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ITL reacts to the loss and the bigger concern of losing a key arm in the rotation.
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00:00Unfortunately, you're ace down. Ace is down. We learned just yesterday, in fact, out of nowhere, that Hunter Brown, on
00:07the 15-day IEL, and let me tell you, I doubt it's going to be 15 days.
00:12He's eligible. I think it's retroactive to the 2nd of April, so he will be eligible to return on the
00:1717th.
00:18Buddy, it's throwing arm shoulder shortness. Is that correct? Right shoulder shortness?
00:23Yes.
00:24I don't see him throwing a ball for at least a week, week and a half. That would be most
00:30of that IEL time before you start doing a ramp-up.
00:34First and foremost, I think the easy question is, does this at all change your perspective on the Houston Astros
00:39at this moment?
00:40How can it not? And there's several reasons for it, not just the obvious one.
00:46The worst one is if somebody knock on some wood here.
00:50But, I mean, you know, you've got the 15-day IEL. You've got shoulder. I mean, those are the magic
00:55words.
00:56You know, then your mind starts to wander, and then your mind starts to wander even more since it's the
01:02Astros, and they may have changed their ways.
01:06We'll find out in terms of, you know, transparency and how they deal with injuries and how, you know, 15
01:13days, is it going to become, you know, more?
01:15Is it going to become less?
01:16When's he going to come back?
01:17Right. I'm glad you brought this up, because this is something that—
01:20It's a litmus test.
01:21Yes, this is it. Here we go. This is the first test.
01:23And I don't know that I can say with any level of certainty that there's, like, any level of passing
01:28or that this is a great sign.
01:30But at least I had a moment in my personal morning of your ace going down for a period of
01:37time where I went, well, that happened quickly.
01:39Yeah.
01:40Right? It went from—it felt like it was out of nowhere because it was out of nowhere.
01:43We didn't have that lag time of, oh, he's feeling sore.
01:46Oh, here come the Tommy John.
01:47Right? We didn't even have a time to get our jokes in because Friday he alerts them that there's soreness.
01:52He's back to Houston very soon thereafter to see team doctors, and they've shut him down about Sunday.
01:56Right?
01:57Wow, I was about to make a joke that I probably shouldn't.
01:59That would be considered blasphemous.
02:01But, I mean, very, very quick turnaround there for shoulder soreness where, hey, there's a little bit of discomfort to
02:07he's going to the IEL because we cannot afford any level.
02:10So there is at least some level of quickness on the recognition and diagnostics portion of the injury.
02:18Now, it was diagnosed as soreness, so we'll see if this ends up being something larger.
02:23But that's what they do.
02:24That's the issue that tends to happen.
02:26But that happened there.
02:27But now we have to see what have the changes that they've done wrought when it comes to his return.
02:32And to be fair, you can't just go with the stock number of games that he misses because sometimes injuries
02:39are longstanding injuries.
02:40But we will be able to see how they return him to play.
02:44And hopefully it is sooner rather than later.
02:46Like, hopefully they are so good at this that they can do this sooner because I don't like having to
02:50go without a Hunter Brown,
02:52especially in this time period where you don't have another dude who is even a close facsimile of a top
02:57line starter on this rotation right now.
02:59No, and with Hunter Brown specifically, the fact that it happened on his off-throwing day, that is a little
03:06concerning because we don't know.
03:08We don't have eyes on it, you know, and that's number one.
03:11And if we did, I don't know that we would know what we're seeing.
03:13Well, I mean, if he threw a pitch and then he immediately came out, you'd be like, oh, boy.
03:17You know, so we don't know if it was soreness, like legit soreness, or it was a pitch and he
03:22felt something.
03:23We don't know any of that.
03:25But the fact that they put him on the 15-day IL, that immediate, and they did say shoulder, that
03:30immediately, you know, your mind starts to race.
03:32As I said, it could be a labrum, could be bicep, could be the rotator cuff.
03:40And then, of course, all that turns into, you know, potential of a long time being out.
03:45So, the other part about this that is interesting, well, I said interesting, kind of scary.
03:51Go ahead.
03:51Before you go there, I didn't want to give you Joe Espada.
03:54Joe Espada talking about it.
03:55He said that Hunter Brown's shoulder, quote, didn't feel right in his throwing program on Friday in Sacramento.
04:01And then he got to, hopefully, this doesn't keep him out for a long time.
04:06He used the word hopefully, but that is not a level of certainty operating-wise.
04:10Now, to be fair, I don't know what level of certainty my manager should have in the immediate wake of
04:16that kind of news, but it was very light.
04:19When we talk about this, there's not an initial sense.
04:22They said, we're going to get him to see our doctors, and then we'll go from there, right?
04:27Before or after the All-Star break as a return for Hunter Brown.
04:30Oh, boy.
04:31I mean, of course, we're not going to hold you to this because it's not like you're working off of
04:35any hard, concrete evidence right now.
04:37I'm glad you put it like, because they get me every time.
04:40Every time I say, I ain't going to fall for it, I'm not going to fall for it, and then
04:44I fall for it.
04:45So, I'm going to say before, and I could be dead wrong.
04:49In fact, history says I will be dead wrong.
04:52But, again, I just fall for it all the time.
04:55That being said, even if it is before the All-Star break, that is scary, man, when you see the
05:02pictures that they're throwing out there right now.
05:04Christian Javier is a hot mess.
05:08He was missing the strike zone by two feet, and I'm not exaggerating.
05:12Like, literal two feet outside the zone from where the catcher set up.
05:17I mean, he's just a hot mess right now.
05:19Lance McCullers kind of came back down to earth a little bit.
05:22And, oh, by the way, they're going to a six-man rotation on Friday,
05:26and Hunter Brown is not going to be part of that six-man rotation.
05:29So, what does that do?
05:30It means that at least the guys will have an adequate amount of rest so that we can have the
05:36days in between to wonder if this guy will come in and have a better game or a bad game.
05:43You remember the good Framber, bad Framber conversations?
05:45We're going to be having that with every single starter that you have to this point because every one of
05:49them has demonstrated some level of up or down outside of Hunter Brown,
05:53whether it's Lance McCullers Jr., whether it's Tatsuya Imai, whether it's Christian Javier, even Mike Burroughs has had a little
06:01bit of good up and down to it,
06:03obviously some more than others.
06:04And it does feel like, at the very least, Spencer Arrighetti down at the farm, like his start at AAA
06:10has looked really good.
06:11He looks like he's ready to go.
06:12And you felt like that somewhat when you got to camp as well, like seeing some of the things that
06:17he did in spring.
06:17You felt like, hey, when he comes up, you'll be good with that, and you'll be happy to see him
06:22factor in.
06:23That is going to be something that we have to watch because that now matters.
06:26In fact, I termed this weekend in starting pitching, I termed it the good, bad, and the ugly when it
06:33came to starting pitcher.
06:33The good was Tatsuya Imai had a good outing, right?
06:38Now, it's funny because he described it as just not focusing as much on velocity and kind of working on
06:48stuff.
06:48And that's the second pitcher that has kind of had some level of perspective like that.
06:53And with Lance McCullers Jr., he's kind of talking about the same thing in a different kind of way.
06:58Does that give you any encouragement when it comes to the starting pitching or like your pitching coach in the
07:03way that they're going about this?
07:05Because that's going to be important in order to span this gap however long that Hunter Brown is missing.
07:11Not really.
07:12And we didn't even mention this.
07:14Just pitching in general right now is, I think, second worst in all of baseball in terms of just where
07:21they are.
07:21Team ERA is 5.46.
07:23That's way down.
07:24It's like 28th or 29th in all of baseball.
07:27They've given up.
07:28Yeah, lots.
07:29Well, look at all the earned runs they've had.
07:31The only saving grace, and it wasn't a saving grace yesterday, by the way, Astros lose in extras.
07:37Oh, we'll get to that.
07:38Yeah.
07:40The only saving grace has been the offense.
07:42And can you count?
07:43Big saving grace, though.
07:44Yeah.
07:45Big saving grace.
07:47It has been in terms of run production and staying in games, but they did lose two out
07:51of three to the A's.
07:52Correct.
07:53Which I don't, it's weird, because I'm sorry to stop you there.
07:56I apologize.
07:57But I actually didn't feel that bad about losing to the A's in this series.
08:01Right.
08:01Yeah.
08:02And I think the A's are better offensively than it would appear, especially when you talk
08:07about those first couple series for them.
08:08Yeah.
08:09It was notable.
08:10We talked about this.
08:10We're like, hey, Nick Kirk's has a sub-100 batting average right now.
08:14That doesn't feel like a thing.
08:16Langoliers, we know, has produced well and continued some of that this weekend.
08:21But yeah, I oddly don't feel as bad about it.
08:23I would love for the Astros to stop giving up the booty to the A's, though.
08:26That'd be nice.
08:27Right.
08:27But yeah, I didn't feel as bad about it as I thought I might if we lost this year.
08:30But that's the thing with the offense, and we all know, I think you said this on Friday,
08:33maybe Thursday, I mean, they're going to hit a lull.
08:36They just can't afford to hit a lull for the next, what, month?
08:39By the way, you didn't answer.
08:40Do you expect Hunter Brown back before the All-Star break?
08:42Yeah, I'm going before because All-Star break is mid-July.
08:45Yeah.
08:45So that'd be almost the entirety of April, May, June.
08:49Yeah.
08:49That's three months.
08:50Biggie, you with us?
08:50That feels a little strong.
08:51Yeah.
08:52Yeah.
08:53That's a lot.
08:54That's three months.
08:54It still got me worried a little bit because we're seeing the Astros bring back players
08:58a little too quickly.
08:59Mm-hmm.
09:00And then it, you know, end up turning even worse.
09:03So I am a little worried still.
09:05And you should be.
09:06That's why I was hesitant to even say it, but I'm with you guys.
09:09Hunter Brown also worth noting.
09:12He has not dealt with it.
09:14This is his first IL stint.
09:15Mm-hmm.
09:15This is the first.
09:17And pitching is a, pitching is a, almost a degenerative kind of profession, right?
09:22You are constantly ramping this thing up.
09:24But how much do you, because I know I've seen some people get to this place, how much do
09:27you factor in the fact that he threw a lot of pitches in these first few outings?
09:32I hadn't thought of that.
09:33And I didn't either.
09:34I didn't, I didn't attribute to that.
09:36But some people have gotten there and I don't know that I would go there with this.
09:39However, I can see how the logical, the logical leap would happen from, damn, we saw him throw
09:45a hunt in two pitches in his first outing of the season.
09:47I mean, we were talking, I was thinking that he'd go 80, 85.
09:50Right.
09:51You know?
09:51He had gone to, what, 82 before the final inning where he comes back out and finishes
09:56his thing out, right?
09:57So, yeah.
09:58No, that's worth mentioning.
09:59And I'm sure it's something that they're talking about as well.
10:02But back to my other point.
10:04Yeah.
10:04This offense has been ridiculous.
10:06And with mixed reviews, because as we mentioned, they lost two or three to the A's.
10:11But you said it, I think Thursday or Friday.
10:13They're going to hit a lull.
10:15This offense is not going to be this, you know, for 162 games.
10:19I mean, I wish it would, but it's not.
10:22The thing is, it can't afford to hit a lull at all, you know, over this next month or
10:27however long he's out.
10:29I don't know if this is any level encouraging, but you start a three-game set in Colorado versus
10:34the Rockies in Denver.
10:35And I do wonder how much the pitching, like, maybe it just, it just, it blows up because
10:40pitching in Denver is notoriously difficult, right?
10:42The altitude, the way that the ball carries.
10:45It might have been bad regardless.
10:47So, I don't know if that, I think I might be doing the thing where I get a little hopium
10:51or whatever, where I go, whatever bad results, I'm going to blame on Denver as opposed to
10:54the pitching.
10:55And you have six of your next 10 that are going to be versus the Rockies.
10:58So, maybe that helps.
10:59But ultimately, this is going to be something where, I haven't gotten to a place where I'm
11:03panicking.
11:03But this has definitely changed a little bit of my near-term outlook on this team.
11:09Because this is a huge, I mean, that was the one dude in your rotation that you go,
11:12oh, okay, I feel good about this game.
11:15You have a very high level, high chance of winning it.
11:18Everybody else in the rotation, day to day, I'm wondering what is the performance that
11:22we're going to get as of right now.
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