The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
10/04 Hour 1- Barry Laminack Joins Joel at D1 Training
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For the next three hours from D1 Training here in the Woodlands in an unbelievable new facility that they are popping the top off with a grand opening tomorrow. We are going to keep you jam-packed for the next three hours talking about everything coming up this weekend, including Texans football. We have that to talk about. We will do a little, well, the day after, the day after of Houston Astros baseball in the first hour to kind of cover and let you get off your chest. What you want them to do now, now that we've heard from another Killer B in Dana Brown, but always good to have my man Barry Lamenak next to me as we roll through a Friday edition. What up, man? What's up, dude? How are you, man? It is so good to be here. This place is nice. Yeah, man, if I wasn't fat and lazy, this would be the spot. This is fantastic. It is a sweet spot to go to, especially, like, you know, it's great because they can train you and at all ages and all different types of physical activity. They can train you and then their specialty on top of everything else is they got a lot of D1, like the name, D1 athletes and athletes trying to get D1 scholarships that work out here and, you know, the parents get involved so that they can take the next step before they take the next step. Do they have, like, a buffet or anything? Yeah, I think Paul passed on his, so if you need the pass to Paul, you're going to work out right now. Paul, did you find the calf machine? Did you find the calf machine? You got a... (laughter) Oh, am I number one? Thanks, Paul. Paul just said I'm number one. That's fantastic. Paul's still looking for the calf machine. Or was that D1? Good job, buddy. Always promoting. Good for you. But so Paul is going to work out just because after the show. Yeah, but there's some sort of challenge issued? We're about to see that, because that's what we used to do. Yeah, yeah. Where everything on air was a challenge, including who could beat whose ass and who could eat this more than that. I would never do that. I would never participate in anything like that. That is childish and immature, Joel. Exactly. Who forced interns to eat hot chips? Never would I do anything like that, ever. Oh, boy. The times they are changing all of a sudden here. I'm a grown up adult. I turn 50 in May. Well, but stay off a twitch. Yeah. I'm turning 50 in May, Joel. I don't participate in such childish activities. So, let me tell you how much 50 sucks, dude. Tell me. I hate it. Why? So, you know what? I don't know if this happens to you, but my knee, like, I feel like... Which one are the three? Okay. No, that's the legs. No, that's the left knee, right knee, weenie. Sometimes you get those problems, do it, then age. I don't know. Nice. My knee, my left knee feels like I heard it in a sporting activity. Like, it's swollen. So, we know that didn't happen. So, how did you do it? Okay. It's like, but I feel like I sprained it. Just out of the blue? Like, I did nothing, bro. I don't do anything. I don't know this. Okay. I think I literally... You ever pulled a muscle while you're sleeping? Like, that's the kind of thing that happened to me. You know where I was going to go, right? Yeah. Well... Didn't you hurt your... You pulled the muscle? Yes. Giving my drink off the car. Drink off the car before a show one day. Yes. This is literally, though, dude. I'm telling you, I have no idea what happened, but it feels like... Like, I was trying to... I don't know. Like, I was running a go route, and it just gave out on me. It just... It's swollen. I had to, like, put a wrap on it and put some... What is that? A bio-freeze? And... Dude, it's crazy. And I did nothing. This... I'm like, "Welcome to 50." I was going to say, "What do you got, CSI 50 right now trying to figure out how you hurt yourself?" This is what happens when you get old. It's the craziest thing. It's just random inflammation. I'll let you know when I get old. All right. That's the thing. All right. That should be a thing. That's what... AI and all right. Yeah. There's going to be... There's going to be stuff that comes out. It's going to be... Because, you know, they come out with a pill for everything. So I've heard we have commercials on this station. That's going to be a... That's going to be a new thing. Do you suffer from random inflammation? I'll be like, "That's me. That's me. I have that." Sign me up for those pills. Sucks, dude. So, as we transition from that to the fact that... None of those are me. Accountability, confidence, fearless. What does that one say? Irrational? That one might meet. Oh. Discipline. Oh, yeah. Dedication, discipline, integrity, determination, honor, and perseverance. All of those are on the wall, and none of them describe me. Do they have gluttony on the wall? Do they have that? I saw funny on the way in. Oh, they have fun. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. 'Cause I think you should use that in your social media. It might go with somewhere. All right. So, as we get the show started, look, we gave you the kind of post-mortem, the day of grieving yesterday. But now, Dana Brown has spoken, and we are in full-blown 2025 mode as to, "What do you do with your Houston Astros and what can they do based on the situation that they are in?" And it was weird because of the fact that everybody wasn't ready for this. So soon. They weren't ready for this now. They were ready for this maybe in a month. Maybe, you know, if they made a long and tough run to another World Series. But here we are in so many ways. And as part of getting here, Barry, I'm interested in your thoughts of just your level levels of disappointment and the feelings that came out of that two-game sweep from the Tigers. You know, you don't -- you had bigger expectations going into the season. Obviously, it was ALCS or bust because that's how it had been for the last seven seasons. And when you looked at the roster and the rotation and the lineup, it was -- this was one of the best teams in the American League. This was one of the best teams in baseball. But things happen. You know what I mean? You didn't have a lineup that had Jordon Alvarez and Kyle Tucker in the lineup for what felt like a lot of the season. It just felt that way, right? You didn't have a rotation. When you looked at the rotation that was on the IL, that was on the injured list or that was out that didn't pitch the entire year, there was one point when you had a World Series-class rotation that was injured and not pitching. And when you look at that still, I mean, with McCullers and Erkeety and Christian Javier and Garcia, there's a lot of good arms that never got to pitch, right? So a lot of things happened that were really bad that affected this team early, but they fought through. So it looked like doom and gloom early. It looked like it was going to be a lost season. So I felt like this team even making the playoffs after all the expectations and then the early disappointment, kind of getting there and winning the division was found money. And then making the playoffs was exciting because of how far back they were and how bad it got. Don't you feel like that's part of the reason why people are hurting so much? It's because your expectations were tempered when Tucker missed three months. Your expectations were tempered because of all the injuries you mentioned with the pitching staff and Chaz not doing and all the different things that you went through. But then all of a sudden you do win the division. You do find yourself in a position where you not only treaded water, but you gained a ton of ground while you lost Kyle Tucker. And now you're getting Tucker back and now you're getting healthy. And now everybody's falling in line. And then that last series at home with the damn too much watering of the infield, you lose your best player and yet because he came back in the playoffs, people's expectations were healthy for the first time. We're going to roll. We're going to be good. And that's where I think it all got clouded and the expectations got too big is everybody said, "Hey, we're healthy now at the right time of the year. We should be able to go." What happened in game one is they got Kevin Brown. Honestly, they got Kevin Brown. But I expected that to an extent. The odds of them beating the Tigers in game one. I don't care what Vegas said. I don't care what anybody said. They were going against probably the best pitcher in baseball this year. Best pitcher in the American League no matter what. No matter what. It was, they probably weren't going to win that game. I don't care if your Don was a hundred percent. If Tucker was a hundred percent, you could have brought back. I mean, it didn't matter. That dude was in a groove. He's been in a groove. It just, it wasn't in the cards for them to win game one. So then you were like, "Well, you got to go out and have that magic of game two." And let's be honest, they were, I said this on my show and it was, it's the difference between the previous seven years in this year. And that's when Hayward's at the plate. It's the ninth inning. Basis are loaded. And the magic of the previous seven years is that ball he hits gets through. And this year, the difference is it doesn't. It's not like he didn't, you know, he didn't strike out. They didn't just go quietly in the night by, you know, three outs and just, you know, strike out, strike out, pop out and it's over. They made some noise. They rattled the cage. They had them where they wanted them, but that ball just, it was an atom ball. And it was a hard hit ball. It was a good hit. It just, it was atom and it didn't get by. And that literally is the difference between them taking this to a game three and not. And that was game one. See, but I can't do that. That was game one. That was against the best pitcher in the game. But I can't go that far because of the fact that they didn't hit the ball off series. Like if you, I mean, they didn't hit the ball off series, but they had a chance to win that game literally. They did. If he pushes that ball, you know, six, six feet to the left or three feet to the left, or to the right, that's a, that, that wins the game. But you, you're right. But even then I thought, well, they've got momentum because they feel good about the way the game ended. The fact that they, they had a rally put together. They started having good at bats. Once they got, once they got scuba out of the, out of the, off the bump that they were going to be fine. And then you go up against a makeshift cut and paste pitching staff of, yeah, they're good relievers, but you're still doing it opener. Guys, you saw the day before and they couldn't muster anything until they literally almost lucked into and pressed the, and forced the issue with the pain you tag up, two runs, bases loaded, nobody out. And yet you're sitting there crossing your fingers going, okay, let's hope Ryan Presley, who I didn't want to see there, is capable of at least pushing it to hater and getting over the hump. And, and instead here we are talking about next season. Well, they didn't hit the ball. You say that, but I think I looked this up. They had the third best bullpen ERA. Detroit's got a good bullpen. There's no doubt. So that makes it difficult, especially when you heard them just salivating over the mastery of AJ Hinch and his ability to manipulate the game and, and pull the strings and, and he did a masterful job. And, and we saw that when he was here. So I don't know why Astros fans expected anything less just because you didn't watch the Tigers all year. Doesn't mean AJ Hinch forgot how to manage. So we saw that in game one. We saw that in game two. He pulled the right strings. He pushed the right buttons. He doesn't have the best lineup. He doesn't have the best rotation. But what he does have is a great bullpen and a lot of guys that believed. So look, is it a disappointment as an Astros fan? Yes. Is it the sky is falling and everyone is blaming a thousand different people in this? No, it talked to me about April. You think so? No, everybody was just distraught in April. And then you look at the fact that they were able to dig them. I've looked, I was one of the guys. I was like, what? Okay. Maybe we have to take a step back and question whether Joe Espada was the right hire. And you know me. I'm not a guy that says those type of things. But there was a point when they were 10 back and I'm watching some of the things that he was doing. I'm like, maybe this was a mistake. I stuck with him the whole time. And I didn't. And I freely admit that. I freely admit that. But I'm also not going to run away from the fact that he made mistakes, right? Oh, sure. I mean, look, he's a first year manager. Like he's going to make mistakes. Dusty Baker made mistakes. AJ Hinch made mistakes. Honestly, I said this the other day and I firmly believe this aside from maybe. And I mean, maybe Dusty Baker, because I think we had kind of reached the end of the road with Dusty from his perspective from the team's perspective. I don't know that there's another manager in baseball that was out there free agent and available that would have done a better job than Joe Espada did because they knew him. He was in the locker room. They trusted him. Yeah. And the fact that when they were going through this, they knew he wasn't going to be a guy we have to get to know and understand. Absolutely. To where it's a tale of two different cities, right? The first city you did which no one thought you could do. You earned all the stripes. You won the division. You got there, but you got out managing the playoffs. Yeah, you got out managed. You got out played. And you know what? Sometimes, and this is this is so hard and it's it's a great problem to have because it means you have had a sustained level of excellence for so many years. But sometimes you just don't win. Sometimes you just get bested by another team. As the Yankee. Yeah, a hot team. As the Yankees. As the Red Sox. As the Dodgers. These are all teams that have had way better lineups and way better stars and spent way more money year over year over year. And what do they have to show for it? They have not been the best. Well, I mean, the Dodgers of the Utah Jazz is major league baseball unless there's a 60 game schedule. I do that because we have a listener that's a Dodger fan that won't let us. Who has been the best team in the last seven years in baseball? The Astros. Oh, I thought you were saying outside the Astros have been the best team in baseball the last seven years. I think there's no question about that. Let's carry it over. Let's keep this going because we're going to get some of the comments of Dana Brown yesterday at the end of the season press conference. Some of the things that we're going to kind of dissect a little bit, but if you want to get in here. 7137803776. You can text us here. You can twitch us here. Barry is the king of Twitch. You can go to the Twitch chat at Barry is funny on social media and you can reach me at Pac-Man Joel Abigail's back at the station. Keeping us on the air. Before we go to the break, I'll tell you about my bookie. We got a big weekend coming up of football. We know that you've got college football, pro football. You get to major league baseball playoffs. If there's some sporting events that you love to watch and now that the Astros aren't in. 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And they've got just about any live sport you're watching on television. You've got a probably got a good chance to bet on it at my bookie.ag. Use that promo code and sign up for the my bookie plus program with tiers of loyalty. And as you get to climb the different tiers, you get better promotions and better rewards for doing your business with my bookie.ag. And when there's no games going on or you feel like casino gambling, you don't have to go to Vegas or Louisiana. All you got to do is go to my bookie.ag, live dealer standing by, blackjack poker and so much more. Check them out today. Use our promo code bet 975 and do what I always tell you to do. Bet anything, anytime, anywhere. At the only place I tell you to do it, my bookie.ag. You're listening to ESPN 97.5. Hey guys, Joe Blake here for Allstate Windows and Siding. If you're looking to give your home a facelift, forget about painting or staining by siding from Allstate Windows and Siding instead. Allstate has a huge selection of colors and their product is energy efficient and impact resistant from the wind and the weather like hurricane season can be. Call today at 832-204-1936. Ask about their $2,500 off a complete siding job. Visit AllstateWindowsInsiding.com. Discounts are always available for senior citizens, military and first responders. Get to Allstate Windows Insiding right now. You're listening to The Killer Bees on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Broadcasting live from the Mobile Veritex Community Bank Studios located at D1 Training in the Woodlands. You heard the man. We're coming to you live from D1 Training in the Woodlands. Grand opening is tomorrow. But people are here today because today is always a great day to get your workout plan started or to continue on your fitness quest. Barry Laminack is contemplating it right now as we speak as he is in for Jeremy Branham who is off to cover the Cougs. Abigail keeping us on the air back at the studio. A plethora of ESPN employees watching Paul Gallant's Squat which is really weird. plethora. A plethora. Would you say I have a plethora of gifts? Do you know where that's from? What movie? Can you name that movie Joel? I'll give you three guesses. And all of them are going to be wrong. Would you say I have a plethora of gifts? I'll give you a hint. I'll name an actor in the movie. Okay. Steve Martin. The jerk. No, but that's a good guess. Thank you. It is a Western-ish movie. Oh, oh, oh. Three amigos? Yes! I got it. That was the boss's name Elwapo. Two boss lifting weights with the three amigos. Elwapo? Don't call Joe George that. First of all, if I said lifting weights, there's no Joe George involved right now. Joe's in his car right now getting payback for all the time. Sometimes he does this to me when I'm driving. He's not lifting weights. He's struggling weights. Yeah, I was like of the two killer Gs. Which one is supposed to be in here working out right now? Are the killer Gs? Is that where they call themselves? No, that's what we call them because they call us the angry Bs. The killer Gs. The silent Gs. Yeah. I'll give you one guess. Which one is not here? Which one left immediately? Yeah. Sorry guys. Gotta go piece of place close to the door. Gotta do my bears podcast in an hour. All right. So Dana Brown, Abigail, if you got them. Dana Brown had some comments as they did the end of the season. Meet the press, so to speak, in the press conference after the disappointing loss to the Tigers. And Dana Brown started recapping and talking about what they're going to do and how they're going to go about it for next season. And it's interesting right off the top and I want to get your thoughts on who he might be referring to. But the first one, he starts talking about what they're going to have to do and how they're going to do it. Payroll-wise and talent-wise as they prepare for how they're going to add talent next year. Hunter, to do what you want to do and to upgrade this team? Well, I would say Jim has always been committed to winning and so, I mean, that's a good thing. I think we're going to have to make some wise decisions as to, you know, are there younger players that, you know, we can call up and put in certain rows, you know, to maybe save some money here. And then we could allocate that money to use in other places. I think we're going to have those kind of conversations and we may have to get a little bit creative. But ultimately, we've seen the commitment that Crane has to this club in terms of, you know, nine out of ten post-season appearances, you know, just coming off the seven straight CSs that ended this year. But when it comes to winning and the post-season, you know, we have the commitment of ownership, which is pretty exciting. So we knew we had the commitment of ownership to a certain degree and you can stop it there, Abigail. Thank you. But the younger players, the infusion of younger players so that they can maybe save some money and then allocate it somewhere else. Your thoughts on, obviously, I have a couple of ideas of who the younger players are. But Dana Brown, we know, can't hold his tongue. And normally, he does let some things out when he does speak. And we knew last year when he started talking about hinting about Arageti and Blanco as potential guys in the rotation. And we were like, there's so many pitchers, there's no way. And then both guys become really, really integral, played integral roles in the starting pitching. Who do you think with the infusion of younger? And who does that affect? So, like for instance, I think Bryce Matthews is one guy that they've already put on the fast track, right? And he's already, you know, screamed up through the minor leagues. Even at AAA, he was ripping the cover off the baseball. And you look at what might or might not happen with Alex Bragman. The first thought I have is, well, plan B right now, which might be plan A in their mind all along, is we're going to let Alex Bragman walk because he wants too much money for too many years and we're not into that. And we're going to let Bryce Matthews take his lumps, but see if he can play third base. And if he can't, we've got Zach DeCenzo, and then we'll consider another option. I don't know. To me, here's the problem. The Astros have let so many stars walk for so long. And I get that they don't have all the money in the world. And first, I'll answer the question, but part of the problem is this year they go into the luxury tax and they don't even get out of the wild card around. And I think that that's part of the going to be the problem going forward is Jim Crane's going to be like, well, I'm not doing that again. You better figure it out with some younger talent, some cheaper talent and blah, blah, blah, right? Because his point is going to be, well, look at that. I let the Koreas and the springers and the Coles walk and we win ALCSs and then as soon as I go into the luxury tax, we can't even win a wild card round. So why do I need to spend the money? Let's just get young guys in here and that's how we make it happen. But the problem is, is they had had a great farm system from being so bad for so long, but that's no longer the case because they've been so good for so long that they don't have any more really good talent down in the farm system that I can see. I think what they have to do is go out and find really good mid-level talent in the free agent market because I don't think they may have it in the farm system, but is there anybody that just wows you like? Oh, Matthew's is one of those guys. Okay. Okay, great. I think that Matthew's is one of those guys. I think that when you start talking about guys that Jacob Melton's another guy and maybe that means that Jacob Melton, maybe that means, because the guys that I think no one, there's one. There's one that's no one I don't believe anybody's thinking about. And we want to hear from you two seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. Who's he talking about? Who do you think they're going to move? Who would you like to move? What would you like to do as Barry and I kind of get through this and give you a chance to not only vent about what happened the other day when the season was over but talk about where we go from here. But to me, it's like Jake Myers should be on the hot seat. I mean, he talked about him yesterday and I hear Jeremy talk all, you know, because Jeremy is the numbers guy and Jeremy knows defensive wise. Jake Myers is an above average center fielder. He can't throw and he can't hit. And so no matter who earmarked him and penciled him in and said he's the center field of the future and how they thought about him previous to this and then with the injuries. I don't know that Jake Myers is going to be your center fielder for the long haul. If Melton can play center field, great. But the other one I'll tip you off to after the break. But there's one that I'm curious what you think about because yeah, Breggman's another easy one to refer to. But there's another guy that's been on my radar that it's been a hot button for a lot of people. And I'm just curious would they consider doing something with him. So let us know your thoughts. If you want to get on this conversation 713 723776, you can call text. You can get to us in a variety of ways on social media. Sam is here, but Sam is everywhere as she continues to update our social media accounts. She was way too interested in Paul doing 25 pound squats. And right now he is not grunting, but he is finishing another set before we go to the break. Paul is looking forward to a big weekend, which he always is trying to hang out with friends and celebrate responsibly because that's what Paul does. Stella Rosa wines are phenomenal and you serve them chilled and you can serve them at your next party when you got people coming over to watch games. You can serve a variety of different foods, but the Stella Rosa wines are fantastic because aside from just your beer and your hard liquor, Stella Rosa wines are refreshing. They taste good. They have a ton of different varieties of flavors, all natural fruits and a lot of them. And the biggest thing about Stella Rosa wines is it's a moderate rate of alcohol, so you don't have to pace yourself. You get paced by the Stella Rosa wines and they taste delicious. Check them out today. They're available at all your local retailers. But the next time you're having a party, check out Stella Rosa wines and always celebrate responsibly. You're listening to the Killer Beans on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Broadcasting live from the mobile Veritex community bank studios located at D1 Training in the Woodlands. Hey, it's a suspect Friday on the Killer Beans as Jeremy's out. Barry's in. Barry just got done curling. What was that? Five and a half pounds? Okay. One set of three, dog. I'm exhausted. Well, the fact that you had to take it away from Paul was something that I just was... Ooh, I'm light handed, bro. I got my workout in for the quarter. Abigail so thankful right now that the cameras aren't working here. One set of three, man. I'm going to be sore in the morning. Oh, my goodness. Wow. So social media Sam just put through Barry through a workout. I am going to be sore in the morning, Sam. Thanks. Somewhere they're playing the theme from Flashdance for Barry. What a feeling. I have a maniac. So before the break, I said I would entertain looking to try and replace Jake Myers. Jake Myers is fine if he's your fourth outfielder. He could be your Jake Mariznik type player. But I've never been high on him. Once he got hurt, I thought he was very much leery of warning tracks. Diving. He can't throw. He looks like a deer in the headlights when he hits a lot of times. The name that I'm going to throw out to you might be a little bit surprising, but I want to get your thoughts. Oh, say it. Jeremy Paine. At third? No. Would you consider moving him, trading him, doing something with him? Because Matthew's is a natural can play shortstop. He's a natural shortstop. If you are looking to elevate him, and I'm not sure what you're going to do with Alex Bragman, but one of the names because a lot of people were highly critical. And again, the problem that you have with a Jeremy Paine type is the ALCS MVP, the World Series MVP. The expectation was he could do that for full seasons now and he is going to be not just the heir apparent to Carlos Gray. He's going to be Carlos Gray for the next however many years. Offensively, we know he hasn't been that defensively. He had a rough year after winning a gold glove, but now do you consider him untouchable? Do you consider him a guy that you don't see as untouchable in someone you could move if the right deal came by? I think there's very few people on very few players right now on this team that are untouchable. You know what I mean? Like, a Paine is certainly not one of them. He could certainly be traded for the right piece or pieces or, you know, like, yeah, I would consider any and all offers for Jeremy Paine. So, to answer that question, yes, I would absolutely do that. Now, do I think he's just a guy? No, I think he played well this year. He didn't have a great postseason. He struggled a little bit in those two games, but I think you could do worse at shortstop. You know, he didn't have a great year, but he didn't have a terrible year. He's a plus defender. So, the thing to me is, and Jeremy had all the numbers. Yeah, I'm looking up. Yesterday, in terms of you're really going to be struggling if you take all the guys that are arbitration eligible, the tuckers, the frombers, and all that included. If you do sign Bragman and it gets anywhere near 30 a year, you're going to have a very minimal amount of money to use to go get better and improve the team somehow. So, Dana Brown started to address what maybe we're talking about, not necessarily Paine, but how he might have to get creative in terms of finding the cap room and the ability to go get other players. Well, you say cap room. There's no cap. You know, I'm sorry. Luxury tax, right, right, right. So, yeah, it's a self-imposed cap, but I mean, they're freeing up 52 million if Bragman walks and Verlander's gone. Sure, but then you also have to include that you have to include whether you sign them or not until they sign elsewhere. The arbitration money for Tucker, for Fromber, other guys that are arbitration eligible. You have that second Dana Brown comment. Yeah. Okay, here you go. This is Dana Brown on how he might have to get a little creative. Well, I mean, first of all, you know, one of the things we want to make sure we do is get back deep into the postseason. I mean, that's going to be our vision. That's going to be our focus. And we're not taking anything off the table in terms of what we would do. Whether it's making trades or, you know, trying to free agent or not taking anything off the table. So, but the main focus would be to get back to the postseason again and to go as deep as we can go and get back to the World Series. So you hear that. It wasn't plural, by the way, in free agents, the way it sounded. It was free agent or trades. And that's what started me thinking, well, who's got value from a trade perspective? We know you talked about. You've got just an unbelievable amount, a glutton of starting pitching. But at the same time, a lot of them are coming back off of injury and you're not going to move a block on nor should you. You're not going to move an Eric Getty. I don't think. But you've got all these other guys that you would think have value if they were healthy, but they're not. So, therefore, who do you consider position players or guys? Let me, let me tell you. This is not going to be popular. Two names. I mean, well, one, I think you, you try to resign Bregman. I mean, I don't know if you saw Alteve's comments, but he said that, you know, this team absolutely has to resign Bregman no matter what. And I agree. I, Taylor Rome, added to that that Alteve has never gotten involved in a contract. No. Even with Hirea. That means something. Yeah. And I think you absolutely have to do that. Well, Alteve has now, he's kind of, he's the guy, right? Because he's a lifetime Astro. He's signed through to, till he retires. So, he's kind of got that cache now where he can say that and do that and he's got that clout. Because he said, we, if you notice that in his statement, it was we and not the Astro's need to. It was we. So, there's some ownership in that. And I like that. I like that. But, bro, I'm going to be honest with you. I put for Amber on the market. Oh, I think you have to consider it. I think you put for Amber on the market and that would be where I would start because he's a free agent at the end of next season. Who else is? Kyle Tucker. Now, I personally, I mean, Kyle Tucker is a perennial MVP candidate. He's a, he's a 30, 30 guy waiting to happen every single season. I think you do what you can to sign Bregman and you do what you can to sign Tucker. And here's why. Because if you're looking to start or create or continue a dynasty. You could do a lot worse than having your done Alvarez and Kyle Tucker as your cornerstones for a dynasty. With Al Tuva kind of fading and being the old ahead in the locker room and Bregman being kind of the middle aged dude. Right? Because that's where he is essentially. He's going to be on his not maybe not his last contract, but his, you know, his second to last contract for sure. Because Al Tuva is on his last deal. So he's not, you know, thanks though. He's chasing 3000 hits. So he's got one more probably small deal in him. Yeah. I let let's let's table Tucker for the next segment, but but so I think I think you start looking at because you've got a ton of arms to trade. Right? You've got, you've got a gluttony of starting pitching. Some of those are going to start to come do, but you're bona fide ace now on this team is Hunter Brown going forward. It's no question. And you look at the pitching staff and you've got, you've got more than you can use. So you can look at this and go, well, who's got the most trade value? It's forever. Well, and the fact that you've seen more than most. You know how electric stuff can be, but you also know between the years. Yeah. There's a lot going on and it goes all the way from emotionally losing it to not being able to feel this position to the fact that he's 30 some years old. He's in his early thirties. And he's looking for that kind of again, that taboo contract that he and Bergman are chasing is exactly what the Astros don't do. They don't do more than four year deals and they're not going to go to the massive amount of money that a lot of these guys are chasing. Tucker turned down Yordon money when you know Yordon was a steal. So Tucker's chasing a bag. And so is Fromber. And Fromber as a pitcher in the big leagues right now when you know like 37% of pitchers go through Tommy John these days because of everything that's involved in the pitch clock and pitching and the seams on the baseballs and all the different elements that go into it to where Jeremy and I've had this conversation multiple times were both on the same page. I'm just not going long term big money for Fromber Valdez. So well the fact that he had the third best ERA in the American League big deal. Think about saying from trade value. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but think of it this way, Joel. Think of it like this too. What is the strength of the Astros? It is it is taking a guy like you say Kakuchi, right? He was I won't say he was ass in Toronto, but he wasn't great. But then he comes to Houston and he looks like an ace nine and O when he starts until the last one, but damn they're unheadable because they use their analytics and their their their scouting department see something the pitching coach. They they use the internal genius of this ball club and change the philosophy of what he does on the mound. And he even said, I see why this organization is so successful because of the things they do. I love to be an Astra. I don't know if you saw that, but that's what he said. So to me, if you have one, a gluttony of starting pitching anyways and really good arms, right? You've got her Katie and Garcia and Javier. And I don't even think about if he's even in the mix, but yeah, but I don't even think about LMJ like we could just forget last but colors junior because it's never going to happen, but you've got all that. You've got our Getty. You've got Blanco. You've got so from his expendable. And if you think about it, what's the easiest thing for this team to do is go out and find a project and bring them in and make them great. They have proven it over and over and over Dana Brown. One thing we do know is he knows talent and what did he say at the start of last season. Eric Getty and Blanco have a chance to be starters on this team. If they're so good at that and their track record is so proven, then to me, you focus on signing guys that you know at the plate, right? You focus on signing guys that you know are proven commodities that can hit. And that's Alex Bergman and Kyle Tucker and you devote all your money to that because then you know, well, if we got to go find a pain. Well, if you got to go find next year's cocochi to fill out the fifth starting role because everybody else is faltering. We're confident that we could do that at the deadline down the stretch, right? So that's what I would do if I'm the Astros and Dana Brown. And I think it's kind of gone to the radar, but he's not getting enough credit for how great of a job he did this year. Really one, fixing the mistakes that Crane and Bagwell made. And then two, just, you know, yeah, doing the band aids that he put together late in the season. Yeah, he did a hell of a job. I mean, so, but that's what I would do this, this team needs to, yep, this team needs to sign the guys that can hit and they know can hit. And that is Tucker and Bergman focus on them. And then the pitching will take care of itself or they can take care of it because they've proven that that's, that's what I would do if I was the Astros and Dana Brown. That's why I'd spend my money. What do you guys want to do because I've got something else too because Barry's joining us as an honorary member of the killer bees. I'm about to induct someone else into the honorary membership of the killer bees and I need to know what you guys think about it. 7137803776. You want to get in here and tell me when Barry what you'd like to do with the Astros and how do you get better for next season as we continue to roll on on a killer suspect edition of the killer bees on a Friday on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5 FM. The killer bees are broadcasting live from inside the mobile Veritex community bank studios located at D one training in the woodlands now back to Joel blank and Jeremy Branham. All right back on the killer suspects, the usual bees as Barry Laminec joins me as Jeremy is out doing his U of H duties for the weekend with a road game up the road in the state of Texas. Barry's blessed us with his presence at D one training here in the woodlands. Fantastic spot grand opening tomorrow. A lot of great opportunities to work out get training a lot for parents a good spot for your kids to really get division one type prep work in the weight room before you get to a division one school and maybe help you to get there. So you need to check it out the grand opening is here tomorrow. Before the break I said this I said you're an honorary B you've always been one you always are but we all know who the real killer bees are. And we all know the Jeff Bagwell and Craig Bizio are going to always be a part of Astros history Hall of Famers great careers. We also know the one thing synonymous with both guys Barry is as good as they were in the regular season they were not very good in the playoffs. Is Kyle Tucker about to be Kyle Bucker because Kyle Bucker looks like a killer bee and if he is do you take the is it he's in the Kirk cousins and Dak Prescott of Astros baseball where he's going to have like you were talking about really good all star type regular season numbers. But you have to prerequisites and go but is he going to be that guy in the playoffs and is he that guy that I'm worried about signing long term. Dude I did I never realized this I just pulled up his postseason stats. Yeah they're not great I'm telling you because I already did they're not great at all and this is what we know about baggy and biz I'm not a batting average guy anymore. But don't tell me you're your fit will bud. Yeah I'm all that now but he's like a six years in the in the postseason 15 series. And he's got a 229 batting average. Ouch Johnson with us. Yeah. You're a guy. 685 OPS. That's less than average. Wow that's not yeah that's not good at all. So that's why I asked the question. Oh my goodness. Like for as much as everybody's paid the man signed tuck got to have him back. Oh by the way and for the three months he was out. They gained ground and took over the division. Yeah can you guess what his average was in this wild card round. Zero. I was going to say did he get a hit. Yeah I don't I don't think you give give up on the guy I'm curious now. Oh Barry when you're talking about from or in getting a package and we talked about how the less than depleted farm system. Although it did win the AAA World Series but we know that there's a ton of AAA baseball players that don't translate to major league talent. But if you could get a haul for Kyle Tucker. And you and again now twofold you take all that potential money from what's slated for arbitration off. You get a big package of players for him. And now if you need to get a short term corner outfielder you can. This is crazy. I'm sorry. I'm not ignoring you. This is the most this is the earliest craziest thing in the world because you brought this up. So as you were saying that I went and just out of curiosity morbid sad curiosity. I wanted to see what the other two killer bees besides Kyle Booker. That's so funny. What their postseason averages were. So I pull up B.G.O. and Bagwell stuff on baseball reference. This is uncanny. So I told you Kyle Tucker's postseason batting average is two twenty nine. Okay. Right? Yep. Um. Jeff Bagwell's is two twenty six. His O.P.S. Kyle Tucker's O.P.S. is six eighty five. Jeff Bagwell's O.P.S. six eighty five. Dude they are three point oh three points off in batting average the exact same O.P.S. and oh by the way Craig B.G.O.'s batting average two thirty four with a six eighteen O.P.S. All sub seven hundred O.P.S. when that's average in major league baseball. This is what I'm talking about. For all this sign the man pay the man. He deserves six years and all the money in the world and you look at it and go. But if at the biggest time of the year he's as small as he can be and he looks just like what you've already lived through with two Hall of Famers. Is that what you want? Well I'm asking I would love to hear from everybody. Yes because. Because why? I'm with you short term on Bragman. The problem we're going to have with Bragman is I'm fine with the AAV hovering between twenty six and thirty which is what he wants because he wants Chapman type money. But Chapman got a six year deal at Bragman's age with his elbow with everything that you got going and the fact that you know the Astros don't do six year deals. He's not getting six years. Have you got a bump in a little bit more on the AAV? Maybe? Here's why. But he's not getting more than four. He does have his moments right? I'm looking at it. ALCS 2021 two home runs eight RBI's against Boston. Bragman? Oh Tucker. So twenty twenty one ALCS two home runs eight RBI's that was against Boston. The Philly World Series in twenty twenty two two home runs five RBI's. So I mean he has produced in the ALDS in twenty twenty one two home runs seven RBI's. That's why because remember now two and you're lucky because you have guys like Jose Altuve who might be one of the greatest postseason baseball players of all time. But it's tougher in the postseason. You're facing only the best of the best as far as starting pitching goes. And I would be curious to see just how bad everybody's numbers are. I would be willing to bet you even like your Don's numbers are way down as opposed to what he does versus the regular season. So but yeah, I wouldn't give up on Kyle Tucker just because he has. He puts up Craig Bagwell and Jeff Bezio numbers. You know what I mean? They're interchangeable at this point. Right. But this is where I'm coming from. But no, it's a very, very valid point because if you're going to spend that amount of money, right? Like you said, just throw the money at Bragman and get better value at that corner in the outfield. And someone texted this and they're right too is the fact that it's easier to find corner outfielders and free agencies, especially if you're looking for just a veteran guy for a couple of years than it is to go find a guy that still plays above average defense. But again, because I'm sitting here trying to be the realist in all this, we don't know what we don't know about his elbow. So as good as his defense has been, the one thing you don't want to do that you got to do extensive medicals on is whoever signs him. Who are you talking about? Bragman. Better be damn sure that that arm is good to go right away because otherwise you're going to do it just in Verlander contract and pay him for about three innings before he's out for the year with some kind of elbow surgery. So there's a ton of questions when you look at Tucker, when you look at Bragman in terms of an offense that was less than and then the bigger picture with Tucker going, we know Bragman can hit. Yeah, and to that point, it's concerning that you lost that much time over a shin. I get it, but it's like, bro, that just seemed like an awful long time. Well, and their medical staff and everything needs to be evaluated because of all and their PR staff. But at the same time, that's why I threw it out there because I think everybody just rationally says he's an all-star right fielders, pay the man. But when you look at those numbers at the most important time of the year and it's not a small sample size, as you mentioned, and it is less than across the board and eerily similar to the other two guys, I don't know that you want that. And I don't know what he's going to snap out of it suddenly when he gets a big deal. Or is he going to relax? Because right now he looks a little lost come playoff time. And I don't care that he finished the season, you know, ripping the cover off it when Jeremy and I were having this conversation. I said he was facing AAA pitching by most of these teams that were out of the playoffs. So I have questions about that. I have questions about Bragman, the elbow. I will say this. If the elbow is okay, I'm okay with three or four year deal for Bragman. I don't think he will be. So that's where you really got to get creative from that regard. And we've got textures texting into talking about the fact that trade from or for a variety of prospects. Get as much as you can. And then I love that idea. I really do. I love that idea because we talked about earlier. This is a team that has had so much success that that's part of the reason why their farm system is so depleted. Because all of the stars that they got when they sucked have came up and have led to this success. And a lot of them have gone on to bigger and better things. And you've never been able to replace them really because you've had this sustained success and become a dynasty. So you got to replenish them at some point. And you've kept moving them. I mean, they kept talking about it during the Tiger series about all those guys you got during the Verlander trade. It's like, okay, we get it. We get it. We got rid of a lot of great players from this team. We get it. But it's time I agree, man. I have no problem with that. And there's a lot of people texting in say, but then you still got to make the playoffs. You did it without Tucker for three months. Yeah. Okay. You know, you're not going to just go get a scrub. You're going to take that money. Like I'm looking at 20, 25 free agents in right field. Right. Um, let's see. Well, someone said, why don't I get Verdugo? Verdugo hit about two and change. Two and a quarter. You don't want that. I'm so no Mitch Hannegger, Anthony Santander. Um, those, those Santander's going to command in large bag. But, but here's the thing. You still have all the pitching we talked about. You still have the big three in the back of the bullpen, no matter how big they were. Yep. And you have a lineup that is you're not in the middle. Altuve at the top. Yiner right in the middle. You know, you've got it. If you don't do anything with them, you've got an above, above average defensive and still from the numbers perspective and above average offensive shortstop for the most part. You've got pieces all over the diamond that says you can still win this division because the division ain't that great. Yeah. So that's not out of the realm of possibilities. But I still think you can make the moves we're talking about and still add guys for the short term that still paved the way for the long term and make you competitive next year. Yeah. Because the money is going to be an issue. And that's one way you trim money but still could get back talent for the long haul if you get those kind of prospects. Look at the Padres gave up when they traded for Soto only to trade them again. And all the guys now that are playing well for the Padres in this playoff run because they traded Soto. This is where from a business perspective and from a playoff perspective, this is why you have to consider this with Kyle Tucker. This is why I would say, yeah, this next year at the trade deadline, Astros fans would lose their mind if this team traded. But you've got to do it pretty soon. Because one, you do it before the season starts because you can still get from a team that thinks they can resign them or you work a resign into the deal. But if you start the season and especially if they play well, then you're going to alienate your locker room because if they're playing well, you're getting rid of guys that are helping you win right now that look like they could be a part of this for the season. And because teams know you're desperate. You got to move them. He's not going to resign with you. You're going to lose them. So they're not going to give you as much because essentially he's a rental and therefore you're not going to get as much. Teams are desperate and they will drive up the bidding and the bargaining at the trade deadline because they're like, well, a left handed stick and right field and we're in the playoff hunt. That's the good thing about the ballpark. Yeah. And starting pitching is so valuable at the deadline. I could see maybe moving Tucker before the season starts, but I would hang on to Fromber because you've seen as the Astros, how desperate they get for pitching and teams just, oh my God, they'll just overpaid to make that play off. We got to go because Todd Calas is coming up next, the TV voice of York Houston Astros. One last time before we wrap up the season with TK, he joins us next for our number two of the killer suspects on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5 FM. You're listening to ESPN 97 5. 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. Can small acts make a real impact on the world? 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