March 14, 2024 • 21 mins
As we are two weeks away from Astros Opening Day 2024, Chris Gordy and Ross Villarreal talk all things Houston Astros as Spring Training continues to churn on. They discuss Justin Verlander not being ready for Opening Day though he does appear to still be on track to start a couple of weeks into the season. They also discuss the Yankees not having Gerrit Cole for the opening series vs Houston.
In addition, they discuss Dylan Coleman being sent to minor league camp, Jake Meyers hot start to Spring Training, Yanier Diaz's slow start, and another health update on Lance McCullers Jr that has him coming back around July at the earliest.
The Crawford Boxcast is presented by the Crawford Bock and Karbach Brewing.
In addition, they discuss Dylan Coleman being sent to minor league camp, Jake Meyers hot start to Spring Training, Yanier Diaz's slow start, and another health update on Lance McCullers Jr that has him coming back around July at the earliest.
The Crawford Boxcast is presented by the Crawford Bock and Karbach Brewing.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Astros fans cheers Rocky Lackey, Welcometo the Crawford box Casts. Crowd leadbord
for you by Crawford Bach from CarbachBrewy, you're getting down bear, Oh
my godness, the Crawford box Caststarts. Now here we go. Here's
(00:31):
Chris Gordy and Ross Fail and yes, it is a new edition of the
Crawford box Cast, presented by theCrawford Bach and Carback burring. Chris Gordy
is me, Ross Virial is hehey? And we are here to talk
all things Astros baseball with you.Get you caught up because we get ever
so closer to opening Day, Rosstwo weeks away. We will be out
(00:53):
there at been a Made Park forthe start of another Astros baseball season.
These off seasons go by so quick. I kind of joke with when we
were down at spring training a fewweeks ago. It was Joko with Chas
McCormick. I said, dude,you guys don't get off season. He
goes, yeah, I know,it kind of sucks. It's cool because
we go on deep playoff runs,we get to play in a World Series
and all that. He goes,I wouldn't trade that for the world.
But he goes, Yeah, otherteams their season ends and they got all
(01:15):
this time off. He goes,we keep playing every year. So it's
a good problem to have. Butyou know, for us particularly, we
were doing all the postseason coverage onSports Talks of a ninety and all that,
and you know, it's off seasongets shorter and shorter. But here
we are, it's upon us.Yeah, getting back into the swing of
things. In a way, itfeels like forever ago that they lost to
the Rangers. But yeah, ina way, it feels like the office
(01:36):
season is short and now we're onlytwo weeks away. We've been talking about
in spring training after all the hotstove stuff as well, and making deep
October runs, which we're used to. So I'd rather have that than the
former because we've dealt with a lotof that, maybe about ten years ago
here in Houston with the Astros.Yeah, I love that. You know,
any time of year, you couldfill up a full board of callers
(01:56):
wanting to debate Astros topics and allthis because they are irrelevant and they are
not going anywhere, and so it'sit's been a lot of fun. But
as we get closer to the startof the season. Ross, let's jump
into a couple of the topics regardingthis team, and I guess, first
and foremost, we've got to startwith the ace. Justin Verlander. He
is progressing, he's coming along,as we know. You know, the
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news came out since we were lasthere that he will start the season on
the IL. But this is allsimply because he was delayed. His start
was delayed for spring training because ofwhat he called a hiccup. M h.
Since that hiccup, he has nothad any hiccups. He's done fine.
He's been coming along, he's youknow, doing well. He's been
throwing. The velocity's been getting upthere, and it sounds like, you
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know, all signs point to himgetting ready to throw to live hitters here
very soon, and he's on trackto be ready. It's just gonna be
probably the third or fourth week ofthe season as opposed to opening day.
Yeah, that'll be okay. Itwas the hiccup, like you said,
but he hasn't re hiccuped at leastthat we've seen so far. So I
mean, even this aside, wedo just have question marks of like,
(03:02):
okay, when is it At somepoint you figure he's gonna slow down,
but it hasn't happened yet. Imean, we're talking about a guy who
at thirty nine years old want tocy young, and we're only two years
removed from that. And still,although we had a shaky start with the
Mets at the beginning of the year, still the numbers were overall pretty darn
good. And then he came hereto Houston, had some good starts,
and then was their most reliable startingpitcher in the playoffs. So he's probably
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gonna be okay. And that's youknow, a little bit. You don't
want to call it rest because he'sstill throwing, he's still getting ramped up
and all that type of stuff.But to me, not even necessarily the
worst thing in the world to havehim miss some time at the beginning of
the season in late March in thebeginning of April, much preferable than him
having a to miss some time lateror getting into you know, dead arm
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and fatigue and all that type ofstuff towards the end of the season,
which can happen, especially at hisage. So hopefully this means missing a
little time at the front end ofthe season, going to be more fresh
at the back end of the season. Yeah, and then again, you
know, remember, like we said, he pitched. He missed the whole
first month last year with the Mets, and he was he was fine.
I mean, he had some hehad a rough couple of rough outings with
the Mets, but overall he wasbetter when he got here. His numbers
(04:08):
kind of got back to it.It wasn't what you know, cy young
Verlander, but he was your acestill. He pitched better with Fromber up
and down, struggling Javier up anddown, struggling. Verlander was your big
constant on the mount and he gaveyou what you needed. And you know,
it's it is important that he doesn'tmiss too much time ross because he's
got that vesting option where he oncehe hit is it one hundred and forty
the innings pitch? So whatever itis that will vest his option, he's
(04:30):
gonna do everything you can to hitthat he wants to. You know,
yeah, I would imagine so,but I mean maybe it's selling himself short.
What is the vesting op? Isit thirty five million I think or
something like that. Yeah, it'sjust the extra year on the deal that
he had signed with the Mets.And by the way, the Mets are
on the hook for at least halfthis salary, so appreciate your mess.
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Yes, the Astros are not reallypaying Verlander a ton of this content did
cost you two of your top prospects, it did well, it did,
but again, look at how importanthe was when he got here, with
all the injuries she had with youknow, losing Luis Garcia for the year,
finding out Lance mccullors was out forthe year. He lost their kety
for a long stretch. So youknow, luckily had the Hunter Browns and
(05:11):
JP Francis to step up and fillin that territory. But it's leading toward
It looks like Joe Spott has notannounced an opening day starter. In fact,
I saw he was just asked aboutthe other day, and it's probably
gonna be fromber. They haven't hadannouncement, but they're probably going to go
with fromber Valdez. Why is thatHe's been the opening day start in the
last handful of years when Verlander waseither not on the team or injured and
(05:31):
couldn't start, it was fromber onopening day, So that's probably what it'll
be. I get it. He'shad you know, he's had a couple
of outings in the spring that didn'tgo great. He's had a couple recently
that were better. So the hopeis fromber is is you know, back
to the old fromber Cy, youngcandidate fromber pitching. Well, don't you
think it's weird that I mean,it lasted all of one spring training start
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for him to be calling his owngames. It was like one game,
it was a disaster. Like nowwe're good. It's it's interesting to me.
I guess the storyline that we havethis scenario where you know, he
was so close to Martine Maldonado,had to trust him and all that type
stuff. Now he's gone, sofirst spring training out and he's like,
all right, guys, that's cool, I'm gonna call my own pitches.
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Doesn't go so hot. And thenliterally, I mean, that's such a
major decision to make through I meanfor the season and to decide, yeah,
I'm gonna call my own pitches,and then for it to last one
spring training start. I was questioningwhen it happened. And then you know,
for whatever reason he said he wasn'the wasn't at one hundred percent and
all that type of stuff. Butthen he went out there and he was
better the next time out. Souh, just funny to me, I
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should say one bad starting bad,starting, starting, starting outing in the
spring training, and then he followsit up with a much better one.
And then also that's when he's notcalling his own pitches. Very very interesting.
You gotta think Joe a spot ofme. He put his foot down
one. No, we're doing it. That's enough. But I'll give it
to you once. That's it.As we're less than two weeks out from
openings, and we know, youknow, it seems like the astors at
(07:01):
least trending toward fromber. On theflip side, we do not know who
the Yankees are gonna pitch. Andone of the big stories they came out
this week, Yes, Garrett ColeCy Young raining, Garrett cole is not
going to be ready for the startof season. He's gonna miss at least
a month. I saw another reportthat say could miss two months, and
then there's even some people speculating hecould not pitch at all. This elbow
injury really is is something serious?You know what, every time you hear
(07:25):
a guy's having a second MRI orsecond opinion, it means they didn't like
what they saw the first time.Oh that's good. Anyway, he will
not go opening Day, so wehave to. We had this idea we
were gonna see Verlander Cole opening dayESPN National. That's not gonna happen,
but was very intriguing is who theYankees are gonna throw And this just came
(07:46):
out. So I saw Aaron Booneyesterday said he's quote leaning a certain way
for the Yankees' opening day starter,but said he wasn't ready to name him.
On the Yes broadcast, he saidCarlos Redon is penciled in for Game
two. So Carlos Radone, ifyou're looking at the depth chart kind of
slay is the number two pitcher forthe Yankees. So there was some thought,
okay, well could they go withMarcus Stroman, their off season acquisition.
(08:09):
Just earlier this afternoon, Marcus Stromansaid he's not pitching Opening Day,
said he is pitching Saturday against Houston. Against Houston, so the third starter,
so he's Game three. So thatwould just leave me thing. Garrett
Cole is gonna Willis Reid and he'sgonna actually start in Game one. Well,
they have the other guys in thein the rotation Clark Schmidt, Clark
Schmidt and Nestor Cortes. And thenof course you know there's a question of
(08:31):
who's going to replace Garrett cole inthat's you know, in the five minute
rotation. So anyway, mister Cortesjust something worth tracking. And again just
because they said rodnd was penciled inas the Game two starter, he very
well could be Game one. Sonot the biggest thing he spent a ton
of time on. But you know, look, opening day, you want
to set the tone. You wantto start with a with a win.
(08:52):
Because Astros for so many years hadwon the season open ross. Last year
was the first time in a longtime they lost. The season was in
a row whatever it was, andit was and it was because I think
it was a tide game. Whatin the eighth and then Ryan Presley gave
up two runs and then uh inthe ninth and then and then for the
rest of the year people hated himand even though he was really good.
(09:13):
And then Kendall Graveman I believe,got the win or the save the White
Socks. Okay, yeah, heit was funny he was pitching for the
White Sox and the Astros trade forhim at the at the trade deadline.
But nonetheless, uh, and itwas Fromber who started, and but Frommer
pitched well that day. They justcouldn't get the win. But here's hoping
the Astros do get that win herein less than two weeks and start off
on the right foot. But otherstorylines coming out of spring trading ross we've
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seen that, Uh, Jake Myers, how about him hitting his first Rake
Myers, Baby, Jake Myers season, Baby, let's go, and he
is hitting well, I'm ready forit. It's it's so funny to see.
But look, that's that's a greatthing for the Astros if Jake Myers
wants to get off to a hotstart and be one of their better hitters.
He said, he's he's changed acouple of things in his swing and
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his you know, he say,feel so comfortable where his hands are and
everything right now. I say,look, just keep doing what you're doing.
And as you know, one ofthe stories I saw Alison Flunder post
at MLB dot com, so it'sJake Myers had to fight for every bit
of playing time, but he ispushing to be that center field starter on
opening day. Yeah, and Imean, we'll see how well he hits.
(10:18):
He's like, oh, psing overa thousand in spring training. That's
not what you're going to expect forhim when the season starts. That's not
even what you want from him whenthe season starts. And that's okay.
You're just asking him to be outthere cover a ton of ground in center
field, like we know that hecan doesn't have an elite arm out there,
but still an elite grag just getsjumps on balls and can go out
there and just makes when he's justout there waiting for a fly ball and
(10:41):
under there. People just don't understand. Like when you go to the games,
you see that dude can just coveralmost from left field to right field
out there in center and that's whathe's able to do. It's a premium
defensive position. You don't normally askyour guys in premium defensive positions to mash.
You don't need them to just hita one hundred and thirty bombs or
anything like that. But if hecan go out there hit you know,
(11:03):
to fifty two sixty ish, tryto get you. Last year, he
had ten home runs in only likefour hundred plate appearances. So if he
can get you somewhere like closest totwenty and just be competent at the play
turnover that lineup, get you toJose Al two, he gets on base
with his speed and then he's upthere for Jose Al twove and jord On
Alvarez at one two. That's gonnajust pay big dividends for the Houston Astros
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in this lineup. So I've alwaysbeen Jake Myers fan club. He hit
the ground running and looked pretty goodwhen he has first and the shoulder injury
and the mental stuff I think isthat the mental blocks are big with him.
I think he was had some reservationsabout really letting it go with the
shoulder. He was having the mentalblocks about playing time and pressing and all
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that type of stuff. So aperfect approach by Joe Spot and Dana Brown
in this offseason saying, we knowthis guy thrives with encouragement and we need
to put his mind at dye.So they came out publicly they said he's
the everyday center fielder. So far, we're seeing some good early returns.
But of course, you know,I don't want to get too excited about
(12:09):
spring training stuff, because that canall it all evaporates in a second when
spring training is over and the realaction starts, but still encouraging. Nonetheless,
I'd much rather be sitting here talkingabout Jake Myers opsing over one thousand
in spring training rather than talking abouthim going over Yeah, it's it's funny
to you know, we're two weeksinto spring training and not everybody plays every
(12:30):
day, so the numbers are veryskew. But just to kind of give
you some some spring numbers, MarisoDubona, Diastro's best regular, you know,
everyday player kind of you know,hit her. He's batting five seventy
nine in spring with a thirteen eightynine ops. Jordan Alvarez batting three eighty
one. He hit his first homerun last weekend. He's batting that's a
ten oh six ops Chas McCormick's battingthree seventy five, and Jake Myers batting
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three fifty. Let's go, baby, they're going for the bad. Kyle
Tucker batting three hundred, which isgood because he kind of, you know,
had a rough postseason. But theone that I looked at it kind
of went again. It's spring training, but yan Ar Diaz only batting one
thirty eight so far. Ross,that's your every day hitting catching. The
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big selling point on fans is allwe got rid of Maldonado and we got
the great hitting yan Ar Diaz.So he's following up with his postseason performance,
which was what do you go for, like one for sixteen or something
like that. Yeah, just twohits for jan or arm Sorry, four
hits for yan Ardaz so far thisspring, four for twenty nine. I'm
gonna put chalk it up to he'sjust more focused on doing what he needs
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to do behind the plate right now. Ross, he knows the bat will
be fun. It's okay. He'sfocused on catching right now. Good.
I'm focused on him catching as well, but also focused on him hitting.
I mean, he's just got tobe It's funny. I was I was
reading. It was some baseball previewarticle or something like that, and they
went through the worst players, theworst and the absolute worst hitter in baseball
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last year was Martin Maldonado. Theabsolute worst defensive catcher by their metrics was
Martin Maldonado. So, I mean, you're just looking if he's not the
worst hitter, in baseball and notthe worst catcher in baseball. You're talking
about an improvement, So I thinkwe're gonna have a marked improvement there obviously.
Yeah. And do we talk aboutI felt like we talked about this
before, about the jan Diaz andthe defense and that you know, stolen
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bases. They'd given up some stolea bit, but it was they were
saying it was more on the pitcherand his time. They have some slow
workers. Javier is like the reallybad one frommervel does isn't great at keeping
guys on. Joseer Katy as well, likes you do have some issues with
the guys keeping guys on. Baby. Janar diaz time from the plate to
second is really good. Yeah,it's just it was negated because the picture.
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He's got a good pop time andhe's got a good arm. All
right. A couple other tidbits fromcamp news. Astros have kind of been,
you know, sending assigning some guysto minor league camp, which you
start doing around this time of year. The Astros optioned Dylan Coleman down to
minor league camp. He was oneof the offseason acquisitions they traded from the
Kansas City Roles kind of had arough season last year, but was good
(15:05):
the year before. It was kindof a take a chance, take a
flyer, and so far there's acouple of weeks of spring and work.
It hasn't really been there yet forDylan Coleman, which is fine, we
don't need him, but it wasa piece that man, if it had
clicked, okay, he could fillthat Ryan Standic roll or whatever for you.
Yeah, that was one of theguys. You know, we talked
about the off season middle relief,like who's going to step up because you
(15:26):
are missing Stanic, you are missinghector Aarri's filmmaton as well. So in
those one of the names, youknow, we put out names of Ben
at Sue's is, Dylan Coleman's,who had the Forest Whitley's, et cetera,
Like who are these some of theseguys one of them we need them
to kind of step up, andthe hope was that Dylan Coleman it would
be one of those. So unfortunately, as of this moment, you do
(15:48):
have to cross him off the listbecause he's now sent to minor league camp,
has some stuff to work on.So the Astros like his stuff,
don't like the way that he locatesthe stuff. So unfortunately one you you
cross off the list as far asat least impact help at the beginning of
the season in the middle leaf roles. You got to get your question answered
somewhere else. And earlier today youand Matt Thomas caught up with Brian mctagger
(16:10):
deville b dot com talking about DylanColeman. Here was Brian mctagger. Has
anybody in your mind had a DoudCamp. Doud Camp, Uh, you
know, maybe Dylan Coleman, theguy they got in the trade with the
Royals, who has great stuff andthrow its really hard. You know,
he's watched a lot of guys andyou know he's pitched a little bit better
(16:30):
here is Camp's gone on. ButI mean they absolutely love his stuff.
It probably hasn't pitched as well asthey would have liked. I mean,
I still think he's probably you know, heading for a spot on in the
bullpen to start the year. Butyou know, it's hard to say position
player wise, because you know,all these guys approach spring in different ways.
They they're just here to get atbats and but I mean I thought
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overall the position player guys have swungthe bat, the ball, and they
played a lot too, which isnice because you know, a dusty they
didn't get into games until the middleof March. But you know, Colman's
the one guy I thought that theyhoped they would see more out of it.
But still he's a guy that evenif he doesn't make the team,
they could, you know, movehim to Triple A. He's got options.
Let them see if they can continueto work with him and you can
(17:15):
get that stuff on his zone alittle bit more, maybe see if he
could be a weapon. Got againBrian McTaggart with you guys earlier today.
Yeah, just I mean, it'sfunny that he said that about one o'clock
today, Dylan Coleman having a dudcamp, and then just a couple hours
later we find out that he wassent to minor league camp. So unfortunately,
just now working out the way theywant right now. Hopefully he can
(17:37):
locate the ball a little bit betterand they can use him later on.
Few other tidbits. As Chandel Romeput out there at the Athletic he did
an opening day roster projection. Hesaid, it's a man short for the
Astros who will be without Brian tobray you for the first two games of
the season. We forget about that. He was suspended remember in the postseason,
and so he's gotta still serve that, which is fine. Well,
(17:57):
you know, we'll deal with that. One other n tipbit from chadlor Great
Kessinger, the backup shortstop who youknow is with the team in the postseason
last year. He got to startat first base the other day, and
Chader says being serviceable will help bolsterhis chances of making the team. It's
gonna be fascinating to see who theykeep as those bench guys. John Singleton,
(18:18):
Great Kessinger, Trey Cabbage. Imean, there's all these different guys.
It's you're probably only keep going tokeep too, David Hensley, all
these other names in the mix.Yeah, it's that's just basically the roster
spots that we're worried about. Iwonder what's gonna happen as far as those,
because Trey Cabbage is somebody that theytraded for from the Angels. They
do like his profiles at thirty thirtyguys, what he was he was only
(18:41):
I think did they say it wasonly there was only two thirty thirty guys?
In Triple A or something last yearand he was one of them something
like that. But anyways, he'sshown the power, he's shown that he's
got some speed on the base passas well. The problems for him,
of course, is just strikeout numberswhich are astronomically high. So if you
can get a little bit more platediscipline from him, I think you're talking
(19:02):
about maybe some found money. Buthe is twenty seven years old, so
maybe we do need to keep expectationslow for him. John Singleton, I
feel like you already know what yougot in him, so I'm not super
high on the prospects of him inthe future. And then as far as
great Cassinger, yes, just puttingit first, putting him all over the
field, that's definitely gonna help hisodds of making the team and sticking with
it. And last thing, Rossand again, this is our Crawford box
(19:25):
cast Cursey of Carback Brewing in theCrawford Bach. It is a home run
every time. Make sure you guysare loaded up to the start of Astro
season with some ice cool Crawford Bach. You know when you see it,
the tequila Sunrise stripes on the packaging, it is what pairs perfect with Astros
baseball. Well, it's peanuts,hot dogs, whatever you're having at the
ballpark, make sure you're drinking CrawfordBach. All right, Christian Haavier has
been looking like his old self.He has an ERA of one eighty and
(19:47):
three starts so far. It's springtraining, so he's been cool. But
we got to address it. AndI know it's nauseating when we would say
his name and people are like,oh god. This week on Foule Territory,
No, Lance mccullor's June said,Hey, hey, no, I
like Lance. That's Suis. You'regonna go Montero. No, I don't,
but people it's just you say thename Lens McCullers and people go,
oh god. It's just they needto shut up. I know. Look,
(20:08):
when Lance is good, they're payinghim, he's making great money.
They're paying well. When he's readyto go and out there, he's he's
great. You love Lance mccallers.It's just the injuries have turned people off.
This week on Foul Territory, hesaid his flexor tendon surgery is a
thirteen to fifteen month recovery. Well. He had his surgery last June thirteenth
a color set. His goal isto aim for that thirteen month timeline that
(20:32):
would put him in late June earlyJuly. He said that would be a
big win for me if that happens. So it's sounding like at the earliest
July. That's good. That meansit's gonna be fresh and ready to go
for the season. Let's go.I like a Lance mccallor's junior. He
really wants. He knows more thananybody about the noise, about the injuries
and all that type of stuff.He loves this organization, He loves his
(20:53):
city. He wants to go outthere and compete and pitch. It eats
at him more than anyone else.And I can't wait to see him get
back out there on the mound.Yeah, we can't wait to see him
hopefully. All you know, LuisGarcia looked good. You know we were
at spring training. He's his rehabsgoing along well, and he projects somewhere
around the same timeline. All starbreak ish kind of stuff, So be
good problems to have. We'd loveto have a surt plus of pitching,
(21:15):
and that's what the Astrols will haveif they fully get healthy with those guys
by midseason, but we appreciate youguys for listening to the Crawford Box Cast,
presented by Carbock Bringh. He's RossVireal, I'm Chris Gordy and uh.
Ross will be starting to sting upweekly here real soon once we get
into the Astros seasons. So it'sgonna be fun to be talking Astros again
every week with you looking forward toit. Can't wait seasons almost here,
(21:36):
all right, we'll talk to youguys real soon on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Make sure you subscribe to our podcastand keep up to date at sports
seven ninety dot com
Astros fans cheers Rocky Lackey, Welcometo the Crawford box Casts. Crowd leadbord
for you by Crawford Bach from CarbachBrewy, you're getting down bear, Oh
my godness, the Crawford box Caststarts. Now here we go. Here's
(00:31):
Chris Gordy and Ross Fail and yes, it is a new edition of the
Crawford box Cast, presented by theCrawford Bach and Carback burring. Chris Gordy
is me, Ross Virial is hehey? And we are here to talk
all things Astros baseball with you.Get you caught up because we get ever
so closer to opening Day, Rosstwo weeks away. We will be out
(00:53):
there at been a Made Park forthe start of another Astros baseball season.
These off seasons go by so quick. I kind of joke with when we
were down at spring training a fewweeks ago. It was Joko with Chas
McCormick. I said, dude,you guys don't get off season. He
goes, yeah, I know,it kind of sucks. It's cool because
we go on deep playoff runs,we get to play in a World Series
and all that. He goes,I wouldn't trade that for the world.
But he goes, Yeah, otherteams their season ends and they got all
(01:15):
this time off. He goes,we keep playing every year. So it's
a good problem to have. Butyou know, for us particularly, we
were doing all the postseason coverage onSports Talks of a ninety and all that,
and you know, it's off seasongets shorter and shorter. But here
we are, it's upon us.Yeah, getting back into the swing of
things. In a way, itfeels like forever ago that they lost to
the Rangers. But yeah, ina way, it feels like the office
(01:36):
season is short and now we're onlytwo weeks away. We've been talking about
in spring training after all the hotstove stuff as well, and making deep
October runs, which we're used to. So I'd rather have that than the
former because we've dealt with a lotof that, maybe about ten years ago
here in Houston with the Astros.Yeah, I love that. You know,
any time of year, you couldfill up a full board of callers
(01:56):
wanting to debate Astros topics and allthis because they are irrelevant and they are
not going anywhere, and so it'sit's been a lot of fun. But
as we get closer to the startof the season. Ross, let's jump
into a couple of the topics regardingthis team, and I guess, first
and foremost, we've got to startwith the ace. Justin Verlander. He
is progressing, he's coming along,as we know. You know, the
(02:19):
news came out since we were lasthere that he will start the season on
the IL. But this is allsimply because he was delayed. His start
was delayed for spring training because ofwhat he called a hiccup. M h.
Since that hiccup, he has nothad any hiccups. He's done fine.
He's been coming along, he's youknow, doing well. He's been
throwing. The velocity's been getting upthere, and it sounds like, you
(02:40):
know, all signs point to himgetting ready to throw to live hitters here
very soon, and he's on trackto be ready. It's just gonna be
probably the third or fourth week ofthe season as opposed to opening day.
Yeah, that'll be okay. Itwas the hiccup, like you said,
but he hasn't re hiccuped at leastthat we've seen so far. So I
mean, even this aside, wedo just have question marks of like,
(03:02):
okay, when is it At somepoint you figure he's gonna slow down,
but it hasn't happened yet. Imean, we're talking about a guy who
at thirty nine years old want tocy young, and we're only two years
removed from that. And still,although we had a shaky start with the
Mets at the beginning of the year, still the numbers were overall pretty darn
good. And then he came hereto Houston, had some good starts,
and then was their most reliable startingpitcher in the playoffs. So he's probably
(03:25):
gonna be okay. And that's youknow, a little bit. You don't
want to call it rest because he'sstill throwing, he's still getting ramped up
and all that type of stuff.But to me, not even necessarily the
worst thing in the world to havehim miss some time at the beginning of
the season in late March in thebeginning of April, much preferable than him
having a to miss some time lateror getting into you know, dead arm
(03:46):
and fatigue and all that type ofstuff towards the end of the season,
which can happen, especially at hisage. So hopefully this means missing a
little time at the front end ofthe season, going to be more fresh
at the back end of the season. Yeah, and then again, you
know, remember, like we said, he pitched. He missed the whole
first month last year with the Mets, and he was he was fine.
I mean, he had some hehad a rough couple of rough outings with
the Mets, but overall he wasbetter when he got here. His numbers
(04:08):
kind of got back to it.It wasn't what you know, cy young
Verlander, but he was your acestill. He pitched better with Fromber up
and down, struggling Javier up anddown, struggling. Verlander was your big
constant on the mount and he gaveyou what you needed. And you know,
it's it is important that he doesn'tmiss too much time ross because he's
got that vesting option where he oncehe hit is it one hundred and forty
the innings pitch? So whatever itis that will vest his option, he's
(04:30):
gonna do everything you can to hitthat he wants to. You know,
yeah, I would imagine so,but I mean maybe it's selling himself short.
What is the vesting op? Isit thirty five million I think or
something like that. Yeah, it'sjust the extra year on the deal that
he had signed with the Mets.And by the way, the Mets are
on the hook for at least halfthis salary, so appreciate your mess.
(04:50):
Yes, the Astros are not reallypaying Verlander a ton of this content did
cost you two of your top prospects, it did well, it did,
but again, look at how importanthe was when he got here, with
all the injuries she had with youknow, losing Luis Garcia for the year,
finding out Lance mccullors was out forthe year. He lost their kety
for a long stretch. So youknow, luckily had the Hunter Browns and
(05:11):
JP Francis to step up and fillin that territory. But it's leading toward
It looks like Joe Spott has notannounced an opening day starter. In fact,
I saw he was just asked aboutthe other day, and it's probably
gonna be fromber. They haven't hadannouncement, but they're probably going to go
with fromber Valdez. Why is thatHe's been the opening day start in the
last handful of years when Verlander waseither not on the team or injured and
(05:31):
couldn't start, it was fromber onopening day, So that's probably what it'll
be. I get it. He'shad you know, he's had a couple
of outings in the spring that didn'tgo great. He's had a couple recently
that were better. So the hopeis fromber is is you know, back
to the old fromber Cy, youngcandidate fromber pitching. Well, don't you
think it's weird that I mean,it lasted all of one spring training start
(05:54):
for him to be calling his owngames. It was like one game,
it was a disaster. Like nowwe're good. It's it's interesting to me.
I guess the storyline that we havethis scenario where you know, he
was so close to Martine Maldonado,had to trust him and all that type
stuff. Now he's gone, sofirst spring training out and he's like,
all right, guys, that's cool, I'm gonna call my own pitches.
(06:15):
Doesn't go so hot. And thenliterally, I mean, that's such a
major decision to make through I meanfor the season and to decide, yeah,
I'm gonna call my own pitches,and then for it to last one
spring training start. I was questioningwhen it happened. And then you know,
for whatever reason he said he wasn'the wasn't at one hundred percent and
all that type of stuff. Butthen he went out there and he was
better the next time out. Souh, just funny to me, I
(06:39):
should say one bad starting bad,starting, starting, starting outing in the
spring training, and then he followsit up with a much better one.
And then also that's when he's notcalling his own pitches. Very very interesting.
You gotta think Joe a spot ofme. He put his foot down
one. No, we're doing it. That's enough. But I'll give it
to you once. That's it.As we're less than two weeks out from
openings, and we know, youknow, it seems like the astors at
(07:01):
least trending toward fromber. On theflip side, we do not know who
the Yankees are gonna pitch. Andone of the big stories they came out
this week, Yes, Garrett ColeCy Young raining, Garrett cole is not
going to be ready for the startof season. He's gonna miss at least
a month. I saw another reportthat say could miss two months, and
then there's even some people speculating hecould not pitch at all. This elbow
injury really is is something serious?You know what, every time you hear
(07:25):
a guy's having a second MRI orsecond opinion, it means they didn't like
what they saw the first time.Oh that's good. Anyway, he will
not go opening Day, so wehave to. We had this idea we
were gonna see Verlander Cole opening dayESPN National. That's not gonna happen,
but was very intriguing is who theYankees are gonna throw And this just came
(07:46):
out. So I saw Aaron Booneyesterday said he's quote leaning a certain way
for the Yankees' opening day starter,but said he wasn't ready to name him.
On the Yes broadcast, he saidCarlos Redon is penciled in for Game
two. So Carlos Radone, ifyou're looking at the depth chart kind of
slay is the number two pitcher forthe Yankees. So there was some thought,
okay, well could they go withMarcus Stroman, their off season acquisition.
(08:09):
Just earlier this afternoon, Marcus Stromansaid he's not pitching Opening Day,
said he is pitching Saturday against Houston. Against Houston, so the third starter,
so he's Game three. So thatwould just leave me thing. Garrett
Cole is gonna Willis Reid and he'sgonna actually start in Game one. Well,
they have the other guys in thein the rotation Clark Schmidt, Clark
Schmidt and Nestor Cortes. And thenof course you know there's a question of
(08:31):
who's going to replace Garrett cole inthat's you know, in the five minute
rotation. So anyway, mister Cortesjust something worth tracking. And again just
because they said rodnd was penciled inas the Game two starter, he very
well could be Game one. Sonot the biggest thing he spent a ton
of time on. But you know, look, opening day, you want
to set the tone. You wantto start with a with a win.
(08:52):
Because Astros for so many years hadwon the season open ross. Last year
was the first time in a longtime they lost. The season was in
a row whatever it was, andit was and it was because I think
it was a tide game. Whatin the eighth and then Ryan Presley gave
up two runs and then uh inthe ninth and then and then for the
rest of the year people hated himand even though he was really good.
(09:13):
And then Kendall Graveman I believe,got the win or the save the White
Socks. Okay, yeah, heit was funny he was pitching for the
White Sox and the Astros trade forhim at the at the trade deadline.
But nonetheless, uh, and itwas Fromber who started, and but Frommer
pitched well that day. They justcouldn't get the win. But here's hoping
the Astros do get that win herein less than two weeks and start off
on the right foot. But otherstorylines coming out of spring trading ross we've
(09:37):
seen that, Uh, Jake Myers, how about him hitting his first Rake
Myers, Baby, Jake Myers season, Baby, let's go, and he
is hitting well, I'm ready forit. It's it's so funny to see.
But look, that's that's a greatthing for the Astros if Jake Myers
wants to get off to a hotstart and be one of their better hitters.
He said, he's he's changed acouple of things in his swing and
(09:58):
his you know, he say,feel so comfortable where his hands are and
everything right now. I say,look, just keep doing what you're doing.
And as you know, one ofthe stories I saw Alison Flunder post
at MLB dot com, so it'sJake Myers had to fight for every bit
of playing time, but he ispushing to be that center field starter on
opening day. Yeah, and Imean, we'll see how well he hits.
(10:18):
He's like, oh, psing overa thousand in spring training. That's
not what you're going to expect forhim when the season starts. That's not
even what you want from him whenthe season starts. And that's okay.
You're just asking him to be outthere cover a ton of ground in center
field, like we know that hecan doesn't have an elite arm out there,
but still an elite grag just getsjumps on balls and can go out
there and just makes when he's justout there waiting for a fly ball and
(10:41):
under there. People just don't understand. Like when you go to the games,
you see that dude can just coveralmost from left field to right field
out there in center and that's whathe's able to do. It's a premium
defensive position. You don't normally askyour guys in premium defensive positions to mash.
You don't need them to just hita one hundred and thirty bombs or
anything like that. But if hecan go out there hit you know,
(11:03):
to fifty two sixty ish, tryto get you. Last year, he
had ten home runs in only likefour hundred plate appearances. So if he
can get you somewhere like closest totwenty and just be competent at the play
turnover that lineup, get you toJose Al two, he gets on base
with his speed and then he's upthere for Jose Al twove and jord On
Alvarez at one two. That's gonnajust pay big dividends for the Houston Astros
(11:28):
in this lineup. So I've alwaysbeen Jake Myers fan club. He hit
the ground running and looked pretty goodwhen he has first and the shoulder injury
and the mental stuff I think isthat the mental blocks are big with him.
I think he was had some reservationsabout really letting it go with the
shoulder. He was having the mentalblocks about playing time and pressing and all
(11:48):
that type of stuff. So aperfect approach by Joe Spot and Dana Brown
in this offseason saying, we knowthis guy thrives with encouragement and we need
to put his mind at dye.So they came out publicly they said he's
the everyday center fielder. So far, we're seeing some good early returns.
But of course, you know,I don't want to get too excited about
(12:09):
spring training stuff, because that canall it all evaporates in a second when
spring training is over and the realaction starts, but still encouraging. Nonetheless,
I'd much rather be sitting here talkingabout Jake Myers opsing over one thousand
in spring training rather than talking abouthim going over Yeah, it's it's funny
to you know, we're two weeksinto spring training and not everybody plays every
(12:30):
day, so the numbers are veryskew. But just to kind of give
you some some spring numbers, MarisoDubona, Diastro's best regular, you know,
everyday player kind of you know,hit her. He's batting five seventy
nine in spring with a thirteen eightynine ops. Jordan Alvarez batting three eighty
one. He hit his first homerun last weekend. He's batting that's a
ten oh six ops Chas McCormick's battingthree seventy five, and Jake Myers batting
(12:56):
three fifty. Let's go, baby, they're going for the bad. Kyle
Tucker batting three hundred, which isgood because he kind of, you know,
had a rough postseason. But theone that I looked at it kind
of went again. It's spring training, but yan Ar Diaz only batting one
thirty eight so far. Ross,that's your every day hitting catching. The
(13:16):
big selling point on fans is allwe got rid of Maldonado and we got
the great hitting yan Ar Diaz.So he's following up with his postseason performance,
which was what do you go for, like one for sixteen or something
like that. Yeah, just twohits for jan or arm Sorry, four
hits for yan Ardaz so far thisspring, four for twenty nine. I'm
gonna put chalk it up to he'sjust more focused on doing what he needs
(13:39):
to do behind the plate right now. Ross, he knows the bat will
be fun. It's okay. He'sfocused on catching right now. Good.
I'm focused on him catching as well, but also focused on him hitting.
I mean, he's just got tobe It's funny. I was I was
reading. It was some baseball previewarticle or something like that, and they
went through the worst players, theworst and the absolute worst hitter in baseball
(14:01):
last year was Martin Maldonado. Theabsolute worst defensive catcher by their metrics was
Martin Maldonado. So, I mean, you're just looking if he's not the
worst hitter, in baseball and notthe worst catcher in baseball. You're talking
about an improvement, So I thinkwe're gonna have a marked improvement there obviously.
Yeah. And do we talk aboutI felt like we talked about this
before, about the jan Diaz andthe defense and that you know, stolen
(14:24):
bases. They'd given up some stolea bit, but it was they were
saying it was more on the pitcherand his time. They have some slow
workers. Javier is like the reallybad one frommervel does isn't great at keeping
guys on. Joseer Katy as well, likes you do have some issues with
the guys keeping guys on. Baby. Janar diaz time from the plate to
second is really good. Yeah,it's just it was negated because the picture.
(14:45):
He's got a good pop time andhe's got a good arm. All
right. A couple other tidbits fromcamp news. Astros have kind of been,
you know, sending assigning some guysto minor league camp, which you
start doing around this time of year. The Astros optioned Dylan Coleman down to
minor league camp. He was oneof the offseason acquisitions they traded from the
Kansas City Roles kind of had arough season last year, but was good
(15:05):
the year before. It was kindof a take a chance, take a
flyer, and so far there's acouple of weeks of spring and work.
It hasn't really been there yet forDylan Coleman, which is fine, we
don't need him, but it wasa piece that man, if it had
clicked, okay, he could fillthat Ryan Standic roll or whatever for you.
Yeah, that was one of theguys. You know, we talked
about the off season middle relief,like who's going to step up because you
(15:26):
are missing Stanic, you are missinghector Aarri's filmmaton as well. So in
those one of the names, youknow, we put out names of Ben
at Sue's is, Dylan Coleman's,who had the Forest Whitley's, et cetera,
Like who are these some of theseguys one of them we need them
to kind of step up, andthe hope was that Dylan Coleman it would
be one of those. So unfortunately, as of this moment, you do
(15:48):
have to cross him off the listbecause he's now sent to minor league camp,
has some stuff to work on.So the Astros like his stuff,
don't like the way that he locatesthe stuff. So unfortunately one you you
cross off the list as far asat least impact help at the beginning of
the season in the middle leaf roles. You got to get your question answered
somewhere else. And earlier today youand Matt Thomas caught up with Brian mctagger
(16:10):
deville b dot com talking about DylanColeman. Here was Brian mctagger. Has
anybody in your mind had a DoudCamp. Doud Camp, Uh, you
know, maybe Dylan Coleman, theguy they got in the trade with the
Royals, who has great stuff andthrow its really hard. You know,
he's watched a lot of guys andyou know he's pitched a little bit better
(16:30):
here is Camp's gone on. ButI mean they absolutely love his stuff.
It probably hasn't pitched as well asthey would have liked. I mean,
I still think he's probably you know, heading for a spot on in the
bullpen to start the year. Butyou know, it's hard to say position
player wise, because you know,all these guys approach spring in different ways.
They they're just here to get atbats and but I mean I thought
(16:52):
overall the position player guys have swungthe bat, the ball, and they
played a lot too, which isnice because you know, a dusty they
didn't get into games until the middleof March. But you know, Colman's
the one guy I thought that theyhoped they would see more out of it.
But still he's a guy that evenif he doesn't make the team,
they could, you know, movehim to Triple A. He's got options.
Let them see if they can continueto work with him and you can
(17:15):
get that stuff on his zone alittle bit more, maybe see if he
could be a weapon. Got againBrian McTaggart with you guys earlier today.
Yeah, just I mean, it'sfunny that he said that about one o'clock
today, Dylan Coleman having a dudcamp, and then just a couple hours
later we find out that he wassent to minor league camp. So unfortunately,
just now working out the way theywant right now. Hopefully he can
(17:37):
locate the ball a little bit betterand they can use him later on.
Few other tidbits. As Chandel Romeput out there at the Athletic he did
an opening day roster projection. Hesaid, it's a man short for the
Astros who will be without Brian tobray you for the first two games of
the season. We forget about that. He was suspended remember in the postseason,
and so he's gotta still serve that, which is fine. Well,
(17:57):
you know, we'll deal with that. One other n tipbit from chadlor Great
Kessinger, the backup shortstop who youknow is with the team in the postseason
last year. He got to startat first base the other day, and
Chader says being serviceable will help bolsterhis chances of making the team. It's
gonna be fascinating to see who theykeep as those bench guys. John Singleton,
(18:18):
Great Kessinger, Trey Cabbage. Imean, there's all these different guys.
It's you're probably only keep going tokeep too, David Hensley, all
these other names in the mix.Yeah, it's that's just basically the roster
spots that we're worried about. Iwonder what's gonna happen as far as those,
because Trey Cabbage is somebody that theytraded for from the Angels. They
do like his profiles at thirty thirtyguys, what he was he was only
(18:41):
I think did they say it wasonly there was only two thirty thirty guys?
In Triple A or something last yearand he was one of them something
like that. But anyways, he'sshown the power, he's shown that he's
got some speed on the base passas well. The problems for him,
of course, is just strikeout numberswhich are astronomically high. So if you
can get a little bit more platediscipline from him, I think you're talking
(19:02):
about maybe some found money. Buthe is twenty seven years old, so
maybe we do need to keep expectationslow for him. John Singleton, I
feel like you already know what yougot in him, so I'm not super
high on the prospects of him inthe future. And then as far as
great Cassinger, yes, just puttingit first, putting him all over the
field, that's definitely gonna help hisodds of making the team and sticking with
it. And last thing, Rossand again, this is our Crawford box
(19:25):
cast Cursey of Carback Brewing in theCrawford Bach. It is a home run
every time. Make sure you guysare loaded up to the start of Astro
season with some ice cool Crawford Bach. You know when you see it,
the tequila Sunrise stripes on the packaging, it is what pairs perfect with Astros
baseball. Well, it's peanuts,hot dogs, whatever you're having at the
ballpark, make sure you're drinking CrawfordBach. All right, Christian Haavier has
been looking like his old self.He has an ERA of one eighty and
(19:47):
three starts so far. It's springtraining, so he's been cool. But
we got to address it. AndI know it's nauseating when we would say
his name and people are like,oh god. This week on Foule Territory,
No, Lance mccullor's June said,Hey, hey, no, I
like Lance. That's Suis. You'regonna go Montero. No, I don't,
but people it's just you say thename Lens McCullers and people go,
oh god. It's just they needto shut up. I know. Look,
(20:08):
when Lance is good, they're payinghim, he's making great money.
They're paying well. When he's readyto go and out there, he's he's
great. You love Lance mccallers.It's just the injuries have turned people off.
This week on Foul Territory, hesaid his flexor tendon surgery is a
thirteen to fifteen month recovery. Well. He had his surgery last June thirteenth
a color set. His goal isto aim for that thirteen month timeline that
(20:32):
would put him in late June earlyJuly. He said that would be a
big win for me if that happens. So it's sounding like at the earliest
July. That's good. That meansit's gonna be fresh and ready to go
for the season. Let's go.I like a Lance mccallor's junior. He
really wants. He knows more thananybody about the noise, about the injuries
and all that type of stuff.He loves this organization, He loves his
(20:53):
city. He wants to go outthere and compete and pitch. It eats
at him more than anyone else.And I can't wait to see him get
back out there on the mound.Yeah, we can't wait to see him
hopefully. All you know, LuisGarcia looked good. You know we were
at spring training. He's his rehabsgoing along well, and he projects somewhere
around the same timeline. All starbreak ish kind of stuff, So be
good problems to have. We'd loveto have a surt plus of pitching,
(21:15):
and that's what the Astrols will haveif they fully get healthy with those guys
by midseason, but we appreciate youguys for listening to the Crawford Box Cast,
presented by Carbock Bringh. He's RossVireal, I'm Chris Gordy and uh.
Ross will be starting to sting upweekly here real soon once we get
into the Astros seasons. So it'sgonna be fun to be talking Astros again
every week with you looking forward toit. Can't wait seasons almost here,
(21:36):
all right, we'll talk to youguys real soon on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Make sure you subscribe to our podcastand keep up to date at sports
seven ninety dot com
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