00:00All right. American League West is up next where the Houston Astros DRS are a minus 430 favorite
00:06to win the division. It's a five-game lead for Houston in front of the Seattle Mariners. Every
00:12other team, as you see, below 500. But the Astros probably could have had a 10-game lead at the
00:18break had they continued to play good baseball against teams that were struggling before they
00:24played in a set against the Astros, starting with the Guardians to begin their final midweek set
00:29last week. Cleveland had dropped 10 in a row. Houston was the best team since the start of
00:34June in the bigs, 24-8, coming off a weekend sweep on the road against the Dodgers at the ravine.
00:40And of course, baseball being the weird sport it is, the Guardians swept Houston at home.
00:45And then the Astros played the Rangers in their final weekend set in-state and divisional foes
00:50to end out the first half before the All-Star break. Texas won that set. So still a five-game
00:57cushion and a hefty favorite DRS at minus 430. But this could have been a minus 800 price had
01:03last week gone even slightly different for the Stros. Yeah, it should have. And maybe it could
01:08have. But I don't trust the Mariners. I don't trust the Rangers. I don't trust the Angels or
01:11the Athletics. It just seems like the pedigree in this division, to keep it simple, is with the
01:15Houston Astros. And we just talked about the AL East. And what do those pitching staffs look like?
01:19Well, on the back end, you're phenomenal. They're in Houston with Hayter. But then you take a look at
01:23Hunter Brown and Frambo Valdez. Maybe one of the best, if not the best, one-two punches when
01:28they're on top of their game that you can have throughout the rest of the summer. And then once
01:31you wind up in the playoffs. And we're still waiting for Alvarez to come back in that lineup,
01:35have that minor setback with his wrist injury. But once he comes back, that's a really good one
01:39through nine, a great back end of the bullpen, and starting staff that's better than anything
01:43that you can see. Because, yeah, hey, Nathan Evaldi and Jacob DeGrom. Yeah, I get it. I like that
01:47one-two punch. The Mariners always have a plethora of good young pitchers. Yeah, I understand that.
01:51But the pedigree's in Houston. I'm going to trust Hunter Brown and Frambo Valdez down the stretch
01:56more than any one-two pitching combination in the rest of that division. And they had the lead
02:01already. Now, granted, we do bet on price points, Ben. It's minus 430. It's not plus 110, Donnie.
02:06Do you think the Astros can hold on and win this division? So it does go with that. But for my money,
02:10they're going to make moves. It's a great front office. They're going to get healthier. I think
02:14the Houston Astros wind up with this one. And I would pay the minus 430 price right now if I had to do it.
