- 2 days ago
ITL discusses what Houston must do to get back into the race.
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00:00this weekend win two out of three honestly i was i was hoping that they when they won the first
00:05two
00:05i was like oh this is this is nice you might get it really now they do a little bit
00:09of ground uh
00:10winning a couple versus the a's including the 13 run banger on saturday but um i mean this we're
00:17starting to get to like now we're never time for lack of better way well we're saying we're getting
00:21some signs we're getting some windows of opportunity including starting now you know
00:26obviously they did they did obviously you you did well getting the getting another series
00:32sure would have been nice to get that sweet because you're four and a half games back
00:35uh and that could have been enormous to get the series but let's not get too ahead of ourselves
00:40but they're starting to show signs winning some series uh signs here and there mike burrows is a
00:44different topic that we're going to get to um because that was just bad what happened something
00:49happened five to nothing wasn't it five to nothing five to nothing happened yeah and um anyway well
00:56that sounded about right that's exactly right yeah but the the nothing part is something that
01:02we can't ignore in that as well like why does the why does the astros offense do this from time
01:06to
01:06time well no that's that's more than fair i mean some some pitchers have bad luck he's had a lot
01:11of
01:11bad luck yeah but that's the thing he had bad luck early it got to be where it was just
01:15really
01:15ineffective i was looking at uh i was of course looking at statistics like a dork but no like he
01:21is so
01:21deeply ineffective with a lot of stuff like he's forcing fastball obviously is is a part is a large
01:26part of what he has used historically um they are hitting the mess out of his fastball this year
01:32it's a 293 batting average against it uh they're slugging 395 against his fastball alone and he's
01:38even ticked that down he well yesterday in particular they tried to throw more uh change-ups he threw his
01:43fastball 57 last year like this is this is his main pitch he's throwing it down to that now he's
01:49tried to
01:49cut back on that use more breaking balls but even that like that has not helped him um is he's
01:55still
01:55ending up in this bad place and i don't know if he has to like go all the way to
01:58trying to use like a
01:59sinker uh or like as as a as a replacement uh fastball in these circumstances because he does
02:04actually i think i used the wrong numbers i think those alex bregman hitting numbers but the the larger
02:08idea remains is that the fastball forcing fastball has not been it's not nearly as effective as it once
02:14was for him and so the idea of even like trying to tinker in the ways that like you say
02:18kikuchi which
02:19interesting enough is a comparison uh hit the way that their their numbers look you say in 2025 would
02:24be a comparison and so you go does the astros car wash work but i don't know how do you
02:28how do you
02:28fix uh and maybe there is like a mechanical fix that you need for him but like how do you
02:33fix
02:33something that is so clearly going wrong well they put him through the car wash and it's still not
02:36taking they moved him around on the yeah well the mound on the rubber uh from the front to the
02:41back
02:41trying to get a better arm slot they've they've uh vasquez christian vasquez was talking about
02:46you know demanding more uh change up early in the can't change ups early in the count to be able
02:51to get some strikes and some swings and misses they have put him through uh all kinds of different
02:56paces trying to and and and techniques and and adjustments trying to get him right and he's still
03:00not right so that's the bad news again the good news is they're winning some series hunter brown
03:05you know is coming back i think they said next weekend against the tigers uh then uh you can't wait
03:09yeah exactly and you know josh hater is back jose altube with another home run is back uh so
03:16some good things are happening i think the best thing going on with the astros right now as you're
03:20starting to to play you know slightly better baseball again you're still seven games under 500
03:24but i think we can all agree they're playing slightly better baseball they're playing more
03:28you're getting to the weakest part of the schedule june in general is a very workable schedule the next six
03:35games you're playing two last place teams angels and royals yeah and you're you're playing two last
03:42place teams so this is the time to if you if it's really there to start gaining some some momentum
03:48yeah and i think that this is the place where it gets tough because and this is what we were
03:53talking
03:53about in the earlier months of the season it's like it's early yeah but the more the more ground you
03:59give up in little ways the more uh or the the slimmer the margins are where hey that third game
04:06versus the a's where you go hey we won the series you kind of need that you need that because
04:09it would
04:09have been really nice because the drip that happened early on in the season and so yeah these are the
04:15places where not only do you have to take advantage of this you need to you need to hit it
04:18hard and
04:18that's a four four and five record in that homestand like that just doesn't feel like good enough even
04:25though like you you watch the games you go hey they're playing better baseball ultimately the
04:29results need to find a way to be better so like how do you take advantage of that first and
04:32foremost
04:33you met we we talked about mike burrows is it just like fix mike burrows or is it hopefully can
04:38you
04:38abandon mike burrows well i i think you should ultimately abandon mike burrows their depth in the
04:45starting rotation as we know even if they're getting some guys back even if emai is maybe pitching a
04:49little better uh etc but the problem is you have this six game stretch then you're off on a
04:55thursday i believe and then you play 13 in a row yeah so you're going to need your you're going
05:01to need your your six-man rotation that's where it gets real dicey you know mike burrows you do need
05:06to make some big decisions you don't necessarily have or very few options to replace him i think
05:12the other thing you have to really look at is brian abreu you know if you're going to end up
05:15at the
05:16back end of these games you know you you know you can't necessarily risk abreu so there are some so
05:21there are some things that they need to get done no i think that that's fair um i think one
05:26of the
05:27things is hey man i i need to i need to see like some of these some of these bats
05:32leveling out like
05:32isak brettis bottom of the order is starting to really not look great yeah that's a fair point which
05:38the addition of lamont wade jr you helps uh help hope rather helps continue some of this um i mean
05:44cam smith when he when he plays it's kind of in the middle of the order but yeah you need
05:48you do need to
05:49find a way to turn some of this over back to the top but i think also the big bats
05:53that you have i
05:54know that yordan is going to produce but teams are going to try and pitch around him at times
05:58christian walker has produced isak is such an interesting proposition because he's batting
06:02like in the 240s and this has ticked up in the last couple of weeks but i was actually talking
06:06about
06:07this with fig earlier last week isak was absolutely on fire yeah the week prior not so much and so
06:14like i
06:14kind of and i don't know if this is even fair or not but i kind of need you to
06:17be more consistent
06:18on on that like being the that's fair that's yeah that's fair absolutely because uh you know
06:24you're talking about the as i mentioned the bottom of the order right now you know who knows
06:28where where cam cam smith has been going through some of that you know the up and down and to
06:32be
06:32fair that's the nature of baseball like how many lineups do you know where you go one through eight
06:36nine and you just go just deal with it pitchers right there is the nature of there's going to be
06:40the ebbs and flows in your in your lineup but the thing is when you get to the heart of
06:44lineup
06:44they need to be they need to be killers and you know yordan's a killer you know has accepted himself
06:49as a killer he's like brettis there's killer tendencies but it has and some of this is like
06:54he's had some bad luck i will i will quote a stat that i know will make your eyes glaze
06:58over but uh
06:59bob it batting average on balls in play right when you're putting the ball in play what what are you
07:03doing and usually like you're trying to get to that 300 mark me is about where average is he's been
07:09below uh especially before this last week he's been below 300 like 240 or he's given up like 43
07:16points yeah when it comes to to where you probably say he's been unlucky putting the ball in play at
07:20times maybe even some of that like find a way to get lucky i don't know if it's rubbing some
07:23ball
07:24guy's head i don't know what it is right get some rabbit's feet like i that might be some of
07:28it too
07:28is like just finding a little bit of luck for this team would be really helpful no i think that's
07:32fair
07:32with him as well because he pulls the ball so much too uh when he when he doesn't you know
07:38when he pulls
07:38the ball the defense really knows how to hit even hard hit balls how to feel even hard hit balls
07:43and where to play them etc so it's not in his nature to spray the ball around but maybe you
07:49know
07:49try to to to do and i know i don't even think he can i don't even know if he
07:53can literally more foul
07:54balls down the left field line than i've ever seen correct i mean it's crazy all his home runs
07:58are to are to the left field porch like he just he has such a that's a tell that's a
08:02giveaway and
08:03it's it's kind of what's necessary because it's not like he's got crazy uh crazy power
08:08it's just he he has it pulls the ball he has it dialed in and so maybe it's just maybe
08:13it is
08:13just hey can we get more lucky with him are there any other things that you're like hey i need
08:17the
08:17astros to do this in order to take the most advantage well i mentioned the bottom of the
08:20lineup cam smith uh batting 219 uh with an ops of 658 jake myers 220 ops what am i supposed
08:29to do
08:30with the jake myers of this all again you know you've got to figure out some combination of these guys
08:36bryce matthews 199 with an ops of 569 uh just go down the list hell christian vasquez we're you know
08:44we're hailing him as you know what a great year and as a catcher he is having a great year
08:50even
08:50offensively but even that is a 244 batting average ops is 684 you're giving away outs at the bottom of
08:56the lineup can't do that when you're making trying to make some kind of run against uh an easier part
09:01of the schedule no for sure somebody in you mentioned that you mentioned the bat of a catcher
09:05somebody said let's uh if diaz came back tomorrow does he automatically become your number one catcher
09:09again and i i know i just can't i've seen the difference in the way the games are called um
09:14i
09:14know for you uh you know being able to steady the steady the traffic on the base paths vasquez has
09:19been great i get the batting average but catchers don't generally you know you don't count on them too
09:24much for uh for for hitting on average and ops and all that but he's still been he's he's kind
09:29of the
09:30leader in the clubhouse no pun intended for all these guys toward the bottom of the order
09:33no that's that's for honestly it might just be keep on trucking like because again they're just
09:39now getting the just now getting the uh the reinforcements back you need them to like i guess
09:43congeal gel and like all work together because again we're also using we're utilizing numbers
09:49from times in which they were deeply injured and fighting through these different adversities
09:53of trying to find the lineup i think this might be maybe kind of akin to what we saw with
09:57the
09:57texans offensive line now that you're getting everybody into the right place now just hit it
10:02full like full throttle right like just pedal to the metal and try and make the most of this
10:05but more importantly like than the it just need to be the what which is wins need to stack up
10:11uh starts
10:12with the with the pitching uh we'll see if how consistent they can get and hunter brown i think
10:16we're not gonna have to worry too much about hunter brown but offensively you know keep in mind
10:21core is still out and will be you know some of these other guys are out you got to get
10:25the bottom of
10:25the lineup going so in the next six right you mentioned angels kansas city all in a row
10:30five wins five does a lot for you i just it's hard to expect five if you can get to
10:35expect four
10:36expect four would love five yes exactly i think i'm with you there and then the entire month of june
10:41not only do they have those last place teams you know uh coming up in the next six but they
10:46have
10:46the tigers a lot they have the twins i believe uh june is a huge month for month for yeah
10:52the tigers are
10:52uh you know a number of games behind they're eight games of a 500 behind 500 um you said who
10:58else is
10:59in there twins i believe uh let's see who else yeah the twins are uh seven games below 500 now
11:04they do
11:04have the guardians mixed in yeah the guard and the guardians are seven games above 500 and i think
11:08that they're they are the first game that your first series rather that you have back at home after
11:12the six game road trip but there's some there's some series that you need to straight up win them
11:17as a baseline and maybe get some sweeps on here as you try and claw your way back four and
11:22a half
11:22games back still of the top of the west because the mariners have been they've won seven of their
11:27last 10 right so you need that but i hadn't actually looked at the wild card you're still three games
11:31back in the wild card as well like this is it needs to turn up this isn't just going to
11:35be you're
11:35slowly going to make your way back because as much as we've talked about well you're still close in
11:38the games back in the wild card there is a lot of teams that are all in that glut and
11:43as you know
11:43it can show up as only being a couple games back but if there's a whole bunch of teams you're
11:48asking for to have to lose for you to jump them so you need to start getting these wins they
11:51need
11:51to start stacking them now right now right in order in order for this to be viable but
11:56it is kind of crazy it's still viable with how ugly it looked early
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