00:00All right, Roflo, what's good, man?
00:02Good to speak to you.
00:03I wish I could see you.
00:04Good to speak to you.
00:06Well, actually, it's funny you mention that.
00:07You could see me if you went to my Twitch page
00:09because I am multitasking to the nth degree here.
00:16I am currently playing an online game in MLB The Show
00:21against my opponent.
00:22We are in extra innings.
00:24Otani just went deep, hit one to the gap,
00:27and brought in the fifth run.
00:30So I am in extra innings up by two talking to you guys,
00:33twitch.tv slash real Roflo.
00:35Well, check it out, man.
00:36Check it out as you can listen to him here with us
00:39and check him out as he is in extra innings.
00:42I'm guessing you don't have to show me.
00:44I'm guessing you don't have to.
00:46Whatever that laugh was, that one's going to get cut, Roflo.
00:49That one's going to get cut.
00:50All right.
00:51Are you – you guys obviously cover all of baseball,
00:57and I think it's a different perspective from us who's close
01:01in seeing the Astros and the buildup from spring training.
01:05Are you surprised, and are people surprised,
01:08that the Astros are looking the way they're looking?
01:11Yes.
01:12I'm surprised in this – let me start with this surprise.
01:18By the way, I just went deep with Jose Ramirez.
01:20I'm up seven to three.
01:22I'm surprised that this is happening again.
01:26Because in some respect, injuries, things like that,
01:32sometimes it's just luck or happenstance.
01:36And I'm surprised that this is happening again.
01:41Dana Brown and his staff did everything they could
01:44to try to shore up the rotation, building up with numbers.
01:51Critics would say, well, it was quality, not necessarily quantity.
01:56I would push back a little bit on that.
01:58But they definitely got numbers.
01:59And I'm surprised that they're in this position again.
02:04That's what sticks out to me.
02:06Well, what is – in watching this, I mean –
02:10and I know you don't watch them every single day,
02:12but, I mean, there is –
02:14Oh, I do.
02:14Well, I guess you do.
02:16What is the – you know, my concern is that it's not like one guy
02:23that's struggling.
02:24It's not Frambois Valdez and Hunter Brown just kind of got a slow start here
02:27and, man, we got to come along.
02:29Man, this – I mean, the start and rotation is a mess with injuries
02:32and just flat-ass bad baseball as well as the bullpen.
02:38It just – you can't – you don't have anybody that can stop the bleeding.
02:42Yeah, it – the fact that it is, as you said, it's not just injuries.
02:49Look, injuries, that's the big headline.
02:51But that sub-headline is the fact that they are just walking so many batters
02:57at an astonishing rate.
02:59I mean, if you were to look at the numbers that this offense is putting up,
03:04if someone would have told you, hey, the offense is going to do this,
03:09you would think, hey, they're going to get off to a nice start.
03:13They can compete in this division, compete to get back into the postseason.
03:17But it is just unbelievable the amount of batters that they are walking.
03:24And, of course, the big red flag for me is Brian Abreu.
03:29That, for me, is the one that's most surprising.
03:34Because, guys, if the Astros were going to be this bad,
03:38then conventional wisdom says, hey, Brian Abreu is a nice trade piece for a contender.
03:42But at this point, what could you get for him, you know?
03:46So there's a lot of kind of red flags here.
03:51And a couple of them are pretty unexpected.
03:55Roe Flo here with us.
03:57So with this, the pitching is clearly the issue here.
04:03How do they realistically fix that when you looked at it?
04:06Because I was wondering, I was going to try to figure out if you were thinking
04:09that this was injury or their lack of pitching.
04:12They clearly, Hunter Brown, they get him back.
04:15He's an ace.
04:16That's a difference maker.
04:16But outside of that, like we just talked about it yesterday,
04:20and we said, Aaron, we almost fell back in our chairs,
04:22that Lance McCullers is maybe the second starter on this team right now
04:26that we would feel most comfortable with going out and getting the ball.
04:29How do they realistically fix this pitching?
04:34As the current conditions consist, I don't see how they can fix it.
04:39They've got to make a move.
04:40Other than trading for new front-line starters, but, you know,
04:46it's not like those kind of pitchers are just floating around the market, you know.
04:50So I think that there is just some major, major red flags.
04:58The injuries, yes.
05:00Look, those things happen, and they are having, for now, a year plus,
05:07unbelievably poor luck when it comes to injuries, especially in the rotation.
05:13But, you know, Hunter Brown being out, Christian Javier being out,
05:19and poor Christian was really struggling before he went on the injured list.
05:23So I don't know where they go from here, guys.
05:28You know, we lost Phil Garner this week,
05:31and I'm reminded of that Houston Chronicle headline back in 2005
05:37where they had the tombstone on the front page of the sports section,
05:40and they ended up going to the World Series.
05:43I don't see that happening here unless there is a major, major shift
05:48in both talent, ability, and execution.
05:53I tell you, Roflo, when I'm watching with my crew here,
05:58all Astros fans for a long, long time, I hear a lot of, like, you know,
06:03they ask for this from a perspective of not going out and signing established guys
06:07and signing reinforcements and basically giving Hunter Brown some help.
06:11Do you look at it as, boy, it was really a poor effort,
06:15a poor attempt of putting this thing together?
06:17Or, again, does it go back to, boy, you've just had some bad luck
06:21with the guys that you landed on?
06:23Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, look, if you want to talk about, I mean,
06:29then you kind of want to spin things back to ancient history, quote, unquote.
06:34What do you, okay, they didn't re-sign Garrett Cole.
06:38Okay.
06:40They didn't sign Fromber.
06:43Reading the tea leaves, they didn't want to bring Fromber back.
06:45And if, let's say, Fromber was on this rotation, I mean, you know,
06:52look at what he's done so far.
06:54He hasn't been lighting the world on fire.
06:57And would it help?
06:58You know, he was good yesterday.
07:00He was good yesterday.
07:03Would that help?
07:04So I think the problems with the current state of the rotation specifically
07:10maybe go back or a little bit deeper than the decision not to re-sign Fromber
07:17or unless there's some other names that I'm missing here.
07:22By the way, I won my game an extra inning 7-5.
07:247-5.
07:25Yeah.
07:26You're doing better than Astros.
07:27You know what I'm saying?
07:28Like, I feel like there's a lack of maybe front-line potential in the minor league system.
07:35And then you couple that with the injuries and lack of execution.
07:39I mean, that's just a rough cocktail, man.
07:41It really is.
07:42Rofalo, any way that Dana or Joe Espada are in any kind of trouble, you think?
07:48Well, I don't like – look, I think it's fair to speculate about that
07:55when you consider what their contract status is beyond this year.
08:00So I don't know, you know, whether or not their seats are hot or safe or whatever.
08:08But, look, it's fair to wonder considering what their contract status is beyond 2026.
08:15And, again, I'll go back to – look, could they be – you know, did they make mistakes?
08:21Sure.
08:22That happens.
08:23No one is perfect.
08:24No front office is perfect.
08:25But, man, there's like – Jeremy Pena goes down.
08:30And then you lose – you lose your top three starters.
08:34I mean, there's very few teams aside from the Dodgers that can recover from that.
08:39And, unfortunately, that's just where the Astros sit.
08:42Rofalo, what about the MI situation?
08:46I mean, the – not even the injury.
08:48I'm just talking more.
08:49I know you've covered the league.
08:50And you've probably covered a lot more Japanese, you know, players that have tried to make this transition.
08:57You know, around here, we just hadn't seen a whole heck of a lot of it in the middle of
09:01the transition.
09:02And his comments recently through an interpreter – I mean, for lack of better terms, appear to be pretty soft.
09:07I mean, is it – do you have any light to shed on that situation, just the transition and what
09:12those guys are actually up against?
09:13You know, not me per se, but I will say this, that my co-host, Mark DeRosa, played winter ball
09:19for one or two seasons in Venezuela.
09:23And he told the story both – he told the story off air, but today he told the story on
09:28air about he was dropped in Venezuela, didn't know the language,
09:34didn't know anyone aside from the very few people connected with the baseball team.
09:40And he talked about ordering the same food off the – you know, number one Wendy's and a Cinnabon right
09:47in the mall
09:48because he didn't know how to speak the language, didn't know the food, didn't know the culture, didn't know the
09:53people.
09:54So I think – and yes, in the social media age, people see what Emai said, and they automatically assume
10:01he's soft because that's what we do on social media.
10:04We automatically assume someone is an idiot or stupid or extremely soft.
10:09But I think there's some – there's something deeper going on here where this guy has moved to a new
10:15country.
10:15I don't know how many family members, associates made the trip with him.
10:22Our insider, John Heyman, mentioned that his trainer was having some visa problems and was unable to join him thus
10:29far in Houston.
10:30So I think that there's just a lot going on.
10:33And, oh, by the way, he's using a different baseball.
10:35He's on a different schedule.
10:36The mound is different.
10:38The league is different.
10:39The stadium is different.
10:40And, oh, by the way, you're expected to perform for a team that had postseason aspirations.
10:44So for – before people that have won their fantasy baseball championship get on social media
10:50and talk about a player being soft, I think maybe we should pump the brakes
10:54and try to use something that really hasn't been used, I'd say, in the last 15 years.
10:59And that's a little bit of empathy and a little bit of understanding.
11:02So I think he's going to be fine if he's healthy.
11:07But I think we just kind of need to pump the brakes and just kind of understand what he's going
11:12through.
11:13One-word answer to this.
11:15Do you still believe in C.J. Stroud?
11:19Okay.
11:20All righty.
11:20All right.
11:21That's Robert Flores.
11:23Help me.
11:24I like that he got his hair cut.
11:26I think that might change.
11:27I said one-word answer.
11:28I liked it, too.
11:29No, you don't.
11:30Wow.
11:31I did like it.
11:31Damn.
11:32I do.
11:33Man.
11:33That silence was golden.
11:35Wow.
11:36Wow.
11:37Someone in my chat just said, nope, they don't believe in him.
11:41Clearly.
11:42Clearly.
11:42All right, Roflo.
11:43We appreciate you, man.
11:44Check him out.
11:45MLB Network.
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