- 12 hours ago
Seth and Sean dive into Chandler Rome's piece on Lance McCullers and assess if he's effectively guaranteed a rotation spot the way Chandler seems to imply.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Let's get to the important stuff.
00:01Lance McCullers and the Astros pitching staff.
00:04Just to reset, this was Lance McCullers as part of a 10-minute session
00:08he did with the media at spring training earlier this week,
00:11which I think this cut kind of captures the tone of Chandler Rome's article
00:16about Lance McCullers, which paints sort of a dichotomy of the old Lance
00:21when he first came into the big leagues, which was very brash
00:23and very chatty.
00:26Yeah, were those Batman cleats?
00:28Batman cleats in his rookie year, yeah, and now it's a more, I guess, mature,
00:34but maybe a more kind of resigned, it sounds like in some ways, Lance McCullers.
00:39Here's Lance.
00:40Let's say philosophic.
00:41Philosophical.
00:42Here's Lance saying he just wants to have a great last season with the Astros.
00:46I've always just been in this kind of battle to just try to get out there,
00:51and then when I get out there, you know, try to compete
00:56and, you know, try to be the best version of whoever I was at the time.
00:59So, you know, I think that has dawned on me more.
01:02I think my wife's helped me with that a little bit too, you know, just like,
01:07you know, we're going to, I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to be good either way,
01:10and I think I just need to kind of let go, you know, stop trying to control everything,
01:14stop trying to just micromanage everything.
01:16And, you know, I would love to be good, not because I want to necessarily continue to play,
01:22but just because I would love to be good, you know, for this organization,
01:25this fan base in my last year here.
01:27And then if playing comes, you know, beyond that, it does.
01:30I mean, we see guys who did pitch well last year don't have jobs, so it's not a magic bullet.
01:36You know, there's a lot of other factors.
01:38We have probably a strike coming or a lockout coming looming.
01:42So I just want to have a nice last year, you know, with this uniform on.
01:49I've been here for, I've been in this organization since I was, you know, barely 18 years old.
01:52So it would be great to just have a nice last year here and, you know, whatever the future holds,
01:57the future holds.
01:58I'm rooting for Lance Harden this year, man.
02:00Like, that's a guy, I mean, two and a half years out with an injury.
02:04Yeah.
02:04Multiple setbacks.
02:06And if anything, the tough thing for Lance, at least the hard part to watch, I think,
02:13is in some ways where people understandably get frustrated with just how injured he's been.
02:17And that, man, even when he does come back and play for a little bit and he gets injured again,
02:20it's just the frequency of the injuries.
02:22People get really frustrated with it.
02:23And he's on that extended good contract that he has.
02:28Yeah.
02:28So it's understandable that people get frustrated.
02:30The part that's hard for me to watch how people talk about him is that Lance is,
02:36he's the exact opposite of a guy who maybe gets injured because he doesn't take care of his body.
02:42Yeah.
02:42Or a guy that just doesn't, he's not in the real, he's the opposite.
02:46If anything, Lance's, Lance's greatest enemy might be what he had just talked about right there.
02:50He micromanages things.
02:52He's dialed in on every little thing.
02:53Yeah.
02:53And from the first time he got injured, I was kind of worried that Lance is the kind of guy
02:57that it feels like might just be constantly trying to push it too hard in rehab.
03:02And you end up being your own worst enemy.
03:04And sometimes you ignore some of the things that you should, that you should listen to
03:08when you need to slow down a little bit because he's a very driven guy and he tries to go
03:13about
03:13things the right way.
03:14And, and it just, it's, it's turned into this disastrous back half of his career where he's just pitched very
03:22few
03:22baseball games since 2021.
03:24Yeah.
03:24It's the, the article from Chandler is it's the tone of it is it's a little depressing just
03:31because we remember what peak Lance looked like.
03:34It sounds like there there's, it sounds like an article where he's got one year left on this deal.
03:40And if it doesn't go well this year, like that's it, you know, that's, that's, that's the end.
03:44Yeah.
03:45And that's always, I think that's always a little depressing for any athlete, especially one that's
03:48popular like Lance McCullers.
03:50Yeah.
03:50And this for the, I know I, I'm only saying this cause I get confused sometimes when, when
03:54you phrase it, there's one year left on the deal.
03:56This is the final year of his contract.
03:58Final year of his contract.
03:59So for, yeah.
04:00And like the way he's talking about it, almost like he, he knows that it's, this is his last
04:04year with the Astros.
04:05Yeah.
04:05And it sounds like, or I would assume if it's his last year with the Astros, I, I doubt
04:09he's going to go anywhere else.
04:11Maybe he does, but.
04:12Does he strike you as somebody that goes to somebody else's?
04:15I mean, look, he, he went to the Astros for that contract back in 2021.
04:19Cause he didn't want to play anywhere else.
04:21Right.
04:21So he went, he loves it here.
04:24Bury me in the H all that stuff.
04:25Does he strike you as a guy, especially when he's been through as much rehab and as much
04:29working and everything else, does he strike you as a guy that wants to go somewhere else
04:33to be a non-roster body?
04:35No, I think he reminds me of Jalen Petrie a little bit.
04:38You know, we talk about Jalen Petrie is he seems like he's just that, uh, he's that hyper
04:42loyal type.
04:42Like Jalen Petrie stayed at Baylor when just about everybody else bolted and it, it felt
04:48like Jalen Petrie would be the kind of guy that just wants, loves playing in his hometown
04:52close to his family and might try to stay in Houston forever.
04:55I feel like Lance is kind of that way.
04:57I look at him as far as on the roster this year, realistically, you're starting off the
05:03season with a six man rotation, partly or mostly because EMI is used to that.
05:10And they want to either see how it goes with a six man rotation and slowly work him into
05:15normal MLB pitchers rest.
05:17At the very least, Lance is a guy that you think of him like the booster rockets on the
05:23space shuttle.
05:24Um, he'll be there for a while.
05:26At some point he's likely going to fall off into the ocean and then the shuttle goes on.
05:32But if, if Lance can be part of however many games, just getting everything on track and
05:38getting going and hopefully getting some of the younger guys going that, that that's
05:43hopefully that's, it's realistic to hope for at least however many months of Lance that
05:48is.
05:48We, I think we need to acknowledge a couple of things with Lance.
05:51One is that he, he was not good last year.
05:53He was in the bullpen by the end of the year, not because like, Oh, he'd be amazing there
05:57for us.
05:57It's like, no, he got relegated to the bullpen last year.
06:00He was also still coming off of still like his dicey injury situation.
06:04Understood.
06:04Yeah.
06:05No, I'm getting, I'm going somewhere with this, but he had a 6.51 ERA last year.
06:10So the year did not end well.
06:11Now he is saying that I feel great.
06:13I'm throwing well, stuff's working.
06:16He's going to stay away from his sweeper a little bit more this year.
06:18Like he's made some tactical adjustments.
06:20It sounds like with what he's going to do, but he himself also acknowledges that everybody
06:24feels good this time of year.
06:26Yeah.
06:26So, so where does Lance fit in right now?
06:30Now, this is the line in Chandler's article that made me go, huh, was McCullers is not
06:36guaranteed a spot in Houston starting rotation, though his $18 million salary and stature within
06:42the organization make it hard to believe he won't at least open the season there.
06:46So this is, this is Chandler's opinion, obviously.
06:49And Chandler's got as educated an opinion as anybody on the Astros.
06:52He's around the team every day and he's good at what he does.
06:54Um, but just taking that sentence for face value, his salary and his stature in the organization
07:00should not be reasons that he should be among the six starting pitchers.
07:04Well, I think the salary does matter though.
07:06If, if, if you look at it as like, that's a sunk cost, you're going to spend that money
07:09regardless.
07:10And if we can get a couple of months out of Lance McCullers of good baseball again, while
07:16you're still trying to work everybody else into that rotation, you're going to have a six
07:20man rotation.
07:21It doesn't, you've already spent that money, which isn't a dream.
07:24I'm not like, I'm not doing sunk cost fallacy here, but like you're paying that money regardless.
07:29And you've got a guy that you can use as a starting pitcher.
07:31But you added a caveat, good baseball.
07:33Yeah.
07:33If he's pitching well, put him in there.
07:35Right, right.
07:35But like, so what's the harm?
07:37Like you get rid of them.
07:38You got no chance or no upside at the good baseball.
07:40Right.
07:40So at the very least, you start the season with them and see how it goes.
07:43But all I'm saying is that like, I think, would you agree that like it should be a competition
07:47for those two spots?
07:48You know, I think there's four spots that are virtually guaranteed, which is Hunter
07:52Brown, Emai, Christian Javier, and Burroughs.
07:56I mean, yeah, but it's a competition.
07:58But okay, do you want to go about spring training results?
08:01If he gets shelled all the time, then yeah.
08:03Well, yeah, if he's getting destroyed, right.
08:05No, yeah.
08:05Spring training matters to a certain degree.
08:07Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:07That's my point.
08:08Like, you know, Dana Brown seems to have more of a, he puts more into spring training performance
08:13than a lot of other GMs do.
08:15And it ended up guys like Em Smith and others just being rocketed up into the major leagues
08:20before they were actually ready.
08:21That's all I'm saying is this sentence says nothing about how he's performing.
08:24Well, they're not, okay, they're not making the decision right now would be the answer.
08:27Right.
08:27And yeah, if he sucks and he just looks like a complete master in spring training, then
08:31that's not going to be the case.
08:32I would say if it looks promising and it looks similar to what he's done in spring training
08:36in the past, then yeah, there's no, you're not, you're not making a long-term decision
08:40on it or anything.
08:41You're just trying to have him be that booster rocket at the very least at the beginning of
08:44the year.
08:45Yeah, no, I'm, and I'm rooting for him.
08:46Look, I hope he stays healthy all year.
08:47I hope he's, I hope he's great.
08:49I hope, I hope he pitches well enough to make a conversation that should they bring him back,
08:55you know, that he's finally healthy and he's pitching well and he's getting out there
08:58every six days and he's doing enough to at least be a guy at the back end of the
09:01rotation.
09:02Now paying 18 million to a guy that's your fifth or sixth starter is suboptimal.
09:07Like I, right, right.
09:08That's sub, I mean, but that's already, that's already, it's a, I get what you're saying about
09:11the sunk cost.
09:12It's like, you would never say, you would never say, well, no, he's not worth that $18 million.
09:16So even though he's our fifth, sixth best starter, we're not starting him because you
09:20know, yeah, yeah.
09:22Uh, I painted Pendergast with you, uh, McCullers to Detroit to go with AJ Hinch and everybody else.
09:28Yeah.
09:28Maybe after the season, we'll see.
09:30Um, Lance will most likely be cut after spring training and we'll see, and that's a possibility
09:35as well.
09:35Right.
09:36Everything's on the table.
09:37If he doesn't look salvageable, that's what that, that's what I'm not saying.
09:40You have to keep them because of the $18 million.
09:42I'm saying basically look at him as a guy that you don't, you're freed from making a financial
09:47decision on him because you're going to have to pay that $18 million regardless.
09:50For sure.
09:51Nobody's going to trade you for that contract or anything.
09:52No, no, no.
09:53My whole thing is Chandler seems to be using that as the reason he should be in the rotation
09:57are the salary and the history with the team.
10:00And I'm like, that's the, those are the second and third reasons to me.
10:04He's got to pitch well.
10:05Yeah.
10:05I'm saying the $18 million, it's not like you have to pay him because you paid him that
10:08$18 million.
10:09That would be some cost fallacy.
10:10Yeah.
10:10I'm saying that the, that money is spent and paid for and it's irrelevant.
10:15It's just that, okay, is he a viable pitcher?
10:17Is he one of their, if he, is he one of your best seven or eight starting pitchers going into
10:23camp or going into the season, then he might not start off as a starter, but he's on your
10:27roster.
10:27That's an interesting one too, because he's being prepped as a starter.
10:31We know how he feels about starting versus being in the bullpen.
10:34Yeah.
10:34If he's a guy, like if he's the seventh best one, do you, do, do you have a, you know,
10:41do you have a hard talk with him to say, Hey man, we, we want to have you around.
10:44We're paying you.
10:45But you've got to be an innings eater.
10:47You know, you've got to be a bridge guy or a, you know, an opener for us at times or
10:50whatever.
10:51And how does he take that?
10:52Does Lance just say, you know what, that's the, I'm, I don't want to do that.
10:56You know, I don't want to do that.
10:58That becomes an interesting time.
10:59There's a long way to go till we get to that.
11:01Obviously.
Comments