- 2 days ago
Shaun Bijani & Patrick Creighton discuss a difficult topic as to what needs to happen with a once reliable bullpen pitcher for the Astros.
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00:00Sports Radio 610 presents Area 45 with Bishani and Creighton.
00:11Are you coming in with sad music?
00:14This is like, this is from my Happy Gilmore music.
00:18Looking up at Chubb.
00:20Kicking off the last hour on this Tuesday.
00:23Got his wooden hand back.
00:26This is kind of like the day that the Astros cut bait with Brian Abreu.
00:32And then they look up in the clouds and they see Brian Abreu.
00:36And he holds up a radar gun.
00:39And he's like, I got my VLO back.
00:41This is fantastic.
00:43Nah, this is my new introduction to the 10 o'clock hour.
00:47When Brian Abreu gets his velocity back, he will not be wearing a Houston Astros uniform anymore.
00:54In the opinion of Sean Michael Bishani.
00:58Is that really your middle name?
00:59Yes.
01:00Oh man, I'm going to make fun of you now.
01:01Hence SMB.
01:03Well, there's nothing I can do about it.
01:05It's the name that was given to me.
01:07And I got to roll with it.
01:08There is something the Houston Astros could do about Brian Abreu.
01:13They don't have to sit here and watch Brian Abreu pitch like absolute ass.
01:19Why?
01:20Why did they not have to do that?
01:21I'll tell you why.
01:22And then you can tell me why I'm wrong.
01:24Brian Abreu signed a one-year, $5.85 million contract before he reaches unrestricted free
01:32agent status at the end of the season.
01:34It was his final year of arbitration.
01:37Yes, you were correct.
01:37But did I say anything wrong?
01:39No, I'm just saying his final year of arbitration.
01:40There you go.
01:40Final year of arbitration.
01:42You know what this should be the final year of?
01:43The final year that Brian Abreu pitches for the Houston Astros.
01:45Because he's 29 years old and you're not going to be able to afford him anyway after this
01:51because he will have wanted like all of the Buku dollars and the monies for being a badass
01:55pitcher that he thought he was going to be this year.
01:57But he's not.
01:58In fact, Brian Abreu might contractually, financially, economically be doing you a favor.
02:03So, what is to prevent the Houston Astros from saying, well, screw this guy, cut him, he
02:09sucks, we have better options.
02:12Maybe their better options are named Miguel Yalola or, I don't know, Nate Pearson who throws
02:17the ball really hard.
02:18A.J.
02:18Blue Ball who throws the ball but just kept a run.
02:21Maybe they find out that they have better options and they just cut bait with him.
02:26If somebody picks him up, then don't they incur the rest of his $3.1 million remaining on
02:34his contract this season?
02:35It depends.
02:36If you trade for him, yes.
02:38If you claim him off waivers, yes.
02:40If he clears waivers and elects free agency, then no.
02:44I wonder what the chances of him being picked up off of waivers are at this point in time.
02:48Probably slim to none.
02:49No, probably high for a low-revenue team, probably like a flyer on him.
02:53But for a team that would recognize maybe the fact that we're asking the questions that
02:59we don't know the answers to and maybe teams would be doing the same thing, I would think
03:03if they're smart, like, why is this guy's velocity all over the place, command all over
03:07the place, spin rate down, all of these things?
03:10Hey, if they do pick him up off of waivers, awesome.
03:13Astros saved $3.1 million.
03:16In fact, $3.7 million.
03:17They've already paid him $2.1 million.
03:21I did the math during the break.
03:23Yeah, they're not cutting him.
03:23They're not DFA-ing him tomorrow.
03:25Why?
03:26Because they're not.
03:27Why?
03:28Because the Astros will say, hey, we know who this guy is.
03:32We know what he's capable of.
03:34We need to get him right.
03:36You can't get him right on the Major League team in games like this.
03:41You can't.
03:42Certainly not at 6'4", you can't.
03:43It is proven now.
03:44I'd say at 10'4", you could get him right.
03:46Yeah, but not close games, man.
03:50Where does Brian Abreu find his velocity and his mojo?
03:58With the Astros, with a small market team in Major League Baseball,
04:04with the Dorados de Chihuahua, or with the Leones de Yucatán?
04:13Any one of those options?
04:14Not name the Houston Astros?
04:16Yes.
04:17He can even find it with the Skeeter Space Cowboys.
04:20I don't care.
04:21Well, that would mean he's still in the organization.
04:23Doesn't matter.
04:23It ain't my money.
04:24But I'm trying to help the Astros save 3.1 of theirs.
04:28And they could do that.
04:29They should do that.
04:30Otherwise, he's just wasting space.
04:32He's like, Logan Van, why do you keep bringing him up?
04:36He's like...
04:37He's amazing.
04:38Yeah, amazing.
04:39At what?
04:39In runaway games.
04:41When he pitches in games in which the Astros are leading by 10 or trailing by 8,
04:45he's fantastic.
04:47But why are you hating on him?
04:49I just gave you the reason why.
04:51He's meaningless to this organization right now.
04:54That's not a legitimate reason.
04:54Just like Brian Abreu is meaningless to the organization if he's just taking up space.
04:59And he's costly to this organization when you continue to pitch him when he's clearly not right.
05:06You see, I ain't even joking, man.
05:08The Astros have to rely on way too many other dudes in roles that they're not used to being in.
05:14And they have to rely on way too many dudes to develop at the highest of levels in baseball.
05:19You can't afford to do this with Brian Abreu in close baseball games right now.
05:27You know, if you take a look at the, as you call them, the Skeeter Cowboys.
05:34The Skeet Cowboys.
05:36And you look at who has pitched the best for said Skeet Cowboys.
05:42It has not been Miguel Uyola, who's got a 6.05 ERA.
05:49Colton Gordon, who was just named, what, PCL Pitcher of the Month?
05:54Weak, I think.
05:55Still has a 4.42 ERA.
06:00Tom Cosgrove's at 3.80.
06:05JP France, 4.35.
06:09Ethan Pecco, damn near 7.
06:10How's their defense?
06:11Because that factors in a little bit.
06:13I mean, I'd be more interested in, like, strikeout-to-walk ratio and stuff like that
06:18as opposed to ERAs for pitchers that might have a crap defense behind them.
06:22Well, you've got other guys who've got low ERAs, like Alain Brasanta, like Anthony Maldonado's
06:29.286, Jaden Murray's .146, Peter Lambert was .184, Ryan Weiss, .662.
06:37Yeah.
06:38No.
06:38Been there, done that.
06:41I think Ryan Weiss has shown you his double-A pitcher.
06:43He needs to go to the same school that the Astros need to send Brian Abreu to, the school
06:47of get right.
06:48And it's not with the Houston Astros.
06:51Won't be Amos Willingham because he is no longer in the organization.
06:54And his name is Amos.
06:56He's no longer in the organization.
06:57Name the last famous Amos.
06:59What's wrong with Amos?
07:00He made cookies.
07:01Zaraway?
07:01Hmm.
07:02He made cookies.
07:04Nobody knows who you just said.
07:05Amos Zaraway?
07:06Nobody knows who you just said.
07:08Is he running back with the Steelers?
07:11Okay.
07:12I believe you.
07:14I have questions, but okay.
07:17Well, we're here to ask him.
07:21You know, they got issues with depth.
07:28There's not any more arms to go and fish.
07:33They need guys to come back.
07:34Here's the thing, though.
07:35You didn't need to pitch him tonight.
07:37Like, pretending that, like, okay, Espada agrees with Sean Bajani.
07:45And they cannot afford to pitch Brian Abreu in these games.
07:48Okay.
07:49But you're going to keep him on the staff because, you know, you're just going to work with him
07:53and pitch him in, you know, these blowout-type situations, whether you're up or down.
07:58They did not, literally everybody in that bullpen was available tonight.
08:02Maybe with the exception of one dude who threw 24 pitches two days ago.
08:07But everybody else was available out of the pen tonight.
08:11You did not need to pitch Brian Abreu.
08:13They chose to pitch Brian Abreu because, well, you know what?
08:16The nine times out of the last ten that he threw, he didn't allow a run.
08:20And even one or two of those was in higher leverage-type situations.
08:24And he was okay.
08:25He got us out of that.
08:26But, you know, we got to show the guy that we have some confidence in him,
08:30so you're going to pitch him.
08:31I have no problem with them pitching him tonight.
08:33But now I know he ain't right.
08:37What we did see, I agree, is fool's gold.
08:40And you cannot pitch him until his velocity has stabilized and his command has improved.
08:46What would you rather have, the command improve or the velocity improve?
08:49Both.
08:50But ultimately, command.
08:53Like, I don't give a damn how hard you throw.
08:56Nobody does.
08:57Just get outs.
08:59Get out.
09:01Well, look, he's gotten himself into what should be considered mop-up time.
09:10Because how do you trust him for anything other than mop-up time?
09:14You can't.
09:15Somebody said this earlier.
09:16He's Rafael Montero.
09:18He's the 2026 version of Rafael Montero.
09:21The only difference is he didn't pay Abreu all the millions of dollars yet.
09:26And now they won't.
09:27He didn't pay $36 million.
09:29The problem is, again, if you're looking for a way to move him, his value is the absolute lowest it
09:35could possibly be.
09:36Yeah.
09:36They missed that boat like three, four days ago.
09:39The Astros would have traded him on Thursday.
09:43This is...
09:43That would have been fantastic.
09:45This is right where they were with Jake Myers.
09:49Like, you had all offseason to trade Jake Myers on his career year and you whiffed.
09:53Mm-hmm.
09:55Was Brian Abreu seriously being discussed as a tradable commodity this past offseason?
10:02Well, teams were calling on him.
10:04Not so much the Astros were shopping him, but teams were calling on him because he's in the last year
10:09of his deal.
10:10You know, he's going to be free agent at the end of the year.
10:11It's the last year of arbitration.
10:13And the Astros already owe Josh Hader, you know, another $40 million after this year.
10:19So, clearly, Hader is going to close.
10:21So, you're not going to pay Abreu closer money.
10:24So, they were looking to see, hey, can I...
10:26Is there a way to trade for Brian Abreu that we can get him, make him our closer, or we
10:30can get him and, you know, we're fine with him being a one-year guy or we'll resign him or
10:34whatever the case might be?
10:36Because it's always looked like the Astros were not going to resign.
10:40Now, if that being the case, the idea of, well, let's see if he's available, and the Astros just never
10:49bit.
10:49Now, that could be because they weren't offered enough.
10:52That could be because they had made the decision that they were just not going to bite.
10:56Like, we don't know what the answer is to why they didn't bite.
10:59Just, they didn't.
11:01Yeah.
11:02I wonder what...
11:05I've asked you this before, but how much did we pay attention to what Brian Abreu's vote?
11:09Velocity was the final month of the season last year.
11:14Like, were there warning signs even last year that maybe he was losing a little bit on his fastball?
11:19I don't think so.
11:20Were there warning signs in spring training this year that he did not have his fastball?
11:27When did this start?
11:29When did this become a thing with Brian Abreu?
11:32I have to kind of believe that it wasn't in spring training because did the Astros operate like a team
11:40that did not know exactly who their closer was going to be coming out of spring training into this regular
11:46season knowing full well Josh Hader was not going to be ready?
11:50I don't think that this was a...
11:54I don't think this was an issue last year, but I don't recall it necessarily.
12:02Plus, sometimes it's hard to get the speeds when you're in spring training because not every ballpark has them.
12:15But real quick here, I'll pull up in spring training, Abreu, 93.5, 94.3.
12:29So, yeah, the velocity was an issue in spring training.
12:34Why do you say that?
12:36Because I'm looking at it.
12:37Well, I'm looking for the numbers.
12:4093, 94.
12:42That was the last spring training game.
12:44He threw 93 and 94.
12:46Okay.
12:47I'm looking to see where did he throw this one.
12:49This would be the fourth, fifth, let's say sixth inning here.
12:55Pulling up.
12:56This is from the second to last spring training game that Abreu pitched in.
13:06And fastball, 95.9, 94.9, 95.9, 96.3.
13:15So, fastball wasn't off by a lot here in 94.6, 95.5, 96.2.
13:22So, that was the second to last preseason game that he pitched in.
13:28He'd say, okay, he's ramping up, right?
13:30He only threw a total of six innings in the preseason.
13:37Yeah.
13:38Very small sample size.
13:43It's, it's, I don't even know if it's about the velocity, really.
13:49Like.
13:50When you're throwing 91 and 92, there's something to talk about here.
13:54No, in the sense that I don't think he can only throw that hard.
13:59I think if he, he can 97.
14:02I think he's not throwing 97 because he feels like he cannot control it.
14:08And so, he's just dialing it back and just trying to groove stuff, maybe just aim stuff.
14:15And when you do that, you're all over the place.
14:19Maybe he feels like, you know, if he does kind of let it go, he's still all over the place.
14:23Something is off there because I remember very early on this season, you go look, if you want to, with
14:32the, the, the velocity numbers in the, I bet you the first three, four outings that he had, he'd get
14:39up to 97.
14:40It'd be 93, 94, 95, 97, boom.
14:44And then pretty much like it was tonight, back down and then one back up and back down.
14:50He's kind of all over the place.
14:52And so, I'm saying, I don't think that it's an issue that he can't do it.
14:56I think it's an issue that he doesn't like the way that he feels when he does it.
15:00And feels, I mean, not as in like, hey, something hurts, but this feels different.
15:06Like, I, I can't control the ball.
15:08I can't feel the ball like I was.
15:10I was trying to think about this the other day and I'm not even joking, you know, the whole spider
15:16attack thing.
15:16I wonder if there is something that, you know, he's doing differently, maybe because he's had to with gripping the
15:27baseball.
15:29You know what I'm saying?
15:30So, here's where that theory would come into play.
15:34If he's having trouble feeling the ball, that usually means thoracic outlet syndrome.
15:41You get the numbness in your hand, you can't really feel it.
15:43That could possibly explain the inconsistent velocity.
15:47It could possibly explain why the rotation is down so much.
15:51Who just had that with the Astros, thoracic outlet syndrome?
15:54Janet Sousa.
15:55Sousa, was he the only one?
15:56He's the most recent.
15:58What did JP France have?
16:00Shoulder capsule.
16:01Shoulder capsule, that's right.
16:02But as I'm looking at Abreu, his velocity was 94-96 most of spring training, except the last game.
16:16Abreu pitched the eighth inning, the first game of the year against the Halos.
16:23And I'll tell you what he threw.
16:28While you're doing that, I'll tell you what, Mr. Soto for the Pirates just threw Christian Walker.
16:32It was a 96-mile-per-hour fastball that caught the lower inside corner of the plate, and Walker was
16:38not very happy with it.
16:40Yeah, because he was going to challenge it, and the Astros don't have any more challenges because Abreu wasted the
16:46last one on the slider that was three feet below the zone.
16:49And I'm here to tell you that if he would have challenged it, he would have been wrong.
16:51Yeah, he would have.
16:52You do what you got to do, especially when you have to tie and run on deck right now.
16:56So here's the thing.
16:58Abreu's velocity was 94-96 all through spring training until the very last game.
17:04The very first game of the season, 92-4, 92-3, was his first two fastballs.
17:1194-1, 91-7, 92-3, 92-8, 92.
17:20So whatever happened started the very last preseason game and then carried through into the regular season where all of
17:32a sudden he went from consistently 94, 95, 96, still less than what he threw last year.
17:37But you can be effective 94-96.
17:41But now the velocity has cratered.
17:44His confidence in the pitch has cratered.
17:46And his command of the pitch is just out the window.
17:52Yeah.
17:52So six innings in preseason.
17:55Yes.
17:55And now we're about 19 and a third inning into his regular season.
18:00At what point in time did the Astros say, hmm, pretty good sample size, enough to say we cannot let
18:10you cost us baseball games anymore?
18:12It should have happened after the Milwaukee game.
18:15Mm-hmm.
18:15But they stuck with him for another game.
18:18Here, you know, we're down two runs.
18:21The leverage here is not real high.
18:24And he goes out there and throws gasoline all over the fire.
18:27So that part of it right there that he was not able to just keep the game where it was.
18:40It was a 6-4 game.
18:42Yeah.
18:42Well, the Astros got six runs.
18:44Yeah.
18:44You remember that time he didn't pitch for like seven days?
18:49I think we're about to see one of those times.
18:50Again, from April 17th to April 24th, that was the amount of time between outies.
18:58I don't know that they can do that right now because they're going to be in a stretch for about
19:02two weeks.
19:04Because you can't just have a dead body in the pen that you're not going to use.
19:10He's at least going to have to pitch mop-up.
19:13Here's the thing, though.
19:15Why are we left to assume that he would not accept an invitation to go get better without costing a
19:21team that really would like to pay you some money next year to pitch in meaningful games games?
19:28Like, go figure it out somewhere else.
19:30That's why we would assume that he doesn't want to go down to the minor leagues.
19:34Yeah.
19:34Because 99.99999% of major leaguers do not want to go to the minor leagues.
19:42There's obviously financial ramifications that go with going to the minor leagues.
19:45What are those financial ramifications when you're making $5.8 million this year?
19:50You've ever seen the difference in how a day is for the minor leagues versus the major leagues?
19:56But he's on a major league contract.
19:57You're living minor league life.
19:59If you're getting minor league per diem, you're not getting your service time when you're in the minor leagues.
20:06You're not getting your MLB, PA, the money that you get for, like, jersey sales.
20:15I understand what you're saying.
20:17So there is a financial ramification to it.
20:19When your name's like Miguel Yalola or, you know, like some unproven minor leaguer that, hey, you get called up
20:25to the roster, now you're in big league checks, now you're going back down to the minors.
20:28This guy has to give approval.
20:29I didn't know it was like that for that.
20:30And if it is like that for that, then, yeah, that kind of sucks.
20:35Did Jose Abreu do that whenever he had to go to Florida?
20:37Florida, was he forfeiting major league paychecks?
20:41He was on the I.L.
20:42Okay.
20:43Could you put Brian Abreu on the I.L.
20:45like everybody else has been this year?
20:47Only with his consent or if he has a real injury.
20:49And again, why would he do that?
20:51Because there are guys, look, it's happened before.
20:53If you try to put a guy on the I.L.
20:55and he don't want to go on it, you're getting a player, if you just file an agreement, you're getting
20:59fined.
20:59Yeah, I just hope that the Astros are at least exploring that possibility.
21:04You know, they found a way to get Lance McCullers on the I.L.
21:07with the case of the suckies last year.
21:09Because his arm hurts.
21:10Well, I think Brian Abreu's arm hurts, too.
21:12You know, you're talking about that he may not be able to feel the baseball.
21:18And I'm wondering if that's part of it, because it would explain a lot of things.
21:23Yeah, and you know what?
21:23What if he's lying to them the whole time or not saying anything?
21:27Just not saying anything.
21:28Because, look, guys, they don't want to say anything.
21:31I don't want to be hurt.
21:32I'm in the final year before I get free agency.
21:35I can't be hurt.
21:36No, you can't pitch like garbage is what you can't do.
21:39Right.
21:39I think the Astros have precedence for this.
21:41Jeremy Payne has said, well, you know, I didn't say anything.
21:43I played through the hamstring thing a little bit for a few days.
21:46Well, it's like every baseball player.
21:47I mean, it's not new.
21:48I know.
21:48But at some point in time, you've got to save them from themselves and save them from, you know, screwing
21:52you further.
21:53Maybe it's something that you've got to figure out and see, you know,
21:57is there a nerve issue that's causing him not to be able to feel the baseball the right way?
22:04That's causing him not to be able to grip the baseball the right way?
22:06Or, you know, so much pitching is feel.
22:08Yeah.
22:09Is there an issue there?
22:11Because it answers a lot of questions if there is.
22:16And there are a lot of unanswered questions if there isn't.
22:20Yeah.
22:21Yeah.
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