Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
MLB dot Com and astros dot COM's Brian mctaggarts. In
addition to telling Astros fans cry kid tags, Gordy was
letting me know the other day that you're getting after
Texas Tech fans too.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You got to protect your Koug's.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Right, Yeah, I mean Tech Tech hasn't accomplished anything in
football ever, and so I know it's probably the best
season they've ever had. So I'll I'll let them h
I'll let them enjoy this. By the way, I don't
like that Florida five song either. I still have it
ringing in my ear.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
It was not intention it was not intentional. I'm sorry, Tags,
I'm sorry. If anything, it was intentional for Matt Thomas,
not for you. Okay, I'll allow it. There we go,
all right, So let's get into the moves. I know
you and Chandler Rome were all over it yesterday. Of
course I mentioned it. Alex c in Tron Gone, Troy
Snicker's gone.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
But you were also on a lot of the other
moves too. I mean, were there any of them that
necessarily surprised you? Did you think that maybe there was
a chance that I don't know, Troy Snitker could say,
but they make a move with Centron or was that
kind of a package deal.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, I don't know if it was a package deal.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I mean I figured there would be a some kind
of change amongst the hitting coaches. I didn't know if
that would be one or both. But I think they
definitely could use, you know, a different voice in here.
I mean, those guys were here a long time and
they did a great job. I mean they were the
hitting coaches when they astro set the major League record
for slugging percentage.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
In twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But you look at the twenty nineteen roster, that lineup
is way better than what they have now. So I
always go back to I'm always I'm always gonna put
it on the players when they underperform, and not the coaches.
I mean, these these two hitting coaches have track records
of being really good, but it's always going to come
down to players and your personnel.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And with the injuries and stuff that it made things hard.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
But yeah, there's probably some new voices that could come
in and maybe change things. So I'm not surprised that
they both were gone together. And then Jeremiah Randall, you know,
the athletic trainer. I don't think anyone, you know, worries
too much about an athletic trainer, but obviously with the
injuries that they've had, I know, it was a tough
year on him as well, dealing with all that, and
(02:09):
so you know that's.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Not a huge surprise. You know, his contract was up
as well.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You know, Michael Collins, again, a guy who's been on
the staff a long time, does handle the catchers. They're
they're you know, the catching defense wasn't great, so you know,
I'm guessing that's probably what they're thinking was there.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
And then you know his contract was up as well.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And then Andrew Bald the assistant GM, had a lot
of responsibilities, but one of them was to oversee the
medical department. So you know, you put it all in
that frame of reference, none of this stuff really surprises you,
considering the shortcomings Astros and the problems that they had
this year.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Brian with when it comes to Jeremiah Randall, I know,
you know, some folks have made it out, uh you know,
Dastros very rarely ever made the head athletic trainer available
to the media for questions, and you know how how
much of that was was his decision. How much of
that is a team's decision for the lack of transparency
and a lot of these injuries where it was oh,
(03:07):
it's uh, it's discomfort. We'll give an update at some point. Uh.
And then you know, just kind of also with that,
like how much did these to the two major injuries
the one the Kyle Tucker last year and the one
that you had on this year. It seemed to be
mishandled will say, uh, play into this decision.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, I'm not sure you know if that played into
it or not.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I mean, you'd have to ask them. But uh, I mean,
I've been on the beat twenty two years. I've never
interviewed an athletic trainer once. So it's it's a it's
been a team philosophy for a long time, and a
lot of teams are like that. Some teams make their
athletic trainers available here or there, so you know, towards
the end of the year, the Astros started giving us
(03:50):
weekly injury updates, which are really helpful, you know, and
hopefully that continues going forward. But for the exact reason why,
I mean, I'm not sure no one's told me so
I can't get in you know, try to get in
their head on that.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Gain. Brian McTaggart MLB dot com, astros dot com joining
us here. So you know one other thing too. I mean,
we were at that press conference last week and Dana
gave the interesting answer about himself but also about Joe.
Was there ever, at least from people you talk with,
any chance that either or both of those guys were
(04:25):
going to be moved on from.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
No, No, there was not, and they wouldn't have put
them out there in that press conference if there was.
By the time they got on that podium, both of
them knew they were coming back.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I guess they were sort of.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I guess they didn't want to be a team's spokesman
to say hey, I'm coming back, but a spotta was
a form. He was informed he was coming back when
the team was in Anaheim, and I'm not exactly sure
about Dana, but by the time they were on that podium,
you know, we could go Tuesday, they knew they were
coming back. It was just I don't think either one
of them wanted to to be a spokesman for the
team and say, hey, they told me I'm coming back.
(05:03):
Me they're both under contract, third year for Joe fourth year,
for data final years of those deals. So all this
it just led to some speculation that really wasn't happening
that you know, no one knows who's in charge and
all that.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I mean that was that was never the case.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I mean, they were coming back and it just I
guess just wasn't communicated super clearly.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You know that that was the case. So that, uh,
there was really no issue there, Brian.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
I know, we live in this day and age where
everybody wants to fire everybody, right, It's like the minute
you have any lack of success, it's fire everyone in
the clean house. But I've talked to some people that
said they think just a different voice in the room
in terms of hitting coaches can help because those two
guys have been there abrounds for so long. Well I
think it's twenty nineteen Centron and Snicker were the co
(05:53):
hitting coaches. So what in your opinion, you've been around
baseball a long time, what can a new voice in
that room bring to a guy like jose A l
two vain guys who are just professional hitters that have
been for a long time. What can a new hitting
coach bring?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah, I mean it can't hurt for to hear something
else maybe you haven't heard before, hear things, you know
a different way. You know, the Astros were not a
disciplined team at the plate last year.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Swung a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
They had the what third fewest pitch has seen in
the big leagues, And some of that have to do
with some of the guys they had on the I L.
But uh, you know, they could definitely get more patient
at the plate. But at the end of the day,
it's gonna come down to the players staying healthy and performing.
Yet I heard a hitting coach talk this year about
(06:39):
helping the players and what the players. What the players
want is to be able to repeat their swings and
feel good about their swings, and that's that's what you
help them with. But when they get in the batter's box,
a lot of that goes out the window and it's
just a matter of survival there. A lot of times
they're not thinking about what the pick, what the hitting
coaches have told them. It's you know, you got a
(07:01):
you know, a ninety nine mile an hour for seemer
coming at you, and you're just trying to.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You're trying to survive up there.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
So a lot of it goes out the window when
they get up to the plate and they go, you know,
back to doing what you know they've done their whole
careers and trying to get the hits.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
But it will be interesting to see who who they
bring in.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
You know, what their thoughts are, and you know, if
you can help some of these guys move forward. I mean,
Jake Myers had his best season. You know, Jeremy Panya
made huge strides the last couple of years. I don't
know how much anyone can come in and help jose
Al tub at this point. I mean, he's done it
so long. Are you gonna make host sale changes with him?
I mean probably not, But maybe there's a piece of
knowledge you can give him that you know, can help
(07:42):
him keep moving forward in his career. So yeah, I
think just a different voice was probably needed.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
One of the moves that we haven't focused on a
ton is Major League coach Michael Collins, who was said
to work with the catchers. I've thrown this out there tags.
I mean he alluded to it about a week ago. Yeah,
Martine Maldonado, is that a possibility?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I don't know. I have to I guess I need
to reach out to him and ask him.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I'm I do know that he's told me before you
would like to get into managing, but that did not
want to do it in the minor league. So you know,
maybe if uh, you know, a coaching gig would lead
to to uh managing, you know, maybe he has an
interest in that.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
But I think he'd be great at it.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I mean he uh you know, he was a de
facto coach when he was here, not only not only
for you know, the catchers and helping Yonder Diaz, but
also with the you know, the pitching staff as well.
So I think he would be a great guy to
have in uniforms. I don't know if he's interested in that,
but looks obviously like his career is over and I
think he definitely wants to stay in baseball, So stay
(08:48):
tuned on that one.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Yeah, And certainly helping the catchers with scouting reports seemed
to be nobody better than him in recent years at
doing that. Uh sas justin Berlander, Uh tag, they've got
a question on I've seen a lot of social media
folks Astros fans making a big deal out of oh,
they got a lot of dead money cut off the books,
so Bray you and Matero and Pressley and if they
(09:11):
lose from Burr, you know, there's gonna be all this
money to spend. Where are they realistically gonna be payroll?
Because again it's a lot of big money salaries still
on the books. I mean, you took about l Tuve
and you're not and you know, Christian Walker and so
on and so forth. So I mean, is there going
to be this big influx of money to spend or
people making too much of a big deal out.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Of that they will have some money to spend. You
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
You haven't sat down and looked at the exact numbers recently,
you know, I did it earlier in the year. They
also have I think, are you know, close to seventy
million dollars tied up in their arbitration guys, And they
have a ton of arbitration guys and probably a large
swath of those could be guys you're gonna end up
non tendering, so you're going to save some money there.
(09:55):
I mean, I think they will fin down their position
players a little bit. They have too many positions players. Well,
they non tender some of those guys trade, some of
those guys, you know, that could free up some money.
But yeah, they are, you know, they are going to
have some money. It looks like this year they went
over the first CBT threshold, you know, for the second
year in a row. So there's still a still a
(10:17):
top ten payroll in this league. And I think they'll
continue to work right around you know that that area.
You know, I don't think they'll go over the second
threshold anytime soon. And you know, I don't think we'll
ever as long as Jim crainzy on, I don't think
we're gonna see them slash and become a team that's
gonna have a one hundred and fifty one hundred and
fifty million dollars payroll.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So they're gonna be in the deep end of the pool.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
They're gonna have, you know, some some money to bring
in some people, but they're gonna have to make some
trades and get creative as well to try to you know,
maybe create a little more space to bring in the
talent that they need.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
It's gonna be an interesting off season, there's no question
about it. In the meaning it's gonna be all over
at astros dot com. MLB dot COM's Brian McTaggart tags
you're the best, buddy. Appreciate it. Gotta believe it. It's
a home gate tomorrow for the Coogs and Cowboys for you.
But enjoy this much needed time.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Off, time off. What are you talking about. Appreciate I
appreciate it. So baseball is all was on. Don't forget that.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
There you go again, Brian mctagger Appreciate it, buddy. We'll
talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Right, nice,