Boring ALCS & NLCS, Astros Gold Glove Finalists – BTD Live 10/15/25

Boring ALCS & NLCS, Astros Gold Glove Finalists – BTD Live 10/15/25

Welcome. It’s Wednesday. It is Wednesday and I’m bored. Did you see what I named named everything? Yeah. Yeah. Uh did you see what I tweeted that as well or did you you just come with that? Yeah. I put boring on the No, I was just thinking about it. I’m like it’s just it’s been boring. Both of them. And even like because they’re roadwinds, it makes it more boring because the crowd’s not into it. Yeah. Um, yeah, both road teams are up two and 0, which is weird. That means the lower seed I will say it’s just weird that the the Dodgers are lower seed anyways. Like that makes no sense. But Dodgers Mariners World Series would be electric, I guess. I just feel like both teams are good. Both teams are good, but I just I still feel like the Dodgers just I mean Yamamoto, he went a complete game. It’s like their technically their second, third, fourth best starter through a complete game in the in the NLC. Blake Snell went game one, eight innings, 10 punches. Yeah. Like a no hitter in the fifth or the Dodgers the Dodgers only Achilles heels their shitty bullpen and we’re like, “Okay, we’re just not going to throw anyone in the bullpen.” Yeah. We’re just going to throw starters the entire 2017 Astros and do that. Yeah, it’s uh I would say the the first five innings of the NLCS have been fun both games. I mean, yeah, even the first nine innings of game one give you a a 2-1 game. But, uh or 3-2, whatever it was, but yeah, pretty boring. Uh Mariners took care of Mariners just went into Toronto like it was a June roadie. They just took care of business. and left left the Blue Jays fans just absolutely shook. I mean that’s I mean both series are over, right? Yeah, both series are over. Yeah, both series are over. Definitely Toronto. Like I don’t know. It’s one thing like that’s what that’s what sucks living and dying by a good offense is a good offense. That’s why they say pitching and defense wins championships because offenses are they’re volatile. And if if Vlatty’s not hitting a home run every night, you’re you know what else you got going on? I’m I’m gonna say this. I’m about to quickly just put my old school SEC hat and my SEC chant. Uh if the Mariners win the pennant, that’s six AL West pennants in the last decade. It is. Some some people are saying it’s the division of baseball. Some some some people are saying that the strongest division in the AL. I would say after all the talk about how good the AL East is and you know the Yankees and Red Sox it’s the AL West clearly AL West. Oh man because the A’s won in 2020, right? No, the Rays. I was thinking about the West. We had four, Rangers won, and then possibly Seattle at six of 10. Strong. People are saying the AOS is is the SEC where it means more. There’s one team clearly uh carrying in that, but we’ll count them all. Um, never say it’s over till it’s over. Houston showed us anything. Never count out your opponent. That’s That’s true. We talk about Braggy opting out. Yeah, we could talk about Braggs opting out. Yeah, I want to get into that and what what we think could happen there because I thought I thought if we were going to get the opting out news, it would be Brewin has opted out but is in talks, but I guess they can’t. That’d be tampering. Yeah, technically I think I mean I think it’s going to be Detroit or Boston again. I think so. Oh, I just I thought I assumed it would be like, oh, he’s opting out, but it’s because he’s working on a a restructured deal with the Red Sox, but I guess they can’t technically I don’t think technically can do that, but did he have to opt out by now or was there No, I just think it’s aligning everything probably. I don’t know how the logistics of that. Um, I guess he has to opt out before free agency. It’s also kind of like sick too because like in the sense of I’m opting out of 80 million guaranteed like that’s that’s a ballsy that’s baller that’s some that’s a that’s a baller that’s a maf I mean I think he earned he’s in a game he’s not going to get the same a that’s a given he’s not going to get like a a three-year deal with 40 million he should he’ll probably get five of five for 175 yeah exactly he he’s going to guarantee himself more money in the long run. Yeah, I think that’s what he wants because I think he learned this year. I mean, he knows, but like a little bit about like injury. Like imagine if he keeps dealing with injuries and then in two years when it’s time for a new contract if he had stayed with them, he might not if he’s injured, you know, and older, he might not be able to get that extra 100 million. Like what what did what did Crane offer? 160 was that officially what I think it was six for 16 whatever it was and he got 40 this year so he has to just get more than 120 this go around and beat the cran he’s going to get at minimum five for 150 I think he’s going to get 175 I think so all right let me pull up chat so I can see it better got a camera right right in my way 20 series means nothing to Astros fans true uh I just I think I I mean I don’t see either of these team watching watching just watching the ball. The Brewers are done and Toronto’s done. Yeah, just they may get one more of a chance than the Brewers have. I can see Toronto getting hot. Does either series get back to the home teams? I think Toronto series goes six. Okay, maybe I don’t know. I think the Mariners win it though. Six for 156. 6 for 163. I think it’s going to be more than that. Click to Colorado. I I don’t care about James Click. He got the GM job in Colorado. He interviewed for the Colorado job. I hope he gets it. I just don’t think he’s very good. you. I don’t like James Clay. I think he’s fine. I think he deserves a GM job somewhere. Heading Seattle tomorrow to go watch with my dad. Oh, that’s awesome. Hell yeah. I still haven’t been into a game there. Early got to go. We got We got to figure out a trip. Bieber versus Kirby. Kirby look really good. Every Seattle pitcher looks really good. There’s So that means who? Woo has game four. Yeah. Oh, we get a we get a think. So, we get two games tomorrow and Thursday Night Football. Yeah. Yeah. Two games Friday. Yeah. You’re gonna Luis Castillo has game four. Oh, so Woo. It’s Schwarzer Schwarzer Scherzer verse Luis Castillo game four. So, they’re saving Woo as a uh bullpen guy. Brian Woo if they win the ALCS without throwing Brian Woo. That’s they’re probably they’re saving Brian Woo as a piggyback game one World Series. Well, yeah, but he’s a Yeah, he’ll be a piggyback somewhere. Piggy back somewhere. He’ll probably piggy back Castillo probably because they he’s he’s healthy enough to be on the roster, but they’re using 50-year-old Max Sherzer for game four. They’re screwed. I don’t know. I think they win game three and game five in Seattle and bring it back to Toronto, but I still think they lose the series. If it gets back Toronto, I don’t know. I hope it goes one of the series. I hope I know like cuz Jesus if not we have like a two weeks off till the World Series. Yeah. Oh man. Oh man. Pitching helps win. No, pitching. Pitching is pitching is what? And then Seattle’s offense is like Palano’s auditoriz is on a heater. Like you don’t have to do much after that. I wonder what the betting odds are tonight. I bet they’re massive. I don’t even know. I don’t massive home favorite. What? Just trying to think of who I want. Who would I would root for in a Seattle versus Asteroid? Yeah. Uh just like Seattle’s a minus 133 favorite. Dodgers minus 133 tonight. Seattle is and then the Dodgers tomorrow are minus 196. Yeah. It doesn’t even make it fun to bet on. No, you can’t cuz like I’m not going to take I’m not gonna take I’m not gonna bet on Toronto. Brewers have the TBD verse class now. Brewers have a TBD tonight. Tomorrow. Oh, okay. Who they throwing tonight? They off day travel day. Oh, so game three they have they don’t even have a number three starter. Like how Yeah. How did these teams uh and then uh the Dodgers have game four starter Shi Otani? It’s just frustrating to me. Yeah, I know. It’s just frustr. There’s only a few clear like teams that have full starting rotations and oh, look at that. They’re the ones that are winning the playoffs. And you look at the Astros and you’re like, god damn it. If they were just healthy with a healthy rotation, they could compete with any of these teams. Uh, I just I I would never have guessed that only two of the four CS teams had actual starting rotations. M like how like maybe that happens occasionally, but like as much as you want to be you want to be new age bullpin analytics teams doing bullpen days doing like patchwork stuff the value of having a strong one two three is so like makes all the difference. Huge. That’s going to be the reason why the Mariners and Dodgers are in the World Series against each other. I’m You know what? I hope that forces everyone to reevaluate everything. Yeah, I really really do. Astra’s pitching lab with Walker Beller would be nice. I wouldn’t hate that. I We talked about it. We’re going to get big into the offseason with free agents and everything. Um I think they’re going to I hope that they go for like one proven guy, one arm, you know, innings eater arm Ranger Burlander and then one pitching lab like fixer upper guy like Walker. How about that? Trey. What? No. A trade. Get that the third arm. Trey. I was Yeah. Or Trey. Trey Man. Trades. Nuts. LA. Cause lockout would be funny. It’s gonna happen. I It just They’re $300 million pitcher through game two. They’re 180 million pitcher through game one. Their $500 billion dollar player pitches game four. Yeah. Like with with three pitchers and they still have Freddy Freeman and Mookie. Like their offense also has multiund. Is Glass now getting Is glass now getting paid or they took a flyer on him? Was he a trade fiveyear? God. Fiveyear 140. So 180. or what was essentially almost a billion dollars on four pitchers. That’s like a GDP of like 75. They’re like probably in the top 75. How about that? You spend you spend money on on your team and it helps you win. How about that? Yeah. I’m looking at the the Dodgers on spot track. Their whole team. They uh their hits on the luxury tax this year. Showan 46 million, Blake Stenell 31 million. Muggy Betts 30 million. Glass Now 27 million. Yamamoto 27 million. Freddy Freeman 27 million. Tay Oscar 19 million. Tanner Scott 16 million. Tommy Edmond 13 million. That’s that’s that’s insane. They’re 70 million over the uh projected tax whatever the tax threshold. I try to look up GDPs of countries and I just got like lost in projected tax total 314 million or billion sorry no million sorry why why would it be billion 314 million uh active tax 265 million so in one trillion there that means there’s a 100 billion no there’s 999 billion in one trillion yeah every step up is a thousand So, a thousand million is a billion. A thousand billion is a trillion. Um, I’m confusing myself. There’s a lot of money the Dodgers have throwing in four games. Um, I mean, they’re they’re threeird of the way there to a billion dollar team. Um, I mean, a lot of teams are. I’m They’re going to make it back. I’m going to compare them to the Brewers. El Temple marks, aren’t you? Oh my god. I bet the I bet the the starting rotation is more than the team. The Brewers. Oh my god. Now I really want to root for the Brewers. So the Dodgers have nine players making more than 13 million. The Brewers, Yelli, and have one. This Yelli, just Yelli. Yelli is making 23 million. He’s making almost double the second. Contrarus is making 12 million. Yelli would be the seventh highest player on the Dodgers. Yelli’s making Christian Walker money and he’s the highest. He’s the highest player on the Brewers. There are six players that make more than Yelli does. What a fall off for Yelli, too. I’m glad he’s coming back a little bit. Hey, Oscar’s making 19 million, almost 20 million this year. Well, that’s the Brewers having cracked 100 million in their projected tax and the Dodgers at 314. Hey, that 2018 2019 Yelli was insane. 1,000 OPS, 100 OPS, batted 326, then batted 329. 36 tanks, 110 RBI’s, 44 tanks, 97 RBI’s. Good for him. All right, Chad. Who do you guys I mean, it’s a it’s it’s boring ALCS, right? Boring NLCS. I mean, fascinating watching both teams dominate like as a fan like what Yam Yamoda did last night was Justin Berliner equivalent. Like to see someone just I didn’t realize that was happening. I stop it was so boring. I stopped watching at some point and then you were like, “Oh, they should bring Yam Moto back out for the ninth.” And I was like, “Wait, what? He’s still pitching and Peralta didn’t pitch bad. No, I mean I know the final score was what? 5-1. 5-1. Yeah, they tacked they tacked it on. Also, I we didn’t even talk about this. The game one double play with my Mhm. going from a playoff grand slam to a playoff double to then a double play. Yeah, I would have that play was crazy. I would have committed so many war crimes if I was Max. But at least they already had a lead and like No, no, no. Just like for my stats for my personal stats personally like Oh, it’s a it’s an NLCS grand slam. Oh, no. It’s a No, it’s a double double play. I’m glad he got one yesterday. Like he hit a bomb yesterday. He hit a bomb yesterday. 3-1 off Peralta. Um Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah, they won. Yeah. Five to one because I was one I was for every I was up, believe it or not, talking to like the SID all the time like, “No, that’s a hit. Why’d you give that an error?” Like, I’m I would build cases my hits. How did Tay Oscar not score on that? I don’t know. I did like what he said. He’s just like, “I [ __ ] up.” Because like all you have to do is as soon as that ball touches the glove of the outfielder, you run. Yeah. You do not have to wait for a bobble. Like that’s just a you got to you got to know that as a major league. I didn’t even know that was a rule to be honest until I knew it cuz it came up last year or early this year or something. I mean I I thought I get it because you could you know Yeah. into the infield jug. So that’s why you know someone had to do that to implement somebody had to have done that to [ __ ] around. Uh yeah because Yeah. So as soon as that ball touches anything. Yeah. Literally as soon as the ball touches anything you you start running. But even so, like even if he went on the bobble, like he caught that at the wall. You got like hell of a relay, but like you gotta you got to be able to score. I know it’s like it was a force which made made it easier on the the defense, but yeah, to not even get a an a sack fly out of that is crazy. Crazy. I mean, living. What about Zing Margarita Meg? He’s gonna have game two having bases loaded twice and never capitalizing. Reminds me of a team. Yep. Uh also, yeah, talk about Bryce Turing. How do you not wear that on the knee? Oh my god. How do you do not I know that’s your reaction your entire life your reaction is to get out of the way. I’m telling myself in that moment, base is loaded. If this if this if he’s throwing a curveball in the dirt anywhere near me, I mean, Yordon does a [ __ ] great job at it. Yeah, he does a great job of just turning his body. He’s like, “Fuck it. I’ll take it on the ass or on the on the back of the leg or whatever.” Pause. Pause. Pause. I’m just saying like, “Pause.” That’s the way you do it. You turn your body so you’re protecting your vital stuff, but you you know once it’s pause. That was and then and then to next pitch swing at a ball at your forehead. Yeah. Selfish swing. You know what I would have done as a manager? I would have because a as a hitter he knew he he knew he messed up. He’s like, “Oh my god, I should have wore that. I should have wore that. I should have wore that.” You have to as a skip because you can’t call time to go talk to him like in college. I would just like, “Hey, let me go talk to my hitter and get him zeroed in.” I would have challenged challenged the call to give him a minute to because you can’t take that challenge with you. That’s a good move. That’s really smart. And this bring him back to because essentially a a mount a mount visit at the plate. Let him let him go to the team. Look at the iPad for a second because Yeah. Because the swing up top was a fe a pure panic, you know, pressing swing. Yeah. Then I definitely would have been like, “Hey, let’s challenge that.” Mhm. And Huh? I just joined your Don’s going to take what? Where? Hump day, fellas. Yeah, we’re we’re vibing. I’m Yeah, I’m on I’m nursing a sore throat. Feeling feeling like [ __ ] but we’re getting through it. We’re getting through it. We’re getting through it. I’m still recovering from the weekend. It’s a long weekend. Uh Dez for Skip. Would you Would you ever want to coach? No. No, I don’t think I don’t want that lifestyle. Like if you were just offered like a coaching job at I think I’ve been after college or something. I think I’ve been out of the game for too long. I think I’ve been out of the game too long. Yeah. I don’t think I could handle the NIL stuff. I don’t think I could handle all I think you’d be good at it. Wheeling and dealing. No, I think if my my sole job for for a program for a program was that then I could do that. I’m saying as a manager of like managing the team plus managing plus handling all the ani like no you I’d have to build out and then the yeah just wait for college baseball game when are they going to they brought back football soon as they bring back baseball that’s going to be that’s going to be electric. Yeah that’s going to be Did they ever like in college baseball how many divisions was it just division one for the game? Yeah. Yeah. I was just it was just imagine if they had like all the way down the jo like an AI and I if you could play as your LC Street win 50 that’s you know what I’m leaving the show that’s that’s a suspension you’re on that’s a that’s a warning that’s a warning I’m trying to think they got silver state in that [ __ ] probably is are they are they I thought they were rumored to be doing that but now EA got bought I I don’t know if they’re still doing that. I also like a a play that I love to do that we used to run in uh in travel ball which is very funny cuz I get to see Anthony Bonnet warm up all the time and like oh we’re roommates. Mhm. Uh I run I I run the fiveman infield like infield in stuff. Oh yeah. I know you can’t do it in the show now with all the shift but two outfielders like runner on third is a winner with one out. Sure. Bring it putting my two outfielders in the gaps. Shallow f bringing an outfielder into the infield. See even I’m like if it’s two outs especially like I don’t know winter meetings start uh in the first week of December. Yeah. First I mean they’re kind of starting right now behind the scenes, you know. Yeah. Oh yeah. Hey, uh, breakep. Cam Smith nominated for Gold Glove. Yeah, that came out of nowhere. Had a good I mean, I thought he was very good, but I just can’t believe for for someone that’s never played the position ever in his career. Had to learn it halfway through spring training. If anything, it’s a confidence boost. Top three. You have that on your your record. Mauricio Dubon, Gold Glove utility. He should win it again. He should win it for sure. is uh Schneean and Clement or the other two. It should be Don. It should be Don. Uh no, Christian, I agree. I said on the show in the DS seeing seeing those teams against what the Astros were at the time, they didn’t have a chance. Like everyone was injured. Look at the last week. You had Alta hurt, Jordan hurt, Pena hurt. The only healthy people you had was literally Carlos Korea and Christian Walker who struck out 178 times. Parades on one leg like Jake on a half a half a c. My thing is yes that team at the end of September could not have won but the roster that we had if healthy I think could have could have competed with could have could have made another World Series at minimum. I don’t know if they beat the Dodgers that roster. Um, but the pitching specifically like the pitching we had by far I mean even even how they were I think Framber Frammer Hunter and even Jason Alexander as your three is stronger than what Toronto is putting out right now in the in the ALCS. Yeah. Or at least close. And you take a look at Savage as basically AJ Blue Ball, you know, as that young guy you could throw in in a game three or whatever. I think the the rotation competes with Toronto, the the lineup doesn’t currently with just health, but I just think the roster was there. as frustrating as we were as we got with some of that and hope they made a couple other moves, but I mean the the team the roster that we went into the season with and even had at some points during the season was strong enough to be compete with any of those AL teams. But yeah, once you get when you got to the end of the season, especially we found out after that too was playing on a hurt foot the whole time. You know, obviously your Dawn is he was still out. Um, Pana has his oblique thing. Prades at one hamstring. Like, you think about all that. It’s like, yeah, know that there’s I don’t think they could have made it through halfway through October without more injuries happening or or whatever. Cam has the athleticism, in my opinion, to play center field. Uh, maybe. Yeah, I wouldn’t hate it if they were trying him out there. I think center field was just a lot more to learn. Like right field you can pick up in one season, but there’s a lot more. Center field is like there’s a lot more you need to learn and know and I do think cover. I do think just let him keep learning right field. Like is he athletic to play center field? 100%. But you keep you keep making him learn something new and and putting new ceilings on it. Like yeah, hey, you’re a right fielder. You’re going to continue to play right field. Just learn every single bit of it and as you go you’re good. Y’all still think Houston gets past Detroit in the wild card this past year? No. No. No. I’d put it at 35%. Which is very unfavored. that oh that that they could go past. I mean I think it’s possible you could I mean the Mariners did it or not the Mariners. Well the Mariners did do it but who who uh who they they played Cleveland. Uh the Cleveland made it close like Scooball obviously is Scooble, but once you get past him, they’re pretty beatable team as we saw and even Scubble is beatable. If you just if you just if you have Hunter Brown going against Scooble and they both go six, seven innings, allow one run, you you have a close game at the end. I think our bullpen beats their bullpen. Um but yeah, he has a J-Rod. I didn’t real I just looked it up. I didn’t realize J-Rod was 63 228. I did not know JRod was 63. Cam’s listed at 63 225. Oh, they’re both Yeah, same on baseball. I definitely think Cam could do it. And if I think Cam has a wider friend, if there was a thing where they potentially explored a trade of some other big league players like Jake or like Dubon or whoever and you found yourself being a little lacking in the center field department and you wanted to say Campbell, go yeah, just go be an athlete. We’re giving you center field and then that frees up right field for to be a a platoon still with like Zack Cole. I I I know the last the last couple months of Cam Smith wasn’t good in the sense of like where he was and you could just tell his legs weren’t under him. Yeah. He ended up with a 1.9 war, a gold glove finalist, bad 236, nine home runs, obviously below average OPS and OPS plus, but yeah, I would say as a rookie that literally was drafted last year. Yeah. for that to be his first season. I’m okay. Like if that’s your if that’s the floor, you know what I mean? If that’s exactly if that’s the floor, if but if he stays on the floor and never if he doesn’t improve at all his second year, then then I’m going to be like, okay, we’re sitting here in July 2026 and he still has an OPS at like 625 or whatever, then I’m like, okay, maybe he needs more development. Yeah. Blake, but I don’t hate having a super athletic outfield and having the option of Cam Smith and center. Like days where you want to have Cam Smith and center and and Jesus Sanchez and right or whatever or or both Cam Smith and and Zack Cole in the lineup or whatever. Zack Cole plays center. So y’all think Cole gets a flyer in center field while the Jake gets moved in the package. Is that too many question marks? I think that’s too many question marks, but I could see that scenario. I could see it happening. I don’t I don’t think they should move forward and I’m not moving forward assuming or thinking that Zack Cole is going to do what he did. Yeah. In September in a full season. That’d be awesome. That’d be amazing if we just all of a sudden have a allstar because he was playing at an all-star level. He had what we had like an eight 850 ops or something like that. Yeah. Like if he’s if he does that in a full season, holy [ __ ] I’m amazed. But I would definitely that would be such a shot in the arm. Zack Holden, I would fully expect some sort of sophomore slump, you know, game adjustments. I’d be happy if he had like a 700 OPS in a full season, first full season. Um, I’m not thrilled with the Astros having more questions than answers, but I do think there’s more. Okay, fair. But I do think there’s more answers on my cheat sheet than there has been in years past. Yeah. With you where money is off the books. Yeah, you have money to spend. You have better tools to answer the questions. Yeah, I I feel that’s why I always said this was the year before the year, but my expectations have changed slightly to a lower tier just due to all the arm injuries that happened in 25 like until I see everyone back and healthy and not having setbacks or and at least back to where they were. I still think I think going into next year with all the injuries and the potential signings, I think they’re capped at a 84 to 87 win team. If health the health baseline just elevates up, I think they’re I’m going to be at 88 to 91 by January. Um, it’s fair, but I feel going into this year when there is more questions and answers, I do agree. I feel like I have more resources to pass this test. Yeah. And you know, you know what you need. There’s less of a a nuance on I feel like who you need to go get. Yeah. Not much slug you have to replace in center field. Yeah. So, this is also where I’m shifting to they have to acquire slug. Operation acquire slug. The The shift to we’re going to be just the best defensive team in in the league is great. They don’t hang banners and they don’t call the mayor and plan parades about having the best defensive team in the show. Well, and it’s funny all that all that stuff for defensive teams and your two go glove finalists are your utility guy and your rookie rightfielder, which is like so change it. Uh yeah, and having a great defensive team is awesome for the postseason because I do think that helps. I think they I think they built their team to win in October, but not to get there and it failed because you didn’t get I think if the team gets there, good pitching and good defense is how you win in October. You can you can grind out some three to one wins in October and be successful, but in the course of 162 continually losing four to two and two to one and three to nothing, it’s extremely frustrating. Um, Kyle Schwarber is going to love Houston. He absolutely is. Uh, Kyle Schwarber is gonna love Houston. Question on IG. Do you think there’s a chance we go after Bregman since he said he opts out? I No, I don’t think so. One less than 1%. Um, I have a question for you. What starting pitchers currently on roster for the Astros next year do you trust? Hunter Brown. That’s it. And Andre Iguidala. [Music] That’s what I was I was just thinking about like with all these names with Ryan Breu, Josher. Yeah, I just mean Yeah, I mean starting Oh, starting pitching. There’s all these names. There’s, you know, Christian Javier. There’s all these like guys. I don’t think for me it’s Hunter Brown and AJ Blue Ball. That’s a lot of trust. I trust AJ. I’m really excited for him. Uh Spencer’s on the fence for me. It was a This is a big loss here for Spencer. Yeah, I was really excited about Spencer. And I think this freak accident just threw his entire Oh, yeah. game plan off. He came back, I think, throwing a little weird, uh, like overcompensating or something, uh, that caused the injury. I don’t know, maybe he just wasn’t fully, uh, ready. But I think Hunter Brown and AJ Bluear are the only two pitchers currently under contract for next year that I’m I I am excited and and trust to go out and have a good year next year. And that’s really that really is frustrating because like you need five, you probably need seven honestly. Uh obviously I think Javier could bounce back. I think Spencer is on the fence of like I I’d throw him in the three three hole the three spot in the rotation and be happy. But going into last year, I was like, ah, Framber, Hunter, Spencer, Ronell, who else? Who else got her? Oh, Hayden. Like, we had like six starters going in to 2025 that I was like, “Oh, I like all of these guys. These all can be really these are all guys that can give you wins.” Now, going into 26, I’m like, there’s Hunter and there’s AJ and I don’t know who else. So what we we’ve always say what 100 180 inning threshold for guys coming off Tommy. Yes. Okay. So I’m pulling up 22 Christian Javier. His pitching run value uh was 24 in the 94th percentile. His fastball run value was 98th percentile at 20. His breaking run value was at the 90th percentile at 8. XRA 243 XBA 168 both in the 98 percentile. K percentage 33.2% 94th percentile. Uh not fair to compare 22 to 25, but this is kind of where we are just on the data. Uh pitching run value, remember he’s at 24. Yes, he was at three. Basketball run value. Is that a counting stat though? Zero. Breaking run value zero. K percentage 21.7%. What was it before? 33.4. Yeah, I don’t have any faith old Christian Javier is going to be there. I certainly hope so. Uh my main hope for him is that he can at least turn into just a solid four. Um you know, he’s gonna have to learn to pitch kind of totally different. Look at this. Uh, sorry. Okay. So, 22 he threw his fastball 59.8% of the time. In 2025, 39.7%. It’s because it’s not as effective. He’s he’s having to learn basically, which is why I have a little bit of semi hope is because I think he he still has a a good deceptive delivery and he still has like he knows how to pitch. Uh, I just think he needs to learn. It’s going to be Christian Javier without reinvent himself. Yeah, it’s going to be Christian Javier without the invisible. And so you have to figure out who that is, how effective that is. I mean, it might be a, you know, fourth, fifth guy in the rotation with like a four RA. But you can’t go into him thinking you need two though. No, I’m saying like he’s not your two. Yeah. Yeah. He’s not He’s not You can’t expect Okay. Hunter Brown is going to replace Framer Valdez and then some. Correct. Yes. But you’re losing at at the two spot what Hunter Brown was. Christian Hunter is not we thought Spencer was gonna be stepping up too. We thought Spencer was about a year behind Hunter, but now he’s he took a step back. He’s like two years behind Hunter. I don’t know if Christian Javier in 22 uh sweeper 27.9% of the time. Uh this past year 19.9. I think he’s still looking for he’s still reshaping all I’m hoping. Yeah. this whole this offseason he gets in a lab with the team. Like he’s actually healthy for an offseason to like spend the spring training with the the full pitching lab and they can find something. Maybe it’s a new pitch. Maybe it’s just a new shape on his pitches that he can find. Yeah. Knuckle curve 8.3%. This year 12%. I say he threw it a little bit more. I thought change up in 2022 4.1% threw it 18.8%. Uh yeah. Also cool metric on baseball savant is you can do Oh, you can see his arm angle. Yeah, you can see his arm angle change. That’s how that’s how I found that he’s at 33% arm angle and 22. He’s now at 35%. Interesting. That’s how I found that Kimble was going to be good. Here’s the here’s what’s it called? Picture vis vis visualation report visualation. So Christian Javier threw 617 pitches in 2025. He threw the sinker 9.6% of the time. He threw the force fast ball 39.7, change up 18.8, curveball 12, sweeper 19.9. Then they have the charts. Um, his four seam on average he threw it at 92.9. You know, I need to get a keyboard over here cuz we could mess with the offseason like pulling this kind of stuff up so they could see it. Yeah, cuz it’s not that’s not a copyright thing. Like we can pull that up and walk through it. We’ll we’ll think about that for the future. His RPM in 2025 was 23 2354 RPMs on his fast ball. I wonder what it was in 22. His sweeper was at 2700 RPMs. He threw 45% of the time. Strikes change up to 22. Interesting. This is a lot of good data. And they like put they put it in colors and all these charts. They color coded it for me. Has pictures. That’s exact. Change ups are in green. Uh, one thing that frustrates me is our pitchers go 02, but even up after 23 or 32, we give up a walk or a hit. I do think that was an issue this year. Uh, a little bit of playing with your food with our pitching. little bit of like they would get ahead early and then they would try and nibble and then they find themselves behind the count, give up a hit or walk. Um I don’t know. I I’m I’m optimistic. I think you nailed it earlier. Like I’m optimistic for 2026 now, but I’m not as optimistic as I was going before this year. Because before this year, we kept saying 2026 is the year I’m optimistic of all the like the health you’re gonna have, people under contract plus money to spend. Yeah. But like now I’m like kind of you’re kind of on your back heel. Like you thought you were going to be have some moment momentum going into 2026. Now you’re kind of you got pushed back a little bit. You have to find that momentum again. Yeah. Um, let’s let’s let’s bring out the uh we’re we’re going to we’re going to trademark this. This is going to be a a trademark. The the the Dez Buckets TM. Oh, you know what? The cups. We have cups. Uh, let’s go mini cups. Those are cool. We’ll call it the mini cup segment. Dez buckets. No, cup. Mini cups. Mini cup. Sorry. Mini cups. It looks like you’re about to do like a game. Oh, a show game. Yeah. Um, here. Pull back a little bit. My bad. Um, so going into the off season, first instinct, what positions are you allocating the most money to? And you can use, you know, I don’t know how the scale works, so it’s percentages because obviously we should have like marbles that you put into the buckets or something. Um, maybe I We didn’t think this through. We We’re coming up with this on the spot. It’s okay. Um, oh, you know what we do? Pour water in it. They can’t see how much I’m pouring in. Well, they see as you’re pouring it. What’s the What’s the worth of the value of water? I don’t know. Okay. You just pour a little bit. You pour a little bit more into the the bucket that uh the cup that you Okay. like more. Starting pitching. Starting pitching. All right. Fill that up. Fill that up a little. A little bit. Okay. So, that’s your number one. Over slugging now. Son of a [ __ ] Now I’m out of water. This is a great science experiment. Uh, all right. So, starting So, starting pitching. Starting pitching slug. That’s all I need this off seasonason. You don’t even need the third. I don’t need a third little mini cup. Starting pitching and slug. That’s all you want. Okay. That’s all I want. I There’s just so many there’s so many questions like we talked about. This is a very high concept. Um I think I think the I don’t we need someone on the show that’s smarter because I the dumb part of my brain thinks that there’s a lockout 27. And so, how does everything affect like I don’t know how that is going to I mean, I think just very like the simplified version is you might be more willing to go throw a one-year contract at a guy like Schwarber, an older guy, than you would be to sign some young stud on a big contract, you know? Uh, let me let me look at Okay. League leaders in ISO. That’s what you want. You want to acquire ISO. I mean, fourth in Major League Baseball in ISO. Jeremiah. Kyle Schwarber. Kyle Schwarber. Fifth. Kyle Schwarber is such a like the one time to do a Bagwell s signing and like paying someone for pop and like it’d be a Kyle Schwarber and we’re 0 for two on that. Um I’m trying I’m just looking at who might be free agents and who has who’s leading the league in ISO. 12th is Pete Alonzo. Who else might who else we might want to go for? Uh Joe Adell, Hunter Goodman, Caleb Ferguson’s on Seattle. Good for him. He’s gonna get another shot. Yeah, he’s gonna get another shot at He’s been great. Um it really is like you have Kyle Schwarber, Show Otani, Kyle Riley, and Aaron Judge all over 300 ISO, and then it’s everybody else. That’s couch is at 323. Eugene owes fifth place at 298. Like that’s the the big the big jump. I’m I’m confused. Explain the bucket the bucket terms. Uh the bucket this is just how much he wants to allocate towards free agency towards Yeah. If I had if I want to spend how I want the Astros to spend money is starting pitching and then a bat. We’ll figure out a more visual uh on camera bucket system moving forward because we it comes up often or not. The problem is like and it’s such it’s so poetic that the Astros finally have money to spend and it’s a down down free agent class and if you just actually locked in if you actually just locked in your young players like Tucker and Bregman at that time the two crown drills of this class wouldn’t even be like on the market. I think that’s a better visualization. Yeah, just more cups. Shallate your cups that way. That’s so that much on starting and that much on slugging. There’s just too many question marks. Uh and then the money you have spent in the past Oh. is exactly where the free agents that you would spend on you can’t. Yeah. Because like I would love to have Peter Lonzo. I would love to have Kyle Schubber. We have Christian Walker. Like, and it’s also like with Kyle Horbert, it’s like you already have two players that need to DH often. So, you need to vain on DH as much as you can have them DH. You do not want Kyle Schwarber in the field. No. Um, Joey Gallow is an unrestricted free agent. Two-way player, baby. Two-way player. Kevin BH. and then uh throw the six inning or whatever. How did he do as a pitcher? I didn’t Victor Carantini’s market value is 2.2 million. We’re paying him 6 million a year. Yeah, he was happy. He was happy with us. What’s up, Rod? Uh I would take a flyer on Luke Weaver. Yeah, I want to know. Uh we should make Axel the spokesperson for the Apollo bucket game of 2025. Axel needs everything explained to him in buckets. He has a fear and the only cure is buckets. Phil Mton is a free agent. We only team that this has happened to unfortunately. Talking about the teams that are in it and contention every year. I see what you mean. Uh every other team paid their guys 10, seven years. Even the Brewers. Yeah, even the Brewers extended. Most teams extend their young guys. You found and it it look at the Mariners. They extended Julio. They extended. I had to I had to scroll down a ways to get into uh the the Bagwell Dana Jim Crane bucket of 33 to 38 year olds. That was That was mean. That was mean. I’m sorry. How many Yeah. How many cups do you want allocated to 37y old? Oh, 37y old first baseman. [ __ ] um talk about Hunter Green. I’m late as hell in here. The Reds rider speculated they could move him. Hunter Green. Hunter Green would be incredible. Hunter Green with the Astros pitching lab. That’s one thing I’m excited. Look at how good Cole did. The Astros aren’t usually guys uh like We ain’t fleecing teams like that no more. We ain’t this is at this point that was Oceans 11. Now we’re on Oceans 35 and then this remake and it’s 100 cameos and it’s not a good movie. I hear you. I hear you. I’m just saying the Astros philosophy recently for a while now has never been to go for like a 100 mph guy. How often the Astros go for a dude who throws absolute gas? Brian Bray is the guy who throws the most gas on the team and he’s homegrown. So, it’s it’s weird that they like they go for more spin than speed, but look at how good they did with Garrick Cole who has gas. So, I’m like a guy like Hunter Green or a guy that has a 100 mile fast ball plus, you know, they can develop spin. Oh my god, that’s just a a wide dream. You’re going to get Justin Verlin, you’re going to like I know. I know. Unfortunately, but like when’s the last time the Astros had a starting pitcher that outside of Hunter Brown, I mean Hunter Brown is even like he’s not pumping 101 or anything. Uh, Altuve left field experiment was just flat out ridiculous. Uh, they’re going to keep doing it, so I hope you like it. It wasn’t too bad. It was not too bad. There was There was never a play out There was never any spring training plays that everyone in the whole internet was like, “This is going to be a dumpster fire.” There was never one of those plays this past year. There’s maybe a couple plays that he just didn’t range over to. Yeah. To get to, but like he was fine. He wasn’t. There was never a He was just as bad there as he is at second, but you can hide him. Second base is a lot more important than left field. Um Julia was never leaving Seattle. He was He wasn’t better than Kyle Tucker. Yeah, Mike is cutting out. Is it my mic? I hit it. Maybe here. See how I wrapped mine around so it’s not being pulled? It might have been me. Just like lift it up and put it under. My bad. Um, does we know the World Series might be LA versus Seattle? I guess who do you want to win? I’m fully committed, fully committed to change the narrative that the AL West is the SEC of baseball. And the SEC and the ALS have potentially won six of the last 10 pennants. And the AL West is the standard of baseball in the major league. Tell them I have I’m gonna take the Mariners over the Dodgers. Uh my brother just secured a full-time job with the Phillies. Hell yeah. That’s awesome, though. Nice. And then the Sharks says, “Tell your brother to trade us Price.” Take price. Imagine if the Phillies blow it up. Oh man, I do. I I really want I I do want them to to spend on Ranger. Any frame money they had allocated over the last four years in their mind to shift it over to Rangers for us. It’d be so weird if we signed Ranger and they signed Framber. It’d be like a freaky Friday. Like why the freaky Friday swap? Yeah. Uh honestly JC Hey Rangers Suarez had a homegrown dynasty. Rangers, Venezuelan, Omar Lopez, Jose Altuve. Is Ranger going to be on team Venezuela? He’s got to be. He’s right. He’s got Yeah. Did you see the thing about Mel Garcia? No. I think it’s team Venezuela. So, Ranger over the last two years 2.7 or 4.7 mid 3 150 innings 157 innings. So you’re losing about 35 innings and you’re losing about 40 strikeouts. Make it up at the aggregate. Yeah. So I can’t believe you didn’t see this. Franber accepting the qualifying offer. I could I could see I could see Royals Allstar files public shot at team Venezuela ahead of 2026 WBC. For what reason? Michael Garcia, you know, he’s amazing this year. Mike El Garcia, he’s eligible to play for team Venezuela, who’s like great team on Thursday. He seemingly expressed doubt over the team coaching staff front office enabling him to play third base for the team. Um, let me find the I I saw the tweet. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody was like, “Why isn’t Michael Mike El Garcia on team Venezuela or whatever?” He quote tweeted and said, “They don’t like me.” That’s crazy. Just like a personal thing or like because he’s incredible. I don’t know who’s playing third base for team Venice, but like who else is a Venezuelan third baseman who has it over him? But I mean, he’s a really good third baseman. And he just straight up was like, “They don’t like me. They don’t like me.” I don’t know. Maybe he that might be the country he’s talking about more like um some maybe he’s spoken out spoke out spoke out uh but yeah I thought that was really interesting that is interesting uh speaking of WBC speaking of WBC coming up on time the uh it it’s going to be very interesting if because Chris brought it up went with it the Q the Q the Qo going to Frammber if he takes they have to you I mean you have to get the pick and which is going to like a fourth rounder or whatever. Take it. That’d be really dumb of him to take it. Yeah, cuz he’s no way he’s going to have a a good year next year if he was with the Astros just with everything. No, I think I think he would. I think he’ll get have give you a standard frame year. Sure, but like he’ll be another year older. Like I I don’t think you I don’t think his What I mean is I don’t think his contract is going to improve that much. Like if he’s getting an offer for five for 150 right now from somebody, I don’t think taking the qualifying offer is going to improve that contract next year. Like, might as well take it now. Yeah, might as well lock it in. Um Yeah. I mean, he if he agent’s an idiot. What’s the Q number? I think it’s 189. 189. Something like that. If it’s in the 20s, if the QO is in the 20s, that changes. No, I don’t think it’s in the 20s yet. It’s It’s high tens though. And then that’s it’s probably going to go up with the next CBA. How do y’all feel about a home run celebration? Astronaut helmet or careless? I’m not like I’m indifferent on home run celebrations. I just never see them I never see that or that organization doing it with those players. Uh oh. No, you’re right. It rose to what? 22 22 million is a QO. He’s still going to make more than that. I mean he should but I don’t know I don’t know what his market is. I really don’t. I think at worst he get somebody offers like four for 100. I think all his antics that makes framer framer is out there in the space. But I mean some team you know teams are willing to take on problems if they desperately need a lefty you know or they you know maybe there’s a a team that has a coaching staff that knows him. Yeah. you know, uh, he’s gonna be a Mat. Doesn’t matter. Uncle Cohen’s gonna pay him. Uh, the home back to the homer celebration. I don’t I never see the Astros doing it, but I’m very much I don’t understand how MLB teams can do it. And it’s against the rules in college baseball to do a home run celebration. You can’t do they they took it away after 2023. No fun league, dude. That’s all you get. You get ejected. That’s literally all college baseball has going for it over Major League Baseball is just like the fun. The like young guys having a [ __ ] good time. And like you’re telling me you could do it in the bigs, but you can’t do it. Yeah. When it’s you got [ __ ] Texas in the thing, but you can’t. Oh, that’s frustrating. That’s stupid. Yeah. Um, that’s a good question. Um, I don’t know if I would judge leadoff or second WBC. I’d go with Judge Raleigh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. God damn. Team USA. I think Team USA flexes. I think the absolute potential team USA WBC this year. Man, my voice is dragging. What What if you had to come up with a home run celebration for the Astros right now? What would it be? Um Oh, I got it. opening opening the bay door in Interstellar and it’s not connected to the pod and everyone blows up. Okay. All right. And we’re Matt Damon. That would be my home run in celebration. I think uh just simply like astronaut helmet would be fine. I think I think I think we could just do something like that. I don’t think we have to go killing people like potential uh team USA starting lineup. Okay, this is from uh just a bleach report article. Whatever. Uh from AI, this was before the season, so I think this might change a little bit. Bobby Whit, Mookie Betts, Cal Tucker, Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Gunnar Henderson, Ellie Rushman, Jackson Merrell. I think a lot of that changes up. Yeah, I hope Mookie plays. But yeah, you have Bryce second Kyle Riley, Kyle Schwarber, Freddy Freeman, Corbin Carroll, Freddy Freeman’s Canadian. Oh yeah. So that Blaze report articles compromise. Well, no, this I went back and this was an AI thing. Uh he could play for either, but yeah, he would play for Wow. Yeah, Cal. There’s a lot of [ __ ] Corbin Carroll probably hitting like eighth. That’s a crazy team. And then you have, you know, starting, you have Paul Skins, Derek Scubel, Garrick Crochet, literally one, two, three. Hunter Brown. Like I don’t I want Hunter to pitch in the WBC, but I don’t want him to pitch in the WBC. My thing is just get more pitchers so that each pitcher only goes like like three three four innings max. Yeah. just have more firepower to where you can you can throw you can’t roll your guy Mel Kelly off there. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah. [ __ ] godamn. But like you know you get mad at me for hating on James Click, but your passionate hate for me Mel Kelly’s crazy. James Click did nothing wrong to you. James Click won us. What did Mel Kelly do to you? [ __ ] we lost. Team USA lost. I had to film Show Otani celebrating Team Japan winning. That was more of an offensive thing. We just couldn’t score Samurai. But imagine like you go you go skins for like four and you go like Garrett Crochet for three and then you have bullpin guys piggybacking. You imagine go skins from the right, crochet from the left in the same game. That’d be fun. Jesus Christ. Oh man. Problem is every game’s going to be two to one. Two to one. It’s not going to be as fun. Uh but but but but but I forgot I was going to say we’re up on time. Yeah, I thought I thought that was a perfect transition, too. No, it was I was And you just you hit the brakes in the car and just [ __ ] flew through the windshield. Just You should have buckled up, dude. That’s skill issue. You should have been buckled up. I should have buckled up. Uh that is our Wednesday live. We’ll be back Friday. Uh, this episode is brought to you by Big City Wings, Houston’s Wing Joint, Apollo’s Wing Joint, 14 locations with the newest one in Tucker. Uh, today is Wednesday burger specials Thursday. We have the two for one going boneless special. You have ALCS, NLCS, Thursday Night Football, college football, everything. So, head over to Big City Wings. And then we partnered with Houston First Corporation to to represent the city and talk about WC. I’m excited. I’m excited to see Team USA here. Here in Houston. In Houston. In Houston. It’s That’s That’s cool. I don’t I I’m going to say it all off season. I’m going to say the offseason. You have to go. It’s going to be I don’t care if you you have to get a standing room ticket for however much it might cost. Getting in that stadium for that atmosphere. We have to go. We’re going to get to experience that atmosphere in Houston. Like it was fun in Miami. It was really fun. It was fun in Miami. It was fun. Fun in Miami. But experiencing that in Houston out and around the ballpark and then in the stadium. Oh my god, it’s going to be so fun. For what, 12 games? 10 to 12 games. Yeah. Whole pool play, right? It’s pool play. And then they also get like a quarterfinal. Yeah. Oh, I’m addict credentials. Get in there. I’m This is This is I’m excited. Excited. Uh but other than that, we will see y’all Friday. Yep. and live on Friday. Live on Friday. We’ll keep talking more about any new hopefully we have hopefully we have a series tied. Yes, cuz potentially Friday could be like Friday could be a closeout day. A closeout day. Yeah. Or team one team already closed it out. Yeah. Yeah. Between tonight and tomorrow night. Uh yeah. Well, all right. Thank you for coming and hanging out with us. Another BTD live show. Like I said, we’ll be back Friday at noon. The quickest way through the off seasonason is is right through the storm. That’s where way through it is through it. Uh, yep. Come here for that that kind of knowledge here on BTD. We’ll we’ll fix our bucket system. We’ll fix our we’ll fix the mini cups, but we will see you next time. Peace. Peace. [Music] [Music] Hey, Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music]

The boys talk about the MLB Playoffs