Who’s REALLY to blame for Astros season tailspin?

Who’s REALLY to blame for Astros season tailspin?

Hey, welcome into Stone Cold Stros. I’m Brandon Strange with Charlie Polo and Josh Jordan for a special live episode. Go follow them on X at Polo and Josh Jordan 975. On today’s episode, the Astros put the O in O Canada as they get goose egg to close out another series loss. The pitching depth and the margins in the division are paper thin. Are we witnessing the end of the golden era of Houston baseball? We’ll discuss. Before all that, hit like on the video right now. Mash the subscribe button if you want to see more of us in your timeline. Click the bell to be notified when new episodes drop. And we’re also on all your favorite podcast apps. You can just go search Stone Cold Stros. Charlie Josh, welcome in. Um, you know, look, as as I compiled notes together for this episode, the the series in Toronto really just echoes a lot of the tired talking points we’ve harped on for weeks. And what’s really frustrating is using was just a blown save away from taking this series. But to focus in on a blown save is really to miss I think the more important headline here which is gameto game their offense makes the margin for victory just razor thin. Um what were your takeaways from this series Charlie? And uh I guess the state of the team as they enter into this final 15 stretch 15 game stretch of the season. It damn sure feels like slip sliding away. vintage Paul Simon song. Happy Googling. But they’re just one good homestand from probably making the playoffs as those scoff a good homestand. Look, they scored three three and zero runs in Toronto. It’s a broken record. It’s a broken offense. It’s a bad offense. This is not a recording. Jose Altuve is a freaking abomination. And Joe Spotter keeps riding him in in the three spot. In the three spot. Oh, let’s demote him to the cleanup spot. He continues to just be flailing away in the batters box. But you know what? Much worse than his current two for 33. That’s a batting average of 61. Not 261, not 161, 61. Right. The front of this month-long worst everyday player in baseball that Aluvia has been. He was 3 for 35. Now he’s 2 for 33. But the base running where he was loafing, dogging, stupid, all of the above. Great play by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. only possible because Altuve’s trotting. Hey, at least the belated slide almost got him to third base. Altuve continues to not single-handedly do grave damage to this team’s uh playoff hopes, but if we’re issuing, you know, triple XX goat horns to one player on the roster at this point, it’s Jose Altuve. You don’t get lifetime indemnity from criticism for all the beautiful and glorious things he’s done here to four. Altuve sucks and he is foremost dragging this team down, but he has plenty of company. Pretty much the whole batting order. You know, Jeremy Pñena had three hits in the game where he returned in in Fenway after missing the month with the fractured rib. He’s in 239 since then. Christian Walker has his surges. Actually on balance July and August he was pretty good. Now he’s seven for his last 44. That’s about 170. Jesus Sanchez had that 0 for 27. He goes into Atlanta. Now it’s 0 for13. Hey, not quite halfway to zero for 27. And his defensive reputation was a little spotty coming here. That guy instead of an outfielders’s glove looks like he plays with oven mitts half the time. Uh then you get to the bottom. Don’t blame guys like Mauricio Duban and Taylor Tra. They’re bad offensive players. Always have been, always will be. Um, Carlos Kareah, homerred the first two games of the Toronto series. He’s been pretty good the last week. But since his first nine games when he sizzled upon rejoining the Astros, 28 games since, his OPS is barely 700. And that puts him on the plus side of the curb in this lineup, which is just for hunger. Josh heading to the Brave series. They’re now at 75 times this season, scoring three or fewer runs. last year’s offense, which was no juggernaut other than compared to this one. The entire season, 67 times, scored three or fewer. The Astros are at 75 and I’m pretty sure 75 and counting. And then what’ they do in this Toronto series? Average two runs per game over the three games. They just that that’s not going to that’s not going to cut it. And the problem is is for the season, we’ve known scoring runs has been a problem. Even when the the offense has been in the top 10, they’ve been kind of middle of the pack and runs scored, guys. They are 25th in runs scored on the season right now. Now, let me give you a little more context for that. Over the last 30 days, they are dead last in runs. They are 28th in batting average and 28th in OPS. I mean, over the last 30 days, they’re basically the worst offense in baseball. It’s incredible. They have to get this figured out. And Joe Spot talked after the game and he just said, “We got to get more guys involved in the offense. It can’t just be one or two guys getting the hits. Kareordon for the most part. That’s what it’s been recently. Even Pñena, as Charlie mentioned, he’s had some good spots, but he hasn’t been quite what he was before he got injured. It’s everybody. And Charlie mentioned it. Sanchez with the defense. And I mean, if if you think you’re doing yourself a favor by getting Cam Smith out of the lineup and then you see some of that start to take place and Sanchez isn’t hitting either. I have some big questions. I saw the comment in here about Javier. Yeah, I didn’t think he looked great either. I thought he got better as the game went along. That’s what Joe Aspatada said. He felt like he kind of found his fast ball as the game went along, but unfortunately it was over by then. It didn’t really matter. Now, he gave you six innings to kind of help out your bullpen. But overall, you’re going to need a lot more than that. I have a lot more to get to. But finally, I do want to mention I I think we do know what the new five starting rotation should be, right? your top three, Alexander being the third, and then I I think it’s going to have to be Javier and Blue Ball for four and five. You know, Garcia looks gone, and we know Eric Geti’s gone, and we don’t trust McCullers. He came in and gave up runs again in relief. So, I think you got to give Blue Ball a shot here. Look, more than a two-month stretch now. They are 24 and 33. Only the Tampa Bay Rays and the Minnesota Twins as bad in the American League. It’s been a really lousy team for more than two months. They need the tourniquet that the Mariners came up with in Atlanta o over the weekend. And the Mariners go home where they’ve excelled all season and they’re racking up win after win after win as are the Texas Rangers. Uh I did X out after Gossman who was just brilliant. I mean, all right, you might say he shut down a lineup of scrubs. Oh, yeah. Yordon’s hit over 400 since he’s been back and and this is what the the offense is. Uh but as the Astros skulk their way through customs back into the country, it had to be with the knowledge or at least the feeling that they’re a bad team for more than two months now. Can they extricate themselves from this to do enough to eat their way into the playoffs? Right? They knew boarding a plane the worst they’d be getting to Atlanta was still tied for first place. Of course, they were 11 games ahead of the Rangers a couple of months ago, seven games ahead of the Mariners a couple of months ago, and here we are now. Yeah. And look, I The problem is Javier was not great, but he gave you six innings. And sometimes you have to score more than four runs. This team scored zero runs. So, it didn’t matter that he gave up four. He could have gave up a one and that would have been the margin of victory uh in the finale. You have to be able to score more than three runs to win a game to be a competitive team. Otherwise, you’re what this team has been for two months. And you know, look, it’s it’s hard to blame any one person because there’s just so much blame to go around. Speaking of blame, I’ve seen a lot of people blaming Dana Brown for the current state of the team in our comments on social media. And we’ve discussed it on this show that he might have overestimated the depth of the rotation. It clearly seems like he did by counting too heavily on uh the returning guys to bolster the rotation, but they have been getting unpredictably good outings from a pitcher and Jason Alexander that most of us had not paid attention to prior to this season. Um and besides that, obviously McCullers’s returned as a shell of himself. Eric Getty and Garcia returned but then fell victim to elbow inflammation alongside Brandon Walter who was doing well for this team. But the flip side is this lineup because outside of Pedes, this lineup is as healthy as you could have hoped for at this point. We all kept saying prior to this if they could just be healthy right in the right before the playoffs, just be healthy in time for the playoffs. And yet they’re as healthy as you could hope for outside of Pedes. And that side of the ball is still overwhelmingly the acute pain point of this team. So I have two questions for you guys coming out of that. In the big picture, did not getting a big did not getting a picture at the deadline really matter? Is that really making the difference? And secondly, how much have the injuries really played a role into this team’s downward spiral? because we’ve talked about it all season how man just these injuries these injuries but how much is it that versus just not being a productive well- constructive lineup at the end of the day. Well, I’ll take it first with the did Dana Brown do enough the trade deadline and acquiring pitching and we we talked about it a lot. They they had a ton of guys coming back and we all kind of agreed the reported compensation for Dylan Cease was a little more than we were comfortable with. And as I look back at at Dylan CE, three of his last five starts, he’s failed to pitch five innings. So, you know, if you were hoping adding him was going to be a guy that could help your bullpin and give you more length than what you already have, not the case when he hadn’t gone more than five in three of his last five. His ERA, when everybody was kind of talking about should we go after him, his RA hasn’t been good that this year. So far, his RA was at 479. Right now, it’s at 471. It’s pretty much exactly the same. So I I I don’t see and you were supposed to have to give up possibly what Matthews and Aragetti in this deal. We these are just reports. We don’t know for sure. Well, now we know Areragetti’s on the shelf, but we didn’t know that then. So I think it’s kind of hard to come at Dana with this. And he pointed out he did his his set this week on the flagship and he said, you know, these are competitive guys when they’re feeling good and that the meds look good. They want to come back and throw. They want to contribute. They want to throw harder. They want more spin. Like these are the type of guys you got you kind of kind of have to to back them off a little bit and and maybe they’ve learned some lessons from this this year that maybe you got to protect these guys from themselves a little bit. The big one that we kind of forget about the Hayden Weski thing early in the season. It was so long ago we forget. But remember he had the elbow soreness and then they they just pushed him back a few days and then had him come out and start again and blew out his elbow. So hopefully they they’ve learned a few things this year. But I don’t know if I can put this all on Dana Brandon because to your point while we’re talking about this, the offense has not produced up to expectations and and hater getting hurt. That that’s not Dana Brown’s fault either. Yeah, a lot uh that can be can be added to that. They aggressively sought to upgrade the offense basically knowing Paradis was done. The long-term ramifications of taking on Koreah, the money that they’re taking on, I still think is going to be very problematic. But if Frightus hadn’t gotten hurt, for those enthused about what Kareah has done, well, you would have had Koreah, right? Uraas a better offensive player than Dubon here. Eh, Sanchez has been a disappointment, but still way better than what Cam Smith’s been the last three months. and the procession of Trls and Hummels and Meltons and McCormix $20 million their return on investment for Christian Walker is minimal. Anyone pointing well, he’s going to finish with 85 runs batted in. You’re batting .45 in the lineup every day and you have the most at bats on the team with runners in scoring position. You’re basically going to drive in 85 runs by accident. Walker hasn’t been good in the clutch this year. Ditto Altuve, whose stats are even worse than his overall numbers, right? He’s barely batting 260 now for the season. Runners in scoring position. Altuve is in the 220s. The two guys with the most opportunities to drive in runs have been dumb and dumber pretty much. Uh on the pitching side, remember the Astros were trying to negotiate the CBT line. Jim Crane wave trying to stay below that when the Koreah opportunity availed itself. They could say we have so many guys coming back. Well, at least one of them should be decent and reasonably durable. Oops. I will say uh if they learn from the error of their ways and bringing guys back, my god, how freaking slow on the uptake can you be? What’s it been? 37 bouts of of elbow inflammation. Uh and you can’t just snap your fingers and say we want that guy. We get that guy. You know, for the offense, show Otani, Aaron Judge were not available for the rotation. Uh Jacob Deg Grom or Freddy Peralta were not available. Charlie Morton was. The Detroit Tigers didn’t pay a premium for him. You know, another belist starter. So, you’d say we expect them to at least go five innings and not go their get their doors blown off every other start. And the Astros don’t have one guy except for total luck. But you know what? For anyone who’s going to blast Dana Brown, and he’s a big boy, he’s a general manager just like Joe Espatada. if you’re not going to wear the the the burden of a failing team to at least an extent, right? Foremost, it’s always on the players on the field. Uh Dana Brown’s the guy who claimed Jason Alexander off waiverss. 32 years old, the guy had done nothing in the major leagues. And even though I know it feels like the Astros season’s circling the drain, it’s not yet down the drain. It might well be there if not for Jason Alexander. Astros have won his last eight starts and he’s pitched darn well in six of them. Hey, Dana Brown again, lucky. Sometimes it’s better to be uh lucky than good. You just add it all up. This has been a bad team for over two months, but you’re not judged on two months. You’re judged on 162 games. And if the past fail courses ultimately, did you make it to the playoffs for the ninth year in a row? They’re still alive. I know to most. It’s like pull the plug. It’s a matter of time. give it through the home stand next week at least. Yeah, that will be super decisive. You know, one of our commenters said what I think which is basically it is ultimately on the players to perform. You can’t you you can’t necessarily blame hitting coaches or Dana Brown or Aspatada. I see a lot of people playing MPATA and I just don’t know like what lineup order can if someone were we talked about this before we we hit record here but like if someone were raking at the bottom of the lineup that he just refused to move up that would be one thing but there’s not no one is raking no one is justifying being pushed up because I guarantee you a spot would bring them up in the lineup he would like he kept Myers down in the nine spot one game and he got it hit and then like you know projected him up to the the fif the the five spot So, I it’s it’s not about a matter of like lineup order. I think you’re getting as much as you could hope for out of the pitching staff at this point for who’s left. Um, but even if they got Charlie Morton, I mean, he would have to pitch a shut out to ensure that he’d get a win. This team can’t score. Charlie, unless Charlie Morton’s going to grab a bat, I just don’t know how this team wins. And and for the lineup, I mean, it’s the sorest of thumbs sticking out because he’s the most heralded player in Astros history. Jose Altuve over the last 28 games coming home from Canada 157, OPS 500. Context, I think anyone who even passively follows baseball knows an OPS of 500 is garbage. Martine Maldonado’s worst ever season with the Astros, his OPS was 573. Brad Osmus, another poster boy of oh my god, he’s awful offensively. His worst ever OPS season with the Astros was 593. Altuve, over a month’s worth of play now, OPS of 500 and he’s been in the top half of the lineup every game he started. I’m not going to say it’s a straightup lack of cojones by Espada. This might be more of an organizational decision, but Victor Karatini would be better in the Astros lineup as a designated hitter than Jose Altuve. Either Duban or Urias, much better defensively at second base than Altuve. If he is giving you less than nothing, except that’s not possible. But Altuve is giving nothing to you offensively. I mean, are you gonna go to your grave or to the end of the season back of the baseball card? He’s due. He’s due. I’m not totally positive about this because I thought my ears were deceiving me. I happen to be heading home picking up the start of the Thursday game via DVR. I heard Alex Cron talking about Altuve swinging the bat. Well, if he actually said that, he should have been fired before the game actually started. He could not possibly have been that oblivious. So maybe my aging ears uh to quote Roger Clemens misremembered or misheard what he said in the moment. Uh but hitting coaches higher on the uh the organizational flowchart. They’re a couple weeks away perhaps from all kinds of decisions to be made from the very very top meaning Jim Crane’s office. Brandon, I speaking of Centron, I saw someone on X sharing a blurb uh from Korea where he was quoted as saying that uh when he was uh I guess coming over to the team that Centron had reached out to him and said some things that he saw in his swing that he could be working on and Korea said, “Where did you hear that from?” And Cron said, “Oh, I just I observed it.” He goes, “Well, that’s exactly what I’m working on. Those are the things I’m working on.” And I guess that was to appeal uh or maybe uh in objection to the people who are the uh the Centron haters, the C people who are the Centron critics who say, “Oh, he’s you know the hitting coaches are the problem here.” But I don’t I didn’t take it like that. Like Cron identified something that Korea was already working on. So it’s not like he like had some epiphany that like g that he gave to Korea that Korea is producing more and using. Also, wasn’t it Korea that helped Pena get his swing together in the off season and and like that’s who he attributes to his big turnaround? Again, not trying to put any blame acutely on Centron, but I think it’s silly to sit here and be an apologist for anyone on this team right now considering they just don’t produce. So, while the players are ultimately uh culpable for their production, there has to be some blame to go around because otherwise, what are those guys here for? What are their job? And it’s not to say that Centron doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I trust Centron knows more baseball than I’ve forgotten in my lifetime. That’s not an indication of whether he’s good at his job or not. But also having the knowledge, but not being able to uh influence the players to take a different strategy and philosophy at the plate, that is indicative of of a person who’s not getting their job done. Again, it’s hard to put any blame specifically on any person, but I just wanted to uh point that out. Now, Josh, you talked about, you know, what lessons would they take away from this season? And ultimately, I think the interesting part of that question is what lessons are Jim is Jim Crane taking away from this season? Because he’s the one who ultimately the buck stops with him. He’s the final decision maker. he decided to open the pocketbook up to go blow through the taxs to be able to uh get the help this team needed on uh offense and this lineup which ultimately has not worked out. But they have a lot more problems than just that. I mean obviously we talked about the pitching coaches. They have drawn the eye of fans all season fairly or unfairly but the results are glaring um as are the sad state of the team’s ability to keep and uh get guys healthy on the team. um if Houston completes this collapse, which I mean they’re still in first as we record this. So, there is still a high likelihood that this team gets into the playoffs, if not win the division. Um but if if they do complete this collapse and either get bounced early or miss the playoffs entirely, what’s the likelihood we’re going to see deep wholesale changes internally at the end of the season? I think it was Lee Major who played the fall guy back in the back in the 80s. He’s a stunt man. Um Jim Crane’s going to roll a couple of heads if it ultimately came to that if for no other reason they’d have a big marketing problem going into 2026. if they went from American League Championship Series 2023, losing all four home games, h the Texas Rangers, who then go in the World Series. 2024, okay, you win another division title, then get dusted in two by the Detroit Tigers. 2025, you don’t even make it and you blow it. I’m not going to say choke because are you choking if you’re just not that good? Uh Astros attendance was down 200,000 last year from 2023. It’s going to be down another 100,000 plus this year from 2024. If you’re not making some notable change with your front-facing personnel, what are you going to sell? Hey, Altuve is only 704 hits away from 3,000. Come count down with us as he makes a hund00 million over the next four years of his contract. remember their payroll. They have issues unless unless Jim Crane reaches a comfort zone, which I’m not saying he owes this to anybody, but you know, his heirs will be okay if he decides we can afford 10 million in tax next year, right? They’d be a third timer repeater 50% penalty on anything over the the tax threshold, right? They’re going to be relatively close within 15 million or so of the first tax threshold next year. Not even counting Frober Valdez or some hopeful reasonable faximile who you’re not going to get for $1.98 to join a rotation which for 2026 at this point is Hunter Brown and D. So yeah, if they miss the playoffs, there will be fall guys plural scapegoats, whatever you want to call them. Whether either would be the manager or the general manager or who be who would be in more trouble? I don’t know. Josh, you care to hazard a guess? I mean, we’re talking about Jim Crane here. Like, what what would he do? Should they miss the playoffs? I mean, I just I get the point because if I won the World Series. Yeah. And I’m like, I gave you what you wanted. I went and got you Cara back. I went and got you that left-handed hitter you needed. You could say it’s a Dana Brown, but it’s Jim Crane’s team, right? You get my point. It’s like I allowed all these resources. I opened up the checkbook, made a big commitment to Kareah, it looks like, for another three years. Pettis is still on the roster. Pñena is still on the roster. Jim Crane knowing like, yeah, we kind of have some some roster movement to do in the offseason. I don’t know if we can keep all these guys, but it was worth it to go in for this season. Part of me wonders based on what Charlie just said with what their their salary looks like next year. I wonder if they did all their their shopping for 2026 at the trade deadline this year when they got Koreah. I’m I’m starting to wonder that. I’m wondering if it’s going to just be like patchwork guys behind Hunter Brown. We we all expect them to let Frober walk, but the problem is so many of these guys are coming back from Tommy John surgery that are hurt this year. How can you count on any of them for 2026? Yeah, I I agree with that. Um final thoughts before we’re out the door. It said the sky is darkest before the dawn. Some sayings are just stupid. Um, look, it feels like the Astros are bottoming out toward flaming out entirely, but I will stick to things can change for no apparent reason. Atlanta Braves are playing out the string. So, of course, the Astros in the Friday night opener get to face a guy whose RA is 133 since being called up a month and a half ago. Hey, they won’t face Chrisel in the Brave series. Uh, Hunter Brown should go in the game Friday night. Apparently, they were dickering between Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez by not having Brown go Thursday in Toronto. that eliminate eliminated the possibility of Brown pitching against both the Rangers and the Mariners unless they were to bring him back on three days rest in the Seattle series which would be a complete and stupid act of desperation. So Hunter Brown Friday then do you have him come back Wednesday against the Rangers or do you want to hold him Friday for the Mariners? Well, the Astros might be fighting for their lives against the Rangers just as much as they are against the Mariners. The Rangers are at the Mets this weekend. talking about teams fading toward missing the playoffs completely. Y uh the Mariners, meanwhile, are at home four game series with the Angels, then they go to fading Kansas City before coming to Dyky Park next weekend. Uh if the Astros avoid getting swept in Atlanta, I know that’s not uh you know, charge of light brigade stuff. Win one out of three. They take two out of three from the Rangers, two out of three from the Mariners, then they’ll be in, yeah, they’re still probably going to make the playoffs position before a very perilous watching this team on the road. Final trip to Sacramento, three with the A’s, and then three in Anaheim with the Angels. Charlie mentioned Keratini earlier, and I think with Joe Espatada in the lineup, you got to play the guys that they’re they’re hitting the best right now. And as I look at it, this is a pretty good sample size. Last 30 days, you only have four guys that are hitting .267 or above. Two of them are catchers for your team and Yiner and Keratini. The other one’s Koreah and you guessed it, Yordon. But if you not a big batting average guy, you only have technically three, but four guys with an OPS over 700 with Diaz, Koreah, Walker, and I’m throwing Yordon in, but he hasn’t played the full 30 days, but you get my point. So, as OPS batting average, they only have a few guys that are even just decent options right now. Joe Aspat is right. The other guys in the lineup have to pick it up. I’m not saying Taylor Trmell like Charlie is, but like Jesus Sanchez play better. Christian Walker play better. These are the guys that that need to get it going. And even Dubon at least he’s good for like a little hot streak every now and then. And I know Al Tuve is the elephant in the room, but I think we all think he’ll eventually come around. And that’s why I’m with Charlie here. I don’t think this is the end of it. They’ve been playing this bad for a while. They could easily turn it around and start playing well for a streak, too. So, I think we just have to be patient and see what happens in Atlanta. Yeah, I I agree with that. And and first, while there’s a lot of blame to go around, and we’ve covered much of it here, one group not to blame is our viewers. Thank you so much for hanging with us and continuing to view these videos and consumer episodes even while the team has been spiraling. Uh, do us a solid. While you’re here, hit like on the video to show your support. Uh, hit like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. Um, look, last episode I’m gonna dubtail off of what you said, Josh, was last episode I I cautioned against panic. But there is a difference between panic and accepting reality. The reality is this team, even when they were winning at a higher clip, were not a great offensive team. And it shouldn’t surprise anyone if this team had one final push in them and recaptured the magic of old. Um, you know, considering we talk about the culture of winning on this team. But to accept reality is to own that this team seemingly doesn’t have the pitching depth to win in the same style that they did in the first half of the season. the the window isn’t closed yet, but series by series looks heavier with more downward trajectory with each runner left on base and scoring position. And given what we’ve seen to this point and whatever the results are down the final stretch, Houston could face its most unpredictable offseason in years. Uh so one last reminder before out the door. Like I said, if you’re watching on YouTube, be sure to hit like on the video and if you listen on podcast on apps like Apple or Spotify, give us a fivestar rating while you’re here. for Charlie and Josh. I’m Brandon saying so long. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend and ghosts.

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