00:00Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean, we added, you know, six pitches in total, you know, four starters, and,
00:07you know, we're locked in, and those guys have really made some pretty big impacts in spring training, so it
00:13looks pretty good for us.
00:14Yeah, it does look pretty good, at least so far in spring training. The numbers are good. We'll see how
00:19it plays out in the regular season.
00:20That was Dana Brown on the broadcast on Space City Home Network last night with Todd Callis and Jeff Blum
00:26talking about the rotation.
00:29The Astros are still, you know, I know, Seth, I got a little agitated the other day when the Castro
00:38Vinci guy, Anthony Castro Vinci from MLB.com, did his top 10 pitching staffs, and not only were the Astros
00:45not in the top 10, they weren't even among the five honorable mentions.
00:49They, so by his standards, they aren't even in the upper half of baseball. The Athletic, I think it was
00:54Jim Bowden did the one for the Athletic, former GM. The Astros, I believe, are 18th on his, so I
01:01think what it is for me, where I'm like, huh, I can't believe they're not in the upper half.
01:07I think it's just, it's less about, it's less about, it's not entirely, it's less about how they've looked in
01:14spring training, and my mood about it is more just being faced with the reality.
01:20You know, anytime I get faced with numbers or rankings that indicate the reality to me, that's really what it
01:27is for me.
01:27It's less about this subjective thing, like just watching them pitch and go, okay, they're good or they're bad. It's
01:32when experts put a power ranking together and they're 16th or 18th or whatever.
01:37It's like, huh? And they may be right. And they may be right. And that's what, yeah, no, no, no.
01:42Even, even if they end up being wrong, like you just, there's no way around it.
01:47If you're trying to be as objective as possible, like Mike Burroughs has a 3.94 ERA and a very
01:54small sample size. That could have gone one way or the other. It's not a big deal.
01:57But there's no reason anybody should be looking at Mike Burroughs and thinking, oh yeah, that's part of a top
02:0210 pitching staff in Major League Baseball.
02:04And he's their number two.
02:06Right. He's their number two.
02:07Yeah. You know, Christian Javier, huge question marks in a lot of respects.
02:11EMI is completely untested in Major League Baseball. So I think that's, if anything, it's, it's more of a testament
02:19to what people feel about the Astros ability to get the most out of pitchers that they're even middle of
02:27the pack right now.
02:28Yeah. Yeah. And Hunter Brown obviously lifts, lifts the entire staff up a certain amount.
02:33Yep. Yep. Here was Dana Brown. Well, speaking of Mike Burroughs, good transition.
02:37This is Dana Brown on the broadcast last night with Todd Callis and Jeff Blum when they asked him about
02:42Mike Burroughs, who has had an outstanding, outstanding spring.
02:46Yeah. Look, we, we, we faced this guy, you know, in 2025 and, you know, we had our eyes on
02:52him and, uh, you know, he's up to 97, you know, with a good cutter and a really good change
02:57up.
02:58And, you know, we think he can really make a big impact in our rotation.
03:01And, you know, he's still right in that two slot. Like you guys said, you guys are profits, you know,
03:08look, uh, he's locked into, I love the makeup.
03:10I love the mountain demeanor and I like the ease of operation.
03:13Okay. That's, that's my fear. We talked about, I forget what led us to talking about this dynamic yesterday, but
03:21the dynamic, the Lamar Miller dynamic, where he had 200 yards against the Texans in 2015.
03:25And then they're signing him in free agency the next year. Burroughs had one of his best starts of his
03:30career against the Astros last year as a pirate.
03:35And then they're trading Jacob Melton and another prospect for him in the off season.
03:39Yeah. You heard, you heard Dana Brown talk about it right there.
03:42I guess, uh, I guess, I guess, cause one of the things you had said or written at some point
03:46was that, okay, the fact that nobody's really taken this, this pitching staff, all that seriously,
03:51it might be evidence that the Astros car wash isn't what it used to be when it comes to just
03:56taking any pictures and turn them into something.
03:58I don't, I don't know about that. If only just because like they've had recent success,
04:04Kikuchi is probably the most obvious example in the last couple of years of a guy that's come in and
04:09improved immediately.
04:10Yeah. I mean, the other guys, some of the developmental guys, it's hard to say because it's a multi-year
04:15process,
04:16but even Ronell Blanco or any of those, you know, Luis Garcia, but that's a multi-year process.
04:22Hunter Brown, you know, like, obviously they've developed him really well, but he was also a highly regarded prospect.
04:29Yeah. But I think that it's still, it's still the same process that led to a Kikuchi having his turnaround
04:35when he got here last year.
04:37And then I would say the assortment of various dudes that pitched for the Astros last year that, that, that
04:43came in and surpassed expectations in very small stretches,
04:48but that I still feel optimistic about their ability to get the most out of guys.
04:52They did lose one of their pitching coaches. I know, you know, so there, there's that. I, again, I guess
04:56if we're,
04:56if we're just defining the car wash, I think more of guys like, like Kikuchi Burroughs guys that started somewhere
05:05else and were developed through somebody else's minor league system.
05:08But then they come in here at the major league level and get plunked in like Brown, Hunter Brown, Ronell
05:13Blanco, Luis Garcia, guys like that.
05:15I almost view them as like, they started with the Astros and just came up through the whole thing.
05:20Uh, it, you know, that, that's, that would be my distinction on it. Yeah. I mean, I, I look, I
05:24hope I'm wrong.
05:24I, I did put that down the rundown. I said, maybe, maybe this is a sign. The car wash is
05:28dead. We'll see.
05:29Um, Tatsuya Imai, I have no idea how to define him when it comes to the car wash. Cause he
05:33was pitching at a super high level in Japan.
05:36He's at a good spring. Um, here's Dana Brown on his, this was their one big splurge this off season
05:42on Tatsuya Imai.
05:44What have you learned about Tatsuya Imai this spring?
05:46Yeah. Imai, if he could just lock into that strike zone. I mean, this stuff is really good. I mean,
05:51this guy can strike out lefties.
05:53That's one of the things that, uh, drew us to him because he can really punch left-handers out.
05:58This guy, if he can get that first pitch strike in there with some more consistency, we feel like that
06:03sets up that, that breaking ball.
06:06And man, that's a pretty good weapon.
06:08Yeah. He's the X factor. He, in this rotation, he's, he's, he's the biggest question mark because he's never pitched
06:15in the big leagues before.
06:15And he's the X factor to me.
06:17I would say the X, then, uh, the new X factor, I guess, like Lance's injury status at any given
06:24time, or his Lance's health.
06:26I can't even call that an X factor at this point. It's a pleasant surprise if he's able to stay
06:31healthy, man.
06:32If you get anything out of Lance. Yeah.
06:33You know, and then there's still the upside of guys like Eric Getty and other guys in the system that
06:38we'll, we'll see exactly what happens over the course of the year.
06:41But yeah, he might, he might, he might the guy that has the biggest potential to really turn into something
06:48and be something to get excited about through the course of the season.
06:51Now that should be your eagerly anticipate on the scale of eagerly anticipating something.
06:57He might probably at the top of the list for me, just being able to watch him in his first
07:01few starts.
07:02Absolutely. Absolutely. One more from Dana Brown last night. Uh, this is speaking of McCullers.
07:07This is Dana Brown on Lance McCullers who started the game last night and who's been decent throughout spring.
07:12Yes. The depth is massive. You know, you play 162 games, you know, and it's tough when you can't sustain
07:18an injury.
07:19And so right now, you know, we're built, um, you know, to sustain injuries. And so we, um, you know,
07:24we, we did that on purpose.
07:27Okay. I, I, I thought that, I thought the cut was labeled about McCullers, but maybe I was, maybe I
07:31was wrong on that. At any rate.
07:32Well, I mean, that, that, that, that includes McCullers there. Are they built to handle if, uh, if McCullers gets
07:39injured in his first game, then there you go.
07:41We got the McCullers cut right here.
07:42Today's starter, Lance McCullers jr. Part of that starting five. He really seemed to find that strike zone consistently better
07:48this spring than we maybe saw at times last year.
07:51Yeah. And you know, one of the big things is when you get further removes from injuries and, um, you
07:56know, you, you see these type of things and I like the tempo of his delivery.
08:00Uh, he was a little quicker earlier in the spring, but, um, he seems to be locked into that delivery
08:05right now.
08:05And the tempo is great. And he's throwing more strikes and his stuff is playing for him. And you can
08:09see the confidence coming out.
08:11All right. There you go. Uh, Lance McCullers, I mean, look, he, he's going to need to be a whole
08:15lot better than he was at the end of last year to keep his spot in the rotation.
08:18You know, summer of Lance. I hope so. I'm calling for it. It's, it's, it'd be nice to get the
08:23spring of Lance too, but summer of Lance would mean that he stayed healthy.
08:28I would take, I would take the Monday of Lance next week right now. One at a time, man. Just
08:33yeah.
08:34Give us a good. Remember when you, when you grow up in a colder area, there's a, sometimes spring plays
08:41tricks on you.
08:41You feel like, Oh, it's beautiful. Spring is here. And then you get a snowstorm. Yeah. That's why I'm not
08:46going to buy into anything out of Lance for the first couple months.
08:49I'm just going to take it as it comes and say, okay, cool. Let's jump. I'm just waiting for a
08:54June 1st snowstorm.
08:55The blizzard of his elbow is coming. So I need there to be a summer of Lance, which means that
09:00he's been healthy the entire season. And wow, look at this. He's rolling into, he's rolling into summer vacation on
09:06fire.
09:07Yep. Text message. People weighing in on the Astros. It's good to see opening day tomorrow. Base power text line,
09:12by the way, fellas, last year, the Astros pitching was serviceable exclamation point.
09:17Their weakness was their hitting the philosophy situationally, no discipline. That's actually something we've not talked about a lot.
09:24We'll be, we've talked so much about the pitching largely because it's been really good in spring training.
09:29The hitting has been awful in spring training and that'll be something to keep an eye. Cause they've
09:34got a whole new staff of hitting coaches here. Yeah. I think that part of it is too. I mean,
09:41for one, obviously both sides really matter. It's not like I, we just happen to be talking about
09:46pitching right now. I think that the, okay. Server is that your standard serviceable? Is that like,
09:53is that what we've grown accustomed to? That's just why I was laughing at the exclamation point.
09:57Yeah. I didn't, I don't know if he was joking or not, but if you're saying, Hey guys, why are
10:02you talking
10:02about pitching? The bats are what we need to worry about. No serviceable is not the standard. Okay.
10:07Hey, the championship, the very least, uh, uh, uh, division championship, whatever it might be.
10:15I'll take some kind of championship. I don't need a batting title. No, I don't need the lowest
10:20CRA in baseball. I want to be more than serviceable. Okay. I want to play baseball in October again.
10:25It was so boring this past October, man.
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