May 21, 2024 • 29 mins
On this edition of the Crawford Boxcast, Ross & Gordy discuss the Framber Valdez meltdown inning vs the Angels, Chas McCormick returning, Jose Abreu getting close to rejoining the big league club, and the Astros closing the gap in the AL West race.
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(00:09):
Astros fans, Cheers, Rocky Lucky, Welcome to the Crawford box Cast,
host as proudly born for you byCrawford Bach from Carback Brewy, you're getting
there, Oh my godness, theCrawford box Cast starts now here we go.
(00:30):
Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Viail andit is all new edition of the
Crawford box Cast, presented by CarbakBrewing. Here on the Crawford box Cast.
And man, it has been afun couple of weeks here for your
Houston Astros, as they have certainlyturned the tide and gotten back into the
(00:51):
Al West Race. And man,it just feels good to be talking about
better baseball. Ross. Yeah,last night, obviously, disappointment with that
fifth inning and farber Velde is givingup three home runs, but that's okay.
Before that they had won nine outof eleven. It feels like,
for the most part the ship isrighted. I think Fromber is going to
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be too okay, to what levelwe'll see. You got Javier on the
mound tonight, Chas McCormick back inthe lineup tonight, and then our good
friend Jose Bray you could be comingback as well. Of course, I
know that's not going to excite anybody. But you've got Kyle Tucker doing his
thing. Jose Al Tuvey has beenhitting as well. Should Jake Myers out
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of nowhere, has come alive withhis bat. So you're hitting. Their
pitching is better for the most part, everything's been better. And lo and
behold you get some clutch hitting andsome good pitching. The winds start to
come, by the way, forgotpleasantries, Chris Gordy here along with crossby
Reality Ross. It is a Crawfordbox cast. Hopefully you didn't just like
stumble on this, and you knowto check this out each and every week.
I have a friend who listens everyweek and always likes to remind me
(01:56):
when we make references to Dusty andMaldonado, So hopefully won't mention either of
them today, just to you know, talk about here and the now,
and you mentioned it. We wantto start there with the Fromber implosion on
what was that Monday night? Tay, I'm lost in the day, but
day, Yeah, look it wasFromber has been really good overall this season,
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and you know, coming off withtwo really good starts to win at
Detroit where he gave up seven tworuns and seven innings, and then seven
shutout innings against the A's. Butit's so funny Ross when you when things
go bad, everybody forgets the goodyou did and it's all magnified the bad.
Oh Frober. I saw people thehot take police were out today and
people were going, you know,Frober hasn't been good since that, since
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that no hitter last year. Otherpeople said, you know, Frober hasn't
been the same since Correa left.You know, Korea would get in his
face and I want that poff.Actually Fromber had the best season of his
career the year later after Carell left. So it's just funny we create narratives
in our head. And yes,Frober has at times when he struggled.
And I think what's funny though withhim is we don't remember when he's really
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good. It's like we race thatfrom our memory. Yeah, it's when
he's bad we got all it's badfrom and guess he was bad in the
postseason less. I think, especiallywhen players, we hold them to a
certain level of accidence. Yeah,if he goes out there and throws seven
innings of shutout ball, which hedid in his last start against the Oakland
A's. You say, that's whathe's supposed to do, and then when
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you get off track you deviate fromthat. That's when people tend to remember
that rather than the other. It'slike when an umpire he can get call
one hundred calls correct and ninety nineof them correct. Well, that's what
you're supposed to do. We're gonnafocus on that one that was missed.
That's just how it goes. That'sthe nature of the beast, especially when
you're holding somebody to a level thatwe are from er Valdez, but also
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somebody who has had a propensity ofblow ups here and there, another one
last night. It's just it's unfortunatethat it had to be him and the
way that it happened, and howspectacular his blow ups are. The seven
runs in that fifth inning, Yeah, and the fact the askers that a
six to one lead. It wouldhave been different. Had this been a
one to one ball game and hehad the implosion inning and you're down nine
to one, you'd be like,ah, it sucks, you know,
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what are you gonna do? Butsix to one, five run leads,
you should be winning. Nick enoughbecause even you give up a two,
three run homer, you get thelast out and you're out of it.
But he just couldn't get that lastout, and before you knew it,
the wheels had fallen off. ButI do think he'll be fine. You
know. I thought it was veryinteresting the comments after taking full blame,
saying he straight away from the gameplan. I think us and Joe's spot
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and everybody else is going, well, why the hell do you straight away
from the game plan? Like whatyou just in the moment you said,
Nah, I'm not going slider onhere. I'm going fastball up and away
and or right over the plate,And they're just gonna like, I don't
know why you would do that,but maybe he does need a gun.
Air das to be a little bitmore assertive now and go, hey,
no, this is the pitch.This is what we're calling. Throw it.
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Yeah, I mean, you're acatcher in you on your da set
himself. You know, I'm notgoing to force him to throw a pitch.
If if I'm calling a curveball andhe feels like he's not feeling it
right now, you don't want fromor to call it being forced to call
a pitch that he has low confidencein. It's better for him to throw
a worse pitch with high confidence thana better pitch with low confidence, because
he's gonna feel a lot better aboutthe way that it's going. So it's
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about relationship building. And that wasa lot of people getting all upset on
Astros Twitter and getting mad and howcould Fromber do this? And Jan here
Martin Maldonado like, I'm not gonnamention that. Oh I'm sorry. Well
Frobert, the previous catcher. Frombertwould shake that guy off too, So
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it's okay. Pitchers breaking news.If you've been watching baseball, pitchers sometimes
shake off their catchers. Watch anyjustin Verlanders start or anybody. Really,
they do it often. It happens. Sometimes there can be some disagreements.
It's something they're going to work on. It's collaborative, all that type of
stuff. And maybe after all thiscame to light that the relationship will grow
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going forward. That's what the hopeis. Yeah, it's just funny.
It's like he Janer Diaz catches sevenshout out things for Fromber. Nobody says
a word the first four innings Mondaynight. It's fine, but the fifth
inning, Will's fall off and nowsuddenly the hot take is, well Yanner
did is it Frommer? They're justnot on the same page. It's like,
well, look they're fine, they'refine. They're getting to know each
other. But again, like theother thing is this is frober seventh here
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in the bigs. Like it's notlike he's like a spencer. Araghedty and
Yannare were having some issues. Okay, again, he's a rookie. He's
trying to find his way all this, but like Robert knows better, like
you don't straight away from the gameplan. And I thought Seawn Salisbury had
a great, you know, comparisonthis morning on the radio. He said,
this would be like the end ofa game. You've got the lead,
and the job for the quarterback ishead just go hand the ball off
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five times and let's run the clockout, and you audible into a pass
and you throw a pick six.Everybody's like, what are you doing?
That wasn't the game plan at all, And like that's kind of what Rumbert
did the other day. He threwa pick six and you know you're in
a deficit, sudding. Yeah,he changed the game plan. He can
still execute the pitches that he wasmaking, but I mean it was just
a flat in the zone or notexecuted the way that he wanted. Whatever
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you want to say, no matterwhat pitch from er Valdez throws, he
can get out with it. Itjust wasn't the right time and they happen
to get launched over the fence andthen unfortunately it's snowballed and he gave up
those three big home runs, twoof them on back to back pitches,
and then that was that. TheAstros trying to make come back at the
end and they weren't able to,and they spent so much time on the
scouting reports and all that kind ofstuff. It's like, look, they're
(07:16):
gonna put the time and effort intoit. Go execute what they're telling you.
Don't don't be like nah, I'mgonna go fastball Like no, Like
it's not, well, it's notwhat he called for. I can understand
the gamesmanship of it, because whateverhitter you know, he's throwing at,
they know what the game plan isagainst him. Like you know, last
year, Jamie Pinion knows he's gettingbreaking stuff low and away. He just
knows that's what's gonna happen, Soyou can adjust, or you can try
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to do throw somebody off or changeyour eye levels. Well, I don't
know what was in his head inthose moments. I don't know what he
was thinking clearly, like you said, he's a veteran in this game.
It's the guy who's finished top fivein the cy Young a couple of times,
Like he knows what he's doing outthere. For the most part,
it just didn't work out. Andyou learn from it, like he said,
and it's something that he shouldn't bedoing. And jan your Das said,
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he's gonna learn from this, andthat's the only thing that we can
hope for that happens with these two. This is the Crawford Box Cast presented
by Carbok Brewing and the Crawford BachAnd hopefully you guys are out at the
ballpark for the rest of this homestand and joined some high school Crawford Bach
and Astros heading out to the WestCoast and have some late night games here
real soon, so you really needthe fridge stocked with some Crawford Box.
Another news of interest, Ross weknow Chaz McCormick officially reactivated on Tuesday is
(08:24):
in the lineup Tuesday night's game.We welcome back Chazz. He had a
good bit of a bats over therein Corpus and sugar Land. But I
think the big question is how tohandle the Joey low Perfido situation. Because
you know, we saw the correspondingmove they send Trey Cabbage down, which
is what I predicted they would do. But now you have a situation where
you have low Berfito up, andas Dana Brown said the other day,
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Joey's a guy who's got to beplaying for five days a week. Like
this is a guy you want tokeep active and keep hot, keep him
going, but you got to redhot Jake Myers going right now as well.
So how do you think they balancethis out? From Jordan's still getting
his reps in left field, keepingJake Myers in because he's one of your
best bats right now, keeping lowPerfito going. Who's bat and what around
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three hundred? I mean he's beenpretty good with the bat, got a
home run, and or Chaz backin. How do they balance this out?
Yeah, I don't know. It'sa tough problem to have. I
think the comments from Dana that youmentioned over the weekend make me think that
it could be low Perffedo that isunfortunately going to be the odd man out
just because of I mean, you'rejust gonna have too many guys and where
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are you gonna put everybody? Theydid put Dubon at first base recently.
I don't know how much more they'regonna want to do that. You've got
John Singleton there, You've got JOSEA. Bray, you possibly coming back this
weekend. So I mean you haveone of those good problems. I mean,
Jake Myers went oh for four lastnight. He had some hard hit
contact. He hit a ball likefour under five feet, didn't go out.
But he's hitting like two ninety andopsing well over eight hundred. Mauricio
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Dubon is hitting over three hundred.Jobiol Loberfito. Like you said, Chas
McCormick hasn't been hitting well. Butwe know when Chas McCormick is right,
he's a plus plus outfielder. Soit's a good problem. I don't know
if if Jose Bray would come downand Greg Kessinger would be the odd man
out, but you like the versatilityof Greg Kessinger, even though he doesn't
play much. But it's definitely gonnabe a difficult situation for the Astros to
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figure this thing out. If Ihad to guess, it would be either
great Kessinger or you really don't wantto do it because he hasn't done anything
to earn a demotion. But JoeyLoperfito could be the odd man out as
well. Well, That's what I'msaying is that the corresponding move for Chaz
was Trey Cabbage. So yeah,Like in other words, from Dana's comments,
it made me think they were maybeleaning towards sending low Perfito back to
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sugar Land where he's gonna play everyday and just keep Trey cabots because he's
playing once or twice a week.But like now you face a situation where
too though, Yeah, but likelow Praffito now, with Chaz back and
Jake playing like he's only gonna playtwo three days a week now, you
would assume. So, yeah,we'll see. And the thing is,
I mean, you're going with toughsmall sample sizes. You know, Jake
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Myers has been hot for two weeks, Jake Myers went over for four last
night. Jake Myers could get coldfor two weeks he could, and then
what happens? Holly, how doyou let him work that out? You're
going to try to put them allin there in their best and most favor
favorable situations as far as hitting.But it's gonna be tough. It is
interesting though. I talked with whowas it, John Singleton a few weeks
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ago, and you know, talkedabout, you know, hey, your
your bat's starting to heat up alittle bit. I gotta think that's got
to correspond with playing every day.He said, absolutely. He said,
it's hard to play every other day, or you know, come off the
bench here for at bat and thennot play for two days and then get
a start. He goes, it'shard like the more pitching you see on
a daily basis that the more youknow adjustments you can make with your with
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your bats. And you know,I thought that was an interesting comment he
made at the time. And thenI interviewed Jake Myers on Sunday before the
pregame show and he said the samething to me. He said, yeah,
the blessing of the Skies with Chazbeing on, I l is I'm
playing every day And he said,playing every day, I'm seeing more pitches
and I'm getting hot and all thatsort of. So I think there is
something to say about that. Asmuch as you'd like to, you know,
hey, play the play the matchups, play the lineups. Jake's out
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today because we're facing a right youknow, whatever the matchups are. Like,
I do think there's something to besaid for playing every day and get
nose at bats. Absolutely, youknow, it's just going to be interesting
to see with working Chaz back in, does Jake cool off because of that?
Do we see low Perfito going tofunk because he's not playing every day.
It's it's it's repercussions. And thatbrings us to the next topic.
Yeah, Jose Abreho could be backthis weekend, and it's sounding like he
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is going to be back this weekend, and I think all of us are
going, what the hell, it'snot exactly like he got he went Hank
Aaron down there in Florida Golf Floridaclub what is it, uh, Florida
Coast Gulf Coast League. No,it's not even it's the Florida Clubhouse.
Or it's a complex. That's whatit's like. Florida Complex League. Like
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literally, your play it's rookie ball. They're calling hold on now. In
the Gulf Coast League, Jose Brayyou today three for four, he's back,
baby, Wait, let's go theComplex League, right, yes,
okay, said Golf Coast. Well, this is what Brian McTaggart said,
Golf Coast League. He went threefor four today. Okay. Well,
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regardless, I want like for himto come back. I want him to
go a week in Corpus and thenabout a week or two in sugar Land,
Like I want to see him gofour for five in sugar Land before
I go. Now, you're readyfor the big league club, Like this
just seems like it is destined fordisaster to bring him up this quick and
for Dana Brown to say the words, Well, I talk to Jeff Bagwa
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bag He says he's ready. Well, of course, Jeff Bagwell says he's
ready. He was part of thegroup when they know GM that signed Jose
Bray you, and I just like, are they rushing this? Like why
this quickly? Well it's been fourweeks, so, I mean you're talking
about a major league guy hitter who'smaking all the money, who is been
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down there for a month. Therewas no set timetable, and I I'm
gonna have to try this world.You know what I'm doing. I'm trust
falling on the astros. Okay,I'm standing. The astros are behind me.
I'm gonna fall back and hope thisJose bray You thing, he's turned
it around because I have no otherchoice, because they have they have batspeed
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data Channel Rome wrote a great articleon Jose bray You. Apparently his bat
speed is really good. It's fasterthan Kyle Tucker's, it's faster than some
others. He his his metrics frombat speed are good, just that his
timing was really off. So ifhe can produce and it's not like John
Singleton, who has been good,is just gonna lock down the spot in
his in unstoppable offensive force. Andalso John Singleton's left handed, Jose Bray
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right handed. So I think wecould see some platoon splitting while they try
to get him back up here andget him right. Well, that's that.
Dana Brown said it on Sunday,said, yeah, I think we're
probably gonna see a platoon thing.But again, like I think we see
like so Abraya goes oh for fourwith three strikeouts and then the next day,
Singleton starts, and then he comesback with a home run, and
then he comes back on Sunday.You really think he's like he's gonna break
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out of a funk by not playingevery day. You know, I don't
know exactly what they're gonna do orwhat the plan is, but I mean,
as spot as comments are for thisteam to be at their best,
Joseah bray You needs to be contributing. And I mean I understand he's looked
like a corpse. I've called himthe corpse of Joseah bray You. But
the fact that they're bringing him backup, of course, Jeff Bagwell is
(15:30):
going to be slightly biased because thisis his signing for all intensity. Can
we get like eight other people tosign off on the quorta complexly or well,
you know at that whole you knowdown there in spring training. You
know this, they have track man, they have data on everything that he's
doing down there. They've been gettinghim the live VP. Hopefully, I'm
just gonna be optimistic that he canjust you know, two fifty with some
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pop ops close to eight hundred.I mean, that's what what what exactly
is John Singleton given you he's hadhad a couple of home runs, but
things haven't really been going his wayeither. It's crushing it, but he's
pretty EASi least been somewhat productive.I know he's batting around two twenty two
thirty, but like two twenty witha six seventy eight ops. Yeah,
but he's still he's been able towork some locks. He's been able to
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work some sack flies, you know, like he's given you something. It's
not. Yeah, he's not goingoh for four, oh for four,
oh for four, oh for fourlike a Bray you was. He's been
an average major league hitter and aBray who's been historically bad. But you're
hoping that he can get it right. And I do. I will say
the bat speed metrics coming out andbeing pretty favorable for Jose A Bray,
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you give me some hope that hecould just there is just a little bit
of life left and then he canjust go out there against left handed pitching
every now and then and give youa little something. All that sounds great,
and they got track man down thereand all that, but you know
what's not down at the at theWest Palm League, Ross strippling or JP
sears like these are the guys.He sucks, but I'm just saying,
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like, these are the guys youwould face this weekend in Oakland, and
like these are big league pitchers.Okay, they're gonna get to Look.
I understand. I don't have totell you I look I like I said,
I'm trust falling on the Astros becausethis is what we would have to
You would have to have organizational negligencefrom Dana Brown, Joe Aspada, Jeff
Bagwell, everybody that's on the staffout there, and jose A Bray,
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who himself who accepted this assignment.So I'm just going to have a touch
of faith that he can. Iknow what we saw is terrible, but
that's a non competitive at bats andhe looked like he completely lost. He
look he looked like if you gavea bat to a fourth grader. That's
what jose Ah Bray, who lookedout there, I get it. I'd
say high schooler, but that's you. Other fans are not going to be
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forgiving. This thing's going to bemagnified. Are going to be forgiving.
In Patient Friday and he goes ohfor four and strikes out with men on
base they're going to crucify him.Times tests that the fans that wanted Joe
A. Spot A fired two weeksin the fans that wanted Bregman DFAD and
he started to heat up a littlebit. Yeah, I understand the fans
are gonna be get their pitchforks out. That's what fans do. But I
(18:03):
think the smart, measured ones ofyou know, this is one hundred and
sixty two game season and I'm notgonna go to the back of the baseball
card or whatever. I'm just gonnasay, I will have an open mind
because there has to be all thesepeople making a horrible, horrible decision and
guess what if he comes up fora couple of weeks and he's terrible,
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then you turn them loose. Well, I was gonna say, maybe that's
the other way to think about thisis the Aestra is a guard. We
tried to cut him before he wentno, no, no, I'm gonna
get this fixed. I'll go tothe Florida League exactly. And now they're
like, all right, just gethis that's up here, let him struck
out a bunch and then we cancut him and go, dude, we're
not sending you back to Florida again, it's over, We're done. That's
what I think would happen. Buton the flip side, on the flip
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side, if he does come backand looks like the Jose Brey we saw
at the back end of last season, the last postseason, then even better.
If he's starting to crush home runsand he looks like the old Joseo
Brewy, awesome, that's great forthe Astros. I just put that at
about it chance of happening. Iwould put it only a one percent.
But I mean, one of thereasons he was so effective in the playoffs
(19:06):
is because they've got a lot offdays. You play for two days,
you're off a day, play acouple more days, then you're off.
You get a travel day in betweenseries. Remember they was a godsend that
they won the division last year becauseyou got that entire week off for somebody
like jose Oh Bray, you andyou see that. I mean, you
can tell when somebody's had a certainpart of their body worked on the bruising
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they used, the cupping or whatever. His back the entire postseason was had
marks on it because they were workingon his back. So you get those
extra days off. You're not usinghim every day. Expectations are I mean
below the floor and so and thenthen if he doesn't produce, you let
him go. Yeah, and ifI'm the askers, I start reaching out
to pet A Lonzo's agent right now. He's a free agent next offseason.
(19:48):
Hey, let's just have some someCaelibertary conversation about you would even give up
to get him, but let's doit. He's a free agent. So
yeah, it's a rental. Oh, he's a free agent right now at
the end of this year. Okay, I'm talking. Oh I thought you
were talking about making trade for him. No, I'm saying, like next
season, next you we can't gointo next season with a Braywen Sane.
I interest you in Chas McCormick.Yeah, I mean something but uh.
(20:11):
And then Paul Goldschmid's a free agenttoo, Houston native. But he's also
I think about thirty six and nothitting anymore. So we've already done that.
But I'm just looking out there forlike a free agent first base because
we can't. You can't roll withwhat you currently have next year at first
base. It's just it's not gonnahappen. It's not like you're staring down
the barrel of some stud first basementand the miners who's just like pushing his
(20:32):
way up there? So where isit? Jo? It's not And it's
it's not Jordon either. For theidiot Coller calls in every week telling us,
I mean, won't you just putyourd on it first? He didn't
want to play first. He's notgonna play first. Yeah, I don't
know why. I don't care ifthey haven't done it. At this point,
it didn't happen, and he's actuallyturned out to be a pretty decent
left field get out there, notbad out there. Next order of business
(20:52):
or USO Jose ri Keaty will bemaking another minor league start this weekend.
He is getting closer to a return. I have heard some though that there
we don't know how stretched out he'sgonna be. Would the best option be
to bring back Erkety as a bullpenlong reliever? Is that the way you
would go? I guess it's justgonna depend on the rotation and where.
(21:17):
I mean, are you how long? What stretches? Are you gonna go
to? A six man? Right? Because right now, what have we
got Verlander fromber Javier Blanco two threeSarrangedtty rakety six? Did I miss anybody?
Eric Getty? I said, Okay, Francis hurt. Yeah, so
that's your six. So Narraghety's beengood. He's starting a bullpen today,
(21:37):
by the way. Yeah, andthat's but earliest he would be his also
a couple of months. But that'sstill that's good to hear. He threw
twenty pitches the other day and he'she's progressing. All signs say Luis Garcia
is on track. Sometime around AllStar break he'll be back. So that's
good to hear. But I justlook at Urkety. I'm like, even
when he's good, Urkety gives youfive innings of two or three run ball,
(21:57):
Like that's about what he He's notlike any playoffs. Well yeah,
and he turns into Greg Maddox.But like, I just wonder they better
served than maybe using him in thatlong relieve role. Maybe piggyback start with
Hunt because here's the one Raghetty hasbeen awesome under Brown. That was seven.
Well that's the one out that worriesme because Hunter Brown is he got
(22:18):
bailed out Friday night because Jeremy Panehits the big home run after he had
just put the Asters in a deficit. It's just like your confidence level when
Hunter Brown takes the mound. Forme, I'm about full percent, the
lowest of any of them, singArraghetty, who I think is turning things
around a bit. Then again,you could do the flip a route.
You say, are kids going togo into the He's going to come back
to the rotation and Hunter Brown willbe the piggyback guy, Like if somebody
(22:42):
doesn't go long, he'll come inand pitch four five innings, which he
did really well up in Detroit.Yeah, I don't know. It's gonna
be another tough decision for the Astros. A good thing. I mean,
you're not talking about a bunch offrontline guys, and we'll see guys do
go down with injuries. I meansomebody could get you know, shoulder stoorders
or else bullets, orners or blisteror whatever. You know what Pres had
(23:03):
the ring finger thing. Yeah,an injury's gonna happen. To want to
one of these guys fingers crossed,but it's just it's gonna happen. But
it is funny how we were takingcalls a few weeks ago. People,
I told you they should have gotMars starting pitching, Trevor Bauer and you
know, we should have gotten Blake'ssnell and all this kind of stop with
the Trevor Bauer stuff, and it's, uh, he was shut down for
a while, but it's we're backwhere we were. Like I was like,
(23:25):
they're going to get healthy, andnow we're like, oh, now
they're do they stay with the sixthman who comes out of the rotation,
Like now you have a little bitof a surplus starting tech kits had an
ungodly amount of injuries and it wastough to stitch together the bullpen and the
starting rotation, and they were alsoweren't hitting clutch, and they were losing
games. It's not rocket science,it's really not. They got better pitching,
(23:47):
they've gotten better hitting, and they'regetting back into the mix in the
American League West, even though theylost a game yesterday because the Mariners came
back and then yeah, I wasthat they they went to the ninth what
trailing four to one to the Yankeesand scored five runs. What took a
five to four leading one of thegame yes, I mean that's just and
it was homes it was there likeclosers dominated the Astro. So the one
time you root for the Yankees,this is what happens. Come on,
(24:10):
guys. But that said, andthis is our last part, the Astros
have closed the gap here and tremendously. So, I mean we're talking about
them being, you know, tengames out of this thing, almost what
almost twelve games below five hundred.They were peaked game. We're twelve I
think it was the worst, andnow just five games back of the Als,
leading Mariners, three games behind theRangers for second place. This is
(24:33):
where you want to be. It'swinnable games this week with the Angels the
A's and then you go to Seattleon Sunday. I did have somebody say
on the post game show, ohman, this they could jump the Mariners
by the by next week. Isaid, let's take a little bit of
me. It's as hot as they'vebeen, they're going to have pitfalls again.
They're gonna lose serious, they maylose the serious to the Angels,
and they're all gonna be going,ah, you should have won that one.
(24:56):
It was a winnable series. Butlike it's just how baseball goes.
You're not going to continue on thisheater. You're going to have. For
every two steps forward, you mayhave one step backward. But the big
thing is they've closed this gap.And I still say the goal should be
by the by the All Star break, that you're right around the division,
like you don't have to be,you don't have to have overtaken the aos
by then, but you want tobe close to five hundred and you know,
(25:18):
within a couple of games. Sothat's kind of my goal. Where
do you think they should be?Yeah, I think just get keep your
head down, don't even look upat the standings, and try to get
to five hundred. And I thinkthat's going to be a very very attainable
task. And then you go fromthere. Because Seattle is not running away
with the division, and according toopponents win percentage, they have the twenty
ninth most difficult schedule. Yeah,now the Mariners are thirtieth, but but
(25:45):
you're going to play them ten moregames. So take care of your business
against the Mariners, beat up onall the weak opponents. You still got
twelve more games with the Angels,You've still got six more with the Socks.
So I mean this this thing canturn around, and I think it
will, and I'm still at thismoment May, I'm still projecting the Astros
(26:06):
to win the American League West.Well, we did our farewell last year.
Last week to Brandon b Lack andCorey Joelks, both of those guys
departed and have since moved on toother teams. Brandon Black was traded for
cash considerations to the Oakland A's andCorey Jolks ends up with the lowly Chicago
White Sox. But did you seewhat he did the other day? I
saw at Yankee Stadium. He robs, He robs a hitter of a home
(26:30):
run and then hits a home runhimself. There's play of playing time to
be had for the Chicago White Sox. So best of lucky joke, But
yeah, it's kind of cool tosee him going on and do. It's
just one of those things like wesaw him four twenty nine as a White
Sox. It's pretty good. That'sgreat. But you know, we've seen
Abraham Toro come back, We've seenTony Kemp make visits back with other teams.
(26:51):
It's always fun to see the formerAstros and we just hope they don't
do well when they play the Astros. Yeah, wishing the best except against
the Astros. All right, welllet's call it ross. Two more series
in this Angels series and then threeup out in Oakland. What do you
think the Asters go going into Mondayin Seattle? I will say, now,
I'm feeling pretty good about today againstJavier Tomorrow. Our good friend Hunter
(27:14):
Brown is going not feeling super confidentabout that, So I'll say, what
is it? Five games three andtwo? Ironically in that series against Milwaukee
last weekend. Milwaukee's a really goodteam. You you lost the Verlanders start
but won the Hunter Brown and SpencerArighetty starts. You know, have you
asked me on Friday that it's probablythe other way around, but still won
(27:37):
the series. Yeah, And that'sand that was a good team. I
mean, that was outside of beatingthe Rangers early in the year, that
was one of your that was yourbest series victory. Because that's a really
good team. The team that's leadingthe NL Central, it's probably gonna win
the NL Central and big, big, big, big series win there because
let's face it, series wins overDetroit at Oakland and the White and the
Rockies. It is what it is. But that was your first marquee.
(28:00):
Really good series win, and againsome winnable games here, still ahead on
the schedule, and keep closing thatgap, and hopefully you close that gap
with your mouth to the lid ofa Crawford back and enjoy the ice cooled
Crawford box. This guy, itis a home run every time. Of
course, Bird right here in Houston, Texas at Carbock Buring. You know
when you see it, the tequilaSunrise stripes on the can, on the
(28:22):
bottle. They're all over stores everywhere. I was at Randall's last week,
I was at Target. I meaneverywhere you go you see Carbock burn you
know it because you go, ah, look that's the that's the stripes.
I know that. And again Birdright here in Houston, Texas for Ross
Rail. I'm Chris Gordon and closingthoughts for us. My closing thoughts are,
you're about to go on vacation.I'm going on vacation, so I'm
gonna be maybe betting on some Astrosgames. Let's go, and the Astros
(28:48):
are gonna be fun. You're notgonna get good at the rest camps.
They're playing you know their favorites.That's fine. Two to one. I
think they're two to one today.Really, Okay, okay, it seems
it seems comfortable. It's worth let'sgo, It's worth a couple in the
lineup. Chazzy Fizz is ready tomash. Now do you do We used
to do that. You go toa sports book and just sit there and
watch the games, and do yougo? Now, bet your ticket and
(29:11):
then leave and go walk around thewatching a whole game. Okay, yeah,
that's why I'm betting on games inthe first place. A little action.
Go and watch the game. Butif you go gamble, they got
something. Keep bringing me the freedrinks. I got some in Indiana fever
prop So I'm gonna be going onKaitlyn Clark over turnovers. I've had.
I heard a book you say theother day, keep fading Clark. Okay,
she's take the under on whatever.Well, yeah, she has not
(29:32):
been producing greatly, has not sowell? The lines will adjust, all
right. Well, that'll be ournext before I get there, I mean,
after I get there, our nextpodcast dissecting Kaitlin Clark. I'll do
that one next week for Ross Viel. I'm Chris Cordy. This has been
the Crawford Box Cast, presented byCarbox Brewing
Astros fans, Cheers, Rocky Lucky, Welcome to the Crawford box Cast,
host as proudly born for you byCrawford Bach from Carback Brewy, you're getting
there, Oh my godness, theCrawford box Cast starts now here we go.
(00:30):
Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Viail andit is all new edition of the
Crawford box Cast, presented by CarbakBrewing. Here on the Crawford box Cast.
And man, it has been afun couple of weeks here for your
Houston Astros, as they have certainlyturned the tide and gotten back into the
(00:51):
Al West Race. And man,it just feels good to be talking about
better baseball. Ross. Yeah,last night, obviously, disappointment with that
fifth inning and farber Velde is givingup three home runs, but that's okay.
Before that they had won nine outof eleven. It feels like,
for the most part the ship isrighted. I think Fromber is going to
(01:11):
be too okay, to what levelwe'll see. You got Javier on the
mound tonight, Chas McCormick back inthe lineup tonight, and then our good
friend Jose Bray you could be comingback as well. Of course, I
know that's not going to excite anybody. But you've got Kyle Tucker doing his
thing. Jose Al Tuvey has beenhitting as well. Should Jake Myers out
(01:33):
of nowhere, has come alive withhis bat. So you're hitting. Their
pitching is better for the most part, everything's been better. And lo and
behold you get some clutch hitting andsome good pitching. The winds start to
come, by the way, forgotpleasantries, Chris Gordy here along with crossby
Reality Ross. It is a Crawfordbox cast. Hopefully you didn't just like
stumble on this, and you knowto check this out each and every week.
I have a friend who listens everyweek and always likes to remind me
(01:56):
when we make references to Dusty andMaldonado, So hopefully won't mention either of
them today, just to you know, talk about here and the now,
and you mentioned it. We wantto start there with the Fromber implosion on
what was that Monday night? Tay, I'm lost in the day, but
day, Yeah, look it wasFromber has been really good overall this season,
(02:17):
and you know, coming off withtwo really good starts to win at
Detroit where he gave up seven tworuns and seven innings, and then seven
shutout innings against the A's. Butit's so funny Ross when you when things
go bad, everybody forgets the goodyou did and it's all magnified the bad.
Oh Frober. I saw people thehot take police were out today and
people were going, you know,Frober hasn't been good since that, since
(02:38):
that no hitter last year. Otherpeople said, you know, Frober hasn't
been the same since Correa left.You know, Korea would get in his
face and I want that poff.Actually Fromber had the best season of his
career the year later after Carell left. So it's just funny we create narratives
in our head. And yes,Frober has at times when he struggled.
And I think what's funny though withhim is we don't remember when he's really
(02:59):
good. It's like we race thatfrom our memory. Yeah, it's when
he's bad we got all it's badfrom and guess he was bad in the
postseason less. I think, especiallywhen players, we hold them to a
certain level of accidence. Yeah,if he goes out there and throws seven
innings of shutout ball, which hedid in his last start against the Oakland
A's. You say, that's whathe's supposed to do, and then when
(03:20):
you get off track you deviate fromthat. That's when people tend to remember
that rather than the other. It'slike when an umpire he can get call
one hundred calls correct and ninety nineof them correct. Well, that's what
you're supposed to do. We're gonnafocus on that one that was missed.
That's just how it goes. That'sthe nature of the beast, especially when
you're holding somebody to a level thatwe are from er Valdez, but also
(03:43):
somebody who has had a propensity ofblow ups here and there, another one
last night. It's just it's unfortunatethat it had to be him and the
way that it happened, and howspectacular his blow ups are. The seven
runs in that fifth inning, Yeah, and the fact the askers that a
six to one lead. It wouldhave been different. Had this been a
one to one ball game and hehad the implosion inning and you're down nine
to one, you'd be like,ah, it sucks, you know,
(04:04):
what are you gonna do? Butsix to one, five run leads,
you should be winning. Nick enoughbecause even you give up a two,
three run homer, you get thelast out and you're out of it.
But he just couldn't get that lastout, and before you knew it,
the wheels had fallen off. ButI do think he'll be fine. You
know. I thought it was veryinteresting the comments after taking full blame,
saying he straight away from the gameplan. I think us and Joe's spot
(04:25):
and everybody else is going, well, why the hell do you straight away
from the game plan? Like whatyou just in the moment you said,
Nah, I'm not going slider onhere. I'm going fastball up and away
and or right over the plate,And they're just gonna like, I don't
know why you would do that,but maybe he does need a gun.
Air das to be a little bitmore assertive now and go, hey,
no, this is the pitch.This is what we're calling. Throw it.
(04:46):
Yeah, I mean, you're acatcher in you on your da set
himself. You know, I'm notgoing to force him to throw a pitch.
If if I'm calling a curveball andhe feels like he's not feeling it
right now, you don't want fromor to call it being forced to call
a pitch that he has low confidencein. It's better for him to throw
a worse pitch with high confidence thana better pitch with low confidence, because
he's gonna feel a lot better aboutthe way that it's going. So it's
(05:06):
about relationship building. And that wasa lot of people getting all upset on
Astros Twitter and getting mad and howcould Fromber do this? And Jan here
Martin Maldonado like, I'm not gonnamention that. Oh I'm sorry. Well
Frobert, the previous catcher. Frombertwould shake that guy off too, So
(05:26):
it's okay. Pitchers breaking news.If you've been watching baseball, pitchers sometimes
shake off their catchers. Watch anyjustin Verlanders start or anybody. Really,
they do it often. It happens. Sometimes there can be some disagreements.
It's something they're going to work on. It's collaborative, all that type of
stuff. And maybe after all thiscame to light that the relationship will grow
(05:49):
going forward. That's what the hopeis. Yeah, it's just funny.
It's like he Janer Diaz catches sevenshout out things for Fromber. Nobody says
a word the first four innings Mondaynight. It's fine, but the fifth
inning, Will's fall off and nowsuddenly the hot take is, well Yanner
did is it Frommer? They're justnot on the same page. It's like,
well, look they're fine, they'refine. They're getting to know each
other. But again, like theother thing is this is frober seventh here
(06:10):
in the bigs. Like it's notlike he's like a spencer. Araghedty and
Yannare were having some issues. Okay, again, he's a rookie. He's
trying to find his way all this, but like Robert knows better, like
you don't straight away from the gameplan. And I thought Seawn Salisbury had
a great, you know, comparisonthis morning on the radio. He said,
this would be like the end ofa game. You've got the lead,
and the job for the quarterback ishead just go hand the ball off
(06:31):
five times and let's run the clockout, and you audible into a pass
and you throw a pick six.Everybody's like, what are you doing?
That wasn't the game plan at all, And like that's kind of what Rumbert
did the other day. He threwa pick six and you know you're in
a deficit, sudding. Yeah,he changed the game plan. He can
still execute the pitches that he wasmaking, but I mean it was just
a flat in the zone or notexecuted the way that he wanted. Whatever
(06:54):
you want to say, no matterwhat pitch from er Valdez throws, he
can get out with it. Itjust wasn't the right time and they happen
to get launched over the fence andthen unfortunately it's snowballed and he gave up
those three big home runs, twoof them on back to back pitches,
and then that was that. TheAstros trying to make come back at the
end and they weren't able to,and they spent so much time on the
scouting reports and all that kind ofstuff. It's like, look, they're
(07:16):
gonna put the time and effort intoit. Go execute what they're telling you.
Don't don't be like nah, I'mgonna go fastball Like no, Like
it's not, well, it's notwhat he called for. I can understand
the gamesmanship of it, because whateverhitter you know, he's throwing at,
they know what the game plan isagainst him. Like you know, last
year, Jamie Pinion knows he's gettingbreaking stuff low and away. He just
knows that's what's gonna happen, Soyou can adjust, or you can try
(07:38):
to do throw somebody off or changeyour eye levels. Well, I don't
know what was in his head inthose moments. I don't know what he
was thinking clearly, like you said, he's a veteran in this game.
It's the guy who's finished top fivein the cy Young a couple of times,
Like he knows what he's doing outthere. For the most part,
it just didn't work out. Andyou learn from it, like he said,
and it's something that he shouldn't bedoing. And jan your Das said,
(07:58):
he's gonna learn from this, andthat's the only thing that we can
hope for that happens with these two. This is the Crawford Box Cast presented
by Carbok Brewing and the Crawford BachAnd hopefully you guys are out at the
ballpark for the rest of this homestand and joined some high school Crawford Bach
and Astros heading out to the WestCoast and have some late night games here
real soon, so you really needthe fridge stocked with some Crawford Box.
Another news of interest, Ross weknow Chaz McCormick officially reactivated on Tuesday is
(08:24):
in the lineup Tuesday night's game.We welcome back Chazz. He had a
good bit of a bats over therein Corpus and sugar Land. But I
think the big question is how tohandle the Joey low Perfido situation. Because
you know, we saw the correspondingmove they send Trey Cabbage down, which
is what I predicted they would do. But now you have a situation where
you have low Berfito up, andas Dana Brown said the other day,
(08:46):
Joey's a guy who's got to beplaying for five days a week. Like
this is a guy you want tokeep active and keep hot, keep him
going, but you got to redhot Jake Myers going right now as well.
So how do you think they balancethis out? From Jordan's still getting
his reps in left field, keepingJake Myers in because he's one of your
best bats right now, keeping lowPerfito going. Who's bat and what around
(09:09):
three hundred? I mean he's beenpretty good with the bat, got a
home run, and or Chaz backin. How do they balance this out?
Yeah, I don't know. It'sa tough problem to have. I
think the comments from Dana that youmentioned over the weekend make me think that
it could be low Perffedo that isunfortunately going to be the odd man out
just because of I mean, you'rejust gonna have too many guys and where
(09:33):
are you gonna put everybody? Theydid put Dubon at first base recently.
I don't know how much more they'regonna want to do that. You've got
John Singleton there, You've got JOSEA. Bray, you possibly coming back this
weekend. So I mean you haveone of those good problems. I mean,
Jake Myers went oh for four lastnight. He had some hard hit
contact. He hit a ball likefour under five feet, didn't go out.
But he's hitting like two ninety andopsing well over eight hundred. Mauricio
(09:56):
Dubon is hitting over three hundred.Jobiol Loberfito. Like you said, Chas
McCormick hasn't been hitting well. Butwe know when Chas McCormick is right,
he's a plus plus outfielder. Soit's a good problem. I don't know
if if Jose Bray would come downand Greg Kessinger would be the odd man
out, but you like the versatilityof Greg Kessinger, even though he doesn't
play much. But it's definitely gonnabe a difficult situation for the Astros to
(10:20):
figure this thing out. If Ihad to guess, it would be either
great Kessinger or you really don't wantto do it because he hasn't done anything
to earn a demotion. But JoeyLoperfito could be the odd man out as
well. Well, That's what I'msaying is that the corresponding move for Chaz
was Trey Cabbage. So yeah,Like in other words, from Dana's comments,
it made me think they were maybeleaning towards sending low Perfito back to
(10:41):
sugar Land where he's gonna play everyday and just keep Trey cabots because he's
playing once or twice a week.But like now you face a situation where
too though, Yeah, but likelow Praffito now, with Chaz back and
Jake playing like he's only gonna playtwo three days a week now, you
would assume. So, yeah,we'll see. And the thing is,
I mean, you're going with toughsmall sample sizes. You know, Jake
(11:03):
Myers has been hot for two weeks, Jake Myers went over for four last
night. Jake Myers could get coldfor two weeks he could, and then
what happens? Holly, how doyou let him work that out? You're
going to try to put them allin there in their best and most favor
favorable situations as far as hitting.But it's gonna be tough. It is
interesting though. I talked with whowas it, John Singleton a few weeks
(11:26):
ago, and you know, talkedabout, you know, hey, your
your bat's starting to heat up alittle bit. I gotta think that's got
to correspond with playing every day.He said, absolutely. He said,
it's hard to play every other day, or you know, come off the
bench here for at bat and thennot play for two days and then get
a start. He goes, it'shard like the more pitching you see on
a daily basis that the more youknow adjustments you can make with your with
(11:48):
your bats. And you know,I thought that was an interesting comment he
made at the time. And thenI interviewed Jake Myers on Sunday before the
pregame show and he said the samething to me. He said, yeah,
the blessing of the Skies with Chazbeing on, I l is I'm
playing every day And he said,playing every day, I'm seeing more pitches
and I'm getting hot and all thatsort of. So I think there is
something to say about that. Asmuch as you'd like to, you know,
hey, play the play the matchups, play the lineups. Jake's out
(12:11):
today because we're facing a right youknow, whatever the matchups are. Like,
I do think there's something to besaid for playing every day and get
nose at bats. Absolutely, youknow, it's just going to be interesting
to see with working Chaz back in, does Jake cool off because of that?
Do we see low Perfito going tofunk because he's not playing every day.
It's it's it's repercussions. And thatbrings us to the next topic.
Yeah, Jose Abreho could be backthis weekend, and it's sounding like he
(12:35):
is going to be back this weekend, and I think all of us are
going, what the hell, it'snot exactly like he got he went Hank
Aaron down there in Florida Golf Floridaclub what is it, uh, Florida
Coast Gulf Coast League. No,it's not even it's the Florida Clubhouse.
Or it's a complex. That's whatit's like. Florida Complex League. Like
(12:58):
literally, your play it's rookie ball. They're calling hold on now. In
the Gulf Coast League, Jose Brayyou today three for four, he's back,
baby, Wait, let's go theComplex League, right, yes,
okay, said Golf Coast. Well, this is what Brian McTaggart said,
Golf Coast League. He went threefor four today. Okay. Well,
(13:20):
regardless, I want like for himto come back. I want him to
go a week in Corpus and thenabout a week or two in sugar Land,
Like I want to see him gofour for five in sugar Land before
I go. Now, you're readyfor the big league club, Like this
just seems like it is destined fordisaster to bring him up this quick and
for Dana Brown to say the words, Well, I talk to Jeff Bagwa
(13:41):
bag He says he's ready. Well, of course, Jeff Bagwell says he's
ready. He was part of thegroup when they know GM that signed Jose
Bray you, and I just like, are they rushing this? Like why
this quickly? Well it's been fourweeks, so, I mean you're talking
about a major league guy hitter who'smaking all the money, who is been
(14:01):
down there for a month. Therewas no set timetable, and I I'm
gonna have to try this world.You know what I'm doing. I'm trust
falling on the astros. Okay,I'm standing. The astros are behind me.
I'm gonna fall back and hope thisJose bray You thing, he's turned
it around because I have no otherchoice, because they have they have batspeed
(14:22):
data Channel Rome wrote a great articleon Jose bray You. Apparently his bat
speed is really good. It's fasterthan Kyle Tucker's, it's faster than some
others. He his his metrics frombat speed are good, just that his
timing was really off. So ifhe can produce and it's not like John
Singleton, who has been good,is just gonna lock down the spot in
his in unstoppable offensive force. Andalso John Singleton's left handed, Jose Bray
(14:48):
right handed. So I think wecould see some platoon splitting while they try
to get him back up here andget him right. Well, that's that.
Dana Brown said it on Sunday,said, yeah, I think we're
probably gonna see a platoon thing.But again, like I think we see
like so Abraya goes oh for fourwith three strikeouts and then the next day,
Singleton starts, and then he comesback with a home run, and
then he comes back on Sunday.You really think he's like he's gonna break
(15:09):
out of a funk by not playingevery day. You know, I don't
know exactly what they're gonna do orwhat the plan is, but I mean,
as spot as comments are for thisteam to be at their best,
Joseah bray You needs to be contributing. And I mean I understand he's looked
like a corpse. I've called himthe corpse of Joseah bray You. But
the fact that they're bringing him backup, of course, Jeff Bagwell is
(15:30):
going to be slightly biased because thisis his signing for all intensity. Can
we get like eight other people tosign off on the quorta complexly or well,
you know at that whole you knowdown there in spring training. You
know this, they have track man, they have data on everything that he's
doing down there. They've been gettinghim the live VP. Hopefully, I'm
just gonna be optimistic that he canjust you know, two fifty with some
(15:50):
pop ops close to eight hundred.I mean, that's what what what exactly
is John Singleton given you he's hadhad a couple of home runs, but
things haven't really been going his wayeither. It's crushing it, but he's
pretty EASi least been somewhat productive.I know he's batting around two twenty two
thirty, but like two twenty witha six seventy eight ops. Yeah,
but he's still he's been able towork some locks. He's been able to
(16:11):
work some sack flies, you know, like he's given you something. It's
not. Yeah, he's not goingoh for four, oh for four,
oh for four, oh for fourlike a Bray you was. He's been
an average major league hitter and aBray who's been historically bad. But you're
hoping that he can get it right. And I do. I will say
the bat speed metrics coming out andbeing pretty favorable for Jose A Bray,
(16:33):
you give me some hope that hecould just there is just a little bit
of life left and then he canjust go out there against left handed pitching
every now and then and give youa little something. All that sounds great,
and they got track man down thereand all that, but you know
what's not down at the at theWest Palm League, Ross strippling or JP
sears like these are the guys.He sucks, but I'm just saying,
(16:56):
like, these are the guys youwould face this weekend in Oakland, and
like these are big league pitchers.Okay, they're gonna get to Look.
I understand. I don't have totell you I look I like I said,
I'm trust falling on the Astros becausethis is what we would have to
You would have to have organizational negligencefrom Dana Brown, Joe Aspada, Jeff
Bagwell, everybody that's on the staffout there, and jose A Bray,
(17:17):
who himself who accepted this assignment.So I'm just going to have a touch
of faith that he can. Iknow what we saw is terrible, but
that's a non competitive at bats andhe looked like he completely lost. He
look he looked like if you gavea bat to a fourth grader. That's
what jose Ah Bray, who lookedout there, I get it. I'd
say high schooler, but that's you. Other fans are not going to be
(17:40):
forgiving. This thing's going to bemagnified. Are going to be forgiving.
In Patient Friday and he goes ohfor four and strikes out with men on
base they're going to crucify him.Times tests that the fans that wanted Joe
A. Spot A fired two weeksin the fans that wanted Bregman DFAD and
he started to heat up a littlebit. Yeah, I understand the fans
are gonna be get their pitchforks out. That's what fans do. But I
(18:03):
think the smart, measured ones ofyou know, this is one hundred and
sixty two game season and I'm notgonna go to the back of the baseball
card or whatever. I'm just gonnasay, I will have an open mind
because there has to be all thesepeople making a horrible, horrible decision and
guess what if he comes up fora couple of weeks and he's terrible,
(18:23):
then you turn them loose. Well, I was gonna say, maybe that's
the other way to think about thisis the Aestra is a guard. We
tried to cut him before he wentno, no, no, I'm gonna
get this fixed. I'll go tothe Florida League exactly. And now they're
like, all right, just gethis that's up here, let him struck
out a bunch and then we cancut him and go, dude, we're
not sending you back to Florida again, it's over, We're done. That's
what I think would happen. Buton the flip side, on the flip
(18:45):
side, if he does come backand looks like the Jose Brey we saw
at the back end of last season, the last postseason, then even better.
If he's starting to crush home runsand he looks like the old Joseo
Brewy, awesome, that's great forthe Astros. I just put that at
about it chance of happening. Iwould put it only a one percent.
But I mean, one of thereasons he was so effective in the playoffs
(19:06):
is because they've got a lot offdays. You play for two days,
you're off a day, play acouple more days, then you're off.
You get a travel day in betweenseries. Remember they was a godsend that
they won the division last year becauseyou got that entire week off for somebody
like jose Oh Bray, you andyou see that. I mean, you
can tell when somebody's had a certainpart of their body worked on the bruising
(19:26):
they used, the cupping or whatever. His back the entire postseason was had
marks on it because they were workingon his back. So you get those
extra days off. You're not usinghim every day. Expectations are I mean
below the floor and so and thenthen if he doesn't produce, you let
him go. Yeah, and ifI'm the askers, I start reaching out
to pet A Lonzo's agent right now. He's a free agent next offseason.
(19:48):
Hey, let's just have some someCaelibertary conversation about you would even give up
to get him, but let's doit. He's a free agent. So
yeah, it's a rental. Oh, he's a free agent right now at
the end of this year. Okay, I'm talking. Oh I thought you
were talking about making trade for him. No, I'm saying, like next
season, next you we can't gointo next season with a Braywen Sane.
I interest you in Chas McCormick.Yeah, I mean something but uh.
(20:11):
And then Paul Goldschmid's a free agenttoo, Houston native. But he's also
I think about thirty six and nothitting anymore. So we've already done that.
But I'm just looking out there forlike a free agent first base because
we can't. You can't roll withwhat you currently have next year at first
base. It's just it's not gonnahappen. It's not like you're staring down
the barrel of some stud first basementand the miners who's just like pushing his
(20:32):
way up there? So where isit? Jo? It's not And it's
it's not Jordon either. For theidiot Coller calls in every week telling us,
I mean, won't you just putyourd on it first? He didn't
want to play first. He's notgonna play first. Yeah, I don't
know why. I don't care ifthey haven't done it. At this point,
it didn't happen, and he's actuallyturned out to be a pretty decent
left field get out there, notbad out there. Next order of business
(20:52):
or USO Jose ri Keaty will bemaking another minor league start this weekend.
He is getting closer to a return. I have heard some though that there
we don't know how stretched out he'sgonna be. Would the best option be
to bring back Erkety as a bullpenlong reliever? Is that the way you
would go? I guess it's justgonna depend on the rotation and where.
(21:17):
I mean, are you how long? What stretches? Are you gonna go
to? A six man? Right? Because right now, what have we
got Verlander fromber Javier Blanco two threeSarrangedtty rakety six? Did I miss anybody?
Eric Getty? I said, Okay, Francis hurt. Yeah, so
that's your six. So Narraghety's beengood. He's starting a bullpen today,
(21:37):
by the way. Yeah, andthat's but earliest he would be his also
a couple of months. But that'sstill that's good to hear. He threw
twenty pitches the other day and he'she's progressing. All signs say Luis Garcia
is on track. Sometime around AllStar break he'll be back. So that's
good to hear. But I justlook at Urkety. I'm like, even
when he's good, Urkety gives youfive innings of two or three run ball,
(21:57):
Like that's about what he He's notlike any playoffs. Well yeah,
and he turns into Greg Maddox.But like, I just wonder they better
served than maybe using him in thatlong relieve role. Maybe piggyback start with
Hunt because here's the one Raghetty hasbeen awesome under Brown. That was seven.
Well that's the one out that worriesme because Hunter Brown is he got
(22:18):
bailed out Friday night because Jeremy Panehits the big home run after he had
just put the Asters in a deficit. It's just like your confidence level when
Hunter Brown takes the mound. Forme, I'm about full percent, the
lowest of any of them, singArraghetty, who I think is turning things
around a bit. Then again,you could do the flip a route.
You say, are kids going togo into the He's going to come back
to the rotation and Hunter Brown willbe the piggyback guy, Like if somebody
(22:42):
doesn't go long, he'll come inand pitch four five innings, which he
did really well up in Detroit.Yeah, I don't know. It's gonna
be another tough decision for the Astros. A good thing. I mean,
you're not talking about a bunch offrontline guys, and we'll see guys do
go down with injuries. I meansomebody could get you know, shoulder stoorders
or else bullets, orners or blisteror whatever. You know what Pres had
(23:03):
the ring finger thing. Yeah,an injury's gonna happen. To want to
one of these guys fingers crossed,but it's just it's gonna happen. But
it is funny how we were takingcalls a few weeks ago. People,
I told you they should have gotMars starting pitching, Trevor Bauer and you
know, we should have gotten Blake'ssnell and all this kind of stop with
the Trevor Bauer stuff, and it's, uh, he was shut down for
a while, but it's we're backwhere we were. Like I was like,
(23:25):
they're going to get healthy, andnow we're like, oh, now
they're do they stay with the sixthman who comes out of the rotation,
Like now you have a little bitof a surplus starting tech kits had an
ungodly amount of injuries and it wastough to stitch together the bullpen and the
starting rotation, and they were alsoweren't hitting clutch, and they were losing
games. It's not rocket science,it's really not. They got better pitching,
(23:47):
they've gotten better hitting, and they'regetting back into the mix in the
American League West, even though theylost a game yesterday because the Mariners came
back and then yeah, I wasthat they they went to the ninth what
trailing four to one to the Yankeesand scored five runs. What took a
five to four leading one of thegame yes, I mean that's just and
it was homes it was there likeclosers dominated the Astro. So the one
time you root for the Yankees,this is what happens. Come on,
(24:10):
guys. But that said, andthis is our last part, the Astros
have closed the gap here and tremendously. So, I mean we're talking about
them being, you know, tengames out of this thing, almost what
almost twelve games below five hundred.They were peaked game. We're twelve I
think it was the worst, andnow just five games back of the Als,
leading Mariners, three games behind theRangers for second place. This is
(24:33):
where you want to be. It'swinnable games this week with the Angels the
A's and then you go to Seattleon Sunday. I did have somebody say
on the post game show, ohman, this they could jump the Mariners
by the by next week. Isaid, let's take a little bit of
me. It's as hot as they'vebeen, they're going to have pitfalls again.
They're gonna lose serious, they maylose the serious to the Angels,
and they're all gonna be going,ah, you should have won that one.
(24:56):
It was a winnable series. Butlike it's just how baseball goes.
You're not going to continue on thisheater. You're going to have. For
every two steps forward, you mayhave one step backward. But the big
thing is they've closed this gap.And I still say the goal should be
by the by the All Star break, that you're right around the division,
like you don't have to be,you don't have to have overtaken the aos
by then, but you want tobe close to five hundred and you know,
(25:18):
within a couple of games. Sothat's kind of my goal. Where
do you think they should be?Yeah, I think just get keep your
head down, don't even look upat the standings, and try to get
to five hundred. And I thinkthat's going to be a very very attainable
task. And then you go fromthere. Because Seattle is not running away
with the division, and according toopponents win percentage, they have the twenty
ninth most difficult schedule. Yeah,now the Mariners are thirtieth, but but
(25:45):
you're going to play them ten moregames. So take care of your business
against the Mariners, beat up onall the weak opponents. You still got
twelve more games with the Angels,You've still got six more with the Socks.
So I mean this this thing canturn around, and I think it
will, and I'm still at thismoment May, I'm still projecting the Astros
(26:06):
to win the American League West.Well, we did our farewell last year.
Last week to Brandon b Lack andCorey Joelks, both of those guys
departed and have since moved on toother teams. Brandon Black was traded for
cash considerations to the Oakland A's andCorey Jolks ends up with the lowly Chicago
White Sox. But did you seewhat he did the other day? I
saw at Yankee Stadium. He robs, He robs a hitter of a home
(26:30):
run and then hits a home runhimself. There's play of playing time to
be had for the Chicago White Sox. So best of lucky joke, But
yeah, it's kind of cool tosee him going on and do. It's
just one of those things like wesaw him four twenty nine as a White
Sox. It's pretty good. That'sgreat. But you know, we've seen
Abraham Toro come back, We've seenTony Kemp make visits back with other teams.
(26:51):
It's always fun to see the formerAstros and we just hope they don't
do well when they play the Astros. Yeah, wishing the best except against
the Astros. All right, welllet's call it ross. Two more series
in this Angels series and then threeup out in Oakland. What do you
think the Asters go going into Mondayin Seattle? I will say, now,
I'm feeling pretty good about today againstJavier Tomorrow. Our good friend Hunter
(27:14):
Brown is going not feeling super confidentabout that, So I'll say, what
is it? Five games three andtwo? Ironically in that series against Milwaukee
last weekend. Milwaukee's a really goodteam. You you lost the Verlanders start
but won the Hunter Brown and SpencerArighetty starts. You know, have you
asked me on Friday that it's probablythe other way around, but still won
(27:37):
the series. Yeah, And that'sand that was a good team. I
mean, that was outside of beatingthe Rangers early in the year, that
was one of your that was yourbest series victory. Because that's a really
good team. The team that's leadingthe NL Central, it's probably gonna win
the NL Central and big, big, big, big series win there because
let's face it, series wins overDetroit at Oakland and the White and the
Rockies. It is what it is. But that was your first marquee.
(28:00):
Really good series win, and againsome winnable games here, still ahead on
the schedule, and keep closing thatgap, and hopefully you close that gap
with your mouth to the lid ofa Crawford back and enjoy the ice cooled
Crawford box. This guy, itis a home run every time. Of
course, Bird right here in Houston, Texas at Carbock Buring. You know
when you see it, the tequilaSunrise stripes on the can, on the
(28:22):
bottle. They're all over stores everywhere. I was at Randall's last week,
I was at Target. I meaneverywhere you go you see Carbock burn you
know it because you go, ah, look that's the that's the stripes.
I know that. And again Birdright here in Houston, Texas for Ross
Rail. I'm Chris Gordon and closingthoughts for us. My closing thoughts are,
you're about to go on vacation.I'm going on vacation, so I'm
gonna be maybe betting on some Astrosgames. Let's go, and the Astros
(28:48):
are gonna be fun. You're notgonna get good at the rest camps.
They're playing you know their favorites.That's fine. Two to one. I
think they're two to one today.Really, Okay, okay, it seems
it seems comfortable. It's worth let'sgo, It's worth a couple in the
lineup. Chazzy Fizz is ready tomash. Now do you do We used
to do that. You go toa sports book and just sit there and
watch the games, and do yougo? Now, bet your ticket and
(29:11):
then leave and go walk around thewatching a whole game. Okay, yeah,
that's why I'm betting on games inthe first place. A little action.
Go and watch the game. Butif you go gamble, they got
something. Keep bringing me the freedrinks. I got some in Indiana fever
prop So I'm gonna be going onKaitlyn Clark over turnovers. I've had.
I heard a book you say theother day, keep fading Clark. Okay,
she's take the under on whatever.Well, yeah, she has not
(29:32):
been producing greatly, has not sowell? The lines will adjust, all
right. Well, that'll be ournext before I get there, I mean,
after I get there, our nextpodcast dissecting Kaitlin Clark. I'll do
that one next week for Ross Viel. I'm Chris Cordy. This has been
the Crawford Box Cast, presented byCarbox Brewing
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