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July 17, 2025 • 11 mins
Brian McTaggart Joins The Show Talking Astros Trade Deadline & 2nd Half Of The Season
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Matt Ross with you. It is Sports Talk seven. I
know you're proud home of the Astros. Astros will start
a series tomorrow in Seattle. Joining us right now a
man who'll be sitting in an Economy plus in a
flight to Seattle. It's Brian mctagger tags. How was your
All Star break?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
It was good? Uh, you know, unplugged a little bit. Uh,
watched a little bit of the All Star derby none
of the game, but yeah, it was nice to uh
not a little bit, but yeah, Uh, second half is
coming quick.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Second half is coming quick. We just had a caller
before and I know you're you're your guess is as
good as ours at this point. Do you expect the
Astros to be active in at least conversations? And what
my prediction is is it's going to be there's gonna
they're gonna make a move of some sort, but it's
gonna be somebody that's going to be spectacularly underneath the
radar number one. Do you agree with that? At number two?

(00:59):
If you don't, won't. What could the Astros give up
that could make them have a splashy trade deadline pickup?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, I mean I I think they will be active.
I mean, I think, uh, they're gonna be looking at
two things. I mean, we all know left left handed bat,
which they wanted even before Alvarez, you know, seem like
he's going to be out a while. Dana Brown's been,
I guess on record saying that you know they still
want a left handed bat. There's some urgency there. And
also starting pitching. Even though they have some guys trending back,

(01:32):
you can never you know, have enough starting pitching. And
they feel that if they get another starter and plug
him behind Fromber and Hunter Brown, it'll give them a
really monstrous one two three in the playoffs, which you
know would put them in good position because in the
playoffs it all comes down the pitching. Will it be
under the radar? I don't know. I mean, I if
they get a guy like Seth Lugo from the Royals,

(01:54):
is that under the radar, or you know Andrew Heaney
from the UH from the Angels under the radar. I mean,
I think they're gonna If you're gonna get a starting pitcher,
you're gonna get somebody that I think if you know,
if you're a baseball fan, you know who it is
and what they're gonna give up. They're gonna have to
give up prospects, you know, playing and simple. But you know,
Jim Crane's not shy about giving up prospects because nine

(02:17):
times out of ten, you give up these prospects and
they don't really pan out. So if you look at
all the trades they've made the last ten years, I mean,
how many prospects have come back to bite you? Not
not too many. So there win now mode. They think
if they can, you know, shore up a couple of things,
get a couple guys back from injury, they got a
shot to make a run of this.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Do you feel like the Astros have been incredibly lucky.
I think they have when it comes to all these moves,
whether it's Zack Granki, whether it's Justin Verlander, whether it
was yuse Kikuchi. I mean, there is nobody really that
has been them in the ass in terms of, oh
my god, this guy's having a long, lengthy, ten year career.
I mean maybe you could say Josh Hater many moons ago,

(02:55):
but was he ever forecast to be a dominant closer.
I think the Astros have been remarkably lucky. The players
have come back and not done a whole lot since
wearing a different team's uniform.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, I think you're right. I mean they you know,
another one maybe to put in there was you know,
ta Oscar Hernandez. You know, he played in just a
maybe even one game for the Astros and they dealt
him away and he's gone on to have a you know,
really nice career. I mean that, but that was still
a few years ago. But you're right. I mean, look
at the prospects they gave up last year for Kakuci.
I mean, you know, all three of those guys are
still young in their careers and could pan out, but

(03:27):
I don't think anyone's you know, when they got traded,
everyone was freaking out that. You know, they gave away
three budding superstars and one of us hurt. And you know,
Will Wagner wasn't able to duplicate what he did right
off the bat, and you know low Brafitos bounced between
you know, Buffalo and Toronto. So I mean, and like
I said earlier, I mean, Crane knows that prospects are nice,

(03:49):
but he wants to win. And you know, if you
got to give up two or three your top ten
prospects to go out and get a picture. Who's going
to put you in really good position to make a
run at the World Series. I think they're going to
do it.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Ryan and Taggert with us here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and just Brian, I just curious your thoughts on
just the the trade ecosystem as a whole, especially with
the with the Astros, with you have fewer sellers now
with the third wild card. The Astros don't have a
ton of resources. They do have a lot of guys
coming back from injury, So I guess I'm just asking

(04:20):
how aggressive will Dana be considering all of those factors
that even if he if he wants to make a
bunch of deals, it's going to be difficult for him.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, it will be difficult because you're right. I mean,
there's there's very few teams that are out of it.
I think other than the Nationals, Marlins, Rockies, and Pirates,
everyone else is within seven games of a postseason spot.
I mean, I guess it's up to some of these teams,
you know, what they want to do, like the you know,
the d Backs and Rays and teams like that. But
there's gonna be a lot of teams looking for those pitchers,

(04:54):
and a lot of teams looking for bats and left
handed bats. So yeah, but pitching specifically, it does seem
like by the end of August they could get Javier back,
They could get perhaps Garcia back, Arraghetti, you know, he
could be riding that Nix as well. He's a guy
not coming off surgery, so maybe you feel a little
bit better about him coming back than the other guys.

(05:14):
And I think that maybe that could go into Dana
Brown's factory and into trades, and you know how much
he gives up, and if he feels, hey, this is
too expensive, you know, maybe we'll stand pat right here
and then just you know, hopefully we get one of
these guys back and it can deepen our rotation a
little bit, and maybe we'll focus on a left handed bat.
So I think whoever they get, it's gonna be you know,
a rental obviously, because you get someone with some time

(05:37):
remaining on their contract, it's gonna cost even more. But
like you said, I mean they've they've made some pretty
good trades. The last year Kakuchie trade worked out pretty
well for them. He didn't pitch in the playoffs, but
I think last year when they faced Detroit, it was
just worst case scenario wildcard round. They got to stay
out of the wildcard round, get that first round by
and if they get another arm, or get one or

(05:58):
two of these arms back, I think they're being good
shape to go, you know, make a good push here
to at least to LCS.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
One of the arms they do have. Hunter Brown not
listed as a probable this weekend, Eyebrow raise for you
at all. Of course, we know the last couple of
starts was a little bit shaky, so just needs a
little bit of extra rest and not saying we need
to be concerned or anything, but what was your reaction
when you saw that?

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, a little surprising. I thought for sure that Hunter
and Fromber would pitch there. I mean I haven't had
a chance to ask anybody about it. You know that'll
happen tomorrow, but I guess would be they just need
needs a little bit more reps. You know, you're right,
his last two starts before the break giving up tenarned
runs in I'm not sure how many innings he pitched,
but you know, ten on runs and two starts not

(06:44):
what he wanted. Hunter said that he you know, coming
off to start Sunday that he thought he made, you know,
the right pitches and he's just one of those days.
So obviously I think it might be just a chance
to build in some rest. Yes, this is a team
you really you know you want to win this series. Obviously,
you don't want to get swept. So showing a lot
of faith in Brandon, Walter and mccollors off the bat
and then Frobber. So I'm guessing that Hunter would start

(07:05):
the first game in Arizona. Not sure. I don't want
to make any assumptions, but yeah, I was a little surprised.
I thought for sure that they would throw their best
two pitches against Seattle, and I can't give you one
hundred percent reason why that's not happening.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, I guess it's more for an answer for tomorrow.
But dead arm can happen. Guys making twenty six starts
a year not happen anymore. I would think the red
flag would go up if he doesn't start Monday in Arizona.
That would be my guess on that. So anytime he
pitches in that Arizona series will be fine. But if
it's late in that series, that must be man I

(07:39):
need some downtime here, and that's not the most encouraging
thing you want to hear when you're sitting here trying
to fight off a Seattle team that just finished off
sleeping the Detroit Tigers.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, and I guess you're right. I mean, if he's
still in the first rotation waiver of rotation out of
the break, then yeah, Monday in Arizona than fine. But
you know, these are all things we'll have to answer
tomorrow when we get to the ballpark and talk to
Hunter and taught to Joe and see where they're at.
But I know they keep close eyes on these guys,
and you know, maybe you buy him an extra day

(08:10):
here or there, and that's you know, something that can
benefit him down the stretch.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
And he thought of you going down to West Palm Beach.
There's gonna be quite a few stories down there. My god,
everybody's going down there to hang on and work out,
because I would like to know some more things beyond
well things are progressing well and throwing off flat ground
and pitching to PCL players. I mean, I never would
have thought that an injured thumb would have cost Spencer
Arraghetty basically eighty percent of the season so far.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Well, yeah, you're right. I mean when when he got injured,
they said he would be out six weeks and that
was early May. That was actually in Seattle, so it's
been what is that now, four months, So I'm not
sure if something else has gone on. I mean Hunt
talking with Spencer before he went down there. I mean
he was good spirits. The thumb felt good, it was
completely healed. It was just a matter of getting built
back up. So yeah, I mean I actually thought about

(09:01):
going to West Palm. The Astros play the Marlins here
in a couple of weeks or early August, and I
was like, you know, I could squeeze in a day
on either side of that series go down there, because
you're right, there's tons of guys down there, Chas McCormick's
down there. Now, this is kind of new this year
where you start sending guys to West Palm. I mean
they haven't been They've been doing that in a year's past

(09:22):
with guys with long term injuries, especially pitchers who were
you know, coming off Tommy John they go down there,
But now they're sending you know, like Jacob Melton, Luis
ki Ormey, there's a few others I'm not even remembering.
There's like a whole team of guys down there in
West Palm, So yeah, I might poke my head in
there and see what's going on. Stay tuned.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Astros five games ahead of the Mariners, and we know
the slew of injuries. Just how you think the AOST
shapes up. How much of a threat do you think
the Mariners will be and do you still have the
Astros as a as a strong favorite for the division.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
I think there'll be a big threat because they're finally
playing after their capabilities. They're hitting the ball better, they
have an MVP candidate behind the plate, they have a
better rotation than the Astros right now. So yeah, I
mean I think they're I think they're gonna make a
you know, they're gonna make this really really interesting. But still,
the Astros have a five game lead, which is pretty significant.

(10:19):
They got a shot coming out the break here to
uh if they can win two or three, get get
back up to six and and the Astros also have
the benefit of having the second easiest schedule the rest
of the season. Only Cleveland has an easier schedule, So
I know they haven't exactly played as well, it seems
like against bottom feeding teams as they have against contenders,
you know, sweeping the Phillies, taking two out of three

(10:40):
against the Cubs, and winning a series against the Patres
and the Tigers. But still you'd rather have You'd rather
have an easier schedule than the hardest schedule down the stretch.
So that's something that's gonna benefit them as well. And
what we talked about earlier, they're they're going to get
healthier and as long as they don't get injuries more injuries,
there's reinforcements coming and that's going to help them as well.

(11:01):
And yeah, I still think the Astros win this division.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Last, and most importantly, your thoughts about Coldplay Coldplay?

Speaker 2 (11:09):
I you know, surprisingly, I I kind of like Coldplay.
I could probably tell you about ten songs that I know,
and if you came to me with tickets to a concert,
I'd probably go. I don't think I'll pay for it,
But yeah, they're not bad.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
I've known you for twenty plus years. I couldn't be
more disappointed in one human being than I am right now.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
That's a little surprising. Now I'd rather go to a
George Strait concert don't get there.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
There you go. All right, you've rallied a little bit.
Hey say, safe travels to Seattle and we look forward
to visiting with you again in the same spot next week.
Thanks for the time as always.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
All right, thanks guys. Bran
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