00:00The Houston Astros, who got absolutely dog-walked yesterday, what was it, 10 runs?
00:0410-6, 10-4, something like that?
00:06And to be fair, I think that it was somewhat expected, because this is a—
00:11Was it?
00:12I kind of knew it was a possibility, because this is a Pittsburgh Pirates team that puts up runs.
00:16They scored a lot of runs.
00:17But Campbell gives up runs.
00:18He sure does, and you got six of them.
00:20So, I mean, you got the runs.
00:22Like, that's above the average that the Astros score.
00:24But, of course, it's not about the aggro.
00:27Look at it.
00:28It's the particular way it happened.
00:30And Brian Abreu, specifically, just looking like it is falling apart.
00:35Actually, not just Brian Abreu.
00:36Mike Burrell has got it.
00:37They got after him as well.
00:39He has given up—we've talked about him as being unlucky this year, where so many of the runs that he's
00:45given up have come up on long balls.
00:46But at this point in the season, how many long balls can you give up, big dog?
00:50O'Neal Cruz hit a rocket.
00:53It was Yordan-esque.
00:56111 miles an hour.
00:57Is that good?
00:58It was 111 miles an hour, an absolute rocket that put the Pirates ahead.
01:05And here's the thing that—you know, as much as we were just talking yesterday about, like, I'm kind of back
01:11and forth, whatever.
01:12This game just made me mad, probably more than it should have, simply because you've got two guys.
01:19Brian Abreu is going to get the brunt of the harshness, the criticism today.
01:25Mike Burrell, he just flat-out made me mad.
01:28I don't have the audio, but I wrote down the quote.
01:31This is what he said after the game.
01:33Most innings, there are a lot of zeros.
01:36Just that one inning that really hurts.
01:39Yeah.
01:40You've had a lot of those one innings.
01:41Sounds like a great—
01:42You've had a lot of—you've got a 5-4-0-E-R-A.
01:45You know, you are not the guy that they signed up to.
01:48And even before—I went back and looked, because I did it off the top of my head.
01:52I said, I better get this right.
01:54Before O'Neal Cruz sent one into orbit, he had given up four walks and six hits.
02:00And a lot of them were—the outs were C&I, you know, 98-mile-an-hour ropes that he got
02:05lucky.
02:06And it started early.
02:07This isn't like, hey, you made it through the order a time or two, and then it started getting bad
02:11for you.
02:12I remember the second inning going, whew, thank God he got out of that.
02:16Yeah, yeah.
02:17You know, one of the things that—for decades, this has always irritated me when a pitcher says,
02:21well, I just made one mistake.
02:23No, you made one mistake that they actually took advantage of.
02:26He made a lot of mistakes last night.
02:28It is one mistake that they took advantage on on a day where there was a lot of mistakes
02:33on a trend of this kind of being what it looks like.
02:37And we're quickly coming up on the circumstance where, for both of these dudes that we've mentioned,
02:42Mike Burrow's the starter, Brian Abreu the reliever, decisions have to be made quickly,
02:46and it feels like it's pretty clear what the decisions have to be, no?
02:49Yeah, and I kind of floated the topic yesterday, and I'm a little bit more entrenched in this opinion now.
02:55I think you have to DFA Brian Abreu.
02:57I really do.
02:59The guy, tip your cap, he's been nails, some gutsy performances in the postseason.
03:05He's not the same pitcher.
03:07When it goes, it goes fast.
03:09We all know that.
03:10His velocity is down two and three miles per hour, which is a big tell for me.
03:15You know, his fastball doesn't have the movement either that it once had,
03:20which coincides with that velocity.
03:23And worst of all, he's kind of lost between the ears.
03:27That challenge is no little thing.
03:29Sean's right.
03:29That was not a small thing.
03:30He's like, well, I'm desperate here.
03:32I've got to find a strike.
03:33Maybe I'll just tap my head, even though this pitch was five inches below the strike zone.
03:39I think you have options.
03:41You have options that are here that could fill the role now that Josh Hader is back.
03:44Because what good is it having Josh can't get him?
03:48Seriously.
03:49Like, if you can't get to him to close the game, what good is he being back?
03:51Yeah.
03:52Brian Abreu goes out there, applies his trade, and now we got A.J. Blue Ball on the mound in
03:55the ninth.
03:55Yeah.
03:55Because it's gone.
03:56It's like it's so far gone.
03:58Right?
03:59And if you are not familiar with Brian Abreu, the top of the eighth, the count goes full.
04:05He walks by over three inches as ABS.
04:09And he, I mean, you got Christian Vasquez behind the plate, too.
04:12And one thing that is worth noting, Christian Vasquez has been damn good.
04:15Lately, especially.
04:15Utilizing the ABS system.
04:17And, again, it speaks to what you're saying, just to further illustrate your point,
04:21that he is so lost that he's not in the moment thinking, I trust my catcher.
04:25If this was indeed a strike, he will make that challenge to help me out.
04:31This is, I am flailing.
04:33I need to grab something.
04:34And, damn it, there's a challenge here.
04:36Against the rules that have been established.
04:38Oh, yeah, that, too.
04:39By the club.
04:41By Jose, not Jose, by Joe Espada, your manager, that, hey, we would prefer pitchers to not.
04:47I mean, he made it a rule.
04:48Not even prefer not.
04:49Like, pitchers are not allowed to make the challenge.
04:51And, honestly, brilliant rule, right?
04:53The vantage point of 60 foot, 6 inches, trying to determine whether that clips the zone.
04:58Versus the catcher.
04:59Versus the catcher who is right here, right?
05:01Like, that is the guy who is in the better vantage point.
05:03And so, Abreu, like, clearly the mental and the mentality of it isn't going well.
05:08You've mentioned this a few times.
05:09The velocity is ticking downwards.
05:11Because, like, with Tatsuki Imai, right?
05:13Where, clearly, between the ears, it was a problem not too long ago.
05:18And, you know, the defense that I kept throwing up is, the stuff is there.
05:21Yeah.
05:21We just got to figure this out.
05:22And it seems like that's the case.
05:24Yeah.
05:24The stuff is also starting to fail.
05:27Brian, this feels like, and I guess the biggest thing that you should come to, and I'm going to continue
05:32to compare it to Imai.
05:33When we were talking about Imai, you're like, hey, man, it might not be the worst thing in the world
05:37to move on.
05:38I'm like, what are the other options?
05:39You've got options in the pen right now.
05:41Like, you've got guys.
05:42You have options in the minor leagues.
05:44With Hader coming back, with some of the things that some of your other guys have given you.
05:48And you mentioned the big thing I was going to bring up.
05:51Miguel Loyola down at AAA has been, since his move to a reliever, to the bullpen, he has been damn
05:57good.
05:58And it could be time for him to then make his debut as an Astro and help with what you're
06:03doing.
06:03And so, I don't think there is a good reason.
06:06Brian Abreu, it's not like you're like, hey, we need to get him back going so that the continuation of
06:10this contract works out.
06:11I think he's done after this year.
06:13This is a contract year.
06:13This is a contract year.
06:14And all other things are pointed to this not working for him.
06:18Like, the Mike Burroughs thing, I also think that you're coming closer to having the pitchers to be able to,
06:23you know, the starting pitchers to be able to move away from him.
06:24But the Brian Abreu thing, this feels very evident, like that this is not working.
06:28And Ayola, just as an example, last night closed out the game for Sugar Land with two strikeouts, seven whiffs.
06:35So, his stuff, you know, he was missing bats, 97 on the fastball.
06:40I got to believe there's your option right there.
06:42And the biggest reason is it's not like, it's not as if you're saying, hey, we're close.
06:47You know, we need to make these big moves.
06:49No, you're not close, but it's going to get away from you.
06:53They're now eight games under .500.
06:55And so, if you let it get away from you, then you never have a chance to get close.
06:58Right.
06:58And that's also the biggest thing is that everything is magnified right now with the circumstance that the Astros are.
07:04Right.
07:04With this 10, with this, they are really, really in a tough place when it comes to the standings.
07:13At least when we talk about the division, we know that.
07:15Right.
07:15They're six games back of the Seattle Mariners.
07:18But when it comes to wildcard standings, even, right, they are now three and a half games back.
07:23And I saw an interesting statistic when I was scrolling, and this is from Byer McTaggart.
07:29There's 100 games remaining now.
07:30Yeah.
07:31The Astros, 27 and 35, would have to go 54 and 46 just to reach 500.
07:35Mm-hmm.
07:36To reach, and they have to go, in order to reach 90 wins, which feels like a pretty good number
07:43if you want to make, you know, make some hay in the postseason.
07:4663 and 37.
07:47Yikes.
07:48Like, when you put it in these terms, you go, damn, you know, what you have to climb to get
07:52back is pretty large.
07:53And, yes, there are reinforcements coming.
07:55I still feel good about that.
07:56But it feels like trimming the fat is also going to be necessary.
07:59And it seems like Burroughs is getting closer to that, especially after that outing.
08:03Abreu is there.
08:03Yeah, Abreu is there.
08:04I think it's time, you know, as we'll get to the question of the day, it's really just sad.
08:10But at the same time, you're not in a place where you can mess around based on the standings.
08:14And eight games under .500, man, you know, just last week we were kind of raising our eyebrows saying, well,
08:19maybe.
08:19Well, yeah, there's still a maybe out there, but you can't mess around.
08:23Mike Burroughs, to me, that fastball that Cruz hit, like, literally was a batting practice fastball.
08:31Had no movement whatsoever.
08:33I mean, he's just, it's one of those things.
08:35Then you have to start thinking about options there.
08:38Kai Wei-Teng is in the rotation.
08:39You know, you have some other guys, perhaps, that you can try.
08:43Like you said, it's getting slightly better.
08:44We'll see when Hunter Brown comes back.
08:48I think both those moves need to be made.
08:50Yeah, it's quite possible.
08:52But we move from what that game was, a 10-6 kind of, you know, battle of the bats to
08:58a pitcher's duel today that I'm super excited for, where you have, where you will have Paul Skeens going for
09:05the Pittsburgh Pirates.
09:08And you have the newly named AL Pitcher of the Month for the month of May, Spencer Evergate.
09:13How about that?
09:134-1 in the month, an 0-9-3 ERA in this month of May.
09:19Like, this is going to be sick for him as a coronation for that month and being the AL Pitcher
09:24of the Month.
09:25And to go get Skeens, that makes it even better.
09:26Yeah, so I'm excited, excited for that.
09:28Maybe Yordan can also help his boy out.
09:31Did you see that, that he had the, I guess, the hardest hit pitch for a home run of a
09:36regular season in his career?
09:38Yeah, and he had that Crawford box shot as well.
09:41But, yeah, Yordan can't do it by himself.
09:44Oh, by the way, Jose Altuve is getting closer as well.
09:48Yes, he is.
09:48Which, I mean, come on back.
09:50Let's get it all together.
09:51Because, again, as the numbers that McTaggart had out there indicates, kind of need to turn it on right now.
Comments