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Seth and Sean talk about Abreu stinking it up in the Astros 10-6 loss to the Pirates, and defense ruling the day at Texans OTAs yesterday.
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00:00And he got him. Soto closes out the game.
00:05Picks up Spire's victory.
00:07The Astros now 1-3 on the homestand.
00:10A couple of three-run home runs tonight.
00:12Brandon Lau and O'Neal Cruz hurting the Astros as they drop this one 10-6.
00:17Todd Callis on the call.
00:18Space City Home Network last night.
00:20Not a great day out at the yard.
00:22It was looking good for a while.
00:23They were up 4-2, kind of getting late in the game.
00:25And then Mike Burroughs came back in for the sixth, and he did what he's done more than anybody else
00:30all year.
00:31He gave up home runs.
00:33He gives up home runs.
00:33Multiple run homers, yeah.
00:35Yeah, that's the problem.
00:37The last start that he had when he went seven innings and gave up two runs, it's like, all right,
00:41well, these were solo home runs.
00:42That's okay.
00:43Verlander did that for years for the Astros.
00:45But, yeah, last night, three-run homer, and then Brian Abreu comes in and dumps gasoline all over the fire.
00:52I'm trying to figure out a way that I could defend Burroughs.
00:54Because I know this is, you know, this is especially devastating for you because you're the biggest Burroughs fan out
00:59there.
00:59Not anymore.
01:00It's like, Sean, he's actually a really good pitcher until he lets players on base.
01:09Because then, with runners on base, he turns every batter into Jordan Alvarez.
01:16Right.
01:16He's got, entering last night, he was allowing a 9.03 OPS when he had runners on base.
01:22So, basically, if you're a batter in opposing Astros teams, if you're a batter that plays for the opposing team,
01:32and Burroughs get, and you get up, and there's somebody on first base, you're telling yourself, I'm Jordan Frickin' Alvarez.
01:38I'm vintage Albert Pujols right now.
01:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:42I am Pete Pujols in this batter's box right now.
01:45Listen, Sean, I understand baseball, and what you don't understand about baseball is that he's an awesome pitcher, except for,
01:51you know, the whole letting people on base.
01:54You know, it's just the one little minor detail.
01:57If he could just never let anybody on base, he'd be all right.
02:00Well, the other thing with Burroughs early in the year was, oh, he's just so unlucky.
02:06He's so unlucky early in the year.
02:08And so, I was taking one of the segments we did last week and writing an article about it for
02:14the Houston Press.
02:15When you and I were kind of figuring, either earlier this week or late last week, we were figuring, like,
02:20okay, these guys are all going to be coming back pretty soon.
02:22And Javier and Hunter Brown, and you got some guys who you weren't expecting to even be starters, like Kai
02:28Wei-Tang.
02:30Peter Lambert, you weren't even expecting him to be on the team.
02:32You DFA'd him at the beginning of the year, and you brought him back, who have pitched pretty well.
02:37So, I was writing the article of, okay, this is sort of what I think the percentage chance that each
02:45guy is going to be in the starting rotation once everybody's back.
02:48You know, Eric Getty and Hunter Brown, 100% are going to be in.
02:52Tatsuya Ima, I think, is like 95% based on how he's pitched and what he's getting paid and what
02:56he means to the team.
02:57And I got to Burroughs, and I'm like, you know what, I've got to go look up.
03:01I know his ERA is in the fives.
03:03I've got to go look up and see if he's still so unlucky, as everybody was saying at the beginning
03:07of the year.
03:08Possibly even me, because as you point out, I was a card-carrying Burroughs lover coming out of spring training.
03:13Who wouldn't have been?
03:14I do that jokingly.
03:15I know.
03:16I know.
03:16I'll lean into it, though.
03:17Because he did.
03:18He only gave up one run in, like, 15 innings or whatever.
03:20I was excited about him.
03:24His, which is the, you know, that's basically your ERA factoring in luck, is about the same as his regular
03:31ERA now.
03:32Like, he's settled in now where he is.
03:34He has his moments, but he has this penchant for giving up home runs.
03:38And he has, as you pointed out, he has this penchant for giving up home runs with lots of guys
03:42on base.
03:43Yeah, yeah.
03:44That's where his, like, so on baseball, Savant, his expected ERA right now is 4.11, which isn't atrocious, especially
03:50relatively early in the season.
03:52You know, it's like an average major league pitcher.
03:55But I think that's where sometimes you get, if you run hog wild with the expected stats, you lose out
04:01on some of how it's working for the individual, which is that dynamic of, man, it sure does seem like
04:07something happens to him when there's runners on base.
04:09And he clenches up a little bit.
04:12I was at that game.
04:14I forget who they were playing.
04:15Amy and I went to a game, a Sunday game, where Burroughs was pitching, and he was literally perfect through
04:21four and two-thirds.
04:23Literally, nobody got on base.
04:25For four and two-thirds innings, nobody gets on base.
04:27Last, he's got to get one more out to get through five perfect, perfect innings.
04:31And a guy gets on base.
04:32He didn't make it through the inning.
04:34Guy gets on base, and he just melted.
04:36And that's an extreme example, obviously.
04:40But this is, you know, it's sort of the opposite of a guy that you trot out there.
04:48You know, like Spencer Arrighetti tonight.
04:49You've trotted him out there, and practically every time he goes out and gets a win, like you know you've
04:53got a great chance of winning.
04:53Now, he goes against Paul Skeens tonight.
04:55Yeah.
04:56And we'll talk about that a little later in the show.
04:59So this is going to be â tonight should be a fun night at the yard.
05:02Should be a quick one if both pitchers are â to where they've pitched, you know, for Arrighetti this year
05:09and for Skeens his entire life.
05:10Yeah, this is shaping up to possibly be the summer of Arrighetti.
05:15Yeah.
05:15And that's before we even know whether it might end up actually being the summer of Hunter Brown.
05:19That's right.
05:19Or maybe â maybe we get a redo of 2019, and we've got a couple of guys right there in
05:25the Cy Young race.
05:26Maybe, maybe.
05:27We'll see.
05:28Brian Abreu stunk last night also.
05:31And Brian Abreu exacerbated it by doing the thing that I think annoys this show the most,
05:37just completely thumbing his nose at the ABS rules, at the challenging rule.
05:43The Astros supposedly have a rule that the pitchers are not supposed to challenge pitches.
05:48Abreu challenged the pitch last night and lost and then proceeded to give up a three-run homer after that.
05:55And then there was an at-bat in the bottom of the ninth where the Astros, down 10-4, actually
06:00got a little bit of a rally going.
06:02The Pirates had to bring their closer into this game.
06:04That's the only real victory you get out of this is that in the ninth inning you got into their
06:08bullpen enough
06:09to where they had to bring Soto in at the end of the game, so they used him last night.
06:12So that's, you know, in what should be a close game tonight, if you happen to have a lead,
06:17or if the Pirates happen to have a lead late in the game, they're going to need to think twice
06:21maybe about using their closer.
06:23But Christian Walker had a couple guys on base, and the score's 10-6.
06:28And it's strike three, and Walker's tapping his helmet.
06:31And it's like, no, no, no, no.
06:33Brian Abreu used up your last challenge in that eighth inning where he gave up a three-run homer.
06:41Oh, yeah, yeah.
06:42Brian Abreu stinks.
06:45It's got so atrocious with this man with Abreu.
06:48He stinks, and I can deal with stinking, but when you stink and you do stupid things.
06:54It was a weird night last night.
06:55I mean, like, Pirates, to his credit, he had a really nice double play,
06:59but he also had a couple of really bad plays in the field.
07:03Dude, that one throw.
07:04It felt like the AI version of the Astros last night.
07:08It looked like them, but not quite them.
07:10Right.
07:10I don't know.
07:11Paredes, did Paredes just throw that with his third arm?
07:14Right.
07:15Something's going on here that's just not quite right.
07:17The problem for Paredes is he has seven fingers on his throwing hand.
07:21Look, if you zoom in.
07:22Well, no, he had especially the one home run.
07:25There was initially a ground rule double for the Pirates,
07:28but it hit that little pole holding up the net or whatever it might be.
07:33Yeah.
07:33Yeah.
07:34They zipprooted that AI.
07:35You're right.
07:36It was an AI game last night.
07:37It was an AI night.
07:38Yeah.
07:39This game has four legs.
07:40What the hell is going on?
07:42Oh, man.
07:43So that stunk last night.
07:45Here was Joe Espada on Brian Abreu.
07:47No.
07:48You know, they just probably better execution.
07:51But, you know, today we saw a perfect executed slider from Abreu,
07:55and Lowe keeps him fair.
07:56And it's a home run.
07:57It's just the game, right?
07:59They put good swings on them.
08:00And sometimes you just got to get ahead of hitters.
08:04You know, if you're ahead of hitters, you could manipulate more of the at-bat,
08:07and you could, you know, find better ways to get people out.
08:10But that's, you know, that wasn't the case today.
08:12No.
08:12It hasn't been the case all year with Brian Abreu.
08:14Like, it wasn't just today.
08:17And it's when guys are swinging.
08:19Like, as we learned with Abreu, sometimes you don't even have to swing,
08:22and you'll have success against them.
08:23Right.
08:23Yeah.
08:24Just so good.
08:25Just so good.
08:26I don't know.
08:28I can't get mad at Espada for just, you know.
08:30No, no, no.
08:31He's not going to lambace his guys or anything.
08:32And we've got a two-and-a-half-year body of work with him.
08:36We know what it is with Joe Espada.
08:37I mean, there's almost nothing you can say about an Abreu performance,
08:41where even if it was all genuinely just bad luck or it was a good pitch
08:45and the guy got a hold of it or whatever it might be,
08:48the sum total of everything is that it's been just an absolute disaster.
08:51I'm more angry, oddly enough, in a game where he, you know,
08:55Brian Abreu let the game get out of hand.
08:57Yeah.
08:58He let a close game get out of hand.
09:00I'm more angry about the challenge than I am him giving up three runs in a game
09:03and they end up losing 10-6.
09:05Like, that's just â that is complete selfishness.
09:11Supposedly, from what I read after the game, it violates one of the rules,
09:14one of the tenets they have with ABS.
09:16It's funny, too.
09:17I saw people, you know, talking about how, you know, just in general, like,
09:22boy, how are the Astros so bad with ABS compared to all these other teams?
09:25And I saw Brian McTaggart have to point out, like, actually, offensively,
09:29they're the best at ABS.
09:30Other than Cam Smith, they're amazing at it.
09:33Yeah.
09:33Yeah, including with Cam Smith.
09:35It's like, you're just â even with Cam Smith factors in, they're the best.
09:39They're the best, yeah.
09:40Yeah, so â
09:41But they're still â you're not going to have as many challenges with your pitchers
09:44as you are your catchers.
09:46Right.
09:46So it just â or, excuse me, with your batters as you are your catchers.
09:49Yeah.
09:49And that's where the catchers not being great at it has not helped the Astros at all.
09:53Yep.
09:54So that was the Astros last night.
09:56I'm excited for tonight.
09:57We'll hear from the spot in headlines about tonight's matchup between Spencer Argetti
10:01and Paul Skeens.
10:02By the way, Argetti still â
10:04I'm not kidding.
10:05They put out the AL Cy Young odds earlier this week, Seth.
10:09And they've got, like, 20 guys on there.
10:11He's not on the leaderboard.
10:13He doesn't qualify.
10:13Okay, yeah, you saw the same thing.
10:15Well, but you can still be on an odds board.
10:16Yeah, but it's just not â like, they don't â if you're not on the leaderboard, it's just â
10:21There's, like, 25 guys on there.
10:22I guarantee you there's guys who aren't on the leaderboard.
10:24He's 7-1 with a â I get what you're saying.
10:26Maybe that ERA's not showing up when guys are just skimming it and they're looking at it.
10:31But if I'm in Vegas, I'm throwing Argetti on the odds board just knowing what his numbers â
10:36I mean, he's going to be on the leaderboard in two weeks or whatever, you know.
10:40I just thought it was strange that he wasn't on there at all.
10:43Like, Javier, I know the year â you know, I don't want to go too deep on it.
10:47Like, Javier was on there the year that he didn't qualify for anything because he was throwing no-hitters
10:50and he was so good.
10:52I'm just a little surprised that Eric Yeti hasn't â I wonder if that plays out when it comes to
10:58â
10:58Well, you think, yeah, somebody would at least be trying to entice some action on that.
11:00That's all I'm saying.
11:01Yeah, that's all I'm saying is some astrofins.
11:03He's still about, like, 20 innings shy of qualifying for the leaderboard right now.
11:06Yeah, we have.
11:07So, okay, OTAs yesterday for the Texans.
11:10By the way, Nick Casario joins us at 7.30 on the show today.
11:15Texans executive vice president and general manager.
11:17We'll go about 30 minutes with him today, commercial-free, at 7.30.
11:21So, make a note, make an appointment for that.
11:24Yesterday, Seth, I was out there for the last 45 minutes or so.
11:28I was out there for all the 11-on-11.
11:29And I think the big takeaways, defense ruled the day again.
11:34Defense ruled the day, and defense â this is a great defense.
11:37So, and Nico Collins did not play any 11-on-11s yesterday.
11:41So, C.J. Stroud was working with, you know, wide receivers where Higgins, his top two guys.
11:46Yeah.
11:47Defense is always going to be good with the Texans.
11:49C.J. was off yesterday.
11:51C.J. was â he was missing â he was missing throws that were there yesterday.
11:56That was a little troubling.
11:57That's â yeah, and I guess that's where â you always have to remind yourself that the media is not
12:04there for every OTA.
12:05And that also, yeah, quarterbacks do have bad practices at times.
12:08Sure.
12:09So, yeah, but until C.J. comes out â like, honestly, this is how it's going to be until C
12:16.J. strings together a couple of really good games.
12:18If and when he strings together a couple of really good games, people are going to be on hyper alert
12:23for every little flaw or error or anything.
12:25Myself included.
12:26I'm just trying to talk myself down on this.
12:30Yeah, the overall sum total of it at this point with â look, the offense isn't going to be beating
12:37the defense routinely anytime soon.
12:40But until they put pads on for an offense that really wants their run game to be tied to their
12:45passing game and have that be a huge dynamic of their offense,
12:50it's really hard to execute when you're going against an awesome defense that knows â even if they're trying to
12:54be honest in their reads,
12:56really knows, like, they're not going to get criticized for not coming up and stuffing the run because there's no
13:00play to be made.
13:02You're not allowed to come up and thump anybody.
13:03So, it's heavily weighted towards the defense right now.
13:07But until the offense actually shows something at some point, you have every reason in the world to be skeptical
13:13of it.
13:13Yeah.
13:14Keelan Rutledge and Evan Brown getting the lion's share of center snaps with the â what look to be the
13:22ones, I guess.
13:22So, the Keelan Rutledge heading is real.
13:26That is absolutely â they are looking at him at center for this team, which makes sense because you've spent
13:33decent to really good money on two veteran guards in Ed Ingram and Wyatt Teller.
13:38Right, yeah.
13:39You're trying to get him on the field.
13:40Yeah, and you can't read into who's in the lead in that or anything else, especially for the same reason
13:47we just talked about with the pads.
13:49Until they get out there in training camp, that's when you really â that's when we can really start overreacting
13:54to how many guys â how many reps guys are taking with the ones.
13:58Because you do start to see over time, okay, well, this guy's been out with â he's been running with
14:03the ones for five straight practices and there's no injuries or anything.
14:06You can tell that that's who's the current leader in the clubhouse.
14:10Yep.
14:10But if I had to gamble on it right now, if Keelan Rutledge was listed on the leaderboard â because
14:18you're right, Sean.
14:18I get what you're saying about even though Eric Getty's not on the leaderboard, the odds should still have it.
14:23Yeah, yeah.
14:25Yeah, I would say he's the leader in the clubhouse to be the starting center.
14:29I think so, too.
14:30Yeah, that is one â to your point, I can't wait for them to get the pads on to see
14:35that.
14:36You know, to see Keelan Rutledge go against this defense potentially with the ones is exciting.
14:41Did you happen to see the video from the Carolina Panthers' war room where they â apparently the Texans were
14:48trying to trade up to 19, where the Panthers ended up taking Monroe Freeling, the offensive tackle?
14:54I did not see that.
14:55Yeah.
14:55It's not great audio for radio, but â
14:59So the Texans were trying â according to that video, they were trying to move up to 19, huh?
15:03Yeah.
15:04Okay.
15:05I wonder who â
15:06If I remember correctly, if that's where the Panthers â
15:07They were â the Panthers were picking right around there because they were the last playoff team.
15:12And they figured the Texans were trying to trade up for an offensive tackle, but they didn't know which offensive
15:17tackle.
15:17So the Panthers, who ended up taking Monroe Freeling, didn't want to risk â didn't want to risk, you know,
15:22not taking their guy.
15:24Interesting.
15:24But I â so it's no guarantee.
15:26The Panthers â it was cool because there's a lot of things that Nick has talked about.
15:29They were saying, based on all of our research, they probably want an offensive tackle.
15:34Yeah.
15:36So I don't know.
15:38It's interesting that based on their research, they would want an offensive tackle where, based on logic â unless they
15:44were talking â a lot of pronouns being thrown around there.
15:46They might have been talking about a different team that was also trying to trade.
15:49Yeah.
15:50I'd have to go back and watch it more closely.
15:52But I don't know if they would be trying to take an offensive tackle.
15:55I did like â I was intrigued by Monroe Freeling.
15:57But it would be interesting to see who else might have been up there and gone around 19 that the
16:02Texans might have gone for.
16:03It is kind of funny because I â there's a lot of War Room video that floats around these days,
16:10especially right after the draft.
16:11But even into, like, May and â obviously even into June with this Panthers video that gets thrown out there.
16:17And I think, too, as some of these rookies start to establish themselves during this part of the year in
16:22training camp,
16:23then some of that video is going to get repurposed and pop up on the internet.
16:27Like, oh, so-and-so really â you can tell they really like this guy because look at this War
16:31Room.
16:31We never, ever see Texans War Room footage, like the stuff that we see from the Eagles or, in this
16:39case, the Panthers.
16:41Like, the Lions feel like a team we see a lot of.
16:42Yeah, we don't see the stuff where you're getting the conversations and the celebrations and all of that.
16:47Yeah, right.
16:48Yes, we see the celebrations.
16:50But with these other teams, you're watching the sausage get made.
16:53You know, like the Will Anderson trade three years ago.
16:55So you're watching Monty Austin forward as that trade is being negotiated.
17:01Right.
17:02You know?
17:02And that's where I just â and again, like, I saw the description of what was going on in the
17:07video.
17:07And I watched it through once.
17:09And it got to a point where I'm like â I'm not so sure that what the description said because
17:14it was somebody who, like, posted the video.
17:16Yes.
17:16I'm like, because of all the pronouns being thrown around, it's like, well, they want this, these guys want that
17:21and everything.
17:22I'm like, I don't know exactly who they're talking about.
17:24But if the Texans were trying to trade up to 19, it might not have been for, A, an offensive
17:29lineman or, B, you know, specifically Monroe Freeling.
17:32But the guys that were available still that ended up going between 19 and 26 would be â the offensive
17:38lineman, at least, would be Monroe Freeling, Maxi on a chore.
17:43And the other offensive lineman would be Keelan Rutledge.
17:45I mean, there's a chance the Texans might have been trying to trade up for Keelan Rutledge.
17:49Yeah, to 19.
17:50Yeah, which I know that sounds unlikely because of where Rutledge had gone in the draft â in the mock
17:57drafts.
17:58Remember, Tyler Booker had been dropped all the way down to the bottom of the first round.
18:03And the Cowboys last year, two years ago, ended up taking him in the top 10.
18:0812th.
18:0812th.
18:0812th, yeah.
18:09Just because they â yeah, they â and nobody second guesses it when the Cowboys do it because they've drafted
18:15really well.
18:15That's right.
18:16And drafted offensive lineman really well.
18:18But I â there is a chance that it might have been for Keelan Rutledge.
18:22There really weren't any position players the Texans would have taken other than an offensive lineman there.
18:29I mean, it was Makai Lemon.
18:31There was Akeem Masador, you know, a couple â Malachi Lawrence.
18:35Yeah.
18:35So maybe, but it was probably for an offensive lineman.
18:37Lawrence would have been an interesting one.
18:39Yeah.
18:39That edge rusher.
18:39That would have been interesting.
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