February 22, 2024 • 33 mins
Gordy and Ross talk about the time the past week down at Houston Astros Spring Training and some of the biggest storylines ahead of the start of Spring Training games - what does the Astros rotation look like, who are battling for spots, and will the lineup be even stronger this season?
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Astros fans, Cheers, Rocky Lucky. Welcome to the Crawford Box Casts,
as proudly born for you by CrawfordBach from Carbach Brewy you're getting that bear?
Oh my godness, The Crawford BoxCast starts now here we go.
(00:30):
Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Viail andit is an all new edition of the
Crawford Box Cast. Chris Gordy andRoss Veriel, the Crawford Box Cast presented
by Carback Burwing and the Crawford Bach. And look, it is always in
season when you're drinking the Crawford Bach. No better time to be, uh
(00:50):
getting your hands on one, Ross, because we know the season is right
around the corner. This weekend,we have got spring training games getting underway.
So stock that fridge up, getyour Crawford Bock of your fridge.
It's a home run every time.And Ross, we just both kind of
got back from two different trips.I was there at spring training for pitchers
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and catchers reporting. You were therefor the whole club, reporting for full
team workouts and a lot of storylinesthrough the first week or so of spring
training. Yeah, I definitely wouldagree with that of probably when you were
getting there. It was what isthe status of Justin Verlander having a hiccup
as he called it, getting preparedfor the season. Didn't want to project
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whether he'd be ready for opening Day, but did throw a bullpen yesterday and
apparently it's feeling okay today, sothat's good news. Well, I want
to start there because that was thefunny thing is, you know, I
was talking with Adam Wexler and theguys at seven ninety before we had out
there, and I said, look, there's always something that happens. There's
always some story that it comes outof that first day or two. And
I remember a year ago it waswe had fully expected Lance mccullors. He
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was a little banged up in youknow, the World's he didn't pitch in
the World Series in twenty two,and you know it's like, oh,
but he's thinking he's gonna be fine, and then we kind of find out,
oh, yeah, uh he justhad surgery. Yeah, and he's
not gonna pitch at all. Right, Uh Jordon's hands. Was that that
was last year right too? Orwas that the year before? Yeah,
yeah, Jordan was having some issues. So yeah, there's always something and
so literally it was day one Ross. I'm in the clubhouse there with a
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lot of the local TV folks andJustin Verlander is the first one to talk,
and as he's talking, he reveals, Yeah, I had a little
hiccup, you know whatever, Soit kind of set me back a little
bit. We're like, oh what, just like, you know, a
couple of days. And then laterin the review says, yeah, so
it sent me back a couple weeks, well a couple of weeks. Yeah,
so that was. And then wefind out later in the day from
Joe spot Of that Oh yeah,JP Francis had a little bit of a
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of a hiccup too, So yeah, both those guys. We don't it's
still very early. We don't knowwhat timeline. Will they be ready for
opening day? We'll see, butI think even if they're not, it
won't be far past that, right, like maybe second week here comes Verland
or something like that. The factthat Justin Verlander threw a bullpen yesterday definitely
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an encouraging sign. We're still inFebruary and you're talking about late March before
the season starts, so maybe ifhe is a little bit behind schedule,
it's probably not gonna be too muchof an issue. And then JP France
apparently throwing I believe that he saidhe was thinking playing catch, so that's
a good sign. And also Iwonder where exactly he's even gonna factor into
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the rotation if they start with asix man, if you're missing Justin Verlander,
you're gonna need JP Frantz in there. But they'll have some other options
with some other guys. Of course, speaking of the storylines back into the
rotation, obviously Verlander, Fromber andJavier are going to be your one,
two three. Then is it underBrown, jose Er, Katy, JP
France, You've got some other guysrun now blanc Obran and be like etc.
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You got guys in the mix.And by the way, JP,
I did talk to him and helike by day two. I asked us,
so, how is everything goes,dude, I'm not even worried about
it. You said I'm fine.So like when he told me that,
I'm like, all right, wellthat's good. But yeah, no,
to me, one of the biggeststory with this team is the rotation.
It's funny you said it as kindof dismissive. Yeah, Verlander won fromper
two Javier three The problem is Javierand Fromber were not great last year.
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In fact, that series against theRangers, they were both got awful and
you lose Game seven at home becauseJavier lost himself completely. Fromber lost himself
completely. So the hope is thatthose two guys for this Astros team to
go far this year, both thoseguys have to turn things around. Yeah,
I mean, I think what we'remost the big test though, as
far as getting ready for the season, I'm okay. I think Fromber and
Javier are going to be okay forthe regular season. Playoffs is and we're
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really gonna want to see the resultsand the proof of the pudding being there.
But I'm not that concerned because stilloverall, people forget going into the
All Star break last year, roberValdez was leading either the American League or
maybe baseball in era. I thinkthe American League, and then yeah,
things kind of unraveled for him inthe midst of having a no hitter as
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well. But it's a new season. He looks leaner, he looks good.
I mean, you get the wholeoffseason, we don't know how close
to one hundred percent he was.I would say, yeah, my concern
level isn't a zero for those guys, especially with Martin Maldonado being gone and
that being the preferred catcher of bothof them. But I would also say
I wouldn't say I'm overly worried necessarilyabout where They're going to be, certainly
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on the case of Frobert, maybeto a lesser to more of an extent
of being worried. With Javier,but he was turning it around at the
end of the season. He wasreally good in the playoffs unfortunately until Game
seven against the Rangers. So giveme real quick, let's just assume for
arguments sake, Verlander is ready togo for opening day. Give me your
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and they've said they're probably going togo with a six minute rotation early to
kind of get guys, you know, going. A lot of guys pitched
a lot of innings for the firsttime in their careers last year, like
Hunter Brown and JP France. Sogive me one through six opening day with
Verlander at one, I would say, ye, Verlander one Fromber two,
Javier three, round four or KeyNo. Four is interesting because remember in
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the playoffs last year he was inthe bullpen. Yes he was. I
mean you don't need you didn't reallyneed him at that point because they were
going with Hunter Brown also wasn't verygood. First half of the season.
He was really good. I thinkhe kind of, I don't want to
say, broke down physically, butmaybe the wear and tear he started to
feel because he was that was hisrookie season, like he pitched the year
before. That was his rookie season. That's the most he had ever pitched.
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He spoke to the media after LiveVP while I was there as well,
sounded really confident. Stuff was lookinggood. Okay, it was just
live VP, but it was gettinga lot of swing and miss popping the
glove, all those good things youwant to see. So at least,
well you can't say it was youknow, live action. At least the
guys weren't just launching home runs offof him. So he looked good there.
Says he feels good physically. SoI'm inclined to believe him that he
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can be built up better this yearand not necessarily fall apart. Because as
far as the stuff, I mean, you know, we talked about it,
the ninety one ninety two mile anhour slider to the throws, he's
had a cutter now into the repertoire, he should be ready to go.
As far as talent, I'm puttinghim ahead of Jose Keatis. I mean,
you can flip them either way youwant. And then if we're talking
about his sixth, yeah, RonetBlanco is getting the start of the first
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game. We mentioned Brandon Beelek.He's out of option, so he's probably
gonna make the team. And thena guy that there's a lot of buzz.
I'm not sure about when you werethere, but I heard a lot
of people talking about Spencer Arriic Getty. I don't know if he's gonna break
camp making the team. I don'tknow, you know, service time stuff
and all of that. Yeah,but he's just asking people and talking around,
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Like I asked a couple of people, you know, off the record,
Hey, Spencer Getty is a realdeal. Absolutely, that's what I
was told. I think he he'sgoing to start the season in sugar Land,
but the expectation is he will pitchthis year at some point with the
big league club. The challenge becomesYeah, a lot of these other guys
that have been in the mix.Just to rewind a little bit, I
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think I'm with you. I ThinkhunterBrown deserves to be in the rotation.
Hoo's Their key's an interesting one becausehe did, you know, he did
kind of move to a bullpen rollat one point last year. He told
us when we were at pre training, I'm a starter, he said,
I want to be a starter.Look, I'll do the nice thing and
say I'll do whatever role you needme to do, but I still vision
myself as a big league starter.The problem is, ur Katy just didn't
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feel like every time you look atthe box scorer, he went five innings
to give up two or three runs, like it's okay, it's fine,
but he's that's always seems like thebox score when you look back, you
go, he got us through five, but it was like two three runs,
okay, go fine, but likeyou know, it's the Verlanders and
the Frombers. I give you seveninnings, one run ball, that kind
of thing. But it feels likeArkidy hasn't really he's never like he hadn't
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done that in a while. Butyeah, well he's your fist starter.
That's okay. Yeah you're not sohave your five guy goes seven innings to
shut out ball unless you were justabsolutely the best. I guess what I
remembered is like there were games wherehe couldn't get out of the fourth last
It's like, oh God, likethat, we're going to the bullpen,
burdens on them. But yeah,to your point, JP France, I
think. But the Brandon Bili,I think is fascinating because he's been such
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a warrior for this teams. He'sprobably I guess, you know, break
Black has been such a warrior forthis team since the COVID year, coming
up and being that emergency starter,but you're out of options either he's starting
with the club or like what's that? And then ron o' blanco is fascinating
to a guy who was pretty youknow, he's he was okay at times
as a reliever, but last yearthey gave him a handful of starts here
and it was pretty good. Therewere a few that got away from his
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control. He you know, he'llwalk guys at time, put some guys
on. But gonna be fun tosee him this weekend getting the start in
the first bring training game on SportsTalk seven ninety So that'll be interesting.
But say all that to say confidencelevel in the rotation, I mean,
I'm like, you know, ifI'm going, I don't know, we're
doing letter grades. I feel likeit's a b right now. I feel
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like the thing is too is likeyou do have guys who can you have
options, you have you have abackup plan to the backup pand of the
backup plan with all these guys andthen and then maybe possibly an ace that
you're keeping up your sleeve. InSpencer arrag Getty, just hearing all the
buzz around him really for the lastcouple of years. Yeah, and it's
a little bit more buzz. LikeHunter Brown, the buzz built a little
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bit on him, and I rememberhe comes up and he idolized justin Verlander
the first time we saw like,oh man, his delivery looks like the
delivery is the same, right,And I think the excitement kind of waned
a little bit last year with himnot being as good. But again,
like if I told you one offromber Xavier or Hunter Brown's gonna take a
huge leap forward this year and beawesome, then great. Yeah, you
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know, I think you got herehoping that Javier is back to what he
was before. I mean, theera was under four last year. I'd
have to go look at it inthe postseason and then the last few starts
handful of starts that he was making. And really, if you remember last
year, they kind of they diddated at one point, busted Hunter Brown
down to the bullpen. Same thingwith JP Frantz. They kept starting Christian
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Javier like they always felt like hewas really really close to putting things and
everything together and being back to hisold self. And we saw flashes of
it at the end of the seasonin the playoffs. So if they can
tinker with him, get him healthy, I think what is he was one
of the guys. I think hesaid he lost fifteen pounds or something like
that. So that's another spring traininggo to right, this guy lost weight,
this guy's beefed up, this guydid this whatever. I always wonder
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where fifty, Like I saw howhere? Where were you studs in your
size? Like he wasn't a fatguy, yeah for sure, But yeah,
I mean Frober looks leaner. JordanAlvarez, even though he was shaking
us off saying no, I'm notleaner. He looks leaner. Frober lost
the long hair too, the truebut that's also might be factoring into him
looking a little bit lighter. Isaw some people he lose weight or did
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he just cut his hair. I'mnot sure. I saw some people tweeted
that, oh we're getting back vintageFromber's coming back lost the braids, so
now he's reverting back to old.Honestly, he's been always been built in
the shoulders and arms, and helooks like that too. But he had
a little bit of a Crawford Bokbelly going on, so but that's gone.
Like he looks slim. The thingI always like about Frobber too,
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is that guy just marches to thebeat of his own drama. He walks
in the house blaring Teano music onhis phone. He just he lives in
his own world. He's the lifeof the party in the clubhouse, really
he is. I mean he'll yellat guys across. You'll be interviewing somebody,
he'll be just yelling in the background. He does not care. He
does really fun. He's a differentkind of cat for sure. But so
it's interesting. Ross is the nameswe've run through. That's that's eight guys
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and Spencer Araghatty, you know,knocking on the door. We've heard people.
I don't know why We've heard onyour show, across our across you
know, people calling in across ourshows and on social media, people keep
bringing up go get Blake Snell,go get Trevor. And the problem is
ross we have not even discussed.I know, we get tired of saying
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it, but Luis Garcia and Lancemccullor's are expected coming back by mid season.
Yes, Russ, that's ten startingpictures. Where in the hell does
Blake Snell fit into that night?He doesn't. And the problem not for
the money, and the problem withit is people will go, oh,
well, Snell's better than some ofthese other guys. That's fine, but
you've invested money in Hoveer as astarter, You've invested money in Lights mclors.
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You don't just kick those guys tothe curb, man. It's guarantee
money in MLB. These contracts arehere, they're gonna pitch. They're not
gonna just kick you to the curband spend more money. Yeah. Absolutely,
And I know a lot of people, especially when it comes to Lance
with Collors, like oh, whenhe's gonna get a hurt again. The
good news is, though, isthis this injury? What was cleaned up
surgically for him dates back to whathe was dealing with with twenty twenty one.
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It's the same injury. So hopefullyhe's over that hump. And then
of course Tommy John can happen.Anybody can happen multiple times to people.
So and he's a tremendous shape too. Yeah, like for him shackt.
I mean he spent basically all thistime away cut their hair as well.
Yeah, he's been in the weightroom. This is as in shape as
I've ever seen lights of cars.Now we'll to translate to the field.
We'll see he's got to pitch well. But again I'm gonna be in the
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camp of let me. The hopeis he gets back at some point healthy
and keep contribute to this team nowas it has. You know, do
him and Luis jump back in andthey're just six innings every outing? Probably
not, you know, we'll seewhat what their durability is. You know,
maybe one guy comes out of thebullpen. I don't know. I
know mccullor is gonna put up hisfight and go no, I'm a starter.
Oh no, the is not goingto allow him to get back in
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the bullpen. I don't think.But regardless, he's gonna get kicking the
screen like he fully expect them backand keep that data. Quote Dana Brown,
quote in mind. You know you'regonna hear it at the trade deadline.
Well, I mean these guys arealmost like trade acquisition, trade acquisition,
absolutely all right, So we've hitonline deals, we fit on the
rotation. Let's let's hit on thebullpen a little bit. We know how
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good Josh Hader is. We bothgot to see him throw. I mean,
the first day he threw a bullpen, he drew a crowd. I
took pictures. I mean, everybodycame over to watch him throw. He's
an absolute stud. Right, Presleylooks to be in great shape. He's
embracing his role. Brian A.Bray, who looks good back in the
rotation, we're fine. Question iswho are some of those other arms that
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are gonna eat up innings? Andwe've got a lot of the regular you
know, the guys who've been herea while, Seth Martinez, Parker Mushinsky,
you know those kind of guys thathave been hanging around a while.
But they did add a couple ofguys and Dylan Coleman is a very interesting
one, a guy that a coupleof years ago had a nice season for
the Royals. Last season not somuch. We talked with him in the
clubhouse. He did say, yeah, I know what it was where I
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wasn't as effective last year. Ithink I fixed those things. Guys like
a true six six too, Likehe's tall when he takes the mound,
he looms over here. He's gonnapitch behind Rono Blanco in Saturday spring training
game. But who is there aguy or two that maybe caught your eye
that you said, because we're tryingto fill those Ryan Stanek film Maton roles.
Yeah, as far as yeah,there is some intrigue and there are
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some names, and there are somecandidates, and it's it's almost like we're
talking about the back end of therotation where somebody's gonna work out, you'd
figure. So I think definitely whatI'm intrigued on is Bennett Susa, who
the Astros got late in the seasonand they weren't able to put him onto
the postseason roster. They got himtoo late, but he was spectacular,
Like I don't know whatever tinkering theAstros were doing with his pitch mix and
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how he was throwing and stuff likethat. It was working for him.
That That's definitely a name that Iam intrigued about. Of Course, you
mentioned Dylan Coleman. Forrest Whitley,we've been talking about as well. And
when we had Dana Brown on,he's like, look, maybe Rafael Montero,
he's not gonna be what he wastwo years ago, but if you
can at least get him in lineto where his era's hovering around three and
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he gets you know, the walknumbers down to where they were a couple
of years ago, that's your sixinning guy. That's what we're all fighting
for because you're seven, eight,nine is set. And of course those
three guys aren gonna pitch ever onehundred and sixty two games each, but
you're gonna be in blowout, You'regonna be blowing other teams out. You're
gonna get blown out here and there, so you're not always gonna need those
high leverage guys. But if youcan just get Marto to be a solid
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basically what Ryan Stanek was I frommaton was whatever, I mean that that'd
be great. Even the guy,Yeah, if he wants to be the
guy from two years ago, evenbetter. I'm with you. I mean,
you're paying him a lot of money. He's got a pitch, he's
going to bitch, and we sawthat last year. What's so funny,
though, Ross, is he didhave some good outings last year. But
it was funny when when Matero willgo out there to have a good outing,
nobody tweeted anything the first time.You know, he had three good
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outings and then the fourth one wasbad. Everybody, Oh, this guy
stinks. It's like, well,you guys didn't say anything the last couple
of times he went out, SoI just think that's always funny. But
you're right. I mean that that'sa guy you're paying a lot of money
and he's got a pitch. He'sgot to play a role, and you'd
love to have him in some somehigh leverage spots. Because here's the other
thing nobody's talking about is Josh hat. Like Ross, there weeks you play
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six six games in seven days.There are days Josh Hater will not be
available because he just pitched the lasttwo days. There are days where this
guy won't be a help. Soyou're gonna have to lean on some of
these guys. It's some big spots. The good thing is you do have
three closers and and you'll be you'llbe set definitely at the back end or
super high level. You saved absolutely. I mean he's been He's said a
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few games last year. But backon Montero first half of last season six
fifty seven e RA a second halfthree point one zero. Now, the
whip numbers are still high, youknow, try strikeouts all that. There's
some stuff you still want it cleanedup, the walk numbers, stuff like
that, But he had a muchbetter second half of the season. And
outside he had one bad game inthe postseason, I'll go pull those games
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up too, but I think hewas pretty good in the postseason as well
for the Astros before well, givingup some key runs in one of the
YAH at the end of Game sixALCS he gave up, but that was
the only outing. He had fiveoutings in the postseason, gave up a
run only in one of them.And look, the story of this season
to me again is and that's whyI asked you to kind of give a
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grade on the rotation is. Look, I think the pitching overall will be
fine, But I said this goinginto last season. Things have shifted years
ago. This team was built aroundVerlander, Garrett Cole, Zach Grenki.
Dominant pitching is going to carry usthrough the postseason. I think the way
this Asters team has built, howthey're going to win the postseason is a
little bit more on the offense.Yes, and that's where that Ranger series
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was very high because, yes,the starting pitching was not great, although
they were decent in Arlington, theyweren't good at home. But the Astros
also had their chance. If youscore runs, you could win a shootout
with the Rangers. But the batslargely didn't show up in that series here
in Mint of May Park, andthus you know, again, well he
needed to win was one. Yeah, one one. You're going back to
the World Series. So I justthink it's gonna be a compant on the
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offense this year to go out andscore six, seven eight runs a night,
as opposed to win in a lotof three to two type ball games.
That's what you're hoping for. Imean, a Bray you turned it
around at the end of the seasonand he is going to be getting some
DH days and some days off andstuff like that, but he's going to
be a part and then yeah,it's the heavy hitters. It's the guys
we know. It's the Bregmans,the l two Vays, Alvarez is the
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Tuckers. Those are the guys thatare going to be carrying the day you're
talking about right now. However,you want to construct your lineup like your
seventh hitter is maybe like Chas McCormick, who's really good. Your eight hitters,
Jeremy Pania, who has a retoldswing, and then hopefully he has
a track record. He's hit twentytwo home runs in a major league season,
so hopefully he can come back tothat form. And then you're not
expecting a whole lot about Jake Myers, some articles written about him and all
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that type of stuff. But he'syour nine hitter as well. But you're
gonna be winning with the one throughseven and good enough pitching. Absolutely agreat
Yeah, that's where I wanted tohit next. A couple of bullet points
and the big stories from the lastweek. Jeremy Pana is kind of adjusted
this swing. It's not as active, I guess, is what you would
say. Wiater is what they're calledthe buzzword. Yeah, quieter as he's
in the box and the ball isapproaching, so we'll see if that if
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this gives him better contact, awesome, we if Jeremy Pina wants to look
more like that, and you know, World Series MVP, absolutely, let's
let's bring it on. Uh.But this lineup does get a little shot
in the arm from yan Erdaz becomingan everyday catcher having that. You know
when when you would go seven,yeah, immediate, when you would go
seven, eight, nine last yearand it was Chaz, Jake Myers,
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Maldonado. It was like, allright, well, hey, get you,
don't take your gear off, we'regoing back out. But yeah,
having yan air Diez back there andI think where are they going to hit
him? I mean somewhere six seven, right, Like he ain't bat nine.
I think in sixth yeah, fifthto six, depending on depending on
the day's So it's exciting to gethim in there more often. But the
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Jake Myers are the thing. Ithink this is more experimental. I think
Dan Brown's like, look, it'sit's pisser, get off the pot time
for him. Let's start him.You're gonna get every opportunity in center field.
And they'll give him a couple ofweeks and if he doesn't rist the
occasion, they'll go they'll change itup, they'll go a different way.
But yeah, you've got options.I think they want to give him every
opportunity to prove what he can do. I think so too, And I
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think that's been you know, wehad Joe a spot on and asked him
what is it that Jake Myers needsto prove it. The first word out
of his mouth was confidence. Andthat's just Jake Myers getting a vote of
confidence from Dana Brown and this organization. He's worked a lot with sports psychologists.
That shoulder injury I think bothered himmore than people know because he was
afraid to let it go with thebad And so if he can just get
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a lot of that ironed out,dudes an athlete. I mean, we
see him running out there in centerfield. We've seen him like in that
Yankees game where he had like twohome runs and six RBIs in a game
like he can. He can showyou a little. It's just unfortunately hasn't
been consistent enough. So if hecan get his a mental approach right,
I'm not saying the guy's gonna goout there and you know, hit thirty
five bombs and hit two eighty fivewith the Ops over eight fifty or something.
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But he can give you a littlesomething. And even last year with
as bad as he was, hestill hit ten home runs in like three
hundred plate appearances. So if heis the everyday guy and if he is
going to play elite center field andgive you a little bit of something,
he's your nine hitter. You don'tneed him like you don't need him to
just completely mash anything you get outof him. Has found money, and
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then, like you said, ifit doesn't work out, you can put
Mauricio Dubon in center, you canput Chaz in center and yord On and
left, which they've said he's gonnaget a lot of work out there as
well, So you do have someoptions there, and you're just hoping that'd
be the best case scenarios that,yeah, Jake Myers can go out there
and hit a little bit and dohis thing in center field. And you
never know who rises to the occasionin spring training either, And you know,
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is there somebody that comes along theway, somebody in sugar Land that
maybe pushes for a spot. Youknow, Corey Yolks I think will see
you know, probably get chance toplay some games again. This year,
you got some great prospects like JacobMelton, who you know is coming up
through the system. Paige ear Leonwas once a very highly thought of prospect.
You know, does he finally doesit all come together for him?
So there may be somebody down theroad that we're not even talking about,
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that that gets a chance that comesup and steals us, steals an outfield
spot, doesn't give it up,So that would all be great as well.
But we did rotation. Let's talkline up. How do you feel
overall about this? This lineup oneof the most potent lineups in baseball.
It's gonna it's gonna be great.I mean, for your starting out with
L two, I don't even knowwhat exactly a spot is gonna do.
Is he gonna insert Jeremy Payne intothe two spot? I don't. I
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don't think he's earned it. Idon't think he should be up there personally.
I would rather have either Bregman orTucker or somebody like that. If
you want to completely avoid going leftylefty with like a one two three of
al two, Va, Tucker andJordon, then fine, you can break
them up and put Bregman at twoand then jord On and then maybe a
Bray and in Tucker or whatever youwant to do, like and Jose Bray
(23:59):
you're talking about taking his body thisoffseason because the problems with him were physical.
Once he got that DL that ilstint at the end of the year
and came back, he was hittingwith power, and then in the playoffs
he was straight up mashing. Sohe is a year older, is a
Bray you? So I am gonnatemper expectations a little bit, but I'm
still expecting big things from him.And then jan Yard Diaz in the lineup
(24:21):
every day over Martine Moldonado. Thatis instant offense, instant often night and
day from the catcher spot. Andwhat's just the last time we saw this
lineup, it was Al Twove leadingoff, it was Bregmant two hole,
it was your on three hole,Jose bre you four. That's that I
know for much a law year wasDusty Baker wanting to get him out of
(24:41):
a funk, get him going.I think the spot is going to be
more fluid. I think he's finewith two lefties batting back to back.
I think he's fine. Putting yourbest hitters, giving them, especially as
two lefties that are two of thebest in the game, and hitting lefties
as lefties like the lefty righty thingdoesn't bother them. It doesn't matter.
You put a LEFTI You're right upthere against Jordan Alvarez, good good luck.
It doesn't matter. Yeah. Again, this is the last game of
(25:03):
last year, the elimination game inthe ALCS. But Michael Brandtley batted fifth,
Kyle Tucker sixth. Again, thatwas largely because of tucker struggles.
McCormick seventh, Penia eight, Maldonadoninth. So just kind of looking at
that and what will change significantly.I'm with you. I think you moved
maybe Tucker Bregman up more because Iwant I want those guys getting more pats.
(25:25):
Absolutely, that's very simple. Ihave this crazy theory, get your
best hitters the most played appearances.Dusty did not like that theory, but
I would do. I would probablydo because of Tucker's speed and he can
get on base and steal some bagsfor you as well. That's why I
would go to al Tuve, Tucker, jord On Bregman, then probably maybe
(25:45):
even Yania or a bray you whicheverorder you want to put them in,
and then you're down to what McCormick, Pinia Myers, and the guy we
even mention who you guys interviewed theGold Glove winner Mauricio Dubon. Look,
he's a utility guy. I wantto make that clear a lot of people,
because we've had a lot of callersto say, well, this guy
sticks, I'm just taking him on. I'm putting the bone in every day.
Look, Debon is not an everydayplayer. He's Yeah, he's a
(26:07):
great guy for the role he plays. He stepped in as an everyday player
to fill in the AL two eightmold. But like what people don't realize
is did he do a good jobat second, Yes, but if you
put the bone in at second foran entire season, he's gonna have errors.
He's gonna have slip ups, he'sgonna you know, so he's not
in every day great Batty, He'sgreat though he was at the role he
serves, and it's the role thata Leedminsti has had. It's the role
(26:27):
that Marvin Gonzalez had before him.Every team needs a guy like that.
Be grateful you have him, Butalso understand what his role is. Yeah,
even when you look at the waythat he hit at the beginning of
last year, by the end ofit he was about I want to say,
his ops plus was like ninety sevenwith one hundred being average. Of
course, so what I would golook that up. But he fell down.
(26:51):
He's significantly The average was good,but you're not getting a lot of
power from the guy. You're notgetting a lot of extra base hits.
So I like du bond and theroles that the role that he's in,
Dude is a utility gold glover.He's absolutely right. Like you put him
in that I led miss Diaz.Somebody goes down boom. You put him
in every day. You don't eventhink twice about it. That's what the
luxury of having Mariso Dubon is.Not like, oh, Jeremy Painey can't
hit, as somebody called us with. If Jeremy Painey doesn't hit in the
(27:14):
first month, put Dubont at shortevery day. Yeah, it's not happening.
It's just simply not happening. Aswe start to on wine here on
the Crawford Box Gas presented by CarbockBurrowing, and we'll be talking all things
Astros all throughout the season with youright here. So make sure you got
subscribe on the iHeartRadio app or whereveryou get your podcast, you'll be able
to hear from us of course,talk at all things Astros. Vibes you
got from Joe Aspata to me.You know, I've been to spring training
(27:38):
for many years now, and itwas a little different in that he's not
the guy out there hitting fung goto the guys. But man, the
whole vibe, he's fully in controlof everything. It feels very seamless,
is what I'll say. Yeah,I would say that the relationship with the
players is there. The first daywe got there in the clubhouse, Joe
Spotta was in there, and firstof all, I don't ever remember seeing
(28:00):
uh Dusty and and this is fine. It's two different approaches. I'm not
saying. I'm not saying it's ina diamond of Dusty. But Joe was
in there and he was going lockerto locker like, hey man, how's
your off season? What's going withyou? Talking chatting with him and and
not just like sales guy wheeling anddealing them, like being genuine like talking
here about like talking about him andcaring about him. And if you have,
and this has been you know,a leadership one oh one for for
(28:21):
centuries. Really, if if thepeople that you are leading know that you
care about him, they're gonna playharder for you. So Joe Aspota,
I think is a relationship builder,absolutely, and I think that's job number
one of a manager. And hewas out there when we were going out
there at one of the workouts andit was the Second Basement. It was
I can't I think it was HensleyDubon and Al Tuve. They're catching grounders
(28:44):
out of the grounder machine and flippingthem. At first, they're flipping them
to Joe Spota. He was standingon first like hanging out with the guys
working out, being active, likebeing around, and then just talking to
him. He's he's so positive,he's so relatable. He's it's it's really
a breath of fresh air to havesome money and you ask him questions and
then then they converse with you andtalk and you know, it's I think
(29:07):
it's going to work out fine.He's an easy guy to root for and
it certainly will be rooted for him, but certainly the first sign of problems
will certainly throw them under the bus. And what we're joking, Spot is
running this team into the ground.I mean if yeah, if they're struggling,
it's probably gonna be the team.Look at the talent is there.
He said it himself. I'm justkeeping the train on the tracks. And
that's also I mean not he knowsthat that's not really all he's doing.
(29:30):
He's supposed to be building these relationshipsand making moves and all this type of
stuff. But in twenty twenty four, with managers, the reports, player
matchups reports are done for you beforethe game. Optimal lineups are done for
you before the game, and theyhave numbers on Oh, this guy's velocity
is down, his spin rates downin his curve, it's time to pull
them. Like a lot of that'sreally baked in and done for managers,
(29:53):
where it's it's not like the nineteenseventies where you got to go with your
gut. The only thing I'll addyou said, you know, Dusty was
rare in the clubhouse. A J. Hinch was rare later in the clubou
see, he was an office guy. Dusty was an office guy. I
think Joe bounced back in to play, but I think that's largely because of
his role. Since he's been here, he's been the players guy. He's
been bad cop to good cop forHinch and Dusty. You know, while
(30:14):
they're bad cop, he's a goodcop. Hey, let me put my
arm around you. Whatever. ButI also think there's something to be said
about the Latin connection. When Isaw Fromber and those guys talk to this
spot, they just there's a respectabilitythere almost also too, like here's a
Hispanic manager getting his chance. Iwant this guy to succeed, so we
have more Hispanic matter, you know, Like I think there's a little bit
of that as well. Yeah,there might be, but whatever it is,
(30:37):
I mean that there. It's therelationship they have with Joe, and
I think I'm just put them.My worry level is zero if the Astros
are losing games this year because ofthe pitching and or the hitting is not
good enough. And I really saidthat last year, Like you want to
blame Dusty, you know, whenthey lose, and then you give him
zero praise. When they win,you're like, oh man, great job
by this pitcher, great job bythese hitters. Well, it's the players
(31:00):
that's the biggest part of it.In baseball. Yeah, and so look,
this team is loaded. We're readyfor another season, and hopefully you
guys are getting ready for another seasonwith our friends over at Crawford back and
loading up your fridge with plenty ofgreat beers from Carbock Brewing. And by
the way, if you guys havenot been out to Carbock Brewing recently,
you need to go check them out. They have a new addition to the
(31:21):
place that's opening very soon. Pizzaand pints. That's right, They're gonna
have a pizzaiha opening on site.Yes, so we'll be out there very
soon eating some pizzas and and they'llstall ready and this will be out by
the the not courtyard, what doyou kind of call it the beer garden,
beer garden, But they'll still havethe restaurant side too. That whole
side is if you want to goinside and enjoy they see whatever. They
still got that in the kitchen insidethere, but this is outside by the
(31:44):
beer garden. They're gonna have thepips and pizza and pints right next to
the store and all that. Sothey're they're expanding. It's awesome, it's
exciting. But of course when youget out there once you guys drink at
the Crawford Back. You know whatit's got the to killo sunrise stripes on
the side and load up on it. Whether you're at Mini Made Park,
you see them all over the placeand get the big tall cans usually gets
(32:05):
me up through a couple innings.I know some people probably could do a
beer and inning, but that's howgood the beers are. So we call
that the nine inning challenge in college. So make sure you guys get your
hands on Crawford Back throughout this springtraining and throughout the season. It is
a home run every time for us. For your real final thoughts as we
wrap up here on the Crawford BoxDay, go man, I want games
to start tomorrow. Like talking toDana Brown and Joe Spata that they have,
(32:30):
I mean it's their job to beoptimistic, but the bitter taste from
losing to the Rangers and watching themwin the World Series, Man, it
was a It was a tough offseason and I'm just ready for twenty twenty
four baseball and I think this teamis going to do great things. I
think they're winning the al Wes Minimumthis year. I love Chas McCormick,
too. He you know he getsit. We asked him about that.
(32:52):
You could see he didn't say it, but the vibe you get from Chas
was bleep. Those guys, yeah, we're we're We're coming back for him,
and that rivalry is going to beall awesome. So their World Series
champs, the dast Shows are reigningAl West champs, and I think they
take the crown again. March twentyeighth, mark your calendars. At his
opening day, we will be outthere live broadcasting with our shows leading up
to It'll be the Matt Thomas Show, but without Matt Thomas, He's going
(33:14):
to be on the road with theRockets. It'll be you and the A
team counting us down to a threeo'clock first pitch. It's going to be
a lot of fun. Yes,Matt Thomas missing time again. Who knew.
But it's gonna be a lot offun and hopefully you guys have a
lot of fun, and we'll beback talking Astros baseball with you real soon,
right here on the Crawford box Castpresented by Carback Brewing,
Astros fans, Cheers, Rocky Lucky. Welcome to the Crawford Box Casts,
as proudly born for you by CrawfordBach from Carbach Brewy you're getting that bear?
Oh my godness, The Crawford BoxCast starts now here we go.
(00:30):
Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Viail andit is an all new edition of the
Crawford Box Cast. Chris Gordy andRoss Veriel, the Crawford Box Cast presented
by Carback Burwing and the Crawford Bach. And look, it is always in
season when you're drinking the Crawford Bach. No better time to be, uh
(00:50):
getting your hands on one, Ross, because we know the season is right
around the corner. This weekend,we have got spring training games getting underway.
So stock that fridge up, getyour Crawford Bock of your fridge.
It's a home run every time.And Ross, we just both kind of
got back from two different trips.I was there at spring training for pitchers
(01:11):
and catchers reporting. You were therefor the whole club, reporting for full
team workouts and a lot of storylinesthrough the first week or so of spring
training. Yeah, I definitely wouldagree with that of probably when you were
getting there. It was what isthe status of Justin Verlander having a hiccup
as he called it, getting preparedfor the season. Didn't want to project
(01:33):
whether he'd be ready for opening Day, but did throw a bullpen yesterday and
apparently it's feeling okay today, sothat's good news. Well, I want
to start there because that was thefunny thing is, you know, I
was talking with Adam Wexler and theguys at seven ninety before we had out
there, and I said, look, there's always something that happens. There's
always some story that it comes outof that first day or two. And
I remember a year ago it waswe had fully expected Lance mccullors. He
(01:57):
was a little banged up in youknow, the World's he didn't pitch in
the World Series in twenty two,and you know it's like, oh,
but he's thinking he's gonna be fine, and then we kind of find out,
oh, yeah, uh he justhad surgery. Yeah, and he's
not gonna pitch at all. Right, Uh Jordon's hands. Was that that
was last year right too? Orwas that the year before? Yeah,
yeah, Jordan was having some issues. So yeah, there's always something and
so literally it was day one Ross. I'm in the clubhouse there with a
(02:20):
lot of the local TV folks andJustin Verlander is the first one to talk,
and as he's talking, he reveals, Yeah, I had a little
hiccup, you know whatever, Soit kind of set me back a little
bit. We're like, oh what, just like, you know, a
couple of days. And then laterin the review says, yeah, so
it sent me back a couple weeks, well a couple of weeks. Yeah,
so that was. And then wefind out later in the day from
Joe spot Of that Oh yeah,JP Francis had a little bit of a
(02:43):
of a hiccup too, So yeah, both those guys. We don't it's
still very early. We don't knowwhat timeline. Will they be ready for
opening day? We'll see, butI think even if they're not, it
won't be far past that, right, like maybe second week here comes Verland
or something like that. The factthat Justin Verlander threw a bullpen yesterday definitely
(03:04):
an encouraging sign. We're still inFebruary and you're talking about late March before
the season starts, so maybe ifhe is a little bit behind schedule,
it's probably not gonna be too muchof an issue. And then JP France
apparently throwing I believe that he saidhe was thinking playing catch, so that's
a good sign. And also Iwonder where exactly he's even gonna factor into
(03:24):
the rotation if they start with asix man, if you're missing Justin Verlander,
you're gonna need JP Frantz in there. But they'll have some other options
with some other guys. Of course, speaking of the storylines back into the
rotation, obviously Verlander, Fromber andJavier are going to be your one,
two three. Then is it underBrown, jose Er, Katy, JP
France, You've got some other guysrun now blanc Obran and be like etc.
(03:45):
You got guys in the mix.And by the way, JP,
I did talk to him and helike by day two. I asked us,
so, how is everything goes,dude, I'm not even worried about
it. You said I'm fine.So like when he told me that,
I'm like, all right, wellthat's good. But yeah, no,
to me, one of the biggeststory with this team is the rotation.
It's funny you said it as kindof dismissive. Yeah, Verlander won fromper
two Javier three The problem is Javierand Fromber were not great last year.
(04:11):
In fact, that series against theRangers, they were both got awful and
you lose Game seven at home becauseJavier lost himself completely. Fromber lost himself
completely. So the hope is thatthose two guys for this Astros team to
go far this year, both thoseguys have to turn things around. Yeah,
I mean, I think what we'remost the big test though, as
far as getting ready for the season, I'm okay. I think Fromber and
Javier are going to be okay forthe regular season. Playoffs is and we're
(04:34):
really gonna want to see the resultsand the proof of the pudding being there.
But I'm not that concerned because stilloverall, people forget going into the
All Star break last year, roberValdez was leading either the American League or
maybe baseball in era. I thinkthe American League, and then yeah,
things kind of unraveled for him inthe midst of having a no hitter as
(04:56):
well. But it's a new season. He looks leaner, he looks good.
I mean, you get the wholeoffseason, we don't know how close
to one hundred percent he was.I would say, yeah, my concern
level isn't a zero for those guys, especially with Martin Maldonado being gone and
that being the preferred catcher of bothof them. But I would also say
I wouldn't say I'm overly worried necessarilyabout where They're going to be, certainly
(05:20):
on the case of Frobert, maybeto a lesser to more of an extent
of being worried. With Javier,but he was turning it around at the
end of the season. He wasreally good in the playoffs unfortunately until Game
seven against the Rangers. So giveme real quick, let's just assume for
arguments sake, Verlander is ready togo for opening day. Give me your
(05:40):
and they've said they're probably going togo with a six minute rotation early to
kind of get guys, you know, going. A lot of guys pitched
a lot of innings for the firsttime in their careers last year, like
Hunter Brown and JP France. Sogive me one through six opening day with
Verlander at one, I would say, ye, Verlander one Fromber two,
Javier three, round four or KeyNo. Four is interesting because remember in
(06:03):
the playoffs last year he was inthe bullpen. Yes he was. I
mean you don't need you didn't reallyneed him at that point because they were
going with Hunter Brown also wasn't verygood. First half of the season.
He was really good. I thinkhe kind of, I don't want to
say, broke down physically, butmaybe the wear and tear he started to
feel because he was that was hisrookie season, like he pitched the year
before. That was his rookie season. That's the most he had ever pitched.
(06:25):
He spoke to the media after LiveVP while I was there as well,
sounded really confident. Stuff was lookinggood. Okay, it was just
live VP, but it was gettinga lot of swing and miss popping the
glove, all those good things youwant to see. So at least,
well you can't say it was youknow, live action. At least the
guys weren't just launching home runs offof him. So he looked good there.
Says he feels good physically. SoI'm inclined to believe him that he
(06:47):
can be built up better this yearand not necessarily fall apart. Because as
far as the stuff, I mean, you know, we talked about it,
the ninety one ninety two mile anhour slider to the throws, he's
had a cutter now into the repertoire, he should be ready to go.
As far as talent, I'm puttinghim ahead of Jose Keatis. I mean,
you can flip them either way youwant. And then if we're talking
about his sixth, yeah, RonetBlanco is getting the start of the first
(07:10):
game. We mentioned Brandon Beelek.He's out of option, so he's probably
gonna make the team. And thena guy that there's a lot of buzz.
I'm not sure about when you werethere, but I heard a lot
of people talking about Spencer Arriic Getty. I don't know if he's gonna break
camp making the team. I don'tknow, you know, service time stuff
and all of that. Yeah,but he's just asking people and talking around,
(07:31):
Like I asked a couple of people, you know, off the record,
Hey, Spencer Getty is a realdeal. Absolutely, that's what I
was told. I think he he'sgoing to start the season in sugar Land,
but the expectation is he will pitchthis year at some point with the
big league club. The challenge becomesYeah, a lot of these other guys
that have been in the mix.Just to rewind a little bit, I
(07:53):
think I'm with you. I ThinkhunterBrown deserves to be in the rotation.
Hoo's Their key's an interesting one becausehe did, you know, he did
kind of move to a bullpen rollat one point last year. He told
us when we were at pre training, I'm a starter, he said,
I want to be a starter.Look, I'll do the nice thing and
say I'll do whatever role you needme to do, but I still vision
myself as a big league starter.The problem is, ur Katy just didn't
(08:15):
feel like every time you look atthe box scorer, he went five innings
to give up two or three runs, like it's okay, it's fine,
but he's that's always seems like thebox score when you look back, you
go, he got us through five, but it was like two three runs,
okay, go fine, but likeyou know, it's the Verlanders and
the Frombers. I give you seveninnings, one run ball, that kind
of thing. But it feels likeArkidy hasn't really he's never like he hadn't
(08:37):
done that in a while. Butyeah, well he's your fist starter.
That's okay. Yeah you're not sohave your five guy goes seven innings to
shut out ball unless you were justabsolutely the best. I guess what I
remembered is like there were games wherehe couldn't get out of the fourth last
It's like, oh God, likethat, we're going to the bullpen,
burdens on them. But yeah,to your point, JP France, I
think. But the Brandon Bili,I think is fascinating because he's been such
(08:58):
a warrior for this teams. He'sprobably I guess, you know, break
Black has been such a warrior forthis team since the COVID year, coming
up and being that emergency starter,but you're out of options either he's starting
with the club or like what's that? And then ron o' blanco is fascinating
to a guy who was pretty youknow, he's he was okay at times
as a reliever, but last yearthey gave him a handful of starts here
and it was pretty good. Therewere a few that got away from his
(09:20):
control. He you know, he'llwalk guys at time, put some guys
on. But gonna be fun tosee him this weekend getting the start in
the first bring training game on SportsTalk seven ninety So that'll be interesting.
But say all that to say confidencelevel in the rotation, I mean,
I'm like, you know, ifI'm going, I don't know, we're
doing letter grades. I feel likeit's a b right now. I feel
(09:41):
like the thing is too is likeyou do have guys who can you have
options, you have you have abackup plan to the backup pand of the
backup plan with all these guys andthen and then maybe possibly an ace that
you're keeping up your sleeve. InSpencer arrag Getty, just hearing all the
buzz around him really for the lastcouple of years. Yeah, and it's
a little bit more buzz. LikeHunter Brown, the buzz built a little
(10:05):
bit on him, and I rememberhe comes up and he idolized justin Verlander
the first time we saw like,oh man, his delivery looks like the
delivery is the same, right,And I think the excitement kind of waned
a little bit last year with himnot being as good. But again,
like if I told you one offromber Xavier or Hunter Brown's gonna take a
huge leap forward this year and beawesome, then great. Yeah, you
(10:28):
know, I think you got herehoping that Javier is back to what he
was before. I mean, theera was under four last year. I'd
have to go look at it inthe postseason and then the last few starts
handful of starts that he was making. And really, if you remember last
year, they kind of they diddated at one point, busted Hunter Brown
down to the bullpen. Same thingwith JP Frantz. They kept starting Christian
(10:50):
Javier like they always felt like hewas really really close to putting things and
everything together and being back to hisold self. And we saw flashes of
it at the end of the seasonin the playoffs. So if they can
tinker with him, get him healthy, I think what is he was one
of the guys. I think hesaid he lost fifteen pounds or something like
that. So that's another spring traininggo to right, this guy lost weight,
this guy's beefed up, this guydid this whatever. I always wonder
(11:13):
where fifty, Like I saw howhere? Where were you studs in your
size? Like he wasn't a fatguy, yeah for sure, But yeah,
I mean Frober looks leaner. JordanAlvarez, even though he was shaking
us off saying no, I'm notleaner. He looks leaner. Frober lost
the long hair too, the truebut that's also might be factoring into him
looking a little bit lighter. Isaw some people he lose weight or did
(11:35):
he just cut his hair. I'mnot sure. I saw some people tweeted
that, oh we're getting back vintageFromber's coming back lost the braids, so
now he's reverting back to old.Honestly, he's been always been built in
the shoulders and arms, and helooks like that too. But he had
a little bit of a Crawford Bokbelly going on, so but that's gone.
Like he looks slim. The thingI always like about Frobber too,
(11:56):
is that guy just marches to thebeat of his own drama. He walks
in the house blaring Teano music onhis phone. He just he lives in
his own world. He's the lifeof the party in the clubhouse, really
he is. I mean he'll yellat guys across. You'll be interviewing somebody,
he'll be just yelling in the background. He does not care. He
does really fun. He's a differentkind of cat for sure. But so
it's interesting. Ross is the nameswe've run through. That's that's eight guys
(12:18):
and Spencer Araghatty, you know,knocking on the door. We've heard people.
I don't know why We've heard onyour show, across our across you
know, people calling in across ourshows and on social media, people keep
bringing up go get Blake Snell,go get Trevor. And the problem is
ross we have not even discussed.I know, we get tired of saying
(12:39):
it, but Luis Garcia and Lancemccullor's are expected coming back by mid season.
Yes, Russ, that's ten startingpictures. Where in the hell does
Blake Snell fit into that night?He doesn't. And the problem not for
the money, and the problem withit is people will go, oh,
well, Snell's better than some ofthese other guys. That's fine, but
you've invested money in Hoveer as astarter, You've invested money in Lights mclors.
(13:00):
You don't just kick those guys tothe curb, man. It's guarantee
money in MLB. These contracts arehere, they're gonna pitch. They're not
gonna just kick you to the curband spend more money. Yeah. Absolutely,
And I know a lot of people, especially when it comes to Lance
with Collors, like oh, whenhe's gonna get a hurt again. The
good news is, though, isthis this injury? What was cleaned up
surgically for him dates back to whathe was dealing with with twenty twenty one.
(13:22):
It's the same injury. So hopefullyhe's over that hump. And then
of course Tommy John can happen.Anybody can happen multiple times to people.
So and he's a tremendous shape too. Yeah, like for him shackt.
I mean he spent basically all thistime away cut their hair as well.
Yeah, he's been in the weightroom. This is as in shape as
I've ever seen lights of cars.Now we'll to translate to the field.
We'll see he's got to pitch well. But again I'm gonna be in the
(13:46):
camp of let me. The hopeis he gets back at some point healthy
and keep contribute to this team nowas it has. You know, do
him and Luis jump back in andthey're just six innings every outing? Probably
not, you know, we'll seewhat what their durability is. You know,
maybe one guy comes out of thebullpen. I don't know. I
know mccullor is gonna put up hisfight and go no, I'm a starter.
Oh no, the is not goingto allow him to get back in
(14:07):
the bullpen. I don't think.But regardless, he's gonna get kicking the
screen like he fully expect them backand keep that data. Quote Dana Brown,
quote in mind. You know you'regonna hear it at the trade deadline.
Well, I mean these guys arealmost like trade acquisition, trade acquisition,
absolutely all right, So we've hitonline deals, we fit on the
rotation. Let's let's hit on thebullpen a little bit. We know how
(14:28):
good Josh Hader is. We bothgot to see him throw. I mean,
the first day he threw a bullpen, he drew a crowd. I
took pictures. I mean, everybodycame over to watch him throw. He's
an absolute stud. Right, Presleylooks to be in great shape. He's
embracing his role. Brian A.Bray, who looks good back in the
rotation, we're fine. Question iswho are some of those other arms that
(14:48):
are gonna eat up innings? Andwe've got a lot of the regular you
know, the guys who've been herea while, Seth Martinez, Parker Mushinsky,
you know those kind of guys thathave been hanging around a while.
But they did add a couple ofguys and Dylan Coleman is a very interesting
one, a guy that a coupleof years ago had a nice season for
the Royals. Last season not somuch. We talked with him in the
clubhouse. He did say, yeah, I know what it was where I
(15:09):
wasn't as effective last year. Ithink I fixed those things. Guys like
a true six six too, Likehe's tall when he takes the mound,
he looms over here. He's gonnapitch behind Rono Blanco in Saturday spring training
game. But who is there aguy or two that maybe caught your eye
that you said, because we're tryingto fill those Ryan Stanek film Maton roles.
Yeah, as far as yeah,there is some intrigue and there are
(15:31):
some names, and there are somecandidates, and it's it's almost like we're
talking about the back end of therotation where somebody's gonna work out, you'd
figure. So I think definitely whatI'm intrigued on is Bennett Susa, who
the Astros got late in the seasonand they weren't able to put him onto
the postseason roster. They got himtoo late, but he was spectacular,
Like I don't know whatever tinkering theAstros were doing with his pitch mix and
(15:56):
how he was throwing and stuff likethat. It was working for him.
That That's definitely a name that Iam intrigued about. Of Course, you
mentioned Dylan Coleman. Forrest Whitley,we've been talking about as well. And
when we had Dana Brown on,he's like, look, maybe Rafael Montero,
he's not gonna be what he wastwo years ago, but if you
can at least get him in lineto where his era's hovering around three and
(16:18):
he gets you know, the walknumbers down to where they were a couple
of years ago, that's your sixinning guy. That's what we're all fighting
for because you're seven, eight,nine is set. And of course those
three guys aren gonna pitch ever onehundred and sixty two games each, but
you're gonna be in blowout, You'regonna be blowing other teams out. You're
gonna get blown out here and there, so you're not always gonna need those
high leverage guys. But if youcan just get Marto to be a solid
(16:40):
basically what Ryan Stanek was I frommaton was whatever, I mean that that'd
be great. Even the guy,Yeah, if he wants to be the
guy from two years ago, evenbetter. I'm with you. I mean,
you're paying him a lot of money. He's got a pitch, he's
going to bitch, and we sawthat last year. What's so funny,
though, Ross, is he didhave some good outings last year. But
it was funny when when Matero willgo out there to have a good outing,
nobody tweeted anything the first time.You know, he had three good
(17:02):
outings and then the fourth one wasbad. Everybody, Oh, this guy
stinks. It's like, well,you guys didn't say anything the last couple
of times he went out, SoI just think that's always funny. But
you're right. I mean that that'sa guy you're paying a lot of money
and he's got a pitch. He'sgot to play a role, and you'd
love to have him in some somehigh leverage spots. Because here's the other
thing nobody's talking about is Josh hat. Like Ross, there weeks you play
(17:23):
six six games in seven days.There are days Josh Hater will not be
available because he just pitched the lasttwo days. There are days where this
guy won't be a help. Soyou're gonna have to lean on some of
these guys. It's some big spots. The good thing is you do have
three closers and and you'll be you'llbe set definitely at the back end or
super high level. You saved absolutely. I mean he's been He's said a
(17:45):
few games last year. But backon Montero first half of last season six
fifty seven e RA a second halfthree point one zero. Now, the
whip numbers are still high, youknow, try strikeouts all that. There's
some stuff you still want it cleanedup, the walk numbers, stuff like
that, But he had a muchbetter second half of the season. And
outside he had one bad game inthe postseason, I'll go pull those games
(18:07):
up too, but I think hewas pretty good in the postseason as well
for the Astros before well, givingup some key runs in one of the
YAH at the end of Game sixALCS he gave up, but that was
the only outing. He had fiveoutings in the postseason, gave up a
run only in one of them.And look, the story of this season
to me again is and that's whyI asked you to kind of give a
(18:30):
grade on the rotation is. Look, I think the pitching overall will be
fine, But I said this goinginto last season. Things have shifted years
ago. This team was built aroundVerlander, Garrett Cole, Zach Grenki.
Dominant pitching is going to carry usthrough the postseason. I think the way
this Asters team has built, howthey're going to win the postseason is a
little bit more on the offense.Yes, and that's where that Ranger series
(18:53):
was very high because, yes,the starting pitching was not great, although
they were decent in Arlington, theyweren't good at home. But the Astros
also had their chance. If youscore runs, you could win a shootout
with the Rangers. But the batslargely didn't show up in that series here
in Mint of May Park, andthus you know, again, well he
needed to win was one. Yeah, one one. You're going back to
the World Series. So I justthink it's gonna be a compant on the
(19:15):
offense this year to go out andscore six, seven eight runs a night,
as opposed to win in a lotof three to two type ball games.
That's what you're hoping for. Imean, a Bray you turned it
around at the end of the seasonand he is going to be getting some
DH days and some days off andstuff like that, but he's going to
be a part and then yeah,it's the heavy hitters. It's the guys
we know. It's the Bregmans,the l two Vays, Alvarez is the
(19:38):
Tuckers. Those are the guys thatare going to be carrying the day you're
talking about right now. However,you want to construct your lineup like your
seventh hitter is maybe like Chas McCormick, who's really good. Your eight hitters,
Jeremy Pania, who has a retoldswing, and then hopefully he has
a track record. He's hit twentytwo home runs in a major league season,
so hopefully he can come back tothat form. And then you're not
expecting a whole lot about Jake Myers, some articles written about him and all
(20:00):
that type of stuff. But he'syour nine hitter as well. But you're
gonna be winning with the one throughseven and good enough pitching. Absolutely agreat
Yeah, that's where I wanted tohit next. A couple of bullet points
and the big stories from the lastweek. Jeremy Pana is kind of adjusted
this swing. It's not as active, I guess, is what you would
say. Wiater is what they're calledthe buzzword. Yeah, quieter as he's
in the box and the ball isapproaching, so we'll see if that if
(20:22):
this gives him better contact, awesome, we if Jeremy Pina wants to look
more like that, and you know, World Series MVP, absolutely, let's
let's bring it on. Uh.But this lineup does get a little shot
in the arm from yan Erdaz becomingan everyday catcher having that. You know
when when you would go seven,yeah, immediate, when you would go
seven, eight, nine last yearand it was Chaz, Jake Myers,
(20:45):
Maldonado. It was like, allright, well, hey, get you,
don't take your gear off, we'regoing back out. But yeah,
having yan air Diez back there andI think where are they going to hit
him? I mean somewhere six seven, right, Like he ain't bat nine.
I think in sixth yeah, fifthto six, depending on depending on
the day's So it's exciting to gethim in there more often. But the
(21:06):
Jake Myers are the thing. Ithink this is more experimental. I think
Dan Brown's like, look, it'sit's pisser, get off the pot time
for him. Let's start him.You're gonna get every opportunity in center field.
And they'll give him a couple ofweeks and if he doesn't rist the
occasion, they'll go they'll change itup, they'll go a different way.
But yeah, you've got options.I think they want to give him every
opportunity to prove what he can do. I think so too, And I
(21:26):
think that's been you know, wehad Joe a spot on and asked him
what is it that Jake Myers needsto prove it. The first word out
of his mouth was confidence. Andthat's just Jake Myers getting a vote of
confidence from Dana Brown and this organization. He's worked a lot with sports psychologists.
That shoulder injury I think bothered himmore than people know because he was
afraid to let it go with thebad And so if he can just get
(21:48):
a lot of that ironed out,dudes an athlete. I mean, we
see him running out there in centerfield. We've seen him like in that
Yankees game where he had like twohome runs and six RBIs in a game
like he can. He can showyou a little. It's just unfortunately hasn't
been consistent enough. So if hecan get his a mental approach right,
I'm not saying the guy's gonna goout there and you know, hit thirty
five bombs and hit two eighty fivewith the Ops over eight fifty or something.
(22:10):
But he can give you a littlesomething. And even last year with
as bad as he was, hestill hit ten home runs in like three
hundred plate appearances. So if heis the everyday guy and if he is
going to play elite center field andgive you a little bit of something,
he's your nine hitter. You don'tneed him like you don't need him to
just completely mash anything you get outof him. Has found money, and
(22:30):
then, like you said, ifit doesn't work out, you can put
Mauricio Dubon in center, you canput Chaz in center and yord On and
left, which they've said he's gonnaget a lot of work out there as
well, So you do have someoptions there, and you're just hoping that'd
be the best case scenarios that,yeah, Jake Myers can go out there
and hit a little bit and dohis thing in center field. And you
never know who rises to the occasionin spring training either, And you know,
(22:52):
is there somebody that comes along theway, somebody in sugar Land that
maybe pushes for a spot. Youknow, Corey Yolks I think will see
you know, probably get chance toplay some games again. This year,
you got some great prospects like JacobMelton, who you know is coming up
through the system. Paige ear Leonwas once a very highly thought of prospect.
You know, does he finally doesit all come together for him?
So there may be somebody down theroad that we're not even talking about,
(23:15):
that that gets a chance that comesup and steals us, steals an outfield
spot, doesn't give it up,So that would all be great as well.
But we did rotation. Let's talkline up. How do you feel
overall about this? This lineup oneof the most potent lineups in baseball.
It's gonna it's gonna be great.I mean, for your starting out with
L two, I don't even knowwhat exactly a spot is gonna do.
Is he gonna insert Jeremy Payne intothe two spot? I don't. I
(23:37):
don't think he's earned it. Idon't think he should be up there personally.
I would rather have either Bregman orTucker or somebody like that. If
you want to completely avoid going leftylefty with like a one two three of
al two, Va, Tucker andJordon, then fine, you can break
them up and put Bregman at twoand then jord On and then maybe a
Bray and in Tucker or whatever youwant to do, like and Jose Bray
(23:59):
you're talking about taking his body thisoffseason because the problems with him were physical.
Once he got that DL that ilstint at the end of the year
and came back, he was hittingwith power, and then in the playoffs
he was straight up mashing. Sohe is a year older, is a
Bray you? So I am gonnatemper expectations a little bit, but I'm
still expecting big things from him.And then jan Yard Diaz in the lineup
(24:21):
every day over Martine Moldonado. Thatis instant offense, instant often night and
day from the catcher spot. Andwhat's just the last time we saw this
lineup, it was Al Twove leadingoff, it was Bregmant two hole,
it was your on three hole,Jose bre you four. That's that I
know for much a law year wasDusty Baker wanting to get him out of
(24:41):
a funk, get him going.I think the spot is going to be
more fluid. I think he's finewith two lefties batting back to back.
I think he's fine. Putting yourbest hitters, giving them, especially as
two lefties that are two of thebest in the game, and hitting lefties
as lefties like the lefty righty thingdoesn't bother them. It doesn't matter.
You put a LEFTI You're right upthere against Jordan Alvarez, good good luck.
It doesn't matter. Yeah. Again, this is the last game of
(25:03):
last year, the elimination game inthe ALCS. But Michael Brandtley batted fifth,
Kyle Tucker sixth. Again, thatwas largely because of tucker struggles.
McCormick seventh, Penia eight, Maldonadoninth. So just kind of looking at
that and what will change significantly.I'm with you. I think you moved
maybe Tucker Bregman up more because Iwant I want those guys getting more pats.
(25:25):
Absolutely, that's very simple. Ihave this crazy theory, get your
best hitters the most played appearances.Dusty did not like that theory, but
I would do. I would probablydo because of Tucker's speed and he can
get on base and steal some bagsfor you as well. That's why I
would go to al Tuve, Tucker, jord On Bregman, then probably maybe
(25:45):
even Yania or a bray you whicheverorder you want to put them in,
and then you're down to what McCormick, Pinia Myers, and the guy we
even mention who you guys interviewed theGold Glove winner Mauricio Dubon. Look,
he's a utility guy. I wantto make that clear a lot of people,
because we've had a lot of callersto say, well, this guy
sticks, I'm just taking him on. I'm putting the bone in every day.
Look, Debon is not an everydayplayer. He's Yeah, he's a
(26:07):
great guy for the role he plays. He stepped in as an everyday player
to fill in the AL two eightmold. But like what people don't realize
is did he do a good jobat second, Yes, but if you
put the bone in at second foran entire season, he's gonna have errors.
He's gonna have slip ups, he'sgonna you know, so he's not
in every day great Batty, He'sgreat though he was at the role he
serves, and it's the role thata Leedminsti has had. It's the role
(26:27):
that Marvin Gonzalez had before him.Every team needs a guy like that.
Be grateful you have him, Butalso understand what his role is. Yeah,
even when you look at the waythat he hit at the beginning of
last year, by the end ofit he was about I want to say,
his ops plus was like ninety sevenwith one hundred being average. Of
course, so what I would golook that up. But he fell down.
(26:51):
He's significantly The average was good,but you're not getting a lot of
power from the guy. You're notgetting a lot of extra base hits.
So I like du bond and theroles that the role that he's in,
Dude is a utility gold glover.He's absolutely right. Like you put him
in that I led miss Diaz.Somebody goes down boom. You put him
in every day. You don't eventhink twice about it. That's what the
luxury of having Mariso Dubon is.Not like, oh, Jeremy Painey can't
hit, as somebody called us with. If Jeremy Painey doesn't hit in the
(27:14):
first month, put Dubont at shortevery day. Yeah, it's not happening.
It's just simply not happening. Aswe start to on wine here on
the Crawford Box Gas presented by CarbockBurrowing, and we'll be talking all things
Astros all throughout the season with youright here. So make sure you got
subscribe on the iHeartRadio app or whereveryou get your podcast, you'll be able
to hear from us of course,talk at all things Astros. Vibes you
got from Joe Aspata to me.You know, I've been to spring training
(27:38):
for many years now, and itwas a little different in that he's not
the guy out there hitting fung goto the guys. But man, the
whole vibe, he's fully in controlof everything. It feels very seamless,
is what I'll say. Yeah,I would say that the relationship with the
players is there. The first daywe got there in the clubhouse, Joe
Spotta was in there, and firstof all, I don't ever remember seeing
(28:00):
uh Dusty and and this is fine. It's two different approaches. I'm not
saying. I'm not saying it's ina diamond of Dusty. But Joe was
in there and he was going lockerto locker like, hey man, how's
your off season? What's going withyou? Talking chatting with him and and
not just like sales guy wheeling anddealing them, like being genuine like talking
here about like talking about him andcaring about him. And if you have,
and this has been you know,a leadership one oh one for for
(28:21):
centuries. Really, if if thepeople that you are leading know that you
care about him, they're gonna playharder for you. So Joe Aspota,
I think is a relationship builder,absolutely, and I think that's job number
one of a manager. And hewas out there when we were going out
there at one of the workouts andit was the Second Basement. It was
I can't I think it was HensleyDubon and Al Tuve. They're catching grounders
(28:44):
out of the grounder machine and flippingthem. At first, they're flipping them
to Joe Spota. He was standingon first like hanging out with the guys
working out, being active, likebeing around, and then just talking to
him. He's he's so positive,he's so relatable. He's it's it's really
a breath of fresh air to havesome money and you ask him questions and
then then they converse with you andtalk and you know, it's I think
(29:07):
it's going to work out fine.He's an easy guy to root for and
it certainly will be rooted for him, but certainly the first sign of problems
will certainly throw them under the bus. And what we're joking, Spot is
running this team into the ground.I mean if yeah, if they're struggling,
it's probably gonna be the team.Look at the talent is there.
He said it himself. I'm justkeeping the train on the tracks. And
that's also I mean not he knowsthat that's not really all he's doing.
(29:30):
He's supposed to be building these relationshipsand making moves and all this type of
stuff. But in twenty twenty four, with managers, the reports, player
matchups reports are done for you beforethe game. Optimal lineups are done for
you before the game, and theyhave numbers on Oh, this guy's velocity
is down, his spin rates downin his curve, it's time to pull
them. Like a lot of that'sreally baked in and done for managers,
(29:53):
where it's it's not like the nineteenseventies where you got to go with your
gut. The only thing I'll addyou said, you know, Dusty was
rare in the clubhouse. A J. Hinch was rare later in the clubou
see, he was an office guy. Dusty was an office guy. I
think Joe bounced back in to play, but I think that's largely because of
his role. Since he's been here, he's been the players guy. He's
been bad cop to good cop forHinch and Dusty. You know, while
(30:14):
they're bad cop, he's a goodcop. Hey, let me put my
arm around you. Whatever. ButI also think there's something to be said
about the Latin connection. When Isaw Fromber and those guys talk to this
spot, they just there's a respectabilitythere almost also too, like here's a
Hispanic manager getting his chance. Iwant this guy to succeed, so we
have more Hispanic matter, you know, Like I think there's a little bit
of that as well. Yeah,there might be, but whatever it is,
(30:37):
I mean that there. It's therelationship they have with Joe, and
I think I'm just put them.My worry level is zero if the Astros
are losing games this year because ofthe pitching and or the hitting is not
good enough. And I really saidthat last year, Like you want to
blame Dusty, you know, whenthey lose, and then you give him
zero praise. When they win,you're like, oh man, great job
by this pitcher, great job bythese hitters. Well, it's the players
(31:00):
that's the biggest part of it.In baseball. Yeah, and so look,
this team is loaded. We're readyfor another season, and hopefully you
guys are getting ready for another seasonwith our friends over at Crawford back and
loading up your fridge with plenty ofgreat beers from Carbock Brewing. And by
the way, if you guys havenot been out to Carbock Brewing recently,
you need to go check them out. They have a new addition to the
(31:21):
place that's opening very soon. Pizzaand pints. That's right, They're gonna
have a pizzaiha opening on site.Yes, so we'll be out there very
soon eating some pizzas and and they'llstall ready and this will be out by
the the not courtyard, what doyou kind of call it the beer garden,
beer garden, But they'll still havethe restaurant side too. That whole
side is if you want to goinside and enjoy they see whatever. They
still got that in the kitchen insidethere, but this is outside by the
(31:44):
beer garden. They're gonna have thepips and pizza and pints right next to
the store and all that. Sothey're they're expanding. It's awesome, it's
exciting. But of course when youget out there once you guys drink at
the Crawford Back. You know whatit's got the to killo sunrise stripes on
the side and load up on it. Whether you're at Mini Made Park,
you see them all over the placeand get the big tall cans usually gets
(32:05):
me up through a couple innings.I know some people probably could do a
beer and inning, but that's howgood the beers are. So we call
that the nine inning challenge in college. So make sure you guys get your
hands on Crawford Back throughout this springtraining and throughout the season. It is
a home run every time for us. For your real final thoughts as we
wrap up here on the Crawford BoxDay, go man, I want games
to start tomorrow. Like talking toDana Brown and Joe Spata that they have,
(32:30):
I mean it's their job to beoptimistic, but the bitter taste from
losing to the Rangers and watching themwin the World Series, Man, it
was a It was a tough offseason and I'm just ready for twenty twenty
four baseball and I think this teamis going to do great things. I
think they're winning the al Wes Minimumthis year. I love Chas McCormick,
too. He you know he getsit. We asked him about that.
(32:52):
You could see he didn't say it, but the vibe you get from Chas
was bleep. Those guys, yeah, we're we're We're coming back for him,
and that rivalry is going to beall awesome. So their World Series
champs, the dast Shows are reigningAl West champs, and I think they
take the crown again. March twentyeighth, mark your calendars. At his
opening day, we will be outthere live broadcasting with our shows leading up
to It'll be the Matt Thomas Show, but without Matt Thomas, He's going
(33:14):
to be on the road with theRockets. It'll be you and the A
team counting us down to a threeo'clock first pitch. It's going to be
a lot of fun. Yes,Matt Thomas missing time again. Who knew.
But it's gonna be a lot offun and hopefully you guys have a
lot of fun, and we'll beback talking Astros baseball with you real soon,
right here on the Crawford box Castpresented by Carback Brewing,
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