The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
09/17 Hour 1 - We Can't Trust Spencer Arrighetti Right Now
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They were sad to see that you were gone. I'm sure they're all very happy that you're here today. I don't buy you any of that. You want to buy it? No, I think I universally hated on Twitch. They're happy to see you. As a wrestling fan of the Hill, I seek the heat, so bring it. Good to have you back. I'm sure the Twitch agrees. Astro's lose the ball game yesterday. Astro's drop it three to one. My main takeaway from that game, Astro's offense was atrocious. It was bad. So bad. What are you, three hits? No, they had six hits, but two of them were out of two. I'm sorry, off of a Darvish. They had three hits. That sounds right. Yeah. I mean, you did harvest and put them down. And the guys we were talking about, is it the hesitation? I mean, every, there's a lot of people. Johnny Quato does the hesitation, but like they made him look like he was like back in his Cy Young candidate days. And he just, he had them eating out of his hand all night long. And it was tough to watch. Yeah. He was. We needed Uli Guriel is what we needed. Uli Guriel would have done some damage on you Darvish, I think. But that was, that was a frustrating game to watch. We'll get to Eric Eddie here in a little bit, but it kind of felt going into that game. That that's the outcome it was going to be. Like sometimes the Astros just have these duds. They have these games where they just show up and like you get the sense early that, okay, like they're not locked in. You know, maybe that's putting way too much credit to the Astros. Maybe I'm not giving enough credit to you, Darvish. But it just felt early on that it was going to be one of those games where you look up at the end of it and the Astros have one or two runs on five, six, seven hits. And the starting pitcher goes deep into the game and is just getting weak ground ball. Soft fly out, a weak ground ball to the right side. And that's exactly what happened in yesterday's game. Yeah, it was like a getaway day. Only I get into a new town game. It was they got into San Diego and I had the bad feelings right as we were closing out the show when we were talking about, you know, the normal, what's Eric Eddie going to do. I just had a bad feeling. I was like, I feel like for some reason Darvish is going to deal and they just aren't going to be on their game. And I'm watching it the whole time going. I mean, what is what's going on? You guys have a, you know, just get something going. Give me some spark that says put a couple guys on base. Give them a chance to move some guys around, you know, do what they normally do. Start kind of like constructing some runs, but it just never happened. And I had a bad feeling throughout the entire game that it was just one of those nights. And lo and behold, at the end of the night, the one run late did nothing for them. And it turned out to be one of those nights. It's like when you're stepping into the pool and like your first game of the city, you're like, I wonder how cold this pool is. And like you put your toe and you're like, oh, it's too cold. I'm not going to jump in. That's kind of how it fell for the Astros often just today. I'm going to, I'm going to put my toe into the San Diego pool. Oh, no, it's too cold. Too cold. I don't want to play today. I don't want to score runs today. We're not going to do that today. The only rally that you really had an opportunity hesitate to call it a rally, but the best chance at a rally came in the eighth inning after you Darvish was out of the game. After you Darvish went six shutout innings and only struck out three. It's like his stuff was dominant. He's just getting weak contact, weak contact, swinging early in the count. We contact week, pop fly week, week, week, eighth inning. You're like, Jose Altuve gets a lead off double. Okay. We're in business. We're in business. You know, at the pool at that point, it was only a two nothing game. So you get a runner on base. The tying runs come into the plate. Time runs come into the plate that in that juncture of the game. You're on Alvarez, smashes a ball up the middle, scores Jose Altuve. Okay. It's a one run game. Tying run at first base. Nobody out. We're in business. You got three four five coming up. Yiner D is ground out. Kyle Tucker then reaches on the catcher's interference. Okay. Tying runs now. It's second base with one out first and second runner at second runner at second base. The tying run. Alex Breggman, we ground ball to third base credit to him. He actually liked it out to avoid the double play. It brings up Victor Caratini, who then is rung up on strikes, allow the home run at the bottom of the eighth and basically game over that that was all like you just watched the eighth inning yesterday. That's all you needed to watch. That's all you needed to watch. That was the entire game and it's, I'm still marveling at the fact, too, that Yerkes and Profar has had such a resurrection of his career. He looked like his career was basically over. I remember him with the Rangers and the A's and just bouncing around going, this guy's going to be. We were talking about him at the start of the year being a possible replacement utility guy. Yeah. They couldn't get him out last night. He's, he's having one hell of a season. I believe he was an all star and you're looking at him going, man, you could have had him when you would have used him on your bench. You could have sure used him last night because he looked way better than anybody that was coming to the plate for the Astros almost all night long with the exception of one inning. And, and this is not what you needed to see out of this team because with the Mariners not playing, you know, you got a chance to, to do a little bit extra damage instead. They got a little closer to you and now those objects in your rear view mirror are closer than they would appear and you got to start worrying about Seattle again. Yeah, not, not to play the, you know, I, I told you so game, but to play the, I told you, so I've wanted jerks and pro far for the last two off seasons. I wanted a left-handed bat in the off season. Oh, you're crazy. They don't need a left-handed bat. The Astros have added two left-handed outfield bats in the last month and a half because they're desperate for a left-handed bat. Just saying pro far is the guy that I, you know, I wanted the last off seasons pro far is making $1 million. That's unreal. He's going to get. $1 million paid next year. And he's probably going to go back to being more journeymen numbers. But for this year, he is earning every bit of it with the season he's putting together. And the battle, I mean, the offense was poor. I'm not sure. And I hope this isn't a guy that's pouting because he doesn't like the spot that he's hitting in the order. But I have never seen Alex Bregman look worse at the plate than he looked yesterday. He looks so bad, bad swing, chasing pitches out of the zone, hitting little numbers back to the mound. I have not like, Bregman isn't, you know, he's streaking, Bregman got off to the awful start at the start of the year, but Bregman is usually always somebody who has excellent command of the zone. He's not chasing pitches out of the zone. Even whenever he's not going really well, he's not striking out a ton. Bregman swung at a pitch yesterday in the dirt by you, Darvish, who didn't have a huge strikeout game. Bregman looked atrocious yesterday at the plate. And I'm not saying it's because he's pouting of where he's hitting in the order. He's hitting fifth. I'm sure he doesn't like it, but I am keeping my eye on it. I'm keeping my eye on Alex Bregman because I, I don't want to say I have a feeling he doesn't like hitting in that five hole, but I wonder if he doesn't like hitting in that five hole because yesterday was not the Alex Bregman. Even whenever Alex Bregman struggling, he's not chasing like he was chasing yesterday. He has command of the strike zone. He looked over matched by you, Darvish. That's a problem. And I, it's a good point. I didn't, I didn't think about that. And when you think about the fact that I guess conceivably you would flip flop yiner and tucker, I mean, yiner and Bregman so that, so that yiner would go down to the five hole the way they did early in the year, if you're going to do anything, I hope that's not the case because look, they've been very, very lenient with him trying to get him back from his elbow, giving him enough time off when he needed it, you know, doing what they need to do to kind of persevere through the rest of the season and get the best Alex Bregman. I didn't think about that, but I think he was one of the main culprits of several guys where you thought, Hey, throughout the game, you had a chance to possibly get something started, do some damage, instead quite the opposite, it looked like guys were mailing it in. Bregman looked atrocious. I go back and watch his forehead badge yesterday. That's not Alex Bregman just saying Taylor Scott has lost his cape. And what is his cape? I think it's the number 50. We know that Taylor Scott sold the number 50 to Hector Nares for an undisclosed amount. Which what do we think that undisclosed amount was? How much do you think he spent for the number 50? I would say who's making quite a bit of money this year? I would say 15 to 20 grand. Okay. I was going to say 10k. Does that say ballpark? Five figures. Because it's only for like a small point of the year, you know, like it wasn't the entire year. It's like for the final couple of months. But anyways, Taylor Scott gave number 50 sold, sold number 50 to Hector Nares on August 29th in five appearances since Taylor Scott has not worn the number 50. 635 era seven 76 fit opponents are hitting three 91 against Taylor Scott. Taylor Scott has lost his cape. He has lost his potion. He has lost what makes him special, which is the number 50. Yeah. He had a couple of hiccups even before he got to the number switch, not as bad, but not that bad. Nothing like this. This is something that we haven't seen all year. I mean, I go back to the game before previously in Anaheim where he's just, you know, he's walking multiple guys in a row and he looks like he doesn't have command of the zone in his pitches. And that's not the Taylor Scott that was huge for you at the first part of the season. And you know that he's had a lot of wear and tear on his arm. I think thankfully now they got at least a guy in Nares that can give you an extra arm that might be able to do Taylor Scott type things because he's, he's clearly not even close to the guy he was early in the season. I would, I would chalk it up to way over usage for how much they went to him early in the season. It's because he sold his number, but it, you know, but if you want to vote on that, I, some people might go your way the last sailor Scott five outings since he sold his number. We gave you the numbers. R a through the roof, the fit through the roof of the, the opponent batting average through the roof. His previous five outings before selling the number 50, his cape, he had a 284 ERA in six and a 30 at eight strikeouts. Opponents were hitting two, 17 against them previous five outings August 19th, 21st, 23rd, 24th, 27th was still pitching pretty dang good. Sold number 50 Hector Nares, a little influential has ruined Taylor Scott's career. It's his fault? Yes. Yes. The money Nares comes into town, money bags, Hector, and he still, we didn't still, he bought, he bought the number 50 from Taylor Scott. Taylor Scott has always been a journeyman pitcher. He's always been a mid pitcher. He's bounced around from team to team to team on the fringe of not being a majorly pitcher. He's been a majorly pitcher for like a good majorly pitcher for one time in his big lead career, wearing the five zero in Houston. He sells it. He's back to being a bum. Hector Nares did such a disservice to the Astros and he's actually quoting Phip twice. I did, of course. Jared Graham, a man who hates this Phip more than, I think anything else than baseball. You might hate that more than my pronunciation of RBI. That's the thing that triggers me the most. I hate RBI in the plural sense, far more than a Phip. Probably second most. Probably second most. Hector Nares has ruined Taylor Scott so much that you've quoted Phip twice. The reason the reason that I quote and I cite Phip is for all of the casuals who try to be smart. I use like Phip is the casuals who are trying to be nerdy, the statistic they like to go to. Yeah, I could see that. It is like, oh, here's an advanced stat that I'm going to use, but I'm a casual. Well, I really want to put it up on the broadcast, so I think that's part of it as well. He could've said no for the money. He could have kept the number and he just made Nares move on. He sold out. I don't know. Not for the lot of room standing on the team than Taylor Scott does. It was his first this year. He succumbed to peer pressure. Yeah. And he's done well with it. It was his, if he felt some kind of way about maybe he was superstitious instead from what Julia said, it was no big deal and that he's like, but if it's Nares, tell him it was a big deal because he was trying to get as much money as he could out of the deal. So he did it. Maybe he sold himself out because now he caught himself a bunch of money for next year when people, Astros or anybody else try to sign him, hope it was worth it. This is like, what are some things that like have had great beard or great like capes that make them great, but then they lose it and they're just very, very casual. Like Superman Clark Kent comes to mind kind of like he puts on the tape and becomes Superman. Like who else was like harden when once he got the beard because he was just maybe so he was just okay. He didn't know the beard got the beard and then boom. Yeah. I don't remember the timing on this, but Dominic Davis going to Dominic Williams, he was never the same running back after that, he was a much better running back with the last name of Davis. You know, the classic one was when Braggie had the mustache and he was struggling mightily and he saved mid game mid game. He went down into the clubhouse and shaved it off because he blamed the mustache. Yeah. Yeah. Taylor Scott's not the same guy. He's not. Well, there's no question. The numbers indicate that and he has not been the same guy since he lost the number 50. You could blame it on Taylor Scott for not, you know, having the fortitude to be able to overcome such a huge loss in his life. You can blame it on Hector Neris for, you know, being an old veteran that's peer pressuring him with some financial, you know, clout to surrender the number to him. He's not the same guy though. Every day, Tay was someone who was reliable. He was the fourth best reliever. Now it's like, yeah, do you want this guy on the playoff roster? And we have a lot of reasons to blame and I'm very, very sad that we lost every day Tay as the number 50 in the city of Houston, Eric fails very sweepy series vibe. The good news is you do have Hunter Brown tonight and Fromber tomorrow. That's it. If you get swept and you lose back to bad games with Hunter Brown and Fromber on the mound, that was that will stink. Yeah. This, this is the way you look at both the Mariners series is they, they start a three game series against the Yankees and your series with those two pitchers. This is where I feel like not that it's make or break, but this is where you could really create the ultimate distance that you need the rest of the way. If you can get these two games in San Diego and the Mariners struggle with the Yankees because the Yankees need every game. I mean, they got a three game lead on the Orioles. They're battling with trying to chase down Cleveland for the number one seed in the American league as well. So they're not going to lay down for anybody like the Rangers did. So you know that they're playing a tough opponent, but with your two best pitchers on the mound the next two nights, you got to capitalize on that. Yeah. So hopefully it's not sweeping. If you get swept with those two dudes on the mound. Yeah, that would be painful for the strobes. I didn't finish that text that Eric said and I got distracted there kind of the way the year is gone. Bad starts, bad starts, snowballs into bad offense that is true for four, eight, eight. That was our best offensive lineup last night with who was available. I would agree. The offense is not looking good at all, but this is the Astros like the Astros are bipolar there, especially offensively. They are by polar. They'll have games where yesterday they'll sleep walk to one run on six hits and then they'll explode for an eight spot on 15 hits. They are bipolar like you compare them season numbers to the rest of baseball. They stack up pretty favorable, but they're bipolar. They have nights like they did yesterday junior Bronco saying that the Astros hate the Dodgers so much. They gave the Padres the game. That's a good angle. I like that angle. Let's go with that. Let's go with it. Let's go with that one. All right. Tuesday show. Very, very busy. Cash over trash them coming up later in the program. A bunch of texts and stuff. I loved Amiko Ryan's. You already knew that, but I love him even more now and then two and O teams to miss the playoffs. Oh, and two teams to make the playoffs. We'll dive into that as well, but let's talk about the picture from yesterday's game. What do we make of Eric Getty's performance? And do we trust one Spencer Eric Getty seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six HR and P listener line Twitch.tv/espn97 five we're on YouTube and ESPN Houston, Twitter, ESPN nine, seven, five blankers at Pac-Man Joel, Brian, it's sacked by BMAC. I'm at Jeremy Branham. We are the bees on ESPN 97 five and ESPN 92 five listening to the killer bees with Joel blanket Jeremy Branham on ESPN 97 five and 92 five broadcasting live from the Veritex Community Bank studios, Samson cut his hair, lost his strength. Very similar. Taylor Scott losing the number 50 and losing his effectiveness. I feel like whenever I cut my summer lettuce, I feel like I lose a little bit of myself each and every year. He liked to grow out in the summer. What other things? Let us like your gym room in the nineties. Yeah, I had really good lettuce in the summer thick, Vinny Castilla, like another nineties reference. Very Vinny Castilla because it's super, super thick 713, 780 ESPN junior Broncos on the Twitch talking about Eric Getty, Spencer's pitch count was high early per usual. Padres will do that to you. They don't strike out. They fell off a ton of pitches. They're good offense. I mean, they're a good offense top the bottom, but he struck out a rise. Houston Chronicle had a their headline today on their website. I just tweeted it actually because I didn't, I guess I was feeling nice this morning. I didn't want to stir it up like I normally do, but I just, I did it now. I eventually got there, but they're the headline says, Spencer Eric Getty strikes out Louisa rise, which quote meant a lot. Is that a soft headline following a three one loss at San Diego? That's really soft. Like Astros lose a game. They're in a pennant race. The lead is down to four headline Spencer Eric Getty strikes out Louisa rise, which meant a lot in a game where he may pitch. Okay. Two runs, five innings picked up the loss in the game. Is that a soft headline? That's very soft. I think so. Very, very needy and soft. Like, yeah, that's, that's ridiculous. I mean, the main storyline is you're, you're still in the middle of a pennant race and in games you got to win and you look flat, but yet the story, the headline is regarding ending a guy's strike, lack of strikeout streak, like, okay, that's weak. Yeah. Like that was the victory. Good reach. Yeah. I mean, you might as well hang it on the left. That was a win yesterday because Spencer Eric Getty struck out Louisa rise and broke up his, his strikeout list streak. Astros are going to win it all. Astros are going to win another world series. Go ahead and hang the banner, plan the parade, Spencer Eric Getty, struck out Louisa rise last night. Sad man. Shruck him out. Yeah, that's, that's brutal. Might as well. They, they should have started the, they should have started the post game press conference right then. You're saying this is the not connected to the Houston Chronicle. No, it is. This is Houston. This is Houston. Houston Chronicle.com. I don't know who writes the headlines. I mean, we know that headline writers are different than the guys who wrote the stories. So I'm not going to even say who wrote the story because I don't want to associate that with the guy who probably wasn't the guy who wrote the headline, but a soft headline. We all agree. Soft headline for sure. Yeah, that's weak. Lose the game. Spencer Eric Getty struck out. Louisa rise. What, what a job. What a job. It'd be like facing Barry Bonds. He, he got a strike on Barry Bonds. Yeah. Got him in a full, I mean, got him in an O2 count worked him hard. He had a couple of foul balls, but at the end of the day, Barry took you deep. Yeah. He didn't surrender a home run, but he gave up a double on the gap victory for the Astros. Anyways, yeah, I mean, the pitch count was high with Eric Getty credit to San Diego there. I actually thought Eric Getty pitched. Okay. I thought that he, I thought that he was able to like gut through what could have very much been a bad outing. Like he was on the cusp of being chased in the second inning. He was on the cusp of giving up six, seven runs and to pitch through that, get through five innings, only give up two runs. I actually tipped my cap to Spencer Eric Getty. I don't think it was this wonderful performance. I don't think we should be quoting the headline. He struck out. Louisa rise. I think that's incredibly soft, but I'll, I'll give him some flowers that he got through five, only gave up two against a good offense on a night where he wasn't his best. I can't trust him. I, I think you're right. I cannot trust him, but I think you're right to give him, you can at least give him credit for escaping without that being a whole hell of a lot worse. But you really, I think this is all season long where the real Spencer Eric Getty police stand up because there are times when he looks absolutely unhittable. He looks like he can mow anybody down. His strikeouts are through the roof and we saw a streak of those games where he put, I think two and three games together where he was up there, you know, with strikeouts per those three, two and three games spans better than a ton of really good pitchers that, that have pitched in this game. And then he can look again, like he's looked in, in several starts in September, August, he was essentially almost unhittable, September, he looks like he's totally different again. Last night, the frustration for me was, like you said, he set himself up for a lot of trouble. Yes, he was able to escape it. No, it wasn't about the walks as much, but the pitch count was directly associated with pitches that he normally has that can strike guys out, that can get that strikeout number close to double digits work completely sitting around the zone to where guys were filing off pitch after filing off a pitch. He didn't have a strikeout type pitch and he just, to me, looks like a guy I can't trust because in those situations as easily as he got out of him. Okay. Yeah, we got to rise out of me because watching him, I was like, I just, I can't trust this guy because I'm looking at it now and as much as we were saying, Eric Getty versus Verlander, now to me, the clear cut of the three guys, unless something drastically changes between now and the end of the regular season. To me, the guys, Blanco, Blanco is back in the, in the driver's seat, Blanco's the guy that I would put in a seven game series as the fourth starter, Blanco's the guy that I have more trust in than the other two guys right now. I don't care where Verlander is in his spring training regiment, spring training right now to me, he looks like he's still got work to do. And Eric Getty to me looks like a guy between the strikeouts not being there between his strikeout pitches, not looking as sharp and doing as much as they used to do. And tiptoeing that fine line between a complete meltdown and escaping with a runner to just has me completely not feeling good about Spencer Eric Getty. Yeah, I get pretty much the same feel like I'm with you. Like I really don't have much of a counterpoint. I think that both things can be true or you don't trust them, but you kind of tip your cap live innings, two runs where he was on the brink all night long. Now, like to get to a seven game series, though, you got to win two series, right? So I'm a bit uncomfortable having the who is the fourth guy in the Astros playoff rotation. You have to win a stinking series before you're even talking about that. But if I need another starter on the roster for the wild card series, you don't need you need three right, but you're probably going to keep for because of the fact that you might get in a situation. If anybody gets into trouble, you need a long guy that can go really long. So they they're probably going to carry another one to me that's that's that's going to be the long go. Well, you're probably going to carry below because he's in the pen, right? I think Eric Getty's making the wild card roster. He probably will. Yes. But I'm saying if you're going to go to one of those two guys, I'm going to go. I'm going to go to Blanco. Well, before I'm going to go to Eric Getty, I'm probably going to go to a lot of other guys simply because of the fact that he doesn't look like the other. It's the Jekyll and Hyde thing. You've seen him be really good right now. He looks like the opposite of really good. I don't trust him and when you're in do or die country, I just can't see having a spot having the confidence to go. I feel like Spencer's the guy that's going to go in and mow people down. No, I'm with you. If I'm like power ranking my confidence in starting pitchers, farmers, 100 Browns, two you say Kakuchi's three and Blanco's my four and now I have Eric Getty five early in or six. I would have Eric Getty out of early in. Oh, I think I still do simply because of the fact that when you look at what we can say the same thing about Verlander, he walked the bases loaded in Cincinnati. He walked to to get too straight to start the game in Anaheim. He's not looking anywhere close to what Verlander used to be and what he wants to be is not something I can wait and see when we get to the playoffs. He has a couple of opportunities to throw and show me some things to where I might change my opinion slightly, but with each of these passing starts, I'm feeling less and less confident that Justin Verlander is going to figure it out. Let's say you're in the fifth inning of wild card series. Your three man rotation is from a brown Kakuchi. So it could be any one of these games. Let's say it's game two, 100 Brown pitch count through the roof, a tight game, fifth inning, series of Rides coming up. You only need them for one inning. You're asking for a guy to give you one inning, three outs against three, three Rides. You go Spencer Eric Getty or Kayla Bort, I kind of want to say I'm going, I'm going Kayla Bort. I probably go. I go Kayla Bort there too because he's going to unload the tank. I mean, he's going to get close to triple digits, which already is a huge advantage against any hitter. And if he can locate anything other than a fastball or keep it close to the edges, I think he's got a legit chance to get out of that inning without any harm. Spencer Eric Getty or Taylor Scott. God right now that that's a Taylor Scott because of the fact that Taylor Scott because of the fact that when the sweepers right, he has saw he's been so effective with it. And his fastball isn't bad, but that that's a push for me. That's a really tough call that shouldn't be. I'm going to go body of work and consistency for the first half versus the inconsistencies of good and bad all season long with Eric Getty, but it's it's really a crapshoot. That's sad to say because Taylor Scott's been so good all year and Eric Getty's had his moments. Yeah, but it should be head and shoulders. Taylor Scott. Pretty comfortable saying that. Yeah, I would. I would go. I would go. Eric Getty. I would go Eric Getty pretty. I think Eric Getty's got far better stuff. Let me be fast ball. His breaking stuff is way better. Eric Getty's breaking stuff's pretty dang good. When he has it. Yeah. He struck out a rise with it. He did. He struck out a rise with it. Okay. Headline news. Todd. Todd the show. We're in peak over reaction mode. Spencer just faced the team with the least amount of strikeouts by large, large margin. That is fair to point out, but would you change where we had Eric Getty? Like, I mean, we have Eric Getty fifth and the starting pitching confidence rankings. Like, are you putting Eric Getty ahead of Renelle Blanco? Because like kind of saying the same thing in different ways. Like, I don't think that it's overreaction. Like, we're saying that Spencer, Eric Getty got through a tough lineup and was able to like grind his way through five innings gives up to tip in our cap to that. But if you're talking about in the playoffs, Renelle Blanco, a start, Spencer, Eric Getty a start, which do you trust the most? I don't think that that's really overreaction. But here's the other thing, Todd, then what's the excuse for when he had the absolute puke throw up all over myself and crap the bed moment in Cincinnati? Because you can say that about what you, what you want about San Diego. But this is a string of starts right now where you're deeply concerned about the fact that he's not even close to the, to the early season and the even August, Spencer, Eric Getty. Well, I would push back on the string of starts. I think that he's been really good with the exception of one star was that the sense it was a sense that he came right though, right? That's it though. Like he's been really good other than that. Okay. But in September, that was the one start. Now you've seen this start, he hasn't looked like himself to where it, you know, it's not just San Diego and to Todd's point. It's the fact that as good as he was in August, now all of a sudden it's kind of flirting with the opposite in September. I mean, one star was really, really bad yesterday star was kind of on the brink, but still was able to get you through five innings against a line if it doesn't strike out much. But we still see signs which we've seen with other pitchers where his stuff is, is not even, it's not what it used to be, right? This season. I agree with that. I don't think his stuff was great last night. I don't think, I don't think he had as much bite on his breaking pitches. I think he did. I don't. I just thought that normally he's got a lot more drop on him, a lot more movement across the plate. I thought he, I thought he struggled a lot to kind of get the middle out breaking pitches or middle to the back foot in on lefty. I mean, he got Louisiana rise and swinging a miss in a ball on the plate. That's why I'm breaking ball on the plate. Right. That's one at bat. Talking about having the bite on his breaking ball. I certainly did there. Right. That's one at bat. But normally when he has that in his back pocket as part of his arsenal, he's using that on multiple hitters. He's chalking up a lot of strikeouts and he's also getting a lot of easy soft contacts because of the fact that it's the change of pace with his fastball. I just, I just don't think his, his breaking pitches and his off speed pitches had the kind of bite movement that they normally do. The desert show says Valdez Brown, Blanco Kukuchi. So he has Blanco ahead of Kukuchi. He's done a wild card series. You're starting Blanco over Kukuchi. Deserts, Joe. I'm not. Yeah. I'm probably not either. I'm probably looking to piggyback that game. Uh, but make the playoffs first. Uh, it switches. Padres have the best lineup in the NL. I mean, that's, that's true. Like we do, we do have to consider that the other teams on scholarship too. Um, that outing could have looked a lot worse, but yes. So the, the good thing is, is that he battled against a good lineup. The bad thing is he struggled against Cincinnati and the other thing is you saw, I had the biggest feeling going into the game. I already knew San Diego was on, was on fire. They're, they're a really, really good team. Their, their offense is fantastic, but that gives me less confidence in a guy like Eric Yeti. But if you told me that it's fromber, it's Brown or it's Kukuchi, I have confidence. Those three guys are going to be very effective against no matter what lineup they face because they proven it. Yeah, but I don't think that was ever the con, like the ever the argument though. I don't think anybody was ever saying Spencer Eric Yeti should get a start over one of those three guys. No, no, no, no, you're right. But I, but I now I was in the conversation and I was the one that was fighting that I take Eric Yeti over Verlander and Blanco wasn't even in the conversation. Now to me, Blanco's leapfrog, both of them. And if you want to say right now, do I trust Eric Yeti more than Verlander? I do. But it's by a, it's, it's by more of a slim margin than it should be. Yeah, I have Eric Yeti behind Blanco and then the gap off way, way, way big like Grand Canyon drop off then Verlander junior Bronco says Blanco, Kukuchi, Spencer, all interchangeable. I think Kukuchi's got the edge. I think he's above them. Yeah. I would have, I would have Kukuchi above them. I like Blanco to a lot, man. Like give me five innings, one run ball. And I think Blanco's very capable of doing that. Even when he has been, if you're worried about him having a tired arm or they were either concerned about the innings pitched and they were trying to, you know, kind of give him that he skipped a turn through the rotation. He's still giving you five and keeping you in the ball game. He's still keeping it within a run or two. And in a lot of cases, he's not giving up a run. That's what you need. Yeah. I would. I, I hate that the fact that they're going to be starting in a three game series. The Astros season has been inconsistent. This is not a championship teams, 0 4 5 2. I think that's, I think it's fair. I think it's a fair take to have. They've been inconsistent. The hope is that they hit their stride once the playoffs start super dangerous mindset to have a 60 30. The problem last night, he wouldn't get off the breaking ball and set it up. One of the best breaking ball hitting teams and he threw breaking balls consistently. See, I think the trouble we had with the breaking balls, he left it in the zone too much. I, I think he had a tough time putting it in the dirt and it's like, like the, the double to Machado like early in the game. I think Blumber said it was a good pitch. Oh, what? Like it was, it was, it was middle outside half. That was a hanger, a hanger. That's what I'm saying. When, when he's right with his breaking pitches, they look like they're going to be in the zone and they start looking like they're going to be a strike and then they're nowhere near it when the guy starts committing to it and he has a huge advantage. He didn't have that last night. I would pin that more on command than they're like, bite though, but that's, you know, nit picky. All right. 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, 3, 7, 7, 6, us, the killer bees are going to allow you to pick one player on the Astros to resign. You can pick one guy, one guy that's going to expire at the end of the year. Are you picking, you say Kakuchi or Alex Bregman, 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, 3, 7, 7, 6? It's the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 92 5 guys right now a moment for my bookie.ag. If you haven't been there, you need to go there and check it out because I think you're going to like it a lot and you're going to find out that's the site you're going to go to when you want to bet on sports because my bookie.ag has a ton of ways that they support you that they're there for you, that they're going to try and help you. They give you bonuses. They have where you can sign up for a lot, their, their loyalty rewards program and my bookie plus it's fantastic and you go through tears and the more you bet and the more you're loyal to them, the higher the tears you go with the better discounts and the way that they give back to you. 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Scott Boris was an Anaheim watching his client kind of dropped. Oh, yeah. Bragman's willing to play second base. I wonder why he said that to make him more attractive to teams who might need guys who aren't third baseman. They can play multiple positions. I can play second. If there's a whole second base and then you say kakuchi. You trade for him rental and you probably feel different about kakuchi. If you resign him, you're like, okay, well, you know, losing him isn't losing all the prospects. Not as bad because kakuchi has been really good. Then you extend them. So now you're getting three, four years as opposed to just three months. You can only pick one and let's just assume fair market value. Like, you know, whatever we assume fair market value is, you go on, you say kakuchi or Alex Bragman. You only get one. You can only re sign one. You say kakuchi Alex Bragman seven, one, three, seven, eight zero, three, seven, seven, six. I'm going with Alex Bragman. And I'm going with Alex Bragman because of the fact that I believe that as much as I I had serious doubts that this was with the year that he was going to still have a slow start and figure it out. He has seemingly figured it out. Now the elbow factored in as it can factors in now as a concern to me. But other than that, I believe he can still hit. And I was starting to worry about how much he was good. He had fallen off. We know he can play third base. We know he plays every day. I think from the standpoint of as good as kakuchi has been and how happy I have been in his performance, no matter how much I wasn't happy with what they gave up to get him, I believe that kakuchi's a guy that you can replace because of the fact that you have so many pitchers coming back and you don't know if you get one of them, multiples, but you've had a surplus of starting pitching. You've had guys that have gotten injured. You have guys coming back and you're going to have opportunities to find another pitcher for a year or two if you have more issues with your starting pitching or with the guys coming back. I believe that it's more difficult for a team like the Astros to find a guy that's going to fill the void left by Alex Bragman at third base, no matter where you think he is in his career, as opposed to a starting pitcher where whether you feel like it's a definite need or it's kind of a, hey, an insurance policy, we need one more guy, but I would go like Alex Bragman. I mean, kakuchi's like like a definite top three starter for you right now, like that those are easy to find. No, but I think that you got Garcia coming back. I think that you've got guys that are going to eat up innings for the long haul for the rotation with a Blanco and Blanco, who knows, Blanco could end up, you know, now going through this. Blanco could end up being that same guy that could replace kakuchi. And next year be your, you know, be right there. Okay. 7, 5, 6, 0 says Bragman, kakuchi's arm could mess up. Bragman's arms currently messed up. So like that's not a great argument. I go kakuchi. I give me the starting pitcher over the above average offensive third baseman. And yes, Bragman's defense makes him, you know, very, very helpful there. I also think Bragman's kind of breaking down like bright and yes, he's younger than you say kakuchi, but you say kakuchi still throws gas. The breaking stuff still plays. He's not a dude who's just like, you know, getting these hitters out based on being a veteran. Like his stuff is really, really good. There's that stat stuff plus that, you know, measures of pitcher stuff. He's up there. He's really, really high. Whereas Bragman, you look at his numbers just in his last three years, last three years, in 2022, 820 OPS last year, 804 OPS this year, 751 OPS like we are seeing the natural regression of an offensive player that is entering his thirties and it's going to be, you know, going into into his early thirties with this contract. So I would go with the arm. I would go with you say kakuchi, you bring up, you bring back, you say kakuchi, you're looking at a rotation of from her hunter Brown, you say, as your top three, you throw in Blanco to the mix, Eric, getting in the mix, the returning pitchers to the mix. I think you have the best rotation in the American League, dare I say. So I would take you, say kakuchi, if I had to pick between the two, I'm going to go with Joel and this one and we sign Alex Bragman because I just fundamentally have an issue with paying multiple years on her on a starting pitcher who's already in his mid 30s. He's 33. He'll turn 34 next summer during the first year of that contract. So it's already kind of a no for me there to begin with. But even beyond that, look, we're all riding high on the way you say kakuchi has pitched since he came to the Astros, but right now we're talking about what a nine game sample size and you look like before he came here, and obviously we weren't even happy with this trade because the overall numbers this year were terrible. He had a nine game stretch in this season in previous seasons where he's been really good. Nine game sample sizes to me, well, while I'm very encouraged with what he's done is not something I'm willing to then go out and pay three to four years off of now. He obviously could add to that rest of September into October, hopefully knock on wood, but I don't like paying pictures in their mid 30s multiple years. And to me, the sample size isn't huge enough. So I'll take the guy that's three years younger and is playing in the field every day. Now, wouldn't you say that the sample size on Bragman's regression is high enough to at least enter this conversation? I'm not saying it's not a factor. It's certainly in the back of my mind, and I don't feel good about paying Alex Bragman. Like if you go with his spoke track, market value, it's four years, 120. Well, I don't think it's up there because it's only one year, 13. So I think they have to update that. I would have brought it up, but it's like, yeah, that number can't be right. Yeah, we can throw that out. Yeah, we can throw that out. Yeah, we get more than 20. Yeah. So yeah, you think you think you can? I do. Like even if you think it's 20 for three, yeah, he's getting them. He's getting at least 20 three years, 60s. Yeah, and for multiple years, I don't know if someone's willing to go three, sure. But maybe you get to get it down to at 20. I thought the last time I saw, I think it was ESPN or someone that did their top 50 free agents, they had Kikuchi at a closer to 27, which I don't know that he's ever going to get that high, maybe 27 for two, like 54 for two, but but the way he's pitching right now, they think teams are going to be really enamored with the fact they could get that same result for a short period of time. That's kind of an Astros deal right there, 24 for two for Kikuchi. Isn't what they, isn't that what they passed on with Snell? No, he was like 30, oh, 32, but they love Kikuchi, like, and they've had Kikuchi like in house. So like they know who he is. They know how he like, and he likes the club house. Yeah. So maybe he would give you a sweetheart deal. Like we're not, that's not part of the conversation. No, sorry. No, no, you're good. No, I was going to say to Brian's point, there's obviously negatives on both sides, because Kikuchi has had a really bad season until he got to Houston. Kikuchi's a guy that has struggled, though he's had some success, as you mentioned, in different windows. And so you wonder, and at his age, with the amount of pitchers that are now going down with arm injuries, you do have to kind of question making that kind of financial commitment with all those factors in. With Brian minutes, the elbow first and foremost, and as you mentioned, Jeremy, the fact that the slow start was way longer period of time than normally the slow starts go. So you don't know what's left in his tank either, and you don't know how much you're rolling the dice in either side. You're not, it's not a cut and dried. It's not a fantastic situation on either side, because you do have big question marks. I just, I just like a guy that's, I think the, like the over, as it gets closer to the, if you need one overriding factor too, the fact that he's been here and been such an integral part of this team, he knows everything about this team, how they do their business. He, you don't have to worry about getting someone from the outside that's going to fit in. But I believe that there's still on a short enough term deal enough left of the tank with a fragment that every day, third baseman offensively defensively, that's where I lean. You don't feel like that would cook you though on a two to three year deal? I don't. I still, I would have concerns that he can keep this up. I feel, I feel like keep this up. I feel like Braggman's breaking down. Like he is super slow. He's not athletic. His offensive numbers have went down each of the last three years. He's got Gremlins in his elbow, which is a reoccurring injury that he had in the past. Like I really need more intel on the elbow breaks down and what breaks down is sports more than starting a picture. I mean, I get that Alex Braggman is showing signs of decline. No argument about that, but we're talking about betting on a multi-year deal for a picture who will be turning 34 next year. The cookies that we assume would be shorter than Braggman's. Sure. But even let's just say it's three years. I mean, you're talking about a guy that would be, what, 37 by the end of the deal. I just, I'm fundamentally against betting on multi-year deals. I think it'd be a 36-year deal. I'm only going two years with, if I'm thinking about, so what do we, so let's, let's put the parameters on it because the textures asking a 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, 3, 7, 7, 6, 5, 8, 8, 8, 2. I need the contracts. Give me an imaginary contract for both and I can answer better. So you said that the smoke track on Braggman was 40 years, 120. So okay. So four years, 120. That's 30 million a year. And then you sit, let's, let's, the one they had, who she's not acting on, too, 46. I think three is probably fair. 360. Is that what we came up with? I think there's like 60 Joel said that that was on ESPN or something like that might be low with the amount of money. 27 is what I saw per year and I thought that was too high. Let's go 65 for three. Any argument there? That's fine. Any argument there? Because it's a little, a little under 22 per year. So all right. So that was going to go two for 46. So that, that, if you're going to go three, that's fine. 65. So Braggman, four years, 120 million total, 30 million a year. You say Kakuchi three for 65 total, which is a little under $22 million per year. 713-780-ESP and HRP listener line will get your reaction on the other side. It is the B's on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. You're listening to ESPN 97.5. You found the killer bees live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Brannan. 713-780-ESP. You can only sign one. Alex Braggman, four years, 120 million. You say Kakuchi three years, 65 million. 713-780-3776, 0002, I thought Braggie was looking for a Matt Chapman type of deal and he's younger, but more wear and tear. Chapman took extra years for a little bit less AAV. So he signed six years, 151 million, which is roughly $25 million a year. I don't think anybody signing Braggman to a six year deal. I think that would be, I think it's too much, but I think he gets more AAV. I think 124 is in the wheelhouse, and I rather signed Braggman to 124 and pay him more money in those four years than a 151 for six. This elbow is going to really throw a monkey wrench into everything based on you got to do some serious, serious intel to figure out because the last thing you want to do is go start thinking about and then make a commitment to a guy that right after you signing him is going to need some kind of a long term recovery program for this elbow. Yeah, three, four, seven, four, at least we got Braggman an extra two years into his free agency. That's true, because when you signed him earlier, you bought out two free agent years, which I hope the Astros continue to do that. I would do it with the honor Diaz. I would consider doing it with Jeremy Peña. I would do it with Hunter Brown. So yeah, I hope that's a, I hope that's a practice they continue to do a three, four, one, seven after seeing how bad the defense was when he was hurt. Give me Braggman. But I'd hate the contract. If that big, I prefer three for 75 can't rewrite the rules. The defense did struggle when Braggman took a seat, like whenever Braggman has been out, the defense has severely struggled a third. Do bonds, do my can hold his own there, but whenever Whitcom was there, when D'Zenzo played a couple of innings there, you could see the drop off defensive. No question about it. And look, we know that this defense has not been good over the last several weeks. It's not just because of the fact that Alex Braggman's been in or out. But the fact is if Braggman walks, you have to replace them one way or the other. Right now you don't have anything I don't believe internally that makes you feel good about who's going to replace him on a everyday basis. And I think that we all know, and I don't think he gets enough credit for the fact that he has played a, a, a, I don't want to say elite, but a really, really good third base for his entire career here. And that's something you got to factor in. I like saying borderline elite, his arm is kind of weak this year. Maybe it has something to do with the elbow. A texture says that he, he's going to need Tommy John this off season. I have a hard time believing that, like I think it's hard to play third base if you have a torn UCL. So I don't think it's Tommy John. I won't completely rule it out. A 431, he's breaking down and his production is slipping. Braggman's not worth four years and a hundred and a 30 million a year. I would agree with that. That's why I went kikuchi kikuchi in that scenario. I think that's the Braggman needs Tommy John. Someone's going to give kikuchi a stupid amount of money, brags all the way. I don't know how much kikuchi would get over 65. Like maybe he can get up to 75 million for three years. Maybe more years. Maybe somebody pays them 25 million a year. I have a hard time seeing kikuchi giving him more than three years though. I just think that I think it seems a stupid if they give him more than three years for one and for two, if they're thinking that this is like all of a sudden in a piffany moment and now the way he's pitching for the Astros is what you're going to get for the next three years. I think shame on you. I think that that's that's a hell of a stretch to think that way just because the fact like Brian said in a short sample side that suddenly it's all figured out and now from from this point forward, he's just going to be dominant. I just don't feel that way. Yeah. I don't know if anybody expects him to be dominant for that money. You better be pretty good. I think I think for that money, you want him to solidify your number three spot in the rotation. Okay. But I think that once you solidify the number three spot in the rotation, the expectation is is that the strikeouts are going to be to not maybe 10 strikeouts a game, but they're going to be up, you know, the figure, the fact that he's not going to be giving up as many long balls. The ERA is going to be down that he is going to be really, really solid and he's just his fluctuated too much for me to believe that his strikeouts really happen. Like his strikeouts of like, yes, he's he's on a heater now, but his strikeouts have always been high. Like his stuff has been his stuff and we haven't seen the stuff like slip at all. How do we expect them to be a three 19 ERA guy for three years? No, I think that's unrealistic. I think he'd be closer to 350, maybe somewhere in the, in the range of 350 to a four ERA, a couple of tweets on this, a better question, a healthy bragman or bad elbow bragman, probably taking Kakuchi and finding a third baseman with an extra 55 to 60 million. Someone mentioned a Suarez, give me Kakuchi and then Suarez. The thing is, if I do sign Kakuchi, I do want to go external for a third baseman. I, I am not comfortable with what you have in house to take over for that position. Like I, Shay Whitcomb to me is not the opening day, third baseman next year. Zack DeZinzo is not the opening day, third baseman next year. Marisio Dubon should not be penciled in to be the starter on opening day anywhere next year. He should be a utility guy. The only one that intrigues me that is in the organization would be Bryce Matthews. I knew you were going to say that. Yeah. I mean, look, and he hasn't given you any reason to doubt it. He's made just this astronomical jump through the minor leagues. He's now in AAA. He's having success wherever he goes. He looks like a guy that has the it factor that you might be able to say is going to be a long term piece of this puzzle. You just got to see more and committing yes, it worked out when you committed to paying you when Correa left, but not every situation like that is going to work out with like this instantaneously. Hey, you know, advantage Astros type feel to it. I don't want to put all my eggs in that basket. I want to give him every opportunity to make the team and prove that he can compete for the third base job, whether it is right away or in the near future. I don't know that I feel comfortable saying, you know, next year, it's his job. No, yeah, I was, if you are going to do that, I would, I would like a battle like find me a veteran third baseman who if they lose the job to Matthews would really help out your bench, I would probably go that route like give me a little competition. But yeah. Kakuchi's my answer. All his answers, let's see what happens in the off-season will be, it'll be interesting. I think there's a really good, really good chance that both are gone. Quite frankly. All right, seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six. You already know that I love Dameko Ryan's, but I love him even more now. I'll tell you why next it's the B's on ESPN 97 five and ESPN 92 five, ESPN 97 five. The kids are back in school. The cooler temperatures are on the way. That's why now is the perfect time to replace your windows. 5280 exteriors can give you and your family energy efficient windows that will keep you warm all winter long. Right now 5280 exteriors is giving you a free low e-glass upgrade all through September. Not valid with any other offers. Schedule now at 5280 exteriors.com 5280 exteriors, the altitude of quality. (upbeat rock music)