July 8, 2024 • 25 mins
On this edition of the Crawford Boxcast presented by Karbach Brewing, Ross and Gordy discuss the Astros series win in Toronto, and the blown opportunity in Minnesota. They also discuss Alex Bregman's future, and Josh Hader's homerun barrage this season.
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(00:09):
Astros fans cheers, fucking lucky.Welcome to the Crawford Bucks cast by Houston
Astros, proudly port for you byCrawford Bach from Carbach Brewey. You're getting
that bear. Oh my godness.The Crawford Bucks cast starts. Now here
we go, Here's Chris Gordy andRoss Via Real. Astros lose two out
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of three over the weekend to theMinnesota Twins. I mean Friday, they
escape by the hairs of their chinnychin chin. You win that one,
thirteen to twelve. Josh Hater hasto come in, gives up a home
run, closes it out, andthen yesterday gives up the home run state
of the Astros forty six and fortyfour. Thankfully. The Mariners losing two
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in row as well. Engine closerto the All Star break. How we
feeling, Yeah, let's rewind alittle bit because last week talked. In
fact, last time I saw you, we were doing Reed Shepherd press conference
over a Toyota Yes Tuesday. Uh, and then I hit the road for
vacation. The Astros. I'm atthe airport watching was it Aragt Spencer Raghetti
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gets shelled And I was like,oh, that's not good. But I
said, okay, day game ornot day game, it's not game on
Wednesday. I said, if youcan come back and win that one,
they come back on Wednesday. Andwhen that one against Toronto, you know
what, al Tuovey had run abloco was really good. Cakuchi was really
good. But you got after theirbullpen and you were able to win that
game nine to two. So youwould you know, it was like,
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all right, you took two outof the first three, and then you
had the fourth game. Was thatThursday's day game? Yes, and fromber
was okay. You you were ableto get the win. He gave up
three runs in the first inning andthen he settled in and to put up
five zeros and you were able togive a couple of runs off Chris Bassett
and you won that one five tothree, and it was like, all
right, we took three out offour Toronto, God bless the USA,
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Happy July fourth everything. You beathim on Canada today and you beat him
on July fourth. Take that Canada. So then Friday night you go to
Minneapolis and you were already a littlebit like all right, we're this's gonna
have to be a bullpen game.They're gonna start Sean Duban. You're like,
I don't know how I feel aboutthis. He had three and a
third no hit against the Mets earlierthe week. Yeah, and Pablo Lopez,
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who's typically been very good, Yeah, you got after him, and
and that was good to see.I mean it was you know, you
get the three nothing, the lead, they come right back in answer.
It's tied three to three. Thenthey take the four to three lead.
But then you take the lead inthe sixth and the seventh, and it
really was that that eighth inning,that the ninth, Bregman gets you that
insurance home run, and you gofrom a ten to finally, Seena,
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finally you're like, oh, wegot this. And then what Luis Contreras
couldn't get it out? Seemingly no, he could not, And then Josh
Hater gives up the Grand Slam.Yeah, Carlos, Yeah, but you
dodge disaster. You get the thirteento twelve win. Then it was Saturday
Hunter Brown not good, okay,whatever, and then a chance on Sunday
you really had a chance to winthat one, and unfortunately you couldn't find
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the big hit. No, youcouldn't come up at the right situation and
Josh Hater, I mean, wedid to talk about it. And it's
eight home runs so far this season. It's as many home runs as Fromber
Valdez has given up this year.And think about how shaky we feel like
he's been, and he gave upthree of them in one inning. You've
given away the same amount. Ithink it's ninety one innings for Fromber,
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thirty nine innings for Josh Hater thisyear, and they've given up the same
amount of home runs. How concernedare we? I mean, you have
to keep putting him out there.I don't think there is going to be
any talk of taking him out ofthe closers role, even though Ryan Presley
has been pitching very well and BrianBray you continuing to, i mean just
appear and seemingly every other game forthe Astros in pitch. Well, it's
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still got to be Hater's spot.But man, it's it's like we keep
waiting for things to settle down forhim in terms of the hard to hit
contact and it hasn't happened. Yeah, And I don't know, man,
it's the whole bullpen. It overallhas been much better here the last month
plus two months. Really, Butyeah, I don't know what's going on
with Hater in the home runs.You know, it's like, again,
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six home runs all the last season, they give up, Yeah, eight
already this year. We're not evenat the All Star break. Well I
thought it was. I thought.I guess I must have read it wrong.
I thought I read Chandler said hegave up like three home runs all
of last year. Yeah, Ithought it's at six. Okay, Well
you might be right either way.Either way, eight is more and we're
eighty something games into the season,we're about to hit the All Star break.
It's just not what you were hopingfor. You pay the dude ninety
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five million dollars, and I youknow, as I've said previously, I
was on board with it, especiallywith the way that you had lost innings,
Kendell Grayman getting hurt and the lossof Ryan Stanek, Hector Nerris and
philm Ayton. You had to dosomething, so you might as well swing
for the fences in pai Josh Hater, I was down, but it's clearly
it's not like it's not working out, and he's been on like a Montero
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level disaster, but the hard hitcontact, the home runs continue to be
concerned and they continue to happen.Yeah, I just you've been able to
piece this thing together. And thatwas the thing I was second with my
buddy yesterday. I said, well, look, at the end of the
day, it was a successful roadtrip, and I said, it's hard
to see the forest trees sometimes,but we have to look at that and
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then the top of it, Seattlelost. Yeah, that's true. You're
still only two games back. Andlook ross three weeks ago, we would
have said, if you can closethis thing and be within five games at
the All Star break, we allwould have taken it. Right. So
yes, look, you gotta avoiddisaster. You got these last six at
home. It's Miami and it's theRangers, and the Rangers have been stumbling
and the Marlins are not been goodthis year. So although the Rangers have
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won three in a row, Ibelieve Marlins have won two in a row.
So it's you know, a littlebit better baseball as of late.
But to me, two out ofthree and two out of three and then
whatever happens in Seattle, Seattle alsogoes two A three, two O three,
so be it. Yeah, that'sfine. I'll take two back at
the at the All Star break.Absolutely you would, so yeah. I
pulled it up from Josh Hater inWow. In twenty nineteen he was an
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All Star. He gave up fifteenhome runs that year in sixty one games.
Last year in sixty one games,only three home runs this year eight
and thirty nine games. Is alsosome of that. The use he's getting
a lot more used this year,as far as you know what you would
project for where we are in theseason to what he did. And last
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year he was a spectacular one pointtwo eight ERA, this year four point
one five, almost doubling his careertwo point sixty five R. So hopefully,
you know what, he's gonna getsome days off, he's gonna rest
up, he's gonna figure some thingsout, and then he's gonna be good
down the stretch. Because I cansee a world where you get I'll tucker
back, You get Josh Hater,right, you get Brian a Bray,
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you a little bit of rest,You get some of your arms back as
well, whether it be justin Verlander, Luis Garcia, Jake Bloss or whatever,
and then you can really make arun, start ripping off a bunch
of wins like they already have beenshorthanded. You could do the same thing
getting your guys back, and thenmaybe you're just gonna be fun and and
and start running away, maybe notrunning away necessarily, but catching and then
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and putting some padding in between yourselfand and the Seattle Mariners and really winning
this American League West in the inthis twenty twenty four season. Uh like
that? The reality is, Oh, the good news is we didn't even
touch on Jay or you mention JakeBoloss like he's gonna he's gonna come back
this week, this week, andthen Luis Garcia wasn't great his rehab outing
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the other day, but he's gonnaget another one here soon. And that's
the big thing to me. It'slike, you gotta get and then what
the hell is going on Kyle Tuckerand Joseph Erlander. That's the big thing.
So but you can't. They're notgonna be able to piecemeal this thing
together without getting some form of thepitching rotation at least a little bit of
help. Yeah, I see peopleout there like it takes two to tango.
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Someone has to be willing to traderight now, and a lot of
teams are going, nah, wellwait yeah till you didn't have Aaronsavali go
to the Brewers. But also Iknow that Dana Brown the public, the
face that he's putting on is hey, we can always use pitching, Always
use pitching, always use pitching.But and that's just easier said than done
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with what they have and what theywant to give away and with the injuries
that they've suffered. And then maybecan can you see a world where you
say, you know what? Oris it too far fetched to bank on
something from Luis Garcia to bank onJustin Verlander. Even when he was pitching,
it's not like he was lights out, and the dude's got an era
of two. It's I believe overfour, hovering around four. So it's
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interesting to me if an Oblanco cankeep it up. Hunter brown sputtered the
last time he was out, butthen the last three innings he was better.
If he can be the real dealand then Rick I'm not worried about.
I'm thinking of like, just likeplayoff. If you're talking about a
playoff rotation of guys, I thinkyou have guys that can set up a
playoff rotation and that would be Blanco, Brown Fromber and Verlander, whatever order
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you want to put them in,and then you get your guys back.
As far as the lineup, maybetrade for a first baseman, and I
think you're in a pretty good spot. And then are you better than the
Yankees who have been free falling alittle bit better? More? Probably not,
but you can at least play withthem, And the same thing with
the Orioles, even though you sweptthem, they would be favorites if he
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had played a five or seven gameseries against the Orioles. But outside of
that, I just don't see aworld where I'm extremely scared of any opponent
that the Asteroids could possibly face inthe American League playoffs. Yeah, it
all depend It's on the astros man. Can they get healthy, can they
put it all together? I mean, we really haven't even talked about the
the Uron. The guy's getting hit, does the problem he's gonna be okay?
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I don't think people are throwing athim, although there was the one,
the Toronto one, I don't thinkso either. I mean, you
think you think Carlos Korea is lettingMinnesota Twins throw it at jose L Twove.
I don't think so. I don'tknow he got hit as well.
I don't think that was on purposeeither. I think he's just baseball.
And Brian McTaggert brought this up onTwitter as well. The Astros have been
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hit thirty seven times this year.That's like way way lower than a lot
of other teams, which the MinnesotaTwins who had been hit over sixty times,
but now do the last two weeks. Yeah, exactly, Baseball stuff
happens. You think they're I don'tthink they're being you think they're being targeted.
I don't. I think we needto come out send the mess the
Minnesota Twins of all people like whatwrongs did the Astros do them in twenty
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and seventeen. I mean it does. It doesn't make sense to me.
Do you think Arraghetty intentionally at there, like like Arraghetty said last night,
it was a two to count,he's trying to get out. I don't
think what does Spencer Arraghetty have.I mean, he does got a little
bit of red ass in him.I guess he's got some fire and stuff.
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But I don't think that's the time. And I don't think it was.
I think, as Spencer Ragedy said, I think he knows I wasn't
throwing at him, and I wasn'tbecause in that scenario on a two to
two count, like why would youdo it? Then it doesn't make any
sense. Although if you're trying tocover your track, Altuve gets it,
Jordon gets it. Have you seenSpencer Ragedy's control? Does he even know
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where he's throwing the ball half thetime? It seems like when he's not
right. I'm just saying that wasn't. I don't know. I mean,
we can spec getting hit on thehand, you don't know. I don't
know. If I had to guess, not knowing, not being inside this
brain of Spencer Arraghedtty and taking himat his word, I would guess that
he was not intentionally throwing and watchingthe game and and Arragedtty throws stuff with
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a ton of movement, and yes, he has a control issue as well.
I just don't think it was intentional. Hit them all, brother,
payback? Okay, Well that's whata lot of people on the on the
Twitter verse were saying and wanting andhit them We're out for blood. The
funny thing to me, though,is that cheering ho the Twins fans classlessly
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cheering Jose al Tuve getting hit onceagain? You ignoramuses josel Tuve did not
have a buzzer in twenty nineteen.He did not participate in the scheme in
twenty seventeen. And oh, bythe way, you're booing when Carlos Career
gets hit and cheering when he hitsGrand Slams for your team. Get a
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brain in your head, please,this was angering fans at Altuove. I
mean, tell me this guy's nameso I can mute him. You put
him on the mute list. Hisname is just Erin. Oh okay,
I mean this is his Twitter handleat Aaron Underscore sixteen. This is iron.
This is a response to people saying, you know, al Tuve got
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hit on the hands and people cheeredit and celebrated at an air. Oh
sorry, it's a a row.I don't know a row, he tweeted.
I won't cheer for someone getting hurtever, but the astros Altuve and
his friends did irreparable damage to thesport. They cheated, They cheated,
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and they were barely slapped on thewrist for it. They ruined the perception
of the validity of the sport foryears. If he gets hurt, I
truly don't care. Okay, wellI'm gonna mute him. I mean yeah,
rooting for people to get hurt.The problem, like they they brainwashed
everyone the misinformation. I swear Jamboysshould have to pay for his crimes.
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How can has he? He hasnever come out and apologized or said anything
about any of this. No,to my knowledge. I mean, my
god, you proliferate this misinformation.You come out with your dumb ass videos
where Josh Reddick has a a pieceof uh what do you call it?
Confetti on his shoulder and you thinkthat's a buzzer. I mean, how
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stupid can you be? Well,because they would say, well, you
open the door for cheating. Nowwe think you're well, it's like the
same thing in relationship. Yankees cheated. If somebody, if somebody in a
relationship cheats and you forgive them,then it's always for years, you know.
It's like That's the crazy thing tome too, is that people forgetting
that the Yankees were cheating in twentyand fifteen and sixteen, that the the
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twenty seventeen was the Apple Watch thing, with the Red Sox twenty eighteen when
Alex Corr was there, they gotreprimanded. They freaking fired their manager and
then they hired him back, buthe got shut down or like they they
sent a memo and supposedly they didwhatever the after the memo. Well,
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the Red Sox thing was after thememo. Then twenty eighteen when they got
they got punished for that when theymade J. T. Watkins the fall
guy. I just I saw somebodysaying, uh, one guy had an
honest correspondence with somebody. They said, wait, but wasn't alto v cheating
wise, this is a big deal. And the guy said, look,
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dude, just google it. Firstthing comes up as l twove and the
three other players who didn't partake inthe cheating scandal. The guy goes,
oh, I totally didn't even knowthat. He goes, that's crazy.
He goes, but wait, whatabout the whole buzzer thing. Why don't
you guys and the guys like beinghonest, he really didn't know, and
that's the problem, Like it's thesenarratives out there and people really don't know.
Terrible and the Rob Manford, thecommissioner, like he didn't do anything
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about it to try to say,hey, guys, By the way,
when he sat down with the players, the only way to get the full
truth was by saying, you havefull immunity here. You know, a
full immunity if you tell us thetruth. And that's what Korea said.
That's why they all admitted to it. You know what they could have done.
Let Mike Fires go he's a liar. They could all If forty five
other guys point that Mike Fires toldgo he's a liar, then the story
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okay, so Mike Fires versus us. That was the thing. You had
Mike Fires as the whistleblower, andthen you had the players in good faith
thinking, okay, we're getting immunity. We're gonna get busted for this.
But everybody else was doing it anyways, so something else will come out.
And I'm sure if you went tothe players privately and said, knowing what
you know now, would you havesaid anything? They would say hell no,
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because they became the fall guys fora league wide issue and blame Rob
Manford. He's the one that saidManford suck. We will give you the
full community here. Look, I'mif I did something wrong at work,
but your boss comes here and goesyou have full immunity if you just tell
me what happened. Yeah, Okay, Well I'm gonna be completely honest.
Yeah, can we get that atwriting? Okay, here's my segnature.
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All right, you cannot come backor retaliate at mean at all. Yeah,
here's what happened. He also didn'thave any leg to stand on if
he did try to suspend them,then there was no collectively bargained rule.
There are now collectively bargained suspensions andstuff like that, but not bef for
Colby and Baytown here on the phonelines. What's up Colby? Oh?
Yeah, First off, that wholecheating scandal thing, and the John moriy
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guy. I think he's just madbecause he's a Yankees fan, and the
Yankees having won a World Series sincethis whole thing happened. In this malaise,
the Astros not malays, but Imean forty six and forty two,
you lost to your last three.But I just are we gonna be okay?
Is Jake bloss gonna come back andbe fine? And the Luis Garcia
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back and then Justin Verlander after andthen we're just gonna really get the ball
rolling and Kyle Tucker's gonna come backand then they're really gonna make the charge
for the playoffs. Kind of feelinglike that, but you got to get
your guys back. Yeah, andwe're kind of not really playing with house
money, I'd say, but likeyou were. You won that crazy game
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on Friday and then Saturday, HunterBrown just it looks he gets a pass
because he was bad for or hewas great for about a month and a
half and finally had a bad outing. I'm like, and you know what
he did too, He kind ofhelped the bullpen absolutely through it and pushing
you know, like if you're gonnaget richelled, hey, if you can
give me a couple more innings andjust at least I save some arms.
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Great, but the one yesterday,man, it just sucked because Jordon gets
hit on Saturday and then you gottago play a game without him. You
were able to win some games withoutl two ve, but not having Rdon's
big bat in the lineup yesterday Ithought killed him because it was like,
you get those two runs and thenthey Minnesota comes back in answers, but
you had no you had no answer, Like you kept getting guys on you
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couldn't do anything with it, andthat low braffito lead off double. It's
like, dude, and don't evenmove them out. Ve just bought them
out. Do something, get himover and then let's get the run in
because I think was it yeah singbragman or somebody hit one and I'm like,
oh, the run was a scoredthere? Uh yeah, I think
it was was a painting Okay,yeah, the third up. But honestly,
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like you, okay, you takea three or two lead there,
do you think Josh hander Pitcher isa clean ninth and you get the win?
Not really, but you'd hope.So. I mean, you only
faced one battery yesterday. The dudegot into a battle with him and he
hit a home run, I willsay. I mean he did have a
save Thursday, he had a saveon Friday. I mean he's he's been
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fine. He's been great. Eighthome runs on the year. Other than
that all of last season. Yeah, Todd in Cyprus here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. What's up, Todd? I hope things are great out there
and are pretty good for you outthere in Cyprus. Yeah, so it
could be worse, I guess,but yeah, hater. You know,
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he's having a rough patch. ButI mean, if at least look in
the safe situations when he's in therein the safe situations, he's at least
he's not blowing the games, it'ssomething. But anyways, the talking about
his contract outs, you know,not a great one, Montero, not
a good one. Bray you allthis, Uh, where do y'all think
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Gregman is at with what you knowhe obviously is? You know, it's
an adequate year. It's not great. You know, he'd had a decent
history, but he's not been thesame for a couple of years. But
he's still a good age. He'sbeen healthy last couple of years. What
do you all think? What kindof contract is he reasonably going to be
looking at this offseason, whether ornot with the Astros? And I'll hang
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up and listen. Yeah, it'llbe interesting, Todd, And thank you
for getting in and appreciate you makingthe phone call because I mean previously,
before this year, I mean,I don't even know seven years, he
was looking somewhere around there for theeight or nine I'm told, in the
forty million dollar range. See,I mean that's just not happening. Alex
(20:45):
I'm sorry. We if maybe ifhe had had the years that he had
in eighteen and nineteen when the ballwas juiced, where he's hitting thirty and
forty home runs every other year,then then that's something you could talk about,
but just doesn't seem reasonable. Hestill does play Gold Glove caliber uh
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a third base for the most part, but he's thirty years he's thirty years
old. It's on base percentage alwayshigh. He works walks normally, not
this year though, three thirteen onbase career three sixty eight. Yeah,
ops plus, which is I lovebecause it's just tells you about league averages
one hundred three. He's three percentbetter than league average. He's got one
to oh three. That's where heis right now, slugging decent. It's
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okay, yes, his his he'sbasically a league average hitter who plays good
third base. That's not wheth thirtyforty million dollars a year. It's now
he wins above replacement this year isreally low. Okay, what's a what's
the what's the war looking like?His war in twenty two was four to
a half. His war last yearit was really good, was four point
nine. That's great. Is warthis year one point one, halfway through
the season. So I will saythis, maybe this works in your favor.
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I mean, maybe you're able tomaybe like with Korea when he wanted
to hit the market and the marketwasn't really churning. Yeah, what he
signed? What that one year dealwith Minnesota? It was a three year
with to opt out. He optsout and then he gets a long term
deal with them. But I'm sayinglike, if Bragman, if you're not
getting the deals you want, andI know he's gonna be thirty one next
year, maybe you could cold it. Maybe you could say, like,
(22:15):
all right, you know one yearforty two million, Yeah, one kind
of short term thing. What aboutlike five one fifty? I do you
think would do that? I thinkCrane would do that, but I don't
think Bragman would, Right, ButI would throw in a bunch of stuff.
I'd put Can you make it incentive? Laden? Can you put in
(22:36):
a bunch of stuff? Probably?Yeah. But then I mean Scott Boris
and trying to play that game.He's trying to play the short term game.
They're trying to do as much asthey can, and Braggy's like,
I got the salsa. I gotthe horses up in Kentucky. Private flights
up to Lexait to Kentucky are cheap. I gotta go see my race horses.
Like he's got a lot of expenses. That's true. Maybe he's gonna
pull it. You think more peopleare gonna be upset with Scott Boris and
(22:59):
what he's trying to do and fileJordan Montgomery did because all the Boris clients
are kind of hold out for allthis big money and it just it just
hasn't been coming to last. Butthis is where I think Bragman and Jim
Crane just need to get in.Dana Brown just need to get in a
room and be like, Yeah,Alex, let's have a talk, dude.
Like you got your house here,your wife's from here, you got
your kid, Like, let's figuresomething out. Yeah, because you love
(23:22):
to Boston. But you know you'regonna paying taxes up there. It's gonna
offset what we're offering you here.Like the tax thing doesn't Nobody seems to
care. Nobody seems to care.Anthony Davis, I know what that check
you're writing to play live in LosAngeles is, Dude. Half your paycheck
is out the window at California.I guess he's doing play half of their
games at home, so they don'tcare as much. I don't know.
(23:44):
But and like you had to buy, he had to buy a house and
everything, like breg, your househere is paid for, Like everything's paid
for. You can beat like ifyou literally set though with the financial analyst
you they could could like tell you, like, dude, you'd actually live
really pretty here if you just stayedhere. Yeah, and you play a
number of road games in Arlington,so you have to pay You pay taxes
for wherever you're playing, So youwould play half your games here, and
(24:07):
then you'd also get a couple ofseries up in Arlington, so you would
stay there as well. You getmore games in Texas. Yeah, go
to it anywhere else, go tothe al least to give New York,
Boston, Toronto, Baltimore all yourTexas. And when the A's moved to
Las Vegas, Nevada doesn't have stateincome tax. Oh hmm hmm. Hey,
(24:27):
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Astros fans cheers, fucking lucky.Welcome to the Crawford Bucks cast by Houston
Astros, proudly port for you byCrawford Bach from Carbach Brewey. You're getting
that bear. Oh my godness.The Crawford Bucks cast starts. Now here
we go, Here's Chris Gordy andRoss Via Real. Astros lose two out
(00:38):
of three over the weekend to theMinnesota Twins. I mean Friday, they
escape by the hairs of their chinnychin chin. You win that one,
thirteen to twelve. Josh Hater hasto come in, gives up a home
run, closes it out, andthen yesterday gives up the home run state
of the Astros forty six and fortyfour. Thankfully. The Mariners losing two
(00:59):
in row as well. Engine closerto the All Star break. How we
feeling, Yeah, let's rewind alittle bit because last week talked. In
fact, last time I saw you, we were doing Reed Shepherd press conference
over a Toyota Yes Tuesday. Uh, and then I hit the road for
vacation. The Astros. I'm atthe airport watching was it Aragt Spencer Raghetti
(01:21):
gets shelled And I was like,oh, that's not good. But I
said, okay, day game ornot day game, it's not game on
Wednesday. I said, if youcan come back and win that one,
they come back on Wednesday. Andwhen that one against Toronto, you know
what, al Tuovey had run abloco was really good. Cakuchi was really
good. But you got after theirbullpen and you were able to win that
game nine to two. So youwould you know, it was like,
(01:44):
all right, you took two outof the first three, and then you
had the fourth game. Was thatThursday's day game? Yes, and fromber
was okay. You you were ableto get the win. He gave up
three runs in the first inning andthen he settled in and to put up
five zeros and you were able togive a couple of runs off Chris Bassett
and you won that one five tothree, and it was like, all
right, we took three out offour Toronto, God bless the USA,
(02:04):
Happy July fourth everything. You beathim on Canada today and you beat him
on July fourth. Take that Canada. So then Friday night you go to
Minneapolis and you were already a littlebit like all right, we're this's gonna
have to be a bullpen game.They're gonna start Sean Duban. You're like,
I don't know how I feel aboutthis. He had three and a
third no hit against the Mets earlierthe week. Yeah, and Pablo Lopez,
(02:27):
who's typically been very good, Yeah, you got after him, and
and that was good to see.I mean it was you know, you
get the three nothing, the lead, they come right back in answer.
It's tied three to three. Thenthey take the four to three lead.
But then you take the lead inthe sixth and the seventh, and it
really was that that eighth inning,that the ninth, Bregman gets you that
insurance home run, and you gofrom a ten to finally, Seena,
(02:49):
finally you're like, oh, wegot this. And then what Luis Contreras
couldn't get it out? Seemingly no, he could not, And then Josh
Hater gives up the Grand Slam.Yeah, Carlos, Yeah, but you
dodge disaster. You get the thirteento twelve win. Then it was Saturday
Hunter Brown not good, okay,whatever, and then a chance on Sunday
you really had a chance to winthat one, and unfortunately you couldn't find
(03:14):
the big hit. No, youcouldn't come up at the right situation and
Josh Hater, I mean, wedid to talk about it. And it's
eight home runs so far this season. It's as many home runs as Fromber
Valdez has given up this year.And think about how shaky we feel like
he's been, and he gave upthree of them in one inning. You've
given away the same amount. Ithink it's ninety one innings for Fromber,
(03:36):
thirty nine innings for Josh Hater thisyear, and they've given up the same
amount of home runs. How concernedare we? I mean, you have
to keep putting him out there.I don't think there is going to be
any talk of taking him out ofthe closers role, even though Ryan Presley
has been pitching very well and BrianBray you continuing to, i mean just
appear and seemingly every other game forthe Astros in pitch. Well, it's
(03:58):
still got to be Hater's spot.But man, it's it's like we keep
waiting for things to settle down forhim in terms of the hard to hit
contact and it hasn't happened. Yeah, And I don't know, man,
it's the whole bullpen. It overallhas been much better here the last month
plus two months. Really, Butyeah, I don't know what's going on
with Hater in the home runs.You know, it's like, again,
(04:23):
six home runs all the last season, they give up, Yeah, eight
already this year. We're not evenat the All Star break. Well I
thought it was. I thought.I guess I must have read it wrong.
I thought I read Chandler said hegave up like three home runs all
of last year. Yeah, Ithought it's at six. Okay, Well
you might be right either way.Either way, eight is more and we're
eighty something games into the season,we're about to hit the All Star break.
It's just not what you were hopingfor. You pay the dude ninety
(04:45):
five million dollars, and I youknow, as I've said previously, I
was on board with it, especiallywith the way that you had lost innings,
Kendell Grayman getting hurt and the lossof Ryan Stanek, Hector Nerris and
philm Ayton. You had to dosomething, so you might as well swing
for the fences in pai Josh Hater, I was down, but it's clearly
it's not like it's not working out, and he's been on like a Montero
(05:10):
level disaster, but the hard hitcontact, the home runs continue to be
concerned and they continue to happen.Yeah, I just you've been able to
piece this thing together. And thatwas the thing I was second with my
buddy yesterday. I said, well, look, at the end of the
day, it was a successful roadtrip, and I said, it's hard
to see the forest trees sometimes,but we have to look at that and
(05:30):
then the top of it, Seattlelost. Yeah, that's true. You're
still only two games back. Andlook ross three weeks ago, we would
have said, if you can closethis thing and be within five games at
the All Star break, we allwould have taken it. Right. So
yes, look, you gotta avoiddisaster. You got these last six at
home. It's Miami and it's theRangers, and the Rangers have been stumbling
and the Marlins are not been goodthis year. So although the Rangers have
(05:54):
won three in a row, Ibelieve Marlins have won two in a row.
So it's you know, a littlebit better baseball as of late.
But to me, two out ofthree and two out of three and then
whatever happens in Seattle, Seattle alsogoes two A three, two O three,
so be it. Yeah, that'sfine. I'll take two back at
the at the All Star break.Absolutely you would, so yeah. I
pulled it up from Josh Hater inWow. In twenty nineteen he was an
(06:17):
All Star. He gave up fifteenhome runs that year in sixty one games.
Last year in sixty one games,only three home runs this year eight
and thirty nine games. Is alsosome of that. The use he's getting
a lot more used this year,as far as you know what you would
project for where we are in theseason to what he did. And last
(06:40):
year he was a spectacular one pointtwo eight ERA, this year four point
one five, almost doubling his careertwo point sixty five R. So hopefully,
you know what, he's gonna getsome days off, he's gonna rest
up, he's gonna figure some thingsout, and then he's gonna be good
down the stretch. Because I cansee a world where you get I'll tucker
back, You get Josh Hater,right, you get Brian a Bray,
(07:01):
you a little bit of rest,You get some of your arms back as
well, whether it be justin Verlander, Luis Garcia, Jake Bloss or whatever,
and then you can really make arun, start ripping off a bunch
of wins like they already have beenshorthanded. You could do the same thing
getting your guys back, and thenmaybe you're just gonna be fun and and
and start running away, maybe notrunning away necessarily, but catching and then
(07:25):
and putting some padding in between yourselfand and the Seattle Mariners and really winning
this American League West in the inthis twenty twenty four season. Uh like
that? The reality is, Oh, the good news is we didn't even
touch on Jay or you mention JakeBoloss like he's gonna he's gonna come back
this week, this week, andthen Luis Garcia wasn't great his rehab outing
(07:47):
the other day, but he's gonnaget another one here soon. And that's
the big thing to me. It'slike, you gotta get and then what
the hell is going on Kyle Tuckerand Joseph Erlander. That's the big thing.
So but you can't. They're notgonna be able to piecemeal this thing
together without getting some form of thepitching rotation at least a little bit of
help. Yeah, I see peopleout there like it takes two to tango.
(08:11):
Someone has to be willing to traderight now, and a lot of
teams are going, nah, wellwait yeah till you didn't have Aaronsavali go
to the Brewers. But also Iknow that Dana Brown the public, the
face that he's putting on is hey, we can always use pitching, Always
use pitching, always use pitching.But and that's just easier said than done
(08:31):
with what they have and what theywant to give away and with the injuries
that they've suffered. And then maybecan can you see a world where you
say, you know what? Oris it too far fetched to bank on
something from Luis Garcia to bank onJustin Verlander. Even when he was pitching,
it's not like he was lights out, and the dude's got an era
of two. It's I believe overfour, hovering around four. So it's
(08:54):
interesting to me if an Oblanco cankeep it up. Hunter brown sputtered the
last time he was out, butthen the last three innings he was better.
If he can be the real dealand then Rick I'm not worried about.
I'm thinking of like, just likeplayoff. If you're talking about a
playoff rotation of guys, I thinkyou have guys that can set up a
playoff rotation and that would be Blanco, Brown Fromber and Verlander, whatever order
(09:18):
you want to put them in,and then you get your guys back.
As far as the lineup, maybetrade for a first baseman, and I
think you're in a pretty good spot. And then are you better than the
Yankees who have been free falling alittle bit better? More? Probably not,
but you can at least play withthem, And the same thing with
the Orioles, even though you sweptthem, they would be favorites if he
(09:39):
had played a five or seven gameseries against the Orioles. But outside of
that, I just don't see aworld where I'm extremely scared of any opponent
that the Asteroids could possibly face inthe American League playoffs. Yeah, it
all depend It's on the astros man. Can they get healthy, can they
put it all together? I mean, we really haven't even talked about the
the Uron. The guy's getting hit, does the problem he's gonna be okay?
(10:03):
I don't think people are throwing athim, although there was the one,
the Toronto one, I don't thinkso either. I mean, you
think you think Carlos Korea is lettingMinnesota Twins throw it at jose L Twove.
I don't think so. I don'tknow he got hit as well.
I don't think that was on purposeeither. I think he's just baseball.
And Brian McTaggert brought this up onTwitter as well. The Astros have been
(10:26):
hit thirty seven times this year.That's like way way lower than a lot
of other teams, which the MinnesotaTwins who had been hit over sixty times,
but now do the last two weeks. Yeah, exactly, Baseball stuff
happens. You think they're I don'tthink they're being you think they're being targeted.
I don't. I think we needto come out send the mess the
Minnesota Twins of all people like whatwrongs did the Astros do them in twenty
(10:48):
and seventeen. I mean it does. It doesn't make sense to me.
Do you think Arraghetty intentionally at there, like like Arraghetty said last night,
it was a two to count,he's trying to get out. I don't
think what does Spencer Arraghetty have.I mean, he does got a little
bit of red ass in him.I guess he's got some fire and stuff.
(11:09):
But I don't think that's the time. And I don't think it was.
I think, as Spencer Ragedy said, I think he knows I wasn't
throwing at him, and I wasn'tbecause in that scenario on a two to
two count, like why would youdo it? Then it doesn't make any
sense. Although if you're trying tocover your track, Altuve gets it,
Jordon gets it. Have you seenSpencer Ragedy's control? Does he even know
(11:33):
where he's throwing the ball half thetime? It seems like when he's not
right. I'm just saying that wasn't. I don't know. I mean,
we can spec getting hit on thehand, you don't know. I don't
know. If I had to guess, not knowing, not being inside this
brain of Spencer Arraghedtty and taking himat his word, I would guess that
he was not intentionally throwing and watchingthe game and and Arragedtty throws stuff with
(11:56):
a ton of movement, and yes, he has a control issue as well.
I just don't think it was intentional. Hit them all, brother,
payback? Okay, Well that's whata lot of people on the on the
Twitter verse were saying and wanting andhit them We're out for blood. The
funny thing to me, though,is that cheering ho the Twins fans classlessly
(12:18):
cheering Jose al Tuve getting hit onceagain? You ignoramuses josel Tuve did not
have a buzzer in twenty nineteen.He did not participate in the scheme in
twenty seventeen. And oh, bythe way, you're booing when Carlos Career
gets hit and cheering when he hitsGrand Slams for your team. Get a
(12:39):
brain in your head, please,this was angering fans at Altuove. I
mean, tell me this guy's nameso I can mute him. You put
him on the mute list. Hisname is just Erin. Oh okay,
I mean this is his Twitter handleat Aaron Underscore sixteen. This is iron.
This is a response to people saying, you know, al Tuve got
(13:01):
hit on the hands and people cheeredit and celebrated at an air. Oh
sorry, it's a a row.I don't know a row, he tweeted.
I won't cheer for someone getting hurtever, but the astros Altuve and
his friends did irreparable damage to thesport. They cheated, They cheated,
(13:22):
and they were barely slapped on thewrist for it. They ruined the perception
of the validity of the sport foryears. If he gets hurt, I
truly don't care. Okay, wellI'm gonna mute him. I mean yeah,
rooting for people to get hurt.The problem, like they they brainwashed
everyone the misinformation. I swear Jamboysshould have to pay for his crimes.
(13:43):
How can has he? He hasnever come out and apologized or said anything
about any of this. No,to my knowledge. I mean, my
god, you proliferate this misinformation.You come out with your dumb ass videos
where Josh Reddick has a a pieceof uh what do you call it?
Confetti on his shoulder and you thinkthat's a buzzer. I mean, how
(14:07):
stupid can you be? Well,because they would say, well, you
open the door for cheating. Nowwe think you're well, it's like the
same thing in relationship. Yankees cheated. If somebody, if somebody in a
relationship cheats and you forgive them,then it's always for years, you know.
It's like That's the crazy thing tome too, is that people forgetting
that the Yankees were cheating in twentyand fifteen and sixteen, that the the
(14:31):
twenty seventeen was the Apple Watch thing, with the Red Sox twenty eighteen when
Alex Corr was there, they gotreprimanded. They freaking fired their manager and
then they hired him back, buthe got shut down or like they they
sent a memo and supposedly they didwhatever the after the memo. Well,
(14:52):
the Red Sox thing was after thememo. Then twenty eighteen when they got
they got punished for that when theymade J. T. Watkins the fall
guy. I just I saw somebodysaying, uh, one guy had an
honest correspondence with somebody. They said, wait, but wasn't alto v cheating
wise, this is a big deal. And the guy said, look,
(15:13):
dude, just google it. Firstthing comes up as l twove and the
three other players who didn't partake inthe cheating scandal. The guy goes,
oh, I totally didn't even knowthat. He goes, that's crazy.
He goes, but wait, whatabout the whole buzzer thing. Why don't
you guys and the guys like beinghonest, he really didn't know, and
that's the problem, Like it's thesenarratives out there and people really don't know.
Terrible and the Rob Manford, thecommissioner, like he didn't do anything
(15:39):
about it to try to say,hey, guys, By the way,
when he sat down with the players, the only way to get the full
truth was by saying, you havefull immunity here. You know, a
full immunity if you tell us thetruth. And that's what Korea said.
That's why they all admitted to it. You know what they could have done.
Let Mike Fires go he's a liar. They could all If forty five
other guys point that Mike Fires toldgo he's a liar, then the story
(16:03):
okay, so Mike Fires versus us. That was the thing. You had
Mike Fires as the whistleblower, andthen you had the players in good faith
thinking, okay, we're getting immunity. We're gonna get busted for this.
But everybody else was doing it anyways, so something else will come out.
And I'm sure if you went tothe players privately and said, knowing what
you know now, would you havesaid anything? They would say hell no,
(16:25):
because they became the fall guys fora league wide issue and blame Rob
Manford. He's the one that saidManford suck. We will give you the
full community here. Look, I'mif I did something wrong at work,
but your boss comes here and goesyou have full immunity if you just tell
me what happened. Yeah, Okay, Well I'm gonna be completely honest.
Yeah, can we get that atwriting? Okay, here's my segnature.
(16:45):
All right, you cannot come backor retaliate at mean at all. Yeah,
here's what happened. He also didn'thave any leg to stand on if
he did try to suspend them,then there was no collectively bargained rule.
There are now collectively bargained suspensions andstuff like that, but not bef for
Colby and Baytown here on the phonelines. What's up Colby? Oh?
Yeah, First off, that wholecheating scandal thing, and the John moriy
(17:10):
guy. I think he's just madbecause he's a Yankees fan, and the
Yankees having won a World Series sincethis whole thing happened. In this malaise,
the Astros not malays, but Imean forty six and forty two,
you lost to your last three.But I just are we gonna be okay?
Is Jake bloss gonna come back andbe fine? And the Luis Garcia
(17:32):
back and then Justin Verlander after andthen we're just gonna really get the ball
rolling and Kyle Tucker's gonna come backand then they're really gonna make the charge
for the playoffs. Kind of feelinglike that, but you got to get
your guys back. Yeah, andwe're kind of not really playing with house
money, I'd say, but likeyou were. You won that crazy game
(17:52):
on Friday and then Saturday, HunterBrown just it looks he gets a pass
because he was bad for or hewas great for about a month and a
half and finally had a bad outing. I'm like, and you know what
he did too, He kind ofhelped the bullpen absolutely through it and pushing
you know, like if you're gonnaget richelled, hey, if you can
give me a couple more innings andjust at least I save some arms.
(18:15):
Great, but the one yesterday,man, it just sucked because Jordon gets
hit on Saturday and then you gottago play a game without him. You
were able to win some games withoutl two ve, but not having Rdon's
big bat in the lineup yesterday Ithought killed him because it was like,
you get those two runs and thenthey Minnesota comes back in answers, but
you had no you had no answer, Like you kept getting guys on you
(18:36):
couldn't do anything with it, andthat low braffito lead off double. It's
like, dude, and don't evenmove them out. Ve just bought them
out. Do something, get himover and then let's get the run in
because I think was it yeah singbragman or somebody hit one and I'm like,
oh, the run was a scoredthere? Uh yeah, I think
it was was a painting Okay,yeah, the third up. But honestly,
(18:57):
like you, okay, you takea three or two lead there,
do you think Josh hander Pitcher isa clean ninth and you get the win?
Not really, but you'd hope.So. I mean, you only
faced one battery yesterday. The dudegot into a battle with him and he
hit a home run, I willsay. I mean he did have a
save Thursday, he had a saveon Friday. I mean he's he's been
(19:17):
fine. He's been great. Eighthome runs on the year. Other than
that all of last season. Yeah, Todd in Cyprus here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. What's up, Todd? I hope things are great out there
and are pretty good for you outthere in Cyprus. Yeah, so it
could be worse, I guess,but yeah, hater. You know,
(19:38):
he's having a rough patch. ButI mean, if at least look in
the safe situations when he's in therein the safe situations, he's at least
he's not blowing the games, it'ssomething. But anyways, the talking about
his contract outs, you know,not a great one, Montero, not
a good one. Bray you allthis, Uh, where do y'all think
(20:00):
Gregman is at with what you knowhe obviously is? You know, it's
an adequate year. It's not great. You know, he'd had a decent
history, but he's not been thesame for a couple of years. But
he's still a good age. He'sbeen healthy last couple of years. What
do you all think? What kindof contract is he reasonably going to be
looking at this offseason, whether ornot with the Astros? And I'll hang
(20:22):
up and listen. Yeah, it'llbe interesting, Todd, And thank you
for getting in and appreciate you makingthe phone call because I mean previously,
before this year, I mean,I don't even know seven years, he
was looking somewhere around there for theeight or nine I'm told, in the
forty million dollar range. See,I mean that's just not happening. Alex
(20:45):
I'm sorry. We if maybe ifhe had had the years that he had
in eighteen and nineteen when the ballwas juiced, where he's hitting thirty and
forty home runs every other year,then then that's something you could talk about,
but just doesn't seem reasonable. Hestill does play Gold Glove caliber uh
(21:06):
a third base for the most part, but he's thirty years he's thirty years
old. It's on base percentage alwayshigh. He works walks normally, not
this year though, three thirteen onbase career three sixty eight. Yeah,
ops plus, which is I lovebecause it's just tells you about league averages
one hundred three. He's three percentbetter than league average. He's got one
to oh three. That's where heis right now, slugging decent. It's
(21:30):
okay, yes, his his he'sbasically a league average hitter who plays good
third base. That's not wheth thirtyforty million dollars a year. It's now
he wins above replacement this year isreally low. Okay, what's a what's
the what's the war looking like?His war in twenty two was four to
a half. His war last yearit was really good, was four point
nine. That's great. Is warthis year one point one, halfway through
the season. So I will saythis, maybe this works in your favor.
(21:53):
I mean, maybe you're able tomaybe like with Korea when he wanted
to hit the market and the marketwasn't really churning. Yeah, what he
signed? What that one year dealwith Minnesota? It was a three year
with to opt out. He optsout and then he gets a long term
deal with them. But I'm sayinglike, if Bragman, if you're not
getting the deals you want, andI know he's gonna be thirty one next
year, maybe you could cold it. Maybe you could say, like,
(22:15):
all right, you know one yearforty two million, Yeah, one kind
of short term thing. What aboutlike five one fifty? I do you
think would do that? I thinkCrane would do that, but I don't
think Bragman would, Right, ButI would throw in a bunch of stuff.
I'd put Can you make it incentive? Laden? Can you put in
(22:36):
a bunch of stuff? Probably?Yeah. But then I mean Scott Boris
and trying to play that game.He's trying to play the short term game.
They're trying to do as much asthey can, and Braggy's like,
I got the salsa. I gotthe horses up in Kentucky. Private flights
up to Lexait to Kentucky are cheap. I gotta go see my race horses.
Like he's got a lot of expenses. That's true. Maybe he's gonna
pull it. You think more peopleare gonna be upset with Scott Boris and
(22:59):
what he's trying to do and fileJordan Montgomery did because all the Boris clients
are kind of hold out for allthis big money and it just it just
hasn't been coming to last. Butthis is where I think Bragman and Jim
Crane just need to get in.Dana Brown just need to get in a
room and be like, Yeah,Alex, let's have a talk, dude.
Like you got your house here,your wife's from here, you got
your kid, Like, let's figuresomething out. Yeah, because you love
(23:22):
to Boston. But you know you'regonna paying taxes up there. It's gonna
offset what we're offering you here.Like the tax thing doesn't Nobody seems to
care. Nobody seems to care.Anthony Davis, I know what that check
you're writing to play live in LosAngeles is, Dude. Half your paycheck
is out the window at California.I guess he's doing play half of their
games at home, so they don'tcare as much. I don't know.
(23:44):
But and like you had to buy, he had to buy a house and
everything, like breg, your househere is paid for, Like everything's paid
for. You can beat like ifyou literally set though with the financial analyst
you they could could like tell you, like, dude, you'd actually live
really pretty here if you just stayedhere. Yeah, and you play a
number of road games in Arlington,so you have to pay You pay taxes
for wherever you're playing, So youwould play half your games here, and
(24:07):
then you'd also get a couple ofseries up in Arlington, so you would
stay there as well. You getmore games in Texas. Yeah, go
to it anywhere else, go tothe al least to give New York,
Boston, Toronto, Baltimore all yourTexas. And when the A's moved to
Las Vegas, Nevada doesn't have stateincome tax. Oh hmm hmm. Hey,
(24:27):
quick reminder, get yourself at CrawfordBock while you are going through whatever
you're going through, recovery efforts orwhatever it is, hoping you get your
power back. Grab a Crawford boxfrom our friends at Carbock Berring. It's
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(24:49):
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