June 13, 2024 • 31 mins
On this edition of the Crawford Boxcast, Gordy and Ross discuss the continued rollercoaster season for the Houston Astros as they drop a series vs the Giants out in San Francisco. They also discuss some of the recent injuries, lack of run scoring at times, struggles at first base still with Jose Abreu back, and who's really calling the shots behind the scenes?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Astros fans, cheers, Wacky Lucky, Welcome to the Crawford box Casts.
Proud lead Ford for you by CrawfordBach from Carmack Brewy. You're getting bear.
Oh my goodness. The Crawford boxCast starts now Here we go.
(00:30):
Here's Chris Gordy and Ross via Real. It is an all new addition of
the Crawford box Cast, presented bycarboch Brewing, Chris Gordy and Ross Viriel
talking all things Astros at least oncea week. Here for you on the
box cast, and a reminder,get your hands on some Crawford Bach while
you're watching Astros games. It's ahome run every time, as they say,
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even if the Astros aren't hitting ahome run every time. And man,
it's been a it's been an upand down roller coaster season for the
Astros, more bad than good attimes. But here we are. Ross
coming off of a stretch where theytook two out of three against the Cardinals,
they took to two out of threeagainst the Angels, had every opportunity
to take two out of three againstthe Giants, with Rafael Montero blowing the
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tenth inning three to one lead onMonday night, they won Game two the
series, and then they lose Gamethree because Fromber was not very good.
But here we are, an offday before they start a home series against
the Tigers, and it's so funnyhow different what a difference one game could
make. But could you imagine hadthey hung on to win that game Monday,
we'd be looking at back saying they'vewon three straight series. They're winning
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more than they're losing right now.But as I heard somebody describe it earlier
today, Ross, it's almost likethey're doggy paddling, where you're like you're
in this big pool. Yes you'retrying to get to the end, but
instead of like long strokes, you'rejust doggy paddling and you're barely moving and
well sometimes you're turning around and goingbackwards. Well, I think they're actually
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speaking of mentioning the home runs.They're like fourth and Baseball on home runs,
it's like nobody's ever on base forthem. Position. Yeah, run
scored is where they're there's a prettybig descriptive to having some issues. But
it just continues to feel this way. And I think last week where we
are, I was talking about mypessimism was getting lower, and I think
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this week I'm somewhat in the samespot. And it's not even necessarily like,
Okay, the schedule is, aswe say, softening up. But
the San Francisco Giants weren't a verygood team. You couldn't win that series.
The Angels, you probably should haveswept them. You suffered back to
back walkoffs at some point. Andthe thing is the Seattle Mariners keep on
winning. And that's the issue towhere as we're talking right now, you're
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eight and a half games back ofthe Seattle Mariners. You are seven games
below five hundred. They are tengames over five hundred. That is a
lot of ground to have to makeup. There's still, of course,
a lot of time in the season. We talk about that, but the
fact that you really can't afford tosuffer injuries on the starting rotation. You
really can't with you on Yourdas andKyle Tucker going down even for a couple
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of days we've seen, you can'tafford to take those types of hits in
the in the lineup as well towhere you're you're putting Jake Myers, who
I love, at the cleanup spot. You're putting John Singleton, who I
like at the at the cleanup spotas well, but at those guys aren't
clean up hitters. You just don'thave this depth around the team. You
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already have so little margin for errorbecause of where you are in the standings,
and now it's even worse so becausewe continue to get later, late
and later into the season. Andyou got a Seano Mariners team that one
four straight over the Chicago White Soxand yeah, you're gonna play the White
Sox two as well, but they'renot dropping games. You are. I'm
sorry they get the White Sox againtoday. They've won four straight overall,
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and that's probably gonna be a win. So we're talking about a five game
winning streak where you just continue tounfortunately spin your wheels. And then by
the end of tonight, I'm guessingthat the Astros are going to be nine
games back. Yeah, and theinteresting part is, you know, staying
northfully and now we're talking about thisthis week like you really can't do anything
about the Mariners, Like if theMariners are gonna win, because what if
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we said all season we're like,well, there's such a big discrepancy in
the AL East and AL Central andthe AL West that there's only gonna be
one playoff team from the AL West. However, looking at it, like
the Askers are the twelfth in twelfthplace in the ALE right now, they're
basically only three and a half gamesback of being seventh best in the AL.
In other words, if the Askersjust start playing better baseball and start
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winning some games, it doesn't reallymatter what the Mariners are gonna do,
because you're gonna start to catch theTwins and the Guardians. In other words,
whoever's gonna be the that third wildcard team or or second half card
team wins like, yeah, you'llyou can catch you play well, you'll
catch them now chasing the Mariners,it starts to get daunting when, like
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you said, when this thing startsto get the nine games, you go,
god, we're never going to closethat gap. We'll forget closing the
gap with the Mariners, focus onjust winning. Are you going to find
yourself back into the wild card hunt? At minimum five and a half games
back right now of the Twins whoare in the third wildcard spot, which
is, you know, not aninsturmentable lead. But the problem is Ray's
Rangers, Jays Tigers who are intown this weekend, and Red Sox all
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ahead of you. So as wekind of have been saying sometimes here and
there, it's just win the gamesin front of you and then good things
will happen. I'm sure that's whatthe team. I'm sure they're not,
you know, just by watching boxscores and scoreboards and saying, oh,
well, what are the Blue Jaysdoing today, Not necessarily to an extent
to where it's distracting them or anythinglike that. They know Joe a spot
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and knows the players, and theseteam know they need to win the games
that are in front of them.You've got winnable ones coming up, starting
with the Tigers, who are justsome fearsome squad, even though you do
have to face Scooble tomorrow, butwin the ones in front of you and
then good things will happen. Butunfortunately, the Marriage just keep winning,
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which also doesn't help because they werethe weakest easily weakest division leader in terms
of wins. Now they have thesame amount of wins as the Brewers.
They still are percentage wise the weakestdivision leader, so you still have that,
but it's starting to look like wildCard might be your best shot at
this point. I just like thisto keep bringing up the stack because it's
such a big discrepancy. The Astroscontinue to have one of the best batting
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averages in all of baseball, theirsecond right now two fifty nine behind the
Padres were batting two sixty two.So they lead the American League in batting
average. But if we're looking atjust run scored, I mean they are
at they are eleventh in all ofbaseball three hundred and six runs scored.
The Yankees are number one at threefifty six. The Yankees have fifty more
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runs scored than them. What's anotherone that's that's big RBIs the Asters have
two hundred ninety four RBIs RUSS.There's nine teams in baseball and have of
over three hundred RBIs like the Esters. It's just amazing to have a batting
average that good, but you justcan't get the runners around. And they've
been a little bit better that asof late. But I feel like every
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night when we look at left onbase, it's always like three for eleven,
two for nine, like it's justlike always yeah, and it has
gotten better, and it's something we'vebrought up on this podcast a number of
times team runners in scoring position,how are you performing? Yeah, you
can hit all these home runs,but if nobody's on base, that's not
really helping you out. And Ithink when we did this, maybe in
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the infancy of the season, theywere twenty six of team runners in scoring
position. Then they got up tolike nineteenth. Right now they're fifteenth,
which is not terrible obviously, Imean it's just right in the middle of
a thirty teen league. Obviously,Yankee your top three right now are good
team four, five. I mean, just everybody up there. It's Cleveland,
then it's Kansas City, then it'sthe Yankees, then it's the Philadelphia
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Phillies. Last year you were second, the year before that you were fourth,
and that's where you normally are.And we've been waiting it to turn
and it has somewhat to some degree, but it's got to continue to happen,
and it's got to happen fast.We need this seven out of nine,
eight out of ten. It doesn'thave to be all at once because
still, yes, they're over ninetygames remaining to be played this season.
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But it feels like we keep sayingthat a lot of baseball left a lot
of baseball left, a lot ofbaseball left. But it gets later and
later and later, and you're notmaking up ground, and you're gonna be
nine games back in all likelihood bythe end of the day. It's tough.
It's tough to watch. Yeah,and the Astros. I was just
look at ESPN just ad their powerrankings, and I'm just gonna ask you,
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point, Plank Cross, where doyou think they put the Astros Astros
in the power rankings? I willsay fourteenth, fifteenth, So okay,
you almost got it. I'm actuallyI'm surprised there's high as fifteen. I
thought they'd be like twenty one.But it says the Astros run prevention has
trended gradually upward over the last month. That's been good. The pitching has
been starting pitching particularly, it's beenmuch better as of late, not Frommer's
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last outing withstanding, But he sayswhile the offense remains above average in the
scoring column, the trend on thatside of the ball has not been as
sharp, especially for team that needsto string together wings wins in a hurry.
The shin brus sideline Kyle Tucker didnot help, but with the MVP
contender nearing a return. This mightbe the last chance for Houston's lineup to
catch fire before hard decisions need tobe made at the trade deadline. We
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have not seen Tucker, Bregman,Altuve in jord On all clicking at the
same time this season. If Houstonis going to salvage anything this season,
that needs to happen very soon.That's what's been so frustrating Ross is it's
like, you know what Bregman had, what a thirteen game hit streak or
something like that, twelve game hitscreteen. I think, yeah, whatever,
it is lost count. But likehe's been producing. But like Altuve
will have two games where he goesthree for four, two for three,
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and then he'll have it, ohfor four, and then Jordan will hit
a home run and then he'll gofor four the next day. It's just
like it. It's the point ismade. How many times have they had
games this year where everybody's clicking?I say this without even looking. When's
the last time they scored double digitruns? Has it been a month?
It feels like yeah, and that'sa good feels like it's been about a
month. That's a good stat I'dlove to go back and based on last
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season like prior seasons, because that'sone I had looked up earlier in the
year. Because yeah, just kindof looking back. You had the game
in college in Mexico City where youscore twelve against Colorado, and then you
had the ten to nine win againstCleveland the first game back at minim made
after that. But yeah, sincethen, you're right. I mean,
they had a couple of nine wingames, one in Detroit and won versus
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Oakland games nine run games. Butthat's kind of it. Oh and then
you're the runow Blanco no hitter.What the fifth game of the season,
you won ten nothing, okay,and then you hat one of those Rangers
games you won ten to five.So four so you said Cleveland the last
one. I'm pulling it up Tuesday, April thirtieth. Yeah, but by
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my quick count, that's four gamesthis season where you've scored ten runs or
more. Like, go back andlook at the last two, three,
four seasons of Astros baseball and tellme how many double digit scoring games.
Yeah, I mean it was aton. It feels like it's a lot
more, and they have had somebad luck and all that type of stuff.
I mean, the one run ballgame stuff. What I think they're
like five and fourteen in one runball games. Hopefully that can turn around.
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It tends to even out, butsome years it doesn't. It just
doesn't happen. You have a betterrun differential than a lot of teams ahead
of you in the standings, butit doesn't matter. We can woe is
me about all this luck and allthis other stuff. They have to perform.
They are going to need to getsome of this luck and some of
the snake bit stuff out of theirsystem. Like jan your Diaz finally wakes
up. Yeah, we've been waitingfor a month straight. Dude takes a
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foul ball, freak accident foul ballstraight off of his hand. Sounds like
Joe Spotta says he's going to bein the lineup tomorrow. So that's good.
But those are the things that youjust cannot afford, especially going down
at the same time as Kyle Tucker. I mean, that's bad luck too.
A foul ball off the ship ofthe exact same spot three days later.
How about breckan Man takes one offthe hand last week and then a
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few days later one off the wristthe same spot and there's nothing you could
do about it. But this ison the heels of Javier and Orkidi being
shut down with Tommy John right JPFrance, god knows where with an injury
that might like, it's funny becauseI get into a stand over field all
the time on this He's like,Oh, they should have they should have
prepared better. At a certain point, you just you can't prepare for this.
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It's and look, they've had they'vehad the good grace of staying mostly
healthy during these World Series runs.You know, they had the one year
where they lost Brantley for I thinkthat was twenty two, right, Yeah,
but really, for the most part, they've been able to stay relatively
healthy. What's so funny, Lookat George bryeror Krea since they left Houston.
Those guys can't stay healthy on there'snew teams. It's just you really
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lucked out in this stretch of greatchampionship run that I don't remember. You're
like this ross, But they've hadthis many either season ending or just debilitating
injuries, and it kind of bringsus back to that old phrase, right,
it's baseball. They're just saying thehits keep on coming. La Carlos
Karre had like five hits the otherday. He's had two ninety with like
an eights for had much to writehome about since he left. He's been
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hurt a lot, and then Ithink he hadn't been good the last couple
of years as far as at theplay, but this year he's got He's
in like two ninety with its overeight hunter and then he's doing well.
Springer, who I know very wellon my fantasy team. It's like he'll
hit a dinger and then all missfive games, like yeah, and what's
going on? That's that's the GeorgeSpringer experience, especially this late in his
career. He's like, what likethirty four? Did you know? And
I was, I know these curiosdeats because I was looking him up earlier.
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Today he's twenty nine years old.Then they feel like he came up
and he's all this twin stuff andalmost tide with the Giants and the Mets,
like it feels like he's been aroundfor like two decades. I guess
over thirty. Yeah, do youknow who else is? Twenty nine?
Maurice who dubon, Oh yeah,I got a caller the other day he
said they need to play this kid, Dubon. I say, kid,
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he's older than Hunter Brown, He'solder than half the team. Yeah,
well they have been playing Dubon andhe's been he's been decent, he's been
good. But I mean it's notlike he's a savior. I got new
this with a caller the other daytoo, because he was like Dubon Dubon.
I said, look, I likeDubon. Should he be playing every
day? Yes, but let's alsolook back at the other night. He
was over two, two outs inthe six, he gets a hit,
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he ends up going one for onefor three with a walk, or one
for four, and it's like thatups his batting average. His batting average
is fine, but like, whatdoes that do for you? That's not
helping you win a game. Hedidn't have a game with two doubles.
Honestly, probably was just somewhat ofa lazy fly ball that fell in the
other one was hard hit. Butyeah, you're not getting a lot of
power out of him. I thinkpeople still in twenty twenty four look a
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little bit too much to batting average. All Right, this guy's hitting three
hundred. He needs to be inthe top four of the lineup. Well,
he doesn't hit with power, right, and that's fine. He has
a spot on this team, especiallywith Kyle Tucker going down, But he
is not the savior of the Astrosoffense. He's not. I'm sorry.
Yeah, and that's why they Youknow, as much as I didn't like
John Singleton batting fourth on Wednesday,I get what they're thinking, Like,
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you don't want single hit or singlehit or single hitter. You want somebody
that's got a little pop, andyou know Singleton could connect. It's just,
you know, elephant in the roomross the Jose of Brady conversation.
I feel like we come back toit all the time. You guys talked
with Joe a spot today on theMatt Thomas Show. What did Joe have
to say about the first base?Yeah, you could, of course find
it sports Talk seven highty dot com. Did Joe a spot to interview?
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Good stuff from Joe. Love thatyou can ask him direct questions and he'll
give you direct answers. Not thateverybody would do that, but anyways,
Joe does. Yeah, he says, you know what, the time is
running out Matt Thomas asking him directly, like what's the timeline of course he
didn't give a certain date or anythinglike that, but those conversations are happening
internally, and we know that there'sprobably some push and pull. I would
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imagine that Joe Aspota isn't a hugefan, and this is not knowing anything
inside, but just imagining and readingthe tea leaves and hearing his comments that
he's not a huge fan, thathe has to have put JOSEA bray you
in his lineup card every single daywhen he just continues to not produce.
But there are others, of course, likely Jim Crain, Jeff Bagwell,
Reggie Jackson, whoever, that wantto this move to work out and give
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it every exhaust every option, giveyourself every chance to where you can have
a weekend where he goes three forfour one game with a home run and
two to five the next game witha couple of doubles, and then just
have this coming out party. Butit just doesn't seem like it's ever coming.
It doesn't seem like there's riding onthe wall to where he's having all
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these hard hit balls. He didhave three on Sunday, but then he
followed it up. Since then,I believe he's like oh for seven.
Yeah, it's I think it's run. It scores. I think every fan
is. I was willing to givebenefit of data. Thought they rushed him
back a little bit too quick,whereas this whole we're gonna sum him down
to Florida and at some point we'llcheck back. Well, then it went
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from he's played a couple Complex Leaguegames too. Suddenly, no, Jeff
Beck will worked on them. Everything'sfine, and he's gonna play one game
or or you know, two gamesat sugar Land. He's gonna he joined
the team. And it's like,wait a minute, that seems way too
expedited. I thought it was gonnabe he spends a week in Corpus,
he spends a week or two insugar Land. We see he crushes a
couple bombs. We see the timingsback and he's ready to go. But
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I almost wonder if it was somekind of like backdoor deal with his agent,
like, look, he'll go downto Florida, but by this date
he needs to be back in thebigs because possible. I mean, he
missed about a month of time.I'll go look at his game logs.
I think it was a month inbetween he came back. His last game
was April twenty eighth, and thenhe came back May twenty seventh, so
that there a month. But thattells me they must have said, like,
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by a month gets a month.Now, whatever you want to do
with him in that month, ifyou want to keep him in West Palm
for four weeks, or if youwant to send him there for two weeks
and then he's a week in Corpus. However, but like, I just
think they mismanaged that a little bit. I would have like, the dude
didn't get a hit in sugar lane, Rossick, how do you look at
that? Go he's ready? Iget like, oh he crushed that when
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it was right at the center fieldor whatever. I think it's because I
think it's you also want to getthis done with. I think that's one
of the reasons why they did bringhim back. You don't want to have
these games in July or August whereyou're trying you want to run through him.
By June, I'm gonna imagine bythe end of this month, if
you're still seeing nothing, then heis gone. Then it's time. You're
time to jaw July, August,September, nutcutting time, you're hopefully making
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a deal, whether it's for PeeAlonso or whoever, and trying to get
somebody who can help you out atfirst base, and then really make a
go at this thing. And thenit's it's now or never time. June
thirteenth. While it does, doesit feel good? You're continuing to lose
ground. It's not extreme now ornever time, but we're getting close.
Yeah, he's five for five forthirty two this month. That's a one
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to fifty six average. He's hitone sixty seven since coming back. That's
that's smoking hot for him. Anon base or an ops this month or
loss of five point fifty seven,that's not good, but better than he
was. Yeah, he's gone fromone of the worst players in the history
of Major League baseball to just oneof the worst players in Major League baseball.
So that's an improvement. So let'stalk realistic here. So if they
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do get to a breaking point andthey say we're gonna buy him out and
he's just gonna we're gonna part ways, okay, but your backup option,
it can't be John Singleton at firstthe rest of the year. There's gotta
be something else. I think theyneed to make a trade. They need
to make a trade, preferably forsomebody who can play first and the outfield.
So this is where I bring inthree options. You mentioned one,
Chandler Room pulling it out in hisarticle at The Athletic. There was Pete
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Alonzo with the nets. Peter Lonsois not having the best season. He's
batt in two thirty five right now. The average is way down. It's
not much. He has closed eighthundred, yes, and he's got fourteen
homes. It's better once you're getting. It's better than Singleton, hands down,
polar Bear, polar Bear. Theother one I like is vlad Guerrero
Junior in Toronto. He's bout inlike two eighty, he said, but
his power numbers have come down.He's only got seven home runs on the
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season. So that one's not kiddingGladito. There's just no way. And
then there's Paul Goldschmidt in Saint Louisand his batting average is not very great.
I want to say he's like twotwenty or something. Vladito's under team
control for another year. I'm asI pull it up from what I read
was he's they could they could tradehim and be done with him. No,
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he's not a rental. He's he'sthis says early he's he's going to
be arbitration this year and next.So he's on an arbitration deal maybe nineteen
million. All right, that's he'she's making nineteen and the lines is making
twenty million. So you you're goingto take on part of that money.
And here's the thing, your fouryou're four million from the Did they give
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him a deal? This is weirdbecause it says arbitration eligible next year,
signed through this year? Yeah.I think from what two articles I read
was he's he can walk after thisyear. But regardless, the asker is
a four million away from the secondluxury tax. Yes, Jim Crane would
like to avoid that at all costs. So is there a way to take
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Peter Lonzo making twenty million? Itwould be pro rated. So we're about
midway through the season, so itwould be what ten million, oh to
him the rest of the year.Is there a way to get that under
four from you? You'd have toget back to Presley. Nobody would be
interested in Mantero and you could sendcash. For example, the Mets sent
you cash with Justin Verlander, right, but Verlander's money, Uh, it
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still counts. His whole contract stillcounts against the threshold. So you could
tell them, I guess could youtell the Mets, hey, don't send
us some of that Verlander cash andyou cover yeah, and then you cover
Alonzo. But you also would haveto shed some payroll. Whether you have
to be Pressley, you'd have tobe, Montero would have to be.
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They're not gonna want either of thoseguys. They're gonna want. They're gonna
want to problem. It's gonna startwith low Braffito. They're gonna send them
jose Bray you and say we'll giveyou fifty million cash because against the tax
threshold, you'd have to do someUh you're creatroll Olympics to where you're jumping
over and through hoops to where youtake on jose A. Bray, you
I take on Pee Alonzo. Butalso don't send us this cash you're sending
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us for Verlander, and that waywe stay under the threshold. Or something
like that happened. I don't know. This is where you need to call
Darryl Morey. Yeah, Darryl,we need you to work the CBA for
us, because can we get hisbird rights over here. I don't know
what's the apron looking like that's whatyou need? Maybe you call Nickosario,
Nick, what do you do?Guys doing it with the Texans manipulating cap
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and moving stuff around, So Ihave no idea. Yeah, but that's
the kind of mess that you're in. And then I think I think Jim
Crane could take it on the chinand do it for one year, because
he's already into one threshold, goingto the second threshold. If, if,
and only if you think this teamis worth and that's a year.
They're the rom article you're referencing.It said three important questions. The last
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one is is this team worth goingall in for? Right? Well?
And so far they're showing that they'renot. And Jim Crane's quote though,
was every as long as I'm here, this team will be a contender,
you know what I mean? So, and honestly he could stand patent go.
I think if if healthy and theseguys hit, we are contenders.
Still. That's the other thing too, It's like, if you're not and
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Tucker and Altove want to go ona heater and just start crushing, they
can to be cool, they'd startwinning games, and they would be a
contender. The lineup is still formidableif all healthy, Like you said,
Tuck, but Tucker and you andher have been out of it. But
then you add in Bregman, who'sbeen hitting better. You're talking about Altuve
than you're talking about yourd On ofcourse. I mean, that's that's a
really good one through five right there. Yeah, it's an excellent one through
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five, and it just hasn't beenput together this year. Just to go
back to the tax thing, asChandler sites doing, so, if Houston's
less than four million away from thatnext tax threshold was just two hundred and
fifty seven million, if they tookon more payroll, it would deliver at
least a twelve percent surcharge on thetwenty percent tax Jim Crane is already paying,
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so they're playing surge prices. Yeah, so basically it'd be like,
this would be like going to arestaurant with a large group and you tip
he's getting sir, we already addedthe tip, and you tipped on top
of that that You're like, areyou kidding me? You know, that's
that's basically what you be doing.Jim Crane can afford it, and it
would be probably for one year therewould be over the this threshold. There
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are some things we have to saythough, like Brain has been tremendous as
an owner since he's taken over theAstros. Yes, being he's not been
cheap, he's been frugal at timesor smart as I would say he would
smart decisions to contract. And yeah, Steve Cohen has been going way over
the tax thresholds and that doesn't obviouslywin. You got to do it the
right way. And for argument's sake, this is the highest payroll the Astros
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have ever had ever, so youknow when people go, we spent more,
like, you can't be mad ifhe decides now we drew a line
here past the second tax certually ifit's not going to get you a championship,
which is Jim what Jim Crane's allabout, And you still have to
think about next year, in thefuture and all that time because then you
get into repeater tax stuff, right, you have to pay even more in
tax when you pay for another year. But what this has created Ross is
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we've got a big question market firstbase and the future there at least bringing
you in an Alonso or a Goldschmidtat least if that guy performs, well,
okay, you know what, we'regoing to resign you and you're back
next year. And you could probablyget them on at this point in their
careers somewhat do. Coldfield's thirty sixyears old and he's a Houston native,
right, so he'd probably be morehe'd probably be more friendly to stay in
(25:07):
Houston. But anyway, like becauseif you don't, like, let's just
say they roll with a break likethey cut a bray you they're not They
can't play singleton every day, likeyou're gonna have to make a decision,
Joey Lopraffido, brother, get yourglove on your plane. Some first base
that's gonna have to happen. Theyclearly don't trust him now because there was
a situation where he could have playedfirst over the weekend and they put Dubond
there and then low Berfito and left. Yeah, and you know it's and
(25:32):
then okay, we can get bythis year, but then what's the plane
next year? You know what Imean, Like, what's the future first
base for the Astros? And thenon top of it, compounded, if
Alex Bregman walks which we believe they'reprobably gonna let him. What's the answer
third base? How's our guy,Zach Dezenzo doing these days? He's back
from his injury. Yeah, he'she's down there, but he's on his
way. You know. It's funny. I had a call the other day
said, let's just bring up oversthat third. I'm like, dude,
(25:55):
it's David Hensley. Like David Hensley'sbeen here, done that, Like we
we already know what he is.So yeah, it's it's sit in three
thirty three, Dozenzo in twelve,AB's four yea, no home runs.
I mean, he's probably the futureif he keeps progressing. But so,
he wasn't on the he wasn't onmlb dot COM's top hundred, he wasn't
on Baseball America's top one hundred,but Baseball Prospectives had him number forty.
(26:18):
Okay, they really like his power, So he's one of the stop me.
If you've heard this before, it'sa prospect who once he gets a
hold of it, he goes along way. But he does have a
lot of swing and miss. Wellthat's where I told everybody too. Yeah,
I'm looking at MLB's latest prospect rankings. They do have Desenzo as he
asked for his fourth best prospect.It's funny that, yeah, Prospectives had
(26:38):
him forty in baseball, like atop fifty guy. I guess they've taken
them off this list. But atthe start of the year, like Spencer
Arraghetti was like, I want tosay, six or seventh on this list,
and low Perffito was like eighth orninth. So it was funny for
all the pressure people put on thoseguys that you know, I heard somebody
say, yeah, you know,low Perfito their top prospect. He's not
their top prospect. He's the highestor closest to the big leagues available,
(27:02):
not like he's highly thought of,Like yeah he's not. He's freaking you
know, Gunner Henderson or Elie dela Cruz or whoever else in the last
couple of years before well and thenlist this phenom naylst Jacob Melton as their
best prospect. But if you golook at the top one hundred ross,
they're not even none of the astrosprospects or even in that no. So
that just kind of tells you wherethis day of the farm system is and
really taking us all back to thewhole conversation was when they brought in Dana
(27:25):
Brown was to build back the farmsystem. So in closing, where are
you on this whole structure of whoanswers to who here when it comes to
making trades, lineup decisions and everythingelse. What's Jeff Luno doing? We
get him back? No, it'sa mess right now running out Mexican.
How much of it is Jim Crane, How much of it is Jeff Bagwell,
Reggie Jackson, Dana Brown, JoeA. Spada. Yeah, those
(27:48):
are the questions that we don't reallynecessarily have the concrete answers to. But
I do think it is Jim andJeff pushing, not necessarily pushing Jose Brady.
I think they know it doesn't lookgood. Yeah, but they're giving
him every chance. How much morehe gets we'll see. And then Joe
Spatta has to kind of deal withthe repercussions, and unfortunately he's the one
that speaks to the media every singlenight. Dana doesn't speak to the media
(28:11):
every day, even though he doesweekly. Jim Crane rarely speaks to the
media, and Jeff Bagwell doesn't haveto at all. So Unfortunately, Joe
is the one that has to bearthe brunt of this Well and everybody in
that group, the one who's earnedthe most trust is Crane. Crane is
everything, He's the moves he's made, he's earned at least trust. Well,
like Dana Brown. Has he earnedour trust yet? Joe spot As
certainly is not. I mean,Dana Brown's been fine, Taylor Scott's been
(28:32):
very good. Jeff Bagwell, dude, if I need to figure out how
to put a ball in the outfield, yes, but not as a I
think it's fair though, to questionthe direction the franchise has gone with Jim
Crane since the dismissal of Jeff Luno. That's fair to go away to James
Click, who I liked, andyou look at a lot of his moves
and what he's made so far,they're bearing fruit still to this day,
and to dismiss him after winning aWorld Series championship, to go with Dana
(28:55):
Brown and then go with this braintrust of Jeff Bagwell and Reggie Jackson in
turning the ship away from what broughtyou here in analytics and numbers, I
do question that, and I don't. I don't think it's the right direction.
Yeah, but we'll see. Andit's Jeff wu Know's wife said,
you know, on Twitter, shouldhave never fired him. And look a
lot of fans stand by that,and I still stand by I think Rob
(29:18):
Manford's backdoor deal with Jim Crane wasif you fired the GM and the manager
will let you keep the World Seriesand won't won't take that away. I
still believe that. But because inotherwise, like the Red Sox stood by
Korra, They're like, oh,he's suspended for the year, Okay,
yeah, he'll come back. Likethey didn't have a problem with it when
Kansas got busted, Kansas basketball gotbusted for cheating, you know what,
(29:38):
they said, Bill selfs, sodamn good, we'll let him serve us
bench come right back. I stillunderstand though, where Jim Crane, I
think maybe he felt betrayed in away, he felt like the rug was
pulled under him and he wanted tohit the resh. No stands by he
was not aware of the CHAM ofcourse, do you think he knew.
I think he knew. I thinkit was one of those all right,
you guys are doing this, Idon't want to know anything about it.
(29:59):
Yeah, And my hands are outof this. My name is pault Is
between y'all because you think he knewbut just didn't want he wasn't in.
You and I were at the ballparkfor a lot of those games. I
he never heard going back and rewatchingthe tapes like here in the banging,
I'm like, I thought that wasjust somebody banging in the stands. That's
true as well, But you alsowere in the ballpark, and you know
this. Jeff Luno had his fingerprintson every part of the organization, pr
(30:23):
from like ushers, like every littlething going on him around way more than
you knew. He had people thatreported to him, he fired like remember
it wasn't there like athletic trainers orlike the you know, the guy who
washes the jockstraps, Like every littlecorner of that organization, Jeff Luno had
(30:45):
his fingers on. So that tome is what tells me he he knew
about it, was he involved?Did he proliferate it? I don't think
so, but I think he knew. Still the greatest finder of talent ever.
But of course though so he willgo down to that that I want
him here absolutely, that is goingto do for this edition of the Crawford
Box Cast. Remember for you guysto get your hands let some Crawford Bok
(31:06):
this weekend as you get ready,Hey aj Hinch speaking of blaster from pass
in town, askers take two outof three against the Tigers, hopefully Scooball
one of the best pitchers in allof baseball. By the way, can
he get a blister tonight or somethingthat's a major ski just like a hanging
thumbnail that he can't pitch tonight buthe comes back next to a one point
nine era Well, Astro's pitching staffsneeds to stay healthy and uh look he
(31:29):
gets out of hand. I'll bedown in those Crawford box this weekend at
Minute Made Park. But make sureyou guys get you Crawford bock. It
is a home run every time withthe Crawford from Carbok browing. And this
has been another edition of the CrawfordBox Casts presented by Carbox
Astros fans, cheers, Wacky Lucky, Welcome to the Crawford box Casts.
Proud lead Ford for you by CrawfordBach from Carmack Brewy. You're getting bear.
Oh my goodness. The Crawford boxCast starts now Here we go.
(00:30):
Here's Chris Gordy and Ross via Real. It is an all new addition of
the Crawford box Cast, presented bycarboch Brewing, Chris Gordy and Ross Viriel
talking all things Astros at least oncea week. Here for you on the
box cast, and a reminder,get your hands on some Crawford Bach while
you're watching Astros games. It's ahome run every time, as they say,
(00:51):
even if the Astros aren't hitting ahome run every time. And man,
it's been a it's been an upand down roller coaster season for the
Astros, more bad than good attimes. But here we are. Ross
coming off of a stretch where theytook two out of three against the Cardinals,
they took to two out of threeagainst the Angels, had every opportunity
to take two out of three againstthe Giants, with Rafael Montero blowing the
(01:15):
tenth inning three to one lead onMonday night, they won Game two the
series, and then they lose Gamethree because Fromber was not very good.
But here we are, an offday before they start a home series against
the Tigers, and it's so funnyhow different what a difference one game could
make. But could you imagine hadthey hung on to win that game Monday,
we'd be looking at back saying they'vewon three straight series. They're winning
(01:38):
more than they're losing right now.But as I heard somebody describe it earlier
today, Ross, it's almost likethey're doggy paddling, where you're like you're
in this big pool. Yes you'retrying to get to the end, but
instead of like long strokes, you'rejust doggy paddling and you're barely moving and
well sometimes you're turning around and goingbackwards. Well, I think they're actually
(01:59):
speaking of mentioning the home runs.They're like fourth and Baseball on home runs,
it's like nobody's ever on base forthem. Position. Yeah, run
scored is where they're there's a prettybig descriptive to having some issues. But
it just continues to feel this way. And I think last week where we
are, I was talking about mypessimism was getting lower, and I think
(02:21):
this week I'm somewhat in the samespot. And it's not even necessarily like,
Okay, the schedule is, aswe say, softening up. But
the San Francisco Giants weren't a verygood team. You couldn't win that series.
The Angels, you probably should haveswept them. You suffered back to
back walkoffs at some point. Andthe thing is the Seattle Mariners keep on
winning. And that's the issue towhere as we're talking right now, you're
(02:45):
eight and a half games back ofthe Seattle Mariners. You are seven games
below five hundred. They are tengames over five hundred. That is a
lot of ground to have to makeup. There's still, of course,
a lot of time in the season. We talk about that, but the
fact that you really can't afford tosuffer injuries on the starting rotation. You
really can't with you on Yourdas andKyle Tucker going down even for a couple
(03:07):
of days we've seen, you can'tafford to take those types of hits in
the in the lineup as well towhere you're you're putting Jake Myers, who
I love, at the cleanup spot. You're putting John Singleton, who I
like at the at the cleanup spotas well, but at those guys aren't
clean up hitters. You just don'thave this depth around the team. You
(03:28):
already have so little margin for errorbecause of where you are in the standings,
and now it's even worse so becausewe continue to get later, late
and later into the season. Andyou got a Seano Mariners team that one
four straight over the Chicago White Soxand yeah, you're gonna play the White
Sox two as well, but they'renot dropping games. You are. I'm
sorry they get the White Sox againtoday. They've won four straight overall,
(03:49):
and that's probably gonna be a win. So we're talking about a five game
winning streak where you just continue tounfortunately spin your wheels. And then by
the end of tonight, I'm guessingthat the Astros are going to be nine
games back. Yeah, and theinteresting part is, you know, staying
northfully and now we're talking about thisthis week like you really can't do anything
about the Mariners, Like if theMariners are gonna win, because what if
(04:10):
we said all season we're like,well, there's such a big discrepancy in
the AL East and AL Central andthe AL West that there's only gonna be
one playoff team from the AL West. However, looking at it, like
the Askers are the twelfth in twelfthplace in the ALE right now, they're
basically only three and a half gamesback of being seventh best in the AL.
In other words, if the Askersjust start playing better baseball and start
(04:32):
winning some games, it doesn't reallymatter what the Mariners are gonna do,
because you're gonna start to catch theTwins and the Guardians. In other words,
whoever's gonna be the that third wildcard team or or second half card
team wins like, yeah, you'llyou can catch you play well, you'll
catch them now chasing the Mariners,it starts to get daunting when, like
(04:53):
you said, when this thing startsto get the nine games, you go,
god, we're never going to closethat gap. We'll forget closing the
gap with the Mariners, focus onjust winning. Are you going to find
yourself back into the wild card hunt? At minimum five and a half games
back right now of the Twins whoare in the third wildcard spot, which
is, you know, not aninsturmentable lead. But the problem is Ray's
Rangers, Jays Tigers who are intown this weekend, and Red Sox all
(05:15):
ahead of you. So as wekind of have been saying sometimes here and
there, it's just win the gamesin front of you and then good things
will happen. I'm sure that's whatthe team. I'm sure they're not,
you know, just by watching boxscores and scoreboards and saying, oh,
well, what are the Blue Jaysdoing today, Not necessarily to an extent
to where it's distracting them or anythinglike that. They know Joe a spot
(05:36):
and knows the players, and theseteam know they need to win the games
that are in front of them.You've got winnable ones coming up, starting
with the Tigers, who are justsome fearsome squad, even though you do
have to face Scooble tomorrow, butwin the ones in front of you and
then good things will happen. Butunfortunately, the Marriage just keep winning,
(05:56):
which also doesn't help because they werethe weakest easily weakest division leader in terms
of wins. Now they have thesame amount of wins as the Brewers.
They still are percentage wise the weakestdivision leader, so you still have that,
but it's starting to look like wildCard might be your best shot at
this point. I just like thisto keep bringing up the stack because it's
such a big discrepancy. The Astroscontinue to have one of the best batting
(06:17):
averages in all of baseball, theirsecond right now two fifty nine behind the
Padres were batting two sixty two.So they lead the American League in batting
average. But if we're looking atjust run scored, I mean they are
at they are eleventh in all ofbaseball three hundred and six runs scored.
The Yankees are number one at threefifty six. The Yankees have fifty more
(06:39):
runs scored than them. What's anotherone that's that's big RBIs the Asters have
two hundred ninety four RBIs RUSS.There's nine teams in baseball and have of
over three hundred RBIs like the Esters. It's just amazing to have a batting
average that good, but you justcan't get the runners around. And they've
been a little bit better that asof late. But I feel like every
(07:00):
night when we look at left onbase, it's always like three for eleven,
two for nine, like it's justlike always yeah, and it has
gotten better, and it's something we'vebrought up on this podcast a number of
times team runners in scoring position,how are you performing? Yeah, you
can hit all these home runs,but if nobody's on base, that's not
really helping you out. And Ithink when we did this, maybe in
(07:23):
the infancy of the season, theywere twenty six of team runners in scoring
position. Then they got up tolike nineteenth. Right now they're fifteenth,
which is not terrible obviously, Imean it's just right in the middle of
a thirty teen league. Obviously,Yankee your top three right now are good
team four, five. I mean, just everybody up there. It's Cleveland,
then it's Kansas City, then it'sthe Yankees, then it's the Philadelphia
(07:45):
Phillies. Last year you were second, the year before that you were fourth,
and that's where you normally are.And we've been waiting it to turn
and it has somewhat to some degree, but it's got to continue to happen,
and it's got to happen fast.We need this seven out of nine,
eight out of ten. It doesn'thave to be all at once because
still, yes, they're over ninetygames remaining to be played this season.
(08:05):
But it feels like we keep sayingthat a lot of baseball left a lot
of baseball left, a lot ofbaseball left. But it gets later and
later and later, and you're notmaking up ground, and you're gonna be
nine games back in all likelihood bythe end of the day. It's tough.
It's tough to watch. Yeah,and the Astros. I was just
look at ESPN just ad their powerrankings, and I'm just gonna ask you,
(08:26):
point, Plank Cross, where doyou think they put the Astros Astros
in the power rankings? I willsay fourteenth, fifteenth, So okay,
you almost got it. I'm actuallyI'm surprised there's high as fifteen. I
thought they'd be like twenty one.But it says the Astros run prevention has
trended gradually upward over the last month. That's been good. The pitching has
been starting pitching particularly, it's beenmuch better as of late, not Frommer's
(08:52):
last outing withstanding, But he sayswhile the offense remains above average in the
scoring column, the trend on thatside of the ball has not been as
sharp, especially for team that needsto string together wings wins in a hurry.
The shin brus sideline Kyle Tucker didnot help, but with the MVP
contender nearing a return. This mightbe the last chance for Houston's lineup to
catch fire before hard decisions need tobe made at the trade deadline. We
(09:13):
have not seen Tucker, Bregman,Altuve in jord On all clicking at the
same time this season. If Houstonis going to salvage anything this season,
that needs to happen very soon.That's what's been so frustrating Ross is it's
like, you know what Bregman had, what a thirteen game hit streak or
something like that, twelve game hitscreteen. I think, yeah, whatever,
it is lost count. But likehe's been producing. But like Altuve
will have two games where he goesthree for four, two for three,
(09:37):
and then he'll have it, ohfor four, and then Jordan will hit
a home run and then he'll gofor four the next day. It's just
like it. It's the point ismade. How many times have they had
games this year where everybody's clicking?I say this without even looking. When's
the last time they scored double digitruns? Has it been a month?
It feels like yeah, and that'sa good feels like it's been about a
month. That's a good stat I'dlove to go back and based on last
(10:01):
season like prior seasons, because that'sone I had looked up earlier in the
year. Because yeah, just kindof looking back. You had the game
in college in Mexico City where youscore twelve against Colorado, and then you
had the ten to nine win againstCleveland the first game back at minim made
after that. But yeah, sincethen, you're right. I mean,
they had a couple of nine wingames, one in Detroit and won versus
(10:22):
Oakland games nine run games. Butthat's kind of it. Oh and then
you're the runow Blanco no hitter.What the fifth game of the season,
you won ten nothing, okay,and then you hat one of those Rangers
games you won ten to five.So four so you said Cleveland the last
one. I'm pulling it up Tuesday, April thirtieth. Yeah, but by
(10:45):
my quick count, that's four gamesthis season where you've scored ten runs or
more. Like, go back andlook at the last two, three,
four seasons of Astros baseball and tellme how many double digit scoring games.
Yeah, I mean it was aton. It feels like it's a lot
more, and they have had somebad luck and all that type of stuff.
I mean, the one run ballgame stuff. What I think they're
like five and fourteen in one runball games. Hopefully that can turn around.
(11:07):
It tends to even out, butsome years it doesn't. It just
doesn't happen. You have a betterrun differential than a lot of teams ahead
of you in the standings, butit doesn't matter. We can woe is
me about all this luck and allthis other stuff. They have to perform.
They are going to need to getsome of this luck and some of
the snake bit stuff out of theirsystem. Like jan your Diaz finally wakes
up. Yeah, we've been waitingfor a month straight. Dude takes a
(11:28):
foul ball, freak accident foul ballstraight off of his hand. Sounds like
Joe Spotta says he's going to bein the lineup tomorrow. So that's good.
But those are the things that youjust cannot afford, especially going down
at the same time as Kyle Tucker. I mean, that's bad luck too.
A foul ball off the ship ofthe exact same spot three days later.
How about breckan Man takes one offthe hand last week and then a
(11:48):
few days later one off the wristthe same spot and there's nothing you could
do about it. But this ison the heels of Javier and Orkidi being
shut down with Tommy John right JPFrance, god knows where with an injury
that might like, it's funny becauseI get into a stand over field all
the time on this He's like,Oh, they should have they should have
prepared better. At a certain point, you just you can't prepare for this.
(12:09):
It's and look, they've had they'vehad the good grace of staying mostly
healthy during these World Series runs.You know, they had the one year
where they lost Brantley for I thinkthat was twenty two, right, Yeah,
but really, for the most part, they've been able to stay relatively
healthy. What's so funny, Lookat George bryeror Krea since they left Houston.
Those guys can't stay healthy on there'snew teams. It's just you really
(12:31):
lucked out in this stretch of greatchampionship run that I don't remember. You're
like this ross, But they've hadthis many either season ending or just debilitating
injuries, and it kind of bringsus back to that old phrase, right,
it's baseball. They're just saying thehits keep on coming. La Carlos
Karre had like five hits the otherday. He's had two ninety with like
an eights for had much to writehome about since he left. He's been
(12:54):
hurt a lot, and then Ithink he hadn't been good the last couple
of years as far as at theplay, but this year he's got He's
in like two ninety with its overeight hunter and then he's doing well.
Springer, who I know very wellon my fantasy team. It's like he'll
hit a dinger and then all missfive games, like yeah, and what's
going on? That's that's the GeorgeSpringer experience, especially this late in his
career. He's like, what likethirty four? Did you know? And
I was, I know these curiosdeats because I was looking him up earlier.
(13:16):
Today he's twenty nine years old.Then they feel like he came up
and he's all this twin stuff andalmost tide with the Giants and the Mets,
like it feels like he's been aroundfor like two decades. I guess
over thirty. Yeah, do youknow who else is? Twenty nine?
Maurice who dubon, Oh yeah,I got a caller the other day he
said they need to play this kid, Dubon. I say, kid,
(13:37):
he's older than Hunter Brown, He'solder than half the team. Yeah,
well they have been playing Dubon andhe's been he's been decent, he's been
good. But I mean it's notlike he's a savior. I got new
this with a caller the other daytoo, because he was like Dubon Dubon.
I said, look, I likeDubon. Should he be playing every
day? Yes, but let's alsolook back at the other night. He
was over two, two outs inthe six, he gets a hit,
(14:00):
he ends up going one for onefor three with a walk, or one
for four, and it's like thatups his batting average. His batting average
is fine, but like, whatdoes that do for you? That's not
helping you win a game. Hedidn't have a game with two doubles.
Honestly, probably was just somewhat ofa lazy fly ball that fell in the
other one was hard hit. Butyeah, you're not getting a lot of
power out of him. I thinkpeople still in twenty twenty four look a
(14:22):
little bit too much to batting average. All Right, this guy's hitting three
hundred. He needs to be inthe top four of the lineup. Well,
he doesn't hit with power, right, and that's fine. He has
a spot on this team, especiallywith Kyle Tucker going down, But he
is not the savior of the Astrosoffense. He's not. I'm sorry.
Yeah, and that's why they Youknow, as much as I didn't like
John Singleton batting fourth on Wednesday,I get what they're thinking, Like,
(14:43):
you don't want single hit or singlehit or single hitter. You want somebody
that's got a little pop, andyou know Singleton could connect. It's just,
you know, elephant in the roomross the Jose of Brady conversation.
I feel like we come back toit all the time. You guys talked
with Joe a spot today on theMatt Thomas Show. What did Joe have
to say about the first base?Yeah, you could, of course find
it sports Talk seven highty dot com. Did Joe a spot to interview?
(15:07):
Good stuff from Joe. Love thatyou can ask him direct questions and he'll
give you direct answers. Not thateverybody would do that, but anyways,
Joe does. Yeah, he says, you know what, the time is
running out Matt Thomas asking him directly, like what's the timeline of course he
didn't give a certain date or anythinglike that, but those conversations are happening
internally, and we know that there'sprobably some push and pull. I would
(15:30):
imagine that Joe Aspota isn't a hugefan, and this is not knowing anything
inside, but just imagining and readingthe tea leaves and hearing his comments that
he's not a huge fan, thathe has to have put JOSEA bray you
in his lineup card every single daywhen he just continues to not produce.
But there are others, of course, likely Jim Crain, Jeff Bagwell,
Reggie Jackson, whoever, that wantto this move to work out and give
(15:50):
it every exhaust every option, giveyourself every chance to where you can have
a weekend where he goes three forfour one game with a home run and
two to five the next game witha couple of doubles, and then just
have this coming out party. Butit just doesn't seem like it's ever coming.
It doesn't seem like there's riding onthe wall to where he's having all
(16:12):
these hard hit balls. He didhave three on Sunday, but then he
followed it up. Since then,I believe he's like oh for seven.
Yeah, it's I think it's run. It scores. I think every fan
is. I was willing to givebenefit of data. Thought they rushed him
back a little bit too quick,whereas this whole we're gonna sum him down
to Florida and at some point we'llcheck back. Well, then it went
(16:32):
from he's played a couple Complex Leaguegames too. Suddenly, no, Jeff
Beck will worked on them. Everything'sfine, and he's gonna play one game
or or you know, two gamesat sugar Land. He's gonna he joined
the team. And it's like,wait a minute, that seems way too
expedited. I thought it was gonnabe he spends a week in Corpus,
he spends a week or two insugar Land. We see he crushes a
couple bombs. We see the timingsback and he's ready to go. But
(16:55):
I almost wonder if it was somekind of like backdoor deal with his agent,
like, look, he'll go downto Florida, but by this date
he needs to be back in thebigs because possible. I mean, he
missed about a month of time.I'll go look at his game logs.
I think it was a month inbetween he came back. His last game
was April twenty eighth, and thenhe came back May twenty seventh, so
that there a month. But thattells me they must have said, like,
(17:15):
by a month gets a month.Now, whatever you want to do
with him in that month, ifyou want to keep him in West Palm
for four weeks, or if youwant to send him there for two weeks
and then he's a week in Corpus. However, but like, I just
think they mismanaged that a little bit. I would have like, the dude
didn't get a hit in sugar lane, Rossick, how do you look at
that? Go he's ready? Iget like, oh he crushed that when
(17:37):
it was right at the center fieldor whatever. I think it's because I
think it's you also want to getthis done with. I think that's one
of the reasons why they did bringhim back. You don't want to have
these games in July or August whereyou're trying you want to run through him.
By June, I'm gonna imagine bythe end of this month, if
you're still seeing nothing, then heis gone. Then it's time. You're
time to jaw July, August,September, nutcutting time, you're hopefully making
(18:00):
a deal, whether it's for PeeAlonso or whoever, and trying to get
somebody who can help you out atfirst base, and then really make a
go at this thing. And thenit's it's now or never time. June
thirteenth. While it does, doesit feel good? You're continuing to lose
ground. It's not extreme now ornever time, but we're getting close.
Yeah, he's five for five forthirty two this month. That's a one
(18:22):
to fifty six average. He's hitone sixty seven since coming back. That's
that's smoking hot for him. Anon base or an ops this month or
loss of five point fifty seven,that's not good, but better than he
was. Yeah, he's gone fromone of the worst players in the history
of Major League baseball to just oneof the worst players in Major League baseball.
So that's an improvement. So let'stalk realistic here. So if they
(18:45):
do get to a breaking point andthey say we're gonna buy him out and
he's just gonna we're gonna part ways, okay, but your backup option,
it can't be John Singleton at firstthe rest of the year. There's gotta
be something else. I think theyneed to make a trade. They need
to make a trade, preferably forsomebody who can play first and the outfield.
So this is where I bring inthree options. You mentioned one,
Chandler Room pulling it out in hisarticle at The Athletic. There was Pete
(19:06):
Alonzo with the nets. Peter Lonsois not having the best season. He's
batt in two thirty five right now. The average is way down. It's
not much. He has closed eighthundred, yes, and he's got fourteen
homes. It's better once you're getting. It's better than Singleton, hands down,
polar Bear, polar Bear. Theother one I like is vlad Guerrero
Junior in Toronto. He's bout inlike two eighty, he said, but
his power numbers have come down.He's only got seven home runs on the
(19:30):
season. So that one's not kiddingGladito. There's just no way. And
then there's Paul Goldschmidt in Saint Louisand his batting average is not very great.
I want to say he's like twotwenty or something. Vladito's under team
control for another year. I'm asI pull it up from what I read
was he's they could they could tradehim and be done with him. No,
(19:51):
he's not a rental. He's he'sthis says early he's he's going to
be arbitration this year and next.So he's on an arbitration deal maybe nineteen
million. All right, that's he'she's making nineteen and the lines is making
twenty million. So you you're goingto take on part of that money.
And here's the thing, your fouryou're four million from the Did they give
(20:11):
him a deal? This is weirdbecause it says arbitration eligible next year,
signed through this year? Yeah.I think from what two articles I read
was he's he can walk after thisyear. But regardless, the asker is
a four million away from the secondluxury tax. Yes, Jim Crane would
like to avoid that at all costs. So is there a way to take
(20:33):
Peter Lonzo making twenty million? Itwould be pro rated. So we're about
midway through the season, so itwould be what ten million, oh to
him the rest of the year.Is there a way to get that under
four from you? You'd have toget back to Presley. Nobody would be
interested in Mantero and you could sendcash. For example, the Mets sent
you cash with Justin Verlander, right, but Verlander's money, Uh, it
(21:00):
still counts. His whole contract stillcounts against the threshold. So you could
tell them, I guess could youtell the Mets, hey, don't send
us some of that Verlander cash andyou cover yeah, and then you cover
Alonzo. But you also would haveto shed some payroll. Whether you have
to be Pressley, you'd have tobe, Montero would have to be.
(21:22):
They're not gonna want either of thoseguys. They're gonna want. They're gonna
want to problem. It's gonna startwith low Braffito. They're gonna send them
jose Bray you and say we'll giveyou fifty million cash because against the tax
threshold, you'd have to do someUh you're creatroll Olympics to where you're jumping
over and through hoops to where youtake on jose A. Bray, you
I take on Pee Alonzo. Butalso don't send us this cash you're sending
(21:45):
us for Verlander, and that waywe stay under the threshold. Or something
like that happened. I don't know. This is where you need to call
Darryl Morey. Yeah, Darryl,we need you to work the CBA for
us, because can we get hisbird rights over here. I don't know
what's the apron looking like that's whatyou need? Maybe you call Nickosario,
Nick, what do you do?Guys doing it with the Texans manipulating cap
(22:07):
and moving stuff around, So Ihave no idea. Yeah, but that's
the kind of mess that you're in. And then I think I think Jim
Crane could take it on the chinand do it for one year, because
he's already into one threshold, goingto the second threshold. If, if,
and only if you think this teamis worth and that's a year.
They're the rom article you're referencing.It said three important questions. The last
(22:29):
one is is this team worth goingall in for? Right? Well?
And so far they're showing that they'renot. And Jim Crane's quote though,
was every as long as I'm here, this team will be a contender,
you know what I mean? So, and honestly he could stand patent go.
I think if if healthy and theseguys hit, we are contenders.
Still. That's the other thing too, It's like, if you're not and
(22:51):
Tucker and Altove want to go ona heater and just start crushing, they
can to be cool, they'd startwinning games, and they would be a
contender. The lineup is still formidableif all healthy, Like you said,
Tuck, but Tucker and you andher have been out of it. But
then you add in Bregman, who'sbeen hitting better. You're talking about Altuve
than you're talking about yourd On ofcourse. I mean, that's that's a
really good one through five right there. Yeah, it's an excellent one through
(23:12):
five, and it just hasn't beenput together this year. Just to go
back to the tax thing, asChandler sites doing, so, if Houston's
less than four million away from thatnext tax threshold was just two hundred and
fifty seven million, if they tookon more payroll, it would deliver at
least a twelve percent surcharge on thetwenty percent tax Jim Crane is already paying,
(23:33):
so they're playing surge prices. Yeah, so basically it'd be like,
this would be like going to arestaurant with a large group and you tip
he's getting sir, we already addedthe tip, and you tipped on top
of that that You're like, areyou kidding me? You know, that's
that's basically what you be doing.Jim Crane can afford it, and it
would be probably for one year therewould be over the this threshold. There
(23:56):
are some things we have to saythough, like Brain has been tremendous as
an owner since he's taken over theAstros. Yes, being he's not been
cheap, he's been frugal at timesor smart as I would say he would
smart decisions to contract. And yeah, Steve Cohen has been going way over
the tax thresholds and that doesn't obviouslywin. You got to do it the
right way. And for argument's sake, this is the highest payroll the Astros
(24:19):
have ever had ever, so youknow when people go, we spent more,
like, you can't be mad ifhe decides now we drew a line
here past the second tax certually ifit's not going to get you a championship,
which is Jim what Jim Crane's allabout, And you still have to
think about next year, in thefuture and all that time because then you
get into repeater tax stuff, right, you have to pay even more in
tax when you pay for another year. But what this has created Ross is
(24:42):
we've got a big question market firstbase and the future there at least bringing
you in an Alonso or a Goldschmidtat least if that guy performs, well,
okay, you know what, we'regoing to resign you and you're back
next year. And you could probablyget them on at this point in their
careers somewhat do. Coldfield's thirty sixyears old and he's a Houston native,
right, so he'd probably be morehe'd probably be more friendly to stay in
(25:07):
Houston. But anyway, like becauseif you don't, like, let's just
say they roll with a break likethey cut a bray you they're not They
can't play singleton every day, likeyou're gonna have to make a decision,
Joey Lopraffido, brother, get yourglove on your plane. Some first base
that's gonna have to happen. Theyclearly don't trust him now because there was
a situation where he could have playedfirst over the weekend and they put Dubond
there and then low Berfito and left. Yeah, and you know it's and
(25:32):
then okay, we can get bythis year, but then what's the plane
next year? You know what Imean, Like, what's the future first
base for the Astros? And thenon top of it, compounded, if
Alex Bregman walks which we believe they'reprobably gonna let him. What's the answer
third base? How's our guy,Zach Dezenzo doing these days? He's back
from his injury. Yeah, he'she's down there, but he's on his
way. You know. It's funny. I had a call the other day
said, let's just bring up oversthat third. I'm like, dude,
(25:55):
it's David Hensley. Like David Hensley'sbeen here, done that, Like we
we already know what he is.So yeah, it's it's sit in three
thirty three, Dozenzo in twelve,AB's four yea, no home runs.
I mean, he's probably the futureif he keeps progressing. But so,
he wasn't on the he wasn't onmlb dot COM's top hundred, he wasn't
on Baseball America's top one hundred,but Baseball Prospectives had him number forty.
(26:18):
Okay, they really like his power, So he's one of the stop me.
If you've heard this before, it'sa prospect who once he gets a
hold of it, he goes along way. But he does have a
lot of swing and miss. Wellthat's where I told everybody too. Yeah,
I'm looking at MLB's latest prospect rankings. They do have Desenzo as he
asked for his fourth best prospect.It's funny that, yeah, Prospectives had
(26:38):
him forty in baseball, like atop fifty guy. I guess they've taken
them off this list. But atthe start of the year, like Spencer
Arraghetti was like, I want tosay, six or seventh on this list,
and low Perffito was like eighth orninth. So it was funny for
all the pressure people put on thoseguys that you know, I heard somebody
say, yeah, you know,low Perfito their top prospect. He's not
their top prospect. He's the highestor closest to the big leagues available,
(27:02):
not like he's highly thought of,Like yeah he's not. He's freaking you
know, Gunner Henderson or Elie dela Cruz or whoever else in the last
couple of years before well and thenlist this phenom naylst Jacob Melton as their
best prospect. But if you golook at the top one hundred ross,
they're not even none of the astrosprospects or even in that no. So
that just kind of tells you wherethis day of the farm system is and
really taking us all back to thewhole conversation was when they brought in Dana
(27:25):
Brown was to build back the farmsystem. So in closing, where are
you on this whole structure of whoanswers to who here when it comes to
making trades, lineup decisions and everythingelse. What's Jeff Luno doing? We
get him back? No, it'sa mess right now running out Mexican.
How much of it is Jim Crane, How much of it is Jeff Bagwell,
Reggie Jackson, Dana Brown, JoeA. Spada. Yeah, those
(27:48):
are the questions that we don't reallynecessarily have the concrete answers to. But
I do think it is Jim andJeff pushing, not necessarily pushing Jose Brady.
I think they know it doesn't lookgood. Yeah, but they're giving
him every chance. How much morehe gets we'll see. And then Joe
Spatta has to kind of deal withthe repercussions, and unfortunately he's the one
that speaks to the media every singlenight. Dana doesn't speak to the media
(28:11):
every day, even though he doesweekly. Jim Crane rarely speaks to the
media, and Jeff Bagwell doesn't haveto at all. So Unfortunately, Joe
is the one that has to bearthe brunt of this Well and everybody in
that group, the one who's earnedthe most trust is Crane. Crane is
everything, He's the moves he's made, he's earned at least trust. Well,
like Dana Brown. Has he earnedour trust yet? Joe spot As
certainly is not. I mean,Dana Brown's been fine, Taylor Scott's been
(28:32):
very good. Jeff Bagwell, dude, if I need to figure out how
to put a ball in the outfield, yes, but not as a I
think it's fair though, to questionthe direction the franchise has gone with Jim
Crane since the dismissal of Jeff Luno. That's fair to go away to James
Click, who I liked, andyou look at a lot of his moves
and what he's made so far,they're bearing fruit still to this day,
and to dismiss him after winning aWorld Series championship, to go with Dana
(28:55):
Brown and then go with this braintrust of Jeff Bagwell and Reggie Jackson in
turning the ship away from what broughtyou here in analytics and numbers, I
do question that, and I don't. I don't think it's the right direction.
Yeah, but we'll see. Andit's Jeff wu Know's wife said,
you know, on Twitter, shouldhave never fired him. And look a
lot of fans stand by that,and I still stand by I think Rob
(29:18):
Manford's backdoor deal with Jim Crane wasif you fired the GM and the manager
will let you keep the World Seriesand won't won't take that away. I
still believe that. But because inotherwise, like the Red Sox stood by
Korra, They're like, oh,he's suspended for the year, Okay,
yeah, he'll come back. Likethey didn't have a problem with it when
Kansas got busted, Kansas basketball gotbusted for cheating, you know what,
(29:38):
they said, Bill selfs, sodamn good, we'll let him serve us
bench come right back. I stillunderstand though, where Jim Crane, I
think maybe he felt betrayed in away, he felt like the rug was
pulled under him and he wanted tohit the resh. No stands by he
was not aware of the CHAM ofcourse, do you think he knew.
I think he knew. I thinkit was one of those all right,
you guys are doing this, Idon't want to know anything about it.
(29:59):
Yeah, And my hands are outof this. My name is pault Is
between y'all because you think he knewbut just didn't want he wasn't in.
You and I were at the ballparkfor a lot of those games. I
he never heard going back and rewatchingthe tapes like here in the banging,
I'm like, I thought that wasjust somebody banging in the stands. That's
true as well, But you alsowere in the ballpark, and you know
this. Jeff Luno had his fingerprintson every part of the organization, pr
(30:23):
from like ushers, like every littlething going on him around way more than
you knew. He had people thatreported to him, he fired like remember
it wasn't there like athletic trainers orlike the you know, the guy who
washes the jockstraps, Like every littlecorner of that organization, Jeff Luno had
(30:45):
his fingers on. So that tome is what tells me he he knew
about it, was he involved?Did he proliferate it? I don't think
so, but I think he knew. Still the greatest finder of talent ever.
But of course though so he willgo down to that that I want
him here absolutely, that is goingto do for this edition of the Crawford
Box Cast. Remember for you guysto get your hands let some Crawford Bok
(31:06):
this weekend as you get ready,Hey aj Hinch speaking of blaster from pass
in town, askers take two outof three against the Tigers, hopefully Scooball
one of the best pitchers in allof baseball. By the way, can
he get a blister tonight or somethingthat's a major ski just like a hanging
thumbnail that he can't pitch tonight buthe comes back next to a one point
nine era Well, Astro's pitching staffsneeds to stay healthy and uh look he
(31:29):
gets out of hand. I'll bedown in those Crawford box this weekend at
Minute Made Park. But make sureyou guys get you Crawford bock. It
is a home run every time withthe Crawford from Carbok browing. And this
has been another edition of the CrawfordBox Casts presented by Carbox
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