00:00Astros split yesterday with the Orioles.
00:03The Peter Lambert dream is a little over.
00:05He made it, I think, four innings yesterday.
00:08I guess the two best things to pull out of yesterday, Seth,
00:11because it's really tough talking about a 12-20 baseball team right now
00:15that has all these pitching issues.
00:18Jordan Alvarez continues to blister the baseball.
00:22He was 0-4 in the first game, be it three hits in the second game.
00:25Today's May 1st.
00:26He's going to win player of the month going away.
00:30In the American League.
00:31I mean, there's that tweet out there that I had it in the rundown.
00:36I don't have it anymore just because it's obsolete now.
00:38It's like three days old.
00:39But as of like Monday or Tuesday this week, there was a,
00:43I think it was Ryan Spader who writes for, I forget what outlet.
00:48He's a baseball reporter.
00:49He listed all the stats that Jordan Alvarez was leading the American League in.
00:54Yeah.
00:54And it was such a long, and just by abbreviation, not by spelling it out.
00:59So each of the items was two or three letters at the most.
01:02It was so many stats.
01:04You had to do that thing where you click on more so you can see the whole tweet.
01:07You know, like you can only see the first 280 characters,
01:10but if you click more, it expands.
01:12That's how many stats.
01:13And it was everything from like the counting stats, like home run,
01:16RBIs, hits, and then the basic stats like average and on-base percentage,
01:22OPS, all that, to all like the nerdiest of nerdy stats.
01:25All the Wobas, like all the Wobas, all the weighteds, all the this, this plus,
01:31all of those things, leading baseball in it.
01:33So if he's not the player of the month in the American League,
01:37then I don't know what you have to do to win player of the month.
01:38He's leading in everything.
01:40You know what?
01:40Since we're supposed to talk about every single aspect of the team,
01:43every single segment, Jordan Alvarez playing in left field.
01:47Remember at the beginning of the season,
01:49it seemed like Jordan wanted to play more in left field.
01:51So far, he's started eight of the first 32 games in left field.
01:56That's fewer than I thought.
01:57Yeah, his career high, that would put him on pace for 41 left field starts.
02:02His career high is 56.
02:04It's fewer than we thought, and yet it's still a problem when he's out there.
02:08I mean, they...
02:09Did you see his throw yesterday?
02:11Yeah.
02:12No, yeah.
02:12Yeah, Alonzo scored from first because Alvarez couldn't cut the ball off.
02:19So, yeah, it's a problem when he's out there.
02:21And I don't know of all of the different things that you could do to try to,
02:26you know, try to navigate your way through this injury situation.
02:30The answer is not more Jordan Alvarez at left field.
02:34You'd like to probably see him play even less at left field.
02:36Yeah.
02:37He's doing just fine.
02:38Yeah.
02:38He's doing just fine.
02:40Yeah, there's not that thing going on where it's like, well,
02:42he hits better when he's playing defense.
02:44Like, he's hitting the ball regardless of what he's doing.
02:48The answers are so bad right now that Jordan could be hitting even 25% better
02:53than he already is when he's leading every single category.
02:56And that's not going to make this a winning baseball team.
02:58No.
02:58Well, and it's ironically one of the things that's probably kept him out of the
03:02lineup in left field more is Jeremy Pena's injuries.
03:06Yeah.
03:07Because when you and I were kind of trying to put the puzzle together to get
03:10their best offensive lineup on the field before the season started, my contention
03:15was, well, Jordan's just going to have to play a ton of left field because he's
03:18going to have to open up DH to get the glut of infielders, the five infielders all
03:22in the lineup somehow.
03:23You know, either Altuve's going to have to DH and Paredes play second or Paredes is a
03:27DH and you go with your regular infield and Jordan's in left field.
03:31With Pena out, you're able to get all four infielders in there every single day.
03:35So you don't have to play him in left field as much.
03:38Yeah.
03:38He's, he's been awesome.
03:40Lance yesterday was, was solid.
03:42That was good to see.
03:44Look, this season is going nowhere.
03:46And I think there's fewer outs for this season compared to when I say outs, I mean, getting
03:51out of this rut than there were two years ago when they were able to turn it around and
03:55win the division.
03:55I don't see that happening this year just because the pitching is so bad.
03:59The injuries are so plentiful with this team right now.
04:02And so just real quick.
04:03Like, so, um, so the Lance thing yesterday, it's not like, oh, okay, well they found something
04:08in Lance that'll help.
04:09I'm more rooting for Lance just from a personal standpoint at this point.
04:13I just want to see the guy finish strong here.
04:14I like Lance McCullers, you know, and he's, he's done a lot of good things for Houston
04:18and he's done some good things in the post season.
04:20So I like starts like yesterday where he goes six innings, gives up three runs.
04:24I'm like, that's good to see, man.
04:25That dude's battled like crazy just to get back playing baseball again.
04:28Yeah, no.
04:29And I guess, you know, if you think about the teams like the Astros teams that have
04:35come back from a 12 and 20 or worse start, the 2025 NL pennant team and the 2024, uh, they
04:43won the AL West after having the horrific start.
04:45So it seems more, it seems more plausible here in Houston.
04:49Only four teams have done it since 1995.
04:52I, I understand if you look at those teams, it's easy in hindsight to say, well, this team
04:57had this and that's not like the 2026 Astros.
05:01I still hold out hope that at least on the back of the baseball card, a healthy pitching
05:07staff, if they ever get healthy again, is something that could a hundred percent compliment
05:12this offense on the way to an incredible last two thirds of the season type of run.
05:19Yeah.
05:19So I'm not, I'm not throwing in the towel on it as of yet because the injuries have been
05:24so bad.
05:25It's just, it's really hard because these injuries have been a thing for three straight
05:28years.
05:29Three years.
05:29Yeah.
05:29That it's just, I can't sit here in good faith.
05:32Like I did the last two off seasons and say, well, they certainly won't have injury luck
05:36like that again.
05:37Yeah.
05:38I, what am I, I am that Baghdad Bob.
05:40Yeah, I just, it is what it is at this point.
05:43The, the two teams you brought up, the 2005 team that went on to go to the world series,
05:47it started 15 and 30.
05:48They literally had a tombstone on the front page of the Chronicle sports page for them.
05:53And they came back to, to win, to win the net, to win the national league.
05:57You know, they, and, and I know, you know, this Seth, and I know Astro fans and this,
06:00I mean, they had Roy Oswald, Roger Clemens, and Andy Pettit.
06:02They had superb seasoned hall of fame level pitchers on that staff.
06:08They had really good pitching.
06:09The team two years ago is the interesting one because a lot, it's a lot of the same
06:12guys, obviously on that team that are on this team.
06:15That team had for Amber Valdez still pitching at a high level.
06:19And they got Hunter Brown out of nowhere to go from being literally the worst pitcher
06:25in baseball, like literally the worst stats in the American league to, from the course
06:30of mid-May through the rest of the season was one of the three or four best pitchers
06:35in the American league.
06:36Yeah.
06:37And so I'm going to compare it more to the 2024 team for a second.
06:42And, and I'm going to, you know, they're going to get Hunter Brown back.
06:45And when you get him back, okay, you know, that's the, he needs to be Hunter Brown,
06:48obviously.
06:49Who's the framber in this thing, I guess is the question.
06:52Cause you need more than just Hunter Brown.
06:54And, and that's where I'm like, okay, is it Mike, does Mike Burroughs, cause he's
06:58done, he, you watch him and you go, okay, he pitches better than a pitcher that has a
07:02six ERA.
07:03He's not great.
07:04Does Burroughs start to figure it out?
07:06Does he, my, who's given us no reason to believe anytime soon, he's going to figure
07:10things out, but is that it?
07:11That's why things like you, you're right.
07:13Like I'm kind of throwing in the towel and just bringing up the personal part of it with
07:16Lance.
07:16He's been here so long.
07:17I just want to see it end well, cause I think he's a good guy, but I don't think it's
07:22Lance
07:22McCullers.
07:23Like it was just as good a chance.
07:24He goes out and get chilled.
07:25Eric Getty is the interesting one to me.
07:27Eric Getty is the interesting one.
07:28He's had three starts.
07:30They've been really good.
07:30He's shown flashes his first couple seasons here.
07:34And, and this is, you know, he, he was a prospect that they were expecting at this point
07:39to be part of the rotation.
07:41Is he the guy who can be the second hammer alongside Hunter Brown?
07:46But remember too, I mean, we're not talking about, to make a run, if the offense, which
07:55right now is third or fourth in OPS in the league, in major league baseball, they just
08:01need an average pitching staff.
08:03And you can have a stutter too, but it's not, you know, it doesn't have to look like a carbon
08:07copy of some of the dominant pitching pads, the staffs of the past to be a really good
08:11baseball team.
08:12I guess maybe it's partly just some trepidation that, all right, are they really going to
08:17hold up this level of offensive production?
08:20See, I don't think they are.
08:21Like I think they're, I think, I think there'll be a good offensive team.
08:24I just think, I don't know that they're going to maintain.
08:26They're so reliant on Yordan being otherworldly right now.
08:29Like, can we expect Yordan to have a 1200 OPS in a 360 batting average all year?
08:34No, I mean, you can't expect it, but you can expect him if he stays healthy to be one of
08:37the best hitters in major league baseball.
08:39I think the most unsustainable thing right now is probably Christian Vasquez, who's just
08:44blowing all of his, the back of the, he's, he's rendering the back of the baseball card
08:49into pulp because he's, I did for, if you were to hit like this, the entire season, I
08:54think the upside is, uh, the Pena Diaz, you know, and Diaz has looked better as of late.
09:00Some of those guys, you get Jake Myers back.
09:02Who's probably more competent than Dustin Harris or Daniel Johnson in center field.
09:07Um, panic meter for passing, uh, Jeff passing ESPN scale of one to five for the Astros was
09:12a four this week.
09:14So he's a panic meter.
09:15You sound like one to five, one to five.
09:17He's a panic meter of four.
09:19You sound like you're at like a two panic meter right now.
09:23One and a half or two.
09:24I would have to put it at a three.
09:25I mean, realistically, you don't sound panic though.
09:28You sound optimistic.
09:29Well, it's just so early.
09:31I've just, I've, I've burnt so much energy in the past few years on Astros teams that
09:35have gotten off to slow starts and you just feel like you're a, you know, you're a prisoner
09:39of their current record.
09:40Yeah, I do.
09:41Yeah.
09:41No, I'm very pessimistic about some things.
09:43Yeah.
09:44Um, it, but it's, it's like, I just, we've seen it with our own eyes where all of a sudden
09:48they go off on a run.
09:49And when you have an offense like this, they're capable of doing that.
09:51Yep.
09:52They just, it feels like you're in the desert without a canteen right now.
09:55Yeah.
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