November 20, 2023 • 31 mins
On the latest edition of the Crawford Boxcast, Chris Gordy and Ross Villarreal get you caught up on all the latest Houston Astros season as we continue on through the offseason. Since we last talked, Joe Espada was introduced as the Astros new manager, and several roster moves have taken place. We also discuss some offseason free agent moves and the latest 2024 MLB Hall of Fame ballot finalists.
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(00:09):
Astros fans cheers, Rocky Lucky.Welcome to the Crawford box Cast, Houston
Astros proudly for it for you byCrawford bach from Carmak brewey you're getting that
bear? Oh my god. Thisthe Crawford box Cast starts. Now here
we go. Here's Chris Gordy andRoss Viail and what is that? Everybody?
(00:37):
Welcome into an off season edition ofthe Astros Crawford box Cast, presented
by Carbach Ber and Chris Gordy andRoss Viial with you and uh, last
we talked with you. The Astroshave introduced their manager. We got a
ton of stuff we got to getinto, but let's start here. As
the Astros made it official a weekago, announcing that Joe Spatta has become
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the new Houston Astros manager. Hehas achieved his dream job, Dana Brown
saying it's the biggest hire of hiscareer. And the big thing that stood
out to me from being at theirpress conference a week ago was alignment,
both guys saying that they're aligned,They're gonna be on the same page with
a lot of their decision making.And Ross, what did you make of
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the announcement of Joe Aspota, yournew Houston Astros manager. Yeah, I
think it was maybe a mild surpriseat the time because you figured they would
have moved a little more quickly andmade a spot of the guy, but
not shocking who they ended up with. It felt like he was the leader
in the clubhouse really the last coupleof years. Remember we were talking about
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would Dusty retire last year and thenJoe Aspota just bumps up and slides over
one spot. So not necessarily ahuge shock the way that they went.
I liked the direction that they went. And yeah, you said alignment.
Collaborative is a word that's been used, So is that a shot at what
was happening with Dusty Baker? Washe not working with the front office and
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in whoever else who was doing reportsand analytics and all that type of stuff,
and him being a little more oldschool and going with his gut feels
and all those types of things.I don't know, But Joe a spot
on the same page, has therespect and love of the players, has
has run spring training, has beena guy who's been around in game planning
and all that type of stuff.So I'm totally on board with the hiring.
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I think it's a good hire andJim Crain probably doesn't mind that he's
probably going to be one of thecheaper hires in Major League Baseball as well,
which rumors were that that's what DustyBaker was as well. So you
don't have to spend a lot,you get some continuity, You have a
championship caliber core still here that DanaBrown needs to build around. And that's
checking one box off the list,and that was probably the biggest box get
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a manager. Now Dana Brown canfocus on trying to get some free agents.
Yeah, I had a few peopleask me, you know, what
do you think of the higher andI'm like, well, I don't know.
I mean, we've never seen Joespot of Met manage a game outside
of a couple of times where DustyBaker got ejected, and I'd have to
go back to twenty eighteen, twentynineteen. I don't remember if a j.
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Hinch, you know, I'm surehe was ejected in a game or
two when Joe Espota had to takethe rein. So nonetheless, we don't
know. I mean, we havefaith in Aspata. We hope he's the
right guy. He's been here awhile. He knows the players better than
anybody. I thought it was interestinghe said that, you know, he's
been the guy for basically the lastfive years, taking VP before the games
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on you know, workout days andall that, do a little fungo with
the infield and all those guys.He said, he's gonna move on from
that. He's gonna put somebody elsein that role. And we'll still see.
Still haven't heard who he is hiringto his staff. You gotta think
there's gonna be some continuity there withsome of the guys who've been on previous
staffs with the Houston Astros. Andobviously he's a guy who you know,
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not only he's been with the Astrosunder A. J. Hinch and under
Dusty Baker, but he's a guythat was with the New York Yankees for
a while under you know, theirprevious manager, and then with the Miami
Marlins back in the day as wellwhen Nazie Gihan was there. So he's
got a lot of he's got alot of connections to a lot of different
coaches, and so we'll see whathe is able to do. But you
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know, bottom line is it's it'san unknown, right. I mean,
we like him because he's been herea while, but we have no idea
what what Joe Spot of the manageris going to be. Yeah, we
don't know, but I mean,at the end of the day, it's
going to be up to the players. And we've been saying this when it
was you know, when it wasDusty Baker, when it's whoever. I
mean, even when it's a j. Hinch who is a genius manager making
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all these masterstroke moves, and thenhe goes over to the Detroit Tigers and
he doesn't have the same players andhe's got three losing seasons. So at
the end of the day, morethan most other sports, I think it
is up to the players, andJoe Spot is going to be asked to
be doing a few things. Imean, just keep an eye on the
when to bring in reliever X whenyou're already gonna have matchup numbers as far
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as pinch hitting and stuff like that. Really, the biggest story of all
last year was jiany Ardiaz versus MartinMaldonado. Well, Martin Maldonado is not
here anymore. I don't think he'sgoing to be back, so that's not
really gonna be one of the hugehurdles to climb and figuring out splitting time
with those types of things. Ithink the roster is also going to be
pretty well set. You're not gonnabe like a young team that doesn't have
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a lot of pieces in place,where you're gonna have camp battles and you're
jumping on short sample sizes. Oh, this guy had a couple of hits
in spring training. Does he makethe team? Stuff like that, Yeah,
for the fringe, for the twentyfour to twenty fifth spots, twenty
six spots of of the roster,but the cores here, so you don't
necessarily have to worry about that.Most guys are locked into their heavy day
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positions. You're not gonna worry aton about that either. So just basically
what you're asking for Joe Spotta todo is just keep this train rolling,
Like, just keep this thing going. You're not asking for some huge mammoth
rebuild or anything like that. Justdon't mess it up. Basically is going
to be the formula for Joe Spotta. Yeah, and just a quick note
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on a couple different, uh,you know, roster things. Kennedy Corona
was added to the Astors forty manroster last week that is now at thirty
eight active players on their forty man. He was a late additional move and
was in response to protecting him fromthe Rule five draft, So he's a
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twenty three year old. Came toHouston in the Jake Marisnik trade back in
twenty nineteen from the Mets. Uhspent the bulk of last year with the
double affiliate down at Corpus. ChristieBatte just two forty four but hit twenty
home runs thirty one steals. It'sa very pitcher friendly setting down there a
Corpus. He drew a walk inalmost ten percent of his plate appearances and
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fanned at a twenty five percent clipthat the organization would like to see him
pair down on that but Baseball Americaranks Kennedy Corona fourteenth among Houston's farm hands.
So just one of those names tokeep an eye on because they select,
you know him, and add himto the forty man and then they
lose Blind Madris. Tigers signed himto a minor league contract. He was
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a name that was very hot lastspring training. So we say goodbye to
Blind Madris. But Kennedy Corona addedto the forty man. Gotta think he's
a guy who's gonna make the moveto Triple A this year. We'll see
what he does there and could bea candidate to get a big league call
up at some point this coming season. Yeah, has shown a little bit
more pop in the bat the lastcouple of years in the minor league,
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so it's good to see from thatfrom him. He's also a guy with
some speed, got a strong arm, so I mean, yeah, a
little bit of tools. You're alittle bit older also, twenty three years
old, not like he's some youngphenom, but that's cool. If if
Dana Brown and the Astros organization wantto keep him on the roster, protect
him from the Rule five, andthen put him on the forty man,
I mean you, yeah, it'llbe interesting to see what happens. And
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maybe a name to keep an eyeon, because you do have some other
guys you know that we've talked aboutthe the Corey Jolxes of the world and
some others, and I mean we'veheard a lot about like you know,
pedro Leone, and he's already twentyfive years old and that hasn't panned out.
Would be nice to get a littlebit of outfield help. I think
Dana Brown also saying in the offseasonso far that they're happy with their outfield
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situation, not going to go outin free agency, so maybe it could
be some internal options and maybe oneof those is going to end up being
Kennedy Corona. Yeah, what's interestingis so Kennedy Corona gets added to the
forty man and so now your outfieldersyou got Jordan Alvarez, Kennedy Corona,
Corey Jolks, Chas McCormick, KyleTucker, and Jake Myers. And what's
interesting about a week ago there wasa report that the Astros had discussed Jake
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Myers in trade talks with multiple teams. He is not yet eligibra for salary
arbitration. Had a six to seventyeight OPS in a career high one hundred
and twelve games played this past year. So just something to note there,
as Jake Myers has been that guybattling Chas McCormick for some playing time,
but you know, no guarantee,Askers have not moved him yet, But
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just kind of interesting that they've beenhaving some talks with other teams about possibly
trading away Jake Myers. Yeah,Jake Myers can have some value to a
team what they're looking for, likea fourth outfielder. He can come in
as a late inning defensive replacement.He's speedy. Unfortunately hasn't shown a ton
with the bats since really his firsttaste in twenty one, he was hitting
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more home runs at a higher clipaverage numbers, OPS numbers were pretty good.
Then he had that horrific shoulder injury. Well, I don't know how
horrific it was, but it wasbad enough that he missed a lot of
time. Felt like they had rushedhim back a little bit too early in
twenty twenty two. And he alsoit was kind of a mental game for
him. Looked like he was alittle worried about the shoulder. He wouldn't
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let his swings go. He talkedabout in the offseason as he was getting
with a sports psychologist and working onmeditation, and it's kind of a mental
game for him to where he's maybethinking a little bit too much. You
had Troy Snicker say the same thingas well, or in spring training or
throughout the season, like you don'twant Jake Myers in there, thinking you
just want him to go out thereand be an athlete, because he's a
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supreme athlete, and so if hecan get a hold of one. You
know, we saw that game againstthe Yankees. He had a couple of
home runs and had like six sevenruns batted in in that game. But
you've seen flashes enough from him tothe bat, and he can provide enough
defensively to where he can at leastbe, you know, a a replacement
level ish to slightly above type ofoutfielder. And if you could ever get
his back going just to league average, then you're talking about a plus player
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because of what he can provide withthe speed and with all the ground he
covers out there in center field.Yeah, just kind of to update everybody
on where we are in the offseason. We just had the GM meetings in
the last two weeks, and thenyou know, we had the deadline for
players to accept or reject their qualifyingoffer. The non tender deadline just passed
for players on the forty man andnow next up we will head into Winter
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meetings in Nashville the first week ofDecember. Then we'll get to the Rule
five arbitration figures, exchange, allthat kind of stuff. And did want
to mention seven of the Astros arbitrationeligible players were tendered contracts from Bervaldez,
Kyle Tucker, Jose ri Keaty,Mauricio Dubon, Chas McCormick, Briana Brew
and Luis Garcia. So the fortyman roster remains at thirty eight. Two
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of those notes or two of thosenames ross Frombervaldez and Kyle Tucker both still
candidates to you know, discuss longterm contracts this offseason. I'm sure with
Dana Brown and their agents. Butyou know, again, we expect to
have some interesting arbitration hearings with allthose guys. Yeah, of course if
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if they can't, they're gonna fileit one number in the other and normally
for the most part, you don'tend up going to a hearing over it.
Of course, famously Kyle Tucker doingit last year and losing, and
it just feels like that's as faras you're talking about the extensions and trying
to sign long term, this doesn'tfeel like it feels like it's all cold
on that front with Kyle Tucker,and I would say the same thing on
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Farmer Valdez. It's also I mean, you love good Fromer. Good Fromber
is out there throwing no hitters andno hitting guys into the seventh eighth inning
and locking people down, getting aton of Crown balls and striking everybody out.
But then if he gets off schedule, we already know. I mean,
it's well known. So is thatthe kind of guy that you want
to hand a mega contract to?I would think no. The Astros probably
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think no right now, and that'swhy I don't expect anything to get done
on either front in terms of longterm deals. It's offseason, even going
into spring training. Yeah, it'scrazy. I'm looking at the calendar Ross,
We're like eleven weeks away from springtraining, eleven twelve weeks away,
So it's crazy how quickly this thingwill happen here. But just to put
a cap a little bit more onthe twenty twenty three MLB season, Kyle
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Tucker finished fifth in the American LeagueMVP voting. He received one second place
vote, four third place votes,at five fourth place votes. If you
look at the tap population show,hey Tani, he of course was the
favorite and ran away with it.Corey Seeger finished second, Marcus Simeon third,
Julio Rodriguez fourth and Kyle Tucker fifth. Not a big surprise there with
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how good show, Hey Otani?Is a lot of American League West action
in that list. Yeah, it'sKyle Tucker. Yeah, if you look
at the Unfortunately, we got alittle bit of a bitter taste in our
mouth because of what happened in theplayoffs and how we just honestly looked completely
lost out there to not where likeyou can go on a slump in Kyle
Tucker. We've seen him go intodeep funks for a long time, but
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the few amount of hits that hewas getting not showing any power, and
it wasn't even like, okay,you know sometimes we've seen Kyle Tucker go
through prolonged slumps and it's been like, you know what, he's a little
bit snake bit. He's getting ahold of them. They're just happening to
find the gloves. He's hitting theball hard like he wasn't doing anything in
the playoffs to the point, wherewas that one game where he had runners
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on first and second, no outand he's out there trying to lay out
a bunch like finely needs to figureit out. But thirty thirty threat a
gold Glover in right field. Thosedon't grow on trees, so it certainly
has value worthy of being in thetop five of the MVP conversation where he
ended up. But also I justhopefully can get back on the right track
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after that horrible, horrible playoff runhe had. Yeah, and outside Tucker
finishing fifth, jord On Alvarez finishesthirteenth, Alex Bregman finishes twenty second,
and you certainly think if Jordan Alvarezhad been healthy all year long, he
certainly would have finished higher. Andthen the Alsy Young voting from Bert Valdez
finished ninth. In that voting,he appeared on five ballots, receiving one
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fourth place vote and four fifth placevotes. So that just goes to show
you a little bit of, youknow, where the Astros ranked in the
postseason awards. We are into freeagency ross. It has started and some
teams have started to make some moves. Already, one of the biggest names
to hit the free agent in marketAaron Nola. The reports are that he
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has been locked up by the PhiladelphiaPhillies, so they are not letting Aaron
Nola go anywhere. That was talkedthat you know, Yankees and some other
teams would be interested, but Phillieslock up Aaron Nola. So that's one
of the one of the first bigdominoes to fall, at least in a
MLB free agency here. Yeah,and just kind of yeah, the Braves
I believe were hot after Aaron Nolaas well. So just kind of a
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bit of a setting of the marketin some ways. What was it the
seven years one hundred and seventy twomillion, so comfortably under thirty million per
year and a guy who, Imean can show to have ace level stuff,
So what is that going to meanfor some of the other big names
who are free agents? So orof course Blake Snell being probably number one
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of the pure starters if you're notthrowing sho Heotani in there, of course,
And what's going to happen there?Latest on him is that he might
take a short high aav deal andthen try to come out and cash out
big in a couple of years.But yeah, I mean, guys like
Snell and Jordana Montgomery, what's goingto happen? I just feel like the
Astros are going to continue to beon the sidelines, and those numbers and
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those kind of guys. But yeah, it's certainly something to keep an eye
on, because it would be nicein a perfect world with unlimited money to
add a frontline starter, because atthe end of the day, while you
do have a lot of names,you do have a lot of guys.
I mean, these last playoffs,he had one reliable guy. His name
was Justin Verlander, and everybody elsewas a question mark. Yeah. One
of the other big names to hitthe market, lance Lynn reports are he
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is going to head back to SaintLouis where he started his career, spent
six seasons there and of course nomoney. Yeah, pitch with the Yankees,
pitch with the Rangers for a coupleof years, then spent three years
with the White Sox before they triedto him to the Dodgers at the deadline,
and now heading back to Saint Louis. So Lancelyn getting up there in
h But again one of the bignames to hit the market, of course,
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the biggest names to watch. Hey, Tani is the biggest headliner.
And you know, look, ifhe wants to go choose an NL team,
more power to him. We'll takehim out of the Al West and
the Ale altogether. But we'll seewhere he ends up with. Some of
the other names to keep an eyeon, Joey Vado, Clayton Kershaw,
Jock Peterson, Hasmani Grandal, justsome of those names that are out on
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the open market. Don't think theAstros are going to be involved in any
of the big names out there,but certainly, and you know, something
to keep an eye on because Rangershave been you know, their name's been
hot out there about maybe adding abig name either an arm or a bat,
and the Mariners and the Angels,so something to keep an eye at
least for the Al West competition.Yeah, certainly we'll be I think the
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names that we're going to look atare gonna be basically relievers and what they're
good at getting. You have aBrave signing Ronaldo Lopez to a three year,
thirty million dollar deal. So whereis that going to put the Astros
when they go looking for some relievers. Of course, we already know that
it's going to be Ryan Stanek isnot going to be coming back. Hector
Nerris in all likelihood as well,and who's the other filmmate. Yeah,
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so you do have a shortage ofbullpen arms right now. You are going
to try to sign a couple ofthese guys to these types of deals.
So that's what I think we'll seein this offseason with the Astros. I
think the head when we hit springtraining, the headliner of their free agent
class probably going to be a relieveror two. Yeah, and you know,
it sounds like they're kind of contentwith the outfield. You know,
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does Kevin Kiermyer uh does he really? Is he really attractive to say that
could be our everyday center fielder?The hell with Chas McCormick. Some other
guys out there obviously, you know, relievers. David Robertson is a VET
who's been around a while and beenvery good. Craig Kimberl been a closer,
slash set up guy. JD.Martinez, you know, he signed
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a one year deal with the Dodgerslast year as a DH. You know,
the Astros look at him as hey, maybe you know he could fill
that Michael Brantley role here. Sojust some names that they're out there that
maybe the Astros could have interest in. But it seems like the Astros are
going to be very internal because youknow, they had so many injuries this
last year that you know a lotof those guys are gonna come back healthy
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at some point, Luis Garcia,Lance mccollors. It just adds more arms
to your to your rotation. Althoughwe did hear Dana Brown say, you
know, if there's an arm tobe had out there, they could add
one. Now, I don't thinkthat's gonna be got going and signing the
cy young winner Blake Snell to abig monster contract, but just something to
keep an eye on if there isa pitcher out there that catches their eye.
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Yeah, I think that's what it'sgonna be. I think it would
be a trade. I would imagineit'd be somebody under team control for a
couple of years, not a bigmoney because, I mean, unfortunately what
it is and what the players don'twant it to be. The competitive balance
tax threshold is somewhat of a salarycap for certain owners, and Jim Grain
has dipped into it before he didwith the Zach Grinky trade, but it's
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not something that he likes to makea habit of. And threshold is going
to be around two hundred and thirtyseven million dollars you have right now,
depending on what happens in arbitration.Certain websites have it estimated already at about
two hundred and seventeen million dollars forthe Astros. So you're not gonna have
a lot of will go room.You still have to sign a couple of
relievers, and so I don't thinkyou're gonna hear much of a splash and
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free agency. I think it wouldbe around the deadline, like we've seen
the track record for Jim Crane notsigning big long term deals in the off
season. But if you're getting close, you need one arm, you need
one whatever to get that over thathump to try to push all your chips
in for a World Series championship.That's what I would be keeping my eyes
on more for the Astros rather thanthis offseason. It's going to be a
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couple of relievers, maybe maybe anarm trade, but also somebody that I
imagine is going to be enterteam controlfor a low dollar amount. This is
the Crawford Box Cast, again presentedby Carbach Brewing. Hopefully you guys are
enjoying that Crawford bock all throughout theoff season, not just in the regular
season. We enjoy it throughout theoff season and of course spring training will
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be here. Before we know it, we'll be back at Minima Parks drinking
all those craft for box. Andof course they got some other great delights
as well. The ranch waters areawesome. Was at the Texans game the
other day they had the ranch watersthere. The cervesa is really good as
well. So make sure you guysare enjoying Carbock Brewing all throughout the off
season of baseball. And of courseyou get head out to the brewery.
(21:18):
They've got tons of stuff going outthere in the beer garden events. They
had the Friends Giving event this pastweekend, so tons of stuff going out
there for you at Carbock Brewing.Make sure you guys are continuing to enjoy
everything they have to offer. Rossa few more tidbits for you here on
the Crawford Box cast. The Metshired longtime Astro scouting director Chris Gross to
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oversee their amateur scouting department, sothat was an interesting note. Of course,
Gross overlapped with David Stearns during theirtenure in Houston, so some familiarity
there. And then the Brewers signeda Noli Paradus, the guy been with
the Astros for a couple of years. He got an invitation to Major League
Spring training. So Congratstone only paratusso you know, just moves there for
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some former Astros folks. And thenI wanted to get your thoughts on this
one. Max Scherzer did an interviewtoday where he was talking about Rangers GM
Chris Young and said it was sodifferent playing for him because he was a
former player and that he loved it. And he said, quote, use
your eyes, use your feel.We lead with that, not the computers.
So Max Scherzer clearly one of theguys as we always talk about the
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balance between numbers and gut feel.You know, can't all be analytics,
but you got to use analytics.Sounds like Max Scherzer is anti analytics,
more lead with your eyes and yourfeel. Well, yeah, would you
expect anything different from a guy whowas like in his forties and a red
ass and that kind of like youknow, all about my gump shin and
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my feel and this feeling of mybones and all that type of stuff.
Sure, yeah, that makes senseand also doesn't hurt that Chris Young was
able to open up the check bookwith the Texas Rangers and their owner what
was the name Ray Davis or whoeverit is over there and its shell out,
you know, a billion and ahalf dollar or a half a billion
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dollars or whatever they did over thelast several years. And I'm not even
sure. Yeah, I think ChrisYoung was there for most of that,
right, He's been there for acouple of years, so yeah, okay,
cool. It doesn't take a wholelot of whatever to go ahead and
hand over a bunch of money toCorey c like three hundred million dollars to
Corey Seg or one hundred and seventymillion dollars to Marcus Simon and forty million
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dollars to trade for Max Schurzer.So I mean, at some point the
payroll is gonna get out of controland those chickens will come home to roost,
but they don't care. It translatedto a World Series championship that they're
going to be able to hang thatbanner up for the rest of their lives.
Yeah, he really managed with hisfeel for the game going and spending
all that money on a bunch ofreally good players. Serious, just kind
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of funny, all right, Lastthing we'reross. The twenty twenty four Baseball
Hall of Fame ballot has been releasedI'm gonna run through these really quickly.
The returning candidates Todd Helton, AndrewJones, Gary Scheffield, Carlos Beltron,
Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, omarVis Kel, our guy friend of the
station, Andy Pettitt, Bobby A. Bray You, Jimmy Rollins, Mark
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Burley, Francisco Rodriguez, Tory Hunter. But more importantly, most importantly on
here in his ninth year on theballot, Billy Wagner and our friend Gendas
over at the Astro sent an emailtoday saying the former Astros All star Billy
Wagner has superior career numbers in severalkey categories, deserves a chance in the
Hall of Fame. So of coursewe are going to bat for Billy Wagner.
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Would love to see him get inthere. But when you get your
thought on some of the new candidatesmaking the ballot this year, and you
tell me who you think is alock, I'll just run through a few
of these. You just say yesor no, I'll run through them.
Jose Joey bats Bautista, No,No, okay, how about Rangers great
Adrian Beltre. Beltra is a goodone. One. I think he could
(24:59):
get in. That's a good one. I have to look at the overall
numbers. He had over thirty threethousand hits correct. Yeah, I believe.
I mean he's he's up there ina lot of categories offensively. How
about longevity Bartolo Cologne. Uh,I don't think bart that's a fringe case.
I mean he had a few goodyears and it was fun seeing him
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be so fat and hit home runs. But I would say, no,
he doesn't get in. I guess. Yeah, it's two different questions.
Do I think he gets into it? Does he deserve to get in?
I'm gonna say no, one both, okay. Adrian GONZALEZH no, Yeah,
it's funny some of these guys Ifall in the Hall of very Good,
not the Hall of Fame. MattHolliday, Uh no, I'll put
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Hall of very good as well.Victor Martinez, No, how many good
years with what was the Tigers asa d H No, thanks. This
one's interesting. When we were inMinneapolis, a ton of stuff from this
guy. Joe Mauer. Yeah,Joe Maher is a good one. I
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think you have to factor in whathe brought defensively as well. Won a
bunch of gold Gloves is an MVP. Yep, didn't have a lot to
pop. Right Catcher, Yeah,I would say probably, off the top
of my head. Fringe Case,Uh probably gets in, Okay, Uh,
Brandon Phillips no, Jose Reyis no, James Shields No. No.
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Then lastly all of decent. LastlyChase Utley and David Wright. Uh.
I again, I'd have to golook at Utley's numbers. But off the
top of my head, I'm gonnasay no. David Wright some really good
years there with the Mets, butthen couldn't stay healthy. Not a Hall
of Fame or no. So I'malso more stringent than most with Hall of
Fame. It's like, if youhave to ask, the answer is no
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most of the time. For me, all those Beltray was really the only
one you went to beat for Ithink Beltray is pretty pretty much a lock.
It feels like at some point,if not at first ballot. Yeah,
of the other of all those returningcandidates who ran through, any of
those you think should absolutely be Imean, in my opinion, Billy Wagner
deserves to be in. He wasfantastic. There were some years where his
(27:18):
numbers were better than Mariano Rivera,and yet you know, Rivera is considered
one of the all time greats,and Billy Wagner is, you know,
either right there with him and TrevorHoffman. I mean in a ton of
categories. I think Wagner deserves tobe in. Look, ay Rod has
the steroid thing, I get it, but him, Carlos beltran pretty great.
Andy Pettitt's one of the best postseasonpitchers of all time. Again,
(27:42):
steroid stuff, but he deserves tobe in. But that's kind of it.
I mean all the other ones Ithink are Hall of very good,
not Hall of famers. Like Isaid, I'm very stringent, so I
would argue even a lot of thoseI would argue about Pettit. I mean,
I think it has to be likethe feared all time great you when
you this guy's coming up on theschedule, like it aroused your cage like
(28:03):
oh no, like where people like, oh no, this this crafty Andy
Pettitt is throwing. Yeah, he'sgonna get a lot of outs and he
was great in the postseason. ButI don't know. And then also with
the relievers, to me, Imean, Mary Anno, Rivera should be
in, obviously, but it's alsolike, I mean, how many innings.
Yeah, I'm pulling it up rightnow, brilliant Wagner nine hundred innings
(28:25):
in his whole career. Like that'sa start. That's like four years,
five years for a starter. Soit's I understand, I'm like in the
minority and I'm just like an oldfoe ye or whatever. But I would
say fringe case for Billy Wagner.If he gets in, it's I'm not
gonna cry a foul or anything likethat. But if he's also not in,
(28:45):
I don't think it's some grave injustice. Yeah, Wagner seven time All
Star two thirty one career era right, ranked second among Hall of Famer RelA
first, shouldn't Wagner? Do yousay seventh all time and saves? Yeah?
Seven or seven time All Star twothirty Yeah, seven time All Stars
is good. Road Laser leaf Manis good fourth, two seasons above,
(29:06):
forty saves fourth and all time savesbehind Rivera, Hoffman and Smith. So
I mean that's pretty outstanding. Yeah, I mean, congratulations on being one
of the best pictures that wasn't goodenough to be a starter. The other
one in that group, Manny Ramirez. I mean look, if David Ortiz
gets in, Many Ramira should bein as well. One of the most
(29:27):
feared hitters in his time. Hewell, he got pop for stories as
well. Correct, Yeah, butcome on, what is in the biogenis?
Yeah, I don't know. Ito get it. It's a whole
different ball of wax. At theend of the day, he was one
of the best hitters in baseball history. I would put Manny Ramirez, and
I think I would put a Rodin as well. Like it is what
it is. It was the timesand the pictures were juicing too. And
(29:49):
if you're at the playing field isfairly level and everybody's juicing, and you're
one of the best among those,then then it's a It's a difficult argument
to have to be sure, butI probably on my ballot, I probably
put a Rod and Many Ramier's inthere. Yeah, we'll be interesting,
and again from an asterisk perspective,we'll be rooting for Billy Wagner, and
again I think he's deserving to getin there. As we wrap up here,
(30:11):
Ross, we'll be continuing our Crawfordbox Cast off season edition because there
will be plenty of stuff to talkabout with the Houston Astros. I'm sure
we'll probably have a free agent signingor two here in the next couple of
weeks and have plenty to talk about. But excited for Joe Aspota, excited
to see what he is going tobring to this team as the new Asterisk
manager. And this championship window continuesto be open for your Houston Astros.
(30:37):
Yes, a lot to talk about, a lot to discuss, because they're
still going to be good, They'restill going to contend for the Division,
they're still going to contend for WorldSeries. So just not big earth chattering
moves gonna be made, but sometweaks here and there as they get ready
for the twenty four campaign, andof course Ross and I will be keeping
up to date on everything. Itwill be Also, we'll be out of
Carback Brewing here real soon doing ashow or two there from the beer garden.
(31:00):
The temperature starting to get a littlebit nicer out there and not suffocatingly
hot, so we'll be out thereat Carbock and we'll invite some of you
guys out there to come hang outwith us and of course enjoy all the
tasty brews from our friends at CarbockBrewing. Particularly that Crawford Bock that they
serve in all the ASTROSK games atMini Made Park for ross Verrel I'm Chris
(31:21):
Gordy has been all new edition ofthe Crawford box Cast presented by Carbock Brewing.
We'll talk to you guys next timeright here on the Crawford box Cast
Astros fans cheers, Rocky Lucky.Welcome to the Crawford box Cast, Houston
Astros proudly for it for you byCrawford bach from Carmak brewey you're getting that
bear? Oh my god. Thisthe Crawford box Cast starts. Now here
we go. Here's Chris Gordy andRoss Viail and what is that? Everybody?
(00:37):
Welcome into an off season edition ofthe Astros Crawford box Cast, presented
by Carbach Ber and Chris Gordy andRoss Viial with you and uh, last
we talked with you. The Astroshave introduced their manager. We got a
ton of stuff we got to getinto, but let's start here. As
the Astros made it official a weekago, announcing that Joe Spatta has become
(01:00):
the new Houston Astros manager. Hehas achieved his dream job, Dana Brown
saying it's the biggest hire of hiscareer. And the big thing that stood
out to me from being at theirpress conference a week ago was alignment,
both guys saying that they're aligned,They're gonna be on the same page with
a lot of their decision making.And Ross, what did you make of
(01:21):
the announcement of Joe Aspota, yournew Houston Astros manager. Yeah, I
think it was maybe a mild surpriseat the time because you figured they would
have moved a little more quickly andmade a spot of the guy, but
not shocking who they ended up with. It felt like he was the leader
in the clubhouse really the last coupleof years. Remember we were talking about
(01:41):
would Dusty retire last year and thenJoe Aspota just bumps up and slides over
one spot. So not necessarily ahuge shock the way that they went.
I liked the direction that they went. And yeah, you said alignment.
Collaborative is a word that's been used, So is that a shot at what
was happening with Dusty Baker? Washe not working with the front office and
(02:02):
in whoever else who was doing reportsand analytics and all that type of stuff,
and him being a little more oldschool and going with his gut feels
and all those types of things.I don't know, But Joe a spot
on the same page, has therespect and love of the players, has
has run spring training, has beena guy who's been around in game planning
and all that type of stuff.So I'm totally on board with the hiring.
(02:24):
I think it's a good hire andJim Crain probably doesn't mind that he's
probably going to be one of thecheaper hires in Major League Baseball as well,
which rumors were that that's what DustyBaker was as well. So you
don't have to spend a lot,you get some continuity, You have a
championship caliber core still here that DanaBrown needs to build around. And that's
checking one box off the list,and that was probably the biggest box get
(02:47):
a manager. Now Dana Brown canfocus on trying to get some free agents.
Yeah, I had a few peopleask me, you know, what
do you think of the higher andI'm like, well, I don't know.
I mean, we've never seen Joespot of Met manage a game outside
of a couple of times where DustyBaker got ejected, and I'd have to
go back to twenty eighteen, twentynineteen. I don't remember if a j.
(03:07):
Hinch, you know, I'm surehe was ejected in a game or
two when Joe Espota had to takethe rein. So nonetheless, we don't
know. I mean, we havefaith in Aspata. We hope he's the
right guy. He's been here awhile. He knows the players better than
anybody. I thought it was interestinghe said that, you know, he's
been the guy for basically the lastfive years, taking VP before the games
(03:30):
on you know, workout days andall that, do a little fungo with
the infield and all those guys.He said, he's gonna move on from
that. He's gonna put somebody elsein that role. And we'll still see.
Still haven't heard who he is hiringto his staff. You gotta think
there's gonna be some continuity there withsome of the guys who've been on previous
staffs with the Houston Astros. Andobviously he's a guy who you know,
(03:53):
not only he's been with the Astrosunder A. J. Hinch and under
Dusty Baker, but he's a guythat was with the New York Yankees for
a while under you know, theirprevious manager, and then with the Miami
Marlins back in the day as wellwhen Nazie Gihan was there. So he's
got a lot of he's got alot of connections to a lot of different
coaches, and so we'll see whathe is able to do. But you
(04:14):
know, bottom line is it's it'san unknown, right. I mean,
we like him because he's been herea while, but we have no idea
what what Joe Spot of the manageris going to be. Yeah, we
don't know, but I mean,at the end of the day, it's
going to be up to the players. And we've been saying this when it
was you know, when it wasDusty Baker, when it's whoever. I
mean, even when it's a j. Hinch who is a genius manager making
(04:36):
all these masterstroke moves, and thenhe goes over to the Detroit Tigers and
he doesn't have the same players andhe's got three losing seasons. So at
the end of the day, morethan most other sports, I think it
is up to the players, andJoe Spot is going to be asked to
be doing a few things. Imean, just keep an eye on the
when to bring in reliever X whenyou're already gonna have matchup numbers as far
(04:57):
as pinch hitting and stuff like that. Really, the biggest story of all
last year was jiany Ardiaz versus MartinMaldonado. Well, Martin Maldonado is not
here anymore. I don't think he'sgoing to be back, so that's not
really gonna be one of the hugehurdles to climb and figuring out splitting time
with those types of things. Ithink the roster is also going to be
pretty well set. You're not gonnabe like a young team that doesn't have
(05:19):
a lot of pieces in place,where you're gonna have camp battles and you're
jumping on short sample sizes. Oh, this guy had a couple of hits
in spring training. Does he makethe team? Stuff like that, Yeah,
for the fringe, for the twentyfour to twenty fifth spots, twenty
six spots of of the roster,but the cores here, so you don't
necessarily have to worry about that.Most guys are locked into their heavy day
(05:40):
positions. You're not gonna worry aton about that either. So just basically
what you're asking for Joe Spotta todo is just keep this train rolling,
Like, just keep this thing going. You're not asking for some huge mammoth
rebuild or anything like that. Justdon't mess it up. Basically is going
to be the formula for Joe Spotta. Yeah, and just a quick note
(06:01):
on a couple different, uh,you know, roster things. Kennedy Corona
was added to the Astors forty manroster last week that is now at thirty
eight active players on their forty man. He was a late additional move and
was in response to protecting him fromthe Rule five draft, So he's a
(06:23):
twenty three year old. Came toHouston in the Jake Marisnik trade back in
twenty nineteen from the Mets. Uhspent the bulk of last year with the
double affiliate down at Corpus. ChristieBatte just two forty four but hit twenty
home runs thirty one steals. It'sa very pitcher friendly setting down there a
Corpus. He drew a walk inalmost ten percent of his plate appearances and
(06:46):
fanned at a twenty five percent clipthat the organization would like to see him
pair down on that but Baseball Americaranks Kennedy Corona fourteenth among Houston's farm hands.
So just one of those names tokeep an eye on because they select,
you know him, and add himto the forty man and then they
lose Blind Madris. Tigers signed himto a minor league contract. He was
(07:08):
a name that was very hot lastspring training. So we say goodbye to
Blind Madris. But Kennedy Corona addedto the forty man. Gotta think he's
a guy who's gonna make the moveto Triple A this year. We'll see
what he does there and could bea candidate to get a big league call
up at some point this coming season. Yeah, has shown a little bit
more pop in the bat the lastcouple of years in the minor league,
(07:30):
so it's good to see from thatfrom him. He's also a guy with
some speed, got a strong arm, so I mean, yeah, a
little bit of tools. You're alittle bit older also, twenty three years
old, not like he's some youngphenom, but that's cool. If if
Dana Brown and the Astros organization wantto keep him on the roster, protect
him from the Rule five, andthen put him on the forty man,
I mean you, yeah, it'llbe interesting to see what happens. And
(07:53):
maybe a name to keep an eyeon, because you do have some other
guys you know that we've talked aboutthe the Corey Jolxes of the world and
some others, and I mean we'veheard a lot about like you know,
pedro Leone, and he's already twentyfive years old and that hasn't panned out.
Would be nice to get a littlebit of outfield help. I think
Dana Brown also saying in the offseasonso far that they're happy with their outfield
(08:15):
situation, not going to go outin free agency, so maybe it could
be some internal options and maybe oneof those is going to end up being
Kennedy Corona. Yeah, what's interestingis so Kennedy Corona gets added to the
forty man and so now your outfieldersyou got Jordan Alvarez, Kennedy Corona,
Corey Jolks, Chas McCormick, KyleTucker, and Jake Myers. And what's
interesting about a week ago there wasa report that the Astros had discussed Jake
(08:39):
Myers in trade talks with multiple teams. He is not yet eligibra for salary
arbitration. Had a six to seventyeight OPS in a career high one hundred
and twelve games played this past year. So just something to note there,
as Jake Myers has been that guybattling Chas McCormick for some playing time,
but you know, no guarantee,Askers have not moved him yet, But
(09:03):
just kind of interesting that they've beenhaving some talks with other teams about possibly
trading away Jake Myers. Yeah,Jake Myers can have some value to a
team what they're looking for, likea fourth outfielder. He can come in
as a late inning defensive replacement.He's speedy. Unfortunately hasn't shown a ton
with the bats since really his firsttaste in twenty one, he was hitting
(09:24):
more home runs at a higher clipaverage numbers, OPS numbers were pretty good.
Then he had that horrific shoulder injury. Well, I don't know how
horrific it was, but it wasbad enough that he missed a lot of
time. Felt like they had rushedhim back a little bit too early in
twenty twenty two. And he alsoit was kind of a mental game for
him. Looked like he was alittle worried about the shoulder. He wouldn't
(09:45):
let his swings go. He talkedabout in the offseason as he was getting
with a sports psychologist and working onmeditation, and it's kind of a mental
game for him to where he's maybethinking a little bit too much. You
had Troy Snicker say the same thingas well, or in spring training or
throughout the season, like you don'twant Jake Myers in there, thinking you
just want him to go out thereand be an athlete, because he's a
(10:07):
supreme athlete, and so if hecan get a hold of one. You
know, we saw that game againstthe Yankees. He had a couple of
home runs and had like six sevenruns batted in in that game. But
you've seen flashes enough from him tothe bat, and he can provide enough
defensively to where he can at leastbe, you know, a a replacement
level ish to slightly above type ofoutfielder. And if you could ever get
his back going just to league average, then you're talking about a plus player
(10:31):
because of what he can provide withthe speed and with all the ground he
covers out there in center field.Yeah, just kind of to update everybody
on where we are in the offseason. We just had the GM meetings in
the last two weeks, and thenyou know, we had the deadline for
players to accept or reject their qualifyingoffer. The non tender deadline just passed
for players on the forty man andnow next up we will head into Winter
(10:54):
meetings in Nashville the first week ofDecember. Then we'll get to the Rule
five arbitration figures, exchange, allthat kind of stuff. And did want
to mention seven of the Astros arbitrationeligible players were tendered contracts from Bervaldez,
Kyle Tucker, Jose ri Keaty,Mauricio Dubon, Chas McCormick, Briana Brew
and Luis Garcia. So the fortyman roster remains at thirty eight. Two
(11:18):
of those notes or two of thosenames ross Frombervaldez and Kyle Tucker both still
candidates to you know, discuss longterm contracts this offseason. I'm sure with
Dana Brown and their agents. Butyou know, again, we expect to
have some interesting arbitration hearings with allthose guys. Yeah, of course if
(11:39):
if they can't, they're gonna fileit one number in the other and normally
for the most part, you don'tend up going to a hearing over it.
Of course, famously Kyle Tucker doingit last year and losing, and
it just feels like that's as faras you're talking about the extensions and trying
to sign long term, this doesn'tfeel like it feels like it's all cold
on that front with Kyle Tucker,and I would say the same thing on
(12:01):
Farmer Valdez. It's also I mean, you love good Fromer. Good Fromber
is out there throwing no hitters andno hitting guys into the seventh eighth inning
and locking people down, getting aton of Crown balls and striking everybody out.
But then if he gets off schedule, we already know. I mean,
it's well known. So is thatthe kind of guy that you want
to hand a mega contract to?I would think no. The Astros probably
(12:24):
think no right now, and that'swhy I don't expect anything to get done
on either front in terms of longterm deals. It's offseason, even going
into spring training. Yeah, it'scrazy. I'm looking at the calendar Ross,
We're like eleven weeks away from springtraining, eleven twelve weeks away,
So it's crazy how quickly this thingwill happen here. But just to put
a cap a little bit more onthe twenty twenty three MLB season, Kyle
(12:48):
Tucker finished fifth in the American LeagueMVP voting. He received one second place
vote, four third place votes,at five fourth place votes. If you
look at the tap population show,hey Tani, he of course was the
favorite and ran away with it.Corey Seeger finished second, Marcus Simeon third,
Julio Rodriguez fourth and Kyle Tucker fifth. Not a big surprise there with
(13:13):
how good show, Hey Otani?Is a lot of American League West action
in that list. Yeah, it'sKyle Tucker. Yeah, if you look
at the Unfortunately, we got alittle bit of a bitter taste in our
mouth because of what happened in theplayoffs and how we just honestly looked completely
lost out there to not where likeyou can go on a slump in Kyle
Tucker. We've seen him go intodeep funks for a long time, but
(13:35):
the few amount of hits that hewas getting not showing any power, and
it wasn't even like, okay,you know sometimes we've seen Kyle Tucker go
through prolonged slumps and it's been like, you know what, he's a little
bit snake bit. He's getting ahold of them. They're just happening to
find the gloves. He's hitting theball hard like he wasn't doing anything in
the playoffs to the point, wherewas that one game where he had runners
(13:56):
on first and second, no outand he's out there trying to lay out
a bunch like finely needs to figureit out. But thirty thirty threat a
gold Glover in right field. Thosedon't grow on trees, so it certainly
has value worthy of being in thetop five of the MVP conversation where he
ended up. But also I justhopefully can get back on the right track
(14:18):
after that horrible, horrible playoff runhe had. Yeah, and outside Tucker
finishing fifth, jord On Alvarez finishesthirteenth, Alex Bregman finishes twenty second,
and you certainly think if Jordan Alvarezhad been healthy all year long, he
certainly would have finished higher. Andthen the Alsy Young voting from Bert Valdez
finished ninth. In that voting,he appeared on five ballots, receiving one
(14:41):
fourth place vote and four fifth placevotes. So that just goes to show
you a little bit of, youknow, where the Astros ranked in the
postseason awards. We are into freeagency ross. It has started and some
teams have started to make some moves. Already, one of the biggest names
to hit the free agent in marketAaron Nola. The reports are that he
(15:03):
has been locked up by the PhiladelphiaPhillies, so they are not letting Aaron
Nola go anywhere. That was talkedthat you know, Yankees and some other
teams would be interested, but Phillieslock up Aaron Nola. So that's one
of the one of the first bigdominoes to fall, at least in a
MLB free agency here. Yeah,and just kind of yeah, the Braves
I believe were hot after Aaron Nolaas well. So just kind of a
(15:26):
bit of a setting of the marketin some ways. What was it the
seven years one hundred and seventy twomillion, so comfortably under thirty million per
year and a guy who, Imean can show to have ace level stuff,
So what is that going to meanfor some of the other big names
who are free agents? So orof course Blake Snell being probably number one
(15:46):
of the pure starters if you're notthrowing sho Heotani in there, of course,
And what's going to happen there?Latest on him is that he might
take a short high aav deal andthen try to come out and cash out
big in a couple of years.But yeah, I mean, guys like
Snell and Jordana Montgomery, what's goingto happen? I just feel like the
Astros are going to continue to beon the sidelines, and those numbers and
(16:07):
those kind of guys. But yeah, it's certainly something to keep an eye
on, because it would be nicein a perfect world with unlimited money to
add a frontline starter, because atthe end of the day, while you
do have a lot of names,you do have a lot of guys.
I mean, these last playoffs,he had one reliable guy. His name
was Justin Verlander, and everybody elsewas a question mark. Yeah. One
of the other big names to hitthe market, lance Lynn reports are he
(16:30):
is going to head back to SaintLouis where he started his career, spent
six seasons there and of course nomoney. Yeah, pitch with the Yankees,
pitch with the Rangers for a coupleof years, then spent three years
with the White Sox before they triedto him to the Dodgers at the deadline,
and now heading back to Saint Louis. So Lancelyn getting up there in
h But again one of the bignames to hit the market, of course,
(16:52):
the biggest names to watch. Hey, Tani is the biggest headliner.
And you know, look, ifhe wants to go choose an NL team,
more power to him. We'll takehim out of the Al West and
the Ale altogether. But we'll seewhere he ends up with. Some of
the other names to keep an eyeon, Joey Vado, Clayton Kershaw,
Jock Peterson, Hasmani Grandal, justsome of those names that are out on
(17:12):
the open market. Don't think theAstros are going to be involved in any
of the big names out there,but certainly, and you know, something
to keep an eye on because Rangershave been you know, their name's been
hot out there about maybe adding abig name either an arm or a bat,
and the Mariners and the Angels,so something to keep an eye at
least for the Al West competition.Yeah, certainly we'll be I think the
(17:36):
names that we're going to look atare gonna be basically relievers and what they're
good at getting. You have aBrave signing Ronaldo Lopez to a three year,
thirty million dollar deal. So whereis that going to put the Astros
when they go looking for some relievers. Of course, we already know that
it's going to be Ryan Stanek isnot going to be coming back. Hector
Nerris in all likelihood as well,and who's the other filmmate. Yeah,
(18:00):
so you do have a shortage ofbullpen arms right now. You are going
to try to sign a couple ofthese guys to these types of deals.
So that's what I think we'll seein this offseason with the Astros. I
think the head when we hit springtraining, the headliner of their free agent
class probably going to be a relieveror two. Yeah, and you know,
it sounds like they're kind of contentwith the outfield. You know,
(18:21):
does Kevin Kiermyer uh does he really? Is he really attractive to say that
could be our everyday center fielder?The hell with Chas McCormick. Some other
guys out there obviously, you know, relievers. David Robertson is a VET
who's been around a while and beenvery good. Craig Kimberl been a closer,
slash set up guy. JD.Martinez, you know, he signed
(18:42):
a one year deal with the Dodgerslast year as a DH. You know,
the Astros look at him as hey, maybe you know he could fill
that Michael Brantley role here. Sojust some names that they're out there that
maybe the Astros could have interest in. But it seems like the Astros are
going to be very internal because youknow, they had so many injuries this
last year that you know a lotof those guys are gonna come back healthy
(19:03):
at some point, Luis Garcia,Lance mccollors. It just adds more arms
to your to your rotation. Althoughwe did hear Dana Brown say, you
know, if there's an arm tobe had out there, they could add
one. Now, I don't thinkthat's gonna be got going and signing the
cy young winner Blake Snell to abig monster contract, but just something to
keep an eye on if there isa pitcher out there that catches their eye.
(19:26):
Yeah, I think that's what it'sgonna be. I think it would
be a trade. I would imagineit'd be somebody under team control for a
couple of years, not a bigmoney because, I mean, unfortunately what
it is and what the players don'twant it to be. The competitive balance
tax threshold is somewhat of a salarycap for certain owners, and Jim Grain
has dipped into it before he didwith the Zach Grinky trade, but it's
(19:48):
not something that he likes to makea habit of. And threshold is going
to be around two hundred and thirtyseven million dollars you have right now,
depending on what happens in arbitration.Certain websites have it estimated already at about
two hundred and seventeen million dollars forthe Astros. So you're not gonna have
a lot of will go room.You still have to sign a couple of
relievers, and so I don't thinkyou're gonna hear much of a splash and
(20:11):
free agency. I think it wouldbe around the deadline, like we've seen
the track record for Jim Crane notsigning big long term deals in the off
season. But if you're getting close, you need one arm, you need
one whatever to get that over thathump to try to push all your chips
in for a World Series championship.That's what I would be keeping my eyes
on more for the Astros rather thanthis offseason. It's going to be a
(20:34):
couple of relievers, maybe maybe anarm trade, but also somebody that I
imagine is going to be enterteam controlfor a low dollar amount. This is
the Crawford Box Cast, again presentedby Carbach Brewing. Hopefully you guys are
enjoying that Crawford bock all throughout theoff season, not just in the regular
season. We enjoy it throughout theoff season and of course spring training will
(20:55):
be here. Before we know it, we'll be back at Minima Parks drinking
all those craft for box. Andof course they got some other great delights
as well. The ranch waters areawesome. Was at the Texans game the
other day they had the ranch watersthere. The cervesa is really good as
well. So make sure you guysare enjoying Carbock Brewing all throughout the off
season of baseball. And of courseyou get head out to the brewery.
(21:18):
They've got tons of stuff going outthere in the beer garden events. They
had the Friends Giving event this pastweekend, so tons of stuff going out
there for you at Carbock Brewing.Make sure you guys are continuing to enjoy
everything they have to offer. Rossa few more tidbits for you here on
the Crawford Box cast. The Metshired longtime Astro scouting director Chris Gross to
(21:40):
oversee their amateur scouting department, sothat was an interesting note. Of course,
Gross overlapped with David Stearns during theirtenure in Houston, so some familiarity
there. And then the Brewers signeda Noli Paradus, the guy been with
the Astros for a couple of years. He got an invitation to Major League
Spring training. So Congratstone only paratusso you know, just moves there for
(22:03):
some former Astros folks. And thenI wanted to get your thoughts on this
one. Max Scherzer did an interviewtoday where he was talking about Rangers GM
Chris Young and said it was sodifferent playing for him because he was a
former player and that he loved it. And he said, quote, use
your eyes, use your feel.We lead with that, not the computers.
So Max Scherzer clearly one of theguys as we always talk about the
(22:27):
balance between numbers and gut feel.You know, can't all be analytics,
but you got to use analytics.Sounds like Max Scherzer is anti analytics,
more lead with your eyes and yourfeel. Well, yeah, would you
expect anything different from a guy whowas like in his forties and a red
ass and that kind of like youknow, all about my gump shin and
(22:48):
my feel and this feeling of mybones and all that type of stuff.
Sure, yeah, that makes senseand also doesn't hurt that Chris Young was
able to open up the check bookwith the Texas Rangers and their owner what
was the name Ray Davis or whoeverit is over there and its shell out,
you know, a billion and ahalf dollar or a half a billion
(23:08):
dollars or whatever they did over thelast several years. And I'm not even
sure. Yeah, I think ChrisYoung was there for most of that,
right, He's been there for acouple of years, so yeah, okay,
cool. It doesn't take a wholelot of whatever to go ahead and
hand over a bunch of money toCorey c like three hundred million dollars to
Corey Seg or one hundred and seventymillion dollars to Marcus Simon and forty million
(23:30):
dollars to trade for Max Schurzer.So I mean, at some point the
payroll is gonna get out of controland those chickens will come home to roost,
but they don't care. It translatedto a World Series championship that they're
going to be able to hang thatbanner up for the rest of their lives.
Yeah, he really managed with hisfeel for the game going and spending
all that money on a bunch ofreally good players. Serious, just kind
(23:52):
of funny, all right, Lastthing we'reross. The twenty twenty four Baseball
Hall of Fame ballot has been releasedI'm gonna run through these really quickly.
The returning candidates Todd Helton, AndrewJones, Gary Scheffield, Carlos Beltron,
Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, omarVis Kel, our guy friend of the
station, Andy Pettitt, Bobby A. Bray You, Jimmy Rollins, Mark
(24:14):
Burley, Francisco Rodriguez, Tory Hunter. But more importantly, most importantly on
here in his ninth year on theballot, Billy Wagner and our friend Gendas
over at the Astro sent an emailtoday saying the former Astros All star Billy
Wagner has superior career numbers in severalkey categories, deserves a chance in the
Hall of Fame. So of coursewe are going to bat for Billy Wagner.
(24:36):
Would love to see him get inthere. But when you get your
thought on some of the new candidatesmaking the ballot this year, and you
tell me who you think is alock, I'll just run through a few
of these. You just say yesor no, I'll run through them.
Jose Joey bats Bautista, No,No, okay, how about Rangers great
Adrian Beltre. Beltra is a goodone. One. I think he could
(24:59):
get in. That's a good one. I have to look at the overall
numbers. He had over thirty threethousand hits correct. Yeah, I believe.
I mean he's he's up there ina lot of categories offensively. How
about longevity Bartolo Cologne. Uh,I don't think bart that's a fringe case.
I mean he had a few goodyears and it was fun seeing him
(25:22):
be so fat and hit home runs. But I would say, no,
he doesn't get in. I guess. Yeah, it's two different questions.
Do I think he gets into it? Does he deserve to get in?
I'm gonna say no, one both, okay. Adrian GONZALEZH no, Yeah,
it's funny some of these guys Ifall in the Hall of very Good,
not the Hall of Fame. MattHolliday, Uh no, I'll put
(25:45):
Hall of very good as well.Victor Martinez, No, how many good
years with what was the Tigers asa d H No, thanks. This
one's interesting. When we were inMinneapolis, a ton of stuff from this
guy. Joe Mauer. Yeah,Joe Maher is a good one. I
(26:06):
think you have to factor in whathe brought defensively as well. Won a
bunch of gold Gloves is an MVP. Yep, didn't have a lot to
pop. Right Catcher, Yeah,I would say probably, off the top
of my head. Fringe Case,Uh probably gets in, Okay, Uh,
Brandon Phillips no, Jose Reyis no, James Shields No. No.
(26:37):
Then lastly all of decent. LastlyChase Utley and David Wright. Uh.
I again, I'd have to golook at Utley's numbers. But off the
top of my head, I'm gonnasay no. David Wright some really good
years there with the Mets, butthen couldn't stay healthy. Not a Hall
of Fame or no. So I'malso more stringent than most with Hall of
Fame. It's like, if youhave to ask, the answer is no
(26:57):
most of the time. For me, all those Beltray was really the only
one you went to beat for Ithink Beltray is pretty pretty much a lock.
It feels like at some point,if not at first ballot. Yeah,
of the other of all those returningcandidates who ran through, any of
those you think should absolutely be Imean, in my opinion, Billy Wagner
deserves to be in. He wasfantastic. There were some years where his
(27:18):
numbers were better than Mariano Rivera,and yet you know, Rivera is considered
one of the all time greats,and Billy Wagner is, you know,
either right there with him and TrevorHoffman. I mean in a ton of
categories. I think Wagner deserves tobe in. Look, ay Rod has
the steroid thing, I get it, but him, Carlos beltran pretty great.
Andy Pettitt's one of the best postseasonpitchers of all time. Again,
(27:42):
steroid stuff, but he deserves tobe in. But that's kind of it.
I mean all the other ones Ithink are Hall of very good,
not Hall of famers. Like Isaid, I'm very stringent, so I
would argue even a lot of thoseI would argue about Pettit. I mean,
I think it has to be likethe feared all time great you when
you this guy's coming up on theschedule, like it aroused your cage like
(28:03):
oh no, like where people like, oh no, this this crafty Andy
Pettitt is throwing. Yeah, he'sgonna get a lot of outs and he
was great in the postseason. ButI don't know. And then also with
the relievers, to me, Imean, Mary Anno, Rivera should be
in, obviously, but it's alsolike, I mean, how many innings.
Yeah, I'm pulling it up rightnow, brilliant Wagner nine hundred innings
(28:25):
in his whole career. Like that'sa start. That's like four years,
five years for a starter. Soit's I understand, I'm like in the
minority and I'm just like an oldfoe ye or whatever. But I would
say fringe case for Billy Wagner.If he gets in, it's I'm not
gonna cry a foul or anything likethat. But if he's also not in,
(28:45):
I don't think it's some grave injustice. Yeah, Wagner seven time All
Star two thirty one career era right, ranked second among Hall of Famer RelA
first, shouldn't Wagner? Do yousay seventh all time and saves? Yeah?
Seven or seven time All Star twothirty Yeah, seven time All Stars
is good. Road Laser leaf Manis good fourth, two seasons above,
(29:06):
forty saves fourth and all time savesbehind Rivera, Hoffman and Smith. So
I mean that's pretty outstanding. Yeah, I mean, congratulations on being one
of the best pictures that wasn't goodenough to be a starter. The other
one in that group, Manny Ramirez. I mean look, if David Ortiz
gets in, Many Ramira should bein as well. One of the most
(29:27):
feared hitters in his time. Hewell, he got pop for stories as
well. Correct, Yeah, butcome on, what is in the biogenis?
Yeah, I don't know. Ito get it. It's a whole
different ball of wax. At theend of the day, he was one
of the best hitters in baseball history. I would put Manny Ramirez, and
I think I would put a Rodin as well. Like it is what
it is. It was the timesand the pictures were juicing too. And
(29:49):
if you're at the playing field isfairly level and everybody's juicing, and you're
one of the best among those,then then it's a It's a difficult argument
to have to be sure, butI probably on my ballot, I probably
put a Rod and Many Ramier's inthere. Yeah, we'll be interesting,
and again from an asterisk perspective,we'll be rooting for Billy Wagner, and
again I think he's deserving to getin there. As we wrap up here,
(30:11):
Ross, we'll be continuing our Crawfordbox Cast off season edition because there
will be plenty of stuff to talkabout with the Houston Astros. I'm sure
we'll probably have a free agent signingor two here in the next couple of
weeks and have plenty to talk about. But excited for Joe Aspota, excited
to see what he is going tobring to this team as the new Asterisk
manager. And this championship window continuesto be open for your Houston Astros.
(30:37):
Yes, a lot to talk about, a lot to discuss, because they're
still going to be good, They'restill going to contend for the Division,
they're still going to contend for WorldSeries. So just not big earth chattering
moves gonna be made, but sometweaks here and there as they get ready
for the twenty four campaign, andof course Ross and I will be keeping
up to date on everything. Itwill be Also, we'll be out of
Carback Brewing here real soon doing ashow or two there from the beer garden.
(31:00):
The temperature starting to get a littlebit nicer out there and not suffocatingly
hot, so we'll be out thereat Carbock and we'll invite some of you
guys out there to come hang outwith us and of course enjoy all the
tasty brews from our friends at CarbockBrewing. Particularly that Crawford Bock that they
serve in all the ASTROSK games atMini Made Park for ross Verrel I'm Chris
(31:21):
Gordy has been all new edition ofthe Crawford box Cast presented by Carbock Brewing.
We'll talk to you guys next timeright here on the Crawford box Cast
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