00:00Hey, John Lopez.
00:01One of the most fun things that you can have, especially this time of year into the summer,
00:05is a good Astros baseball team.
00:06And look, I don't know if I'm stretching.
00:09I don't know if I'm getting it out ahead of my skis.
00:11But there is something that you could point to that can maybe intimate or indicate that
00:15you're going to have a little fun this summer.
00:17Yeah.
00:17You know what my stance is on spring training.
00:21I really don't watch the games too much until it gets closer to regular season.
00:25But I monitor.
00:27I monitor closely.
00:28Okay.
00:28Retract your booze.
00:29And as I monitor, have you been watching Hunter Brown, Tatsuya Amai, and Mike Burroughs lately?
00:36Have you seen what they've been doing?
00:37I've seen a little bit.
00:39You've bullied me into not watching as much spring training baseball.
00:42You've made me less of a sicko.
00:43Mission accomplished.
00:45I've also thought about it.
00:46I'm like, I'm going to watch 162 of these things.
00:48Yeah, yeah.
00:48So one way or another.
00:49Yeah.
00:50I was like, I probably could afford to take a few nights off during the spring training.
00:54I'll watch some boxing.
00:54So monitor.
00:55Monitor closely.
00:56Fair.
00:5623 and a third innings with a 0.38 ERA and 31 strikeouts in those 23 and a third innings.
01:04Is that good?
01:05That is really good.
01:06And, you know, obviously, you know, people, it's just spring training.
01:09Well, yes, if you're talking about a guy that just popped up and is having an incredible year at the
01:16plate like Cam Smith did last year, yeah, you can kind of watch it with a raised eyebrow or whatever.
01:21But these other two guys, we know what Hunter Brown is, but these other two guys, MIE and Burroughs, they're
01:28not like upstart, you know, phenoms that, you know, maybe players haven't seen before and they're just sort of overwhelming
01:36pitchers.
01:37No, no, man.
01:38They are established pitchers that have been there and done that.
01:41But, and that's why it's got me thinking, and I think the way I put it with you before the
01:45show is, I think the Astros might be doing that thing again.
01:47Yeah.
01:48They might be.
01:49Yeah, because this is a, I mean, obviously your rotation is typically five.
01:52They've talked about the possibility of using six a little bit more.
01:55Hunter Brown, given, right?
01:57You feel pretty comfortable not just calling him a number one starter, but calling him an ace.
02:01He is an ace.
02:01He was top three in AL Cy Young voting, right?
02:04Was he third last year?
02:05Forget.
02:06In AL, was he second or third?
02:07I think he was third.
02:08So, yeah, man, that dude is bona fide at this point.
02:11Yeah.
02:12Imae has looked pretty good.
02:14Obviously, it's fair for you to reserve a little bit of judgment there as he's coming over from the MPB,
02:19right?
02:19That's not always the easiest transition for pitchers, but early on, good signs.
02:23The Mike Burroughs is the one that has kind of warmed my torso a little bit as I've seen it.
02:29Mike Burroughs has been absolutely dealing.
02:32He's a dude who came in, and I had very little concerns about him anyway, because I was like,
02:37this is a guy who you know what you get from him.
02:40He throws his pitches.
02:41He throws strikes.
02:42He gets after people.
02:43Buddy, he's been doing that to the tune of, let me see if I can get my stat back up
02:47as I've lost it,
02:48but he has been absolutely dealing in this spring.
02:52And, of course, spring training, you have to be a little cautious when looking at statistics,
02:55because you never know what the context is, whether one person or the other is working on something, right?
03:01What is the sequencing that they're ultimately going with?
03:03But he has just, I mean, there's just been a whole bunch of, you know, scoreless innings, hitless innings.
03:09Like, he has been absolutely working whoever comes up to play.
03:13And I'm like, all right, if that translates over, which I think is a fair expectation,
03:16because as you mentioned, he's a known commodity.
03:18This isn't like a complete question.
03:20Him, that's another dude where you go check.
03:22Eric Getty has looked good.
03:23But even Lance McCulloch Jr. has come out and been pretty solid early.
03:26So, like, I think you could get to four or five guys that you feel comfortable at,
03:30and that's, in a reasonable case, talk less of if you get the best case scenario where you go four
03:35or five guys
03:36that are knocked down, drag out, plus some possibilities on the back end in six men.
03:40That is what we talked about.
03:41We talked about yesterday, would you rather have a team that's kind of good at everything or has a superpower?
03:45When the Astros have been really good, their superpower is pitching.
03:48I said pitching, yeah, that has been it.
03:50But, and I'm really like, yes, you're right on the other guys, Eric Getty and maybe McCulloch a little bit.
03:55That's not talk about Christian Javier.
03:57Right, right.
03:58But I'm talking about the top three guys.
03:59The top three guys, if you have those guys' nails, and they've been nails in spring training,
04:04and again, it's probably going to ramp up a little bit here in the next week or two as we
04:07get closer to the regular season.
04:09The thing I like about them is they're different styles.
04:11You mentioned it, Hunter Brown, Ace, can do it all, has that Verlander thing working, you know, real dog, all
04:17that stuff.
04:18But then you combine it with the different styles that you're going to see in back-to-back-to-back
04:22games.
04:22Let's say these are the one, two, three guys, which it looks like they will be, to start a series
04:27and to start the season.
04:29Well, you've got Hunter Brown.
04:30You know what you're getting there.
04:31Emai has that, and this is what I was focused on.
04:34You talked about, or I talked about, you know, monitoring.
04:37One of us talked about it.
04:38Who knows?
04:39His slider apparently has just been, like, ridiculous.
04:42It looks good.
04:43Like an old-school slider, too.
04:45It's not a sweeper.
04:46Yeah.
04:47It's not, you know, the side-to-side.
04:48It's the old-school, whoa, where'd that come from type of slider.
04:52Well, you know, that comes at you at a lineup right after Hunter Brown, and then after you get –
04:58and he can throw 97-98, too, but he's got that wicked slider.
05:01Are we assuming what the rotation ends up looking like?
05:03Because –
05:04I just said I think it's going to be that order.
05:06I think Emai could end up a little bit later in the rotation.
05:09Either way.
05:09They might depend.
05:10If those are your top three –
05:11They might trust some of the guys that they've had, like Javier, a little bit more.
05:13Mm-hmm.
05:14But if those are your top three, just the way it breaks – the styles break down,
05:18then you've got Burroughs, who's a real stuff guy.
05:20You know, those three or four different pitches at a high level.
05:23That's exactly what you want from, you know, the top of your pitching staff.
05:27You know, different styles, still effective, all being able to do it.
05:30That's what I like about it.
05:31No, I'm with you there.
05:32By the way, just to make sure that I don't sound like I'm just pulling stuff out of my keister.
05:37Chandler Rome, as of yesterday, tweeted,
05:39Mike Burroughs has thrown 12 and two-thirds scoreless innings to open Grapefruit League play.
05:43Yeah.
05:44Struck out 15, walked six, surrendered six hits.
05:47He's been really good.
05:48Really good?
05:48Really?
05:49He's been really good.
05:50And, I mean, he's already ramped up to throwing 77 pitches across four.
05:54Mm-hmm.
05:54He's getting to a place where you feel comfortable, where he's going to be ready for opening day.
05:58Obviously, it's the expectation, but, man, I feel good about it.
06:01I'm feeling a lot better about this rotation, and that's coming from someone who was fairly optimistic coming into this.
06:07So, this is – now, again, I think that maybe I have a penchant because I don't want to speak
06:12for you.
06:13I might have a penchant to get a little hopped up on a hopium, get over my skis a little
06:17bit.
06:17So, tell me if I need to slow this down, but I'm excited.
06:20I'm excited for the prospect.
06:21I brought it up.
06:22I think this is a really strong one, two, three.
06:25We can also mention four, five, but at the very top, you've got these guys.
06:28And the other thing about Imae is he's got that three-quarter delivery.
06:31Yeah.
06:32So, there's another arm angle type thing for opposing batters.
06:35It's that pixie dust, man.
06:36And if you do it in that location – or in that order, as you've said, that's changing on a
06:41–
06:41Everything.
06:42Let's say you have a Friday, Saturday, Sunday series.
06:44Friday, you're looking at the ball coming out at a different place from Saturday, from Sunday.
06:48And then Sunday's all the stuff from Burroughs.
06:50So, I like it.
06:52And, you know, I mentioned the pixie dust.
06:54You know, they've changed up a lot of things with the coaching staff, but the pitching coaching staff is still
06:59getting it done.
07:01Yeah, and a fair point made on the 936.
07:03Christian Javier hasn't been very good at this point in the spring.
07:06But I still wonder how much that they lean on the experience and the trust that they have in him.
07:11But it's fair, especially seeing as there's some new, you know, pitching coaches and stuff that they might go with
07:16what they're seeing as opposed to what is in the past.
07:19Speaking of, yesterday, I got to imagine that our friends at Space City Home Network were a little peeved because
07:27–
07:28I mean, they're only broadcasting a selection of spring training or Great Food League games.
07:33And yesterday's matchup with the Washington Nationals was supposed to be one of them.
07:37Actually, it was one of them, except there was a rain delay.
07:40And I just, in my mind, pictured Todd Collis and Blummer sitting in the studio just like, all right, we
07:49got two hours to wait for this thing to start.
07:52And this didn't have to be one of the games that we called.
07:55It didn't have to be.
07:56It didn't have to be.
07:57But more than them waiting around is the news that we got about a particular player waiting around.
08:03Jordan Alba was supposed to play in left field yesterday.
08:05And because of the rain delay, they decided to DH him.
08:09And in my mind, I was like, is this the guy that we were hoping maybe could play something like
08:14possibly 100 games on the outfield?
08:17There's no way.
08:18There's no way in hell, right?
08:19That's fair because of what he's done.
08:21And, you know, a rain delay makes you change where you're going to put him in the lineup.
08:26On the other hand, how much of that is caution?
08:28I'm going to give him the veteran experience thing.
08:30He warmed up.
08:31He was out there running around.
08:33They come in.
08:33They sit for two hours.
08:34They say, hey, don't worry about it.
08:35You know, maybe it's just because he's a veteran.
08:38Don't worry about it.
08:38We'll get you in the outfield tomorrow.
08:40In my head, it felt like we were afraid that it's slick in the outfield and we don't want him
08:45to do those things.
08:46I get it.
08:46It's fair.
08:47Absolutely fair.
08:48And it also speaks to, and you won 150 games out of him?
08:51Well, I mean, oh, just generally 150.
08:53Because I was like, yeah, but if they don't play him in the outfield, yeah.
08:56Like that has stopped it at times.
08:58But, yeah, I mean.
08:59Forearm soreness.
09:00Somebody said forearm soreness.
09:03I sure hope not.
09:04I sure hope not.
09:05But, yeah, I'm going to go ahead and knock on wood.
09:06I'm not even that superstitious, but there you go.
09:08All right.
09:09Excited for Astros baseball.
09:10They're playing again this evening, if memory serves.
09:13They are playing.
09:14Who are they playing again?
09:16Oh, yeah, the Cardinals.
09:175-0-5.
09:18I don't know if this is on Space City.
09:19I'll have to go check it.
09:20But they are playing again.
09:21So, at the very least, there's a box score to check out and see what's popping.
09:24I'll see you in the middle of the selector.
09:25But I'm going to do that.
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