00:00Jason Alexander got the start tonight for the Astros.
00:05Supposed to be Lance McCullers' junior day.
00:08And damn it to hell if he didn't get scratched from tonight's start.
00:12Chris Partey in for Patrick Creighton.
00:15Unbelievable.
00:16Absolutely unbelievable.
00:18I'm not even joking, man.
00:20You know, yesterday the Astros get Jeremy Pena back in the lineup.
00:24And then they have to shelve Jose Altuve.
00:26They put him on the 10-day IL with an oblique strain that is grade two, apparently.
00:35Which could mean, you know, multiple weeks out.
00:40And now you show up today and good old Jake Myers is back in the lineup for the Houston Astros.
00:48Why did that sound so sarcastic?
00:50It's not sarcastic.
00:52Healthy body's a healthy body.
00:54And I was going to get to that.
00:55That is true.
00:56Because many people out there are like, oh yeah, Jake Myers, what's he going to do?
01:02I mean, help?
01:04Having a healthy body is better than not having a healthy body.
01:07It's like...
01:07You've got to have somebody that's upright.
01:08You know, you cynical sons of guns on May 19th don't even know how good you've had it.
01:14Oh, yeah.
01:15You know, with the depth that has produced, you know, over the years when you've absolutely needed it to.
01:24And Jake Myers, you know, most of the damn season last year, he was a 300 hitter.
01:28You know, who would have thought that?
01:30But he's back in the lineup.
01:31And then now you've got to scratch Lance McCullers Jr. from his start tonight with shoulder inflammation.
01:37I don't know if he's back in Houston yet, but at least he's on his way back to Houston to
01:42be evaluated by team doctors.
01:45Just WTF on that.
01:48Like Groundhog's Day.
01:50WTF with all of the exclamation points.
01:53Because Joe Espada, did you see what he said about this?
01:56You didn't see it?
01:57Joe Espada said that he's been pitching through this for a while.
02:02Wow.
02:02Seriously?
02:03Okay, so what is a while?
02:04That's what I want to know.
02:05What is a while?
02:06If he pitched through this for one start.
02:09Seriously?
02:10Like, what are we doing?
02:11What are we doing?
02:13Lance McCullers Jr., of all the people, like, you're paying this dude, like, what, $15, $16, $17 million this year
02:20to pitch?
02:24And this was literally a make-or-break year.
02:27And it felt like from the first start of the season, which he was tremendous in, it was a make
02:33-or-break kind of outing for him.
02:35If he looks like ass for too many days in a row, or too many appearances in a row, when's
02:41he going to be out of a job?
02:42And Lance McCullers Jr., correct me if I'm wrong, but looked the best he had the last outing that he
02:50had.
02:51And you thought, wow.
02:53Guy maybe has turned another page, has figured out how to be effective without the velocity, which has been an
03:02issue for a while now.
03:05And now he's lost for maybe, for maybe ever.
03:09Who knows?
03:10Like, we don't know how long he's lost for.
03:12Here's the thing, like, Colin asked me this question earlier today.
03:17You know, is he done?
03:18And I think that's the question until it's not the question.
03:22That's the question that everyone wants to ask any time this guy's going to get hurt, especially now.
03:26This is not a case of the sucks.
03:28This is not a blister.
03:29This is shoulder inflammation.
03:32Shoulder inflammation for a guy like Lance McCullers Jr., who has had multiple things done to his throwing arm.
03:39And has incurred multiple injuries and has had to rest, whether it be fatigue or inflammation or bone spurs.
03:48Whatever the case may be, this is probably not, like, just tendinitis.
03:55Probably not, like, just some, you know, minor impingement.
04:00This could be, like, a major issue.
04:03I mean, if it's not the end from this specific time on the aisle for him, it could be the
04:10beginning of the end.
04:11Yeah.
04:12That's kind of what it sounds like.
04:13I mean, unfortunately, and hopefully not.
04:15We're not, no one's hoping for that.
04:17But with all the issues you just ran down that he's dealt with, this is just another blow.
04:22It's really unbelievable.
04:24You know, this is not the first time this year.
04:27You might remember Jeremy Pena when, you know, he broke the ring finger, the right ring finger.
04:33Before the season it even started, right?
04:35And there was thought, like, well, you know, he's going to miss a little time just because of that.
04:38And then he comes back out and he's got the little hamstring thing, right?
04:45And then you come to find out from Jeremy Pena himself that I'd been dealing with this for a little
04:51while.
04:51Like, what are we doing?
04:53Like, if you're feeling something, you know, can you tell the team doctors?
04:57Can you tell the manager?
04:58Can you tell your coaches?
04:59Can you get healthy, like, within the first two weeks of the season before you maybe cost yourself three months?
05:06Now, to give him the benefit of the doubt, there are certain injuries that you can just kind of play
05:13through and, you know, work your way around it.
05:15But when it comes to a hamstring, you've got to be really careful with that because that can keep you
05:19out for three months.
05:20I mean, look.
05:21If you don't watch it.
05:22You can literally look at the guy that he was trying to play next to all season long, Isak Paredes,
05:27who had the hamstring tear last year and did everything in his power to get back early.
05:35And he did, but he still cost himself two months, right?
05:39I say that, like, not like he had anything to do with it, but he cost the team, you know,
05:43two months with this injury when maybe they needed him most, right?
05:48And Jeremy Pena, I felt like, well, if you'd been dealing with this, it's a hamstring, man.
05:52Like, you kind of need that.
05:53Yeah.
05:53To be as explosive of a player as you are at shortstop, as explosive and excitable as you can be
05:58on the base paths.
06:00To have the range that you need at shortstop?
06:02Sure.
06:03Yeah, that hamstring cannot be in question.
06:05And what good are you if you've got the gap power to hit doubles for days?
06:09If you can't run your ass from home to second base?
06:11Like, this is what you've got to think about.
06:13And it's just all of that.
06:14Like, if you feel something, I'm just amazed that in the year of our Lord 2026 with the doctors and
06:20all of the technology and a guy that, mind you, has been through this countless times before in Lance McCullers
06:26Jr., like, speak up, bro.
06:29I mean, you came into this season, like, as a YOLO guy.
06:33You know, well, you know, life after baseball.
06:36I mean, that's the way this guy's talking.
06:38Like, this could be it.
06:39This could be the end of the road.
06:40Yeah, it could be the end of the road if you pitch through a freaking injury that you know you've
06:44had.
06:45A shoulder and, yeah, something that bothers you and you've had issues with already.
06:49Yeah.
06:49You're just going to, you just keep going.
06:51A guy that we know can ring it up to 96, you know, if he gets pissed off enough.
06:55Hadn't done that yet this season.
06:57And he's been hovering around 89, 90 miles per hour with a fastball.
07:01Clearly something's wrong.
07:04And, yeah, now you come to find out, been dealing with it for a little bit.
07:07And who knows how much time it's going to cost him, how much time and money it's going to cost
07:11the Astros.
07:13And what are the Astros going to do now?
07:15They cannot enact a six-man rotation to save their lives.
07:20Because every time they think they get somebody right or they get somebody back, somebody else goes down.
07:26It's amazing.
07:26But, I mean, also, you know, you play sports coming up.
07:30You know, anybody who plays sports coming up, you know, whatever level you got to, you don't want to not
07:35play.
07:36So, I mean, it's tough sometimes because if a guy doesn't say, oh, this is bothering me, you can't always
07:42just tell when the guy is on the field.
07:45You can't always just tell by looking at him.
07:47A lot of times you can, but some injuries you can't tell.
07:50So, if a guy doesn't say anything, it's hard for the training staff and, you know, the coaching staff manager
07:57to know, okay, he's not 100%.
07:59He's not at least 90%.
08:00But, you know, case in point, and you might have heard this before, Hall of Famer, one of the, I
08:05mean, the greatest base stealer certainly of our generation, you know,
08:10and he was doing it before you and I were even thought of for a little bit, Ricky Henderson.
08:15Yeah.
08:15Oh, yeah.
08:16Ricky Henderson, like, took crap, you know, all the time back in the day because, you know, he wasn't a
08:23Cal Ripken.
08:24He wasn't going to play every single day.
08:26Yeah.
08:26Like, he's a guy that you look at him and he looks like an Adonis.
08:30Yeah.
08:30He's a guy that understood his own body that was not bashful about, you know, hey, Skip, I'm out today.
08:36I need to take it.
08:37I need a day.
08:38I need a day.
08:38Yeah.
08:38And you know what?
08:39Because he was so badass, like, you had to kind of trust that this guy understood his body.
08:46It took Tony La Russa a while to figure that out when he was his manager.
08:50I think it was with the A's.
08:51Yeah, it was with the A's, yeah.
08:53And, you know, they had, you know, famous back and forths.
08:56Oh, yeah.
08:57And Ricky was just like, dude, I can't go today.
09:00And that's how good he was because, you know, in La Russa's eyes, we're like, dude, you know,
09:0550% of you or 75% of you is 100% better than the next guy.
09:10Than most guys.
09:11But what did he parlay that into, Ricky Henderson?
09:13I mean, a Hall of Fame career.
09:16And that's just one prime example.
09:19And I know it's at the other end of the spectrum, but that, again, is an example of a guy
09:23that, you know,
09:24made no bones about letting his manager or his team know that, you know what, today I need a day.
09:30And if you ain't got it as a pitcher, even if it's a make or break year for you,
09:34they know what you've been through.
09:35They know what you can do.
09:37They've seen you put the work in.
09:38They've seen you not give up.
09:39We need your best, like, for an extended period of time, Lance.
09:44We don't need your best, like, once every couple of months.
09:48But I think it's also tough for certain guys because you just mentioned Ricky Henderson,
09:52who is not only one of the best base stealers, but one of the greatest leadoff hitters of all time
09:58in the sport.
10:00Some guys can get away with that.
10:02Everybody's not Ricky Henderson.
10:03And so I think a lot of guys, they're like, especially God McCullers, who's been injured so much,
10:10he's probably thinking, you know, I can't miss time again.
10:14I mean, I definitely don't want to miss time again.
10:17I can't imagine it.
10:17I can't imagine the pressure.
10:19I think that pressure gets to a lot of guys because, you know, it depends on what you've done.
10:25Honestly, it depends on what you've done and what kind of legacy or, you know, credit you've built up over
10:31the years.
10:32If you've been hurt the past couple of years and haven't played a lot, then it's like, okay, I don't
10:36want to go out again.
10:37Yeah.
10:37No, I think it's a really good point.
10:39I mean, you and I, I think, talked about this earlier this year.
10:41At some point in time, you know, the pressure will creep up off these guys.
10:45And I think it's been pretty quickly with Lance McCullers or Tatsuya Imai.
10:50I mean, everybody had to have felt it at some point.
10:53Maybe Brian Abreu is a prime example of that.
10:57Tatsuya Imai may be a prime example of that, who was anointed the number two guy, essentially.
11:01Out of spring, when Hunter Brown goes down, he's thinking, like, holy crap, I've got to be an ace here.
11:06Yeah.
11:06And how much pressure did he feel?
11:08And show that he felt.
11:09Brian Abreu thrown into the closer role.
11:12And he knew it was coming the whole way and then couldn't perform.
11:15Yeah.
11:15Right?
11:16It's tough.
11:16And God knows what's really gone on with him.
11:20Yeah.
11:22He's had four pretty good outings now in a row.
11:24We'll see what he's got left in the tank.
11:26His velocity's still been kind of wishy-washy and up and down.
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