00:00Astros continue out at spring training.
00:02Dana Brown was on Sirius XM radio and was asked about the lineup juggling,
00:07the infield surplus, trying to find a lefty bat.
00:11Here's Dana Brown talking about some of the ways they can maneuver
00:15given their glut of infielders right now.
00:19We're loaded in the infield, and so I think Joe,
00:22with the age of some of our players, is going to be able to find some playing time,
00:26you know, get Alvarez in left, open up the DH for Paredes.
00:30So, you know, he's going to have to juggle that a little bit, you know.
00:33You know, anything could happen, too.
00:35You know, we're still talking to other clubs.
00:37Maybe we get a trade done for a left-hand bat or something like that,
00:40if it makes sense.
00:42But it has to make sense, and we don't want to weaken our team right now.
00:45So right now we can roll with the way we have it.
00:48Of all the things that have been said in the preseason here in spring training,
00:53leading up to spring training, Seth, about the Astros and how they're set up
00:57at certain positions, both within the pitching staff
01:02and within the everyday lineup.
01:03Of all the things that I think are going to wind up being false,
01:07it's going to be that Jordan Alvarez is going to be the almost everyday DH
01:12for this team.
01:13I think ultimately this team is going to need to get their best offensive lineup
01:18out there more than they think.
01:19And I think he's going to do something that he wants to do,
01:23which I don't think is something that's completely unsafe if he plays the
01:27position the right way, which is play left field instead of DH.
01:31You play Jordan in left field, and now you've got the DH available to throw
01:34Altuve there and put Paredes at second base or throw Paredes at the DH,
01:38leave Altuve out there.
01:39You've got a little flexibility with first base and Christian Walker.
01:42If you want to DH him and put Paredes at first base one day,
01:45they're going to have to play Jordan in the outfield way more than I think
01:51they want, unless Paredes all of a sudden learns how to play left field.
01:54But they're going to have to play Jordan in left field,
01:55I think, a whole lot more than they anticipate playing him.
01:58Yeah, and we just quietly and apparently we'll never talk about it again
02:02that Altuve was going to be a left field.
02:05I don't know what you're talking about.
02:06Yeah, it's pretty much one of those things.
02:09That's right, Jose.
02:10We'll never talk about it.
02:12Cess out here talking these falsehoods.
02:13It never actually happened.
02:15But now somehow the idea of Paredes playing second base is the most
02:18ridiculous thing in the world.
02:19He can't play second base.
02:22Dude.
02:22No!
02:23Right, exactly.
02:24Great, all right.
02:25Exactly.
02:25I get so triggered watching the Astros game on Saturday.
02:29Yeah.
02:30There was a foul ball down the left field line,
02:32and it landed in that little grassy area down there along the, you know,
02:35between third base and the foul pole.
02:37Yeah.
02:37And I get triggered watching that because I remember back to that day last year
02:41when you and I were there, and Jose Altuve was playing left field
02:44for the first time ever in a game.
02:46Yeah.
02:46And, man, I stood out there in that grassy field,
02:49and the sun didn't move for six innings.
02:52No sunscreen on your scalp?
02:54For six innings.
02:55Yeah.
02:55Yeah, probably neither.
02:56You know what?
02:57For purposes of this story, no sunscreen on my scalp.
03:00And I stood out there, and, man,
03:02that guy did not get one ball hit to him the entire day.
03:05Yeah.
03:06He stayed out there long past when they would have expected him to
03:09because he was just waiting to field something.
03:11He was.
03:12He probably would have left after, like, the third or fourth inning.
03:14He played, I think, at least six, if not seven innings in that game.
03:17Yeah.
03:17So we'll never talk about that again.
03:20Yep.
03:20The one part about this that I'm nervous isn't the right word, I guess.
03:25I'm just kind of intrigued by it is the fact that Paredes seems to be on 24-7
03:31trade watch, and he knows it.
03:34And you add that dynamic to it, too, that there doesn't seem to necessarily be
03:40bad blood about it or anything, but he's in kind of a tenuous position.
03:43Yeah.
03:44And knowing that he's going to be going out there and playing multiple
03:49different positions potentially and somewhat sporadically while also knowing
03:53that this team really wants to get rid of you.
03:55Yeah.
03:56If they can, hey, we love you, Isak.
03:58Yeah.
03:58Hey, all those home runs in the Crawford boxes, cool, bro.
04:01Yeah.
04:01But we are also trying to get rid of you on a day-by-day basis.
04:05He knows the deal, I think.
04:06I know he knows the deal.
04:07It's bad juju, man.
04:09Yep.
04:09Yep.
04:09Well, he also, I mean, he needs, I believe, is heading, I think he's got one more year
04:15of, oh, no, no, that's right.
04:17He signed that contract.
04:18They got him that option.
04:19Yeah.
04:19That's right.
04:20I just looked at it.
04:20Okay.
04:21So that's, so he's got a little bit of safety built in there as a club option.
04:27So, I mean, the club still knows he's a good player.
04:29Yeah, it's just, it's a little messy right now.
04:31It's a little messy right now.
04:33You know what else is popping up on social?
04:35It's like living, working out of a hotel room, where you just kind of, you just can't,
04:39you're not yourself.
04:40Yeah.
04:40You know?
04:41Yeah.
04:41You're going to go spend two weeks in a hotel, in your mind, you're like, oh, I'm going
04:44to have all this time to accomplish all these activities and everything.
04:48Yeah.
04:48And you get like five days into it, and you're like, what the hell's going on with me?
04:51I didn't mind it.
04:52I just can't find my bearings.
04:53I don't know.
04:54And then, no, no, no.
04:56It's even worse.
04:56You're working out of a hotel room, but there's construction at the hotel.
05:00Oh.
05:01And every day they call, and they're like, sir, we're going to have you to, we're going
05:03to have to have you move rooms.
05:05Yeah.
05:05Like that.
05:06That would suck.
05:06You just, you can't find any stable footing.
05:08That would suck.
05:09You know what's been happening lately on my Twitter timeline?
05:13There's this Twitter account out there, and I'm not going to give out the name of it,
05:16because I will tell you, the videos, some of them are depressing me a little bit.
05:21They, these are videos that people are doing where they're taking old lineups of teams
05:26and going, man, this team was stacked.
05:29Oh, yeah.
05:30And they show, like, they did one for the Texans, and they showed the 2011 Texans, and
05:35they go through the player introductions on, like, a Sunday night game that year, where
05:38it's Arian Foster, running back, Tennessee, and they do the whole thing for both sides
05:42of the ball.
05:43And you're like, wow, that team really was stacked.
05:45Now I'm depressed, because I feel like that team could have won a Super Bowl if Matt Schaub
05:49had stayed healthy.
05:50The one that's really depressing for me that I saw was someone put one up about the 2019
05:55Astros, which was, might have been the best baseball team that I've ever rooted for in
06:01my lifetime.
06:01Ironically, the two best Astro teams I think I ever rooted for in my lifetime were the
06:051998 Astros with Randy Johnson that won 102 games and got knocked out in the divisional
06:11round of the playoffs, and then the 2019 Astros.
06:15Greg Amsinger, this is not the video that I'm talking about.
06:17This is just one, the video that I'm talking about, the lineup of that team was just one
06:22reminder.
06:23But Greg Amsinger, who's an analyst on MLB TV, did a segment, he does something called
06:29Greg's List, and his list was the nine best regular season teams of all time.
06:38Oh, yeah.
06:38Like, the 1927 Yankees were number one.
06:41This isn't, like, the best team since free agency started or the expansion era.
06:45Check out, he gives his criteria.
06:48And then says, who's number seven?
06:51My criteria here, as I put together this Greg's List, of the best regular season teams ever,
06:56number of wins that they had during the regular season, the historical impact that that season
07:00actually had on the sport, and what type of talent did you have on that roster?
07:05Hall of Famers?
07:06How many All-Stars?
07:07That's my criteria.
07:09At number seven, the 2019 Astros.
07:12Why?
07:12Talent all over the field.
07:14But you had Granke, Verlander, Garrett Cole, Jordan Alvarez, who's Rookie of the Year.
07:19Jose Altuve, a star.
07:21Alex Bregman finished second in AL MVP.
07:24This team was fully loaded.
07:27Yeah.
07:27Number seven.
07:28Yeah.
07:28On Greg's List.
07:29And if they could win one game at home in the World Series, we would be talking about three
07:34titles in six seasons.
07:37Yeah.
07:37Two and six is great.
07:39Two and six seasons is awesome.
07:40There are fans across baseball that would give their left arm to have that.
07:45If you go with the 2019 Astros, if you just, look, tell me how you would feel.
07:51You're looking at the lineup right now, aren't you?
07:52I'm going to look at, I'm going to start with the number five batter, Sean.
07:55Okay.
07:55Now, let's say if you just started off, if this was your top five in a lineup.
07:59Okay.
08:00Starting with the fifth batter.
08:01If you're number one, you know, you go new age and have Jordan Alvarez lead off.
08:06And, uh, then, uh, it followed by Yuli Gurriel, then Carlos Correa, then, then Kyle Tucker
08:14would be your fourth batter.
08:16He wasn't, he wasn't great back then, but yeah.
08:18But yeah.
08:18Yeah.
08:19Yeah.
08:19And then, uh, Martine Maldonado.
08:21Then you've got some issues.
08:22If Martine Maldonado is your fifth batter, then you're a little bit.
08:25Dude, that's crazy.
08:26They had two full lineups, basically.
08:28That's incredible.
08:29That's incredible.
08:30You know, and you can nitpick and go, well, that was your Correa had the rib injury.
08:35So he was banged up that year.
08:36So that's why he was seventh.
08:37And Tucker was still a young player.
08:39We're going completely surface level here.
08:40Yeah.
08:40Yeah.
08:41No, just the names and who were the, now, now, now really, really depressed me and tell
08:45me one through, I'm going to, let me guess one through four Springer, uh, Altuve.
08:52Well, Springer, Bregman, Altuve, and I'm missing somebody.
08:56Brantley.
08:57Oh, and Michael Brantley.
08:58Oh my God.
08:59That's how easily you forget Michael Brantley.
09:00Brantley's like the eighth.
09:01That's how unassuming he is.
09:02Brantley.
09:03If you throw the Christmas card in 2019, was you, Amy and Brantley?
09:06No, it wasn't.
09:07He never made the Chris.
09:08We, she, no, no, we, no, you, he, no, trust me.
09:12Amy took a picture with him that didn't have me in it.
09:15Oh yeah, no, that was, that didn't, but she, she likes that picture.
09:18I tells you pops up on her feet every now and again, um, man, what a lineup, what a team.
09:25That was crazy.
09:25Probably the one weakness they had was, I would say, was Roberto Osuna, the closer of that
09:30team?
09:31You don't have it in front of me anymore.
09:33Oh no, sorry.
09:34Yeah.
09:35I was trying to figure out the relay, you know, putting, throwing in that lineup, they're
09:38trying to put the biggest names in there.
09:40Um, but I was trying to remember how many actual games Kyle Tucker played that year.
09:45Yeah.
09:46That's, that's bogus throwing Kyle Tucker in.
09:48No, I feel like Josh Reddick might've still been on the team.
09:50Yeah, yeah, that was a, that's a, that's a purely a, a clickability graphic right there.
09:55Yeah.
09:55Yeah.
09:56He only played 22 games in 2019.
09:58Yeah.
09:58I feel like, yeah.
09:59Josh Reddick was still there in, in, uh, in 2019.
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