you would maybe Franco Garrett
Crotchet up in up in Chicago partof the White Sox. He has played
in well, he's playing parts offour seasons with them, and this season
(40:52):
he's having an ok year. He'splaying thirteen games. He is five and
five as a starter a three fortynine era. So you're getting me,
what are they giving up Jake Myersand Jose Bray. So he said,
they're gonna send out a Bray YouThey're gonna send out Jake Myers, They're
gonna send out Chas McCormick and RyanPresley. Oh my god, you're gonna
(41:14):
get Corey Lee and Crotchet back again. Like, I don't know why the
White Sox wanted. This is oneof the worst trade proposes I've heard in
a while. So, yeah,I got Mason Miller for Chas McCormick earlier
this week. So yeah, nothing'sgonna top that. I'm not sure how
quickly the White Sox GM Chris getswould hang up the phone. But uh,
(41:37):
look, let's be I feel likealmost everybody a public service announcement here,
Ross. If the Astros are goingto make any trade and acchoir acquire
good players, you must be givingsomething of value up. What is value?
Well, for instance, if I'mthe White Sox and you're interested in
my picture, you know what I'masking for. First. First off,
(41:58):
let's start with the Sarraghetty kid.I like what he's doing. What you
know, would you throw him ina package? That's where I'm starting,
because I'm going I'm trying to rebuildtoo. I'm trying to build this system
back up. And then next up, I'm gonna look at some of your
prospects. I'm gonna go. Youknow, Jacob Melton looks pretty attractive to
me, and outfielder he's up indouble A, probably knocking on the door
Triple A. I'm gonna take JacobMelton off your hands, who also happens
to be the astros best prospect currently. I'm also gonna look at Bryce Matthews,
(42:22):
your first round pick from a yearago, is a shortstop. I
like him. I like Dak's ZachDezenzo, the third baseman who is in
a rookie ball right now. Butyou know I like him. He's your
fourth best prospect. So some combinationof that and maybe a low praffito too.
Like, all those guys are guysI'm interested in, Not interested in
Chas McCormick, not interested in JakeMyers, not interested in any of those
(42:45):
guys. That's where the conversation starts. Yeah, I mean we can come
to this bridge of moor across.So just win the games with what you
have and hopefully we can hold onand get some dubs. Yeah. And
the flip side of that too,Dana Brown, you know what he was
brought in here to do. Buildback the farm system, not give up
your top prospects every trade deadline.It's not what he was brought in here
(43:07):
for. So, man, it'sgonna be a crazy couple of weeks.
So it's up the Astros can rackup some wins here in these next couple
of weeks and get back closer tofive hundred and Man, wouldn't it be
great if we could say they're rightat you know, right at five hundred,
by the true by the All Starbreak. That would be awesome.
He is Ross Varel. I'm ChrisGordon. Has been a live edition of
the Crawford Box Cast, presented byCarbach Brewing and the Crawford Bark. Like
(43:30):
we said, make sure you guysare stocked up in your fridge is stocked
up with plenty at the Proffit Bokthis weekend, drec responsibly, but let's
enjoy Astros baseball with the Crawford bac. It's a home run every time.
We'll talk to you guys tomorrow.I'll be back on with you ten am
on Next Up. We're ussill talkto you tomorrow at noon on The Matt
Thomas Show.
Astros fans cheers, Fucky, Lucky, Welcome to the Crawford Box Cast.
Here's Astros crowd leadbord for you byCrawford Bach from Carbach Brewing. You're getting
da bear. Oh my godness,the Crawford Box Cast starts now here we
go. Here's Chris Gordy and RossViarel and it is a live edition of
(00:37):
the Crawford Box Cast. Here onSports Talk seven ninety Chris Gordy, Ross
Viial with you, and this isthe Crawford Box Cast, presented by Carbak
Brewing and the Crawford Bach. Anduh, it was fun to be at
a minute made on this home standand see a lot of folks drinking a
lot of Crawford Bach. But unfortunatelyAstro is only able to go three and
three on the home stand. Youwere kind of hoping they could, uh,
(00:59):
you know, take two, threeto two out of three or maybe
even you know, split with theCardinals and you know, have it be
a winning home stand. But look, three and three you'll take because you
didn't lose any ground, you didn'tgain any ground. But this month of
June a lot of winnable opponents onthe schedule, and certainly you would expect
the Astros almost have to have awinning month this year in June and ross
(01:22):
it. It's been an interesting week. A lot of stuff going on with
the Astros injuries and finding out newson hose Rikidi and Christian Javier, with
both not only their seasons being done, but Tommy John expected for both.
So we're talking about mid season returnat best for next season. What do
you make of all the injuries.Yeah, it just continues to pile up,
(01:46):
and of course it's something that we'veseen league wide as far as Tommy
John surgeries and pitching injuries, andfor whatever reason that you want to attribute
to pitch clock or just the thepitching stab, falling in love with spin
and velocity, or whatever you wantto call it, the bottom line is
the Astros are down two of theirstarting pitchers four is it correct in twenty
(02:08):
twenty two, Garcia, McCullers,Javier Orkedi all in that rotation, So
four of those guys basically all missingsignificant time catching up with the Astros now
holding out all hope because of theway that the Astros do things with injuries
that they're not going to unless theabsolute last second, and even then they
(02:30):
didn't want to say Tommy John andthe release just saying elbow surgery. But
they're gone for the season. Andnow the five guys you have going right
now, you can ill afford anotherinjury or you're gonna have to dip back
into the minor league pool or tradefor somebody or something. This rotation right
now is taped together. Please assoon as possible, Luis Garcia and lancepe
(02:52):
Colors Junior hopefully can provide some relief. Yeah, And the good news on
that, you know, Luis Garciathrough twenty pitch his last Friday, he
is progressing very well. And youknow, the target deadline of the the
All Star break has kind of beenthe deadline for him. And you know,
I'm hearing some reports recently that maybehe comes back, you know,
(03:12):
a couple of days before the AllStar Break is a possibility. So,
you know, just a lot onthe table. But that's good news there.
Luis Garcia was a very good pitcherwhen he was healthy, and so
you expect, you know, expecthim to get back at some point.
And then the other part is Joseri Keaty or arm sorry Lance mccullors,
in that you know, he's aguy that's become a dirty word. I
(03:36):
guess around here, it's like yousay Lance mc colors and people instantly just
roll their oh yeah, let meknow when he's back. But the reality
is if he can come back insome capacity and help this team at some
point, that will be helpful.I do want to dive into a little
bit on Dana Brown's comments this week, because you know, Sewn Salisbury asked
him, is this pitching staff onethrough five right now? Is this good
(03:58):
enough to win a World Series?And you know, first off, what
do you want the GM to say. He's not gonna say, oh,
well, hell no, I mean, god forbid, I mean they better
get better. You know, likehe's gonna say, yes, we believe
in these guys. And look,any rotation that starts with Justin Verlander and
Fromberveldez at one and two. Iget it fromber was not great last postseason,
but overall he's been one of thebest pitchers in baseball the last five
(04:18):
years. So like we got togive him track record there. But like
starting with those two guys is betterthan some other teams in baseball, So
like I'll take those two guys onetwo. Ronel Blanco's been okay his last
two starts. You don't have tobe in dominant for the first month and
a half of the season, butlike, that's a pretty solid option at
three. And then the other twoguys have been really good as of late.
(04:41):
Spencer Arraghetti and Hunter Brown have beenmuch improved from where they were a
month ago. So one through fiveright now, yes, this is good
enough. You can go into thepostseason. And by the way, as
somebody point out yesterday, like youdon't even really use your fifth starter in
the playoffs. It's you know,it's that's besides the point. But yeah,
if they I can say healthy,like this is fine one through five,
and then you added Garcia mccullors.But ross, the biggest concern is
(05:05):
keeping these five guys healthy for thenext six weeks till you get to the
All Star break. Yeah, that'sthe thing. It's like you just you
can't afford another injury. And it'sit's like I am just my concern,
my worry, my anxiousness. It'slike it's as heightened as it's been all
season. I've always kind of beenjust kicking my feet up, like,
(05:26):
eh, they'll turn it on atsome point they'll get it into gear.
At some point they've been snake bitbad luck runners in scoring position. But
now, I mean, I don'tknow if it's exactly alarm bell sounding,
but you've got under one hundred gamesto go. You just lost Javier and
her keat each Tommy John surgery,and I am concerned, and I am
(05:49):
I mean, they can be fine, and yeah, you can get into
the playoffs. And if that isyour rotation, that's good. But it's
not as good as the Mariner's rotation. It's not as good. Especially if
Garrett Cole comes back and he's effective, You're probably not as good as the
Yankees and what they have going on. So uh, yeah, it's gonna
be tough in the playoffs. Andobviously we'll come to that bridge when we
(06:10):
cross it, they might not evenget into the playoffs. But Javier,
to me was kind of one ofthose X factors where it's like he was
dominant at least his first couple ofstarts in the playoffs last year. He
was great. Of course in twentytwenty two when they won the World Series.
Like you need Christian Javier Jose erKhidi. He's a four or five
guy. I mean, you're gonnamiss him and all that type of stuff,
(06:31):
but it doesn't really have a hugeimpact to the bottom line of the
playoffs, even though that's when he'sbeen really good. But I was wouldn't
say I've been counting on him.But yeah, depending on what happens from
here or if a deal is madeor what I like, even if they
get into the playoffs, they're gonnahave to hit a lot of run hit
a lot of home runs and startedhitting with runners in scoring position and all
(06:51):
that type of stuff. Because Ido have some question marks about this rotation
long term, and guys like ReneweBlanco, Spencer Arraghetti and even a Brown
who broke down last year. You'rewondering how many innings they can give you
and how you can keep putting themout there every fifth day when their arms
aren't maybe necessarily built up for that. Yeah, it's it's gonna be interesting.
(07:13):
It's funny you mentioned Seattle in theplayoffs. The stark reality is ross
only one team from the ALS isgetting the playoff, like the rest of
the AL East, even the ALCentral. Right now, you know,
Detroit's still hanging around at five hundred, but the Twins are doing really well.
The you know, the Royals areactually you know, they're well above
five hundred still, the Guardians aredoing well, and then of course the
(07:36):
the Orioles, the Yankees, youknow, Red Sox have come back down
to Earth. Blue Jays and Raysare struggling. But the Rays have been
much better as of late. Butthe point being, like, you know,
you may not have to worry aboutSeattle in the postseason, but you
know, it's crazy, Ross,I was just looking ahead at the schedule,
like the down the stretch of theseason, and like on the backstretch,
(07:56):
the Ascers get the Rays, I'msorry, they get the Reds,
they get the A's, they getthe Angels twice in a three gamer and
a four gamer. They get theGuardians to finish off the season. But
do you know their second to lastseries of the season is a three game
set against Seattle at Minute May Park. I mean remember last season, like
the end of last year, wherethe Askers had to go basically had to
(08:16):
go into Seattle and win to punchtheir ticket and win the division, And
like how crazy is that? Likeit flips this year you get the Mariners
at home. But I just thinkon September twenty third, twenty fourth,
twenty fifth. That might be aplaying game that that series might be for
the Al West, and it mightcome down to percentage points or whatever.
But like and head to head tiebreakers and all that. But like,
(08:39):
I just it's funny. I lookat that as almost like a playoff precursor.
If the askers take care of businessof that, they could punch their
ticket and we'll cross that bridge whenwe get there. Obviously a lot of
room that you know, they've theydug themselves this big hole. They've got
to dig their way out of it. But again, like focusing on the
positives, how can you not behappy with the latest from Hunter Brown and
(09:00):
Spencer Araghetty. I mean, boththese guys light years different from where they
were just a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it's that's definitely much needed.
I mean, it's funny how throughoutthis run there have been like these
things here and there that have beenvery timely that at the right time,
the hitting starts up at the righttime, you get somebody coming back from
(09:20):
injury, or somebody pitching very welland right now at the right time.
First of all, Renel Blanco doingwhat he's done all season, even though
he's giving up four runs in eachof his last couple of starts. But
yeah, you're absolutely right, likeHannor Brown and Spencer Arraghetty rounding into form
three straight starts, quality starts,I believe from Hunter Brown, Spencer Araghetty's
looking a lot better. Like thisis exactly what you need if you are
going to catch the Seattle Mariners.Those guys have to keep doing what they're
(09:43):
doing and you just have to keepthis rotation duct taped together and hang on
for dear life, because I meanit's there just literally no other way if
you if you have another injury oror a couple of injuries, and you're
going into the them dipping into theminor league pool again. And I'm probably
pretty much ready to chalk this thingand say that the playoff hopes are over
(10:05):
for the Astros. Yeah, andthe tough situation you're in, I mean,
you're up against that second luxury tax, and you know you did it
to go get Josh Hater and he'sbeen awesome as of late, and you're
happy to have him, but itdoes put you in a bund where it's
it's hard to add any more payroll. Really it's hard to you know,
I know everybody wants to go justgo, just go add an arm,
(10:26):
Let's just go trade for a guy, Let's go get a guy. And
it's like, guys, what dothe astros have in the farm? Say
like, what's attractive in a trade? And I love you know, this
is one of my favorite conversations becauseyou know, back on the in the
day, on the video games likeplaying Madden and stuff, when you try
to make a trade, it wouldthe computer would shut you down and go,
this is an unfair trade? Doyou want to force the trade?
And I feel like that's where alot of fans go, like, y'all,
(10:50):
you had a caller yesterday in theNightcap who's like, trade Chas McCormick
for the for the a's closed.Stop trying to like, you can't sell
your trash likes good as Bregnan's beenthe past week, he's still batting like
two to oh something like it stillis who's gonna overpay for a Bregman?
So there's playing discussion to get intoare there trades to be made? We'll
we'll get into that. Uh.And of course your phone calls are welcome.
(11:13):
It's seven one three two on twofive seven ninety seven one three two
on two five seven ninety It's alive edition of the Crawford Box gast presented
by Carbock Brewing. He is RossVreel. I'm Chris Gordy. A quick
break back right after this. Butthis is the Crawford Box Gas presented by
Carbock Brewing and the Crawford Bock ChrisGordy here with you, Ross Viiel as
well as we're talking all things AstrosA full hour tonight, all the way
(11:33):
until seven. It is an offnight for your astros after the afternoon loss
to the Cardinals yesterday. They didtake two out of three in the series.
Ross always thinks to lose the lastgame of a series when you win
the first two games, because italways leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Like it's always better to me tolose the first game of a series
and then come back and win thenext two, because then you feel like,
(11:54):
man, I'm on a two gamewin streak, We've won this series.
We're feeling good. Instead, youcome out with the dead dud yesterday
and nobody feels good. Yeah hit's like you hopefully no fans brought brooms
to the stadium yesterday and then theydidn't get able to bring them out.
Definitely feels like a bit of abitter taste, but you'll take two out
of three obviously, especially after whathappened in the Minnesota twins and years is
(12:18):
you're not it's not gonna all happenall at once. They were twelve games
under five hundred. Now you're onlyseven games under five hundred. So hopefully
they can continue to improve from thatstandpoint, but it's, uh, it's
getting late early. You got ninetynine games left, you're seven back,
you have all these injuries. Itjust feels like the margin for Eric It's
continues to get thinner and thinner asthe season wears along. Still a lot
(12:39):
of baseball left, but I'm definitelyworried. Yeah, And the funny thing
is they have They only have twosweeps on the season, and one of
those was a two gamer in MexicoCity against Colorado. I don't even know
if you know the Rockies. Itdidn't count. And that's been a debate
for years. Do you even counta two gamer as a series? Like
I it shouldn't be. It's ona series, it's two games, but
(13:01):
nonetheless they are going to have toput together. I mean, just look
at the schedule the next couple weeksin LA against the Angels in San fran
against the Giants, home against Detroitat the Chicago White Sox. I mean,
these are lowly opponents you should beable to beat if you're good.
It's just, you know, itfeels like every week we're saying ross,
well, the real astros please standup. We don't know who the real
(13:24):
astros are this year, and it'sstill got a lot of us just scratching
our heads and saying, like,what's changed, what's different? It's mostly
the same casting crew from last year. Yeah, you lose Dusty Baker,
but you promote within and everybody elsejust moves up. As Joe spout that
bad at managing the day to day, and I know some people have been
critical of him, I think he'sactually done a pretty good job with a
(13:45):
lot of the day to day decisions. Only a few moves he's made here
and there where you scratch your head, like, for instance, pinch hitting
Jose Abray the other night. Thatone was odd, but we went with
the right hander against the lefty insteadof the lefty John Singleton. It makes
it. There's some logic there thatthat I can wrap my head around.
I know a lot of fans wantJose bra You punted off the team immediately,
(14:05):
but he was he was with theplatoon matchup. Well, I'm I'm
a right hander. I could havepinched it for you. Yeah. The
probably would have been the same result. Three pitches and striking out. That's
I mean, definitely hurts. Itwas such a disaster at bad Not like
it was completely unexpected, of course, but I was like, oh God,
(14:26):
please, can he at least putthe ball in play? And he
did not. I've come around tothe Wexler approach on this, like just
stop talking about him, because thisthing is going to work itself out if
Jose Bray keeps going down the pathhe's on of not hitting, not doing
very much on the baseball field,like they're gonna come to a crossroads where
they're just gonna go, all right, enough's enough. You're doing nothing to
(14:50):
help this team, and we're gonna, you know, buy you out and
give you the the big fat paycheck of nineteen million next year. And
however, much of the nineteen millionthis year. That's still to him and
say, sayonara, and you know, I do like it what they did
this past week sending Joey low Perfitoback down to Triple A. And at
least for a couple of games hewas alternating. He would play at first
base one day, playing center fieldthe next, and so on and so
(15:13):
forth. Now I believe the lastcouple of games at Triple A he has
played back at center. So Idon't know why they've slowed that down,
but to me, that's a greatsolution in that if you end up having
to blow up the Jose Bray thing, you can ride with a platoon of
Singleton and low Perfito the rest ofthe season. And I just wonder,
Russ, like, I get maybethey're like, oh, low Praffito,
we envisioned him as a good centerfielder, and I get that, but
(15:35):
also like, to a certain extent, shouldn't low Perffito's attitude be, Hey,
I just want to get to thebigs, whatever it takes. I'll
play whatever position you want. Yeah, I think I think so. But
also I mean, if they ifthey only like feel comfort, they only
like playing him in the outfield,they only feel comfortable playing him in the
outfield, and then you know McCormickhad just come back from his injury.
(15:58):
Jake Myers had been hitting hot,but of course has cooled significantly since Maricio
Dubon. Even though I'm not withthose who say think he's the savior of
the team. He's a hit,slap singles and plays good defense all over
the place, including at third basewhen he filled in for Alex Bregman,
making good plays over there. Butit's kind of a log jam, and
(16:19):
it's just a it's unfortunate because it'sa numbers game, and you're like,
what do you mean just putting Josebray you and John Singleton off the team.
But like you said, they're gonnagive JOSEA. Brayew every chance.
How much longer, I don't know. It feels like a couple of more
weeks at best. He did hita home run, but still over all
the adbats have not been good.He hasn't looked very competitive. The numbers
(16:41):
are still terrible and would be evenmuch worse if it weren't for that home
run, which I think it wasa home run in like nineteen out of
thirty ballparks, so it wasn't likehe really really mashed the heck out of
a baseball, and then everything elsehas just been soft grounders and bad strikeouts.
Yeah, and so again I'm we'realmost done talking about him. Now.
(17:03):
Look if he's gonna play and he'sgonna come up to bat in some
big positions and strikes out and doesn'tdo anything, we'll have to talk about
him. But yeah, it's almostlike let him just keep going up there,
whiffing, going over and then eventually, like what two three more weeks
of this, they'll have to makea move and be like it's not working,
this whole sending him down to Floridato fix his swing. It it's
(17:26):
not fixed. You get a homerun, great, but like that's it,
Like he doesn't have much to showfor it. So, uh,
we'll see what happens there. Bythe way, if you guys want to
get in seven one three two onetwo five seven ninety seven one three two
on two five seven ninety Uh,Mark, I was about to come to
you. If you want to giveus a shout back, we'll get you
on. But yeah, it's it'sjust very interesting and how they're going to
handle this thing. And I know, a lot of people are yelling,
(17:48):
you know, let's be sellers,let's rebuild, let's let's move some pieces,
And I just don't know ross likewhat you currently have on the roster,
you know what, like how muchthat would attract other teams. Like
again, Alex Bregman I said,it's been hot as of ladies, hit
what five home runs in his lastseven games or something like that, yet
(18:10):
he's still not hitting great, youknow. So it's like, and he's
and he's under contract for the restof the season, but what are you
gonna get for that? And itmade me go back and look at some
of the past trades the Astros madewhen they were buyers, and it's kind
of fascinating, you go. Iwent back and look at the Arizona Diamondbacks
when the Asters traded at the deadlinefor Zach Grenk and they gave up some
(18:32):
pieces like Seth Beer and Corbyn Martinand all this, and I'm looking and
I think, not one of thoseguys is still a part of the Diamondbacks.
Some of them are playing the bigs, but they're all on different teams
now, and so it's just kindof interesting, like, dude, like
training for it's so it's so riskyin baseball because the word prospect is just
that it's a prospect. They're abusts all the time, guys who don't
(18:55):
pan out, and the askers havehad a huge success rate on guys acquired
over the years, right like,you're you're not Alvarez, jannar Diez.
You know, Raphael Montero overall hasbeen a nice throw in in the Kendall
Graveman trade. You know, there'sjust been guys that they've hit on a
lot of prospects. But man,like, it's risky. It's very risky.
(19:18):
If you think we're just gonna tradeBregman and get some prospects on top
of it, you create a bighole for yourself at third base. Everybody
who tells me trade Bregman, Isay, well, who's gonna be you
every day third baseman? And whenI say Marisio Dubona, say well,
great, now who's your everyday platoonutility man? You don't have me cassing
you? Yeah? No, Imean, great, Cassinger. We have
a team play baseball. Overall,We'll see at that point, it wouldn't
(19:40):
matter who your every day third basementis. If you are selling to me,
of all the possible scenarios of beingbuyers, being sellers, full on
sell off. I don't think Tuckerand Alvarez, I'm sorry, Tucker and
Valdez are going anywhere. But ifyou come towards the trade deadline and you're
like ten twelve games out, thenyeah, it would be prudent to sell,
and you would whatever you can getfor Alex Bregman. I don't know
(20:00):
if you're gonna get a ton ofvalue. I don't know what you're gonna
get as far as a prospect package. You would wait until the absolute last
moment. You would take what youcan get for Bregman. You would take
what you can get for Ryan Presley. And you say it's a sunk season,
Well, I say, at aboy, and we'll go get him
next year. That's what the scenariowould be. What was the Braves twenty
nineteen. How many games were theyback at the break? Weren't they like?
(20:23):
It was like they were way outof it and then they got hot
twenty one when they beat the Astrosin twenty one? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, twenty one. I don'tremember. I can go look, but
they were forty four and forty fivegoing into the break, and Dana Brown
was a part of that regime.If this team is still just a couple
of games full of five hundred atthe All Star break, they are like
(20:44):
data, they're gonna go for it. And also the other side of Russes,
how do you sell that to yourother stars? How do you go
to hose Ael TUBINGA look, Ose, I know we've got a great run,
man, but we gotta blow thisthing up. We're gonna trade Breggy
and you know we're just it's saying, you don't have to sell it to
him. Yeah, he's gonna lookat you. You're go, dude,
let's strangers some wins. We thinkwe could still make the playoffs. Yeah,
it turns it. It would bethe scenario, like I said,
(21:06):
if they're ten twelve back and weare into all I mean, you're at
that point in the deadline, you'recoming into August, and it looks like
it's not happening. Yeah. Idon't envision that scenario. I think they're
still gonna win games, of course, pending health of I mean, you've
been missing Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman, but of course all the pitchers as
well, and what happens there andmaybe you can just glue this thing together
(21:30):
and the Cavarry will come with LuisGarcia and then five weeks behind, says
Brian McTaggert, who we'll hear fromis Lance mccullors junior. So, uh,
and you're not winning these games thatyou have in front of you.
Yeah, you want a series againstSaint Louis Cardinals, that's cool, But
you lost a series against Twins.You got crushed against the Mariners head to
(21:51):
head. So you need to startwinning some games. And if you don't,
the prudent smart thing to do wouldbe to flip at minimum Bregmant and
Pressley. That's what would be myprediction is who they would explore offers for
and that. But that would bea scenario. Yeah, who's taking Presley?
You tell what you can get.He's a free agent. I mean
he's if you look at his he'shad very bad luck. If you look
(22:14):
at his field independent pitching numbers andall that type of stuff, he's he's
been somewhat of a victim of badluck. I know that the fan base
likes to dump on any reliever thathas had a couple of bad outings or
whatever. I still think he canbe an effective guy. I think he
will continue to round in a formwe will see once again. You we
are in June sixth we're talking aboutJuly thirtieth, so we're gonna get it.
Least. I don't know. Tenparents ten appearances are more from Brian
(22:36):
Presley. Yeah. If his eraballoons to like eight eight and a half
and he has no value, itis what it is. Yeah, let's
get to Brian in here real quickbefore we grab our expert. Brian,
what's up man? Welcome in,Hey, guys, Thanks for letting men.
You know what it is, guys, and we've been spoiled for so
many years that remains. We cannotwin without starting pitching. You name a
team that's went deep in the playoffs, shaven one significant games there in a
(22:59):
regular season without deep starting pitching.And let's not forget how many blown say
that we had this year on guysthat we count on for years. And
I get it right, everybody wantsto blow it up. You know it's
a fire sale. No, that'snot the deal. All these teams,
Braves, you got, Dodgers,they're all competing every year they've had injuries.
(23:21):
It's gonna be all right. We'regonna come out of this. Just
have faith. Man. You knowwhat, I thought about calling up JOBU
and firing up the thing, getsome live chickens and some chickens with their
knees. But I think we needto settle down and get some swag back
in here. Man. Everybody needsto be accountable. It's that team effort.
Thanks guys, Thanks Brian appreciated.Well you think Ross, we need
(23:42):
some swag in this house. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.
I don't know what we can doto get it get all fired up.
I think, what does a peopleneed to spot it to get ejected
and all that type of stuff.Let's do it. Whatever it's gonna take,
let's go. I think next timeat the ballpark and I talked to
Joe Spot, I'm gonna go.Hey, man, remember before the season,
you were like, oh, I'mprobably gonna get ejected a ton,
and then the one time you gotejected, you were like, hello,
(24:04):
sir, mister, to eject me. Maybe, like I want you yelling.
I want old Tony Lewis, Iwant you throwing a base, Like,
let's get some but that's where peopleare like, you know, I've
heard people like, where's the firein this team? I think what makes
them so great is that this teamdoes like when when we're in the clubhouse
(24:26):
and around this team still you neverknow if they were on a five game
win streak or a five game losingstreak. That's what's made them so great
is they are even keeled, thatthey're not over emotional, that they don't
freak out at the first sign oftrouble. But you're right, you get
to a certain point this season,Russell, were you just gotta like you
guys start winning, Like where arethe wins? We got to start putting
to go some wins. So,uh, we'll get back to your phone
(24:47):
call Steve, I see you,will get to you next. This is
a live edition of the Crawford BoxCast on Sports Talk seven ninety nice stream
talking about frog baseball, Strike one. Hey you dummies. Listen to Astros
baseball and Rockets basketball games on anydevice with the free iHeart Radio app.
(25:08):
Just take some things. It kindof is super tender and sore, and
I want to just double check everythingchecked out good. So here ready to
go on here, ready to go? On. That was Alex Bregman talking
with the media after his He wasa late scratch in the game on yesterday.
He was was any initial lineup andthen took some swings pre game and
(25:33):
wasn't feeling great and so they scratchedhim. But you know it's crazy,
ros like Bregman was slow there toget going. But the last couple of
weeks he's been really good. Andyou take him out of lineup and Kyle
Tucker getting hit on the shin wherehe's out, it was noticeable not having
those two bats in the lineup yesterday. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean,
as president of the Jake Myers fanClub, I do love him unconditionally.
(25:56):
But also he's not a clean uphitter. He's been clean up the last
couple of days and the last tengames for Alex Bregman. I'll try to
pull it up again. Yeah,he's been incredible. Uh thirty nine at
bats, fourteen hits, eight runs, batted in five home runs, hitting
three point fifty nine over that stretch. So he's turning it on. We
(26:18):
know he's a slow starter. Atleast the numbers are getting to somewhat respectability
and hopefully going up and then ofcourse he gets his hiccup. It sounds
like he'll be fine and good togo tomorrow. Can I be real with
the Kyle Tucker thing, you know, like it was it looked really bad,
right, I mean, like hetook that ball on the shin.
He was down for a while,he couldn't walk, he was limping.
And then they come out after thegame, but like, yeah, you
(26:40):
know, he was on crutches,but he's moving around really well and all
this and and then people are like, oh, he could be back by
Friday. I'm like Friday, Likeno, like he's he's on crutches.
Yeah, So I don't know.There there was there was a report yesterday
I think said well, I don'tknow if he's gonna be back by Friday.
I would not expect that, Likete'll talk to take his time.
I'm sure that thing is like swollenup like a like an apple. We'll
(27:04):
be okay, you know, we'llhave to get by without him now.
Unfortunately, he is your MVP calibercandidate this season, and so you know,
again, not having his bat hurts, But dude, it's freaking angels
good. You should be able towith the rest of your court with jose
al Tuvey and Jordan Alvarez and allthese different people, like you should be
good enough to go take two outof three against the Angels, specifically with
(27:29):
Frober Hunter Brown and Justin Ver lateron the Mountain. Yeah, I mean
it does exactly. You've got thewhatever it is, whatever you talk about
in the last series, you lostagainst him. It doesn't matter. You
need to get it done. Itdoesn't matter that you're on the road and
all that type of stuff. MissingKyle Tucker definitely will hurt, but you're
getting Alex Bregman back, and hopefullyby the end of the series Kyle Tucker
(27:52):
can be back. And he gothit on the same place he got hit,
like I think it was Saturday.He took one off the shin basically
in the same spot, and Ithink that's what made this one much worse.
He was probably playing with big bruisealready on his shin and this one
just made it that much worse.So I don't know how long he's gonna
be out, but hopefully hopefully hecan get off soon. By the way,
mentioned the Braves a few minutes ago. I just saw they were getting
(28:14):
no hit through five innings. Currentlythe Atlanta Braves. So keep an eye
on that. One seven one sevenninety is the phone number. Let's get
back to the phone. Steve outin Huffman wants to get in. Steve,
what's up. Well, every timeI think about Jim Crane, I
think about that. All that iswhat's the definition of insanity? Doing the
same thing over and over again expectinga different result. Jose Bray you and
(28:38):
I don't know who's calling the shotsdown there. I mean, I think
Crane is. I think he's runningthe team. He's got an ego as
big as China, and uh,he's gonna try to force feed Jose A
bray you down everybody's throat, youknow, to prove he's right. And
in the meantime we keep losing volumes. Now here's what we needed to do.
(29:00):
I'm not the world's expert, butyou you've heard of the old adage
length in the lineup, make itas quality as possible. That guy comes
up with anybody on base, Iwant to throw up because I know it's
gonna happen. So what they needto do is they need if they have
to. And I know he's nota first baseman, but he hits.
(29:21):
You need to get as many productivebats in that lineup as possible, even
if you've got to play dub Onat first base, Cartini and Diaz they
can alternate catch her, designated hither and and let you know, Alvarez
is going to play left field,Meyer center field. Fine, and then
I guess until Kyle comes back,Cabbage is on the roster. Now I
(29:42):
understand, and god, I feelsorry for him. He had a home
run. He'll probably earn a tripback to Sugarland. You know, I
don't know that. This team frustratesme. And then they say, yes,
but we're going to catch up.We're going to catch up. Well,
you know what, the more thatyou keep playing, you know,
these weird lineups with the braid inthere and trying the bat boy, these
(30:06):
valuable games keep ticking off the schedule. And the thing that's even more frustrating,
as we all know, they're ina lousy division that can be had,
you know, if they if theywould just put more bats in that
lineup. But like I said,I don't know it's calling the shots.
I'm just getting a suspicion that Craneis And if that's the case, well,
(30:26):
but Steve. Every decision Crane's madesince he's been since he's on the
team. Look, Astro's true offalse have had their greatest run since he's
on the team. Right, Yeah, Look, he was on the team
at the time that he's let go. He lets contracts walk because he says,
I don't do the big contract.Well to have Springer here now no
(30:48):
playing center field? How about Springeris not helping the Toronto Blue Jays and
they're paying them a fortunate That doesn'tmean but one doesn't mean that he's not
going to equal the other. Thatguy could come back here and be the
guy that we always knew. Maybefor whatever reason, it isn't working at
tround. Doesn't mean the baseball skillshave gone south. Well, things aren't
(31:10):
working out. George Springer is hittingtwo ten right now for the for the
Blue Jays. Well, you knowwhat, I've seen guys that have that
have hit below the Mendoza line,and when they're traded to another team,
change the scenery whatever, they catchfire. You know JD. Martinez,
remember when we had him here asa kid and he only became one of
the belot major league players after heleft here. Yeah, he was and
(31:33):
they give him. They give himway more than reason. Dubon, by
the way, has been in theAstros last seven games in the lineup,
he is five. He's hitting twohundred with five singles, no extra basis,
Like I just I'm all for thelineup, I'm all for solutions,
I'm all for opinions and all that. But let's also we're gonna take shots
(31:57):
of Jim Cray. Have you notenjoyed the last nine years of like they've
made some tough decisions. Yes they'renot going to hit on all of them,
but overall, can you argue withthe results, like this is the
first year that they're not living upto you know, expectations or whatever.
Like I understand last year they theystumbled a little bit, but at the
end of the day the results,they were still back in the ALCS again
(32:20):
for whatever it was, seven toeight years, whatever it's been. And
and we're an eyelash away from youknow, a couple hits here from getting
you know, win one more gameand you're back in the World Series again.
Last year, so again, likeyou've been having a lot of that
credit goes to Jeff Luno, andI think it is fair to question the
direction of the franchise with letting,the letting of James Click Go, the
(32:42):
getting rid of guys who are analyticsdriven and going with a baseball guy,
and having Jeff Bagwell have the closeear and him telling you that you know
in all reports or whatever you wantto say, we don't know for a
one hundred percent in fact, butfeels like that. That's what it is,
is Jeff Bagwell saying let's get Josehbray you and sign afi Al Montero
to this big deal before they hiredDana Brown. Now we do say we
(33:04):
have to put a disclaimer. TheMontero deal is looking pretty good right now.
He's been looking over was a disasterlast year and he's been good this
year. Yeah, and the Abrat You' signing at the time, we
were all excited. It's just ithasn't worked out. So again, yes,
I mean, whether it's Jeff Bagelor whatever, it's it's and again,
like we have the Asters have hada phenomenal hit rate on free agent
(33:29):
signings, trades and everything. Likethey have hit on more things than they've
not, so that way more thanthe average team. Go lass the Yankees
about all their big name free agentsthey've signed for the past decade, they've
all been big fat duds. Finallywon soda. Garrettle come back. Garrett
Cole has been good and then ofcourse now he's been hurt this year,
(33:49):
right, but they've they've how closerhave they gotten to winning a World Series
since they've signed Garrett Cole? Imean, it hasn't worked out, But
you know, Soto is the oneguy I think of that's like lived up
to the hype that they said,you know, or made a big trade
for and you know, we're probablygonna spend a ton of money on But
you know, again there's the hitrate for the Astros has been phenomenal.
It's their first year where things arenot going well, and I understand people
(34:12):
are frustrated, and everybody's frustrated,but how do they get out of this?
We'll discuss a little bit more afterthis, we'll grab our last break.
We'll come back. Sheena and Mikewill get to you guys on the
phone lines. This is a liveedition of Crawford box Cast presented by Carbuck
Brewing. All Right, final segmenthere in the live edition of the Crawford
box Cast, presented by car BockBrewing and the Crawford Bach. Hopefully you
guys are stocked up on plenty ofCrawford Boch for the weekend of watching or
(34:36):
listening to Astros baseball. It isa home run every time and Ross the
no hitter is no more for AtlantaOrlando Rcia has broken it up. Mitchell
Parker, that guy who threw sevenshutout innings against the Astros a couple of
weeks ago for the Nationals. Heis he had the no hitter going through
five and it gets broken up inthe sixth. So shame for that.
(34:59):
Always like streaty to be made,but uh, let's get a couple of
you guys on the fall lines.You want to get in here. Talks
to Mastros before we wrap things up. Talk to Sena out in Sugar line,
Shina, welcome in. Ay,Yes, good evening, so more
so replying to the last caller.A couple of things. And this has
been a lot of people that I'veheard lately. I don't understand when first
base became the easiest position to playon the field where anybody can play it.
(35:22):
Du Bond's played I think two gamesthere, so putting him as your
full time first baseman, just toget his bat in the lineup. I
mean, I it's just anybody's likeJordan can play first base, Dubond can
play first base, Love Berffedo.I just don't understand why it became the
easiest position to play. But moreso, I wanted to mention with the
previous caller mentioning the long term contractsand how Crane win go for these long
(35:45):
term contracts to keep Korea or Springer, you know who? Which teams do
go for the long term contracts?The Angels, the Mets. Frankly,
we haven't. We don't have agreat record this season, but we're doing
I'm better than the Angels, SoI don't think that's the answer here.
I mean, definitely need to getour bats going, need to. You
(36:07):
know, we've been hitting, we'rejust not manufacturing runs. Whether that needs
to change with getting a little smallball in. We had the same amount
of hits yesterday as the Cardinals.It's just they, you know, were
able to manufacture runs from those hits. They use the bunt, they use
sacrifice flies and different methods to getthose runs across the plate. So I'm
not sure, you know, ifthat's something needs to be looking to.
(36:28):
But I don't think long term contractsare the answer for this team. I
don't think just throwing anybody at firstbase as the full time first baseman is
the answer either. I got you, Shena, thanks for the call,
appreciate it. Yeah, I'll justsee Sena. The long term contracts are
the one thing. It's like everybodygets hung up on them, and Ross,
we're so quick when when Tucker Homer'sand back to back games, what
(36:49):
are we all yelling pay the man, pay the man. People are doing
that with Bregman a year, twoyears ago. And you know I've heard
zero pay the man for Bregman thisyear. So I think change is very
quickly. But what's so funny iswe brought up to Montero and the Bray
you contracts. You know, it'sso awesome about those contracts. Yes they're
high dollar, but they both comeoff the books after next year. Like
it's so if you do sign aguy like that and it's a and it
(37:13):
turns out to be a bust,you can get out of it. It
doesn't I mean, you still gotto pay him one hundred percent guaranteed money.
But it's not it's not like we'relooking at God, we gotta pay
a bray you the next eight yearson, you know, on a deal.
Like when one of those deal's backfires, there's no getting out of it.
You know, look at look atthe weird awkwardness that La had to
do with Albert Poole's when they givehim that deal. But you know,
(37:34):
we'll see if some of these workout. But overall, a lot of
these eight, nine and ten yeardeals were us. I just don't know
if it they're gonna pay out.I mean, the Otani one and the
Mike Trout are probably gonna work out. But even as great as Trout's been,
he's hurt almost every year, andhe's not getting the Angels to the
playoffs. I mean, even withOtani and Trout, they couldn't make the
playoffs. So it's there's that factor. And then the first base thing,
(37:55):
if you want to address that,I mean, in Beer league softball,
your buddy, who's the worst player, where you always stick him at first
base? It's it's it's presumed bymany to be the easiest position. But
yes, in the big league youstill got to be pretty damn good.
Yeah, And there's a lot ofnuance as well. I mean, it's
clear they didn't want to put youon your ideas there last year. They
don't want to put Dubond there muchthis year. They've never moved yard on
(38:17):
Alvarez over there. They'd want toput low Berfito over there. So I
mean, clearly this organization puts ahigh amount of esteem and what it takes
to play defensively first base. Yeahand right wrong or are different. You
can disagree with that, and that'sfine too. Let's get Rich in here
before we wrap things up. Rich, what's up? Okay, you get
(38:40):
a piece of paper, write thisdown. Here's the trade. Okay,
I'm ready, I'm ready. Iremember the Mets, the Mets and the
White Sox and the Astros. TheAstros did not pay a dime for Vertlander
fifty million dollars. They can eata Berno's contract because they're getting free money
for Verlander this year with the fiftymillion over last year and this year.
(39:01):
Part of that it's not completely coveredand it's still counting the tacks. It
still counts. Okay, well,okay, hey, okay, well but
most of it, okay, Sonow listen to this Jose Bray goes back
to the White Sox and retires whateverhe wants to do. Who cares something
to them? They also trade likewe did that we got grave men.
(39:22):
You actually think no one's investigated ifhe was damaged goods when we got him.
Not saying that's an excuse, butlook into it. Corey Lee comes
back to the Astro, just likePaul Donado did, just like Berlander did.
We get Corey Lee and Crotchet.Crotchet has been incredible this year,
especially against wirstplace teams. If youlook at his numbers, Crotch It and
Corey Lee. You get rid ofJake. I love Jake for four years.
(39:45):
What's he done a couple of weeks, one month and four years?
Chase still tradeable. Now he's losingvalue. But you get Corey, you
get Crotchet, You give him aBray, you eat the contract you get,
you give him McCormick, you givehim myer and you're probably throw in
uh. You might throw in Pressmanbecause he has an option for next year
to stay with the club or not. He's thirty six years old. Bradia
(40:07):
goes to the eighth inning. Monterragoes to the seventh penny and let me
know what you think about that,because I think it can work. Take
care. Yeah, I mean youput no prospects in there that the White
Sox are in rebuilt mode. Theywould like some double and triple A players,
not you know, was up oldguys at the league level. So
(40:31):
that's is it crotch it or crochet? I see you would maybe Franco Garrett
Crotchet up in up in Chicago partof the White Sox. He has played
in well, he's playing parts offour seasons with them, and this season
(40:52):
he's having an ok year. He'splaying thirteen games. He is five and
five as a starter a three fortynine era. So you're getting me,
what are they giving up Jake Myersand Jose Bray. So he said,
they're gonna send out a Bray YouThey're gonna send out Jake Myers, They're
gonna send out Chas McCormick and RyanPresley. Oh my god, you're gonna
(41:14):
get Corey Lee and Crotchet back again. Like, I don't know why the
White Sox wanted. This is oneof the worst trade proposes I've heard in
a while. So, yeah,I got Mason Miller for Chas McCormick earlier
this week. So yeah, nothing'sgonna top that. I'm not sure how
quickly the White Sox GM Chris getswould hang up the phone. But uh,
(41:37):
look, let's be I feel likealmost everybody a public service announcement here,
Ross. If the Astros are goingto make any trade and acchoir acquire
good players, you must be givingsomething of value up. What is value?
Well, for instance, if I'mthe White Sox and you're interested in
my picture, you know what I'masking for. First. First off,
(41:58):
let's start with the Sarraghetty kid.I like what he's doing. What you
know, would you throw him ina package? That's where I'm starting,
because I'm going I'm trying to rebuildtoo. I'm trying to build this system
back up. And then next up, I'm gonna look at some of your
prospects. I'm gonna go. Youknow, Jacob Melton looks pretty attractive to
me, and outfielder he's up indouble A, probably knocking on the door
Triple A. I'm gonna take JacobMelton off your hands, who also happens
to be the astros best prospect currently. I'm also gonna look at Bryce Matthews,
(42:22):
your first round pick from a yearago, is a shortstop. I
like him. I like Dak's ZachDezenzo, the third baseman who is in
a rookie ball right now. Butyou know I like him. He's your
fourth best prospect. So some combinationof that and maybe a low praffito too.
Like, all those guys are guysI'm interested in, Not interested in
Chas McCormick, not interested in JakeMyers, not interested in any of those
(42:45):
guys. That's where the conversation starts. Yeah, I mean we can come
to this bridge of moor across.So just win the games with what you
have and hopefully we can hold onand get some dubs. Yeah. And
the flip side of that too,Dana Brown, you know what he was
brought in here to do. Buildback the farm system, not give up
your top prospects every trade deadline.It's not what he was brought in here
(43:07):
for. So, man, it'sgonna be a crazy couple of weeks.
So it's up the Astros can rackup some wins here in these next couple
of weeks and get back closer tofive hundred and Man, wouldn't it be
great if we could say they're rightat you know, right at five hundred,
by the true by the All Starbreak. That would be awesome.
He is Ross Varel. I'm ChrisGordon. Has been a live edition of
the Crawford Box Cast, presented byCarbach Brewing and the Crawford Bark. Like
(43:30):
we said, make sure you guysare stocked up in your fridge is stocked
up with plenty at the Proffit Bokthis weekend, drec responsibly, but let's
enjoy Astros baseball with the Crawford bac. It's a home run every time.
We'll talk to you guys tomorrow.I'll be back on with you ten am
on Next Up. We're ussill talkto you tomorrow at noon on The Matt
Thomas Show.
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