- 2 hours ago
Seth and Sean talk about Jason Alexander coming in for McCullers to lead the Astros to a 2-1 win and look at the standings and where they are with the team at the moment.
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00:00Astros win last night, though, so good news here in Houston.
00:02Jason Alexander steps in for Lance McCullers.
00:06It was phenomenal.
00:08Six innings pitched, four hits, no runs, one walk, four strikeouts.
00:12Ben, I forgot to put this in the rundown.
00:13If you can get a spot of five and just get in my ear when you have it
00:16about Alexander's performance and has he earned another one here.
00:20Look, this is a pitching staff that still has TBDs dotted
00:26throughout the next several games with pitching probables.
00:30Take any help we can get at this point.
00:32It's weird where there was just zero hope for –
00:36there was zero reason for optimism at all with the pitching
00:39for most of the first quarter of the season.
00:42I'd say the first, the one-sixth of the season.
00:45And then by the quarter mark, you started to see some good signs.
00:49And part of it's just because a couple of guys –
00:53Arrighetti, who wasn't good enough to be on this illustrious staff
00:57at the beginning of the season, remember?
00:58Remember, Arrighetti, no, no, young fella.
01:02You're going to have to wait a couple of weeks because we've got to roll out
01:04Emai and McCullers and all of these other just more dependable, rock solid –
01:10Arrighetti's been awesome once they finally chose to elevate him.
01:14And then in fits and starts, you're seeing more promise
01:17and more stabilization from some of the other starters.
01:19Yeah, for sure.
01:20Yeah, starting pitching has not been a major issue of late.
01:23Let me go back and – you and I both were just kind of – we understood exactly
01:28what they were doing, why Arrighetti was down – wasn't there to start the season
01:33because they were going to have to roll into a six-pitch rotation early in the season,
01:38et cetera, et cetera.
01:39But it just looks laughable now.
01:40Well, he wasn't built up yet either.
01:42He left on paternity leave.
01:43Oh, that's right.
01:44He had paternity leave.
01:44Yeah, so that's why when he was upset about it at the beginning of the year,
01:48I was a little bit – yeah, I don't want to reverse engineer history here and act like I was
01:55standing
01:55on the table like, how was Arrighetti at Sugar Land?
01:58Oh, no, we weren't.
01:58We weren't.
01:59Yeah, yeah.
02:02My point when Arrighetti was upset about it, I'm like, dude, you're going to be back up shortly.
02:06You left for a while at spring training.
02:08And also, I think just look, we know how baseball works.
02:11He was not going to be – look, Hunter Brown's an ace.
02:13Obviously, he wasn't going to be in ahead of Hunter Brown.
02:15Christian Javier, he's making $20 million, so he's going to be in the starting rotation
02:20to start the year.
02:23Tatsuya Imai was their big pickup, and he had a good spring.
02:26Tatsuya Imai and Mike Burroughs were excellent this spring.
02:28You were clowning me heading into the season about how excited I was about Burroughs,
02:33appropriately so, other than a couple of starts.
02:35Like, it's not been great for Burroughs.
02:36But there was nobody – and even Javier, as janky as he was in spring,
02:42his numbers were still okay.
02:44His ERA was under two.
02:45So there wasn't anybody – and then McCullers, you know, is going to get a shot
02:49because they're paying him $17 million, and they've got to see what they've got in Lance McCullers.
02:54So I had zero issue with Spencer Arrighetti.
02:56Now, in retrospect, would it have made more sense to have Spencer Arrighetti
02:59trotted out there every day instead of Lance McCullers?
03:02Hell yeah, it would have.
03:04You know, if that – if the version of him that we were going to get those first couple starts
03:09was the same one that we got once he got up here from Sugar Land.
03:14You know, and there's no guarantee of that because they were still building him up
03:17to get the season started.
03:18So, yeah, like I – I didn't think it was crazy at the time.
03:22I don't think it's crazy now.
03:23Eric Getty wasn't – if I remember it correctly, it wasn't like he was over-the-top upset about it.
03:28He made little comments about it.
03:30It was a little comment about how, like, yeah, you know,
03:32he puts a little, like, chip-on-the-shoulder type of comment.
03:35Yeah.
03:35But I thought it was appropriate.
03:37Yeah, I didn't –
03:37He's way better than – like, if you look at – like, honestly, though,
03:40I mean, it feels a little bit – the fact that Mike Burroughs was, like,
03:46who hasn't been as good as Arrighetti in his career was just slam dunk,
03:51oh, yeah, that's the guy.
03:53That annoys me a little bit because he just – that did end up having such an atrocious –
03:56But it was Dana Brown's big pickup.
03:59Right, I know.
03:59That's what's annoying me.
04:01And, well, Burroughs was awesome in the spring, though.
04:03Like, he was – he gave up one run in 15 innings in the spring.
04:07Yeah, in 15 innings.
04:08Like, that's why spring training is bogus because it's these shortened –
04:11it's these shortened stretches of 15 total innings.
04:14Totally.
04:14But that –
04:15It's less than three games worth of –
04:16But it's all you have to go off of.
04:17Yeah, but it's all you have to go off of.
04:19And Dana Brown is a – Dana Brown is a guy that puts a lot more into spring training than
04:24other GMs do.
04:25Yeah, yeah.
04:26But there's a lot of – there are a lot of GMs that are very careful about reading too much
04:29into spring training.
04:30Yeah.
04:30Remember when Cam Smith was going to be the best player in the history of baseball based on his spring
04:35training?
04:36Yeah, no, no.
04:36No, no, I'm not here to argue that spring training is an appropriate sample size to make these sweeping generalizations.
04:42I'm just saying this was a guy who was going to be in this – who entered spring training as
04:46one of the five guys who was going to be a starter
04:48and did nothing – did zero to lose that spot.
04:52Yeah.
04:52That's my point.
04:53That's my point.
04:54Does Jason Alexander get another start?
04:57Here's Joe Espada.
04:59I know it was a spot start today, but is Alexander likely to get another one?
05:03When you do that, when you do that, right?
05:05Mm-hmm.
05:06What do you think?
05:07I would think so.
05:08No, that's right.
05:10That's right.
05:10But to your point, yeah, anytime you do that and we're about to, you know, go into a little road
05:16trip here after the next off day,
05:18we – you know, he puts himself in that spot where he can get the ball.
05:22And we feel good about that he's going to keep us in the game.
05:25You caught this the first time, and I didn't catch it, and it was a great point, which is Joe
05:29Espada, who a week ago was yelling –
05:31not yelling, but it was upset with Chandler Rome asking if – I forget who it was –
05:35needed somebody – oh, it was either – it was Weiss or somebody needed a change of scenery.
05:40It was Weiss.
05:41Yeah.
05:41If he needed a change of scenery to go to the minor leagues, and Joe's like, hey, let's not play
05:44GM.
05:45And now Joe's like, well, hey, hey, what do you think?
05:47Yeah, yeah, what do you think?
05:48And whoever that was asking the question was like, I'm not going to do what Chandler did.
05:52I was like, you've already told us.
05:55Because Chandler wasn't even trying to play GM or anything.
05:57He was just asking a basic question.
05:59And then Chandler reported like an hour later that they were sending him down to the minors.
06:04Yes, he did.
06:05After Espada acted like it was the dumbest question ever asked.
06:08He's gone the next day.
06:09Yeah.
06:09He was gone the next day.
06:11So, yeah, Alexander was really good last night.
06:14Dude, the list of injuries, I Googled this yesterday, I can't believe there's actually periods in the season where they've
06:22gone a week or 10 days without an injury because it feels like there's been one every day of the
06:29season.
06:29It feels like somebody gets hurt with something.
06:33The most popular one, Seth, seems to either be shoulders or obliques.
06:40The oblique is a very popular injury with the Astros this year.
06:44Jake Myers, Jake Myers, Yiner Diaz, Jose Altuve, all oblique strains trailed very closely by shoulder issues.
06:54You know, I think Lance's shoulder issue pulls shoulders into a tie with oblique strains for the most popular injuries
07:01with Astros players this season.
07:03Yeah, and I don't know, at some point we're going to have to take a day off and go on
07:10a retreat and brainstorm different ways to talk about this long nightmare we've had with injuries with the Astros.
07:17Because we can talk about the medical staff, we can talk about whether the analytics are matching up with what
07:24guys need to be doing on the field and with their pitch selection and everything.
07:28It's just, it's a nightmare.
07:29It's just, at any given time, even as they're on this win streak, which is, that's what I call 3
07:34-2 over the last five games.
07:36That's an Astros win streak.
07:38It's a win streak.
07:39Yep.
07:39Even over this win streak, at any given time, you're looking out there and you're like, boy, this is a
07:43promising AAA team.
07:44Woo!
07:45These guys are a lot.
07:46And then, well, except for that, yeah, that young Jordan Alvarez.
07:49Is that Jordan Alvarez or John Singleton?
07:51Yeah.
07:51Because he looks like he's got a lot of potential, but he doesn't know what he's doing at the plate.
07:54Wait, remember when John Singleton would bat like 500 in AAA and then come up to the majors and bat
08:01zero?
08:01Dude.
08:02We went through three years of that.
08:03And I feel like that's where Jordan is stuck all of a sudden looking like John Singleton.
08:07He's playing somewhere right now, or at least he was Singleton, I'm talking about.
08:11As of a few weeks ago, I don't know if he's playing in the Mexican League or if he's playing
08:16in an independent league or whatever.
08:18Yeah.
08:18But his wife is still doing that thing she does where she's like campaigning.
08:22I'm like, oh, like she posted a highlight of him hitting a grand slam or something like that.
08:26Oh, yeah.
08:26She's like, oh, I bet.
08:28Are there any MLB teams that need a lefty bat right now?
08:31I'm like, is he still doing this for 13 years with John Singleton?
08:35We know what he is.
08:36Is he still yoked like he was last year?
08:38I don't know.
08:39Remember that?
08:39He lost weight and gained muscle, and he looked the best he'd ever looked.
08:43I was so excited about him.
08:44I was, too.
08:45He looked downright spry at first base.
08:48I had such high hopes.
08:50That was the report.
08:50You and I were at spring training, and we're calling in with reports on the Astros to the
08:54other shows, and that was our first observation.
08:57Like, Jonathan Singleton has muscles on top of muscles right now.
09:00Look, this is what you need to know about this young Jordan Alvarez kid.
09:04He's just got to figure out what major league pitching looks like, and I think I see the
09:09potential.
09:09I do, too.
09:10I do, too.
09:11I think that once he ties it all together, maybe he needs those amber contact lenses that
09:15some of the baseball players are wearing.
09:17I don't know what that is.
09:18What is it?
09:18Gosh, one of the guys for the rangers wears them, but they use them in certain situations.
09:26It's supposed to help them.
09:27It's like wearing polarized sunglasses or something.
09:29Like it dulls the light?
09:30It helps them see more, yeah.
09:32Okay.
09:32And the Astros LED lighting, one of our listeners has probably already texted in who it was.
09:37Yeah, but they look kind of freaky.
09:39They're not, I think they're red tinted.
09:41They called them amber on the broadcast, but I read an article about it before the season.
09:45Okay.
09:45And it almost, it looks kind of, yeah, it looks kind of like you're a vampire.
09:49Yeah, I was going to say, does it change your eye color?
09:51Like, are they?
09:51Yeah, it does.
09:52Oh, that's awesome.
09:53Oh, I recommend that.
09:54That would be sweet.
09:56That would be sweet.
09:57Text message.
09:58This is a funny text from a listener.
09:59My wife, who follows no sports except for what I tell her, asked me this morning, do
10:04the Astros have any players left or is everybody injured?
10:07Yeah, see, even the non-sports fans know it's bad with the Astros right now.
10:11Jake, oh, it's Jake Berger.
10:12It was Jake Berger.
10:13Oh, oh, well, it worked.
10:15Yeah.
10:16Yeah, and on Sunday, he had, he was driving in all those runs for the Rangers on Sunday.
10:21Yeah.
10:22Yeah, okay.
10:23Gives him bright red eyes.
10:24At this point, let's try it, man.
10:26It looks, I'm looking at a picture of Jake Berger right now, and it doesn't look bright
10:29red.
10:29It looks like, it looks like he just smoked three bongs.
10:34Okay.
10:35It kind of, to me, it looks like you've either been up all night.
10:40Yeah.
10:40Or you've been participating in some activities.
10:43You know what?
10:44I was thinking about this the other day, Seth.
10:46You know what has kind of died a quick death?
10:49Torpedo bats.
10:51Remember when the torpedo bat was all the rage at the beginning of last season?
10:55It was going to ruin baseball.
10:55Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:56Because the Yankees hit like nine home runs in a game in late March or something like
11:02that.
11:02And if it was any other team that hit the nine home runs or whatever it was, I don't remember
11:06the exact numbers, but the Yankees won a game like 20 to five and they hit a bunch of home
11:10runs.
11:11And the torpedo bat was the topic for like the next two weeks.
11:16Like, and the thing was, they'd already been used for three years.
11:20Right, right.
11:21People had already been using it, but nobody had talked about it or anything.
11:24But yeah, the Yankees went on that run and all of a sudden it was attributed to the
11:28torpedo bat.
11:29Yes, yes.
11:29People are still using them.
11:30Yeah.
11:31It's just, I think, yeah, it just kind of died because people realized this was just a
11:36Trumped up focus story.
11:36Yeah, the stats are normalized.
11:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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