00:00I want to pivot this conversation to the Houston Astros right now
00:04because Dana Brown is apparently the GM of the Astros
00:08telling teams that he is in buy mode.
00:12He's not selling guys like Christian Walker.
00:14Certainly no Jordan Alvarez, not Jeremy Payne yet.
00:18The Astros are currently 600-500.
00:20In the AL wildcard picture, they're three out of the final wildcard spot.
00:26Now, we're sitting here talking on June 23rd,
00:28but 600 means three out of the final wildcard spot.
00:31We have talked ad nauseum so far this year about how bad the American League is,
00:36and the Astros feel like they have an opportunity to pounce in a bad American League.
00:42Understandably so.
00:43It seems like Jordan is close to running away with an American League MVP,
00:46although Bobby Witt Jr. may have something to say about that
00:49when he kind of sheds this MCL sprain that he's got going on right now.
00:53Jordan Alvarez playing like one of the best players in Major League Baseball.
00:57Now, they're starting to get going offensively,
01:00and on the Hill, they've found just enough.
01:03Like, Imai is coming off of maybe his best start in his Major League career.
01:07Kai Wei Tang has been kind of newfound riches for them.
01:10Eric Getty, I know he had a blip on the radar the other start,
01:13but, like, Eric Getty's been good all season long.
01:16There's a lot going on in a positive direction right now for the Houston Astros,
01:20and all of a sudden, they're looking really frisky,
01:23and they may be involved at the deadline.
01:25What's your take on that?
01:26I think it's more Crane than Dana Brown being in a contract year.
01:29I think it's just Crane saying,
01:31well, I'm going to have to find a new exec probably after this year,
01:33and I have no patience for rebuilds.
01:36I'm not doing that ever again.
01:38And that's the most fascinating part to me is just, like,
01:41I think if you hired a consultant, you know, like you do with a business,
01:46I think if you hired 10 of them, 10 of them would say,
01:49like, you should cash in on some of these chips that are going to be free agents.
01:53Jordan, I could get.
01:54Hold on to them.
01:54I could understand that.
01:56But, like, Jeremy Pena, like, a couple of these other pieces.
02:01Christian Walker.
02:02Like, that was a contract that we thought was immovable at one point.
02:05Like, you can move it now for a team that loves to be under the luxury tax.
02:08Like, this is an opportunity here.
02:10They don't want to do that.
02:11I get it with the American League Open.
02:13But even if this team sneaks in, great, you got Hunter Brown game one.
02:17What the heck are you doing after that?
02:19Yeah.
02:20And even if you can piece it together, what do you do if you make it to a five-game
02:25set?
02:25I guess you could say at that point it was worth it, I guess.
02:28But is it if you have consistently now the worst farm system in Major League Baseball
02:32now for the next five-plus years?
02:34Like, how are you going to get talent back into the fold here?
02:36I just, I appreciate them competing.
02:39And I think everybody being quick to sell is not a good thing for baseball.
02:41But just looking at the organizational health right now from top to bottom
02:45and, like, the lack of pitching that they're going to have even coming up anytime soon.
02:50Like, I just, even if you got to the playoffs, like, what's your best-case scenario?
02:54Eric Getty shoves in game two.
02:57Peter Lambert gets the ball.
02:58I just, I don't know what their plan is.
03:02And I just feel like they're setting themselves up for purgatory.
03:04I'll tell you what their plan is.
03:06Kevin Alvarez for Tarek Scoble straight up.
03:08He says no.
03:09Let's see.
03:11It is, what, Houston?
03:14I think Houston's your only top, or your only system in baseball without a top 100 prospect, right?
03:19Yeah, Nines was close.
03:20Kevin Alvarez isn't far away.
03:21But, yeah, they're the only system without a guy in there.
03:23And even if you say Nines is adjacent, like he's the same value there,
03:27you have to trade your 2025 first-round pick to get anything,
03:32or your top IFA guy to get anything, and then you're going to be even more stuck.
03:35So, if you're not going to sell, you probably should then buy to give yourself a better shot,
03:40but then you're even more purgatory.
03:42So, do you just stand pat?
03:45This team has no shot standing pat, like, of actually doing anything in the playoffs.
03:49So, I just don't really understand the approach, is my thing.
03:52I guess the approach is exactly what you laid out, where Dana Brown is trying to, I guess,
03:57GM for his job, and Jim Crane is saying, I don't have the patience to do what we did in
04:012014 and 2013,
04:03and stack up, you know, number one overall picks, and then Springer and Correa and Altuve all get really good
04:09at the same time.
04:09So, I don't know, man, it's tough, but we'll see what Houston wants to do.
04:14Again, they currently sit 600-500, three back from the final AL wildcard spot, and three back in the AL
04:20West.
Comments