The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
Astros Voice Todd Kalas on the AL West Division Race and Kyle Tucker!
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Conversation brought to us by Gulf Coast Chevy, Buick, GMC, and Angleton start shopping for your new vehicle at lanceacars.com. TK, great call. Last night was a fun one. That was a fun game last night. Yeah, I got a little dicey for a while. They weren't able to get much going offensively. Even with all those lead-off runners on. But John Finkelton, hey, has come through before, and he came through with a big double last night. That was huge. It could get a W against the legal payment. You should be, but you never know. You've got to play the game the right way and continue to pile up with W's when you can. TK, I'm curious your thoughts on this. We've talked to and we interact with a lot of listeners, but a little concerned about the offense lately. We hear the rumblings. We see social media, but I don't think a lot of people were in tune with the dellencies, but I'm curious your take on if there's any concerns about this offensive production lately? I mean, it's a little bit, but it's a small sample size, right? You mentioned fees, and the Padres in general have really good pitching. I thought the garbage looked really good on Monday night. So yeah, if they go three, the next three games against the angels and they're scoring three runs or less in those contests, then all of a sudden I think you could be a little concerned. But if they do that against the Seattle pitching staff, then you're not as concerned. But we'll see how played that. But yeah, the last four games haven't been the best offense about put eight runs total in four games, but talk to me in three days. We'll see where we are. Yeah, my weekend gets started here pretty soon. So I'm glass half full today at TK. And Kyle Tucker, I thought, was impressive yesterday. I know he didn't get a hit, but had a couple of long played appearances, especially the one in the first, draws the walk. One of the 0-4-2s was that hard line shot to left field. You think he's getting-- I mean, obviously, he's getting closer to 100%. But he doesn't seem like he's too far away from 100%, especially when you consider how much he's playing right field lately. Yeah, I think we're getting a fact. I don't know when Joe spot his next off day of schedule for him, but it might not be for a while. Because he played three in a row, including travel. Now you're home for a stretch of seven games, including last night. I wouldn't be shocked if Puck played all but one game in right field in the foam stand. And again, I don't know Joe's plan, but I think they want to keep pushing him. It's swing looking better. I think by the time we get to the postseason, Pucker's going to be right where he was the beginning of the year. TK, what can you say about the performance, whether we all had reservations about the trade or not, about what Kukuchi has done since he's gotten here, and the fact that we were talking about it earlier in the show. When you look at who he was going up in the same company with in terms of how many consecutive wins to start a career with the Astros, that's pretty elite. And then the fact that he kind of took it to a step above last night, he doesn't have that blow you away, big unit, Roger Clemens, Furlander feel. But my goodness, has he's been good since he's been here. Yeah, he kind of goes through it and it's more felt. It's not like overbearing and overpowering. He gets the job done, and next thing you know, he's going to have 200 strikeouts on the season between the Blue Jays and the Astros. So very pleasant surprise. I don't think I was the only one that's set at the time. And I think Dana Brown even admitted it. They had to overpay for Kukuchi. They sent three guys out that were probably more than they originally thought they were going to have to spend at the trade deadline to get a guy like Kukuchi. I think if Jack Flaherty had been made available a little more readily, he could have been a candidate to be traded over here. But I'm so happy to end up with Kukuchi. I didn't know at the time how good he could be in a grassroots uniform. Not only has he won, has he won every one of his nine starts, but he has fitted perfectly in the clubhouse. Like the guys love him. He's just a perfect fit for this Astros team, and I'm very glad they have him. And you're right. He's already set up a franchise mark with the team winning his first nine starts that had never happened before. Oh's wall, the team won their first eight starts with Oh's wall with here. And then Berlin to the first eight starts. And now there's a new all-time leading up category in the Kukuchi, he's got his name in the Astros. I think that goes south. - Be enjoyed by Todd Callis, voice of the Astros on the HR&P guest line. You look at lineups day by day, of course, and you have to fill them out. Today, you're on DHs, yiner down to the five spot playing first base, the lefty lineup really for for Joe Espada. How about the mixing and matching the Astros skippers having to do with injuries, production, all of these things. But I think the first year manager has handled himself well. - Yeah, he's mixed a lot of lineups. There's no doubt. Even though the show and Joe Espada has shown that when he died in pot, he's not afraid to move a guy up a spot or two in the lineup or if a guy's struggling to move him down a spot or two. So he's been put a lot with his lineup. I don't think he has a set lineup, even as he's talked about the possibility of what happens in the postseason. I was serious to see when a Mitch on Singleton would play in the series with three lefties going against the Astros in this series as the first three coming out of the rotation for the Angels. And he did start him yesterday, not starting him tonight. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I think John is the best of the first baseman they have. The only guy that they true first baseman on the roster. And you know, yiner's still earning over here. And we'll see how yiner does tonight. But there have been a few plays where yiner going through his right just hasn't been able to make that play. Not his fault. He's a catcher by trade. He's learning first base and big league level. So it's gonna be interesting to see how he misses the matches in the postseason against the leftie. But for tonight, we're here at TD touching Berlin. You got yiner over there first base. TK, I'm curious with your illustrious career and all the baseball you've watched. Yeah, we all are scoreboard watching it this time of the year as well. Have you ever seen anything like the back-to-back debacles with the Mariners against the Yankees? - That was pretty bad. That was pretty bad. I mean, yeah, you've got to be a little smarter than that if you're Victor Roblates and know the situation when we feel struggling in the first inning. Two walks and a hit batter and a three-o-count on Justin Turner. I know he was trying to take advantage of the situation where he thought he did hit the 90 feet to feel home, but that just wasn't the right spot. And then who will run? We think this had to be a little more quarter where there. When he does that bad flying at you, obviously, you're trying to protect yourself. But then you have to immediately get back to the bag. You can't linger there like he did near many after the third base. So fortunately it paid off for the Astros for those two base running mistakes. Seattle's still in the mix for the wild side. And obviously they're still in the mix for the beginning with a matching number of five or six. They're probably sweeping me off. There's been a lot of helpful on the way. But they're still in the mix for the wild side and they're still team. I would rather not be in the first season with their starting rotation. So we'll see how it plays out. They lose the tiebreaker to the twins and they lose the tiebreaker to the Tigers and they're two games fast. So they still have to make up three games on both those teams, but it would still be possible depending on what goes on the season and in our biggest weekend. Todd Calus on the HR and P guests line. You brought to our attention last week too, kind of how the pitching rotation is shaping up. It seems like the big three shaping up really well for the Seattle series. And then who knows where you are in the standings with the guards, although it seems unlikely that you can be a top two in the American League and get that buy out of the wild card series. Seems like the pitching shaping up pretty good for a wild card series, is it not? - That is, and I was going to ask you about this if and when they get to that point where they come into the division. I don't think I want to put the car before the horse, but I want to ask them what they're thinking about. Rick Prober and Hunter after they pitch against Seattle. So if Hunter is going to go on Monday and Prober is going to go on Tuesday and they can do to you on Wednesday, that wasn't my accident, because they happen to have those three guys lined up for Seattle. They thought that out weeks in advance. And then if they are clinched at that point before they go to Cleveland, Hunter would then be scheduled again to go on Saturday and Prober still would be scheduled to go on Sunday and Prober wouldn't be scheduled to go again if they stayed in that six-minute rotation. I don't think they would pitch Hunter on that final day, obviously. So he wouldn't be available in the postseason for that first round, so don't probably skip Hunter. I don't know if they would throw him on the side for a couple of innings in that series against the Guardian. And they would stay in rotation for Seattle, go Hunter, Prober to Cuchee, and then they'd go to Berlander for the first game in Cleveland. And then at that point, you would probably go with Spencer Aragetti and maybe Renelle Blanco the last day. But if they want Blanco or Aragetti to possibly pitch a game through, then you would hold them back. But I think you're right. I think it shakes up where they don't really have to mess with their rotation too much. I don't think they're gonna have to worry about going through the Cuchee. I think Cleveland's gonna have it locked up by then. But I think it's just a matter of staying in rotation. Let me guys pitch out of the rest of the season and have Hunter and Prober ready to go once the postseason begins. - TK, we know going down the stretch, you talked about it, we've had injuries and they're getting healthy. Presley doesn't pitch last night. Anything to that or just trying to give him a little extra 'cause the bullpen really for as good and as solid as they've been all year, it seems like the wear and tear is caught up on several guys, Taylor Scott included. - Yeah, I want to see good things from this point forward because it's been a little sketchy for Taylor Scott lately. And he was the best picture in that bullpen for the first three months far none. I don't, you know, you can say it here and I'm not saying it's age three, but Taylor was doing it in every situation. He was telling me that anything was going multiple and he was the opener. That one day right at the trade deadline, we've stayed the bacon of that bullpen for the first four months. You know, unfortunately it looks like he's wearing some of that youth earlier in the season. So I want to see Taylor Scott finish strong. I'd like to see Taylor board bounce back after a disaster starting in San Diego. I'd like to see Taylor Ferguson pitch well near down the stretch. There's going to be some decision to be made in those final spots in the bullpen. I don't think it's quite as cut and dry as it's been in past years where you can say, well, kind of down to this final spot between one or two guys. I think there's kind of three or four guys going for those last two or three spots. So all those aforementioned guys have to pitch well down the stretch, but I really want to see Taylor pitch well because he looks such a big part of it in the early part of the season. - Todd, I want to go back to game two at San Diego. A wild game, Jose Altuve takes off his cleave, takes off his sock. Josh haters back in San Diego is getting booed. You had some questionable umpiring. What is the balance for you when you need to bite the tongue, but you're also trying to deliver to the audience what is going on? What's that balance like? - Yeah, you try. - You try not to crush the umpires too much and I know we got on them rightfully so. That was just as poorly managed the game behind the plate for Brendan Miller, as I've seen maybe in a long time, maybe ever. - He just missed too many balls and not balls this day. Just the balls on the field and not having to do it in New York, so he just got a situation settled with Josh haters stepping around for the runner on third. That was a debacle. - I could have been even, we could have been even more critical of what happened in New York and I think it probably warranted it, but New York can't face three to four minutes to solve that Josh haters stuff off situation. It's like clear disengagement with a runner on third day. If there was a runner on third space, it would have been an easy call for whatever reason there was confusion about it wouldn't be able to disengage before the first battle coming out of the bullpen. So that needed to be sure that quickly. I don't know what Tony Randazzo was looking at for that hit by pitch. No, no hit by pitch by Jerson so far. Even he said post-games. - Everybody in the stadium saw it on the screen and he did the five pitch. I'm not sure how New York didn't be clear into this again and into that. It was a poorly appreciated game of a poorly umpire game and they didn't get any help from New York in that series. So yeah, feel like your question. You try and fight your tongue to an extent but you also can't ignore it when it's bad at greaselessly bad. - Yeah, I thought y'all handled it perfectly. Just your point. - Yeah, you guys were great. - Appreciate it Todd. Have a good weekend, have a great call. We'll be watching. - All right guys, hopefully this time next week we'll be talking about getting ready for the postseason. Five to go and hopefully they'll be there within the week. - Owning a rental property sounds like a dream until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. Determine a competitive rent price, market the property, schedule the showing screen, tenants draft up the lease at a rent collection, handle maintenance requests, make a dedication. - Whew, sound complicated? Runners warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list. Qualify tenants, check, rent collection, check, maintenance coordination, you got it. Go to runnerswarehouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. Or call 303-974-9444 because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call runners warehouse. - This is an ad by BetterHelp. 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