00:00Omar Lopez. I'm happy for Omar Lopez. Are you happy for Omar Lopez, Seth, winning the World Baseball Classic?
00:06Yeah, wins the World Baseball Classic as the manager. He's won a World Series as an assistant coach.
00:10Seems like a good guy, too, right?
00:13Really happy for him. This is my question. He is still on the staff with the Astros as their first
00:18base coach.
00:19Right.
00:20If the Astros get off to a slow start this year, how loud will the drumbeat become to move on
00:29from Joe Espada and promote the now very popular, likable, and successful Omar Lopez?
00:36Well, because he's the bench coach, which is, hey, he's got the pulse of the team, etc.
00:40Espada used to be the bench coach.
00:42Right, right, right. It seems to be the stepping stone for an Astros coach to become the next manager.
00:48Is there going to be a drumbeat for Omar Lopez to be that guy?
00:53I'll remind you two things as we wrap our brains around this question.
00:58Espada's been the manager two years. Made the playoffs one year, so he's done that.
01:01Hasn't won a playoff game yet, but hopefully that happens.
01:05Didn't make the playoffs last year, but I thought the team, given all the injuries, especially the injuries to prominent
01:10players,
01:10Jordan Alvarez in particular, that, you know, you win 87 games and your best player plays 48 games, not even
01:18really healthy games, then whatever.
01:20It's definitely enough to get him another year, but he's not started well in either of these seasons.
01:25They've gotten off to slow starts in both of the spotted seasons, most notably the 12 and 24 start they
01:32got off to in his first season as the manager.
01:36And then last year, it wasn't great. They were, you know, the 12 and 24 in 2024 through 36 games.
01:41They were 17 and 18 through 35 games in 2025.
01:46If they get off to a start like that this year, you know, maybe something in between or even a
01:5117 and 18.
01:52I think there's going to be people saying, look, you got the guy that won the world baseball classic right
01:57there.
01:58He had been in the organization for 30 years. He was a scout back in the day.
02:03He was part of the team that went and found Jose Altuve in Venezuela.
02:06I just all, I'm not trying to, you know, I'm not trying to rabble rouse here or anything like that.
02:10I just think it's a, it is a, on a platter right now that if Joe is spotted, doesn't get
02:15off to a fast start, there's going to be people clamoring for Omar Lopez to be the manager.
02:20And it's tough with the spot because like so many of the issues it's, it's, it's sometimes it's our complaints
02:25about a spot are how has he handled situations that are inherently almost impossible to manage, especially when it comes
02:33to injuries.
02:34You don't like how he's handling the lineup and having to juggle a lineup that could be, it feels like
02:40it's nine different guys from game to game, depending on who's available.
02:44The, the number of like, how is he using the relievers, but it's hard to figure that out when also
02:51your starters aren't going as deep into games as you'd like them to.
02:54I've always struggled with that where I want to blame something on a spot, but he's also been dealing with
02:59a whole host of issues.
03:01These last few years, the previous managers didn't necessarily have to deal with on as large a scale.
03:06Yeah.
03:06That's the really tough part.
03:08Should this team, I think they won 88 games in a spot his first year.
03:12They won 87.
03:12If I'm not mistaken last year, should this team have won more than 88 or 87 games these last couple
03:19of years?
03:20Yeah.
03:20Given all the injuries.
03:21I don't know.
03:22Given all the injuries.
03:23And that's what, like when it comes down to bullpen management and when there's just so many times where, okay,
03:28you've got all these injuries.
03:29He's on the staff and you've got closers and set up guys, et cetera, that have already pitched.
03:37And it just, it's a really, it's a really, really hard tightrope to walk.
03:42And I, I tend to veer more on the side of the sum total of it is man.
03:46We're just with a few extra games from guys like Jordan Alvarez last year.
03:52They're, they're in the playoffs.
03:53Probably so.
03:54Yeah.
03:54There's a really good, I don't, it's, it's not even wishful thinking or anything.
03:5820 more games played by some of your injured starters and you're probably in the playoffs.
04:03That's where I, I, I, maybe I'm too nice.
04:06Maybe I'm not, you know, maybe I need to be, have a higher standard.
04:09I just tend to give them the benefit of the doubt on a lot of that.
04:12Yeah.
04:12Yeah.
04:13I just wonder with this new dynamic of Omar Lopez managing Venezuela to that championship,
04:19if that's going to hit differently with Astro fans.
04:21Well, remember, remember in 2024, there was that report that there were a couple of veteran
04:26players that didn't like Espada's communication style.
04:29Yes.
04:30Yeah.
04:30Like that was, I don't, I don't recall hearing anything like that in 2025.
04:34I don't either.
04:35But that's a little bit of smoke that I don't know.
04:38Like what are the, what are the actual feelings of the veteran players on the team?
04:42Yep.
04:42As it relates to Espada.
04:44I don't know.
04:46Brian McTaggart, who covers the Astros for MLB.com.
04:49We love tags.
04:51He's, he does a great job covering the team.
04:53He had his five observations from spring training.
04:56He's, he's been at spring training watching the team on a daily basis.
05:01And he had five observations.
05:04Biggest takeaway from camp so far, Seth, he said was that the team's efforts to add
05:12pitching depth have worked out well.
05:14So far leaving the Astros was actually some tough decisions to make when it comes to the
05:18back end of their rotation, which is a phenomenal problem to have.
05:22Looks like it's going to be obviously Hunter Brown headlining the group.
05:25Tatsuya, E-My and Mike Burroughs have also both pitched really well.
05:29They're going to be in the rotation.
05:30Christian Javier pitched better his last time out.
05:32They're going to give him every opportunity to be in that mix among the top four.
05:36And then you got Lance McCullers.
05:38You got Ryan Weiss.
05:39Spencer Arrighetti is still hanging around spring training.
05:42I don't know that we've seen much from him.
05:44Kai Wei-Tang has done some good things.
05:46They've even got guys, he says, non-roster guys like Peter Lambert and Christian Roa put
05:50themselves in position to make the team.
05:53The pitching has been a big success this spring training.
05:56Yeah.
05:56Yeah.
05:56And I think also is at some point they'll, they'll, they'll open up with a five man rotation.
06:03And then when the schedule demands it, because E-My, you know, doesn't normally, uh, he pitches
06:09with an extra day of rest, um, they'll go to a six man rotation.
06:13It's, it feels it's, I, it's fair to be optimistic at this point, um, without reading too much into
06:19spring training.
06:20It's just that even if, even if you caution yourself against reading too much into spring
06:25training, like I do, uh, you just, you look at the overall performance of everybody across
06:31the board and then the, how it actually looks when guys like Burrow is pitching, it's not
06:35just like he looks statistically good.
06:37No, his pitches look like he's really dialed in.
06:40Yeah.
06:40Yeah.
06:41So yeah, I'm, I'm way more optimistic that this year starts off better on that front than
06:46it did last year.
06:46Well, and the performance is so extreme with the top guys, you know, like Hunter Brown and
06:51Burrows and Tatsuya E-My have had, they've, they've had stats that, you know, they, they look
06:56unhittable at times, you know, and that's where you look at it.
06:59Okay.
06:59Don't read too much into spring training.
07:01Now, you know, you're not facing the best hitters all the time and everything, but by
07:05spring training standards, they've been the best pitching team in the league so far.
07:09So that part of it, I, I feel like that's, that's valid.
07:12I think that's, that's actually something substantial.
07:14Now that said, so which new players made the biggest impact?
07:17He picks Mike Burrows.
07:18I feel like we just kind of talked about that.
07:20So 12 and two thirds scoreless innings, six walks, 15 strikeouts.
07:25So, you know, the ratios are really good with that six walks and six hits in 12 and two
07:30thirds.
07:30That's a whip of under one.
07:32So it's not like he's been putting guys on base and working out of jams.
07:35Like he's been legitimately dominant in spring training.
07:38The most concerning development of camp, according to Brian McTaggart.
07:42And I would agree with this is that Josh Hader is beginning the season on the, uh, on the
07:47injured list, uh, with this shoulder.
07:49Now Hader's a guy who's never had injuries up until last season with that capsule in his
07:54shoulder, where he missed the last month or two of the season.
07:56Then you get some tendonitis in your biceps.
07:59He's resumed throwing in the bullpen within the last week.
08:02And he's beginning his buildup for the regular season, but he is a very important.
08:07He's a very important piece.
08:08Obviously he's one of your highest paid guys.
08:10He's your closer.
08:11And he allows you to have Brian Abreu be in the, in the role that Abreu has been best
08:16at, which is the setup guy to Hader.
08:18This is, this is where we find out where the rubber meets the road.
08:21I want to one or two months into the Astros season, be able to say the most underrated
08:27signing of the off season was the new medical staff.
08:31Yeah.
08:32Yeah.
08:33Yeah.
08:33They swapped out a whole bunch of people on the medical side of things.
08:36That would be a take right there.
08:37That would be, yes.
08:38Yeah.
08:38And then I'll have to learn the names of all these new people.
08:41Yeah.
08:42The new, the new trainer, whichever medical staff they swapped out all of that.
08:46Yeah.
08:46I want to be able to, at some point during the season, when they honor one of the members
08:51of the medical staff, I want to not sneer at it.
08:54Like last year when, uh, when the hand specialist was honored, who was it that was struggling
09:02with a hand issue?
09:03Well, Jordan has, Jordan.
09:05Yeah.
09:05Jordan.
09:06Yeah.
09:06Jordan's broken 67% healed broken bone.
09:09Yeah.
09:09Uh, yeah.
09:10Yeah.
09:10I want to be able to, uh, enjoy that on ironically.
09:13Yes.
09:13That's great.
09:15Um, speaking of Jordan, one bold prediction for this is from Brian McTaggart, MLB.com.
09:20And I will tell you this right now.
09:22If this prediction comes true, the Astros are back in the post season and probably winning
09:25the division.
09:26McTaggart predicts Jordan Alvarez will break Jeff Bagwell's franchise home run record for
09:32a season.
09:33Bagwell set that mark in 2000, the first year in, and back then Enron field Bagwell hit 47
09:40home runs.
09:42It's wild to think that only one Astros player since then has touched 40 home runs.
09:46And it was Bregman in the year that he was runner up for the MVP in the American league
09:50back in 2019.
09:52It's also crazy to think Alex Bregman had a year where he hit 40 home runs.
09:55Now that Bregman's kind of evolved, you know, or, you know, kind of evolved into what he
09:59is, which is, you know, pretty good hitter, really good fielder and a, and a big leader
10:03in the clubhouse, but it hasn't come close to that since then.
10:06Anyways, tags predicts Jordan will break Bagwell's single season home run record for the team.
10:12So Jordan Alvarez, Seth, at least 48 home runs, according to Ryan McTaggart.
10:17That's a bold prediction, right?
10:19That's that's a bold prediction.
10:20Not because Jordan's not capable of it, but you're predicting that Jordan's going to play
10:23enough games to hit 47 home runs.
10:26That he's going to play enough games and that he'll get back into form that hopefully the
10:31injuries were what was fueling because he has the, you know, the, the hand issue.
10:34It's not ever even clear exactly when and for how long he was struggling with it.
10:39Yeah.
10:40That, yeah, he's just back into form and stays healthy the whole time.
10:43Yep.
10:44Isak Paredes won't be a threat as long as they can get rid of the guy that they desperately
10:49need to get rid of this guy.
10:50Right.
10:51Who's just built for that ballpark.
10:52Yes, can't have this guy on the team.
10:54Come back, come back, Jeremy Payne, so we can get rid of this guy who's built to hit home
10:59runs in his ballpark.
10:59I wish I knew Isak was going to get regular at bats because they just put out all the
11:03season totals, like individual prop bets for players and Isak's home run totals like
11:0817 and a half or something like that.
11:10It's like, oh my God, if he were, if he were the regular third baseman and stayed healthy,
11:14he's 30 easily in that ballpark.
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