The Astros have a clear need for starting pitching as the MLB Trade Deadline approaches. Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast discuss it here.
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00:00It is trade deadline time.
00:02This is, uh, it's always a fun time of year to be an Astros fan
00:04because the Astros, regardless of who the general manager has
00:07been, because of who the owner is, they are active every year
00:11because the owner wants it and he wants it now.
00:14I didn't pile up all this money just so I could sit around and
00:17not win World Series.
00:18I just sit on it.
00:19So I sit on the pile of money.
00:20I want to spend this damn money.
00:22Spend this money.
00:23Yeah, give me some players.
00:24Yeah, let's do this thing.
00:25Yes.
00:26That's how he says it too.
00:27I saw him there the other, uh, the other day before the game.
00:31He said, let's do this thing.
00:32Yeah, I think he said thing, not thing.
00:34I read his lips.
00:35Uh, look, this is an extreme sellers market right now for
00:39everything the Astros need.
00:40Yes.
00:41I'm, I am guilty of this.
00:43I put all of the Astros injured players in a box and I set it
00:48off to the side.
00:49So I really haven't allowed myself to think about the return
00:51of Justin Verlander, Luis Garcia.
00:54We're both supposed to throw up colors who are both who are
00:57well, not McCullers, but, but the other two are going to throw
00:59off of a mound here very soon.
01:01Right?
01:01Right.
01:01So they're not playing catch anymore.
01:03So when they're throwing off a mound, you look at it right
01:05now and you think, man, all right, boy, a hundred Brown and
01:08a rail block go, especially could, you could spread it out
01:11a little bit with them with an extra starting pitcher.
01:14You are getting those other guys back.
01:16Presumably relief pitching as, as much as they've come along,
01:22you know, like Brian King is the only lefty that pitches
01:24before the ninth inning, like they've got to, they've got
01:27to go out and get themselves a reliever.
01:29And yet, as Dana Brown said this weekend, the reliever market
01:33is more expensive than the starter market at this point.
01:35He's a, he's out, he's rattling cages.
01:37He's making calls, trying to get the ball rolling on some
01:40of this activity before the trade deadline.
01:42He met with the media.
01:43Dana Brown did, I believe on Friday to talk about the trade
01:46deadline and other things going on with the Astros.
01:49And he, he basically confirmed, he said, starting pitching
01:52is the big priority.
01:53Yeah, starting pitching is a priority without a question.
01:56You know, we have seven starters on IL.
01:58We have to go get a starter.
02:00We would like to get a bullpen guy.
02:02That would be, you know, pretty helpful because we, you know,
02:06we wore our guys down a little bit in the first half.
02:09They pitched a lot.
02:11And so to give these guys a break sometimes would be good.
02:15So if we can get a bullpen guy, that would be nice.
02:16And if the bat, you know, if the bat comes along, that makes
02:19sense, we'll, we'll pursue it.
02:21But we are working in those three lanes of players.
02:26I think you need a body as a starting pitcher, given the,
02:29what the trade deadline or what the trade market looks like.
02:32I don't, I don't need an earth-shattering announcement
02:35or anything.
02:35It'd be awesome.
02:36I'm not going to complain about it if I, if they do, but I
02:39think they need somebody to be able to, at times, perhaps
02:42go with six pitchers through the month of August and just
02:45because Verlander, you know, you're going to want to be
02:47extra, extra careful with Verlander.
02:50Luis Garcia is the guy that I'm most excited about returning
02:53that might, you know, he's gone through a normal Tommy John
02:56surgery recovery, just had normal setbacks here and there,
02:59but it's pretty much gone according to plan.
03:01I feel like that he might, he might end up being rock, rock,
03:05solid Verlander.
03:06You're gonna have to be very careful.
03:07Yeah, I heard Dana Brown talking about both those guys
03:11this weekend.
03:12I don't know if it was in this press conference or if it was
03:14in one of the, like he was on the broadcast yesterday, but
03:18I mean, Verlander comes back, he's going to be in your
03:20rotation, probably near the top of your rotation, if not at
03:23the top of your rotation.
03:25It seemed like he's open to using Garcia a myriad of different
03:27ways, like they may, like they may bring him back and he might
03:30be one of these guys that, that eats up a couple innings for
03:34you in the middle of a game.
03:35Let me ask you this.
03:36Yeah.
03:36So the word on the street was that teams are looking at
03:38Garrett Crochet, the White Sox starter, who's been really,
03:41really good this year, has two years of arbitration remaining.
03:44So you've got three playoffs out of him, theoretically, with
03:48team control.
03:50He's saying that he's not going to go, he's going to fight
03:54tooth and nail and doesn't want to go unless he gets a new
03:57contract.
03:57He doesn't want to pitch in October, if he doesn't get a
03:59new contract.
04:00If he doesn't get a new contract.
04:01With the, with the Astros, as we said, and he's a lefty, he's
04:05a lefty.
04:06So he's a lefty arm that could be used as a reliever until
04:09the playoffs.
04:10He said he doesn't want to do that either.
04:11I know he said he doesn't want to do that, but you flash a
04:13big wad of cash in front of him.
04:14Oh, okay.
04:15Well, yeah, no, yeah, he said, yeah, let me correct myself.
04:17He's saying he won't pitch in relief in the regular season or
04:20pitch at all in October.
04:21If he doesn't get a new deal, unless he gets a new deal with
04:23the Astros go there.
04:25No, no, no, I don't think so.
04:27I mean, I don't want to do Jimmy.
04:29I was just telling you about how you want to do this thing.
04:31No, I think man when when contract stuff starts to affect
04:36how you use a guy in season.
04:38Yeah, like I don't know that the Astros would have agreed to
04:40what the brewer.
04:41I think it was the Brewers who agreed to it with hater back
04:43in the day, you know, like that you're only going to use me
04:46in the ninth inning.
04:47Yeah, because I got arbitration coming up next year and I got
04:49to be a free agent at some point baseball is very sensitive
04:52to precedent.
04:52Yeah, you know, a lot of people wouldn't realize the fact that
04:54baseball players salaries are guaranteed.
04:56It's not in their CBA.
04:58Yeah, they just they just insist on it.
05:00You know, it's a that's the precedent the players have set.
05:03So I think a lot of owners don't be the ones that start to
05:05bend towards the NBA and the NFL in succumbing to those types
05:10of holdouts.
05:11Yep.
05:11Yeah, here's one more another one from Dana Brown and said
05:15that no prospect in the system is untouchable.
05:19If you got a deal that you feel like, you know, it's going to
05:21help this team win.
05:23I don't think anyone's in that untouchable mode.
05:26I mean, there are guys that we really don't want to have to
05:29trade, you know, but ultimately, you know, no one's untouchable.
05:37Yeah.
05:38I mean, let me kind of prove that last year.
05:39They traded two of their best prospects for Verlander, you
05:42know, yeah, and that will always be the but I don't I
05:45don't need I don't think that's even I think that's Jim Crane's
05:48words with Dana Brown's lips moving, you know what I mean?
05:50Dana Brown would theoretically would be a GM who might feel
05:54that some of the guys are untouchable because he's a he
05:56steeped in the building through the minor league system school
05:59of thought.
05:59He's a scouting guy, right?
06:01Right.
06:01He is a scouting guy like and he's also thinking look GM's
06:04are judged you pay a GM to have a long-term perspective.
06:08Yeah, that's a it's the check in the balance between you know,
06:12like in the NFL the coach wants to win right now.
06:15The GM has to say.
06:16All right.
06:16Listen, man, we got to keep the long-term in mind and those
06:19two forces work against each other.
06:21There's a check in a balance and and hopefully worked out that
06:25it's kind of like Dana Brown versus Jim Crane in some respects
06:28now more than a spot is the guy that wants to win right now
06:32and I hope it is behind the scenes that way.
06:34I hope like it constructively have open dialogues and arguments.
06:37Yeah, absolutely.
06:38I think you need like look not having a guy like Dana Brown
06:41in the room for the couple of months where there was no GM
06:44is what got you Rafael Montero at 11 million a year and Jose
06:47Abreu at 20 million.
06:48Dana Brown almost has to act like a trust fund manager for
06:51a rich kid there.
06:52But like listen, man, no, you've got you've got one nice
06:54luxury vehicle.
06:55I can't I can't approve writing another one.
06:58You've got enough and yet and yet I like I have a sneaking
07:01suspicion like Blake Snell is going to be an Astro come Tuesday.
07:05No, I have a like to do they were chasing a little bit.
07:09I mean not based on any information.
07:10I have just based on the behavior of this team.
07:13Yeah, and this owner and I say this I'm referring to him
07:16not by name is if I'm angry.
07:17He's made all these trades through the years.
07:19It's been so fun having Jim crane is the owner other than
07:22having Jose Abreu and Rafael Montero on the team, but I like
07:25they chase Snell this offseason actively chased him and then
07:29as Reggie Jackson pointed out on that podcast like it's a lot
07:33of things just didn't stack up for us there.
07:35The thing that's scaring teams about Snell Snell ended up
07:38signing a two-year deal with the Giants for 30 plus million
07:41in a year with a player option for the second year.
07:45So that's what's scaring teams about Snell, especially early
07:48in the season.
07:48He wasn't good.
07:49He's been really good his last four starts.
07:51He's been excellent.
07:52He had a 15 strikeout game within the last week or two thing
07:56about the thing about the Astros ability to develop players
08:00is something that I think this could be a conversation between
08:02Jim crane and Dana Brown to that if you trust in our organization's
08:07ability to actually develop and bring these guys along that
08:11our our pipeline is actually always a lot stronger than baseball
08:14America thinks it is right and is that an edge that the Astros
08:17can sustain over time?
08:19I think it is some of the things that happen in scouting some
08:22of the game, you know, the Astros had a lot of advantages
08:25and this goes back to the Cardinals days with Jeff when he
08:27was with the with the Cardinals some of those the league starts
08:30to pick up on and they start using the the technology and
08:34everything to scout and develop guys.
08:36You lose your edge over time with that player development
08:38is one of those things that everybody knows you should be
08:41focusing on it, but it's boring and it's hard to do so there
08:46you can always have an edge in player development.
08:48It's like it's just like with long-term investing.
08:51Everybody knows that you shouldn't panic and let short-term
08:55things affect you but it happens because it's hard not to so
08:59I think Jim crane probably tells Dana Brown at times like
09:01listen, listen.
09:02I know you're you're letting it go a couple of your prize
09:05developmental gems.
09:06There's more we'll get more and we'll develop these guys.
09:09Well, we'll get more and we'll develop these guys.
09:10I know by the way Dana like you're scouting and the guys
09:14you're bringing in.
09:14I'm not sure if the guys that they would be trading in a deal
09:17for say Blake Snell would be guys that had been handpicked
09:20by Dana Brown.
09:21They might be guys who've been in the system before Brown
09:23got here.
09:23Yeah, but the prospects do two things for you.
09:26They either they either replenish your own roster or they
09:29allow you to go get guys that put you over the top to go
09:31win two World Series in six years.
09:33So feel okay Dana.
09:34Let's just wait.
09:35You're bringing money into the organization.
09:36We're just deploying it differently man.
09:38That's right.
09:38It's using it to go get Blake.
09:40Yeah, there's two sides to that that equation Eric Fetty
09:42or you say kikuchi or Jameson tie on kikuchi.
09:46Give me some kikuchi kikuchi.
09:48Although I kind of dread how much fun Blum would have cooked
09:51with kikuchi.
09:52You do?
09:52Yeah, you know, he loves this.
09:54He loves his dad joke fun.
09:56Yeah.
09:56Yeah.
09:57Yeah, he would be a little too dad joke.
09:59Yeah.
09:59Well, the good news is the good news is he kikuchi is a
10:02pitcher so we wouldn't get a trademark Blum like home run
10:05call afterward.
10:06Yes.
10:06He's a hell of a pinch hitter and they bring him in and he
10:08hits bombs.
10:08But because that's usually where we get the cheesiest version
10:11of Blum is after a guy hits a home run.
10:14One of the ones that yeah, I just thought in my mind.
10:16I thought like I don't mind forever after a strikeout going
10:19kikuchi kikuchi, but that's that doesn't sound good at all.
10:22No, that's no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not good.
10:27I kind of want Cal Quantrill just because you saw the video
10:30last week of him yelling at McGuire that Red Sox player tells
10:34it like it is Cal Quantrill.
10:35He was pointing out something that McGuire did that was a little
10:38love got caught doing something very embarrassing and very
10:41embarrassing in a parking lot.
10:42Yeah, he was focused very intently on himself.
10:45Yeah, he's a little too.
10:46He's all about me this guy a pleasure in a pleasure laden
10:49kind of way.
10:50Yeah, Cal Quantrill reminded him of that when the two teams
10:54were jawing at each other last week.
10:55I kind of like this Quantrill fella.