The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
10/2 - Game 2 Live Reaction To Astros Wildcard Exit
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The Astro season is over. 713-780- ESPN, moisture frustrations for the series. For the year, what you saw from the Astro's all year, we're here until 6 o'clock. We'll be Astro's the whole way. We want to hear it from you. We want to hear your frustrations. What went wrong today? What went wrong in this series? What went wrong this season? What is in store for the Astro's going forward? Is this the end of the Golden Era? Has AJ Hinch been the guy that has closed the book on the Golden Era? 713-780- ESPN, 713-780-3776, the HRNP listener line. We'll start with today's Game Blankers. Fall 5-2, you got a really good pitching early both sides. First run of the game didn't come into the sixth inning. 100 Brown got touched up by a home run, Parker Meadows going all in on a fastball. Yanking it off the right field foul pole. Astro's got tons of bad memories with that right field foul pole. Your rally, you score a couple of runs in the seventh inning. They didn't get enough, but you took the lead for a moment only for it to all implode in the eighth inning with a combination of Ryan Presley with a combination of Josh Hader and the Tigers go on to win. How do you break down today's loss? I think it's filled with massive disappointments and it starts with the offense overall. You knew that it was going to be a makeshift kind of cut and paste and glue AJ Hinch pitching performance today in terms of who he was going to go to and you had a guy that pitched his tail off and 100 Brown. I thought 100 Brown was outstanding. I thought he made one bad pitch and it wasn't really that bad of a pitch. It's just that he threw a pitch that he thought he could get up and get in enough to get by and you got to tip your cap on the fact that he was able to hit the home run off of it. But overall, the offense was disappointing. The fact that you're facing all these different pitchers, I get it. But at the same time, your offense is too good to be shut down that way by someone not named Tariq Scooble. I mean, you had very little to work with. You weren't doing a whole hell of a lot. And then when it mattered most, whether you believe in it, you liked it or you didn't like it, pain you going on that play, which I think we all were in agreement was something that was very, very risky. Turns out to be a play where you think, okay, they finally kind of broke it open a little bit. They took a lead. This is exactly where you want to be with a bullpen that is exactly what was set up to be right here in this moment. And then the bullpen doesn't do its job and all hell breaks loose. Yeah, when the Astros sign Josh Hader, which do you believe in giving big money to relief pitching, has been something that's been a talking point in a conversation on the show because I don't think it's in the best interest of majorly baseball teams to be spending big money on relief pitching and it lets you down. Whenever the Astros sign Josh Hader, the conversation was all a starter needs to do is get through six innings with a lead and the game is over. It has been anything but that all year long. Brian Abreya has been mostly good, but Brian Abreya was not as good this year as he was last year. Ryan Presley has gotten old and aged very, very fast, an incredibly mediocre year for Ryan Presley, and nowhere near the standard of what Ryan Presley was. And Josh Hader, compared to his standard, compared to what he is getting paid, has been a let down. It has been a let down in the first year of a massive five year contract. So the philosophy of six innings with a lead and the game is over. No, you can't trust this bullpen this year, which is a far cry from where we thought it was going to be. And the bullpen had the lead. You had the lead in the eighth inning. Should you have scored more runs? Yeah, we'll get to that. But you had the lead in the eighth inning. You gave up the lead and now because of it, your season is over. Yeah, it really sucks. And, you know, when we look at what we've seen all season long, we've had each of those three big relievers at the back end of the bullpen in somewhat of a crosshairs discussion. We've talked about the fact that as much as Hader has been able to get the saves, Hader through the eye test showed you that he had hiccups and he was getting hit and he was putting runners on base. Bray, you did the same. And Presley was just awful down the stretch. And we were sitting here watching the game, the three of us. And the minute that they took the lead, I was wondering if this was a spot to even bring Presley into the game because of what we had seen. I don't care what his post game record was leading up to this point in this season, in this season. We knew what we saw down the stretch. We knew Ryan Presley was less than. We knew that this was par for the course, put runners on, give up some hits, do the things that he did again, again, today. And you look at it and say, this was a situation where if a Bray, you had anything left in the tank, if you were left leaving at all, I almost would have gone to a Bray you to see what he could have given you for another inning simply because I did not trust Ryan Presley. And then after that, Hader just felt the bottom fell out. Yeah, I don't, I don't disagree a ton. They just haven't done it all year. Like they all year long. It's been okay, a Bray, you're the seventh inning guy. Okay, Presley, you're the eighth inning guy. Okay, Hader, you're the ninth inning guy. And whenever we were talking about flip flopping a Bray you like in July, people thought we were nuts. Oh, you can't do that to Ryan Presley. You can't have a Bray. You'd be higher leverage than Ryan Presley. What are these guys talking about? We said that Ryan Presley should be demoted and that the guy from the Houston Chronicle thought we were morons. So it's just been what they've shown all year. Now, if you break, like you look at the eighth inning. We like the Astros have pre-designed roles. Like people look at a spot. Oh, is this analytical man? He's really not. AJ Hintch is an analytical manager. A spot is not because if you're managing this game based on analytics, I don't think that Ryan Presley sees the eighth inning for two reasons. One, yeah, Brian, a Bray, you pitched at anything in a third. Yeah, Brian, a Bray, you was at 18 pitches. But who do you trust more against the top of the Detroit Tiger lineup? Because when Ryan Presley came into the game, it was Meadows Carpenter Verling. You had the top three for the Tigers batting leading off that eighth inning. So who do you trust more against the top of the Tiger lineup? Is it Brian, a Bray, you even though he's doing 18 pitches or is it Ryan Presley? I think analytics might keep Brian, a Bray, you in the game. Secondly, because you have Meadows Carpenter and Verling, the top two of those guys are lefties, does it make sense to have your closure coming in the game in the eighth inning? Josh Hader, you go face lefty, lefty, righty. You go face one, two, three. You're the better pitcher than Ryan Presley. The pre-designed roles tell us that maybe you go face one, two, three, you pitched the eighth. We'll take the temperature on where you're at after the eighth inning. And if you're still good, you're still fresh, then you can pitch the ninth. If not, well, Ryan Presley can pitch against a lower pocket in the Detroit Tiger batting order. So it just hasn't been the way that a spotter has managed. There was no way that he was changing today. Should he have? Yeah, probably should have. There's no doubt in my mind he should have. And this is something that we talked about you and I and Brian talked about this throughout the season, which was as much as we didn't include Hader in the conversation because we just penciled him as the closer. We talked about as we got closer to the playoffs as we got closer to games that were going to have a higher importance level, that it didn't matter who was penciled in throughout the year for the seventh and the eighth. It was go to the guy at the right situation with the leverage situation facing you. And if that meant you were facing the top of the order, if that means you were facing some of the better hitters on the lineup, don't be afraid. To go to a Bray. You first don't feel like you have to be locked in to go to Presley because it's the eighth inning. It was a tough situation. He did not look good at the end of the year with Presley. I didn't feel good about it because I hadn't felt good in about him in a while. And it all blew up right in the face of everybody. And that's a tough way to end your season. It just feels it feels disappointing in the like the biggest moment of the season. Joe Espada went total robotic manager just like, okay, this is the eighth inning. So I'm going to my eighth inning. He's always done it. He's always done it. It wasn't turning the page into the postseason and it became that he's not all here. I agree. I'm just saying that in the biggest moment I had hoped for more because as you mentioned, the first two hitters in that inning were left handed. But I mean, he also the fourth hitter, Riley Green, also left handed that Presley stayed in there to face. He faced five batters, three of those three of those first five were left these three of the first four in fact. So, yeah, it's unfortunate that it cost him the season, but that was a moment where, okay, maybe Hater is your ninth inning guy, but you're about to face three out of four hitters that not only the top of their lineup, but they're all left handed. Put in your guy that you're paying 96 million, whatever it is, your left handed, your left handed specialist out of the bullpen, your hammer and shut down that part of the game and then go to Presley after that if Hater can't come back in the knife. Well, let's also be honest, and the fact that he's always been, there was a possibility that he could have given you more than one inning. Yeah, he pitched yesterday and we talked about that. But at the same time, if he is truly that guy, if he's the guy that now is willing to go to innings, if you have any concerns about Presley too, then you would have considered how far you go with them. But definitely with all the lefties coming up, that's a situation that you have to think about at least Josh Hater. 713-780-ESP and HRP listener line 713-780-3776. Let's go out to the HR and P listener line. La Raza is in the hive with the bees. What's up? Hey, how are you doing each time? I do go. I do. La Raza. Gentlemen, I got to do it. Jeremy, go. Look, I give this place a shout out to Dr. Limville for working on my boy Joe, love his hair all the time. But look, man, y'all are pooping on the ashes. I get it. I had a tough evening. It was worse. But you just got to think about the positive, right? Nobody's picked them to go this far. All right, just this moment in time, we had a lot of bad injuries. We were down same game. We were behind the Mariners. I mean, this was supposed to be, it was not supposed to be then there at this moment. You had nothing there for them. A lot of injuries popped up there in the season. And George Potter is the first time manager. How did we come to this? Of course, we were not going to pretty go far, but just remember, this is the first time that this is going to happen. The dynasty, yes, is going to keep going. I think next year we're probably going to make a different changes without letting some people go. But I feel like this year, you know, it was like the Texas surprise, like last year. That's what I feel like, man. I mean, Larasa, let's just be real. I mean, this team is too good. Whether you see it on paper or just know what they were able to do, which nobody had been able to do in Major League Baseball to say that no one had expectations about how far this team could go or that this team could go on a run. I think everybody felt like that. I think everybody felt like once this team made the postseason and the fact that they were able to do everything they did to overcome all the adversity in the regular season, that it was set up for a team that could get pretty far in the playoffs, and they had the pitching. They had a very formidable offensive lineup when you get your down back and Tucker back in the middle of it. I think every I think it's the exact opposite. I think everybody is extremely disappointed and deflated because there were high expectations. This team could do it again. Yeah, it depends on what time like when on the calendar you're talking about this, because when the Astros were like seven to 19, people started to doubt when the Astros were 10 games back in the division. People were talking about trading and selling at the deadline. So it depends on when you're having this conversation. Once the Astros started to cut into the lead and then eventually overtake the Mariners. I think it was the expectations that you're going to make another playoff run, because that's what the Astros have done. The Astros are not going to be in the LCS for the first time since 2017. It's like an institution has been broken up. So once once you overtook the Mariners or got close to the Mariners, I disagree with the expectations LaRaza. I think the expectations were another deep postseason run. No, I get it. But like we were like everybody like that. That's for my thing. But me was just built the pitching. Everybody was so like, okay, we were missing Garcia. We were missing Javier. Last of the colors, like that dude is just collecting HB check. I mean, these pictures are just like, just, you know, what is it called? Load managing this game, dude. That's all it was. We're missing so many pictures and he had to go. You have to go to be like Eric Gaddy and then and all these pictures coming from the from Sugar Land. Dude, I wasn't surprised how far we went with our pitching. Appreciate it, LaRaza. Appreciate the call. Thanks for the call, buddy. I just think it's tough to point the finger at the pitching when you got the performance that you got today. Yeah, Frobber wasn't on his A game yesterday. But overall, he still only gave up three runs. You were in that ballgame. You have to start pointing the finger at the offense. You have to look at a team that, yeah, you can say, well, yesterday you were facing the Cy Young Award winner in the American League. That's fine. But at the same time, this is a team that is too good offensively, too loaded with quality players that you go and do what you did today and had to like basically scrap and claw to get two runs late in the game just to take the lead. That's not the way this offense is supposed to work. Yeah, you had lots of injuries with the pitching staff. There's no doubt about that. But you still had Frobber Hunter Brown up top. You still had Yusek Akuchi, who you made a big splurge for who never pitched an inning in a postseason game. And then you had the big signing of Hader. You had big money, Ryan Presley, and you had Brian Abrai. You've been one of the better relief pitchers in baseball like the last three years. So you still had a really talented pitching staff despite the injuries. And if I was to blame one thing on why you lost the A.O. wildcard, it's the offense. I mean, it's the offense. You scored one run, yes, against the Cy Young. But if you're going to be a championship team, you've got to figure out a way to beat that guy. And if you don't beat that guy, then you get to win the other two games of a series. And the Astros today scored two runs on five hits against, yes, a good bullpen, but against a bullpen day. The Tigers through six, seven, seven guys today. And you probably have heard of none of them before the A.O. wildcard series. You've heard of none of the seven pitchers before the A.O. wildcard. And the Tigers threw seven of them today, and you were able to score two runs on five hits. And you had to have a lot of luck go your way to score those two runs in the seventh inning. You think the offense is to blame? Yeah, absolutely is. And you think about all season long. What did we talk about when they faced some of the best pitchers in baseball, when they faced some of the most formidable odds against them because of who they were playing and who was pitching against them? They stepped up. They were able to beat those teams. Maybe you didn't beat school, but you damn welled with your backs against the wall in a big situation with everything riding on the line, expected a whole hell of a lot more out of that offense. Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESPN full call board, but we'll cycle you in text messages are going nuts. Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six. Let us hear it. We'll be your shoulder to cry on. What went wrong today? What went wrong this series? What went wrong this season? What does the future have in store? Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six. It is the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5 October. Fest is back. Clear out your calendars. And maybe it did recently. Make plans for Saturday, Sunday, October. Fest on the chemo boardwalk German beer. That's always good to drown your tears in some German beer. German food. Eat your fillings away live music, cornhole tournaments, Stein holding competition, a costume contest and much, much more. It's going to be a great time, fabulous time. Weather is going to be great Saturday and Sunday in chemo. It's free for you to walk around, free for you to attend. So head on out there, either October 5th or October 6th or both. Beer tickets, beer, Stein's food tickets can be purchased right now online at chemoboardwalk.com or you can just walk up and purchase them at the event too. That's fine. The beer that you're going to be sampling. How about some new Belgium fat tire? That sounds good. Yingling, October, Fest and much, much more. Get your souvenir Stein's right now at chemoboardwalk.com. The food Saturday and Sunday to die for soft pretzel with some beer cheese, sausage on a stick, German potato salad, German beer, brought worse, schnitzel on a stick. It's going to be fantastic. So get down out there Saturday. Live music will begin at one o'clock until 10 and then we'll do it all over again on Sunday. Live music noon till nine. Head to chemoboardwalk.com right now. See the full schedule of events. See the concert lineups. It's going to be a great time. Saturday and Sunday check out chemoboardwalk.com for more information. This is ESPN 97 5. Live in the baritex community bank studios. It's the killer bees. Now back to Joel and Jerry. Ryan, I think Ryan likes the statues. 7 1 3 7 8 0 ESPN Astros season is over. Voice your frustration. 7 1 3 7 8 0 3 7 7 6. Let's go out to the HR and Pete listener line. Matt from the north side. You're in the hive. What's going on Matt? Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. Live long to Sony and lifelong Astros fan. I'll keep it brief. All season long. I couldn't believe the amount of double plays we grounded into and then not to get too technical. I'm not even sure if it's bag well or who are hitting coaches, but specifically today when we talk about approach at the plate, you know, whatever happened to. Okay, we were facing five different new pitchers today. Whatever happened to approach and maybe taking until we get a strike or guys are missing all over the place. If I see one more swing into miss at a change up in the dirt on an 00 count, I might put on a Rangers cat, but I'll let you guys talk also in the off season. If we don't take a look at Trevor Bauer, then I don't know what we're doing. I appreciate you guys and look forward to hear what he has in the bag. Matt, Matt going all hot take yo flame thrower guy. This is what being eliminated in the playoffs before the ALCS does to people. He's willing to put on a Ranger hat and he's going to get ready for a show. We're talking to Rangers. It's forever. Yeah. Ranger. Careful Matt. Doing Matt. His original premise of the call, I think, was sound. The Astros approach at the plate has left. There's been a lot of left there for the Astros this year. They're one of the best averages in the American League. They're one of the best on base percentages in the American League, but they were not as good in run production. My not great approaches at the plate, not working counts. Remember early in the year, too? It's like not good team baseball hitting the ball the other way, moving the runner. Runner at third, less than two outs, not getting the runner in. The Astros do have tons of double plays. They do hit into a lot of double play. So I think that the premise is a fair one now. Don't go put on a Ranger hat and get in bed with Trevor Bauer. You might be signing up for something you're not willing to handle there, Matt. Don't get into bed with Trevor Bauer. Period. I mean, you're going to get hurt, but that was, yeah, we've talked about it all season long and you can point out individual players and we know some of the guys that have struggled. I mean, everybody's pointing a finger right now at just Tucker overall in another bad, bad playoff performance, but we see the guys chasing too many pitches outside. We see the guys with the wrong approach when they get to the plate. Yiner sometimes, and it's been sporadic, but yiner sometimes seems like when he gets up there in a very, very clutch situation. That sometimes he gets a little bit more jittery to try and chase that outside pitch that's diving off the outside corner as does Peña. It's a tough situation and right now everybody's going to kind of air it out, but yeah, they did not look good offensively. We knew it was sporadic all season as Jeremy mentioned, but they really didn't look good in this series. The offense is the number one reason why they lost this series. 713 7803776, back out to the HR and P listener line Robert from the north side. You're in the high. Robert, what's up? Yeah, yeah, thanks for taking my call. Yeah, I feel like the main thing that we've got to do is assess blame and not make excuses. One call refers to injuries the start of the year and most of that was not completely isolated to the pitching staff, but the majority was. And we got plenty of production from the guys that stepped into field roles, even if you account for the trade with Kakuchi. We had plenty of pitching. The glaring weaknesses were supposed to be our strength, our offense, and that God forsaken bullpen. And my biggest question to you guys is, y'all actually, you know, follow it way more than I do, but eventually the eye test has to be accounted for. To me, it looked like for most of the season, a shot of was basically managing this team like something he read off of a cereal box. It got very frustrating. And if eventually they decided and realized that a brand new in Montero didn't deserve to wear the uniform anymore, how did Presley not end up in that category? All you have to do is watch. Like you guys just said, the numbers offensively were pretty good, but they didn't produce runs. And although at times, Presley's numbers might have said he was being effective this season. If you just watched his performances and watched the game, you knew he was a has been. It's over. He doesn't have the stuff that he wants had. Play off or not. And the fact that he sent him in today, I thought the same thing as you guys. It's probably the time to go to hate or talk the lineup, the way the lineup was set up. And again, the throttle just went with that robotic. I read it somewhere on a bathroom wall. I put in Presley in the eighth inning, and here we go. It was just very, very hard to watch. Especially when you consider my hench was on the other side, and I think that got brilliant. Hate that he's not still here. I wish we would have went the route of the Red Sox to spend for a year, get somebody in here and bring him back. But that's all water in the bitch now. But what we saw today, I just like hearing your thoughts on some of my observations. Yeah, let's hit that on the other side. AJ Hinch, did he out manage Joe Spada? Did he out manage him in this series? How much is a Spada to blame? He had the Presley thing in the eighth inning. Yeah, it was robotic. It was their designed role. Do you believe in designed roles and playoff baseball? Probably shouldn't. We'll hit that on the other side. Again, let us know. Get your emotions off your chest. We're that shoulder 713 7803776. It's the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 95. 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Use that promo code BET975. Do what I always tell you to do. Bet anything, anytime, anywhere with the only place I tell you to do it, it's my bookie.ag and that promo code BET975. E-S-P-N. 97-5. Don't sweat the technique. You're listening to the killer beat with Joel Blanket Jeremy Brando. On E-S-P-N-97-5 and 92-5. Broadcasting live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios. 7-1-3-7-8-0-E-S-P-N. Astro's season done. I asked did a spot to get out managed for a strata? Did he get out managed by H.A. Hinch? Did he out manage a spot? Seriously, he wiped his behind with a spot. I don't think a spot had a great series. I don't think that the reason the Astro's lost this series was because of a spot, though. He scored one run yesterday. He scored two runs today. Like the offense is the singular, well, it's not singular, but it's the main blame as to why the Astro's are eliminated. Back into the bullpen, you can throw them there. You can say that a spot I had some fault, but certainly not the reason they lost. Now, who would I rather have managing my baseball team in October? Yeah, I'll take out. I'll take A.J. Hinch. I'll take A.J. Hinch fan, and I know he wears it for what happened in the World Series, but A.J. Hinch is a hell of a good manager. He proved it today. He proved it at the end, you know, all season long with what he was able to do to the Tigers, get them where they needed to go. But to the caller's point, look, it's easy to point the finger and place blame on Joe Espada, and we talked about some of it, but he has some of the blame in his back pocket as well. But if you think that anybody and short of Dusty Baker, and I'm not even sure Dusty Baker is a guy that could have done it, that could have done what Joe Espada did for you for this entire season to turn this thing around and get them to where they finished, then I personally think that you're nuts. The caller, I understand you're going to wear your emotions right now and you're going to point a finger at the manager of your baseball team. He did one hell of a job, the fact that he had been here to build relationships even when he wasn't the manager and the fact that that went a pretty long way in trying to keep these guys on script and on point while they kept trying to fight and claw their way back. And the fact that they did what they were able to do, I take nothing away from the regular season in Joe Espada. That's a different story and I gave him all his flowers and credit because I'm not sure anybody else could have done a better job. We have a 1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6. Let's go out to the HRNP listener line art from Tom Ball. You're in the high. What's up, Art? Hey, what's up, Art? Yes, I'm okay. I was just wanted to make a couple points, but I know a lot of people have already explained a lot of stuff. Pia, I don't know if we've probably seen the feeling with him a couple years ago because we got to get better, man, in hitting. We need another band in the lineup. Tucker is sample size. He's not coming into playoffs, man. I mean, you can make all these excuses about injuries, but it just seems like he's not getting it done. It's pretty got to go. It's just time. And also, Fromber. Fromber's showing another sample size of just not getting it done in the playoffs. Hunter Brown is really impressive, and I think that he may be our ace next year if he keeps it up. I mean, he looked really good. So he wasn't a pitching spot. He was our offense like you all have been saying. Have a good evening. Appreciate the call, Art. Look, I think, too, the other thing is everybody's going to be quick to kind of get rid of this guy, get rid of that guy, cut this guy, do it. You've got to know every situation that's involved in play, too, like Presley, who's got a no trade clause in his contract, that's going to play into it. The easy thing is get rid of him, dump him, trade him, do those things. He's got to be on board with it because he's got a no trade. There's no doubt that Jeremy Peña, we've been dealing with this since he got all the heroics, maybe out of his system, and that would be a shame. But all the MVPs in the playoffs and the World Series MVP, the year they want it, Jeremy Peña struggles offensively. We know he chases a ton of pitches, breaking pitches, sweepers. We know that his plate discipline is something to be desired. At the end of the day, too, let's be realistic about the fact that when you look at this lineup and all the expectations of this team, you had a less than Jordan Alvarez. He couldn't run. He wasn't what he was even down the stretch until he got hurt. Tucker wasn't the same player because of what he dealt with for three months. Somehow, you were able to stay afloat when he went through that. The offense, yes, could have used a little extra. There could have been other things, but you also have to take into consideration that this lineup wasn't 100%. Not that anybody is, but they had significant injuries to the middle of that lineup. Yeah, I think you're letting him off the hook with that. I don't think that, yes, Jordan Alvarez wasn't moving as well once he made contact with the baseball. But you're not Alvarez smashed a couple of base hits yesterday. I mean, you were on Alvarez was two for four yesterday. Hit list today. Was it because of the leg? No. You're on was fine yesterday. Kyle Tucker, whenever he came back, he played in 18 games in the regular season and hit 365 with a 1041 OPS. He was over 1000 OPS. So how in a month and in 77 plate appearances, he has an OPS over 1000, but then we're going to give him the credit that he was hurt in the postseason. I think it's letting him off the hook. I think overall as an offense, I'm not trying to let anybody off the hook, but I'm saying that those guys, they could deal with significant injuries. But yeah, there were significant injuries. I mean, you were playing Jason Hayward. You were before that. You were playing Ben Gamel. We knew that, you know, Chas McCormick wasn't who he was all year long and then he got hurt too. Yeah, you said Tucker. I mean, you say I am. I absolutely pointed a finger at Tucker and look in the playoffs, you can obviously say from last year to this year, there's a major significant issue that people can point a finger to and it's legit. It's Tucker more of a bad postseason hit in the last two years, or was he more hurt? I think it's the former. There's a distinct possibility that that's the case, that he's the Kirk Cousins in terms of what he does in the regular season versus the playoffs based on the last two postseason. Both guys weren't 100%. They couldn't run. I don't know how much that affected their hitting. You're right down the stretch. Tucker was over 1000 OPS in the last month of the year. You can't all of a sudden say, well, he was hurt. I'm not trying to legitimize what he did in the series, Jeremy, but what I'm saying is he still was hurt and down the stretch. But how much can you give him, like, how much can you allow him to be off the hook for his poor postseason performance? Only two games. Well, sample win for 18 games and 77 played appearances. He had an OPS over 1000. You played in 18 games, nearly a month. You had 77 played appearances. You can't use the injury excuse whenever you're bad in the postseason. I'm not trying to give him an excuse for this series, but what I'm saying is that he wasn't 100%. What I'm saying is if you want to look at the numbers down the stretch, they played a lot of teams that were either out of it and throwing AAA pitchers or teams that were, they didn't face the kind of lineups they faced all season long. And yes, he got going pitchers wise. Yes, that's what I'm saying. But yeah, did I expect more of them? But yeah, it's not what you said. You can't say that's what you're saying when you say something else. What did I say? You said lineups. You said they're facing different lineups, not. Okay, I met pitchers. The fact that, yeah, he was facing a lot of lesser than pitchers. But at the same time, did I expect more from him in the postseason? Sure. I didn't know what to expect from Jordan Alvarez. Did he lace a ball off a scuba right off the mound at 100 plus miles an hour? Absolutely. And that gave me a lot of hope. But it all can't rest on his shoulders either. There's no doubt that the rest of the lineup owns a ton of this. And that is the number one culprit for why they didn't win the series. I'm just not going to allow you to say that you're on in Tucker being hurt was the reason their offense was bad. I just can't. No, I'm not saying that they were bad in the playoffs, but I am saying that, look, this team, this team still sustained a ton of injuries. So offensively, it was less than no matter what. That's fine. But I'm just not letting you say that. That's fine, Jeremy. I'm not letting you get away with that. And then the Ryan Presley thing, he's under contract for $14 million next year. I don't think that you can trade Ryan Presley. He's got the no trade. And even if he wanted to get traded, which team is picking up $14 million on a mediocre reliever. You're stuck with Ryan Presley. You're stuck with Ryan Presley. You're stuck with Ryan Presley. All right. So let's go back out to the HR and P listener line. Tiger from the North side. What's up, Tiger. Hey, look, fellas. You know, it's kind of sucks. Yeah. But one of the good run. I think we still got some more juice in this. But thought of that, like, you don't know if anybody would have had it in a different position. 10 games behind was a big deal to us like not even getting a pie. So that's like kind of played into it. But also recall a couple weeks ago, we had a, at least a call or subject. It's been saying, would you trade in the Astros run for a Texans run in the sense of changing it to and look like we're going to end up getting a Texas Super Bowl this year. All right. I really appreciate it. I hope so. I hope so, Tiger. I saw a lot of people on Twitter blinkers saying that, you know, the Astros ran out of gas. Like they were, they were climbing an uphill battle the entire regular season. The fact that they were pushing the rock uphill the entire year, both ways and snow. There are 10 games back that they ran out of gas. The reason that they lost this two game series to Detroit is because they ran out of gas after being 10 games back in the regular season. Do you put any merits in that argument? It's hard for me to put merit in that in the fact that you had guys like Bregman who had the elbow injury. Oh, he was better. He was, he looked like he was himself again. He wasn't sitting out games offensively. He looked like he was back in his group. Altuve finished the year strong enough to look like he finished in his group. Eyner had a hell of a year. Didn't look like he was off. Yes, you can say the bottom of the lineup for sure. But I don't think they ran out of gas. You had two of the three best pitchers in the American League from an unrun average standpoint coming into the playoffs. We felt like if you put those guys up against just about anybody's duos in baseball, especially playoff teams, that you could hold your own and hold your head up high going. You got one of the best one, two combinations in baseball. You're supposed to have one of the best, if not the best back of the bullpen in all of baseball. So I don't think that they ran out of gas. I thought they were riding high feeling like, hey, they did what everybody said couldn't be done. They got to a point that no one had done previous to them. And yeah, it sucked that they had to play in the wildcard series. But I think there was a healthy expectation. This team had plenty left in the tank to make a good push for another World Series. Yeah, I'm not putting any stock in the running out of gas after they were 10 back and you had to climb back. Like, this isn't like, it's not a marathon run. You know what I mean? Like, you have days off. You get nights of sleep. The Astros went to Cleveland and didn't have anything to play for. They got rained out Sunday. They didn't play on Monday. Like, the Astros had plenty of time to regroup and be strong and they were playing well towards the end of the year. They won their last three regular season games. They played well, you know, for the second half of the season. They played really well since the disastrous 7 and 19 start. So I'm not putting any stock in that. Now, this does show you the importance of getting a buy, like trying to avoid a three game series at all costs. I know the Tigers are hot and they're riding this hot hand and all of this stuff. They were also, they also had a 1% chance to make the playoffs over the summer. I think the Astros have a better team than the Tigers do, but this is the scary part of playing a three game series is that your season can be done in two games. You can run up against an A. L. Cy Young and then if you don't sweep the other two, your season is done. This is, this is the importance of being a top two C. This is the importance of avoiding a wildcard round because series and baseball, especially the shorter series are coin flips. They are coin flips. The Astros ran up against a really good pitcher. They couldn't get the offense going against a good bullpen today. And then all of a sudden the season is over. So if you haven't learned the lesson of trying to avoid short series at all costs, I hope you learn the lesson now. Yeah, but you've got a team in the Tigers that came in the hottest team in baseball to finish the regular season. You can say that they were young and dumb, but guess what? They came in throwing caution to the win, AJ Hinch told them to go be, you know, fierce and have fun and just go, you know, go do what you've done all year. And when you see that you've got the mighty Houston Astros at bay because your pitcher did his job in game one and you got enough to get that job done, you came into this one feeling like, hey, fancy free throwing caution to the wind is no big deal. We're going to take every situation head on and we feel like we can beat anybody right now. And in a short series, you can, you just did and you just saw that the better team doesn't always win. Yeah, the Josh Hader against Andy Abagnas, the pinch hitter in the, because the Astros had a chance to get out of the eighth inning tied bases loaded to outs Astros go to Josh Hader in that spot. AJ Hinch counters with a righty and Andy Abagnas and Andy Abagnas triples down the left field line. All three runs score there. Josh Hader refused to throw a slider in that abat refused to throw a slider in that abat. He threw five straight sinkers, which are fastballs, to Andy Abagnas, Abagnas either fouled off every single one of them. He fouled off every single one of them with the exception of one in which he took for a ball. That's a really good indicator that Andy Abagnas is on your fastball. Hader didn't throw a slider. Abagnas triples down the left field line. Terrible location. Why doesn't Josh Hader throw a slider there? Well, let's just, let's just be honest. The turning point and what ended your entire season happened about a batter and a half earlier when he spiked an off speed pitch that yiner didn't do anything to not. Yeah, and the fact that you saw the fact that Presley spiked a pitch, yiner didn't block it. And I feel like that was the, that was the difference maker that sent the message to Josh Hader. I can't afford to throw a slider here that goes into the dirt because I may throw the game away with what yiner showed you behind the plate. And I think that's exactly why he didn't throw anything but fastballs. Yeah, I think that he's, I don't think he trusted yiner to block a slider in the dirt. So he went fastball, fastball, fastball, fastball. Andy Abagnas fouled off every single one, except for the one that he took for a ball and except for the one that he tripled down the left field line. Seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six and it's seven, it's in its 58th year. The original Greek festival returns on October 3rd through 5th, a cornerstone of the fall festival season in Houston and the largest of its kind in the nation. The festival features homemade Greek food, traditional Greek dancing, all sorts of authentic shopping and an opportunity to learn more about the Greek Orthodox faith and culture. Admission to the festival, $8 for adults, children 12 and under, get in free. There's no charge for admission between 11 a.m. through 3 p.m. on Friday, so keep that in mind. For more information, call 713 526 5377, that 713 5265377, giving away a pair of tickets right now to caller number three. Seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six call number three wins a pair of tickets to the original Greek festival seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. Let it off your chest Astro fans. What went wrong today? What went wrong this season seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. It is the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 92 5. Before we go to the break a word from a good friend, Doc Lindeville, Doc Lindeville best in the business at the neo graph procedure and at PRP treatments. If you don't know what they are, but you've been losing your hair, you have pattern baldness. You don't think there's anything you can do about it. You need to see the people at Doc Lindeville's office and because you listen to us and you're interested in him, you get a free consultation with Doc and his staff that normally costs $150 just by going to 975 hair.com. They can explain all the different treatments that they do. 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But in six to nine months when you see the full results, you are going to see that you got your hair back and because he's taking it from a spot where it never goes away, you're going to have it for the rest of your life. It's fantastic. He's great. He's right here in the med center. And all I do is ask you if you're at all interested to at least go through the free consultation because it can actually be a game changer. Go to 975hair.com and sign up for that free consultation. Go see my friend Doc Loomville today. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Live in the Veritex Community Bank Studios, it's the Killer Bees. Now back to Joel and Jeremy. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Do the Ashes score more than three runs in two games with Dusty Baker at the helm? If Dusty Baker is the manager, Willy, do they score more than three runs in the last two games? What I do know is he wouldn't have put Tuck in the two hole yesterday against the guy he was over against. And the guy that Alex had hit and you're going to hit. And I too behead hit. I thought they lost the game before it even started. I didn't like the motto. I don't understand some of the stuff he do. I think he, I think a day hence the worst man, the second worst man ever had. And this guy here, he reminds me of a day hence. I got you. I think it's a fair point with the lineup. Appreciate the call, Willy. Thanks. Thank you for listening. I do think it's a fair point with the lineup. Joe Espada has criminally underappreciated the cleanup man all year. And is it the analytical thing where he stack your best hitters at the very top? Maybe. Maybe their lack of disrespect for the cleanup man. Look, Braigman had a good series. He was in the cleanup spot today. But whenever you look at the Astros lineup every single day, they always have their best hitters one through three and they don't really have that. Okay, let's have some table setters up top. And then let's have the guys who are going to clear the table in the middle of the order. So I actually agree with that last part about Willie. I don't think that Dusty would have had Tuck in the two hole against a guy who hasn't had success with. I do think that Dusty would have a more respect and appreciation for the clean spot, which I think is kind of a lost art. I still think that's either the first or second most important spot in the lineup. A spot of things is the fourth most important spot in the lineup. So I do think it's a fair point by Willie. Yeah, but I don't think that Joe Espada is to blame for, you know, I don't. And I don't think he's the second worst or third man. I don't think AJ Hinch is the second worst manager in Astros history. I think that's going way too far. And I think that both guys deserve a lot of credit for what they were able to do when they had an Astros uniform on. But at the end of the day, they didn't hit and offensively, no matter what the lineup was, no one was really putting up any significant numbers to say that this offense was putting the ball in play, getting base hits and setting the table for anybody else to do anything else. They had a few opportunities, but overall with a team that had hitters like this in its lineup, should they have done a lot more a hell of a lot more. Even the seventh inning was a disappointment. The Astros scored two runs in the seventh inning to take the lead. And it's like, OK, great. Save the lead, Astros bullpen, forced the rubber game tomorrow, forced the if necessary game three at seventh inning. A lot of fortune there, you know, AJ Hinch, like the genius of AJ Hinch when with the young kid and the young kid was a bit nervous. He hits Caratini. Jeremy Payne, he gets a blue single, just an absolute rocket off of pain. His little blue single, Marisa Dubon, but he gets on a really good one probably would have beat it out of a third baseman ever gets it out of his glove. She had the bases loaded. Nobody out and you score two runs. John Singleton hits a ground ball to first base. Torkelson makes a good diving play on it. His third of the plate, not accurate. It's unable to be brought in by the catcher Rogers. So he scores. Bases are still loaded with nobody out. You've scored one. And then Jose Altuve hits a little weak pop fly down to right. Now, pain, you did a great play to score on it. So now you take the lead two to one and then Kyle Tucker with runners in the corners and one out hits into an inning ending double play. You score two runs with the bases loaded with one run already across. You had the bases loaded. Nobody out one run already across and you only got one more. You only got one more. It's embarrassing. It literally is embarrassing again for a team that has hitters that are supposed to be this good that we've seen do a lot of good things in their time in an Astros uniform. There's no way that you get out of that inning by saying at that point, when they're already a tie game, you only could cross one more and take a two to one lead. That was absolutely pathetic. It was embarrassing. And it was a microcosm of the series in the fact that they could not put the ball in play and get runs across. They did not look good at all offensive. No, that was maybe maybe to Willie's point. Maybe that's where your on the two hole makes more sense than Kyle Tucker in the two hole. Like a spot has been hell bent. Oh, you're not needs about second. Well, it'd be nice to see you're done up with the runners in the corners with one out instead of cow Tucker who for the second straight post season has been on the back of a milk carton. 713 7803776 back out to the HR and P listener line Troy. You're in the hive with the bees. It's up Troy. Hey, thanks. Take him a call guys. And I'm really irate. So I'm going to try to get this out without stumbling all over. I don't see how anybody can blame this on the spot. You're set up guy and your ace clothes are coming there and completely stink. And then you've got your best lineup with all of them in there. Tucker's back, Jordan's back. They're all back. A spot of wood not there watching three strikes right down the middle while Kyle Tucker never took his bad off of his shoulder. Don't blame any of this on that. Let it think in that they scored three runs and two games in your bullpen sucks. I'll hang up and listen. Appreciate the call, Troy. Troy's not wrong. I mean, that's why I'm at. We talk all season long about how many games can imagine an effect. Now, when you talk about strategy, is there ways that you can, you know, affect getting a run here or they're preventing a run here there? Yes. But overall, at the end of the day, he's not going out there and throwing the strikes. He's not going out there swinging the bats. The bats were putrid. They were pathetic. That's not what this lineup is supposed to do. The Tigers are the ones that are supposed to have the lesser than offensive lineup that don't hit home runs that have a hard time putting up a lot of runs. And yet the Tigers looked confident. They looked like they got good at bats. I mean, look what they did to Fromber yesterday, barreling up baseballs. They didn't have any problems and the Astros struggled mightily offensively. That's where it starts. That there's plenty of other ways before you finish. I agree with Troy. I don't put the blame on a spotter for the season. You guess there are areas of this series you could point the finger at. Yeah, I don't put the top blame on a spotter and I'm not trying to fire a spotter today. I would have preferred hinge over a spotter, but you're not firing a spotter today and hiring hinge. That's obvious. Now, maybe in the off season, you could have went after a hinge instead of a spotter. I think a spotter does deserve some blame, though. Ryan Presley in the eighth inning now. We all knew it was coming because a spotter has not been willing to budge off of a brave. Use my seventh inning guy. Presley is my eighth inning guy. Haters, my ninth inning guy. I think it's flawed. I think it's flawed managerial decisions. Even if Presley is help, like, even if you're hell bent, keeping Presley is that middle guy, whether you have to have these designed roles and Presley has to face the top of the order. I'm afraid you looked really dang good in the seventh. Yes, it's 18 pitches. But Joe Espada told me that he was willing to use you say kakuchi today, but he wasn't willing to go more than 18 pitches with Brian a brand you. How does that add up? How does that make sense? I would have went with the hot hand against the top of the lineup, a guy that I trust more than Presley, whether or not a spotter does. I don't know. And I'm not Joe Espada. But if he trusts Presley more than Brian a brand, we got some serious problems. The second thing that you can point to some blame for a spotter is was Josh Hader not as efficient today and as effective today because he was used yesterday. He threw 15 pitches in a game that they were down by three runs. Did that impact his performance today? We don't know. We'll never know the answer to that. It'll be, you know, it'll be something that we just have to guess. We have to guess if it impacted his performance today. Did it? There's no way to know for sure. And then I think you can also point some blame to the lineup construction when it comes to Joe Espada. We can argue the impact of that and what it means. Some people think it means a lot. Some people don't think it's much. But Presley Hader lineup construction, you can absolutely question Joe Espada's decisions in these two games. Yeah, look, I don't think Joe Espada should be fired. I don't think he's one of the worst managers in Astros history. Do I think that he has to shoulder some of the blame here? Absolutely. And the list is very long. You can go to individual hitters. You can say the offense should have done more. We know because we all watch the game together, both games, to have the reservations we had about his misuse or usage, depending on how you look at it at the back of the bullpen and the pitching staff. Those things, fair game and those things should be criticized. I just don't think that the guy should be fired. And I don't think that he should be blamed for the entire season to say that, you know, he should shoulder why they were so bad in this series. No, yeah, you can just, you can question some of the decisions. But yeah, I don't think that he's the, you know, the most to blame when it comes to the year. Alright, 713-780-ESP. What went wrong today for the strokes? What went wrong this season for the stroke 713-780-3776. It's the B's on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. Guys, a moment for all state siding and windows. Look, if you're looking to protect your biggest investment and for most of us, that's our home. The way that you start by creating that really tough outer shell for that house is siding and windows. And the best place that I can tell you to go is all state siding and windows because they've been in business for almost 50 years. They know what they're talking about. They know their products. They can look at your house. They can tell you exactly what products would be the best fit, whether it be windows or siding. But the siding is fantastic. It's durable. 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Free estimates are available, so start there first at A32-204-1936. See the good people at allstatesidingandwindows.com. Load and rate rule, you're listening to ESPN 97-5. You're back with a killer bees on ESPN 97-5 and 92-5, live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. Alright, 7-1-3-7-8-0-E-S-P-N. Brian said, "You're all set. Get your fillings off your chest. Fits to the bees." If anybody knows post-season failures, it's the killer bees. Right? Right? So, fit your post-season failures with those that know post-season failures. 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6-0-4-9-2. I don't care how your pitch 15 pitches yesterday. He needs to man up and not be a bad word. Okay, he is handsomely paid to not be a bad word, so I do think that's a fair point, although I wouldn't have used Hater in a three-run deficit in the first. Chandler Rome trying to compare using Hater in the ninth inning of a three-run deficit in Game 1 to the seventh game of the ALCS yesterday. I'm not sure the reaches that he was going to. He was just like post-season's different. You can't have these, you know, normal decisions. You see in the regular season the post-season, he's like, "Don't you remember Game 7 of the AL championship series?" And it's like, that was an elimination if necessary, backs against the wall. Game 1 of a wildcard series is not. Nothing gave you any indication for eight innings that they were going to do anything short of three and done. And then you were expecting three runs, and that's why you used Josh Hater. We went through this after the game yesterday. Neither one of us had even the slightest positive thought in our head that this was what they should have done yesterday and put it in effect today. Yeah, there's a chance that it did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. 2-9-2-0, what an absolute crappy broadcast as well. Cameras being off, panning to the ball, audio, stupid comments. They were late getting a bunch of the reactions too, like hit-ball off the bat. They were always a little late. They missed a couple of pitches or were late and a couple of pitches. I felt like the Astros were doomed the moment I saw that Michael K was calling this game. I didn't like the series. Yeah. As soon as I saw that I was like, "Oh, I don't like that." And then you put them with Todd. Todd Frasier. Todd Frasier. And I don't mind Kirkchin on like a sideline type role. I usually don't mind Kirkchin. He really aggravated me this year. Maybe because of the fact that you were already dealing with two Yankees guys that were in the booth. I hated all of it. I saw Rhettick tweeted the minute that it was announced he's turning the volume down. We probably should have two because that was tough. And you're right. Look, I think the epitome of the broadcast was the fact that when Tucker got the swinging third, I mean the call third that rolled behind the catcher, they stayed on the umpire on the third base umpire and never saw it. We were wondering, did Tucker even run? Did he know? When did he know? We didn't know because they didn't show it to us. Yeah. Yeah. That was a rough, rough production, rough broadcasters if you're an Astro fan. A 0-8-3-4, just give the Tigers their do. Okay. Tigers, congratulations. You win the series. Let's call it a show. Let's quit it. Let's go ahead and wrap this up. Show's over. Let's check out 20. Can you play just sad music for the final 20 minutes? We gave the Tigers their do. That's all we're going to do. Just give them their Tigers the do. Okay. Tigers, there's your do. 20 minutes of sad music. The rest of the way. Brian just grabbed two turntables and said he's ready to DJ Sad Toons from now to the top of the hour. Yeah, congrats. I mean, it means insincerity. Incensarity. Congratulations to AJ Hinch. Congratulations to the Tigers. Yeah. Will you be rooting for the Tigers the rest of the way? Look, I'm a fan of AJ Hinch. I think AJ Hinch in a series against Cleveland if I have to root for either team. Sure. I'll take the Tigers. I'll root for the Tigers because they're the underdog because that's a hell of a story. They've been on a hell of a run and they beat the ass. Well, they'll be facing the Yankees though, so definitely rooting for the Tigers in the next round. Did they do a recede? Wouldn't the lowest seed face the top seed? I don't know if they do the recede. I don't think they do a recede. I think it's a straight bracket. Yeah, that was a straight bracket. Is it a straight bracket? Okay. My fault. It's not the NFL, Brian. Stick the football. Stick the football. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to watch another baseball game the rest of the season. I think I'm done. Probably so. I think I'm done watching baseball. Maybe if it may be in the World Series, if there's nothing on it, I might tune it on the back. Maybe if I'm not doing anything and I'm not watching Vanderpump Rules, although that's not in season. Maybe I'll put it on the background, but I'm probably out for baseball the rest of the year. I'm probably done. You guys know that. I got Netflix shows to finish. Yeah. I've seen a baseball game. I'm only one episode in Stem and Enda's brother's show on Netflix. I'll probably finish that. Call 50 baseball games. Watch the Astros play 163. It's over 200 baseball games in the last. What is it? Six months or so? No, it's more than that. So you're saying you're not a die-hard baseball game? I've seen too much baseball this year. Love it. Love it. I'm done. I'm checking out. Maybe his background music as I'm working on this show. But yeah, I'm not going to be checking out all these games. There's no chance I watch a full game the rest of the year. There's plenty of teams to root against and there's plenty that I'll be watching. I will be watching baseball, but it does suck that they're out this quickly because I really firmly believe that the Astros were going to make another run. Do you go Rockets? Go Texans says 11117. Yeah, will you be watching baseball the rest of the year? I'm curious what y'all think. Hi, 713703776. As soon as the Astros are done, I'm over baseball. 6403, their body language seemed to show complacency other than when Peña scored. Just seemed like the Tigers had that youth in fire. There's probably a little bit to that. There's also probably the fact that, okay, you're down one nothing in a series. So you start to tense up a little bit. Oh, no, we're down late. We're facing a little. We're 12 outs away from elimination. Oh, that doesn't feel great. And then when you take the lead, you see that spark, but then you immediately lose the lead and it's like deflation. Yeah, I think that's the key. I think the fact that we all knew and they knew too that their offense was less than and was not performing. And the fact that that's why I think there was a lot of us saying, Hey, look, the best thing that could happen to this team right now going into game two is get a run or two early, get the lead, get start to build up a little confidence and then see where it takes you. But instead, Tigers were the first to score yet again. And even when you scored, it was such a, it was like pulling teeth, watching it all unfold to where you had to just basically cross your fingers and hope to get the Peña across the plate to get the lead. And before you knew it as quick as you got it, you lost it. And then when Michael K was making mention of the fact, it just seemed so quiet in here. Well, yeah, because you just crap the bed on TV when you got your first lead to the series and it pretty much looks like it's over. 713-780-3776. Back out to the HRMP listener line, Tyler from Beaumont in the high. What's up, Tyler? Hey guys, I just wanted to see what y'all's opinions were on what this pitching staff might look like next year. They've always got coming back from Tom's job. What's five? The other thing or six? The other thing is keeping. Also, if we lose Breggman, do you think we might as well look to trade Tucker and kind of get a little bit because we don't have a whole lot coming up from the looks of it in our farm system? Nothing great. And then lastly, Force Whitley, do you think he could be an option for a guy that can give you two or three innings next year if they build them as a full reliever through the entire spring training and early next year, calling up the business? Thanks, Tyler. Appreciate the call. I think we can start in reverse order from the standpoint of there was a lot there. But I think from a Force Whitley perspective, look, he pitched well at AAA. I don't think they're going to look to get two or three innings from him. But if he can give you, he can prove to be a guy, the bullpen, I think there's a lot of slots that are going to be open next year. And there's a good chance that he could solidify one if he can prove that he can go out and throw a lockdown inning when he's called on. We saw what Ortt was able to do. We saw Ortt had a plus fastball. He was effective to a certain degree for this team. There's nothing in my book that says that Force Whitley isn't going to have a place on this team next year in the bullpen if he can stay healthy. Yeah, I think Force will be in the Astros bullpen. He's not going to be a multi inning guy. He'll be a one inning guy. And I think there's a chance to be a real weapon there, too. I think his stuff will play. Now, he's got to get command. The command is the big issue with him. But he's got, he's got elite stuff. Now, can his command be enough to make him a weapon in the pin? I think that it will. Rotation. I'm going to sit down tonight and put together my Astros off season plan. We're going to start the reload for the Astros getting back to the World Series tomorrow. But when it comes to like fromber, he's got a year left on his deal. Kyle Tucker, a year left on his deal. So what the rotator, the Astros do have options, though, because they do have a lot of starters under contract. Frombers under contract. Hunter Browns, obviously under contract. You say Kakuchi's free. What do you do there? Justin Verlander, who said he's not stepping away, by the way, he said he wants to keep playing baseball, said that in the postgame. What do you do with him? I think we all know the answer there. Spencer Araghetti, obviously under club control. So that's what you had in the rotation this year. Did I get them all? You had fromber. You had Hunter Brown. You had Kakuchi. You had Verlander. You have Araghetti. Oh, Blanco. And then Blanco's also under contract. So, you mean your rotation shaping up to be really stinking good. And then you have, you know, Lance McCullers should be back. If he's not back, then we all know what we can say about Lance McCullers. But his timeline, he should be back. Luis Garcia is throwing bullpen already. He should be back. So they'll factor into the equation some way somehow. You're expected to. It's no guarantee, because what looked what happened to Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers this year. We thought we were getting them back in the summer and they didn't pitch one inning this year. You're supposed to get Javier back at some point next year. You're supposed to get her Katie back at some point next year. So you still have a lot of depth at starting pitcher. Do you go out and get an arm? Do you have two arms? Well, I'll tell you tomorrow. Listen to the killer beast from three to six on ESPN 97.5. Do you factor JP France in as a guy that's going to be in the middle? No, no, that's organizational depth. I'm not factoring JP France to be pitching on my big league team ever. If I have to, because he's in the organization, I have a bunch of injuries. Okay, but no, I'm not factoring him to ever be taking a spot on my big league pitching staff. No, I mean, they're going to have him. So, I mean, he's going to be Sugar Land or otherwise, but there's another guy that could potentially whether here or elsewhere, depending on if he's healthy, there's another guy, at least with starting pitching depth that you have. Yeah, the organizational depth. I don't think it's elsewhere, though, because I don't think JP France has any trade value. Not right now. Not right now. But if he shows he could pitch again, whether it's here or primarily somewhere else, if he comes out. Oh, no, man. Like a guy who had a sub, like, what was it? A 440 ERA last year? He's like 28. What? I mean, look, stuff's pretty. He's got their points eight starts two years ago. By the time we get to next season. Yeah, I just think there's a name that when he was here, we did see some good things out of him that just to add to that depth. But yeah, I don't pencil him to be a starter. Look, they got too many guys to choose from there that it's a no-brainer. Verlander's not going to be here. I would love Kakuchi to be here, but I think Kakuchi won't be here because his price tag is going to be high. And you got too many other guys to choose from, some of which you've already paid that you're expecting to be a part of this rotation. And then Alex Braigman asked afterwards, he says, "It's been a fun time and I cherish every second of it. It's been an honor to be here." He went on to say, "He hopes to be back next year, but we'll let Scott Boris handle everything this off season." Should we translate? That's Alex Braigman going on highest bidder. Show me the money to carry it. Alex, I don't know if it necessarily means he gone. I do think that it's he will go to the highest bidder. Because look, Jose got two days represented by Boris. Lance McCullers who signed a team-friendly deal that has not hit the ROI on that. He was represented by Boris, but they told Boris, "Hey, I want to stay here. I'm okay signing a less-than-market value deal." Whenever Alex Braigman says that he's going to let Scott Boris handle everything this off season, that's Alex Braigman saying that I'm going to sign with a team that gives me the most money. Now, Braigman's contract, what does that look like? I think that there is still a shot. I'll put it at about 25-30 percent that the Astros could offer him the most money. I think that depending on how many years it entails, I think that there is a chance because of what you've heard and because of the fact that they know what he's meant here. That it's not about the money per year. It's going to be about how many years will they go. Because I think that if there's a team that's willing to go five, six years with Alex Braigman, then I think he's gone. But I think that in a shorter timeframe of a couple years that they give him $30 million a year or something like that, that I think that that's something that they might be willing to do. I'm not sure he's going to be willing to take it. 7-1-3-7-8-0, ESPN, HR and Pete Lisserline. Final chance to get it off your chest today. Astro season is over. 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6. It's the B's on ESPN 97-5, ESPN 97-2-5. Guys, before we go to the break, in other words, from mybookie.ag, look, there's baseball games going on right now. We know that even if the Astros aren't in it, if you do want to still pay attention to baseball, you want to make those uninteresting games more interesting, you can put some money down on it. 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Live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Brennan. I might have a gentleman whiskey tonight, matter of fact. Put this astro season to bed, post Mortal Whiskey. Sounds very good to me. What are the best whiskey 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6? End of season baseball whiskey is one of the top dons. It really is. I was going to say, I thought you were looking for brand names and we know it's gentle, man. Baseball seasons are grind. Like, I love baseball. I love baseball. But 165 games, it is a grind. So it's all whiskey at the end of the season. Yeah, there's no doubt. I mean, that's a tough pill to swallow when you look at just how far you had to come and overcome to get where you were. Just to have it all go away in two games? Socks. Alright, 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6. Soccer Matters coming up at 6. Mike Elko coming up at 7-30. The Aggie Coaches Show. And then Hall of Fame with Brad Gilmore. And Houston's worstest, Booker team. They'll be on for the ride at 9 o'clock. Can't even come together on a day where the Astros get eliminated. No. Still firing shots? No. 6-3-8-9. We have zero ace pitchers. We need trade. Signed Goldie. That's what the Astros need. Another over-the-hill, aging first baseman. Yeah. I would have been okay with that in the middle of the year, but not now. And no ace pitchers, huh? Hunter Brown didn't pitch well today, did he? Yeah. Okay. Whatever they put in Mike Glasses, 8-7-1-6. Good point. That's a good point. I never want to see Chaz, Meyers, Singleton, and Pressley, and the Astros uniform again. I think all four Astros again. Yep. Does the price thing? I think all four Astros again. Alright, that does it for us. Thanks to Brian for working half the show. And playing a bunch of sad music. He's a Blankers. I'm Bradham. We'll talk to you tomorrow, Houston. Soccer matters. Glenn Davis up right now on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 97-2-5. ESPN 97-5. The kids are back in school. The cooler temperatures are on the way. 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