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ITL reacts to the extended timeline and what it means for Houston’s pitching staff.
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00:00Is it the same old, same old with the Houston Astros as obviously one of the most devastating,
00:06if you can indeed call it that, 12 games into the season, things that could have happened to the Astros
00:10did?
00:10We talked about that earlier in the week.
00:12Hunter Brown going on the 15-day IL.
00:14Yesterday we got more information on it, and this is where it starts feeling a little deja vu, doesn't it?
00:20Just Monday, I sat right here, and I said, they get me every time.
00:24They get me every time.
00:26And I start to believe, okay, I think, remember we're talking about, you know, when do you think he'll be
00:30back?
00:31And I said, oh, you know, maybe the end of April.
00:33I mean, you know, end of April, something like that, I think is what I said.
00:37They get me every time, but I was giving them the benefit of the doubt.
00:40Which, I mean, at this point, I'm with you.
00:44Yeah.
00:45They get me too.
00:45I get up in the air on the pump fake.
00:47I'm no better than anyone else.
00:49But I did at least try and give us a little bit of, all right, all-star break is the
00:54over-under line.
00:56And I was, like, way under that.
00:57Figgy, you were too.
00:58Yeah.
00:59You were saying, like, end of April, maybe the first week of May or whatever, and then what happened yesterday?
01:03We got that lipstick on a pig quote again.
01:05We got that lipstick on a pig quote.
01:07Actually, we got that Monday.
01:09I think it was on the flagship.
01:11Dana Brown said he was not worried, not really worried, or something like that.
01:15I'm paraphrasing about the Hunter Brown thing.
01:18Now, maybe June.
01:21Maybe.
01:23And it's a shoulder, what is it officially?
01:26MCL, no, no, shoulder strain of some sort or whatever.
01:31Grade 2 shoulder strain.
01:33Yeah, grade 2 shoulder strain.
01:34Yeah.
01:34And people probably get tired of me saying this, but it's always worth repeating, especially when it includes your ace
01:41pitcher.
01:42We learned a long time ago people like to use the word strain, but there is no such thing as
01:47a strain.
01:48A strain is a small tear.
01:50Sure.
01:51Medically speaking, it is a small tear.
01:53So there is maybe a small tear, whether it's in muscle, whatever it may be, tendon.
01:58Now, they say it's muscle.
01:59I like muscle better.
02:00Muscle.
02:00Whether it's in the muscle or a tendon of some sort.
02:03It's like you were trying to pronounce the C, and then you accidentally pronounced it incorrectly.
02:06I love it so much.
02:07Yeah.
02:08And so there's that, you know, just for accuracy's sake.
02:12And secondly, you know, when you talk about, you know, kicking the can down the road, even if it is
02:18just June,
02:19and even if it is, as we've seen, most reports are saying, eh, you know, maybe rehab.
02:26I think he's going to start lifting light weights eventually, range of motion.
02:30He should be back.
02:31Even if you believe that, right now, the way the Astros have begun the season after a terrific first week,
02:39it's potentially a crippling blow, man.
02:41It's crippling.
02:42All right.
02:42So you're that far into this that this is a crippling blow?
02:45Potentially.
02:46I mean, it's worth noting.
02:47Shout out to Chandler Rome, obviously does a great job of covering the Astros.
02:50Astros are now missing 463 and a third of the 862 innings that they received from their 2025 rotation.
02:58Now, you kind of knew some of this because Fromber had a lot of starts that you did not have.
03:03But now you're missing a lot of those as well through Hunter Brown, the other solid.
03:08In fact, that's part of the reason why I understand the doom and gloom response.
03:12And I'm not trying to take myself outside of it because I do feel the pressure of this.
03:15We talked about this a little bit yesterday with Luke when he was in for you, right?
03:19There is now a palpable pressure that is with this Astros team because you do not have another pitcher to
03:30lean on.
03:30If you still have Fromber, at least you go, all right, well, he becomes your de facto ace because you
03:35had two.
03:35That's the luxury of having that.
03:36The problem is you don't have anybody even that you can go, this is a level of solid that I
03:41know for certain.
03:42You're talking about what is the way that I've termed it, question marks even still.
03:46And even to that end, I did appreciate that Mike Burroughs goes five and a third, eight hits, which honestly,
03:52I think you have to use.
03:53A lot of hard hit balls.
03:54Yeah, there were hard hit balls, eight of those to be particular.
03:57But I do also look at Denver is a particular beast that I think inflates those numbers at times somewhat.
04:04Because, I mean, you saw Kyle Freeland yesterday who seemed like he was dealing.
04:07He had five hard hit balls himself, right?
04:09But, you know, he did seem to be fairly settled outside of one dude who was Willie Castro giving him
04:16the business, right?
04:17But for the most part, it felt like he had a pretty good outing.
04:19But even still with that, I don't know that I go, if Mike Burroughs has to be the guy that
04:23you lean on.
04:24Christian Javier definitely isn't that place.
04:26Tatsuya Imai, I don't know that he's in that place.
04:28Lance McCullers isn't in that place.
04:30Now are we talking about the likes of Jason Alexander having to come up?
04:32Spencer, who are the guys that you're looking at that you go, they give me a level of stability in
04:37this rotation.
04:38They're not there.
04:39And so, yeah, no, this definitely shows up.
04:40And maybe if you pair that with a game last night in which you see the Astros only get three
04:45hits in a notoriously good place to hit in the league,
04:50does that at all, is that what kind of changed your mind, even though it's one of 160?
04:53Well, I think it's a combination of things because you mentioned, I believe this is the first three-game series
05:00or more
05:02that the Rockies have beaten the Astros since 2012, which says something about why it might be a little bit
05:09alarming
05:09just in terms of the team that you face.
05:11They won 43 games last year, the Rockies.
05:14And it's not like, because 43 games, you go every year as a different team.
05:17It's not like this team is like, well, they really went and they changed it up.
05:21They were 2-5 coming into the season.
05:23I think this is the first time that they've won a series this early in several years.
05:28I forget the exact number.
05:29But it's a combination of things.
05:31You mentioned starting pitching, and absolutely it's that.
05:33If you squint your eyes, you can maybe see Emai.
05:36Maybe.
05:37If you squint a little bit.
05:38Okay.
05:39But other than that, starting pitching has not shown any real signs.
05:42The bullpen has been taxed and has not shown any real signs.
05:46They have a 13-game stretch of games coming up, I believe starting Friday.
05:5113 consecutive.
05:52So that's going to be taxing on the six-man rotation.
05:55And oh, by the way, the offense suddenly has kind of come back down to earth a little bit
06:00as illustrated there.
06:01And I want to make it clear.
06:02When it comes down to the offense, it did feel like it was.
06:06It can be flighty.
06:06It can be flighty just in the nature of baseball.
06:09It did feel like they were pressing a little bit, which was a little surprising.
06:12Now, that is a feeling that's not something that I can verifiably throw up on.
06:16Or maybe I could if I went in and dug into the stats, as I sometimes do, right?
06:19Whiff rate things, swinging outside the zone, that type of stuff.
06:22But it did feel like, did you get that same impression at least so that it's both of us?
06:26I could see it.
06:27Not in real time, but I could see what you're talking about.
06:29It did feel like they were, which was odd because they have been so good.
06:32And maybe that is them also.
06:34And fluid and smooth and not pressing.
06:35Right.
06:35And maybe that is also some level of a side effect of them understanding,
06:41oh, shoot, Hunter's not here.
06:43We need to be the part of this team that shows up.
06:46And then hopefully that's not the case.
06:47Hopefully this is where your hitting coach, who has been so damn good at this
06:51and keeping guys loose, is able to impart on them, hey, just be yourselves.
06:55Nice and easy, through the ball.
06:57Well, don't give yourself this additional pressure because it's not going to help anything.
07:01Right.
07:01But, yeah, these are all the things that then apply level pressure to a team,
07:05and I'm interested to see if the Astros can hold on to this.
07:07But to bring it back to the original question or the thought that you kind of throw up here,
07:11which is, is the same old Astros?
07:13I'm not quite there, but it is same old Dana Brown, though.
07:17No, I'm not saying same old Astros as in the Astros.
07:20I'm saying messaging.
07:22Yes.
07:22The messaging, and you mentioned Dana Brown.
07:24And that's why I said it's potentially crippling,
07:26because not only starting pitching, bullpen, the big 13-game stretch coming up,
07:30and, you know, the hitting, maybe even pressing, as you pointed out,
07:33maybe the sloppiest defense to start a season that I have seen in a long, long time.
07:39I can't even remember.
07:40I'm not going to put a year on it.
07:41But balls are just falling untouched that should be caught.
07:45We saw one yesterday with Bryce Matthews.
07:48So, on top of all that.
07:49Yeah, I don't ever think I've seen it.
07:51I don't recall, at least, the last time that I saw an outfielder try and bring in a body catch,
07:56as if he was a wide receiver that wasn't very good with his hands.
07:59It was very odd.
08:00Wide receivers aren't even supposed to do that.
08:01No, they're not.
08:01But at least there are some in the league that you go, they be doing that sometime.
08:05Yeah.
08:05Seeing that from an outfielder, who obviously is not an outfielder by trade,
08:09and this is a change that's happening, was very odd to see.
08:12But that felt like a small, you know, microcosm, rather, is what I'm looking for,
08:18of some of the defensive issues that have popped up this season.
08:20Yeah.
08:21Yeah.
08:21So, you have all that, and then you have Hunter Brown and the messaging we talked about.
08:25But that's why I don't.
08:28Okay.
08:28Let's ask the exact same question you asked on Monday.
08:32All-star game.
08:33Yes or no?
08:34Will he be back?
08:35I was thinking late April.
08:37I'm still going under here because I'm really going with my boy, was it Brad DeWeese?
08:43I'm riding with it.
08:44I'm going to make him my guy, the new director of this kind of back-to-baseball,
08:50you know, situation medically for the Astros.
08:52But I don't have really very much to go off of besides the idea,
08:57and shout-out to Patrick Creighton for noting this on Twitter.
09:00These injuries, you know, perfect case scenario, six weeks,
09:04maybe like an eight to ten week is a reasonable expectation.
09:07I think that that still gets you to this place.
09:08The question that you're asking right now, in essence, in my mind, is,
09:12did they fix the medical staff?
09:14And as of right now, I'm just going to go from the hopeful aspect of,
09:16yes, they're going to be a serious big league staff
09:19and get the guy back in the regular time frame of what you should typically expect.
09:24I'm going to say he probably won't be back by all-star break.
09:29I'm with you, figure.
09:29I don't think so.
09:30And honestly, you know, I don't want to say this is the medical staff's fault.
09:34Maybe this could have been a one-on-one type of injury where he just so happened
09:38to, you know, get that shoulder strain.
09:40I'm not sure.
09:41So I don't even want to blame the medical staff on this one,
09:47but I do kind of find it a little bit weird how the Astros are always trying
09:53to downplay it like, you know, it's not that big of a deal.
09:56I'm with you.
09:56And it ended up being a big deal.
09:58I can't.
09:59I mean, they get me every time.
10:02I said it on Monday.
10:03But then once you start seeing this happen, I can't.
10:07You know, McCullers, Verlander, just go down the list.
10:12Hell, I think they even did the same thing with Javier for a while, didn't they?
10:15Or was it one other pitcher last year?
10:17Yeah, last year where they kept kicking down the can.
10:20Oh, you know, not really that concerned.
10:21Or maybe he'll be back by this.
10:23I can't, Reggie.
10:24No, and I hear you on that.
10:26This comes back to a question that we've had in the past,
10:29and obviously we have to keep talking about this, unfortunately,
10:31but was how much of this is actually the medical staff itself
10:34and how much of this is the places that the medical staff is put into
10:38because of the front office and the ways in which they want to control narrative.
10:43I think that that might be a little bit disengaged here
10:47as we're clearly getting at least a diagnosis pretty early on into this.
10:52But, you know, you do have that same feel of I'm not worried about it, right?
10:55That same kind of trying to lower the fear or the conversation around it
11:00and then ultimately getting hit on the backside with a little bit of what feels like a blind side.
11:04Ultimately, time will tell with this.
11:07But, yeah, that's the frustrating part of this is that it does smack of that
11:11in just a little bit of a feeling.
11:13But what you have to hope is that he'll be back.
11:15I think the word is he won't touch baseball for a couple of weeks,
11:20you know, just definitely won't throw.
11:21And then at that point, then you see about trying to work his way back.
11:24I have no idea what that ultimately looks like.
11:27But the Astros are going to – this is a clear hit for them.
11:30And what can they do to try and, you know, respond to that?
11:34That's going to be in their domain.
11:36And it will show what kind of team that they are
11:37and how they speak to the adversity.
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