00:00So let's get to it. We mentioned no Astros yesterday. They're in Seattle tonight.
00:04But tonight, the turnaround begins.
00:06It begins. Well, this is where Seth Tatsuya Imai gets his first taste of being the Astros' ace,
00:12of being their stopper, because that's what he is right now.
00:15Yeah.
00:15Two starts into his MLB career.
00:17Right.
00:18He is the guy that needs to end this losing streak that they're on right now.
00:21Sorry. Sorry, Tatsuya. Hey, sorry about it. I know you're two games into your MLB career,
00:26Tatsuya Imai. But here you go. It's your responsibility to stop this losing streak tonight.
00:32I just, Sean, I am so fascinated by this wrong-way slider that he throws.
00:37And I just, I've learned more about elbow pronation and everything than I ever did before.
00:42I actually really sat down. I've been reading translated Japanese articles about his wrong-way slider.
00:47But my favorite thing about it is that he doesn't really know where it's going either.
00:51So there's a little bit of a throwback to the Charlie Morton.
00:53And, you know, Charlie Morton's fastball, one of the reasons it was so hard to hit
00:57was because he didn't know where it was going.
00:58So he's just aiming for the center of the strike zone, which I love.
01:01I love the simplicity.
01:03In this era of modern baseball where it's all about pinpoint control and everything,
01:07Charlie Morton's strategy was to aim dead center in the strike zone.
01:12And every now and then, his biggest mistake would be made is if he hit his target.
01:16But he would aim dead center, and he didn't know where it was going.
01:19And Imai's the same way.
01:21Yeah.
01:21He's got the same, you'd think, oh, all of your preconceptions about the Japanese culture and everything,
01:27like, oh, it must be all about precision control and this and that.
01:30No.
01:31He just throws his wrong-way slider, and the universe takes it wherever it may.
01:35If I can invoke Rocky IV again this week, this is the second time we've invoked Rocky IV.
01:40The first time, I believe, was relative to communism.
01:43But this one is more about the fight.
01:45If you remember, in Rocky IV, in the fight with Drago, he said, I'm seeing three of them
01:50out there.
01:51Yeah.
01:51And Pauly, Pauly, of all people, advised him, hit the one in the middle.
01:55Right.
01:55And Duke, the actual trainer, said, yes.
01:57Good job, Pauly.
01:58Well, Pauly knows.
01:59Yeah, Pauly's got experience.
02:01Hit the one in the middle.
02:02With seeing triple.
02:02Yeah.
02:03Yeah, all the time.
02:05Hit the one in the middle.
02:06That's what Tatsuya Imai is.
02:08He's Rocky, basically.
02:09He's Rocky against Drago tonight.
02:11I had no idea, and actually, that's a big insult to Drago, for me to call the Seattle
02:16Mariners Drago.
02:17This is why this is a fun matchup, Seth.
02:20The Astros pitching is the worst in the American League.
02:23Might be the worst in the major leagues.
02:24It's the worst in the American League.
02:26They have an ERA of over six right now as a pitching staff.
02:29Nowhere to go but down.
02:30The Mariners have the worst OPS offensively in the American League at 580.
02:37They have a team OPS of 581 right now.
02:40Like, you are veering into, back when pitchers used to hit, like, you're veering into that
02:46range of, like, good hitting pitchers.
02:48That was my analogy I always used.
02:50When you'd have Astro everyday players whose OPSs would be, you know, sitting in the mid-500s
02:56somewhere, like, that's what Zach Granke's OPS is.
02:59We could pull Zach Granke off the bench.
03:02He's better than five of you right now.
03:04So, this is, you know, they have the saying, the irresistible force meets the immovable
03:09object.
03:09This is the opposite of whatever that is.
03:12This is the thing about the Astros right now when they're pitching.
03:15We're, obviously, they're not going to finish with the worst ever pitching in the history
03:19of baseball.
03:20Are you going to feed me numbers to make me feel better right now?
03:22I'm knocking on wood.
03:23Maybe audibly so you guys can hear that.
03:25They're not going to finish with the worst ERA in the history of baseball.
03:28Right now, their expected batting average as a pitching staff by the opponent is .222.
03:36That's really good.
03:37Yeah.
03:37If you have a team that's batting .222 on the season, that's a bad baseball team.
03:42They're all, as far as their expected stats, they're just fine in a lot of, they're pretty
03:48much average with a lot.
03:49And it's very early in the season, so you don't want to read too much into anything, but especially
03:53when there's really bad performances or, in the case of the Astros' offense, really good
03:58performances, you know that water's going to find its level at some point.
04:01Yeah, we found that out.
04:02But, I mean, you can see this.
04:03This matches the eyeball test.
04:05There have been so many games this year where, this season already, where just soft contact
04:09has destroyed them.
04:10Yeah.
04:11And it doesn't mean that they're pitching phenomenally or anything.
04:14It's just, it's not as bad as it looks, but also some of these numbers are bolstered by
04:21a couple of Hunter Brown starts.
04:22Sure.
04:23Yeah.
04:23So it's just, it's somewhere, like, it's not going to be as bad as it's been over the course
04:27of the first two weeks.
04:28And this would be a nice time to just start everything leveling out a little bit.
04:32Oh, yeah.
04:32Yeah.
04:32See, I got, I got jealous looking.
04:35I know the Mariners are, what, like 4-9 right now, I think.
04:38Like, the Mariners are worse than the Astros right now.
04:40Yeah.
04:40But I do get a little jealous looking at the pitching probables, like, for Seattle.
04:44Like, I'm looking at this, I'm like, okay, well, at least they've got names in all the
04:48spots.
04:48This is what it looks like for the next four days.
04:51Emai versus Emerson Hancock today, who's been good in his two starts.
04:55Hancock has.
04:57Tomorrow, Lance McCullers.
04:58Okay, Lance is penciled in against Luis Castillo.
05:00Good pitcher.
05:01And then Sunday and Monday, TBD versus Logan Gilbert.
05:06TBD versus George Kirby.
05:08They've got names in their pitching staff.
05:10The Mariners do.
05:11Yeah.
05:11It's the two TBDs.
05:12I'm like, God, I'm so jealous that they can actually, they actually have four names they
05:16can put in the lineup.
05:18Four actual proper nouns.
05:19Four actual human beings.
05:20Yeah.
05:20Proper nouns.
05:21Yeah.
05:22Our TBA is only proper in that it's capitalized.
05:25That's right.
05:25But other than that, it's very, very vague.
05:27Now, we've got a pronoun.
05:28We've got pronouns starting for the first, for two of these games.
05:32Yeah.
05:32Yeah.
05:33He is starting.
05:33We got him starting.
05:35Yeah.
05:35He is him.
05:36But nothing.
05:37No, not in the, not in the way the kids say it.
05:39No, not in the way Mahomes screams it.
05:41No, no, no, no.
05:42Yeah.
05:43It looks like one of them is going to be JP France, though.
05:46Yeah.
05:46That's a pronoun for you.
05:47Until yesterday.
05:48Those funky glasses of his.
05:49I had totally forgotten was in the organization.
05:52Oh, hell no, man.
05:53Well, for a while, I was, I was his champion.
05:57And I was telling you, you and I used to get in arguments about him versus somebody else.
06:01I can't remember.
06:02It was Hunter Brown.
06:03It was.
06:05Shut up, Sean.
06:06Why are you always bringing this up?
06:07It was Hunter Brown.
06:08Why can't I bring up old stuff?
06:12What the hell?
06:13I can't bring up JP France's name without you bringing it up.
06:16You brought it up.
06:17No, I do not.
06:18Now it's all coming back to me.
06:19Because I would bring up how much Hunter Brown, their stats are very similar, but Hunter Brown
06:23was striking people out.
06:24And you gave me the, ooh, strikeouts.
06:31I'm so tired of you browbeating me with this old argument that we used to have.
06:37I don't know what you're talking about.
06:39So, like I said, look, Sean, look, you know, there's time for this to play out.
06:44Who knows?
06:45I have no choice but to get on your JP France train right now.
06:49My Hunter Brown is out with a shoulder injury for the next three months.
06:52If JP France ends up supplanting Hunter Brown on this roster as your ace,
06:56then I will be as happy as anybody.
06:59Okay?
06:59That was one of the greatest moments in the history of the show.
07:03Who was it that you used to bring up Hunter Brown?
07:05The guy who finished third in the Cy Young last year.
07:07Oh, my God.
07:08Hey, look, JP France has been done in by injuries.
07:10Just like your boy Hunter Brown.
07:12Yeah, no, I know.
07:13We're all, yeah, we're back in the green room, man.
07:15We're all on the same level right now.
07:18Yeah, all of a sudden, all of a sudden, JP France and Spencer Arrighetti.
07:22Like, we are 13 games into the season.
07:2513.
07:26And all of a sudden, JP France and Spencer Arrighetti are taking on major importance on this team.
07:33That's not fun.
07:34It's just, he was good that year, Seth.
07:3711 and 6.
07:38JP France is another one of the more underrated guys, or I guess under-discussed guys when it comes to
07:43Astros pitchers
07:44and their long and winding road back from injury.
07:48Because it just feels like it's been just a comeback, a setback, a comeback, a setback.
07:54And who knows?
07:55Maybe when he settles in, we've got our Hunter Brown 2.0.
07:58We'll see.
07:59If I had to guess, JP France, Spencer Arrighetti, there's probably going to be a Jason Alexander sighting here soon.
08:05And look, we don't have any report yet on Christian Javier, who's, I mean, entirely replaceable the way he was
08:11pitching.
08:11But still, you're talking about your five guys that started the season in your rotation.
08:17And we're not even to the middle of April.
08:20We haven't even submitted our taxes.
08:22Well, some of you have.
08:23I haven't.
08:25We're not even to tax day yet.
08:28And we're down 40%.
08:29I'm glad you mentioned that.
08:31You still need to?
08:33I'm going to have to do that this weekend.
08:34That's what Sunday is for me.
08:36Yeah.
08:37That's what Sunday is tax day for me.
08:39So, yeah.
08:40So, JP France, we are all, this city has never been more united in hoping that JP France finally takes
08:48his mantle as the guy who's better than Hunter Brown.
08:51Sitting on his JP France bandwagon, and nobody's been getting on it.
08:54And now, you can't keep people off of it.
08:57I'm trying to remember if JP France was the one whose father has honeybees and makes honey.
09:03But that's actually Blue Ball.
09:05Oh, is it really?
09:06That's what Blue Ball is?
09:07Is that their family business?
09:08Blue Ball's dad, yeah.
09:09It's not their business.
09:10It's a hobby.
09:10He just kind of does it as a hobby.
09:12Okay.
09:12And they give it out to a lot of people.
09:14Oh, really?
09:15Yeah.
09:15Okay, that's my goal.
09:16He needs to stay on the team long enough for us to get a jar of his family's honey.
09:19I remember listening to a Chandler Rome article about it when we were at spring training last year.
09:25Okay.
09:25I was going for my early morning walk.
09:27Yeah.
09:27And I was in a bad neighborhood all of a sudden.
09:30You know when you're in a strange city and you go out for a walk and all of a sudden
09:32you look up and you're like, wow, there's still a lot of people awake this time of this kind of
09:37morning.
09:41That's the best litmus test if you're in a bad neighborhood.
09:45A lot of people awake at 3.30 a.m. in this neighborhood.
09:51And they're slumped over in weird ways.
09:54Yes.
09:54Not the normal ways that people are out running at 3.30 in the morning.
09:58No, no, no.
09:59Sleep patterns and ne'er-do-wells.
10:00There is a correlation in those two for sure.
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