The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
10/03 Hour 1 - Is the Astros Championship Window Shut?
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And then more football. It's football. The city's not used to this. They're not. They're not used to not having baseball in early October. Astros fall in the wildcard round yesterday, falling to the Tigers, too. I think I hate the wildcard round. I'm not giving excuses. The Astros deserve the outcome that was at Minute Maid Park. I just hate the wildcard. You play 160, well, one game in the Astros season this year. And it all ends in a best of three. Don't love it. Don't love it. Not an excuse. Just hate it. I'm with you. It's better than it was because I hated the notion that you could fight the 162 for a one game, a one and done. But to me, the better idea would be if you're going to go wildcard round, make it five games. And then I prefer that the next two rounds be seven games because then I think more times than not, truly the best team wins. And if it's the lesser seeded or the lesser record, so be it. I just think that like we talked about yesterday, when you get a hot team riding momentum at the right time, rolling into a series like that, and they only have one pitcher. But in a three game series, especially when you capitalize on the first two, you move on. That's not fair. It's not fair to say they only have one pitcher. They had the best bullpen in baseball for like three months, three months, I mean, they were able to do this without a second starting pitcher. They just kept throwing guys out there. Whereas if you're in a longer series, you're going to need a few more starting pitchers to contribute. The, I just, everybody's like, Oh, it's school ball and pray for rain. It's school ball and nothing after that. It's not exactly true. They don't have any other starters, but their bullpen has been pretty dang dominant again. No excuses. I saw a lot of people after yesterday's result saying that the Astros dynasty is over, that the window is shut. And I find this quite frankly to be ridiculous. Yes, we don't like the result. No, we're not making excuses. But the Astros lost two games to a playoff caliber team. And if you look at how those games played out one, they were both very close games. You look back at game one and you're like, okay, the Astros could have certainly at least tied it. Maybe take the lead if Hayward's ball was a foot this way a foot that way. You look at the, you know, Hayward almost had a big RBI yesterday early in the game that missed the first baseline by that much by that much. You go to the Meadows home run that just barely stayed fair and hit the foul poll. And Obanyez's game winning RBI, the three, or I guess was a triple, the three RBI triple that he gets down into the corner. That was barely fair. You look back at Breggman's missed home run in game one barely missed the Crawford boxes and clearing it. And you look back at the eighth inning yesterday with Ryan Presley on the mound. He induced what looked like a double play ball off the bat. It's that far away from Jose Altuve. So yes, the Astros lost to nothing. Yes, they got swept in a three game series. But to say that the Astros window is shut and the dynasty is closed because they lost two very close games to a playoff worthy team is frankly outrageous. Yeah, I'm with you. I just, I don't see it. I think the fact that we've done this kind of science report a couple of times throughout the season when we said, look, the window's not shutting because you've got your Don Alvarez locked up long term because you have a plethora of starting pitchers to pick from when you're looking for your rotation, starting with next season because the back of your bullpen, whether you like the end results at the end of this season or not, is locked up so that they're going to be in place. And you have guys on team friendly contracts, guys on their first contracts, guys that are younger that are under team control that are around and Jose Altuve is going to be part of the mix that make you a competitive team. Now what you do with that competitive team will dictate a lot of how long the window stays open, but it's definitely open for next year. And when you look at it being open for next year, you have the opportunity to do some things to still continue to fortify this team where you can still be a team that competes for the division and possibly more. Yeah, I think it's, you look at the foundation that and yes, they have some tough decisions and I have the, I have the recipe, I hope Dana Brown's listening because I have the recipe coming up in nine minutes. But I like the foundation of the team, like you still have, if you look from a pitching perspective, you have young players, young pitchers that you can build around a hundred browns going to be here for a while, Ronald Blanco, under contract for a while, Spencer Eric Getty, under contract for a while, Christian Javier, now it's fair to have concerns about Christian Javier, because the Christian Javier, after he signed his extension, didn't look like the same Christian Javier that we all started to know and love. And he's coming off of Tommy John, but he's under contract for a while. Yes, with questions, Luis Garcia, I'm bullish on Luis Garcia. I really like Luis Garcia. Now again, still questions with the, you know, the Javier thing. He's coming off of Tommy John. He also had, you know, we thought he was going to be back in July, his return date has been pushed way back. He went from July, middle of this year to probably opening day of next season. So you have questions with Luis Garcia, but that's a, that's a really formidable young rotation that's under club control for a while. Yes, some things have to go your way. You need guys to bounce back, be healthy, but if you're running out of rotation of Hunter Brown, Spencer, Eric Getty, Ronald Blanco, Christian Javier, and Luis Garcia. And those are guys that are under club control for a while. That's before you're even talking about additions. Those are guys that are under club control for a while, like the future of your rotations in very good hands. So I have no doubt that the Astros starting rotation still going to be very good. The bullpen, you still have some good arms, like a Bray, you still around for a little bit. Hater is going to be around for a while. And I know we all dislike Hater and certainly fell short of expectations, but Josh Hater is still somebody you can, I can say rely, it's still somebody you can have in your bullpen and know that he's somewhat pretty good sometimes. Yeah, yeah, I mean, we're, we're mad at Hater today. And then you flip it over to the offensive side guys that you have under club control for a while. Like you're not Alvarez and the honor Diaz are probably going to be the middle of your lineup. Well, maybe not of a spot. It might be two, three, but those are guys that you can rely on to be the foundation of a good offense. How two days not going anywhere, although he is getting older and I think we're starting to see that age more and more. I got criticized a couple of years ago when I said two days past his prime, what are you talking about? He's just a good and offensive player. Has he ever has been? Well, what about his defense? If that's one half of the game, his defense was a pretty big deal yesterday, not being able to get to that ball. I think Marisha Dubon gets the ball and I'm not saying that Marisha Dubon should be playing over Jose Altubey. But that's the downside of an aging veteran that plays second base is that yes, you have to commit to him in the lineup. We're all okay with that. The greatest Astro ever, the downside of Jose Altubey in the lineup every day is that he does have dwindling defense and it's been that way for years. Yeah. So I think that when you look at what we saw, we knew for the last several years that his defense was deteriorating. It was definitely not. It was never great, but it had gone down quite a bit. But the fact is he's just steady bad at the top of your lineup. When you talk about a team and its sustainability of being able to be a competitive baseball team, if I'll two days your lead off hitter, and as you said, Jordans, the two, yiners, the three, the top three in your lineup look pretty damn good. And then when you start looking around the rest of the diamond, you know, you have guys that are going to be, you know, players that you can, you can lean on and you can believe are going to be a part of your team. Now there are question marks and this is where it gets really creative for Dana Brown. You've got some bad contracts that are still on your payroll. You've got some challenging decisions to make at the end of this, you know, end of this off season when you have to deal with some of the guys that are either going to be free agents or, or, or in a year's time are going to be free agents and those are tough calls to make. But that's what Dana Brown is here to do and that's what you're supposed to do. You got a team friendly deal in your don and that gives you a little bit more wiggle room, but there's no doubt it's going to be challenging. But because of the core that we just talked about and the guys that are all going to be on this roster, it's still believe in my, in my heart of hearts in my brain, but I believe it's a competitive team. I think you only have one more year of bad contracts though, like there's not a contract that goes beyond, well, unless you consider hate or a bad contract, which is fair, which is fair. But other than that, no, I mean, a Bray use done after next year, Jose O'Bray you, Raphael Montero up after next year, Ryan Presley up after next year, Verlander's off the books, although you're only playing half of that. I can't think of another bad contract. What color's got two left, right? Yeah. Is that I mean, he could not very much either. It's 17 a year, I think the problem with the Lantz McColors contract is that he's not able to pitch. Right. Lantz McColors, if you were able to pitch $18 million is a bit of a bargain for a guy of his caliber. The problem is that he can't pitch. So yeah, I guess that is, that's what quantifies a bad deal. Yeah, because pitching on an $18 million deal, you hear people say, cut him, you hear get rid of him. No, I mean, the bottom line is you're stuck paying him no matter what. So you keep him around, you hope that there's some kind of medical encouraging news or break through with him that comes through and says he's going to be able to do what he once did so well. And then maybe he can contribute to you, but you're not going to cut him. And then if he does somehow medically, you know, find something that allows him to pitch again, pitch for somebody else. So you're stuck with it. You ride it out. You hope that there's a chance he contributes, but at the same time, you're not going to cut him. No, you're right though. In the other deals for the most part, you escape most of them now and through, you know, after next season to where it's not going to be a long haul. And again, because your team roster looks like it can be competitive, there doesn't have to be that many moves made where this team can still be a team that wins the division. Yeah, the most of the bad, you have one more year of the bad money. You're still paying for you, the 19 and a half, Montero with the 11 and a half, Presley's getting 14 million. And then if you want to throw Lance McCulloughs in there, it's 18, he's got two years, 25 and 26. He's done after 26. Hopefully he can come back. I just don't believe it. I just, I don't think he's going to pitch again. Like it's been one thing after another, after another Texas saying the pitch clock ruined Luis Garcia. I think that's an outrageous text. Luis Garcia, whenever he got injured on May 1st of 2023, he was in the midst of throwing 13 consecutive shutout innings. So he was coming off a start in which he went six shutout innings, struck out seven. The prior start, he went seven shutout innings, striking out nine. Luis Garcia was not impacted, maybe early, maybe early, but he figured it out. In his last two starts prior to his injury, Luis Garcia went 13 straight shutout innings. I thought Luis Garcia was going to have a fabulous 2023 super bummed. We didn't get to see him in 2024, but I still think he's going to at minimum be a factor in the middle of the Astros rotation going forward. Yeah. Aside from any kind of hiccups medically that prevent him from pitching, I believe in Luis Garcia's stuff. I believe that one of the reasons why he had to endure the surgery that he had to go through is the fact that he was on the fast track. We kept hearing and we kept seeing and we were talking about the fact that he had never pitched more innings in his professional career than what he was doing. Once he got up to the big leagues, he became a workhorse. He became an innings eater. He became an effective pitcher. He was used a lot, the Astros went deep a lot. And at the end of the day, we see that the numbers are way up on pitchers, getting Tommy John surgery and he was in line and he got Tommy John surgery. Textures are telling us that they owe Grinky still a little bit, which I do. I do remember. I don't know how much they owe Grinky, which is weird too, like he was a free agent and left. They must have, maybe it's deferred money, something like that. I have no idea. Um, but yeah, I do remember seeing that. I don't remember how much of it they owe. I don't think it's like a, like a tremendous amount, but I do think that he's still on the books for a couple more years and a low dollar amount. I don't think it's crazy. If any of you, any of y'all know, let us know, uh, what is the probability they wrote a check to Presley to go away next year? I say do it today. The problem with that is it would be a 14 million dollar check. I've seen a lot of people say like, cause they look at spoke track and it says on spoke track that there's a club option for two million. That's if the contract didn't vest, if he didn't hit the milestones in order for him to vest his contract. He needed to pitch 50 appearances this year, 50 appearances last year. If he did that, this next year's salary becomes fully guaranteed at 14 million. The Astros do not have a two million dollar buyout on Ryan Presley's contract. Ryan Presley's 14 million dollars next year is fully guaranteed. So if you're riding a trek for Presley to go away, it's going to cost you 14 million dollars. Yeah. He's got a no trade clause. He's getting 14 and a half million dollars. I'm not sure any teams that are out, how many teams are out there that want him, especially at that price, you're stuck with him. He's going to be a part of this team. I heard even the killer G's talking about the fact that they would get rid of him. They can't see how he's going to be on this team next year. I don't know where he's going. Cause I fully, I fully anticipate that he will be in the bullpen for the Astros next year. Why do you say like that? Even the killer G's? Whatever you say that it's like you think of them as less. They think of us as less, but I mean, I'll, I'll hold my opinion. I was just wondering. I know how you do things. No, press is going to be back, unless you, you somehow ship him off to a team. He would have to accept that because as you point out, he has no trade clause. He would have to accept that. And then secondly, I think that you would have to Brock Osweiler him. I think you would have to include something to get rid of him. How many teams in baseball are going to pick up the tab on a 14 million dollar relief pitcher who is incredibly mediocre at this stage of his career? How many? None of them. You can find relievers and free agency for far less that are far better. And you don't have to give anything up. So that to me is a non, like you'd have to retire. I think him retiring is more likely than the Astros trading Ryan Presley. And who's walking away from 14 and a half for one more year? Nobody. He's going to be on this team next year. Yeah. Now, now when you talk about the roles in the bullpen, that's got to change. I don't believe in defined roles in the bullpen. I think yesterday's an example. How about you bring in a hater to face the lefty top of the Detroit tiger lineup? See where you're at entering the ninth inning or even leaving a Bray. Maybe a Bray you and Hater to eat up three innings instead of even touching Ryan Presley. So that's something that needs to be addressed. You can't just go into next year when Ryan Presley must be our eighth inning guy. That's been stupid all year long, even for you, Loyles, who thought it was stupid for us to question that hate it. We questioned it. We questioned it during the year. We questioned it yesterday when we were all watching the game together. We've questioned it before. We'll question it again. But now that you've seen that a guy like Hater who the label was on him that he didn't want to pitch and refuse to pitch more than one inning at a time, we've put that kind of stereotype behind us now that he got his deal. He's shown he's willing to go multiple innings for you. So is a Bray you. So then you just kind of lean lean more heavily on your two big horses at the very back end and give a Bray you the eighth, Hater the ninth, but don't make sure that's not set in stone. But that's the way the rules are going to be defined to start the season. And then you just attack the lineups accordingly with those two guys. Presley falls in somewhere behind them, depending on how he's pitching and who else is in your bullpen. Six one eight one. I'm not saying the pitch clock ruin is affected. And it's talking about Louise. I'm saying the pitch clock caused him to get injured. I think it's a fair point. I think that's not just a Louisiana, Louise Garcia problem, though. I think that might be something that is factored into all of baseball, nine two seven zero machete would have never let Hater throw four straight fastballs to a Banyas, throw your slider, Pat four, nine five straight fastballs to a Banyas. And I tend to agree, although Hater Hater has say on his pitches. Yeah. And I don't, I don't really want to hear about the Maldi conversation because this wasn't about Maldi and you don't want that big zero from a batting perspective in your lineup. Now, would he have caught or blocked the spiked slider or a breaking pitch from, from Presley? Yeah, I would believe, I believe that he would have gotten his body in front of it. I believe that he would have done throwing the chest protector at it a little bit more instead of just kind of flippantly backhanded it. I believe that he would have given it a better effort to stop it in that situation. But that's because he's a better defensive catcher than yiner, but you're not going to, but yiner is a stick offensively and that's why he's in the line. I don't know if Maldi at this stage of his career is as good as yiner defensively and I'm not a yiner defensive guy, but Maldi was incredibly, Maldi led the league in past balls back to back years. But I'll tell you this, yeah, and that was in the regular season, but I think in that moment, in the playoffs with his experience and what he knows and how he's caught, I think he's throwing everything in front of that baseball. This is a ridiculous conversation. Do you want Martin Maldonado catching yesterday for the, we're talking about one situation right now. Yeah. One particular, I don't want him back. No, like you just told me you don't think he would have blocked it. I do. I think he would have. But in what, in what world is Martin Maldonado an option in yesterday's game? I'm not saying he is hypothetical. I'm saying the fact that because I started the conversation based on, I don't want to get into them, the whole Maldi thing because he's a zero offensively and he would, there's no way that he would have, he's the guy I wanted, but if you want to talk about blocking a pitch on that caliber of a pitch in a playoff game, do I trust that he would have blocked it more than yiner? That's a bad defensive catcher and I think that Maldi would have blocked it. Okay. Maldi back to back led the league and pass balls. They're saying playoff game, everything on the line as an experienced catcher. I trust he'll block it. Uh, machete could hold on to job for the worst team in baseball. LOL says three, four, zero, three. That's a fact. Uh, could easily see Greatman pass up pressing for the seventh and a Bray, you the eighth. Uh, Greatman's also a free agent. So he's not under contract either. He's probably, and he probably won't be back. I don't see the Astros spending much money in general, especially for the bullpen where they've already committed a ton of money. All right. 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, ESPN, busy show, bat, take boulevard coming up later today. It is a Thursday after all. Adam Road is with all the fantasy stuff you need to know, uh, to secure a win in your fantasy football weekend, and at least Sterling's going to come around to hand out some winners. He's been on fire, locked over with Lee Sterling later on in the show as well. But when we come back, I have the answers for what Dana Brown needs to do. It is not time to blow it up. It is not time for a full rebuild for the Astros, but it is time for some tough decisions, hard decisions. It's time for an Astros reload called Dana Brown. Let them know to listen. That's next. On ESPN 97 5, ESPN 92 5, ESPN 97 5, broadcasting live from the Veritex community bank studios. It's the killer bees with Joel Blanket, Jeremy Branham on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5. I have the reload that the Astros need a couple minutes, seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESPN HR and Pete listener line towel to make the Astros great again. Seven, one, three, it's how to prolong the dynasty. Keep the window open forever. Jim Crane says that as long as I'm here, the window is always open. I'll have a way to keep that window always open, uh, but first go out to the HR and Pete listener line seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESPN HR and Pete listener line, Twitch dot TV slash ESPN 97 5 on Twitter at ESPN nine, seven, five blankers at Pac Man Joel. I'm a Jeremy Branham. YouTube to ESPN Houston. Let's go out to the HR and Pete listener line seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six from Beaumont. You're in the high. What's up, D? Hey, what's up? Um, this is just for bankers, uh, you got some serious training, man, because you're caught your car. It's back to you. Oh, man. Well, why? I don't know what he said. Do you know what he said? No. What did he say? Do you know what he said? Let's run the tape back. And we'll, we'll. I was screening the next call. I don't know. I don't know what he said. He said your cohost is tacky is I don't know what he said, seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESPN. Let us know what D said. Let's go back out to the HR and Pete listener line. Willie, you're in the high with the Houston's. What's up, Willie? Hey, thank you. Take my call. Always. Um, yeah, um, I wouldn't call him because I just heard, I call this morning to, uh, John and then, and, uh, and I bought up the, the thing about a moatie. I mean, that, uh, hater didn't throw, uh, any sliders against the guy because he didn't trust, uh, the catcher and, uh, and, and John bought up the fact that, uh, moatie led the lead and passed balls, but he didn't say that moatie led the lead and passed balls when he was on one knee trying to frame low pitches with no one's on base. But in, in, uh, I didn't, I wasn't saying that I wanted moatie back. I was just going not to fact that he didn't throw any sliders yesterday and that a picture has his trusty, the catcher. I wasn't saying I wanted moatie back, but John has been saying, oh yeah, that moatie calls him the, the word, I mean, the, uh, play out last year because he couldn't hit it. But if a pitcher don't trust the catcher, he, he don't need him out there. Thank you. Appreciate it, Willie. A couple of things. Like the whole one knee thing is like, it is something that is very popular around baseball and it's not that the Astros there aren't the only team to do it. Uh, the, the idea there is that you can receive better, you can maybe take strikes better, like gifts, get strikes, still strikes away, framing, um, you can't get a pass ball with no one on base because you're not allowing a runner to advance thus not a pass ball. Um, it wasn't a yiner pass ball on the Presley pitch either that. That's a wild pitch. Anytime there's a ball in the dirt. It's going to be a wild pitch. Like people always point out the, uh, you know, the yiner never has pass balls and all of this stuff. Well, a ball in the dirt. It's not going to be a pass ball. It's going to be a wild pitch. People point out, well, the computer ranking show that he's really good at blocking balls in the dirt. I don't believe it. I don't think that yiner is a great receiver. I don't think that he's great at blocking balls in the dirt. Um, I think that Willie's onto something with the, the whole sinkers to a bond. Yeah. That's something that drove me crazy. Like Andy Abani as his pinch hitting coming off the bench, Hinch talked about it after the game that he was saving him for a tough lefty, probably hater because he's the tough lefty in the bullpen. The first pitch to Abani as was a fastball in on the hands in on the hands out of the zone and on the hands. And what did Abani as due to it? He guessed fastball hammered it foul. So you threw him a fastball inside, missed inside with a fastball. But because he's guessing fastball, he's able to turn on it so much, be out so far in front that he yanks it foul. Why is that happening? Because he's sitting dead red fastball. Second pitch from hater was pretty similar to the pitch that Abani has hit down the left field line. Fast ball, pretty middle middle. He fouls it off. Okay. You're not getting swing and miss with that fastball. He's on two of your fast balls. The first one that he yanks. Third one misses outside by a couple of baseballs. He takes it. Okay. He's seen it pretty good then. Like a couple of baseballs outside. O2 count takes it. Okay. He's seen it. All right. Pitch number four high inside breaking ball pretty or a sinker pretty similar to the first pitch he throws. High inside part of the plate might have been a strike might not have been a strike. He fouls it off. Tough fastball there. That's one of haters. That's what he's trying to do there. He's trying to get a fastball top top part of the zone inside part of the zone dotting it absolute dotting it. And what did Abani as do? He fouled it off. What does that tell you is a pitcher? He's seeing your fastball pretty good. He's seeing your fastball pretty good fifth pitch sinker sinker middle middle right down the double down the left field line scores three. Why did he throw a fastball there? Why my hypothesis, my uneducated opinion, I'm just a layman is that he didn't trust yiner with a slider in the dirt because he saw what happened with Presley a couple of it bats prior. And to be fair to yiner, that wasn't an easy ball to block. And I guess all Roger Clemens on Twitter, oh, this is an easy one back in the day. If they're not on one knee, that wasn't an easy one to block because it wasn't that far in front of the like it wasn't it wasn't way far in front of the play where you're getting a good hop. It's not like right at your glove. It was like an in betweener. That's a very difficult one to block. It's tough to try to pick. It's tough to try to block. That was a tough one for yiner. Does an elite defensive catcher block it? I think there's a pretty good chance. My bigger point is I don't think that yiners a very good defensive catcher. I don't think he's good at blocking pitches in the dirt. And I do not think the Josh Hader was comfortable throwing a slider to yiner Diaz in the dirt with the go-ahead run at third base in an elimination game. I said it yesterday, you're right. We all watched it together and we were on the same path. I mean, even Todd, what's his name was was Todd Frazier was was trying to say he should have thrown the slider. He should have thrown something else. There's no doubt that in my mind, as well as your I'm in total agreement, I felt the same way. He was afraid to throw that pitch because he didn't believe that yiner was going to block it. And yiner is a bad defensive catcher and he is a good bat. That's why he's in the lineup and because you had to get creative with all the problems he had at first base, you had him and Caratini kind of alternating. Let's hope next season that yiner becomes a first baseman because you need his bat in the lineup. It's hard to trust him behind the plate and call him a good defensive catcher. Now, does he call a game that's conducive to pitchers like and that he has a good report to pitchers? Sure. There's a lot more to it and there's a lot more to be done with it, you know, and I saw and reposted the Clemens thing and I didn't think Clemens was saying it was an easy ball to catch. But his point is is that when you're using the one knee, when you're going down on one knee, you're not as mobile, you're not as able to block the ball. And I think that in that in the whether it's the playoffs or not, but in the playoffs in particular, in that situation, you got to go out of your way to do everything to smother that baseball. Clemens did say it was easy. So here you go. I've seen it many times throughout the last couple of years since the analytical guru say catch on one knee to still one or two strikes over the course of a game. This is an easy ball to block if you're not catching on one knee. Catchers now can only try and backhand catch it costly, especially this time of year. I think it was a tough one to block, but again, I'm not. I don't love yiner Diaz receiving ability balls in the dirt. All right. So we checked the tape. We got the caller. We did. He said something I think mean and then immediately hung up like a coward. So let's see if we can if we can pick up what the mean thing that he said was from Beaumont, you're in the high. What's up, D? Hey, what's up? Um, this is just for bankers, uh, you got some serious Australian man because your co-host is nasty. Oh, man. See, I was nasty. He said that, well, first off, he said it's just for blinkers and he said you have a lottery straight man because your co-host is and then that's the last part I can't pick up. Was it nasty? It could have been. At first, I thought it was, um, actually, I'm not forgetting what I first, I thought it was, but look, that listen, I did think it was nasty, but he definitely says before that. Yeah. I'll rewind it here. It's just a second, but yeah. He definitely says. He has definite restraint. Let me rewind. I didn't hear co-host. Oh, he definitely says co-host. Your co-host is something I thought it was my take. No, it's co-host. I'm pretty sure you said nasty. All right. Here we go. Let me hung up and didn't allow for rebuttal, which is always, you know, the very alpha thing to do. Dee from Beaumont. You're in the high. What's up, Dee? Hey, what's up? This is just for blinkers. Uh, you got some serious restraint, man, because your co-host is nasty as hell, man. I think he says nasty. I don't know what he said. He said nasty as hell, but I don't know what he's, what he's, like, you're what? I don't know. Nasty as hell. I think he said nasty as hell. He definitely said I'm nasty. You have, you said, Joel, you have restraint. Your co-host is nasty as hell. Yeah. But I think there's something in between. I, he, I thought he specifically was like, no, no, no, no, there was no reference given to what the, what, what your, what Jeremy was being nasty about. Dee, you call back and deliver us some context 71378037776. I'd love to hear some context from you, Dee. All right. Let's get to how the Astros can reload next. It's the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. You're back with a killer bees on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5 live in the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. The coward D is back on the line 713780 ESPN. He said something that was kind of noncoherent. I think he was a little scared. And then he immediately hung up like a, like a little coward. Dee, what was it that you said? I couldn't quite make it out. And can you provide some context, please? Can we provide some context, can you hear me? We can hear you loud and clear. Okay. So what I did was crop the blankers for having some serious restraint to not hitting you in your face. You were the most fascist co-host going radio air radio air everything the man says for no reason. Right. What did I contradict? I'm sorry. What did I contradict? I understand. I understand. No, I'm asking you what I contradicted. You said that I contradicted. I'm asking you what I contradicted. I'm asking you what I contradicted. No, but I understand that this sports radio and everything, but you can have a healthy relationship with the co-host. And I'm not saying like anything outside of like blankers, do we have an unhealthy relationship? But I'm saying, strictly on the hair, you really have to contradict everything the man says. You do this every day. I'm just like, honestly, like, honestly, you can't give me an answer. You're caught into a sports talk radio show and are yelling at me for being contradictory to my co-host in a sports radio setting, but you can't even tell me what I'm contradicting. Bro, we can, bro, we can make a laser for a thousand dollars. I can find 10 things you've contradicted in the past week. It's real. How do you want to give me one thing in the last segment since you're struggling to do that? Bro, you met everything you said. Okay. Okay. There we go. Hey, D. Who did you want? Who did you want catching? Who did you want catching in the game yesterday? You're just talking about me. Let's have a conversation. You can have a healthy relationship with the co-host. Well, he blankers just said we blankers just said we had a healthy relationship. He hung up again. He hung up again. He wants to call in insult and yell and then hangs up whenever he gets challenged with a question. The challenge with a question. Cowardee. Anytime you want to call and you can call on Cowardee, we'll send you a fast track right to the top. Cowardee. Next time you hear something where Jeremy contradicts Joel, right there we supposed to do. Whenever I say something that y'all disagree with, I want y'all to tell me that y'all disagree with it. That's called conversation. That's having a point and then somebody else be like, Hey, you know what? I don't see it that way, which is something that you do in sports radio. When blankers says something that I don't agree with, of course, and sassy is probably fair, Dee, I will push back and say, I don't know about that. I expect that too. I expect that too. I do not treat people in any other way that I do not expect to be treated. If I say something silly, I say something dumb, I say something stupid, which happens a lot. It happens a lot. I expect to get pushed back. If you don't think there's pushback in sports radio, you are an idiot. You're an idiot. That noise, but that noise has become that at least you have the noise that goes with you questioning my takes. I got to, I got to work on it. I got to guess I got to work on a noise. 5798. Branham is sassy as hell. I didn't say it was wrong, by the way, I mean, I didn't say it was wrong. That part email. Dee got a point. Face emoji. Ha ha. Dee is so true. Yeah. I don't think we have a bad relationship. If blankers, if you feel like we have a bad relationship, I'm always willing to work. We can go to therapy. We can make it a big bit somebody. Maybe we can get a therapist sponsor that can do some couples therapy with blankers and I. That might be some good radio. So instead of the blitz who did their what colonoscopy's live on the air, we can just go through therapy therapy therapy therapy. 3 726. I agree with Dee. If I was sitting in blankers seat, you would have been smacked in the mouth by now. 5353. West Alabama. 3 726. It's not that difficult to find me. 3 4 5 2. Dee is factual. I've been saying it. It's all you do. Majority of what Blanks says you disagree with. Well, Blanks got to be right more often than quite frankly, you got to be right more often. You got to be right more often. You got to be right more often. Yeah. I've been told that. All right. Here's my plan on how to reload the Houston. It's not time for reboot. Like I'm not like tearing this down. There's no need to tear this down and break it all up. You still have plenty of talent. I don't think the window is closing. I think the Astros win the division again next year and I think they have the chance to continue winning the division going forward, going forward, going forward. I think they have a chance to win the division for several years down the road. Now, I do think it's difficult. I think you have to make some tough decisions and tough conversations. As it sits right now, if you bring back all your arbitration guys and Dana Brown, they did a little end of a season press conference. He says he expects to have all his arbitration guys back. The estimated arbitration, whenever you add it all up like Frombers, 18 million, Tucker, 16 million, puts you at $215 million before you're even looking at any free agents. I'm talking about your own like Braggman, Kakuchi, Verlander, Grayman, none of those guys factor in right now your projected payroll. If you bring back every single arbitration eligible guy is $215 million. The competitive balance tax next year is $241 million. So if Braggman gets $30 million, that's $245 million. You've already surpassed the competitive balance tax and that's before you even talk about adding to your starting rotation before you talk about adding to the bullpen before you maybe add an outfield bat. So if you bring back all your arbitration guys, all get their estimate and then you sign Braggman for $30 million, you're already over the competitive balance tax. Here's what I would like to do. This is to extend the window and I will concede that I am lessening the team a little bit next year. I still would expect to win the division, but I will admit that I'm trading off a little bit short term next year for long term game. I would try to extend Kyle Tucker on a team friendly deal in the moment that he tells me no and he will. I'm going to trade Kyle Tucker to the highest bidder. I think one year of Kyle Tucker isn't worth the prospects that you can get in return. The Astros with Kyle Tucker this year really run that great. When Kyle Tucker got hurt, the Astros were seven games below 500. When he came back, they were 11 games above 500. He was also a ghost in the playoffs for the second year in a row. Give me a big prospect package for Kyle Tucker. I want to trade from Brevaldes. He's also going to be on the final year of his deal in 2025. It'll be the final year from Brevaldes. Again, much like Kyle Tucker, I don't like losing players for nothing. Yes, they would get compensation pick for the collective or the qualifying offer. Don't care about that. I want as big a trade package as I can get. I'm trading from Brevaldes and I'm making Hunter Brown the alpha of the starting rotation. He's my ace. He's my guy. I'm handing the keys to Hunter Brown. I'm offering Alex Breggman a contract of $120 million for four years. Is he going to sign that? Probably not. But that's my best and final. I hope he signs it, but I'm not offering him a dollar more than that, which does create some problems at third base. I'm moving Yiner DS to first. I don't think the Astros are signing a first baseman whenever they owe Jose Obray $19.5 million next year. Move Yiner to first. Caratini's already under contract. He's your catcher. I'm signing the two best outfield bats that you can find on short term deals. So some of the guys will be priced out of the range. Like Teoska Hernandez probably priced out Anthony Santander probably priced out. So the best two outfield bats you can find on short term deals. And then I want a non-tender, Jose Arquita, you restarted them to a cheap two year deal, but that's really not that important. So again, try to extend Tucker. He says no. Trade them. Trade Fromber, Alex Breggman, best and final, $120 for four moving Yiner to first base. And then I want to add a veteran starting pitcher. That's how you reload the Astros. Do you trade off a little bit next year for the future probably, but I still think it's a good enough team to win the division next year. Look, I think that and we can kind of carry this over too. But the question to me becomes, I'm not opposed to trading Kyle Tucker. And people know that throughout the history of his career, I haven't been the biggest fan. But the fact that he's already shown you once when you signed your down to the deal that you signed your down to, that they were trying to get a deal kind of like that and they made a similar offer to Tuck. And we already knew he's looking for the bag. He's planned. He's going to play for big money. And that was going to be a problem. The only question that I have is does he lose value because of what happened in the playoffs or is that just written off as part of, Hey, he had this three month injury and, you know, it didn't completely finish the year, the way he wanted to, but he's an all star outfielder and he still has the value as opposed to you start him during the trade at the start of the season. If he gets off to a hot start, yeah, I don't see that's tough at that point though, because you're winning team and you're telling everybody in the clubhouse, Hey, we're going to trade one of our best players while we're winning. I don't think it's, you either have to do it in the off season or you can't trade them unless you're losing and then it's towards the deadline. So to me, there's two windows. There's off season. And then if you start the season, you're winning, you can't do it because the clubhouse can acquit on you. Yeah. That's a good point. I wasn't. And from my perspective, it was from a standpoint of leverage because from a leverage standpoint teams know that you're running out of time, you got to trade him that year by the deadline or you're just going to have to eat it and he's going to walk away. So not going to give you as much in his true contract year as opposed to in the off season, you can try and make this move, you know, and then work on, you know, an extension and do all those things. But you're right. If you start the season and he starts well, it's not going to, it's not going to bode well in the clubhouse. I just, and like, I wouldn't have had this idea if you win the World Series because I don't believe in breaking down World Series winning teams. To me, it's if you fall short of the World Series and the Astros fell in the wild car round. Like they weren't even in the World Series. They weren't even in the league championship series. This is the less far, this is the less far you got since 2016. So because of that, like it gives you an excuse to start the reload. It gives you an, okay, let's, we know that we're not going to resign Fromber. Fromber can be a little bit of a basket case at times. We think Hunter Brown is our ace going, going forward. Why don't we trade Fromber for as much as we can get and replenish this lousy farm system. That way we can continue winning in the future. Same thing for Kyle Tucker. Although Tucker, I am going to give him an offer before he and make him reject me and he will reject me, but I will at least give him an offer because I think it's time for drastic measures. And if you were to do that, because, and also the other part of this is you get lots of prospects back in return to replenish the farm, which is great because the farm's not great. But the other part of it is you would save $34 million because Fromber estimate next year is 18. Tucker's estimate next year is 16 million. So if you get them off the books, now that projection of 215 million turns into 181 million. And now you got some wiggle room under the 241 competitive balance tax. Now you got 60 million to spend. Now you can give 30 million to breakment. Now maybe you can give 20 ish to Kakuchi and then you have $10 million to try to go find a bat. And I like that. There's two avenues. There's the there's the prospect Avenue, but there is also the financial game. Right. And I like that from book and from the aspect of and we've talked about this previously, but I look at Fromber and I look at just the fact that that mental thing is such a big deal to me and his age is a big deal to me and the fact that, you know, with the amount of curveballs he throws, the amount of breaking pitches he throws, what we just got done talking about with Luis Garcia in the fact that, you know, it's taxing and a lot of guys. I think the numbers were somewhere in the 30 some percentile of pitchers that are going through Tommy John surgeries now in the major leagues because of the fact that it's just a different ball game when you get on the hill. I don't trust the fact that we already said he's not going to resign anyway. And there is probably he's also probably a guy looking for a bigger bag than the team's willing to offer. But then before it's too late, pull the plug and get whatever you can because we've seen from the Soto deal to some of the other deals that are made on paper right away, you might be scratching your temple going, I'm not sure any of these guys are going to turn out. But in the case of some of these guys, especially when you look at the Padres in the playoffs right now and some of the guys on their roster, you're like, damn, they got those guys in the Soto deal and they're contributing right now. Yeah, they're still there. I mean, they maybe they make a run to the World Series 4,000 LSU guy here in Lovebriggy could be give him 30 and not tuck. The difference there is the term. Like Bragman's going to be shorter term where it's Tucker will be longer term 0 9 4 4 right on the money. That's why I would what I would do exactly. I would offer Bragman up to 140 though that would be a hard bitter pill to swallow there. I just don't like losing players for nothing. Yes, you get the the qualifying offer compensation. Not enough for me. I keep from LA. I keep from LA. The best show this year, I had to pull over. I was laughing so hard pause a three, two, seven. I got to agree with the last caller, Brownham can be unbearable at times and that one Meltzer said to Seth Bane. I'm still going to listen. But Branham, bro, tone it down a bit. You constantly think you're always right, man. Well, prove wrong. Move me wrong that I'm not for 4 8 8. We just want you, Branham to respect Blanchor's opinion. I always respect Blanchor's opinion. I just challenge him a little bit when he gets a little bit off the rails when he says Martin Maldonado is better than Yiner Diaz. Didn't say that. Never said that. I'm playing. All right. 7 3 7 8 0 3 7 7 6. Let's get to Lee Sterling Paramount Sports winner again last week. It's locked over. He's going to hand out more winners right now. It's the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 95. You're listening to ESPN 97 5. Everybody's got a live live of a Veritex community bank studios. It's the killer bees on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5. Here's Joel Blanket. Jeremy Brenner, let's go straight out to the HR and P guess line. Be enjoyed by Lee Sterling, other winning week last week, three and two, October. He's rolling. Paramount Sports.com. Lee, let's jump right into the games and I'm going to start with a game that's first on the college football schedule, at least the ones that we're talking about. One that's near and dear to my heart, Houston getting 16 points in Fort Worth tomorrow night. What do you think of this one? The best receiver transferred here, obviously we know to Miami and another really good receiver transferred to Texas. I mean, Donovan Smith stayed and the chemistry with the past receivers just hasn't been there. Since 2003, this is a crazy stat. I thought it would be totally different, but since 2003 teams shut out back to back weeks. Oh, in 19, the following week, five and 14 against the spread, so they just don't break out of it. I just don't know what it is. I like TCU. They keep rolling. Sorry, 41 20 Lee. We look at the games as the SEC schedule picks up Tennessee's been a team that's been very impressive. They're climbing the ranks. They look like they're strong. They're taking on an Arkansas unit that's been a little bit up and down a little. What do you say in that game? Yeah, no question Tennessee is the better team. The question is DLA 13 and a half points on the road. Arkansas, Jalen Green has been very good running back to Quinn to Jackson, probably one of the better running backs in the SEC. Problem here is can they score more than Oklahoma did? I don't think they can score that much more. Every 17, 20, 23, if everything goes right here, I think the Tennessee defense is underrated here. Everyone knows about the offense. They've got six receivers that are getting separation and catching the ball, making big plays. Here's another problem. If you want to have a chance in the fourth quarter against the team like Tennessee, I think you've got to slow down the game. Arkansas, number one in hurry up offense, you're getting off 80.8 plays here. You know, and unless the defense really steps up, I think they're going to have problems. They give up 39 in overtime to Oklahoma State and now we're finding out Oklahoma State isn't very good here. I think Tennessee doubles up Arkansas 42 21 big one in college station tomorrow or Saturday morning. I should see. I should say Aggies number 25 team in the country four and one on the year. Big one in the SEC, Missouri undefeated number nine team in the country, but Missouri getting two and a half points in college station. How do we see this one playing out? Yeah. Kyle fields a tough place to play. I mean, that's a nice home field advantage there, ain't him to run the ball fairly well. Good defensive line, but almost every other position, Missouri, I think has an edge here. So here's a problem for Aina a couple of years ago. They had guys that could make plays and they had explosive players. They are right now 65th in the country in explosive plays. Only 19 plays of more than 20 yards. The wide receiver just don't compare to the last three years. Missouri is coming off of a by and it might come down to like last week's game with Alabama against Georgia. One guy, Ryan Williams made the play there. I think that that guy is going to be Missouri wide receiver Luther Burton. Here's a guy that's big, strong, fast, can catch a ball, break a tackle, get in the end zone here. wrong team favored, Missouri outright 2723. All right, Lee, let's switch gears. Let's get into the pro game in the NFL. You know, the Chiefs, Chiefs lost another wide receiver in Rashi Rice and that seems to be a big deal and a lot of people's minds and how are they going to replace him? What are they going to do? They're taking on a Saints team that is a bit of a surprise to a lot of teams, but kind of falling back to the pack. How do you see this one playing out? Yeah, I think they've got problems. I mean, they're just winning close, close games and their defense is very good. Now, they're going to face a team here in New Orleans at New Orleans. I mean, if they don't have some special team blunders, they win that game easy. So I think New Orleans will be ready to play this game here. I just think that this Kansas City team is winning it on special teams, five and five and a half points. It's just way too much right now. I like New Orleans. I think they're going to finally be their turn to hit on a big play and they've got to stay healthy on that offensive line. Long team favorite. Another upset here. New Orleans 2017. The NFL's storyline of the week, at least I think it is, Stefan Diggs playing against his former team, the Buffalo Bills, this is a shame. This is a noon start, a shame. This is a noon start, but the Bills are a one point road favorite. Is Vegas right? Baltimore, put up 271 rushing yards. It did look good. They never looked back to Bills. We're not able to get back in the game here. Joe Mixon, Camacres have been passable to fine as runners. We just, I think I'm expecting the Bills defense here to snap back here. Only one other team is better in terms of yards per play allowed and their second yards per pass play allowed as well here. Teams are starting to adjust to see the extra out, but he also has to get back those weapons. Hey, you know, did Houston play some teams that have not shown out too well here, played the Colts here, the Bears, which are kind of middling and not much offense and the Jags, which might be one of the worst teams right now in the NFL. So I think Buffalo probably right tight here, 28-17. All right, Lee, you've been hot. We've been talking about it. We've been bragging about it, making sure that everybody knows about it, but a lot of people don't know how to get in touch with you so they're capitalized on it. Tell everybody how they get hooked up with you, how you give them the winners, and maybe even a free play along the way. Yeah, so they want to get the free play. It's Jacksonville and Indianapolis. I have a real strong feeling on one side of this game. First five columns are called 800-400-9741, that's 800-400-9741. We will give them Jacksonville and Indianapolis for free. But if you want to come on board, we don't have one losing weekend all year. We hit our biggest play of the year last week, a 50-50-unit Max Wager on the Kansas state Wildcats. So if you want to hop on board, we don't call it October, we'll call it October, four weeks of games through Thursday, October 31, only $4.97, use coupon code SAVE200, just $297. Free radar plays from 10 to 50 units, you're going to get 9 to 12, 9 to 13 games a week. And starting tonight, 55 straight days of football, there's even action on Tuesdays and Wednesday nights. We've got baseball playoffs, we're off to a 3-0-1 start there. You can get that through the World Series, $97. And how about this? Looks like we'll have probably six or seven UFC fights, not $77 or $97, $7, we won big last week, we had a plus 300 favorite that won on the main card show. You want to hop on board, UFC, six or seven selections, $7, baseball through the World Series, $77, and locked over through the end of the month in football, just $297 with coupon code SAVE200, one place, ParamountSports.com. If it's Lee, it's for me, Lee Sterling, thank you. Okay guys, take care. All right, October going on, Paramount Sports, you got to get over there. All right, which one is it? The offensive line is poorly coached, or Nick Cocario is a poor offensive line evaluator. Also, I think the text line wants to have an intervention. How can I be a better partner? How can I be a better boyfriend? 713-780-3776, you've called me your workwife before, don't act like, don't be brand new. Let's have an intervention. How can Branham be better for blankers? 713-780-3776, it's the B's on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. ESPN 97-5, I assumed you knew. The kids are back in school, the cooler temperatures are on the way. 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