00:00Tatsuya Imai, I'm sure at some point he'll complain about the temperature inside Dykin Park.
00:05It's like the only thing he hasn't complained about yet.
00:07Rudy too.
00:09So here's Robert Flores from MLB Network.
00:14Yesterday he was on with Clint Sterner and Ron Hughley talking to Astros baseball.
00:20And Robert Flores has a passionate plea to Astro fans out there about how we are handling the Tatsuya Imai
00:29experience so far.
00:30I think, and yes, in the social media age, people see what Imai said and they automatically assume he's soft.
00:37Because that's what we do on social media.
00:39We automatically assume someone is an idiot or stupid or extremely soft.
00:44But I think there's something deeper going on here where this guy has moved to a new country.
00:50I don't know how many family members, associates made the trip with him.
00:55So I think that there's just a lot going on.
00:58And, oh, by the way, he's using a different baseball.
01:00He's on a different schedule.
01:01The mound is different.
01:03The league is different.
01:04The stadium is different.
01:05And, oh, by the way, you're expected to perform for a team that had postseason aspirations.
01:08So before people that have won their fantasy baseball championship get on social media and talk about a player being
01:15soft,
01:16I think maybe we should pump the brakes and try to use something that really hasn't been used, I'd say,
01:21in the last 15 years.
01:22And that's a little bit of empathy and a little bit of understanding.
01:25So I think he's going to be fine if he's healthy.
01:28But I think we just kind of need to pump the brakes and just kind of understand what he's going
01:33through.
01:33I wonder if they introed Roflo with one of your clips.
01:40You just beaten down.
01:43You were just crushing EMI for being a Rudy Toots son of the guy.
01:47Well, I stand by the fact that I don't think there's a real injury here.
01:52And I don't even think that's a – at this point, we're three days in where he's already playing catch,
01:58something that's taken other injured pitchers weeks to do.
02:01He met with the media yesterday and said his arm feels good.
02:05Like, so this – and you listen to all the excuses and everything, and none of them were about how
02:10my arm feels.
02:11It's all – it's about the mound, what time of day are we eating, oh, the lifestyle over here.
02:16Oh, my God, it's cold outside.
02:17Like, there's nothing in here.
02:19You would think if he was hurt, he would say, yeah, my arm hurts.
02:22Honestly, I would say I don't want to call – like, I'm really careful about calling anybody soft,
02:29especially when it's somebody that the Astros have committed $55 million to, and I hope that it all works out.
02:34I do think that without any venom or anything whatsoever, I think between EMI and the Astros,
02:42maybe they could have done a better job of recognizing and understanding that all of the change is a really
02:49big deal
02:49and that maybe we've got to figure out a better way to really integrate him into the way things are
02:55done here
02:56and, like, what his schedule is, all of those things, and that hopefully maybe they can figure that out
03:02because it's an extreme adjustment.
03:04I get that.
03:05Just, okay, we know what the issue is now.
03:08Like, figure out how to get over it.
03:09Yeah.
03:10Because it's not – it's not like there haven't been great Japanese pitchers in America.
03:14They've made the adjustment.
03:15Yeah.
03:15They've figured out how to bridge the gap between the NPB and MLB.
03:22Just let's – let's hurry it along here.
03:23Let's all sit down.
03:24Because I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a lot of things going on in the pitching.
03:26Well, I'm glad you brought that up.
03:27That's a good segue here to the next row flow clip that we've got.
03:31Robert Flores on their show yesterday, they asked him in general,
03:34what do the Astros do?
03:35They're pitching despite the fact that it's been decent the last couple nights.
03:39Statistically, it's still one of, if not the worst, pitching staffs in all of baseball.
03:43As the current conditions consist, I don't see how they can fix it.
03:49Other than trading for new front-line starters, but, you know,
03:53it's not like those kind of pitchers are just floating around the market, you know.
03:57So I think that there is just some major, major red flags.
04:02The injuries, yes.
04:05Look, those things happen, and they are having, for now, a year plus.
04:10Plus, unbelievably poor luck when it comes to injuries, especially in the rotation.
04:16But, you know, Hunter Brown being out, Christian Javier being out,
04:20and poor Christian was really struggling before he went on the injured list.
04:24So I don't know where they go from here, guys.
04:27You know, we lost Phil Garner this week, and I'm reminded of that Houston Chronicle headline
04:34back in 2005 where they had the tombstone on the front page of the sports section,
04:38and they ended up going to the World Series.
04:39I don't see that happening here unless there is a major, major shift in both talent, ability, and execution.
04:48Yeah, that 2005 team, what he's referring to, I know longtime Houstonians know this.
04:53I know you were living here at the time, Seth, when you were a player.
04:57The tombstone, when they were 15-30 to start the season that year,
05:01and they ended up making the World Series.
05:04That team had Roger Clemens, Andy Pettit, and Roy Oswald.
05:07This team does not have any of those guys.
05:09They don't have anything close to it.
05:10I spoke to the media that year as the Texans got off to a rough start,
05:14and I invoked the Astros as an inspiration for how a team can turn it around and get things going.
05:22We would go on, Sean, to win two games that year.
05:25A lot of people thought it couldn't be done.
05:27Right, right.
05:28If anything, I think we might have won those two games earlier in the season, too.
05:31So I don't know if we won another game after I invoked the Astros.
05:33Thanks for nothing, fellas.
05:34Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:36Didn't work.
05:39Yeah, so they, you know, Flores' point, I get it, 15-30, but they had good pitchers on that team.
05:47It's just, in general, in baseball, like, if it's, if you've got to pick one side or the other
05:52to at least stay competitive throughout the year, like I'm saying, like, stay in the hunt,
05:56it's the pitching that's going to keep you in the hunt, not a great offense.
05:59Actually, you know what?
06:00I'll take credit for those two wins, because our first win was on October 30th.
06:04Okay.
06:05So, yeah, I bet I made that quote sometime before then, and we ended up winning two games.
06:12You probably made that quote, it was probably during the World Series for the Astros.
06:17It was October 30th that you won that first game.
06:20Yeah.
06:21So there you have it.
06:22That got the troops going for a week.
06:23You're welcome, America.
06:24Yeah, man.
06:25Yeah.
06:25When did we?
06:26We can't even calculate how much of an improvement we made.
06:29We went from zero wins to two.
06:31Incalculable.
06:32Yeah.
06:34Incalculable improvement after invoking the Astros.
06:37Hell yeah.
06:38No, I guess, you know what?
06:40But honestly, though, okay, let's allow ourselves to dream for a little bit.
06:43Okay.
06:43All right, let's say it goes on some kind of miracle run where they're proclaimed dead,
06:48but then you end up actually making a real good push.
06:53It's really easy to envision.
06:56It's that the offense just, the bats keep doing what they've been doing in this first month of the season,
07:02and that pitchers just start pitching like their historical norms if and when they come back healthy.
07:08And that's a huge obstacle.
07:10It's like, as Robert Flora has mentioned there, it's been over a couple years now of ridiculous injury luck.
07:19Yeah.
07:19And that's the, I don't know, I don't know, the nerds need to get on this and figure out if,
07:27hey,
07:27something about the pitch selection and messing with guys above and beyond what they're comfortable pitching
07:34or whatever it is, if that's also part of why pitchers are getting injured so much and why they have
07:40a hard time coming back.
07:41He undershot it.
07:42Like, he said it's been over a year now.
07:44This goes back to 2023.
07:46Yeah.
07:47Like, this was, you know, this has been going on for quite some time now.
07:51You had, you know, Garcia and Urquidy, I believe, in 23, and then Javier in 24.
07:56Last year, Wisneski, Ronell Blanco.
07:58This year, it's, you know, thank God the Hunter Brown and Christian Javier, and, well, Emai's on the IL.
08:05Emai's a separate thing.
08:06But thank God, with Hunter especially, that it's a shoulder and not a UCL, you know?
08:12Like, it's something that he's going to presumably come back from this season and hopefully sometime, you know,
08:18where the season is, the Astros are still in the hunt and whatnot.
08:22Well, yeah, right.
08:23But when it comes down to it, again, like, Ryan Weiss was signed to be a starter originally this offseason.
08:29So, like, those were the types of moves that they're trying to make.
08:31Like, he goes out there and gets his first start of the season and makes it three and a third
08:35innings.
08:36Like, it's, yes, the injuries are bad, but not, there's, Hunter Brown is the only starting pitcher
08:44who's looked anything like a championship caliber pitcher when he's been healthy.
08:49Yeah.
08:50Like, this is just, it's the double dose of the injuries.
08:54But also, let's not just whistle past the fact that nobody's pitching well other than Hunter Brown.
08:59Yeah.
09:00It's really, really bad.
09:01Yep, yep.
09:02All right, and they got the Cardinals coming to town this weekend, so hopefully they can get the job done.
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